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You Can't Afford Me
Making the leap from employment to entrepreneurship can be a scary time. The biggest fear people have is the unknown. Here on the “You Can’t Afford Me Podast” we speak with hustlers and innovators on how to make the most of your journey. If you have questions we have answers.
You Can't Afford Me
Rebuilding After Failure: Joe Dunn's Journey from Loss to Legacy
Success without service is hollow—something Joe Dunn embodies as one of Virginia's top mortgage brokers. His remarkable story unfolds as he shares how losing everything in the 2008 financial crisis forced him to reimagine his approach to business and life.
"The only way I can ever get out of this financially is to get back into the mortgage business," Dunn recalls thinking after a catastrophic loan to professional athletes went bad, coinciding with the housing market crash. What makes his journey extraordinary isn't just the comeback, but the transformation in his mindset. Rather than chasing money, he focused on "doing business with the right people" and developing genuine relationships—a philosophy that propelled him beyond his previous success while creating more opportunities to serve his community.
Dunn's networking approach contradicts conventional wisdom. "A networking event is not for you to go get business. A networking event is for you to go meet people and develop relationships," he explains. This authentic interest in others has created a vast network including professional athletes and community leaders who know him for his character rather than his professional achievements.
The conversation delves into balancing intense work demands with family life, the power of faith during dark times, and his 18-year commitment to the Youth Life Foundation of Richmond. His annual charity golf tournament supports Christian-based learning centers in lower-income areas, reflecting his belief that "if one child gets an opportunity through these centers to get out of the cycle of life in which they live, then it's worth it."
Whether you're rebuilding after failure, seeking to grow your business authentically, or looking to make a meaningful impact, Dunn's journey offers wisdom for navigating challenges with integrity and purpose. Connect with Joe through FirstHeritage.com or on Instagram as Mortgages Done Right.
www.themrpreneur.com
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Speaker 1:Welcome to the you Can't Afford Me podcast, where we skip the fluff and dive straight into the grind Real entrepreneurs, real struggles and the unfiltered journey behind success let's get into it. Problems and the unfiltered journey behind success let's get into it. Hey guys, thanks for joining us on another episode of the you Can't Afford Me podcast. Guys, when I'm telling you, lock in on this episode, you are about to get some gems. This guy I'm interviewing today literally has one of the biggest hearts of anybody I've ever met in my entire life and I've been on earth now 41 years, just had a birthday and I've never met someone with a bigger heart than this man. We're actually working with him for months before I even knew what he did for a living, because everything about him is just giving and being of service to others. So today I'm honored to have Joe Dunn on the podcast. Joe, how you doing, buddy?
Speaker 2:Man, I am doing great. I am honored to be on this podcast. I appreciate the opportunity and obviously value our friendship. So I don't know that you. You know you probably oversold me there, but I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Nah, people will see once we get into this conversation. So here's the first place I want to start and we're going to get. I want to make sure we spotlight your business because, even though you don't really market your services, you've still been one of the top three guys in the state of Virginia for God knows how many years. Right, but the most interesting thing to to me about you is the connections that you have made man. So when I first met Joe like he's telling me you know the idea for his podcast, done Right, which make sure you guys subscribe to that he's telling me all these celebrities that he's associated with like we were just talking about Deion Fox, which he had a great story about his rookie year playing against Pittsburgh Steelers Like awesome story.
Speaker 1:Charles Barkley and you may not want me to be name dropping Mike Vick these guys but who you are, the way you're built, I'm like how in the world does Joe know all these guys? So I just want you to start with that. Like, how did you amass such a massive network? And it's not about like these guys are celebrities and played at a high level like these are great people. Also, how did you start getting in those circles and meeting these people?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so a lot of it started. You know, I grew up in a little place called Baskerville, Virginia, which is right down by South Hill, and I went to college. My dad was disabled, worked four jobs for myself through college and got in the mortgage business in 93 and went back home in 94 and started a mortgage program for a community bank for two years and then opened my own business in 1996. Well, you know, I became one of the fastest growing lenders in the state of Virginia and I was licensed all over the place. But you know, to cut to the chase on the celebrity stuff, there were guys that I grew up with that went on to play in the NFL, A guy locally that went on and played in Major League Baseball. A bunch of race car drivers are from down there.
Speaker 2:And then one of my best buddies in the world is a guy by the name of Bryant Stith who's UVA's all-time leading scorer and when I was living back home he came back home and started his nonprofit called Setting Children on the Road to Empowerment SCORE, and so I helped him with that but really all throughout, like these guys started buying houses and doing loans and they referred me it was funny Like I would get licensed in any state in the United States, a mortgage broker license, to help.
Speaker 2:Like if somebody said, hey, I want to buy a property in Florida, I would get my Florida license. So as they got traded around, that just kept growing and growing. And you know, the weird thing for me, or the thing that a lot of people don't understand, is that I never really asked these guys for anything. The only thing, you know, I'm not asking them for tickets, I'm not asking them for sign stuff. I ask them to support the nonprofit stuff that I do. But I also help them a lot with their nonprofits as far as setting them up, as far as figuring out how to that's what your whole podcast is about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, as far as how, how to help them connect within the community. So you know, to me I mean my phone. I've got probably 200 plus contacts in there of professional athletes that I have worked with or talked to. But you know it's really just about connecting people?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no for sure, and you can tell the way you move, like it never seems like it's about the money. So I want to ask you that too, because being as successful as you are, like obviously you're deeper in your career than I am, and I'm always trying to get tidbits along the way and you hear these things about stop focusing on the money and the success comes. How have you? Because that's obviously how you operate You've been service-minded first and the success has followed after that. Were you always like that, or is that a switch that you had to make and say, if I just stop focusing on money and I start focusing on caring for people, what I need will come?
Speaker 2:So I think there are kind of two answers to that question. Number one growing up, where we grew up, where most people didn't have a lot, we all kind of neighborly helped each other. Then I go to a Division III school, hampton-sydney College and community is really part of what they push, I know you went to Hampton-Sydney.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I went to Longwood.
Speaker 2:Ah, that's right, that's right, but you're a little bit younger yeah, a little bit. And then you know, then I guess, starting out in my career, it was really all about making money because I had so many student loans to pay back the youth soccer league or really grow that league, helping save the YMCA. But coaching all types of sports and being very active in any type of nonprofit I could be. But it really changed for me in 2007. I made a loan to a group of professional athletes that decided in 2008, they'd rather file for bankruptcy than pay me back. So, as a result, I lost everything in 2008 and moved up to Richmond to start over.
Speaker 1:That was also the housing crash and everything was going on. Yeah, the housing crash.
