Banking on Digital Growth

When it comes to financial literacy, most of us are failing our children.  Schools won’t teach it, parents are scared to teach it, and banks don’t seem to care — but they should…  Your financial brand’s future is being shaped by the education kids are getting (or not getting) right now.  Today, I’m excited to welcome to the show Scott Donnell , Founder at GravyStack , where he is gamifying childre...

Your digital growth journey is not something that just happens on auto pilot— it requires planning and preparation. And while every journey starts with a single step… There are 12 steps everyone must take on their digital growth journey. I’m flying solo in today’s episode from the Inside Digital Growth series to cover the 12 steps you need to take to inculcate a digital growth mindset in your orga...

ou can’t move forward if you are relying on the tools of the past. Digital transformation is about, well… actually transforming. But most banks aren’t just stuck in the past — they’re built on it. That’s what Nathaniel Harley , Co-founder & C EO at MANTL , sees as the biggest impediment holding back financial brands from their digital growth journeys.  In this episode, we discuss: Why communit...

It’s always nice to have some extra cash. The trouble is: knowing where to invest it. The truth is that most people need help deciding what to do with their money — especially entrepreneurs. Today’s guest, Bill Bloom , President, Bloom Financial Company , is on a mission to help entrepreneurs better invest their dollars to maximize their success. In this episode, we discuss: Why people need help i...

Do you have fans or superfans? No matter what else changes, one thing will always be true. Your most valuable and loyal customers are the ones who find you from a trusted referral. And superfans are the customers who sent them. Today’s guest, Brittany Hodak , Chief Experience Officer at Experience.com , is an expert in superfans — and more importantly, how to win them for your financial brand. She...

Before you can set sail on your digital growth journey, you need everyone onboard. For many financial brands, it’s leadership who are afraid to board the ark… Even as the world they’ve always known floods around them. In the latest solo episode, Susan, a CMO at a Midwestern financial brand, writes to ask how to get buy-in from such change-resistant leaders and start a digital growth journey toward...

COVID-19 was a wake-up call for financial brands — but not how you might expect. Sure, it showed us how quickly things can change. But things were already changing without us, leaving us behind. Fintechs, online-only banks — these should have been our wake-up call. We can no longer afford to do things the way we’ve always done them.  Because if you’re not growing, you’re dying. That’s the philosop...

The world has changed — which means leadership has changed. Modern leadership requires empathy and coaching, not decrees from on high. This new rapidly-changing, hyper-connected, purpose-driven world demands new leaders who can keep up. And today’s guest, Laurie Maddalena , CEO/Chief Leadership Consultant at Envision Excellence , has some amazing recommendations for how you can cultivate these ski...

Anyone with young children understands how much exploration and discovery we lose as adults. But many financial brands need to start thinking like a kindergartner again. That’s because when it comes to digital growth, curiosity is a key competitive advantage. In this Clarity Calls episode, the curiosity of my guest, Abby Boggs-Johnson , Digital Marketing Officer at Western State Bank , leads her t...

“We don’t sell, we build relationships…” In banks and credit unions, sales has become a dirty word.  But what about growth? If you care about growth, your leaders can’t be scared of leads. In this Clarity Calls episode, guest Paula Tompkins , CEO and Founder, ChannelNet , and I di scuss how to convince bank and credit union executives and their marketing teams that their primary job is to drive qu...

The past 18 months may have made it clear that digital is the key to survival in a world that can transform so drastically so quickly… But they’ve also made it clear that digital is meaningless without the human element.  The best technology is the one that augments the human — not the one that replaces them. Today’s guest, Joe Welu , CEO and Founder of Total Expert , is an expert on the human-dig...

Self-awareness isn’t just about you. It’s about understanding the thoughts and behavior of others better so that you can communicate more effectively and build better relationships. After all, at the center of digital growth is human connection. In this episode, I interview Digital Growth Institute’s own Audrey Cannata , Content and Community Specialist, about a tool we love to use: the Kolbe Syst...

