Full Transcript is Below:
– Welcome into NFM TV. I’m your host, Greg Sher. In the annals of mortgage and real estate coaching, he is a first ballot Hall of Famer. In 2020 alone, his organization coached an astounding 318 millionaires. One of his students recently told me, and I quote, “He’s the Bill Belichick “and Nick Saban of mortgage coaching. “He doesn’t tell you what you want to hear, “he tells you what you need to hear.” Joining us now from CORE headquarters in Cornelius, North Carolina, is CORE founder, Rick Ruby. Rick, thanks for being with us on NFM TV.
– Hello, Greg. I’ve watched a lot of your NFM TV. It’s spectacular, what you guys do.
– Well, I appreciate that. We’re long overdue to get you on here. Of course, you’ve made a tremendous impact on this particular organization, NFM, when you came into our lives many, many years ago. 27th year of coaching and the fire, I know, still burns so bright. Why, how, why are you still so into this?
– When I came up, I had a purpose to accumulate wealth like all salespeople do and then at a certain point when I felt I had accumulated wealth, I changed my purpose to helping others accumulate wealth. So my purpose in life is to help other people accumulate wealth. So if it wasn’t a purpose, Greg, I wouldn’t do it because it wouldn’t be that fun.
– I know that one of your many mantras is focusing on how to make money, save money, and give money away. When did you come to the realization that those three things were so important and integral to what you’re doing?
– So I think you have to work really hard, make this money, save this money, give money away. I believe charities between three and 10%. So I make my members pick a number, either get 3% or 4% or five, whatever the number is, stick with the number. So we save 20, we give a percent away. I think it’s a really good, basic philosophy. So I think for me, Greg, what people have found with me is they all know everything that I say. I don’t say anything that people don’t know. The difference is great. I do it and I make my members do it.
– Well, I did speak to several people that are in the program prior to sitting down and talking to you and one of them said, point blank, the reason that he would follow you into the fire is because not only do you speak it, but you do it. You’re getting dirty, you’re in the trenches, there’s nothing you’d ask of someone else that you’re not yourself doing.
– I think that if you are a servant and you care about others and you lead by example, you will be the authority, don’t you think? Like Oleg and Jane and Daniel Sa and Brian Pintar, you’ve got some great members of mine at your company that are just killer examples of how to have a good business, how to do it right.
– Want to take a time out here and actually play an excerpt of Oleg, talking about The CORE just a few weeks ago and what it’s done for him in his career.
– I joined The CORE about seven years ago. The group of people that make up The CORE, the coaches, they’re brilliant. When I started in The CORE, I was doing about 15 million a year in volume and within a few years I was breaking a hundred million and yeah, it’s a phenomenal company.
– Now, he mentioned in that little snippet also that The CORE is not for everyone; that you really have to be at a place in your life where you are prepared to surrender. What’s the message you have to people out there that are watching this that are thinking, wow do I want to get into this? How do I know if I’m ready to surrender?
– I think you have to ask yourself am I exploding or stagnant? If I am stagnant, I am doing it wrong. If I am exploding, I’m doing a lot of things right. So I think you have to look at your career and say, listen, I’ve been in the business three years, I’m growing 20% a year, I’m doing great. If you’re not growing 10 to 20% every year then you don’t have the right plan or the right accountability or the right competition. Kind of like companies. I love NFM, one of the few companies that I recommend because David wants people to make a lot of money and that’s the main reason me and David are aligned; he wants his people to do well, I want people to do well.
– What can you tell us about what you’ve learned about leadership?
– Well, I don’t think I’m a very good leader, I think I’m a really good coach. In 10 years I’ll probably be a really good leader. Right now, for me, coaching is about making sure somebody executes the play properly. Leadership is more about influence. Like I hope to influence people, but I’m really gonna make sure they execute the play I call. So I consider myself more of a coach than a leader but I think leadership boils down to servant and example. I think if you’re a servant and you put other people’s needs first you’re a heck of a leader.
– I think you’re very humble and I think a lot of people would say that you are the most incredible leader they’ve ever seen. I want to ask you a question, because you said as you go along further in your career you’ll become a better leader and you’re right up against a big milestone in your life. You’re turning 60 years old. So are there any takeaways from your fifties that really stand out and what do you hope to accomplish here in this next decade?
