On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast—sponsored by Reich and Tang Deposit Solutions—two rising community bank executives in North Carolina share lessons in career development and leadership. Meredith Begley hails from the mountains of western North Carolina, while Kristen Brabble calls the Atlantic coastal plain home—but they came together through North Carolina Young Bankers, a program of the North Carolina Bankers Association.

During the podcast, Begley and Brabble—who are a past chair and current chair of NYCB, respectively—share lessons in what makes a community bank career successful. Begley discusses her involvement in bringing financial education to local schools, while Brabble emphasizes the importance of seizing every opportunity in her story of working on a core conversion for her bank early in her 20s.