Ilaria Rawlins

Has anyone ever inspired you to create a more fulfilling and successful life for yourself? As a leader in your business and in your community, what are the questions that you ask yourself on a daily basis? Basis? What are the questions that keep you up at night? I am your host, Betty Collins. I'm a CPA. I'm a business owner, and I partner with other women, other business owners who want to have remarkable results for themselves and for their business and their community. And I am here to help inspire you to take positive steps forward for a better life. So over the next 12 episodes and kind of this season, we're going to focus on lessons learned. We're gonna hear from other women who have learned lessons and they're gonna share with you. You know why? Because it's the right thing to do to help you navigate maybe similar situations that you're in and you don't have to go through what they've gone through. And I hope to challenge you that you have lessons learned in your journey that other women need to hear.

Never underestimate that part of your life and that story because it will have impact. In my opinion, we're obligated to share those life lessons. In my opinion, we have a responsibility to each other woman to woman or women to men, but I really believe what we've learned in our lessons over our journey are impactful and they need to be part of how you give back and how you help others. So welcome to inspiring women today. This is gonna be just a great interview. I think you're gonna really love, the guest and the, conversation that we're gonna have. I'm always a huge, huge, advocate for women who put it out there. You know? It's kinda like they're the turtle with their neck sticking out, and they don't get scared and and their neck comes back in the minute something gets hard.

And today, we have a lore a Lyra Rollins, and we are excited to have her. She is the CEO of Fortuna Bank. And, this is a an exciting story I want her to tell, and I'm I'm not gonna do too much with it. But it is a woman owned bank, and it is in central, Ohio. And, it's so impactful because this is banking and being lendable and capital are such big issues if you're in business, even bigger if you're a woman in business. So we're gonna talk about this today and hopefully, you can get some insight on it. Because it's one thing to say, who's your bank, but it's another thing to say, my banker is. And so, hopefully, today, you'll be able to really get through this with us, and this can be just such a great thing for you, to to listen to.

So I would love to start with you just telling your kind of your background a little bit about you for a couple of minutes and just, you know, kinda you've had a great history in banking, and and now you've kinda jumped into this venture. And today, we're starting a little bit late because I know you have kids, and we have, you know, obligations as moms. So just tell us a little bit about yourself, and then we'll go into the story of the bank. So

Fantastic. Thanks, Betty. I'm thrilled to be here. Just to share a little bit of my background, and, yes, we're all trying to juggle just life in general, along with leading. But I'm a career banker. I came to Ohio by way of Syracuse, New York and landed at Denison University. Immediately upon graduation, I really wanted to be a news broadcaster and landed in banking. And, never thought it would be a career for me.

I had, late in my college, really focused on some economics classes and loved them, and that's how I landed in banking. But, again, never thought it would be a career. 30 plus years later, here I am. I've had some unique opportunities. I've spent the majority of my time in retail banking. So when you think about the branch network for a bank, that's the space that I spent really the majority of my time, and I'd like to say I grew up in. But

Yeah.

My unique experiences is, one, I was part of a de novo group. And by de novo, I mean, a start up organization in banking. Here in Columbus, it was First Bexley Bank. It started in 2006. It ran until about 2014, and there, I was second to our CEO. So I ran kind of really the deposit side of the balance sheet, but also with any small industry and any small business. I also was marketing. I was our HR.

I was the BSA officer. So we're wore really a multitude of hats. Yeah. And that's where I really had the opportunity to see what does it take to grow a bank from the ground up and to start one. How does it how is this de novo bank how do we differ from a kind of traditional regional bank or even a mega bank? And and and I've always been passionate about relationships and building relationships, and that just felt like a space that I love. So I always say the most fun I've had in my career was when I was with First Bexley Bank. Hopefully, Fortuna will change that.

Yeah.

Then, when First Bexley was bought out in 2014 by a regional, called First Financial Bank based out of Cincinnati, I stayed on with First Financial. And there, I had the opportunity to hold a couple of roles, but then finally, for the last couple of years of my time at First Financial, I led their retail network, which was 140 offices, 700 employees across the 4 state footprint. There, I was charged with strategy, execution on the strategy. I was charged with growth. I was charged with the physical network itself. So do we expand? Do we contract? Which is what a lot of banks are talking about these days.

Right.

