Learning How To Lead Through Service with Ben Shrewsbury

Join hosts Garrett and Nolan Clay Rogers on the Think Biz podcast as they sit down with Ben Shrewsbury of Squared Away Mortgage. A veteran who served 10 years in the Army Infantry, Ben brings his "squared away" approach to the mortgage and lending industry, where he's been for 21 years. Learn how Ben's journey, starting with helping his soldiers navigate financial challenges, evolved into a passion for educating clients and simplifying the often-confusing world of mortgages.

In this episode, Ben tackles common misunderstandings, explaining why focusing solely on the interest rate isn't the full picture and clarifying requirements beyond the traditional 20% down payment. He shares insights into the Squared Away Mortgage difference, highlighting their educational focus, competitive rates as a small business, and their commitment to being a relational partner rather than just transactional. Ben also offers valuable advice for entrepreneurs on building resilience, continuous improvement, the importance of trust and rapport, and why a service-first mindset is crucial. Discover how Ben and his team view helping clients secure a home as being a part of the single largest investment and a significant emotional journey in their lives. Plus, hear what major "cardinal rule" clients sometimes break during the process and how Squared Away Mortgage aims for a swift 22-day closing average.

Whether you're navigating the mortgage process yourself or looking for inspiration from a service-driven entrepreneur, this episode is packed with valuable takeaways.

Connect with Ben Shrewsbury and Squared Away Mortgage:

• LinkedIn

• Website: squaredawaymortgage.com

• Phone (call or text): 405-332-7255

// Thank you for listening to the show!

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• https://www.thinkbiz.solutions
• https://youtube.com/@thinkbiz.solutions
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/thinkbizsolutions
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Podcast is produced by Hammonds Media. For assistance with you digital marketing needs, visit https://www.hammondsmedia.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:01

Hello,

SPEAKER_01: 0:14

hello. It is a beautiful day, and I am here with two incredible individuals, Nolan Clay Rogers, my amazing co-host. Thank you, thank you. And we have a just incredible Again, incredible guest here with us, Ben. And Ben, how do you say your last name? Shrewsbury. Shrewsbury. Ben Shrewsbury. He's just full of knowledge inside of the mortgage and lending space. And so we're going to let him introduce himself a little bit here in a second. But before we do that, just Nolan, how are you doing, man? How was your weekend? I have coffee in hand. The temperatures are rising more than I would like, along with more humidity than I would like. It is quite humid in Oklahoma today, but we thought we were going to have some crazy storms. But anyway, I digress. We're going to... We digress. Back to the master of mortgages, defender of freedom, Ben Shrewsbury himself. Tell us a little bit about yourself, Ben, and introduce yourself to the listeners.

SPEAKER_00: 1:24

Good morning. Thanks, guys. As I said, I'm Ben Shrewsbury, squared away mortgage. As you can probably tell the military tone of that. So yes, I did serve for 10 years in the army infantry. So that's kind of how I named the company, everything. If it's right, it's squared away. 45.

SPEAKER_01: 1:44

Absolutely. Yeah. One of my favorite things that you do is you have... Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And that stems from your time. And how long have you been doing this mortgage lending and been inside of the industry?

SPEAKER_00: 2:28

21 years, actually.

SPEAKER_01: 2:30

Wow. That's awesome. So 21 years. How did you actually get into that? Was mortgage lending solving a problem Ben had or just somebody else's problem?

SPEAKER_00: 2:38

It was actually solving a problem my soldiers had. I actually got licensed four years before I got out of the military. Oh, okay. Financial counseling is probably one of the... most prolific issues in the military today because soldiers don't have time to handle their finances when they spend a lot of time in the field and there's not anybody around them in their environment to you know assist with their finances right you know whether you're in garrison pre-deployment post-deployment getting your affairs in order is always going to, you know, keeping your financial house straight is one of the biggest issues that, um, soldiers have. And it also affects their, the morale. And so whenever I saw that there was a need, um, that the military wasn't addressing, um, I decided to address it myself to raise our unit readiness, you know, to a higher level.

