Welcome to The Pillars of Purpose podcast with your host, PJ Crescenzo. This is The show where every week we have real conversations about what it looks like to improve our faith, our family, our fitness, our finances, and ultimately have a life of fun. If you're looking to build on pillars that last and you're looking to have a life of purpose, this is The show for you. Thanks for tuning in and look forward to today's episode. Welcome to The Pillars of Purpose podcast. I'm honored today to have Brian Covey here on The show. He has led billion-dollar sales teams. He's been a collegiate athlete. He's a husband, he's a faTher, he's a believer, and he is also The man that dominates my timeline on social media on every platform I am on. So Brian, PJ, bro, I'm excited to be here and be a guest and jam with you. So this is long overdue, and I'm glad to be one of your guests. Yeah, thanks broTher, I appreciate making The time. All right, so we're gonna go rapid fire. I got a list of questions prepared and I'm excited to extract some of your wisdom from your time in your career. So question number one, what mindset shift is required from Ooh, what's an interesting one since I did that and have gone back and forth through my 20 plus year career, right back and forth There. I think it's unique. It's almost like sports since both of us played sports. You think about The player moves in to become The coach, but There's this step in between nobody talks about. For me, it was becoming a captain on The team. And I think There's this in-between phase that if people were to look at it from this different vantage point of, If you're a player, but you can become a captain, you're a leader. You may not have a formal title or anything There, but you start to lead yourself really well. And so people will recognize that you've accomplished things. You do what you say you're going to do, right? That's inside and outside of The office. And I think people forget about that in between. For me, it wasn't like a light switch that you go from producer to tomorrow. You wake up and you're a leader. That's not The real journey. At least that's not what I've experienced or coach people. There's this in between. So I just invite people to consider what if you were The captain of your team, right? So you took on leadership responsibilities, you led yourself and you led oThers well, wheTher you were not even given a title. And I think about this was a story I was talking about last week. PJ was. when I first started producing, my kind of entry point to leadership was I would lead some sales meetings and talk about different CRM things or different things we were doing with builders. And I would just talk about products and like whatever They would let me talk about. And I started to step into that before I was just given a leadership title, which comes with a lot of responsibility and things. And so that would be my advice to anybody out There looking to do that is I've never heard that framework. Captain before coach. That's brilliant. All right, so if somebody's looking at Their 2025 goals and They fell short, what do you find as a consistent reason or cadence or maybe something that has somebody looking at Their goals this time of The year and saying, I just didn't perform The way I wanted to, what do you find in leadership often tends to lead to that result where They're looking at The end of The year and They just didn't have The year that They wanted to have? What Oh man, great question. The number one usually is clarity. I would just say a lot of people had goals to start The year and They weren't really clear enough. They didn't really have any meaning behind Them. And so They might've written Them down, like, I want to make this much money or want to hire this many people, or I want my business to generate this much revenue. And like all These, These numbers, if you're not really committed to it, uh, I think committed is like The first step that you move out of interested to committed. And what I would tell people is probably The reason you didn't get There this year is The separators I know for me in different areas of my life. And look, I didn't win in every area of my life. Like I was going through my goals like, man, I fell short here. I fell short here. So maybe The first one to say, like, There's things I've personally reflected and gone, why didn't I? Well, it's because I didn't get obsessed. And I was talking about this The oTher day. There's certain goals that if you set Them big enough and They're large enough, you probably didn't get There because you didn't get really radical and obsessed about Them. And you were interested or committed. In days of The week, you might have been one or both. And I think that's where people fell short. I would just invite you to consider this is until you have real clarity of what The goal is and why you're doing it, you're probably not going to move towards it in times of pain or discomfort and displeasure. And so that's where I see The separation is, can you go run? Can you go work out on The days you don't feel like it enough? And PJL shown somebody this this weekend is I think I've run 150 times this year, like 400 miles. And I go, Man, we're like 300 plus days into The year now. And I go, dude, can I tell you how many times I didn't want to go do that? But Then I thought, well, I performed 50 percent, like probably around 50. So what if I could get that number up to 70 percent, 80 percent? And like for most of us, that's just The margin. We got to figure out The gap and All right, so I'm gonna ask an organic question. How many pillars, right, so think through The lens, family, faith, fitness, finance, fun, Well, any one time, one's gonna have to be The priority. Look, I've heard The balance thing, and balance comes later in your life. I think when you get older, like, I've experienced some seasons that I had balance for seasons. I didn't live a balanced life. It wasn't like this long period, but I experienced it because The hard work I had done, and even within that season of balance, There was some comfort that comes in. And so I would just share with you, my own experience has been something's going to move to The front. And that's okay. Like it might be in seasons that you say, you know what? I am not grounded. And so I'm getting frustrated. I'm getting angry with people. I'm not happy here. I'm not feeling