.jpg)
The CU2.0 Podcast
This podcast explores contemporary, critical thinking and issues impacting the nation's credit unions. What do they need to be doing to not just survive but prosper?
The CU2.0 Podcast
CU 2.0 Podcast Lee Silber on "The Credit Union Way" - A Feel Good Interlude
Now for a feel good show.
Lee Silber has put together a book, The Credit Union Way, that he says is inspired by the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and right away that tells you this is a feel good book.
How did it come together? On the show Silber tells how he put together the stories - each of which relates a special credit union moment.
In the episode Silber reads a chapter from the book - entitled Frank’s Fund - that was written by Anne Legg who happens to be a past CU 2.0 podcast guest.
Read the book and next time somebody asks you how a credit union differs from a bank, just give the gist of one of the stories and it’s QED.
Listen up.
Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email rjmcgarvey@gmail.com
And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.
Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It's a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto
Welcome to
SPEAKER_00:the CU2.0 podcast. And now, the CU 2.0 podcast with Robert McGarvey.
SPEAKER_01:Now for a feel-good show. Lee Silber has put together a book called The Credit Union Way that he says is inspired by the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. Right away that tells you this is indeed a feel-good book. How did it come together? On the show, Silber tells how he put together the stories, each of which relates a special credit union moment, one of those moments that distinguishes a credit union from a bank. In the episode, Silber reads a chapter from the book entitled Frank's Fund that was written by Anne Legg, who happens to be a CU2.0 past podcast guest. And indeed, Frank's Fund tells a very touching credit union moment. Read the book. Next time somebody asks you how credit union differs from a bank, just give the gist of one of the stories and it's QED, baby, QED. Listen up. Where'd you get the idea for the book that you created? And what's the title of the book and what's in the book?
SPEAKER_02:The idea... Behind the Credit Union Way, I was a contributor to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books. I just like that format where you could just read a story in just five minutes and feel good about yourself. And I'm a lifelong credit union member and I speak in the credit union industry. And as I went around, I was surprised at how many people didn't understand what a credit union was. They didn't understand how it works. They just didn't know. And so I thought the best way to educate them was through story. and that's how it came to be.
SPEAKER_01:Which chicken soup book did you contribute to? There are lots.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so I live just over my shoulder about 100 yards is the beach. So I live near the beach and I was a contributor of chicken soup for the beach lover soul. It was perfect.
SPEAKER_01:What year did that come out?
SPEAKER_02:Let's see. You're right. It's a long, long time ago and they did a lot of them. Let's see, 2006.
SPEAKER_01:Wow. If I had to guess, the first one came out late 1980s. Yeah. That's because I actually knew very well at that time Jack Canfield, the co-author of the series. I knew Mark Victor Hansen, the other co-author, to a much lesser extent than I knew Jack. The Chicken Soup is the best-selling book series in the history of books, according to Jack. He does have a history of exaggerating. It's done terrifically well.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, if we could all just have one chicken soup for the soul series in our life, we're
SPEAKER_01:blessed. Oh, man, that's greedy.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_01:That's where the idea came from. That's like saying if I can only have$1 billion. Why stop there? Wow, that seems to be the family attitude in America today. Yeah. Why stop with one when you get to 100? But so how have you promoted the book? Well,
SPEAKER_02:I thought this would be a great way to, because I love speaking to credit union industry and reminding them of how lucky they are and what great work they do. So the book kind of wasn't a door opener for me, but it's actually selling really well. So it's kind of done both sides. things I'd hoped it would do. It educates people about how great credit unions are through stories. And it's opened some doors for me to be a speaker at credit union events. So it's done a great job in both regards. Now, how did you get contributors to the book? You would think it'd be easy, right? It's damn near impossible. It's insanely hard. I don't understand. I was like pulling teeth. Yeah, I had a hard time. But like anything, once I got one, I used that to get another one. And it kind of like compound interest. It kept getting easier and easier. But even at the end, I needed one more story. And it was it wasn't easy to get. And how many stories
SPEAKER_01:altogether are in the
SPEAKER_02:book? 21. That's not exactly right, because a couple of the stories have multiple stories within them. I talked about how the credit unions are right there in a disaster, and I used Pearl Harbor. There's Katrina. There's the L.A. fires. There's the Lahaina fire. Anyway, so about 30 maybe total.
