Coronavirus & Credit Unions: Tips from a PR Expert

We are living in fast-changing and uncertain times. Right now, more than ever, your members are seeking support and reassurance. So, how should credit unions proceed?

Casey Boggs, President of ReputationUS, shares his experiences on how to manage a Black Swan crisis, why consumers are even more scared about their finances than their health, and the worst thing an organization can do in a crisis.

Key Takeaways

1. The worst thing an organization can do right now is to be silent. You need to both communicate faster and be more disciplined at the same time. As a first step, build a cross-functional team, then work with the team to build protocols and standards for communications.
2. Everything should be focused on this big issue. Change your homepage banner to be focused on this—you do not want to be leading with HELOCs right now. Marketing has to adjust to the times and really completely rethink its messaging. You risk looking tone deaf if you are communicating about other things in a time of crisis, especially one that is a Black Swan.
3. Health is everyone’s priority, but financial health is at least as concerning to most Americans right now. Credit unions should know their lane and be a beacon of strength and information for their members and broader community. Now is the time to play up that you are here to help, not to make money. Lead with your cooperative purpose and not-for-profit status.

Read the full transcript here:

Cameron Madill:
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Remarkable Credit Union Podcast. We created our podcast to help credit union leaders think outside of the box about marketing, technology, and community impact. Each session, we bring on expert guests from inside and outside of the industry for conversations about innovation. Our goal is to challenge your preconceptions about business as usual, and provide you with actionable takeaways.

Cameron Madill:
Today’s big question: How can credit unions do the right thing for their members, community, and the long-term future of their institution in this time of health and financial crisis in America? Today, I’m very excited to welcome Casey Boggs. Casey is the founder and president of ReputationUs, which is a PR agency focused on enhancing, protecting, and defending reputations for businesses and nonprofits. He is the chairman of the board of Financial Beginnings USA. He counts numerous credit unions among his clients, so he has a lot of expertise in this space specifically.

Cameron Madill:
And then I was excited to learn, just before the podcast kicked off, that Casey is a tequila aficionado. So he will hopefully cover some of that in the podcast today, as well as I noticed from a little bit of research, he is a rhetoric major from college and the only podcast guest to date to use the word, loquacious. Casey, thanks for joining us today.

Casey Boggs:
Thanks for having me and thanks for the introduction.

Cameron Madill:
Yeah. Absolutely, just delighted to have you on in the midst of all the craziness with coronavirus. I really can’t imagine anyone better. So, first things first, I would love to just hear, what do you advise a credit union to do right now? Today is March 16th, at 4:10 PM, Pacific time.

Casey Boggs:
Well, it depends on the credit union, but for the most part, the fundamentals of pillars here, Cameron, is really to establish some strong protocols. Meaning that now, this is an unprecedented time as far as what to do, how to do it, when to do it. These are at a time where you start developing the right protocols. Specifically what I mean by that is communications protocols. We’re seeing a disproportionate amount of information coming into the credit union and not enough going out, meaning that it’s overwhelming.

Casey Boggs:
Overwhelming as far as communications, as far as what’s happening with COVID-19, what it means to folks’ finances, what it means to the staff, to members, community. But the procedures that need to happen right now is for the credit union to say, “All right, how are we going to do this? How are we going to make these decisions?” When do we need to make these decisions? To what period [inaudible 00:02:40] ramifications? So, how are we going to make sure that there’s an ebb and flow of discussions happening that we can somehow control and provide some kind of semblance of understanding to this madness?

Casey Boggs:
The protocols also go a little bit deeper as well. [inaudible 00:02:55] has really never been with all due respect, a huge, active, communicating often. There are big promoters, they’re good as far as them being part of the community, but from a broader communication side and really showing how they are helping their staff, their members, their community, has not been great in our community. But now is the time to establish really hourly, daily, weekly, or as-needed decision-making checkpoints in the communications to your current audience. So, those are the first things that I’d recommend [inaudible 00:03:31], and some of whom are already doing it, that’s fine. But I think we are really also seeing, we are way beyond a point of saying, “Hey, wash your hands more and look at the CDC for information,” or, “You should really stay home.” We got that.

