In this episode of Credit Union Conversations, host Mark Ritter speaks with Josh Rodriguez of West Community Credit Union about authentic community engagement, storytelling through podcasting, and the evolving role of credit unions in a competitive financial landscape.

Josh shares his 20+ year journey in the credit union industry—from phone teller to President & CEO of a small credit union, and now serving in one of the industry’s most unique roles: Assistant Vice President of FinTech and Mission Integration. He reflects on the challenges of leading a small credit union, the difficult but member-focused decision to merge, and how West Community Credit Union has embedded “people helping people” into its culture through hands-on community involvement.

The conversation explores why traditional marketing tactics often fall flat and how audio storytelling and podcasting can help credit unions emotionally connect with members and communities. Josh breaks down West Community’s Banking On You Podcast, a narrative-driven audio series that highlights real community impact rather than products or promotions.

Mark and Josh also discuss small credit union survival strategies, the realities of fintech partnerships, and why community engagement must go beyond check-writing and photo ops. This episode is a must-listen for credit union leaders, marketers, and executives looking to strengthen community trust, modernize outreach, and tell their story more effectively.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

✅ How credit unions can use storytelling and podcasting to build trust, emotional connection, and brand relevance beyond traditional financial marketing.

✅ What small credit union leaders must consider when facing sustainability challenges, including when a merger may be the most member-focused decision.

✅ Why authentic, hands-on community engagement matters more than surface-level philanthropy and how it strengthens long-term relationships.

✅ How fintech innovation can coexist with mission-driven values, allowing credit unions to modernize without losing their “people helping people” identity.

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Welcome to Credit Union Conversations

01:14 Meet Josh Rodriguez

05:16 Life lessons from running a small credit union

07:20 Deciding to merge: putting members and staff first

09:41 West Community Credit Union’s mission and community focus

11:00 Active engagement vs. check-writing philanthropy

13:43 Why credit unions should invest in podcasting

15:44 Audio storytelling and the Banking On You Podcast

19:05 Why credit unions struggle to tell their story

22:33 Josh’s role: FinTech & Mission Integration explained

26:03 Advice for small credit unions today

29:18 Rethinking community involvement

30:00 Where to find Josh and West Community Credit Union

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

✅ Authentic storytelling is a strategic advantage for credit unions. Members connect more deeply with real stories than product-driven messaging. Through podcasting and audio storytelling, credit unions can highlight real community impact, humanize their brand, and differentiate themselves in an increasingly crowded financial services landscape.

✅ Podcasting creates emotional connection at scale. Unlike ads or social posts, podcasts allow credit unions to slow down, go deeper, and engage listeners in meaningful conversations. Josh shares how West Community Credit Union’s Banking On You Podcast focuses on community narratives rather than promotions—building trust and credibility over time.

✅ Small credit unions must clearly define their niche to survive. Josh reflects on his experience leading a small credit union and the difficult decision to merge. He emphasizes that success for smaller institutions depends on focus, adaptability, and a willingness to make tough decisions that prioritize members and staff over ego or tradition.

✅ Community engagement must go beyond writing checks. True engagement requires showing up, listening, and participating consistently—not just sponsoring events for visibility. Josh challenges credit unions to move past transactional philanthropy and toward relationship-driven involvement that aligns with their mission.

✅ Fintech and mission alignment are not mutually exclusive. In his role overseeing FinTech and Mission Integration, Josh highlights how technology can enhance service delivery while reinforcing—not replacing—the credit union’s values. Strategic fintech partnerships should support accessibility, efficiency, and member experience without compromising purpose.

ABOUT THE GUEST:

Josh Rodriguez LinkedIn

Banking On You Podcast

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Mark Ritter - Website

Mark Ritter - LinkedIn

SEO KEYWORDS:

Credit Union Conversations, Mark Ritter, MBFS, Credit Unions, CUSO, Credit Union Service Organizations, Credit union community engagement, Credit union podcast marketing, Storytelling in financial services, Small credit union strategy, Credit union fintech partnerships, Mission-driven credit unions, Credit union mergers and leadership, Community-focused financial institutions

[00:00:25] mbs.org. So thank you. And I call this podcast Credit Union Conversations because that's what I like it to be a conversation. And I meet a lot of fascinating people with different roles and responsibilities throughout the country. And I say, Hey, let's come on and tell your story and who you are to the rest of the community.

[00:01:14] So, but nonetheless, he'll be home pretty soon for Christmas break and I'll have to have talk to him about that. So, but joining me today. Is somebody who I got to meet this year and talk to a few times, and I'm excited to have him on. Josh Rodriguez of West Community Credit Union. How are you doing today?

