Zero to 70M a Month — Dustin Owen’s Mortgage Success Playbook

What if your biggest breakthrough comes after you’re broke, scared, and ready to quit?

In this powerhouse episode of The Way with Dino Katsiametis, Dino sits down with Dustin Owen — founder of TLO (The Loan Officer Podcast), mortgage coach, industry influencer, and endurance athlete — to unpack the real journey from struggling loan officer to building one of the most recognized mortgage media and coaching platforms in the industry.

Dustin opens up about:

• Going $10K into credit card debt his first year in mortgages
 • Deferring student loans just to keep the lights on
 • Doing FEMA cleanup work after hurricanes to survive
 • Rebuilding through the crash
 • Scaling from 40M a year to 70M a month
 • And ultimately transitioning from top producer to industry educator

Along the way, he reveals why love, structure, and discipline are the foundation of elite teams, thriving families, and high-performance businesses — and why investing in yourself delivers a higher return than the stock market.

If you’re a loan officer, team leader, or entrepreneur navigating today’s market, this episode delivers real tactics, real mindset shifts, and real strategy you can apply immediately.

Thanks for listening to "The Way With Dino Katsiametis"  
 For full show notes, links, and extra episode resources, visit dinokatsiametis.com.
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Transcript

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: Okay, as I promised, here he is, Dustin Owen from TO, the Loan Officer Podcast. If, if you are a little slow in figuring it out, that's what it means. The Loan Officer podcast. Thanks for coming on, man.

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: Thanks for having me, Dino, and thanks for breaking that down for the audience. It's funny people love to say, is it. Like TLOP, who, what's, I'm like, no man, it's tlo. Uh, it started as the Loan officer podcast. Uh, we have a super fan. I wanna give a shout out to him. His name is Tom O'Brien, like one of the OGs listening.

And what's crazy, he's not even a mortgage guy, right? But he, he loves the show. He tunes in all the time. And he started calling it tlo. And I loved that 'cause I always hated the name of the show. The show is the loaner podcast, but it's supposed to be Dave Ramsey, Joe Rogan, have a baby. It was all me teaching the crap they don't teach in school.

Um, and it's stuff that I learned because I became a mortgage loan originator. So when a guy like Tommy O'Brien started calling us tlo, I totally embraced it. So yes, [00:01:00] thank you for, uh, for, I like how you put it. Tlo AKA, the Loan Officer podcast.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: Well, I'm not gonna deny, man, when I was searching podcasts, you know, and trying to like put my show together all. Stuff. And I, and I kept seeing yours and of course it stands out just the way the logo

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: The orange. Yeah.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: and, and I don't know why, like my brain just didn't get it. I, I was like, TLO and like, how is this mortgage?

And then finally one day I was like, oh shit, the World Officer podcast. So I wanted to spare everybody else the brain damage of trying to figure it out. 'cause it's just not that hard. If you think about it for

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: Well, and, and try this. So, because we started creating even more content like a La Barstool Sports. So like we have the Do Show and we have Mortgage School and we have Coaches Corner. So we had to actually rebrand our YouTube channel T LOP Entertainment because if we kept it at the Lno Star podcast, it would be a little bit confusing for people who are potentially looking for [00:02:00] all of the various content that we've started, uh, publishing over the past year.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: All right, dude. Let's get into this

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: Where are we going by the way? Like this is like California meets Central Florida.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: you'll, you'll find out where we're going. The, the one thing I already know about you. There is no issue with coming up with things to talk about.

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: No.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: I, I have first question actually. 'cause I, my, my wife says this to me when she asks you a question and you just start talking, does she ever turn to you and say, can you just make it a yes or no or something really simple?

Please.

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: My wife's probably pretty nice about that. Uh, so she doesn't now she'll just tune me out. My friends, my friends, or even my colleagues will be like, Hey, I only need a 32nd answer here. That's kind of their way of like tongue in cheek saying, Hey bro, don't need the details. Just hit it and quit it.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: And, and when you're drinking, is it worse or [00:03:00] do you get quiet?

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: Oh, it's way worse. It is way worse. I was that kid in school that I finally had a teacher say to me after she moved me to the back of the room, gave me my own table. She goes, is there anyone in this class that you're not friends with? Is there anyone that you won't talk to? I looked around, there's like 30 kids in there.

I'm like, no, unfortunately not. So it's a, it's a blessing and a curse, you know, it gets in the way. Definitely. Um, but it at the same time can, uh, you know, be a little bit helpful, especially if you're in an industry where storytelling and presenting is, uh, is key to ultimate success.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: That's right. All right, so, so the real first question,

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: Yes.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: who are you? We already know professionally, we just talked about that. Who are you personally?

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: Personally, I am a kid who grew up in central Florida with two amazing parents. One drove a school bus, the other was an electrician. Um, had [00:04:00] amazing childhood. Um, my childhood was amazing because it was filled with love, structure, and discipline. Uh, I think that's the, the, that's the real secret to excellence or secret to success.

I don't care if you're. Raising puppies, raising children, or raising loan officers, if you can provide those three elements. So I wasn't able to take fancy vacations as a kid. Um, they couldn't afford, you know, nice, uh, vehicles or summer homes or some of those things that maybe my peers had. You know, I'm a central Florida kid who grew up with two amazing parents.

Today, I've been married for 20 plus years. I'm hardcore into triathlons. I wasn't always that way. I was a football, baseball player growing up. I used to be allergic to running until about my forties. And, uh, started challenging myself with things like 75, hard, 75. Hard taught me. I can run, I can swim and I can bike.

And because I could do all three, I decided it'd be a good idea to get into Iron Man racing. So I'm a. [00:05:00] I am, uh, signed up for my first ever full Ironman in Portugal in October of this year, and I just completed my fourth half Ironman, uh, back in December. And I have two amazing kids. I'm a diehard UCF fan. You all right there?