Casey Boggs:
We’re looking at right now how are we, a credit union, going to help, really help assuage the situation by providing ongoing support, procedures, services/products that are really hopefully going to help our target audience.

Cameron Madill:
Well, I’m glad you brought that up, because I’ve been… I mean, I know on my end as CEO of PixelSpoke, we’ve been working hard to try and stay ahead of this, but it feels like it’s been moving so fast. So I was curious, I am not a PR person. I’ve never studied it. I don’t even have a rhetoric degree like you. I didn’t know what loquacious meant. No, I did know that, but this is heavy stuff, right? And it’s hitting everyone. So I was wondering, are there best practices or simple rules of thumb? I know every client is unique but best practices or simple rules of thumb to guide an organization through something like this that they could fall back on to even wrap their heads around proper communications in a time like this?

Casey Boggs:
Yeah, I think you can also develop a team. I think the first thing is that the ideas, they need credit unions, executives, the CIO, whomever should be kind of championing all this. No, they should be developing a smart team, and this is really looking at all internal factors here Cameron. So, from the executive, or from the board or should the key stakeholders at the credit union, but look at HR, how [inaudible 00:05:13] help some of the issues that are happening with the staff and then obviously member relations who leads that charge, who should be part of this team from operations, from IT. All these folks, there should probably be upwards of five or six people on this team to be really the pillars of strength and pillars of communication through all this. And once that’s really established, then going back to what I originally said, then we’re in a better position to understand the communications that are coming in, what are the issues and problems that are already existing, and how or I guess we as a team are going to respond to this.

Casey Boggs:
As I’ve seen, a lot of times this has been a makeshift group comprised primarily of the executives, but we’re getting calls directly from the CEO, she’s busy. She’s got a lot of things going on, and really needs a team here. And so with this team, to make sure that they’re properly raised, but also too they’re trained on making sure every word that comes out of their mouth or being typed is unified, it’s clear and that it’s really consistent throughout this ordeal. There’s really some low-hanging fruits [inaudible 00:06:23]. I mean, I’m surprised sometimes that doesn’t even exist. So that’s rudimentary advice we give at the very beginning. Who was your team? Who’s been deputized to really communicate to the appropriate audiences?

Cameron Madill:
Casey, it’s almost sounding to me like an organization needs to figure out how to simultaneously communicate faster and more disciplined.

Casey Boggs:
That’s correct. Yeah, it also I think during, this team is also anticipating potential scenarios. This is where I am finding a lot more of the, “Okay, now what?” [inaudible 00:06:55] get to that simple response to it all, but now what? What’s really at the heart of the issue here? What’s keeping our staff up at night? What’s keeping our members up at night? What’s wrong with our members up at night? What’s going on with the community? Anticipate questions, anticipate scenarios. What if we need to shut down branches? What if we have seen a tick in mobile or online banking? Do we have the staff? Do we have to make a decision on having a 24-hour staff that we never had before? Those types of scenarios should be being [inaudible 00:07:27], or at least ask those questions now and then we can preferably decide if and how to deploy that.

Cameron Madill:
Yeah, I think that’s fabulous perspective. I wanted to go back to something you had said just a couple times already about there’s so many angles, because I think the employee angle is incredibly important. But you talked about the members, and kind of what’s the news that they’re getting and what’s keeping them up at night, and you had sent me this article that it makes sense, but it left me kind of flabbergasted which was a USA Today poll from last week that showed that Americans are more worried about their money than their health in this current situation. And that may be changed, and I know we’re getting barraged everyday, but how does that relate to the role that a credit union has to play right now? Because I do think the first thing people maybe are talking about is overwhelming the healthcare system, but obviously the financial system is also incredibly important. So can you talk to us a little bit about maybe what you took away from that poll and how that should guide a credit union, how they engage with their membership?

