What does it really take to grow a business lending CUSO in 2026? Mark Ritter and Jeff Lyons pull back the curtain on eight years of organizational evolution, honest reflections on artificial intelligence, and where credit union technology is finally delivering results. From Microsoft Copilot upgrades that went from frustrating to impressive, to AI-assisted hiring wins, to the unfiltered reality of conference networking, this conversation is refreshingly direct. If you work in fintech or credit unions and want a perspective grounded in real experience rather than buzzwords, this episode is for you.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

✅ How credit union technology like Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT has evolved from clunky early tools into genuinely useful platforms for business efficiency inside a growing CUSO.

✅ Why a thoughtful approach to AI adoption paid off for MBFS, including a real example of how updated job descriptions powered by AI led directly to a successful hire.

✅ How portfolio management practices and internal team development have transformed credit union growth at MBFS over eight years of organizational change.

✅ What conference networking looks like today compared to 20 years ago, and why showing up at trade shows is now more about relationships than closing deals on the floor.

Subscribe to Credit Union Conversations for the latest credit union trends and insights on loan volume and business lending! Connect with MBFS to boost your credit union’s growth today.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Jeff Lyons reflects on eight years of credit union growth and his evolving COO role

05:14 History of artificial intelligence, from Clippy to ChatGPT and credit union technology

09:44 Honest take on Microsoft Copilot, AI adoption struggles, and real business efficiency gains

14:21 How AI adoption improved hiring via smarter job descriptions and operational efficiency

16:16 The changing reality of conference networking, trade show etiquette, breakfast buffets, and industry trends observations

21:52 Wrapping up favorite conferences and final thoughts on AI adoption in credit union growth

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

💎 Artificial intelligence tools like Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT are no longer aspirational. Teams willing to invest in better prompting and consistent use are delivering real gains in business efficiency right now.

💎 AI adoption works best in small, practical steps. The MBFS team saw direct results when they used AI to sharpen a job posting, proving that credit union technology need not be complex to create a measurable impact.

💎 Conference networking remains valuable for credit union growth, but the purpose has shifted. Today, the goal is to maintain relationships and digital marketing visibility, not to generate new business from the booth floor.

ABOUT THE GUEST:

Jeff Lyons - LinkedIn

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Mark Ritter - Website

Mark Ritter - LinkedIn

SEO KEYWORDS:

Credit Union Conversations, Mark Ritter, MBFS, Credit Unions, CUSO, Credit Union Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Business Lending, Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, Financial Technology, Credit Union Growth, Portfolio Management, Trade Shows, Conference Networking, AI Adoption

[00:00:37] So thank you, and you can check us out at www.mbfs.org and connect with us right on there. So joining me today is Jeff Lyons, COO of MBFS. Jeff, how you doing today?

[00:00:55] Mark Ritter: We're looking forward to it, catching up on some odds and ends. I've been on the road [00:01:00] constantly, so we haven't talked too much lately because I've just been living out of a suitcase, and thankfully, that is coming to an end over the next few weeks.

[00:01:15] Jeff Lyons: I joined June 11th, 2018. So I'm coming up on my eight-year anniversary as a COO here.

[00:01:39] Give me your thoughts on what you thought it would be and how it's evolved and your position's evolved.

[00:02:04] We'll keep rolling along and see how things go." But we were in the office back then, we're not anymore. That was a big difference. But the job that I started with, it's evolved a bit. So I started and I oversaw the sales team and the credit team, and we really didn't have any managers in place for those departments.

[00:02:51] So I've evolved into new credit union discussions with prospects and onboarding of those new [00:03:00] credit unions, kind of getting them acclimated for first time using a CUSO, helping them out, keeping them abreast of what's going on and updating them as from what their perceptions are to what we do and how we can do it.

[00:03:35] So it's really just taken off. And we're gonna... We're not gonna talk about the PPP period of time because we've already- Yes ... done that on the podcast, but just an aberration in how we survived that. But it's been great. It, it, every day is a learning experience here.

[00:04:03] And so it's r- I think we've really evolved into a real company over time.

[00:04:22] Mark Ritter: Yes

[00:04:26] Mark Ritter: So we've been on a journey recently here at MBFS, a- and I hate to use the buzzwords of AI. And if I go to another conference and hear about an AI session, I'm gonna walk out or just start screaming because I'm good. I get what you're saying. I get w- that it's going to revolutionize this and do this.

[00:04:59] Jeff Lyons: Yep ...

[00:05:14] Jeff Lyons: So I guess it was, we kind of upgraded into that MS365 platform is when I remember here being involved.

