.....If Everday Were Like Christmas

I always enjoy Elvis Presley singing "If Everyday Were Like Christmas." Pondering the lyrics, I thought.....what if everyday were like Christmas, why can't that feeling go on everyday? Yes....what a wonderful world that would be!

Everyday would be something like this....Listening to a choir, a season of cheer, with a glow that fills my heart, the sound of singing filling the air, opening gifts, saying thanks for gifts we don't need..or even want, everyday; excited about getting up every morning; people trying to get along for the sake of keeping the peace; more gifts, more cheer, food, and naps! everyday.

And, everyday we'd celebrate the birth of God who became man. Everyday.

I pray that all of you would have a wonderful Christmas free of family quarrels, anxieties, and uncertainties.

I pray instead, that your Christmas would be one of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.....And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-25).


God Bless,

Danny

Peace, Love, and Traditional Mortgage Lending

Peace, Love, and Traditional Mortgage Lending was the title for this year's Texas Mortgage Banker's 58th Annual Educational Seminar and Marketplace.

Peace......Love......traditional....mortgage...lending....!

LOL. I'm a product of the 60's and 70's and that brings up some serious contradictions; while some were sitting around peacing and loving with their favorite bong in tow, others were fighting for it (the peace, not the bong nor the love). Overseas and on the campuses across America. Peace and Love......and fighting for it along the way. Ahhhh - the good old days.

But what about "traditional mortgage lending?" What is traditional mortgage lending?

Just because we are back to FNMA, FHLMC, VA, and FHA let's don't fool ourselves into thinking there is anything tradional about our industry. Not with automated underwriting, neighborhood watch, credit scores, mimimum credit scores, Uncle Sam's intervention, fraud detection tools, identify theft prevention, HAWK alerts, pulling transcripts from the IRS during underwriting, AVMs.....

Traditional? Not after 7 years of unchecked greed from Wall Street all the way down to main street, people turning their heads all along the way. The blindness and head-turning taken on by many is like the homeless guy, or the beaten pedestrian that everyone turned their head to ignore.

Tradional? I'm not sure we would know traditional if it bit us in the butt, but we are not back to "tradional" (no offense to TMBA). Traditional to some of us include typed 1003s, carbon paper, and a world without emails. Heck...tradional mortgage lending would have to include a time without computers. Now there's an idea - NO EMAILS!!!

If there ever has been a traditional, we have to do much better than traditional. We have to rise way above TRADIONAL. Here in Austin there's an old saying..."Onward through the Fog."

Let's break from the fog. Let's rise above the clouds hovering around us and get a clear vision of where we are going and how we're going to get there.

Peace and Love? Ok, but let's get our heads out of..the sand, and fight for it - that's traditional.

Yesterday's 1006 meeting was great. It was great because I continued to hear about successes around the office and out in the field.

We gave out three Real Sales awards; Erin Scott, Kristi Barcuch, and Kristin Clardy. The ECS' poured in this week and I thank everyone for their hard-work and dedication to making Alethes a better company.

I'd also like to welcome aboard Lee Buckner as a new Account Rep in the Dallas area. Also, thanks to John Bentham for the extra work he is putting into the Account Rep program.

To wrap up this week, I'll summarize some of the things we are doing on a daily basis to focus on making Alethes the best-in-the-business:

**Daily Round-Table BYOL (bring-your-own-lunch) in the conference room. While some days have a specific agenda, most days it is just a time to get together and review processes and clients.

**Every day we have an Underwriting meeting at the end of the day. This keeps us all in the same mind-set and we learn from each other. Processing staff are also invited into these meetings to insure we are all clear on our goals and understandings. Normal participants are Ruth, Kelley, Kathy N, Paul, Carrie, and myself with Mark and others from processing and closing attending from time-to-time.

**Closing check-in meetings; while this meeting has been hit and miss, this group is highly engaged with each other through-out the day. This meeting includes Mary, Carmen, Gina, Kristi, Angie, and Curtis.

**Closing BYOL on Tuesdays

**Sales strategy meetings/data-mining; this meeting varies, but at least 3 times a week if not daily some of us meet for 1-3 hours. We discuss various "active" accounts and then work through lists of loan officers and review needs and what we can do to help them achieve their goals, which in turn helps us. We review our CRM on a continuous basis. We've added three new Account Reps in the past 3 weeks to help work the accounts. This meeting regularly includes Paul, Christy, Austen, John Bentham, myself and others such as Mark Kelly, John Glenn attend from time-to-time. (special thanks to Mark Kelly for his input into this meeting. His insights are very valuable)

**Processing Check-In meetings everyday at 9am

**I also have a daily check-in meeting with my direct reports. We try to keep this to a 7-10 minute stand-up meeting and hit on highlights. From that meeting we can then set other meetings with each other and/or departments for longer set-downs.

**1006 Meeting on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 10:06am. This is meant to be a quick round-robin check-in style meeting with announcements, reminders, and tips. We'll continue to work at ways to make this meeting more impactful and meaningful. This is an "open meeting" to all employees and approved third-party brokers. You can contact Christy Meaux at christy.meaux@alethes.biz for the conference call number.

This is just a summary of just some of what we are focusing on, but please know that we aren't setting on our hands and tongues waiting for the markets to turn and times to get better.

Alethes is, in part, about purpose and persistance.

"Every individual and every company falls from time-to-time. The measure of an individual, and a company, is how many times they've fallen. The good measure is not how many times they've fallen, but how many times they've gotten back up. The GREAT measure is not how many times they've fallen and risen, but how many times the individuals rise together, as a company, brush off the dirt from themselves and each other, and strive together towards a common goal."

That's the Alethes I know and love.

God Bless,

Danny

It makes the Long Haul smoother

As I mentioned two weeks ago, my focus is on the long haul; Best Practices.

It's been great to watch those who've risen to the occasion over the past month in Alethes Wholesale. We've had more new business in the past month than we've had in the past 6 months.

We've had more people engaged in the business of doing what it takes than ever before. Gail Petty and Kathy Nguyen have both received Real Sales awards. Angie has crossed departmental lines to insure our shipping turn-times have stayed true. Roy Whitlock has been giving me more numbers and data, and with a smile, than I could handle (almost). Christy Meaux has been data mining our CRM as if there was gold hidden deep inside! Thanks Christy for feeding the Dialing for Dollars Sales Team with fresh leads. Oh, and I love those reports!

Jason and Curtis have had one afternoon in the past 2 weeks where they had 29 locks - now that was exciting! And Scott - what a programming fool he's become! In addition to the new web site (thanks Scott, Ben, and Jeremy) we've have a new "intra-net" that gives us all sorts of data and numbers at a glance.

Erin has been working AUS files like she was a mad-woman. Erin's also been part of the Dialing for Dollars Sales Team that's included John Bentham, Christy Meaux, Mary Reynolds, Austen Smith, Paul Findley, Chris Margiotta, Joe McCubbin, and Brad Burnie.


Thanks for Best Practices everyone.

The Long Haul

My focus has been pulled, or I should say diverted, quite a bit the past couple of weeks.

For a number of years I've gone to the national MBA convention. This has always given me a sense of the industry's pulse, introduction to potential new investors, and some travel time. Cathy has gone with me this year and the past two and we've taken a couple of days off for vacation; for the record we rate Boston and Chicago much higher than this year's trip to San Francisco.

Normally, I'll spend Sunday evening working the Expo (exhibitors) and getting a feal for what reps I'll want to visit with on Monday, Tuesday, and Wendesday between other appointments I have. This initial walk-through usually takes at least a couple of hours.

This year is took maybe twenty minutes. The exhibitors, in number, were 20% of any other year I've ever been. While there are normally large lender exhibits, very few were bigger than your typical 10x10 or 10x20. 30% were REO management and 30% fraud detection or training companies. There were zero mortgage lenders exhibiting.

Obviously, the tone for the convention was very somber and serious.

And serious it was.

The Mortgage Bankers Association is dedicated to cleaning up its problems from within the industry and I applaud them. We've, and that includes all of us, have made a mess of things. We've neglected good sound lending practices by either originating or allowing the origination of loans that should not have been made. We had bad product offered to us that we sold because it was there, people would buy it, and we could make money. We've trusted others to do the right job, yet we've not defined "right" and/or not held held them accountable. Much of the time we've just rode the wave.

Now we "pay the piper," or "now's the time for the rubber to meet the road." Or a host of other cliches.

Cliche or not, it's time to pay attention to what needs attention.

As I reflect back to the national convention, I see an underlying theme of "fraud prevention" and "best practices." One of MBA's executive team was speaking during the opening remarks and talked extensively about these two issues. He claims that while some of the fraud should be picked up on by the loan officer and underwriter, 87% of all fraud can be detected by a good processor.

And thus, we weave that into best practices.

Alethes began an innitiative last winter to improve the knowledge level, professionalism, and accountability of all our employees and vendors. We began defining and practicing Best Practices. Some people have not appreciated what we've been doing, nor why we're doing it, and choose to leave. We'll be continuing that agenda this fall and winter and we'll continue to loose some who are in it for short term gains.

Alethes is committed to the long haul. One of the Speed of Trust behaviors is "Righting Wrongs." While we right some wrongs, it is more than likely to get worse before it gets better. But that's ok.

We're committed to the long haul. That's my focus.


Danny

Business-Not-So-Usual

Like much, if not all, of the mortgage industry, Alethes has not been immune from the downturns this year. To keep aligned with the declining loan volume, we have reduced our corporate and wholesale work-force by 32 people. This includes the reduction of 18 people this week.

I remain committed to our vision, mission, and values and while this week’s lay-offs were one of the hardest tasks I’ve ever had to do, it was necessary to reduce expense and regain profitability for the year. Part of our value statement states that we will be “Healthy in our disciplines of Leadership, Profitability, and Fun.” While the lay-offs were necessary for profitability and there might be argument as to the level of leadership, it was definitely not fun.

This morning we had our 4th or 5th “State of Alethes ” conference call and will continue to have these calls from time-to-time. We also have a check-in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:06am (1006 meeting). You are welcome to call in and listen to that meeting; you can obtain the phone number by contacting john.bentham@alethes.biz.

If you have any questions about our viability, direction, or committment, I encourage you to ask John Glenn , Mary Reynolds , Paul Findley , Richard Woodruff , or myself.

Please do not listen to rumors.

