Scott Dillingham: 00:21

Welcome to today's show. I'm really excited to go over today's topic with you because it's very dear to me. And I want to show you how you can get anything you want out of life. With a little bit of, time and determination. So I'm going to show you exactly what I did to get what I wanted and accomplished my dreams.

Scott Dillingham: 00:42

But I'll take you back to the very first episode that I did. And if you haven't listened to it, I've always wanted to be my own boss. So because I've had that desire to be my own boss, I would always kind of look for sales jobs. And, the thing with a sales job is it's one of those things where if you put in some time and effort, your return in the sense of commission will be greater. Right?

Scott Dillingham: 01:06

So the more you put in, the more you can get out. So I've always loved sales and I've always been top at whatever sales company and sales job that I did. Well, my last full time job was at a bank. And I started at the bank as like a financial services representative. We would, open bank accounts, sell the client, GICs, mutual funds.

Scott Dillingham: 01:30

We could activate credit cards, do loans, mortgages, that type of thing. And, at first it was really good and I liked it. And I, I actually discovered really quickly, ironically, is I loved doing the mortgage part. So I, I loved the mortgages. What ended up happening though, is I became number 1 on the team for mortgages, but I wasn't opening up the checking and savings accounts and those other things that the bank wants you to, sell.

Scott Dillingham: 01:57

Because I wasn't doing that. They actually were putting me on a, personal improvement plan or they were about to. We didn't officially get on the plan, but they were about to because they wanted me to sell more checking and savings accounts. And with the personal improvement plan, how it works at the bank is they give you an opportunity to improve the metrics that they're looking for. And if you can improve, then you have your job.

Scott Dillingham: 02:23

If you cannot improve, there's a slight chance you might get a position somewhere else doing something easier, but more than likely what happens is you get terminated. So the way I looked at it was like, wow, they're gonna get rid of me, their top mortgage rep because I'm not opening checking accounts. It literally did not make any sense to me, but it was okay because they actually had a mortgage advisor position where you're only doing mortgages and that came up and it was available. So I took it right away to get out of there. Now, the thing with the mortgage advisor role, it was commission only.

Scott Dillingham: 03:02

So, I was a bit concerned to, to take that, having it be my And then each And then each year after that, my income went up and up. I realized I made the right choice. So my last full year at the bank, I finished number 2 in the country. The guy that beat me, he's in Vancouver and, his mortgages are like 5 times the size of mine. Whereas I did more mortgages than he did, but he did larger ones.

Scott Dillingham: 03:35

And the bank's metrics, they rated you based on your volume volume and also your units, but volume had a more a weighted score. If you have more volume, so the bigger the mortgage, the better your score. Oh, I set a goal. So this is the very first time that I realized setting just one goal is not good. Now for me, in this scenario, I'm going to go into it.

Scott Dillingham: 03:58

It was good that I created only one goal for myself. But for somebody getting started or just anybody looking to achieve success in their life, you never want to set just one goal. You want to set multiple goals like milestones, But keep the goals going indefinitely because as soon as I reached my goal again, my goal was number 1. I was number 2. I still felt like I hit my goal.

Scott Dillingham: 04:24

So right away, something in my head changed and I was like, I don't like what I'm doing. Yes. I got there. I accomplished my goal, but I don't like what I'm doing. It makes me unhappy.

Scott Dillingham: 04:36

So then I started to to change. So I went through, I would say a transformation period of about 6 months. It took me to determine what it is that I wanted, but that 6 month break, normally I was still doing mortgages during that 6 months. So I wasn't having a break from it. I just, I wasn't getting out there to get new business.

Scott Dillingham: 04:58

I was just processing my past clients and referrals that were coming in. So I didn't get to take that break, but I encourage anybody who's doing something at a job or a business that you're not enjoying doing, or that thought has crossed your mind that you just, you don't like it. You want something better for yourself, better for your life and your family. I encourage you to take a month to 2 off work and pay, leave, whatever you need to. Just take the month or 2 off of work.

Scott Dillingham: 05:28

And I want you to do what I did. So I'll get into what I did, and then, you'll see quickly how it can help you to achieve your goals, your dreams, and get whatever you want in a life. I reached my goal. I was top in the country and, I didn't like who I became. I was getting a bit overweight and that's again, it's all my fault, but I was working all day long.

Scott Dillingham: 05:51

And even on the weekends, I was working all day because I had to process the mortgages, had to get everybody's mortgage done. I was so busy actually that I had to hire a limousine company to drive me around. Because at the bank you had to meet, this is at the time, but you had to meet every client face to face that you worked with. And my challenge was as I was working with investors primarily. They're all over Ontario.

Scott Dillingham: 06:18

So even some out of the province that I had to meet too, which is crazy, but they're all over the place. So I had to literally have someone drive me around so I could work in the back. Like I have my laptop, I was keying in applications. I was talking to clients, answering emails. But my desk was the back of a vehicle because I just couldn't, there was no way for me to sit at my desk and to get mortgages done when I still had to go meet them.

