The Insight Interviews - Powered by Rewire

About Ray Eickhoff: Fan of DiSC assessment, Clifton Strengths assessment, Patrick Lencioni Five Dysfunctions and Ideal Team Player. Passion for the next generation of leaders and managers to be a guide in developing the soft skills needed in being a servant to those you lead. Avid musician, cyclist, hiker, and gardener.

In this episode Steve and Ray discuss:

• The freedom to find meaning even in difficult circumstances 
• Putting empathy before advice 
• Asking powerful questions instead of giving advice 
• Taking a courageous step 

Key Takeaways: 

• External factors don't determine us living a life of meaning. We have control of that, whether we are aware or not. When we let external factors be the reason for why we are what we are now, we surrender our power to create our own reality. 
• Empathize and drench yourself in another’s pain as best you can so that you can truly understand where they’re coming from. However, don’t let the both of you dwell too long on it, there is a time to move. Help them take the next step towards progress. 
• If you feel that somebody wants or needs your advice, instead of telling them what to do, why not try and ask them a powerful question? The resolve to change will be stronger if they come up with the answer to their problems themselves. 
• Be the hero of your own story. Take a courageous, brave step towards where you want to be. It doesn’t have to be a huge step, as long as you continue to step up. 

“After being with that person and being present… maybe walk with them on that move, but sometimes it’s just helping them take one step… We often linger way too long in empathy and there’s a time to move.” - Ray Eickhoff

Connect with Ray Eickhoff:

Website: https://www.fairwayignite.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ray-eickhoff-7604366/ 

Connect with Steve and Jason:

LinkedIn: Jason or Steve

Website: Rewire, Inc.: Transformed Thinking 

Email: [email protected]

Show notes by Podcastologist: Justine Talla

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it. 

About Brad Rice: Homepie is transforming the real estate industry with a marketplace that allows buyers and sellers of homes the ability to confidently act as their own agent and save a ton of money in the process. Homepie's step-by-step process is revolutionizing a traditionally complex transaction and making it easy for anyone to benefit. 

Brad Rice is the founder and CEO of Homepie. Brad’s background is all about real estate. He founded and led a large mortgage company in the early 2000s and built it into a 43-state operation. He has also operated a real estate brokerage, escrow firm, and real estate investment company. So, when he decided to start Homepie, he did so with a ton of domain knowledge and the conviction to take selling and saving by owner mainstream.

In this episode Steve and Brad discuss:

• Competing with yourself only 
• Guiding your kids and giving them grace to fail 
• Learning from negative circumstances 
• Listening with the intention to learn 

Key Takeaways: 

• Instead of measuring your life by some unreachable ideal, measure it by your progress of where you were versus where you are now and how far you’ve come. Give yourself the opportunity to congratulate yourself for how far you’ve come. 
• Step back and help your kids understand what they want to achieve and where they want to go instead of looking through the lenses of your own life experiences. As parents, we want them to be able to evade suffering but if we do that, they’ll miss out on life’s greatest instructor for success. 
• In every life event, whether positive or negative, you can always pull something positive out of it if that’s what you choose to do. Mistakes or negative circumstances in the past can teach us something that will help us be better in the present. 
• Do your research, create a marketing plan that you believe in, and remember to always intentionally listen. Listen with the intention to learn. 

“Through all the darkness, good emerges. In the face of adversity, opportunities happen.” - Brad Rice

Connect with Brad Rice:

Website: www.homepie.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradrice/ | https://www.linkedin.com/company/homepie 

Connect with Steve and Jason:

LinkedIn: Jason or Steve

Website: Rewire, Inc.: Transformed Thinking 

Email: [email protected]

Show notes by Podcastologist: Justine Talla

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it. 

