Speaker 1 0:42

okay, so you had quite a morning today.

Speaker 2 0:44

You almost had to shower in the studio, except for I showered at home cold shower.

Speaker 1 0:50

Our water heater broke over a weekend and I mean there's a lot of benefits to cold showers. I actually heard that a two of benefits to cold showers. I actually heard that a two to three minute cold shower is really good for you if you can handle it.

Speaker 2 1:00

I don't know.

Speaker 1 1:00

I've done like an ice bath and I think that's more manageable than like cold water hitting you. Oh yeah, I don't know, because like you can like control yourself going into the bath.

Speaker 2 1:11

Yeah, I was definitely in there longer than two to three minutes. So, man, that is why I'm on fire today.

Speaker 1 1:17

Oh, God Okay. So, speaking of cold, our guest just came from a beach, a winter beach vacation, very, very short one. So this is Natalie Bartholomew, and she's also known as the girl banker. Welcome.

Speaker 3 1:31

Thank you for having me. We're so happy to have you here, my hacky voice and all I know it's tis the season right, yes.

Speaker 2 1:38

But you went to the beach, yes, so you expected warm weather. Or at least kind of nice Nice temperatures, at least some sort of nice temperatures.

Speaker 3 1:46

Yeah, and what happened? Tell us really quickly about that. So it was a very kind of, I say, last minute. My aunt recently purchased a condo in Orange Beach and so she had been telling me to go try it out. Both of my boys play travel baseball, so that's about to consume my entire. That's going to be my alter ego from the beginning of March through really July, and so with the President's Day weekend, it was like this is my shot to go check this thing out.

Speaker 3 2:15

And so I'd never been to Orange Beach before. It was very lovely. Great time to go to avoid a crowd. Bad time to go to get a tan. Oh my God, it was pretty. I think the high the first day we were there was 43. No, yes, but there is something about you know. It was the water was gorgeous and there wasn't a crowd, so that was nice. So just a different vibe. You know, sit on the on. She has a really pretty porch that overlooks the ocean and has a hot tub. Oh, there you go. Now I think I need a hot tub, yeah.

Speaker 3 2:47

So it was just a very different experience, but it was, it was fun. It was fun. It was very cold, though it was very cool, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 2:54

And when you're coming from Northwest Arkansas in February, where it's typically cold and very cold.

Speaker 3 2:58

you want warm. I think at one point it was warmer here than it was there. No, which seemed wrong.

Speaker 2 3:04

That is wrong. That is so wrong. So are you from Northwest Arkansas, or how did you get here? Tell us a little bit about that.

Speaker 3 3:10

I have always been here, so I am a native Northwest Arkansan. My family actually settled in Prairie Grove, which is where I live now, in 1860 and started the farm, and so I am the fifth generation on our family's farm.

Speaker 2 3:25

And my boys are the sixth.

Speaker 3 3:27

So we do cattle, so we have cow-calf operation and it varies depending on the time of year, but anywhere between 275, 300 head of cattle. And we also do Bermuda grass hay and so we will do anywhere between 20 to 25,000 square bales of Bermuda grass hay a year. This year we did close to 30. So it was a record year and we sell to folks that have horses and we sell all over the place and then we'll do close to 7,500 to 10,000 round bales. So we also raise chickens for Tyson, which I feel like, if you're northwest Arkansas and have a farm diversification, oh my my six-year-old eats your family's chicken because she loves Tyson chicken fries there you go it has to be Tyson and it has to be the fry.

Speaker 1 4:13

Okay, it can be no other.

Speaker 3 4:14

just to know that it, just to know that that food came from somewhere.

Speaker 4 4:18

I love that.

Speaker 3 4:19

Yeah, so my dad actually started raising chickens for Tyson when he was 19 and raised for 40 years. So we are no longer in the chicken business. But I married my high school sweetheart, who is a real life cowboy, and so he runs the farm along with my mom and dad and my boys are there, and so, yeah, I kind of get the best of both worlds of leaving the small town and driving to the big city of Rogers you give me like a Beth Dutton vibe right now maybe I don't.

