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Good morning and welcome to CFO Coffee Talk brought to you by the Florida CFO Group.
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This morning's episode is called Right Size Banking.
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And we have the perfect guest for that.
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A uh president, CEO, founder of Echelon Bank, who uh uh believes he's got the right size bank for a lot of Tampa area businesses.
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Good morning, Rob.
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Welcome to the show.
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Good morning, Bill.
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Thanks for having me.
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Yeah, uh, we one thing we like to say, uh, because we have a lot of different flavors of CFOs, is that for every business owner, uh there's a right CFO, just like for every Jack, there's a Jill.
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I guess you could probably say the same about bankers, right?
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Absolutely.
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It's all about finding the right fit and the right personalities.
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Well, before we uh learn all about your echelon bank journey, uh we I love to have uh our audience learn about our guests at the start of each show.
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Uh, give us a one or two minute backstory.
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Sure.
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Um I have a little bit of a maybe uh different uh backstory.
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I was actually born in Johannesburg, South Africa, but my family and I, we immigrated to the United States in the early 80s.
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Uh, grew up outside Chicago, a great town called Naperville.
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And then for college, I ended up going to West Point.
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Uh, my dad's a huge uh historian.
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He loves military history.
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So with his encouragement, I decided to go the West Point route.
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Uh, probably the best decision I ever made.
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It's just such an incredible institution, and there's so much opportunities and leadership training.
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Um, like all cadets, I then served in the Army and I was actually in the Army's finance corps.
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I was always interested in business and finance.
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And then when I got out of the Army, I got into banking and uh joined a bank called AmSouth, which is no longer around.
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They're actually now Regions Bank.
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But that's how I got into banking and uh moved to Tampa in the late 90s, uh 1999.
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So I've been here 27 years now.
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Um, and then over the years, I've worked for different banks, and I I really discovered my passion was working for smaller local banks, uh, which can be a little bit more nimble, more agile, and you can lean into your customers better.
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And uh ultimately uh I was able to uh uh pursue my dream of starting uh a local bank right here in Tampa, uh Echelon Bank.
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So it's been uh uh an amazing journey, but we've we've got a lot more ahead of us.
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Well, uh Rob, first let me say thank you for your service to the U.S.
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Army.
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And uh we uh we're recording this episode on even though it's gonna air later in September, on uh the 25th anniversary of that uh terrorist attack on uh in New York City in the Pentagon.
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So uh a salute to all first responders as well.
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Uh your dad as a historian would have appreciated that uh we're on the uh celebration uh at wrong word, of course, and uh remembrance of that uh all those uh first responders who uh heroically uh uh minimum mitigated uh that horrific event 25 years ago.
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Um anyway, uh let's talk about uh today, not the past.
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Uh let's talk about why uh you recently uh what took on this venture uh to make a to add a new bank to the Tampa Bay scene.
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Uh why is this the right time to put a new bank out in the market?
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Yeah, you know, I I was uh this has been uh an idea that's been rattling around in my brain for probably at least five years or so.
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And you know, it's always difficult to time something, especially as large as starting any new business, you know, but especially a bank, it's a huge endeavor.
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Um, but looking at the broader banking landscape and doing my research, it was very apparent to me just how much consolidation the industry has experienced.
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Uh, nationwide for sure, uh, in the state of Florida as well.
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There were over 300 uh banks headquartered in Florida back in 1999 when I began my banking career, and there's less than 70 today.
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So, over those that 27 years, there's just been a lot of consolidation.
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And here in Tampa Bay, especially in 2017 and 2018, there was a lot of consolidation with local banks.
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The bank I was working for at the time, North Star Bank, was acquired.
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Other banks uh here locally, like Jefferson Bank and Gulf Shore Bank were bought.
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And then in the beginning of 2018, the largest uh and most successful local bank at the time, uh US Ameribank, was also bought.
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So it left a big vacuum in the market when it came to local banks.
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And then in in the uh the eight years since that time, there's been very few true local banks that have started.
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So to me, it seemed like the perfect time to uh to get to work and and and uh form the form a new bank to serve the Tampa Bay market.
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Uh and you know we aim to have an audience of business owners who are curious about uh uh the fractional CFO world and uh the business topics we discuss.
