On this week’s episode of the Building Interest Podcast, we are joined by Leader Bank’s Dennis Walker, First Vice President of Strategy and Planning, and Chris Verzone, Vice President and Sales Manager, to discuss the idea of ‘Intrapreneurship’ and building a product from idea to launch. Dennis and Chris were both integral to the development and launch of Leader Bank’s new subsidiary, Leader Insurance.

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Episode Transcript

Greg Farber:
Welcome to the Building Interest podcast presented by Leader Bank. In season two of our podcast we’re exploring what it means to be a leader through conversations with leaders from the Bank, from within the communities we serve, and from across the banking and technology industries. Each conversation will focus on our guest’s personal leadership journeys, and provide insights on what it means to be a good leader. In our last episode, we spoke with Leader Bank’s Vice President of Retail Banking, Paola Dutschmann, and Innovation Team Project Manager Cindy Perez, to discuss their efforts to lead diversity and inclusion at the Bank. Today, I’m joined by Dennis Walker, First Vice President of Strategy and Planning and Chris Verzone, Vice President and Sales Manager to discuss the idea of “Intrapreneurship” and building a product from idea to launch. Welcome, Chris and Dennis.

Dennis Walker:
Thanks, Greg, appreciate this.

Chris Verzone:
Thanks, Greg. Thanks for having us, looking forward to talking through Leader Insurance.

Greg Farber:
Absolutely. I think it’s an exciting time in our history. And actually, Dennis, we’ll start with you. You’ve been here for a number of years. You spent time in dare, I say it internal audit, you worked in deposit operations. And you’ve now moved on to this strategy and planning. Can you just tell us a little bit about your path and how you got to where you are today?

Dennis Walker:
Yeah, that’s great. Again, thanks for having us here. You know, since I’ve been here, it’s been, it’s been an awesome experience. As you know, I started with internal audit, transferred that over to you. So you’re doing a great job. So keep up the good work, then yeah, had the opportunity to, to move over to operations and kind of have a little bit of a different career path always wanted to see what it was like on the other side of audit, right? Is it more difficult is it less difficult and just kind of get that experience and holistic background. Then had the opportunity, we started a call center here. And then you know, we hired Mary was able to transfer that over to her. Now I’m into strategy and planning and kind of rolls into the idea of starting the insurance company and kind of becoming that startup guy since I’ve been here. So it’s been an awesome experience.

Greg Farber:
Awesome, Chris, I understand you came to Leader, not with internal audit experience, but with some prior experience relevant to your current role? How did you start your professional journey? And how’s your career evolved, now that you’ve ended up here?

Chris Verzone:
Yeah, Greg, thank you again, for having us on here today. Funny story. So to give you back a little bit of background about how I got into the insurance business, went to school for accounting, switch my major up, I think my junior year, because everyone said it was you know, it’s easy to get a job when you graduate, can be an accountant, everyone’s looking for accountant. So graduated school.

Greg Farber:
So you started doing something else? And then you move to accounting?

Chris Verzone:
Yep. So management and marketing, marketing major, and then moved to accounting. Because everyone, like I said, everyone said, you know, it’s, Hey, it’s easy to get a job as an accountant. Little did I find out, start interviewing out of school, went to school down in Florida, started interviewing for some jobs, entry-level accounting jobs, realize that probably wasn’t going to be a good fit for me, you know, the nine to five thing sitting behind a desk every day, it just it just didn’t feel right for me. So I had an uncle that was in the life insurance business, he owned a very successful life insurance brokerage. He set me up with some interviews down in the Tampa area with all the big players, you know, the Northwestern Mutual, MassMutual, New York Life, did all those interviews didn’t really get the warm and fuzzy, it was more they really put anything into your career, it was hey, you know, get licensed, what are you going to do for me type of mentality, big box approach. Exactly. So it didn’t really feel like it was going to be a good fit for me. So moved home, worked for the family business for the summer, you know, come came the end of the year, and decided it was time to grow up and get a real job. So I walked into a funny story, I walked into an open house looking for, you know, entry-level sort of outside sales position, and looked at the training opportunities they paid to license you. So it really gave me the feel for you know, they were in your corner, they were gonna give you the resources to be successful, rather than just go ahead and, you know, hit the, you know, what do you get, what’s in it for me?, so jumped on board got licensed and haven’t looked back since.

Greg Farber:
So was that what pulled you up here to the Massachusetts area?