SPEAKER_01:I can tell you how Jack got the stories for the first chicken soup. he went to motivational speakers who he knew very well from the motivational speaking circuit and said, just give me one of your favorite stories. We'll put it in the book. You're not going to pay me a penny for this and you're going to get a lot of traction and notice. And so the people already had a story. They didn't have to write a story. This was a story they'd been telling on the speaking platform. And so I think he put together the book very, quickly, actually. It took a long time to sell it, but he put it together very quickly.
SPEAKER_02:Well, some of the, I think, I don't, I'm not a psychologist, but I think some of the trepidation was, I'm not a writer, I don't know how to write, so I ended up, just tell me the story and I'll write it up for you, and that helped open some people.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, so you wrote many of them, okay.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I had to, because they didn't, either they were not great that's probably not the best way to put it. They were, they needed some help. And so I was more than willing to help whatever it took. And at the end they had the final approval. So, you know, their names on it, one person in particular, I interviewed him and then I basically wrote the story and then he just signed off. He's like, great. It sounds great. I thought you don't want to change anything. He's like, nope. I like it the way it is. Okay, great.
SPEAKER_01:Now the contributors are credit union employees.
SPEAKER_02:There's employees. There's, uh, branch managers, there's general managers or CEOs. I wrote about the Actors Credit Union. So I went, I researched it and wrote that one myself about how that started. That was an interesting story. And then I reached out to them after the fact and the CEO loved it. He's like, this is great. We're going to use this to promote the credit union. I thought, great. How many copies do you want to buy? So it's worked out. It's been a good book.
SPEAKER_01:And now I'm going to ask you to do something I've never asked anybody to do in this podcast. And we have approaching 500 episodes. Read one of the stories into the show. Don't pick the longest one.
SPEAKER_02:The first thing that popped into my head was, let me pick a quick one.
SPEAKER_01:What do you like? One that's representative. I
SPEAKER_02:know the one. Super, read it. So it's called the Frank Fund and it was named after one of the teller's husbands who unfortunately was diagnosed with brain cancer. So this is called the Frank Fund. When we say credit unions are about people helping people, it applies to more than just the members. It includes the community as a whole and the employees of credit unions as well because they are part of the community usually. I witnessed this firsthand when I worked for a credit union based in San Diego. One of the tellers received devastating news. Her husband had a brain tumor and needed specialized treatment, which was only available miles away in Los Angeles. She'd used all her paid time off and couldn't afford to miss work, so she battled traffic on Fridays to be by his side and then returned to work on Mondays with a smile on her face, ready to go. Seeing her suffering and wanting to do something, we approached Human Resources to see if we could gift her our PTO hour. Unfortunately... There wasn't a policy to do that. The HR director went to the CEO, the CEO took it to the board, and they created a new policy allowing employees to donate their time off. The board approved the request, and right away the new policy was created and named the Frank Fund after the teller's husband. Instantly, the fund was maxed out when everyone gifted everything they had to the teller. This allowed the teller to be with her husband until the day he died. She also had time off to grieve her loss. The selfless action of our employees was not surprising, but inspiring. We all rallied around our coworker in her time of need. The story was written by Ann Legg. And it just goes to show that, I mean, credit unions have heart. What
SPEAKER_01:was her position at
SPEAKER_02:that time? She was in charge of marketing. And Ann Legg has gone on to work and started her own business to help.
SPEAKER_01:I know, I know, Ann.
SPEAKER_02:So she was the marketing director at Cabrillo Credit Union in San Diego.
SPEAKER_01:But no, that byline just jumped out at me. I said, I know this person.
SPEAKER_02:That's how it is. It's, you know, I think that the credit unions attract, you can't teach compassion and caring and customer service, really, real good customer service. It just is innate. And I think the people that are attracted to working at credit unions just have that, whatever that is, that niceness. And it's why they choose to work at a credit union over a bank. No offense to the banks intended. Maybe.
SPEAKER_01:I think offense was intended. You're just a credit union person, and you're going to deny that you have a nasty streak. But we all do.
SPEAKER_02:So true.
SPEAKER_01:So has anyone criticized the book? Have you gotten any negative reaction to it?