I was a talk I was I was, instrumental in kind of product development. And that's where I like to say I had the opportunity to hone on hone in on executive experience and really just kind of senior leadership. And I tell my former boss from that role, she put me into a role and had me do hard things. But now I know I can do hard things, and that to me was a big was was really a big moment. That was at that time, that was probably the hardest job I I'd ever have. In 20 late 2021, I was approached by a former client of mine, who was a client at First Bexley Bank. Her name is Lisa Berger. She was thinking about starting a bank and asked if I would be interested in being the CEO.

And so that was 3 years ago. We're on the verge of opening our doors within the next 45 days. And, so it's been a long road, over the past 3 years, but excited to really be here and feel like my experiences kind of allowed me to be in the position to where I'm ready to lead. I'm excited to lead, and I think what we're doing is unique and differentiated from traditional banking. So excited to bring it to Columbus.

Yeah. I mean, the the women in in our community are very excited about it. Yeah. You know? I mean, I've heard a lot about I've gotten a lot of stuff about especially, hey. You wanna be an owner? Hey. You wanna put some money in? That kind of thing. So but I can tell you, Denison University is my place to go walk, because that campus is so phenomenal. You can get a good you can get a good workout.

You can get a great place. If I can just stay out of the restaurants afterwards is probably the key. But, you know, it's funny when you go to college and you have dreams of these things. I went to college and really couldn't hone in on what I wanted to do. So I said, I'm good in business. I like to lead. I'll do a management degree. And they said, well, you need to pick something.

So I said, you can choose economics or accounting. I said, I'm definitely not checking out economics. I'll do accounting. I was probably the only accounting major that never intended to be an accountant. And here I am. So it all worked out for the best. But Denison's a great place outside of Columbus, for sure. Well, it's really, you know, when you first got that call, hey.

We're gonna start this bank. And, hey. We need leadership. And, hey. We need to to pull this together. Go back to that moment to go, no. I'm really good. I'm stable.

I got everything I need in my life. Or this is like gonna I'm not gonna be able to let this go. Right? Yeah. So go kinda go back to that moment when you've when you heard about the opportunity, you're like, wow. Should I be the turtle and stick my head out and stay out or should I just retreat? You know?

Yeah. And to your point, I was in a really when we first started having conversations, I was in a really good spot. I mean, it's, the the hardest part was I was splitting time between Columbus and Cincinnati. So there was definitely some some travel that was involved and and not to mention travel just to the branch networking covering that space. But Sure. I went back to where did I have I learned a lot, and I felt like I could still learn more at First Financial. But where did I really have the most enjoyment in in my work? And that was at that time, that was being part of First Baxley Bank. Again, going back to the to building the relationships, start up banks and community banks are really good at holding clients' hands

Yeah.

And are really good at building those relationships and being intentional. You know, convenience is not on their side, so they have to be good in other spaces. And I've always felt that that was a strength of mine and that I really appreciated whether it was through the teams that I was building or whether it was through the clients that I was interacting with. I liked I liked knowing about people. I like hearing about their story. I like helping them with their goals, whether it's financial goals, personal, or professional goals. And so that was one factor. The second factor was, how cool would it be to start my own bank? I'd been saying since the first Bexley Bank days, I would there there was a core group of people that would do that kind of I would talk with and that were either ex First Bexley people or maybe they were on the board of First Bexley.

Let's start a bank again. Like, let's do this. Like, let's do it again. I think the time is right. Banks are coming back online. The great recession is over. And so I think that they knew that I was that I would be interested in it. And then what really, really kind of did it for me was the fact that we wanted to be women owned.

We wanted to be female focused. Yep. We wanna be a great bank for everybody. So we want everyone to walk in our doors and feel like they are gonna get the best service ever, that the banker's face is gonna light up when you walk into the door, when you call them on the phone. But at the end of the day, when we talk about our philanthropic arm, we wanted to be female focused from a networking, access to capital, mentorship, and education aspect. And I thought, I grew up in a family of 3 girls. I'm the oldest of 3 girls. I have 2 daughters.

My two sisters have daughters. So it's it's we're girls everywhere. And my mom, really early on, when I wanted to be a cheerleader in 4th grade, she grew up in Italy. She didn't move to the United States until her early twenties. They didn't have cheerleaders in Italy, and she said, Ilagia, I don't want you to be on the sidelines cheerling. You want to you wanna be on the field playing. And so I've

come that.

