Timeless Movement
Mindset and lifestyle podcast with luxury woven in, where we deep dive into craftsmanship, design, and mindset.
Timeless Movement
Do The Work
Some careers are built on big breaks; Nick White’s is built on small promises kept. Rates jump from 3% to 7%, buyers hit the brakes, and the easy deals vanish—so he doubles down on what doesn’t go out of style: crisp communication, daily prospecting, and the kind of follow-through agents actually brag about. We sit down with Nick, a Denver-based mortgage broker, to map the shift from the pandemic refi rush to a tougher, trust-first market—and how staying calm, curious, and accountable can turn a tight pipeline into steady momentum.
We get specific about lead flow: using production tools to spot real opportunities, reaching out to agents who aren’t locked to one lender, and generating business from your own sphere so partnerships feel reciprocal instead of needy. Nick walks through the habits that move the needle—status updates that prevent surprises, asking smart questions before pitching products, and creative problem solving within guidelines. He also shares why hobbies aren’t just hobbies. Golf rounds become five-hour conversations. Triathlon teams morph into community. Local coffee shops and gyms turn into warm intros and soft landings for future clients. Active touches meet passive touches, and mindshare compounds.
There’s a human layer here too: boundaries as a growth strategy, not a luxury. Nick blocks time, protects focus, and says no when quality would suffer. A brutal DNF on a scorching race day reframed failure as a redirect, not a verdict. We talk about patience—the 18–24 months it often takes before results stack—and the difference between passing a licensing exam and learning to sell, listen, and lead a file from start to finish. Whether you’re a lender, agent, or any kind of builder, this conversation is a reminder that consistent value wins long after trends fade.
If this resonates, follow the show, share with someone who needs a nudge back to the basics, and leave a quick review—what one habit will you recommit to this week?
Welcome to Timeless Movement. I'm your host, Alexander Laszlo, and I'm here joined by Nick White. Appreciate you having me. Yeah, thank you for coming on. Of course. So tell us a little bit about you.
SPEAKER_00:For sure. So my name's Nick White. I'm a mortgage broker with three-point mortgage here in Denver. I work all throughout the state of Colorado, primarily here on the Denver Metro, but also have some deals up north of Fort Collins, Sound Springs as well. Nothing out west in the mountains yet, but only a matter of time. I'm originally from the state of New Hampshire. Moved out here two years ago in August of 2023, and it's been everything I've wanted and more living in Colorado. It's a lot of fun. It's been such a fulfilling experience, and very grateful to make the move. And yeah, it's been great.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So how'd you get into the mortgage world?
SPEAKER_00:For sure. I always knew going into coming out of college, I wanted to be involved in financial services, some way, shape, or form. And mortgage was the route that I just initially went with. And I've been at it out since I pretty much graduated school five years ago. So I've had a variety of different roles in the industry, but now I'm a full-time originator. I've been doing that for three years now. And it's been, yeah, it's been a lot of fun that way. And I don't see myself going anywhere else anytime soon.
SPEAKER_01:Nice. So you said you've been in there five years? Four and a half, technically, coming up on my fifth year. Yep. So what were your uh first couple years like?
SPEAKER_00:Uh it was definitely during a very busy time period in just real estate in general across the country. Inventory was constantly decreasing on a month-over-month basis. This was during the coronavirus pandemic. Right. Refies were just off the shelf. People, everyone was refinancing, residential and commercial. So my first job was more so a sales role for other loan officers across the country, just helping them maintain their databases, build new relationships, stay in front of their referral partners and their clientele, and just consistently try to find new ways to prospect business that way. I did that for about a year and a half.
SPEAKER_01:Nice. So, what did you do to like find success and find business when you first started?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think that's probably better for that's a better question for when I moved here, I would say. So I got fully licensed in 2022, and that was the year that the market, the market really flipped. We went from 3% rates up to seven in the span of probably six months. So buyers pretty much put the brakes on everything. Like, wait, my mortgage payment just went up 150%. It would have been six months ago. Like that's we should probably put a pause on it real quick. People stopped overbidding for houses, they sat on the silence a lot more. So the buyer pool really shrunk in 2022 and 2023. So I did close a handful of deals in 2023 and was making it actually made a transition to a new company in 2022. So didn't close any deals for my own, per se, in 2022, but in uh 2023, that's when I I started closing more business. That was also the year I made the move out to Colorado. So money was definitely pretty tight and had to make things work. And one thing I've realized now that I've been in the business here in Colorado for over two years, is it is incredibly important to stay true to your word. If you say you're gonna do something, do it. Don't just, you know, sell a bag of crap and not proceed with it. So one thing that I've learned is if you say you're gonna commit to a certain service, a certain marketing program, a certain way of communicating with clientele, stick to it and always find ways to sharpen that knife, be more, be better on a daily basis. One thing I've done, I'm proud of myself for this, is just surround myself with people that are in it to win it. Not just other lenders, but agents, people in financial planning, CPAs, insurance agents, people that aren't in that referral-based industry. So one, I guess to answer your question, long story short, here is uh constantly just learn. Education is invaluable. Always take opportunities to learn and educate yourself on how you can become a better, a better uh agent, better lender, better lender, whatever industry you're in. And just surround yourself with people who are out there to get it. They're in it to win it. They're and they and they do all the things that I just mentioned. They're they're constantly learning, they're finding new ways to prospect, finding new ways to improve their processes. And my development as an LO, especially over the past two years, has been pretty pretty amazing to see. Not trying to toot my horn there by any means, but I can definitely be let me repeat that actually. I have just I've experienced a lot of different clientele and different files that come through. So the I think my ability to problem solve and my ability to get things done have has drastically improved, which has then resulted in me being able to close more business that way. So be a problem solver, don't be a problem creator in the business. And and when you do have those go-to clients, go-to referral partners, make sure that it's a very equal exchange and relationship, not one-sided. It's always a two-way street.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. Yeah, I was golfing with this guy from the hospitality business a couple weeks back. And kind of off your point, he was like, Yeah, I moved out here in Colorado, and I was surprised it's just a pool of lazy people. He's like, the people who actually do stuff and get stuff done are the ones who succeed, and the ones who are just sitting there waiting for it, just they don't get anything, and then they complain about it.
