In an ever-evolving world, the concept of women’s empowerment has emerged as a transformative force driving positive change across societies, industries, and economies. Women empowerment is not merely a buzzword but a powerful movement that champions equality, inclusivity, and the realization of women’s full potential. It represents the idea that every woman, regardless of her background, should have the opportunity and support to achieve her dreams, participate in decision-making processes, and break through the barriers that may hinder her progress. Marjorie Willis of Navy Federal Credit Union sat down with David Lykken at the last MBA Conference to discuss the impact of this topic to executives like her in the mortgage industry.
Women Empowerment with Marjorie Willis of Navy Federal Credit Union
Listeners, I am so excited to have someone sitting right across from the table from me right now, Marjorie Willis, who we just met, just accidentally standing in line to get our food here at the Empower conference and they were taking pictures of, they just had to be standing in front of the table we’re sitting at right now with the podcast equipment and they’re taking pictures and I said let me introduce myself. But why don’t you take pictures and share it all over? Nice and we just immediately struck up a friendship and you have; I wish our smiles. In fact, we’re going to post some pictures where you have one of the most wonderful, inviting, warm smiles, Marjorie, but it’s just so good to have you here and to have met you.
Wonderful. It’s nice to meet you too. Thanks for having me.
It’s a real honor. I want to hear your impression about Empower. We’re really here to talk about Empower. We want to be promoting that and then I want to get into what you’re doing, you work for Navy Federal Credit Union, but we’re going to first start off talking about Empower. Is this your first one?
It’s my first one ever. I didn’t know actually something like this existed. We had a colleague with our group that actually did something phenomenal. She reached out to other colleagues and said that there was an opportunity for us to gather together and learn about how we can make an impact in separate divisions because we have a strong influential presence as leaders as part of our organization and then also the dynamic around diversity, inclusion and belonging is almost like a simultaneous thing that’s happening. But I feel very empowered just meeting different women in the bathroom, on the way, standing in line, just folks are just reaching out and talking about what they do. Very inspiring. Didn’t have that kind of thing when I started in the industry and it’s actually giving me a lot of pause to think about what now I need to be doing going forward, we talk a lot about, I need a seat at the table, right? I’ve struggled to get a seat at the table. Okay, now that you’ve got a seat at the table, what are you going to do with it, right? and how are you going to give back and show other folks, females, the path to success.
Yeah, natural leader. From the moment I met you standing in line, you just, I call it your tribe around you. We’ve got one of them here right now. You’re just, you’re loved, and I said, oh, we got to interview the group and they go, no, you’re interviewing Marjorie. So, it was so much fun. But when you’re listening to the speakers and listening to some of the stories, which are really touching, there are some pretty powerful stories here. What are some of the things that you would like to have or share? You’re going to take back and share.
Yeah, no, I actually kept turning around with Teresa here and kept telling her that’s me. Yeah. That’s the story that I want to tell. That’s what I want to share because I think there’s a very unique dynamic. We talk about generations and how we manage our ourselves and we can’t be completely authentic. Yeah, it’s so true. So, depending on when you came into the corporate environment. The expectation was that you had to be one of the boys or you had to fit in and there was something very profound that was shared with one of the speakers and she said, I got to figure out who I’m supposed to be today, right?
Being her authentic self, she’s having to imitate.
Exactly. And what you find at the end of every day, even with my daughter’s 23, and I tell her all the time, I said, you’re always going to have to work harder, you’re going to have to study harder, you’re going to have to really push yourself beyond what the norm is, because that’s the remedy to getting there. But now, as the world’s changing, corporations are starting to embrace this concept of we want you to be who you are. It’s so less exhausting. It’s not so heavy and when you can be authentic like that, you share your experiences and become vulnerable to other people. They can share back with you. The same way that they’re feeling. When you have that breakthrough, nobody has to be anything except for who they are and so I feel like I’m just on the path of self-discovery here and I’m continuing to evolve, but creating spaces for people to, regardless of what their preference is, because I literally have spent my entire life with people looking at me and saying, Where are you from? You’re from here. You’re from there.
Oh yeah. I’m about to put you in buckets and pigeonhole you. I just hate it.
And you know what? I think they’re missing out on the best part of who Marjorie is. Honestly. I think if you just get to know me, you can see I have so much more to offer than what you’re stereotyping me to be. But in order to get there… I have to create that space.
And there’s also a boldness and willingness to step out and be vulnerable. Yeah. Because when you’re authentic, you become vulnerable.