Sincerely,

Danny L. Smith
CEO/President
Alethes, LLC

Best laid plans of mice and men.....

Saturday morning.

"Best laid plans of mice and men sometimes go arwy." Believe me when I say "it was one for the record books." I sit here and reflect back over the past few days and think about how the week started and what I was focused on....and whew.

I found Wednesday morning with a lot on my mind. I had been up for a bit and had decided to interrupt my regular routine by going to the office earlier than normal.

Having struggled with a lot of interrupting thoughts, I needed to stop listening to myself and let someone else drown out what was going on in my head. So, I hit number 6 on my truck's CD player and here comes John Maxwell's booming voice with "LEADERSHIP LESSON #8 - A LEADER'S FIRST RESPONSIBILITY IS TO DEFINE REALITY."

To say I was astonished is an understatement and I'm not sure how many times I replayed those opening words....."a leader's first responsibility is to define reality." God gave me the perfect message and I paid attention.

Dr. Maxwell went on to talk about some rules for successful leadership from Jack Welch's book Jack: Straight From the Gut. My notes (I stopped in Starbuck's parking lot to take them) include the following:

• Control your destiny, or someone else will
• Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it were
• Be candid with everyone
• Don't manage, lead.
• Change before you have to

Whether it's Maxwell, or Welch, or Covey, or Carnegie, or Collins, or Drucker, or Lencioni, or Piper, or Morris, or Moore, or the Apostle Paul.....it's not entirely all the same, but similiar lessons over and over and over again. I look at these 5 points and what all these leaders have to say about what they've seen work best and I realize again how true, how basic, and how much I have to learn.

Talk straight; confront the brutal facts; you're always leading because you're always influencing; leave the right impression; tell the truth - don't lie about even the smallest things; say you're sorry, and mean it; ask questions; listen first; have a plan and at least try to work it; pay attention; ask where your own blind spots are; look past yourself; learn - get better; extend smart trust; trust but verify; be "on purpose;" don't just let life push you around - be purposeful; create transparency; you'll be the same 5 years from today as you are today except for.......; tell your wife and kids you love them everytime you leave the house - every time; guys - remember that whatever points you've earned today, your wife considers them expired at midnight each night; it's not about you or me - it's about the values.

And it's not about the coffee, nor the money.

I look back at the stress I experienced in people's lives this week (I repeat....I look back at the stress "I" experienced in people's lives this week) and it was about someone concerned about their money. Now, I don't doubt that I have blind spots to other things right now, but as I run a quick inventory of the week. As I reflect on the stress, the conflicts, the turmoil, the not so nice phone calls, the emails, the upset people, I notice they were all about the money and pride and bad behavior. Not about values, but about people wanting something to do with their individual money and/or pride and behaving badly in the process of pushing for it.

But it is not about the money, and I'm repeating myself quite a bit this morning; It - is - NOT - about - the - money - IT IS ABOUT THE VALUES. And values are led forth with good behavior.

Take that inventory and work through each minute detail and event. Map it back to the beginning. Be blunt with yourself. Better yet, find someone that will Straight Talk to you.

Starbucks' Behar was telling us, in essence, that being about the coffee is about the money, but being about the service is about the values and behaving well.

Back to Lesson #8, what comes to mind when you reflect on the past few days? Are you a leader that defines reality?

Are you a leader that confronts the brutal facts, chases the values, and believes you will survive?

Godspeed,

Danny

..circling back - for something to help with your focus and reflection:

http://www.leadershipchallenge.com/WileyCDA/LCTitle/productCd-0787984914.html

...

"It's Not About the Coffee"

Former Starbucks president Howard Behar says "Starbucks is not in the coffee business serving people. We are in the people business serving coffee."

Within 3 pages of beginning It's Not About the Coffee I found myself looking for a pen. Finding real deals is great and that's what I'm uncovering here. The author, Howard Behar has been in the trenches. Most company presidents spend their time in meetings, meetings, meetings...I know, I am one.

Mr. Behar though, tried to visit as many stores (10 or more) each week as he could. This is where he learned the most about his business. This is where he was able to set and let his entrepenual thoughts run wild and take hold. I had always assumed the President of Starbucks was one of the original owners, but not so. Mr. Behar was 44 years old and had 20 years in the retail furniture business when he came to Starbucks in 1989.

This is a great read and is puncuated with a bit of Mr. Behar's personal history as he shares the ten Leadership Principles he used through the years.

Here are some insights into his principles (just insigts, not the principles...you'll need to read the book to get those);

• Know who you are
• Know why you're here
• Develop trust in yourself
• Build trust
• Listen for the truth
• Own It
• Think like a person of action and act like a person of thought
• Trust = Truth = Accountability
• It's not rocket science, it's a lot harder
• Getting past the no book

Maybe, maybe, the most best quote in the book (I'm rereading it, again) is on page 100 and Mr. Behar is talking about truth and accountability. He quotes Harold Geneen, CEO of ITT:

"I believe it is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises - but only performance is reality. Performance alone is the best measure of your confidence, competence, and courage. Only performance will give you the freedom to grow yourself."

Good reading,

Danny

Alethes' Continued Response to Market Conditions (Business Not-So-Usual)

At a recent round-table discussion, I was asked “where do YOU see the business headed and how do YOU feel about Alethes' role?”

The short answer was ”I am healthily optimistic about where the mortgage business is headed and Alethes’ position in the end result.” I went on to talk about such items as history, industry changes still to come, the media, change and trust; we have to recognize where we've been, but not just from an observation point-of-view. We have to be willing to change and we have to trust ourselves. Our change must be responsive and proactive, not reactive. I’ll resist the opportunity to talk about trust at-this-time, but I know that I have to trust myself and I have to trust those who are originating, processing, underwriting and closing loans for Alethes.
I’m sure you’ve read the various articles published recently, that while loan originations have decreased, loan fraud has increased; and the top indicator is misrepresentation on the loan application.

These reports, coupled with live compliance problems in every lender’s back office has caused lenders/investors to mandate new restrictions, representations and warrants on their brokers.

One of the challenges we're facing is the changes that our lenders are imposing industry-wide through new wholesale agreements. Many of these new agreements do not include provisions for the lenders/investors due diligence; instead, the responsibility is put back on the broker (Alethes) to repurchase the loan even if they, the lender, do not do perform sound underwriting and closing.

At this point, I’d like to re-state Alethes’ three long-term goals:

• To be the premier lender in the markets we serve,
  
• To have the right to go public if we so desire and
  
• To be a Top 10 place to work
  

As part of our desire to achieve the results of the three goals Alethes, LLC, its executive team and myself are committed to the origination and delivery of quality loans, whether banked or brokered.

Over the next few weeks, Alethes will begin instituting various measures to insure our viability in this changing market. Some of these measures will involve new agreements with our investors, new file retention policies and changes to whom and how we broker-out loans.

While there will be changes in many areas, please be assured we are thoroughly reviewing our options and our competition’s handling of the same events. Still, there will undoubtedly be some areas in which each and every one of you will have an issue.

I promise to keep you as readily informed as I possibly can.

Sincerely,

Danny L. SmithPresident & CEOAlethes, LLC

Paying Attention

Every morning at 9am I have a check-in with my direct reports to get a quick status of non-routine items. Yet, the non-routine has become the routine these days. This meeting should last 10 minutes max but many days goes 30-45 and multiple meetings spring up from this meeting to discuss at length a new change. It has been difficult to be responsive and not reactive.

I know communication from Alethes has been inadequate, so the next few weeks, I will attempt to communicate to you better, even over-communicate. No doubt, I'll step on some toes as I do because I have no trouble with the desire to communicate, yet after 25 years of personal history in this industry, I hope I have an idea of what will take us cause problems. Yet, it is a daily struggle to grasp what is real and what is fantasy lately.

That history tells me that it is the basics that causes the problems. As an example, a recent article in in Originator Times that reported incidents of mortgage fraud in the U.S. increased by 42 percent in the first quarter of 2008 from a year ago, according to a new report released by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute.

The top fraud incident type, in all states, was in “General Application Misrepresentation” followed closely by misrepresentations related to “Income” and “Employment.”

At Alethes Wholesale, files get stalled due to questions about income and employment more than all other factors combined. Obtaining a proper verbal VOE prior to closing is extremely difficult on a regular basis.

Some reports are saying that it will be two more years before the mortgage industry begins to settle down to a routine. So far the melt-down has hit sub-prime, FNMA, and FHLMC while skirting the FHA scene. These reports indicate the next wave of collapses will hit medium to large banks nationwide. Part of the problem at these banks is the large number of agency, including FHA, servicing portfolios that are in trouble due to defaults.

How does all this work into our business, at our level?

That is what I'll be rambling about in these postings, LO/Branch Manager Round Tables, and conference calls.

Some of the subjects will be;

• Errors and Omissions Insurance and Fidelity Bonds; how this is maybe the number 1 change agent effecting how we all do business
• Life after Seller-Funded DPA
• Wholesale Lender agreements; what they no longer cover
• Neighborhood Watch numbers
• Fraud problems that plague each and every one of us
• Best practices; all around Alethes

This is not a time for the light-hearted and I'll apologize now for those that think I'm too blunt. Good-to-Great author Jim Collins says "great companies confront the brutal facts and believe they'll always survive." Another book I've come to use as a guide for running a good-to-great business is Stephen M.R. Covey's Speed of Trust. If you haven't picked up a copy of Speed of Trust, I'll be glad to send you one.

We need to build trust back in to Alethes and our business and right now many of us aren't sure what to trust, even ourselves.

I'm committing to you that I'll work and pray hard about fulfilling our Mission and Value Statements. I'm committing to you, as a foundation for doing so, that I'll practice the Four Cores of Credibility Mr. Covey indicates are paramount in establishing a high trust company.

Danny Smith

CEO/President

Alethes

Heads-Up, Heads-Down, Blame, Behavior, Fangs, and Fodder

Authors Miller and Blanchard, in their management/leadership book, “The Secret”, talk extensively about Heads-Up and Heads-Down work. Well, July was a whole lot about heads-down for your's truly.

There's an couple of old sayings about "remembering the trip and remembering which horse brung you to the dance" that keeps me reflecting on the past and it's doubtfull that I'll forget the past 12 months any time soon. A year ago, I would have never thought the sub-prime collapse would have such far reaching fangs.

