The Secret Sauce Podcast
Helping people build big businesses & live big lives - one ingredient at a time. That's our mission. Welcome to the Secret Sauce Podcast.
The Secret Sauce Podcast
How the Top 1% Work Less, Win More, and Think Bigger
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.
If getting 15 hours worth of work done in eight hours or less would be appealing to you that's probably everybody. You are definitely going to want to listen to this episode. This is the Secret Sauce Podcast with Chad Trease and Lacey Moores, where we want to help people build big businesses and live big lives, and we think that there's not a magic bullet for doing that, but there is a secret sauce.
Chad Trease:So a lot of these are going to be just the ingredients that can help you make up a secret sauce to build a big business and live a big life. Let's get into it. Welcome back everybody to the secret sauce podcast. I'm Chad Treese here, as always with the lovely Lacey Moores, and we got a special guest. This is one I'm super, super excited. I know, lacey, you are too, me too, all the way from Sacramento, california, legendary in our industry, todd Scrima. Thanks you guys. Yeah, definitely Thank you for being here, todd.
Chad Trease:Yes, we're going to film a couple episodes. It'll be a part one, part two probably, of this with Todd. We're going to use every second of our time with him while we got him. Todd is the owner, founder of Summit Funding, also the founder of the Core coaching right. What is he? I mean, you did found, you're still the founder either way, and he's just focused on more on the mortgage side of things now, but definitely huge in the coaching space, and if you've been around mortgages or real estate for any amount of time, I would imagine you probably know Todd's name.
Lacey Moores:Todd, how many people have you coached over your-.
Todd Scrima:Over 5,000. Yeah, crazy Over 5,000 people. Over 24 years.
Lacey Moores:Yeah, realtors, lenders, and you coach a bunch of business owners as well, correct, business owners as well, correct?
Todd Scrima:Yes, you know, business is business and there's specific industries that you know have their nuances, but a lot of it, probably 90% of it's the same.
Lacey Moores:Yeah, absolutely. I met Todd 10 years ago and you have had just an unbelievable impact on my life and what I will tell you guys when you hear him. It's a different level of thinking and there's so much to learn. So I just say we like let's just jump into it.
Chad Trease:I will say this real quick, not that we need to probably go too much further into this intro, but I think it's worth saying that Todd actually has there's not a lot of owners of mortgage companies I feel like that have actually done the loan officer role right, that have been in the trenches and like that's how you got your start I mean you were even assisting to begin with like got in right, got into, uh. So I mean he started from the bottom 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 of our last company never written a loan or even thought about writing a loan. I just never thought that I could go to him with any type of mentorship type of question. So very, very qualified and I think that's worth noting.
Lacey Moores:And Summit's been how many years now?
Todd Scrima:We'll be celebrating 30 years in June of 2025.
Lacey Moores:And one of the longest standing mortgage.
Todd Scrima:I did the math one day and just looked up all the companies and we were the eighth oldest in the country, which I don't think. I guess it's like dog years in mortgage. You last 30 years, you're like an old dog. 30 years, you're like an old dog. Yeah, uh, you. You've seen a couple things, because they tend to like be in business for five years or 10 years and go out of business or sell or merge or so was never our path, but yeah, it's been a long time huge accomplishment, though I definitely hard.
Todd Scrima:I didn't know that I'm learning I'm happy to say I still look young people are like man. Is he 70 years old?
Chad Trease:well, let's talk about our topic here, right, because we're uh gonna dive into the actual details, what we want to talk about today. But, todd, um we've we zeroed in on two different topics. The first one, um getting as much done in as little time as possible. I struggle big time with time. I know most every realtor that I talk to everybody that I coach. Time management is just, it's an issue.
Lacey Moores:It's an issue and it's something we're always working on, right Like you have to continually yeah.
Todd Scrima:First of all, I would say on this topic there is maybe a persona out there that if someone's really good at time management, project management, delegation, that they just have it all figured out. And that's probably the biggest thing that people don't realize 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 like projects or things that I'm overseeing right now, but I was driving up here and I was on the phone with one exec and we talked 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 working great, and so it's never.
Todd Scrima:It's never. It's the same amount of chaos when you get a lot of stuff done as when you don't get a lot of stuff done. I think the stress is less because you feel more productive. You see that the boat is going downriver a little faster. That's how I think about it, but it's no. I just think there's a persona that people are like well, if someone's super organized, they just have it all together and you know that's and that's not really what we're talking about.
Todd Scrima:We're talking about getting more results period.
Chad Trease:It's just more controlled chaos. Yes, right, if you're producing at a high level, it's going to be chaotic.
