June 6, 2025 • 50 mins
What if you could accomplish 15 hours of work in just 8 hours? According to mortgage industry veteran Todd Scrima, this isn't just possible—it's essential for survival in today's rapidly evolving business landscape.
With 30 years at the helm of Summit Funding and a track record of coaching over 5,000 professionals, Todd brings a unique perspective on productivity that challenges conventional wisdom. He dismisses the myth that highly productive people have everything perfectly figured out. Rather, he describes high achievement as "more controlled chaos" where results accelerate but complexity remains—you're simply moving your boat downriver faster.
Todd traces his productivity obsession back to college when he balanced a full-time sales job with a heavy course load, forcing him to maximize every spare moment. This early discipline shaped his approach to business: work intensely to build knowledge capital early, then strategically leverage that foundation later. The podcast explores how this philosophy translates into practical strategies like combining activities (walking meetings that accomplish exercise, relationship-building, and business simultaneously) and strategic delegation.
Perhaps most compelling is Todd's insight into the evolution of professional value. He outlines three distinct eras: the pressure sales of the 70s-80s, the consultative approach of the 90s-2000s, and today's strategy-focused era. This progression mirrors broader industry transformations, with Todd revealing his current work with engineers developing complete automation of the loan process. His message is clear—professionals must elevate their thinking from task execution to strategic problem-solving to stay relevant.
The conversation offers practical tactics for this transition, from leveraging overseas virtual assistants to adopting "helicopter thinking" that provides a thousand-foot view of your business. Throughout, Todd emphasizes that discomfort and risk-taking are not just inevitable but essential components of growth.
Ready to transform your approach to time and productivity? Listen now and discover how to work smarter, not just harder, in a world where strategic thinking trumps mere execution every time.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chad Trease (00:00):
If getting 15 hours worth of work done in eight
hours or less would be appealingto you that's probably
everybody.
You are definitely going towant to listen to this episode.
This is the Secret SaucePodcast with Chad Trease and
Lacey Moores, where we want tohelp people build big businesses
and live big lives, and wethink that there's not a magic
(00:21):
bullet for doing that, but thereis a secret sauce.
So a lot of these are going tobe just the ingredients that can
help you make up a secret sauceto build a big business and
live a big life.
Let's get into it.
Welcome back everybody to thesecret sauce podcast.
I'm Chad Treese here, as alwayswith the lovely Lacey Moores,
and we got a special guest.
(00:42):
This is one I'm super, superexcited.
I know, lacey, you are too, metoo, all the way from Sacramento
, california, legendary in ourindustry, todd Scrima.
Thanks you guys.
Yeah, definitely Thank you forbeing here, todd.
Yes, we're going to film acouple episodes.
It'll be a part one, part twoprobably, of this with Todd.
We're going to use every secondof our time with him while we
(01:02):
got him.
Todd is the owner, founder ofSummit Funding, also the founder
of the Core coaching right.
What is he?
I mean, you did found, you'restill the founder either way,
and he's just focused on more onthe mortgage side of things now
, but definitely huge in thecoaching space, and if you've
(01:23):
been around mortgages or realestate for any amount of time, I
would imagine you probably knowTodd's name.
Lacey Moores (01:29):
Todd, how many people have you coached over
your-.
Todd Scrima (01:31):
Over 5,000.
Yeah, crazy Over 5,000 people.
Over 24 years.
Lacey Moores (01:36):
Yeah, realtors, lenders, and you coach a bunch
of business owners as well,correct, business owners as well
, correct?
Todd Scrima (01:49):
Yes, you know, business is business and there's
specific industries that youknow have their nuances, but a
lot of it, probably 90% of it'sthe same.
Lacey Moores (01:53):
Yeah, absolutely.
I met Todd 10 years ago and youhave had just an unbelievable
impact on my life and what Iwill tell you guys when you hear
him.
It's a different level ofthinking and there's so much to
learn.
So I just say we like let'sjust jump into it.
Chad Trease (02:12):
I will say this real quick, not that we need to
probably go too much furtherinto this intro, but I think
it's worth saying that Toddactually has there's not a lot
of owners of mortgage companiesI feel like that have actually
done the loan officer role right, that have been in the trenches
and like that's how you gotyour start I mean you were even
assisting to begin with like gotin right, got into, uh.
(02:34):
So I mean he started from thebottom to the top and I think
that's worth noting because, uh,there's a lot of owners out
there.
Like you know, the president ofour last company never written
a loan or even thought aboutwriting a loan.
I just never thought that Icould go to him with any type of
mentorship type of question.
So very, very qualified and Ithink that's worth noting.
Lacey Moores (02:56):
And Summit's been how many years now?
Todd Scrima (02:58):
We'll be celebrating 30 years in June of
2025.
Lacey Moores (03:05):
And one of the longest standing mortgage.
Todd Scrima (03:09):
I did the math one day and just looked up all the
companies and we were the eightholdest in the country, which I
don't think.
I guess it's like dog years inmortgage.
You last 30 years, you're likean old dog.
30 years, you're like an olddog.
Yeah, uh, you.
You've seen a couple things,because they tend to like be in
business for five years or 10years and go out of business or
(03:30):
sell or merge or so was neverour path, but yeah, it's been a
long time huge accomplishment,though I definitely hard.
I didn't know that I'm learningI'm happy to say I still look
young people are like man.
Is he 70 years old?
Chad Trease (03:44):
well, let's talk about our topic here, right,
because we're uh gonna dive intothe actual details, what we
want to talk about today.
But, todd, um we've we zeroedin on two different topics.
The first one, um getting asmuch done in as little time as
possible.
I struggle big time with time.
I know most every realtor thatI talk to everybody that I coach
(04:06):
.
Time management is just, it'san issue.
Lacey Moores (04:11):
It's an issue and it's something we're always
working on, right Like you haveto continually yeah.
Todd Scrima (04:16):
First of all, I would say on this topic there is
maybe a persona out there thatif someone's really good at time
management, project management,delegation, that they just have
it all figured out.
And that's probably the biggestthing that people don't realize
(04:38):
is, if you really dig into it,it's still chaotic.
Dig into it, it's still chaotic, right?
I don't know how many likeprojects or things that I'm
overseeing right now, but I wasdriving up here and I was on the
phone with one exec and wetalked about eight different
projects, major major projects,right.
So some of them are on timeline, some are off timeline, some's
not working, some's are workinggreat, and so it's never.
(05:03):
It's never.
It's the same amount of chaoswhen you get a lot of stuff done
as when you don't get a lot ofstuff done.
I think the stress is lessbecause you feel more productive
.
You see that the boat is goingdownriver a little faster.
That's how I think about it,but it's no.
I just think there's a personathat people are like well, if
someone's super organized, theyjust have it all together and
(05:25):
you know that's and that's notreally what we're talking about.
We're talking about getting moreresults period.
Chad Trease (05:30):
It's just more controlled chaos.
Yes, right, if you're producingat a high level, it's going to
be chaotic.
Todd Scrima (05:36):
Yeah, on the way up here.
Horrible situation where thisoutside company is in charge of
this huge project and just gotdiagnosed with terminal cancer.
So you know there's a bunch ofmoving parts and legalities and
stuff that we got to climbthrough to figure it out.
(05:59):
So those things, those thingshappen.
I got kind of addicted to thiswhen I was going to college.
So I had this period where Iran a company for my father and
I was going back and forth everyweek, three-hour drive each way
, to manage this company andfinally I'm like Dad, we've got
(06:21):
to sell this company.
We increased sales the lastfive years by 10x and it still
doesn't make that much money.
And I got to finish college Iwas killing myself so we sold it
to a competitor.
During that sale, the guy whoran this big company, fortune
500 company, the division thatwe sold to and he said, hey, why
(06:42):
don't you come work for us?
I said, well, you have like 40salespeople working out of this
division and it's a full timejob.
I'm going to college.
He says, yeah, but you kickedour ass so bad up there.
I know you can sell, so justsell down here right in
Sacramento.
So I was big time like I got acompany car, I had the big brick
cell phone and they just saidhey, we're going to give you so
(07:06):
many accounts to see each dayand your real job is to pick up
new accounts.
So I'd just drive around andcold call people that weren't on
my list and I picked up twoprisons and they sold.
They sold products, they soldbasically groceries.
So I was taking 12 to 17 unitsin college and I had a full-time
(07:34):
job.
It wasn't like 20 hours a week,it was a full-time job and so I
had a break, a one-hour break.
So I'd say my first class wasalways at 8 o'clock on Monday,
wednesday, friday, and I'd havethree, four classes in a row and
(07:54):
I'd have a one-hour break.
So during that one hour wheremost kids were lollygagging, I
went straight to the library,into one of those cubicles to
get my work done, because Iwasn't getting home until 8
o'clock that night.
You know, because I had to go towork right afterwards and I
learned a few things goingthrough that and I worked that
way for three years before Igraduated and A it was really
(08:20):
fun making money right wheneveryone else was plum broke.
Sure, was really fun makingmoney right when everyone else
was plum broke, sure, um, backthen this is 30 something years
ago, but I was making about mylast w2 was 62 000, which is, I
don't know, maybe equivalent to100 000 today or something like
that.
Um, so I'm big mac daddy, rightin college, yeah, yeah it was
fun to, to make money and thenand then I had to get through
(08:42):
college, which I did with a,basically a, b plus kind of
average, but I had very littletime.
So where most people say, ah,you know, we'll study, we'll
lollygag, study for six hours,we'll kind of drink a beer,
study a little bit drink, youknow that kind of study and I'm
like I had one hour experience.
Yeah, I had one hour to studyfor that test, or two hours and
(09:05):
I had to get it done good, andso that's that's a lot of where
that started.
With me as I was, I didn't tome, I didn't have a choice
because I didn't want to take onstudent loans and I wanted to
get through college and that wasmy way of doing.
I didn't didn't.
It wasn't like you know, thesekids at 529 plans and dad's
(09:25):
paying for your college and youcan just lollygag and drink beer
, it just it was a differentexperience.
So after I then I got done withcollege, I was between work and
college.
I was already used to 60,70-hour work weeks, to 60, 70
(09:49):
hour work weeks, so to start inthe mortgage business, which I
did right after graduation.
Chad Trease (09:52):
I thought it was just a piece of cake to get
started but I just worked a lot.
Todd Scrima (09:57):
My dad told me years ago he says, son, and you
know these one-off conversationsyou have with maybe your
parents or a mentor and itshifts you and I was probably 16
or something.
He says, son, if I were you, Iwould get out of college and I
would just work for like 10years and not get married and
(10:19):
put my all into really becominga top one percenter in your
field and do that delayedgratification and then when
you're 30, 32, 33, get marriedand have kids and you can
probably work a 40-hour workweek.
And I, just because my dad saidit, that's what I did and I
just worked 70 hours a week andfirst 10 years 70 hours a week
(10:48):
and first 10 years and you know,and in the, in the hopes of
like stacking the chips notnecessarily money chips, but
knowledge chips so that you gotto a point to where, yeah, when
you wanted to work a normal workweek, you could do that and
still maintain your income andgrow it.
Chad Trease (11:01):
So so is that your first piece of advice to get
that much done in a littleamount of time is delay getting
married for 10 years and justgrind.
Todd Scrima (11:09):
I don't think that's for everybody, but it is
a strategy.