Speaker 2:You know, my wife and kids and I didn't have 500 bucks and really just started over with nothing, and so I really focused on trying to rebuild myself and rebuild my career with just working with the right people and not chasing money.
Speaker 2:Before my career, when I was in South Hill, it was all about growing and getting bigger and having money to do whatever I wanted to do really, because I had come from very little. I wanted to do really because I had come from very little. But then as I came to Richmond and kind of rebranded and restarted, I really became conscientious about focusing on doing business with the right people, not focusing on the money and developing deep relationships. And it has been a true blessing like there were so many dark times from going from really having nothing to building a great successful business, to making a stupid decision and losing everything and starting over. But there are a lot of gut check times there and so anyway, that's what I did is and I've been blessed through that to have tremendous success on the work level, which allows me to do more on the nonprofit level from a financial perspective.
Speaker 1:Do you truly believe that the more you give, the more that will be given unto you?
Speaker 2:1,000%, 1,000%.
Speaker 1:But how is that? So let's break that one piece down again. So 2008,. Are your kids born at that time?
Speaker 2:Yeah, my kids are born, my kids are golly, I don't know. 8, 10, somewhere in that range.
Speaker 1:So to be struggling at that moment, how do you switch off? Hey, it's not about the money, it's about giving when you got little mouths to feed it's about giving when you got little mouths to feed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll tell you. You know, I came to Richmond and I had made one loan in my whole career that happened to be the biggest loan I ever made and went bad. And so I was really I don't know that bitter is the right word. I was down on myself. I lost a lot of confidence. Bitter is probably the right word, but I had the opportunity to come up and work for multiple different mortgage companies, go be a number two person in a bank in richmond, and I really didn't want any more parts of it yeah and I went into the staffing industry for six months with a buddy from hampton, sydney uh, not really even knowing that workforce existed, and it was brutal like it was.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know, I felt like I did well there, but you know, after six or eight months of that, of of really being tied to a desk, not being able to be me, um, not being able to get out and see people and do what I do, I finally just said you know what I the only way I can ever get out of this financially is to get back into the mortgage business yeah so it's funny.
Speaker 2:I walked into Village Bank Mortgage and said, hey, I need a job. And they said, you know, have you ever been a loan officer before? And you know, back in the day I was doing $80 to $100 million in loans out of South Hill myself. So yeah, so for sure I had.
Speaker 1:You're like, yeah, I got a little bit of experience.
Speaker 2:But it was years of struggling and scraping and trying to get caught up on lots of different things. I would say that I feel like my wife and I did a really good job of insulating the kids from that. You know where we were. The public school system's not great, I mean. It's gotten a lot better, I think. But you know, we were sending our kids to a little private school over in Blackstone when we moved to Richmond. We, you know, obviously didn't have money to send them to private school but we sent them to the public schools and so my daughter had the opportunity to be top of her class at Maggie Walker. She wouldn't have done that if she had been in South Hill. My son really came up and fell in love with lacrosse, which in South Hill we didn't have lacrosse teams. So there were some blessings that came out of that.
Speaker 2:But I'm not going to lie to you, emotionally it was very difficult, financially it was very difficult, and then you really really as a person start believing in yourself again and and from there the way I approach business and sales is, for me it's all about developing relationships like I've never been just a transactional focused person, and so when I came to Richmond really didn't know a ton of people. I would meet with somebody breakfast, lunch, happy hour seven days a week, even if they weren't in my industry, just trying to connect with people and say what's going to work in this, in this area. But it's just, you know, through all of that and there's no shortcut to success, you've got to work hard. I mean I was working 70, 80 hours a week. I was still coaching the kids' teams, but really there was no free time, no anything, and just was able to develop some really good relationships and enabled me to propel my career to a different level.
Speaker 1:How did you rebuild back that confidence? I'll give you an example, to a different level. How did you? How did you rebuild back that confidence? I'll give you an example. So it was.
Speaker 1:You know, burnout's a real thing when you're like on a pathway to success, and this was probably sometime last year. I'm a very self-motivated individual. I don't I don't need cheerleaders around me. I don't need people patting me on the back telling me I'm doing a good job. I'd rather have people in my life telling me where I'm screwing up versus what I'm doing well.
Speaker 1:And there was just a period where this office is my happy place. My favorite day of the week is Monday, because it's another opportunity to get started, another opportunity to do some great things. And I found myself at one point just completely unmotivated, like didn't feel like coming into the office. Even when I was here, I was like, you know, I'm just kind of checking off some boxes, and it's just like. I was in this funk for probably like a month. And then I had the awareness to sit myself down on the couch one night and I just typed in on YouTube entrepreneur motivation and I sat there for two straight hours and just pumped my head full of stuff to get me juiced up, and after that I was good again. Now I know part of that too. Just with mental health and things like that, I was good again Now I know part of that too just with mental health and things like that.
Speaker 1:I probably don't take as many breaks as I should have. I'm not vacationing as much as I should have. But for you, how did you turn that around? Because it sounds like number one, just dealing with the area you were in. Number two, you're in one of the biggest market crashes in American history and you're moving to a new town to rebuild with people that you really don't know. How did you get yourself back in that mode to to get after it again?
Speaker 2:well, first of all, to segue back just for a second. You know it's crazy, and you probably know this. When you're, when you feel like you're on top, uh, and you've got all these friends supporting you, it is devastating when your career takes a downward turn and, all of a sudden, a lot of your friends ain't there. So that's another thing that I really focused on was rebuilding with the right friends.
Speaker 1:Realizing those people were associates, not friends.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they weren't friends, they were users and hangers on and wanted to have opportunities that you know my sponsoring stuff afforded them. And that's not everybody, but there were a lot of people that just fell out of my life. So, um, anyway, you know, I don't really know that there was an aha moment. I do know when, when I was at village bank mortgage in a great bank, great run mortgage company Um, there was, there were a couple of people that really were influential to me, like plugging me into the Home Builders Association, which I've been on the board for a long time. It's kind of crazy, in 08, 09, the market was so devastated that you know there were loan officers at Village making fun of me for going to the Home Builders Association meetings. Like, dude, that industry is not coming back. You know you're wasting your time, but through that I was able to Thought people weren't ever going to buy homes again.
Speaker 2:Such, so short-sighted. And so they, you know, I think I don't know why their philosophies were like that, but you know, so I made some really key and deep relationships through the Home Builders Association and I don't, you know, I don't know, I think it was, you know, I never really shied away from my story. Yeah, you know, there are probably a lot of people that wouldn't tell people what they've been through on my level, but it really, I think, defined me in a lot of good and bad ways. And I think that you know, I would set a meetings, meetings to go meet with builders and say, look, here's my story yeah please give me an opportunity.
