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	<title>The Emmerich Group</title>
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		<title>Why Is It So Important to Hold On to Low Cost Deposits [VIDEO]</title>
		<link>https://emmerichfinancial.com/deposits/hold-on-to-low-cost-deposits-video/</link>
					<comments>https://emmerichfinancial.com/deposits/hold-on-to-low-cost-deposits-video/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[The Emmerich Group]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 21 Oct 2026 14:30:01 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Deposits]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Profitability and Growth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bank Growth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cultural transformation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Effective Leadership]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Employee Engagement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Employee Motivation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[High Performance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[performance culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Workplace Culture]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://emmerichfinancial.com/?p=987570826</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Low-cost deposits are the ultimate margin advantage. Discover how top 5% performers attract them consistently—and why most banks fail to compete.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/deposits/hold-on-to-low-cost-deposits-video/">Why Is It So Important to Hold On to Low Cost Deposits [VIDEO]</a> appeared first on <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com">The Emmerich Group</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p data-start="3695" data-end="3989"><span style="color: #000000;">The scramble for low-cost deposits isn’t slowing down; it’s intensifying. And the banks that win aren’t the ones throwing rates at the problem. They’re the ones who build systems, skill sets, and confidence inside their teams so low-cost deposits show up week after week, account after account.</span></p>
<p data-start="3991" data-end="4266"><span style="color: #000000;">In this video, Roxanne Emmerich dismantles the myth that today’s environment makes low-cost deposit growth impossible. Top 5% performers are doing it right now, bringing in multimillion-dollar checking accounts and full relationships without resorting to promotional rate gimmicks.</span></p>
<p data-start="4268" data-end="4601"><span style="color: #000000;">You’ll discover:<br />
</span><br data-start="4284" data-end="4287" /><span style="color: #000000;">• Why growing non-interest-bearing deposits is <strong>“Christmas every day” for margin and profitability</strong></span><br data-start="4388" data-end="4391" /><span style="color: #000000;">• The real reason <strong>most banks fail at organic deposit growth</strong>—and why brochures and billboards won’t fix it</span><br data-start="4500" data-end="4503" /><span style="color: #000000;">• What top 5% performers know (and do) that <strong>consistently attracts large, low-cost relationships</strong></span></p>
<p data-start="4603" data-end="4713"><span style="color: #000000;">Your competition is already calling on your customers. This video shows you how to get ahead of them—fast.</span></p>
<p data-start="2998" data-end="3161"><span style="color: #000000;"><i>Watch now. </i></span></p>
<p><script src="https://fast.wistia.com/player.js" async></script><script src="https://fast.wistia.com/embed/rq6usi69kd.js" async type="module"></script></p>
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<span style="color: #000000;">When everybody is competing for a scarce item, it gets a little bit hard unless you get better at it. And that&#8217;s exactly what we need to do with low-cost deposits. Let&#8217;s face it: There is no end in sight to the competition for low-cost deposits. And even during a time when your bank is flush with deposits, you should be actively increasing your non-interest-bearing deposits as a percentage of total deposits, because that&#8217;s like Christmas every single day.</span></p>
<p data-start="994" data-end="1577"><span style="color: #000000;">Every month you wake up and go, “Everything we charge for a loan is profit. This is good.” And yet most banks don&#8217;t really have a process, nor do they have the people skilled to know how to bring in low-cost deposits over and over again. So they&#8217;re doing billboards, they&#8217;re doing advertisements, they&#8217;re opening CD accounts and giving them away with these ridiculous interest rates as a part of this—and they&#8217;re not understanding that there’s a whole bunch of customers out there that are just not that rate sensitive, but they sure want someone to make a difference in their lives.</span></p>
<p data-start="1579" data-end="1772"><span style="color: #000000;">And they want somebody who, when they come out to their business, knows how to make a meaningful difference for them that so outweighs what they would be getting on an interest-bearing account.</span></p>
<p data-start="1774" data-end="2135"><span style="color: #000000;">But does your team have the skill set? Does your team have the confidence? Listen, one of the things I know for sure—because I&#8217;ve had the great honor for decades of working with many top five percenters, those who get to and stay in the top five percent of performance—is this: One of the things they have mastery of is how to bring in low- or no-cost deposits.</span></p>
<p data-start="2137" data-end="2183"><span style="color: #000000;">It is a system. It is a skill set. It is hard.</span></p>
<p data-start="2185" data-end="2580"><span style="color: #000000;">But then once people know how to do it, they bring in one account after another after another. I called a bank CEO recently because I heard that one of our recent graduates of the Accredited Banking Professional Program brought in a fourteen-million-dollar checking account of a business in their area. And this was a bank that was a two-hundred-million-dollar bank. This was kind of a big deal.</span></p>
<p data-start="2582" data-end="2879"><span style="color: #000000;">And not only did they bring in that account, but they brought in the entire relationship. I think they said they had fourteen cross-sells. So I called to congratulate the CEO, and the CEO said, “That&#8217;s nothing. My people bring in a two- or three-million-dollar checking account every single week.”</span></p>
<p data-start="2881" data-end="3364"><span style="color: #000000;">Don’t tell me it can’t be done, because there are people doing it. But they&#8217;re not doing it by slugging their brochures and doing the “bada bing, bada boom, what-keeps-you-up-at-night, feel-felt-found” sales training. Let me assure you: They’re only going to come off as someone who will never be invited back to the table unless they bring their skill sets up to be a top five percenter—so that your bank can be a top five percent performer. Deposits aren’t going to get any easier.</span></p>
<p data-start="3366" data-end="3564"><span style="color: #000000;">This is going to go on for a while. But you can get a lot better, and you can do it quickly. But you’ve got to get into action because your competitors are coming at you—and your depositors—quickly.</span></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/deposits/hold-on-to-low-cost-deposits-video/">Why Is It So Important to Hold On to Low Cost Deposits [VIDEO]</a> appeared first on <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com">The Emmerich Group</a>.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
					
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		<item>
		<title>Life in the World of Over-Regulation [VIDEO]</title>
		<link>https://emmerichfinancial.com/overregulation/life-in-the-world-of-over-regulation-2/</link>
					<comments>https://emmerichfinancial.com/overregulation/life-in-the-world-of-over-regulation-2/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[The Emmerich Group]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 13 Oct 2026 15:27:27 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Deposits]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NIM]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Overregulation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Profitability and Growth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bank Growth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cultural transformation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Effective Leadership]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Employee Engagement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Employee Motivation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[High Performance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[performance culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Workplace Culture]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://emmerichfinancial.com/?p=987570807</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Top banks don’t complain about regulation, they execute around it. Here’s how the elite outperform anyway.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/overregulation/life-in-the-world-of-over-regulation-2/">Life in the World of Over-Regulation [VIDEO]</a> appeared first on <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com">The Emmerich Group</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p data-start="2123" data-end="2245"><span style="color: #000000;">Most community bank executives blame performance pressure on regulation, rates, or talent shortages. Top performers don’t.</span></p>
<p data-start="2247" data-end="2480"><span style="color: #000000;">In this week’s video, Roxanne Emmerich delivers a blunt wake-up call: overregulation isn’t the problem; execution is. Every bank faces the same regulatory environment. Only a small percentage choose to operate above it.</span></p>
<p data-start="2482" data-end="2759"><span style="color: #000000;">Top five percent banks stop complaining and start playing offense. They price loans for value, not fear. They build funding strategies anchored in non-interest-bearing deposits. And they execute a repeatable performance system, regardless of who’s in office or where rates land.</span></p>