SPEAKER_01: 3:31

Perfect. And then how, since you were basically planning on that four years before you even left the military, how's that progression?

SPEAKER_00: 3:39

Well, um, Hindsight being 2020, I never expected to leave the military. But because of what I was doing in this industry, among others, that's eventually what made the decision to separate from service. You don't get rich serving your country. But it definitely was a path that I decided that I should continue on.

SPEAKER_01: 4:04

Okay. Excellent. Yeah. Very cool. And, you know, that makes so much sense because in hearing you present multiple times now, you're so good at the education piece. And it sounds like that was the roots behind things is that your soldiers, they had a gap in being able to know exactly how to go about the finances or the lending piece or the, you know, I'm going to mix my words here, but it sounded like there was an education piece that was a part of the area that you solved. Absolutely. So what would you really kind of classify yourself as? I know you're a mortgage lender, but are you a teacher by heart? What's kind of your passion part of what you do?

SPEAKER_00: 5:00

Well, I would say I never used the word teacher, even though I have done that for quite a while. But I was a trainer in the military. So as an instructor trainer for many, many topics, I want to make sure that I share the education that I have in order to make sure that others can help make their own best decision based on their own personal deductions. My job is not to sell things. It's to educate and to help people realize what it is that fits their personal situation the best. I present multiple options and the client decides.

SPEAKER_01: 5:40

Now, is there similar problems that most of your clients tend to come across then through your process you take them through?

SPEAKER_00: 5:45

Absolutely. I mean, you know, TV, social media, et cetera, leads people to believe that the only thing that they want to focus on is like, well, with mortgages, the rate. I don't. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've never paid a bill at a rate. I've never once, you know, the OG&E has never said, give me some rate. Yeah. Always pay that with dollars. And so when you equate the math problem and you say, these are the dollars that, you know, go back and forth with these things, that's probably the biggest, you know, problem. to clients because it's the only thing that they've heard of, so it's the only thing they think to ask.

SPEAKER_01: 6:28

Okay. So for our listeners then, could you break that problem down a little bit more as to how you tend to explain that the best?

SPEAKER_00: 6:34

Sure. I mean, a payment's broken down into four parts. It's principal and interest, taxes and insurance, P-I-T-I-A. And so of that, the rate portion is just the principal and interest. So it's only half of the question. If you... have an excess of 80% loan to value on your loan, you're going to have either mortgage insurance or private mortgage insurance. So that's yet another piece of the principal and interest before you say actual insurance, which is property tax and then property insurance. So I guess there's another little piece right in the middle there. So clients don't understand which one of those pieces apply to them. They don't necessarily know which situation would be less expensive or more. So FHA insurance, mortgage insurance is higher than conventional private mortgage insurance. Conventional rates tend to be higher than FHA rates because they are, because they're not government subsidized. And so every one of those things is part of the equation that we want to solve for them. And we put the math together. black and white in front of our clients so they can help decide, okay, well, I can really see what each one of these solutions is. And then the math makes sense. It's not just the rate that they're buying. And we can show you a lower FHA rate and a higher conventional rate. The conventional payment can actually be less and that baffles people. And they go, well, how did that work? And I said, well, for your particular situation, this is where it comes out. So you have to look at it.

UNKNOWN: 8:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 8:13

So is that where some clients, they have this issue of, they might not even want to go to a mortgage lender because they assume that the math's not going to work out in their favor.

SPEAKER_00: 8:21

They assume the math won't work out. And then two is they assume we're all the same.

SPEAKER_01: 8:26

Uh, okay. So what differentiates then squared away mortgage from a lot of the other people in the industry, not to name names or anything, but what is the thing that you differentiate yourself with?

