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Why Do You Want A Business Machine And Why Should You Build One? With Joe Rojas
It is Monday, December 27th, 2021. I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas. We are glad to be back. This is a form of communication that is exploding. Our readership is exploding. We're so grateful for your help. This show is created by mortgage professionals for mortgage professionals. We're grateful to have you as our readers. Our commitment is to bring you timely information that you can read anytime and anywhere. I got an exciting hot topic. We have Joe Rojas joining us from RedSapiens. He also has a new company called Start Grow Manage. This guy is helping entrepreneurs across the country, not necessarily in the mortgage space but in a startup company. I was talking to him about another matter, interviewed him and it clicked. I said, "Would you mind coming to my show and sharing your story?" It's like one of those Christmas stories. This guy was born on the other side of the tracks from where he started to where he's at, what he's doing and the passion that he has. I'm excited to share this story with you. We're thrilled to be a part of Industry Syndicate. I encourage you to check out all the episodes at the website, IndustrySyndicate.com. We’re also grateful for our sponsors, the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, as well as Finastra with their Mortgagebot Solution, Lenders One, The Mortgage Collaborative. The Community Mortgage Lenders of America and Insellerate. Josh Friend and his group over there do a great job of helping you engage with the borrowers and consumers more effectively. Knowledge Coop is a great learning management system, as well as Mobility MMI and Modex. Both of these companies help you select and find top-talent LOs and hit them on board. You skipped the laser target. The information that these two companies have is amazing. We had on Ben Teerlink on December 20th, 2021. We also had Dale Larson III and Dale Larson Jr., father-son team on November 22nd, 2021. One of our newer sponsors is Snapdocs doing a great job with over three million mortgage closings done electronically for lenders. You got to check out what they're doing. It's one of those sleeper companies that's coming up and it's going to take you and the industry by storm. Check out Snapdocs.com. Also, SuccessKit. They do a great job of helping you tell your story and have your story told. I like this one proverb. It says, "Let another man's mouth praise you, not that of your own." In other words, the most effective sales force is your existing customers and what they're saying about you. Check out SuccessKit.io. Lender Toolkit. Brent Emler, we had him on November 29th, 2021. Check out that episode. We're going to be doing a lot more with Lender Toolkit. We also have several new sponsors coming on we're excited to announce. We should be live with them in January 2022. It’s so good to have you with us.---
Welcome to the Hot Topic segment. We have a special episode that I pre-recorded, a guy by the name of Joe Rojas. Joe is not a mortgage individual but he's an entrepreneur and helped many people get started. He'll be joining us in the consulting business and will be working with us to help encourage people along through the various micro steps. I thought I'd share his story on the Hot Topic segment. Without further ado, let's get into the interview I recorded with Joe Rojas.---
I am excited to have Joe Rojas with us. He is CEO Chief Visionary for RedSapiens. I'm excited to have him come on. He's a new friend and I'm getting to know him. He's a fellow podcaster, which I'm always picking up ideas from fellow podcasters. Joe, it’s good to have you joining us on the show. I’m glad to be here. I’m so excited. Let our audience get to know you a little bit. Tell us a bit about yourself and your background and how you got to the point where you started RedSapiens. I started a new company called Start Grow Manage. We have Start Grow Manage and RedSapiens to help IT companies become better IT companies. That's the space that I come out of. I started my IT company way back when. With Start Grow Manage, we're doing the same thing but for all kinds of entrepreneurs. What is the catalyst for you to do this? What caused you to be drawn to this? I have a sense that I'm called to dive into what I'm doing. I have a strong sense that this is something you're "supposed to do." I am called, for sure. I can certainly agree with that statement. To answer that question, I need to give you a little background if that's okay. I grew up in Washington Heights in Harlem. When I was 5 years old, my parents split up so I spent 5 years in the Dominican Republic, which is where my parents are from. A lot of stuff happened over there. Some of it is not so good with physical abuse and all kinds of stuff. I was like, "I want to come back." I told my mom that I wanted to come back. I pressured her into bringing me back at ten. She brought me back but little did I know that she had been in a car accident. She had some brain trauma and wasn't doing very well. We were homeless for about a year and it was rough. I was still going to school but we were living in the park mostly, in the basement, on park benches or wherever we could find. When I turned eleven, I decided I'd quit school and get a job, start working full-time so I did. I started working then. By the time I was 17, I had my 1st business. I had 25 bouncers