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ACUMA ONpoint
ACUMA ONpoint
Building a Stellar Loan Officer Team
Get ready to unlock the secrets of the credit union mortgage industry with our special guest, Elizabeth Million, Senior Vice President of Lending at Elevations Credit Union. Join us as Elizabeth shares her incredible journey from a real estate appraiser to a leading figure in the industry, providing invaluable insights into overcoming career obstacles and the significance of a member-focused approach. Ever wondered what it takes to build and manage a successful team of loan officers within a credit union? Elizabeth dives into the intricacies of hiring, offering best practices for recruiting candidates who possess grit, ethics, and a thorough understanding of industry guidelines. Peter Benjamin, ACUMA President and Elizabeth discuss the unique challenges credit unions face with compensation structures and how strategic planning is essential for fostering a thriving work environment. Sponsored by LoanCare.
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Acuma, its board of directors, its management staff or its members. The podcast discussion presented is conversational in nature and for general information only.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to Acme's On Point podcast, a series focused on sharing the stories of people who are making a positive impact in the credit union mortgage industry. I'm your host, peter Benjamin. Today's episode is being brought to you by LoanCare. Loancare understands the critical role member satisfaction plays in building long-lasting relationships. Their digital-first approach ensures a seamless, user-friendly mortgage servicing experience that's designed for mobile convenience, so your members have access to all their important information anywhere, anytime. And by leveraging sophisticated analytics and account-based marketing, loancare empowers you to deliver tailored financial guidance and relevant product offers to your members throughout the life of their loan. Whether navigating interim financing, servicing home equity products, reducing operational costs or generating new revenue, loancare's award-winning digital tools support effortless portfolio management across diverse mortgage types. Investors and members Choose LoanCare as your mortgage servicer or strategic partner, and committed to combining personalized convenience, advanced technology and member loyalty to propel your business success. Today, my guest is Elizabeth Million, senior Vice President of Lending with Elevations Credit Union. Liz, how are you doing today?
Speaker 3:I am doing fantastic. Honored to be here. It's a great day.
Speaker 2:Awesome, I'm thrilled to have you. You are one of my favorite people in the industry and I'm going to expand on that and I promise I will. This has been a little bit of background. You know, we sit down at the beginning of the year and we kind of map out who we want on as guests. And at the beginning of the year you know the entire Acuma team we sat down and we said we mapped out who do we want, unanimously. We also we wanted liz miller, that you you had to be someone that we had on the podcast this year and I think we there were some scheduling issues and and we couldn't, you know, kind of get you. We couldn't get you in. You took some time off, but I'm excited that we were finally able to get you into the podcast or onto the pod. But I have a little bit more to say about that. But before we go much further, as always got to take a step back, got to bring Justin in.
Speaker 2:Let's get the latest and greatest happening over to Akma Hawk. How are you doing today? What's the latest and greatest happening? Tell?
Speaker 4:me. Hey Peter, how are you Awesome Living the dream. There you go.
Speaker 2:you caught me off guard that was a little different this time sorry, man, sorry, I mean you're sorry, sorry normally he's like the kids. The kids got me up. Like the kids got me up wicked early. Like it was, it was a rough night.
Speaker 4:It's like I blame my kids for everything too.
Speaker 2:I blame them for my happiness, my sadness, crying there was like there was a one thirty wake up call, then there was a three thirty wake up call and then at at like three forty five like twins were like in there and like in their bathroom, like playing with water. I'm like, what are you doing? I'm like it's not time to get up and Liz. Therefore, it's like well like why are you in here splashing water at each other?
Speaker 4:It's like at 345 in the morning, I mean I always joke that I can't wait till my 13 year old is 16 and he wants to sleep in on a Saturday morning and I'm pulling him out of bed by his ankles for ruining the last 12 years of my sleep.
Speaker 2:So the story I'm exhausted, and and and Justin, justin, you know me, I'm hardheaded I still got up at, like you know, 4.30 and still went to the gym. So I'm exhausted. So please, continue.
Speaker 4:I mean you have a lot of reasons to be exhausted because I mean we're only two weeks post-annual and that was a fantastic event. I mean it was awesome. Our attendees were buzzing the whole time, like I mean just watching them kind of mingle with each other and share during the roundtable events and all that kind of good stuff. We had so many fantastic speakers, so many great sessions, like it was truly an amazing event. So we'll give you a little bit of a break, because I think you can be tired from that too.
