May 18, 2021
Speaker 1:
So one of the greatest predictors of success is goal orientation.
In fact, only 3% of Americans write down their goals.
Speaker 2:
Amazing the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern
Washington in the Tri-Cities influencer podcast. Welcome to the TCI
podcast where local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul
Casey interviews, local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit
executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams. So we
can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host,
Paul Casey of growing forward services, and it could be individuals
and teams to spark breakthrough success.
Speaker 3:
It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's
episode with Eric Pearson. Eric is the CEO of community first bank
and HFG trust, and they are my financial partners for life. See, I
got it in there and I got to know Eric, I got to meet you for the
first-time boy, way back. I did a team building for your team, man.
It must've been 10 years ago. And so it was great to reconnect with
you recently and do an offsite with your leadership team and you
guys are killing it, flipping winning, right? Well, we'll dive in
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for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. I
asked for something funny about Eric today and say it again, Eric.
So when a song comes on the radio,
Speaker 4:
I have an uncontrollable urge to like, as quickly as possible name,
the song or the artist as though it's a trivia contest. It drives
my family crazy.
Speaker 3:
We all have our quirky thing, but you'd be great to have an, a
trivia contest as long as with classic rock. Yeah. Well, welcome.
Welcome. Well, so that our Tracey influencers can get to know you,
Eric, tell us about what your does, maybe a little bit about how
it's joined together and what do you spend 80% of your day
doing?
Speaker 4:
Sure. Yeah, well, you know, community first bank and ACFE trust
joined forces about five years ago. So a little bit of history
from, you know, both organizations before they became one can, we,
first bank was founded in late 1997. Really first day of business
was the last day of 97. So we're what 22 years old. Now, something
like that 23 years old and just a hometown community bank focused
primarily on small businesses, you know, commercial banking and
then supporting the, you know, the consumer banking needs of the,
usually the business owners and employees that the bank with them.
And then, you know, as we've grown, we've expanded out and, you
know, really provide the full breadth of banking services that, you
know, most financial institutions do. I was still at that, you
know, exclusively local community bank feel. But one thing we, we
didn't do was providing any sort of investment management to, or
advice service.
Speaker 4:
And so one of our board members timetabling, we've been along a
long time, financial advisor, Haberman financial group. And so as
we talked about trying to add that business line, you know, we
looked at various ways to do it. It just always felt like a, we
wouldn't be doing it the right way because you know, it's not our
business. We'd be learning it from scratch B would be competing
with one of our, one of our primary shareholders and directors. And
so I always thought it would be a great idea if the two companies
could come together, you know, Ty was fiercely independent. And as
much as that he built his business and one of them wanted to stay,
keep it that way. But one day he recognized because he had
something happened with one of his clients that, you know, they
would pass away and becoming incapacitated.
Speaker 4:
And he would have to part ways with that relationship at that point
and, and hand them off to a trust company because he didn't provide
those services. He wasn't licensed to do so. And he felt Jesus at
the most important time, sometimes in someone's life. And that
you've been taking care of their financial needs, giving them
advice. And all of a sudden, you you're, you need to hand them off
and you, you could re retain them and have someone do the trust
work. And he maintained the investment advisory work, but it really
wouldn't be in the client's best interest to have that split and
pay kind of double fees. And so he felt, well, gosh, I'm going to
have to continue to hear these off. And that's just not the service
I want to provide. I'd like to look into becoming a trust company.
And so he enlisted my help just because the trust companies are
regulated and overseen by the same state department as banks, our
department of financial institutions.
Speaker 4:
And so I went with them, we visited with the department of
financial institutions and we quickly realized that it would
probably be in his best interest to partner with the bank to form
the trust company because of our experience in dealing with
regulatory matters, the, the, the depth of capital that the bank
had and just the size that, that the bank had become added. Some,
some stability to what would become trust company would make it
much more viable. So they decided to do a, we merged HFG or
humbling venture group into the bank, or as a subsidiary of the
bank. And we named HFG trust, added trust services to, to the
product mix for them, and then began to go about implementing the,
you know, the, the combination of the businesses and they're really
two different industries. And so we recognized a lot of financial
institutions had embarked on providing investment services,
typically in a limited way, and not in a full fiduciary manner that
that hyperlink financial group had.
