Creativity Is Your North Star
This week’s The Purposeful Banker shares Tania Katan’s talk from the 2024 BankOnPurpose executive leadership conference, where she demonstrated how creativity and humanity drive passion and innovation—even in the banking industry.
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Cheryl Brown
Hi, and welcome to The Purposeful Banker, the leading commercial banking podcast brought to you by Q2, where we discuss the big topics on the minds of today's best bankers. I'm Cheryl Brown, senior content strategist at Q2 and the producer of the podcast. Welcome to the show and happy new year.
I hope your 2025 is off to a good start. Probably like many of you, I like to start each new year with a focus on something I'd like to do better. Not a resolution per se, but more of a goal. So I thought this would be a great time to share this talk that Tania Katan did at our BankOnPurpose executive leadership conference in the fall. Tania is a popular speaker, bestselling author, and co-creator of the viral social impact campaign, #ItWasNeverADress, a movement that has inspired over 100 million people to see, hear, and celebrate creativity and diversity.
At BankOnPurpose, she talked about how creativity—and we're not talking about artistic skill, but that creative way of thinking that's inherent in us when we're younger—how that kind of creativity and humanity can make a huge difference in the workplace, even in our no-nonsense world of commercial banking. Have a listen, maybe Tania will inspire you too.
Tania Katan
Put your hands up if you've ever had an idea as a leader that was ahead of its time. Come on. Really? Four people and some people who are exhausted and given up on everything. Really, nobody here has had an idea ahead of their time in leadership, in work, and anything? Put your hands up if you have. OK, great. I knew it. Maybe it was something like, "Hey, we should do a standup meeting." And people were like, "Sit down. That's not going to be interesting." Or, "Maybe we should leverage this thing called the internet and create online banking." And people were like, "People are already frustrated waiting on lines in the banks. We don't want them waiting everywhere online." Or maybe it was something like, "What if we let go of all the processes that are holding us back and we embrace change?" And people were like, "That's dumb. We don't even give out change in the banking branches anymore. We don't even have them in our tills."
Do they really? Is there a change in the tills? Anyone? No. OK. So I, too, have had an idea that was ahead of its time. And that idea was in 2014, I stood on a stage … hold the line. You know what? I'm just going to switch things up.
Stand up if you have the ability to stand up. Let's stand up right now. Here's the deal. If you feel ready to embrace creativity and more humanity as a way to lead rather than follow, as a way to take the reins of AI rather than to be dragged around by it, give me a clap. OK, if you feel like you're committed to staying at this talk and listening and learning something with all the energy I'm going to give you, if you'll give me energy back, clap. OK. If you feel like you are really cool, attractive people who asked great questions in the last panel, give yourselves a round of applause. Yeah. OK. Sit down physically, stay standing emotionally for the entire talk.
Now that we got that out of our systems, I have no idea where we are now, but it was worth it. Worth it, totally. So I stood on a stage in 2014 and I said to thousands of people, "Today, right now, is the time to let go of logic and limits and double down on creative thinking." And half the audience was like, "Yeah." And the other half was like, "Meh." But I have good news. The future has caught up with everybody in here who's committed to leading with more creativity and more humanity. The future has caught up with us. And by the future, I mean Forbes. So in 2024, Forbes wrote, they did a series of articles about how creativity is the number one skill we all need.
Who here is a knowledge worker? What? Yes, I know, all of us. This is the skill that we need to double down on. And in fact, Forbes doubled down on it. Is creativity an essential skill for business growth? This was an interview with leaders of Fortune 500 companies and teams across the nation, and they said a resounding, "Yes, it is." Creativity is no longer luxury, but a vital catalyst that empowers us to basically find unlimited possibilities when other people see limits.
And I've spent the past 10 years of my career bringing more creativity into less overtly creative industries, workplaces, and work cultures. And I learned three things that were astounding to me, that really compelled me to write an entire book called “Creative Trespassing” and start a consultancy also under that name.
