WEBVTT - Damian Maldonado: “You can’t teach motivation.” 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:06.160 You're listening to Math and Magic, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:10.000 I've even tried to pay people employees in past, like 0:00:10.000 --> 0:00:12.000 here's one hundred dollars read this book. You know how 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:15.040 many have done that zero? So it's one of those 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:16.240 things you can't teach motivation. 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:23.000 Hi'm Bob Hitman, and welcome to this episode of Math 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:26.439 and Magic Stories from the Frontiers and Marketing. Today, we 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:30.080 have a self made entrepreneur grew up in poverty, skipped 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:33.720 the formal education, and eventually built his own billion dollar 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:37.880 business from just five thousand dollars in startup capital. He's 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:40.839 the co founder and CEO of American Financing, one of 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:45.800 the major national mortgage companies. He's Damian Maldonado. Damien was 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:48.479 born in Manhattan to a single mom of four. He 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:51.360 grew up poor, as he says, his family was on 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:54.080 food stamps even in the good times, and he has 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:57.480 interesting thoughts on what that taught him and we'll explore 0:00:57.520 --> 0:01:01.080 that today. Although American Financing is in Colorado, Damien has 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:04.600 moved to Puerto Rico and widened his aperture to hospitality, 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:09.080 movies and more. He's a newly minted pilot family man 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:12.720 dog owner and a fun and curious guy. Damien Welcome, 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:16.520 Thanks Bob, thanks for having me before we dig in today. 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:19.559 I want to do you in sixty seconds. Are you ready? 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:20.240 I'm ready. 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:21.840 Do you prefer caps or dogs? 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:22.600 Dogs? 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:24.520 Early riser or night out? 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:25.240 Early riser? 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:27.080 West Coast or East Coast? 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:29.520 Oh? Tough one? East Coast? 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:31.360 Colorado or Puerto Rico? 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:37.440 Puerto Rico City or country city? Copa, PEPSI, coke, rock 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:41.679 and roll or country rock and roll, Books or movies, books, 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:46.720 crip or eat out, eat out call or text call. 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:50.840 It's about to get harder. All time favorite music artist 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:56.480 Bob Marley. First job, door to door, Avon and Candy Sells. 0:01:56.800 --> 0:02:01.040 Smartest person you know Richard Branson, childhood hero maybe Tom Cruise. 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:06.040 Favorite sport to watch kitesurfing. Technology you can't live without? 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:07.960 I got, say, the iPhone? 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:12.400 Favorite holiday summer trips with the kids. Last one, what's 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:14.680 something you can't live without my kids? 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:21.200 Great answer? Okay, let's start with the less obvious. Flying. 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:23.760 I've been a pilot for over fifty years in love 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:27.200 aviation and you just got your pilot's license. What motivated 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:29.200 you to do that and how did it happen? 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:32.520 Well? I haven't quite finished it. I'm still working progress. 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:34.840 But being able to do a little island hopping from 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:38.800 Puerto Rico to the bbi's Saint Martin, Saint Bart's all 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:41.919 that sounds amazing because we're so close to so many islands. 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:44.600 Being up in the air, having that kind of freedom, 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:46.480 has it changed your perspective on the world. 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:49.519 I mean, there's nothing like flying, true freedom, being able 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.320 to go from a place at the drop of a dime. 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:54.120 I don't think there's anything more freedom than that. 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:57.200 What have you learned from flying that you can apply 0:02:57.280 --> 0:02:58.400 to your business? 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:02.000 I mean you have to be a very focused, dedicated 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:04.920 and on top of your game, zero space for mistakes. 0:03:05.400 --> 0:03:07.720 Before we turn to your business, I want to set 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:10.760 the stage by going back in time to your childhood. 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:14.119 Clearly this formed so much of who you are. Can 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:18.279 you paint that picture for us, the time and the place. 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:20.840 So early childhood? You know, I was born in New York, 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:23.760 Puerto Rican descent. My parents we lived here until they 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:25.800 got the worse, till I was seven. My dad never 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:28.880 left puert Rico, and then my mom went to Colorado, 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:31.320 so we were raised there, went to high school there. 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:34.120 We started our business there. Early on, my mom worked 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:37.200 at the FBI as a secretary, raising four boys on 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:40.320 a thirty thousand dollars income. Then she lost her job 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:43.119 at one point, and when the up being homeless for 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:46.520 four or five months, living in shelters, and at the 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:48.920 time I was only ten or eleven. You know, we 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:51.240 were sleeping with the homeless people in rooms of like 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:53.480 eight or so people. So that you really look at 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:57.120 your life really different at that point. So that taught 0:03:57.120 --> 0:03:58.840 me a lot of lessons that I wanted to make 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:00.960 money and for me me a big thing that changed 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:03.240 my childhood. My brother Oliver, he got me a lot, 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:05.400 a lot of job for my first job selling door 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:08.120 to door candy on Avon and I got a job 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:08.760 at Toys r US. 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:11.640 How old were you when you started those jobs. 