SPEAKER_00:One thing that is I think it's pretty unfortunate to hear time and time again. Every time I meet with a new agent, one of my referral partners, an agent I'm building a relationship with, right? About 75% of my business comes from real realtors. That's where I make most of my money and get most of my clientele. One thing I always ask them is what are you looking for in a mortgage broker, a lender? What qualities do you want to see? What attributes do you want to see in me? The number one answer, 90% of the time, is communicate with me. The fact that that has to be spoken about time and time again is pretty disheartening to hear because it's kind of the number one point of our job is we talk to each other. We are problem solving, we are working together. These are people's homes, we're helping them buy and sell, and for me, finance them. Every client is treated the same. And you know, it's up to us to make sure that everyone's on the same page with that. So to hear so many agents just say, just communicate with me, shows that they've had bad experiences with lenders before that.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:And it it just frustrates me because that should just be the standard. It shouldn't have to be an it shouldn't have to be an ask. You know, it should just be the standard. And that's something that I personally just been like, wow. The the level of laziness, maybe, or procrastination? Procrastination is one of them. I'd say probably the the attention to detail with the majority of people here, and not to talk smack about anybody in particular, but it you would think that there'd just be a higher level of accountability and a higher level of detail there. And it's just unfortunate to see that time and time again. So bring it back going back to your point of there's a lot of people who are lazy. I don't know if it's just a color route of thing. I'm from the East Coast where everyone is just going 110 miles an hour. Yep. But yeah, I think it's just really important to just hold yourself accountable as an entrepreneurial business and you don't have a boss you know telling you what to do. It's you're you are your own boss. So hold yourself accountable to the standard that you would want to be held to.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And I mean, it's like 10 minutes maybe out of your way just to you know talk to someone on the phone to like a minute to text them. It's not it's really not that hard. Like minimum, you should be texting them with updates.
SPEAKER_00:That's the other funny part. It's such it's such not a time suck either.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It's it's it's a it's maybe max like 10 minutes out of your day. I mean, if you have multiple files under your belt, like it may take more than that, but it's still less than an hour of your time each day just to make sure everyone that you're working with on certain files are informed and they're they know what they're doing, especially your the agent partner slash lender partner, and then also your back office team, so your TC, the loan processor, underwriter, any assistants that are on the team. And then most importantly, your clients. Our clients are how we get paid, our clients are who choose us. Hold up, set set yourself up for that higher standard, and more business will come your way in the long term. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01:So, in what ways have you connected with um fellow business people and like-minded business partners to gain some business? What ways have I connected with them? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think with every single individual that you meet, you most likely have at least one thing in common with them. That is I'm pretty concrete in my brain about that. Like, I guarantee in our conversation here today, and this is our first time meeting, you and I will find something that we share in common. I'll give you an example. One of my better agent partners, he's with EXP, met him probably two or three months after I moved out here through a mutual connection that him and I had. He made it very clear to me, he's like, I have my guy, like I'm very locked in with him. He has a great job, and you know, we can be friends, but I can't promise you business. Right. I said, not a problem. And he's a great producer, he does a good amount of business for himself. And just over time, you know, we stay in flow, we stay in contact with each other, build that long-term sustainable relationship, and we found out we both really enjoyed golfing. So we've hit the range, we've hit the range, we've hit the course together countless occasions, right? And we just we found out similar senses of humor, similar other interests, and we just have become better friends than business partners. And now we have two under contract right now, possibly have everyone here by the weekend. Nice. And that's really rewarding, you know, to see two years of work really come into play and see the results of that come through, which is really exciting. So to answer your question, and not to, I guess, flex there, but to answer your question, you you I guarantee more often than not, you have something in common with them. And don't be like asking just question after question to get to it, but it's just naturally gonna come up in conversation. Maybe you follow each other on social media and you just find similar interests that way too. So it can be something as you know easy, like simple as golf. It's pretty popular.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:An agent friend of mine back in New Hampshire, we both like the same smoothie from the same smoothie shop. We've built a relationship off that. It's just funny things, right? So that's with every client, too. You probably have something in common and find a way to build that relationship with them based off that and find out what else you have in common from there.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's pretty funny how many people actually like golf. Like I've probably gained two or three new connections just from one round of golf. You know, just I never realized how many people were actually into the sport. It's a lot. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I think it's I've played more golf um nowadays than I ever have in my entire life. And I I enjoy it. It's something I'm a big physical, like not specimen, that's a bad way to put it, but I like to work out and I like to be you know outside and active. And golf's just a great way to be outside and be active, but also network and connect and just be with people for an extended period of time. So as I've also learned it's people think of you a little bit higher if you're good at golf. Yeah. So if you can shoot nine year levels, pretty competitive out there.