Speaker 2 4:45

She's like no, please don't classify me as Beth Dutton.

Speaker 3 4:49

I may sound like I have a Beth Dutton voice, not a smoker. No, don't like whiskey.

Speaker 2 4:56

And you're like and I have my shit together.

Speaker 3 5:00

On a good day On a good day.

Speaker 3 5:02

But I've always been here. So just to you know, I don't. This is home for me and it's funny because I was thinking as I was driving here how this area has changed so much in my lifetime, much less my parents' lifetime. But I mentioned that we raised Bermuda grass hay and I remember as a kid coming with my parents to deliver hay to someone in Rogers and turning on Horse Barn Road and nothing was here. I mean, so imagine this area with no promenade and no Topgolf and no Pinnacle subdivision. None of that was here. It was just also a big farm at one point. That's amazing.

Speaker 3 5:37

Not that long ago In my lifetime, which in my head, that's not that long ago, but it was probably 30 years ago.

Speaker 2 5:42

It really isn't that long ago that they started developing that, because I remember I think it was around 2005 when I moved to Northwest Arkansas for the first time and I think they were just developing it kind of around that time frame early 2000s, I don't know. I thought I remember when none of this existed Before these mansions were built.

Speaker 2 6:20

Yes, yes, that's so amazing what is, since we're talking about that and I love and I want to talk about your banking. But while we're talking about just the changes in Northwest Arkansas, what are maybe some of the top three biggest changes you've seen in this area that have maybe impacted the economy, just the community and what we know as Northwest Arkansas today?

Banking & Small Town Identity Future

Speaker 3 6:41

You know, and it's hard to probably identify just three things. Sometimes, I think, for Northwest Arkansas residents, especially those of us who have only lived here, so I put myself in that category Obviously we kind of live in a bubble because we have excellent access to education, to all the things, the arts, just all the opportunities, the good food. We live in a beautiful area, so the parks, the recreation, all those things we have just immediate access to. And I think it's interesting to think about that, how it relates to the rest of the state, and I will blame I'm not as well versed with how things run in the rest of the state of Arkansas, and having lived here my entire 41 years. That's a shame, but we have it really good here.

Speaker 3 7:26

And so I think the education piece beyond just the University of Arkansas, beyond just Northwest Arkansas, our public schools are in great shape. A lot of them hit the top of the list Whenever you look at the best schools in Arkansas. Accessibility to the arts is something that we probably take for granted. The rest of the state does not have access to that, and so we can be a place of interest for not only other Arkansans, but we're close to other states too. It's a place to come and see Just overall economic development. You look at the way this area responded during the recession or during the bubble that popped in 07. Was it great for everyone? No, were we completely immune to it?

Speaker 4 8:09

No.

Speaker 3 8:09

But did we completely fall apart? Also, no, we're still thriving, we're still doing well. You have a lot of people continuing to move here. We just have a lot to offer. And yet I still think we have some people would disagree I know my parents would. The small town, vibe.

Speaker 3 8:26

I do think that Northwest Arkansas is probably starting to have specifically your big four. Okay, so your Fayetteville, rogers in Springdale and Bentonville. I said that kind of out of order, but we kind of have an identity crisis. Are we still the small town? Do we want to be the big city?

Speaker 3 8:44

Parking is terrible in the big four anymore. That's usually something you only interact with when you go to a big city. But it's not amazing anymore where my office is and it's in a temporary space, it's a nightmare just because there's a lot of growth and there's a lot of development going on. And so I think that's going to be a challenge for us is to make sure that we stay true to what we want to be as a region. Are we going to be a big city or a big blob of big cities, because the big four will continue to grow and expand? Or do we want to maintain that smaller town feel Because, personally, that's important to me. My kids go to the Prairie Grove School District. That's where I went to school, it's where my husband went to school, it's where my parents went to school and it's still while growing a smaller school district, and so we have the benefits of that, but we have the accessibility to all the how that evolves. Yeah, long answer to your question, but we roundabout, got there.

