"Joshua Houde on Member Growth, AI, and the Future of Credit Union Marketing"

"Joshua Houde on Member Growth, AI, and the Future of Credit Union Marketing"

In this episode of The Outlier Podcast, host Anurag Mukherjee sits down with Josh Houde, VP of Marketing at Blue Federal Credit Union, to explore how modern credit unions can win in a hyper-competitive financial services landscape.With nearly 20 years of experience across major banks (Wells Fargo) and three credit unions (Canvas Credit Union, Credit Union of Colorado, and now Blue Federal Credit Union), Josh shares hard-earned lessons on member growth, product innovation, data-driven marketing, and AI adoption in the credit union space.🔑 Key Topics Covered1. Blue Federal Credit Union's #1 Growth Priority in 2025 Why personalization of the member experience — not just product launches — is Blue's biggest focus this year.2. Deposit Growth vs. Loan Growth: Which Is Harder? Josh explains why relationship deposits (checking accounts, transactional accounts) are tougher to grow than loans, and how Blue maintains a 97–102% loan-to-share ratio.3. How Credit Unions Can Truly DifferentiateWhy every credit union sounds the same ("nice people, good rates, community focus")Finding the "fourth why" — the real reason members choose youThe "My Blue Moment" brand campaign and what it teaches about authentic storytellingWhy credit union marketers struggle to tell their own story (hint: it's humility)4. Using Data to Personalize the Member ExperienceTransaction-based segmentation (e.g., 6 trips to Home Depot = HELOC opportunity)7 persona-based segmentation models for targetingMoving away from "spray and pray" marketingWhy banking should feel as personalized as Netflix or Amazon5. AI in Credit Union MarketingUsing AI for brand QA and creative scoringAI-powered website rebuildsHow AI use cases have evolved in just 12 months6. Redefining the "High-Value Member"Why the traditional PFI (Primary Financial Institution) model is outdatedThe average American has 21 financial relationships — the new goal is being "the first house on the block"Balancing financial viability with mission7. What Success Looks Like AheadBuilding product innovation as a core competency"Products are just a means to the dreams" — members don't want car loans, they want a way to get to work💡 Notable Quotes from Josh Houde"You can only differentiate on the fringes. It's really how you position the product and the experience.""We want to own the piece of real estate in a member's mind — so when they have a financial need, we're the first house on the block.""No one wants a car loan or a mortgage. They want a house or a way to get to work. Our products are just a means to the dreams."👤 About the GuestJosh Houde — VP of Marketing, Blue Federal Credit Union 📍 Based in Colorado 🏦 Experience: Wells Fargo → Canvas Credit Union → Credit Union of Colorado → Blue Federal Credit Union 🎯 Focus areas: Product strategy, product innovation, brand, marketing, member experience🎙️ About The Outlier PodcastThe Outlier Podcast features candid conversations with credit union and fintech leaders driving the next era of member-first financial services.Host: Anurag Mukherjee⏱️ Timestamps00:00 — Introduction 01:25 — Josh's 20-year journey from Wells Fargo to credit unions 03:07 — Blue Federal's #1 growth priority for 2025 04:32 — Is deposit growth or loan growth harder right now? 07:02 — How credit unions can actually differentiate 10:26 — The "My Blue Moment" brand campaign 10:53 — Using data for member personalization 14:03 — How Blue Federal uses AI in marketing 16:08 — Redefining the "high-value member" 18:14 — What success looks like in the next few years 19:57 — Closing thoughts🏷️ Tags#CreditUnion #BlueFederalCreditUnion #MarketingPodcast #FinancialServices #MemberExperience #AIinBanking #CreditUnionMarketing #Fintech #ProductInnovation #DataDrivenMarketing #JoshHoude #TheOutlierPodcast #BankingInnovation #PersonalizedBanking #CreditUnionGrowth

"Winning Deposits in the Chime & Revoult Era."- Dave Valentine, CXO Consumers Credit Union