SPEAKER_01:What was that? They get pretty competitive out there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. If you're you know consistently putting your first shot into the fairway and everything, and you're hitting your putts, you'll be a bit more respected, which I think is pretty, pretty funny that way. Apollo later, sorry.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'll get so what do you do to overcome obstacles and ceilings when they arise?
SPEAKER_00:What do I do to overcome obstacles and ceilings when they arrive? That's an enormous part of a lender's job. You know, not every file is gonna be squeaky clean. Some clients are gonna rate shop you. Not every deal is just gonna be butter. It's not gonna be super smooth, right? So I think it's important to really listen to the client need. You know, why are what are they experiencing, whether it be on a financial basis, potentially a personal basis, et cetera, et cetera. What is the client looking for? What do they need? And just listen to them. Ask them questions, don't push the sale. Ask them questions, hear them out. When people feel heard and understood, they're gonna be feel more valued by you, they're gonna feel more inclined to work with you. So listen, pause between, you know, responding because it shows you're gonna process the information, process that question, ask smart questions in return. And lending, you can be pretty creative with it. There is obviously a variety of guidelines you have to follow, but at the same time, you can get creative with it, especially in the broker world, which is where I'm at now. So use your resources too. There are people, I guarantee there are people within your company that have experienced a certain situation before and they can guide you through it. So don't be afraid to rely on your resources, but also you know, you're there's gonna be most for you to figure out on your own and make sure that you put in your best foot that way. So the way that I've gone about overcoming obstacles and ceilings is I listen to my clients. I uh I ask them what their concerns are and why are they you know feeling a certain way. Listen to them, make sure they're heard, make sure they're they feel understood, and then provide the solution come up with the solution. Try to figure out on your own at first. And if you're truly stumped, you we have people that we can work with to ask those questions.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, that's I like that because it shows you really communicate, really care about the client. And you know, some not everyone does that, which is unfortunate, but you know, the ones who do like you will find your success. It's nice to see. Try to. Okay. Thanks. So, like kind of a question off that question what about when you're stuck trying to find clients?
SPEAKER_00:Stuck trying to find clients? Yeah. Like what do I do?
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:I think my lineup works a little bit different than yours, where I will hit the phones, slide in DMs, and go target new agents. You know, people, you never know where people are going to end up in their real estate career. And I always want to make sure that I am a person that they know from the beginning. So whether it's new agents, more experienced agents, even, we have a software called MMI where we are able to prospect realtors, see what their production looks like, who they work with for mortgage partners. Um, if someone works at my company three point, I'm not going to prospect them. They already have a standing relationship with someone there. But if I see a good producer that has worked with a variety of age lenders and not just one in particular, I'll reach out. If I see there's clearly an outstanding relationship, they close 30 deals, 20 members with a certain lender, it's pretty clear they're locked in with someone that is that works, they work well with them. So to find a new business, I am always, I'm always prospecting. I always allocate at least an hour a day to prospect, to reach out to people on social media, meet set up meetings just like this to build a relationship that way, which in turn will lead to clientele. And then I'm also a firm believer that a lender should generate their own business. There's no reason why you know a lender should just keep continuously asked for referrals from agents. There's also, you know, if you're marketing on social media, there's no way you can't generate your own business from your own sphere, right? We all have friends, we all have family, former coworkers, etc. So every lender is able to generate their own business, which I'd be very fortunate to have been able to give back to a lot of my agents that way as well, with buyers and potential sellers too.