A deep inside view of what has caused much of what you are experiencing can be found in Paul Muolo and Mathew Padilla’s "The Chain of Blame.” Whether it was John Glenn's knowledge of how I like looking over the past, or the fact it is just good fodder, his book recommendation has fulfilled both.

Overall, I'm extremely thankful for our behavior this past year. One thing we’ve consistently done right during these reorganizational times has been how we've behaved. With the reverberations of the collapses have come auditors looking in every nook and cranny of every mortgage company of any good size.

How has Alethes done through all of this? Well, we’ve been poked and prodded very well thank you, and to-date, we've been blessed with good audit after good audit. One of the audits verified a modest increase in profits over the previous year. Thank you Lord.

My focus in the coming months will continue to be about building trust, truth, and best business practices; in essence, good behavior.

Along those lines, I’d like to point out something about the truth; when truth is a person’s guiding value it helps a person internalize wisdom and build good character. What we think about affects what we do; therefore, we practice the truth by regularly testing our thoughts, actions and words against it. What we regularly do builds habits and further shapes our character. Our character is displayed in our behavior.

Let’s practice good behavior.


Have a good weekend,

Danny

Best Business Practices: Trusting Yourself

Not until I read Speed of Trust had I considered the importance of trusting myself. Not until I read and began specifically practicing the book’s mentioned behaviors did I get the inclination of the impact of trusting myself.

But still, it was not until recently, a year after first the reading that I began noticing the effect of not trusting myself has on teamwork, communication, having good conflict, achieving good results, and a host of other things.

“Trusting myself has to happen before I can ever begin restoring and/or extending trust to others in a REAL way.” If you have not done so, read pages 309-311 in Speed of Trust. If you have, please read it again. What Covey has to say is maybe the most important aspect of Best Business Practices; extending trust to yourself; telling yourself the truth, respecting yourself, stop beating yourself up, be open and honest with yourself about your weaknesses, forgive yourself, stopping putting yourself down, getting better, get your head out of the sand, extend smart-trust to yourself.

The first book Cathy, my wife, ever saw me purchase (’86) was “What To Say When You Talk To Yourself.” I’m sure she was wondering what she had married, but I was sincerely intrigued by the title. A few years later, I went to a men’s retreat and the subject was “The Lies We Believe.” This was another book based in part upon how we talk to ourselves and what we say.

Now, Covey tells us that productivity and profitability improves as we trust ourselves first, then others. Hmmmm….maybe there’s something in all the “self” stuff – the Bible even says to love your neighbor as you love yourself….gulp.

If you don’t have a copy of this book, let me know and I’ll send you one – my gift.

Let’s become the best in the business – together.


God Bless,

Danny

Value vs Relationship

“Recognize that today's customers are increasingly buying on value, not on relationship.”

This is quote from the book The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization by Peter Drucker with Jim Collins, Phillip Kotler, James Kouzes, Judith Rodin, V. Kasturi Rangan, and Frances Hasselbein.

While I thought much of the book was really good (it's hard to not find good from such a group of authors), this statement was worth sharing. The responses show a great deal of emotion and has brought further dialog...
_________________________________

From: John Bentham
Ultimately, almost all purchased are based on value:

The buyer either values the "relationship" and won't mind paying more for something he can get for less somewhere else, or...

The buyer feels as if the product he's purchasing is a commodity and shops on price, thinking the service that comes with the product is the same anywhere.

Our challenge is to "add value" to the loan product such that the customer will value the relationship more than the purchased product.
_________________________________

From: Joe McCubbin
I think above all it comes back to "Trust". The true Value of the Relationship is the Trust, thus V + R = T. Joe
________________________________

From: Mark Kelly

Danny,

I was trying to be humorous, but understand now that you were seeking serious responses. If I may readdress the question that you posed:

Value can be created on a transaction; a service rendered, or even something as simple as giving a stranger directions when they pull up in front of a store as you walk out – they’re lost and looking for help. You were “valuable” (aka “creating value”) for that stranger by helping him/her find their way to their destination. One could choose to pass it off as “just being nice”, but the fact is that you gave value, however insignificant it might seem.

Relationships however require an investment. Whether a professional or personal relationship, it takes time to build a relationship. Sure, you can give “instant gratification” to someone in a professional capacity in our business (say .25% off on their next lock – which also could be called “value” since that price break was of value to the LO), but did a relationship just spring forth? The opportunity to begin to BUILD a relationship was created, but it’s going to take time……and continued investment on both parties part…….to actually turn that one incident into a significant relationship.

To me, a relationship that is built between individuals (personal) or professionally (whether between two companies……an individual and a company……..employee and employer, to name a few) all have value built in over time. The value of shared experiences, goals met, transferred trust – these are some of the hallmarks of a “valued” relationship. If either party in the relationship begins to no longer perceive value being added or the value is eroding, that relationship will begin to suffer as well and oftentimes results in one party seeking “value” elsewhere.

Value and relationship share an interdependent existence in my opinion. In the short and long-term, it takes a mixture of both to create a powerful combination of both over time.
_________________________________

From: Bryon Cunningham
Value is much bigger than price or service. Value is different from customer to customer for some it may be mortgage training for others it may be a wakeboard lesson and for others it may be an invite to a bible study and yes we must provide a certain price and a certain level of service. The key is relationships. Get to know the customer and provide them something extra, something they don't expect. Every customer has different needs and we have to identify and determine if we can fulfill those needs using our core values for direction.

If I stop at a convenience store for gas I have knowledge of what type of service to expect but if while getting gas someone from the store comes out and cleans my car windows I would call that value.

_________________________________

From: Christy Meaux
I think it depends on how you define Value...

Is it strictly price driven, or is it the value we create when serving our clients by meeting their needs, thus having the relationship be a "result" of the value in service?
_________________________________

From: Melinda Truitt

I'm not sure I fully agree with that, I think there needs to both :-)
_________________________________

From: Mark Kelly
What??? Just last week, they were buying on relationships.........now it's back to value?
_________________________________

Other comments/dialog?

Great Discussions Yesterday

Thanks to those able to make either of the Dallas Round-Tables yesterday. I enjoyed hearing what you had to say about Best, and Basic, Business Practices. In particular, with the constant changes in our industry, it is always good to think about “what could I have done 6 months ago that would have made today better.”

Even better, to ponder on the commonalities of those loan officers that have lower lows even in the down-times; what do they do month-end-year-out that gives them steady business.

One question I asked the participants was “what 3 things could you do to improve your business?” Here are some of the responses:

• Time Management
• Patience
• Return phone calls
• Training on DO/LP
• Product Knowledge
• Follow-Up
• Organization
• Punctuality
• Farming for new business
• Follow-Up after closing
• Web site usage
• Customer Service
• Marketing
• Communication
• Knowing the client
• Be a better technician of the business
• Change management
• Focus on vision/goals

By far, the top 3 points of discussion were on Time Management/Organization, Training, and Marketing.

The last few minutes of each discussion was spent talking about how one can increase their productivity by learning to extend Smart Trust.

So, instead of me rambling on, I’ll let the participants post their comments (or criticisms) and we’ll continue the discussions below.

(Note: it can take a few minutes for the comments to clear and be posted.)


Danny

Alethes' Vision

I’ve been lax in not posting our corporate vision for Alethes. We have our Mission Statement and our Statement of Values posted, yet we’ve failed to post our Vision.

Alethes’ Vision is:

1. To be a top 10 place in America to work,
2. To be the premier lender in the markets we serve, and
3. To have the right to go public if we so desire

We set this Vision 2 years ago and have been working and praying our way to that end since. I’ll talk more about each of these in future blog postings.


Sincerely,


Danny L. Smith
CEO/President
Alethes, LLC

Credibility

I really want people around me that are credible. Don’t you? What a difference it makes when you know, without a doubt, that a job is going to get done and get done correctly. It happens faster, easier, and with less emotion. It’s also more profitable and it just plain feels good.

This past week, with some time-off, I thought a great deal about what credibility means to me and wondered about what experts had to say about it. Three of the five books I picked up from my desk had the word “credible or credibility” in their indexes.

Chet Holmes, The Ultimate Sales Machine, mentions numerous times the importance of credibility with customers and potential customers and co-workers.

John Maxwell, in his commentary on Proverbs 17:2, says that “credibility is a victory, not a gift. We gain credibility when our life matches our talk and when both add value to others.”

Stephen M.R. Covey, in The Speed of Trust, writes about Self-Trust and the Four Cores of Credibility; Integrity, Intent, Capabilities, and Results. Think about how much better you feel when you're working along side someone whose walk and talk match up (integrity); their agenda works with yours (intent); they have the ability to do the job (capability); and past performance has produced results (results).

With the changes in the business the past year, you’ve probably had a hard time trusting most anything or anyone, but did you stop trusting yourself? Many of us did because we weren’t sure what was ahead and some, if not much, of the past has proved to be a mistake. Yet, by still being around to read this likely means you’ve weathered the storm well enough to at least survive. So, how about this summer? Are you staying in the game? How’s your “self-trust?” It was a wise man who said “we can’t talk ourselves out of something we behaved our way into – but, we can behave our way out of it.”

This is in part what our Round Tables are about, learning Self-Trust and its effects on building Best Business Practices. We’ll have two Round Tables in Dallas on Thursday. A separate announcement will go out later today. Hope to see you there.


Danny


Read more about credibility and how it relates to our company’s values at http://alethes-values.blogspot.com/ .

Best Practices – Round Table Discussions Last Week

The three Round Tables to-date have been good. At least I have felt so!

One rule we’ll establish moving forward in these round tables: we only talk about a best practice from a first person point-of-view.” Meaning; in a discussion group such as this, it is not good to be talking about what someone else should be doing better. That is counter-productive to the discussions and is really nothing more than a gripe session.

Let’s all remember that we can only make changes in which we can control.

As I expected, each group had different content. Some of that content has been;
• New standards for uploading a file to the underwriter by the submissions desk – Alethes Wholesale has implemented MGIC’s 2 hour standard
• Underwriters making phone calls during underwriting decision
• Less layers of management
• More measurements being put into place in Alethes Wholesale (expanded scorecard)
• Declination notices
• Disclosures
• Tighter controls that can be checked and monitored (I call this robust evaluation and correction)
• Good loan applications
• Hiring practices
• Self-Trust and 13 Trust Behaviors
• Discussion about stakeholders, vs clients, vs associates, vs partners, vs employees. How do we perceive each other? What is the best terminology?
• Technology uses

My intent is to not only discuss items such as those listed above, but to bring all of these discussions around to Building Trust within our entire organization and especially “across” normal segmentations. It is through building trust that we achieve the teamwork necessary to achieve the results I believe we all want to accomplish.

