Timeless Movement
Mindset and lifestyle podcast with luxury woven in, where we deep dive into craftsmanship, design, and mindset.
Timeless Movement
Choose Your Tribe
What if lending felt personal, clear, and even a little fun? We sit down with Michael Fithian, founder and CEO of Lone Inc., and Connor Durant to unpack how an AI-powered, direct-to-consumer lender wins the old-fashioned way: by building real relationships, mastering the phone, and obsessing over client experience. No fluff—just systems, habits, and mindset from people who’ve seen 2005’s boom, survived 2008’s crash, and are thriving in a tougher cycle.
Michael shares the origin of Lone Inc. and why he traded product-chasing for operational excellence and transparency. Connor brings the perspective of entering the industry during a slow market and explains why that’s a gift: it forces better prospecting, deeper follow-up, and a relentless focus on value. Together we dig into practical tactics—daily call blocks, clear asks, warm introductions, and events that attract the right partners. We explore how AI streamlines speed and clarity without replacing the human craft of teaching, tailoring, and taking control so clients learn something new, not just confirm what they already think.
Mindset and culture run through everything: “consistency over perfection,” “one more” reps, turning rejection into a game, and removing emotion before responding. We talk about finding your tribe through shared interests—golf, tennis, clean food, coaching youth sports—and how those genuine connections spill into business. The goal isn’t to be everything to everyone; it’s to be indispensable to the right people by delivering a memorable, low-stress mortgage experience that stands out long after closing.
If you’re in lending, real estate, or any sales role, you’ll walk away with playbook-level ideas you can use today. Subscribe, share this with a teammate, and leave a quick review telling us the tactic you’ll try this week.
Welcome to Timeless Movement. I'm your host, Alexander Laszlo, and I'm here joined by Connor and Michael. Tell us about tell us a bit about yourself.
SPEAKER_02:Hello, my name is Michael Fithian. I'm the founder and CEO of Lone Inc. We are an AI-powered direct-to-consumer lender.
SPEAKER_03:Awesome. Connor Durant here with Lone Inc. as well, an account executive helping build the business of our fine business partners over here at Lone Inc. So yeah, thanks, thanks for having us, Andrew.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, thank you for coming on. I really appreciate that. Yeah. So you started Loan Inc. Walk us through what that was like.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So, and again, thank you for allowing us the opportunity to be on your growing podcast here at Exam. Yeah. So 19 years in lending, and in the year 2013, I was watching things like Uber and Airbnb become available to consumers, right? Rideshare, sleep in somebody's house. And I said, well, there's got to be a better way to get a loan. And so we set out with the idea of making it easier, faster, more transparent, and simple for the borrower base, looking to buy homes in states across the country.
SPEAKER_00:Nice. So what made you want to start your own company?
SPEAKER_02:I think, you know, you either have an entrepreneurial bug or or you don't. Nothing against either or, but I've always had that entrepreneurial bug. So from a young age, I was picking corn in Maryland where I grew up and selling it around the street in the neighborhood for$2 a dozen. That might date me here. I went on to uh landscape with some buddies. Uh we would cut grass and build retaining malls and swimming pool ponds. And then eventually I found myself in the late 90s, early 2000s in the cell phone business back when wireless retail stores were prevalent and getting cell phones activated. So I've always been an entrepreneur at my core, and it just was natural for me to make the move into growing the business of loaning.
SPEAKER_00:Nice. So we'll go, you then, Connor. How'd you guys get into lending?
SPEAKER_02:So there's a gentleman, Nick, who was a recruiter, and I'll forever be grateful to him. Called me up in 2005. I was sitting in uh in a kitchen tiling a floor and he said, Hey, uh, I've got a mortgage job available for you. Would you like to come in? And I said, Well, I don't know anything about lending or mortgage. He says, No problem. We'll teach you. You know, three weeks on the phones, dialing 375 people a day and transferring those folks to loan officers. Uh, that was my start. And, you know, it has dramatically changed not only my life, but the lives of those that I've helped. So I'm forever grateful to to Nick, leave his last name out of this, but he was the recruiter uh that brought me in.
unknown:Thanks. Thanks.
SPEAKER_03:Awesome. Yeah. So for myself, I was before this space, I was a personal trainer at a lifetime gym in Broomfield. One day I'm working the desk, waiting, greeting people coming in, seeing what's happening. And uh one day this guy, you know, he walks in, comes to the front desk looking for some training. Right away, we just get to talk in, we do a training session just to show them what everything's about. You can see I didn't make it very far with the training, but yeah, no, he was looking, yeah, looking to get you know a little more in shape and everything. So yeah, took him through a few sessions, eventually he booked some with me. So I was training Michael for a couple of months, and then actually went to the recruiter one day after our session, he kind of was like, Hey, Connor, I want to talk to you about some things. And I was like, Okay, just piqued my interest. I'm gonna I would always have a great time training with him. So he just said, Hey, let's let's grab a coffee, let's talk uh some more about the lending space, the software space. And I said, Okay, yeah, let's do it. So I spoke with him, I mean one of our guys, Zach, and after the hour meeting, them just letting know, you know, what it's like to be in the business, everything like that, kind of right after there, offered me a job, and it was one of those things there was no hesitation. I just said, Yes, let's do it, let's jump into it. I was looking to get out of personal training. And then when I knew I'd be going to work for someone like Michael and for that company, it was it was just an easy yes. And about a year and a half later, here we are. And I would say it's one of the best decisions I've ever made. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks. Yeah, you gotta take that opportunity when it comes to it.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah, no, 100%. I always think it's one of those things where whenever something feels scary to jump into, everything like that, that's that's the time to do it. It's the hardest to make that decision. But if you do, give it some time, be patient with it. What can come about it is it's it's a beautiful thing. So yeah, we're still still getting after it each day. So yep.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you can only grow in uncomfortable. Yep. Can't grow in comfort. 100%. So you said you were in lending 19 years?