working for me and that was interesting and fun. When I turned nineteen, after people had been shooting at me and trying to stab me, I decided I'd do it professionally so I got my GED. That would probably be a good motivation to start a new career. The fact that you had bouncers gives you some insights into the clientele that you were working with. I can understand why you wanted upgrades. I want a career upgrade so I got my GED and went into the Army National Guard. They sent me to school for two years for night vision, thermal viewers, global positioning systems and all kinds of cool electronic equipment. I learned how to do that, came back to my National Guard unit and tried a couple of civilian jobs. It didn't work out for me. I applied for a job at the Department of Defense, which I was very happy that I got. For the next four years, that's what I did. I fixed night vision for the 10th Mountain and a bunch of other three-letter organizations. After about four years, I got poached by a biomedical engineering company because I worked on some equipment that they had that I knew how to fix. I ended up getting a biomedical engineering job without a Biomedical Engineering degree, which I thought was interesting. It was a rare character in that cast of players. Two years after, I got this project to network my blood gas analyzers with some computers and I fell in love with networking. One of my lieutenants from the National Guard Unit was with a national IT company. I said, "I'd like to go work for you." Later, they were like, "Come on. We'll take you." They brought me over and I ended up working there and enjoyed that. About a year into it, I decided that I'd opened my business and then I did. I sucked at it. I was so bad at business. I was terrible. I was an amazing technician. I could fix anything. You have a gift in a certain area and we assume, "I can open a business and run that." There are many aspects of running a successful business, which is something you helped so many through. Out of those failure experiences, I'm amazed. A mom and you living in park benches and basements, wherever you can survive, you're more than a survivor. You've overcome so much. Americans who grew up in a considered normal environment look back in years and are wowed. I love these stories. It’s a very redemptive type of story. You started a business. You thought it would be an instant success and didn't go quite as you thought. What did you suck at? I was a great tech but I didn't know how to get clients, close business, put a contract together, price or do any of the things that I needed to do as a business person. For about a year, I continued to suck and spent a lot of the money that I had saved while I was working for the Department of Defense and as a biomedical engineer. I made a lot of money in the '90s when I had a six-figure income. That's a big deal. You started your life off back in New York sleeping at park benches and basements. With no high school or college education, you went and got some practical skills. You came back. You're working in Biomed and technology. This is very unusual. What would you attribute that to? My mom, even with all the issues that she had, was a go-getter. She trained me how to be a go-getter. She was smart. She came here to this country. I was born here. That was good for me. What I attributed is that opportunity. Where you're born matters. Being American matters. If I had been born anywhere else, I wouldn't have had the opportunity that I had here.
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There are a couple of things here, Jack, that I want to dive into. You and I both have watched so many people reinvent themselves with varying degrees of success in this industry. For me, it’s not about education. Though I value a great education, it's more about those that have gone out, done it and made it happen. That's what I like about Joe's story, quite frankly. Jack, you have seen and banked many companies at your former employer where you have watched many individuals go out and start companies. Some of which failed and some of which succeeded. One of the things that Joe talked about is finding and focusing on a niche rather than trying to be all things to all people. I'd love to get your thoughts on this interview and some of the things that you've seen that have attributed to someone succeeding. Also, some things that more importantly probably have helped or contributed to people’s failure. First, Joe's story is inspirational. I was listening to the interview, it captured me. You characterized it as the other side of the track to coming from nothing. To start, fail, start, build, sell, move into different verticals, struggle and then finally, success. I find that to be so inspiring. When I was in the warehouse lending business, we liked banking with new companies. Part of that reason was if you help somebody at this very fragile time in their corporate existence and they make it, they'll stay with you for life, David. I like that startup market. When you think about the mortgage business, the mortgage sector is made up of entrepreneurs. The lifeblood of the mortgage industry is people who start, grow and build. There are so many stories out there with large mortgage companies that came up from the bootstraps, David. There are amazing things in our space. I can think of a large number of names that would fit that category. I thought the interview was nothing short of inspirational at the right time of year