Casey Boggs:
Sure. And we need to understand that certainly health is number one priority, no doubt about it. But if you’re a credit union or you’re a financial institution and you really in a way should know your lane when you’re communicating or providing information to your staff members, of course you can tell them whatever you want and provide some information that’s available from the CDC, but I think the folks really want to know, based off this study and really I think common sense, “Man, how are you going to help my finances during this uncertain time?” I need some kind of strength here, and my money is with you. You, the credit union, so if you are knowing that’s what you’re up against, no need to have healthcare advice. You’re giving financial advice as best as possible, or developing products and services that’s going to help them in this capacity, and emergency funds. Different types of things or ways to give people a sense of comfort that during this time of crisis, I look to my credit union.

Casey Boggs:
Yeah, even though it sucks we’re going through it, but at least the credit union anticipated what I was going through and have been able to help at least give me some degree of, “Hey, it’s going to be okay.” To say that you’re giving them health advice from a credit union, it just seems a huge departure. If you are a leading cause here, a financial institution, this is a type of [inaudible 00:10:00] and direction that your members and everyone really is looking for.

Cameron Madill:
So, one of my favorite books which has sort of made the rounds a couple times is Black Swan, very different from the movie about ballerinas. And it comes from, for those who haven’t heard, I think it’s fairly well known, but it comes from some… I think it’s like a famous logic proof from I don’t know, sometime in the 18th century or whatever. And the whole point was that no number of white swans will ever disprove the statement that all swans are white. But it only takes one black swan to disprove that, and so these things that you have, this absence of evidence, but that doesn’t mean that it’s evidence of absence. So when they happen, it’s things like September 11th or Chernobyl possibly, or certainly this pandemic. And so it seems like a really different kind of crisis from some of the other things that maybe have a more natural… their own kind of stressful build up like a war or a recession that kind of builds up. But since there’s this intense feeling of unknown, how does that change the dynamic from other kinds of crises in how an organization can communicate?

Casey Boggs:
Yeah, that’s a loaded question, but let me unpack it by giving you some historical context as well. It might be helpful that over the last 15, 20 years, I’ve been either blessed or cursed by being on the front lines of some pretty heavy hitting crises. On 9/11, the PR firm that I was working with had to handle the airline industry. So, we were in San Francisco, and if you recall the planes that were flying around that were actually intended… at least one of them was intended to go to San Francisco. And so, they had to shut down the airport and the uncertainty that was going on in the other part of the country, not so much New York or Boston or Washington and the city of San Francisco, like we are in uncertain mode. So, by taking the necessary precautions is a big piece, and I’ll come back to that in a second. Also, I was in-house at AIG. I was a Director of Public Relations for AIG during the financial crisis and a little bit before that, during-

Casey Boggs:
AIG, during the financial crisis and a little bit before that the during [inaudible 00:12:04] for their CEO, and it was scary. I was brought in to do some proactive PR work and then ended up coming in for crisis communications. The uncertainty of it all was what really scared everyone. Pray tell, what do you do, how do you do this?

Casey Boggs:
Obviously, now one of the big [inaudible 00:12:25] going on in the world is security breaches. We’re [inaudible 00:12:27] to this, like how bad is this? How is it going to effect our reputation? Now this. This one’s I don’t know yet because it’s still too early but it’s that underlying uncertainty.

Casey Boggs:
So what do you do? How do you provide that clarity? No one has a crystal ball. However, this is when leaders lead. This is when you really show your value in this world on financial institution, or a trusted advisor, or whoever this is. This is when you say, “All right, we’re going to take this hour-by-hour, day-by-day, and we are going to be this really beacon of health.” Not to be falsely optimistic, but more along the lines are realistic, and to make sure that you are providing relative related sources of communications, the products that is on top of their mind. You have to essentially, wipe the desks and strip the desk and say, “No more, communications about other things, or look at your website on information that’s there.”

Casey Boggs:
Everything has to be focused on this. Otherwise, it looks like you’re not quite dialed into the crisis. As far as the broader counsel and how to handle it? Time will tell, but I certainly know that you know how you, you as a credit union or your leaders of credit union or, source [inaudible 00:13:46] as the credit union, how you are standing up and providing your area of expertise in this time of crisis will go a long way in post memory because you stood up, you helped, you’re providing your industry acronym.