Speaker 2 9:37

No, I almost said, and we are finished, and we are done. That was a great answer and I think, having the perspective of someone who grew up here, who not only has an investment in their own community, but who is somebody who is very open to that growth, and looking at where things have gone and where they continue to grow, and being in the industry and the field that you're in, you're seeing a lot of that and you're part of that, I mean.

Speaker 3 10:04

Well, and I can talk out of both sides of my mouth really because, while that is important to me, I also want all that growth and development to be away from where our farm is. That's fair. It's been in the family for so long and my dad was the youngest of four children and he maintained it and kept it going. And I jokingly always say that my parents love my husband more than me because he came along. I have a twin sister and she lives in Lubbock, texas, but he's a huge piece of the future and my boys are as well, and so we definitely want to see that for them and then future generations also. So it's kind of a catch-22 for me. As far as the development goes, I can imagine so I want to switch gears.

Speaker 1 10:45

I follow you on your social and I love that you really promote women and you're obviously in banking You're the girl banker. It's interesting. I was thinking about, like, how banking has evolved and then I watch what you do. You you know you're very active on social, you have your own podcast, and so I was thinking about, like, the future of banking and bankers and just thinking how many more like how many more media platforms you have to utilize to bank now to a banker, and so I find that really interesting. But one thing I loved seeing the most was you had posted it was a little while ago about some of the old laws around women and banking. Yeah, and it's really mind-blowing, like how women could not get a loan without a man signing for them, and not that long ago not that long ago.

Speaker 3 11:33

Not that long ago, what year was it? To me, the 70s, and we may have to Google that or have a fact check after the episode, but to me, in my mind, the 70s were 30 years ago.

Speaker 1 11:46

Oh, they're 30 years ago, almost 50. No, they are.

Speaker 3 11:50

But in retrospect, that's not that long ago, that women could not have their own bank account and they could not have their own credit card. They could not go and get their own loan. And so you think about just what that means for women not only women in banking and what their positions were. It's hard for them to have ever been empowered as a banker if they themselves could not have a checking account without having their husband or father or something.

Speaker 1 12:14

It's mind-blowing. To me it is. I can't even fathom it.

Speaker 3 12:17

It's really hard for me to wrap my mind around honestly.

Speaker 1 12:19

Yeah, because I was born in the 80s and I was told from a young age go to college, get a credit card, build credit and open a checking account. From a young age working as a teenager.

Speaker 3 12:31

Imagine not having the ability.

Speaker 1 12:32

Oh no, Just get married and your husband will deal with the finances, that's crazy to think about.

Speaker 3 12:37

Yeah, it is.

Speaker 1 12:39

Kind of disgusting honestly.

Speaker 3 12:40

Yeah.

Women in Banking

Speaker 3 12:40

If we want to be real and to that point. So the Girl Banker platform has been around since 2017. And we can go into that more in a minute, but just along this line of discussion, I've really kind of questioned okay, what does the future of this platform look like when you have a personal brand? There's an element of staying authentic that's a really, really big thing to me but also remaining relevant. And there's, I think, a big conversation around the transfer of wealth that's coming over the next couple of years and how that looks going to women. Because if you look at some statistics I love to follow Elvest, which is Sally Krawcheck's investment firm. They do some amazing content on their social, so if you ever want some really good facts, go follow that account also. But there's a lot of data about women, aren't? They're more independent, they're not getting married as early, they may not be getting married at all, and in that case, that may mean that a lot of the transfer of wealth is going to single women. So as banks, are we positioned to accommodate that?

Speaker 4 13:42

Women like to work with women. I have found.

Speaker 3 13:44

I have found that, yes, I have some female clients that are working with me because I'm female, and that's not to say that I don't take just as good a care of my male clients we take care of everybody. But that was an interesting lesson to me, as I was kind of seeing these facts come out and really starting to pay attention to that. And then I had this client that was like I love working with other women and she's in a real estate capacity, and so that meant a lot because typically that's been very much of a male-dominated situation. So, all that being said, I think banks are positioned to not only from a marketing perspective but do they have women on the front lines? Do they have women in producing roles and business development roles to seek out these women that would want to work with them, and that's not only on the financial management, the brokerage side but also to fund their small businesses, to help them from the entrepreneurial perspective perspective and to walk through this whole thing with them.

