From Burnout to Breakthrough - The Playbook for Agents and LOs

What if your biggest breakthrough had nothing to do with more hustle but had everything to do with more alignment? Or, is your business winning at the cost of what matters most? This one just hits different and is the perfect way to kick off 2026!

Devin Dubuc sits down with bestselling author, podcaster, and real estate coach Garrett Maroon to unpack what it really means to win in business and at home. No fluff. No burnout. Just raw truth, real strategy, and heart-centered conviction from someone who’s walked the walk.

💥 Why you need to press play:

• How Garrett redefined success after personal loss
• The myth of hustle culture (and what actually builds wealth)
• Guardrails that protect your peace and your production
• Authenticity in your brand, your business, and your faith

Whether you're building a team, raising a family, or trying to show up fully for both - this is the episode you didn’t know you needed.

📚 Based on Garrett’s book The Balanced Breakthrough. Now Available for Purchase @ www.garrettmaroon.com

Check Out Garrett's Podcast on YouTube @faithfulagent
Follow Garrett on IG: @garrettmaroon
Follow Garrett on FB: @gmaroon

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Follow LOS.Live on FB: @los.live.hub

 🎧 Watch the Full Episode and More on YouTube! ➡️ Loan Officer Success Live

sponsored by Premier Lending

Creators and Guests

Host

Devin Dubuc

Coach. Dreamer. Dad. Helping you own your worth and go after what sets your soul on fire🔥

Designer

Jennifer Rodriguez

Jennifer Rodriguez is the engine behind LOS.Live and The Mortgage Giants, leading everything from graphic thumbnails and episode descriptions to cross-platform distribution. With years of experience as an Office Manager and Executive Assistant, she brings organization, strategy, and innovation to every production. Mentored by Growth Leader Devin Dubuc for the past six years, Jennifer collaborates on branding and podcast strategies that help loan officers nationwide elevate their business. Known for her positive energy, adaptability, and commitment to growth, she is the trusted voice guests connect with throughout the podcast experience.

What is Loan Officer Success Live?

This isn’t another sales tips podcast.
This is Loan Officer Success Live - where mortgage and real estate pros come to master modern growth without the burnout.

Hosted by Devin Dubuc, Loan Officer Success Live is a deep dive into the psychology, strategy, and systems that build legacy-driven businesses in today’s market. Whether you're a high-performing loan officer, a rising agent, or an entrepreneur scaling fast, you’ll learn how to attract clients, grow income, and lead with brand, not brute force.

Real conversations. Tactical playbooks. No cold-call bro-hype. Just clarity, confidence, and creative firepower.

You don’t need a script. You need a strategy. Welcome to Loan Officer Success Live

Social Media Links:
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Disclaimer: The information is intended to be viewed for informational purposes only. The content contained herein is not guaranteed or endorsed by the company, or any company mentioned, nor is this content meant to be an offer of credit. The information contained in this video may not be wholly or at all applicable to every situation or jurisdiction. You are strongly encouraged to consult your professional mortgage advisor before acting upon any information in this video. The information provided is for use as a training tool only. The information is not intended, nor should it be relied upon for any other purpose.