Cameron Madill:
Well and I guess maybe Casey, an example of the opposite of that. This was a little bit strange. We have some cleaners who come to our house every other week. We got an email from them yesterday, so I’m thinking it’ll be about coronavirus because that’s what everything is. And it was so bizarre because the email just said, “Hi, we wanted to confirm your cleaning this upcoming Tuesday and we wanted to notify you about a rate increase.” That was it. There was literally nothing in there that said… I’m thinking, what are you doing to secure the safety of your workers? What are you doing to secure the safety of your customers? I guess what are you doing to secure the financial health of your workers? Because your workers are among some of the most vulnerable folks out there financially.

Cameron Madill:
I’m making an assumption, but usually people who are in jobs like that, usually those companies are not… We always try to leave a big tip because those companies are usually not paying very good wages. So it just felt really kind of tone deaf to me. Am I catching you right? That’s an example of where it looks dangerous to not be making every communication about the crisis?

Casey Boggs:
Absolutely. One of the things where if I am a member of your credit union I’m going to your website, essentially, first, I may call, but the high majority of your members go into your website to get some information. If your banner on the front page is talking about home equity rates, or if you are talking about something that just masks the pressure from what’s really going on here, it really just sends a bad message that you are not all in.

Casey Boggs:
Granted, we are playing a little catch up here. I’m going to give folks some leniency here, in the last week, or so, so it’s hard to make this ultimate shift. But you better start changing things now about how you approach sales, or how you approach your source model, or how you’re greeting people in the branch if your branches is still open.

Casey Boggs:
So I’m saying is right now, because if this isn’t that black swan moment, you change things from white to black. Not morbid, not being an alarmist, but more along the lines, you need to be talking white swan language when really everyone wants to hear from black swan. I’m trying to use your metaphor here, Cameron.

Cameron Madill:
This is what happens when you get a physics major talking to a rhetoric major, right, it’s just all-

Casey Boggs:
That’s right. There you go.

Cameron Madill:
This is another, I’m just trying to learn, and hopefully bring this out for our audience, an industry that I don’t know that much about in PR. So, I was also thinking of other ways that PR comes into play. I guess, I sure hope I don’t come off as overly judgmental or un-empathetic but let’s just say that, Casey, is it fair to say that sometimes people in power do something pretty stupid and have to hire a PR agency to clean up the mess? Is that a fair statement?

Casey Boggs:
It’s a small percentage of times, yes.

Cameron Madill:
Yeah, so it happens. And maybe that’s even too narrowly focused because it could also be a product recall, or whatever. But I’m curious, what’s the difference between an internal crisis where it’s the world, or what feels like the world is looking at an organization or a company, versus something like this where nobody’s blaming credit unions for coronavirus being on American soil. So, what’s the difference between how you handle that when it’s generalized anxiety and crisis, versus a crisis focused on your organization?

Casey Boggs:
A crisis that focuses on your organization has probably been brewing for some time, regardless of what it is. Meaning if you have reputational issues, for instance, most companies, they have three pillars of their issues, right, they have or their clients, the people, the product, and the process. And if there are issues that drive from [inaudible 00:17:50] the people we have there are not good or they’re great, you know that’s a good reputation or a bad reputation that we look at. The product that you have or [inaudible 00:17:57] that you have, it’s either good or great or horrible. And also the process, the systems that get to that end.

Casey Boggs:
So some of these internal issues, if there’s a cog in that wheel or there’s some kind of issues that are going on in that capacity in a way, these types of internal crisis been brewing for some time, they don’t necessarily become clear to the eye until they become a crisis. But you reputation really proceeds you, so the idea here is that in term of crisis, if you really are paying attention, you’re asking all the right questions and looking for both vulnerabilities, you would be able to find these crisis before they actually happen.

Casey Boggs:
And so a lot of times we’re brought in when the vulnerabilities were clear, there’s a systemic issue going on. The CEO is behaving badly. We have some questionable sales tactics. The IT department is really vulnerable in their efforts to stave off cyber attacks. You’re right, the crisis doesn’t necessarily matter. So that’s really, I think the big difference. Yes, we’re brought in to hopefully communicate to that and hopefully we’re brought in a lot earlier so we can audit and find those vulnerabilities. That’s the way I see the internal crisis that essentially can be avoided.

