How to Scale a Mortgage Brokerage 78% in One Year — Scott Valins Explains

What does it take to grow a mortgage brokerage to $3.7 billion in annual volume with 350+ loan officers — while still personally producing over $100 million?

In this powerhouse episode of The Way with Dino Katsiametis, Dino sits down with Scott Valins, founder of GoRascal, to unpack the real systems, mindset shifts, and leadership strategies behind explosive — yet controlled — growth.

Scott shares:

• How GoRascal scaled 78% year-over-year without breaking
• Why consistency beats “big recruiting months”
• The systems that allow him to produce $110M personally while running a company
• How structured onboarding prevents broker-world chaos
• Why social media is now the fastest path to building referral influence
• The mindset evolution that changed how he sees the mortgage industry

This conversation goes deep into time management, recruiting philosophy, culture-building, AI adoption, coaching, and high-performance habits.

If you’re a mortgage broker, branch manager, or loan officer looking to scale — this episode is a blueprint.

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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Learn more about Ethos Lending at ethoslending.com.  

Transcript

Dino Scott Raw: All right guys. Without further ado, here is Scott Valance from Go Rascals. Welcome, welcome, man. How are you?

Scott Raw: Good to be here. I'm good. Thanks, Dino.

Dino Scott Raw: so, so brother, I gotta first ask you, uh, right out the gate, like Go Rascals. It's kind of a unique mortgage name. How did that come about?

Scott Raw: Yeah. You have to remind me. No, I'm kidding. We're, uh, we're super proud of our name. Uh, it's, it's been a journey for sure, but I think as we become a bigger company, really two things have happened. Number one is it just becomes a name that people are familiar with, and then you don't really think twice about it.

It's just, just a sound that comes out of people's mouths. And two, it is like you can build a, like a following with marketing and you become a brand name in certain areas. And so then it just becomes, again, like a unique creative name that everyone's used to. Um, but the origin. I'd have to take you back to 2019, 2020.

Um, when I, when I was starting up the, the company with my partner [00:01:00] David, um, our, our original business model was to be, we're, we're based in New York City, Brooklyn, New York is, is home and, and where our office is. And, um, we had a, an idea, or our original plan for our, our business model was to, um, bring, uh, inexperienced people into the industry.

Right? It's kind, I feel like everyone goes through that phase as a, as a leader in the business where it's like, I'm gonna go that route. I'm gonna, I'm gonna be a steward to the industry and try to bring in fresh blood. Usually they're, they're younger and let's, let's help our industry have legs for many decades to come.

Um. So we wanted to recruit locally. New York City's kind of a weird market. Uh, it does attract a lot of, a lot of people outta college. Coming to New York City wanting their first kind of entry level job, uh, we knew we would be competing with the tech space 'cause it's so huge in New York City. And what comes with the tech world is usually pretty funky Company names.

Um, you know, Google, again, like we're all used to Google now. I [00:02:00] think it means what, like a a hundred zeros or it's, it's some like. It, it's some real number, uh, some real word, right? It has meaning. But I think if you interviewed someone 30 years ago and said, could, is there a use case for the word Google ever being a company's name?

Everyone in the room would say, yeah, no, can't, can't see it. Right? So we compete with the Googles, the Facebooks, the, the Yelps, all those, you know, I could keep going. So we knew we had to have a little bit of a, uh, we knew our company had to feel techie, um, to, to compete. We, if, if we just considered ourselves, uh, you know, just this plain vanilla kind of boring, old fashioned mortgage company with the words best or, uh, you know, guaranteed or any kind of words like that in our name, I think it might immediately disqualify us from the interest that these, these, um, kids outta college or, or, uh, we're looking for.

So, you know, long story short, we, we spent a lot of money going through a whole exercise with like a big high-end branding agency. [00:03:00] And, um, they put you through this whole, you know, there's 10 archetypes out there in the world when it comes to branding. Like Nike represents something very particular. And that's how they came up with the name and the logo and Facebook and everything.

Ours was, um, uh, I want, I keep wanting to say Voyager, which I, it might be right, but it might be something very close to this, like an adventurer. Okay. And that was just the way they interpreted mine and David's personality, not so much the business. There wasn't one. So within that space, um, they come up with names and they present you five.

And that's kind of the rule. Like five names kind of take it or leave it. We believe one of these is a hundred percent your future company name. If you don't like it, once in a while we'll go back to the drawing board. But we're so confident after spending two weeks and thousands of dollars with you, like you were gonna love one of these names.

And four of 'em were, were actually quite rough, like couldn't wrap our heads around 'em. Some very one was hydrant. Um, [00:04:00] literally. And now that we have this dog, you know, element of Go Rascal, you can only imagine what the purpose of the hydrant was. Um, and so Rascal was in there and I think of the five, it, it was clearly the winner think at first we were still like, we might have to pull on that, that, uh, that next round of, of names here.

But they helped put like the dog, uh, theme behind it to take it from like a mischievous style rascal to more of a playful, fun, you know, obedient by your side kind of element and the dog. So they brought it all together as for us with the branding. And yeah, we kind of fell in love with it and ran with it.

And that's where we are today. And now we're a much bigger, not so like hyper-local company. We're not recruiting kids interested in tech outta college, but the name has stuck.

Dino Scott Raw: Yeah. No, I love it. You know, I, so last night we were out with some friends and, um, haven't seen him in a long time, and the guy happens to be [00:05:00] a, um, you know, a designer and he makes, uh, like signs and backgrounds and sets for Hollywood and all that stuff. And, and you know, he was asking, we haven't seen him in a long time, so he was asking a lot of questions, right.

And he's like, looking at my shirt, right? And he's like, yeah, I mean, I. I guess from a my designer standpoint, I just don't get what you guys do when I, when I see your shirt, I'm like, well, to be honest with you, I'm okay with that because the real logo has lending right underneath the ethos here. And I'm like, and I can't stand it.

Like, I hate, I hate, I would never wear a t-shirt that said lending on it, right? Like, I would wear your T-shirt. I think they're actually pretty cool. And then, and then I love the, the actual like definition or meaning of ethos. So I wear it, but I would never wear guaranteed rate or you know, quite honestly, right?

Like I got this, uh, gift bag from Rocket. We were up there, uh, recording a commercial, uh, filming a record, uh, commercial yesterday, and [00:06:00] they gave me this gift bag. And, you know, we start going through and it's like, I'm not gonna wear this hat, I'm not gonna wear this T-shirt, I'm not gonna use this like notebook.

It's just like too much, you know? So I, I love the fact that you guys are different.

Scott Raw: and I love the fact that you just have ethos without lending. I will say that, you know, one of my good, good friends who's, uh, like in marketing did say to me at one point, he is like, you're, you're, you're not, you're missing out on truly marketing like what you do on your shirts and hats.

And so I, I get that side of it too. They no one, you're not a walking advertisement, but on the flip side, people ask questions. It's a conversation starter. And, uh, I don't think you or I are all in on, the only way to get business out there is to where, is to market ourselves on our head and our body. Um, so yeah.

Dino Scott Raw: Yeah. Not, not at all. I mean, I, I wanted to have something that my people would be proud to wear, not ashamed to wear, you know? Anyway, we can, we can move on past that, [00:07:00] but, but I love the fact that you guys are so different and, and you, you know, you, you do it boldly, so I love it. All right, so who the heck is Scott Valens?

Personally, professionally, all of it.

Scott Raw: It's a good question. Uh, personally, professionally, um, I mean, I guess I could take you back to my, my background in mortgages. This is kind of all I've known since college. Um, I graduated in 2001 and by 2004 I was in this business out in la close to Yale. I did six years in la I went to college, I went to Cornell University in upstate New York, originally a Florida boy.

