The Strategic Business Influencer: Tanya M. Miller on Building Trust in Banking

1. Owning Your Destiny Is Often Born from Uncertainty

PrimeBank of Texas didn’t start from perfect conditions. It was born out of a merger, uncertainty, and a moment where control was slipping away. Tanya’s decision to co-found a bank in the middle of COVID was less about timing and more about conviction. Strategic leaders don’t wait for ideal circumstances; they move when clarity meets courage.

2. Full-Stack Experience Creates Better Leadership

Tanya’s journey from teller to regulator to bank president gives her a rare 360-degree view of banking. That depth shows up in how she leads, with empathy for frontline roles, respect for operational realities, and an understanding of regulatory nuance. Leaders who’ve worked across levels build organizations that actually work, not just look good on paper.

3. Trust Is Built Through Speed, Transparency, and Follow-Through

In community banking, trust isn’t a slogan; it’s a daily practice. Tanya emphasized that customers trust banks that are honest in both good and hard moments, give clear answers quickly, and do what they say they’ll do. Flexibility and responsiveness are strategic advantages, especially when customers are navigating high-stakes decisions.

4. Scaling Requires Empowerment, Not Centralized Control

PrimeBank’s growth has been fueled by pushing decision-making closer to the customer. Tanya made it clear that leaders can’t scale by holding every decision at the top. Empowering teams to take ownership, backed by clear values and accountability, allows speed, consistency, and trust to grow together.

5. Resilience Comes from Perspective, Not Perfection

One of the most powerful themes in the conversation was Tanya’s honesty about failure, vulnerability, and self-doubt. Building something that lasts requires using lifelines, asking “stupid” questions, celebrating progress, and showing up again after hard days. Strategic leaders build endurance by recognizing wins, not just chasing the next milestone.

To learn more about the work Tanya and her team are doing, visit https://www.prime.bank/.

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Want to dive deeper into how today’s most trusted leaders grow their businesses, brands, and influence? Order my book, The Strategic Business Influencer, and get the playbook for turning leadership into your most powerful business asset. Below is a transcript of our conversation.

Paige: Hi everybody and welcome back to the Strategic Business Influencer, my series for leaders who know that in today’s evolving world trust is the greatest competitive advantage. I am excited to announce that today’s guest is Tanya M. Miller, President and Co-Founder of PrimeBank of Texas.

Since launching the bank in 2021, Tanya has led its strategy, culture, and growth, raising capital, expanding into new markets, and building a high-performing team that is redefining what a community bank can be. With more than 20 years in banking, Tanya has done it all, starting as a teller to leading credit operations to now overseeing regulatory compliance for major institutions. She’s also a former Senior Financial examiner with the Texas Department of Banking, giving her a rare 360 perspective on the entire banking industry. Recognized as a 2024 Austin Business Journal “Women In Business” nominee, Tanya is known for leading through complexity with clarity, discipline, and vision. She also invests deeply in her community, championing financial literacy, small business support, and the next generation of banking leaders.

So Tanya, I am so excited to have you on the series today. Thank you for being here.

Tanya: Yes, thank you so much. I’m excited.

Paige: Well, I wanna talk about when you first co-founded PrimeBank in 2021.

So this is right in the middle of just a rapidly changing financial landscape. What inspires you to take that leap and start a community bank from the ground up?

Tanya: Sure. So, actually, it goes back to the prior year to 2020, which we all know what was going on during that timeframe. My business partner and I were with an institution that was in the process of a merger. We were the institution being acquired. So we had talked on several occasions, where you just, you know, you’re dreaming big and you’re like, one day we’re gonna, you know, do this for ourselves, and we’re going to, you know, go out and own a bank.

And so we were going through that merger. Mergers can be challenging, especially when you are the person being acquired. Yeah, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of, you know, people who work for you, looking to you for answers and things that, all of a sudden, you don’t have the answer to. So very interesting time, very, you know, emotional time as a leader and within an organization and, you know, all of that kind of coming together.