[00:01:35] Mark Ritter: I am freezing. It's wintertime up here in Northern Pennsylvania. It's way too cold and I always say this is nine months of paradise, three months where I feel like I live in a dystopian movie. Where I'm living here by myself, so,

[00:01:52] You gotta trade those three months for the rest of the nine. So

[00:02:14] So take it away.

[00:02:35] Like many of us that are in the industry, my first job in credit unions was a. Time, we called them member service representatives, but we were just phone. We were phone tellers. So I had worked in customer service previous to that and in a little bit in the furniture industry, school, furniture industry.

[00:03:08] Mark Ritter: must have been quite an interesting and different technology than it is today.

[00:03:41] So a lot of things were changing in, in that time, but it was definitely different than it is now. And we've. Certainly progressed, but some of these, you know, legacy systems as you know, are still hanging around like the Aach H network, been rock solid for years. I'm still using them

[00:03:58] Josh Rodriguez: right?

[00:04:14] But so many still process checks and still. Right tax. So that position was, was a really great entry for me into the credit union world. I got to see the back office processing and another story we can tell a different time. We moved from California to Missouri here to the Midwest, and I took a position at a small credit union that was, they're pretty much the same.

[00:04:54] You know, whether it's credit unions or anywhere else, you can learn a ton because there's not very many other, you know, [00:05:00] employees in the small business. And so I took advantage of that and started to learn about, you know. Processing obviously was already in processing, but accounting, lending, and I won't take you through all that journey, but long story short, in a few years, I think it was about eight years later, I became the president, CEO.

[00:05:42] I

[00:06:01] So it was literal, oh, okay. I needed to do loan documents. Oh, I have to go find a loan doc person, company, install it, learn how to use it, and do. Everything from scratch and, and at a small credit union, it, it's kind of the same thing. And because at a large credit union, you just call that department and you weed your way through the bureaucracy.

[00:06:31] Josh Rodriguez: Right. No, exactly right. And I was very blessed to have. For the majority of those years, a fantastic vice president of operations, Alison Warner. Her and I worked very closely together.

[00:06:58] You're from [00:07:00] ideation to execution, right? It's, it's on your desk. You're the one and those that you are able to gather around you to go to battle with. So that was a ton of fun. Very challenging at times. But that lasted about 11 years. And then around, I think it was around 2021, right after the initial part of the pandemic, you know, we went through a couple, some difficult times.

[00:07:40] And so very difficult decision we made to go ahead and pursue a, a merger with, with a larger credit union. I had known Jason Peach, who's the president of West Community. Credit union for many years, you know, as credit union CEOs in the same area. We'd had many, many conversations together. So culturally, it was a great fit and we fit in [00:08:00] very nicely where our branch location was at the time, we were about 50 million in assets, and it was a tough decision.

[00:08:12] Mark Ritter: So when a small credit union decides, you know what, let's look for strategic, alternative, strategic partners. It can be like. Seagulls on a bag of potato chips.

[00:08:42] 'cause to me it was, of course, the members are the most important, but I wanted to make sure that our employees were taken care of, that they weren't going to get into a situation that they hated, that the change wasn't gonna be so drastic and it's gonna be changed no matter what. You're not gonna avoid change.

[00:09:08] And we kept, I think we only had, as, as of the merger time, we've only had two employees that decided to move on to something else. We've got about six of us that have stuck around with the credit union and I think there was was nine or 10 that came over. I'm getting those numbers wrong, but close enough.

[00:09:26] Mark Ritter: So tell me a little bit about West Community. Kind of how it aligned up, if, was it a new marketplace for them or kind of it was covered some of the same areas. And tell me a little bit about their mission of, of that organization.

[00:09:45] With their branching strategy. They had, you know, branches, we, I should say we had branches in the surrounding areas, but where we were located there on Mexico Road and St. Peter's kind of fell right in a perfect area. You know, very much residential [00:10:00] surrounding, uh, that the St. Peter's branch. And so it fit in really well as far as the, you know, the future strategy of, of west community.

[00:10:27] Uh, west Community has a. Heart for, I mean, it's in their name, community. It's in a lot of companies and credit unions names, but they are, we are very, very focused on not just giving back, uh, financially or monetarily to our community, but getting, um, you know, boots on the ground. I like to say getting our hands dirty, pushing, rolling up our sleeves.

[00:11:15] Constantly getting us in contact with, with community organizations, with not-for-profit organizations. We have literally volunteered at hundreds mark over the years, and we're not just cutting checks. We do that too. We donate, you know, we cut checks and we do that. But we, our employees every week, our volunteering at, at different organizations to benefit our community here in the St.

[00:11:43] Mark Ritter: See, and that's where I think it's important. For, you know, everybody, every credit union, if I ask them if they're gonna be part of their community, they'll say absolutely. To me, having a golf outing at the local country club and writing a check to the food [00:12:00] bank is nice, but it's not active engagement, you know, and, and, and going to the, you know, buying a table for the charities, uh, annual dinner, that's nice, but it's not hands up.

