Ask a Community Business Leader
An Interview With Selvia Hanna
At Brandmint, we believe that community is an essential part of conducting business. We look at establishing relationships with other brands and building each other up as necessary positive reinforcement that only makes us stronger. Listening to others who are also experts in the business world allows us to collectively share knowledge, and thus grow and prosper as individuals.
Rochester itself is a hidden gem, and so are the people who live and work within it. Not only are we home to the legendary garbage plate, we also have some pretty incredible business leaders within our community. Our “Ask a Community Business Leader” series highlights some of the most profound voices who have significantly made an impact within the marketing & business realm. Our fifth interview is with Selvia Hanna, the Branch Manager at Canandaigua National Bank’s Alex Park location.
Jenna: To start off, just give me a brief overview of your career.
Selvia: I’ve been with CNB for 10 years. I started off here as a part-time teller. I was actually the first one to get robbed here, so congrats to me. I actually don’t have a degree in banking, I have a degree in counseling. I worked in New York City doing that for a couple of years. That actually helps me out a lot, because a lot of what I do is counseling just from a financial standpoint. People do come in here and cry sometimes, though.
Jenna: I can definitely see how that would help! What three words do you feel best describe you as a business leader?
Selvia: As a business leader, I would say I’m innovative, compassionate, and loud.
Jenna: I can relate to that one for sure.
Selvia: The decibel volume only goes so high.
Jenna: How do you think that those characteristics of yourself help you in your day-to-day duties?
Selvia: The biggest part of my job is figuring out what someone’s problem is, and offering them a solution. A lot of times, it’s about figuring out what product works for them and best fits them for what they want to do, or how to tweak a product so that it fits them. That’s really where my innovation kicks in. The compassionate piece is because we are talking about people’s money, their security, their livelihood, how they feed their kids. People do end up getting emotionally charged when we’re talking about that. And the loud piece….my supervisors don’t really love that but I will always be a champion for my customers.
Jenna: My mom works at CNB as well and can definitely relate to that, especially the loud portion. But I mean even as far as helping out customers with things like the First Home Club, it’s often that she has to analyze these cases and figure out how to get these people into the next best step that’s possible.
Selvia: Even if you take the First Home Club, there have been so many changes. So last year, it was the first year where we did the whole “first come, first serve” model. I’m sure she heard a lot of stories from people who were really counting on that money.
Jenna: What are some of the biggest lessons that you have learned throughout your career?
Selvia: The biggest lesson I’ve learned is when to ask for help. I think a lot of times as a woman in a corporation, it’s very hard to not want to be like “I got this, I have this taken care of, I don’t need any help from anybody.” One of the biggest lessons is definitely that it’s okay to ask for help, and who has your back and who you should go to.
Jenna: Yeah I feel like especially within an organization like this, people being reliable and feeling comfortable with one another, even like you said as a woman, there’s all these different stigmas and stereotypes that could change people’s perception of you. I totally feel like it’s okay to ask for help, especially when you need it and it helps contribute to your overall end goal.
Selvia: And to be a woman, and to be loud, and then to be like “Can you help me?”
Jenna: Exactly, it is a major factor and it’s important for people to be able to realize that. How do you think that the marketing process is different or unique within CNB specifically, or within the finance & banking industry?
Selvia: We rely heavily on word of mouth. Our biggest marketing is you bank with us, you love it, you tell your friend when they say something like “I hate my bank, or I’m having this problem,” and you would then recommend someone. We don’t do a whole lot of traditional marketing, we are on social media, but we rely mostly on our customers bringing us more customers than really being on TV or the radio or anything like that.
Jenna: I feel like establishing those relationships with your customers is imperative to them then recommending you to their friend, and becoming an advocate for you. That’s something that we’re all about at Brandmint, our motto is “turning outsiders into advocates.” That definitely applies to this for sure.
Selvia: The second piece is our advisory board. We rely a lot on our advisory board to not only be our advocates, but to tell us where we’re missing on the market, and what we need help with.
Jenna: Why is community so important to you & how do you feel that it integrates with your work here?
Selvia: Growing up, I heard a lot of “don’t throw away that food, there are kids all over the world who are hungry.” But there are kids here that are too, there are kids within a 10-block radius that are hungry. For me, it’s really important that I focus on helping people within my community and ensuring they are not overlooked. One of the things that I love about working here is that I’m encouraged to volunteer, I’m encouraged to go out into the community and be the face of CNB or the face of Alexander Park. But most importantly, our money, our profits and our donations are in this community where I work and where I live, so my customers are benefitting from it.
