Welcome

to the Seidman Mentorship Podcast. This is your captain speaking. On this show,

we navigate the voyage of life through the lens of Lakers,

some who have just come aboard, and others who are well underway.

We will speak with experts who will show us the ropes, help us plot a course,

and recount exhilarating tales of uncharted territory,

all while promoting lifelong learning agility, and a culture of mentorship.

Welcome to the Seidman Mentorship podcast. I'm Dylan Jones-Wrisley,

the editor for season four. Today on the show, Gerry welcomes Patrick Scheffers,

Commercial Relationship Manager at Huntington Bank in 2013 Seidman alumni.

Recently,

Patrick was honored as Pro Mentor of the Year by the Seidman Mentorship Program.

In today's episode, Patrick discusses his secrets for a successful mentorship.

Additionally,

he shares practical financial insight helpful for every college student.

Patrick Scheffers. Welcome to the Seidman the Mentorship podcast.

It's an honor to have you here today. Thanks for coming out.

Yeah, thanks for having me, Gerry. I'm really excited.

So, let's start it. It's, it was fun this morning 'cause you came in,

we're here at the Career Center at Grand Valley. You come in, Troy Farley,

the director's here. You guys hit it off. Obviously, you know each other.

You spent some time here as a Laker. Tell me,

and this is a Andy Beachnau now question that I stole,

when did you know you were a Laker?

Wow. Yeah, I mean, it was great to catch up with Troy. First of all, you know,

I haven't seen him in years, just being out of the community for a little while.

But, you know, going back to your question, when did I know I was a Laker?

I think when I first did my tour, so my official college visit tour,

I really realized that this was just the place for me. I grew up in Kalamazoo.

I had a lot of friends that were committed to Grand Valley,

so I knew that I was gonna have a network of people here,

but also I knew that there was gonna be, you know,

a ton of folks like me that I'm gonna get along really well with. And then the,

the programs, right, the class sizes, the prestigiousness of the,

the finance and the, the business school.

So it was really just a fit from the tour and then doing a little bit of

research. I, I knew right when I walked on campus. That this was it.

So tell us a little bit about your journey, through Grand Valley and,

and where you're at now.

Yeah. So I started out, you know, freshman year, lived in the dorms,

shout out...

Which dorm?

I was in Swanson. So, yeah, I was just gonna say,

give a shout out to all the Swanson folks that, that went through there.

I had a ton of fun. You know, I met a lot of great people there, my suite mate,

you know, we still stay in contact and,

I didn't know him before going into Grand Valley,

so that's really cool just to make some connections like that, you know,

there on,

I kind of moved on to the business school and spent a lot of time downtown.

I did a study abroad program as well,

which is something I would highly recommend.

Anytime I talk to students that are either in college or preparing to go to

college, it's one of the top things that I recommend to them is,

is doing a study abroad.

You went to Spain, right?

I did, yeah. So I studied at the University of Bilbao there.

Yeah. And how long were you there?

I was there for a full fall semester,

so I did the August through December session and traveled a lot,

met a lot of really cool people, and the program at the University of Deusto

was absolutely fantastic.

And the partnership that they have with Grand Valley every credit transferred.

It was just an amazing experience.

Awesome. What happened after that?

After that, I came back and I really focused on narrowing down my, my focus.

So,

I kind of jumped around and moved majors a few times and ended up coming back

and said, finance and economics is really where I wanna focus. And so I,

I defined that as my major. Economics was more of just a, "hey,

I only need a few more credits to get the double major",

and it's something I enjoyed.

I always loved those intro classes of macro and microeconomics and just thought

that that would be a great addition. And finance was just kind of a passion. I

had an uncle that went that route,

and we'll talk a little bit more about that I think later. But,

that kind of helped me define my path forward and, you know,

move forward with a finance and economics degree.

Any super impactful instructors that you had during that time?

You know, there was a lot of, of professors that I really enjoyed.

Professor Hoogstra

just being involved with IPO is one that comes to mind. I mean,

he was fantastic in his support of that organization.

Some of his courses that he taught and, you know,

just allowing us to be able to go to Omaha and go to like the Berkshire

Shareholder Meeting.

And I just remember him kind of accompanying us on that trip, so he was,

he was a great professor and really enjoyed kind of his commitment to not only

the classroom, but outside of that as well with IPO and for those,

I guess those that don't know, IPO,

that's the investment portfolio organization that's here on campus.

I know it's still going strong, and,

I was a member of that when I was here as well.

So what happened after graduation?

Yeah, after graduation. Well, I actually kind of started my junior year,

so I'll take a step back. You know, I went to the Grand Valley Career Fair,

just like I think most juniors do,

and I even heard that some freshmen and sophomores are going now,

which is awesome. You know, getting experience as soon as you can,

as early as you can and, and maybe even line up an internship,

so junior year I went to the career fair. I was exploring different finance and,

you know, economic or finance and econ, path for an internship.

I chatted with a few banks.

I also chatted with a few healthcare organizations trying to find a,

an internship for the junior year. And,

ended up landing a position with Macatawa Bank as an intern in the fall of

2012, or I guess this would've been summer of 2012. And,

that's kind of how I ended up in banking. Is it, you know,

just the career fair through Grand Valley in that internship.