– I think that production until I was 50, coaching and leadership from 50 to 60, I think 60 to 70 will be more leadership. I think that you have to keep evolving and growing and improving yourself to be able to improve others.
– The digital transformation we’re going through right now, all of the companies that are going public that are taking on more money, the larger companies like Zillow that have an eye on taking over all the realtors. I’m sure that’ll never happen in its entirety but how do you see the business changing when you’re fundamentally, you’re all about the relationship with the realtor, but if they’re driven to a platform where there’s less money to go around, and it’s more dictated to them, how will that impact originations in five years, let’s say?
– In five years, 40% of all loans, loan reps will still be here and they will be making a fortune. They will deliver a better experience to the client and the realtors will trust them, building realtor trust. I will always be in business in the mortgage business. I will always be in business in the mortgage coaching business but I will not be for everyone. I will be for the ones that want to create a great client experience. They want to cater the client, cater the realtor, bring the realtor a lot of value, help the realtor make a lot of money. There will always be a place for that group of a slice of the pie.
– Let’s talk about your leadership experience ’cause you just said that you’re not cut out for everyone necessarily. How would you describe the way you coach?
– Raise your hand? You want to win, surrender to my authority and my process. I’m going to first say what? I wanna what?
– I wanna surrender
– I want to have my best year ever every year. Rick, you will get me there. I will do what you say when you say to do it. That’s my style.
– So from the outside, Rick, looking in, you’re very serious, so what are the moments when you let your hair down?
– I bust my butt till five o’clock and then I run home and enjoy my life. I got a koi pond, I got a vegetable garden, I like hot rods, I ranch on my hot rods all the time, I spent a lot of time with my wife, I walk the dogs, I don’t travel, I don’t go to fancy restaurants. I live a very simple life and I love it. Love it, but I will tell you this. I’m very intense, very, very, very intense. I live hard, I love hard, I laugh hard. I have a great time. I do all this for my purpose which is to help others accumulate wealth. I think God wants you to have a purpose to change your plan.
– You’re also tremendously generous. The CORE has donated roughly $20 million to various charities.
– Our 500 members gave away 20.7 million last year to charity. I thought that was the best, best, best, best fact that we accomplished was the amount of charity we gave away.
– That’s in one year, 20 plus million.
– One year, 20.8 million, the 500 CORE members gave away.
– As you look back on your illustrious career, certainly none of us are perfect. You’ve had some missteps as we all have. Is there any one particular thing or misstep that occurred in your life or your career that you learned the most from that people can take something away?
– I think that for me, I think that not catering to my staff early on my career was a big mistake. And in the last 10 or 15 years, I’ve really learned that you’re only as good as the team around you. Like I used to think I was like some maniac warrior that went out and did everything by himself. Now I’m all about the team. So I think that it’s kind of that funny thing about an athlete; you can be a great athlete, Michael Jordan was a great athlete, when he became a great teammate, he won championships. I think the only reason I’ve won championships and I continue to win really good numbers at my branches and really good numbers in my coaching and have great success is because I have learned honestly the hard way to have a great team.
– In terms of coaching programs out there, you’re clearly the leader, but what does set you apart from the rest, for those people that are looking at The CORE and potentially other platforms?
– I think that my coaches are all experts in the business. I think I use data analytics better than everybody else. We have a greatness tracker to track your calls and your visits. We’ve a lead tracker to track your leads. We’ve got a pay log to track your closings. We’ve got a P and L format to track your profit loss. We’ve got a personal budgeting system. So I use data analytics in my coaching. I’m not really much on smalltalk. So for me, it’s like, how many leads did you get? How many did you convert? Where did the leads come from? So for me, coaching is data analytics. That’s our style of coaching.
– Rick Ruby, we can’t thank you enough for the impact you’ve made on this company and the time you’ve spent as a guest here on NFM TV. Thank you.
– Welcome to do it, see you later, Greg, bye.
– Greg Sher here on NFM TV. We’ll see you again next time.