SPEAKER_02:That's correct.
SPEAKER_00:What were your first couple of years like?
SPEAKER_02:Challenging. And so I mentioned uh 2005 as the entry point for those that were around and remember that period, it was go, go, go. Lending and loan products uh were prevalent. And it was easy to make a sale. I say easy in the sense that we had a lot of different products to offer, some of them uh not good, some of them good. And so the emphasis was around making money for the industry. And that ultimately led to the collapse that we saw happen in 2008. And the years that followed were so many homeowners were upside down underwater. They were owing more than what the value of their home was. Working through that in some of the governmental programs, HAMP and HARP that were available during that time, uh, there was a lot of pain. And so when I say difficult, not only for me, but for the entire country. And whether you owned a home or not, uh, capital markets froze during those years. And so if you were a small business owner or you worked for a company, it was really hot, it was really tough, excuse me, to get paid. So those were sort of some of the beginning years. I'm I'm grateful for them. They taught me a lot, but but they they were tough. And what did you do to find business in those first couple of years? So I worked for a company that was providing leads. And so we did uh two approaches towards generating leads. We did uh phone calls, as I mentioned. I sat on the sales floor for three weeks where I made outbound phone calls and you know, spoke with people about their needs and then determined if they would be a good fit to a loan officer. This is before I had a license, and quite frankly, before the states and the feds came in to say you needed a license to do the work that we do today. So that was one way in which we generated leads. I worked for a company that their sole focus was direct mail. So imagine receiving something in the mailbox that says, here's a loan offering, call this number, and those folks would call. Again, I'll date myself. You could also fax in the application. And interestingly enough, the faxed applications were usually converting at a higher percentage than the phone call conversations were. So those were sort of early days of lead generation.
SPEAKER_00:Nice. And Connor, how long have you been in this business?
SPEAKER_03:Coming up on a year and a half.
SPEAKER_00:Nice. Yeah. So what was how's your first year and a half been?
SPEAKER_03:It's same similar to when Michael started. It's it's been a tough time getting started, a slow time. But for me, and I I say it all the time, I find it a blessing in disguise getting into this space at the time it is. I always thought if if I were to get in this in the beginning of COVID, uh when all these rates are super low and everyone's buying a house and it's easy, I would say, oh, this is it's the easiest job in the world. You know, it's it's easy to find business, everything like that. Um, and then, you know, it would come to fruition when things changed and I wouldn't be as equipped to handle what's going on. So it's been it's been a lot of learning, a lot of prospecting, just staying true to the activity, staying true to the vision that we have for not only this industry, but the company. I mean, it's just having that faith that as long as we keep the activity going, I mean it'll come to light one day, once you know the market and industry can get better. And I would say it's never excuses, they just they just don't help anything. You know, if I make excuses for things, it's not gonna make things better. So it's can you adapt, you know, as many times as possible. That life is every day you're just adapting. And that's just kind of what it is. It's easier said than done to make it happen, but the more you do it, the more you practice at it, the more you kind of accept it and learn learn to love that, then it becomes a little bit easier. So yeah, to stand true to the activity, uh been a year and a half, so and just keep planting those seeds um everywhere you go and just kind of hope for the best.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly. Real quickly, we have a lot of sayings at Lone Inc., and and one of them is we're not chasing perfection, we're chasing continuous improvement.
SPEAKER_00:You make excuses or you can make results. Yep. That's that's a great one. We are gonna add that one. Yeah. Yeah, and then uh I was reading a book called Million Dollar Weekend. Okay. I don't know if either of you have read it. I don't do something. But yeah, in one of the chapters, he goes, Now, not how. So, you know, when you're trying to, at least for me, I'll be like, well, I'm doing this today, I'll do that tomorrow. Okay. But I'll have time in the day to do that. So I'm trying to condition my mind to being, oh, well, I can do that today. I'll just get that done today. Yeah. And so what have you done to find business in the last couple of years?
