Speaker 1 00:00
We went, and we randomly selected members with a credit card balance, and we paid off a
million dollars of their credit card balances. Our chairman of the board actually picks up the
phone and calls and says, "Hey, you're going to see in your statement you had a $3,500
balance, your balance is zero now. And some people would say that does not make sense
financially. Okay, well, look at our financials and tell me it doesn't make sense. I think that if
everybody did this, the world would be a better place. I'm more about offering a great
experience for the member. It becomes contagious, and that's really why Keystone Funnel has
grown. It's not Andy Swalger, it's this community and this team that I have. I knew that we
were going to grow. I knew I had a great organization from the start. Did I know that we were
going to be 55 branches, $5 billion all these things? Yeah, probably not. But now, now the sky's
the limit, right now I think we can do anything.
Speaker 2 00:53
10 years ago, almost to the day, Andy Swoger took the helm at Keesler Federal Credit Union,
and what a decade it has been under his leadership. Here are a few of their accomplishments.
Branches have grown from 24 to 54 assets doubled from 2.3 billion to 5.3 billion, memberships
have nearly doubled, expanding to 394,000 and net income increased from 24 million to 49
million, generating more than 330 million over that time period. And lastly, the organization's
capital position has doubled to 669 million, but this isn't a story about growth and numbers and
metrics, it's actually a story about leadership, trust, resilience, and what happens when an
organization commits to serving people first. I'm Fred Fuller, and this is CEO Behind the Scenes.
Andy, how are you?
Speaker 1 01:56
I'm doing great, thank you guys for having me.
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Speaker 2 01:59
Man, I just got to stop and marinate on those numbers for a second, that's just phenomenal. I
started to go back, and we were talking before, and you know, my background is kind of in the
banking space, and I started to go out and get real nerdy on you. I started to go in and start
looking at a kegger. I wanted to calculate what was that compounded annual growth rate over
that time period. I mean, these are incredible numbers, so when you hear those numbers and
reflect on the last 10 years, which one means the most to you? Actually, the one that means
the most to me
Speaker 1 02:30
didn't even get mentioned in there, and that is because we have this amazing member
satisfaction numbers, and look, you can grow and you can be profitable and all these other
things, but the catalyst for all of those things are because you're you're taking care of your
members, and and so we have a member satisfaction number that's in the mid 90s, which is
which is out of this out of this world, so that's probably the one that that means the most to
me,
Speaker 2 03:01
and it doesn't make the front page almost right, and make the
Speaker 1 03:03
front page. Nope, the other numbers are good, though. The CSAT,
Speaker 2 03:07
or is it NPS, or whatever, whatever mechanism you use there, it's not quite as sexy as so many
other numbers, but it is absolutely the most important.
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Speaker 1 03:18
It is, and so we also, I'm glad that you just mentioned that our net promoter score has hovered
around 80 for the last 10 years, and for those that are not familiar with the net promoter score,
80, I think the average net promoter score for the banking industry is closer to 20. So we're in a
different atmosphere, right? I think we're going to talk about this today, but we don't really do
business like some people come and say, "Oh, you know, you guys are a great bank. We're not
a bank, we're a credit union, and we are not focused on making profits. We are focused on
helping people, which is this crazy concept that actually works even when you're trying to grow
your business.
Speaker 2 03:59
There's a big difference between the two, between banks and credit unions, and when I look
back at that asset size, going from 2.3 billion to 5.3 billion, if you keep that kind of growth, then
you're looking at going into a whole different realm of sort of control and risk and all
governance and all those different things, right? I know when you hit 10 billion, like the world
changes, but what a wonderful problem that would be. Yeah,
Speaker 1 04:22
look, it's so crazy. Because when I started, we were right around the $2 billion range. It was a
completely different world. I remember doing the first team day that we did, and I was back
behind, I was serving the food, I was doing the speech, speaking, I put all the presentations, I
did all this stuff. We had like 100 to 50 employees, we have 1000 employees now, and the
scope of what we're doing has changed dramatically. When you get up in that $10 billion range,
you better be ready from a compliance regulatory standpoint. And we are, we're at 5.3 billion
right now, we're ready for it.
