The Community, Connections & Commerce Podcast, presented by OUE & St. Clairsville Chamber - Community, Connections, & Commerce Episode 16 with Todd Cover

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

🎵 Hello, it's Drake Watson along with Wendy Anderson. As always, Wendy, good morning. Good morning, Drake. How are you? I'm especially good this morning, especially because we have special guest Todd Kober on with us this morning, President and CEO of Belmont Savings Bank. Todd, we really appreciate you carving out the time out of your day to come speak to us, and we're looking forward to a great conversation with you. Yeah, sure. No problem. It's always fun to catch up with Wendy, and good to meet you, Drake.

So, looking forward to it. Well, we'll start with the same question we kind of ask all our guests as kind of, you know, who you are, a little bit about yourself and how you got to where you are now. That's a loaded question. Well, I'm Todd Cover. So I grew up in Wheeling. I actually went to Brooke High School. My parents were both teachers in Ohio County, which is a Wheeling area. They were both teachers in the county system. We actually lived in Brooke County, right across the border at the bottom of the airport hill where I grew up. My parents, my sister and I, they sent us to Brooke County schools. I graduated from Brooke High School in 1994, then went on to play baseball at Davidson

Elkins for two years and finished up playing baseball and going to school at West Liberty, now West Liberty University. Graduated there in 1998. Had a couple contacts, and, you know, one of those contacts, Jim Croft, you know, he's Mike Howard, if you know Mike Howard through the Chambers, actually was his father-in-law for a long time. He was a good family friend. He got me into banking, specifically with the West Virginia State Bankers Association.

I was a bank examiner there for about three and a half to four years, and then was actually lucky enough to get on with Rich Lucas and Bruce Wilson down at Main Street Bank, where I worked for about 10 years. At that time, they were the Nova Bank, which is a fancy term for a new bank. They had just started in 2001. I joined them in 2004. So stayed there till about 2012. Did a couple commercial lending jobs at some other institutions around the Valley. So, you know, got this opportunity with Belmont Savings. Started in December of 2015 as CEO in training. Was actually what I was hired for.

The current president and CEO at the time was Tom Poe. He ended up passing away in February of 2016. So my, you know, what was going to be 12 to 18 month training window was cut down to two months. So, you know, it is what it was. There's a lot of good people along the way that, you know, have helped me, you know, kind of help build this thing up at Belmont Savings. And, you know, we've been fortunate to hire a lot of good people, a lot of good people

that have been with us for a while. So that's kind of the background story on it. I've been there. It'll be nine years in December. So it's a good time. We have fun at the bank, you know, good culture. So it's a job I don't foresee myself looking to leave. So you are very local.

What I mean is you support the local community everywhere. Yeah, 100%. You know, and that's for, for me, that's the kind of the essence of community banking is, you know, give back to the communities that serve us or that we serve. You know, those people that, you know, bank with us and give us their trust and financial relationships, we try to give back, you know, and that means whether it's the schools, it's the local clubs and organizations, you know, the football teams, the baseball teams, or any sports team. You know, it is our job as a community bank to give back to those communities and try to help those people develop as well.

You know, I'm in a fortunate position now, I always say, to give back to those people that helped me along the way. So, you know, we've been a big partner with a bunch of numerous charities, you know, up and down the river, actually, and not just the community we serve, but, you know, up and down the area. So, as you know, Wendy, we're pretty involved. And, you know, for us, it's not just about donating money. It's about donating time as well.

And we like to be involved with the projects that we support and not just throw a check at them. So I think that's where we're a little bit different than some of the other banks you know my parents and my mom specifically tells me you guys are everywhere i'm tired of seeing you and you are and i noticed that and what you just said there when you do when you back a project a community baseball game or a fundraiser or something, you have an entourage of people that show up from tellers to bank managers, you know, and yourself and your, you know, your executive staff. Yeah. You all show up. Yeah. And that's kind of what, you know, again, what makes us a little bit different. We're actually, you know, we actually pay people to go to those events.

