Daniel Lemeshev on a Top 50 Mindset

HUNTER: Hello, I am Hunter Marckwardt, and we’re here today with the great Dan Lemeshev for another CCM Talks. So, Dan, I’m excited to have you, brother. 

DAN: Thank you. Thank you for having me. I’m excited. 

HUNTER: How are you feeling? 

DAN: Good. 

HUNTER: Getting ready to rock and roll? 

DAN: Hell, yeah. 

HUNTER: Okay. So I’m going to start with, I mean, I don’t think it’s politically correct to talk about ages, but you’re young. 

DAN: Yeah. 

HUNTER: And you crush it. 

DAN: Thank you. Sir. 

HUNTER: What? How do you, honestly like, how do you deal with that? I mean, you’re under 30. You’re closing a couple hundred million bucks a year in loans. How do you deal with the stress of that? 

DAN: I mean, look, I like to call it the Triple C’s. I stay cool, calm, collective. 

HUNTER: Wow. Wow. 

DAN: Yeah. I’m also really fortunate to have a really great support system from the top down. Have the best parents, and they’re still willing to give me an ass kicking. Just had one on Thursday, when I’m in the wrong. 

HUNTER: Really? 

DAN: Yeah. 

HUNTER: So. Okay, so we talk about top down. I mean, we do have to say, so your dad is Glen? 

DAN: Yes. 

HUNTER: Our Chief Revenue Officer. Friend of mine. Total pain in the ass. Would you, would you agree or no? Who do you, who do you love more, your mom or your dad? 

DAN: I can’t answer that. 

HUNTER: You got, you have too. 

DAN: I love them both equally. 

HUNTER: Equally? 

DAN: Yeah. 

HUNTER: Like 50/50? 

DAN: Yeah. 

HUNTER: Okay. 

DAN: My mom might get mad about that, but yeah. 

HUNTER: For sure, I guarantee she will. In all truth and sincerity with your dad, I’ve got to know him a lot over the last couple of years. What’s the biggest lesson that you’ve taken from him? I’m sure there’s multiple, but, I mean, if you had to pick whatever, pick a couple. I mean, with what he’s done for production, what has he taught you? 

DAN: I mean, it goes way back. I was probably, all the kids were probably going to summer camp. I was in the booster seat in the back of the car going to the office. 

HUNTER: Mortgage camp? 

DAN: Yeah. Mortgage camp. So there isn’t, like, any one thing on the mortgage side of things that he instilled in me. I mean, that’s just been a lifelong journey. But I would say the bigger picture has probably just been being a good, genuine person, being a nice person, being trustworthy and ultimately being hardworking. That kind of just translates into the, the mortgage space. And it really helps me navigate, especially with our referral sources and building the business. 

HUNTER: I love that. Do you talk to him daily? 

DAN: I try to, but he doesn’t usually answer my calls. He’s a busy guy. 

HUNTER: Yeah, for sure. 

DAN: Nah, he calls me back, it’s just a few hours later. 

HUNTER: It’s brief? 

DAN: Yeah. 

HUNTER: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I get it, I get it. If you’re talking to other LOs right now, like, what do you think — I think it’s an important question for people that are trying to get into our business — what would you tell, like, if you had to talk to people about, like, 2 to 3 things that you’d need to be thinking, like, if you were talking to my sons about getting into the business, what would you tell them that they need to prepare for? 

DAN: Yeah, I mean, especially at CCM, I would say emphasize the tech component. Because, I mean, we have the tools at our fingertips to really take our business to the next level. Whether you’re a guy doing $300 million a year or your guy just starting out. I mean, between LO One, Cube, you name it, the technology components streamline our business and create so much structure that allows us to actually, you know, go from being a $200 million guy to $250 guy, then hopefully next year at $300 million guy. 

And really, I’m on a lot of different pilot components because, I mean, as we all know, AI is going to be taking over everything. And in our industry, it’s probably going eliminate a lot of positions, but there’s always going to be the need for a sales person. So it’s going to be key to implement AI back into our business to kind of streamline the process. And ultimately stay ahead of not only every other company but every other LO. 

HUNTER: So a combination of tech and sales skills? 

DAN: Yeah, exactly. 

HUNTER: Got it. As far as relationships, like, do you still believe in needing to develop realtor relationships? 

