You're listening to leaders in lending from Upstart, a podcast dedicated to helping consumer lenders grow their programs and improve their product offerings. Each week, hear decision makers in the finance industry offer insights into the future of the lending industry. Best practices around digital transformation. And more, let's get into the show.
Welcome to Leaders in Lending. I'm your host, Jeff Keltner. This week's episode features my conversation with Ryan Coak, some of the VP at Guarantee Bank and Trust. It's maybe not a unique name among banks. I feel like Guarantee Bank is out there a few places. But it's a pretty unique story.
Ryan helped start the branch of this bank in Austin area, grew it from just a couple of people and basically no assets to over $450 million in assets and loans, $150 million in deposits, more than 30 people work in there. It's a really interesting story of starting up a banking segment from scratch. We really dive into how they did it. Lessons learned things you would do different if you could. Biggest surprise was the most fun. So kind of exploring that, kind of start up a founder type story for early stage bank.
And then also delve into Ryan's work in community development. He does that for the bank and it's a broader reach outside of the Austin area, which I thought was really interesting. He was really focused on kind of workforce of the future development of that workforce. And that's, I think in a very holistic way, it's interesting construct to think of it in because really, it's about people and how you develop and nurture and train people in communities. So I thought that was really interesting.
Ryan is one of the first people to describe to me being a banker, particularly a lender as a very intimate job. And I thought that was a fascinating description and you'll have to listen to the episode to figure out why he feels that way.
No, thank you for having me. This is exciting, my first podcast.
不,谢谢你邀请我。这很令人兴奋,这是我第一次参加播客节目。
Your first one. Remember that we did our prep call and there was an ice storm and you had no power. So hopefully, fingers crossed, the technical guides shine on us today and we don't have any problems.
Yep, yep, hopefully. Or I think we're doing good in Austin now. So, you know, fingers crossed though.
嗯嗯,希望如此。或者我认为我们在奥斯汀做得很好。所以,你知道的,虽然要祈求好运。
But I've started recently, all my podcasts, asking my guests kind of to give me a little bit of the background of how you got into banking and where you're at. It's not the most common, like childhood ambition for most of us to get into the banking space. And yet we all kind of found our ways here. And I was like to hear a little bit about the story of what brought you into the space.
Yeah, mine definitely was not a regular story, but I love it no matter what. So I started out as a part time teller. And I only actually got into tellering because I was actually selling residential real estate. And then my mom came in one day and was like, hey, you kind of kind of got to get off the insurance. And so I was like, okay, well, what can I get in at this time? And I didn't have my degree at the time that I could be like, this is a great profession. And I can just kind of ride all the way through. And I chose banking and I went from part time teller to full time to personal banker to banking officer did a little analyst work. And then in 2017, my boss and I, I took a leap of faith with him. And I just went with him to start the guarantee banking trust in the central tech area.
So this is a really interesting story because not many people kind of start a bank from scratch or at least, you know, open up a bank in a new area. So walk me through what kind of what kind of bank and services and what that was like kind of going from zero to like, you know, where you're running an office, where you're working out of a car and a Starbucks the way a lot of startups to like, what's the experience of kind of starting from scratch in this space?
Yeah. So it was really interesting. I mean, I always tell people it felt like we were in a startup yet we still had a $4 billion bank behind us. And what I mean by that is they had no locations here in the central Texas area. It was so what we started. It was my boss and I and his child's playroom. They came and gave us all our equipment and then we bought this little table from Home DuPo that I would sit at right next to his and our phones were daisy chain to each other. And it was really like, hey, we're doing this. And then after that, we actually went and got a regis office and then we shared that and that was equally kind of horrible and great at the same time. I mean, when he when he got sick, I would get sick and it's like, wow, we're really in this box together. Were you in one room in regia? Or did you have did you get your own?
It was one little room. And you know, for a while, it was just us working in there. And I remember we hired a lending assistant and like, he's like, okay, we have a lending system coming in bar and we have this other little table.
And so I'm like, I'm going to clean our little area so we can make it look like, you know, we're big time. And I guarantee she came in there was like, this is the bank. So what have I done? What have I done? What have I done? And so then after that, we did hire her and then we went into a office building where we kind of the team went from the three to then I think we kind of packed that with five and then we got the building that we're currently in and then we then spread out from downtown Austin to Lakeway to Georgetown and to West Lake.
What kind of loans? What's the nature of the business that you built in terms of the kinds of lending that deposits, like the kind of customers you were serving? And I'll put this in there as a sign that like, is where you ended up where you started aiming? I mean, so often we hear about in the startup world of pivot, but the idea like we had this vision of where we were going to go and then like, you know, the market came and told us a little something different and we changed strategy.