That's how important it is to us as, you know, for me, from executive management all the way down to, you know, every person in the organization, you know, I don't, you know, the people around you, hopefully they can tell you, I don't think of myself as any being any better than anyone. So, you know, I consider myself one of our 59 employees um and you know that's kind of the way we operate so you know it's no it's not a uncommon occurrence to see me you know at any event you know helping out as any way I can um again I'm a fortunate position to be where I'm at but I haven't got there without help along the way so again if we can we can help out and give back to those communities that, that we serve, you know, that's kind of our goal. So the one thing I I'm interested in, you said you hire, you have a bunch of people that you've

hired. What do you look for in a person who is going to apply to for your bank? That's easy. You know, we have a we have the kind of the, you know, the core, the core, the core qualifications or, you know, the core things we look for. And, you know, the first thing for me is trust. You know, I got to be able to trust you. That's number one across the board. And I think anyone that's ever dealt with me or knows me knows that is 100 um the first thing i look for in people uh loyalty um you know the willingness to help out um you know great character

obviously experience helps you know um but at the same time you know i think it's the core values that we emphasize at the bank are really trust loyalty uh willingness to help and you know I think it's the core values that we emphasize at the bank are really trust loyalty willingness to help and you know good character and you're right you have the educate you can somebody can be taught how to do the banking procedures or the job at hand but you can't teach personality right you can't teach loyalty that just and I think that is something that you guys really pride yourself in because at every branch that I've been to, it's the same. It's the same mentality. Well, I appreciate that, Wendy.

I think what makes us different is our people. And we've been very fortunate through COVID, through everything, and the economy not being as strong as it has been. We've been fortunate. We've had, I'd say probably average employee for us has been there seven to eight years. Yeah. So it's just, we don't have a lot of turnover, knock on wood. You know, hopefully it doesn't change tomorrow because I just said that it doesn't jinx myself. But that also says a lot to you and your staff for retaining those employees because you actually feed them the support that they need because you just anybody can go to a job and just work but it's the executive

management that feed those people that they want to stay and they want to bring on their friends. So I think that you guys have done an amazing job with that. Yeah. And I, again, I appreciate that. I think culture has been one of the things when I first started, culture is one of the things that probably needed to address most. You know, when I took over, I always called us kind of a sleepy bank. You know, we were, we were size wise, pretty decent size as far as asset size is concerned, but I don't think a whole lot of people knew about us. That was the first thing we had to change. We did a lot of branding.

We did a lot of, like I said, changing culture, and that's just making it a more enjoyable place to work. I know of a lot of people that you're sitting there on Sunday night and you're like, oh, gosh, I've got to get up and go to work tomorrow. I don't want anyone at Beaumont Savings feeling that way. Again, it's a job, so it's a necessary evil. You got to provide for your family, but at the same time, I don't want people to be fearful of getting up Monday morning or whatever morning and going to work. So if we can help build that in the culture, and we do a lot for employees too. I don't want that to go

unnoticed. We try to provide, like you said, the support for them. Yeah, you. And we do a lot for employees too. You know, I don't want that to go unnoticed. You know, we try to provide, like you said, the support for them. Yeah, you do. We do a lot of fun things at the bank, you know. So I want them to feel as valuable as I look at them. I want them to know they're as valuable as I see them. Oh, that's really nice. Yeah.

Yeah, I think the culture, when you meet someone that you're about to hire and you meet someone who has a culture that is, you know, aligned with yours and what you're looking for, that's kind of part of the intangibles that you're looking for when you're filtering the sand. And, you know, everybody can have a job or bank, but not everybody has those same intangibles that you're looking for. Right. And I wanted to ask, we had a guest on not too long ago who mentioned his industry was very important to the local community and to the area, but not a lot of people understood the ins and outs of his industry. And because of that, they were actually losing money. And I am wondering, what role do you play or do you feel like you play in terms of educating people about the ins and outs and kind of the behind the scenes work of banking and making sure

not only are you there for the people, but you're also, I guess, a hand that they can grab onto. Yeah. Well, you know, our number one goal with, you know, Belmont Savings is, this is going to sound good, but bad, but, you know, we're not there. Like we don't have shareholders, so we're mutual. Okay. So that allows us the opportunity to kind of do a lot more for the community rather than the banks that do have shareholders, and they want earnings and they want dividends paid. So that allows us to do a little bit more. But the big thing for Belmont Savings is we want to put you in the right product