Speaker 4:
And so we were careful not to impose go bank tradition on an
investment firm. And conversely, you know, we weren't looking to
have investment industry influence the way banking was done. And so
we ran them fairly separately and just tried to find ways to
synergize backroom operations and those kinds of things. And we
went about it very slowly. And I think that was wise, you know, we
learned a lot through that process about, about the new industry
that we were now in as a collective organization, how to manage it,
how to work them together. We've been together now five years, and
we're really beginning to see the fruits of how we can take care of
a client's financial needs across the board. And so, you know, we,
we, we call that being their financial partner for life is when
we're there for anything and everything that they need.
Speaker 4:
You know, we take it, it's when it's in their best interest, we're
there to provide it. You know, we're not, we're not salespeople and
as much as we're trying to push product or, or, or our business on
folks, but when they need our service and our advice for our
products, you know, we're there for them and we don't have to send
them somewhere else. That's really what we aimed to do, and we've
pretty much accomplished it. And so now it's a matter of getting
the word out and growing the business and doing a great job taking
care of clients. And so that's what we've been up to.
Fantastic.
Speaker 3:
So does your role change throughout that and, and what do you spend
a lot of your time doing right now?
Speaker 5:
Yeah, you know, my role didn't really change.
Speaker 4:
I was the CEO of community first bank at the time of the merger.
And, you know, because it was technically an acquisition and as
much as the bank acquired HFG and there were some particular
arrangements, you know, I was the CEO for the combined entity. I
didn't have a, and, and still don't have a lot to do daily inside
the wealth management and trust business, other than, you know, I
have responsibility for the financial performance of the
organization. And so, but I rely on the talent and management,
that's there to produce that. And so, you know, I have oversight
and know audit kind of responsibilities to make sure things are
being done the right way. Obviously, the results are coming in. And
if, if, if, if they vary from expectations to inquire as to why,
but really most of my time on that side of things is spent trying
to make sure that we're providing that business with the resources
they need to be successful.
Speaker 4:
And as the organization grew, that really became what I started
doing for the bank to, you know, in fact, one of our directors and
the strategic planning said, you know, I'm that, I'm the resource
allocator. I, I needed to determine there's limited resources in an
organization, all of our business units, and even, you know,
departments within business units are clamoring for support and
resource. And so there's a need to go through and prioritize who
gets what, when, and you know, that that's not always easy. Every,
every need is a real need. And, and from the perspective of the
person who needs it, it's the most important need. And so, you
know, that's probably in, in a broad sense, what I spend most of my
time doing is working to bring the business lines together, make
sure they have what they want, make sure they're working well
together and making sure that they're pushing forward on the
financial partner for life, you know, mantra that we're living by
and, and that, and, and that, and that we're advancing towards our
strategic objectives.
Speaker 4:
And then making sure we have good people to, to lead that effort.
And that's probably been the biggest transition is letting go of
management duties and really becoming a CEO, you know, while I had
that title for a long time, we were a small enough organization. As
most small businesses would know, you're really holding about eight
different jobs and you're the ultimate manager and I'm not anymore.
We've got a great leadership team at multilevel of our organization
at this point that take most of that work off of my plate. And so
it's really more directing, you know, the orchestra than it is
playing the instruments.
Speaker 3:
Yes. So why do you love to do it?
Speaker 4:
Well, you know, I, I love taking care of clients. It's probably,
you know, the greatest satisfaction is when we have a win. When we
see we did something that made their life better, and whether I did
it, you know, whether it was part of the interaction or not just
hearing those stories, I think is really what drives us. I like
building things, you know, just more selfishly I think, you know,
it's been fun to be part of an organization that, you know, had 30
employees when I started, and it has 130 now. Wow. And, you know,
has grown, you know, five, 600%. And, you know, the wealth
management firm was 350 million in assets, under management when we
combined, and there are a billion or a little over a billion
dollars in assets under management now. And so that's five years,
you know, that kind of growth is just remarkable.
Speaker 4:
We've added mortgage. We, we always did mortgages, but we've, we've
developed and recruited a great manager, Jamie Clark, who has taken
us to new Heights on the mortgage side too. So we really feel like
we have three distinct business lines, all of which are winning and
growing, and it's just fun to be a part of it. And probably what
I've learned, you know, in the last five years, especially, is that
it almost works better when I'm not doing it. You know, and I did a
lot in the early years and not that I wasn't capable of doing some
of those things, but I'm only one person. And, and not that other
people weren't contributing obviously then too, but I was so much
more involved in the weeds, you know, seven, eight years ago I have
now and the less involved I am, the better it goes. Yeah.
