Building Culture Through Brand Change with Vallant Bank

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Intro: This is Believe in Banking, a podcast series for decision makers, influencers, and leaders, featuring experts taking on the financial industry’s most pressing issues with insight and empathy. The podcast features information and conversations designed to enlighten and empower.

Gina Bleedorn (00:17): Welcome to our Believe in Banking podcast. I’m Gina Bleedorn, President and CEO of Adrenaline.

Juliet D’Ambrosio (00:24): And I’m Juliet D’Ambrosio, Chief Experience Officer at Adrenaline.

And Gina, it’s very special day today because we are welcoming two guests that we’ve both had the pleasure of getting to know and respect their leadership. Can’t wait for this conversation. So joining us today is Jackson McConnell. He’s Executive Chairman of Vallant Bank and Spence Mullis, who is President of Vallant Bank. And we’re going to get into our relationship, and everything that we have experienced with these two leaders who have recently merged their banks to create the largest community bank in Georgia. But to give our listeners some context about both of you and how we got here today with Vallant Bank, I’d love maybe Jackson, can you start us out and just tell us a little bit about your background and what has led you here to Vallant?

Jackson McConnell (01:27): Thank you, Juliet. Great to be participating on this podcast, and I appreciate your invitation. So Vallant Bank is the creation of the merger of two great community banks in Georgia. We’ve been in existence since 1934. We’re headquartered in Elberton, which is a small town in rural Northeast Georgia. I’ve been with the bank since 1994, having grown up in the banking industry with family. My father was the CEO prior to me and my grandfather before him. I worked for another bank in Atlanta for several years and then moved back to my hometown to go to work for what’s now Vallant. And I have enjoyed my career tremendously. It’s just been a great experience to meet a lot of wonderful people and to experience the ups and downs of the business world. So it’s been a wonderful career that’s been very rewarding.

Juliet D’Ambrosio (02:21): Yeah, Jackson, we call that being in the industry since nineteen hundred ninety-four, which I think is a good distinction for some of our younger listeners. Spence, same question for you. Tell us a little bit about your history and your path to Vallant Bank and to joining us today.

Spence Mullis (02:41): Thank you, Juliet. And as Jackson said, thank you so much for allowing us to be on the podcast today. A little bit about me… I graduated from college with an accounting degree and went to work with a public accounting firm and started doing audits and other engagements with banks. I stayed there about four years and always knew I wanted to be a banker. So I went to work with the Department of Banking and Finance in Georgia. So I spent some time as a regulator.

I got to audit banks at the CPA firm, and then I got to examine banks as a regulator. And I actually was examining Morris Bank, which was one of our legacy institutions around 2002. And the bank was pretty small back then and had an opportunity to go in there and take a look at it. It was having some trouble. And so while I was in there, the CEO and the chairman actually said, “Hey, you’re in here writing all this stuff up. Why don’t you come to workforce and fix it?” And I was a young guy at the time, had children, but I was traveling all the time. And so it sounded like a pretty good gig. So I joined the bank in 2002 and it’s been a pretty good ride ever since. But yeah, so that’s a little bit about what I brought into the partnership.

Juliet D’Ambrosio (03:45): Well, thank you both for the introduction. And it was eye-opening despite the fact of having the pleasure of worked with both of you. So Spence, you mentioned Morris Bank, which is one of the legacy institutions that came together to create Vallant Bank. And I think it would help listeners to understand both of the legacy banks that have come together and most importantly, the why behind it. What made this merger so necessary and so critical and something that you both worked towards with your team so vigorously?

Spence Mullis (04:24): Yeah. So Jackson and I have known each other for 20 plus years and we were kind of running our separate legacy banks, and we would run into each other. We were in peer round tables together. And we had very, very similar shops. Legacy Pinnacle was founded in 1934. We were founded in 1954. And we know in our hearts that we’re community bankers. Off and on during the years, we would share ideas, and ask each other questions.

As we continued to grow in different parts of the state, when you take a look at putting the two banks together with virtually no geographic overlap, it made a lot of sense. And I’m going to give a lot of kudos to Jackson for that. He caught me off guard one day when we were at a conference out in Phoenix and he said, “Hey, what do you think about putting our two banks together?” It kind of caught me off guard, but it didn’t take me but a second to say, “You know what? I’m probably a lot more open to that than what you think.” So that’s kind of how it came about there.

