February 10, 2025 • 48 mins
Braiden Shaw is a business leader, investor, and entrepreneur focused on helping others build long-term wealth. As the founder of Fulcrum Home Loans, he helps clients optimize lending strategies, and through his Amplifi program, he provides a roadmap for financial literacy, investing, and wealth-building. As the leader of Growth Circle, he connects entrepreneurs with private market investment opportunities, helping them scale through strategic partnerships and smart capital allocation.
In this episode, we break down:
✅ Scaling businesses through strategic partnerships
✅ Private market investing and long-term wealth strategies
✅ The role of financial literacy in entrepreneurial success
✅ How social media branding fuels business growth
Additionally, we explore how companies like StatPads are leveraging AI, automation, and CRM tools like Salesforce to stay ahead in a fast-changing business environment. Plus, we analyze current housing market trends, supply and demand challenges, and the economic impact of new construction projects.
Braiden, a former BYU basketball player, brings a competitive mindset to business, using the same discipline and strategy that defined his career on the court to build scalable companies and mentor others in financial growth. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, investor, or business leader, this episode is packed with actionable insights to help you grow, adapt, and succeed.
For our Ahlquist Update, we also dive into commercial development challenges in Boise with Mark Cleverley and Kekoa Nawahine, who navigated city code changes to expand Quality Electric’s headquarters. Their experience showcases the power of negotiation, adaptability, and working with city officials—key lessons for any business leader facing regulatory hurdles.
Follow Ahlquist on Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ahlquist/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ahlquistdev/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ahlquistdev
X (Twitter): https://x.com/ahlquistdev
Meta (Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/ahlquistdev/
Youtube: https://youtube.com/@ahlquistdev?si=ejOXPKRqQjtsdVFE
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today on the Ever Onward podcast, we have a great
guest.
I've been trying to get him onfor a while.
Braden Shaw of Eagle, idaho, isan unbelievable leader.
His company, fulcrum Home Loans, of which he's the CEO and
founder, has exploded.
When you hear of his growth injust four years, it's amazing.
He played basketball at BYU,again from right here in Eagle,
(00:23):
and now has multiple socialmedia channels companies and
it's anchored by Fulcrum HomeLoans.
It's going to be an incredibleinterview.
I hope you enjoy it, mr BradenShaw.
Prior to Braden today, we'regoing to hear from Kakoa
Nawahini and Mark Cleverley forour AllQuist update.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Good morning everyone .
We're here for an Allquistupdate.
I'm Mark Cleverley, ChiefLeasing Officer with Allquist,
here with Keikoa.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Yeah, Keikoa and Alhine also on the leasing team.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, so we want to take a minute, and I know we've
talked about build-to-suit stuffin the past, but we want to
take a minute and talk about onein particular.
That was kind of prettydifficult, mainly because
obviously it's in a new area ofBoise that hasn't been developed
for a long time, and then thecode changes with the city of
(01:14):
Boise, which made it a littlebit difficult, but we had some
good, positive news.
It was Quality Electric that'sgoing out to Pleasant Valley, a
site that we've been working onfor a number of years, and so I
wanted to have you come in andtalk about just kind of the
process and what happened withQuality Electric.
It was touch and go there for aminute, but we had some good
(01:37):
news last week.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Yeah, no, it's been a great project to kind of see up
until this point, and workingwith those guys has been awesome
.
I think in the world ofdevelopment there's always
obstacles and hiccups thatyou're going to face Always ups
and downs right.
So the co-change with the cityof Boise being a main one in
this that made it difficult towork around some things and some
(01:59):
obstacles that we had toovercome.
But that's where I think weprovide our value as a
development company of seeing alot of these things through
everything that we do, a lot ofthese issues and having
relationships with the city andunderstanding what needs to be
done to be able to ultimatelyget them in their new
headquarters right.
And so kind of starting fromthe beginning.
You know, after we've selectedthe site out at Pleasant Valley,
(02:19):
we were able to get them withour internal architect, brad
Smith, and our construction team, corey Hall, and really work
through the details and thenuances of what they wanted
their new headquarters to looklike out at our site.
And so, after we got all thatspace planning done their 50,000
square foot corporateheadquarters and some different
(02:41):
things with shop and yard we runinto this the the wall of the
new city code and so change umamong a lot of things.
The biggest issue that we hadfaced out there is you can't
have parking in front of thebuilding facade and a road and
industrial layouts.
That's just not very feasible,because you keep the parking up
(03:05):
front, you keep all of thedocking and all of the yard and
everything in the back, for manyreasons one, for feasibility
and for safety and all thosethings right and so with the new
city code, you can't have thatparking between the building and
the road.
And so we're trying to figureout, okay, how can we change
this layout to make it work andgo into all these different
things?
And the reality was the road.
(03:25):
And so we're trying to figureout, okay, how can we change
this layout to make it work, andgoing through all these
different things, and thereality was it didn't.
It just didn't work.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
There wasn't another feasible way to have that
because, quality, they werewanting them to push their
parking all the way to the backof the site, yeah, behind the
shop, even the shop space, yeah,which I mean walking through a
yard with heavy machinery andequipment.
It was a safety thing, right,really for us, yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
And then you're just walking around a whole building
just to get inside.
And so it didn't make sense, andso the process that we had to
go through with the city wasreally to file for an appeal to
overcome that specific sectionin the code, and through a
few-month-long process we werefinally able to, as as of a
couple weeks ago, get thatappeal approved through the city
(04:10):
council.
It passed and really what cameout of that was that there that
needs to be a change becausewithin industrial sites it's.
It just doesn't make sense,yeah, to not have that.
So luckily we're able to have abig win there.
We're able to keep rolling.
We have had their drawings andeverything done for a while now
so we can submit for permit, wecan start construction, we can
get them in and their newcorporate headquarters and
(04:32):
everything that they're doing.
Their work within the Valley ishuge, so we're excited, and
they're excited to be able toget into this new space to bring
back this culture and or, Iguess, not bring back, but
revive culture within theircompany with the steps that
they're taking and the help thatthey're doing with Micron and
Meta and different projects thatthey have.
So they're excited to be ableto have a central place where
(04:55):
they can start fresh and all betogether, all be together, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
The great thing, too, is going back to the city of
Boise.
I think they implemented thisnew code, but at least they're
understanding, from adeveloper's perspective and from
a company's perspective, thatsome of those things need to
change.
Yeah, and they're willing tomake those changes, which is
good, I think.
For us, the city's been greatto work with.
(05:23):
They understand the process.
They understand.
Hey, yeah, let's change thatpart of the code because, you're
right, it doesn't make senseand we, you know, we just need
to look at it and change it.
So it's been good that the cityof Boise has been willing to
make those changes.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Right, yeah, they've been great to work with, and I
think that's one of the commentsthat's been made too is it's
just one of the unintendedconsequences that came up to the
code?
When you're rolling out a newcode, it's hard to to get it all
right at the beginning, right,yeah?
Every single scenario and howthat comes into play, and so
they've been great to work withand and moving forward, we're
excited for this project to comeout of the ground.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, okay, awesome, good job, dude.
Thanks, love it.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Braden Shaw welcome, thank you.
Thank you for having me.
Everyone's been telling meforever you've got to get Braden
Shaw on.
You've got to get Braden Shawon.
So thanks for making time forus.
Yeah, I'm excited this will befun.
I've looked at some of yourstuff.
You've got a lot going on.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Yeah, it's been a crazy.
Last year I jumped on socialmedia not expecting much and it
kind of up and my life hasgotten crazy as a result.
So it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
How does that just happen?
Talk through that.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Yeah, so I started a business here locally called
Fulcrum Home Loans, so we'reheadquartered in Eagle, grew
that for years.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Are you from here?
Yeah, I'm going to make youstop and just tell us a little
bit about yourself first.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Yeah, so I grew up here in Eagle, played ball
growing up and eventually wentand played basketball at a
school out of Utah called BYU.
So I played ball at BYU, wasthere for about four years,
graduated in finance.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
I'm sorry, I saw that on your resume.
Was there for about four years,graduated in finance.
I'm sorry, I saw that on yourresume.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
I wasn't going to bring it up.
You brought it up.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah, no, there's this huge BYU Utah thing with me
.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
Utah guy, oh, yeah, oh dang, look at us go.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I grew up Utah guy and then I went to school there,
undergraduate in medical school, and it just got worse.
And then I had my kids and Igrew them all up as Utes.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Well, you beat us in overtime.
A couple nights ago I saw thatgame you took the victory this
year, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Yeah, but it hasn't been good.
Football hasn't been good.
Yeah, I'll tell you a quick BYUstory, though this is a true
story.
I don't think I've had like.
So you played there for fouryears, right, yeah, yeah, so I
had my oldest son.
My kids were like.
Part of their DNA in life isjust, they don't like BYU and
(07:49):
they love Utah.
It's just part of what it is.
I'm sure your kids are Goeswith it.
Yep, 100% Goes with it.
And so my son, when he was likea junior, when you're applying
to school, right, I get home onenight late from an ER shift and
I walk in the house and he'ssitting up waiting for me, which
was very unusual and I saidwhat's going on?
(08:12):
I mean he's like Dad, I need totalk to you.
And I'm literally thinking tomyself okay, what is the worst
thing it could be?
I thought I don't think you gotanyone pregnant.
I didn't see the car wreck downthe way in.
I mean I'm thinking of all thebad things, right, that it could
be, because he's never serious.
And I sit down and he says, hey, I don't know how to bring this
(08:37):
up to you.
I've been nervous to talk toyou about this and at this point
I'm like, well, maybe there issomething, maybe he's going to
tell, tell me, I don't know.
Yeah and um, he, uh.
He says, uh, he says dad, Ithink I want to go to byu the
ultimate betrayal and withoutlike what, that's my best,
what's one of my proudest dadmoments ever, without skipping a
(09:00):
beat because I was put on thespot, right.
So sometimes you don't performlike you should.
At that moment and I did Istared him in the eyes and I
said, son, I was thinking all ofthe horrible things this could
have been right now.
I was thinking about did youget someone pregnant?
Yeah, do you have a drugproblem?
You know, I was thinking abouteven stuff about.
You know, are you still likegirls, like?
I mean, I'm thinking all thesethings.
(09:21):
Why, on God's green earth,couldn't it have been one of
those?
Speaker 4 (09:24):
things that's hilarious.
Oh man, Did he end?
Speaker 1 (09:30):
up going to BYU?
Yeah, you asked, so I'll tellyou the story.
So he ended up going to BYU fora year and it made him a better
Ute.
He transferred to the U.
There you go, graduated fromtheir business scholars program
no.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
BYU's great.
Yeah, they're great schools.
It's a great rivalry it is.
It's a fun rivalry.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
It is deep.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
It's a big-time rivalry yeah, 100-plus years
that it's been going on.
But there's incredible people.
I was actually just talking tosomeone yesterday.
They're like why does Utah haveso many startups?
I was like, well, when youthrow 150,000 college students
within an hour of each otherfrom Utah State, University of
Utah, BYU, UVU, it's just thismelting pot.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
That's perfect.
That environment down there isjust and there's something, and
there just is.
There's something superentrepreneurial about the way
they do their programs, aboutthe way they graduate kids,
about the way they look at lifeand business.