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For that audience, explain what are the kind of things that a regional bank does that a more centrally run bank doesn't.
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So, you know, it just really comes down to being able to lean into the business and understand, peel back the layers of the onion, so to speak, right?
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When you are part of a local bank and your underwriters live in the communities that we serve, we know many of the customers better.
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If we don't, we know people who know them.
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And we can take more time to understand their business at a deeper level.
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Um, the larger banks, many times, they're just the the volumes are so much greater, and the the scale is so much larger that just by design, there's there's more distance that that that develops between the decision makers and the client.
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We want to try to bring those uh key people together uh because I think you can make better decisions.
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Um, there's what I call soft information that we can try to understand that sometimes a larger bank may not be able to.
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You know, they everybody can get the financial statements, the balance sheet, the PL, and do the spreads and calculate ratios.
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That's not real banking.
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Real banking is putting on your consultative hat, leaning in, understanding truly what's driving that business, what doing a SWOT analysis, what is that business owner's goals in the next three to five years, for example, their strategic plan.
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And having that broader perspective, I believe allows local banks to do a better job of being the capital partner for those businesses.
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And that is so core to what you've built and what you're about.
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Do you have any uh examples uh without disclosing uh uh customer names that shouldn't be disclosed, uh to give a feel for how that relationship leads to better banking decisions?
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Sure.
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I you know, obviously without getting into specific names and dates, but I I I one of the hardest things I think in banking is to really you you earn your stripes when when it's not a no-brainer.
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You know, if it's a company that's got perfect cash flow, everything checks out, you know, any bank in the world could probably rubber stamp and approve a particular loan that that business may be asking for.
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But I've there's examples I could give you where the company maybe had one or two years of some downward trends or some um challenges that they experienced.
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But by taking time to understand what caused those, and more importantly, what the business owner and the CFO and the management team of the company uh have done and are doing to address those challenges, because nothing's static, right?
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Every situation is always constantly evolving.
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Uh, but by working with those business owners, there's times where we can say, listen, if you can do A, B, and C over the next couple of quarters, you know, then we can do this.
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And then following up, so three months later or six months later, going back out and talking and say, well, what have you done?
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Have you been able to accomplish that?
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And there's times in my career where the answer was a no to start with, but six months later, we were able to give them a solution that worked.
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One of the things I always say to the team here, and they they tease me mercilessly for it, is if we can't give them an apple, let's find a way to give them an orange, right?
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That still gets the job done.
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And then over time, we can then maybe potentially grow into what they truly wanted.
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Um, those are the most uh rewarding examples for me, is when you can be that capital partner and and be part of the success of the business and you see them grow and ultimately potentially sell or or maybe pass the business to the second or third generation.
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Um, that's very satisfying personally.
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And uh talk about uh uh your view, uh your experience in uh uh assessing, working with uh the CFOs that uh come along with those business owners that uh are you're assessing for loan decisions.
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Yeah, I think it's critical to have uh a good relationship with the with the CFO.
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Um, you know, the Florida CFO group, I've I've worked with uh many of your partners, uh, Phil.
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Um J Jay White is one that comes to mind.
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Uh he and I worked together for many years with a great client who has followed me over the course of several banks, uh, which shows just the strength of that relationship.
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Um but I remember a situation working with him where a company had had uh a couple of tough years.
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Uh there were some uh you know changes in the industry, but they were diversifying one of their lines of business to mitigate it.
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And working with the CFO and understanding what the business owner was doing really helped us um manage through that tough period, and the company is doing incredibly well today because they're stronger and more diversified now, uh, thanks to the efforts of their CFO.
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Yeah, that's such a vital collaboration.
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It's just a thing of beauty to see the CFO, the banker, uh, in conjunction with the entrepreneur make things happen uh because of the way they collaborate.
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And uh exactly still jazz me up uh after many, many, many years.
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Uh so uh with smaller banks, uh you don't have the uh budgets that the big guys have to uh uh develop high-end technology.
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Uh that's kind of the uh uh impression that uh the big guys uh cast in the marketplace.
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Give you a chance to cover that with some reality.
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Uh, how does a bank like Ashline deliver those services?
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You know, it's really a little bit counterintuitive, I would say.
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Um many of the larger banks have uh grown through acquisitions.
