November 11, 2025 • 44 mins
In this episode, I sit down with mortgage industry veteran and coach Carrie Guarrero to trace a three-decade career built on service, community, and relentless growth. Carrie shares how an 11-year-old’s flyer route in her mom’s mortgage office became a billion-dollar origination career—and why the trophies eventually mattered less than the names and stories behind each loan. She opens up about a career “pause” that didn’t go as planned, the humbling return that led her to Fairway, and how that detour became the on-ramp to launching Fairway Ignite, an internal coaching organization now serving 600+ teammates with 80 coaches.
We also get into how Carrie is building a multigenerational legacy; handing portions of her book of business to her daughter and longtime partner, and what “effective coaching” really looks like inside a high-performance culture: individualized matches, data-driven accountability, and an always-on community. Beyond business, Carrie reflects on being an Army mom (and former Army spouse), holding pride and fear at the same time, and the leadership lessons that come from service, ambiguity, and letting go. She previews her forthcoming guided journal Discovering WISE: Women in Search of Excellence—a 52-week journey designed to help women define success on their own terms—and shares the daily non-negotiables that keep her grounded in faith, family, gratitude, sweat, and stillness.
Discussion Highlights:
- How a “failed” pivot can become the exact path you need next
- The core ingredients of coaching that actually moves numbers (and people)
- Why legacy leadership means empowering others, even before you feel ready to let go
- Navigating male-dominated rooms without dimming your light or your voice
- The power of holding two truths (proud and scared) and leading through uncertainty
- A simple morning framework: gratitude, sweat, and reflective thinking
Links & Mentions:
- Connect with Carrie Guarrero: Instagram • LinkedIn
- Book: Discovering WISE: Women in Search of Excellence — 52-week guided journey - grab your copy here!
If this conversation resonates, I’d love for you to subscribe, rate, and share. Tag me with your takeaways and the line that hit you hardest.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Erin Geiger (00:10):
Hey everybody and welcome to the newest episode of
clover. I am here with CarrieGuerrero. I am so excited to
have you here, Carrie, thank youfor joining us. I know you're
super busy with all the things,so thank you for coming.
Unknown (00:24):
Well, I am so grateful and honored to be here. Erin, so
thank you.
Erin Geiger (00:29):
It was so funny. I have to tell the listeners, like
I Carrie and I just got totalking before recording the
podcast, and she's so great totalk to you that I was like, Oh,
I guess we should start therecording an actual podcast. But
you're gonna, you're gonna lovethe time ahead of you, because
Carrie is just like anincredible person to to speak
with. So I just wanted to startthere. But Carrie, as I usually
(00:54):
do with these episodes, wouldyou mind indulging me and kind
of telling us your origin story?
I love to call it kind of likeyour journey and your career and
how you got from point A towhere you are today.
Unknown (01:08):
Yeah, that's a long story, as I'm sitting in, you
know, three decades in thebusiness at this stage, but will
tell you probably a little bitdifferent and maybe similar to
some listeners out there, but mymother was in the mortgage
business, and I watched her as achild. In fact, my first paying
(01:29):
job in the mortgage business washer paying me to deliver first
time home buyer flyers, door todoor. I was 11 years old. I was
wrapping them on townhomedevelopment doors and sticking
them under apartment buildingdoors. I don't think we send our
11 year olds in to do that kindof anymore today, but then I
(01:50):
kind of held everyadministrative type position
throughout junior high and highschool, helped in the office and
that kind of stuff, and reallygot into the business at 20 full
time and started as a as amarketing, business development
person, and again, just how do Ihelp in all the different ways?
(02:14):
Actually, there was a refinanceboom going on in the mortgage
industry at that point, and itwas here's a list of our closed
loan clients that we need you tocall, and so I started calling
them. I loved it from day one,truly, I think I loved it before
I got into it, right? But havebeen originating a year later,
(02:34):
became a branch manager. Fromthen, grew to recruiting and
hiring other originators, togrowing an area to then, you
know, there's a few stops alongthe way. I've been at,
technically, three differentmortgage companies in my in my
(02:55):
30 years in the business, eachone of them massive growth and
change and evolution of who Iwas and what it what it was that
I was doing, but in coming tofairway, there was actually a
pause in between. And I thinkthat a lot of people can
resonate with those times inyour life or your career where
(03:19):
you try something brand new, andit doesn't go so well. And so I
had decided, nearing the 20 yearmark in the business that I
wanted to go full on intocoaching and consulting. And I
had run a consulting companywith partners for a number of
(03:40):
years, and I was like, Okay, Ineed, I need to go all in to
this coaching thing. Let's goand quickly in the first year of
that, ran through a whole bunchof our savings and learned that
going from running a region andhaving a lot of people who were
in my space and also needing andsupporting on both sides on a
(04:06):
daily basis, to all of a sudden,being a solopreneur, really. I
mean, I had partners on oppositecoasts, but remote work wasn't
really a normal thing back then.
I mean, this was 2014 and Isaid, Hey, okay, this is really
hard. This is really hard to bealone in my office and be with
(04:30):
my own thoughts and be the, youknow, the E Myth revisited is a
great it's a great book, the EMyth in general, he talks about
entrepreneurial seizures, and Idefinitely had one. If I was
just like, Oh, hey, I can go doall this. And a year later, I
was like, maybe not so much. Myhusband became a pastor in that
(04:53):
same year. And I don't know ifyou know this, but they don't
pay. Pastors, like, you know,starting pastors, you're not
just making a whole bunch ofmoney. That's not what they're
in it for. So I said, Hey, maybeI need to go back and do a few
loans. I'm just gonna go and I'mgonna just, don't want to be
(05:15):
leading a big area, don't wantto have a whole bunch of
employees. Don't need all ofthat. I really want to hang on
to my coaching and consultingover here, but I'm going to go
do a few loans so that I cansupport my family. And I really
came to fairway the place that Icurrently am with kind of my
(05:38):
tail between my legs, feelinglike I'd failed, like I succeed
in the way I had envisioned inmy mind, and I had to go back to
this place it was. I had tothing in my mind. Instead of I
get to I'm a woman of faith. Sothen it's my belief system.
(05:59):
Within short order of me comingto fairway, you know, I was
going to do a few loans. And ofcourse, five loans became 10
loans. You know, when you servepeople well and you do the right
thing, I earnestly believe thatno matter what business you're
in, when you are doing the rightthing and you're there to serve
people well, it multiplies, andso it did. But also a coaching
(06:22):
company was being formed withinfairway, and I got the
opportunity to participate inthat was asked to be a part, and
it was one of those momentswhere it was like, No, this was
just the direction I wassupposed to go. You don't see it
in in the middle of it, but whenyou get there, you look back and
(06:44):
go, Oh, I see what the plan wasall along. So that was, that was
10 years ago. We're about tocelebrate our 10th Anniversary
of founding fairway Ignite, andnow we, we serve over 600
coaching clients on a monthlybasis, all inside fairway. I
(07:07):
have about 80 coaches, and weget the honor and pleasure of
serving fairway every day inthat way. And I can't, it's kind
of pinched me, because here weare so here we are.
So that's, that's it.
Erin Geiger (07:25):
No, it's, it's, it's interesting, because it
reminds me of my mom alwayssays, which is, like the
universe, or, you know, whoeveryou know that you look to,
there's nudges right of like,where you're supposed to be in
life. And it starts out small,you know, and then they, if you
don't listen, they get biggerand bigger and bigger. And so
(07:46):
right when you said, Oh, I wentover to fairway, and then there
was coaching, I was like, ofcourse, there was, you know,
Unknown (07:53):
exactly where you were supposed to go. You're supposed
to land there. That certainlywasn't how I felt in the middle
of it, I felt like, Oh, I amhaving to do this so that I can
support my family. And now Iwas, I was getting to do that.
That's definitely a mindsetshift that is not lost in my day
(08:19):
to day. Now, yeah,
Erin Geiger (08:21):
and I want to talk more about the coaching aspect,
but before I move over to that,I was curious. So, you know,
you're, you're very modest whenyou know, you're like, oh, you
know, do a few loans and thenthose loans compounded. I mean,
what you've done over, what, abillion dollars. Let's get that
out there.
Unknown (08:39):
Yeah, you know, for a long time, for a long time that
mattered, and at some point Ithink in your career, you know,
the reality is, every loan has aname. Every name has act. I
mean, it is very real. And homeownership is a really big deal,
(09:04):
right? I mean, it createsstronger families, stronger
communities, better grades.