<p data-start="2761" data-end="2812"><span style="color: #000000;">Here’s what separates the winners from the whiners:</span></p>
<ul data-start="2814" data-end="3085">
<li data-start="2814" data-end="2920">
<p data-start="2816" data-end="2920"><span style="color: #000000;">Premium pricing beats volume chasing when your <strong>credit discipline and value proposition are aligned</strong></span></p>
</li>
<li data-start="2921" data-end="3000">
<p data-start="2923" data-end="3000"><span style="color: #000000;">Low-cost and no-cost deposits are <strong>built intentionally, not accidentally</strong></span></p>
</li>
<li data-start="3001" data-end="3085">
<p data-start="3003" data-end="3085"><span style="color: #000000;">Top performers <strong>operate from a franchise system, not hope, hustle, or heroics</strong></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p data-start="3087" data-end="3209"><span style="color: #000000;">The market always rewards banks willing to execute at a higher level. It punishes those waiting for conditions to improve.</span></p>
<p data-start="3211" data-end="3369"><span style="color: #000000;">If you’re ready to stop reacting and start running your bank like the top five percent already do, this video will challenge your thinking and your excuses.</span></p>
<p data-start="3371" data-end="3440"><span style="color: #000000;">Discover how elite banks win inside the same constraints you face.</span></p>
<p data-start="2998" data-end="3161"><span style="color: #000000;">Watch now. </span></p>
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<p><span style="color: #000000;">Are we overly regulated as an industry? You better believe it. And yet, when I get my CEOs together on Fridays, many of them are the top five percent performers in this country.</span></p>
<p data-start="445" data-end="752"><span style="color: #000000;">One of them said it best. He said, “You know what? I don’t care who gets elected. I don’t care who does whatever, because at the end of the day, I still have to go out, make some loans, bring in deposits, and make a profit for my shareholders. So all I can do is just do what I do best in a world of crazy.”</span></p>
<p data-start="754" data-end="809"><span style="color: #000000;">That’s a really good attitude. I got a lesson that day.</span></p>
<p data-start="811" data-end="941"><span style="color: #000000;">Stop whining about the overregulation.</span><br data-start="849" data-end="852" /><span style="color: #000000;">Stop whining about the interest rates.</span><br data-start="890" data-end="893" /><span style="color: #000000;">Stop whining about how hard it is to get people.</span></p>
<p data-start="943" data-end="1063"><span style="color: #000000;">Go get good people. Go understand that all of your competitors have the same overregulation you have—and get on with it.</span></p>
<p data-start="1065" data-end="1184"><span style="color: #000000;">At some point, we’ve got to pick it up, put on our big boy pants and big girl pants, and get out there and get it done.</span></p>
<p data-start="1186" data-end="1385"><span style="color: #000000;">The world is always creating space for those who make good quality loans at premium pricing and bring in non-interest-bearing deposits to fund them. Those are the ones whose names end up on the door.</span></p>
<p data-start="1387" data-end="1528"><span style="color: #000000;">If you keep complaining about overregulation—unless you’re going to get in there and fix it, which for many of us you can’t—here’s the thing:</span></p>
<p data-start="1530" data-end="1686"><span style="color: #000000;">Overregulation will continue. But all you’ve got to do is make premium-priced loans and bring in low-cost or no-cost deposits, and the world is your oyster.</span></p>
<p data-start="1688" data-end="1820"><span style="color: #000000;">Join me at the next <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/Breakthrough/?utm_campaign=35068984-%5BMKTG%5D%202026%20BBBB%20-%20November&amp;utm_source=GYB%20Blog&amp;utm_content=2026%20BBBB%20Nov%20-%20GYB%20Blog">Breakthrough Banking Blueprint™ Bootcamp</a></span>, where I’ll show you the blueprint the other top five percenters use.</span></p>
<p data-start="1822" data-end="1880"><span style="color: #000000;">They weren’t top five percenters until they discovered it.</span></p>
<p data-start="1882" data-end="2024"><span style="color: #000000;">Why wouldn’t you want the franchise system that has taken hundreds of banks to top five percent performance? If they can do it, you can do it.</span></p>
<p data-start="2026" data-end="2065"><span style="color: #000000;">Am I going to see you there? I hope so.</span></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/overregulation/life-in-the-world-of-over-regulation-2/">Life in the World of Over-Regulation [VIDEO]</a> appeared first on <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com">The Emmerich Group</a>.</p>
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		<title>Why Your Team Can’t Charge Premium Pricing—And How It’s Killing Your Legacy [VIDEO]</title>
		<link>https://emmerichfinancial.com/premium-pricing/why-your-team-cant-charge-premium-pricing/</link>
					<comments>https://emmerichfinancial.com/premium-pricing/why-your-team-cant-charge-premium-pricing/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[The Emmerich Group]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 07 Oct 2026 15:18:41 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Increase Net Interest Margin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NIM]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Premium Pricing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bank Growth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cultural transformation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Effective Leadership]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Employee Engagement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Employee Motivation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[High Performance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[performance culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Profitability and Growth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Workplace Culture]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://emmerichfinancial.com/?p=987570788</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Premium pricing isn’t a tactic—it’s a mindset. When belief is missing, margin and legacy are at risk.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/premium-pricing/why-your-team-cant-charge-premium-pricing/">Why Your Team Can’t Charge Premium Pricing—And How It’s Killing Your Legacy [VIDEO]</a> appeared first on <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com">The Emmerich Group</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p data-start="274" data-end="417"><span style="color: #000000;">Premium pricing doesn’t break down because of markets or competitors. </span><span style="color: #000000;">It breaks down because <strong data-start="369" data-end="416">your people don’t believe you’re worth more</strong>.</span></p>
<p data-start="419" data-end="679"><span style="color: #000000;">In this video, Roxanne Emmerich exposes the real constraint behind underpricing: scarcity thinking inside your own institution. You can push incentives, tweak comp plans, and preach value all day—but until belief changes, behavior won’t.</span></p>
<p data-start="681" data-end="995"><span style="color: #000000;">Most banks unknowingly train their teams to think price is a zero-sum game. The result? Discounting, margin erosion, and a slow drift toward commoditization. Top-performing banks operate differently. They understand that affluent clients don’t buy on price—they buy on <strong data-start="950" data-end="994">meaning, differentiation, and confidence</strong>.</span></p>
<p data-start="997" data-end="1020"><span style="color: #000000;">Here’s what must shift:</span></p>
<ul data-start="1022" data-end="1223">
<li data-start="1022" data-end="1093">
<p data-start="1024" data-end="1093"><span style="color: #000000;">Belief precedes pricing power—<strong>confidence comes before execution</strong></span></p>
</li>
<li data-start="1094" data-end="1150">
<p data-start="1096" data-end="1150"><span style="color: #000000;">Affluent buyers <strong>decide based on value, not rates</strong></span></p>
</li>
<li data-start="1151" data-end="1223">
<p data-start="1153" data-end="1223"><span style="color: #000000;">Category-of-one positioning <strong>eliminates price pressure altogether</strong></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p data-start="1225" data-end="1353"><span style="color: #000000;">If this problem stays unresolved, it won’t remain contained. It will cost you margin, culture, and eventually your independence.</span></p>
<p data-start="1355" data-end="1613"><span style="color: #000000;">That’s exactly why Roxanne is teaching this framework live at the <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/Breakthrough/?utm_campaign=35068984-%5BMKTG%5D%202026%20BBBB%20-%20November&amp;utm_source=GYB%20Blog&amp;utm_content=2026%20BBBB%20Nov%20-%20GYB%20Blog">Breakthrough Banking Blueprint™ Bootcamp.</a></span> This is where banks discover how to shift mindset, reposition value, and equip their teams to charge what they’re truly worth—without discounting.</span></p>
<p data-start="1615" data-end="1661"><span style="color: #000000;">Seats are limited. <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/Breakthrough/?utm_campaign=35068984-%5BMKTG%5D%202026%20BBBB%20-%20November&amp;utm_source=GYB%20Blog&amp;utm_content=2026%20BBBB%20Nov%20-%20GYB%20Blog">Register now.</a></span> </span></p>
<p data-start="2998" data-end="3161"><span style="color: #000000;">Watch now. </span></p>
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<p data-start="644" data-end="936"><span style="color: #000000;">My mentor of three decades taught me something about abundance consciousness. He is one of the wealthiest people in this country, and he came to this country with fifty dollars in his pocket. But he showed me a system one time, and when I immediately began to implement the system, it worked.</span></p>
<p data-start="938" data-end="1230"><span style="color: #000000;">Some of my colleagues went to him and said, “How is Roxanne doing this? How is she getting all this business at premium pricing?”</span><br data-start="1067" data-end="1070" /><span style="color: #000000;">And he said to them something I’ll never forget. He said, “She’s ignorant. She doesn’t know she can’t.” Which is one of the best compliments I’ve ever received.</span></p>
