The moment Sarah Snell Cooke asks why credit unions are still not the first voice consumers hear in financial guidance, the tension becomes clear. Troy Stang, president/CEO of the GoWest Credit Union Association, remembers scanning the Sunday paper for years and seeing banks quoted on every topic from budgeting to mortgages, while credit unions remained largely invisible. That absence, he explains, has shaped public awareness far more than the movement realizes.
It is also what pulled Troy toward Backbone, a collaborative effort focused on giving credit unions a steady, relevant presence in the national conversation. Not through quick marketing bursts, but through a voice shaped by the practitioners who understand what consumers need right now.
After the video, the discussion shifts into a thoughtful look at how messaging and identity intersect. Troy talks about the value of communicators, executives, and advocates solving the visibility challenge together. It is a hands-on, experience-driven approach rather than a handoff to outside agencies.
Sarah raises the role of lawmakers as well, since new faces appear every year in state capitals and in Washington. Troy notes that if these officials arrive without a clear picture of the cooperative difference, the industry must spend valuable time backfilling basic understanding. When they already know credit unions as members, the advocacy conversation moves ahead instantly.
Running through the entire interview is a reminder of why this work matters. Credit unions are often the ones stepping into communities forgotten by traditional banks, supporting first-time homebuyers, and guiding small businesses through unfamiliar financial terrain. Troy closes with a simple reflection. Awareness does not grow from ads alone. It grows when every action, every message, and every story reflects the way credit unions already show up for people each day.
NOTE: The below AI-generated transcript to the video might not be 100% right, but are any of us really?
Sarah Cooke
Hello and welcome everybody. I am, of course, Sarah Snell, Cooke your host with The Credit Union Connection, I am joined today by Troy Stang, welcome. Welcome. Thanks for the invitation. Absolutely. And Troy, as many of you know, is the CEO at GoWest Credit Union Association. So tell us a little more about yourself, but also what the association’s up to these days.
Speaker 1
Yeah, thank you, and it’s so good to be with you and my goodness, we met years back, I think I spent my career, now, the first half of my career, inside of credit unions, working as an executive and both rural and Metro credit unions, and then later, throughout my career, pivoted to public policy, spent a stint in the White House and with the US Treasury Department, and then came out of the DC beltway with this tire in my belly about how we could do different, and need to do different as credit unions. And so the second half of my journey has been in association land, and I’m looking at my wall just before we dialed in. And you know, the work that we do, our mission, our vision, is honed in on our work doesn’t end until every consumer can and does belong to a credit union to meet their financial needs. And I think that sums it up really well,
Sarah Cooke
Absolutely, yeah, yeah. We, we started the crane connection because I believe that cranes are the best financial services choice for consumers, and want to help them succeed. So working with them, love that. You know, I’ve been in credits, I think, 26 years now, and we met back at the times, way back in the day. And so you, the reason we’re connected today, though, is we, you recently joined backbone, the association. Recently joined backbone, which is a collaborative credit and PR effort to really grow the brand of credits, which is our number one pillar for content choices. And so why did you decide that that was an effort that you should be involved in?
Speaker 1
You know, it’s interesting for years, I think both of us traveling that journey over several decades. Back in the day, you’d open up the Sunday paper and you look at all the financial guidance, whether you know how to buy a home or, you know, good budgeting guidance, and there would be other financial institutions quoted in there, and it was something that always got under my skin. I thought, Oh, dang it if we believe so much in who credit unions are. This not for profit, cooperative model of finance. That is the accountability is direct to the consumer, direct to that member. If we believe so much in it, why isn’t every consumer of financial services more curious about who credit unions are, and why the heck aren’t we being quoted in all those public arenas for that. That guidance, whether it is you know, young individuals stepping into finance for the first time, college, finance, savings, mortgages, your first home, vehicle, retirement, savings, planning for retirement, all those stages of life, there’s an intersection where a credit union can be your best financial partner. And same goes with small business across America. And if you look at at the landscape of Main Street today, community after community are in the process of redefining themselves, and credit unions are front and center. And why we joined back backbone is to help ensure that story gets told over and over and over again.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, absolutely, that’s one of the things that people I don’t hear it as much anymore, but I used to a lot, and for you to hear, we’re the best kept secret. That’s no good. That is not a good.
