Mike Fawaz and Cory Scholl on how the American dream is the driving force at Rocket Pro

HousingWire

In this Ten Minute Talk, Rocket’s Mike Fawaz and Cory Scholl join Diego Sanchez to discuss how Rocket’s Super Bowl ad marks the beginning of a new era for Rocket Pro. They share insights on the evolving mortgage industry and the need for adaptability while emphasizing that the American dream remains at the core of Rocket’s mission.   With a combined tenure of more than 20 years, Fawaz and Scholl reflect on the company’s culture and highlight the importance of engaging with broker partners for continued success. They share why they’ve chosen to build their careers and Rocket and the bright future ahead for Rocket.

Transcript

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.

Category

Transcript

Recommended