David Scott

Guiding conversations with Community leaders.

In this podcast we'll explore the human journey of leaders, their stories of humility, triumph, roadblocks and lessons learned. Come join us as we journey together and uncover the questions you've always wanted to know. This podcast is brought to you by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce, providing resources, connections and belonging for business professionals and.

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Today's guest grew up in a small farming community in Louisiana where he learned to love music, spent summers counting bugs in the cotton field, and ate lunch with his grandfather every Sunday after church. After college he moved to Dallas and then to Phoenix. He met his wife of now 13 years, very coincidentally and they are raising two children. He he claims one of the pivotal moments in life was when the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl. We'll have to dive into that Chiefs. He was once the lead singer in a rock band, still loves playing guitar, and is now known as the Arizona regional president of Meadows Bank. Please welcome David Scott.

Here we go. David, welcome.

Thank you.

Great to be here. So good to have you here. Can't wait to dig into this. But before we do that, we're going to start with what we call rapid fire.

It's do it.

Would you rather sing in public or dance in public?

Sing in public.

What is one of your nicknames?

I was called Habib growing up by my friends.

Might have to ask more about that later. Okay, keep going.

Would your 12 year old self think you were cool?

I think so. I would like to think so.

Have you ever won a contest?

Yeah. Insect identification in 4H. When I think I was in. I think I was in fourth grade. It was a state level first prize for insect identification.

Well, you weren't kidding. We are going south. So here we go. Favorite movie of all time?

Top Gun.

Okay, I don't know that you have many of these, but how do you overcome failures?

Just keep repeating it until you get it right.

Okay, fill in the blank. Joy is.

Joy is watching other people succeed.

Are you more of an introvert or an extrovert?

Introvert. Okay. Do you have a favorite book besides the Bible? Mm, nothing comes to mind. I read A lot of books. And so I've got like a pile of six of them that's in front of me right now that I'm trying to work through.

I kind of like that too. I got a pile. I like to buy books, but I don't read them very. Okay, last question. What is one thing you're grateful for? Just one.

I'm grateful for my family.

All right.

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Find rebates@aps.com businessrebates okay, I loved your pre interview and the content that you shared with us about your childhood. It sounds idyllic. It sounds like an amazing kid childhood in Louisiana. Take us back there and share with us what childhood looked like for you.

Well, I didn't really have much of a perception of the larger world when I was a little kid. Outside of movies and things like that. We usually took the same vacation every year, which was aviation related. We drove from Louisiana all the way up to Wisconsin to Oshkosh, I think at least eight to ten times. When I was a little kid, that was our summer vacation every year we went due north, 25 hour drive from Louisiana and we just drove straight through. But we never really went east or west that much. So when I was a little kid, you know, I knew a lot about what was going on through movies or books or that sort of thing. But I never, I'd never been out west or seen a mountain or anything like that until I think I was over 20 years old. We had a very small family. My sister was about seven years older than me and I had a very close group of friends. Very small school, very tiny little community that I grew up in, which was coincidentally Gilbert, L.A. oh, how funny. It was a town of about 500 people.

Okay.

Somewhere along. Much smaller than this one.

Yeah.

And so, you know, it was safe and quiet and people were very friendly and everybody knew each other and looked after each other. I still to this day I don't think that my parents consistently lock their cars or doors or anything like that. They really just never felt like they had to. It was one of those kind of communities.

Yeah. And you share about your grandfather and the influence that he had on your life. And I love the story of you guys having the same lunch every Sunday after church.

Yeah.

We sat in the same place in church, in the back, in the back pew right next to each other.

Was there a reason for the Back.

That'S where he was. He always sat when I was a little kid and I sat right next to him, he and I sat together and my parents sat in a different place in the church. He and I were there and then he lived just quarter mile up the road from us. Who's our closest neighbor. And after church we always went to the same fried chicken place, little local restaurant there and got the same thing until they closed down and then we had to go to Popeyes.

Oh boy.

And it was the same order at the drive thru every single time for both of us.

And you went to the same place to consume this delicious.

You went back to his house, sat at the counter and. Yeah, usually it was Dr. Pepper is what we drank.

So does this mean you're a creature of habit?

A little bit, yeah.

Okay. That tends to form in that days. Okay. So high school, I'm curious because town of 500, what was the graduating class size there about?

I went to the largest school in. In the parish then, which is called Winsboro High School. After junior high at Gilbert, that was A K through 12 school. And then I. I transferred to a different high school and our graduating class was. I think it was 96.

Okay.

At that point. Yeah, yeah.

And you said music is a big influence in your childhood and it carried in through your adulthood. What did that look like?

