Your Circle Matters More Than You Think

Josh: AI can predict trends, but having someone in a human in person actually identifies potential and opportunity. The thing I love about the most is that AI allows me to take the administrative things, and it streamlines that process so I can spend more time focusing on people.

Dan: You ready to get a treat?

Josh: Let’s go.

Dan: Let’s do it. Up in.

Nicole: High. It’s producer Nicole Denson. Today we’re talking with Josh Bennett, cash flow and operations specialist and senior business advisor at Mountain America Credit Union. Josh has spent more than ten years there helping business members with cash flow management, process creation and fraud prevention. Before that, he built a career in sales and business development at Sprout Pharmaceuticals, Corporate Alliance and Merck. He’s a systems and process creator by nature, with a knack for helping business owners slow down to speed up. Back to the show.

Dan: All right. For everyone listening, this is Josh Bennett with Mountain America Credit Union or MACU, here in Utah is what most people refer to it as.

Josh: Hi, guys.

Dan: And Josh and I met—kind of—I knew of Josh before. I actually knew Josh. We met about 12 ish years ago. I moved into a neighborhood in Lehi, and as I moved in, I was meeting neighbors. They told me, dude, you’re like the new Josh Bennett. And I remember being like, well, what does that mean? Who’s Josh? Is this a good thing or bad thing? And everyone’s like, no, he’s like the nicest, just most genuine person you’ll ever meet. And next thing you know, it was in the next six months, we’re in a restaurant with some neighbors, and Josh and his wife were there, and we got to get to know each other. And sometimes you meet your heroes and you’re severely disappointed. This was not one of those times. Josh is as genuine and kind and just a good person, salt of the earth as you will meet. And so I’m grateful that you were willing to take some time with us.

Josh: Absolutely, man. Hey, any time I get myself some Dan Posner time, it’s a good day. So thanks for the invite.

Dan: You bet. Yeah. I got some easy questions to lob at you. And then I want to get into the sweet take, which is kind of your hot take on whatever you want to talk about, right.. And have we pre-rehearsed any of these questions. Do you know anything I’m about to ask you?

Josh: I do not.

Dan: Good. I like it that way. Okay. So number one is to give us your origin story of how you got to be at MACU, and how you decided that this was the kind of career that you were going to rock.

Josh: Wow. That’s a loaded question—a lot. There. And we only have 30 minutes right now. I’m kidding. And so no, originally born and raised in Vancouver, Washington, went to school out in eastern Idaho for a couple of years. Served an LDS mission in Germany. And, the German tradition is still a very big part of our lives. So, I came back and finished school in eastern Idaho and one night was, when we came home, I was contemplating what I was going to do next. Didn’t really know what was going to happen. And all of a sudden, I had this as a distinct impression. You need to move to Utah. And I thought, oh, man, I’m like, I’m not a Utah guy. I’m not, you know, and obviously being from outside of Utah, there was that Utah stigma. And I didn’t want to be part of that, but I couldn’t get rid of it. So within the course of a week, I got admitted to school at UVU. I found a job, a place to live, and within nine days I moved, packed my car, full of everything I owned, and moved to Utah.

Dan: You were not married?

Josh: No.

Dan: Just you. It was freshman year. Like I got to follow this, let’s go.

Josh: Right. Exactly. And so I finally remember the night I arrived in our apartment, a good friend of mine who I was moving in with. And I looked at him and I said, what am I doing here? And he says, just trust the process. And I said, okay. And then, three short months later, I met my wife. We were married a year later, and 27 years—

Dan: Wait, three months later you were married?

Josh: Three months later we were married, and established ourselves and then again 4 girls and, 27 years later, it’s all part of the plan. So it’s been awesome. So my degree over at UVU, I graduated in finance and did what all finance majors do, and that’s go into medical sales. Which makes perfect sense right.

Dan: Before we segue to medical sales, what’s a shout out you’d like to give to your wife?

Josh: Man, my favorite thing my wife’s ever said about eight years ago. She said she wanted to go back to school and finish her master’s degree. And she said, I want to go back to school because it doesn’t make sense. My wife is very—she trusts her gut. She is very, very God fearing. And she loves people in a way that makes them want to be better. And so my wife does that for me literally every day. Not because she says a lot, but because she does a lot.

