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In this episode, Cortney Arnold and Kaeshier Fernandez explore leadership and talent development among digitally native, future credit union leaders. Their conversation highlights the importance of creating space for digitally fluent team members, balancing authenticity with professional expectations, and leaning into generational differences as an organizational asset. They also examine how the principle “to be clear is to be kind” strengthens talent development by setting direct expectations while supporting growth. It offers practical perspective for people leaders at all levels and young professionals looking to take their development to the next level. Following Cortney and Kaeshier’s conversation on authenticity, meeting the next generation where they are at, and providing sound financial advice at the same time, we’re linking our Finfluencer Campaign Playbook which provides a social media toolkit for credit unions and the research to back it up. Find it here: https://www.filene.org/reports/finfluencer-campaign-playbook For upcoming publications mentioned or more of our work check us out directly at https://Filene.org.

Today, Dr. Amy Hillman reframes succession planning as a core component of strategic execution, not a one-time governance task. She walks through how boards should think about their own skills and composition, why “trust but verify” depends on having the right experience in the room, and how tools like attribute matrices, RACI frameworks, and CEO bench-strength reviews support long-term execution. The conversation offers practical guidance for boards and executives navigating leadership transitions, regulatory expectations, and the growing complexity of credit union strategy. At the end of the episode, we mention one of our favorite tools to assess your CU’s governance health right now: Governance Risk Assessment Tool - https://www.filene.org/reports/credit-union-governance-risk-assessment-tool For upcoming publications mentioned or more of our work check us out directly at https://Filene.org.

In this episode of the Filene Fill-In, Filene CEO Mark Meyer and Executive Vice President Christie Kimbell reflect on what they heard from credit union leaders in 2025 and what those signals suggest about the road ahead. They unpack the realities of leadership right now, including challenges around pace, courage, and alignment and how these issues are connected to Filene’s 2026 theme, Remarkable. You’ll hear from Mark about what it means for credit unions to be remarkable and some of the top opportunities for leadership to meet these moments. The episode also includes on-the-ground stories from First City Credit Union and East Rise Credit Union that illustrate what it means to be remarkable in their communities. At the end of the episode we mention a few standout reports related to our conversation today including: Cooperative Comebacks: https://www.filene.org/reports/cooperative-comebacks-resilience-in-the-face-of-the-hurricane-katrina-catastrophe Worth Protecting:https://www.filene.org/blog/worth-protecting-credit-union-disaster-research And our series on Innovations in Affordable Housing: https://www.filene.org/reports/housing-innovation-series For upcoming publications mentioned or more of our work check us out directly at https://Filene.org.

In this Design for Digital Takeover episode of The Filene Fill-In, host Jerry Kane sits down with generational researcher and storyteller Kim Lear to explore how each generation’s unique experiences shape their approach to money, work, and trust. From baby boomers to Gen Z, they unpack how life stage, culture, and technology intersect to drive values and financial behavior. Kim shares insights from her work with Filene’s Center for the Next Generation of Member Growth, offering credit unions a roadmap to connect authentically with younger members. Along the way, the conversation ranges from social media’s “phantom wealth” effect to what it really means to lead across generations in the post-COVID workplace. Stay tuned for an exciting announcement at the end of the show.

In this Design for Digital Takeover of the Filene Fill-In, host Jerry Kane talks with Sumeet Grover, EVP and Chief Strategic Growth and Digital Officer at University Federal Credit Union (UFCU), about leading digital transformation in a member-centric organization. Sumeet shares how breaking silos, rethinking the operating model, and embedding digital as a business discipline—not just a project—are key to sustained growth. He explains why frictionless beats flashy, how personalization builds trust, and why branches still matter in a digital-first world. The conversation also explores AI’s real potential versus its hype, and how agility and trust can coexist in regulated environments. Listeners will come away with practical insights into designing for digital as an enterprise habit, not a headline.

In this special Design for Digital Takeover episode of The Filene Fill-In, Jerry Kane sits down with Boston College professor and Me, Myself, and AI co-host Sam Ransbotham to unpack the truth behind the AI hype cycle. From fraud detection and generative tools to agentic AI and the future of work, they explore where artificial intelligence is really creating value and where it’s still catching up to the buzz. Along the way, they swap stories, share laughs, and reflect on how organizations can experiment smartly without losing their footing. Whether you’re curious, cautious, or already knee-deep in AI, this conversation will make you think and probably make you smile too. Stay tuned for an exciting announcement at the end of the show.