[00:12:25] Josh Rodriguez: No, absolutely. And doing those things you mentioned, like you said, that's wonderful that there's a part to play in all of that, and we do that too. Um, but the differences is most of the time the, the individuals that get to attend those types of events are usually executives.

[00:12:58] And so, yeah, it's [00:13:00] cutting checks and sponsoring a table going to the golf tournament. Those are all things that we, we do, and those are all things that are fine, but it excludes an important part of your, of your organization, important part of your institution. And these are the individuals that, that want to give back, right?

[00:13:29] We're here to serve these indi individuals that. That are struggling. That's, you know, the credit union philosophy, people helping people. It's, it's real. It's not just the saying and it's something that is, that is in ground into it's part of our culture at West community.

[00:13:55] People can't see this, but you have a very nice microphone like me, [00:14:00] and you have much better headset than my,

[00:14:12] Mark Ritter: My recording studio is my sun room where you can see the snow behind me.

[00:14:17] Josh Rodriguez: yeah. That's a great view

[00:14:32] Josh Rodriguez: you do. So we have this interesting mix, um, and it was a result of the merger, uh, previous to the merger, uh, west Community was interested in audio, was interested in podcasting, just didn't have someone to take the lead on that.

[00:15:05] You know, most podcasts are, are like this, you and I talking together, but we're actually taking scripts with actors and sound effects and music instrumentation and creating what many people call like a movie for the ears. So it's all the production that goes into a movie except the visual and, and it's very, very captivating.

[00:15:44] So we kind of married those together and came up with the idea of, of doing audio stories for a podcast. You know, there are tons of. Of podcasts out there, obviously most of them, like I said, are, are this interview format. You'd almost call that a traditional podcast, which I can don't know [00:16:00] that we can really say that because podcasts really the, you know, the, uh, it was that really been around that long.

[00:16:25] And I say, absolutely not.

[00:16:27] Mark Ritter: And, and you get the marketing people, you get a sanitized version of a conversation and you see right through it. When I listen to a show, I'm like, oh, this is just scripted talking. Absolutely.

[00:16:47] And you're right, a scripted or or overly produced show is not gonna hit, you know? The heart of people, and that's what we're, that's what we're trying to do.

[00:17:06] How does it, how are you executing that?

[00:17:21] And so episode one, uh, we titled inspiration. And what we did is we told the stories of how we give back to the community. Now, I'll get back to that in, in just a minute about the actual storytelling, but every year we do a, a community event where, um. Previously we have about 10 different teams that go out on Columbus Day 'cause we're closed and, and it's the most, the most easily accessible holiday of them all.

[00:18:07] And then, uh, we just sit down with the individuals that run the nonprofit organizations. We get out and get some audio from the employees as they're, as they're scrubbing floors, you know, as their painting walls is there, they're actually in action doing these things. And so then I take all of that and I produce.

[00:18:43] So it's not just interviews, but it's actually, you know, like live events and, and, and, uh, drawing the listener into sharing along with us, walking along with us as, as we. You know, did these different things around the community. Um. The important thing is, is [00:19:00] we want to appeal to people. We want to tell the credit union story overall.

[00:19:21] Right. We've, we've been highly ineffective at. Telling our story, um, the best way for us to tell our story is to let's show people what we've done. Let's show people the, the ones that we've helped. Let's go through their stories and, and, and, and highlight how their lives have, have been changed, how people's lives have been changed, how nonprofits have been helped by our efforts.

[00:19:47] Mark Ritter: And, and that's where I, I, I really highly encourage people. To use audio as a platform for your message, but make it authentic [00:20:00] and you, you had a season, I have seen so many credit unions screw it up, where they just put it out once, if there's a promo.

[00:20:16] Josh Rodriguez: Absolutely. That's, and that's where a lot of us fall down in, in marketing. 'cause we want to talk about our rate, we wanna talk about, uh, this product. And people don't care.

[00:20:46] Maybe a credit union and they start talking about a product, or they start talking about, Hey, we have great rates. Or they start talking about, Hey, we have all these locations. What are you gonna do? You're gonna get up and you're gonna go back and get another plate of wings. You're gonna get some more chips, you get another drink.

[00:21:17] That's what we want to do. We want to, we want to hit people in their emotions and we want to show them, Hey, what we're doing with. With this credit union is helping people come be a part of what we're doing. And so we're, that's where we bring in the storytelling element and it's difficult Mark. It's, you know, yes.

[00:21:51] Gonna be bringing in some additional interviews. We were doing more audio stories where we're gonna add some additional episodes on that are more like interviews, but they're [00:22:00] still gonna be produced in a way that that is, you know, storytelling. But I think, and you're right, podcasting is a the perfect way to do this.

