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Episode summary

This Financial Forward episode steps away from the usual regulatory and industry focus to address what sits underneath every system: people navigating loss, depression, and the hidden strain of caregiving. Jim and Dr. Heidi Taylor, Ph.D. talk candidly about grief, what helps (and what harms) when others try to “support,” and why taking care of ourselves is not optional—especially for caregivers. The conversation closes with a direct reminder to protect your mental health and to be mindful of what others may be carrying.
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Guest

Dr. Heidi Taylor, Ph.D. — Licensed Clinical Psychologist (CA PSY29618) and court-approved supervised visitation monitor in Ventura County; owner of Taylor Supervised Visitation.
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Important note (Reiki): In addition to her clinical background, Heidi also offers Reiki services separately (outside of Taylor Supervised Visitation). If you are interested in Reiki, the best path is to contact Heidi directly (see links below).

What you’ll hear in this episode

• The lived experience of grief and how it changes your body, mind, and relationships
• The difference between presence and “fixing”
• Why caregivers need support, recognition, and space to breathe
• Practical recovery tools: therapy, medication (when appropriate), and support groups
• A closing message on mental health, compassion, and looking out for one another

Key moments (from the transcript; timestamps approximate)

• 07:27 — Jim introduces Tales of Awakening
• 07:49 — Heidi speaks to being widowed at a very young age
• 08:06 — Early support gaps (including hospice-era resources)
• 09:38 — A pivotal therapy moment and the long arc of healing
• 19:44 — Jim on caregivers: what people don’t see and why it matters
• 25:10 — Recovery pathways: medication, support groups, and structured help
• 36:41 — Serious risk moments and clinical safety practices (content note)
• 38:31 — Jim’s closing message: take care of yourself; recognize caregivers

Listener note

This episode includes discussion of grief, depression, and crisis risk. If you are in immediate danger or need urgent support, call your local emergency number. In the U.S., you can call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline).

More from Jim:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mccarthyhatch/
https://www.mccarthy-hatch.com/

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Episode summary

Community banks and credit unions face growing pressure to digitize—but many are underserved (or boxed in) by the current fintech market. Adam Turmakhan explains what institutions stand to gain with modern data and AI, what they risk by delaying, and how vendor models that take control of customer data can undermine long-term competitiveness.
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About the guest

Adam Turmakhan is the CEO & COO of TurmaFinTech, a fintech focused on customer data platforms and data-driven growth for community banks and credit unions. He holds a Master’s in Data Science (Boston University) and a Bachelor’s in Accounting and Finance Management (Northeastern University).
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What you’ll hear in this episode

• Why community banks’ “risk-averse” posture can become a competitive vulnerability
• Why data governance is the foundation for any credible AI strategy
• A practical framing: build a data layer, then deploy AI for defined business outcomes
• Where fintech partnerships go wrong: data control, lock-in, and monetization leakage
• What “success” looks like: measurable adoption, growth, retention, and efficiency gains

Highlight reel (based on the Schwab Network segment captions you provided)

• 03:10–04:20 — TurmaFinTech’s platform structure: data foundation first, then AI/ML objectives
• 04:30–04:55 — “Community panel” concept: targeted customer outreach driven by model outputs
• 05:09–06:05 — A concrete success story and measurable KPI improvement
• 07:19–07:33 — Go-to-market approach: free six-month pilot to prove operational value
• 08:00–10:00 — Data governance and the core warning: don’t lose ownership/control of customer data
• 10:00–11:10 — The forward vision: becoming a standard “data layer” for community institutions

Notable quotes (short excerpts)

• “The first component is the data warehouse… we take their data and structure it so it’s possible to work with.”
• “By default, we have four objectives… deposit growth, churn prevention, cross-sell/up-sell, and default prevention.”
• “We give a free six-month pilot… so they can see and taste the product before pricing becomes the main discussion.”
• “We want the community bank to own the data… instead of losing the opportunity to monetize it.”

Discussion prompts (if you run a longer Financial Forward interview)

• Where do community banks overestimate the risk of digitization—and underestimate the risk of standing still?
• What should banks require, contractually and operationally, to preserve data rights and portability?
• What are the first “low-risk wins” you’d prioritize in the first 30–90 days?
• What does a mature data governance model look like for a small team with limited expertise?
• What’s the biggest misconception about “AI for banks” that you encounter?

Resources (links)

Guest/Company reference points

More from Jim:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mccarthyhatch/
https://www.mccarthy-hatch.com/

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Episode Description

In this episode of Financial Forward, host Jim McCarthy sits down with John McNamara, former Principal Assistant Director for Markets at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Together, they pull back the curtain on how complaint data actually powered markets, supervision, and enforcement inside the Bureau—and what that means for state regulators today.

Jim and John walk through the evolution of the CFPB complaint system, the value of normalized and validated data, and how the CFPB Regulator Portal gives states access to “full jacket” complaints, not just what appears in the public database. They also look at a live example from Texas, using McCarthy Hatch’s FSAi model to identify violations of state law within CFPB complaints.

If you’re a state regulator, a bank or credit union compliance leader, or anyone trying to get real signal out of noisy complaint data, this conversation is a playbook for using the tools you already have—but probably aren’t using to their full potential.

In This Episode, We Cover

• How the CFPB actually used complaint data
  • How complaints fed the Bureau’s markets, supervision, and enforcement work
  • Why John saw complaints as a strategic asset, not just customer service escalation
  • The importance of normalized, comparable data across products, companies, and time
• Inside the CFPB State / Regulator Portal
  • The evolution from the original state portal to today’s Regulator Portal
  • How state agencies can use the portal and API to access full-jacket complaints, including attachments and richer fields than the public database
  • Why the boarding and validation process for companies matters for anyone using CFPB complaint data
• What makes this data so powerful for states
  • Using complaints as an early-warning system for new products, new players, and emerging harms
  • Spotting velocity and direction of change—not just counting volume
  • How complaint patterns can surface “outsized harm” from relatively small or new entities
• Texas case study with FSAi
  • Jim walks through Texas CFPB complaints from January–July
  • How the FSAi model isolates potential Texas state law violations from public CFPB complaints
  • What it means when only a small percentage of complaints contain clear violations—but those are exactly the ones that matter most for deployment of investigative resources
• Practical takeaways for state regulators
  • How to stop treating complaints as a back-office obligation and start treating them as front-end intelligence
  • Ways to align complaint data with supervisory and enforcement strategy
  • How to “put wind at your back” by sending investigators out with data-informed priorities rather than hunches
• Why industry should care too
  • How banks and other financial firms can use complaint data and the CFPB system as a market research and risk management tool, not just a regulatory requirement
  • The idea of each company having a complaint fingerprint—and what it means when that fingerprint changes

Guest Bio – John McNamara

John McNamara is the former Principal Assistant Director for Markets at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where

More from Jim:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mccarthyhatch/
https://www.mccarthy-hatch.com/