Chris Verzone:
Yeah, I think it was just it was, you know, it was I moved home, I decided, you know, Florida wasn’t going to be good for me professionally. And it was time to move home. So you know, I did that and spent about four years, sort of cut my teeth in the business, learn the ins and outs of selling sold property, property insurance, a home auto insurance life insurance, group accounts, and then decided it was time to move on. It was you know, a big corporation had that had that big, big corporate field too and it just didn’t feel right. You had your you know, your employee number. I still remember my was n 0205334. I still remember to this day. And I just knew that, you know, that wasn’t for me. I didn’t want to sort of have that, you know, big corporate culture feel as I grew up in my career.

Greg Farber:
So you wanted that more personal?

Chris Verzone:
More personal feel, absolutely. I walked into an opportunity with a bank-owned insurance agency that had that sort of, you know, family feel the two brothers that, you know, were in charge and leading the agency had sold out, I think it was at the time eight or nine years before, and they were still, you know, running the organization. And, you know, I got, you know, it just felt right to me. So I, you know, made the move, it was so scary, it was, you know, change, and I decided to, you know, make the switch came in as a, you know, producer, so I, you know, it was part of my role was to really work within the bank. So within the mortgage company, the retail divisions drive up some of that, that cross-sell business, within the bank. When I was interviewing for the role, I remember, you know, what I was doing before my previous life, you know, networking with mortgage brokers and real estate folks and in different group accounts to get business. And throughout the interview process, we were talking like, what, you know, what, what, as far as, you know, what do we do for, you know, business throughout the bank and cross-sell? And what relationships do we have with our, you know, the mortgage broker, the mortgage brokers in there, and then the retail divisions, and there was just, it was non-existent. And I was, you know, amazed after, you know, what I was used to doing and how I was used to getting business. To go ahead and say, What do you mean, we have, you know, 30, retail branch locations, we have, you know, 50 Loan Originators and we’re not writing any insurance business?

Greg Farber:
Well, so that kind of, you know, you’ve been saying this insurance, insurance, and here we are on a bank podcast. And that really is the fundamental question for me. And I don’t know, Dennis, if you want to jump in here a little bit too and kind of the sort of the genesis moment of all this. Why does a bank sell insurance? Or what’s the connecting tissue here that brings it to where insurance is not usually what you think of when you think of a bank? Right?

Dennis Walker:
Yeah, no, it’s true. And it’s just kind of funny how it started. I was in operations at the time. And I was actually taking a class, which is through the ABA, and kind of partners with Wharton. And as part of that class, they have, you have to do a final project. And a final project has to be a strategic initiative that is, you know, highly likely to be accepted at the bank. So when I was brainstorming with Jay, and, you know, we talked about crypto, we talked about a whole bunch of different things. And one of the things that came up was an insurance agency that they had always wanted to do. And, you know, it started from there of having to write the business plan, why should we do it? How are we going to fund it?

Greg Farber:
So it was kind of a random idea. It wasn’t necessarily that there was a clear business need. We, you know, we have you mentioned mortgages, Chris, you know, we have a large mortgage division, it’s not like they came and said, Hey, we need this, this was sort of an out of the box, what can we do something new, something different, and you just started on insurance.

Dennis Walker:
It just fell on that. And, you know, at the time I wrote the business plan, and it just kind of took off from there, it was able to match that up to mortgage and the different areas within the bank. You know, just that that cross-sell with that mortgage is is just that helps streamline and helps give that customer that holistic experience with the bank as well. And so that was kind of that major driving force was the mortgage side.

Greg Farber:
So you mentioned the business plan. And so you mentioned Jay, and so obviously, you know, Jay is the President of Leader Bank, and you’ve come to this conclusion, okay, this is what we want to do, then what Okay, so then you make this business plan? Is that a formal process? Is that just around, you know, kicking the can? How does that come about?

Dennis Walker:
The plan had to go to the board. Jay, you know, Jay reviewed it.

Greg Farber:
Okay. So there was a lot of formality.

Dennis Walker:
A lot of formality. It just turned into this exciting thing. And it turns out, anytime you attach an idea to a bank, you know, you have the regulatory compliance, and that took on a life of its own.

Greg Farber:
I was going to ask you that too, did it get other departments involved in this process?