Number one is we don't need to work in a field or a job that is uniquely creative in order to be uniquely creative within our work within the world. And as somebody mentioned on the panel, which is absolutely correct, is our biggest differentiator right now as human beings is our humanity and our creativity. Number two, whenever we're confronted by challenges or problems or even crises, and we use our creativity and humanity to address them, we experience unlimited solutions, ideas, and innovations every single time. I'm going to show you how. We're going to do it together. And number three, when we dare to challenge these systems, the status quo—who here challenges the status quo within their team, company, industry? Raise your little paws. Yeah. OK. Let me ask you this. Does the old guard ever say things to you like, "Let's solve this new problem in the same old way we've always done it, that doesn't work." OK. So when you dare to challenge the old guard or the status quo, you know what you're going to get? Pushback. Yay. No. You might even get pushed down. And that's how you know you're on the right path.
So what we're going to do today is I'm going to share some stories, moments when I got pushed down, pushed back, and still got up and figured out a way through with companies. And we're going to do some interactive activities so that we can really carve a path forward leading with more creativity and humanity. And the three areas we're going to touch on divergent thinking. I feel like this script ... Does everybody know what divergent thinking is? It doesn't matter. We're going to figure it out together. OK. Making unexpected connections. And also in moments of crisis, who here goes to joy and creativity in crisis? I know. You're all going to raise your hands at the end. Bam. I said it. And it all starts at 5 years old.
Who here has ever been 5 years old? I'm hoping for a 100% of some activity, although it's like high achievers, you know there's a precocious 4-year-old who's like, "Whatever. Gosh." OK. So there was a study conducted by NASA and they hired Dr. George Land, social scientist, and they're like, "We want you to come up with the best test so we can hire the best and brightest at NASA." And so he came up with a divergent thinking test. Divergent thinking is basically like I give you a question or a prompt, and then you come up with infinite ideas and solutions to that. So it's not just a transaction like, "Here's the problem, here's one solution." Infinite. So my question to you, and it was a longitudinal study, and then he applied it to children because he's like, "This is a weird experiment. Let's see how children do. If we're doing this for NASA astronauts, let's just do it." And so he gave it to a thousand 5-year-olds, the same exact study.
Percentage wise, how do you think 5-year-olds did? He called 95% to 100% creative genius. And then he didn't even name the rest because he was so optimistic. OK, so how did 5-year-olds do? Shout out percentages. Is everybody on heroin? What's going ... Yeah, no. OK, shout out a percentage. I know it's after lunch and you had some carbohydrates and you're just feeling like snuggling. Me too. OK. Percentage, anyone? 96, 98, 100. Yeah. Optimist in the back. I like that. OK. And then let me ask you this. Same study, same children, five years later at 10 years old, what percentage? 50, what? 80, 50. What else you got? 75, 30. OK. OK. OK. And then 15 years old. 30. OK. 60, 30. Awesome. OK, you ready? Bam. Reveal.
I know it's so sad and so true, but you know what? God, I mean, we're just, we're born creative geniuses. And a lot of people when I stand up and I'm like, "Creativity." And they're like, "I don't paint." And I'm like, "That's not the creativity we're talking about." There's two Cs in creativity. There's a big C where you paint, you dance, you choreograph, you write, and the little C is something we're all born with, which is the divergent thinking gene. Basically, we have unlimited solutions to any problem. So what he concluded is the noncreative behavior is learned. Yay. You know why? Because if we learned it, we can unlearn it. That's exciting. But it all starts with pain. Who here has experienced pain in their business teams recently? Everyone. Oh, well, this is an exciting time of, we were just waiting for a collapse to happen, and then we're all going to ...
So I was hired by a tech company recently to help them tell better, more human stories to connect with their audiences. I was also hired to help them ask better, more creative questions so that they could build a software that was for a whole human being rather than just half of a human being. And when I started, the team was obsessed with pain points. Who here knows their pain points in their teams and businesses? Right away, right? I was asking some people, some of my friends, some of my gentlemen callers in the house last night like, what's a pain point and what's something you are experiencing joy about? And it was much easier to go for the pain first, and that's fine.