SPEAKER_03:In the beginning, a lot of it was just letting everyone I know in my space, whether it be family, friends, just people that I know, what I'm doing, what industry I'm in, and then from there, a lot of them say, Oh, I know this real estate agent, I know this financial advisor. And then I would give them a call, start a little bit cold just because they didn't know who I was. But once I let them know how I got their number and how I know them, then they would open up a little bit, turn into a coffee meeting just to learn about them, learn about their business, let them know what we're doing over here at Lone Inc. And then from there, just following up with calls, asking for the business. A lot of, I'm sure as you know, a lot of networking events, just getting in front of people. I love the organic and natural way of building relationships with people, but then always staying true and always following up with them. So that's some of the biggest ways now to lie, yeah, just being on the phones as much as possible. I know in 2025 doesn't seem you know as prevalent and stuff, but in in this industry, in this business, a lot of a lot of stuff gets done on the phone. Um so it's just staying true to that and trying to find some sort of value each time for them, whether it be in business, whether it be for in their personal life, just just being there for um our business partners. Because I want it to be a true relationship and not transactional. You know, you hear that all the time because that that stuff will come. That'll be that's part of it. But if we're gonna be in this for the long run, you know, we want to build that true relationship with one another. Um so that it can stand um the test of time with that thing. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And that's core to our business too, right? We are a relationship-based business and nothing against other lead sources. There are a lot of them that you can pick and choose. Our primary focus is the telephone, making phone calls, calling people, having conversations with them, honoring them and the work that they do, learning from them, elevating them, supporting them in their business. That's the approach that we take. And so it's done well for us over over the last nine years.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, when you guys, when Connor first reached out to me, I was like, you know, lone ink. What's going on with lone ink there? You know, just in my mind, I was I was a little questionable about the name. And then, you know, you guys connected with me, and I was like, man, these guys are really cool. Oh, dude. Yeah, I like this.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, no thanks. Yeah, there was yeah, it was true to a little bit of the business I talked about is social media, it's here and there. I'm mainly just finding you were people like yourself. Like I saw you, I love the consistency of you posting every single day. Is it today 120 today? Yeah. So yeah, day 120 of everything. And once I caught that, I was like, that's that's what's lacking a lot. It's just consistency, just in general. So it's just staying true to it and being consistent. I was like, oh, get this guy a call. This would be this would be fun to a fun guy to work with. Because that's the thing too. You know, you want to work with people that you like that you would enjoy working, you know, with God on the c on the golf course uh a few times, you know, stuff like that. So and then just seeing you, you know, coming right out of high school, boom, coming an agent. Um, that's like you don't see that that often with our younger generation. So it's just like, you know, it's just something you want to be a part of. So yeah, super cool.
SPEAKER_02:And to that point about working with people that are uh of the same mindset as you are, you know, I I I I didn't recognize this early enough on, right? Because I think as humans, we always want to please everybody, right? And we want everybody to like us. But what I've come to realize is I don't have to be, nor does Connor, nor does our company, have to be everything to everyone. But we can be a lot to a select group of people. And, you know, I'll give another example of that. I I could stand on the street and and and throw out a hundred gold coins, 25% of the people would probably be angry at me for throwing out those gold coins, uh, inconveniencing them. So I think that that's that's an important realization that uh that I've finally come to.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And I think it's important because like I I found, you know, myself connecting with a couple of people, and sometimes I'm like, well, I don't really know how well we would click, and I don't know if it'd be, you know, a good relationship there. And I think that's important because, you know, at least for me, I'm not in really the house business, I'm in the relationship business. Absolutely. And building those relationships is what gets you business.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. You you will lose folks that want to buy homes, right? Because there isn't a relationship, and and that's okay. Another realization for us is that, you know, you'll call a hundred people and 20, 20 of them will take the opportunity to talk with you. I'm talking if we're if we're looking at cold prospecting, right? That means that 80 of those people are saying no or aren't answering. And that's part of the difficulty in a sales job, no matter what you're selling, right? Finding that 20% that is the relationship that you can build upon, that likes the same things as you, that values the same things as you, that prioritizes the same things as you. And nothing against the folks that don't, just a different way of thinking about it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Um, we were talking about events the other day in the office, and they're like, Yeah, find events or create events that you would attend because that's what attracts the like-minded people, and that's what gets you business in the door.
SPEAKER_03:True. Yeah, and it's just yeah, it's just an easy kind of icebreaker. You know, you're there liking the same thing. So yeah, it just makes it a little bit easier. Like we kind of talked about even with golf and everything. You know, we're all we're out there doing the same thing and we enjoy it. No one's like, ah, gotta get out and golf today. Like, uh boo-hoo. No, they're we're all there doing the same thing. It's easy to talk. So, yeah, those like-minded things just make it a little bit easier. And you're already connected right there.
SPEAKER_02:So we we put on a lot of events. They're educational based at our office in downtown Denver. It's a classroom that holds about 40 people, and the room is packed because there are folks that are there that want to learn and improve. And whether it be about loan products or whether it be about sales techniques, these events, to your point, Alexandra, they attract people to your tribe, if you will.
SPEAKER_03:And the room's called the monkey barrel room, which is kind of fun. It's kind of interesting. We didn't name it. The building named it.