It's no different than like wemay tell a first time home buyer
hey, why don't you buy a duplex?
Exactly, Live in one side, putthree and a half percent down on
an FHA loan, rent the otherside a year or two later, rent
them both.
Right.
Because it's more leverage.
It's more upfront leverage andI don't think a lot of people
(11:31):
get that with money or with work.
But when you look at peoplethat have done a lot of things,
they almost always did it thatway.
There's not many people likewin a lottery or get a big
contract or go to the NBA, likeyou hear those stories.
They're one in 2 million, right.
Most people who most peoplelook up to as a business person
(11:53):
for this podcast, you know theyjust put in a lot of reps.
Chad Trease (11:57):
So well, the delayed gratification piece, I
think is huge too.
Like Gary V talks about it allthe time, it's like people are
complaining.
They're in their 20s andthey're complaining that they
haven't made it yet or theircompany hasn't got off the
ground, and he's like you arejust getting started or they're
having to work too hard, or yeah.
All those things, yeah I haven'ttaken a vacation or whatever
it's like.
This is the time where you'regonna grind it out and like
(12:21):
you're putting in the work nowso you can really enjoy life
later, and that you're notpushing it all to the end,
because that would be terrible,right, but like those first few
years, you're building like thefoundation there's a balance to
it all and I still went onvacations and I still had fun in
my mind, but it was not a lazylife at all.
Todd Scrima (12:41):
Yep and uh and I would say by and large, you know
it's for's, for me it's notappealing.
Like you know, I'm up herepartially on vacation, for my
girlfriend's family lives acouple hours from here and
there's only so much layingaround.
I watched the Masters for likeseven hours straight and after
that was done I told them all.
I said that's the only time ayear you'll see me stuck to the
(13:03):
television for seven hours LikeI just don't do it.
But Master Sunday I had.
You know that's my thing, so Ienjoy that.
So you do those things.
But so I think some of it isdiscriminating what really
brings you joy and what doesn't,and I think a lot of people
spend a lot of time on thingsthat don't bring them joy and
they they're trying to look forjoy, so they spread it around a
(13:25):
lot.
Just pick a couple things thatyou really enjoy in your free
time and do that well, you findjoy in your work too, though,
right like so.
Chad Trease (13:34):
I think that's a that's definitely a good point
for people is uh, there'scertain things that you're
probably doing on a daily basisthat you're spending a whole lot
of time in that you don't enjoydoing not you, but in general,
right, um, that would be a bigpiece of this is like try to get
somebody else to do thosethings right.
Focus on the things that bringyou energy, that you're best at
(13:57):
and that you enjoy doing.
Is that fair, yeah?
Todd Scrima (13:59):
So we're talking about, you know, 2X, 10X, all
that stuff.
So some of those concepts areit's like, Lacey, you were
saying that we were coaching andhey, I started going on a walk
with four of my realtors and weget exercise instead of just go
to lunch so it's cheaper.
I got quality time with fourpeople uninterrupted yeah, you
(14:20):
know walks.
If you want to talk to your kids, take them on a walk, right,
because there's nothing to dobut talk.
Yep, right, you're gettingexercise.
So that'd be like a 3x maybe,and if people think about that,
it'll lead them to more leverageand more delegation, which are
the two levers that help peoplebe more productive.
And so the leverage piece isdoing things that you would do.
(14:46):
You're just combining them.
Give an example we're doingthis podcast so we're able to
sit down here for 20 minutes andmaybe, over the course of two
years, 1,000 people watch it orpart of it say half or more of
it.
Sure.
So if you start doing the mathon it I think 1,000 people spent
(15:07):
10 minutes watching this, sothat's 10,000 minutes.
And you do the math on it.
I think 1,000 people spent 10minutes watching this, so that's
10,000 minutes.
And you do the math on thatYou're like well, I just helped,
got some attention from 1,000people.
And then maybe a year from nowyou call them, or maybe your
assistant calls and says, hey,chad, love to get to know you.
We've got this idea to help youmake money.
And they say yes, becausethey're like I remember that guy
(15:30):
Right, right, current stat.
That is interesting.
So first of all, let me giveyou a construct of how I think
about sales and influence, sothat I grew up in the 70s and
80s, so the 70s and 80s, I wouldsay most people would think
about that time period.
What's a word that comes tomind if you're in sales during
(15:51):
that time, in the 70s and 80s,70s and 80s?
Chad Trease (15:59):
I was born in 78, man I don't know what word comes
to mind yeah, I was born in 83.
Lacey Moores (16:02):
I wasn't thinking about sales in the 80s.
Todd Scrima (16:04):
So I would say that's more high pressure.
Lacey Moores (16:07):
Okay, high pressure sales.
Todd Scrima (16:10):
It's more, let's just call it pressure sale.
I don't like the word highpressure, but it was like, well,
do you want to buy it?
Here's what it does.
What do you think?
Do you want to buy it?
Right, that was kind of thatera.
Then you get into like the morethan 90s to maybe just a few
years ago, and that was more aconsultant.
You're more of a consultant,you're an advisor.
(16:35):
During this in our industry youhad Joe Stumpf come out with Buy
Referral Only, which was bigfor about 20 years.
You had Todd Duncan with hishigh trust selling.
That was specific to themortgage industry.
That would be an example, butthere's lots of examples in all
industries.
And so then you reach and again, I think it's just last three,
(16:59):
four years you reach a differentera and I call it strategy.
So, yes, there's some pressurebecause you got to close.
You don't close first anymore,but there's some of that,
there's some of all three.
The second one yes, you got tobe consultative, but the people
that are winning these days,they are more strategists.
(17:19):
If that makes sense, theyreally do solve some problem.
So I don't like using these bigexamples, but they do give
clues.
So Amazon, obviously one of thebiggest companies now in the
world and they solve the problemof time with products.
So, order something, getsomething.
(17:40):
You look at all chat, gpt andall the AI stuff and they're
making it faster.
For $20 a month we can getinformation faster, so instead
of surfing the web.
There's a lot of different uses, but how most people are using
it today is it's fasterinformation.
I don't have to search 20websites.
I ask chat, dbt or some versionof AI, and it gives me a fairly
(18:04):
quick answer that's mostlyaccurate.
So those are examples.
So where does that go to?
If you think about it, whetherit's real estate, whether it's
mortgage, whether it's almostany sort of industry, we're
being forced more into thatstrategic type of problem
solving because, if you look atcompanies, the ones that are
(18:28):
winning are doing that.
That's the one thing they havein common.
Does that make sense?
Yeah?
Definitely.
So then the obvious question iswell, todd, I don't have any
time for strategy because I'm sobusy working.
Okay, well, how can we lowerthat?
How can we delegate that?
How can we leverage that sothat we can spend more time into
(18:50):
that strategy role?
And that's the million-dollarquestion that people are
struggling with because theydon't.
When I talk to people, somepeople will get the strategy.
Give me an example.
I have a client in Dallas,texas that's in this marketing
company I have, and we found alist.
(19:12):
It took us about six months.
We found a list of the top 550investors in Dallas Texas that
own five or more properties andthey bought at least one last
year.
So then we called on thatperson's behalf and got him a
ton of appointments 27appointments in two weeks.
We actually just shut it offbecause he's like I can't go on
(19:32):
more appointments.
Sure.
He is now going to the realtorthe top producing realtors in
his market, some that he workswith already, some that he
doesn't and he's saying hey,I've got this list, we're
setting up appointments.
Do you want to work withinvestors?
They met up 23% of our market,and if you say yes and we start
(19:54):
doing business, I'm going totake you on these appointments
with me.
So now the loan officer isadding real value too, because
what the realtor wants is moredeals, right, they don't really
care where it comes from Ifthey're an investor and they're
going to buy multiple homes.
Some of these people own 50, 80homes, right?
(20:14):
So they're selling homes.
Sometimes they need to sell,sometimes they want to buy new
ones.
So now he's offering realstrategy, real value.
Then he is taking the realtorwith him.
The realtor's already sendinghim business, right, and he's
getting loans from the investor.
So, if you think about that,that's a good use of leverage
(20:37):
and he's using that strategictype.
Hey, I'm really solving aproblem for you, and this is not
done very often effectively inour business.
One-on-one with a client, arealtor will help someone.
Hey, my mom just died, we needto sell her house.
Okay, that's solving a problem.
A borrower comes in and you'relike hey, we're going to do this
(21:03):
two-one buy down on thisprogram to get you into this
house.
We're going to leverage the$10,000 down payment here's what
that looks like and wealthbuilding and tax savings in 10
years Like you're doing thatindividually.
But a lot of businesses don'tknow how to do it, business to
business and that's where ourbusiness struggles.
We just don't know how to do it.
Chad Trease (21:24):
You think realtors struggle Same same same way with
that.
So what would be in your mind?
What would be a not necessarily10x to 2x, but what would be a
good example of this with realestate?
Todd Scrima (21:38):
Well, so I've coached a lot of realtors and I
asked this on one of ourcoaching calls and a couple
people raised their hand.
But I've personally never seena realtor that specializes in
investors Like you think.
Well, that's kind of silly.
They make up over 20% of themarket.
Why not?
There's not a good answer.
They just never focused andsomeone just didn't focus on it.
(22:00):
One of the biggest realtors Iever coached this is 25 years
ago.
She's like, hey, if I can'tsell it, I'll buy it.
She'd close over 200transactions a year.
She bought at the time.
I coached her and we came upwith that marketing strategy to
get listings.
I think she had bought two infive years, something like that.
(22:26):
It was low.
Of course she's buying thembelow market because that's what
the fine print says.
But it was very effective.
But people are afraid to go outon those skinny branches and
say, hey, I'm really going toguarantee this.
And I think where peoplestruggle with this is they're
(22:46):
not creative enough, like if youjust think of someone's problem
and you come up with a realsolution that really works.
That's your answer.
If and if the then you just gotto find people with that
problem.
And and does it meanspecialization?
Yeah, sometimes, sometimes it'sjust saying things better like
(23:08):
it's.
It's not always some big fancything.
Matter of fact, it rarely issome big fancy thing.
If you look at that investorlist, it did take us a long time
to.
We basically had to buy threedifferent databases and merge
them and it was some technologyto it.
But you know we had a VA in thePhilippines do it all.
It took him maybe 200 hours ofwork, maybe it cost us $3,000 to
(23:33):
put that listing.
Now we have a list for thewhole United States, so it
wasn't just one area, we got itfor the entire country, and so
now I've got something of valuethat I can give my loan officers
and realtors that do businesswith us so that it's an
attractor and they're like hey,no one else is doing that.
That's pretty cool.
That's just an example.
Chad Trease (23:54):
And that's just.
Was you taking time to work onthe business long enough to be
creative?
Cause that's what I heard yousay, Like it's just being like
coming up with strategy.
You got to be creative and Ithink that as a population, just
as like a human race, likewe're definitely losing
creativity and we're stuck inthe details and and like, stuck
in the grind, stuck in the nineto five, like, oh, I've got to
(24:18):
get this task done, task doneand not taking time to like
dedicate to solving those biggerproblems, solving a problem
that nobody's even thought ofyeah right and having time on
your calendar to be created.
Todd Scrima (24:29):
Yes, it can be that that's more like elon musk
stuff.