Always had that in the back of my head of I need to be I need to be out there. And, Columbus is in such a great spot. There's so much growth taking place. You know, we're Columbus itself and the economic development that's taking place here is, is really putting kind of Columbus on the map. And to be there are less than 20 women owned banks in the country out of about 48100. Of the 20 banks that are women owned, 2 ahead of us were created intentionally to be women owned and and really female focused. So to be number 3 in the country felt like this is something that's just really cool and to be able to put my mark on it. I'm also to a point of where I feel like I want to I wanna I wanna give back.

I wanna I wanna build leadership behind me. I want Yeah. To see teams flourish. And, it just it all came together and felt like it was the right time.

This is the right moment. And I think honestly, in those days of 2020, we're not going to talk about COVID, so don't don't worry. But in 2021, those were years that people realized they needed a bank and they knew their banker and they could have that handheld.

Yes.

It was certainly determined. You know, it was just a crazy time. Hopefully, we'll never return to that. And I've always been an advocate as a CPA for business owners. And big banks are great. There's no question. You could get a lot with a bigger bank because of security or technologies and the things like that. But that local bank that local bank is something that when you're starting up and you're small and you just need to know what you don't know, it's the I'm such an advocate for that.

So I'm really I know that the community in general is really excited about that you're coming this way and doing this. So, you know, women are, you know, they're the ones starting more businesses than men any day of the week. I don't care who starts it. I just want the marketplace to work. And we're fortunate. I mean, we live in Columbus, Ohio. It's a park. It's a marketplace that works.

So when your marketplace works, your community works, right? When that economic is good, that development is there and people are having success, Chances are they're gonna make sure when you're having success, you know, you're you're the employer. So that means you have employees, which those are households that form those communities. And so but women are, you know, 40% of the businesses are started by them and sometimes they just cap. It's amazing to me how many women are not over a1000000 in revenues. Some of it is choice of what they're in to some degree or what they've chosen. But women are challenged with capital access. It's just a fact. It's not woe is me.

And banks aren't sitting going, I have a pile for men and I have a pile for women. They don't do that. You know, there's all kinds of regulation. There's standards. And what I tell women in business, it is hard. I get it. But you have to be lendable. And you have to get a relationship that may helps understand that.

But with you, what do you see the challenges of women owned businesses and the capital access issue for them? What's what do you see with that? And and how do you feel like a woman owned bank can connect that and help with that?

That's a great question. And that's really I think that was really the driver of what, a, what we'd love to solve for, what we'd like to be intentional in, and what, and what really kind of reinforce the fact that we wanted to go down this path. You mentioned it. Women owned businesses are growing at 2 times the national average. Yet on the flip side, women are, female entrepreneurs are denied 3 3 times more often than men for for commercial loans. They ask for less money than men typically do. And so I'm gonna go to the scenario of of kind of keep in mind, this is a very blanket statement and Sure. And generalization.

However, 75% of commercial lenders are men.

Mhmm.

If you're a guy starting a business, it is very likely that you have a buddy in your network that you can text or call and say, hey. I'm thinking of starting a business. Can you help me prepare my loan package? Can you tell me what obstacles I'm a need to consider? Can you help me grow and scale my business effectively? And and what will I need to get through loan committee?

Right.

On the flip side, if you're again, very generalized statement. But on the flip side, if you're a female and you don't have that person in your network, now you're walking into a banking center. You don't know the banker across the table. You're asking what do I do, they might give you a checklist.

Right.

But they probably don't have the capacity to hold your hand and walk you through the process. And you so you don't have that established connection. And that's where we say the networking, the mentorship, and the access to capital are really 3 pieces altogether that we need to make make happen. And that's where we know we can be intentional. We had the community banks are, again, are great at building those relationships. They have the time. It's not, we don't have automated underwriting processes for deals 250,000 and less. So we're looking at the package.

We're listening to the story, and we know we can make a difference in that space. When you talk about some of the larger banks, they're actively trying to find ways to automate that underwriting process. Well, you do that. You can get a lot more loans through, but now you're missing the story. And sometimes that's the biggest key in building that relationship. That's where we really think that we we can make an impact. That's where we want to be intentional, and that's, how we think we can help lift women so that they're able to be that that we can create that package for them so that it they are lendable.

Yeah. And in the lendable thing, let's talk to the audience a little bit about and and I and I have this struggle, and I don't always know how to answer the question or help them see it till it's maybe too late. So they go after capital that's easy. Like, I'll go get credit cards to get started. I'll go, take a 401 k. Don't do that. No. Don't take don't turn your fork in.

