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​Russ Johns 0:32
And we're rocking it out at the pirate broadcast today and it's another fabulous day. I know that there's a lot of things going on in the world today and I wanted to bring in somebody that has a little bit of understanding and expertise in a certain area. And Seth is one of these individuals that has a lot of knowledge speaks on a lot of topics in different conferences, you know, as an authority in it In many areas, including humor, conversation, just being an awesome individual. So, Seth, thank you so much for being here on the pirate broadcast. How are you today?

Seth M Marlowe 1:11
I am great. Greetings from Connecticut, here in Stamford, Connecticut, and thank you so much for having me on on the show this morning. I've been a fan now for a while of the work that you do.

Russ Johns 1:23
Well, I appreciate that and honored to be here. And, you know, my whole passion is about how we can make these connections. You know, growing up, I've always been curious about different people doing different things in industries that I'm unaware of. And, you know, the thing that I discovered long ago was, you know, if you're curious about something, you should just go talk to somebody who's doing it and find out what it's like. It's really, you know, it's like, I see the job description, but is that really what the job is? And it's like, you know, when when I saw treasurer whisper that lead to a lot of different elements. So I want to I want to talk to you about how you got that title. And, you know, how you how you arrived on LinkedIn and what you're doing right now and kind of a brief summary of your journey here. So, Sure, well, Seth connect with that.

Seth M Marlowe 2:19
Yeah, please, please do I try to share some interesting and meaningful posts and articles and some degree of opinion on anything related to Treasury banking payments, and then a few other obsessions? I have occasionally there'll be something about coffee. And you can hear the New York accent coffee coming through. And you know, some other things.

Russ Johns 2:44
How many Starbucks cups do you have?

Seth M Marlowe 2:46
Oh, my god. I'm on a moratorium My wife has basically said either they go or I go, you need to So yeah, I actually have one of those is on its way. I think it actually arrives today. It's a shame it didn't make it for shame on me, I didn't know where to return.

Russ Johns 3:03
Robbie back.

Seth M Marlowe 3:04
But so the origin of the Treasury whisperer kind of goes back my time I've been at Wells Fargo, I have my 10 year anniversary coming up next week. Never thought I would be anywhere for 10 years. So this is the longest I've been anywhere.

Russ Johns 3:21
Happy Anniversary

Seth M Marlowe 3:21
Thank you. Thank you very much. And so what was interesting I moved from being a treasury practitioner. So someone that worked in a Treasury Department of the Treasury, for those that don't know is one of the many finance functions in most corporations. And they're really the ones who manage the money, initiate payments, wires, they help you get your payroll on time, involved in payables, receivables, the whole nine yards. So I spent most of my career in Treasury and in Treasury IT supporting the Treasury function, and did that it some big name companies, PepsiCo and then GE was my Last stop prior to wells. And so what was very interesting when I got to wells and I started talking to people in practitioners, our wholesale customers, was the you know, the customers would kind of hone in on me and say, hey, I want to know what he has to say because the experiences he's had as a practitioner, are really valuable. He's done it. Where is the salespeople relationship people generally not. So that kind of put in my head, this concept of being a treasury whisper, probably about I'm gonna guess about three years ago. I added that that statement at the back end of the summary of on my profile on LinkedIn, and didn't really think too much about it. It was just another way to describe myself.

Russ Johns 4:51
Right?

Seth M Marlowe 4:52
Lo and behold, somebody from the industry had invited me to do a web a webinar on A topic I regularly talk about. You know, he said to me, his name was Chuck Steinbach. And he was the, the head of the Philadelphia AFP Association for financial professionals. And this was a year ago, February, and he actually introduced me on that webinar as the Treasury whisper. And literally in that moment, it sort of hit me right in the head right between the eyes. It was like Wow, now, I felt like I had already built a personal brand. But now it was Wow, I have a brand name to go along with that. That is so cool.

Russ Johns 5:43
Absolutely

Seth M Marlowe 5:43
And so I kind of kept it under wraps for a while and then store I moved it to the front of my profile, I found a nice font too, that LinkedIn would accept and you know, made that the front end of the profile. And and that's basically how it started. It's really been a bit of a snowball effect with the the adoption of it. And you know, sometimes it's used admiringly and sometimes somewhat mockingly, but I'll take it as long as it's mentioned and as long as they're calling for me to talk and to add value to our customers and to my friends in the community, because it's the Treasury and banking community is a wonderful community of people.