Speaker 2:Zombie week for us and Liz, that's that. That that week immediately after wasn't enough. You know, we, we, we, we purposely don't schedule meetings. We're still working. We personally don't schedule meetings. I slept in a little bit, but again, that that's our time to relax was needed.
Speaker 3:I hope you crash for a couple of days at least, before you start doing anything.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's. That's Friday and Saturday it's intense, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:It's Friday. Friday and Saturday is the opportunity that the one time my wife lets me actually sleep, when that one weekend that I come back, she actually lets me sleep in a little bit, so which I'm thankful for. Yeah, well, that's awesome, and you're like, not my wife, not mine. Well, that's awesome, and you're like not my wife.
Speaker 4:Not mine, yeah, but so, since annual is over, we don't have any more in-person events this year, which is sad, but we'll be back next year, so be on the lookout for future upcoming in-person events. I know some of them are already posted for our workshops that are in May and June next year. So registration's not open, but when it does, we will be the first to let you know when that's coming about. Additionally, we have our webinars for you. Those are happening year round, so fast tracks and inside tracks we still have educational content for you to take in, even though we can't be together in person. And then, lastly, we have our YPNQ4 meeting, which will be happening in the next month or so, and so you want to be on the lookout for that. We'll be disseminating information via email. It's also on the website and all that kind of good fun.
Speaker 2:All right, man, good update, good update Thank you very much.
Speaker 2:All right. So, liz, I promised I would expand on why I was so excited or I am so excited to speak with you and I think why the team unanimously said we have to have you on the podcast. And for me, I think I had a different reason than everyone else. I've known who you are. I've seen you speak not just at ACMA events, but at EA events, at Cure and events, and so for me, I kind of view you as someone that's highly regarded in our industry, and when I say in our industry, it's the mortgage industry as a whole.
Speaker 2:You are someone, in my opinion and I think others would echo this opinion that when you speak people stop and listen, that when they look at you and they look at what your credit union is doing, they stop and listen. I think you are a trailblazer in our side of the industry, the credit union industry, and people want to figure out how you were doing it. And I think if other credit unions could follow your path and follow your lead, our industry, our side of the industry, the mortgage industry, would be better off. You know that that 7 percent market share would be more like 20 or 30 percent if more credit unions did like what we're doing. So you are that trailblazer, you are that person again that people stop and listen to Again, not just in the credit union side, but also in the mortgage industry as a whole. So that's why I was so excited to talk to you, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart.
Speaker 2:So the reason why we have this podcast is because we want to showcase the people who make such a positive impact on our industry, and you epitomize that every single day in what you do. So thank you very much for that. And I have to say that as not just someone who came from your side of the fence and in the credit union space that credit union lending side but also as the president of Acumo. Thank you very much for doing that, being that trailblazer. But also I say that because the On Point podcast is a people piece. You know, for those that do not know you, the very few people you know that one or two people who do not know who you are, you know, again, this is about sharing your story. Before we dive into our main point of our conversation today, do me a favor. You know, let's kind of share who you are. You know a little bit more about yourself, if you could.
Speaker 3:Sure Well, thank you for your kind words. I'm listening to them and I'm getting imposter syndrome.
Speaker 2:No, no, you should, you should never have that.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I I'm, I'm probably as good as my team is, and really I have to give them the credit for the success that's been built. But and I'll maybe, you know, I'll talk a little bit more about that too. But you know, I'm a credit union junkie. I've now been at credit unions for 13 years and I think I was always. I was a credit union person always and didn't realize it until you come to a credit union. So my background I actually believe it or not, peter? I started out as a real estate appraiser and I was a single mom pretty early on. My children were young and I was a single mom and you know, I had my own business as a real estate appraiser. And then I had a bank say to me hey, would you come on board to become a regional appraisal manager? And I was like, yeah, that sounds like great, that sounds great, 401k vacation time. And so I went on with the national bank and became a regional appraisal manager and this is right around the first financial crisis, all right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, perfect timing. So you know, they were like, hey, by the way, we're laying everybody off, but we really like you and we're wondering if you could go find a job within the bank. And I was like, huh, I wonder what I could do. Let's see, mortgage looks easy. And so I became a loan officer and I'll never forget this. The first day I started remember I was already with the organization, but the first day I brought in nine loans, nine mortgage loans, because I knew every single realtor in the community and they had a pretty high trust of me. So they're like, yeah, we'd love for you to help us out. And I'll never forget this, because the assistant manager at the time said please, don't ever bring that many loans in at the same time. We don't know how to handle them all. It's just a day I remember and I actually share with my loan officers that I'll never say that to them.
