75. Growing Forward Podcast featuring Eric Pearson

Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast with Paul Casey

Speaker 1: So one of the greatest predictors of success is goal orientation. In fact, only 3% of Americans write down their goals. Speaker 2: Amazing the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington in the Tri-Cities influencer podcast. Welcome to the TCI podcast where local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul Casey interviews, local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams. So we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of growing forward services, and it could be individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Speaker 3: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Eric Pearson. Eric is the CEO of community first bank and HFG trust, and they are my financial partners for life. See, I got it in there and I got to know Eric, I got to meet you for the first-time boy, way back. I did a team building for your team, man. It must've been 10 years ago. And so it was great to reconnect with you recently and do an offsite with your leadership team and you guys are killing it, flipping winning, right? Well, we'll dive in after checking in with our Tri-City influencer sponsor, it's easy to delay answering uncomfortable questions. Like what happens to my assets and my loved ones when I die. So it's no surprise that nearly 50% of Americans don't have a will and even fewer have an estate plan, many disabled clients worry that they don't have enough assets to set up an estate plan, but there are important options available to ensure that you have a voice in your medical and financial decision-making. Even if your health takes a turn for the worst estate planning gives you a voice when your health deteriorates or after you're gone. Marin Miller bam attorney at law is currently providing free consultations to find out more about estate planning or to book an appointment. Call Marin at [phone] or visit Salem that's S a L U s-law.com today. Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. I asked for something funny about Eric today and say it again, Eric. So when a song comes on the radio, Speaker 4: I have an uncontrollable urge to like, as quickly as possible name, the song or the artist as though it's a trivia contest. It drives my family crazy. Speaker 3: We all have our quirky thing, but you'd be great to have an, a trivia contest as long as with classic rock. Yeah. Well, welcome. Welcome. Well, so that our Tracey influencers can get to know you, Eric, tell us about what your does, maybe a little bit about how it's joined together and what do you spend 80% of your day doing? Speaker 4: Sure. Yeah, well, you know, community first bank and ACFE trust joined forces about five years ago. So a little bit of history from, you know, both organizations before they became one can, we, first bank was founded in late 1997. Really first day of business was the last day of 97. So we're what 22 years old. Now, something like that 23 years old and just a hometown community bank focused primarily on small businesses, you know, commercial banking and then supporting the, you know, the consumer banking needs of the, usually the business owners and employees that the bank with them. And then, you know, as we've grown, we've expanded out and, you know, really provide the full breadth of banking services that, you know, most financial institutions do. I was still at that, you know, exclusively local community bank feel. But one thing we, we didn't do was providing any sort of investment management to, or advice service. Speaker 4: And so one of our board members timetabling, we've been along a long time, financial advisor, Haberman financial group. And so as we talked about trying to add that business line, you know, we looked at various ways to do it. It just always felt like a, we wouldn't be doing it the right way because you know, it's not our business. We'd be learning it from scratch B would be competing with one of our, one of our primary shareholders and directors. And so I always thought it would be a great idea if the two companies could come together, you know, Ty was fiercely independent. And as much as that he built his business and one of them wanted to stay, keep it that way. But one day he recognized because he had something happened with one of his clients that, you know, they would pass away and becoming incapacitated. Speaker 4: And he would have to part ways with that relationship at that point and, and hand them off to a trust company because he didn't provide those services. He wasn't licensed to do so. And he felt Jesus at the most important time, sometimes in someone's life. And that you've been taking care of their financial needs, giving them advice. And all of a sudden, you you're, you need to hand them off and you, you could re retain them and have someone do the trust work. And he maintained the investment advisory work, but it really wouldn't be in the client's best interest to have that split and pay kind of double fees. And so he felt, well, gosh, I'm going to have to continue to hear these off. And that's just not the service I want to provide. I'd like to look into becoming a trust company. And so he enlisted my help just because the trust companies are regulated and overseen by the same state department as banks, our department of financial institutions. Speaker 4: And so I went with them, we visited with the department of financial institutions and we quickly realized that it would probably be in his best interest to partner with the bank to form the trust company because of our experience in