Credit Union Marketers: You need to upgrade your job

Why CU Marketers should quit their jobs in 2018

Quick, what would you say you do? If one of the first few words out of your mouth is “marketing”, you likely need to quit your job in 2018 — and immediately start your new career as “VP of Member Experience”. Or maybe even “Chief Experience Officer” (CXO). The title “Experience Officer” may be new,…

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get busy, get creative, and find ways to get things done anyway

Career lessons from the watermelon farm

I had a strange career before getting mixed up with credit unions, including a few years working at a mental hospital and 12 years in a busy rock band. But the one thing that makes people stop and ask questions is my time as a watermelon farmer in southern Indiana. I spent every summer when…

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What to do when there’s never enough time to get anything done.

There’s never enough time to get anything done. Between meetings and coffee breaks, conversations with co-workers and email distractions, the day seems to fly by and you never quite accomplish what you want to. Well, you’re not alone. And that may be part of the problem. In theory, bringing employees together for 8 hours a day, 5 days…

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A living example that not only graduated, but survived.

In order to show that it can be done.

My guess is that the prof needed an example of someone that survived a graphic design career. You know, in order to show that it can be done. At least I assume that is why I was invited back to my old college last week, to chat with a class of Juniors. It was an interesting process…

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All else being equal, who are you going to pick?

The Call of the Mild: What introverts can do that extroverts don’t

Let’s say it’s your task to hire someone to lead a team of professionals doing challenging work. All else being equal, are you going to pick the extroverted “people person” or the quiet, thoughtful introvert? Extroverts never seem to be at a loss for words, and always have a story to tell. They’re relaxed and comfortable…

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Which sounds more like your credit union?

Are you an Amazonian or a Walmartian?

It’s always interesting to compare credit unions to well-known “disruption” companies to see if there’s anything we can learn from their examples. Walmart and Amazon have massively disrupted retail, along with entire industries and communities. Love them or hate them (or both), their effect on the world has been huge. In addition, they are direct competitors…

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Disruption train: hop on or try to stop it?

Disruption tattletales

You generally see one of two reactions to any disruption: people who want to find out more and maybe get on board, and what I call “tattletales” — people who want to find any reason the disruption violates some principle or law, and they just want it to go away.

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There are times you need a mallet.

Your approach to problems: Caddyshack? Or Whack-a-Mole?

Some days you have one problem that just won’t go away. No matter how hard you try, how determined your approach, the problem always slips away at the last moment, which can leave you as crazy as Bill Murray’s character in Caddyshack. Other days, problems seem to come up one after the other, another popping up immediately…

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Dogged persistence, pure luck, and multiple attempts

Stop making things so gosh-darn hard

Why were these tasks so onerous? Last night (and early this morning) I helped my wife activate a new cell phone. A couple of weeks ago, I finally signed up for BlueIndy, an electric car sharing service. Last year, we refinanced our mortgage to take advantage of a lower rate. I tried to order a pizza…

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Pick up the phone and call! Rent-a-Brain operators are standing by.

Innnntroducing…Rent-a-Brain!

Are you responsible for too many initiatives, an overabundance of priorities, an excess of tasks at hand with way too few fingers to get it done? Are you a slam-packed, schedule-smacked, shell-shocked, docket-pocked shell of your former self, trying your best to appease particularly pesky purveyors of arbitrarily outrageous deadlines? In short, has the fun…

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