Jan Ozga | Serving Others, Taking Calculated Risks, & Being Unapologetically Yourself

Jan Ozga, the Chief Strategy Officer at Direct Mortgage Loans and a guest on the How They Crushed It podcast, shares his journey from being a chef to a successful mortgage professional. He emphasizes the importance of making an impact on others and having faith in one's efforts. Jan believes in being transparent, honest, and unapologetically himself in all interactions. He encourages consistency, planning, and taking risks to achieve success. Jan also highlights the significance of caring for people and serving others. He concludes by urging listeners to do their best every day and focus on making a positive impact.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Impact
• 5:37 From Chef to Mortgage Professional
• 8:01 The Importance of Transparency and Authenticity
• 12:23 Consistency, Planning, and Taking Risks
• 26:47 Conclusion: Do Your Best and Make an Impact

Transcript

Direct Mortgage Loans (00: 0:00

00.078) The most fulfillment you will get out of life is making an impact on someone else. We're here to inspire. Do so much activity that success is the only reasonable outcome. Whether it was successful or not successful, I gave it my best. Having faith that things will work out if you put your best effort in is how I've lived my life. There's an art to kissing someone on the cheek and punching them at the same time. He's not a sugarcoater, everybody. He doesn't believe in sugar. I don't believe in sugar. It's never going to be your time unless you believe it's your time. DML, dedicated, motivated, loyal. Welcome everybody, season two, episode three of the How They Crushed It podcast, sponsored by Direct Mortgage Loans. Today I've got a very, very, very special guest, longtime friend of mine, Jan Oskar. He's not big on social media, so you can't find him everywhere, but he's made a huge impact on my life and career. He's making a huge impact on our company at DML, and he's gonna talk a lot about that, so I can't wait to check in with him. So welcome everybody, season two, episode three of the How They Crushed It podcast brought to you by Direct Mortgage Loans, the place I'm fortunate enough to spend my days as is this wonderful gentleman, longtime friend, industry guru. He says no. Jan Asga, he's been a friend of mine for a long, long time. We've been in the same industry together. Jan has crushed it, continues to crush it in a million ways that we're gonna get into as we have some fun together. Be forewarned everybody. This, Jan does not allow me to script, give him questions or anything ahead of time. So I don't know where some of this is gonna go. I love you. This is one of my best friends. I love him dearly and I'm pumped to just, we start off with a little bit of funny questions and I got a couple for you just to loosen things up. We get into your story, you know, little Jan and how, you know, at least as it relates to how you got into business and what's happening nowadays in your career and in the business in general that other people can take some nuggets out of this thing with. Beautiful. I'm here for you. You know, I'm a social media freak. I'm all over social media. Yeah, you finding Yon on social media is difficult. Everybody, this is a challenge for all the viewers out there. Find Yon somehow. He's an enigma that way. Yeah, well, I'm old. But anyway, I'm delighted to be here. The fun questions and this I could think I could we could do 30 minutes of these if I was allowed to. I could have about 100 of these to ask you. But in no particular order. Are you Taylor Swift fan? No.

Direct Mortgage Loans (02: 0:05

23.054) Okay, no. The woman behind the camera over there, she's probably gonna strangle you after this for saying no, just so you know that. I do not care. It's all good. Yeah. Okay. But do you understand the phenomenon? That's what I've been asked. I do, yes. Okay. We both live in Baltimore, everybody. So anybody listening? This is a Baltimore question. Best crab cake in Baltimore? And this guy's a chef. We'll get into that in a little bit. He's a trained chef. Best crab cake in Baltimore? I'm gonna go with G G Love G Love G So I worked close to G because I worked by the airport for many years and any recruit that we brought in, you know, the signature thing of Baltimore is a Baltimore crab cake. And so we'd always say, boy, we got a special day for you. We're going to get you a crab cake. And the reality is I've eaten a million crab cakes and so I'm done with crab cakes. You know, I can tell you some of my best launches down at the airport were at a gas station in a subway. So they had a little subway stand. Me and my previous boss, every day we were going for lunch at Subway at a gas station. You're a CIA trained chef, correct? Correct. But Subway was your favorite lunch? We just had, we had great conversation and it was simpler times back then. Okay. But advanced to the GMC. This is one so people can have a little takeaway. If Jan's cooking a steak and you're gonna make me a perfect steak, how are you cooking it? You doing it out on the grill? On the grill, always. Okay, what if it's midwinter? On the grill. Not even cast iron in the winter? No, grill. Okay, what's the secret? I mean, the secret is knowing how to cook it. The secret is seasoning it. The secret is buying a quality piece of meat and not poking a thermometer into it. Okay, everybody takes a... And you gotta use your... fingers, I mean, can you imagine if I poke you, right? You do poke me. And blood would come out, right? Like you don't do that. Tell them the medium, medium. Well, it's well done. Here's your wrist. You say you push your wrist. Well done. In the center is medium to medium rare. And at the end, just by your elbow, that's rare. That's how you cook a steak. Take that away. Anyone who's got a thermometer, by the way, beware, because that's who knows where that thermometer has been stuck in.