SPEAKER_00: 8:37

Well, for sure, the education piece, um, as far as knowing exactly what you're going to get, um, But the other piece is, I mean, we are a small business. We're not a huge company. So we don't have echelons and echelons of senior management that has to get paid a piece of that pie on the way up. So our rates are extremely competitive. And then even your local banks, et cetera, because if there are five supervisors that get paid between the person that's helping you and the end result, there's margin to be cut. So then that's, that's

SPEAKER_01: 9:17

the. Yeah, absolutely. Well, and, and one thing that I know I've heard you talk about before is, you know, a huge scary piece of, of what you do is, is there's a lot of acronyms out there and there's a lot of jargon, industry jargon, and you do a really good job of kind of breaking it down to where people can, can understand things more. Um, Which, for me, coming from the marketing industry, it's like I have the exact same problem. You throw out ROAS or CAC or some kind of marketing term that people are like, what are you talking about? What would you say is some of the most common misunderstandings of terms or things people are unaware of that can scare them away when talking about financial topics?

SPEAKER_00: 10:11

Sure. I mean... The biggest one that I'm truly surprised it still exists is the down payment needs. And that's in cash to close because so many people still believe you need 20% to buy a home. You don't. Don't judge your circumstance before you've had someone take a look at it. There are all the way to zero down options. If you live in a rural area, you might qualify for a USDA loan. That's still a 100% loan that It doesn't have any specialty like the VA loan that you have. You either have to be a veteran or a spouse of a veteran to qualify for it. USDA, anybody qualifies for it as long as it's a rural area and you meet the income and debt-to-income guidelines. So whenever you ask about what do people not understand is that they disqualify themselves before– just think the worst instead of the best. You've just got to ask the questions. You've really got to ask the questions first and let a qualified professional help guide you down the path. If you're not ready, the answer is you're not ready. It's not. And how do we get ready? Which is possibly using our Key Steps app, doing things like that. which literally walks the client through the entire method to get ready. Now, that's not a substitute for real humans. It's an app. We want to educate. I want to have as much face time with clients as possible. But just making sure that somebody that's self-employed hasn't said, oh, well, I've been self-employed for six months. I just left my job. I can't get a mortgage now. Well, why don't you let us figure out that versus you saying that you can't get a job or can't get a mortgage.

SPEAKER_01: 11:51

Gotcha. That makes a whole lot of sense. And the thing is, is between your presentation, just talking to you here and there and seeing some of the things on your website, you have the math part down. I can guarantee anybody that comes to Ben is not going to have a whole lot of questions. You do literally have it, like your company says, squared away pretty well. But a lot of entrepreneurs, they don't understand or they don't get told when things have kind of gone sideways along the way. So what's happened along this journey for you in this industry as to where something went wrong that none of your study, none of your prep actually made you ready for that you would like other people to be aware of? Oh

SPEAKER_00: 13:28

goodness. Um, um, that's a, you told me you were going to ask some good questions. This

SPEAKER_01: 13:38

is my only job

SPEAKER_00: 13:42

that I wasn't ready for. Um, I wouldn't say it's always the same, but whenever we start the process, you say, well, don't change anything whenever you finance. You go through the mortgage process. You say, don't apply for new credit. Don't buy new cars. Don't change anything that you're currently doing. That's the number one cardinal rule in anything finance. Because once we pull your credit, nothing should change. Nothing can change. So I would probably say it's clients that quit their job before closing.

SPEAKER_02: 14:18

That's,

SPEAKER_00: 14:20

that's, you know, some, for some reason they don't believe they have to continue having, that's a qualifying factor. You go, do you have income? Yes. We're going to use that to qualify you to purchase the set house. You know, it must continue, continue.

SPEAKER_01: 14:34

Like that's a decent rule of thumb though, that you need, you need ongoing income generally. That seems like a, Like a power move or something. It's

SPEAKER_02: 14:43

an odd Rubicon to cross, that's

SPEAKER_00: 14:46

for sure. Yeah, you would not believe how many people are like, oh, well, I got mad at my boss and I just quit my job

SPEAKER_02: 14:51

yesterday.