Um, I think my bones were brittle and I was freezing after four years in, in Ithaca, and, uh, did a couple years in the city and said, all right, it's time. What am I doing here? I don't wanna go back to Florida. I want some warm weather. Go west, my friend. Right? Um, so I ended up in la uh, doing LA things, which were entertainment industry stuff, but I wasn't, it was just a.[00:08:00] 

A way to make money and have a job. And then yeah, fell back, fell into this industry. Like so many of us met, met some people that were in the biz that kind of gave me a shot. Um, joined a brokerage in 2004 and, uh, I've only been in the brokerage channel, uh, my whole life. Never in my whole career, I should say.

Can't say for my whole life. We'll see. Um, and, uh, that's been fun. I, part of me wishes I got to experience the retail side once to really know what it's all about. Not just, not just hear about it. I hear you laughing. Dino. You're probably saying you didn't, you didn't miss anything. But, uh, there was a period of time, what, like 2009 to 2011 or 12 where it made sense that everyone was, was flocking to

Dino Scott Raw: I, so I finally did it because I was a broker my whole life until I hung on from 2008 to 2012. And at 2012 I finally just gave it up and shut down my company, went to the retail side, and, and I have to admit for a minute, I actually really enjoyed it. And, [00:09:00] and it's probably just because of that period of struggle I was in, right?

It was, it was nice. Having an IT department, it was nice having a marketing department. It was nice having, you know, somebody that did everything and, and then, then the real kicker, it was really nice getting to go on the president's club somewhere really nice every year. Like that was cool. I liked it. But then at the end of the day when, when pricing, you know, was was like right in your face, I was like, I can afford my own president's club trip with my wife and anybody else.

I want for that matter, for how much money I'm giving up. I can afford my own IT guy. I can afford my own marketing guy. I can afford all this stuff on my own pretty much with just like a handful of loans. If I only closed a handful of loans, that alone would've been enough to cover an entire team for the difference in in pricing.

It was crazy. So you pay for a lot of that stuff?

Scott Raw: Yep. Yeah, I never got to go on a President's [00:10:00] trip, but I'd like to say that like every vacation I take is my own, my own president's trip with exactly who I want on my, on my boat. Right.

Dino Scott Raw: Yeah, exactly. So, so let's, let's just throw it out there right now, um, because I want everybody to know. I, I was pretty floored when I saw your numbers. Tell me your, I mean, here we are now at the beginning of Jan, uh, beginning of February, 2026. What did 2025 look like for you

Scott Raw: Um, yeah, we did about, I think 3.7 billion, um, about 7,500 transactions. Uh, and I think we ended the year at like 352 los on record.

Dino Scott Raw: and where did you start? Beginning of 2025.

Scott Raw: Yeah. It, it was a, it was like, I was actually, well, would I be floored that our unit count and volume count moved the same? I guess not, but it was like 78 to 79% growth.

On units volume and Los joined the company [00:11:00] year over year. The los joining the company, I was surprised, 'cause that doesn't necessarily match up, but units and volume, you know, go hand in hand. So yeah, it was a big, it was another big leap of a year for us. Um, yeah, super, super exciting, fun. And, and I, yeah, thank you.

It's, it's interesting too though, some might say like, where did things break that growth? Is, is that growth sustainable? But we averaged about, you know, 12 to, let's call it 12 to 14 new loan officers onboarded each month. And so. There was never a month where we brought on 50 and then nothing for the next three.

So it felt very stair steppy growth. It didn't feel like, oh my God, things are definitely gonna break, or they are breaking. Um, if you can anticipate that's, you know, I think one of the cool things about just the model, whether you're a branch just recruiting los or brokerage like you and I, um, if, if you're [00:12:00] consistent each month and you're hitting your number, whether that's three LOS or 30, um, it compounds.

Right. It compounds. You don't have to go get those three los again the last month, so long as you do a good job retaining 'em, they stay with you. So it goes 3, 6, 9, 12, and by the end of the year you have 36 los or, or whatever, and then you have all that extra volume. Um, and so while it looks like explosive growth, and I, I one could say it is I'm not trying to, you know, not give, give us credit and celebrate that.

Um, it, it, it, month to month, it never felt explosive and we just had 12 consistently great months that, you know, got us to our, our place. Um, one thing I'll say just, and when you were saying who is Scott that I, that I like to share is that, uh, it took me about a, I've been in this business for two decades now.

Took me like over a decade to really like fully. Give myself to this industry. I was pretty like, I was pretty insecure about being a mor um, in the mortgage business, [00:13:00] being a loan officer, a mortgage broker, whatever you wanna call it, for a long time. Um, I think part of it's because I started in the, we started in the subprime world when you could do your best to be as correct as you wanted to, but you wouldn't, you wouldn't originate loans if you didn't, you know, participate in the product suite that was out there.

And I think after only being in the business about, I only had about three real years until the market was pulled out from Andreas and crashed. I think coming outta that, even though I loved the business and couldn't wait for it to turn back on, um, it took me a minute to like kind of feel good about myself being in this industry.

And what, what, what was the catalyst for that was when I moved to New York. Again, end of 2008, I left LA moved to New York. The business never really turned back on until, call it like 10 or late nine 10, but I started to meet a lot of people on Wall Street who were part of the same crisis that we were a [00:14:00] part of.

They were the ones securitizing and, um, credit default swaps and all that stuff. And they were mesmerized and all they wanted to do was hear about what it was like being on the front lines, originating these loans. 'cause they were just, you know, in the back office, you know, packaging 'em and providing the products and the liquidity and everything.

And not that any of us were like just so happy about what happened, but it kind of validated the profession for me. Um, then I met like a lot of good people along the way who I think were similar to me maybe in like college background and stuff, because for a while I, yeah, I, I would even hear some people say, oh, I went to an Ivy League college.

Like you went to an Ivy League school and you're a mortgage broker. Like, and you know, most people might brush that off and be like, have you seen my bank account?

Dino Scott Raw: Yeah.

Scott Raw: but for me it would like sting and I was like pre-med for, for a good part of, of college. And I'm totally so far past that now. And again, meeting like, [00:15:00] just really like smart, intelligent people.

Even like you, Dino, having conversations with you. It just, I'm, I'm so good now and I just enjoy bringing more of those kind of people into my orbit. But it did take me a while and I, I don't know what it did to everyone else. Um, uh, but I think it helped me back for a little bit for the first like part of last decade, you know, from 2010 to 2015 or whatever.

And I just, I like sharing that. 'cause if anyone else kind of goes through that or, or went through that as well, then um, it's, uh, it matters.

Dino Scott Raw: You know, it's interesting, um, I guess my journey, I can't say I was ever like, not proud of it or anything like that, but, know, when 2008 hit. Hit rock bottom with it. Right. And, and for the first time. And I'm probably one of the most optimistic people that I know, you know, and, and I don't allow the negative talk and the negative [00:16:00] anything.

'cause I always try and figure out a way to spin it. My vacation home, um, just caught fire a couple weeks ago. And, uh, just to give a, a quick little example on it and, you know, it's like, it was, it, it's a little devastating, right? Like we, when we bought it, we took it down to the studs, we remodeled the whole thing.

My wife put her hardest and soul into it, and you know, and then we, and then all of a sudden this happens and my wife's, I'm handling my wife's emotions more than I'm handling the whole fire thing, right? Like, that was the bigger piece. But then a friend of us asked, a friend of ours asked, how are you guys dealing with it?

And the first thing that came outta my mouth was. I mean, it's okay. They're gonna, they're gonna give us loss of use. They're gonna buy us all new furniture. We're gonna get all new floors, we're gonna get all new everything. So at the end of the day, okay, we're gonna take a few months off from being able to go there, [00:17:00] but we're gonna get a practically a brand new house out of it.

