Chief operations officer Lindsay McCall joins host Lynne Jarman-Johnson for a conversation about her journey to an executive position. They discuss her early experience with financial education and the mentorships that have propelled her to the position she is in today. Also, Money Minute expert Kristy Desimone shares ways that fraudsters could be scamming members out of their money.

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0:00:09.4 Lynne Jarman-Johnson: Money, I’m Home. Welcome in. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union. From finance to fitness, we have it all. And I’ll tell you, one of the best ways that we connect with our members is by introducing you to the people that make our credit union run. And one of those today is Lindsay McCall. Lindsay is our Chief Operations Officer and a very dear friend of mine, and I am so excited to have you on Money, I’m Home, Lindsay.

0:00:31.8 Lindsay McCall: Oh, I’m excited to be here. Thanks, Lynne.

0:00:34.2 LJJ: I really am talking to you today in a bunch of different ways with a bunch of different hats. And so, everybody sit back and hang tight because this is going to be a fun journey. Lindsay is the person, really, that is helping us make sure our technology is up to date. Looking at where our offices are going to be, making sure that our teams are running extremely efficiently so that we can help you as members. Lindsay, when you were a little girl, was this ever a role? Like did you ever dream, “I cannot wait to be in the c-suite”?

0:01:03.6 LM: I don’t know if I thought that far ahead, but I can tell you—this is such a funny story because in middle school, my middle school had an in-school bank branch. And I actually had to go through an interview process and was the bank manager for that in-school branch. And I don’t know if that was foreshadowing or what it was, but actually my mom and I were just talking about the other day and I was like, “Oh gosh, here I am working at a credit union and have been for 20 years and absolutely love it.”

0:01:38.2 LJJ: Okay. Think back to middle school, right? So, you actually had financial education that was given to you every single day. Did that make a huge difference in your life?

0:01:48.1 LM: Oh, it made a huge difference, because I remember helping students and myself as a student—deposit change and money into our accounts, and we had to keep a paper ledger and so you actually could physically see your account balance grow. And then we actually saved those funds and purchased Christmas gifts at a little store at the school. And so, it was cool watching you save throughout the year and then you can really give back and purchase things for your family if you chose to do so. And so, I think it really helped to solidify savings as being really important as part of that financial education.

0:02:20.9 LJJ: Well, I know that one of your passions, because it’s one of mine and you’re helping us with that, is financial education here at Consumers Credit Union. You are a mom. You have teenagers now. Tell us what the landscape is. It’s so different from when you were in middle school when you had, you said you had a ledger, you had cash. The world has so changed.

0:02:44.4 LM: Oh, it’s changed drastically. Yeah. We have four teenagers and you can just see the gamut between the age 13 and 17 of what their needs are with every single stage just within those four years. And it’s absolutely incredible to see the growth and what they’re not getting on a day-to-day basis. And so that financial education is so incredibly important to really get them started in life. We have, our oldest is going to be going to college out of state this summer and it’s very exciting, but we’re making sure—”how do we build up his credit score? How do we make sure he understands how credit cards work versus debit cards,” and understanding all of those components to really give him what he needs to start his life on a positive note.

0:03:30.1 LJJ: Well, here you are, you are the COO and you’re also a mom. How important is it for parents to not have that qualm about asking questions, especially from their financial institutions, walking right into Consumers Credit Union, picking up the phone, getting the help you need?

0:03:48.2 LM: Oh, it’s so important. And even in my position, I’m asking questions, right? I’ll talk with our vice president of consumer lending and say, “How can I set our kids up for success and what tools do we have available?” And it’s tools that I’m aware of, but putting the pieces together and making them work for that age group is so important. So, definitely ask questions. And there’s so many resources out there. I know we’ve got a lot of blog resources and tools available here at the credit union. They’re just so invaluable, and we’ve connected our kids with all of those tools.

0:04:23.0 LJJ: It’s funny that it’s the light bulb that goes on where all of a sudden you say, “Hey, I’m working here. This also is what others need,” and maybe not really understand how they can ask those questions.

0:04:36.6 LM: Absolutely. Yeah, and it just starts by asking the questions and talking about it too. And so, my husband actually went to work and started talking about what we’re doing for our oldest son, and now one of his coworkers is like, “I want to have my daughter get set up with some of those same tools so that she has a good start because she’s going to be going to college next year.” So, it’s word of mouth and it’s asking the questions and building that network.

0:05:00.0 LJJ: So, tell us a little bit about your background and how you got here, and then I’m going to actually kind of delve into some of the leadership conferences that you’ve been involved in as a national speaker. So exciting.

0:05:12.8 LM: Yeah, absolutely. I’ve been awarded a lot of different opportunities in life. I went to Western Michigan University, go Broncos.

0:05:23.6 LJJ: Broncos.

0:05:24.2 LM: Love Western. Gosh, what a great school, and provides such a great foundation for education. And through my four years at Western, I actually participated in a couple of different internships. And one of my internships I worked for a fabulous woman at a local hospital. And just a few years past that internship, when I applied for my first position at a credit union, her brother was actually the CFO at that credit union. And so, I truly believe it was because of my experience at that internship that I got my start in credit unions and was given an opportunity when I maybe was in a stack of 100 different résumés for a position. So that’s how I got in into credit unions. And I actually started in human resource management and raised my hand and volunteered for a lot of different projects and opportunities, and ended up making the transition over into operations probably about 12 years ago. And gosh, I absolutely love it.