Speaker 2:And it just worked. And, uh, you know, so I would say, six to eight months in I'm I'm one of the top producers at Village Bank Mortgage and I think through that that it just really, from there, kind of reinforced the way I wanted to rebuild. And you know, fast forward three years. You know I made the mistake at that time of being convinced to leave Village Bank Mortgage, which was a phenomenal place, to go to work for another company that wanted to establish a presence in Richmond. And you know, a year into that that really didn't work. And then I had the opportunity to go and open George Mason Mortgage in Richmond and that was what 12, 13 years of but I've been in the mortgage business now 32 years years of of but I've been in the mortgage business now 32 years.
Speaker 1:So how, how long? Cause, uh, you know, a lot of people think they'll. They'll look at somebody like yourself and say, man, the guy got lucky, he's an overnight success. Um, how long did it take you before you got to the point? Point I'm trying to get to is I think too many people are short-sighted in terms of, like man, I'm gonna try this, let's say, the mortgage industry. I'm gonna try this as a, as an agent in the mortgage business for the next six months and if it doesn't work out, I'm gonna move on to something else. Yeah, what was that time table for you in terms of man? Once I got to the 10-year mark or the 15-year mark or whatever it was that like that's when things really started cooking for me you know I don't take any of that for granted.
Speaker 2:Uh, from the fact that I've got to get up and grind and work every single day and unfortunately, in in our business, while the relationships and referral sources are, or are, relational, I guess, um, each loan is a different transaction, so you're really only as good as your last deal, and so there's a lot of stress that's associated with that. But you know, it's kind of weird. Like I went into this small company in Richmond that's not around anymore called Madison Mortgage. I wanted to get into a big bank training program and ultimately do that for a couple years and then go to law school. And so I went to work for this mortgage company. A buddy of mine from back home was working there and literally my training was five minutes.
Speaker 2:Joe, this is how you do a good faith estimate. Hit the streets and at that point in time you know rates had dropped from 12% to 4%. So the phones are ringing off the hook Like we're doing so many refis. Those are COVID numbers, man. Those are COVID numbers, man. Those are COVID numbers. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But you know, I don't know what clicked in my head. I was like you know what? These rates aren't going to stay this long, forever, I can't just sit here and answer the phone. I've got to go out and so it's kind of crazy back then and you can't do this now. But I would print out flyers and go door to door neighborhoods and say, hey, I'm getting the mortgage business.
Speaker 2:You know, rates have dropped tremendously and so there were a couple people that gave me opportunities and started referring me around, but I don't. You know, there was no five year mark, 10 year mark, 15 year mark. It's a grind every single day and I don't take that for granted and for me I truly care, like it really hurts me if a loan process doesn't go smoothly, if I can't deliver what I've told the borrowers we can deliver. That's something that I lose sleep over and I think the sincerity of that people feel and know that it is real, that for me it's not just about making money and I'm not going to lie like making money has been fantastic as far as giving back, as far as healing financially from what I went through, but that's never been something ever. That was just 100% my motivation.
Speaker 2:You know, one of my favorite stories stories ever and I don't tell this enough but when I was in south hill we had a little mortgage company on on main street. Every day I saw this older guy walk by with a food line uniform and one day I was just out on the front porch and I said hey, you know, you're, I see what are you doing. And anyway, this guy's name was frank davis. He had been working in food Lane in South Hill for like 20 years, walking to work every day, and he was very uneducated but the nicest guy in the world, and so he would keep. You know, every day he would stop by and we would give him water or whatever. He would go to the bathroom. But you know, one day he's like so tell me what you do. And he had no clue. And he's like well, where do you live? He's like I've been renting this house for 24 years, Jeez. And I said have you ever thought about buying it? And he's like I don't know that there's any way I could ever buy it.
Speaker 2:So anyway, this turns out, the lady who owned it was like 90 years old wanted to sell it. He ended up buying this house with a USDA loan. It was $36,250. No money down and his payment was cheaper than his rent.
Speaker 2:Well, he comes in to sign the disclosures and on every disclosure he just looks me in the eyes. I explain it. He puts a big X there. He didn't know how to read and write and so that is a person that, had he gotten in the wrong hands, they could have really taken advantage of him. But I never will forget, you know, go through the whole process, explain everything to him. We get to closing and then, like a week later, on the front porch of the office, there is a note to me and I could tell like whoever wrote it really struggled writing it. Yeah, and it was to Joee, and I opened it up and there is a card that says I'm over here, but on this side it said god bless you. And that's something I kept forever because that's something that has really motivated me and focus, focus me for my career on doing what's best for your clients.
Speaker 1:That's your North star.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's my North star and you know it was it was. It's weird. It's weird that I remember all that stuff, but it was definitely a moving moment for me to figure out that this guy trusts me with everything he's got, which ain't much you know, but it's all. It's all he's got.
Speaker 1:That's incredible, man. Yeah, um, what is that? What keeps you motivated, like let's be honest, joe, at this point you don't have to work as hard as you do. I know, like even you know, you're paying us for services and I can't get you on the phone sometimes because I know how hard you're out there hustling. Like you don't have to work this hard anymore. Why do you choose to continue to go this hard?
Speaker 2:You know, number one is I'm. I think I'm a very competitive person. Uh, I want to win. You know I'm not a win at all cost person, but I do want to win. I like, you know, as far as the mortgage industry, I love the hunt. I don't like the paperwork that goes into it. You know I'm not great at that.
Speaker 1:Same in that I love going in for the kill. But, like everything else, like it is dumb because, like even for me, like I've write all the contracts here. I can't stand writing these contracts and it's my lawyers put it out, so it's basically template based and I just have to plug this in here and do that. But like this is maybe a bad thing to admit here live on a podcast. But like there've been times I'm like man, I know, I know I need to go out and get this money. A client's told me like hey, I'm ready to go and it'll take me five days, like to sit down and put the contract. This is the last thing I want to do with my time right now.
Speaker 1:But it's like the last step. I need to get paid.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you got to do it. Fortunately, I've got a really good team behind me that handles all that. But, yeah, part of it is also a legacy Like in our industry, the average loan officer now is 53 years old. We're not bringing in new people in the industry. So I've really focused on, you know, since I came over to First Heritage, on recruiting and trying to recruit younger loan officers that, candidly, weren't in the business.
