Steve Garrott From Fundraising to Mortgages

Hunter: Welcome to CCM Talks. I’m Hunter Marckwardt, and I am sitting here with the great Steve Garrott. Steve, thanks for being here with us.

Steve: Thank you, I appreciate it.

Hunter: Nice guy. Right, everyone? Does everyone call him the nice guy? Is that, is that fair to say? Okay. Everyone keeps telling us about your story of coming to CrossCountry. Can you give, can you give me a little background on that?

Steve: Yeah. So I was actually, I was self-employed,  I did, in a completely separate industry before.

Hunter: Can I ask what industry?

Steve: Yeah, it was the fundraising industry. And so it’d help out schools, churches, sports groups and, you know, help them raise money by selling different products. And, we’re actually, Hershey’s largest distributor for fundraising chocolate. So we’re the annoying guy that knocked on the, yeah, had the kids knocking on the doors, you know?

And so, absolutely great company and, loved it. But, the economy changed and it almost changed overnight. And so, you know, and the dynamics changed, and you can’t have kids going door to door and things like that. And, so, was looking at selling the company and, one of my friends …

Hunter: It was your company?

Steve: Yes. And so, one of my friends reached out to me and he said, hey, we’re, we’re literally looking for someone with a business background, but zero mortgage experience. And so he wanted me to have zero bad habits, I guess. So, you know, I gave it a shot and jumped in and literally hit the reset button on life. And, and here I am.

Hunter: Are you glad you did it?

Steve: Yeah, absolutely.

Hunter: Of course, you probably wouldn’t be sitting here with me if, if the answer is no.

Steve: Yeah. Very challenging in the beginning. So I went to a small firm, and, we had about 13 loan officers, 35 total employees. Really push that, like, you know, family dynamic and stuff.

And so, you know, but it was also it was challenging because, you know, I had to try and get up to speed really quick. And not having any type of more mortgage experience at all. You know, I really tried to glean as much as I could from the guys that were around me, and they did a great job as far as, like, teaching me, you know, all the details and stuff.

Hunter: It’s a hard business to get into in the middle of your, you know. Yeah. Why CCM? Like what, what, you’ve two and a half years?

Steve: Yeah. Okay. Two and a half years. You know, ten years total in mortgage. You know, so one of the things that I was bred to at the other firm, we were, we were bred to really go against CrossCountry.

Hunter: Really?

Steve: Yeah. So it was like, and kind of all the, all of the big players. It was like these are the ways that you can combat and, you know, and that was one thing to me that was like, wow, why do we hate these guys so much?

And so, you know, but I had actually, met Chuck Shackelford, throughout my, my time and, you know, and he, he would just, like, nonchalantly call me and just, hey, you know, Garrott. Are you good? I’m like, yeah, I’m, I’m good. I like where I’m at. He’s like, all right, just call me when you’re not. And he just had this approach that was really laid back. And I thought, you know, there’s something intriguing about, you know, the people that, you know, were in his branch. That I was competing against, like, they were, I felt like they were high quality.

And, you know. And so, yeah, he just every couple months, you know, he’d reach out and you know how headhunters are, like, they can get annoying. And he wasn’t that guy.

Hunter: I was going to say, like for people listening, it’s like for people that are recruiting, it’s like you got to drip on people as opposed to, you know? Hit them over the head.

Steve: He wasn’t that guy at all. He would just, actually, he just had this, for me, I was kind of shocked, actually, because he would just call me up and like, hey, are you good? That was just our conversation. And, he’s just like, seriously, call me when you’re not.

Hunter: And you call him when you weren’t?

Steve: Yeah. Yeah, the moment. So, basically what happened is that we got bought out, and, you know, our, our small firm did by another mortgage company, and it just wasn’t a good fit. Didn’t feel comfortable for me. And so, yeah, I started just kind of looking at, you know, other mortgage companies. I kept coming back to CrossCountry.

You know, and it’s, it’s hard because, you know, you come from such a small firm and then you look at CrossCountry is like, you know, we’re number one. Yeah. You know, and you kind of have to deprogram yourself a little bit. And, you know, it can be overwhelming.

And, so I called Chuck and said, hey, I’m not good. And he’s like, why don’t you come on over? And, and it’s been fantastic. So it’s been really good.

