Propagate Fintech Podcast

If a prospect asked ChatGPT who the smartest people in your corner of fintech are, would your name come up? Would your CEO's? In this solo episode, Roland Howard makes the case for one of the most underrated plays in B2B fintech marketing: getting your executives on podcasts as guests. Not starting a show. Showing up on other people's. We cover how AI changed the way buyers build their s...

With AI reshaping financial services, banking as a service is having a major moment. Roland Howard sits down with Jared Robinson of Legend Bank, a 140-year-old community bank in Bowie, Texas, to unpack what happens when a bank stands up a fintech partner banking program. It holds up a mirror to the institution. Jared shares how Legend Bank launched during the toughest stretch BaaS has seen, why th...

You ever leave a conference totally inspired, only to forget everything a few days later? Too much of what gets said on stage is theoretical. It's heavy on vision and light on the playbook. In this episode, Roland sits down with Jade Mitchell, who leads content at FinTech Meetup, one of the first major fintech shows of the year. Jade walks through how she builds an agenda with the industry, n...

Private label credit cards are losing ground, and Buy Now Pay Later is a big reason why. Grace Broadbent, payments analyst at eMarketer, joins the show to unpack why store card originations have stalled since 2021, why average interest rates on those cards just crossed 30 percent, and why retailers, not banks, end up taking the blame when balances go bad. We get into how BNPL expanded into card li...

Steve Shaw spent ten years at Fiserv working across product, marketing, and go to market before helping build out SRM's AI-powered consulting practice. In this episode, Roland and Steve get into how AI is reshaping fintech consulting, why SEO is giving way to AEO and GEO, and why marketing without product in the room is just a task list. Timestamps 00:00 – Steve's ten years at Fiserv and...

Most banks think they've solved personalization because a customer's first name shows up in an email. Jeffrey Wright, Digital Communications and Strategy Manager at a community bank, makes the case for something deeper: knowing a CD is about to mature, knowing the renewal rate before the customer asks, and reaching out before it becomes a problem. We get into what Jeff calls the Frankens...

Greg Palmer has coached thousands of fintech founders through Finovate's seven minute, no slides, live demo format. In this episode, he breaks down what separates a demo that lands from one that dies on stage, why saying "we use AI" stopped being enough, and how stablecoins and tokenized deposits are moving from novelty to strategy for banks. Greg also shares the exit sign trick he...

Lending technology is still running on infrastructure nobody would build from scratch today. I sat down with Mike Dunleavey and Gino Angeli from LASER Credit Access this week. About twenty minutes in, Mike described the average loan origination system as feeling like a 747 cockpit. Buttons, panels, widgets everywhere. Nobody designed it. It just accumulated over forty years. LASER's whole the...

For decades the Federal Reserve operated like it sat on its own island: insulated, untouchable, above the political fray. Two Supreme Court rulings, Trump v. Slaughter and Trump v. Cook, just rewrote the rules on whether a president can fire the people who run the nation's monetary policy. Kyle Campbell, who covers the Fed and bank regulation for American Banker, joins the show to break down...

Most fintech brands play it safe with their marketing. Static image, motion graphic, list your differentiators, call it a day. Nobody gets in trouble for that. But safe doesn't fail loud, it fails quiet, and quiet is the real risk. In this episode, Roland breaks down why humor is one of the most wide open lanes in fintech marketing and almost nobody is fighting for it. He walks through a real...

Powell's out. Kevin Warsh is in. And it's not just a new name at the podium, it's a completely different communication philosophy for the Federal Reserve. Kyle Campbell, who covers the Fed for American Banker, joins the show to break down what Warsh's "say less, smile more" approach means for banks, fintechs, and markets that got used to the Fed spelling everything ou...

This episode is really a Snowflake and Anthropic story. Roland Howard and Lee Easton trace how Identify became one of Snowflake's early banking partners back in 2022, years before the rest of the industry trusted the cloud, and how that same pattern is now repeating with Anthropic. Lee walks through Identify's new status as a Certified Anthropic Partner, part of the first wave certified...

What does it take to actually break through in the credit union market? Kristin Marie has spent over a decade finding out. Kristin most recently served at Curql, a mega fund that raised $360 million from credit unions to invest in fintech. In that role, she worked directly with founders and early-stage companies trying to figure out how to crack open a market that rewards trust, relationships, and...