It is what it is. You know what I mean? So when I look at 2008, and I go back to that, I had this moment finally when things got so bad, I had a moment where I thought, what am I gonna do? You know, like, what am I gonna do? And, and then I, I, I kind of looked back and I was like, I am barely working right now.

There is barely any business to be had, and I'm still making over a hundred thousand dollars a year. Which felt like I was in the total, in a, in a complete shit hole because I was so broke. But when I looked at everybody else I was doing loans for, they were. You know, happy 'cause they were making a hundred thousand dollars a year back then.

And, and I'm like, and I, I can do this on the beach. I mean, I'm, I'm barely working right now, so, so I had to step back and be like, perspective. Everything is perspective. I love that word. I still use that word all the time because I feel that [00:18:00] sometimes we get so in our heads about certain things you about being an Ivy League pre-med and you know, now you're this.

But, but the one thing that I'll say that can't come when I come back to the story I'm saying, I, at some point in my life stopped worrying about how much money I was making. And I really, truly started caring about the people I was helping more so than the business. And, and I, I went back to like this feeling inside of I'm helping people.

And when that changed, when that triggered, all of a sudden everything changed. Inside and out, right? Like the way I did everything and approached everything mattered and 'cause I was helping people. And then from there, you know, like business just kicked in. Like, amazing how that happens, right? When you change your perspective on things.

So I, I think, you know, when I look back to, to pre [00:19:00] 2008, people were just trying to make money. It was all about the money. And, and I think the, a lot of the, the guys that are in it now, especially when they survived 2008, they're good people. They're, they're, I mean, they care about their business and how much money they're making, but they actually want to help families as opposed to closed deals.

Scott Raw: Yeah, it's cool. The, the phrase I've learned that I think you're describing is a term called like self-organizing. So like, motivation can come from a def bunch of different places. And some people could be like, I have a financial goal because I wanna buy a new house, or I want to get, buy my mom a house and stuff like that.

And you, you, you put the math together and you say, if I do X, Y, and Z at this date, I can achieve that, that accomplishment. And I, I can meet that goal, which I think is, is great for people that have those. My success and, and my motivation. I consider something called more like self-organizing, meaning.

Instead of focusing on the numbers and the [00:20:00] number, you know, the exact like, amount of money you're gonna make or the exact number of people you help, it's more kind of aligning your day and your interests with things that like bring you joy ultimately. And I think that when you, when you bring up perspective, that's a bit of the gift of our industry that it, it's a good reminder of, of how lucky we are.

Those of us that are either have been in it since 2006, seven, eight, or before. That means if you're still in it today, you're, you've, you've, you've done really well. Right. The last 15 years, outside of the last couple, I've been incredible. Um, and some people have found their success through, again, like hardcore goal setting and everything.

I think others of us have worked really hard and, and followed the momentum and, and the joy and the opportunity and, um, have found success that way. And so I, I really feel like. It's hard for me to put like a goal on a Post-it note and just go attack it every day. Um, I, I, I work really hard and attack what's in front of me, but I, [00:21:00] I organize my, my, my day and my priorities based around what I, what I am really good at and what is kind of coming to me, um, energetically.

Dino Scott Raw: So let, let's, let's talk about you for a minute. Um, you told me what Go rascal numbers were in Go Rascal, you know, achievements, but I have to marvel a little bit about what Scott Valance achievements are personally as a mortgage, you know, advisor because your personal numbers are huge and, and you're running a, a, a pretty big ship I'm, you know, I'm trying to get to where you're at and I'm, I'm struggling with trying to do both, right?

I, I actually decided to burn the boat and not originate anymore so I could be all in on this and, and then I, you know, I think about it. I mean, the only time I I talk to clients are when they're my old clients. Like I still, they're my clients, right? They've been my clients for over 20 [00:22:00] years. I'm, I'm not gonna not talk to them, but man.

How do you do both? And, and, and let's start with just so everybody knows the magnitude of it. What were your personal numbers last year?

Scott Raw: Um, I think I closed like a hundred in. 10 million personally with and like 160 something units. I don't have the exact exact number, but that's what should be

Dino Scott Raw: You're over a.

Scott Raw: the Scotsman guide. Yeah. Over a hundred million. Um, I think what I've gotten really good at and um, is not really ever getting involved in a file post.

Call it contract. Like it's, it's one of the, and, and I love guidelines and I love fighting underwriters and I love fixing and solving and the, the best los know could, could take a loan all the way through and wear every hat, right. You could. I could. Um, and I think some of the best Los. When they have free time, we'll just stick their nose in and, [00:23:00] and get involved in a file.

Even if they have a good team under them, they just can't help themselves, right? They, you wanna close, you wanna impress, or you just wanna scratch that itch. You love looking at an approval and seeing how many conditions come out and going and, you know, advising a customer on what they need to get to clear condition.

Because my day is so busy with recruiting and leading our sales team, our los, and just being the CEO of a of a, of a large company, I don't really have a choice. If I wanted to do that, it would be at the bottom of my list and by the time I would get to doing that, it would already be tackled by my great team.

So all I do with my files at this point when I have to is, like you said, is speaking to the client initially, if it's like a warm referral from a VIP or a family member or a close friend, um, and doing some lift at the kind of pre-contract stage. And after that, I'm, I'm thankful that I get to really stay out of it.

Um, once in a while, you know, my team will, will pull me in to throw some weight [00:24:00] around and I think you can really, you can really, you can really segment off your, you know, the amount of time you spend in a given day. I like to tell people I spend about 10 to 15% of my day on average, on anything related to my production.

And the other kind of 85% is on the business.

Dino Scott Raw: So I'm gonna, I'm gonna, now, now that you said that, I'm gonna just kind of go down this lane for a minute. Um, the fact that you. Say those numbers tells me that you're probably a pretty structured guy and, and you have a way that you do things. So you say 10 to 15%. How do you, how do you even allocate that?

Um, or how do you structure your day so that it doesn't get away from you? This has been a really big thing for me. Um, started at, well, it started a long time ago, but, but about four years ago. Uh, have you, uh, do you, have you heard of Parkinson's law?

Scott Raw: No,

Dino Scott Raw: So it's, it, have you read the book? Science of [00:25:00] Scaling?

Scott Raw: uh, partially,

Dino Scott Raw: Okay, so the Parkinson's Law,

Scott Raw: kind of halfway through it.

Dino Scott Raw: the easiest way for me to explain it is when, when you go on vacation and you know you're gonna be gone for a week and you know, Thursday is the last day you got at work, somehow, some way finish all of the work that you're behind on. And everything that you're supposed to do for the following week, they're gonna be gone.

And then at the end, you clean your desk and you go home and somehow it's like your desk is cleaner than ever. Your emails are gone. You're, and, and it's amazing how you do that, but you can't do that every day. So I've been hyper-focused on my structure and how I do things because I, I, I just, I love the aspect of always getting better.

Um, so I want to go down this lane with you, you, with you, I mean, your company is much larger. You're doing quite a bit of business, more so than, you know, [00:26:00] most loan officers out there and, and you have a family with, I think a couple kids. What does this look like? Like how do you structure your day so you can get through the day and how many hours are you working and when do you start your day?

Scott Raw: Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna really blow anyone's minds. I, uh, my, I start my day around six 30 in the morning. I'm not a super early riser. I have two daughters who I help get off to school. Um, a bit between like six 30 and eight. Um, and then it's either exercise or do a little work. And it depends on what's on my calendar.

I'm, I'm pretty religious with my calendar, and I, I think I like to, I'll find little pockets of time to get things done that, you know, maybe others wouldn't necessarily, whether, you know. Yeah, I, I work through lunch. I don't take a lunch break. I, I take calls or do really quick conversations, like to and from work.