Welcome to Loan Officer Success Live, sponsored by Premier Lending, the show where the mortgage industry's top players pull back the curtain. Your host, Devin Dubuc, sits down with industry leaders, top producers, and game-changing mortgage tech innovators, all sharing their unfiltered strategies, bold ideas, and proven secrets for success. Get ready to take notes, think bigger, and play to win, because this is Loan Officer Success Live. all right guys welcome back uh man today we've got somebody really special on the show uh we've got a published author uh fellow podcaster garrett maroon uh author of the balance breakthrough and uh the faithful agent uh podcast so welcome to the show my man uh really excited to have you here Thanks for having me. I don't know if I'm very special, but my kids think so. So I appreciate you being the sixth one. That's encouraging to me. That's all that really matters, right? That's all that really matters. If our kids like us, we're doing something okay. I mean, I would definitely, genuinely rather be famous at home than anywhere else. My man. A hundred percent. Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah, my number one fan is my four-year-old. Dad's on TV, and that's all he knows, right? That's right. That's fantastic. So not to jump in, but so my kids, like whether my book makes it to Barnes and Noble, there's all these hoops you got to jump through. But I'm like, look, I told my wife, I said, babe, I'm going to go leave it. And then we're going to walk in there and be like, oh my gosh, kids, daddy is in Barnes and Noble. They need to see that. He's made it. He's made it. Yeah. It's all star, man. I love it. Good stuff, man. Well, so, you know, some of the things we wanted to talk about, because you've got the podcast and it's the faithful agent. What does that name, what does that mean to you personally? Yeah, so great question. So man, super quick backstory. So I had the podcast, it was called Serving Not Selling, and it was going really well. I was teaching agents how to build by referral, which is what I built by. And then in October, so I launched that in twenty twenty. In October twenty twenty two, I lost my mom. And after that experience, yeah, thank you. After that experience, really for the next few months, I mean, I was pretty beat up by it, honestly, but Over the next few months, it was just I spent time praying and asking the Lord, like, who do you want me to serve? And for me, it felt very clear that to serve Christians in the real estate space. And so we launched a nonprofit called The Faithful Agent, switched the podcast over. So geared toward those Christians in our space and really trying to serve them well. Amen to that. You know, I remember, you know, I had a similar experience. It was actually shortly after I was twenty three. And I remember sitting by my mother, you know, as she was passing. And I said, man, I'm just going to do it bigger and better. And I'm going to do this for you. And I'm going to support more people. And, you know, I mean, that's sometimes it's a tough thing to go through. But maybe we're able to touch more lives and help more people as a result of it. So I love that you turned a negative into a positive. and you're out there ministering to people you know that need help right people out there that need help Yeah. I mean, for me, it was so much of, I mean, partially I just went looking for it, right? Because in that, I love so many podcasts, so many books, all the things, right? But in that season of grief, I was like, okay, I need someone who will talk to my work, but also my heart at the same time. And honestly, I went looking for it and I didn't find it. And so I was asking around and ended up asking a friend of mine who runs the Christian Real Estate Network. It's a referral network. And I said, man, I just need a Christian agent conference. Like, bro, where is that? I need to be encouraged. He's like, that doesn't exist. And he said, just go start it. And because I don't think things through, I never stopped and said, have I, do I know how to run a conference? I just went the next day and booked a hotel for like, Oh, I guess we're doing this now. And the Lord was really gracious in that. So it's been a cool journey for sure. That's amazing. Well, what was that like? What was that like doing that? And what was the turnout? How did it go? Yeah. So man, so this was March of twenty twenty three. So I booked it in January twenty twenty three. A quick backstory again. So my best buddy is a former pro baseball player, played for the Orioles for ten years, Baltimore Orioles. He's Tyler Wilson's his name. And he's not in like residential real estate or lending, but he's in land acquisition for a builder. Anyways, my best buddy. So I call him up and I said, bro, I want you, number one, to be the co-host on this podcast with me. and uh he's not anymore but I want you to be the coach on this podcast and I'm thinking we should start this thing the faithful agent and he's very different from me right I'm like hi hi Heidi yeah let's just go and see what happens and he's like let's think this through whatever so he says all right let's let's spend some time talking about it this week and then I called him the next day said sorry dude I booked a hotel I committed us to it's happening right now yeah we're in And so I'm so thankful for him. I mean, here's so here's the crazy thing that happened. We probably had fifty people there, which is way bigger than I thought it was going to be. That's a big that's a big turnout for number one for the first one. Yeah. Experience, you know, the night before, Devin, because we had