Dennis Walker:
A whole bunch of other departments. And that’s been the most exciting thing is always managing a startup within an existing business line is hard. And, you know, quick shout out to Sean, it’s really difficult to, you know, from a biased perspective to not put that same expectation on a startup. And I think he’s done an awesome job of being able to separate out the mortgage side from a startup kind of feel, but also leverage and synergize. The entire process. Yeah, and the reason why Shawn was so important as the Senior Vice President of Residential Sales, the connection to those, that sales pipeline, the connection to the operations with Alex, the technology with Eric, and even Patrick, every one of them, has just been instrumental of getting the process up and running. And not only that, but a shout-out, and I’m sure Chris can echo this to the rest of the Bank, right? There’s accounting, there’s legal, there’s HR, there are so many other areas that it’s touched, and everyone’s had that awesome mindset of making time for this new initiative.

Greg Farber:
So we talked about Shawn and the mortgage department really being instrumental in kind of helping you guys figure out where the business was going. How does that integrate? How does the insurance line of a business integrate with the mortgage process?

Dennis Walker:
Yeah, one of the things we were doing when we were picking the tech stack to support the digital agency was the open API connections, we really wanted it to be a seamless experience, behind the scenes, and for the client experience as well. And I know Chris kind of took off with the building out of it with a mortgage team if you want to talk about it a little bit.

Chris Verzone:
Yeah, I think we, you know, had the mindset when we started the opportunity, and where we wanted to go and start with the agency was really build it into our processes and have it be a part of that. We do residential mortgage is really good. And you know, you’re buying a house? Well, you need to have insurance, right? So why don’t we build a process? Where can we can offer the client insurance, does that happen automatically? So right now, it’s built so that the client has the option to opt-in, and their disclosure, if they do opt into our insurance offering, all of their information is actually sent over, sent over digitally, into the insurance rater. And they’re able to sort of get quotes on there, you know, auto and home insurance. So we’re not asking them duplicate questions. We don’t have to, you know, ask them for information we already have, it comes over to us automatically. And that’s, you know, one of the things that were important is really that innovation team at the bank, worked with, you know, Eric Prue, and his team sort of seamlessly to figure out, Okay, we have all this, this data, we have all this client information, how do we get it over? How do we incorporate it into the insurance piece? You know, so we can make that a seamless transition. And that’s really how we went about everything was really, you know, speed and ease of doing business, not only for the client but internally for our business partners as well.

Greg Farber:
So the loan client, can stick with whatever insurance they want. But if they don’t want the hassle of going out and finding their own policy, and so forth, they can just opt-in and you guys will automatically price out an appropriate quote for them. And can that happen seamlessly so they can close on their house and have that in place?

Chris Verzone:
Yeah, absolutely. And I think one of the differentiating factors, as well as we, ‘re really don’t want to be like a click-to-click quote, we’re not a GEICO, right? We’re, you know, we have licensed local insurance advisors that are going to take the time to sort of, you know, review their policies with the make any coverage recommendations, you know, you’re buying a million dollar house, you want to make sure that you have the right coverage. So if something happens, you’re not wondering, you know, I wonder if this is covered, you know, it’s covered, because you spent that 15-20 minutes with somebody going over your coverages making sure that you’re properly insured. And that’s really where our mindset is, and what we’re setting out to do is really spend time educating clients on the insurance buying process, as they’re, as they’re in the process of buying their new home.

Greg Farber:
So that same personal touch, Yep, there you go. Dennis said it too, that same personal touch we tout in our branches and our loan products transcends over into the insurance business.

Dennis Walker:
I think the carriers we pick are very quality high quality regional carriers as well, which is important from a confidence perspective. Would you echo that?

Chris Verzone:
Yeah, absolutely. I think what we set out, when we set out and when we started, you know, looked at what the plan was one of the important pieces that had to come up with finding really good quality partners, that were able to sort of offer insurance products because we’re an insurance agency where we don’t underwrite the product that goes through an insurance company. So we set out to really, what do we have, like, what our client base looks like, and what carriers are going to be a really good fit. And then we had to sort of, you know, pitch our, our business plan as leader bank is here, here’s, here’s what we’re, here’s, here’s what we’re doing and bring them on as a partner. So that was a really big part of the process as well is really bringing on the right, the right insurance companies that were going to fit are what we’re doing. And our clients.

Greg Farber:
We’re comfortable with our name standing behind the product that we’re offering.

Chris Verzone:
And vice versa as well.

