300 to 2,000 Units a Year: Corrina Carter's Servant Leadership Playbook at CMS Mortgage Solutions

Tony Thompson: Hey guys, it's Tony Thompson. another episode of Chasing Yases. Hi, I'm Tony Thompson. Welcome back to another episode of Chasing Excellence. I'm really excited to have with me my guest today. ⁓ you know, when you go to conferences and you're just out in industry events and you always pass by ⁓ people that you see and you know, and you give them a shout out, you you spend a few moments, they're always this individual that you love listening to what they say because they have some great things to say. Well, today. I have one of those people with me, and I'm just excited to have her. ⁓ she's been what I call a great leader in our industry as well. Karina Carter, who's the CEO and founder of CMS Mortgage in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Karina, thanks for joining me on Chasing Excellence today. Thank you for having me, Tony. I greatly appreciate it. You know, ⁓ seriously, it it's amazing when we're we're doing these events and we're out there traveling different And to different conferences. I love bumping into you because, you know, your perspective, your thoughts, and your ideas. And every time I see you, you give me energy. You know, you give me energy to be like, wow, you know, this girl, this lady is on 150 and I'm only on 125. I got to get to 150. And so I love your passion for our industry. I love your passion for people. And we're going to talk a little bit about that in chasing excellence. And and get to learn a little bit more about your story. ⁓ so let's dive right into it. First of all, talking about your story, CMS Mortgage, based in Virginia Beach. ⁓ you founded the company twenty-nine years ago. I I wouldn't have known that, Karina. Twenty-nine years. Congratulations. First question I have is how'd you come up with the mortgage, with with with the name? Well, Let me share and I d just want to just correct one thing. So I've been in the industry 29, but 21 owning my own company. So I'm old, Tony, but not that old, but close. So I don't want to give myself that much credit because when I got in 29 years ago, I didn't know what the heck I was doing. So but 21 years ago, one of the things and I'm founding my company was ⁓ the name itself. ⁓ I couldn't think of a name and I wanted no one in my family had ever owned a business and I wanted to have some type of tribute to my family. So it is my initials ⁓ because my maiden name is Ski Beck Mortgage and I did not want it's Ski Beck and I did want it to be Ski Beck Mortgage. So I'll just share with you. and then at that time I was still a Carter. And there was a couple Carter mortgages. So I was like, well, I'm just gonna go with CMS Mortgage and CMS Mortgage Solutions and everybody will think it's Karina Mortgage Solutions because I was a solo producer for a very long time. But so that kind of worked when I started. Great, man. I love that name and it's always interesting to see someone's journey. ⁓ twenty one years owning your own company. You've grown the company to to to really ⁓ you guys now are in, I think ⁓ 27 states. You're you're based again in Virginia Beach. You're always in top 50 brokerages ⁓ in America, ⁓ you know, consistently. And and most importantly, you know, we're gonna talk a little bit about that secret sauce. You you really just focus on building a company just recently over the last three to five years. And so, you know, before we get into the the story and journey of the company, Karina, I like to say we all have a story about how we got into the mortgage industry. Karina What's your story? So, true story. went into work one day, got a ⁓ a pager, a beep, ⁓ nine one one for my sister. I'll make it very short. Is she said, either I'm going to be in the hospital or at the police station. I may need your help. And I was she was two hours away from me. ⁓ long story short, about two hours later, my nephew got helicoptered to the cancer ward in Northern Virginia. I told my boss I had to leave to go be with my family. I didn't know if some of my family was gonna be here in a couple days. My mom was panicking, my sister was panicking. And in that time, Tony, my boss told me, if you walk out the door, Karina, don't ever come back. Because I gave you a grave opportunity. ⁓ you're a single mom. You're gonna make the most money you've ever made this year, and I need you this weekend. And I said, so does my family. So guess where I went? ⁓ and four days later I called him and said, Hey, Paul. And yes, I still remember his name, hey Paul. ⁓ you know, can we rethink this? Have a conversation? And he's like, No, what did I tell you? And I was like, Are you serious? So ⁓ three weeks later, my girlfriend called me and said, Hey, I know a guy that needs some help doing mortgages. I said I've never owned a home. My parents just literally bought a home a couple of years ago. We've never owned a home growing up. I don't know anything about mortgages. And she's like, he just needs someone to shuffle papers or go to the courthouse or do so I ended up being a Girl Friday for a whole entire mortgage company for about nine months. And me and my girlfriend worked for almost pennies for nine months until we could prove that we could get hired to become originators. And then I was like, I see a little light at the end of this tunnel. I think I can do this thing. So that's how I started. You know, I always say out of out of every ⁓ situation that doesn't seem like a a good situation, there there's some good, right? And and and so I don't know Paul, but if I was Paul today, I would be kicking myself. Matter of fact, I would be sending you roses once a year just saying, I'm sorry. You know, so kudos to you, congratulations, and as we say, the rest is history. And we're gonna talk a little bit more about that history that you've created and and and built and and really you're still writing your story, which we're, you know, again, gonna peel this onion back here in a few minutes. But let's talk a little bit about our industry. Karina, you know, from where you sit ⁓ as a broker owner, ⁓ what do you see as one of the biggest challenges in our industry today? I think one of the things I think I see the biggest challenge in our industry may not exactly be our industry in a whole per se, but it's really with us as individuals and how much bandwidth do we have to work every day as far as in sales or and being a business development person, being an influencer, being a salesperson, being a relationship builder. When you are running your life on a daily basis, and as you said, 150%, at the end of the day, the last thing you really want to do is walk in the door and people someone asks you, How is your day? You just want some silence. So I think a lot of people, I think the biggest challenge I see with everybody right now is how can you buy back some time in your day? And and that will help create additional opportunities. So With that being said, creating new habits and also creating some organization within your business and your life. So I see a lot of challenges there for people that didn't do certain things before of really trying to adapt new ways to actually manage their day. Yeah, no, I love that. And I think you're spot on, you know, efficiency as a originator, as a salesperson is really gonna be key. When you look at trying to scale your business, grow your business. ⁓ you know, I I always say people have to understand, you know, what is their hourly rate? You know, yeah. Focusing on the things that they can really maximize and do well while building systems and processes ⁓ on the things that really they don't do so well or that holds them back from from doing what they're really passionate about. Absolutely. When you when you look at and you talk about ⁓ long-term success in this business, you have to consistently stay focused and and and stay fat passionate. And I would even say stay positive. ⁓ And so Karina, what do you do in terms of how to stay focused ⁓ in in terms of really your goals and objectives as a a broker owner? So, you know, one of the things I think I found out about myself, as I said, like you always have to be learning, right? And if you're not adapting new habits in organization, but one of the things you do is you're dialing into learning yourself and also really figuring out your path. And it's always changing in the mortgage industry, not necessarily because of the market, because we just are. ⁓ but I would say this for me, one of the strengths that I found within myself. That I didn't really know that I had is really forgetting about yesterday. I know that sounds really easy, Tony, but how many people do we coach because they're so focused on what happened this morning or yesterday, right? And someone said to me last week, was like, hey Karina, how do you stay like this? And sometimes you get on camera and you just go, or sometimes you're just talking to a consumer or you're talking to one of your teammates. And you just are in that. And I wouldn't call it acting, but I say you're you're just on twenty four seven, right? And in order to do that, I feel like for me to bring myself and my best self to Tony, I couldn't think about what happened this morning and what I spilt or either what loan may be a jeopardy of not closing today or either the market, the rates going up tomorrow. I have to figure out What was my original path? How am I going to stick to it? And how am I going to enhance that path or create better effectiveness and efficiencies within that path? So I think my biggest strength of what I've learned is really to be in position to have to let go and let go of yesterday. And a lot of that comes from, I'd say more of my personal path than really my business. And that's a strength that I didn't know I really had. until probably the past couple of years when I've been really coaching some high performers. Great, great. Well, y you know, the good news is in life, as we are continuing to learn each and every day, we continue to grow and become better. And so, you know, I love the self discovery and and and really how you looked at not only your business but your life. And you kind of took the the the opportunity to to basically apply both of those back into helping each other in terms of, you know, help using your business to help perform And life better and using life to help perform in business better as well. Karina, what would you say to that guy or girl who's out there trying to grow their business? They're not a superstar. You know, they're they're doing two or three deals a month right now, and they're telling themselves, I want to do more, I need to do more for me, for my family, ⁓ you know, for my community. I want to help more. What's the one piece of advice you would give them right now to focus on? So I'm gonna say don't go at it alone. Okay. And when I say that we are very stubborn people to the core and not asking for help or either not leaning in enough for to get like I wanna know what your path is. I wanna know how you did your path. I wanna know is there anything that you did, Tony, that can shorten my path? I'm okay. Like I'm okay with not creating the wheel. I'm okay with not doing it my way. This is our highway. Me and you, Tony, we're going down this road together. And I want to know how we can shorten each other's path. And I think that is the number one thing is lean in, figure out who you align with, and figure out how they can help you shorten your path. And are you really paying attention? Because sometimes we get in our own way and say, just because Tony said so. Or it's like what I always say, like when I was growing up, mom and dad said no. Don't do it. So we did it. So now when we say as teammates and as peers and as ⁓ broker owners, we say, hey, you should try this and do this. And we're like, why would I want to do that? And then two weeks later they like, hey, you know, somebody on the street said, hey, you know you can do it this way. I said, and not the one we just talked about a couple weeks ago. So I think it's really diving in and leaning in and aligning with people that you really want to learn from. And you really want to adapt, swipe and adapt anything that you can do that can shorten your path. And I think that's very important right now because as I spoke earlier and said the bandwidth that we all have, we have to also recognize what we're working within within ourselves that if we're overwhelmed, we can't spill that over to our teammates or we can't spill that over to the consumer. So we have to adjust there. So that's what I would I would say. Love that. I love that. You know, as we talked earlier about challenges facing I industry in in the marketplace right now. Karina, what are you excited about in terms of, you know, being in the mortgage industry right now? I say one of the things I'm so excited about, Tony, is I think we are getting known for being the experts we are. Like I'd really have to call a mortgage expert, not just an originator who was sitting at TGI Fridays on five o'clock at Happy Hour and I could take five applications. Now I miss those days, Tony. I miss those days where I could go to Happy Hour on Friday night and I'd come out with like 10 apps, a couple of refas, a couple of purchases for next week. But I will say what I really love now is ⁓ it is tougher, it is harder, it is more moving parts than I think what anybody really recognized. And that's why we are thinning, right? For originators. So I'd say what I love about it right now is I really do believe that we are being looked at as more of experts in our field than we ever have been. You know, I I love that. I would agree with that. I was speaking ⁓ earlier on a a podcast for chasing excellence and and you know the the individual made a comment that I I think is important for every mortgage professional, mortgage originator in our industry to think about today. And and their their their comment was, Karina, Tony, I have to every day learn as much as I can about this industry and this business because it's changing. And you know, here you are. 29 years in the business, 21 years owning your own company, but you are embracing change. You are looking at everything you're doing every day and say, how can we do it better? Not trust me, I'm the queen of mortgage. We can do it. I've been doing it this way for the last five years. It worked. You know, I love that. And I think now more than ever, if you are a sales professional in our industry, You've got to start asking yourself, how can I lean in to just learning more? Because the industry is changing very rapidly. It's changing very quickly in terms of just how to be successful, how to connect, and how to grow your business. So I love, love the thoughts there. ⁓ you know, I'm gonna ask you one other question. You know, we talked a lot about the business, the marketplace, your story. But you know, again, when I look at what you've done, you've got a hundred and twenty LOs, ⁓ sixty-eight percent female, ⁓ about eighteen to twenty percent or so bilingual on top of that. Karina, first of all, phenomenal job. ⁓ great company, great platform, and and that is because of a great leader. And I'm gonna give you your your flowers today. ⁓ when you look back. On this journey thus far, in going from a top originator that, you know, four or five years ago for your company, you did about 70% of that volume to pivoting and becoming a servant leader, as I call it, ⁓ serving your people and helping others to do more, achieve more, and be more. What do you look back and attribute to your success as a leader? What? motivates you to help other people? ⁓ well I'll say number one, Tony, is I think what'd you say? Paul. I said Paul. That was my my side joke of of not being Paul or Paul L. No. That's that's a great motivator, but I think one of the things that ⁓ truly, truly being in position is really wanting to generally educate the consumer, which spilled over to educating ⁓ the loan officers. So in I'll just give you a little backstory. In 2008, ⁓ when it I had about 15 LOs ⁓ before the market crash and no one wanted to come work for me because a lot of people were still doing ⁓ a subprime. And they didn't want to run DU. They didn't want to learn FHA. They didn't want we were the only broker in our area that had FHA in 2008. So in 2008, I don't know if you remember, but you had to have your mini eagle. And it could be anywhere from twenty to fifty grand a year to keep your mini eagle. And I was not a big company, but I was determined to have all the tools. So in having all the tools, one of the things I learned was not everybody wants to learn all of them, like me. So I have to really spill over and figure out what does Tony want to learn? Which part is he interested in? What are the things that really makes him tick? Because I don't want to really be pour everything on you and you say, I this is just too much. I just don't want to do this. So I think for me is really educating the loan officers on what they enjoy. What really is the part the business that they like to do. That's important, I think, for any leader to understand. So for me, I've always loved doing that. So when 2022 came around and ⁓ and again, this is only four years ago. I was 60, 70% of the production of our whole entire company. So when 2022 came around and rates went up, I said, either I'm going to be a top producer nationwide or we're going to help people build their business, not just originations, but build their business. And as I was telling you, I told ⁓ my COO, which happens to be my son, like, you know, I've got a little stash from 2020, 2021. If I spend it all, I better get it all back. So we're going all in. So for two years I have been zero production. And we went from closing 300 units a year to we closed almost 2,000 units last year. I love that. I love that. Congratulations. Thank you. On that success. And, you know, the other thing is I love about is you you do have a servant leader's heart. And and that demonstration shows on your team, on the production, the growth, the the the the the transition that you made from just ⁓ me, I to we, ⁓ in terms of the company. And so again, Kudos. I I like to say you always should give people their flowers while they're living. And and Karina, I just wanted to use today Chasing Excellence as an opportunity to give you your flowers as well. But before we go, ⁓ I never like to leave Chasing Excellence without talking about gratitude. Karina, what are you most grateful for? I'm gonna share that I am most grateful that I have built a business. with my family and then with my peers who have become my family. We all say every day that most people spend more time at work ⁓ and with their work family than they do with anybody else in their lifetime. And I'm very fortunate that I wake up every day grateful to see everybody and work with everybody that I have. And it's been able to support four generations in my household with doing something that I love with the people that I love working with. So that's what I'm most grateful for. Well I am so grateful for you taking time out of your schedule today to join me on on chasing excellence. I look forward to having you back ⁓ at another episode to keep us updated on the journey and and really the impact ⁓ that you're making not just in in Virginia but but throughout the country. ⁓ with you and and your entire team at CMS Morgan. I'm Tony Thompson, your host for Chasing Excellence, and I look forward to seeing you on our next episode. Take care.