But, um, but even on a muchsmaller scale, if you, if you
really think about it, say, okay, what are the problems that
people have and how can we helpthem with it in our field?
And so you start thinking thatway, like we.
We went through, uh, we have apackage where we can teach
(24:50):
someone how to hire VAs and I'lltell you this brief story
because it's one of my.
It may not sound great to you,but it's great to me because it
really worked in a big way.
So this other marketing companyI have it's called Jolt.
You guys know about it, but thelisteners probably don't.
(25:12):
So I just I got sick of peoplenot making enough sales calls,
so I'm like I'm gonna make salescalls for them and I'm gonna
charge them for it.
So that's basically what themarketing.
But we do all their socialmedia and all their emails and
target marketing.
There's a lot more to it, butbasically we're we're starting,
we're doing the front end salespiece for for the loan officer.
So um executive comes to methat runs that company about a
(25:35):
year and a half ago and he sawlook at, we got to hire these
three more positions.
And I said you hired thosethree more positions.
We're not even making money,we're losing money.
He said you're right, but weneed the positions.
I said, well, you're gonna haveto find vas overseas.
I just said it.
Chad Trease (25:52):
Like he says this is the introduction to you.
Hadn't used vas before this,that okay he's like well, I've
never done that.
Todd Scrima (25:58):
I said me neither.
He says but I need these threepositions.
I said well, you better learnit.
He says okay, point taken, andhe ends up hiring first va, her
name's daisy.
He calls, calls me about a weekafter she starts and he says I
got a problem.
He never, hardly ever, calls me.
We have a weekly call for anhour and a half and we cover all
this stuff.
So when he calls me I'm likethat's weird, I figured
(26:20):
something's wrong.
I said what's going on?
He said I got a problem.
I said what's the problem?
He says I can't give Daisyenough work.
I said what's the problem?
He says I can't give Daisyenough work.
I said it's only been four days.
He says the first day I gaveher two days worth of work, she
got it all done.
Next day, three days of work,she got it all done in one day.
Yesterday, I gave her four daysworth of work, she got it all
(26:43):
done in one day.
I don't know if she's got herkids helping her or what's going
on over there, but I can'tdelegate enough.
And she says please and thankyou.
Every time I talk to her, like10 times, and so you know, fast
forward.
We've now got over 30 of themand you know in the Philippines
what is equivalent to ourminimum wage.
(27:05):
Their minimum wage is $1.50 anhour.
So when they're paid $6, $7 anhour, that's like $130,000 a
year in the United States.
So they really want these jobs,right, and we're happy to pay
$1,500 to $2,000 a month to getcollege-educated people with
master's degrees to work on ourprojects, and so that was a real
(27:26):
breakthrough.
But we took that idea and we nowhave a whole package on doing
that for teaching realtors howto do that, because there's so
much stuff that they can do forthe realtor so that the realtor
could go from a couple deals amonth to four or five and also
do it at a very low cost of twogrand a month or less.
So that's another example ofvalue.
(27:48):
Now does that mean, you know,if you go to, say, a realtor
that's struggling to close 10deals a year, they're probably
not going to take you up on that.
But the one who's doing 30deals last year and working 70
hours a week and they're inenough pain, they'll say, hey,
the VA thing, can you come meetwith me on that, like I I'm
drowning over here, but I can'tafford an American assistant, I
(28:12):
don't make that amount of moneyto afford that, and so that's an
example of solving a problem.
Chad Trease (28:19):
And with that program you actually that's
amazing, by the way.
Lacey Moores (28:23):
Yes.
Chad Trease (28:23):
You actually tell them, like how to train the VAs
on what doing tasks, or is itlike you need to hire?
We're how to train the vas onwhat doing tasks, or is it like
you need, like hire, we're goingto hire the vas, and then you
have to figure out what problemthey're solving.
Todd Scrima (28:35):
Part of the training program, uh, is we tell
them, take every single thingyou want them to do.
You use, uh, you record a videoon you doing it, exactly like
answering emails.
Okay, hey, here's the threedifferent types of emails you're
gonna respond to.
(28:55):
Here's the time frame.
You so you're recordingyourself and you actually pull
up your emails and go through it.
I'll see that one that's junk.
See this one that's importantbecause they're on my VIP list.
I got to get back to thatperson you know and you, you
video short segments of how theycan learn, on how to transfer
that skill and do what you doand seek into your brain.
(29:17):
A lot of salespeople we're notreally good at details, project
management, follow through.
Those are all things that wenaturally struggle with, but if
you can record all that stuffonce, then you've got it in the
library that's huge that's sucha great tactic
yeah, it's such a great time,then if you want it documented
in writing, they will justsimply take that and turn it
(29:38):
into the main.
You'll have probably have aimanuscript it and put it into a
written process.
But they can do that, not youright?
Chad Trease (29:48):
well, it's, and that's just a good reminder.
I'm not trying to get off topicor task here, but it just makes
me think of like filming avideo for every single time
somebody asks you something thatis a repetitive question that
you get in your business.
How easy it would be.
Okay, I'm going to film thevideo instead of typing out that
email every time and explainingthat or having that
conversation is oh, that's agreat question.
(30:08):
I actually just filmed a videoabout that because it's a very
common question.
I'm going to send it your way.
It'll be in your inbox in twominutes or whatever.
And, like, you've alreadyprofessionally explained that
problem better than you probablycould on the spot, because you
took the time to detail it out.
Todd Scrima (30:22):
Yeah, you guys know Justin and our company, so he
helps oversee 38 loan officersand and we had this conversation
a couple weeks ago and he's nowactually documenting every
question he gets during hishour-long sales manager hat time
and doing a video response tothose questions, one by one,
every single time he answers it.
Chad Trease (30:42):
Just cataloging them.
Todd Scrima (30:43):
But in two months you'll have this library and
when people are asking you thatquestion, you'll simply just
text them the video, right?
So you're like Todd, thatsounds kind of mechanical, it
sounds kind of this, it's.
It's where we're headed, rightwith white-collar work, right?
I was listening to a dr Philpodcast of all things.
(31:04):
Someone sent me, and he was.
He was saying the same thing totruck drivers as I'm saying to
loan officers and realtors.
So stick with me just for asecond.
He's like hey, truck driversthere's, there's I think he said
the number, I think it was 1.6million truck drivers in america
.
He's like as soon as that getsfederally released, where the
(31:25):
computers can drive, the biggroups you're going to be out of
work, so you should be lookingright now.
You should be in another tradeschool.
That isn't going to becommoditized through AI, and so
he was given that advice.
The same advice I would give tomortgage lenders and realtors,
(31:47):
or any business person for thatmatter, is go to that next level
.
You're going to be forced to doit anyway.
I'm part of this think tankright now with a publicly traded
company and they have 100engineers right now working on
100% automation of the loanprocess.
I don't know if they can do it.
They hired me for the mortgagepart of it.
(32:10):
We just had our fourth meetinglast week.
It's a huge project, but theseguys go fast and they've
disrupted two other industries.
Could they do it with mortgage?
Yeah, someday.
Whether it's this company orsomeone else, they're going to
find out a way where it's more.
You know what a decision treeis.
(32:32):
So these decision trees thatwe're working on are so vast,
like just one would fill up an 8by 10 wall.
Just are you a veteran andwhere that leads right?
So massive decision trees, butyou have a hundred engineers
working on it, so it will getdone.
It's just a matter of takingwhat a normal consultant would
(32:54):
do, a loan officer, a realtorand decision treeing it.
Now that doesn't dismiss therelationship piece or the
emotional piece that a lot ofpeople still crave, and I crave,
and I'm not saying that's goingaway and I'm not here to spread
fear.
What I'm saying is that willnaturally push you towards a
higher being, more of astrategist.
(33:14):
Yeah, it's a disruption for sureyou look at financial planners.
If you really talk to high-endfinancial planners, one of my
financial planners that I usemanages 1.4 billion.
All he does is strategy All thewhere the money goes and what
it's invested in.
We talk about it once a monthand usually don't make any
(33:36):
changes.
The computer's doing just fine.
It's computer algorithms, it'snot them.
Oh, buy IBM, sell NVIDIA.
That may happen like six timesa year.
With me and my financialplanner we're going to outsmart
the computer.
(33:57):
But most of his time had justspent.
Hey, todd, he'll ask mequestions.
Todd, what's your life looklike in 20 years?
What do you want for your kids?
What are you doing to make thathappen today?
What if we record some of thisstuff?
You're in podcast.
Why don't we just record allthis stuff on teaching your kids
(34:17):
about all this stuff?
He's strategizing with me, right?
How do we save money on taxes?
Have you thought of doing this?
It's more of a strategyconversation, not picking stocks
.
The stock picking is done bythe computer now for the most
part 95%.
So that's an example.
Their industry is just furtherdown the road than ours.
(34:39):
So how does this translate?
Let's say you're a realtor andlet's say you've built a lot of
wealth because you have eightrentals and you've helped some
other clients accumulate rentals, just using that as an example.
And someone comes to them andthey're like, during their
(35:00):
presentation, during theirstrategy session, they're like,
hey, what is your goals forwealth building?
They're like, well, we'd loveto maybe own five rentals by the
time.
Have them all paid off by thetime we're 55.
Great, let's map that out.
Let's go there.
We'll just buy this one for now, but maybe every two years
(35:23):
let's buy another one, right?
And here's what the ROI needsto be.
Here's the cash on another one,right.
And here's what the ROI needsto be.
Here's the cash on cash return,right.
And you do all the math so thatwe start finding out what kind
of properties we're going to buy.
So that would be more of arealtor being a strategist than
well.
What do you want to sell yourhome for?
What do you think it'll sellfor?
I think it'll sell for this.
This one just sold down thestreet of this.
Hey, I think you need a newroof.
(35:46):
All those things still need tohappen, but but it can happen a
lot faster and you can spendmore time on the strategy as
we're being pushed more and morethat way.
So how does that play into?
2x, 10x, 3x?
You're?
You're going to have to bedoing those things so that you
have time to do the other things.
It's not just automation, it'snot just delegation.
(36:08):
It's a bunch of things crammedinto one so that you have an
extra 10 hours a week.
That's a way to think about it,and it's still hard for me
because I spend a lot of time onstrategy, but I still want to
get involved in some things andI constantly hold myself back,
like no, they got that project,you got the update, you know
(36:32):
they're doing, they're doing it,you know.
So I have to hold myself backbecause once I get involved then
I start to own it you want tosee it to the end yes, yeah, and
it's like that's speaking mylanguage.
Chad Trease (36:43):
Yeah, I'm looking at you.
Yeah, I'm like, can someonehave a problem for me to solve
today?
So I can get involved and feelgood about solving a problem
that I didn't need to solve.
Todd Scrima (36:51):
Yeah, yeah, I totally feel that I actually see
both of you as doing that.
I mean, when you look at it anda lot of your listeners, you
guys probably don't brag aboutthis stuff, but in the whole
country you two separate officesbut close to each other often
lead the company in units peremployee.
You often lead units per loanofficer.
(37:12):
You often lead in fastesttimeframe to close.
You often lead in least amountof conditions for on the loans,
meaning you're you're reallygood at getting all this stuff
up front because you know yourcraft.
So you know you're fortunatebecause you're really good at
what you can do.