And just found that I had a passion for, you know,

the commercial lending side of things.

Then you have this meteoric rise, right? So we're talking 2012,

and now you're a vice president, and that doesn't happen.

And there's not a lot of those people that get that VP title up there.

So I remember being in leadership training during my,

years in corporate and looking around the room and going,

there's an awful lot of people in this room who want to be leadership.

How do you make that that rise? How do you do that?

Yeah. You know, I was,

very fortunate to have a lot of people around me that,

cared for me, mentored me, really advocated for me, and they were in my corner.

You know, on top of that too, I, I worked hard, right?

I was really focused on wanting to be a commercial relationship manager or a

lender, right? Is what we call it, but to do that,

you have to go through the path of being a credit analyst, a portfolio manager,

get your credit experience,

make sure you understand how to structure these loans and these relationships

appropriately before you can gain the trust of the institution to become a

relationship manager or lender,

and really kind of be that point of contact for these large commercial clients,

right? They, they want you to have an understanding of the nuts and bolts.

So I did work hard and I,

I spent a lot of hours early on just kinda working through that process,

knowing that my long-term goal was this. And like I said,

I had a lot of mentors and advocates in my corner, and I just made sure that,

you know, I was vocal about wanting to, to be where I am, and I just told them,

you know, "hey, this is my goal. If you can help me get there, you know, that,

that would be fantastic. Like, I would love to learn from your experience.

I would love to shadow you on,

on these client calls or prospecting calls and things like that." And,

and they were really open to that. And I just, I'm grateful for those folks.

I'm gonna ask you about your mentors specifically,

but you just said something there that I think a lot of students feel is the

magic, and they, they say, how do you do that?

So how do you ask somebody to mentor you?

How do you ask for that job shadow? How do you ask for that experience?

How do you find the conversation where you can communicate what your goals,

hopes, and dreams are? Because it seems very personal,

and you have to have some vulnerability to do that. How do you do it?

Yeah. You know,

all these people I had developed relationships with via work or other networking

avenues prior to, and they weren't long relationships, but, you know,

we worked together. So, for example, one of my mentors at Huntington was a,

a senior vice president.

He had been in banking and banking regulation for a long time,

and we worked together. And I think he just valued my,

my drive and my effort and the work that I put in. And so after, you know,

a few months of just kind of developing that natural relationship, I,

I started to open up to him and,

I could tell that he was kind of enjoying the aspect of this younger guy kind of

coming along and working in the market with him. And, I just told him,

I was like, "hey, you know, I really enjoy working with you."

I think you do a fantastic job and I'd love to learn more and just kind of have

an open two-way conversation about, you know, your history, your experience,

how you got here, and just advice that you have for me too as, as we go along,

and totally receptive to that, right?

So that was a fantastic partnership and he advocated internally for me too.

So he would push my boss at the time to kind of,

for promotions even when I wasn't asking for it,

because he was seeing how I was working. And I think that's, you know,

that mentor and that relationship that I had was a huge reason for why I am

where I am today.

Before that, you learned somewhere how to have those conversations,

and I think you referenced your uncle, so you teed it up. So nice. Yeah.

Let's knock that one outta the park. How did, who was your first mentors and,

and how did you learn to have those mentoring conversations?

Yeah, I think, you know, my, my first mentor, if we go to that question was,

was definitely my father.

He ran a business for 25 years,

and eventually my sister carried that legacy on,

and she's still running it today.

And I'm just amazed at all the things that she does. But my dad, and I,

we were always really close. We played golf together. I would go to the,

the shop that they ran, and I would work there all through middle school,

high school and college. And, you know,

he bought that business outta bankruptcy and turned it into,

to something that became a legacy that now my sister runs.

And so I really looked up to him and appreciated all his advice.

I would talk to him about, you know,

courses that I was picking when I was going to Grand Valley,

and I would talk to him about, "hey, I'm,

I'm looking at this internship in banking, what do you think?".

So he was definitely my first mentor. You know, my uncle, like I mentioned,

he was in banking and actually

started here in Grand Rapids and then ended up in Chicago.

And I just looked up to him too,

as another individual who I thought very highly of.

He was very well educated. Ended up getting his master's from Notre Dame.

So when I was younger, I looked at that and I just said, "man,

I would really aspire to get my master's someday" and end up being in banking.

And, and, the more I learned about banking too,

I just knew that that was the right fit.

But those are two of my early mentors or people that I looked up to were both my

dad and my uncle.

So, fast forward to now, you joined the Seidman Mentorship Program.

I'm gonna ask you why and how in a minute. And then we,

the administration on this side, I say the Royal we,

but really there's only a few of us that work in mentorship here at Grand

Valley, right? We solicit and I ask for these awards.

This is not me picking things because there's 750 people in the program.

We don't know what everybody's up to.

And your mentee thinks enough of you to nominate you for this award,

it's clear that you deserve the award and you're now sitting here,

Pro-Mentor of The Year. Congratulations.

It's the highest honor we have for pro mentors,

and it's an emblematic of you selflessly giving back,

and I think this is what makes Grand Valley unique. Yes,

there's a lot of other universities and yes, they have a lot of culture.