Speaker 2:I wasn't in the business. I was given an opportunity and I felt like I feel like I did a good job with the opportunity I was given. But it is, it is a phenomenal business, and so I've really focused on trying to recruit and build up our younger people so that, um, there is that legacy left behind. And, uh, you know, fortunately, or unfortunately, you know, my daughter lives in San Francisco, my son lives in Denver. They don't want any parts of the mortgage business, which I understand. Yeah, uh, obviously, you know it's, it's super stressful, um, but I just, you know I like to work. You know everybody's like dude, when are you gonna retire? Probably never, I don't I can't imagine.
Speaker 1:I can't imagine just sitting on the front porch every day. That that's when people kill over and die yes, they don't have anything that they're looking to achieve every single day yep, I agree I love golf but like if that's all I did every day and I'm not on the senior pga tour, like it's gonna get old after a while.
Speaker 2:You don't have anything you're trying to yeah, I love golf, you know, um, there's no way I could be a professional golfer. Yeah, I just you know going in in golly what a. You know what talent they have and commitment, but I would get so bored. The thing I really like about my business is just meeting people, and every person's story is different. When you dig down to XYZ borrower, what you think is important to you may not be important to them, so you really have to focus on their story and you know their situation and how to try to fit their situation and their story into something that's going to be the biggest financial investment of their lives. Yep absolutely.
Speaker 2:So I get motivated from that, you know. But I still work. I mean, I think a lot of people see me at all these events and think I don't work. You know, I'm the exact opposite.
Speaker 1:People need to get that out their head. It's work. Networking is hard work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not called net playing.
Speaker 1:It's called networking. You know, when I try to, I've never even thought about that before.
Speaker 2:I spend a lot of time trying to help people understand that A networking event is not really for you to go get business. A networking event is for you to go meet people and develop relationships Amen, and hopefully through those relationships some business will follow. Yeah, you know, like I do, you can go to a networking event and you see somebody that's got all these business cards and they're I do this, I do this, I do this. I would argue their success rate is very low. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I would argue their success rate is very low For me. I just focus on trying to meet good people and, you know, if they're not somebody that will benefit me from a professional standpoint, I don't care. As long as they're a good person. Maybe there's something I can do to help them. Maybe they can help my nonprofit stuff I do. Maybe I can help their nonprofit. Maybe I can speak to them about overcoming financial hardship. That may give them something to hold on to. So I just I love doing what I do, and most people don't focus on the long game.
Speaker 2:They don't.
Speaker 1:I'm doing a bit like here in 2025, there are some clients I just signed that I met eight years ago and on a networking piece, like, the mistake I see a lot of people make is they run in there business cards in hand, throwing them out like it's a poker table, and that's not what people want to hear when everybody in that room is doing that. So if you are the one person in the room that says, hey, man, who are you Like? Generally, the first question in America and one of my friends is trying to encourage me to start traveling abroad a lot more because he's like the conversations and the way people move are just completely different. Here in america the first thing when you meet somebody is hey, man, what do you do? Versus there it's like hey, what do you enjoy doing? What do you do for fun? What are you about?
Speaker 1:And then maybe 20 minutes in the conversation you finally find out. Find out what the person does professionally, but but just going in, the most important word anybody else is going to ever hear is their name. So when you put the focus completely on them, they walk away from that conversation. Man, that guy, joe, was awesome man and they can't quite put their finger on it. But they know something's different, because everybody else that they met at that networking event was just talking about who they are and what they can provide in terms of service, yeah, and I don't ever do that.
Speaker 2:In fact, I get uncomfortable doing that, you know, because for me it's not about again, it's not about sales, it's really about relationships. Yeah and uh, right wrong or indifferent. You know, in our business, in the mortgage business, 90 of the loan officers spend all day, every day, trying to get realtor business. I need to have realtor business. I've just built my career differently. I really have focused on builders and doing things through builders and you know, right wrong or indifferent, it's worked for me. It doesn't work for everybody, but you know I'm still happy doing what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:So that's a perfect segue into this and I was about to spill the beans on this. Before we turn the mics on, Let me first ask you this Do you know a guy named Jay Bowery? Oh, yeah, Okay. So Jay was here and let me know if I butchered this story, but he's convinced that you don't even remember this happening. So he said this was probably a decade ago. He's at a local bar or something like that. You're sitting at the end of the bar and you just happen to spark a conversation with him.
Speaker 1:I think he's kind of down and out at this moment in terms of trying to navigate his career, figure out what he wants to do. And he starts chatting with you and you say, hey, man, you ever thought about being in the mortgage business? And he said at that moment, what you explained to him, the way you broke things down, the advice you gave him, he said, completely changed his life. Like when that man was in here sitting here talking to me, he's like I don't know if Joe knows this he's like that man absolutely changed my life. And then I think, he took another path for a brief period and then eventually came to the mortgage industry.
Speaker 1:But you guys didn't even change names or business cards when you first met and he said once he got into the mortgage industry or prior to, he was trying to figure out who the hell you were and was searching all over town like describing you trying to figure out who this guy was. And it wasn't until years after he was with the company that he's with now that he finally was able to rediscover you. But he said, man, that that guy, joe, has such a huge impact in my life and he's like I'm not even sure I'm a blip on his radar in terms of like that conversation and what happened. But the impact that you made on that man, like literally his life has changed for the better because of conversation you had with him at the bar uh, first of all, thank you, jay.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's that's uh, that's very moving. Um, jay, I don't specifically remember that conversation. I'd really try to focus on being positive all the time. Like if I'm negative it's late at night by myself. But Jay is a phenomenal mortgage professional. I've always wanted him to work with me and he's in a great place and happy where he is. But, man, what a quality individual. And so I you know it's good to hear that I didn't have that conversation, probably to have a huge impact on his career. Maybe he was having a bad, a down day, and I just always try to focus on the positives. I just think that's, you know, that's what we should do as leaders, and you know, being a leader of a company and being an entrepreneur is not easy. Like sometimes you got to go home and you're beating yourself up all the time, but the public can't see that, because you know, or your customers or your employees can't see that, because you know they're looking for you to lead, and so we're gonna put on this front, yeah that's so great to hear about jay there, but
Speaker 1:he's done really well no, he's, he's done amazing, awesome guy. But like just hearing him describe, I'm like, yeah, that's joe to a t man. There's nothing about that story that makes me think joe did that. No, that's, that's all. Are you trying to reach decision makers, entrepreneurs and sales professionals? Then you can't afford. Me is your next marketing move. With six episodes a month and a growing audience of CEOs and industry leaders, your brand won't just be heard, it'll be remembered. Advertisers can place audio ads on our podcast and even secure visual placements in our full-length YouTube videos. This is where smart brands earn attention. Lock in your ad spot today before your competitor does. Email sam at enzomediafirmcom to receive more information. Let's touch on the family life a little bit, because does your daughter work for VaynerMedia? Is that the company?