SPEAKER_01:Plus it, you know, if you're asking for a referral business, I feel like you have to have either something of value to bring them or like some experience that you can show them.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think one thing that agents want in lending partnership is obviously strong communication, make sure they're fully eloped with what's going on. Be a problem solver. You know, things arise, things pop up. Find that, find that problem, understand what you can respond with, and move forward that way. So, yeah, I think a lot of people want people that are gonna be a value to them. Not just swipe the credit card, grab lunch. It's not that's not really providing value. You just buy them food for the day or around a golf or whatever, but actually be a problem solver. Under know your no loan situations in and out, no guidelines, find creative solutions off the top of your head. Right, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's when I first started, you know, when it's like a couple weeks in, I didn't really understand it. So I'd go and I'd be like, hey, you want to have like business relationship? And you know, no one really wanted to because I didn't have anything to bring them. I was brand new. Like lenders, lenders, insurance agents, you know, etc. And they're like, Well, you know, we'll take a we'll take a step back here. And I was like, okay. And I I wasn't fully, I didn't realize what I was, you know, doing with no valuation, trying to ask for business until probably a couple more months in, and I was like, you know, I can't just be asking these people for business. I need to actually bring them something. And I mean, everyone has something to bring to the table. Like for me, my biggest thing is I have all the time to cater to your needs, to cater to clients' needs. And I don't have all the experience, but I have people in my office office who are 20 plus years in the business who I can ask on, rely on. But yeah, I just think everyone has the opportunity to add something to anything.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's kind of the cool part about this industry is the barrier to entry is pretty low. Truthfully, you don't need a degree for it. So you get people from so many different backgrounds of life, right? I work with agents that are former engineers, former hospitality workers, former medical professionals, education professionals too. So it's pretty unique to see out peep where people come from and how they can apply their past experience to growing their business as an agent or a lender. It's pretty unique to see what they do. So I think it's also important to be true to yourself. Don't be someone that you're not. Be Alex Laszlo, I'll be Nick Wiley, don't be someone you're not. It's important to obviously have inspiration so you can learn from them. Don't be them, but learn from them. Be your own person, obviously. People want to work with you, not with a masked version of you. That makes sense. So you'll find out exactly how you know, or everyone finds out how they sell, how they interact with clientele, how they build their business accordingly based on how they want to do it. And then with that, you're gonna naturally find value with experience, right? Through through, you know, whatever you end up deciding to do, right? You're gonna have tricky transactions, you're gonna learn from them, you're gonna be able to apply that to a future, future deal. It's real estate is always, always, always a long-term game. Right. It's never a getting quick, make six figures in one year. Exactly. If you do that, great. It's not likely. It's gonna take 18 to 24 months to really see progress, to see the fruits of your labor come to fruition, right?
SPEAKER_01:So it's like growing crops. You gotta plant the seeds, they're not gonna grow in a night, but they're gonna take time and the harvest is gonna be much worse the way.
SPEAKER_00:If everyone was good at it, everyone would be doing it, right? You know? That's why I can now kind of confidently say like I've been in Colorado now for 26 months. Just yeah, 26 months now. I'm now really starting to see my business just ramp up quickly. And but it took me two years to really see that come to fruition. So it's some days are gonna be really tough, some days are gonna suck, you're gonna lose a client here and there. Just keep moving forward, keep pushing forward. And again, always just every day is a new day. Exactly. Don't reflect on what happened yesterday or the week before. Every day's a new day. You have the ability to do something new, and you know who that next best client or next best referral partner of yours could be right around the corner. And you do not want to be in a bad mood for that. You want to be very ready when that time frame comes along.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly.
SPEAKER_00:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I mean, just that's what I was gonna say. Yeah, I was talking about this on my first episode for this podcast, and I was saying, you know, if you got to take the time and really learn about your craft and really learn about what you're doing, and you're not gonna make it overnight, but you're gonna have it's gonna take time, it's gonna take practice, you're gonna fail, but you'll learn from it and you'll be better for it. And I think that the reason people don't succeed is that when they fail, they think they failed, and so they just give up and they don't keep trying. For example, I saw an interesting fact about podcasts the other day that like 50% or something around that fail after the first three episodes. So if you get past three episodes of a podcast, you're already in the top 50%. And I thought that was pretty interesting because you know you can apply that to whatever you're doing, because you know, as long as you don't give up, you're still gonna succeed. You don't learn from your failures, but it's gonna take time.
SPEAKER_00:Yep. You only fail when you give up, right? A failure is just redirection. Everyone learns more from their failures in life, so it hits harder than a success. It weighs harder, right? A success is always great to experience, but this the feeling of failure weighs more than the feeling of success. And you don't want that to happen again. So you essentially force yourself to learn that mistake and don't apply it again, or don't don't let it happen again. So and you also only fail when you when you quit and give it up, right? Not every deal is smooth. I know lenders that are 15 years in the business, 20 years in the business, same with agents. We're always learning, we're always applying new things, learning how to sell, learning how to communicate with clientele, etc. And people are gonna make mistakes. It's human nature, right? So that's bound to happen with everybody, and don't but don't let it define you. You know, just learn from it, uh take ownership of it as well. Don't blame it on somebody else. Take accountability and apply it to yourself and move forward. And again, there's always more business to get out there, and you want to be able to put your best foot forward accordingly, right?