<p data-start="1232" data-end="1458"><span style="color: #000000;">In other words, I’m not going to buy into the story of playing small. I’m not going to buy into the idea that I have to match somebody else’s pricing. I’m not going to play small because the rest of the world is playing small.</span></p>
<p data-start="1460" data-end="1755"><span style="color: #000000;">And yet, I know as an executive, you’ve got people you’re kicking and pushing and yelling at—doing everything you can with incentive pay. You’re trying the carrot. You’re trying the stick. And you’re getting nowhere getting them to charge premium pricing, because there’s a deeper-level problem.</span></p>
<p data-start="1757" data-end="1785"><span style="color: #000000;">They don’t believe they can.</span></p>
<p data-start="1787" data-end="1880"><span style="color: #000000;">There’s scarcity thinking. They think if they receive this, they’re taking it away from that.</span></p>
<p data-start="1882" data-end="2223"><span style="color: #000000;">They don’t understand that we’re not competing for pieces of the pie—we’re growing the pie. By creating a situation where that bank customer is so much better taken care of that their business thrives, they will make millions as a result of the extra ten thousand dollars that we charge. When our people get that, the magic begins to happen.</span></p>
<p data-start="2225" data-end="2386"><span style="color: #000000;">You’re going to need to do some lobotomies to help them understand that just because they believe price is the primary decision-making item, the affluent do not.</span></p>
<p data-start="2388" data-end="2501"><span style="color: #000000;">Most affluent do not buy on price—but they will if you don’t give them alternative information that matters more.</span></p>
<p data-start="2503" data-end="2669"><span style="color: #000000;">Thus, the correct sales process, built upon a clear differentiator that makes you the one and only—once you become a category of one—you can charge whatever you want.</span></p>
<p data-start="2671" data-end="2869"><span style="color: #000000;">There are steps along this pathway: defining how you’re different, getting your people some early big wins so they believe they can do it, and once that flywheel is turning, the rest come along too.</span></p>
<p data-start="2871" data-end="2987"><span style="color: #000000;">So if you’re still living with this problem, you’re not alone. Thousands of bank executives have been where you are.</span></p>
<p data-start="2989" data-end="3215"><span style="color: #000000;">But you can’t continue to live with this problem. You need a new, fresh problem. This one must be eliminated—because it will cause you to lose the name on your front door. It will take away your legacy. This one must be fixed.</span></p>
<p data-start="3217" data-end="3373"><span style="color: #000000;">I’ll see you at the <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/Breakthrough/?utm_campaign=35068984-%5BMKTG%5D%202026%20BBBB%20-%20November&amp;utm_source=GYB%20Blog&amp;utm_content=2026%20BBBB%20Nov%20-%20GYB%20Blog">Breakthrough Banking Blueprint Bootcamp</a></span> where I’m going to show you how to get this done—because I can’t stand watching you suffer anymore.</span></p>
<p data-start="3375" data-end="3617"><span style="color: #000000;">Make sure you check in with me when you get there. I want to get to know who you are and how I can help—because I am committed to every community bank in this country keeping its independence. But you’ve got to be there so I can show you how.</span></p>
<p data-start="3619" data-end="3633"><span style="color: #000000;">See you there.</span></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/premium-pricing/why-your-team-cant-charge-premium-pricing/">Why Your Team Can’t Charge Premium Pricing—And How It’s Killing Your Legacy [VIDEO]</a> appeared first on <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com">The Emmerich Group</a>.</p>
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		<title>How Top Bank Executives Break the Victimhood Cycle [VIDEO]</title>
		<link>https://emmerichfinancial.com/bank-performance-community-banks/</link>
					<comments>https://emmerichfinancial.com/bank-performance-community-banks/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[The Emmerich Group]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 15:32:08 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Accountability]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bank Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Creating an Accountability Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Effective Leadership]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[High Performance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Managing Employees]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Profitability and Growth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sales & Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[#StrategicExecution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BankCultureWins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BankProfitPlaybook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CommunityBanking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DestroyAverage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EmmerichGroup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GrowDeposits]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[PerformanceUprising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TopBankMoves]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://emmerichfinancial.com/?p=987570764</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>When leaders tolerate excuses, excuses become culture. Discover how extraordinary bank executives shift employees from helplessness to accountability, confidence, and extraordinary performance.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/bank-performance-community-banks/">How Top Bank Executives Break the Victimhood Cycle [VIDEO]</a> appeared first on <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com">The Emmerich Group</a>.</p>
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<p><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Excuses don&#8217;t stay individual for long. They become culture.</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">When leaders repeatedly accept the story instead of requiring the result, they unintentionally teach their people that helplessness works.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">And once that thinking takes hold, the cost goes far beyond a missed goal or disappointing efficiency ratio. You end up with employees who underestimate what they&#8217;re capable of—and executives who spend their days managing around excuses instead of producing extraordinary bankers.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">In this week&#8217;s video, you&#8217;ll discover:</span></p>
<ul data-spread="false">
<li><span style="color: #000000;">Why tolerating excuses actually<strong> reinforces the behavior you want to eliminate</strong></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #000000;">How extraordinary executives <strong>shift employees from “I can&#8217;t” to “I&#8217;ll figure it out”</strong></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #000000;">Why raising expectations—with grace, conviction, and belief in your people—can<strong> transform both performance and culture</strong></span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Your job as an executive isn&#8217;t simply to manage the talent people walked in with.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">It&#8217;s to call forth capabilities they didn&#8217;t know they had.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">That&#8217;s how a part-time teller becomes capable of winning multimillion-dollar relationships. That&#8217;s how a young credit analyst develops into a top lender. And that&#8217;s how ordinary employees begin operating like extraordinary bankers.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Watch this week&#8217;s video and examine one question carefully:</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>What are you teaching your team to believe is possible?</strong></span></p>
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<p data-pm-slice="1 1 []"><span style="color: #000000;">Have you ever woken up on a Monday morning and said, “Let’s take the hill. Let’s go, kids. Let’s make this happen,” and you’re met with a barrage of excuses and stories? “I can’t because nobody told me. Boss, I got a hangnail. I need to go home early. My life is hard, don’t you understand?”</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">In a world where victimhood is so highly rated, people believe that instead of getting a result, a good story comes in kinda handy instead.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">We have a problem as executives, and this is a common problem. And it’s called: the more we feed the victimhood paradigm, the more we have a difficult time accomplishing the results we need to accomplish for our organization.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">But it’s a bigger picture than that. It’s not just that we’re not hitting the metrics because of it; it’s that we’re not saving the souls. Because if we don’t shift humans from being a victim archetype to something where they grow the backbone and they stand tall and they say, “I have no idea how to do it, boss. Give me a half an hour. I’ll have it figured out.” If we don’t show them how to be strong, how to be powerful, then every element of their life looks the same, and they’ll raise little victims who will raise little victims who will raise little victims. This is a ripple effect.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Learning how to be someone who says, “I can see this as impossible, but that’s why you put me on the payroll, boss, so let me add it. I will figure this out,” is something that feeds them. It feeds us. It feeds the organization. But as an executive, you’re going to have to be a different executive to combat that and move through that. And it’s one of the most difficult battles that you’ll have in your career as an executive, but it doesn’t mean that it’s not a battle worth fighting.