In this powerful episode of Lykken on Lending, I’m joined by Amir Syed—top-producing loan officer, dynamic coach, and founder of Go Coaching—for a conversation that’s as inspiring as it is tactical. From fleeing war-torn Iran as a child to becoming a mortgage industry leader, Amir shares the story of how faith, grit, and community shaped his journey. We discuss the mindset that drives success, the value of mentorship, and the framework behind his Mortgage Mastery Ladder—a coaching approach that’s transforming loan officers nationwide. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or just getting started, this episode is a reminder that “iron sharpens iron”—and the right people, principles, and practices can unlock your full potential.
[David] Folks, we’re in for a real treat today. We’ve got Amir Syed joining us today. He is a very successful coach. He is also a very successful loan officer, and I love this guy’s story. Many people say, you know what, if I just had this, or I just had this advantage I could have done. When you hear this man’s story, you’ll see where he came from and where he’s ascended to. It’s about attitude, strategy, and what he coaches on. Amir, so good to have you here, brother.
[Amir] Thank you, David. It’s an honor to be here. I never take these moments for granted, and I’m not a successful coach, successful officer. I’ve had a lot of wins but I’m a white belt learning every single day in this journey.
[David] I love that attitude. Most people would look at what you close and what you do in your coaching and I would say you’re extremely successful, but let’s start with your journey. First of all, I call you brother because we do share the christian faith together. I put that out there for people do, and I love the fact that you are authentic. Now, that’s not to say we’re not gonna be preaching at you. To anyone who’s listening doesn’t have that. I understand that some people are for that, not, or someone not, but I don’t want that to turn anyone off, but I also want us to live authentically. I think it’s so important, Amir, that we live authentically in front of the audience that we work with, and you’re very authentic about your faith and you’re authentic about who you are. Just wanna celebrate that.
[Amir] Thank you. Thank you, David. Faith is something that’s incredibly important in life. And all I can do is people show people through my actions, that I am practicing the best of my ability and as purely as possible what God is equipping me with every day and if people find inspiration through that then that’s all glory, to the higher power. And I think in sales you have to have a lot of faith in general.
[David] Yes, you do.
[Amir] So, faith is a good word.
[David] Yeah. And it’s what you have faith in. It’s fine to have faith in yourself. You have confidence, you should, you have faith in your processes, what you’ve developed. But then there comes a point in time in your life where you have to have something. Faith in something greater than yourself. And I think that’s just something we both celebrate. So tell us where you started because your story, you’re not from the US. You mean tell us how you began because it is such an inspirational story to me. At least. I thought it was really inspirational.
[Amir] Thank you, David. if some of the listeners, I’ve heard this story before I apologize in advance, but for some of the new people, my journey is quite, interesting. So I was born in the country of Iran in the Middle East. I’m Iranian-American. In 1980 to 1988, Iran and Iraq had an eight year war. So in 1979, many people know the Shah of Iran was overthrown. There was the Iranian hostage crisis. Khomeini came in. The country was just going through major change. And so from 1980-1988, Saddam Hussein of neighboring country Iran, Iraq, felt Iran was weak. He can take advantage of it. And so without giving everybody a history lesson there was a eight year war where a million people died in that war. And so just imagine here I am five, six years old. We’re in the capitalist city of Tehran. Highly populated and there was sirens going off. There was bombs going over our head. Something that a lot of people can’t even imagine, we’ve been very fortunate as Americans. The last time we’ve ever experienced something like that was 911, right? Where people were so traumatized. But lots of parts of the world, especially Middle East, that’s a lot of people grew up around tragedies like that and so my parents it was really unfortunate because my father had immigrated from Pakistan to Iran at 17 because his father, my grandfather, Iran and Pakistan had a major war as well. And they’re going at the time right now, May 8th, India just launched some bombs at the Pakistan. So they’ve always had some friction. And my grandfather was a general in the Army and he was a prisoner of war for four years. And so my father had three younger siblings and a mom and Iran in the 70’s was very similar to the relationship between the United States and Mexico. Iran was thriving economically and India, Pakistan was not. And so people would go to Iran to get employment. So, here’s my dad’s 17, working, sending money back to his mom, my grandmother to take care of his three siblings. Because my grandfather was a prisoner of war for four years. So he gets on his feet. 10 years later, Iraq invades Iran and here he is again in the middle of another war. And so they packed their bags. They took me, they left their entire immediate family. Extended family. They left them. They took me and my mom and dad, we left. We went to London, couldn’t get employment, went to San Francisco because they had a distant relative, couldn’t get employment and London and San Francisco have always been expensive cities. Yes. Finally there was a distant friend in Chicago and, my parents went there with me. I did not speak English. I really did not have learn well in school. My dad was a shoe salesman making $3.75 an hour, and my mom couldn’t get a job at McDonald’s. So it was very difficult and a lot of financial stress. You’re not around any family. You’re learning a whole new culture.
[David] What year’s were this, what you were in Chicago?