I walk to work, so I take, I take advantage of, so [00:27:00] I'd like to think that between, call it like, you know, eight 30 and probably six 30, I usually am like walking home and then try to be in the door by six 30. I'm using like every ounce of that time. I try to keep a lot of conversations with like, loan officers or customers or things that could kind of go off the rails and take a long time.

I try to keep 'em to 15 minutes. I try to ask in emails a lot, you know, what, what, what are we talking about? What do you, what do you want my ear for? Like, you got me, we're talking at four o'clock. Can't wait. But like, what's this gonna be about? So we can kind of dive right in on the conversations. I think I, I ask people who call me and don't text me or send me emails to only text or send me emails.

I think people that just call are just, uh, it's gonna be very difficult for me to. Pick up that call. 'cause I'm, I'm, I'm loyal to my calendar and I might forget to see that they called, if they just call, even if they leave me a voicemail, it's gonna be a minute. So I'll remind people, Hey Slack, you can slack me.

The best thing to do [00:28:00] is to email me. 'cause my assistant monitors my email and she'll, Hey, can I get some Thomas Scott? She's conditioned to be like, sure, like, generally speaking, what do you wanna talk about? A file growth, you know, um, you know, other things. And so on a new loan officer, I wanna bring on a company.

It's like, great. I really think like most, most of these conversations can happen in 15 minutes and not 45 or an hour. Some people will ask for an hour and I'll say, let's start with 15 or 30 and we can always do part two and we, well do part two a lot. So like, really like taking control of your time. I, I think I do that well.

I, I constantly strive to do better. Um. But yeah, I, I love Slack. So my team, my, my LO team, almost all our communications over Slack, um, that way it's, it's a 15 second exchange instead of a phone call that could drift off and it forces the other person to organize their thoughts. If it's written in any format, email's fine too, [00:29:00] but Slack can be even, even faster and quicker.

Forces them to organize their thoughts and ask for exactly what they want. Um, versus having a conversation drift off and you spend 10 minutes on the phone. Uh, it's basically like asynchronous work, right? Um, without taking up both of our, our sets of time, they send the Slack, I respond usually within the hour or so, and they got their point across.

Two minutes, I respond, another 60 seconds and we're done. Um, so like little things, little things. Um, I've, I've, I've, I used to have a lot of one-on-one meetings on my calendar that were, uh, weekly like, like, um, standard, you know, every month. I've, I've taken that down a lot and I've found like no changes to operations or success.

Oftentimes you just, you fill that space and you end up just kind of vomiting your thoughts on someone else when that's kind of a waste of their time, right? They deserve your well thought out, you [00:30:00] know, plan or idea versus workshopping it. Live on the spot you've already work, shopped it in your head probably for the whole day or two days.

It's, you owe it to everyone else to synthesize and, and put in writing. And I asked that of others and it, I think it saves a lot of time.

Dino Scott Raw: Cool. I wanna switch gears for a minute and, um, I wanna talk about quality of loan officers. Um, and I, and obviously we don't wanna bash anybody that works for you or anybody that works for me or anybody else out there, but I'll, I'll start with, in our broker world, um, we don't, at least we don't hold your hand as much.

Um, I always use the, the, the phrase when I'm interviewing people is like, I'm not looking for employees, man. I'm, I'm looking for partners and, and I need you to step into it. And, you know, we're not gonna manage your file completely. You have to be a [00:31:00] loan officer. You can't blame everybody for everything when you're not in your file, when you don't even know.

Guidelines or you don't, you chose a bank for, for price, but didn't even bother going through guidelines. Right. Like I, I've seen it now too many times and, and I, and I feel like maybe there's this laziness, um, uh, amongst them or, or possibly the cell phone that they're functioning on their cell phone all day without being in, you know, on a bigger screen to actually read guidelines.

Um, or, or even like lock a damn loan or, you know, it's hard to function on a cell phone outside of just talking to people and, and I don't know, I can't put my finger on it exactly, but I do feel like there's this, like, there's something missing and there's a part of me that says, okay, in this whole IMB world, um, versus the broker [00:32:00] world, I don't think they have it as bad. I think they, they, they fill that void a little bit. And I don't know how you guys are, but I, I'm struggling with it on my end because I don't have enough people to cover everything. But then at the same time, if, if I did, I would start turning into an IMB and I'd have to raise, you know, how much I charge every, for everything in order to pay for all of this.

So I have these people coming over from the IMB world and, and they're used to certain things and they wanna come here because of the price, but, but they still want all of this. And then it's like, hey, it, it's, you can't have all of it step into your role a little bit and you're the CEO of your own business, you know, from, from the way, like my loan officers say, right?

It's like you are the, the CEO of your own business. Start acting like it. If you don't know what's happening in your file, that's your fault, man. If, if something that's screwed up on the lock, dude, you're the one that's making $14,000, [00:33:00] not. This person, you gotta handle this. I don't know if you guys have experienced that or not at all, or if you've put guardrails in place for that, but, but I do feel like there's so many IMB loan officers coming over and they're not exactly ready for that switch.

Scott Raw: Yeah, I hear you. It's definitely, it's definitely a pain point and I think the more you can kind of be on the offensive around that when ellos come on board versus trying to kind of play whack-a-mole and like fix things when they feel like they're broken, when you believe they're not can, I think it just makes it harder and there's often, you know, tension and whatnot.

You know, speaking from our experience, I'm fortunate that we have, at our size, we have a, a lot of los, I would say a handful of los that are just unbelievable givers and we have a lot of los that are good givers that are always willing to help out, especially if it's [00:34:00] virtual meaning like someone posts something on a message board like Anello is, you know, very inclined to see it and immediately drop.

Whatever they're doing for a minute and write a nice response or tag someone else in to really help the person out. Then we have a few los that will, you know, Dr. You know, spend 15, 20 minutes like on the phone with a new loan officer when they see them, um, stuck or they appear lost. And I think having the ability to kind of rely on our, our workforce and our awesome team of, of salespeople to help their peers out has been a huge, like, unlock for us.

Because you're right. You can't do it. Um, and to a degree it's, to a degree it's not available in any structured way. Right. Like, even what I'm describing. Not like I went and said, all right, gimme 15 volunteers. You guys have to be in our school, uh, room, you know, from one to three o'clock. No, it's, again, it's a bit of this like kind of self-organizing thing where.

Maybe they see the way I [00:35:00] like to help in, in larger scale. I mean, I'll do one-on-ones, but I, I hold two like live sales meetings a week, and the back half of each sales meeting is just 30 minutes with me and a bunch of los, and we shoot the shit and they spit off a lot of questions and a lot of other los in that room will help an answer.

So it almost introduces that and that environment to that new lo to be like, oh my God, it's cool. There's 50 LO's and Scott, and Scott doesn't know FAJ guidelines really well, but Thomas does. And he just, he just solved it for me or said, call me after you hop off for five minutes. I'll, I'll walk you through what you gotta do here.

Um, and I think. I think you, you know, if, if that's not necessarily organically happening in your place, I bet you have some los that just love working for you and with you that you could tag and say, Hey, like, can you, um, can you look out for these things? Or can I pull you in by just tagging you into an email or some kind of exchange and [00:36:00] ask you to spend some time helping an lo that seems to be like veering or drifting.

It's, you know, it's like power in numbers really makes a difference. And, and I think los that choose to help, I think most los who are in a good place and like happy where they work, are implying to help out the, the new guy. A, because they've been there before. And B, it like feels really good and it reinforces like, you know, speaking what you know, reinforces your knowledge and builds confidence, right?

And so it's not just like a selfless act. You, you get something back by feeling good and reminding yourself. You're a stud when it comes to FHA manual underwriting guidelines that might help you go sell a realtor next week in a meeting because you helped a guy last week solve a, a tricky scenario. Um, but the second thing, just to address the other side is it's true.