grateful, like all These things. And so you might want to go prioritize your faith and you might want to get quiet. Like I've done where it's like, Hey man, five, 10 minutes in The morning, read a verse of The day, read through and get centered. And I find that for me is when I'm feeling ungrateful and I'm feeling, um, you know, just whatever, like you're feeling off. And Then you need to back that up. So obviously I have a routine around fitness like you do, spending time with my family and spending time where those things matter. I love to do fun things, but I'll throw out a term to you that helped me from a coach. Integrate as many of These things as you possibly can, meaning like real life, took my son to futsal training, which is like indoor soccer. I called my parents, so he gets to talk to his grandparents on The call. I get to hang out with him while I'm There. I am working while I'm watching him. There's periods of time that I'm working while I'm There, setting up my week for success, reviewing my appointments that are There, going through some of my social media. And so I think There's integration, like I rode in The car and that was our time togeTher. But when he gets to practice, that's his time. And so I'm not just gonna sit There. If it wasn't like nine degrees yesterday, I probably would have gone outside and jogged or ran. Would have done some fitness. You can do These things if you integrate Them well. I'll give you one more example. Tonight, when Henry gets back from school, my youngest, he's The one now, we'll go do a workout togeTher. And I'll set up some speed and agility. I'll get some quality time with him. And so we'll work out togeTher. That's, to me, family time, health time, and fitness time. And we'll probably also listen to some praise and worship. Let's go. That's How much of that has been organic as a dad where you've learned to put some of those rhythms and integration pieces in and how much of it have you had to lean on mentors or external education? What does that Well, I wish I could tell you I'd figured it out myself, which I think we all know. It always comes from someone else. I had a mentor over seven years ago and he started teaching this term integration. And I was like, dude, I don't even know what that is. Like I don't have balance and I don't have integration. And we started to figure out and he would go through my days and we would talk about Them. And my biggest breakthrough was when I would go to, you know, soccer practice back Then my daughter was still playing. So I'd go to those and I would go to, you know, baseball practice, all These things. And I started listening to a podcast and I would start walking during Their practice just to get some extra fitness in. And that was The first kind of breakthrough in it. And Then I realized integration was going to some of These masterminds. Like I'm going to some of These faith-based entrepreneur events, and I'm starting to get around oTher people that are There. And yes, we're doing some fitness, but we're talking business, we're talking spiritual stuff, we're talking relationship stuff. That's where I think you start to compound your time. And that one hour really becomes four or five hours if you spend it All right, so I'm gonna transition to anoTher topic, and Then we'll circle back to integration. All right, so if I'm a loan officer going purely into our craft, into The professional sphere, and I'm a full-time loan officer, I'm working 40 hours a week, this is a personal opinion, I'm always curious The answer, what should I be producing as a full-time loan officer working 40 hours a week? Producing in terms of volume, units? Volume or units, what's your opinion? If I'm a full-time loan officer, I'm working 40 hours a week, what would I have a different answer than you're thinking. What helped me in that journey is what is your dollar per hour goal? What do you want to make? What are you worth? Are you worth 200 an hour? Do you consider yourself 2,000 an hour? And The reason why I share that is, that will give you clarity in, do you outsource mowing of your lawn? If you have a pool, someone doing that. Do you have someone go get your groceries? If you're married and kids, do you have a nanny helping you? Where do you invest money back into yourself? Like a whole oTher conversation There. I would look at that and figure out, what do you really believe you're worth an hour? And if you look at your real numbers, There's probably a gap for most of us. I know I was doing this exercise, and I was like, okay, that's where I am, and this is where I want to be, because at that dollar per hour, that allows me some freedom and flexibility of outsourcing some things, so I can spend time with my family, travel, produce, It's a high-level way to think about it. It's bigger than just a It's a different way because, and I also would say that you know this, depending on where you are, what type of loans you do, what type of referrals you're getting in today, it could vary. The same 50 or 100 million dollars is not The same amount of time to get There. So is your 40 hours spent frustrated? Or is it spent like, man, Do you think every loan officer is capable of understanding that concept? Or do you think it requires a certain level of maturity to I definitely think it's The latter, unfortunately, because if it was true that They all understood it or could, I know oTher coaches that talk something similar. I've not heard this concept broken down like, that's what I share. But if They got it, They would look at Their business different. And how many people do we see on The hamster wheel that The same year is repeated over and over and you go, I mean, The information's There. Coaches exist. Implementation. All right, so anoTher question, industry related. How easy is it for somebody to transition from outside sales And this is why, is you have so many things that have been automated in our business with technology and what I think is ability to be trained today wheTher it's in a company or outside of your company. You have people that are willing to spend time with you and teach you Their system, right? The LOS system. They'll teach you how to prospect, which always says is There's, is There's probably one of two camps. If you can't prospect and get business, you need to learn how to do that. But if you can't do that, You could start as a loan partner. You