Juliet D’Ambrosio (05:22): Jackson, there were multiple dynamics that were happening, shall we say, in the market from your perspective. Lead us up to that conversation in Phoenix and what got you there and got you thinking about merger.

Jackson McConnell (05:37): I think the underlying theme about what we were trying to do as we were strategizing about our future was thinking about how we’re going to take this thing going forward. And both our companies had plenty of options where we could have remained independent. We were making good money and growing, both companies were. We certainly could have found a buyer probably if we’d have been interested in that. We wanted to remain independent, and we wanted to continue to serve clients, but there is a need, at least in our opinion, to try to find scale. As you get bigger, you’re able to handle the compliance and the structural issues that are part of the banking industry, which become more and more expensive as you go. You’re able to spread those costs against a wider area, but also the opportunity to continue to provide opportunity for our staff.

So as we would recruit talented people, we’d want them to feel like they had an opportunity in the company, and that may be moving to a larger area to advance their career or perhaps pursuing a different avenue of banking. Being larger gives you the opportunity to provide that. So we felt like that our ability to continue to attract capital, to attract growth opportunities, to expand, to have opportunity to recruit the talented people necessitated us being larger. And one of the things that we did, and we have grown in the past through acquisition, but it’s always been a much smaller transaction. And this was something rather unique. There were only one or two banks that I would even have this conversation with. And Spence and Morris were at the top of that list because of the shared relationship and the shared vision for what community banking was all about.

So I think the underlying driver there was to achieve scale, but it was not for the sake of being larger. I think it was more for the sake of the opportunity and creating more opportunity for us going forward.

Gina Bleedorn (07:40): Jackson and Spence, you guys not just merged. And of course that is a massive combination of systems, operations and people, but you saw this as an opportunity to build something collectively new. And talk about making that decision and the scariness of changing a name, which you decided early on was something you were going to do to have a shared new name. Walk us through that psychologically and strategically how you came to that conclusion that that was the right way forward.

Jackson McConnell (08:20): Gina, I’ll jump in here first and Spence will certainly have his own comments to make about that. But we had conversation for at least two years prior to ever coming to a full agreement. The concept made complete sense from the beginning, but some of these types of questions were exactly the things that we struggled with. We both felt strongly about our brands, our presence in the existing communities, what we had built with our team cultures, and changing the name wasn’t something that I really wanted to do.

But as we got into the conversation and really got to thinking more about what we were talking about, it only made sense. We were creating something different than either bank had prior. And part of doing something completely different is deciding what you’re going to call that thing. So one of the first agreements that we came to was that if we were going to get together, we needed to have a common name, and it needed to be something unique and it needed to represent what we both felt was important.

Spence Mullis (09:23): Yeah, I think Jackson nailed it. We always kind of approached this transaction as a partnership, not an acquisition, not a merger per se, but really a partnership. And once we kind of set the guidelines that, “Hey, this is what we want to do, this is how we’re going to move forward, and it’s going to be a partnership,” we knew that one legacy bank’s name or brand couldn’t be the one we took forward because in a true partnership, everyone has to feel like they’re involved. So that’s why we went that way. We didn’t want one side to win, one side to lose. That’s really what drove us to get together and also to really bring both of our legacy teams along. Again, when you’re talking about partnering versus acquiring, it works better, and it helps get you a good start to building a good new culture.

Juliet D’Ambrosio (10:10): Yeah, I think what was most notable from my perspective working with the two of you and your teams through the rebrand is that it was about getting a new name that everyone felt invested in and excited about and that really represented that shared ideals and sense of your values really that had overlapped at the core from the very beginning, but it extended beyond just the name. So the name was the flag that people could get behind, but it really was a transformation that touched all the parts of your brand strategy. It was obviously the visual identity, the messaging, the language, and how all of that rolled out through your branch environments, through employee engagement training, through culture.

I give a lot of kudos to the two of you as leaders in your teams in making sure that we did it right, which meant that we did it by listening to a lot of your stakeholders, maybe even more than is typical throughout this process. So tell me a little bit about that. Why it was so important to bring your teams along, not only the leaders in both of your legacy banks, but in some cases your board of directors, in some cases, your team members throughout the organization? Why was listening so important here?

Jackson McConnell (11:38): I don’t mind saying that my reasoning is it’s because I don’t have all the ideas. In fact, I often don’t have any ideas. We just have surrounded ourselves with really smart people and thoughtful people and people that truly care about what they’re doing. And we need this brand, this image, the feeling of it, the look of it. It has to represent those people and what they’re seeing, feeling, and doing, and what they can rally around and behind. So it couldn’t be about what my opinion was or what Spence’s opinion was. It needed to be what the team wanted to do.

