The CUInsight Experience
The CUInsight Experience podcast is hosted by Randy Smith, co-founder of CUInsight.com, and co-hosted by Jill Nowacki, founder, president, and CEO of Humanidei. In each episode, they engage in wide-ranging conversations about credit unions, leadership lessons, and life. Join them as they dive deep into topics that help us become better leaders and strengthen our movement, uncovering valuable insights that we can all learn from.
The CUInsight Experience
Trust (#208)
“Trust is the currency that keeps credit unions thriving.” - Jill Nowacki
Welcome to episode 208 of The CUInsight Experience podcast with your hosts, Randy Smith, co-founder of CUInsight.com, and Jill Nowacki, President and CEO of Humanidei.
This episode is sponsored by Alacriti—a leading payments fintech helping credit unions compete with challenger banks and digital wallets. Alacriti delivers seamless, real-time money movement experiences for loan payments, A2A transfers, digital disbursements, and bill pay. With a single, cloud-native platform that connects to The Clearing House, Fedwire, ACH, and FedNow, credit unions can modernize without overhauling legacy infrastructure. Learn more at Alacriti.com.
In this season, Jill and I will have conversations centered around leadership, credit unions, and living our best lives. We will have some of the most respected leaders from around credit unions who we are grateful to call friends join us in the discussion from time to time too.
In this episode, we discuss a simple but incredibly important topic: the importance of trust. We don’t talk about it just as a buzzword but as something absolutely critical to being a good, effective leader. Sharing real stories from the credit union world, we closely examine the different layers of trust, from keeping members’ data safe to creating spaces where people feel seen, heard, and safe.
We also talk openly about the disconnect between intention and perception and how even well-meaning leaders can unintentionally erode trust via missteps, unintentional favoritism, and/or inconsistency. Jill shares her own mental model of a “trust pyramid,” applying it to both member and employee expectations, and I reflect on moments in my own leadership journey where trust may have faltered and what it takes to earn it back.
Whether you are a leader yourself who is trying to build a more cohesive team or someone rethinking your organization’s promises to the communities that you serve, please join us because this conversation will challenge you to reflect on what trust truly requires!
Find the full show notes on cuinsight.com.
Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Books mentioned on The CUInsight Experience podcast: Book List
Previous guests mentioned in this episode: Chuck Fagan (episodes 5 & 176)
