302: From Firefighter to $346k Mortgage Broker: The Exact Strategy!

00:00:06 Ryan Wiley
Welcome to the mortgage game. I truly, truly believe that building a mortgage business, a successful one is like playing a game. There's winners, there's losers. There's certain things you try. Some of us are playing checkers while others are playing chess. I've had the ability to coach and mentor hundreds of mortgage brokers. I myself built a very nice business. So now I want to distill all that information, all the things I've learned from that and bring it directly to you in a simple to understand way. I hope you enjoy.


00:00:38 Ryan Wiley
Okay, welcome to the Mortgage Game Podcast. Whiteboard, West Coast Wiley in the house, not coming to you from a Dodge Ram studio this week. This week we're coming to you from my office. We have a special guest, probably the only person I believe we've had on the podcast coming back for a second time. So there's going to be a ton of value here. And so let's get into it. I want to introduce Scott Sarai. Scott Sarai, say hello. Hey, everyone. So I guess I've earned past guests fan favorite. Yeah. So for those who don't know, this might be the first time you're hearing this. And this is on YouTube now as well. So if you're if you're listening to this audio, we are going once a month. I'll be interviewing people maybe a couple times a month. We're going to be putting that video on YouTube. We're building up the YouTube channel. And so this is audio. You can listen to this still in your favorite streaming service, podcast service. So Scott was on the podcast not so long ago. I'm just going to give you a quick backstory here. Scott used to run. some fulfillment for me and my partner at the time on the mortgage side. Scott had been in and out of mortgages, kind of running his own book, kind of like grasping at straws here and there, trying some things. Scott's also a full -time firefighter. How long have you been firefighting for? I'm in my 15th year.


00:01:47 Scott Sarai
in my 15th


00:01:47 Ryan Wiley
year. So 14 plus years firefighting, running mortgages on the side, but you are full -time mortgages. And so he came to me in 2024, towards the end of 2024. He's like, Ryan, I think I'm out. And what was your revenue for 2024?


00:02:00 Scott Sarai
for 2024? At the time of our conversation, I think it was like just under 2 .7 mil. So like 25 grand, I guess, or something like that.


00:02:07 Ryan Wiley
So you're 25 grand for the year and you're sitting here going, I think I'm just going to go back to maybe driving truck, which I used to do in the theater industry and just supplement the family household income and stick with firefighting because it's a really good gig as well. And I said, just pause for a sec. Just like I started as a mortgage team. I want you to just come over and I just want you to do the basic things over and over and never stop. But you have to do that. And if you just do that, I promise your life's going to change and just give it one year. That's all you got to do. And so that was November 2024. You eventually came on, but then you really didn't get going because you were on vacation for a month. Let's call it 2025. And you committed to. the program, I guess. You really, it ended up being your own program. I think you just need to change your environment a bit, but you committed. So I want to fast forward and go, I just want to put this right at the beginning of the video. So the end of 2025, what was the revenue? How much money, let's talk top line revenue gross before you pay anyone out of that. What was your top line revenue for 2025?


00:03:08 Scott Sarai
That's a great question. So for 2025, top line revenue was... $518 ,000. Okay.


00:03:14 Ryan Wiley
$518 ,000. And then that includes some firefighting stuff in there. When you back that out, can you have that in mortgage? What was the mortgage? Top line mortgage revenue was $346 ,000.


00:03:21 Scott Sarai
line mortgage revenue was $346 ,000. Okay.


00:03:24 Ryan Wiley
So you went from $25 ,000 to $346 ,000 in 12 months. Okay. That's what we're going to talk about today, kids. Now we're fast forward. Last time I had him on, we were sort of midway through 2025. And now we've seen a full cycle through. And now I've seen where he's going and what he's doing. We're going to get into it. And we're going to have him talk a lot more than me. And so I just want to understand first, did you think you would ever get here? Like you made $350 ,000 last year in the mortgage game. Like,


00:03:56 Scott Sarai
what does that mean? So on the first podcast, we chatted about. what my goal was for 2025 and like my goal to augment like my family's lifestyle replace my wife's income because she wasn't going back to work after mat leave i wanted to fund 10 million i wanted to earn 100k top line that would solve all life's problems and i don't think you or i realized where i was at because i didn't want to like track the numbers or at least look at them until like closer to year end so when we had a six -month check -in i added it up at like 10 p .m the night before our call and like i damn near like passed out i had to call my wife in here i'm like check this like formula make sure it works and i think i was sitting at like 17 million and i eclipsed or it doubled my goal in the first like quarter and a half of 2025. So yeah, it was like surreal. I don't know. Like, I don't know what other words to use, like fairytale story last year, surreal and out of body of experience, but it definitely changed a lot of things for myself.


