Conversations with Scott Applegate

Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Applegate.

Hi Scott, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was born in Wyoming, later living in North Dakota, Utah, and Los Angeles. I moved to Colorado in 1991, originally coming to help a restaurant owner save his business in exchange for a flexible schedule so I could attend college, but knew right away that Colorado was where I would be for the rest of my life. I attended Metro from 1993-1996, graduating Summa Cum Laude with honors with a BS in Finance. After graduation I went to work for a large, local bank where I was fortunate to work for some of the best mentors in banking, and to meet many of the most influential players in commercial real estate who also took me under their wings as mentors. After more than a decade there, and after completing a post-graduate certificate in Banking from the University of Washington, I had the opportunity to help launch a de novo (brand new “from scratch”) bank with a Hispanic focus, which was a very rare opportunity, and allowed me to use my Spanish, which I had become fluent in during my years in LA (for the conversational piece) and from my studies in college (most of my undergraduate electives were Spanish). After several years there, and after finishing up an MBA in Finance from the University of Washington, I was then offered an opportunity to help launch loan production in another new bank, this time from within a local investment firm. I have always been an avid fan of motorcycles, and have ridden my whole life. This position gave me the opportunity to work closely with one of my very close motorcycle friends, who just happened to also be one of the best Chief Credit Officers in the state, under whom I was able to learn an incredible amount. As he approached retirement, I knew I would not want to stay in that “big bank, big ego” culture after he was gone, and I began to question where I wanted my career to ultimately take me. My favorite parts of banking have always been growing relationships, serving communities, helping small businesses, supporting non-profits, strengthening the fabric of main street–basically, the opposite of what all of the big banks seem to focus on. I’ve always loved hiking. And I’ve always loved small towns–where I spent almost all of my younger years. And that’s when I saw a position open up for a Chief Credit Officer for Bank of Estes Park–a small, independent, local bank up in the mountains northwest of Boulder. My wife and I had always wanted to retire to Estes Park someday, and I motorcycled to and through it multiple times every year. After extensively interviewing with them, I knew it would be the perfect fit, and the last place I would plant my nameplate on a desk. I was part of a new management team that was tasked with “waking up” this sleepy little bank that had been there since 1965–the oldest and largest market share bank in town, but no longer growing or doing very much. And the largest shareholder made it clear during the interviews that he initially needed a CCO, but that he REALLY needed a President and CEO 8 years from then, so I would need to prepare myself for that if I accepted the role. This was the best move our little family (wife and two young daughters) ever made. We have spent the last decade loving and caring for this little mountain community–in a little bank like this, in a little town like this, the things you do are very visible, and you can really make a difference. Through the floods, the fires, the pandemic, the good tourist seasons and the bad tourist seasons, this little bank is always here for the community. This year is a great example, just because it has been such a hard year for our local small businesses, making it difficult for them to support the local non-profits the way they usually do. So the bank steps up–this year alone we gave over $85K to local non-profits and organizations, and logged over 2,800 volunteer hours. We supported a “shop local” initiative all summer called the Retail Rally to help the local businesses–people could get a punch for every shop they bought things in, and could turn their punch card into whatever shop they wanted for a drawing at the end of the summer. We put up a $500 2nd overall prize, and we also funded $50 for each store who held an in-house drawing who banked with us (so they would not have to fund anything to participate). No other banks participated in this initiative, which is generally true–as the only truly local bank in town, we are uniquely tied to our hometown community. When the Alexander Mountain Fire ravaged our Drake neighbors, we helped form the Crossroads Fire Relief Fund, set up a matching fund, and helped raise the $50K that took care of those who were impacted by the fire. When Crossroads (the local safety net organization) lost its venue at the last minute for its largest fundraiser last month, we simply converted our lobby into a venue for them, and held the fundraiser in the bank, raising more than their prior record year had raised. When the local Learning Place lost its funding this year for helping local students obtain their GED’s, we established the Bank of Estes Park Bright Futures Program to fund it, and ensure that the program would continue. And on, and on. These are the things that a small, local bank can do–these are the reasons that, at the point in my career when I could have gone anywhere, I wanted to come to a small bank in a small town, to make a difference… To serve…

