Growth Notes

What Are You Willing to Give Up to Go Up?

On Growth Notes, Frazier challenges listeners to ask what they are willing to give up to go up, emphasizing that if nothing changes, nothing changes and success requires sacrifice. He explains that every new level of success demands a trade-off, meaning you can’t keep every habit, distraction, and comfort while expecting growth. Sacrifice can be small, like waking up 20 minutes earlier, or bigger, like giving up Netflix, excuses, the need for approval, or routines and habits that no longer serve you. Frazier also warns against comparison, calling it the thief of joy. He adds that sacrifice is often removing what’s holding you back, sharing an example of someone paying for a comfortable but unproductive group subscription that could be better used for advertising or savings.

Stay in Your Strength Zone

Frazier reflects on a recent Green Zone workshop, explaining that the Green Zone is a “strength zone” where people add the most value, referencing John C. Maxwell’s teaching that success is fueled by the goodness of God, excellent people around you, and the ability to stay in your strength zone. He encourages listeners to identify what they are truly good at, where they are most effective, and what activities create the biggest impact—describing these as the “seeds” that produce opportunities in personal and professional development, content, and marketing. The focus is not on terminology but on staying in the areas that create the most momentum and forward movement. Frazier urges listeners to believe in something, surround themselves with excellent people, stay in their strength zones this week, and attack the week to finish the month strong.

Stop Missing Income: Make Your Content About What Customers Actually Want

Frazier says many mortgage professionals are willingly missing opportunities and income because their content and marketing aren’t based on what consumers actually care about. He references his highest-downloaded Growth Notes episode, “Do You Truly Understand Your Customer?” (episode 37, January 21, 2025), noting the show is now at episode 579, and urges listeners to revisit it. He challenges listeners to evaluate whether their content addresses customer concerns or merely repeats what they think people need or mimics other mortgage content, which he argues is often ineffective. Frazier explains that companies like Rocket succeed through a nuanced, coordinated strategy grounded in deep customer understanding, and says becoming an obvious authority with real utility can consistently generate leads, citing a $500,000 loan referral driven by his content despite not being a loan officer.

Frazier follows up on Growth Notes feedback about multitasking, explaining why it feels productive: it provides emotional rewards and a sense of movement, temporarily reduces anxiety when responding immediately, avoids the need to choose what matters most by pretending everything is equally important, reinforces an identity of being constantly needed, and can function as an avoidance strategy that protects from vulnerable work like prospecting. He emphasizes distinguishing urgent from important by asking whether an activity generates revenue or builds relationships and leverage that generate revenue. Important, revenue-related work includes calling clients, following up with leads, creating useful content, asking for introductions, and reactivating relationships, while reactive work includes email, routine questions, notifications, admin requests, and conditions. Reactive work isn’t unimportant, but it shouldn’t be allowed to interrupt everything, and being busy doesn’t mean being productive.

In this Growth Notes episode, Frazier explains how multitasking became a workshop topic and why it harms growth by creating a “dangerous kind of busy” that feels productive without delivering meaningful results. He distinguishes between true parallel activity (e.g., walking while listening), task stacking (using one activity to support another without competing for focus), and cognitive task switching, which is what most people call multitasking—rapidly bouncing between demanding tasks like calls, loan files, emails, and texts. Frazier says task switching carries four costs: switching time as the mind reorients, attention residue from unfinished work, the resumption penalty where focus can take nearly half an hour to recover, and relationship cost, since the profession depends on attentive conversations where missing emotional cues and meaning reduces trust and opportunity.

Use One Simple Filter for Every Business Decision

Frazier opens Growth Notes by promoting two live calls: Mortgage Mornings at 10:00 AM Eastern and the Be The CEO Green Zone workshop at 11:30 AM Eastern, with links in the show notes. He then shares a simple decision filter for business: every choice about where to spend time, energy, effort, and money should be evaluated by one question—does it generate revenue or create leverage that generates revenue? He encourages listeners to apply this question to daily decisions, and if they are unsure of the answer, to pause and audit how they’ve been allocating resources. Frazier emphasizes that clarity comes through taking action and learning via trial and error, and closes by wishing everyone a great Wednesday and inviting them to join the calls.

Attend the Green Zone Workshop

Join Mortgage Mornings

Why 90 Days Is the Perfect Timeframe for Meaningful Change

Frazier opens by noting he accidentally deleted a recorded growth note, then invites listeners to two calls this week: Mortgage Mornings tomorrow at 10:00 AM Eastern and a second CEO Green Zone call with DC, with links in the show notes. He references a concept from his book about the power of a 90-day timeframe, explaining that 90 days is long enough to produce real results but short enough to maintain focus, while a year can feel overwhelming and 30 days is often insufficient for major transformation. He says 90 days creates urgency, provides a natural evaluation cycle to measure and adjust, aligns with research that habits take about 66 days to form and 90 days to become automatic, and offers four opportunities each year to reinvent a business. He encourages starting a new 90-day period today.

Mortgage Mornings

Green Zone

Your Desire Determines Your Destiny: The Power of Passion

Frazier opens this Growth Notes Monday episode by asking listeners how passionate they are about what they do, noting that ordinary people achieve great things through passion. He shares four key ideas: passion is the first step to achievement and reinforces the saying “your desire determines your destiny”; passion increases willpower by providing fuel to keep going; passion changes you into the person you’re trying to become, which requires growth and change; and passion helps make the impossible possible, as seen throughout history. He encourages listeners to reflect on their “why,” consider how passion supports who they need to become for themselves and those who depend on them, and to attack the day and win the day.

Frazier reflects on how people often look back fondly on the grind of starting a company, joining a startup, or changing careers, even if it felt stressful at the time. He shares a conversation with a longtime colleague from his hedge fund days and admits that, despite burnout and eventually taking a sabbatical, he misses parts of the late nights, on-call work, and even “crappy pizza” because they came with focus and a definite purpose. During his mini-retirement, despite having money and freedom to travel or play golf, he was bored because he lacked goals and felt unfulfilled. Frazier argues that fulfillment comes from aligning with purpose, giving your best effort, and building toward something, encouraging listeners to soak in the current struggle and find that “juice” if they’re going to bed unfulfilled.

Finding Your True Strengths: The 3 E’s Framework

In Growth Notes, Frazier shares a simple framework to identify true strengths after a call with someone who wasn’t sure what his strengths were. Frazier explains that true strengths sit at the intersection of three elements: what is easy and natural for you (things that come quickly compared with others), what energizes you and gives you “juice” even when it’s difficult, and where you consistently produce excellent results that stand out to others. He distinguishes core competencies from core strengths by noting that something can be easy and produce good results yet still feel draining. Frazier encourages listeners to review the last week or two of their life to find specific moments where all three boxes were checked.