When you have a strong mission and everyone's eyes are

focused on the mission, people just naturally they're available.

They, they want to collaborate.

Want to help each of us be successful because we're, when we succeed

as a, as a team, we succeed and we're helping grow the kingdom.

And, so the mission matters.

No, no, no, no.

When you combine finance the banking world and faith, how does

one lead with a mission-driven approach?

Welcome to Seat Go Create, where today we're joined by Aaron Cade.

I.

Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at

Christian Community Credit Union.

Aaron stepped into this role with a desire to align his extensive marketing

expertise with his faith guiding a finance institution dedicated to not just profit.

But purpose.

With over two decades of experience in digital transformation and brand

loyalty across notable organizations like Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, and

the YMCA of Metro Chicago, Aaron's journey is a blend of strategic

innovation and principled leadership.

Aaron, welcome to Seat Go Create.

Thank you, Tim.

It's a pleasure to be with you and your listeners.

Yeah, I am glad that you're here.

We're gonna have a fun conversation.

First thing let's do, let's just do a little icebreaker.

Somebody bumps into you and say, I just ask what you do.

What's your answer typically to people

So I, I would say I, what I'm passionate about is I help

Christ followers align their financial lives with their faith, to bring,

to, to bring true stewardship to their lives, the gifts that God has.

ENTRUSTED with them are, obviously they're not ours, they're

just, God is entrusted to us.

It all belongs to him.

So how do we put it?

Put our financial gifts to their best use to further the kingdom.

So I'm just thrilled to be in a role where I can do what I love to do professionally,

which is marketing in financial services, and align it with my own faith and

help other Christ followers align their finances with their own Christian faith.

So what's your, what's your personal, faith story?

Faith journey?

Have you, you know, Christian from birth or, has that been a journey?

Process?

Like most of us, what's, just, and you gimme the high points of, you

know, when you decided that you were gonna be a follower of Christ.

Yeah, I, I was raised in a Methodist family.

so I, I have very early memories of, of being in church and going to

Sunday school, and, but I really, I, I made my own personal commitment to

Christ when I was a junior in high school and a very good friend of mine.

we just had a conversation one night and, and he just.

Shared with me his own story and asked me if that, you know, if this

was a journey I wanted to embark upon, and we prayed together.

I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior that night.

And, you know, it's, it's, I can't say it's always been a smooth journey

since, I don't think it is for anybody.

but I can say that over the last, since I met my wife, almost eight

years ago at this point, she, she's a true spiritual partner for me.

and it's.

I've really, it's really accelerated my spiritual growth and the,

the deepening my, a deepening relationship with, with the Lord.

And I just, you know, and it, and it makes for a very fruitful and abundant

marriage as well, just to have, to be not just a, a, a strong married

couple, but spiritual partners as well.

I think it's an amazing, and, and that story is very common, amazing.

Where we have, we'll, we'll, we'll call it hard charging, maybe

success oriented dudes, guys like, you know, probably we are that.

Many times seems like just my perspective, there's a strong

faith, faith-driven woman that keeps just a lot of that stuff on track.

That's the way it is for me.

I don't know if that is for you.

Sounds like it.

It is.

It's, and it's just, and it's, you know, we've become, we've grown deeper

in our, in our local church community.

we've become leaders in our church and it's just been

an, it's been a good organic.

fruitful journey together.

so I just feel like my, my faith grows day by day and, and then being in a,

in a, in a, in a company where I can live out my faith every day at work.

where it's encouraged, where, where it's welcome, where, where we

actually work together to not only to help achieve business objectives,

not only to serve our members, but to help each other grow in faith.

so it's just a, it's, it's just been a complete blessing for me.

This, this, even the, the last few years of my, my spiritual journey.

Yeah, that is good.

when you've got, you know, Christian in the name of your organization, it

kinda, and we'll talk about this in a little, I probably creates a bit

of a, a standard and a purpose and maybe, maybe also a target and all.

We'll talk about that in just a second.

But I, for those that are listening, for those that are watching this on YouTube,

you'll see that Aaron has, is that.

Is that burnt orange?

What color is that?

That, that, that shirt is there.

It is burn orange.

Orange?

Yeah, orange.

And there's a, there's a picture of a, guess a longhorn, you know, some

kind of outdoor animal on there.

And so my big question is, is, is it possible to, to be a Christian

and go to the University of Texas?

I'm, I'm just wondering about that because that's gotta be

part of the journey, right?

Absolutely.

it's, there was a, there was a, I have to say, a strong faith community,

at the university when I was there.

very active, very active Christian, student groups, but

is absolutely, and sometimes the, the longhorns do test my faith.

But this, this last year was a particularly good year, in

terms of football, at least.

but I, I look back on my time at the University of Texas and

appreciate every moment of it.

We'll, we'll, we'll see how things go as y'all move

over into, you know, that whatever, Southeastern Conference and all that.

So, one other question, just a rumor I heard about, Texas, that many people

there believe that Matthew McConaughey may be the second coming of Christ.