I think there's a bit of an avatar potentially not issue in our industry, but you have to be careful of. Right. And I think the more you can snuff that out [00:37:00] when you're recruiting and interviewing and being honest about the model and what you provide and what you do provide, and not having all those walk in with expectations that aren't met.

And I'm not suggesting at all that, that, that, that you're doing that. But I think that can happen in our industry. I think there's probably some, some shops that aren't necessarily built to try to go out and recruit a retail load to the broker channel. And they do promise them the moon in the stars, and then it leaves a really bad taste in their, their mouth.

The elbow goes back to retail. And we now have a little stain on our industry that we otherwise, you know, didn't need to have. Um, uh, so onboarding the onboarding process, um, you know, we have like a, a, a single point of contact for every LO that comes on board that will consistently check in with los and also remind them of the resources that are available to them.

We also dial them in with like a core five lenders. Like we don't get credentials for all a hundred and whatever lenders we have for all those, but we [00:38:00] intentionally help them get their credentials for five of our best lenders. So we try, like you kind of mentioned guardrails, we try to direct them to a place where.

They're gonna have the best experience on their, it's almost the way, like Andy Reed calls the first, first 15 plays of every game for the Kansas City Chiefs. No matter what the defense is doing, he, he presets those and then he pivots off of that. I think the more you can almost, when you, when we sell our model to be independent, we can't tell an lo these are your first 15 plays.

Get in line or you're out. That's not our ethos. Um, but at the same time you can, you can surround them with what you know is best for them, especially for their first 90 days. Um, by directing them to the best lenders with the best AEs, where they're gonna have the best experience that we'll just reinforce their decision.

And then when, you know, shit hits the fan in four months on a loan. 'cause it always does. They don't like question their whole decision. 'cause they're like, the first 90 days were awesome. This is to be expected. This is the [00:39:00] mortgage business.

Dino Scott Raw: So let me, let me ask you this question. Um, you know, like in my case, I, I suggest five banks, same kind of thing. I say, if it were me, this is what I would do. I would pick three banks. And I would just use them exclusively. And then after you've done enough there, I would keep your favorite one. I dump the two that were second and third, and I'd pull in the other two of the five.

And then after all that's done, I would pick my top three and I would just stick with them. And, you know, and I, I remind everybody I did, my last year of producing was 156 million. And I didn't even have loan sifter or anything. I just, I had my bank, I had predictability. You know, I had, I had everything I needed within that.

And I stopped worrying about 20 basis points here or, or whatever there, because I, I didn't, I felt like in order to grow my business, [00:40:00] I didn't. I wouldn't have been able to do that if I was spread thin all over the place. Right. And, and that's the piece where, like with IMB, for example, any of the, the bigger banks and they're only working in one platform, they're only working with one bank, even though there's multiple in the background, it's easy.

And I think what happens when people come over to the broker world, and this is just for anybody listening, 'cause I know if you're not here, you're probably thinking about it. It's hard not to 'cause of how good our rates are, but my goodness, you know, it, it's just like a kid in a candy store. And, and my biggest advice to everybody is chill out and, and narrow down your focus because it can get outta hand really quick if you're all over the place.

And believe it or not, your support staff would appreciate you 10 times more because they don't want to be in 10 different portals either, you know, and, and, and it gets difficult So. I, I love what you said. I [00:41:00] suggest that you actually only give them five logins. That's a much better approach. I think I'm gonna start doing that.

Scott Raw: I mean, they still have the lender directory with everyone, but we're leading them to water, and I believe our AEs also proactively reach out and say, Hey, welcome to Go Rascal. Do you have 15 minutes tomorrow for me to introduce myself? Then it's like if they're meeting five AEs and getting their logins handed to them when they onboard, they have a much better chance of directing that business to those, those five great lenders.

And you're kind of curating those first kind of 90 days. But, but I agree with you wholeheartedly about all of those things, and I think there's a bit of a syndrome where you price out loans for retail los and they see how much better your pricing is. They know what they can sell and then they come and if they use Arrive or loan sifter, they see even better pricing than they ever needed there to make great margin.

And they wanna send a loan to that per that shop that's at the top of loan sifter, despite the fact that they didn't, it's over 2 75 for, you know, like they don't [00:42:00] need that top lender necessarily. But I think it's a bit human nature and a bit like kind of you get wide-eyed and say, oh my God, if I can get them even that rate, I didn't.

But it's, it's not ideal at the beginning. For sure. Eventually, if you're a pro and you structure your loan and sta and everything, like it will close at any of those lenders that are showing up, right? Like it will if you submit a very clean file and probably it will be a good experience. Um, so yeah, I'm with you there.

Dino Scott Raw: So let's go back for a minute to, um, brand spanking new young guys that, or gals that want to get into the business. Have you guys set up any kind of, uh, of an academy or something to help people come in? Or are you kind of done with that whole thing?

Scott Raw: I told you I, I paid my dues in 2020. Um, no, unfortunately not. Um, you know, the way we operate and our margins and everything, we just, at the [00:43:00] moment it's, it's, it's not, I, first of all, I believe it is a great business model. Um, I don't think it's just, uh, a charity exercise. I do believe it's a great business model because, uh.

With technology the way it is, you can take someone with no experience, uh, if they have the aptitude and they could be a great producing lo in 12 months, maybe if it's six, if you know you're a shot that, you know, can provide leads potentially, or really to me it all really comes down to mentorship more so than anything.

Um, I mean, so many of us have had mentors in this business that for one 18 month period of time or whatever, like that was the unlock that we needed to, to kind of explode and really understand how we were gonna, uh, grow in the business. So, nope, don't do it at the moment. I, I think it's, I tip my hat to shops that do, and I think it's, it's important for our industry to keep bringing fresh blood into it.

Um, and, uh, yeah, frankly, I. [00:44:00] I like recommending Los Go to the retail side. In some cases that, those that have like, kind of good, I even think of like big box retail, like go to Wells, you know, they'll put you in a branch, they'll train you, you'll get swings, you'll get reps and, and let's talk in 12 months.

And, um, if you know what you're doing, you know how to generate business, you'll even get a paycheck. Yeah. Um, would love at, at some point you probably will wanna jump, jump away and get a little bit more independent and entrepreneurial, uh, and just stay in touch. I think people appreciate that.

Dino Scott Raw: Yeah, for sure. Um, question as far as, uh, mindset goes and, and I wanna. I wanna bring it into eventually what your favorite book is. Um, but I want to know what your mindset is because you're, you're obviously a high achiever. Are you constantly seeking wisdom? Um, or are you just too busy to, or when you read, for [00:45:00] example, do you just read stuff that takes your mind off of business?

Like where, where are you at on that?

Scott Raw: That's a good question.

Dino Scott Raw: a balance?

Scott Raw: Uh, so, um,

uh, mindset, um, yeah, so my favorite book is probably the one, uh, that I'm reading in the moment. I'm not a guy that. So, yeah, let's go back to like, I am very much like a student of life sometimes, like to a fault, like I am, I'm, I'm impressionable and I think it's helped me a lot because I've been able to put my ego aside in a lot of instances and listen to what someone's telling me and just go execute.

Um, I love coaching. I've been in, I've been in the co I've had a coach now for, I think since 2009. Um, probably 10, maybe so like 15 years. Mortgage Coach for a long time. I mean, go coaching now. You and I both are in there. That's how we met. Um, I love the leadership over there. We got Richard Mulligan and Amir, [00:46:00] um, and so many other great coaches in the, in the platform.

I also have an executive coach and my partner and I share a business coach. So I have three coaches right now. It's a little rough on the p and l, but um. I, the day I, some days I wake up and I'm like, all right, who's, who's on the chopping block? And none, are they really all like, hit, hit what I need in a different way.