Greg Farber:
Absolutely. So Chris, then, now what’s it like for you, you’re coming in you obviously, you know, insurance, that’s your thing. But you’re coming to a new bank, a new team, a new product? What’s that like? Kind of walking in as the subject matter expert, but no one knows you and you’re kind of blind to it what’s happening and you got Dennis’s big idea.

Chris Verzone:
Yeah, no, it was. It was exciting. Actually, the interview process was pretty long. So I think we started talking about this idea, probably six, six, or seven months before I even started here. The idea of Leader Insurance was here. I had met with Sean and Dennis and Wes and Jay, and just saw all the excitement around it, you know, everyone was sort of, you know, really excited about it. You know, it was this great idea. Everyone was bought 100% bought into making this work. And it was really exciting for me to you know, know what I had done before and be able to bring those ideas over to Leader Bank. And as I said, then I think the I was hooked I went with coffee with Sean, you know, and I just saw his sort of buy-in for, hey, we want to roll this insurance out and knowing with what it takes to be successful and to really integrate this into the, into the mortgage side of the house with his buy-in, and this was going to be really special, it was going to have the opportunity to be something really big. And I was sold at that point I was all on board with Okay, let’s, let’s go ahead and do this. And I was ready to make the move. And as I said, it was very exciting. And coming over. You know, you got to get to know everybody throughout it. As I said, it was a long interview process. So got to know, Jay and Shawn and Dennis and talking to us. And everyone had a really good vibe, everyone was excited, Everyone worked hard everyone was it was very entrepreneurialship. It’s, you know, the growth, the growth that the bank has done all the different things that we’re rolling out, and we were a part of it. And I didn’t really know too much about Leader Bank. You know, I knew we did mortgages, but the more that you come in, and you meet everybody, and it’s actually the funny story is, I got set up. So I think I started on Monday. And Dennis, I sort of Dennis had set me up with everything. And, you know, he was sort of in charge of the insurance. And we sort of had went to lunch, I think probably a week or two before I started. And he came up with this big project plan. And it was a big sort of huge spreadsheet that had all these dates on it. And I was like, oh, and I remember I left there and I was like, holy smokes, what am I getting involved in here? And I was like, you know, you think of it, it’s like, okay, what started Insurance Agency? What do we need to do, we need to get a few companies and we’ll get some, we’ll get, you know, a system in place. And we’ll have the software and you know, we’ll hire some team members to do. But holy smokes, there was a lot of extra stuff that had to go in there. And I remember I left that meeting and I was like, Alright, we got a lot of stuff to do.

Greg Farber:
So things are always a little bit more complex. Maybe then you expect.

Chris Verzone:
Oh, absolutely. There was more things on there. And I think throughout the whole process, you know, there was something new that came up every single day. It was oh, we got to do that. So how do we do that? There’s not really, you know, there’s not really a playbook for it. It’s, you know, you have to sort of, you know, figure it out as you go. There was no, you know, it was if it was, there was a credit issue there was, you know, hey, we need a LexisNexis note Id how are we going to do that? I don’t know. So there were a ton of different things that came up, but having that sort of bringing that, you know, whatever it takes mentality, trying to, you know, find a solution, not really always taking no for an answer, but digging deeper into something and, and really bringing that, you know, mindset is really what helped really streamline the process. I mean, I started in June, and in four months, we had, you know, in essence, a soft launch of Leader Insurance with insurance companies on board with a system in place a CRM.

Greg Farber:
That takes some industry trust there to that you get other companies to sign on and believe in the product as well. And so as I want to ask you this, you know, I teased kind of this term Intrapreneurship. And yes, I’m well aware, it’s not a real word. We just kind of made it up for today’s episode, right? But this idea of your traditional entrepreneurial story, you’re building a business around an idea. And in this case, the business, meaning Leader Bank already existed, and we’re building an idea inside our, you know, within the confines of that company. Do you think that’s somehow easier? Because you have the infrastructure already around you? Or is it actually more difficult, or there’s some unexpected constraints to being able to build a business line new within a company?