Is that a true or false statement?

I don't know what other people believe, but I certainly

don't believe that he's a good actor.

He is a funny guy.

He is a good, he is a good, team supporter, but, no.

Uh, I think, what's the title now?

Mini Minister of Culture or something like that at the school.

I don't know.

All right.

Well, enough, enough enough with the fun stuff here.

Let's, let's, let's talk serious.

I, I did.

When you first jumped on, I said, Hey, where's your banker outfit, man?

You're wearing like, you know this longhorn pullover here and, don't, don't

you, bankers, don't Y'all all wear suits?

Yeah, no, not us.

And and I haven't worn a, you know, a suit on a regular basis for a long time.

It's been a long time.

And, so, so we're not stayed, we're not stayed bankers.

We're, we're very, we're vibrant Christ followers.

Very good.

Alright, well let me do a couple things here.

I, I want to dig a little bit in how you ended up, and it looks

as if your journey has been.

In a, in and around a lot of the banking world.

And you know, there's some, yeah, you're with Christian Community

Credit Union now, but some of these, some of these banks are the big or

the big ones that are out there.

Citibank, JP Morgan Chase.

Did you, did you come outta school and go into the banking world?

it was, is finance always been your thing?

or did you just realize that somewhere along the way.

It, it came a little later in my, career development when I first

came out of the University of Texas.

I was a, i, I worked for Accenture.

Interestingly.

I was doing, I, I was doing IT consulting and, that gave me, I.

Great.

I, I learned skills there, especially in project management that have served

me well for the rest of my career, no matter what area I've been focused on.

it was after graduate school that I, that I, I made the move into

financial services, joining Citibank, right out of my graduate program.

And, Got exposed to a lots of different areas of the consumer banking, business,

operations, finance, and then marketing.

And marketing is where I really found my passion, and that's where

I've developed my career since.

So did you, did you ease into marketing or was it something

you were like, you know, you were focused on getting into, did it,

you know, was it the grace of God?

Was it luck?

Was it focus?

What strategy, what, what was the path?

Because it, you know, from the, it truthfully, let me just say that's.

That's a tough leap if one really is looking at it from what the world would

say would be like that traditional path.

So how did, how did that come to be?

I'm always, I'm fascinated with Journey.

We love the journey here on See go, create.

So how, what was that journey like?

I mean it, I joined, at Citibank, I joined an intentional

management development program.

So it was intentionally designed to, to provide.

Three very different experiences in the consumer bank over three years.

And I, so I started in a role that was in finance and then in operations.

I, I, I worked in a call center for, for a, a period of time, and then

took on a rotation in marketing.

And just marketing was something I had never really.

Done before.

So a lot of it was learning, understanding how to connect with consumers, how to

find, how to connect with them on, on, on solving problems or, or meeting needs.

And I just loved it.

I just, I just found that the whole process of, of, of connecting

with consumers was just so fun.

and you get instant feedback so you can, you can learn and adapt

and improve and do new things with.

With real life feedback from real life people.

And, so I just loved it.

So that's, that's the direction I chose to go from that moment on.

both at Citibank and then later, with JP Morgan Chase.

and at Sears as well.

I worked in the, I was the chief marketing officer in the financial

services business at Sears.

So you moved after the consulting roles.

You, it seems like you did move into that, that retail banking industry, and,

and Sears, was that in their credit area?

It was, it was in the financial services business,

which was, you know, the Sears card is the biggest part of that.

But

there were many different products that were meant to help facilitate sales, help,

help consumers to be able to, to, to make.

Whether it's a big appliance purchase, to be able to finance that over time or

to be able to get, you know, the apparel and back to school items for their kids.

it ran the gamut and it covered Sears and Kmart.

and Land's End at that time was part of, a part of the Sears universe too.

Are they still around?

Sears?

I know Kmart.

They're not quite, are they gone?

All gone?

almost all gone.

Almo.

They're still there.

there's still a few stores.

There's still an online presence, but, no.

It's, it's, it's, it's not the, it's not the place it was when

I was there, unfortunately.

I, I am, I'm of the age that still remembers all the Sears stores.

Kmarts too.

All of those.

And it's, I think that's the nature of business, that things ebb and flow.

But you, you know, we, we have Amazon delivering at our doorstep even though

we're in an RV almost every day.

But it, and that's a reflection on that.

Industry going by the wayside.

E Aaron, when when I asked you at the beginning kinda what you do, you brought

up that communicating stewardship to, to, to the people you interact with

and how they could be stewards with their finances and all was important

to what you do now, if you back up to, you know, JP Morgan, Citibank and

then into that Sears arena, was that.

Stewardship focus present then, or did that grow over time?

Did it, did it come to a head when you came with the credit union?

what?

Talk about that process because I, that process has been interesting for me.

What's that been like for you going through those type organizations?

Yeah, I.

It was present back then, it was, it would be a more, the more secular version of

stewardship, which is financial health or, financial fitness, or investing for the

future, you know, saving for the future.