Speaker 3:
And you talked about having these great leaders in these key areas
on your team. How did you decide to surround yourself with those
folks and who else do you surround yourself with? Maybe even
outside of HFG and community first?
Speaker 4:
Yeah. Well, you know, two good questions there. I mean, I've been
really fortunate throughout my career to have a lot of great
mentors. And in fact, we've talked a lot about building mentors for
our young talent. It's a challenge, you know, we're finding, we
have to be very deliberate about being mentors. I don't recall that
as a young person coming up in the industry, I found the mentors
and I don't even know sometimes if they knew they were being a
mentor, I was just sucking information from them. And I was lucky
to know them, you know, was really how it turned out. And, and so I
had a lot of that, you know, my immediate predecessor, rich Emory,
you know, was a fantastic long time bank CEO who, you know, left
the bank. When he, when he retired and handed the keys to me in
just pristine shape, you know, it was, it was set up to be
successful.
Speaker 4:
He laid the groundwork and made my first few years really easy and
and taught me so much about really what was important in the
banking business. And so, and again, we were small enough that I
probably took all those lessons to heart and try to do it all
myself, or, you know, again, not all myself, but be involved in all
of it myself. And, and then I had to, it took me a while to learn
that I, I really needed to let go of a lot of those functions and,
and let people experiment and try things without necessarily trying
to make oversee their decision-making. And, and, and that's when we
really began to, to blossom and grow. But as far as, you know, how
we pick the people, you know, some of them have been with us since
before I got there and, or very early on when I got
there.
Speaker 4:
And they, we were just fortunate to have him on board and they're
super talented and they've evolved with us and changed in their, in
their roles dramatically in some cases. And, you know, and, and
it's been fantastic to see people who are willing to do that, to
give up on what they thought was their job, and really start doing
another job altogether, applying, you know, their knowledge and
experience in a new way to the organization. And we've got a large
number of those folks that have been with us for a while. We've
lost a few along the way, you know, because of change and really
good people too, but for one reason or another, you know, the, the
growth stressed, you know, what they thought they were a part of to
begin with. And so we've really added some new talent, you know,
and we've, we've been lucky, and we've been more successful than
not in bringing in new leaders to the organization, but we've, we
have had some cases where, you know, it just wasn't the right
fit.
Speaker 4:
But for the most part, the, the folks that we brought in, at least
after some working and maybe making sure that they're focused on
the right thing, you know, we've been able to develop a team that,
you know, as you were with us at our leadership event in Spokane
here last week or two weeks ago, and, you know, I, I feel more
confident today than I've ever felt with the cohesiveness and the
chemistry of the team that we have working together. So, and then
beyond that for me, you know, as I said, mentors, but I've really
been fortunate the entire time that I've been with the organization
to have the board of directors that I have. It was a local group of
business leaders who all run significant businesses in this
community have tons of experience dealing with all the problems
that all businesses deal with, not necessarily banking, although
they got a, a crash course in banking early on running our
business.
Speaker 4:
And of course, Tai is the foremost expert in our company on wealth
management. And so, you know, the, the knowledge base and the, and
the business management leadership experience that, that our board
of directors brings, it has been probably the single biggest
resource that I've had through this time, because, you know,
they've helped me make all the big decisions and keep me pointed in
the right directions to me when I'm maybe going the wrong way and,
and, you know, share their own experiences if I'm struggling with
something, you know, as well as this kind of happened to me. And,
and this is what we did. And, and, you know, I think they would all
agree that they like being part of the board because it's a little
bit of a, a lonely job sometimes being the owner or the CEO. And so
you're going to get a group of us together, and we can kind of
finally admit what what's hard and what you struggle with, and
what's emotionally taxing and, and you see someone else struggling
with it, or someone being successful, something you struggled with,
and we all learn from each other. So it really kind of turns into a
bit of a support group. Sometimes we've instructed our board
meetings that way we spend a fair amount of time, or it's just the
board and it's pretty freeform. And we, and we talk openly. And so
that's been successful, also involved in lots of other
organizations in the community and trade organizations and w deal
with other bank CEOs around the state and around the country. And,
and so, you know, having a big network of people that can, that can
provide input is definitely
Speaker 3:
How are you constantly evolving as a leader? You've been in the
business a while you're around these great, this great capacity of
leaders around you, what's in your own professional development
plan. How do you keep, you know, and just not checking in, you
know, every day, but like I got to keep growing as, as the top
leader. Well, that's
Speaker 4:
A great question. You know, I think as I said before, you know, I
don't know that I set out in life to be a CEO or to be a bank CEO
for that matter when you're a little Navy, never did you, my dad
was a banker, so you might think that, but, but it really all
happened sort of by accident, you know, that I ended up on this
path and then the path just led me where it led me. And, and so,
you know, I pursued the things in the short-term that led me to the
next thing. And as I got closer, I started to have the vision of
what I wanted to do. And when I came to community first in
particular, I, I knew that's what I was trying to accomplish. That
was the game plan. And, but I didn't know what I didn't know, you
know, and, and I probably still don't, you know, 10 years from now,
I look back and go, gosh, I didn't know anything.