We can go to East Lansing, we can scream, you know, go green out the window,

but, you know,

everybody on game day is wearing a hat from university that they probably can't

name what town it's in.

They definitely can't name the dormitory that they stayed in.

They definitely cannot name their favorite professor.

And I keep saying Grand Valley is the giant, quiet,

little university that just goes to work and gets it done in a very West

Michigan type way. A West Michigan culture cutaway just quietly goes to work.

Why did you join the Seidman Mentorship Program,

and what advice can you give to other pro mentors because you had such a great

mentorship?

Yeah, so there, there's a lot to unpack in there, you know, why did I join the,

the Seidman Mentorship Program? I actually went to an alumni event,

after I moved back to Grand Rapids late last year.

So I had spent six years in Chicago and moved back with my family late last

year. And I was looking for ways to get reconnected to the community.

And I thought, man, I,

I know of Grand Valley folks that I still stay in contact with,

and I know that I run into these additional people that went to Grand Valley all

the time, because like you said,

a lot of Lakers do stay here in West Michigan and go on to do amazing things.

And I thought, let's go to this alumni, you know,

mixer be a great way to reconnect with familiar faces,

meet some other new faces. And at that mixer,

they boasted the mentorship program.

And another one of my favorite things to do is just kind of be mentors to

younger individuals, especially at the college age,

that are going through this really tough transition of, hey, I, I, you know,

I'm going from being a student, which I've been for the last, you know,

16 years to all of a sudden having to be independent and, and really,

you know, figure out my, my life and my path forward.

So I really enjoy providing guidance around,

that aspect and that specific stage of life,

because I remember that being challenging myself.

So that's why I signed up. And, you know,

you mentioned being pro mentee or mentor of the year. All thanks goes to,

to my amazing mentee that I had. The partnership was fantastic.

Shout out to Kurtis Montsma. You know, we met and then we clicked right away.

And he was just motivated, driven,

very open to feedback and receptive to any conversation.

It just felt natural from the beginning.

So I felt very lucky to be paired up with somebody. And credit to you guys too,

right,

for doing your research and just kind of asking questions to make sure that

those, those pairings are a good fit.

So is it altruism that causes you to give of your time?

Did it take a lot of time? Was it difficult? Did you struggle? Was

there a, a tough part of this?

It sounds odd to say that it wasn't, difficult, but I really don't think it was.

I mean, Kurtis and I, from the first meeting, right, we talked,

we kind of got a lot of the blocking and tackling outta the way we talked about

how do we best communicate?

Is there a a standard good day to meet kind of going forward? You know,

what's your schedule like? And I'm fortunate to have, you know,

flexibility in my schedule to be able to get out of the office during the week.

But we would meet up on the weekends too. I mean, Kurtis and I both enjoy golf,

we use that as a tool to kind of connect for four hours, right?

You're on the golf horse sharing a golf cart,

and we use that as a way to kind of connect as well and actually meet

and chat business and school and all that kind of stuff.

That was one of the tools we had. But I felt fortunate again that,

that he was responsive and really interested in this. And I think that's,

it's all about, both sides have to put in effort, right?

The mentee is expecting the mentor to come prepared and, and provide value.

And the same from the, the mentor side. They're really,

really looking for the mentee to be engaged, be driven, be excited about this.

And I think we had that on both sides.

Can you peel back the, the secretive layer a little bit and,

and kind of tell us,

'cause there's other pairs that are listening right now that goes, "man,

so when did you meet, how did you establish cadence?" 'Cause a lot of the,

initial issues that we see from the administrative side is,

man, we just can't connect. We just, we can't get our schedules to line up.

We don't know where to meet.

We don't know what to talk about in those first few meetings. Yep.

Down the road. It, it, once you get the ball rolling, it's like a locomotive.

It works really well. But how did you do those initial things?

Can you tell us a little bit about the tactical pieces of it?

Yeah, so in initially, I think we met at one of the,

the mentorship program events, right? And we kind of talked about, "hey,

where do you live? Where are you going to school? Where, where am I working?

What's a convenient spot?" And for us,

that ended up being the Bitter End Coffee Shop,

which I know is a common Grand Valley hub for everybody.

Famous.

Yeah, exactly. I spent many long evenings there back in college.

So I was excited to go back there. And we set a recurring date.

So that first meeting we got together, we said, "hey,

let's pull up our calendars." He pulled up his class schedule,

and we met one Thursday. It was the last Thursday of every month at 10 o'clock.

And it was on my calendar. And every once in a while we'd have to move it,

but I would text 'em in advance and we would find that sometime the next week.

So I think, again, you know, there can be challenges,

but if we're both dedicated to it and committed to getting together and

communicating, I think that's the key, right? 'Cause even when I had to move it,

we were both responsive in our text communications,

we would find another date the next week. And, and that's really the key.

'cause if you get off track and you're meeting cadence,

or if you're not meeting that often, it can be really hard.

And sometimes you just lose that momentum, you know?

And we always met in-person.

I'm a big advocate even with my clients and what I do for meeting in-person,

but, you know, Teams or Zoom or whatever also has a, a great,

it's a great resource that we need to use, right? That came outta Covid. And,

and I do use that in work too. It's like, use that resource.

