Main Street Banking: A Podcast for Community Bankers

As most of you are aware, there is a great deal of discussion in the national arena around the proposed IRS Reporting Guidelines. Given it's potential impact to the community banking industry and the community's we serve, it's important that we educate ourselves as to what is going on and what we can do to help. Paul Merski is the EVP for Congressional Relations at the ICBA and he (along with the...

DEI...ESG...just two more abbreviations in the alphabet soup of banking? Hardly. Recently, Miguel Lopez was highlighted on the ICBA's blog for his efforts in reaching out to the underserved Hispanic market in Encore Bank's ever-expanding footprint. I asked him to come on and talk about the article and relay some insights to the community banking industry at large. What followed was, in my opinion,...

If you've attended the Barret Graduate School of Banking (and you really should!), you will have had Brad Federman with PerformancePoint LLC. A member of the Forbes Coaches Council and featured speaker/author all over the country, Brad is a true thought leader (and I don't use that term everyday) in the realm of HR issues, emotional intelligence, culture, and employee engagement. Recently, he wrot...

Due to a unavoidable scheduling situation, we aren't able to bring you the episode we had planned...but no worries...we're bringing out another "Greatest Hit"..."Mission Driven Innovation" with Charles Potts from the ICBA. Charles Potts is the SVP and Chief Innovation Officer for the Independent Community Bankers of America. "Innovation" and "community bankers" don't often go together you might sa...

It's pretty easy to say "there's a new paradigm shift" or "the world is changing so how will you adapt?!". You can be asked that question anywhere. However, with today's episode with Jay Toups, we are going to go deeper. From a sales perspective, what are some practical things banks can do in this new world. Jay is a long time faculty member at the Barret Graduate School as well as one of our firs...

Besides being the sponsor of our podcast, ICBA Securities does an outstanding job in working with banks in their investments. Whenever there is economic news (like we've had over the last week or so), we like to bring on Jim Reber, CEO of ICBA Securities, to talk to community bankers about what he is seeing in the industry. To register for the 4Q Economic Update Jim mentioned, you can do so here.....

We all have a story and the great thing about those stories is that it makes us who we are. Your bank has a story. Do you tell it? Do you use it to show how you are a part of your community? It's not about bragging...it's about relating to your markets! Barret has a story too and it's unique and as someone who has been around that story for quite a while, I wanted to share it with you. I wanted yo...

We're pretty big college sports fans around Barret and it's getting to be the high holy time of year in the South we know as "college football"! Kidding aside, the NCAA (governing body of college athletics here in the US) has relaxed their NIL (name, image, and likeness) rules for student-athletes. We're seeing HUGE deals for college athletes to endorse things like cars, sports drinks, etc. But, w...

One of the main drivers of the future...and one of the biggest shifts I've seen in the last 2 years...has been the development of the symbiotic and non-adversarial relationship between community banks and fintech. It makes sense, honestly. Community banks have the relationships and there are more of them! No need to reinvent the wheel PROVIDED that the banks are willing to adapt to the change. Nat...

We talk a good deal on the show about community development and the important role bankers have in their communities. We also talk a lot about digital adoption and fintech's partnership with community banking. They're not mutually exclusive conversations. "Doing well by doing good" is an important concept for banks and fintechs to understand and Finastra (the 3rd largest fintech in the world) gets...

Well, we’ve come to the end of our Superhero community banking series. As I said last week, the last two chapters of The Art of War are about spying and using firebombs. Good material…hard to find a parallel in community banking that is legal! So, let’s wrap up the series here! Many thanks to our sponsor, ICBA Securities! https://www.icba.org/icba-securities

We are nearing the end of our journey through The Art of War! I've really enjoyed this series and I hope you have to. Chapter 11 goes further into our discussion on moving around in different markets...but how do we get the team to move? How will we know what the move is? Thanks to our sponsor, ICBA Securities, which you can learn more about here at https://www.icba.org/icba-securities You can get...

Getting back to our SuperHero Community Banking series...we talk about moving around in our markets. But how does that interact with emotional intelligence? How are they related? Why are they related? Many thanks to our sponsor, ICBA Securities, https://www.icba.org/icba-securities Also, be sure to check out the episode page https://barretbanking.org/msbpodcasts/superhero-community-banking-all-alo...