It's a pretty uniqueenvironment down there for a lot
of things, and I think greatleadership and a lot of things.
And I think, um, greatleadership, um, and you get
great things.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
So no, it's fun.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Anyway, I interrupted you with a BYU story, but we
got past it.
There we go.
We're five minutes in and wegot past the awkwardness.
So, yeah, uh, who did you?
Speaker 4 (10:37):
play for down there.
So I was with Rose.
So, so Rose retired after mysenior year.
Okay, he was a great coach,wasn't he?
Yeah, great.
He had a long tenure there forI don't know, 20-plus years
probably, and did really reallywell, yeah, but graduated in
finance.
I was going to go do WallStreet, that side of finance,
(10:59):
really wanted to get intoconsulting, but had a wife and a
kid and decided I didn't wantto pull the 80, 90 hour a week.
So I moved back to Idaho andended up starting Fulcrum Home
Loans.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
So what year did you?
Speaker 4 (11:10):
start 2020.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
That's great.
So so five years ago, just hitour five year here, like this
month, and you're an Eagle andtell, tell us about.
I mean, tell us about that.
You can't just you start a homeloan business.
I mean tell us about that.
You can't just you start a homeloan business, I mean tell us
about what, uh, why and how andwhat was your passion there?
Speaker 4 (11:28):
So I kind of stumbled into.
I don't think anyone grows upwanting to do mortgages.
It's pretty boring.
Profession Um, love real estateand my brother was a real
estate agent and once I decidednot to do wall street my senior
year or go investment banking Iwas like I don't know what I'm
going to do.
So he's like just get yourlicense, I can throw you a
couple deals as you're figuringout life.
(11:48):
I was like, okay, so I did it,closed a deal and the money's
pretty good in lending.
I was like, wow, that was notthat much work and I made decent
money.
And so ended up starting acompany just kind of on a whim.
Had no intentions of growing itto the size it grew to.
We've got about 140 employeesand now nationwide branches from
(12:09):
North Carolina, florida, toCalifornia, washington, and
there was all in five years.
Yeah, I mean, I couldn't havechosen a better time.
So many business owners likethere's an element of luck there
.
2020 rates drop two monthslater down to 3%.
I didn't have a book ofbusiness, but you didn't need
one then because everyone youtalked to needed a refinance or
(12:31):
a purchase, and so there was alarge element of luck.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Did you take on?
Speaker 4 (12:36):
investors?
No, we bootstrapped the wholething you did yeah.
So it was about two years of Ithink we got to about 10 people
in two years.
So the first two years we werejust I was producing and just
churning as much as I could,closing as much business as I
could.
And then about the two-yearmark we had a war chest and
(12:58):
everyone else in the industryrates started to tick up and so
everyone else in the industrystarted to hunker down.
They're like, hey, we got topreserve, preserve.
And that's where we went on aspree and we were like, okay,
we're gonna, we're gonna go theother direction, we're gonna
grow through this, and so werecruited, we brought on
branches, we brought on peopledid you buy?
did you, did you acquire so inthe mortgage industry?
(13:18):
It's not, it's more recruitingthan acquiring.
Okay, so you, you, we wouldtalk to like branch managers
that would have five or 10people underneath them that were
working for another institution.
Okay, and then you, peoplefollow people, you get them
People follow people, yep.
So you better rates, betterterms.
We have a unique productoffering that resonates with a
(13:40):
lot of people, and so you bringthe branch manager and a lot of
them come over and you just dothat over and over and over.
And so really in the last twoyears has been the majority of
that growth, wow.
So yeah, it's been crazy.
And then about a year ago Istarted social media just on a
whim.
I don't like social media.
I posted maybe one time in thetwo years before that, but I saw
(14:02):
this.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Well, I've seen some of your stuff.
You clearly get it, though.
Yeah, I approach it with abusiness lens.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
But you get it.
Yeah, but what it was and it'sas a business owner, it's.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
I'm stopping you, man .
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Yeah, no dig in, this is not going to be easy man.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Yeah, dig in.
That's not going to do this.
You clearly don't like it, butyou understand the tool yeah.
And you understand kind of theway millennials and others look
at this thing, more so thanothers.
You're like, okay, I'm going todo this thing.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
I feel like there's been a shift in business where
you used to build a business andthen you build a marketing plan
around it.
Yeah, and in the last probablyfive to ten years there's been a
shift where a lot of businesseshave a marketing plan and you
build a business around it.
And so you look at sometimesit's movie stars like the
Jenners or Ryan Reynolds poppingup billion dollar companies
overnight because of theirinfluence.
(14:58):
Then you have people like MrBeast he's a YouTube sensation.
Same thing he got influence andnow he has 15 different
companies that he's spun offaround that.
And so I love business and so Iwas like you know what, If I
can get influence, I can dowhatever I want.
And so that was kind of thethought process was let's
approach this from a businessstandpoint.
Did you have coaching when youdid this, or was this just like
(15:19):
it was all just A-B testing andtrying to figure it out?
Did you self-produce it?
Yeah, so everything wasself-produced.
It was originally just shot onmy iPhone.
And the nice thing about socialmedia is they give you a lot of
data and so I just run abusiness for years and years and
everything's KPIs anddata-oriented, and so you can
A-B test really quickly.
(15:40):
So you put a video out, itshows you this, you put another
one, it shows you this, and thenyou just are constantly fine
tuning it until eventually itstarts to gain traction.
So it was all kind ofself-taught and just kind of ran
with it.
Wow.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
You know it's similar , though I think of some of my
good friends that have done it.
Um, and that's kind of whatthey'll say too, is you?
The one thing about it is?
It immediately tells you, yeah,like this is working or that's
not working, and then, once youkind of file and figure out
what's going on, that's great.
So, so that was a year ago.
How was it affected?
well, go back, I'm not gettingletting you off the hook yet so
(16:16):
so I understand there were somereally good years, but the
mortgage industry over the last18 months, two years, has not
been yes, right, so Right.
So you had this hyper growtharea where conditions were
bright, and then it's kind ofnot.
And then you have the socialmedia.
How did you navigate just kindof the interest rate changes?
(16:37):
And I mean you said you wentinto growth mode but not
everyone else did, like mostpeople paralyzed when it
happened.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Yeah, we run a very lean business model as far as
mortgages go.
Um, so in the mortgage industrythere's a.
It's very vertical, there's alot of people.
If one person gets a mortgage,there's seven or eight people
that are getting a cut on thatall the way up.
In most businesses, um, we havetwo to three, and so we were
(17:03):
very lean because we were so new, we hadn't gotten the levels of
management that most companieshad, and so when rates went up,
we were able to absorb thatmargin compression so much
easier than everyone else andstill maintain profitability,
and so we've been profitableevery single year, which I mean
(17:24):
go look at publicly tradedcompanies.
That's very rare in the mortgageindustry right now.
And, once again, perfect stormof being so new that I didn't
have time to build out themanagement structure that I
probably should have.
You would have been more topheavy, but I would have been so
top heavy and been right therewith them, and so it kept us
nimble.
And now it's kind of turnedinto our identity a little bit,
where when we're recruiting,that's like our pitch is don't
(17:47):
have 15 people above you thatare making money off you.
Instead, you have one layerabove you me, I own it and I'll
work with you.
I'll help you.
We deploy tech, everything tokind of make this efficient, but
don't make it personnel heavy.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
I'm going to keep interrupting you to talk about
how tech has changed yourbusiness.
And again, were you good atthat Did.
How did you figure it out?
Because, and what?
What part does it play in your,in your mortgage business?
Speaker 4 (18:12):
Yeah, tech.
Tech is so fun right now.
We're all trying to figure itout.
Um, I'm younger and so I feellike I do have a leg up just
because I grew up in this era.
I use AI, chat, gbt, all thesetech pieces hundreds of times a
(18:33):
day, and so it's a very normalpart of our process.
We encourage our employees tothey utilize it.
My social media team itproduces 90% of my is is run
through ai at one point, um, andso we use it a lot.
Tech's very expensive, though,and so it's.
It's trying to find thatbalance of do you build
(18:54):
proprietary, do you bootstrap onthe back end, and so I I don't
feel like I'm a master or figurethat out, but we embrace new
technologies and understand thatevery industry is going to
change.
The next five years is going tobe wild.
It's going to be wild In a lotof industries, and so we're
trying to stay on top of it.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Well, it's all you know.
You think back one of the firstcompanies I did in 2001,.
I sold it in 17, but it was.
It was called StatPads and webasically used technology.
Before it was a thing to be anationwide provider of medical
oversight for automated externaldefibrillator machines Kind of
a weird niche, yeah.
(19:33):
But I look at how tech and datasystems, just like customer and
support systems, changed overtime and we had to own them
early, and then, literally youwould get done and they'd be
obsolete and you had to redothem.
And then when we went toSalesforce as our back end, that
was a game changer Because allof a sudden you could pretty
(19:53):
nimbly step something up.
You didn't own it right, yep, Imean, they owned the back end,
you paid them a lot of money,but you also didn't have the
burden of having to redo thesebig systems forever.
And then along comes AI, right.
So the speed at which all ofthis foundational technology
(20:14):
that drives business is going tochange rapidly, and I don't
even think I listen to reallysmart guys a lot and talk about
this, but I don't think Iunderstand even a fraction of
what we're up against.
Not up against, it's anopportunity, and those that
figure out how to use it aregoing to win.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
So it's not like up against in a negative way, it's
like if you don't figure thisout and figure out how to
integrate it and take advantageof it.
Someone else is going to andthey're going to pass you by.
I think that's a really smartpoint.
I feel like a lot of the olderbusinesses, more established
businesses probably a better wayto say that has built all their
own tech, because that's whatyou had to do.
Salesforce was the first onethat allowed you to allow a tech
(20:55):
company to be a tech companyand you build on top of it.
It's almost like modular techyes, it's modular tech and that
is becoming more and moreavailable where if I want a crm,
I don't build it, I don't doanything, you never even think
about that you just go, take itand plug it into your ecosystem
and, by the way, it's so muchbetter than the one you would
build anyway, and
Speaker 1 (21:14):
yeah, you're going to pay a little bit for it, but if
you compare the cost ofbuilding your own that, then
literally we would becomeobsolete a year and a half after
we just finished the last build.
And then the next guy wouldcome in and say, well, I'm going
to do it differently and theydo it different.
So the speed of businesschanged there.
But because I've been out ofthat for a bit and I don't
(21:35):
understand, do you have a goodfeel for how AI, combined with
that, is going to change things?
Speaker 4 (21:41):
Yes and no for how AI combined with that is going to
change things.
Yes and no.
I mean, I'm not a tech guy, butI'm watching people around me
do it.
So, like, my social media sideis a lot of financial literacy,
and so I help people get out ofdebt, build survival funds,
invest their first dollar.
What are private markets?
How do you get into it?
So we're releasing a budgetingapp.
So I knew I wanted to do this.
(22:03):
This.
This guy came to me with nobackground in coding like zero
background.
He's a government contractemployer.
He said mint shut down.
I decided I like mint, so Irecoded a website.
Here it is and he handed me afully functional app I
integrated my bank to.
I did everything.
Like how'd you do this?
He's like AI like so long asyou know how to prompt it, it
(22:24):
can code for you.