Direct Mortgage Loans (04: 0:10

43.406) Has it been cleaned? There's food poisoning written all over it. Use your fingers. Use your fingers. Remember that. Well done. Medium. Rare. Here it is. Perfect. Perfect. Thank you, Jan. I knew that we'd get a nugget at you. And don't be cheap. That's a publisher. My wife will come home and she'll go, look, I got some steaks on sale. And I'll look and it'll be like eight bucks. And I'll be like, I'm not eating it. Because it's like heel meat or. You know, ear meat, I don't know what it is. You got to buy quality meat. And you don't have a dog to feed that to. No, but I would put it in the garbage can. OK, got it. Public service and outside of it. I knew there'd be lots of learning here today. The hope for this podcast is that people in business in general can get some takeaways. So talk to me about Little Yon and how Little Yon evolved into becoming a business person, because you've got I mean, again, you didn't you set out to be a chef. And here you are running you've run multiple mortgage companies. You know, talk to me about, you know, little Jan and how he went from that to kind of what your path became. Well, I used to go door to door when I was 10 years old in Washington, D .C., knocking on doors, asking for odd jobs. Got any odd jobs? People would have me wash flower pots, blah, blah, blah, whatever it was. Right. And empty cat boxes. And so part of it was. You know, I always worked as a kid because in my family, if you wanted something, you had to have your own money. And so I went from there. I graduated, became a Washington Post paperboy. I was not a student. I hated school. You know, for whatever reason, academics were not my thing. And I ended up becoming a dishwasher. And one of my greatest bosses, a guy named John Richmond, I was a dishwasher at a place at Hula Hands. How old at this point? I was 15. Okay. Because you had to have a work permit in DC and wash dishes anyway. I moved up and the only reason I moved up, I went from dishwasher to busboy to line cook was to make a little bit of money. So every move generated a little bit more money. Had a mentor though from a very young age. He was a great mentor. I mean he was terrific and I went to

Direct Mortgage Loans (07: 0:15

04.174) you know, a great high school in Washington DC and in the city. But I worked every weekend. Hold on, Dematha? Not Dematha. It was purple. It was an eagle. I knew the answer. I was baiting you there. All through high school, I worked Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday brunch, all through high school to earn money to pay for my first car, 72 Cutlass Supreme. my gosh. If I could have that car now, I'd love it. So the reality is, you know, I probably sacrificed a lot socially, certainly didn't really care about school, and I ended up in the restaurant business, which I became pretty good at through hard work. And then the heat was on with my parents, like, what are you going to do in your life? And so I said, well, I'm going to be a chef. It was kind of just throughout the answer. ended up going to the Culinary Institute of America and ended up becoming an executive chef. I'm not going to go down that road. But it was amazing in that that's where I learned the need and the art and the skill of how to communicate with people at every level. I also realized that no one should be at the top of the food chain. The dishwasher was equally as important as the general manager or the executive chef. Matter of fact, If the dishwasher left you that night, it was going to be a disastrous dinner service. So you learned how to treat people. And so... And then everybody on the team is important. Everyone on the team is important. And so that kind of became my philosophy and how I ended up managing, which manifested into a great mortgage career. But it was really because of the hospitality business. Now... The hospitality business was tough. Like, you know, I hear... You said was. Still is for lots of people. Well, it is tough. Was, I say, because I got out and I got out when I was 30 for multiple reasons, but, you know, it was 16 hours a day. It was, hey, you can have Monday off or you might work 15 days in a row or whatever the story was. And it really wasn't conducive to a life personally, mentally.