Speaker 3:But and then, you know, from there I went into leadership with with another very large national bank, and then the you know, 2006, seven and eight crisis hit and and really, this national bank really just pretty much you could tell they wanted out a mortgage. They were doing everything they can to push people out. They wanted to do a true layoff because they'd have to pay everybody. So we started looking, a group of us started looking, and we looked at the credit union and looked at their model and we're like, hey, that's pretty impressive. To be honest with you, this is something I want to talk about in hiring LOs as well. To be honest with you, this is something I want to talk about in hiring LOs as well. We didn't really believe what the credit union was telling us about their mortgage model and their success and how many leads they had coming in. And we soon, when we got here, realized it was all true.
Speaker 3:And then I actually came over as a mortgage loan officer and then quickly went into leadership with elevations, and when I started here, we had three loan officers, maybe one or two processors, an underwriting manager, processing manager, who was also, you know, ran the LOS, pretty small group of people, maybe all in 10. We're now up to about 146. In the 13 years I've been here, we've definitely grown. I have an incredible leadership team and a lot of wonderful employees on the team. But yeah, that's kind of my history and what I've discovered working in a credit union maybe, in particular, elevations and I do have to give a lot of the credit on the mortgage side to our senior leaders. We're running a model of let's make it as easy as possible, always staying compliant and do what's right for our members, and I think you know when you everything you do you implement with that lens, it really does help you build a very successful group of producers. So that's kind of my, that's my story.
Speaker 2:No, no, it's a good story.
Speaker 3:I do have to tell you one thing, though, because you wanted to know me a little bit personally In my group we talk about the why what we do. We love people love helping first-time home buyers. They love seeing somebody get into their home that they didn't think they could ever buy. I mean, that's just a magical moment and that's kind of what drives, I think, all of us in the mortgage world to do to help people. We want to help those people build their wealth and homeownership. But we also have what we call the dark why on the team. We all have something that drives us a little bit on the dark why. And let me tell you what my dark why is.
Speaker 3:When I first came to Elevations I was not a leader at the time I had the leader at the time tell me that I would bring absolutely no value to the credit union, that I would not bring in a single liter loan that wasn't handed to me on a silver platter and I wouldn't last. There's nothing like coming to a new employer and hearing that. But my dark why was I've got to? I'm going to prove them wrong. They're, of course, no longer with the credit union, but I want you to know that two things drive me all the time. I'm always trying to get better. You know I do want to get better, but I'm also trying to like outperform that comment from almost 13 years ago that I can't seem to let go of. So I just thought I'd share that.
Speaker 2:No I.
Speaker 3:We've all had somebody tell us this, by the way, I've all had somebody tell us somehow You're not, you're not cutting it, somehow you're not going to make it, somehow you don't know what you're doing. We, everybody, somewhere maybe not the same version as mine, but anyone listening to this podcast has had someone somewhere tell them they're not going to be successful in something.
Speaker 4:Oh, hands down.
Speaker 2:Isn't it great when that, that moment comes, when you're like, yeah, you were wrong and sometimes you know it's, that's I, always, I, I, that's my tackling fuel and I always use, as like my bad water boy reference. Um, but yeah, absolutely hands down. That's you know, it's it's. Thank you very much for sharing that and I, I love that. That. That's absolutely fantastic. Again, I don't know how to respond to that because it's, it's I. I can relate to it too much, too much.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I think everyone has experienced this in some fashion and I want you know I mentor a lot of employees here at Elevations and I really want them to learn this that in believing in yourself is 95% of it, but you have so many external factors trying to push you down or not or saying that you can't be successful and you have to tune that out. You have to tune that out and move forward and do your very, very, very best.
Speaker 2:No, and it's, it's. I think that's that's the perfect segue to you know, really. You know, one of the things I want to talk to you about is it's tuning out those external factors as part of it, but also knowing and understanding the tools that you have at your disposal. That will help you be better every day, and I say that because you are, as a leader, very good at allowing your people to take advantage of the tools that are available out there. Right, you know I see it on social media. You know I see it at the things that we offer. Your people are in attendance when we're in.
Speaker 3:A couple of weeks ago with Acuma's annual conference, you know, I've been attending Acuma, you know, and I can't always go every year. Sometimes I have a conflict. But I think what people don't realize, especially those outside the credit union, is that when you come into the credit union, you've now entered a whole new world of sharing best practices. You've now entered a whole new world where others are going to help you get better and help you improve and give you ideas and solutions to help you run your team or yourself or whatever your day-to-day job is, and it's really unique.