Speaker 1
Not, if not, if we’re going to achieve that visionary goal of ensuring every consumer can and does choose a credit union, because once they understand it, they personally attach themselves to that value proposition. And it does not take very long in that journey for that consumer to recognize the more products I have in my wallet, the more I commit and use this cooperative, the more I’ll gain from it as well. That mutual definition of success, I think, is something that we’ve got to ensure is front and center, the uniqueness with Backbone and what really intrigued us as a regional trade association for credit unions, is it’s got practitioners, communicators from credit unions, and some of us who Tansley and Linda, and the rest of us who were the CEOs who kind of leaned into this thing. You know, we’ve had journeys. Through our Faline i three connections and some of the advocacy work that we’ve done and we’ve all been a part of doing brand awareness, you know, and there’s been many different cuts of that in credit union space over the years. But what’s unique about this is it brings those practice practitioners to the table to really pose the question, what’s selling to the public today? What are the issues on the minds of consumers across America, and how do we position and insert credit unions and the credit union story into that in a relevant way? So it’s a very organic and constant evolving conversation. And then, my goodness, when you get more minds together, more lenses, and you might ask the question, Troy, you’re one of the only associations, and it’s associations and, and credit unions at this obviously, as an association, our job number one is advocacy and, so we also can bring to that conversation a filter, or lens on making sure that that as we’re talking to the general public, that we also have that that lens towards the advocacy audiences, whether in the state capitals or in Washington, DC.
Sarah Cooke
Well, you touched on a good point. Yes, we want to reach more members, or more potential members we want to reach, but we also want to reach the state capitals, the, you know, the nation’s capital we want to reach. And, well, this is one of the things too, that I think can really help as the industry does build a more unified brand nationwide, is becoming an employer of choice, like, I want people graduating college and saying, I’m going to work at a credit union. I’m going to go apply to all these credit unions to be their VP of whatever, you know, rather than I want to be a banker, which does happen, which when you really consider the benefits of credit unions and the structure of credit unions doesn’t make any sense at all, unless you really just want to make a ton of money. But yeah, so what do you what are some of the that was just my soapbox moment. There backbones current initiatives. What are you all working on? Can you give us a little peek behind the curtain?
Speaker 1
Yeah, you know, what an interesting time we’re in, right we’re leaning right into the holidays. It’s a time of year where people’s emotions and gifting and, my goodness, I think we’re staring at Black Friday. And what comes top of mind for us as financial institutions is ensuring the consumer knows what they’re getting themselves into, ensure that they’re leaning into the holidays with a budget and we also, as a credit union professional, over many years, we see the post holiday component of consumer spending. Oftentimes, when people come in and they want to do that refinancing, want to consolidate their debt. And so often, in my journey through financial services in credit unions, oftentimes we said, listen and saying no to the member, helping the member understand their decision is the best thing you can do for the member and so really ensuring, again, that we’re positioning credit unions as that advisor, that safe advisor, in in the public space, is critically important because there’s not a consumer that’s not honing in on their budgets. It’s also no secret we are in a phase of resetting the national economy. We are in a phase where we’re coming out. We’re coming out of a phase where we’ve had really high interest rates on real estate mortgages and lot of consumers still trying to get into homes, other consumers locked into a home with a mortgage interest rate that’s so attractive they can’t afford or would not be a good financial decision to sell. But as they’re as the rates start coming down, there might be those pivots in those moments. And so again, here’s this whole PR awareness component of of placing credit unions as the expert in financial services, because to go alone on those journeys as a consumer can be scary. When is it that I should pull that trigger on looking for home saving for and I’ve got some of my own relatives going through that journey and as first time home buyers and looking at their savings behavior and we’ve got a pool of credit unions in Tucson, Arizona that have done a collaborative initiative where they’ve and we’ve helped, through go west Foundation, do a grant for the loan loss reserve, but these credit unions came up with a first time home buyer program, 0% down and. No PMI insurance, no private mortgage insurance. And, of course, hoping that within five or seven years there’s that inflationary effect or appreciation on the value, and at that point the consumer has that equity. And so those creative options in placing credit unions as the experts and as the partner to help consumers get to yes is what we love about the backbone initiative.
Sarah Cooke
Absolutely, and not just consumers, small businesses as well. I know some of the cranes involved are into business lending. I feel like with maybe it’s the bank buys that make it more apparent is credit unions getting into business lending more and more too well.
Speaker 1
Sometimes, you know, in this environment, you got to zoom out and take a look at what’s happening in financial services. And we can look at the number of institutions. We can look at this, this aggregation, if you will, of commercial and community banks into regionals and then rolling up into mega regionals or Wall Street institutions. And who’s left on Main Street? Are these, not for profit, cooperative credit unions? Yes, there’s tons of fintechs coming in as well, and the consumers tapping into those but when you get down to it and boil it all down, it’s the credit unions. They’re helping advise those small businesses time and time again, and that’s part of that American dream on owning company. And the world is a lot different than it was back when credit unions originally chartered in this nation, when many credit unions were, you know, part of big companies, corporations, the industrial era. You know, the credit union started in the HR departments and what have you today, it’s more of a gig economy. And paying attention to that, that Main Street, I call it the Main Street economy. It might not be the traditional Main Street, but it’s critically important, and credit unions positioning themselves as that partner, part of the fabric I talk about that often is is this, we as the credit union movement have all different shapes and sizes, and together, it makes this patchwork quilt of financial services that canvases the entire nation. And what a beautiful thing. In order to really understand how those markets are so unique, and the needs of those markets are so unique.
Sarah Cooke
And so what, what role is the association taking on within backbone?
