Curiosity did not kill the cat…it was anything but

If you’re anything like me – a “type A” person with a proclivity for curiosity, you probably find yourself in a similar cycle as this:

• Watch movie, read article, hear an interesting fact or story
• Get curious about said subject
• Read books and articles and watch movies about said subject until you’ve learned everything you can about it
• Take away applicable lessons and try to apply them to other areas of your life – personal and/or professional

This thirst for knowledge is how I came to love credit union marketing so much. There is no manual on how to be successful at it because each credit union is different. What works for one doesn’t always mean it will work for another. As a beginning marketer at the start of my career out of college, I didn’t know a thing about credit unions or how to help it grow loans or members.

What I learned during the next years didn’t come from marketing books or articles, but rather from looking outside of the credit union space to see what was working for other types of businesses and organizations. Whether it is through marketing tactics, culture initiatives, leadership styles, and everything in between, I love learning from experiences and sources that have nothing to do with credit unions.

During the seven years I worked for my second credit union, I was fortunate to have the ability to try out many of the new ideas I’d gained, and it was because the culture supported curiosity and going big. I will forever be grateful for the leaders who allowed me the ability to take things that seemingly had nothing to do with credit union marketing and make them work for our credit union. The result was standout growth among our peers despite having recently lost our main sponsor group.

My advice to you – regardless of if you are a beginner in this industry or a veteran – is to let your curiosity guide you. If you feel that you are about ready to be onto something big – you probably are.

“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” -Walt Disney