How They Crushed It

Steven Sless | Falling in Love with Sales, Not Being Afraid to Fail, & Giving Maximum Effort

• Direct Mortgage Loans • Season 1 • Episode 10

Share episode

In this episode of the How They Crushed It podcast, Dean Johnson interviews Steven Sless, the COO of Trius Lending Partners. They discuss Steve's journey from selling cars to entering the mortgage business and eventually joining Trius Lending. Steve emphasizes the importance of finding mentors, not being afraid to fail, and giving maximum effort. He also highlights the significance of consistency and the ability to adapt to changes in the industry. Trius Lending Partners is a private lender that provides loans for real estate investors, and their goal is to manage, lend, and invest $2 billion in real estate over the next 10 years.

Direct Mortgage Loans (00:

00.046) It's one thing to sell and make money, but you gotta do it the right way. Being consistent so people know what they can count on. Not being afraid to fail. Commit to a plan and a level of activity where success is the only reasonable outcome. I had the best teachers along the way and I think it's really set the table for a lot of my success. Your net worth is your net worth. The art of understanding what people want and being able to give them what they want. And that is sales. Let's crush it. Let's crush it. Welcome everybody to episode 10 from the How They Crushed It podcast. My name is Dean Johnson from Direct Mortgage Loans, the sponsor of this podcast. Today's guest is a good friend of mine, COO of Trius Lending Partner, Steve Sless. You'll see him, he's the guy with the cool beard. You can't miss him once you see him. Trius has a great story. They're definitely crushing it and Steve's got a wild and interesting story of the course of his career that got him to this point. So we're super pumped to have him here today and there's gonna be a lot of great nuggets, I'm sure. Welcome everybody to episode 10 of the How They Crushed It podcast. My name is Dean Johnson. I work for Direct Mortgage Loans, the sponsor of this wonderful podcast that we've been getting a lot of fun out of and having a lot of fun with. My guest today is a friend of mine, Steve Sless. Steve is the COO of Trius Lending Partners here in Baltimore, Maryland, and he's gonna talk about a lot of things today because he's an interesting guy and he and I always talk about a lot of things when we're together, correct? We do, absolutely. Per usual everybody four segments here. We first we're gonna do a little rapid -fire fun stuff with Steve We're gonna get into Steve's early life and business story kind of Steve's sales and marketing story and talk about Tactically what Steve's business and what Steve is doing right now today to be successful But we'll jump all into that now, but Steve welcome my friend. Thanks man. Glad to have you here. Yes Let's let's crush it. Let's crush it. But hey our computers right here We ask we always ask Google a couple of questions. Oh boy. Oh So as it relates, you see Steve's wonderful, wonderful beard and, you know, follow him on social and he's got a lot of great beard photos. But who are the most famous beards in history? What do you think Google told me? Gosh, George Washington had a beard, right? Abraham Lincoln. Abe Lincoln's in the top couple. James Harden. We both love James Harden. You look a little different, but you look a lot alike, like James Harden.

Direct Mortgage Loans (02:

17.454) He was not on the list. Not on the list. Other beards in history. It's got to be presidential, right? Well, hold on. I got one. Leonardo da Vinci did not know Leonardo da Vinci had a beard. He came up there. Zeus, the Greek god. How many stars? By the way, that may be Steve's new nickname in our friendship. He may be Zeus in the future. But hey, rock band, two members. OK. ZZ Top. ZZ Top, of course. ZZ Top, you're a little, you know, you don't have enough gray yet to be a ZZ Top member, thankfully. But, uh, Steve's beard is, I'm sure we'll talk a little bit about branding and being memorable later. Steve's beard is wonderful, but that was the one. I'm not gonna bring a bunch of other questions, because I just wanted to see what you thought there. I mean, those are good answers. You should know that. That should be your quiz question for people. I'm disappointed in myself. Yeah, and then we always ask too, what's your favorite crush flavor if you get a crush at a bar or a restaurant? Do you drink crushes? I do. It's got to be an orange crush. Ocean City orange crush, right? I mean, what could be better? It's a lot. I mean, we have the orange sign, but we've had other answers from other members. You know, some mix grapefruit and orange. We call that the DML crush. But what did we hear, Tiff? Lemon basil, we heard from someone. Our friend, Andrew Bay. I had a blueberry crush. Recently that was very I've seen that there's nothing better than Fager's sunset orange crush I mean come on he knows he knows Come on since you know since it's the how they crushed it podcast we do ask the crush question great question I've become a Half half grapefruit half orange guy which we call the DML crush But you know kind of makes the color a little on brand there is on brand on that everybody direct mortgage ones even more this here today for us But Steve let's jump in You and I go back a number of years, but talk to me. We always like to ask our guests about their childhood, their life story, but as it relates to what got you into business, tell us about little Steve, who didn't have a beard probably, and how you got into business and interested in some of the stuff that comes along later. Yeah, so young Steve had no aspirations to be in business or sales. Young Steve had no idea what he wanted to do with his life or when he wanted to do.