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: Man, I am sorry. I'm coughing on you,

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: Yeah. I, I, I mention, I mentioned running and you started having allergic reaction.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: dude. I, I hate running.

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: Yeah, I can tell. I can tell. I, I mentioned it once and all of a sudden.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: All right, so I saw the Ironman post just earlier this week, I think, or last week value. And I gotta say it's one of those things where, and, and I don't know if you're like this or not, you probably are just 'cause of your age and the fact that they like sports. But growing up, me and my buddies, we weren't nice to each other.

We, we, we hit a thought, we hit each other constantly. Like, whatever install you can, you [00:06:00] can sling their way. You do it. And, and it builds some serious character, right? Like we, we didn't crumble because of it. We, we rose because, you know, we, we got, we figured out how to overcome, um, every difficult thing that could come your way because of those guys.

So I have a feeling you're like that, right? Uh, I had a couple buddies. They did an Iron Man. And as much as I love to make fun of them about absolutely everything I can, the one thing I cannot possibly make fun of them about is the fact that they completed an Ironman. I think that

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: they did the full, they did

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: anybody can do.

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: they did the full, like the 12 to 14 hours.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: Yep.

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: Yeah. Yeah.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: So I know you only did a half, but even a half is is bigger than what most anybody else can do. And the fact that you're going for it is total respect on my end. I love hearing that.

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: well, no, thank you. Yeah, so I just completed, I think it's, I think I know it's my fourth half. Um, and halves are good. Halves are something you can [00:07:00] do once or twice a year, and they're not overly disruptive. A full is overly disruptive to your life. So I had to make a deal with my wife and my daughter that I wouldn't.

Sign up for a full until my daughter graduated high school, so it would be less disruptive to really their lives. Not even so much my life, but I'll tell you this. It's anything that we do, and this is what endurance training Will, will teach you. It's all about putting one foot in front of the other. It's all about getting 1% better the way that James Clear teaches it in his book, atomic Habits, and then eventually when you find a community, right?

It's, it's the reason why we as. Top producing loan officers go to things like Sales Master, which is where you and I met, right? Iron sharpens iron. The minute you find a community, you realize that what you thought was crazy or impossible is way possible because I'm training with people that are doing their third Iron Man.

I'm training with women who have qualified for the world championship of Ironman. My friends, they're, they're crazy. They just went and did a [00:08:00] 12 hour ultra marathon. Two of them did it just because the other three were doing it just on a whim. And I think what you find is just your mentality changes, which I want to convert that to business.

It's why I'll tell a loan originator like the last thing you want to, you want to be is in an organization where you're the smartest and the top producing. Um, because you may have a limited self-belief, start surrounding yourself with people who are doing bigger, who are achieving more, so that your belief system can change.

So, I, I appreciate the, the kudos. Cross your fingers, knock on wood, that I can, my body and my equipment will make it. From January, which is when we're recording this to October, and then yes, I have to be able to wake up healthy that day and then complete a, it's gonna probably gonna take me about 13 hours, a 13 hour endurance race without having something go sideways, blown tire, a crash, a, a rolled ankle, et cetera.

You know?

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: So let me, let me tell you [00:09:00] my little uplifting story for you right now. So I lead a men's group every Thursday morning. We just started a new study and, and I, I, I made it faith under pressure and we were going through it and it was yesterday, so it's really fresh on my mind. And one of the guys talked about, um, Joe Rogan, which you mentioned a minute ago.

David Goggins and the, I love the analogy here, which I'm gonna, I'm gonna share with you because I think you'll, you know, it's great for your upcoming race. David Goggins said that you have to put yourself under pressure and that you have to force yourself to do things that you just can't even ever imagine you being able to do, just so you can come out on the other side and know that you're capable of anything.

And. And if, I don't know if you've ever read David Goggin's book,

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: His book Can't Hurt Me, is amazing. Yes,

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: amazing. And, and the reality is, like I, I have, I have four kids. My two [00:10:00] youngest ones are boys and 11 and 13. Um, and I'm like thinking to myself, and I read this somewhere else a while back, we need to start manufacturing some difficulties in their life so that they can learn how to overcome some objections.

Because let's face it. They don't deal with anything like, you know what I mean? Like, their life is so blessed. It's ridiculous.

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: Uh,

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: when it's tough, it's, it's better than any day. You know? Our generation would've had as a kid, right?

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: You, you were saying earlier about our generation. It's so funny. I, I saw a meme on, uh, I don't know, probably Instagram last week and you and I grew up in, in the, in the same time period, and it was like, you know, you've never drank out of a garden hose. I'm like, yes. Our kids have never, or you don't know what it means to, um, have to come inside when the streetlights came on.

And then, um, it was a, a picture of probably like a Gen Z like, wait a minute, streetlights, come on. Like, I can go inside whenever. And they're like, no, we weren't allowed, meaning our parents [00:11:00] locked us outta the house. And we were told, and the lady keeps going. The the person who is like doing this real, she keeps going on and she's like.

To the Genzer. She's like, you don't understand. If I came inside before the streetlights, I'd get my butt beat. Um, and then she goes, in fact, it was so bad, if you remember this, they used to run commercials on tv. It's 10 o'clock. Do you know where your children are? Because they had to remind our parents to unlock the door, to let us come inside.

So when you're talking about you and your buddies growing up and, you know, constantly just giving each other a, a, a bunch of crap and, and being rough and tough. I played tackle football in the street, and we would have BB gun fights. Like, who does that today? I, I'm not advocating for my kids to go play tackle football in the streets, and we sure as hell aren't going to have BB guns.

We used to go into our moms like I think the eighties, right? Eighties, early nineties, so into our imam's wardrobe and [00:12:00] all their clothes had these big shoulder pads in 'em. We would rip the shoulder pads out and use them as padding for the BB gun wars, so it would hurt less when you got hit with your buddy's bb.

But yeah, they don't do that anymore, do they?

