Eye Sight vs. Hindsight - Plan for a strong finish.

The mortgage industry is in the most challenging market of our lifetime. No matter what the industry does to you, or your company does, your worth remains intact. It’s up to you how you monetize it. Put yourself first and find a team that lets you participate in ownership. Be a shareholder!

If your CEO who represents the shareholders, or your LLC Owner who represents himself or herself, do not focus on the data balancing the equation, losses will mount crumbling the foundation of your path.

Prior to July 2022, I monitored accounting daily with no eyeglasses. Today, I need glasses to see the same screens due to the intensity and frequency needed to adapt and remain profitable for the last 11 months. Southeast Mortgage’s 62 Shareholders (1/2 Mortgage Originators 1/2 Operations Professionals), expect their fiduciary to steer carefully in storms. Huge value awaits those left to fill the voids of this cycle.

Do you know if your company is profitable? If it is not, put your career first and make your own choice to find a profitable company. When companies close, don’t let others make your choice.

One distress sale after another lately, employees post “happy to announce I have a new position with the company that bought what was left of their prior company.”

Put yourself in a position to prosper when the market turns north. Good deals are hard to find when a resume reflects poor choices.

Good profitable companies need competent good Mortgage Originators and Operations Professionals.
Since 1993, Same Name and Expanding Ownership.

www.southeastmortgage.com Phone: 770-279-0222

The Most important thing you will do!

Career Challenge: How to know if your company is a fiduciary for both your career and your family?

Here's a simple way to find out: call the person at the very top of your organization - whether it's the CEO, LLC Managing Partner, Bank Holding Company Chairman, or someone else in that high-ranking position. Not a sales manager or someone lower in the hierarchy, but the person whose name is in the news as the head of your company.

Call their mobile phone and ask for a $2,000 personal loan that you'll pay back in 12 months.

Outcome 1: If they answer your call and give you the loan, congratulations! You can rest assured that you're in good hands with a company that values its employees.

Outcome 2: If you can't find their cell number, they don't pick up, or they brush you off with excuses, it's time to find a company that truly values you and your career.

Just like our clients and partners, we all need a fiduciary - someone who will look out for our best interests and have our back, even during tough economic times.

If you need more than an employer, call me.

www.southeastmortgage.com
Cal Haupt, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Mobile: 404-886-7016

My Career Advice and the basis for my advice

Late in my Junior year at The Georgia Institute of Technology, I began interviewing with companies seeking me out and those I wanted to see based on perception.  Since I paid for my own education at great sacrifice and effort, I thought being paid the most was the definition of success.  Given I would graduate at the top of my class, I had a case of the “big ego”.

After 10-15 interviews and high offers from the top Consulting Firms, I was confident my starting salary and Consultant Title would be in line with my perception of success and status.  I had one

more interview with a bank, First Atlanta, they invented Tillie the Teller “One of the first ATMs”.  My interview was with Roger White, a tenured and Senior Banker at the Operations Facility on Piedmont Rd.

He asked me what I wanted to accomplish with my career.  I told him I would probably accept a Consultant job with one of the big eight accounting firms.  Today I think it is the big four?  He asked me how I was going to consult without any experience?  In my mind, I thought yikes did not think about that. 

Mr. White said no matter what I do, follow these basic principles:

1.       Never get on a crowded elevator
2.       Never drive in traffic
3.       Build your skill set and the money will follow

He told me that he would create a position that would allow me to understand all aspects of banking which will create a core knowledge base to build a career on.

My offer letter from Mr. White arrived and it was my lowest yet by $15,000.  Mr. White created a position, System Wide MA, that would expose me to all aspects of Banking: Retail, Commercial, Cash Management, Bank Engineering, Proof/Sorter Operations, even down to vault operations.  Most college graduates are hired into one area only and become that one discipline for the rest of their careers.  Basically Mr. White gave me a pass to understand banking from A to Z.  Not sure why I decided to listen given I thought I knew what I was doing.  Mr. White had good points and his logic made sense for a long career game.  I accepted and it was the smartest decision I made next to toughing out a GaTech education.

For two years until Wachovia bought First Atlanta, Mr. White governed my career and delivered what he said he would.  He created a fundamental skill set that allowed me to be a step ahead.  The money took care of itself; however, the foundation of skill gave me the ability to create stable

strong profit centers in Banking and ultimately create one of the most stable, profitable, and oldest but most innovative Mortgage Companies in Georgia.  To this day, I help develop others and pay forward what Mr. White did for me.