[Amir] 1985. 1985. 1985. Okay. 1985. You know that, which was the last time the Chicago Bear is when a, when the NFL Super Bowl. So maybe I should go back to win again, but, it was very difficult. And so finally my dad, met some Iranian guys and they said Hassan, which is my dad’s name, You should consider getting in the car business. It’s just like everything, the diaspora of different places, Armenians went to Boston. There’s a lot of Iranians in Los Angeles. One goes there and says, Hey, I’m doing well. Come over here. And yeah, we’re, doing this. So, he found some Iranian guys in, Chicago’s a big Iranian community, and they said, Hassan, you should sell some cars. So he started to buy cars of the car auction for X amount, and then he would put in the classified section. He had a car for sale for Y amount, so people were coming to the apartment building and he was working part-time and he did really well. So before you would’ve 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 cars in the parking lot. And so the neighbors started calling on him and the police this guy’s running a car dealership outside the apartment building. My dad and mom were like, I think you need to get your old dealership right. He went out and in Wrigleyville in the 1980s, which is Wrigley Field area. It was very rough. Now it’s amazing, right? But in the eighties and nineties, Chicago was very rough in the nice area. And so there was this little car dealership, David, on Ashland Avenue between Irving Park and Addison. For some of my Chicago guys, a lot of car dealerships used to be on that street. Brand new car dealers. There was this little car dealership land. It’s 40 cars you can fit. Nobody can make it work. And they said, Hassan, you can get the lease. It’s a very rough area and my dad said, I can make it work and he went there. It ended up becoming one of the top car dealerships in all of Wrigleyville. People from around the Midwest we’re going buy cars from him because He was so incredible. I told my dad to this day and I said, dad, everything you touch turns to gold. He goes, no, son. I just don’t touch everything. I know what to touch.
[David] That’s a really good lesson right there. Very good principle. Yeah. Know what to touch.
[Amir] Yeah, that’s right. It was very discerning. He said, Amir, I just saw that the people weren’t running it the right way because the demographic of car buyers were Latino, really low income, working in the restaurants and stuff like that and you’re selling inexpensive cars, but if you take good care of them, they’ll come back and so my dad became a legend. He would take care of one person if their car broke down, he goes, I’ll fix it for you, don’t worry. And they just started coming in droves and they trusted my dad and he sold so many cars out of that place and, he dragged me to work at a young age because I had a 1.7 GPA in high school. We moved five times after we moved to Chicago. We lived in a 500 square foot apartment, then a 700 square foot apartment, a thousand square foot apartment, and they bought their first home in 1992 for $290,000 because we were living in a community outside of Chicago. And David, I was getting into a lot of fights because I was very angry at the world. I had a chip on my shoulder. I was getting made fun of. I was less men. I didn’t speak good English. I didn’t have good grades, right? and so I just was angry. I was always like arguing with people and so I got into a really bad fight one day. Came home, my mom saw a black eye. I was 12 years old. She says, what happened? I said, oh, mom, I was playing basketball and moms know their kid, but rather know they’re like, nah. So she called upstairs to the third floor because my best friend, Charlie Orhan, big shout out to him. We came home from school, so she called the apartment. There was landlines back then. And she asked the mom, did Charlie Namir get into any fights today? She goes, lemme go ask Charlie. She says, Charlie, what happened? And Charlie was kinda lie to his mom. She says, don’t lie to me. He goes, Amir’s in trouble. He got into a fight with some really bad kids. And if he goes to the school dance tonight they’re gonna, bring weapons, then they’re gonna really hurt him. So my mom said, you’re not going. And we left and we went to a really prominent community. We bought a small home and my mom said, we gotta get this kid with better kids. So moral number one is the fastest way to change your results is change your reference group. So I go to this school, David, it’s all super affluent kids. They’re all 98% Caucasian. It’s four Indian kids, me and one African American kid, right? So already I’m angry because I’m like, I’m not rich. I don’t have any type of education like this sucks. So what happens is. One day I run into this Armenian American kid. He looks like me and he goes, Hey man. He goes, you’re a really good basketball player. Why don’t you come to my church? Because we have a really awesome youth group on Sundays that has amazing basketball games and I’m like, search. Now remember, I’m born Muslim. Okay? We don’t practice though. Like my parents are super like whatever, right? I said, dude, church and I’m like, are you guys gonna do something to me? Brainwash me up? ’cause it was like, whoa, yeah. So he’s no dude. He goes, it’s super chill. Just come by. We go there. And I’ll never forget this. I’ve told this many times. I walked in this church. I’ll never forget it, man. It was so diverse. Everybody was so happy. Everybody was so nice to me and loving to me, and it’s full of joy. You gotta remember my first 12 years was a lot of contentiousness. Anger, frustration, financial stress in the house. Like worrisome, my mom won’t bring popcorn and coke to the movies, that’s how broke we were. Like it was hard, man. And you feel it as a kid, like you wanna get a new pair of shoes? Your parents are like, you’re not getting those. And so I see these guys. So I accepted Christ at 16 and my entire life changed from that moment. My parents were like, what is going on with this kid? This kid’s not getting in trouble. They’re like, keep going. Danny, shout out to him. He’s my best friend. I brought him in the mortgage business. He’s done multiple a hundred million dollar a years, right? He brought me to, different Christian things and. It’s really changed my life and that’s the whole premise of the go coaching flag, which on my hat. My favorite verse is, iron sharpens iron. So one person sharpens another. Yes. And I realize I’ve had some amazing people come in my life. Yeah. Proverbs 27:17 and I said, holy cow. The greatest shortcut in life is people. I go, these people have looked like poured into me. Some of the mentors will talk about. And they looked at me for what I am and they led with love and here I am. Barely high school graduate, college dropout. I made my first million at 25 years old. I lived at home till I was at 27. So it’s a true American story success story.
[David] Yes, pulling yourself up and it’s really the opportunity. And I love the fact that it’s who you hang with. What do they say, Amir? You probably have these statistics down. Your net worth is gonna be within so many percentage points of the group, of the top 5 to 10 people that you hang with. And I think there’s so much truth. The influence you have, the mindset that people have around any of us is gonna influence us dramatically. And I know you coach about this, talk about that.