I'm curious kind of like the nature of the kind of business you built there and whether or not it's really what you intended to build or there were some lessons along the way that changed your direction a little bit.
No, definitely. I think it wasn't what we intended to build. I mean, so my boss Travis Brown, I will say he is a genius, he has a genius credit mind. And so he did primarily commercial real estate lending. And so that was kind of our jump off. That's kind of what paid the bills. However, with me, I love being out in the community. I love meeting people, talking to people. And so a lot of mine were small business.
And so when you think about it, it's kind of the best of both worlds. You know, you're big commercial real estate sexy loans that actually pay the bills. And then you have the, you know, the small business that are coming inside the bank and, you know, using the drive through. And, you know, those are the people in the community is awesome to see them, you know, go from, you know, a little architecture firm to a big one. And that for me is everything.
And so I would say, you know, just the trajectory, I mean, as we look back, would we think just in five years we'd be at 460 million in loans just in the Austin area? Probably not. You know, you can't think that. I think that's a lot of know how just on our part. And then I think Austin is just booming. And, you know, everybody wants to live here. And so I think, I think it's a lot of things. But, you know, let the good times roll, let the good times roll. Lesse les bons temps, les, I don't think I've spoken another language in this podcast. We're going to make some first day.
所以我会说,你知道,只是这个发展方向,我是说,回顾过去,我们会认为仅仅五年内,奥斯汀地区的贷款就达到了4.6亿美元吗?可能不会。你知道,你不能这么想。我认为这是我们方面的很多专业技能。然后我认为奥斯汀正在蓬勃发展。你知道,每个人都想在这里生活。我认为这是很多方面的因素。但是,让美好的时光继续,让美好的时光继续。Lesse les bons temps, les,我不认为我在这个播客中讲过其他语言。我们将创造一些第一天。
I wanted to ask you, you talked about your desire to get out in the community. And kind of like, I think that really energizes you. And you had described the role of being a banker, particularly to small businesses, when I talked to you earlier, as what you call the intimate job, which I thought was a really interesting description.
I think a lot of people can view it as a very impersonal job in many ways, right? Like mediated by piles of forums and kind of process and procedure. But you've viewed it as a very intimate role. So talk to me about what you mean and why that's important to you and the way you approach that the banking you do.
Yeah, so, you know, my start of just being in the community stems from my father being a Baptist minister here in a suburb in Austin. And, you know, I was able to grow up in the church and see my mom and dad just really give their all, making sure, you know, people had that foundation. So obviously they're in the community and I always tell people, well, I'm not, you know, trying to do a sermon anytime soon. You don't want that.
However, the need for just being in the community definitely stuck. I definitely draw just, you know, power from within with that. And people are really just that energy that just gets me just, just going. And you know, with that, I think, you know, I think we have a huge responsibility to our community to give back in so many ways.
And I say banking is intimate because it is. I feel like people come to you in good times. They come to you in bad times. They come to you in times of struggle. And they basically say, you know, here I am in a folder. This is my financial history and here you go. I mean, I don't know many people that actually want to just give their whole financial history to somebody and just let them or, you know, somebody just look at that, you know.
And so I really think it's a very intimate thing because they're trusting you with, you know, something that they just don't talk about with anybody. I mean, you've always had that friend that's like, oh, how's the stock market doing? You know, my Ferrari goes, you know, 180. And then, you know, they're looking at their actual online banking and it's like they can't even buy their Starbucks. So, you know, and that's why I just, you know, I really, really understand the trust that people give us as bankers. And I take it very seriously.
Yeah, it's not even just handing you their lives and their financial history in a folder. It's handing it to you and asking to be judged in a way that I think it feels very uncomfortable, right? You're kind of great to my get teach. I mean, I'm like, no, I mean, do I qualify or not? It's a very, I think anxiety-adducing thing for most people to do. Yes. And I mean, you've got to think as bankers, that is what we are doing. We are risk management and we are judging people. And it's just kind of like, you know, and that's one reason why I think, you know, that's why I think it's so important because that's a big job. And so, but, you know, that leads into other conversations that I'm sure we'll get to.
Well, I would ask this because you've got this unique experience of having grown this thing from, you know, with the backing of a larger bank, but from kind of zero to four hundred and six, I would say zero to six weeks for car analogy, be four hundred and six weeks. Yeah. Four hundred and six weeks. Yeah, four hundred and six weeks. Four sixty. My card, I'm going to get that fast.