Well, it was. I started playing piano when I was a really small kid and I didn't like it. I felt like I was just sort of made to do that. And it never really was something that I really connected with until I found the electric guitar, which was somewhere around 1992. And what was going on with music then was really cool. And Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, all that stuff was brand new back then, I hate to say, because it's so long ago. And that's what got me hooked on music. And so when I started playing guitar, I just really never looked back. But as you mentioned, through like high school, college, I played in bands. But then when I got a job, like a job job, I had to reprioritize my life. And what that meant for me, especially when when I was moved out on my own, was that all this extra equipment and stuff was dragging me down. I had to pay rent, so I ended up selling most of it. I kept a couple of things, a couple of guitars I still have to this day. But most of the electronic equipment, you.

Know.

I was moving it around and you know, could use the money. So all that stuff ended up in a pawn Shop in Dallas. And so years later, once my babies had grown up into little kids, I went on a little bit of a buying spree. And ketchup is what they call that. Yeah, I caught up quite a bit, actually. So now my home office, I'm surrounded by guitars. Like I can reach out and touch them, and it comforts me to see them there and to have them within arm's reach. If I work from home, which I am able to do infrequently, but enough to. Where I can maintain a little bit of that balance, it's good to have them where I can take a break and just grab one, let loose a little bit. Yeah, it's a good stress reliever.

Where does that love of music come from?

My family's always really valued music. And both of my parents played instruments. My dad played tuba since he was in high school. Things in high school band. My mom played flute and piccolo. And when I was also. Aside from the rock band stuff, I played in a community band with people that were my parents age. And so I was. I played trombone in that. That type of band. And we played concert music, marches, that sort of thing. Patriotic stuff. We usually played all the, you know, all the major holidays. Did a Christmas concert every year and, you know, Veterans Day, that kind of thing. So they all, they. They had instruments and we all just, you know, all played. And my daughter plays violin, our oldest.

Yeah.

And she's in the symphony this year for the first time.

Did you ever write your own music?

I did, yeah. Most of the music that we played in the band was songs that I had written and mostly on my own, but with some contributions from my other two bandmates.

Okay, fantastic.

So how seriously were you really pursuing music? Was there a time where you had to really decide between music and a job or a career?

That decision, I think, was ultimately not made by me, but it affected me and really it was a natural thing. But when the other guys in my band, you know, you grow up and you get family and work obligations and things, and then the band starts to compete with those. And I was younger than the other two guys in the band, so I was a little bit behind them in life. And they needed to prioritize their family and just where they were in their journey. And I was, you know, I had to come to terms with that. I had, you know, I had to move on. And that meant focusing on school and, you know, the reality of you gotta pick a major. All of these sorts of things that I had been avoiding.

Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so you're growing up in this community, tight knit, very active, and then you decide after you graduate college to take a leap and move out of state. What's the motivation to move out of state and not go back home?

There weren't really any jobs in the finance industry in North Louisiana. I went to Louisiana Tech University, which was in what I considered to be a big town, but Ruston, Louisiana, I don't think anybody really has heard of. But to me, that felt like a big town. I was nervous to drive there. I was accepted into lsu, but I thought that Baton Rouge was too big of a city. And when I was, I graduated college, graduated high school, and went to college when I had just turned 17. So the world was very intimidating to me then. So I picked Louisiana Tech for a variety of reasons, but mostly because it was close to home and was kind of a smaller town. But then when I graduated, it was time to really find a job. And we were blessed to have a family friend that lived in McKinney, Texas, and offered to let me live in their house with them until I found a job, which took me a few months. But I just started doing online applications, which is kind of a new thing back in those days, and got hired at a bank in downtown Dallas.

Wow. Therapy.

Yeah. Okay. So during that time, probably was a little bit of turmoil because you're like waiting and looking. I remember hunting for jobs. Was there anybody around you that was kind of a good mentor guide that you can remember?

Well, I was being given some old fashioned advice from the gentleman I was living with who was very high up in an organization and wanted me to go door to door to companies and show some moxie and put my resume down and say, I want to work here. And I got turned away. There were a couple of times that they threatened to call security for me doing that.

Yeah.

So I started to get the message, maybe this isn't the right approach to this process.

Plus, we know you're an introvert. So I probably wasn't feeling good.

Really? Exactly.

Yeah.

It was hard for me to walk through those doors. It really was. So that ended up not being the right advice and just spamming banks with my resume, ultimately is what worked.

Okay. Okay. Good.

Crazy. Okay. So you're not in Dallas for long and you make a move to Phoenix. Also job related, right?

Yep.

Okay, so once you're in Phoenix, what does that look like for you?

