ACUMA ONpoint
ACUMA ONpoint
Unlocking the Power of CUSOs for Credit Union Success
Randy Shannon, VP of Correspondent Lending at Member First Mortgage, brings decades of credit union mortgage lending expertise to shed light on an often-overlooked resource in the industry: Credit Union Service Organizations (CUSOs). This thought-provoking conversation explores why more credit unions aren't taking advantage of these specialized partners despite their perfect alignment with credit union needs and values.
Shannon reveals how CUSOs offer unmatched flexibility, allowing credit unions to maintain their identity while filling specific operational gaps. "You don't have to come to us to do everything," he explains. "We can come alongside a credit union to help them get where they want to go." This plug-and-play approach proves especially valuable for technology implementation – a significant pain point for many institutions.
The discussion takes a fascinating turn when exploring marketing challenges. Shannon highlights how credit union marketing departments often struggle with mortgage-specific messaging and compliance concerns, while CUSOs can provide ready-made, compliant materials that enhance member engagement. "Marketing isn't an event; it's a process," Shannon emphasizes, advocating for consistent, year-round mortgage marketing strategies that many credit unions struggle to execute independently.
Perhaps most compelling is Shannon's articulation of the shared philosophy that makes CUSOs natural partners for credit unions. "Credit unions are the people helping people. We're the people helping people help people," he notes, reinforcing how CUSOs understand the credit union difference at a fundamental level. This alignment ensures members receive the exceptional service they expect, even when certain functions are outsourced.
Whether your credit union is considering technology upgrades, expanding mortgage offerings, or enhancing marketing efforts, this episode provides invaluable insights into leveraging CUSOs as strategic partners. Listen now to discover how these specialized organizations might be the missing piece in your growth strategy.
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 3:How are?
Speaker 4:you doing today, peter, I am wonderful today, thank you. I really appreciate the opportunity to spend a little time with you today and I'm doing well, okay, excellent.
Speaker 3:Now I will say the pleasure is all mine or ours, should I say, pleasure's all mine or ours, should I say? Now, looking forward to this, you are most certainly a man who is well-known across the credit union industry, a face who is frequented at all of Acuma's events, but I'll say, every credit union event, at least that I attend in recent times, and so I'm excited to sit down with you. I love the topic that we're going to discuss today, but before we get to it, as always, need to bring Justin into the conversation to give us the latest and greatest that's happening over at Acuma Hawk. What's going on? How are you doing today, and please tell us what's going on at Acuma. I'm good, peter. How are you doing today, and please tell us what's going?
Speaker 2:on at acuma. I'm good, peter. How are you living the dream? L-i-v-i-n, that's right there you go, I'm man well, well, over here at acuma, we just got back from our viewpoint regional summit and it was our first in-person event of the year and it was absolutely amazing, I mean there's no, no ways to say that any other way.
Speaker 2:Um, panera had a beautiful facility. Um, the blue wahoos game was awesome. Everybody had a great time at the reception, but the round table is always my favorite part. Uh, the amount of sharing that goes on at these things, it's just incredible.
Speaker 3:So so sorry I'm not trying to make fun of you, but the way you said pen air, it almost sounded like panera and I was like I don't think they would appreciate that, but panera does have good sandwiches, panera is always really nice and clean and they have great sandwiches and salads. Um, but yes, pen air, pen Air. Penn Air was beautiful Brand new building. It was fantastic and we most certainly do appreciate them hosting us and their hospitality was amazing. Thank you to Todd Potter for his generosity and welcoming us.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, but now we're looking forward to our next event. So our next event is going to be the Focal Point Workshop, which will be in Savannah, georgia, from May 6th and 7th. That's going to. Registration is still open, so if you haven't registered, there's still plenty of time. And always my favorite question but what are you waiting for? It's going to be an incredible event. We have a star studded lineup already for those, for those workshops. Incredible event. We have a star-studded lineup already for those workshops.
Speaker 2:If you can't make it out to Savannah, though, don't forget, we also have one coming up in June, on the 3rd and 4th in Seattle Washington. I almost said it there. Yeah, so outside of the Focal Point workshops, we'll have the Make your Mark annual conference. That's going to be in Denver this year from September 21st to the 24th. I hope that you've been paying attention to your emails, because registration is. It's right around the corner. It's going to be opening very, very soon.
Speaker 2:And then, lastly, if you're not able to make it out to our in-person events, don't worry. We also have our fast tracks and our inside track, webinars and the incredible on point podcast. You also forgot about our networks. Oh yeah, the networks. Oh man, see, the thing is is we just keep adding, and I love that we keep adding. The list keeps getting longer, like I could probably talk 30 minutes on the amount of events that we have coming up. So we have our marketing network, that that that has its Q2 meeting, and then we'll have our underwriting network, but I think that's taking place in May, so we have some time for that.