no idea what we're doing. The night before Tyler and I are at this hotel and this audio tech guy shows up and he's trying to run the audio. It was like a holiday and this is not a luxury event, right? It's like a holiday and he's running the audio for us. And this is the night before the first day and it starts in the morning. And the audio sounds terrible to him. it like it's crackling you can't hear anything whatever and he literally goes guys i can't figure this out sorry and he just left he just left and he's like guys i think you're on your own this time i i don't and then you get some feedback and i gotta go right that is legitimately what it sounded like but it wasn't even that good right and then you know tyler and i still we still joke about it to this day we still paid him and we're like why did we pay this that doesn't make sense right what was the point of that But I think the best part was, you know, I've raised a lot of flags in my life for businesses or ideas or whatever. And honestly, nobody ever cared until that event where it was something unique about someone who and I mentioned earlier, someone who got my work, but also my heart. you know and that's hard to find and so whether that's you know anybody listening if you're a christian great go find out or come here whatever uh but maybe you're you know into whatever it is it doesn't matter what it is but when you're surrounded by people who like i get you individually and i know what you do because that's what i do there's something really special about that and so really just kind of launched this community and showed us that man this is what we wanted and it's clear that other people want it too and so And just seeing it was an encouragement to say, just keep going. And so it's been a blessing. Yeah. It's been three years at this point. That's amazing. And I know your mission is helping Christian realtors build businesses that honor God, right? That's right. So how do you balance faith and business without feeling like you have to compartmentalize them, right? Yeah. How do you do that? How does that look? Well, so I think – I don't know, right? First and foremost, that's a hard question, right? There's no easy answer. It is a hard question. It is a hard question. Yeah, but what I start with is I – I actually said this on a podcast actually, Devin. It kind of popped into me a couple months ago. I'm on a show, pre-show. They're saying, hey, we know you're a faithful agent guy. You're a Christian, but this is not that kind of show. Please just don't talk about being a Christian if that's okay. Mm-hmm. And I said, and it just popped in my head, and I said, first of all, it's your show, so I respect you guys, but it's not a backpack I take on and off. This is my identity. I'm not sometimes a Christian, sometimes a husband, sometimes a dad. This is who I am. And I remember telling them, if you guys don't want me to talk about it, it's okay. We don't need to do this episode. I'm not offended. I'm like, no, let's go do it. And then we ended up talking about it anyways, right? And it was really encouraging conversation. So I think you start with it's authenticity, right? There, there is no actual way. If you actually believe something, or if you're like, this is who I am and X, Y, and Z about me, whatever it is, there's no way for me to be anything but that, that is my identity. So how do you build both? You don't, you can't compartmentalize, right? I just am a Christian. I am a husband. I am a father, right? I am. I am a real estate agent, all of those things. And so that's just how I'm showing up. So I think more than anything, it's the freedom to say what people really want is just to know you, the real you, not the ideal you. And so just show up and be who you are. Some people won't like it. That's fine. Right. But it's easier for me to show up that way. And also the people around me will appreciate how authentic that is. i love that you said that i absolutely love this because you know i i coach people and i talk to other laundry engineers and real estate agents and you know this is one of the things we talk about all the time is is be you right i was literally just having a conversation last night uh with a fellow realtor and you know she said you know i've got to get more present on social but she's like i just I've got this perfectionist mentality. And I said, no, you just got to do it because people want to know who you are. So you don't need to be a perfectionist. If this is who you are, show up as you are because people are going to appreciate that. And they're going to believe more in you because when you show up and you're exactly who they expect, that's what they want. People want that authenticity. That's true. I love that you don't set the two apart because you're going to attract your people. And that's what it's all about. And they're going to know who you are and that they can trust you because the guy they see on the screen is the same guy that's shaking their hand in person. So what a special relationship. And the reality, I think, Devin, is we are – We want to work with the people who are like us. And so, you know, my lead agent and I were joking about this the other day because, you know, I wear T-shirts and sweatpants a lot. Same. Yeah, I don't want to admit it, but, you know, I'm wearing sweatpants right now. And occasionally, so the other day, you'll appreciate this other day. So my lead agent takes most of our business. Occasionally, I'll take a deal if I want to. This house is in our neighborhood. And I was wearing a polo and jeans and flip-flop. And my wife said, do you have a listing appointment? I