Totally new world.

Yeah.

I'd never been here before.

You saw a mountain?

I fell in love with it. I did. I flew from Dallas to Phoenix. And it was. I still remember it was on Mardi Gras. That was the date that I flew out here. So it was a beautiful spring day and I had never seen anything like this place and instantly was just mesmerized by it. Still, to this day, I'll walk out my front door and see the surroundings that I'm blessed to live in now and just am blown away.

Isn't that true? I think sometimes when you've grown up here, you take for granted, you just don't see it through the same perspective. And I'm always shocked when I have family come visit and they look around and they are mesmerized by mountains or, you know, large desert areas. I'm like, oh, yeah, that is pretty cool, actually.

It still hasn't worn off on me. And I took a cab from the airport to the offices there in downtown Phoenix. Got off the elevator and there was this hot chick at the front desk there. And probably if she wasn't paid to, you know, acknowledged me, she probably wouldn't have. I'm referring to somebody who I later married, but at the time that was the case. Yeah, yeah, at the time we worked together and. And she was the first person that I saw when I stepped off of the elevator that day. And she told me where to go. She's told me where to go a few times over the years. But. And that's, you know, was a huge day in my life ultimately, because I met a lot of people that still, to this day, I'm very close to and had major impacts on my life and my career. I got a family out of the whole deal. So it. And it really, you know, it just, it happened because I was sitting at my desk in Dallas at like 6 o' clock on one night, and the phones in the little analyst cubes that I was in started ringing around me and I was the only one there. And I picked up the phone and it was our chief credit officer. And she said that there was this opportunity in Phoenix. Would you like to fly out there and check it out?

Wow.

So you just happened to be there, happened to be in the right place at the right time. The rest is history.

Why did you say yes? Like, just for the adventure? I mean.

Yeah, I was a single dude and it just seemed like an adventure. Exactly. Yeah. I didn't really. I didn't think that much about it, to be honest with you.

Yeah, I miss those days where you just make a decision and go with it.

I really didn't. All the stuff that I Had could fit into one of those tiny little U haul trailers. And so I was super flexible at the time. We've moved a few times since then, and every time it gets harder and harder to the point where it's just not going to happen anymore. But back in those days, I could just, you know, say, shoot, I don't know what will happen.

Grab your guitars and go.

I'll make the. Make the most of it. Yeah.

Yeah. That's awesome. I love that.

Okay, so you get here, you get this established. What happens now? Where's this career taking you? Where is it going?

Well, I always applied myself as much as I could to being 100% with everything that I did. I was fortunate enough to have several people along the way that spent a lot of time teaching me things and sharing their experience and their knowledge and a lot of the things that aren't written anywhere in a policy or any of that sort of stuff, but the things that really mattered to them. And even now with where I'm at in my career, I'm still in contact with those same people. They're retired, but they still are a huge part of my life and my career. And it's been amazing to just grow through that with them and have them be a part of that at every stage along the way. I was, you know, before. Before my wife Jessica and I, you know, got together, I just immersed myself in work and took that time where I had the ability to do that, to just be all in on that sort of thing. Yeah, yeah. Over the years, you know, there's competing priorities that arise, and I think when you're younger, you really need to just, you know, deal with the fact that you got a lot of time on your hands and be productive about it. I wish I would have done more work with my physical health back in those days. But aside from that, really on the work side, I have no regrets. You know, the relationships that I made along the way are just so incredibly valuable to me and the experiences that I had.

So that work ethic you have kind of got you to the point where you are today, then?

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

When you think about where you started here in Phoenix and to where you are now, anybody come to mind that really helped guide you through that process, or did you just kind of figure it out on your own?

There's lots of people, and so there's. There were bankers that I worked very closely with, particularly at Comerica bank where I started, and Chase later on, that they took me under their wing and they saw stuff in me that I probably didn't recognize in myself about my potential in terms of what I could do. And since I moved fairly frequently for a big chunk of my career, I got to meet lots of people like that. And all along the way, I made it a point to be close to them personally, and they became family friends in a sense as well. And it was because of that I try to be reflective in terms of how am I giving back to the next generation that needs me to share those things and the experience that I have. And I know, and it's a big thing in my mind when it comes to leadership, because we're sort of transitioning between one generation to the next. And here I am, a Gen Xer, caught in between two different mindsets, two different philosophies about work. And I'm intent on figuring that out in coming up with strategies for engaging this next generation. And I don't think it necessarily has to be all that complicated. I would just approach it the same way that I experienced it as a young person in the industry, where people were actively giving back their time and their experience to me to make me better. I was pretty rough around the edges, I guess you could say I was probably pretty arrogant and thought I knew more things than I did. But people were very patient with me, and I think we've lost a lot of patience over the years in society. We've got to get that back, and we've got to be more generous when it comes to the time, the knowledge, the authority, being able to pass that authority on to other people and trust them, let them make mistakes and be there to counsel and coach them through it. I think that's very important. As I've become into my 40s, I have more coaches now than I've ever had in my life. I've got to pay a couple of them, but still, you have someone who's helping you work through those mistakes and helping you learn, and that's so very vital to continuing your growth.