We kind of kept talking and reaching out and checking in with each other, and eventually we’re like, okay, let’s just do this for ourselves. Like, let’s just control our own destiny. So kind of the idea of controlling your own destiny, , you know, starting to take that hard work and envision and it be something you’re investing in yourself.

, and so it was an exciting opportunity to do that. , I don’t know that I would choose for anyone to do that in COVID, but, you know, quitting your job in the middle of 2020 may not have been well advised. , but it has worked out for us so.

Paige: Yeah. Well it definitely has. Y’all have been tremendously successful and you know, I just think that it’s, it’s such a big leap to go from one day we’ll do this to actually putting it into action.

It is. And as you said, that’s terrifying in the middle of a, a global pandemic. Yeah. . You know, one thing that I respect so much about you and admire is that you have worked in nearly every role possible in terms of the banking industry, you know, from teller to chief, credit officer to regulator. How has that full spectr of experience really shaped the way that you lead today, especially with PrimeBank?

Tanya: , I always feel like a singular perspective is often shortsighted and you know, unfortunately in many industries, not just in the financial industry, a lot of people who rise to the top, rise to the top from one silo of the industry and don’t really get a full picture of, you know, what everyone else within the organization contributes and the importance of.

, you know, the different jobs along the way and the challenges of those different jobs along the way. , so I think it’s been really beneficial to me to, you know, understand what each of those roles face each day from a day-to-day, you know, job function. And then how they, you know. Attribute to the overall success of the organization.

So, sometimes I feel like I have just a little bit better insight into those, , people who, you know, work for me as long, all the way down to those front ranks. , and how their day-to-day challenges, you know, can be made easier or better through a certain policy procedure, , and different leadership styles.

, so, you know, I think that. For me, it just gives me a really good perspective from start to finish of how, you know, each person that’s, , reporting up the chain mm-hmm. , views their day and what challenges they have and how we can make that easier for them and how we can set them up for success.

, which is a little bit, , better understanding of their day-to-day job.

Paige: Yeah, and I think that’s so special that you have that unique perspective of being in their shoes, like you said, in past organizations. You know, and I’m curious too. What it, what was it like going from, you know, someone who was executing a specific function to now being, you know, a key leader, a co-founder in the bank?

Tanya: It’s a little bit like a juggling act on a Yeah. You know, it’s, you get a little comfort in kind of having that, , having very direct area and, you know, certain responsibilities. Mm-hmm. And know that you’re. Really good at those things. You’re a subject matter expert at those things to kind of taking that entrepreneur role where you’re all of a sudden responsible for everything, whether you’re good at it, have ever done it.

Yeah. You know, have any experience whatsoever. So it, it was, it was really fun. , even though it was hard in the middle of it, of taking on different things because, you know, I went from, you know, we’re ordering supplies and fixing the printer and, you know. Finding out if we have enough trash cans for a new office and things like that, which is way outta the scope of being a banker, , in my day to day, you know, credit experience of, , that I was used to.

, so it’s been, it’s been a lot of fun. , and it’s been a challenge. It’s just, you know, something new every day that. You don’t know the answer to. So the, you know, things that become exhausting when you’re starting up from scratch is just the nber of things you have to go research or go find a lifeline that can help you with something you’ve never done before.

 mm-hmm. So you have to be really vulnerable in asking questions and not caring if they’re db questions. , you know, and I, I would preface a lot of times when I would call a friend in the industry and say, I know this is probably a stupid question but you know, just hear me out. Because I do not know what this is.

, and so, and they were very, very nice to me, , during, uh, my lifeline reach outs and to help me and to provide that, , very detailed response back to me so I could figure it out and move on to my next thing that I was juggling. So it was, that was what saved me and figuring those things out and kind of learning to be nimble and flexible, and the fact that I didn’t know all the answers.