Speaker 3 14:38

Banking at the very core is just about relationships, yeah, and I've always said that people bank with people, and that's kind of how I've watched everything.

Speaker 3 14:48

Yeah, all the trigger words in banking has always been about innovation and the technology piece of it, and that is very, very important. The bank that I work for, first Community Bank, is very community-focused. We're very people-focused and I am seeing even more now that even though there is definitely a set of people who want to work with just a phone they don't want to see people, they don't want to call, they don't want to come in the branch there's also a large number of people that still want that relationship and it may not be that they want to come into the bank all the time and see you, but they want to know that they know you and trust you and they can call you personally and so that, pulling kind of circling back to the female side of it there's a huge opportunity for banks in that realm is to be focusing on that transfer of wealth and helping women and supporting women in that capacity that's awesome wealth and women like well, yeah like buzz.

Speaker 1 16:09

That should be the buzz word, the buzzword wealth and women, women and wealth.

Speaker 2 16:12

While you were speaking, I thought of a movie hitch. Have you seen that movie hitch?

Speaker 3 16:17

I, I've seen parts of it. Okay, I've never seen it. I've not seen it, all right it.

Speaker 2 16:22

It's a fun little romantic comedy and there's a scene in there where there's this woman and she is wealthy and has this enormous amount of wealth that she can spread to nonprofits or investments and things like that, and so one of the men that's on her investment board, he has a crush on her, and so it's kind of like you're following this whole storyline or whatever, and so it's kind of like this whole, you're following this whole like storyline or whatever, and so it shows the scene where they're in like this big boardroom and she's at one end of the table and then the head of her board is at the other and the entire table is all men. It's all men. And so she's wanting to invest in something, she wants to invest in her friend's clothing line or something like that, and they basically like shut her down. You know like no, we don't really get it.

Speaker 2 17:11

They don't get it. And so the guy that has a crush on her, who has been kind of encouraged and mentored by Hitch, he speaks up and he makes this huge scene about like, oh, she should be able to spend her money how she wants to and invest in who she believes in and all these things. And it was kind of an inspiring scene to think about, like how we are using our money, how we are spending our money as women, and I think that that is just it's reflective of a lot of what you're saying, and even like the point of like feeling empowered to do with your money as you wish as a female, but learning that how to do that.

Speaker 2 17:43

And to do that in a mindful, smart, connective way, and I think that that's really cool and have trusted partners to walk through that with you.

Speaker 3 17:53

Yeah, I think that's great and that's where I feel for I'm kind of looking forward to 2024 and 2025 in terms of kind of focusing on this whole conversation, because banks are likely not positioned.

Speaker 2 18:05

And.

Speaker 3 18:05

I say that to say there's a lot of them that are making a lot of movement towards this. So you think about the difference that having women in leadership positions in the C-suite and then another level, having them on the board, it filters all the way down. When you have women in these positions, they're advocating for women that are not there yet. They're the ones that should be speaking and highly of and promoting the names of those that are not in the room, and so that's where I think the system breakdown may be for and I say for banks. Usually, when I'm talking about banks, I'm talking about community banks, so banks that are 10 billion in assets and smaller. But if you don't have women in those positions, advocating for other women to pull them up into those positions as well, then you're really not going to be able to achieve those goals of being able to, I think, properly market and pull in these women customers, female customers.

Speaker 1 18:54

And that's why we actually reached out to you, because we loved your personal brand, your personal mission. Tell us more like how you got into creating that personal brand. Podcasting, you kind of do a lot of different things. Tell us about building that personal brand. What made, what inspired you to do that?

Speaker 3 19:11

So I had always wanted to be a banker. My grandfather on my mom's side had been a banker for 45 years. He passed away when I was in ninth grade, so our banking careers never overlap. But I grew up going into a bank and used to play bank as a kid. I'd make my sister play with me. He would bring home just fun little tickets and I always loved to fill out forms and so I always knew that I wanted to be a banker.

Speaker 3 19:31

And so I started as an 18-year-old teller and worked my way up through college and graduate school, went to the University of Arkansas and just kind of learned at a young age to advocate for myself.