SPEAKER_01:What advice would you have for fellow entrepreneurs?
SPEAKER_00:Find your niche. Find what you are very good at. I'm gonna quote Hormozy here. You try to do as as much of volume as you humanly possibly can so that it's impossible to fail. You know, whatever that industry is that you want to pursue in, master it, make those connections, have a certain niche in it, find out what you are good at, and just give 100% effort. If you do anything less, it's not free. Right. So if I had to give any advice, right, not that I feel like I'm qualified yet to give this advice, but just never ever give up. Find your niche and just go all in. You know, if you need to work a side job to pay bills, do it. Every other hour that you can possibly put in and make sure you always make time for yourself. Go, yeah, just do as do everything you can to make it happen.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:You know, the only person that is in it from start to finish is yourself, so you have to want the most of anybody else. So do what you can to make it happen.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. One of my uh actually a great quote from Injaga, funny enough. They say if you if you want something bad enough, you'll find a way to make it happen. And you know, just if you want it, you gotta work for it. You actually have to go out and put in the effort and you find ways to make what you want happening 100%.
SPEAKER_00:That's the part of problem solving, right? You find what's not working, find what would work. Again, that's gonna be through trial and error, and you'll find a way to make it happen. Right. And also, just to reemphasize on this point I said earlier, do what works for you and be yourself with it. Also you take inspiration from other people, but make sure it's what works for Alex and what works for Nick, not what works for somebody else. Because we're all different people, we all are gonna attract clients a certain way and referral partners as well. Be true to yourself. Don't be someone you're not, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, my my coach says he's like you have to find people who are like-minded and you actually get along with and you click with, because if you don't, it's just gonna make the process longer, it's not gonna make it as fun if you're trying to switch yourself so that you actually can have an enjoyable time to working together. It's better to find someone who is like you and you're like them. And if it's not you know, clicking, well, then you might have to switch and find another person. Yep.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:I've got nothing else to say on that. And then what do you like what kind of stuff do you do outside of work to keep yourself from being burned out?
SPEAKER_00:For sure. Burnout is very common in this business because you never know when the phone's gonna ring, who's gonna reach out to you, and what time frames those are like, right? Some are very urgent. Also to drop what you're doing and focus on that. So one thing I've done, and I'm very grateful to that I've I've been able to reach this point is just set boundaries. You know, I have a county link, and if someone books time in my calendar, if I'm available during that time, we we will speak. But I will always block off time that I'm not available. Like we're here today, I blocked off a full hour for us to be present in this conversation. Like I've gotten three phone calls sitting here, they can wait. Right. You know. So if people if people get mad at you for not picking up the phone immediately, but if it's an hour or so afterwards, it's probably not the person I want to work with, anyways.
unknown:So
SPEAKER_00:So set boundaries. Don't be afraid to say no as well. Like in this industry, it's very easy to say yes to everything. Events, clientele, meetings, whatever it may be, and I definitely fall victim to that earlier in my career. But if I can't make an event or if I can't do something because something in my personal life takes priority, I'm not going to go to it. I'm going to focus on my own. I prefer sustainability and longevity over short-term short-term gains, right? Don't get me wrong, every now and then, yeah, I'll I'll drop them if I have the bandwidth for it. But if I don't have the bandwidth for it, I I simply say no and hopefully there's the next time that we can play better for it. We all have personal lives. We're all we all need to be healthy as well. Make sure you eat your lunch. Make sure you train at least 30 minutes a day so you can feel good about yourself mentally and physically. We all have friends, family, significant others, pets. Like make sure you allocate time to them because that's that's super, super important. And at the end of the day, business isn't forever, but the people in your life that are for friends and family for long term will be. What's the point of having all this money and all this success if you have no one to share it with? You know? I unfortunately know people in my life that are older that have dedicated a lot to work and not enough to family and friends, and now it's biting them, right? So always just allocate time for the people in your life. Not it doesn't always have to be mortgage or real estate related, right? We all are people with different interests and beliefs, right? So if you need to put in extra hours one day to make the calls, send out emails, put your name out there more, you know, grow your marketing platform, et cetera, right? Work on files, do it, right? Every entrepreneur is gonna have to work long hours early on, and even when they have more established systems in place. But if you go on vacation, I know you just went on a European trip here recently, allocate all your time into that. Like you're there, don't be focused on work. Yeah, just be super present because who knows when you go to Europe again, you know? I have a friend last, sorry to cut you off there. I have a friend who went to Europe last year and he worked 24-7 nights, weekends, holidays for a whole year. Built his business incredibly. He he made incredible strides in his first year in the business. And he said he went to Europe last August or last September, somewhere in that ballpark in 2024. Didn't touch his phone, didn't respond to anybody. He was fully present with his family. And he said it was the most refreshing and rejuvenated he felt afterwards. So he could wake up at 11 a.m., walk down the streets in Paris, either croissant and coffee, and just be in no rush. Right. We're all human, right? We we aren't machines, we all can work hard, but burnout is real. Spend time for yourself, enjoy time away from work because work will always be waiting for you and always be there when you get back.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, that's by with those videos that I do every day. I said, you know, I'm gonna be in Europe here for I think it was 10 days. I said, I don't want to, you know, even though the videos are 30 seconds to a minute, I was like, I don't want to do one of those each day. I mean, I want to be here and not have to worry about anything. And I think like what you're saying with boundaries, it's important to know when to work and when not to work, or to just enjoy life.
