From Classroom to Credit Union: Why Relationship Banking Matters

Episode 77: Pocket Change Podcast

What is the overlap between education and banking?

Originally planning to do mission work overseas, Bruce and his wife ended up staying in West Tennessee after falling in love with the Jackson community. He eventually became a middle school math teacher at Community Montessori School. Bruce pursued education because he enjoyed building and pouring into relationships with students.

Bruce and a co-teacher took their students to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, with a L.E.A.D.S. Grant from Leaders Education Foundation. Watch the video that helped them win! 

Eventually, Bruce shifted gears and got into a new field of work—banking. Bruce started working in mortgages at another financial institution, then moved to Leaders Credit Union, where he now works as a Member Service Representative.

Having a background in education has helped Bruce transition into his role at Leaders, as he has experiencing meeting students where they are and advocating for them. Similar to students in a classroom, Bruce is now able to advocate for members who walk through the doors of our credit union.  

What financial products or tools could be helpful when needs arise?

Listen and Follow

Full Transcript

Shea:

Hey, this is Shea.

Carrie:

And this is Carrie.

Shea:

Welcome to the Pocket Change Podcast.

Carrie:

Where you'll learn better ways to spend, save and invest and take control of your financial journey.

Shea:

So, Carrie, what's in your bank account balance right now?

Carrie:

Excuse me?

Shea:

You don't want to tell me what's in your account?

Carrie:

Well, no. That's kind of personal, especially to the world, I’m not going to tell that?

Shea:

Yeah. Well, tell them about your one million dollars.

Carrie:

Yes, there’s a million in there.

Shea:

I think a lot of people don't like talking about finances. It's kind of a touchy subject, but hopefully with the podcast, we're able to do that and our guest is really good about building relationships with people, having those conversations and uncovering what people's needs are.

Carrie:

That's right. I think he takes an investment into your banking and what's important to you and makes you feel comfortable.

Shea:

Yeah. So we're excited to talk to him and how he meets our members right where they are.

Carrie:

We're excited to welcome our guest, Bruce Greenway. One of our financial champions here at Leaders. Welcome to Pocket Change, Bruce.

Bruce Greenway:

Thanks for having me.

Carrie:

Thanks. So can you tell us a little bit about your journey and how you got to Leaders?

Bruce Greenway:

Yeah, absolutely. Happy to be here. And just glad that, you know, part of the podcast, even though I know people that came before me, I feel like are giants. Graduated from Union and was looking to go overseas and do missions. That really was, my wife and my intent was to go overseas, do mission work. And, the more we just fell in love with Jackson and just the people here, the more we realized we kind of wanted to plant some deep roots here. And that led to, okay, what am I going to do for a job, then? If it's not that. And, and so I ended up exploring some options and teaching became one that I really got interested in. And, started looking into different options and ended up as a middle school math teacher at Community Montessori and was there for many years. Enjoying my time there. And investing in the students there. And, and then that led to, a point where I was, kind of ready to move on to, to the next challenge in my life. And, a door flew wide open to jump into banking. Did mortgages for a bit with another bank and then, was ready to come local because that bank was not in town, and wanted to be a part of some, local bank and Leaders, obviously was on my mind because of the connection with education and the connection with, just community outreach. And so, yeah, I was happy when Leaders opened its door to me.

Shea:

So the first time you and I actually met was in the classroom at, Community Montessori. So tell us a little bit about, you know, your teaching and what did you enjoy most about that?

Bruce Greenway:

Yeah, yeah, that was, some fun times.

Shea:

To talk about that too.

Bruce Greenway:

Yeah. So, that was, happy times in my life of just getting to be a part of, students lives and really just investing in their lives. And, Leaders came with, an opportunity to, have a grant, that you guys still do today. And, my co-teacher, Callie Dollar, found it on the website and approached me about, doing that with our middle school, looking at doing the grant and getting some money so that we could take our kids to the space and Rocket Center.

Bruce Greenway:

And, I was more than happy to do that. In fact, we were, I would say dedicated more of our, extra time at school trying to get that to happen. And that was, such a such a meaningful thing for our students. I think that was probably, I'd say a lifetime event for some of them had never been on a trip before, so to be able to win the grant and, get to take them on that trip was just. Yeah, a happy time for them and for me.

