This week, Mark welcomes Nicol Matthews, the principal behind Harvest Coaching & Consulting, to discuss how credit unions can drive sustainable growth in a competitive financial landscape. Credit unions can strengthen their market position by building a strong sales culture, developing effective leadership, and expanding business services. Nicol shares insights on how establishing a sales culture through consistent coaching, aligning leadership with a long-term vision, and growing business services—particularly deposits—can help credit unions enhance their impact, build stronger relationships, and ensure long-term stability.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• [3:28] Nicol shares her background and why she launched Harvest Coaching & Consulting
• [10:20] How credit unions should adopt a sales culture with goals and leadership to maximize growth
• [16:07] Nicol shares her thoughts on credit union leadership
• [21:44] Building business services and membership
• [28:09] Nicol shares the advantages of having a fractional executive

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

• Establishing a thriving sales culture within a credit union requires more than just launching a program. It involves setting clear goals, providing consistent coaching, and allowing gradual implementation over time. Leaders must create a foundation that aligns with the organization’s values and continuously build it, ensuring that empathy, integrity, and honesty are incorporated into the sales approach.
• Leadership development should be an ongoing process, not a one-time event. Whether someone is new to the C-suite or has been in the role for years, investing in executive leadership growth is key to fostering a positive organizational culture and long-term success. When needed, regular coaching, feedback, and external guidance can provide a fresh perspective and push leaders to improve.
• Credit unions can increase liquidity and grow their membership base by focusing on business services, especially deposits. Viewing business accounts not just as a line item but as a strategic growth area is essential. Implementing business deposit products and offering alternatives to banks can position credit unions as valuable resources for small businesses, ultimately driving growth in deposits and loans.

RESOURCE LINKS

Mark Ritter - Website

Mark Ritter - LinkedIn

Monday Morning Leadership - Book

Nicol Matthews  - Email

Harvest Coaching & Consulting - Website

BIOGRAPHY: 

After a long and successful executive career in building credit unions, Nicol Matthews is now the principal behind Harvest Coaching & Consulting. Nicol can be reached at nmatthews@harvestcoachconsult.com.

Mark Ritter: Hello, this is Mark Ritter, your host of Credit Union Conversations and the CEO of mbfs. I hope you enjoy listening to our shows and however you listen, whatever your favorite audio platform is, please go ahead and subscribe. Uh, that way we can, you can listen to us on your way to work or at the gym while you're mowing grass, going for a walk, wherever you listen to your favorite audio shows.

Many of the CEOs and executives you talked to, they were the teller, they were the loan person, they were the accounting people, they shoveled the, they shoveled the snow, they cleaned the branches. It was truly a jack of all trades and you learned Everything there was today's world is a lot more complicated.

I wanted to pull in somebody like that. Joining me today is Nicole Matthews of Harvest Coaching and Consulting. Nicole, thanks for joining me.

Nicol Matthews: Thanks, Mark. I really appreciate the opportunity. I think we met about 14 years ago in the QSO space.

Mark Ritter: Absolutely. I'm not going to let that just go. So I interviewed with Nicole for a QSO job, not Nicole.

Nicol Matthews: and, and you still landed. On your feet very finely, sir. I

Mark Ritter: managed to pay my bills and feed my feed my family.

That's right. So yeah, it was great. It's great to see you again. It's great to see what you're up to today. So give people, you know, we, we have a show here where the audience is credit union people than the people in the credit union industry. Kind of tell people what you're up to now.

Nicol Matthews: Yeah. Like you mentioned, Mark, I've recently launched harvest coaching and consulting and taken the entrepreneurial leap of faith.

But an area that, that I believe is essential right now is. You know, guiding credit unions through launching or possibly even revamping their member business department services. I believe there's a great opportunity to really help credit unions dive into the small to mid sized business market, you know, really finding ways to help business owners from both the lending and deposit account perspective.

And a lot of times credit unions need that expertise. Um, of course they have the CUSOs like yourself, but how do they bring all those pieces together to, to meld the CUSO and the credit union into, into finding that, um, right space and those results that they're looking for?