[00:22:26] Mark Ritter: So you have one of the most unique titles that I have seen.

[00:22:33] Josh Rodriguez: Okay. Yeah, it's very unique. I am the assistant Vice president of FinTech. And mission integration.

[00:22:53] You might be the

[00:23:12] The mission integration, what falls under that is the, the podcast. Um, we do some other audio and video production internally to motivate our employees to do some, you know, some training and some different things. And, and we could probably talk about those, those items another time 'cause we've got some really exciting stuff we're doing there.

[00:23:43] Mark Ritter: Talk about the, the FinTech side, because Yeah. So the FinTech

[00:23:47] Yeah, that's fun as well. So we've been very progressive as far as getting into, you know, FinTech relationships. My CEO, Jason Peach has always been, I wouldn't call him a a, a [00:24:00] techie necessarily, but he's very aware of where we need to go to remain competitive, and he's willing to try whatever we need to try, you know, to see if it sticks and to take a.

[00:24:34] Those of us in the credit union world, I said between them and our strategic operations, so our departments, you know, lending operations, back office, they're, they're neck deep in all of their projects and helping members, and they don't have the time all. Always to go out and find out what is available out there.

[00:25:12] I kind of vet them out ahead of time so they don't have to, you know, have two or three phone calls or two or three video calls with fintechs before, you know, I try to, I get it down to, and try to weed out those that, that we don't necessarily need a continuing relationship with. Then we see if it's a good fit from there.

[00:25:37] Mark Ritter: So I want you to, as we wrap up here, I want to have you put your consulting hat on.

[00:25:43] Mark Ritter: You are a few years removed from life as a small credit union.

[00:26:03] Josh Rodriguez: Yeah. Yeah. So one of the number one things I would say is. You are not going to be able to compete with the big guys.

[00:26:30] But even beyond that. You need to find yourself a niche. You need to figure out a segment of your community or segment of consumers that you can serve and serve well because you're not gonna be able to be all things to all people. Um, you'd like to. I would've loved to. I tried, and I, I can tell you this, it doesn't work.

[00:26:57] Mark Ritter: I've always said it's the best, yes, best thing and worst [00:27:00] thing to happen because anybody can join. But that means you're also competing with everybody.

[00:27:12] And your opponent is everyone, you know, as a small credit union, we like to say, oh, in the credit union community, you know the coopetition, you know, no, but I'm sorry, there we do compete against each other. That's just the way it is. Consumers are gonna look for the best situations they can be in. And so yes, it's gonna be tough to compete, compete on the community stage.

[00:27:52] It's a tough gig. It is. It really is. And I feel for those that are, that are running small credit unions now, when I was in that position. [00:28:00] Four or five years ago. Even then, it was tough. Things have changed so much, even now, it's, it's a difficult gig to be in, but I think that's probably the best thing that you can do at this point is, is find out who deserve and serve them well.

[00:28:31] Josh Rodriguez: Right, right. You know, on the flip side of that, mark, merger isn't a four letter word.

[00:28:50] Mark Ritter: you're doing, you're, you're giving people a better opportunity,

[00:28:54] If you, if you wait too long, you're gonna drag them through the mud. Yes. And you're gonna, you're gonna do a disservice to your [00:29:00] membership. And so you really have to consider what the best thing is for them and your staff as well.

[00:29:18] Josh Rodriguez: I, I, we've already kind of discussed these items, but we need to be more involved in, in our community. A few less photo ops maybe. Yes. You know, and, and let's actually show people that we care. Like you mentioned earlier, the golf tournament, all those things are fantastic, but let's lead by example and let's show how we actually are making a difference, and not with money and cents, not with checks.

[00:29:52] Mark Ritter: Absolutely. So I'll let you wrap up. I want you to promote your shamelessly, promote yourself. I want you to give people the [00:30:00] Credit Unions podcast.

[00:30:14] Josh Rodriguez: Aircom. Okay, so you can find the podcast at Banking on you podcast.com.

[00:30:37] Love to share on LinkedIn. It's become my social media addiction there. It's a different place to be. It's better than I, I believe, than all the others, especially professionally. West community cu.org is the website for the credit union. You could definitely find out all about our, uh, community efforts there.

[00:31:08] And we've got a couple of others that are out there, but LinkedIn is the best place. Josh Rodriguez West Community. And then of course the, the website Banking on you podcast.com. That's great.

[00:31:29] And if there's anything else that we could ever help you out with, let us know.

[00:31:35] Mark Ritter: All right, so joining me today was Josh Rodriguez of West Community Credit Union. Uh, check them out, check out their show, and hopefully, uh, it nudges your credit union to form up your audio channel and tighten that up.