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: Uh, that's good stuff though. Um, all right. I, I want to throw one thing out. I don't wanna talk about it yet 'cause I want to round it out with this 'cause I, I, I heard you talk on stage at Sales Mastery back in Dallas. What was that, October or something?

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: You, you stayed all the way to day three and, and listened to me. Thank you.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: I mean, I was about to walk out, you said something so good that I had to stay

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: Okay.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: and it has to do with discipline, so I want to come back to that. But I do want to pause for a second. I wanna just, I want to get a little bit more of your backstory. So I want to go back to when you started in the industry and, and then I wanna walk back through your journey all the way back to today again.

So everybody listening's probably a, a, a mortgage [00:13:00] advisor, loan officer. Right. And, and they, um, are listening 'cause they want to get better at. What they're doing for a living. And, and I love hearing people's climb because the reality is it doesn't matter how good you are right now. And, and a lot of times, you know, have a hundred million dollar produ producers on here and all this stuff, and it's like, great, but it's unrelatable it, it definitely gives you credibility.

But let's go relatable too, because. You know, you're not even producing anymore. But, but you were a big producer. You ran branches. You, you did a lot of good stuff. But the reality is, one day you started at zero and, and you had to get to where you got and, and I want to show people that everybody's capable of doing that.

And the reality is, is. If you don't know how to get over whatever hump you're at, maybe it's 5 million, maybe it's 10, maybe it's 20, maybe it's 50 million, right? Everybody's got that, that barrier that they're having a heck of a time crossing, and usually it's a minor little [00:14:00] adjustment in the way they do business.

That shifts everything from that moment forward. So just for fun, where did you start? How? Why did you even get into the mortgage business?

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: Perfect. Yep. So my degree's in advertising, public relations, and that's, I think it's important to the story that, that, you know that because when I went to University of Central Florida and I was looking at the curriculum for finance and for advertising. I looked at that finance and curriculum and I'm like, oh, hell no.

Uhuh not going there. Now. I loved personal finance. I fell in love with it at age 16. I'm the kid who taught my father how to invest in the stock market, right? Like my kids had a father who was able to in to teach them how to invest. I learned how to, then I taught it to my father. Now, my father taught me how to love.

He taught me how, how to, how to be a great dad. He taught me how to be an awesome husband. Through his actions and he sure as hell told him how to work hard, right? But, but personal finance wasn't his forte. So after spending three years in the television [00:15:00] advertising industry where I was selling, I started helping my childhood best friend look for, for jobs.

His degree was in finance. And I kept coming across jobs that were like mortgage loan, originator account executive, financial advisor, life insurance. One thing led to the next, right? A friend of a friend knew of, of a guy who worked for a company that had this training program and he was gonna get me an interview.

So I jump into the mortgage industry as my second career, probably 25, 26 years old. My mom and dad. We're schoolwise drivers and electricians. I'm gonna tell you one thing about that. My dad's best friend is my mom, and the only friend he needs is my mom. So my dad didn't have any buddies I was gonna lean on that.

Were realtors, builders, financial advisors that were gonna hook me up. Like my dad didn't come from some fraternity or some, you know, um, you know, type, you know, type whatever the, the, um, like the big lodges are for the professionals. Like that wasn't him and. [00:16:00] Love my mom and her school bus driving friends.

They don't make great referral sources and many of them aren't necessarily like your typical homeowner. So I started in this industry. I tell people like my mom and dad weren't, weren't able to like hook me up with anything and my two best friends lived home with mom and dad still. So I had to suffer the first two years, like I know what it's like to be lost, broke and scared.

I went $10,000 in credit card debt my first year. By my second year I deferred my student loans. I cut off my cable. Look y'all before Hulu and Netflix. Like I cut off my cable, deferred my student loans. I drove around Orlando with a for sale sign in my car. My wife was pregnant with our, with our oldest, and I thought, well, maybe we just have to go to a, to a one car household because I, I'm not closing enough business to pay the bills around here.

My saving grace was a couple hurricanes came through Central Florida, and when that happens, FEMA will pay like. $30 an hour to go [00:17:00] do manual labor and do cleanup. So nights and weekends, I did FEMA cleanup for 30 bucks an hour as a way to bring in enough money to keep the lights turned, uh, kept on in my house, right?

So that was my first two years in the industry. However, all the things I coach today. I was doing those first two years, and because I, I, I was doing them, I was building my brand in my marketplace. I was becoming a, a source of information and I was becoming the most known person in a couple zip codes that eventually by my second full year, no, I'm funding a hundred units back then, by the way, a hundred units was like 26 million at 55 basis points, and I thought I was rich.

Right, but that's, look, you go back to what the comp plans were in oh 6, 0 7. Like that was pretty consistent. Um, so like, that's a little, a little bit about my, my backstory. I then survived the crash. [00:18:00] I then had to rebuild. There was a time I thought about getting out and the, the story there, and I'll spare you all the details, was I realized when I thought about getting outta the mortgage industry, that whatever I was gonna have to go do was gonna require me to learn something new.

Network my butt off. Work really hard. Well, if I stayed in the mortgage industry, all I had to do was network my butt off and work really hard, but I at least already knew what I was doing. So I ended up staying in the mortgage industry, and that's really where my career took off. I grabbed two partners and I was still, I was still producing all the way up until like 20, 20, 20 21, right?

But, but this, if you're going back to oh 8, 0 9, I was hardcore producing, but we started building something. Systems, processes, culture, that as we built it, our friends wanted to be a part of it. As our friends became a part of it, they started telling people they knew and we were able to build something from 40 million our first full year together.

[00:19:00] Within four years we were doing 40 million a month, and then right before. The three of us went our separate ways, like mom and dad got divorced. We still love each other. We're just not in love with each other. Um, we were doing about $70 million a month, right? So that's a little bit of my, of my backstory.