I hope that you are all able to join me in a future round-table discussion about Best Business Practices.

Danny

Open Round Tables – Best Practices

Today’s Round Table is full but we will have another Round Table tomorrow at 2pm and Friday @ 10:30am. These Round Tables are scheduled for an hour each, but I have blocked out 2 hours of my time for those that want to stay and discuss.

My general agenda is “building up a best practices business from a foundation of trust,” this is intended for overall group discussions. As with past Round Tables, the open discussions will cause each to be a bit different. I expect there will be some interesting discussions and hopefully these will help bring us all to a new level of understanding about conducting business in such a way that breeds success.

The Round Tables are generally open to all corporate and branch stakeholders. Ideally, each Round Table will have a mix of individuals; loan officers, administrative, underwriters, closers, processors, accounting, IT, management, etc. They will be held weekly in Austin and once or twice a month in Dallas.

To reserve your spot in either session (Thursday or Friday), please email me at danny.smith@alethes.biz .

Thanks, and I look forward to these discussions

Danny

Best Practices – Processing

A couple of postings last week created sincere passion in a few people. If you haven’t gone back and read the comments, you’ll find them interesting; you might note that you can comment at any time after a posting is put up, not just that day.

In particular, the comments some of you had about Loan Officers were particularly passionate and really good. It was enjoyable to read. I’ll come back to those in a few days. This week, we’ll discuss the rest of the loan process (processing to funding) and then move on into other aspects of running a mortgage lending business. In case you are wondering, we are considering all you have to say, putting it up against industry standards, common practices, profitability, long-term success, etc. It will all then be put out in a Best Practices Guide.

Today, let me know your thoughts about the “Basics of Loan Processing.”


Sincerely,

Danny

Best Practices – Starting with the Basics

Wednesday’s posting has created some good comments. If you haven’t been back to that discussion, please do so and give us your input.

I’ve written and had comments the past couple of weeks about communication, listening, disclosures, values, trust, audits, software, hiring, underwriting, processing, loan officers, do’s and don’ts. There have also been a few concerns about my management, or leadership, abilities; thank you – I welcome the comments and know I have blind spots that need to be pointed out.

Today, and over the weekend, I’d like to hear from you on what you believe to be the “Basics of Best Practices.”

Have a great weekend,

Danny

Best Practices – Definition and an Example

I apologize for the delay in getting back to these discussions. I’ve had some questions poised in reference to Best Practices and its definition, and why I’ve been talking about “soft” subjects such as communication, listening, mission statements, values, core ideology. There have been some good emails and even a couple of phone calls about this subject and I appreciate the conversations; email and phone. Any phone calls and emails will be kept confidential if at all possible, but if the subject matter is not private, please respond via the blog comments below.

Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia defines Best Practice as: “Best Practice asserts that there is a technique, method, process, activity, incentive or reward that is more effective at delivering a particular outcome than any other technique, method, process, etc. The idea is that with proper processes, checks, and testing, a desired outcome can be delivered with fewer problems and unforeseen complications. Best practices can also be defined as the most efficient (least amount of effort) and effective (best results) way of accomplishing a task, based on repeatable procedures that have proven themselves over time for large numbers of people.”

Over the past few months we’ve been looking within Alethes, but also outside the company for what are Best Practices; culturally, but specifically to departments, areas, branch operations, companies, individuals, and leadership/management styles. We are looking for those practices that meet the standards of integrity, intent, capabilities, and results that can sustain a company through good and bad times. In particular to culture, we’ve been considering those companies that have survived 10, 20, and 50 years to determine their commonalities.

As we continue with this analysis, we’ll discuss three distinct processes: people, strategies, and systems. Through these processes, it will help to remember that we never get far from the foundation of our mission and values (core ideology).

A specific reference material for these three processes is “Execution,” by Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan. Another helpful reference on how to properly establish, implement, and continue to carry out the three processes is ”The Speed of Trust,” by Stephen M. R. Covey.

While Alethes has performed well over the past 9+ years, many parts of the industry have changed and this is a great time to take a look at how we are conducting our business and in what areas we can achieve better results.

So there is no misunderstanding, establishing Best Practices is a constant process, though we also know there are many Basic Business Practices that are consistent through our industry. We’ll be discussing those in particular in the coming days and weeks through this blog, round table discussions, conference calls and general Best Practice postings on our web site.

Best Practices will be recognized and written for every aspect of our business; hiring, loan origination, processing, underwriting, closing, funding, post-funding, general administrative at the branch and corporate levels, human resources, benefits, and leadership/management.

So, moving on from theory, what how does Best Practices come into play in our daily lives? Here is an example of a conversation I had yesterday;

Chas – “I need some help in where this LO fits best with a processor? He has 5+ years of mortgage experience, but no FHA experience. She is in North Houston.”
Danny – “What is her compensation split arrangement on FHA loans and who is her manager?”
Chas – “Well, that’s the problem. Best Practices have not been followed very well because He is on a 100% split. He claimed experience and his references checked out he had FHA experience, but it turns out his previous processor did all the work, and he can’t even do an FHA GFE very well (which means he can’t qualify the borrower properly.)”

Obviously, Best Practices have not proven out in this situation and now we have a problem. What do you think is the appropriate “Best Practice” at this point?

Please reply via comments below,

Danny

Best Practices – Communication

I promised yesterday that we would continue with “communicating with the loan applicant,” yet, I’ll take a different approach than you might have imagined. We’ll come back to the returning phone calls, being up-front and honest, and returning phone calls, straight-talk; demonstrate respect, returning phones, etc.

Today, I want to emphasize Best Practices, Communication, and Initial Disclosures. While this will come up again in the near future, today let’s briefly consider how these disclosures are part of the Communication Process with the potential borrower.

So that you don’t think I’m taking too many liberties by bringing this topic into play here, we invariably find disclosure problems along with customer complaints about “what they were told, not told, or thought they were told.”

If you are a loan officer or processor you should know how to communicate effectively with the borrower. You must know which disclosures are to be sent and within what time frames.

To communicate effectively, you must know what constitutes “3” days (if a disclosure has to be sent within 3 days).

To communicate effectively, you must know if the disclosure are to be signed?

To communicate effectively, you must know the definition of “sent.”

At some point in time, your effective communication will be tested by a compliance auditor; Alethes personnel or state or federal. Do you know how they test to insure you communicated correctly?

Communicating all aspects of the transaction effectively is at the foundation of a good mortgage loan. Proper disclosures are paramount to a good mortgage loan.

References materials include:

www.alethes.biz : go to documents and see compliance folder
Various industry materials available at www.mbaa.org and www.namb.org


At the risk of being blunt, I’m not sure why any hard working and honest loan officer would NOT properly give out disclosures. The disclosures reinforce a great deal of what you’ve said to the applicant. These documents should be used to “clarify” your conversations and if there is a misunderstanding that needs to be cleared up, it can get cleared up now before you get too far into the deal and spend valuable time and effort.

Set yourselves up to win.


Communicate well,

Danny

Best Business Practices – Listening

Listening well is one of my many struggles. Studying this behavior the past few months has helped (I pray!). Stephen M. R. Covey describes it as: not only to really listen, but to do Listen First – to include understanding, respect, and mutual benefit.

Mr. Covey depicts Listen First as the 13th Behavior of “Leading at the Speed of Trust” and further explains its opposites and counterfeits.

Opposite:
• speak first - listening last
• not listening at all
• focusing on getting your own agenda
• not considering whether others may have information that could influence you
• ignoring other’s needs to be understood
• self-focused, ego-driven behavior

Counterfeit:
• pretend listening
• spending listening time thinking about reply
• waiting for turn to speak
• listening but not understanding the other person’s point-of-view

Listening well builds trust and is vital to good sound teamwork. Experts like Covey and Maxwell insists that listening is essential to building trust while Lencioni insists that building trust is paramount to well functioning teamwork.

Reference materials include;
• The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player, by John Maxwell
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, by Patrick Lencioni
• The Speed of Trust, by Stephen M. R. Covey
• Bible: 1 Samuel 3:1-3, 1 Samuel 26: 1-25, Job 2:11-13, Habakkuk 1:1-11, Luke 2:42-52, James 1:19

Are you listening to the message you are putting forth? Are you putting forth the clear message you want others to hear? What about silence? When another person is listening and only silence is the response - that too is heard.


Seek clarity in listening well (me too),

Danny

PS: tomorrow – Communication with the loan applicant

Best Business Practices – Communication

I’d like us to consider all the ways we communicate everyday; verbal, written, facial, body language, etc, and what communication, or lack of, says about us as an individual and company.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

Am I purposeful in my communication? Do I project the tone of what I want people to think of me? Do I project the proper influence in my communication method?

Am I respectful in my communication? Do I offer win/win results?

Is my communication objective in nature? Am I open to listening in my communication?

Am I vulnerable and transparent? Am I instructive and insightful?

Is my communication dependable and reliable and trusted?

Am I engaging and empowering? What can I do to engage better; am I not just hearing but listening?

Does my communication coincide with my actions? What does my communication methods say about who I am?

Does my communication show character and competence? Is my message clear? What can I do to make my message more clear?

Without doubt, our communication and actions should go hand-in-hand. The number one complaint I’ve received in my entire mortgage career has been about communication; or lack of. From Realtors to borrowers to underwriters to processors to closers to……! I’m sure you’ve received the same complaint – “why won’t he/she return my phone call!”

Most of our communication is impulsive, but there are times when our communication is more mandated in nature. Such as disclosures; being in a regulated industry we are required by law to give out certain disclosures. Other mandates are deemed “normal business practices;” rate sheets, uw action sheets, web sites.

There are great books available on this subject. A recent book I’ve found interesting is “Lincoln’s T-Mail.” President Lincoln’s use of the telegraph during the Civil War and how he used it to “help” in his communication was revolutionary and a good example of basic, yet precise, means to achieve good communication. Mr. Lincoln wasn’t trying to use the latest fads, nor did he use it because it was innovative and new. He used the telegraph to help his communication.

I’m suggesting that we all consider the multiple ways we can communicate; phone, face-to-face, mail, groups, individually, email, etc, and how we are influencing each other in our methods. We each have our preferred methods, yet our preferred method is not always the best practice to achieve the desired results.