Speaker 2 04:55
Yeah, that's wonderful. So, did you think, so you kind of talked about, you know. Uh, going from
several 100 employees to 1000 and when you started your first day as CEO at the credit union,
did you think that it would look anything like what it does today?
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Speaker 1 05:11
Man, I'd be lying to you if I said I did. I've always been kind of a dreamer, I guess you could say.
If I could give any some advice to someone who wants to be a CEO or whatnot, sit back and
think about it, and dream about it, and see it. Once you can actually see it, then it starts
getting clearer and clearer, and then you know you can actually do it. I knew that we were
going to grow. I knew I had a great organization from the start. Did I know that we were going
to be 55 branches, $5 billion all these things. Yeah, probably not. But now, now the sky's the
limit, right? Now I think we can do anything.
Speaker 2 05:48
Yeah, you've got a proof point or two, right? And that builds so much energy and momentum.
It's interesting that you bring that up, because I'm like, well, you better be careful, because I'll
go into a whole rabbit hole on, like, manifestation on, but, but I believe that I believe in it, and I
believe it's real. What decisions that you made in the early days that have come to prove to be
like bigger than you thought they would be.
Speaker 1 06:11
Keys were Federal has always been a first-class organization, but when I got here, it kind of had
this order taker mentality. We didn't really have a sales culture. All right, I don't ever want it to
be so super salesy that we're pressuring folks or anything like that. But now we have more
products and we ask for the business. We are truly serving our members. Back then, we were
just kind of like, oh yeah, they come in and we were just taking the order. Now we're asking for
the business. That's probably the biggest thing that's changed since I've been there.
Speaker 2 06:42
I always kind of go to the Ford quote or the Steve Jobs quote of like people don't know what
they want, or if I asked them what they wanted, they'd be riding faster horses. And you, as
financial advisors, right, as somebody that is central to the financial life of your members, it's
critical that you actually help them see what they need and where to go, and so it's not being
salesy, it's actually serving a purpose.
Speaker 1 07:04
It absolutely is. We're helping save people money. Life is unaffordable right now. All right, I
think everybody knows that. So we have phenomenal products. Our rates are just better than
big banks. Our deposit rates are higher, so we feel like we can offer more value to the member
and actually save them money, so we're going to tell them what we're doing.
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Speaker 2 07:27
Yeah, that's just it's just absolutely wonderful. Where did you move from these are dreams, and
I think if I think about it and focus on it and meditate on it, I can manifest it to, oh man, this
might actually happen might actually work.
Speaker 1 07:42
You're speaking my language, all right. My team, when my team sees this, they're gonna go,
"Oh man, here we go. I am a manifesting dude. I take 20 or 30 minutes every day, and I sit
back and just.. it's almost like daydreaming, you know what I mean? I've been doing this since I
was a little kid. If you see one of these guys that wins like the NBA championship or whatnot,
they say, 'Oh, I saw myself doing this when I was a kid. I'm not comparing myself to an NBA
champion, but I've been daydreaming about this. We were doing a team day, and you know,
we're in the major metropolitan area of Biloxi, Mississippi, right? So we were the sponsor for the
Biloxi Shuckers. We still are, and I love the Biloxi Shuckers. It's a minor league baseball team.
Okay, and I was given this passionate speech up on the stage, and I was talking to my team
about we need to get out of the minor leagues and move up to the major leagues, and how are
we going to do all this? I was dreaming about, like, hey, man, I want to be the official credit
union of the New Orleans Saints. All right, down here where we're at, the Saints are where it's
at. Yeah, everything, so I literally pick up the phone and cold call the Saints. You know, I'm like,
I was a sales guy, right? This is that sales and service culture. I call the Saints, and they say,
'Well, we already have an official bank of the New Orleans Saints. Like, okay, well, there's no
way I was given up on that. Yeah, I call them back and I said, well, we're not a bank, man, we're
a credit union. You're like, yeah, that's that's still too close. Two days later, the Saints called me
back, and they said, all right, tell us about what a credit union actually is. I did it, and about six
months later, Keesler Federal is the official credit union of the New Orleans Saints and the New
Orleans Pelicans, and now we're the official credit union of the LSU Tigers, the Southern Miss
Eagles, all kinds of different things. Wow, but when we signed that deal with the Saints and the
Pelicans, I was like, okay, all right. I kind of feel like we, like we made it a little bit.