Speaker 3:It's hard to kind of get accustomed to because you're always waiting for somebody to kind of block you and not share, because that's in the banking industry and independent mortgage bankers.
Speaker 3:I mean, they're definitely pitted against each other in many ways and they're good people in the banks, independent mortgage bankers.
Speaker 3:I want to be really careful about that.
Speaker 3:But I think what I would like to you know, having the resource of Acuma and bringing in the national leaders, the industry leaders, that you bring in the speakers to hear from them about what's going on at our credit union stage is just incredible. It's just an incredible resource for somebody to hear about any topic compliance, production, efficiency. I could go on and on and on, and so I think that it's really important and, by the way, not only do I send Acuma information to my mortgage team, but I also send it to other people within the credit union that have nothing to do with lending, because sometimes they'll say to me I really want to understand this better and I'm like great, here's Acuma's tidbit, or look at this, or whatever, and so I'm always trying to have them utilizing what you provide to the credit union community, not just mortgage, but I think you impact others as well, and I think it's really important that to get better every day and that's kind of our motto here at Elevation is get better today than we were yesterday.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, you have to use the resources.
Speaker 2:And you do, and one, and thank you very much for saying that you know, and that wasn't scripted whatsoever, and I appreciate that that.
Speaker 2:That that little plug. But I want to go back to something that that you, that you said and do for that matter, you know that that this, you know, the dissemination of information to people that aren't even in mortgage, right, you know, oftentimes we go to these events and you've been at these events, right, and we have conversation that oftentimes talk about, well, how do we keep mortgage relevant? Right, and the conversation always and quite often comes back to, well, keep mortgage at the forefront, right, keep talking about mortgage. That simple act of just sending them information by a simple email hey, this article might be of interest to you. Hey, this policy update, sending the policy update to a compliance person so they better understand it, or this market update to the CFO, who knows, right, that might be enough to get them interested. Or keep it on the forefront of okay, well, maybe we should be doing a little bit more mortgage right, or get them comfortable with the idea that mortgage should be on the forefront.
Speaker 2:Elevations is a different animal, right, you guys are doing mortgages, you guys are comfortable with doing mortgages, right, but let's pretend it's a credit union. That's not right. A credit union that's kind of sort of on the fence, where mortgage has taken that back burner right. That actually might be enough to push them over and say, okay, well, maybe we should be doing mortgages more. Again, that constant reminder that, hey, mortgage continues to be that viable option for our credit union and really should be that viable option. So I love that you're doing that because, again, that continues to be a conversation that we have and it's a subtle way to remind them, hey, we should be doing this right, absolutely, it's perfect. I'd love that you do that. So you keep talking about 1% better every day. I'd love that you do that. What else are you doing for your team that kind of helps them with that?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, as we're getting close to the end of the year, you know we all, of course, we're all probably thinking about budget for next year. And you know, hiring people, managing people, managing, and I think hiring and managing LOs is an art form, but there's also some science behind it and I think it's really critical. Especially I want to speak to maybe credit unions that are thinking about getting into the space that it's really hard if you're at a credit union where your compensation is not market based, if your compensation for loan officers is not competitive, that is very difficult. That could be a whole nother podcast about how to overcome that, because that is influencing your senior leaders on understanding the benefit, the return on investment.
Speaker 2:you know, know, all those things yeah, part of that's culture also, right. I mean culture. Yes, you know, surprisingly, you know when you could look at, you know, different markets, right, and different credit unions, and be surprised that you know some credit unions you know are are strictly salary based where they, where they very well could be in a commission based structure, right, and they see great success off of salaries, right. There's a lot of variables to that and, you're right, it could be a completely separate podcast and there's a lot to consider with that. I mean, it's that's an animal all to itself, it's. I think that's one of the reasons why it's often requested as a topic of discussion, whether in roundtables or an event.