could start as a processor. You could start and learn functions of The business. When I started, it was at Wells Fargo Financial, and I was a credit loan officer like we did. Personal loans, credit cards, auto loans, financed furniture. And Then our big ticket item was, of course, The debt consolidation, big home, refinance. And I had no training. I had none, and They taught me. And I was not The smartest kid in school. Like, There's not my strength short, but we'll take it. Yeah. When was The first time that you knew you would have a career in sales or where you start to felt like you are winning as you got into your career? Oh, that's a. I would say within that job, that first year selling significantly higher interest rates than my friends that were in The mortgage business, The amount of reps we did every day, The cold calls, and I realized as an athlete, The competitive drive overshadowed my fear of rejection. and my lack of skills. And I enjoyed reading, you know, like The Tony Robbins stuff. And Brian Buffini was pretty big back Then, right in The real estate space teaching There. Todd Duncan was doing high trust. I would gravitate to sales and marketing. And my actual undergrad was in business and economics, but also did sales and marketing in our college. And I loved public speaking, even though I sucked at it. I loved economics, I loved sales and marketing, and I just fell in love with that. And I think back, as you shared that, PJ, I sold cloThes in high school at a men's clothing company. So I think I was always selling. It was Which I do think sales is a sport. I think There's definitely a correlation There, even though it's not defined in that way. I think top producers are in some way competitive athletes. I'd The best ones are, I talk about, you know, my show, of course, Competitive Edge, and I talk about people have a competitive edge, wheTher you competed in sports or you just competed in life. Everybody, I believe, has a point in which in a season They competed for something. Look, you could have been in The band, you could have been selling, you know, lemonade in your neighborhood, like some point you competed for something. And we just gotta figure out what that drive is and what motivates Them. But I do think athletes have an advantage just because, look, I mean, how many times do we get knocked down, beat up, lose a game, get told that you're not good enough, you get cut from a team, and you're like, dude, keep going. Constantly, yeah. Fall down seven, stand up eight. All right, so anoTher quote that stood out, which I love this, and kind of The intake was, winning is more fun than fun is fun. Can That is an Ed Milet quote. So I want to give proper credit. Ed's been a mentor and I've learned probably literally outside of Lewis Howells, The number one podcast if I were to listen to The last 10 years would be Ed's. And he shared that. And at first I'm like, I think it's more fun than fun is fun. I like to have fun. I like to win. And I thought about The times in my life in sports, like how much fun it is to win, how much fun it is to win life. And I think about that. If you just go have fun, I think about today is like, it's fleeting. It's almost like motivation. You can go have fun, but if you didn't win something and actually accomplish or achieve something, The achievers will get this is you didn't actually win It's almost like sin. It always feels good in a moment. And Then you wake up feeling empty. It's The same thing with just The pure pleasure. I'm going out and I'm having a great time, but I'm not meeting my goals. I'm not providing The way I want to. I can't say yes when it matters most. I love that. I think that's one of The best quotes so far. Winning is more fun than fun is fun. We're going to give you credits right next to Ed. It'll be a dual quote. It'll be a Brian Covey quote and an Ed Milak quote. So you mentioned Ed, who I've loved, who have been some oTher key inspirational resources and mentors for you throughout your journey. Who's helped pour into Brian to Oh man, a long list, but it's interesting. I'm going to start back early on. My dad is probably The number one. Yeah, man, like he's pastor, psychologist. And I think about through sports, like I would have never gotten to places and like travel AAU basketball and Then competitive soccer and all that stuff. My mom and my dad both poured into me from different vantage points and different strengths. And so I think about that. And Then I moved through one of my first club coaches, Richard, he's from Poland, Polish national team goalkeeper. And I was very hard on us. And I look back and I go, I mean, we had somersaults in The concrete. He would train us in such a way I got to train with our college in Memphis. When I was in middle school and high school, I'm training with college kids, That's it. And how much did soccer have an impact on your professional abilities, mindset, competitiveness? Like how much did The sports translate into Well, it's definitely a big part of my identity. And I tell people is, you know, I didn't transition to goalkeeper until around 15, 16 full time. I was still a field player and goalkeeper. And that's when I got picked up and I got to train with The US 17 national team. And I started getting like some, I would say more notoriety, right? Like some things were like, okay, like I'm, I'm, I'm pretty good at this. Um, I need to figure it out. And I share that with people because I had an early rise to it, but Then I got moved positions because someone saw something in me. I didn't even see it myself. And truthfully, I would have probably gone on to play basketball, but not being a six foot plus basketball guy, like, glad I didn't stick that one out. And even goalkeeper was difficult, but I got to see The field. I got to see things and almost be The on-field coach. And so goalkeeper for me, beyond even soccer, 11 players on The field, if you're The goalkeeper, you know The stress. Like if a goal goes in, I don't care how it went in. I'm always thinking I could have saved it. What could I have done differently? Replaying The goal in my head. And you want to win with your team, but you also want to perform because in some ways it is a little bit I got an interesting question just about purely The tactics of being a goalkeeper, and Then we can turn it back to The podcast. Do you think that role has a lower quantity, higher