Jeremy Empol Takes the Reins at California's Credit Unions & Nevada's Credit Unions

I'm Natasha Chillingerian. - I'm Michael Ogden, and this is shared accounts with CU Times. And Natasha, you apparently have something fun to share with the group today. What is it? - I do. Okay, so I got this idea. So I think it was a few episodes back. We were recording, you did a quiz with Zach and I on, are you in the right job? - Oh, yeah. - It was a personality. - Yeah, multiple choice. And I was, oh, this is fun. And it made me think of back in like the 90s when I was in like, you know, junior high high school and degree 17 and team magazine or why I am and give those print analog, you know, media. - Okay. - And the quizzes they would have in there. And I was like, it was so funny if we could dig up one of those old quizzes and showcase it on the podcast and take the quizzes now. - Yeah, I love this idea. - Okay. - So I have a quiz. We're gonna take turns. I wanna start with you, Michael. And then we're gonna do Zach. - Okay. - And yeah, I'm gonna just keep Tally here with the score and the results. - Okay. - And yeah, I think it should be a music. - Wait, can I ask what is this an old quiz? - Yes, absolutely. So these are re-genuine quizzes from real magazines. - Which, what magazines is it from? - Okay, so this one, it is from YM. And I'll say that's one I didn't read as much. I was mostly a teen 17, but I think it stood for young and modern, I believe. I don't know who published it. It was either like a herster, CondiNAS. I've never did all the magazines. It is August 1996 issue of YM. And the topic is what's your party personality? - I love this. - Well, it's supposed to find out just where you fit into the social scene. - Awesome. Wait, wait, one more clarifying question. - Yes. - Should Zach and I answer these as if we were in the 90s? Is this a- - What would be more fun? Yeah, I think I mean, I think I can easily tap into younger me. - Okay, let's do it as a younger, yeah, let's, because then we can discover what you were like in the 90s, in 1996. - Okay. - Let's do my best. - Let's do it myself. Okay, it's 1996, you are, I don't know what you're doing, but you're still older than you. Yeah, I am 26 years old. - Okay, I was nine. - Okay, well then, I don't know, maybe you should do it as like your high school yourself. - I mean, 20-year-old me was transported to 1996. How about we all just pretend we were in our 20s? - Perfect. - Our teenies. - 20s, okay. - Our teenagers, 20s, okay. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - You were young, we were really dumb at the time. Okay, okay, so let's start with you, Michael. - Yeah. - So it's a little flow charge. So it's gonna be one question to the next, and then we'll tell you what you are. Okay. - Oh, sweet. - Okay, so first question, Michael, and there are just yes or no questions. Do crowds make you claustrophobic? - Yes. - Yes, okay. Next question, at a party, do you tend to stick with your best bud rather than work the room? - Yes. - Yes, okay. Next question, do your buds always call you to find out what the evenings plans are? - Hell no. - Okay, okay. Next, have you ever skipped a fiesta to spend a romantic evening alone with a special, I'll say a special gal? - If I'm gonna answer this like teenage me, I would say absolutely yes. - Yes, okay. All right, and then I think this is the final question here. You get a party invite in the mail. Do you immediately try to think up an excuse so you won't have to go? - I mean, can you imagine having that time to think? Well, I got it in the mail. You know? - And I actually just added that in. - Terrible, it was in the mail. - Well, okay, wait. I was thrown by the mail. - Yeah. - What was the actual question? - Like, so you get your invitation and you got it in your hands. Are you like, oh, I need to come up with an excuse so I won't have to go. - Yep. - Yes, okay. Well then, Michael, you are the mellow mixer. You prefer hanging one-on-one to then having to deal with a huge group. You feel so much more genuine when you're not schmoozing it up and your friends value you're a down-to-earth vibe. Just make sure that you don't get into a home alone rut. Sometimes you have to venture beyond your best bud for a social life. - That is so true. Okay, I love it. - So you were, okay, okay. - That's pretty accurate. Yeah, see this day, yeah. - Okay, so Zach, we can do you or, you know, I actually have another quiz. Maybe you can do this other one. This one is, and you can choose Zach. So would you rather find out what your party personality is or would you like to find out if your best friend in the high school version of you was good for you or not? - I'm 99% sure that I'm just gonna be answering the exact same way Michael did. So let's check out this. - Try something else. Okay, let's do it. - Let's do it. - Let's do it a variety. - Yeah. - Okay, so picture, who was like your best bud in high school? - Am I picturing it or am I saying? - It's up to you. You could say, it'd be funny if we could enlist someone that you could call me. - In high school, I had like a group and I would say like it was three people, Drew Savage Ains. - Drew Savage Ains. - Okay, all right, so let's kind of picture kind of them and what they might be doing back in the 90s. So this is from, it's also from an issue of why I am. February 1995, well, we're going back to time another year. - Okay. - The OJ Simpson trial has very started or hasn't started. - Oh, watching that. - Okay, so Zach, first question. This, I'm going to change it gender reversal 'cause obviously this is for written for a straight woman. Okay, your girlfriend dumps you and you flunk on a midterm on the same day. When you call your best friend to tell him, he, A, says that your problems aren't as bad as his and proceeds to list them, B, drops everything and lets you cry your heart out for hours, or C, tries to help you get a grip by putting things in perspective. - Let's say C. - Okay, seems reasonable, seems like a good way to respond. - Yeah, there wasn't a laugh at you option. (laughing) - So, okay. Okay, question two. It's the weekend and you're totally broke. Since your best friend has a job, you ask him for a loan. He, A, offers you all the money in his wallet, B agrees, but says that you should find a way to earn some extra cash or C, tells you that he's broke too and just can't lend you a dime. - That's a B. - B, okay. - Offers money, but doesn't not make fun of me for it. - Okay, okay. - All right, question three. You have nothing to do so you drop by his house. He's on his way out. He, A, blows off his plans to hang with you instead. B invites you to come along with him or C, just talks to you for a few minutes before taking off. 