Todd Scrima:Yeah, on the way up here. Horrible situation where this outside company is in charge of this huge project and just got diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Todd Scrima:So you know there's a bunch of moving parts and legalities and stuff that we got to climb through to figure it out. So those things, those things happen. I got kind of addicted to this when I was going to college. So I had this period where I ran a company for my father and I was going back and forth every week, three-hour drive each way, to manage this company and finally I'm like Dad, we've got to sell this company. We increased sales the last five years by 10x and it still doesn't make that much money. And I got to finish college I was killing myself so we sold it to a competitor.
Todd Scrima:During that sale, the guy who ran this big company, fortune 500 company, the division that we sold to and he said, hey, why don't you come work for us? I said, well, you have like 40 salespeople working out of this division and it's a full time job. I'm going to college. He says, yeah, but you kicked our ass so bad up there. I know you can sell, so just sell down here right in Sacramento.
Todd Scrima:So I was big time like I got a company car, I had the big brick cell phone and they just said hey, we're going to give you so many accounts to see each day and your real job is to pick up new accounts. So I'd just drive around and cold call people that weren't on my list and I picked up two prisons and they sold. They sold products, they sold basically groceries. So I was taking 12 to 17 units in college and I had a full-time 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 was always at 8 o'clock on Monday, wednesday, friday, and I'd have three, four classes in a row and I'd have a one-hour break. So during that one hour where most kids were lollygagging, I went straight to the library, into one of those cubicles to get my work done, because I wasn't getting home until 8 o'clock that night.
Todd Scrima:You know, because I had to go to work right afterwards and I learned a few things going through that and I worked that way for three years before I graduated and A it was really fun making money right when everyone else was plum broke. Sure, was really fun making money right when everyone else was plum broke, sure, um, back then this is 30 something years ago, but I was making about my last w2 was 62 000, which is, I don't know, maybe equivalent to 100 000 today or something like that.
Todd Scrima:Um, so I'm big mac daddy, right in college, yeah, yeah it was fun to, to make money and then and then I had to get through college, which I did with a, basically a, b plus kind of average, but I had very little time. 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, you know that kind of study and I'm like I had one hour experience.
Todd Scrima:Yeah, I had one hour to study for that test, or two hours and I had to get it done good, and so that's that's a lot of where that started. With me as I was, I didn't to me, I didn't have a choice because I didn't want to take on student loans and I wanted to get through college and that was my way of doing. I didn't didn't. It wasn't like you know, these kids at 529 plans and dad's paying for your college and you can just lollygag and drink beer, it just it was a different experience. So after I then I got done with college, I was between work and college. I was already used to 60, 70-hour work weeks, to 60, 70 hour work weeks, so to start in the mortgage business, which I did right after graduation.
Chad Trease:I thought it was just a piece of cake to get started but I just worked a lot.
Todd Scrima:My dad told me years ago he says, son, and you know these one-off conversations you have with maybe your parents or a mentor and it shifts you and I was probably 16 or something. He says, son, if I were you, I would get out of college and I would just work for like 10 years and not get married and put my all into really becoming a top one percenter in your field and do that delayed gratification and then when you're 30, 32, 33, get married and have kids and you can probably work a 40-hour work week. And I, just because my dad said it, that's what I did and I just worked 70 hours a week and first 10 years 70 hours a week and first 10 years and you know, and in the, in the hopes of like stacking the chips not necessarily money chips, but knowledge chips so that you got to a point to where, yeah, when you wanted to work a normal work week, you could do that and still maintain your income and grow it.
Chad Trease:So so is that your first piece of advice to get that much done in a little amount of time is delay getting married for 10 years and just grind.
Todd Scrima:I don't think that's for everybody, but it is a strategy. It's no different than like we may tell a first time home buyer hey, why don't you buy a duplex? Exactly, Live in one side, put three and a half percent down on an FHA loan, rent the other side a year or two later, rent them both. Right.
Todd Scrima:Because it's more leverage. It's more upfront leverage and I don't think a lot of people get that with money or with work. But when you look at people that have done a lot of things, they almost always did it that way. There's not many people like win a lottery or get a big contract or go to the NBA, like you hear those stories. They're one in 2 million, right. Most people who most people look up to as a business person for this podcast, you know they just put in a lot of reps.
Chad Trease:So well, the delayed gratification piece, I think is huge too. Like Gary V talks about it all the time, it's like people are complaining. They're in their 20s and they're complaining that they haven't made it yet or their company hasn't got off the ground, and he's like you are just getting started or they're having to work too hard, or yeah.
Chad Trease:All those things, yeah I haven't taken a vacation or whatever it's like. This is the time where you're gonna grind it out and like you're putting in the work now so you can really enjoy life later, and that you're not pushing it all to the end, because that would be terrible, right, but like those first few years, you're building like the foundation there's a balance to it all and I still went on vacations and I still had fun in my mind, but it was not a lazy life at all.