Dan: Sounds like for you and your wife just in the few minutes we’ve been talking thus far, and I actually don’t know a lot of this background. So this is fun for me, even though we don’t have a long time. Yeah. But I’m understanding is, for both of you a take away or a life? I don’t know, guiding force is kind of trusting impressions or trust in your gut.

Josh: Absolutely.

Dan: We’re going with it.

Josh: We are absolute trust your gut, people. And, we don’t try to explain it, but we understand and have experience of how it works. And it always works in our favor. And we know that that’s true. So.

Dan: Okay. Well, we segue you away from medical sales or. Yeah, something like that.

Josh: Right? Yeah. So I did medical sales, thought it was going to be my late in life and then just had a really unique opportunity and a sudden opportunity to change, to change and again, going back to the idea of trusting your gut, I just said, this is what I’m supposed to be doing. So I got out of it and then worked for a couple of small companies. As I kind of said, I went into this job. And my, you know, like most parents do when their child gets a degree in a certain area. My parents were very, very excited when I finally got my finance degree to come full circle and say, oh, so that’s why I went to school, to learn finance and to learn the ins and outs and the specifics of numbers. And, so I found out about this opportunity and, a mentor of mine, his name is Joel. And Joel reached out to me one day and said, hey, why is the CEO of Mountain America reaching out to me asking about you? And I said, I would love to know the answer to that question. So anyways, I came to find out that he and I had a lot of mutual, business acquaintances in common and just was getting just a reference check, and, like I said, then started in with Mountain America in June of 2016.

Dan: So it’s been almost ten years.

Josh: Yeah. So it’ll be in a few weeks. It’ll be ten years. And so I just love the opportunity to be able to, you know, to connect with people. And that’s really what this role is about: to be able to, to account, manage to be able to forecast, to be able to act as a consultant to help people, to be able to realize what they want to accomplish. And so it’s been really rewarding. And Mount America has been a really good place to do it.

Dan: How many years have you, would you say now that your career path has been an account managing kind of role?

Josh: Oh, it’s probably been 15 years, to be able to be in that space. I mean, once I jumped out of pharmaceutical sales, I realized that my passion is people and being able to connect people, just to surround myself with the best people possible. And I love to be able to, regardless of industry, regardless, and not just with my job, but just with people in general. My main goal is to surround myself with the best people I can. And if we happen to do business together, then great. But if not, it is very, very satisfying and fulfilling for me to know that I’ve done everything I can to surround myself with the best people.

Dan: So once again, you have no clue what I’m about to ask, you know? Which hopefully is kind of fun and a little scary. That is true. You say you love surrounding yourself with the best people. Many of us have heard the adage you become the sum of the five people you spend the most time with something like that. Right. Who’s a person that can’t be you or me or your wife. We’ve already highlighted her. Okay. Who’s a person that you want to give to? Just a quick shout out to that is one of those people that just lifts you up and makes you feel like you want to be better. And, it’s just great people that everyone should know.

Josh: Oh, absolutely. You know, Yeah, I’m going to pull a two for. Because if that’s okay. But the twofer is, that, the one I will say first is my dad, I actually just lost my dad about a month ago. And the best part about that experience was that not only have I rediscovered that there’s blessings to be had in the hard, but there’s also miracles to happen in the heart. And I’ve seen so many miracles because I have been able to discover all the things that I thought about my dad growing up, that he’s very, very, very generous. He’s very charitable. Hey everyone, there’s not a person around you. They’ll know my dad says that he didn’t make him feel like the best person in the world. And so that’s the one thing that I’ve taken from my dad and feel a huge obligation to carry on that legacy. And so he taught me not only by the things that he said, but ultimately by the things that he did.

Dan: What’s your dad’s name?

Josh: His name is John.

Dan: John. No shout out to John.