Russ Johns 6:24
Oh, it's a it's an amazing, you know, and here's the thing that people fail to realize is that every industry is a community, you know, whether big or small, you know, whether it be telecommunications, IT, banking, you know, all of these industries, have people in them that are doing work and do a good work, you know, and being highlighted, you know, you speak at conferences, and you speak at events as well and, and I know that one of the things that has been really top of mind for a lot of industries, and it's a growing concern is your blockchain and Bitcoin and they hear a lot of this emerging technology and think, Hey, this is a disruptive industry. And I'm sure there's a lot of different things that you've seen over the years that have been considered disruptive and and what do you what do you see in the future and going forward that is really going to be life changing for individuals on a day to day basis as a result of change in the industry? Well, it's

Seth M Marlowe 7:28
kind of interesting. I think if you take a look at the the situation the world's in right now. There, there are side effects, I think very positive side effects that are happening right now. As schools and companies are saying, you know, what, work from home, don't come to school. I know of schools that are now doing, you know, real time, distance learning and getting everybody online so that they can continue to learn even if they're not in Physical schoolroom. Companies are moving towards actually having not just conference calls, but doing far more of video and insisting that people actually turn on the video. So that and the camera so that they can see you because a large part of what gets lost on those corporate conference calls, frankly, is a lot of people who are multitasking not paying attention. Can you repeat that? repeat that question, please. I you know, I was on mute. And you know, you weren't you weren't paying attention. Because, you know, you were looking at email and various other things. So, you know, I think this may be a very interesting tipping point, that really, you know, moves us to the next generation of how people interact on a very regular basis. I'm actually really excited about that. I think clearly video and doing this live, adds a whole different dimension to how we communicate and connect with each other.

Russ Johns 7:51
Well, And you're you're spot on and I, you know, a number of years ago, this was really challenging, you know, to get on online and you know, a lot of infrastructure had to be in place in order to accomplish this goal and conference call you. Now it's, there's so many platforms and and the reason why I do this video and I do it live is you know, to illustrate and share what is possible and you have an opportunity right now to have your own show. Do your own thing. You know, Warren here, I and I want to say hi to Gabriel Gabriel here. Good morning. Thank you so much. Warren is here. Warren is in Houston, a good friend of mine and every industry is a community. He's in the oil and gas industry and the insurance industry and you know some of these industries that we need to have in place in order to function as a society. And banking is the same way. And so live video is a way to augment our extension because geography is no longer the concern, right?

Seth M Marlowe 9:15
That's True

Russ Johns 9:26
We don't really have to be in a central location to do business. We can we can do business anywhere around the world that has a viable connection. And I think that's an important distinction right now in where we are in in society is, is the ability and the opportunity to kind of expand our choices as it relates to that. And I think, probably from your perspective, you know, being in a large organization, it's sometimes it's resistance that takes place more than anything. That change could take place a little quicker if there wasn't resistance in place. Would you agree with that? I mean,

Seth M Marlowe 10:55
I would, I would totally agree and you know, so many companies have You know, the silo effect that takes place. I know one gentleman who's a treasurer at a utility company, and, you know, his perspective that, I've seen him shared at conferences has been, you know, get up out of your chair and go network within your company. You know, if you're in Treasury, go talk to the people in accounting, go talk to the people in tax department, go talk to the customer service people, particularly if they're in the same physical location as you and I think the video now is that other dimension of you know, let's let's connect let's not just have a phone call, but let's do a video chat.

Russ Johns 11:38
Yeah.

Seth M Marlowe 11:38
And actually, you know, see each other get to get to know each other a little bit better see those facial expressions and, and how people react to the things that you say. So it's To me, it's very evolutionary, and I love where it's all headed.

Russ Johns 11:53
Yeah, well, you're in Connecticut. I'm in Arizona. You know, we're time zones away from each other and we're sitting down having a conversation about the subject, it's,

Seth M Marlowe 12:03
it's actually really cool.