Um, five years ago I started talking about my experiences as a mortgage loan originator. Like everything I learned because I became an lo. We called that show, the Loan Officer podcast. Today, most of what I do is I create content that allows me to be an influential person in the mortgage industry. I've launched and now I run a coaching company for mortgage brokers and, and mortgage loan originators.

Uh, we're launching a career advisory services and I do consulting for mortgage companies on the side. That's, that's where you find me 40, 50 hours a week today, but. Where I came from was, no, I came from being lost, broke, scared, pregnant wife, $10,000 in credit card debt, [00:20:00] deferring student loans, cutting off cable, doing manual labor side hustles, just trying to survive those first two years, but understanding the long game of, wait a minute, if I love what I'm doing and I can go out there and provide a service, there's a good chance that if people trust me.

If there's a good chance that that they'll start referring me, and if they refer me enough, I'll be able to have a career unlike anything I ever envisioned, which is what I've been able to do the past 20 years.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: It's interesting. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go back to the study I was talking about earlier that I put together the faith under pressure and, and that, uh, it was really one of my favorite sessions in my men's group because we talked so much about what happens under pressure. Right? And, and let's take a diamond.

How is a diamond formed? It's formed with pressure and one of the things we talked about was, as much as it sucks. And it's the [00:21:00] book of James in the Bible it says, you know, consider it pure joy when you have trials, right? When you have this kind of stuff. And I never understood that thought. It was the stupidest thing in the world, right?

And then, um, eventually everybody gets to a point where they have, they have some pressure. And the, the question that, that, what came up in the, in the group that I'm in, was what happens if you shortchange that pressure? How do you shortchange it? It might be going out and getting another job. It might be, uh, just doing nothing and waiting it out.

And time alone, typically something changes and, you know, you, you find a new way. But the fact that you stayed in and that you continue to work hard, and I, and the pressure was you were married. Baby on the way. I mean, you didn't have enough to, to, to cover all the bills. That's some serious pressure. And what was formed outta that pressure, I think was something amazing and something [00:22:00] fantastic that, that carried you through, you know, for many years to come.

And now you're able to pass that knowledge right onto other people. So, uh, just a little side quick story on that, right, because I, I do feel that we've all been under a lot of pressure right now. Um, over the last four years, and I know some people that are coming out of it, some people came out of it a couple years ago and crushing it already.

Um, but all of us that stayed in, I believe, have been formed from that pressure. But don't shortchange yourself is what my advice is to somebody. Lean into this trial, lean into this pressure, and come out of it even more polished and, and prettier like a diamond. Right. More valuable. So I, I want to like focus a little bit on the coaching part that you're doing now.

Uh, you were forced to figure it out. I think it was great and, and, and I've kind of [00:23:00] been in that situation before too. The more I had my backup against the wall. The more I leaned into it and didn't happen overnight, but best time to plant a tree was 25 years ago if you didn't plan it 25 years ago right now.

And, and that's kind of what I feel with coaching. I don't care if you haven't made any money in a long time and you're struggling, figure out how to afford the coaching. It's more valuable than going out to dinner. A few nights a week and spending a hundred bucks at dinner. Right. So tell me about your coaching, about your style, um, how you teach people even how much it costs if you want, if you want to go there or direct people on how to go there.

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: Yeah. Well, I appreciate that. I mean, if anyone wants to find anything. That's TLOP and the website's TOP online.com. So TLOP online.com. Uh, you slider there, you can sign up for our newsletter. It's free. I write it myself, not ai. Um, I, I like to say that like, it's actually me. It's not a virtual assistant.

The Philippines writing [00:24:00] my newsletter. It's me. It's my words. Easy to read. Um, but I, I, I like putting free out. Like we had the saying, if it's free, it's for me. So our YouTube channel is tons of free content. Uh, but the coaching came about this way. Never on my vision board was I going to coach loan officers for a living outside of my organization or own a coaching company.

Right. It just, if you and I were talking in December of 19, or even May of 2020. That wasn't a thought. Even if we got into 21, I probably would've been like, no, no thanks. Don't have time for it. But when I started podcasting and the podcast, because we called it the Loan Officer podcast, 70 80% of our audience comes from the mortgage industry.

They started digging what we were doing and they started reaching out. I guess some people would call them fans, we call them T loppers. So they would [00:25:00] reach out and they would say, Hey, do I'd love to come work for you, or I, I'd love for you to be my mentor. And I'm like, well, unfortunately. Like you can't come work for me because I'm in Florida.

You're in Oregon and I wouldn't advocate for you to to join my branch that far away. You know? So I'd help that person find a good branch. Maybe someone I know that's in their geography. 'cause I really believe that we need to find the right leader before we find the right company. Um, and then I would have people reach out to me and they'd say, Hey, do I want some coaching?

And I was like, well, I don't do that. Like, again, the only people I was coaching throughout my career were my los, they were my branch managers. Like I coached them, but I wasn't coaching people outside of the organization. So I started doing what I normally do. I refer out, right? Like I don't teach blocking and tackling.

Like, do I know how to structure a loan? Hell yeah, I do. Am I any good at it? Yes, I'm really good at it. But if you wanna learn FHA va Fannie Fratty fmip, uh, [00:26:00] residual income, how to read a credit report, I'm like, look. Either go to the MBA and do school of mortgage loan origination or call xenex. Call Casey over at Xenex and do ground school.

Right? Like I just don't do that. So I was doing the same thing. When people ask me about coaching, I say, Hey, call this company, go to this company, check out this website. And I kept getting the same types of responses, right? Oh my God, this company wants $3,000 and. When I was on the phone, they called me fat and ugly, or this company wanted like 500 bucks a month, which I could afford, but the person that would be coaching me has never done a loan before.

So I was like, well, this kind of sucks. Like there's no, there's no spot for someone to go where it's affordable. And the coaches are actual people coming in from the trenches and preferably, they're still in the trenches. So one day training for one of my Ironmans, if you've ever been stuck in a pool for like an hour and a half doing laps [00:27:00] without any type of podcast or music going on, I advise it, but it can also be me be a little stir crazy.

