Open The Gate
Breaking down Sacramento Real Estate: Our Favorite People, Places and Mindsets
Open The Gate
S 2 EP 6 Mortgage Made Human: The Nick Cunningham Story
We're off and running.
Speaker 2:Let's go.
Speaker 1:We've been small talking, I mean we've been jaw jacking over here for a few minutes.
Speaker 3:Jaw jacking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm getting older.
Speaker 3:I do Good morning, good morning.
Speaker 1:We are a little early.
Speaker 3:That's okay, we made it work. Yeah, absolutely Agility.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. What is new in Kaylee's world?
Speaker 3:You know, it's hard for a lot of things to be new when you're a mom of a newborn because, like everything's the same.
Speaker 1:There's so many new things. Well and everything's the same.
Speaker 3:Okay, so you will enjoy this. Today we are going to our friend's parents' house because he built an entire nine-hole golf course on his property and it backs up.
Speaker 1:I haven't checked the mail for a couple of days, so maybe I'm he's actually selling memberships to it.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, he's calling it the K. I think they're all part twos. There might be a couple of part threes, um, but today's the inaugural. Yeah, yeah, it's interesting, today is the inaugural uh kickoff tournament, nice, so we're going to that and, uh, nice and warm. It's going to be. I'm not playing in it, I'm just going to be there holding a baby. Yeah, what about you? What's new?
Speaker 1:Volleyball is in full swing so we are off and running. We have had, so yeah, family life. The last two weekends we've had volleyball in the Bay Area and then come home to baseball here. So the weekends have definitely been short, but super enjoyable, right Like. The Rockland team is currently 10th in the state.
Speaker 2:That's insane.
Speaker 1:So they're doing pretty well and we leave Friday for a big tournament in Vegas. Friday and Saturday that's like a big deal.
Speaker 3:What's it like traveling to Vegas with children?
Speaker 1:You know, I mean it's kind of. It's very similar to the way I travel to Vegas as an adult now. Like. I stay away from the strip. It's pretty vanilla. You know there's a lot of stuff to do, but you don't do it. Yeah, exactly Um one because I'm cheap and two because it's not really what we're there for. Yeah, okay, but no. So yeah, we're full swing. Fall baseball, volleyball a lot of fun occupies a lot of my time.
Speaker 3:Danny and I had a conversation this weekend about how excited we are to be those like sideline moms when Rourke starts all of his sports or whatever he's into, just to like show up and cheer him on and be passive-aggressive to the competition.
Speaker 1:Talk shit about the other parents, especially the other kids.
Speaker 2:Our son is so much better.
Speaker 3:Johnny needs to retie his shoes, a little shithead, bring down the team average. Yeah, can't wait.
Speaker 1:It's been a little while. It's been a couple weeks since we've been in the studio in the shoot here, pretty excited for today's guest. I got to know him about two years ago. He's been in the space for quite some time but he likes to kind of operate behind the scenes.
Speaker 3:He is a man behind the curtain Pulling him into the spotlight.
Speaker 1:Maybe we'll touch on this. Probably not his favorite thing to do do be the forward-facing piece. Like me with a gigantic ego, and you know yeah, huge ego, all the things, but this gentleman and I have actually won a pickleball tournament together impressive he played collegiate tennis at UC Santa Cruz, running slugs down there.
Speaker 1:A little shout out to John Travolta from Pulp Fiction, right? Nick? Actually gave John the shirt to wear in the movie, right? So, without further ado, we're going to play in my good friend, mr Nick Cunningham, and then we're going to get to know him. Let's go, let's get it, nick Cunningham, and then we're going to get to know him. Let's go, let's get it. So I told Nick I would promise not to ask him the whys behind this song before the interview, because I really didn't want to know until now. So, nick, ceelo Green and the Teen Titans. The song is the Night Begins to Shine. Why, Can I ask you, god's greener? Can I ask you, that's your earth?
Speaker 2:Can I ask you a question? That's your walk-up song. No, you cannot answer a question with a question.
Speaker 3:No, so what's one of your?
Speaker 2:song playlists. Are you going to add that song to?
Speaker 3:Great question. Multiple. It's already on my liked playlist. You tell lies.
Speaker 1:I'm just going to hit it with a star right there. So now I started.
Speaker 2:I think that song exemplifies the sacrifices we make for our kids. I absolutely hate that song and my son Brody puts it on repeat in the car and he gets really pissed if I don't sing it and dance with him. So it's like nails on the chalkboard. But the things we do for our kids, I put it on and he puts it on repeat and he won't let me pick a song and I cannot tell you how tired of that song I am. But you do it.
Speaker 1:It's the things we do for our kids I don't think I ever heard it, wow, but but I'm so. We're gonna just jump right in, and this is something that's came up recently in my car my wife and I do not give our kids control of the radio in our car smart man don't, don't even start, don't even know.
Speaker 1:We don't. And it's so funny because I actually do have a little bit of guilt about this Cause. I like now I look back my daughter's fresh or sophomore in high school and I remember like getting in my mom's car and just immediately this was back in like the mid nineties and we had an older car, so it was like the push button where you had to like actually move the dial on the radio. You know the twist and turn tune in Tokyo Maybe not that tune in Tokyo and I remember I would just get in my mom's car and just immediately, like without any, just Just take over. Oh yeah, just complete, established dominance.
Speaker 3:Maybe that's why you have such a propensity for control now, seriously, and now it's like if my son's in the backseat with the volume too loud on his phone, I'm like you, turn it down.
Speaker 1:I Seriously now it's like if my son's in the backseat with the volume too loud on his phone, I'm like dude, turn it down. I'm listening to music.
Speaker 3:See, we're starting to work off with what we like every morning. It's like Neil Young. It's Van Morrison. He is sticking with the classics in hopes that when he does hop in the car and want to turn on music, it's something we can all enjoy. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we'll see how long that lasts.
Speaker 3:I yeah, yeah, we'll see how long that lasts.
Speaker 2:I like everything.
Speaker 3:Except for that song.
Speaker 2:No, I mean it's fine, but I do have like classical. I have some pianists that I like and then I have even some Enya that pops in there and my boys will say, Dad, can we just please not listen to any more sad music.
Speaker 3:Do you listen to Ludovico Enyati?
Speaker 2:I think so.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay, I'm going to send you some of his songs he's like a phenomenal pianist and he's actually playing in San Francisco and I'm like I want to go, but the tickets are like $600 each. But it's one of those things where it's like you will likely never get to see him again.
Speaker 1:Did you find the lullaby renditions that I was? Did we talk about that? No, oh my god. There's lullaby renditions that I was. Did we talk about that? No, oh, my God, there's lullaby renditions of like Guns N' Roses and like all in lullabies. So it's like.
Speaker 3:I need this oh yeah, you got to find that. We'll offline it but you need that For all of our parent listeners.
Speaker 1:I used to put it like for my kids. I'm like yeah, 10 10-year-old Kaylee knows like Welcome to the Jungle.
Speaker 3:I am obsessed with that. They need to know, Absolutely Like if you're going to listen to music, you need to know the classics.
Speaker 1:Well, you know what's wild is. I feel like, even like today's generation, like they do have their modern music that, you know, doesn't necessarily suit my fancy, it's terrible, but the kids will default to a lot of good music, like from our generation.
Speaker 3:Yes, good music like from our generation, yes, you know or what we would consider to be good, that gives me hope you know the 90s rap.
