Kelly at his 20th anniversary party at the branch.

“The food,” jokes Appleton Northland personal banker Kelly Kading, when asked what has kept him at North Shore Bank for 20 years.

Kelly clarifies that he’s kidding. Actually, he says, “I was encouraged by the fun sales culture from the start, and my goal to be a lifelong learner has also been achieved at North Shore Bank. I love how we continually teach and learn from each other. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but with some good mentors, encouragement, and wanting to learn, banking was it.”

He says he turned on to learning in college — “the more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know.” And working as a personal banker for two decades has given him ample opportunity to find out more about the world and people around him.

“Something new comes along every week, because you have different customers and different scenarios that you just didn’t know were out there. You have to put yourself in their shoes,” Kelly says. “And then you team up with them to find the best solutions.”

And that part — helping his clients find the answers they’re looking for — is even better, he notes.

“My favorite part of the job is when a customer starts getting excited, when they realize you want to be part of their team and to help them work toward their financial goals,” he says. Kelly says it’s funny to him that he’s offering financial help at all, because he never thought of himself as a numbers guy — “I hated algebra,” he says. But the uses of our different financial tools, and figuring out how they might apply to a particular customer’s situation, are what drives him.

Two years ago, Kelly’s story of helping a couple of customers, and applying our SOAR principles to give them the best possible service, even won him and his wife a trip to Las Vegas. (Like a good, prudent banker, he just played the penny slots.)

“At this point I’ve been here long enough that I’ve learned the full financial plan,” he says. “Investing and saving, protecting investments, everything. An interesting thing I’ve learned about banking is that it is more of a people business than numbers business. If you enjoy working with people, it’s a great career.”

Speaking of people, he adds that he’s worked with a lot of the same ones for a long time now — like branch manager Heather Starr and district manager Kerri Collins, whose office is in the branch. Such enduring relationships, of course, only improve the team atmosphere.

“Kelly has a true passion for helping customers reach their financial goals,” Kerri says. “After 20 years of being a personal banker, he continues to grow in his role and utilize the training and the tools the bank provides to help his customers. He is a true pleasure to work with, and, on a personal note, he is a fantastic father and loves to hunt and fish.”

Of course, change happens too. But over 20 years, Kelly says, he’s noticed something about that.

“Experience has shown me that although things change continually, some are cyclical and repeat themselves,” he says. “If something works for getting the job done, don’t forget about it, even if its usefulness fades over time. You can likely build on it and grow from it in the future. A slight tweak and it may work even better.”