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Cotribute is the award-winning fintech platform that enables membership and margin growth through delightful digital acquisition and onboarding experiences. Cotribute seamlessly integrates with Core, LOS and online banking systems and is on a mission to deliver compelling digital experiences to every credit union member.

Learn more about how Darius and other credit union leaders leverage Cotribute to deliver compelling digital experiences that grow deposits and loans.

Transcript

Samantha

Darius, thank you so much for taking time to chat with us today. We're really excited to hear about your background, your experience in the Credit Union space, and some of your thoughts around technology and the importance of it in our world today. So, if you wouldn't mind we could start off with a little bit of background about you, how you got into the role that you're at now, just a little bit about your background and career journey and what drew you to Red Rocks?

Darius

Absolutely. First,Sam, thank you for having me and thanks for your partnership.

So appreciate the partnership Cotribute's provided to us as a tech partner over the last several years. A little bit about my background - I grew up in Michigan. I'm a Michigander. Go Blue!

 I'm a Michigander, moved to Georgia for my undergrad. I'm a proud graduate of an HBCU, which is Brown College, way back in 2003. That doesn't seem like a long time to some of you, but that is a long time ago.

I did some graduate studies at Denver Seminary. My family and I moved to Denver and then I did some certificate work at MIT and so a little bit of a winding path - immediately after graduating college I went into vocational ministry and felt compelled to go into that line of work. Oddly enough, my major, my first major in college before switching to theology was business. I was actually a dual major of business and psych.

I've always had a passion for business, always had a passion for people, and I chose the people side of the equation and graduated with a theology degree in 2003. I went into vocational ministry, spent about fifteen years in vocational ministry, then switched over into the executive nonprofit leadership space and led for a while (when we moved to Denver) a nonprofit at that time called Upstream Impact. It was really designed to help families who live below the federal poverty guideline exit poverty and pursue a better quality of life. So really, that kind of grassroots community work was a lot of my foundation, both in vocational ministry and in the nonprofit space, and then I took another pastorate job here in Denver, and at that point in time the long-time CEO was a treasurer on our board and we developed a mentorship relationship.

I was a lead pastor there, and he asked me a question one day, he said, “hey, what do you want to do for the next chapter of your career? Is this what you want to do long term?” And my response to him was, “Oddly enough, I've been thinking about making a transition and a career change” and he said, “Well I'm gonna make it hard for you.” I was vetting some options at that time. He said, “I'm retiring in about five to seven years, and I'd love it if you would process coming into the organization and being my number two.” His comment initially caught me by surprise.

But he had been in this industry for close to three, I think four decades at that time. He held the CEO position for twenty plus years. And so to say that he knew the industry was an understatement.

And he said a phrase to me that really struck me and caught my attention. He said “Darius, I can't teach what you do and who you are, but I can teach you the industry. You're a leader of leaders. I'd like that skill set to be in our organization. So I'd hire you as my number two, and we'll see what happens next." Obviously, choosing the next CEO wasn't solely his decision. Long story short, in 2019, I joined the team at Red Rock as its Chief Impact Officer.

The idea around that role was essentially a number two role with the Chief Operating Officer title or framework, if you will. But without the pressure of moving into that role in totality, especially being newer to the industry.

So I was responsible essentially for running the day to day operations and assimilating into the culture of Red Rocks and the industry at large.

One of the things that I love about our industry and loved from the onset was this concept of people helping people and "banking the unbanked" which is a grassroots effort, and it wasn't far from the work that I had done for so many years in the non profit space. The industry felt like home almost immediately for me from that standpoint.

I was in the organization for about a year, implemented new operating systems, saw loan production growth increase year over year by 77% and so we were initiating a new and creative approach to broadening our field of membership and broadening our scope in terms of who we were going after, what our target audience was as an institution and as a credit union, you guys came alongside of us and helped us with some of those things and helped us with that project.

I was promoted to Executive Vice President and COO, and another year went by, was promoted to President and then the rest is history. Was promoted to permanent CEO after being interim for ten months. And so the last four years we have been on a winding road. Led through a global pandemic, watched the workforce shift literally in a matter of days from in person to remote. I think we made the change in four days. Our IT team was incredible. We made the shift in four days when our world shut down - our country and our world shut down for that matter.

And a lot of changes that we got a chance to lead through like so many of our counterparts in our industry and around the globe. That kind of gives you my journey to the CEO seat.

Samantha

Thank you. Yeah, thanks for sharing. It's definitely crazy to think about the last four years and just everything that happened, like you said, almost overnight.

I would love to hear more specifics about that. So you entered the industry right around the time of the pandemic, so that's just a really unique vantage point, but how would you say you've seen the industry shift since, you know, 2018 or 2019 till now, as we're entering 2023. What are some of the big changes that you've observed and things that are maybe more important to credit unions now than they were four years ago?