Spence Mullis (12:16): Yeah, I think Jackson’s exactly right. I mean, we brought in leadership early in these conversations, but we needed folks across the organization, across all markets to really become involved and really help us, help us craft what it was that we were trying to achieve, which was launching a brand new brand. I mean, it’s not every day that you get to do that. And so it was a real fun process. It took a while – as it should have – because it’s no small thing. But creating that brand and making sure that folks from the directors all the way throughout the organization felt like they were involved and could actually participate and help us craft it. Again, that’s really what helped start the culture that we’re trying to build.

And it’s an everyday thing. I mean, we work on it every single day. We get up, but we feel like if our brand and our culture are aligned and people, they visit a Vallant Bank in Brooklyn, Georgia, they visit a Vallant Bank in Blairsville, Georgia, and they interact with people that just share a common bond and a common way of doing things. We feel like that culture’s going to beat strategy all day long. And so that’s why building that new brand and having the opportunity to craft a new brand and culture was probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I mean, it probably is for me. And it’s just really cool to be able to have that opportunity.

Gina Bleedorn (13:38): That’s beautiful how you put it – that kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing – to create something new but honoring the past. Talk about the promise behind it. So the positioning is “Reach Higher” the promise is “Local Strength, Limitless Reach.” And then I love your core values of “Learn, Lift, and Lead.” How does that play out in practice? How did it play out in launch? And what does it mean to you and your employees today?

Spence Mullis (14:08): Yeah, so part of this, when we put it all together, we needed to pull from each legacy bank some of the key components of their culture. And we felt like once we settled on the “Learn, Lead, and Lift,” we could work the legacy Pinnacle way in. We could work what was referred to as the Code Blue Legacy Morris way in. And those three words, we could bring so much of the core values of both together to kind of move forward. “Local Strength, Limitless Reach.” Absolutely love that tagline. It speaks to the fact that we have built something that has the size and the scale and the strength. It has the strength to support every kind of business, every community, every individual. It’s a cool tagline, but it really means something and we feel like it’s pretty easy to live out.

Jackson McConnell (14:55): I don’t know that I have a lot to add, but I would say that the “Learn, Lead, and Lift” have been a good way for us to focus on the things that we believed in the most. And as I think about as a bank, a banker, and as community bankers, and especially both of our legacy banks, our bankers were used to getting very involved in the business lives of our customers and really understanding what they were trying to achieve and how we might help them achieve that. And that’s “Learn.” That’s asking questions. That’s getting to know people. That’s developing relationships. The “Lead” part for us is about taking ownership of decisions, of recommendations, of helping to guide people, coach people, to serving in our community. For me, the thing that resonates most about “Lift” is trying to leave each interaction, each relationship, each encounter by having lifted up the person that you are having that encounter with. So if I can do something that helps make your day better, your moment better, or improve something significant in your life by providing a bank service, then we’ve accomplished everything that we say we’re about.

Gina Bleedorn (16:05): What you’re describing is the creation of something not just meaningful, but distinctive and connected to who you are. So it feels familiar, but it is truly unique in the market. And that is something brands are face an increasingly uphill battle because of consumer expectations from brands being so high, to be different. And what you have done is create that something distinctive that you can own and that has so much behind it, so many layers of depth.

Jackson McConnell (16:41): We have aspirations to continue to grow, and we want the Vallant Bank name to be a household name, and it was going to be tough to distinguish ourselves in a world full of Pinnacles. So certainly that was an added challenge, but the primary driving force was the creation of the new company and the new brand that represented what we were wanting to become and to show the world what we are.

Juliet D’Ambrosio (17:05): It’s very aspirational. I imagine for a lot of our listeners who are community bankers listening to the two of you talk about this process and talk about it now that the brand has launched, and your teams have successfully been brought together and into the future. But I love both of your perspectives.

Change is hard. Change is not always easy. There are certainly bumps along the road. Talk a little bit about what you experienced, maybe some hurdles and how you got over them. I’m assuming this wasn’t without a bump or two. So I’d love for prospective M&A people who are considering that to understand what really lies ahead.