Chris Verzone:
I think it’s a little bit of both, I think the resources that Leader Bank has, and the willingness of the team to help out make it made all the difference in the world. You know, we were I think it was, you know, if it was Monday, it was, you know, meeting with the legal team Tuesday, it was compliance Wednesday, it was marketing, you know, and it was all over again. So it was, you know, having those resources available to launch a business to get the expertise. I know, broken the legal team, they must have reviewed, I don’t know, 30 contracts. And it was there was no, there was no if ands or buts it was you send it over on a Monday, it’d be here’s some, here are some things we got going. And by Wednesday, we’d have those answers back. So I think really to rely on the team, and all the different areas, human resources, legal compliance. I mean, there was, we had to start from scratch. So we had to onboard, you know, systems. And you know, Larry and his team were great with going through all the different vendors we had to use for our management system, our CRM, our phone system, so it was just a little bit of everything.

Greg Farber:
Anytime in there, you kind of hit a wall and you hit an unexpected obstacle, and you’re like, oh, boy, maybe this isn’t going to work, how well like, What stops you along the way?

Dennis Walker:
I think you’re always going to hit those hiccups, especially when you’re implementing a brand new, like what are the three new systems with a couple of people who have never used this system before? So again, leveraging those partnerships internally was huge to get through those but I don’t think that it wasn’t that. Why did we do this? There wasn’t any of that like we knew what our end goal was. We’re doing it, we’re gonna get through it. And we knew that the model that we teased out was going to be organic. We had to do it the Leader way. That was the most important.

Greg Farber:
Can you lend some color, what you mean by the Leader way?

Dennis Walker:
Yeah. So you know, before we started the interview, Chris, we had teased out, should we buy someone, what’s the really the business model we want to do. And really, at the end of the day, just like you, Chris was mentioning, before our growth rate, it’s been organic. And for us, it didn’t make sense to go down the purchase, pass this Intrapreneurship we design it, we grow it, we’re gonna design it, we’re gonna grow it, it’s going to be our way we’re going to focus on the client experience, we’re going to focus on our internal relationships, it’s that intrapreneurship concept, where we’re not just starting a business that’s out on its own.

Greg Farber:
See this word is going to take off, everybody’s gonna talk about Intrapreneurship going forward.

Chris Verzone:
And I think that was the mindset we had is when we did this, and we sort of set out it was, we looked, we looked for solutions that were going to fit what we were trying to do, and that’s what we went about when we you know, looked at different vendors and different you know, technology and resources that we were going to have to have we had like a specific end goal in mind is we wanted to make the referral process internally, as seamless as possible, we wanted to make it easy. For those internally referring us, we wanted to be able to take the information, you know that we had our customer information and be able to get it over to the insurance and really just sort of streamline the process.

Greg Farber:
So in a way, maybe it was easier doing it within an existing company. And I you know, kind of asked about that earlier and constraints and things. Because you have your vision of how you want to do it, you’re not buying someone else’s off-the-shelf product, that doesn’t work the way you want it to work, you get to build it the way you want it to work.

Dennis Walker:
And it’s that digital focus kind of approach with, you know, a modern tech stack behind it, with quality people behind it to lead it, that’s kind of that modern approach that we’re doing.

Chris Verzone:
And I think that goes into really the leadership pieces is, you know, making this work is really getting into, you know, bringing the right team members on board as well.

Greg Farber:
How many folks do you have on the team?

Chris Verzone:
We have four team members so far, and we’ll continue to grow as as as we grow and evolve. But I think the number one thing is really finding the right people that bring that, you know, excitement, you know, and whenever we’re interviewing, we’ve interviewed anybody that the common theme that we asked at the end is, you know, do you think that person was excited to start something from scratch. And really, that’s, that’s been so important as we want people that are, you know, we want to be excited to come to work every day, we want to have that, you know, whatever it takes mindset. Because, you know, when you’re a startup, everybody’s you know, wears a whole bunch of different hats.

Greg Farber:
And you need ideas, you need people who are excited to pitch new ideas and come up with new directions if things aren’t going the way you want. Or,

Chris Verzone:
I mean, absolutely, and everything’s you know, it evolves on a weekly basis, we’re making changes, you know, on paper, it looks great, hey, we’re gonna do this, this and this. And then, you know, three or four days later, it’s like, okay, let’s fix this. And maybe we’re gonna change this because we can do it a little bit better. And I think that goes to, really our approach to doing this and why it’s going to be successful is, you know, we’re able to bring the right people on board, you know, to really fit sort of our culture and mindset of, you know, bringing that whatever it takes team mentality to the table. And I’m excited about that as so guys. Now

Greg Farber:
we’ve launched Leader Insurance. Can you tell us a little bit high level what that really is? And what your department offers?