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:15.200 I must have been ten or eleven. And you'd go 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:17.360 in these cars, they drop you off in some neighborhood. 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:18.680 They give you a box, and then they meet you 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:20.200 at a certain place. It's kind of scary. You go 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:22.120 at a night, knock on the door. It was both 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:23.760 of us. He was a couple of years older me, 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:25.960 so he must have been twelve or thirteen. I used 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:28.040 then small and then we'd do a presentation to tell 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:30.600 you what you what to say and just small and 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:32.600 look cute and ask for the order. So that was 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:34.320 kind of my first sales job. And then of course 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:37.120 we did newspapers when we were that age and my 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:39.320 mom would wake up early we do the papers. And 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:40.960 that was interesting because back then you have to collect 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:43.200 the money from the customers and build door to door 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:45.160 and say hey, it's time to pay your bill. So 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:47.760 learning how to deliver the product and then collect the 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:50.840 money that was an adventure. So it was a family event. 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:54.039 It was all of us rolling up papers at six am, 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:56.080 five am and then doing that until you go to 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:59.159 school seven days a week. Wow, but that taught you 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:00.920 a lot. I taught you how to work and get 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:03.400 up early and do those types of things, which is, 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:05.440 you know, the staple of any business person who want 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:07.880 to succeed. But then you got a job at Toys 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:10.640 r US as a cashier in a stocker for twenty 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:12.840 five an hour. I remember that worked my way up 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:15.159 to as a manager. Then started marketing health and finness 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:17.400 clouds and that's kind of where I got my experience 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:18.440 of sales and marketing. 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:22.120 So you did not do a formal education did not 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:24.919 What did you miss with a formal education? And what 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:27.960 did you gain by not having a formal education? Yeah? 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:30.360 Good question. I always saw my friends doing all these 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:33.719 fun parties and that looked really fun, and I thought, man, 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:35.160 if I could go to college, I would be able 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:36.760 to go to all these parties. I mean that one 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:39.680 I thought for sure. As far as education wise, I 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:43.400 think what I learned not going was a little bit different. 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:46.400 This marketing company I worked at when I was eighteen, 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:49.000 right out of high school. So if you Bob, if 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:51.120 you in the gym in Manhattan, we'd go and market 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:53.719 it and we saw memberships five hundred to a thousand 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:56.359 memberships in one to two months. We'd have a call center, 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:59.000 they'd call people's schedule appointment, we had a presentation, we 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:01.920 sell a membership, two membership, the gym would service somebody. 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:04.640 It was a two year contract and basically I did 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:08.000 it in thirty states and then five different countries, Australia 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:11.279 and New Zealand, England, the Scotland. That was my sales 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:13.080 and marketing experience. So we'd open up an office and 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:15.120 close it down in thirty to forty five days. And 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:17.000 that taught me all the numbers, like what was the 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:19.960 cost per lead? What was the projections? And that's how 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:22.360 I learned my fills and marketing experience. And I don't 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:24.360 know if college teaches that kind of thing. 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:27.760 And when you were doing all that, what did you 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:28.760 imagine your future? 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:32.040 Was? Well a book in my growing as a businessman 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:34.280 was Antony. I was awakening a giant within. That was 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:36.240 the first time I was like, Wow, you control your 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:38.920 brain and I could do whatever I want and I 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:40.840 could do whatever I focus on. So that book was 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:43.440 the first thing that I started believing on myself. And 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:46.000 then once I started doing sales, I put those things together. 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:47.960 So if you know how to do cells and you 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:50.200 can control your brain and you could go whichever direction 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:53.080 you want, then that's magic. So at that time I 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:55.520 was like, whoa, I'm going to be a billionaire. I 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:58.200 figured out to formulaze. Have to work hard, figure out 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:00.960 a system and duplicate it kind of what we did. 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.719 Here. You are a young kid trying to help your family, 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:08.280 worried about you know, your day to day living. How 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:11.360 did you discover Tony Robbins? How did that book land 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:11.760 on you? 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:14.040 Again? I hade a lot of credit to my brother Oliver. 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:16.440 He was an entrepreneur all his life and I'm like, even 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:19.040 doing the avon ceales and door to door candy, I 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:21.000 never done anything like that. And so he's like three 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:23.360 years older than me. So he suggested I read that book. 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:25.720 And once I read that book, it's a heavy duty book. 