Casey Boggs:
This one because of the magnitude and uncertainty about it all, it’s really hard. It’s also in the same realm, we do practice scenarios for clients, not for virus that for instance, an active shooter. We don’t know if that’s actually going to happen, that seems preposterous. However, it’s becoming more and more prevalent. So are you prepare for that? We’ll see. I hope it’ll never happen to your credit union or to anywhere you work or live. It could happen. So that’s, what we would call a red.

Casey Boggs:
And in our world, Cameron, we have really three different color coordinations of the crisis. One’s a yellow, which is moderate. It requires some attention. It’s a crisis and potentially could be a red, but we can really decide what to do in a calm manner in the yellow category.

Casey Boggs:
The orange is okay, this has got a lot of ramifications here, it’s got some attention. This could be a cyber attack, this can be a Me-too issue. Could be a social media borage, or it could be some other piece here that’s an orange. That certainly could be a red very quickly, but because it could still be handled if appropriate and timing allows us to that end.

Casey Boggs:
A red, we’re in a red, we’re definitely in a red. In red spiral, like I said, an active shooter or some other earthquake that may or may not hit Portland, Oregon or anywhere. Or it could hit, or nurses has an pandemic [inaudible 00:20:43] now, so we look at it from that side. The reds are almost hard to predict. You can prepare but their hard to predict.

Casey Boggs:
The other ones, the yellows and oranges you can be prepared for and [inaudible 00:20:54]. Each one is different for sure, but why not prepare for that. So we advocate on [inaudible 00:21:00] creation and simulations and preparing for it, so you’re not necessarily asking these hearted questions in the fog of war when time is of the essence. The red ones, those are hard. Those are definitely hard. We’re definitely in red right now, but still fundamental things that were hoping to place here to make sure that there’s [inaudible 00:21:19] and application and the right branding for your company and red processes are being changed as we speak. That’s what we need to be doing right now.

Cameron Madill:
Great. Have you seen the movie the Fog of War?

Casey Boggs:
I have.

Cameron Madill:
That’s the reference, all right. I just appreciated, you working that in. So-

Casey Boggs:
[inaudible 00:09:41].

Cameron Madill:
So these are very serious times as you said. There is obviously I think we also need joy and humor and happiness, so both from a learning standpoint but sometimes there can be a little bit of levity of like what are the worst things that an organization can do in a situation like this? You know the things that make you just kind of slap your forehead in surprise that an organization could be so unskillful and in how they’re behaving.

Casey Boggs:
I think silence. I think silence is one of those weird things where there’s so much uncertainty is going on or is lack of communications or taking a stance. Silence is one of those deadly things where people [inaudible 00:22:19] including your staff, your members, your community looking for [inaudible 00:22:27]. Your political leaders to help provide some kind of understanding. But they’re certainly looking down the different layers, they’re going to look at their community leaders and that can be anything from their churches to associations.

Casey Boggs:
They’ll start looking at you very soon, and if you haven’t said anything or looking to the other folks to lead during this time, you’re not necessarily seen as a leader, you’re just seen as an exister, and there’s nothing worse when this crisis is done, what did you do during this time. During this time, did you make any sacrifices? Did you communicate? Did you do something that would really show that you are [inaudible 00:23:05] beyond, granted, yeah, you shore up, all these different issues that are happening right now, but did you do something, communicate something during this time that was a departure from what you’re used to. And if you’re in a good way, if your answer is yes, then you can at least say, hey, we don’t necessarily know what’s going to happen, but we did our best. We take it. If you didn’t do anything or you did, but you didn’t necessarily communicate what you’re doing, then it doesn’t count. It doesn’t go on the scoreboard.

Cameron Madill:
Yep. What’s the role of marketing in a time like this? So, obviously some people look at PR as a part of marketing in certain circumstances, but this is, it’s everyone inside of an organization right now. So how can marketing most effectively be part of the team right now?