Paige: I, you know, thank one, one, thank goodness for those lifelines, right? Yes. Because you, we get there so much faster supporting one another. And I love how you talked about, you know, Hey, I need to know how many trash bands you, it’s so funny, and almost every interview I’ve had. For this series and entrepreneurs talked about, you know, Hey, I’ve, I’ve been taking out the trash, or it always has to do with something, you know, along those lines that, that we’ve been doing as entrepreneurs.

So I love that you know, in the banking industry. What y’all do is so high trust with your customers. You know, trust is really everything beginning to end, especially in a community bank. Uh, so what’s been your most effective strategy for earning and keeping the trust of your customers in, in really your team as well?

Tanya: You know, I think with our customers of course, you know, a lot of times people think of that going to get a loan or, you know, starting a new financial relationship because of something exciting that’s going on. Like, you’re expanding your company, you’re adding to, you know, your main building or adding another location or a new piece of equipment, or even just something fun like you’re buying a house for, you know, your household needs or a new car.

Mm-hmm. , but you know, oftentimes we’re part of, you know, those. , challenges in life and some of the, you know, hardships that people face, , where they’re trying to figure out things, , when things did not go in the direction that they wanted ’em to. So I think oftentimes the best approach is to be as honest as possible, you know, to provide wise counsel, whether it’s in a good time or bad time, , and to get them answers as quick as possible.

So, you know, I think. You know, for our team is backing them and letting them make those decisions, you know, as appropriate and be able to answer those needs because, you know, we’re growing quickly, you know? Mm-hmm. It becomes a point in time where, you know, the people at the top can’t make every decision.

So you have to provide some, , ability, , to take ownership at different levels in the company to make sure that we’re all on the same page of what we’re trying to accomplish, which is meeting the needs of the customer. Like I said, whether it’s. And, you know, a time that they’re celebrating or a time that they’re, you know, facing challenges is getting them those answers, , quickly and being reliable.

You know, and that’s where we get to set ourselves apart as a community bank is that flexibility and that kind of speed to service. Because we are small, we can make quick decisions. , you know, we can come together, put our heads together in just a few minutes and give back to the customer if we need to.

, but I think a lot of times that’s what builds trust is knowing that we’re, we’re there, we’re gonna give them wise counsel and that we’re gonna follow through and what we say we’re gonna do.

Paige: Yeah. I love that. And I would love to get from your perspective, just from the, the banking side of things. I think what’s so unique about you is you’re a banker making these decisions, but you’re also a business owner yourself.

Yes. And, and so what should business owners really look for when they’re looking for the right banking partner?

Tanya: I think it kind of falls back to the previous question is just, you know, are, is your bank partnering with you? Mm-hmm. , are they helping you make those big financial decisions? You know, are they talking through structure and things that could affect your ability to run your company in the future?

, you know, the way we look at it is we’re not. Going for it. And I don’t think any bank is looking to, you know, just get as big a fees and, you know, the most, uh, beneficial structure to us. And, you know, we of course have to protect ourselves, but a lot of times we find, or we’re, you know, helping in those challenging situation is where business owners taken a structure that’s not able to be, .

Performed on from another bank. And so they’ve set themselves up for failure. , you know, they put themselves in a cash flow situation that’s not positive for them. , and different things can happen along the way. So we try to, you know, partner with our, , customers, let them know what we think is advantageous.

For them while talking to them about what their long-term goals are, , what their strategy is. You know, and, and trying to make sure that we understand from a financing standpoint what their goals are so that we’re not hindering those down the road. , I think that builds trust, like we talked about.

And also, you know. Once they realize like, Hey, this is actually to my benefit. You know, this is something that is gonna allow me to be more successful. They’re gonna continue to come to us. They’re gonna send their friends to us. You know, and it just kind of organically builds those relationships over time.

, if you’re treating people right and you know you have their best interest in mind, you’re just going to end up having a very successful way of building your business.