quality? position where you're only getting limited opportunities to show what you're capable of, or is, and it's actually a higher quantity because They're constantly trying to come to The goal. Like how often would you stand There all game and have one opportunity to save The day? Or how often was it like constant attack and you No, I experienced both. And I would say The games that made me The most nervous were The ones that you didn't see The ball for 20 minutes on a real shot. You might have got it passed back. You might have had a through ball, a cross. But I remember that same coach Richard told me, he's like, Brian, The best saves you're going to make are actually The ones you don't have to make. And I was like, hold on, it's like Mr. Miyagi kind of talk. I'm like, what do you mean? He goes, your job as a goalkeeper, number one, is to communicate and organize your defense in such a way that The oTher team doesn't even get a shot off. If you do your job well, you've communicated to shut down The threat, The attack. And I'm like, you shouldn't have to make many saves. you've organized your team. You've told Them, hey man on your right, hey man running through here, hey watch your backside. Communication was taught at an early age where I remember how awkward it was and how weird it is. You're yelling at your teammates to do things and you really need to be able to command some respect because if you're not a good player, good teammate, They're all just not going to listen to you. And AnoTher positive influence you brought into my life. So Rory, I've been going on a deep dive of us and all his content. And he said something that kind of shattered my paradigm of thinking about coaching, which is people don't pay for coaching for The information. They pay for The organization and The application. So it's almost The same framework of what you just said about being a goalkeeper. It's not even about The saves. It's about having The information to organize The defense Yeah. And Then it says, Then you need to be ready for when your number's called, because that's when your team's counting on you The most. So it's just like origination today. You need to be experienced and skilled at so many areas today. And if you're not, imagine if you're great at developing business, but you get on The phone with The customer and you're not good at what you do. You can't sell a You don't know The guidelines. You can't make Them happy. Good luck. Well, that goes back to me going to deep dive for education, but how important and critical it is to have some framework of guidelines to really be in The bridge, because that's The only way you can really honor your commitment. Make sure when you're saying yes, it's yes. That's right. So, all right, how do you, so this is anoTher one. So somebody that is big into personal development, loves learning, loves improving, how do you discern The, I'll say constant absorption of knowledge and information and growth versus also having The ability to process what you've learned and make sure you're applying and implementing some of The growth strategies? Like what's your framework Then between, hey, I need to study, I need to grow, I need to conference, I need to network, versus also, hey, Yeah, that's a great one, and I've fallen into The trap of just information consumption. I'll use a Rory quote, is diluted focus equals diluted results. diluted focus, it's going to give you diluted results. And what I came up with this framework, 90 day sprint is There needs to be one piece of your business or in your personal growth that every 90 days you're intentionally working on that you can, you can measure, right? Like if it's growing your business, it should be, Hey, I'm going to reach out to 50 referral partners. These are my 50. I've got a list. I've got a goal in mind. I'm going to convert those to receive this many referrals. I'm going to meet with this many in person. I'm going to fund this much business. That might be your target and your goal. It might be social media to say, hey, you know what? I want to add 1,000 engaged followers on, let's say, Instagram over here. Here's how I'm going to go about it. This is going to be my strategy. I'm going to post this much. I'm going to track it. I'm going to hook up many chat with that. So that way I'm reaching out to all new followers, like integrate The technology into that as well. But I think everybody would do better if They just took on one thing and every 90 days got intentional and measured it. And look, 30 days in, you might go, I need to adjust. This is still The goal, but I need to adjust what's There. So I would encourage people to look at that versus if you're trying to read too many books in a year, you're trying to go to too many things, you're taking in information over here, information over There. It's like The person that has like four or five coaches or They're in four or five different groups or whatever. To me, that's just a lot of noise and it's going to distract you from what you're doing. So if you're not getting The results, this could be an area for you to say, hey, you know what? The next 90 days, I'm going to simplify it all and go all in on this one thing. I'm All right, so as you talked, it inspired about six questions, so I'm going to pick one. So collegiate athlete, coach, speaker in The personal development world, what do you think is The appropriate amount of resources you should have on your team? So if I'm a top originator, I'm a top leader, is it one coach? Is it two coaches? Is it one mastermind? What do you think is The appropriate amount of resources to have in your ecosystem Ooh, this is a good one. So I'll give you my life experience. I think you need one coach. Just starting There. And why I say that is you need one person that's really clear in your goals, one person you can talk to openly and share The things and go through. You don't need to be sharing that with multiple people. There's some fatigue to that. It's repetition. It's not needed to be repeated. And if it's not The right coach, go get The right coach. But that one right coach should be that one. You need one mentor. And that's somebody that in a specific area that you're working on in your life, that you want to achieve measurable, meaningful results. And I would find that person if it's in business, find someone like right now, I have a mentor. They're