Speaker 3 19:41

I want to be in these positions I need to be telling people that I do and I was very fortunate.

Speaker 3 19:45

The bank I was at at the time created some positions for me and really walked with me and I was trained really well to achieve those goals. And so I've kind of done a little bit of everything as it relates to banking. But there was kind of a point I was at a different bank at this point and had started going to graduate school of banking in Colorado, which I'm now on faculty for, but it kind of just changed my perspective all of a sudden At that point. That's when I started commuting up here to Rogers and everyone thought I had lost my mind. I went from like a three-minute commute to an hour commute and everyone in Prairie Grove thought that's like going a world away. Now it's just part of my day, but I was starting to really change my perspective on what it was to be a banker and was kind of inspired by a few people in the industry that were starting to have a voice at that time on Twitter and I'm sorry I can never call it X, it's always going- to be Twitter.

Speaker 1 20:33

I saw you post that like. I will never call, like, I just can't.

Speaker 3 20:36

It's always going to it's.

Speaker 1 20:37

Twitter to me and it's always going to be.

Speaker 3 20:38

Twitter, and so I slowly but surely started to follow other industry relevant accounts other bankers, data associations, publications, whatever just people in the space. And I have a very good friend who would also be another great person for your podcast. She was a former Lady Razorback. She's also from Northwest Arkansas and she has a marketing agency in our paths crossed. Her name's Allison Twigsteyer and her group still works with me on the Girl Banker. But she had been in my ear saying you should consider doing a blog and I was like what do I have to say? I'm just this country girl, I've been in banking, but there's nothing exciting. I just didn't want to be a mommy blogger. That was just not my thing. I didn't think I had anything to say that anyone would care to read about, and that's why we needed you.

Speaker 3 21:26

So over the course of a few months we just start talking about it more and she's urging me more and she started teaching me a lot of the social media skills. You know, a lot of people think that social media is just. You know, anybody can do it and the answer is no, not everyone can.

Speaker 1 21:38

There's a rhyme, there's a reason?

Speaker 3 21:40

Oh, there is, and she does it because I don't there's got to be a strategy to it if you want to reach an audience and if you want to kind of stand the test of time because it's changing and evolving and that's a whole other podcast. It's a rough place out there on social.

Speaker 3 21:54

But, at the time I was just really motivated to try to kind of build that voice and see where it went. And we were at a conference one day, sitting in a back row and we should have been paying attention to the speaker and instead we were like brainstorming about the Girl Banker, and the Girl Banker came about at this conference. At the time the phrase Girl Boss was not as taboo as it is now, and so the Girl Banker name was kind of spawned off of that. But also to speak to young women about banking, that's a big part of the platform. It's not just advocating for women in the space now, but also to speak to young women who likely have never considered banking as a career. There's a lot of barriers to entry for them, or perceived barriers to entry. So the Girl Banker kind of played to that.

Speaker 3 22:37

So the blog kind of came about. The logo came off of Etsy. It was a very humble beginning for me and I just kind of started working on the social platforms. I think this is a really good point to say you can't be everything to everybody on social media and if you try to do that, you will and I've learned this the hard way you will wear yourself out and you will hate life and you will hate social and you will hate people. And I've had those moments, you know, because and that's it's an ugly place out there. That's why I don't do content on TikTok. Love me some.

Speaker 1 23:07

TikTok. You told me you went viral. No, you didn't tell me I saw, or maybe you did tell me that you had something go viral and it was really bad. Yes, you did not enjoy the experience.

Speaker 3 23:16

I didn't so you're done with. Tiktok as a content creator there. I consume all the Taylor Swift. I am a big Swifty, so like, literally that's all that and like home organizing videos I'm here for it.

Speaker 1 23:31

Oh yeah. Love me some home organizing, yeah, and I need someone to come do that yes.

Speaker 3 23:36

For me when they restock their refrigerator.

Speaker 1 23:38

Yeah, I really try to do all that.

Speaker 3 23:41

I do too yeah.