If you don't have the time, time still get together,

don't push it out another month, but just say, Hey, let's do this one virtual,

and then let's get together in person next month.

So I think with how many ways and opportunities we have to meet and socialize

now,

you just need to make sure you're on a regular cadence and try to stick to that

and commit to it as much as possible.

So I think along with a cadence, you, you mentioned this,

you have to provide value. You gotta, you gotta be,

you gotta offer something to mentee. And there's a,

there's a secret sauce there. There's a magic, right?

Because I think a lot of mentors, and I'm famous for doing this.

Either I'm trying to be too entertaining and maybe we're not getting to the

point, or I'm trying to give a lifetime's worth of information.

I remember the first time I traveled abroad, right?

And my folks were taking me to the airport, and they're trying to give,

it is just rapid fire this, and don't worry about this.

And if you do this and then go here. And this is, you know,

how did you do that balance and,

and how did you open and how did you provide enough value so that

your mentee wanted to meet? And I'm gonna ask you the reverse of that question.

What did the mentee provide that was best practices from what you think of how,

he interacted with you?

Yeah, I think he, there was a, I think my focus on,

on the mentorship program and how to be a good mentor.I've reflected back on the

mentors that I had and what did they do, and why did I find it so valuable,

right? So I,

I flipped back 10 to 15 years to those experiences and really tried to boil

that down to what is my focus here with, with Kurtis and, and this program.

And those were really, you know, provide life experiences, make

introductions and, and open my network to him or her,

whatever it is in the future, right?

And so I really focused on those two things. We would talk about something,

you know, rental houses or investment real estate, and I would say, "hey,

you know, I have a, I have a friend that that runs some Airbnbs,

like I should connect you two." And that's really what I did, right?

Was try to be a connector for him, because at the end of the day,

I might have some experience here,

but I am not an expert in rental houses or investment real estate or anything

like that.

And so my focus was to really just provide him with the ability to have a

conversation with somebody who is, and so I did that, you know,

it was really about making connections.

I have a friend who also works at Mercantile Bank,

which is now where Kurtis works, and so we talked about that. He was like, Hey,

you know, I'm looking for a banking opportunity. And I said,

you should talk to my friend who's a lender over at Mercantile Bank.

I know they hire a ton of Grand Valley students. Kurtis is also in the IPO.

You know, he checked all the boxes for what Mercantile usually looks for and,

and make that connection. I think the other, the other piece too, right, is,

like I talked about experiences. So, you know,

if I was going to a networking breakfast, I would say, "hey, Kurtis,

why don't you come along?" And so he came to a leadership,

lessons breakfast from the Chamber of Commerce with me, a few other,

you know, opportunities that we had come up to. And I just said, let,

let's just go to this together. I'll show you how I network.

I know it's can be awkward when you're shaking hands and trying to meet people

that you haven't met before,

but let's start to have these experiences now so that when you're having them as

a professional, you have a little bit of, you know,

experience under your belt and you're a little more comfortable in these rooms.

And what did Kurtis provide back to you? What, what was the juice?

Is there a reward? I smile when I say that because.

Yeah, you know the answer.

I know the answer. But what did you get out of it?

I, I learned a lot, right? I mean,

times as you transition out of the college lifestyle and into working lifestyle

and all of a sudden start a family and, you know, life moves on you,

you just kind of knock down day by day and you get in this,

this flow and this rhythm. And not that it's a bad thing,

but it's a different pace, and so Kurtis, with the way that he thinks,

and some of the questions that he would bring to the table, you know,

and the research that he was doing and the modeling, I mean, his,

the Excel models that we would look together or look through together that he

had built out, right?

It made me flash back to my original college days and, and thereafter,

except for I wasn't quite as talented and and thorough as he is on the modeling.

But, you know, just resetting my mind to,

to that stage in my life helped a lot as far as organizing my

thoughts. you know, he is, he was planning for what he wanted to do next.

And even though I'm in the midst of my career and maybe further along,

it really made me kind of say,

I need to go back and I need to reflect on what are my goals? What are my,

what are my values, and what do I wanna do for this next 20,

30 years of my career?

'Cause I still do have the lion's share of my career left.

And I think he really helped me say, "hey, I,

I should spend some time revisiting what my path forward is and what goals I

have,

and make sure that I'm doing this on a consistent basis." Because he was doing

that, right? And it's something I used to do. Like I said, life happens and,

and you get caught in the daily routine. So I, I appreciated that the most.

I just thought that his perspective and everything,

how structured and well thought out he was, that really helps me.

And that's how I was. And you know, like I said, things happen.

Life happens.

Exactly.

Life happens while we're making other plans, right?

So let me ask you this question, and this is,

if you've listened to the cast and you have, I love to ask this question.

What do you wish students today would do that they don't do?

You know, it's so hard because, throughout this program,

I think one of the other things that I realized is how impressive, students

are these days, at least the ones that I came across. I was blown away by,

you know,

what freshmen are doing and what sophomores and juniors and seniors are doing

nowadays. 'Cause I think back to my time, and I was, I was a,

I was a pretty good student, I would say, but I was,

I was having my share of fun as well, you know,

and I'm just blown away by all that they're doing. You know,

I talked about this a little bit earlier, but I think studying abroad, again,

focus on life experiences, right? Learn outside the classroom.