'Cause we would drop by houses, I guess, that was a thing back then. - Probably B. - Okay, so it's come along, yeah. Nice friend, okay. - If it's not like a date, how would they be? - Okay, you're leaving the bathroom at a party and you don't realize you accidentally tucked your skirt into your underwear. - Sack. - I know. - I know, so let's pretend you're wearing a skirt. - Okay. - Yeah. - That's fine. - Their friend, he either runs over and tells you and then shields you while you untuck it. B, lasts hysterically, making sure everyone is in on the joke. - B, B. - C, I knew that would be it. - Wait until you sit down, then close you in when no one else can hear. Okay, B, yeah, I feel like I'd be more appropriate for a boy's to be laughing than-- - It would be immediately, you know, I don't know what that is, I guess. - Okay, question five, you meet the girl of your dreams. When you tell your friend, he acts, A, psyched, but bummed that he's going to see less of you now, B, jealous, 'cause he wants a girlfriend too, or C, totally panic-stricken. Who will he hang out with now? If I had to pick one, A. - Okay. - No. - No, yeah, I mean. (laughs) And it's like just because you meet the person of your dreams, you're actually going to be with them. That's, it seems that's kind of funny. - The teen girl magazines were really optimistic. (laughs) - There's a whole, yeah, I mean, the way they, yeah, talked about stuff like that was pretty, pretty crazy and narrow-minded, but anyway. Okay, a few more questions left. You're having an all-time bad hair day. What does your friend say? A, tells you that your hair looks great. B, nothing. Try to make you feel better is not at the top of his priority list. Or C, says that your hair will look much better up than helps you put it up in a twist. (laughs) - I love this. I mean, the only realistic option is B. (laughs) You're so obsessed with your hair back then, I'm sure. - There wasn't a grise, yeah, that was good. - Bad hair day. That reminds me of the Kathy Pomick strip, where she would always be like, having a bad hair day and be like, "Sorry, I'm late for work, my hair won't start." (laughs) Okay, he clearly didn't read that. - You got the girl on the strip. - Her Kathy reference. - Kathy. - Okay, next. He lends you his favorite silk dress and you spill cranberry juice all over it. How would he react? - Oh, it's so cool. - A, blows up and demands you buy another one. - Yes. - B, says, don't worry about it, because he has lots of other dresses. Or C, is bummed, but says he'll get over it eventually. - Probably A, because it would have been his mom, so I'm guessing. - Yeah, sure. But if they lived in Massachusetts, they could have lived near a cranberry bog, and it might not be a big deal. - No. - Yeah, all of our closers stayed with cranberry. (laughs) - Yes, okay, so we are done with the quiz. - Okay. - Let me just kind of go through that. So we've got two. - You nervous, Zach? - I'm nervous. - I know what's it gonna be. Are you destined to be with this friend? - Nice. - Okay, eight, eight, let's say, 10, and then let's say, okay, 12, 13, 14, okay. - So it's math. - All right, yeah, it should be mostly A's, mostly A's. - It might be my idea. - It's like they mixed them up. Okay, so according to this, you have a bad news bud. Your friend, feelings for you seem to change more often than Linda of Vangelista's hair color. She's there for you when you're up but Pulse a disappearing act when you're down or he's a true best friend sticks around through the toughs times as well as the good try telling him that you want more than a part-time pal maybe he just needs you to clue him in on how to be a better bud. Yeah that's it. Yeah okay okay well yes so what did we learn about ourselves from these quizzes Michael and Zach? 90s me is pretty much the same me now. They mean yeah okay. I forgot I was supposed to be answering that way because it honestly was just kind of the same. Yeah so we have not changed right but I'd love the references. That's what I thought is most funniest about this like the celebrity references the you know yeah just the way people would talk anyway it's fun. I love it. So that's it. Show up on an ounce to their house. Yeah you made something. Yeah anyway that was my fun treat so Natasha thank you so much for digging those up I do want to play more of these but we need to maybe start the show but on the other side of the theme here I think we're gonna do a very quick quiz for you Natasha okay. Oh okay okay so everybody else glad you're here hope you enjoyed that. Welcome to Share2Counts with CU Types. Coming up we are talking with Jeremy Imple. He is the new president and CEO of California's credit unions and Nevada's credit unions. He took over for Scott Simpson who as you know is now leading America's credit unions. So Jeremy took over the home from interim CEO Lucie Edo who we also adore in early March and we're so excited to finally connect with them and find out what he has planned out west but first as we do we got to take a break from the week and check him Natasha. Hey Ian. Hey Ian. I love those quizzes. If you can find more super 90s you know whatever early 2000s stuff with those references I would love to. Yeah I think we should introduce it more I think and then it's just having a moment just it is. So I love it I'm here for it. Now speaking of which you sent me one ahead of time and I was I was kind of reading through it while you were giving Zach his quiz. Can I ask you a few questions for this quiz you sent me? Yeah absolutely. I am looking at it it's from June 97 and was this also from YM? Oh this one was actually from team magazine. Okay team magazine June 1997 I want to give you a couple of questions from here from this quiz. The quiz is do you have boys on the brain? I thought that was really funny. I think I'm a little I think I'd be inappropriate if I had boys on the brain right now it's the age of 43. But I love the references in here it says if guys if guys are your reason for living. Hold on Deemy. What wait for her to come down? Let me grab her. Okay. Right but we can put we can edit out. It's all standing. Okay. I'm not cutting anything. Yeah. She can't hear us. Okay. I'm back. Okay we're back. All right. Thanks Deemy. Okay Natasha we're doing the quiz. Do you have boys on the brain? Here we go. I'm just gonna do a few of these. Okay. Okay. There's like 11 questions here. Yeah that's a lot. Okay. Okay question one you're at the mall and your best friend has a major earth shattering story to