Chris Verzone:
Yes, so Leader Insurance is an independent insurance agency, licensed in all of New England. We specialize in personal insurance and commercial property insurance, personal insurance, you know, auto insurance, home insurance, you know, boats, umbrella, and then commercial property insurance.

Greg Farber:
Do I have to be a Leader Bank client? Can I just call you up and say, I need to talk?

Chris Verzone:

Nope, you can call us up and talk insurance. And we’d love to talk to you.

Greg Farber:

How do I do that?

Chris Verzone:
So our phone number is 781-896-2050.

Greg Farber:
So we said we’re here to talk about leadership. And I’m looking at you, Dennis, because this isn’t the first big idea you’ve had at the Bank. Right? You kind of mentioned the call center earlier. Let’s explore that a little bit. Was that a similar build-out in terms of you kind of had an idea and you built a business case? Or was it completely different?

Dennis Walker:
Yeah, there was a business case we were growing. And, you know, it’s that focus on client service, I think really became apparent. And just from a pure bodies perspective, from operations, like, we couldn’t pick up the phone and do their job at the same time. So, you know, it was the right time, right place, you know, talking with Jay, talking it through, there was a similar need on the loan servicing side. And it just kind of took off from there.

Greg Farber:
People hear a call center and they hear oh, I’m going to be in a hold queue for an hour. How did we manage to do that different?

Dennis Walker:
Yeah, that was a great, great point. I mean, one of the first things that we talked about was, pick up the phone, we needed to staff and train accordingly to be able to answer the customer’s phone call the first time. And we were really lucky to get Mary who had run a call center and an operations position before and she really brought her expertise into that position. And you know, like, again, similar to insurance, I pick the tech stack behind it, but really found that right person to really take it off. And from there, and I mean, I think, you know, if you look at our numbers, they’re still picking up the phone within 30 seconds. Mary’s still doing an amazing job leading that team over there. And that’s really that client service is, you know, started from that idea. But now it’s like it permeated the entire Bank of just obsessing on that client focus.

Greg Farber:
Would you say though, was that fundamentally a similar process? Like, did you also have to have buy-in from different departments and a board and all that this was a whole process. So you had some experience coming into insurance, kind of having learned from the calls?

Dennis Walker:
Yeah, just how many people we’re going to need? How are we going to staff? And how are we going to train them? What’s that like? What’s the technology? How long is that going to take? How much is it going to cost and figuring that whole thing out too? So started off kind of in that in that vein?

Greg Farber:
So on the personal side of it, I’m curious if either of you could share kind of how was their how do you discover that this was where your career would take you? I mean, obviously, you talked a little bit about previous experience, but that was working for someone else, right? And what we’re describing here is, yes, you work for Leader Bank. But ultimately, you’re creating this department, you’re working sort of on your own initiative here. Was that a conscious choice? Did you just decide one day that you want to have this spirit? And how did that come about?

Chris Verzone:
Yeah, no, for me, it was a, it was a no brainer, it brought almost a level of excitement back to, you know, I was doing the, you know, I was comfortable in my position I was with for about nine years. And when this was brought up, you know, I don’t even feel like I’m working anymore. It’s a true level of excitement to get this go and see where it goes. Every day, you know, I get up and you look at your emails, and it doesn’t even feel like work. So it’s been super exciting, to see it grow, to see where how far, we’ve come in the six months. And you know, think about, you know, where we’re going to be in the future. Because we’ve got, you know, there’s so many different verticals that this can take off and places that can go, it’s going to be exciting to see, you know, as as we move on, and for me, it was, you know, the opportunity to join an organization like, like Leader Bank, and to, you know, start, you know, boots on the ground with a with the insurance piece was was was really exciting

Dennis Walker:
I think I can echo the same thing is one of the things I think Leader Bank does really well is recognizing talent, which almost that person may not even know is there, and giving them the opportunity to explore that talent with some guidance. And I’d say, and we talked about this offline, Greg is, you know, when I joined audit, you know, 10-15 years ago, one of the things that I loved about audit, it was never the same thing every day, you’re always looking at a different business line, a different topic. And that’s sort of that same theme that I’ve I’ve taken throughout my career path, it doesn’t matter what the topic is, I just always like something new, something that I think is going to add value to the organization. And that’s why I think I love my position right now. Is it just one day, I’m helping out insurance with something small? And the next day? It’s how do I tease out a new business opportunity? Or how do I help something internal, like a project internally be streamlined or whatever, but it’s the concept of there’s something new every day, but the goal is to add value to that to the organization and something you know, every day is not the same. And that’s just something that I’ve kind of enjoyed through the course of my career.