Speaker 2 09:33
I have a very similar story. My summary of that is just ask.
Speaker 1 09:40
Yeah,
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Speaker 2 09:41
I mean, what they could slam the phone down, they could talk bad about you. I don't know, just
ask. You have nothing to.. I just, man, I love these stories, and I can stick on this forever and
ever. But let's go back a little bit. Where did you start in the credit union space? Like, tell me,
where you.. how you got your start, and where you saw like. Path to leadership.
Speaker 1 10:01
I graduated from the degree in finance, and, and I became a, you know, I became an
investment advisor, that's kind of a sales guy, and I did really well. Opened up my own
business, ended up selling that business when I was in my early 20s. Moved to Dallas, Texas,
and worked for a company called Southwest Corporate federal credit union, and they actually
provide services for regular credit unions. My customers, my clients were actual regular.
Keesler Federal was one of my customers. Yeah, so I would go in, and I'd help them out with
their investments and the balance sheet and all this stuff, but I kind of made a name for myself
there. We were southwest corporate, southwest basically equates into Texas, Louisiana,
Oklahoma, just the southwestern states. I remember asking my, my management team, I'm
like, can I call out to California, like the big credit unions are out there in California, they're like,
well, we're southwest, I'm like, well, is there a rule that says we can't do this because I think we
can be successful. I don't know, because I asked, like, yeah, whatever, dude, go ahead and do
it. And so I did it. I call out there, and I get with this huge credit union in Southern California. I
literally come back with a check for $250 million Southwest corporate, they say, "Oh, hell, man,
you better get back on the plane, get back out there. So that sales and service, and not being
afraid to ask, that's kind of what put me on the put my name on it. From there, I went to.. I was
the CFO for Texans Credit Union, which is a large credit union in Dallas, Texas. It was the
largest credit union to ever fail, I was not there when it failed. I was the guy that they brought
in to fix it when it failed. So it was the largest turnaround ever from a credit union that was in
conservatorship that came back out and survived. So once that happened, that really put my
name on the map, and that's how I got to Keesler Federal.
Speaker 2 11:59
Was there something in particular you learned during that turnaround, would you say things
like largest credit union turnaround, you know, in history or in the country, like that's a big deal,
and there's so many lessons and so much kind of scarring that takes place during these things.
What was the big thing, the big couple big takeaways?
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Speaker 1 12:18
Let's just say, for the whole thing was scarring, okay? I worked 70 hours a week. People don't
realize, because you know, they see me here as the CEO of Keesler Federal. Like, oh yeah, I
worked Monday through Saturday from seven in the morning till 7pm and I worked a half a day
on Sunday every single week. The thing at Texans was that when you're in conservatorship, our
motto there was do more with less, we were paying people less money, we had, we didn't have
enough employees to actually do the job, our resources were virtually nothing. When you get
put in a situation like that, you either sink or swim, man, and like you figure out, like I'm a CEO
that actually knows how to do pretty much everything, because I had to do it. I see some of
these guys, and I'm not trying to talk smack on anybody. They're more like the figureheads and
the politician, and kissing babies, and shaking hands. That is not me. Okay, I dig down deep. I
know where everything's at. I know how to work with my team. That really molded me into the
CEO that I am today.
Speaker 2 13:24
Yeah, it goes back to those early days with the credit union, where you had 100 employees and
you were wearing all the hats, and you guys were doing the day out. You're everybody, you're
everything, you're every man, right? And I think in a credit union world that that is probably
even more critical than it is, maybe in some other areas. I know leaders at a massive quick
serve restaurant, and, and the this gentleman was the COO, and never had to pick up a thing if
he didn't want to. He was very well to do, and he would, he, when he was walking around in a
park, if he saw trash, he'd pick it up and throw it away. Oh yeah, and people are like, what,
what are you doing, and then all of a sudden the people around you start doing it, because,
like, well, I don't want him to be the only one, and if he's willing to do it, I got to be willing to do
it, and it's infectious, right?