In this episode of the Outlier Podcast, host Anurag Mukherjee sits down with Dave Valentine, Chief Lending & Experience Officer at Consumers Credit Union (Illinois), recorded live from Las Vegas. With 20+ years in financial services — including roles at BCU, Motorola Employees Credit Union (Andigo), and Wells Fargo — Dave shares hard-won lessons on running lending, marketing, and member experience inside one of the Midwest's most innovative credit unions.📌 Key Takeaways (Quick Answers)Q: How does Consumers Credit Union measure member experience beyond NPS? A: Through post-transaction surveys, call/chat sentiment analysis, and a proprietary metric called Net Organic Member Growth — tracking whether members deepen their relationship by adding additional balance-sheet products.Q: What is Consumers Credit Union's #1 lending growth priority? A: Residential real estate — specifically mortgages and HELOCs — with the goal of originations reaching ~10% of total assets.Q: How should credit unions rethink deposit strategy in 2026? A: Move away from traditional "checking" framing. Reposition accounts as spend vs. save ecosystems built for Millennials and Gen Z, with reward structures aligned to how younger members actually use money.Q: What was the biggest "short-term pain, long-term gain" decision? A: Rolling out Interactive Teller Machines (ITMs) in drive-ups while keeping personal service in lobbies. Initial cost and member pushback were significant, but it now drives the highest member satisfaction segment (benchmarked via Member Loyalty Group) and a stronger career path for staff.Q: What's broken in credit union marketing today? A: Attribution. Fragmented systems make it hard to tie spend (TV, radio, streaming, billboards, social, branches-as-billboards) to actual member acquisition.Q: Dave's advice to his 20-years-younger self? A: Listen more — especially to people with different perspectives. It makes ideas, implementation, and change management dramatically better.⏱️ Timestamps00:00 — Introduction & welcome from Las Vegas 00:54 — Dave's journey: from alphabetizing vault titles to CXO 03:15 — Leading lending, marketing & experience: the trade-offs 05:22 — Measuring member experience beyond NPS 07:16 — The "Net Organic Member Growth" metric explained 08:17 — One lever to grow loans without compromising credit quality 09:42 — Rethinking deposit strategy in the age of Chime & Revolut 12:42 — Spend accounts vs. checking accounts for Gen Z 13:08 — The ITM rollout: short-term pain, long-term win 17:50 — What's broken in credit union marketing 20:05 — Dave's advice to his 20-year-younger self👤 About the GuestDave Valentine is the Chief Lending & Experience Officer at Consumers Credit Union, an Illinois-based credit union where he has served for over 11 years. He oversees lending, marketing, member experience, and learning & development. Earlier in his career, Dave held roles at BCU and Motorola Employees Credit Union (later Andigo), with a brief stint at Wells Fargo that confirmed his commitment to the credit union movement.👤 About the HostAnurag Mukherjee hosts the Outlier Podcast, where leaders from banks, credit unions, fintechs, and financial services share unfiltered perspectives on growth, technology, and member experience.🔗 Connect▶️ Subscribe for more conversations with financial services leaders 💬 Drop your thoughts in the comments — what's your credit union's biggest deposit challenge? 🔔 Hit the bell so you don't miss the next episode

Building the AI Brain for Credit Unions ft. Anubhav, Co-founder & CPO of ShiftMate AI

In this episode of the Outlier Podcast, host Anurag Mukherjee sits down with Anubhav — Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of ShiftMate AI — to unpack a journey that took him from a small town near the Odisha-Jharkhand border to building one of the most exciting FinTech platforms in the credit union space. Anubhav shares how his pivot from JP Morgan Payments to a U.S. master's program became the turning point that led him to fall in love with the credit union movement — an industry built on the simple but powerful idea of people helping people. In this conversation, we cover: * Anubhav's journey from Odisha → engineering → JP Morgan → masters in the U.S. → co-founding ShiftMate AI * What ShiftMate AI actually does: the growth brain that sits between a credit union's people and platforms * Why "bolting on AI" to every system is creating 10x activity but not 10x outcomes * The case for an orchestration layer that senses real-time member signals, executes value-first actions, and stays compliant and auditable * Why community banks and credit unions are the "third place" for members — and how that becomes their real competitive moat against the Bank of Americas of the world * The biggest technological challenge facing credit unions today: great platforms, but no unifying growth brain * Where the credit union movement is headed amid industry consolidation About ShiftMate AIShiftMate AI is a Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO) built by credit union insiders, backed by credit union investors, and developed in partnership with credit unions themselves. Its platform turns real-time member signals into compliant, policy-driven, value-first actions — and closes the loop by measuring what strategies actually worked. Chapters00:00 Intro00:29 Meet Anubhav — from Odisha to the U.S.02:56 Life as a co-founder and CPO04:37 What is ShiftMate AI?06:45 Analytics, AI, and the frontier of LLMs08:14 Why bolting on AI doesn't 10x outcomes10:04 The mission: people helping people12:15 The biggest tech challenge for credit unions today13:51 Closing thoughts 🔔 Subscribe for more conversations with outliers building at the edge of FinTech, AI, and community finance. #CreditUnions #FinTech #AI #ShiftMateAI #OutlierPodcast #CommunityBanking #ProductLeadership #Founders Want me to tighten this up, make it shorter, punch it up for a specific platform tone, or add anything (guest socials, sponsor mention, CTA links)?