There's a there's a whole widenumber of reasons why that is
super important. But at somepoint, all of the awards and
trophies and all of that stuffwere, were super important, and
they're just not as importantanymore as the stories are. And
(09:25):
so, yes, I mean, there's,there's been a great amount of
success in that arena, and I'mgrateful for that. My greatest,
greatest joy now is watchingother people to get to those
levels of success, and helpingthem with how to get there and
(09:47):
how to how to do it in a waythat, again, is about it's about
giving back and about buildingsomething that is legacy.
Driven, versus just honking.
Loans,
Erin Geiger (10:04):
yeah, and, and I love how you've kind of
transformed it to an act ofservice really, you know. And in
your mind, right? Rather than,like, going for the dollar, it's
more of like, okay, what'sbehind that? And honestly, I
will say that that's, I know,that's contributed to your
success fully, you know, kind oflike that mindset shift, and you
(10:25):
mentioned, you know, kind ofbuilding a legacy. So talk about
your your daughter, right? Yourdaughter is now, is involved
your former team. So can youtalk a little bit about how that
transpired and how you reallyhave built a legacy at this
point,
Unknown (10:44):
you know? And like, yeah, we're talking three
generations, right? My daughteractually had been in the
operation side of the businessfor years and years and years,
and just last year, decided tostart originating loans, which
is the sales side versus theoperation side? You know, very
(11:04):
different. But I was at a placein my career where I in my days
where I couldn't manage all ofthose hats anymore, right? And
our CEO, bless him, he he knewand could see that, and said,
Carrie, it's time. I thinksometimes we really need those
(11:26):
people that are outside of ourday to day looking in to say,
it's time. And I remember whenhe picked up the phone, I will
always remember when he pickedup the phone and called me, and
we had that because I honestly,Aaron, I wasn't ready to let go.
And I think a lot of times we'renot ready to let go, because
those things bring us comfort,and those things feel like
(11:51):
certainty and security whenreally they're holding us back.
And and this team had beengroomed for years and years, and
there was no reason that theycouldn't take over and do what
they needed to do. So yes, mydaughter then took over a
(12:12):
portion of my business and ourlong time production partner
Andrea, who had been workingwith us for more than a decade,
said she was getting into herorigination, and she took over
another portion of the businessand built her own. And between
the two of them, they they canserve that client base and and
(12:35):
partner base, very, very well,and they're doing a great job.
So it's, it's great to see themsucceed?
Erin Geiger (12:43):
Yeah? No, I bet. I mean, it's another special part
of your heart, right, whereyou're able to, kind of, like,
you know, work with yourdaughter in, kind of continuing
this legacy, bringing itforward. It's such a beautiful
thing. Yeah, and so you'releading on the coaching side. So
(13:03):
you're leading the coaching anddevelopment platform for
fairway. What you know for ourlisteners, like, what does that
look like? And it's a very highperforming organization. So what
is that effective coaching foryou, coaching your coaches you
know, and coaching others thatyou know you're you're looking
to kind of help along the way.
Unknown (13:27):
So I'm sorry, but like the question, I'm not sure what
the question was in there.
Erin Geiger (13:32):
So what is effective coaching look like in
such a high performingorganization?
Unknown (13:36):
Got it? Um, I would tell you that it's not one size
fits all. Active coaching for usis very different than it might
be. I mean, when we startedfairway Ignite, it was really
like, okay, many of us certainlynot me, right? Independently,
(13:58):
all of us together, hadexperienced different coaching
walks with different companies,a variety of them, and it was,
wow. What if we took all of thatcumulative knowledge and
investment of time and realdollars and said, Okay, what?
(14:19):
What are the best practices ofall of those things that we can
bring in internally to fairway,and then layer on top of that,
fairways, ways of doing thingsand the knowledge of how fairway
works. So we can help peoplescale way faster internally than
if they're operating withsomebody externally. And in
(14:41):
doing so, we crafted a bunch ofdifferent paths. Of course,
there are some core tenets interms of accountability and the
use of an app that we have thattracks activities and progress
and real metrics and those kindsof things that are the same for
all salespeople. But weearnestly believe that coaching
(15:05):
is a one on one on a one on onebasis. Is a one on one
relationship that we need tomake sure as a match. It's just
not like, Oh, hey, oh, Aaron,you want to get into coaching?
Okay? We're just going to putyou with XYZ person. We don't
know anything about you, wereally dig in and figure out
where does this person want togo? And I think that the
(15:27):
effectiveness of coaching, ifyou will, is really largely
dependent on that pairing beinga match and not putting people
with people that are too farahead of them or the wrong
personality profiles or thattype of thing. So we measure, of
course, numbers. I mean,everybody in a in a good
(15:51):
business setting, they should bemeasuring numbers. And those
that are inside our coachingversus those outside are
performing at two to one. So weknow that it works. But also I
think that if we were to belooking at measuring it, one of
those is, how active is thecommunity, and how are people
(16:11):
feeling about being a part ofthat community? And there's
constant sharing and abundantsharing going on inside this
community of 600 people that allday long, every day, seven days
a week, there's an email chainthat's going where people are
talking to each other. Now, noteverybody's working seven days a
(16:32):
week, but you know what loanoriginators are, and if there's
a challenge, a problem orwhatever, they'll toss something
out there. And on a Sunday,somebody, somebody's out there
working too that's replying tothem to help them out. And so I
think we measure success thatway too. Yeah.
Erin Geiger (16:49):
And as a leader, how do you support your coaches
as they're kind of growing intheir roles too
Unknown (16:55):
well a number of ways, we certainly offer monthly calls
for them, where they can comeand plug in and learn and grow.
And we bring different speakersfrom the outside in, because,
you know, you can't do anythingin a silo, in your own bubble.
You got to bring people in andget other voices. Or we go out
(17:15):
and learn and bring back stuffthat we've learned in monthly
calls. But we also require thatall of our coaches are being
coached by leader coaches. Soagain, that same kind of premise
that you know, if you're goingto put a salesperson or an
executive teammate or acorporate teammate with a coach,
(17:36):
we want to make sure they're acouple steps ahead. Same thing
from a coaching perspective, wehave grown coaches over the
years by putting them withpeople that have more experience
helping them through that theycan bounce those ideas off of
them. We have a system forreporting and challenges and
things like that that that onlycome to those of us that are on
(17:59):
the executive team to help themnavigate challenging situations.
I think it's a again, it's anall day, every day, just kind of
practice to be present andproviding opportunities to learn
and grow.
Erin Geiger (18:14):
That's great to hear. You know that you're not
like, hey, good luck.
Unknown (18:21):
I won't, I will tell you I nah, not something that we
ever would have subscribed to.
Hey, good luck. But I think thatalso, one of the things that's
important about, you know,fairway in general, is we do we
do things with speed. And sosometimes changes get made, or
things happen, and it's like,let's go, let's go. And you're
attaching cars to the trainwhile it's running down the
(18:42):
tracks, right? So I won't saythat we've, we've been perfect
in that over our 10 year inbuilding Ignite. But certainly
at this stage, those systems arethere. Yeah, well, it's valuable
Erin Geiger (18:58):
to hear, especially for listeners who are kind of
building their own processes.
For sure. Can we talk about wisediscovering wise women in Search
of Excellence? Yeah, love tohear more about that, about
that, that launch, yeah, tellus. Tell us more about that.
Because I'm fascinated.
Unknown (19:14):
You know, I look over at my, my dry erase board over
there, because I've got, I'vegot the book cover pinned to the
board over there, and we are 19days right now prior to launch
of pre sale of the book that hasbeen a 10 year long project.
Aaron not it at the end of atthe end of it, when I was
(19:41):
entirely finished, called, wejust had our videographer down
here, and we were talking aboutthings, and I said, you know,
the reality is, there are somethings that you just are nudged,
that you know you need tofinish, but they're
uncomfortable or imposter.
Syndrome. I mean, anybody who isworking on accomplishing
(20:03):
anything is going to deal withimposter syndrome from time to
time, right? That voice insideyour head that's like, why are
you doing this? Who are you thatyou should write a book? What is
that about? What you know,whatever? And those voices
needed to be quieted. And I'mgrateful that I had people
around me that continued tonudge me over the last 10 years.