Speaker 1 14:10
Yeah, that's the thing, is that my team, they know that I'm willing to do whatever it takes, I will
go outside, I will shovel the in the parking lot, I will do whatever it takes. I do not have this ego
that I feel like puts me above everybody else. We're all equals at Keesler Federal, and you
know that also goes back to treating people with respect, whether you're a teller or you're a
homeless guy, you treat everybody with the same amount of respect, and when other people
see the CEO treating everybody with respect, they know that they have to do it as well, and
you know what that creates is culture, a culture of respect.
Speaker 2 14:46
And you guys have a phrase, I believe one team is that, that's I believe kind of one of your
leadership philosophies, and it sounds like we're hitting on that a little bit,
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Speaker 1 14:57
for us to be successful, for you to. From $2 billion in assets to $5.3 billion in assets, to grow
from 26 branches to 54 branches, you have to have everybody pulling in the same direction,
and the one team is everybody is important. It's literally like a chain, and if one link is out, the
thing doesn't work. So one of the things that I'm very passionate about is making sure that
everybody on my team, whether you're a teller or a chief officer, you know how valuable you
are to the organization, and it doesn't work without you. We've been running with the one team
thing for for about 10 years, and my team has really bought into it, and the reason is is
because that's what you have to have to be successful.
Speaker 2 15:42
I tell you, what's fascinating about this conversation to me is the words are not terribly
uncommon, to be candid. The people that actually embrace, embody, and live those words are
one out of 100 right? When you find true leaders that do that, like the proof is in the pudding,
right? You have all these wonderful metrics around your growth, and again, we didn't even lead
with the most important metric, which is customer satisfaction, and that just says so much
about what you've, what you've created, and the trust I think that you've built amongst your
not only your members but your employees, your associate base, so much growth, and it's.. I
don't say it's easy. It's easier to say this is who we're going to be and what we're going to be
when you have 150 200 people, right? It's a lot more difficult to maintain that as you 5x that
scale. How did you do that? It
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Speaker 1 16:41
has actually been very controlled, in my opinion. I know it looks like a lot, and trust me, the
regulator has come and said, 'Hey, man, you guys calm down a little bit, calm down. But from a
safety and soundness standpoint, we have the highest rating that you can possibly get. From a
capital standpoint, we are required to have 7% capital, and we have 13 and a half percent
capital, I mean, we literally have $300 million more than what we need, so we have a very
controlled growth. The success that we're having, one thing that nobody ever asked is that, you
know, what would you say is the is the key to the success, and it's something that I didn't even
really have anything to do with, okay? I come into Keesler Federal, and my board of directors,
at this point in time, I'm 38 years old, right? Let me equate that into CEO terms. I'm like a 15
year old rebellious teenager, and my board of directors, who went out on a limb to bring in this
38 year old kid, they had the guts to do that. They wanted to see a little bit more change. Well,
this board of directors, I can't say enough about them. They are the most professional group.
They are the most patient group. They kind of brought me in and molded me and developed
me and kind of tamed me a little bit, because I came in guns blazing, and I was all about
making the money, I was all about the profitability. I remember this very, very clearly to this
day. My chairman of the board, his name is Jim Hollingsworth. He pulled me aside, he said,
"Son, this place is not about making money. What we're trying to do, we're helping people
here, okay? And we're building communities, and we're going to give it back. Oh no, I pushed
back. I pushed back. Well, look, you don't push back with the chairman of the board, because
eventually he's going to win, and he did. So, this board of directors, they've taught me that it's
not about making money. Our purpose at Keesler Federal is building better communities. We
give back so much money that when I was a young punk kid, 38 in here, I couldn't understand
it, but now I see all these things that we do for our community. Our community loves Keyser
Federal. They love Keyssler Federal because we take care of their kids, we take care of their
grandparents, we take care of our members. We are not a bank. Tell me
Speaker 2 18:54
a little bit more about that. So your members have an extraordinary experience. How do you
facilitate an extraordinary experience? What does that look like?