SPEAKER_00: 14:52

Well, we went to do a verification of employment and you no longer have employment, so you're not going to be able to buy this. And you've already sold your other home, so... Oh, no.

SPEAKER_02: 15:04

We're in a tough position now.

SPEAKER_00: 15:07

So, the...

SPEAKER_01: 15:09

Yeah. I could, I could no longer do my job. It's pretty good. Yeah. Sideways. So it's not so much things go sideways on Ben's and it's, it goes sideways on the client's end of just, they're not squaring away their own stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 15:23

Correct. I mean, everything that we do is black and white. It's in a list form. It's, you know, in order to get this, you have to provide X, Y, and Z. And it's usually just pay stubs, bank statements, you know, Um, maybe a statement from your investment account advice, but I mean, Hey, we have to prove that we have these assets. We have to prove we have this income. Right. And then we have to prove that you are who you say you are, you know, Patriot act, et cetera. So, I mean, you know, it's like driver's license, social security card business. This is not, I mean, um, it's not asking a lot of the client to do those things. And then yes, please continue to keep the exact same job that you have for the next, until we're closed.

SPEAKER_01: 16:05

Yeah. And so how long is that closing process then? Say you have somebody listening to the podcast and they really want to work with Ben, but something's nagging at them. What's the general timeframe we're looking at for the average client for you?

SPEAKER_00: 16:16

I mean, our average client closes in about 22 days. Okay. That's not

SPEAKER_01: 16:21

hard to be patient and not quit your job in 22 days.

SPEAKER_00: 16:26

Yeah. Okay, cool. We can do it faster than that if they have their documents prepared. I mean, industry norm is 30 across the board, so we're a little bit faster than industry norm.

SPEAKER_01: 16:37

Perfect. Very nice. Well, I know there's a lot of entrepreneurs who listen to the podcast, and one of the things that you were– are very good at is entrepreneurship in general. So what's a piece of advice that you would give to new entrepreneurs who are trying to be able to know how to be able to get rid of the extra stress or save themselves a headache? Just generally how to be able to get things done, something that you wish you would have been able to tell your younger self.

SPEAKER_00: 17:16

Sure. Um, well, two things. Um, when you go to work, um, I always hang the figurative hat, you know, outside, like whenever you leave your house, you've, you've got to hang it up before you walk outside and, you know, kind of put on your figurative coat of armor. Whenever you, you walk out the door, you know, Hey, this is my husband, father, you know, whatever, whatever things are happening at home are happening in your professional world. Whenever you walk out into it, you know, and you have to have a thick skin. People aren't, um, They don't despise you or hate you because they told you they're not going to buy whatever widget you're selling or whatever it is. They just don't understand. If you're getting hit with resistance, literally reflect on the words that you said because most of the time it's confusion. People... people inherently have the trait that they want to know and like, and trust other humans on this planet. Like you don't, most people don't just want to walk around and be negative all day long. So if somebody, somebody has, you know, you've come across something abrasive, um, usually your delivery, you know, it's like you look in the mirror and you go, maybe I said something that caused that to happen. And I mean, I'm not saying you should just reflect on every little moment that it is, but Reflect on, hey, what did I say that may have not gone the best and maybe I can fix that next time? You know, that's a big piece of it is just getting better every day. As long as you get better, like, you know, it's a win. Every day is a win as long as you get better every single day. And, you know, you can't make everyone happy. You can't, you know, you just have to keep doing what you're doing. And like I said, with that figurative coat of armor, you just walk out into the world with a thick skin and No's don't hurt. You know, what hurts worse is not being able to take care of your family.