Look forward to hearing from you,

Danny

While my pondering (reflecting) normally runs to words starting with p’s, e’s and c’s, I’ve actually gotten hung-up this morning on b’s; best business, basics, backbone, boldness, blunt…hmmm.

Before I get going, I’d like to further express a previous comment I made ….. about writing this blog; “I want us to get to know each other.” If we don’t know each other; we’ll never get to know each other’s values; we’ll never develop a culture that survives, much less flourishes. And as John Glenn mentioned yesterday, “remember, this is our last rodeo.”

Back to Best Business Practices and the “B’s”….

Backbone: it takes backbone to practice Best business. Sticking to your Core Ideology (mission and values) because they are the right things to do, even when they don’t make money, takes Backbone. Making tough decisions takes Backbone; confronting others well, takes Backbone. Alethes’ upper management is going through a process where we are “evaluating forward” our abilities to do our jobs; evaluating forward takes Backbone.

Boldness: this is one I’ve done very poorly over the years. I’ve been bold with some, yet timid with others. Being consistent takes Boldness. Boldness, or lack of, is harmful when we let our temperaments miss-guide us; not confronting some while easily confronting others is not good practice. We need to do Bold well.

Being Blunt: this is another trait that can be used for good or bad. Personally, I’d rather someone just be blunt with me so we can get on into good conflict (a function of good Teamwork). Otherwise we tend to not want to hurt each other’s feelings and never get to the real guts of a problem. Many times I know I have to soften my bluntness and work through a series of questions (respond – don’t react, assume the best, go to the person, seek clarity). I also know that my Bluntness can cause others to not engage well with me and that is a problem if two people are going to Trust; I’d suggest reading the chapter on Smart Trust in the book Speed of Trust. Doing Blunt well can be the difference between being nice vs kind; “nice” is not telling someone about a piece of food stuck in their front teeth while being “kind” is telling them (I resisted much more graphic analogies). Bluntness can be rude and that is not what I’m talking about; good Bluntness is not being a bully. Bluntness can and should be kind. Do Bluntness well.

Basics: this is what I’d originally intended to focus on today; the basics I learned about the mortgage business. When I was hired by Lomas & Nettleton in 1984, my first week was spent reading agency manuals; FHA, VA, Fannie, Freddie (It took me 3 days to figure out the acronym things). They then had me filling out loan applications after loan applications after loan applications after loan applications.

From there it was good faith estimates; hundreds of them (or so it seemed). The most important thing they pushed was “fully disclose EVERYTHING to the applicant.” They didn’t say be honest, that leads to differences of opinions about honesty. L&N taught me to disclose everything; that’s Boldness and Being Blunt – it takes Backbone. Oh, and filling out the GFE (and TIL), was by HAND. I learned real quick how to work an HP 12C calculator.

Finally, the training I was sent into the field with was about disclosures; RESPA, TIL, ECOA, and FCRA. I believe HMDA came along later. L&N drilled me with disclosing these documents properly to the borrowers. My first loan application took 3 ½ hours because I was so intent upon getting the GFE and TIL correct (remember, no computers). And my processor tore me up because I’d made a mistake and she had to re-disclose; that’s accountability.

In summary, the mortgage business starts with the loan officer. I’m still a loan officer at heart and my Best Business practices starts with having Backbone and Being Blunt about the Basics of Becoming and Being a good loan officer; from there our Business grows outward well.

Best Business Practices at Alethes continues as we extend Smart Trust in building our culture.


I look forward to getting to know you,


Danny

Today begins a series of discussions titled “Best Practices.” We’ll be exploring in detail what that means in the coming weeks and how these practices are incorporated into our daily work.

I believe we’ll find that as we focus on these practices, we’ll become clearer about how we conduct our business for the “long-haul.”

Though I can not put my hands on the source of this data, I’ll go ahead and give the quote; “Less than 2% of companies make it to their 10 year anniversary and those that do are supported by a strong corporate culture guided by first be its values.”

Alethes’ corporate values of Trustworthy, Respectfulness, Uncompromising, Teamwork, and Healthy form the acrostic Truth. Hopefully, since you are all employees, you are all aware that Alethes is the Greek word for Truth and have read and agree with our Core Values Statement. When we were forming the corporation in 2001 and choosing the name, there was a serious “uh-oh” when I realized how convicted I was about this name. I was convicted to the point that I knew if I was serious about being grounded in values that I had to go with such a name.

Mortgage fraud is the #1 white-collar crime in America. It is my determination that we uphold the truth in all of our endeavors, small and large, and we can stay above this stigma.

There are many resources for how values play out, but the bottom-line is we should follow values because they are right, not because they make us money. David Moore, in his book “The Last Men’s Book You’ll Ever Need,” talks about this issue. I invite you to pick up a copy and read the two chapters about work; great lessons titled “Loose Your Job Everyday,” and “Be More Impractical.”

Best practices start with values. Obviously I can not know all of your personal values, yet hopefully, you have all paid attention to Alethes’ corporate values and know how important it is to keep those values in mind as you practice your work.

Let’s be the best in the business together,


Danny

5/14/2008

In today’s 1006 meeting we’ll continue a discussion that began in my office yesterday. The topic was along the lines of…”why are we all worked up over loan officers that only produce one or two deals a month?” While the statement was actually made by one person, it was more of “who” said it and how others responded with “yes, that’s what I’m talking about…that’s the attitude I don’t understand.”

I appreciate the honesty and how clarity was sought in this situation because it showed me the depth of a permeating problem that I was literally blind-sided by. What I did not even consider until later was how that statement was made after a meeting had already been requested to discuss a customer service problem. It was during this meeting and listening to the discussions, asking a few questions, and seriously seeking clarity, that I poised what had been asked right before the meeting.

Confused? We’ll discuss this more a bit later this morning and I’m sure for days and weeks to come!

Oh. My immediate, and calm answer was “this is not about the number of loans nor even a monetary value, this is about our living our value statement; this about a person.” The immediate response back to me was “oh, dang, I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

Enough said about that for now. I’ll move on to my original intention of this Focus and Reflection and move over to our Core Values Statement… http://alethes-values.blogspot.com/

Message from Jesse

-----Original Message-----
From: Jesse Brookshire
To: danny.smith@alethes.biz

My duty as a marine is to protect the weak and helpless from the strong and violent, those who cannot protect themselves.

My...duty. Just like it is a cooks job to cook and a janitors job to clean, it is my job to protect, to be a warrior.

I chose to be the greatest warrior our nation has to offer. .5 percent of our population choose to be a marine and 90 percent of those marines are NOT infantrymen.

I am a warrior.

The values that have been instilled in me are what will insure my success.

These values are what have made and maintained the success of the United States Marine Corps. Ask yourself what makes America so special and great. Wealth? Entertainment? Oil? Cool cars? All of these things can be obtained all over the world. America doesn't own every last natural resource in the world making it some kind of superpower.

We are no greater in that aspect then many other places all around the world.

So, what is it?

Values.

The values that this nation was founded upon. The same values that become more and more flexible, lenient and materialistic everyday. The more our traditional values change, the more dangerous America becomes, the more America becomes less special and unique.

The true fight is not against terrorists or fascists, it is against ourselves and demoralization.

I fight to protect not only the weak from the strong, but also the values that we have worked so hard to establish.

I pray that the rest of America who just like me!

Jesse Brookshire
USMC

Whoa…that hit home. I opened the door to my hotel room and there on the front page of USA Today was “Mortgage Crisis Seeps to Prime Loans.” Now that’s a great way to start the day….NOT. Is it any wonder as to why I almost NEVER watch the news? Not that I have my head in the sand, I just don’t need to be focusing TOO much on sensationalism. Do I need to pay enough attention to develop strategy scenarios based upon certain news events? Sure, absolutely. Do I need to know about current events? Some, but seriously, what does 99% of it matter? Not too much. I have to ask myself, how much do I want to let this influence me? Does this really effect me…I mean really?

Ok, focus on something I can control….me.

Seriously, in somewhat of a liberal sense, this headline does relate to my original subject of this message. As you might know, I’ve been at a Speed of Trust workshop this week. I’m not sure what I expected, but I had not considered the direct and personal impact; almost gut wrenching. I had assumed that because I’d been reading the book and practicing and talking about the 13 Behaviors for almost a year, that there would not be any big AHAs. Wrong. I’ve had to remember that “I choose to be frustrated or not.” Errrrrr.

This morning I’ve been pondering and praying about what has struck me the hardest (and there has been quite a bit; what is my biggest aha? What was the WOW or WHOA? Well, there have been many, but it was something said in the first 15 minutes that has kept coming back to me – “you are probably not going to learn anything new this week. Everything we are teaching is common sense, just not common practice.”

Hmmm. Not sure that I'm in 100% agreement, but it all hits close enough that the fallout is causing some damage. There are many familiarities in the book to other aspects of what we've been learning over the years. For instance, Behavior #10: Practice Accountability. Now that sounds familiar. Or #3: Create Transparency, #2: Demonstrate Respect.

Two “reallys!!!” I’ve had were the whole “branding” aspect and the “trust taxes vs trust dividends.”

We’ll be talking a great deal in the coming weeks about branding.

As to trust vs dividends, but for now think about how Mr. Covey teaches that when trust goes down, speed goes down, and expenses (costs) go up, thus, less profit; expense = trust = >speed = profit

Another recurring part of this Speed of Trust thing is how it starts with “Self-Trust.” (Dang, why can’t I read a book or take a seminar about fixing others??).

How does the newspaper headline relate? The “I’ll be the same 5 years from now…..” theme is resonating, if not pounding away, at me. We can’t control the headlines but we can control whether we read them or not and what we do with them. If I want to be different 5 weeks or 5 years from now, and I do, I have to change; I need to trust myself more, and I then need to trust others more. I need to have a “propensity towards Trust.

Hopefully, you have all been reading the book. I trust you have.

Can you share some examples of trust dividends? I’d love to hear about them.


P.R.O.V.I.D.E. Leadership,


Danny

I’d like to encourage you to read 2 things this morning;

the book summary of “360 Leadership” by John Maxwell and
the Focus and Reflection dated 4/16/2008.


I’d then like to hear what you took away from these readings. You can either email or post as a comment on today’s blog. And the blog allows you to be anonymous!