[00:05:48] But yeah.

[00:06:26] And heck, that's going on three, four years ago now, so I thought, "This is not ready for primetime." But I think we're getting closer to-- I, I know we're getting closer to being accessible. And I always had a s- former CEO who said, "I wanna be on the leading edge. I don't wanna be on the bleeding edge." And what he meant was, "I don't wanna be hop on every new trend and try to figure it out, and I'll let other people fail a [00:07:00] lot.

[00:07:34] And I can think of Minority Report where you're walking through and the ads change based off of who you are. And I'm like, "Oh, that actually happens today."

[00:07:44] Mark Ritter: I can walk into a store and they geocode me and are sending me ads, and all of these other things that were just completely sci-fi based that we never would have dreamed about watching the Total Recall and everything [00:08:00] else in these movies.

[00:08:08] Jeff Lyons: Yeah. I was in the, an Under Armour, their flagship store in Baltimore, and walking around with a couple shirts trying, that wanted to try on. Went into the, the dressing room and a screen popped up with those clothes and told me, "You have the e- extra large."

[00:08:40] A-

[00:09:01] I sometimes wonder how accurate it is.

[00:09:04] Mark Ritter: It, it's got to be pretty close, but I, who knows how accurate anybody is checking up stuff or theft and everything else. But it, I, we're here today.

[00:09:22] In the beginning, like you said, it was more aspirational, like this could be great, but it's not there. Now things are just happening so fast in that AI world. Wow, it's really working. Like now when you Google something, it, it gives you an answer instead of a website to go to. It kind of prefaces it with, "Here's what you can do," and, "All right, here's some links to find out more."

[00:09:44] Mark Ritter: Yeah, it's what we used Weidenhammer in our first crack, a- and they were learning and we were learning, and Weidenhammer's been on the show a few times to talk about Copilot, and it was really almost the art of the [00:10:00] possible of here's the industry, here's what's potential, here's how you can use Copilot, and just AI in general.

[00:10:35] Jeff Lyons: It's the next three months. Yeah. Copilot was stilted, right? It, it... I felt like I did most of the work and then I would just edited its response back to me. And now it's just, "Here, I need this," and it's, now it's really producing things and you can set the tone, the length o- of your responses, and what you want to do.

[00:11:02] Mark Ritter: When we first got Copilot It sucked in Excel. Like every time you tried to do something in Excel, it was horrible. There were so many nuances. And I put it on the shelf for a little bit, a- and I started doing my old school pivot tables and numbers and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:11:27] Jeff Lyons: Yeah. The way you expected it or thought it could work in the beginning, it's now there, right.

[00:11:44] Jeff Lyons: That's a funny thing, 'cause I think it's more me understanding how to prompt AI better, or Copilot or ChatGPT. So I get a little frustrated, but I put it more on myself that I have to learn better prompting. It has gotten the ability to be more of a [00:12:00] conversational and understand what you're trying to get at.

[00:12:15] Mark Ritter: Yes. I find some of the analysis a first crack okay But it just doesn't have some of the context and the writing still seems-- But if you, when you read writing, it, you can tell, oh, this is...

[00:12:35] Jeff Lyons: Yeah. Yeah. It's a, a lot of the videos you see online, you can-- There's a, to me, there's a glossiness or a sheen to those videos, and you're like, "Oh, that's an AI. That's not real." But I don't believe anything online anymore. I have to verify everything.

[00:13:22] And I'm just like, "Oh, this is what they're talking about," and just junk. And there is no better annoyance in my life than AI use now of LinkedIn and email. Yep. These emails, it's just who is doing this and who-- It must just become like the old school spam email days, where I'm just going to continually put out content.

[00:14:01] Jeff Lyons: Yeah, I think people don't give people credit that they're smarter than you think they are. And there will be that backlash.

[00:14:23] Mark Ritter: So give people a little bit of insight into behind the scenes here at MBFS and what we've been doing with the management team a- and con- some consultants in growing the company and expanding our use to get a little more efficient.

[00:15:02] And the, we start talking about different things that we need help with, and he's, "Oh, yeah, we can do that," or, "Here, let's talk about this, and let's s- plan it out in steps," which has worked. One of the things we've done that was great was, in one of these conversations, was we were talking about our job descriptions, and we updated one because we were having a hard time finding candidates recently for a new sales position.