Scott Dillingham: 06:45

So I did that. It was probably actually about 2 years. I had a, a driver just driving me around just so I could meet and sign the papers with the clients and everything. So that tired me all right. Because I'm always out of town on the road.

Scott Dillingham: 06:58

Then always sitting down, like I said, I gained weight and I became depressed after reaching that goal. I was depressed. I didn't know what I wanted out of my life. Yes. I made better money doing that than anything else in my life, but I was incredibly unhappy and I was willing to throw away all the money for some happiness and and relief.

Scott Dillingham: 07:17

So what I did, I decided that I wanted to do something different, I needed to get out of mortgages. I took the break. So with the break, I started to run an exercise, which I think that really helped catapult me into a better position. I'm still not as fit as I wanna be, but I'm much fitter than I used to be. And, what happens when you work out, even if it's a little bit, your body releases endorphins and the endorphins naturally kill cortisol, hormone, which is the stress hormone.

Scott Dillingham: 07:48

Right? So by working out and exercising, you actually are killing your stress and reducing it. So the more you work out in theory, the less stressful and the more happy you will be. At least that's how I took it. So I was unhappy wanting to be happy.

Scott Dillingham: 08:05

So working out was one of the first things I did, plus it naturally helped me to lose weight, which is what I wanted. I was overweight. And yeah. So that that really helped me knowing that I wanted to take a break. Anybody who's listening right now, if you're somewhere in your life and you hate what you're doing, you want change, take 1 to 2 months off.

Scott Dillingham: 08:26

It took me 6 because I was still doing the work that I was doing, But take 1 to 2 months off, and I'll go into how to decide what to do next. But you need to think about what it was that you disliked about what you did, and you need to think about what you liked about what you did. And we'll dive into that as soon as we come back. We have to take a quick pause here. But right when I come back, we'll dive into what the next steps are and what to look forward to.

Scott Dillingham: 08:52

Welcome back. So before the break, I was chatting about taking that break that you need to figure out what you want to do. And I talked about how exercising really helped me to clear my brain. And I encourage everybody to do it. When I would go on these runs, I would think about what I wanted to do.

Scott Dillingham: 09:09

And I'll what I did is I would think, what is it that I hated about what I was doing? And I swear to you, I thought it was mortgages. I thought I hated doing mortgages that I needed to do, like, marketing for realtors because I have a marketing background and I loved it. And I thought, maybe I'll do marketing for realtors. I'll make a lead gen system for them.

Scott Dillingham: 09:29

And, I'll move forward that way. Cause I know all these realtors now. And I just with the time that I had alone, even some days I would just sit in a chair and throw on some headphones, listen to music. It doesn't matter what you're doing, but you need to take time alone and think about what you hated and disliked with your old job or business, whatever it was. And then you need to look at what you loved about it.

Scott Dillingham: 09:54

What were the things that you love? So for me, I figured out quickly that I loved the fact of helping clients get their home move in. It was so rewarding to speak to a homeowner or an investor. Who's had a great return from me helping them finance their portfolio and just hearing that positive feedback. So I knew that's what I loved.

Scott Dillingham: 10:16

But I was stuck. I kept thinking like, I hate mortgages. Like I hate it. And so it took me again, it took me 6 months, but I came around and I realized I don't actually hate mortgages. I hate doing mortgages for the bank.

Scott Dillingham: 10:33

So it was the bank, which I didn't agree with. They would frequently change their policies, lending policies. Today, a client would be approved Tomorrow, they're not. Now I realize lenders still do change policies, but I can tell you it's not as frequent as the lender that I was working at. Now I have access to many lenders and there's changes.

Scott Dillingham: 10:55

But usually, there changes year by year, could be maybe 6 months or some tweaks. Right? It's little stuff. This lender, I'm telling you, it was week by week they were changing things. So it made it very difficult to advise clients and even educate realtors on what was available and what options we could do because it kept changing.

Scott Dillingham: 11:16

So I discovered that I didn't like how they kept changing. I didn't like how we have technology. We have Zoom. We have all these things that we can do to meet clients electronically. But this lender required me to hire a company to drive me around to meet everybody because I couldn't help where my clients were coming from.

Scott Dillingham: 11:36

Referrals happen and it just I wasn't gonna say no to the business. So I didn't like that they weren't tech savvy and we couldn't meet remotely. We had to do it face to face only. And I do meeting face to face even during COVID, as long as we can practice all the safe measures and stuff. But it's just one of those things that sometimes you can't, and you have to do things remotely and use tech.

Scott Dillingham: 11:59

And that was not an option. At least at the time when I was there, I hated their policies. I had 2 full time assistants, but they wouldn't allow me to have them do certain tasks that would speed up the process. It's a bank, They're archaic. They're slow.

Scott Dillingham: 12:16

They had their own mindset of what worked and what didn't work. They're not in the field, and I'm sure anybody on this who's listening to the show today can attest to the fact that there are some jobs and some tasks and some policies at where you work that do not make any sense. And there's a better way. There's a faster way, more efficient, but it doesn't get implemented. Not always.