Direct Mortgage Loans (04:

22.414) I got actually my first introduction in the sales was in the car business. I was 18 years old out of high school, didn't go to college, really had no direction, no idea what I wanted to do. Buddy of mine starts selling cars and said, hey, give it a shot, come on in. Immediately, day one, fell in love with sales, took to it. What really interests me was the ability to be able to dictate my own path. Nobody's going to tell me how much I'm going to make or what I'm going to do. I can make my own rules. play by my own rules, which I'm a big proponent of, and make income that's commensurate with the work that's put into it. And you're 18 years old at this point? 18 years old. 18 years old. That is frying pan right into the fire, is it not? Len Stoller Mitsubishi, right into the fire. No training, but I was really lucky and grateful to this day to have incredible mentors. From day one, my sales manager saw something in me. took me under my wing, groomed me. And he was big at that time on, I'm going to teach my sales crew how to structure their own deals, which is really unheard of in the car business. We've all bought cars before, car dealerships. It's a back and forth between the salesperson, the manager, the closer. There's so many people involved. And this, in particular, sales manager, who happened to be my first one in that business, said, you know what? You're going to structure your own deals. You're going to know the invoice price. You're going to know what the dealer pays. and I'm gonna teach you how to negotiate and cut your own deal. You're 18 years old. I mean, we've heard this, by the way, with a lot of our guests. A good mentor, which some people aspire towards someone, some people get lucky, like you. But we say this all the time, find mentors, and if you find a good one, hold on to them, stay with them. For sure, for sure. So how long are you at this job? And talk to me about what you learned that's still with you today. Yeah, I sold cars for four years. That was effectively my college education. I learned everything that I needed to know about business, about life. You know, I say I went to the school of F it up and do better and I did. I F'd up a lot of deals but I learned over time the art of understanding what people want and being able to give them what they want and that is sales. Say that again, say that again. The art of understanding what people want and how to give them what they want or how to give them the perceived notion that they're getting.

Direct Mortgage Loans (06:

44.878) what they want. Great sentence. It's all about asking the right questions. It's all about doing the right thing. It's all about integrity. Integrity was really a lesson that I learned from my early mentors. It's one thing to sell and make money, but you got to do it the right way. And early on in the car business, I was taught the lesson of you are your own brand. People can buy a car. They could buy a Mitsubishi Eclipse from our dealership, from the dealership up the road, from the dealership up the road. There's, you know. And you're a kid still at this point. I'm a kid. I'm 18 years old. I have no idea what I'm doing. But understand what people want, ask questions, get to know them, build rapport, and give them what they want. And that is sales at the end of the day. Yeah. OK. So now you're a grizzled veteran. You're 22. What happens next? 22 years old, back and forth between a few different car dealerships, just learning. You know, some interesting experiences along the way. I sold cars at Len Stoller in Owings Mills. I sold cars at Liberty Ford on Liberty Road. Very, just different diversity, different understanding of people and what they want and how to give them what they want. And, you know, the problem with the car business, and if anybody listening is in the car business, I'm sure you would agree, is the hours. Right? It was, I was 18, 19, 20 years old working 70 hours a week, 80 hours a week. The term I've heard, ding to dong. Ding to dong, bell to bell. Bell to bell. It was... That's what? That's nine to nine? Nine to nine. Nine to nine. We worked nine to nine four days a week and nine to nine on Saturdays. We had one day where we worked nine to five and it was a brutal schedule. But that's what you had to do. You had to... And I quickly became the top salesperson at every dealership that I was at. It was very competitive and you had to be there, right? You had to be there. And it was, I think, 2003, the end of 2003, early 2004, a bunch of friends of mine went to Ocean City and I couldn't go. and it broke my heart. And I said, you know what? You couldn't go why? I couldn't go because of the hours. I actually wound up going. In my convertible, Ford Mustang convertible demo that I was given by the dealership at the time, I said, F it, I'm going to the beach with my friends. I was quickly called by my sales manager and let go that day for not being there. But the lesson to myself was I need to control my own destiny.