phenomenal. They've sold multiple businesses. They understand no mortgage experience, by The way, like PJ, no mortgage experience, I think that's actually a competitive advantage to have a non-mortgage mentor because I think one of The biggest traps of our industry is we get so mortgagey that we forget about... I was at a leadership or a treaty a couple of weeks ago and I was talking about revenue and They're like, what are you talking about? They're like, we only track volume. And I'm like, well, at The end of The day, The goal is to generate revenue off The volume. So if we were running a franchise, we would want to know how much did we make in revenue. So That's a great one. One coach, one mentor. I And I've tried it before and I'll tell you. And Then what I would add to this is These oTher two categories will help people. This is where I saw my breakthroughs is The one right coaches. Absolutely. They're going to keep you steady, consistent discipline. That's going to move. What I say is The majority of your success is going to move forward. But along The way, that mentor is going to help you with a breakthrough. But I've hired specific coaches for a quick sprint. Like, for example, I've hired a speaking coach when I was getting a lot of speaking opportunities and I was leaning into that. I hired, you know, obviously, Renee Rodriguez. I'll just say I hired Renee. And Then I got hooked up with Rory and AJ. Like, I got very specific. Like, this is what I want your help with. World-class Think about how powerful those accelerations of momentum are when The right people come into your life. Cause I was watching that Renee video and Then I've watched you speak on stage and it's incredible. Like The quality and The impact you make on stage now versus when you started with Renee, not saying you weren't a good speaker Then, but. Oh no, I sucked. It literally looks like a different person from People should be looking at today and find that that out for you is like, if you want something in your life that you want to improve in, Then that might be something that you go in and hire that one coach. It might be around your personal brand, right? That you say, Hey, I want to grow my personal brand over The next 90 days. You might pay someone to accelerate. And like Rory shared with you, that quote, it's The implementation and organization and application of The information. Well, In my career, my breakthroughs have come from when I invested money, got someone to teach me, take Their 10 plus years, and They teach me, and I go implement. I would say that's it, and you know this one for The last one is, Then find a like-minded group. I'm big into masterminds, like I'm still part of RTA Syndicate. Our friend Ken, who runs his group, still part of some groups like that, Yeah, I think so. I'm in a couple right now, and for very different reasons. Right? Some are very business focused. They're very, um, what I would say is more around The entrepreneurial journey, which I'm still learning, you know, like you talked about people that talk about actual revenue versus just loan volume mortgage, probably want to get out. And Then, um, you know, I love my buddy, Neil has got one of The best masterminds and part of sales mastery. I go to all of those and I go, who can I learn from? But those are usually only an event a year and a few calls along The way. So my time isn't diluted. Because that one event, I'm in a room with 750, 1,000 like-minded people, and some of those masterminds are a little bit more intimate. When you get to a certain level, you'll know and you'll wanna start investing. And I've been in those small masterminds that are a little more expensive, we'll just say. But They That's an interesting question. In The last seven years, Every single one of Them has been an ROI. Not always The way you think it would. You're not going to go to an event and Then leave and go, okay, I spent X amount of dollars, like $5,000 in this event. I came back and made 5,000. It doesn't always work that way. It can be some of that delayed gratification. And The one relationship, The one person, I got a text earlier from someone that I was at The last mastermind with for Sales Mastery, and we've stayed in contact. That's going to lead to something, an opportunity that we're going to do togeTher. But that's two months later. So So The timeline in which you're evaluating The ROI might not always be consistent, but in some form of a fashion, you're gonna get some results from Yeah, and I think about this, I always look at The oTher side of The coin, is where would I be if I didn't invest in those places? It So good. I have so many good questions I want to ask you. All right, so I'm going to transition. We're going to go faith, family, and Then we'll get back to professional. So when was The first time you became comfortable publicly sharing your faith? Because that's actually how I first got connected with you. I saw a scripture on social media and a comment. Was that a challenge earlier in your career? When did you first start to feel comfortable talking with colleagues and potential people that you're going I wish it was sooner. You know, early in my career, like corporate world for like almost 13 years, not as much. It wasn't really, you talk about it some, but you know, social was not really a thing like it is today. And so that was, that was different. And I would share it in small groups. And I would just say, man, over The last few years, probably since COVID, I Yeah. I'm like, that's just me. That's what I resonate with. That's, that's, that's who I am. And why, why would I hide that? And, and you know, what's cool is like how we connected is how I've connected it with some of my favorite people in my life today, where I go, I mean, had I not shared that, we wouldn't have I'll tell you, that's how we got connected. I saw that one, because you think about our industry, I mean really any industry, but our industry maybe in particular, you've been in The business a lot longer than I have, so I don't want to say that There's diluted character, but I've found from a lot of networking proximity, There's different moral compasses in a high sales driven industry. I think it makes The brand and The relatability that much stronger knowing Oh, I would encourage you by thinking about it, do it. We shared this video I did last week about a God-sized dream and playing small. And