for an inspirational message. I always gravitate, especially to those inspirational things. This is the time when we reflect, especially between Christmas and New Year. We're going, "What do I want to do?" How many readers are out there that are feeling dissatisfied like, "Maybe I should do something different," but they don't have a path to it. They don't know how to do it. They don't know where to go to do it. Casey Crawford, Movement Mortgage, was at that place years ago. He googled how to start a mortgage company. He had no clue but he started where many of us do and that's a Google search. I had a website I came up with, clicked on it and had a walk-on video. It was back in the time when you could use flash videos and record a marketing statement in front of a green screen. I looked like I was walking out on top of the website. He thought that was innovative and I shared a message that resonated with him, talking about how I had started companies. I am passionate about helping people that want to get a company started. I've surrounded myself with a team of top professionals that will help you get there. Casey reached out to me. Years later, he's the fifth largest independent mortgage banking company funding multiple billions of dollars and mortgage loans each year. It’s wildly successful. There are many other success stories like that. It starts with passion. In Casey's case, he saw how the mortgage industry has run. He watched his sister get a mortgage and says, "There's got to be a better way." That was his inspirational moment to get into the mortgage business. There may be very many people. Jack, you and I have seen this. If you're miserable in a job, backing out of that and backing into a new experience, everyone needs to say, "I'm looking at a problem. I don't like it. I am going to make a decision. I'm going to leave." You decide. You don't have to be happy there but you sense that there's something more for you. That was the case for Casey and many people out there. Adam Huddleston of Integrity Home Mortgage has a wonderful story. He was on drugs, came out of a halfway house, started a mortgage company and is wildly successful because of people. I had the privilege of getting onto his story early in life. There are so many stories like that where I've had the privilege of helping. What I'm passionate about is helping people. Do not start something by backing away. In other words, you need to stop, pivot, turn and start being conscious of what you're going to go into. That's one of the things that I encourage people to do. Jack, we're getting more feedback on your contribution to the pontification so please pontificate. David, first, I would like to ask you a question since you've been in the business of helping these entrepreneurial people build out or create their dream. In the mortgage space, do you think that more people start their businesses? It's the majority of those folk that does that successful loan officer as opposed to other areas of the mortgage business. Do you think the majority of people that create their business come out of the production side as opposed to capital markets, operations, compliance or many other areas of our business? There are some notable exceptions but without sales, it's the entrepreneurial sales-driven personality type that does that. The vast majority come out of the sales side of it. That is a good thing. If we don't have loans to fund and you don't know the originations, you don't have a company. For those that come out of the operational side or some other aspect of the business, we're watching several investment bankers coming into the space. They're buying companies. That's probably the best place for them but they want to make money. They fail to understand the importance of the loan origination component of the business. Those that are most successful have come out of sales. That's my experience. Have you seen the same? I certainly have. One of the things that Joe was talking about that was one of his early challenges was understanding the continual marketing, sales cycle and how to close business. That's something that successful loan officer has had to do during the courts of their careers. They understand the sales cycle and closing real estate relationships with realtors which is the continual marketing piece of this. They've already got that. That part is incorporated into their DNA. One thing that I got out of your conversation with Joe was the benefit of having a mentor or a company that you associate with that helps you build out your strategy and plan. Joe described it as an Army field manual. I chuckled at that. It’s the thought of having mentors or associating yourself with a company that can help you put your plan down in writing. If you have that down in writing that you can touch, feel, read every day, any day you need to and you feel you're straying a little bit, go back to your plan and work your plan. That plan evolves as the market changes, the business grows and the target client profile begins to evolve. The plan is dynamic but you need to spend time creating and evolving your plans. That anchor you as a startup entrepreneur in what is a very competitive and dynamic business. When you look at where you're at, reader, where are you at? You can be an entrepreneur starting something inside of an organization. Many organizations are hungry for entrepreneurs but you can also be an entrepreneur and that's outside your organization. If you're looking for