Speaker 2:We have the Young Professional Network meeting, the Yippins and, oh and, the stickers look awesome. So we got stickers for the Yippin community. You know what you know, I love stickers I do. That's why I know what you know I love stickers I do. That's why I had to bring those up, thank you. Then we'll have a volume-based network meeting coming up as well. So, all in all, you have to stay connected to your email. You have to stay connected with us on social. We're always passing out information on upcoming events just to keep it going year round. Okay, thank you very much, appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, all right, stay close, don't go far. All right, randy, back to you, all right. So before we get to the meat and potatoes of the conversation, you know first question is always the same, the last question is always the same and so, as always, I'm going to start with the same question and I'm always going to preface it the same exact way, like I always do every single episode At Amazon Point Podcasts as a people piece. It started off with this idea that not enough podcasts in the mortgage industry highlight the amazing and special people in the credit union side of the mortgage industry, and I still believe it that when you look at credit unions and you look at CUSOs, that I will stake my claim and say that I will put any of us up against any of them any day of the year, and I firmly believe that you are one of those people that are just simply the best. So to my question and to my point.
Speaker 3:You know the first question is always going to be you know, who is Randy Shannon? For those rare people who may not know you, who may not have seen you at some random event that you just pop up at, who are you? Who's Randy Shannon? Please walk us through that. You can take this as personal as you want or as professional as you want, but that's always the first question of the Action On Point podcast. Who's Randy Shannon?
Speaker 4:I appreciate that, Peter. Thank you. It is always great to get to the events and to see everybody that you know, quite even friends. At this point, and I will say before I start with that that I will be in Seattle in June for the workshop and I will be in Denver. Of course, People ask me all the time if I could only go to one event per year, what would it be? And it would be the ACM annual conference. So if you've not been, I strongly recommend going. I appreciate that You're welcome.
Speaker 2:So, having transitioned that, We'll have you be free later.
Speaker 4:Thank you, you're welcome, so having transitioned that We'll have you be a free later. Thank you, you're welcome. I'm with VP, of course, by the way. Member first mortgage. We're a mortgage QSO out of Grand Rapids, michigan, fantastic company Love. Member first mortgage. Been in the mortgage world for wow, a long time. Been in the credit space for about 30 years, so on the mortgage lending side. Live in Fort Worth, texas. Married four children, four grandchildren. So you know, everybody asks what your hobby is, and my hobby is family work, a little bit of outdoors. So that's good. I probably should have more hobbies, but I seem to stay very busy and very involved in my church too, by the way, that is, I don't know what to call it a hobby. That is a passion.
Speaker 3:No, no, Passions are hobbies and vice versa. So it plays. It plays well. Well, Randy, thank you very much for walking us through that. So let's kind of get to the conversation. And again, I said prior to the recording, you know that I love the topic that you presented as something that we should discuss, because all too often it's it's something that I hear quite a bit as well.
Speaker 3:And, without making this a long, drawn-out introduction to the conversation, which I sometimes often do, really the topic that we're going to discuss today is really why more credit unions aren't using CUSOs to kind of fill that void in the services or services or, I guess, maybe tools or things that they need. Right, Because CUSOs were established and are established to provide those facilities as an outlet or a mechanism. I'm trying to think of all the terms I can think of to kind of preface this, as you know, a way to summarize what a CUSO can do. But that's why CUSOs are formed as the service provider for the various things that a credit union may need. But all too often credit unions forget that CUSOs are out there. They can be IT providers, they can be accounting firms, they can be marketing companies, they can be mortgage companies and oftentimes credit unions often forget and oftentimes credit unions may overlook them as a viable option to support their growing needs.
Speaker 3:And I think this is an important conversation for us to have, because we often argue, and we often have this conversation, that credit unions want to have a safe place to go right. Acuma is a safe place to go. It's a safe place to go right. Acuma is a safe place to go. It's a safe place to go for credit unions to network, collaborate, openly, discuss their problems, meet new friends. It's like that big group hug. But QSOs are that safe place for credit unions to go, where they know that their members can be trusted to be taken care of, et cetera, right that their business will be treated like their own. So I think this is the conversation you presented and I love it. So I'll let you kind of take it from there. And so I guess first question is you know what kind of sparked this as a topic that you want to discuss?
Speaker 4:You know, as a CUSO, we're a credit union service organization, and you know we're similar to Acuba, but different, and the way that we're similar is that we partner with credit unions to advance credit and mortgage lending. You know that is a joint desire and that's what we do. We have 11 owners. We were set up originally to service our owners and now we work with a little over 300 credit unions around the country.
