WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The WRFH Interview: Mike Ring

Episode Date: April 27, 2026

Mike Ring is the President and CEO of Old Glory Bank and a member of the Board of Directors of Old Glory Bank and Old Glory Holding Company. He visited Hillsdale College's campus as part of the Center for Commerce and Freedom's Annual Business Conference and joined WRFH for an interview. From 04/17/26.

This is Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm Nicole Seguer Tau, and with me today is Mike Ring. Mr. Ring is the president and CEO of Old Glory Bank and a member of the Board of Directors of Old Glory Bank and the Old Glory Holding Company. He is here on Hillsdale's campus for the Hillsdale College Center for Commerce and Freedom Conference. Thank you for joining me today, Mr. Ring. Well, thanks for having me. And first, I have to understand more about you, Nicole. So what year are you at Hillsdale, this beautiful college? I am a junior here at Hillsdale and I'm a marketing major. Phenomenal, where do you hail from? Where were you born?

Southern California, Mission-Bio area. I was born and raised there. Southern Cal girl believes in the Constitution and the values of Hillsdale. Yes. Your parents must be very proud. I mean, I would hope so. They're from Romania. My parents, they're my grandparents lead communism to come here. So both my parents kind of grew up in communism for a little bit. Good for you. Are your friends disappointed that you're a patriot that you grew up with? or they understand? A lot of my friends from home, I think, are mostly on the same page. There's some that we have different political views, but I mean, I'm still friends with them. They're still

lovely people and we get along. It's okay to love a leftist, so that's great. Well, congratulations on being at Hillsdale. I've met so many great students and you folks continue to amaze me with your ability to communicate, to think, to talk. Anyone who is thinking about coming to Hillsdale has got to meet more people like you because it's a phenomenal place. I dinner with some of the kids last night. Don't want to call them kids, but I'm 60 so I can. And I love this place. So thank you for having me. Well, thank you so much. So where did you grow up? What's your background? And how did you get into banking? Yeah, that's a great. That's a great question. One, I have a pretty good answer to because it's not one that people think. I actually had no intent to be a banker. I had

pretty good success as a lawyer. I was in the military and then went to law school using the GI bill. And had a really, thankfully, had a pretty good career being a lawyer. Had a wonderful family. I was 57 years old. And the summer of love happened in 2020, if you remember. And then we had the election, which did not go the way I wish it would have. And then we had J6, which no one appreciated what happened on that day, but everyone should be disturbed by what happened after J6, when Big Bank shared data with the government merely for being in the capital and using your debit card. And then Bank of America, without being a subpoena, shared information with the government of who had bought a gun and the firearm in the prior to six months.

And it was really disturbing to me. And so some of my friends called me up that I had a lifetime of clients and lawyers. And many of them as a lawyer had a lifetime of clients. And one of them named Eric Goldhousen called me up and said, ring, we have got to do a pro-America Bank. And I was like, wow, that's a big idea. But I'm just too busy winding down my life. kids going, get ready to go to college. I'm going to play a little golf and have a life. And he said, okay. And then God just kept telling me, no, you have got to do this. I didn't want to be just one of those people complaining about what was happening. I wanted to be one of those people who were doing it. So I called Eric back and said, dude, what you said was right. We're going to do it. We're going to do it.

So I reached out to everyone I knew. We raised the money we need. We did a business plan to raise the money and understand how to do it. We had to think federal charter, state charter, reliably red state, Blue State, Red State, OCC Bank, State Charter Bank, Fed member, not Fed member. And then we had to bring people who were patriots together because I can't, you know, no one wants to hear from me. But so thank you for having me on Nicole. Normally people don't want to hear from me, but they want to hear from people that they know and love. So I was able to get in front of Dr. Ben Carson who became a co-founder, a stockholder who's

been on our board, Larry Elder, John Rich. Not sure if you're a country girl like country music, but John Rich is one of the most outspoken country artists out there. Sean Spicer, who everyone knows from the Trump years, the number two guy at Fox News, Bill Shine, was a long-time client in front of mine. Larry Elder was a longtime client of mine. We came all together and said, we're going to start a bank called Old Glory Bank, because those three words, as a marketing major, you'll appreciate those three words say it all. It tells you who we are, what we believe, and what we're going to do for you. I think it's not to sound like Trump,