Todd Scrima:Yep and uh and I would say by and large, you know it's for's, for me it's not appealing. Like you know, I'm up here partially on vacation, for my girlfriend's family lives a couple hours from here and there's only so much laying around. I watched the Masters for like seven hours straight and after that was done I told them all. I said that's the only time a year you'll see me stuck to the television for seven hours Like I just don't do it. But Master Sunday I had. You know that's my thing, so I enjoy that. So you do those things. But so I think some of it is discriminating what really brings you joy and what doesn't, and I think a lot of people spend a lot of time on things that don't bring them joy and they they're trying to look for joy, so they spread it around a lot. Just pick a couple things that you really enjoy in your free time and do that well, you find joy in your work too, though, right like so.
Chad Trease:I think that's a that's definitely a good point for people is uh, there's certain things that you're probably doing on a daily basis that you're spending a whole lot of time in that you don't enjoy doing not you, but in general, right, um, that would be a big piece of this is like try to get somebody else to do those things right. Focus on the things that bring you energy, that you're best at and that you enjoy doing. Is that fair, yeah?
Todd Scrima:So we're talking about, you know, 2X, 10X, all that stuff. So some of those concepts are it's like, Lacey, you were saying that we were coaching and hey, I started going on a walk with four of my realtors and we get exercise instead of just go to lunch so it's cheaper. I got quality time with four people uninterrupted yeah, you know walks.
Todd Scrima:If you want to talk to your kids, take them on a walk, right, because there's nothing to do but talk. Yep, right, you're getting exercise. So that'd be like a 3x maybe, and if people think about that, it'll lead them to more leverage and more delegation, which are the two levers that help people be more productive. And so the leverage piece is doing things that you would do. You're just combining them. Give an example we're doing this podcast so we're able to sit down here for 20 minutes and maybe, over the course of two years, 1,000 people watch it or part of it say half or more of it.
Todd Scrima:Sure.
Todd Scrima:So if you start doing the math on it I think 1,000 people spent 10 minutes watching this, so that's 10,000 minutes. And you do the math on it. I think 1,000 people spent 10 minutes watching this, so that's 10,000 minutes. And you do the math on that You're like well, I just helped, got some attention from 1,000 people. And then maybe a year from now you call them, or maybe your assistant calls and says, hey, chad, love to get to know you. We've got this idea to help you make money. And they say yes, because they're like I remember that guy Right, right, current stat. That is interesting. So first of all, let me give you a construct of how I think about sales and influence, so that I grew up in the 70s and 80s, so the 70s and 80s, I would say most people would think about that time period. What's a word that comes to mind if you're in sales during that time, in the 70s and 80s, 70s and 80s?
Chad Trease:I was born in 78, man I don't know what word comes to mind yeah, I was born in 83.
Lacey Moores:I wasn't thinking about sales in the 80s.
Todd Scrima:So I would say that's more high pressure.
Lacey Moores:Okay, high pressure sales.
Todd Scrima:It's more, let's just call it pressure sale. I don't like the word high pressure, 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 that era. Then you get into like the more than 90s to maybe just a few years ago, and that was more a consultant. You're more of a consultant, you're an advisor.
Todd Scrima:During this in our industry you had Joe Stumpf come out with Buy Referral Only, which was big for about 20 years. You had Todd Duncan with his high trust selling. That was specific to the mortgage industry. That would be an example, but there's lots of examples in all industries. And so then you reach and again, I think it's just last three, four years you reach a different era and I call it strategy. So, yes, there's some pressure because 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 to be consultative, but the people that are winning these days, they are more strategists. If that makes sense, they really do solve some problem. So I don't like using these big examples, but they do give clues. So Amazon, obviously one of the biggest companies now in the world and they solve the problem of time with products.
Todd Scrima:So, order something, get something. You look at all chat, gpt and all the AI stuff and they're making it faster. For $20 a month we can get information 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 faster information. I don't have to search 20 websites. I ask chat, dbt or some version of AI, and it gives me a fairly quick answer that's mostly accurate. So those are examples. So where does that go to? If you think about it, whether it's real estate, whether it's mortgage, whether it's almost any sort of industry, we're being forced more into that strategic type of problem solving because, if you look at companies, the ones that are winning are doing that. That's the one thing they have in common.
Todd Scrima:Does that make sense? Yeah? Definitely.