Speaker 4:I think that one of the things that you had asked about is on CUSOs, and sometimes we're forgotten. You know, as somebody that's in the credit world, when I talk to somebody outside of credit, it's like oh, you know how credit unions are, they're all the same. Well, in your credit union world, you know that's not true. Every credit union is a little bit different and I think that may be some of the things that happen with CUSOs. Probably every credit union out there has had some sort of experience with with a QSO and there may be that little stereotype that we're kind of all the same, but we're not.
Speaker 4:We have a lot of different services that we offer. So, for example, our QSO we work with credit unions that we do everything for them and we work with credit unions that they do all the heavy lifting and then we may be either the course one, an outlet or phone, or maybe a subservice and then everything in between. So one of the things I think with CUSOs is that you don't have to come to us to do everything. You know we can come. You can come to us or we can come alongside a credit to help them get to where they want to go. Where they may not have that staff, them get to where they want to go where they may not have that staff, they may not want to have that expense, they may not have that technology. So we can plug and play and assist in certain areas, but not um to support, um absolutely to get where they want to go. Does that help?
Speaker 3:no, I, I agree, I agree and I agree and you know for, but it kind of, I think it expands just that. Right, it's oftentimes when you look at the individual credit union, right, you know, credit unions often get and I've been there right, I've been part of a small credit union that grew to become a mid-size credit union they get stuck in a rut, right, they get fixated on doing things the way they've always done it. Right, leveraging a CUSO or partnering with a CUSO gives them the opportunity to kind of expand beyond that mindset of this is how we've always done it. You know, by having that CUSO in your back pocket, you can maintain that idea of okay, well, we only do FHA, we only do conventional ones, excuse me, in-house, but maybe now we can do FHA, va by partnering with the QSO, right, yeah, you know it doesn't change who we are, but now we can still do FHA and VA.
Speaker 3:You know construction, lending, or you know, maybe we, maybe our members, aren't having the best servicing experience in-house. Maybe the CUSO might help instead, or something else. I mean, I think there's different avenues that a CUSO can help improve or subsidize in ways that credit unions may think are often better suited for a fintech or someone who's better well known because they've been told they're the best in the industry. Do you agree or disagree?
Speaker 4:I do. I do agree. Ultimately we're about support. So I totally agree. We're very and Member.
Speaker 4:First Mortgage, and I know there's really other good QSOs out there. I think that we all together the goal is to come along and set a credit unit and ask them what are you doing now? What do you want to do? How do we help you get there? A great example that might be you've got a credit union that has merged with another credit union. They're really good in their footprint, maybe a couple of different states. Now they're going to take on mortgage lending in a few states that they may not be as familiar and they may be looking for somebody that has underwriting expertise, doc prep expertise, things like that. It could be on a correspondent basis, could be on a wholesale basis. But come alongside, help them get comfortable, expand in that footprint. As you said, where they were, I don't know, maybe stuck in a rut, but they're really comfortable in that footprint. But how do we grow outside that footprint and do it really well? Because you only have one shot at it right. You got to do it right, right out of the gate. So that would be another example where we could come alongside. I think that's really good. It's how do you get the support to go where you want to go?
Speaker 4:And FinTech and technology is really good. So we use BlueSage systems. It's state-of-the-art technology, really good stuff. It's an end-to-end system and credit unions that may be looking for a change in an LOS, for example. But it takes a lot to stand up a new LOS. It takes due diligence, it takes investment, it takes expertise and then you hope you've got it right and then you have to tweak it and fine tune it. So if you can use a CUSO partner, use that technology. It's already stood up, it already works. There's no risk that it's going to fail. You drop in, you start using it, you get to know the system well. It gets you up and running very quickly. So that's the technology Servicing technology.
Speaker 4:Like all the QSOs, especially us, we have really good reporting, custom reporting, analytics, data Criterions. I know of thrive on data. We give them all the data they want, typically in a data mart, so that they can use and slice and dice the way they want. But we come alongside their IT department, for example. The other big thing I see is marketing. Every credit union that I've talked to is really good at marketing. They're good at delivering marketing messages, are fantastic at that. Sometimes the mortgage marketing message may not be there. And for a marketing department such as ours or another QC to come alongside a credit marketing department and help with that messaging, help them put it all private label and then for credit marketing team to take that and do what they need, and for the credit marketing team to take that marketing message and it's been all private labels and run with it as needed is another example where you can come along and support a credit union to get where they want to go.