About Audra Agen: As a corporate veteran, Audra has 25 years’ experience of being one of the few women in the room, and in many cases, the only one. While the women she shared the room with may have been outnumbered, they were all uniquely exceptional and Audra became fascinated to learn more about them and their experiences. It became increasingly clear that these women were contributing significant value to their organizations, families and careers. However, their contributions were either being taken for granted or overlooked, sometimes even by themselves. Audra aspires to change that; from that spark of an idea, Women in the Arena was created. It’s a platform unlike any other- it’s a celebration. The motto is to celebrate women doing extraordinary things in plain sight. Audra believes that if we start to recognize the value within ourselves, then we can start to acknowledge the value within each other. We’ll begin to see that we have more similarities than what appears on the surface. It is that knowledge that begins to change the narrative from “you are my competition” to “you are my best asset”. This is life changing and as a result, world changing. This is Audra’s goal, to change the world one interview at a time.

In this episode Steve and Audra discuss:

• Practicing empathy in leadership 
• Giving people permission to make mistakes 
• Bringing in value even in the lack of recognition 
• Being authentically and genuinely you 

Key Takeaways: 

• If you want to be a leader, you’ve got to practice empathy. Drop the facade, be genuine. Recognize that you’re a person doing your best to get through this, just like everybody else. 
• Give people permission to make mistakes. In fact, encourage them to make mistakes because if you don’t make mistakes, that means you aren’t working hard enough or leaving your comfort zone. It means that you’re not growing. 
• Even if people don’t see the value in your work, bring in the value regardless. Don’t focus on the anger or the bitterness that you could feel from that, allow yourself to recognize the value that you give and then tell your story. 
• The version of you behind the facade is so much better than the plastic version of you. Bring out the authentic and genuine you, give yourself and others a space to be vulnerable. 

“I want to be the leader that I’ve always wanted and needed. Keep that perspective then everybody keeps their feet on the ground.” - Audra

Connect with Audra Agen:

Website: www.womeninthearena.net 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arena_women/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Women-in-the-Arena-100770395010431 

LinekdIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-in-the-arena-podcast 

Connect with Steve and Jason:

LinkedIn: Jason or Steve

Website: Rewire, Inc.: Transformed Thinking 

Email: [email protected]

Show notes by Podcastologist: Justine Talla

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it. 

About Karen Deis: When she began in the mortgage business, she never imagined that she would become a pioneer and an advocate for women in the mortgage business. In her small town, she was the first woman closing agent, the first woman loan officer, the first woman branch manager, and ultimately the first women-owned mortgage company with an all-female staff.

Then something happened: her sister, co-owner of our company, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She couldn’t go on in the business without her, so they sold the company at a profit because of their huge client database and consumer-direct marketing strategies, which are still relevant today.

Rather than going back to working as a loan originator, she realized her desire was to share and mentor other loan officers on how to increase THEIR mortgage business. She knew that she could help them be successful and make more money than they ever could have imagined.

So she built and created online and live events for loan officers and she has been doing them for the last 22 years. 

Karen was the first woman contributing editor for Mortgage Originator Magazine. She also built and created Loan Officer Magazine in 2002, online seminars in 2004, Mortgage Girlfriends membership group in 2007, Mortgage Currency in 2008, and Mortgage Women Speakers Bureau in 2020. She has also written several books for mortgage loan officers, which include Little Book of Mortgage Scripts, Little Book of Mortgage Seminars, No Shiny Objects – 29 Timeless Mortgage Marketing Strategies, Dear Younger Me: 68 Women Share their Mortgage Business Advice, and more. 

Today, she considers herself semi-retired as she is still involved in speaking and coaching clients.

She is a Junior Achievement instructor and Volunteer for Dress for Success, South Dakota.  Her husband and children are all engineers and she has 3 beautiful grandchildren. 