I share that. And what's crazy is to me is it performed well on some platforms. But TikTok was like, we don't do great on TikTok. It's not really my focus. It took off The amount of comments and people over There that were like, hey, man, we need more of this. Let's go mortgage people. I'm like, I need to do more of that content. It kind of almost challenged me like, huh? That's what They want. So Well, and They want you. I mean, if that's part of you, Then that's what They want. That's amazing. How important is it to you to be a good dad? Oh, it's, it's, it's The deal outside of being a great husband. I mean, it is, if you think about biblically, like a man and a woman get married togeTher and They come togeTher and Then if you're blessed enough and you have The opportunity, you can have kids. And I think about having our oldest, you know, Presley's in college. And I mean, PG, I think about this all The time. Now it's very different. When she's away, she's representing us, The things that I've taught her, shown her really what she's seen as far as a dad and especially a daughter, who she'll look for and who she dates, who she'll hang around, who she's going to spend her time with. You know, all of that is, is a by-product of how I raised her with Nicole. Like what, what did we instill in her? And I think about my boys, like, you know, what are we teaching Them? And it's The greatest honor and greatest gift, but it's also The greatest responsibility of, I think about this is no one, you know, when my time comes, no, no one's going to talk about The production I did. They're just, no one's going to talk about The workouts. Nobody's going to talk about like your unfunded volume on The team. You remember that year we did, you know, all this volume and we just crushed it and rates were this, like, That's not it. And I set out years ago just to be The best dad I could be for oTher dads, because I know how hard it is. And I know in seasons of my life, I wasn't The best dad. And I go, man, I wish I had known this. And so now I share those things with people. And it's like, hey, man, I haven't always got it right. And I still struggle with it. But it's everything, because What a beautiful answer, that's amazing. And you even gave kudos to your faTher, being one of The biggest influences, and look at The product he created. So, it's The power of good parenting. What habits and rhythms help you maintain that work-life integration? Like, as The years have gone on, wheTher it's marriage, wheTher it's parenting, what have kind of been some non-negotiable habits that have helped keep you rooted, both I'll give you The one that I wish I'd started sooner. I always think about those, like, what did I wish I knew earlier in my life? This Sunday, success planning. I talk about it quite a bit, but Nicole and I will get togeTher, go through The schedule with three kids, especially now, Presley in college, and Then Davis and Henry play a ton of sports. They're going places, things happening, date nights, things that we've just got going on in life. Planning out our week to go, hey, what do we have this week? Am I taking Them to this? Am I taking Them to that? What kind of games do we have? What kind of events do we have? You got to know There, and I did it in The wrong order for a while as well. Like I would always just plan my business stuff and like, okay, I got all These meetings and I've got These events These nights. If family really is a priority for you, which I know a lot of people say that, but I would just start with putting your family stuff first. And that required me, PJ, people think I'm crazy. A couple of years ago, I changed it because I realized as Presley was getting older and now Davis is getting older is, I moved my workout from The early, like 5.30, 6 a.m. group to I moved it to The 8.30 group, which means I get to see all The kids before They go to school now. I was missing Them because The older two would go to high school and leave at like 6.45. And I thought, dude, this is The way. I'm going to go to The early class and crush my early morning workout. What I realized is I can wake up at 5.30, have my quiet time. I can actually get some work done. I'll get my social stuff done. I'll engage in prospect a little bit There, make sure my day is set up, review that. And Then I get family time for an hour, two hours, sometimes depending on how early They wake up. Then I go work out and I immediately leave There and I can start calls at 10 o'clock. But I get my workout, I get some community time, that's all done, and I don't worry The rest of The day. And dude, I felt guilty at first. Truthfully, it's like, I mean, I'm working out like 8.30 to 9.30, like. I know, am I missing The New Well, here's what I would share with you is you have to find what works for you. And for me, missing my kids in The morning, not something I'm willing to do. And so I said, well, how can I make this work? Well, I can get up earlier and get things done that I need to get done. Then I can spend time and be present. And Then I can go get my workout and Then immediately flip on and don't have any interruptions. And I'll tell you what it challenged me to do is The habits that I learned was time scheduling, saying no to people, being Those three things that you just rapid-fired off are a master class in and of Time scheduling, saying no to people, organizing your Whole oTher topic of, and I'll tell you on my Sunday success plan and we're going through it, I am looking at meetings that I can delete. That's my first look, is who got on my calendar that eiTher no longer we need to meet, because we met last week, or They got on There weeks ago or it's just a waste of time. It's like, man, why did I say yes to that? Like I've seen that and I'm like, and I'll reach out to him and say, Hey, you know, I need to reschedule and this isn't going to fit right now. And some people will say, Hey, this isn't something I'm interested in pursuing right now. Thank you. But I'm gonna go ahead and just delete this off The calendar. I'll reconnect Hey, you always will. And I'm working still on looking at those and Then being mindful of, is that really a yes? Because too often times I think we put things in, we feel busy, and we're not productive, but that would be an area as you're doing it. Are those really The yeses you need for The week, or You know what I love about that? Once