Direct Mortgage Loans (09:

00.11) The car business is great and taught me a lot of things, but the hours just aren't for me. I got to be into something that's a little bit more flexible. Had a buddy of mine that was in mortgages and that at the time was sort of the natural progression. Correct. Car business, mortgage business, effectively the same sales, right? There was no barrier to entry. You didn't need a college degree, which at that point - There was no licensing back then. There was no licensing back then. And I jumped in and learned the mortgage business. I was 20. 22, 23 at the time, learned the mortgage business and fell in love with it again because it is sales and it's what I know and that's what I was comfortable with. So you get in there, you've got this lesson, find out what people need and give them what they need, give them what they want. Talk to me about the early days there because look, I was in mortgages back then. It was a bit of the wild, wild west. It's much more organized now, much more, there are barriers to entry. You have to be licensed, you have to pass certain ethical standards, you have to pass certain requirements. But, you know, talk to me. I've heard a lot of great stories about the early days in the mortgage business for people. You know, day one, you get a manual put on your desk, LTV, DTI, you know, just all these different, all this different vernacular and terminologies. And I knew nothing. I didn't know what a mortgage title was. I didn't know what a title company was. I was greener than green. But what I knew... harkening back to my days in the car business and my initial mentors was ask questions, give people what they want. And that's what I did. Did you get to a place where you at a place that had, did you have a good mentor there too? I did. I've been really lucky along the way. I've had great mentors everywhere I've been. I had great leadership. I had great mentors. And in all these places, I've had people that have invested in me, right? They saw something in me. They identified something in me. unbeknownst to me because oftentimes I didn't see what they saw, but they saw something in me and they really sunk their teeth in and they spent a lot of time with me and I got a lot of preferential treatment and at the time I didn't realize why I deserved it. But again, they saw something in me and they took me under their wing and guided me and I had the best teachers along the way and I think it's really set the table for a lot of my success. So leaning into your mentors, is that advice you give people?

Direct Mortgage Loans (11:

25.294) Because it's a device I give regularly. All the time. If you find somebody that's willing to invest that time and effort into you, lean in and try to squeeze every drop of wisdom you can squeeze out of it. And these days too. I mean, even if you don't have a good mentor, right, Google, YouTube, you know, when I got into the mortgage business, you know, Google was just starting to really take off and become a thing, but I used it. I used the tools and the resources that I could find. Again, I don't have a college education, didn't go to college for one day. Self -taught. you know, and not being afraid. I think what I, in retrospect, not being afraid to fail. I love that one. Is really what sort of catapulted me. I had nothing to lose, right? I was the kid in high school that everybody said was never going to become anything. I had teachers that told me point blank and would call my parents and say, your kid's a lost cause. I don't know what to do with them, right? We don't know what to do with them. We can't, I was not engaged. Nothing in school sparked my interest. I had no idea what I wanted to do. But as soon as I found sales, it clicked and the rest is history. Don't be afraid to fail. I love that one. I tell people that one all the time. You learn more. Do you agree you learn more from your failures than you do your successes? I have f'd up more things that I could possibly count. And but you learn. It's it's it's failure is not a bad thing. Failure is not a four letter word. Failure is is a learning lesson. If. you find the learning lesson in all your failures. It's okay to fail, but you gotta identify why you failed and you gotta correct that and do better next time. I'm gonna say that one to the camera, find the learning lesson in all your failures. Take a time out, take a pause, find them. It's invaluable. Write them down, save them, remind yourself of them. We hear this all the time. We talk about it at our company, with our sales team. There's something I try to teach my kids, right? I don't care if you fail. Your kids actually fail? Not often. Not often. Pretty talented. But my older daughter is just shy and reserved. My little one will jump in. She'll try anything. But my older daughter is a little bit shy and reserved. And it's like, just get in there. It's OK if you don't do great. It's OK if you don't do as well as you think you should do, or if you don't do the things that the other kids are doing. Just get in there and do it. And if you don't do well, learn why you don't do well and keep trying. Just keep going. Talk about.