(20:24):
But discovering wise isdiscovering Women In Search of
Excellence, and it's a 52 weekguided journey to discovering
what excellence means to you,and as a coach, as a leader, as
a mother, my my heart is inthat, and specifically with
(20:45):
women, I think that we getreally wrapped up in what the
world want, the box the worldwants to put us in. And this is
what success looks like, andthis is what excellence looks
like, and this is what youshould look like. And we need
more and more women out therewho are championing other women
(21:05):
to say, You know what? No, whatdoes success look like for you?
What does excellence look likefor you? And so that's what,
that's what this book was allabout. It's honestly a
compilation of a lot of women'sstories. It is certainly not
just my own, although mine arewoven in throughout, because how
(21:28):
could they not be? But I did apodcast for a couple of years,
discovering wise podcast, and Itook 19 of those interviews and
those stories, and wove theminto the into the journey as
well. So, you know, my, mygreatest hope inside that is
that women would read that bookand walk in that journey.
(21:54):
Because I don't, it's not apower read Aaron like, nobody's
gonna be like, let me just readthis all. And, oh, okay, there
are reflection questions forevery segment, and it's meant to
be walked with over a period oftime. And and my greatest hope
would be that somebody out therereads it and says, I get like I
(22:16):
am enough. I can this. I canstep beyond this. I don't need
to be stuck in this way. Or, youknow, like we talked about with
regard to the journey frommortgage into coaching and back
again. You know, wherever theyare in this season is okay, and
(22:39):
you can be excellent in it, andit's going to change. So keep
growing. Yeah, now that's
Erin Geiger (22:47):
beautiful. I think so many of us, you know,
especially as women, need tohear that, and almost, you know,
be given that permission to, youknow, and I love that you have
reflection questions throughout,because that kind of forces you,
the reader, to take stock, like,Wait a second. I'm not just
gonna, like, blow through thisbook and like, oh, have these
(23:09):
thoughts, and then they are outof my head as soon as they enter
that, you know? So I love thatrespect of it being more
intentional,
Unknown (23:17):
right? Yeah, well, I'm also a margin writer, I don't
know. So I think that I get abook, and I have a number of
them behind me here. You know,if you were to open a book that
I've read, you will find thatthere are notes in the margin
about things, or I highlight orcircle things or whatever.
Nobody wants to borrow a bookfrom me after I've read it. So
(23:37):
in authoring a book, I'm like,Okay, we better leave space for
this. There better be room forpeople to write in this book,
because that's what it's meantfor,
Erin Geiger (23:47):
is live with it, yeah, and it makes it more
personal. So as as the reader isgoing through it, you know, she
can form these kind of thesethoughts and just be set with
intention of like, Okay, whatdoes this, you know, passage
mean to me? What does thislesson or guidance within this
(24:08):
segment of the book? How can I,you know, translate that to my
life and where I've been andwhere I've where I'm headed? So
I think that's really important.
So yeah, when is it on preorder? Or tell us the
information about that, aboutthe
Unknown (24:23):
book? So, Aaron, it is my 50th birthday on September
30, and we, the publisher and Iagreed that would be a great day
to launch pre sale for thisbook. So we are counting down
the days. And September 30,it'll be, it'll be available for
(24:46):
pre order, and then it should bewithin 30 days. I mean, we're,
we're pretty wrapped up in theproject, but it's exciting to do
that on the
Erin Geiger (24:55):
50th. Very exciting. Okay, well, we will
include all that information inthe. The show notes for sure.
Let's jump gears a little bit.
So I do want to talk about likeyou're an army mom. You're an
advocate for veterans, firstresponders, as am I just
incredible, incredible people.
How? You know, this podcast isall about kind of, like,
(25:18):
leadership, and, you know,leaning into your own flavor of
leadership. And as youmentioned, sort of like, what
does success look like to thatperson, individually. So how did
that kind of role, you know,Army mom as advocate, kind of
influence your leadership andperspective, and maybe vice
(25:38):
versa. You know, maybe yourleadership also impacted that
role. So talk a little bit aboutthat.
Unknown (25:44):
Oh, wow. Well, I mean, number one, I would tell you
that I was, I have beendivorced. I was army wife prior
to being an army mom, and my exhusband was deployed for almost
three full years out of thefirst five years of our son's
(26:07):
life, and so that, I think verymuch influenced my view of the
military, right and being amilitary spouse, I also have
four brothers who served in themilitary, and uncles. And back
to my grandmother was one of thefirst female Marines. So, you
(26:32):
know, there's a long familyhistory of service, and in terms
of, you know, how it'sinfluenced me, or where that I
mean, I think naturally it wasin me, but I don't think until
my brother, I know exactly whereI was. I was in I was in my
sophomore year in high school,and we were sitting in history
(26:52):
class, and they rolled in a cartwith the TV on it, because
that's what they had to do backthen. And they were showing
vivid imagery of Desert Storm,and my brother was serving there
as a Marine, and I remember thatmoment being one that shifted my
perspective, because, of course,I loved my brother, and I was
(27:16):
worried about my brother, andback in those days, they didn't
have WhatsApp and all theseother ways to communicate with
us while they were ondeployments, you literally would
sit by the phone and wait, youknow, the phone would ring at
midnight and you're picking upthe phone. And so I think that
you know being a mother is aleadership role too. I'm just
gonna shout that out. There aremoms out there being a mom of
(27:40):
leadership role, people arewatching you little. People are
watching you every day. And Ithink navigating deployments in
that way certainly taught me howto lead differently. And then my
son becoming the military thatwas he was 17, he always wanted
(28:01):
to be like his dad, right? Imean, forever, since he was
tiny, tiny, and we have apicture of him at Halloween, I
think he was four, and I hadsewn on his name onto a little
army uniform and put the patchon the sleeve. And, you know,
he's, I'm joining the armyforever. My brother just said,
tried to convince him to join adifferent branch, but at 17, he
(28:24):
was like, I want to go. I wantto join the army. And I said,
Great, let's, you'll be 18 nextSeptember. Let's Yeah, no. And
so we had to sign on the dottedline for him to join. And this
is a kid who, Aaron, he had afull ride scholarship to college
(28:48):
football academics, the whole,you know, like he was going to
college. And I was like, Well,what about school, right? Like,
what are we doing here? That's abig number, and I can still go
to school. I'm gonna do thecollege first thing, whatever.
Well, of course, like, a yearlater, his unit was being
(29:10):
deployed, and he opted to deploywith them because he had a
choice. He didn't have to go.
Was like, This is what I need todo now. This was a decade ago,
the same time fairway, possiblya little little longer ago than
that fairway started a nonprofitarm called the American warrior
(29:33):
initiative, and the purpose wasto bridge the military and
civilian divide and make surethat civilians understood what
life in the military was like,so that they could better serve
those who served. And that hasevolved certainly over the last
11 years. That being said when Iremember distinctly one of the.
(29:58):
Leaders of the American warriorinitiative at the time had come
to me and said, But Aren't youproud, Carrie? And I was like,
Yeah, I'm proud, but I'm alsoscared out of my mind. Yeah? So
like, you can be both at thesame time.
It's not this whole you know,you can't be angry and grateful
(30:20):
at the same time saying no, no,friends, you can hold two
opposing emotions aboutsomething, and they can both be
true. I could be tremendouslyproud of him for living out his
calling, which I believe it is,and also afraid of him going off
(30:40):
and being deployed. I mean, hewas 18 years old baby. So any of
us would look at 18 year oldstoday, and now he might be a
little bit more advanced, butyou know, it's in terms of
leadership and how that tiedtogether. I mean, if you think
about that, one of that that isthose two opposing truths. You
(31:02):
can feel two different things ortwo different things can be true
at the same time. And I thinkthat's an important leadership
thing to remember. People canfeel two totally different
things and they can both be truealso. We have seven kids, and
him being him making thatdecision to to go be deployed
(31:28):
versus staying in school. Youknow, not every path looks the
same for everybody from aleadership perspective, kind of
back to that same conversationwe were having about the core
ideology that not every singleperson needs the same type of
coach or the same type ofleadership. They need different
(31:49):
things. And it taught me thatit's also taught me patience,
both both operating and as a asa mother with a ex who was
deployed a whole lot, and as amother going through deployments
with their child, I think thatit teaches you patience. It
(32:13):
teaches that nothing like beinginvolved with the military to
also teach you that everything'sunpredictable. I mean, it's
stuck thrown at you, and you'relike, whatever. Roll with it.
We'll just have Thanksgiving onanother day. You know?