[Amir] I thank you very much for that. David, I have realized that if you know better, you do better. Yeah. So I’ll give some really funny examples and I’ll give some serious examples. So two weeks ago, I go to lunch with some successful guys and we are ordering lunch, and I’m like, man, that burger looks really good. The guy goes cob salad. The guy goes, quinoa salad. The guy goes, this guys was this. I’m like, I’ll have the salad and what I realized in that moment, I said, these guys are high performers. What they put in their bodies, they’re fuel, right? Yes. They’re in great shape. They look healthy. If I was in six guys that were completely outta shape, they would’ve ordered a burger with fries and diet Coke, and they would’ve been really lethargic. Now look, I don’t judge anybody, but what I realize is, man my, my like, just mentality went up being around these guys and in the Farsi language, which is my native language, we have a lot of sing. The greatest poet is Rumi, which was Iranian from 5,000 years ago. My mom always hit me with all these like poems. She goes, Amir, but I’ll hit you with a Persian accent too. She goes, Amir. You have to remember, if you put a white glove on your hand and you put it in the dirt doesn’t turn white, the glove turns dirty. You have to be around good people. So, she’s right. I realize even it’s the littlest things. Like two days ago I was with a bunch of entrepreneurs, the level of conversation that I was having with them, I came home, David, and my wife’s I go, my IQ just went up, like I feel 30 points. And I’m with other people and they’re talking about fantasy football and stupid things, and I just feel stupider, right? Yeah. I’m like, I, gossiping about this person. You’re talking about politics and this. I go I just, you gotta be around the right people to level you up. About in every part of your life.
[David] Good point. That’s so point. Then it kind explains how you went from telemarketer to baller. You dropped outta high school, you real estate school. Tell that story. Telemarketer, baller. I love that phrase that you sent over to me to talk about.
[Amir] Thank you. I wanted a short stint in college. So, when I went to this high school, it was really prominent. I was in freshman classes my senior year. And I had a 1.7 GPA and I said, man, my parents came to this country and I’m constantly in trouble. I’m in detention. I’m getting, I’m not doing well in school. I can’t sit. I have ADHD, so all these kids are gonna nice schools. And I felt really down. It was a dark moment in my life because I felt like, man, I’m a loser. So I started having bad conversations with myself.
[David] Yep. Self-talk very defeat.
[Amir] Self-talk is, yeah. And I was in a bad place so I decided, I’m gonna go a couple years in college, but I hated college. So I’m praying, I’m like, God, what am I gonna do? So, I’m filing in this class two Middle Eastern kids walk in and it’s in real estate finance. And I said, okay, like I can assimilate with these guys. One of them walks in with a suit, David, right? We’re 20 years old. And I said, dude, why are you wearing a suit? He goes, I’m an account executive in the mortgage business for World Savings Bank. I said, there’s a bank in the world where everyone puts their money in. He’s no, that’s just what it’s called. He goes, I said, what is an account executive? And he explained I was a, wholesale lender. I go to mortgage broker shops. I convinced him to send me business. I said, wow, you wear a suit and tie. He goes. It’s an amazing business. It was 2003, right? Some prime glory days, right? So I said, wow. I go, tell me about yourself. He goes, I grew up in business. I grew up in business. My dad would have me come to the car dealership every Saturday, and I work six days a week. So I learned, I. How to have a second education. And I joke around with people. I say I had a 1.7 school GPA, but I got a 4.0 street GPA.
[David] Yes, because I’d rather have the 4.0 street GPA every single time.
[Amir] Yeah. Good. So my dad taught me at a young age how to sell, how to negotiate how to count money. People know this story because I’ve said a few other podcasts, but he gave me so much confidence because he allowed me to negotiate with customers. We would go home and we would have in-house financing where people would make payments. And so we drive home on Saturday nights and I’d sit in passenger seat and he says, count this money. And I would count the money on my lap. And I became comfortable with money. And he would have me in all his meetings. So I learned, I became a man in a very young age. And so I said, I like to hustle. I wanna go to work. So I said, can you gimme a job to this young man? He goes, yes, there’s a mortgage brokerage. These two guys left Americlass They’re some of the top guys in the country. And they need some young hustlers. And I said, I don’t care what it is, I don’t wanna work for my dad anymore. I feel like I’m hitting the limit. So fast forward, I asked my dad for his permission. I lived at home till I was 27. I saved a lot of money and I ended up going in the mortgage business and I was a telemarketer and they gave me public records and the first time I night, I came home, I actually went to my bed and I cried in my pillow because I said, I’m not gonna be able to do this. These guys are talking a hundred miles per hour, these rate sheets. Like now people have loan sifter and Optimal Blue. But if you remember David, those rate sheets. Oh my God. I was like, what this is hieroglyphics. I don’t understand any of this. What am I’m not gonna be able to do this. I said, this is the hardest thing I’ve ever experienced. I just wanna go back and sell cars. But I said, you know what? and my mom was knocking on my door. She said son, are you okay? I’m like, mom, I don’t because I would come home and she had dinner for me, Persian food. I’m like, I don’t want to eat. I had no appetite. But I said, you know what? I’ve never been a quitter. I’m gonna show up again the next day and when I relate, my journey is like a 30 year amortization. The first payment’s, high interest little principle, but you gotta show up the next month and make the next payment. And it’s a little less interest, little more principle. So I said, I’m just gonna show up every day, get a little bit better. I’m gonna have high quantity. Now, David, I became the number one telemarketer in this company. 300 people. I was the youngest guy. I’m something of legend, right? I’m not bragging. I can cold call anybody anytime, anywhere, and I promise you English is my second language, but sales is my first language. I will convince ethically anyone because I mastered through practice and study vocal impressions, how to do a P60 perfect 60 second opener. Because here’s what happened, David. I asked my boss, I said, I’m calling these people that have an 8% interest rate and we’re giving them like, what a 5% interest rate? He goes, yes. He goes, so we’re doing good. We’re saving them money because I was always been a good Middle Eastern boy, like even though like I was a troublemaker, I’ve always, I was raised right, and I said, so you’re telling me these people are paying extra money and they don’t need to? He goes, yes. Yeah. Now I’m stupid smart. I don’t overcomplicate things. I go, okay, this is not fair. So when I would call, I would say, my name is Amir. I’m a local lender. I think it’s highly unfair that you work so hard and you’re paying an extra $300, $400, $500 a month, which is $6,000 to $10,000 a year when you don’t have to. And it’s my responsibility to help you save that money. That’s what I would say.