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Growing up, our family was very financially poor, but this was an opportunity to learn about work ethic and how to earn and manage money on my own. From a very early age, I was earning my own money, paying my own way, and contributing to the family–sometimes even providing Christmas for the family when my parents could not manage to do so. I worked and paid my way through college on my own, and have consequently always had a soft spot for non-profits, safety net organizations, and for helping those who need a hand up. Later on, the challenges became different, and career based–big banks can be filled with career bankers who think they know everything, and they can seem to spend most of their time regurgitating what they think they know–which can seem to be more than basically anyone, including their own clients about their businesses, and including you about your own business too. It was always a struggle for me in that environment, as the higher up the ladder you go, generally the bigger the egos you are dealing with. Fortunately, this isn’t universally true, and I was very blessed to have mentors in the industry who were very humble and teachable and who coached me to be the same–if you can learn something from anyone, you will never stop learning. Ego bankers build their careers on speaking. My mentors taught me to build my career on listening and learning–and I can swear that better results are achieved every time with listening. Relationships are built by listening and understanding, problems are solved by listening and evaluating. And so on… Listen constantly, and speak only when necessary, or when mentoring! My wife Brandi will vouch for the fact that I don’t have listening totally all the way down, but that is the model I try to follow!

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am the President and CEO of a small town, mountain bank (leading both the bank and the holding company). This bank was founded right here in Estes Park in 1965, it has the best Board, has the best ownership, has the best team, has the best clients, and is in the best community, anywhere… Our bank is known for serving our clients and community in both good times and bad, sometimes in very unique ways. I am an appointee of Governor Polis on the State Banking Board in the Division of Regulatory Agencies, serving the banking industry state-wide, as well as serving on the board of the Independent Community Bankers of Colorado which also serves community banks state-wide. This little bank’s performance is dynamic, currently performing as one of the best in the state, having doubled net income year over year, based on the volumes we are doing for our clients, while maintaining the strong safety and soundness that I have always considered to be non-negotiable.

I have an extensive life-long track record with non-profits and other boards, having always served, and always required my bank officers to serve, on community non-profit boards–it is a vital piece of “giving back” in my opinion. It has been fun to see this show up in various ways this year, as we we won two Reader’s Choice Awards for Best Financial Services Provider and for Best Employer in Estes Park. It also showed up in the local philanthropy award nominations–we were independently nominated from all sides. The bank was nominated for Business Philanthropist of the Year (previously won, in 2019), as was one of our loan officers along with his associated business partners. One of our Branch Managers (and Loan Officers) was nominated for the Katie Spear Philanthropist of the Year. And two of our officers, an HR/Bookkeeping Officer and a Branch Manager (and Loan Officers) were both nominated for the Shavlik Non-Profit of the Year, for their work in forming a local non-profit to meet the needs of local cancer warriors. The fact that we were independently nominated from so many different directions, for so many different awards, for so many different ways of impacting our community was something that we were very quietly proud of–simply put, that is exactly who we are. We help people succeed financially, and we serve our clients and community…

Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
My Granddad and I were incredibly close, and I quote him (along with my many professional mentors) constantly. I have too many memories with him to recount. But one winter in Wyoming in the middle of a huge snow storm and blizzard, I remember the two of us bundling up once every hour to head out and shovel the driveway AGAIN. Because, as he said, “It’s better to shovel twice than to wait for Spring.” It’s a great lesson for life–to stay on top of things, don’t get behind, and that the big fights are won in little battles.

A funnier, less meaningful memory… I’ve always been an avid hiker. One memory is hiking up Mount Timpanogos in Utah as a teenager with a friend. We went up the north side and had each brought one of those rollable plastic sleds with handle cutouts in our pack, planning on sledding down the massive glacier on the south face. We had never even heard of anyone doing this (for good reason), and the group of adults at the summit that saw us pull them out tried to warn us how dumb we were. But we were convinced it would be fine, and that we would slide down the steep face, then drag our feet to a stop before hitting the lake at the bottom of the glacier. Imagine the scene from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation when Chevy Chase sleds down that mountain, and you’d have something close to what happened–neither of us stayed on longer than 20 seconds, but it was long enough to be more than 2/3 of the way down the glacier, with our belongings scattered all the way from the top to the bottom. There was blood, some bruising, and a lot of laughing, but nothing broken but pride. As my parents and Granddad would attest–I was always one to need to learn the hard (pronounced “fun”) way. It’s only as you grow older that you learn to learn from the mistakes of others–I think I have this concept down professionally, but on my own personal time I think I still like to make some (“fun”) mistakes on my own sometimes…

If you come up to Estes Park, or to Rocky Mountain National Park, please come in to the best little bank on Earth and say hi!

Pricing:

• Our pricing is always competitive. But we also offer relationship pricing for our clients–this means that for our clients who bank with us, we will meet or beat any competitor’s pricing for similar products.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bankofestespark.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebankguy
• Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MVe8DgKhA_0

Image Credits
NA–all just bank photos or family phone pictures.