Put yourself in uncomfortable spots, whether it's culturally,

whether it's cuisine, whether it's, you know, I was taking Spanish classes,

but I was far from fluent and I lived in a host family's house that didn't speak

any English.

And so there were uncomfortable conversations and just not being able to

understand each other at point in time and having to pull out the dictionary.

But I learned so much from that, right? It was totally invaluable.

Beyond the credits that I took and beyond some of the other classroom

experiences,

I learned more from being independent at 19 and traveling the world and,

and living in a,

a family's house that I had never met before that didn't speak my native

language of, of English, right?

So I can't advocate enough for study abroad programs. I think they're fantastic,

but I think maybe one other point on top of that,

what what should students do is, is just be forthcoming and, and ask right.

In a polite way. But ask, ask the question. Say, "hey, will you mentor me?

Or can I shadow you at work for, for a half day?" Right?

Don't be afraid to ask a lot of professionals, especially in West Michigan,

which is such a, a philanthropic community that loves to give back,

especially to those that are in their education years,

ask that question and say, hey, can I just shadow you?

Or can I have a cup of coffee with you? And ask you what your day,

your normal day is like.

I think that students would find most professionals are more than willing to

give back that time or kind of provide some guidance to them.

I think that's the Bill Seidman legacy, right? So, Bill,

I talked about this when I did the cast with Don Lubbers.

The university was really founded by Bill.

Yes, Bill's name's on the business school, but started with the,

the colleges here at Grand Valley built because he

saw the need for a pipeline of talent here in West Michigan.

And you don't get the Van Andel's, the Devos's,

the other names that are on the buildings here that help build West Michigan

without the workers who do it. And a different skilled tier of workers.

As a guy that did my first job at a dairy farm,

I've come a long way and through several degrees to do different kinds of work.

I still know how to milk a cow, there's no doubt about that.

I don't want to do that anymore. And I'm appreciative the people that do it.

But, to get to that next tier.

And that's the kind of jobs we're now inventing here.

So as we talk about the explosive growth of Grand Rapids and our little piece of

it down here for Grand Valley downtown, whether it's the amphitheater,

the soccer stadium, when they put Vandel Arena in,

you could have knocked me over a feather.

We're gonna have hockey and concerts in Grand Rapids? I mean, I grew up here.

This was the town that shut down at 9:00 PM on, on weekends, right?

There was nothing when they built the first condos, they said,

nobody's gonna wanna live in in Grand Rapids. You should have called me,

commercial lender. Yeah. Should've said, "hey, let's buy three, four of these.

You're gonna be happy about it." Come 2024.

Looking back, looking back now, I wish we would've for sure.

Next, Patrick offers financial tips helpful for every college student.

So I, I,

our research department watching over us very carefully at the other end of the

table. Dylan is watching us.

She's waiting for me to ask some of these banking questions. So I'm, I'm,

I'm gonna shoot a couple of these at you in rapid fire.

Let's go.

From a personal finance standpoint,

what's a college student need to know?

Yeah, it's a tricky, tricky balance, right? You know, education,

being able to prioritize and focus on the learning side of your college

experience is key. I mean, it does take time. It does take dedication,

but there's a cost to it too, right? So how do you balance, you know,

working to generate income to be able to pay that tuition bill?

I was very fortunate.

My grandparents have been in the education system their entire lives,

and they were very focused on making sure that I went to school and even to get

my master's, which I ended up doing down the road. But I would work all summer.

I had various jobs, throughout the summer,

and I worked full time while some of my other friends were maybe going off and

swimming or playing sports or things like that. I worked for my parents.

I was a roofer, some stories around that, I definitely...

Tough gig.

Definitely fell, fallen off a few roofs. But you learn,

you learn from those experiences, right? And,

and I think I learned a lot from the hard work of being up at six 30 in the

morning and working all day Monday through Friday,

and then helping out my parents at, at their place right on, on the weekends.

So,

my summers were really spent trying to earn income to be able to

help offset that tuition bill. And then, like I said,

I was very fortunate to have grandparents that also invested in me and wanted to

see me succeed and graduate and move on that next level,

so I spent a lot of my school time focused on,

you know,

studying and going to class and trying to take as many credits as I could.

I actually, you know,

come senior year I was only taking 12 credits both semester.

'Cause that's all I needed to graduate while I was working 35 hours at Macatawa

Bank beause they had actually hired me on after my internship before I

graduated, and said, hey, we want you to come on.

And so I was living downtown Grand Rapids, going to class in the morning,

and then driving out to Holland to work,

then eight hours and then coming back home,

so that was how I spent my whole senior year,

was working pretty much full time and then taking 12 credits at Grand Valley to

kind of help pay that bill and dig out of the hole that I'd created like most

students and kind of march forward. So, you know, it's a grind,

but you have to prioritize it, right? I mean, you're paying that tuition bill.

So invest time in studying, going to class. I,

I don't think I ever missed one class at Grand Valley. I think every,

I know for a fact if there was, it was only one.

But I was in every class that we had. If unless it was canceled, I was there.

I tell, freshman students, especially,

you're creating your first business. The product is you,

and you're gonna invest at this day and time. You're 20 grand.