Russ Johns 12:04
It's really cool. And you know, the fact that we're streaming to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn all at the same time, and we can actually produce content that will reach people all over the world is phenomenal. And so I just want to make sure that everybody understands the opportunity we have right now to adopt these technologies in any industry. You know, you speaking at a conference may be up on a screen to several individuals you may have. You may see more virtual conferences, you know, as a result of some of the things that are going on today. And so, be open to those opportunities be open to the possibility of being flexible in where you show up and how you show up and So what about what about the technologies in banking and industry in and you know, the internet is very, very important piece of transactions online transactions and moving quicker and moving faster and adopting speed is important. So how does that impact the industry overall from your perspective?

Seth M Marlowe 13:23
Well, I think the biggest thing that's happening is there there is that that need for speed. And what's very interesting people that are there are probably outside the industry may not realize that there's this series of new methods to be able to get money delivered quicker, in fact, in real time, so there is a new real time payment channel that that's been stood up and has been live for over a year now. And so the banks have been working in getting that live and Wells Fargo is certainly up and live on that on that new channel. was actually the first time that there's been a new payment rail in 40 years. So really, for those of you that are still writing checks, I peg you stop writing checks, electronic payments is the way to go. And, you know, so there are a lot of things that we take for granted today. You know, if you think about what we're doing here on video, you think about the mobile experience that we all have our cell phones are I know for me, it's attached to my hand all the time, my wife is always saying put that thing down. And and the reality is, you know, the, the the internet the the connections that are that are there, API technology has allowed for us to be able to share information in nanoseconds. And we don't we don't even think today about what goes into that experience when you you know call for an Uber or Lyft and and the fact that you don't have to take your big fat wallet out of your back pocket anymore to take, you know, swipe a credit card, you know, it just happens. It's embarrassing when you get out of a traditional cab, and you actually forget to pay I've had that happen a number of times, but the ease of that, you know, trying to find a Starbucks or a restaurant, and being able to click a button and you know, the phone knows where you are. And he can determine in you know, instantaneously, here are the locations nearest to you. And by the way you can order ahead. So when you show up, you just pick it up and go. So a lot of what's happening in banking now is trying to take those kinds of customer experiences and extended to our consumer or consumer base, as well as our, our commercial wholesale customers as well. So we're seeing new types of payments, new ways to pay. And it's an incredibly exciting time to be in this space. Probably one of the other things It's going on. That is very different from a number of years ago, big banks all used to try to do it all themselves. And today it's about partnership. It's, you know, workers fintechs. And they're nimble, and they bring products to market really fast and constantly cycling around and bringing out new versions and new functionality. And so, you know, we have teams at the bank that are very much focused on vetting these organizations and seeing how we can kind of, you know, work together to jointly bring product to market that has the scale that a large bank has, has the security and the regulatory aspects built in and covered that small FinTech may not necessarily have so it's really fun to see the things that we can do together. And, you know, we're certainly seeing a number of those products coming to market now.

Russ Johns 16:56
I love I love them. Watching things take place a lot of love to watch the evolution if you look back even 10 years ago and the changes in the in the impact that technology has made on so many industries, it's amazing to think how the next 10 years will evolve. You know, what, what is possible? What can we imagine? And what I would imagine is is there some amazing people in the room here, and I want to I want to thank you so much, Wendy huli How are you, Celeste? Thank you so much. Julio, how are you? Are Cod, Linda. Let's create a non siloed culture. I love that. Love it too. Angie, thank you so much for always being here. I appreciate you, Gabriel. Thank you so much. I was watching you're live on Instagram. I want to I want to talk to you about that and catch up with you at some point in time. Derrick Monroe, thank you so much. Sherry Lolli and Carol. I appreciate you being here. Thank you so much. Seth is amazing individually. He's the Treasury whisper. He loves coffee. And he enjoys collecting coffee cups from Starbucks in his wife's like to know more,

Seth M Marlowe 18:21
we're done

Russ Johns 18:21
No more Seth

Unknown Speaker 18:22
Come on. She's got a new thing that she's probably going to get on me the kids as well. I'm going to reveal this for the first time. So you know, I had it had a logo made about six months ago. So this is the first product and I'm not doing a really good job of putting it on but there's the the ski hat.

