“Our values are also meant to be adjectives.” – Brent Rempe

Welcome to episode 234 of The CUInsight Experience podcast with your hosts, Randy Smith, co-founder of CUInsight, and Jill Nowacki, President and CEO of Humanidei.

This episode is sponsored by Trellance. Trellance is a leading technology partner for credit unions, delivering innovative technology solutions to help credit unions achieve more. With a comprehensive suite of analytics, cloud and talent solutions, the Trellance team ensures credit unions increase efficiency, manage risk, and improve member experience. Learn more here!

In this new 2026 season, Jill and I will have conversations centered around leadership, credit unions, and living our best lives. We will have some of the most respected leaders from around credit unions who we are grateful to call friends join us in the discussion from time to time too.

This week on the podcast, we are happy to welcome back Brent W. Rempe, President and CEO of First Alliance Credit Union. He joins us to discuss the importance of having and modeling values as a leader. Together, we talk about how values are often easy to name but much harder to put into operation, especially when leaders are faced with difficult decisions such as having to have accountability conversations, enact organizational change, and/or balance mission with financial realities.

Listen in as Brent shares how his own values were shaped through early life experiences, Catholic social teaching, and years in the credit union movement, and how those influences continue to guide his leadership today as something that must be actively put into practice rather than just documented and/or stated. We also reflect on how values show up in real organizational work—how they are tested in moments of conflict, how they can be clarified via simple grounding questions, and how important it is to separate technical mistakes from deeper values misalignment.

Throughout our conversation, we also challenge the idea that values belong solely on a wall or in a strategic plan and instead explore how they become real via consistent behavior, honest reflection, and accountability at every level of leadership—with Brent also walking us through how First Alliance redefined its mission, vision, and values via a collaborative, employee-driven process.

Later, we talk about the very real tension between mission and margin, the importance of keeping things simple enough to remember, and why service must be more than a slogan if it’s going to be at all meaningful. By the end of our conversation, we land on a shared truth: values are not what an organization claims but are what it does when no one is watching and when decisions get hard. Enjoy our conversation with Brent Rempe! 

Find the full show notes on cuinsight.com.

Connect with Brent:
Brent W. Rempe, C.E.O. & President of First Alliance Credit Union
firstalliancecu.com
Brent: LinkedIn
First Alliance Credit Union: LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | TikTok

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Books mentioned on The CUInsight Experience podcast: Book List

Show notes from this episode:
Sponsor: Trellance
TV series mentioned: The Lion Guard
Article mentioned: Harvard Business Review - “Building Your Company’s Vision”
Book mentioned: Good to Great by Jim Collins
Shout-out: Jerry I. Porras
Shout-out: Sam Plester
Shout-out: Mission Brands Consulting
Shout-out: Kristina Kovacevic
Shout-out: Callahan & Associates
Book mentioned: CEO Excellence by Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, & Vikram Malhotra
Shout-out: McKinsey & Company
Shout-out: WEOKIE Federal Credit Union
Book mentioned: Callahan’s Strategic Growth Framework by Jon Jeffreys

Previous guests mentioned in this episode: Brent Rempe (#182); Oscar Porras (#23 & CUInsight Network episode)

In This Episode:
[2:30] - Brent reflects on how his values have been shaped by his mother’s servant leadership, resilience, and community commitment.
[4:32] - Formative experiences in Catholic social teaching and cooperative principles also guide how Brent applies his values as C.E.O.
[6:46] - Brent believes that difficult offboarding decisions require balancing values and accountability despite personal emotional strain.
[8:07] - Hear how, when challenges arise, Brent focuses on collective outcomes and addressing problems directly.
[9:32] - Jill argues that alignment creates clarity, peace, and better self-awareness.
[12:57] - Brent asserts that leadership is action demonstrated via accountability, humility, and choosing others’ interests over your own.
[16:28] - Jill argues that values only count when actually put into action and not just on paper.
[18:16] - Collaborative, staff-driven renewal of values strengthens alignment with purpose and direction.
[21:16] - Simple, employee-created values can build ownership, alignment, and stronger organizational performance.
[23:25] - Hear how having too many values can actually do more harm than good.
[25:07] - Brent agrees and adds that values must be few, memorable, and clearly structured so that employees can consistently recall and apply them.
[27:04] - Brent treats people with grace and multiple chances but also has to make hard decisions when growth stops.
[31:04] - It's important for community service to prioritize underserved members and not just meet basic expectations or performance metrics.
[34:52] - Hear how Brent has aligned leadership evaluation with mission-driven excellence.
[37:56] - Discover how Jill models consistency.
[40:01] - Brent regards C.E.O. leadership as constantly reinforcing values while encouraging progress and connection and avoiding complacency.
[41:47] - Brent and Jill believe that authenticity, consistency, and passion are components of great leadership.
[42:19] - Brent reveals that routinely spending time with his son helps him stay grounded.

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