Jenna: I feel like it’s definitely important, your location specifically, to do whatever you can to make an impact and to reach out to any disenfranchised members of the community to incorporate them. You’re building your own brand up by doing this, and building up the community in it as well. What are some of your favorite parts about your job?
Selvia: I love teaching. I love being involved with different community organizations and teaching their employees or their clients. We have a workplace banking program where I go out and give free seminars to employees on whatever you guys want. Whether you’re struggling with student loans, or you’re setting up for retirement, I would come out to teach that to you guys for free. At the same time, before I came to a bank, I didn’t know how much I didn’t know as an average consumer. I really like being able to tell people as much as possible and let them know all of the things that are changing whether it’s your taxes being changed or your ability to contribute to an IRA. People need to know that because, what if social security is not here when we retire? You need to have a back up plan.
Jenna: That whole education piece of it is crucial, making sure that your customers are understanding exactly what’s happening with their money and how they can best control it, it’s such a good way to connect with them and build trust. What are some of the challenges that you tend to come across in your day-to-day role?
Selvia: Some of the challenges include the fact that a checking account is a checking account, whether you go to M&T or CNB, we’re really limited within the OCC parameters of what we can do with our checking account and what we can’t do with our checking account. I have a limited ability to be innovative, I can’t take a checking account and just say “oh now we’re gonna do this with it.” I have to work within the parameters for the widest group of people that I can.
Jenna: What are some things that you would professionally like to expand upon in the new year and new decade that relate specifically to your role? What would you like to develop, or a project you would like to do, any type of collaboration or anything like that?
Selvia: I would like to work more with minority groups who are about to get into the workforce. A lot of times what I see is, when I’m looking at the pool of applicants for an entry-level position, we don’t get a lot of minority applicants. For 2020, what I would like to do is get in front of as many young people entering the workforce and let them know that this is a job for everybody. You don’t need a degree to be a teller, you just need a diploma or a GED and you can work your way up. I started here as a part-time teller, and now I'm the Branch Manager. It’s possible to make this a career.
Jenna: Going off of that too, within Rochester there are a lot of immigrants and people that need that kind of guidance and a structure of someone to give them financial advice. That’s a great opportunity. How do you feel that your role connects with your team and how does the structure work internally?
Selvia: It’s my job to make sure that my team 1) has everything that they need and understands their job enough to educate. A lot of what we charge the tellers with is educating and advising, to be able to look at someone’s account and say you got charged a fee here, if you did this instead that would save you money. My job is making sure they have all of this knowledge, I’m constantly checking in with them to make sure that they’re happy. One of our biggest differentiating factors between other banks is that we focus on keeping our employees happy and if they’re happy, our customers are happy. My biggest piece is making sure they’re all good out there. With my role within the community, I’m making sure that I’m teaching and advising and helping people. Especially with small businesses, there aren’t a lot of places where they can turn especially if it’s their first business on what the first step is.
Jenna: Lastly, you said you started out here as a part-time teller and now you’re the Branch Manager of this location. What are some of the things that you have learned and how have you grown professionally?
Selvia: Part of what has been able to get me here, is that 1) the company is great, so it wasn’t hard to stay here for so long. I remember when I first started I told my dad, I’m gonna be a teller for a year and then figure out what I want to do and then I’ll move on. It’s really great to work in the company, and they offer us a lot of development pieces, coaching, and all of that. The biggest thing that I picked up from working here is my work ethic. I think I work hard. Working hard, taking advantage of the resources that have been offered to me, the maturing piece too. Stepping back and saying “oh, that’s fine, I don’t need to have an opinion on that. I do, but I don’t need to share it.” I don’t know that I fully mastered it, but I have definitely improved over time.
Selvia’s leadership skills are impeccable and have clearly made an impact not only within her corporate world at CNB, but within the community as well. Her efforts are pure and genuine, which all contribute to the greater branding of the company as a whole. She acts as brand ambassador by conducting seminars, reaching out to local businesses, and continuing her professional development. She understands the importance of connecting with her audience on a personal level, and the value that brings to the CNB brand.
As a full-service marketing agency located in Rochester, NY, Brandmint is able to help you achieve this level of advocacy for your own brand. Contact us today to get started on transforming your brand into one that represents your audience’s best interests.