My executive coach is like a therapist, right? Like full on. We'll do a whole session about my marriage, frankly, and like I'll take so many things away from that and bring 'em right over to like my relationship with my business partner and the way I lead and operate and, you know, you know, just so much to say about that.

You know? Then my, my partner David and I are our business coach. Doesn't know mortgage Now he knows it pretty well, but never knew mortgage. But he is just a high level growth strategy guy. We do quarterly offsites with him. We meet with him as needed, really, you know, [00:47:00] he is kind of like available whenever a 30 minute call on the calendar tomorrow.

But we do two day offsites with him, um, usually the last two weeks of each quarter to plan for the next quarter. Uh, he helped us integrate like EOS into our, you know, our leadership and, and operation style and whatnot. And then, um, my, uh, executive, oh, and then of course goco. This is mortgage coaching, recruiting, like tactics, like X's and O's.

And they all, they all fit together and I'm really motivated by. Whoever I'm really talking to in the moment that has something valuable to share, you're motivating me right now in certain ways. Just the way like you're holding yourself and how good your camera is and how good your lighting is. Like, I was immediately in influenced by that when we started this call, and so I'm, I'm always out there looking at, you know, what other people are doing and thinking about, you know, how it can help me.

You know, you have to be careful as well. Uh, you, you want to be careful about not losing [00:48:00] like, what I call like agency, which is like kind of control of like your truth and who you are and not feeling like you should always be like that other guy. And so I think it, there's, there's a fine line. I think that's where some of my, like executive coaching helps me with that piece.

Um, but went off on a bit of a tangent, but like, I'm, as far as reading, I only really read business books. One of my coaches recently said to pick up nonfiction. I'm loving our book club. You know, 10 x is easier than two x is what's in front of me. So like, that's just all I'm thinking about right now and when I read it and ideas come back to that.

Um, but yeah, that's, that's Scott Allens.

Dino Scott Raw: I, I, I love what you said, student of life and the, I would say, um, I, I, I would say just from personal experience to add some stuff in there that, to read that is outside of all you think about all the time. 'cause I'm like that and, and I [00:49:00] found myself needing to step away from it for a minute because I was starting to become imbalanced.

And I've been divorced once. I, I never want to get divorced again. It was the worst thing in the world. And, you know, marriage just isn't easy. And then being married to guys like us isn't easy. Being married to mortgage guys isn't easy. I mean, my goodness. You know, sometimes I have to think about like what my wife goes through being married to me.

Uh, I, you know, I mean, I'm constantly reading how to be a, a better leader. How to be, you know, better with my time, how to be better with all these things. But how come I wasn't reading how to be a better husband or a better father, right? Or a better whatever. And, and then I, I, I thought to myself, all right, you know what, I gotta, I have to, when I look at my library, I have to say there's going to be a mix.

I have to put a mix in, of something that's going to better me as a person as opposed to a, a business person, right? And, and that

Scott Raw: still within the [00:50:00] nonfiction world, you, so you're, you're it, you just don't want it to be solely about like business growth, but nonfiction around interpersonal things,

Dino Scott Raw: Yeah. Like there's a book about raising strong daughters, for

Scott Raw: Mm-hmm.

Dino Scott Raw: that you should read. Right? It's a good book. Um, and then my, my personal belief in God, right? It's like, Hey, if, if I have such a strong faith, then why am I not reading more about that? And, and I've read a couple great books that, that captivated me.

And I was like, awesome. You know what? It was really good to step away from what I'm going to go do to, to make more money and to help more families and to whatever, to how to be a better person. And, and I think when I started mixing it, I became a better person, a better well balanced person. And, and I, I really think if I could stress upon, you know, to you or to anybody for that matter, to, to not be so one sided all the time. It's important. So what is your favorite [00:51:00] book?

Scott Raw: Yeah. I, I, I honestly don't have one. Whatever, whatever book I'm reading is really like what I consider my favorite in the moment. I don't have a, a classic book. What's yours?

Dino Scott Raw: Um, I love Good to Great. Like I, I just love that book. Um, it, you know, it, it, it's so true how there's so many good companies out there and there's so many good people and there's so many, you know, even in the books that had so many good churches, but how many great businesses are there? How many great people?

How many great husbands? How many great fathers? How many great churches? How many great, whatever. And, and the, you know, I, I feel that you have to get beyond the, um, well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna bring in another book real quick, 'cause I'm, I'm reading it for the second time. The science is scaling. And I read it the first time.

And for whatever reason, I, I, I didn't think I was, I just wasn't that impressed. [00:52:00] Um, and everybody kept talking about it. I was like, gosh, I, I was probably trying to do two things at one time and, and I, I missed it completely. So I'm back at reading it again. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna bring in the piece that I'm on right now.

It was, um, there's too many people that talk about the ceiling, but they don't talk about the floor. And you, you know, you set your f you, you don't set your floor to a minimum standard. Right? And, and that's how you're just, and

Scott Raw: Yep. Raising your floor.

Dino Scott Raw: yeah. And you allow your, you know, you, you try and hit those highs, but you allow yourself to get into the lows.

And it's like, no, you have to always maintain a minimum floor. And that minimum floor is always gonna be good or better. Anything above it is better. But don't ever let me fall below the, the good mark. You know? So I, I think that's, uh. Kind of how I feel about that.

Scott Raw: Do you read, uh, uh, paper books or do you read on a Kindle?

Dino Scott Raw: [00:53:00] So I stopped reading in general, and I just listen now.

Scott Raw: You only listen,

Dino Scott Raw: Yeah. Except I'll say the, the last book I actually read, because it wasn't on audio, uh, book is, uh, the Black Line. Um, have you, so Michelle, uh, she's, she's like in the mortgage business. She's a coach. Um, and she wrote it and I thought, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this just because I, I liked her and I had her on the podcast and she caught my attention and I was like, I'm gonna read it.

And I was fortunate enough to be on an airplane. Otherwise, I don't know when I can just sit down enough to, to do that. Uh, and by the time I have time to sit down, it's usually at the end of the day, which means I'm either too tired to be looking at a, a at something small like that, or I have to give it to my kids and, and my wife.

So, uh.

Scott Raw: is fascinating 'cause it's all coming together for me. So I can't listen to books on tape. I can listen to podcasts because they meander and it's [00:54:00] often storytelling and, and entertainment. I can't listen to a book on tape and really retain, I'm a visual learner. And I, I honestly just discovered that about a year ago as I was noticing in meetings I was having with people, if we would just talk it out and they would write me takeaways after I would have trouble like remembering and connecting.

And so I'm like, all right, now everything is agendas get put on the Zoom screen. Everything. I, I'm a visual guy. Um, I have never been a great reader. I, I often, like some of the easiest times to read are like in bed at night and I'll just, I fall asleep easily. I'm a good sleeper. Like you put me on a pillow, I'm out.

And I noticed my wife, uh. Uh, you know, sometimes one of our daughters is like, in our bed or whatever, and we'll get into bed and, um, I noticed my wife always, uh, has her Kindle and it's lit just perfectly to not wake the kid. And I'm over here thinking I wanna read my paperback book, which I'm gonna pass out, but I, I put the lamp on, the kid will wake up.

And so I just woke up. I was like, all right, I'm getting a [00:55:00] Kindle too. And it's totally transformed reading for me. I just love how, you know, I think a page on a Kindle is less than a page in a book. So there's a tactical getting through more pages and now I'm realizing you listen. So in the time when you are listening in a car or whatever during like transition time, which is valuable on a plane, I'm usually working then because I can't read when I'm driving.

But I could kill phone calls when I'm driving. So when we talked about organization early, everyone does it different, but I'm using those transition times that usually work. I can't read, I don't like Kindle. You're doing it to accomplish reading and our days are all mixed. And, and it's just so, it's so interesting that I, I don't know for other people that might be listening that are like, yeah, I suck at reading too.

