TOM Talk Episode One

TOM Talk Episode One – Employee Interview with Matt Bassett

We are so excited for TOM Talk Episode One! Our President, Michael Kuentz interviews one of our amazing loan advisors at our Red Oak Branch, Matt Bassett. Watch below – transcript added for ADA. We hope you’ll share these videos with your friends and tune in to learn more about our company and employees!

Transcript (Speakers: [MK] Michael Kuentz – President, [MB] Matt Bassett)

(00:00-00:05): Words on screen; TOM TALK – POWERED BY TRINITY OAKS MORTGAGE

(00:05-00:10): Words on screen; TOM TALK – LET’S TALK WITH… Matt Bassett

(00:10-00:38): MK – Well, Hey Tom family! Happy 2021. I’m excited about what 2021 is going to hold for this group. I’m excited about what we did in 2020. You guys were amazing and in an unprecedented year you came and you stepped up and you delivered. You delivered for the family of companies. You delivered for yourselves and met a lot of your personal goals, but you delivered for our customers.

(00:39-01:27): MK – And that’s quite an accomplishment. Our goal of reaching people for Christ and giving to the kingdom is job one. That’s our number one mission. And you guys absolutely held up your end of the bargain. So thank you very much. You know, I’m excited about this communication plan that we’ve got going on. You know, you should have received yesterday, the email from our marketing team who does just an amazing job, but, this is going to be a great opportunity, to get to know our employee base, you know, it’s an opportunity for me to get to know some of them better and some of you better. But, ultimately we’re in a different world. Obviously we’re more virtual than we’ve ever been. And, and to see, to see the faces with the names that we hear about on a regular basis is what I really want to accomplish through this.

(01:28-01:51): MK – So, this should be a lot of fun and really to kick things off. I’m excited to welcome Matt Bassett to the hot seat. I don’t want to call it the hot seat. It’s the fun seat, but Matt, welcome, man. Thank you for, for being our first employee interview through the Tom Talk Communication plan.

(01:52-02:01): MB – Man, I’m excited. I feel like, you know, I’m on a game show pretty much. You know, hopefully I can meet expectations on this great venture for this!

(02:02-02:25): MK – I think you’ll succeed, and your life’s a game show for you sometimes. So you’re always keeping us, you’re keeping all of us on our toes as I know too well. And possibly even Christine Walton knows too well, judging by some of the videos. But, hey, turning attention really to you. Why do you believe that Trinity Oaks Mortgage is different than other mortgage companies out there?

(02:26-03:35): MB – I mean, in complete honesty. I think that we treat our customers as customers. So, it’s not in the sense of, they’re just another number, basically, you know, not another tally on the Mark or anything like that. They are basically almost, that best way to explain it is, we treat them as if they’re family to us. You know, we send a keepsake family Bible to them. I mean, the countless number of customers who send me texts, emails, or phone calls, just how grateful they are for that. And how that next family Christmas, you know, they’re going to have that laid out for them, for their family to see. And so, I mean, I think, you know, we’re not just trying to touch their lives. You know, financially, obviously, which is our job, but we want to touch their lives personally as well. And as John Houston’s motto is literally build lifelong relationships with them. I mean, I’ve had one customer, I think I’ve done like four or five, either Purchases or Refi’s with. And so something like that just, it makes you feel good on the inside and makes you feel like, you know, hopefully I’ve made an impact on their lives and maybe I’ll do four or five more with them.

(03:36-03:58): MK – That’s good. Now, I just got a letter today from another one of our customers that was thanking us for remembering them with the family heirloom Bible and said that each time they read it, they’re going to remember our generosity and that’s just important and makes my heart happy. How’d you get in this business? How’d you get in the mortgage business.

(03:59-05:13): MB – So I actually worked at John Houston before this. I started at John Houston when I was a senior in college. I was a superintendent, believe it or not. And that was a very, very stressful job. When you’re a senior in college, it was, it was hard. And then I spoke to Chad (Chad Miles), who’s the CFO over there and you know, and when I graduated, I started as a financial analyst. I love the company. It was just, felt like home. And then whenever TOM (Trinity Oaks Mortgage) started, I was actually working the payroll and just miscellaneous invoices to the accounting system for TOM, and the president at the time came to me, was like, Hey, I think you’d be a good fit. I’ve known him for a while. I knew him for awhile. I was like, you know, we just had a baby. There’s a lot, that’s a big jump. And so we just put our trust in God and we said, let’s do it. And we took the jump. Definitely, obviously when you’re going from a salary position, two commission based, I mean, yeah. That, you know, there’s, there could be some scariness on that. But, luckily we had, you know, great leaders, in the company, great employees who helped me, taught me and the proper way and everything like that. And I mean, it’s been a blessing, honestly.

