teaching from experience

78 M O RTG AG E B A N KI N G | J U LY 2 0 1 1

P ro f i l e

P H OTO G R A P H Y BY R O B W H E L E S S

Teaching fromExp e

XINNIX President Casey Cunningham

HBY F R A N K R E D DY

79M O RTG AG E B A N KI N G | J U LY 2 0 1 1

P

eat from the tarmac seeps through the soles of the

young mans boots. The 22-year-old walks with a

confident gait, his gaze steady and focused as he

approaches the sleek, silver war machine. Stepping

onto the aircraft, he pauses. The moment feels surreal. The palms of his

hands sweat, but his body moves with precision as he eases into the seat

and seals the cockpit. He looks up. The soft blue is scored by the

white streaks of high-flying aircraft making their mark, like signatures

in the sky. The fighter jets twin engines erupt with fire. Its

been a long time, yet even todaysome 27 years laterRob Cunning-

ham says hell never forget what got him into the pilots seat of such a

masterful machine. Underneath it all was the training. Cunning-

hams wife, Casey, still smiles when she hears her husband recall his days

as a military aviator. The tales come with ease, the stories filled with

insight into the kind of rigorous training required of a disciplined aviator.

His training to become a jet pilot taught him many lessons. Some

of those lessons he and Casey have used to underscore a business plan

that relies on a foundation of knowledgethe type of knowledge that

aims for high-performance and success in the mortgage industry. In

aviation, you cant have a Cessna 150 pilot trying to train F-15 pilots, says

Rob Cunningham, who is executive vice president and co-founder of

XINNIX, The Mortgage Academy of Excellence, Alpharetta, Georgia.

erienceA husband-and-wife team took an idea about building a training company and built a business whose annual revenues more than tripled from 2009 to 2011.

Theyre never going to listen to a word you have tosay. You need those with experience to teachthose whohave proven they know how to operate at the edge, theones who have pushed the envelope.

With Casey Cunningham at the helm of XINNIX, thenational business aims to givemortgage loan officers andsales managers the tools itsfounders have garneredthrough two lifetimes of sepa-rate but surprisingly similarexperience.

Caseys career alone spansnearly three decades. The mort-gage industry, however, was nother first choice.

Starting outI wanted to teach from the timeI was a little girl, says Casey,XINNIXs president and co-founder. My mother was aschool teacher. You know how you want to follow in yourmom or dads footsteps?

An energetic and charismatic woman, Casey foundshe could capture and hold the attention of a large groupin most any situationa trait that would stick.

I was really good in front of an audience and had nostage fright whatsoever, and I really wanted to teach andhelp people learn, she says.

Caseys mother told her that teaching might limit her,and she should consider testing other waters. For the

time being, she heeded hermothers advice.

In 1984, Casey landed herfirst job with Atlanta-basedDecatur Federal Savings andLoan.

Initially hired as a junioradministrator, the job descrip-tion of a loan officer enticedher. At the time, somebodytold me that [ loan officers]helped people buy a home orfinance it, and I said, Thatswhat I want to do, she says.

Even though I wasnt teach-ing, I wanted to do somethingthat was impacting peoples

lives and making a difference, she says. Around thetime I stumbled into the mortgage area, I found that peo-ple have three things they want in their lifetime in gen-eral: They want to buy a home, get married and havechildren.


XINNIX aims to give mortgage loan officers andsales managers the tools its

founders have garneredthrough two lifetimes of separate but surprisingly

similar experience.

Rob and Casey Cunninghamfounded XINNIX in 2002


I said to myself, being in this field will allow me toimpact them in one of the most significant areas oflifehelping them to buy a home.She continued her career in the industry, taking a

position with HomeBanc, then working her way up toexecutive vice president of the $4 billion super-regionalmortgage company, where she earned recognition as oneof the top-producing loan officers in the nation.As a loan officer from day one, she began chronicling

the ideas and tools sheand otherscould use to succeedin the fast-paced, rapidly evolving mortgage industry.