dealing with regulatory matters, the, the, the depth of capital that the bank had and just the size that, that the bank had become added. Some, some stability to what would become trust company would make it much more viable. So they decided to do a, we merged HFG or humbling venture group into the bank, or as a subsidiary of the bank. And we named HFG trust, added trust services to, to the product mix for them, and then began to go about implementing the, you know, the, the combination of the businesses and they're really two different industries. And so we recognized a lot of financial institutions had embarked on providing investment services, typically in a limited way, and not in a full fiduciary manner that that hyperlink financial group had. Speaker 4: And so we were careful not to impose go bank tradition on an investment firm. And conversely, you know, we weren't looking to have investment industry influence the way banking was done. And so we ran them fairly separately and just tried to find ways to synergize backroom operations and those kinds of things. And we went about it very slowly. And I think that was wise, you know, we learned a lot through that process about, about the new industry that we were now in as a collective organization, how to manage it, how to work them together. We've been together now five years, and we're really beginning to see the fruits of how we can take care of a client's financial needs across the board. And so, you know, we, we, we call that being their financial partner for life is when we're there for anything and everything that they need. Speaker 4: You know, we take it, it's when it's in their best interest, we're there to provide it. You know, we're not, we're not salespeople and as much as we're trying to push product or, or, or our business on folks, but when they need our service and our advice for our products, you know, we're there for them and we don't have to send them somewhere else. That's really what we aimed to do, and we've pretty much accomplished it. And so now it's a matter of getting the word out and growing the business and doing a great job taking care of clients. And so that's what we've been up to. Fantastic. Speaker 3: So does your role change throughout that and, and what do you spend a lot of your time doing right now? Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, my role didn't really change. Speaker 4: I was the CEO of community first bank at the time of the merger. And, you know, because it was technically an acquisition and as much as the bank acquired HFG and there were some particular arrangements, you know, I was the CEO for the combined entity. I didn't have a, and, and still don't have a lot to do daily inside the wealth management and trust business, other than, you know, I have responsibility for the financial performance of the organization. And so, but I rely on the talent and management, that's there to produce that. And so, you know, I have oversight and know audit kind of responsibilities to make sure things are being done the right way. Obviously, the results are coming in. And if, if, if, if they vary from expectations to inquire as to why, but really most of my time on that side of things is spent trying to make sure that we're providing that business with the resources they need to be successful. Speaker 4: And as the organization grew, that really became what I started doing for the bank to, you know, in fact, one of our directors and the strategic planning said, you know, I'm that, I'm the resource allocator. I, I needed to determine there's limited resources in an organization, all of our business units, and even, you know, departments within business units are clamoring for support and resource. And so there's a need to go through and prioritize who gets what, when, and you know, that that's not always easy. Every, every need is a real need. And, and from the perspective of the person who needs it, it's the most important need. And so, you know, that's probably in, in a broad sense, what I spend most of my time doing is working to bring the business lines together, make sure they have what they want, make sure they're working well together and making sure that they're pushing forward on the financial partner for life, you know, mantra that we're living by and, and that, and, and that, and that we're advancing towards our strategic objectives. Speaker 4: And then making sure we have good people to, to lead that effort. And that's probably been the biggest transition is letting go of management duties and really becoming a CEO, you know, while I had that title for a long time, we were a small enough organization. As most small businesses would know, you're really holding about eight different jobs and you're the ultimate manager and I'm not anymore. We've got a great leadership team at multilevel of our organization at this point that take most of that work off of my plate. And so it's really more directing, you know, the orchestra than it is playing the instruments. Speaker 3: Yes. So why do you love to do it? Speaker 4: Well, you know, I, I love taking care of clients. It's probably, you know, the greatest satisfaction is when we have a win. When we see we did something that made their life better, and whether I did it, you know, whether it was part of the interaction or not just hearing those stories, I think is really what drives us. I like building things, you know, just more selfishly I think, you know, it's been fun to be part of an organization that, you know, had 30 employees when I started, and it has 130 now. Wow. And, you know, has grown, you know, five, 600%. And, you know, the wealth management