You know? And they go after areas or they go after things that are gonna hurt them in lending, right out of the gate, because now they're in debt in the wrong debt. They're in current debt. There's all those things. If you had advice for women, as we're trying to say, find out how lendable you are before you get started. I don't know if that's a good way to say it, but but I think that's a real issue if for business in general, but I see it with women all the time. Well, you know, I just went ahead and cashed this in or I did that versus looking at I need to be able to have capital.

Right. I I think I think it comes from I think it comes from a just the lack of the connection. So those discussions aren't taking place amongst amongst from the business owner to the commercial banker or even to a banker perspective. They're thinking they might be thinking, I only need $25,000. I already have a credit card with that limit. I'm gonna use that first. And then when I run out of that, I'll go to a bank. And, and instead, where we'd like to capture people is when they have the idea that they'd like to start a business.

Let's let us help you create that business plan. And what does that funding source look like so that you don't have you're not tapping your 4 zero one k. That's probably the last thing we want people to do. Right. You're not you're not using those personal credit cards. Again, to your point, all of a sudden, it shows you have this new debt, and it and it's score it's scored and kinda weighted differently. So we'd love to be able to walk people through that journey early on. And that's hopefully where we will start kind of advocating and and speaking to us.

Come to us before you before you do anything.

Because what I find is they don't even know what their purse they don't even know what a personal balance sheet is, let alone Right. I have to I I need to create that to see it. Right? They don't they don't know that how lendable they are because here's how much personal debt I have or not. And if they've never done a business plan and they just have an idea and they're not thinking, I I need 3 3 months of, I'm buying a bunch of of cost to make my product, and I need 3 probably need 3 months, 90 days to sell that product. They're not thinking about that window. Right?

Right. Right.

Or, hey. I have a line of credit. I could just use it for whatever. And, you know, and then they've done a lot of that. And then they come to you and say, no bank will talk to me. And I'm like, this is why. So I just, you know, I'm encouraged that a woman owned bank is gonna you know, they're gonna tap into that because that's why the denials are gonna air. I mean Right.

Exactly. Out of 10.

Exactly. It's definitely not discriminatory in any nature. It's the reality of just what it what the package looks like when you're walking in the door, and it's different.

Correct. And so a lot of times people need that. And even when you and knowing what stage is my business in because I I mean, I have a woman owned a woman owned business. She's just ambitious. And she's like, I need to grow 30%. I said, okay. Why do you need to grow that? Because I just wanna grow it. I said, okay.

Then go get another $1,000,000 on your line. Well, why? I said, because if you go 30% and you don't get paid for 90 days because of the business, You need a huge line before you can even think about that. Yes. And so just helping I'm glad that, you know, because women are gonna see it differently, and they're gonna help women get through these issues versus not. So Yes. You know, but women are typically this is what makes you guys unique. They're not found in that boardroom where there's decisions being made. Right? It's like, what, 20% or only and I don't know my statistics well enough to say out out too out loud, but I do know that it's probably less than 25% of boards have women on them, you know, of the bigger companies that have boards.

And even though they women you know, we represent over half the population. Right now, 60% of accountants are women now, which is but only 21% are in leadership. So how are you and the, you know, the bank planning on assisting to to make that change? Because you're I guarantee you, your board's gonna be full of of women in the boardroom. Right? So how how what's your I I know for Brady where we we when I came to Brady where there were 26 owners, 2 of us were women. I was one of them. And, they said we, you know, we we just need our women. We wanna have a women's initiative, and we wanna do these things. I said, great.

They don't know this boardroom is for them. There's 26 of us in 2, so they don't see their place at this table. Yeah. So let's see that let's let them know they have it. Now we have 20 shareholders and 7 of them are women. So we have totally and I don't want women for just to have women, but we have different perspective. And now our first CEO, she's really our managing director, is a woman. I mean, first in Brady Meagher's years of 60.

So and we got such talent. I mean, it was about the talent and what they add to the table. But do you guys how do you think about the boardroom in general and how can we get women on boards?

Yeah. So a couple of things just from really the Fortuner perspective. 1, we have a we have 12 individuals on our board. We were obviously very intentional in making sure that we were selecting women, primarily for our board. However, we also wanted and you you mentioned this. We also wanted diverse perspectives. So we wanted different backgrounds because at the end of the day, our board will help us in different areas. So we have someone who has tech expertise.