Those things aren't specifically stewardship.

They are part of, they can be part of stewardship, but it's

the secular version of that.

and so taking that and taking it to its, To, to where God intends us to to be has

been very much interwoven with the, the role that I currently have at Christian

Community Credit Union and really being able to take practices that were effective

in helping consumers and businesses, achieve better financial health, but then

turn that toward, eternal gain, not just, not just, financial gain in this world.

Hmm.

I, I, I, I'm one that I could do some, I don't say bashing, complaining

about some of the big banks out there.

I.

but I don't want us to do that here.

I'd rather not.

We'll talk a little bit about the differences between credit unions and

banks, in just a moment, but I, I think the thing I'd love to know is, did you

have any, when there are often people that are in what we'll call a marketplace.

That, that their, their faith is growing, they're moving through the

corporate, either the ladder or they're just moving and, you know, trying to

attempt to do the things they need to do there, that, that conflicts will

arise between their faith and either what they're asked to do or who they're

interacting with or anything like that.

Without bashing, were, were you ever faced with some conflicts?

Were there things where your faith was stretched or strained where

you felt, I, I'll use the word compromise, if that makes sense, where

you said, Ooh, this is something I would rather not, anything like that

come to mind when I bring that up?

Because those are some really profit driven big organizations

that you were a part of.

I could see the possibility for conflict.

And, and I, and without being specific or using names, which I, I

think you're asking me to do, I, I have been in situations where I've

been asked to undertake a, a, a, a, the development of a product or a project.

That didn't have, in my mind, the right focus.

It was focused on maximizing profits for the company as opposed to

maximizing value for the consumer.

And I think you, you know, I, I, I think it, it can be very easy to, for

those paths to diverge, but ultimately the best profits and the ones that

are sustainable are the ones that are derived from generating value for the

consumer, for the end consumer, when they are getting value for their money.

They will remain, they will be loyal, to your product and to your company,

and they will buy more from you.

They will take on more products.

So, oftentimes it's, you know, it's, I, and I did find myself, you know, being

asked to do things that I thought, Hmm, this seems like we're trying to trick.

People.

I see how this generates profit in the short term, but it's done through tricking

people or not being entirely forthright.

and I don't agree with that.

So, I, and, and, and I, you know, I, did, I did, I did argue for, my position

when, when these things came up.

and in many cases I was successful.

in other cases, I wasn't as successful.

I, I, you know, I, there's, there's at least one job that I left because,

there were too many instances of, of, the the company making a decision that

what might be good for the short term, for short term profitability, but not

good for, not good for consumer value, and not good for long-term health

and profitability of the company.

Yeah.

You know, I, I, I feel confident, Aaron, that.

Anyone who's been in the marketplace has probably faced something like that.

I, I, I think when we're faced with those things, I think

there's a couple things happen.

Number one, we grow because we learn and, and I think that at times when

we're in a compromise position for too long, I think it could impact our soul.

And, you know, you just mentioned that you left a, a job or anything like that,

but one of the things we love to do here is if there's a quote unquote ministry

opportunity, is there, is there anything that you might say to someone who's in a.

In a tough spot right now that they're, maybe they're in a bigger organization

or something and they're just trying to, trying to live by that faith too.

I don't, and if nothing comes to mind, that's fine, but just any,

anything that you learned while navigating that process yourself.

I mean, I think you can advocate for what's right and you

can, and you can do the right thing and set a good example and others

and, and encourage others to follow.

And I, I think that's, we can all do that no matter where we work.

and, you know, I've been, I've been very fortunate that it's, it's,

it hasn't been, this has not been something I've had to address.

Much in my career.

There was that one instance a long time ago.

that, but you know, ultimately a lot of, I do find that, there

is a lot of good in this world.

and there are a lot of people who want to do the right thing.

Sometimes people can get distracted by.

Short term gain by short term profits.

But if you can just, if you can advocate for the right thing, model the right

behavior, and encourage others to follow.

A lot of times you can, you can get, you can get others to follow you

and, and, and, and do what's right.

Yeah.

What's interesting is we've had this conversation a lot here at Seek Go Create.

There are many people that would say that.

A ministry role is where everybody needs to be.

That's a follower of Christ.

And you see what you just said to me highlights the need for people of faith

to be in the marketplace because you and you may have known about it and

you may not even know where, had to be an example to some other people.

And it sounds like it was positive.

You know, we mess up.

But, anyway, sounds like it.

It was, there, there was something you mentioned just a few minutes

ago that before I go into the differences between the organizations

you were with and now the, the organization you're currently with.

I, I'd like you brought up the word, I think tricking people, which is, which

is interesting I think in the, capitalist free enterprise, which I love by the way.

I'm.

I'm a business consultant.

I'm an entrepreneur, and started my first business way back in

the mid eighties in college and have had companies and all that.

However, I do notice.

And I'm a marketing guy too.