share. You a give her your full undivided attention. B check out the guys behind her wondering if your hair looks okay. C note the hotties over her shoulder but decide her story is more important than scoping. I mean back then I'd probably I mean I don't remember seeing hot guys in the mall like that's why I went so I'd probably a yeah I mean I probably attention. Okay. Nice. Let's see let me your boyfriend dumps you. You feel a panicked and filled with the need to find a replacement pronto. Be sort of bombed see like swearing off men forever. That's funny because when you said that I remember that so I remember taking the quiz when the magazine came out in 97 and remember that those answers like they're still in my brain. Really was was your answer. Probably see I would say like swear I probably just being really a met yeah be like okay screw this. Okay. Okay. Okay I have to ask this one because of reference. Okay. You must hit 7-Eleven on a fro you run. How long does it take you to get ready? A few minutes doesn't hurt to look cute just in gaze. Be there. No time. The only guys on your mind are Ben and Jerry. Okay. See at least an hour if you happen to bump into a hot guy you want to look fierce. That's pathetic an hour. That's pretty awful. I would say that probably a I guess just because I don't I would have to look together. If it was now if it was now it would definitely be be I would not care about not what anyone thought I looked like. Okay my last question for you and then we got to get to the end. Okay. Okay. This I loved and Zach maybe you remember this but it says when watching party of five do you sometimes lose track of the storyline because you're too busy drooling over Scott Wolf. No way guys like him will only break your heart. Be always who can concentrate when Baybellicious Bayley is on. Oh my god. Jesus. Wow. Or see at times after all he's a Foxy Bella. Oh my god. Well I didn't watch party of five. I love that show. Like you know but I definitely liked having I liked a celebrity crush you know and watching I remember I watched boy meets world like the older brother will free well I think was the after but so I don't know yeah I guess probably see maybe yeah I would like to watch the you know a cute guy on the screen. All right because I didn't do the whole quiz I can't really add up anything. Anyway we want we can do more of those we need to condense them down a little bit maybe but I'd love the party of five question I love that bo Dean song do you remember that theme song closer to free. Yes sadly I don't because I never watched that we should maybe get into a clip you recognize it hold on we say I can find it like I'll then add while he's looking can I ask sure would you describe any of your celebrity crushes is Baybellicious I don't think I could ever use that word I mean that's a really corny sounding word so no I wouldn't describe them as Baybellicious. Here's a quick clip of close to the free. Oh gosh it's playing party of five. Oh that's so 90s. Yep love it. I don't want to play it too much and we can trouble copyright stuff and all. Exactly yeah oh that's fun though. Okay we should move on. Okay let's move on. Okay that was fun. Nothing to do with our interview but okay let's move on to it we got as well to switch gears here. Yeah like you said we finally had the pleasure of meeting Jeremy Empole we've been on chat with him for a while since we with that big transition was made with Scott Simpson going to America's credit unions Jeremy's been there for a couple months now and yeah it was really fun chatting with him he is super stoked to be back as he still lovingly calls it the league you know so even though they've rebranded of course he was away for a few years because he was there previously for about 16 years doing advocacy and so yeah but it was fun because he was like oh yeah I have it's at the same phone number the same email address and I even knew where the bathroom was on the hall so yeah that was he's very happy to be back. We had a fun conversation about how we approaches you know discussing the credit union agenda with elected officials some good kind of like thoughts about that with I believe it was we were speaking with was adjacent stirrock and Elizabeth Euribubian about oh yeah do we have to tell the credit union 101 stories at these days yeah he talks about how he really finds a connection like with the elected official like what's what do they care about and then how do the credit unions fit in with that like whether it's agriculture or something that they're focused on and keeping the conversations hyper-mocal so I thought that was some good good advocacy advice there and at the end of our interview he has a really fun answer to our question of what was your first ever paid job enjoyed that hint for our listeners it will make you very nostalgic for for summertime and hot weather and it also has a connection to celebrity sightings so yeah it's a lot of fun Jeremy Emple we got that coming up for you it's a real media interview so stay tuned got all that coming up next Joining us in the virtual studio today is Jeremy M. Poll, president CEO of California's Credit Unions and Nevada's Credit Unions. Hey Jeremy, welcome to Shared Accounts. Great to be here. Thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks for joining. Hey, so where are you calling in from today? I might not, you know, representing more than one state, obviously. Yeah. Wasn't sure where you based. I'm in our Sacramento office in here in California, looking across the street at the Capitol. So I can see that what's lovely about this office is that it's 90 miles from Carson City so we can be over at the Capitol and over in Nevada. And in fact, I was there yesterday in the Reno area with one of our members. So it's really nice to be here for us. Nice right in the center of it all. Sounds like I just said. That's awesome. I think I just said Sacramento, yeah. Hey Jeremy, I want to ask you if I can't really quit just because I find it very unusual. Have you been paying attention at all that the Oakland days are playing in Sacramento? As a tried-and-tru Dodger fan, absolutely. We have my son and I have tickets for Dodgers are here the last week of June. Okay. And went to a game last year. In fact, for Dodger fans out there, there was a last year. There was a Max Munzie on the A's. And there's a Max Munzie who is one of our favorite players of Dodgers. So we called him the imitator. Yeah, we, we, we, I remember to the stadium quite a few times because I live in West Texas. Fantastic. And I apologize Natasha. I wasn't planning on asking you about that. Hey, we're