but I think it's the greatest brand of all time. And it wasn't my idea. It was one of my investor's idea, so I can say it's great. And then we had to do the the hard work. And I had to write a business plan to go out and raise some money. My wife and I, you know, are the largest investors, but we had to bring some partners in. And I was not focusing on it because life gets in the way. You think you have a great idea. And then God kept telling me every day he was telling me, go do it. And finally, I wasn't listening. So as God often does, his plan, trumps my plan. He gave me COVID. And I had not yet had COVID. And I, so I first couple days, like most people with COVID in 2021, I was just a slacker. Wasn't doing anything. And then

every day I would hear in my head, God telling me, get off your butt, go downstairs and write the business plan. So I finally did on day three, and it came out of me, and I'm not a writer. And I've never written a business plan. I'm a lawyer, a boring lawyer. And it came out of me like it was inspiration. And if I look back now, which is four years, five years later, every word we wrote down in those couple days exist today at El Gorey Bank. So I knew it was inspirational. And then we had to get through, we had to then go find a bank, which wasn't for sale, we'd literally knocked on the door of a bank we wanted to buy. And the guy said, no, bank's not for sale. Never going to sell it. You city slickers, it was a small bank in

Oklahoma, but it was near Route 66. And it was perfect. It was on Main Street. I always say we're a bank for Main Street, not Wall Street. And it's literally on Main Street. And it's literally on the movie, which you remember the movie, it was based on that town. It was really like as early as the 80s, you couldn't dance in Elmore City because of the Baptist Church. And so we knocked on the door. The owner said, it's not for sale. As a fellow lawyer, I said, Clay, give me $12. 20 minutes, Clay Christensen, gave me 20 minutes. Okay, Ray, we're going to sell you the bank. So we bought the bank from them.

He then invested his money back into the bank. He's been on the board ever since. We had to get through Federal Reserve approval. And this is in 2022 with the Biden administration. And they hated me. All the regulators, except for the state, hated me. The FDIC hated me. The Federal Reserve hated me.

The CFPB hated me. They still do, but it's okay. I got lots of friends. I don't need them. And they all said, you know, they wouldn't give me the approval. They wouldn't get. And I just said, folks, I'm not going away. And I'm going to sit in your doorstep or I'm going to sue you

if you don't give me approval. So then finally, they have this big call towards the end of 2022 to kind of force me to walk away. They just literally told me, Mr. Ring, we're never going to approve this. So quit trying to say,

I'm going to keep trying. And then finally one of them kind of smartly said, well, Mr. Ring. And they all had pronouns. And they were just looking down on me like, you know, I was the scum of the earth, the unclansed Main Street America guy.

And this one guy said, he was an idiot. He said, if this was such a good idea, Mr. Ring, why has no one ever done it before? And I said, well, that's the whole point. This is what business is, you fools. This is why we're business and your regulators. And so they finally gave approval. I think they regretted it. They've beat on me every day, but I beat right back. And so here we are.

Three years later, I think we're the fastest growing bank ever. We have customers in all 50 states. We will not debank you no matter what you believe. You don't have to believe with us. Like you could be a tree-hugging, vegan eating. You know, I hate to say it, but you could even be pro-abortion. And we will not debank you because if we do, then we're no different than the people. people who have debanked us for years. And anyone who said that debanking is not real as line, we have tens of thousands of customers who were debanked by the big banks. President Trump was debanked by the weak Patrick Mornahan at Bank of America by the weak Jamie Diamond at Chase Bank. They're a week because they fell victim to their hard left middle managers and the regulators,

they say. And we won't. So you don't have to agree with us, Nicole, but we'd still love your business. It takes eight minutes to open an account. We have all the best products and services. That sounds amazing. And I love it. I love how enthusiastic you are about all of this because that truly, I feel like, is rare in these days in the business world. I think a lot of people are more so just going into careers for the money, but you are obviously passionate about this and you want to help out people. And in my brief research, I found out a little snippet about Mike Lindell about using that as an example as to why it's so important. You start, All Glory Bank. I don't know if you want to expand on that a little bit more.