We have CPAs. We have attorneys. We have someone who has a great community network. And so that combined gives us some great just perspective and vision. But, again, we were intentional. So out out of the 12, we have 8 board members. We felt like we needed to make sure that we're 8 or that are female. Sorry.

Yeah.

We wanted to make sure that we are equally putting our money where our mouth is and and highlighting that, women can lead, they should lead, and we should we should be there. We have 4 men who are tremendous assets to our team and who will bring a lot of knowledge and experience and varying perspectives at the end of the day to have a board that challenges thought, but to me was was important. And so I wanted I wanted to make sure that that was take that that was taken care of. Equally, from our in our leadership team, we have 5 senior leaders, including myself, 4 of which are women. 2 have not yet been officially announced in names. They just put in their notice elsewhere, so I I

can't Yeah. Say

their names. But we have we have one male.

Not a good idea.

Yeah. No. We have one male in, in our senior leadership position. Again, intentional in making sure that we're giving women the opportunity to lead and to kind of create their own story and to, elevate their they already had high ceilings, but to elevate their own Yeah. You know, career and professional trajectory. And then we talk at Fortuna about creating an advisory network. So we'd like an advisory board that from there and this is will kind of lean on our philanthropic side. But from there, the advisory board will be mentors to the next generation of entrepreneurs.

They'll be kind of advice people. And so we what we would like to do with our advisory board, and it's a day 2 item. So it's not in it's not there yet. But what we'd like for advisory board to do is mentor people who do become qualified to be on a board. And then Yeah. It I think it goes back to the the network piece. If you're in a network and you have connections, oftentimes, that's the easiest way to find yourself in a board seat. And we put people on the board that may look like us or think like us or that we're friends with or that we've interacted with in the past.

And and so I think I think the tide is turning to where we'll start to see more equality across boards as time goes on. But I think it's just the evolution of, you know, what was once a male dominated workforce is now slowly turning to kind of a little bit more female or a little bit more equal, and then we'll see that representation, hopefully, as we continue to grow. But but we're doing our part.

You know, my my biggest thing on on of course, I'm an empowerer. I'm an advocate for women for sure. I mean, I've I'm 60. I'm gonna be 61 here very shortly. And for me, I just didn't have a lot of it. It was the times. I mean, it wasn't bad. But the seasons I went through, I wish I would have had some of those seasons.

I really wish I would have had more woman influence. It just wasn't there.

Yeah.

You know, especially in the eighties. And then and then I didn't really see it till I hit 40, and then I really seized it in my forties. And then my fifties thrived. And it was because I had that diversity around me, whether it was age, you know, because we always think of of of diversity when, you know, the color of your skin or the gender, and there's so much more to it. It's just different thought process, different views, it's age, it's it's backgrounds, it's all of it. So what I really emphasize to organizations like yours or to others where they're trying to get more women in those positions is they just got to see that the position can be theirs. Right. And some of that is we've got to, you know, go stop whining and get it on, get going, You know? Do it.

But, you know right. I mean and, you know, but it is intimidating when 26 people are in the room and 2 are women and you're like Sure. And there's no age differences. There's no any of that stuff. So now in that room was tremendous talent from years. Right? But then we realized we don't have enough talent that we're bringing along with us because we are the talent. You know, and so it's like, okay. But, but, you know, our community in in Columbus, I think it has a lot of diversity and, you know, in in but in our industries, we just don't we just don't have those things.

And so it's it. We just have to do our part to go. Let's get that diversity, you know, going for the good of the organization and the community. And it is an intentional process. Right? It definitely is. So how are you guys educating women or going to on financial freedom, you know, providing the confidence to make those sound financial decisions, not emotional decisions sometimes. Right. Just take that out.

And what do I need to do?

It will be, a build out process. We talk about various stages of where women are, whether it's the female consumer, whether it's starting the business. And so we talk about, is it day to day? And so we'll have classes or seminars or sessions kind of focused on these on these specific categories initially, but is it day to day money management? Is it saving for retirement and how to become more risk accepting? Is it how to build your business and how to scale your business? Is it, how do I leave my estate down the road? But it's a lot of those decisions. And when we talk about day to day money management in typical households, over more than half of the women already handle kind of the day to day money management and kind of that check the basic checking and savings account. But what was interesting in in for us and for it reinforced that we would like to focus in this area when we were raising capital for the bank. Yeah. We had to be over 51% women to be women owned. So our targets were initial, you know, conversations were with women.