DAN: Yeah. Of course. Absolutely. 

HUNTER: And if you like, what do you think, because I almost feel like, I mean, I totally agree on the AI. I mean, obviously it’s like if, if you’re not talking about AI, you’re kind of an idiot probably. But in general, I’m also feeling like people, like clients, realtors, they’re actually looking for human interaction again. Like to me, it’s shifted a little bit. With the amount of relationships that you’ve developed, like, what would you say are the primary focuses for you on developing realtor relationships? 

DAN: Yeah. I mean, since day one, we do everything. Like, everything has been back to the basics, no matter how much volume we’ve done. So whether we’re dealing with a realtor that does three deals a year or a realtor does 100 deals a year, we’re calling them on every single transaction. First and foremost, we’re thanking them for the referral. But we’re being extremely transparent with them there. We’re letting them know where we are in the process. Hey, appraisal came in and commitment came in. We’re keeping them up to date with every step of the way. 

HUNTER: Proactively. 

DAN: Yeah, yeah, we’re being super proactive. And then the realtors that aren’t referring us, the business, let’s just say they’re on the listing side of things, we’re still calling them and we’re still giving them updates every step of the way, because the key there is, they will see how streamlined and efficient our process is. But if we’re staying in front of them, chances are on their next transaction, they’ll probably give us a shot. And if they don’t, at least we’ll be in front of them to the point where when we actually close, we can kind of set up a conversation and talk about next steps. 

HUNTER: Do you like, do you think other loan officers are proactive in their communication? 

DAN: No, and I think that’s allowed us to pick up a lot of market share. 

HUNTER: It’s the most simple thing. It’s unbelievable to me. Right? I mean, it’s like people could be watching us right now being like, duh. But I’ll bet if 100 loan officers were watching, I bet 90 of them don’t make proactive calls during a transaction. 

DAN: Yeah. And I would say a significant part of our business is past client referrals, and we’re doing the same exact thing with our clients. Even if they’re proactive with sending us documents and they’re kind of leading the way, and getting an earlier closing date. I mean, we still want to let them know exactly what happens next each stage. 

HUNTER: Yeah. I love it. People talk about, like, morning routines. Like what keeps you motivated every day? Do you have any burnout? Like, I’m, I mean, I won’t say your age. I’m 51. I mean, like, people are like, do you ever get burnout on what you do? And the answer is, for me, it’s occasionally, but zero burnout? 

DAN: Yeah, I don’t burnout. I have a rockstar team around me. I’m lucky enough to work with my best friend, Rob. Knowing him since we are five, he helps me run the business. And I’ve got my other right hand, Esther, who joined the team five years ago. And I feel like we’ve worked together our entire lives, and they mutually have the same exact drive. Hustle. 

They’re in there with me at seven in the morning, and they’re in there with me some nights at 10:00 at night. And that trickles all the way down to our ops team. I mean, they have 20 years plus in the industry. There’s things that we haven’t seen that they’ve probably seen a million times over. So there’s nothing you can really throw at us that we haven’t seen before and we can’t conquer. 

HUNTER: I love that. Even though it’s awkward that they’re both in the room, like if you had to pick, like, your least favorite thing about either one of them, what would it be? 

DAN: I think … 

HUNTER: Yeah, yeah. Do not answer. That would not be, that would not be good. So literally, like I do think about like my own sons. Right? Like, if you were giving them advice on getting into the business, first of all, would you tell them to get into the business? 

DAN: Yeah, it’s a great business. I think the business is starting to transition to basically loan officers that understand the tech component, like we were talking about earlier. I think those that don’t understand that are kind of, kind of get phased out, and it’s gonna allow, you know, the new LOs to kind of put things in gear and lead the way. 

HUNTER: Do you, what do you think about being a technician or a sales person? I mean, you should hopefully have both, but which one? I’m just curious. What do you think’s more important? 

DAN: I mean, look, if you are really good at one, then you need to get somebody else that’s really good at the other, and I think that’s the cool thing about our team. I’ve got guys around me that are, you know, lean towards one side of things, but really, we kind of equalize each other. 

HUNTER: What side are you more towards? 

DAN: I think I’m a little of both. Yeah. Like, I can tell you, pretty much 80% of any guideline. But I’m also really involved with every single client we work with and every single realtor we work with. 