But, I wanted to ask, like, what would the, you know, if you could think about the biggest challenge that came from kind of starting in the biggest, like, benefit? I think there are oftentimes, like, there are, like, you can think about that nobody knows who we are, whatever the challenge is of being kind of a startup. But at the same time, there's a lot of advantages to that. And I'm curious looking back on the past five years or so, what do you think were the biggest challenges and biggest advantages you've got out of being kind of a startup or a starting from zero kind of experience?
Yeah. You know, the biggest challenges, I would say, is when we first, first started, no one knew the name and Garant. And then I will say, Garantee bank, there's actually a lot of Garantee banks out there. So people would be like, oh, are you Garantee at a Wabawa? No, oh, I had a banking account with Garantee. No, that's not that one. So we had to get over that hump.
And then once we got over that hump, it's, it's not the people that we maybe have banked in previous banks, but it's kind of that newer, that newer set that would come in and be like, okay, so where is Garantee? And then that's when I say, well, you know, we're based out of Mount Pleasant, Texas. I will tell you, not a lot of odds tonight to know where Mount Pleasant is on the map. And then I would say, because we didn't actually have a brick and mortar bank with our name on the side of it, it's just kind of like, okay, so we're giving you these things.
Y'all are open these accounts and mind you in the early days, I would have to send all the stuff to college station, because that was the closest branch. They would open it for me overnight, the stuff back to me, and then I would get it to my customer. So it was really like, you know, what we spent in postage at that time, it's probably crazy.
Wow. But yeah, no, then I would say the physical building, because you know, there's something about, you know, even if you never go to the bank, because most of your bank is banking is done online, people wanted to see that physical building. And I will tell you, once we got into that physical building and we, and to our luck, we got into an amazing building right in the heart of downtown and right when you come in, you can see the big G on the side of the building. And that's when people are like, okay, you know, it kind of like legitimized you.
Like we're not just, you know, taking this money and driving around in rain troopers or anything. Well, how about the biggest advantage? Like, were you, there are the things you leapfrying in technology or experience where you said, hey, we're not tied down by the, by the history of the past, so we can kind of do something different that gives us a leg up on maybe a more traditional competition that's got some of the, some of the baggage coming with them.
So I will say that as a bank, guaranteed bank, and trust does a very good job in terms of technology. And so our technology is really, really strong. However, we're still that hometown bank that was founded in East Texas 110 years ago. And so when you combine those two, it's, it's one of the greatest combinations that you can do because I will tell you, you know, I have no problem or any qualms with any banks, but I do think you should always bank your size.
And I think a lot of times people will be at, you know, larger banking institutions and there are a small business and they don't feel that they're getting the service that they need. And so that was our kind of entree, if you will, saying, hey, look, we have the tech that you want. However, we can give you that same great service. Here's my cell phone number.
Call me when you need me. And I think those two combined really, really gave us an edge on the market. And, you know, I'm very just kind of thankful for that. And plus, again, we've been in business 110 years. So that would probably be another one that's a very strong is that our people know what we're doing. You know, they've been through the challenges in banking history and we're still standing to this day.
And, you know, that's, you know, that's kind of a success story in Texas alone. So you know, I'm very, very happy with, you know, our tech that we have here, our leadership that we have here and just our people that we have. I will say that would probably be the last thing is too is we don't have a lot of turnover. And so, you know, when you get to know us as for your small business, you're always dealing with the same person. And you know, that's a, that's a fun thing when somebody calls and it's like, hey, we know what's happening in your business. We know where we're trying to grow you to. And I just, I just love that.
Let me ask you to just double click a little bit on the phrase you use, bank your size. What do you mean? And that's a phrase I haven't heard before. I'm always looking for little tidbits or sound bites, but like, it's an interesting concept. What do you mean by, you always want to bank your size?
请你双击一下你使用的“bank your size”这个短语,你能解释一下它的意思吗?我以前没有听过。我一直在寻找一些小贴士或摘录,但是这个概念很有趣。你说的“你总是想备足自己的大小”是什么意思?
So I think, so what I mean by bank your size is there will be some businesses and let's just say they just, let's say you have a pie business and you really not a bank, some pies and you do it very well. And however, you're just kind of starting out of your kitchen and you got your LLC. A lot of people will go to the bigger institutions to open up a account. And I think that's good.
That's probably right around the corner from you. So that's good. However, when you start needing that kind of everyday touch of like, oh, I need a cashier to check here. Oh, I need to make a wire here. Oh, I'm ready for a small business loan. You know, a lot of bigger institutions don't pay attention to that very, very important segment. And that's the, you know, the small business, which I like to say is the backbone of America.