Thanks, Danny

I was traveling yesterday, by air (I’d rather drive). While on layovers, I always head to airport bookstores. Bookstores are culturally challenged and I like to see what’s being pushed that’s different from the local Barne&Nobles.

This time it was more of a renewed perspective on an existing problem: change (imagine that!)

Standing inside the doorway, surveying the crowd, and wondering if I dared walk in, I was drawn to a book of previously published articles. In this book was a reprint of an article I passed around corporate last year by Harvard Professor John P. Kotter. The article was titled, “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail.” Professor Kotter wrote a book back in 1996 with a similar title. In this article he lists “8 Big Errors” companies make when transforming (fancy name for CHANGE). I was struck hard by 6 of the 8, but in particular Error #1: Not Establishing a Great Enough Sense of Urgency.

Kotter’s “Error #1” has caused further reflection about Floaters vs Seekers.

As a quick definition, a floater is someone who is just passing the time, getting through the drudgery of work; waiting for 5 o’clock so he/she can….jingle those keys.

For the definition of a seeker, I’ll borrow from Os Guiness; "....true seekers are different. On meeting them you feel their purpose, their energy, their integrity, their idealism, and their desire to close in on an answer. They have become seekers because something has spurred their quest for meaning, and they have to find an answer. True seekers are looking for something. They are people for whom life, or a part of life, has suddenly become a point of wonder, a question, a problem, or a crisis. This happens so intensely that they are stirred to look for an answer beyond their present answers and to clarify their position in life. However the need arises, and whatever it calls for, the sense of need consumes the searchers and launches them on their quest."

Those of you who have read Guiness and the concept from which he writes about seekers could think I’ve taken a deeply intense subject and made light of it. But, I believe my correlation is totally relevant. Seekers are exactly what Alethes needs right now. A Seeker has urgency about his/her work and it seeking to change something; even if it is wrong! Seekers are engaged in robust evaluation and correction.

We, as a team and as an individual, don’t have time to float. The time is now for new AUS files; the time is now for creating WOWs with our clients. Our clients have choices. You have choices. I could write all morning about taking Personal Accountability for how you talk to people, how you answer the phone, how you return phone calls, how you CREATE URGENCY, how you walk around looking for someone that needs assistance, how you FIND a client that needs assistance.

What choices are you going to make today?

I Pray that you to have a Great Sense of Urgency; be a Seeker.

P.R.O.V.I.D.E Leadership,

Danny

You might or might not be aware that today is the fortieth day after Easter; Christ’s resurrection. It was on the fortieth day that Christ ascended into Heaven to set at the right hand of the Father, our Lord God.

This event is recorded in Mark 16:19, Luke 24:50-53, and Acts 1:6-12. A summary of the test goes something like this…

So when they last met together, he led them out to the vicinity of Bethany. They asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

He said to them: “it is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

After the Lord Jesus had said this to them, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. He sat at the right had of God.

They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’


There are many amazing and awesome things about this event, but the two that is the most astonishing to me are;

Christ was flesh and blood, still, when this happened. He ascended into Heaven after walking around in a resurrected human body; He even ate fish when His apostles did not believe He was real and not a ghost or spirit.
He will come back the same way.


What a day that must have been!

Wow. What a whirlwind of a month! As we wrap up this month, our Agenda needs to include: paying attention to details, looking around you and seeing what needs to be improved, and asking “what can I do to make a difference?”

We’ve been through 30 days of new system installation, loss of our primary production lines, changes in investor guidelines, and decreased numbers. We were profitable last month and expect to be slightly profitable this month. One month ago we were drowning in post-funding guideline changes and it was scary. Yet, we kept on keeping on. We put our heads down, took personal accountability and behaved our way out of a literal mess. Let’s recognize that the mess was two fold; ours and the industry changes.

May will bring about a lot of changes; auditors – new processes – more AUS training – new product mixes – new underwriting methods – new pricing models – new strategies – heightened need for people performance. Again, let’s recognize how overwhelming this can be and decide now how to respond.

I’ve very Purposefully picked this time to bring QBQ and Personal Accountability back to the forefront and hope that everyone embraces this tool. We have come a long way and our survival depends upon our ability to behave well. Behavior is 100% your responsibility; not blame, but leading and influencing. It is your personal choice as to how you behave. My door, email, and phone is open for questions, concerns, and discussion; seek clarity.

We'll continue to focus on the 3 processes of People, Strategy, and Operations; an important part of this is how well we perform and how we gauge our performance. We'll talk a bit about this in the 1006 meeting today.

Thank Don and Betsy for the meal today. Every month you bring us lunch on the last day of the month and I appreciate it (even when it’s girl food!) Thanks Don…and thanks Betsy for putting up with us!

Danny

As you might know, I read quite a bit, but most of it just goes by the wayside unless I read it again and again. But! Every once in a while I’ll breeze through something (you know, there’s so much to read and so little time)…I’ll have a drifting thought specific to an article, or a piece of an article. This article has been the subject of that drift many times the past 3 weeks.

The following are excerpts from that article on Performance Appraisals.

"Performance evaluations are about as much fun as an annual physical exam for a fifty-year old male. At least the physical exam is useful!Few business activities create more havoc in the workplace than the "how are you doing" sessions most companies require their managers to foist on their workers. Managers hate to complete them, workers hate to receive them, and even the best of them tend to produce friction between the firm and the worker more often than they produce results. Still, this pivotal ritual in employee relations continues unabated, with companies trying out new systems hoping to discover one that works across the board."

"Beneath the surface of the evaluations, another problem erupts. In a culture where many of us define our worth by our jobs, the performance evaluation strikes at the core of our being."

For the complete article, go to http://www.hcbcworklife.com/ and click on Viewpoint on left navbar.

Danny

In case you did not get the announcement I left hanging on Friday’s Focus, we had a couple of days where our Underwriting Received numbers jumped to 25+ loans per day and well over half were “AUS APPROVED” loans. That is good, really really really good. This is a direct result of our increased emphasis on turning these files around faster in underwriting; initial file and conditions. We haven’t arrived, yet, but it is an incredibly good sign of future victories.

My focus for this week will be on…

Past and future Performance Results; we will be pulling a lot of reports and numbers and building new “dashboards.” These dashboards will consist of numbers/dates/data.
My direct reports will be working on lists of numbers/dates/data they pay attention to and what reports they pull to review those numbers/dates/data. We will also want to know what benchmarks the numbers/dates/data is being compared against.
We’ll be discussing this week in how well we are performing in all aspects of our business processes; hiring, originating, processing, underwriting, closing, funding, shipping, investor relations, finance and accounting, profitability, warehouse line management….everything.
Processes; Systems, Strategies, and People. If you have not read the attachment I sent last week on this subject, please do so.

Roy asked me to pass on this information: The Fletcher, Mary Ellen file funded on Monday the 21st and was purchased on Friday the 25th; it was a “First Touch Purchase” The file was conventional and AUS-approved. The LO was Jayne Herrera, Kim Odom processed (YO! - KIM), the underwriter was Mike, Carmen drew the docs, and if I remember right, Isabel funded the file. John "the Man" Harris shipped the file.

Now, I don’t care who you are (as Chas would say), that’s GREAT PERFORMANCE RESULTS. Thanks everyone.

Oh….who shipped that file? And who Processed it?

The daily 2pm AUS meetings are proceeding very well and should be bringing everyone together. It has amazed most of us as to how many ways the AUS findings can be read and interpreted, thus, the reason we will meet about this process everyday for weeks. Please remember that all underwriters and others in the office and field are in this meeting from 2 to 3pm everyday. Beginning today, I will attempt to log these discussions for future benefit.


To that end, Thanks for the hard work,


Danny

Focusing and reflecting is a tough thing for me some, much, most, of the time. I’m not the type to focus very well. I love that red block; be quick, be prepared, be gone! “Back-in-the-day” when I was still agile and willing to suffer more self-inflicted pain than I am today, I loved barefoot waterskiing….still do, but the pain out-weighs the urge. I’d be scurrying along, no skis, at 47 mph rope and have some of the strangest thoughts. My ability to focus was pathetic and thus, I took some incredibly hard falls. What was possibly the last of such falls was 3, maybe 4 years ago. Cathy saw it (I was wanting to show off for my woman!!! :-). Literally, I thought I’d broken both arms and my face. These falls are so fast you can’t even close your eyes and your eyelids get rolled back to the point you have to reach up and fix them.

Obviously, I should have been paying attention to keeping my toes pointed up, and my knees bent, and my eyes on the top of the windshield…but nope, I was thinking about people watching and I needed to look good. And it was an incredible fall. I understand the sound, when my hands, forearms, and face slapped the water, was like a rifle shot. It was incredible. But then….you can’t waste a crowd! Right??!!

(Ok…deep breath. Whoa! Did I just hear a barefooter on the water?…wow, no wind, there’s dust on the water!!)

(Focus..deep breaths.)

(Ok, I’m fine, for now…concentrate) Today and tomorrow, I need to be sure I’m focusing on what is important and not on looking good. I understand that “looking good” can be the result of the importance, and can even drive us to do the basics well, but style points only represent 20% of the score and without the basics, we don’t get the style, and looking good is way too temporal.

I’m continuing to focus on our Mission and our Values. I’m focusing on how we live those out through people, systems, and strategies. This has been my focus for months, even years, and I am hopefully learning how to live this out better than before. If I appear intense, that’s why. Everything I do is directed towards that purpose.

Ok, new thought. Bryon shared some great news with me yesterday afternoon. I was in the rear kitchen…needing coffee (I quit the Crown a few years ago). And there was no coffee, I was feeling incredibly irritable, Paul was trying to talk to me about something, I was silently praying that I could pay attention, and Mr. Cunningham popped his head in. If you don’t know Bryon very well, he’s a reporter and I can tell when he has something good to talk about. There’s a certain skip and sway. He was looking good! And I forgot about the coffee….

Don’t miss the 1006,

Toes up, knees bent, eyes on top of the windshield…


Danny

Isn’t it interesting as to how we absently come to focus on certain things. And how that focus can drive our emotions for a period of time. This thought came to me while reviewing the warehouse line status report Roy so diligently sends out each morning. While the report doesn’t tell the entire story, it sure gives a snapshot and begins to set-up some of my behavior for the day. It can quickly put a frown or smile on one’s face.