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Decide every day to let your team know that you’ve got no ears for victimhood, that you are a stand for them being extraordinary, that you expect them to be an extraordinary banker every single day when they walk in that door and feel what it feels like to call home to their spouse and say something like, “Wow, I was great today.” Because nobody calls home and says to their significant other, “Honey, today I performed average.” They don’t do that. They call home when they kick some back in and took some names, and they had a blast doing it.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">This is the calling of the executive: to learn how to bring forth from people that that they didn’t know that they had within them to do.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">How do you take a part-time teller and make him or her into an extraordinary banker that can go out and command two- and three-million-dollar checking accounts every single week? Don’t tell me it can’t be done. I know a couple. Don’t tell me that you can’t take a young credit analyst and have them become your top lender within two years. Don’t tell me it can’t be done because I can name some.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">It takes not only education of the right things, but it also means conquering the spirit and taking people past that little voice in their head that says, “I’m not enough.”</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">That is the calling of the executive: to take your team through that language to the language of power of, “That’s why you hired me, boss. Let’s go.” This is what it means to be a top-performing executive. This is what it means to be a top five percenter. Learning to be the kind of executive that has no ears for the victimhood, where you’re taking a stand for your people to be extraordinary.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">I want to see you at the <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://EmmerichFinancial.com/Breakthrough">Breakthrough Banking Blueprint Conference</a></span>, where we’re gonna go through the shift of the mindset and how you, as an executive, stand strong with grace and love in your heart to take people to a level they never dreamed possible for them. I’ll see you there.</span></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/bank-performance-community-banks/">How Top Bank Executives Break the Victimhood Cycle [VIDEO]</a> appeared first on <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com">The Emmerich Group</a>.</p>
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		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">987570764</post-id>	</item>
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		<title>Your Bank’s Strategic Plan Is Missing the Strategy [VIDEO]</title>
		<link>https://emmerichfinancial.com/strategic-planning/bank-strategic-planning-community-banks-2/</link>
					<comments>https://emmerichfinancial.com/strategic-planning/bank-strategic-planning-community-banks-2/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[The Emmerich Group]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Sep 2026 15:33:45 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Accountability]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[High Performance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Profitability and Growth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Strategic Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[#StrategicExecution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BankCultureWins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BankProfitPlaybook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CommunityBanking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DestroyAverage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EmmerichGroup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GrowDeposits]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NetInterestMargin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PerformanceUprising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TopBankMoves]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://emmerichfinancial.com/?p=987570660</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Most bank strategic plans are loaded with goals but surprisingly short on actual strategies. Discover four shifts that align your plan with profitable customers, execution, accountability, and growth.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/strategic-planning/bank-strategic-planning-community-banks-2/">Your Bank’s Strategic Plan Is Missing the Strategy [VIDEO]</a> appeared first on <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com">The Emmerich Group</a>.</p>
]]></description>
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<p><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Your strategic plan may have goals. But does it actually have strategies?</strong></span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">After reviewing more than 500 bank strategic plans, one problem appears again and again: banks invest significant time and money creating impressive-looking plans that spell out what they want to accomplish, but provide very little strategy for actually getting there.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">That gap can turn strategic planning into expensive busywork instead of a driver of profitability, growth, and franchise value.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">In this week’s video, you&#8217;ll discover:</span></p>
<ul data-spread="false">
<li><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Why goals are not strategies</strong>—and how confusing the two can quietly sabotage execution.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>How to align your plan with your most profitable customers and prospects</strong> instead of building initiatives around the entire market.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Why a one-page, profit-driven plan with visible accountability</strong> can create dramatically more alignment throughout the bank.</span></li>
</ul>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">The objective isn’t a thicker strategic planning binder. It’s a bank where priorities, people, target markets, and execution all point toward the same economic outcome.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">If your current strategic plan sounds good but hasn’t materially changed your bank’s performance trajectory, this episode will give you a different way to think about what belongs in the plan.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Watch the video and discover what may be missing.</strong></span></p>
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<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">What if you were sitting on a gold mine of untapped potential for organic growth and increased profits?</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">What if you could get far more—and more predictable—profit and growth impact from your strategic planning process? After reviewing over 500 strategic plans, I find that most banks lack effective strategies, lack intentional congruence, and essentially have a list of goals but no effective way to achieve them.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">If you&#8217;re the kind of leader who hires a brilliant facilitator and comes out with a well-written plan that sounds good but never really shakes the ground from under your feet for a transformative profit surge, you&#8217;re gonna love this.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">Or maybe you are happy with your plan and doing well, but you wonder if you could enjoy even better results. Or perhaps you are the kind of leader who is frustrated that you spend a potload of money on the off-site facilitator, and it never gives you the breakthrough strategies that can power up your trajectory for decades. If any of these sound like you, keep listening. Here are the typical challenges that keep you from an even better year.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">Most banks have a strategic planning book with a plethora of goals. The missing components are at least 25 different actual strategies that will bring earthmoving changes that get you paid more for doing business with the most desirable prospects in your market. That&#8217;s the point. In looking at hundreds of plans over the years, I can honestly say that I&#8217;ve not seen more than five total strategies combined on banks who were happy with their strategic planning process.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">Yikes. That&#8217;s right. On hundreds of plans, only a total of five strategies. Imagine if they had a plan that actually made a difference.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">Also, most plans lack intentional congruence. The BHAG, or the Big Hairy Audacious Goal, is not congruent with the psychographics and firmographics of the top two to three target markets. And the key initiatives are a disjointed list of to-dos. There is no alignment.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">Additionally, the plan doesn&#8217;t account for an extremely relevant fact. If you are a normal bank, only 13% of your customers are profitable. Let that sink in. The problem is your plan doesn&#8217;t have solid and proven strategies to get more profitable customers like the 13%, nor does it get all their business at premium pricing. So even if the plan is executed well, it still puts the franchise value at risk.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">Every bank faces these problems.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">Thousands of strategic plans are lackluster and ineffective, without exception.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">Let&#8217;s talk about strategic plans that actually work to bring you the most profitable prospects and convert them into your best customers. That&#8217;s the point.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">There are four simple steps you need to take to get positive results.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">Step one: Unlike so many strategic planning processes, you must start with an understanding of the psychographic and firmographic similarities of your top 100 most profitable customers. Then, to make sure your plan is about profit and not busywork, ensure that you base the entire thing on no more than three integrated psychographic and firmographic intersections of that group.