Speaker 1:Like our kids are kind of like, yeah, like this works that same son who likes that song can't get enough beastie boys which I just absolutely love he just puts beastie boys on repeat and so licensed to ill or like after license deal. Because I watched the um, the netflix or the hbo special on the beastie boys, it was like, have you seen it?
Speaker 2:No, I haven't.
Speaker 1:So it was obviously not MC. Is the one who passed right? Yes, so it was Mike D and the other guy. Sorry.
Speaker 2:Slipped my name, slipped my mind.
Speaker 1:But anyways, it's almost like a Broadway show production kind of deal where they take you through the career of the Beastie Boys.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:But on License to Ill kind of deal where they take you through the career of the beastie boys, okay, but on license to ill they actually say they actually don't love that album because they were like total frat boys and they go. This album was actually everything that we're, that we're not against, yeah, they kind of made it like in in you know um tongue in cheek, um, but anyways, yeah, but license ill, I'm like yeah so it all started with super mar Mario Brothers.
Speaker 2:Super Mario Brothers had the you know song no sleep.
Speaker 1:Oh, no, sleep to Brooklyn.
Speaker 2:And then that's where he fell in love with it. And then you know, interestingly, that you know the, the catchy song, girls comes on on the playlist and you listen to the words. I'm like.
Speaker 3:I don't know if this would fly, but I love it anyway. We should have an Open the Gate playlist on Spotify, where every time we get a new walk-up song or just talk about music. It goes on, the playlist.
Speaker 1:You just took on a new job responsibility.
Speaker 3:Come on, I'll happily do that, though. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Music is life, and we could publish it out there for sure.
Speaker 3:Hell yeah, Follow our new playlist. Open the Gate.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Love it. I think it's fantastic. We Fantastic, we're evolving. Hell, yeah, we are so all right. So, nick, let's jump right in. This is kind of a Sacramento lifestyle and real estate podcast, so we're going to lead with the real estate. You are one of the owners of Point Equity Mortgage Group. Tell us a little bit about who you guys are and how long you've been in the business, why you got in all the good stuff None of the bad.
Speaker 2:Justin Koop is my business partner. We have been friends since fourth grade, just like my wife.
Speaker 3:We've all known each other forever.
Speaker 2:He, out of college, got into film. He actually made one documentary that's I don't know pretty well-known narrative by Tom Skerritt and was doing film. And then I got into doing social work with Foster Kids on the nonprofit side and that was a big part of my life and loved it. Um and in in college, you know, I had a mentor. You know, when I needed a job and I was broke, I would just drive around until somebody hired me and I walked into an interview that, like, surprisingly, one of my buddies was hung over and didn't show up and I happened to walk into it and the guy assumed and the kid's name was Nick too. I saw him that night. I'm like I got a job. He's like, dude, that was my interview and so it was, and that guy is still a mentor to this day.
Speaker 1:He was serendipitous hey, the power of showing up right yeah, frank Murphy, at Sherman and Boone.
Speaker 2:For a long time decades he was the number one agent in Santa Cruz County and so so I got my broker's license. Before you know it was. It was very easy. You could use college credits with no experience in real estate to get your broker's license. And so I did and held onto it. What year was this? This was 2000. I graduated college in 2002.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, and so kind of in and out of the industry and then got into social work. And then Justin and I he's a very accomplished outdoorsman and we were with somebody from Placer County Search and Rescue and we were floating a slot canyon on this backpacking trip and we came to an impassable waterfall and tried to self-rescue and got stuck on a cliff and ended up having to be pulled off by helicopter. And what a great news, yeah, I don't know. And, uh, what a great news. Yeah, I don't know. But we were rescued pretty quickly because justin and jeff were you know, they go a lot when they didn't check in when they were supposed to, their wives were, um, they were worried, and so both of their wives were pregnant at the time. And when we were sleeping on the cliff like out of food. Justin looks over me and he's like, if we get out of this, I'm getting a real fucking job.
Speaker 3:Nothing like the prospect of death to make you commit to some standard things in life, I guess.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and he um, justin's very smart guy, and his dad was a successful mortgage broker for a long time, and so he talked to this dad and it was one. Things were really hard 2009, 2010. And his dad said now's the time to get in. Um, things are tough, but it's going to turn. When it turns it'll be good. So go and build relationships. So he got into the industry and then when I started dating my now wife, kelly, you know I could hardly afford internet. I lived above a garage and um had all these great contacts, uh, working in the non-profit sector, and had all these mentors. And when I went to go look for a job that could provide for a family, like, absolutely nobody wanted to hire me. They were not hiring from the nonprofit world. I thought, like, I just thought I was so hireable and so started Point Equity and Justin and I partnered up, and here we are today still trying to figure it out 20 years 10 years.
Speaker 2:We've been in business 10 years. Okay, 10 years.
Speaker 1:So Seen some things in those 10. Yeah, yeah, some volatility.
Speaker 3:A couple things I want to touch on First. I love that Justin's father's advice was get in now.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Because it's so I mean time and time again has proven that when things get tough, when the market is hard, the people who step on the gas, increase their marketing, increase their presence, really hone in on and nurture the relationships are the ones that are thriving when it does turn around again. Because, as we all know, nothing is ever shitty, forever, like once it's shitty it's going to get better. But also I'm curious what do you do now with Point Equity? That is still kind of in that nonprofit philanthropic role?
Speaker 2:it sounds like it's something that's very important to you oh yeah, I'm still on the board for child advocates of plaster county.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about it. What did we do? What did we do the other night?
Speaker 2:it was awesome oh yes, I just hosted this event. It was awesome I brought a bunch of guys together. At the chef's table we had steak and cocktails, and then I brought in a florist and all the guys made bouquets.
Speaker 3:Oh my god, I am obsessed with that. Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2:It was hilarious. Some of these bouquets were so bad, but it was a good time. Some of the guys did great.
Speaker 1:And the wives, I'm sure, were just like yeah, but your friend who was helping us the florist, yeah, she was fantastic, she was great and so elegant, right, because I mean, mine looked like absolute shit. It was embarrassing and I thought I was following the rules.
Speaker 3:Your floral arrangement skills.
Speaker 1:But she didn't like. She was like I don't know what she said, but it was definitely how she said. It Was just so like oh, let me z, let me judge that up a little bit for you, or something. She's like oh, let me you know. And like it went from like a freaking two to like a 12 and I'm like oh, thank god, like my wife's still.
Speaker 2:Still, you guys tested their their whole process, because she's like we have a process, they're going to be fine. They even have those like little stencils to put it in and then they watched you guys, they, oh, they're going to need some help.
Speaker 1:Bunch of dumb animals.
Speaker 2:That was a lot of fun. That was so brilliant.
Speaker 1:It was really cool, and it was. I mean, obviously the networking. I mean I came away with some really good contacts and got to see a couple people I wouldn't expect to have seen there and hadn't seen for forever. So you know, again, hats off, it was a fantastic event.
Speaker 3:And was that benefiting the?
Speaker 1:board Child advocates.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay. What does that nonprofit do?
Speaker 2:They do a handful of things. It started off as the CASA program for Placer County.
Speaker 3:Quarter Pointed Special Advocates, which is national. Yeah, the parents we were going to today. She actually was a CASA represented for a while.
Speaker 2:It's a great program. You know I don't know how much we want to go into what that does, but they advocate for foster kids it's. It's a program that was started up in Sikup County in Washington and they realized that social workers are overworked, their attorneys are overworked and they didn't have like one person that was representing them in court. So the child's voice was lost when they were trying to make these important decisions. And so they now train these volunteers, go through 30 hours of training. They're sworn officers of a court and they actually represent the kid in court, um, to make sure that you know they're making the best decisions in the best interest of the child. Um, but like, more importantly is, you have to see the kid once a week.
