00:10I'm Alison LaForgia, and on this episode of 10 Minute Talks, I'm with Sean Washington,
00:15who's the Assistant Vice President of Real Estate Agent Relations at United Wholesale
00:20Mortgage. Sean, thank you for joining me today. Excited to be here. Thank you.
00:23Now, UWM is celebrating a pretty big milestone, 40 years of growth and innovation in the industry.
00:32From your perspective, what leadership mindset has been essential to building something that
00:38has lasted decades and not cycles? Well, what it makes me think about is, one,
00:43how long we've been doing it. It's been 40 years now, right? And if you think about the way that
00:49Jeff did things, the way that Matt have done things since the beginning,
00:52they've always focused on doing the right thing, right? I mean, when you think about
00:56the crash of 2008, right? Before then, during then, after then, we've always been here.
01:03And that's just because we always focus on the client, and we've always focused on our people.
01:07And, you know, even when people aren't looking, we're doing what's right.
01:10So you just mentioned doing everything, doing what's right, even when no one's looking.
01:15Yeah. There are some very seasoned brokers who often say that long-term success comes from
01:21prioritizing relationships, especially over transactions. How has that philosophy shaped
01:27your leadership style and the way that UWM supports its broker network?
01:32Well, for me personally, I think about the people that helped me get to where I am today.
01:38Um, you know, there are people that took chances on me in my career, probably when they shouldn't
01:43have. Um, and I know that if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be where I am today. And so
01:48I try and
01:49instill that, uh, in the people that I promote and hire, um, look for skills that I think can translate
01:56in ways that other people might not see. Uh, it makes, it makes me think about something that one of
02:01my broker partners, Nate Davis used to say is, and I think Matt agrees with this is we look for
02:06people
02:07with PhDs, poor, hungry, and determined. Okay. All the degrees in the world cannot compare to
02:13somebody that's hungry, that somebody that does not have everything, but is always willing to figure
02:18it out. And I think that, um, the people that I've been able to partner with, we share that same
02:24perspective and we share that kind of growth and it's always worked. I think that that's a fantastic
02:30way to look at things. One of my favorite sports moments is, was right before the Philadelphia
02:37Eagles won their first Superbowl. And we saw Jason Kelsey go on and he said, hungry dogs run
02:43faster. Well, I don't know if I want to talk about that cause I'm a Tom Brady fan. So next
02:48topic, please. Next topic. Next topic. It's all good. I was there though. That was a sad day
02:53for me. That was a sad day for me, but I totally get what you're saying. So there's four decades
03:01of more and the mortgage industry has gone through several market cycles. Yeah. How do you lead teams
03:08to stay consistent in some of the values that you just mentioned and execution, even as external
03:14conditions constantly shift? So, you know, as somebody that talks to, you know, roughly 1200 real
03:21estate agents a month, one thing I talked to a lot of real estate leaders about is the longer that
03:27we
03:27tend to be in this industry, the farther we allow ourselves to get to the, from the fundamentals.
03:32And so, you know, one thing that I like to discuss and help teach to a lot of leaders in
03:37real estate
03:37is let's not forget where we came from. And I think that our six pillars at UWM and also the
03:43way we
03:43carry ourselves for decades is we never forget the small things that got us there, which are very simple.
03:49But at the end of the day, it's always been effective. So I think that the only way to build
03:54consistency and building relationships and longevity is to stick to the fundamentals of
03:59focusing on the people, focusing on the growth, focusing on technology and doing things the right
04:05way for the right reasons. Leaders at UWM have emphasized the importance of delivering ongoing
04:12value to partners. How do you instill that mindset across the organization so that it becomes part
04:18of the culture and not just a talking point? Well, I think that goes back to, you know,
04:24my last response is fundamentals, right? But also being willing to accept change. So, you know,
04:30when you see Matt speak about adopting new technology, I mean, every single sales meeting,
04:35you know, when he talks about new tools and exclusives, it's because they're important,
04:39right? And we have so many different tools at UWM to where it's very hard to remember them all,
04:44right? You can't get somebody on the phone and talk about all 275 tools that we came out with in
04:49the last six to 12 months, right? So I think that not only focusing on the fundamentals, which is
04:55important, which is standard, which is a conservative way to look at it, but also when times change,
05:00you got to be ready to change with it. And as long as it is consistent with your values, I
05:04think that
05:05you're always going to end up seeing growth that's going to be positive.
05:08So as you look to the next chapter for UWM, what does the future of relationship-driven
05:14leadership look like? And how can the next generation of leaders build on that foundation?
05:21Well, there's so much, there's so much history in what we've been able to accomplish. I mean,
05:26I've been there for 14 years next week, actually. And so when I started, there was, I don't know,
05:3320 of us in what we used to call the pie shop. It was a Baker Square that we converted
05:39into a sales
05:40office at that time, back in Birmingham. And, you know, that was 14 years ago. And to be able to
05:46see that kind of growth, I think being able to reference the history of what's always worked is
05:51really what allows people to really believe in what we do. And if you were to walk into our office,
05:57we have, I don't know, roughly 9,000, 10,000 people in one location. People notice that every single
06:03person here believes in what they're doing, right? And I think that's just because history's shown
06:08that what we do works. What a fantastic culture. Yeah, we enjoy it. People will come out there and
06:16visit and think that it's unreal until they sit down and have lunch with your con executive. And
06:21we give the why behind why we love walking into the door, the why behind why I've been there for
06:2714
06:27years. We don't just say, hey, we love this place. We'll tell you why. And then agents and loan
06:32officers that are new, partnering with us, leave and understand. They leave and they say, I get it.
06:37Yeah. I get it now. Right. So. So, Sean, as the mortgage industry continues to evolve through
06:45technology advancements, servicing models and borrower expert expectations continuing to change,
06:52where do you see the greatest opportunity for leaders to drive meaningful change?
06:58One is through adoption, right? I mean, artificial intelligence is here.
07:04I'm a little bit late to the game myself, right? You know, it took a lot of talking into for
07:10me to
07:10finally give in and say, OK, let me learn what gamma is and how to leverage gamma. Let me learn
07:15how to
07:16leverage chat GPT. Let me learn how to leverage chat UWM and learn how to speak to it, learn how
07:22to ask it
07:23the right questions. And it's kind of mind blowing on truly what artificial intelligence can do.
07:28So I would think that if we're looking towards the future, if we're looking towards how to raise
07:32young leaders, I think our young leaders are going to be coming up are probably a lot smarter than us
07:38in what's going to be coming. But I think that as leaders right now, if we focus on being able
07:43to
07:43hone in on those skills of the young generation and helping them apply it in the best way as possible,
07:48which is to the fundamentals of what UWM believes in and consistent with our culture, I think that
07:53our growth is going to be exponential within the next two to five years.
07:57Well, it's already been exponential. Sean, congratulations to the whole UWM crew on 40 years.
08:03I can't wait to see what it looks like in the future.
08:06I appreciate that. Thank you.
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