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And if you really again peel back the the layers of their technology stack, you'll see a lot of older legacy systems that have almost been sort of duct taped together.
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Um, and you know, the digital platforms that are presented to the consumer are much better.
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But behind that, the core systems that are running those uh uh consumer um the technologies are actually in many cases a little bit more antiquated because of the history.
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So, as a new de novo startup local bank, we had the benefit of having a blank slate.
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So we were able to go out there and scour the market, um, work with an incredible uh consultant.
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I have to give them a shout out to Ariba advisors, and they helped us do a deep dive and choose a very robust core system that that is effectively like the engine that runs the bank.
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And then on that core system, you can bolt on all the other ancillary products that business owners and consumers need, like the digital solutions, the mobile banking, uh treasury management, you know, there's ACH and there's fraud tools like positive pay and all of these solutions.
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We have everything that's needed for a business because we were able to build it from uh a blank slate.
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So it's a little counterintuitive, but uh sometimes local banks uh that are smaller have um, I think uh cleaner, better technology.
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No, I I I get that, Rob.
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The way uh technology solutions leapfrog each other all the time.
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Often the most recent decision is not uh uh uh affected by the legacy of trying to keep up.
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And uh uh I I I grew up in the computer mainframe business, so I know firsthand that what it's like to be obsoleted.
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Sure.
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And we're not resting in our laurels, we're always looking to see, like you said, it's always evolving.
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And what's that next product out there and and what what can we add?
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So uh we're not gonna take it for granted.
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We're always looking to to innovate and uh stay uh cutting edge.
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So I I I want to keep uh a streak going and how many consecutive shows I uttered the the a question with the letters AI in it, but how is AI affecting the Schwine Bank?
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Is it what was your question?
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Sorry, how are we using AI?
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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You know, internally, uh we are obviously looking at it very closely to gain efficiencies, especially when it comes to um, you know, identifying and mitigating fraud.
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I think that's a huge area where AI can provide uh a real advantage.
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Also, there's elements of our underwriting uh workflow that we think uh can be made more efficient by using AI.
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Um, but we're also trying to strike a really healthy balance and hold on to what I call our humanity, right?
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There's still that need to be able to go out and meet a customer face to face, right?
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And and have that actual conversation.
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Humans are inherently social beings, and I think there's a limit to what AI can do.
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So we're trying to strike the right balance, but also uh uh hold on to our humanity and offer that that that personalized uh um service and relationship that I think most people prefer and and crave.
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Yeah, I mean uh I I have a guest coming up later this season who uh writes about uh it's not AI artificial intelligence versus human intelligence, it's co-intelligence.
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And whoever can create the most human delivery method to take the power of AI, I think is going to be uh eminent coming out as the winners.
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Uh I I know something that uh as sponsors of the AI Salon event in St.
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Petersburg, uh I love going to these events where we uh get the brain power in the room and talk about such things.
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Uh shout out to AI Salon.
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We got an event coming up uh uh September 23rd that uh uh it always draws a good crowd.
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Uh anyway, uh I'm sure you have aspirations of getting bigger and you have a history of working for bigger banks.
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Do you have in your mind your vision for how you're going to preserve your human touch as you grow?
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Yeah, I think honestly, that's one of the biggest challenges that I'm going to face in my role as CEO going forward is protecting our core values and our culture as we do inevitably grow.
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Um, the market really, Tampa Bay is an incredible market.
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It's wide open, and I know that the opportunities are there for us to scale, and that's a good thing.
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Um me and the leadership team are responsible for protecting our culture and our core values.
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Um, we have uh our headquarters other sound.
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Uh we have a Tampa uh headquarters uh on Bayshore and Beta Bay, and then we have a third office in Tarpon Springs.
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And at every one of those locations, we have our core values uh printed out and displayed, and also our vision statement and our mission statement and our core proposition.
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And that's wonderful.
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So it's top of mind, people can see it every day.
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But if we don't live those core values and kind of um breathe them into reality by our actions, then they're just words on on a poster somewhere and they're meaningless.
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So the most important thing is constantly reminding ourselves and making sure that as we're making decisions and and and you know, whether it'd be a business decision or strategic planning, that we're constantly going back to those core values and ensuring that we're being true to them.