Josh: Yeah. He’s, but then my true life mentor is Joel Steadman. Joel actually was, we worked together in a previous, previous job. And Joel also has the ability to tell me and to everyone that instead of actually feeling like the world’s out to get him, he constantly tells people that the world is out to do him good and looking for opportunities and identifying this and not being surprised when good things happen to people.

Dan: What is, what’s Joel doing now?

Josh: Joel is the CEO of a staffing company, a regional staffing company that he travels all throughout the day. He’s in his areas and sales. But he’s taking on the role of the CEO right now.

Dan: What is the staffing company for TBD?

Josh: Let’s come back. Yeah, TBD. We’ll come back to that one.

Dan: So, Joel, shout out to you and the fact you’ve had in Josh’s life.

Josh: Yes. And he is the constant constant of someone that looks for the good in everyone and everything. But also just to be able to make sure that you also believe the potential that isn’t within yourself to become something great. All it takes sometimes is a little tweak and you can become something amazing. And so that’s one thing I appreciate about him.

Dan: So if anyone listening has had this thought lately of wanting to surround yourself with more uplifting people or finding a mentor, I think that’s a whole topic. I’ve had people ask me to have one before, how do you find a mentor? And I thought to myself, I don’t know, in my life, it’s just happened kind of organically. You are just the people that you surround yourself with, you find someone that you kind of have, see the world in a similar way, or you want to see the world in the way that they see it. Yep. And then you just spend more, try to spend more time together. I’ve had people I’ve asked that question, hey, would you be a mentor to me? And this way I also have the unofficial version where I’ve just been friendly with people and asked and tried to learn from them. Yeah. What advice would you have for anyone listening, that’s, saying to themselves, what Josh is saying rings true to me. I could use someone like that in my life right now. How do I find a mentor?

Josh: Well, I think what you identify as, like you mentioned, you find someone who you really want to model yourself after, and you learn from their example. Don’t be afraid to ask those people to mentor you. I think that’s important because sometimes we feel like it’s like a high school, relationship or something like that, you know? Will you go out with me? Will you be my mentor? That’s absolutely not the case. We really want, you know, to be able to find that right person. I can find that person who not only will be willing to spend time with you, but willing to take the time and be very vulnerable and very honest with you in order to have true progression and true growth, you have to be someone who’s really willing to be honest with you for good and for bad. The thing I love about my mentors, he will constantly tell me he is his first and foremost private priority is to make sure that you understand your value, and that he loves you from a really honest and good place. So when the feedback comes, you know it comes from a good place. So the likelihood of you being offended or the times of being offended is not taken as such. But you’re really knowing it’s coming from a true, heartfelt and genuine place.

Dan: Do you? And I’ve reached a point in my life now where I’m humbled and grateful that a few people have had those conversations with me lately and said, hey, I’m reaching out to you for these reasons. What do you think about that? It’s a humbling place, and it’s never why are you asking that of me? Or why are you talking to me? Or why are you this way? That is right. And I assume most people are similar to me and you in this regard. Man, if someone asks me down, I’m struggling with x, y, z. Can we talk? My first thought is yes. When? Let’s get it on the calendar.

Josh: Absolutely right. Yeah. And I think sometimes in those relationships, if you don’t actually extend the invitation and invite them in, I think I feel like sometimes it kind of does a disservice to the relationship because as in any relationship we have, we want to be able to grow and we want to be able to get better and do more. And I think sometimes when we don’t be direct and just ask those questions, it doesn’t give us an opportunity for that relationship to grow.

Dan: So we’re here at first taking a picture of the menu. I freaking love the names already. You already know what you’re getting, right?

Josh: I do, and the thing that I’m getting is actually not on the menu. So they got it off. I’m an off menu kind of a guy. So yeah, they do a really good job with their app. As far as being able they have special features and things like that that they throw up. They always will keep on the menu even though it’s not listed on the menu. So.

Dan: All right Josh Bennett with Mac you. Hey Dan, good to be with you today.

Josh: Thank you. It’s good to be with you.

Dan: I am looking to see where we’re going to eat or drink or what we ‘re doing.

Josh: We’re going to go over to Thurston Pleasant Grove.

Dan: Okay. You can go there for a little while.