A lot of times, like when we'veall coached together, you guys
(37:32):
do think more strategically thanmost people that are just like
I'm trying to close 14 files, Idon't have time for coaching or
going on a walk or date night,that's all crap.
Like I just got 14 loans right.
And it's different when I coachboth of you Like, okay, yeah, we
got 14 loans closing, but we'reworking on this project, the
(37:53):
project we worked on.
Lacey Moores (37:54):
Our last coaching call with Mike Black wrote down
all the different things that wecould delegate in our entire
business life and you starttaking remember we took 20
minutes for that and we're likewow, that's a lot, that's a lot
that someone else can do, thatwe're still doing yeah or things
that aren't being done butcould be now that we've been
(38:15):
thinking about it, yeah, and westarted getting into that zone
and masterminding and being inthat creative creativity place,
but I do think they're like chadand I just didn't walk into
that, like we've worked so hardfor so long to create and we
have amazing teams that are sogood, and so some people just
want all of that gratificationso fast and it doesn't happen
(38:39):
overnight Like we've had peopleon our teams for years and years
and years that we have pouredinto and trained and, man, we
are a really well-oiled machinenow, and now that's paying off
and now we get to be a lot morecreative.
Chad Trease (38:51):
And now we can do a podcast.
Now we can do a podcast andyeah.
Right, but it is.
I mean, it's a great example of2Xing right, because the
podcast we can have agents comeon talk about business.
We are giving back to toagencies by doing the podcast.
It could also be a recruitingtool for us for a loan officer
perspective.
So that's a three X right.
So, like this podcast actuallyto probably bring this thing to
(39:14):
fruition like full circle is.
The podcast in itself is a verygreat example of that which we
didn't.
I mean, we talked about it atthe beginning but I'd say like
there's been this intrinsicadditional like four X five X,
been this intrinsic additionallike 4x 5x, like now with the
roadshow piece that we'respinning off into it.
Todd Scrima (39:31):
That's like, oh, this can actually help us grow
this thing even more and itgives us energy and fills us up
and we can hand the loans off toour team to fulfill them yeah,
but if you look at it and thispodcast is a great example if we
really sit here and talk for 15minutes, you would find it's
probably at least a 10x, withall the different things,
offshoots of it.
And I mean some of your pastclients probably watch them
(39:53):
right.
Chad Trease (39:54):
Better business people.
Todd Scrima (39:55):
So there's a lot that happens with doing
something like this.
But what's different about thisis, I don't know six months ago
or whenever it was, and I'mlike, hey, you guys should do a
podcast and like the next monthyou were doing it right.
But you know how many people Italked to and they're like, yeah
, I should do write the book orI should develop that investor
(40:16):
offer, I should do this researchto come up with this way to
help people.
And it never goes anywhere.
And the problem with that is isthat things are moving so fast
and you're being pushed to thismore, not consultative, but more
it's like a strategist and theproblem is a lot of people are
(40:36):
so busy in their businessthey're not thinking of that
strategy Right and that's a missbecause of how fast things you
know it used to be in the pastand it still is.
We're like if you're a reallygood realtor, really good lender
, and you could just get to knowsome people really do a good
job for people and you'll make aliving and I don't think that's
(40:56):
going away.
But what is happening is thingsare moving much faster than
people realize.
And there's two kinds of peoplethat I see.
There's one that is like Idon't want to use chat to be, I
don't want to do that, I don'twant to look at that.
Oh, that competitor's doingthat.
That's their dumb, that won'twork right and they're sticking
(41:19):
their head in the sand and allI'm saying is you got to be a
little strategic.
Someone told me years ago.
One of my coaches said Todd,strategy is like being in a
helicopter and you go up athousand feet and you look down.
Chad Trease (41:33):
Yeah, bird's eye view.
Todd Scrima (41:39):
That's strategy, yeah.
Thousand foot view or whateveryeah, and that just was a
metaphor that always stuck withme.
So do I think I'm not here totell people the world's coming
to an end.
What I'm saying is that thingsare changing and if you embrace
it, there's a lot.
There's so few people thatembrace creativity or strategy
or want to go to the next levelof helping people.
It's just not that common.
Lacey Moores (41:59):
Well, let's talk about real fast why I naturally
don't go there.
I naturally don't think likethat and I don't know if that's
from being raised or or what,but just the power of an
unbelievable mentor in your life.
And we talk about havingmentors and who you are and who
you hang out with and why that'spiece is so important.
(42:20):
But, todd, over ourrelationship that I've known you
, you have spoken to me severaltimes, lacey, I could see you
doing this and I already heardit from the very beginning.
When your dad did it to you andgave you this is what I could
see you doing and you're likeokay, I can do that, and that is
so powerful.
It's so powerful and I'm sothankful, as I'm sitting here,
(42:42):
the amount of times you havetaken to do that with me,
because when you do that, I'mlike I can't do that, let's do
it.
Why can't I?
But I never saw it and I don'tknow if it's why I never saw it
because of constraints.
So I think that's normal and Ithink so many people don't,
because they don't have greatmentors in their life or people
(43:04):
in their life who do cast avision, have great mentors in
their life or people in theirlife who do cast a vision, and
I'm thankful for you for alwayscashing the vision and still
caring.
I mean, here we are taughtmortgage industry hasn't been
great, you know, over the lastcouple years, and you didn't
have to stick in it, and notonly have you stuck in it with
us, but you have constantlypushed us to challenge us to
grow and cast vision and how tolike.
(43:24):
It's's such an unbelievablething, so thank you for that.
Chad Trease (43:28):
Very, very inspiring.
Lacey Moores (43:29):
So inspiring.
But it I mean it comes veryfull circle to everything you
said.
And, guys, if you don't havepeople like that in your life,
find them.
And I mean you could probablytalk.
We could do a whole notherpodcast on the mentors in your
life that have got you where youare, but I'm super grateful to
have you as a mentor, mentor and, um, now, I'm not gonna lie,
(43:50):
there's times you say things andI'm like he's crazy, he's crazy
actually I was talking to.
Chad Trease (43:54):
Yeah, when you were coaching us on va at the
beginning, I was like man, Ican't even comprehend, trying to
think about how to train abunch of, a bunch of so it's
normal philippines, so you'reimmediate, like you're gonna
have doubts, like yes, it'snormal to think that or to think
this guy's nuts or all of this.
Lacey Moores (44:08):
And every single time on the drive here I was
talking to Carson about you andhow, every single time when I
would think you were crazy, fastforward.
You're right, you know.
And so I got to get past that.
I have to get uncomfortablewith that and I think that's
(44:29):
sometimes where I've been proudthat I have tried, because it is
that initial feeling thatpeople have to get past and go
for it, but finding people whowill help and mentor you and
talk, you know, cast that visioninto you.
Todd Scrima (44:37):
Yeah, I'll give a tip If someone doesn't have that
in their lives.
First of all, I think seeingother people in a similar
industry is a good starter.
You know so, like I know, thatyou guys either mentor or
strategize with realtors rightthat that you two of the best
(44:57):
loan officers in the country.
That makes sense.
You do it at a very high level.
I started a men's grouprecently because it had been on
my goals.
You know how you have thosegoals that get pushed to the
next year next year.
It was year seven, I'm playingit.
I literally just sat down andsent out a text to 15 of my guy
friends that I don't see enoughthat I want to see.
I'm like, hey, once a month, myhouse 6 to 8 pm, I'm not
(45:20):
feeding you, I'll have beer andwater and we're going to talk
about life and we're going toget raw.
And so we just did.
Had our fourth meeting lastweek and it's just a bunch of
good guys that most of them arebusiness people but like one of
them's a child psychologist orchild therapist you know there's
different right and we have aball and those.
(45:42):
That is a example of fellowship, mentorship within a small
group.
So, you could do that.
Lacey Moores (45:52):
Finding your circle, yeah.
Or creating it.
Todd Scrima (45:54):
You created it, creating your own circle of
smart people that you're like.
You know what I would like toget to know them even more, but
they've got something Right.
Right, and maybe it's a totallydifferent industry, sure.
So there's a lot of differentways to do that.
I also think it's very in vogueright now.
I just listened on the way hereto an Ed Milet podcast and he's
(46:16):
like everyone's a coach, youknow, but a lot of people
haven't done much.
So you know, push forauthenticity.
You know of the people thatyou're surrounding yourself with
.
You know of the people thatyou're surrounding yourself with
.
And, going back to what yousaid, you know a lot of these
ideas.
It does make people feeluncomfortable, but if you think
(46:37):
about it, sometimes I'll becoaching someone.
I'll be like, hey, three mostuncomfortable times in your life
, and they'll say things likethe decision to get married, the
decision to go to college andmove out.
That's a big one for a youngkid right.
The decision to quit my firstjob for what I thought would be
a better opportunity and abreakup, having children.
(47:01):
And they say all these thingsI'm like, by and large.
How did those three things turnout?
They're like well, if Iwouldn't have broke up with that
dip, I would have never met mydream husband that I'm with now.
Lacey Moores (47:13):
Right.
Todd Scrima (47:13):
Okay, then it worked out.
You made the right decisionbecause you took a risk.
Lacey Moores (47:17):
Yep.
Todd Scrima (47:18):
And most people.
If I were to give them onepiece of advice, I'd say take
more risks.
People play it so safe.
I'm here visiting family andAdrian has these three nephews
and nieces that are 16 to 22 andthey're all doing different
things.
So I'm talking to one, he's,he's.
(47:39):
I said we're in the grocerystore yesterday.
I'm like hey, so, dom, you're,you're helping manage a
restaurant.
Tell me about.
He says well, I'm not themanager yet.
I said that's a good start,right, I like how you're talking
.
He says I'm assistant managerand I said great, well, you're
20, he's 19.
I said when can you becomemanager?
(47:59):
He says I haven't thought aboutit till just now I said we'll
set a date.
He says, okay, that's a goodidea.
I said that that way you'llstrive toward it, right, when
you give yourself priorities andwhen you give yourself
deadlines, you'll push yourselfto achieve that faster and
you'll take more risks.
So, anyway, I went on to tellhim.
I said, dude, if you couldmanage a restaurant right and
(48:19):
put that on your resume andyou're managing I don't know, 30
, 40 employees and you've got,and you've did it, that's a big
deal to a restaurant owner,right?
So you know, encouraging him tofollow a path and make
something of it, or I said oryou could just stay where you're
at for like 30 years, thatsucks.
Chad Trease (48:40):
Yeah, yeah, so that does suck.
Todd Scrima (48:42):
Yeah.
Definitely take more risks.
Chad Trease (48:47):
It's such easy advice, but so many people need
it right.
Lacey Moores (48:50):
We all do, continually, we all do yeah, all
the time.
Chad Trease (48:55):
I think we should probably wrap this up.
This has gone really long, butwe could talk forever.
Lacey Moores (48:57):
I know it's so good.
Chad Trease (49:00):
You guys.
If this was valuable to you, Iwould tell you.
Todd is a genius and he hasjust launched a new podcast, the
Mortgage Podcast, so check thatout wherever you listen to
podcasts.
Also does a podcast with RobinLevasseur and Jim Reed that is
for realtors and lenders, andthat is the Be your Best podcast
(49:23):
.
Lacey Moores (49:24):
So check that one out as well.
Chad Trease (49:26):
If you Google the guy, you can find.