Speaker 1 19:04
Our mission statement is be extraordinary, very, very simple, and that is not be extraordinary
when it comes to doing a loan for somebody or what. Be extraordinary. I want to see a scuffle if
a member drops their purse. If grandma drops her purse, I want five dudes jumping on the
ground to pick it up. If someone needs some help outside of the credit union, if they come in
and you see that they're struggling, do whatever it takes to help these members out. They are
not a number, they are an actual human being that needs help. They're here because they
need some help, whether it has something to do with helping somebody improve their credit, or
saving for college fund, or doing something, we will simply do whatever it takes to be
extraordinary. Sometimes it has nothing to do with banking.
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Speaker 2 19:49
I love the visual. I want five people on the floor diving for that person,
Speaker 1 19:55
with me included, with me included. Right, exactly,
Speaker 2 19:58
exactly, the security guy. Right, so you're talking about giving back to the community, so you
have the largest ever debt eraser initiative, eliminating millions of dollars in debt. When I read
that, I was like, well, this is a two-part question. Tell me about debt eraser initiatives, for
starters, but then the largest one, walk me through this
Speaker 1 20:21
once again. This is what I'm telling you, that my, my board of directors are laser focused on
giving back. So, this debt eraser, it's very simple. We went and we randomly selected our
members, members with a credit card balance, and we paid off a million dollars of their credit
card balances, they didn't even know our chairman of the board actually picks up the phone
and calls and says, "Hey, you're going to see in your statement you had a $3,500 balance, your
balance is zero now. Those are the little things that we did that we continue to do. We're going
to do it again at the end of this year. We're going to give away another million dollars. Right
now, we are giving our members were making a million dollars of their car payments, so if you
get selected out of this group, there's going to be probably 345, 100 people. When you get
selected, you're going to pay your car payment for the rest of 2020-six I don't know of any
other organizations that are doing it, and some people would say that that does not make
sense financially. Okay, well, look at our financials and tell me it doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2 21:27
Are you, are you going to become a pariah or other or other credit unions going to look at you
and say, man, you're kind of ruining this whole thing for us? What do you do? It's
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Speaker 1 21:36
well, look, it's it's it's not as easy to do this. We have a system to where I feel for some of these
smaller institutions, because it's very expensive, the compliance costs, all these, all these
different costs, but we've been so successful. But to be successful, you have to have a board of
directors that comes out and says, no, no, no, don't chase the dollar, help the people, and when
you help the people, then it starts just snowballing and snowballing, but to get to that point, I
hope other credit unions do this, I hope other banks do this, so do I. I think I think that if
everybody did this, the world would be a better place. You know what I hope we're doing? I
hope we are forcing some of these other institutions to be better. Okay, if we can do it, you
should be able to do it. So, this, this day and age, if you're not going to do it, you know what,
that's that's that's on you. It is
Speaker 2 22:27
a tough world if you get behind the eight ball financially, because you get behind the eight ball,
you need money for Monday to pay for the hamburgers on Tuesday. If you're not careful, you
walk up on somebody who says, sure, I can solve that problem for you, but it's going to be even
more expensive than the problem that you're currently trying to get away from. This is the
other side of that coin, and I don't know that I've ever heard of this before.
Speaker 1 22:52
It sounds like you're talking a lot about a payday loan, and you are exactly right. Some of these
things need to just go away. You're killing people, and you're not helping them, you're putting
them into a deeper hole. That's not what we do. Go look at a Keyser Federal credit card. The
interest rate on it's 9.99 All these other guys are minimum 18.99 What are you doing? How are
you helping somebody out when you do that? You're putting them in a hole, that's just simply
not what we're about.
Speaker 2 23:17
Yeah, you're high risk, so it's going to be more expensive because you can't, like, oh, it's just
compounding pro-ampo, so along those lines. During the government shutdown, you made sure
that federal employees continued to get paid, is that correct?