Darius

Yeah, I think it's a great question. A couple things: I think one, watching credit unions pivot and it's not just credit unions, it's really every company that serves the needs of its customers, or in our case, our members. I feel like the credit union has gotten more focused on its greatest asset and that's twofold: Its employees and its members.

I think what the pandemic has forced us to do is be more attentive to the needs of our employees and the dependency on the people who facilitate our mission, our vision, or our purpose statement.

It has forced us to think about hybrid policies and work from home policies.

It has forced us to get creative around recruitment of top tier talent, and not just recruitment of top tier talent but what it means for us to retain talent when it gets into the organization - to invest in people, to invest deeply in the people that we get a chance to serve via our employees.

I think on the member side of the equation, what's become more front and center is technology, the impetus of this call and so much of the work that Cotribute does. The necessity of the retail delivery channel was called into question almost in a matter of days.

Now that we can't depend on going to a physical location, right now the digital delivery channel becomes that much more important.

And I think for credit unions, the two primary things that I watched us adjust to and adapt to were how do we care well for the people that serve - our primary mission, meaning our employees and two, how do we best serve the needs of our members (and for other companies, its customer base). And that's primarily, in the pandemic, through a digital delivery channel. So investing more in technology and the things that help us to reach more effectively the people that we serve.

Those are probably, if I boiled it down to the studs, those are the two things that I watched  credit unions and other companies globally adjust to and it was a pretty neat experience for us. Again, as I mentioned earlier, one of the questions that we threw around as an executive team was can we do this? In four days, we stood up -- and we're a small to mid sized institution with roughly three hundred and fifty million dollars in assets and sixty staff members, fifty five to sixty staff members - we mobilized that in four days.

The question, I mean you remember this, Sam, early in the pandemic, was like “Okay, we'll be back in a month.” You know?

Well, a month turned into three years later.

We're only in the office a day a week now. I know some institutions have gone fully remote. Some of the questions were, can we create and substantiate and sustain the kind of workplace culture that we want to build. The answer was yes.

Undoubtedly yes. Can we serve our members at a high level and obviously at our retail locations we have to be in person and we are in person, but what we found was, our dependency on technology increased substantially so we recently went through a core conversion for that very reason - to ensure that we're investing in the foundation of our digital infrastructure that will lead us to into the future as it relates to growth and scale.

But that was exacerbated in a matter of days. So I think those were the two things that I watched most readily shift and obviously from a financial standpoint, from a macro economic standpoint, the rate war that we're in and at the beginning of the pandemic, it was the opposite direction. Rates decreased substantially.

You know, now we're in a rate environment where rates have increased substantially.

I call those table stakes, quite frankly.

We're always going to be responding to the macroeconomic environment. That's where strategy comes in.

I think the two things that I would call out are what I've called out earlier, and that was how do we care well for our employees and create an environment where we are able to retain and recruit top tier talent in this very competitive workforce environment, and then how do we enhance our digital delivery system where we're able to differentiate ourselves through our technology and through our service.

Samantha

Right.

Yeah, absolutely. That makes a lot of sense.

Sounds like, yeah, just a big shift for Red Rocks and for so many other credit unions over the last few years, but those two things are a great way to summarize it. It makes so much sense.

What would you say to a credit union who is now, you know, having experienced several of those shifts over the last few years, maybe they're struggling with growth, maybe they relied a lot on that in person, word-of-mouth, referrals, the community, base, and now they're struggling a little bit with that with growing the organization, growing their membership.

What have you seen to be one of the more successful strategies for increasing growth?

Darius

That's such a great question.

We're actually in a position now where we are rethinking our growth strategy.

With my appointment to the CEO position, we have been an organization for the last forty three years of our existence where we have served a primary demographic. And that's been very good, that's been a great strategy for us, and we're not looking to abandon that strategy, we're looking to enhance it, to evolve it. And what I would say to a credit union who feels like it's stagnant is, I had an old mentor who used to say to me, never do anything always.

I think one of the things that we learned during the pandemic was the necessity of agility.

You know, I think I heard Jeff Bezos say that one of the primary drivers for any organization in today's day and age is agility.

You've got to be agile. So what I'd say to a credit union struggling is, what's your strategy?

Have you defined your target market? Who is your primary customer or client?

What are the personas? Who are you going after?

How are you reaching them? What's the, as I mentioned earlier, what's the delivery channel? Where's your technology?

What's your tech stack? What's your tech strategy?

What's the road map that's going to get you to a place where you can differentiate yourself? And I'm a firm believer that we can differentiate in our industry, not just based on rate - although differentiating and having the best rates is good, I'm a firm believer that as an institution, one of the differentiators for us in comparison to the big banks is our service.

It is the fact that we care primarily about the needs of our members, not our shareholders.