Mark Ritter: So you're, you're absolutely right.

Nicol Matthews: so Mark, as you know, when we get to a certain age, This part of the discussion could be lengthy, so I'm going to give you the shortened version as fast as possible, right?

Um, so I actually started out as a bank teller in Annapolis, Maryland. Uh, the bank only had seven total employees at the time, and that actually included the CEO. Uh, my mom highly recommended I look elsewhere, right? Um, however, Like most young adults, I did not follow her advice. Um, within about two years of being there, I got promoted three times and at 22 years old found myself as the branch manager of this bank.

Um, at 26, I started managing two of their branches. Um, and then about two years after that, they brought in a high level executive. from First Union. Um, he started off by making all branch managers and regionals reapply for their roles, which can be an, an extremely unnerving experience, but that then provided me the opportunity to possibly advance my career.

So two of those managers actually ended up moving into regional roles. I'm still in contact with them as well as the EVP that, you know, helped me really grow my career and give me that opportunity. But after being in that role for about seven years, I was offered an opportunity to be a VP of retail over a 2 billion bank and ended up creating a unique partnership with a large foundation in the area.

It gave us quite a bit of press. But about a year into that role, I met with a vendor, believe it or not. And he said, I think you need to get in contact with our recruiter. There's a high level position at a credit union in Charlotte, North Carolina. I was like, okay. Um, so the interviewing phase lasted a few months.

And this was all done without mergers or acquisitions in Charlotte, which we know is the second largest banking market in the U. S.

Mark Ritter: That's one competitive marketplace to be a credit union.

Nicol Matthews: Right. Yeah. So I find myself now in this season where I can impact the growth of credit unions from a different seat.

But also having been at the same table and experienced the same challenges and struggles and concerns that those executives face.

We provide the greatest service ever. We make everybody happy. We give everybody what we want and we smile and say, thank you for being a member. When I started cause I started up business lending and when I started that up, it was. Outbound, we, we had, there was no program, we had to build it. It was outbound calls, it was sales, it was dinners.

Nicol Matthews: Absolutely. I think sometimes one of the biggest challenges, if I'm speaking directly to a sales culture, is first making the decision to have a sales culture and and then following through on it. So many people have fantastic ideas, strategies, and plans, but then it tends to get lost kind of in that execution phase.

And do things differently, things that you've never done before. Um, you can't, we can't just act the same way that we always have. This market and this environment is so different today. Um, so you have to really build a foundation, a sales culture, doing things differently. You can't just do it like that overnight.

It's going to take time. And so I think it's really important to build this foundation over three years and gradually build it. If you don't, if you try and build it all at once, it can be too jarring on an organization and the employees as well.

Mark Ritter: I always have found that some people, they look at a, they're going to say, we're going to have a sales culture.

Nicol Matthews: No, that's great. Um, here's where I believe the best practices are. If you're going to start a sales culture first, you've got to have buy in, right?

We all know that. I'm not saying anything right now that, that someone doesn't already know listening to this podcast, but you've got to select a senior leader. Somebody at the top that's passionate about sales. Sales is not a dirty word. It's all in how you do it. Right? And so they need to lead the efforts.

They need to believe in selling with empathy. integrity and honesty. That's where I think the difference is. And I think that's really where credit unions can get into the sales culture and, and do it in the right manner. Um, that's really where it's important. And we can consider the credit union philosophy and the movement, um, develop a sales culture strategy, right?

And they think, Oh, on Tuesday, we're going to have a sales culture and everybody's buying in. And we get to now say we're doing sales. Well, not really, we're not doing sales yet. Um, As I mentioned, another best practice, setting goals, incorporating monthly coaching, if a credit unit is not doing it already.

I can't stress that enough. That's so important, regardless of whether you're doing sales culture or not. Um, but be sure to hold people accountable to exceeding goals and improving results. Um, communication is also key, right? At all levels of the organization, so people know where we are in the process.