In this episode Steve and Karen discuss:

• Putting your mind in a toward state 
• It’s still important to have personal connections 
• Connection rather than competition 
• Engaging people in social media

Key Takeaways: 

• When our mind is in a “toward state,” meaning we are moving toward something, we become more creative, more thoughtful, and even smarter. Our prefrontal cortex works and we reduce cortisol and stress. 
• Many things have changed over the years, but what hasn’t changed is that it’s still important to have personal connections with people. Technology has made it possible to converse with people a lot easier but it’s better to go beyond that and engage people personally on a deeper level. 
• People you do business with should become friends. Instill a spirit of camaraderie and collaboration with people. Encourage connection and not competition. 
• In social media, ask questions that generate conversations. Reply back to those who comment individually. If it gets a little more involved, tell them you're going to send them a private message. 

“Take care of your people. You have the ability to read how your people are feeling and what they’re thinking - you react to that as well.” - Karen Deis

Connect with Karen Deis:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KarenDeis 

Website: https://karendeis.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-deis-7b91a66 

Connect with Steve and Jason:

LinkedIn: Jason or Steve

Website: Rewire, Inc.: Transformed Thinking 

Email: [email protected]

Show notes by Podcastologist: Justine Talla

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it. 

About Brian Coester: He has a broad base of experience in starting, running, expanding, and scaling businesses within real estate verticals. He is a trained Real Estate Appraiser and Real Estate agent and has direct experience in developing leadership teams across the globe. He has over 20 years of experience in starting and growing businesses from zero revenue to scale, developing technology systems, and running various real estate service companies across the United States. 

In this episode Steve, Jason, and Brian Coester discuss:

• You are who you are 
• Leaders must make good decisions
• How to make quality decisions 
• Acknowledging the problem 

Key Takeaways: 

• You are who you are. There’s no difference between you personally and professionally. The person you are outside of work also shows up when you are in the office and anywhere you go. 
• Leaders have the responsibility to make good decisions. It’s not always the most logical or most profitable decision, but what’s important is that you make the right decision. 
• A quality decision is not made, you have to put it through a process. Look at your decision-making process. It shouldn’t be impulse based, or fully emotionally-based. You have to put some distance between you and the problem. 
• Judge your bad decisions and bad habits. If you’re doing something stupid, call it out to yourself. Be brutally honest about your situation. The first step towards change is acknowledging that there’s a problem. 

“Leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less. As a leader, you need influence in both the marketplace and people. It doesn’t necessarily matter the particular style of the leader - at the end of the day, the results are gonna come from your ability to influence the situation.” - Brian Coester

Connect with Brian Coester:

Website: www.RealConnectUSA.com 

Email: [email protected] :

Connect with Steve and Jason:

LinkedIn: Jason or Steve

Website: Rewire, Inc.: Transformed Thinking 

Email: [email protected]

Show notes by Podcastologist: Justine Talla

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it. 

About Dana Georgiou: Dana is a seasoned mortgage professional with nearly 30 years of mortgage lending experience, including executive management in sales, marketing, and operations for the last 15 years.  Her expertise includes the development of high-performing sales teams, creating sales growth and strategy, perfecting and implementing solutions to streamline new loan production, as well as managing large-scale mortgage operation centers. She has a deep background in mortgage compliance including CFPB mock audit efforts and has worked in all channels of the mortgage business with the last few years focused on the Private Lending/Business Purpose Entity lending space.

Her proven track record is unique in that it covers operations, credit/risk, sales, and marketing.  She is an avid speaker/presenter at numerous mortgage industry events and believes in deep advocacy for education in the private lending space.  Dana is a published author, with some of her most recent articles appearing in Mortgage Women Magazine and Deal Maker Magazine.  Dana is actively involved with Habitat for Humanity in her local area as a financial counselor, helping families achieve their dream of homeownership. She lives in the East Texas area on a small ranch with her husband Sean, their two Labradors, and numerous other ranch animals.