And they don't pay attention to that. So, you know, they'll end up getting denied or they won't get the service that they want. You know, as a small institution, because you know, you are a small business or a smaller institution, they'll give you all the time you want. I mean, you can go in there and they'll roll out the red carpet for you and say, hey, we love these pies. Not only do this, but I'm going to tell my friend about this or we actually bank this other business that I want y'all to meet each other. And that's really community banking right there is that you're just kind of taking care of the size.
And then I will say it goes to the other opposite end of, you know, sometimes I think, you know, your business is, you know, now it's, it's those same pies, but we've based all this other stuff. And now you have kind of a Walmart-esque business. That will probably be a good business for one of the larger institutions, just because they will have the kind of capacity to really handle, you know, what you need.
And that's why I say I never talk about bad about any banks, because I just think they all are great in their own type of ways. And so that's what I mean by kind of bank your size, you know, if you want, if you're a small business and you want that friend or you want that partner, come to a community bank.
I heard a really interesting podcast with an investor, or so now I'm like talking about other podcasts on my podcast is bad. But he made an interesting comment about some SaaS businesses where they really knew their market size. Like, hey, we're going to work for you from X size employee to Y. And we kind of like, we don't view it as bad when you hit Y and you go somewhere else because that's not our, you kind of outgrown what we do.
我听了一个真正有趣的播客,里面有个投资者讲了一些关于一些 SaaS(软件即服务)公司,他们真的知道市场规模的有趣评论。比如,“嘿,我们会为你服务,从 X 员工规模到 Y 员工规模。” 但我们不认为当你达到 Y 后去其他地方是不好的,因为你已经超出了我们的服务范围。所以,现在我在我的播客中谈论其他播客是不好的,因为他让我想起了这个话题。
And we, that's not like it's churn and it's bad, but it's like, we think of it as a good thing because we know our spot, we know where we add the most value. We want to really serve those customers. Well, if you get to the high end, the larger size, you go, we need a difference set of stuff. Like, that's okay. You know that you know your space, you fit it well. And you're kind of our six, you know, almost celebrating your customers moving past you because they've grown to a point that that's what they need.
Look, I hear the same thing. You are in a big, you are in a big way. And I almost feel like that baby bird flying out the nest. Like, you want them to spread their wings and fly. And you know, for me, because I've had a handful of customers do that. And you almost feel that sense of pride just because this is like, you know, I remember when the big bank didn't want to give you the loan and we were the first ones to take that chance and give you the loan and we saw the loan go from $25,000 until now you have million dollar loans. And that's one of the greatest kind of success stories that you can have.
I mean, you know, for me, I'll tell you on the flip side, I'm always like, hey, that money market count, you know, I can still have that here. So if you want to do it, you know, a couple million. You know, you're not here at me. It'd be just fine. Look, you know, look, that's when you go back, hey, I do remember when you were little. But you know, I think it's a good thing and I think it's bankers. That's for me, that's what you want to see.
So I want to get to your role and kind of community development engagement. But I want to ask one question because you before I get there, which is you talked about this is you said, mostly your partner. So if you want to duck it, that's fine. But you talked about building a big business in commercial real estate that was kind of his, you know, genius and credit risk and you were more on the SMB side.
But it seems like this really interesting moment from a commercial real estate point of view as we see companies that, you know, got a lot of real estate pre-COVID are going through remote work or you know, this shift in the nature of utilization of office space. And I'm just curious if you've got any thoughts on what the future of commercial real estate and what's kind of shaking out over there.
Because I don't know how to make heads or tails of quite what's going on. There's still a lot of building, a lot of places, but there's a lot of empty space. I'm curious if you got any thoughts on like what's going to happen in the commercial real estate space over the next couple of years because it feels like this kind of strange moment of dislocation in terms of what we expect the utilization of those kinds of spaces to be.
Yeah, no, this moment that we're sitting in right now and this year that we're going to go through as bankers, it's going to be kind of a weird quirky year. Just in terms of, you know, it's a loan that we were doing six months to a year ago that we would have said, oh, definitely, yeah, let's go. Now we're kind of, you know, pumping the brakes on it saying, okay, let's look at this, but let's look at it in a couple of other ways now that we have to.
And you know, Austin is kind of tricky. Austin is a tricky one because like we like to say, you know, we are going to be the last ones in first one out in terms of, you know, we don't want to use the recession word, but you know, hey, what comes, what comes? And you know, so I think in terms of when you're talking about commercial real estate, it's one of those things you really have to pay attention to the articles, you have to pay attention to the news, you have to pay attention to the fed, you have to pay attention to all these things and just kind of make sure that you're really on top of it and that knowledge level is really high.