I love doing marketing things and I, I do notice it's very easy to go from,

uh, promoting maybe persuasion to somewhere along the line we can often

cross over into manipulation, deception.

It's, and it sounds like you have seen maybe some of that, and that might have

been part of what you were just talking about, but you talk a little bit about

that and, and I've got a follow up question that might help us lead into

the, talking about where you are now, but to, to me, with all that is going on.

And, and I, you know, my feed shows it in social media.

My, I see it if I turn on, you know, YouTube or something like that for,

for those, you know, there was a couple football games yesterday.

There's commercials and things going on.

How do we stay on that promotion side?

Maybe a little bit of persuasion and not step over into the

manipulation and deception.

Well, I think, and it's e and it, and it can come

from actually a good place too.

It can come from passion and exuberance and you, you really believe in what

you're, what you're selling and the, the product and you get into it.

It, sometimes it can overflow into exaggeration and or glossing

over the, over the, the negative.

And so, you know, it, it isn't always coming from a bad place, but

it can just be an, it can be a, a.

An extension of, of something that started and is ultimately a good, a good thing.

And I think where you, where you can help yourself there is to surround yourself

with other perspectives and voices.

So people who are not afraid to say no or to say, Hey, I, I see what you're saying.

But, so I think it's, I think it's, I, I love being in a culture that

promotes that diversity of thought and diversity of perspective, because

everyone just keeps each other.

On the, on the, on the, on the right path.

because people aren't afraid to say, but did you think about that?

Or How about this?

Or maybe we could, maybe we could say it better this way.

so I think that's important.

You have to, it has to be an intentional approach because it's, you know, it,

it can be very easy to get into a command and control kind of environment.

Where, where, People do what they're told and that's not good.

It's, it ultimately is not good for them, not good for the leader, and it's not

good for the culture or for the consumer.

So I, I, I love environments that promote that.

And I've worked, I've worked in many places that do, and it's just fun.

It's fun and creative and you just, you, you keep things on

the, on the right path that way.

Hmm.

I lo I love what you said about diverse thought and, and things like that.

And listen.

D, diversity, I wanna say this loud and clear.

Diversity is not a bad word.

A lot of people in today's world.

It, it becomes political.

Diversity's a great word, but it goes all the way around.

My wife worked for a Silicon Valley company and, and they were heavy into

diversity and, and, and all of that, but not really the type of diversity that

she brought to the table, which was a conservative southern Christian woman.

I.

You know, it was more other, I, I love having a wide variety around the table,

but the, the thought that came to me, and, and this is where I want us to

start migrating towards talking about the, Christian Community Credit Union.

When you were in the roles, you, you talked about they were, they were

consumer driven, with your previous, we'll call 'em the retail banking industry.

did those organizations serve?

And when I say serve, I, I don't necessarily necessarily mean customers.

who were they in servant to?

and, and I, and I think this is gonna lead us into the question about

Christian Community Credit Union.

I think you're smiling.

I think you know where I'm going here.

So talk to me about who those organizations serve.

And then I'll see if there's a follow up before we bridge into the next area.

Yeah, for the most part, you're serving, you're

serving investors, right?

You're helping deliver a, a return to shareholders, a

return on their investment.

and I.

There's, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

it's, it's, it's how we've, it's how we have built this incredible economy.

It's how we've built this comp country.

so that's, that's good.

It has to, you know, you have to be doing that in the, delivering those

returns to shareholders because you're meeting needs for end consumers.

You're solving problems for them.

You're helping make their lives better.

but yeah, ultimately you're serving, you're serving shareholders.

And, and the challenge going back to the

potential conflicts is at times.

There can be a built in, built in conflict between what we were talking

about, you know, maybe manipulation, tricker, whatever word you want to use.

And, and that is that, is that, is that a true statement?

I mean there, there can, you know.

That, that's why, and that's then when you talk about ministry not being the

only way you can serve faithfully, I think that's why we need, you know,

we need Christian, we need Christ followers throughout our economy

who are, yes, they're, they're working hard to deliver value for

shareholders, but they're doing it by serving customers, by doing

the right thing, earning profits in the right way, in a sustainable way.

And so I, I, you know, I want to see.

I wouldn't wanna see every Christ follower in a, in a ministry role.

It would just, we, the impact would be, would be diluted.

we wanna see Christians, believers in every aspect of, of our economy

and our society having an impact.

Because anything you, many aspects of life can be ministry.

They don't have to be served teaching in a, in on Sunday at church.

you can minister in many ways.

Yeah, and I, and I wanna say this sort of as a follow up, is that there

are probably some ministries in churches.

I'm on the board of a few ministries and you know, churches that they

may not be serving the proper thing.

Also, they might be in it for something different than is pure.

So I don't, this is not just a,

Because humans are fallible,

right?

Yeah, it's like, it's, it's more of a human thing, not

just, not just, but I, but I do think sometimes we can structure things to

where they have the higher likelihood of moving into that stewardship

role that you brought up earlier.