starting with the fun part, I guess. Exactly. All right, I'll shut up. Okay, that's okay. Yeah, so no Jeremy, so you are, you're fairly new. So congratulations on the new role. Yeah. They're exciting. And we're finally getting a chance to catch up with you. So just start off, tell us kind of what has it been like so far for you the past two months being in the role? But what have you like been focusing most of your time on so far as the new CEO? Well, it's been great to be back with the Lee. Still called the Lee, even though we are calculating his credit unions and the baddest credit unions. I do view it as the association is where we are now versus the league where I used to work. Oh, I only do that because we are significantly different, but we're still here serving our members and especially with our focus in emphasis on advocacy. We talked about that I'm here in the Sacramento office. I'm in the same suite in our office that I was in before. Oh, I mean, my cell phone number, my office number, all that stuff. You know, everything is the same as it was when I was here and I did that intentionally. Oh, that's cool. I knew a lot of folks, you know how it is with your phone. You keep a contact and you don't update it so everybody still has that. So it made the transition easier. In terms of the credit union family has been nothing but supportive and I really feel welcome back with open arms to our members here in California and Nevada. And across the country, now when I was at the Home Alone Bank, I also had Arizona. So I got to know a couple of the credit unions over there. Well, and we can talk a little bit about the Home Alone Bank experience in the fit. Sure. You know, and then nationally, right? And when I left, it was QNAA and Nafq and now it's ACU and the merger and the team. So it's good. I've been reconnecting with a lot of our members and then a lot of our system players. And then I have a lot of really great connections, mentors and peers across the league system. There's a couple of league presidents who have just been outstanding contacts for me, who, you know, moments of support and whatnot. And that's really helped me then to spend time with our boards and spend time with our members to really focus and align. And the team has just been phenomenal. Now that was one of the big appeals to come back with here in Sacramento and our advocacy team. In general, I was of the 13 of us, seven I had worked with and one I recommended for a job. So take a lot of ownership and pride in being a part of the team and now getting to lead it. So you had the same phone number, same email and you knew where the bathrooms were. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Kind of a great way to start. And the coffee shop in the basement. I love it. So you're mentioning the other gig that you had for 16 years at the Federal Home Lumbank of San Francisco. Well, let me correct you. Oh, sorry. I got that back. Backwards. Three years at the Home Lumbank. Three years. 15 years here at the league. So I apologize. I'm terrible at math for one for two. I was curious. Were you able before you left? Were you working with Scott Simpson then at all? Oh, yes. Okay. Scott and I there was a project at the end of well, mid through COVID. Yeah. We got to finish it about the end of 22. And that was right when I left. And Scott was one of the league presidents and I was one of the, at that point, it was the senior vice president of federal government affairs. So we were working on how the system advocates together. Yeah. So we were in partnership. And we, it's Scott and I and Steven Nelson who now runs fuel solutions, but was at the utali at the time. We all worked together on several projects. That's one of the best parts about the system is that we're always collaborating on some form of project together. There's always something. We know, hey, I'd love to chat with you about your thoughts on this. You know, even just where you'll text and ask each other a question and get three or four different perspectives. You know, there's a lot of that that happens. Can I ask you about your time at the federal home loan bank of San Francisco about how that prepped you for this CEO job you're in now? So when I'm here at the league, it's a trade association a part of this massive movement, right? We're much more than just your trade here. Yeah. At the bank, it's an institution. So from an advocacy perspective, we would call it people in advocacy, technically working one of three lanes, right? Well, four government or when you go private sector, it's called in-house, which is what I did at the home loan bank trade, which is being here at the associations, or a multi-client, which would be like a firm that has multi-client. So it was a big jump in the sense of always doing trade to moving to in-house. Because when you work at a trade, you work on a team of advocates that understand in your educating your membership about being a part of the advocacy effort. When I went to the bank, I was the only person who spoke the advocacy language, and it was my job to be the expert in it, and then to teach the others, whether they were the C-suite or the employees, to be the conduit for them. So it prepared me in a whole different way to one-hound how to communicate. The other thing is, these are financial services professionals doing a whole lot of very complex operations. Home loan banks are often misunderstood because of the complexity of how they operate in the background, but they are essential for the financial services sector in the United States. Now, much like credit unions, they are cooperatives. They're member-owned, and they don't pay taxes. They are government-sponsored enterprise, and they are an instrumentality of the federal government. That being said, they are still a privately capitalized cooperative. So working in that field, telling that story, helping it have some clarity around what it is that the home loan banks role is. A lot of people think of home loan banks as the solution to wonderful life. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Run scene, right? How do you stop a bank? Run? How do you stop a run on a credit union? And they're the liquidity provider. And we always told the story is, in that infamous scene, if the town people had come in and the home loan bank had been there, George Bailey would have picked up the phone, called this home loan bank, said, "I need to pledge my collateral. I need to get liquidity." And he would have sent everybody on their way because they would have all had access to their funds. I'm up for rewriting that movie. It really drives me nuts. Another story for another day. Okay. So that's one avenue, the comparables between the credit union system and the home loan bank system. So I, it's never truly way. The other thing is, in that cooperative, are credit unions, banks, CDFIs, and insurance companies. It allowed me exposure to the banks. And we all knew everyone at the home loan bank knew I was the credit union guy. So I spent a lot of time really developing relationships with bankers and the insurance companies. And a little bit with the CDFIs. We had about 10 CDFI members. So that got me a lot of exposure to the banking sector in California, Nevada, and Arizona. And then the last piece was to prepare me for this role was communicating to the C-suite and to the board in a different way. Again, they're not engaged in the advocacy on a day-to-day basis. And so I had to go into, for example, my last year, our CFO was our interim CEO. And he thought very differently than the two prior CEOs I had in my early tenure. And so we would have really complex conversations that were good, where he would explain how he looked at impact first, bottom line things first, and then getting into what the political message was or how we navigated the narrative. So a different challenge, and that's what we need to prepare to communicate differently with the credit union members across the space. Wow. Nice. Yeah. Well, and also thanks for that explainer on the-- Yeah, it's a little long there, I know. I don't know, because I think it's a little misunderstood. Like, what would you hear about the Home Loan Bank? We'll just hear about them when they're helping out a credit union do a home loan program, you know, helping their members by homes and all that. But yeah, in general, I don't think it's talked about as much. So yeah, thanks for that explainer. And I'll add this for your audience. For years, credit unions have discussed the name. Are we really credit unions? Are we not for profit financial cooperatives? How do we want to be known as? Well, the Federal Home Loan Bank is not an institution of the federal government. It does not make home loans, and it's not a bank. So the grass is not always greener on the other side. All right. OK. So Jeremy, let's go back to just talk a bit more about your new role as CEO. You touched a little bit so far on some people in the industry, some previous league presidents that you said have been good mentors and collaborators and all that. I'm curious when you look back at some of the previous CEOs of the, as you call it, the league. I still like to call it the league, too, was when I started at CU Times, it was still the league. You know, people like Bill Cheney was there, and then of course Diana Dykstra, who recently retired. I was curious, like, were they people that you interacted with and maybe learned from at all? And then I guess what do you say that you are uniquely bringing to the table now under a Jeremy California Nevada league era that might be unique, maybe from maybe past leaders that eventually? Great question. Bill is still with us as CEO of schools first federal credit union, our largest member, and I talked to Bill pretty frequently. He was the CEO when I started in 2007, for my first four years, and worked with him when he was at QNA, and then back to schools first, and we worked together. We were at a conference about two weeks ago together, and we've had conversations between Bill and I, but yes, I call it a lot. Diana, great leader, inspirational leader, worked for her between when Bill left and until when I left. Diana really taught me a lot about the operations of the credit unions. She was actually the chair of the committee I first reported to when I was the grassroots director, my very first job at the league. So she was very instrumental in my development and understanding really down to the foundational pieces of what credit unions are, and I draw on a lot of that wisdom pretty regularly. Now you phrase the question a little interesting about what it's going to be like under me. My view is this is a member driven association. Members always come first. So I'm going to be a reflective of the members, and about three years ago when Scott came to lead California, Nevada, and Utah, he created the Fuel Solutions model, which we can talk a little bit about if you'd like. And in that model, it now puts advocacy as the front piece of the league and sourced properly, and that's where really where I bring my area of expertise. That's not to say that the business element of the former league service corps and the operation side of the leagues aren't important. It's just now in a shared service model so we can really devote the resources to where our members want them to go. So as I said, the members are always going to come first for me, and I'm always going to be thinking about them, and they've made advocacy the priority. And so that's where I'm going to be reflective of the membership. Can I ask you a kind of move it on from that? A blunt question really. What are the top say two advocacy issues this year for credit unions in California, Nevada? So we're talking about legislative and regulatory. Okay. We can go in a couple different directions. Sure. First of all, last year the state legislature passed a cap on overdraft non-sufficient funds. When they did that, it's it really singled out credit unions in a different way. Now the league negotiated it into something manageable, but of course it left an impact on a lot of credit unions, and we've seen migration to the federal charter for significant amount of credit unions in California. The league's job is not to tell our members how to do their business. It's to create the optimal environment for them to operate and serve their field of membership. So we take it very seriously when we don't have competitiveness in the federal and state charter. But I can't say that's the top priority. I would say that it's the operating environment in general, making sure our credit unions have that ability to serve their members. Right? Everything seems to be some new challenge to credit unions, and they've asked us to look at all sorts of different small little regulations all the way to big chartering issues. So I think it's really the operating environment is the number one answer. Now on the legislative front, California has had its fair share, and we can definitely see it. We hear it from our peers across the country. We had the Community Reinvestment Act legislation last year, and it's still alive this year. Stay tuned with us on that one. I think I was about my third or fourth week on the job, the legislative analyst office here