(05:14-05:47): MK – Yeah, man. There’s, for those of you and for those on the call that have experienced going and taking that leap from the comfort of salary, into the, you know, the eat what you kill type situation. It can be, it can be a leap. And so I commend you for, for taking that, but putting your trust in God throughout that process. That’s great, Matt. All right, so 2021 is here. You had a great 2020. What’s one of your personal and/or professional goals for this year?

(05:48-07:09): MB – I think honestly, personal and professional. So professional, would be to exceed what I did last year, by at least two or three million. So, we had a great year last year. I think with, you know, everything with COVID, refinance boom, everybody knows about that. And so is that going to happen in 2021? We don’t know. We hope so, obviously. But, I think that just, you know, I think a two or three million would be good jump. Probably put me at about 160 loans or 150 loans for the year. So, that’s a lot of people that, you know, we can touch and, you know, hopefully make a difference and build a continuous relationship off of. Personal goal. I would love to lose 15 pounds. That would be nice. You know, I mean, I feel like COVID definitely did a number on me. So, but, you know, I have, you know, with a 10 month old, I have the excuse – a 10 month old and a five year old, but I have with a 10 month old, I can have the excuse of the Dadbod. That’s okay. I can still, you know, still use that. So, you know, lose about 10-15 pounds would be nice, just healthy weight. Maybe not go to McDonald’s as much during the day would be good too. But just, just a little healthier lifestyle basically would be the best way to say it.

(07:10-08:03): MK – I agree with you. I’m also on that, on that journey to lose a little bit. But, I liked the way when you talk about your goals, how you specifically talk about the number and the units where you want to be. I think that’s great counsel for anybody out there, that’s setting your goals. It can’t be a wish. Can’t be a dream. It needs to be, you know, something that you’re really writing down and holding yourself accountable to. So. Ah, Matt, I wish you the very best in that venture too. And so does the company. We want to see do very well because that does reach more people for Christ and that’s our mission. So that’s awesome. So I guess on your, on your journey, you know, you’d come across a lot of, folks that have been influential in your life, but you know, who has influenced you the most when it comes to how you approach your day to day at Trinity Oaks?

(08:04-09:50): MB – So there’s two answers on that. Both will be from a more of a business perspective, I guess. Outside the company would be my Mom. She was very successful in the corporate world and she kind of laid the stepping stones for me, you know, from a young age, basically how to approach business. And pushed me to be the best I can in everything. And so, obviously, there’s been times where we get in disagreements, but she is a very, very, very smart individual and I strive to hopefully be as successful as she was, in the business world. I mean, she definitely. She definitely pushed me when I was younger and to be as successful as possible. And I’m very grateful for that. Within the company, and I’m sure many employees would agree with me on this. Daniel Campa has pushed me to be the best loan officer possible. He is there for moral support. He is there for personal support. He’s there for businesses support. It doesn’t matter. I mean he gives 150% every single day. He will answer your phone call or text message, no matter what he’s doing, even if he is literally just bogged down and just buried, he will put us first. And I think that is definitely the definition of a servant leader, basically. Yeah, I hope one day. Yeah. I hope one day, honestly, I can, you know, develop the same CLT has. You know, he’s definitely somebody I’m trying to model off of. He’s been in business a lot longer than me, but I think, you know, he’s definitely somebody who has been a good role model to other loan officers as well.

(09:51-10:27): MK – Yeah. You know, it, when we talk about our, our family, we hear the saying that the Apple may not fall too far from the tree. Well, I can, I can say that, you know, what Daniel is doing for you all within the Red Oak branch is, is tremendous because he’s definitely taking pieces of who he is spreading that out to the team and it shows in the output. So I agree with you. He’s, he’s quite a, he’s quite an example of leadership. So what’s the biggest misconception that people have about the loan officer position?