Yeah, so I've told the story. Eric had called me right after J6, actually called me forth the idea, and we talked after J.S.X and saying, Eric, your idea to do this bank is big. I still wasn't really going to do it. And then on January 20th, 2021, it was the inauguration day for Joe Biden. Mike Lindell is on the radio talking to Sean Hannity, his radio show. I was in the car driving. And I'm listening to Hannity, listen to Lindell, and Lindell had just been canceled and kicked out of all the store retailers, like Bed Bath and Beyond because of his stance on J6, which is just ridiculous, but it is what it is. And if you remember earlier, there was a company called Parlor that canceled, that was canceled by Amazon Web Services because of their stance on conservatives.

And if you remember, Donald Trump was canceled by Stripe. If you're a small business out there and you're using Stripe, you should be ashamed of yourself because they are the worst. but that's a different. And so I'm listening to him, and Lindell is really literally crying about he's lost all this business, but he's still believed in God and he still believed that, you know, everything's going to be fine. And Sean Hannity says to him, what are you, and he's talking about his online business. I'll be okay.

I'll be okay. I have the online business. And Sean Hannity says to him, well, how about your servers, you know, because Amazon are just canceled parlor. They're going to can. And Lindel says, oh, my servers are covered. And I'm literally screaming at the radio. I've said, they're coming for your banking.

They're coming for your payments next. And I was right. They came for everyone's banking and everyone payments. Today, PayPal will not allow you to buy ammunition using PayPal or firearms. Regardless of what the Second Amendment says, the credit card companies are tracking and keeping track of what you buy for ammunition, which is why most people pay cash, which is why you should bank with Old Glory Bank, because we will never turn your data to the government for buying that kind of stuff. And so Lindell, I have to say, once that happened, I called everybody up and said,

we're doing this and we're going to do it big because if, The left takes payments and banking, they win and we lose, and they would have. And I think we're the only bank who's ever stepped up and taken a stance. And it's because I'm crazy. You're not crazy. You've got to be crazy to do business. You're passionate about the right things about the Constitution and protecting the freedoms of hardworking Americans.

Well, thank you, Nicole. This is Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm Nicole Siguritau talking to Mike Ring. So aside everything that you've mentioned about Old Glory Bank and the Constitution and how you will predict what people believe in. The website talks a little bit about cryptocurrency and how currency is changing. Can you expand a bit on that as well? This is the layup of all layup questions. Thank you, Nicole. I did not, folks, I did not give her these questions that these are good ones. So actually one of the reasons why I was blessed to be here today

and talk of this great form that they're having about the great transfer of wealth. I have long believe that you can't have true financial freedom unless you have decentralized financial freedom. And decentralized means that is not controlled by the government. If you think about all Fiat, which is just a fancy word for U.S. dollars and currency. Or if you're in Japan, Fiat would be the Japanese yand or in Mexico would be the peso or in Europe, it would be the euro. So that's Fiat. It is top down. It is set by the government and you're told to take it. You know the old thing he says on your dollar bill, legal tender, you must take it. That's a lot. It's a little bit. That's once it's controlled by the government, they can turn it on and off for people that they don't like it.

We saw that with debanking. We've seen that with the Federal Reserve picking and choosing banks that they want to keep. Remember, folks, after 2008 in that massive financial crisis we had, the Federal Reserve spent $500 billion with a B to bail out all the big banks. Yeah, they sacrificed Lehman Brothers, but that was a sacrificial lamb. They wouldn't spend $50 billion. They just spent $500 to save the small banks. banks. We lost 500 of them. Why is that? Because they want consolidate power. They want fewer less, they want fewer banks, more big banks, so they can control you and control the economy. And so all that goes away when you have decentralized finance. So there's two things you've got to remember. There's stable coins, which is money. And then there's Bitcoin, ETH, XRP, Solano, all of those coins. So tokens are stable coins, even though it should be called stable tokens. And coins are those others. And those others are monetary assets. They go up and down. in value. And that's okay. Gold goes up and down in value. Tesla stock goes up and down in value.