So the software was about aligning employers with employees. So we had to know both of their pain points. So for employers, it was, "I can't retain people. I don't have time to reflect and know that my messages are clear to my teams and I'm not sure how to attract people anymore." And from the employees’ standpoint, it's like, "I'm not seen. I'm not rewarded for my work and I don't have opportunities for impact." And pain is important. You all assess your customer's pain because if you know where it hurts, you know whether to give them a vitamin or a pill or a software or another product, and that's helpful. But there was a whole part that was missing. Yes, we're motivated by pain, but what else are we motivated by? Did somebody say drugs? No, I'm just kidding. We're motivated by joy or happiness. So I started thinking, "Well, what if we had the pain scale in app but we also brought in the other side of why companies are able to statistically retain, recruit, and build revenue, and that's happiness?" And I had real research to back it up.
And so I went to the team and I'm like, "What if we build a happiness tracker?" And they were not happy about it at all. And the founder was happy because founders are awesome. They're like the dreamers. But this team was like, "Ugh. We had all of the tension." And so we started building the happiness tracker in app. And the cool about it is, has everybody been on a team that was a little less functional than desired? So those people who said, yeah and giggled, have you ever experienced that team shifting to being more functional? Great. So what happened as a result of me saying, this is the other part, us as a team, we were happier. We started listening to each other more. We started caring about people's purpose. We started really collaborating to build this thing.
So that was such a generative moment. And this brings us to the what-if challenge. Thank you for asking what that is. Here's the deal. What if—I want you to write it down in your head, have it tattooed on your arm. What if is a question that us creative folks have always had in our back pocket. We give you the gift right now, and it's a question that allows for other options and opportunities beyond this time and space. What if? What if? What if we healed the pain points of our customers and they were happy?
And so we're going to do a challenge. I would love for you to work with either in twos or threes, depending on your dynamic at the table. And here's what we're going to do. I want you to ask yourself, what if you could solve a banking challenge by doing the exact opposite of what you're doing now? What if your next big solution came from a barista, came from a junior employee, or came from your niece? My 9-year-old niece is super sharp and I can hire her out for consulting. And what if your products and services didn't just solve a problem, but actually created something, created happiness, created a fuller human picture for your customers? So I want you to ... Let's just for a few minutes, a really short constraints, awesome. And turn to the person next to you and pick one of these problems and ask yourself, what if. Oh, but here's the only rule. You're not solving it really. I know you're all high achievers here. Come out with outlandish, weird, and wonderful things. No pressure. Just fun. Go, like the wind.
And then a hush came over the crowd. It was a loud hush, almost like a stage whisper. So great. People need it. OK, OK, OK, OK. OK. Oh my God, I'm so excited. Oh, silencio. OK. Here's the thing. Everybody needs to talk and connect with each other, especially after all the great speakers and panels and topics. True. Do we have David and Christian with microphones running around like... Yes. Is that a yes? I can't see.
First Audience Member
Yeah, we got it.
Tania Katan
OK, great. Awesome. So I'd love to hear from everyone or anyone who would like to share what they came up with as this team, this newfangled team. Anyone who wants to share. Oh my gosh, thank God. I was about to take a nap.
First Audience Member
So we came up ... I didn't want you to fall apart over here, back in the corner. So we came up with, we used our own math on junior employees and the diminishing returns of creativity or whatever that math was and apply the logic of a junior employee pretends a 5-year-old, that's at 97%. And as soon as you go to them and say, "What's the new idea you have?" Because they look at things completely different. They're not tied to the structures, the processes, anything else. And going to them and saying, "What would you change here?" Their fresh eyes looking at it. And it may be the dumbest idea in the world, but it could be a brilliant idea. There's usually some truth in between that.