00:04:50 Ryan Wiley
And so you have a bunch of casts sitting in a corp right now and you're in the day -to -day hustling, building, grinding away. Do you believe you belong now?


00:05:00 Scott Sarai
Some days. Last year, I was really living the imposter syndrome. Like I came up. the apprenticeship model that i don't think many brokers get in this industry so i got to see producing business when i came on to support your business with craig and like shout out to craig austin like he was instrumental in teaching me like early day brokering life and i always felt like out of place like i just felt like a blue collar firefighter and it didn't really click until i went to the tangle rewards trip last year where i won my way there and we're at this conference and there's I don't know, all of Tango's top people in the industry. And I think they're probably top industry wide across all the labels, but coming up to me and asking me questions and they've, Oh, I heard about you here. And like, let me know what you're doing to work. And I just couldn't get my head around. Like, why are these people coming to me? And I remember going back to my hotel room the first night and talking with my wife. I'm like, he wouldn't believe the experience I just had. Like I was in an elevator full of 10 brokers and this one broker said, Hey, you're Scott's ride. I'm like, yeah. And she's like, you're a mortgage broker, right? I'm like, well, yeah. And she's like, can I ask you a question? And I'm like, well, yeah, I can get you a mortgage. And that was my joke. But she had heard about me. She wanted to talk. But all these top producing brokers, like they all wanted to know about me and what I was doing. After that conference, I started to feel like I belong. Lenders started to know who I was. And in the Tango family, I've experienced all the labels and I would say, shout out to Tango Management. Like they really do have a cool culture and all the BDMs that we have inside of Tango, they're all like super. great. They're just fantastic people. So I've been to a couple of conferences and parties now where I'm only going to see those people. I'm not really there for the educational side of things. I'm just going to see the lender reps and stuff. And they know who I am. I know who they are. So I'm starting to feel like I belong. But there's still days, obviously, where you're like, shit, do I belong in this crowd or am I here? So to answer your question shortly, I feel like I belong. 75 % of the time.


00:06:55 Ryan Wiley
Thanks for that. And I'll back it up and be like, yeah, dude, 100 % you belong here. And so I want to just go back because this is the question you probably get. I get all the time too about you is what did he do? What were the things he did? And I'm like, okay, do you really want to know? Because I'm going to lay it out for you. He's showed me all his numbers. I'm just going to give you one tidbit of what you did, but we call opens. Opens is you reaching out to someone who's not expecting it. And that's just like, it's prospecting 101. And How many opens did you do in 2025?


00:07:27 Scott Sarai
Yeah, so between like all of my interactions with people, so whether it's email, text, DMs, phone calls, whatever, like my spreadsheet says 86 ,872 opens. So let's call it 80K plus.


00:07:43 Ryan Wiley
Now, if we strip out emails and whatnot, because that's click of a button stuff that can go out through a drip campaign, it's still a touch point, but. I want to talk about like you picking up your phone and sending a text, a voice memo. I know you don't do a lot of phone calls. Your goal was, hey, if I can do 25 a day, you started out of the gate 25 a day. I believe, was it three reels a week? Can you walk me through what your plan started with and then what it evolved to through the year and then what you're doing now?


00:08:10 Scott Sarai
now? Yeah. So if we strip out the emails, shout out to Ryan's team. You come over there and it's all done for you. But you strip back emails. I was doing something very basic and you guys have heard this before. Like Ryan doesn't gatekeep. So he's talked about this. So five texts today, five Facebook messages, five Instagram DMs. I dabbled with LinkedIn. I still haven't fully committed to that platform yet. Every client or every person in my world that I know their birthday, a happy birthday text. Anyone that follows me, they would get like a, you know, a text. Now they get a video DM from me. So those are the opens. And then. at least two to three Instagram stories per day. And then anywhere between three to five reels a week. Okay. That's what you started with.


00:08:51 Ryan Wiley
started with. And then what are you doing now? We'll talk about where you're at and all that after, but what I just want to, I'm curious, like one year later, what are you doing now?


00:09:01 Scott Sarai
Yeah. So still very similar stuff. I'm doing probably maybe less opens. Like I might do 10 a day or I'll, if I get some time, I'll blast out like 30 or 40. I try and, you know. average out say 200 a month same stuff though like i have happy birthday text if you follow me you get a dm from me personally you know you get the odd comment like oh thanks for the many chat and i'm like no no this is actually me because i want to send a video dm i don't want the text and many chat doesn't have that option yet so it's legit me like one -to -one dming two to three instagram stories a day because i have like content coming in from everywhere like there's probably five reels going out a week if not more and then in the last four months, I've started a YouTube channel.