HUNTER: I love that. What would be, like as far as the team, like, if I went out and interviewed your top ten referral partners, what would they say about the team? 

DAN: I would say, or they would hopefully say, we’re really structured. There’s an SOP for every single process. And they see that because we have drip campaigns that go out automatically and they usually beat us to the phone calls. So before we even have a chance to pick up the phone, they get a text, they get an email, and they know exactly what happened. They know the appraisal has been completed. They know that we’re clear, close 20 days before the estimated closing date. So I think they would say that we’re really transparent. We’re very available. They can call us at 10:00 on a Sunday and somebody is going to answer the phone. 

HUNTER: So don’t want to tell everybody this because I’m going to get other loan officers pissed off at me, but I referred you a deal on, whatever, Thursday. You know, you responded in five minutes, right? I mean, like, I think like the concept of the speed of the lead is massively important, and you guys do that. I mean, it’s crazy. 

DAN: Yeah. I mean, I grew up watching my dad take, you know, calls that my baseball game. There wasn’t a time where he would pass on a lead. 

HUNTER: So this is, all this stuff is off script, but you, you take over your dad’s business, right? Yeah. My dad was in the industry, too. So, like, you could probably, when I was your age, I had a chip on my shoulder about being bigger, better than my dad. You’ve made, like you’ve grown the business, I mean, like, since your dad has left and turned into the CRO, you’ve grown the business more. What do you think, I mean, that’s not easy to do. 

DAN: Yeah. Thank you. 

HUNTER: Yeah, I mean, it’s honestly, it’s impressive. Like what you like, what do you think allowed you to do that? I think it’s important. I think we’re in, we’re also going through a transition for other loan officers that are watching this, like where people are either going into retirement, you’re trying to bring someone up to take over what you’ve created. And to do that successfully to me, it’s, it’s close to it seems like it’s impossible. What did you do? Like, how did you, how did you grow it instead of just, I mean, it could have died off. It grew. It’s, it’s amazing. 

DAN: Well, I would say it probably started out with me having a chip on my shoulder. Obviously, I knew that there were going to be a lot of doubters, a lot of people that thought that I took the easy route. So I had to, before I was able to even prove it to myself, I wanted to prove it to others. Once I was able to actually show them, Hey, look, I’m still here. I’m still in the top ten. Now it’s time to prove it to myself. Like, I’m the son of two immigrants, and my parents sacrificed a lot for me to be here. And my dad sacrificed a lot to put himself into the position he is. 

So now it’s kind of time for me to just … I’ve shown, I’ve shown the company that I could kind of maintain. Now I have to show it to myself and the rest of the my team that are behind me every single step of the way that, hey, seven’s been great. Number six has been great, but let’s get number one. 

HUNTER: I love that. I love that. Is there a chip on your shoulders? I have one, I mean, I still have, I mean, 51, I still have one, you know? 

DAN: I think I’ll have it until I’m in first place. 

HUNTER: Maybe 5050. Dan, I like getting to know you over the last few years. I mean, you’re you’re a special human. I think you’re doing great freaking work. And you should be proud of yourself. And you are standing on your own, and it’s impressive with what you’ve done. So I think you keep … Your literally, I actually, I would end this, like if you look at with what, if you called you, well I will call you a, a person at CCM that people should want to emulate. What would you say to new up and comers on their mindset in the future with our business? I know it’s kind of a big question, but what, like what would it be? You’ve got other LOs listening to this right now. Like what would you tell them? Like what, like as far as keeping their head in the game? 

DAN: I mean, just don’t get discouraged. I mean, we’re in a market where we’re shopped on just about every single deal. And it’s without saying, extremely discouraging when you run ten different long comparisons and issued ten different approvals on a deal, and then they come to you and they’re like, hey, we’re actually a private client, you know, so and so bank and they’re giving us a quarter discount. Great. Move on to the next one. Don’t let it discourage you. Just keep it moving. Keep hustling. Find another referral source to get more loans to close and it’ll all feel better. 

HUNTER: More leads solve all problems. Right? 

DAN: Exactly. Yep. Just keep it moving. 

HUNTER: I love it. 

DAN: On to the next one. 

HUNTER: Cool. Thank you. Appreciate your time, brother. 

DAN: Of course. Thanks for having me.