you committed to The priorities, The path formed itself. So I think so many times, even if you're a coach and, you know, a rookie loan officer, somebody a couple of years in The business, it's like, well, this is The only way that I can do this. And Then that mindset creates a very limited amount of options because it's The only way we can do it. But once you said, no, These are The priorities you restructured The day and you created The flow and The lifestyle you actually were seeking in The first place. So. Kudos for you for making The changes. So I got to go rapid fire here on a couple of questions to try to see which ones are most worthy of asking. All right, so let's see. Let's go with what is The difference between running a team of 10 and running a team of 100? Because you've been in different size organizations, small branches, bigger organizations. So what's different as a leader when you have a really intimate group of people or you're on a larger leadership team, There's a larger organization. What's We'll start with that. But I would tell you, number one, it's almost like when you think about when, when you're growing The team and it's smaller, like let's take a group of 10 is you're going to have more one-on-one time. You're going to have more ability to spend time with people, mentor, coach, train. And that's really The season before you can get to The 20 and The 50 and The hundred people is if you train Them correctly later on, They won't really require as much on what I say are The fundamentals. like structuring a loan, knowing where to go for exceptions, understanding how to do pricing, understanding how to do business development, working with a loan partner, like calling an underwriter and working through a loan. You're teaching Them things that if you were gone, They could do. And I think people skip this step because They want more people, more adding more people. Six, seven things that you just touched on are all training masterclasses in of itself. I'm like, yes. Does everybody know how to price, communicate to underwriting, work with That's a great question. And They are. And if They're not There, The best time to go back is just pull Them in and start going through that. And I would also encourage you, when you have The 10, start to elevate The one or two. Hopefully, you've got that. Maybe three, probably not. You probably have one or two that are future leaders within your organization that are good at coaching, training, and mentoring oThers. And I would start to move Them in an elevated leadership role if They want it. They have The ability and capacity to learn it. And There's somebody you've identified has The character, right? Like They need to have all of that. And I would start developing Them because as you scale out to 20, 30, 40 people, who are your next leaders? Who are The assistant coaches? Who are The special teams coaches? Who are The captains? And this is, If I could do it over again, that's where I would go back. And I was fortunate, you know, The largest team I've had, like we had 25 different branch leaders, sales leaders, area managers, all that stuff, a couple hundred LOs. And I look back, I'm like, I'm very thankful because we had some great captains and leaders. Without Them, none of that happens. And some of it was intentional and some of it was unintentional. People just, you go, man, you know what? You're really good at what you do. Would you want to help us? Simple question, just to find out where They are. So that is what I would start to delineate between The two. But when you get to having a hundred people, you have to realize your one-on-one touches need to be very intentional. And I think The best leaders in my life, it wasn't The quantity of time, it was The quality of time. And I think as leaders, I know where I struggled was, I still thought I need to give people 30 minute one-on-ones and spend all this time with Them and come into Their markets. And some of your top producers, They want 10 minutes of focused attention to talk through a specific problem or just you to be checking in on Them. We're in a society now that I think if you try to elongate that, you're trying to spend an hour with someone that's forced and it's fluff and it's, it's going to be rough. And so I think about The quality of your time, go out and do those events, right? Like take Them to sports events, go out and do masterminds togeTher that you go spend time. I was, you got to think as a visionary and That's incredible feedback. I'm Yeah. A lot to that. All right, three, I'm gonna go, my final three. All right, so because you dominate my platforms everywhere I go on social media, what is The fastest way for somebody to get momentum when it comes to building a brand and creating content? So what are some things you've learned in this journey over The past couple of years and what could be some practical takeaways, wheTher I'm a loan officer, I'm a realtor, I'm a sales professional, just to start getting some momentum with Yeah, I would say you got to start producing content, right? I mean, for some people it's like They post once a week or three times a week and They're not sure what's There. I think part of my success has just been I look at people that have risen and fallen off of that and I've seen Them for seasons and They're gone. The one thing I've got is years and years and years of content that's There. What I would share, The only way to get better at it is to move through The cringy stage and The thing that you don't know what to do. The best piece of advice from a tactical standpoint is people would actually want to know more about you documenting what it is you're doing, problems you've solved, what it is you have going on in your life, any type of advice or lessons that you would have given yourself. Some of my best-performing content is like, hey, I messed up here. I did this. I wish I had done this if I had known that. Share those mistakes along The way. Share wins of people. I think in The mortgage space, it's really easy to go, hey, we had this customer. They were turned down with a different lender. They came to us, and here's what we found out really quickly. They didn't look at this, or They didn't do that. Share those things if you want it to be business-related. And I would not underestimate, just like you talked about, If it's your faith and that's something important to you and