00:00it's a bold new beginning for us. This represents our daily work. This represents our story. This
00:06new message, this one message, I think it's really the start of a new era for Rocket,
00:12and I'm very excited about it. I'm Diego Sanchez, President of HousingWire,
00:24and this is a special 10-minute talk presented by Rocket Pro. I'm joined today by Mike Fawaz,
00:31EVP of Strategy, Growth, and Partnership. And Mike, I think you go by Fawaz?
00:36Yes, sir. Morning, Diego.
00:39Morning. And also Corey Scholl, EVP of Sales at Rocket Pro. Welcome, gentlemen.
00:45Morning. Thank you. Thanks for having us.
00:48So you both have been at Rocket for a long time. What has kept you at the company,
00:55and how has your role evolved? And we'll start with Fawaz.
01:00Yeah, look, it's a good question. I think for me, it's all about the American dream. And I say this
01:06a lot for someone that's, I feel like I was lucky to have to be able to achieve this dream. I grew
01:14up in Africa, was lucky enough to move to this incredible country. And it's funny, I never thought
01:21I'd be in this space. But just getting into the space, it makes me think like, oh, this is the
01:26best space that I could have ever gone into. Because it really puts me in a position to help
01:33others accomplish what I was able to accomplish. And the American dream, to me, it's a big deal.
01:38I was a mortgage banker. And even at that time, when I was on the retail side,
01:43my goal was to make sure that we took care of our clients, and we delivered to them,
01:46put them in a position to achieve those dreams, owning their dreams, getting to a point to where
01:52they can get that financial freedom. And even on this side today, whether it's working with
01:56clients or working with our broker partners, it's incredible to build these relationships and
02:03see these hardworking Americans that put their life and soul into their business,
02:08be able to own their dream and help clients along the way own their dreams as well.
02:13Yeah, that's amazing. Corey, what brought you to Rocket? And why have you stayed there for
02:19such a long tenure?
02:20Well, what brought me to Rocket is a long story, which we don't have time for, but another time
02:24we can do that. But I mean, again, it's an amazing industry, it's always changing,
02:29things are always adjusting. But what's kept me here at Rocket for 23 years now,
02:34is that we have just an amazing culture, an amazing commitment to what we call our isms.
02:40And I always look back at my favorite, which is do the right thing. And what that means is that
02:45we are going to be always focused on our clients, our partners, the communities that we're in,
02:51the communities our partners are in. And that's what keeps me going every single day. It's not
02:56just the changes, but the culture here. I was on the retail side as a loan officer for 17 years of
03:02my career. And I took a lot of pride in just helping homeowners, helping people set up their
03:09finances and be in a better position and own that dream back then. And then moving over to
03:14Rocket Pro in this space, I mean, again, now thinking about it from like scalability, right?
03:19Now it's focusing on our partners, focusing on helping them build, helping them grow,
03:24impacting their clients, and then now impacting where they're at in their communities.
03:28It's just an amazing feeling.
03:30Yeah, that's great. Now, Rocket has been rolling out a really comprehensive
03:36rebranding strategy over the past few months, culminating in this incredible Super Bowl ad
03:44this past Sunday with a theme of own the dream. Fawaz, how has this rebranding
03:51felt for you, a 14-year company veteran?
03:55Yeah, look, maybe I'll start by saying I think it's more than just a culmination. I think it's
04:01a bold new beginning for us. It's the start of a new era. It's the start of us being
04:09at the positive force in the industry, especially at times where in the last couple of years,
04:15we all know that the market hasn't been in our favor. But to go out there and show the world
04:21that we can achieve owning the dream together and we can go out there and help others as well
04:28own their dream, I think that's a bold move. It's a move that I'm very, very excited about.
04:33It's a move that I think will help us with our new overarching brand and this new message,
04:39this one message. I think it's really the start of a new era for Rocket and I'm very excited about it.
04:47Corey, how have your broker partners been responding to that? Own the dream ad,
04:53and then you go back to the stadium and people are still singing country roads.
04:57How people respond to that?
04:59That's a great question. There's so many adjectives I can use. It's incredible. It's
05:03amazing. It's been fast. It's been all those things. I think the thing that's really stood
05:09out is just, again, our phone's been ringing off the hook, tech, social. It's been amazing.
05:14But it's this understanding that there's this natural alignment with our partners. It's not
05:19just Rocket. It's not just Rocket Pro, but our partners are there with us and recognizing this
05:25represents our daily work. This represents our story. They're really leaning into it. They're
05:30feeling seen. They're saying, hey, this is what we do every single day. My gosh, thank you so much
05:36for doing this. It's been incredible. Definitely coming in really fast. I actually just shared
05:43this week on social. I received a text from one of our partners, Tim Gentry at Lone Velocity.