Speaker 4:
I think that that's the reality of it is just knowing that that's a
fact that there's, so you don't know what you don't know, and it
seems like a cliche thing, but you really don't. And until you
learn it, you didn't even know you didn't know it. And so many
times, you know, and I think that's probably what keeps me going is
our business is one where it's just a different day. Every day.
It's not a routine thing. We don't execute the same task two days
in a row ever. And all of our customers and our employees throw us
new challenges. And so, you know, I think it, it forces you to be
continually learning. It's what keeps it fresh and interesting and
not monotonous. And, and so I think it forces you to continually go
seek skills that you haven't previously acquired to deal with this
new challenge that's in front of you. And so at least that's
that's, I guess that's how I would summarize it. And Suzanne
learning, I wish I could say I was way out in front of a lot of
these issues, you know, maybe business strategy. Sometimes I can do
that, but in terms of the skills that I need to develop, no, I
think you recognize I've got a short book coming and I need to go
work on this. It pops up in real time, and then you identify it
and, you know, sometimes I'm better at addressing it than others.
Sure,
Speaker 3:
Sure. So how do you go about getting things done? You said your day
is pretty varied, you know, but you've got to do lists. The CEO has
a to-do list, just like everybody else. So how do you organize
yourself? Just curious,
Speaker 4:
Another skill set that I think I could be a lot better at in fact,
I was just joking with someone about my paper to do lists. I've
tried to put them into electronic format. And so really what I do
is I take lots of notes that only I could probably translate. And
they're very brief. They just, there for me, it's a matter, it's
kind of like the music thing. It's like, I just need a little
snippet of the song. I need a little snippet of the information.
Then it comes rushing back to me. Oh yeah, yeah. There's this whole
topic of information that I need, need to do. And so I make these
notes and then about once a week, I transcribed them on a paper
with a pen, into a list that has a little more detail as to what I
was thinking. And then the next week I'll go back, and I'll see how
many of these did I cross off?
Speaker 4:
And how many did I not? And, and then look at my new notes and add
those new ones to the list. And that's really the process. I mean,
it's, it's, it's pretty informal, I guess, in that regard, I get
pulled directionally off of a game plan for a day, most days, you
know, I think, I think this is how it's going to go, that how it
goes. And so, you know, I just have to react with that. And, and so
probably the biggest challenge I have sometimes is if I find myself
with time, I wasn't expecting, and now I also have a list of things
to do, and I have to sit down and say, okay, I wasn't expecting to
be working on anything right now, what should I knock off that
list? You know, that tends to be the challenge in COVID has made
that even more difficult because, you know, it used to be a much
more, you know, get out and just, you know, manage by walking
around kind of leader, I guess. And I've gotten away from that.
And, and I'm trying to get back to it because we're, you know,
we're, we're free to do it a little bit more now and, and, but the
bad habits set him so fast. And so it's something I'm still
struggling with managing wandering
Speaker 3:
Around. I love that it has been harder in COVID well, before we
head into our next question on how Eric looks at the bigger
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Eric, it's easy to get trapped in reacting to crises and
leadership. So how do you specifically step back and take a look at
the bigger picture? I know that offsite retreat that we were able
to do together, that's probably one of those elements, but you
know, how do you stay in front of stuff?