Yeah, it's that recognition and actually analyzing it. Curious. Another question that came to mind as you were talking. Phoenix is a pretty big melting pot of lots of different cultures, but you don't change your roots right from where you came from. When you look now, how much of Louisiana do you bring here into what you do? And do you see anything there?

I have to constantly remind myself to not forget who I am and where I came from.

Yeah, we started talking about that when we started the show, right? Yep.

Yeah. Because I have a tendency to want to mask My accent and this is something that it just. I started doing when I left Texas. Really. And just I think so that people would take me more seriously. And I don't know, as I'm older, I feel like that's a little bit disingenuous and I shouldn't do that. I need to remember my people and where I came from because it has a lot to do with the way that I can communicate effectively with people. I tell a lot of stories. The people that I work with know that I like telling these stories. And it's important to have this narrative among the team that you work with about who we are and the things that we believe in, the things that we value and remember when you were a little kid and all the things that you used to be so just amazed by. We can still be like that as adults now. We don't have to be cynical and jaded and that sort of thing. It's not something that's a requirement to be an adult. We've just sort of started doing that over the years, I guess, as we've just seen more things and experienced more things. But you have to look at the world, I think, with childlike eyes from time to time. And I like telling these stories, particularly stories about when I was a little kid. You mentioned my grandfather. There's so many stories that he used to tell me and that's how he was teaching me. I didn't realize it at the time, but it was how he was instilling the values of the family and things that he was brought up with in that subtle way.

Well, I would encourage you to lean into that because I actually think it's a lost art. I think it's something that the generation before us did really well, that we. I feel like our generation doesn't invest that kind of time into our youth. And I think that goes back to what you were speaking of earlier about your leadership and the importance of investing that time telling story. It's an important trait. It's a valuable trait. And I don't think we take the time to do it like we should.

Right. Yeah. Storytelling is a lost art and it causes us to slow down and change the pace of how we're communicating. Really take the time to. To explore a concept with one another instead of the quick hits that you get from social media or just your everyday life. Right. And this is something that I learned from the old folks that I knew growing up. And as a child, I would spend hours and hours and hours in living rooms with people who at the time were probably in their 70s, 80s, and then my grandfather, 90s, just me and them, and they would tell me stories, and a lot of times it was the same ones over and over.

Yeah.

Did I tell you this one before? Yeah. They'd say. That's what my granddad would say. Dave, did I ever tell you about. And I said, no, Granddaddy and I go ahead. And usually it would be exactly the same every single time. And life really slowed down in those moments.

And.

You could spend that quality interaction with someone, and we've gotten away from that. We've got email and text, and communication is truncated into very tiny little concepts that are just shot at each other. So I have to be very deliberate and intentional on the other side of the spectrum, which I do when we have meetings as a team, to slow all of that down and start with a story, and usually that story, I pick one that doesn't necessarily make me look the best. There's some of these stories like, I've gotten injured in and, you know, I've done something really stupid.

And they're looking at you like, wait a minute.

What?

Yeah, it just.

You're being vulnerable is what you're being.

Exactly. And it takes people a couple of rounds of this before they kind of see what's going on. But it's also good for me because I, for a long time, never was comfortable with looking anything less than perfect. And it forces me to do something different, something that makes me uncomfortable. And I just. I keep immersing myself in that to the point where I start to become comfortable with being uncomfortable and, you know, good with being vulnerable, especially the people who are supposed to look up to me, you know, And I'm just fascinated with how our team and our culture starts to develop when we start sharing in that way.

Yeah. And I would say it puts on display the opportunity to have grace for one another as a team. I think that's something that we are routinely overlooking. We want everyone to have grace for us, but we forget that we need to have grace for others as well. And I think allowing that vulnerability in a team allows them to see that we're all souls on a human journey.

Yes. Grace is a very good word. And it's something that when you give it away, it multiplies. And if you continuously engage in this free giving of grace, generously watch it grow and get bigger and bigger and bigger. It's an amazing substance or concept, really. It's the only thing that you can freely give away and always get more back.

Yeah. Hopefully.

I like it. I like it. Okay. We're going to look to the future now. What do you see coming around the horizon for you? What's next in David's journey here?