AdaptationSince its founding in 2002, XINNIX began offering train-ing classes exclusively in the traditional, face-to-face class-room setting.In 2008, however, the Cun-

ninghams decided to makesome changes out of a growingneed to respond to the industry,which at the time was undergo-ing an epic downturn. The costs associated with

travelincluding hotel rooms,booking fl ights and rentalcarswere increasingly hard tojustify for course participantsas the mortgage market entereda tailspin.Really, 2008 was a difficult

year, Casey says. In Octoberof 2008, when the crickets werechirping in the industry and everybody was in direstraits, we came together as a team and decided to goonline. It was a radically different model.It turned out to be a successful model that has grown.

The company also offers one-on-one training and coach-ing, but online classes currently account for 90 percentof XINNIX course material.We put [online courses] through a rigorous testing

program, with resounding success. Today, what you seewith our online courses comes from years of practicingand getting better and refining . . . that includes the waythe materials flow and what goes on the screen, Caseysays. XINNIXs online courses currently include sales man-

agement training, advanced loan officer training andwholesale account executive workshops.When working with XINNIX, Sandy, Utahbased

Academy Mortgage Corporation chose an interactive,integrated suite of training programs and services.Throughout the eight-week courses, Senior Vice Presi-dent Bill Bent says the value becomes apparent.We didnt even consider other training programs,

says Bent, who has been a XINNIX customer for morethan eight years. My belief and faith in the program wasstrong enough to recommend it to Academy Mortgage.Bent is also a member of XINNIXs nine-person advi-

sory board, a forum for established industry experts toaddress and respond to sales and leadership challengesspecific to the financial industry.

We were eager to join [the advisory board] and be asinstrumental in their growth as they have been in ours,Bent says.

Financial growthThe privately held business has done well, with annualrevenues from 2009 through 2011 more than tripling.XINNIXwhich owns all of the companyhas aver-

aged 68 percent year-over-year growth during the past 24months. According to Casey, its a financial trend thatshe sees continuing into the future.We anticipate our best year to be 2011 in terms of

demand we are seeing for XINNIX services, she says.The services XINNIX offers, she adds, are the reason

for continued success. It wouldnt be possible, she adds,without a regimen that chal-lenges its participants in waysothers programs dont.Terry Mott, vice president of

production at Murray,Utahbased Republic Mort-gage Home Loans, says thatover the past seven years, XIN-NIX has challenged his com-panys employees in trainingthat is second to none in theindustry. He adds, Casey and her staff

share an enthusiasm, commit-ment and personal integritythat set them apart from theirpeers. Mott says he has an

appreciation for XINNIX and the impact [its] traininghas had on our organization.

Keeping trainees on their toesThere are certain aspects that give XINNIX its uniqueness,says Casey Cunningham. Most notably, XINNIX strives tokeep the classroom setting one of pure learning.She adds, In most training online, you can see the

other attendees names. You can be recruited . . . startinga dialog with another attendee. . . . From what Ive seenin the mortgage world, that kind of online setup quicklybecomes a recruiting channel.It is possible to still create the dialog and the sharing

of information without disclosing everyones names,she says.During online classes, Casey and other XINNIX train-

ers use tools like voting polls and drawing boards. Stu-dents can also chat directly with the instructor at anytime.Creating an environment of pure learning also means

keeping trainees on their toes. The software XINNIXuses for its online classrooms allows the instructor to seeif participants minimize their Internet browser window.Its the virtual equivalent of falling asleep in class, Caseysays, and shell be the first to call participants out whentheyre not keeping up with the program.If youre in a class and youre not paying attention,

how much do you think you are going to learn? I wantyou to look at me when were talking. Its the same

XINNIXwhich ownsall of the company

has averaged 68 percent year-over-year growth

during the past 24 months.

online as it is in person, she says.Ive never had students complain: Gosh, theyre call-

ing me out. I hope it tells them we care, she says.Greg Clements, branch manager in Atlanta for Des

Moines, Iowabased Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, saysthat in general XINNIXs online training approach goesabove and beyond the industry norm.

With todays technology, it is cheaper and easier totrain from a central location via online computer andtelephone than to have people travel, Clements says.