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">Step two: Forget everything you learned about strategic planning from school. That old model—mission statement, SWOTs, and goals—is ridiculously antiquated. We live in a world of disruption where non-bank competitors are vultures ready to eat the lunch of banks who still think a yearly strategic planning process is enough to drive growth and profitability. Heaven forbid if you are a bank that&#8217;s still doing the “we do the strategic planning process every two years” approach.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">Have you ever seen a top 10% performing bank do that? Exactly.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">Step three: Move to a one-page strategic planning process. Don&#8217;t think because it&#8217;s brief that it&#8217;s easy or quick.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">If you do it right, it will be 10 times harder, but then you&#8217;ll work 100 times smarter all year. You&#8217;re packing a lot of punch in that one page with an extreme focus on the few things that matter.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">Make sure there is intentional congruence so that all the elements of the plan are working together for an immediate profit boost. The buildout from the one page is where the magic happens, but you have to get the one page right first.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">Step four: Get everything and everyone in a visible accountability system so that every team member in your organization knows what they need to do every week to align with profit.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">To emphasize, here are the four steps again: One, align the plan to the most profitable customers and prospects. Two, forget the old models. Three, create intentional congruence in the one-page plan.</span></p>
<p class="isSelectedEnd"><span style="color: #000000;">And lastly, four, create visible alignment of every person to profit.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Put a strategic plan into place using those elements, and you can relax and know that your plan will be implemented. You will get people away from being busy to being profit-oriented, which dramatically contributes to your bank&#8217;s bottom line, doesn&#8217;t it?</span></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/strategic-planning/bank-strategic-planning-community-banks-2/">Your Bank’s Strategic Plan Is Missing the Strategy [VIDEO]</a> appeared first on <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com">The Emmerich Group</a>.</p>
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		<title>The Strategic Planning Lie That’s Keeping You Average [VIDEO]</title>
		<link>https://emmerichfinancial.com/strategic-planning/strategic-planning-lie-thats-keeping-you-average/</link>
					<comments>https://emmerichfinancial.com/strategic-planning/strategic-planning-lie-thats-keeping-you-average/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[The Emmerich Group]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:29:48 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Accountability]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[High Performance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Profitability and Growth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Strategic Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[#StrategicExecution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BankCultureWins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BankProfitPlaybook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CommunityBanking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DestroyAverage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EmmerichGroup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GrowDeposits]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NetInterestMargin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PerformanceUprising]]></category>
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					<description><![CDATA[<p>Forget templates. Roxanne Emmerich reveals how top banks burn the rulebook and build execution systems that deliver relentless results. </p>
<p>The post <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/strategic-planning/strategic-planning-lie-thats-keeping-you-average/">The Strategic Planning Lie That’s Keeping You Average [VIDEO]</a> appeared first on <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com">The Emmerich Group</a>.</p>
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<p><span style="color: #000000;"><b>Burn the To-Do List. Your Strategic Plan Is a Lie.</b> </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Let’s stop pretending. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Most bank “strategic plans” are elaborate theater, packed with buzzwords, layered in charts, but built on a foundation of&#8230; nothing. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">This week, Roxanne Emmerich calls out the sham&#8230; <strong>s</strong><b>trategic planning as you know it is broken.</b></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">In this video, you&#8217;ll discover:</span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #000000;">Why plans without accountability are <strong>just executive wallpaper.</strong></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #000000;">What high-performing banks use instead to <strong>crush margin targets.  </strong></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #000000;">The exact system elite banks install to <strong>hardwire culture to profit.</strong></span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">This isn’t theory. It’s execution that lands. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">The 5% who win don’t follow the rules, they rewrite them. If you’re ready to scrap the fluff and lead with fire, the path starts here. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><b><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/inquiry">Book a strategy call</a></span> and step into the real game.</b> </span></p>
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<p><script src="https://fast.wistia.com/player.js" async></script><script src="https://fast.wistia.com/embed/x2j0mmv51n.js" async type="module"></script></p>
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<p><span style="color: #000000;">I’m Roxanne Emmerich. I work with elite banks—the 5% who refuse mediocrity—to grow low-cost deposits, explode margin, and build cultures that crush complacency.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Today, we expose a lie so embedded in banking, it passes as truth: Strategic planning works.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Wrong.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">What most banks call “strategic planning” is a bloated to-do list—paper-shuffled theater with zero accountability, zero alignment, and zero impact. It feels productive. It looks impressive. It does nothing.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">I asked my grad school professor—face to face—“Have you ever seen traditional strategic planning work?” He paused. Then admitted: “Nope. Not really.”</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Exactly.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">That’s why we built a different system. One designed specifically for banks ready to obliterate average.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">This system aligns teams. It electrifies culture. And every move maps directly to profit.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">The top 5% of banks use it. Religiously.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">If you’re done play-acting with plans that gather dust, let’s fix it. <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/inquiry">Book a strategy call</a></span> now—and I’ll walk you through the exact framework high performers use to engineer results on demand.</span></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/strategic-planning/strategic-planning-lie-thats-keeping-you-average/">The Strategic Planning Lie That’s Keeping You Average [VIDEO]</a> appeared first on <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com">The Emmerich Group</a>.</p>
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		<title>The Strategic Planning Lie That&#8217;s Keeping Banks Mediocre [VIDEO]</title>
		<link>https://emmerichfinancial.com/strategic-planning/strategic-planning-lie-keeping-banks-mediocre/</link>
					<comments>https://emmerichfinancial.com/strategic-planning/strategic-planning-lie-keeping-banks-mediocre/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[The Emmerich Group]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 10 Sep 2026 15:32:47 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Accountability]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Effective Leadership]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[High Performance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Profitability and Growth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Strategic Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[#StrategicExecution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BankCultureWins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BankProfitPlaybook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CommunityBanking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DestroyAverage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EmmerichGroup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GrowDeposits]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NetInterestMargin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PerformanceUprising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TopBankMoves]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://emmerichfinancial.com/?p=987570322</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Roxanne Emmerich exposes the toxic lie behind most strategic plans—and the second-order thinking top banks use to pull away from the pack. </p>
<p>The post <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/strategic-planning/strategic-planning-lie-keeping-banks-mediocre/">The Strategic Planning Lie That&#8217;s Keeping Banks Mediocre [VIDEO]</a> appeared first on <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com">The Emmerich Group</a>.</p>