So this guy with no backgroundbuilt the entire that's three
months.
That's the stuff I'm talkingabout, braden, and so that
stuff's going on right now 100%,and there's these big companies
that aren't embracing it, and Ithink there's a massive
opportunity for the small andnimble companies right now to to
get those people into ecosystemand encourage them.
Encourage them to help youbuild, because there's a wave
(22:46):
coming right now and I don'tknow where it's going to go, but
I'm watching people do it.
I'm like that was genius.
More people need to do thatkind of stuff.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
I can't remember where we were.
You were talking.
I keep interrupting you, butbut you got.
You got it.
You got things up and running.
What percentage of what you donow in your week is social media
side of things and how is thatgrowing versus back to your
mortgage company and what arethe other verticals that you're
going to start going into?
Speaker 4 (23:13):
Yeah.
So social media I've hired outa team I probably film.
I probably do three or fourhours a week of social media
content creation, creation.
They do everything else.
They post, they comment, theydm.
So it's a couple hours a weekfor me, um, but from social
media do they plan it?
(23:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (23:35):
okay, so you, you have like you have a, it's
authentic, so you have somethingyou're you care.
But they help with theproduction, the preparation.
You have a pre-productionmeeting, you film it they
process it 100%.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
So I have like my pillars, if you would.
Yeah, it's like.
Here's my six pillars that Ilike talking about that I think
are inside of financial literacy.
Find me 30 pieces of content inhere, write them up, script
them.
Then, 30 minutes before we goin the film room we sit down,
don, and then 30 minutes beforewe go in the film room we sit
down.
Don't like this, don't like thisso super efficient for you.
Yep, and I just walk in andfilm and I don't script it, I
don't do anything, I literallyjust there's the topic, put it
(24:11):
down and I just talk.
Braden, you're smart.
Yeah, I surround myself withsmart people.
Oh, you're smart.
You have someone write youscripts and it makes your job a
whole lot easier.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
It's probably looking at some of the stuff you're
doing.
It's got to be rewarding too.
I mean so fun.
I mean because you're making adifference.
I mean the irony of life issometimes if you can find a
passion like you didn't knowwhat you were going to do, but
you knew you were going to besuccessful at what you did and
then you were passionate aboutpeople and helping people, yeah,
(24:41):
and then you combine that intobusiness Pretty good way to live
life.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
Yeah, yeah, it's fun with this ecosystem that I've
built to.
Every single day, someone willwrite me and be like hey, I was
about to declare bankruptcy, I'mback on my feet, we're moving
forward, thank you.
Those moments really are fun towatch someone's life change
just by implementing tiny littlepieces, little nuggets you
(25:05):
throw out there.
It's rewarding for sure that'scool.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Any of those people become your employees over the
time.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
Yes and no.
I mean most of my social mediateam found me, followed me,
liked it and then came over andsaid I just want to be in your
ecosystem, which is really coolto watch.
Young, hungry people take lowerpay just to get around the
ecosystem they want to be in.
There's a whole thing there.
But yeah, everyone that worksfor me is local.
(25:39):
I don't do remote employees,which shrinks the pool a little
bit.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Yeah, but talk a little bit about that.
I've got a lot of things to gointo with you, but you clearly
are a leader.
I mean, you look at what you'vedone in a very short time and
it's pretty jaw-dropping here,man.
So tell me about leadership,leading people.
You just said something.
I think that's pretty key.
You don't want remote, you wantpeople that you interact with.
(26:06):
What are some of yourfoundational leadership
principles?
That?
Speaker 4 (26:08):
have allowed you to be successful.
Yeah, leadership is where Iprobably I think every leader
feels the weakest at.
That's something you canconstantly get better at, but I
I learned pretty early.
That is so long as you'reempowering their desired future,
as long as you know who theyare, where they want to go and
that aligns with where you cantake them, that synergy creates
(26:31):
a very powerful workforce, andso it's an exercise.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Dude, that was powerful.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
It's an exercise we go through with every single
employee.
Like I sit down with them onday one and I say give me the
four places you want to be withmoney, career, and then it's
usually health and relationships, and so long as I can get them
there, then we, they, we worktogether.
So long as I can't, like it's amutual parting of ways, because
I feel like so many people showup to a job just to punch a
(26:57):
ticket, but you'll never get thebest of them unless they
believe that you're the vehicleto get them where they want to
be.
And so that's another reasonwhy to your point, your original
question why are they in person?
I I am unable to lead virtuallyand accomplish that in a good
way, and so we have everyone inhouse.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
For that reason, yeah speak to a little bit of the
collaboration that happens inperson and kind of just the way
to maintain a culture versus not.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
Yeah, I've tried remote on and off, it's just
harder.
It's hard because you readarticles.
I'm sure you have how remote'scoming.
It's better.
They're 70% more efficient.
All this stuff that has notbeen my experience in leading.
Collaboration is 10X whenthey're next to you, and so
(27:51):
daily huddles every singlemorning for 10 or 15 minutes get
everyone on the same page.
Weekly L10 meetings aremeetings geared around the 12
week sprints.
We usually do 12 week sprintsin most of my businesses.
That in-person quick, shortcollaboration divvy up tasks, go
and accomplish, then return andreport is a much more efficient
(28:14):
way of working.
And that's not for everyone,like there's a lot of remote
employees out there, and also, Ithink, is very industry
specific, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
There's probably things that you can measure and
you know if you're like anevening person or you're
whatever you go, get your workdone.
You're super efficient at it.
But that's not what you'retalking about.
What you're talking about isbuilding a team thriving off
each other, being part ofsomething bigger than yourself.
You making other people betterby your interactions.
I just I think it will continuewhat we've seen and I think I
(28:52):
think you know the pendulumswings too far each way when
these changes happen.
right and post COVID, it waseverything shutting down and no
one's ever gonna go back to workagain, and we're certainly not
seeing it with all of ourcompanies and tenants that we
interact with.
It's been the opposite for mostof them.
There's a few of them Again.
If they can employ people andthey're more, they have easy
metrics to follow on someonethat can do it on their own time
(29:15):
.
It's, you know, it's theprogrammers that can.
Hey, here's your task you dothis week and however long it
takes you, that's what I'mpaying for.
But anybody that has anythingto do that requires
collaboration and creatingculture and driving what you
just said, those huddles and allthat, that's big.
Where did you learn all that?
I mean I'm sitting herelistening to you.
(29:36):
It's pretty fascinating to hearyou talk because I mean you're
doing so many things right.
Was this all intuitive?
Who are your mentors?
Speaker 4 (29:45):
Yeah, I have a lot of phenomenal.
I mean I love to read, I loveto listen to podcasts.
There's a lot that comes fromthat.
I am always coached.
I think everyone should becoached at every single level.
So I employ coaches level.
So I employ coaches.
But I was very blessed to growup in the community that I grew
(30:07):
up in and my dad was a businessowner.
I watched him.
A lot of people in my communityare business owners that I
still interact with.
I still go to lunch with a lotof them.
I've watched uncles and cousinstake companies public and how
they led, and so everything Idid was self-funded and like
self-run, like I wasn't handed abusiness.
(30:29):
But at the same time, I'm notgoing to sit here and say that
how you grew up and what youwatch does not play a massive
role in your development in alot of that stuff.
And so my dad always saidcounsel or consequence are the
two ways you learn.
I would much rather counselthan consequence every single
time.
So, just trying to rely on thepeople around you asking
questions hey, struggling withthis, struggling with this, what
(30:50):
would you do?
But, yeah, just trying to pullon as many people as you can.
There's a lot of people thathave gone through it, so there's
no reason for you to strugglethrough it as well.
That's powerful.
We have a lot of people thathave gone through it, so there's
no reason for you to strugglethrough it as well.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
That's powerful.
We have a lot of athletes.
I think it's cheating a littlebit here, at our company, I mean
we do.
We just have a lot of peoplethat played sports and I've also
watched.
Well, I don't think it has tobe just sports.
For example, I've watchedpeople like my son who was very
(31:25):
into jazz music and music andwhat happens, where you learn
how to be a team in an ensemble.
So I don't think it's justsports, but I think people that
are exposed to things where youdo learn from a teacher and you
are required discipline and thework ethic and the things that
happen on a team and you getyour butt chewed when you need
(31:45):
to get your butt chewed and youlearn how to take that.
I mean talk about clearlysports big deal for you.
How much has that played intokind of shaping?
Who?
Speaker 4 (31:54):
you are Massive in a lot of different aspects.
You nailed it Like I would haveactually said music and sports.
You can get it a lot of otherplaces.
I don't want to act like youhave to do one of those two to
be successful, but they teachyou core principles, um of how
to operate in a team, how toreceive feedback, how to
(32:15):
constantly improve, strive forthat constant improvement.
Um have key metrics winning andlosing.
I think it plays a large role ina lot of that, and I have I
mean I probably have 15, 20college athletes in my mortgage
company for that exact purpose.
I think we just gravitate, wespeak each other's language.
(32:37):
It's easy to coach them forthat purpose, but then on the
flip side, too, byu is a largeschool, and so I didn't know
what I wanted to do.
But when you're flying aroundon private jets with
billionaires to games and I'mlooking at their lifestyle and
I'm talking to them and it's itexposed me to a network and
(32:58):
mentors that I would have neverbeen exposed to, and it has
guided me a lot as well.
So there's been a lot ofavenues that I feel like it's
directly impacted me.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Yeah, I mean it's, it's, it's.
There's the very personal whatdid I learn from the process?
And then there's all of thesewonderful people you were
exposed to.
It's, it's, it's a little bitof everything.
I really appreciate youbringing up kind of your
heritage, and sounds like youhave a family that also taught
you a lot about how to live andhow to run a business.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
Yeah, yeah, my parents are incredible.
They're actually over in NewZealand right now on a church
service mission.
It's been weird having themgone.
But yeah, my dad probably ran15, 20 different companies on
and off.
He'd almost buy, flip and sellcompanies and so he has a large
wealth of knowledge that Irelied on a lot my first couple
(33:49):
years.
I'd sit down with him regularly.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Where are you in the sibling?
How many siblings do you have?
Speaker 4 (33:53):
So there's five of us .
I have two older sisters, oneolder brother and then a younger
brother, so I'm number four.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Are any of them business focused?
Yeah, all of us.
Basically Just part of the.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
DNA.
Yeah, my brother owns a realestate brokerage here locally.
My other brother owns aproperty management company,
manages about 100 differentproperties, so the three boys
are all in real estate.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
And then my sister's married, very
entrepreneurial-minded people aswell, makes for fun family
holidays.
Speaker 4 (34:24):
Yeah, my parents love it and hate it.
They're like stop talking.
Business, no competition.
Yeah, there's always athleticentrepreneurial.
There's a lot of friendlycompetition going on for sure.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
It's really good Tell us about your family.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
You have kids, yeah, so I actually had a kid like
three days ago.
So I've got a six-year-old boy,a two-year-old boy and then we
just had a girl on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Six, two and a girl.
That's awesome.
I have grandkids that are five,three and four months.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
Boy, boy girl.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Right there.
You're almost the exact sameage Right there, local yeah,
really close and it's.
It's what life's all aboutright there.
That's fun.