If you if you google the guy,you can find all sorts of stuff
out there from when he was um,coaching in the core and
everything.
So, uh, go check it out becausehe's super inspiring and we're
just really glad that you'rehere.
Todd Scrima (49:38):
Well, I'm and I'm proud of you guys because you
you are doing such a great jobin your markets and kind of just
like it's so unusual to havetwo branch managers come
together and do have therelationship that you guys have
help each other, help thecommunity.
I just love it.
I think you're and you're twoof the best in the country and I
(49:58):
feel very fortunate to be hereand be with you guys and it's
going to be this next 10 yearsis going to be very exciting.
Chad Trease (50:05):
Yes, I agree.
Yeah Well, thanks for beinghere, guys.
Thanks for listening.
It means the world to us.
If this helped you at all, we'dlove it if you'd share it with
somebody, and until then, wewill catch you next time.
Thanks, everybody.
If getting 15 hours worth of work done in eight
hours or less would be appealingto you that's probably
everybody.
You are definitely going towant to listen to this episode.
This is the Secret SaucePodcast with Chad Trease and
Lacey Moores, where we want tohelp people build big businesses
and live big lives, and wethink that there's not a magic
(00:21):
bullet for doing that, but thereis a secret sauce.
So a lot of these are going tobe just the ingredients that can
help you make up a secret sauceto build a big business and
live a big life.
Let's get into it.
Welcome back everybody to thesecret sauce podcast.
I'm Chad Treese here, as alwayswith the lovely Lacey Moores,
and we got a special guest.
(00:42):
This is one I'm super, superexcited.
I know, lacey, you are too, metoo, all the way from Sacramento
, california, legendary in ourindustry, todd Scrima.
Thanks you guys.
Yeah, definitely Thank you forbeing here, todd.
Yes, we're going to film acouple episodes.
It'll be a part one, part twoprobably, of this with Todd.
We're going to use every secondof our time with him while we
(01:02):
got him.
Todd is the owner, founder ofSummit Funding, also the founder
of the Core coaching right.
What is he?
I mean, you did found, you'restill the founder either way,
and he's just focused on more onthe mortgage side of things now
, but definitely huge in thecoaching space, and if you've
(01:23):
been around mortgages or realestate for any amount of time, I
would imagine you probably knowTodd's name.
Lacey Moores (01:29):
Todd, how many people have you coached over
your-.
Todd Scrima (01:31):
Over 5,000.
Yeah, crazy Over 5,000 people.
Over 24 years.
Lacey Moores (01:36):
Yeah, realtors, lenders, and you coach a bunch
of business owners as well,correct, business owners as well
, correct?
Todd Scrima (01:49):
Yes, you know, business is business and there's
specific industries that youknow have their nuances, but a
lot of it, probably 90% of it'sthe same.
Lacey Moores (01:53):
Yeah, absolutely.
I met Todd 10 years ago and youhave had just an unbelievable
impact on my life and what Iwill tell you guys when you hear
him.
It's a different level ofthinking and there's so much to
learn.
So I just say we like let'sjust jump into it.
Chad Trease (02:12):
I will say this real quick, not that we need to
probably go too much furtherinto this intro, but I think
it's worth saying that Toddactually has there's not a lot
of owners of mortgage companiesI feel like that have actually
done the loan officer role right, that have been in the trenches
and like that's how you gotyour start I mean you were even
assisting to begin with like gotin right, got into, uh.
(02:34):
So I mean he started from thebottom to the top and I think
that's worth noting because, uh,there's a lot of owners out
there.
Like you know, the president ofour last company never written
a loan or even thought aboutwriting a loan.
I just never thought that Icould go to him with any type of
mentorship type of question.
So very, very qualified and Ithink that's worth noting.
Lacey Moores (02:56):
And Summit's been how many years now?
Todd Scrima (02:58):
We'll be celebrating 30 years in June of
2025.
Lacey Moores (03:05):
And one of the longest standing mortgage.
Todd Scrima (03:09):
I did the math one day and just looked up all the
companies and we were the eightholdest in the country, which I
don't think.
I guess it's like dog years inmortgage.
You last 30 years, you're likean old dog.
30 years, you're like an olddog.
Yeah, uh, you.
You've seen a couple things,because they tend to like be in
business for five years or 10years and go out of business or
(03:30):
sell or merge or so was neverour path, but yeah, it's been a
long time huge accomplishment,though I definitely hard.
I didn't know that I'm learningI'm happy to say I still look
young people are like man.
Is he 70 years old?
Chad Trease (03:44):
well, let's talk about our topic here, right,
because we're uh gonna dive intothe actual details, what we
want to talk about today.
But, todd, um we've we zeroedin on two different topics.
The first one, um getting asmuch done in as little time as
possible.
I struggle big time with time.
I know most every realtor thatI talk to everybody that I coach
(04:06):
.
Time management is just, it'san issue.
Lacey Moores (04:11):
It's an issue and it's something we're always
working on, right Like you haveto continually yeah.
Todd Scrima (04:16):
First of all, I would say on this topic there is
maybe a persona out there thatif someone's really good at time
management, project management,delegation, that they just have
it all figured out.
And that's probably the biggestthing that people don't realize
(04:38):
is, if you really dig into it,it's still chaotic.
Dig into it, it's still chaotic, right?
I don't know how many likeprojects or things that I'm
overseeing right now, but I wasdriving up here and I was on the
phone with one exec and wetalked about eight different
projects, major major projects,right.
So some of them are on timeline, some are off timeline, some's
not working, some's are workinggreat, and so it's never.
(05:03):
It's never.
It's the same amount of chaoswhen you get a lot of stuff done
as when you don't get a lot ofstuff done.
I think the stress is lessbecause you feel more productive
.
You see that the boat is goingdownriver a little faster.
That's how I think about it,but it's no.
I just think there's a personathat people are like well, if
someone's super organized, theyjust have it all together and
(05:25):
you know that's and that's notreally what we're talking about.
We're talking about getting moreresults period.
Chad Trease (05:30):
It's just more controlled chaos.
Yes, right, if you're producingat a high level, it's going to
be chaotic.
Todd Scrima (05:36):
Yeah, on the way up here.
Horrible situation where thisoutside company is in charge of
this huge project and just gotdiagnosed with terminal cancer.
So you know there's a bunch ofmoving parts and legalities and
stuff that we got to climbthrough to figure it out.
(05:59):
So those things, those thingshappen.
I got kind of addicted to thiswhen I was going to college.
So I had this period where Iran a company for my father and
I was going back and forth everyweek, three-hour drive each way
, to manage this company andfinally I'm like Dad, we've got
(06:21):
to sell this company.
We increased sales the lastfive years by 10x and it still
doesn't make that much money.
And I got to finish college Iwas killing myself so we sold it
to a competitor.
During that sale, the guy whoran this big company, fortune
500 company, the division thatwe sold to and he said, hey, why
(06:42):
don't you come work for us?
I said, well, you have like 40salespeople working out of this
division and it's a full timejob.
I'm going to college.
He says, yeah, but you kickedour ass so bad up there.
I know you can sell, so justsell down here right in
Sacramento.
So I was big time like I got acompany car, I had the big brick
cell phone and they just saidhey, we're going to give you so
(07:06):
many accounts to see each dayand your real job is to pick up
new accounts.
So I'd just drive around andcold call people that weren't on
my list and I picked up twoprisons and they sold.
They sold products, they soldbasically groceries.
So I was taking 12 to 17 unitsin college and I had a full-time
(07:34):
job.
It wasn't like 20 hours a week,it was a full-time job and so I
had a break, a one-hour break.
So I'd say my first class wasalways at 8 o'clock on Monday,
wednesday, friday, and I'd havethree, four classes in a row and
(07:54):
I'd have a one-hour break.
So during that one hour wheremost kids were lollygagging, I
went straight to the library,into one of those cubicles to
get my work done, because Iwasn't getting home until 8
o'clock that night.
You know, because I had to go towork right afterwards and I
learned a few things goingthrough that and I worked that
way for three years before Igraduated and A it was really
(08:20):
fun making money right wheneveryone else was plum broke.
Sure, was really fun makingmoney right when everyone else
was plum broke, sure, um, backthen this is 30 something years
ago, but I was making about mylast w2 was 62 000, which is, I
don't know, maybe equivalent to100 000 today or something like
that.
Um, so I'm big mac daddy, rightin college, yeah, yeah it was
fun to, to make money and thenand then I had to get through
(08:42):
college, which I did with a,basically a, b plus kind of
average, but I had very littletime.
So where most people say, ah,you know, we'll study, we'll
lollygag, study for six hours,we'll kind of drink a beer,
study a little bit drink, youknow that kind of study and I'm
like I had one hour experience.
Yeah, I had one hour to studyfor that test, or two hours and
(09:05):
I had to get it done good, andso that's that's a lot of where
that started.
With me as I was, I didn't tome, I didn't have a choice
because I didn't want to take onstudent loans and I wanted to
get through college and that wasmy way of doing.
I didn't didn't.
It wasn't like you know, thesekids at 529 plans and dad's
(09:25):
paying for your college and youcan just lollygag and drink beer
, it just it was a differentexperience.
So after I then I got done withcollege, I was between work and
college.
I was already used to 60,70-hour work weeks, to 60, 70
(09:49):
hour work weeks, so to start inthe mortgage business, which I
did right after graduation.
Chad Trease (09:52):
I thought it was just a piece of cake to get
started but I just worked a lot.
Todd Scrima (09:57):
My dad told me years ago he says, son, and you
know these one-off conversationsyou have with maybe your
parents or a mentor and itshifts you and I was probably 16
or something.
He says, son, if I were you, Iwould get out of college and I
would just work for like 10years and not get married and
(10:19):
put my all into really becominga top one percenter in your
field and do that delayedgratification and then when
you're 30, 32, 33, get marriedand have kids and you can
probably work a 40-hour workweek.
And I, just because my dad saidit, that's what I did and I
just worked 70 hours a week andfirst 10 years 70 hours a week
(10:48):
and first 10 years and you know,and in the, in the hopes of
like stacking the chips notnecessarily money chips, but
knowledge chips so that you gotto a point to where, yeah, when
you wanted to work a normal workweek, you could do that and
still maintain your income andgrow it.
Chad Trease (11:01):
So so is that your first piece of advice to get
that much done in a littleamount of time is delay getting
married for 10 years and justgrind.
Todd Scrima (11:09):
I don't think that's for everybody, but it is
a strategy.
It's no different than like wemay tell a first time home buyer
hey, why don't you buy a duplex?
Exactly, Live in one side, putthree and a half percent down on
an FHA loan, rent the otherside a year or two later, rent
them both.
Right.
Because it's more leverage.
It's more upfront leverage andI don't think a lot of people
(11:31):
get that with money or with work.
But when you look at peoplethat have done a lot of things,
they almost always did it thatway.
There's not many people likewin a lottery or get a big
contract or go to the NBA, likeyou hear those stories.
They're one in 2 million, right.
Most people who most peoplelook up to as a business person
(11:53):
for this podcast, you know theyjust put in a lot of reps.
Chad Trease (11:57):
So well, the delayed gratification piece, I
think is huge too.
Like Gary V talks about it allthe time, it's like people are
complaining.