SPEAKER_02:Well, not to my face, but no, I don't think so. There's nothing in it that's offensive. There's nothing in it that doesn't shed a good light on the credit unions. And when you read the book, you walk away– or after you've read the whole book, assuming that you've read the whole book, the feeling you get is I must be with a credit union. It just– that was– Maybe that was the goal. Secretly, I don't know. But I mean, I can't see how you wouldn't want to put your money in a place where it's safe and people like you and they know your name and they care about you. I mean, it just gives you a warm feeling about credit unions. And that's kind of what the goal was.
SPEAKER_01:How long have you been a credit
SPEAKER_02:union member? Since I was an embryo, because my parents were members, and they took me to a credit union when I was 10. I'll never forget this. They opened a savings account for me with some gift money. And I had, I call it a passbook, but I guess it's a bank book. And the teller would write in the amount you deposited and sign it and then stamp it. And that was how you kept track of your money. And I like that personal interaction, which we've lost with tellers and mobile banking, but with ATM, sorry, and mobile banking. But so, you know, I would go in and they would say, oh, you know, look at this cute kid and he's saving money. And I wish I'd go back and talk to that young man and say, don't spend that money you put in the credit union when you're 16. Because I was 10 when I started and I bought a car, terrible car, but I digress.
SPEAKER_01:You bought the car when you were 16.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, I used
SPEAKER_01:my savings. I was going to say you're precocious if you bought it at 10. It's funny that you have that story because when I was a little kid, I think younger than 10, but not a heck of a lot younger, my father took me to a savings and loan and opened an account for me there. A savings account, obviously. And I wonder if people still do that today. Do they physically take their child into a branch and open an account. So I don't know. Interesting though. I do fondly remember that. And like you, I liquidated that account as soon as I could. And I didn't even buy something tangible like a car. I don't even know what I bought. At least you can remember the car.
SPEAKER_02:There was an ad for the car and they took a picture of the good side of the car. I remember this because when I went to pick it up, I'm like, where did all these dents come from? Oh, that's the other side of the car. And it lasted for about six months and then the engine died. And so there's a lot of life lessons in that story. But in the end of it, I had a car for six months and I died. I was cool. I was a cool kid, 16, my own car.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, absolutely. You were cool. Now, when you talk at credit union events and you mentioned the book, et cetera, do people come up to you and say, Hey, I, Hey, I have a story. In other words, are you planning a sequel?
SPEAKER_02:Yes. And the stories, uh, boy, some of them are just so inspiring and it just makes me feel good to be a part of the movement. And I, Yeah. like yours is great. And a book like mine is also great. And I think they just tell their friends and family these stories. And that's why usually the friends and families are members as well.
SPEAKER_01:So when a credit union person hears this podcast and they say, hey, I got a story, what should they do?
SPEAKER_02:Just call me up. I'm that approachable, that easy to reach. Lee Silber, S-I-L-B as in boy, E-R, LeeSilber.com. My phone number's there or you can email me and we'll work it out. I'll help you write it, whatever it takes. We must get these stories out there. There's so many stories about credit unions coming to the rescue when... people were at their worst. And a lot of times it was a tragedy, a flood or a divorce or a death or something. And the credit union was right there with them to help them get through it and come through it okay, and maybe even better in the end. So I think we need to tell these stories and share these with people because you want to put your money somewhere where it is safe and it has all the great attributes that a bank would have, but it's more than that. It has everything a bank has and more. And I don't understand why everyone isn't a credit union member, but That's how I feel. I feel like everyone should be a member, but we'll just take what we can get. And in a way, it's kind of like when the Macs and iPhones first came out, you know, everyone thought, well, you're one of those people. Apple people. And we were outliers. And I liked it. I was like, different, special. And credit unions are different in a good way. And I think we're proud of being a credit union member. We feel like we know something that other people don't. We got this. We know the secret. But I'm sharing the secret. And we want more people under the tent.
SPEAKER_01:It's a good thing to do, too, because credit union messaging more and more is bank-like. for a variety of reasons, most of them pretty good. But there is an undercurrent in credit unions that does differentiate it from banks, which is this actual caring about the member. Since you're not just a customer, you're a member, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_02:Well, the way it's set up and designed, it's not meant to... You give money back to the community. You... It's the members are part owner. I mean, there's just the whole structure of it lends itself to a whole different experience than a for-profit bank. And I think that's where it starts. And like I said, it seems like the people that gravitate to work at credit unions are just inherently nice and caring. And then the last thing I would say is, With credit unions, as they merge, we're seeing more mergers. As they go more to mobile banking and they do more automation, AI, they're losing some of the specialness. But at the core of it, it will always be better and different in a good way.