We're at the end of our "Greatest Hits" series and we're wrapping up our 2 parter with Brad Federman. I hope you've enjoyed going back and hearing these tracks. It's good to go back and listen to older episodes and remember those takeaways we got back then. I've enjoyed it...and thanks for hanging in there with me. Don't forget to check out our sponsor, ICBA Securities, at https://www.icba.org/icb...

Track 3 of our Greatest Hits is part 1 of a 2-parter we did with Brad Federman on anxiety and coping with stresses in a crisis. The context of these two episodes is 2020 and right at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Remember that time!? There's still outstanding information here that we all need that's applicable to life separate from COVID...or pandemics. It's just good information we all nee...

Moving down the track list for the Main Street Banking Greatest Hits...we come to Eric Cook and Emily Mays talking about banks' use of social media. If you've spent any time in banking social media, you'll see these two names come up quite often and with good reason. Plus, as you'll see...they're just awesome to talk with and learn from! Don't forget to check out our sponsor, ICBA Securities, at h...

We're kicking off a "Greatest Hits" series this week...some of my favorite episodes from the past 3 years of the podcast! Track 1 is our 2nd most downloaded episode and one that we hear the most about and refer to the most in our content...the coffee shop episode. Richwood Bank's Chad Hoffman and I discuss his bank's coffee shop initiative and how it has grown, how it has benefited their community...

Time for an industry pulse check with ICBA Securities' own Jim Reber. As we start the back half of 2021, we had some interesting markets in the first half of the year that had direct impact on bank profitability. Also, I think it's important to take some of the anecdotal things we hear and put them in a larger context of what the markets are actually doing. I have to admit, that Jim gave me some a...

In my early credit training days, an instructor told me “we lend cash, we expect to be paid in cash. We do not lend income and ‘income’ doesn’t pay me back.” Wise words. Anyone that has done any amount of lending knows the importance of cash...but have you ever thought “does my customer know how important that is?” Of course, we can try and explain that to them, but as soon as we mention DSC and D...

Many banks are experiencing the same problem that many of our customers experience...brain drain. What happens when your local community does not have the deep talent pool other communities have? How do we develop the talent we already have? What does that process look like for banks? Michael Synk is the founder and dean of the School of Rock & Sand, an executive coaching system he developed that...

Every business, bank or otherwise, can be thought of as the sum of its systems. Systems are not bad, in and of themselves. However, they can impede progress if we are not careful. Community banks can be notorious for creating these “silos” and we miss the whole point of the organization. How can we address that? Michael Synk is the founder and dean of the School of Rock & Sand, an executive coachi...

“Strategy” is a term that we hear a good deal about but, let’s be honest, we don’t often have a good working definition for. When we really sit down to think about it, there’s so much more to strategy than running a SWOT. We have to think about other areas...so, let’s talk about those “others”. Michael Synk is the founder and dean of the School of Rock & Sand, an executive coaching system he devel...

Michael Fielding is back to take his "Hinge Points" concept and applying it to ag lending. Great insights! We have the materials he references on the episode page at https://barretbanking.org/msbpodcasts/hinge-points-and-ag-loans-distressed-ag-loans-with-michael-fielding-from-husch-blackwell/ If you'd like to learn more about Husch Blackwell, check them out at https://www.huschblackwell.com/ and d...

Michael Fielding, with Husch Blackwell, is a returning guest to Main Street Banking. He's developed a really nice rubric for thinking about distressed loans that might help to clarify some of the "what do we do next?" aspect of this part of banking. You'll want to check out the episode page to get the materials he references. You can find a digital eBook to read and/or download at https://barretba...

I think it is probably time we admit that Zoom (or WebEx, Microsoft Teams, etc.) isn't going anywhere any time soon...like it or not. So...what do we do with that? What does that mean for the local community banker? How can we adapt those changes we implemented in 2020 into our "forever normal" (we are NOT saying "new normal" here! HA!)? Jack Hubbard, with St. Meyer and Hubbard, comes on to Main S...