We care first about the needs of our members and returning the profits that we earn back to the member in the form of better rates, better service, better products and services and overall a better banking experience. And so I would challenge an institution that's struggling with growth to think about what your organic growth strategy is and a lot of that boils down to what's your strategy.

And what's your delivery channel that's gonna help you achieve that strategy. It's a place that we find ourselves in now where we're rethinking our brand identity and we're rethinking our three year growth strategy.

And I'll say this, especially in this market, I believe a good growth strategy is both organic and it's got an acquisition or merger component in it, embedded. And so I think those are two ways to grow and what credit unions have to think through is, how do we grow organically because organic growth is the most sustainable kind of growth. But there is, especially in this economic environment we're in, there is an opportunity to grow through acquisition and merger in a lot of institutions as we're seeing, and I've witnessed over the last twelve months - we're seeing that many are choosing that path and it's happening more and more as time unfolds and so that's where I would focus: what's your strategy? Have you remained agile in adressing the needs of the community in which you serve, and is this an opportunity to rethink that strategy? Is this an opportunity to be agile, to be fluid and then never do anything always. And then at the end of the day, you've got to execute on that strategy and a lot of the execution comes down to our capacity to deliver that strategy via a digital delivery system.

Samantha

Absolutely.

And what are some of the challenges that you've seen Red Rocks face or you've seen other credit unions face when they do try to expand those digital capabilities, so I know that you mentioned Red Rocks recently made a core core system transition.

What are some of the challenges associated with making a big shift like that? And are there ways to mitigate those challenges?

Darius

I would say some of the challenges to growing the digital footprint, I think the first challenge, there's several, but some of the biggest ones I would say are most institutions, depending on your size, most medium to small credit unions, which are the majority of credit unions are resource constrained.

And so the question is how do we make significant strides via the member experience, user experience, and enhance our digital capabilities and get the best bang for our buck.

And I think the second challenge that I've witnessed is that it's such a crowded market with the onset of fintechs-- but it's a good problem to have. It's like being in high school and going to the dance and you've got multiple invitations. Right? It's a good problem to have.

But it's still a problem. It's choosing the right partner, if you will, to take you where you need to go based on your goals, and so this is why I'm a big believer in crystallizing your strategic plan. So what's your strategic plan? I think the first step that we took was defining our digital road map.

What's the digital road map, and that helps us to vet the sequence of adding certain tools that are going to help us enhance the member experience and overall the digital footprint. And so I think those are some of the problems that I've witnessed, most organizations being resource constrained and some of us getting sidetracked by the shiny object. Right? Because there's so many good options. Do I go LOS or do I start AI?

It's kind of the chicken and the egg dynamic.

We've got a lightweight LOS in our core, but do we need to add an LOS to that or is it AI first? And there's so many partners to select from. So I think ensuring that you have the right technology partners that understand your needs, that understand your capabilities and understand the resources that you have, not just from a financial capital standpoint but even human capital. What we found was this is our second core conversion as an institution in a matter of ten years.

That's not a long time. And so from a human resource management standpoint, we found that it was very challenging. Anyone who's been through a core conversion understands the lift and it was a heavy lift on the organization, definitely necessary but a heavy lift on the organization. And so I think as you look to make those digital enhancements, ensure that you've taken strong inventory of your human and financial capital, outlined a digital road map, and there's a sustainable pace which you're running at. Those are some of the challenges that I found and then I would say at the end of the day the speed factor.

I think one of the things I've witnessed about credit unions being newer to the industry is that, you know this, Sam, technology moves at the speed of light, almost faster at times.

One of the things I noticed about the credit union industry as a whole is we are traditionally slower.

In some ways, that's not a bad thing. But I think from an execution standpoint, and a relevance standpoint, I think it's important to be much faster.

That's an area in which I have challenged our organization to mature and to grow and that's speed implementation.

All of that boils down to the point that I was making about assessing your human capital, ensuring that you're running at a sustainable pace, you don't try to do too much too fast and being more, again, there's kind of the short term and the long term.

I'm a big believer in focusing on the long game.

It's not necessarily about the immediate changes that need to be made, and obviously if things are drastically broken, then they need more attention, but thinking about it  as a strategic move and not necessarily a temporary move. We try not to make many temporary digital shifts unless it's absolutely imperative, we try to plan more with the long term in mind.

Samantha

Right, and that makes sense. So simplicity, partners and products that aren't trying to give you a million capabilities, but they have you a simple next step you can take to enhance what you're currently doing, and then can help you do that quickly. Absolutely. Simplicity.

Darius

Way to summarize that. Awesome.

Samantha

So you kind of answered my next question, which is connected to that one. What do you look for in a technology partner who can help you with growth?

Anything else to add to that? I mean, we talked specifically around technology and how that affects the organization in terms of growth and delivery channels, you mentioned channels earlier.