SPEAKER_01:Back to the book. What would you say is the length in words of the shortest period story and what's the length in words of the longest story. Just ballpark it.
SPEAKER_02:There's a 200-word story, and it's only there because as I finished the book, I thought, oh, I got a hole here. I somehow miscalculated, and I wrote my passbook story that I was telling you earlier when I was 10. And so that's the shortest story. The longest story is, as far as pages, it's about five pages long, and it's got a lot of dialogue. The person that wrote it remembered that. exactly what was said. And it's a really heartwarming story about a single mom who went into the bank and the teller, and she wanted to know if a deposit was made overnight. Her ex-husband was supposed to put money in the account, but didn't. And the teller said, well, you can just check this on your phone. And she said, well, my phone's not working. And yada, yada, yada. The teller told her, you know, it's your lucky day. We, we have a policy. If you've been with us for five years or longer, you get$500. And the teller next to her is like, looked at her like, and she's like, we don't have that policy. And she said, we do now. And so they sent her off and said, come back at noon. They bought balloons and made a big deal about it, gave her the 500 and a phone and helped her to get through that trying time. But it's a long, you can tell there's a lot more to it, but it's a long story, but worth, worth the pages.
SPEAKER_01:I got to read that one because where the heck did the 500 come from?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, so she went to the branch manager and told her about this new policy. And the branch manager said, well, I'll put in 50. And then all the others. So it came from the other tellers. It was
SPEAKER_01:their own money. Oh, okay. Because I was trying to see this. I was trying to see the balance sheet here. It's an entry,$500 debit. Where did the 500 come from? Oh, I took it from my cash drawer. Oh,
SPEAKER_02:yeah. That would
SPEAKER_01:be still a great story, but
SPEAKER_02:probably with a different ending. That's
SPEAKER_01:singularly uncool. It's okay. No, that's a terrific story, actually, with an interesting twist, since I'm sure every credit union person is saying, just as I said, where'd it come from? You
SPEAKER_02:hear that a lot where the employees... Fund, you know, when they start a fund or something, raising money for something, they're the first ones to donate. And again, I think it's just who they are. They're just that type of person.
SPEAKER_01:And when you speak to credit union events, what kind of event is it? Who's the sponsor and what do you talk about?
SPEAKER_02:Well, I mean, there's there's an association for everything. And within the credit unions, there's you know, there's collections, there's loan officers, there's the you know, the tellers, there's, you know, all different. But the main message is you. to just get people back in touch with why we do what we do and how to do it better. And I feel like customer service or member service, it's not like people need to be told, they just need to be reminded of ways to wow people, whether it's remembering their names and how to do that better, or it's doing something outside of the credit union in the community, which is a big thing. During COVID, one of the credit union stories is that they set up outside so people could still do their banking with masks on and spacing but they also started like again another exchange of if you needed because people were baking a lot a lot of sourdough bread people would bring something to give away but just reminding them that this is this is how we do it and and why we do it and i think that is something that just needs to be reminded we don't need to be told or talk down to. I just feel like by sharing the stories and giving people ideas about how they can go above and beyond, it inspires them to find a way to do something impressive and unexpected in a good way.
SPEAKER_01:And credit unions are doing some terrific things. I mean, most of them try to do something good in the community.
SPEAKER_02:You see that a lot, you know, the the fires or floods or whatever, the credit unions are the first ones to be there to offer a helping hand. And it's not by accident.
SPEAKER_01:Before we go, think hard about how you can help support this podcast so we can do more interviews with more thoughtful leaders in the credit union world. What we're trying to figure out here in these podcasts is what's next for credit unions. What can they do to really, really, really make a difference in the financial scene? Can't all be mega banks, can it? It's my hope it won't all be mega banks. It'll always be a place for credit unions. That's what we're discussing here. So figure out how you can help. Get in touch with me. This is rjmcgarvey at gmail.com. Robert McGarvey again. That's rjmcgarvey at gmail.com. Get in touch. We'll figure out a way that you can help. We need your support. We want your support. We thank you for your support. The CU 2.0 Podcast.