Erin Geiger (32:30):
Yeah, it's like, fine, yeah, I know that's a good
point, though, you've kind of,like, learned, like, how to deal
with ambiguity and releasecontrol, because you don't have
control over all these things.
And when you mentioned, youknow, feeling to kind of like,
you know, emotions that are atodds with each other at the same
time, that reminded me of, on asmaller scale, like I was
(32:52):
mentioning to you before westarted recording, that my
oldest went off to universitythis fall, you know, as a
freshman, and so and I had thatsame thing on a, you know,
smaller scale than my childgoing off to the military, but,
you know, just so happy andexcited and proud of him for
taking this step and movingforward. And he was so excited
(33:14):
he was ready, but at the sametime feeling grief, almost, of
like, oh, that part of my lifeis now ended, you know, of our,
you know, day to day with him,and feeling kind of sad and, you
know, that sort of a thing. Andso it's, it's so I totally
understand when you say that.
What you mean for sure, youknow, female leadership is so, I
(33:37):
mean, look, I can't, I don'tknow what it's like to be a male
leader, because I'm not one, soI can't do that. I mean, that's
why I wrote a book for women,because, like, while I certainly
coach men and women alike, I canspeak to being a woman and
leading as a woman and theemotions, etc.
Unknown (33:55):
But at the end of the day, I think that oftentimes we
are taught and or we are led tobelieve that we shouldn't feel
all of those things. And it'slike not, it's totally okay feel
all those things, and they'reall very real, and you're not
going to stay stuck in them. AndI just might speak into you
(34:15):
Aaron, and say, like, so beenthere too with five of five kids
leaving the nest and going offand doing their own things, and
they all come with differentemotions, and they'll the
relationships change, but theyalso grow in so many other
beautiful ways that there areother mothers out there that are
(34:37):
feeling some of that In thisseason, you know, it, there's,
there's a lot of hope for thefuture. There's beautiful to
come.
Erin Geiger (34:46):
Yeah, that's very true. And looking at it as more
of like an evolution, you know,rather than an ending, it's, you
know, it's constantly evolving,and kind of like new norms, you
know, which is a it's a greatway to. To think about it
Unknown (35:02):
business too. I mean, really the same thing and I are.
The dedication of my book is tomy children, because I think
they taught me more thananything else has ever taught
me. But in terms of leadership,it's that same thing in
business, right? Stuff doesn'tstay the same. Things change
right now. We're in a world ofAI and you know, the world is
(35:26):
changing again, and we'reneeding to figure out how to
grow with it. So what are youdoing differently? We should be
constantly challenging ourselvesin that way, like, how am I
thinking about this? And do Ihave, you know, stuck solid
mindset type thinking. Or do Ihave a growth mindset about this
and what I get to do and how Ican explore possibilities that a
(35:52):
lot of us get stuck in just thatconcrete way I've always done
it, or things need to be thisway, and breaking free of that
is a beautiful, beautiful thing,right?
Erin Geiger (36:04):
And the whole mentality of like, well, I
should be doing this, or Ishould be this far ahead by now,
or I should all those shoulds.
It's like, according to what, do
Unknown (36:17):
not stop it. Wait.
Erin Geiger (36:22):
So if you So, there's a lot of like I was
telling you earlier, before therecording. You know, the
listeners run the gamut, right?
There's some, you know,predominantly women, let's you
know if this is what it is. Butlike so, some are like, starting
out their careers. Some are moreseasoned. You know, everyone's
in different stages. But forwomen that are building their
careers in male dominatedindustries, do you have like a
(36:44):
piece of advice or some insightto sort of to share with with
them? For those that are dealingwith that,
Unknown (37:00):
when I think about operating in a male dominated
field, that certainly is. Wasthe case for me when I started.
It still is the case today. I'mso grateful to work at a place
that empowers women the way thatfairway empowers women, I have
to tell you, I mean our ournumbers associated with that are
like over half of our executiveteam is female, half of our
(37:24):
management. You know, when youlook at leadership across
fairway, I am grateful that thatI get to serve in a very mixed
culture that way, and one thatsupports women. Our industry is
still very largely maledominated from a leadership
perspective, and it's been thatway since I started. And I can
remember my first board positionwithin the our local MBA, and
(37:51):
walking in the room and beingthe only woman around the table.
And then I remember there beinganother woman added, and it was
just the two of us and and Ican, I can remember multiple of
those situations in my in my 30years, what I would say is now
reflecting back right, be you,and I know that sounds really
(38:15):
super simple, and it's it's Notyou'll be challenged to try and
be something that you're not.
Don't go beat the guy in theroom, right? Like, don't go take
down your softer side if youhave one or your ideas that may
be entirely different, becausethat's where your value actually
(38:36):
is, is in being you and inbringing your ideas and your
perspective to the table,because we think differently.
Men and women just thinkdifferently. We process things
differently. I mean, it's beenproven over and over and over
again, so if you try to tonethat down because you want to
(38:56):
fit in with a within the maledominated world, then you
probably aren't going to succeedat the level that you could,
because you're dimming yournatural light. And anytime we do
that, it creates more frictionthan it does flow, right? That's
my gut reaction to that.
Erin Geiger (39:20):
Yeah, I agree. And it's like your level of being
genuine is out the window. Andit's like, if you're not genuine
and you don't have that level ofintegrity, it's kind of
everything kind of falls to thewayside.
Unknown (39:35):
Look, I've been accused a time or two of being very
direct, very forward, you know,what have you I am. That's just
how I was wired. And I know in alot of those circles, you know,
it gets said that, hey, you knowyou're going to get called names
as a woman if that's how youbehave, right? And on the other
(39:56):
side, it's like, oh yeah, you'reassertive. Well. All you know.
So I'm just saying, if you're adirect communicator, be a direct
communicator, right? I mean,don't, don't go, oh, I can't be
that way, because we're nevergoing to break down barriers if
we just put up walls and pretendfor people, right?
Erin Geiger (40:17):
In fact, we'll probably regret, you know? So
that's very, very valid pointwhen you think about how you
thrive outside of work. Right,your life outside of that? Do
you have any like, nonnegotiables that you have, like,
outside of work, I am this, or Ido this, or I don't do this, you
know, like, what are therethings that kind of you you live
(40:38):
by bear at, kind of likeboundaries that you set, or
things that kind of help youshape your mindset and kind of
keep you grounded.
Unknown (40:47):
Well, I already mentioned to you that I am a
woman of faith, so that is avery important part of my life
that is a non negotiable for mepersonally. Again, I am, I, I am
open arms about everybody withdifferent beliefs and what have
you, but that is something thatevery day keeps me grounded in
who I am and whose I am andwhere it is that I'm going and
(41:11):
what I'm doing on a daily basis.
Period The second would be myhusband. We're about to
celebrate 22 years of here onSaturday, and he's my number one
here, like I there will be timefor him every single day period,
end of story. That is a nonnegotiable. And and we make
(41:33):
decisions together, we areunified and lockstep in those
decisions. And I think, well, Iknow, I know it darn well that
he's my biggest fan, but alsoI'm his, so that being unified
with him is super important. Andthen, you know, making space and
time for yourself, whatever thatlooks like, and it looks
(41:56):
different for me on the daily. Imean, there are some things.
There are morning practices thatI practice every single morning.
I believe that a morningpractice that includes some sort
of gratitude, some sort of sweatand some sort of thinking,
meditative behavior, is vital tomy success in my day. But
(42:16):
everybody could look different,right? Whatever is most
important to you. Some days Ifind that walking. Some days I
find that in the sauna, somedays I find that in the bathtub,
like really depends on the day,but those are probably the top,
top ones.
Erin Geiger (42:37):
Okay, no, I love that little bit of sweat, bit of
meditation. I getting all
Unknown (42:45):
those good chemicals going in your brain right before
you even
Erin Geiger (42:49):
start your day. So, yeah, yeah, I totally agree. And
you know, as far as, like, theworking out aspect, there's days
I don't feel like doing it, butI do it, and I always feel great
afterward, you know, just movingyour body and sweating it all
out for sure. What, where canpeople find you? If they like to
connect with you? What's thebest way to do that?
Unknown (43:11):
I am on every social platform as Carrie Guerrero so
they can find me there, andthat's the best way to find me,
whether it be on Facebook,Insta, LinkedIn, Tiktok, X,
whatever, I'm out there.