They're in their 20s andthey're complaining that they
haven't made it yet or theircompany hasn't got off the
ground, and he's like you arejust getting started or they're
having to work too hard, or yeah.
All those things, yeah I haven'ttaken a vacation or whatever
it's like.
This is the time where you'regonna grind it out and like
(12:21):
you're putting in the work nowso you can really enjoy life
later, and that you're notpushing it all to the end,
because that would be terrible,right, but like those first few
years, you're building like thefoundation there's a balance to
it all and I still went onvacations and I still had fun in
my mind, but it was not a lazylife at all.
Todd Scrima (12:41):
Yep and uh and I would say by and large, you know
it's for's, for me it's notappealing.
Like you know, I'm up herepartially on vacation, for my
girlfriend's family lives acouple hours from here and
there's only so much layingaround.
I watched the Masters for likeseven hours straight and after
that was done I told them all.
I said that's the only time ayear you'll see me stuck to the
(13:03):
television for seven hours LikeI just don't do it.
But Master Sunday I had.
You know that's my thing, so Ienjoy that.
So you do those things.
But so I think some of it isdiscriminating what really
brings you joy and what doesn't,and I think a lot of people
spend a lot of time on thingsthat don't bring them joy and
they they're trying to look forjoy, so they spread it around a
(13:25):
lot.
Just pick a couple things thatyou really enjoy in your free
time and do that well, you findjoy in your work too, though,
right like so.
Chad Trease (13:34):
I think that's a that's definitely a good point
for people is uh, there'scertain things that you're
probably doing on a daily basisthat you're spending a whole lot
of time in that you don't enjoydoing not you, but in general,
right, um, that would be a bigpiece of this is like try to get
somebody else to do thosethings right.
Focus on the things that bringyou energy, that you're best at
(13:57):
and that you enjoy doing.
Is that fair, yeah?
Todd Scrima (13:59):
So we're talking about, you know, 2X, 10X, all
that stuff.
So some of those concepts areit's like, Lacey, you were
saying that we were coaching andhey, I started going on a walk
with four of my realtors and weget exercise instead of just go
to lunch so it's cheaper.
I got quality time with fourpeople uninterrupted yeah, you
(14:20):
know walks.
If you want to talk to your kids, take them on a walk, right,
because there's nothing to dobut talk.
Yep, right, you're gettingexercise.
So that'd be like a 3x maybe,and if people think about that,
it'll lead them to more leverageand more delegation, which are
the two levers that help peoplebe more productive.
And so the leverage piece isdoing things that you would do.
(14:46):
You're just combining them.
Give an example we're doingthis podcast so we're able to
sit down here for 20 minutes andmaybe, over the course of two
years, 1,000 people watch it orpart of it say half or more of
it.
Sure.
So if you start doing the mathon it I think 1,000 people spent
(15:07):
10 minutes watching this, sothat's 10,000 minutes.
And you do the math on it.
I think 1,000 people spent 10minutes watching this, so that's
10,000 minutes.
And you do the math on thatYou're like well, I just helped,
got some attention from 1,000people.
And then maybe a year from nowyou call them, or maybe your
assistant calls and says, hey,chad, love to get to know you.
We've got this idea to help youmake money.
And they say yes, becausethey're like I remember that guy
(15:30):
Right, right, current stat.
That is interesting.
So first of all, let me giveyou a construct of how I think
about sales and influence, sothat I grew up in the 70s and
80s, so the 70s and 80s, I wouldsay most people would think
about that time period.
What's a word that comes tomind if you're in sales during
(15:51):
that time, in the 70s and 80s,70s and 80s?
Chad Trease (15:59):
I was born in 78, man I don't know what word comes
to mind yeah, I was born in 83.
Lacey Moores (16:02):
I wasn't thinking about sales in the 80s.
Todd Scrima (16:04):
So I would say that's more high pressure.
Lacey Moores (16:07):
Okay, high pressure sales.
Todd Scrima (16:10):
It's more, let's just call it pressure sale.
I don't like the word highpressure, but it was like, well,
do you want to buy it?
Here's what it does.
What do you think?
Do you want to buy it?
Right, that was kind of thatera.
Then you get into like the morethan 90s to maybe just a few
years ago, and that was more aconsultant.
You're more of a consultant,you're an advisor.
(16:35):
During this in our industry youhad Joe Stumpf come out with Buy
Referral Only, which was bigfor about 20 years.
You had Todd Duncan with hishigh trust selling.
That was specific to themortgage industry.
That would be an example, butthere's lots of examples in all
industries.
And so then you reach and again, I think it's just last three,
(16:59):
four years you reach a differentera and I call it strategy.
So, yes, there's some pressurebecause you got to close.
You don't close first anymore,but there's some of that,
there's some of all three.
The second one yes, you got tobe consultative, but the people
that are winning these days,they are more strategists.
(17:19):
If that makes sense, theyreally do solve some problem.
So I don't like using these bigexamples, but they do give
clues.
So Amazon, obviously one of thebiggest companies now in the
world and they solve the problemof time with products.
So, order something, getsomething.
(17:40):
You look at all chat, gpt andall the AI stuff and they're
making it faster.
For $20 a month we can getinformation faster, so instead
of surfing the web.
There's a lot of different uses, but how most people are using
it today is it's fasterinformation.
I don't have to search 20websites.
I ask chat, dbt or some versionof AI, and it gives me a fairly
(18:04):
quick answer that's mostlyaccurate.
So those are examples.
So where does that go to?
If you think about it, whetherit's real estate, whether it's
mortgage, whether it's almostany sort of industry, we're
being forced more into thatstrategic type of problem
solving because, if you look atcompanies, the ones that are
(18:28):
winning are doing that.
That's the one thing they havein common.
Does that make sense?
Yeah?
Definitely.
So then the obvious question iswell, todd, I don't have any
time for strategy because I'm sobusy working.
Okay, well, how can we lowerthat?
How can we delegate that?
How can we leverage that sothat we can spend more time into
(18:50):
that strategy role?
And that's the million-dollarquestion that people are
struggling with because theydon't.
When I talk to people, somepeople will get the strategy.
Give me an example.
I have a client in Dallas,texas that's in this marketing
company I have, and we found alist.
(19:12):
It took us about six months.
We found a list of the top 550investors in Dallas Texas that
own five or more properties andthey bought at least one last
year.
So then we called on thatperson's behalf and got him a
ton of appointments 27appointments in two weeks.
We actually just shut it offbecause he's like I can't go on
(19:32):
more appointments.
Sure.
He is now going to the realtorthe top producing realtors in
his market, some that he workswith already, some that he
doesn't and he's saying hey,I've got this list, we're
setting up appointments.
Do you want to work withinvestors?
They met up 23% of our market,and if you say yes and we start
(19:54):
doing business, I'm going totake you on these appointments
with me.
So now the loan officer isadding real value too, because
what the realtor wants is moredeals, right, they don't really
care where it comes from Ifthey're an investor and they're
going to buy multiple homes.
Some of these people own 50, 80homes, right?
(20:14):
So they're selling homes.
Sometimes they need to sell,sometimes they want to buy new
ones.
So now he's offering realstrategy, real value.
Then he is taking the realtorwith him.
The realtor's already sendinghim business, right, and he's
getting loans from the investor.
So, if you think about that,that's a good use of leverage
(20:37):
and he's using that strategictype.
Hey, I'm really solving aproblem for you, and this is not
done very often effectively inour business.
One-on-one with a client, arealtor will help someone.
Hey, my mom just died, we needto sell her house.
Okay, that's solving a problem.
A borrower comes in and you'relike hey, we're going to do this
(21:03):
two-one buy down on thisprogram to get you into this
house.
We're going to leverage the$10,000 down payment here's what
that looks like and wealthbuilding and tax savings in 10
years Like you're doing thatindividually.
But a lot of businesses don'tknow how to do it, business to
business and that's where ourbusiness struggles.
We just don't know how to do it.
Chad Trease (21:24):
You think realtors struggle Same same same way with
that.
So what would be in your mind?
What would be a not necessarily10x to 2x, but what would be a
good example of this with realestate?
Todd Scrima (21:38):
Well, so I've coached a lot of realtors and I
asked this on one of ourcoaching calls and a couple
people raised their hand.
But I've personally never seena realtor that specializes in
investors Like you think.
Well, that's kind of silly.
They make up over 20% of themarket.
Why not?
There's not a good answer.
They just never focused andsomeone just didn't focus on it.
(22:00):
One of the biggest realtors Iever coached this is 25 years
ago.
She's like, hey, if I can'tsell it, I'll buy it.
She'd close over 200transactions a year.
She bought at the time.
I coached her and we came upwith that marketing strategy to
get listings.
I think she had bought two infive years, something like that.
(22:26):
It was low.
Of course she's buying thembelow market because that's what
the fine print says.
But it was very effective.
But people are afraid to go outon those skinny branches and
say, hey, I'm really going toguarantee this.
And I think where peoplestruggle with this is they're
(22:46):
not creative enough, like if youjust think of someone's problem
and you come up with a realsolution that really works.
That's your answer.
If and if the then you just gotto find people with that
problem.
And and does it meanspecialization?
Yeah, sometimes, sometimes it'sjust saying things better like
(23:08):
it's.
It's not always some big fancything.
Matter of fact, it rarely issome big fancy thing.
If you look at that investorlist, it did take us a long time
to.
We basically had to buy threedifferent databases and merge
them and it was some technologyto it.
But you know we had a VA in thePhilippines do it all.
It took him maybe 200 hours ofwork, maybe it cost us $3,000 to
(23:33):
put that listing.
Now we have a list for thewhole United States, so it
wasn't just one area, we got itfor the entire country, and so
now I've got something of valuethat I can give my loan officers
and realtors that do businesswith us so that it's an
attractor and they're like hey,no one else is doing that.
That's pretty cool.
That's just an example.
Chad Trease (23:54):
And that's just.
Was you taking time to work onthe business long enough to be
creative?
Cause that's what I heard yousay, Like it's just being like
coming up with strategy.
You got to be creative and Ithink that as a population, just
as like a human race, likewe're definitely losing
creativity and we're stuck inthe details and and like, stuck
in the grind, stuck in the nineto five, like, oh, I've got to
(24:18):
get this task done, task doneand not taking time to like
dedicate to solving those biggerproblems, solving a problem
that nobody's even thought ofyeah right and having time on
your calendar to be created.
Todd Scrima (24:29):
Yes, it can be that that's more like elon musk
stuff.
But, um, but even on a muchsmaller scale, if you, if you
really think about it, say, okay, what are the problems that
people have and how can we helpthem with it in our field?
And so you start thinking thatway, like we.
We went through, uh, we have apackage where we can teach
(24:50):
someone how to hire VAs and I'lltell you this brief story
because it's one of my.
It may not sound great to you,but it's great to me because it
really worked in a big way.
So this other marketing companyI have it's called Jolt.
You guys know about it, but thelisteners probably don't.
(25:12):
So I just I got sick of peoplenot making enough sales calls,
so I'm like I'm gonna make salescalls for them and I'm gonna
charge them for it.
So that's basically what themarketing.
But we do all their socialmedia and all their emails and
target marketing.
There's a lot more to it, butbasically we're we're starting,
we're doing the front end salespiece for for the loan officer.
So um executive comes to methat runs that company about a
(25:35):
year and a half ago and he sawlook at, we got to hire these
three more positions.