This is what I would add to Mr. White’s advice above:

·       You do not want to work for someone, you want to work with someone
·       Although being paid your worth is important, build your worth.  Worth is built through knowledge and skill
·       Work with someone with a consistent proven record that will help you learn the right skills
·       If you emulate a zebra, you will wind up a zebra.  Be sure zebra's are successful in your industry
·       You have to trust the person when you put your career in their hands; however, with that trust the person should be your fiduciary
·       People tend to poke at success because they envy “green eyed monsters” and do not understand how to attain it.  Embrace the attention, you earned it
·       Invest in yourself, be patient, and look for that mentor that has a record of helping others be successful.  Avoid users that only want to lift themselves temporarily
·       If a leader truly has this industry or any industry figured out, they do need to move around to enjoy tremendous success
·       Those with success do not move around and are exactly who you want to emulate and build your skill set.  Find your fit, move, then follow my advice
·       Look at the most successful companies in the US, their core teams stay on task and they all win in the end or get promoted to carry on the torch
 

Sincerely yours,

Cal Haupt

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Southeast Mortgage of Georgia, Inc.
www.southeastmortgage.com

COMPARE US

    and discover how we can help you grow your business like no other.  Join US

• Our MLOs Earn 26% more on average than at other Lenders
• Free up 30% of your time at the same production level.  Our process is simple and efficient.
• Client Relationship TEAM (CRM) to support your referral sources and find you loans 24/7
• Individual Web Page to Promote yourself & team (in compliance)
• 8-day close – No Hype we do it day in and day out
• 98% application to close pull through rate so you close more with our team
• 20 years of experience - Unique Innovation and Forward thinking allowed SEM to prosper through 3 Recessions. SEM's large liquid balance sheet provides a stable platform so you can focus on what matters, your clients.
• On site Builder opportunities available
• MLO friendly process that is remotely accessible

If you are a $1MM+ a month mortgage loan originator, take 10 minutes to meet with us to better understand how we can accelerate your career and income. 

Call 770-279-0222 and ask for Cal, JD, or Kathy

Read more about the SEM Difference (click)

www.southeastmortgage.com

 

The Benefits of a Mentor Relationship - Saporta Report - Thought Leadership

The Benefits of a Mentor Relationship

Posted on June 17, 2013 by admin

At the onset of my career and in positions following that led me to be President and CEO of Southeast Mortgage, I’ve had a number of influential people in my life that mentored me and helped me develop the skills I needed to succeed. I remember each of them and still hold them in high regard.

Cal Haupt, President and CEO of Southeast Mortgage
 

The role a mentor can play in a young professional’s life is unparalleled by any knowledge that can be gained from online forums or self-help books in a bookstore. In an industry that is by nature constantly fluctuating, the mentor role becomes increasingly important to success.

A good mentor not only provides knowledge and experience, but also invests in the success of the mentee. We’ve written before about the various programs Southeast Mortgage has created to harness the mentor relationship, with our MLO Associates Program. We’ve personally experienced the benefits of a good mentor and seek to emulate those experiences in a clearly set-forth and measurable way.

Our team takes pride in paying forward the mentor experience. We assess young professionals’ strengths and weaknesses and create personalized training paths that will leverage skills and feed ambitions. However, a successful mentorship takes effort on both parts.

One has to be willing to learn from and heed the advice of the mentor in order to fully reap benefits of the relationship. To do well in the mortgage industry specifically, one has to truly invest the time it takes to understand the industry basics and take advantage of the advice from seasoned professionals that have seen the various cycles of the fluctuating industry.

To watch that young professional take advice and learn the industry quickly is incredibly rewarding as a mentor. The way of the world today means sometimes mentors see their budding young professionals make career changes, but the way a person navigates the transition can maintain that mentor relationship.

As a mentor, it is disheartening when a mentee fails to live up to his or her promise or fails to be appreciative. But despite the bad seeds that don’t flower, the success and appreciation of those that do flourish allow a mentor to continue believing in others and creating opportunity.

To build a successful business, one needs not only loyal and dedicated employees to pass on their knowledge, but an appreciation of those who provided leadership and insight that paved the way for the business’ success in the first place.

In appreciation for my various mentors throughout the years – Roger, Roseanne, Rick, Robert, Pat, Tom and David – here is the culmination of the best advice they taught me that I hope to pass on: Build a layered real skill set over many years that is diverse and deep and you will exceed your expectations for your career and ego – because it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.

Original Writing: http://southeastmortgage.blogspot.com/2013/06/respectful-presence-mentors.html

770-279-0222
www.southeastmortgage.com