to help you out. Not every bank is willing to do that. Whether they want to admit to it or not, they do need to reach that bottom line. Again, for us, it's not about that. It's about situations happen in life, and we're there to try to help you through those situations. I think I just mentioned to Wendy a perfect example of my life. My son's car just died, and a new engine is going to be $10,000. I mean, it would be nice to just reach in the back pocket and grab $10,000, but not

a whole lot of people can do that. So, you know, that's something where, you know, we want to be there to help you out. We want to be your first thought to help you through those situations. You know, how can we help you today is actually our motto. So, you know, that's kind of our part in it. But, you know, being a bank, you know, it's about product development. We've developed a ton of products, which has been, you know, top of our list as well over the past nine years. You know, our goal is to, we want to be able to, you to come to Belmont Savings and do anything you can at the big banks, but with a, you know,

lower fee structure and a better customer service. You know, that's been our goal and that's been our kind of our mode of operation for the past nine years and will continue to be so. So, you know, along with that, to kind of answer, you know, another part of your question, Drake, is, you know, there's a lot of development on the back side of that. You know, there's a lot of back office jobs that, again, you know, people may not know them on the front lines, but there's a lot of importance in those back support jobs that, you know, help us to get where we're at today.

Well, what I like is when you do have a new product and you do launch it, you launch it with information. You let the community know this is what we have, this is how you go about getting it, and this is everything that you need to know about that product. And I know I did something at your bank personally, and I had no idea.

And till the teller actually explained it to me, and she said, and I said, I'm so sorry, I feel like I'm really stupid. She said, no, no, no, listen, not everybody understands this. And she took me step by step through the whole process. And it was very interesting, because I don't have the I know, it's gonna be shocking. I don't have the financial mind that a lot of people do. I just do not. But I know that now I know the product because she explained it to me in layman's terms. I understood that. So I thank you for having that culture in your bank that allows

me, average woman, to understand this stuff. Yeah. Well, again, I appreciate that, Wendy. You know, again, I think that's one of the things that makes us different. You know, again, I appreciate that, Wendy. Again, I think that's one of the things that makes us different. Again, when you're driven towards profit, you're going to have a lean staff inside any branch. And that's just the way the numbers work out for us. Again, it's about what's doing best for you. So we want to have people there. And when you walk into our office, we want you to be greeted. We want you to be acknowledged. and we want to see how we can help you out. Again, if there's two people when you walk into a branch at another bank, chances are they're going to be too busy to help you out and sit down and talk with you. So, again, I think that's one of the things that separates us as a community bank,

and specifically for Belmont Savings Bank is one of the things we emphasize pretty regularly. So I'm going to ask you a question about you personally. All right. So why stay local? Why stay here in the Ohio Valley? What is it about the Ohio Valley that you like and you love? Well, obviously, it's a great place to raise a family. You know, this has been home for me. I don't think, you know, there's got to be something super special to draw me away from here. It's been home for me. I don't think, you know, there's got to be something super special to draw me away from here. It's been home forever. My whole family's here.

You know, my parents were super lucky that my sister, who lives in St. Clairsville, and I are still local. You know, they can see their grandkids grow up. You know, I go to church with my mom and dad every single Sunday. I think that's important, you know. High Valley's a really good place.

There's a lot of negative talk maybe about not so much to do if you went to Columbus or Pittsburgh, but those places are easy drive away. You could be in Columbus an hour, 45, and Pittsburgh in an hour. So it's not like you're crossing the country on those. I think there's a stat out there somewhere, you know, there's so much of the U.S. population that's within a, you know, three, four hour drive too. So it's, you know, it's pretty well situated. Is the industry and economy where we want it to be right now? Probably

not. But, you know, that's, that's our job to fix as well. You know, and that's why I think if everybody pitches in a little bit and, you know, that's why we're so focused on giving back to the community and try to help and do what we can to help develop this area uh because it is a great area um you know to raise a family and it's good area it's it's safe and you know you get to know a lot of people which you know always comes in handy you know again with my with my son's car situation i mean if i lived in dallas texas i mean where am I going to take it?