So having said all that, somewhere along the way, you left the, the

bigger banks I bank at Wells Fargo.

And let me, let me just say I.

I, I loathe them at times.

Right now I'm in a situation where they, it's, it's related.

I'll share this.

It's related to the Patriot Act.

They need a physical address.

Well, I don't have one.

I am a nomad homeless, and they are needing that to conform.

You probably know it in your industry, and, and they finally got one.

But there's a relative of ours that's in similar situation.

They shut down an account.

Because they didn't have it.

So anyway.

Alright, rant over.

Somewhere along the way you moved into a credit union situation.

And to put a capper on that Christian community Credit Union.

So talk about that transition and then in a little while, I wanna, I want to,

I want it for someone who may not know, we're gonna talk about the difference

between credit union and that retail bank and all that, but talk about your

transition and what that looked like.

I really consider it providential, that I became aware of

the, of the role that I have today.

I frankly didn't know that there was even such a thing as a Christian credit union.

I did not know that you could, you could, that there were faith-based organizations

that collect deposits, lend money.

I didn't know, until I, until I, I learned about it from a recruiter, and

I, at that moment, I, I, I really felt God gr grabbing me by the lapels and

saying, this is what you need to do.

This is, this is for you.

And I'm so, I'm so thankful for that.

and, you know, and, and credit unions, I, they explicitly align your.

incentives with what's right for members.

So just a, any credit union.

your credit unions are owned by the members.

so I, I'm a, I'm a member of Christian Community Credit Union.

I'm a, I'm a part owner of the credit union.

you credit unions exist to serve their members.

Their board of directors is elected from among their members,

and the profits you earn.

Go back to members in the form of better rates and lower fees.

and in the case of Christian Community Credit Union, we also give back to

ministries who are serving to spread the gospel, to protect vulnerable

children, to combat human trafficking.

So we, we do, we take up, we intentionally take a portion of,

of, our prophets and donate them to, to expanding the kingdom and.

how long have you been with them?

What was the timeframe?

I saw it somewhere.

I don't have it in front of me here.

It is been a little over three years, and those

three years have flown by.

That's, I still feel like the new guy at the, at the credit union, but I've,

it's been three years and it's just, it's been, it's just been an incredible

So you made that transition in the midst of,

what I guess worldwide pandemic?

Correct.

How, how, how was that changed during that we're, I'm hopeful that we're getting

away from having the discussion, but I'm always intrigued by changes that people

went through during that timeframe.

I, didn't even meet my team face to face until I had

been on the job for six months.

So it wasn't possible to travel and to go into the office for the

first six months I was on the job.

and, you know, we really didn't skip a beat.

I.

I.

wondered how this would be, get onboarding, taking on a new job, getting

to know, you know, my peers, my boss, getting to know my team purely on Zoom.

And it worked.

It worked.

And I think a lot of that has to do with the culture of the, of the credit union.

People are just.

Collaborative.

when you have a strong mission and everyone's eyes are focused

on the mission, people just naturally they're available.

They, they want to collaborate.

Want to help each of us be successful because we're, when we succeed

as a, as a team, we succeed.

We're helping members become.

Better stewards helping members succeed financially, and we're

helping grow the kingdom.

And, so the mission matters.

Having a good, strong, and in our case, Christ-centered mission is, is so

critical for, for our, our culture, so critical for how we work together, so

critical for the successes we're able to achieve, and in my case, so critical

for being able to join a new company.

And get to know everyone virtually.

What's interesting, you brought this up and I'm, I'm

thinking the same thing on my end.

I'd like to think I'm pretty familiar with businesses, business models

in my, you know, 60 years here 'cause I've studied it and all that.

I.

I was not aware of an organization, a credit union that was a,

a banking organization that, what's, was faith, faith based.

I, I was aware of the insurance, the health insurance.

That's kinda like the, you know, the medical share and things like that.

I was somewhat aware of those things.

I did not know it existed in the banking world.

But before we go too much farther into that, what I'd let you, you did it a

little bit, and I know this is probably a question you answer a good bit.

So this is almost like if, if you've got pitch mode, this might

be the pitch mode to go into.

I'm giving you permission.

Why a credit union over a, a traditional retail bank.

You mentioned members and things like that, so if there's some

repetitiveness, that's okay, but give me the reason or the contrast.

What's the difference between the two that, I'm a Wells Fargo guy.

Go ahead and sell me.

Tell me why I should leave and take all my accounts, business and all and come

over to Christian Community Credit Union.

I'm okay with you selling me.

Okay, great.

Well, you can, you can bank just about anywhere.

you can bank with an organization that uses your money to fund questionable

practices, may invest your money in questionable or, or, or, or.

The things that you don't agree with morally or spiritually, or you can

take your money and, and and and put it on deposit with Christian Community

Credit Union, where you know that that money, the money you put on deposit,

helps us provide affordable financing to build new churches, to help ministries

grow, to help impact the kingdom.

And it's.

