Each year when the month of April rolls around, credit unions amplify their efforts to reach out to our nation's youth and spread  the word on how to properly manage one's money. It's a big deal; and it should be. Reaching kids not only in April but year round is vital to future financial soundness. And it's even cooler that this message comes from credit unions.

To get the inside scoop on this annual effort, we invited CUNA's Youth Month Coordinator Jeremiah Tucker on the show. Jeremiah joined us to discuss why National Credit Union Youth Month is so important to our industry and how participating credit unions can really capitalize on this initiative throughout the year -- not just April.

We also touched on 2016's campaign theme: "Credit Union Strong: Pump Up Your Savings" and what it means to credit unions to spread the health-related message. According to Jeremiah, by transforming branches into “health clubs” and staffers into “personal trainers,” credit unions are leveraging the theme to encourage kids to get in shape financially. The youth-friendly messaging also illustrates how credit unions can make members and their communities stronger.

Check it out and let us know your thoughts and how you are participating in reaching out to the kids to instill sound financial practices.

We all know the Millennial generation matters when it comes to business for just about any industry -- including credit unions. As a result, there has been study after study on how to address this massive group to leverage their buying power for the next few decades. We've seen many attractive insights and used them to our benefit. There's a lot of good information out there.

CUNA Mutual Group has once again run its "What Matters Now" research program to add its two cents to the Millennial studies and has made a few new discoveries that could help credit unions in a big way. To discuss these discoveries, we invited CUNA Mutual's Director, Media and Marketing Strategy - TruStage - Natalie Crain. Natalie shared why they embark on the research each year, what new or surprising findings, how credit unions can benefit from it, their goals, and much more.

Here are a few items discussed:

• Millennials below 30 years of age are more apprehensive about debt and credit.
• Millennial parents are making big purchases.
• Millennial definitions of success vary by geographical region.

Check it out and let us know what you think on this research.

With mobile banking dominating the news for the last couple of years, what has happened to credit union websites? Well, many of them have gotten stale and outdated, left on the top shelf to get dusty. But websites still rule in the "hub and spoke" department -- the website being the hub, that is. In other words, it should still be a top priority for credit unions to keep this piece of online real estate looking fresh and contemporary.

To get a crash course in how today's credit union websites should look and act, we invited the folks from Geezeo Interactive -- Jim Craig and Ryan Troy -- since one of their credit union client's websites recently won CU Times' "5 Credit Unions With a Winning Website Game" accolade (Robins Financial Credit Union).

We discussed with Jim and Ryan the three "must do's" credit unions should be doing with their websites today, what many credit unions are doing wrong, mobile's impact on websites, and much more. Check it out and let us know what you think.

And, finally, we apologize for the odd interface for this interview. We had some technical difficulties and had to go with Plan B -- and even Plan B was a bit off. But all the great content and advice are there for you. Enjoy!

Credit scores make the world go round -- at least in the lending world that is. And one person is trying to "adjust" that a bit with a new solution that focuses more on relationship lending than credit scores. Members aren't numbers; members are people and credit unions are primed for this "old school" type of lending leveraging Big Data.

To get the inside scoop on this solution, we invited ClearChoice's President/CEO Eric Webb on the program. Eric joined us to discuss the revitalization of relationship lending that takes the stress out of repayment. We also discussed not relying on credit scores so much anymore to get the real story behind members' various situations when lending, as well as how credit unions can help drive this train of thought -- and more.

​Check it out and let us know what you think.

Compliance issues continue to plague our industry almost on a daily basis. It's for this reason many credit unions are in search of answers, relief, or anything else to help manage the onslaught we've been experiencing since the great recession.

For the past few years, NAFCU has published its Credit Union Compliance GPS manual to provide credit unions with a bit of relief in this troubling area. So we invited NAFCU's Director of Regulatory Compliance Brandy Bruyere on the show to discuss 2016's edition. We touched such items as: how it helps credit unions navigate the current compliance field, what's different in this year's publication, how often it's updated, how it's put together, goals for publishing the manual each year, and few examples of regulation translations for CUs to better understand the sometimes complex verbiage/meanings.

Check it out and let us know what you think.