Direct Mortgage Loans (09: 0:20

28.814) spiritually for me. I'm not saying that there aren't people who are not career hospitality people, but so I was a chef at a country club and you've heard me say this story and this was just kind of my defining moment. I was walking through the ladies' mahjan room. Mahjan is like Jewish dominoes and so there were a bunch of older female members in this mahjan room. And one of the members said, hey, chef, I want to talk to you. I came over, you know, chefs are a little bit cocky, a little bit arrogant. I was like, yes, how can I help you? Because I want to tell you there's too much mayonnaise in the tuna fish. Now that floored me. It stopped me in my tracks. I was like, my life has come down to mayonnaise and it has come down to mayonnaise. with an 80 -year -old with yellow teeth giving me a hard time about it. In the Mahjong Room. In the Mahjong Room and I looked at her. Now, this version of me would have said something wrong, okay, with a more transparent me. I thanked her. I said, yep, you're 100 % right because customer is always right. There's too much mayonnaise in the tuna fish. And I knew there had to be a change. And so, That's when I made a career shift into the mortgage business, which was I answered an ad in the Baltimore Sun. We do B .C .D. loans earn 100 K. I didn't know what B .C .D. loans were, but the 100 K. You knew what that was. The 100 K sounded real good. So so I said I have nothing to lose. And I answered the ad and met with a guy named Rich Gale. Turned out to be. I know Rich. amazing, you know, beginning mentor to me really taught me the business, came in early. He would come in early, you know, and teach me the business. So he'd be like, if you want to learn it, come in at eight and I give you a couple extra hours of free time. And I did that. And so I will always be indebted to Rich Gale, you know, Sharon Reamer, Jim Witomski, you know, Sean Hyres, Pam Nowes. There's like Bill Lauer. There's a handful of people.

Direct Mortgage Loans (11: 0:25

53.134) that have had a major impact in my life in the course of it. And so, part of where I am today in my world is in a way paying them back, right? Not thanking them per se, but paying it forward and pouring into the youth of our industry because they are the future of our industry. And that's really where I want to concentrate. You know, my time is, I don't like using the word mentoring or coaching because it assumes that I'm, you know, maybe... Stole the words out of my next question. ...better, but I, you know, I want to be in a position where I can share with people every mistake that I've made. And I've been in the business now 30 years. This is important, everybody, because you've said this to me a lot at work. It's not about, hey, let me share all my successes with you. You always start with, let me share you all the things I've done wrong. then we'll talk about the things you can do right. and I've done so much wrong. Like in every bucket in the mortgage business, I can tell you I did this incorrectly and I should have done it this way in hindsight. Right. And so, you know, but but through it all, I've always given my best to wherever I am, whether it was successful or not successful. I gave it my best. And that's and that's all I could do. And so. part of the attraction at DML, you know, honestly was the chance to work with you. I've known you 25 years, a long time. You know, we we we were neighbors in Stonely together, beautiful community. Our kids were were little rugrats back then. We were young dads. And so and I've always loved you. I always loved you because you're an incredible father. You're an incredible human being, you know. And so So this has been really great for me. And we've only been at DML a short time and we've already done some pretty cool things. We totally, totally have. Hey, I want to ask you one question, go back to one thing. We've heard some of our other guests have talked about something you just said, which is letting the when you let the mayonnaise comment come to you, that's letting the world come to you as opposed to always just going out and forcing something. You let the world come to you there and tell you it was time for a change. And you listened.

