I think the only thing that's more volatile than today's world of payments is Hawaii's Mount Kīlauea. This changing-by-the-minute industry has many of our heads spinning trying to keep pace with the continuous lava flow of advancements and changes. That's why we have folks like CSCU's SVP of Portfolio Consulting Bill Lehman to keep us on the proper payments path.

We caught up with Bill at the recent CSCU Solutions Conference in Orlando, Florida, to discuss this topic. We addressed the importance of the digital wallet, the "Pays," consistent user experience, being top of wallet, and "fast followers." And we also touched on the 2016 Alerts Mandate, as well.

With today's always changing marketing environment -- social media, mobile, compliance, etc., we invited our good friend and marketing expert Mark Arnold, president of On the Mark Strategies, on the show to help navigate the churning waters of strategic branding.

We talked about a recent "acquisition" Mark's firm just made, along with current credit union messaging trends, closing the brand awareness gap, five ways to improve your brand, implementing quality brand beginnings, and much more.

It's a packed conversation of about 13 million takeaways for you to implement in getting your message heard and acted upon. Check out his free 30 Ideas to Build and Live Your Brand e-Book, too.

If you can teach a kid how to turn $100 into $1,000,000, they're all ears. Well, that's the intention of BizKid$ Co-creator Jeannine Glista, as she and fellow authors James McKenna and Matt Fontane have published a new kids financial education book entitled: How to Turn $100 into $1,000,000: Earn! Invest! Save!.

This book is not some get-rich-quick, pyramid scheme. It's a guide teaching kids how to budget and invest properly when they're young so they can have a solid foundation of sound financial habits as they grow older -- ultimately becoming, yes, millionaires or just financially stable.

So, naturally, we invited Jeannine on the show to give us the details of her book, why she and her peers wrote it, key pieces of advice, and how can credit unions step up and help -- especially when a majority of elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide not offering financial education classes. We also wanted to know what's up with the disco ball hanging from the ceiling in the background.

So check it out and let us know what you think -- and pick up the book!

According to CSCU CTO Tom Davis, the Jetson's age is here. We are now connecting refrigerators with supermarkets telling us we need more milk, cars ordering fast food for us, washing machines telling us we need more detergent and ordering it, etc. Everything is connected (a.k.a. Internet of Things) and much of it revolves around payments and adapting to the future of finance. He talked extensively about APIs and IFTTT.

So where do credit unions fit in?

We caught up with Tom at CSCU's Solutions Conference in Orlando, Florida, and discussed this topic and more -- such as we are in the age of "unbundling: cable, Uber, Tesla, AirBnB, ZipCars, etc. We also touched on the banks of the future really being fintech companies wrapped in a bank wrapper: Moven, Simple, Solaris, CBW Bank, etc.

As always, a super interesting talk with Tom on a topic that is already affecting all of us in some form or fashion -- and even more so as we move deeper into the digital payments age. Check it out and let us know what you think.

While attending NAFCU's Strategic Growth Conference in San Diego a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to listen to San Francisco Federal Credit Union CEO Steven Stapp share how he and his team transformed the credit union from a fledgling savings club into a leading lending club and more for its growing membership.

For example, one of San Francisco's more popular moves lately is to offer POPPYLoans to its members who want to have more accessibility to mortgage loans. POPPYLoans are 100% financed mortgage loans essentially, which were featured in our recent 2016 GAC interviews: San Francisco FCU SVP/COO Jude Gogan Talks POPPYLoans.

It's forward-thinking programs like this that have helped propel San Francisco FCU to a premier financial resource in the city by the bay. But Steven also says that it's also consistent efforts with community involvement, branding, staff engagement, Board and management on the same page, etc. All of it combined helps position the credit union to be poised for success -- and that has certainly happened at San Francisco FCU.

Check it out and let us know what you think -- and feel free to share your turn around story, too.