So you just dropped 20 grand this year in your investment yourself. Yeah.

And what did you do with it from a straight banking standpoint?

And I was listening to Jill Schlesinger this morning,

banking guru gets to be the talking on TV. Was talking about internships,

and it was interesting because the host said, you know, internships, blah, blah,

blah, unpaid.

We just had a conversation about that with Uncle Troy doesn't believe in unpaid

internships.

I don't either.

I I, there's this place for them, but it's very, very, very, very,

very rare in my world, and Jill Schlesinger said, well, should

open a, a Roth IRA. What's the first financial move,

sans maybe a savings or a checking account, okay, we'll put that aside.

What's the first financial move a 18,

19-year-old college student should think about making in your opinion?

Wow. Yeah, I mean, that, that's tough, you know,

creating that emergency fund. So, you know, depending on who you listen to,

there's a lot of folks that advocate for six months worth of living costs and,

and having that sort of saved up within a fund, that doesn't include beer money,

right? Outside of that, you're, that's what.

Your emergency is.

Yeah, exactly. But, you know,

so picture the scenario where if you were laid off or not working right,

what would you need to be able to get by for six months? So shelter, food,

clothing, that kind of stuff. I think that's the key start.

But outside of the checking account and savings, right?

Responsible use of, of a credit card to be able to build up a credit score,

you know, a lot of college students don't think about this,

but when you graduate and if you want to go get a loan to buy a car

or get a loan to buy a house, you have to have a credit score. And,

and that score is calculated based on your ability to repay

loans on time, your ability to have borrowing capacity, but repay it.

So, like I said,

credit cards are a great way for those trying to break into that and,

and create it or have a credit score.

But just make sure that you're responsible and that you're paying it off in full

every month. Because I, you know,

if going into credit card debt is,

is maybe one of the biggest holes and hardest things to kind of come out of,

but if you use it appropriately,

it can set you up for the ability to buy a house, buy a car,

those kind of things that you'll need that credit score for.

So that would be my advice, is responsible use,

of a credit card or some sort of tool to get a credit score.

Thank you. As the guy who went straight, graduated on Saturday.

I've told this story many times and went to work in financial services on

Monday. I got a crash course really fast,

but I also sounds like similar to you.

I had the parents who on my, I'll never forget this,

I think it was my eighth birthday. On my eighth birthday,

my mother handed me $20. I was very excited. 20 bucks back then,

that was a lot of money. Put me in the car,

dragged me into the bank, took the $20 back outta my hand,

gave it to the teller who handed me my pass book, right? Yep.

And said, never withdraw this money.

It's the worst birthday of my life, but it taught me a lesson.

And my account has never gone below 20 bucks.

So I can say I need all that money out.

A lot of folks running into aren't getting that advice. So thank you for that.

And thank you for not saying they're Roth IRA.

We're gonna go in a whole different conversation because I don't know what Jill

Schlesinger was talking about, where too many 18,

19 year olds need to worry about Roth IRA. Okay. Yeah, exactly. Well,

let's jump into the future a little bit in our hot button questions here.

So I'm a college student. I'm doing my time.

I've got my six months worth of emergency fund. Where do I keep that?

Six months is the, is the platinum-free super happy,

saves the whale checking account, the place for my six months worth of of funds?

Yeah. You want to have in something that's liquid, right? Easy access to it.

There's a time and a place for investments, equities,

whatever you want to consider down the road. But yeah, I,

I would say keep that in cash somewhere where it's readily accessible.

That's not going to lose monetary value. So just like anything, right?

The stock market or bonds or things like that do have the potential to

deteriorate in value. So, keeping that somewhere right now with interest rates,

the way that they are, I've put my banker hat on, you know,

a money market account, right? If,

if you can stock away some funds into a money market that's earning for four and

a half percent interest, that way it doesn't feel like it's just sitting there,

just kind of losing value. So, in this environment today,

which is very abnormal from what we've seen over the last 15 years, you know,

find something where you can put that cash, where it's gonna run some interest,

treasuries, you know, there's several different options, but keep it liquid,

right? So that you have access to that, that's your emergency fund.

It's a what if,

so don't stock it away in something that could potentially lose value or that

you may have to sell and have a tax implication for.

As I'm building wealth now, we'll, we'll go out. So you go out,

you get your first gig, you're starting to make real money.

You remember that day you get that free paycheck.

I'll never forget that I got a paycheck, you know, in, in corporate America,

which I would laugh at now, but I mean,

you've been a student for so long and you're working 30 hours or whatever,

and nothing, nothing is hotter than Michigan Summer on a roof.

I've been there too. My my old man had rental properties,

and every time that the rental property needed plumbing or roofing or whatever,

guess what my Saturday was. You start making real money.

My emergency fund's paid for. I'm diligently using a credit card.

How do I plan my future? What, you know, what should I be thinking about?

Should I run out and start optioning GameStop to short that if you took a

Hoogstra class and you're like, I know how to do this, what's your next move?

Yeah. So I, I mean, I, I hesitant to provide any financial advice, right?

But so, so, all right.

This is where I put the big disclaimer in.

I was just say all disclaimers, right? I, I think maximizing your 401k, if,

if your company offer is a matching program,

at least make sure that you're contributing to your 401k,

to the point where the company's going to match that amount, right?