So don't hesitate to find somebody else to guide you. I mean, Mark, that's what you guys do in, in the business lending arena.

Mark Ritter: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. It, it is a process in a plan and, and something that just cannot be overlooked at all. Correct. So you, you mentioned developing, you know, really developing the staff

Nicol Matthews: mm-hmm

Or everything's broken. We bring in a new executive who says, everything you're doing is wrong and you have me to fix it and change everything you're doing, both of which I kind of have issues with, and I tend to think it's somewhere in the middle is a little bit better scenario. But I also know a lot of executives who said, I got this job for a reason.

What I know is good. Talk to me a little bit about your philosophy about developing your executive team, who sometimes may think they're there, they have the answers, and they might not need developed as much as the frontline staff.

Mark Ritter: Absolutely.

Nicol Matthews: Um, so here's what I'll say.

I believe truly that everyone can and should develop their leadership skills. Um, whether you've been in a C suite role for 10 years, two years, Maybe you're not in a C suite role. Maybe you're not in an executive role yet, but you want to be. I think at times we can forget that we're leading others and their careers are in our hands.

So we're not just developing ourselves for ourselves. I think we're developing ourselves for everybody else. Um, it's important for us to not take that lightly and we need to be a leader that others will remember and hopefully they'll reflect on the guidance or the help that we've provided them along the way.

Um, you know, I, I just, I, I believe in being the best version of ourselves each and every day.

And everybody says, wow, isn't that nice? And the next day you go back and do the exact same thing, but you check the box that you read about some new philosophy.

Nicol Matthews: Mm hmm.

Mark Ritter: It just, to me, it just needs to be singles and doubles in developing your team continually, and it's okay to have that outside coach versus yay, let's check a box and say we did this and move on to the next, uh, next day and next week.

What do you think? Am I, am I off base? Am I too cynical? No,

They are absolutely needed and I would still use them today. But like you said, there needs to be frequency. There needs to be consistency. So for example, there is a book I. Got mark. I can't even tell you when it's probably been with me for 2025 years. And I don't even remember how I got it. It's a little book.

It's called Monday morning leadership. And, and it's an action book where you can actually go through it. And I've done that with my team to where once a week we're meeting and they have to read the chapter. And then we talk about it and there's questions and we go through it to build their leadership skills.

Not just you, but how are you pushing the rest of your executive team to be successful? To really grow in their leadership skills, the more impact you make on the culture of your organization, your employees, your members, and ultimately your, your community. I believe each executive should have an executive, uh, coach, right?

An external coach, as you mentioned, because sometimes it takes somebody else outside the organization to really help you get a different or better perspective. They may challenge you or push you in different ways.

Mark Ritter: You're, you're, you hit the, you're, I agree 100 percent there. So let's talk about helping out some business members.

And CUSOs popped up. And 20 some years ago, you could say, I have a CUSO. What do you know about business lending? Who's doing it? And you can point at somebody and say, I have a CUSO. They do it. We're good. Well, those days are long gone and, and we can help, we can guide, but there's a wall there of kind of a check and balance where they need to understand it themselves.

We're going to grow by 12 million dollars next year. If I grow by 12 million, it's a success. If I grow by 8 million, it's not a success. But there's so much more behind that. You know, and you've had experience with this. You've dealt it. You know, talk to me about your perspective on growing business services and business members.

I truly believe credit unions have such an opportunity right now to capitalize on business lending and deposit accounts. Um, like I said, I think they shy away because of fear. Or, or lack of knowledge. Um, but in my mind, I think business services has never been easier. I mean, we're getting away from cash intensive businesses, right?

We're getting away from the numerous checks that businesses used to take. So there's so much more technology now that makes, I think that process easier. Um, You know, with having the ability to join Accuso for the underwriting and the loan docs and, and the loan servicing, you've got core systems now that offer the ability to easily set up their business checking and savings products.

We just have to make the decision to move forward and put a plan in action. Um, I believe credit unions can significantly increase liquidity through growing their business deposits. And in turn, ultimately we know how many credit unions out there really want to grow their membership base. Right.