SPEAKER_00:Do you guys have any idea why it's called the monkey barrel?
SPEAKER_03:I yeah, I have no idea. We've had we've asked a lot of people and they're just like, I don't know. Maybe they just yeah, picked a random name and maybe gets more people in the door, a little more curious. Like, what is it? Yeah, we got some barrels in there, what's going on? So, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and I like when we were first started golfing, you were like, yeah, everyone's gonna, you know, everyone's having a good time, no one's angry. Yeah. You know, I think that's pretty important when you're inviting people to events, is they're there to have a good time, they're not there because they're forced to.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Absolutely. And you know, that ties to mindset, right? Uh the the way in which you approach things is is so important. And we have a culture of, you know, we're thumb pointers, we're not finger pointers, right? So we look internally on how we can solve, how we can do better, rather than try to pass the buck and point at somebody else.
SPEAKER_00:Yep. And then how do you guys continue to build your business to ensure success?
SPEAKER_02:Ooh, I I think that Connor hit upon that, and I'll take this one. But you know, he touched upon it. It's it's about consistency, it's about knowing what your model is. And there's lots of models, right? Whether you're in lending or whether you're in real estate or uh auto sales, there's a model. And if you stay true to your model, and and for me as the leader, you focus on operational excellence. You keep perfecting that model. We're not everything to everyone. There are products and programs that we don't offer, but when we do offer a product and program, we're very good at at making sure that we deliver on what it is that we're offering. So I think, you know, if you think about having blinders on the side so your peripheral vision doesn't get you distracted, you stay focused on what your task is, what your model is, and you keep practicing it, right? I'm not a huge sports person, so I will fumble on most likely the analogy here.
SPEAKER_03:But God, you got that one though. That was the start of it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. But you know, I mean, Tiger Woods, you were talking about golf, right? He had to swing a club at one point in time. And he practiced his swing, right? Whether you like him or dislike him, right? Uh, you know, the point that I'm making is he consistently practiced what his craft was. And that's how we are growing our business is we're perfecting our craft. We're constantly looking to improve and we're focused on one particular segment of the market.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and I like what you said with the blinders, because you know, I say it with shiny objects, because people jump to the next shiny object. And I've definitely fell victim to that, but I think it's important to realize when you've jumped to the shiny object and when you need to get back to the basics.
SPEAKER_02:We're all guilty of that. Life is full of distractions these days with the technology with the technology, excuse me, that we have at our fingertips. It's it's hard not to be distracted.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and with your point of consistency, it compounds every day. And what I found is I started to engage more on like Instagram, threads, Facebook. Okay. And, you know, commenting, engaging on people. And you know, with even the first week that I've done it, I've, you know, seen more engagement on my videos. I've seen more people open up to me. Yep. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I I'll let Connor speak on this, but another thing that we do is we ask. We're not afraid to ask. We have a handful of lines that we use to ask for the business.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. No, yeah, I think I think that's an important thing too. I want you to build that relationship. Yeah, to asking for it. You never know what you're going to get in life unless you know you ask for it. You might you might as well try. Right. You don't want to live with that regret of, ah, what could have been, could have this. So yeah, just try and ask. Um, I think that's one of the biggest things holding a lot of people back is that regret part because maybe they're afraid to fail, maybe they're afraid of the no, which is what it could be. And would I I completely agree with that? That's not an easy thing to get behind. But say you do ask and they do say yes, or and we do find that a lot of people are pretty appreciative of us calling um and asking and staying, staying true to it and consistent. My favorite story on the consistency side, I'm a big, big Kobe Bryant guy. His mommy mentality is everything, but helped me get through college, college sports, pro sports, this job here. He talked about how he learned when he started waking up every day at 4 a.m. in training instead of 6 a.m. He said he would get another one or two extra sessions in each day. And just like you said, that adds up and compounds every day. So after a year, two years, five years, he says, look at how much more I've done to my competition just by starting that early. So maybe every day in this space we can do one or two extra little things every day that helps compound each time, and then you just set yourself apart from your competition. So and then just stay stay disciplined to it. Lazan there with him, quote I just put out a couple weeks ago was being delusional to the fact that it's gonna happen, which you have to sometimes you have to be delusional to when you have these ideas, you have to be. But then you have to also be staying disciplined to actually make it happen. So yeah, I just yeah, hold true to that. So RP Kobe.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And uh kind of back to your point of asking, the same book, it talks about your ask muscle and how you develop that. And one of its challenges was make a game out of getting the no's. Say today I want to get 10 no's. Okay. And you know, go for the rejection, don't go for the approval. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:That's an approach I haven't heard. And, you know, I'll just say that part of being in sales, and I consider us in sales to a relationship, is getting the no. That is part of the job. You are not going to win 100% of the time. Back to the sports analogy. The basketball player, the golfer does not win 100% of the time, but they keep focused, right? And my father, who's been a big inspiration in my life and a mentor to me, right? He always says, one more. Do one more. Do one more than the next guy, right? And so that is that has been a focus for for me and for our team as we continue to grow it, is how can we wake up two hours earlier and do one more loan consultation? How can we do one more appointment? How can we make one more phone call to use some of our specific loan ink and industry things?