What's the Future of Community Banking? Brian McEvoy, CRO at Webster Five Bank

How should community banks compete with fintechs, grow deposits, and rethink the branch in 2026? Brian McEvoy, Chief Retail Officer at Webster Five Bank, joins The Outlier Podcast to share a candid playbook for the future of retail and community banking. In this episode, host Anurag Mukherjee sits down with Brian — a retail banking leader with deep experience at TD Bank and Cynoverse before stepping into his current role at Webster Five — to unpack the strategic questions every community bank executive is wrestling with right now. What you'll learn in this episode: * Why the era of the "primary bank" is fading, and what consumers' multi-bank wallets mean for community institutions * The biggest underserved opportunity in retail banking today: small business customers stuck between branch-level micro accounts and full commercial banking * How to balance deposit growth with new household acquisition — and why it's not a 50/50 split * Why community banks can't afford to bet wrong on digital, and how Webster Five evaluates fintech API integrations * The real role of data and hyper-personalization — and why blanket marketing campaigns no longer work * Brian's honest take on the future of the bank branch: why physical locations still matter as a trust signal, even as transactions go digital * Why "don't chase Chase" is the right mindset for community bank branch strategy * How small businesses still expect a relationship manager, and what that means for branch staffing Key moments: (00:00) Introduction to Brian McEvoy and Webster Five Bank(01:32) What keeps a retail banking leader going(02:53) The future of retail banking and the erosion of "primacy"(05:19) Small business banking: the biggest gap in community banking(06:00) Deposit growth vs. customer acquisition: how to prioritize(09:01) Competing with fintechs through human connection and digital(12:26) Data, AI, and hyper-personalization in retail banking(16:40) The evolving role of the bank branch(20:01) Why community bank stories deserve to be told About the guest:Brian McEvoy is the Chief Retail Officer at Webster Five Bank, a community financial institution based in Massachusetts. He oversees retail branches, the contact center, digital banking, wealth management, and small business banking. His career spans senior leadership roles at TD Bank and Cynoverse, giving him a rare dual perspective across national and community banking. About the host:Anurag Mukherjee hosts The Outlier Podcast, a series of candid, high-signal conversations with banking, credit union, and fintech leaders who challenge the status quo. Each episode is built to be operator-level, sharp, and packed with insight you can apply inside your own institution. Who this episode is for: * Community bank and credit union executives * Retail banking and branch network leaders * Chief retail officers and heads of consumer banking * Fintech founders selling into financial institutions * Small business banking strategists * Digital banking, CRM, and data leaders in financial services If you lead retail at a community bank, run a credit union, or build fintech products for financial institutions, this episode gives you a clear, contrarian view on where retail banking is heading — from someone running it day to day. Subscribe to The Outlier Podcast for more conversations with banking and fintech leaders who think differently. New episodes drop regularly, featuring practitioners who've actually built, scaled, and transformed financial institutions. Follow, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts to help more banking leaders find the show. Topics covered: community banking, retail banking, future of banking, fintech disruption, small business banking, deposit growth, customer acquisition, bank branch strategy, digital banking, hyper-personalization, banking data strategy, embedded finance, challenger banks, relationship banking, banking podcast, retail banking podcast.

"The $10 Billion Credit Union Blueprint | Anil Choudary, CIO Keesler Federal"

How does a CIO lead a credit union from $5 billion to $10 billion in assets? In this episode of The Outlier Podcast, host Anurag Mukherjee sits down with Anil Choudary, Chief Information Officer at Keesler Federal Credit Union, to unpack the real playbook behind large-scale technology transformation in financial services. With a career that spans GE (where he helped build a digital bank), Goldman Sachs, CIBC, and Alliant Credit Union, Anil brings a rare blend of enterprise software engineering, big-bank strategy, and credit union pragmatism. Now leading end-to-end technology at one of the fastest-growing credit unions in the U.S., he shares exactly how he plans to scale Keesler Federal through core banking modernization, API strategy, data lakehouse build-out, automation, and AI. This is a candid, tactical conversation for CIOs, CTOs, banking executives, and fintech leaders trying to navigate the same transformation curve. In this episode, we cover: • Why a CIO's role is to drive both member trust and long-term growth • The 5 building blocks of a modern credit union tech stack: operating model, core banking, API strategy, data and AI strategy, and digital strategy • Why "no-regret decisions" matter most when choosing core banking platforms • How to balance buy vs. build in a vendor-heavy organization • Why data strategy must come before any AI strategy • Why automation should come before agentic AI on your roadmap • How to extract real ROI from every technology dollar invested • Why point solutions break down at enterprise scale • How regional culture and demographics shape technology strategy • What separates credit unions that will reach $10B from those that won't Standout quotes from Anil: "Culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner." "Without a foundational data strategy, you cannot deliver value through AI." "Digital is how you deliver a connected experience across all channels — not just web and mobile." "If you're investing a dollar, you need to extract at least 80 cents of value. Hopefully a dollar ten." About the guest: Anil Choudary is the Chief Information Officer at Keesler Federal Credit Union, leading end-to-end technology transformation. His career spans senior leadership roles at GE, Goldman Sachs, CIBC, and Alliant Credit Union, where he has built digital banks, modernized core platforms, and led enterprise-scale transformation programs. About the host: Anurag Mukherjee hosts The Outlier Podcast, a series featuring conversations with forward-thinking technology and business leaders driving real transformation across financial services, banking, and the credit union movement. Who this episode is for: Credit union CIOs, CTOs, CDOs, and CEOs; banking and fintech technology leaders; digital transformation executives; core banking modernization strategists; data and AI leaders; and anyone scaling a financial institution from $1 billion to $10 billion and beyond. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It helps more leaders discover the show. Topics: credit union technology, CIO leadership, digital banking transformation, core banking modernization, API strategy, data lakehouse, member experience, enterprise AI, agentic AI, banking automation, Keesler Federal Credit Union, Alliant Credit Union, Goldman Sachs, CIBC, buy vs build, member 360, data governance, $10 billion credit union, banking culture.