in Sacramento, which is kind of the congressional budget office version of Sacramento. Release this massive study on how to tax different items. We're in there. Yikes. Well, credit union investments. We're in there. Okay. Okay. And to that respect, that was, you know, first of all, the leagues are built for that fight. And on top of that, we were the first call to the legislative analyst office. He told us when we talked to him about it and got the background and had better understanding. And we had some good conversations that spawned from there with the legislators, the chairman of the two budget committees, and our leadership offices. So it's been a lot on the legislative and regulatory front. And I know you wanted to kind of simple answer there, but I don't want to tell you with California. Never going to be just our environment. Yeah. Right. I think we're going to interview Diana while back. She said it like California is a beast in itself. Yeah. I compared to the other states. So and given the national sentiment and the politics of our state, it's a little different in that respect when you are the counterweight to the nation. And here we are financial institution trying to do its best and do right by its members. Yeah. You got cooperative. That's there to support the membership. And so that takes additional education. But we also find that elected officials do a really good job of hearing us out. There are some that are dug in. There's no question of that. But others are pretty reasonable because they don't want to see financial institutions leave the state. They don't want to see hyperregional, which is happening in the banking sector. They want to see economic growth and prosperity for their constituents. And they want us to do that. Right. Well, Jeremy, that was actually going to be my next question is just more generally speaking, not on specific issues here. But when you're speaking with elected officials about issues that impact credit unions, are you finding that they're receptive to it? And do they understand the credit union difference? Or do you find a lot of times you have to kind of explain like just credit union 101 to many of them? I mean, it sounds positive. It sounds like they're in favor of economic growth in their areas. But yeah, it was kind of curious about that just overall. What's your approach to explaining the credit union difference and how receptive are they to that right now? It's never quite black and white. If you think about an elected official, think about all the headlines you see in a daily basis, right? Just in your personal reading that you'll see on the news, right? Whatever your news sources, you're going to see five different topics in seven different areas. Right. It's not always going to be clear when you're in a elected official is exactly how they want to perceive an issue that's impacting their constituents. And they want to see their communities thrive. So they know that means that needs development. So when we go in there and talk with them, there were some that are experts in understanding what a difference between a credit union and another depository is or a non-bank lender. If you talk to them, there's some that are, you know, they're focused on agriculture and they're focused on labor. That's really their keen, right? So you've got to find that connection. What I've found and what we're going to be focused on as a teen here is making it hyper-local. And what I mean by that is if an elected official feels and sees it from their constituents, they're going to take the time to understand it. So let me give you a couple examples. My last year at the league, there was a member of Congress from Southern California and he calls me on a like random Wednesday night and says my son was just in a car wreck. He's okay, but he needs the car to get to college into his job. Does one of the credit unions have some like really great deal or something like that in case a program is like this? And so take us pause right there. So his family just has an emergency. What does he do? He calls the person he trusts in advocacy and understanding financial institution. And so that right there is that trust of understanding the difference, right? Then I'm able to connect him with three or four credit unions in his district that he would fit the field of membership for and that I know have significant auto programs. And what they were able to do, no special treatment, same thing they would do for any member. Yeah. They helped his son out. If son got a car in the next two days, he was able to go about his life and take care of the things he would do. Likewise, for another story with a member of Congress in Northern California, who had a granddaughter who was so excited to get her brand new car at a 20% interest. Right? Yeah. Thanks. Okay. The member of Congress knew his local credit union CEO. And the CEO said before we do anything, we want to bring her in, give her financial education, help her understand the whole thing. So the member of Congress came along with her. They did the whole program together and you know, they brought me over there as well. And at the end of it, he said, I can't believe you do this. And as the CEO said, we do this for every one of our members every day. Yeah. That's how you tell the difference. When they see that, when they feel it, not just in their families, but they see it for their communities. That's how we tell the difference. And that's the area. That's sort of cool. That's fantastic. Good stories. Hey, and I could dig into that stuff a lot because of some banker op-eds that have been floating around the country, but maybe we'll come back at another time and revisit that messaging, you know. Sure. And I'm happy to chat about the bankers here. It's a very different environment. Yeah. Especially California Nevada. And again, the last three years, I've been working with their trade associations. Okay. I know the bank Well, and I know the different areas that they have to focus in. So happy to elaborate on that as well. Yeah, I would love to dig into that, but I want to go into something you've mentioned a couple of times now, which is fuel solutions. We have talked to people at the leagues about this. I want to hear an update. See if you have anything for us about the impact fuel solutions has made so far in any plans for other initiatives like that. Sure. Well, first of all, let's make sure we're all on the same field and understand what fuel it. Yeah. Because we've done a lot of education with our members to make sure they fill it. Fuel solutions is based off of an alliance between California and Nevada