Casey Boggs:
Apparently what I talked about before. I think your marketing has to adjust to the times, whatever the products and services that you are dealing with, the people that you’re doing, the people you are helping facilitate the solution here, but that on the-

Casey Boggs:
Well, you were helping facilitate the solution here, put down the front lines of your marketing. We’re here to help. We are deploying all resources to send to help. Those types of marketing implications can be deployed pretty quickly, I’d hope. It’s not time to be promoting too much of your HeLOCK or your car loans during this time. Put that at bay for a small amount of time or an indefinite amount of time. Your marketing should be focused on all the things pandemic and what you’re doing to help.

Casey Boggs:
It changes a little bit, I think you have the aesthetics of it all and how it looks and feels. I’ll leave that to the smart one. To me, that in all the, what you’re doing from marketing side is you’re marketing the products, the people in the process of your organization, but now you’re doing it in a way that really no other industry, credit unions are there for their members or community that you have to trust. You’re not there to make money. You’re there to help and now more than ever, this is the time to promote that.

Cameron Madill:
Yeah. Well said. Speaking of making money though, one thing I was super impressed with was when I went to your site, it was like, wow, you have a discounted offer of help at this time. I know it’s something that I’ve been kind of wrestling with of… I think I’d love to hear two things. One, how does this work right now? What does it mean that you’ve discounted your services? Also how can a business, including credit unions, not look like they’re profiteering by engaging around a crisis like this? I assume there’s got to be some balance between giving everything away for free versus at the opposite end you have people who are sort of hoarding things and gouging folks who need medical supplies or whatnot. How do you kind of balance that and what’s the offer that you decided to put together for folks out there?

Casey Boggs:
Yeah, let me unpack that question. That’s a good question, [Cameron 00:00:25:57]. The decision to discount what we’re doing was not necessarily, and I hope that it didn’t come up as disingenuous, and in fact it came up very real. In the money world and this world we live in, we’re here to help. We’re in an odd situation, almost kind of like a fireman. Like when the rest is hitting the fan, you basically go into it. I don’t want money to be a barrier of entry for credit unions or any organization as being support in this uncertain time to stay. We need help but I don’t to pay for it. Well let’s just, not completely throw it out the window, we are a business, yes. But I want a discount to say, all right, we’re here to help. Because at the end of this, this is really kind of what we’re going to be. We, the reputation us, is going to be measured by. Were we helping, discussing how we should do some of the things that we’re doing right now and providing some counsel for what it’s worth for you?

Casey Boggs:
But I certainly don’t necessarily want to make a big issue on money. We’ll get paid. Maybe, maybe not. But I really want to come off like we were there to step up and help. Credit unions on the same realm are a not for profit. They’re there for their members. They’re not necessarily going to make a profit even though some are making a lot of money. This is not a time to be doing that. Now’s the time to put all that all at bay and focus. You may have to make some serious cuts and a lot of things, but if you shut down branches, you may have to [inaudible 00:27:27] staff as things in the cornerstone of who you are. You work in the best interest of the members, not for profit. You are now at a position like no other industry to provide your services at a discounted rate just at your nonprofit rate and adjust accordingly. I should be speaking to the choir here for credit unions because they’re in a unique position. Banks may have a different philosophy but credit unions, they should be [inaudible 00:28:00].

Cameron Madill:
Yeah. Well, and I guess if that wasn’t clear, I was just impressed how it was… On your site you just called out and said like, “We are here to help. Don’t let money be a barrier.” I think that’s just really… It’s really important because I think that as you said, just emotions are so high right now and there’s so much uncertainty. But also I think we all have things we can give back. I’ve been pulled into some really neat side tech projects to adopt a health worker and there’s things that are being done for families through a youth orchestra that I do some volunteer work. It’s just an interesting balance of how do we keep businesses functioning and not end up looking like the bad guy when we’re trying to do the right thing.

Cameron Madill:
All right. We’re nearing the end of the podcast and this is a super serious topic. I don’t want in any way sort of belittle the degree of challenge and suffering that so many folks are going to be facing. I also think you’ve probably seen these videos coming out of Italy of the people singing when they’re in lockdown. There’s just a lot of beautiful things of joy and kind of community and connection that are coming out as well. I want to make sure we take just a little bit of time to smile a little bit here on the podcast. I’m going to ask you some rapid fire questions, Casey. You haven’t seen these. We’re just going to see what comes out of that brain of yours. The first one is what is your favorite word? You cannot say loquacious. You already used that.