Speaker 3:So you're kind of big brother, big sister, you guys are going and doing fun stuff and hanging out, so it's a special program close to my heart. That sounds incredible. Did you have experience as yourself, as a child, like? Were you exposed to the foster world or what? What made you want to get into that line of work specifically?
Speaker 2:Oh, another like serendipitous thing. This lady approached me and asked for money to start a nonprofit for foster kids, to provide therapy for foster youth. So I started doing the Googling and in my twenties thought, you know, we're going to figure this out and we can get more kids to college and super ignorant at the time. And so then I got $50,000 together and then I researched the lady and it was not somebody I would have ever handed $50,000 to. She was dealing with some legal trouble and she wanted me to get rid of the $50,000 and then she would work it off and I was like this just doesn't feel right.
Speaker 2:So when I asked these questions she disappeared. But I had made some commitments to some social workers and foster family agencies about providing therapy and we had a nonprofit therapy clinic and Roseville lined up to provide 20 hours of counseling and all of the sudden was just all on me. So I just launched a nonprofit by myself and we had several programs one called Simple Heroes, where it was one of those first websites where people could post little things that they need and you could donate towards it. So a foster youth would post that she needs a prom dress and then people could go donate $10 and $20. And sometimes the moms would take the girls to go get their dress and then we provided 20 hours of therapy.
Speaker 2:And then I'd always had this dream of carrying people in wheelchairs to the tops of mountains. I got the idea at the top of an active volcano in Guatemala, and then I had this special chair where we could carry these kids to wherever they wanted to go, and so I got to mix the two. I would take group home kids and have them carry the chair and we would do these hikes. And that program was called Noble Heights and that was like fantastic, Wow Went on some really cool hikes. It was good for the kids in the chair and it was good for the foster kids to be able to carry the chair. And then eventually I ran out of money cause I just didn't like asking people for money, so I went through all my own savings. Uh, and that's when I partnered up with child advocates of Placer County. They absorbed and still have simple heroes. Counseling is something different and noble Heights is still an active nonprofit that I've kept myself. That you know. We hope to do some more hikes someday.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, have you leaned into like the um, like there's a lot of hiking community in the real estate world? Um, yeah, I mean kind of cross network a little bit there, do you, or do you? Is it kind of like you don't want to cross?
Speaker 2:streams yeah no, I don't mind at all. I mean it's. It's the people doing the hikes get as much as the person in the chair. I know it's like really good for people sure and you know we've done some really big hikes like they're. They're just needed a documentary that you can find online, called about clouds rest. We took a kid to the top of clouds rest, which is about 1300 feet above half dome and it overlooks half dome we might even be able to like link a uh yeah, yeah, we could definitely link this to a uh to a social media post yeah, you know, and we had a lot of support.
Speaker 2:tim duck, too, used to give us the bags and we had a lot of outdoors people, but kids are. What happened when you have other plants? I would love to be doing hikes and I had somebody recently even give me a $10,000 check and said you've got to get the hikes going again. And it's just like my kids are my priority and those hikes are a ton of work.
Speaker 2:So if anybody out there wants to take it and run with it. I've got the non-profit and some seed capital and I've got the chair in my friend's basement, but it's on pause for a little bit until I have more time I can have one of my pest technicians go spread it off. Yeah, it's got some cobwebs yeah, yeah yeah, so no, no, no hikes as of recent, and I don't mind cross-pollinating. I definitely would you know, invite anybody to get involved, but they take work.
Speaker 1:And your kids how old? Four, six and nine. Four, six and nine.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so you're still on the weeds. I've talked multiple times on this podcast. I'm at the age where my kids are like no, they don't even want to come to dinner with Marina and I. So we're almost like we're already kind of like seeing what that empty nester kind of thing is like. We get glimpses of it, you know. So we can go to dinner just the two of us, and you know we can. The kids tend to want to just stay home and do their thing. They don't want to come out and be about and do the things that we're doing, obviously because we're old and have different interests You're boring.
Speaker 1:But if right and for sure, like For them, for sure we're boring, but I think you're dead on. I mean, when they're 10 and under, it's a lot. It's all hands on deck yeah, time consuming. And even at 15 and 13, they still command a lot. Neither one of my kids drive, so they're still pretty dependent in that regard. And then it's funny because we see, once they start driving and then it's like then you never see him, you know.
Speaker 3:Well, maybe I don't know. I'm hearing that the generation of kids a lot of them don't want to get their driver's license. There there's.
Speaker 1:There is a pretty good. There's a pretty good 50, 50. I would say, um, I think I think slightly more kids now do want to drive from a city. What I from my experience, what I'm experienced right now in my family, is, um, my daughter and the majority of her friends are, are are looking to get their licenses and start driving and they want that independence.
Speaker 1:Um, I feel like a few years ago there was a lot more concern Like these kids are just like well, like I think, mom and dad provide everything when Rourke is 16, it won't even be an option Like the cars are just.
Speaker 2:They're going to drive for you. I know.
Speaker 3:It's honestly it doesn't. I think here's my theory behind it, cause I have a couple of girls that are like 18 and 15 that live right next door to us and out of their whole friends group, not many of them have their driver's license.
Speaker 3:I really think it comes down to the connectivity when we were all younger, the only way we could connect with our friends see people get out of the house was to like drive there Right, and now everybody's connected on your phone, so you don't really have as much motivation to get out and to get away, because everybody can escape in that device, in their phone.
Speaker 1:They can go lock themselves in a room just as easily and I feel like my daughter, though is, is actually um, the. The escape that she gets from it is more just kind of that rabbit hole of just scrolling through reels. She, she, definitely understands the difference between seeing something in real life versus seeing it on on that screen. Yeah, when? But the seat, the screen will plant the seed of the things that she wants to see, Right.
Speaker 1:Like if we go out of town or if we're on vacation or anything, if we're traveling anywhere, like she's gone to tick talk and figured out what bakery we need to go to or what you know to you or what you know what, what's trending in that area Like what's cool, which is really cool, Like it usually we usually don't have to put much thought into what we're going to do, because she'll she'll pull up all the places which is great person to have on your team, but that's just my theory, I don't know.
Speaker 3:It's interesting.
Speaker 1:Sorry.
Speaker 3:We digress guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I do. This is a podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know, my kid, my son, rides his freaking e-bike everywhere.
Speaker 3:I see that a lot too e-bikes and scooters.
Speaker 1:So I actually think like I was thinking about this the other day because we are starting to drive with my daughter a little bit she actually will get her permit, like next week, oh that's exciting. So we've done some parking lot sessions and worked on parking and things like that.
Speaker 1:We came across a good deal, ended up getting her car way before we needed to, but it was a good deal. So we ended up getting her a car. But as I think about it more and driving around with her as she's practicing, I'm like huh, I feel like my son just is a lot more alert in that space and aware of his surroundings because he spends 12 to 20 hours a week on his bike out in, which is a whole nother story.
Speaker 3:Super as a woman, I can say this scary for the love of God, please work with her on parallel parking and backing up. Oh yeah, we went to an event at the zoo this weekend and the parking situation at William.
Speaker 1:Park. We were just there yesterday, yeah, oh my God, I, first of all.
Speaker 3:I'm expert, at least like I am an expert parallel parker backup driver. Like I use my rear views, I don't use the cameras.
Speaker 1:There were two daughter of a fire two different cars of women behind us.