used to wear a suit and tie. This is how I dress up now. And my lead agent and I were joking about it, how in our own homes, if someone showed up to help me with mold problems, unfortunately, you're having, right? Or contract or whatever it is. And they show up in a suit and tie. I'd be like, I don't want to work with this person. They're a salesperson. That's not who I am. But if they showed up in a t-shirt and jeans, I'd be like, what's up, dude? You're my guy, right? There's a guy and a girl for everybody. And so that's it. We're being told in our industry, right? Mortgage and real estate. This is what it looks like. This is what success looks like in terms of your activity. This is what success looks like in terms of what you wear. None of that's true. It might look like that to XYZ consumer, but this ABC consumer is like, that's not at all what I'm looking for. And so I just think that the, the exhaustion and the burnout in our industry comes from a lot of things, but one of the ways it shows up is, When you've been spending months and months and months trying to be someone you aren't because another someone told you that's what it looks like, of course you're burnt out. How do you show up well for your family at the end of the day if you spent all day trying to be opposite of who you actually are? There's nothing left. have no energy left yeah i would rather you show up and be you because there's no no one can beat you at being you so just be that and be really good at it and then show up like that and then at the end of the day it's still going to be hard business is hard but at least you haven't burnt yourself out just trying to act counter to your nature and now maybe your family gets a little bit better from you right that's what matters and i think that's the calling to say Well, that's what you're showing your kids. That's what you're showing your kids. You're showing that you are the person that you are, and that's what people really want. And that's such a special thing, especially when you're raising young children. Because when they go to school, sometimes they start to believe they have to be something they're not. And when they see dad at home repping it and showing them that this is who I am and look at what I'm doing and how I'm helping people and helping others, they start to believe that they can be themselves and they don't have to hide behind a mask, right? Absolutely. Super good. Yeah. And that's, you know, again, that's, that's, I have five little kids, right? The oldest is eight, the youngest is six months. And so this is the season, right? Exactly. They're going to more as caught than taught is what they say, right? So yeah, what do they see daddy doing? And am I, you know, even for me, I've had to learn to stop apologizing. Sorry, daddy's got to go to work. Now daddy's going to work to help people. And that's how I provide for our family. Right. You know, this is what daddy does. Daddy does X, Y, and Z. And I'm out there to support people. And the more people I help, the better it is for our family too. Right. But I don't have to show up and be anyone but me. And it's such, we just, we're in this culture space. It's not just in our industry, right. And in everywhere. That, to your point of the social media agent you were talking to, is, again, I want to see the real you. I don't want to see this ideal version of you. That's exhausting, right? It's exhausting for you. It's exhausting for me. I don't know anyone good enough to just pretend, you know, over and over and over again that at some point it's like, wait a minute, I thought this was the suave, you know, whatever. And now look at, you know, what doesn't make sense to me. Just like I want to see the person that's just them. That's it. You know, if it's it's OK, the entire world's not going to like you. The entire world's not going to like me or Devin. It's not possible. That's right. I would rather like me than worry about everyone else liking me. Right. And if I like me enough, other people will, too. And then I'll have a business and it'll be OK. And so, you know, I had a lender friend call me the other day, actually, Devin. and our preferred lender. And she just said, Garrett, I have this idea. I'm thinking about doing, you know, I won't give that deal, but basically doing this to support the agents and teams I already have. And I said, I love it, right? Conceptually, your name's Kim. I said, conceptually, Kim, I love it. But let me ask you a question. Why do you think we work with you? Well, we have this and this and this. I said, I don't have a clue what programs you offer. I don't know all that stuff. We work with you because we just love you because you're authentic. You're real. That's what we want because that's who we try to be. And so why aren't you just using that same personality, which is you, and just go find other agents who want the same thing? That's going to be a better way for you to have a business anyways. literally just had this conversation the other day because as you already know a lot of what i do is train loan originators and train them how to communicate right because i think that's so important and one of the key things that we talk about is you know don't go in blasting all the different products that we offer because quite frankly most people don't care and they probably have somebody that does it and they may even do it better than you do right What you want to do is get to know them and show them who you are and what you're going to do to serve them. How can I improve your business by becoming an extension arm of what you do? And let me tell you what I'm known for and why