Shea:

Yeah. Middle school, you know, was a formative time for students. So they're going through a lot and former relationships. So having somebody, you know, to pour into them like that I think is, you know what every family student wants, you know, to have a valuable teacher in their lives like that.

Bruce Greenway:

So yeah. And we, I think we wrote there may be, a video out there with me singing with all the kids, Fly Me to the Moon. I think they wrote the song, and, and that was kind of our pitch for our video that ended up winning the grant for us. And, and I'll never forget when we announced that we had won. How happy some of their faces lit up and they were excited because they had been a part of that journey. You know, that process of of trying to, you know, when the, the votes and the views on the video and, getting to have the opportunity to go. So that was good.

Shea:

We might have to post a video link in the show notes for this episode. Bring it back.

Bruce Greenway:

Please don’t watch that.

Carrie:

Or give us a little taste of it right now.

Bruce Greenway:

Let's go get my voice.

Carrie: Okay. So what drew you to teaching in the classroom?

Bruce Greenway:

So I have always been drawn to, building relationships in people, in people's lives that are around me. And, I felt like when I, when I chose teaching as an occupation, I felt like that would be one avenue that I would really get to invest in those, you know, kids’ lives and get to know them, on a personal level and just in helping them reach goals for them, for themselves, and what they would need for the next step in their journey. So the draw to teaching was definitely that, relationship aspect and building that you know, with the kids is great.

Carrie:

And now you get to do that with the credit union. You get to have those relationships with our members.

Bruce Greenway:

Yeah, absolutely. I think there's a very, very close tie to what I felt like I did, in the classroom with students to what I'm doing now, which is just getting to know our members and, you know, powering their passion, as we like to say, to be able to, you know, find out where they are and, and what their future goals are. And, and as I get to know them, and build that relationship with them, I can better serve them.

Carrie:

That's wonderful.

Shea:

So what do you what do you say is your favorite part of your job here at Leaders?

Bruce Greenway:

Definitely the meeting new people and just kind of finding out about them and trying to make connections with them and, and, and my own experiences, is definitely a huge aspect of what I enjoy about working and at the credit union. And then I say alongside of that, I like our HELOC product that we have. And, and part of that is just having the background in mortgages. So, I find it natural to, to talk about it. HELOC, like, and to kind of go through what that looks like for them. And, you know, HELOC, is that connection to one of, you know, your biggest assets you probably have if you're a homeowner so that you can, do some things that might be needed in your, in your life at that point. And so it's, it's a great way, I think, to pull out that equity that you might have in your house and, and do a home renovation or, you know, address some needs that you have in your, in your life that can help save you some money in the long run. Yeah, that's my probably my favorite product that we offer.

Carrie:

Okay, so you mentioned our HELOC program, but why do you think that it's important for our members to be able to have one?

Bruce Greenway:

Yeah, I believe we have, members that are in need sometimes of, a product that's going to, meet them where they are, that's going to provide an avenue for them to, you know, pull in some equity if they don't want to drain their savings or maybe they don't even have a savings, set up that has enough money in it, then we've got a way for them to, pay off some debt or to save interest in the long run by using, our HELOC product that we have right now that provides, a pretty low, you know, starting rate. And we can give them that opportunity to, to save in the long run by setting up, something that's valuable for them.

Carrie:

Okay. That's great.

Shea:

So other issues that may arise that you see when you're building relationships with members, you know, you talked about maybe there's not the savings there built up. What other things do you see and what do you try to offer when you see those, those opportunities also?

Bruce Greenway:

Right. I do think, that there are times that, our members come to us, in a, in a need-based moment, maybe something has happened in their life, medical issue or just something that was unexpected. And, and those are great opportunities for us as a credit union to, really interact in someone's, you know, life and try to help, build them up, help support them as they go through a time like that. So again, the HELOC is a great option if that's an option for them. We do have some great, debt consolidation programs that we offer, through the credit union. And those are, opportunities again, to just help meet them, where they are and, give them kind of what they need. But, but yeah, we our product I feel like sells itself, you know, in a sense, because a credit union has both low rates for loans and it has great payouts for savings accounts and CDs that we have. So, so just finding where that dots needs to be connected, you know, for our members is what I enjoy doing. So yeah.