As it continues to pursue the online route, XINNIX alsois taking on social media. An upcoming course entitledLinkedIn for Loan Officers helps participants maximizesocial media channels using the online networking site.

Going online was one of the companys major adapta-tions in the midst of a changingindustry. Another big innova-tion was the decision to allowlenders to buy corporate part-nerships with XINNIX.

Corporate partnershipsThat was a radical change forus, Casey says. Prior to that, acompany would buy 10 seats inour courses . . . now, [we ask]How big is your company, howmany people do you have andheres the price to have accessto everything we offer for ayear.

Academy Mortgage pur-chased a corporate partnership from XINNIX in 2010,enabling the company to extend access to its 75 branchesnationwide and hundreds of satellite offices.

We had utilized XINNIX training programs previ-ously on an a la carte basis, Bent says. However, withtheir online training, we were able to more broadlyinvest in XINNIXs corporate partnership, providing ourentire workforce access to all the training programsavailable.

Prior to the corporate partnership option, lenderswere buying course slots for a select group of loan offi-cers instead of offering it for the whole company, saysCasey. We felt like we couldnt change a culture, wecouldnt get the unified sales culture, we couldnt get theaccountability and the leaders if we didnt have everysingle person involved . . . from the top down.

The advantages to that, Rob Cunningham adds, areimmeasurable.

It becomes a prioritization issue as opposed to a cost-rationalization issue, he says. We can deliver a fullyears worth of training enterprisewide for what is wellless than the revenue that could be generated by oneadditional closed loan per year, per person.

Weve completely collapsed any competitive advan-tage that the biggest banks might have as far as trainingand development is concerned. Its hard to match whatwere offering, he says.

XINNIX has sold 15 enterprisewide annual corporatepartnerships to date, according to the company.

The next era of loan officersThe company opened in 2002 with one product, Caseysays. It was about creating the next era of loan officers bytraining them the right way on the front end . . . findingsales professionals, financial planners, CPAs [certified pub-lic accountants], stockbrokers and insurance agents, andteaching them the mortgage industry.

To address the needs of todays mortgage loan offi-cers, new-career seekers and sales management teams,XINNIX aimed to inject knowledge, skills, discipline andethics into the very DNA of the corporate sales struc-ture, Casey says.

We tend to help corporations, Casey says. Were notgoing after individual loan officers, [although] we haveindividual loan officers come to us on a regular basis.

The business offers cus-tomized solutions for lendersall around the nation, whetherits a small shop of three loanofficers or a giant companywith 5,000 employees.

Its talking them throughtheir visionwhere theyreheaded, what their current sta-tus is, what their needs are andwhat their budget is, saysCasey.

The first series of coursesthat XINNIX ever offered wasits sales and leadership pro-gram, which it still offers. Thecourse assists sales manage-

ment in strategic business planning, recruiting andretention of loan officers. It also offers coaching skillsand sales-force management tactics.

We launched our sales and leadership program tomake sure that any salesperson, whether new in theindustry or already in the industry, would have a way toaccelerate their production and their success, saysCasey.

Ive always believed, and still do, that leadership inan organization will set the culture and determine thedirection and help in reinforcing the companys mes-sage, she says.

When XINNIX was first founded, its owners hoped todraw its customers from the small to medium-sized busi-nesses, because they usually didnt have a trainingdepartment, Casey says.

Instead, the business was surprised to be consumedon the front end by the giants that already had trainingdepartments, but their training departments didnt have[courses for] How do you create a business plan? Howdo you self-source business? How do you sell? And whatare the core sales skills necessary to be successful? Theylacked in those areas, Casey says.

What many in the industry also lack, Rob says, is anentrepreneurs mindset.

Its the idea that every employee, every CEO [chiefexecutive officer], every loan officer should feel responsi-ble for their business and for their own destiny, he says.And that is a universal language that transcends all


As it continues to pursuethe online route,

XINNIX also is taking on social media.

business titles, he adds.Whether youre a manager going through the leader-

ship class and looking at business planning tools . . . or ifyoure an experienced loan officer thats a veteran . . . allthe business management tools and all the terminologyare exactly the same, he says.