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:28.480 I highly suggest it to people. If you do that book, 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:30.400 it will change your life. And also not just do 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:32.960 the book, but do the exercises in it. Sometimes people 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:35.440 do books and read them and they don't actually apply it, 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:37.240 and in that case, it's not going to work. I 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:39.600 remember one of my first first class flights of my 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:41.920 life when I was young. I must have spend twenty 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:44.360 years old or twenty one years old, and this guy 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:46.480 is like asking, does that book really work? And I'm 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:48.680 like thinking enough for you, I mean, because already you're 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:50.480 thinking it's not going to work, and for me it 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:51.600 worked really well. 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:56.080 So how to growing up without much shape you? What 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:57.560 are the lessons you took from that? 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:01.280 It made me appreciate money and look at very differently. 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:03.720 I'm not a big I mean probably for average person, 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:06.280 I guess I'm a big spender, but not necessarily scorging. 0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:09.360 I really respect money, and I really look at the 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:12.040 bottom line. What's my cost per lead, what's her profit margin? 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:14.600 I really focus on a profit margin. A lot of companies, 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:16.600 you know, one of these questions like would you rather 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:20.840 have five hundred million dollar business doing ten percent or 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:24.160 one hundred million dollars business doing fifty percent margins? You know, 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:26.720 I've picked a small one, less risk, higher margins, and 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:28.520 you can scale that better. And I've seen a lot 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:30.880 of companies too that raise money, they don't really look 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:33.400 at that bottom line still carefully, especially when you're working 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:35.320 with other people's money, and that we've bootstrapped the whole 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:37.920 thing the whole time. We've never borrowed a dying from anyone, 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:40.320 so it's always been something that I've hired to myself, 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:42.280 is really focused on those profit margins. And maybe it 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:44.480 would have been bigger though if we borrowed money. I've 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:46.000 seen a lot of companies that have done that and 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:48.480 done really well. But I think being brought up a 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:51.280 little bit more humbly. You know, I have no debt, 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:53.120 making sure that our books are really clean. On our 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:55.640 balance she's really clean. I'm a little bit risk adverse, 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:57.559 so I don't know if that's a positive or negative. 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:02.280 You know, it's interesting body's life. I talked to who's 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:07.400 had success. There's one sort of improbable jump. It's the 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:10.000 big jump. And I know you were talking about some 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:11.880 of the sales jobs you had. I knew you did 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:16.240 yard work, you did janitorial work, and suddenly you get 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:18.640 into mortgages. How did that happen? 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:21.800 So that was a big jump because I was marketing. 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:25.000 I was just finishing up a promotion in Glasgow in Scotland. 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:26.599 But I was a little burnt out. It must have 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:29.960 been eighteen nineteen years old, maybe nineteen twenty. But I 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:31.960 had like fifteen thousand dollars saved up in the bank. 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:34.080 And I'm like, well, I'm rich. I'm going to go 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:36.240 to La or New York. I fear out my life 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:37.880 and see what I'm going to do next. But my 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:41.000 brother picked me up at the airport and he's like, hey, 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:43.040 I got your job. You start on Monday at this 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:45.600 mortgage company. And I'm like, mortgages. I don't know anthy 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:48.480 about mortgages. I want to go explore. I'm young. I 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:49.959 want to go figure something out to have money in 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:52.000 the bank. He's like, no, I put my neck out 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:53.840 for you. You got to start here. I started out 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:55.680 on Monday, and there was this company doing one twenty 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:57.920 five mortgages back in the day, those twenty five percent 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:00.840 overap reveals, which was part of the Ridge Melton or 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:03.000 part of the reason they say this company was only 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:05.400 doing these postcards. That was the only type of advertising 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:08.760 they were doing. So I go from doing radio, telemarketing 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:10.880 and all these other phones. I pitched to your CEO 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:13.080 and I go, hey, I learned all these marketing techniques. 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:14.960 Will you pay me sixty thousand dollars a year, let 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:16.960 me run your call center, let me do all this. 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:19.920 He agreed, and it worked really well. That was an 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:23.400 average of four to five thousand dollars per client at 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:26.280 the time, which coming from a world of nineteen dollars 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:29.200 a month for two year contracts. I'm like, whoa. So 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:31.640 we put the same exact techniques that we did marketing 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:33.599 health and fitness clubs and the mortgages. You need a 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:35.440 lot less customers. And that was kind of the you know, 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:37.760 we're doing the math and I used love Excel and 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:40.120 you plug in some numbers and very quickly you're like, wow, 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:42.440 this is a this is an incredible business. 