In this episode Steve and Dana discuss:

• Practicing liquid leadership 
• Being fully integrated 
• Bringing humanity back into business 
• Setting the energy takes energy 

Key Takeaways: 

• As a leader, don’t expect for someone to adapt to you. Instead, you must adapt your communication and leadership style to them. 
• Be integrated. If you find yourself leaning more to right-brained thinking, then integrate the left-side more when making decisions or solving problems and vice versa. 
• Don’t take the humanity piece out of business. Do good things for other people for the sake of doing good things. 
• It takes energy to set the energy of a meeting. Come into your meetings with the desire to help people and make their jobs easier. 

“You have to take your ego out of things. There is no ego when your only desire is to help someone. If you’re doing something for your neighbor, you’re doing it because you’re a good neighbor… because it’s the right and good thing to do.” - Dana Georgiou

Connect with Dana Georgiou:

Website: www.alphaflow.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danageorgiou/ 

Email: [email protected] 

Connect with Steve and Jason:

LinkedIn: Jason or Steve

Website: Rewire, Inc.: Transformed Thinking 

Email: [email protected]

Show notes by Podcastologist: Justine Talla

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it. 

About Carol Schultz: She is the founder and CEO of Vertical Elevation and is a talent equity and leadership advisory expert. Recognized for her proficiency in corporate leadership, she's spent three decades helping executives gain clarity in their careers, make bold leadership moves, and create cultures of performance. Schultz and her team have helped hundreds of companies—from seed stage pre-initial public offerings to publicly traded companies—transform their organizations and create sustainable, talent-centric cultures that run at maximum efficiency. She's the host of the popular podcast Authentically Successful and author of the new book Powered By People: How Talent-Centric Organizations Master Recruitment, Retention, and Revenue (and How to Build One) (June 7, 2022). Learn more at verticalelevation.com.

In this episode Jason and Carol Schultz discuss:

• Always start at alignment 
• What does talent centricity mean 
• Hiring for cultural alignment 
• Why coaching is important 

Key Takeaways: 

• Companies and organizations must always begin at alignment. What do people in the organization believe is the most important? If people give different answers, that means that there’s a problem in alignment. 
• Talent centricity means that every person from every aspect of your organization is contributing equally in their area of expertise. 
• Don’t only hire for expertise, consider also how culturally fit a person is in your organization. For example, a competent person who isn’t able to communicate with others is not a good candidate for your team. 
• Great people don’t become great all by themselves. People who go on to do great things often have somebody or a group of people they are accountable to that help them improve and succeed. That’s why coaching is important for people who want to advance their career. 

“Until we can get into those blindspots with somebody, we cannot elicit change. Until we have the distinction, you cannot put a structure in space to keep it from limiting you and your progress.” - Carol Schultz

Connect with Carol Schultz:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarolBSchultz 

Website: https://verticalelevation.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolbschultz/ 

Connect with Steve and Jason:

LinkedIn: Jason or Steve

Website: Rewire, Inc.: Transformed Thinking 

Email: [email protected]

Show notes by Podcastologist: Justine Talla

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it. 

About Cyndi Garza: She is a multi business owner and a senior leader who has recruited, coached, trained and retained over 200 loan officers who have closed multi billions in sales. 

She began Optimized Success Coaching five years ago where she and her team of employee Success Strategists focus on helping women create multiple streams of revenue along with growing their corporate role and finding more time to take care of themselves. She owns The Marketing Firm, an agency that not only assists finance and mortgage companies to become familiar names on social media but also helps individuals create their personal brands inside big companies. Cyndi also owns Mortgage Girlfriends and Loan Officer Magazine, both providing membership training and resources to partners in the finance industry. 

Most importantly, she has mastered a harmonious balance between life and career. She has two grown daughters who also own multiple businesses. Cyndi has been happily married to Andy for 35 years and has recently developed a love for Pilates and learning more about fashion and decorating.