people love to do business with you. And if they love that, they're going to be attracted to you. And if they don't, that's okay. It's not the person that you're supposed to be working with. But you touched on something and I want to bring into this because one of the things that we talked about in the green room, so to speak, is your podcast and your book. And one of the things that you mentioned was no burnout, no hustle culture. And in a world that glorifies both, how do you stay rooted in your mission? Man, those are good questions, Devin, especially coming from just a crisp voice. You've got a great podcast voice. Well, same there. Yeah, same on both sides. Do that too. Yeah. So, man, I mean, it is, first of all, I don't always, right? So I always want to acknowledge I am not perfect. I know I wrote a book about it. I'm not perfect at this at all. But I would say is there are intentional guardrails for me. So, for example, every single day at four thirty, we go on a family walk. They know if daddy's not there. And so daddy needs to be done at four thirty. And so, boom, daddy's there. We have a schedule in the morning. Right. And so every morning I get breakfast made for the kids and my wife. And that happens between eight and eight thirty. And so daddy can start work at nine. But. It happens at eight or eight thirty. That means I can't just go out and do other stuff. Right. And so, you know, and I'm not going to work on the weekend. So that's shut down, too. And so there's every other Friday, my wife and I take a day date nine to one. And so I've I've learned it's been a long time. I mean, it's eleven and a half years. I'm still trying to figure this out. But it is the reality of truncating my time that forces me. to say no to almost everything and that's really hard you know that i was talking to someone the other day another agent i was coaching her and i just said she was giving me all these ideas and things she wanted to do this year and i said i don't think the problem for you or me is having more ideas i think the problem for me and you is will we pick one and then say no to everything else that isn't that idea That's what's hard. And success is going to look like saying no to most things. So I can say yes to the thing I mean to say yes to. And that means your family. That means whatever you're trying to build. That's what this is about. And so I think more than anything, Devin, I have amazing people around me who will call me out. That helps a lot. but I also have very, we need it. We need it. I'm looking at my scoreboard right here. I know what success looks like to me. It includes day dates with my wife. It includes time off with my family. If I make a ton of money, but don't do those things, I didn't win. And so having that clarity is very, very helpful. And then no hustle culture. I think the reason this is not broadly true. Okay. But I think this is mostly true for everybody. The reason people hustle is because they aren't doing the right thing often enough. So you better outwork me if you can't outthink me, right? You better outwork me if you're doing a bunch of stuff that doesn't actually matter but will you stop to pay attention and say this is the thing that moves the needle in my business therefore if I give that fifteen hours a week I don't have to give everything else fifty extra hours a week and so it's it's this idea that while I'm just working I'm working I'm grinding I'm grinding I'm grinding Big part of that is like, well, it's because and not a mean way, but it's maybe because you don't know what you're doing. And maybe you need to cut things out instead of add things in because most of the stuff we do doesn't actually matter. And we want it to matter. And we have that pride in that. I'm so good at this thing. I'm so great at it, right? I learned a super quick story again, Devin. I was doing this book club. And I was like, this matters. Right. Doing this book club every week was online. It was I thought it was great, whatever. And then someone challenged me and they said, Garrett, do you think it's really that important to everyone? And I'm like, of course it is. Right. I'm doing a book. What do you mean? And he said, if you don't show up and you cancel it next week and you don't say anything. do you think anybody's going to ask you a question and be like, Hey, what happened to this? And I said, well, what do you mean? Of course they're, they're going to be upset about it. And he said, he was not being mean, right. He was being really helpful. He was like, I bet they won't care as much as you think they care. I'm like, that's totally not true. So then I canceled it. And then no one said anything. And then I canceled it the next week and then no one said anything. And I've never done it. This is like eight months ago and no one's ever said anything. There's probably one guy in the corner. Like what happened to the book club, man? There's But otherwise, like the point is, I just, we elevate these things in our mind. Like I've got to show up and do it. What do you mean? Sorry, babe, I'm going to miss dinner again because I've got to do this book club, whatever the scenario. But maybe if you don't show up, maybe not everybody cares as much as you think. And you can get back some of that time. And so that was a huge lesson. Buy back your time. Yeah, to be careful to jump just because I think it's an exciting idea and really say, what am I actually trying to accomplish here? Does it get me there? Yes or no? If the answer is no, then don't do it. Well, what I'm hearing is you have to set your non-negotiables, but make sure the non-negotiables you sent, you're very