[David] That’s effective sales rep. How would anyone turn that one down?
[Amir] Dude. And then I learned how to say Hi. How are you with perfect annunciation? in over 20 languages. Dead serious. And today I can, if you test me, I’ll rattle off at least 15 right now. I saw their last name. If it was Opolis, it was Greek. All I need to hear is a little accent. because you gotta perk your ears when you sell. I listen to everything. If it was Nigerian, Ghanaian, Japanese. Chicago is very diverse. So in the car dealership, I watched my dad greet people in their language and I learned from him, and I said, A cold call starts off with high tension, low trust. It’s how can I get rapid rapport? What’s the definition of rapport? Is connection. If I can crack the code and speak in their language at the beginning, right outta the way, they’ll assimilate with me, and from there I can work the sale.
[David] That is so basic, but it’s so true. It’s just so true.
[Amir] Yeah. So I did that and at that time, David, like these mortgage guys, ‘03, ’04, ’05 were making crazy money. I was the number one earner in the company. I became a loan officer because every application I take. I had go put it in the bin for the processor to pull credit or flex credit. My boss, Kevin, would take a hundred dollars bills on the board and says every app you get, take the hundred and put the app in the bin. So I’m coming into the office, right? This is before I became a top producer for the company motivator.
[David] What a great motivator.
[Amir] I’m like, I can make 300 to 500 cash a day. Oh my gosh. I hit the lotto, right? I said, just to call people and help them. I made more loans than anybody. I’d work late Fridays. I work all day Saturdays, and I would pray for it to rain on Saturdays so people would stay home, right? So, listen, this is before auto dollars and everything, so I’m hitting the phones. I’m getting really good. I’m coming in and I’m seeing these guys drive these guys in the parking lot, the loan officers driving nicer and nicer cars like few months later I go, Kevin, shout out to my boss, Kevin Taylor. I said, can you walk me through the process? I take this application. What happens? because I’m like, I’m just doing what you’re telling me to do. He goes, kid, I’ve been in Americlass with some of the top salespeople in the country. I have never seen someone as good as you on the phone. If they say, hello, you are getting their social security number over the phone to get the credit. That’s how good you are. He goes, and not only are you that good, every app you’re taking is qualified. These guys are all closing loans. I said, Hey, how much are these guys making? He said, oh, Everett made $40,000 last month. And I said, wow. He made $40,000 last year. That’s a great income. He said no. it is a true story. There he goes. He did $40,000 last month. I go, oh, he made $4,000 last month, so $48,000 a year. I was, he goes, Amir, $40,000 in one month. I said, are you kidding me? I said. Show me his paycheck right now. I go and I’m done. because I was going part-time to school. He’s look, you’re, I says, mortgage guys can make this much money. He goes, Amir, the mortgage business is one of the most underrated high income industries in the entire country. People don’t think mortgage guys make money, right? Fast forward, I’m like, dad I’m dropping outta college. You gotta gimme one year to show you school’s not for me. So he just said, keep your nose clean and save your money. So I had no bank account. I’ll bring my checks and give it to my mom and she would deposit it and my dad said, you’re not gonna blow your money, just, you’re gonna save every dollar. You’re gonna buy apartment buildings. So, I bought my first 17 unit building at 24. Then I bought a 28 unit building at 26, and I still have those buildings 20 years later and it got me through some of the darkest economic times for me in my career. That’s how I’m blessed I am to have my parents, man.
[David] Man, what a great story. Kudos to your parents. Great principles and that, so that’s how you went from telemarketer to massive successes as baller, usually the baller. I love it.
[Amir] So, you know what David, people will ask. Not a lot of these young guys follow me on Instagram, on LinkedIn, right? Man, I don’t. I wanna be as, I’m a relatable guy, which I think is needed these days. A lot of these guys online, they’re charlatans, man. They sit in front of Lamborghinis and all these things. That ain’t me. I want people to know like I’m from nothing and so they ask, what’s the secret? I say, I’m gonna tell you three things, man. I said, you could take it for what you want. I go, now that I’m at this stage in my life where I’ve done very well, I said, number one. Have faith in God, whatever your belief is. I’m not here. I go, you’ve got to have faith because God’s gonna get you through some tough days and you’re gonna have them. I said, so that’s one. Stay close to God because he keeps you humble and he keeps the devil away. Okay. Two is learn how to sell. So you learn how to sell. Read the selling books. Watch the selling videos. You learn how to choreograph great vocal impressions and conversations. You’ll meet the girl of your dreams if you’re a young man because you’ll know how to talk, right? You’ll get doors that will open up. You’ll get more income, you’ll meet better quality people. Learn how to sell. It’s the greatest skill you can have and I said three live below your means. I lived at home till I was 27 and I stacked every dollar. So God, Sell, Save. You do those three things consistently for a long time, and you can be in the right circle of great people. It’s not hard. It’s easy.
[David] So true. Yeah. Big shout out to Randall Gillespie, who connected me with you, and he says, you wait till you meet Amir. And he said, there’s so much similar between the two of you, Dave. He says, you’re gonna love the tide. From our first conversation, I have just sat there and drunk from the Amir fountain and you’re now coaching, mentoring, consulting, and I saw this in your therapy, so you gotta fit that one in there for me.