How do you build a community of your customers from whom you can gain key insights about your financial brand?  What obstacles stand in the way? In today’s Clarity Calls episode, Erin Caldwell , Director of Client Voice at MX , and I dive into these questions to find out how to make Erin’s customer-driven community the best it can be. In this episode, we discuss: Erin’s customer-driven community E...

After COVID rapidly accelerated everyone’s digital transformation timeline, many have come to expect digital-first… well, everything.  But how do you maintain true human relationships without human-to-human interaction? In this Clarity Calls episode, that’s the problem today’s guest, Jon Voorhees , Director, Distribution Strategy & Business Development at TerraStrat Group, and I wrestle with....

How do marketing teams and their supporting departments need to transform to have an infrastructure conducive to one-to-few communication? That question comes from today’s guest, Bradley Blue , Vice President, Digital Marketing at Logix Federal Credit Union , and in this episode, I go over exactly what it takes, including: How to overcome the difficulty of creating content operations How to be pro...

Just like climbing a mountain, taking the first steps on your digital growth journey are often the hardest — you look ahead and all you see is how far you have to go.  But eventually, you’ll look back and be amazed by how far you’ve come.  Just ask Deborah Lumpkin , Senior Partner at Centier Bank , where each department has embarked on a digital growth journey together — which has fostered more co...

When was the last time you were happy to get an automated email? Probably… well, never. Right?  Meanwhile, sales is rarely held accountable for the terrible customer experience they create.  We can do better. We just need to be a little more human.  My guest today,James Gilbert, Head of Marketing - CRMNext, is a big believer that more empathy — more humanity — in business is the only path forward...

How much time does your sales team spend calling voicemail inboxes?  Afterwards, do they have to punch that call into a CRM?  If so, you might be wasting one of your financial brand's most valuable resources.  Salespeople are too important to waste on anything other than speaking with customers.  So says my latest guest, Chris Beall , CEO at ConnectAndSell , an expert in the most effective ways to...

It was only a 1988 bill that allowed women not to have a male signature for their business loan. Women just haven’t had the same generational runway that men have had, especially when it comes to business and finance. In this episode, I interview Brian Harris , Executive Creative Director at Bradley and Montgomery , about growing a niche market and improving our marketing messaging to women. Brian...

As marketers, all want to be more data-driven, right? Well, it’s just as important to avoid “death by data.” We don’t just need more data — we need better data we can use. Today’s guest is here to help you do just that. Kristin Harrison , Director Of Business Development at Webstrategies Inc. , where she is leading the data-driven, digital marketing revolution. In this episode, we discuss: - How a...

Today, I’m tackling this listener question: How can our marketing team get executive buy-in to commit and focus our marketing and sales on a niche with the development of consumer personas? In this solo episode, you’ll hear from me, James Robert Lay , CEO at Digital Growth Institute , about how to reimagine niches as defined not by geographical boundaries but mental ones. In this episode we discus...

Digital transformation doesn’t succeed or fail based on the technology… Its success is dependent on the people. It’s our individual humanity — our own transformation — that matters. Which is why today’s guest, Jeff Ward , Enterprise Executive at Decisions , says we shouldn’t fear automation — we should embrace it. Because when we automate the routine, we free ourselves up to deliver the exceptiona...

I’m turning the tables on you in this one. After over 100 episodes as your host, I surrender that seat to Laura Dolan , Senior Content Marketing Manager at Optimizely , as she interviews me about building a website that sells. In this episode we discuss: Why a glorified online brochure won’t cut it for your website Strategies for calls to action (CTAs) Cognitive load and intrinsic cause Trust, vid...

How can we improve the way our marketing measures and reports on customer acquisition using digital channels right now? We're pretty much just measuring clicks, but not conversions, and not acquisitions. In this episode, I'll be answering this question from Andrew, a CMO for a financial brand on the west coast. I’ll cover: - The view of marketing as a cost center (or, worse, kids playing with cray...

The old model for financial brands was always based around geography — find your local market and serve it. These days, there are no local markets… Only niches. In this very special episode, I join Mary Wisniewski and Jeffery Kendall  to discuss how to harness the power of niche in your financial brand. We cover: - Why niche is the new local - How to build a portfolio of niches - How to find a nic...