[00:15:50] Mark Ritter: And I don't mind giving them a plug. It's a friend of the show, friends of ours at, uh, CU 2.0 have been helping us along in the process and have just been fabulous at it [00:16:00] So Jeff, uh, after I'm done recording today's shows, we're gonna be seeing each other, driving to Atlantic City to get together for a get-together at the Cross States Conference, which is the trade association for Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

[00:16:44] Jeff Lyons: Yes. You think, I think it's, part of it is you want to have a trade show booth and then get a ton of business, but that's not always the thing. It's, it, to me it's more- Yeah ... and I've learned this, it's more our name just keeps getting out there and putting our name out [00:17:00] there. Then, I don't wanna say invisible, but it's subc- maybe subconscious.

[00:17:06] Mark Ritter: I feel like the booths and the trade shows used to be much more business development, where now they're client ... They're just a easy place to see your clients and relationships and industry people. And I've also descri- I've gotten to know other, the vendors, exhibitors that you can have business talks with, and sometimes I've described it as the Grateful Dead concertgoers, where you just go from place to place and you all see each other at the same place And that's where it's really about client relationships, exposures.

[00:17:50] Jeff Lyons: Right.

[00:18:03] Jeff Lyons: Yeah, and you ha- you, attendees had that, you had that stigma of, "If I walk down this aisle, 12 people are gonna try and sell me something."

[00:18:27] There, the one that we go to, they have a guy rolling cigars, giving away free cigars. That's a big attraction. Stuff like that, that's just a little different. I enjoy looking at and seeing that. But yeah, it's, like I said, keeping the name out there, saying hi to your clients, meeting a few people, industry people, other CUSOs.

[00:18:46] Mark Ritter: Yeah, and there's sometimes those commonalities of things that annoy me, and the first item that I always see that people that annoy me at the conference most are, [00:19:00] is the new person at the conference. It's their first year or it's their first credit union event, and it's like they discovered this, and they're gonna tell you everything about credit unions and all about credit unions when you just wanna say, "Buddy, relax."

[00:19:20] Mark Ritter: like, see you n- let me see if you're here next year.

[00:19:25] Mark Ritter: Yes. Some of my other annoyance, my other big annoyance is I feel like there's one menu for breakfast at every single one of these conferences. There's scrambled eggs, the meat, there's your hash brown potato, cut up fruit, and croissants, and it is the exact same marginal breakfast food at every conference.

[00:20:08] Jeff Lyons: Yeah. I get every day.

[00:20:25] Mark Ritter: Yes. Yes. Yeah, and just, I've, this year and last year, I've just become so much more conscious- Of the high costs, the hotel rooms, the add-on fees, the, the Uber.

[00:21:08] Jeff Lyons: Yeah, it really has. The Uber, like to me, the one that sticks out the most is like the Uber or the Lyft ride. The-- it's almost gotten to that point of I should just rent a car. Yes. There's almost a break even there. It's the same with when we go on vacation. Do I get an Airbnb or do I stay in a hotel? If I get an Airbnb, I gotta, sometimes I gotta throw the sheets in the laundry.

[00:21:32] Mark Ritter: It used to be, "Oh boy, we're in an Airbnb. It's so much cheaper and more convenient than a hotel." No, it's not. It's the same price anymore with you being the maid service.

[00:21:46] There's a, there's a happy medium there, and I think we're, like you said, it, it's more expensive and we're getting close to it, that's for sure.

[00:22:05] We're deep with the League of Credit Unions, which is primarily in the Southeast. We, we... I went to their CEO summit in Fort Lauderdale. A- and this beautiful hotel that was right on the beach, and the whole time it was there, it was this storm where I thought the hotel was gonna get blown over. And in a few weeks we'll be at their Engage Conference.

[00:23:04] Jeff Lyons: Yep.

[00:23:32] At Inclusiv, they take the flyer, and they stop and ask questions.

[00:23:37] Mark Ritter: So.

[00:23:38] Mark Ritter: Yeah.

[00:23:45] Mark Ritter: Yeah. So yeah. We should start to mark them and do numbers because it's not many.

[00:24:05] Mark Ritter: Absolutely. All right, Jeff, thanks for joining me today.

[00:24:13] Jeff Lyons: Yeah, I'm, coming up, like, in the next couple years, I'm really looking forward to seeing where AI gets implemented. We've always looked at self-spreading programs, financial statements. That looks like it's gotten to the point where it's usable, right?

[00:24:37] Mark Ritter: Absolutely. So this is Mark Ritter, CEO of MBFS, and host of Credit Union Conversations. Joining me today is Jeff Lyons, COO at MBFS, and it was great to catch up with Jeff.

[00:25:10] And please, grab me if you see me out there on the circuit. Let me know you listen to the show, and if there's anything else you'd like to see. So thank you, have a great day, and I will see you soon.