SPEAKER_00:To go back to my one of my friends who we have two in a contract right now, my one of my referral partners who took me two years to build the relationship with, love in the pieces, he is a very, very boundaried person. And he has no problem setting those and sticking to them, which I really respect. And I've learned from a lot from that too. So, and his business has grown from it. It hasn't shrunk, it hasn't decreased, it's it's grown. So it just goes to show that boundaries are not gonna hinder your progression. Right.
SPEAKER_01:We're gonna go a little off a bit, but I'll I'll come back to it. What kind of hobbies do you have outside of work?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. It's a great leeway from the the prior question. So when I'm not working, when I'm not building business, I'm a big fitness junkie. I love to stay active, whether it be playing sports, working out in my gym, I do triathlon training as well. Yeah, so you just did a race recently? Back in June. And I did I did another one in July as well. Yeah. I'll talk about that in a minute. But uh I love to push myself physically. Any way I can push my mind and body that way, I will do it. I've hiked four teeners. I've I love to ski in the winter as well, love to hoop as well, which is great. Any way I can keep my body moving and healthy is more often than not open to trying it someday. I hosted a roller skating event a month ago. Have been roller skating since high school. Yeah, I just it was fun. Had a great time doing it. So that's why I love to do outside of outside of work is just could pursue physical pursuits that way. I'm also a very big small business enthusiast too. You'll never find really find me shopping, big box restaurants or chain stores. I always appreciate supporting local business, local coffee shops, restaurants, events going on, whatever it may be. I think local business deserves way more money than any corporate chain, personally. And any form of coffee, lunch, or happy hour agent meeting that I have, it's never at Starbucks, never at Panera, never at those bigger, bigger places. It's always at a local place. Don't knock to them. It's just my preference. Plus, I think the food and the the product always tastes better. So big farmer's market guy on Sundays as well. And I also love to cook as well. Love making Mediterranean dishes and Mexican food as well. So you'll find me doing that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And then uh tell us about the uh race you did back in June and July. Sure.
SPEAKER_00:So during college, I was just a big meathead in the gym lifting weights, trying to get as swole as possible, pretty much. Two years into that, you know, gained 20 plus pounds and really put on some good muscle. I started thinking to myself, just very casually, like, you know, there's something else physically that I would like to do at some point. Didn't know what that was, but uh just knew like, okay, you know, I'll always be a weightlifter, I'll always be doing this. But there's gotta be other things that I could push myself to do. I'm sure you're familiar with Nick Bear, who he is professionally. He owns a a supplement company down in Austin, Texas. He's built an amazing platform over the past 10 years. I've actually drifted away from him for a lot over the past couple of years here, but I really watched him a lot, like 2017 to 2020, that time period. He did an Iron Man triathlon, which is a two and a half mile swim, 112-mile bike, and 26-mile run all in the same day. Back in 2019, did the did a full documentary about it. Absolutely loved it. I was like, this is really cool, we'll have to try it someday. 2020 comes around, life changes for everybody. You know, gym shut down, and just me having a very fixed mindset, and like I'm never gonna be out of shape. I'm always gonna take care of myself, which I guess is a good form of stubbornness. I said, I'm I'm gonna go. This is I had to move home because college was canceled and moved back home with my parents. I went back to my high school like football field and just did like sprint drills. Other guys I used to I graduated with did that as well, and we all actually hung out a good amount during that you know few month period, which I which is actually pretty pretty cool looking back on it now. But we yeah, sprint drills, we run on the trails behind the school because I grew up in New Hampshire. And really just kind of got more into endurance training, pretty much. And we ran a marathon that year, just kind of a dry run. We one of the guys set up a group chat when it was like a Wednesday, saying, Hey, we're running a marathon Sunday, who wants to join? And with nothing going on, we're like, sure, let's let's do it, let's let's try it out. I've never felt more in pain in my life than come like mile 18-19, ended up finishing it, and that was incredibly rewarding to experience that, and I want to do that again. I then saw in the end of 2020 that a guy out of Florida with Down syndrome completed the full Iron Man, and I was like, that's incredibly impressive. Yeah that is that's like uncharted territory for us. Not that we're discounting those people by any means, but to see someone who has those just those daily struggles go and achieve something like that, there's no way that I can't do that as well. So February 2021 signed up for a full Iron Man and just trained for seven or eight months, just working in the mortgage business during a crazy time period. Also, somehow found a way to train for that. My girlfriend at the time broke up things I was training too much, and I was like, well, clearly not meant to be. And I ended up completing the full Iron Man in October of 2021. So about four years ago, I did that. And I've always just stuck with that, and I've always loved it since then. I've done a variety of races since then. The one in June, though, was actually the first race I I just I DNF'd at. Every person who does triathlons is bound to have a race