And I said you hired thosethree more positions.
We're not even making money,we're losing money.
He said you're right, but weneed the positions.
I said, well, you're gonna haveto find vas overseas.
I just said it.
Chad Trease (25:52):
Like he says this is the introduction to you.
Hadn't used vas before this,that okay he's like well, I've
never done that.
Todd Scrima (25:58):
I said me neither.
He says but I need these threepositions.
I said well, you better learnit.
He says okay, point taken, andhe ends up hiring first va, her
name's daisy.
He calls, calls me about a weekafter she starts and he says I
got a problem.
He never, hardly ever, calls me.
We have a weekly call for anhour and a half and we cover all
this stuff.
So when he calls me I'm likethat's weird, I figured
(26:20):
something's wrong.
I said what's going on?
He said I got a problem.
I said what's the problem?
He says I can't give Daisyenough work.
I said what's the problem?
He says I can't give Daisyenough work.
I said it's only been four days.
He says the first day I gaveher two days worth of work, she
got it all done.
Next day, three days of work,she got it all done in one day.
Yesterday, I gave her four daysworth of work, she got it all
(26:43):
done in one day.
I don't know if she's got herkids helping her or what's going
on over there, but I can'tdelegate enough.
And she says please and thankyou.
Every time I talk to her, like10 times, and so you know, fast
forward.
We've now got over 30 of themand you know in the Philippines
what is equivalent to ourminimum wage.
(27:05):
Their minimum wage is $1.50 anhour.
So when they're paid $6, $7 anhour, that's like $130,000 a
year in the United States.
So they really want these jobs,right, and we're happy to pay
$1,500 to $2,000 a month to getcollege-educated people with
master's degrees to work on ourprojects, and so that was a real
(27:26):
breakthrough.
But we took that idea and we nowhave a whole package on doing
that for teaching realtors howto do that, because there's so
much stuff that they can do forthe realtor so that the realtor
could go from a couple deals amonth to four or five and also
do it at a very low cost of twogrand a month or less.
So that's another example ofvalue.
(27:48):
Now does that mean, you know,if you go to, say, a realtor
that's struggling to close 10deals a year, they're probably
not going to take you up on that.
But the one who's doing 30deals last year and working 70
hours a week and they're inenough pain, they'll say, hey,
the VA thing, can you come meetwith me on that, like I I'm
drowning over here, but I can'tafford an American assistant, I
(28:12):
don't make that amount of moneyto afford that, and so that's an
example of solving a problem.
Chad Trease (28:19):
And with that program you actually that's
amazing, by the way.
Lacey Moores (28:23):
Yes.
Chad Trease (28:23):
You actually tell them, like how to train the VAs
on what doing tasks, or is itlike you need to hire?
We're how to train the vas onwhat doing tasks, or is it like
you need, like hire, we're goingto hire the vas, and then you
have to figure out what problemthey're solving.
Todd Scrima (28:35):
Part of the training program, uh, is we tell
them, take every single thingyou want them to do.
You use, uh, you record a videoon you doing it, exactly like
answering emails.
Okay, hey, here's the threedifferent types of emails you're
gonna respond to.
(28:55):
Here's the time frame.
You so you're recordingyourself and you actually pull
up your emails and go through it.
I'll see that one that's junk.
See this one that's importantbecause they're on my VIP list.
I got to get back to thatperson you know and you, you
video short segments of how theycan learn, on how to transfer
that skill and do what you doand seek into your brain.
(29:17):
A lot of salespeople we're notreally good at details, project
management, follow through.
Those are all things that wenaturally struggle with, but if
you can record all that stuffonce, then you've got it in the
library that's huge that's sucha great tactic
yeah, it's such a great time,then if you want it documented
in writing, they will justsimply take that and turn it
(29:38):
into the main.
You'll have probably have aimanuscript it and put it into a
written process.
But they can do that, not youright?
Chad Trease (29:48):
well, it's, and that's just a good reminder.
I'm not trying to get off topicor task here, but it just makes
me think of like filming avideo for every single time
somebody asks you something thatis a repetitive question that
you get in your business.
How easy it would be.
Okay, I'm going to film thevideo instead of typing out that
email every time and explainingthat or having that
conversation is oh, that's agreat question.
(30:08):
I actually just filmed a videoabout that because it's a very
common question.
I'm going to send it your way.
It'll be in your inbox in twominutes or whatever.
And, like, you've alreadyprofessionally explained that
problem better than you probablycould on the spot, because you
took the time to detail it out.
Todd Scrima (30:22):
Yeah, you guys know Justin and our company, so he
helps oversee 38 loan officersand and we had this conversation
a couple weeks ago and he's nowactually documenting every
question he gets during hishour-long sales manager hat time
and doing a video response tothose questions, one by one,
every single time he answers it.
Chad Trease (30:42):
Just cataloging them.
Todd Scrima (30:43):
But in two months you'll have this library and
when people are asking you thatquestion, you'll simply just
text them the video, right?
So you're like Todd, thatsounds kind of mechanical, it
sounds kind of this, it's.
It's where we're headed, rightwith white-collar work, right?
I was listening to a dr Philpodcast of all things.
(31:04):
Someone sent me, and he was.
He was saying the same thing totruck drivers as I'm saying to
loan officers and realtors.
So stick with me just for asecond.
He's like hey, truck driversthere's, there's I think he said
the number, I think it was 1.6million truck drivers in america
.
He's like as soon as that getsfederally released, where the
(31:25):
computers can drive, the biggroups you're going to be out of
work, so you should be lookingright now.
You should be in another tradeschool.
That isn't going to becommoditized through AI, and so
he was given that advice.
The same advice I would give tomortgage lenders and realtors,
(31:47):
or any business person for thatmatter, is go to that next level
.
You're going to be forced to doit anyway.
I'm part of this think tankright now with a publicly traded
company and they have 100engineers right now working on
100% automation of the loanprocess.
I don't know if they can do it.
They hired me for the mortgagepart of it.
(32:10):
We just had our fourth meetinglast week.
It's a huge project, but theseguys go fast and they've
disrupted two other industries.
Could they do it with mortgage?
Yeah, someday.
Whether it's this company orsomeone else, they're going to
find out a way where it's more.
You know what a decision treeis.
(32:32):
So these decision trees thatwe're working on are so vast,
like just one would fill up an 8by 10 wall.
Just are you a veteran andwhere that leads right?
So massive decision trees, butyou have a hundred engineers
working on it, so it will getdone.
It's just a matter of takingwhat a normal consultant would
(32:54):
do, a loan officer, a realtorand decision treeing it.
Now that doesn't dismiss therelationship piece or the
emotional piece that a lot ofpeople still crave, and I crave,
and I'm not saying that's goingaway and I'm not here to spread
fear.
What I'm saying is that willnaturally push you towards a
higher being, more of astrategist.
(33:14):
Yeah, it's a disruption for sureyou look at financial planners.
If you really talk to high-endfinancial planners, one of my
financial planners that I usemanages 1.4 billion.
All he does is strategy All thewhere the money goes and what
it's invested in.
We talk about it once a monthand usually don't make any
(33:36):
changes.
The computer's doing just fine.
It's computer algorithms, it'snot them.
Oh, buy IBM, sell NVIDIA.
That may happen like six timesa year.
With me and my financialplanner we're going to outsmart
the computer.
(33:57):
But most of his time had justspent.
Hey, todd, he'll ask mequestions.
Todd, what's your life looklike in 20 years?
What do you want for your kids?
What are you doing to make thathappen today?
What if we record some of thisstuff?
You're in podcast.
Why don't we just record allthis stuff on teaching your kids
(34:17):
about all this stuff?
He's strategizing with me, right?
How do we save money on taxes?
Have you thought of doing this?
It's more of a strategyconversation, not picking stocks
.
The stock picking is done bythe computer now for the most
part 95%.
So that's an example.
Their industry is just furtherdown the road than ours.
(34:39):
So how does this translate?
Let's say you're a realtor andlet's say you've built a lot of
wealth because you have eightrentals and you've helped some
other clients accumulate rentals, just using that as an example.
And someone comes to them andthey're like, during their
(35:00):
presentation, during theirstrategy session, they're like,
hey, what is your goals forwealth building?
They're like, well, we'd loveto maybe own five rentals by the
time.
Have them all paid off by thetime we're 55.
Great, let's map that out.
Let's go there.
We'll just buy this one for now, but maybe every two years
(35:23):
let's buy another one, right?
And here's what the ROI needsto be.
Here's the cash on another one,right.
And here's what the ROI needsto be.
Here's the cash on cash return,right.
And you do all the math so thatwe start finding out what kind
of properties we're going to buy.
So that would be more of arealtor being a strategist than
well.
What do you want to sell yourhome for?
What do you think it'll sellfor?
I think it'll sell for this.
This one just sold down thestreet of this.
Hey, I think you need a newroof.
(35:46):
All those things still need tohappen, but but it can happen a
lot faster and you can spendmore time on the strategy as
we're being pushed more and morethat way.
So how does that play into?
2x, 10x, 3x?
You're?
You're going to have to bedoing those things so that you
have time to do the other things.
It's not just automation, it'snot just delegation.
(36:08):
It's a bunch of things crammedinto one so that you have an
extra 10 hours a week.
That's a way to think about it,and it's still hard for me
because I spend a lot of time onstrategy, but I still want to
get involved in some things andI constantly hold myself back,
like no, they got that project,you got the update, you know
(36:32):
they're doing, they're doing it,you know.
So I have to hold myself backbecause once I get involved then
I start to own it you want tosee it to the end yes, yeah, and
it's like that's speaking mylanguage.
Chad Trease (36:43):
Yeah, I'm looking at you.
Yeah, I'm like, can someonehave a problem for me to solve
today?
So I can get involved and feelgood about solving a problem
that I didn't need to solve.
Todd Scrima (36:51):
Yeah, yeah, I totally feel that I actually see
both of you as doing that.
I mean, when you look at it anda lot of your listeners, you
guys probably don't brag aboutthis stuff, but in the whole
country you two separate officesbut close to each other often
lead the company in units peremployee.
You often lead units per loanofficer.
(37:12):
You often lead in fastesttimeframe to close.
You often lead in least amountof conditions for on the loans,
meaning you're you're reallygood at getting all this stuff
up front because you know yourcraft.
So you know you're fortunatebecause you're really good at
what you can do.
A lot of times, like when we'veall coached together, you guys
(37:32):
do think more strategically thanmost people that are just like
I'm trying to close 14 files, Idon't have time for coaching or
going on a walk or date night,that's all crap.
Like I just got 14 loans right.
And it's different when I coachboth of you Like, okay, yeah, we
got 14 loans closing, but we'reworking on this project, the
(37:53):
project we worked on.
Lacey Moores (37:54):
Our last coaching call with Mike Black wrote down
all the different things that wecould delegate in our entire
business life and you starttaking remember we took 20
minutes for that and we're likewow, that's a lot, that's a lot
that someone else can do, thatwe're still doing yeah or things
that aren't being done butcould be now that we've been
(38:15):
thinking about it, yeah, and westarted getting into that zone
and masterminding and being inthat creative creativity place,
but I do think they're like chadand I just didn't walk into
that, like we've worked so hardfor so long to create and we
have amazing teams that are sogood, and so some people just
want all of that gratificationso fast and it doesn't happen
(38:39):
overnight Like we've had peopleon our teams for years and years
and years that we have pouredinto and trained and, man, we
are a really well-oiled machinenow, and now that's paying off
and now we get to be a lot morecreative.