firm was 350 million in assets, under management when we combined, and there are a billion or a little over a billion dollars in assets under management now. And so that's five years, you know, that kind of growth is just remarkable. Speaker 4: We've added mortgage. We, we always did mortgages, but we've, we've developed and recruited a great manager, Jamie Clark, who has taken us to new Heights on the mortgage side too. So we really feel like we have three distinct business lines, all of which are winning and growing, and it's just fun to be a part of it. And probably what I've learned, you know, in the last five years, especially, is that it almost works better when I'm not doing it. You know, and I did a lot in the early years and not that I wasn't capable of doing some of those things, but I'm only one person. And, and not that other people weren't contributing obviously then too, but I was so much more involved in the weeds, you know, seven, eight years ago I have now and the less involved I am, the better it goes. Yeah. Speaker 3: And you talked about having these great leaders in these key areas on your team. How did you decide to surround yourself with those folks and who else do you surround yourself with? Maybe even outside of HFG and community first? Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, you know, two good questions there. I mean, I've been really fortunate throughout my career to have a lot of great mentors. And in fact, we've talked a lot about building mentors for our young talent. It's a challenge, you know, we're finding, we have to be very deliberate about being mentors. I don't recall that as a young person coming up in the industry, I found the mentors and I don't even know sometimes if they knew they were being a mentor, I was just sucking information from them. And I was lucky to know them, you know, was really how it turned out. And, and so I had a lot of that, you know, my immediate predecessor, rich Emory, you know, was a fantastic long time bank CEO who, you know, left the bank. When he, when he retired and handed the keys to me in just pristine shape, you know, it was, it was set up to be successful. Speaker 4: He laid the groundwork and made my first few years really easy and and taught me so much about really what was important in the banking business. And so, and again, we were small enough that I probably took all those lessons to heart and try to do it all myself, or, you know, again, not all myself, but be involved in all of it myself. And, and then I had to, it took me a while to learn that I, I really needed to let go of a lot of those functions and, and let people experiment and try things without necessarily trying to make oversee their decision-making. And, and, and that's when we really began to, to blossom and grow. But as far as, you know, how we pick the people, you know, some of them have been with us since before I got there and, or very early on when I got there. Speaker 4: And they, we were just fortunate to have him on board and they're super talented and they've evolved with us and changed in their, in their roles dramatically in some cases. And, you know, and, and it's been fantastic to see people who are willing to do that, to give up on what they thought was their job, and really start doing another job altogether, applying, you know, their knowledge and experience in a new way to the organization. And we've got a large number of those folks that have been with us for a while. We've lost a few along the way, you know, because of change and really good people too, but for one reason or another, you know, the, the growth stressed, you know, what they thought they were a part of to begin with. And so we've really added some new talent, you know, and we've, we've been lucky, and we've been more successful than not in bringing in new leaders to the organization, but we've, we have had some cases where, you know, it just wasn't the right fit. Speaker 4: But for the most part, the, the folks that we brought in, at least after some working and maybe making sure that they're focused on the right thing, you know, we've been able to develop a team that, you know, as you were with us at our leadership event in Spokane here last week or two weeks ago, and, you know, I, I feel more confident today than I've ever felt with the cohesiveness and the chemistry of the team that we have working together. So, and then beyond that for me, you know, as I said, mentors, but I've really been fortunate the entire time that I've been with the organization to have the board of directors that I have. It was a local group of business leaders who all run significant businesses in this community have tons of experience dealing with all the problems that all businesses deal with, not necessarily banking, although they got a, a crash course in banking early on running our business. Speaker 4: And of course, Tai is the foremost expert in our company on wealth management. And so, you know, the, the knowledge base and the, and the business management leadership experience that, that our board of directors brings, it has been probably the single biggest resource that I've had through this time, because, you know, they've helped me make all the big decisions and keep me pointed in the right directions to me when I'm maybe going the wrong way and, and, you know, share their own experiences if I'm struggling with something, you know, as well as this kind of happened to me. And, and this is what we did. And, and, you know, I think they would all agree that they like being part of the board because it's a little bit of a, a lonely job sometimes being the owner or the CEO. And