SPEAKER_01: 19:07

Yeah. Yeah. But that's also a really good reframe is that the majority of humanity wants to be on the same team. Yeah. And just really taking that as part of our job and any industry that we're in is just understanding that it's that confusion piece we have to clarify because otherwise that person might have been perfect for us. We just didn't say the right words that were the magic open sesame for them to just know that we're on the same team. I really like that reframe. So, and just make sure I was, I was catching everything that you were, you were throwing down. I mean, it's really about, you know, that starting attitude when we wake up each day and we walk out into the world, how we, we go about, you know, putting on the right perspectives. And then once we have the right perspectives, making sure that we're adding as much, value to others as possible and those no's help us grow as we go through 100 yeah i love that and you know a lot of a lot of the clients i've worked with a lot of different industries and and products b2b b2c whatever um and so much of the time it's just different perceptions of the value of whatever's being offered. And if somebody doesn't see the value of what's being given, it's a lack of education or it's a shortcoming on the company side, the salesperson side, in not communicating very well what they're actually offering. And it sounds like that's kind of what you're saying as well.

SPEAKER_00: 20:44

Yeah, I mean, it could be value or maybe you didn't build enough rapport first. Maybe it's trust. Maybe we moved from one stage to the next too fast and the trust wasn't there before you, you know, somebody started selling. Well, if there's not trust there, then we need to back up and you say, well, I'm getting met with resistance. I should, I need to stop. There's something that I didn't make clear because that, that barrier is up. And now we need to back up and we need to say, okay, well, we're not ready for the close or we need to figure out why, you know, your needs haven't been met, you know? Um, and, uh, I mean, that's really it. It's, it's, you know, you just move too fast, you know, and, and, you know, that it just comes in, I would say time, you know, that's emotional intelligence is, is a long process in the sales, you know, journey as far as getting educated and learning how to understand body language. I know when you're great at those things, you know, you, you, you, you know how to like, um, understand, but your initial demeanor of calm makes people calm. Right. So like, I mean, that's something that you have down pat, right? I mean, you know, you're about as chill as can be. Like, I'd love to know what you're missing. I

SPEAKER_01: 21:57

am still, that's the problem is, I don't know why genetically or whatever, I naturally have just the highest heart rate and the highest blood pressure. But even though externally, yeah, everybody thinks I'm just the chillest dude, but no, my biology is just running like Secretariat over here. See, and that's why we have co-hosts on the show, because you can't see this right now, but I literally just swivel in my chair the entire show. The entire time, I'm just moving, guys. But it's so true, the way that we build relationships with others and even just our presence, our nonverbal communication, it makes a difference. And so that reflection piece, so important to be able to know, man, what actually did happen in that interaction that I had with somebody? Well, I know one thing that we like to look at too is the big picture. You know, how does... know businesses serve the lives that that we have on a day-to-day basis what what would you say is is the big picture view of how your business is is serving the day-to-day lives of your clients

SPEAKER_00: 23:15

i mean um whether you're an individual or um you know because you know My opinion, the home is your center of everything. And number one, it's usually, for most people, it's the largest investment that everyone makes in their own personal life for the majority of Americans. So this is the single most important decision people make. And so getting to be included in that journey is kind of a big deal. I mean, from your realtor to your mortgage broker, I mean, you've been entrusted with... something that quite honestly is going to be the biggest deal in their life. So you're a part of that. You know, it's an emotional decision. It's a financial decision. It literally hits every one of those things because you have to make, you know, if you're, you know, if you've got a family and you're trying to figure out where the place that's going in the backyard and whose rooms, whose, and you know, all those things, or whether you're single and, and, you know, you're putting a, you know, he or she shed the backyard to do whatever you're doing, you know, no matter what you're, scenario is it's your, you know, you're saying it may not be your forever, forever home, but you know, for the next five to 10 years, it's probably going to be your property, you know, and, um, being included in that journey is, is huge. Yeah. You know? Um, and so, you know, when you make the cut to be able to help someone, you, it's, uh, always something that you should be grateful for, you know, that these people chose you to serve them, you know, because, uh, we're in this like 30 day relationship where you speak to whoever it is almost every day. And it changes, you know, we, we serve, you know, X number of clients per month and all of them, it's the most important thing they have going on in their life for the, you know, the 22 to 30 days that we're talking to them. And then, you know, it's our job to keep in touch with them, you know, every six to 12 months from that point forward in their journey, you know, to continue to, be a part of it. You know, I want to make sure that, Hey, it doesn't stop after that.