00:09:40 Ryan Wiley
And so it's pretty evident that you made a commitment early on to social media. Like there's a big, big piece of where you're at right now.


00:09:48 Scott Sarai
Absolutely. And it's funny, like in the fire department, my video editor, I actually work with on a day -to -day basis. And there's a new broker that was on my crew yesterday and he was talking about stuff. And I'm like, are you on social yet? And he said, no, he's like, I'm not a camera guy. I'm like, oh yeah, you're not a camera guy. Hey, so AJ and I were like, look at this. So I just like scrolled in my old Instagram account all the way to the top or all the way to the bottom or every way you got to go and found my first reel. And it was, I'm gonna drop an F -bomb here. It was fucking terrible. It was brutal. I had it sped up in CapCut like 1 .3X. So I sounded like a Martian. It was terrible. And I didn't think I was a camera guy either. And even like last year when people were asking me, they asked about social and I'd kind of roll my eyes and I'm like, oh, I'm not really a camera guy. Today, as it stands, I am now fully of the mindset that I am a camera guy. I'm a social media guy. I'm the brand. I'm the presence. And if I got to have my phone out and document me doing whatever, it's the price you got to pay in this world. It's the price you'll pay to have 400K going into your bank account every year.


00:10:49 Ryan Wiley
pay to have 400K going into your bank account every year. Yeah, absolutely. It's a very humbling thing. Your goal from a Monday to a Friday is more people need to know who you are than when you woke up. when you go to bed. And if you just stick to that mantra, like, and then also connect with people and whatnot on a more one -to -one relationship. But if more people know you from Friday, from Monday, and you compound that over 12 months, you are winning. There is no way this will not work. I remember when you said to me, you reached out a couple of times, we talk all the time, but you reached out at one point and you said, I'm bored, man. Like I'm bored. Can you kind of explain what you meant by that? Yeah.


00:11:29 Scott Sarai
So Early days, brokering, you know, my days were filled. I was drinking from a fire hose, having this like influx of deals and stuff. And when we made the commitment to come to brokering to join Ryan's team, I was in an officer course. So like in the fire department, you become a captain, you have to do schooling for it. So I was in class Monday to Friday, seven to five. And this is when the business started to pop off. And I was getting up at 3 a .m. working for four hours before class started. And then like everyone would leave, all my colleagues would leave. I would stay behind at the training center and do two more hours of work because I didn't want to lose like time. So it was like dog days of brokering. My daughter would have been probably one at the time. So anyone with kids, you know what that's like. It's nuts. And then I hired Fulfillment. God bless her. She's an angel. She's the backbone of my business. I then convinced her to be my underwriter because that was her skill set. And then like some of the pressure came off my shoulders. So again, like Ryan's talked about it a thousand times that the number one hire in this business is fulfillment. So do that. And then if you can get the underwriter. So I got two birds, one stone. And then I started to have some time and my daughter was becoming like, you know, a toddler. So she wasn't as like reliant on me. And I'm super efficient with my time. I'm pretty ruthless. Like I'm an early riser. I get a workout in and I'll multitask. Usually if I'm on like the treadmill walking, I'll try and get some emails responded to or DMs. I was completing my day by like 9 a .m. And if I didn't have calls booked, I was like, what do I do now? So I was kind of bored. I kept getting like FOMO or scared that I'm not doing something that I'm supposed to be doing. And then I would text you like, well, now what? And everyone's heard like, you know, back in the day, a 12 -hour broker, Ryan, he would say like, you know, I'd be going to the brewery for lunch on a Thursday. do the beach this day. And I used to call bullshit until I was brought into his business. And like, that was legit what he did. And now I'm kind of at the point now where like, I don't golf as much as I nearly do just because it's a big time commitment, but like, I'll come into my office and like say to my wife, like, Hey, like want to do something as a family? And she's like, well, don't you have work to do? I'm like, no, I'm all done. It was very odd, a very unlike settling feeling. But now you've decided to double down on content.