SPEAKER_00:How do you guys like overcome obstacles and ceilings uh arise?
SPEAKER_02:Uh well, I'll just I'll just say that the the first thing is for me, and I worked hard at this, I try to take a step back and remove any emotion from what's going on. And that's not to say that I'm emotionless and I'm perfect, but I try to take and look at it from a objective place rather than from an emotional standpoint. And then I think about well, what are the possible outcomes that would be good for the team, for the referral partner, for the business partner, for the borrower in our our case? So so that's that's how I approach obstacles is I take a step back and you know, I I think about when somebody will email you something, and if you're right online and you and you read it, like what's the first thing that you want to do? You want to you want to fire back right away. Well, if you write that email and you walk away and come back to it an hour, three, five hours later, is that same message the one that you want to send? And what I've found is most of the time it's not.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, sometimes I'm like, why did I say that? I should have waited and and and thought about it.
SPEAKER_02:Sure. You know, and and this ties to our business. We we've been building loan ink. March of next year will mark 10 years for the company being in existence and lending people money in a handful of states, helping thousands of borrowers to achieve generational wealth through real estate. And so, you know, uh I I just I I'm tickled pink about the opportunity that's ahead of us, and uh we will continuously innovate and improve and and work to get better.
SPEAKER_00:I'll kind of open this button up to you guys because I feel like I've been asking all the questions. Um you guys have any questions for me? All right.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I would say I mean, I guess, yeah, with what have been has there been any challenges for you being, you know, starting new off in the career? It's always challenging, whether it be lending, real estate, first couple of months of everything like that. Has there been any challenges with you being as young as you are? Do you find, you know, some people might be like, oh, this guy is so young. How, you know, stuff like that. Have you had any of those obstacles and and what have you done to kind of overcome those?
SPEAKER_00:I haven't found you know, too many people saying, Oh, well, you're too young, you can't really do anything. That's because our boys like six foot six.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that was what the young walk in that first open house. I was like, oh damn.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I was like, we're gonna pick a role here. Like I could build you a lob if we need to. Like, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I think with people I've connected with, they're like, How old are you? And I say, I'm 18, and you know, usually their response is, Wow, congratulations. I can't believe you're out of high school doing this. I'd say the biggest problem is you know, finding people that will work with me, that will trust me. And you know, why me? What do I bring them? So it's kind of I've kind of had to shift my mindset a little bit to more of a I I'm gonna bring you value and you're gonna bring me value. Okay. So I've just found trying to be as knowledgeable as I can is my big biggest piece of value because I may not have all the experience, but I've all this time to give you and to learn. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:This this came from a book that that I read, The Challenger Sale. And, you know, it talks about three key things. It says teach, tailor, and take control. And I think regardless of your age, Alexander, if you can teach somebody something that they didn't know, if you can tailor it to their needs, and you can take control of the situation, you will be wildly successful in real estate beyond your peers and beyond the folks that are older than you.
SPEAKER_00:I also found um confidence really helps you.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. And how you show up, right? Nice pressed shirt, you know, nothing against how folks choose to dress, but you look very well put together. Thank you. You did the first appointment that we came to meet with you, and I I think that that speaks volumes too. So is it my turn now to ask you a question? Go ahead. Wonderful. So your why. What's your why for doing all of this?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, my why is financial freedom and time freedom. I want to enjoy life however I want and not have to worry about money. If I wanted to pack my bags and head to Hawaii for a year and not work and just enjoy the island. Or if you know I wanted to take my kids to where, I don't know, Disneyland or something for a week and just not have to worry about the money and not have to worry about, oh, I've work on Monday. That's that's what I want.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Awesome. Yeah, that's the I think that's the biggest thing, yeah, is the the time part. Um if if stores sold time, everyone would be there lining up to buy. I mean, I think that's one of the most important parts. Because a lot of you know, people they have to, they're tied down to certain work hours, stuff like that. They'll miss their kids, yeah, games, events, stuff like that. So you're having the freedom to be flexible and everything like that is you know, goes beyond any dollar amount. But then being able to have that financial freedom on the backside to allow you to do that, um, I think is everything. I think that's why a lot of people love, you know, being in this industry and why you always tell people like just keep going, keep going. Um it'll it'll it'll be worth it. Um yeah, there's much time as you can get back. I mean, that's everything. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I was talking about this with Noah. Oh yeah. Yeah, um, and he was asking me my why. And originally my why was financial freedom, but it's kind of shifted into the time part too, because as I said, if you have all this money, but you have no time to spend the money, why do you have the money?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. That's a great point.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, money is not the yardstick to measure someone by, at least not in my book. And that's that's hard to, you know, hard hard to see in an American culture that is about grid, drive, hustle, you know, beating the next person. And don't get me wrong, we're we're very competitive. We rank everyone in our team uh against one another for production numbers from inquiries to loan fundings, you know, the activity on the call blocks. Like we're looking at that stuff, we're tracking that stuff because we know that that helps with improvement and performance. But, you know, your why can be different than mine and different than his. And yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, as you bring that up, what's your guys' why?