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<p><span style="color: #000000;">There’s a lie baked into most banks’ strategic plans—and it’s costing them growth, margin, and momentum. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">In this video, Roxanne Emmerich dismantles the illusion that “more projects = more performance”. She reveals the operating-system-level thinking used by the top 5% of banks to rise, dominate, and repeat.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">You&#8217;ll discover:</span></p>
<ul>
<li aria-setsize="-1" data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="18" data-list-defn-props="{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}" data-aria-posinset="1" data-aria-level="1"><span style="color: #000000;">Why your “plan” might actually be <strong>a liability in disguise </strong></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li aria-setsize="-1" data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="18" data-list-defn-props="{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}" data-aria-posinset="2" data-aria-level="1"><span style="color: #000000;">How one bank <strong>torched 64 distractions and boosted ROI in 6 months </strong></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li aria-setsize="-1" data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="18" data-list-defn-props="{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}" data-aria-posinset="3" data-aria-level="1"><span style="color: #000000;">What second-order thinkers install that <strong>the checklist cult will never understand</strong> </span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">If your plan doesn’t tie every initiative to key drivers, target markets, and a BHAG that stirs blood…  i</span><span style="color: #000000;">t’s not strategy.  </span><span style="color: #000000;">It’s sabotage in a three-ring binder. </span><br />
<script src="https://fast.wistia.com/player.js" async></script><script src="https://fast.wistia.com/embed/tbfpz4npkz.js" async type="module"></script></p>
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<span style="color: #000000;">Hi. I&#8217;m Roxanne Emmerich, Chair of the Institute for Extraordinary Banking and CEO of the Emmerich Group. In this episode, we&#8217;re talking about one of the biggest lies in banking strategy and how the game-changing banks are using second-order thinking to drive results their competitors can&#8217;t touch.</span></p>
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<p data-start="507" data-end="850"><span style="color: #000000;">Let me start with the harsh truth. Most banks don&#8217;t have a strategy. They have a list. They call it a strategic plan, but it&#8217;s really a hodgepodge of projects and tasks cobbled together at the end of Q4 in a room full of people nodding and checking phones. If that hits too close to home, don&#8217;t worry. You&#8217;re not alone. But you are vulnerable.</span></p>
<p data-start="852" data-end="1099"><span style="color: #000000;">Here&#8217;s what separates the top five percent from the rest. They build operating systems, not checklists. Let me give you an example. One of our clients, a five-hundred-million-dollar community bank, came to us with a sixty-four-item strategic plan.</span></p>
<p data-start="1101" data-end="1282"><span style="color: #000000;">They were proud of it—until we started asking questions. Which of these actually moves margin? Where are the lead measures? How do these lead measures tie into your key initiatives?</span></p>
<p data-start="1284" data-end="1463"><span style="color: #000000;">Which are the KPIs most important? How do those tie to your target markets? What is the BHAG, and how is everything tying into the BHAG? There was no connection between the parts.</span></p>
<p data-start="1465" data-end="1606"><span style="color: #000000;">It was a hodgepodge of a tossed salad on a sheet of paper. And when I asked them questions about how they were gonna make that work—crickets.</span></p>
<p data-start="1608" data-end="1647"><span style="color: #000000;">What they had was first-order thinking.</span></p>
<p data-start="1649" data-end="1878"><span style="color: #000000;">“If we do more, we&#8217;ll grow more.” That&#8217;s not how high performance works. As the book <em data-start="1734" data-end="1756">Intelligent Thinking</em> explains, first-order thinkers solve the immediate problem without thinking through the long-term or hidden implications.</span></p>
<p data-start="1880" data-end="2104"><span style="color: #000000;">Second-order thinkers ask, “What happens next?” and “How does this tie into everything else?” That&#8217;s the difference between adding digital signage and engineering a culture that improves deposit acquisition by forty percent.</span></p>
<p data-start="2106" data-end="2635"><span style="color: #000000;">Within six months of switching to our Breakthrough Planning System, that same bank improved their efficiency ratio by twelve points, increased their premium pricing without attrition, and tied every initiative to one of five core performance drivers. They installed weekly rhythms to measure and adjust on the fly. And this isn&#8217;t theoretical. It&#8217;s happening right now at banks across the country. The game-changers in banking are the ones who figured out that strategy is a living system—not a document gathering dust on a shelf.</span></p>
<p data-start="2637" data-end="3046"><span style="color: #000000;">Are you done mistaking activity for alignment? Are you tired of first-order thinking in your strategic plan that has no hope of actually creating the results—because you&#8217;ve tried it so many times before and it never has? <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://TalkWithEmmerich.com"><strong data-start="2858" data-end="2873">Book a call</strong>,</a></span> and let&#8217;s walk you through the planning system used by banks that are tripling cross-sales, growing NIM, and winning Banky Awards. Because more projects is not a strategy.</span></p>
<p data-start="3048" data-end="3076"><span style="color: #000000;">It&#8217;s a symptom of a problem.</span></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/strategic-planning/strategic-planning-lie-keeping-banks-mediocre/">The Strategic Planning Lie That&#8217;s Keeping Banks Mediocre [VIDEO]</a> appeared first on <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com">The Emmerich Group</a>.</p>
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		<title>What Boards Miss That Can Tank a Bank [VIDEO]</title>
		<link>https://emmerichfinancial.com/profitability-and-growth/boards-miss-tank-bank/</link>
					<comments>https://emmerichfinancial.com/profitability-and-growth/boards-miss-tank-bank/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[The Emmerich Group]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 03 Sep 2026 15:23:45 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Accountability]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Effective Leadership]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[High Performance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Profitability and Growth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[#StrategicExecution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BankCultureWins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BankProfitPlaybook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CommunityBanking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DestroyAverage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EmmerichGroup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GrowDeposits]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NetInterestMargin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PerformanceUprising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TopBankMoves]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://emmerichfinancial.com/?p=987570262</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Your boardroom may be your biggest blind spot. Discover how elite banks fix strategy at the Breakthrough Banking Blueprint™ Bootcamp.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/profitability-and-growth/boards-miss-tank-bank/">What Boards Miss That Can Tank a Bank [VIDEO]</a> appeared first on <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com">The Emmerich Group</a>.</p>
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<p data-start="2050" data-end="2177"><span style="color: #000000;">Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most bank boards are strategic liabilities. Long meetings. Thick packets. Zero growth traction.</span></p>
<p data-start="2179" data-end="2353"><span style="color: #000000;">This week’s video pulls back the curtain on <strong>why most banks fail before the planning even starts</strong>—and <strong>how top-performing banks use their boards as rocket fuel.</strong></span></p>
<p data-start="2355" data-end="2374"><span style="color: #000000;">You’ll discover:</span></p>
<ul data-start="2376" data-end="2563">
<li data-start="2376" data-end="2438">
<p data-start="2378" data-end="2438"><span style="color: #000000;">The invisible boardroom breakdown <strong>sabotaging your strategy</strong></span></p>
</li>
<li data-start="2439" data-end="2492">
<p data-start="2441" data-end="2492"><span style="color: #000000;">Why exec-board misalignment is a <strong>performance detriment</strong></span></p>
</li>
<li data-start="2493" data-end="2563">
<p data-start="2495" data-end="2563"><span style="color: #000000;">The simple shift that <strong>turns your plan from paperweight to power tool</strong></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p data-start="2565" data-end="2655"><span style="color: #000000;">If your board isn’t shaping a living, breathing performance engine, it’s holding you back.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Watch now.</span></p>
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<p><script src="https://fast.wistia.com/player.js" async></script><script src="https://fast.wistia.com/embed/6mr6b36xd3.js" async type="module"></script></p>
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<p> <wistia-player media-id="6mr6b36xd3" wistia-popover="true" aspect="1.7777777777777777"></wistia-player><br />
<span style="color: #000000;">Hi. I&#8217;m Roxanne Emmerich, and I work with bank CEOs and their boards to help them align strategy, culture, and execution.</span></p>