Mark Ritter: I remember for years, years and years, so many credit unions said, we just want loans.

Nicol Matthews: Correct.

Mark Ritter: You don't, you don't, it is a year's process.

It is not, we put an ad in the paper and, uh, every, all the money comes in on Tuesday. It was, and I think we, that we have such a, uh, a prime time in our industry to actually bring in complete relationships when we've really just focused on loans for now.

Nicol Matthews: Absolutely. Um, I mean, I'll tell you when, And when I was COO at the credit union in Charlotte, this is going to sound a little crazy.

And they trusted in my ability that I was [00:25:00] going to set up the right checking and savings products and, and we launched it. And we grew that deposit base over 25 million. Um, now that doesn't sound significant for maybe some of our larger credit unions, but for a credit union started out at 150 million in assets and to grow to over 25 million in deposit dollars.

That

Mark Ritter: moves the needle.

Nicol Matthews: That absolutely moves the needle. Um, you know, their, their loan portfolio was still larger than that. They had grown over 80 million. So there was still more of, of the. You know, the, the concentration, I guess, in the, in the lending arena, um, it's, it's time for credit unions to really take a look at business deposit accounts because you, you know, we get so much more dollars in that business deposit account than you are in a consumer account.

The opportunity to come join a credit union, how much better service you're going to get, how the pricing is cheaper or better for them. Um, and they're not just a number. So many small businesses complain about that. And I'm sure you've heard that too, Mark, in your area.

Mark Ritter: Absolutely. I just think it's time for our industry to strategically Think about and support business members.

You have to scale beyond just one or two people at your credit union that knows. And that's where I think somebody like yourself who can strategically support credit unions on a fractional basis makes all the sense in the world. And, and, and just getting into, you know, you, you don't know other segment of the credit union.

Do we just say, ah, we're going to do this much in loans and whatever it looks like, it looks like we plan it out. We manage it and we try to bring in all of those relationships. Why can't we do that with businesses?

Nicol Matthews: We, we can, we can, I agree with you. It's like, we're, we're leaving something on the table and we're not pulling in everything.

We didn't pick it up. Um, and you're right. I mean, credit unions now have the ability to use people like myself as a fractional executive that has the experience of bringing on To, you know, business department services that included both pieces, not just the lending piece, but also the deposit piece. And, you know, for those that don't understand a fractional support person or executive, they allow you to capitalize on all the experience, all the knowledge.

without that hefty expense of the full salary, the 401k matching the health benefits, all those things, but you still get your goals and objectives accomplished. Um, so I think there's so much opportunity out there. And when you think about, like you said, right, calling on businesses, it, it's really not a scary, It doesn't have to be scary.

Absolutely. And when you bring in a commercial loan officer, um, are they responsible for deposits? Yes. But are they going to concentrate more so on the lending piece? Absolutely. Right. Cause that's where their comfort level lies, but there's partnerships that we can bring together. And so we can train your credit union.

Can Can I make you money? Can I add safety to you? Or can I just make sure that you know that I'm here for you? Right. And develop that relationship.

Mark Ritter: So Nicole, thank you so much for joining us today and let, let the, our listeners know how they can connect with you and uh, what are some of the areas you might be able to help them out with?

Nicol Matthews: Absolutely. So as you can see, I'm pretty passionate about leadership. I'm pretty passionate about the business. Um, department services area. I think there's so many opportunities there. Um, I think it's really important for us to continue to grow our skillset, whether we've been in our role for three years, five years, 10 years, 40 years, right?

Mark Ritter: All right.

So I hope, uh, hope, uh, we get some people who want to reach out with you. I know some people who could use your services where we might do an introduction after this, but thank you so much for joining me today. I really enjoyed it. And, uh, this is Mark Ritter, your host of Credit Union Conversations and the CEO of MBFS.

Uh, or if you're interested in being on our show as a guest. So thank you very much. And we hope to see everybody very soon.

Narrator: Thank you for listening to the credit union conversations podcast. Have a question? Visit mark Ritter. com for more information.