where they don't finish it. And this was my first one. And the swim was great, finishing a good time there. The bike was really tough because it got really hot out. Remember that heat wave we had back in like June, early July? That was the first weekend we had it. I was training in weather that was not acclimated to that 100-degree heat yet. So mile five on the run comes around. I am beat tired. Like I am sweaty, I've my tri suits unzipped fully, I've ice just coming like in and out of the jersey. It was I was a mess pretty much. And I remember the mile five aid station, I came around, put my hands on my knees, and then I I passed out, hit the grass, and I woke up shortly after that. But people in the Iron Man race are always super positive and uplifting. You know, you got this, keep going, you're doing great. And this was the first time out of all the races I've done, I've heard, hey, you're you're not looking great. You should probably stop racing. And when I heard someone who was an Iron Man employee say that, I was like, probably a good thing. I should probably drop out. So I ended up dropping out. My my knee hurt like crazy, so it was cramping up. But yeah, somehow, some way, managed to go 62 miles, 63 miles, something like that. So had to get enough out of that. And then I did a smaller race back in July, and that was a great time. I finished that in about three and a half hours. And that was a lot of fun too, both up in Boulder.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, nice. Um then bringing it back, how do you connect those hobbies and interests into your business?
SPEAKER_00:Totally. I think the conversation of what do you do for work amongst adults is just such an easy conversation starter. And when people ask me, hey, what do you do for work? I always say I'm I work in mortgage and I help people finance their houses. And with that, homeownership is bound to come up in everyone's financial picture at some point in their life, whether you're 25, 35, or 45 or above that. Owning property throughout the course of your life is essentially expected to be a part of everyone's future, right? Or present, even for that matter. So I'm a part of a triathlon team. I've nurtured some leads to that. Haven't closed anything from it yet, but I've nurtured some business from there. I've also nurtured business from the gyms I go to, the small business I go to, two coffee shops, different restaurants. You know, I'm a luckily a pretty big extrovert, so I just enjoy talking to new people. And with that, you know, just the conversations continue and people ask questions because they are they're going to consider buying a home at some point. They ask me what rates are at, what do I think the market's gonna look like, and I just give them honest advice and exchange information that way. And then I do have a every other month an email going out to those prospective people, just like a newsletter update. Yeah. And they don't have they're not necessarily like trying to sell you anything, it's just updates on myself and if I've made moves or what I'm up to kind of personally that way. And then also market updates here and there too. But just so people have something in their inbox, right? I I'm not dumb. I know more often that it's going right in the right in the trash bin, but again, just the the constant state of being in flow with people is gonna, you know, gonna reward you. Staying fresh in their mind. Yep. Have you run into selling at all or been a part of their programs at all? No, I haven't. They have a very key uh subject called active and passive flow. So active flow is what we're doing right now, having that live conversation. It could be over the phone, FaceTime, we're texting. So we're having active conversation in one way, shape, or form. Passive flow is all things marketing. You know, they see your emails go out, they see your social media posts, but they they see your face, they see your name, they see who you are and what you do, and you're talking about what you do. The more often you stay in flow with people, the better. Oftentimes it takes people seven to seven touch points to for them to click in their head, Alex a realtor. Alex is a realtor, my bad. Nick is a mortgage broker, like that's what he does. It takes multiple touch points, right? So when you're constantly just staying in flow with people, that's a great thing. And luckily, I've made some good connections from my other outlets of life, and it's been able to translate to, you know, some business my way.
SPEAKER_01:I heard another thing the other day that said it takes people seven hours to trust you. So, and you know, you don't always have seven hours to give them. But if you're posting videos that are, you know, minute long, then you're gaining those hours and gaining that trust slowly through that.
SPEAKER_00:And just make sure what you're saying is knowledgeable, right? It's interesting. A decent, well enough edited video. And yeah, it doesn't have to be long. It can be short, it can be 30 seconds, but make sure what you're saying is valuable and educational. And yeah, that's that's I haven't heard that before. Seven hours to build trust. It makes sense. So you can lose that trust with a snap of a finger, right? But to build, I mean, I guess it goes kind of goes hand in hand with the the the Rails reporter I have, who I've talked about twice now. It took two years to really build that very good, consistent relationship. And not that it was bad by any means. We've never had a bad conversation by any metric, but yeah, it takes takes time to build that trust and build that build that relationship.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, because um I think another thing with the videos is you're not overselling them, uh overselling a small crowd with the videos. You're just consistently putting a mouse, staying fresh in people's mind. Agreed. Yeah, absolutely agree. All right, well, as we're wrapping up here, you got any final thoughts.