00:13:37 Ryan Wiley
now you've decided to double down on content. You've decided to like. channel that energy into building now a YouTube channel, which we don't recommend going and just, you don't have any business right now. You're going to go build a YouTube channel and think that's going to fix everything. It's not. But you've stacked the foundations already. You've got your email marketing dialed in. You've got your referral partners dialed in. You've got your prospecting dialed in. You've got your consistent short game with content dialed in. You're learning advanced strategies. You've got that dialed in. You know how to handle a discovery call. You know how to handle custom proposals and build those out and sell those to clients. You got that dialed in. Now you just keep finding other channels to go deep on and YouTube's a phenomenal one. So you started a YouTube channel and that's where you've focused a lot of your energy over the past couple of months, I'd say. Right. Yeah. Like it's definitely a commitment for YouTube just because like it's different,


00:14:24 Scott Sarai
definitely a commitment for YouTube just because like it's different, like the algorithm is different than Instagram and there's a lot more like that goes into ideation and production and post edit and stuff like that. So yeah, I would say it's taken a bulk of my brain power as late, but I think we're just turning the corner on like everything's been set up properly and we're now on like the. straightaway home stretch. I have some things written down here,


00:14:47 Ryan Wiley
have some things written down here, like there's three or four things. And these are my favorite things about you as a broker and where I think you surpass 99 % of the brokers in our industry. And it's why you're so successful. And number one jumps off the page. Do you have any idea what I'm about to say? Probably not suitable for the podcast, but I might have an idea. Well, number one is speed. Speed kills in everything. And so we'll talk about an idea. you'll get a concept, you'll get a whiff of something. And then all of a sudden, usually within 24 to 36 hours, you've already put it into play. You've already worked on it. If it's a new script, if it's a new type of content, if it's a new angle on a strategy, if it's an email to send out, if it's a way to get in front of financial advisor, if like something you hear we talk about, you pull it out and most people, it goes on the whiteboard. It sits there. They talk about it. They hem and haw over it. They wait until it's perfect. They go. And you're already like three, four weeks. You're on iteration five, six, seven, eight of the idea of the concept. And other people are still twiddling their thumbs wondering, oh, maybe I should. Maybe like you just you're I don't give a fuck muscles built up. But that's one of my favorite things about you is how fast, right or wrong, if the thing you're going to do, because you'll figure out if it's something you want to do way quicker. than if you put it on the side. So I just wanted to say that. Do you feel that? Like, is that something you actually connect the dots on?


00:16:18 Scott Sarai
Yeah. So again, everyone, if you want to build a business, go back to episode one of this podcast and listen to it, have like a notepad or an iPad out and take notes. So early days, you might've coached on it or maybe someone else that said, done is better than perfect or something like that. And I've always taken that. to light so i'm not the most visually gifted person when it comes to like aesthetics and stuff and my wife like you know she's amazing and she always like no no i need to like do this for you and i'm like no like i need to get it done is better than perfect so email campaigns i'll just like i'll blast out and speed kills like every business coach like i don't know the saying is like the fortunes in the follow -up or lead to speed or speed to lead or some some stuff like that i just try and execute as fast as possible because if i take notes and make like a list. I very rarely get to it. So I definitely would say I've always noticed that I've always very reactive versus like tactical. I just get shit done. And that's just who I am as a person. Yep. Get it out.


00:17:18 Ryan Wiley
A four or five out of 10. We'll tweak as we go. Right. There was a study that was done and this is a story you probably heard, but it's a, it's a study that was done and they gave 30 days to this. It was a, I think a clay molding. It was a bunch of students and they said, Hey. You over here, you divide the class in half. You over here, you've got 30 days. You only get to make one. One vase, let's call it, out of clay. Take 30 days to make it perfect. And then you over here, make as many as you want. And then you only get to present one at the end of 30 days. And they came both and they both presented the class at the end. And the people who had went through like 17, 20, 24 versions versus the one who was trying to be perfect, it was dramatically better, not even close. It was laughable. and it just speaks to you, same thing. Quicker you get in, you fix it, you change it, you tweak it, or you go, nope, not me, on to the next thing. And you get in there and you go, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So love that, your speed of that. And then number two, one of my favorite things about you is you execute. You do what you say you're gonna do. And so if you put down on your checklist, which I don't know if you have a picture of your checklist, something you've shown me many versions of it. But like, if there's a checklist here, it's like, you don't stop until the boxes of the checklist are checked off. It's called a non -negotiable for a reason. And you don't negotiate with yourself. That's it in a nutshell.


00:18:35 Scott Sarai
it in a nutshell. I have a Google sheet that I, I think I was given or I built out and every day, like it's got a day of the week. Like we take weekends off from like, you know, actually I don't even take weekends off to be honest. Cause I'll, I'll catch up with, with DMs or, I'll post stories, but I go down the road, I just, you know, check, check, check, check. And there's something about it that like the dopamine hit from like hitting the check box and seeing the green check mark, like it does it for me. And then on the far right of the spreadsheet, it gives me my running total. So like, as of this recording, I have 48 ,714 check marks or like credit for check marks. So, I mean, psychologically, it's a win for me. I can like see the results of my work for the day.