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And it starts with the leadership team, it starts with our board of directors.
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Uh, as we built out our board, uh, we wanted to really ensure that they were aligned culturally with uh the bank's core philosophy.
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Uh and I think if we do it, do that and talk about it and implement it, we can maintain that as we inevitably grow.
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But I do see that as a challenge, and it's something I'm very conscious of.
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Um and it just takes hard work.
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Your values, your mission statements are all available on your website.
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Uh, what's the best way for people to find you?
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What's your what's your URL?
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So uh we went with a dot bank domain.
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So if you go to echelon, uh e-c-h e-l-o-n dot bank, uh, that's the best way to uh to get more information.
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Um, and uh a lot of information is out there.
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I certainly uh am active on uh LinkedIn.
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If someone wants to reach out to me and have a conversation that way, I try to respond as much as I can.
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Um, but the website's probably the best place to start, I would say.
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Very good.
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So uh Rob, it's our tradition to end each show with our guest leaving our audience with a one-sentence key takeaway.
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What would yours be?
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So uh I'm gonna take a little different uh stance.
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I'm gonna turn the sentence the sentence into a question.
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And I would just say uh, how big is your bank?
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Is it small enough?
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Ah, okay, very good.
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Well, thank you for being a guest on our show.
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And uh I hope our paths cross again in the future.
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Uh hope our audience also comes back for another uh episode of CFO Coffee Talk.
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Bye, everybody.
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You're very very welcome.
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Thanks, Phil.
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Good morning and welcome to CFO Coffee Talk brought to you by the Florida CFO Group.
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This morning's episode is called Right Size Banking.
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And we have the perfect guest for that.
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A uh president, CEO, founder of Echelon Bank, who uh uh believes he's got the right size bank for a lot of Tampa area businesses.
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Good morning, Rob.
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Welcome to the show.
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Good morning, Bill.
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Thanks for having me.
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Yeah, uh, we one thing we like to say, uh, because we have a lot of different flavors of CFOs, is that for every business owner, uh there's a right CFO, just like for every Jack, there's a Jill.
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I guess you could probably say the same about bankers, right?
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Absolutely.
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It's all about finding the right fit and the right personalities.
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Well, before we uh learn all about your echelon bank journey, uh we I love to have uh our audience learn about our guests at the start of each show.
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Uh, give us a one or two minute backstory.
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Sure.
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Um I have a little bit of a maybe uh different uh backstory.
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I was actually born in Johannesburg, South Africa, but my family and I, we immigrated to the United States in the early 80s.
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Uh, grew up outside Chicago, a great town called Naperville.
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And then for college, I ended up going to West Point.
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Uh, my dad's a huge uh historian.
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He loves military history.
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So with his encouragement, I decided to go the West Point route.
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Uh, probably the best decision I ever made.
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It's just such an incredible institution, and there's so much opportunities and leadership training.
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Um, like all cadets, I then served in the Army and I was actually in the Army's finance corps.
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I was always interested in business and finance.
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And then when I got out of the Army, I got into banking and uh joined a bank called AmSouth, which is no longer around.
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They're actually now Regions Bank.
00:02:04.079 --> 00:02:09.919
But that's how I got into banking and uh moved to Tampa in the late 90s, uh 1999.
00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:12.240
So I've been here 27 years now.
00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:25.439
Um, and then over the years, I've worked for different banks, and I I really discovered my passion was working for smaller local banks, uh, which can be a little bit more nimble, more agile, and you can lean into your customers better.
00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:33.120
And uh ultimately uh I was able to uh uh pursue my dream of starting uh a local bank right here in Tampa, uh Echelon Bank.
00:02:33.199 --> 00:02:37.840
So it's been uh uh an amazing journey, but we've we've got a lot more ahead of us.
00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:42.479
Well, uh Rob, first let me say thank you for your service to the U.S.
00:02:42.639 --> 00:02:43.120
Army.
00:02:43.439 --> 00:02:56.319
And uh we uh we're recording this episode on even though it's gonna air later in September, on uh the 25th anniversary of that uh terrorist attack on uh in New York City in the Pentagon.
00:02:56.479 --> 00:02:59.520
So uh a salute to all first responders as well.