Direct Mortgage Loans (14: 0:30

14.67) to what was going on. I mean, I find that fascinating that so many of our guests have talked about that. Yeah, I think, you know, the way that I looked at it is in a lot of ways I was lost. Right. And so it was about taking a risk and taking a chance and having, you know, faith that, you know, if I put the effort in, something's going to happen. And the worst case scenario is I could be doing exactly what I was doing. Right. And so You know, the world is short, it's very complicated, it moves very quick, right? And so you have to be able to take some chances to, you know, get to different successes in your life. And so I believe in risk, right? I don't believe in uncalculated risk, but I certainly don't believe that you have to analyze everything to pieces where you're just paralyzed. Yeah, we both, you and I both came to this company at the same time and we, it wasn't, you left a great place, I left a great place to come do this together. And it's, you know, we didn't have it, I mean, just everybody knows, we didn't have it mapped out by any, you and I didn't map anything out. That's right. And so I agree with you, having faith that things will work out if you put your best effort in is how I've lived my life. And I love that you kind of said the same thing. Yeah. So it's been amazing. You don't like the word coaching, but I've heard you've already mentioned five to seven mentors and how important they were to you at different stages of your life. Even when you were 15 and you were dishwashing, you had somebody that you still remember who they are. Yep. I mean, because we believe in coaching where we work now. We try to coach, we try to pour into people. But I've always believed you got to back to the statement about leaving the world open. You got to let people come to you and let yourself allow yourself to hear what you can learn from people. Well, you can't force coaching. OK? Correct. So someone has to come to the table with willingness, right? Just like someone has to be motivated. My job, your job, we're not here to motivate people. You need to come into an industry or something in your life already motivated. We're here to inspire. And that's a big difference. And so if people don't want to get coached, I don't, whatever, don't get coached, right?

Direct Mortgage Loans (16: 0:35

35.054) have at it. All I'm saying is coaching, collaboration, understanding, paths that probably shouldn't have been taken, it is gateways to getting to the next level quicker. And so people, I think, would be foolish not to listen to others on how they did it. People can be so arrogant or so cocky or so set in their ways that they hold themselves back. by not being open -minded to maybe look at another possible angle or hey, maybe you need to go work at another company. Maybe you need another profession. I mean, you have to be open in your mind to be able to succeed. Yeah, and have people that are willing to give you non -biased information, non -biased guidance. Well, right, and the DML... Salesforce is super fortunate because ownership, leadership is ultra available around the clock. So this isn't like a once a month meeting. This is. Yeah, for those that don't know, Jan has no problem using this thing at seven or eight at night if you need if a inspiration comes to him and you want to tell me, true? 100 percent. Yes. And vice versa. Yes. And, you know, for an employee to be successful, they have to have leadership that is. constantly accessible. It's not just pillow talk or some flyer or, hey, some email. It has to be real conversation in order for you as a leader or me as a leader to understand what someone's needs are because every salesperson in the mortgage business has a different need. Right. They run like a different business. Yeah. You and I have talked about this a lot at work off, Aaron. This isn't only a statement about the question about the mortgage industry. It's more for people. The economy is tough right now. Inflation is high in our industry. Rates are higher. You know, there's limited inventory. What we've had a bunch of growth in the last year since you and I have come on. This company is doing a great job. We've grown. We've had a massive, you know, last couple of months compared to our history. What do you think separates

Direct Mortgage Loans (18: 0:40

52.174) and separates what we're doing right now, use us as an example, what separates us in this tough environment to thrive and grow while things are tough out there? Because I've always believed you can grow, I know my answer, but I've always believed you could grow and thrive in a different way when things are tough, as opposed to like when rates are at 2 % and everybody can do loans. That's a different type of success, but we've been thriving and growing and attracting talent. What do you, I mean, tell me what you're thinking. Well, so, You know, the examples DML had last month, its biggest month in the history of the company, including COVID in the history. Right. OK. By a long shot. And that was predominantly purchases. A lot of it is, you know, we have attracted people into the DML family and culture because of the energy and the accessibility. And so when people look at what they can get with DML relevant to whoever else, they get a very customizable experience with leadership that can give them a much more strategic growth plan catered to their world. That's the difference. And it goes back to what you're saying about mentoring. I mean, I know part of my answer is mentoring and coaching and pouring into people, they know they've got availability with people that'll give them you know, hey, let's take a look at what you're doing. Hey, let's take a look at what you should be doing. Hey, let's take a look at what others are doing. And they're getting that from people that have their interest in mind. And transparency, that's a buzzword in a lot of industries, especially a buzzword in our industry. But I find that what do you think of the word transparency? What do you think about it in comparison to what we're doing and like how it helps people thrive? Okay, so. And that's a fancy word. So. So here's what I would tell you what transparency is to me because that term has evolved over time. Okay. So transparency to me is just being unapologically honest with anyone that asks me a specific question. Okay. So if you ask me a question, then I'm going to come at you with a direct answer. I'm not going to sugarcoat it for the benefit of anyone.