Direct Mortgage Loans (13:

42.03) Because you and I have talked about this a little off camera at other times. Talk a little bit about max effort and working hard. I mean, I know you talked about a lot of hours, but a lot of hours don't necessarily mean you're working hard. Max effort and knowing you gave it your all, which we're touching a little bit here. Talk a little bit about that. To me, max effort is the work that's done in the margins that nobody sees. I'm at the office all day long. Everybody sees us working hard. We have a great team and everybody is giving max effort. during the working hours. But I think as a leader and as somebody that aspires to be more, it's the work that's done in the margins. It's the late night emails. It's the early morning emails. It's the waking up at 5 a .m., laying in bed, staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep and just processing thoughts and ideas and getting the creative juices flowing. It's the podcast that you listen to. It's the Wall Street Journal that I'm addicted to reading and listening to every day. It's never... taking no for an answer and never being complacent no matter what level of success you've achieved. A mentor and friend of mine who you also know, maybe he'll be watching, Jan Oskaz told me, he said, ask yourself the question at the end of each day, did you give your family max effort? Did you give max effort so you didn't rip your family off? And if you can say yes, go home and feel good about it. And that doesn't necessarily mean everybody work in a billion hours. Sometimes it's working smarter. I mean, most successful people do put in effort in hours. mind you, but that doesn't mean you have to go ding -da -dong. Correct? And it's also not beating yourself up when you can look yourself in the mirror at night and say, no, I didn't put in max effort. There's days where you're just off your game and there's days where you're tired, right? We just had our third daughter eight weeks ago at this point. God bless you. Thank you, man. You know, not getting a lot of sleep and not being physically able and mentally able to give that max effort that I expect for myself, right? I don't think anybody holds me to the caliber that I hold myself to. And it's frustrating sometimes that there's days where I just can't give that next effort. But again, you learn and you do better the next time. Well, getting better. Look, that one took me years to learn, to be honest with you. I mean, I had a coach years ago that would say, you beat yourself up so bad, you have no chance to even succeed. Nobody else beats you up the way you're beating yourself up. You have to give yourself a break to recharge, reset, and rest. Right. I have a...

Direct Mortgage Loans (16:

06.734) kid who runs collegiately and our camera person over there is a collegiate runner as well. And you got to give your body a chance to rest, your mind a chance to rest, you're always better when you're rested. And you have to dedicate time to yourself, right? To me... Even with three small kids? Even with three small kids, you have to. You have to find the time, whether it's done, I call it in the margins, right? When the kids and the wife are asleep or early in the morning, late at night. To me, I go to the gym every day after work. And that is my... my 90 minutes of salvation no matter how crazy my day was. Does that change things for you? I mean, how many years have you been doing that? Two years. And talk about before that versus? Life changing. Absolutely life changing. I was never a fitness junkie until about a year and a half, two years ago. And I made a commitment to myself. I said, look, I'm not getting any younger, right? I had turned 40 and I had a hard time turning 40. I had a hard time turning 30 also, but I had a more difficult time turning 40. To me, 40, I remember my dad and looking at my dad as a young kid and thinking, gosh, 40 is just so old. I didn't want my kids to think that about me. And I noticed, right? The guy turns 40, right? Your energy levels drop and things change. I wasn't gonna allow that to happen to myself. And so - Gary Vee would tell you right now if he walked in here, Gary Vee would say, got a lot of career left, a lot of life yet to live for both of us. And I'm a little older than 40, by the way, a little. Not a lot. It's no different than business, right? Commit to something, have goals, set expectations for yourself, and execute. And there's days where you beat yourself up because you didn't have a great workout, but at least you did. At least you went, right? There's days where you're too tired to go, but you still show up and put the work in anyway. And the results have been amazing. Energy levels through the roof. It's allowed me to be better in business and a better father as well. That's great. We have a line we say at our company regularly. It's commit to a plan and a level of activity where success is the only reasonable outcome. I love it. And it, I mean, I repeat it to myself all the time. It's not my line. I stole it from, again, from our friend Jan. But it's commit to a plan and an activity level where the only reasonable outcome is success. I love it. And, you know, it's pretty succinct and it makes a lot of sense based on what you're talking about. This is all great stuff.