(10:28-11:04): MB – So that’s kind of a funny question. It depends on who you ask. If you ask my five-year-old daughter, she thinks that for a living, I roll pens all day. So I don’t know what that means. And I don’t even have pens around me most of the time. So, but hopefully I’m making a bigger impact than that on her life. But she’s actually a very, very smart little girl. And so she will sometimes sit with me when I stay home and we’ll work together and everything like that. So maybe we’ll have another loan officer in the TOM family, you know, 15 years down the line.

(11:05-11:08): MK –It’s never too early to to recruit. It’s never too early.

(11:09-11:21): MB – So I’m saying, I’ll have her, I’ll have her start her resume now. And we’ll just update it every year. Basically we’ve already got, we’ve already got the Fannie Mae guidelines. We have it on tape. So when she goes to sleep every night, they’re just replaying in their head basically.

(11:21-11:22): MK – Just playing.

(11:22-12:41): MB – Playing and playing and playing. But I think, more from a customer perspective,  a lot of people think that we’re, you know, sometimes we’re just the eight to five basically company or, job position basically. When really honestly, you know, we try to be there for the customer 24/7. Weekends, after five, and everything like that. Obviously, you know, there’s family situations where we can’t. But you know, the biggest goal is to go above and beyond and above and beyond is beyond 5 o’clock basically working. So, I think, you know, we’re just, we’re not a normal hourly basically job, is best way to explain it. And I think, you know, customers, you know, they appreciate the extra mile where if it’s 8:30 o’clock and they send you a text message or something like that. And you respond, they’re like, Whoa, that’s, you know, that’s, I wasn’t expecting a text messages until the next morning, basically back. And they truly appreciate that. I believe. And that kind of just all separates us from other mortgage companies where, you know, sometimes you may or may not even a person, a loan officer may not even give you their personal cell phone to text or anything. So I think that’s definitely a separator between us and other companies as well.

(12:41-12:48): MK – And I think that is, you know, you’re, you’re living up to what you talked about with John (John Houston) and that’s building lifelong relationships.

(12:48-12:48): MB – Mhmm.

(12:49-12:48): MK – So that’s very good. Obviously there’s the balance, right? We need to be. dads and husbands and brothers and sons and all of that too, but obviously we want to, to serve our customers too. So I appreciate that.

(13:05-13:05): MB – Sure.

(13:05-13:13): MK – So what’s a random fact about you that most people do not know. Remember this is G Rated.

(13:13-14:02): MB – So, this (laugh) this a hard one. So I mean if, honestly, actually, if you know me, a lot of people who know me. I’m pretty open about everything. So I got to say, I had to think of stuff that maybe a lot of people didn’t know about me. So, one is, I mean, I guess the best way to think about that, you know, fun is essentially, I have my dual citizenship. So, I’m a citizen of Canada and the United States. My dad was born in Canada. All my family is from Canada, except for my mom. She’s from New York, upstate New York. So yeah, I mean, I’m definitely, if anything happens to me in the United States, you know, I can go up to Canada, eh,  get my maple syrup and, you know, see all my family up there. So, yeah.

(14:02-14:04): MK – That is a fun fact.

(14:04-14:21): MB – Yeah you know, they all actually, you know, some of them actually harvest their own maple syrup from their trees and they ship it down to us. And so it’s actually, I look forward to it every Christmas. So this it’s the best maple syrup. I mean, we’ve got some true Canadians in our family up there, so.

(14:21-14:45): MK – That is awesome. Well, Hey Matt, we appreciate you. We appreciate what you do for this company. We appreciate the fact that you live out our core values daily. You keep us on our toes. You make you make work fun and, I wish you the very best this year in 2021. In your personal goals, your professional goals. And just all the great things you’re going to do for us. So thank you for your time today, buddy.

(14:46-15:15): MB – I appreciate that, Michael. And I appreciate you guys having me. Last thing is, I just want to say that. You know, I really do love this company. I think we do make a big difference. And,  just the appreciation you guys have for us. I mean, a lot of times we, you know, either loan officers or just higher up individuals in the company will go above and beyond for us. And we don’t even know about what’s going on on the back end. So, just thank you guys for everything.

(15:15-15:21): MK – You’re welcome. All right, buddy. Have a great rest of your week and weekend and, good luck to you.

(15:21-15:23): MB – I appreciate it. Thank you sir.

(15:23-15:24): MK – Okay, bye.

(15:25-15:30): Words on screen; TOM TALK – POWERED BY TRINITY OAKS MORTGAGE

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END OF TRANSCRIPT

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