Spence Mullis (17:52): Yeah, so I’ll jump in here. I guess I would say that you can’t just turn the switch on. It’s a transformation, but it really isn’t like this event that just happens, and you turn a switch on. I mean, it’s a process. And we’re continuing to work on the process today. But in the beginning, what we decided to do was set up, I think we had 22 to 23 different strategic alignment teams. That’s what we called them. And we had folks from all different departments, all different sectors of the bank participate in these strategic alignment teams and really kind of throw out the best-of-breed ideas on how things were done in the legacy banks and really trying to figure out, okay, what’s the best way for Vallant to operate? Because certainly Pinnacle did so many things better than us. We feel like we probably did a few things better than them.

But when we brought the strategic alignment teams together, the end result was to say, okay, how are we going to do it going forward? And we worked through those strategic alignment teams. We got the core conversion behind us. And now we’re kind of re-engaging those teams, and we’re just coming up with some, what we’re referring to as efficiency task force. But getting the buy-in from folks left to right, up and down in the organization is huge. And so creating these teams was a big part of that. But at the same time, I mean, we understand that change is change, and it’s tough for everybody. I mean, it’s tough for Jackson, it’s tough for me, and it’s tough for everybody. And we’ve just got to figure out how to celebrate the small wins along the way. We try to over-communicate to everyone, “Hey, stay patient. Yes, I understand this is changing, but we will get to what we believe it’s the right change, and it’s actually going to probably make your life easier.” But yeah, it’s not easy.

If I had one recommendation, it would be to form some strategic alignment teams, let everybody start communicating, visit each other, physically meet each other in the different markets, and then try to kind of craft one way going forward.

Juliet D’Ambrosio (19:51): Yeah, I want to build a little bit on what you’re saying, Spence, around those alignment teams. And one thing that I think Vallant did really beautifully is your brand ambassador program. A great memory that I have of the brand launch where you brought all of your legacy employee base together into a big celebration and introduction of the new Vallant brand that the brand ambassadors came up on stage and joined and led the entire audience in a cheer for Vallant Bank, which felt both really spirited and optimistic, but also that each one of the brand ambassadors introduced themselves and introduced their home market, where they are from. And your ability to have brought that brand ambassador program into this process I think was key to doing exactly what you said, addressing the fact that change is hard, and that it’s going to take some time. It is not one and done. Those ambassadors are in it for the long haul.

And we are seeing that from a couple steps back industry-wide – that the idea of brand development, brand launch is really closely connected with change management and culture and the culture programs that are developed right alongside the brand and how they are integrated into the organizations really become the key to success. So yes, you want an incredible name that represents your unique, ownable place in the market. You want a visual identity that tells your story. But you also need a culture that connects and takes you forward into the future. And Jackson, I’d love to hear you talk a little bit about what did you hear from the legacy Pinnacle side that gave you any worry, that kept you up at night? What were some hurdles that you saw that you were facing there?

Jackson McConnell (21:54): Well, first, Juliet, I would have to say I thank you for bringing up the brand launch event. There was quite a bit of energy in that room that day and you got to share in that, but it was a lot of fun, wasn’t it?

Juliet D’Ambrosio (22:06): It was one of my best experiences at a brand launch, full stop. And really the highlight of my spring because I was able to experience and sense a level of energy and enthusiasm and goodwill and thoughtfulness all wrapped up into one. And witnessing that vibe in a room, you really can’t replace it.

Jackson McConnell (22:32): Yeah, it’s really hard to describe it. You stand up on stage and you look out and there’s 600 people in the room, and the energy from it was just incredible. It was very exciting. But you asked a question about what the legacy Pinnacle people were thinking and feeling and what they had said about us changing and launching and all. And the whole premise of that is that change is hard, and it’s hard on everybody. It’s hard whether you’re the one having to change your system or you’re just changing your name. But the thing that I heard more often than anything else was a concern about whether we were going to be giving up things that we felt like were core principles. Not core values, not something you put on a paper, but some of your core principles about the things that you believed in the most.

And once they met everybody, and we got together and through the strategic alignment teams, they got to know each other through events, through ambassador events, they got to know each other. And we’re in the room together. The resounding message was these people are just like us, and they want the same things we want. And we kept hearing that sort of message and kept trying to reinforce that message because we wanted to reassure everybody that these things we believe in about taking care of each other, taking care of our customers, taking care of our communities was going to be universal throughout the organization. No matter where you were in the organization or where you were from, those types of core principles would not change.

