Good Neighbor Podcast Northport
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of Tuscaloosa and Northport!
Good Neighbor Podcast Northport
Rachel Kang: Transforming Financial Well-Being Through Community-Centric Banking at Allatrust Credit Union
Journey with us as we welcome Rachel Kang, the insightful Marketing Director of Alatrust Credit Union, who shares how her experiences growing up in a financially modest family have shaped her professional path. Rachel reveals why Alatrust stands out from traditional banks by focusing on member-centric services rooted in its origins with educators. Discover the unique advantages of belonging to a community-focused financial institution that prioritizes individuals' financial well-being. Rachel opens up about her transition from agency marketing to her impactful role at Alatrust, where she passionately helps people reach their financial goals.
Get ready to explore the true essence of personalized banking as Rachel describes the tangible benefits of engaging with real people at Alatrust. With its long-standing presence since 1935, the credit union offers an inviting atmosphere across its Birmingham area branches, ensuring accessibility and convenience for all its members. Rachel also shares her personal joys outside of work, including her love for dance and hosting tea gatherings, showcasing a beautiful balance between her professional and personal life. This episode is a heartfelt celebration of community and the empowering role financial institutions can play in our lives.
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This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Patricia Blondheim.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm your host, patricia Blondheim, and today we have Good Neighbor Rachel Kang, and she is the marketing director of Allatrust Credit Union here in Greater Birmingham. Rachel, how are you this morning?
Speaker 3:I'm doing great. How are you?
Speaker 2:I'm doing great, thank you. Thanks for coming by, tell us about Allatrust and what makes it special.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm so happy to be here, glad to be joining you this morning. Alla Trust is a nonprofit credit union. We were originally formed by educators for educators, but in the past few years we have opened it up to serve the whole community. As we saw that need, stepped in and took that position as well. One of the things that makes us very different, very unique and something that we see on a lot of our reviews and surveys that people say make us stand out, is really just our customer service. We don't use any robotic numbers. You get to call and talk to real people. We keep a very human touch to everything that we do and we've been around since 1935. So we have a strong legacy of trust in the area and helping protect and serve our members financially.
Speaker 2:Wonderful Rachel. Tell our listeners a little bit about your journey. How did you get into this business?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a great question. So I actually started off going to school for entrepreneurship and marketing. After that I got into kind of the agency side of marketing and helping develop marketing strategies for a lot of different local businesses. So I've worked with things from construction to med spas to dentists, all the way to financial institutions, and one of the largest clients that I had that I was working with was a financial institution and I ended up making the jump to work directly for financial institution and handle their marketing. It's just something I was really passionate about and wanted to kind of dive in deeper.
Speaker 2:A lot of our listeners out there really don't regard banks and credit unions as being different not only banks from credit unions, but also inside of that category, why each one of the individual banks that we find in our neighborhoods, in our states are different. So can you tell us a little bit about what differentiates ALA Trust Credit Union from other banks in the area?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I would say first of all, like I said, our long legacy we've been around since 1935. We've established that trust and that community partnership and are committed to the communities that we serve. Because of that, we're you know, we're very integrated. We know the people here. We want to help the people here.
Speaker 3:Second thing is our members are at the heart of all we do. So that is in our mission statement, that's in all of our employee training is to put our members first. If you have an account with us, it is our goal to help you achieve your financial dreams and goals that you want to achieve, even if that's not always in the best interest for us. I have personally had story after story of our members saying I was about to do, you know, maybe this huge loan or something, and the branch manager helped me explain how I could get to my goal without going this extreme route. And that just brings joy to my heart to know that all of our staff are taking that initiative to ensure the best financial well-being for our members. And that's really the huge thing that sets us apart from a lot of other financial institutions.
Speaker 2:It's great being with a credit union. Generally they are smaller and it's lovely, I think, especially now, to be treated like an individual inside of an institution.
Speaker 3:Definitely. I get stories all the time of people going to large corporate banks and trying to get the smallest thing done and can't even get a real person on the phone or can't have any kind of personalized conversation, or the people they are talking to don't have authority to actually solve their problem. So sometimes it really pays to be part of a smaller local institution where you can just talk directly to the people who can take care of you.
Speaker 2:Rachel, I think you probably have a very involved job. I mean marketing is it's overwhelming. I think you'll agree with me it can be very overwhelming. What do you do to fill your own cup? What do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I do quite a few different things. I'm a big hobby person so I personally I dance. I used to teach ballet for many years. My sister-in-law is a professional ballet dancer and I've just started doing some ballroom lessons just to stay active and keep that artistic side. I find when fueling my creativity in other ways, outside of the job, it actually helps me to be able to think more creatively for the marketing that I'm doing in-house, to be able to think more creatively for the marketing that I'm doing in-house. So I love to do that, love to cook and I love to have hot teas, so I like to host hot teas for friends and family. So those are kind of my top three passions, for sure.
Speaker 2:And what about zooming out a little bit onto your life? I know that we are all defined by the challenges that we face. Are there any that have come to you and brought you a special gift?
Speaker 3:being a challenge is probably just my upbringing.
Speaker 3:I have a wonderful, wonderful family, but did not grow up with a ton of financial resources myself.
Speaker 3:My father is a pastor, so he grew up serving people. You know my father was serving people as I was growing up and you know putting the church first and putting people first, which I think is wonderful, but sometimes that makes it difficult growing up. You know putting the church first and putting people first, which I think is wonderful, but sometimes that makes it difficult growing up, you know, financially had three older brothers. So one thing that I definitely learned from a young age and my parents helped instill in me, is just taking responsibility for my finances and also working hard to achieve the life that I want to have and also working hard to achieve the life that I want to have. That's one of the things that makes me so passionate to work in the financial industry now is coming from that background and knowing you know what I had to put in to be able to build the life I currently have for myself and encouraging other people to take those steps to do the same.
Speaker 2:It sounds like you are wealthy beyond your wealthiest classmates. It sounds like you are wealthy beyond your wealthiest classmates Definitely wealthy, rich in love and family and all of those good things that actually matter.
Speaker 3:Well, Rachel, what would you like our listeners to take away about Allatrust Credit Union? Yeah, I would love. Just if you're hearing this today and you are having any kind of frustration with your financial institution or you are looking to achieve a new financial goal, maybe you dreamed of having a house one day and you don't think that's possible for yourself, or maybe you've dreamed of getting a second home. You know wherever you're at and whatever your financial goals are, I encourage you just to come here. We're community-based, we're local and we can help talk to you and figure out a plan of action to help you achieve those goals for yourself. We want you to be able to live the life that you dream of and we'd love to be the place to help you. To help you do that.
Speaker 2:And what is the best way for our listeners to find Allatrust Credit Union and get in contact with you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so check us out on our website it's wwwallatrustcom. You can also follow us on Facebook, instagram, twitter, tiktok. You can also follow us on Facebook, instagram, twitter, tiktok at AllatrustCU, and then you're always welcome to call us too. Like I said, always get to talk to real people here and, of course, we have our in-person branches across the greater Birmingham area, so feel free to look up our locations and stop by the one that's closest to you.
Speaker 2:Wonderful Rachel. Thank you so much. It's been such a pleasure getting to know you and Allatrass Credit Union.
Speaker 3:Yes, I've really enjoyed it too. I really appreciate you having us on this morning.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbirminghamcom. That's gnpbirminghamcom, or call 205-952-0148.