So the idea of going to junior employees and saying 90 days, 180 days and saying, "What do you see here that you would change?" And really taking that feedback. And you can get a collective group of employees to do that because you're going to have the same diminishing return of creativity of the employees if they begin to live in an environment where every idea is the person who'd been there for 50 years.
Tania Katan
Yeah, wonderful. Round of applause for this gentleman. Yeah, wonderful. And literally, it costs no extra time, resources. And it actually uplifts and suggests that mentorship or sponsorship might be something we consider within our company, that we're uplifting and we see your value based on your diversity in age. Chef's kiss to you, sir. OK. Who else would like to share? Come on. You know what's happening at tables. Come on. Just can we say something? Just say it. Say it. I mean say it. Say it. Say it. I didn't mean to be like –
Second Audience Member
I will say it.
Tania Katan
... verbally aggressive.
Second Audience Member
I'll say it. I will take you out of your misery, I promise. OK. So for us, oh, is there somebody else talking? OK. You're good. OK. I will take you out of your misery.
Tania Katan
I'm not miserable. This is for you.
Second Audience Member
No, I know. I get it. It's OK.
Tania Katan
It is really fun though when we play together as opposed to ...
Second Audience Member
I get it.
Tania Katan
Yeah.
Second Audience Member
So kind of along the junior employee, we just did this with one of our tellers. She had to say a pain point. So I'm the COO of my company, so I don't do her work all the time, but she had a major pain point and she fixed it. She called our core provider, she fixed it, learned how to do it, and now she's going to train it and send it out to the team. She got stipulation little something to say thank you. But what happened was the rest of the team was like, "Oh, we can do that?"
Tania Katan
So she took initiative to do that?
Second Audience Member
Yes.
Tania Katan
And you supported her initiative by seeing her and the impact that she desired to have and then actually had.
Second Audience Member
Yes.
Tania Katan
High five, round of applause. OK, thank you. And I mean, these are really simple tweaks that we need to either be reminded of or have in our back pockets when we need to uplift ourselves and those around us in the workspace. Yay. I'm not even going to ask if there's any more because I know that there is.
So this thing, who here has seen this image before? Anyone? So once upon a time in 2015, I created this sucker. And at the time I was hired by a tech company to be an evangelist, which I thought was a religious zealot. So I was super excited, but turns out it's just like a performative salesperson. So anyway, but in all seriousness, my background is theater, playwriting, producing storytelling evenings and shows, and all that kind of stuff. And so my first month on the job, I didn't know anything about technology at all. I thought B2B was a charming hotel in someone's home. I didn't know. And I didn't have a copilot or ChatGPT. It was just me and my coffee stain notebook hoping I wouldn't be fired after my first month on the job.
And my boss asked a really generous, more creative human question. And again, this is all of our jobs now, is to ask better, more human questions, especially with AI as our tool. And she said, "Tania, how do we solve the problem of the lack of women in the tech space?" And so I didn't know anything about technology, and so I went to kind of an unexpected realm for a tech company. And I started talking with people. I started talking with my colleagues, and we had these really generative conversations like why aren't there more women in the tech space and why is there a lack of any diversity in the tech space? And does this impact other industries as well?
And we just started having these human conversations. And then I doubled down on humanity and I started thinking about all the classes I had taken in college, the theater, the philosophy, the cultural anthropology. And then Pema Chödrön came to mind, and she reminded me, in order to be fully alive, to be fully awake is to be pushed out of the nest over and over again. And I'm like, "OK, that's valuable information." And then I brought in all the poets, and Maya Angelou came to me and she reminded me, people will forget what you did. People will forget what you said. But people will never forget the way you made them feel. And then I went to the doctor and I went to the mountains and I looked to the children and I drank from the fountains. And there's more than one answer to this question pointing me in a crooked line. Thank you. I'm here for the four of you.