SPEAKER_02:So yeah, I look mine is I get every day to wake up and have conversations with people. I get the opportunity to talk to folks such as yourself, and I get to work with great folks like Connor and the rest of our team. That's my why. You know, money is a byproduct of what my why is, but I know that each and every day I'm gonna meet new people. Some of them aren't gonna be in my tribe, some will probably be jerks. Well, they there will be jerks, right? But I keep attracting the people that think, act, see the value in the vision the way that I do. And I have great fun throughout my day. Let me be clear my day is very structured. We hold to calendar start and stop times. This is not, you know, nilly willy pie in the sky, skipping down, and you know, everything is butterflies and rainbows. But my watch. Is people at its core. And one of the biggest benefactors as a leader of a company is to enrich the lives of others through mentorship. And, you know, we're going to add more wonderful people to our team as the years unfold. We've got big plans for where we're taking Lone Inc.
SPEAKER_03:100%. No, yeah. Love that. That's a great, great way to look at it. It's a great why. Love, yeah, the amount of people that I've been able to meet after getting in this space. It's it's pretty cool. Because before that, being in an athlete pretty much my whole life, you you do meet some people, but it's very similar. You don't get to expand as much.
SPEAKER_01:Um where he's like prequishly good at everything that we we play sports-wise.
SPEAKER_03:That's yeah, I'll I'll agree with him on that.
SPEAKER_01:And and modest too.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. But I think, yeah, over the past year and a half being in this industry, I've probably met more people in this past year and a half than maybe even almost my whole life. Like that's how many people I have, and a lot of people that are very grateful to have met and fortunate to met, and that I hopefully, yeah, we stay in a relationship, whether they're here, they move on to different places. That that's been super cool. Definitely a why for myself is my family right now with my mom, my sister, uh, my little nephew and niece. Uh, my brother-in-law are super close. He's going through residencies, about to be an orthopedic surgeon, so being able to help help them out until he gets to that point. My mom's given me everything in my life. She's been, she was at every single game, never missed, giving me every single opportunity to be able to be what I can be. So anything that I can do, like I wanna, I want to surprise her with vacations here and there randomly. If she's going somewhere, I want to fire fly her first class somewhere. She's never flown first class in her life. So I want to be able to do that for her. Another wise for my future family. I eventually, you know, hopefully we'll meet someone that'll deal with me for the rest of my life. Um, that that'd be that'd be pretty cool. You know, we'll find it one day.
SPEAKER_02:You keep calling, Kyle. You keep making those phone calls.
SPEAKER_03:100%. And then yeah, definitely, I want to have kids in the future help kind of grow them and show them the way of life and be able to provide for them so that they, you know, never have to worry about having food on the table or a roof over their head. And then just being able another way is to allow people to believe in things that they never thought that they could. I I've been a leader my whole life. Michael's given me a lot of opportunities to be in leadership roles within this company. And I do believe that a good leader has that their followers, their people, employees, teammates, whatever it is, they they believe in them as the leader. But I believe a great leader inspires those to believe in themselves. And that and that's what I want to do. We live in a world where there's so much information, there's so much going on that a lot of people look at it and they get down on themselves saying, I'm not doing this, I'm not doing enough, stuff like that. Where if they could focus really on how much they could accomplish and how much worth they have and that they're enough, I want to instill that in people. Because I've had, I've seen people that have been down and they're just down on life, just down on whatever it may be. And it's a process, it takes time, but as you slowly start to build them and grow them and let them know, like there, there's potential, there, there's opportunities, and you can do it. Given them that framework, that's another why for me as well, to take people who are down and out and help them rise to the top. Um, I think it's just something cool to be a part of.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Great wise. Great wise. 100%. Yeah. I'm gonna shift it a little bit here. Okay. What are your guys' hobbies?
SPEAKER_02:So I'm I'm an avid tennis player. I'm a sailor. Despite living in Colorado as my primary residence, there's not much sailing, but those are probably the two things that that I find joy in the most. I am very passionate about food, clean food. I'm not talking about going to restaurants, I'm talking about clean eating. So those are sort of the three things that come to mind right away: tennis sailing, and clean, clean food.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. No, I love that. Um, definitely on the food side. Um, trying to personal training background, athlete background, always learning ways to help our bodies in that aspect. Um I still play play a lot of basketball, still uh work out a lot, staying active, that's a huge hobby of mine, no matter what it is. I also one of my best friends, uh, shout out Cody. We coach a U-15 Girls Academy soccer team in Broomfield, and doing with doing that with him every week, we've been about a year and a half now. That's it's been one of my favorite things. One to teach these girls what it means as an athlete, that if you can win during this, you can win in life. And I think being an athlete and growing up in sports, whether you go playing college professionally, none of that, the lessons you learn from athletics and sports can can take you so far. Every single day of my life, I use what I learned from athletics and that mentality and applied to here. So, yeah, coaching those girls is super fun. And then yeah, just just kind of golfing. Hey, you're golfing about seven months into it. It's I'm hooked. Um that's definitely gonna be something I'm glad to get into.