Speaker 2:she works for. She works for Substack, substack yeah.
Speaker 1:And then your son's in UFC.
Speaker 2:He's an MMA fighter. He'll make his pro debut through Anthony Pettis Fight Club here in Richmond, august 10th, nice, and then from there, ufc is the plan.
Speaker 1:So what's it like?
Speaker 1:Like and I don't ask this question too, too, question too too often on the podcast but as a young father, like my oldest is five and our son's three um, obviously your, your kids, have found the right path and I'm sure, as a father, that may be your most prideful thing is is seeing that they've achieved this level of success in their lives at such a young age.
Speaker 1:Um, what advice would you give to fathers in terms of because part of what I hear here too, when you were talking about, uh, the work, work ethic, and especially when you guys were moving here and it's you're working seven, seven, seven days a week, you know, 70 hours a week type thing a part of their life, and be a provider at that level, because I think a lot of dads have guilt in terms of like. Well, our number one, like we're always told, as men, our number one responsibility is provide and protect, like that's our number one priority the love factor, and that piece comes secondary. So how did you manage working that type of schedule and also ensuring that your kids were getting what they needed from?
Speaker 2:you. You know, I think, sam, that's probably a question from them, because I'm not sure I did a great job with that. I was so focused on rebuilding and providing and protecting for them that, yeah, I was there. I probably wish I had been more present and not had to work like that. But I love both of my kids Like we're. We're, we're really close. We have different relationships.
Speaker 2:I would say one of the big things is realize that there is no roadmap for success. Kids take different paths and to me, success has nothing to do with, you know, financial. To me, success is all about are you morally a good person? Are you a good friend? Are you happy? You know? So, I think, as a society, society and especially the kids today, even more so, probably your kids, with the influence of social media, technology, stuff like that, you can get caught up in so much of that. Yeah, um that, you know I'm going to be proud of my kids if they're good people, if they work walmart. Like you know, there's no preconceived notion for greatness. You know, looking back, it goes so fast Like we my wife and I both really spent so much time reading with our kids and working with them and then I coached their stuff, but you know it's not like. You know I'm the best basketball or softball coach or whatever. I'm sprinting from work on the phone the whole way go to practice, you know, bringing my son home from practice on the phone the whole time, you know. So I wish I had been more present in some of that.
Speaker 2:But you know, I think the biggest thing is making sure that your kids always know that you love them and support them through ups and downs, and they're you know, my kids have had them, every kid has them, Every person has them and trying to make sure they do the best that they can.
Speaker 2:That might not be the result that you want or your wife wants or society wants, but do the best job that they can. And you know pressure is a terrible thing and it can be financial pressure, it can be pressure to keep up with your peers, whatever it is, but that's not something that is healthy. Yeah, um, that doesn't mean you're going to eliminate it. You're always going to feel internal pressure. I still feel like dude, I gotta get back and do this good, this loan estimate by four o'clock or they're going to another lender that you know. So I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves. But you know, the main thing I would say is just be as present in your kids lives as you can and understand that each kid is different and embrace that.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, I really thought that was something old heads just say before you have kids like man, cherish these years because they go by fast and like wake up, my daughter's going to kindergarten next year. Yeah, it's like holy crap I was literally just holding her, Like how did this happen so quick?
Speaker 2:yeah, holy crap, I was literally just holding her like how did this happen so quick? Um, I think it. I think it only speeds up, you know, because I mean, obviously time doesn't change. But you know, I was told the same thing and I'm like, yeah, you know, god, I just I want them to start sleeping through the night so I can get back to sleeping. But then, next thing, you know, they're graduating high school, graduating college, on in their careers, come home three or four times a year and it's, you know, it's weird. I would say that it is a very weird feeling when your kids are no longer dependent on you for everything. Yeah, you know, driving them to practice, picking them up from school, you know all this stuff, but when that goes, you're like, wow, where did it really? Where did the time go?
Speaker 1:yeah, so something I'm trying to prepare myself for, man, yeah, um, let's talk about the golf tournament. Yeah, when I say now you're talking to a fairly new golfer, I've been in the game about three years we gotta play some dude?
Speaker 2:yes, I don't know I'm a terrible golfer yeah, I am too, man, I suck, but as long as you're out there having a good time, that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1:Everybody's trash, except for the pros man.
Speaker 2:We all suck. And I appreciate you coming and supporting for sure, yeah, no, absolutely.
Speaker 1:When I tell you, I've probably told 15, 20 guys since I've left that tournament. Dude, you've got to be at Joe's tournament next year.
Speaker 1:That was the best time I've ever had golfing in my life, dude, like literally, you know so some of these guys, you don't know who you're standing next to and there's a guy walking around on the course who stands out to me because he's not wearing any shoes or socks and I'm like man. I got to go talk to this guy Like I don't know who he is, but I got to figure this out. Turns out he was the lead guitarist for Hootie and the Blowfish and it's like I'm sitting here cracking beers with this guy smoking a cigar. Um, you put me in a cart with uh chris, who I think played in the nba for like 13 years or something like that and like so many guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, good, dude norm, I had a blast with norm man and all these guys.
Speaker 1:at the end of the day, jb with uh, jb golf apparel, like we've been chatting non-stop and like after the tournament, all these guys gave me their number. There wasn't anything I requested. They were like hey, man, it was great meeting you. Here's my phone number. If you ever need anything, reach out to me. And I'm like where else can you experience this except this event that Joe puts on? Talk to us about that event, what it's all about, how you pull all these guys together, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, I speak very highly of you and your company in our circles, so I think they had heard that and it you know it. Uh, these guys get pulled in. So many guys and girls get pulled in so many different directions and and have so many uh, less than good character people in their lives or across their past that when they meet someone that's genuine, they understand that. But so this tournament really in me it is uh, myself, daniel johnson, tim parent, and then heather goodlett, our executive director, and then obviously all the volunteers that go into it. The crazy thing is and I'll say this in front of them, I love daryl like a brother. Daryl's never helped me get a single celebrity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like every year, I start working on the celebrities, probably december of this year, and it is a lot of work because, you know, obviously they have lives, they have things to do and things come up. Um, we've really focused, you know, over the last this our 18th year we've got a really good core group of moral, good people that come as celebrities that know that we can't pay them. We pay their travel, we pay their hotel, but we can't pay them. But we're also not going to tolerate any foolishness from them. There were years when we had people coming that some of the activities were not what we believed in, so we didn't invite them back. But it is so much work that people just don't understand it.