Speaker 3:That's disaster, could not? My wife got out of the car and was like directing them because they were doing the same thing pull out and pull back and pull out. It was like watching insanity. I was like is this is disappointing?
Speaker 1:as a representation for the woman community as drivers, like we should, yeah no, I'm a firm believer in you know, you got to know how to change a tire. You got to know how to park in our parallel park. Backing out of parking spots with with with hers, is pretty scary, you know. I'll be honest, I hope her and her friends don't listen to this because she's getting on the front street right now. She'd be mortified. But no like when there's cars on each side and you're backing out like I forgot, and especially with modern technology in our cars.
Speaker 1:I mean, I've got cameras and sensors and all the things everywhere, and this car that we bought didn't even have a backup camera. I had to put one in and I was like, oh my God, like this is hard. We used to drive like this, like in those big old heavy cars.
Speaker 2:I'm all backup cam Like I can't imagine not having that now, really. Yeah, I'm all backup cam, yeah.
Speaker 3:I feel like I can't trust it fully, like I use it sometimes, but I am still like side mirrors and look behind me all day.
Speaker 1:I rely on the mirrors, for sure You'll get a little older.
Speaker 2:You're back. You'll lose some of that T-spine flexibility. Looking over your shoulder gets harder. So we're talking about driving and parking. This is great.
Speaker 1:I like this podcast. Sorry Lights going out. Yeah, it's just a shit show today.
Speaker 3:Okay, nick, so we learned about how you got into real estate.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:What advice would you give to anybody who's getting started right now? I know we're in another what some would describe as a challenged market. So, being coming from the background that you did like, what advice would you offer to anybody who's just getting started?
Speaker 2:I don't think I have anything revolutionary I mean I like I said, I think it's a really good time to get in because, people are getting out and it's hard, and so a couple of things that I remind people of is you always want to be the most positive person?
Speaker 3:in the room.
Speaker 1:Like right now things are hard and people crave positivity. Now when you say that, like it's not just, you're not saying just be a cheerleader and right Like sometimes sometimes there's bad.
Speaker 3:That is the biggest turnout, but sometimes there's bad.
Speaker 1:That is the biggest, sometimes there's for, sometimes there's super inauthentic, difficult information that needs, that's important or paramount, to be delivered.
Speaker 2:No, I mean, you have to. You have to be authentic. You can't say things are great when they're not. Yeah, Are people really struggling? But there's still ways to be positive and make people feel good.
Speaker 1:You know anything's things are tough, but we're working really hard.
Speaker 3:It's so easy to find people like the propensity to have such a negative narrative is. It's almost frightening how much people default to the negative. It's like it's easier to feed off that and infect others with that.
Speaker 1:Well, that's just why, right Cause it's easy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and. But being positive is hard. I had a buyer yesterday asked me when we were touring houses. He's like, can you be honest with me? And he's like, is the market going to crash again? Cause everybody's, you know, has this like doomsday. I'm like, look, they've been saying it's going to crash for years and then I explained what made the crash happen in 2008 and the you know statement, loan, mortgages and the raising interest rates.
Speaker 3:There's a great explanation of it, but you know, just like being able to educate them and say obviously it's not an amazing market right now, but you're in a position where you can afford your payment, you're qualified for your mortgage. You're not losing your job. Like, you have a steady income. It makes sense for you Like go in.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So it's just about being able to talk about things, educate people. All they know is headline news and it's never positive Never, unless you watch a good news movement.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like the saying you know, take the high road because there's less traffic, right, and I think it resonates with what you just said because, like you know, it is Like the negativity is usually the easy and that's where everyone, like so many people, are hanging out there Like so have the hard conversations and do the right thing and you'll find yourself in in less crowded rooms with more valuable people. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Cool. And then the other thing obviously build your database. We don't need to get into that People hear it all the time even if it's a spreadsheet, just add people to it.
Speaker 2:And then one of the things that I've always done but my friend I have a really good friend in Australia and we talk all the time and we talk about kids and diet and he's like I learned to not look at the kids like each meal or even each day. It's like look at the month and the week. It's like how have they eaten this week?
Speaker 2:and how have they eaten this month? And you know, was it, in aggregate, pretty good? And I think that really helps in our industry, because some days are just going to suck and some weeks may suck, and so you need the ability to step back and look at the bigger picture and it's like, okay, what have we done this year, what have we done this month? And then get back in and obviously you want to wake up and it's pretty cliche. It's like today is going to be the greatest day, and here's the three things that I'm going to get done. And so I think it's really important to take a step back and look at the week, look at the month and don't be afraid to reset your goals.
Speaker 1:When you do that, you know people get pretty stubborn with their goals and just perpetually look at it yeah, More drive, more driving. Analogies right. Like the little small rear view mirror is there because it's important to look back.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, derek, we talk a lot about Darren Hardy.
Speaker 3:I don't know if either of you guys follow him.
Speaker 3:He started in real estate, built up success magazine, which is now, I think, owned by the same folks who do Tristan.
Speaker 3:Anyway, I digress again, but he has these videos that he sends out every day that are meant to set your mind positively, and he talks a lot about how goals are actually disadvantageous to people, because oftentimes we set that checklist or the goal list like by day, by week or whatever, and we're like we're going to do this, this and this, and then if we look at it and we see we haven't done any of it, we can go down in that negative spiral. And so he talks about framing your mindset kind of in the same way of like we can go down in that negative spiral. And so he he talks about framing your mindset, kind of in the same way of like look at the bigger picture and maybe don't have like a goal list, but arrange it in a different way that's more positive, like if I can do these things today, that's great. If not, I'll be able to push them to tomorrow, but leave space for life to flow in between, because it always comes at us.
Speaker 1:But I think understanding like no knowing thyself right. Yeah, for sure there's different tactics that work better for different people, like I've referenced. You know, I'm the one where, if I get a thought and I'm sitting on the couch not doing anything and I get a thought I need to go work out, I'll just go work out.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And if I don't, then I's not the way. My wife is right Like she's not. She's not going to spontaneously just get up because she had a thought.
Speaker 3:She's going to work out. She's very, but she's not going to spontaneously do it, that that might be we're not going to give you credit, we're not going to go down that road. She's a different mindset than you.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and I and you're right, it's and it's. You know, it's the same reason that I've always joked with the real estate world, Like there's different brokerages because there's different ways that people do this business and there's different fits for everybody who's doing it. That's why, there's so much variety.
Speaker 2:I love that. Yeah, I like that too, and the thought of just being able to think about working out and then doing it means your kids are older than mine. I get thoughts all the time I'm on a big.
Speaker 1:I'm on a big, I'm on a big kick right now and I'll share this because I'm actually kind of proud of it. But uh, I tried to get marina on board with I go okay. So like we get up we're usually up around 5, 36 and um, we go downstairs, we, we feed the dogs with the dogs, go outside and then we'll watch the news and that's kind of our morning routine.
Speaker 1:But I said, hey, like I said, let's start doing push-ups every time commercials come on. And so it's like, okay, so like we'll do 10 or 20 push-ups and every time a commercial comes on we'll do it. And it's like it's kind of cool, because now your blood's flowing. I'm like, oh, five commercials, like I've done 100 push-ups, you know, like I've actually accomplished something today. It goes back. You know the military making your bed every morning thing.
Speaker 2:Like accomplish something early that's straight out of Atomic Habits or Tiny Habits, yeah, like.
Speaker 1:I think it's from Herschel Walker is an old NFL player. Like he used to do push-ups and sit-ups.
Speaker 3:He never lifted like real weights.