And really what I came to discover, this is a brilliant quote from Giselle Mota, and I'll tell you a little bit more about her, is that every artist knows, and I hope now all of you know, that the solutions that exist that really impact the fullness of humanity, that solve both the pain and support the happiness, are the ones that bring completely seemingly disparate worlds or disparate ideas together to create new meaning. And that's what I discovered in the process. What a gift. And Giselle Mota, does anyone know Giselle Mota? You're going to look her up and see a TED Talk. She's amazing. She's actually at the forefront of Web3. I think she's the evangelist for ADP, and she is leading the charge for people with invisible disabilities being seen in Web3, having a presence beyond this space. She's wonderful human being.
And so I want to share something with you. I want you to know—who here has had a PE teacher who much like JR suggested, might smoke a cigarette with a long ash and say, "Run the mile," and then not run the mile? Me, too. So I want you to know I'm not that PE teacher. So the next exercise I actually did just the other day thinking about you and BankOnPurpose so that I'm doing the same thing, just so you know. OK? So I was thinking about a major problem that impacted banking from a customer user perspective. And the thought of the pandemic came to mind. And when the foundation for your country is capitalism and the banks closed, that's disconcerting. And I remember I knew all the bank tellers at my local bank and I would go in there and it was like I walked my dog in the parking lot. We were just really close to this one particular bank.
And I remember being so freaked out at seeing the sort of ghost town when the bank shuttered. And not only that, but then I thought about the drive-through. We would walk through, here's this space that used to be active literally days before and was shut down. And I thought, "OK, all right, I see you." What are people trying to do to help each other out in the pandemic, especially businesses? They're creating plexiglass and glass and actually dividers in some way so they can talk to you. In fairness, we didn't know. We were washing groceries. Anyway. I'm like, "Hand me that bagel." Anyway, so I thought, "Gosh, the bank has a setup already. They don't have to build plexiglass. They got a bank teller right there. I can go through the drive-through." And that's when I came up with this idea.
First time ever shown, we asked the bank tellers to become storytellers. “I'd like to withdraw a story about human connection and resilience, please.” And this may seem silly or brilliant depending on your mindset at this moment or somewhere in between. But the point is, is if I literally worked for the bank, if I was a junior employee and they're like, "Come up with ideas." If the gentleman in the back was like, "Come up with ideas." I would've come up with this idea. And it's not shabby. It was a way to activate a space that was shut down, serve the community, and take part of the name, teller. Well, you don't have to just tell bank stuff. You can be a storyteller. You could be another teller. Anyway, now I'm going to ask you to do stuff too. Bam. OK, unexpected connections. Who knows the song?
OK, this may not be your problem, but I want you to think of the last problem that you faced as a leader. This could be like, I don't know if anybody's in the middle of a merger, what? If anybody has a problem of geography or distance or space or anything and how you would solve that problem if you didn't have a budget. No money. If the answer wasn't technology, but it was actually like analog, community-driven. And if your team were a bunch of 5-year-olds, because they're genius. OK? So again, turn to somebody else. Maybe this time if you worked with in twos, turn to somebody, another partner and go. Make sure it's outlandish, weird, and wonderful. You have two minutes, OK?
I don't know, actually, I don't even know why I am stopping you because I know you're not going to share. So I'm just going to... I know you're going to share this time because I felt the excitement. OK, how about this? You have an option for what you share. You can share one of two or both things. One, you can share how the exercise was for you, how to engage in this with either somebody you know, somebody you don't know, and two, actually what you came up with. No hands in the air, please. Today's opposite day. What? OK, who would like to share?
Third Audience Member
I'll answer both for you.
Tania Katan
Yes, please.
Third Audience Member
Ahon and I came up with what seemed to be a completely ridiculous idea. And the more we talked it through, it actually became not ridiculous. So we tried to figure out how would 5-year-olds solve a KYC problem? And we basically said, well, they would just ask their friends, "Do you know this person?" And if you ask enough friends and enough friends vouch for that person, then you can kind of trust that this person is who they say they are. So we're going to talk afterwards and maybe start a company called Vouch.