SPEAKER_01: 25:23

Right. And I want to highlight how, how impressive that is, that that's something that you do. It really is not something you see from every lender. When I, when my wife and I were buying our first house, I remember our real estate agent, they gave us some kind of education as we were going through that, that first time buyer process, the lender was, didn't really do anything. And they certainly didn't follow up with me after it was after things, you know, were, were signed on the dotted line. I've never heard from them again, unless it was, you know, something to do with, with bills. But, you know, that's even, that's like, it's on most things are nowadays on auto pay. So I don't, you know, I don't even have to interact with a human. So that's a big deal that that's a part of your process. Um,

SPEAKER_00: 26:14

Yeah, we track everything. We track from the day that you close, what your rate is, to is there any improvement in the market? Do I need to give you a call and say, hey, Garrett, the market's changed. We're now half a percent better than what we were whenever you closed. Are you interested in doing a rate and term refi? And then you go, hey, well, matter of fact, that'd be awesome. I saw everything on TV. You had no idea that I would call you back. Because a lot of people are just so shocked that I'm still tracking stuff. They thought it was transactional. A lot of people think it's transactional.

SPEAKER_01: 26:49

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 26:49

This for that. We're done now. Whatever. Actually, we want to be a part of this relationship and this journey because I've got clients that have been working with me for 20 years. And it's great to know that, okay. And they've seen it. I mean, look, my first years in the business... I was not like this, right? It was awkward, fumbly, all those things, you know? So I wasn't doing all the right things in the first few years, you know, and following up all the time that I should have been following up. And so just acknowledging that like you can grow and you're human and imperfect, you know, just saying, Hey, I'm just going to always focus on getting better.

SPEAKER_01: 27:29

Yeah. And it is, I would like all of our listeners to understand, generally the question that Garrett just asked is designed for whoever's in the hot seat to tell us more about themselves and what they want the business to do for them. But Ben is so focused on doing a good job for you, that alone should tell you you need to work with this man. Because he can't even process the fact of his bigger picture being anything outside of service to do the job to the best of his ability. That is really huge just from a behavioral character standpoint that I don't think Ben's going to give himself enough credit on that point. And it's aspirational as business owners. We do need so much of the time, especially if you're a startup business, it's so easy to get caught up thinking about, Oh my goodness. How am I going to make X thing work or this thing work? And I have to focus on this part of my business and you end up losing sight of your actually trying to serve your audience. And so Ben is an excellent example of how, you know, and this goes all the way back to his military roots, that there's just service at his core. And for all of us doing business, we are not in the business of selling whatever X product or service. We are here to help people and provide solutions. And so if people are trying to be able to find you, Ben, how would people... be able to reach out to you and become clients or just find you online? Where can they get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_00: 29:04

Sure. I mean, I'm on LinkedIn every day. That's my favorite form of social media. So, I mean, I post on the other ones, but if you want me to respond, LinkedIn is the fastest way to get me to respond. That's fair. you know, you can see a little bit more about our company at squaredawaymortgage.com. And as you said, you know, you can hear what other kind people have had to say about us, you know, through our Google review pages. And so that's typically it. Our phone number to our office is 405-332-7255. And that's text enabled as well. So We have every method possible to get a hold of us. So it's on you to reach out if you're not being helped.

SPEAKER_01: 29:51

I do highly recommend you get in touch with Ben Shrewsbury at Squared Away Mortgage. Now, Ben, we do always have a nice little send-off at the end of our podcast. It is the Think Biz podcast, so whenever we cue you in, will you go ahead and say that for us? We'll say, stay sharp. You say, think biz.

SPEAKER_00: 30:07

Fair

SPEAKER_01: 30:07

enough. Perfect. Stay sharp. Think biz.