Ultimately going to further the gospel, not in support of an organization

that might be trying to suppress the gospel like, like many of the big

banks seem to be doing these days.

and in the process, because we exist to serve members, not to earn profits for

shareholders, you're getting better rates.

Most of you know, often you're getting better rates than you could at a, at

a, at a, at a secular bank, lower fees.

And you, you've got products that are designed with your needs in mind,

transparent, providing you value, serving, serving your needs, helping you steward

God's resources in the best way you can.

wanna, I wanna drill down on that word transparent, because

as a member driven organization, my guess is that transparency is I.

The members have access to, I don't wanna say all the financials,

it's, it's, it's available.

We used to be the members of a, co-op that was a power company

and you know, they would actually.

Pay money now that, we're years ago.

We lived there.

I still get a check every few years because there was, there was funds

that were made while we were members, quote unquote paying, and we're

still getting some of that back.

But anyway, that I, I do think I.

There's a higher level of transparency in a member driven credit union than,

let's say, one of the big retail bank.

I don't know that much about Wells Fargo.

I could probably study their shareholder reports, but hey, I

don't, I don't dig in much there.

So, transparency.

Good thing.

Very good thing.

And we, we publish our financials, our audited financials every year.

We have an annual meeting of members,

um, where, they can bring questions, they can ask us questions about the financials.

We, and we actually publish our financials more frequently than once a year.

but we make a big push to members, in that annual meeting.

and, and the transparency also comes in the way products are designed.

you know, some financial institutions, the way they.

The way they make money is they create complicated products that have catches

and hooks and, you know, and, you know, hidden fees and things like that.

you know, with us and with many credit unions, you just want to, you want

to provide, you want to create a product that is serving a need, a, a

defined financial need that members have in the simplest way possible.

So, it's not, you know, you're not looking to create all these.

Fees that, that, that maybe in the short term help the bottom line, but

in the long term, aren't serving, aren't serving the end consumer well.

So I think the transparency comes in many ways, and all the way down to, to

how products are designed and marketed.

Now a lot of people traditionally, the, their bank, they

wanted it on the, you know, corner of, you know, main Street and third Avenue.

So I guess they could go down and check their money or something.

I'm not sure.

I can't, I can't tell you the last time I've actually been in

a physical bank, but, but a lot of people feel the need for that.

Has the banking industry moved?

To primarily virtual or are, are y'all still specifically

even with Christian community?

Is it, is it location driven?

I know, I know there's some regulations with where you can do business.

Right?

Well, so we serve Christians in all 50

states.

We serve Christian ministries in all 50 states.

we, because we're a credit union, we're part of the co-op

network of shared branches.

So the branch, the shared branch network is over 5,600 branches across the country.

That's more than Chase or Wells Fargo have.

so.

But most of our, most of our members, the vast majority of our members

do business with us digitally from the convenience of their phone.

And, and just like you, I can't remember the last time I was in a branch,

or needed to do something there.

But if, if a, if a member does need to do branch banking of some sort,

they can go to their, the, their neighborhood credit union and, and,

and conduct and conduct business.

And there's over 30,000 surcharge free ATMs as well that you can

take out money without paying fees.

And one of the things that I, way back when I had heard you

need to be part of a credit union, it's just a better banking experience.

That was in general, I.

However, because I was not necessarily, you know, in a

community we've been, my wife and I have been traveling for 10 years.

I, I wasn't necessarily a former military person or I, I didn't believe

I was part of a community that was a credit union because it is, you know,

the people that are in the community.

Share something they share either as an a, I hate saying alumni,

but, and, and the one that keeps popping to mind is the Navy federal.

I guess those are people that served in military or family or anything like that.

Is the, is the requirement strict for membership?

This is not where I want to ask for a profession of faith.

We'll talk about that in just a moment.

Okay.

But is the membership requirement strict that people

need to be part of that group?

Yeah, we, we, you can be, you can become a member in one

of three ways, or you can qualify for membership in one of three ways.

One is through your church, school, or, or, or ministry.

You, you might work for one of them.

You might be a, A member of

a, of a, of a ministry, or you might be a regular attendee.

that's one way, you can qualify is just by virtue of, of the, of the church, school,

or ministry that you're affiliated with.

Another way is you could be related to a, a a, an existing

member of the credit union.

So, and the third way is, you can join our partner.

Charity.

So we, we are, we are partnered with Christian Alliance for Orphans, and

they just do incredible work to, to, to lift up the widows and the, and

the fatherless, both here domestically and, and, and across the globe.

and, you can join Christian Alliance for Orphans at the same time you

join the credit union and be, and be eligible for membership that way.

so.

so in credit unions in general, there is that membership.

Component and you just went through.

I think for, for y'all's, gimme, I, I think I saw it somewhere on the site

and, and I'm sure you could probably do this fairly easily, it wasn't always

Christian community and this organization has been around, this isn't something

that just popped up here a few years ago.

I think I saw it was 50, 60 years or something.