That’s the other piece, right? Because you’re also female and you were raised to be the quiet little good girl in the corner. Don’t complain. Don’t talk about we’re in vast audiences now hearing be clear about what you want. Know your worth. These are things that weren’t articulated to us when we were coming up. But I can promise you it’s been embraced in my daughter’s head and when I speak about her, it is really around the person I wish I could have been at 23. and so, you start to see, whether it’s your own child, your female daughter, whatever, they start to outgrow you. If you’re mentoring someone and you can start to see them outgrow, and then it’s time to shift and have them then be accountable for the next generation that’s coming forward, the most ironic thing about all of this, I went to an all-girl high school. 700 girls.
And they didn’t teach this? Oh, that’s so sad. You can bring this back to them.
Oh, of course. Being raised in a neighborhood where they were all little boys to play with. I didn’t really have a female point of view, so I followed my brother, which was great, right? because I learned athleticism, and competition, and how to win, how to lose, and be humble, and all those great things and guess what? by the time I got into corporate America, which was very timely. Because I could talk about football, I could talk about hunting, but there was a period of time, which is the roughest time, I think, for a female, which is right in high school. I’m in an all-girls school and I go into the bathroom at 2:30, it’s packed with girls because all the boys in the district are in the parking lot waiting for the girls to come out. So, I go in the bathroom and there’s hairspray and this one girl, because girls can be very mean. She looks at me and she says, what are you doing in here? What? Tomboys don’t come in here. And I thought to myself, I hadn’t really categorized. Here we go with categorizing again. So, I didn’t really categorize myself as that, but okay. But by the time I got into my corporate opportunities, I had an edge, I really did have an edge. Now, with diversity and inclusion evolving, it has me reflecting now on what I lost. Because I couldn’t cultivate that tribe while I was in high school. So, then what are the events that happened to you after high school? You get married. You need bridesmaids. Didn’t have those. Then I’m pregnant. Gotta has babies. What’s a baby shower? I don’t even know what the etiquette is. So, I missed out on all of those things, right? And now I’m going back and reflect and say the influence that I can make now, not just on my daughter, but the other younger females that I know because I actually feel like fertility through athleticism or being able to communicate regardless of who you’re talking to is a valuable asset. But I think how people see you and their desire to constantly categorize you is, you can’t accept that as a limitation.
And as much as we want to see that go away, I think there’s a human negative nature that just keeps showing up as much, and you can play whack a mole and we want to beat that out of everything and everyone we come in contact with, but it’s learning to deal with it It’s interesting about part about your story and I love your story is because it reminds me of my wife was had boys and she had one sister, but they are all tree climbing, football, playing girls, and then it’s just one of those things where that’s how she grew up. So, she’s very comfortable doing the guy thing. And so, it’s really interesting, but it does give you a bit of an edge when entering the market and how to compete in that world. So, your story is more like you almost had to go back and learn a little bit and how do we relate this now to the women who didn’t have that background coming up? You’re so well equipped. Yeah.
That’s what I, that’s where I landed. That’s exactly where I landed and part of this, though, is taking the time to reflect because every disadvantage doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have opportunities. Anyone can be a self-absorbed and wallow and be… I just don’t take that path. I am who I am, and I think when you’ve gone through, whether you’re talking about inequality as a female, being the only Black woman, in a corporate boardroom with 53-year-old white men. When you’re encouraged to go to the meeting and take the notes, but don’t offer an opinion, and this is what’s bred into your mind, you have to find your path out of that and for me, it was establishing the right mentors. It was establishing the right mentors who shared their story, and they were authentic to me, and so now, when people call me and say, Hey Marjorie, can you mentor me? I see you at work, you’re on Enet, you’re, I see how you present, I see how articulate you are, I want to learn how to do that. Let’s set some time up, right? Because I think I can help them. And I think I can be passionate. I’m just passionate about it. And I love the confident woman that’s not overbearing. There was a sentiment offered, speaking with purpose. So that’s where I really streamlined when folks told me I could go to the meeting, but I just needed to sit and listen, I made sure that when I did have something to say, it was purposeful and people could say, that was a good point. That was a good point that you just made.
you didn’t get, like you say, you didn’t wallow in the, any self-pity. You say, okay, that’s the rules. That’s all I hear. Let’s find the opportunity and then to show up.
Embrace that you’re different. Yeah. Embrace that you’re different. My daughter is, and I have two kids and I love both of them. So, I don’t want to be monopolizing, but we are talking about women here. She’s almost five foot nine, just beautiful, very thin.