Speaker 1 23:42

Okay, so I wanted to interject about something that you were talking about, and this has to do with just being content creators and podcasters, because we just went to a podcasting convention and it's kind of like the wild west out there when you are starting it, because, even though there's a lot of podcasts, actually the market is not that saturated as you would think, and I think that's an interesting fact, because I think we're told that there's too many. No, but there's not.

Empowering Women in Banking

Speaker 1 24:05

That's interesting and in something else that you know. I know this is kind of a everyone's kind of saying this right now imposter syndrome. Really it's just a way fancy way, I think of saying like self-doubt. But you had kind of mentioned like you came from humble beginnings, you were hesitant, you weren't sure, but now you've stuck with it and that's something I think a lot of podcasters felt and content creators at the conference was after about seven or eight months they start to wonder because it is a lot of work to do all of that and consistency and really building a brand.

Speaker 1 24:34

Yeah.

Speaker 3 24:34

And you've stuck with it.

Speaker 3 24:35

Is everything, because if you just think you're going to immediately hit, you know, some level of whatever you want to define it as. I don't even want to say followers or fans. It's not, that's not. It. It's not going to happen. You have to stay the course, you have to be consistent and I would say that, like, the most top priority thing whenever you're building a brand is, or even building a social presence or even building, you know, working on a podcast is staying authentic. If you're trying to be something you're not good luck because they will figure it out and you want to talk about getting trolled out there, you will get your hind end handed to you. So the consistency thing is very, very important.

Speaker 3 25:13

I received a lot of criticism actually when I first launched, by women. It wasn't even by men. That actually does not surprise me. Yeah, I was kind of welcomed with open arms by a large number of people and there's an incredible group of women in banking that I've been able to create relationships with that are scattered all over the country. That I'm so thankful for because they are there to keep me going whenever I want to quit. But if it wasn't for my husband, we're talking like 15 days in. He honestly needs his own podcast. He could be like the crafty cowboy. He needs cult. Like we're talking like 15 days in. He honestly needs his own podcast. Like he could be like the crafty cowboy like.

Speaker 3 25:47

Colt the crafty cowboy.

Speaker 4 25:49

Did you see what he?

Speaker 3 25:50

did for my son's Valentine's box. No.

Speaker 3 25:53

I'll have to show you a picture. It's insane. That's a whole other podcast too, but he's also. He has a lot of words of wisdom, and there was a moment where I had received kind of a gut punch of criticism from a group of people that should have not been that way and I just wanted to quit. I suddenly started to really doubt why I was doing it. I felt stupid. It's part of that imposter syndrome. This is dumb, why am I doing this?

Speaker 3 26:16

And I remember him saying to me, as I was having just this utter meltdown, and this was, like I said, 15 days in from launch, so we're way back in 2017. He was like, if you focus on trying to keep this group of like this is not who you're doing this for yeah, like this group of people that's being ugly to you is just jealous of the fact, or intimidated by the fact, that you're doing something different. Yes, and I'm so glad that he kind of got me on the straight and narrow there, because if I just quit it, it's just I mean I wouldn't be sitting here right now. I mean I'd still be in banking, but it's definitely changed my life in very interesting ways by pursuing that and staying consistent and persistent, even though there were women who were like, well, I'm not going to follow because I'm a woman, not a girl, and I'm like, okay, yeah, fine, don't follow. Know, it's just been very interesting. But, moreover, more more people have been supportive than anything. Well, they say, if you get a hater that you've made it, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 27:10

So I think that it's probably a good thing, because that means people are paying attention, and I was. I was actually listening to a different podcast yesterday talking about how a lot of times people can critique the game but they've never played the game. Right, oh yeah. So I feel like just kind of take it as a slice of humble pie. You know, you won't be everyone's cup of tea and not everyone knows the game you're playing and you can't seek a follower count.

Speaker 3 27:35

You know like I have a very niche focus, right yeah, Women in banking.

Speaker 4 27:39

I'm not going to have 100,000 followers.

Speaker 3 27:41

I'm proud, as all get out of my 6,700 on Instagram because I have earned those. I probably have a couple of thousand that have been blocked because I've been spammed and my account's been not hacked but copied so many times, so it's just I did notice that.