Speaker 2:And my mind doesn't work in a logistic fashion. So my role is to get the celebrities sell the teams and the sponsorships and, of course, everybody helps with everything. Daniel really puts together all the logistics of the golf tournament. He and I started this 18 years ago. Tim really focuses on the volunteers and coordinating those and, of courseather's running the foundation. So it has been a phenomenal team that we have put together and and I'm not gonna lie, you know their days on the golf tournament we're like dude, tim, you need to do xyz, or daniel, you need to do xyz, and we're butting heads because of the stress associated with it. But, um, I couldn't ask for a better team.
Speaker 2:I think it's really unfair that I get so much credit for because it's not just me and I couldn't do it without those guys. Uh, fortunately or unfortunately, I'm more the face of it, because people know me. Yeah, um, and every year I think that, man, at some point I want to turn this over. The challenge to that is this You've got the relationships, I've got the relationships and we sell the tournament out every year. So can we keep doing that without me working on sales? Absolutely, I don't know that we'll have the success in getting the celebrities without me involved.
Speaker 2:And you know, my philosophy has always been I mean literally I will spend. I mean I'll spend thousands of hours working on this, like the last two or three weeks. It's 50 hours a week doing golf tournament stuff, as opposed to, you know, and then working 20, 30 hours a week doing mortgage stuff. But my philosophy has always been, with the Youth Life Foundation of Richmond, which are Christian-based children's learning centers located in the lower income sections of Richmond, my philosophy has been and the kids go there before and after school for Bible study, study hall, they do some physical activities, but in their staff I license teachers, which is pretty important. But my philosophy has always been if one child gets an opportunity through these centers to get out of the cycle of life in which they live, then it's worth it. And so every year everybody's like how do you have the time to do this? I don't.
Speaker 1:We all have the same amount of time.
Speaker 2:However, how do I have the time not do this? I don't. We all have the same amount of time, yeah. However, how do I have the time not to do it? Like there's so much crap that's happening in the world on all levels that I believe I still believe that we, the kids, are our future, and I don't believe that being where you're born, having no money, making mistakes in life, is a death sentence. No, I believe that if kids, if kids are given an opportunity, that they deserve that opportunity and some of them will get out of, get out of the lifestyle that maybe they don't want to be living. Yeah, and it's crazy, you know. Know, on Fridays they have fun. Fridays you can go down and just hang out with the kids, which is fun. You play kickball, do whatever you know they need tutors. I think we're serving 60-some kids now and they don't pay anything to go there. Yeah, but they couldn't anyway, like they can't afford to.
Speaker 2:And then, through that, I think this is our fifth year, maybe it's our fourth year, but daniel and I used to always go and take part in a event in richmond that daryl and jewel green did called christmas with the redskins, and then, when they changed the name. That became christmas with the greens. But through that they'll bust in three or four kids. Each kid is paired with a sponsor. The sponsor buys them tennis shoes, a sweatsuit, a toy, and then we have a book room and a game room where they go and get stuff from that. But really the sponsor spends that evening with 400 kids. You and your sponsor are having dinner together, you're playing games, they're opening presents together and from most of those children that's all that they get for christmas and you know.
Speaker 2:So we were busing our kids from richmond centers up there for three or four years and we decided to start doing that event here called christmas and rva um, and for two or three years we we did it at U-Turn and bust in two or 300 kids and and candidly, you've got to be careful the nonprofits that you align with on something like that, because it's a lot of work and some people really just take advantage of that.
Speaker 2:So we cut back the last two years and just did um, just did the Youth Life Foundation kids. But it is really a magical night because you know the thing that's most heartwarming is you'll. You know you'll walk with your kid through the book room or through the toy room and they're eight years old and you know they're looking over at books for teenagers and you're like that's not what. You know where you should be shopping. And they're like if I don't get something for my brother, he's not where you should be shopping. And they're like if I don't get something for my brother, he's not going to have a Christmas. So it's just amazing how deep down most people are good.
Speaker 1:Oh absolutely.
Speaker 2:But the golf tournament is a true labor of love. It's always the Monday before Memorial Day. We're always looking to make it better. Each year we tend to raise more money than the year before, which I we're always looking to make it better. Each year we tend to raise more money than the year before which. I still don't know how we do that, but you know, you'll see there that the people that come to that tournament come back every year, so we must be doing something right. But also the celebrities come back every year and it's so crazy that you know the celebrities. You know I've got some celebrities that will call the team they play with last year all year long. Hey man, am I gonna see you at next year's daryl tournament? I hope joe pairs me with you again and they really get involved in their lives and and uh, you know the realness of it and the sincerity of it is pretty powerful, yeah.
Speaker 1:Now I can tell you firsthand, after experiencing what I did and I'm going to have to talk to my wife for next year because I had to check out, like right after we finished playing golf, and I'm seeing the pictures and seeing all the networking and the relationship building that was going on I was like man, I probably missed out on the best part of the tournament. So next year I think I may just get a hotel and be all in for the tournament.
Speaker 1:But I'll tell you here right now man, you got every bit of my support for that program moving forward, man.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:What you put together, what your team has put together, man, that is something really special. And to hear the cause behind what you guys are doing, I mean special in the hair, the cause behind what you guys are doing, I mean that gets me even more juiced up and the silent auction items you guys have. Like I got my steelers rep super bowl rings in there. Man like y'all had some premium stuff and I serve on the board for two non-profits right now oh, you did which ones?
Speaker 1:yeah boys, boys to men and medical home plus mhp.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, yeah, let me know if I can help with any of that. Yeah for sure, any sure. Anybody that's got a nonprofit that is good I believe in will help however I can, and one of the reasons I started my podcast is there's so many worthwhile nonprofits that people don't know about Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And I think there's some connection with the nonprofit you're working with and Boy Cement specifically. Yes, because the stuff that we do is during the day, during the school hours, actually in the school Nice. So I can see a combination of those organizations being able to pair up and do some things, so we'll definitely talk about that. Yeah, how important has faith been in your journey. Like I've heard you kind of slip in some things here and there, like how important has faith been in your journey?