I advise it. 'cause when you get past the stir crazy, you let your brain start really working in overdrive. So I brain start working overdrive and I just started thinking what's something that we could build for them? Where it's affordable, but they get access to me. It's affordable, but they get access to my friends.

So we built out TLOs originator coaching, and I tell people it's the number one value in the industry. It's the only place you can go and get the same exact information taught by top producers for 3000 a year where everyone else wants to charge 3000 a month. Um, we call it a community. Because I'm a bit of a gym rat.

I like to exercise and I think of myself as both a triathlete as well as a, a weightlifter. I love to go to LA Fitness and work out, like some days I'm in the pool. Some days I'm gonna play [00:28:00] racquetball with a buddy. A lot of days I'm gonna be lifting. Rarely am I ever doing Pilates, but they offer it.

Rarely am I in the sauna, although they have one. Right? Rarely am I, am I playing basketball because I'm no good at it? They offer a basketball court, but I can go to that gym whenever I want and it's gonna give me whatever I want. And there's a ton of people there that are also into doing the things that I like to do.

So we built TLOs originator coaching the way you would a, a membership based like health Spa where we coach on Tuesdays live. We do sales training on Thursdays live. We have a coach on call every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. All of my coaches are in the business. All of my coaches are doing loans for a living, so for three hours, if you're a part of our community, kind of like being in college and going to office hours, you can get one-on-one with a coach for 10 to 15 minutes every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and we're gonna do live coaching for you every Tuesday, Thursday.

If you can't make the designed [00:29:00] times, don't worry about it. It's all recorded and it's all inside of the e-learning platform. So that was my kind of epiphany about two years ago when I was in the pool trying to solve for, you know, this person I referred out. Came back to me with an unpleasant experience because they were upset.

The person who was coaching them has never done alone. And this person came back to me with an unpleasant experience because they were called fat and ugly and they were being charged $3,000 a month. We built something that we feel like is, is something that is affordable, yet it also brings value. Um, and we call it what we call it t lops originator coaching.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: Nice. um, I want to expand on a couple things. I found it on my phone, believe it or not. I, I actually took some notes when you were talking. I up on stage the, uh, a few months back because I actually liked some of them quite a bit and, and compliment to you. 'cause I heard [00:30:00] a lot of people talk and I I didn't take that many notes on everybody.

So there's a couple things I want to go over and I'm gonna bring back that word, discipline. Um, I actually bolded this section, um, at the event. So it said that if I, and correct me if I have it wrong, but love, discipline and structure. Is born if you combine all three. So can you say what you said back up on stage regarding that?

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: Yeah, a hundred percent. I'm actually gonna be presenting this next Friday for Novus Home Mortgage at their annual conference. Um, and I'm probably going to lean into it at Mortgage Con in February, uh, when I get 10 minutes to do like a, it's kind of like a battle. Like they have four of us going on stage and each of us gets 10 minutes and we get to talk on leadership.

So I appreciate you asking me about this. Yeah. This, this came to me, it was an epiphany that I had. I was with my parents, right? The school bus driver, the electrician were big Atlanta Braves fans. That was, if [00:31:00] we ever did a trip. We drove from Orlando to Atlanta. We stayed in a Days Inn, and we would get Bleacher seats to go to the July 4th series at Fulton County Stadium.

Back then, that's where the Braves played. So we're, we've all been Braves fans. I was a baseball player my whole life. My mom was the score keeper. My dad was the coach, like we're a baseball family. So because of the mortgage industry. I've been able to do some amazing things for my family, including my parents.

So one of those amazing things that this industry has afforded me was when Atlanta opened up their new stadium. I called my parents and I said, we're going to the first ever game at the new stadium. So I'm like, I've booked us three flights. Uh, I have us two hotel rooms and I have tickets. 10, 10 rows behind the dugout.

We're going, so of course you gotta think you're a parent, right? You have four children. Anyone else who is a parent, you, you can really relate. If, if you're not a parent yet, I promise you, one day you will be able to, to to [00:32:00] relate. So we are pre-gaming my parents. Now I have cool parents, right? My dad turns 75 next week, but they're still cool people.

And so we're pre-gaming, having a couple drinks, having some apps right before we go into the game. And my mom looked at me very sincerely and she's like, how did I get so lucky? Like, look at you, look at your sister. Like, how did I get so lucky? I'm like, luck. I'm like, mom, there is no luck. I go, look what you gave us.

And she's, my mom's like, well, like what I gave you. I grew up in 1100 square foot house, right? Very working class, lower middle class. I go, who cares about the house? I go, you gave us love, like tons of love, discipline. I may still have some wealth to my rear end from it, and you gave a structure. And like discipline was, and not the wells on my butt, but if I screwed up, it took my, my phone away.

And back then we didn't have cell phones, if you remember this. I wasn't allowed to talk on the phone. Like that was my punishment, [00:33:00] was like whatever girl I was dating, I couldn't talk to her on the phone. Um, I go, we sat down and had dinner every night that I didn't have practice or a game, you know, we had Sunday breakfast together.

You and dad gave us love. You gave us discipline, but you also provided structure. You know, I went to three schools my whole life. I lived in one house that I remember. They moved to that house when I was two. They sold it when I was 20. I go that structure, the fact that you, you're putting no merit on that alone, let alone the love and the discipline.

I mean, there's households that have tons of love, but no discipline, right? So I had all three. So that moment. I remember flying home the next day, probably a little hungover, right? 'cause we pre-gamed and we post-game. And I just started thinking about that conversation with my mom. 'cause none of that was planned or scripted.