SPEAKER_02:Again, precaution.
SPEAKER_03:Start to figure it out, you know. Got a lot of work to do. It's one of the, you know, it's one of those things where I was like, oh, I think I'm starting to figure out the driver or something. Next time you go play, it's it's all over the place. So it's that's definitely a humbling sport, um, which I like, but it's you know, it's cool because we it's problem solving every single shot, which is I think is cool, which helps you mentally, and that's just a cool hobby to have. You're always problem solving. So that's one thing for sure. And then just hobby of just getting out, mean people, doing different things that I never thought that I would do, and then wanted to get to traveling. After being an athlete, just wasn't able to do too much personal traveling and stuff like that. We traveled for sports, but now being out of that, being able to go see the world, because it's there's a lot of a lot of cool places out there. And I met through soccer a lot of cool people from many different countries. So hearing about their culture, everything about their country where they lived got me super excited to say, hey, I want to go visit those places one day. So hopefully, yeah, traveling can become a hobby.
SPEAKER_02:Um what about what about you, Alexander?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, uh golf is a big hobby of mine. Watches is another I enjoy my watches. What are we wearing today? I have a Casio turquoise style. Okay. What do you what do you got on?
SPEAKER_02:This is uh Brightling, the Bentley.
SPEAKER_00:Nice. Yeah. Yeah, I would I'd say to uh anyone listening, don't get a Casio. You they they are such good watches and they're so cheap. You're gonna I have five of them. And then you're gonna you're gonna get so many of them. Just don't even get started with them. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I share the love of watches like you. When I was a boy, I had one of those watches. I don't think they make them anymore, but it had the little keyboard on it, and you could do math and you could type things out. And I believe it was the can I see how?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Um another one of mine is uh I like to travel. Traveling's a big one. And I'm pretty into comic books. Okay. Oh, all right. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:What's that a favorite comic book?
SPEAKER_00:Uh it's gotta be uh between Transformers and Iron Man. Okay.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Now what about favorite country you've ever been to? And or state favorite place you've ever visited?
SPEAKER_00:Iceland.
SPEAKER_03:Iceland.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Iceland. I mean, if you have the chance to go go. Yeah. Why would you say that? It's it's so beautiful, and it's I call it Hawaii's odd brother. Really? Because it is it's similar to like the island life, but colder. And the food there is great, the people are great, it's just you know, very enjoyable traveling experience there. Yeah. Are you a surfer?
SPEAKER_02:You've mentioned Hawaii twice now.
SPEAKER_00:I wouldn't say I'm a like I like to surf. Okay. I'm not that good at it, but I do like to surf, yeah. Yeah, I hope to get better at it and surf, you know, 10, 20 foot waves. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:That'll be some fun stuff. I've heard there's good. I've been to Costa Rica before. I've heard, I think I've I think you told me this before there's a lot of good surfing. I'm down there in Costa Rica. I'm a lot of good people that can, yeah, teach that wave. Yeah, I'm gonna get down there.
SPEAKER_00:Yep. And then, you know, kind of bringing it back through my point, how do you guys bring these hobbies into your business to succeed?
SPEAKER_02:Well, I think it goes back to, you know, finding your tribe, right? The people that value the same sort of things that you do and you know, integrating that into your life and your work and your life. I'm not a big believer in like work-life balance. I I work and I do the things that I like while I'm working, right? Or so I I think that you know, people are naturally going to gravitate to you because of the things that you're interested in.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I'm just saying I have a lot of uh a lot of business partners who have the same mindset, same hobbies, um, a lot aligned with basketball, working out, now with golf. So just always on the lookout for certain events that have to do, you know, with those certain activities and or with those specific people, you know, brainstorming ideas of events that would involve that. Because then if we can get people there that also, you know, like those specific things, then they're more likely to work with us and and we would enjoy working with them because you know, we have a similar interest and it's fun, it's easy. The business part comes and it's all that, but then we can, you know, get back to, you know, talking about what we what we truly love to do.
SPEAKER_02:And and this is somewhat related to the question, but it ties back to something you said earlier, right? Like, you know, when we're talking about having a conversation with somebody and and building that relationship and honoring them in the work that they do. You know, in the past, I I would, if a boat was brought up, I would go to, well, what size? What's the motor? You know, what's the dead rise? You know, I talk the technical stuff. And now, and have always been generally interested in the person that I'm talking with. Now the question is, well, tell me who you take out on that boat. Oh, your your your two kids? Oh, well, what do they like when they're on the boat with you? Oh, well, we take them tubing and you know, they love when we do these quick spins and they get thrown off. Well, how does that make you feel when you get to do that? Right. And so going to the relationship piece, that is how we are building our business, right? Because if we're focused just on the transaction and we're focused just on product, program, price, somebody will always beat us, somebody will always be better. But if we're different, if we're focused on the relationship and the person that that's at the other end of the table that we're working with, we're helping them to provide value and build that partnership, we'll stand out every time.