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Uh your dad as a historian would have appreciated that uh we're on the uh celebration uh at wrong word, of course, and uh remembrance of that uh all those uh first responders who uh heroically uh uh minimum mitigated uh that horrific event 25 years ago.
00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:22.560
Um anyway, uh let's talk about uh today, not the past.
00:03:22.639 --> 00:03:34.400
Uh let's talk about why uh you recently uh what took on this venture uh to make a to add a new bank to the Tampa Bay scene.
00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:38.560
Uh why is this the right time to put a new bank out in the market?
00:03:39.439 --> 00:03:47.120
Yeah, you know, I I was uh this has been uh an idea that's been rattling around in my brain for probably at least five years or so.
00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:57.520
And you know, it's always difficult to time something, especially as large as starting any new business, you know, but especially a bank, it's a huge endeavor.
00:03:57.680 --> 00:04:08.719
Um, but looking at the broader banking landscape and doing my research, it was very apparent to me just how much consolidation the industry has experienced.
00:04:08.879 --> 00:04:12.879
Uh, nationwide for sure, uh, in the state of Florida as well.
00:04:13.039 --> 00:04:22.079
There were over 300 uh banks headquartered in Florida back in 1999 when I began my banking career, and there's less than 70 today.
00:04:22.319 --> 00:04:26.560
So, over those that 27 years, there's just been a lot of consolidation.
00:04:26.720 --> 00:04:34.160
And here in Tampa Bay, especially in 2017 and 2018, there was a lot of consolidation with local banks.
00:04:34.319 --> 00:04:38.399
The bank I was working for at the time, North Star Bank, was acquired.
00:04:38.639 --> 00:04:43.360
Other banks uh here locally, like Jefferson Bank and Gulf Shore Bank were bought.
00:04:43.439 --> 00:04:51.199
And then in the beginning of 2018, the largest uh and most successful local bank at the time, uh US Ameribank, was also bought.
00:04:51.360 --> 00:04:55.519
So it left a big vacuum in the market when it came to local banks.
00:04:55.680 --> 00:05:02.959
And then in in the uh the eight years since that time, there's been very few true local banks that have started.
00:05:03.120 --> 00:05:11.920
So to me, it seemed like the perfect time to uh to get to work and and and uh form the form a new bank to serve the Tampa Bay market.
00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:23.279
Uh and you know we aim to have an audience of business owners who are curious about uh uh the fractional CFO world and uh the business topics we discuss.
00:05:23.519 --> 00:05:30.879
For that audience, explain what are the kind of things that a regional bank does that a more centrally run bank doesn't.
00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:43.439
So, you know, it just really comes down to being able to lean into the business and understand, peel back the layers of the onion, so to speak, right?
00:05:44.079 --> 00:05:52.639
When you are part of a local bank and your underwriters live in the communities that we serve, we know many of the customers better.
00:05:52.720 --> 00:05:54.959
If we don't, we know people who know them.
00:05:55.120 --> 00:06:00.240
And we can take more time to understand their business at a deeper level.
00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:15.040
Um, the larger banks, many times, they're just the the volumes are so much greater, and the the scale is so much larger that just by design, there's there's more distance that that that develops between the decision makers and the client.
00:06:15.279 --> 00:06:22.319
We want to try to bring those uh key people together uh because I think you can make better decisions.
00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:31.600
Um, there's what I call soft information that we can try to understand that sometimes a larger bank may not be able to.
00:06:31.759 --> 00:06:38.800
You know, they everybody can get the financial statements, the balance sheet, the PL, and do the spreads and calculate ratios.
00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:40.879
That's not real banking.
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Real banking is putting on your consultative hat, leaning in, understanding truly what's driving that business, what doing a SWOT analysis, what is that business owner's goals in the next three to five years, for example, their strategic plan.
00:06:56.639 --> 00:07:07.439
And having that broader perspective, I believe allows local banks to do a better job of being the capital partner for those businesses.
00:07:08.079 --> 00:07:12.000
And that is so core to what you've built and what you're about.
00:07:12.319 --> 00:07:25.199
Do you have any uh examples uh without disclosing uh uh customer names that shouldn't be disclosed, uh to give a feel for how that relationship leads to better banking decisions?
00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:26.319
Sure.
