Embrace the Mistakes: Interview with Dr. David Tuyo, CEO of University Credit Union

I recently went one one with Dr. David Tuyo. David is the CEO of University Credit Union and co-founder of the Advanced Lending Institute.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth? 

David: Hindsight is 20/20, but it feels like I’ve ended up here after a long journey filled with ups and downs. My career in the financial industry started over 20 years ago, and although I’ve made some great accomplishments, I still feel like the race is far from over.

My journey really began with a passion for the credit union industry and a desire to ensure that communities could gain access to the financial services they needed in an equitable and inclusive manner. This coupled with my passion for financial education and building financial mobility for individuals has led me down a path to become a leader within the industry. 

I would be lying if I didn’t say there've been many challenges and failures along the way, but realistically these have been some of the most valuable lessons in my life. I’ve made bad leadership decisions, I’ve made poor career choices, and sometimes, I’ve made simple mistakes that could have been avoided early in my career. Like anyone, I’m human, but I think that I’ve been able to make it where I am today by really embracing these failures and listening to those around me for guidance on how to improve. 

I really value the people in my network and one of the most important lessons that I’ve learned in my career is the importance of a strong team and learning how to collaborate and support each other effectively. Greatness comes from collective accomplishments and it’s important to recognize and celebrate this with everyone who contributes towards your success.

Adam: In your experience, what are the key steps to growing and scaling your business? 

David: In my experience, we’ve found success in growing UCU through a people-first approach. Whether it’s members or staff, the most important aspect of our business are the people that are involved in it. This is true for many credit unions in the industry, but it’s a philosophy that we really embrace and we try to use it as a guiding principle in all areas of our business.

It’s a strategy that permeates our HR practices, team management and organizational structure, and how we engage with our members. Generally, we are providing financial services as an organization, but we understand that everyone has different needs that are unique to them. We want everyone’s experience with us to reflect that, and through this type of thinking, we find success against our growth targets by prioritizing individuals and their specific needs through our services.

Another key step to our growth strategy is through mergers and acquisitions. As a credit union, it can be challenging to compete with larger financial institutions who operate with significantly higher budgets. However, with a people-first philosophy, we find that partnering with other credit unions who hold similar values and goals as an organization is a very successful way for us to scale our business and bring even more value to our members. 

We also find tremendous value in strategic partnerships within our target audience. UCU was founded in order to provide financial services for students, staff, faculty, alumni, and retirees of university and college communities, so strategic partnerships within those areas are a key driver of growth for us. We use a variety of strategies to engage or support these communities in order to build relationships that ultimately support our growth trajectory.

Adam: What do you believe are the defining qualities of an effective leader? 

David: One of the most prominent defining qualities of an effective leader in my view is a strong sense of empathy. Although absolute empathy may never be fully achieved, it is a worthy lifetime goal for any leader to strive towards in order to better understand and share the feelings of those that they work with. 

Empathy helps leaders relate better with everyone that they interact with, and when empathy is the undercurrent of decision making, it helps set up teams for success in a way that protects the best interests of everyone involved. 

Of course, there are many other qualities to great leadership and some will vary based on industry or location, but at the highest level, empathy, humility, discipline, courage, emotional intelligence, and cultural awareness are the most important attributes of a good leader in my view.

An empathetic leadership style is effective because it puts people first and without a fully supported team, then it’s impossible to achieve any great accomplishments on scale as an organization.

Adam: How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level? 

David: Any leader or aspiring leader can take their leadership to the next level by understanding that leadership is a constantly evolving practice. No one is correct all of the time. Not one individual has all the best ideas. Ultimately, leaders need to understand this and be honest with themselves by listening to their teams and adapting to new information as they receive it.

It’s ok to make mistakes as a leader, but taking responsibility for those mistakes and learning from them is key to developing leadership skills. With a strong desire to pursue excellence and personal development, leaders can become stronger overtime by developing their leadership skills based on the difference between the desired outcome and the actual results.

Education goes hand in hand with this, and is another key component to taking leadership abilities to a higher level. Leaders who actively educate themselves on new trends, industry topics, and improve their own skill sets are better equipped to support their team from a problem-solving perspective. They are also better able to understand the challenges or influences that are affecting their overall vision for an organization, which means they can provide more practical advice and solutions for their teams.

Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders?

David: First, be patient.

Patience is a prerequisite for leading through empathy and a lack of patience can be an early career mistake as a leader. We are all in a marathon, but everyone is at a different stage of the race. That said, it’s not over until the last person crosses the finish line. Be patient and you will find that it all comes together in the end.

Second, embrace the mistakes.

If you want to be an innovator or market leader, then you are bound to make mistakes as someone who is blazing a trail forward in your industry. Mistakes will happen inevitably, but it’s a valuable learning opportunity for those who learn to adapt and pivot based on the results of putting their theories into practice.

Third, value your team above all else.

You can’t be a leader if you don’t have a team behind you. Great leadership comes from a cumulative effort between many people and the best way to achieve success as a leader is to ensure that your team is properly supported and empowered to contribute based on their individual strengths and potential.

Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading and managing teams? 

David: Building a strong team can be one of the greatest challenges as a leader, but it does become easier if you maintain a people-first approach. In order to build and manage a team successfully, a good leader needs to understand the individuals on that team and how they can best contribute to the overall success of it. This comes through personal interaction, performance appraisals, active listening, and a keen interest in every member of the team.

By identifying people’s strengths and weaknesses, a leader can more effectively delegate work and strategize against collaboration that will produce the best results. Leaders who fully understand every member of their team are also better able to connect with their team and inspire them to unify against a common goal. 

A people-first approach also prevents burn-out and organizational stress. Forcing any individual into a role that does not suit them or overburdening them with tasks that are not properly prepared to address can severely damage a team’s odds of success and hold back any serious progress.

Adam: What are your best tips on the topics of sales, marketing and branding? 

David: My best advice for successful sales, marketing, and branding is to focus on the member/customer/client first. Expectation and reality must be closely aligned for any successful sales and marketing operation to effectively scale, so if you take a focus on member/client/customer first, then the sales and marketing efforts are simply expressing the proven value of your offer through fulfilling the member/client/customer needs, wants and/or desires.. 

This makes it easier to find examples of success, demonstrate the value of your offer, and help prospects understand how you can help them in a practical and evidence-based manner.

Furthermore, any branding efforts become self-defined through engagement with your network as they provide feedback on the positive experience that they’ve had. Of course, you need to define your values and messaging early in any campaign, but if your user experience is aligned with this vision, then your brand will naturally represent the core value proposition of your organization.

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received? 

David: The single best advice that I have ever received is to “keep the main thing, the main thing.”  I heard this from an extremely successful serial entrepreneur/farmer in Alabama.  It was early in my career, and I was long on ideas and short on time, which I wasn’t recognizing.  He took me under his wing and we enjoyed many breakfasts and lunches and he would always wiggle this saying into the conversation. 

As a leader in the organization, my “main thing” is primarily supporting our team members who are serving our member-owners financial service to provide them a financial advantage.  The earlier you discover your “main thing” the quicker you will be able to start your journey in mastering the required skills in order to provide your organization the best possible chance of success!


Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.

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