Scott Dillingham: 12:38

Sometimes it might get implemented, but they don't get implemented because the boss or the manager or the company says no, they have their own mindset. I decided for me that working for the bank was the worst thing I could do. So once I figured that out and I realized that I actually do love mortgages. And I'm so serious when I tell you I was depressed, I was not happy. I thought it was mortgages and I had to exit them, but I, it wasn't, I just had to leave the bank.

Scott Dillingham: 13:09

So with that time that I needed to heal, I got my energy back, became fit. I had the, my energy back. And I knew what I needed to do. I decided that I was starting Lend City Mortgages. So the first thing that I had to do though, was I needed an office.

Scott Dillingham: 13:27

And I'm an investor. I've been investing for years. So I don't wanna pay somebody else's rent because I'm used to collecting rent. I bought a building. So within literally 1 week deciding that I just need to start my own mortgage company and not work for the bank.

Scott Dillingham: 13:43

I already bought a building right away, offer accepted, ready to go. So there was no hesitation there. I just, I decided and I figured out exactly what I needed to do and I made it happen. Another thing that I almost forgot to tell you, but it's super important is when you're going through this phase and you have this time, and you're trying to imagine the things you didn't like and you do. You need to also imagine where you want to be, what you want to do.

Scott Dillingham: 14:10

Do you want to drive that Lamborghini? I and I know it sounds silly, but imagine yourself just thinking and visualizing yourself driving that Lamborghini. And when you imagine those things for so long, it actually becomes real inside of you, even though you don't have that Lamborghini. It's weird. I'm not, a psychologist or anything.

Scott Dillingham: 14:32

I can't explain why it works, but it does work when you imagine and already act as if you own something or you are that person you want to be, or you have that job that you want to have, you get it. It's crazy how it works, but they spoke about this in the book, Think and Grow Rich. So if you're serious about investing in yourself and developing your yourself, get that book. It's great. But, so I did a lot of that as well.

Scott Dillingham: 14:59

I would imagine where I want it to be. Not so much in my case, it wasn't about buying a car or buying a house or whatever. Cause I had those things, but for me it was like, what can I do that makes me happy? What can I do there? I still want to help people, love donating and helping in the community.

Scott Dillingham: 15:15

What can I do where I can do all of those things? And then I was imagining the role I was imagining owning Lendly. I was imagining getting an office that was so amazing that it would look like a Google office or an Apple office right here in Windsor. And if you're ever in the area, if you're at Palette and Wyandotte, drive by, look at our office. It is amazing.

Scott Dillingham: 15:36

I had the goal in the division that I wanted it to be an office that somebody could walk into and they don't feel nervous. It's relaxing, calming. I didn't want somebody to feel like it's stiff environment. Like when you go into one of those small bank offices and they shut the door and it's just, it's not a very comfortable feeling. I wanted it to be, you come in and you could relax.

Scott Dillingham: 16:00

We've got couches, we've got lounge areas. We've got a relax room. Like we've got all this stuff just so you can, for your mortgage experience, be in a relaxed state of mind, because it's, you're buying the biggest purchase of your life. Right? So you want your be relaxed when you do it.

Scott Dillingham: 16:19

Nobody wants to be stressed out when they do this. That was my vision about the property. And it's true. If you come in, even just, I know it sounds crazy, but come in, just come in, take a walk through. My team will give you a tour and just check it out.

Scott Dillingham: 16:32

You don't have to get your mortgage here, but just to see it. It's a really cool place. But again, that was my vision and I made it come true. So the same for you, no matter what you want your vision to be, think of it, dream it, lust over it. And then eventually your mind will think you have it.

Scott Dillingham: 16:49

And once that triggers, then you will have it. So it's a really cool how this works. But yes, so now I'm exactly where I envisioned myself. I've got the energy. I love what I do.

Scott Dillingham: 17:01

We have fun at work. The team's growing faster than I ever thought possible. Everything is working out exactly how I imagined it working out. And it stemmed from me just taking the time to sit and decide what I do, what I want to do and what I don't want to do. And lastly, before we end this just about goals really quickly.

Scott Dillingham: 17:22

So I only set that one goal for myself to be number 1 in the country. And then when I got it, I felt like there was nothing left for me because I got my goal. I accomplished it. So my goal is similar in the sense that I want to be number 1 in Canada. So that goal is even bigger now because that's banks and brokers combined.

Scott Dillingham: 17:40

I want to be number 1. But instead of having that just be my one time goal, I want to be number 1 every single year. So then when I hit it mentally, I'm like, okay, this year's great. I got it. Let's move on.

Scott Dillingham: 17:52

Let's get it for next year too. Because if you keep planning in the future and you keep having goals to work towards your energy, it doesn't dry up, especially when it's something that you love. And taking that hiatus will give you the time that you need to figure out what it is that you love. So I hope this show helps you. Everything that I'm telling you here, I've done, I've went through, and it's made the world of a difference for me.

Scott Dillingham: 18:19

I wish I took the time off sooner to sit and think about what I wanted to do. Thanks so much for listening and have a great day.