Todd Scrima:So then the obvious question is well, todd, I don't have any time for strategy because I'm so busy working. Okay, well, how can we lower that? How can we delegate that? How can we leverage that so that we can spend more time into that strategy role? And that's the million-dollar question that people are struggling with because they don't. When I talk to people, some people 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 a list. It took us about six months. We found a list of the top 550 investors in Dallas Texas that own five or more properties and they bought at least one last year. So then we called on that person's behalf and got him a ton of appointments 27 appointments in two weeks. We actually just shut it off because he's like I can't go on more appointments. Sure.
Todd Scrima:He is now going to the realtor the top producing realtors in his market, some that he works with 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 with investors? They met up 23% of our market, and if you say yes and we start doing business, I'm going to take you on these appointments with me. So now the loan officer is adding real value too, because what the realtor wants is more deals, right, they don't really care where it comes from If they're an investor and they're going to buy multiple homes. Some of these people own 50, 80 homes, right? So they're selling homes. Sometimes they need to sell, sometimes they want to buy new ones. So now he's offering real strategy, real value. Then he is taking the realtor with him. The realtor's already sending him business, right, and he's getting loans from the investor. So, if you think about that, that's a good use of leverage and he's using that strategic type.
Todd Scrima:Hey, I'm really solving a problem for you, and this is not done very often effectively in our business. One-on-one with a client, a realtor will help someone. Hey, my mom just died, we need to sell her house. Okay, that's solving a problem. A borrower comes in and you're like hey, we're going to do this two-one buy down on this program to get you into this house. We're going to leverage the $10,000 down payment here's what that looks like and wealth building and tax savings in 10 years Like you're doing that individually. But a lot of businesses don't know how to do it, business to business and that's where our business struggles. We just don't know how to do it.
Chad Trease:You think realtors struggle Same same same way with that. So what would be in your mind? What would be a not necessarily 10x to 2x, but what would be a good example of this with real estate?
Todd Scrima:Well, so I've coached a lot of realtors and I asked this on one of our coaching calls and a couple people raised their hand. But I've personally never seen a realtor that specializes in investors Like you think. Well, that's kind of silly. They make up over 20% of the market. Why not? There's not a good answer. They just never focused and someone just didn't focus on it. One of the biggest realtors I ever coached this is 25 years ago. She's like, hey, if I can't sell it, I'll buy it. She'd close over 200 transactions a year. She bought at the time. I coached her and we came up with that marketing strategy to get listings. I think she had bought two in five years, something like that. It was low.
Todd Scrima:Of course she's buying them below market because that's what the fine print says. But it was very effective. But people are afraid to go out on those skinny branches and say, hey, I'm really going to guarantee this. And I think where people struggle with this is they're not creative enough, like if you just think of someone's problem and you come up with a real solution that really works. That's your answer. If and if the then you just got to find people with that problem. And and does it mean specialization? Yeah, sometimes, sometimes it's just saying things better like it's. It's not always some big fancy thing. Matter of fact, it rarely is some big fancy thing.
Todd Scrima:If you look at that investor list, it did take us a long time to. We basically had to buy three different databases and merge them and it was some technology to it. But you know we had a VA in the Philippines do it all. It took him maybe 200 hours of work, maybe it cost us $3,000 to put that listing. Now we have a list for the whole United States, so it wasn't just one area, we got it for the entire country, and so now I've got something of value that I can give my loan officers and realtors that do business with 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:And that's just. Was you taking time to work on the business long enough to be creative? Cause that's what I heard you say, Like it's just being like coming up with strategy.
Chad Trease:You got to be creative and I think that as a population, just as like a human race, like we're definitely losing creativity and we're stuck in the details and and like, stuck in the grind, stuck in the nine to five, like, oh, I've got to get this task done, task done and not taking time to like dedicate to solving those bigger problems, solving a problem that nobody's even thought of yeah right and having time on your calendar to be created.
Todd Scrima:Yes, it can be that that's more like elon musk stuff. But, um, but even on a much smaller scale, if you, if you really think about it, say, okay, what are the problems that people have and how can we help them with it in our field? And so you start thinking that way, like we. We went through, uh, we have a package where we can teach someone how to hire VAs and I'll tell 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.
Todd Scrima:So this other marketing company I have it's called Jolt. You guys know about it, but the listeners probably don't. So I just I got sick of people not making enough sales calls, so I'm like I'm gonna make sales calls for them and I'm gonna charge them for it. So that's basically what the marketing. But we do all their social media and all their emails and target marketing. There's a lot more to it, but basically we're we're starting, we're doing the front end sales piece for for the loan officer. So um executive comes to me that runs that company about a year and a half ago and he saw look at, we got to hire these three more positions. And I said you hired those three more positions. We're not even making money, we're losing money. He said you're right, but we need the positions. I said, well, you're gonna have to find vas overseas. I just said it.