Hunter: With what you did before and you’re very charitable. Like, so tell us about that.

Steve: Yeah. So, I, you know, I just truly believe that, you know, giving back to the community, church, nonprofits and stuff, just really pouring into those people. And it’s not necessarily, all of your treasures, you know, it’s, it’s your time and, you know, you and your talents, too. And so, that’s just something that’s really, it’s, you know, been ingrained in me, you know, by my family and, and you know, we try to instill it in our kids as well. You know, just, if you’re giving back, I truly believe it comes back tenfold.

Hunter: Yeah. And givers gain, right?

Steve: That’s exactly it. Yeah. Yeah. Just helping. Zig Ziglar has a great quote that you’ll get to where you’re going if you help somebody else get to where they’re going. Yeah. You know, I’m paraphrasing, obviously, but you know it’s, you just trying to reach out and help people as much as possible. I truly believe, one, it makes you feel good. But then also, you know, you can rely on those people to help you get ahead too.

Hunter: It’s hard to have a bad day if you’re like, our team even, like, like, like mortgage craziness. Like we work at soup kitchens at like 6:30 in the morning. We’re like, we don’t have time for this right now. And then you get done with it. You’re like that. Like, everyone feels great.

Steve: Yeah. And that’s …

Hunter: Do you do it with your team? Like, I mean, because I think it’s an important thing for people. I mean, it’s like you talk about like, team building and I mean, giving back, doing stuff together is huge.

Steve: Yeah. You know, the great thing, even just about our branch is that, you know, always doing, like, charitable events and stuff like that, whether it’s raising money for, you know, Thanksgiving meals and things like that or, you know, volunteering at the Cleveland Food Bank, and, you know, we try to, try to get everybody involved in that type of stuff.

And, and that’s one of the things that I love about CrossCountry is that, you know, CrossCountry as a whole is always giving back. There’s always something that you can get involved in and feel good about.

Hunter: Is there, is it the Cleveland Food Bank, is that your primary?

Steve: Yeah. I mean it’s in our backyard. So yeah, we can, you know, Cleveland Food Bank and, there’s also, Thanksgiving Heroes that, you know, a couple of our loan officers and stuff there. We’ll go do, like, a charitable golf outing with them, and they raise, so much money to actually feed about 2,500 families. With a, with a full Thanksgiving meal and stuff. And so, it’s just, you know, really cool events like that.

Hunter: I love that. How, like, how does being an Eagle Scout have anything to do, does it help with mortgages? Does it help? By the way? I’m impressed. I mean, like, I’m not, I’m not an Eagle Scout. I mean, but I mean, that’s like, that’s not, that’s not easy, right?

Steve: Right. No, it was really difficult. So, there’s a, the fact is that basically 4% of all scouts become Eagle Scouts, and so it’s, so it’s, you know, the nice thing is that, that number has continue to grow. When I got my Eagle Scout, it was less than 2%. And, and so it’s continued to grow and stuff, but, no, that was something for me that it was really important. It takes a lot of discipline.

And, as a teenager, I was really active in sports and also sorts of other, you know, school-related activities. And, and then scouts and, scouts really helped me to develop as a leader. And, but also with that discipline to be able to, you know, focus on the task and, but yeah, no, that’s, that’s something, it’s important to me.

Hunter: Are your kids in?

Steve: So no, we’ve got so, you know, my wife Kelly and I, we have, we’re a blended family. So we’ve got six kids.

Hunter: Oh, my gosh.

Steve: We’ve got five girls.

Hunter: Oh, my gosh.

Steve: So there’s, a lot, that’s where those grays come from.

Hunter: Yeah, I, I love it, I love it. Well, you were a pleasure to interview. I think, you know, we talked to enough people. It’s like, you know, you know, the good people when you meet them, and you’re great.

Jen actually wanted me to. I had to throw the line out there. She wanted me to say something about you soaring with the Eagles, which I was, I was laughing that I just couldn’t get myself to do it, but I had to do it. So. Jen, that one’s for you. But seriously, Garrott, thanks. I really appreciate it. Thanks for the time.

Steve: Thanks, Hunter. I appreciate it.