Focus and Reflection started out as something I would send to myself in the hope of it being a way to help me Pay attention. Then I sent it out to my direct reports to let them know what I was thinking about it terms of some strategies and thoughts about strategies we needed to discuss. From there a few people who’d heard about were added to the recipient list. So, I’ll now add you all.

Today is a bit of a continuance from Monday, so, if you want I’ll send you the others, or feel free to ask your manager.

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I’ll try to Practice what I Preach and Pretty much stay with Persistence again today.

A couple of noteworthy updates to my agenda:

for the first time since 3/31 we have put a new loan of GMAC’s warehouse line. Woody, Bryon, and I made the decision to do so after some serious debate among ourselves and conversations with Robin @ GMAC (warehouse) around our available lines, pipeline needs for the remainder of the month, and the overall GMAC warehouse line restrictions we’ve been working been within. Much like we hesitantly went back to the Txbanks a year ago, we decided to tiptoe back into the GMAC relationship again.


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.

Our locked pipeline
What does it look like?
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
What are the Real loans? 4/09 - 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!)
ProLender 4/09 - Steadily working through the kinks (thanks John and Scott…you are awesome).
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
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!)
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.
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.
Reports Paul has determined what reports we’ll use to track the AUS
DU or LP not sure yet, but we are leaning towards DU except on certain file types (self-employed – LP)
Pull-Throughs
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

Sharon reminded me yesterday of John Harris’ 1006 comment last Friday about “how much the attitudes have improved recently.” Wow – that is awesome. Everyone, please thank John for noticing and speaking up about that. Did I say wow? WOW. Thanks Sharon.

Thanks John Harris!

Thank you Lord.