00:19:17 Ryan Wiley
And here's the interesting part is I coach a lot of brokers and when we come back, if we do like, hey, let's review the last 120 days, 90 days, it's rare there's actually a checklist that's been filled out. And if there is, there's a direct correlation between what's been done, the input by the broker to the money in the bank account. It ends up like matching up over time where, oh, go figure, you did the things and now you've got money. the bank account. And if you don't have money in the bank account, I can revert that back to show me your checklist. Well, I don't have one. Okay, well, that's a problem. You don't know what you're doing. So if you don't know what you're doing, you're not tracking it. How do we know what's broken? If we're just saying it's an effort level, well, this is something like about, you know, leveling up a bit as a business owner. So another piece that I love about you is, and you might not even realize these things, but I can see them. They jump off the page, but it's, there's a book called this, but it's, you know, who, not how. There are people all around you that you use in your business that you just hire people because you're like, I want to figure out enough, but I really want to get someone to play. So you've got Megan, your underwriter, fulfillment, right? Yeah. You know, you guys are phenomenal together and she knows things you would have never learned in your entire career. 100%. Nor wanted to. You've got a VA, right? What does the VA do for you? If you want to give a synopsis. Yeah,


00:20:42 Scott Sarai
Yeah, so that's a recent addition to my team. basically all the admin side of things like scheduling the post for the content the captions i'm slowly bringing her into like the business operation side of things i'm just you know figuring that out but all like the the low level tasks like any business coach and you've said before like and i love this one i should never told my wife what you said but i want to focus on the three thousand dollar problems and and like i'll delegate the three dollar problems because like that's not going to put money in my bank account the three thousand dollar problems are so Basically, I've just replaced all the $300 situations, and I only focus on the $3 ,000 ones.


00:21:20 Ryan Wiley
So you've got a VA, and then you also hired a videographer, and that was early on. Yeah,


00:21:25 Scott Sarai
so I have a videographer and the editor for post -production. I have a YouTube coach right now. I got my built -in coach with you. Before I had even funded a mortgage, I talked my way in. to at the time scott peckford's 10 loans a month academy and the only reason i got in was because i knew he was a paramedic and i just like you know i leveraged me being a firefighter and he let me in and i did a quarter with you i remember like yesterday you called me it wasn't like an email i'm like oh ryan wiley's calling me so i pick up i was all giddy you're like hey man i don't think it's a fit for you in this group coaching and i was kind of like oh i'm getting kicked out because i haven't funded mortgages you're like i think you need private coaching i'm like okay


00:22:08 Scott Sarai
And I remember you saying like, would you be interested? And things slowed down in my brain. I'm like, fuck, what's this guy going to charge? Like at the time, like you were crushing like 90 million plus and you were like a big personality in the space. And I'm like, what's this guy going to charge me? I still had not funded a mortgage, went through a couple of coaching cohorts. And you're like, oh, no, no, it's like what you already paid to 10 loans. Like I'll cover, it's all good. So I had you from day one before I had even funded a mortgage. I think I did some other coaching program somewhere in between, like the YouTube coaching program. There are experts out there. I don't need to know everything. I just need to know the people who know the things. And that's what you just said.


00:22:42 Ryan Wiley
But you invested early on because you hired a videographer because you realized social was... a massive part of your business or needs to be, but you realized you were the bottleneck trying to get videos out every single day and you just knew your personality and you weren't going to do it. So you said, how do I fix this? I'm going to hire a videographer. I'm going to batch record once a month. I'm going to show up with scripts. I'm going to knock out 20 videos, 15 to 20 in a two hour segment. And they're going to land inside my phone or a Google drive every Sunday, three of them. And I just post them. Yeah. But you made that investment. early on when you could have easily talked yourself out of doing it?


00:23:18 Scott Sarai
Not looking back on it, that was definitely instrumental because I would never have kept up with doing it. I remember like walking my dog and doing these like cringeworthy reels and AJ from Sloan Media, he called me, he's like, hey man, I see you're doing content. I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, I am. He's like, it's terrible. It's absolutely terrible. And he was building his YouTube channel at the time. He's like, it's terrible, man. Like, he's like, I need to help you. I'm like, okay. And then like, we're off to the races. we were clunky at first and then like i think our last session we probably did like 35 reels and it might have been under two hours and it only took that long because we had some like intricate setups with split screens and stuff like like it got super efficient and like now that we talk about it i kind of forget about how instrumental that conversation was in my growth


00:24:02 Ryan Wiley
Oh, and that just speaks volumes to how you're wired and how you're thinking. And then you've just now replicated that in other areas of your business. And there's that old saying, like hire before you need it, regardless of what it is. And so I know you had your Instagram channel up. And then I realized three, four or five months ago, you shut it down. And so you had your Instagram channel up with your shorts going and you're consistent. Why did you shut your account down?