Gina Bleedorn (23:59): We’ve observed from the get how just both of you lead your banks with such integrity. And that came through from the very beginning and ultimately comes through, I believe, in the brand and everything about it – how it looks, how it feels. So just, well, it’s been an honor to work with such leaders of such high integrity and it has made for all the more powerful of a beautiful result. Talk about how it manifested itself and particularly not just all the marketing channels and of course all the things it needs to be changed on, but all of your branch locations, which are really all over Georgia in very different markets. How were you able to bring that brand into the local markets, particularly with the branches in a way that was consistent, but also relevant to each community that it served? And what did you experience? What were the challenges there, and how did you overcome them?

Spence Mullis (25:05): Yes, I’ll hop in here. All the different bank buildings themselves were different. We had both acquired banks in other towns, and you look at different buildings architecturally, you look at different buildings size wise. And so trying to figure out how to build some consistency across the branch footprint was challenging. But what we really tried to focus on was to not lose that local feel. When you walk into every one of our branches, there are local pictures from the community kind of monuments or just well-known places. And we have welcoming signs, X, Y, Z town, we welcome you or we’re glad you’re here. And we just needed that to be consistent across all the branches. And I feel like for the most part, we pulled that off. There was some tweaking involved during the process, but I think it turned out great. That’s what’s been really exciting for me traveling around the different markets, looking at the different branches and meeting all the people, but still seeing that the Vallant brand is front and center and it’s a pretty cool thing to watch.

Jackson McConnell (26:09): The only other thing I would add too is the focus on the individual people and how they haven’t changed. We didn’t have any layoffs. We kept everybody. And we tried to focus a lot of our branding on that fact. The fact that your banker isn’t changing, your banker is still coaching little league, and still going to the chamber meetings, and doing all the things that we do as community bankers. The people haven’t changed just the sign out front.

Juliet D’Ambrosio (26:36): Yeah, I think that’s really well put, Jackson, that the people haven’t changed. And it’s so much of what we talk about in the success of rolling out a new brand, especially coming from two legacy banks that have had such great meaningful relationships with their customers and communities is it’s just as important to communicate what’s not changing as it is to communicate what is changing. And when I say communicate, sometimes you do that in words through communications, through FAQ, through what people are seeing and experiencing at the branch, and sometimes it’s through demonstrating and having those same faces be the ones that are there to greet people at the branch. It’s so funny listening to you both talk about Vallant Bank, that it’s only been a few months in the market. Does it still feel new like you’re kicking the tires or does Vallant Bank roll off the tongue and feel like it’s just always existed?

Spence Mullis (27:41): Go ahead, Jackson.

Jackson McConnell (27:42): I was just going to say both. I still slip up and say Pinnacle when I’m supposed to say Vallant, but in a lot of ways it does seem like we’ve been doing this a long time.

Spence Mullis (27:51): I think once everybody kind of got their head around Vallant and that it was kind of a play on “valiant” and “gallantry,” and they realized that it was just a unique name, I think people actually had fun saying it. It’s been kind of cool to watch. And it’s just funny. I was in the gym and I actually threw on an old legacy T-shirt and had somebody in the gym was like, “That’s no more. You’re Vallant.” And reminded me that I got to get rid of some old T-shirts. But I mean, it’s crazy how quick the market’s all picked up on the new name. And again, I think that’s because we had great partners along the way, and we just keep reinforcing it every day.

Gina Bleedorn (28:30): Vallant is such a good one. You guys know going through it, naming’s hard. It’s hard because of availability and subjectivity and getting everybody to agree on something that is so subjective at the same time that is available. And you were able to take the phonetics of very familiar words and turn them into an ownable word. It’s just such a strong name. So now that you’re almost used to saying your name and the markets, like you said, the market’s adapted so quickly, what’s next now for Vallant? How does this position you? You are now the largest community bank in Georgia. Where do you go from here?

Jackson McConnell (29:16): Our number one objective is of course to run a good bank. So the most important thing we can do is to follow through on all the promise, and make sure that we’re serving customers in the right way. That we’ve found ways to be efficient and to operate that’s the right way for Vallant, not for either bank legacy, but for what it’s going to be for us going forward. Assuming we do that and assuming that we’re true to our word there and that we establish the right baseline, then I think we want to continue to grow. There are lots of good markets in Georgia, a lot of markets where we’re currently serving that we can do a better job of expanding our market share there.