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Speaker 1 23:31
That is absolutely correct. And we got a lot of publicity for doing this, and to me it's just like, oh
my gosh, doesn't that make sense? Doesn't that sound like it makes sense to you? Like, these
people are missing their paycheck. We have the ability to give them a paycheck, so why not do
it? We're the only place that did this. Shame on some of these other guys. And I mean that I'm
not, I'm not trying to get too political or anything, but you know what it's like to not get a
paycheck, single mom taking care of her kids, and all of a sudden she still has to go to work,
but she's not getting a paycheck at Keyser Federal. And here, I'll throw a shout out to Keyssler
Federal right now. If you're a government employee and you're tired of missing your paycheck
when the government shuts down, shuts down, join Keyser Federal, because we will give you
your paycheck.
Speaker 2 24:19
It was a wonderful shout out, and you know, I should, we make sure you have time to do it
again two or three more times. Look, I was, I was raised the second youngest, youngest of five
kids. I told you earlier, before we started, siblings that were actually born on the on the Air
Force base there. So I know what it means to run on lean times and have lean personal margins
and people that can that step in in those times like they're the people that you stay with
forever. Kudos to you. What an organization. And so you've invested heavily in partnerships
and sponsorships, community projects, Keesler Federal Park. What responsibilities. Do
companies have to their communities
Speaker 1 25:02
everything? Our entire purpose is help building our communities. As a credit union, we're not
for profit, so all this money just goes back in the pot. So, the way we see it is, we don't need to
make money, that's not what our mission is. Our mission is to build and invest in these
communities. You had just mentioned Keyser Federal Park, and that is where the Biloxi
Shuckers play. All right, it's this beautiful little minor league baseball field, but a couple years
ago they came up, and there was a potential of the Shuckers leaving. There was no one to
sponsor the stadium, and you know, whatever, some other political stuff. It's such a great
opportunity for a family to pay eight bucks a person and go to a baseball game and have this
great experience, and it was about to leave, and look, my board of directors, once again, my
board of directors, who's laser focused on the community, they said, "Go get it, Andy, go put
our name on it, and my team, my marketing team, you got to see the stadium, man, it's
gorgeous. That's another little thing, but we want people to be able to take their family out and
go to a baseball game for 40 bucks.
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Speaker 2 26:11
I think most companies don't, they really don't understand that there's there is an obligation to
give back to the community in that way, right? It's not, it's not in writing, it's not law, but man,
you know, think about what you can do to lift up everybody around you, and it's funny you
mentioned the Shuckers, because it's like, oh, well, that's a somebody owns them, and it's
professional sports, and somebody's making money, and you're like, no, they're really not, but
it's so important to the community,
Speaker 1 26:39
it is so important, I mean, you, you go to a Shuckers game, and you look around, and you see
all of these kids that are having the time of their life, they're running around on the field,
they're not something that you're going to get to do at the Atlanta Braves game, you know, this
is the community, all these people know each other, it's a great experience. Now, look, we're
also the official credit union of the Saints and the Pelicans, and we give away and create so
many experiences for our members. These sponsorships, all these tickets, all these tickets that
we get, we do this Ticket Tuesday giveaway, and I mean, if you're a Keisler federal member,
you're either getting your credit card paid off, your house paid off, your car paid off, or you're
sitting at a Saints game.
Speaker 2 27:21
Sign me up. I'm going to give you my social right now, and you'll put me in the system there.
That's absolutely phenomenal. We've talked about so many things at this point, you know, the
success, the be extraordinary, some of the things that you've done for the community of
keeping federal employees paid, you know, in lean times, debt erasure, and just so many
things, things that I've never heard of before. As you think about these things, what does the
road ahead look like for you? You've recently completed the largest credit union merger in
Mississippi and Louisiana history. I know a guy like you is driven by the next big thing, and the
challenge, and the opportunity, and the dreaming, and the manifestation. So, what's next?
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Speaker 1 28:04
I'm sitting here in New Orleans right now, and a couple of years ago we had two branches in
New Orleans. Now we have 20 branches in New Orleans, and yeah, I appreciate you mentioned
that we did just do the largest merger in Mississippi, Louisiana history. We're not trying to just
be bigger just to be bigger, all right? Right, that's not what our goal is. Like I had mentioned
before, our purpose is building better communities. Now we have this huge geographic area
here in Louisiana where we can actually help and impact people's lives in a positive way. That's
what we're going to do. If there's ever a dip in our service, if there's ever a dip in the products
that we're offering to our members, I hit the brakes, no probable, because I'm not just all about
growth, I'm more about offering a great experience for the member, that is first and foremost,
building communities, taking care of our members, that's what we care about, and it works
when you take care of your member, it does, it becomes contagious, and other people want to
be a part of it, and that's really why Keyser Funnel has grown. It's not Andy Swalger, it's this
community and this team that I have.
