Full Transcript is Below:
– Welcome into our “Top Producer Series” for the month of August. This one, you don’t want to miss. We’re gonna say hello to Devin Wiley, he is a Branch Manager for the NFM Family of Lenders, more specifically the wonderful Main Street Home Loans. He operates out of Kent County, Delaware where he’s in charge of three locations. They do roughly 15 million in business monthly, they help over 60 families every month. We’re gonna talk about that, but wow, wait until you hear what we have on tap because Devin is the world record holder for catching tuna. I know that sounds wild, and I have never fished in my life, but it is a true story. Devin coming off of a world record 270 pound tuna catch in the Ocean City Tuna Tournament on July 9th, 2022. How big was this? Well, not only was the fish big but the check he cashed was over $305,000. In fact, to be exact 307,852. I am starstruck Devin, Welcome to NFM TV. Congratulations on being the top producer for the month of August and also being the world record holder for bigeye tuna.
– Thanks Greg, thanks for having us.
– Man, I am just blown away. What has it been like for you since you pulled that big boy out of the water?
– Yeah, we caught it 10 days ago, and last Saturday we had a couple of parties and a lot of calls and texts from friends, people in business, yourself, and everybody who works for Main Street’s been reaching out. So it’s been really a great experience, and it’s definitely kept me busy with phone calls and texts from a lot of different people.
– Well, you told me before it’s like winning the Super Bowl.
– Yeah, for us, you know? Our hobby is tuna fishing so this was the Super Bowl of tuna and, you know, winning that. We’ve always wanted to win this tournament, we’ve fished in it probably three or four times over the years and this I guess was our year and we got lucky and, you know, made it work and ended up winning it. So it’s just an unbelievable experience.
– Now the tournament was from 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM, and the craziest part of this all is that you hardly got any nibbles the entire day until 2:15 PM. So the clock was winding down, it was looking helpless, like you were gonna bring nothing back, and then this moment right here that we’re watching right now, as you struggle to get this fish out of the water. We can see what kind of team it takes in order to pull something like that up and off. What was that moment like? And when did you know you had something really spectacular on your hands?
– Well, probably about 30 or 40 minutes into the fight, we knew we had probably a good fish that would have a chance, and we didn’t really know it was the winning fish until it hit the deck. But, you know, we knew the whole time for about an hour, we had a fish that might have a chance of winning the tournament. Two boats lost their fish, one boat boated their fish and it was a little bit smaller, it was like 220 pounds. And then we happened to have the big one and, you know, just a lucky situation for us, you know?
– So at that time you were not aware, I’m guessing, from what you just said, that there was already a 256 pounder that had been brought back.
– Yeah, correct. Yeah, the day before… It’s a tournament where you can fish Friday, Saturday and Sunday. 99% of the boats fish Friday and Saturday, Sunday was supposed to be rough. The biggest fish on record Friday was 180 pounds, and I’ve caught one that was like 220 before, and this fish was much, much bigger. So I knew we won the tournament. And then on the way in, like you said, Greg, we got a text that there was a fish weighed in that was 256 pounds, and my estimate was about 250 pounds. So at that point, of course I was pretty nervous and I told everybody to calm down, and it was gonna be very close. And, you know, I found out from a friend that fish was 71 inches long, and I measured ours and it was close to 77, and I knew we probably won at that point again.
– And to be able to accomplish this with your son.
– It’s pretty awesome. You know, he spends a lot of time fishing with me. He loves it, probably more than I do, and, you know, he’s been with me for some good catches and all. But for him to be on that boat for that, you know, experience was just unreal. And it was all like, you know, kind of fake in a movie, you know, it was just kind of a strange and unbelievable experience, you know? But when he, you know, as we talked about it he jumped on me and he’s a big kid, you know? I’m getting a little old and outta shape, but he jumped on me and it was just an unbelievable experience. And I watched the videos afterwards, it was just, you know. I of course almost cried watching it, you know?
– Yeah. Well, I’m sure it sent chills up your spine. And like you just said a minute ago when I asked what it was like in those moments between knowing there was a big boy already weighed in and getting there, you kept your calm, you kept the team together. And it’s really a perfect segue into what this segment is supposed to be about. And that’s about production and great leadership. And you’ve been a leader in the mortgage space for many years. You’ve been in the business for 20. So let’s quickly in our remaining moments, touch on what you do for Main Street Home Loans to lead that part of Main Street in the Delaware region. It’s a lot of families that you’re helping every month, 60 of them and up.
– Sure. Yeah, and we have a great team. Our Delaware team’s been together for a while, some of us have worked together for 15, 18 years, and some just came back together in the last six months that I’ve worked with for 15 years as well. But we have a really good team that’s been together for a while. We’re good friends. We spend a lot of time together. We had a boat day last Thursday where we all went out in the boat for the day. You know, so it was just a great team that we have here in Delaware for everyone. And my job’s really to help them with business and making sure things are getting closed and running right, and, you know, we all do a great job in our different roles within the branches.
– Well, and getting to know you a little bit, you talked a lot about the culture of Main Street Home Loans and the parent company NFM Lending, it just, it’s different. It’s different for you. Talk about that.
– Yeah. I mean, a lot of us worked at Wells Fargo which is a huge company, prior, in the past, and then we were this small company for like the last eight to 10 years, some of us were together there. And, you know, to me it’s a combination of the two. You know, we have a lot of benefits of working for a big company, a lot of different products, and different things with marketing. But we also have people that care, that answer the phone, and it’s just a great group. When I need ’em they’re there. You don’t have to call ’em often but when you need to they’re there. And I think that’s the key to getting things done when there’s problems that do come up, you know, in the business.
– In closing, let’s go back to the fishing thing for a moment. I mean, you’ve accomplished the height of your profession, your hobby or your profession, whatever you call it. I guess it’s a profession now because you cashed a monstrous check. Are you hungry to do that again? Is that like a hole in one in golf, like the impossible fete and you just wanna keep going back, or are you gonna kick your feet up right now and maybe fish a little bit less?
– No, I think we’ll fish a little bit less, but I think we’re gonna enter the White Marlon Open which is the largest tournament overall in the world, which is like in three weeks I think we’re gonna enter that tournament and just see how it goes. I mean, there’s 500 posts in that tournament, there’s only 109 in the tuna tournament, but I think we’re just gonna try it out and see what happens, you know?
– Well, you’re great at reeling ’em in, on both the mortgage side and obviously the fishing side. I had to throw that out there, I know it sounds a little bit cheesy. But Devin Wiley this has been an extraordinary few minutes. We really appreciate your time. Congratulations on the fete and also being our top producer for the month of August, 2022.
– Thanks Greg, I appreciate the time
– I’m Greg Sher from NFM TV, we appreciate your time and we’ll talk to you soon.