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.160 You started there. How did you go from working for 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:48.719 somebody in mortgages to your own company? I guess the 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:51.880 word is you used five thousand dollars to startup capital 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:52.679 to get it started. 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:55.120 So that company I mentioned that was the one doing 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:57.240 a one twenty five, they ended up going out of business. 0:10:57.640 --> 0:10:59.560 Wall Street stopped buying that paper, so it put us 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:01.280 in steach o like we needed to figure out what 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:03.800 to do. So we went on our own and back 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:05.720 then we started as a broker, which means, you know, 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:08.840 you close under somebody else's name, kind of by necessity, 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:11.360 and what we learned we put into effect, and then 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:14.600 slowly they're started building our reputation, our repertoire as far 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:17.199 as becoming a banker and then hedging loans and things 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:19.440 that nature and getting more sophisticated with it, which we 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:22.080 kind of wanted to do. Anyways, by the company closing down, 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:24.600 I don't mind working out a company, And I think 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:27.240 this is something I tell people because nowadays everybody wants 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:29.520 to be then entrepreneur, but obviously there's a high failure 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:31.880 rate of that. If you find the right company that 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:34.600 you could work at and help that company become bigger 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:38.280 and better. You're probably better off in some cases, at 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:40.959 least for many years than that extra risk that was 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:43.320 a necessity. But I really enjoy building companies. It's one 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:44.360 of my favorite things to do. 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:50.040 You started local and you moved national? Why and how? 0:11:50.720 --> 0:11:53.319 Yeah, local is when you first started any business. Local 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:55.320 is the best way, you know, start leaning me or 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:56.800 you know, if you could go get money. A lot 0:11:56.840 --> 0:11:59.080 of people go and raise money. That's also a great approach. 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:01.280 But I think if you start local and you figure 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:03.440 out your market and you figure out how to scale 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:06.080 that it takes a lot of risk from going national. 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:08.640 So for us in our industry is very it wasn't 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:10.640 back then, but it's very regulated. Though. You have to 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:12.800 get a Colorado license in this case, and then you 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:15.160 have to get another license. But national is the only 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:17.560 way to go. I mean America, where obviously is from 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:19.640 my opinion on an entrepreneur basis the best country in 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:22.160 the world. And if it works in Colorado, it'll work 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:24.520 in California. It works in California, it's gonna work in Florida. 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:27.200 So scaling, I mean, every market's different, so you have 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:29.839 to adapt to each market. But by being able to 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:32.120 do successfully in one you know, you hit the whole country, 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:33.640 but you have to be set up for that, and 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:34.560 that's a different animal. 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:37.520 So I got to know you because you were such 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:40.360 a big user of radio to build your business. How 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:43.480 did you discover the power of radio and give us 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:45.319 a clue about how you use it? 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:49.560 What was crazy? When we first started our company, we 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:51.680 used to do outbound tall marketing because that's the world 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:53.320 I came from. So I know how to set up 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:56.120 call centers and that world is really good. But I've 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:58.720 never as a consumer. I hate getting tallmarketing calls right 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:01.200 as I'm sure we all do. So I didn't love 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:04.520 doing that because this used a tough business on your employees, 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:06.400 and also customers don't like that, and it's kind of 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:08.880 a forceful sell. I don't like high pressure cells. Call 0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:11.840 turners are very hig pressure. Especially abound telemarkets is high pressure. 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:14.760 So my old mentor, actually his name is Dave Simpson. 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:17.400 He used to work at the National Finish Corporation. I 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:19.440 called him and I was like, looking for marketing ideas, 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:21.880 and he goes, you know what could be interesting is radio? 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:24.040 I go, really, I don't know. He goes, I found 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:26.319 this guy in Denver. His name is Mike Rosen and 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:29.360 he's on a fifty KOA. They just lost one of 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:31.600 their companies, so they have a slot for a financial 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:33.960 company and do you want it? And I'm like, well, 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:36.040 how much is it? He's like three hundred and fifty 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:38.560 dollars for a sixty second spot. I'm like what that 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:41.079 is so expensive? And I couldn't believe the cost at 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:43.400 the time. Back then, I was paying the tall markets 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:45.600 ten dollars an hour, so I'm like, that's thirty five 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:48.440 hours for a week. Let's say call it day generated 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:51.280 twenty leads. So I'm like, well, is this radio spot 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:54.440 going to generate me twenty leads? And what it did 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:58.120 was it generated maybe, I don't know, somewhere around five 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:00.400 or six. And I was like, oh, that's not that great. 