Chad Trease: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:I said me neither. He says but I need these three positions. I said well, you better learn it. He says okay, point taken, and he ends up hiring first va, her name's daisy. He calls, calls me about a week after she starts and he says I got a problem. He never, hardly ever, calls me. We have a weekly call for an hour and a half and we cover all this stuff. So when he calls me I'm like that's weird, I figured something's wrong.
Todd Scrima:I said what's going on? He said I got a problem. I said what's the problem? He says I can't give Daisy enough work. I said what's the problem? He says I can't give Daisy enough work. I said it's only been four days. He says the first day I gave her 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 days worth of work, she got it all done in one day. I don't know if she's got her kids helping her or what's going on over there, but I can't delegate enough. And she says please and thank you. Every time I talk to her, like 10 times, and so you know, fast forward.
Todd Scrima:We've now got over 30 of them and you know in the Philippines what is equivalent to our minimum wage. Their minimum wage is $1.50 an hour. So when they're paid $6, $7 an hour, 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 get college-educated people with master's degrees to work on our projects, and so that was a real breakthrough.
Todd Scrima:But we took that idea and we now have a whole package on doing that for teaching realtors how to do that, because there's so much stuff that they can do for the realtor so that the realtor could go from a couple deals a month to four or five and also do it at a very low cost of two grand a month or less. So that's another example of value. Now does that mean, you know, if you go to, say, a realtor that's struggling to close 10 deals a year, they're probably not going to take you up on that. But the one who's doing 30 deals last year and working 70 hours a week and they're in enough pain, they'll say, hey, the VA thing, can you come meet with me on that, like I I'm drowning over here, but I can't afford an American assistant, I don't make that amount of money to afford that, and so that's an example of solving a problem.
Chad Trease:And with that program you actually that's amazing, by the way.
Lacey Moores:Yes.
Chad Trease:You actually tell them, like how to train the VAs on what doing tasks, or is it like you need to hire? We're how to train the vas on what doing tasks, or is it like you need, like hire, we're going to hire the vas, and then you have to figure out what problem they're solving.
Todd Scrima:Part of the training program, uh, is we tell them, take every single thing you want them to do. You use, uh, you record a video on you doing it, exactly like answering emails. Okay, hey, here's the three different types of emails you're gonna respond to. Here's the time frame. You so you're recording yourself and you actually pull up your emails and go through it. I'll see that one that's junk. See this one that's important because they're on my VIP list. I got to get back to that person you know and you, you video short segments of how they can learn, on how to transfer that skill and do what you do and seek into your brain. A lot of salespeople we're not really good at details, project management, follow through. Those are all things that we naturally struggle with, but if you can record all that stuff once, then you've got it in the library that's huge that's such a great tactic
Todd Scrima:yeah, it's such a great time, then if you want it documented in writing, they will just simply take that and turn it into the main. You'll have probably have ai manuscript it and put it into a written process. But they can do that, not you right?
Chad Trease:well, it's, and that's just a good reminder. I'm not trying to get off topic or task here, but it just makes me think of like filming a video for every single time somebody asks you something that is a repetitive question that you get in your business. How easy it would be. Okay, I'm going to film the video instead of typing out that email every time and explaining that or having that conversation is oh, that's a great question. I actually just filmed a video about that because it's a very common question. I'm going to send it your way. It'll be in your inbox in two minutes or whatever. And, like, you've already professionally explained that problem better than you probably could on the spot, because you took the time to detail it out.
Todd Scrima:Yeah, you guys know Justin and our company, so he helps oversee 38 loan officers and and we had this conversation a couple weeks ago and he's now actually documenting every question he gets during his hour-long sales manager hat time and doing a video response to those questions, one by one, every single time he answers it.
Chad Trease:Just cataloging them.
Todd Scrima:But in two months you'll have this library and when people are asking you that question, you'll simply just text them the video, right? So you're like Todd, that sounds kind of mechanical, it sounds kind of this, it's. It's where we're headed, right with white-collar work, right? I was listening to a dr Phil podcast of all things. Someone sent me, and he was. He was saying the same thing to truck drivers as I'm saying to loan officers and realtors. So stick with me just for a second. He's like hey, truck drivers there's, there's I think he said the number, I think it was 1.6 million truck drivers in america. He's like as soon as that gets federally released, where the computers can drive, the big groups you're going to be out of work, so you should be looking right now.
Todd Scrima:You should be in another trade school. That isn't going to be commoditized through AI, and so he was given that advice. The same advice I would give to mortgage lenders and realtors, or any business person for that matter, is go to that next level. You're going to be forced to do it anyway. I'm part of this think tank right now with a publicly traded company and they have 100 engineers right now working on 100% automation of the loan process. I don't know if they can do it. They hired me for the mortgage part of it. We just had our fourth meeting last week. It's a huge project, but these guys go fast and they've disrupted two other industries. Could they do it with mortgage? Yeah, someday. Whether it's this company or someone else, they're going to find out a way where it's more. You know what a decision tree is.