intentional about what they're going to accomplish, right? And the non-negotiables have to involve your family because ultimately, what is all this about, right? Everything that we're doing, right? Of course, it's helping people, but if we can't help the people we love the most, then why are we even doing it, right? Because if we're not present at home, How can we really be present for others? Yeah, so true, brother. There's a saddest, one of the saddest moments of my real estate career. It wasn't, I won't say his name, but two years ago at the end of the year award ceremony, realtor prom, I call it, at realtor prom, the number one agent in our office, it was broadly known, or not in our office, I'm sorry, in our market, it was broadly known that this gentleman had lost his marriage and wasn't talking to his oldest son. And his office had actually lost money. But here he was winning the award for being the number one sales agent, taking selfies with people, celebrating all the things. And what happens, he goes home to an empty home. And so it's like, I don't know the scenario and I'm not gonna pretend to know the scenario, but if I asked anybody, Were you successful? If you were the number one agent in your market, would you consider yourself a success? Oh, of course I would. Well, if you were number one agent, but you went home to an empty house because your spouse left and you weren't talking to your oldest son, would you consider that? Oh, absolutely not. What are you talking about? Right. And so we fall in prey to this narrow definition of someone asked me recently. What would you tell someone if I asked you, how do you sell thirty homes this year? Right? I need to figure out how to sell thirty homes. How do I do it? And I said, I would honestly say that's the easiest question in the world to answer. Go work a hundred hours, spend a hundred grand. I don't know. You'll figure your way out. I think what you mean is how do I sell thirty homes while not missing family dinner and being at every soccer game on Saturdays? Whatever the scenario is, you've got to ask better questions. We've fallen prey to asking one question. How do I sell a hundred homes? How do I, you know, write three hundred mortgages, originate three hundred mortgages? How do I make a hundred K, five hundred K, whatever it is? And we stop there when the question should be, how do I do that? And to your point and still be present and take my four year old out on a daddy daughter date on Monday. Whatever it is, like put in your life. And when you ask the better question, you'll figure out the better answer. But we've allowed ourselves because all we really celebrate in our industries is who made the most money, who did the most deals, who X, Y, and Z. And so because of that, we individually have started to believe that that's the only measure of success too. And it isn't. And so we have to be really careful in our industries to say there's more going on here. And the person who was tenth but was home because that's what they chose to be, you know, every single night or eighty percent of the nights, that's winning. The person who is number one doesn't mean they can't be home, too. Maybe they are, but maybe they ignored everybody and their family doesn't even know what they sound like anymore. You know, each person, I guess. But I don't want to be friends with that kind of person, to be honest. Like, I want you to have a bigger, broader definition. I love that you say that because I have my core values, and my number one core value is family, right? And when I preach that, and I say preach because I feel like I preach sometimes, right, to my team and the people that I support, what I talk about family is three different layers. And I start with our consumers, not because I do put our consumers on a high level, but But I start there and I end with my family last for a very particular reason. I always say, first off, the families that we serve and helping those families find generational wealth through real estate. That's one of our number one missions in mortgage. That's what we do. So that's the first part of family first. But second is our work families and being there to support the people that are there inside of our business to allow them time to be there for their families. And then I layer that into our families because we have to be there to help our families become the best versions of them by becoming the best versions of ourselves, right? And I think when you layer that into the core values of your business and you put that out there to the people that you serve or the people that you work with, it helps them start to understand exactly what you're saying. Hey, let's, yes, we're in the hustle culture and yes, we want to be there and we want to hustle and we want to do the right things, but at the same time, at what cause, right? What risk and what does success really look like? So I couldn't agree with you more. on everything that you're saying here. And that actually is being my next question, which because you have this book that we've got to talk about, we're right here, you know, we're getting closer to wrap up time. So I want to talk a little bit about that. So your book, the balance breakthrough, and it's about helping agents when at work and at home, which is exactly what we're talking about. What exactly inspired you to write? And I think I know a lot of this right now. But what what inspired you write it? And who do you feel like needs this the most? Yeah. Well, I need it. And I need it over and over and over again, right? Even though I wrote it. And so I honestly think we all need it. Any entrepreneur needs this