Speaker 1
So we started partnering as a subscriber way early on, and we just last quarter, made a financial investment to be one of the owners of backbone. We’ve been so excited about it, how it augments the work that we do as an association, certainly, again as job number one being advocacy. Go West. When we think of advocacy, we think about, you know, working with your elected officials and your regulators, but we also think about influencing the court of public opinion to help influence public policy. And Sarah, it’s always amazing to me every season, and it’s this time of year, right at the end of the year, where we prep to walk into our new sessions at the state capitals and in Congress right after the first of the year, and you get there and you see 20 to 30% new faces in every one of those arenas, that it’s that constant churn of the elected officials. And it’s that’s not new. It’s happened continuously. They are consumers too. They are a part of the public. And what a difference when they arrive in office and have a full understanding of who a credit union is and the difference it’s made because they’ve been a consumer and a member of a credit union. And gosh, when you don’t have to start from square one in our lobbying work, and you walk into an office and they profess, why the credit union difference? Why the cooperative? Why the accountability to the consumer is so much different, my goodness, you pull vault your conversation into a whole new arena.
Sarah Cooke
Well, and you look at just what, two days ago, the ABA came out with some silly study that said 70 some percent of consumers think credit union tax exemption should be reviewed or restudied or something like that. And when they’re blasting that out everywhere, over pr wires, over, you know, in media and stuff, there’s something. Some of these things can go viral, and cranes will be on the backs, backs of their heels, you know, not ready to respond if. If we’re not doing the things like backbone is is made, made to do. I’ve been saying that for years, but I never had the time to do anything.
Speaker 1
Back to that the body of elected officials. If you if you could turn back time and take us back into the 1930s with this the hand the elected officials, the handful of elected officials that were present then having this debate about the importance of choice in charter, it is okay, and we need in this nation, the Wall Street, money center institutions. We need the regional banks. We need the local community banks. And this economy needs not for profit, cooperative credit unions. Having that diversity of choice in charter diversifies the risk it gives the consumer choice. And I don’t know in what corner of public policy, you’d want to eliminate that choice on Main Street. And so, yeah, I think it’s just ill tone, Ill timed, and just that part of that spin factor of the banking trades. And of course, it is that time of year where, you know, trade associations try to sell their value to their members, and the American Bankers Association does a great job for its members, but, you know, spinning in these and these tactics in a manner that just are inappropriate.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, and we need to be able to counter that. So yeah, what do you hope will come from the effort for go west and for go west and its members and credit unions in general, nationwide?
Speaker 1
Well, it’s our experience with Backbone and our experience with our members in go west we came out of this legislative season, and it’s no secret we’ve had to articulate who we are and what we are and defend our structure nationally and all of our state capitals this last year. And what we’ve learned is you cannot stop that education. It’s got to be a 24/7, 365, day a year, job we called it coming out of the session. All the things we learned from those new elected officials, those who knew us very well and those who didn’t, where were the gaps of information? And what we’ve learned is every action a credit union takes, how they talk about what they’re doing, their why, and that emotional tie, if you will, to the consumer is also important in these public policy arenas as well. And so it’s been fun for us as an association to roll our sleeves up and work with the practitioners and credit unions, the comms, the marketing, the executives, the PR folks, you can be really proud about your continued growth and expansion and more branches. The piece that we really love is the credit unions are recognizing. They’re stepping into those marketplaces and providing the needed choice of financial services to rural economies, markets where honestly Sarah banking consolidation that’s happening is leaving these deserts and making sure that that piece of the message is led in the conversations and the Aha moments that we’re seeing with the credit union professionals, those practitioners, and saying, Yeah, we really need to ensure that’s front and center. That message. We start with that, not that we’re Hey, we’re just adding three new branches, and we’re proud of that, and they should be proud of that, but, but ensuring the public and the public policy folks understand we’re stepping into marketplace places that we don’t have to, but we want to, because we’re cooperatives, because we’re not for profit, we can afford ourselves to step into those marketplaces and have more patience in serving the economic and financial needs of those consumers.
Sarah Cooke
It was probably abandoned by a bank already. So I always let my guests have the final thoughts in these interviews, Troy, what would you like to leave our credit union audience with?
Speaker 1
You and I have traveled journeys in this industry, and we participated in multiple different cuts of how do we create awareness in the movement? And many of us participated in some of the previous attempts at that. The thing that is so different with this initiative is the organicness the practitioners at the table helping solve it. It’s not buying ads, it’s. Making sure how we use our voice, how we ensure that the actions that we’re taking are positioned appropriately in the right marketplaces, so that, taking us all the way back to the beginning of this conversation, credit unions are positioned in the public’s eye, in the way that we’re actually showing up for the consumers, day in and day out.
Sarah Cooke
100% thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it.
1 thought on “The Push to Elevate Credit Unions’ Brand: Inside a Conversation with Troy Stang”
“Awareness does not grow from ads alone. It grows when every action, every message, and every story reflects the way credit unions already show up for people each day.” YES!!!