so you're going to get a group of us together, and we can kind of finally admit what what's hard and what you struggle with, and what's emotionally taxing and, and you see someone else struggling with it, or someone being successful, something you struggled with, and we all learn from each other. So it really kind of turns into a bit of a support group. Sometimes we've instructed our board meetings that way we spend a fair amount of time, or it's just the board and it's pretty freeform. And we, and we talk openly. And so that's been successful, also involved in lots of other organizations in the community and trade organizations and w deal with other bank CEOs around the state and around the country. And, and so, you know, having a big network of people that can, that can provide input is definitely Speaker 3: How are you constantly evolving as a leader? You've been in the business a while you're around these great, this great capacity of leaders around you, what's in your own professional development plan. How do you keep, you know, and just not checking in, you know, every day, but like I got to keep growing as, as the top leader. Well, that's Speaker 4: A great question. You know, I think as I said before, you know, I don't know that I set out in life to be a CEO or to be a bank CEO for that matter when you're a little Navy, never did you, my dad was a banker, so you might think that, but, but it really all happened sort of by accident, you know, that I ended up on this path and then the path just led me where it led me. And, and so, you know, I pursued the things in the short-term that led me to the next thing. And as I got closer, I started to have the vision of what I wanted to do. And when I came to community first in particular, I, I knew that's what I was trying to accomplish. That was the game plan. And, but I didn't know what I didn't know, you know, and, and I probably still don't, you know, 10 years from now, I look back and go, gosh, I didn't know anything. Speaker 4: I think that that's the reality of it is just knowing that that's a fact that there's, so you don't know what you don't know, and it seems like a cliche thing, but you really don't. And until you learn it, you didn't even know you didn't know it. And so many times, you know, and I think that's probably what keeps me going is our business is one where it's just a different day. Every day. It's not a routine thing. We don't execute the same task two days in a row ever. And all of our customers and our employees throw us new challenges. And so, you know, I think it, it forces you to be continually learning. It's what keeps it fresh and interesting and not monotonous. And, and so I think it forces you to continually go seek skills that you haven't previously acquired to deal with this new challenge that's in front of you. And so at least that's that's, I guess that's how I would summarize it. And Suzanne learning, I wish I could say I was way out in front of a lot of these issues, you know, maybe business strategy. Sometimes I can do that, but in terms of the skills that I need to develop, no, I think you recognize I've got a short book coming and I need to go work on this. It pops up in real time, and then you identify it and, you know, sometimes I'm better at addressing it than others. Sure, Speaker 3: Sure. So how do you go about getting things done? You said your day is pretty varied, you know, but you've got to do lists. The CEO has a to-do list, just like everybody else. So how do you organize yourself? Just curious, Speaker 4: Another skill set that I think I could be a lot better at in fact, I was just joking with someone about my paper to do lists. I've tried to put them into electronic format. And so really what I do is I take lots of notes that only I could probably translate. And they're very brief. They just, there for me, it's a matter, it's kind of like the music thing. It's like, I just need a little snippet of the song. I need a little snippet of the information. Then it comes rushing back to me. Oh yeah, yeah. There's this whole topic of information that I need, need to do. And so I make these notes and then about once a week, I transcribed them on a paper with a pen, into a list that has a little more detail as to what I was thinking. And then the next week I'll go back, and I'll see how many of these did I cross off? Speaker 4: And how many did I not? And, and then look at my new notes and add those new ones to the list. And that's really the process. I mean, it's, it's, it's pretty informal, I guess, in that regard, I get pulled directionally off of a game plan for a day, most days, you know, I think, I think this is how it's going to go, that how it goes. And so, you know, I just have to react with that. And, and so probably the biggest challenge I have sometimes is if I find myself with time, I wasn't expecting, and now I also have a list of things to do, and I have to sit down and say, okay, I wasn't expecting to be working on anything right now, what should I knock off that list? You know, that tends to be the challenge in COVID has made that even more difficult because, you know, it used to be a much more, you know, get out and just, you know, manage by walking around kind of leader, I guess. And I've gotten away from that. And, and I'm trying to get back to it because we're, you know, we're, we're free to do it a little bit more now and, and, but the bad habits set him so fast. And so it's something I'm still struggling with managing wandering Speaker 3: Around. I love that it has been harder in COVID well, before we head into our next question on how Eric looks at the bigger picture, a shout out to