Again, you know, I don't want to tube my bank's horn, but that's one of the things that they are really, really kind of good at in terms of just, we have the right people in place to make sure that every one of these things that I'm talking about, we have somebody paying attention to. And so those are one of the things that really, really helpful when you have the right people and right people in charge and right people looking at the things. And Guarantee Bank in front does a very good job of that.
And I will say that, you know, there are times that I think, especially like right now, there's a lot of banks kind of going and blowing and they're like, hey, we want to give you this interest rates and, you know, they're trying to get market, you know, get market share and, you know, we're like, hold on, you know, again, we're about relationships. So that is what we are really focused on right now.
It's not that where, okay, we just want to do a loan and you don't have anything over here. You know, this is a back and forth. This is a given take. This is a relationship that we want. Again, kind of the thing that we've been echoing through the conversation is we want to see you go from, you know, this over here and we want to help you get to that next step because when it comes to times like these and other banks of time, check market share and they're trying to give you a better rate or they're trying to do these. That's when that loyalty comes back and play and says, you know what, Ryan was able to get me through times that nobody else wanted to get me through.
And so now, just because the rate is a little better at somewhere else, I'll pass because guess what? My bank has tried and true and I believe in these people just like, you know, we believe in the businesses.
Hey, Sarah Boucher, VP of Consumer Lending at First Federal Bank of Kansas City.
嘿,Sarah Boucher,你在堪萨斯城第一联邦银行担任消费贷款副总裁。
A few years back, our executive team knew we needed to grow our unsecured personal loan portfolio. So we turned to Upstart. Three years later, I am proud to share that we've scaled our loan volume target from 500,000 a month to 12 million a month and acquired over a thousand new customers. If you want to hear more about our partnership, check out the full case study on Upstart.com forward slash lenders. Once again, that's Upstart.com forward slash lenders.
All right, let's get back to the show. Is it maybe this a good point to transition to, you know, you had a role in the kind of the community development engagement, both in the kind of a scenario part of the bank that you started, but I think also in the larger institution, talk a little bit about how you think about what that role is and what your objectives are. I think it's a really interesting aspect of the bank's field of community banks.
I mean, it's kind of like the heart and soul of the banking industry is kind of engaging with the community and both financial and in other ways. But how do you think about what your objectives are and what you're trying to do in the context of community development within the bank?
Yeah, so back in November of 2022, my bank came to me by my surprise and was like, hey, we got this new role that we think you would be perfect and we've never done it here at this bank and we want you to do it. And that is the first community development officer for Guaranteed Bank and Trust.
This is something that I've been doing since I've started and that's just being in the community. I'm always here there. I'm probably out at least four to five nights a week just in different avenues in the community. That's just because I think, you know, if we're going to, I really take the word community seriously. If we're going to be a community bank, we need to be in the community. And that looks like a lot of things.
That's giving my time, talent, treasure, all those things and making sure that, you know, Guaranteed Bank is doing their job. And so when they came to me and gave me this, obviously I said, yes, obviously I was like, oh my gosh. And then so they basically were like, hey, we love what you're doing in Austin. Now we want you to do it in all our metro areas.
So now you are over Austin, Dallas Fort Worth, in Houston and everywhere in between. And you know, that's a big responsibility. You know, I was so happy and I remember they told me and then I closed my office door and I was like, yes. And then I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm going to do this. Now you got to be out for days a week. I did not 10 days in the week to be out and about in the different communities anymore. Ryan, you got to pick and choose. Correct. What is that look like?
And so then I thought to myself, like, you know what, I know what that looks like. That looks like exactly what we're doing here. And, you know, so one of the things that I've been fortunate is the association I work with Texas Bankers Association in a big way. And I'm on about three different committees with them and that works throughout the state of Texas, just, you know, kind of lobbying for community banks and making sure, you know, the avenues that we want to take.
We have all the banks kind of in one voice and then we can actually take that fight to Washington. If we feel that, you know, the policies that we are trying to change, we can tell the lawmakers. Actually, that's where I came back from from a day ago. I was in Washington, DC meeting the 118th Congress, the new freshman, the freshman congressman from Texas.
And so why those relationships are important is because obviously if you want something, you know, change, you might have to do it policy wise. So that's why that's important. But it gives me an opportunity to talk to all our different markets and say, oh my gosh, you know, we're focused on these areas. So at the bank, we are focused on financial literacy and education, affordable housing and economic and workforce development.