Josh: We are devout followers of thirst. As they continue to grow and get bigger, they get more locations, their tree to get bigger. And the drink that I have, that’s solid. Theirs is my go to every time.

Dan: What’s the go to?

Josh: The drink is called a Pisces.

Dan: Pisces? Yes. All right. You get that and you’re gonna have to recommend something for me. Well, waterfall. So I can take a sip of yours.

Josh: Absolutely. Yes. We will share and share. Like I love.

Dan: It. Awesome. Will. Excited to try the thirst. Let’s go, let’s go. Yeah. You’re gonna teach me about.

Josh: Oh, this is a stupid. Okay, so we just got back from a. Oh, we got it back from, It’s my wife’s name. Yeah. It’s not real. It’s fake. It’s henna. It’s temporary. Oh, so it’s not real. And if I was going to do a tattoo, that would be the last place I would put it. And my wife would be mortified if she. If that was permanent, because it wouldn’t happen. But we went on out. We went on a trip to Florida and my kids decided to get henna. At the last minute, you know, they do arts all over there. My daughter has a big, like a big whale or something on her arm. And, so she goes, yeah, we got these henna tattoos. Thank you, thank you.

Dan: Pass out your one.

Josh: Yeah, yeah. Oh, no. Anyways, so the henna tattoo. So my kids got henna tattoos, and, you know, we tipped the guy after doing my daughter’s and he’s like, oh, thanks for the tip. Let me go and do something with your hands. He grabs my hand, pulls it away, and they say, what’s your wife’s name? And I said, It’s Sean Allen. So he /she put it on there.

Dan: Did he spell Sean all right?

Josh: Well I, he stopped about halfway through and just said, how do we do this?

Dan: I say, okay, that’s so him. How do I hope?

Josh: Right. Well the funny part was, it was still wet and we went on to the beach later that day and I actually got, I got a wet sweat wiped off the last three letters. So all it said was Sean and my wife’s like, that is hilarious that, that if that doesn’t come off I’m like, she’s like, I got some questions of my own. And so anyway, so she. But anyways, we got home that night and wiped it off and it was brown. And I rubbed it out in the shower a few times, and it’s gotten darker since then, so,

Dan: Well, let’s transition to your sweet take.

Josh: Okay. Well, in. Oh, I see, in the marketing world right now, AI is the hot topic, right? Everyone’s trying to utilize and streamline things like that. My sweet take is that AI can predict trends, but having someone as a human in person actually identifies potential and opportunity. And so, you know, in my role, I mean, it can help me. And it’s wonderful. The thing that I love about the most is that AI allows me to take the administrative things off, or the mundane day to day things, the compilation of reports and the compilation of ideas, trends from a financial perspective. But it also streamlines that process so I can spend more time focusing on people. And that’s the one thing I think people realize is they think, you know, AI especially in the financial industry, is it going to take over my job? It’ll do analysis for you like crazy, and it’ll give you opportunities, and it’ll identify opportunities there as much as possible. But to have somebody there in your corner, having someone who can advocate for you that says, you know, on paper these trends don’t make sense, even though it’s purely taken from data. You know, there may be part of the story to tell that the data can’t and that AI can’t produce. So, I think sometimes people look at, you know, there’s ways to be able to apply for financing and apply for loans and, and for capital and things like that for growth. But sometimes there’s opportunities in a situation where it may not make sense on paper. Maybe there’s something else going on that people don’t see and can identify. And it’s nice to have someone in your corner that can help identify that, I will never be able to approve loans for people who actually have kind of a one off type of a situation. And being in the environment that we’re in, in the market in Utah and in the Intermountain West, I rarely find someone who fits that perfect cutter, cookie cutter. AI footprint where there’s not something that needs to be looked at that maybe AI can’t identify. And so that’s the one thing that I want to make sure that people know is that, yeah, it helps us to be able to be efficient or streamline and it’s fantastic. But at the end of the day, it’s nice to have someone on your corner who can actually help, can be on your side and advocate for you and tell the story. In a situation, if you’re looking for things to go into growth mode, you know we need to get you in a position to grow, head grow. And I can’t do that all the way to the end of the row. And so what we do is again, allow people to be able to get that, tell their story and get all the way to the end of the row to make it make sense for them.