our sponsor, located in the Parkway, you'll find motivation, new friends and your new co-working space at fuse. Whether you're a student just starting out or a seasoned professional, come discover all the reasons to love coworking at fuse come co-work at fuse for free on Fridays in February, enjoy free coffee or tea, Wi-Fi printing conference rooms, and more, and bring a friend. If you use this, where individuals and small teams come together in a thoughtfully designed resource, rich environment to get work done and grow their ideas. Comprised of professionals from varying disciplines and backgrounds. Fuse is built for hardworking, fun, loving humans. Learn more about [e-mail] or stop by seven to three, the Parkway in Richland Washington. So Eric, it's easy to get trapped in reacting to crises and leadership. So how do you specifically step back and take a look at the bigger picture? I know that offsite retreat that we were able to do together, that's probably one of those elements, but you know, how do you stay in front of stuff? Speaker 4: Yeah, it's interesting. It's a good question. It depends. I suppose, you know, when it's, when you get stuck in the morass or the, the, the whirlwind, the whirlwind of day-to-day business, I think I, I, self-talk a lot on reminding myself that whatever it is that I'm obsessed with is pretty small potatoes generally. And really, even to some pretty big things, that's kind of always been a technique for stress dealing with stress that I've, I've always used this for whatever reason. It's very reassuring to me to, to, to tell myself, or to give myself the perspective that what am I complaining about? There are people who have a whole lot bigger problems than I'm wrestling with right now. And you don't have to look very far to find them. And, and they're literally millions or billions of people on the planet who are dealing with far, far more difficult things. Speaker 4: And that always just sort of reassures me. It doesn't take away the problem, but it, it takes away the, the level of anxiety that maybe starts to creep in sometimes. And so I do that, self-talk myself that way a lot, but strategically maybe if that's the point of the question is how you really step back and look the bigger picture and what we're trying to accomplish and keep other people focused on that. Yeah, that's a, that's you have to be deliberate. You know that that's one where, you know, we do things like we did in Spokane with you where, you know, we remind ourselves, okay, what are the three or four most important things? And how do we make sure we're reminding everybody that that's the case. So we don't get so hung up on details that are important but get so hung up on missing a detail that we forget what we're really trying to accomplish. Speaker 4: And what we're trying to accomplish is easy. We're really just trying to take great care of clients and, and, you know, again, cliche things, but if we take really good care of clients, they'll continue to do business with us. They'll refer people to us, it's worked it, it continues to work. The more we do it, the more clients come. It, it just is beautiful cycle. It's super easy. You know, from that perspective, you know, actually taking care of them takes work and technical skills and things like that. And managers and leadership and training, and, you know, all the things that we struggle with from time to time. But at the end of the day, the big picture, it's pretty straightforward. And we, we sometimes get hung up, but what should we do? Should we go, laughter, should we go extra far left? Well, as long as we're going left, I think we're doing fine. Speaker 4: You know, we can of course, correct a little bit, but we went right. That'd be a problem. I think that's the, I think that's the, you know, the, the, the method and all of our leaders are a little different. So I think it's interesting. I have conversations with my leadership team and they're, they're each different in terms, I think of how they approach things. And the real secret is learning how to deal with each of them, you know, making sure that they're getting what they want. We just had a conversation last night about you actually with you too. We said, how come, how come we look around? And we're winning, but it's, sometimes it doesn't feel like we're winning. I came up with the, your recognition was something that's lacking. And we've heard that feedback from, from employees before. And, you know, we try things that are kind of formulated recognition and it just sort of dawned on me sometimes that is really this just conversational recognition, you know, really appreciate you helped me out with that. Speaker 4: You know, you know, those kinds of things, you know, that for whatever reason you just don't do, if you can be a little bit deliberate about it and being sincere that, you know, I recognize that you're particularly good at this. It's honest, you know, it's not brown nosing. It's, it's just saying things you knew, and you assume the other person already knew, but it's good for the other person to hear you say it. And I think that at the end of the day, that's, that's the, the, you know, one of the biggest things we, we could do a better job of, but it sure helps keep us focused. Yes, Speaker 3: We all need more air affirmation, inspiration recognition gotta have that. It's gotta be deliberate because you just onto the next thing. So that was, that was a cool recognition there at the retreat of, we got to celebrate our wins because we're winning. What key moves did you make for the organization in the year of COVID up till now to be responsive and strategic in a very uncertain