Speaker 2:How do we navigate this? Because, you're right, we go into the next year, we want to hire loan officers, we want to change our comp plans and we have to figure out how are we doing this? Right? And you know, do you have best practices when you go to do this? Like, I mean, you've grown your team significantly, you know, in the 13 years that you've been there, like, do you have best practices when trying to hire and manage your loan officers?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we do. You know we really hire, for of course we want to hire for production and we use all the wonderful services out there to kind of determine loan officers production, because we do have people that contact us and want to join us. But we do need, you know, in this environment especially, we've got to have somebody who has some production coming on board. You know, as I said, we get closer to the end of the year, you know it's hard to say what's going to happen in the new year, but that's critical to us. Closer to the end of the year, you know it's hard to say what's going to happen in the new year, but that's critical to us. So we do have some criteria there where we really do want somebody who's an up and comer. We don't really typically go after the top producers in our market. We certainly reach out to them, but we have like a drip campaign for recruiting, you know, to kind of reach out to a certain group of loan officer candidates. But we're really looking for grit and ethics and understanding of guidelines and accountability and partnering with operations and willing to underwrite the loan up front, and so we're really looking for those type of loan officers who are going to take responsibility for their role. We don't hire order takers. We don't hire somebody who's just going to come in and fill out a 1003 and submit it and think they're done. We have really great pull through once a loan is locked and we attribute that, because we really are training our loan officers to be accountable, to understanding the guidelines and whether or not the loan is going to get through underwriting.
Speaker 3:There's always hits and misses. People make missteps along the way. That's okay. But that's the kind of person we're looking for and we kind of interview in a different way and maybe others are doing this, but the rest of the credit union doesn't do it this way. We bring the loan officer in and we have operations, underwriting, appraisal, desk, you know whatever. We have a group of people leaders, usually in the room. It's twofold One, we want to sell them on the opportunity at elevations. We want to tell them all the great things we can do. But two, we got to find out we're going to ask them questions. Are they going to be a culture fit? So culture ends up being really the biggest part, besides looking for somebody who actually has database or has production coming in.
Speaker 3:And then I like to have what I call the fourth interview, and that's usually with me and that's where I'm talking the amount of working at elevations. This has probably been like three or four interviews. The fourth one is listen, you really don't want to work here and let me tell you why. And I literally tell them what the expectations are going to be of them as an employee in the mortgage department and what's required of them. And then I also tell them because no credit union is perfect I also tell them some of the areas that they might be used to marketing X and this where they came from. We don't have that here. I'd like to set them up for the right expectations if they choose to come on board. So I'm really literally saying this is what you're going to be held responsible for and I'm happy to share those details, kind of what I say. But that's and that's how we kind of get somebody on board and decide if they're going to come on board.
Speaker 4:Your marketing. I love it yeah. You scare them at the last minute and just like are you sure you want this?
Speaker 3:You're sure you want this, because this is where you're going to get. This is what you're not going to get, and this is what's expected of you your behaviors, how you interact, how you serve our members. It's I cover it all.
Speaker 4:And then next week when they're like what did I do, like you remember.
Speaker 3:I asked you and that's well so. Hr, in the beginning, Justin, was like what are you doing? Why are you scaring these people? I'm like I'm not scaring, I'm setting proper expectations. We don't want somebody to come on board and think we're Nirvana and everything's perfect. And you know, we have trillions of dollars for marketing. If they came from a big bank, for example, they need to know what we're capable of. I do promise them listen, I will do everything I can to get you what you need to be successful, but I can't get you everything. So, yeah, and then HR came back years later and they're like hey, we want to thank you, because when we survey your employees, they know what to expect and they don't have any surprises. I was like perfect, I did my job.
Speaker 4:I mean the other side of those. It's awesome that you guys look for that cultural fit. You can teach the skills. If you lack a skill, you can teach a skill. You can't teach someone to fit in with a culture that exists already.
Speaker 3:I would agree.
Speaker 4:Finding that right person that meshes with your team, that really kind of moves the needle forward. I mean that's the goal.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we've passed on people really good production. You know we all need it, all want it and we said no because we know they're not a culture fit.
Speaker 2:I think that that's the tough part with unions, right, they see those shiny numbers, right, and they chase those numbers. Right. And going back to something you said, that person who's bringing in those big numbers is just that order taker. They're going to fill out that ERLA and just send it in and expect the processor and underwriter to do the rest.
Speaker 2:And that's the number of times I remember my loan officer saying I'm not a processor and my response was I'm just asking you to get the bar to send in their bank statements and pay subs. I'm not asking you to process the loan man.
Speaker 4:The hardest question I was ever asked in an interview ever was would I take out the trash? And I was so baffled by that question I was like, will I take?
Speaker 4:yeah, I guess I mean why wouldn't I take out the trash? And years later I asked that guy who asked me that question. Um, I was like what's the point of that? And he goes. Oh, he goes. We're a small team, he goes. I need to know that you're willing to do anything Nice. It was including taking out the trash. And I was like, oh, good thing. I said yes.
Speaker 3:And you got the job.