[Amir] I went through this journ ey, where I became a top loan officer, top branch manager. I’m really proud to say I’ve taken seven LOs from zero million to over a hundred million dollars a year in production. And I wanna share something with you because the timeliness is so important. I got a text message two days ago, this is May 8th, 2025 and I got a text message exactly two days ago, and it says, today is my 19th year anniversary of entering the mortgage industry. Man, I get emotional man. He goes, my first day in the business was May 6th of ‘06 with you. He goes, working with you and learning from you is one of the most valuable things that has ever happened to me. Okay, so this person is killing in the mortgage business. It’s a big, it’s a big part of who I am and I decided from 2012 to 2022, I did over a billion dollars in personal production and I led my group to over 10 billion. But throughout that time, David, I was always a good high performer. I kept my physical, emotional, mental, spiritual state good. I made sure I created harmony in my personal life. Like this week I set a personal record. It’s only Thursday, I picked up and dropped off my 3 year old daughter at her school every single day. I didn’t miss one day.
[David] Oh, that’s good. Most important thing you ever know of all the success you’ll ever have in your life. Those are the moments that will define you because she’ll be the one dropping flowers off at your grave. It won’t be all those people that you helped along the way. It’s just one of those things, it’s who you connect with, who you who are you doing it for? and that’s so important. Family, God, family.
[Amir] That’s right, man. So I looked at my calendar in 2022. I had all these clients. Now I’m not complaining, right? I just said, man, I’m really good. But I just wasn’t fulfilled and I started to get realtors that were calling me and says, would you coach me, Amir? Because every time I talked to you, you give me one gem. And I find a way to get more listings and more buyers. The loan officers in my company were coming to me. They’re like, dude, I have. It’s incredible. What you say is so tactical. I take it back and you unlock for me, goes, would you coach me? I said I have this. I had impost. I always have, people have imposter syndrome, which is a good thing. It means I’m humble and I’m like, dude, I don’t know. They’re like, you just did 150 million. What are you talking about? You’re incredible. I’m like, no, what? I get the 250 million, right? So I said, you know what, I’ll help you guys out. So, I looked at my calendar and shout out to one of my greatest mentors, Todd Scrima because he says, in life you have a job, career and then a calling. And I had asked him, I said, Todd, how do I know if it’s a calling? because he says, it’s gonna keep calling you dummy. I said, oh, that makes a lot of sense, Todd.
[David] Yeah, so Todd Scrima. Todd Scrima is a great friend and I had the honor of coaching him for a period of time.
[Amir] Okay. Todd is a mega successful mortgage guy. And he was my coach, now he’s my mentor. But I just kept getting called to get mentored. I’m sorry to coach. And I would look at my calendar and I was like, all these appointments, none of them bring me meaning anymore. I can do this in my sleep. I’m bored. But I had one coaching call and I would prepare for it. I would get excited about it. I would wake up. I would create the agenda. That’s exactly, I’m like, I had a pep of my, I was happy those days. And I said, you know what? This is my calling. I’m really good at it and I said, the industry is going through a major change.
[David] What year was this?
[Amir] There’s a lot of this is 2022. Okay. People are coming off the high of Covid. We went from 2012 to 2022. People are working from home. Rates have gone up, people are really broken mentally right now. They’ve rested on their laurels. Social media’s really taking over now the way people shop for mortgages. And I said I’m 40 years old at the time. I’m 43 now and I said, I understand social better than most. I understand how to sell. I can promote and prospect better than most. I can market and sell better than most and operationally, I have a system dialed in. I’m a young guy, relatable. There was a changing of the guards with mortgage coaches, right? So I said, you know what, I’m gonna do something. I’m all about abundance, but I’m gonna put this to the test. If you guys follow me on Facebook or Instagram. I started putting out content every day. I’m talking tactics every day for my loan officer community, and I blew up like brush fire, and people said, Amir, your free contents better than most people’s paid coaching. So I said, okay, there’s a market for this. Let me just give it all away, right? Yep. We got our first student and I said, I’m still gonna do loans. I did $90 million in 2022, right? Part-time. My daughter was born via surrogacy after a crazy journey of infertility, right? She was born, we sold our house, we moved into Little Rock, Arkansas, our second house, while our home in Miami was getting done. I’m building a business, doing mortgages, so I’m doing Go Coaching from 5:00 AM to 9:00 AM. Mortgages from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Go Coaching from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM Wow and it blew up within a year, we were like 50 students, 100 students, 200 students, 300 students and I’m not cheap, David, by any means. I’m one of the most highest ticket loan officer coaches in the country for a reason. I know my worth. I know my coaches’ work, but people were investing and renewing. So I said, okay, this is where God needs me to be exactly where I need to be. And now here we are.
[David] It’s amazing. So amazing. So you are, one of the things that, it’s so interesting, I was talking to coach mostly in the mortgage industry, but I’m also coaching a urologist who owns a Dr. Gapin of Gapin Institute outta Sarasota, Florida. And he was talking, he, and he’s now coaching other doctors on how to provide good men’s health. And he said, Dave, every time I do this, when I’m seeing patients, it’s okay. I used to enjoy that, but when I’m coaching another doctor and how to provide better men’s health, I come alive. And I think you just hit on something that I really want to underscore. What makes you listener come alive? I think that’s your calling. I think that’s, at least that’s where people, whether you believe in God or you don’t believe in God, you gotta pay attention to what gives you life, what brings you life, what in your life brings you life and I’m not talking about golf. That can be a, that’s a great hobby to have. That’s a great sport to have. It’s fun to have golf, but what brings you alive vocationally. When you recognize how, when you talk to someone, help, how do you help them discover what brings them alive?