00:07:26.399 --> 00:07:38.560
I you know, obviously without getting into specific names and dates, but I I I one of the hardest things I think in banking is to really you you earn your stripes when when it's not a no-brainer.
00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:49.920
You know, if it's a company that's got perfect cash flow, everything checks out, you know, any bank in the world could probably rubber stamp and approve a particular loan that that business may be asking for.
00:07:50.240 --> 00:08:01.600
But I've there's examples I could give you where the company maybe had one or two years of some downward trends or some um challenges that they experienced.
00:08:01.839 --> 00:08:19.120
But by taking time to understand what caused those, and more importantly, what the business owner and the CFO and the management team of the company uh have done and are doing to address those challenges, because nothing's static, right?
00:08:19.279 --> 00:08:22.480
Every situation is always constantly evolving.
00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:33.120
Uh, but by working with those business owners, there's times where we can say, listen, if you can do A, B, and C over the next couple of quarters, you know, then we can do this.
00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:39.919
And then following up, so three months later or six months later, going back out and talking and say, well, what have you done?
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Have you been able to accomplish that?
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And there's times in my career where the answer was a no to start with, but six months later, we were able to give them a solution that worked.
00:08:51.600 --> 00:09:01.679
One of the things I always say to the team here, and they they tease me mercilessly for it, is if we can't give them an apple, let's find a way to give them an orange, right?
00:09:01.759 --> 00:09:03.759
That still gets the job done.
00:09:03.919 --> 00:09:09.519
And then over time, we can then maybe potentially grow into what they truly wanted.
00:09:09.679 --> 00:09:24.879
Um, those are the most uh rewarding examples for me, is when you can be that capital partner and and be part of the success of the business and you see them grow and ultimately potentially sell or or maybe pass the business to the second or third generation.
00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:27.919
Um, that's very satisfying personally.
00:09:28.720 --> 00:09:43.440
And uh talk about uh uh your view, uh your experience in uh uh assessing, working with uh the CFOs that uh come along with those business owners that uh are you're assessing for loan decisions.
00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:47.840
Yeah, I think it's critical to have uh a good relationship with the with the CFO.
00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:53.600
Um, you know, the Florida CFO group, I've I've worked with uh many of your partners, uh, Phil.
00:09:53.840 --> 00:09:57.519
Um J Jay White is one that comes to mind.
00:09:57.679 --> 00:10:07.440
Uh he and I worked together for many years with a great client who has followed me over the course of several banks, uh, which shows just the strength of that relationship.
00:10:07.679 --> 00:10:14.000
Um but I remember a situation working with him where a company had had uh a couple of tough years.
00:10:14.080 --> 00:10:21.200
Uh there were some uh you know changes in the industry, but they were diversifying one of their lines of business to mitigate it.
00:10:21.360 --> 00:10:37.759
And working with the CFO and understanding what the business owner was doing really helped us um manage through that tough period, and the company is doing incredibly well today because they're stronger and more diversified now, uh, thanks to the efforts of their CFO.
00:10:38.320 --> 00:10:40.960
Yeah, that's such a vital collaboration.
00:10:41.039 --> 00:10:49.360
It's just a thing of beauty to see the CFO, the banker, uh, in conjunction with the entrepreneur make things happen uh because of the way they collaborate.
00:10:49.440 --> 00:10:53.679
And uh exactly still jazz me up uh after many, many, many years.
00:10:54.320 --> 00:11:05.519
Uh so uh with smaller banks, uh you don't have the uh budgets that the big guys have to uh uh develop high-end technology.
00:11:05.679 --> 00:11:12.320
Uh that's kind of the uh uh impression that uh the big guys uh cast in the marketplace.
00:11:12.559 --> 00:11:15.200
Give you a chance to cover that with some reality.
00:11:15.360 --> 00:11:18.159
Uh, how does a bank like Ashline deliver those services?
00:11:18.559 --> 00:11:22.320
You know, it's really a little bit counterintuitive, I would say.
00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:27.360
Um many of the larger banks have uh grown through acquisitions.
00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:37.840
And if you really again peel back the the layers of their technology stack, you'll see a lot of older legacy systems that have almost been sort of duct taped together.
00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:43.919
Um, and you know, the digital platforms that are presented to the consumer are much better.
