LISC Twin Cities LAC Spotlight: Meet Trent Bowman!
Last Friday I sat down with Trent Bowman, Chair of the LISC Twin Cities’ Local Advisory Committee.
If you’ve been to any LISC event in the past ten years, it’s likely you’ve seen Trent’s smiling face making the rounds, shaking hands with old friends and making connections with new ones - Trent has a beautiful way of making you feel at ease and like you’ve worked together forever. But since I haven’t ACTUALLY worked with Trent forever, I was very excited to learn more about what brings him to his work, and to LISC’s LAC.
Trent currently works at Bremer Bank as their Vice President, Community Impact Manager. He’s been on the Local Advisory Committee for over ten years and brings a wealth of expertise to this role.
Growing up with a single parent who helped raise him and his six siblings with a high importance on education, Trent took those life lessons with him as he stepped out into what’s been a remarkable career so far. Read ahead to find out more!
Can you tell me a little bit about your role at Bremer?
I’ve been at Bremer Bank for almost two years. My role is basically to work within the community, to get them to understand homeownership from an affordability standpoint. We do consultations before applications, that is so important. I want people, especially people of color, to understand not just the benefit of home ownership but also: can you afford it? What’s the cost, the principal interest payment, taxes, insurance, and how does that compare to how you’re living now? Based on your lifestyle, how are you able to maintain it? And what are the five elements of cost going into purchase? (The down payment, lender fees, title fees, prepays, broker administration fee - or the buyer’s agent fee.) Many people also don’t plan for house debt - those things you don't see coming, like the furnace going out.
And I’m speaking from personal experience here! I lost my first home. Though I was making good money at the time, I didn’t prepare myself well enough for emergencies like job loss. Fast forward, I’m doing things differently now. If I were to lose my job today, I can still make my mortgage payment. I have planned accordingly, and that’s what I try to help others do. Banks and realtors also have to start showing people homes that they can actually afford.
(Some folks in the community have felt burned by banks in the past, and that can be a barrier for them. So I asked Trent about this - what’s his role at Bremer, and is his role seen as one of change?)
Is there a change you’re tasked with creating at Bremer?
Bremer is a community bank, and the mission of Bremer is: “We're here to help you thrive and grow.” For us that means bringing value back to the community, and bringing value to home buyers from an education standpoint. Making sure that when you come to Bremer you’re going to be fully educated, and that's for everyone from residential customers to small business. We are trying to be a face in the community, cultivating thriving communities.
We’re not just about taking deposits, it’s about giving back, which we try to do by offering products and programs that benefit first-time homebuyers, helping people open a savings account, helping small business owners with not just banking but education and programs that support their small businesses. We do sponsor events and the more traditional things like that, strategically partnering with nonprofit organizations. But a lot of it is about education.
For example I never tell people they have bad credit. You can’t tell people they have something bad that they didn’t know existed in the first place. I don’t want people to walk out of Bremer and feel defeated, so we try to help them get to "yes."
What was the pathway that led you to this work?
This wasn’t the pathway! When I got my two year degree, I was at Dayton Hudson Corporation in the collections department. I was going to quit, and my mom encouraged me to stay at my job and learn as much as I could. I don’t judge different pathways of education - to me, college is not the ultimate measure of success. I say I got my master’s degree at OTJ University - On The Job University!
I was working my way through the organization when a colleague recommended me to a job at Prudential Home Mortgage. I knew nothing about the mortgage side of the work but I knew credit, or at least I thought I knew credit. And I continued on from there, learning from each role.
What first connected you to LISC?
When I was at Associated Bank, LISC had just started the Advisory Council. At Associated, they were improving their lending practices as well as their employee volunteerism. Our VP learned about LISC and said “Trent I want you to get on this board.” So I joined!
Sitting there in 2013, watching Mike Christensen and Stella Whitney-West, I never thought I would one day be the chair myself. I started to learn what LISC does, and got to meet the various folks on the LISC team. I met Gretchen, Amy, and “Kate the Great.” I met Andriana, I met Peter, and I learned more about what LISC does. Programs like the Developers of Color program, and LISC’s work with minority-owned businesses. The things LISC does to make a difference, I just thought it was all phenomenal. So I’ve stayed involved, going to events along the way. Again, I’m all about that relationship! Learning who is in the room and what are the ways our work aligns.
Also - I really don’t believe in telling an organization what to do if you’re not involved. I’ve had lunch with Kate to learn more about the work, I’ve had lunch with Amy, I’m having lunch with you. That’s the question I put to myself - how are you really giving back, how are you using your skills and your talent on this board? I’ve had the opportunity to do a couple of credit empowerment courses with Gretchen for the Developers of Color Program. I’m utilizing my expertise and talent from a credit perspective to talk to minority business people and help them understand how credit has an impact. I started with LISC about 10+ years ago and now here we are!
What is something that’s exciting to you about the future- for LISC, Bremer, or both? What are some of the things that concern you?
I’m wary. The future could hold a lot of chaos, the future could also be fantastic. I think there’s a lot of opportunities that can open depending on how things go over the next few months.
For LISC, I think LISC has the opportunity to have a huge impact for small businesses. For Bremer, we have the opportunity to stretch and expand our core principles to see what rooms we want to be in. How are we reaching everybody we need to? There might be some rooms we need to be in that we’re not in yet.
People are going to want to be a part of LISC. We need to be more visible in the years to come. We also have to pay attention to the politics and what’s going on around us. Not just the presidential election but the down-ballot things too. Congress, the city, legislation, etc. I worry certain programs will go away. Homebuyer assistance programs, housing. We need to make sure these programs that help people, help fuel our economy, stay in place.
As we go into this next time of transition at LISC, what are some things from your purview that we should be mindful of? What should we be paying attention to?
Each other.
Pay attention to each other! Build with each other. Encourage each other. Anytime you have a new ED, the most important thing is that we take care of each other. That anyone can come to you and talk to you within the organization and you have an open door policy. Sometimes when you're going through a transition, some people can handle it better than others. It’s important for the team to listen to each other and talk to each other, and be a cohesive support system.
If the new ED comes in and they see this is a tight knit group, this is a group that’s unified, in my opinion that ED will be like “Okay - this should be a good transition for me, no drama. You’re cohesive, you’re together.” To know that we’ve got each other’s back, because we believe in LISC and the importance of LISC. All of the links are together, and you guys are the links.
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Want to stay connected with Trent? You can find Trent online at: LinkedIn, or at an upcoming LISC Twin Cities event soon!
Trent in the News: