TRANSCRIPT 🔗
Tony Thompson, CMB: Hi, I'm Tony Thompson. Welcome back to another episode of Chasing Excellence. I'm excited to have with me today my guest, Don Carter, who's a VP of Mortgage Lending for Guarantee Rate. Shout out to my old employer, Guarantee Rate. Don is coming and joining us today from Lake Oswego, Oregon. Don, did I get that right? You know, I'm a Southerner, so I have
Dawn Carter: You got it right.
Tony Thompson, CMB: a little twang there every once in a while, so bear with me. But seriously, I'm really excited to have you as my guest. Don, thank you for taking time out to share your journey, your story, and really how you are making an impact in your local market. Before we get started, usually I ask everyone to share a little bit about their company guarantee rate. But I think most people know who GR is. And so from that standpoint, again, I happened to used to work for Guarantee Rate. when I was originating as well. But you're up in the Lake Oswego market and you've been in the business for about 32 years. Don, it's hard for me to believe you've been in the business 32 years. We're gonna go back down memory lane here in a few minutes because I'm sure there are a lot of great stories, a lot of great insights that you can share over the course of your journey in this industry that really can educate, enlighten, and to a certain extent help the audience as well. But first and foremost, speaking of story, we all have a story of how we got into the mortgage industry. Don, what's your story?
Dawn Carter: You want to hear my story, it's a long one.
Tony Thompson, CMB: Let's go for it.
Dawn Carter: So I was working at a startup company called Pi Systems and we created a product that's like the iPad now. And they had sent me on, well, actually I took a vacation. I went to Puerto Vallarta with a girlfriend from LA. And so we met in Puerto Vallarta and she had met this woman on the airplane. and she was traveling with her brother and we hung out with her the whole time we were in PV and she just was so fabulous and she just made her job sound so fabulous. She was dripping in diamonds vacationing all the time. I'm like, what do you do for a living? And she said, I'm in mortgages. And I don't think I'd ever heard the word mortgage before. So on that trip, just kept hearing about the mortgage industry over and over. And I met a guy in the pool and he's like, yeah, my wife is a top producer. It's a great business for women. There's no glass ceiling. As hard as you work is as much as you get paid. And so I came back and then my company. that sent me on a business trip. And on that business trip, I walked into the hotel and there's this great big banner that said, welcome Association of Women Mortgage Bankers. It was just, I'm like, my gosh, it's a sign. And then I come home from that business trip and me along with 11 of my coworkers got all laid off at the same time. Then I walked back to my cubicle and the phone rings and it was Steve starts from professionals 100 wanting to know if I still wanted to buy a house. And I said, no, I need a job. I just got laid off and I've heard about this mortgage industry thing. I'm kind of maybe I'll think about that. And he said, we'll call Rod Mastrude at mortgage one. And I did. And then I met him, then went on like 10 different informational interviews, just kept getting handed down to the next person. You where do I fit in banker, broker, wholesale, retail, loan officer, loan processor, underwriter. And at the end of the day, I went back to Rod and I took the job. 1994.
Tony Thompson, CMB: Wow. Wow. Talk about fate. Talk about signs. As I like to say, that's pretty cool in terms of how you got your first introduction to the mortgage industry. I always love just trying to hear about that because I think no one has just one perfect story of I was in college and I was majoring to become a mortgage originator or an operations professional. You know, wow. What a story in terms of that journey and the rest, as they say, is history.
Dawn Carter: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Tony Thompson, CMB: So, Don, obviously you're a great producer in your local market. You've been in the business, shall I say, a minute. What do you see right now as the greatest challenge for originators in this industry?
Dawn Carter: The greatest challenge in this industry right now is realtors don't come to the office.
Tony Thompson, CMB: Mmm.
Dawn Carter: Everyone's working from home. I'm being brought to you by my kitchen, right? Everybody's working from home. So that's the more challenging part right now is finding ways and places and times and spaces to get in front of people. You have to be intentional.
Tony Thompson, CMB: Yeah. You know, and I think that's something that as an industry, many originators are still trying to figure out how can I be seen? How can I add value and how can I connect? Because as salespeople, we innately want to talk to people. We innately want to be in front of people to build that rapport, to confirm that we know who we are. We know our stuff. And it's really hard. trying to get in front of someone who's never in the office, who is also very similar to what we do, working from home, working remotely, and whatever the case may be. And so I often hear as I travel across the country, it's one of the biggest challenges for originators that they face. How do you adjust to that, John? How are you adjusting?
Dawn Carter: Well, the way I show up in the industry is I teach classes, CE classes for real estate agents. So I just taught one yesterday. It was a hybrid. So I just network with my title companies and I show up on Zoom. That's where I show up. And then any kind of any networking opportunity, I absolutely dive in and I say yes to everything, right? Even if I'm not feeling it today, it's like, put on your big girl pants and get your butt out the door, right? So that's the hard part is get your butt out the door.
Tony Thompson, CMB: I like that. You gotta get your butt
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out the door. So speaking of
Dawn Carter: Yeah.
Tony Thompson, CMB: getting your butt out the door, sometimes it's really difficult to get your butt out the door. I will use that phrase or to just stay focused, stay positive, stay energized. Cause as you, I'm sure being in this business 32 years, you seem a lot of people come and go. You've seen a lot of cycles come and go. How do you
Dawn Carter: Mm-hmm.
Tony Thompson, CMB: stay focused and, and, and locked the end on on trying to grow your business and sustain your business.
Dawn Carter: Staying focused is tough for sure. I just keep my eye on the prize, which is at the end of the day, financial freedom and retirement, right? Am I ever gonna retire? I doubt it. I love what I do. But getting my kid through college, right? So if I didn't work, I'd be bored to tears. So I just keep. Again, my eye on the prize of I love what I do. I love helping people and people need me. And so I have to show up for them. So that's what keeps me focused.
Tony Thompson, CMB: You know, one of the things that I do here at Chasing Excellence is when I think that there is something that we need to go back and refocus, I call it a nugget. And what I heard from you was every originator, every salesperson needs to remember and focus on keeping their eye on the prize. Whatever that prize is of that reason why you're waking up in the morning, the reason why you're putting in the long hours, the reason why you're going out there, grinding and hustling for that next deal. That's the prize that on your worst of worst days, you've got to remember the eye of the prize. Stay focused on keeping your eye on the prize. know, Don, we talked earlier about challenges in the industry, but As an originator, where do you see opportunities? What are you excited about right now that potentially is an opportunity from your perspective in this industry?
Dawn Carter: Well, what floats my boat is educating consumers. So I think that is probably one of the most important pieces of our job is not just doing the job and doing the loan, but it's having educated the consumer well enough that I have that opportunity to do the job. So I, I'm talking to high schoolers.
Tony Thompson, CMB: Love it. Love it.
Dawn Carter: I teach them, educate them on credits, budgets, what can you afford, how do you tell people you can't afford it in a graceful way so that you can, by educating our next wave of home buyers, right, so that they're ready for me.
Tony Thompson, CMB: Now, Don, I'm going be honest, we're in the mortgage industry and you know we only can have the capacity to think about the next 30 seconds. But, you know, I'm sure there are some originators out there saying, she's going to teach in high schools and teach financial literacy. I'm not going to get a deal from that. What would you say?
Dawn Carter: Nope. Well, I did get a deal from that because I went to the high school. The high school invited me in. It was their idea. And then I did an after school. I said, yeah, I'll come in and talk to the whole senior class about budgeting. But what I really want to do is I want to invite parents in with the children and do after school, do a two hour education, because if. If the parents are who they're going to listen to oftentimes, and if the parents are giving them advice that differs from what I'm giving them, who are they going to listen to? So it's important that the parents are on the same page and understand this. most, so many consumers just don't know how to use credit cards the right way. How, where, when, why saving money matters. So I did. and I closed a transaction from that presentation.
Tony Thompson, CMB: Bam. So another nugget, by having a go-giver philosophy and sharing your knowledge as a trusted advisor, you never know when you will meet and get your next deal. And so oftentimes I think originators and sales folks discount. the small things, but those small things are actually things that can turn into big diamonds and big opportunities. love, again, that's why we got you on here, Carol. Don, we wanna hear that story of how you are really at the 32 years in the business, how you are really positioning your business and making a difference at the same time. I love that. Now, speaking of, you know, the... I won't say tenure that you have, but the wisdom that you have by being in the business. What one piece of advice done would you offer to a young person who's just starting out today trying to elevate their business? What would you tell him or her?
Dawn Carter: That's easy. That's the class I just taught yesterday for real estate agents, which is mining your database for gold, which means create a database from day one. And it has to be your own database, not through the company that you work for. So I've been 32 years in business and I have worked at four. different companies over 32 years, but more than four on paper because they kept getting bought by, but I had to,
Tony Thompson, CMB: Sure, sure.
Dawn Carter: I picked up and left. well, the first company just went out of business and thank goodness that I knew enough from day one of being in my business to have my own software, my own database that I keep.
Tony Thompson, CMB: Great. You know, I can't say how often I see originators who move from company to company and over the course of five, 10 years. really have not owned and managed their database like they should to be able to really source those diamonds in the rough or those diamonds. so again, you're dropping wisdom. You've been here, you've seen a lot of cycles, you've seen a lot of people come and go. And these are the small consistent things that you've done over the years that now have allowed you to actually originate at a consistent basis, month over month, year over year. Man, this is really, really exciting. Done. I never like to leave our podcast without talking about gratefulness. Done. What are you grateful for?
Dawn Carter: I'm grateful for having been laid off my job at Pysys.
Tony Thompson, CMB: No
Dawn Carter: I never would have, never would have taken the risk to go to a straight commission job, right, on my own. I got booted out. And, know, it's like God took me by the shoulders and shoved me into this industry. And I'm just grateful for that and grateful for my clients who trust me and come back. just worked with a client that I met in 1996 and I'm just beyond grateful for their trust.
Tony Thompson, CMB: Well, I too am grateful that you got booted out and that God picked you up and put you in the mortgage industry because you've been doing a lot of great work and lost weight. We go, if I say that right. Like I asked we go, you've been doing
Dawn Carter: Le Cascigo,
Tony Thompson, CMB: a lot of work and positively impacting the community, but at the same time, positively impacting your life. And that is what chasing excellence. is all about. So done much love, much gratitude, much thankfulness for you coming on the show, sharing your information around your journey, your trials, your trip relations in turning a setback into a comeback in terms of just how you use an event in your life and really turn that to something that ended up being a life changer or difference maker. for you from a career standpoint. So thank you. Definitely got to make sure we get you back on the show here in the future. Guys, I want to thank you for joining me with another episode of Chasing Excellence. I'm Tony Thompson, your host, and I look forward to seeing you on our next episode. Take care.