You know their names, ages, incomes and balances…but does that tell you who your members are? Does it tell you their motivations? How about actionable insights for helping meet their needs in the way that works best for them? It's no surprise that people with similar demographics can exhibit vastly different consumer behaviors... But a couple of strategy and marketing leaders in today’s episode believe Filene’s new segmentation model could be revolutionary for credit unions. In this episode, Filene’s Taylor Nelms guides a conversation with the credit union early adopters of Filene’s Member Voice segmentation tool. We’ll hear from Tricia Beeker, Vice President of Marketing and Lisa Warlick, Manager of Marketing Analytics at Truliant Federal Credit Union, as well as Ryan Zilker, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer at Sound Credit Union. They'll share candid insights from their journey with Member Voice, revealing how it's shaping their strategies and integrating with their operations. A key takeaway they've shared is the realization that readiness isn't a prerequisite for starting with Member Voice. Instead, it's a tool that prepares them for the future, sparking ideas and opportunities they couldn't have anticipated. You’ll also soon hear how the power of collaboration is helping them as they go through this segmentation work together -- each with their own unique set of goals, strategies and outcomes for it. They’ve only got one question for you – why wouldn’t you want this information at your fingertips?! Stay tuned as we dive into their experiences and learnings, right here on The Filene Fill-In.

"One transition I’m really interested in is the transition from incarceration to entry back into society. The criminal legal system has an enormous impact on peoples’ lives but it’s one that financial institutions don’t seem to think much about." We have a special discussion for our listeners today as we hand over the reigns to our Filene Fellow for the Center of Excellence for Consumer Financial Lives in Transition, Lisa Servon. Lisa is joined by one of her co-researchers Jamila Harris who is an author and criminal justice advocate for women, to talk about a project they have worked on for the past few years, how they got interested in this work, and the implications this research has for credit unions and communities they serve.

Today’s episode is very special – we have a guest on that is well known in the financial world from a national media stage -- and we are unpacking everything about a new, highly valuable Filene member benefit offered through a new partnership between Filene and HerMoney. Jean Chatzky is a former financial editor of NBC’s TODAY Show, bestselling author, award-winning personal finance journalist and advisor to major media companies & financial firms across the country. The company Jean founded, called HerMoney, makes one of the country’s leading taboos – talking about money-- more accessible, educational and fun, because of how they have figured out how to meet people where they are with the financial content they want. Helping people connect, learn and take action on their finances with confidence is the winning strategy that enabled the company to gain more than 550,000 followers on social media, more than 250,000 podcast listens a month, 2 million annual website visitors, and more than 100,000 newsletter subscribers. By partnering with Filene, HerMoney is bringing that same high-quality financial education content and customizing it for credit unions to personalize and share directly with their members every month. The goal of this effort is twofold – make life easier for every credit union marketing professional with a full plate, and to enable credit unions to engage members where they are while being more effective in their work to improve consumer financial well-being.

Sarah Lietz, Chief Experience Officer, MDC and Christie Kimbell, Chief Product Officer, Filene Research Institute provide insights and updates on what is happening in the most innovative pockets of the credit union and financial services space today and how growth-minded leaders can take advantage of innovative ideas to gain a new POV in 2023. In this episode, we dig into their decades of exploration into learning, growing and keeping up with innovation personally, professional and organizationally. Here are a few highlights on the insights they share: Tip 1 – it’s okay to have help when things are overwhelming -- credit unions swim in a collaborative community and innovation support is out there for you if you want it. Our networks are our secret weapons to make our work better, faster and easier. Tip 2 – it’s a mindset flip to move to thinking about your services embedded into experiences instead of spaces. Start envisioning your financial products serving moments. Tip 3 – jump in and explore something you know nothing about, maybe it’s the Metaverse, maybe its NFTs. We all look funny high-fiving air from the outsiders POV but you can guarantee you’ll come out knowing more than when you went in. Tip 4 – if you want to learn without being overwhelmed, find the ones that have expertise or at least something thought provoking to say about the ideas or concepts you want to explore. (This is how Christie and Sarah have become podcasting experts!) Tip 5 – The key to being a learning organization is to be diligent about finding time and space to think and strategize. In a world where strategy is built in minutes, give yourself and your teams responsible for strategy the time they need to think it through.

Today’s conversation is about Financial Well Being… well actually to be more specific, financial well being for all. For a substantial portion of households, day-to-day financial struggles remain profound in the face of persistent financial fragility and inequity. According to the Financial Health Network’s U.S. Financial Health Pulse, 2 out of 3 Americans are not financially healthy and stark disparities remain across gender, race/ethnicity, and income. This is not new information, and it is frustrating to feel like this persistent problem will only continue to persist or worsen in today’s social, economic and political environment. But there are things that credit unions can do and are doing to make a difference in people’s lives, one member at a time. Putting this consumer sentiment at the center of credit union decision-making and product and service delivery not only supports a credit union’s business goals and mission around advancing financial health and well-being through responsible lending products, higher savings rates, and financial education – but it also helps credit unions navigate supercharged digital transformation in a financial industry where fintechs have completely changed the competitive landscape. Today's expert is Michelle Christie, Senior Manager, Financial Inclusion and Impact, at the National Credit Union Foundation—she brings a wealth of knowledge and boots on the ground tangible experience on how credit union are, and can continue to, advance financial well-being for all whom they serve. Follow along with this interview by downloading the guide we reference at filene.org/557