Tania Katan
Bravo. Give it up. That's awesome. OK. That's awesome. And I love that you're like, it started off as ridiculous and then became kind of actually a good idea. And actually when you said that, your whole body, like your tone, everything was playful. And I just want you to feel this because we're going to do one more thing that is really like a crisis situation and people forget to, when everything's clenched, including the world, that you have to release, you have to. There's no way to counterbalance it if you don't. So thank you for being playful and honest and sharing. Thanks. Who else would like to share? Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. Do we have a casualty? Did somebody leave something in the middle of the aisle? I thought we're being more human and creative, not trying to trip people. OK. Jeez. You can stay seated.
Fourth Audience Member
That's OK.
Tania Katan
OK.
Fourth Audience Member
So yeah, my name's Heather from Truist. So we started off first by name-calling, but yeah, our problem was inertia at the executive level. So we go bottom-up if your team was a 5-year-old, so we would go to the CEO and say, "You're dumb." OK?
Tania Katan
Yeah.
Fourth Audience Member
And we would start that way, but then you would kind of sit down and then just ... But then you'd sit down and you'd just go one-on-one and try to break that inertia. And without budget, just demonstrate why it's problematic and why that indecision is really impacting and it's going to end up costing a lot more. And so then we played around with some scenarios and then that was it.
Tania Katan
That's wonderful. Round of applause, please. And actually, what you either did by design or inadvertently was you used humor as an entry point into something, a difficult conversation. And I mean, I'm not suggesting you go to your boss and you're like, "You're dumb." But if you said it like that, they'd probably crack up. But it could be like, "Isn't it dumb that we're focused on this thing?" So humor is actually a powerful tool. I write about in my book, I teach about it, blah, blah, blah. Thank you for using it.
Anybody else before we move on? Chaka Khan. OK, who here has fired people? Who here has laid off people? Who here has furloughed people? Wait, keep them up if you've been fired, if you've been furloughed, if you've been laid off. Yeah, me too. All of them. I know all of them. So this is something I'm going to share with you that I don't typically share. I just ask that you don't take photographs or anything of the content because it's a real email that happened. But to me, it's the most illustrative thing I can do to show you how to utilize creativity in the form of a crisis and a really bad situation for a lot of people.
So I was hired as the senior vice president of marketing for a science and tech company, and their mission, brilliant, was eliminating single-use plastic to make the world healthier and make people healthier. Again, the chef's kiss for that one. I started, and has anybody worked with scientists? Holy. These were the best scientists from around the world, and we were excited and we're like, we're making plant-based cups and bowls, and this is brilliant. And everything was fast. And people were like, "Oh, it's like we're drinking from a fire hose." And I'm like, "I don't want chipped teeth and bloody mouth, but I'll do it too. I'm in, let's do this."
And everything was really fast-moving and we were going to go public and da, da, da. And all of a sudden, in short order, the energy really shifted and things slowed way down. And there were town hall meetings where people said things like, "The board thinks,” and, “Maybe now it's not a good time to go public." And I saw the writing on the wall, but you don't know how that's going to happen and how, as a senior-level person, you're going to be a part of it. And so I got the call on a Sunday from my boss and they said to me, "Listen, you're going to have to lay off your entire team. We're laying off basically half of the employees, and it's going to happen”—not lay off, sorry, furlough, but just a hair among friends basically—“and it's going to happen on Tuesday.” Basically, everybody's going to come to work, we're going to ask them to leave their computers and then goodbye, good day.
And that Sunday after that call, I felt horrible. I felt like here I worked with the smartest, most compassionate and purpose-driven people, and we were trying to solve a global problem, and I was just going to tell them to leave their computer and peace out. And that seemed out of alignment with who I was and my purpose, which is basically uplifting people who are typically underrepresented, underestimated, and under and getting on top. And I thought, that's not the way to do it. But the board had approved it and there was no turning back.