In this episode Jason and Cyndi discuss:

• How to create harmony in your life 
• Building your personal brand 
• Setting intentions daily 
• How to move forward when you feel stuck

Key Takeaways: 

• We think that by earning a lot of money that our life in other areas will just magically be alright. Reflecting on yourself, creating a connection, and giving back to your community is the way towards growth. 
• Be in touch with your authentic self by creating your own personal brand even if you are employed in a company. 
• When starting your day, don’t go into it blindly. Set your intentions daily. Write in your journal and reflect at the end of the day. 
• Whenever you feel that you’re stuck in your career or business, try surrounding yourself with wisdom from other industries. Give yourself a boost and a fresh set of ideas from an unfamiliar environment, it might just be what you need to get going again.

“Build your own brand, it will make you valuable in the corporate world and it will help you reflect on who you truly are.” - Cyndi Garza

Connect with Cyndi Garza:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cynthiadgarza/?hl=en 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ITS-Possible-198061911051611/ 

Website: www.optimizedsuccesscoaching.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cynthia-garza-06808816 

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user89415317 

Connect with Steve and Jason:

LinkedIn: Jason or Steve

Website: Rewire, Inc.: Transformed Thinking 

Email: [email protected]

Show notes by Podcastologist: Justine Talla

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it. 

In this episode Steve and Jason discuss:

• The weeds and grass analogy 
• We all need hope and positivity 
• Taking action and doing it now 
• Resources and mindsets useful for reducing stress

Key Takeaways: 

• Remember the weeds and grass analogy. Crowd out the negative thinking with hopeful, generative, positive ideas. Think about the possibilities, not only about what is but what could be. 
• We all need hope and positivity, real and honest positivity that acknowledges the reality while still looking out for the possibilities. 
• When’s the best time to plant an oak tree? 25 years ago. When’s the second best time? Today! You might be doing it late, but what’s important is that you’re doing it now. Take action. 
• A daily practice of meditation decreases stress, do it 10 minutes a day. If you think you don’t have 10 minutes, take a deep breath through your nose. When you feel something, don’t try to make it go away. Instead, invite it in and name it because if you can name it, you can tame it. 

“The weeds are either gonna crowd out the good grass or the good grass is gonna crowd out the weeds - with our minds, it’s the same exact thing… If the weeds are crowding out the good things, then our actions are gonna be weed-like and the opposite is also true.” - Jason Abell 

“If we can name it, then we can tame it… What we resist, persists.” - Steve Scanlon

Book Mentioned: 

“Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die” by Dan and Chip Heath https://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/1400064287 

Connect with Steve and Jason:

LinkedIn: Jason or Steve

Website: Rewire, Inc.: Transformed Thinking 

Email: [email protected]

Show notes by Podcastologist: Justine Talla

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it. 

About Scott Hoolahan: Scott has more than 31 years’ experience in every aspect of consumer lending, including debt servicing, collections, and mortgage originations. Today this single father of two adult children enjoys working in the mortgage business, and seeking opportunities to be of service to others, in the industry and his community.

In this episode Steve and Scott discuss:

• Applying the lessons you teach others 
• The humble willingness to start over 
• Adding value and finding the gold in your database 
• The ROI of being in a network or community 

Key Takeaways: 

• Practice what you preach, do what you are mentoring other people to do. Before you can teach others to go to a place, you would have to have been there first. 
• It can feel tiring or even humiliating to have to start over but success in business is not just about pursuing excellence but also having a humble willingness to start over. 
• Work on your database. Figure out who’s the most loyal to you, look for the gold in your database. You can only capture that if you go out of your way. You have to do the work. Be thoughtful of how you could add value to people. 
• There’s so much value to be had from being in a network or community. You get to learn a lot, teach others what you’ve learned, and get new opportunities. 

“Prospecting is the job. I need to be touching those people, delivering something of value.” - Scott Hoolahan

Connect with Scott Hoolahan:

Website: https://MASONMAC.com 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scott.hoolahan 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shoolahan/ 

Connect with Steve and Jason:

LinkedIn: Jason or Steve

Website: Rewire, Inc.: Transformed Thinking 

Email: [email protected]

Show notes by Podcastologist: Justine Talla

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.