SPEAKER_00:I'll turn I'll turn the page over to you. So I know we met for the first time two months ago. Yeah, probably back in July. Somewhere in that range, right? Three months ago then. So you're fresh out of high school. Just I guess tell me why real estate, why not college, why not something different? What prompted you to get right into it out of school?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur, always wanted to own business. And you know, as a you're young, you always think you have to go to college and get a business degree to do that. I do. Yeah. And so, you know, I was planning to go to college for probably until junior year, and then I was like, Well, I don't really know if I want to go to college. And then senior year came around, and I was like, I really don't want to go to college. And my dad was like, You're gonna have to do something with your life. And I was like, Yeah, but I don't know what that is. And so he's like, Okay, come meet my real estate friend and we'll have lunch. And so just talking with him, having lunch with him, I was like, you know, real estate seems pretty cool. I'll, you know, look into it, see what, see what it's like. Um, and then kind of went off from there and got I did real estate school and normal school at the same time and got fully licensed about the same time I graduated high school and then just jumped right into it. And I have a couple friends who are going to college for real estate, and I thought that was the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Because they're like, oh, I want the experience of going to college, but you're gonna be four years behind and however much in debt. And so I mean that's really the reason I jumped into real estate, is I just liked how it's your own business, but you're worth it with someone, so you kind of have a help to rely on and you're not just starting from scratch. And I'd like, you know, just that you can connect with whoever you want, whenever you want. It's just kind of uh a unique field to be in.
SPEAKER_00:For sure. That's great to hear. I guess it really depends on what they're going to school for. If they're trying to be in like commercial real estate financing, oh they they're getting business degrees. So they're getting a business degree to then become an agent after? Yeah. Interesting. Okay. Yeah. I can confidently say this on behalf of my education in school, this high school and parts of college. I did not take education seriously in high school or parts of college as well. I was a bit entitled, just being transparent there. And I remember taking a finance class that went over mortgages in school and thought that was always pretty interesting. So the only thing I will say about college that I thought was a benefit was it exposed me to different things because I didn't know I wanted to be a lender going into college, right? It exposed me to different fields, different industries, but it also gave me a lot of connections as well. I've met my significant other there. I've met she's everything I've I want and more. I have some of my best friends from college. The how I got into pretty much the mortgage business as a full was from a connection from college, right? So I think college is going to be really, really good for people if long term to build connections into possibly help with employment, help maybe you help them buy or sell property in the future. So college, I would say, is a benefit in that category where it can expose you to different fields if you don't know what you want to do yet. You you were pretty confident that you didn't want to go to school and you wanted to pursue real estate. So different story there for you. But for me, I knew I wanted to work in financial services just to know which route I wanted to go into. And plus, I'm also very fortunate where my parents had over 80% of my college save for. Yeah. Super notable. Yeah. No intention to pay this off anytime soon. So it's a it's a$180 per month payment, super cheap. So I think college is beneficial if you're not coming out of school with six figures of debt, even five figures of debt for most people. You can enter a career that you can have higher knee potential. And then number three is the connections. I like if it I guess it depends, right? No major is a bad major, but there are majors with har with higher ROIs than others. So I think that if you are going to go to school, just weigh your options. You also don't have to go to school immediately. You can go to school at 19, you can go to school at 22 or 25 if you want to, right? Or 18. So I would say college is beneficial for those three things, you know, exposure, networking, and I forget the other part that I said, but I would see I would say that is the is the benefit of going. But it's to say it's a a prerequisite to success in a real estate field as an agent, as a lender, is just so not true. You know, it's not. Do I think that, you know, not again, I don't know the people that you're referring to, but I would say you'll probably learn more in your four years as an actual agent than reading out of a textbook for sure.
SPEAKER_01:Because the other thing is the when you're in real estate school, they aren't teaching you really about real estate. They're teaching you how to pass the test.
SPEAKER_00:Like going through the 40 hours, they're just teaching how to pass the exam. Yep, they're teaching you how to pass the exam. It's similar with the mortgage exam. It's like 20 hours of pre-licensing and then you take an exam. It's just brute force memorization on things that do not you do not really need to know. There's you don't get wrong, you need to know Trid, RESTPA, all the things, but the computer tells you pretty much the majority of that, right? It doesn't actually teach you how to sell, how to listen to your clients, how to advocate for your clients, how to manage your process behind the scenes. Like it just teaches you to pass an exam and then you're kind of left to figure it out for your own, unless you have a good mentor willing to teach you things. So it's all subjective. I think whichever path people choose, it's right for them in that very moment. But yeah, to say that real estate school is a prerequisite of success is just not the case.
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01:Already at our one hour mark.
SPEAKER_00:Cool. Well, thank you for having me, Alex.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you for taking the time. Of course.
SPEAKER_00:I'm glad we got to be in person and and chat and have good conversations. So really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01:I really enjoyed it. Yeah.