05:48It was just so amazing. I had to put it on social. He was talking about, hey, this commercial,
05:53it made me go back in time to my first home and the feels that we had from that first time buying
05:59a house and owning the dream back then. But then also, Tim, he served our country. He's a veteran.
06:06So he's also talking about what home means, not just a physical building, not a physical place,
06:11but what home means when he would come back from deployment. So it's been incredible. And we're
06:16just getting started. But we love that our partners are leaning into this as this is a combined
06:21vision. Yeah, I have a feeling that there were hundreds of thousands of housing professionals
06:26on the mortgage side and on the real estate side who are having those same flashbacks.
06:32Really incredible. Fawaz, what is the strategy for translating that consumer message of own the
06:40dream to the broker channel through RocketPro? Yeah, look, I think our core creative idea,
06:47this message on the dream, to me, it translates to all of our Rocket channels. But it's more
06:53than that, because we also believe that our broker partners are part of this channel.
06:58We're invested in this community. Our goal is to deliver to this community. We treat our partners
07:04as part of our team. I talked earlier about relationships. To us, it's the most important
07:09thing. At the end of the day, numbers of money follow, they do not lead. So to us, it's more than
07:14just profit. We get it. We're all here to make money and that's to run a business. But it's about
07:20the broker partners and it's about how do we support them. So taking this message, owning the
07:25dream, and working with our broker partners and getting their feedback and speaking to their
07:31clients and getting them on social and in the media, telling their story, whether it's a story
07:38of some single mother that just got into a home or a veteran like Tim Gentry and how he was able
07:44to accomplish his dreams and now how he's helping veterans in his area. We want to tell that story
07:49to the world and empower our partners to take this message and own the dream with us. Because
07:55it's not just us, it's not just Rocket Retail or Rocket, it's RocketPro, it's all of Rocket channels,
08:02it's the broker community, it's the industry, and it's the clients. Because ultimately, what we do
08:08every day, it's all about our clients. And we want to work through all of this. And our brokers,
08:13to Corey's point, I mean, partners are fired up. The feedback, the messages has been incredible.
08:18And it's great to see this core creative idea coming to life. And not just us putting it out
08:27there, but our broker partners taking it and running with it. So it's just, again, I say it's
08:32just the beginning because to me, we're just getting started and we're going to build on this
08:36and we're going to empower partners to get their clients to own their dream as well.
08:42Corey, the Wholesale channel is incredibly competitive. And so let's kind of break this down
08:49into taking market share in 2025. How do you think this rebranding and the Super Bowl ad
09:01and everything that's to come in this campaign is going to help you bring in more broker partners
09:07for RocketPro? Yeah. I mean, it's going to help us bring in more partners. I mean,
09:13it's often referred to when we talk to people, it's like, oh, how are you going to use this to
09:17sell the industry? And how are you going to bring on more partners? So I love when people say sell,
09:21it's like, we don't sell. We show the industry what RocketPro is doing. And again, this all
09:28fits together. I'll go back to our culture, right? We lean into our culture and we show
09:33the industry who we are. Because again, yes, you're going to have technology, you're going to
09:37have pricing, you're going to have value, you're going to have benefits. Like those are the antis
09:40to be in the industry. But when you start looking at our culture and then the restage and our vision
09:45and what own the dream really means, that's when it all comes together. And again, coming out of
09:51the Super Bowl Monday morning, again, our phone started ringing right away saying, hey, we want
09:54to learn more. We want to hear more about that. Maybe we had some questions in the past. We're
09:59ready to talk because again, it's this overall vision and it's going to uplift the entire
10:05industry, right? So again, that's what we're so excited about, really going into areas that we
10:09haven't been in before. So whether it's broker partners, builders, banks, credit unions,
10:14everybody's starting to feel this. And because it's something that we can all attach ourselves
10:18to, it's just an amazing thing. And we see a mass amount of growth for us in 2025.
10:24I think, can I add on this? I think it's important to think about what this message did and how
10:30people reacted to it. It wasn't just RocketPro's partners. These were brokers that are in the
10:38industry that don't even work with us that were speaking about owning the dream. These are real
10:42estate agents that we've never had a conversation with that were speaking about owning the dream.
10:47So I believe the message was well-received across the board, whether you work with Rocket on the
10:53retail or RocketPro wholesale, whatever it is, the message of owning dream was well-received
10:58from professionals in the industry, the real estate agents, the brokers,
11:02at the financial institutions, the builders. Everyone understood what own the dream means
11:06because it's time that we empower people to really own the dream and put that positive
11:12message out there in the industry and run with it. And that was the exciting part for us.
11:17Well, I can tell that you guys are both competitive guys and want to win,
11:23but I love how you're leaning in on the positive message and the inspiration. I think our industry
11:29could use a lot more of that. So kudos to you gentlemen and to the entire team at RocketPro.
11:35And thank you so much for joining me today on this special 10-minute talk.
11:39Awesome. Thank you, Diego. We appreciate you.
11:41Appreciate it.
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