Speaker 3:Right, and you know, kind of going back to the idea of you know technology, right, because I think you know technology is an important part, right? You know and this is a conversation that I feel like I'm having a lot lately with several different people of all different types of organizations that seems to be a huge Achilles heel for credit unions. Regardless of size, technology can either make or break credit unions. On one hand, you have credit unions that don't have the right technology for who they are. They probably either have a technology that's too big for their size or they don't have the technology needed to survive in today's market. Right, and I think that's a fair assessment, right. And of course, you have those that are well-suited. You know they're large enough where they can invest in the staff, they can invest in technology. I'm not really focused on them, but you know Blue Sage is a great solution. You know, I am fascinated with them. When you look at the case study that they did with digital, I mean that's a fascinating case study. There's a lot of great systems out there, right? You know the ISIS of the world, the dark matters of the world, I mean these are all you know, the Meridian Links, these are. You know I'm fascinated with the new. You know what Meridian Link has done lately with you know, after their conversion to was it LendingQB? Yeah, that's a great platform. These are all great state-of-the-art platforms.
Speaker 3:Technology is really evolving. That's allowing them to not go through this process of having to worry about vetting this technology or implementing this technology, because I've gone through an Encompass implementation. I've gone through a Empower implementation. I've gone through you know calyx implementations. You know regardless, and those are, you know, yeah, and compass and empower, they're all say roughly the same size, right, los is, calyx is a little bit smaller, but they're no matter regardless of size. They're not easy, right. And so having a QSO like yours and regardless of whether or not you have an administrator, I mean you just save them months and months of work.
Speaker 3:And if you break down the person hours or man hours and if you peel back the layers on the loans in the day, and if you think about it in this way, if it's a smaller credit union, that is, the ones that are, that are probably the ones looking to use a CUSO and a smaller credit union, who's VP of ops is really the one who's the administrator or looking to be the LOS administrator and all the underwriting that that person probably is required to do, and while being the LOS administrator and implementing these systems using Accusa that already has this, like you said, the blue sages of the world, I mean, that's priceless.
Speaker 3:I can't even break down the numbers, I can't even think about I'm going down a rabbit hole. I'm sure you can tell, right, like that's the value of just even looking at you, even considering you, right. I'm overly thinking about this because in my last shop I probably I'm kicking myself right now thinking I should have just looked at you know, member first mortgage, like I should have gone down this path of saying I should have looked at Accuso and just leveraged their technology instead of trying to implement an LOS, because it would have been my life easier, I would have saved myself six months and saved myself. I probably wouldn't have grown the two gray hairs I had back then.
Speaker 2:Now, I have like 10, but it happens.
Speaker 4:I mean I think you're absolutely correct as a key. So we really strive to be a technology provider. So you talked about the time and the expertise. The other thing is that is expense. When mortgage business is really good, you know, mortgage departments tend to be the darling of a credit union, right? I mean, there's a lot of income but adds a lot to the bottom line.
Speaker 4:When production's down a bit, that may not be quite the case. So in addition to the technology being the provider, we can help move those expenses from a big fixed expense that you know really, you know is tough during low volume times to move it towards more of a variable expense. So it's manageable. And then I think the other thing in addition to that is the member experience. As your technology starts to get a little outdated, your member is not getting that technical experience they want and it's out there, they know it's out there. They want and it's out there, they know it's out there. So when you can bring that into your shop and start to give that member experience they want, they're probably less at risk of going to another credit union where it's a better technology and a better feel and a better experience.
Speaker 3:What credit union? Do you know that the mortgage shop is the darling of the credit union?
Speaker 4:Well, I don't know a whole lot right now about 2022. I knew quite a few.
Speaker 3:That doesn't count. That doesn't count. I mean definitely not for since you know, you know, since you know we'll say third quarter 2022. Yeah, you know, no mortgage shots been the darling.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I think you bring up a good point, though, whenever you're talking about that relationship between the credit union and QSO, them being able to lean on you. I don't know, I'm one of those firm believers and you can't buy that amount of expertise. Qso seems to have a lot of expertise that they're just really willing to impart their knowledge, impart their knowledge on them to help them, like, move their missions forward. And with credit unions, sometimes they don't get as much love for the mortgage departments, don't get as much love from the marketing teams. I mean, I talk to credit union marketers all the time and some say I'd love to talk with the mortgage team but it's just not there today and it's like, well, why not, let's make it happen and like, whereas you guys come in and you can kind of help facilitate that conversation a little bit more, so that's really good, that's great.
Speaker 3:I mean, and I also like what you said about and I you know what Justin mentioned and you know the marketing aspect, right, you know we've been on a big push recently to talk more about the need for marketing and, justin, at the beginning of this year, you know, form the marketing network.