<p data-start="366" data-end="486"><span style="color: #000000;">This week, we&#8217;re diving into the critical trends your board must understand—or risk making growth decisions in the dark.</span></p>
<p data-start="488" data-end="771"><span style="color: #000000;">Let&#8217;s be honest. Most board packets are long on reports and short on insights. But the top five percent? Their boards drive growth with precision because they understand the levers that matter: culture clarity, strategic discipline, and real-time visibility into performance drivers.</span></p>
<p data-start="773" data-end="1282"><span style="color: #000000;">Let&#8217;s face it: the board is there for strategic purposes. You&#8217;ve heard the insight: <em data-start="857" data-end="880">minds in, fingers out</em>. We go to our boards to make sure that they&#8217;re driving strategies and giving us ideas about how we can attract more high-profit customers that are lower risk—how we can move into other markets. These are strategic issues that should be covered in strategic planning, where we are actually getting information from the board about how they can bring their wisdom in to make sure that this bank thrives.</span></p>
<p data-start="1284" data-end="1400"><span style="color: #000000;">One of the biggest mistakes I see is so many banks seeing their executive team and their board not gelling together.</span></p>
<p data-start="1402" data-end="1430"><span style="color: #000000;">That&#8217;s just simply not okay.</span></p>
<p data-start="1432" data-end="1876"><span style="color: #000000;">The board is not just here to rubber-stamp, and the executive team is not here to ignore the strategic insights of the board. The executive team is here to get the strategic insights of the board, weigh them, and build systems to implement those things. And that&#8217;s where most strategic planning goes wrong. See, most banks have strategic planners that are more accountants. They tell you what numbers to hit—they don&#8217;t tell you how to hit them.</span></p>
<p data-start="1878" data-end="2002"><span style="color: #000000;">That&#8217;s the whole point. By definition, a strategy is basically this: given limited resources, how do I accomplish a miracle?</span></p>
<p data-start="2004" data-end="2158"><span style="color: #000000;">And this miracle is what is defined—that is the strategy. And most banks have a strategic plan devoid of any of those strategies about how to get it done.</span></p>
<p data-start="2160" data-end="2582"><span style="color: #000000;">That&#8217;s what you need to be thinking about right now, because it is strategic planning season, and it&#8217;s time to do your best strategic plan ever. Not a list of to-dos like most banks. Not a list of aspirations without the strategies to make it happen. But instead, a workable plan that drives a performance culture, drives a higher net interest margin, less risk, more growth, and—for goodness&#8217; sake—more low-cost deposits.</span></p>
<p data-start="2584" data-end="2772"><span style="color: #000000;">That&#8217;s the game of high-performance banking, and that&#8217;s what the strategic plan must be about as you go into this next year to make sure that you create a bank that&#8217;s a top five-percenter.</span></p>
<p data-start="2774" data-end="2802"><span style="color: #000000;">And that is the game. Right?</span></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/profitability-and-growth/boards-miss-tank-bank/">What Boards Miss That Can Tank a Bank [VIDEO]</a> appeared first on <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com">The Emmerich Group</a>.</p>
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		<title>Build a Bank Performance Culture That Drives Profit [VIDEO]</title>
		<link>https://emmerichfinancial.com/high-performance/bank-performance-culture-community-banks/</link>
					<comments>https://emmerichfinancial.com/high-performance/bank-performance-culture-community-banks/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[The Emmerich Group]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2026 21:18:55 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Differentiation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Effective Leadership]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[High Performance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Profitability and Growth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cross sales]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Customer Service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sales training]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Strategic Planning]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://emmerichfinancial.com/?p=987570090</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Great employees don’t automatically produce great bank results. Discover why Top 5% performance requires employees who understand profitability, create deeper relationships, command premium pricing, and become trusted advisors customers never want to leave.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/high-performance/bank-performance-culture-community-banks/">Build a Bank Performance Culture That Drives Profit [VIDEO]</a> appeared first on <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com">The Emmerich Group</a>.</p>
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<p class="PDq2pG_selectionAnchorContainer" data-start="3899" data-end="3986"><span style="color: #000000;">Most bank CEOs proudly say, “We have great people.” But if the efficiency ratio, ROA, ROE, deposit growth, and relationship profitability tell a different story, there’s a costly disconnect hiding inside the bank.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Good people do not automatically create great financial outcomes. They need to <strong>understand exactly how their daily actions connect to profit—and they need the skills to produce those outcomes</strong> without turning community banking into transactional “selling.”</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">This week&#8217;s video reveals why the <strong>gap between good employees and Top 5% performers is rarely effort. It’s usually education, confidence, and a trusted-advisor skill set.</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">You’ll discover:</span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #000000;">Why accountability before capability can <strong>trigger disengagement—and even a mass exodus.</strong></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #000000;">How Top 5% bankers <strong>identify the most profitable next relationships instead of chasing every prospect.</strong></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #000000;">Why becoming the customer’s only banker requires <strong>value far beyond products, rates, and traditional sales training.</strong></span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">If your bank wants stronger profitability, premium pricing, deeper relationships, and better execution, don’t start by demanding more activity. Start by building people who know how to create profitable outcomes.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Watch now, and ask yourself whether your “great people” have actually been equipped to perform like the Top 5%.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Watch the video now. </span></p>
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<p class="PDq2pG_selectionAnchorContainer" data-start="787" data-end="1144"><span style="color: #000000;">Most bank CEOs tell me, “We have great people,” and yet sometimes they suffer not-such-great efficiency ratios, return on assets, return on equity. And what they’re really saying: “We have good people, but they’re not great because they don’t know how they tie to profitability.” Well, I get it. When I first started in banking, people showed me what to do.</span></p>
<p data-start="1146" data-end="1512"><span style="color: #000000;">I moved things from the left side of my desk to the right side of my desk, and I thought that was the job, and I just did the job with a person who had had the job before me because that was the training that I got. I didn’t know there was another way. It wasn’t my fault, and let me assure you, it is not their fault. They don’t know what a top five percenter does.</span></p>
<p data-start="1514" data-end="2060"><span style="color: #000000;">They don’t know that instead of going out and calling on a whole bunch of potential accounts, if they know how to identify a top one hundred most profitable next account, that could bring in next year’s six or seven or twelve or thirteen thousand dollars of bottom-line impact every single month after you bring it in. If they don’t know how to do that, that’s a problem. If they don’t know how to pull that customer away from your competitor and get premium pricing and the entire relationship, that’s a problem. So instead, what are they doing?</span></p>
<p data-start="2062" data-end="2362"><span style="color: #000000;">They’re walking up the street, up and down the street, calling on people or seeing what walks in the door, and as a result of it, they’re not bringing in the quality credits, they’re not bringing the entire relationship, and, God forbid, if we ever have to match a rate again, that becomes a problem.</span></p>
<p data-start="2364" data-end="2817"><span style="color: #000000;">It’s not just in sales within banks. Every person must understand how they tie to profit on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly basis. But here’s the warning. And do I have little red flags? Are there fireworks going on here? Because there should be. Because when you hold people accountable for outcomes before they are ready, before they are winning, before they have the education, before they have the confidence, you’re going to have a mass exodus.</span></p>
<p data-start="2819" data-end="3305"><span style="color: #000000;">I probably have followed hundreds of sales training companies who totally mucked up cultures within banking organizations because they brought in the sales training and they said, “And these are the goals, and people should be hitting them, and if they don’t hit them, out you go.” Well, here’s the reality. No one thinks they can hit those goals, and the sales training is all done incorrectly because it feels like sales. When you’re a community bank, it should never feel like sales.</span></p>