So I'm sure your parents arevery happy that you're close by.
Speaker 4 (35:07):
Yeah yeah.
All my siblings are in NewZealand.
I know, but all my siblings nowmove back to the Boise area.
It's fun.
It's fun to be back.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
What do you uh I mean you're, you're in the trenches,
uh on housing and mortgages andwhat's going on in the nation.
I can't wait to get your takeon a few of these things.
So just talk about housing inthe Treasure Valley.
Keep it local here.
A lot of our folks that listento this are Idaho or Treasure
Valley based.
What do you see happening inthe coming years?
Speaker 4 (35:37):
Yeah, I don't think interest rates are going to come
down as soon as everyonethought they would.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
It's almost impossible, right?
Yeah, there's the optimism thatTrump brought, which now you've
got to hedge against inflation.
They can't go up, they can't godown.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
Exactly, and that's kind of like it's not a
political statement.
Trump is a growth-mindedpresident.
He's going to cut taxes, cutregulation and push business.
All of those are inflationary.
Even the tariffs he's proposingis inflationary.
Now, whether you agree, don'tagree, we won't get into that,
but everything he's doing is aninflationary concept and that's
(36:11):
the key thing.
That will bring down interestrates, and so I actually think
we'll see elevated interestrates for a while.
I think the reset in people'sminds has begun to happen.
Everyone was 100 yearexperience, like we just got to
get that out of our mind.
Five, six, seven percent isvery normal.
(36:33):
It's what's been around for thelast 30 years and I think
that's starting to happen.
What's interesting here locallyis how much new construction
drives the housing markets.
It's very little resale, veryheavy new construction and
there's some really big projectsthat are just starting.
That, I think, will push usalong pretty quickly.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
I don't know.
I should know this, but we havea supply issue, right?
Yeah, I mean that's what it is,but how short do you think we
are in the different segments ofthe market Starter homes,
townhomes, multifamily Do youhave any of those statistics?
Speaker 4 (37:11):
Yeah, so nationally've known them.
I don't know them locally aswell.
We have a massive shortage inmy if I was to like break it
into segments, the starter homes, which I'm going to call
300,000 to 600,000, there's alarge shortage in.
There's a huge demographic thathas been pre-approved, that
wants to purchase but just can'tat these interest rates, and so
(37:33):
we either need prices to comedown, which is not going to
happen in my opinion, orinterest rates to come down.
Even if we can just get to thehigh fives, low sixes, I think
we'd see thousands enter thebuying market for that range.
And there's a legitimate supplyissue.
Now the next tranche of 700,000to 1.5, which is the people that
(37:59):
are kind of leveling up, tryingto find that forever home kind
of moving.
That's kind of the dead marketright now in my opinion.
Like if I was a home builder,that's probably where I wouldn't
build as much just becauseinterest rates are killing that
group.
They usually W-2 employedworkers.
They're living on a budget andadding three $400,000 into your
(38:21):
mortgage adds 3000 bucks a month.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
They just can't do it and it feeds back in, I know
you said, where it's kind of anew home buyer's market, but the
home they would leave would bethe home.
So that's kind of where thestagnation is right.
Exactly, even in the TreasureValley we don't have the
trade-up.
We don't have trade-ups.
Yeah, so what gives then?
Here for us, supply has got toincrease.
Speaker 4 (38:41):
It's just got to be supply, right?
Yeah, I mean, I'm not a homebuilder, so some home builder is
going to listen to this and sayhe's an 18 to 24 month lag,
basically when projects arereally starting to people
starting to move in.
And 18 to 24 months ago is wheninterest rates started to run,
we didn't know what washappening and so home builders
pulled back a little bit, and Ithink that's the last six months
(39:03):
we've gone through is thesupply hasn't been hitting the
market because home builderswaited to see what was happening
18 to 24 months before they sawit was good.
And that's why I'm sayingthere's a lot of projects coming
.
Is I think the next 12 monthswe'll actually get a decent
supply.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
I think you're spot on um, which should help, and
and there are a lot of big, Imean sticking here to the valley
.
There's a lot of big thingshappening here um that that
should bring, uh, quite a bit ofsupply on.
Speaker 4 (39:31):
I mean mean I live in Eagle.
The one up north in Eagle, inthe foothills, is massive,
massive.
Yeah, I think it's like 6,000homes in Phase 1 or something
like that.
It's huge, a lot of sprawl.
Yep, especially that one thatone's going to combine Highway
55, highway what is that?
Emma Highway, horseshoe BendHighway it's basically Avamore
(39:51):
to.
Yeah, it's going to be massive.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Yeah and um, yeah, I think you're going to see the
way you know, with Highway 16going in, with that project
going in, specifically, with allthe expansion going on in CUNA,
middleton Star, I meaneverywhere.
It's just, you know, we'reseeing it happen right before
our eyes and and you love thisplace, I mean it the people
moving here.
That's not going to stop either.
Speaker 4 (40:18):
I think there needs to be so I was in utah for years
, still have a lot of businesscontacts.
I'm there all the time.
In utah, the way they fought itis mass town homesomes.
Yeah, um, like the townhomeprojects inside of utah is
unreal and no one wants it intheir city here, like, you'll
(40:38):
see a lot of governmentofficials that get shot down all
the time.
But we have got to embrace itif we want the millennial
generation to be homeowners andmove back here because they just
cannot afford a five hundredthousand dollar starter home.
It's just not gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Well, and here and here's what I say to anyone that
will listen to me, but peopledon't.
But it's not like I thinkgovernment regulation of getting
the way out of this is theworst possible thing that could
happen right now for our peopleand unfortunately, I think there
is a desire to control that andthen go get government
(41:15):
subsidized housing to try tosolve this.
That is the worst possiblething that anyone could do right
now and we may do it.
I mean it may happen because ofnimbyism, because of really
good people who want to do theright thing, so they
overregulate the heck out ofstuff, the right thing, so they
over regulate the heck out ofstuff.
And what ought to be happeningis we ought to have more
(41:35):
multi-family, more town homes,more, you know, starter homes,
what you just said, more of that.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
I mean we need all of it and we could get the price
point probably down to 250 to350 if we started building town
homes at mass, which would andit's what they've done.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
To your point.
I think, uh, we, we've always I, I always say this and it's
probably people get sick of it,but if you go to Salt Lake 10 to
15 years ago, on almost anymetric we're facing whether it's
transportation or on thehousing side or infrastructure,
whatever issue we're facing andwhatever numbers we're facing if
you go down there and say howwas this solved by a free market
(42:11):
economy that's very much likeours, right, it's a red state,
low regulation, good leadership.
You know they had Spencer inthere doing a great job and you
look at the way they've done itand say, well, what did they do
and how did it work.
You look at some of thosecommunities which are massive
townhome communities, and theywork, they're nice, they're.
I mean, it's not, and so Idon't know.
(42:35):
I think when you get up here, Ithink it is people worrying what
we got.
You look at the city ofMeridian like it's been tough to
get multifamily through thecity.
We've had enough of it.
You know, ironically, a bunchof people that have moved here
from California are saying wedon't want any more apartments,
right, and then you got thepeople saying, hey, we don't
want our farmland to go away.
(42:56):
We don't want any moreapartments, we don't want any
more growth.
Well, unfortunately it's goingto happen somewhere, and if we
don't, I mean I think we eitherrun our cities or the cities run
the leadership right, and theway that they do that is by
embracing some of this.
Those are great, great thoughts.
Speaker 4 (43:16):
What's next?
Speaker 1 (43:18):
for you, by the way, it's like 1043.
This is going way too fast.
I'm looking at your website.
Let's go how to like.
First of all, I wanted to getinto this.
So Fulcrum Home Loans reallyeasy for people to go to if they
don't know about you, ifthey're looking for something,
(43:39):
talk about how to just get moreinformation on you, especially
if someone's looking for a loan.
Speaker 4 (43:42):
Yeah, so social media is really easy to find me
website.
We're a mortgage broker andthat's one of the reasons we
grew so fast is we were one ofthe first ones to enter the
Idaho market, to really embracethat, and what that means is
we're not tied to any oneinstitution, so when you come to
us for a mortgage, I don't haveto send it to Loan Depot or to
Quicken or to Fairway or towherever.
(44:04):
I'm an independent shop andit's harder to run that business
, but it's a lot better for theconsumer because I get it every
single day.
I get to shop 100 differentinstitutions and say who has the
best rates today?
Ok, because it changes day today, and so that's kind of what
we do is we shop for people andby doing that it ends up being a
(44:25):
lot cheaper.
Like government, hmda came outwith the data it's $10,200
cheaper to go through a mortgagebroker than a normal mortgage
bank in the first year, and soit saves them tons of money and
that's why we've seen the fastgrowth.
That we've seen is because thatword has spread that you can
get a half percent lower over atFulcrum than you can down the
(44:46):
street at Fairway, and so itcreates a shareability, and so I
just encourage everyone, nomatter where you're listening,
if we're not in your state, justgo to a mortgage broker,
because you will most likely geta much lower interest rate yeah
, and at a time when that's thepinch point, it makes even more
sense, okay, and then socialchannels yeah.
Brayden Fulcrum is my handle onevery single channel.
(45:07):
Instagram is probably mybiggest, that I'm the most
consistent on, but we're onTikTok, twitter, youtube,
everywhere.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
Are you making money off this now?
Speaker 4 (45:17):
I refuse to sell out.
So I don't do any sponsoredposts.
I don't do, you don't.
But I stand up businesses, soeverything in the financial
sector that my followers need.
I like to stand up.
So I own private equitycompanies, I own real estate
syndication companies, I ownmortgage companies, I own the
(45:37):
apps, the education.
So I stand up every singlebusiness inside of the financial
literacy sector and that's howI monetize it.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
One of these days, when you're bored, look up Glenn
Stearns.
Speaker 4 (45:48):
I know him well.
He runs Kind Lending now.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
Yeah, he's a really dear friend of mine.
Speaker 4 (45:53):
Really yeah A really really really good friend.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
But when you spend a lot of time with him and you
hear his story he's got anincredible story, by the way, of
how he started basicallyhomeless teen and he tells a
story where he's homeless, hadan early teen pregnancy, kind of
destitute and he's and he wassitting outside of a big house
(46:18):
and he said he called the personover in the yard and said hey,
I hope you don't mind me asking,but what do you do here?
What did you do to get this?
You know what?
What did you?
What did you do?
And it's a funny story becausehe sits and tells his whole
story to this person and thenthe guy's like, hey, I'm the
gardener, that's too funny.
(46:40):
But the guy that does this doesreal estate, yeah, and Glenn's
like, oh, I'm going to.
So he anyway, he builds hiskingdom, right, and but but what
?
I?
I'm getting to the long pointhere, but he talks about one
point where he was sitting theregoing I am going to own every
vertical in everything I do, andthat's just what he did.
(47:01):
And he actually kind ofwhiteboarded out what is every
dollar we touch, all the waythrough, from when we greet a
customer, all the way through,and we're going to do it better
than anyone, we're going toprovide the service, and that's
what he did.
Anyway, great, great guy,stern's lending huge exit, huge
success.
Speaker 4 (47:17):
Just rolled out Kind Lending, yeah.
Yeah, I followed him for awhile.