So corporately, those are kind of our big things that we just kind of focus on. Every other market can have their own things and their great non-profits like Habitat for Humanity or if you have a ballet there or, you know, anything, dogs and cats, we love it all. We love it all. But corporately, those are the things that we focus on and I will tell you one thing that I truly, truly love is I've been able to meet other community development officers at other banks, both large and small.
And the cool thing about that is, you know, we're not actually working against each other. We're working together. So if something cool comes up and Fort Worth and says, hey, where you're trying to do affordable housing here, you know, that bank may be only be able to give 25,000 to them. And so then you take my 25,000 and then Bank of America comes and says, hey, we're going to give a million dollars, we can really make some good magic happen in tech serving our communities.
So that's why this role is amazing. Obviously, I get to talk to people, not just in Austin, but around, you know, around Texas now. And it really, I mean, basically, they really just gave me a bigger runway. And so I am so just, you know, thankful to them, being able just to make my impact bigger. And that's it. For me, that's all I want. I just want to do really good work and I want to be very impactful.
So I'll ask two things to follow up on that because you mentioned a couple things, affordable housing. I think a lot of people are familiar with kind of like the, it's a well-worn path in terms of what we do and how he sport that. But the topics of financial literacy and education, I think is one, at least I find difficult. We've often compared to like getting people to eat their broccoli. Like, people don't always want that education and, you know, like, even me or my kid, I got a horse, I try to force feed my kids.
Financial education has grown up smart about different parts. Have you, I'm curious if you've seen things that work in that space because I feel like it's a space where we all know the information that needs to get conveyed, but the ways that make it engaging and where the community really embraces what you're doing and you can actually drive successful hosts.
I'm curious what you've seen and what's worked well for you in that space. And a similar question around workforce development I think, but I'd like to start with the financial education. It's one of the topics is like near and dear to my heart that I feel like, I think it's a practically criminal that we don't have, real financial education, part of our educational attainment for everybody. You come out of high school and you don't know anything about basic financial products, interest rates, market.
I think that's criminal, to be honest, because it's such a critical life skill and we'll just love any insights you have on what's been effective at helping you drive real results next. I think it's such an important thing for us as a country to get better at doing.
No, I couldn't agree with you more. And so there's a lot of things in there, but yeah, so with the financial education piece, it's such an important piece. And like you said, why is this not top? My CEO even told me that. He's like, you know what, Ryan, I would be willing to put a whole lot of money if we could somehow get this in schools. And he was just kind of saying it, but I took it and I'm like, hey, if my CEO is saying, that's what he wants. Let's make it happen.
So literally I sat there. Yeah, let's go do it. And I sat there and I'm like, how am I going to make this happen? Again, I leaned on Texas Bankers Association. And I said, and I talked to, you know, the CEO of Chris Furlow, who I love. And he acts as a great just mentor. I don't even really make a move without asking like talking to him. But I talked to Chris and I said, hey, how do we make this happen? And he's like, hey, we know enough people where we can.
所以我就真的坐在那里。好的,让我们去做。我就坐在那里,然后我就在想,我该怎么做呢?再次,我依靠德克萨斯银行家协会。我跟我最喜欢的CEO Chris Furlow进行了交谈,他是一个很棒的导师。我几乎不会在没有问他的意见之前就采取行动。但是我跟Chris说,我们该怎么实现这个呢?他说,嘿,我们认识足够多的人,我们可以做到。
And so what Texas Bankers Association, I'm a part of American Bankers Association too. And so we have now kind of set a plan in place where we are going to work with the state of Texas in terms of getting a couple of school districts and using them kind of as, you know, kind of a program to see, okay, we want to put financial literacy courses in here. Let's kind of see how this takes off.
And so I will tell you right now with that, a lot of states are paying attention to Texas right now. Just because we have the tools, we have what we need to make that happen. And so we went into a couple school districts and said, hey, this is the course courses that we need you to teach.
And I will tell you, this came from somebody that's very important to me. And, you know, a little genius herself is my wife. We were literally sitting at this conference where I was receiving an award. And so she was there and they were talking about financial literacy and, you know, the state of Texas and she used to work for T.E.A. Texas Education Agency. And she's like, of course, she goes in and she's like, right, why aren't y'all doing this? They already have courses here. You could just put those courses together and we can do teach up there. And I'm thinking, yeah, that's what we were doing already. You're just saying it out loud. But really, she literally, I will tell you how that went. That conversation went between me and her.