Your land goes up and down in value. So don't think of crypto in coins such as Bitcoin, Eith, XRP, or Solano as money. Think of it as an asset and own a little bit if you want. Like think of a stable coin as money. And so now when you send money to someone today, you could use a, you know, you could use PayPal or glory pay. It's much better. Or you could use something else to send money. The best thing is send it on in on the blockchain using a stable coin today the big stable coins are tether and circle between the two i would recommend circle i think they're they're on the u.s they're regulated by the u.s they're backed by the dollar they're backed by treasuries all stable coins starting in january 27 because the genius act will have to do that but circle is there now if tether is not there yet

and then you can send money in the blockchain in two seconds so now you don't have to worry if you owe someone money if you want to buy a car if you want to buy goods if you're running a business and buying product. You never have to worry about the check bouncing. You never have to worry about a forged certified check. You never have to worry about a wire. I can't send you the money because the bank slackers are going to bed. You can send it 24-7 on the blockchain. So what we're doing in Old Glory Bank is we're melding the two. Today, to have stable coins, to have swap out coins, you've got to move your money out of your bank account over to someone else. I don't like that idea because if those companies fail, you're going to be an unsecured creditor. What I want, have always

wanted our team has built, to move money from the block, from your, your bank account directly onto the blockchain. Pass all the third party companies. We love them, but we're going to bypass them because then you're keeping your money in an FDIC insured account and the second before you need a stable coin, move it on the chain to the stable coin, send your money, you get it back,

put it back in your bank account and collect interest. So when you start from your bank account, it makes everything easier. So that's what we're doing. It's called NextGen banking. We're launching it once we finish our public offering. It's all available online. We have a great demo.

I'm blessed. The reason why I'm CEO of the Old Glory Bank because one is I'm crazy, as I said, but two is I drew the short straw. We have probably 12 people who could quote. We have so many smart people, great people at Old Glory Bank. I'm humbled to lead them, but our brilliant team has built the next-gen banking, all in house, all for a fraction of the cost of other people have done it, and we're going to have the best solution, and no one's even close. How about that, Nicole? That is incredible. We're going to go back in time a little bit through your history. So you were in the Air Force, and then you were a lawyer. Do you have any

fun stories from those times of your life? I do, but I'm going to, probably because I'm married with kids now, I can't tell a lot of them, but I had a really good run. So I actually, I was an idiot growing up. Some would say I'm still an idiot. I did not do well in high school back when I was growing up. And it was just a different time. I probably drank when I shouldn't have, probably skipped school more than I should have.

And so I was going to be the big smart guy. I remember going to my dad saying, I'm going to take a year off to find myself. And my dad said, you don't need to find yourself. You're just a buffoon. Like, you'll get a job. And so I was like, okay, so I took a year off to go find myself. I went and got a job actually selling cars. And I learned, and I will tell you, in fact, I one day want to write a book,

that everything I learned about life, I learned in six months selling cars. And just so many great things. And that was back when selling cars was actually a profession. Today, like anyone, go sell cars. But, you know, they really taught you how to, and you'll know this from marketing. And I always tell people this whenever we're doing something. sell the car, not the price. Anyone who leads with price, it's an unemotional purchase.

The reason why Old Glory Bank continues to win is because it's an emotional purchase. We don't overpay for customers. You probably, I don't know who you bank with, but you don't care, I predict who they are. It's no different. Wells is no different than Chase. It's no different than PNC. It's no different than truest. They're all the commodity.