Speaker 4:You know, but I mean it's that mindset, like small teams in the credit union world, like you can't be in the set mindset of this is mine. Then I give it to you, like, like we all have our responsibilities, but you know there's still like some overlap.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we even take that a step further. We have what's called the SLA and team standards document. That literally takes it's the life of a mortgage loan from from origination what the LO is responsible for, timing If they're on, taking time off, pto, who's going to cover their desk, who you know. We have that all all laid out. We we look at it annually and update it and change it. And that really helps when you bring on a new loan officer so they can understand what they're responsible for. And then we do allow each team to be built kind of customized to personalities. And we do have relationship processing, which helps. But you know, between an LO and a processor they can kind of decide hey, I'm going to grab these, since you're getting that, for example. But we do require that the loan officer set those expectations up front. And to your point, peter, yes, you can get the bank statements, those asset statements. That's something you can gather and ask for and you should have asked for it at the beginning. So anyway, that's kind of the model.
Speaker 3:We also give a lot of support to the LOs. We give them a lot of different services. I'm all about making every employee's life easier. Happier employees are, more engaged. The more engaged they are, the better they serve our referral partners and our members, and so I'm really, if their life is easy, you know selfishly, can they do more? That's kind of what their work life. I hope their home life is as well, but that's kind of the model. Let's give them the tools that they need in order to be successful.
Speaker 2:No, I love that, I absolutely love that. And, yeah, I think we can tell why you're so successful and why your team sees such success and they've kind of used the name of your credit unit in my next statement why you've been so elevated throughout your career and why you are so well-known in our industry. It's you're a great leader and the fundamental things that you do to hold your team accountable and I think that's part of it and you do things to ensure that everybody knows who's on first, not only that where they go right, where their position is and where they should stand in line right. I think that's what all leaders need to do right, and I think that's so important and why you and your team have seen so much success. You know, before we start transitioning to the second segment of our podcast, you know any final words that you may have for our listeners?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would just, I guess, like to say this I'm always happy to help any credit union in the Acuma family who would like to connect with me and get ideas and let me bounce I bounce things off of them as well, so I just like to make that offer If anyone has any interest. I'm here for the Acuma family and I really want to help our group of credit unions be more successful. The more successful they are, the more successful we all are.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much for that offer. All right, well, liz, we're going to transition to the second segment. In the second segment, this is where we normally do dad jokes. We do trivia. This time around, we haven't done this in a little bit. This is where we were going to play a little Jeopardy. Ok, so I'm a little rusty on this, so please forgive me. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to share my screen. Bear with me one second while I bring my Jeopardy board in and I'm going to explain it for our listeners.
Speaker 4:Maybe we should just do dad jokes, it's all right. Hey, liz. Look, I'm the reigning losing champion.
Speaker 3:Okay, all right, I'm gonna be right there, you with you.
Speaker 4:Just as long as you don't take my title, we're pretty good no, no, we're fine on this.
Speaker 2:We're fine on this. All right, so what we're gonna do, before I kind of break this down, I'm gonna kind of describe the jeopardy board to everyone. So on my screen of, you know, justin and Liz can see this, or is your standard Jeopardy board, five categories, you know, ranging in points from one to 500. What we're going to do, liz, here we are, you know, in the middle of October and with Halloween around the corner, we've, you know it's not quite Halloween, but what we, what I thought we'd do, is play a little candy Jeopardy. I love candy. Who doesn't love candy? And I think, you know, thinking back to when I was, you know, a chubby little kid and you know, eating all the candy around Halloween, I was like, you know, maybe this could be fun for all of us. So we have five categories. We have chocolate, hard gummy caramel and bonus Notice, I said caramel's not caramel, not caramel. Um. So we're gonna go with that, um.
Speaker 2:So, again, we're playing jeopardy now, for the sake of akuma's on point podcast to say what is, who is, etc. Okay, you just have to answer it. Okay, now, sometimes I'm a fair judge, sometimes I'm not a fair judge. Um, if you decide to steal and you're wrong, you do lose points. Um, you don't have to steal. But if you decide to steal and you're right, you do gain points. Uh, look at and you, if you can see justin's face. He's never happy because he, when he steals, he's always wrong. Um, so justin's not going to steal, uh, that's not true.
Speaker 4:I got one right one time One time, one time, all right, so again.
Speaker 2:Jeopardy board one to 500 chocolate, hard gummy, caramel and bonus. Liz, you are our guest, you get to go first. Oh, excuse me, and for the sake of this game, liz, you are team one, justin, you are excellent.
Speaker 3:OK, I'm going first.
Speaker 2:I'll do chocolate for 200. Chocolate 200. I like it All right. What is crunchy and has a blue wrapper.