Russ Johns 18:44
ok

Seth M Marlowe 18:45
So a lot of figuring out how to market these.

Russ Johns 18:48
Yes, yes. Yes. Well, and you know, it's the same thing. It's like, okay, Jill Sullivan over a year ago said, Hey, Russ, why don't you have T shirts to say kindness is cool, smiles are free. So, so we have T shirts, I got t shirts now. And just the idea that we can actually spread a little joy and a little bit of, you know, have a little bit of humor and humanity and in the equation is something special to be considered every day, you know, it's like, just do something nice for someone, you know, play, you know, compliments, or, you know, open a door or return shopping cart, whatever it happens to be. So it's, it's awesome. So, Seth, what's what's in the future for Seth? Now you're getting an anniversary here 10 years at the institution of the banking industry, you know, and so speaking is gonna, you want to do a show you want to do podcasting what, what what format, you're going to go expand your, your interest in.

Seth M Marlowe 19:56
It's a great question. You know, internally, the group that I'm a part of which we call this strategic advisory group. We've been asked this year as part of our objectives to roll out a series of internal podcasts. So we've already started that process, which I'm really, really excited about. I love this format that you're using. And so I've already put in a couple of requests for LinkedIn live, haven't quite gotten that approved yet, but I'm working on that. You know, so I've got a variety of speaking engagements that are on behalf of the bank, and generally on the East Coast, but kind of across the country a little bit here and there. But some of the other things I'm working on, I'm actually collaborating with someone who I think you'll be familiar with also is pretty popular on the LinkedIn platform, Beth Granger. She and I are we've actually put a proposal together for what's called the New York Cash exchange, which is a treasury banking conference, I'm part of the the board of directors of the the organization puts that together. And so Beth and I are going to do a LinkedIn local event as a session at the conference. And we brought, we're bringing on a couple of other folks who are fantabulous about networking and connections, a gentleman by the name of Kevin Olson, who also has a brand. He's the payments professor. And Nicole Meyer, who is a former banker, who has been in the recruiting business, who also often talks about networking and personal branding. And it's going to be a super session. So those are some of the things in the short term, longer term. I mean, I have to say, as I'm approaching 10 years here with with wells, I have loved the culture. I've loved the organization. And, you know, I hope the run continues.

Russ Johns 21:52
Yeah. Well, it's so fascinating that you're talking about putting a LinkedIn event within a conference. You know, it's, it's, it's completely possible. I was talking with Kenyatta Turner yesterday and she's gonna be heading to Atlanta, she's probably already on our way. Actually she is. And we were talking about doing like LinkedIn pop ups, you know, like a small, you know, just random locations, just do, you know, random connections, and it's almost like Shelley does with her LinkedIn lattes, you know, and it's one of those things that you don't have to make it a big deal. It doesn't have to be major production.

Seth M Marlowe 22:36
Right!

Russ Johns 22:36
You just made, pull, have conversations that are real in and just understand who people are and what they're doing. And I've always believed Seth that you can actually, if you have a conversation long enough, you know, there's a thread that's a connection. You know, it's like we want coffee, you know, you're wearing a ski cap. You might even like snow since you're then Like, the other things that we have in common is as individuals, that we can always find a connection. If we have a conversation long enough.

Seth M Marlowe 23:12
It's so true. I had an interesting conversation a few weeks ago, I was at a conference in Las Vegas. And I was talking to a gentleman from the company who was sponsoring this, this event. And he was telling me he just moved from New York to San Diego where the company is headquartered. And so of course, I said, Oh, well, I'm originally from New York, you know, where were you? He's like, Queens was like, Oh, I grew up in Queens. What part? He said, Oh, I was living in Forest Hills. I was like, Oh, I grew up in Forest Hills. And then I was like, so where, where are you living? And he says, well, it's kind of a, you know, an odd address for there. It's 7272. And mentioned the street is like, that's the building I grew up in. I mean, you can't make this stuff up. It really opens.