That's cool to get him.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
He's a wonderful kid Guy.
I was thinking about his kid,skyler but he's a great guy.
Speaker 4 (47:34):
So there's 1.2 million followers.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
Is that all man I know?
Chump change.
I got to get that number up.
Oh, this world we live in.
Isn't it great to be in America?
Speaker 4 (47:39):
Yeah, it's so fun, there's so much opportunity,
that I mean something like thisLike just spend a little bit of
time, be consistent, educateyourself.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
And there is so much opportunity out there for the
everyday person.
Man, we could do this forever.
There's a lot to learn from aguy like you.
Um, I think I'm coming.
Am I coming on your podcast?
Yeah, I think we're flipping, Idon't.
This is the first time I've,like, had the.
I don't get asked to go onthings.
Yeah, no.
Speaker 4 (48:01):
I just ask people.
I'm excited to flip the scriptand learn from.
Today on the Ever Onward podcast, we have a great
guest.
I've been trying to get him onfor a while.
Braden Shaw of Eagle, idaho, isan unbelievable leader.
His company, fulcrum Home Loans, of which he's the CEO and
founder, has exploded.
When you hear of his growth injust four years, it's amazing.
He played basketball at BYU,again from right here in Eagle,
(00:23):
and now has multiple socialmedia channels companies and
it's anchored by Fulcrum HomeLoans.
It's going to be an incredibleinterview.
I hope you enjoy it, mr BradenShaw.
Prior to Braden today, we'regoing to hear from Kakoa
Nawahini and Mark Cleverley forour AllQuist update.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Good morning everyone .
We're here for an Allquistupdate.
I'm Mark Cleverley, ChiefLeasing Officer with Allquist,
here with Keikoa.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Yeah, Keikoa and Alhine also on the leasing team.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, so we want to take a minute, and I know we've
talked about build-to-suit stuffin the past, but we want to
take a minute and talk about onein particular.
That was kind of prettydifficult, mainly because
obviously it's in a new area ofBoise that hasn't been developed
for a long time, and then thecode changes with the city of
(01:14):
Boise, which made it a littlebit difficult, but we had some
good, positive news.
It was Quality Electric that'sgoing out to Pleasant Valley, a
site that we've been working onfor a number of years, and so I
wanted to have you come in andtalk about just kind of the
process and what happened withQuality Electric.
It was touch and go there for aminute, but we had some good
(01:37):
news last week.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Yeah, no, it's been a great project to kind of see up
until this point, and workingwith those guys has been awesome
.
I think in the world ofdevelopment there's always
obstacles and hiccups thatyou're going to face Always ups
and downs right.
So the co-change with the cityof Boise being a main one in
this that made it difficult towork around some things and some
(01:59):
obstacles that we had toovercome.
But that's where I think weprovide our value as a
development company of seeing alot of these things through
everything that we do, a lot ofthese issues and having
relationships with the city andunderstanding what needs to be
done to be able to ultimatelyget them in their new
headquarters right.
And so kind of starting fromthe beginning.
You know, after we've selectedthe site out at Pleasant Valley,
(02:19):
we were able to get them withour internal architect, brad
Smith, and our construction team, corey Hall, and really work
through the details and thenuances of what they wanted
their new headquarters to looklike out at our site.
And so, after we got all thatspace planning done their 50,000
square foot corporateheadquarters and some different
(02:41):
things with shop and yard we runinto this the the wall of the
new city code and so change umamong a lot of things.
The biggest issue that we hadfaced out there is you can't
have parking in front of thebuilding facade and a road and
industrial layouts.
That's just not very feasible,because you keep the parking up
(03:05):
front, you keep all of thedocking and all of the yard and
everything in the back, for manyreasons one, for feasibility
and for safety and all thosethings right and so with the new
city code, you can't have thatparking between the building and
the road.
And so we're trying to figureout, okay, how can we change
this layout to make it work andgo into all these different
things?
And the reality was the road.
(03:25):
And so we're trying to figureout, okay, how can we change
this layout to make it work, andgoing through all these
different things, and thereality was it didn't.
It just didn't work.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
There wasn't another feasible way to have that
because, quality, they werewanting them to push their
parking all the way to the backof the site, yeah, behind the
shop, even the shop space, yeah,which I mean walking through a
yard with heavy machinery andequipment.
It was a safety thing, right,really for us, yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
And then you're just walking around a whole building
just to get inside.
And so it didn't make sense, andso the process that we had to
go through with the city wasreally to file for an appeal to
overcome that specific sectionin the code, and through a
few-month-long process we werefinally able to, as as of a
couple weeks ago, get thatappeal approved through the city
(04:10):
council.
It passed and really what cameout of that was that there that
needs to be a change becausewithin industrial sites it's.
It just doesn't make sense,yeah, to not have that.
So luckily we're able to have abig win there.
We're able to keep rolling.
We have had their drawings andeverything done for a while now
so we can submit for permit, wecan start construction, we can
get them in and their newcorporate headquarters and
(04:32):
everything that they're doing.
Their work within the Valley ishuge, so we're excited, and
they're excited to be able toget into this new space to bring
back this culture and or, Iguess, not bring back, but
revive culture within theircompany with the steps that
they're taking and the help thatthey're doing with Micron and
Meta and different projects thatthey have.
So they're excited to be ableto have a central place where
(04:55):
they can start fresh and all betogether, all be together, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
The great thing, too, is going back to the city of
Boise.
I think they implemented thisnew code, but at least they're
understanding, from adeveloper's perspective and from
a company's perspective, thatsome of those things need to
change.
Yeah, and they're willing tomake those changes, which is
good, I think.
For us, the city's been greatto work with.
(05:23):
They understand the process.
They understand.
Hey, yeah, let's change thatpart of the code because, you're
right, it doesn't make senseand we, you know, we just need
to look at it and change it.
So it's been good that the cityof Boise has been willing to
make those changes.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Right, yeah, they've been great to work with, and I
think that's one of the commentsthat's been made too is it's
just one of the unintendedconsequences that came up to the
code?
When you're rolling out a newcode, it's hard to to get it all
right at the beginning, right,yeah?
Every single scenario and howthat comes into play, and so
they've been great to work withand and moving forward, we're
excited for this project to comeout of the ground.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, okay, awesome, good job, dude.
Thanks, love it.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Braden Shaw welcome, thank you.
Thank you for having me.
Everyone's been telling meforever you've got to get Braden
Shaw on.
You've got to get Braden Shawon.
So thanks for making time forus.
Yeah, I'm excited this will befun.
I've looked at some of yourstuff.
You've got a lot going on.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Yeah, it's been a crazy.
Last year I jumped on socialmedia not expecting much and it
kind of up and my life hasgotten crazy as a result.
So it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
How does that just happen?
Talk through that.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Yeah, so I started a business here locally called
Fulcrum Home Loans, so we'reheadquartered in Eagle, grew
that for years.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Are you from here?
Yeah, I'm going to make youstop and just tell us a little
bit about yourself first.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Yeah, so I grew up here in Eagle, played ball
growing up and eventually wentand played basketball at a
school out of Utah called BYU.
So I played ball at BYU, wasthere for about four years,
graduated in finance.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
I'm sorry, I saw that on your resume.
Was there for about four years,graduated in finance.
I'm sorry, I saw that on yourresume.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
I wasn't going to bring it up.
You brought it up.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah, no, there's this huge BYU Utah thing with me
.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
Utah guy, oh, yeah, oh dang, look at us go.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I grew up Utah guy and then I went to school there,
undergraduate in medical school, and it just got worse.
And then I had my kids and Igrew them all up as Utes.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Well, you beat us in overtime.
A couple nights ago I saw thatgame you took the victory this
year, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Yeah, but it hasn't been good.
Football hasn't been good.
Yeah, I'll tell you a quick BYUstory, though this is a true
story.
I don't think I've had like.
So you played there for fouryears, right, yeah, yeah, so I
had my oldest son.
My kids were like.
Part of their DNA in life isjust, they don't like BYU and
(07:49):
they love Utah.
It's just part of what it is.
I'm sure your kids are Goeswith it.
Yep, 100% Goes with it.
And so my son, when he was likea junior, when you're applying
to school, right, I get home onenight late from an ER shift and
I walk in the house and he'ssitting up waiting for me, which
was very unusual and I saidwhat's going on?
(08:12):
I mean he's like Dad, I need totalk to you.
And I'm literally thinking tomyself okay, what is the worst
thing it could be?
I thought I don't think you gotanyone pregnant.
I didn't see the car wreck downthe way in.
I mean I'm thinking of all thebad things, right, that it could
be, because he's never serious.
And I sit down and he says, hey, I don't know how to bring this
(08:37):
up to you.
I've been nervous to talk toyou about this and at this point
I'm like, well, maybe there issomething, maybe he's going to
tell, tell me, I don't know.
Yeah and um, he, uh.
He says, uh, he says dad, Ithink I want to go to byu the
ultimate betrayal and withoutlike what, that's my best,
what's one of my proudest dadmoments ever, without skipping a
(09:00):
beat because I was put on thespot, right.
So sometimes you don't performlike you should.
At that moment and I did Istared him in the eyes and I
said, son, I was thinking all ofthe horrible things this could
have been right now.
I was thinking about did youget someone pregnant?
Yeah, do you have a drugproblem?
You know, I was thinking abouteven stuff about.
You know, are you still likegirls, like?
I mean, I'm thinking all thesethings.
(09:21):
Why, on God's green earth,couldn't it have been one of
those?
Speaker 4 (09:24):
things that's hilarious.
Oh man, Did he end?
Speaker 1 (09:30):
up going to BYU?
Yeah, you asked, so I'll tellyou the story.
So he ended up going to BYU fora year and it made him a better
Ute.
He transferred to the U.
There you go, graduated fromtheir business scholars program
no.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
BYU's great.
Yeah, they're great schools.
It's a great rivalry it is.
It's a fun rivalry.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
It is deep.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
It's a big-time rivalry yeah, 100-plus years
that it's been going on.
But there's incredible people.
I was actually just talking tosomeone yesterday.
They're like why does Utah haveso many startups?
I was like, well, when youthrow 150,000 college students
within an hour of each otherfrom Utah State, University of
Utah, BYU, UVU, it's just thismelting pot.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
That's perfect.
That environment down there isjust and there's something, and
there just is.
There's something superentrepreneurial about the way
they do their programs, aboutthe way they graduate kids,
about the way they look at lifeand business.
It's a pretty uniqueenvironment down there for a lot
of things, and I think greatleadership and a lot of things.
And I think, um, greatleadership, um, and you get
great things.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
So no, it's fun.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Anyway, I interrupted you with a BYU story, but we
got past it.
There we go.
We're five minutes in and wegot past the awkwardness.
So, yeah, uh, who did you?
Speaker 4 (10:37):
play for down there.
So I was with Rose.
So, so Rose retired after mysenior year.
Okay, he was a great coach,wasn't he?
Yeah, great.
He had a long tenure there forI don't know, 20-plus years
probably, and did really reallywell, yeah, but graduated in
finance.
I was going to go do WallStreet, that side of finance,
(10:59):
really wanted to get intoconsulting, but had a wife and a
kid and decided I didn't wantto pull the 80, 90 hour a week.