So up to the match, it's pre-tax. It's the best way, in my opinion.

It's number one, as far as saving tactics that you should be using,

if you have that option. So if you're working for a company,

a lot of them will offer, you know, some sort of IRA,

a simple IRA or 401k with a match program.

Please make sure at least reaching that match point.

And then you can put in up to, you know, $18,000, $20,000 a year. And if,

if you have that capacity doing that at

21, 22, 23, man, that, that just compounds and grows.

And if you've looked at what the market's done over the last five to seven

years, you know, that thousand dollars a year,

whatever you want to put in there,

is gonna be exponentially greater down the road, and it's all growing tax-free.

So I think that's my biggest piece of advice is when you're starting out,

dig through your benefits, figure out what your company is offering.

If they're offering a match,

put in at least that amount and maybe do an escalator in there, right?

Where every six months or a year, it's increasing the percentage.

A lot of these things have that automatically in there. So...

And you don't even notice it.

You don't, right? I mean,

because it comes out before the money goes into your account, it's all pre-tax.

So to your point, if you put that escalator in there, it happens.

And often times you're not even noticing it,

or it mirrors up with hopefully maybe an annual bump in pay or something like

that. So I think that would be my biggest piece of advice.

When I remember when I first got hired at the bank and figured that out,

I was like, well, they're giving me money. It would just, I put money. Yeah.

So that, that was a no brainer is,

is contribute that amount and then they're gonna give me more money without me

doing anything. That's, you gotta take advantage.

Or it's a loss if you don't take advantage of it. Right?

So you're losing that money if you don't, if they're gonna contribute 3%, if I,

if I put in three or whatever. If I don't, I'm losing that. Right?

Absolutely.

So speaking of the loss and the mistake,

and I'll tee this up by telling you my informal survey. I,

I teach some freshman classes at Grand Valley.

I think tenured professors are afraid of freshmen. I love 'em.

I work with 'em all the time, and so I teach some freshman classes.

I will tell you,

my research has shown that the number one desired car by Grand Valley students

now is this new Ford Bronco. Have you seen the new Bronco?

I have, yes.

I grew up in the eighties.

The Bronco was this thing you took to Silver Lake and you wrecked it on the

weekend, is what you did.

Or you cut the top off of it so you could fit more stuff in it. Now it looks,

it looks kind of soft to me. It looks like, you know, if I, I don't know,

it doesn't look like the Bronco of, of my time. That's okay. Patrick, I'm,

I'm now successful. I wanna flex some of my success. I want a Bronco,

I want a motorcycle, I want a boat, I want a cottage.

I want all this stuff that my family has,

and I'm teeing this up to that might not be the best financial move for the 19

or 20 year olds. Not just saying that I didn't do some of those things,

how do you balance that temptation for the things that you want that you know,

aren't the greatest investment to, you know what I don't know how long, I,

one of my mentors calls us TOP (time on planet). I dunno what my TOP is, right?

Sure. Something could happen to me. So what's the balance?

Because mom took away that 20 bucks and still scarred me and said,

save this for the future. Well, what is my, when do I pull that out?

Because I also had parents

that were very frugal and I don't know if they ever enjoyed that money.

You know? What's the balance? How do you do it?

You know, it's a delicate balance. I, Kurtis and I actually talked about this,

throughout our mentorship program as far as, you know,

he's now transitioning to the professional world as far as having a full-time

job and getting that real paycheck. And we talked about saving tactics.

So everything that we just ran through, you know, it's funny,

it was like a deja vu to a meeting that we had at, at Bitter End,

talking about some best practices and things. I'm like, you, unfortunately,

I had to learn that lesson the hard way. I think I graduated and bought a,

a used car, that was probably something I didn't need at that time.

I've learned my lesson since then. So, you know, cars are not my focus,

but I do enjoy traveling with my family, right?

So that's something that we do splurge on. But I am very disciplined.

I have goals that I write out every year that are financial, that are,

you know, more educational, that are more personal.

So I think spending that time and putting together an action plan,

you know, if you can,

if you can find a financial advisor or somebody that you trust,

maybe if you're not a finance or a, you know, a business major,

talk to somebody you trust and maybe you think has their life together.

Maybe it's somebody that's a little more experienced, has some gray hairs,

right? That's gone through these life lessons like you and I have that can say,

Hey, I did that. I bought that car and I regretted it,

'cause at the end of the day, it just deppreciated in value.

And if I would've put that money into my 401k or Roth IRA or some sort of

investment, right? That would've been astronomical by now.

So I had, I had to learn those lessons the hard way too. But I think discipline,

writing your goals out and looking at them throughout the year,

I do that frequently. Check in with myself,

make sure I'm not getting off track and saying, Hey,

how am I doing on these financial goals that I laid out for the year? And,

you know, before I make a big purchase like that, check in and just say, Hey,

you know, it is another $10,000 for a car, really what I should be doing?

Or should I scale back to, you know, the college,

vehicle that I used to drive and make sure I'm contributing to those goals and

make sure I'm meeting those and staying steadfast on reaching them.

I'll say one more thing about cars and then we're gonna switch gears.