and Utah. So I'm the lead president for California and Nevada. And Rusty Cannon, he's the lead president for Utah. And how we work is through this alliance model to make sure we're collaborating so that the advocacy piece can be properly sourced. We only focus of the league. It's to properly source advocates. And we're able to take all of our back end pieces, which includes our education, our events and our business solutions. And we're able to scale them all together through a collaborative and an alignment. Right? So it's not a merger. Yeah. Utah is independent and we support everything that Rusty's doing there and vice versa. He does with us in California and Nevada. So for example, this week they just had their executive summit. The team from fuel solutions meet up of some people from California, some people from Nevada and some from Utah. They are supporting them to make sure their event is successful for their members. Yeah. That's all. At our government relations rally in April, I brought the team from the lead, quote unquote, upon stage. And I asked our members, I said, can you tell who works at fuel and who does it? And the reason why is you should never know. Right. All behind the scenes. Yeah. And it allows us then to properly source advocacy. And one of the things that's been a huge benefit is we've added in California and Nevada to new staff, one in federal government affairs and one in state government. And that's how fuel works. And then all the mechanics of running the lead behind the scenes happen within collaboration over fuel. Steven Nelson, he's their executive director. And we think of him as our EVP of credit union service. And he's much of a part of us and everything we do every day. And then his team, I talked to them as if they were part of the lead. And to your question about future initiatives, stay tuned. We're working on a few things. Steven's been in his role four months now. Been in my role two months. Rusty, I think, has been just over a year and fuel turns one year in July. So we have a few things we're working on. Lots of alignment, hitting the ground running, but all good things. And again, so we can get those proper resources into advocacy and focus on what matters most are members. Awesome. Great. And thank you for that explainer because it can be a little confusing when it's, you know, there's three states and you're kind of wondering how exactly are they connected. And that's a very good explanation of how sourcing the advocacy and all that. So yeah, thank you for that. Absolutely. Wanted to actually move on to this is a topic that this has been bid for us the past week. A bid news announcement. Finally, a nomination to the NCAA board, you know, as you know, we've been going on for a while with just one board member with Kyle Hopman. Now there's a new nominee, John Cruz. We don't know a ton about him yet. It was just curious if you had any thoughts on this kind of what's happening at the NCAA with the board and this transition that might be coming up soon. Any hopes of what you might be, you know, hoping to see from John Cruz. It is if he is confirmed and then see you overall. Sure, I give a lot of credit to the team here at the league that was again here before I was at the governmental affairs conference. They had been focused on expanding relationships with different regulatory bodies and the Treasury Department. Lisa Korntona, our VP of regulatory affairs, had really been working on this and she invited him to address California Nevada, Utah on that second day of the GAC. And that was before she knew he was about to be appointed to the NCAA board or the rumor was about to break. I was going to say the appointment only happened last week. Yeah. So it was great and I was there in my capacity from the home loan bank. So we got to all have a few minutes with him and chat. I can't speak much to him. I mean, it was very nice and pleasant conversation, but he was a true free official. Now, I can say I knew his predecessor in Trump won who was a consultant of mine at the federal home loan bank. So I got to kind of get a good understanding of how at least it was from the first Trump administration and how Treasury was effective. Now, generally my philosophy shows that NCAA is our home turf. They are a bread and butter. They are a regulator. We spend a lot of time also on the CFPB. So when we look at FSOC, for example, they're the core meeting board for all banking regulators. Right. And their mission is financial stability. You can see at the end of the day who really pulls the strings in those rooms and how it's ordered. And while it is a collaboration of all the banking regulators, Treasury is the conduit. Right. So I do think Mr. Cruz will have a great line of sight into how Treasury is aligning with the banking regulators if he's confirmed. And I think that will then allow him to execute the mission that he's been given from the administration in the White House. But again, all I can say so far is a very pleasant conversation with him. And I can only help for continual good things from the NCAA in terms of the deregulatory package that Sherman Hopman is executed. Yeah. And we'll probably again, like other things, loop back around with you and talk about that down the road. But I want to ask about one really kind of important issue out there, which is about small credit unions. Sure. And you know, I know it was a focus and it continues to be a focus for Scott Simpson. He focused on it while he was at out west. And now with America's credit unions, what are you seeing as the challenges for small credit unions? What are they facing in California and Nevada? And what are you doing to help support? When I spoke about the operating environment here in California and somewhat in Nevada, I think the impact it has on all sizes of credit unions is incredibly important. The smaller the credit union, the harder it is, just given the operating challenges, right? We're a high wage state, for example, a lot of labor laws, the general complexities of operating a small business. I have a particular phone is for the small credit unions. And while we're in a podcast, you can't see I'm actually holding a pen that one of the small credit unions made based off of like grassroots program, we started in my first or second year at the league. It was about getting our grassroots letters going in a system we call Connect for the Cause and payroll deduction, how we support PAC. And it was this one two punch campaign. Now this credit unions CEO, he created these pins to support the program independent of us and handed them out those who were participating. Small