I was thinking about my wife. So my wife, um, is a pet rescue junkie, [00:34:00] right? So right now I have a, a 3-year-old, three month old puppy in my house. Right. The, the dog has seizures. My, my wife picked her up, drove her two hours to the University of Florida in Gainesville to see a specialist to see if, if it was a brain issue or just like a epilepsy issue.

Good news, it's epilepsy. They can medicate for it. So the puppy's expected to live a full healthy life. But my, my wife's a a a rescue person, so we constantly had dogs coming in and out of our house. Like we have our dog, but then we have fosters that we will bring in until we can find them a forever home.

My wife has gained a reputation of, you want one of her dogs. You just do. If you can get a Michelle Owen dog, you're getting a good dog. Regardless of breed, regardless of age. Well, I slowed down one day. I am like, why is that? There's three things, love, structure, and discipline. Like those dogs know that they will be fed every day at 6:00 AM and at 5:00 PM.[00:35:00] 

Those dogs are disciplined when they don't act the way that we need 'em to act. They're given tons of love. When I say tons of love, I'm six foot two, 200 pounds. I was in the front yard today being good girl. Good girl going potty outside because we're potty training a three month old animal. But if I can't show her big love.

Then she doesn't understand that she's doing something I want her to do more of. Right? If we can't provide structure, they don't know what to expect. An animal's more willing to act out. And if I let 'em know it's okay to bite me, right? Oh, it's all cute when a puppy's nibbling on you. The problem is one day that puppy grows up and the nibble becomes a bite, and all of a sudden, Morgan and Morgan, um, I'm sure you have in California, you're getting a personal injury lawsuit because your dog bit someone.

So then I started thinking about my kids. I'm very fortunate. I have two children. They're 18 and they're 21. I like my mom. I'm like, how did I get so lucky? I'm like, but did I get lucky or did I [00:36:00] emulate everything my parents showed me? I gave to my parents, and I mean, I gave to my children and I'm so fortunate to have such a great partner that she's a way better parent than I am.

Like if you wanna talk about the Queen of Discipline, the queen of structure, and the Queen of Love. I'm really good at loving as a parent discipline, eh, I'm probably the nice guy, right? Um, so my children had that. So then I started looking at my business. What did we do so well that we grew from one branch to nine branches from 40 million a year to 40 million a month to 70 million a month.

My average loan officer was with me for nine years. My average branch manager for 13. Those numbers are unheard of in this industry. Well, guess what? They had a ton of structure systems and processes. That's why you'd want to come work for us. We had love and [00:37:00] better than our competitors, not as good as I would've liked it.

We did provide discipline, meaning if you didn't do things a certain way, then you are gonna find. Career opportunities elsewhere, right? We terminated top producers that were pipeline terrorists, right? We terminated top producers that were cancers to the office. Um, and although I think we could have done a better job looking back over those 17 years together at the discipline aspect, I did notice that that compared to our peers, we are easily in the top, probably five or 10 percentile in terms of discipline.

So. What you saw on stage was just me being reflective and I'm like, yeah, whether it was raising children in the 1980s, raising children in the 20 teens, raising puppies or raising loan officers, there's really only three components that matter. It's love, it's structure, it's discipline.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: Yeah, I, I love that. And you know, I [00:38:00] think back to my originating days, and I, I used to say this all the time. I was like, well, I'll start with the story of how many countless times I heard loan officers say I can't stand realtors. And I was like. How can you not stand them? They, they're out there hunting every single day for your food, and they're giving you the business and you can't stand them because they're questioning you on a few things, or they're calling you and asking you where the loan docs are, or whatever it is.

So it goes to me, it goes back down to learn how to do your job better than good, like be great at it, and they'll never have to call you again to ask you where the loan docs are or why we're not funding, right? So get good at your job. Oh, by the way, don't just like 'em, love them. You better love your, your realtors.

You better love your clients and when you do love them, truly love them. The, the, the [00:39:00] difference of what gets poured out to your clients and, and your referral partners is amazing. I think it goes back to the story you just said. Your mom will say, how did I get so lucky? And I used to say all the time, like, how did I get selected?

I got the best clients in the world, got the best referral partners in the world. Well, I don't think it was luck, right? It was like I poured out so much love to them and I was good at my job because I had structure and I had discipline and, and I think that to me, if I wanna relate it, it's like systems.

You gotta have systems in place in your business. Otherwise structure and discipline falls apart. So. Super, super insightful. I appreciate that. I really liked it. Next question I have for you is you, you set up on stage audit your top 10 people that you spend time with, what does that mean to you?

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: Oof. This is a hard one for me because I love to hang on to the [00:40:00] past in every good sense. Not the bad sense. I don't hold grudges. I'm probably the anti grudge holder. I mean, you could probably punch me in the face right now, spit on me, and then I'd say, did you mean to do that? And you're like, nah, man.

I'm sorry. We'd hug it out and I'd move on. Because I don't, life's too short for me to ever have a hold a grudge. Um, but I hold on to relationships like people that mattered a lot to me when I was nine. I, I want them to matter a lot to me when I'm 49 and I'm not even 49 yet. So I'm fast forwarding a couple years into, uh, into the future and as I have become a student and I've been, been coached, um, and follow other people that I look up to.

What I've noticed is that no, we are all the sum of the top 10 people we spend the most time with. And it's, it's not a knock on the people that matter to me in my teens or my twenties or my thirties. However, as we [00:41:00] grow, it's okay to acknowledge that we're gonna grow apart, that, um, you know, are, we're gonna change.

We all should be changing, right? If you're not, if you're not growing or dying. So, um, for me, when I said audit your top 10, I think every single year we as humans should look at who do I spend the most time with in 2025? And if I had to remove two people, who would I remove? Who would I remove? And if I wanted to add two people, who should I add?

Now, by the way, I'm not saying don't be friends with those two people. I mean, one of 'em could have been your sister. You're not gonna not be friends with your sister. She's your sister. But what I'm saying is that she doesn't have to be the person that you're spending the top 10 amount of time with, and there's probably one or two other people that you could slide into that.