Chad Trease (38:51):
And now we can do a podcast.
Now we can do a podcast andyeah.
Right, but it is.
I mean, it's a great example of2Xing right, because the
podcast we can have agents comeon talk about business.
We are giving back to toagencies by doing the podcast.
It could also be a recruitingtool for us for a loan officer
perspective.
So that's a three X right.
So, like this podcast actuallyto probably bring this thing to
(39:14):
fruition like full circle is.
The podcast in itself is a verygreat example of that which we
didn't.
I mean, we talked about it atthe beginning but I'd say like
there's been this intrinsicadditional like four X five X,
been this intrinsic additionallike 4x 5x, like now with the
roadshow piece that we'respinning off into it.
Todd Scrima (39:31):
That's like, oh, this can actually help us grow
this thing even more and itgives us energy and fills us up
and we can hand the loans off toour team to fulfill them yeah,
but if you look at it and thispodcast is a great example if we
really sit here and talk for 15minutes, you would find it's
probably at least a 10x, withall the different things,
offshoots of it.
And I mean some of your pastclients probably watch them
(39:53):
right.
Chad Trease (39:54):
Better business people.
Todd Scrima (39:55):
So there's a lot that happens with doing
something like this.
But what's different about thisis, I don't know six months ago
or whenever it was, and I'mlike, hey, you guys should do a
podcast and like the next monthyou were doing it right.
But you know how many people Italked to and they're like, yeah
, I should do write the book orI should develop that investor
(40:16):
offer, I should do this researchto come up with this way to
help people.
And it never goes anywhere.
And the problem with that is isthat things are moving so fast
and you're being pushed to thismore, not consultative, but more
it's like a strategist and theproblem is a lot of people are
(40:36):
so busy in their businessthey're not thinking of that
strategy Right and that's a missbecause of how fast things you
know it used to be in the pastand it still is.
We're like if you're a reallygood realtor, really good lender
, and you could just get to knowsome people really do a good
job for people and you'll make aliving and I don't think that's
(40:56):
going away.
But what is happening is thingsare moving much faster than
people realize.
And there's two kinds of peoplethat I see.
There's one that is like Idon't want to use chat to be, I
don't want to do that, I don'twant to look at that.
Oh, that competitor's doingthat.
That's their dumb, that won'twork right and they're sticking
(41:19):
their head in the sand and allI'm saying is you got to be a
little strategic.
Someone told me years ago.
One of my coaches said Todd,strategy is like being in a
helicopter and you go up athousand feet and you look down.
Chad Trease (41:33):
Yeah, bird's eye view.
Todd Scrima (41:39):
That's strategy, yeah.
Thousand foot view or whateveryeah, and that just was a
metaphor that always stuck withme.
So do I think I'm not here totell people the world's coming
to an end.
What I'm saying is that thingsare changing and if you embrace
it, there's a lot.
There's so few people thatembrace creativity or strategy
or want to go to the next levelof helping people.
It's just not that common.
Lacey Moores (41:59):
Well, let's talk about real fast why I naturally
don't go there.
I naturally don't think likethat and I don't know if that's
from being raised or or what,but just the power of an
unbelievable mentor in your life.
And we talk about havingmentors and who you are and who
you hang out with and why that'spiece is so important.
(42:20):
But, todd, over ourrelationship that I've known you
, you have spoken to me severaltimes, lacey, I could see you
doing this and I already heardit from the very beginning.
When your dad did it to you andgave you this is what I could
see you doing and you're likeokay, I can do that, and that is
so powerful.
It's so powerful and I'm sothankful, as I'm sitting here,
(42:42):
the amount of times you havetaken to do that with me,
because when you do that, I'mlike I can't do that, let's do
it.
Why can't I?
But I never saw it and I don'tknow if it's why I never saw it
because of constraints.
So I think that's normal and Ithink so many people don't,
because they don't have greatmentors in their life or people
(43:04):
in their life who do cast avision, have great mentors in
their life or people in theirlife who do cast a vision, and
I'm thankful for you for alwayscashing the vision and still
caring.
I mean, here we are taughtmortgage industry hasn't been
great, you know, over the lastcouple years, and you didn't
have to stick in it, and notonly have you stuck in it with
us, but you have constantlypushed us to challenge us to
grow and cast vision and how tolike.
(43:24):
It's's such an unbelievablething, so thank you for that.
Chad Trease (43:28):
Very, very inspiring.
Lacey Moores (43:29):
So inspiring.
But it I mean it comes veryfull circle to everything you
said.
And, guys, if you don't havepeople like that in your life,
find them.
And I mean you could probablytalk.
We could do a whole notherpodcast on the mentors in your
life that have got you where youare, but I'm super grateful to
have you as a mentor, mentor and, um, now, I'm not gonna lie,
(43:50):
there's times you say things andI'm like he's crazy, he's crazy
actually I was talking to.
Chad Trease (43:54):
Yeah, when you were coaching us on va at the
beginning, I was like man, Ican't even comprehend, trying to
think about how to train abunch of, a bunch of so it's
normal philippines, so you'reimmediate, like you're gonna
have doubts, like yes, it'snormal to think that or to think
this guy's nuts or all of this.
Lacey Moores (44:08):
And every single time on the drive here I was
talking to Carson about you andhow, every single time when I
would think you were crazy, fastforward.
You're right, you know.
And so I got to get past that.
I have to get uncomfortablewith that and I think that's
(44:29):
sometimes where I've been proudthat I have tried, because it is
that initial feeling thatpeople have to get past and go
for it, but finding people whowill help and mentor you and
talk, you know, cast that visioninto you.
Todd Scrima (44:37):
Yeah, I'll give a tip If someone doesn't have that
in their lives.
First of all, I think seeingother people in a similar
industry is a good starter.
You know so, like I know, thatyou guys either mentor or
strategize with realtors rightthat that you two of the best
(44:57):
loan officers in the country.
That makes sense.
You do it at a very high level.
I started a men's grouprecently because it had been on
my goals.
You know how you have thosegoals that get pushed to the
next year next year.
It was year seven, I'm playingit.
I literally just sat down andsent out a text to 15 of my guy
friends that I don't see enoughthat I want to see.
I'm like, hey, once a month, myhouse 6 to 8 pm, I'm not
(45:20):
feeding you, I'll have beer andwater and we're going to talk
about life and we're going toget raw.
And so we just did.
Had our fourth meeting lastweek and it's just a bunch of
good guys that most of them arebusiness people but like one of
them's a child psychologist orchild therapist you know there's
different right and we have aball and those.
(45:42):
That is a example of fellowship, mentorship within a small
group.
So, you could do that.
Lacey Moores (45:52):
Finding your circle, yeah.
Or creating it.
Todd Scrima (45:54):
You created it, creating your own circle of
smart people that you're like.
You know what I would like toget to know them even more, but
they've got something Right.
Right, and maybe it's a totallydifferent industry, sure.
So there's a lot of differentways to do that.
I also think it's very in vogueright now.
I just listened on the way hereto an Ed Milet podcast and he's
(46:16):
like everyone's a coach, youknow, but a lot of people
haven't done much.
So you know, push forauthenticity.
You know of the people thatyou're surrounding yourself with
.
You know of the people thatyou're surrounding yourself with
.
And, going back to what yousaid, you know a lot of these
ideas.
It does make people feeluncomfortable, but if you think
(46:37):
about it, sometimes I'll becoaching someone.
I'll be like, hey, three mostuncomfortable times in your life
, and they'll say things likethe decision to get married, the
decision to go to college andmove out.
That's a big one for a youngkid right.
The decision to quit my firstjob for what I thought would be
a better opportunity and abreakup, having children.
(47:01):
And they say all these thingsI'm like, by and large.
How did those three things turnout?
They're like well, if Iwouldn't have broke up with that
dip, I would have never met mydream husband that I'm with now.
Lacey Moores (47:13):
Right.
Todd Scrima (47:13):
Okay, then it worked out.
You made the right decisionbecause you took a risk.
Lacey Moores (47:17):
Yep.
Todd Scrima (47:18):
And most people.
If I were to give them onepiece of advice, I'd say take
more risks.
People play it so safe.
I'm here visiting family andAdrian has these three nephews
and nieces that are 16 to 22 andthey're all doing different
things.
So I'm talking to one, he's,he's.
(47:39):
I said we're in the grocerystore yesterday.
I'm like hey, so, dom, you're,you're helping manage a
restaurant.
Tell me about.
He says well, I'm not themanager yet.
I said that's a good start,right, I like how you're talking
.
He says I'm assistant managerand I said great, well, you're
20, he's 19.
I said when can you becomemanager?
(47:59):
He says I haven't thought aboutit till just now I said we'll
set a date.
He says, okay, that's a goodidea.
I said that that way you'llstrive toward it, right, when
you give yourself priorities andwhen you give yourself
deadlines, you'll push yourselfto achieve that faster and
you'll take more risks.
So, anyway, I went on to tellhim.
I said, dude, if you couldmanage a restaurant right and
(48:19):
put that on your resume andyou're managing I don't know, 30
, 40 employees and you've got,and you've did it, that's a big
deal to a restaurant owner,right?
So you know, encouraging him tofollow a path and make
something of it, or I said oryou could just stay where you're
at for like 30 years, thatsucks.
Chad Trease (48:40):
Yeah, yeah, so that does suck.
Todd Scrima (48:42):
Yeah.
Definitely take more risks.
Chad Trease (48:47):
It's such easy advice, but so many people need
it right.
Lacey Moores (48:50):
We all do, continually, we all do yeah, all
the time.
Chad Trease (48:55):
I think we should probably wrap this up.
This has gone really long, butwe could talk forever.
Lacey Moores (48:57):
I know it's so good.
Chad Trease (49:00):
You guys.
If this was valuable to you, Iwould tell you.
Todd is a genius and he hasjust launched a new podcast, the
Mortgage Podcast, so check thatout wherever you listen to
podcasts.
Also does a podcast with RobinLevasseur and Jim Reed that is
for realtors and lenders, andthat is the Be your Best podcast
(49:23):
.
Lacey Moores (49:24):
So check that one out as well.
Chad Trease (49:26):
If you Google the guy, you can find.
If you if you google the guy,you can find all sorts of stuff
out there from when he was um,coaching in the core and
everything.
So, uh, go check it out becausehe's super inspiring and we're
just really glad that you'rehere.
Todd Scrima (49:38):
Well, I'm and I'm proud of you guys because you
you are doing such a great jobin your markets and kind of just
like it's so unusual to havetwo branch managers come
together and do have therelationship that you guys have
help each other, help thecommunity.
I just love it.
I think you're and you're twoof the best in the country and I
(49:58):
feel very fortunate to be hereand be with you guys and it's
going to be this next 10 yearsis going to be very exciting.
Chad Trease (50:05):
Yes, I agree.
Yeah Well, thanks for beinghere, guys.
Thanks for listening.
It means the world to us.
If this helped you at all, we'dlove it if you'd share it with
somebody, and until then, wewill catch you next time.
Thanks, everybody.
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