Todd Scrima:So these decision trees that we're working on are so vast, like just one would fill up an 8 by 10 wall. Just are you a veteran and where that leads right? So massive decision trees, but you have a hundred engineers working on it, so it will get done. It's just a matter of taking what a normal consultant would do, a loan officer, a realtor and decision treeing it. Now that doesn't dismiss the relationship piece or the emotional piece that a lot of people still crave, and I crave, and I'm not saying that's going away and I'm not here to spread fear. What I'm saying is that will naturally push you towards a higher being, more of a strategist.
Todd Scrima:Yeah, it's a disruption for sure you look at financial planners. If you really talk to high-end financial planners, one of my financial planners that I use manages 1.4 billion. All he does is strategy All the where the money goes and what it's invested in. We talk about it once a month and usually don't make any changes. The computer's doing just fine. It's computer algorithms, it's not them. Oh, buy IBM, sell NVIDIA. That may happen like six times a year. With me and my financial planner we're going to outsmart the computer.
Todd Scrima:But most of his time had just spent. Hey, todd, he'll ask me questions. Todd, what's your life look like in 20 years? What do you want for your kids? What are you doing to make that happen today? What if we record some of this stuff? You're in podcast. Why don't we just record all this stuff on teaching your kids about all this stuff?
Todd Scrima:He's strategizing with me, right? How do we save money on taxes? Have you thought of doing this? It's more of a strategy conversation, not picking stocks. The stock picking is done by the computer now for the most part 95%. So that's an example. Their industry is just further down the road than ours. So how does this translate? Let's say you're a realtor and let's say you've built a lot of wealth because you have eight rentals and you've helped some other clients accumulate rentals, just using that as an example. And someone comes to them and they're like, during their presentation, during their strategy session, they're like, hey, what is your goals for wealth building? They're like, well, we'd love to maybe own five rentals by the time. Have them all paid off by the time 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 let's buy another one, right? And here's what the ROI needs to be.
Todd Scrima:Here's the cash on another one, right. And here's what the ROI needs to be. Here's the cash on cash return, right. And you do all the math so that we start finding out what kind of properties we're going to buy. So that would be more of a realtor being a strategist than well. What do you want to sell your home for? What do you think it'll sell for? I think it'll sell for this. This one just sold down the street of this. Hey, I think you need a new roof.
Todd Scrima:All those things still need to happen, but but it can happen a lot faster and you can spend more time on the strategy as we're being pushed more and more that way. So how does that play into? 2x, 10x, 3x? You're? You're going to have to be doing those things so that you have time to do the other things. It's not just automation, it's not just delegation. It's a bunch of things crammed into 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 on strategy, but I still want to get involved in some things and I constantly hold myself back, like no, they got that project, you got the update, you know they're doing, they're doing it, you know.
Todd Scrima:So I have to hold myself back because once I get involved then I start to own it you want to see it to the end yes, yeah, and it's like that's speaking my language.
Chad Trease:Yeah, I'm looking at you. Yeah, I'm like, can someone have a problem for me to solve today? So I can get involved and feel good about solving a problem that I didn't need to solve.
Todd Scrima:Yeah, yeah, I totally feel that I actually see both of you as doing that. I mean, when you look at it and a lot of your listeners, you guys probably don't brag about this stuff, but in the whole country you two separate offices but close to each other often lead the company in units per employee. You often lead units per loan officer. You often lead in fastest timeframe to close. You often lead in least amount of conditions for on the loans, meaning you're you're really good at getting all this stuff up front because you know your craft. So you know you're fortunate because you're really good at what you can do. A lot of times, like when we've all coached together, you guys do think more strategically than most people that are just like I'm trying to close 14 files, I don't have time for coaching or going on a walk or date night, that's all crap. Like I just got 14 loans right.
Todd Scrima:And it's different when I coach both of you Like, okay, yeah, we got 14 loans closing, but we're working on this project, the project we worked on.
Lacey Moores:Our last coaching call with Mike Black wrote down all the different things that we could delegate in our entire business life and you start taking remember we took 20 minutes for that and we're like wow, that's a lot, that's a lot that someone else can do, that we're still doing yeah or things that aren't being done but could be now that we've been thinking about it, yeah, and we started getting into that zone and masterminding and being in that creative creativity place, but I do think they're like chad and I just didn't walk into that, like we've worked so hard for so long to create and we have amazing teams that are so good, and so some people just want all of that gratification so fast and it doesn't happen overnight Like we've had people on our teams for years and years and years that we have poured into and trained and, man, we are a really well-oiled machine now, and now that's paying off and now we get to be a lot more creative.