So I moved back to Idaho andended up starting Fulcrum Home
Loans.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
So what year did you?
Speaker 4 (11:10):
start 2020.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
That's great.
So so five years ago, just hitour five year here, like this
month, and you're an Eagle andtell, tell us about.
I mean, tell us about that.
You can't just you start a homeloan business.
I mean tell us about that.
You can't just you start a homeloan business, I mean tell us
about what, uh, why and how andwhat was your passion there?
Speaker 4 (11:28):
So I kind of stumbled into.
I don't think anyone grows upwanting to do mortgages.
It's pretty boring.
Profession Um, love real estateand my brother was a real
estate agent and once I decidednot to do wall street my senior
year or go investment banking Iwas like I don't know what I'm
going to do.
So he's like just get yourlicense, I can throw you a
couple deals as you're figuringout life.
(11:48):
I was like, okay, so I did it,closed a deal and the money's
pretty good in lending.
I was like, wow, that was notthat much work and I made decent
money.
And so ended up starting acompany just kind of on a whim.
Had no intentions of growing itto the size it grew to.
We've got about 140 employeesand now nationwide branches from
(12:09):
North Carolina, florida, toCalifornia, washington, and
there was all in five years.
Yeah, I mean, I couldn't havechosen a better time.
So many business owners likethere's an element of luck there
.
2020 rates drop two monthslater down to 3%.
I didn't have a book ofbusiness, but you didn't need
one then because everyone youtalked to needed a refinance or
(12:31):
a purchase, and so there was alarge element of luck.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Did you take on?
Speaker 4 (12:36):
investors?
No, we bootstrapped the wholething you did yeah.
So it was about two years of Ithink we got to about 10 people
in two years.
So the first two years we werejust I was producing and just
churning as much as I could,closing as much business as I
could.
And then about the two-yearmark we had a war chest and
(12:58):
everyone else in the industryrates started to tick up and so
everyone else in the industrystarted to hunker down.
They're like, hey, we got topreserve, preserve.
And that's where we went on aspree and we were like, okay,
we're gonna, we're gonna go theother direction, we're gonna
grow through this, and so werecruited, we brought on
branches, we brought on peopledid you buy?
did you, did you acquire so inthe mortgage industry?
(13:18):
It's not, it's more recruitingthan acquiring.
Okay, so you, you, we wouldtalk to like branch managers
that would have five or 10people underneath them that were
working for another institution.
Okay, and then you, peoplefollow people, you get them
People follow people, yep.
So you better rates, betterterms.
We have a unique productoffering that resonates with a
(13:40):
lot of people, and so you bringthe branch manager and a lot of
them come over and you just dothat over and over and over.
And so really in the last twoyears has been the majority of
that growth, wow.
So yeah, it's been crazy.
And then about a year ago Istarted social media just on a
whim.
I don't like social media.
I posted maybe one time in thetwo years before that, but I saw
(14:02):
this.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Well, I've seen some of your stuff.
You clearly get it, though.
Yeah, I approach it with abusiness lens.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
But you get it.
Yeah, but what it was and it'sas a business owner, it's.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
I'm stopping you, man .
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Yeah, no dig in, this is not going to be easy man.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Yeah, dig in.
That's not going to do this.
You clearly don't like it, butyou understand the tool yeah.
And you understand kind of theway millennials and others look
at this thing, more so thanothers.
You're like, okay, I'm going todo this thing.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
I feel like there's been a shift in business where
you used to build a business andthen you build a marketing plan
around it.
Yeah, and in the last probablyfive to ten years there's been a
shift where a lot of businesseshave a marketing plan and you
build a business around it.
And so you look at sometimesit's movie stars like the
Jenners or Ryan Reynolds poppingup billion dollar companies
overnight because of theirinfluence.
(14:58):
Then you have people like MrBeast he's a YouTube sensation.
Same thing he got influence andnow he has 15 different
companies that he's spun offaround that.
And so I love business and so Iwas like you know what, If I
can get influence, I can dowhatever I want.
And so that was kind of thethought process was let's
approach this from a businessstandpoint.
Did you have coaching when youdid this, or was this just like
(15:19):
it was all just A-B testing andtrying to figure it out?
Did you self-produce it?
Yeah, so everything wasself-produced.
It was originally just shot onmy iPhone.
And the nice thing about socialmedia is they give you a lot of
data and so I just run abusiness for years and years and
everything's KPIs anddata-oriented, and so you can
A-B test really quickly.
(15:40):
So you put a video out, itshows you this, you put another
one, it shows you this, and thenyou just are constantly fine
tuning it until eventually itstarts to gain traction.
So it was all kind ofself-taught and just kind of ran
with it.
Wow.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
You know it's similar , though I think of some of my
good friends that have done it.
Um, and that's kind of whatthey'll say too, is you?
The one thing about it is?
It immediately tells you, yeah,like this is working or that's
not working, and then, once youkind of file and figure out
what's going on, that's great.
So, so that was a year ago.
How was it affected?
well, go back, I'm not gettingletting you off the hook yet so
(16:16):
so I understand there were somereally good years, but the
mortgage industry over the last18 months, two years, has not
been yes, right, so Right.
So you had this hyper growtharea where conditions were
bright, and then it's kind ofnot.
And then you have the socialmedia.
How did you navigate just kindof the interest rate changes?
(16:37):
And I mean you said you wentinto growth mode but not
everyone else did, like mostpeople paralyzed when it
happened.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Yeah, we run a very lean business model as far as
mortgages go.
Um, so in the mortgage industrythere's a.
It's very vertical, there's alot of people.
If one person gets a mortgage,there's seven or eight people
that are getting a cut on thatall the way up.
In most businesses, um, we havetwo to three, and so we were
(17:03):
very lean because we were so new, we hadn't gotten the levels of
management that most companieshad, and so when rates went up,
we were able to absorb thatmargin compression so much
easier than everyone else andstill maintain profitability,
and so we've been profitableevery single year, which I mean
(17:24):
go look at publicly tradedcompanies.
That's very rare in the mortgageindustry right now.
And, once again, perfect stormof being so new that I didn't
have time to build out themanagement structure that I
probably should have.
You would have been more topheavy, but I would have been so
top heavy and been right therewith them, and so it kept us
nimble.
And now it's kind of turnedinto our identity a little bit,
where when we're recruiting,that's like our pitch is don't
(17:47):
have 15 people above you thatare making money off you.
Instead, you have one layerabove you me, I own it and I'll
work with you.
I'll help you.
We deploy tech, everything tokind of make this efficient, but
don't make it personnel heavy.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
I'm going to keep interrupting you to talk about
how tech has changed yourbusiness.
And again, were you good atthat Did.
How did you figure it out?
Because, and what?
What part does it play in your,in your mortgage business?
Speaker 4 (18:12):
Yeah, tech.
Tech is so fun right now.
We're all trying to figure itout.
Um, I'm younger and so I feellike I do have a leg up just
because I grew up in this era.
I use AI, chat, gbt, all thesetech pieces hundreds of times a
(18:33):
day, and so it's a very normalpart of our process.
We encourage our employees tothey utilize it.
My social media team itproduces 90% of my is is run
through ai at one point, um, andso we use it a lot.
Tech's very expensive, though,and so it's.
It's trying to find thatbalance of do you build
(18:54):
proprietary, do you bootstrap onthe back end, and so I I don't
feel like I'm a master or figurethat out, but we embrace new
technologies and understand thatevery industry is going to
change.
The next five years is going tobe wild.
It's going to be wild In a lotof industries, and so we're
trying to stay on top of it.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Well, it's all you know.
You think back one of the firstcompanies I did in 2001,.
I sold it in 17, but it was.
It was called StatPads and webasically used technology.
Before it was a thing to be anationwide provider of medical
oversight for automated externaldefibrillator machines Kind of
a weird niche, yeah.
(19:33):
But I look at how tech and datasystems, just like customer and
support systems, changed overtime and we had to own them
early, and then, literally youwould get done and they'd be
obsolete and you had to redothem.
And then when we went toSalesforce as our back end, that
was a game changer Because allof a sudden you could pretty
(19:53):
nimbly step something up.
You didn't own it right, yep, Imean, they owned the back end,
you paid them a lot of money,but you also didn't have the
burden of having to redo thesebig systems forever.
And then along comes AI, right.
So the speed at which all ofthis foundational technology
(20:14):
that drives business is going tochange rapidly, and I don't
even think I listen to reallysmart guys a lot and talk about
this, but I don't think Iunderstand even a fraction of
what we're up against.
Not up against, it's anopportunity, and those that
figure out how to use it aregoing to win.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
So it's not like up against in a negative way, it's
like if you don't figure thisout and figure out how to
integrate it and take advantageof it.
Someone else is going to andthey're going to pass you by.
I think that's a really smartpoint.
I feel like a lot of the olderbusinesses, more established
businesses probably a better wayto say that has built all their
own tech, because that's whatyou had to do.
Salesforce was the first onethat allowed you to allow a tech
(20:55):
company to be a tech companyand you build on top of it.
It's almost like modular techyes, it's modular tech and that
is becoming more and moreavailable where if I want a crm,
I don't build it, I don't doanything, you never even think
about that you just go, take itand plug it into your ecosystem
and, by the way, it's so muchbetter than the one you would
build anyway, and
Speaker 1 (21:14):
yeah, you're going to pay a little bit for it, but if
you compare the cost ofbuilding your own that, then
literally we would becomeobsolete a year and a half after
we just finished the last build.
And then the next guy wouldcome in and say, well, I'm going
to do it differently and theydo it different.
So the speed of businesschanged there.
But because I've been out ofthat for a bit and I don't
(21:35):
understand, do you have a goodfeel for how AI, combined with
that, is going to change things?
Speaker 4 (21:41):
Yes and no for how AI combined with that is going to
change things.
Yes and no.
I mean, I'm not a tech guy, butI'm watching people around me
do it.
So, like, my social media sideis a lot of financial literacy,
and so I help people get out ofdebt, build survival funds,
invest their first dollar.
What are private markets?
How do you get into it?
So we're releasing a budgetingapp.
So I knew I wanted to do this.
(22:03):
This.
This guy came to me with nobackground in coding like zero
background.
He's a government contractemployer.
He said mint shut down.
I decided I like mint, so Irecoded a website.
Here it is and he handed me afully functional app I
integrated my bank to.
I did everything.
Like how'd you do this?
He's like AI like so long asyou know how to prompt it, it
(22:24):
can code for you.
So this guy with no backgroundbuilt the entire that's three
months.
That's the stuff I'm talkingabout, braden, and so that
stuff's going on right now 100%,and there's these big companies
that aren't embracing it, and Ithink there's a massive
opportunity for the small andnimble companies right now to to
get those people into ecosystemand encourage them.
Encourage them to help youbuild, because there's a wave
(22:46):
coming right now and I don'tknow where it's going to go, but
I'm watching people do it.
I'm like that was genius.
More people need to do thatkind of stuff.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
I can't remember where we were.
You were talking.
I keep interrupting you, butbut you got.
You got it.
You got things up and running.
What percentage of what you donow in your week is social media
side of things and how is thatgrowing versus back to your
mortgage company and what arethe other verticals that you're
going to start going into?
Speaker 4 (23:13):
Yeah.