CDFIs don't get nearly enough credit in the fintech conversation. They're filling a gap the traditional financial system either can't fill or won't, and they're doing it with cobbled-together technology that was never built for them. In this episode, Roland sits down with Kyle Lovell, Chief Lending Officer at Business Impact Northwest, for a ground-level look at how CDFIs...

EPISODE OVERVIEW Roland sits down with Jazzy Zhu, CMO of Equipifi, to dig into why community banks and credit unions are still leaving BNPL on the table, how Equipifi is helping them reclaim those dollars flowing to third-party lenders, and what it looks like to run bold, human-first marketing inside a regulated-industry startup. Jazzy also pulls back the curtain on Equipifi's fourth website...

The $124 Trillion Opportunity Banks Are Sleeping On $124 trillion is transferring from Baby Boomers to the next generation by 2048. And most banks and credit unions have no seat at that table. I sat down with Tobias Salinger, Chief Correspondent at Financial Planning magazine — sister publication to American Banker — to unpack the disintermediation risk, the wealth transfer opportunity, and the cr...

Most fintech brands are pouring budget into pipeline — but their executives are completely absent from the places buyers are actually paying attention. Roland breaks down why executive thought leadership is one of the highest-leverage, lowest-cost growth levers available, shares real examples of fintech leaders doing it right, and delivers a three-speed content playbook any team can start using to...

PR is one of the most misunderstood and most expensive lines on a fintech marketing budget. In this episode of the Propagate Fintech Podcast, host Roland Howard pulls back the curtain on why PR costs what it costs, why AI alone can't carry a campaign across the finish line, and why so many founders write off PR after one underwhelming press release. Roland walks through the real difference be...

MrBeast just acquired Step. Cash App is going after 6-year-olds. The creator economy is colliding with regulated banking — and Senator Elizabeth Warren is putting the whole space on notice. In this episode, Roland sits down with Elizabeth Gujral, Director in the Research & Fintech Advisory (RAFA) practice at Cornerstone Advisors, to unpack what the MrBeast/Step deal really means for banks, cre...

Christian Ruppe joins the show to break down his transition from community banking into his new role as Partner and Chief Strategy Officer at ImpactFi Advisors. We cover where banks are actually winning, what fintech founders get wrong, and how strategy, AI, and data are reshaping the industry. Christian also shares insights from launching the Perch Fund and how he evaluates fintech investments. T...

Why Humor Is the Secret Weapon in Fintech Marketing... What if the most effective way to get people to do the thing they have been avoiding is to make them laugh first? In this episode, Roland sits down with Trust & Will CEO Cody Barbo to unpack how one fintech company took one of life’s most serious and uncomfortable topics, estate planning, and turned it into a high-performing, humor-driven...

Why Fintech Leaders Need to Start Creating Video Content NOW In a world dominated by short-form video, fintech leaders can’t afford to sit on the sidelines. This video breaks down why video content is no longer optional and how it can dramatically improve awareness, trust, and customer acquisition costs. If you’re not creating video content in 2026, you’re already behind. In this video, I break do...

Episode Overview In this episode, Roland Howard sits down with John Kingma of Old Glory Bank to explore what it takes to build a digital-first bank in a rapidly consolidating financial industry. As traditional institutions move upmarket, small businesses and everyday Americans are increasingly left behind. Old Glory Bank was built to serve that gap, launching nationwide and reaching customers in a...

Nearly 40% of Americans can’t cover a $400 emergency expense. That statistic alone explains why financial stress has become one of the biggest hidden issues in the workforce today. In this episode of the Propagate Fintech Podcast, Roland Howard sits down with Rachel Fox of Sunny Day Fund to unpack the growing problem of financial precarity and why emergency savings is emerging as one of the most i...

What actually drives digital transformation in banking ? In this episode of the Propagate Fintech Podcast , Roland Howard sits down with Justin Dunmyer of ICBA to unpack what community banks, fintech founders, and banking leaders often get wrong about innovation, automation, and data strategy. Justin previously spent over a decade inside a community bank working his way from teller to Chief Digita...