Speaker 1:Well, they say that militaries pull-ups right.
Speaker 3:Like you don't need weights to lift your body and become this massive muscle machine. Like you, just do the basics.
Speaker 2:You know, uh, one of the. So BJ Fogg has this behavioral sciences program at Stanford and the guy that wrote atomic habits like went through his courses and one of the greatest things that's been life-changing for me, it's like, I think, when you wake up, as a lot of the stress is just trying to get out of bed, thinking about, about everything you want to do and so the thing that's changed people's lives the most, that he's trained, is like when your feet hit the ground to say, somehow today is going to be awesome, somehow today is going to be a fantastic day.
Speaker 2:And it changes your mindset from the get go and it's amazing what it did for my life and I do it every morning.
Speaker 3:I'm getting the chills by just the simple concept.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's like he calls it the maui habit. It's like you wake up like you're in maui every morning. Oh, maui is so magical but yeah, try it.
Speaker 2:Try it as soon as you're whatever like for me, like for use your own words for me it's like somehow today it's just going to be awesome and then it changes your mindset, you get into your things and it just is what I love about what I love about that is it leaves open to the ability to create it somehow, because I actually think that one of my big frustrations is when people run into a wall and they just stop and they let it.
Speaker 1:They just shut down. My kids do it all the time. I'm like just figure it out, Figure the fuck out.
Speaker 3:There's a way this can be done. You don't need to ask for help.
Speaker 1:This is a nominal task, like just that's good.
Speaker 2:I mean, parents don't let their kids solve their own problems enough. So I commend you for that. I create the problem.
Speaker 1:Make sure they know how to problem solve no I think it's it.
Speaker 3:I'm really loving this conversation. For me personally, I've been in a place recently where I've noticed that the more life is weighing on me, the more stressed stressed I am just kind of for the bigger picture the more I let little things affect me. And it's easier to be so negative about little things that every other day I'd be like whatever this happened and like brush it off. But then, because my environment is not easy right now, I let that thing affect me and I had a real conversation with this about my wife and it's just like being able to be aware of that and now start the day and be like, okay, immediately I'm affected by it. But you know what I remember? This is something little and I shouldn't be affected by it, and so now I can twist it and the rest of my day isn't a compound effect of negative things happening, it's just that one thing happened and my day is not shit.
Speaker 1:Don't let it spiral, don't let it domino.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but it's so easy to.
Speaker 1:It's a mental discipline. It's a mental discipline for sure, and, like I said, for me a lot of times, it's just flipping that switch going. All right, dude, snap out of it, like you can do this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, all right, dude, snap out of it Like you can do this. Yeah, so I've heard you talk, nick, several times. You've kind of mentioned like a social science or like a psychological science type thing. Is this something that you read a lot about? It seems like you're very interested in that type of well, I mean, obviously I did working with foster kids.
Speaker 2:You learn a lot about behaviors and mental health and um, and then I do love behavioral economics. I think it's fascinating to watch people do the things that they do and understand why they make the decisions they make. So, that is something that I do.
Speaker 3:I love that phrase behavioral economics. That's a great way to state it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, those are those fuckers that keep putting those pair of shoes in front of my social media feed. Like yep, I've media feed.
Speaker 3:Like yep, I've had them in the cart for about 12 months now. I'm like, yeah, just just buy them. Yeah, you really like hold out, just hold out, just keep holding it.
Speaker 2:No, it's a big deal because everybody wants to know what's going to happen to the economy. But there's this human element that is so unpredictable and so they're perpetually looking at all these statistics and metrics but, at the end of the day, like it's going to come down to human behavior. Like are people actually going going to buy a home? Are they going to go buy those shoes? Because that's what drives the economy.
Speaker 1:Well, and I love it because I mean you're tying this. I mean the tagline on your hat says mortgage made human. So I love it. You're just very aware of the human element of life, as the digital space and the time demands and all these things come into play. But at the end of the day, it's people that are doing it.
Speaker 3:Which I think is why AI will never be able to replace the human, because AI will always have some statistic of predictability and humans will always be unpredictable because of that emotional aspect. They will act in a way that surprises you every single day because they're driven by emotion and supported with logic. But AI can't understand that. It'll never be able to stand. It'll always run on an algorithm that says a plus b equals c. So it's just personal.
Speaker 2:I agree and I hope that's true. I have that. I had this thought because I do. I I'm in ai and do a lot with it that like I wonder if robots are gonna like look at me going wow, look at that human knows how to cook spaghetti. That's impressive it's.
Speaker 3:I mean probably. I feel like that's already the same way we look at a dog, it's like dude. That dog can walk on two legs like that's amazing I actually have the reverse experience now, where I look at people and I'm like that person can't even boil water.
Speaker 1:I look at people go that motherfucker's going to be replaced by AI.
Speaker 3:Hey, bro, you better start reading. Okay, so this is I think a perfect segue, because we're kind of talking about AI, we're talking about human characteristics, behavior, like, is there a trend whether it's a human trend or a social trend that you're just like totally into right now?
Speaker 2:AI, ai, I like AI.
Speaker 3:What are you doing and how are you utilizing it?
Speaker 2:Oh, so I did computer engineering in college. Okay, so I can build stuff and started off just kind of seeing what's possible, and I like a lot of the content for my emails that I send is AI building that stuff out for me.
Speaker 2:I have a bot that watches CNBC news from 1am to 3pm and then it transcribes it and then I can ask it questions and and so, like you have, you have the um, you have the chats that most people interact with, but the really big brain power is the LLMs that you can funnel stuff into.
Speaker 3:What's an LLM?
Speaker 2:Large language model, okay, and so I'm connected to Gemini and GPT and I'm and I tap this, I tap information into them to try and get you know some analytics and things that I want back. The rub is it's like your chat remembers you, right, it has tokens and there is a limit to it. Tokens and there is a limit to it. Um, and it will remember you and who you are and talking your voice and I tell people all the time. The chat is designed to make you feel really good, so when you ask it something, it's going to default to, like the behavioral economics or system one, and system wants to make you happy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a yes man, yeah, so they've trained it to act just like humans. There's system one and system two thinking, which is when something becomes second nature. You don't have to think about where you're going. But then the second part of your thinking is when you really have to do some deep thought and figure it out until it becomes second nature. And so chats are designed to just tell you like hey, man, that is the most brilliant idea, like, let's go, do you need a plan? And so you have to right.
Speaker 2:You have to ask chat to like, okay, do some deeper analysis and let me know if you think this is a good idea, and it'll tell you like, ah, it's a great idea, but your chance of success is 0% and so you got to work at it. But anyways, yeah. So I tap into different things and I'm plugged into different APIs and I goof around with it, and it does do some fun stuff for me what are?
Speaker 1:what are some like? What are some examples of like questions that you'll pop into it yeah, because it's all about the prompt, right?
Speaker 3:yeah, the response is I need to ask better questions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm yeah, prompts.
Speaker 2:The prompts are a thing you know because it you it's going to spit out, you know, based off of what you spit into it I know it's.
Speaker 3:I try to tell people that too, like you, a lot of people don't know how to use the machine and it's like you have to get very specific in the question that you're asking yeah. Like. Use five resources you know. Analyze this.
Speaker 1:Don't sugar coat Like you have to be very specific Do not use this resource, do not use this one in particular, or you know, yeah, so I'm curious.
Speaker 3:Do not use this resource, do not use this one in particular, or you know, yeah. So I'm curious, that's a great question.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I mean I ask specific questions about the financial markets. I want to know what happened, because I'm not getting up at 1 am and so I'll say what were the major talking points. What's moving markets right now? Are they predicting like things? What's happening pre-market? Are they talking about the feds? What's the sentiment around?
Speaker 3:the feds. The feds are meeting today, right.
Speaker 2:They start meeting tomorrow. Tomorrow, tuesday, right they make their announcement on Wednesday with what they're going to do with rates, which is I'm so tired of talking about. I bet, do you read my emails? Do you ever get them? I get them every day to bend your ear a little bit offline on that. Yeah, I would like to sign up. Yeah, it's cool. I mean I I don't have a huge list, I'm not adding people to it, but I put my heart into it for like my, my peeps.
Speaker 3:I try and get them a lot of good information every day because I think you know it helps, but but yeah, so did I answer your question not really ish I was looking for.
Speaker 1:Maybe like, if there's, do you have?
Speaker 2:like a go-to, like a go-to prompt that you that you probably use most frequently with with chat or with an ai platform no no, so, like um, one of the bots I built is called brody's brief after my six-year-old, and it specifically allows me to update my prompt and add information in there. So it'll ask before it goes out and gets the information, because there's definitely stuff hard-coded in there that it knows that I want.
Speaker 2:So prompts are already built in and those prompts are, you know, pages long and it feeds it to, it chunks it and then sends it to the llm and gets information and blends it together, then analyzes it, and so, um, what it does on top of that is it allows me to enter in specific information, because the prompts are going to change on a daily basis, so so I'll ask specific things based off of what reports are due that week, or what's going on in the news, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 3:So it's fluid, that's dense.
Speaker 2:Everything that you just said my brain is like okay.
Speaker 3:I can like conceptually understand this a little bit, but also like you're such an engineer.
Speaker 1:So you know, I always say like if you're you know, you don't ever want to be the smartest person in the room. Nick doesn't want to be in this fucking room.
Speaker 3:No, I mean, we're really bringing it down. We're humbling your average right now.
Speaker 1:He's so much smarter than me.
Speaker 3:And I totally disagree.
Speaker 2:I think there's different kinds of smart and it's been fun listening to you guys talk, but the more I know, the less I know. I mean, there are some brilliant people out there and I'm just doing stuff on the backs of like really brilliant people that already built these systems Like, ai is deep and there's some pretty wild stuff going on out there. So this is just my little glimpse, and I think the problems we're trying to solve in our industry aren't super complicated.
Speaker 3:No, they're not.
Speaker 2:We humans complicate them more than they need to be. You know, what I will say is that I do use AI to create publications and communicate with people, and then I do track and I do know when you're reading my email or not. I was just going to see if you were going to be honest or not.
Speaker 3:Oh he was testing you. Oh my God, what a mental trap. I'm just messing with you. You're a little fox, nick.
Speaker 2:So but I can Little cunning man over here.
Speaker 1:That's why you won't play pickleball with me anymore. I don't read my fucking no like categorically, remarkably sponsored.
Speaker 2:Is always a thousand percent better when I write it instead of AI. I believe that and people like I can tell you cause I'll send two pages of notes to the LLM on who I am and how I want it to sound. It'll kick out like messages that are pretty much sound just like me, but somehow people know like they just know if it's AI or if it's me, and the response is like significantly higher when it's me and not the bot.
Speaker 3:Now, that is interesting.
Speaker 1:I have to tell my bot to screw up the punctuation regularly.
Speaker 2:M dash and N dash.
Speaker 3:Make sure you misplace a comma here and there. They'll never know. They're going to know have you guys seen that.
Speaker 2:That you know AI wrote it because it has a little dash in it. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Because nobody, no human, ever uses dashes appropriately.
Speaker 1:Well, I always joke, I always joke. I go well if there's a bullseye or a rocket ship.
Speaker 3:I go the chances of Can you?
Speaker 1:find a bullseye or a rocket ship on your keyboard you can peruse the MetroList descriptions and you know, when it's AI, because it's like experience step into experience step into and you're like my God. Yeah, Corey brought that up on the last pod it my God.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Corey brought that up on the last pod. It was so good. It's actually depressing.
Speaker 2:So one of the things you can do is just take it into Grammarly or do some other things and start adding your voice.
Speaker 3:And yeah, it has to know my voice first.
Speaker 2:I feel like I don't give it enough. No, yeah, you can train it to really sound like you and to talk like you.
Speaker 1:As long as it talks like me, but I want it to sound like Morgan.
Speaker 2:Freeman and just specifically ask it to not so there's an end dash. There's an end dash.
Speaker 3:Wait, hold on. I have to ask this question. Okay, now we know Morgan Freeman. Morgan Freeman, if you were, if you could have AI, have like your mental voice, but speak in any voice what?
Speaker 2:whose voice would you want?
Speaker 3:to use so good, so good.
Speaker 2:So good, who would I be? It would be somebody British, because Americans trust British actions.
Speaker 3:We do. Yeah, we've been destroying the Queen's English for centuries now, so it would probably be some famous British person. You know what about Prince Charles?
Speaker 2:Like I'm sure he sounds great.
Speaker 3:I've actually never heard him talk, I think I would do like Anthony. Hopkins, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:He's got a great voice. I feel like you might want to go with a female, though I feel like you guys.
Speaker 3:I don't feel like no, I feel like no, I really like Morgan.
Speaker 2:Freeman, anthony Hopkins and James, your guys' ideas are a lot better than mine.
Speaker 3:First of all, this is not a place of comparison. Yeah, you already made us feel real small with your, and I'm very specific to my Morgan Freeman.
Speaker 1:I want Shawshank Redemption, Morgan Freeman.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was his best narrative.
Speaker 2:for sure, such a good movie.
Speaker 3:So, okay, I want to cause we are short on time here. I know you have somewhere to be after this. I want to be conscious of that, but I'm curious, like I want to, kind of you know, transfer into our geographic area, the fun part of Sacramento, living here. You're a Sacramento Valley native, born and raised.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what is your favorite part about living here? Well, I was born in the Bay Area. I moved here like when I was eight. Okay yeah, phil's 1987.
Speaker 3:Might allow that. Yeah, 1987. He's been here longer than me. You've been here, okay, all right.
Speaker 1:Well, in that case, Maybe not you, wait a minute. When he moved here in 87, were you?
Speaker 3:born Well, three years later, see, so he's been here longer than you. Okay, well, I give it to you then You're officially a native. Thank you for breaking that down, dan. All right, so yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, I mean just the locale. I love being able to go. We go to the ocean a lot and then I love going to the mountains.
Speaker 1:So being able to go to the ocean, so where Are you guys, north Bay people, where are you going to the ocean?
Speaker 2:South, southern California, santa Cruz, and South I mean Santa Barbara, santa Cruz, a month.
Speaker 3:We used to camp at sunset beach. That was like my family's go-to spot just outside of Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is amazing. Yeah, it's a lovely place. I'm a big fan, so I do I just like?
Speaker 2:I mean, obviously the communities are great and friends, but being close to both Tahoe and the beach is pretty special.
Speaker 3:I love that. I think that's like our number one answer locale. Well, yeah, I mean it almost makes me feel like we're not even really talking about Sacramento. We're talking about how close we can get away from Sacramento.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what I will say is Justin owns a couple of rafts and he takes us rafting on the South Fork all the time and we get out and I'm on the trails and I do stuff outside quite a bit and there's a lot of great stuff right here in our backyard there is, you don't need to go to Tahoe or the beach. And growing up we were in sports and we were like, why were we out here more?