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:03.080 But then after we saw our conversion ratios and the 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:05.800 loan amounts. Once we saw the numbers, we literally switched 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:08.920 from outbound tell marketing to inbound call center in one 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:11.199 month and got rid of all the call center activities 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:13.360 and we just went straight to radio and we just 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:15.840 did the math reverse engineered it. It was an amazing 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:18.199 experience because I didn't think that was going to work 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:20.200 that well, and the loan amounts were better, the quality 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:22.720 was better, and especially with micros AND's endorsement. 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:26.200 So what did marketers not understand about radio? 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:29.800 I think from my experience and talking to a lot 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:32.640 of people, you'll do a two or three month program 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:35.920 instead of like doing annually. I think the consistency of 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:38.360 being out every day, I think is really important. Which 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:40.120 I don't think a lot of marketers understand that. 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:44.000 You don't build a business like you did without great management. 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:47.960 What are your core beliefs about running a great company? 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:51.440 Now? Have the right people is essential, and sometimes you 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:53.680 outgrow them and you have to maybe either replace them 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:56.400 or demote them, or sometimes it can be promoted. But 0:14:56.520 --> 0:14:58.360 it's all about the team. I mean, a business to 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:00.480 me is nothing but having the right team. If you 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:02.920 don't have that, you can't grow a business. I've heard 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:05.000 these companies where they go, you know, we don't even 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:07.120 do any marketing, and all I hear is like, wow, 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:09.560 you're staying small, and I imagine that you're doing most 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:12.280 of the work. And I think, to build a great business, 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:14.480 and you know there's small business that aren't great, but 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:17.440 if you really want to grow it, you have to 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:19.200 hire a team. I mean you have to be able 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:21.160 to trust those teams. And a lot of times my 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:24.320 salespeople or my mortgage consultants are they could do it 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:26.720 much better than I could, and I'm much I rather that, 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:28.880 you know, I haven't done it in many years. Customer 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:31.560 service is our main focus. Always do what's right for 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:33.880 the customer. The team second, because if you don't have 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:35.160 the customers, you don't have a team. 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:38.840 So the corollary with this talk a little bit about 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:41.800 company culture. What does it do for you? How do 0:15:41.840 --> 0:15:43.360 you build it, how do you use it? 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:46.120 Yeah, I think culture is very important. I read a 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:48.200 lot of books, and I still read a lot of books. 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:51.520 One of the companies I really Enmires virgin The culture 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:54.000 is extremely strong, and I read his books and I 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:55.840 learned how he did it, and then I put my 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:59.040 own little magic into it. Zappo's is a great company. 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:00.880 You know. I've taken my manage been teamed there three 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:03.320 times to go see how they do it. They show 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:05.040 you around how it works, and they've been voted one 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:07.480 of the best companies work for nationally many years in 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:09.880 a row. I've met Tony Heish and he has a 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:12.880 book called delivering happiness. I think learning from what a 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:15.320 lot of companies do and implementing it for your own 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:18.200 company is very important. But it's everything. It's you know, 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:20.800 you're spending more time with your coworkers sometimes and your 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:23.680 own family. So I want people to want to come 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:26.440 in and work. You know, with this new COVID and 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:28.840 this hybrid model, we're doing three days a week at 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:31.040 the office, we were less than that. I prefer being 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:33.360 in the office all the time, but I do believe 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:35.960 a lot of work life balance. But I think having 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:38.720 people wanting to come in to do the work rather 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:41.080 than you know, when we first started the business in 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:43.680 ninety nine, if somebody was late, I'd be watching that, 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:45.880 and I was a little bit too strict, and I 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:48.240 think that was old school culture. Were now like, you 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:50.520 show up half an hour late, hour late, just work 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:52.640 the extra hour, just somehow make it up, and as 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:55.320 long as you're in your numbers, we're good. Those are 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:57.200 the things that I think are really important to give. 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:00.720 The teams nowadays expect to have both life balance, and 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:02.800 I agree with that, but also very much into the 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:05.119 customer service and hitting your numbers. We don't have good 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:06.760 customer service if you're not hitting your numbers, you're going 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:07.560 to go out of business. 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:11.800 So you've hired great people. How do you look for people? 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:15.600 In any words of wisdom on the interview process. 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:18.520 I really focused on people that are hungry. I love experience, 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:20.399 but if you have a great experience but you have 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:22.800 bad attitude, it's not the right fit. If somebody is 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:25.919