Erin Geiger (43:27):
Okay, great. We'll put those links in the show
notes as well. And then here's afinal, just fun question I like
to ask everybody I asked it inmy previous podcast series as
well. But we're such music headsover here, if they're if you
could only listen to one musicartist for the rest of your
life,
Unknown (43:50):
that's really hard. I love a lot of them. Oh,
goodness, I would tell you thatright now I am like consistently
playing Brandon lake on loop, sothat's really my and that goes
right along with that wholegratitude thing. That's probably
my favorite song by him, sowe're gonna go with Brandon
(44:13):
Lake.
Erin Geiger (44:14):
Okay, awesome.
Hello. I love it. Also, checkhim out. So Carrie, so thank you
so much for joining. This hasbeen such an illuminating
discussion, and I know thatyou've inspired and helped so
many that will be tuning in. Sojust thank you again for your
time. You're juggling so many,so many of the things. So I
really do appreciate I amgrateful for you. So I
appreciate it well, likewise,
Unknown (44:36):
grateful for you, and again, honored to be here with
you.
Hey everybody and welcome to the newest episode of
clover. I am here with CarrieGuerrero. I am so excited to
have you here, Carrie, thank youfor joining us. I know you're
super busy with all the things,so thank you for coming.
Unknown (00:24):
Well, I am so grateful and honored to be here. Erin, so
thank you.
Erin Geiger (00:29):
It was so funny. I have to tell the listeners, like
I Carrie and I just got totalking before recording the
podcast, and she's so great totalk to you that I was like, Oh,
I guess we should start therecording an actual podcast. But
you're gonna, you're gonna lovethe time ahead of you, because
Carrie is just like anincredible person to to speak
with. So I just wanted to startthere. But Carrie, as I usually
(00:54):
do with these episodes, wouldyou mind indulging me and kind
of telling us your origin story?
I love to call it kind of likeyour journey and your career and
how you got from point A towhere you are today.
Unknown (01:08):
Yeah, that's a long story, as I'm sitting in, you
know, three decades in thebusiness at this stage, but will
tell you probably a little bitdifferent and maybe similar to
some listeners out there, but mymother was in the mortgage
business, and I watched her as achild. In fact, my first paying
(01:29):
job in the mortgage business washer paying me to deliver first
time home buyer flyers, door todoor. I was 11 years old. I was
wrapping them on townhomedevelopment doors and sticking
them under apartment buildingdoors. I don't think we send our
11 year olds in to do that kindof anymore today, but then I
(01:50):
kind of held everyadministrative type position
throughout junior high and highschool, helped in the office and
that kind of stuff, and reallygot into the business at 20 full
time and started as a as amarketing, business development
person, and again, just how do Ihelp in all the different ways?
(02:14):
Actually, there was a refinanceboom going on in the mortgage
industry at that point, and itwas here's a list of our closed
loan clients that we need you tocall, and so I started calling
them. I loved it from day one,truly, I think I loved it before
I got into it, right? But havebeen originating a year later,
(02:34):
became a branch manager. Fromthen, grew to recruiting and
hiring other originators, togrowing an area to then, you
know, there's a few stops alongthe way. I've been at,
technically, three differentmortgage companies in my in my
(02:55):
30 years in the business, eachone of them massive growth and
change and evolution of who Iwas and what it what it was that
I was doing, but in coming tofairway, there was actually a
pause in between. And I thinkthat a lot of people can
resonate with those times inyour life or your career where
(03:19):
you try something brand new, andit doesn't go so well. And so I
had decided, nearing the 20 yearmark in the business that I
wanted to go full on intocoaching and consulting. And I
had run a consulting companywith partners for a number of
(03:40):
years, and I was like, Okay, Ineed, I need to go all in to
this coaching thing. Let's goand quickly in the first year of
that, ran through a whole bunchof our savings and learned that
going from running a region andhaving a lot of people who were
in my space and also needing andsupporting on both sides on a
(04:06):
daily basis, to all of a sudden,being a solopreneur, really. I
mean, I had partners on oppositecoasts, but remote work wasn't
really a normal thing back then.
I mean, this was 2014 and Isaid, Hey, okay, this is really
hard. This is really hard to bealone in my office and be with
(04:30):
my own thoughts and be the, youknow, the E Myth revisited is a
great it's a great book, the EMyth in general, he talks about
entrepreneurial seizures, and Idefinitely had one. If I was
just like, Oh, hey, I can go doall this. And a year later, I
was like, maybe not so much. Myhusband became a pastor in that
(04:53):
same year. And I don't know ifyou know this, but they don't
pay. Pastors, like, you know,starting pastors, you're not
just making a whole bunch ofmoney. That's not what they're
in it for. So I said, Hey, maybeI need to go back and do a few
loans. I'm just gonna go and I'mgonna just, don't want to be
(05:15):
leading a big area, don't wantto have a whole bunch of
employees. Don't need all ofthat. I really want to hang on
to my coaching and consultingover here, but I'm going to go
do a few loans so that I cansupport my family. And I really
came to fairway the place that Icurrently am with kind of my
(05:38):
tail between my legs, feelinglike I'd failed, like I succeed
in the way I had envisioned inmy mind, and I had to go back to
this place it was. I had tothing in my mind. Instead of I
get to I'm a woman of faith. Sothen it's my belief system.
(05:59):
Within short order of me comingto fairway, you know, I was
going to do a few loans. And ofcourse, five loans became 10
loans. You know, when you servepeople well and you do the right
thing, I earnestly believe thatno matter what business you're
in, when you are doing the rightthing and you're there to serve
people well, it multiplies, andso it did. But also a coaching
(06:22):
company was being formed withinfairway, and I got the
opportunity to participate inthat was asked to be a part, and
it was one of those momentswhere it was like, No, this was
just the direction I wassupposed to go. You don't see it
in in the middle of it, but whenyou get there, you look back and
(06:44):
go, Oh, I see what the plan wasall along. So that was, that was
10 years ago. We're about tocelebrate our 10th Anniversary
of founding fairway Ignite, andnow we, we serve over 600
coaching clients on a monthlybasis, all inside fairway. I
(07:07):
have about 80 coaches, and weget the honor and pleasure of
serving fairway every day inthat way. And I can't, it's kind
of pinched me, because here weare so here we are.
So that's, that's it.
Erin Geiger (07:25):
No, it's, it's, it's interesting, because it
reminds me of my mom alwayssays, which is, like the
universe, or, you know, whoeveryou know that you look to,
there's nudges right of like,where you're supposed to be in
life. And it starts out small,you know, and then they, if you
don't listen, they get biggerand bigger and bigger. And so
(07:46):
right when you said, Oh, I wentover to fairway, and then there
was coaching, I was like, ofcourse, there was, you know,
Unknown (07:53):
exactly where you were supposed to go. You're supposed
to land there. That certainlywasn't how I felt in the middle
of it, I felt like, Oh, I amhaving to do this so that I can
support my family. And now Iwas, I was getting to do that.
That's definitely a mindsetshift that is not lost in my day
(08:19):
to day. Now, yeah,
Erin Geiger (08:21):
and I want to talk more about the coaching aspect,
but before I move over to that,I was curious. So, you know,
you're, you're very modest whenyou know, you're like, oh, you
know, do a few loans and thenthose loans compounded. I mean,
what you've done over, what, abillion dollars. Let's get that
out there.
Unknown (08:39):
Yeah, you know, for a long time, for a long time that
mattered, and at some point Ithink in your career, you know,
the reality is, every loan has aname. Every name has act. I
mean, it is very real. And homeownership is a really big deal,
(09:04):
right? I mean, it createsstronger families, stronger
communities, better grades.
There's a there's a whole widenumber of reasons why that is
super important. But at somepoint, all of the awards and
trophies and all of that stuffwere, were super important, and
they're just not as importantanymore as the stories are. And
(09:25):
so, yes, I mean, there's,there's been a great amount of
success in that arena, and I'mgrateful for that. My greatest,
greatest joy now is watchingother people to get to those
levels of success, and helpingthem with how to get there and
(09:47):
how to how to do it in a waythat, again, is about it's about
giving back and about buildingsomething that is legacy.
Driven, versus just honking.