Speaker 3:Well, technically, at the end of last year, but you know, the first meeting was the beginning of this year and it's been like this slow transition of baby steps, of this is how you market mortgage, because what we're finding is that a lot of credit unions just don't understand how to market mortgages, market mortgages. I think you and I can agree, randy, that the days of the seasonality is gone and you need to market mortgages year round. And, like you said, randy, they don't market mortgages at all. Right, it may be one flyer in a branch or it may be one month out of the year that they're doing it, and so being able to have that, that cue, so that I imagine you probably have some forms that a loan officer can go to or VP of sales can go to and pretty much download and put their logo on and put their name on and all that stuff, right?
Speaker 4:Yeah, we do, and you know, I was just thinking, when you were talking about that, that the message that we try to convey, which which is exactly what you're saying, is marketing isn't an event, it's a process, right, it's a continual process. That's exactly it. So we have that sort of information that we can provide that a credit union could drop those things in, or when our marketing team is working with a credit union's marketing team, that can all be prepared. They don't have to drop anything or change anything. It's all private labeled, the loan officers, um, uh, branded, you know, ready to go. All you got to do is either print it or send it, or, you know, create a pull-up display in your lobby, you know, whatever you want to do. So we try to make it easy, um, as easy as best when it comes to marketing, right, as long as you're continually, continually doing it, that's what this is.
Speaker 2:And that's funny. I was even telling a marketing person. I was like you know, if you're doing it like, establish that cadence, whatever that cadence is, but just establish a cadence, be relevant, be present, like if it's once a month, it's once a month, if it's twice a month or every other week or however you want to say it, then it's every other week, but it's be present, like be out there. And we can't stress that enough, like we hear from our members all the time about kind of what you're saying. You know you have the out of the box stuff for them and then they go well, my team says no, I can't do that. Well, I mean, it's like overcoming those obstacles.
Speaker 3:Right. I think that's all that I was getting at, right. And Justin said expertise, right. Well, randy, if your marketing department is willing to work with a credit union's marketing department, I'd like to think that you know for all, for all intents and purposes CUSO employees are credit union employees, right. So CUSO employees are credit union employees, right.
Speaker 3:I'd like to think that a marketer that works for a credit union is going to listen to another marketer working for a credit union, right, who has a sorry working for a CUSO who, in theory, works for a credit union. And so if they're saying, hey, this is how we market, this is how we promote mortgages, this is how we market, this is how we promote mortgages, this is how you can do it in a compliant way year round, because oftentimes one of the biggest hurdles is that last part, compliance. That's why oftentimes, credit unions don't go about or don't market mortgages. They're scared of a compliant reason, right. Yeah, liquidity and not having room on their books is, yes, a very good reason why credit unions don't do it. They just can't do it right, but oftentimes they're scared to do it right. I think you can agree with me on that right, randy, absolutely.
Speaker 4:There are legitimate risks right.
Speaker 3:Right, absolutely. But if your marketing department, randy, has the expertise and they're showing them how to do it and giving them an actual flyer, that is compliant, correct. I mean that right, there is gold.
Speaker 4:That is 100% gold, gold, you know, buyers, home buyer kits, open house kits, that sort of thing. That is one effective and two compliant.
Speaker 3:I mean, why would I mean that right there is? That right there alone is reason enough just to work with Accuso. Right Just to be able to say I have access to this. Why not? Because I'm not getting that support from my marketing department. Not saying, Justin, Sorry, I was about to say hold on a second.
Speaker 2:What do you mean? Let's talk.
Speaker 3:But you know, seriously, if I was a mortgage lender, I'm not getting that support from my marketing department. I'm going to go get support from somewhere else, Right?
Speaker 4:Absolutely. We like to make it easy and inexpensive and effective.
Speaker 3:And compliant. That was my and I'm not sure if you know this Justin and I worked together and I may have pulled him from my last credit union, but but Justin's Justin was there. He saw me fight for attention. You saw it, justin. You saw me fight for attention. I did it as nice as I possibly could. I was a nice guy, I was a nice guy, but I fought for attention and it wasn't easy, right, and so it was literally me waving my hands, like jumping up and down and give me attention, give me attention. And you know, and did I get attention? Yes, but I always want it more. And because you have to mortgages year round, I keep saying it mortgages year round. And you have to talk about it and you have to remind them hey, we have construction loan programs, we do purchases, etc. Etc. Etc.
Speaker 4:You hear what I hear. I think you're exactly right to get the attention, and what I hear all too often is okay, we heard you, we got a market mortgages, we'll slot you in for December. Well, great, I got December, but that doesn't help me the other 11 months. So that that's the point.
Speaker 3:We're trying to partner with credit unions to um overcome that yeah, and another thing I like about pussos is the the training aspect. Right, and I think you guys, I think qsos as a whole, do an excellent job kind of filling that gap of Do an excellent job kind of filling that gap of where credit unions fall short of training, because when times get tough the first thing to go is training. Right, we see, we've seen in the past two years, you know volume is down, so what happens? They cut travel expenses because all of a sudden learning isn't valuable anymore. Right, and you guys do an excellent job kind of help, just like we do help filling that gap of you know, but you guys do like mortgage 101. This is how you process and all that stuff.