Speaker 3:I have no idea. Nestle bar.
Speaker 4:Nestle bar? No clue, nestle bar, oh, a crunch bar.
Speaker 3:Justin, can I take his answer? Thank you, Justin.
Speaker 4:A crunch bar I have to steal beforehand, but I'm pretty sure it's a crunch bar I don't know how to score that one well, I would give it to justin, give it to justin no, give it to justin I don't know many chocolates with a blue wrapper though I mean give it to justin, let's be fair. He had the answer well, he's got to show us the answer, like I mean, oh yeah, peter just thinks it's a crunch bar, it's the crunch I?
Speaker 2:I knew it was a crunch bar, all right, sorry that's okay all right, liz, I'm subtracting you 200. Justin, I'm giving, I'm sorry. Sorry, justin, I get. I. I instinctively went to the negative for you and I added it back. I'm sorry, justin, I am sorry. I'm sorry you win when I'm winning. I'm sorry, I was just used to deducting you points. All right, justin, your turn.
Speaker 4:I'm going to go with gummy for 400.
Speaker 2:I love gummy bears, gummy 400. What do you roast over a fire?
Speaker 4:How do they think that's gummy Marshmallows? They're not gummy.
Speaker 3:I didn't get that easy question.
Speaker 4:I know right, I guess they're kind of squishy, they're squishy.
Speaker 3:Maybe it was just squishy, not gummy.
Speaker 2:Marshmallows. There you go, boom. See, this is, this is. I told you this would be easy Jeopardy. I told you this would be easy Jeopardy. I told you it was gonna be easy Jeopardy. Marshmallows. The correct answer is marshmallows. I'm sorry, I'm not doing my normal exciting answer one. Sorry, I apologize, I'll do better. All right, liz, your turn.
Speaker 3:Let's say, you said caramel. Is that how you're pronouncing it?
Speaker 2:Caramel we're doing caramel. How do you?
Speaker 4:you can hear the struggle.
Speaker 3:Caramel, I call it caramel okay, for 400, I'm going, I'm going, all in all right, there you go.
Speaker 2:Caramel for 400, what is kind of circle? Kind of a circle, but not as a very shiny gold wrapper. Oh, I know that.
Speaker 3:Would you text it to me, Justin?
Speaker 2:What is kind of a circle, but not as a very shiny.
Speaker 3:Am I reading that right? Do not has to do not. Has a very shiny but not has.
Speaker 4:It's an oval. What's an oval in grandma candy? That's what they should have said.
Speaker 3:I don't know.
Speaker 4:I know what it is.
Speaker 3:Weather bees? No, I don't know what did you say? Weatherbees. It starts with a W. Would this help at this point in time for?
Speaker 2:me to tell you I don't eat candy, is it are the initials W and O.
Speaker 3:Yes, w and O, that's all I.
Speaker 4:That's close, give it to her, alright.
Speaker 2:Alright, so, justin, are're going to steal, or no?
Speaker 4:Nope, I don't know. He's trying to be in that face?
Speaker 2:No, all right, so the correct answer is Rolos.
Speaker 4:Rolos, oh, I would have got it wrong.
Speaker 2:I would have gotten it wrong too, I would have said Werther's.
Speaker 4:I thought it was Werther's.
Speaker 2:I would have said Werther's too.
Speaker 4:That's what I thought, the shiny gold.
Speaker 3:So I shouldn't get this either, cause I wasn't thinking Rolos.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, I totally forgot about Rolos.
Speaker 3:Yeah, look at me I guess.
Speaker 2:I guess Werther's is butterscotch, isn't it? Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, oh, sorry Liz.
Speaker 3:Okay, that's all right.
Speaker 4:I'm gonna say sorry, I cheated. And when do you get to steal?
Speaker 3:Like if Justin doesn't answer or if I answer faster than Justin.
Speaker 4:He technically the way I did it, like you answer if you're set on your answer. Excellent. I'm going to go with chocolate for $500.
Speaker 2:Chocolate $500. What has? The same wrapper for years?
Speaker 4:Butterfinger. Hershey Bar. It's had the same wrapper for at least my lifetime. All right, hershey bar.
Speaker 2:Liz is going to get this right. The correct answer is Hershey's bar. I got one.
Speaker 4:My next answer is going to have et cetera on it, by the way.
Speaker 2:All right, all right. All right, liz, you're up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let's see, justin, let's do a bonus one for fun.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So I'm really scared of that category because people make these yeah.