She told me I was kind of like blown away. And then I called Chris Farlow and I was like, hey, Laura just thought about how we're going to do this. And we thought of a plan and that's how we got the curriculum and then we're going to put it in, you know, these kind of school, these school districts that we think would it work and we're just going to see how it works. And, you know, I think it actually is going to work. And so a lot of other association presidents around the nation have actually started talking to Chris and saying, hey, we like what y'all are doing over here. So before you know it, it's going to catch like wildfire. And then again, that's where no one, you know, these members of Congress can help too.
Because they actually have big microphones and they're the ones that are appropriating the money. And so that's just kind of how it works. So I cannot wait until this really gets off the ground and I can go back to my CEO and say, hey, you said you would love to do this. Boom, we got it. You know, and again, you can see how it works. You can see how excited I am about it because, you know, it's important.
And another thing that you said is affordable. One reason why affordable housing to me is important is because I don't feel that anybody will care about financial literacy if you have nowhere to stay. That's fair. You know what I'm saying? Like that goes, that goes keeps on going down on the list because you're worried about how am I going to take care of my family.
And the thing is, you know, in America right now, housing in 401Ks, those are so important. There's some of our biggest ways that we, you know, we get wealth. And so if communities don't know about these things, you know, that's not going to happen. And my whole thing in life is I don't want it to be where I'm sitting there, you know, reflecting on life. And I'm saying, wow, I've done this. I've got to do this. I've got to go places around the world. Is that really fun if I don't bring anybody with me sort of speak?
And if my neighbor can't do that or the neighbor down the street can't do that, it's really not. You know, it's really sad in a way. And so that's our job, you know, your job, my job, to make sure that, you know, your neighbor, your community member has the tools that they can to fly. And so, you know, affordable housing is one of those things that it's really hurting our bigger cities. You know, I will say that a lot of front line staff and most industries can't live within the city anymore that they're working in. And so we have to figure this out.
And so one thing that Guarantee was allowed me to do is we actually did a million dollar investment into Austin affordable housing. And so what that looks like is there is a private group of investors in Austin that have purchased multi-family units and they are then renting them out to front line workers. So your nurses, our teachers, and they are putting it at a rate where they can actually afford. And so with that, why they're actually can afford this rate, we're putting through financial literacy classes. So not only that money that you're saving, we can actually put that to work and we can then get down payments and we're working with people on down payment assist. And it kind of just snowballs into their thing to where now they can afford a home for their family. And then they have financial literacy. And then they're going to be great people to contribute to our workforce. And then, you know, then the economic stability happens.
So that's where when we talk about the areas that Guarantee is trying to make an impact in. And then we can all kind of go together and I hope you can now see kind of the bigger picture of what the plan that we're kind of a tax or to speak. I love how it all connects together.
I did want to double click a little bit more on the last area you talked about and then I'm going to have to wrap this thing up because we're running over time. Oh, I'm sorry. Which was the workforce development. And when there's such a much interesting things to talk about, it's just a lot of stuff happens. And it's fine. It's a beauty of the podcast. There's no set time period you've got to be done before the commercial break in the next show. We get to go as long as we want. But what are your priorities or what are you seeing in terms of workforce development? I feel like the nature of work is shifting so much this idea of how do we develop the workforce for the future and for what's going down the pipe is such an important one.
What are you guys areas of focus or what are you doing on that front?
你们关注的领域是什么?或者说你们在这方面做了什么?
Yes. So I was just talking last night to somebody in there. Just we were talking about how a lot of these jobs with these skills are really kind of going away because I will tell you the tech industry has done a really good job of marketing themselves saying, hey, come and tech. I mean, obviously that works because of these big paychecks that they are offering college graduates right out the back.
So I see why it's working. I know what's happening is that our skilled labor force is kind of going away. And so if we take banking, for instance, one of the biggest things that I want to make sure that it happens is that I see more people of color in my industry. And then I would say that's one and then one A would be women as well.
And not just women in the industry in terms of, oh, Ryan, but we have like 75% women working at this bank. No, no, no, no. I'm talking about women in leadership that gets to that executive level. And so one of the things that we're doing in banking is at Texas Health and University in Houston, they have opened the first banking program at HBCU in the nation and HBCU historically black college university.
And so when I saw that they were doing that and actually TBA Texas Bank Association gave the first $100,000 of seed money for that. And now I think they've raised over four million. And so when I saw that, I came, you know, came to my bank, it was like, hey, I know the first place that I want to write a check to. And you know, they just gave me the role in November, December. And they're like, okay, let's go.