Speaker 4:
Yeah, it's interesting. It's a good question. It depends. I
suppose, you know, when it's, when you get stuck in the morass or
the, the, the whirlwind, the whirlwind of day-to-day business, I
think I, I, self-talk a lot on reminding myself that whatever it is
that I'm obsessed with is pretty small potatoes generally. And
really, even to some pretty big things, that's kind of always been
a technique for stress dealing with stress that I've, I've always
used this for whatever reason. It's very reassuring to me to, to,
to tell myself, or to give myself the perspective that what am I
complaining about? There are people who have a whole lot bigger
problems than I'm wrestling with right now. And you don't have to
look very far to find them. And, and they're literally millions or
billions of people on the planet who are dealing with far, far more
difficult things.
Speaker 4:
And that always just sort of reassures me. It doesn't take away the
problem, but it, it takes away the, the level of anxiety that maybe
starts to creep in sometimes. And so I do that, self-talk myself
that way a lot, but strategically maybe if that's the point of the
question is how you really step back and look the bigger picture
and what we're trying to accomplish and keep other people focused
on that. Yeah, that's a, that's you have to be deliberate. You know
that that's one where, you know, we do things like we did in
Spokane with you where, you know, we remind ourselves, okay, what
are the three or four most important things? And how do we make
sure we're reminding everybody that that's the case. So we don't
get so hung up on details that are important but get so hung up on
missing a detail that we forget what we're really trying to
accomplish.
Speaker 4:
And what we're trying to accomplish is easy. We're really just
trying to take great care of clients and, and, you know, again,
cliche things, but if we take really good care of clients, they'll
continue to do business with us. They'll refer people to us, it's
worked it, it continues to work. The more we do it, the more
clients come. It, it just is beautiful cycle. It's super easy. You
know, from that perspective, you know, actually taking care of them
takes work and technical skills and things like that. And managers
and leadership and training, and, you know, all the things that we
struggle with from time to time. But at the end of the day, the big
picture, it's pretty straightforward. And we, we sometimes get hung
up, but what should we do? Should we go, laughter, should we go
extra far left? Well, as long as we're going left, I think we're
doing fine.
Speaker 4:
You know, we can of course, correct a little bit, but we went
right. That'd be a problem. I think that's the, I think that's the,
you know, the, the, the method and all of our leaders are a little
different. So I think it's interesting. I have conversations with
my leadership team and they're, they're each different in terms, I
think of how they approach things. And the real secret is learning
how to deal with each of them, you know, making sure that they're
getting what they want. We just had a conversation last night about
you actually with you too. We said, how come, how come we look
around? And we're winning, but it's, sometimes it doesn't feel like
we're winning. I came up with the, your recognition was something
that's lacking. And we've heard that feedback from, from employees
before. And, you know, we try things that are kind of formulated
recognition and it just sort of dawned on me sometimes that is
really this just conversational recognition, you know, really
appreciate you helped me out with that.
Speaker 4:
You know, you know, those kinds of things, you know, that for
whatever reason you just don't do, if you can be a little bit
deliberate about it and being sincere that, you know, I recognize
that you're particularly good at this. It's honest, you know, it's
not brown nosing. It's, it's just saying things you knew, and you
assume the other person already knew, but it's good for the other
person to hear you say it. And I think that at the end of the day,
that's, that's the, the, you know, one of the biggest things we, we
could do a better job of, but it sure helps keep us focused.
Yes,
Speaker 3:
We all need more air affirmation, inspiration recognition gotta
have that. It's gotta be deliberate because you just onto the next
thing. So that was, that was a cool recognition there at the
retreat of, we got to celebrate our wins because we're winning.
What key moves did you make for the organization in the year of
COVID up till now to be responsive and strategic in a very
uncertain time?
Speaker 4:
Well, you know, it was interesting because, you know, when COVID
first hit, I was B I was one of those who thought all this won't
last week and it's all being over-hyped and, you know, it'll be,
you know, by Memorial Day we'll be back to normal. You know, it was
my instant, you know, early March 2020 mindset. So I had that
wrong. And, but once it became apparent that the, that I was wrong
and that it was going to be, you know, a significant event that was
going to impact us. You know, I think we, we, we tried not to be on
the bleeding edge of adjustments because nobody knew what to do.
And so to the extent that we can sit back and watch what other
people did and what worked and what didn't, you know, made a lot of
sense, but we didn't come up with anything novel in terms of, you
know, dealing with it from a space or safety perspective.