Speaker 3:Who knows what's going to be there. Good point, dude. Thank you, I'm not going to go there.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I did one one time. There's like a bunch of teachers like favorite chocolates and like I don't know.
Speaker 3:All right, teachers like favorite chocolates and like I don't know. All right, let's do chocolate for 300.
Speaker 2:Chocolate for 300. What has an easy way to split in half A Kit Kat bar? The correct answer is Kit Kat bar. Yay, two, all right.
Speaker 4:All right, going for the tie, let's go for the tie. All right, I'm going to go with hard candy for 500. I was, I was going to go with hard candy for 500. I was going to bet you were going to go for gummy for 500, but all right, well, I mean, unless it's about a hairball gummy bear, I'm lost.
Speaker 2:A candy that explodes in your mouth Pop rocks, pop rocks. The correct answer is pop rocks.
Speaker 3:All right, and the crowd is cheering.
Speaker 2:All right, final round. Let's go for one more round and then we'll end for the day. Liz, this is all you.
Speaker 3:Okay, I'll do chocolate for 400.
Speaker 2:Chocolate for 400.
Speaker 3:Seems to be my expertise.
Speaker 2:What has a creamy feeling inside.
Speaker 3:A lot of things have a creamy feeling inside. Creamy feeling inside. I mean, a Milky Way has a creamy feeling. I'll just have all right, I'll let justin steal it oh yeah, no, that's not happening.
Speaker 4:You can have it.
Speaker 3:That's your question, ah it's not very clear, just say just just say one with, etc.
Speaker 4:On the back end and you get them all.
Speaker 2:No, all right, give me one. All right, you're going Milky Way I don't know.
Speaker 3:I mean it does have the caramel creamy feeling. Sorry, I don't want to drag this out too much. I just can't think of again not a big candy eater, but that's all I can think of is Milky Way.
Speaker 2:As.
Speaker 3:Halloween approaches. As Halloween approaches, I've been buying all that stuff.
Speaker 2:All right, we're going to Milky Way. Okay. Correct answer is Jocelyn Stealing. No, correct answer is oh, come on now. Lint Lenore. There's no way anyone would guess that.
Speaker 4:I don't think so. I thought that's a truffle. Is that a truffle?
Speaker 2:Yes, no, there's like 2,000 different Lint Lenores. There's no way I cannot personally Take this away. Take that score away from her. That's fine, I understand.
Speaker 4:I can.
Speaker 2:There's no, ok, thank you for agreeing with that.
Speaker 4:I understand that. All right, it was a truffle anyways, so we're going to go with bonus for 300. Oh going into the deep end with Justin.
Speaker 2:What puts air? Oh my God.
Speaker 4:In your head. Oh, what puts air in your head? I was so confused by this question.
Speaker 3:I was like oxygen is this candy related or no?
Speaker 2:yes, yes, yes. What puts air in your head?
Speaker 4:is it as stupid as airhead? Yes, it is justin okay great answer is airhead.
Speaker 3:Yes congratulations, justin, congratulations justin you're no longer losing. You're now on the top. You said you've always lost. Now you've won.
Speaker 4:I mean, I've only won three times. This is only my third win, so I appreciate it Well it was fun.
Speaker 2:It was fun. Well, that wraps up this episode's on-point podcast. Jeopardy. Liz, thank you very much for playing. Justin, congratulations on your third win ever.
Speaker 4:Yes, I know.
Speaker 3:I'm going to send you a trophy, a box full of candy. Box full of candy.
Speaker 4:I will gladly take that.
Speaker 3:But don't send me a dundee, please, okay.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, Liz, really enjoyed our conversation. Thank you very much for your willingness to participate in our podcast, but also, again, everything you do for our industry and being such an amazing leader. And again I said it earlier, when you talk, people in our industry stop and listen. You're a trailblazer. It's truly an honor to have you on this podcast and I hope the people that are listening took some nuggets and are able to kind of walk away and truly take them back to their credit unions and implement them, and I actually hope that people do reach out to you and for some ideas and want to collaborate with you. So again, thank you very much.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was an honor to be here. Thank you, justin and Peter, this was fun Of course, of course, and of course, justin, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, my pleasure. And, to close out, thank you again to Loan Care for sponsoring today's episode and to all of you. We know your time is valuable. Thank you for tuning in Acuma's On Point podcast. We hope you enjoyed it. Until next time. Be well, my friend.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time at the Acuma On Point podcast. If not already, be sure to subscribe and give us a five-star rating For more great episodes and information. Be sure to visit us online at acumaorg and to get the latest updates. Head over to our LinkedIn page.
