When Sarah Middleton joined Supreme Lending as Chief Marketing and Growth Officer, she brought with her not just an impressive track record of leadership — but a 26-point checklist she uses to evaluate every opportunity. In her recent Power House podcast appearance, Sarah revealed how this detailed framework helped her make one of the biggest career decisions of her life — and how it can help loan officers, branch leaders and industry professionals assess what really matters when building for long-term success. Whether you’re considering a new role, evaluating your current company, or just looking to sharpen your focus, this checklist is a must-read.
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Leadership – The CEO has to be active in the business day to day
- True humility is something that doesn’t need to be shouted from the rooftops; you just do it without fanfare or telling everyone how humble you are.
- Wants to genuinely help others: It’s easy to write a check, but when you say you want to enrich lives, what do you actually do that doesn’t need to be broadcast?
- Spouse/Partner/Friends matter. If they can’t maintain relationships with quality people, your circle matters. I wanted to know who was in your circle.
- Do you allow teammates to speak into you when the path you’re on is wrong? Better said, “How do we get to the right answer?” no matter who has the answer.
Culture
- Culture of excellence: I want to play for the Mets, not the Rockies. I made the decision to be around champions. Is mediocre play acceptable in the organization?
- Bigger isn’t better if you’re just losing money. I want to be somewhere financially responsible to themselves, but also to the “Smart Branchpreneur.” I lived in the P&L world. You can do really well if you’re smart with expenses; the same goes for corporate.
- Bloat: Corporate overhead that’s unnecessary can crush your rates. Operations must be efficiently run. You can do this if you hire the best, as they often do the work of 2-3 people.
- Layers only work in layer cakes; I wanted a flat organization. The 2:1 ratio was important, or at least close to it. Sales should be 2x vs. Support staffing at 1x. This tells me if you’re bloated and if your rates are suffering.
Product savvy and time in the chair
- Product tactics and strategy matter. You don’t gain that without depth and history with investors, and you have to dig for the next thing to help LOs win.
- Again, revisit champions. Do you have the best in this chair? You can win a lot of deals, and LOs can crush it if they understand how important products are, especially today.
- Products must also onboard new products quickly. How fast can you get a product to market to compete?
Servicing
- “Smart servicing”: Can you read the markets? Get in, get out, and play the markets to your benefit.
- Full seller servicer: If you’re a sub-servicer, you’re in a perilous position, and I saw it way back and still see it today.
- Warehouse lines matter. They need to be the best—gold-star level. Have you ever triggered your covenants? Most never ask this really important question.
Technology
- Tech: What’s the deck, and how are you adapting to change to become more efficient and cost-effective?
- Most CEOs don’t have a clue about tech. I wanted to see if there was a CEO who had this as an expertise. It’s tough to find, but yes, it’s out there.
- Cisco: So undervalued, but if you don’t have it, wait until it happens.
Operations
- Operations:
- Best in business
- Speed and efficiency
- How many touches? The fewer, the better. Fewer touches mean lower costs.
- Extreme ownership: Seasoned underwriters who know their craft and also specialize. The same goes for closers and processors.
- Attitude from the top down: How do you really feel about LOs in operations, and how do you work together?
- Speed: If you can’t get an answer quickly, deals die. Expectations on turn times — are they person-to-person, or does your ops team hide?
Branch Support
- Branch support matters — most don’t get it.
- I grew up with branch support going way back, and most companies don’t support nor see the value. If it takes your IT desk hours or days to respond, you’re going to lose.
Compliance and risk
- Compliance/Risk: Two words, and this is really important. Do they apply “common sense”? What is truly the risk? I’ve seen great compliance people and awful ones who literally run people out of organizations because they’re so mean.
- Lawyers, lawyers, lawyers: Getting sued is part of our business today, sadly. You better have “fire-breathing dragons” on staff and zero fear of lawsuits. On the flip side, are you a sue-happy company? If you are, that was a deal killer for me. Lawsuits benefit only one person: the lawyers.
Financial
- Lastly, can you play with the big dogs? Meaning, do you have the capital to play the game? You can’t necessarily get there if you haven’t been around for a good bit of time.