The Kindle is just completely transformed. My interest desire. I don't think I used to like opening a book and go into the page. There's just something about it. It might not be logical and having to physically turn a page. Um, [00:56:00] and I'm, I'm a, I'm a, I wouldn't call myself an avid book reader yet, but I'm, I'm staying, I'm on pace to read our, our her book of the month by, by the end, end of February.

And that's an accomplishment for me.

Dino Scott Raw: Yeah, that's awesome. I, I will fall asleep within probably five minutes if I try reading a book. I do have a Kindle, and when I, when I switched, before I went to audio, when I switched over to the Kindle, you're a hundred percent right. Such a different experience just became, it was pleasurable to, to, to do it, you know?

Um, and then now I'm just working so much again and. My calendar literally is just completely booked. It's blocked out. There is no randomly calling me. It just doesn't work, you know, if it's not in the calendar. And, and then when I get home, because of my commitment to try and have a little bit more balance, and, and I've, I've actually said to my wife, I'm in a season that I need to be purposely imbalanced [00:57:00] and, and I, I need to know you're gonna be okay with it.

You know? So,

Scott Raw: That's a great clearing conversation. How did, did you get, uh, was it a, was it a five minute conversation? Was it

Dino Scott Raw: Yeah. No, she was totally cool with it. Um, because she knows where we're at with everything I'm trying to do, you know, and, and she gets tired of it sometimes, but she also sees, like, I started waking up at 4:00 AM. So that I can go on an, an AI sprint, like it was, I, I needed to learn how to use AI properly and, and, and the magic that it actually can do, right? I was using it like Google before really. It was like, oh, this is so cool. But I had no idea, like the depth of what it can actually do. Right? So then I decided to wake up at four o'clock. I cut my workout short. I cut my, my like, uh, morning routine short. 'cause I always read the Bible a little bit in the morning.

And, and then, and then I just said, okay, I'm, instead of taking that one hour of [00:58:00] personal time every morning, I, I took 15 minutes. I, I stretched and listened to the Bible or my daily thing and, and then done off to work. And I was hitting it hard by, you know, let's call it four forty five until eight 30.

And, and all I did was like. Hardcore AI work. And it got me to a place where, um, I'm really happy with what I've learned now. I'm trying to figure out how to implement all that and how to do all of these things that have been on the back burner for so long, or things that I thought would always be cool, but we were never big enough to do, or didn't have enough money to do or whatever, and it's like, gosh, I can just do them now.

So, so now I'm just completing projects, right? And, and I went on a sprint for 30 days. It ended up being a little over three months and, and I was happy about it. And then literally February 1st, I, instead of 4:00 AM now I'm at 5:00 AM and then I'm hoping I'll do that for a couple months, then I'm gonna go to [00:59:00] 6:00 AM because I know sleep is also so important and, you know, and it's like, I, I can't sacrifice my health either.

I did it purposely for a little bit, and then soon enough it's gonna go back to normal, you know? But like, one of the things I'll, I'll talk about, because you, you were instrumental in it, uh. You know, it's so virtual assistance of all types. Right. You know, you and I had a really great conversation and it helped me a lot because it, it helped me get over the fact that they're from a different country and I don't know if I can trust them or I, I don't know if I'm gonna communicate well with them or whatever the deal is.

And, and you're like sitting there telling me how you have all of these different virtual assistants for all of these different things. And I'm just like, I'm an idiot. You know? Like he, he spends less on 10 different people than I do on probably two, you know what I mean? And, and you got way more coverage with some really talented, skilled people.[01:00:00] 

So I, I actually, I dunno if you know this, but, um, Sagan, I did sign up with them.

Scott Raw: Oh wow. Awesome.

Dino Scott Raw: So I'm super stoked. Thank you for that, that referral. Um, just this morning they emailed me the job posting. It's gonna officially go out. I hope by next week I started having some candidates and, and I'm looking and I still have my assistant and, and I'm so loyal.

I don't think I'd ever like, do anything, but, but maybe I can take some off her plate, because what happened is with my deep dive into ai, the more I, I did that, the more things I started stacking, right? And, and then I started stacking 'em on her. And, and now she's overloaded. So, you know, I, I finally just like stepped back and I'm like, all right, I gotta start acting like a, a bigger company and, and breaking this up because I'm putting all that on me.

But it's not fair for me to put all of that on everybody else. So let's start divvying it up and, and get like, clearly [01:01:00] defined lanes. So that we can operate properly. And just for everybody listening, obviously Scott and I are talking about like running a company and, and running. But, but same exact thing, man.

Like if you want to be a high producing loan officer, don't do everything yourself and don't make your, your one assistant do everything herself or himself, right? Like have clearly defined lanes that people can excel in and, and they can run in their lane without having to do stuff that they're not good at or they don't know how to do or anything, right?

Like that's the way to run a business. That's the way to run a successful, you know, loan officer, uh, you know, business as well.

Scott Raw: Yeah. First of all, I, I think it's really cool. Everything I'm hearing is just like so much in like intentionality from you, just the way you're structuring your day, the conversation you had with your wife, uh, like that kind of communication style I think is like so attractive and so necessary, and. Our business and our world today.

Um, I think when you speak [01:02:00] about ai, probably a lot of listeners, I think everyone's, we're gonna like permanently be insecure about ai. Like we're gonna, you know, there's gonna be like a level of like imposter syndrome or, you know, thinking, well that's kind of the opposite side, I guess once we're, we're doing it and we don't think we're we're worthy.

But, um, it's, 'cause it's moving at a mile a minute. But I, what I see in, especially in our industry is so many people that are, that, you know, know what they're doing in the space to a degree that are experts that are giving away free webinars, seminars. There's always like a, there's always like an upsell of course, but like if, if you're short on AI and you're doing virtually nothing, or like you said, you're only using chat GPT to, um, to, uh, to be a, a better Google search.

Um, it's a really. Pretty quick and easy leap to start to really integrate it into like, you know, daily workflows. And there's great, you know, whether you're in Facebook groups in the industry, um, you got lenders sending out, [01:03:00] um, you know, webinars they're doing to share, you know, the ideal tech stacks and whatever.

Uh, and once you get there, you could chill. You know, again, I think we wake up like, all right, I'm doing this, but I'm like, what's Dino doing? Oh God. Like, wait, Dino just spent 90 days building ai. Like, I'm screwed. And, uh, you're not, you know, you're probably making something awesome, but, uh, you know, there's a way to incorporate it into your daily workflows now.

And, and you don't have to think about like the next thing you're incorporating right after you get this, you know, working and functional.

Dino Scott Raw: For sure. All right, dude, we're, we're going long, but before we go, I have one last question. It's my favorite question. I always ask everybody. Loan officer mine. Okay. Like, if I picked you up right now, dropped you off somewhere in the United States that you don't know anybody and all that, you still have all your same knowledge. can't bring your bank account with you. I'm [01:04:00] gonna give you an allowance that's just enough to pay for your rent and a couple little minor things. So you, you know, you're not like struggling, but you definitely don't have extra money to do, do stuff, right? You have to figure out how to make a million dollars selling loans and oh, by the way, you can't see your family or talk to them again until you've made a million dollars. What do you do? How do you get after it?

Scott Raw: Interesting. Um, so how am I originating loans like from scratch in a brand new, in a brand new

Dino Scott Raw: yeah, you're, you're brand new, but you, you're not, 'cause you have

Scott Raw: don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know anyone either. So I have no, no relationships, so I can't lean on my, on my ecosystem. I am probably, um,

Dino Scott Raw: either. You got nobody, right? Like you're, you're gonna go be a loan office for somewhere, right? Like, we're trying to, we're trying to basically show other people.

Scott Raw: social media.