Loans,
Erin Geiger (10:04):
yeah, and, and I love how you've kind of
transformed it to an act ofservice really, you know. And in
your mind, right? Rather than,like, going for the dollar, it's
more of like, okay, what'sbehind that? And honestly, I
will say that that's, I know,that's contributed to your
success fully, you know, kind oflike that mindset shift, and you
(10:25):
mentioned, you know, kind ofbuilding a legacy. So talk about
your your daughter, right? Yourdaughter is now, is involved
your former team. So can youtalk a little bit about how that
transpired and how you reallyhave built a legacy at this
point,
Unknown (10:44):
you know? And like, yeah, we're talking three
generations, right? My daughteractually had been in the
operation side of the businessfor years and years and years,
and just last year, decided tostart originating loans, which
is the sales side versus theoperation side? You know, very
(11:04):
different. But I was at a placein my career where I in my days
where I couldn't manage all ofthose hats anymore, right? And
our CEO, bless him, he he knewand could see that, and said,
Carrie, it's time. I thinksometimes we really need those
(11:26):
people that are outside of ourday to day looking in to say,
it's time. And I remember whenhe picked up the phone, I will
always remember when he pickedup the phone and called me, and
we had that because I honestly,Aaron, I wasn't ready to let go.
And I think a lot of times we'renot ready to let go, because
those things bring us comfort,and those things feel like
(11:51):
certainty and security whenreally they're holding us back.
And and this team had beengroomed for years and years, and
there was no reason that theycouldn't take over and do what
they needed to do. So yes, mydaughter then took over a
(12:12):
portion of my business and ourlong time production partner
Andrea, who had been workingwith us for more than a decade,
said she was getting into herorigination, and she took over
another portion of the businessand built her own. And between
the two of them, they they canserve that client base and and
(12:35):
partner base, very, very well,and they're doing a great job.
So it's, it's great to see themsucceed?
Erin Geiger (12:43):
Yeah? No, I bet. I mean, it's another special part
of your heart, right, whereyou're able to, kind of, like,
you know, work with yourdaughter in, kind of continuing
this legacy, bringing itforward. It's such a beautiful
thing. Yeah, and so you'releading on the coaching side. So
(13:03):
you're leading the coaching anddevelopment platform for
fairway. What you know for ourlisteners, like, what does that
look like? And it's a very highperforming organization. So what
is that effective coaching foryou, coaching your coaches you
know, and coaching others thatyou know you're you're looking
to kind of help along the way.
Unknown (13:27):
So I'm sorry, but like the question, I'm not sure what
the question was in there.
Erin Geiger (13:32):
So what is effective coaching look like in
such a high performingorganization?
Unknown (13:36):
Got it? Um, I would tell you that it's not one size
fits all. Active coaching for usis very different than it might
be. I mean, when we startedfairway Ignite, it was really
like, okay, many of us certainlynot me, right? Independently,
(13:58):
all of us together, hadexperienced different coaching
walks with different companies,a variety of them, and it was,
wow. What if we took all of thatcumulative knowledge and
investment of time and realdollars and said, Okay, what?
(14:19):
What are the best practices ofall of those things that we can
bring in internally to fairway,and then layer on top of that,
fairways, ways of doing thingsand the knowledge of how fairway
works. So we can help peoplescale way faster internally than
if they're operating withsomebody externally. And in
(14:41):
doing so, we crafted a bunch ofdifferent paths. Of course,
there are some core tenets interms of accountability and the
use of an app that we have thattracks activities and progress
and real metrics and those kindsof things that are the same for
all salespeople. But weearnestly believe that coaching
(15:05):
is a one on one on a one on onebasis. Is a one on one
relationship that we need tomake sure as a match. It's just
not like, Oh, hey, oh, Aaron,you want to get into coaching?
Okay? We're just going to putyou with XYZ person. We don't
know anything about you, wereally dig in and figure out
where does this person want togo? And I think that the
(15:27):
effectiveness of coaching, ifyou will, is really largely
dependent on that pairing beinga match and not putting people
with people that are too farahead of them or the wrong
personality profiles or thattype of thing. So we measure, of
course, numbers. I mean,everybody in a in a good
(15:51):
business setting, they should bemeasuring numbers. And those
that are inside our coachingversus those outside are
performing at two to one. So weknow that it works. But also I
think that if we were to belooking at measuring it, one of
those is, how active is thecommunity, and how are people
(16:11):
feeling about being a part ofthat community? And there's
constant sharing and abundantsharing going on inside this
community of 600 people that allday long, every day, seven days
a week, there's an email chainthat's going where people are
talking to each other. Now, noteverybody's working seven days a
(16:32):
week, but you know what loanoriginators are, and if there's
a challenge, a problem orwhatever, they'll toss something
out there. And on a Sunday,somebody, somebody's out there
working too that's replying tothem to help them out. And so I
think we measure success thatway too. Yeah.
Erin Geiger (16:49):
And as a leader, how do you support your coaches
as they're kind of growing intheir roles too
Unknown (16:55):
well a number of ways, we certainly offer monthly calls
for them, where they can comeand plug in and learn and grow.
And we bring different speakersfrom the outside in, because,
you know, you can't do anythingin a silo, in your own bubble.
You got to bring people in andget other voices. Or we go out
(17:15):
and learn and bring back stuffthat we've learned in monthly
calls. But we also require thatall of our coaches are being
coached by leader coaches. Soagain, that same kind of premise
that you know, if you're goingto put a salesperson or an
executive teammate or acorporate teammate with a coach,
(17:36):
we want to make sure they're acouple steps ahead. Same thing
from a coaching perspective, wehave grown coaches over the
years by putting them withpeople that have more experience
helping them through that theycan bounce those ideas off of
them. We have a system forreporting and challenges and
things like that that that onlycome to those of us that are on
(17:59):
the executive team to help themnavigate challenging situations.
I think it's a again, it's anall day, every day, just kind of
practice to be present andproviding opportunities to learn
and grow.
Erin Geiger (18:14):
That's great to hear. You know that you're not
like, hey, good luck.
Unknown (18:21):
I won't, I will tell you I nah, not something that we
ever would have subscribed to.
Hey, good luck. But I think thatalso, one of the things that's
important about, you know,fairway in general, is we do we
do things with speed. And sosometimes changes get made, or
things happen, and it's like,let's go, let's go. And you're
attaching cars to the trainwhile it's running down the
(18:42):
tracks, right? So I won't saythat we've, we've been perfect
in that over our 10 year inbuilding Ignite. But certainly
at this stage, those systems arethere. Yeah, well, it's valuable
Erin Geiger (18:58):
to hear, especially for listeners who are kind of
building their own processes.
For sure. Can we talk about wisediscovering wise women in Search
of Excellence? Yeah, love tohear more about that, about
that, that launch, yeah, tellus. Tell us more about that.
Because I'm fascinated.
Unknown (19:14):
You know, I look over at my, my dry erase board over
there, because I've got, I'vegot the book cover pinned to the
board over there, and we are 19days right now prior to launch
of pre sale of the book that hasbeen a 10 year long project.
Aaron not it at the end of atthe end of it, when I was
(19:41):
entirely finished, called, wejust had our videographer down
here, and we were talking aboutthings, and I said, you know,
the reality is, there are somethings that you just are nudged,
that you know you need tofinish, but they're
uncomfortable or imposter.
Syndrome. I mean, anybody who isworking on accomplishing
(20:03):
anything is going to deal withimposter syndrome from time to
time, right? That voice insideyour head that's like, why are
you doing this? Who are you thatyou should write a book? What is
that about? What you know,whatever? And those voices
needed to be quieted. And I'mgrateful that I had people
around me that continued tonudge me over the last 10 years.
(20:24):
But discovering wise isdiscovering Women In Search of
Excellence, and it's a 52 weekguided journey to discovering
what excellence means to you,and as a coach, as a leader, as
a mother, my my heart is inthat, and specifically with
(20:45):
women, I think that we getreally wrapped up in what the
world want, the box the worldwants to put us in. And this is
what success looks like, andthis is what excellence looks
like, and this is what youshould look like. And we need
more and more women out therewho are championing other women
(21:05):
to say, You know what? No, whatdoes success look like for you?
What does excellence look likefor you? And so that's what,
that's what this book was allabout. It's honestly a
compilation of a lot of women'sstories. It is certainly not
just my own, although mine arewoven in throughout, because how
(21:28):
could they not be? But I did apodcast for a couple of years,
discovering wise podcast, and Itook 19 of those interviews and
those stories, and wove theminto the into the journey as
well. So, you know, my, mygreatest hope inside that is
that women would read that bookand walk in that journey.