Speaker 3:Like I think people don't realize there's stuff right in our backyard. Yeah, I agree with that, there's some wonderful places up in Auburn. Auburn is like the hidden gem of. I mean you have everything like the biking trails, hiking trails, whitewater rafting, like there is so much up there, that I think.
Speaker 1:Well, the fact that you can bike from downtown Sacramento to Folsom.
Speaker 3:Oh, I've done that before.
Speaker 1:Or Auburn.
Speaker 3:Is it the?
Speaker 1:American River Trail.
Speaker 3:Yeah, is that what that is yeah, you can go down in the American River. I definitely puked afterwards. I was not physically ready, but I was like you know what. I should just do this. No, I biked it.
Speaker 2:It's like I was in the middle of the day. Yeah, it's like a good 20- not doing that regularly.
Speaker 3:You probably should build up to it a little bit before you just jump on the trail and decide like, hey, I could do this. Did you have beers and old sack and have to come back? Or I got a ride back because I had planned to ride back and then I got to the end of it and I was like there's no fuck did you guys ever do the river flow?
Speaker 3:you ever do that yeah, probably I mean growing up I, so my dad did river rescue on that river. Okay, I know every eddy, I know every current, I know when you need to paddle, what side of the river to be on. Like, I grew up on that river Cool. That's awesome, good and bad. I got into a lot of trouble on that river also, yeah it's just a big party.
Speaker 3:But it is a big party. I feel like it's kind of toned down a little bit. They've really brought the hammer down on what they allow.
Speaker 2:Dan, do we have problems? We?
Speaker 1:lost our video. I don't know.
Speaker 3:We can keep going, that's okay, we might have run out of space there.
Speaker 1:I don't know, that's okay.
Speaker 2:Anyways, well, I feel like we got some great content.
Speaker 3:Hopefully it all saved up.
Speaker 2:I'm glad he's like this is a shit show.
Speaker 3:I'm like we have lights going out, cameras going out.
Speaker 2:This is going to fire. You said it right. This is hysterical. I want to have Enya on in my computer behind the scenes emailing you.
Speaker 3:We're looking for a producer. Are you open to it? Yeah, seriously, you could help us avoid all this bullshit.
Speaker 1:We've been openly recruiting for a producer.
Speaker 3:Shamelessly.
Speaker 1:We have not had a single inquiry.
Speaker 3:So this is one of my favorite questions. It's about unusual talents, and I feel like we might have uncovered that a little bit with, just like your propensity First of all, your background in engineering, but also your personal interest in psychological and social behaviors. But is there something we haven't talked about yet that we might be surprised to?
Speaker 2:know about you. Oh, I don't know. I don't know Like what an unusual talent.
Speaker 3:Like I don't.
Speaker 2:I'm not like a chess player. I mean I had people you'd already talked about that I played piano. Yeah, I used to. I taught myself how to play in college and now my my four-year-old wants to play. But no, I wouldn't say that's an unusual talent. I think I'm really good at connecting with people. I can read the room pretty quick. I'm a viber.
Speaker 3:That's an unusual talent. There's a lot of people who are socially awkward and just straight and confident.
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't care who you are Like, I'm going to find a bridge and it's especially important when people are just assholes and you got to figure out how to get in there. It's more fun? Well, yeah, Cause it's like it's like challenge way more challenging.
Speaker 3:I'm a kill him with kindness. I am like the more that you are harder to reach, the more challenged I am to break that barrier. Like I'm the kind of person that I will. Every rock crumbles, Just it's a matter of time.
Speaker 2:Right, I crumbles. Just it's a matter of time, right? I? Uh, yeah, it's true, you know, and I think I inherently that's why I love this logo and I, I just inherently love people. It's like my jam. I think, okay that that is like if you asked what my dream was, it was to be a good dad and somehow make the world a better place. Like I don't. I don't really have hobbies.
Speaker 3:I don't like god. You're such a good person I don't.
Speaker 1:I don't have an asshole I'm always amazed by people who want to make the world a better place. I'm like I just don't want to fuck it up.
Speaker 2:But I think it's a good reminder because with AI and tech and all the stress and everything it's like you know people sometimes just need to feel better during the day and you can do that. Like I have. This thought that I had and I shared with is I think if you just do one kind thing, the universe notices, and sometimes that's just opening the door that can change somebody's day. Sometimes it's something bigger than that, but I just think the world needs more of that right now.
Speaker 3:Do you have a personal mission statement?
Speaker 2:Do I have a personal mission statement?
Speaker 1:Sorry Okay, we did not send him that on the pre-show.
Speaker 3:I have one, but something you just said reminded me of a sentence that's in mine, and I didn't have one until I was introduced to somebody who had one, both for their business and for their just like a personal mission statement, and so I was just curious what is your?
Speaker 2:personal mission statement.
Speaker 3:I will pursue relentlessly all that I wish to achieve. I will greet each day ready to satiate my endless hunger for knowledge, and I will positively impact the lives of this world and every person.
Speaker 2:I meet Mine would be like the fucking rub is everybody matters.
Speaker 3:Solid One liner. I just try it.
Speaker 1:So something that I do, that I like leaving the gym or leaving the grocery store, when somebody says, thank you, have a nice day, like. I try and look them in the eye and say you do the same. Look people in the eye Like you do the same, like I want to, not just like, oh, do the same as I'm walking away, like try and actually like take that moment to go. Hey, like, yeah, yeah, you said it.
Speaker 2:You're so right, you know that they're there. You have to ask somebody and so they get judged quite a bit, but they're actually real. They have the same heart. I do like. They like to feed homeless people, and the same things that they say really change people's lives and I see it all the time. And the other night we were at um Johnson ranch and my son ordered a smoothie and this poor kid's trying to make it, and the first one was like not even drinkable.
Speaker 2:And Brody's like I'm fine. The guy's like I'll make another one. And then the guy's like I hope you enjoy your smoothie. And Brody looks at him and says I hope you enjoy the rest of your life. That's amazing.
Speaker 3:And the guy was like wow, thank you. I'm going to use that. Actually, that's a really good tagline.
Speaker 2:And it's like I don't know where that came from, brody you meant that sincerely right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that could go either way, they don't know how to not be sincere.
Speaker 2:He'd never heard that. I'd never heard it, it just came. That's beautiful. Yeah, it was cool.
Speaker 3:See, this is why one of my favorite things to do at restaurants is to belly. That I haven't been able to in a long time, but last week actually, I went to Siena bellied up at the bar. I ended up sitting next to this guy, george. He's 84. He's been going to Siena every Friday for the last seven years.
Speaker 2:Wow, we had a great conversation.
Speaker 3:George was raised by a Nazi in Germany and came over when he was 10. We had a very, very interesting conversation. Then he was part of the Marines here, did his you know, did his service to our country. It was incredible and I'm like just talking to people. It's one of my most favorite things I don't do.
Speaker 2:the small talk. I, only I. I hone in on somebody that I think needs it, otherwise I'm like you. Got plenty of people talk to you.
Speaker 3:I'm the kind of person I will go in, I will talk to every person in there and then I will find the ones that are harder to draw out to in the course of that. But I want a taste of everyone. Like, give me a little bit. I used to be that way, and I'm just not.
Speaker 2:I mean, I obviously love people and I still want to connect.
Speaker 2:And I'm very I like I will hone in on the people that I think need some connecting Um. And I think the nonprofit work did that, because when I did the nonprofit work I was young and so it had to go on like Good Day Sacramento a lot, and this one time I was speaking to like 2000 women and I just froze, I totally froze and I like just had to get off stage. And ever since then I've just had like this wall up where I kind of like to stick to myself and believe it, or not like I just want a few good friends and be pretty on social for the most part.