that's an anchor, do not shy away from it. I don't shy away from soccer. You'll see me doing that and fitness. And so as a result, by me sharing those and my journey and just all of it, I have tons of connections, relationships, because They go, dude, what are you doing in your fitness? Hey, what's going on with soccer? Hey, I've got, my kids are playing soccer. And think about this as just, that's people you get to serve because you've shown up on social and shared who you were outside of just being someone that does mortgages. Like I can't even, I can't write fast. I'm trying to write fast enough. So I'm just going to pause and listen back to The episode. Cause I'm just, I'm like burning pages. How important, this is one of The final three questions. How important has fitness been to your journey in The marketplace? And let me take it one step furTher and say, if I'm a top producer, who's not committed to my fitness, what Ooh, man, we could jam this. I'll keep this short and sweet, though. If you've been feeling a little bit like you're tired in The afternoons, you're worn down, you don't have enough, if you have kids, especially, and you're going home and you don't have The energy that's There, you want to go make more prospecting calls, but some days you just don't have The energy. You're burned out. You get frustrated easily at The office. All These things are actually symptoms of you're not in a good rhythm, health-wise. And it will show its ugly head in lack of sleep. It's going to show its head in you don't have The creative ideas or The drive. A lot of times, especially for men, They will start to lose Their drive and They'll say, oh, my purpose or my because There's six bags of Wendy's in your backseat, and you let your Planet Fitness And you're pounding The beers, and what's unique, and I shared this with somebody recently, you know, PJ, what I learned last March, yeah, last March, we went to Bahamas with The kids and all that, like last spring break for Presley that we all got to go on and all, and I just saw some pictures, and I was like, that's not exactly what I thought I looked like. I remember asking my wife, I was like, is that what I look like? She's like, yeah, you look great. That was not my standard. And so that created this breakthrough. And as a result, I'll tell you what you're missing is I didn't even know The clarity, The energy and The things, but where it's going to show up for you most is in The hard times. Like you're not going to wake up and go, Oh my gosh, my business has exploded and I've all this energy. And so my sales are through The roof. I actually think you're going to need this more for when your mental health is challenged, and you need something in your life that you can not necessarily control, but you can have that as an anchor to fuel everything else. You want energy to be a better dad and a better husband? Go work out. You're feeling like, hey, I just got turned down. I lost a deal. Great. Go for a walk, go work out. Like it is, it's The cure to things. And I think for me, The last piece that kind of tie bow on it is like my three kids are watching everything I do. And it would be pretty hypocritical for me to go, man, I think fitness is important. I think you guys need to work out. I think, you know, you, you need to be doing all These things and look at Their dad and Maybe I mean this to kind of rattle some people, but I'm just gonna say it, is if you're not in The shape you need to be in, I hope this has challenged you to become that person. Because in leadership and in life, if you don't, people look at that and go, well, you settled. And I'm not saying perfection, but There are things you can control in your life, and you go in, and it's like, you can control when you work out, you control The kind of food you eat, you can control those things, and I'm 48 this year, and bro, I'm looking at that going. Well, I wasn't for years, and so that's where it comes from. We'll have The protein shake celebration, but I think for anybody that's missing it, I was just tired of not being my best in All right, I could legitimately ask you questions all day long, but I have to tie this up just for both of our sakes and yours more importantly. All right, so fast forward 25, 30 years, 40 years with your stamina, 50 years, however long you go in The marketplace. It's your last day, you close Outlook for The last time, The phone's going on do not disturb. What do you want to be known for as Brian Covey exits The marketplace and it's The thing that always comes to my mind is that people remember me for loving God and loving people. And through that, I used The gifts and talents that He gave me and served people, competed. And I brought a lot of oTher people on The ride with me that may not have thought that that was Them or They had been called to do something better. And those people were like, He inspired me or challenged me. to become my best. And Then They inspired and challenged oTher people. That's what I want. That ripple effect is I see it and I can see it clearly. That's what I would want people to say, you know, great dad, great Well, I'll tell you. even from a distance, you've positively impacted me. I went back a year, I didn't even realize it was a DM that I sent you. You got me connected with my sales coach. You helped me, inspired me with my brand and my content. You helped me join a mastermind. You got me going to a conference. So I appreciate The, from The sidelines, throwing gold nuggets down on The field. So bro, so thankful for your time, so much wisdom. I'm going to drop all your links on social when this episode comes out. So if you're in The mortgage industry, The real estate industry, if you're an athlete, If you're anybody that wants to compete at a high level, be sure to follow Brian and he will not let you down with The consistency and The standards. So broTher, thank you so much for being on The show today. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining today's episode of The Pillars of Purpose podcast. If today's episode was entertaining, educational, or if it was a source of encouragement, please share this with a friend, a colleague, a family member, or anyone that would benefit from this message. Please subscribe and stay tuned for future episodes. We look forward to bringing you value every week. Hope you guys have a blessed day, blessed week, and let's go.