00:24:27 Scott Sarai
your account down? Meta is a funny thing. Like, I just love to talk to a human sometimes and not a chatbot. But for whatever reason, my SGS Mortgages Instagram page, it got restricted. So I think it was something to do with a marketing campaign we did around Love19 back in the day with COVID and stuff. And for whatever reason, it got restricted. And you have like a four -month rebuttal period. And I didn't even know I was restricted. I had no clue. So I had passed that. It was two years later. And they're like, we can't rescind it. And I'm like, you guys are the largest tech company in the world. You tell me you can't flick a switch. And they said, no. My wife, you know, again, like I should have listened to her sooner. She told me a while ago to shut that one down and pivot. And I was like, well, I have like the followers. I have this. I have that. It turns out a lot of the followers were mortgage brokers when I actually looked at it. So I had to pivot. I had to make a whole new page. So the restrictions were lifted because I wanted to experiment with boosting posts just to increase my audience and get eyeballs on the content outside of like what was already watching it. So we did that. We started the new page. I was telling you offline, like I just had my first experience where I had like 58 ,000 views in the last 30 days, all non -follower. So like it's new eyeballs on my stuff.


00:25:37 Ryan Wiley
Yeah. So that takes a lot of balls. to just shut down on instagram it was basically because you just couldn't run ads on it so you wanted to yeah get some freedom there and some flexibility i mean here's your account i have up on the screen it's called mortgage free with me if anyone wants just go check on instagram but i can always tell how long ago you started this because You have 153 posts and your goal is one a day. So you're about 153 days in here. He's not that farther along than a lot of you who are sitting there going, oh, I can't start. Oh, you're so far ahead. Because a lot of social media people are. You're like, that's like four years. You are five months ahead of someone on this account. And you can already see, and I know views doesn't equal dollars in your bank account necessarily, but you have 640 some followers. I can just tell the vibe from here. I can tell who your avatar client is. You're super consistent on stuff. It just keeps pumping out here. I'm showing on my screen. That's for those who are just listening. But this is so cool, man, that you had the wherewithal to stop, rebuild, and then fast forward five months. Here you are. Now you have an account you can go put ads on. What are you doing? Are you running a couple of ads on anything?


00:26:45 Scott Sarai
Not right now, no. I'm still learning. like ads out like i don't fully understand it and how it works and i boosted a couple like of the strategy posts so talking about like the offset strategy for renewals and cash damming for basement suites so i boosted a couple of those but outside of that like i've you know i might have spent 100 bucks in the last five months on boost and that's about it and so after our first podcast together because you kind of went from


00:27:06 Ryan Wiley
so after our first podcast together because you kind of went from Nothing. Zero to hero, baby. Zero to hero. You kind of got some stuff going. You got some mojo going here. And I'll say this. With that, there comes some smoke. There's some smoke from people. Excuse the firefighter pun there, but it's like smoke comes because there are people who are extremely fucking jealous that you now are doing some things, all the things that these people could have been doing. And I started to hear it. And I don't know if you heard it or not, but I heard it because I'm dialed in and connect to a lot of different things. And it was like, who's this guy? Oh my God, is he a fraud? Is he coming in? What's he doing? And can't believe he's doing that. And before he was doing fulfillment. And so I heard it all. And I'm sitting here going like, those people don't have a hot fucking clue about anything because I saw the work in the trenches. I saw how much work you're putting in. I saw how dedicated you are. You are a student of the game. And that is my other thing I love about you. is you want to know, like you could have just paid someone to run your YouTube for it, but you're like, no, I want to figure this out. I want to understand the camera. the lighting, the background, the hook, the audio hurt, the first three seconds, how to analyze the data. I want to learn that. And then you shift gears. You're going to go figure that all out. And then you're going to put someone in place to handle a bunch of the stuff after you record. And then you're going to move on to the next thing you're going to become an expert on. And it already was how to do your pre -approvals, how to do your proposals, how to learn about cash jamming, how to learn about the offset, how to present that to people, how to get in front of FAs, what to say to FAs. And so. I just love the noise that comes in because there's always going to be noise, people trying to tear you down. And I heard it and I was shielding you a lot from a lot of it, but I took it on and I heard it and I got into fights and arguments, people, and I never really talked about this a lot, but I've gotten into it because I saw what you were doing and whatnot and these jealous people that were not doing it. And I just want to say kudos to you, man, because anyone listening to this that thinks, oh, this came easy and it was so easy. Oh my God. It did not like you busted your ass more than probably any broker I've known in a 12 month period. So kudos to you, man.