Paige: Yeah, for sure. And you know, I know that PrimeBank has grown quickly, but y’all have done it while holding on to your values as a community bank.

How do you balance that? Innovation that’s happening in the industry and expansion in the community while maintaining that relationship driven approach.

Tanya: It’s, it’s certainly a challenge. , you know, there’s technology needs and things like that, and we’re a very small mom and pop. Size, you know, company, when you really look at it, even though we’re a bank, , we have about 27 full-time employees, , and three executives.

And so, you know, it’s really that next layer of people that we’ve brought on and bringing on the right people, , who have, , you know, a similar mindset take ownership of their area and their ability to deliver to a customer, , very personally. Because if we don’t have the right people in place, we’re all wearing so many hats.

, you can certainly get bogged down. You can not be meeting those deliverables, , because we have projects going on and day-to-day responsibilities going on, and, you know, we just as a culture have decided that, you know, the customer comes first, so. Mm-hmm. You know, you get the right people on the bus, they’re willing to work the overtime to finish the project and do those things so they can serve the customer, you know, during the working day.

, and, and those people are hard to come by sometimes who take ownership over it and make sure that they’re, you know, doing their job the way that I would do it, or the other executives would do it.

Paige: Absolutely. Yeah. It all, it all starts and ends with people, right?

Tanya: Yes. Get the right people on the bus, get everybody going in the same directions.

Paige: Yes, absolutely. And no one knows better than you that the financial industry is very heavily regulated. Yes. But y’all have managed to keep PrimeBank nimble as you talked about. What’s your approach in navigating. Regulations or new regulations that come to fruition without really losing that moment of a scaling company.

Tanya: I think it’s just staying on top of the industry news that’s out there and really being prepared as things start rolling out. , we have a great compliance team, , so I certainly don’t do it all myself, but my background is an asset to us to kind of weave through, you know, all the minutiae that’s coming at us.

’cause there’s so many changes right now with the. Political environment mm-hmm. That we’re in. There’s something new Yeah. Coming and then it’s not coming and you know, and you’re just trying to keep up with all those things every day. , so, you know, we’ve got great trade associations and things like that that help us, , kind of look at what applies to us at our.

Size of bank and what we should be preparing for. , so we do a lot in our strategic planning of knowing what’s coming down the pipe and also preparing for that, you know, as quickly and as we can, , and looking for resources, , within the industry. But really it does help to have the background from the regulatory side that can just say, okay, this is, you know, the meat of what we have to do is this, and this is the minim that we have to be able to make sure that we’re doing consistently and doing it every time.

And really just making sure that, you know, we’re not getting bogged down and. Red tape and limiting ourselves because a lack of understanding of the regulation or trying to overly it, and I think you end up in lot larger institutions having that kind of pushed down from the compliance area where they’re not as much a part of the strategy of.

The business side of things. , and they’re just worried about, you know, making sure that we’re following the letter of the law every single time, which is very important. But there’s a lot of different ways to apply that. , and a lot of times you can go way overkill, , in different areas. And if you don’t fully understand what you’re doing.

Paige: Yeah. Yeah. I imagine that’s, you know, oftentimes a balancing act, , reward as youre planning strategically. Yeah, absolutely.

Tanya: That risk reward plays into everything we do in the financial institution. You know, you cannot Yeah. , have zero risk, , or, or you’re not gonna have a successful business. . I, I teach bankers, , at many different graduate level banking programs, and we, that’s the one thing we focus on all the time, is mm-hmm.

You know, you’re never going to be a successful business without taking risk. You’re not gonna be a successful entrepreneur without taking risk. , so you have to be, you know, willing to accept a certain level of risk in order to reap the rewards down the road.

Paige: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, as you mentioned, you know, you teach a lot of bankers out there.