guidance on that, we have helped so many companies do that. It doesn't have to come at the hands of a consulting firm. Jack, you are one of those guys that many have turned to as a warehouse lender because they sought you out for advice. They know you are always ready to offer words of wisdom about any aspect of the business. That's something that people need to do. They need to seek out advice. There's an old saying, an old proverb that's like, "In a multitude of counselors, you wage your war." Business is war. It feels like war and if you go at it in any other way, you're mistaken. This should be going out, there are enemies out there. If you're going out to the market, you're taking on someone else's market share. You're diving into it. That's an attack. That's going to set off a bit of a war per se. Thankfully, no one dies, hopefully in these wars that we have. Businesses will come and go, come and die. There are so many opportunities out there. I have been an entrepreneur for the better part of my years in this industry. I worked for other companies. Like the one person said about grandkids. Had I known how much fun grandkids were, I would've skipped and gone right to grandkids and avoided the first part of the journey. You can't get the grandkids unless you have the family. There is a certain amount of level of pain and growth. Jack, I'm going to let you wrap this up. We want to talk more about this based on some comments we're getting. This is an important series. We’re interested in learning more about servicing but this is one where many are wanting to go out and start their company. Jack, we may have to figure out where we put the order of this but certainly, we'll need to do more on this because we're getting a lot of feedback from people. David, that goes back to the entrepreneurial spirit that we find in mortgage banking. That's a continual thread that pulls through our industry. I was sitting there listening to you thinking that it's great that you're a good quarterback, running back or wide receiver but players need coaches. You can scratch through a coach and put in a mentor. You can scratch through a mentor and put in a company like Joe's that will help you build out the core foundation that you're going to need to be successful as an entrepreneur in the mortgage sector, which is extremely critical. To that end, I can see us dedicating a couple of episodes in the future to how to start your business, how to do it the right way and avoid some of the natural pitfalls that a lot of people will step into. What did Joe tell us during the interview? Joe said, "If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have made those." Through coaching and mentorship, those repetitive pitfalls can be avoided and accelerate the growth of any startup company. The spirit of entrepreneurship burns bright in the mortgage sector. We ought to try to lay out, "If you're going to do this, here is a way to do it that will help you avoid known pitfalls that mortgage banking entrepreneurial people will find themselves making in the early stage of building their business." We've got a whole series of episodes we're going to do. When it comes to the show in the new year, we're going to be setting in some very specific things that you, our readers, have told us you want. We're getting some great feedback on what we've talked about here, as well as the servicing. There's a lot to talk about. We hope you will come back and be a part of the show throughout 2022. Jack's here with us and we're so thrilled to add his vast amount of experience and wisdom. We got our regulars. They'll all be back. We'll be back and looking forward to sharing so much of what's going on. We're going to be having as our special guest Shayna Arrington of The Money Source. We're going to be talking about an exciting topic that you all will enjoy reading. I want to say a special thank you to our sponsors, Finastra, CMLA, Lenders One, Insellerate, Mobility MMI, Modex, MBA, Knowledge Coop, The Mortgage Collaborative, Snapdocs, SuccessKit and Lender Toolkit. Check out all of our sponsors on the sponsorship page. We're grateful to have you. Jack, I'm thankful that you took the time to join us on this holiday show. I want to wish you a very Happy New Year along with all of our readers. Thank you so much. David, I had a good time discussing the concept of entrepreneurship in our space. I would like to certainly wish all of the readers out there a very safe and Happy New Year and a great start to 2022. Looking forward to it. Thank you, Jack. Readers, thank you so much. You're the best part of this show. We love hearing from you so please get out there and send us some emails. Send it to David@TMS-Advisors.com. We look forward to hearing from you. Have a great rest of your holiday week between the two holidays. Have a happy and blessed New Year. Be safe out there. We'll look forward to having you back here.Important Links
- RedSapiens
- IndustrySyndicate.com
- The Mortgage Bankers Association of America
- Finastra
- Lenders One
- The Mortgage Collaborative
- The Community Mortgage Lenders of America
- Insellerate
- Knowledge Coop
- Mobility MMI
- Modex
- Ben Teerlink - Previous Episode
- Dale Larson III and Dale Larson Jr - Previous Episode
- Snapdocs
- SuccessKit.io
- Lender Toolkit
- Brent Emler - Previous Episode
- The E-Myth
- Transformational Mortgage Solutions
- How Entrepreneurs Thrive
- Movement Mortgage
- Integrity Home Mortgage
- The Money Source
- David@TMS-Advisors.com