Chad Trease:And now we can do a podcast. Now we can do a podcast and yeah.
Chad Trease:Right, but it is. I mean, it's a great example of 2Xing right, because the podcast we can have agents come on talk about business. We are giving back to to agencies by doing the podcast. It could also be a recruiting tool for us for a loan officer perspective. So that's a three X right. So, like this podcast actually to probably bring this thing to fruition like full circle is. The podcast in itself is a very great example of that which we didn't. I mean, we talked about it at the beginning but I'd say like there's been this intrinsic additional like four X five X, been this intrinsic additional like 4x 5x, like now with the roadshow piece that we're spinning off into it.
Todd Scrima:That's like, oh, this can actually help us grow this thing even more and it gives us energy and fills us up and we can hand the loans off to our team to fulfill them yeah, but if you look at it and this podcast is a great example if we really sit here and talk for 15 minutes, you would find it's probably at least a 10x, with all the different things, offshoots of it. And I mean some of your past clients probably watch them right.
Chad Trease:Better business people.
Todd Scrima:So there's a lot that happens with doing something like this. But what's different about this is, I don't know six months ago or whenever it was, and I'm like, hey, you guys should do a podcast and like the next month you were doing it right. But you know how many people I talked to and they're like, yeah, I should do write the book or I should develop that investor offer, I should do this research to come up with this way to help people. And it never goes anywhere.
Todd Scrima:And the problem with that is is that things are moving so fast and you're being pushed to this more, not consultative, but more it's like a strategist and the problem is a lot of people are so busy in their business they're not thinking of that strategy Right and that's a miss because of how fast things you know it used to be in the past and it still is. We're like if you're a really good realtor, really good lender, and you could just get to know some people really do a good job for people and you'll make a living and I don't think that's going away. But what is happening is things are moving much faster than people realize.
Todd Scrima:And there's two kinds of people that I see. There's one that is like I don't want to use chat to be, I don't want to do that, I don't want to look at that. Oh, that competitor's doing that. That's their dumb, that won't work right and they're sticking their head in the sand and all I'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 a thousand feet and you look down.
Chad Trease:Yeah, bird's eye view.
Todd Scrima:That's strategy, yeah. Thousand foot view or whatever yeah, and that just was a metaphor that always stuck with me. So do I think I'm not here to tell people the world's coming to an end. What I'm saying is that things are changing and if you embrace it, there's a lot. There's so few people that embrace creativity or strategy or want to go to the next level of helping people. It's just not that common.
Lacey Moores:Well, let's talk about real fast why I naturally don't go there. I naturally don't think like that 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 having mentors and who you are and who you hang out with and why that's piece is so important. But, todd, over our relationship that I've known you, you have spoken to me several times, lacey, I could see you doing this and I already heard it from the very beginning. When your dad did it to you and gave you this is what I could see you doing and you're like okay, I can do that, and that is so powerful.
Lacey Moores:It's so powerful and I'm so thankful, as I'm sitting here, the amount of times you have taken to do that with me, because when you do that, I'm like I can't do that, let's do it. Why can't I? But I never saw it and I don't know if it's why I never saw it because of constraints. So I think that's normal and I think so many people don't, because they don't have great mentors in their life or people in their life who do cast a vision, have great mentors in their life or people in their life who do cast a vision, and I'm thankful for you for always cashing the vision and still caring. I mean, here we are taught mortgage industry hasn't been great, you know, over the last couple years, and you didn't have to stick in it, and not only have you stuck in it with us, but you have constantly pushed us to challenge us to grow and cast vision and how to like. It's's such an unbelievable thing, so thank you for that.
Chad Trease:Very, very inspiring.
Lacey Moores:So inspiring. But it I mean it comes very full circle to everything you said. And, guys, if you don't have people like that in your life, find them. And I mean you could probably talk. We could do a whole nother podcast on the mentors in your life that have got you where you are, but I'm super grateful to have you as a mentor, mentor and, um, now, I'm not gonna lie, there's times you say things and I'm like he's crazy, he's crazy actually I was talking to.
Chad Trease:Yeah, when you were coaching us on va at the beginning, I was like man, I can't even comprehend, trying to think about how to train a bunch of, a bunch of so it's normal philippines, so you're immediate, like you're gonna have doubts, like yes, it's normal to think that or to think this guy's nuts or all of this.
Lacey Moores:And every single time on the drive here I was talking to Carson about you and how, every single time when I would think you were crazy, fast forward. You're right, you know. And so I got to get past that. I have to get uncomfortable with that and I think that's sometimes where I've been proud that I have tried, because it is that initial feeling that people have to get past and go for it, but finding people who will help and mentor you and talk, you know, cast that vision into you.