<p data-start="3307" data-end="4020"><span style="color: #000000;">It should feel like helping someone along to make a better financial decision for them and to bring great value that far exceeds anything within your product line. It’s a whole new world of banking, and those who get out of commodity banking, those who get out of the same old, same old slugging of products and understand that now we have to bring true trusted advisor skill sets, those are the ones who will make it. If you want to be a top five percent, you have to figure out how to take your people and elevate them to the skill set of true trusted advisers. I had a CEO of a bank recently who was going through my trusted adviser certification, and he said these words. He said, “I thought I was a hotshot.”</span></p>
<p data-start="4022" data-end="4578"><span style="color: #000000;">“I’ve been helping bank customers for thirty years, and now that I’m taking this trusted advisor certification, and I’m realizing that I didn’t know what I didn’t know, and I really wasn’t very valuable at all.” And I’m thinking, if a bank CEO says that, just imagine what’s going on with your team members as they’re going out there slugging product lines as opposed to truly becoming the only banker they’ll ever need. If you want to be a top five percent performer, you’ve got to teach your team members to be the only bank that customer will ever need.</span></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/high-performance/bank-performance-culture-community-banks/">Build a Bank Performance Culture That Drives Profit [VIDEO]</a> appeared first on <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com">The Emmerich Group</a>.</p>
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		<title>How Top 5% Community Banks Build, and Sustain, Elite Performance[VIDEO]</title>
		<link>https://emmerichfinancial.com/high-performance/community-bank-performance-strategies-top-5-percent-banks/</link>
					<comments>https://emmerichfinancial.com/high-performance/community-bank-performance-strategies-top-5-percent-banks/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[The Emmerich Group]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2026 21:55:10 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Differentiation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Effective Leadership]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[High Performance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Profitability and Growth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cross sales]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Customer Service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sales training]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Strategic Planning]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://emmerichfinancial.com/?p=987569750</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Elite banks aren’t born elite. They build systems, practice the right behaviors, and continually sharpen how they create value. Discover what helps top 5% banks reach exceptional performance—and stay there.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/high-performance/community-bank-performance-strategies-top-5-percent-banks/">How Top 5% Community Banks Build, and Sustain, Elite Performance[VIDEO]</a> appeared first on <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com">The Emmerich Group</a>.</p>
]]></description>
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<p class="PDq2pG_selectionAnchorContainer" data-start="3899" data-end="3986"><span style="color: #000000;">Elite performance is rarely a talent problem. More often, it is a <strong data-start="3965" data-end="3985">practice problem</strong>.</span></p>
<p data-start="3988" data-end="4238"><span style="color: #000000;">Years ago, a 10-year-old piano prodigy delivered a performance that seemed almost impossible. The real revelation came afterward: while joking with friends and eating chocolate, his fingers kept practicing notes on an iPad. He was always in the game.</span></p>
<p data-start="4240" data-end="4337"><span style="color: #000000;">That same discipline separates average banks from institutions that reach—and stay in—the top 5%.</span></p>
<p data-start="4339" data-end="4370"><span style="color: #000000;">In this week&#8217;s video, you&#8217;ll discover:</span></p>
<ul data-start="4372" data-end="4703">
<li data-section-id="rk7fj8" data-start="4372" data-end="4487"><span style="color: #000000;">Why exceptional performance is<strong data-start="4374" data-end="4454"> built through repeated, intentional behaviors, not occasional bursts of effort.</strong></span></li>
<li data-section-id="4wnpwd" data-start="4488" data-end="4604"><span style="color: #000000;">How top-performing banks <strong data-start="4490" data-end="4573">sharpen the craft of delivering extreme customer value</strong> <strong>while earning premium pricing.</strong></span></li>
<li data-section-id="1yagoqj" data-start="4605" data-end="4703"><span style="color: #000000;">Why studying proven elite performers can <strong>shorten the path from “good” to top-5% performance.</strong></span></li>
</ul>
<p data-start="4705" data-end="4961"><span style="color: #000000;">The strongest banks were not always elite. They built systems, practiced the right behaviors, and kept refining them through favorable markets, difficult markets, and disruption. That discipline becomes a strategic advantage competitors cannot easily copy.</span></p>
<p data-start="4963" data-end="5119"><span style="color: #000000;">If your bank is serious about moving into the top tier, and staying there, watch this week&#8217;s video and consider what your team is practicing every single day.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Watch the video now. </span></p>
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<p class="PDq2pG_selectionAnchorContainer" data-start="620" data-end="803"><span style="color: #000000;">Several years ago, I was invited to a friend&#8217;s house to help raise some money for a ten-year-old boy who was identified as someone who would probably be the best pianist in the world.</span></p>
<p data-start="805" data-end="1155"><span style="color: #000000;">Because of his current abilities that were so far beyond what anybody—and this guy who was helping him had had many students through Juilliard—it was determined that this kid had some superpowers. But they said he will not be able to develop those superpowers unless he gets special training early in his life. And that&#8217;s what the fundraiser was for.</span></p>
<p data-start="1157" data-end="1451"><span style="color: #000000;">What I found most shocking was the young man did a concert, and I practically fell out of my chair watching this, thinking, I can&#8217;t even believe that a human could play like this, much less a ten-year-old. What could possibly have inspired this young man to be able to play the piano like this?</span></p>
<p data-start="1453" data-end="1759"><span style="color: #000000;">And then I learned a lesson. As he stepped away from the piano, he became a ten-year-old. He&#8217;s running around, he&#8217;s eating chocolate, he&#8217;s having a good time, he&#8217;s telling knock-knock jokes, and the whole time he&#8217;s playing with other friends, he has his iPad in his hand and he&#8217;s playing notes on his iPad.</span></p>
<p data-start="1761" data-end="1933"><span style="color: #000000;">He is practicing while he&#8217;s having conversations. He is practicing while he&#8217;s doing other things. His fingers never stopped going into that mode. He was always in the game.</span></p>
<p data-start="1935" data-end="2108"><span style="color: #000000;">I wonder if there&#8217;s something to be said for practice done to create exceptional behaviors, which creates exceptional performance. I gotta believe there&#8217;s something to that.</span></p>
<p data-start="2110" data-end="2435"><span style="color: #000000;">Sadly, in our industry, there aren&#8217;t enough people talking about this, there aren&#8217;t enough conversations, and there certainly aren&#8217;t nearly enough masters for them to study with to really get to be good at the craft of, “How do we bring extreme value to our customers in a way that we get to receive extreme pricing as well?”</span></p>
<p data-start="2437" data-end="2735"><span style="color: #000000;">Well, there are great opportunities when we figure this out. And I gotta believe that the banks that survive in the future are those who do figure it out. And so, it can be done. The question is, where do you get to go study with the elite best banks in the country and find out what they&#8217;re doing?</span></p>
<p data-start="2737" data-end="3046"><span style="color: #000000;">I bet you&#8217;re going to enjoy the panels at this year&#8217;s Best Banks in America Super Conference because, here&#8217;s the thing: they weren&#8217;t always some of the best banks in America in terms of performance. They just learned some things, and they kept their fingers on the keyboard, and they figured these things out.</span></p>
<p data-start="3048" data-end="3249"><span style="color: #000000;">And through the right practice of doing the right things that they did not understand before they started coming to the conference, they now are amongst the elite. And if they can do it, you can do it.</span></p>
<p data-start="3251" data-end="3574"><span style="color: #000000;">But most important, to get to the elite is one thing; to stay there is another. You&#8217;ll be hearing from people who have been elite performers for over a decade. Yeah, game on. That means during good times and bad times and disruptive times, they created a system that allowed for them to stay in the very top of performance.</span></p>
<p data-start="3576" data-end="3861"><span style="color: #000000;">And if they can do it, so can you. I hope you join the rest of them and get to learn from some of the other masters in the industry from the only conference that&#8217;s put on every year just for those who want to get to and stay in the top five percent of performers. Hope I see you there.</span></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com/high-performance/community-bank-performance-strategies-top-5-percent-banks/">How Top 5% Community Banks Build, and Sustain, Elite Performance[VIDEO]</a> appeared first on <a href="https://emmerichfinancial.com">The Emmerich Group</a>.</p>
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