In order to put trainees into the correct mindset, Robadds, the trainers must first have street credibility.

The staff of instructors at XINNIX has grown over theyears, now teaching hundreds of courses per year. Of themore than 10,000 mortgage loan officers trained to date,the business has assisted with training and placement ofmore than 1,000 new loan officers throughout theUnited States, with more than 200 lenders and brokeragefirms.

Some of the largest compa-nies XINNIX has assisted overthe years include SunTrustMortgage, Fifth Third Bank,Academy Mortgage, MetLifeHome Loans, Envoy Mortgageand Republic Mortgage HomeLoans.

Dodd-Frank ActDespite XINNIXs attempts toinstill high performance stan-dards in its program partici-pants, Casey says she has alwaysfelt challenged by some of theunethical loan officers that haverepresented our industry.

Theres so many wonderful people in the mortgageindustry, but there are those that have abused the sys-tem, and that has now impacted all of us, she says.

In the wake of the financial crisis, Congress sought toreform many aspects of the financial markets to bothaddress the problem of institutions being too big to fail,and to better protect consumers. The Dodd-Frank WallStreet Reform and Consumer Protection Act was createdon July 21, 2010, representing a paradigm shift in theway American financial markets could operate in thefuture. One component of the new law changed origina-tor compensation methods and prohibited originatorsfrom getting paid extra-high commissions for directingborrowers to loans with higher-than-market rates.

The change in originator compensation requires amore skilled work force in the future, Casey says.

They must be able to self-source and generate busi-ness, so lenders are reaching out to us to help teach thestrategies and tactics to help them be more successfuland incrementally increase their units.

From a professional ethics standpoint, as far as origi-nation practices go, Casey says, XINNIX has alwaysstood firm, pre-dating the Dodd-Frank Act.

We train participants to approach the customer withthe right solutionnot based on their compensation orfees, but based on whats the right advice for the cus-tomer, she says.

Republic Mortgages Mott, whose company workedwith XINNIX in the past, says the standards set by the

business were exceptional.By systematically training our existing and new

employees [with XINNIX], we were setting the stage forhighly ethical practices and future lending success,Mott says.

The industry as a whole has forced loan officers tobecome more accountable, but XINNIX has always beenvery passionate about taking care of the customer . . .from the start, he says.

True and blueCasey was sitting in her office in 1995, when there was aknock at the door. A loan officer at the time, she was con-sidered one of her companys top producers with Home-Banc in Atlanta.

When she answered thedoor, she met Rob, who wasthen a financial consultant withMerrill Lynch.

I had a loan I needed toplace and nobody would buyit, Casey recalls. Our depart-ment told me there was a guyfrom Merrill Lynch who neededthree packages on the loan.

Rob sti l l smiles when hehears Casey tell the story.

At the time, he had justrecently come from flightschool in the Air Force, shesays. He asked me, What kindof training did you have in

order to get where you are?You sort of have to figure it out, Casey told Rob. Robs experience with military training, Casey says,

laid the foundation for many of the ideas later realizedthrough XINNIX.

We took the regimen training philosophy of his back-ground and my expertise in the mortgage field andblended it, she says. It gave us a very unique vantagepoint that a lot of people do not have.

The husband-and-wife team established XINNIX justfour months after the events of Sept. 11, 2001. I knewwe started out at a time when there was tremendousrisk, but I knew we had something extremely unique,Casey says.

Rob and Casey created XINNIX literally from scrapsof notebook paper. Within three months, we wentnational, she says. It was, in a sense, a new strategy,saying, Lets go after something that nobodys done.

Nearly a decade after its creation, Casey and Rob saythey continue to pursue the highest and best training forprogram participants.

Says Casey: [The] mortgage [business] is true andblue. I live it, and I breathe it and love every singleminute of it. Most of all, I love the fact that Im able toteach and influence people all over the nation to reachtheir fullest potential in this industry. MIB

Frank Reddy is a freelance author based in Atlanta. He can be reached at

[email protected].


In order to put trainees into the correct mindset,

Rob adds, the trainers must first have street

credibility.

teaching from experience

Documents