Carrie:

Do you have any top tips for someone who's looking to build margin or start an emergency fund?

Bruce Greenway:

Yeah, I think just starting somewhere with what you have.

Shea:

Just got to start, right.

Bruce Greenway:

Right. I think when I'm going about my day to day, life here at the credit union, anytime someone comes into my office and no matter what they're asking about, I always like to pull up their account and say, do they have a forward plus high yield savings? Because it's almost a no brainer to me to want to have that savings open. It doesn't require, a minimum deposit and it pays a really great rate. And so if you ever have extra money, just, you know, throwing it into that savings account is a good way to start somewhere and start building up that savings account for you for a rainy day or for, you know, a need that may arise in the future. And so that's definitely, on my mind, a top priority, you know, top of mind. I have when I approach members in my office.

Carrie:

So yeah, that's a great tip.

Shea:

So what other solutions are there that help to benefit our members?

Bruce Greenway:

We have a great mobile app and often have members in my office, that don't always know how to use it, to the best of its ability. And so getting to, have them pull up that app in my office and show them that I provide the convenience of moving your money from either your savings into your checking or vice versa, or from one checking to another checking. And, it's just very easy and convenient to not only move that money to the account you need it to be in, but also to just keep tabs on your accounts and to pull up those transaction histories and see, you know, where your money is. And to make sure, security wise, there's nothing going out of your account that you would not want it to be going out, you know, and to catch that, you know, fraud if there is any early on.

Shea:

Hopefully it's the access makes it easy to track, keep track of transactions and balances because it is right there in the palm of our hand. So we can use it to really help us.

Carrie:

That's right.

Carrie:

So we always like to ask since this is a financial podcast, what is the best piece of financial advice you've ever been given?

Bruce Greenway:

Yeah. Early on I forgot how young I was, but I did have, a friend as I was, early in my marriage, and I was just a young guy just trying to get started in life. Talk about budgeting with me and just writing out everything incoming and out coming. Put a place to everything, right? Don't allow any amount of money to just be unaccounted for. Because that money is usually the money, you know, we may tend to waste and so, having a budget that kind of is a line item to what's coming in each month, and what's going out each month is a good way to, become more financially savvy, with, with what you have.

Carrie:

So zero based budgeting.

Bruce Greenway:

That's right.

Shea:

Even if it's in a miscellaneous category. Put it somewhere.

Carrie:

That's right, that's right.

Shea:

All right. So last question. It's the pocket change podcasts. If any extra pocket change what would you spend it on?

Bruce Greenway:

That's pretty easy for me. As I don't usually spend a lot of money on myself. So, I would definitely, funnel it towards my wife I know there’s things that she would probably want to have. And that I could, you know, fun to spend on her. And if there's extra money, I'd probably give it to my kids, too. But definitely primarily my wife. She owns her own business and, you know, as a florist. And so, she has a lot of time where she's just wrapped up, especially this time of year with Valentine's just happening. And so, yeah, she's she stays busy. So I would want to...

Carrie:

So, you have to get really creative because you can't give her flowers.

Bruce Greenway:

Flowers are not an option not for a florist. In case you didn't know. So. Yeah. Yeah. Flowers cannot be given. So, actually a good tradition we have in our house, because this is what, she likes... And I love this about her is… she wants, chicken wings every Valentine's Day. That's like one of the non-negotiables.

Shea:

That I can get behind.

Carrie:

So, we're there. So where did you get them this year?

Bruce Greenway:

So, we did go back and forth between trying something new versus going back to what we had had the previous year that we knew we enjoyed and we opted to stick with what we know and went to Buffalo Wild Wings and got the chicken wings that she's had year after year. And yeah, so she was happy.

Carrie:

Can't beat it. Well, thank you so much for being on the podcast today, Bruce. So we've enjoyed this conversation with you.

Bruce Greenway:

Happy to… thank you all for having me.