A good relationship pays you for a lifetime.

With the investment Ryan Sesker puts in people, he might be set for retirement.

“In the beginning of my career, one of my mentors instructed me to eat two of my three meals a day with a client or a prospective client,” Sesker says.

“It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you," he says. "Meeting with people on a personal level allows you to learn and build a much deeper relationship than you would by just seeing them in an office setting. By truly knowing people, you’re better able to help them with solutions rather than facilitating a transaction. 

"I am very focused on the relationship versus just the transaction. A transaction pays you once. A good relationship pays you for a lifetime.”

In 2011, Sesker joined $48 million asset Midland Credit Union in Urbandale, Iowa, as a loan officer.

A self-described “people person,” Sesker is now a loan manager and senior lender.

“As a producing loan officer, you are only as good as the team behind you. You can’t be the top loan producer if you don’t have a good support team,” he says.

Sesker has a larger purpose in mind when he’s doing his job.

“What I really do is help my clients reach their dreams or goals,” he says. “I use my personal experience, and the experiences of my clients, to weather the storms of life, whatever it may throw at them.

“A board of directors may be glad to see a loan funded with payment protection,” Sesker adds. “I see a client that trusted me enough to protect them in an unexpected life event.

"Few professional satisfactions are greater to me than telling my clients in a time of crisis that because they elected payment protection, their loan has been taken care of and won’t financially burden them.”