00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:55.679
But behind that, the core systems that are running those uh uh consumer um the technologies are actually in many cases a little bit more antiquated because of the history.
00:11:55.840 --> 00:12:02.399
So, as a new de novo startup local bank, we had the benefit of having a blank slate.
00:12:02.639 --> 00:12:07.919
So we were able to go out there and scour the market, um, work with an incredible uh consultant.
00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:20.639
I have to give them a shout out to Ariba advisors, and they helped us do a deep dive and choose a very robust core system that that is effectively like the engine that runs the bank.
00:12:20.799 --> 00:12:37.840
And then on that core system, you can bolt on all the other ancillary products that business owners and consumers need, like the digital solutions, the mobile banking, uh treasury management, you know, there's ACH and there's fraud tools like positive pay and all of these solutions.
00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:44.000
We have everything that's needed for a business because we were able to build it from uh a blank slate.
00:12:44.159 --> 00:12:52.480
So it's a little counterintuitive, but uh sometimes local banks uh that are smaller have um, I think uh cleaner, better technology.
00:12:52.799 --> 00:12:54.799
No, I I I get that, Rob.
00:12:54.960 --> 00:12:59.360
The way uh technology solutions leapfrog each other all the time.
00:12:59.840 --> 00:13:06.240
Often the most recent decision is not uh uh uh affected by the legacy of trying to keep up.
00:13:06.320 --> 00:13:12.720
And uh uh I I I grew up in the computer mainframe business, so I know firsthand that what it's like to be obsoleted.
00:13:13.519 --> 00:13:13.840
Sure.
00:13:14.080 --> 00:13:18.799
And we're not resting in our laurels, we're always looking to see, like you said, it's always evolving.
00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:23.039
And what's that next product out there and and what what can we add?
00:13:23.200 --> 00:13:25.279
So uh we're not gonna take it for granted.
00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:28.960
We're always looking to to innovate and uh stay uh cutting edge.
00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:40.240
So I I I want to keep uh a streak going and how many consecutive shows I uttered the the a question with the letters AI in it, but how is AI affecting the Schwine Bank?
00:13:41.759 --> 00:13:42.799
Is it what was your question?
00:13:42.879 --> 00:13:44.240
Sorry, how are we using AI?
00:13:44.480 --> 00:13:44.960
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:13:46.720 --> 00:13:57.759
You know, internally, uh we are obviously looking at it very closely to gain efficiencies, especially when it comes to um, you know, identifying and mitigating fraud.
00:13:57.840 --> 00:14:02.159
I think that's a huge area where AI can provide uh a real advantage.
00:14:02.480 --> 00:14:10.240
Also, there's elements of our underwriting uh workflow that we think uh can be made more efficient by using AI.
00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:17.120
Um, but we're also trying to strike a really healthy balance and hold on to what I call our humanity, right?
00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:22.159
There's still that need to be able to go out and meet a customer face to face, right?
00:14:22.240 --> 00:14:24.559
And and have that actual conversation.
00:14:24.879 --> 00:14:30.639
Humans are inherently social beings, and I think there's a limit to what AI can do.
00:14:30.799 --> 00:14:44.080
So we're trying to strike the right balance, but also uh uh hold on to our humanity and offer that that that personalized uh um service and relationship that I think most people prefer and and crave.
00:14:44.639 --> 00:14:56.240
Yeah, I mean uh I I have a guest coming up later this season who uh writes about uh it's not AI artificial intelligence versus human intelligence, it's co-intelligence.
00:14:56.559 --> 00:15:04.399
And whoever can create the most human delivery method to take the power of AI, I think is going to be uh eminent coming out as the winners.
00:15:04.720 --> 00:15:09.600
Uh I I know something that uh as sponsors of the AI Salon event in St.
00:15:09.679 --> 00:15:15.600
Petersburg, uh I love going to these events where we uh get the brain power in the room and talk about such things.
00:15:15.679 --> 00:15:17.600
Uh shout out to AI Salon.
00:15:17.759 --> 00:15:24.559
We got an event coming up uh uh September 23rd that uh uh it always draws a good crowd.
00:15:24.799 --> 00:15:31.840
Uh anyway, uh I'm sure you have aspirations of getting bigger and you have a history of working for bigger banks.