SPEAKER_00:That was uh kind of took the question right out of my mouth there. I was gonna see what you guys do when others zag, how do you zag?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I also I mean, I think the biggest thing is just providing an experience that you're not gonna forget. I feel like on the mortgage side of things and lending side, it's sort of a mundane process dealing with the numbers, all that stuff, where on you on the real estate side, you know, you get to tape up to homes, go for listing. It seems a little more fun and active, and they're gonna remember that experience, one, because they get to be active with you and you're gonna give them a great experience they're gonna remember. So it's what can we do on the mortgage side to provide such a good experience that one, they had a little bit of fun, you know, while doing it. They remember us. They remember like all these guys actually cared about us and more of just, you know, if we can qualify with our income and all that good stuff, like we're talking about. Who do you take on that boat? Everything like that. We generally want to know about these people's lives because their their lives are important. They're you know, hopefully working with us, and we're grateful for them to work with us because they have to work with somebody. So we want to want to get to know them so that we can always reach back out after business has been closed to check in generally and see how everything's going. You know, the kids liking the new house, is the dog, you know, are they are they enjoying their bigger backyard? You know, just stuff like that. So just providing such a great experience that one, it gets the job done, it takes the stress out of everything, and that they just have a little bit of fun. Like why why can't the mortgage-based landing space be fun? I mean, why not?
SPEAKER_02:I I I would also say that when we talk with folks, what we don't want to hear is, oh my gosh. I was thinking the same thing, right? Because if they're thinking what I'm thinking, then I'm not educating them, I'm not teaching them something new, right? What we want to hear and what we seek to hear is oh my gosh, Michael and loaning team, Connor and loaning team. I'd never considered that. Thank you for bringing that to my attention, right? And uh, you know, you could apply that to any business that you're in, right? Not just mortgage or real estate, but I don't want to hear from somebody. I was thinking the same thing, right? To me, I'm not doing my job as a professional in the space, and our team is not doing their job as a professional in the space to differentiate ourselves and help them to learn something new.
SPEAKER_00:No, I don't want to really have anything to say on that.
SPEAKER_02:That good, huh?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's pretty good answer.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Well, look, you know, I'll just add that we're not perfect. But, you know, whether you like the Beatles or not, they practice. They practice for 10,000 hours, right? They were they were consistently working on their craft. And that's how we approach this business. We're consistently practicing, working on our craft to to make ourselves and the experience for our business partners and our borrowers better.
SPEAKER_00:You know, as we kind of wrap things up here, any final thoughts, questions, anything?
SPEAKER_03:Um yeah, no, thanks for having us on. Yeah, thank you for coming. Yeah, I think this is the first time I've ever been on a podcast series doing something like this. So it's super cool what you're doing. I know you're gonna stay consistent with it um with everything going along. I always like to end, I always end our company huddle with a quote. Do you mind if I say some of the quotes for the viewers just to kind of end on? So one thing I I'm sure, you know, a lot of people, they've probably said a similar quote like this, it's probably out there somewhere from someone. But I when I was going through my college career, trying to earn the right to be a starter, I learned it it helps with sports, but also in life. And I would say all you can ever ask for in this life is an opportunity. And once that opportunity is given to you, it's on you to make the most of it. That's and and that's as simple as that. You can't go through things and say, Oh, I deserve this, this. Like all you can ask for is that opportunity. And if it's given to you, then boom, go out and take it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. You can see why I sought Connor out and made him an integral part of our team. And he's continuing to help develop the next pieces of the company that we're growing here, right? Any great leader knows that you can't do it on your own. You need the support of a dedicated team. And his inspiration and his words and his ability to lift people up, it's got me fired up inside in a way that I haven't felt in a long time. So thank you to you first, Alexander. Thank you for having us on the show. This is also my first ever podcast. So, and I'll leave with one quote that my father would say to me he'd say, Michael, you can have it all. You just can't have it all at the same time. And I think if we reframe our mindset in that I can get whatever it is that I want, but it might not come all at the same time. We'll keep working, we'll keep hustling. Yep. 100%.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's why I created the podcast so I could connect with more people, bring them some value. I just enjoy having conversations and learning new things. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:No, yeah, you're going, you're going about it in the best of ways. Staying consistent, doing stuff like this. It's it's gonna it's gonna build. It takes time, but that that's the beauty of it. Things that take time, that's they're gonna stand the test of time when you allow it to happen and be patient with it. So and you are that uh you're very calm, demeaning demeanor, very patient with everything, and that's it's gonna take you very far. Um excited to start.
SPEAKER_02:Calm demeanor is what he meant. Not demeaning. Yeah, yeah. Just to clarify.
SPEAKER_03:He's always teaching me things too. It goes too, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:That's all right. Um we're helping each other out, uh the whole team. So yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Sweet.
SPEAKER_00:Well, uh, thank you everyone for joining us here on Timeless Movement Podcast. Uh, we'll see you next week.
SPEAKER_03:Sweet.