Speaker 1 27:56

Yeah.

Speaker 3 27:57

I have a lot of the banker thing. It's a whole other deal, but you can't focus on that. You have to focus on the mission and the audience that you create when building that brand should be your focus. Yeah, I have about 9000 women in banking from all over the country in a private Facebook group.

Speaker 1 28:13

That's the audience. That's the focus and that's the.

Speaker 3 28:15

You're impacting thousands of women and that's amazing you just have to remember why you're in and stay tuned into that.

Speaker 1 28:22

So on that note, what is something that you really try to drive home with these women and I guess maybe it's a twofold question, because it could be like women trying to get into banking, or maybe it could be just women in their personal finances. You know, what is it you really try to leave? What's that impression?

Speaker 3 28:41

So a big part of the Girl Banker platform is truly creating the community which is there on social, but also to remember that women are often the worst to one another, and I feel like that's very prevalent.

Speaker 3 28:54

I call it Queen Bee syndrome.

Speaker 3 28:56

There's this stigma in banking and I feel like especially the older banks or banks where there's only been one really prominent woman that has made her way up and in more cases than not, that woman is not cool with any other woman coming to the table and so they feel like, oh, that person should be paid what I was paid when I started, even though that was 20 years ago or 30 years ago, or I'm not going to speak her name in rooms because I'm intimidated by that.

Speaker 3 29:20

Instead, we need to flip that narrative that we can't have more women in this space and more women in leadership if we're not constantly advocating for one another and if we aren't trying to change our parental leave policies, all those different things that affect women specifically. We're the ones. It's up to us and literally that's the name of my speaking engagement topic is it's up to us. We can't expect it just to evolve and change on our on its own If we don't start pulling these women up with us saying the things that need to be said to change those policies, advocating for them to get paid more. Then who is Can?

Speaker 1 29:57

I tell you I love this. Ok, I helped change a policy. My first job out of college was at a bank and I was in marketing for the bank and my boss was like over all corporate communications, marketing, pr, and there was a policy. It was a male-dominated office. There was a policy that women Even the ones that weren't bankers had to wear pantyhose all year round.

Speaker 4 30:21

And this is in Dallas.

Speaker 1 30:22

Okay. So it was so hot, like so hot that even in the summers we like begged please do not and I know this seems really silly like pantyhose, but we got it changed for the summer. I thought we were going to get fired, I'm not even kidding you. We had to write all the way up to like the ceo and isn't that crazy and make a medical case that it was unhealthy the minute you start having those making decisions wearing the pantyhose in the summer.

Speaker 3 30:47

They would have changed it immediately.

Speaker 1 30:48

It didn't affect them though, yeah so I know that's small, but what you said about because my boss, you know, I was in it with her I was like, look, I'm going with you if you get tossed like yeah and we't.

Speaker 4 30:59

We're going down together.

Speaker 1 31:00

Yeah, we're going down together, but no she lifted me up and we lifted each other, so it really reminded me of that. And these guys weren't bad, it was just old policies that maybe no woman had ever challenged before. They just wore the pantyhose and it seems silly, but why do we?

Speaker 3 31:15

have to do that.

Speaker 1 31:17

It's so important, and if it's so, important and if it's not the pantyhose, it's something else. Right, it just the pantyhose stood for the control over what. And look, look, I get you want to like, like you can only wear red or neutral nail polish, and I get they want to polish. Look, and there's a dress like you know dress code, but I don't know. We just thought we were going to push, yeah it's.

Speaker 3 31:37

It's funny because I feel that, while we still have a lot of work to do, that banking has evolved a lot, like I'm seeing, as I had since I started this platform. Obviously there's a lot more attention to women in banking conferences, and that can be criticized of well, they don't have a men in banking conference, well. But having that conference also gives them empowerment and creates community, and to me, women need that. Women yearn for that.

Speaker 3 32:01

So those conferences are getting bigger. They're becoming more prevalent. Things are changing. There's a lot of banks that wear jeans every day. I mean even around here, that's wild.

Speaker 2 32:09

I get it. I know it's crazy. Could you imagine Whoa jeans, yeah.