Speaker 4:
You know, we were fortunate slash unfortunate, very look at it to
be an essential business. And so we were never shut down and we had
to have people in there, their offices too, not all of our people,
but many of the jobs must be onsite. And so that took some of the
decision-making out of it, you know, should they stay home or not,
but we quickly spun up. And our, our, our it team and facilities
group, and whole leadership team did a great job of quickly
adapting technology and getting it out the door so that people
could work from home. And that we could free up space in places
where people were in crowded quarters and or people who could work
from home, or if they had symptoms or, you know, they had that they
were preexisting health conditions. You know, all the things that
were obviously everyone was dealing with, we were able to quickly,
you know, take care of those, those, those employees, you know, get
people spaced out and get people home who needed to be home and,
and deal with it.
Speaker 4:
You know, we were slow to reluctant to close our lobbies and, you
know, we were, we, but we kind of waited until, I don't know,
sometime in early April, maybe that it was, became apparent that
you would be conspicuously dangerous if you were open that way. And
we went drive through only, and then we opened it back up in
August. And then we had to, we've had to shut them down a couple of
times, both over the holidays with that spike. And then also in a
couple of cases where individual offices, you know, had people out.
And so we went back to, drive-through only when that occurred, but
by and large, I think, you know, our employee’s kind of direct
that, how they feel about their safety and comfort with working
with one another. And, you know, to our knowledge, we've not had
one transmission in our buildings, you know, very confident we
haven't, we've had a number of employees that had COVID, but they
all contracted it elsewhere.
Speaker 4:
Fortunately didn't give it to anyone else. And so, you know, I
think we had a pretty good experience with it, but the thing that
hit us was PPP loans. You know that it's almost, when I think of
COVID, I think of PPP for us, it was especially in the early days
in April of last year, it was a bigger deal. It was for us, it was
what's COVID, it's, it's all PPP all the time. And I'll admit now
we, we through safety precautions by the wayside, you know, it was
pre mass mandate when the, when the, when the PVP thing hit. So no
one was wearing masks and we had big group meetings and we were, we
were bringing food in to keep our employees who were working
ridiculous amounts of overtime fed, you know, in engaged, because
we had, you know, almost our entire staff work, you know, probably
40, 50 hours overtime, those first couple of weekends off of
PPP.
Speaker 4:
And it was crazy. I mean, the, the, the hours that we put in and
the number of people, we had HR people, it, people marketing people
making or helping with the PPP loan origination process, because it
was so manual and so new, it was changing every day, but we figured
it out. And, you know, I think for us, it was a real, a real win,
you know, really helped us stand out in the community because we
were able to get loans out, actually funded within a few days of
the program, opening up when most banks were like, all right, I'm
sure if we want to do this program. And so just a lot of Goodwill
in the coin the community. I know we helped out a lot of
businesses, you know, helped a lot of employees retain jobs. You
know, in that first phase, we put a hundred million dollars on the
street.
Speaker 4:
It's a big deal in a community like this. And it was scary. I
remember thinking, is the SBA really going to stand behind us on
this? What if we make a mistake, are we going to lose money on
these loans? And, you know, in the baking business, we can't lose
money on loans very often, or we're not in the banking business.
And so, you know, it's, it's one of those things we it's maybe the
most solemn oath we take with deposit or money is we can't make
those kinds of mistakes. And, you know, in those early days we felt
like we were really sticking our neck out, as it turned out, the
program worked like it's supposed to, and there really wasn't any
risks that we took, but at the time we weren't sure about that. And
so it was nerve wracking to think we're gonna, we're kind of
betting the company that this program will work out.
Speaker 4:
And, but we decided to do it to trudge forward with it aggressively
under the hospital. So, well, if this is what ends it, we went down
and doing what we do and, you know, helping, helping our clients in
this community. And so I, it comes back to that's the bigger
perspective, you know, I literally had that conversation with my
wife. I said, well, you know, I'll be the George Bailey or the tray
cities, you know, for life, if this happens, I w it was
well-intended, there was no, no bad wheel in this at all. If this
ends up blowing up in my face and, you know, we'll survive one way
or another, it was nowhere near that dire. But in the moment, it
didn't feel that way. And so that, that, that was sort of our
experience. Well,
Speaker 3:
You were the front runners in that. And I just kept hearing in the
community in the community go to community first bank for PPP loan.