You’re on a lot of you know, leadership committees or executive positions and other organizations even outside of PrimeBank, and you are also an Austin Business Journal, women in Business nominee. So you’ve been recognized tremendously for your leadership. Well deserved recognition. What leadership qualities.

Do you believe have been most critical for starting and scaling PrimeBank, and how do you foster those amongst your team?

Tanya: I think the, the one part of my leadership style that has been really beneficial in the last four years of starting up has been just the collaborative nature of communication, just.

You know? Mm-hmm. Open door. None of us know what we’re doing right now. Let’s all figure this out together. No judgment, you know, bring all your ideas, everything’s welcome. We’ve, you know, kind of figured everything out as we’re going. , and we’ve opened up to, you know, our management teams of. Any idea, bring it forward.

Let’s see if it works. If you, you know, we know that we’re growing quickly, , we’re having to be flexible. We’re having to, you know, overextend ourselves sometimes and ask our people to overextend themselves sometimes. And so I think just leaving that door open to say, Hey, I think we could do this better.

I think we could, you know, make these changes be more efficient, whatever it is. And to feel like that’s. We’re open to those things and I think from our executive approach, , we’re very collaborative. I think too, you know, our. Employees see us when it becomes necessary to say, okay, I’m just gonna make this decision so we can move on.

, you know, they understand that sometimes that’s part of leadership too, is, you know, just taking the reins, being decisive. You know, right now we don’t have time to listen to everyone’s opinion, but when we do, we’re certainly gonna sit down and hash it out. Mm-hmm. , so there’s a little bit of balancing that, but as much as we can, we try to remain collaborative and just.

Open door and everybody has, you know, a say at least, , to give an opinion. And so, and a lot of times we’re better for it because you just get a much more diverse, you know, view of what’s going on in everybody’s department and how we can work together to get to the end goal.

Paige: Absolutely. And I, I think it has a lot to do with as well, you know, you instilling that in the culture from the beginning and you know, I’ve found, and you, you maybe see this too, even when there’s discussions and disagreements, which there should be.

Yes. , in those collaborative conversations, when a decision is made at the end of that, everyone knows they’ve been heard, which is also incredibly powerful as well.

Tanya: Yeah. It, it is. And like I said, I, I hope that. At least our staff sees us as, you know, we want their opinion, we wanna make the best decision possible.

Yes. , that everybody’s a stakeholder, but also at the end of the day, you know, the us as leadership, we make that decision. We own it, you know? Mm-hmm. And, and I think that’s huge is that no matter what goes wrong. In this bank, there’s a couple of us who are held responsible always. It is always, , our decision and you know, our ownership of that decision.

And we’ve got our teams back regardless of what happened in the situation. And so I think. When you’re moving as fast as we have been, mistakes happen. Mm-hmm. But taking ownership of that from the top, , is I think extremely important to foster that collaborative environment. Because if something goes wrong and you took someone’s idea and then they felt like it was their fault.

Because we decided to make that decision to move forward with their idea. Right. You know, then you shut down those lines of communication going forward. Mm-hmm. And that’s never the idea. So I think taking that responsibility and ownership of the decision at the top, , regardless of how that decision was made within the group, , is extremely important.

Paige: Yeah, absolutely. I feel like that is incredibly powerful. You know, for anyone who’s listening, who is thinking about starting a new venture, whether it’s banking or in another industry, what lessons from your journey would you pass along about building a business that can last.

Tanya: I would say it’s not easier.

Everyone would be doing it.  mm. Yeah. You know, it’s, it’s certainly a challenge and I’ve mentioned, you know, using those lifelines, , certainly my network of people within the industry, . And even friends and family who I could lean on during hard times were very key to being able to do this.

Being able to get up and face the next day after a really hard day. , in the very beginning. , you know, for me, I find my strength, you know, outside of myself, faith and family and those things, and I think. If you’re going to go into something that’s hard and challenging, it’s going to stretch your knowledge and your capabilities and all those things you really do have to find, you know, wherever you pull your strengths from internally has to be bigger than you because it’s really easy to give up on ourselves.