time? Speaker 4: Well, you know, it was interesting because, you know, when COVID first hit, I was B I was one of those who thought all this won't last week and it's all being over-hyped and, you know, it'll be, you know, by Memorial Day we'll be back to normal. You know, it was my instant, you know, early March 2020 mindset. So I had that wrong. And, but once it became apparent that the, that I was wrong and that it was going to be, you know, a significant event that was going to impact us. You know, I think we, we, we tried not to be on the bleeding edge of adjustments because nobody knew what to do. And so to the extent that we can sit back and watch what other people did and what worked and what didn't, you know, made a lot of sense, but we didn't come up with anything novel in terms of, you know, dealing with it from a space or safety perspective. Speaker 4: You know, we were fortunate slash unfortunate, very look at it to be an essential business. And so we were never shut down and we had to have people in there, their offices too, not all of our people, but many of the jobs must be onsite. And so that took some of the decision-making out of it, you know, should they stay home or not, but we quickly spun up. And our, our, our it team and facilities group, and whole leadership team did a great job of quickly adapting technology and getting it out the door so that people could work from home. And that we could free up space in places where people were in crowded quarters and or people who could work from home, or if they had symptoms or, you know, they had that they were preexisting health conditions. You know, all the things that were obviously everyone was dealing with, we were able to quickly, you know, take care of those, those, those employees, you know, get people spaced out and get people home who needed to be home and, and deal with it. Speaker 4: You know, we were slow to reluctant to close our lobbies and, you know, we were, we, but we kind of waited until, I don't know, sometime in early April, maybe that it was, became apparent that you would be conspicuously dangerous if you were open that way. And we went drive through only, and then we opened it back up in August. And then we had to, we've had to shut them down a couple of times, both over the holidays with that spike. And then also in a couple of cases where individual offices, you know, had people out. And so we went back to, drive-through only when that occurred, but by and large, I think, you know, our employee’s kind of direct that, how they feel about their safety and comfort with working with one another. And, you know, to our knowledge, we've not had one transmission in our buildings, you know, very confident we haven't, we've had a number of employees that had COVID, but they all contracted it elsewhere. Speaker 4: Fortunately didn't give it to anyone else. And so, you know, I think we had a pretty good experience with it, but the thing that hit us was PPP loans. You know that it's almost, when I think of COVID, I think of PPP for us, it was especially in the early days in April of last year, it was a bigger deal. It was for us, it was what's COVID, it's, it's all PPP all the time. And I'll admit now we, we through safety precautions by the wayside, you know, it was pre mass mandate when the, when the, when the PVP thing hit. So no one was wearing masks and we had big group meetings and we were, we were bringing food in to keep our employees who were working ridiculous amounts of overtime fed, you know, in engaged, because we had, you know, almost our entire staff work, you know, probably 40, 50 hours overtime, those first couple of weekends off of PPP. Speaker 4: And it was crazy. I mean, the, the, the hours that we put in and the number of people, we had HR people, it, people marketing people making or helping with the PPP loan origination process, because it was so manual and so new, it was changing every day, but we figured it out. And, you know, I think for us, it was a real, a real win, you know, really helped us stand out in the community because we were able to get loans out, actually funded within a few days of the program, opening up when most banks were like, all right, I'm sure if we want to do this program. And so just a lot of Goodwill in the coin the community. I know we helped out a lot of businesses, you know, helped a lot of employees retain jobs. You know, in that first phase, we put a hundred million dollars on the street. Speaker 4: It's a big deal in a community like this. And it was scary. I remember thinking, is the SBA really going to stand behind us on this? What if we make a mistake, are we going to lose money on these loans? And, you know, in the baking business, we can't lose money on loans very often, or we're not in the banking business. And so, you know, it's, it's one of those things we it's maybe the most solemn oath we take with deposit or money is we can't make those kinds of mistakes. And, you know, in those early days we felt like we were really sticking our neck out, as it turned out, the program worked like it's supposed to, and there really wasn't any risks that we took, but at the time we weren't sure about that. And so it was nerve wracking to think we're gonna, we're kind of betting the company that this program will work out. Speaker 4: And, but we decided to do it to trudge forward with it aggressively under the hospital. So, well, if this is what ends it, we went down and doing what we do and, you know, helping, helping our clients in this community. And so I, it comes back to that's the bigger perspective, you know, I literally had that conversation with my wife. I