And it ended up being a much longer process because the conversation is a lot longer. Because what we found is that women are just more thoughtful. They're more risk averse, so they take more time to make that decision. And especially if it's something financially that's that's not, that's completely foreign to them, it was very difficult to get some over the over the hump. But once we did, there was this sense of empowerment, and it was I've never been presented with a private equity opportunity. I've never I don't I don't I don't even know what this meant until, you know, I was approached by Fortuna Bank. And so, you know, we were I realize I've now gone off topic, but we were very intentional in, our conversations in the dollar amounts, kind of our minimum thresholds, and in part, in hopes to educate women as well. And so to use this as an education piece through kind of this investment.

But primarily investments, building a business, and then day to day money management will be kind of the areas that we focus on initially. And then it'll be really important for us to hear from the community. What do they need? What do they want? Who are community partners that where we can collaborate and work together and and build off the synergies that just are naturally there.

Yeah. Because, you know, in Columbus, the great thing is you you have I mean, it's funny because Brady wears in 4, 4 areas. And so we're in Richmond, Indiana, where we started. Right? And it's been it looks probably about the same as it did 10 years ago and probably similar to 20 years ago. And but you don't have access to, hey, you got several banks you can go to or you and even in the CPA firm, I mean, we're the big dog in town. Right? Because we're it. And so if you need anything complicated, Bernie Ware in Richmond does that. And then 50 years ago, we migrated over to Dayton and Dayton had was a thriving town.

I mean, yesterday, I was there for a lunch. It was just amazing at NCR Country Club because NCR was there. And they had their own country club. Now NCR is not there. Right? So Dayton has gone through this, hey. We're up here, and then we're gonna take a dive, and then everyone leaves, and then you just see that economic development struggle. Yeah. And then we came into the Columbus market, which was, you know, you know, you think of Ohio as this pal town, which is not our state.

And and we were not as known. And then we were in Atlanta. So we have these 4 diverse areas. But what I love about Columbus, probably of all the 4 markets, is I have such an ability to go to several banks more than 1, obviously. I mean, I got 10 competitors. I'm not happy about it, but I do. And and so but but tapping into more than 1 and hearing different stories and hearing different methods and ways Yes. I just think this is gonna be great for women in in business or women who own businesses in our region, because they'll have access to something that's gonna be really different.

Even though we have a ton of great bankers in Columbus.

Sure. Sure.

Sure. Different aspect and a different approach, and things are gonna be done differently. So that's what makes it really good.

We we're really looking to build a community. So beyond a bank, a community of people, whether it's shareholders and clients, shareholders, clients, and community, that we all utilize each other's resources and Right. Help each other. I mean, think of it as a tribe and Yeah. Can't survive

without a tribe. Brady, we're always does a conference every year in June. This last year, we had 275 attend. And that is we actually sold 275 tickets as opposed to give a bunch of bunch away. Right? And what's great about that conference we've is this this is gonna be year 12 is that it is such a diverse group of needs in that room. And so we've always tried to have every kind of aspect when you're in business, what is it that you need? And finance is always banking is always one of those top surveyed things of I just need to know what to do. Yeah. So I think Columbus and the women yeah.

Because we have great groups from either Well, the Ohio Women's Fund. You've got NABO. You've got the WSBA, the Ohio Women's Coalition. And they all really work well together. You know, since my firm merged into bradyware, I've just had that community and man does that make such a difference. And I would not have done and gotten to have the success that I've gotten to enjoy without that community. And it's just great women groups. And then I go to my other offices.

They just don't have that in their towns, you know, and it's really lacking. Columbus is great with it. So

That was that was one of the pieces that we noticed as well when we were doing the research was the Navajo community is the largest community if for all of Navajo chapters is here in Columbus and just the support. And and even just through our capital raising through the advocacy that took place when we were looking to raise our capital, and and people excited about the story. So I agree. Columbus has been phenomenal. We're really lucky to be here and excited to be here.

And what's great too is just like when I first joined NABO in 2014, I mean, you had the Darla Kings with King Interiors to Caroline Worleys to little old Betty Collins who had this firm with 12 people in it, you know. And every it didn't matter that Darla King would had already been here. She she was totally an advocate for me. You know? And so it was it was great. And I think adding this to, to the mix is gonna just be phenomenal for Columbus. That's for sure. But as we get ready to kind of close-up and wrap up, and everyone wants to know this. So what's the interest rates gonna be? No.