Speaker 3:Q-sys do an excellent job with that training and credit unions love learning. You and I can agree, credit unions love learning Absolutely. And I think having access to a CUSO that can provide that type of training, that type of knowledge, to support your staff, it's pretty important because the mortgage industry is ever evolving. I mean, heck, it was three and a half years ago, four years ago, when we got the new ERLA right. I mean that was monstrous, right, no-transcript. I mean think of all the various regulations that come out. I mean again, not every credit union has the support or the internal resources to train their staff. Some do, but not all. That's where just having a partnership or having the resources can help.
Speaker 4:Oh, I agree, peter. I mean and it can be a lot of little things, like last year when it came out with the notice of reconsideration of diet Okay, it's out there, what do we do with it? So we had extensive training internally for our staff and then, existentially, we bring that to our partners. We share the training we're doing internally. This is the GSE's requirements. You have your initial disclosure, you have your second disclosure. This is what's required, this is what the form should be, because there's all kinds of forms that were out there that may not be compliant. So what does a compliant form look like for Fannie Mae? So that's a great example how to bring that together. How do we help you even navigate some of the big things but the little things, because a lot of little things can make a loan not compliant or non-saleable. So that's a great example. I agree with you.
Speaker 3:No, no, and good point on big or small, because you're right, they do come out with. You know, these little I don't want to say ticky-tack, because the reconsider consideration was a big thing for them to come out, but you know, you know the GSEs are updating the seller guide regularly, right, but you know, just being able to be trained on those updates is huge. Anyways, you know we need to start transitioning, but before we do any final thoughts on this whole entire conversation, before I ask my last question, my last thought on that is is one of the things I hear quite often.
Speaker 4:We hear quite often as a team when we're talking to credit unions about possibly partnering with this mortgage case, with the mortgage. Lending is okay, you've got these systems. You've got blue sets. You've got blackmail. You've got all these different things.
Speaker 4:You've got surefire for name drop, but what about my data? I've got my core system. You've got Surefire, you know, for name drop, but what about my data? You know I've got my core system. How do I see the information? What do we do? And I don't have the technical expertise on that, but we had a meeting with a West Coast credit union last night after hours and our IT head of IT and their IT department got together and talked about that. And how do we move that data back to the credit union so that we can do the things we need to? Credits thrive on data and to have a partner where there's just all this data out there but they have no access to it. They can't bring it into their core. You know it is a. It would be a big stop. So with those conversations because that can happen, we can make that happen. So I think that's probably the last step is not to have a disconnect from data with outsourcing systems, but to be able to bring that back in house to a credit, which is vital.
Speaker 3:Okay, no, I appreciate that Truly. Do All right. So last question before we transition, and again, like I said in the beginning, I always ask the same first question, always ask the same last question. Last question is what keeps you going? You're like everyone else. You take one food out of bed every single morning. What keeps you going? What keeps you driving? What keeps you motivated to keep pushing forward?
Speaker 4:Wow, there's a lot there. I mean personally, it's family and faith. You know to give my best effort for everything I do In the credit space in particular. You know credit unions are the people helping people. We're the people helping people help people. I mean we want to advance credit and lending.
Speaker 4:I've been involved around in Acuma for a while. The goal was to get to 5% of mortgage loans with credit unions, then 10%, that should be 20%, 30%, 40%. I mean there's no better mortgage lender out there, as you said, than credit unions. I'd put credit unions against any other mortgage lender. I worked with several, let's just say that.
Speaker 4:But credit unions just have an amazing expertise so it really is professionally to. But the credit unions just have an amazing expertise, so it really is professionally to advance. The credit union cause and I will leave you with this part is that people ask me okay, what's the difference between a credit union and a bank? That are friends and my response is a credit union is pretty much like a bank as long as everything is good, but when you have problems and you have difficulties, that's where it's different. That's where credit union comes alongside of you and partners with you and helps you work through things and get past it and get back to where it's good again. And that is one of the big motivators for me at the credit union space is to help credit unions to do that on the board side, because I think that is very real and very important.
Speaker 3:I absolutely love that important. I absolutely love that. I absolutely love that. Well, thank you very much, randy.
