Good morning friend,
Today you will find the first in a series of long-form documentaries on banking across the country.
Bankers tend to be disciplined and reticent. They don’t like to make noise. And so we’ve been left to wonder who they are and how they live.
This documentary series pulls the curtain back. It delves into their lives and reveals who they truly are.
And who are they?
It’s easy if you live in a coastal city, as I do, to not realize what’s happening across the vast expanse of middle America right now. Towns are being hollowed out. Downtowns abandoned. Parks unmaintained.
And one of the principal catalysts is the ongoing consolidation of community banks. This is not to say that consolidation is evil. This is a free country. People can do as they wish. But the thoughtful amongst us will look back and regret not fighting harder for the people in these places.
That’s what the bankers profiled in this series do — they fight for others, not just themselves.
No one personifies this more than Brad Bolton, the CEO of Community Spirit Bank in Red Bay, Alabama.
On the surface, Brad and I couldn’t be more dissimilar. He tucks polo shirts into nicely pressed khaki pants; I dress like a twenty-two year-old wannabe YouTuber. He’s refined, polite and religious while I’m perceived as eccentric and unpredictable.
But we both bleed the same blood.
We both get, on a visceral level, how important these institutions are to these towns and these people. It’s one of those things you can’t unsee.
And so it is my pleasure to present to you The Boltons of Red Bay.
I trust you will find, as I did, a sincere and hardworking family that is fighting every day for their bank, their town and their country.
Next Sunday is the Old Country Banker, the story of Ken Hale.
Sincerely,
John
