Brittany Hall

I attribute my success to hard work, pure and simple. I grew up in a household where I had two working parents who worked their tails off for little to nothing. I'm the baby of six siblings, and I watched my dad work sun up to sundown, come home, and keep working. It was non-stop. He would always tell me, you can do anything you want, but you have to put in the work. As I started to grow in my career and see different levels of where I wanted to be, I could hear him saying, you've got to put in the work, work hard, show up for people, be yourself, be honest, communicate. He instilled those values in me, and they play out in my career now. Looking back 23 years ago, I was just a part-time teller fresh out of high school trying to figure out where I would be in life, and 23 years later, I'm on an executive leadership team opening a brand new bank from scratch. I had no idea I'd be doing this 20 years ago. It all comes down to grinding hard and putting in the effort every single day.

One of my mentors told me something that has stuck with me ever since: all your wishes will just be a dream if you don't apply action to them. That really resonated with me because I'm a dreamer. I want this, I wish I did this, I wish I did that. I have all these hopes and wishes, but the question became, what am I going to do about it? What's my plan? What do I need to do to move to that next step? I see it more clearly now. When there are things that I see far ahead that I want, I know I've got to do the steps to get there. Here's my action plan. Without a plan, it's just a wish or a dream. Another piece of advice my dad always gave me was to dress for the role that you want, not for the role you have right now. Don't wait until you get the job to try to dress like the job. You should be dressing like the job you want right now. Because people, it doesn't matter how great you are, how skilled you are, how knowledgeable, and all your experience, if you don't look it, they're going to look over you.

I would tell young women to dress for the role that you want, take initiative, and don't be afraid to fail. There are a lot of different things within this industry that people don't do because they're afraid, or they don't think they'll be successful. It's okay to fail. Failure is our biggest teacher. It's okay to have something not work out, but now that you've learned from it, you know how to make it better, or what to do next time, or what not to do, and then you can grow from it. It's okay to take the risk. When you're young and just starting out in your career, just get out there and do it. Stand out. Dress for the role that you want. Come in with that aura about you where people want to listen to you when you walk in a room. Don't wait to be invited into opportunities. Take the initiative and go after what you want.

I would say our biggest challenge right now, primarily because we are brand new, is getting people to know who we are. Building awareness in the communities that we want to serve is critical. People haven't heard of us, they don't know about us, so really just making our presence known in our communities would be our biggest struggle. But as a team, we're all kind of doing some things together to help get our name out there, attending events, and putting Generation Community Bank on the map. We want to get people to know our mission and our vision. That's probably the number one priority right now. As a startup bank, we have the opportunity to build something from the ground up and establish ourselves as a trusted community institution, but first people need to know we exist.

The values most important to me are trust, community, and celebration. These three values are intertwined both professionally and personally for myself. Trust is fundamental to everything I do, whether I'm working with my team, serving customers, or building relationships in my personal life. Community matters deeply to me because I believe in showing up for people and being part of something bigger than myself. And celebration is important because we need to recognize achievements and milestones, both our own and those of the people around us. My dad instilled in me the importance of showing up for people, being yourself, being honest, and communicating openly. Those principles guide how I lead and how I live.