to just have a reset. You know, I was encouraged. My dad, who is seventy two and now he runs the company, but Uh, he, he's reading it for the second time just, and being an encouragement saying like this, and he's on real estate, but this helps me reset and remind myself what matters. Mom's not here anymore. Right. So like what matters? So I, it was an, here's a quick story of what happened. So in twenty, twenty one, I had a bigger team, had more agents, more admin. We were doing the, I'm going to build a big team and do all those things. Well, there's just this moment for me where I, I had built out this plan, Devin, it was like in June of twenty one. built out this plan that I was going to double my profit the next year, but I couldn't figure out how to do it without working up to sixty hours a week was what I thought it was going to take me. I was working about forty at that point. Right. And I remember pausing in that moment and saying, OK, five years from now, if I could look back on this specific moment, who would I be most proud of? The guy who worked sixty hours a week just to make a double amount of income, which we didn't really need all of that money at that point. the guy who did that to get better rankings more money more stuff or the guy who said hey i bet i could figure out a way to work even less than forty hours still make the same money i am now and show up better for my family and when i when i asked that question that was so easy of an answer well that's what i want to do and so i'm walking back out to my office where i am now And I was wondering why in the world then had I hired three agents? Why did I have three full time admin? Like none of this made sense because I didn't want it. It was what I wanted was the freedom of time and space to be with my family while I'm looking at my whiteboard, which is right there. And there was only three things written. It was number of transactions, volume and profit. Right. I was only using the scoreboard of success that the industry told me mattered. Because what happens when you meet? Oh, how many deals did you do? Right. And so I had fallen prey to that, even though I would have said I'm the family guy, family first all the time. I had fallen prey to say this is the only way I can determine what success is. So it was literally that day I said, all right, I'm not going to listen and let their scoreboard dictate my life. I'm going to make my own scoreboard. And so now there's a yeah, there's a profit goal. Of course, there's I'm a business owner, but there's a wife goal and there's a family goal. And so now I have a new way to make decisions. Right. Could that help me hit my profit goal? Yes. Okay. Could you still go on a day date? Yes. Is it going to fall on one of the seventh weeks off that you take with your family? Yes. Then the answer is no, I can't do it anymore. Right. Cause I can't, it doesn't score. And so for me, it was really that pivotal moment of like, if I change the way I keep score, I changed the way I play. Right. If, The NBA said no more three pointers. No one's going to shoot a three pointer. And so that kicked off for me. All right, I've got to reset how this works. And if I'm going to reset how this works, if I'm going to achieve at a high level in a short amount of time so I can be present where I want to be present, what are the formulas I need? How do I do this? And then the more I talked about it in last point, the more I talked about, the more I realized so many agents and lenders needed that. Right. Because they had fallen prey to this mentality and it was someone else gave it. We just kind of went along with it and we need to buck the system and say that's not how success is defined in my life. And so I felt like I just needed to share that with people. And I mean, I like at the end of the day, Devin, I think you would align with this. At the end of the day, when I wrote it, I was thinking about the agent's family. Where are those kids missing mommy or daddy too much because we've just made too many bad tradeoffs because no one told us there was another way? My heart ultimately – I don't care. I mean I have a ton of people read it. But if I meet a kid one day and then just say, Mr. Garrett, thank you so much for helping bring mommy home. I mean, dude, that is worth all the time and energy spent to get that one kid to see their mom or dad more. Totally worth it. And you don't have to sacrifice success just to be home. That's not true. Don't believe that lie. You can do both. And so, man, that's my hope is we kind of take back this industry, if you will, to say succeed at a high level, not by sacrificing what matters most, by doing it in a better way and then still showing up for the people that you care about. Amen. Well, I got to get out of here. I got family to be around. That's right. That's right, man. What do we do? So we're just going to, I'm just going to leave the show running and you know, guys, sorry. We'll catch you on the next one. No, honestly. And I do have a, you know, a date with my family this afternoon. So they're on the same page with you. And it's funny because it's almost like you read my mind. The next question I was going to ask is what's in this, it is still relevant. What's one chapter or principle in the book that's going to challenge people in a good way. I think that's probably it. where are they going to find that right like where's that in the book where where do we yeah what chapter are they going to uh to challenge their mind about what is more important and how do i balance that out by saying you know i'm going to put these people first and only achieve my goals if it