And so I made a decision hours afterwards, I kind of went for a walk and I'm like, "You know what? Even though it's done, I'm just going to write an email to my boss because if I didn't write something, I'd feel really horrible. If I didn't use my voice to speak up and say something in service of what we were trying to do, create a healthier planet and healthier people, that was our mission. I wouldn't feel good about myself."
So this is the email I actually wrote, and I'm going to read it to you. So I wrote, "Hi, first of all, I totally understand that the decision to execute furloughs immediately on Tuesday has been made by the company. That said, as a conduit to this decision and leader, the lack of advanced notice to employees is antithetical to the company's mission of creating a healthier planet and healthier people. I know you know this, but I have to say it, at a time when the company and the economy is experiencing turbulence, trust is our only capital. In doing a little bit of research on ways in which companies have carried out successful furloughs in order to maintain that trust with their employees, two themes emerged."
"One, they communicated with employees one week or more in advance that the furlough is going to happen. Two, they came up with creative ways to furlough employees that had less impact on their paychecks and livelihood. Three days paid, two days not, spread out over a month or two. I'm writing this because I know firsthand how important and impactful the company is because of its employees and in its next generation. It seems a worthy cause to consider the importance and impact that advanced communications can have on building trust with employees. Thank you for listening. I really appreciate you, Tania."
And it was just heartbreaking. So I sent it, and then on Monday I got a phone call from my boss and they said, "I shared the letter with the board, and we've decided to give people a two-week furlough. And you can have conversations with your team." And my instinct always, and something I always do as a practice, if I have to lay off, furlough, la, la, la, is to meet with that person, assuming that they're an awesome human being, and I'll share all my resources. Go to my LinkedIn page, I'm here for you transitioning. And it changed. It changed how we were going to lay off a bunch of people basically in the middle of the night.
And I'm not saying I was the catalyst for change. What I'm saying is, is that I approached something that seemed dire. It was a crisis in my mind. And as a leader, I just went back to the mission and values of our company to show that creativity is an extension of the brand. A lot of people see like, oh, we're the third place. Anybody like Starbucks? I used to work there back when I was 10 years old, 5 years old, very high achiever, and they were the third place. And now nobody makes eye contact with you if you walk inside a space.
And so to honor that, so I want to do one final exercise really quickly like one minute. It's worth our time because this is important. So this may not be the problem you're facing. I just threw this in here, but something, I want you to think of something high impact in terms of a problem that you feel is not fun, not like, "Let's brainstorm about it." Something that's hard and you're at banking on purpose, you're at BankOnPurpose. You're not here. You're not like some schlubby folks who are like, "Let's just fire everyone and get a drink." That's not why you're here. Somebody did that. I can feel it. They're like, "Well, it was an amber-colored liquid. It was fantastic." OK, but the point is, I want you to just literally take two minutes, that's all we have time for, two minutes. And I just want you to just tackle one big critical issue with a little bit of creativity. Go to your mission, your values, and see how you can live them in addressing that problem. Go right now.
OK? This is great. I'm not going to ask you anything. You're welcome. OK, so I'm going to ask you one thing only, and that's, "Are you really committed to leading with more creativity and humanity?" OK. Are you really committed to leading with more creativity and more humanity? OK, stand up if you're able to right now, stand up. OK, on the count of three, I want you to give yourselves, each other, the whole world, everyone who is choosing to lead with creativity and humanity, the best standing ovation you got. 1, 2, 3. Woo, woo, woo. Thank you.
Cheryl Brown
Thanks for listening to this week's episode of The Purposeful Banker. If you want to catch more episodes, subscribe to the show wherever you like to listen to podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and iHeartRadio. As always, we'd love to hear what you think in the comments, and you can learn more about the company behind the content by visiting Q2.com. Until next time, this is Cheryl Brown and you've been listening to The Purposeful Banker.