This morning, upon reading the report, I had thoughts of;

Wow, we’ve only been using GMAC’s line again for 10 days or so and it has come down by 400k. Good turnover
Good deal….the NattyMac line is increasing; this means we are funding some AUS/BBT loans. I’m glad it’s not all GMAC product right now.
Wow, the 1st Star line has come down almost 3 million the past.
This means we are getting really good turnover. Thanks Kandy.

I smiled. But then I wondered….”what else is going on?”

We’ve behaved our way very well these past few weeks. It was refreshing to get MaryR’s email on Friday about all the loans being purchased.. Everyone, please, give Kandy a big hi-five for a great job she is doing.

Over the past few days, setting through my class, I’ve thought a lot about how we’ve come through some tough times the past few months. That’s not to say that we haven’t come through others over the past 10 years, because we have. What has been particularly gratifying is how much better we lived out our Mission and Values this time; or, at least I want to say we have; we include each of you…how have you lived out our corporate values?

Speaking of values and behavior…We invested almost $10,000 of direct cost in the QBQ classes last year. The further investment of your participation time puts the price tag up close to $20,000. Personal accountability is at the core of the QBQ classes and accepting personal accountability is at the core of how well we’ve behaved these past few months. It is not an accident that our behavior has improved over the last year. Our improved behavior is a direct result of that investment last year and that was money well spent. In part, I bring this up because we circle back around to our QBQ classes beginning today. Those that are not in the classes need to be aware the classes are going on and who is in the classes. And the refocus on what and how questions that begin with I and causes action. I look forward to the continued improvement in our performance and behavior as a direct result of participation in these classes.

I’ve attached a paper to this email. Though a bit daunting, this paper is an easier read than the entire book of which the paper is a summary of. For a look into part of the madness behind my methods, review this paper. It will give you a bit of a look into what I am focusing on as we work through these next few days and weeks. Without doubt, changes are in the wind and I want you all to be aware as to how all encompassing these changes need to be. We will have changes in each of the 3 process; people, operations, and strategy. We must be purposeful about the changes. Or they will, again, be imposed on us.

As I mentioned in a couple of meetings yesterday, I’m thinking about June, concerned about the volumes (or lack of) and thinking about what I’d be thinking; I’d be thinking…”what could I have done back in April to have caused business to be better?”

When you see me walking around the office and wonder what I’m up to, that’s it…thinking what can I do now to not be thinking in June about what I could have been doing back on April 24th to not have to have been have this thought in June. In short, I’m thinking about performance, behavior, creativity, personal accountability, mission statements, values, and doing things because they are the right thing to do.

And how do I get everyone to engage. Oh yea, clarity. I’ve got to be clear…


With humility…..as mud,


Danny

Good Morning: Thanks again Jason and Curtis for the job you’ve done.

Thinking back about yesterday I remember evaluating forward on regular intervals and I’ll spare you the replay of the mental gymnastics, yet, I want you to know I can’t get a good picture of how well we stick the landing. And I just realized I can’t get “that” picture, because it is in the future and as I evaluate forward I do so based upon the results of the past and our past does not show that we change well.

The “forward” is our mortgage business, our type of business, without what has been our typical 1st time homebuyer. Forward is the world of automated underwriting. If it wasn’t so serious, this would be a bit humorous because the world of AUS is where we transitioned from! A place we did not think we could compete well. So, here we are again. Can we compete well? Can we change whereas we can compete well?

To evaluate forward we do so on a foundation of the results of our history and how well we believe we can change based upon the people and systems we have. How Well we can learn to operate out of the box with the boxes we have, or change boxes. What am I so concerned about? Engaging? Empowering? Persistence? Performance? Results? Fun? Mission Statements? Values? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and more yeses. But what scares me is Change. I’m concerned about changing. I’m concerned about how well you can change. I fearful about the results of not changing Well.

And change we must. Change you must.

But not from manual underwrites to AUS. Not from one system to another. Not from one process to another process.

You must change in the area of Trust, and Conflict, and Accountability. You must come to accept that you have to learn how to work together. The key word here is learn. Learn. Learn. You must accept that you have not arrived. You must accept that you influence others and that your influence either lifts others up or puts others down. You must come to accept that this is not about YOU. Hmmm….maybe the key is accept, not learn. But both you must do.

This isn’t about just underwriters, closers, account executives, processors, managers, loan officers, supervisors, teams, and a CEO changing. This is about Alethes changing. This is about every person, every position, the entire org chart. Chas and JohnG can talk till they are blue in their face about Together Everyone can Achieve More (T.E.A.M.) but until You decide to change You, good teamwork will never happen. We aren’t born with the ability to be good team players. We WORK and LEARN to be good team players.

Change is about reaching down inside of yourself and becoming something you have not been before. I know there is a better you. My bible tells me there is and that is the premise that drives me everyday. You are important. Your job is important. The person you stand behind at the copier is important. The person on the other end of the email is important. Look around the office…right now…every person you see is important. Every person that sets in every chair and walks those isles is important. Their jobs are important. Look at them. They are important. The job they do is important.

How important is their job? Your job depends upon how important they accept the importance of their job.

Is your job important enough to influence others well? As I evaluate forward, can I depend upon you to change so that we can achieve better results than we’ve had in the past?

My focus today is about change and I pray that you take this very personal. I’m writing to you personally asking you to change.


Sincerely yours,


Danny

I believe it was in Joy at Work, where I learned the term “evaluating forward.” As I evaluate this remainder of this month forward, the words people, process, clarity, consistence, performance, engaging, empowering, persistence, and continuity jump immediately to mind. Now, continuity is not a word I normally use, or even think, so I just looked it up and it means performance, stability, link, connection. The opposite of continuity is interruption. Interruption draws me to diversion, which brings me to “what not to be diverted from?”

Our pipeline, our task-at-hand: Jason has broken down our locked pipeline, expiring between 4/15 - 5/9, as follows:

Locked
209
$24,094,723.13
51.16%

In Underwriting
27
$3,316,313.00
7.04%

Suspended
39
$4,670,261.00
9.92%

Approved
105
$11,885,353.00
25.24%

Docs
26
$3,129,627.00
6.65%

Total
406
$47,096,277.13
100.00%

Thanks Jason, those words I mentioned above all come to mind as I think about closing this pipeline out Well.

I Pray that everyone thinks about what I said yesterday about Meaningfulness. This pipeline can be either staggering or uplifting; how do you look at it? How do you think about your task at hand; your job? Do you believe it is important? How will you respond to this challenge? Undoubtedly, a portion of this will fall out, yet each of these 406 loans represents someone wanting a home. Each loans represents a task/a job that needs to be performed well. Each loan represents a paycheck, a car payment. Each loan that funds represents an immediate purchase or an exception to purchase. Each loan represents……

You play an important role in making this happen. The person next to you, across the room, and on the other end of the phone and email, play an important part.

I want to take this time to thank Jason and Curtis on a marvelous job they did getting this pipeline locked. At one point, with the locks still coming in, Curtis told me it would take him 34 hours to get the loans locked and in the systems. When I inquired with Jason he mentioned that the locks were coming in like rain, acid rain. I decided that the best I could do to help them was to shut-up, leave them alone, and pray.

If Jason and Curtis did not think their job was meaningful and worthwhile we would have a mess on our hands. If Jason and Curtis had not realized how important their job was and hunkered down we would not have this pipeline. Many of you, most of you, and not just in prod/ops, would be without a job today. Do you think their job is meaningful?

Take time to thank Jason and Curtis today.


Thank each other also.


Danny

Good Morning: We are at the half-way point of the last month of the FHA mortgage business as I’ve known it for over 24 years. FNMA and FHLMC introduced their automated underwriting engines in the mid ‘90s. Some 6 or so years ago FHA followed with their “scorecard” to run with DU and LP and now we are at a point in history where the traditional manual underwritten loan has almost been eliminated.

With automated underwriting comes a more consistent product and a higher “quality” of loan. Those that know me well know that I firmly believe that by setting higher standards we will raise the outcome. Yet, I’m struggling with denying an entire class of people with the ability to purchase a home and in essence, that is what is happening. I also dislike being at such the forefront of this change. It is also interesting to note that the 540-580 credit score loan is performing today the same as it did 10 years ago. While we have been attempting to change our business model for a few months, this is much more drastic than any of us would like. Though, it is making us change and I wonder about the timing of it all! And that is another reflection for later.

It’s appropriate that the subject of our Leadership class the past week has been about Intuition. John Maxwell teaches….”Some people are born with great leadership intuition. Others have to work hard to develop and hone it. But either way it evolves, the result is a combination of natural ability and learned skills.” I have to point out the “work hard to develop and hone it” part because this is an area I believe critical to successfully leading well. I also point it out because it is an area I personally have had to develop and struggle with way too much.

Maxwell lays out 3 lists of 5 “things” in each list in which you can develop and learn better Intuition:

Reading; Situations, Trends, Resources, People, and Oneself
Providing What Others Can’t: They See Differently–They Provide Correction, They See Globally-They Provide Direction, They See Clearly-They Provide Structure, They See Relationally-They Provide Support, and They See Expectantly-They Provide Confidence
Competing With the Best: Become a Man/Woman of Prayer, Communicating Personally with People at all Levels of the Org Chart, Laying out the Vision, Selecting and Training Leaders, and Releasing Leaders to Lead

If you’d like to participate in a discussion on the subject of Intuition, join us in the conference room at 11:45 today.


My focus today is on

1) where we are at with our pipeline and supporting systems to close it out this month and

2) AUS and its supporting systems. The supporting systems for AUS includes;

DU, DO, LP
IDs and Passwords
Uploads, downloads
Who runs AUS?
How is AUS run?
How the loan gets to us
Validations
ProLender
Pull-Throughs
What do we Sell?
????

What are you focusing on today?


Danny

Management and Leadership guru Peter Drucker said “good leaders need to regard first of not their task, but of their time.” Ephesians 5: 16 and 17 states that wise leaders work to redeem the time they have. What can I do to help you manage your time at Alethes? How can I help you to redeem your time at Alethes?

Time is a serious part of our Performance evaluations and a crucial part of achieving good Results. The affects of Time were a key ingredient in selecting ProLender. TQM and TOC workflow and management processes are about making the most of TIME. Chas has been talking about how we need to increase our “number of fundings per staff employee.” TIME

Did you notice the QBQ questions in the opening paragraph?

Ok….My Persistence, along with being Purposeful, is kicking in here.