credit unions can do big things. Yeah, that is not my line. That is one of our small credit unions, Alan from parishioners. I got my second week on the job when we were talking. All right. And I do have a particular fondness for the role that they play. I spent a lot of time with them because I want to understand the different challenges they have. And in fact, last week was at a conference that several small credit unions in Southern California have found together to create an alliance for and we kind of did this kind of conversation. And California and Nevada have always had our Shapiro network, which is for credit unions of today, I believe it's under 278 million in assets. And this is a strong network that was established, I think even before Dave chapter. And it allows them to collaborate together. It provides grants and opportunities for educational growth or technical assistance, actual operations at the branch. I'm a huge proponent of our partners in advocacy program, which helps larger not just credit unions, but our larger partners like true stage or Valera sponsor small credit unions to go to the GAC. We do a lot of those kinds of works, but really to given what's happened with the small credit unions right now that I always call this Shapiro. I just want to make sure we're on the same terminology. Got it. And what they need is listening and I've been taking a lot of time just to listen to what they say. Now we also have on our board two Shapiro credit union leaders and I'm listen to how they're navigating different challenges and we talk and check and frequently about these things to make sure they're adequately represented. And the team also knows it's a passion project for me too. So I don't think there's any doubt of their representation and voice here at the league. Nice. Nice. Okay. And I'll thank you a picture. I will send you a picture of the pin. Oh, that would be nice included in our show notes. 2008. Very quickly. Jeremy. Was it Alan who made it? No, with air. Okay. With what you Alan Alan gave me the notion of small credit unions gave you big things. Okay. Thanks Alan. And where parishioners credit. I just want to make sure we give proper credit. Please do. Yeah. Love that. Yeah. Because I know a lot of conversations have taken place around, you know, being merged out of existence, like these smaller credit unions with all the consolidation. But yeah, it's really nice to see this big push. Okay, Jeremy. Just one more question before we move on to part two of our interview. Another kind of blunt question. I guess just from your perspective and, you know, kind of overseeing California Nevada and your knowledge of the credit unions in those two states. those two states, what would you say are the biggest things that are keeping the credit union CEO up at night in 2026. That could be any number of things I suppose, but what would you say about that? Listening to them both during my time at the Home Lombang and my time here back with the lead. I think one theme always emerges and it's the lack of consistency as the political plenium swings. They need to be able to serve their members, they need consistency. And when the operating environment goes from built and suspenders here in Nevada to very little regulation or reversing things they've built policies for and built infrastructure for that. On the service looks like it's helping them with regulatory relief, but what it's really doing is tackling the cost that they've already invested in and making them go back to something they did. So it's not consistent. I would suggest from the greater knowledge I've learned from them consistency is number one in the operating environment. Number two, as I've mentioned several times today, the environment itself, just the onslaught of things they have to comply and operate with. Make sure that they can do what they're charged to do and they're all really good at doing that. Of course, we need the stories they send you about how they save the consumer, how they help their members in hard times. Last week I had the privilege of touring one of the foundations of a credit union and seeing the work they're doing that helped the unhoused and the homeless community. The fact that firefighters and police officers volunteer at their credit union to make packages that go out into the shelters. There is a tremendous amount of work of people helping people happening and they want to do more of it. They just can't do it if it's just not a consistent environment because at the end of the day they are running a fully functional cooperative that has to meet operational goals. The thing I guess you took from the previous job is just learning up close what they're really dealing with and thinking about. Jeremy, now let's move on to part two. This is going to be all about you. We're going to focus on you anyway. We're going to focus on the next job. Let me ask you a question. Do you know of the town Pine Mountain Club? If you go further into the woods, pass Frazier Park for another half an hour. It's probably not known that's the fun part of it. It's kind of hard to say it, especially because I came from a working class family. I'm not going to name it, but they were planning. Jeremy, let me ask you about growing up there. What was your first ever paid summer or after school job? The first one was actually in the shopping center. I was talking about that a little more on the expensive side. I had to learn all 31 flavors. There were way more than 31. I'm not going to say that. I'm going to ask you this out of the following characters from these political or government theme TV shows and movies. The choices are Selena Meyer from the play Julia Louis Dreyfus, Leslie Noep from Parks and Dread, play by Amy Poler, Tracy Flick from Election, play by Reese Witherspoon, that was a funny movie. - And for the ample presidency O of California's credit unions and Nevada's credit unions, thank you so much for joining us today. This is a lot of fun. - Great thing for having me. - Thank you, Jeremy. - Absolutely. - And to all of our listeners, thank you for downloading today's show. Please subscribe to share to counts with CU Times and all the normal podcast places. And be sure to share the episodes with everyone you know, coworkers, old coworkers, new ones, friends, relatives, you know the drill. - Yeah, everybody at the Baskin Robbins, just let them know. Feel free to rate us too. As always, thank you so much to our producers, Zach Neihysel, thanks, Zach. Join us again next time for a new episode of Share to Counts with CU Times. Until then, thanks for listening. (upbeat music) (whooshing)