But I remember I was a Copeland guy,

right? So I stayed in the prison dormitories. Called them that.

I was just wondering if that was gonna come out today.

By, by the way, not a, it's a rumor. There was never an intention.

I think I asked Andy Beachnau. Now the Head of Facilities was on the show,

and it was never intended to be a prison,

but it is very small Spartan like dormitories. Back

in my time when you walked through the parking lot, Copeland, DLOT, D one,

next to Mackinac,

I don't think any of my friends had a car that was fully functional.

In other words,

one of the doors didn't open or you couldn't open this window 'cause it went

down. So we'd all pile in to go to Jenison Meijer, right?

And there was a lot of used car lot looking as I walk through

the parking lot now, and I see you shaking your head and sigh, just like I,

I'm like, there's not a junky car in this parking lot.

So I know that there's a lot of, of,

of status debt and expectation around these, this vehicle thing.

That's all I'm gonna say about that. So, yeah. But I mean,

if your dream is to have the car man, and it makes you happy, and I was,

I enjoyed the car, I realized what the cost, it was the dollars per, you know,

whatever the value was. Paul Isley, my economics Professor, Paul's still here,

you know, taught me about opportunity cost.

What could I have done with that money if I hadn't had this? And,

and I think about that a lot, but changing gears as we wrap up here,

sell the Seidman Mentorship Program, sell it to the,

the professionals who are listening, go, I don't have time for that,

that Patrick's doing all that stuff. I don't have time for that.

I don't have anything to offer to a student. I don't know.

My life's not together. I didn't have all these great experiences.

I overcome some of those objectives, objections and sell this.

Yeah, I think it's easy, right? I mean, I, I felt that way. I, I said, what do,

do I really have a ton to offer here?

Is this something that this student or the mentee will find worthwhile as far as

me sharing my experiences? But once we got going, it was a no brainer.

I, I, you know, I felt like both sides, so as the mentor, right?

If I could sell it to them, I'm saying it's not that big of a time commitment.

I mean,

we met once a month for an hour at the coffee shop and maybe exchanged a few

texts or emails in between,

and then I would invite him to a networking event that I was already going to.

So, you know, a lot of these things, and like I said, making connections too.

I mean,

that was just a group text between my mentee and a friend of mine and saying,

Hey, you two should connect and have a phone conversation. And they did.

So that took me 30 seconds, right? So the time is just,

it's not a big commitment. The value that you get out of it, I mean,

Kurtis and I hit it off right away.

I really enjoyed every time that we got together,

it was something that I looked forward to on my calendar. He

challenged me and made me reframe the way that I think,

that I hadn't done in maybe 10 to 12 years. So I enjoyed it, that aspect of it.

And then just, you know,

that feeling that you get from putting yourself back in your shoes and kind of

going through this and seeing how well he succeeded in landing a job in

Mercantile and now being in the professional world and graduating from Grand

Valley and adding another Laker for a lifetime, right? I mean, that,

that feeling that you get from seeing and being a small part of,

of his journey through senior year and, and for some mentees and mentors,

maybe it's freshmen, sophomore, junior year, and even better, right?

Then you get to be a, a part of a bigger piece of that puzzle. So I,

I think it's amazing.

I wasn't expecting the rewards that I got both from just reframing my

thinking and just the feeling of being a small piece of that puzzle.

But I think it's an awesome experience.

It does not take a ton of time and you can really help shape people's lives

and help them, you know, get to the next step. And it, it,

whether you're West Michigan or worldwide, I mean,

I ran into a few mentees that were working with mentors that lived in Japan.

You know, and they were meeting virtually and things like that.

So you don't have to be here in West Michigan.

I lived in Chicago for five years. I wish I knew about the program then,

and I just think it's an amazing tool that we're offering these students here at

Grand Valley.

I came in the career center all the time when I was here and used Troy and Lori

and the team, and I wish I would've signed up for this program,

but I'm glad I at least get to contribute on the other end.

Well, we appreciate you and, and congratulations, Pro Mentor of the Year.

Your success, it's, it's always an honor,

to talk to folks who are giving back this altruistic piece,

whether you got a degree or not. I, I,

we have several pro mentors who don't have an advanced degree,

several that went to Grand Valley and left and said, this wasn't for me.

Some of our, our, our best mentors, mentors around the world,

and I've said this before,

when you get that card from somebody that says, "Hey,

you changed my life." You can't, you, you, you're gonna,

there's very few jobs that you get paid for where you're gonna

get that same kind of satisfaction. So, absolutely, thank you very much,

we are working harder to get more people to understand the program and be part

of the program with us, and, just appreciate what you do.

So thank you so much for coming in and talk to me today and,

and thanks for being part of the program, being a Laker for the lifetime, and,

just really appreciate,

you and the other alumni who have stepped up to really help change lives.

Absolutely. Thanks for having me. This was a lot of fun.

Thank you for sailing along on this episode of The Seidman Mentorship Podcast.

For more information on the Seidman College of Business Mentorship Program at

Grand Valley State University, look us up on your favorite search engine.

If you have a story to tell, know someone we should interview,

have questions or comments,

please email at smp@gvsu.edu.

Until next time, keep a weather die on the horizon, and we wish you fair winds.

So long.