So social media I've hired outa team I probably film.
I probably do three or fourhours a week of social media
content creation, creation.
They do everything else.
They post, they comment, theydm.
So it's a couple hours a weekfor me, um, but from social
media do they plan it?
(23:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (23:35):
okay, so you, you have like you have a, it's
authentic, so you have somethingyou're you care.
But they help with theproduction, the preparation.
You have a pre-productionmeeting, you film it they
process it 100%.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
So I have like my pillars, if you would.
Yeah, it's like.
Here's my six pillars that Ilike talking about that I think
are inside of financial literacy.
Find me 30 pieces of content inhere, write them up, script
them.
Then, 30 minutes before we goin the film room we sit down,
don, and then 30 minutes beforewe go in the film room we sit
down.
Don't like this, don't like thisso super efficient for you.
Yep, and I just walk in andfilm and I don't script it, I
don't do anything, I literallyjust there's the topic, put it
(24:11):
down and I just talk.
Braden, you're smart.
Yeah, I surround myself withsmart people.
Oh, you're smart.
You have someone write youscripts and it makes your job a
whole lot easier.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
It's probably looking at some of the stuff you're
doing.
It's got to be rewarding too.
I mean so fun.
I mean because you're making adifference.
I mean the irony of life issometimes if you can find a
passion like you didn't knowwhat you were going to do, but
you knew you were going to besuccessful at what you did and
then you were passionate aboutpeople and helping people, yeah,
(24:41):
and then you combine that intobusiness Pretty good way to live
life.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
Yeah, yeah, it's fun with this ecosystem that I've
built to.
Every single day, someone willwrite me and be like hey, I was
about to declare bankruptcy, I'mback on my feet, we're moving
forward, thank you.
Those moments really are fun towatch someone's life change
just by implementing tiny littlepieces, little nuggets you
(25:05):
throw out there.
It's rewarding for sure that'scool.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Any of those people become your employees over the
time.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
Yes and no.
I mean most of my social mediateam found me, followed me,
liked it and then came over andsaid I just want to be in your
ecosystem, which is really coolto watch.
Young, hungry people take lowerpay just to get around the
ecosystem they want to be in.
There's a whole thing there.
But yeah, everyone that worksfor me is local.
(25:39):
I don't do remote employees,which shrinks the pool a little
bit.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Yeah, but talk a little bit about that.
I've got a lot of things to gointo with you, but you clearly
are a leader.
I mean, you look at what you'vedone in a very short time and
it's pretty jaw-dropping here,man.
So tell me about leadership,leading people.
You just said something.
I think that's pretty key.
You don't want remote, you wantpeople that you interact with.
(26:06):
What are some of yourfoundational leadership
principles?
That?
Speaker 4 (26:08):
have allowed you to be successful.
Yeah, leadership is where Iprobably I think every leader
feels the weakest at.
That's something you canconstantly get better at, but I
I learned pretty early.
That is so long as you'reempowering their desired future,
as long as you know who theyare, where they want to go and
that aligns with where you cantake them, that synergy creates
(26:31):
a very powerful workforce, andso it's an exercise.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Dude, that was powerful.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
It's an exercise we go through with every single
employee.
Like I sit down with them onday one and I say give me the
four places you want to be withmoney, career, and then it's
usually health and relationships, and so long as I can get them
there, then we, they, we worktogether.
So long as I can't, like it's amutual parting of ways, because
I feel like so many people showup to a job just to punch a
(26:57):
ticket, but you'll never get thebest of them unless they
believe that you're the vehicleto get them where they want to
be.
And so that's another reasonwhy to your point, your original
question why are they in person?
I I am unable to lead virtuallyand accomplish that in a good
way, and so we have everyone inhouse.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
For that reason, yeah speak to a little bit of the
collaboration that happens inperson and kind of just the way
to maintain a culture versus not.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
Yeah, I've tried remote on and off, it's just
harder.
It's hard because you readarticles.
I'm sure you have how remote'scoming.
It's better.
They're 70% more efficient.
All this stuff that has notbeen my experience in leading.
Collaboration is 10X whenthey're next to you, and so
(27:51):
daily huddles every singlemorning for 10 or 15 minutes get
everyone on the same page.
Weekly L10 meetings aremeetings geared around the 12
week sprints.
We usually do 12 week sprintsin most of my businesses.
That in-person quick, shortcollaboration divvy up tasks, go
and accomplish, then return andreport is a much more efficient
(28:14):
way of working.
And that's not for everyone,like there's a lot of remote
employees out there, and also, Ithink, is very industry
specific, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
There's probably things that you can measure and
you know if you're like anevening person or you're
whatever you go, get your workdone.
You're super efficient at it.
But that's not what you'retalking about.
What you're talking about isbuilding a team thriving off
each other, being part ofsomething bigger than yourself.
You making other people betterby your interactions.
I just I think it will continuewhat we've seen and I think I
(28:52):
think you know the pendulumswings too far each way when
these changes happen.
right and post COVID, it waseverything shutting down and no
one's ever gonna go back to workagain, and we're certainly not
seeing it with all of ourcompanies and tenants that we
interact with.
It's been the opposite for mostof them.
There's a few of them Again.
If they can employ people andthey're more, they have easy
metrics to follow on someonethat can do it on their own time
(29:15):
.
It's, you know, it's theprogrammers that can.
Hey, here's your task you dothis week and however long it
takes you, that's what I'mpaying for.
But anybody that has anythingto do that requires
collaboration and creatingculture and driving what you
just said, those huddles and allthat, that's big.
Where did you learn all that?
I mean I'm sitting herelistening to you.
(29:36):
It's pretty fascinating to hearyou talk because I mean you're
doing so many things right.
Was this all intuitive?
Who are your mentors?
Speaker 4 (29:45):
Yeah, I have a lot of phenomenal.
I mean I love to read, I loveto listen to podcasts.
There's a lot that comes fromthat.
I am always coached.
I think everyone should becoached at every single level.
So I employ coaches level.
So I employ coaches.
But I was very blessed to growup in the community that I grew
(30:07):
up in and my dad was a businessowner.
I watched him.
A lot of people in my communityare business owners that I
still interact with.
I still go to lunch with a lotof them.
I've watched uncles and cousinstake companies public and how
they led, and so everything Idid was self-funded and like
self-run, like I wasn't handed abusiness.
(30:29):
But at the same time, I'm notgoing to sit here and say that
how you grew up and what youwatch does not play a massive
role in your development in alot of that stuff.
And so my dad always saidcounsel or consequence are the
two ways you learn.
I would much rather counselthan consequence every single
time.
So, just trying to rely on thepeople around you asking
questions hey, struggling withthis, struggling with this, what
(30:50):
would you do?
But, yeah, just trying to pullon as many people as you can.
There's a lot of people thathave gone through it, so there's
no reason for you to strugglethrough it as well.
That's powerful.
We have a lot of people thathave gone through it, so there's
no reason for you to strugglethrough it as well.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
That's powerful.
We have a lot of athletes.
I think it's cheating a littlebit here, at our company, I mean
we do.
We just have a lot of peoplethat played sports and I've also
watched.
Well, I don't think it has tobe just sports.
For example, I've watchedpeople like my son who was very
(31:25):
into jazz music and music andwhat happens, where you learn
how to be a team in an ensemble.
So I don't think it's justsports, but I think people that
are exposed to things where youdo learn from a teacher and you
are required discipline and thework ethic and the things that
happen on a team and you getyour butt chewed when you need
(31:45):
to get your butt chewed and youlearn how to take that.
I mean talk about clearlysports big deal for you.
How much has that played intokind of shaping?
Who?
Speaker 4 (31:54):
you are Massive in a lot of different aspects.
You nailed it Like I would haveactually said music and sports.
You can get it a lot of otherplaces.
I don't want to act like youhave to do one of those two to
be successful, but they teachyou core principles, um of how
to operate in a team, how toreceive feedback, how to
(32:15):
constantly improve, strive forthat constant improvement.
Um have key metrics winning andlosing.
I think it plays a large role ina lot of that, and I have I
mean I probably have 15, 20college athletes in my mortgage
company for that exact purpose.
I think we just gravitate, wespeak each other's language.
(32:37):
It's easy to coach them forthat purpose, but then on the
flip side, too, byu is a largeschool, and so I didn't know
what I wanted to do.
But when you're flying aroundon private jets with
billionaires to games and I'mlooking at their lifestyle and
I'm talking to them and it's itexposed me to a network and
(32:58):
mentors that I would have neverbeen exposed to, and it has
guided me a lot as well.
So there's been a lot ofavenues that I feel like it's
directly impacted me.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Yeah, I mean it's, it's, it's.
There's the very personal whatdid I learn from the process?
And then there's all of thesewonderful people you were
exposed to.
It's, it's, it's a little bitof everything.
I really appreciate youbringing up kind of your
heritage, and sounds like youhave a family that also taught
you a lot about how to live andhow to run a business.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
Yeah, yeah, my parents are incredible.
They're actually over in NewZealand right now on a church
service mission.
It's been weird having themgone.
But yeah, my dad probably ran15, 20 different companies on
and off.
He'd almost buy, flip and sellcompanies and so he has a large
wealth of knowledge that Irelied on a lot my first couple
(33:49):
years.
I'd sit down with him regularly.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Where are you in the sibling?
How many siblings do you have?
Speaker 4 (33:53):
So there's five of us .
I have two older sisters, oneolder brother and then a younger
brother, so I'm number four.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Are any of them business focused?
Yeah, all of us.
Basically Just part of the.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
DNA.
Yeah, my brother owns a realestate brokerage here locally.
My other brother owns aproperty management company,
manages about 100 differentproperties, so the three boys
are all in real estate.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
And then my sister's married, very
entrepreneurial-minded people aswell, makes for fun family
holidays.
Speaker 4 (34:24):
Yeah, my parents love it and hate it.
They're like stop talking.
Business, no competition.
Yeah, there's always athleticentrepreneurial.
There's a lot of friendlycompetition going on for sure.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
It's really good Tell us about your family.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
You have kids, yeah, so I actually had a kid like
three days ago.
So I've got a six-year-old boy,a two-year-old boy and then we
just had a girl on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Six, two and a girl.
That's awesome.
I have grandkids that are five,three and four months.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
Boy, boy girl.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Right there.
You're almost the exact sameage Right there, local yeah,
really close and it's.
It's what life's all aboutright there.
That's fun.
So I'm sure your parents arevery happy that you're close by.
Speaker 4 (35:07):
Yeah yeah.
All my siblings are in NewZealand.
I know, but all my siblings nowmove back to the Boise area.
It's fun.
It's fun to be back.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
What do you uh I mean you're, you're in the trenches,
uh on housing and mortgages andwhat's going on in the nation.
I can't wait to get your takeon a few of these things.
So just talk about housing inthe Treasure Valley.
Keep it local here.
A lot of our folks that listento this are Idaho or Treasure
Valley based.
What do you see happening inthe coming years?
Speaker 4 (35:37):
Yeah, I don't think interest rates are going to come
down as soon as everyonethought they would.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
It's almost impossible, right?
Yeah, there's the optimism thatTrump brought, which now you've
got to hedge against inflation.
They can't go up, they can't godown.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
Exactly, and that's kind of like it's not a
political statement.