Speaker 2:You know, extremely important. We didn't. You know, we grew up my dad was a farmer, we didn't grow up going to church and then, I think, you know, when I got married my wife's family would have been. But I've always been a believer and I would tell you that when you're going through a period of eight, six to eight months of knowing you're going to lose everything you've worked your whole life for, you really lean on your faith and really become so much more involved in your faith. And you know, kind of a crazy story is, you know, those last three or four months when I know what's coming, I know these folks are going to default, I know there's no way I can, you know, satisfy the debt that because I was on the line of credit with them. Anyway, every day I would walk up to my minister's office in South Hill because there was a in a small town.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of talk going on and he would give me one verse and I would focus on that and, you know, come back feeling good, and you know. But every day I would say, um, if I get through this, and I never will forget as, like a light bulb went off. I was there one day and it was a really low day for me and a lot of times back then I would go in my office and cry all day and go home and be good for the kids and then cry all night. You know, it was brutal, so I never will forget. One day I said that and he pushed his chair back from his desk and he was like I'm tired of fucking hearing you say if I get through this, it's not if You've got a wife and two kids, it's when and we're working on what it's going to look like on the other side. And it was like at that point a light bulb went off and said fucking, stop feeling sorry for yourself, put your pants back on, go back to work and figure this out.
Speaker 2:And so you know, daryl is a very faithful person. You know I'm still don't go to church as much as I do. I still, uh, spend time in prayer. I still am a big believer. I, you know, I, uh, you know religion and faith is a part of my life. It probably needs to be bigger, but it's always. It's always there, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no for sure. I think the, the people that I admire and the ones that you know, whatever level of success with, whether they be health, financial, business development relationships, whatever the people I see at the highest pinnacles that I'm trying to reach in all those areas, are all men of faith. Yeah, like it's, to me it's. You can't separate the two. And I it was the opposite for me.
Speaker 1:Where I grew up in the church, my dad was a pastor since the day I was born and it was like man, I'm a, and when your dad's a pastor, like that's a full-time job. And being the only boy, it was like if he was on the road for revival, hey, you jump in the car, drive my dad an hour to go to this revival for the whole weekend. And even when you're in town, it's like wednesday meeting, thursday, choir practice, friday, this like church camp, this boom, boom, boom. And as soon as I got out of high school and like went to college, I was like, look like, let me take a break from all this church man, like I can't take this.
Speaker 1:And then once we had kids, like and my wife didn't necessarily grow up in the church either, but once the kids got to about two or three. I turned to my wife and I was like, yeah, this ain't right. We need to get the kids around the church. They got to start understanding that, their faith and who the Creator is. They need to have a strong foundation and the only way to get that is by getting into your faith and reading the Bible and being around you know fellow thinkers and things like that. So, no, I see it as a massive part.
Speaker 2:It's motivating to have the belief that there is life after death. That is better than you know, and that's you know both of my parents have passed away and they struggled so much at the end. That's you know. Both of my parents have passed away and they struggled so much at the end. And you know, sometimes you're just as hard as it is. You're just like man. I want them to live the afterlife where there is no more pain, and so, yeah, you know it's kind of crazy too, and I know we probably got to get off of here soon, but Darrell and I became really good friends, and how we became really good friends was there was a guy from South.
Speaker 2:Hill named Ben Coleman, who he and I had grown up together. Ben played football and basketball at Wake Forest and was drafted in the second round by the Jaguars. He was on the Jaguars offensive line with Tony Buscelli and Mark Brunel was there when they played for three straight AFC championships. Ben got traded to. That was a heyday for the.
Speaker 1:Jaguars. That was a heyday for the Jaguars.
Speaker 2:That was a heyday and they've never gotten back to that level. But anyway, ben got traded to the Redskins during Schottenheimer's one year and Ben called me that summer and said hey, man, I got a buddy that wants to buy property at Lake Gaston. Will you come up and meet with him? I had been the biggest Redskin fan forever, biggest Daryl Green fan forever, biggest daryl green fan forever. Because you know, back in in south hill, baskerville area, that's the only game we got was the redskin game and they always had those united way commercials and daryl was on there. So didn't know who I was going to meet meet. Ben took me over and dropped me off at daryl's house. He said daryl, this is joe. Joe, this is daryl. I gotta go, joe, I'll come back and pick you up.
Speaker 2:I was was there seven hours and we, as much as I wanted to talk football, we didn't talk football. We talked about his foundation, we talked about his faith, we talked about families, we talked about business, we talked about everything. And so a lot of people think it's funny because you know, daryl doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't cuss, you know, and I drink beer and dip stuff and probably cuss a little bit too much, but everybody's like, how in the world are you two friends? But it's just, it's weird how I believe that you know god places people in your lives for a reason, absolutely, and you don't always know where that reason is. So fast forward that, and that was in 99 or 2000.
Speaker 2:Fast forward that in 2008, 7 and 8, when I'm going through my stuff, there was very seldom a day went by that Daryl didn't call and check on me and hey man, how you doing Like you know, did you read Matthew last night in this verse? I told you to read and you know. So that's something I'll never, ever forget and it's a really special relationship and I don't and never will take advantage of it. You know there are people all the time that say, hey, can you get Darrell to sign this church? No, dude, I just don't ask people for that. You know what I mean. So anyway, a lot of blessings. I've been blessed in so many different ways Still healthy, you know my family's great. You know got a good job, do a lot in the community and like doing a lot in the community. But you know it hadn't been easy, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:Final question as we wrap up. This is a new question. I started a couple episodes ago and you may have already mentioned this, but what has been not just necessarily your career what has been the lowest moment in your life and how did you overcome it?
Speaker 2:You know, I would say you know, really probably two or three. You know, the night I graduated from Hampton-Sydney College, my best friend committed suicide and he and I were going to go fishing the next day and it was weird. I was at the after party and something just didn't feel right and I went back to the room, packed up my stuff, went home and was on the way to pick him up the next morning and stopped by this little restaurant where I had worked and the two waitresses come running out and they're like oh my God, I'm so sorry to hear about what happened. I was like what do you mean? What happened? I'm on the way to his house to pick him up.
Speaker 2:I would say that was one mom died was another, um, just because she had been, uh, such a strong woman for myself, my brothers, my sisters, my kids, and uh was kind of one of those people that there really were never any excuses. She just got it done, whether it was taking care of her mom, was it taking care of my dad's mom? Whether whatever it was, and it was taking care of her mom, whether it was taking care of my dad's mom, whatever it was, and she was a person that loved you unconditionally. It doesn't make any difference how much you screwed up. She always led with the love.
Speaker 2:And then, you know, going through the financial crisis that I went through and dealing with that from and it really wasn't as much about the money part, it was about, you know, I was so worried about what people thought I was so down on myself, I was so really lost. And you know, I think it's I think the majority of the people that listen to your podcast and in America go through periods like that, and I think you become so tunnel visioned and narrow sighted that you really think maybe there's no way out or don't know how you're going to get out. I would say this to them is become faithful, pray, really rely on some key people in your life that can help from the outside, looking in, help you come up with a plan and help you figure out how to deal with what you're dealing with. So I don't know that, through my mom and dad's death, that I ever really took enough time to grieve for that.