Speaker 3 32:16

But anyway, it's definitely evolved. Things are changing for the better. There's still a lot of work to do, but I'm glad I didn't quit. I'm glad I stayed persistent.

Speaker 1 32:24

I am too, me too.

Speaker 3 32:25

It's been a bumpy road, it's not been perfect, and I hope that I can convey that. That's the other thing about being authentic. You can't pretend that everything's rosy and lovely. It's not always like that we appreciate that.

Speaker 1 32:37

following you and into our listeners, who we try to be really authentic and just you know who we have on sharing their story, and hopefully you'll inspire, yeah, somebody that's listening, that's, yeah, well you know I love that you're doing this podcast.

Speaker 3 32:51

I'm honored that you included me in here as as an old school northwest arkansas resident, so I feel really honored to have made the cut. I think I had a baseball mom recommend me for it, so off my son's team.

Speaker 1 33:03

You did.

Speaker 3 33:04

So thank you, gina, and her poor son.

Speaker 1 33:07

He broke his finger.

Speaker 3 33:08

Yes, yes, we've got a broken finger, but it's part of it. Such is the baseball mom life. Yeah, and that's a final one quick thing to say too. I think sometimes people perceive this platform as being and and I'm yes, I'm proud to say I'm very feminist, but I also, like I have boys, I have two boys, yeah, and so like I was blamed once for being a man hater and I'm like no, that's not the case at all, like I'm I'm very, yes, I try to, just like it takes us all.

Speaker 2 33:37

It takes us all yeah, it really does, really does, and unfortunately, I think that you know somebody who says that is missing the point.

Speaker 3 33:43

Right, right, missing the point. You're not paying attention.

Speaker 2 33:45

You're not paying attention to what she's doing and you know I really loved having you on the podcast. Thank you so much for coming Sharing your story from being-. We could do this all day.

Speaker 3 34:01

Growing up a bank like being the girl.

Speaker 1 34:03

If you could go on the road and follow my husband for a day you would have a very entertaining day, maybe we need a sidebar on that. Yeah, yeah, we'll feel true on that okay, so last, we usually do a last question about your favorite part of northwest arkansas and I mean that can just, it can be anything, yeah you know the first thing that came to mind.

Speaker 3 34:18

So that's what I'm going to run with, because there's a lot. There's a lot, there's too many things. Because I love it here and I could never live anywhere else. I love that the Razorbacks are at my disposal and so close Huge Razorback fan care way too much. I'm very competitive.

Speaker 1 34:32

I'm a different person at sporting events than I am in the office or in everyday life.

Speaker 3 34:42

But big Razorback baseball fan too, love that. They're having a good start. But I think that's another thing I take for granted is that I can just, you know, 30-minute drive because of traffic and I can go to any of these Razorback games and they're right here and it's fun to be able to take the boys and be a part of that and being a Razorback myself. So that's the first thing Whoop, yes.

Speaker 1 35:01

That's awesome. Hey, do you want to share your socials? So our listeners can follow.

Speaker 3 35:05

Yeah, so Instagram's probably my favorite and you're going to get a little bit of everything. You're going to get bank stuff, you're going to get Girl Banker stuff, you're going to get baseball stuff, farm stuff, all the things. But it's at the Girl Banker On LinkedIn I'm just Natalie Bartholomew there and then on Facebook you can follow the page the Girl Banker. Or if you are a woman in banking, then you can request membership of the Girl Banker group. Facebook group Awesome. I'm on Twitter slash X just not as super active as I used to be Trying threads, just not getting a lot of. It's just like, and I'm kind of tired at this point.

Speaker 1 35:39

I don't know how many of them I want to be taking on for real, alright, well, thanks for coming on, thank you so much hey, thanks so much for listening today. If you liked what you heard, please consider subscribing to the podcast so you never miss an episode. You can also follow us on Instagram at people of NWA.

Speaker 4 35:53

Thanks so much people of Northwest Arkansas with the two daniels produced by me, brock short of civil republic productions. Please rate, review and like us on any podcast platform where you listen for more information about today's guests and the show. Please check the show notes. Thanks for listening.