Direct Mortgage Loans (18:

25.966) Leaning into mentors, don't be afraid to fail. I love that one because too many, having children that are in their 20s, they're fearful. They're fearful of failure and they have to give themselves the grace and we as parents have to give them the grace to fail because that's when you become super successful. All the most successful people I've read about and listened to say the same thing. And it's tough. I mean, look, kids these days have, the expectations have never been higher for a lot of kids, especially. You know, I think not going to college for me was a blessing and a curse. You know, in retrospect, I wish I went, right? There's things that I have learned. Socially, you learned socially. Socially, absolutely. Now, I had a pretty active social life in my college years, despite the fact that I wasn't in college. But I think I've learned, I've had to learn things the hard way, where had I gone to college or had I gone to business school, I would have picked up on things earlier on and perhaps not had some of the failures that I've had along the way. But I have no regrets. No, you can't. You can't regret. No regrets. Had I gone to college though and had I either spent the money on college or my parents spent the money on college, I think that's where the fear of failure may have come into play. The fact that I truly had nothing to lose. I was told early on from teachers and friends like, Steve's a joke. He's never going to become anything. I think there's times that my parents wondered. What's he gonna do? Like, how's he gonna make a living? Is he gonna be living in our house forever? Well, hold on. And I'll validate you, my friend. You are crushing it. We talk business all the time and it's a pleasure watching you crush it. I appreciate it. We're gonna talk in a minute, but you've made some changes. You've done some different things and it's great to watch you succeed and bring all your experiences with you. I wanna go back for a second. I love the no regrets line because it took me years to learn that one too, which is there's some things like, If I could go back, I would maybe do differently. And some things I definitely would have done differently, but I can't regret them because they're part of what shaped the narrative of where I sit right now. I don't and can't regret them. Everything that we've done in our lives has brought us to this table in this studio today. Correct. For better or for worse, and there's always tomorrow. That's the point. If you fail today, get up out of bed and do better tomorrow morning. Well, that's why I love the, I mean, what you said earlier, you said, you know,

Direct Mortgage Loans (20:

45.998) Ask yourself if you didn't give it max effort, if you maybe had a bad day, there's always tomorrow. But show up tomorrow and give it best. Don't stack bad days on top of one another. Stack good days on top. One of the things I preach to all the people I've mentor and coach and work with is marketing and sales are cumulative. You stack them. You don't do one marketing effort or one advertisement or one sales call and achieve your goals. Little wins, little wins and consistency. Right, sticking to something, not deviating, and especially in marketing, right? Marketing oftentimes, as we know, is a long play. You gotta stick with it. Well, let's talk about consistency, because this is something I, you know, when I write the questions, I get myself prepped for all these, and there's so, you know, you've seen some of the other podcasts. There's different guests in lots of different industries, and I think that's the beauty of this for people that do listen and try to take wins from here. Consistency comes up in every single one, and I'm never the one who brings it up. The word usually just, generates itself from successful people. I mean, do you feel you need to work towards consistency? Was there a point in your career where you had that aha moment that I need to be more consistent? Talk to me about that. I think you learn it over time. Early on, what is consistency? Is it showing up to work every day? Is it making a certain amount of phone calls? Is it sending a certain number of emails? Consistency is different depending on what industry and business that you're in. At Trius, not to get ahead of us, but at Trius, we... have adopted EOS, Entrepreneur Operational System. And it's all about trust and consistency. Well, let's take a break for a second and go into Trius. You're now working for a company called Trius Lending Partners based here in Baltimore, Maryland. I'll give you my quick outline and then take it over so people can understand what you do. You guys are a private lender lending your own money or investors' money. You're not out there taking money from banks, typically. You've got a private fund that you're lending to. investors that do fix and flips, that buy rentals to repair. You're doing loans that some banks don't really want to mess with anymore. And you've got to, you know, you're in the mid -Atlantic region primarily, correct? Is that correct? Did I sum you guys up pretty good? Yeah, yeah. I mean, we are, you know, we're a company that accepts private capital from local investors. We pay them, you know, on an average of 10 % return. We then turn around and use their money and deploy that capital to make short -term loans for real estate investors.

Direct Mortgage Loans (23:

09.134) fix and flips, buy and holds, apartment buildings, small strip malls, small shopping centers. We're doing a lot of commercial loans right now. So really anything non -owner occupied will entertain making a loan on it, all firstly in position mortgages. primarily mid -Atlantic, although we are expanding geographically down the East Coast right now. So we're doing loans in the Carolinas, we're doing loans in Georgia, Florida, and so forth, and trying to grow the brand and grow the model. And for those that see this and might be interested in either investing in Trius or using some capital for projects, I mean, how long have you guys been in business? And talk to me about your track record. Yeah, 21 years in business. Wow. Impeccable track record. No investor. This is, Ken, you know this. I know, but go ahead. 21 years. of accepting capital from private investors. Not one person has lost a nickel in that 21 year period. It's impeccable. I mean, I've known of the reputation of your management team and you joined them how long ago? I joined them in late 2022. Okay. So coming up on two years ago. Yeah. Yeah. And your role now as COO, you're kind of just chief cook and bottle washer, keeping the lights turned on. You name it, chief everything. But we got a great team around us, right? The backstory is Steve Bond is the owner of Trius. Steve was the founder and the chairman. Founded the company in 03. Started just investing his own retirement money. At the time, he was semi -retired. So now he's not semi -retired. Now he's anything but semi -retired. Having the time of his life, by the way. I know this. And he was lending his own capital, wound up being so successful at it that he ran out of money and started bringing in money from friends and family members. The business was booming. That was essentially Trius Lending Partners up until 2017. Josh Shine, another mentor of mine, somebody who - Friend of mine. Friend of Dean's, a mentor of mine, somebody who took me under his wing early on. Josh and I linked up in 2008 in the mortgage business, reverse mortgages at the time. And we've grown together ever since. And Josh, in 2017, went the route of hard money lending, private lending. I stayed in the reverse mortgage business, had a stint.

Direct Mortgage Loans (25:

18.606) together with you at PRMI. And Josh and I had always remained friendly. We'd always meet for a coffee or a dinner or a lunch. And there was one particular coffee in November of 2022. I show up at Starbucks and Josh has binders on the table. He's got P &Ls, he's got spreadsheets. And I knew right away this was going to be a different conversation that I anticipated walking in the door and quickly made me an offer to come in in the COO role. The company at that point, Trius, the year prior had won fastest growing privately held company in the state of Maryland and made the Inc. 5000 list before I joined. And he said, look, we're looking to go to the moon. We need a COO to come in and effectively run the business so that Josh and Steve can do more visionary things, focus on fundraising and so forth. And I played a little hard to get, but I knew right away, I'm in, I'm in. And I was in mainly just to get back in business with Josh. I think that highly of him and Josh and I have a track record of when we do things, we do things in a big way. We scaled other mortgage companies in the past. This was going to be no different and the rest is history from there. As a private investment fund, talk to me, because this is a slightly different kind of business than the other people that have been on the podcast, talk to me about the last couple years and the - the sales story, the marketing story of the company and your role, because you are a sales guy, you are a marketer, and I wanna just understand, since you've joined and been on the front lines with Josh and Steve, what you guys have been doing to grow this business. So we grew 45 % in 2023. We're looking to grow, we will grow another 45 to 50 % from that 2023 number in 2024. And it's already trending that way beginning of the year? It's gonna happen. Yeah, it's already trending. And what's happening to grow this? Because you need to grow capital, which means you need more investment and you need to grow the other side. There's two sides to their business, everybody. They need a big pile of money, mostly from capital investors that are on the outside, and they need people to lend it to. And from what you've told me, I'll steal a little bit of the punchline. You've got plenty of people to lend it to. It's trying to grow the... Therein lies our biggest problem, right? And it's a blessing and a curse. You know, it is all private money. It's brought in from local investors.

Direct Mortgage Loans (27:

33.166) predominantly in the local Baltimore market, to the tune of 90 -some million dollars, 92 million dollars to be exact, of assets under our management. It's a big responsibility for us to manage 92 million dollars as a small, privately held company. Well, that is definitely crushing it, everybody. Josh, well done. Steve, well done. Absolutely. And the whole team, right? So what have we done since I've joined? We've scaled our sales force. We have a robust sales force right now. We just promote it from within. Henry Tabling, who's our new sales captain, our new sales manager. We brought on a robust accounting team. We brought on a marketing team. We brought on business development reps. We've really grown the team. We have 30 employees at this point. When I joined, we had 17, 18 at the time. What is separating you guys? I mean, what do you think is the secret ingredient in the secret sauce that's allowing you guys to keep scaling and keep winning? It's the team. We, I believe, do a good job at hiring. We quickly identify if somebody is not the right person in the right seat. Back to our EOS, Entrepreneur Operational System, that we subscribe to. It's all about leadership principles and strategies. Do you have the right person in the right seat? Do you have a set of core values, which we do? Do you abide by those core values, which we do? Those core values, those are our 10 commandments. That's our Bible. and we hire and fire to those core values. And so it starts and ends with the team that we surround ourselves. We have great leadership. We have a great visionary captain and Josh. We have a great chairman and Steve Bonds. And I like to think that I've had something to do with it as well in my role, just sort of as the integrator of the business, being involved in every department and making sure that every department is on task and on point. Goals are met, deliverables are done. our investors are taking care of, they're making their healthy returns. I've heard a lot of really good leaders tell me, you just hit a point that I wanted to bring back, that you need to hire slow and terminate fast. If they're not in the right seat, move on and make sure you get somebody in the right seat. I mean, is that what you've seen? It has been what we've seen. You know, honestly, the terminating or the firing of folks, that is still one of my, the hardest things to do in my job. You know, it's tough.