I don't know anybody, you know, with it now. You know, I was able to reach out to a few people and, you know, take it to who can help me fix it. So I think there's, you know, something to be said for that as well, just getting to know a lot of people and having a lot of contacts. That seems to be the one common thread that we're getting in all of our interviews that we've done, right, Drake? It's a great place to raise a family is what we hear all the time. We hear that there's nothing like home and that kind of small town, small area feel. And if you are looking for stuff to do that, if you're not satisfied, I don't know how you're not with the things that you could do around here. It is an easy drive out 70 to hit Columbus or head up to Pittsburgh or even Cleveland.

Sure. And even then, D.C. is only five hours away. Right. So you're really close to a lot of things. I think to your point, I mean, I think at some point we're just going to have to come on and do maybe a half hour long just read on how good this area is to live in it is and we can compile the answers that we've gotten from our guests and everything that's just been very interesting for me i do want to ask you if you could look back and and talk to a younger version of yourself um maybe the the west liberty version of yourself or a college student what would you say or what advice would you give um you know again i i it's it's probably something that the best advice I would give is probably something I tell my kids every day, and that's be nice and talk to everyone that you know.

You know, you never know when you're going to need somebody or need somebody's advice or, you know, need that contact going forward in the future. You know, getting your job coming out of the future, you know, it's, you know, getting your job coming out of West Liberty is, is, or any school is the toughest job you're ever going to have to find. I think that's, you know, you learn that over time, you know, after that, it's, it's basically up to you and what kind of network you build and who you get to know and, you know, who trusts you and who, who looks at you as a valuable employee and a valuable person to be around, you know, so build your be around. You know,

so build your network and, you know, try to help out anywhere you can. I think people notice that people remember that. So, you know, I guess just be nice. Number one, be nice, be kind. And, you know, talk to as many people as you can and try to network and build your network up because it's going to be invaluable to you down the line. As far as building network, we talk all the time about connections. It's in the name of the show. We ask everybody how important are connections. Everybody says, oh, they're so important. You need to make connections. And then we kind of just blow over it and go on. We don't ever really get down to the meat and bones of what it is or what it means to make a connection or how to build a network. How do you know who to run into at what place at what time? How do you know whose hands to shake?

How do you know whose number to get? How do you know, you know, things like that. What goes into building successful, you know, connections and building a network that can really take you a long way throughout your life? Well, that's a good question. I mean, I don't think there's any perfect way or one set way to do it. For me, it's, you know, and I'll be the first to tell you, and I'm not the most outgoing person in the world,

but for me it's just about being seen, being seen and, you know, making connections, you know. I tell our people all the time, you know, just go be seen at lunch. You know, I'll pay for your lunch. You know, go sit down at a restaurant. And the more you get to interact with people, the more people see you, they start to ask questions and they feel comfortable with you so for me it's it's not necessarily going to be the loudest person in a room and you know they say work in the room I guess you know shaking

every hand you possibly can you know I'm not running for office so I don't I don't need votes but at the same time you know I think I'm a pretty good guy and I'm pretty down to earth so you know for me it's just it's just being seen and then people start to trust you they start to ask your questions like hey what's your name where do you work and you know once they get that comfort level with you then you can kind of you know talk and get into the business side of things but um again there's not one way that's perfect or one way that's uh preferred it's just kind of what what personality that those individuals have and, you know, how can they be effective doing it. And that's what part of the commerce part of our title is that connection and that building relationships. And what you said is true because it's being seen, not necessarily the loudest person in the room,

but just being seen at different events. And there's so many different events in the room, but just being seen at different events. And there's so many different events in the Ohio Valley. Yeah, I mean, you could you could have a whole your calendar is total. My calendar is totally full. And it's exhausting. It is it's, but I still go, because it's important to me as it is important to you to be seen. So I am open for people to ask me questions, right? Sure. Because that's what it's all about.

Well, 100%. It's kind of the Drake's point there. If people say they don't have anything to do, I mean, just give me a call. I'll give you 100 events you can go to. And again, that's part of us is just supporting the local communities. And there's a thousand things we could go to each week. You know, so, you know, we try to be everywhere. We can't be everywhere.

But, you know, because we have kids and we have, you know, things going on in our personal lives. But, you know, it is super important to be out there and be seen and have people, you know, trust it. Hey, I know Belmont Savings Bank is a supporter of this event. They're going to be here. I can promise you they're not just writing a check. Someone's going to be here. And I think that's, if it's not 100% of the time, I'll say it's pretty close to that, where we're going to be out there when we donate money to things.