Dino Scott Raw: what should you do?

Scott Raw: I, social media, I think, [01:05:00] um. I'm going to pop up my avatar and my profile and I'm going to start to post every day on two or three platforms, uh, around something skillful and knowledgeable. I pay really close attention to like, you know, the bond market, mortgage, back securities and all that stuff.

So I'm gonna lean into like what I love about the industry and I'm gonna share it and I'm gonna build relationships and I'm gonna follow all the local people, realtors, CPAs, financial advisors, all the referral sources. And I'm gonna spend a lot of my day liking and commenting on their posts to build relationships.

I'm gonna slide into their dms, try to make coffee appointments. Um, they're gonna go check out my pages. I'm gonna have like 30 days of just professional, good content up there, which is gonna like wet their be and say, alright, this guy looks cool. He is the new, the new man, the new man in town, the new sheriff in town.

And, uh, once I get, you know, face to face. Uh, [01:06:00] opportunities. Um, I'm, I'm gonna, you know, lean into my edge, which is I think like knowledge intelligence and, you know, a percent hits, right? They say like 25% of people are turned off sort of like, you know, 25%, like really like you, the other 75%. It's like an uphill battle to convert, and I'm just gonna scale that with numbers leveraging social media until I've got just a huge referral network.

Dino Scott Raw: Social media, so I have to ask 'cause unless I had it wrong. You weren't even a big social media guy, were you up until recently?

Scott Raw: No, right. Good point. So I've really, I've seen the power of like LinkedIn, the unlock on LinkedIn, not only like results from like, you know, I'm, I'm a recruiter, that's really my main hat. Um, not only just like direct results from that, but just from the joy that writing brings me. And you talked about like balance before.

A lot of my social media posts are not about [01:07:00] an lo that we scaled from 40 units a month. It's about just like. Stories and things that are going on in my life. Like I think my most successful post last month. My social media girl, CJ, was telling it last week. I, I flew to to Texas to speak at new re's leadership conference and I had these new awesome leather gloves that my wife bought me for Hanukkah.

And I lose that. I lose things all the time. And I got, uh, I went downstairs before I got in the Uber, and uh, I had the gloves in my pocket. It wasn't so cold. When I go to get out of the Uber at the airport, I notice there's one glove in my pocket. I didn't let the Uber driver leave. I looked all over the car, it was gone.

Called my wife, she went downstairs, she looked everywhere, gone. I've got one leather glove in my pocket and when I was coming back to New York, it was gonna be like 10 degrees and two feet of snow. And all I was thinking is I need these leather gloves to play in the snow with my, my daughters. And I get back after the trip, I forgot about it at this point, and I take my dog on a walk around our [01:08:00] building and right on the ledge, right outside, like the entrance to our lobby is my missing leather glove.

And I just, someone found it in this. I, I gotta be honest, like before I that happened, if I was going and walking in the street and I saw one leather glove, I'd walk right by it. I'm, I'm not interested, I'm not a bad person. Someone said, oh, clearly there's a one leather glove here, not two. I'm gonna go and I'm gonna place it exactly where the person who needs it will have the best chance to see it.

And lobel, four days later, I got that leather glove and I shared it and like just the feedback and it was just like, it lifted me up, not just to share it, but just to see what it did to the community. And again, if I'm dropped in, you know, BFE, middle of nowhere. That's, I'm gonna, I'm gonna just share a lot more on social media than I ever was comfortable doing a year ago.

Dino Scott Raw: Awesome. I love it. Um, it's funny because most everybody goes back to old school of what they [01:09:00] did when they first started and everybody that's on has usually been seasoned and all that. And, and I always think it's a combination because there is a new world as well. I, I still feel that belly to belly is still the most powerful thing you could possibly do.

But what you said was, you know, I'm gonna slide into their dms and then I'm gonna get a coffee appointment. 'cause at the end of the day, I feel it's a combination and, and I think it's. You gotta fill your social with who you are. Authentically though, everybody tries to be fake. It's like, be authentic.

'cause you, I love what you said, not everybody's gonna like you. You know? Like maybe only 25%, if you're lucky, maybe 50. But at the end of the day, who cares if you get that percentage of people that like you and you like them, man does work. Get good. It's fun.

Scott Raw: Totally, and I'll just say, I know we gotta hop, but like I'm lean into your edge. If I was a comic, I'd be hilarious on social media with the [01:10:00] memes and all this stuff. If I was super creative, I'd super each post up to make look so fun and cute. I'm neither of those two. I am, you know, a knowledge kind of student, you know, academic a bit.

And so that's what I would probably lean into. I can't pretend to be the other two. So I think so much of this industry is like, find your edge. Everyone has one. Um, maybe I'm like, just like, like my sales tactics are so good, which they're not. I'd shoot videos of me on social media so people here could, my gift of gab.

And so everyone has an edge in this business and, and we shouldn't pretend that we're something else and fight it. And just, you know, these, some of these social media posts, uh, I get insecure about 'cause they're, they're personal and they're weird. And even some of my friends are send me texts like, are you okay dude?

Like, what's this for? Why are you putting these posts up? But like, it's, it's my truth and I enjoy doing it. And like, that's all that's gonna come out of me, you know?

Dino Scott Raw: yeah, for sure. I gotta tell a quick [01:11:00] funny little story. You know, it's, it's like I'm hitting social media, I'm trying to do all that and, um, and, and, you know, you can't help it. Sometimes you're like, gosh, that one didn't get anything, or this one, you know, and, and then I post, so we have a little, we have a little hobby farm and we live in San Juana, California.

And, and. It's, you know, it's an acre and a half, but in Orange County, California, that's a lot. And we have goats and chickens and, uh, all, all these animals and trees, you know, vegetables and all sorts of stuff, right? I like it out there. I do enjoy being out there and everything. And when I post stuff like that, it tends, tends to get a little bit more.

Uh, and I've gotten away from posting just personal stuff for whatever reason, because it's always, I'm, I'm on it so much, and when I say I'm on it, I'm on it less than I've ever, you know, than before because I'm on it so much that I don't even go on anymore and I don't scroll and I don't, it's just like, gosh, but I had

Scott Raw: that your justification as to why you didn't read my story? Is that, is that what you're trying to tell me here?

Dino Scott Raw: yeah, a [01:12:00] little bad, but I, I'm gonna go back and read it. Anyway, so we were out trying to, my, my wife said one of the chickens flew over the fence and it's too dumb to fly back over. And it was time to put 'em away and, you know, go to bed. And so my wife ends up hopping the fence and getting underneath the brush and trying to get the chicken.

And I'm like, this is, this is just too good. So I pull out my phone and start taping and recording it just from my own benefit. It was just too much fun. Right. And, and then our, our big dog comes over and she's trying to push him away. And this chicken started screaming like, I thought it was gonna have a heart attack and die.

It just, it, I've never heard this chicken, a chicken scream the way this thing did.

Scott Raw: Right,

Dino Scott Raw: My kids are over here laughing and the, my wife's underneath. And anyways, I post that damn video and it got like over 200,000 downloads and I'm. Nobody cares about mortgage. Everybody just wants to see something fun.

Scott Raw: [01:13:00] Right. Some disaster happening. Uh, I think. Yeah, it's a, it's, it's a great, great way

Dino Scott Raw: So, dude, I really appreciate you coming on, man, and I'm so glad I've gotten to know you and, and I thank you. I'm, I actually took a bunch of notes too, just on how to be a better leader. So great job. Keep, keep it up, dude.

Scott Raw: Thanks, Tina. This was awesome.

Dino Scott Raw: Yeah. And guys, if you guys enjoyed this, do me a favor, please like it, share it, comment, let us know, you know, it, it does feel good to know that we are helping you somehow.

So we love you and we'll see you next time.