Speaker 1:Quality over quantity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:I get that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree with you in that, like it's kind of, like I've said, like the older I get like the less social.
Speaker 2:I feel it's tough in an industry where you have to network and you figure out how to work and you figure out how to connect.
Speaker 3:I'm that weird introvert, extrovert where, like I, I need a moment to myself sometimes. But when my battery is low, one of the best ways I can charge it and fill it is by going out and talking to people, that's cool, like I become alive when I can connect with humans. I think that that connection even there's, like that saying, you have the three minute, three hour and three day friends. Yeah Right, like most people are three minute friends, you know what?
Speaker 2:You just made me think of a story. So, uh, when we golfed, cause you, you, you don't know how not to be authentic. And I look over at Blake and we were golfing and you're waiting for the bathroom and you're jumping up and trying to grab a branch, just in your own little world, and I'm like who is this girl? She's amazing she's over there going like this way and I'm like she's the coolest person ever.
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't know I don't remember that clearly had saw something and you're like I wonder if I could touch that and that's. It's one of those moments where like, ah, that she is cool. And I'll never forget that vision of you trying to jump and grab a leaf or whatever was it as awkward as I'm sure it felt? It was like authentic and awesome, like it was I totally appreciated it.
Speaker 3:Thank you for witnessing that moment.
Speaker 2:I'm glad it stuck with you I like that you don't remember because you're perpetually doing stuff.
Speaker 1:Like that it's like whatever is on my mind yeah, that's the authentic kaylee yeah sure um, all right, we are, we are, we are kind of pressing on. I know we're taking a lot of your time, but there is a question that we've added to the to the pod that I've actually really enjoyed being able to ask, and it's what's your, what's your proudest business accomplishment, like oh, my proudest business accomplishment, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:I don't ever put myself there.
Speaker 2:You know like I just don't ever think like man. I'm so proud of myself I just have. That's never how my brain works.
Speaker 3:I know. That's why we asked the question. You seem like the type of person that, no matter what your accomplishment is, you're always looking at what more you can do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or I just don't ever put myself in that spotlight or think man, I did it. But I am proud of the company. I think we've stayed true to ourselves, we've done it our own way and I think I'm really proud that we have this core group that's been together for 10 years.
Speaker 3:Somehow we've managed to stay together.
Speaker 2:And then, as far as greatest accomplishment, I don't know, I don't know, that's a great question. Can I think about that and get back to you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, sure. Yeah, I mean I yeah, We'll add a caption under this segment. You know I'm not back to us.
Speaker 2:I'm, I'm. I'm generally proud of my company and everybody that works with me. I am proud of who we are and I'm proud of our reputation. But, like one specific thing, that's like man, I funded this many loans in a month. Like is that what you're looking for?
Speaker 1:No, no, maybe, like we, we we put on an event and it raised money for this or and.
Speaker 3:I think what.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I mean we've, we've given over a hundred thousand dollars to foster youth.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm proud of that. That's incredible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm proud of that Like and going back back to being a tech nerd. This is going to turn everybody off, but I built out the APIs between our Salesforce CRM and so things get automatically created, and I created an algorithm that avoids duplicate contacts, which is a huge issue.
Speaker 3:There are some people who are going to appreciate that.
Speaker 1:There might even be a couple of lenders who might be, like, hey, I might need to reach out to this guy. He might be, he might be he might be.
Speaker 3:This might be a good place to work. Yeah, oh yeah, for sure, absolutely. If you want to syndicate your contacts and remove duplicates and have AI working for you, you need to reach out because you don't produce correct.
Speaker 1:You do not produce no.
Speaker 2:I'm starting to a little bit, you know. So I'm managing the kids more and have to be him home more, which, like stay at home, dad, was like my dream.
Speaker 1:It's way harder than a real job.
Speaker 3:I love hearing that because. I feel like the gender role has pigeonholed a lot of men into feeling like they have to be the breadwinner for the family, and I think that it's so empowering to hear people be like no, I want to be the stay-at-home dad.
Speaker 2:But it's hard. I mean it's hard, hard work, yeah, yeah, cause they know when you're present or not, they know if you're actually engaged, and then to keep them busy to where they're like getting their needs met with three boys. Yeah, oh my gosh and then to try and work and like.
Speaker 3:It's impossible Like it is damn near impossible and I think honestly that's one of the. There's certain things that you can have knowledge of, you can understand, but you cannot know and really have the personal experience, and having children is one of them, and my wife and I talk about this a lot. There is like a portal that you step through when you become a parent that being connected with children is such an energetic thing, like energy is their first language. They don't know how to communicate any other way. So no matter how you show up, if it is not purely authentic, they know.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Like they know, if you're feeling a type of way, but you're trying to front for them like they know, and so like what an incredible experience that you don't get in any other situation with a human. Yeah, no, you're so spot on.
Speaker 2:They are so aware.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I've heard this term like especially with my boys. Their bodies are their mind.
Speaker 3:For sure, you know it's like that's Right now. My boy's body is his mouth. Yeah, he's in that mouth phase where, like it's his first hand.
Speaker 2:Like he can read your things now, but it goes right into his mouth. Yeah, don't rush it. You know, the apple recommended photos. Like helps me so much because you, you see your son who's nine, now five, like at a five-year-old god time flies, man, oh yeah, slow down yeah, and one of the things that I do is, even on the days where they're the biggest pain in the ass, I just go when they're falling like look, I'm sleeping and you realize how innocent they are, that's precious. I recommend that.
Speaker 3:Dan's like.
Speaker 1:I don't do that. Yeah, I do it.
Speaker 2:I'm like ugh A pile of dishes that needs to be put away Laundry that needs to be folded.
Speaker 1:You two are sleeping.
Speaker 3:I got shit that needs to be done Wake up and earn your keep around here La shit that needs to be done. Wake up and earn your keep around here Fucking wait.
Speaker 2:Laundry and dishes.
Speaker 1:This is a real thing.
Speaker 2:Chores man. Chores are a real thing.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, they got to contribute, all right. Last but not least, my favorite question.
Speaker 2:I thought the last one about great is professional and I totally bombed it. Nope, Nope.
Speaker 1:We're going to see if you did your homework on this one. You did your homework on this one. You called me out on not reading your email.
Speaker 3:Oh dude.
Speaker 2:We front-loaded you the information for this question. The circle has come, and if this one stumps you right now, okay, the answer is going to be very disappointing if you don't have an answer for this.
Speaker 1:So if you could be anyone for a day, dead or alive, who would it be and what?
Speaker 2:would you do my nine-year-old son Hudson? Why my nine-year-old son Hudson? Why he's got stuff. He just got transitioned back to general ed and we're perpetually. He's an anomaly and like an enigma, and I wish I could get in there and have a better understanding of like what's actually going on, so I could be a better dad.
Speaker 1:So what would you do as?
Speaker 2:him. What would I do as him Pick up my fucking room?
Speaker 1:Yeah right, Pick your nose and eat it right in front of your dad.
Speaker 2:I'd be like oh man, I'm going to make that bed and pick up the trash. See how it feels.
Speaker 3:I bet he would feel a type of way about doing something he accomplished on his own. That's a very what a beautiful statement thing to do. Yeah, you're a really good human, Nick.
Speaker 1:He's a big, beautiful man. Ladies and gentlemen, yeah, and with that, truly Thank you, thank you.
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