(21:54):
Because I don't, it's not apower read Aaron like, nobody's
gonna be like, let me just readthis all. And, oh, okay, there
are reflection questions forevery segment, and it's meant to
be walked with over a period oftime. And and my greatest hope
would be that somebody out therereads it and says, I get like I
(22:16):
am enough. I can this. I canstep beyond this. I don't need
to be stuck in this way. Or, youknow, like we talked about with
regard to the journey frommortgage into coaching and back
again. You know, wherever theyare in this season is okay, and
(22:39):
you can be excellent in it, andit's going to change. So keep
growing. Yeah, now that's
Erin Geiger (22:47):
beautiful. I think so many of us, you know,
especially as women, need tohear that, and almost, you know,
be given that permission to, youknow, and I love that you have
reflection questions throughout,because that kind of forces you,
the reader, to take stock, like,Wait a second. I'm not just
gonna, like, blow through thisbook and like, oh, have these
(23:09):
thoughts, and then they are outof my head as soon as they enter
that, you know? So I love thatrespect of it being more
intentional,
Unknown (23:17):
right? Yeah, well, I'm also a margin writer, I don't
know. So I think that I get abook, and I have a number of
them behind me here. You know,if you were to open a book that
I've read, you will find thatthere are notes in the margin
about things, or I highlight orcircle things or whatever.
Nobody wants to borrow a bookfrom me after I've read it. So
(23:37):
in authoring a book, I'm like,Okay, we better leave space for
this. There better be room forpeople to write in this book,
because that's what it's meantfor,
Erin Geiger (23:47):
is live with it, yeah, and it makes it more
personal. So as as the reader isgoing through it, you know, she
can form these kind of thesethoughts and just be set with
intention of like, Okay, whatdoes this, you know, passage
mean to me? What does thislesson or guidance within this
(24:08):
segment of the book? How can I,you know, translate that to my
life and where I've been andwhere I've where I'm headed? So
I think that's really important.
So yeah, when is it on preorder? Or tell us the
information about that, aboutthe
Unknown (24:23):
book? So, Aaron, it is my 50th birthday on September
30, and we, the publisher and Iagreed that would be a great day
to launch pre sale for thisbook. So we are counting down
the days. And September 30,it'll be, it'll be available for
(24:46):
pre order, and then it should bewithin 30 days. I mean, we're,
we're pretty wrapped up in theproject, but it's exciting to do
that on the
Erin Geiger (24:55):
50th. Very exciting. Okay, well, we will
include all that information inthe. The show notes for sure.
Let's jump gears a little bit.
So I do want to talk about likeyou're an army mom. You're an
advocate for veterans, firstresponders, as am I just
incredible, incredible people.
How? You know, this podcast isall about kind of, like,
(25:18):
leadership, and, you know,leaning into your own flavor of
leadership. And as youmentioned, sort of like, what
does success look like to thatperson, individually. So how did
that kind of role, you know,Army mom as advocate, kind of
influence your leadership andperspective, and maybe vice
(25:38):
versa. You know, maybe yourleadership also impacted that
role. So talk a little bit aboutthat.
Unknown (25:44):
Oh, wow. Well, I mean, number one, I would tell you
that I was, I have beendivorced. I was army wife prior
to being an army mom, and my exhusband was deployed for almost
three full years out of thefirst five years of our son's
(26:07):
life, and so that, I think verymuch influenced my view of the
military, right and being amilitary spouse, I also have
four brothers who served in themilitary, and uncles. And back
to my grandmother was one of thefirst female Marines. So, you
(26:32):
know, there's a long familyhistory of service, and in terms
of, you know, how it'sinfluenced me, or where that I
mean, I think naturally it wasin me, but I don't think until
my brother, I know exactly whereI was. I was in I was in my
sophomore year in high school,and we were sitting in history
(26:52):
class, and they rolled in a cartwith the TV on it, because
that's what they had to do backthen. And they were showing
vivid imagery of Desert Storm,and my brother was serving there
as a Marine, and I remember thatmoment being one that shifted my
perspective, because, of course,I loved my brother, and I was
(27:16):
worried about my brother, andback in those days, they didn't
have WhatsApp and all theseother ways to communicate with
us while they were ondeployments, you literally would
sit by the phone and wait, youknow, the phone would ring at
midnight and you're picking upthe phone. And so I think that
you know being a mother is aleadership role too. I'm just
gonna shout that out. There aremoms out there being a mom of
(27:40):
leadership role, people arewatching you little. People are
watching you every day. And Ithink navigating deployments in
that way certainly taught me howto lead differently. And then my
son becoming the military thatwas he was 17, he always wanted
(28:01):
to be like his dad, right? Imean, forever, since he was
tiny, tiny, and we have apicture of him at Halloween, I
think he was four, and I hadsewn on his name onto a little
army uniform and put the patchon the sleeve. And, you know,
he's, I'm joining the armyforever. My brother just said,
tried to convince him to join adifferent branch, but at 17, he
(28:24):
was like, I want to go. I wantto join the army. And I said,
Great, let's, you'll be 18 nextSeptember. Let's Yeah, no. And
so we had to sign on the dottedline for him to join. And this
is a kid who, Aaron, he had afull ride scholarship to college
(28:48):
football academics, the whole,you know, like he was going to
college. And I was like, Well,what about school, right? Like,
what are we doing here? That's abig number, and I can still go
to school. I'm gonna do thecollege first thing, whatever.
Well, of course, like, a yearlater, his unit was being
(29:10):
deployed, and he opted to deploywith them because he had a
choice. He didn't have to go.
Was like, This is what I need todo now. This was a decade ago,
the same time fairway, possiblya little little longer ago than
that fairway started a nonprofitarm called the American warrior
(29:33):
initiative, and the purpose wasto bridge the military and
civilian divide and make surethat civilians understood what
life in the military was like,so that they could better serve
those who served. And that hasevolved certainly over the last
11 years. That being said when Iremember distinctly one of the.
(29:58):
Leaders of the American warriorinitiative at the time had come
to me and said, But Aren't youproud, Carrie? And I was like,
Yeah, I'm proud, but I'm alsoscared out of my mind. Yeah? So
like, you can be both at thesame time.
It's not this whole you know,you can't be angry and grateful
(30:20):
at the same time saying no, no,friends, you can hold two
opposing emotions aboutsomething, and they can both be
true. I could be tremendouslyproud of him for living out his
calling, which I believe it is,and also afraid of him going off
(30:40):
and being deployed. I mean, hewas 18 years old baby. So any of
us would look at 18 year oldstoday, and now he might be a
little bit more advanced, butyou know, it's in terms of
leadership and how that tiedtogether. I mean, if you think
about that, one of that that isthose two opposing truths. You
(31:02):
can feel two different things ortwo different things can be true
at the same time. And I thinkthat's an important leadership
thing to remember. People canfeel two totally different
things and they can both be truealso. We have seven kids, and
him being him making thatdecision to to go be deployed
(31:28):
versus staying in school. Youknow, not every path looks the
same for everybody from aleadership perspective, kind of
back to that same conversationwe were having about the core
ideology that not every singleperson needs the same type of
coach or the same type ofleadership. They need different
(31:49):
things. And it taught me thatit's also taught me patience,
both both operating and as a asa mother with a ex who was
deployed a whole lot, and as amother going through deployments
with their child, I think thatit teaches you patience. It
(32:13):
teaches that nothing like beinginvolved with the military to
also teach you that everything'sunpredictable. I mean, it's
stuck thrown at you, and you'relike, whatever. Roll with it.
We'll just have Thanksgiving onanother day. You know?
Erin Geiger (32:30):
Yeah, it's like, fine, yeah, I know that's a good
point, though, you've kind of,like, learned, like, how to deal
with ambiguity and releasecontrol, because you don't have
control over all these things.
And when you mentioned, youknow, feeling to kind of like,
you know, emotions that are atodds with each other at the same
time, that reminded me of, on asmaller scale, like I was
(32:52):
mentioning to you before westarted recording, that my
oldest went off to universitythis fall, you know, as a
freshman, and so and I had thatsame thing on a, you know,
smaller scale than my childgoing off to the military, but,
you know, just so happy andexcited and proud of him for
taking this step and movingforward. And he was so excited
(33:14):
he was ready, but at the sametime feeling grief, almost, of
like, oh, that part of my lifeis now ended, you know, of our,
you know, day to day with him,and feeling kind of sad and, you
know, that sort of a thing. Andso it's, it's so I totally
understand when you say that.