[Amir] Is I always say study it to see if you love it and if you love it, study it. So everybody has to know throughout the day there are certain things that they look forward to doing. I think every person has to pursue mastery in something, right? So a lot of the young people that are watching this, maybe in their twenties like experiment, try different things. Figure out what you’re good at and then when you get into your thirties, you should have an idea of who you want to marry, where you want to live, and what you want to do, which is the three most important decisions in life. But after a while, you know you’re not gonna find fulfillment in anything until you’re a master at it. I cannot stress that enough and you can’t be a master in it if you don’t enjoy it. Like I love the science of sales. I read the books. I watch the videos. I just, I’m enamored by it. It’s just so like profound to me how the science of language. And so I put all my time into it, right? But I just think everybody has to just stop and look because what’ll happen is this has been proven. If you do something for about 10 years Typically by your early forties, you’ll get bored by it. And you won’t be able to find enjoyment unless you could teach somebody else to do it.
[David] To do it. That’s exactly right. That’s what doctor was, he used to do it, enjoyed it until he hit a certain point in his forties and now he’s finding his joy in helping someone else learn how, so he is duplicating himself and others and that’s what you’re doing right now. You have Mortgage Mastery Ladder. Talk about what you do. I think the life that you bring. I’m still chuckling over Todd’s comment to you. How do you know it’s a calling? because it’s keep because it keeps calling you. I think there, there’s something in that. I love Todd and some of his expressions. Great guy. But what is Mortgage Mastery Ladder about?
[Amir] Well, it’s we just had our major event. We have two events at Go Coaching in May and October, and we’re just coming off the May event. It was in Phoenix, sold out in 60 days, 400 plus LOs. It’s the number one in my opinion, and many people’s opinion, and I’d love to have you at the next one in October David, if you’re listening, all of you guys, you should attend. It is a number one high performance loan officer. Event, I think in the industry it’s incredible.
[David] Why do you think that is? What is what it is it that makes it so amazing? One is how I lead it. I make sure it’s tight. I set rules. This is not, we’re not messing around here. We start on time, we’re focused. The event is a resemblance of the people I run with. They’re all high quality men and women, this is the content is second to none. So what we do is the first day high performance versus high achievement. High achievement is doing really well in your subject matter expertise, but it comes at a cost of your PEMS, physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual state. You burn yourself out, you burn others, you burn bridges. I’m not interested in that. High performances success in all parts of your life and having harmony, right? So the first day, it’s all about personal performance. We have guest speakers that are really well versed in marriage success, spiritual success, mental performance success. We pour into people’s personal cup so they can be the best for their families and not give their families the rest of them. The next day. It’s all professional performance with active top producing loan officers that have breakouts. They’re each pick a subject matter expertise. And we do 20 breakouts and you get to pick which ones you want to go to throughout the day and you just for one hour learn that specific topic, right? So it’s slightly immersive and highly really well structured, right? I think with the Mortgage Mastery Ladder, I talked about that and I gave some amazing stats. David, I got the crowd incredibly optimistic. I said, guys, in 2020, 2021 off memory, there was 400,000 plus loan officers. In 2022, there was about 350,000. Now don’t quote me ’cause I’m just freestyling this with you, right? But I have the data on the deck, right? I’m gonna be someone, the ballpark, I said in 2023, 150,000. 2024 was about a 100,000. This year is 2025. They’re projecting the year is gonna end with 80,000 loan officers. All the trusted sources out there. They’re predicting in 2026, there’s only gonna be 65,000 loan officers left from IMBS and that actually, do one transaction. So now check this out. The origination volume went from 4.4 trillion in 2020 and it went down, and now it’s about, it’s projected to hit 2.3 trillion in 2026. Which has been steadily going up, and you only have 65,000 LOs. The average median home owner’s age is now 38 years old. Millennials are the largest demographics of home buyers we’ve ever seen. That’s right. In 2026, the average age of a millennial is gonna be 38 years old right now. David A. Stevens god rest, his soul mentor of mine. He was an incredible guy when it comes to data. Now, the men lie, women lie, but the data doesn’t lie. The data, I think we’re gonna see the roaring twenties. I think if people can just hold on, we’re gonna see an amazing run because I know one thing, being in this vast mortgage ocean, and a skill sailor, right? knows how to navigate. You understand? So a smooth seed never made a skilled sailor. 20 years I’m doing this. I know one thing about this business. It goes up and it goes down. Very cyclical and I think we’re gonna see an amazing run. So, I told the audience, you got to pursue mastery though. So I want you to master sales, marketing, opts, and finance. So there’s a ladder, which is a mortgage mastery ladder. The rungs are your skills. You have to really learn how to embrace modern social media marketing, right? because people trust personal brands. You have to learn how to sell better. Like I have my students at Go. They’ll send me a Zoom recording of a loan consultation. What you experienced from the first time they send it to me from six months later is night and day difference. Most loan officers listening to this, they’re terrible. They think in their mind they’re Arnold Schwarzenegger. But when I bring them in the gym, they can’t do two pull-ups. They think they’re so good with their initial loan consultation. Most of them are terrible. But when I break down the playbook of how to do a professional loan consultation to have people really understand your value and not show them all candlestick charts, like 70% of people don’t understand all that. It’s how can you explain what crayons and show your value in a very harmonious way that’s selling. How do you scale? The side is your team, because you cannot do more than 8 to 10 loans by yourself and you’ll burn out. How do you hire staff? Yep. It’s all about it. It is all about leveraging other people. Now that’s, leverage is the most powerful word in business, right? So I show them how do you have points of sale? How do you have points of thought? Marketing is how do you live rent free in your audience’s mind. So when they’re ready to do something, your marketing is, I gotta call David. Points of sale.
[David] I love that expression. I love that expression. How do you live rent free in your future customer’s mind? That’s so good.