Speaker 3:It's now time for us to transition. Uh, again, this is where we transition to the second segment of our podcast, where we sometimes do trivia, sometimes we play jeopardy, sometimes we do the most requested segment of dad jokes, uh, but today we're we're doing a little game of Jeopardy. Now, bear with me while I bring in our Jeopardy screen. I share my, our Jeopardy board and I share my screen. Now, you know, it recently transitioned, about a month ago. It transitioned to spring, and with spring to spring, and with spring comes golf weather, and who doesn't like playing golf? And so what we're going to do is play a little golf jeopardy. So we're going to test, test both of yours knowledge with a game of golf jeopardy. So, like I I always do, I'm going to go ahead and describe the jeopardy board that's in front of me for our listeners.
Speaker 3:There are five categories, all ranging from points of 100 to 500. The categories are rules, vocabulary, golf course, golf clubs and equipment. Now, for the sake of this game, randy, you are team one and Justin is team two. Now, randy, you do not have to answer who is or what is. Again, just if you know it, you know it, and then when you pick a question, it's your question to answer. Now I will say this you do have an opportunity to steal questions. Now I will say this though If you do steal a question and it's wrong, I take away points. Okay, perfect, just know that, okay. So I think that's it. I think that's my normal setting the ground rules and expectations.
Speaker 2:And the hard questions are sometimes hard.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, yeah, five hundred rules category. Yeah, seriously, Five hundreds are can be pretty darn hard, but at the same time, one hundred can be pretty darn hard too. I did not make up this Jeopardy board, I just Googled Jeopardy, golf Jeopardy. So who knows what this is like? And, by the way, who knows when this was created? Sometimes these are pretty, pretty badly dated, so we'll go from there, All right. So, randy, you are our honored guest, so you get to go first.
Speaker 4:Let's go golf clubs for 300 and see what happens.
Speaker 3:Golf clubs 300. All right, the smallest iron in a golf club set rarely used to be the one iron, the rarely used one iron. The correct answer is what is the nine iron?
Speaker 4:I guess it just depends what your tongue was smallest. Right, I guess that would be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, sorry rainy, that's all right, that's okay.
Speaker 3:I would have got it wrong too good thing I would have said, I would have said pitching wedge.
Speaker 2:But that's what I would have gone with. I would have gone. Well, I would have gone with. Um, I would have gone. Oh, I would have gone with sandwich.
Speaker 3:Okay, justin, I'm going to go with vocab for 300, vocabulary for 300 vocabulary for 300, a difficulty or obstruction on a golf course, such as lakes, ponds, fences and bunkers. Hazard. The correct answer is what is a hazard? Well done Well done, Justin.
Speaker 2:We finally chose something I know.
Speaker 4:Hazards.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, those are just I like to tell my wife. Anytime I go play golf, she's like yeah, she's like how'd you play? I was like I went to the beach today, all right, randy. Anytime I go play golf, she's like yeah, she's like how'd you play?
Speaker 3:I was like I went to the beach today, All right, randy, let's go with a golf course for 200.
Speaker 4:I'm going to throttle back my enthusiasm. Golf course 200.
Speaker 3:The middle area of the golf course, which is between the tee off air, the tee off area and the putting green.
Speaker 4:Or I like to think that's going to be the fairway the correct answer is what is the fairway?
Speaker 3:Nicely done, nice.
Speaker 2:All right, let's go with equipment for 300.
Speaker 3:Equipment 300. What golf tees are usually made of.
Speaker 2:I swear if it's something weird, but wood.
Speaker 3:The correct answer is what are wood and plastic? Got it right? Nope, subtracting, you didn't say plastic.
Speaker 2:It's not no.
Speaker 3:I'll give it to you.
Speaker 4:That would be wrong. You'd be amazed.
Speaker 3:Whatever, all right. So last time we played, the question was this person was assassinated. This person's assassination started World War One.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I said Ferdinand, no, no, no, no, no, nope, nope. You said arch. You said you said arch, you said arch, bishop francis ferdinand, very close. And I said I, I, I, without even skipping a beat, without even showing the the answer, I said that is wrong, right.
Speaker 4:Archduke Ferdinand Right.
Speaker 3:Archduke Franz Ferdinand, there we go.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure I got it right. I'll have to go back and listen to the tape.
Speaker 4:Nope, you did not. It only matters if you got credit.
Speaker 2:I got deducted points. Does that count? I got some. You got credit. I got deducted points, does that count? I got some kind of credit, just not the kind you want.
Speaker 4:All right, Randy. Oh, that's too funny. All right, let's go with rules for 300.
Speaker 3:Rules 300. Something that must be used upon the ground.
Speaker 4:Okay, something that must be used upon the ground well, I would say iron, but you have fairway woods, which is the ground, so I'm pretty sure I'm wrong. But let let's go with Irons and Fairway Woods.