Direct Mortgage Loans (29:

54.574) But yes, we hire slow, we fire fast. It's all about the right person in the right seat. And we, on a quarterly basis, identify, do we have the right person in the right seat? We look at our... You do that every quarter with the whole... Every quarter. So you have... Tell me how many employees again? 30. 30. So you're looking at all 30. Quarterly saying, do we have everybody in the right seat? We have, we call it our accountability chart. It's an org chart, but we call it an accountability chart because that's essentially what it is. It's a chart that says who is responsible for what and who is to hold them accountable. And every quarter we go through that accountability chart and we identify is every person doing what they're expected to do? Are their superiors above them holding them accountable to those jobs? Are goals met? What EOS teaches us is we have what's called rocks, right? big, bold, hairy, audacious initiatives. And then we have our to -do list, and it's very systematic, it's very organized. We meet quarterly. We actually meet weekly as part of our EOS meeting. Who meets weekly? As a leadership team, our executive leadership team, and every department as well has their own EOS weekly departmental meeting. And so we're very meticulous about goals, initiatives, on task, off task. And if you're off task, you're going to be held accountable. Why are you off task? And it's a constant. A lot of people hear that and they may think, well, that's micromanaging. It's not, it's leadership. And it's holding people accountable to their roles and responsibilities. And the results have been people performing. No, I've been to your place. I've seen the vibe. The vibe is not micromanagement. People are clearly empowered and feel empowered. I'm sorry, let me at least look empowered, like they're acting empowered. Yeah, and I believe that they are. And as leaders, there's always the looking in the mirror and identifying what can we do better. making sure that we're communicating with the team. Another challenge that we've had is as we've grown, a lot of our new hires are remote team members. How do we make them feel involved? We have a top golf event next week with a remote. We have people in Georgia. We have people in Florida. We have people in Texas. Getting them involved and making them feel a part of the team, but also communicating and not just screaming it from a megaphone from the top, but really.

Direct Mortgage Loans (32:

02.478) being involved in every department intimately and making sure that everybody feels the love and feels like their voices are heard and that they are effectively communicated with. Well, it's back to the word consistency again. Being consistent so people know what they can count on from you guys as a leadership team. So you guys are definitely crushing it. 2023 was great. You're starting off 2024 great. What are the, other than numbers and just that continued growth, what are the bigger goals for Trius? What are the bigger things on Steve's? You know, you said the big rocks. What are the bigger things that you're hoping to make happen there? Yeah, it's a great question. So we are very intentional about our goals and our initiatives. So we have a one -year plan, a three -year plan, and a 10 -year plan. The 10 -year plan is it's not pie in the sky, but it's a lofty goal. That 10 -year plan is to have managed, lent, and invested $2 billion in real estate. It's a big number. But if you break it down year by year, Well, if you're carrying a hundred, you know, just shy of a hundred million, that's a hundred times ten is, you know, one billion. That's not two. So, yeah, that's that's it. It's achievable. It's a big goal. It's a lofty goal. But, you know, we're we're we're big and bold and we have some big bold initiatives. I love that. Does your staff know those goals? Do you share the 10 year goals with the rest of your crew? Everybody, everybody knows the goals. We're clear. We've done a pretty good job of casting our vision and it's on us as a leadership team to work with. our team members to make sure that that vision is achieved and that they execute. And if they execute, they achieve it. To me, that's the unique part about that's the most exciting thing about me joining Trius coming from the world of NMLS, Trid, HUD, FHA, VA. These are all mortgage trades, everybody. This is wide open. In this business, in our little niche, if we execute, we win solely on us. Right. Coming out of the reverse mortgage world where I spent the greater part of my mortgage career and built a brand and was recognized as really the guy in reverse mortgages or a big part of that industry. The challenge with reverse mortgages, Dean, was you could execute, but your success was not predicated on only your ability to execute. HUD can make a guideline change. FHA changes something. I'm still in that one. I get it. In this, you execute, you win.