But it’s not easy to give up on those who are depending on us. And so I think you have to continue to go at it the next day. Like I said, use every lifeline you have. Be willing to be vulnerable and say, I don’t know. , because you’re, you know, only going to get to success by failure and you have to be willing to fail and you’re gonna feel like a failure in the beginning.

’cause there’s days you just don’t feel like, you know, you know what you’re doing. You feel like you failed everyone around you. , but you have to show up the next day and you have to take on the next day and put that behind you. , you know, we talked a lot in the first year, , that we didn’t just, you know, take.

Inventory of our successes. It was always the next thing on the to-do list. And we haven’t gotten to this yet. And you know, I can’t believe we did this wrong. And we did a lot of that every day and every week. And you know, you just weren’t where you wanted to be as fast as you wanted to be there. And then you look back and look at what you did accomplish.

And so you kind of have to pull your head up out of the day to day and what you are feeling like you’re failing at or not getting to and say, you know, like. Take ownership of what you did accomplish and, you know, really take inventory of those wins because you can get really bogged down in the challenge and not celebrate your victories, which helps you get through those hard times.

Paige: Absolutely. It’s, it’s so much about resilience, perspective, mindset, and I love that you touch on every one of those things. And the first thing that you said, you know, if it was easy, everybody would do it. Yes, yes. It’s so, so true. No. No, not at all. Yeah. There are two questions that I love to ask every leader, and I’m excited to hear your answers as well.

The first one is, who were you in addition to being a co-founder? I.

Tanya: I feel like I wear a lot of hats these days. So, , that’s a very long list of things. But I would say the ones that are important to me are certainly mom and wife friends mentor, hopefully later to those around me. You know, I, I think that.

You are a lot of things when you’re a woman, business owner and entrepreneur. , you have a lot of people depending on you. And, you know, for me, balancing those things out and making sure that they’re all a part of who I am and that I’m not, you know, over committing to one of those, , and letting the other side is really, , something I try to focus on.

Paige: Yeah, I think that’s beautiful. And then my second question for you is, what is the impact that you wanna have at the end of every day?

Tanya: I think it’s just to leave everything I have out there, whether it’s at work or whether it’s at home. You know, whatever I can contribute to that day, do my very best. You know, reach down in that inner strength and find my faith, find whatever I have to do to just do the best job I can and make sure that, you know, when I leave the office or when I go to bed at night on either job, whether it’s work or being, you know, a mom and a wife that I feel like I’ve, you know, given everything I can, and then get up the next day and do the best that I can do the next day.

Paige: Yeah. That’s all we can do, right?

Tanya: Yes. You can’t have a great day every day. That’s right. That’s right. And start over. , that’s right. You know, not everything as a leader is positive. , you know, you have, you have challenges as an employer and you know, a mentor and you know, a mom, all those things every day.

, but you can only do your best and then you’ve got it. Get back up and do it again.

Paige: Yeah. And it takes so much to have that mindset and to make that decision every day. And so I appreciate you just sharing so much wisdom with us. In, in your experience, you come from such, you know, a highly regulated, highly.

Specialized space with so much experience. And so I just felt like this was packed full of wonderful nuggets for entrepreneurs out there. , I’m curious if Tanya, if anybody’s looking to learn more about you or PrimeBank of Texas, where should they go?

Tanya: , certainly check out our website or social media.

We’re at PrimeBank, , on the web, and then we have Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn and we share a lot of our community involvement there. , and then kind of what we’re about and who we are. So love to help anybody out with any of their financial needs. So

Paige: amazing. Yes. Y’all be sure to check out PrimeBank, which is an incredible URL by the way.

, and just thank you so much for, for being on this series. I’m so grateful to have you here.

Tanya: Yes, thank you for having me. I’ve enjoyed it.

Paige: All righty, y’all. We’ll see y’all next time.