Speaker 3:This is a hard question. I'm not even going to say question it's statement. I'm going to ask Justin, do you want to steal? Just in case.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 3:The funny thing is, I'm thinking that it has nothing to do with a club, maybe a lawnmower, something that must be used upon the ground the balls. I'm thinking that it has nothing to do with a club, maybe a lawnmower, I don't know, something that must be used upon the ground the balls.
Speaker 2:That would be. That would be something.
Speaker 3:I'm almost saying what is it whenever someone has, after you hit, why am I blanking on it? After you hit a ball into the, the, a water hazard? Um, the drops in, yeah, something like that. Like your relief shot, oh yeah, um, all right, the correct answer is ah t oh, that's stupid can't imagine.
Speaker 4:Any other way you'd use a t, but that's stupid oh look, I didn't know I could change team names.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh interesting. Oh that's. I learned something new every day a t?
Speaker 4:okay, justin. All right, justin, I need to steal here.
Speaker 2:Come on, all right, we're going to go with golf clubs for 500.
Speaker 3:Golf clubs 500. A golf club that goes over 240 yards for men and over 180 yards for women.
Speaker 2:A driver.
Speaker 3:The correct answer is what is the driver there? Correct answer is what is the driver?
Speaker 4:There we go. That seems like somewhat of a dated one. So that's way over 240 now, right.
Speaker 2:Depends on who you're playing with.
Speaker 3:For Peter Nope, I don't know what you're talking about. Whatever You're shooting about. Whatever You're shooting about, 210 at this point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a lot of injuries.
Speaker 4:Randy, let's go. Equipment for 500.
Speaker 3:I need to make up some ground here Socks that are favored to be worn. I know this one.
Speaker 2:I think I know this one. It's a pirate's favorite sock.
Speaker 4:Maybe I don't know this one I don't know this one either, um argyle correct answer is okay, you have to give it to me.
Speaker 2:I'm totally giving that to you, totally giving that to you totally giving that to you.
Speaker 3:Oh my god long socks.
Speaker 2:That's what I thought too. 100% giving that to you. That was like the time that we got the board that said, etc. Yeah, 100%, seriously. There was one time we had a. We got the board that said, um, et cetera, yeah, a hundred percent.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Like seriously there was. There was one time we had a jeopardy game that said one of the answers had et cetera attached to it and we were to every answer, every answer. Yeah, it was All right. What's how? I still lost Last question. You did lose Last question. You did lose Last question. We can't finish this Last question.
Speaker 2:We're going to go to rules for 500. This is going to be a hard one.
Speaker 3:No, it's not the first person who gets to hit the ball.
Speaker 2:The person who made the ball first on the last hole. The first person who gets to hit the ball. The first person who gets to hit the ball first on the last hole. The first person who gets to hit the ball. The first person who gets to hit the ball. Yeah, I mean, if you make it on the previous hole first, no way, it's the lowest score.
Speaker 4:I was going to steal Justin.
Speaker 2:You sure I'm going with the lowest score. No way, that can't. Yeah, that sounds right. It's the lowest score in. No wait, that can't. Yeah, that sounds right. It's the lowest score in Super.
Speaker 4:Mario Golf and that's what happens. Okay, I'm going to steal. Just in case, that's what I was going to steal whoever's hitting from the back tees, go ahead.
Speaker 3:I'm going to give it to Randy and take way points.
Speaker 2:Tie game. Ah, this was the trick question. This was the trick question.
Speaker 3:this was the trick question. Well, at the end of this episode's Akuma On Point Jeopardy, we have our first ever tie game.
Speaker 2:I don't think so.
Speaker 3:I think it's the second, but it's okay no, when we who do we have a tie with?
Speaker 2:Didn't I tie with Dr Bruce? No, he killed. You See my memory of people that kill me at Jeopardy it's starting to just be very bad.
Speaker 3:It's all blending in with each other Pretty much. My favorite time people get in, they go. I'm really bad at jeopardy and I lose still and I'm like this is so awful Our first ever high score of 600 to 600. There you go. Well, randy, thank you very much for for sitting down with us. Really enjoyed the conversation. But also I truly appreciate everything that you do for for our industry. But also thank you very much for for being in such a great support of Acuma.
Speaker 4:Peter, you're welcome. It's been a pleasure, justin, chris excuse me and Peter to be with you. Apologize, there, it's just a pleasure. I love you know, I love as Acuma. As you said, it's learning, it's it's networking and it's friendship and it's great to be around y'all. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3:Justin, thank you, uh, it's my pleasure okay and to quickly close out to everyone listening. Thank you very much for your time listening. Today it's Acumen On Point podcast. We know your time is valuable. Again, thank you for tuning in to the latest episode of Acumen On Point podcast. We hope you enjoyed it. Until next time, be well, my friends.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time at the Acuna 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 acunaorg and to get the latest updates, head over to our LinkedIn page.