Maybe I might be wrong on that, but.

years ago.

Yeah, gimme, gimme.

Quick, quick history and then I've got a couple other things here that I want

us to hit before we start wrapping up.

So, 66 years ago, a handful of American Baptist ministers

got together and were comparing notes about how hard it was to get.

Financing to build a church or to expand their ministry because

banks just didn't understand them.

it's, they said they don't understand an organization that lives off

of the generosity of its members.

and they don't know how to read a giving statement.

They, so they found it very difficult to do that.

But they said, what if we pool our resources together, we could then

help others in our same position?

So help other.

American Baptist Ministers.

And that's how it got started.

It got started in the back of a church, one day and started with

I think four or five ministers.

It was, originally the American Baptist Minister's Credit Union.

And then over time, the, grew to serve the entire American Baptist

community, became the American Baptist Credit Union, and then about

25 years ago expanded to include.

to become the Christian Christian Community Credit Union.

so, and we're now the largest faith-based credit union in

the country in terms of assets.

Yeah, so this is a slightly, I I sometimes just give a warning.

This is a slightly cynical question, so I'll just go ahead and prepare you when

we attach the name Christian to Things.

Now, many times in our culture, it unfortunately has almost become a little

more divisive than it has welcoming.

And and to, to even do another layer of cynicism, people will start trying to say,

this denomination, that denomination, I, you could tell by the question, I'm not.

For all that.

But how do you, how do you address that?

How do you either prevent that?

How do you, how do you open up but yet have members, you

mentioned the requirements earlier.

how do you determine if someone's a Christian?

Well,

That's a bigger question there.

If you, if you don't.

part of part of the membership process is reviewing and

agreeing with our statement of faith, which, which would be familiar to, to,

to many, to many Christians and, and, and our beliefs of the Trinity and the,

and, it that is part of the process.

So, somebody could.

Lie, But we're trusting that, that they wouldn't do that.

that you want to associate yourself with other Christians.

you want to build God's kingdom.

and, and if you're, you know, if, if you're demonstrating your eligibility

for membership, agreeing to the statement of faith, you know, we,

we welcome you into the family.

Right.

And other than just being like on really cool podcast and talking

about what you're doing, what, what are some of the roles that you are

filling with you and your team?

this is I'll probably ask for some business.

I.

Tips on this, but, what, tell me what your specific role is

currently with the organization.

We, so in addition to leading marketing across really any channel, and

we don't, we don't play in every channel.

You know, we're not, we're not advertising on television.

You're not gonna see a Super Bowl ad with Christian Community Credit Union.

You're not gonna see a, a stadium named after us.

But we are, we're, we are very active in the digital space.

So, digital marketing is a, is, has proven to be a very effective way to reach

Christ followers, across this country and make, and make known who we are and

who we serve and how we, how we serve God, and, and, and building the kingdom.

But we do a lot of, we do a lot of other things, internally and, and

something I love about being in, at Christian Community Credit Union, being

in a, you know, we are the largest faith-based credit union, but we're

small in comparison to, to even, you know, you mentioned Navy Federal.

They're much larger than us.

so it's a small team and we, we all jump in to help each other,

whether we're in operations or in our ministry development team or finance.

You really don't find people saying, that's not part of my job,

or drawing strong distinctions.

So people jump in on business development.

If we're, if we have an opportunity to serve a large ministry, we'll jump in as

marketing, others will jump in as well, to help serve that ministry's needs and,

and serve the members of that ministry.

so I, I, I, that's something that is just, I, I, I love about our culture

and a and, and a lot of it comes to.

Comes down to the, the mission that we profess to and who we serve, and,

and, and the, and the, the size, the, the size of the, of the staff.

People just

very willing to help.

What is, what is something, there's a lot of listeners

and myself included, that do things in that digital space and you know, you

don't have to gimme away any of your trade secrets or anything like that.

However, in the, in the spirit of good Christian sharing, what are, what are some

things that are working well for y'all now to, to get to your target audiences?

What are some either.

Techniques, tactics, you know, strategies.

What are some things that you're seeing?

This is working well and we're excited about this as

we, you know, head into this.

We're recording in early-ish 2024 as we head into 2024, what

are some things you're liking?

I.

So a lot of the work that we do to, to drive organic traffic.

So a lot of the search engine optimization work we do, is, is one, it's inexpensive,

and two, it can be very effective.

A lot of the work we, we do a lot of testing with, our user experience.

So we have a, we have, some tools in place that allow us to test one.

Presentation versus another one to find which one is going to resonate

most with, with website visitors.

and we have found some, we've found some tactics that work very

effectively in, in, in attracting.

New prospects and helping them discover our products and get through

the application process more easily.

And that's, that's also relatively inexpensive to do.

So, we do have, we do have good success with paid search, although, you know,

it's, we have to, it's, it is a daily.

Battle.

because, you know, big tech is not friendly to, to faith-based institutions.