Well, I'm fascinated by the concept of leadership and the distinction between that and management. I spend a lot of time thinking about the process by which leaders develop trust with all of the stakeholders that depend on them. And I've come to think of leadership as like the heart of an organization. Not the brains, but the heart. Something that, you know, that shows people what the vision of an organization can be. And I spend a lot of time thinking about it and talking about it and getting other perspectives on it. Too many. Because I think the future for me involves a lot of applying those types of things, different organizations and things that I'm involved with, not just work things, but all the different ways in which I'm involved in the community. I think the better that we are at leadership, the more that our community is going to benefit from that. So everything that I do now at this point in my life has a lot of focus on how does this make my community better, the place where my kids are growing up, place where I live. And so I choose the things that I'm involved with with that in mind. And I don't know specifically where it might lead me, but I know that it's always going to be bending towards a positive place for the people that I care about and the people that depend on me. I know that it's going to make their lives better. And I just keep repeating that over and over and over again. And I don't have, I guess, a vision about what that means for me specifically. But I think that good things will always happen if you put others before yourself, for sure.

Think Arizona is where you stay?

Absolutely.

Okay.

We moved away and started missing it a lot, and which, you know, we're recording this after one of the hottest summers I've been through here. So for me to say that, really, I mean, you know, it's true. So this is where. This is where we want to be. And. And we've got so many people that we care about in our immediate community here that I don't know if I could walk away from that as casually as I've moved from one city to another in my past. And my wife is involved with some great things, too, and I wouldn't want to disturb any of that.

Okay, so if that phone call comes again while you're in that media room, you're probably not going to take it.

This time, unless I can work from home or do it remotely.

Got it.

You shared some words of wisdom with us. Show up and do not quit. What does that mean to you? Where does that come from?

Well, so the show up concept, I think, has been around for a long time. So I don't really feel all that original when I say it, but in my experience, I've made it a point to always, whenever I commit to something and I say that I'm going to do it, then I will be there. And if I commit to being a part of a group and supporting people, I'm not going to miss the meetings. I'm always going to be there so that I can be accountable to the rest of the people and set an example. So I think that's very important. There's kind of too much flakiness going on right now, and people who say that they'll do things and then they don't follow through. And to me, this is something that I want to take the opposite approach to. And when it comes to not giving up and not quitting again, through experience persevering, through times when everything that is inside you is just screaming at you to stop, to quit and give up, and when you are able to get through that, especially the discomfort and the feeling that this is never going to work out and you get to the other side of it and then you can look back and observe where you came from, then you know how strong you are. But you take it one day at a time. Every day. You just don't give yourself permission to quit. And then you do that the next day. And as you start to pile those days up, you get stronger and stronger in that process.

Yeah, just do the next right thing. Absolutely. What is the going back to your family? What is the legacy that you hope to leave for your kiddos?

I think my hope for my kids is that they grow beyond me and Jessica and show us things that they're capable of that we never were able to achieve. We've always wanted them to have better opportunities than what we had and support them to do and be whatever they want to be. And they can be a legacy, but they're going to have to define that for themselves. I don't want to put or superimpose what my vision is for them or my fantasy for them and kind of force them to be something and somebody that they're not. They'll show us who they are and we'll always be proud of them. But that's what I'm just so for the rest of my life. What I think I'll be most fascinated to observe is who they are and what they're able to accomplish. And hopefully they're a light in this world and make other people's lives better. That's my hope. But how they go about doing that.

Is another matter to be determined.

Right? Exactly.

We'll see.

That's awesome.

Well, this has been a great episode. Thank you for sharing your story with us. I've loved. I was going to ask you some football questions, but I think I'll do that off camera here because we might have a little rub there. But thank you for being here. This has been a good conversation.

Yeah, yeah. Thank you for having me. I've enjoyed this quite a bit.

Well, and we appreciate you and the support that you do give throughout the community. You're a wonderful example of servant leadership and thank you for all you do.

Indeed. So I know you love this show because we do, too. This has been a great episode. Subscribe to our tribe so you can join and listen to more. We look forward to talking to you soon. Guiding growth conversations with community leaders.

Ben, let me ask you a question. How do you see other community members being involved in this podcast?

This is going to be a great opportunity for so many people in the community to have a chance to be heard if they want to tell their story or if they just want to be part of this journey with us and help sponsor in a way that helps bring more people to the table with us. So I think there's many opportunities at hand. Whether you want to again be on the show or reach out to us. Let us know what your story is and how you think you could be part of it. We'd love to hear from you. Reach out, Let us know and we'll see if we can make that connection.