What have you seen some of the most effective channels - there's email, there are so many different ways that credit unions are using to get the word out about their products. Is there one that currently you're seeing is extra effective that your organization is focused on?

Darius

Yeah, this goes back to speed for us, Sam - if you think about it most of the, and we say this internally a lot, we're not just competing against other financial FIs, we're competing against Amazon. The user experience that we all enjoy with companies like Amazon or Netflix or whatever your streaming pleasure is, we're competing against those. Grubhub, those online experiences where you're a click away.

With some of the fintechs that are popping up that are providing some of the same products and services that FIs provide, it's important that speed and quality and security are huge parts of our equation from an experience standpoint for our members. And so those are areas that we feel like our differentiators help, obviously the missionality of credit unions is a differentiator.

But sometimes that's not enough.

The user experience has to match that. It can't be archaic.

They can't take ten steps back into “oh well I have to bring a check-in to open up a CD.”I think the digital experience has to be fast, has to be secure.

And it's got to be intuitive. So those are things that we are attempting to focus on and enhance for our members, more accessibility and more capability around the things that they should be able to do without needing to come to a bank for the last, since we launched forty three years ago, we've hoisted a digital footprint primarily.

We don't have six or seven or eight or ten plus branches -- we've got two. So our digital capabilities have to be robust.

That's an area that we're  focusing on pretty intentionally. The account opening experience, the deposit experience, all of those things that you wanna be able to do from your smartphone and from your device via mobile is important to us. I think the best approach is a diverse approach.

I think whether it be email or other other avenue, I think the best approach is a diverse approach.

Samantha

Yes, absolutely.

So, Darius, you've answered my questions that I sent over.

Before we wrap up, I wanted to to ask if you'd like to share any thoughts around some of the recent news in the the financial world about Silicon Valley Bank, some of the the angst that that has caused for just anybody who has a bank account and might be worried about their funds being safe and secure. Have you seen any of that affect your members? Do you have any predictions about what this news might kind of kick off in terms of members and consumers and what they need and what they're looking for?

Darius

Yeah, thank you Sam for asking that question. You know for us - three Mondays ago when news hit, we were one of the first institutions to communicate with our members about the financial security and viability of our credit union. And what I've tried to do in this case is not talk about SVB and several of the other banks, the other banks that failed.

I think the media has done an exhaustive job at communicating what SVB and other bank failures did wrong. I focused on (and I've asked our staff to focus on) what we do right. And the difference between the credit union industry and banks such as SVB is that our banks, our credit union is safe and there are regulations in place to safeguard us from the collapse that happened with SVB and others. We are more diversified in our investments and in our lending portfolio.

The reality that we have fewer deposits that aren't insured is another sticking point for us. We watch our cash very intentionally. And we've got systems in place that help us to do that. Communicating and getting ahead of concerns for us as we did a few Mondays ago is also a big part of that, but for credit unions, I think one of the things that we'll see and that we are seeing, our liquidity has increased in the past three weeks and not just because of promotions that we're running. It's because I think consumers are starting to see with the advent of the SVB failure that credit unions are a viable, and in my opinion, my humble but I believe accurate opinion - not just viable but better option for banking.

Samantha

That's great. Yeah. Very well said.

Thank you for sharing.

Anything else, Darius, that you would like to share with us about, you know, technology, Red Rocks, your mission? Actually, maybe we'll just wrap up with what do you enjoy most about working in the credit union space? You shared a little bit just now about the difference between banks and credit unions, but what would you say personally keeps you here and is something that you enjoy about this industry.

Darius

Yeah, such a great question, Sam, and thanks for asking it. I would say the thing that keeps me here is twofold. I think the genesis of the Credit Union movement was birthed out of this concept of “banking the unbanked” and in serving people at the core not attempting to turn a profit and and return a profit to shareholders but rather to return that profit to families and individuals who worked and lived in the communities in which we serve.

And that grassroots type of effort is what gets me going every day. It's why our staff shows up and looks to serve the financial well-being of our members. I don't know if there's a more important, I'll say it this way, there's few more important and intimate parts of our lives than our money. And doing money the right way helps us to do life better. And we just want to be a better place for people to work and a better place for people to bank.

I believe that Red Rocks is that solution and Red Rocks is becoming more of that solution which I'm super excited about. So that's what I love about doing this job is that we get to truly impact the lives of real people every single day by facilitating their hopes, dreams and aspirations. I mean if that doesn't wake you up, I don't know.

Samantha

That's awesome. I love that. Thank you for sharing. And thank you so much for your time, Darius.

It was great to chat with you. Very, very insightful stories and examples that you've shared, and I think our community and our readers will really enjoy hearing what you have to say. So thank you so much.

Darius

Thanks, Sam. Really appreciate your time today.

Samantha

Okay. Have a great day.

Darius

Okay. Bye bye.