And so we, we find that we have to continuously, and daily we have to, we

have to refine our, our strategies, our creative, because we will have creative

just get, you know, it maybe it mentioned, faith or was too faith-based, and it gets.

It doesn't get shown.

so it's, we have good success there, but it's, it's very, we have to be

very vigilant, in managing that.

And then we implemented a marketing automation solution, about a

year and a half ago, and that's been very good at helping us, to.

Connect with folks who may have started an application but didn't complete it.

Help encourage them to come back and, and, and pick up where they left off.

you know, we'll even connect, prospects with a, with a human being

to help 'em through the process.

so if, if, if it was something about the application that was too daunting,

we've got a, we've got somebody who is available on chat or even by

phone who can help them with that.

Very good.

So yeah, I heard, I, I and I like that SEO is a, is a strong source for you

and because those are obviously lower cost, but takes work over a long time.

And then I, I was wondering if y'all were doing.

Anything paid, and if y'all are seeing any positives or negatives, and I, I just,

it is an interesting world out there.

is Christian Community Credit Union, that is your website, is that kind of a

focal point that you would want to drive people to if they want more info for you?

Absolutely it's, it's my ccc.com and there you

can see, you can discover the products that we have to offer.

We've got a full range of banking and lending products for consumers,

as well as a full range of banking and lending products for churches

and ministries and business.

And then we have an entire section of resources.

Which, contains budgeting tools, stewardship tips.

we have a whole blog series on, on, raising your, helping your

children learn good financial habits, learn good stewardship habits,

learn, you know, giving back to, to the kingdom at an early age.

so a whole full set of resources there you can find as well.

Is this, and I'm actually scrolling down the site now, and

I like, this is, this is probably a good, marketing question that,

welcome CD five months, 5.25% a PY.

got my attention.

I'm sure that's, y'all are aware of that, right?

Mm-Hmm.

Compared to the, you know, the 0.001, I asked the guy, Wells Fargo,

I said, are you embarrassed even saying that rate that you're paying right now?

And he, he, he didn't know what to say.

He had no answer for that.

Sorry.

That was, that was probably me not being Christ-like to him is, and

if I need, I need to work on that.

And yeah.

I'm scrolling down through here.

So, so, business, is it possible for a business to have an

account outside of a ministry?

It is, yes, we have, a full range of business pro,

business products and services.

and, and, and now that's an area we're really looking to,

to have a greater impact on.

so we're really looking to expand the, the number of businesses we're able to serve.

so it's a big area of focus for this, this year, to not to continue serving

ministry, well continue serving consumers well, but we wanna be able to serve

Christian business owners as well.

Okay.

Very good.

All right, well, Aaron, I appreciate it.

I'm scrolling through here actually looking at things very intriguing to me.

So what else, what else would you like to say for someone to connect

with you or get together with you?

Where, where can they find you?

And just get more info.

And this is, this could be either you personally, or through the

credit union you gave the website, and we'll make sure we include

all those links and all the notes.

Beyond the website, my ccc.com.

you can find me on LinkedIn, Aaron Cade.

You can email me, a cid@myccc.com.

I'd be happy to hear from you and answer questions and help you discover, what

we have to offer at the credit union.

So, and we've got a whole, whole team who can, who can jump in and assist as well.

Good.

Yeah, I've had had fun with the conversation.

My final question, Aaron, we are seek, go create those three words.

Definitely have some spiritual meaning to them, but if I allowed you to choose

one of those over the other two and why, which word would you choose?

Seek, go, or create.

I would choose, create.

and I, and there's one, that's what I love doing.

I love building, I love making things.

so it's, I've had a great time doing that at the, at the, at

the credit union coming and just.

With my team, just building new things with the, with

the larger credit union team.

But it's taking, for me, it's, it's, it, it connotes taking the

resources God has given you and use them to create something bigger, in,

in, in his glory, in his service.

And so I, it just, I get excited thinking about, about creating new

things that are, to the glory of God.

Very cool.

Aaron.

I appreciate the conversation.

And for those that are listening in, go, go check out Christian Community

Credit Union, my CCU dot, was it or do

My ccc,

my ccc.com.

My ccu.com.

Yeah, very good.

And I'll tell you that one of the reasons that I even wanted to have this

conversation, 'cause I'm intrigued by the model and things like that, but it's

just something that's always nagging at me is, where's my money going?

Who is it supporting?

I.

You know, what degree of control and transparency do I have with it?

So I appreciate it.

This has almost been a little bit of me just checking it out to

see if it makes sense for, for me and my companies and businesses

and ministries that we have too.

So I appreciate it.

Go check out all that Aaron has and connect with him over on

LinkedIn if you wanna do that.

We are seek, go create.

We're releasing new episodes every Monday here.

Your support means the world to us.

Now you can tip us, buy me a coffee, or offer financial support@seekgocreate.com

slash support contribution.

Start at just $1, and if you leave a comment, your comment could

be featured in a future episode.

Once again, visit seek, go create.com/support.

Until next time.

Continue being all that you were created to be.