said, well, you know, I'll be the George Bailey or the tray cities, you know, for life, if this happens, I w it was well-intended, there was no, no bad wheel in this at all. If this ends up blowing up in my face and, you know, we'll survive one way or another, it was nowhere near that dire. But in the moment, it didn't feel that way. And so that, that, that was sort of our experience. Well, Speaker 3: You were the front runners in that. And I just kept hearing in the community in the community go to community first bank for PPP loan. And so it was a good reputation, you know, it's spread like wildfire, and I was fortunate to get one of those as well from you guys. Well, Eric, finally, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Speaker 4: Well, it should have prepared for that question. There's so many good pieces of advice to kind of boil it down into one singular thing. You know, I think it's, you know, treat people, right. You know, if, if you do, if you treat people well, I mean, recognize, I guess first and foremost, that you don't get anywhere without the people. And, you know, if you're a small business, you might just be, you know, one of your laborers or what have you that worked for you, but, but they're carrying all the weight and they have to know how much you appreciate that and care. And, and w because you do, you're, you're riding on their shoulders. And I think if you're honest with yourself about that, then you can genuinely show that to the people around you. And that probably extends out to, you know, your broader support group, whether it's a consultant that helps you with management or your CPA, your attorney, your banker, or your insurance person, you name it, you know, those people, if you're treating them right, they're going to go the extra mile for you. Speaker 4: And you need people to go the extra mile for you at certain times, like PVP, you know, as I was saying, you know, I was probably the thing I was the most proud of was I don't have, I think I had anybody who, or what do you mean I have to work this weekend? People were excited. They want, they knew it was there, that they, it was their time to rise up and do the right thing. And I believe a is because we just had great people that their parents had a good job or whatever it was that was most of it. But I think the other part was is that they knew the company cared and we were sincere. And that what we were trying to do with PPP loans was to help the community and they wanted to do their part. They wanted to be a part of it. Speaker 4: And so, you know, that's what drove people to not just be burned out by the process, you know, and struggle on a year and a half now. And I think we're all tired of BBB, but the, but we're when we see the light at the end of the tunnel, but, but it's that, you know, truly letting people know that they care and what they're, that they're contributing. And that's a big part of it, you know, just get extra, extra benefit out of them. And then that person could be anybody in your support. It could be your spouse or your kids that support you by, you know, being there for you when you had a hard day. All of those things are, are, are, is really, I think what fuels us, at least from my perspective. Speaker 3: So Tri-City influencers go the extra mile with people in your internal network, your external network, and will boomerang back on you. So Eric, how can our listeners best connect with you? Speaker 4: Oh, well, I mean, with me directly, I pretty accessible. So you can reach me via email is probably the best way I, I get a lot of emails that I can get back to them if I'm busy during the day later. So my email is E Pearson, P E a R S O [e-mail]. And first is one St. So community one S t.com. Speaker 3: Thank you so much for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading. Well, thank you. Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend, I run a program called leader launcher leader. Launcher is a leadership development program for emerging leaders and young professionals. We meet once a month and right now it's a virtual and we look forward to getting back together alive and do a two hour on leadership, could be on leading change or casting vision, or having that difficult conversation with a team member. And so the community gathers and do a seminar and they formulate an action plan to take back to their work and customize that. And then there's some peer networking that goes on as well. So they can meet leaders in other industries and talk about goals together. So just a little loose accountability. So if you'd like to sign up for the year, or if you've got employees that you'd like to sign up, it's a leader-launcher.com. Speaker 3: Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guest, Eric Pearson from community first bank and HFG trust for being here today on the Tri-City influencer podcast. We also want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to help leaders and inspire them in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence. Scott Adams says there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end until next time, keep growing forward. Speaker 2: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show hall. Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul and your leadership development, connect with [e-mail] for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you is free. Control my calendar checklist, go to WW dot, take back my calendar.com for that productivity tool or open a text message 2 7 2 0 0 0, and type the word groan Speaker 3: Tri-Cities influencer podcast was recorded at fuse SPC by bill Wagner of safe strategies.