It's because you're buying on price. When you buy an emotion, sell the car, not the price, you're buying a value and a brand. That's why, you know, do we really think, bud is different than cores life? Of course not. It's a brand. Do we really think, you know, a tidalist ball is better than a Callaway ball? Probably not. It's all brand. So we really focused on brand. I learned that from selling cars. Another thing I learned early on selling cars I always tell people about is don't let pride get in the way of a deal. I remember I was the youngest kid there. I was 18 years old, fresh out of high school, and I was the number one sales guy with

professionals. And they just understand how I did it. And it's just because I always outworked everybody and followed up with everybody, treated every customer with the respect they deserve, no matter how much money they have. But I had too many sales guys I would watch that would take it emotional and get a personal once you got into the price conversation and they wouldn't sell the car for the price that the customer really needed. And they would just show them, oh, I'm so smart. I showed that guy or gal that we didn't buy it. And I always say, yeah, but your number didn't go up on the board because you didn't sell a car. Don't get emotional over price. Get emotional about the customer and the product. So that was the other thing.

I learned. So then finally realized that there's a last story I'll tell from my background just to tell you how some of the biggest, most important decisions you make, you just got to trust God when it happens. I told you how the bank came together. It was just basically my friend telling me, I agree it was a good idea, not wanting to do it, but then hearing Lendell on the radio knew I had to do it and then God telling me. I was working, went from cars to work in the grocery stores to work in actually at UPS trying to go to school part-time. I did not go to an undergrad for a couple of years. was not a nice school like Hillsdale or something. I was literally going to a community college part-time, working nonstop.

And someone walked in, I was working at a convenience store and someone talked to me about what I was doing. They said, well, you should join the Air National Guard because they'll pay one week in a month. They'll pay for college. I'm like, where do I sign? So at noon, in between going to class, I cruised down to the recruiting station. And this was before the internet, before cell phones.

And I walk in and all the doors are lined up, the Navy, the reserve, the Navy, the Army, the Marines, the Coast Guard, I think was even there. And then they had the beautiful door for the Air Force Reserve. And I walk in there and it's the only door that's closed. And I'm like, wow, what is up here? Like there's not like the phone you can call. There's no cell phones. So I'm just kind of like got my head down.

I'm like, what am I going to do? I only got an hour. I get back to class. This is ridiculous. And so I'll never forget it. An Air Force recruiter guy walks out of the bathroom. He still has the paper towel on his hands, like drying his hands. It was just a site here.

you know, 40 years later, we'll never get out of my head. And he walks out and he says, hey, young man, what are you doing? And I said, oh, I was here to, you know, join the reserves, but the door is not here. He says, well, why don't you join the active duty? I was like, okay. And so literally, I went from going down there to join the reserves and working a weekend a month to signing up to join active duty, getting shipped off, going to Korea, and going four years of my life, and thank God I did it. It was the best four years of my life. I was so blessed to work with great generals and colonels and among a team. I literally, it was the growing up year that I should have done, never did, that my dad,

you know, said, you're an idiot, you know, go figure your life out. The military did it. So, and it wouldn't have happened if that door wasn't shut and that man didn't walk out here. So trust God's decisions for you. I've got one more quick question for you. What is your best advice to graduating college students looking for work? I think a lot of people are discouraged with AI and just feeling like people aren't hiring. And just so general words of encouragement or advice.

Outwork everybody and always say yes. This is like I learned as a young lawyer, always be walking fast because if you're not walking fast, people think you're not working. And even I left a big firm, start on my own firm. I outworked everybody. I don't care what AI happens. You're always going to need humans. Have a positive attitude in any job. I don't care what the job is.

Have a positive attitude and always say yes and figure it out. and do not ask questions you don't know the answer to. That is the oldest line in the book, but it makes people think you're not smart. Hold the question, follow it up, ask questions. You know the answer to to get clarification, but I'll never forget, as a young lawyer, I was sitting in a conference room. They just a big senior partner, the senior partner had me in there just to listen. And the client's talking.

And I asked the question that was stupid. And the client kind of answered it. And then before the senior lawyer pulled me aside and said, I didn't put you in here to ask questions. I put you in here to learn and absorb and work. And so that's what I tell people. Do not ever embarrass yourself asking the question you don't know. Outwork everybody you know.

I have a smile on your face and whatever it is figured out. What AI should do for you is to give you the answer so you can then outwork everybody. That is fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you. It is been such a pleasure to talk to you. The pleasure is mine, Nicole. So thank you.

You have been listening to Radio, Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Our guest has been Mike Ring and I'm Nicole Sigirotau.