What you mean for sure, youknow, female leadership is so, I
(33:37):
mean, look, I can't, I don'tknow what it's like to be a male
leader, because I'm not one, soI can't do that. I mean, that's
why I wrote a book for women,because, like, while I certainly
coach men and women alike, I canspeak to being a woman and
leading as a woman and theemotions, etc.
Unknown (33:55):
But at the end of the day, I think that oftentimes we
are taught and or we are led tobelieve that we shouldn't feel
all of those things. And it'slike not, it's totally okay feel
all those things, and they'reall very real, and you're not
going to stay stuck in them. AndI just might speak into you
(34:15):
Aaron, and say, like, so beenthere too with five of five kids
leaving the nest and going offand doing their own things, and
they all come with differentemotions, and they'll the
relationships change, but theyalso grow in so many other
beautiful ways that there areother mothers out there that are
(34:37):
feeling some of that In thisseason, you know, it, there's,
there's a lot of hope for thefuture. There's beautiful to
come.
Erin Geiger (34:46):
Yeah, that's very true. And looking at it as more
of like an evolution, you know,rather than an ending, it's, you
know, it's constantly evolving,and kind of like new norms, you
know, which is a it's a greatway to. To think about it
Unknown (35:02):
business too. I mean, really the same thing and I are.
The dedication of my book is tomy children, because I think
they taught me more thananything else has ever taught
me. But in terms of leadership,it's that same thing in
business, right? Stuff doesn'tstay the same. Things change
right now. We're in a world ofAI and you know, the world is
(35:26):
changing again, and we'reneeding to figure out how to
grow with it. So what are youdoing differently? We should be
constantly challenging ourselvesin that way, like, how am I
thinking about this? And do Ihave, you know, stuck solid
mindset type thinking. Or do Ihave a growth mindset about this
and what I get to do and how Ican explore possibilities that a
(35:52):
lot of us get stuck in just thatconcrete way I've always done
it, or things need to be thisway, and breaking free of that
is a beautiful, beautiful thing,right?
Erin Geiger (36:04):
And the whole mentality of like, well, I
should be doing this, or Ishould be this far ahead by now,
or I should all those shoulds.
It's like, according to what, do
Unknown (36:17):
not stop it. Wait.
Erin Geiger (36:22):
So if you So, there's a lot of like I was
telling you earlier, before therecording. You know, the
listeners run the gamut, right?
There's some, you know,predominantly women, let's you
know if this is what it is. Butlike so, some are like, starting
out their careers. Some are moreseasoned. You know, everyone's
in different stages. But forwomen that are building their
careers in male dominatedindustries, do you have like a
(36:44):
piece of advice or some insightto sort of to share with with
them? For those that are dealingwith that,
Unknown (37:00):
when I think about operating in a male dominated
field, that certainly is. Wasthe case for me when I started.
It still is the case today. I'mso grateful to work at a place
that empowers women the way thatfairway empowers women, I have
to tell you, I mean our ournumbers associated with that are
like over half of our executiveteam is female, half of our
(37:24):
management. You know, when youlook at leadership across
fairway, I am grateful that thatI get to serve in a very mixed
culture that way, and one thatsupports women. Our industry is
still very largely maledominated from a leadership
perspective, and it's been thatway since I started. And I can
remember my first board positionwithin the our local MBA, and
(37:51):
walking in the room and beingthe only woman around the table.
And then I remember there beinganother woman added, and it was
just the two of us and and Ican, I can remember multiple of
those situations in my in my 30years, what I would say is now
reflecting back right, be you,and I know that sounds really
(38:15):
super simple, and it's it's Notyou'll be challenged to try and
be something that you're not.
Don't go beat the guy in theroom, right? Like, don't go take
down your softer side if youhave one or your ideas that may
be entirely different, becausethat's where your value actually
(38:36):
is, is in being you and inbringing your ideas and your
perspective to the table,because we think differently.
Men and women just thinkdifferently. We process things
differently. I mean, it's beenproven over and over and over
again, so if you try to tonethat down because you want to
(38:56):
fit in with a within the maledominated world, then you
probably aren't going to succeedat the level that you could,
because you're dimming yournatural light. And anytime we do
that, it creates more frictionthan it does flow, right? That's
my gut reaction to that.
Erin Geiger (39:20):
Yeah, I agree. And it's like your level of being
genuine is out the window. Andit's like, if you're not genuine
and you don't have that level ofintegrity, it's kind of
everything kind of falls to thewayside.
Unknown (39:35):
Look, I've been accused a time or two of being very
direct, very forward, you know,what have you I am. That's just
how I was wired. And I know in alot of those circles, you know,
it gets said that, hey, you knowyou're going to get called names
as a woman if that's how youbehave, right? And on the other
(39:56):
side, it's like, oh yeah, you'reassertive. Well. All you know.
So I'm just saying, if you're adirect communicator, be a direct
communicator, right? I mean,don't, don't go, oh, I can't be
that way, because we're nevergoing to break down barriers if
we just put up walls and pretendfor people, right?
Erin Geiger (40:17):
In fact, we'll probably regret, you know? So
that's very, very valid pointwhen you think about how you
thrive outside of work. Right,your life outside of that? Do
you have any like, nonnegotiables that you have, like,
outside of work, I am this, or Ido this, or I don't do this, you
know, like, what are therethings that kind of you you live
(40:38):
by bear at, kind of likeboundaries that you set, or
things that kind of help youshape your mindset and kind of
keep you grounded.
Unknown (40:47):
Well, I already mentioned to you that I am a
woman of faith, so that is avery important part of my life
that is a non negotiable for mepersonally. Again, I am, I, I am
open arms about everybody withdifferent beliefs and what have
you, but that is something thatevery day keeps me grounded in
who I am and whose I am andwhere it is that I'm going and
(41:11):
what I'm doing on a daily basis.
Period The second would be myhusband. We're about to
celebrate 22 years of here onSaturday, and he's my number one
here, like I there will be timefor him every single day period,
end of story. That is a nonnegotiable. And and we make
(41:33):
decisions together, we areunified and lockstep in those
decisions. And I think, well, Iknow, I know it darn well that
he's my biggest fan, but alsoI'm his, so that being unified
with him is super important. Andthen, you know, making space and
time for yourself, whatever thatlooks like, and it looks
(41:56):
different for me on the daily. Imean, there are some things.
There are morning practices thatI practice every single morning.
I believe that a morningpractice that includes some sort
of gratitude, some sort of sweatand some sort of thinking,
meditative behavior, is vital tomy success in my day. But
(42:16):
everybody could look different,right? Whatever is most
important to you. Some days Ifind that walking. Some days I
find that in the sauna, somedays I find that in the bathtub,
like really depends on the day,but those are probably the top,
top ones.
Erin Geiger (42:37):
Okay, no, I love that little bit of sweat, bit of
meditation. I getting all
Unknown (42:45):
those good chemicals going in your brain right before
you even
Erin Geiger (42:49):
start your day. So, yeah, yeah, I totally agree. And
you know, as far as, like, theworking out aspect, there's days
I don't feel like doing it, butI do it, and I always feel great
afterward, you know, just movingyour body and sweating it all
out for sure. What, where canpeople find you? If they like to
connect with you? What's thebest way to do that?
Unknown (43:11):
I am on every social platform as Carrie Guerrero so
they can find me there, andthat's the best way to find me,
whether it be on Facebook,Insta, LinkedIn, Tiktok, X,
whatever, I'm out there.
Erin Geiger (43:27):
Okay, great. We'll put those links in the show
notes as well. And then here's afinal, just fun question I like
to ask everybody I asked it inmy previous podcast series as
well. But we're such music headsover here, if they're if you
could only listen to one musicartist for the rest of your
life,
Unknown (43:50):
that's really hard. I love a lot of them. Oh,
goodness, I would tell you thatright now I am like consistently
playing Brandon lake on loop, sothat's really my and that goes
right along with that wholegratitude thing. That's probably
my favorite song by him, sowe're gonna go with Brandon
(44:13):
Lake.
Erin Geiger (44:14):
Okay, awesome.
Hello. I love it. Also, checkhim out. So Carrie, so thank you
so much for joining. This hasbeen such an illuminating
discussion, and I know thatyou've inspired and helped so
many that will be tuning in. Sojust thank you again for your
time. You're juggling so many,so many of the things. So I
really do appreciate I amgrateful for you. So I
appreciate it well, likewise,
Unknown (44:36):
grateful for you, and again, honored to be here with
you.
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