00:15:32.159 --> 00:15:38.080
Do you have in your mind your vision for how you're going to preserve your human touch as you grow?
00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:53.919
Yeah, I think honestly, that's one of the biggest challenges that I'm going to face in my role as CEO going forward is protecting our core values and our culture as we do inevitably grow.
00:15:54.159 --> 00:15:57.840
Um, the market really, Tampa Bay is an incredible market.
00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:03.679
It's wide open, and I know that the opportunities are there for us to scale, and that's a good thing.
00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:12.000
Um me and the leadership team are responsible for protecting our culture and our core values.
00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:19.519
Um, we have uh our headquarters other sound.
00:16:19.600 --> 00:16:26.240
Uh we have a Tampa uh headquarters uh on Bayshore and Beta Bay, and then we have a third office in Tarpon Springs.
00:16:26.399 --> 00:16:38.000
And at every one of those locations, we have our core values uh printed out and displayed, and also our vision statement and our mission statement and our core proposition.
00:16:38.159 --> 00:16:39.120
And that's wonderful.
00:16:39.200 --> 00:16:42.080
So it's top of mind, people can see it every day.
00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:54.720
But if we don't live those core values and kind of um breathe them into reality by our actions, then they're just words on on a poster somewhere and they're meaningless.
00:16:54.960 --> 00:17:11.599
So the most important thing is constantly reminding ourselves and making sure that as we're making decisions and and and you know, whether it'd be a business decision or strategic planning, that we're constantly going back to those core values and ensuring that we're being true to them.
00:17:11.759 --> 00:17:16.160
And it starts with the leadership team, it starts with our board of directors.
00:17:16.240 --> 00:17:25.440
Uh, as we built out our board, uh, we wanted to really ensure that they were aligned culturally with uh the bank's core philosophy.
00:17:25.680 --> 00:17:33.920
Uh and I think if we do it, do that and talk about it and implement it, we can maintain that as we inevitably grow.
00:17:34.160 --> 00:17:38.160
But I do see that as a challenge, and it's something I'm very conscious of.
00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:40.559
Um and it just takes hard work.
00:17:41.119 --> 00:17:45.200
Your values, your mission statements are all available on your website.
00:17:45.359 --> 00:17:47.519
Uh, what's the best way for people to find you?
00:17:47.680 --> 00:17:49.440
What's your what's your URL?
00:17:50.319 --> 00:17:53.039
So uh we went with a dot bank domain.
00:17:53.200 --> 00:18:01.039
So if you go to echelon, uh e-c-h e-l-o-n dot bank, uh, that's the best way to uh to get more information.
00:18:01.200 --> 00:18:03.920
Um, and uh a lot of information is out there.
00:18:04.160 --> 00:18:07.440
I certainly uh am active on uh LinkedIn.
00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:12.960
If someone wants to reach out to me and have a conversation that way, I try to respond as much as I can.
00:18:13.119 --> 00:18:17.039
Um, but the website's probably the best place to start, I would say.
00:18:17.359 --> 00:18:18.160
Very good.
00:18:18.319 --> 00:18:25.599
So uh Rob, it's our tradition to end each show with our guest leaving our audience with a one-sentence key takeaway.
00:18:25.839 --> 00:18:27.119
What would yours be?
00:18:27.759 --> 00:18:30.000
So uh I'm gonna take a little different uh stance.
00:18:30.160 --> 00:18:33.119
I'm gonna turn the sentence the sentence into a question.
00:18:33.279 --> 00:18:37.200
And I would just say uh, how big is your bank?
00:18:37.599 --> 00:18:39.200
Is it small enough?
00:18:39.519 --> 00:18:41.519
Ah, okay, very good.
00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:43.920
Well, thank you for being a guest on our show.
00:18:44.079 --> 00:18:47.039
And uh I hope our paths cross again in the future.
00:18:47.119 --> 00:18:52.480
Uh hope our audience also comes back for another uh episode of CFO Coffee Talk.
00:18:52.880 --> 00:18:53.359
Bye, everybody.
00:18:53.519 --> 00:18:54.480
You're very very welcome.
00:18:54.559 --> 00:18:55.200
Thanks, Phil.