Speaker 2 29:11
And so, when you think back over what you've accomplished, and I think you kind of mentioned
this earlier, but I want to ask this question directly, What's the single biggest thing, the thing
that you're most proud of,
Speaker 1 29:21
I do love the service piece. Okay, I do. Our service scores are like in a different atmosphere,
and we put so much work into it. However, you know, I told you I started 10 years ago. My 10
year anniversary was Monday. I get to Keesler Federal, and we're in this strategic planning
session. I'm like, I don't even know what's going on, you know what I mean. I've been here for a
week or so, and they kind of look over at me, and I've always been a little overly ambitious, and
I say, "Oh, we're going to be $5 billion credit union. Everybody looked at me like I was crazy. I
mean, they're like, "Oh, calm down, buddy, calm down, calm down. So, when we hit that $5
billion The market, I kind of like looked around everyone, like I told you, so I told you we're
gonna do it. That was a big, that was a big number, a big accomplishment for us. But once you
hit 5 billion, I mean, it just starts rolling. So it would not surprise me if you and I are sitting here
in five years and we're at 10 billion.
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Speaker 2 30:18
I would hope to be the case, man. I mean, based on everything that you do, you do for the
community, for the company that you've helped build and move into new places and new
heights, man, it really, and to do it, you know, these things happen, but all too often there's like
a trail of damage along the way, but to actually do it the right way to where your employees
would work for you again in another place, your clients, your members, rather, would come and
they would follow you to another place, because you have built such loyalty around it's
absolutely phenomenal. So now we're going to go into our closing tradition, and so I don't know
if you got a heads up on this, but it's I actually love this. So, two questions closely related,
what's one thing you've changed your mind about recently, and why?
Speaker 1 31:12
Oh, geez, for the record, I was not given a heads up. Okay, okay, well, I don't know how recent
it was, but, but I had mentioned this before, when I, when I first started. Look, I was a CFO, I
was a guy, was like, all about, let's just keep making money, make money, make money, make
money. My board of directors, I have completely changed my philosophy, my mind. Stop
worrying about making money, I should be, and I want my team 100% focused on taking care
of our members. Take care of our members. If you take care of the members, you will make the
money, but you want to talk about changing their mind. If you could have seen me 10 years
ago, when I got here, I was like, come on, we're making money, and now my board, they've got
me, they've got me on their, on their side. I'm all about giving it back now.
Speaker 2 32:04
Okay, so on the other side of that same question, something that you have not changed your
mind about, and you believe that others should come to you on.
Speaker 1 32:15
Oh man, another great question. I think that I think in the credit union industry, credit unions
are not assertive enough. When Keyser Federal brought me in, I did bring a little extra umph to
asking for the business and creating a sales culture. I look around and I see opportunity,
opportunity - we're merging institutions in, we're going into these markets and we're acquiring
a credit union that had no success, or you know, I'm not talking about this most recent one, I'm
talking about in the past these credit unions that, oh, it's just not working, it's not working.
Okay, well, look, Keysora Federal, we came in, we dropped our model on it, and guess what, it
works. Being a little more assertive, not being afraid to ask for the business, okay, it's done, get
rid of that order taken mentality. You got to go in and you got to ask for the business. I
shouldn't be saying that, because kind of giving away our secret here, but yeah, we're asking
for business.
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Speaker 2 33:12
Oh, I think you gave your secret away with the Saint story.
Speaker 1 33:15
Yeah, right. You just
Speaker 2 33:16
pick up the phone and call, and you ask, and people will say yes or no, and if you're persistent,
like I look, I tell, I have my youngest son is 18, and you know he's graduated high school, and
he's out there looking at what he wants to do, and I'm like, do you follow up, follow up, follow
up, follow up, right? Because people will actually look at you after you show up the third or
fourth time and go, all right, what do you want, uncle, so just ask the question. I'd like to just
open it up. Or is there any questions I didn't ask you that I should have? Or what am I missing?
