I never set out to be a banker, but once I landed in the seat, I had to figure out how bankers think. That meant tuning into CNBC and trying to make sense of all those flashing numbers—Dow futures, bond yields, and implied market openings. At first, it felt like a foreign language. But over time, I started to see the bigger picture.

Rising bond yields, interest rates moving up or down—these aren’t just headlines. They hit Main Street in real ways. If rates go up, banks might see short-term gains, but only if people keep borrowing. And that’s the catch—when borrowing slows because rates are too high, Main Street struggles. And when Main Street struggles, banks feel it too.

The lesson? Banks and Main Street are tied together more than people realize. When one wins, the other usually does too. And when one suffers? The effects ripple through everything.

When I stepped into banking, I wasn’t a traditional insider. I was a nonnative to the industry—someone who built a career in community leadership, not financial services. That meant I asked questions that seasoned bankers often took for granted. One of those questions led me to a realization: even within the banking world, the tools we use to manage liquidity, like the discount window, are often misunderstood. And maybe that misunderstanding persists because we, as an industry, haven’t done enough to foster real understanding. What if we changed that? What if we started educating before the next crisis, instead of reacting when one hits? Now is the time.

Did you know that every time you deposit money in the bank, you're essentially lending it to them? Your deposits fuel loans, mortgages, and investments that power the economy—right in your community or beyond. Understanding how your money moves isn’t just for bankers; it’s a lesson in how your financial choices shape Main Street’s future.