[Amir] That’s exactly, yes. Points of leverage is how do I hire staff, to do this. Now, the height of the ladder is all about your coaches and your community. You can’t hang out dude, MIT did a research study, they said. If you take low producers and put them with high producers. High producers volume goes down 30% just through the simulation, right?. So low producers can’t hang out with low producers. They gotta be hanging out with better people. So now check this out. The height of the ladder, David is all about your community and your like upward minded peers and your coaches, right? The wall is the company. I’m a very big believer on this. Your ladder has to be on the right wall. Your company has to match your ambition. You follow? So this is how I want everyone to think about the ladder is the days of just showing up and doing loans. Nope. You better learn those points of sale. Right to work a borrower through the process. So your experience is really illustrated. You better make sure your company has what you need from a leadership standpoint, culture standpoint, from a programs product pricing comp standpoint and I’m not insinuating anything like I want to be a hundred million producer, so I want to a company that had a lot of a hundred million dollar producers, right? That’s where I wanna go. That’s for me what it is. So what coaching does too, people are complaining in the market right now about tariffs and taxes. I tell people, how about you worry about yourself and the tariffs and taxes you are paying? and they’re like, what do you mean, Amir? I go, every day you’re paying an ignorance tax. A dump tax. You’re paying an arrogance tax, you’re paying an isolation tax. How about you go run with the right people and pay less than those type of taxes.
[David] So much. So good. So good. So good. So inspirational. I love it. I love it. And I think a lot of advice a little bit, go a little bit deeper into when leaning your ladder against the right wall, against it’s the right company. Today, what are you seeing out there companies you’d say now, without getting into naming companies, but what would you say? A company that is not a good company is what? What does it look like and what is a good company that you should lean your ladder against?
[Amir] So leadership is everything.
[David] And how do you define leadership?
[Amir] How I define leadership is how you lead yourself, right? Yeah. That’s number one, right? Leadership is influence. If you can’t influence yourself, right? Which is to progress every day in all the different parts of your life. To me, A lot of leadership is humility, investment in yourself, how you carry yourself, right? So leadership is influenced to yourself first, and then it’s can you lead other people? So when I look at corporate leadership in the mortgage business, right? So let’s say you’re a little mortgage broker owner, or you’re a big IMB owner, right? I think there’s three things I’m seeing because I work with a lot of executives and there’s some that I absolutely do not like, some I don’t respect. So I stay away from them and there are some, I’m absolutely love and respect and back, which I’m not gonna mention any names, but I’ll tell you the distinguishing factors between each one. The best executives right now, they understand the loan officer is their customer. So, they’re getting on planes and they’re going out and they’re getting in front of their loan officers.
[David] Great point.
[Amir] Yeah, and they’re in the trenches and they’re asking them they love feedback. Success is a road that’s paved with while received feedback. Look at Matt Ishbia. I just finished his book and I know people that know him. He goes around, I follow him on LinkedIn. He ask if you were CEO of this company, what would you change? That’s what he asks, there’s a reason the guy’s the number one lender in the country. You understand?
[David] Yeah. Yeah. I can tell you some wonderful Matt Ishbia, I will tell you some wonderful Matt Ishbia stories. Yeah I met with him in his office and one time, and I shared the story and then afterwards, I was there when he is first got in. His dad was a client of who owned the company at the time, and I went into the visit. So I was instrumental being at a key point in when he was just coming into UWM and every time I come in, show up at his company, he comes up, Dave, come on up to my office. We gotta talk. So we sit down and talk and after I left the office, I went into the restroom. I used to restroom, and there’s this guy whistling through and he was so happy, Amir. And I said, dude, you look so happy. Why is it he’s a janitor in the facility of UWM and I go, why are you so happy? I wanted to say, because you’re a janitor. He goes, are you kidding me? Do you know that if Matt Ishbia told me that if I keep this bathroom clean, I get to be an opener someday? He created vision for the janitors in his facility. I was so turned on when I saw this. I went back to him and guess where Matt wasn’t in his office anymore? Guess where he was? He was down working the phones. He was answering phones at the switchboard, Amir and people to hear what’s going on at his company. These are the kind of leaders, a lot of people say, yeah, but he’s full of himself. He’s all his vibrato. Lemme tell you what I see about that man. He’s a winner. He’s a guy that is focused in on absolutely pursuing excellence and what do I have to do to learn how to do it?
[Amir] So when you think about, yeah, no matter what people might say I don’t understand any of that. You can learn from anybody. He’s, I’ve heard he’s a good man. He’s, he gives time to his wife and kids. He doesn’t miss things. And he’s very humble, yet confident. He’s a man that’s on fire and so the leader has to give you the mentality that we’re gonna win. They’re visionary. They’re very communicative. Like I was at our company recently, which I’m not gonna mention, people can Google it. There was no vision, there was no alignment. There was no feeling of we’re gonna dominate. You understand? There was, loan officers are leaving, they’re suing them. It’s what? What are we doing here? I go, I’m out. You look at a guy like Ishbia, he reminds me your Janitor story. In 1962, John F. Kennedy visited NASA for the first time, right? They were trying to take a man to the moon. He goes up to the janitor and says, sir, what do you do here? Do you know what the janitor said? Mr. President, I’m helping a man get to the moon.
[David] That’s vision. Yeah. That when you have the most, when you we have everyone through the whole organization, even down to the janitor aligned with your dream and vision and they believe in the vision and they’re speaking it. That’s leadership.