00:29:17 Scott Sarai
Thank you. Yeah. That's funny. Cause like normally I would sit in that and I would like stew on it. And now that you brought it up, I just, I totally flashed on. I don't remember it, but now, yeah, there was, I remember like, I can't remember what it was, but, uh, haters are going to hate. And early on in my fire career, I had a firefighter tell me one time, he's like, look, man, there's. you know, in our department, 500 people, other bigger departments, there's more like 10 % are going to hate you for no fucking reason at all. Like get over it, accept it and move on. And I've always remembered that conversation with that firefighter. So I brought it into brokering. And when I did fulfillment, you know, I had some quirks with different brokers on like the way businesses were run. And that's why I was shutting that down. That's why I was over it. And then with brokering, I can't remember what it was. And you were off the grid when this happened, but there was a post about something. And when I went on the podcast circuit, last time with you and then dustin woodhouse asked me on and tom and brandon my boys back he's asked me on i kind of got some light and then i remember there was this one broker just like throwing like complete shade that you know using like hypertense words and stuff that me and you were fabricating what we talked about in the podcast to generate leads for the team and stuff and this is just a credit to ryan and the culture he's built on team wiley i had brokers on my team ready to go to war and i think you were way on family vacation and i had of all people I had to be like the cool head that prevailed, but I went in on the group chat and said to the teammate, look guys, like let's kill the noise with volume. Let's put team Wiley at the top of the leaderboards. Like, you know, piss on them all. Me and you know who the one broker was, but like I had teammates at team Wiley, like I can't get into specifics that it'll kind of allude to who that broker was, but like they were doing things to defend me. And like, you don't see that at the corporate world as much. And like team Wiley has that vibe and yeah, like their shade and early on. with people, with distractions. And I was a shiny object guy. I love like, oh, like let's go build these click funnels and let's go do this. I've turned all the noise off. I've turned all the people off. I've unfollowed as many mortgage brokers as I can. I've left all the Facebook groups. I only want to see. my potential clients on social media that's what i'm trying and like you know if my friends are listening i'm sorry i don't see your pictures of you at the brewery but it is what it is i learned from you and other coaches just like turn the noise out and thank you for shading me because i would have driven to those people's houses to have a chat with them that's just the type of person that i am oh man i got stories upon stories maybe one day i'll write a book but that's just nature of the beast so okay


00:31:42 Ryan Wiley
man i got stories upon stories maybe one day i'll write a book but that's just nature of the beast so okay I want to give some takeaways for those watching here. Brokers are sitting here. And of course, especially on YouTube, there's going to be comments below. We're chopping this up into shorts and there'll be comments there and there'll be people like, what the fuck? And you can't do this. And there's no ways doing that. But I'm like, we're not here a lot. Like we're just, we're kind of just showcasing what someone did in a 12 month period and kind of going like, what's your excuse if you're not doing this? Like you can do this. So I want to, I want you, if I'm a broker sitting here. And I'm like, whatever number I'm at, and I want a triple, quadruple, whatever. I want to go make a couple hundred thousand dollars a year, but I'm stuck in the mud. Like, give me some simple things that make them extremely actionable, extremely simple to understand, no fluff. I know the answer. I want you to say your answer. What should they do over the next 30 days?


00:32:38 Scott Sarai
Yeah, super simple. Right away, join Team Wiley. or reach out to ryan see if you're a fit for the team because like you don't just get on it that's step one you know join team wiley you get the resources you get the coaching you get the culture and the community we built step two have conversations with people like i mean sure social is daunting i mean i can lead a horse to water i can't make you drink so if you're not going to be on social just be social so Have conversations with people. That would be number two. Number three is who, not how. So find the people that can support your business. And you're going to find that with Team Wiley too, right? So that would be like my two biggest takeaways is just like be social and join Team Wiley. What's your vision for the next two years?


00:33:17 Ryan Wiley
for the next two years? Like do you want to make a half million bucks and you want to work 25 hours a week? And I'm not talking firefighter income. I'm talking mortgage income. Is that the dream setup?