So what do you do personally to take care of yourself? Self-care is huge. I know. I know. I've just like really thrown you a curveball. We're going to start asking everybody that. I think that's the best question you've ever asked. So, you know, because what you do is stressful.

Yeah. In today's economy especially. It's very stressful. You have to have answers. You have to talk to, you know, your customers. So what do you do for self-care? Well, it's going to kind of sound weird, but I coach baseball. And, you know, there's pressure in that too, because I'm the head coach at Wheeling Central and I coach my two youngest ones who go to school there. But for me, that's an escape,

you know, that's fun. You know, yes, there's pressure to win, but at the same time, like I love, I love doing it. I love, you know, being around my kids. I love being around their friends who I've coached since, you know, they were seven or eight. Um, that's, to me, that's an escape. Um, you know, going to watch baseball, um, you know, I try to walk and jog, you know, three or four times a week, at least, um, just stress relievers. And, you know, sometimes it's, you know, we talk about our calendar being full. And sometimes for me, just personally, it's fun to just be at home and just veg out on the couch and, you know, watch meaningless TV. You know, that's a stress reliever too.

And it's, you know, we're all so busy that it just takes time, you know, for yourself. And you have to take time for yourself. You do're going to get burned out pretty quick. And it's going to, you know, obviously probably create some health problems. So yeah, that's a good question to ask. But for me, it's probably exercise and then coaching baseball is just something I love doing. I love being around the kids. I love, you know, interacting with the kids and just, you know, helping them in any way I can. Again, you know, I can. Again, I was on the other side of the fence as a baseball player wanting to play college baseball. And there were some coaches that were big influences in my life.

So if I can do that for one kid, then I'm successful. And there's a huge aspect of investing in your community in that regard as well. That volunteerism. I think the teachers and coaches and like you have an opportunity to make such an impact on so many young people's lives. And obviously you and I both hope there's, you know, a lot of good impact that you make. But that's just another thing that can feed into the community. And I think that's incredible. So, you know, you're kind of, I guess, diversifying your, your investments in the community. No, that was a good one.

I got nervous about that one. Yeah. No, it's true. Again, it's just us being involved as a bank. And, you know, the bank obviously allows me to have a little bit of a flexible schedule to be able to do that. So, again, there's, you know, it's something I've done since my oldest is 23. He's still playing at Muskegon University baseball.

So it's something I've done since my oldest is 23. He's still playing at Muskegon University baseball. So it's something I've done since he was five. So, you know, think back. It's been 18 years, but it's been 18 enjoyable years. Yeah, there's some stresses along the way. But, again, it's something I love to do. I love being around the kids. I love, you know, being around the game of baseball. So, for me, it's been nothing but fun.

Well, I am – I love having you on here. This has been nothing but fun. This has been this has been a great morning. Oh, yeah. You have a lot. You brought a lot to the table. And thank you for that, because we really do appreciate you and your bank and the volunteerism that you create and you cultivate in that in that banking realm um not every bank has that so i really do appreciate it yeah because you're not stiff like you're not like starchy shirt yeah a suit which

i did iron my shirt wendy doesn't look good or what it's good your shirt looks good so no i think again i think we're a fun bank to be around um you know like i said we developed so many products over the past eight or nine years like i honestly i'll put our checking accounts up against anybody in the country whether it's you know internet based or you know a brick and mortar building you know so people that haven't haven't checked us out or given us a chance come check us out and if if you're not happy you know you can call me personally that's another thing i think i'm pretty pretty approachable um i'm going to take my if you call me and ask for me at the bank you're gonna you know you're gonna get a call back i promise you that um again that's

we we're just i don't think of myself as being a you know in a in a in a situation where you know i'm too good to call anyone back you know there's people call me all the time and just ask me questions about their account and I'll talk to them. I mean, that's what makes us different. And if you don't have that kind of service with your bank or institution, come check us out and give us a shot.

Okay. Well, we really appreciate you coming on this morning. We appreciate you taking the time out and talking to us. We've had an incredible and insightful conversation. For Todd Covert, Wendy Anderson, I'm Drake Watson. This has been Community Connections and Commerce. Thank you for listening.