Trump is a growth-mindedpresident.
He's going to cut taxes, cutregulation and push business.
All of those are inflationary.
Even the tariffs he's proposingis inflationary.
Now, whether you agree, don'tagree, we won't get into that,
but everything he's doing is aninflationary concept and that's
(36:11):
the key thing.
That will bring down interestrates, and so I actually think
we'll see elevated interestrates for a while.
I think the reset in people'sminds has begun to happen.
Everyone was 100 yearexperience, like we just got to
get that out of our mind.
Five, six, seven percent isvery normal.
(36:33):
It's what's been around for thelast 30 years and I think
that's starting to happen.
What's interesting here locallyis how much new construction
drives the housing markets.
It's very little resale, veryheavy new construction and
there's some really big projectsthat are just starting.
That, I think, will push usalong pretty quickly.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
I don't know.
I should know this, but we havea supply issue, right?
Yeah, I mean that's what it is,but how short do you think we
are in the different segments ofthe market Starter homes,
townhomes, multifamily Do youhave any of those statistics?
Speaker 4 (37:11):
Yeah, so nationally've known them.
I don't know them locally aswell.
We have a massive shortage inmy if I was to like break it
into segments, the starter homes, which I'm going to call
300,000 to 600,000, there's alarge shortage in.
There's a huge demographic thathas been pre-approved, that
wants to purchase but just can'tat these interest rates, and so
(37:33):
we either need prices to comedown, which is not going to
happen in my opinion, orinterest rates to come down.
Even if we can just get to thehigh fives, low sixes, I think
we'd see thousands enter thebuying market for that range.
And there's a legitimate supplyissue.
Now the next tranche of 700,000to 1.5, which is the people that
(37:59):
are kind of leveling up, tryingto find that forever home kind
of moving.
That's kind of the dead marketright now in my opinion.
Like if I was a home builder,that's probably where I wouldn't
build as much just becauseinterest rates are killing that
group.
They usually W-2 employedworkers.
They're living on a budget andadding three $400,000 into your
(38:21):
mortgage adds 3000 bucks a month.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
They just can't do it and it feeds back in, I know
you said, where it's kind of anew home buyer's market, but the
home they would leave would bethe home.
So that's kind of where thestagnation is right.
Exactly, even in the TreasureValley we don't have the
trade-up.
We don't have trade-ups.
Yeah, so what gives then?
Here for us, supply has got toincrease.
Speaker 4 (38:41):
It's just got to be supply, right?
Yeah, I mean, I'm not a homebuilder, so some home builder is
going to listen to this and sayhe's an 18 to 24 month lag,
basically when projects arereally starting to people
starting to move in.
And 18 to 24 months ago is wheninterest rates started to run,
we didn't know what washappening and so home builders
pulled back a little bit, and Ithink that's the last six months
(39:03):
we've gone through is thesupply hasn't been hitting the
market because home builderswaited to see what was happening
18 to 24 months before they sawit was good.
And that's why I'm sayingthere's a lot of projects coming
.
Is I think the next 12 monthswe'll actually get a decent
supply.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
I think you're spot on um, which should help, and
and there are a lot of big, Imean sticking here to the valley
.
There's a lot of big thingshappening here um that that
should bring, uh, quite a bit ofsupply on.
Speaker 4 (39:31):
I mean mean I live in Eagle.
The one up north in Eagle, inthe foothills, is massive,
massive.
Yeah, I think it's like 6,000homes in Phase 1 or something
like that.
It's huge, a lot of sprawl.
Yep, especially that one thatone's going to combine Highway
55, highway what is that?
Emma Highway, horseshoe BendHighway it's basically Avamore
(39:51):
to.
Yeah, it's going to be massive.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Yeah and um, yeah, I think you're going to see the
way you know, with Highway 16going in, with that project
going in, specifically, with allthe expansion going on in CUNA,
middleton Star, I meaneverywhere.
It's just, you know, we'reseeing it happen right before
our eyes and and you love thisplace, I mean it the people
moving here.
That's not going to stop either.
Speaker 4 (40:18):
I think there needs to be so I was in utah for years
, still have a lot of businesscontacts.
I'm there all the time.
In utah, the way they fought itis mass town homesomes.
Yeah, um, like the townhomeprojects inside of utah is
unreal and no one wants it intheir city here, like, you'll
(40:38):
see a lot of governmentofficials that get shot down all
the time.
But we have got to embrace itif we want the millennial
generation to be homeowners andmove back here because they just
cannot afford a five hundredthousand dollar starter home.
It's just not gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Well, and here and here's what I say to anyone that
will listen to me, but peopledon't.
But it's not like I thinkgovernment regulation of getting
the way out of this is theworst possible thing that could
happen right now for our peopleand unfortunately, I think there
is a desire to control that andthen go get government
(41:15):
subsidized housing to try tosolve this.
That is the worst possiblething that anyone could do right
now and we may do it.
I mean it may happen because ofnimbyism, because of really
good people who want to do theright thing, so they
overregulate the heck out ofstuff, the right thing, so they
over regulate the heck out ofstuff.
And what ought to be happeningis we ought to have more
(41:35):
multi-family, more town homes,more, you know, starter homes,
what you just said, more of that.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
I mean we need all of it and we could get the price
point probably down to 250 to350 if we started building town
homes at mass, which would andit's what they've done.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
To your point.
I think, uh, we, we've always I, I always say this and it's
probably people get sick of it,but if you go to Salt Lake 10 to
15 years ago, on almost anymetric we're facing whether it's
transportation or on thehousing side or infrastructure,
whatever issue we're facing andwhatever numbers we're facing if
you go down there and say howwas this solved by a free market
(42:11):
economy that's very much likeours, right, it's a red state,
low regulation, good leadership.
You know they had Spencer inthere doing a great job and you
look at the way they've done itand say, well, what did they do
and how did it work.
You look at some of thosecommunities which are massive
townhome communities, and theywork, they're nice, they're.
I mean, it's not, and so Idon't know.
(42:35):
I think when you get up here, Ithink it is people worrying what
we got.
You look at the city ofMeridian like it's been tough to
get multifamily through thecity.
We've had enough of it.
You know, ironically, a bunchof people that have moved here
from California are saying wedon't want any more apartments,
right, and then you got thepeople saying, hey, we don't
want our farmland to go away.
(42:56):
We don't want any moreapartments, we don't want any
more growth.
Well, unfortunately it's goingto happen somewhere, and if we
don't, I mean I think we eitherrun our cities or the cities run
the leadership right, and theway that they do that is by
embracing some of this.
Those are great, great thoughts.
Speaker 4 (43:16):
What's next?
Speaker 1 (43:18):
for you, by the way, it's like 1043.
This is going way too fast.
I'm looking at your website.
Let's go how to like.
First of all, I wanted to getinto this.
So Fulcrum Home Loans reallyeasy for people to go to if they
don't know about you, ifthey're looking for something,
(43:39):
talk about how to just get moreinformation on you, especially
if someone's looking for a loan.
Speaker 4 (43:42):
Yeah, so social media is really easy to find me
website.
We're a mortgage broker andthat's one of the reasons we
grew so fast is we were one ofthe first ones to enter the
Idaho market, to really embracethat, and what that means is
we're not tied to any oneinstitution, so when you come to
us for a mortgage, I don't haveto send it to Loan Depot or to
Quicken or to Fairway or towherever.
(44:04):
I'm an independent shop andit's harder to run that business
, but it's a lot better for theconsumer because I get it every
single day.
I get to shop 100 differentinstitutions and say who has the
best rates today?
Ok, because it changes day today, and so that's kind of what
we do is we shop for people andby doing that it ends up being a
(44:25):
lot cheaper.
Like government, hmda came outwith the data it's $10,200
cheaper to go through a mortgagebroker than a normal mortgage
bank in the first year, and soit saves them tons of money and
that's why we've seen the fastgrowth.
That we've seen is because thatword has spread that you can
get a half percent lower over atFulcrum than you can down the
(44:46):
street at Fairway, and so itcreates a shareability, and so I
just encourage everyone, nomatter where you're listening,
if we're not in your state, justgo to a mortgage broker,
because you will most likely geta much lower interest rate yeah
, and at a time when that's thepinch point, it makes even more
sense, okay, and then socialchannels yeah.
Brayden Fulcrum is my handle onevery single channel.
(45:07):
Instagram is probably mybiggest, that I'm the most
consistent on, but we're onTikTok, twitter, youtube,
everywhere.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
Are you making money off this now?
Speaker 4 (45:17):
I refuse to sell out.
So I don't do any sponsoredposts.
I don't do, you don't.
But I stand up businesses, soeverything in the financial
sector that my followers need.
I like to stand up.
So I own private equitycompanies, I own real estate
syndication companies, I ownmortgage companies, I own the
(45:37):
apps, the education.
So I stand up every singlebusiness inside of the financial
literacy sector and that's howI monetize it.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
One of these days, when you're bored, look up Glenn
Stearns.
Speaker 4 (45:48):
I know him well.
He runs Kind Lending now.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
Yeah, he's a really dear friend of mine.
Speaker 4 (45:53):
Really yeah A really really really good friend.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
But when you spend a lot of time with him and you
hear his story he's got anincredible story, by the way, of
how he started basicallyhomeless teen and he tells a
story where he's homeless, hadan early teen pregnancy, kind of
destitute and he's and he wassitting outside of a big house
(46:18):
and he said he called the personover in the yard and said hey,
I hope you don't mind me asking,but what do you do here?
What did you do to get this?
You know what?
What did you?
What did you do?
And it's a funny story becausehe sits and tells his whole
story to this person and thenthe guy's like, hey, I'm the
gardener, that's too funny.
(46:40):
But the guy that does this doesreal estate, yeah, and Glenn's
like, oh, I'm going to.
So he anyway, he builds hiskingdom, right, and but but what
?
I?
I'm getting to the long pointhere, but he talks about one
point where he was sitting theregoing I am going to own every
vertical in everything I do, andthat's just what he did.
(47:01):
And he actually kind ofwhiteboarded out what is every
dollar we touch, all the waythrough, from when we greet a
customer, all the way through,and we're going to do it better
than anyone, we're going toprovide the service, and that's
what he did.
Anyway, great, great guy,stern's lending huge exit, huge
success.
Speaker 4 (47:17):
Just rolled out Kind Lending, yeah.
Yeah, I followed him for awhile.
That's cool to get him.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
He's a wonderful kid Guy.
I was thinking about his kid,skyler but he's a great guy.
Speaker 4 (47:34):
So there's 1.2 million followers.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
Is that all man I know?
Chump change.
I got to get that number up.
Oh, this world we live in.
Isn't it great to be in America?
Speaker 4 (47:39):
Yeah, it's so fun, there's so much opportunity,
that I mean something like thisLike just spend a little bit of
time, be consistent, educateyourself.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
And there is so much opportunity out there for the
everyday person.
Man, we could do this forever.
There's a lot to learn from aguy like you.
Um, I think I'm coming.
Am I coming on your podcast?
Yeah, I think we're flipping, Idon't.
This is the first time I've,like, had the.
I don't get asked to go onthings.
Yeah, no.
Speaker 4 (48:01):
I just ask people.
I'm excited to flip the scriptand learn from.
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