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What happens when hard work is not something you learn later in life, but something built into you from childhood?
In this episode of the Culture Matters Podcast, Jay Doran sits down with John Flores, National Sales Director at NEXA Lending, to talk about the experiences that shaped his approach to leadership, coaching, competition, and accountability. John grew up in a farming family where raising animals, working the land, and doing your part were simply expectations. If the work did not get done, there were real consequences.
That mentality followed John into athletics, collegiate coaching, and eventually the mortgage industry, where he has spent more than two decades learning what separates people who consistently perform from those who continually find reasons they cannot.
One of John's strongest philosophies is his rejection of the word "try." When someone says they tried, it can become permission to accept the failure without examining what needs to change. John would rather see someone fail, own it, learn from it, and come back determined to do better.
Jay and John also get personal about John's family history. His grandfather came to the United States from Mexico and worked as a migrant laborer. His parents sacrificed constantly for their children, including spending what little they had to support John's baseball career. John eventually became the first person in his family to earn a college degree, choosing to complete his education even when opportunities existed to continue pursuing baseball.
Those experiences became the foundation for how John leads today. His calendar has become the "CEO" of his business, implementation matters more than intention, and controlling the controllables is one of the most important disciplines a professional can develop.
In this episode:
- How growing up on a farm shaped John's work ethic and perspective on responsibility
- What raising pigs, working wheat harvest, and even churning butter taught him about doing what needs to be done
- His grandfather's journey from Mexico to the United States and the sacrifices that shaped his family
- Becoming the first person in his family to earn a college degree
- Choosing education when his baseball career presented another path
- Why John believes the word "try" can become an excuse
- How failure can actually create confidence
- The difference between competing to win and treating competitors like enemies
- What coaching athletes taught John about developing people
- Why controlling the controllables matters in leadership and performance
- John's philosophy that his calendar is the CEO of his business
- Why keeping commitments to yourself matters as much as keeping commitments to others
- How to recognize whether someone is truly coachable
- Why implementation separates high performers from people who simply collect information
- The importance of protecting your team's culture from negative influences
- John's transition from collegiate baseball coaching into the mortgage industry
- The story of the unconventional interview that launched his mortgage career in 2003
- Why today's difficult mortgage environment can create opportunity for professionals willing to stay in the game
- What John has learned from nearly 20 years of working alongside Geri Farr
- Why professionalism, consistency, accountability, and attitude continue to matter regardless of the industry
John's message throughout the conversation is simple: you cannot control the market, the weather, your competitors, another person's attitude, or every circumstance that comes your way. You can control whether you make the call, whether you keep the commitment, whether you implement what you learned, and whether you get back to work after you fail.
There is no try. There is doing, learning, adjusting, and doing it again.
If you know someone who continually finds themselves explaining why something cannot be done, share this episode with them. It might change the way they think about accountability, failure, and what they are actually capable of accomplishing.