Direct Mortgage Loans (34:

21.998) And so our focus is not is HUD going to come and change something? Is FHA going to change something? What are rates? I don't care what interest rates are. We make the rates. I don't care what the market's doing. We determine our returns to our investors. And it's really been a revelation. And it's really invigorated me in my business career because really for the first time, I truly, we truly control where we're going. I can feel your energy. I love it. I eat, sleep, and breathe. Trius Lending all day long. So you asked me what our goals are. Three years, we want 75 team members. We want three locations. We want to continue to expand geographically down the East Coast. We just got back from a fundraising trip in Florida, fell in love with the Boca area. I'm thinking Trius South and the not too distant future. So those are some of our goals. That's great. So what I always kind of, the little segment I end with, Steve, is we talked about your past. I'm glad we talked about. what the goals are for the future, but what would you say is happening right now today in the early part of 2024 that's creating success for you guys? There's a lot going on. We're in an election year. Rates and the economy are a bit chaotic, but what principles, what thing is happening right now that people can take away from this for any industry that's really working for you guys? Yeah, you know, what's really put a lot of wind in our sails is the tightening of banking rules and regulations. It is very difficult to get a loan from a bank right now. It's very difficult to get a commercial loan from a bank. And so in lieu of going to a bank and having to cut through all the red tape and regulatory stuff, you come to a private lender like us and we've sort of filled that void. You know, you used to be able to go to the bank and if you had a relationship with the bank, you could get a loan and you could work with your local banker. It's not the case anymore, especially post Silicon Valley Bank and all the turmoil and chaos that went on there. That really gave us a lift and... We're seeing a lot more commercial. We're seeing a lot of mixed use. We're seeing a lot of multifamily. We're seeing a lot of, you know, I'd say million to three million dollar loans that would have been bank loans that now are too, the banks are too restrictive to offer those loans. Well, they're coming to us. And that's helped the business tremendously. Well, look, everybody, if you need to reach Steve, somewhere down below this, when you're watching or checking us out, it will be Steve's contact info at Trius Lending Partners. You can reach out to him.

Direct Mortgage Loans (36:

44.142) You know, tell them we sent you, you know, tell them. Hey, give us a call. We're here. Trius Lending Partners, triuslending .com. Happy to facilitate all your private lending and investing needs. Thank you. Look, Steve, I got notes written down here, man. Look, no regrets. Consistency, always tomorrow. These are these are I mean, I take these back with me and make sure I keep keep track of these because I've learned so many great things for myself and I want our our viewers and listeners to learn from it, too. Give people what they want, ask questions, lean into your mentors. Do not be afraid to fail everybody. It's where you learn the most. And last, max effort. Work hard even when no one's watching in the margins, man. When no one's watching, you still need to work hard. And why not, my mantra coming up in sales was why not me? Why not me? Why can all these other people be successful but not me? And... There's people watching that wherever they are in their career path, maybe yearning and desiring for more, why not you? And that's really the cool thing about me and my journey, I think, is very unconventional route to being an executive in the fastest growing company in the state of Maryland right now. And I take a lot of pride in that. You should. It was not an easy journey, but a journey well spent. And throughout the entire wait, no matter how hard things got, in the back of my mind, it was, why not me? And Steve, you and I have talked about this. We're both, I'm one and Steve's a believer, everybody. There's enough success out there for everybody. It's not a zero sum game. And when Steve says, why not me? That doesn't mean his success takes away from somebody else's, nor mine. And our collaboration all these years is proof of that. We both have tried to help each other create success. without getting anything out of it. It's really wonderful. We never even got the network. Your network, what's the old saying? Your net worth is your network. Your net worth is your network. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's one we'll kind of end with, I guess. Stay in touch with people, everybody. If you got somebody that you hit it off with, and Steve and I didn't know where our futures would go together. We just knew we liked each other and trusted each other and enjoyed strategizing. And here we are doing some business together. It's been great. It's been a heck of a ride.

Direct Mortgage Loans (38:

59.182) Look man, this has been a great episode. I can't thank you enough. Everybody reach out and find Steve if you need any private lending help. Those guys are great. I do business with them. We refer some business over there from time to time. Thanks for tuning in everybody. Got a ton out of it and we're glad you're here. Steve's crushing it. Tri's Lending Partners is crushing it. Actually Direct Mortgage Loans is crushing it too. So we're glad you joined us. Thanks for being here and we'll see you next time.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Dean Johnson

Host