And so I explained that to them. And why that's important is because not only do I want to write a check to the program, but I also want their interns. I want young men and women come and say, hey, look, come intern here. I want to get you used to working in a bank environment. And then after that, once they graduate, I want them to say, hey, I want them to say, come back here, come work for here. You know, some people might want to go to a bigger bank or any kind of bank, but at least that is helping, you know, the industry as a whole.
Because I do know that like a lot of banks, we're having trouble hiring frontline workers. And again, that goes back to that affordability and all those kind of problems. However, I do think if we start putting money into places, into universities, into programs that can help that. That's one way of many that can help us with this whole workforce problem. And I think every industry probably has something where you can pour money into it in terms of helping.
And sometimes it's just not money. I know that you know, at Texas Southern and probably a lot of other banking schools, they would really love the help of some of these seasoned bankers coming in here and saying, hey, can you teach class on credit or you know, financial analysis? They're going through all that kind of stuff. And so again, that's kind of my PSA in terms of, hey, you don't have to just give your money, but you can give your time as well.
And so yeah, no workforce development is just, it's huge. But again, if you look at that kind of circle graph that I'm saying, it all kind of relates to each other and all makes sense. Yeah. And if we can do it all together, we can definitely uplift these communities that we live in.
Because I love to say that if you can see, you can be it. And I think a lot of these kids coming out of some of these communities, they didn't really know that banking was an option. Because like you say, when we started, people just kind of fall into it. And so I've decided, hey, we have to do a better job of marketing ourselves. Yeah, we might not be as sexy as a tech company, but we can also promote stability.
You know, as all these layoffs happen in the tech industry, those aren't happening in the banking industry. And you can still make some really good money in the banking industry. And like I like to say, you can have a meaning and a purpose and help out your community. So I think it's a win-win and plus you get to work with people like Jeff, come on now. Who don't want to do that? I could think of a few, but I think it's a good point overall.
I appreciate all this. I also have three standard questions I ask everybody at the end of the podcast. You know mine, I'm going to throw them out now and see what you got for sure. You ready? My lightning round.
All right. Here's the first one. What's the best piece of career advice you've ever gotten?
好的。第一个问题是什么?你得到的最好的职业建议是什么?
From my dad, he would always tell me, hey, I don't know everything about everything. So when you get somebody in front of you that's willing to teach you about something, take it there, vice it there, pin and pad, let's go.
All right. Take your opportunities to learn. I love advice from parents. I think it's some of the best to be on the show. Second question. What's the best piece of advice you've gotten about the banking or lending space in general?
Always be a learner. I mean, always be a student. Always be a student ready to learn.
永远要保持学习者的心态。我的意思是,永远要做一位学生。永远要成为一个准备好学习的学生。
I was actually just sitting at a dinner the other night and I had the just pleasure of sitting with four bank CEOs in me. I told them, I said, I am not taking this opportunity and not asking y'all questions.
One of them, actually, was Jeff Austin out of Austin bank, Jacksonville, Texas. He told me he's always be willing to be a learner. He is so right. I'm ready to just soak it all up. All right.
Lots of emphasis on learning. My last question for you. What's one bold prediction for the future? Something we can bring you back and hold your feet to the fire. See if you got your prediction right.
It's something bold prediction about what's coming down the pipe. What's coming down the pipe? What's coming down the pipe and banking is it is no longer going to look like banking of yesterday year. Banking is going to look very differently.
这是对未来的大胆预测。未来会发生什么?未来的银行业不再像昨天的投资业。银行业将会面貌全新。
That means the workforce is going to look differently. That means the customers are going to look differently. That means our train of thought of how we got this far from for 110 years. That means that you have to be progressive enough to say, hey, we see this coming and we have to be ready to pivot duck and weave.
Like I said, our bank is doing a very great job of that. I guess that's not really a prediction. That's what is going to happen. I think if you stay true to values and make sure you're just really charting the course, you'll be just fine. If you're a constant learner looking for opportunities to learn and being willing to take notes when you find them, you're probably going to be good on.
I'll serve by that in a changing environment. You got it.
我会在不断变化的环境中为您服务。知道了。
All right. Ryan, I appreciate you joining us today and sharing your perspective. This was a fascinating conversation. Thank you. Thank you for making the time.
No, thank you, Jeff. This has been amazing. Thank you for the opportunity.
不,谢谢你,杰夫。这太棒了。感谢你给我这个机会。
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Hi, I'm David Brand, SDP of Lending Operations at Sharon View Federal Credit Union. After we saw a spike in both mobile activity and personal loans, we want to-.