Direct Mortgage Loans (21: 0:45

15.598) You asked my opinion. He's not a sugarcoater, everybody. He doesn't sugarcoat anything. I don't believe in sugar. And so I also believe in transparency in numbers, whether we're talking about margin or product or whatever. I feel it's better to let people know exactly what is in it so that they can understand, because everyone's counting your money or you're counting their money or whatever. It's better just to say, here's the pile of money. Here's and here's how it's going to get divided. But transparency also kind of means, like you said, unapologetic honesty that you're going to be you're going to be. Yes. Authentically yawn to anybody. And I am at every level. And what I try to do is not to be rude or arrogant in that it's really coming out of a place of care and love that. I want to give an answer that is truthful so that it can help that person or at least maybe guide some other thought. And I see you deliver that every day. You are definitely authentically yourself. No, but I think it's you don't do it for artistic value, but it's art to be able to deliver honest feedback to somebody, transparent, genuine feedback without hurting their feelings sometimes. Fair? It is. But like I care about people. I want. people to get to the next level and I don't want them to waste time in making all the mistakes that I made. So if I can give you the cliff notes on something, that's an easier route, right? To go through it. Because this is the greatest industry in the world. However, you've got, you know, you have to be at the right place with the right people or it can be a disaster. You have to care. Look, I heard you say you have to care. And I know you care about people. They know you can, they can feel it from you. And that's your superpower is that they can feel it from you, even when you deliver them a little bit of medicine sometimes. Well, there's an art to kissing someone on the cheek and punching them at the same time. My mother you know has that art. Yeah, she does. And then the person doesn't really know what happened.

Direct Mortgage Loans (23: 0:50

35.982) You've said multiple times at work and you've said it to me and again it goes back to my question, what I was asking you about how we're continuing to thrive despite the economy and our industry having some ups and downs. You said it feels like it's our time. I mean what do you mean by that? It's our time because when we're as congealed as we are as a company right now, when we're as energetic as we are as a company right now and you hear nothing but other companies complaining or whatever, it tells you that the momentum shift has come towards us. And a lot of that is simply because we're young and we're energetic. OK, you're young. I'm not young. OK, and I'm as energetic as I possibly can be. OK, until 2 p And then I start to to tuck her out. But people get lost right now in this industry because everything that comes out of their mouths are rate, rate, no inventory, no inventory. And it frustrates me because people are still doing big numbers. And if there's not enough inventory, you need to expand your market. So, you know, people have to take responsibility as opposed to constantly pointing the finger. Well, and I've never said this sentence to you, but it's kind of a subplot to what we've talked about a million times in our personal conversations. But it's never going to be your time unless you believe it's your time. I agree. So when somebody believes, this is for anybody in any industry, you have to believe in what you're doing. You have to believe in the squad and you have to believe it's your time for it to be your time. It's self perpetuating. If the entire industry right now is playing the same deck of cards, what's the difference? It doesn't matter whether rates are 2%, 8%, or 6%. What matters is your ability to connect with people. to bring in business and build trust. Your ability to bring energy to those relationships. It is about the energy and it's about the activity. I'm very activity specific. You know, I don't believe someone is going to just do social media stuff and they're going to succeed. Okay. It has to be followed by human contact, follow up, like regardless of where we're going with AI and social media and all that, which is way above, you know, my pay grade.