Greg Farber:
You know, heard it said that one trait of a good leader is the ability to inspire others. And you both seem very inspired, and you particular leaders that, you know, kind of shaped you along the way that helped you find that that inspiration that you have now.

Chris Verzone:
I think for me, I grew up and played athletics and athletics played a big role in my career and sort of shaped who I was, had a grandfather who was an athletic director for 35 years, played three sports in high school, went on to college, and I had a couple of really good coaches. But it’s still some really good leadership values at a young age. And so I really…

Greg Farber:
Commitment on other things like that?

Chris Verzone:
Commitment, dedication, hard work, motivation, there’s no substitute for those things. And I think that goes into leadership and sort of, you know, putting, you know, rolling up your sleeves, and just getting the job done, being dedicated, having like passion, being like inspired and that goes to like good leadership, but you know, you can’t, you gotta be passionate about what you’re doing. You got to be inspired. You gotta show up to work every day like that because that resonates with the team as well. If you’ve, you know, you’re not having a good day, you’re you’re sort of down and you can’t let that sort of, you know, affect your performance, you got to really sort of come out and bring that energy to work every day. And I think that’s a really good trait of a good leader. And like I said, I had some really good coaches that sort of inspired those things in me as I grew up, and I’ve taken those, you know, along the way, and I think that sort of helped me become successful. And there’s life lessons that I’ve learned along the way that have been really good. Looking back on that are some funny things that it was awesome.

Greg Farber:
No, I love that. Because you know, sometimes we talk about someone being a born leader, and maybe some people are born to be leaders, but I think a lot of us just sort of learned along the way and have those inspirational moments and those coaches and things in those life experiences that may be at the time, you never thought, when you were doing sports, and you were learning these sort of attributes, that one day you’d be sitting there and actually subconsciously using them and becoming a leader in your own right. Do you see yourselves as leaders in your own right now you’re, you’re not taking so much inspiration from others, maybe you’re passing it on now?

Dennis Walker:
Yeah, I feel like, you know, for me, on the work ethic side, it was my parents, it was just always you’re helping out, it was, you know, in the backyard raking is, you know, shoveling whatever. But it was always you working, working, working…

Greg Farber:
Some humility there too.

Dennis Walker:
Humility there too. But it’s also that you feel a sense of accomplishment to after it’s done. And then I’ve been very spoiled throughout my entire career that I’ve had really, really good managers, a couple of, you know, ones that you don’t want to emulate, but for the most part, especially since I’ve been at Leader Bank, that really take an interest in your career path, what you want to do what’s important to you, and you know, at different points in my career path, I’ve learned different things from those managers, and, you know, call them mentors to, to get to this point, and been very lucky, if any particular examples you might want. Yeah, I mean, you know, EQ versus IQ. You tell us what that means. Yeah, so like, you know, the emotional side of things versus intelligent like you don’t, you gotta be able to lead people and work with people know what motivates people, versus just being the smartest person in the room. So you know, that’s been incredibly important when you’re leading people. And then I’d say the other big thing that I learned, you know, in my initial job out of school, it was just focused on what you’re doing, keep your head down and do it. But when I really got to, when I had moved on to a different position, it was, you know, this manager had opened up my eyes to say, try something new, you know, learn something different. When I was an audit, we really kind of focused on one line of business, but this was a smaller group. So we had to learn it, we had to learn financial, we had to learn operations audit, compliance audit. So that kind of was that beginning of that, hey, there’s other stuff that I can learn other things and gives you that, that focus and start.

Chris Verzone:
And I think Greg, for me, too, as well, my leadership roles sort of evolved. I came over and made the switch to a producer as a sales person. And when I made my move, you know, I grew into a leadership role.

Greg Farber:
You were not a sales manager?

Chris Verzone:
No, I grew into that role.

Greg Farber:
Gotcha.

Chris Verzone:
So I came in as sort of boots on the ground as a sales rep. It worked out really well. And it’s like, okay, Chris, how do we go ahead? And how can we grow this? How can we expand this? How are we going to, you know, add to the team, how are we going to compensate the team, so I really grew into my leadership role. It wasn’t, you know, I wasn’t hired as it it was, I started really, it was, it was really started on its own, from the individual success I had that turned into, you know, a team success.