Dan: So what my Dan GPT brain is saying is, as I try to summarize, that you’re not saying AI bad people are good. You’re saying AI is great because it can help to take a lot of the mundane pieces off of your plate.

Josh: Yes.

Dan: And then it gives you more time to be what you are with, to just serve people and to love people and to take care of people.

Josh: Right? The more the AI advances, the more I have the opportunity to. And we all have the opportunity to do that. And truly, I mean, regardless of what you do, I mean, who wouldn’t love to be helping the more mundane tasks taken off of your plate? You know, whether personally, professionally. So it’s nice to be able to have those tools and resources that do it at, I mean, you know, better than everybody and anybody is it’s an alarming speed. And I just need it’s not slow down. So rather than be afraid of it, it’s opportunistic to be grateful for it, utilize it in its appropriate causes and purposes and then allow us just to be more of ourselves, more of our authentic selves. We have it gives us the bandwidth to do that.

Dan: So what’s a use case where you or Matthew is able to utilize AI to make your life less? Take the mundane tasks and help you not have to handle so many of them?

Josh: No, that’s a good question. I think the biggest opportunity is for us to be able to, for AI, to be able to reply to emails, to do, to send, follow ups, to be able to send out RFPs, to be able to generate reports again, forecasting trends. I’ve had situations where I have a portfolio of clients that I meet with and I always run the analysis and now with AI, it gives me all that opportunity, all that information within just a few minutes so that I can actually identify information that comes off of there. And then rather than actually me spending an hour or two in preparation for those meetings, it now takes me five minutes. So now I can look at it and identify trends, identify opportunities, realize that maybe something doesn’t make sense to clarify and understand a little bit more about specifically what they’re trying to do. And I mean, it happens literally on the daily, whether it’s a new client, whether it’s an existing client, just looking at opportunities for them to be able to, to grow, then it just AI allows me to be able to do that that much quicker. And so it allows us to be able to find out, okay. Now logistically we know how to do all the banking stuff and Mount America does it very, very well, both on the personal side, on the business side. But at the end of the day, it’s like, okay, let’s get past the banking thing. Let’s get systems and processes put in place. What are you really, truly passionate about and where else can we help make that connection? And that’s the bandwidth that I love to have back because of AI. That gives me the opportunity to spend more time on that and go really, really deep and forge these relationships, which again, hopefully will last, you know, through our relationship with Mountain America. But just to be able to give you the opportunity to know that what we’re doing is making a difference just beyond the deposits and the day to day stuff that they do with their banking.

Dan: We just came back and there’s you got the Pisces. You usually get it with the Mountain Dew or Fresca.

Josh: Fresca. Yeah.

Dan: This time to Doctor Pepper.

Josh: I’m so excited right now.

Dan: Take a sip and tell us I know you love it with Fresca. We’ll see what? This is. So good. That’s money. So good.

Josh: That’s good. Yeah, absolutely.

Dan: So you had that. I had a creamy Mr. Creamy, which was doctor Pepper and raspberry and was like a coconut puree or something. And some love. And you can’t go wrong. So. Good. So. And then the star of the show, though, if people can see this or not, are these. Oh, boy. You tell us. Filled in years which tastes like we’ve just been transported to Chocolate Happy Land in New Orleans. At the same time. So good. They’re so good. I’m not going to eat one on camera because of the powdered sugar, having a laugh.

Josh: And blow it in your face. That’s that. Yes, that’s that they’re fantastic, but they’re amazing. They’re so good.

Dan: So shout out to the third.

Josh: Shout out the thirst. And you know, if there’s, I know Ethan Cisneros. He’s the CEO and operator of thirst. So shout out to Ethan I got some more fans never disappoint man. Thank you so much. It’s amazing.

Dan: Thank you.

Nicole: Thanks for coming along for the ride. If you enjoy Sweet Takes, be sure to subscribe and leave us a review. Join us next time. There’s more sweetness ahead.