Today’s conversation is about innovation. I know, right. Innovation this, innovation that, everyone is saying the word innovation so much, it's like the center square on a corporate jargon bingo card. But here’s the thing: Jeffrey Robinson, Fellow for Filene’s Center of Excellence for Innovation and Incubation tells credit unions “If we don’t innovate, we die.” So, if it’s here to stay, and we do have to innovate – not just say that we are innovating -- what does that actually look like? We put that question out to our most innovative credit union connections, the members of our i3 program. Earlier this year, they were tasked to scan the entire credit union environment and bring back the best innovations they saw happening. In the end, 36 i3ers on 8 teams picked their best finds and put them to the test. They presented on why what they found was the most innovative thing around and we asked you all to vote. After more than 1200 votes were cast, one innovation had the most votes – nearly 40% of the votes, in fact. That innovation? Bank Dora. So in today’s episode we have Alaina Froton and Jeff Medeiros from Dora to tell us all about what Bank Dora is, why it is the embodiment of innovation, and how it is helping the credit union industry grow, thrive, and stay alive. Let’s get to it…

Let’s take a trip back in time to big.bright.minds 2021 where we ran into a very enthusiastic supporter of the Filene i3 program – Randy Stolp. Now, Randy promised he had a very unique and interesting story about how he came to be part of i3 and he definitely delivered. But before we get to that…let’s look back in time again, this time if we look ALL the way back in history, we see the organizations that implement innovations are the ones that succeed. But to be that kind of organization, we need to grow and develop innovative people. This is exactly what Randy is doing, and he serves as a model for not only how organizations can develop their people but how individuals can take hold of their own destiny, push out of their comfort zone and get there even faster. Filene’s latest edition of The Asterisk magazine is all about Innovation & Incubation. For more on innovating out of the comfort zone, check out The Asterisk Vol. 9 on Filene’s website at filene.org/theasterisk. In it, you will learn how Filene Fellow Dr. Jeffrey Robinson of our Center for Innovation & Incubation defines innovation. He says that “innovation is really applied creativity and that it’s nice to have ideas but turning them into practices, products or approaches that improve upon something else is really what innovation is about. If you know much about the i3 program, you know that it is comprised of the industry’s most innovative leaders, so this episode is dedicated to the ones that push boundaries and expand their comfort zones. The secret sauce of Filene’s recipe for innovation is not just talking about ideas but rather taking them to the next step-- into incubation and maybe even, if they prove worthy, into implementation. Dr. Robinson works with all sorts of organizations from start ups to fortune 500s and he reminds us that credit unions will need to focus on innovation within their organizations to remain competitive. He’s never been subtle about his point: if we don’t innovate, we die. This may be true – and Chief Information Officer Randy Stolp from My Community Credit Union is doing something about that…here’s his story.

Today’s conversation is one you’ve likely thought about before if you work in the credit union industry -- we’re talking about credit unions and cryptocurrencies. The purpose of this conversation is to enlighten our credit union listeners to what they need to know about the current state of digital assets and cryptocurrencies, what risks and opportunities exist, what credit unions are doing now, and what it might look like on the horizon. This is a special conversation however, because we’re not just talking about it in hypotheticals and theories. We’ll start with one of the world’s leading experts in the topic, researcher Quinn DuPont, talking about how the pandemic changed the crypto landscape, advice for credit unions getting into crypto and more. We’re also lucky to have two credit union cryptocurrency practitioners -- Cynthia Schroeder and Joe Keller from Visions FCU--talking about what they’ve been up to in the space, and where they’re taking it next in support of their credit union’s strategies, growth goals and bottom line. Thanks for listening and be sure to stick around till the end for some interesting ideas on use of NTFs and crypto wallets.

1 in 5 credit union members report that they would be willing to leave their credit union for a bank if innovation was not a priority. If you’re a regular listener of this podcast, you know that we often bring our research fellows on so that you have a chance to hear directly from them, get to know a little more about the work they are doing and learn about the focus of the research centers they lead. In March, we officially launched our 6th and final research center of excellence on credit union innovation and incubation. This center studies current trends for how credit unions can respond to members’ desire for greater financial service innovations that meet their evolving needs and preferences. It also explores the general state of innovation across the credit union system. To help credit unions succeed in building cultures, processes and systems for innovation, Filene has enlisted Dr. Jeffrey Robinson, Associate Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship and Academic Director of the Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development at Rutgers Business School to lead this Center. We're excited to welcome Dr. Robinson on the show today. Also joining in our discussion and making his first appearing on the podcast is Filene’s Senior director of Incubation, Joshua Sledge. Together, Josh and Jeffrey are a tremendous resource for credit unions seeking ways to build their innovation muscles as well as give guidance to leading innovative credit unions on what’s on the horizon from their perspective. Register for our upcoming Innovation research event at filene.org/events