Good News Florida

Ginger Martin, chief executive officer of American National Bank, has a smile that can warm a room, and the energy to climb mountains. In fact, she has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, completed climbs in the Grand Tetons and Rocky Mountain National Park, summited seven peaks higher than 14,000 feet in Colorado and hiked the Salcantee Trail to Matchu Picchu with Freedom Challenge, an organization that combats human traf- ficking worldwide. “Climb higher! That’s my motto. I want to climb higher and I want to take other people with me. That’s why I am involved in Lifework Leadership as an alum, as a coach and as a sponsor because I think Lifework is doing that,” explained Martin. She shared more about her passion for community banking, giving back and Lifework Leadership during a recent interview at the bank in Fort Lauderdale. Shelly Pond (SP) – You’ve been involved in Life- work for quite a while. When did you first get involved? Ginger Margin (GM) – I was in the 2009-2010 Life- work Class. I think I might have been class four because I think last year was our 10th anniversary.And here’s the thing, I’ve been a coach now for seven years. So here’s my story. I became CE0 of American Na- tional Bank in 2008. Of course, little did I know there was a recession looming out there, but we found that out soon. I had been approached about doing Lifework, and here’s one of the reasons: they really wanted to get more women involved. Now we’re about 50/50. At the begin- ning there were a lot of men and fewer women, so just being that I had become CEO of the bank, and I was like, “I’m too busy. I’m a new CEO and we’ve got a lot going on.” I think it’s interesting how God does things. He keeps putting people in your path, and it’s like, “Oh Ginger, you ought to do Lifework” and “Oh, Ginger, you ought to do Lifework.” So I joke now that I went from being too busy to now they can’t get rid of me. I really do just love Lifework. I’m really so passion- ate about it. When I went through the class, here’s my experience is that the speakers I heard, the books I read – I would have probably never read those books if they hadn’t been on the reading list. And the relationships I encountered, it was just this amazing experience. And when I look back on it, here’s the interesting thing being involved as much as I have. We just have so many peo- ple involved at different places in their walk in Lifework. So my walk was solid and consistent, but Lifework chal- lenged me to – I can remember this so clearly – to really get more consistent and disciplined in the time that I spent with the Lord as far as my reading and devotions. That was my most significant thing that happened by going through Lifework, was saying, you know what – every day, so I really appreciate that about the experience. Time is a precious resource, so one of the things as I’ve gotten older and probably wiser, I’ve become more selective of how I spend my time. But the thing about Lifework, when I think about my faith, when I think about being a business person, when I think about what it did for me and what I really want to encourage other people to experience, there’s an alignment for me being involved with Lifework. So it’s been an easy decision to stay involved… I’m reading a book right now that’s a brand new book on the list and I’m loving it: It’s My Pleasure, by the VP of Chick Fil-A, Dee Ann Turner. This book is making me think about the bank. So there is a practical take away, a practical application. When I look and hear – whether it’s the case study, the key notes, the books – they help me be a better business person. And, of course, one of our values here at the bank is lifelong learning, so Lifework fits with that, continuing to develop and grow and learn and evolve and adapt as the world changes. SP - Tell me a little bit about what you do at the bank, and I know your bank is a little different from others. GM – I love this bank. It’s been the best job I’ve ever had in my life. I’m in my 21st year here at the bank. So I came as the CFO. I’m a CPA by background. That’s always kind of been my expertise. Never had any plan to become CEO, so I think that was a whole God thing, and I’m just very thankful and give him that credit for giving me that platform in the business world. But we’re family-owned by somebody who has been here in the community for over 70 years. His name is Richard Ingham. He owns 90 percent of the bank, and he comes in and sees me almost every day. I’m part of his routine. He has six kids and he and his wife were married 60 years when she passed. So six kids, three boys, three girls. The three boys sit on our board, so they are really a very unique close family. So that makes us different to start with because we don’t have shareholders that are looking for a certain return or looking to get to a certain size and sell the bank. Our strategy and our come from place is totally different. Don’t get me wrong. He is a business person and he wants us to have good per- formance, but he also just approaches it from a different standpoint. So they’ve been a wonderful board to work for. The bank’s been around since 1985, so we are the oldest Broward-based bank. We are one of the few re- maining community banks, independently owned, be- cause the banking industry has had a lot of consolidation. Yet I will tell you there are people in businesses that do want what a community bank delivers and that is truthfully relationships. We joke that we’re like Cheers; we’re the bank where everybody knows your name. So, if I could figure out how to put that into a marketing pitch. And here’s the thing too. We’re very intentional about our culture… So for instance, our vision is every bank employee says each one is the banks most important customer… It’s one of those things like just treating peo- ple with dignity and respect regardless of if you’ve got $200 in the bank or $2 million. And we have nine values, and here’s what I can tell you: Every employee in this bank can quote those values because part of the thing is we don’t want it to be just words. We want it to be how we show up in the world. SP – So what are those values? GM – Always do the right thing no matter what. Be passionate about work. Coach. Be coachable. Celebrate successes. Have a sense of urgency. Live the vision. Lifelong learning, and no excuses. So here’s what we’ve been doing since August of 2008. We have a bank-wide huddle every single morn- ing. We meet here in the back. We stand up. We take turns leading the huddle. We start out with upbeat music and then the huddle can be a video, a story. It can be something you’ve read in a book. It just needs to be pos- itive and uplifting. Here’s the philosophy. You relate back to sports, right? So you know team. Here we are. We’re getting ready to go out and play this game. Hoorah, let’s go get it. So, just to try and set the stage. So we have done that every day. This is why I’m loving this book, It’s My Pleasure, because some of the stuff they’re talking about that Chick Fil-A has done – and gosh I admire Chick Fil-A – we’re doing some of this, and of course, we could do more of this. We truly care about our customers and their success, and that’s not lip service. So the philosophy is how can wemake bank- ing easier? How can we help you? How can we partner with you? How can we advise you? Instead of just that whole transaction. We’ve got customers who have literally been with us since the get-go. So we really have developed a loyal customer base because of the way that we treat our customers. Our focus is business, so we are what they would call a commercial bank even though we have individuals as customers – that small business, professional, from the lending focus commercial real estate. So we’re occupied investment type products. I say this about us. We are vanilla. It’s basic banking services, yet we’ve got all the technology and we’ve kept up with that. So we’ve tried to definitely be current from that standpoint but not lose the people – the relationship part. And here’s the thing too. We are approxi- mately a $300 million bank. So banks – You kind of judge bank size by their assets. SP – Can you give me some perspective for comparison? GM – Let’s just say Stonegate, who was just sold, they were a $3 billion bank, so there’s a big difference. But here’s what I figured out. We can do some things that big banks can’t do just because they’re so big. We can be a little bit more nimble. So I use LIFEWORK LEADERSHIP 14 MARCH 2018 Good News • South Florida Edition Ginger Martin Encourages Others to Climb Higher at Lifework Leadership Shelly Pond Good News (Continued from page 16) Freedom Challenge climbers Susan Howard, Ginger Martin and Jen Tarbell at Machu Picchu, Peru