00:33:26 Scott Sarai
Yeah, I mean, I don't know. Like 10 mil is my goal. And then... You were like, you're going to hit 40. And I had a jumbo mortgage, like a $4 .3 million mortgage. I lost it at the 11th hour right at Christmas time. So I would have hit 40 million technically last year. Yeah, half a million top line revenue with like right now I'm probably working 20 to 25 hours. And, you know, maybe if I get it down to like 20 hard cap and that would kind of be it. But I'm just kind of enjoying the ride right now. Like I'm trying not to stress about it. My staff on my team, every individual that I've brought on, I've said like, look, this is the starting point. My only goal in this game is for us to make more money. And like, like I learned early on from my father -in -law, like to treat your people with the utmost respect and stuff. So like my underwriter, Megan, if you're listening to this, I would move mountains for her if she asked. And the VA, like she's, you know, become part of the family and stuff. So trying to build that family vibe around my team and like, you know, Megan knows my daughter and my wife. So like, that's the vibe. So I only want to make my people more money. That's my goal. If it's at 50 million, 60 million, 70 million top line volume. Let's go, baby. Like I'm open for it. But yeah, I'm just trying to enjoy the ride, be humble, enjoy it. And that comes back to,


00:34:33 Ryan Wiley
back to, and we'll wrap this up shortly, but it was when you said, hey, I'm bored and you're doing these things. And I was like, just keep doing the boring things. Have a boring mortgage business, like the boringest one you can have. And then go live a phenomenal life with all the bank. And it sounds like you're doing that. And now you're probably starting to realize this wasn't a one -off. This is now your reality. And so you're kind of like, okay, you wake up every day, like you're loving life better now than you did 12 months ago. I'm assuming.


00:35:04 Scott Sarai
Yeah. Like I have way less stress. Like sure. There's like, like AI right now is the buzz, right. And everyone's going down those rabbit holes. So like, I, I'll go down a little bit and I'm like, wait a minute. Like my business is moving without it. Like I don't necessarily need it, but yeah, life is good. You know, brokering right now, like it's a season where it's tough sledding right now. And, you know, we're losing files to, to renewal retention teams. outside of that yeah i'm loving life and i'm i'm making like friendships in the broker space that i you know i never had like like team wiley we got a family vibe like there's about 25 of us getting together in kelowna in a couple weeks and one of the brokers is flying out a day early to hang out with me in vancouver and craig was like a built -in best friend when i first met him and stuff so like i'm just having fun i'm like i'm just trying to enjoy the ride and be thankful be grateful and be humble that's cool man anyone listening here watching this i hope you can take whatever the inspiration is away from this and


00:35:50 Ryan Wiley
cool man anyone listening here watching this i hope you can take whatever the inspiration is away from this and If anything, it's kind of like, hey, Scott was 2 .7 mil in 2024. And fast forward 12 months and he'll have a $50 million business here up and humming along working 20, 25 hours a week within like a 12 to 18 month period. Like, it's just insane. What do you say like that? It sounds insane from where I'm sitting because I know the effort and energy that went into it and how diligent you are with your time and how ruthless you are with your time. Like you said, it's not insane to me. To be honest, I'm like, your numbers should be higher. But that's going to come because now you're putting all your resources into the platforms to build more eyeballs, get more eyeballs on you, which you can then turn into deals. That's it, brother. I appreciate you sharing your story. And we'll obviously keep chatting and keep having you on. But anything outside of you pumping. Team Wiley Stires, anything else you want to say?


00:36:43 Scott Sarai
you want to say? Like, look, everyone knows it. Like, brokering is a lonely world out there. And we've all been in that spot where it's challenging, right? So, I mean, just trying to enjoy the ride. Like, where else can you have little to no overhead costs to run a half a million dollar business? Like, I've never seen it before. I'm extremely grateful for the friendships and the relationships I've built so far. And like I said, I'm just trying to enjoy the ride. And I think a big part of the enjoyment I have. at this stage of my career is coming over to tango more importantly team wiley like the culture here is it's next and i've been at every major label you've changed your environment though and that's a big one a lot of people are sitting there on islands they're on an island within an island you recognize that yeah so that was fun but just keep going like you're gonna lose files you're gonna have friends and family not use you and like just stay consistent like i have more conversations with people and


00:37:18 Ryan Wiley
one a lot of people are sitting there on islands they're on an island within an island you


00:37:23 Scott Sarai
recognize that yeah so that was fun but just keep going like you're gonna lose files you're gonna have friends and family not use you and like just stay consistent like i have more conversations with people and I'm not trying to sell them. I just go into the mentality, like I'll educate them, I'll give them a nugget and they're going to come back. It's gamified for me now, like to like answer it in a way where like they need more and it's broker life. Like that's all it is. Like it's hard to articulate and put into words. You're brokering now and you don't get it until you're there and then you get it and you're like,


00:37:51 Ryan Wiley
brokering now and you don't get it until you're there and then you get it and you're like, okay, there's layers to this. Okay, dude, much love, man. I appreciate you coming on and spending time doing this. So anyone wants to get a hold of them. Well, we'll put his Instagram channel below. That's about it. Just so you can go check out his stuff and grab inspiration from. But OK, thanks, dude. No worries.