Russ Johns 24:00
It's so fascinating to me. I mean, how many times you've been traveling or something ran into somebody at a random airport all the time, all the time. And you think about, okay, well, what? How does that happen? You know, one flight earlier later would not allow it to happen. And these things are just elements in life that we should be in awe about, you know, and we sell them think about it for two seconds and just say, Hey, I ran into, but we're all connected at some level. Like, we're all you know, seeing the same sunshine, breathing the same air. And so, just a little bit of kindness, a little bit of gratitude in our day makes a huge difference in in how we travel through life.

Seth M Marlowe 24:46
Absolutely true.

Russ Johns 24:48
And I just love the fact that we can actually connect here, talk about banking, talk about any kind of platform that we want in the industry, you know, money, instant transfers, and It's just fascinating to me to think, Okay. What else is what else is gonna come down the pipe? You know what else what other changes are taking place?

Seth M Marlowe 25:10
tapping in all around us, I have been telling my kids for years Wait, wait for the day when we have autonomous vehicles because the streets are going to look different, you know, you're not going to necessarily need street signs when all the cars are autonomous. Are people really still going to need to have garages? You know, I I foresee a time where, you know, there's going to be a tremendous amount of conversions of garages into living space, because what else are you going to do with it, you're probably not going to want to vehicle. So it's world's gonna be a very different place in in five years, 10 years and certainly beyond PPR recognition.

Russ Johns 25:52
Well, yeah, and I don't think people think about it on a daily basis, however, it's already taking place around us. You know, you can just like Uber, you know, it's, it's an extension of Uber, it's like, okay, just Okay, I need to go to the grocery store and then all of a sudden you punch it in or your groceries are delivered, or, you know, some combination of, of all of that. And so you just order a car up and you just go, you don't have to own a car. You don't have to do anything. It's just right there. I mean, and that that excites me because I don't necessarily want to own a car. I like cars, I like cars a lot is just day to day basis. It would be nice to not have to worry about it not be concerned with it.

Seth M Marlowe 26:38
So yeah, I'm sure there's some people when when the day comes, if the government says, well, you're not allowed to own a car. Yeah, that we're not allowed to drive. Americans are going to go kicking and screaming on that one.

Russ Johns 26:51
Absolutely, absolutely. Well, there's a difference between accepting what is and being told that That's the way it is. Right? Slightly different message. So I just want to go back. I thank you so much Sherry Lolly, she last windy. All of the individuals that show up here today and and Seth, thank you so much. I'm just humbled by the fact that we can have this conversation. And I look forward to many more conversations in the future. And really, you know, as you develop these platforms and these things that you're looking at, you know, whether it be a speaking engagement remotely or you're, you're thinking about transactions for large companies or corporations, it's nice to know that you actually have a community already right around you, LinkedIn, some of these people that you know, already in your connections, you can reach out and talk to people and, you know, people I've talked to so many people that just, you know, for no reason at all other than having a great conversation and this is an extension of that and so You know, I'm also if you want to get in the comments a little bit more. I know LinkedIn is a little challenging for comments. You can you can connect on Facebook, I have a pirate broadcast group now. And now that you're a pirate, I have a private group and a page. So we can actually interact after the conversations, you know, that take place on all I want to remind everybody that I have some webinars workshops. Coming up tonight, you know, I'm going to be doing a webinar on connecting in using video for relationship building. And so that's, that's an opportunity that I'd love to have you join in, and there's no cost. I'm just sharing this out and I'm putting some things together for people that want to learn more about what I'm doing. And also it we got a fabulous week coming up. I've been booking a lot of amazing guests like Seth and so if you could join in sign up getting involved and engaged in the community would be fantastic. So, Seth, thank you so much for being here. Any. So parting wisdom? I know I know there's some parting wisdom that you want to drop some knowledge bombs here. So yeah,

Seth M Marlowe 29:16
I think that the biggest thing of the biggest thing I've learned over the last couple of years is dare to dream. Dream it in it doesn't have to happen tomorrow The day after, but if you dream it you can certainly line things up and make it happen. And I think a lot of people particularly in the corporate world, kind of shy away from that. Don't you can do really amazing, but dream it first and make it happen.

Russ Johns 29:42
Thank you, Seth, appreciate you. And, as always, kindnesses is cool. Smiles are free and you enjoy the day.

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