Todd Scrima:Yeah, I'll give a tip If someone doesn't have that in their lives. First of all, I think seeing other people in a similar industry is a good starter. You know so, like I know, that you guys either mentor or strategize with realtors right that that you two of the best loan officers in the country. That makes sense. You do it at a very high level. I started a men's group recently because it had been on my goals. You know how you have those goals that get pushed to the next year next year.
Todd Scrima:It was year seven, I'm playing it. I literally just sat down and sent out a text to 15 of my guy friends that I don't see enough that I want to see. I'm like, hey, once a month, my house 6 to 8 pm, I'm not feeding you, I'll have beer and water and we're going to talk about life and we're going to get raw. And so we just did. Had our fourth meeting last week and it's just a bunch of good guys that most of them are business people but like one of them's a child psychologist or child therapist you know there's different right and we have a ball and those. That is a example of fellowship, mentorship within a small group.
Todd Scrima:So, you could do that.
Lacey Moores:Finding your circle, yeah. Or creating it.
Todd Scrima:You created it, creating your own circle of smart people that you're like. You know what I would like to get to know them even more, but they've got something Right. Right, and maybe it's a totally different industry, sure. So there's a lot of different ways to do that. I also think it's very in vogue right now. I just listened on the way here to an Ed Milet podcast and he's like everyone's a coach, you know, but a lot of people haven't done much. So you know, push for authenticity. You know of the people that you're surrounding yourself with. You know of the people that you're surrounding yourself with. And, going back to what you said, you know a lot of these ideas. It does make people feel uncomfortable, but if you think about it, sometimes I'll be coaching someone. I'll be like, hey, three most uncomfortable times in your life, and they'll say things like the decision to get married, the decision to go to college and move out. That's a big one for a young kid right.
Todd Scrima:The decision to quit my first job for what I thought would be a better opportunity and a breakup, having children. And they say all these things I'm like, by and large. How did those three things turn out? They're like well, if I wouldn't have broke up with that dip, I would have never met my dream husband that I'm with now.
Lacey Moores:Right.
Todd Scrima:Okay, then it worked out. You made the right decision because you took a risk.
Lacey Moores:Yep.
Todd Scrima:And most people. If I were to give them one piece of advice, I'd say take more risks. People play it so safe. I'm here visiting family and Adrian has these three nephews and nieces that are 16 to 22 and they're all doing different things. So I'm talking to one, he's, he's. I said we're in the grocery store yesterday. I'm like hey, so, dom, you're, you're helping manage a restaurant. Tell me about. He says well, I'm not the manager yet. I said that's a good start, right, I like how you're talking. He says I'm assistant manager and I said great, well, you're 20, he's 19. I said when can you become manager? He says I haven't thought about it till just now I said we'll set a date.
Todd Scrima:He says, okay, that's a good idea. I said that that way you'll strive toward it, right, when you give yourself priorities and when you give yourself deadlines, you'll push yourself to achieve that faster and you'll take more risks. So, anyway, I went on to tell him. I said, dude, if you could manage a restaurant right and put that on your resume and you'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 to follow a path and make something of it, or I said or you could just stay where you're at for like 30 years, that sucks.
Chad Trease:Yeah, yeah, so that does suck.
Todd Scrima:Yeah. Definitely take more risks.
Chad Trease:It's such easy advice, but so many people need it right.
Lacey Moores:We all do, continually, we all do yeah, all the time.
Chad Trease:I think we should probably wrap this up. This has gone really long, but we could talk forever.
Lacey Moores:I know it's so good.
Chad Trease:You guys. If this was valuable to you, I would tell you. Todd is a genius and he has just launched a new podcast, the Mortgage Podcast, so check that out wherever you listen to podcasts. Also does a podcast with Robin Levasseur and Jim Reed that is for realtors and lenders, and that is the Be your Best podcast.
Lacey Moores:So check that one out as well.
Chad Trease: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 because he's super inspiring and we're just really glad that you're here.
Todd Scrima:Well, I'm and I'm proud of you guys because you you are doing such a great job in your markets and kind of just like it's so unusual to have two branch managers come together and do have the relationship that you guys have help each other, help the community. I just love it. I think you're and you're two of the best in the country and I feel very fortunate to be here and be with you guys and it's going to be this next 10 years is going to be very exciting.
Chad Trease:Yes, I agree. Yeah Well, thanks for being here, guys. Thanks for listening. It means the world to us. If this helped you at all, we'd love it if you'd share it with somebody, and until then, we will catch you next time. Thanks, everybody.
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