Speaker 2:And that's another thing that I'm really big on is you've got to take time to grieve for that, and that's another thing that I'm really big on is, you know you got to take time to grieve Like it's. You know, I went back to work the next day after my mom died and you know, the next day after my dad died, and I don't know that was right for my mental health, Um, but I think you also, you know, the other thing that's so much different than when I grew up is mental health is such a challenge these days.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And I'm not saying that it wasn't before, I think before everybody hit it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But it's okay to deal with that. You know what I mean. It's okay, it's okay to struggle In my mind. It still baffles me, these children that went through school during COVID and I think that's going to affect them the rest of their lives. Now again, is it a death sentence? Probably not, but I think if you went through that you probably need to be talking to somebody. But anyway, that's a long answer to your question, but those are probably the three most Powerful stuff, man, I bet it's powerful.
Speaker 2:I just love talking to you. I like having conversations. That's what I like about my podcast and having the ability to work with you to put that on. I don't care whether you're Daryl Green or Charles Barkley or Magic Johnson or you're XYZ person. That started it and there's some good examples on my podcast, but everybody's got a story, yes, and everybody's got a reason they do things and I think it's important to sit down and focus on what those reasons are and really trying to understand. I'm a big believer in trying to figure out what motivates people. Why are you talking to me the way you're talking to me? There's something that happened that caused that. It's not direct to me. So, anyway, stay tuned for more episodes, but I appreciate immensely I can't afford to hire, you know. So just being your friend's enough absolutely, man.
Speaker 1:It's been a great journey. We got more on the way. Now that you said that, I gotta mention one other thing in terms of the people that come into your life. This I will never forget. This was my Jay Bowery meeting Joe moment when I was in Lynchburg, used to live in Lynchburg. This was after college. I ended up working at a factory in Lynchburg and you know I've always been a hustler. I worked my way up and I was manager within the first six months of me being there. And this is when I'm like 22, 23. And like so. There are people on my team like 45, 50 years old and they got to listen to this young buck. Yeah, so learning, learning how to navigate that piece. But I'll never forget and it was like you got time and a half if you worked overtime. So, like I was single, I didn't have kids. Man, I'm like put me on the clock, dude.
Speaker 1:Like you going to pay me time and a half, I'll be here until 4 o'clock in the morning. I don't care, I ain't got nothing to run home to, and I'll never forget it. Remember walking outside. It was just like a long day. I was working a double shift and I came outside just to get some air. I've never smoked cigarettes but I was just like let me go outside where everybody takes their smoke breaks Guys out there smoking a cigarette and somehow or another we ended up sparking up a conversation.
Speaker 1:I was like, man, how did you end up here of dating my now wife? And then, all of a sudden, we had a kid and this was one of the best paying opportunities I could get at the time. So I took it and I always told myself I was gonna go do X, y and Z, but then next thing, I know kids are in middle school and I gotta pay for football practices and cleats and all these other things, and then ended up staying here. And then next thing, you know, they're off to college and I got to fund this and all these things ended up happening.
Speaker 1:He's like I turned around and 40 years of my life has gone by and I'm still here. He's like he looked me dead in the eye and he said if you have ambition to do something else, I don't care how much money they're offering you. Get out of here while you can and figure it out. And that exact moment like woke me up and I knew like, yeah, I don't want to be working at this factory the rest of my life, even though the money's good for where I am in my life at this point. I don't want to get caught in this situation. And I think it took me another three, four months and I was out of there.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that was kind of that catalyst and it's like that guy wasn't highly educated, didn't have the most money in the world, didn't drive a nice car or anything.
Speaker 1:But that five minutes I got with him, two o'clock in the morning while having a smoke break, literally changed my life. So like those moments that you're talking about, like having those conversations with people, like you just never know when someone's going to affect your life or when you're dramatically going to affect someone else's life, like I was golfing yesterday and the kid that was at the check-in booth over at Belmont he's pulling my information up on the screen and he's like Enzo Media Firm what do you guys do? And I told him about my company. He's like man. He's like I used to do some marketing for this other company. Like are you guys hiring right now? Like I'm interested in getting out of this situation and looking at that. And it's just like the fact that now I'm at a point in life where, like, even if I don't hire the kid, I can just school him and tell him how he needs to navigate and how he's going to be able to crack open some doors.
Speaker 1:And it's like dude. That's what life's about. That's what life's about.
Speaker 2:That's what life's about. You know, it's funny that a lot of people think that so there's a big difference between being book smart and having wisdom. The guy that spoke to you had wisdom from experience and from experience and it's and it's kind of funny, you know, relating back to you, and you and I met like I had been thinking about a podcast forever, just never really sat down and did it and then I met you at the real per producers thing that Matt Cullither was putting on and Duda was just something about your spirit, and you're like, yeah, man, this is what we do. And so then we kind of fast tracked it and and I feel like that you and I have been friends and partners for 15 years, cause I feel like uh, I know you're hard.
Speaker 1:I feel like I've known you forever. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Uh, I think, you know, I think there was a reason we came together.
Speaker 1:So absolutely love it, man. Yeah, well, dude, appreciate you being here. This was an awesome conversation. Shout out your way. How can people find you support the nonprofit if they want to get a mortgage?
Speaker 2:Give out all your contact information. Yeah, so 32 years in the mortgage business. I am Executive Vice President, Southern Regional Business Development Manager for First Heritage Mortgage, so anything from Fredericksburg South for the state is pretty much within my perusal. But I still produce. I'm still one of the top producers in the United States, blessed to do that, and for sure one of the top in the state of Virginia. But you can go to golly. You can go to firstheritagecom, you can go to Instagram as Mortgages Done Right, D-U-N-N Right. Of course I'm on Facebook and would love to have him licensed in so many states. Most importantly, the nonprofit I started a nonprofit for myself called Done Deal Charities, so we're starting to do some more stuff. But for the Youth Life Foundation it's wwwylfrorg, and so check out what they're doing. And Heather, who's our executive director, is absolutely fantastic. Perfect. Appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 1:Absolutely you guys. Go check out those websites, Support my man and we will see you guys on the next episode. Are you an aspiring entrepreneur? Our one-on-one coaching tail tailor strategies to your unique business goals. Dive into interactive workshops fostering skills essential for success. Looking for an inspirational speaker for your next event? Book Mr Prenuer to elevate your gathering. Visit wwwthemistaprenuercom to learn more and embark on your path to entrepreneurial success. Mr Prenuer, empowering your entrepreneurial spirit.