Um, and when I started doing it myself. I'm happier, like I'll start there. [00:42:00] I'm just happier, let alone I'm more productive. Right. So I have found, the friends that I love Mo to spend the most time with are the friends that are also into personal development, that also are into doing hard shit that also run businesses or are high up in their careers.

Right. That's just, I have more in common with them. We tend to also see the world through the same lens. It's not a knock against my high school buddies, but if I have high school buddies that aren't into any of those things, I just have less in common with them. Therefore, the time I spend with them, it's not overly productive.

And I find that the only conversations we have are we're, we're rehashing the good old years. That's cool to do four times a year. I don't know if that's cool to do once a month. So that was what I was getting at. Same thing goes professionally. I mean, I worked for an amazing company, and it still is an amazing company for 17 years, like shout out to Waterstone Mortgage.

[00:43:00] But there came a time where the things that I was into and I was interested in and the places I wanted to go, that wasn't the right vehicle, that wasn't the right alignment. So it forced me to go out there and, and the minute I did it, you, I, I learned two things. I learned how great Waterstone mortgage really is.

I did because there are certain things that we were doing so well that I took for granted, but I also found some bigger thinkers. I also found some people that were a little bit more adventurous in how they saw the future of mortgage lending and where they wanted to take it. So I think we all should, should embrace the fact that nothing changes if nothing changes.

The world is always changing, right? So if the world is changing, if we're sitting still, we're actually falling behind. Therefore, we need to be evolving and growing and pushing ourselves to do hardship. [00:44:00] Recognizing that not every decision you make is going to be the quote unquote right decision, and that's okay.

Because I bet 90% of the decisions you do make were the right decision and every wrong decision. If there's such a thing, which I don't believe there is a wrong decision, there's just decisions that didn't work out the way that we anticipated, but they teach us the lessons. The 90 things that went right didn't teach you anything but the 10 things that didn't go right.

There's a valuable lesson there, and that's where you and I were taught as children. No pain, no gain. That probably came from a gym coach or a football coach. Actually in life, especially business, no pain, no gain. If you don't put yourself in situations to make mistakes, then you don't put yourself in situations to learn or to level up.

Um, long-winded answer as I tend to do, but it, it started with the audit, the 10 people you spend the most time with.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: Yeah. I love that. The next one that I really liked, and I don't [00:45:00] know if I have a mistype here or not, but it says that invest in the S and me. I would think it's 500, but I have in my notes

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: Thousand 5,000. It's

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: Then next to it I say use the rule of 72 to see when it will double. So explain that one.

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: So the s the s and p 500, right. Just a, a simple index, whether it's the Dow Jones Industrial or the s and p is the top 500, uh, index stocks. Right? So if you look at the Dow Jones s and p 500, um, though, if you invested money in, in those. They typically spit out what an eight to 10% rate of return on an annual basis over the past 50, 60, 70 years.

So the rule of 72 is simply take your average rate of return and divide it into 72. So if you are getting an 8% rate of return, on average, eight goes into 72 9 times. So every nine years, my money will double. So when I look at taking [00:46:00] money. To invest. Where can I put that money? I can put into the s and p 500.

I can put into the Dow Jones Industrial Average. I can put into a Vanguard fund. I can put it into Nvidia, I can put it into Bitcoin, like right, I can put that five grand in so many places for investment purposes, and more than likely that five grand will become 10 grand in roughly eight to nine years because of the rule of 72.

Because that money's gonna grow by eight, nine, 10% per year if it grows at 10%. I'll do some quick math for y'all. 10 goes into 72, 7 0.2 times, right? So if I put $5,000 into an index fund at, at a 10% rate of return in 7.2 years, that 10 grand is, or that five grand is now 10 grand, right? So that's just a simple, uh, personal finance rule of thumb.

But what if I put that five grand into a conference? Five grand into a consultant, five grand into a coach. [00:47:00] What's that gonna be worth That knowledge that I pick up, right? Taking my learning curve from here to here, I can guarantee you when you study the most successful, not just in our industry, but other industries, the $5,000 dollars that you put into the S and me 5,000, right?

That's gonna return. 10 to 20 times more than what you would've received if you put that money into the s and p 500. But I mean, if I go to a conference and I meet you, right? So you and I met at, at at Sales Mastery, it costs me five grand to get there. Right? Ubers and drinks at the bar. 'cause those drinks are cheap.

Uh, the ticket to get in the hotel room, the flight, I was five grand. However you and I met. By you and I meeting you shared with me that you're having great success doing virtual workshops to attract home buyers and bring [00:48:00] value to realtors. I then take that knowledge, I go back to my market and I start doing it.

All of a sudden, I'm generating one mortgage closing per quarter, and I'm meeting four realtors per quarter. And those realtors are each worth only one transaction a year. So super conservative numbers. That's eight transactions, eight transactions. I live in Florida. My average loan size is three 50, so that's roughly three 50 times eight, two and a half million in volume, right?

Let's just say for all intents and purposes, because I can't price, I can't sell service. My average commission net, net is a hundred basis points. That's still $25,000 in commission I earned because I spent five grand to pay for a flight. A ticket to sales mastery, two hotel rooms and some $20 crown in waters at the hotel bar, right?

Like, and I got that return in one year, whereas if I put [00:49:00] that five grand into the s and p 500, I had to, it took me eight or nine years to double it. So it's, it's my way to encourage people to get out there, invest in themselves. One of the questions I get all the time from younger originators, Hey, do what's the best CRM?

I'm like, well, the best cms, the one that you use. Then the Then, then I ask them, but why do you need A CRM? All because every top producer uses a great CRM. I go, yes, but how many referral sources do you have? None. How many leads are you generating a month? One or two. You don't need a CRM. Take that CRM money.