Greg Farber:
So you can take that individual success, share your lessons, your motivation, and your inspirations along the way, and hope that then translates.

Chris Verzone:
Absolutely,I didn’t have, I certainly didn’t have all the answers. I you know, I didn’t interview people I didn’t, you know, I learned all of that, you know, didn’t, you know, didn’t motivate people, you know, yeah, I did come you know, naturally for you know, different things throughout life. But there was no, I got no like real playbook for it, I grew into that role and, you know, did things along the way to shape it with, you know, different leadership classes and, you know, had different mentors, which helped out a lot. But I really grew into a leadership role and was able to sort of take that and, and take it over here to leader bank, but it wasn’t, it wasn’t, I wasn’t hired into a role, I sort of grew into that particular role.

Greg Farber:
Now that really resonates with me, too. And you mentioned being passionate about things. And it’s kind of like before this, I had never done any kind of interview type of things, podcasts, anything like that. And I realized that it’s fun, and it’s interesting, it’s engaging. And now I look forward to these and I enjoy sharing these moments. And it’s no longer this mystery. And it’s just kind of what you describe, you might not have started out there, but you kind of evolved into that. So now for our listeners, there are hundreds, probably 1000s of books and articles and resources and things out there about, you know, being in a leadership role. Any particular advice or kind of an aha moment or a lesson in your life or something that you want to share as kind of a parting idea of my personal story as a leader, this is what I want.

Chris Verzone:
Things that I’ve sort of always kept close to me as far as from a leadership perspective. You know, teamwork is important. When you say teamwork, it’s really, you know, being available for the team members so you can’t sort of, you know, lock yourself in your office a, can’t manage from afar, you really have to, you know, know what’s going on, roll up your sleeves, know what their roles are, let them know that you know, you’re there to help them, help them succeed, whatever. And so to bring that, you know, whatever it takes mindset, you know, you want to know that you have their best interests in mind, as well as you know, be visible, you know, you want to let the team know that, you know, you’re in it with them, you know, you can’t expect them, hey, you’re on an island on your own, you don’t want that you gotta sort of be visible. And then the last thing is, you know, be accountable, you have to be accountable yourself, you can’t, you know, pass blame on to anybody else a problem comes across your desk, so you got to sort of, hey, how am I gonna fix this?

Greg Farber:
This goes back to being part of the team, if the team has a problem, you have part of the problem.

Chris Verzone:
Absolutely, you’re gonna be part of the solution. Exactly. And I think that’s what you know, that that’s those things with, with the passion and, and high energy that you bring to the table every day, I think those are, you know, four things that I’ve always sort of, you know, keep, keep in the back of my mind, with whatever, you know, whatever we’re doing, whenever we, with whatever I’m doing, I’m always thinking about those things. And those are four things that I’ve carried with me for probably the last six or seven years, that I try to keep in the back of my mind, whenever we’re making a decision or doing something or, you know, building out a team or talking to a team member, those things that I go back to.

Dennis Walker:
I would echo the same thing. I mean, I think, you know, building trust within that organization, being approachable. I would add, having that resilience mindset, and never giving up, helps your team show that you’re there for them for the long term. And the one thing that I always like to do is, as you’re coaching people, and as people are growing up through the, you know, whatever path they take, always make sure that you instill on them to make sure that they pass that forward, right, because I think a big quality of a leader is building other leaders. And if you’re giving that coaching out, make sure that they do the same thing. It’s like that humble aspect to it.

Greg Farber:
Definitely. And that keeps it going. Well, thank you both so much for coming in. This was really fun and interesting. I loved hearing about it. And I didn’t know a lot of the background. I knew some of it because you guys came to me and talk to me about audit considerations when we talked about contracts and compliance and things. But a lot of that background, you know that. That’s really impressive. And thank you so much for coming on.

Dennis Walker:
Greg. Appreciate the time.

Chris Verzone:
Yeah, thank you, Greg.

Greg Farber:
Leader Insurance, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Leader Bank, N.A., insurance products offered through Leader Insurance LLC, are not FDIC insured and are Not Bank Guaranteed. They are not have deposit and are not insured by any federal government agency. For more information on today’s subject, visit leaderbank.com. In addition to past episodes, you can also find our corresponding blog entries for more insights. This podcast is a production of Leader Bank and equal housing lender. Member FDIC. NMLS number 449250.