0:06:27.4 LJJ: Well, and you know what is so exciting Lindsay, is to see women in leadership roles and giving others that are coming up, pulling them up by the bootstraps and saying, let’s go. As you just said, we volunteer for a lot of things. We’re juggling all of these things. And yet, you know what, you can get to where you want to go. And I know your vision is even bigger than that, and I don’t mean that in the sense of saying anything about Consumers, but I do know that as I just mentioned, you are speaking nationally, you are out really learning what other technologies are out there. How exciting is that for you?

0:07:02.9 LM: Oh, it’s absolutely amazing. And I think it really … I never thought that there was a limit or boundaries to what I could do. And I think that’s where, I like to tell a lot of folks that are starting their career is, put your hand up. Don’t ever think I can’t. Always think that I can. And even if you don’t know something or you’ve never done it before, that’s actually the best position to be in because you can learn. And I think that’s really helped me throughout my career, is it’s that not afraid to try something new and not feeling like there’s any boundaries or limits to what you can do. And gosh, the sky’s the limit.

0:07:46.1 LJJ: Tell us about the mentorships that you have had, the background that has made you so open to new ideas and so open to meeting new people from all over the country, in fact, all over the world.

0:08:00.9 LM: I really go back to that mentorship from my dad. And my dad did not get a college degree. He started his career in petroleum services and he actually pumped gas at a gas station. And throughout his 30 plus career, he ended up as the CEO of a petroleum company. And he ended up teaching college classes later on in his career, but never set foot in a college classroom as a student. And so, I think that, through watching him and watching his career develop, that really showed me that certainly college is important. I spoke going to Western and I loved Western, but it shows you that lesson of the sky’s the limit and don’t let anybody put those boundaries around you. And man, hard work just pays off. My dad worked his tail off and I could see it every day, but he was at every basketball game of mine. He was just such a great active parent. And I think he was a great role model for me.

0:09:08.1 LJJ: Well, and now you must just kind of pinch yourself, right? I mean, because you look back on those days where he was there supporting you and I’ll tell you, he’s still cheering you on.

0:09:16.8 LM: Oh, he is. And I tell you all, he’ll call me and “How’s work going?” And he wants to hear all about it. They do all their business with Consumers Credit Union, which is fabulous. They’re definitely our biggest cheerleaders. They know a ton of people in our offices because they come in all the time. So, he is.

0:09:36.8 LJJ: Great focus group too. Yes.

0:09:40.6 LM: Yes. It’s a good … Yeah, I’ll always call them and say, “Hey, can you test this new piece of technology for me?” And yeah, they’ll give me their honest opinion. But yeah, so I would say that my dad was definitely a fabulous mentor.

0:09:54.1 LJJ: When we talk about operations and leadership roles, you’re meeting with different technology companies that we partner with or some that we might in the future. Tell us about the conferences and such that you go to and what do you listen for?

0:10:05.4 LM: Yeah, I honestly try to go to a lot of different types of conferences because I think that’s where you get exposed to different types of people, different backgrounds. Of course, I like going in and seeing people that I’ve met over the years and so that comradery is really important. But really looking for technology that’s new and upcoming and something that would benefit our members. So usually, when you’re sitting and listening about new technology, there’s a spark and it really resonates with you. And you can see, oh my gosh, it would help our members in X way. And you just get this excitement that just overwhelms you. And I get excited to come back and, Lynne, tell you about it and say how can we get you excited about it? And that’s where, when you find that special spark and something that you think would help to change somebody’s life or help them with financial education, like we talked about earlier, it gets you just really excited about the technology. And I love meeting people, just absolutely love meeting people and all different types of people. It’s so much fun.

0:11:08.5 LJJ: Well, Lindsay, I can tell you every day is fun working with you. And I can’t thank you enough on behalf of all of our members too, because we truly do try to make sure that not only do we listen, but we also listen when there might be a bump in the road and try to really help, and you do that every day.

0:11:26.2 LM: Oh, I appreciate it. And it’s a pleasure working with you too, Lynne. So much fun.

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0:11:36.3 LJJ: It’s now time for our money minute expert. Kristy Desimone is with our fraud team. Every day you are literally talking to our members to make sure fraud stays at bay. But I’m telling you, there are people that are just cooking up these schemes. What’s going on?

0:11:52.3 Kristy Desimone: Yeah, so there are a variety of schemes that people cook up, but there’s a real base of ingredients to that fraud soup that stays the same. So, a lot of times people are given a check from someone and then they’re asked to send a portion back via gift cards, Apple Pay, Cash App, some kind of service like that, or you’re asked to give out personal information over the phone, or after clicking on a link, you’re asked to log into your online banking a lot of times.

0:12:21.8 LJJ: So, it’s really important to not give information and also think of those red flags?

0:12:24.4 KD: Right, exactly. And if you have any concerns, stop in. Come see us. We’ll talk to you. We’ll sit down. We’ll let you know if it’s a scam or not, and we’ll learn together.

0:12:31.0 LJJ: I do love the fact that Kristy does help us learn together, especially to say, “Hey, don’t be afraid to ask the questions or feel embarrassed.” And if you have any questions that you have, you want to just look at our website. We have a wonderful fraud prevention section at consumerscu.org.

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