Put it into a coach. 'cause someone needs to teach you how to build relationships and generate referrals. Right. We don't spend money on CRMs until we have so many referrals and leads that we are not doing the best job of tracking them and, and marketing to them. So that, to me, Dino is the s and me 5,000 versus the s and p [00:50:00] 500.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: I love it. Two more questions and man, I'm hungry, so I, I don't.

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: that, that's my queue. Hey, do. Let's do the shorter version of the answer.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: Well, this one's gonna be super quick. What is your favorite book or two?

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: Okay. In order, atomic Habits by James Clear, never Split the Difference by Chris Voss, extreme Ownership by Jocko. However, I just read Shoe Dog this year, which is the autobiography of Phil Knight. Freaking amazing.

And I had one of my coaching students, which I love this, he bought me and sent me Dan Martel's buyback your time and Shoe Dog and buyback your time are probably going to, um, have to make the list eventually. And I don't know if you've read this one, Dino, [00:51:00] but, but I, I know how spiritual you are. If you've never read Untethered Soul.

Make sure you read that. It's awesome. It is, and it's a quick, easy read, but I thoroughly enjoyed Untethered Soul.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: I will definitely read that one. I just threw. I just put it down. All right. Last question.

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: I could have gone Old Testament for you, king, king James edition, but it's, it's, it's probably been a decade or two since I've, uh, I've, I've dug into that behemoth of a book. I did read Hamilton though, right? That thing's thicker than a Bible. Um, and it was really good.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: I'm gonna do this to you. Remember? For, for those of you guys that are listening and not watching, I just put my fingers together and said short, short answer. All right, last last question, brother. If I picked you up right now, took you to some other state in the United States and said you have to do loans and you have to make a million dollars before you can come home and visit your family or come [00:52:00] back to your family. What is your strategy? You still have all the knowledge you have. You don't have a lot of money, just enough to cover your bills, so you can't just go buy a bunch of business or do all these big events and do all this stuff, right? Like you're, you're starting off, you're basically a first year loan officer with a ton of knowledge.

How do you do it?

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: Uh, I'm going to call on credit unions, like, but that, that I will go call on credit unions who specifically aren't doing FHA VA and, um, usually smaller banks, smaller credit unions, even if I have to drive an hour outside of town to find them, um, and build partnerships with them. Uh, that would be number one.

And then I would also complete the 12 week challenge, which is basically where I call email 12 realtors a day. Every single day. Schedule one appointment, go on one appointment so I can build out my, my realtor referral network. [00:53:00] But while I'm doing that, I believe I can have a much quicker opportunity to go land three or four credit union partnerships that feed me two or three loans a month.

Even if I have to have some form of a revenue share agreement with them, right? Where they're compensated 50 basis points. Um, it's, it's probably the one thing that I was talking earlier, I know I do short, but I was talking earlier about having to change the people I was around to think bigger. That's thinking bigger.

My, my old me before I started finding new friends in the industry and hanging out with them just would've gone back to the 12 week challenge. 'cause it's what I know that works. And it's, it's, it's proven and I can do it really easily. However, when I study the industry and I befriend other people.

They've been able to generate more leads and more closings much quicker [00:54:00] by finding institutional partners and small banks and credit unions can be that, especially if you yourself don't work for depository. So that's, those are, I guess that's two answers. But the two things I would do.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: No, that's great. I mean, that's, that's perfect. And I, and I love the detail on it too, so it's funny, I, I asked that question to everybody, and these are big producers or ones that used to be big producers and um, now are doing something else, right. What I find interesting is they all go back to old school tactics and, and you actually did the same thing, right?

It's call 12 realtors a day. It, it's not that hard. Go to open houses, right? Do do the old school things that you're gonna get in front of people and not have all these strategies in place. Now, I'm not against

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: I couldn't spend money. If I could spend money, I would actually do virtual home buying workshops, but I know that's gonna cost me money. I need a landing page, I need a marketing budget. Um, you know, I need a fancy [00:55:00] CRM to help manage some of that. So if I can't spend money that I need to be able to do the things where the money I do spend.

Is going to be, um, variable based on transactions. So that's where the partnerships with the credit unions or small banks would come into play.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: And it's interesting 'cause of all the guys that I've had on here. And, and women, um, none of them have said call credit unions and small banks, and I think it's a great strategy. I, I think back, actually, I, you know, I'm not producing now, but years and years and years ago, I actually, I totally forgot about it too.

But I did that with a bank and they wanted car loans. They didn't do the mortgages. And they would give me mortgages and I would give them car loans. It was, it was actually brilliant, right? It was so simple. So I think the, the, the logic there is always find what it is that they want. How can you help them before you go and ask for help?[00:56:00] 

I, I, I've always looked at that when I was growing my business, it was like, what can I do to give them something of value before I ask for anything else? And I think it's important, right? So love the, love the answer. Loved having you on here. Thank you so much for coming on and uh, man, it was really great.

Pleasure, pleasure getting to know you more.

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: I, I appreciate this and yes, I'm, I'm very happy with this connection and next time you're in Orlando, you know, 'cause we're just right down the road in three time zones over Next time you're in Orlando, I'd love to repay the favor. Have you come on and let me interview you.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: I would love it, man. I would love that. So guys, we are here to empower, equip, and educate you the way lending should be done. And as Craig Davis said, one of my past guests, just be part of the good human club. Like, it's not that hard, right? So, um, thanks again for listening and, and remember this whole social media thing, right?

It helps. So please like, please comment and share. Even more importantly,

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: Yeah, if you like what [00:57:00] Binos doing, if you give him a five star review, that tells other people that they should tune into content like this, so make sure you give him a five star review.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: I appreciate it and go to TLO on YouTube on the web, uh, tlo p online.com, I think you said, and we're gonna have it all in the show notes as well. But thanks Steve for coming on. Appreciate it.

Dustin Owen Raw Interview: Uh, thanks for having me. Take care guys.

Dino - Dustin Int Raw: All right, bye guys.