But, you know, economy wise and everything, I mean, it's, you know, what would be that positive thing you would give that business owner or that woman in business just trying to get there? You know, we're in weird times. Yeah. And, I always look at it as I've kinda learned since 2020. The one thing that I felt stable was stable the whole time were small business owners. Everything else has kind of been all wacky. But from your perspective as a bank and coming into the region and really kicking this off, of course, you've had a lifetime of banking. You know, what would you what would you give to kind of encourage people, hey, we're gonna make it, we're not gonna make it, whatever it is, but, you know, what would be your final thoughts?

Yeah. We are, actually, we're really excited about the time that we're the economic kind of conditions and market that we're coming into, specifically because, we do not have as a de novo bank, we don't have any existing loans or deposits on our balance sheet. So we get to open up without any legacy low interest rate loans, which a lot of banks are struggling with right now. Their margins are compressed because they have all of the low interest rates loans through before and through COVID. There's probably another 3 to 4 years that they're kind of working those loans through the system, and yet they have to pay high deposit rates. So they've got deposit rates that they're paying around 4%. They've got low interest rate loans around that, and their margins, as I said, are compressed. We won't have them.

So we'll be able to price our deposits accordingly. We'll be able to price our loans accordingly. We'll be able to be competitive. One of the beauties about being a smaller community bank is we don't have the overhead that some of the larger

Right.

Industries and other banks have. So we are able to price a little bit higher. So I think I think we're really excited about kind of the opportunity. We also recognize that deposits are challenged for banks. That's always the hardest part for a bank to grow is the deposits. Everyone always thinks about loans first when it comes to banking, but deposits are the hardest piece. We were really intentional in having a larger shareholder base. So we have about 340 shareholders, with the expectations that there are brand ambassadors and and clients on day 1.

Right.

And then we had started with an initial contact list of about 300 people, of who we just wanted to talk to and make sure that they knew about the bank organically. It's grown to over a1000, just interested in the bank. And so we're, I don't know. I tend to be an optimist, and and I see a lot of things through rose colored glasses. So I do have a controller and chief credit officer who keeps me in the guardrails.

We all have to have that. We all

have to we like that, but I think we're really excited to, in this kind of exact economic environment, even if interest rates go down, that might, loosen up. You know, people might start looking to refinance at that point. We're available for them. There are 2 mergers taking place here in Columbus that become opportunities for people looking potentially now looking for new banks because their bank is being acquired. And so that's another, I think we think opportunity for us as well. And, and then definitely just the female women's network here in Columbus that that we'll partner with and and capitalize on.

You know, I've told people, they're I'm just gonna wait to get my rates back. I go, look. My mortgage, I've kept on to it since 2020. I really could almost be done, but it was at 2.65.

Right.

Nobody's gonna do that again, and they shouldn't. Right. And and they go, what? And I go, no. That's probably what got us here a little bit.

Right. Right. You know,

and we just can't we just can't do those things. We need to be a little you know, we don't wanna be 9%, but we can't be 2%. I mean, there has to be some some middle of the road. And so, hopefully, you know, people will will not be so down on things. You just gotta keep pushing through and being smart about it. Right. And how you do and push through is who you push through with. And so I think you guys are gonna be a great partner for Columbus and a great bank for Columbus.

We're really excited. I would love for you to invite me to the when you actually open those doors. I'd love to be there. I'd love to do it. And, anything, you know, that that I can help with to to bring that community together with you, I'd love to do it. But I really appreciate you spending some time with us today and talking about something that's so needed in, our country, let alone in Columbus, Ohio. And hopefully, this will be the start of really some cool things. Thank you.

You know, when women are empowered, we're we're it it's an amazing moment. Right? So It

is.

We we want those businesses to be healthy and strong. And when people put their life into it, we wanna make sure they it was worth the worth the thing. You know, it was worth it to do it. So

but Definitely.

Thank you so much for joining us today. We so appreciate your knowledge and your background, and we're excited. And we're looking forward to you in 45 days.

Right? Yep. And you're on the grand opening list. So

I would tell you, Penny. I would love it. I would love it. Okay. Well, thank you for listening today. This is Inspired Women with Betty Collins, and we hope that you enjoyed this moment because I'm sure if you're a woman in business or you are a business owner or or you're thinking about being in either of those, banking, being lendable, supporting women, it's all there. So have a great have a great day. More about inspiring women can be found on bradyweird.com, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.

Thank you for listening.