What are the things that that maybe we didn't cover and should have spent a little time on?
One
Speaker 1 33:52
thing I want to make sure that that people get from this. I know your audience, there's a lot of
CEOs already, and a lot of professionals. This may sound a little funny, but if you want to be a
CEO, you can do it. Why do I know that? Because I did it. I came from a family of very modest
means. All right, my dad was a bricklayer. Kind of what sparked the interest for me was, you
know, just kind of growing up, and well, I had the greatest parents you could possibly have. We
didn't have anything, and I was like, man, I want a Porsche, I wanted this, I want that. I would
just like to say to those folks that are out there, don't count yourself out, okay? Just because
you didn't go to an Ivy League school or this or that or whatnot, do not count yourself out. If I
can do it, anyone can do it, and I hope maybe someone would take away from, take that away
from this.
Speaker 2 34:43
So, where does that come from? Andy,
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Speaker 1 34:45
as a little kid, man, I was just sitting around daydreaming about.. I always had the great work,
work ethic, you know. My dad.. just another quick little funny story. My dad was a brick layer,
and I used to hate the weekends when I was a kid, because I wasn't. Spending the night at
friends' houses, I was getting up Saturday morning at 5o'clock in the morning, and I was mixing
mortar and carrying block, and I worked Saturday and Sunday, and was like, "Oh my gosh, my
older brother is the first person in my family to go to college, he's a doctor, my younger brother
is a doctor, I'm the slacker CEO, middle child, and that came from my parents, my dad used to
say to me, 'Hey, man, this is this is where you're at right now, your mix and mortar and your
carrying block. If you want, use your mind instead of your back. That really, really resonated
with me, and it's like, 'Okay, yeah, you're right, that is what I want to do.
Speaker 2 35:35
What a great lesson to learn so early in life, right? It sounds like you also had a great role
model in your father,
Speaker 1 35:42
both of my parents look, you know, sometimes I think it's even better when you grow up and
you don't have anything, because you have each other. I had the greatest childhood, I mean,
yeah, you know, might not have had the new Air Jordans or something like that, but I had two
parents that really, really loved me and cared for me, and this is what happens. So, hey, here's
another thing. You want to give your kid the best shot of being a CEO? Be a great parent.
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Speaker 2 36:06
Thank you. I thank you for that comment right there. Yeah, we don't, we don't go too, we don't,
in you know, in these interviews, we don't go too far into that, and I really wish that we would,
that more people would be open to it, and I understand, you know, there's objectives in place,
and so forth, not to be critical, but those things are, and they're paramount. And the more time
people spend sharing that, right, be a good parent before you do anything, before you make a
dime, before you make a customer happy, be a good parent. If that foundation is there, then all
those other things are possible, but if that's not there, like, wow, that's a whole different
conversation. So I greatly appreciate that comment, and getting just a little bit close to the
personal stuff. So, man, this has been an incredible conversation. I'm going to give you my
social security number. We can open an account right now. This is absolutely phenomenal, and
I just feel so honored to be able to sit and have these conversations with folks like yourself, and
you put a great example out there, and I love the message of its members first, and when you
take care of the thing that takes care of you, then that circle is complete. Be a good person and
believe in yourself, like just the foundation of life, but to come back to the top, and in closing
again in 10 tiny little years, Andy branches have more than doubled, assets have more than
doubled, memberships have doubled, net income has more than doubled, and capital has
doubled. So we will talk again in hopefully it's five years, and then we'll be on the $10 billion
mark. And to do it all the right way, just kudos to you. Congratulations. I thank you so much for
your time today. I've loved this, and for those of you who are listening, subscribe, tap, like,
share, get this out there. This is well beyond just the nuts and bolts of spreadsheets and P and
L's. This is actually about life and leadership, and, and things that are really important. So,
thank you so much for listening, and we'll see you next time on CEO: Behind the Scenes.