But when we walk somewhere together. We’re getting stared at it doesn’t matter where we are. We’re getting stared at,
Part of it is when I met you standing in line here. There is a charisma about you, Jay, that you just carry that is so evident and you exude that and there’s a confidence that comes with that. Tell us a little bit about Navy Federal Credit Union, what you do, you’re the business unit Regional Liaison Regulatory. I saw reg. I didn’t want to say regional or reg.
It’s so super simple. Yeah. We have a leader that manages our relationship with the regulator for Navy federal, our team works with our business partners to manage the requests that come from our regulator. I like to say a go, but we’re all in the spirit of managing risk for our home lending department. So new rules, policies, regulations, things will change, which will impact our operational side, requiring us to update our policies, our standards, our training. For the hundreds of employees that we have that facilitate the operations piece of our home lending team.
Excuse my ignorance. I used to know this, but who regulates the credit unions? I know you have it’s okay. Yep. And, but you’re still subject to all the other regulatory bodies that the rest of the independent mortgage bankers or banks that are subject to, so you’re still subject to that. So, when you’re navigating this in your role, what are some tips that you’d say to navigate when working with regulators? and then how are the regulators, they’ve been head so much diversity inclusion preaches to them. I would assume that they’re there already. Is that true?
They are. And I think they, they regulate us from a fair lending perspective for appraisal biases, things like that and we’re very responsive and in some cases, we have our own internal exam teams that prepare us for those types of questions. So, we’ll run frequentizes and tests, control tests to make sure that we’re more proactive and less reactive. Marjorie, there’s something unique about the culture in a credit.
Could you speak to that? Cause it creates, it’s not only you have many people, but many bankers also get upset. Credit unions have an unfair, they have this tax-free environment where they don’t get their income. They can come out and do things cheaper. There’s a much bigger advantage they have and it’s about serving the members. Talk about that.
Yeah. That’s why we come to work every day. Teresa and I have actually been on panels before we have interviews. And the question that gets tossed back to us invariably is why do you like to work there? and it’s because we know the work, we do make a direct impact on our members every day and you can work for a lot of companies and work in a very siloed way where you’re executing and delivering results. But never know how you’re making an impact to the external customers. But for us, it’s actually tattooed in our brains. It’s in everything we do and it’s not just external. It’s how we treat each other across the company. Can strike up a conversation with anybody across the credit union they’ll want to know what you do. And now we’re all just back for a hybrid experience. It’s like high school reunion. You haven’t seen people in two years. It’s just a very warm culture. I can’t really explain it and I could speak about it because I spent 21 years at Fannie Mae, and I came over to Navy and I didn’t realize. How I don’t want to use the word toxic, But I didn’t I couldn’t didn’t realize how much I could enjoy coming into work and working with so many smart people That are energized and excited about the impact they make so much and
It shouldn’t be unique to credit unions I think I mean that a lot of people there that It’s more inherent there because of the structure and how you focus on members as a membership thing.
But we, I want to have you back Marjorie, because I want to talk more about that. Cause first of all, I love your energy. I just, you are just delightful. You are just delightful. Did you know Gwen Muse Evans? Oh yes, I worked with her. Oh, you did. Gwen’s a dear friend. Oh, I just love Gwen Muse. She was one of my mentors.
Gwen Evans. Yeah. She was one of my mentors. Oh, she is amazing. Yep. I’ve had her on the podcast. I adore her. She’s become one of my dear friends. She’s amazing. Yeah. Yeah. That settles it. I know Abby is speaking in there and you want to run in there. So, I’ll end the interview, but thank you so much, please.
We’ll be reaching out. I got your card. So, you’ll be a repeat guest. Thank you so much.
Important Links
Marjorie Willis began her career in 2017 with Navy Federal Credit Union as a Business Relationship Manager for Real Estate Lending and Credit Cards, working with cross functional teams to identify technical solutions. She was promoted to Strategic Alignment Manager in 2018 providing leadership and oversight for several lines of business. Prior to joining Real Estate Risk as the Assistant Vice President for Audits and Exams Marjorie was a Manger in Home Lending Mortgage Operations, leading a team of processors and ensuring quality service for Navy Federal members.
Marjorie is a results-driven business leader with over 27 years of diverse experience with collaborative teams, enabling enterprise-wide solutions for large scale corporate initiatives. Prior to joining Navy Federal Credit Union, Marjorie spent 21 years at Fannie Mae and led multiple teams over her tenure.
She leads with influence and emotional intelligence and provides executive coaching to members at all levels of the organization. Marjorie manages with the desire to motivate others. Many of her life lessons spawn from managing the balance of mother, corporate leader, soccer coach, and wife.
She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and Public Administration, a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and an Executive Master’s Degree in Management. She is also a Certified Change Manager.