.....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:

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