ICYMI: In case you missed it

In Case You Missed It (Vol 17)

True facts you won’t believe. Great ideas and voltage drops. Provocative lip balms, why we need small CUs, and a disgusting political party quiz. Here are the items that caught our eye, in case you missed it:

Powering through the “voltage drop” when you have a great idea

I subscribe to Behavioral Scientist, and you should too. This article, titled The Five Vital Signs of a Scalable Idea and How to Avoid a Voltage Drop explained so much that I’ve observed and wondered about. I’ve had some really big ideas that turned out even better than imagined, and frankly, quite a few big ideas that I still think are great but… went nowhere. Now I know a little more about why.

To be seen, you have to stand out

How does a smaller company compete against mega-brands? Do something that stands out. The Long Winter Soap Company not only takes a stand, they stand out amongst their competitors with a line of “Provocative Lip Balms”. Each one has different ingredients, but it’s the name that makes it clickable marketing. It reminds me of how you can turn something as common as a loan product into something much more noticeable by marketing it under a new name.

Yes, small credit unions can thrive

When you keep seeing headlines like this, you sometimes wonder about the future of smaller CUs. As more CUs merge out of existence, we’re losing an important part of the movement’s vitality, diversity, and resilience. Sam Brownell of CUCollaborate recently published this fantastic article on some of the challenges facing smaller credit unions, how to solve them, and why we need small credit unions. We also addressed some of the marketing and brand challenges of small CUs in Five Ways to Make a Small CU Roar. Small CUs are worth saving AND worth creating!

True facts you won’t believe

Have you ever thought, “that can’t be possible!” only to find out it was not only true but documented? The AskReddit community recently put together a lot of surprising facts and crazy coincidences. Some of these seem like 1-in-a-several-million chance, while others sound like complete nonsense (except they’re not!) Here are some of our favorites:

  • Tarantulas keep tiny frogs as pets
  • Dragonflies accelerate at up to 4G and corner at up to 9G
  • The Australian Funnel Web spider is considered the deadliest, despite not having a confirmed kill in over 40 years (when the antivenom was created)
  • President Jimmy Carter rappelled into a nuclear reactor that was in partial meltdown to stop the meltdown and save Ottowa (before he was president, of course)
  • From the time it was discovered to the time it lost its status as a planet, Pluto made it less than a third of the way around the sun
  • An Australian man won the lottery, then, to re-enact it for the news he bought another ticket…and he won the lottery again…on camera
  • Oxford university is older than the Aztec empire
  • An average cumulus cloud weighs 500,000 kg or 1.1 million pounds

A kinder, gentler CU chartering process?

NCUA recently announced some changes to make the arduous process of chartering a de novo (new) credit union a little easier. The beginning stages of the process are now done online, and the guidance materials are easier to understand and follow. Although there’s still a long way to go to modernize and streamline the regulations and the process, it’s a very welcome step. And yes, we still need de novo (new) credit unions; there are important underserved groups of people who need credit unions.

Remote work might actually be better

This study conducted by a research team at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health shows some evidence that remote work could enhance employee and company resiliency. In particular, their results suggest that there is no negative impact on workplace productivity. With many credit unions and other corporations still debating the benefits of remote work, this research could help you keep your sweet home office setup.

A quiz to show your political party preference? Now that’s disgusting!

The word disgust comes from a phrase that means “to have a distaste for.” Well, apparently, those yucky things that disgust us can tell us a lot about us. Not only can disgust help us differentiate between safe and unsafe things, but it can apparently tell us how we really feel about something, since those “gut reactions” are less influenced by our thoughts and reasoning. In 2007, a group of psychologists took this idea and developed a “disgust scale” that can determine your political party preference in just 27 questions. You can take that quiz here. (Fair warning: some gross references, but thankfully no pictures included. And yes, it does tell you what political party you lean toward, but we have not verified its accuracy, and we certainly aren’t trying to make a political statement here.)

Compliance MUST be member-friendly

This Finopotamus article from Greg Bierl, The Consumerization of Compliance Is Key caught my eye. Basically, you simply cannot afford to make compliance a burden on your members, but the good news is that there are lots of ways to make compliance marketing and member-friendly. As I’ve pointed out a few times, compliance constipation creates a real risk that you’re wasting money and time. You have to think carefully and creatively to find that balance and remove sludge wherever it appears.

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