Direct Mortgage Loans (25: 0:55

58.798) You know that. You are artificial intelligence. I am artificial for sure. And so to me, it's always going to boil down to taking the time to know the human being and trying to figure out how can you best serve them. Because at the end of the day, you know, we're on this planet to serve other people. We're not on this planet to serve ourselves like I know some people that have so much money. Ridiculous. And they're so unhappy. their lives are so shattered. Stop serving. I don't know if they're serving or not serving. All I'm saying is the most fulfillment you will get out of life is making an impact on someone else. Amen. And look, I want to go back to one more thing because this is I believe there's I've heard a million Jahnisms everybody, a million of them. And there's only one that I've written down word for word. And you've heard me say - Well, then I'm not impacting you enough. No, that's not true. I know all of them thematically, but there's one, and I think this is important for anybody listening in any industry. You said, and I have it memorized, you said, do so much activity that success is the only reasonable outcome. I want to say that again. So much activity that the only reasonable outcome is success. So when he's talking about activity, whether it's sales activity, whether it's marketing activity, whether it's customer service activity, any business, you have to do so much that there's no other reasonable outcome other than you're going to succeed. But I think that's where, you know, I think some of the failure I've seen over time in the mortgage business is centered around the inconsistency of the behavior of the worker. So they don't repeat the same actions over and over and over. You have a great month and they let up on prospecting. They have a bad month. They start prospecting like crazy, but now they're anxious. Like everything has to be, you know, in a format with a written game plan and you have to understand what you're walking in. You can't walk into the mortgage business without a written plan on what you're going to do. But any in any business, any business, but particularly our business. So, you know.

Direct Mortgage Loans (28: 1:00

14.51) You know, salespeople have a plan that you have to have a plan in it. I've heard it. I mean, so much some of what you're saying I've heard from some of our other guests, which is consistency rules the day. You need a plan of some kind always. And that's that's other people at one of the restaurant. Nick Libertori said you have to be consistent. I mean, he's still in the restaurant business. Same, but he wasn't consistent. He'd be out of business. So, yeah, and there's I've heard some. incredible stuff. You see, I always write down notes because most of our guests have talked about consistency. Most of them have talked about having a plan, you know, and again, we've had a teacher of the year in here. I've had a couple of restaurateurs. I've had some business people, but it's consistency and planning that people talk about. But I always like to end with, you know, it's right now June, the end of June of 2024. This will probably air in July. But I always try to end with for everybody listening can take something away. The economy is what it is. We're in an election year that, you know, we can't change anything. So we've talked about the core principles that little Jan, all the way up to adult Jan has stuck with. We've talked, you know, I don't want to talk about the long -term future. God knows where the economy and everything's going to go. But what do you, you're crushing it. You're making an impact on people. What is the one thing that right now that you think is most important to what it is you're delivering and how you're going about your business? I think for me, you know, it is accepting if something doesn't work out, it's okay, okay? And continuing to know that I can only change what is in my capacity to change and I can't let outside noise disturb me. And a lot of people get sucked into outside noise. So all I focus on today is can I make an impact on someone's life. And that could be small, right? It could be I'm holding the door open for someone. But impacts are cumulative. So a lot of smalls. Yes, but it's about me being very aware that my purpose now is not centered around me. My purpose now is centered around other people. Okay? And so I've had an amazing career. I have an incredible wife. I have great kids. I have an amazing life. Okay? And

Direct Mortgage Loans (30: 1:05

38.382) And I have an amazing life because people poured into me. That's why I have an amazing life. So a successful day for me today is if I can impact someone even in the slightest way. And if I fail, which I often do, then tomorrow's a new day. And as long as I know I did my best, that's it. There was a guy, a branch manager years ago that I worked with, he had a sign in his office that said, I did my best today and that's good enough. And I believe that because, you know, winning or making money, sometimes that won't happen. Even what matters is that you did your best. That's phenomenal. Look, I don't know a better way to end today other than to tell people in the camera, do your best today. DML, dedicated, motivated, loyal, right? So, I mean, that's what we're about. We're about energy. We're about togetherness. We're about collaborating and we're about just being real human beings and trying to help people grow. Do your best today everybody and tomorrow, do your best tomorrow. But don't worry about tomorrow till you get there. Look, you and I may not get there given our age. By the way, I'll end with the woman behind the camera. Can you, can AI make us look younger and you know, less gray hairs? I don't know. We're doing, yeah, maybe we're doing a commercial for the pepper milk. Pepper Mill has great crab cakes, I hear. I haven't been over there in a while. So, thanks everybody. Jan, I could talk to you for hours. You know, a lot of great stuff. You know, do your best today everybody. That's all I can say to end this thing.