Casey Boggs:
I’m going to go with integrity.

Cameron Madill:
Integrity. That’s a good one. All right. What is your favorite cause?

Casey Boggs:
[inaudible 00:05:30].

Cameron Madill:
If you could have dinner with one historical person, who would it be and why?

Casey Boggs:
Nelson Mandela seemed like a pretty cool dude with a really smart brain. I love his quotes. So I’ll sit down with him.

Cameron Madill:
Yeah, that’s a good choice. What is the song you’re most embarrassed to admit that you like?

Casey Boggs:
I’m a closet Alanis Morissette fan, specifically her Jagged Little Pill. I think it’s one of the best albums of all time and I’ll say it out loud very often. Cameron’s the devil [inaudible 00:29:58]. That’s my closet… That’s a good jam. That’s a good album. I don’t know [inaudible 00:30:05].

Cameron Madill:
All right. Well, now it’s recorded for all of posterity. Cool. Well thank you. So just to close, I’d love to just do a final take. Is there anything you didn’t get to that you want to share or anything you’d like to reiterate and just leave our audience with?

Casey Boggs:
I’d just be kind to everyone. Let’s be civil, let’s be smart and just be there together because this could be worse than we expect. The world has been through crises before. The one common denominator is that we set up to help each other during this time. Let finances do it. It’s staying, but what we can control is how you’re going to help one another. So be good.

Cameron Madill:
All right, Casey. Thanks for joining us today.

Casey Boggs:
Happy to be here.

Cameron Madill:
All right, thanks for joining. We obviously wanted to get this episode out ASAP given everything that’s happening in the world. Really enjoyed talking to Casey. He’s just a wealth of knowledge about an area that I don’t know a ton. A few key takeaways. I was struck by Casey’s comment of the first things to do are to build your internal team of a cross functional team with key stakeholders that can pay attention to all your different audiences, employees, community members, et cetera, and then establish your protocols. I liked his comment about there’s too much going in and not enough coming out and I just sort summarized that, which is hard. It’s certainly not how I think a lot of us are set up, but how do we become both faster and more disciplined in our communication?

Cameron Madill:
I love Casey’s comment about how health is everyone’s priority right now. I do wonder with that USA Today poll, if that’s shifted. The situation is moving so, so fast, but that if you’re a credit union, like know your lane and really double down on your expertise around finances and be a beacon of strength in your community and be evaluating alternative products, which I’ve seen a lot of folks doing, pulling out from government shutdowns and other kinds of past crises of options to skip a pay and emergency funds.

Cameron Madill:
Also, I was waiting to hear Casey’s comment. It makes sense to me, but I feel like when I look around folks are kind of belatedly coming to this perspective that everything needs to be focused on this and otherwise you end up just kind of looking out to lunch and disengaged. I thought this got me thinking, especially with [inaudible 00:32:23] being a website company of the importance of changing the banner on your homepage that people are going to your website for answers right now and you can still have all those other projects. But if the homepage is advertising HeLOCKs, that it just sends a bad message. I liked Casey’s comment. This is very short and sweet, but what is the worst thing that we can do right now? And he just said, silence. Full stop. I think figuring out how to get back to that being both faster and more disciplined in our communication and how important that is.

Cameron Madill:
Then just my last takeaway was I was really curious on how he was going to frame the role of marketing at a time like this, which obviously normally overlaps with PR, but this is something that is just obviously engulfed all of us. Just saying, okay, so building on everything else, he already said marketing has to adjust to the times, especially for a credit union where there’s such kind of a natural advantage around the mission. How do we make it really clear that we are not here to make money, we’re here to help, and we have that kind of new and updated messaging underlying everything that we do?

Cameron Madill:
All right. Thanks for joining us today for another great episode. Until the next time, I wish you the best of luck in making your credit union remarkable.