Thanks Gail for inquiring about the QBQ classes. Sharon will have the upcoming class schedule out soon. The classes will not be “open enrollment” but instead we’ll work through the supervisors to insure attendance. If you have not been through the training, you’ll be required to attend and participate.

Back to the last question…..If you didn’t notice it, then you are clueless and you need to get a grip. Ok…my bluntness is also kicking in.

I can tell who really attempts to practice QBQ (hence, Personal Accountability) and who doesn’t care. If you don’t care, please stop not caring. If you are not going to practice personal accountability, you are going to fail at Alethes. You are going to be miserable and I really don’t want you to be miserable. (I’m I offending anyone yet?) Making people miserable is not why this company was started, though we will offend some and that is part of who we are. We are not for everyone and those staying at Alethes must be willing to learn. Are you going to fail at QBQ? ABSOLUTELY. Do I fail at it? YOU BET. That is why it is called “Practice.” We are not perfect. God only made One perfect man and we are not Him. But, You have to be willing to grow. If you aren’t willing to learn to be personally accountable for your actions, your words, and what happens to YOU – please just leave. I say leave, because my demand that everyone is personally accountable is going to drive you nuts and this is not a good company fit for you.

Read Persistence.

You should know by now that just doing a good job is not enough and is not what makes a good Alethes employee. Do you want to learn? Do you want to be the best (insert you job title) in the business? If yes, and yes, then as long as God allows Alethes to continue, this is the place for you, because through the good, the bad, the pretty, and the ugly, you’ll grow at Alethes.

John Glenn keeps saying, “Alethes is about Truth and Possibility.” This encumbers a vast field of stuff, but in the heart of it is included personal accountability. No “buts”, no “blame games”, no “theys”, no “I can’ts”, no “yets”, not “whys”, no “whens,” Just plain personal accountability: whats, hows, I’s, and actions.

Almost daily I ask myself; what problems do I have, what could I have done differently in the past to have prevented them, and what am I going to do in the future to see they don’t happen again?”

I’m not talking in circles and this is meant in a heartfelt and positive way. If you aren’t getting it….well, you just don’t get it.

TIME, it’s precious. David asked God to help him number the days (Ps 39: 4 and 5).

-------------------------------------------------------------
ProLender/WebLender We’ll have a better idea after WebLender gets the kinks worked out.
4/10 – ProLender has a custom report writer that works in conjunction with Excel. Anyone that can move around well in Excel will be able to customize their own reports. Roy and Scot spent about an hour a developed one report Roy needed for MIP Payments. Every department will be responsible for writing their own reports. Please start thinking outside the restricted DT box we’ve been in the past few years. Every department has numerous reports you are going to need as we move more Purposefully towards Profitability and Performance.
4/10 – Scott and John made good progress yesterday. WebLender should be taking seamless uploads and the calls should have decreased drastically
4/11 – Notes from John Bentham: We received an update from LSSI Wednesday that corrected some of the fees that were not showing up on closing docs. Isabel tested it this morning and it seems to be fixed.
I also sat with Isabel through a Closing doc set and identified a few more fees that were in PL, but did not show up in LSSI. I made screen shots of all applicable areas and sent it to both LSSI and PL for resolution. I intend to do this a few more times today with different loan/program types and identify any other areas that need attention.
There is an issue with the Per Diem Interest rate calculation on the LSSI side that is being worked on right now.
We attempted a resolution of the WebLender "pipeline" issue Wednesday night, but backed it out after Jason identified some unforeseen affects (namely too many cancelled loans). We're reworking the logic on this one today for a fix either tonight or tomorrow. Meanwhile, we made a small adjustment to the WebLender application and it should work, albeit slower, until we get a permanent fix
4/11 – more progress was made and we’ll give updates in the 1006 meetings. The report writer in ProLender is proving to be a great tool. To learn more about the tool and how to write your own reports, go to the Help menu and search for Report Writer; you will also need to go to the Print menu, select reports, select “Data Dictionary.” If I have any of this wrong, Scott and/or others will provide corrections.
Please pay attention to needed rules and proper permissions.
It is extremely important that you have the proper permissions. If you have access to something you feel you do not want the responsibility for, or should have and don’t, see your supervisor. Everyone needs to be evaluating 360 degrees to insure the proper permission levels.
RULES – if you see something that can be fixed with a “rule,” bring it to your supervisor’s attention. If you don’t understand rules, bring it up in the 1006 meetings. See clarity.
Our locked pipeline
What does it look like? What are the Real loans? 4/09 -
4/09 - We took 268 GMAC locks last week (Jason and Curtis - Thanks for your Persistence)
We expect to fund 50-75% of these loans
Curtis was able to finish the input to ProLender on Tuesday and we’ll start running reports to validate our pipeline
4/11 – we’ll run reports again today to see how the Datatrac to ProLender clean up is coming. This is hampering our ability to pull an accurate pipeline.
4/11 – PLEASE NOTE – we have loans that are being locked AUS that are not AUS Approved – please pay attention to insure the system matches the file – this is part a whole new emphasis on DATA INTEGRITY. If you see something not correct, ask questions – bring it to your supervisor’s attention.
File Flow Process / Robust evaluation and correction of changes we made last week
How are the changes we made last week working? 4/09 - there are some bumps and grinds but it appears to be working well. Some of us are exchanging emails and clarifying and testing how this is working. The periodic announcements you see via email is also helping to communicate the changes and to remind us all of new habits we need to develop
o We are holding the loan officer and processor’s feet to the fire for good submissions. Approximately 30% of are being rejected for underwriting and the LO/processor is being told to complete the processing and resubmit a complete file. Those rejected go into the shred bin. (now that’s a change!)
4/10 – please read the emails I sent out yesterday with “Changes -……..” in the subject line. Whether you think they apply to you or not – READ THOSE EMAILS. And, pass them on to your departments for review. PLEASE be Purposeful in getting feedback from your People (we are not as good as all of us!).
4/11 – new changes were started yesterday. I hesitate being too transparent because it can be construed by some to be unfair, but, I’ll try to be clear and specific…here goes:
we have a really good pipeline of manual uw loans that needs to close out asap
we have AUS files stuck in the workflow.
these AUS files are generally considered to be better processed (some exceptions)
we have clients that consistently send us business, good business, and they are in the fight with us, month end and month out
again, these AUS and these clients are being hampered by the poorly processed and/or manual underwrite files
AND, looking FORWARD….it is these AUS files, and these clients, we are depending upon after the manual uw’s are gone (in 30 days)
SO?.... beginning now,
A. AUS approved submissions move to the front on “that day’s submissions”
B. Conditions for AUS approved files move to the front of ALL conditions
C. The procedures and details have been worked out with Gabe, James, Jessica, and the underwriters.
D. We’ll continually be evaluating and correcting this process.
What next? More changes.
NOTE: please do not make a big deal about these changes. I would sincerely like “our ACTIONS to speak so loudly that what we say they can not hear.”
Warehouse line turn-over ratio
Are we getting files shipped as fast as possible? 4/09 - I’ll be talking to Kandy and Mary today about any additional help they need; chasing packages, stacking, etc. 4/10 Awesome job by Kandy and Crew these past few weeks. They are keeping up. Mary and I discussed the possibility of needing someone to help with chasing the funded loan packages from Title companies. She’ll let us know if that is needed. Also, give Maggie a high 5 for a great job she is doing in the shipping department. Mary is so proud of her she’s going to burst.
Are the recent quick purchases at trend? 4/09 - No good answer yet. Keep praying - we hope so. Something like 14 loans bought on Tuesday and 21 on Wednesday. This keeps up we’ll be doing great on warehouse lines this month.
Review of the Corporate Branch/Processing Center’s processes (Mark and I are meeting Friday morning)
Position Contracts
Work flows
Loan Officer performance
Notification to existing loan officers of change we are making with whom we will be working with in the future
Release of memo about what level loan officers we are now working with (this will happen after the meeting today)
Training and Equipping
21 Minutes class today is on the Law of Respect. This covers the 5 levels of leadership. 4/09 - Great class – we discussed this week Deborah and the Law of Respect. Did I mention Persistence? Amazing how the lessons from this class keeps coming up during the week.
Note: please review these levels. What level are you on? 360 degrees? 4/09 - How are you influencing across?
The Call: a discussion group will begin Tuesday night – 6 to 7pm – to discuss the book “The Call,” by Os Guiness
What does it mean to “be Called and not driven?” We had a group of 8 that met. Hopefully they’ll all come back next week.
I will send out a separate email asking for your list of meetings you attend on a regular basis
Note: this is one important area in which we have improved during this “crisis” time. 4/09 - Thanks to those I’ve received back. I’ll be posting a list of meetings so you can all see who is meeting and when to help with planning 4/10 – really good emails yesterday. Did I mention that I wanted everyone to review? We’ll put the changes into P&P after we’ve done some good REC to see if they stick.
AUS strategy scenarios. 4/09 - Though we’ve slowed down the emphasis for a few days, this is not on the back burner. I’m very concerned that we Persist through our existing pipeline for a few more days until we are sure what we have and don’t have. 4/10 – if you are a sailor, you know what “tacking” means. I’m looking for the right time to start tacking. 4/11 – we started tacking yesterday afternoon. See the file flow process notes above.
Training Sunne is ready with to test her training materials. Once we are ready, we’ll have training schedule within 2 or 3 days. Much of it can be done on-line. 4/11 – Mark and the Corporate Branch team went to FNMA/DU training yesterday. I’ll get a report today and pass it on. One thing I did learn from Natalie is that the training they had yesterday is available on-line also.
Reports Paul has determined what reports we’ll use to track the AUS 4/11 – Monday, we’ll begin a robust evaluation of our AUS pull-through. The AEs are calling all of their clients and tracking the AUS files. NOTE: this is the backbone of our AUS agenda. (?!?!?!)
DU or LP not sure yet, but we are leaning towards DU except on certain file types (self-employed – LP)
Pull-Throughs 4/11 – Monday, we’ll begin a robust evaluation of our AUS pull-through. The AEs are calling all of their clients and tracking the AUS files. NOTE: this is the backbone of our AUS agenda. (?!?!?!)
Approved: submitted vs approved we are currently looking at a 75% benchmark, though it will likely start out at 50. 75% though by July 1.
Funded: approved vs funded 85% pull-through
Overall and by AE see above

Rock and Roll, God Bless and Lord, help me to redeem my time today,

danny