achieves all of them because that is huge man i love that you said that where's that out in the book Yeah, so chapter one, it just starts with this. It's just going to start right out. Yeah, slap me across the face. We're podcasters, right? We've got to get that hook early. You know that. You've got to have something to make them want to read it. Dial them in. Yeah, get them in. That's right. So it is super quick. It just started. It was an experience where my grandmother passed the yard for my mom. I'm standing there at the graveside. And I'm looking at her headstone next to my grandfather and next to him was his father. So my great grandfather, I didn't know who he was. I had heard of him. Right. But he had died like thirty years before. But I had no idea about his life. Nothing. And it's not this morbidity. It's this idea of that's going to be me one day, too. And so who's going to be standing at my graveside in a hundred years from now? No one's going to know who great granddaddy Garrett was. Right. And so why am I trying to spend so much time as if it matters that I made all the money? I bought all the stuff I did X, Y, and Z because who's going to come back every year? Who goes back every year to my mom's grave? It's me, my dad, my brother, and our families. It's not her old students that she taught. It's not the friends at church. It's not all those things. It doesn't mean they don't care. but it's who actually matters at the end of the day, who's going to be there with you. And so are we trying to build a life to live out that dash? Well, right. The day you're born, the date you die in the dash in between is your life. So are you trying to live that? Well, what does that look like for you? Or did someone tell you, this is what it's supposed to be. And you just pursue that. So it was that moment. And I hope it hits us. I'm going to reread it many times, right. To hit me in the face to say, bro, what are you doing? Because it's easy to wander after success and forget that success includes your family. And I need a reminder of that every day. We all do. We all do. We all do. And you took the time to write about it, put it out there in print, you know, and again, you can go back and reflect on it again and again. And guys, you know, I, I normally do this. I'm going to drop it out there. So, Hey, if you want to check out Garrett and his book, uh, go to Garrett maroon.com. Pretty simple. I don't think that's a hard one to forget, right? Go to Garrett maroon.com. You can check them out there, but you also want to go check him out over on Facebook at the faithful agent. And I can see we've got some of your people over there right now. Uh, they're tuning in and, uh, If you don't know about his YouTube channel, and I think that you should, if you love what he's talking about, and you do decide, hey, I'm going to go out and get the book, but I want more. I need more of Garrett. I need more of what he has to say. Well, I'm one of the kids. Go over to YouTube, and it's at the Faithful Agent. So he's making it very easy for you to get in touch with. So Garrett Maroon on the web. So garrettmaroon.com or garrettmaroon.com. Faithful Agent on YouTube and Facebook and dial in, you know, go out there and, you know, lock in and learn more from this guy because he's got a lot to share. What's one closing statement, you know, if we're talking to somebody out there that's been trapped in the hustle culture and they are maybe losing some touch with their family, you know, what's one final message that you'd like to speak right to them and tell them to think about or how to maybe get away from that? Yeah. The end date is not done on your headstone. And what I mean is your dash is still in play. That's your life. You still have time to change the things that have happened that you're causing, that other people are causing. You still have time. You're not trapped by your current state of being in whatever position you're in. You still have time to change it because you're still here. Whatever time you have left, make it count and make it purposeful. I love that, man. I love that. You can change who you want to be at any time, guys and gals. You can. You can literally do it. I've done it. I can speak to it. I can tell you exactly what that looked like. That's a different time for a different show. But at the end of the day, you get the ability to change your narrative. And if you're stuck in a place that you don't love, We're here for a limited amount of time. Take a page or many pages from Garrett's book and go out there and change your lifestyle and live different because you can do it. I promise you can do it. I promise everything that Garrett's talking about, it's available to YouTube, right? brother uh phenomenal time love getting a chance to get to know you loved hearing a little bit more about the book and you know really just loved getting to you know get inside of your headspace and and learn about how you're ministering your family and showing up for your family to to show others how they can do it themselves so thank you so much uh for your podcast for taking the time to write the book thanks for coming on the show maybe have to have a part two but uh I think that's going to be it today, man. So guys and gals, you know, until the next time we will see you then. And thanks for stopping by. Always appreciate you guys coming in and saying. You've been watching Loan Officer Success Live, where real strategies meet real success. Don't forget to subscribe now and share it with your teammates and keep leveling up because your next breakthrough starts here. 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