And so it was a good reputation, you know, it's spread like
wildfire, and I was fortunate to get one of those as well from you
guys. Well, Eric, finally, what advice would you give to new
leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more
influence?
Speaker 4:
Well, it should have prepared for that question. There's so many
good pieces of advice to kind of boil it down into one singular
thing. You know, I think it's, you know, treat people, right. You
know, if, if you do, if you treat people well, I mean, recognize, I
guess first and foremost, that you don't get anywhere without the
people. And, you know, if you're a small business, you might just
be, you know, one of your laborers or what have you that worked for
you, but, but they're carrying all the weight and they have to know
how much you appreciate that and care. And, and w because you do,
you're, you're riding on their shoulders. And I think if you're
honest with yourself about that, then you can genuinely show that
to the people around you. And that probably extends out to, you
know, your broader support group, whether it's a consultant that
helps you with management or your CPA, your attorney, your banker,
or your insurance person, you name it, you know, those people, if
you're treating them right, they're going to go the extra mile for
you.
Speaker 4:
And you need people to go the extra mile for you at certain times,
like PVP, you know, as I was saying, you know, I was probably the
thing I was the most proud of was I don't have, I think I had
anybody who, or what do you mean I have to work this weekend?
People were excited. They want, they knew it was there, that they,
it was their time to rise up and do the right thing. And I believe
a is because we just had great people that their parents had a good
job or whatever it was that was most of it. But I think the other
part was is that they knew the company cared and we were sincere.
And that what we were trying to do with PPP loans was to help the
community and they wanted to do their part. They wanted to be a
part of it.
Speaker 4:
And so, you know, that's what drove people to not just be burned
out by the process, you know, and struggle on a year and a half
now. And I think we're all tired of BBB, but the, but we're when we
see the light at the end of the tunnel, but, but it's that, you
know, truly letting people know that they care and what they're,
that they're contributing. And that's a big part of it, you know,
just get extra, extra benefit out of them. And then that person
could be anybody in your support. It could be your spouse or your
kids that support you by, you know, being there for you when you
had a hard day. All of those things are, are, are, is really, I
think what fuels us, at least from my perspective.
Speaker 3:
So Tri-City influencers go the extra mile with people in your
internal network, your external network, and will boomerang back on
you. So Eric, how can our listeners best connect with
you?
Speaker 4:
Oh, well, I mean, with me directly, I pretty accessible. So you can
reach me via email is probably the best way I, I get a lot of
emails that I can get back to them if I'm busy during the day
later. So my email is E Pearson, P E a R S O n@communityfirst.com.
And first is one St. So community one S t.com.
Speaker 3:
Thank you so much for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great
place and keep leading. Well, thank you. Let me wrap up our podcast
today with a leadership resource to recommend, I run a program
called leader launcher leader. Launcher is a leadership development
program for emerging leaders and young professionals. We meet once
a month and right now it's a virtual and we look forward to getting
back together alive and do a two hour on leadership, could be on
leading change or casting vision, or having that difficult
conversation with a team member. And so the community gathers and
do a seminar and they formulate an action plan to take back to
their work and customize that. And then there's some peer
networking that goes on as well. So they can meet leaders in other
industries and talk about goals together. So just a little loose
accountability. So if you'd like to sign up for the year, or if
you've got employees that you'd like to sign up, it's a
leader-launcher.com.
Speaker 3:
Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guest, Eric Pearson
from community first bank and HFG trust for being here today on the
Tri-City influencer podcast. We also want to thank our TCI sponsor
and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this
possible so we can collaborate to help leaders and inspire them in
our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to
help you make a difference in your circle of influence. Scott Adams
says there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act
creates a ripple with no logical end until next time, keep growing
forward.
Speaker 2:
Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show hall.
Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing
practical and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on
their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and
experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from
Paul and your leadership development, connect with
him@growingforwardatpaulcasey.org for a consultation that can help
you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for
growing your life or your team forward. Paul would also like to
help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting
your priorities done every day by offering you is free. Control my
calendar checklist, go to WW dot, take back my calendar.com for
that productivity tool or open a text message 2 7 2 0 0 0, and type
the word groan
Speaker 3:
Tri-Cities influencer podcast was recorded at fuse SPC by bill
Wagner of safe strategies.