[Amir] So I think the three things I’d say is leadership has to be all in and by, all in. As they’re traveling, they’re getting with their LOs, they’re understanding what they need. They understand the Los is the customer. They’re visionary, [you understand no vision, things won’t get done right and I think third, which in my opinion is the most important they’re just understanding technology. They understand we have to get the best tools for LOs to win right now, and then it’s still true these days. We are seeing technology take over our industry in a way that most people are not prepared for. Those are the three things, man. And I think at the end of the day, what I’ll tell you above and all that is these executives, this mortgage business is hard man. And the executives that are all in, right? Like you take your eye off the ball right now as an executive or like a CEO of a mortgage, like you’re gonna be in trouble because it’s this. Right now, this market, I’ve said this on other podcasts the last few years before 2022, David, it’s been like driving on a convertible, listening to Beach Boys, one hand on the steering wheel. It’s been easy. This market is F1 baby helmet, harness two hands on the steering wheel. You’re an executive. Every day matters. It does. Every move matters. Every expense matters. You gotta be all, you gotta be a little crazy. Right now
[David] You gotta be able to look great. I interviewed Brian Hale yesterday for a podcast, Lykken on Leadership podcast. I’ve got coming up really excited about it. He says, Dave, you and I have been in business, he’s been in business for 47 years. I’ve been 51 years. And he said, Dave, I’ve never seen it so difficult. The last two, three years have been the most difficult years of our life, but out of this is gonna come some of the best mortgage lenders out of this because when you go through these difficult times, you find out who comes to the top and those are the ones that are gonna win. You pay attention to them. You’re one of those ones that’s winning. You look at what you’ve come from, you look at where you are, what you’re doing in the lives of others. Amir, it is so exciting. Again, shout out to Randell Gillespie who thinks the world of you and now I understand why. What a joy to meet you. I just can’t wait to have you back. So how can people get in involved with Go Coaching? How many you’re doing an outstanding job with that.
[Amir] David, before anything I’m very honored and grateful to be here with you, you’re a man that’s one of the first guys to launch a podcast in this business and one of the greatest, one of the greatest things that I’m attracted to business people or anyone in general is consistency. People talk a big game, but they just don’t wanna do it consistently. You’ve had this thing for years, right?
[David] 17 Years. Yeah.
[Amir] You made me feel very important on this call, and so I mentioned that you’re on my personal board with advisors. My advice for everybody is have domain mentors. Yeah. Go find mentors in your domain and then find mentors and adjacent type of work. My pastor is my mentor. I have husbands that are great in marriages, and my mentors and I have domain mentors. Like mentorship is very important to me. Obviously I have a coaching company. There’s days when I get on a coaching call with David. I’m like, I’m either gonna be a coach, teacher, mentor, therapist or consultant on this call which I’m gonna be?
[David] That’s right. You put that therapist. Why do you say therapist? Because there, is therapy. What I mean what we do?
[Amir] Yeah. The men mental mechanics of loan officers has never been more broken in the 20 years I’ve seen. You have to connect before.
[David] Why do you think that is? Amir? I think the business has been the hardest it’s ever been. So it’s back to how hard. Many of them are isolated. They don’t, they’re not working in offices anymore. So negativity fills in the silence vacuum and so it’s, they’re getting in their own head. They made a lot of money and they’re not making as much. They’re getting raid shot. It’s just they’re getting hit every which way, it was, It’s, and so like they need sometimes just to talk about what’s going on in their personal lives. So coaching is, all right, what’s the problem? Here’s X, Y, Z, go do it. I’m gonna hold you accountable. But sometimes therapy is just talk, just I’m your…
[David] It’s bring able just to listen to someone. It’s amazing how lending a listening ear can do and that’s so true.
[Amir] Yeah. So guys on social just if you type in @amirsyed on Instagram or you just type in Amir Syed Mortgage, you can connect me on LinkedIn. I’m on Instagram gocoaching.io. G-O coaching.io. There’s a lot of information on there as well. Whether it’s with me, there’s still some great coaching companies out there. So it is not a plug for go coaching, right?
[David] I want you to plug it because it’s really good.
[Amir] Thank you. We’re changing lives every day. We’re considered the number one loan officer coaching community in the country right now. Like you guys, the person that says it’s lonely at the top, I think said it wrong. You can’t be at the top if you’re lonely. You cannot get to the top without other people. Get your career degree. Our community is winning every day in this market by the tactics we’re sharing with them. And it’s taking your 30 year mortgage amortization career and putting it for 10 years. You’re getting hyper amortization in your career.
[David] That is so that’s a great analogy. We’re in the business. Instead of having a 30 year ramp, why not shorten it to 10? You do that with through Go coaching. That’s awesome. What a joy to have you here. I am so honored and again, so grateful for Randell to introduce you as my brother from another mother. And from another country. Now here. And blowing up the world. Thank you. In the most successful way. Thank you so much.
[Amir] Thank you very much. Thank you everybody for listening. Thank you for having me. I’m very honored. Thank you, sir.
[David] Oh, that’s a real honor. Blessings to you. Appreciate it. Listeners, you can like, and share this podcast, share it with so many, and then most importantly, get out and get to the, can you imagine what it’s like, it’s gonna, how it’s gonna change your life when you get to sit and listen to someone like this, and then the people he surrounds himself with. You gotta be there. What is the next. Next session.
[Amir] It’s gonna be in October 9th and 10th. We’re in between couple cities right now, either Nashville or Kansas City, but it’ll be on the website gocoaching.io.
[David] I’m gonna be there. I’m gonna be there. I can’t wait. Yep. All right, brother. Thank you so much for being here.
[Amir] Thank you everybody.
Important links:
About the guest:
Amir Syed is a mortgage industry veteran with over two decades of experience. Starting in telemarketing, he climbed the ranks to become one of the nation’s top-producing Loan Officers, personally originating over $1 billion in loan volume over the past decade.
He is the co-founder and CEO of GO! (Growth Only) Coaching, the leading coaching community for Mortgage Loan Advisors in the U.S. Most recently, he completed his tenure as Chief Growth Officer at Lower.com, a fintech leader in mortgage origination, where he focused on elevating production through coaching and driving Lower’s innovative online-offline growth strategy.
Amir is also a Founder Friend, and Executive Board Member of FirstHome IQ, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to online education in homeownership and financial literacy—reflecting his commitment to empowerment through education.
He lives in Coral Gables, Florida, with his wife Arsi, their daughter Valentina, and their two teacup Yorkies, Coco and Peanut.