And there are a lot of places that are similar to the places we serve today that I think a good community bank can go in and do an effective job at acquiring new business and serving customers. So we want to continue to grow. And the idea of being the biggest bank is fleeting because you’re one announcement away from no longer having that status. So for us, it’s about being the best and being as good as we can be.

Spence Mullis (30:25): Yeah, I think Jackson nailed that. And I totally agree that being the best in the markets that we’re currently in, that’s job one. And we’ve had discussions at the board level that there’s just so much opportunity in our current markets, you’re kind of scared to take your eye off the ball and start looking at a new market because we just see so much potential and so much upside now that we do have the scale and the expertise to be able to handle all kind of different business lines. But yeah, I think it’s a cool thing. We continue to build out in our current markets and the future’s pretty bright. I mean, I think what we’re building here is extremely special. I think people will be excited to be a part of it. And so yeah, future’s very bright.

Juliet D’Ambrosio (31:09): I’m interested in hearing about, you have all this momentum, the wind is truly at your backs in your current markets to unlock new growth, in your markets that you can look to expand within. What are you hearing from people that just are in the community? So thinking outside your organization – from customers, from people that you run into at the gym – what has response been and what are some questions that people have had for you?

Spence Mullis (31:40): I think one of the first questions is always, “Okay, is the banker that I’m accustomed to seeing when I come in the branch still going to be there?” And once we explain that, “Hey, we’re bringing two large community banks together that had no overlap and the folks inside the building aren’t changing,” people go, “Okay. All right, I get that.” The other interesting part is what other bankers are saying out and about. I mean, I think that prior to this partnership, so many other banks kind of looked at the legacy institutions and said, “Okay, they kind of do it right. They are good, successful community banks.” And so now when they’re looking at what their potential strategy is going forward, they may look to us and think, “Yeah, that’s what we want to be a part of.” So once everybody just kind of figures out that we’re putting the two community banks that were so similar to begin with together, it’s an easy story to tell.

Jackson McConnell (32:33): I think that’s right. And you said it well. When you run into other bankers and people that are in the banking industry, probably the first reaction as one of a bit of surprise that we had two successful independent companies that were going it on their own would make that decision [to merge]. But then in the very next breath is, “Wow, that’s pretty incredible.” And the thing that has encouraged me is that virtually everybody I have run into has said how encouraged they are about our future and how positive they are about what we’ve done.

Gina Bleedorn (33:05): Change is hard and scary, but I think you’re exactly right. You are now a model for other bankers to follow because you did it right. You did it for the right reasons. You did it because you had a cultural fit and symbiosis, and then you went about it in such a way of being so partner forward, being so inquisitive. And Jackson, I don’t believe that you don’t have any of your own ideas, but honestly, this is the model that others should strive for. And it’s what we love to see, that growth happening in the most solid ways, that it’s in the best interest of everyone, of your people, of your communities, of your customers.

So that is the embodiment of Believe in Banking, of this podcast, and of why we do it. You both clearly believe in banking, but we do ask all of our guests to explain why they believe in banking. So Spence, we’ll start with you.

Spence Mullis (34:07): Yes, that’s a great question. I don’t think there’s many other industries out there where you have such an opportunity to affect someone’s life in such a positive way. I mean, when you think about we’re financing someone’s first car, first home, we’re helping farmers plant their crops, we’re helping businesses expand and hire. It’s just such a rewarding profession to be in, to be able to help make all those things work. I mean, we’re kind of the engine that makes commerce run in all these towns, and there aren’t a lot of industries where you have that opportunity every single day you get up to go in there and make a difference. And so that’s why I’m excited each and every day I get up. It’s like, hey, there’s going to be an opportunity to help somebody today, no matter what the size, big or small, but it’s going to be an opportunity to help somebody and really make a difference in their life. And I just love the profession.

Jackson McConnell (34:57): Spence, that’s a great description of banking. And it made me think of a quote that one of our board members shared in one of our planning sessions, and he was describing his business as he first got started, and he’s been very successful. And he made the comment that he had given hundreds of young people their first job, and he was able to do that because a community bank took a chance on him. To me, that’s a perfect illustration of how we get to support our communities and help in all sorts of ways and how taking a chance on this one business person affected the lives of many people. And it is unique. Banking is unique in that we get to serve our communities in that way and why I continue to be excited about coming to work every day.

Outro: You’ve been listening to Believe in Banking, a podcast series created to empower decision makers, influencers, and industry leaders in financial services.

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