Start With A Win - Growing a Business Through Building Relationships with Gary Mauris, Dominion Lending Centres

Episode Date: July 6, 2022

Adam is joined by Gary Mauris the co-founder, president and CEO of Dominion Lending Centres, the leading mortgage company in Canada. Gary shares about his entrepreneurial journey to starting DLC through building relationships, humility and creating a loyal customer base.Gary Mauris is the co-founder and President & CEO of Dominion Lending Centres; CEO of Mortgage Centre Canada; and Chairman of Mortgage Architects. Together, these companies account for almost 40% of all broker originated mortgages in Canada. He is a serial entrepreneur, having sold two prior companies to the public market. Gary has also led multiple social initiatives as the co-founder and President of the I AM SOMEONE Ending Bullying Society and recently co-founded “Bikes for Kids”, a National program that collects new bicycles for underprivileged children across Canada.Main TopicsThe beginning of Dominion Lending Centres—Canada’s leading mortgage company (03:06)Growing the business through retention and ongoing recruiting (05:20)How Dominion Lending Centres modeled their business model and model for growth after RE/MAX and the leadership tactics of Dave Liniger (09:11)Growing a business and creating a loyal customer base through executive presence, developing relationships, being humble, building up others and creating an environment of success (11:01)The three things that kill a relationship and how to overcome them (15:00)Balancing multi-intentional goals and maintaining a healthy work-life balance (19:28)  Episode LinksDominion Lending CentresEverybody Wins: The Story and Lessons Behind RE/MAXConnect with Gary Mauris:https://garymauris.cahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/garymauris/?originalSubdomain=cahttps://www.facebook.com/gary.maurishttps://twitter.com/garymaurisConnect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/https://www.facebook.com/AdamContosCEOhttps://twitter.com/AdamContosCEOhttps://www.instagram.com/adamcontosceo/Listen, rate, and subscribe!Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts

Welcome to Start With A Win, where we give you the tools and lessons you need to create business and personal success. Are you ready? Let's do this. Coming to you from Brand Viva Media Studios, it's Adam Contos. Start with a win. How you doing, Producer Mark? I'm doing so good. Awesome. Hey, I'm really excited about today's guest. This is a longtime friend of mine, an amazing business leader. Yeah. One of our friends from Canada.

I mean, this guy leads one of the largest, most impactful businesses. And I say most impactful. This impacts many, many families across Canada. It's really cool to have. Well, I heard that almost 40% of all broker-originated mortgages in Canada are affected. That's it.

That's what I got in my sheet here. Well, look at that. So tell us about my friend Gary here. Yeah, Gary Morris is the co-founder and president and CEO of Dominion Lending Centers, CEO of Mortgage Center Canada, and chairman of Mortgage Architects. Together, these companies account for almost 40% of all broker-originated mortgages in Canada. He is a serial entrepreneur, having sold two prior companies in the public market, which is amazing.

And Gary also has led multiple social initiatives as the co-founder and president of the I Am Someone Ending Bullying Society and recently co-founded Bikes for Kids, a national program that collects new bicycles for underprivileged children across Canada. Wow. Welcome to Start With a Win. Hey, brother. How are you? Hey, guys. I'm great. Great to see you. Thank you for having me. Hey, it's my pleasure. It's great to have you on.

Great to see your face. You're looking really, really good. I just have to start with that. You take good care of yourself, and you're really active. And I mean, it's kind of tough when you're running so many companies to make sure you have a good discipline of time. How do you get into that? I'm doing a lot better job now, Adam. I mean, I wasn't always that way. I mean,

you know what it's like, you're building a business. I used to be on an aircraft 150 days a year for about 13 years. And there were some things that were slipping. And in the last couple of years, I sort of realized, Hey, I'm not getting any younger. I started getting super stiff functionally. I wasn't, you know, as, um, as sort of anatomically correct as I should have been. So yeah, I've been way more focused on health and exercise, yoga, eating properly. So it's a work in progress for sure, but it sure feels good. Right on. Well, you look awesome, my friend. Hey, let's get into business here. All of the people on the show, the listeners here, we have a combination of people that are in the real estate space, in the mortgage space.

We have people that are entrepreneurs, people that are business leaders, and people who are personal leaders as well. Let's dig into your business background. So 2006, I think you started DLC, right? Dominion Lending? Yeah, that's right. You and your business partner. I mean, what did that look like? You guys just sit down and go, hey, let's take over the country in mortgage?

I mean, how did you get there? You guys just sit down and go, Hey, let's take over the country and mortgage or, I mean, what, how'd you get there? Yeah, it was, it was kind of an interesting story. I mean, I had just sold a previous company. I was not semi-retired. I was looking for something else to do, of course, but I wasn't working at the time. And, uh, I had a vacation home in Palm Springs, California, and my neighbor was actually a mortgage broker for Washington mutual for Wamuu back then. And, you know, I talked to him one day just having a Corona in the backyard. And he said to me, you know, 60 to 70 percent of all loans in the U.S. were originated through a mortgage broker. And I found that very interesting because, you know, it was much, much less in Canada. So that night I went home. I was thinking about it the next morning. I was still thinking about it. So I called the only guy I knew who's now my business partner today, who was actually in the mortgage spaceS., whether it's fashion or fabric or music or

business, typically will eventually happen in Canada. We fall just a few years behind. And that was really the germination of Dominion Lending Centers. Awesome. And where in Canada are you based out of? We're out of Vancouver. We operate nationally in every province, but head offices in Vancouver. Okay.

And my understanding is you guys have like over 500 locations now. Is that correct? We do. Yeah. Yeah. We run three brands plus a technology company. We got sort of 500 franchises, almost 750 different locations. And we do about $80 billion a year in mortgage origination.

So we're number one in Canada by a pretty wide margin. That's awesome. Congratulations. How many, like we call them MLOs, so loan originators here in the US, how many of those do you have in your company there? About 8,000 with our group. Amazing. That takes me to kind of my next question, because, I mean, this is not a business where you just walked in and you said, hey, magic business dust sprinkled across Canada. Now I have 750 or so locations and over 8,000 people in those. You collected a lot of those one at a time through growing business relationships.

Is that correct? Yeah, we sure did. Our company growth has always been made up of organic growth. I have a team of recruiters that work every single day, five days a week, eight, ten hours a day that are just dialing competitors, mortgage professionals and saying, have you had a look at what we're doing at our company? We're number one in the country. We'd love to show you. And then along the way, we did some talk ins. We made some acquisitions. But still today, you know, as CEO of the group, I still spend a little time every single day personally recruiting. It keeps me very, very connected. I work with all my sales guys across the country.

You know, in business, it's very funny, right? They say if you're not growing, you're dying. You're attracting or you're repelling, right? So business is not like a tree. A tree doesn't get to a certain age. I'm sorry, business is like a tree. A tree doesn't get to a certain age and stop growing. It either grows and then it starts declining.

It starts dying. And it's the exact same thing in business. So obviously that retention and that ongoing recruiting has to be the lifeblood of our business. This is an endurance sport, obviously. You're in love with the process of recruiting, of growing, and you've been doing that in this business since 2006. The early days couldn't have been easy, were they? You had to face a lot of hard times. I mean, you know, 25. You know what? I mean, I don't think it's ever easy. I mean, here we are 16 years later, and it's not easy.

You know, it's one of those things where I call it the test of time. If you can withstand, you know, difficult periods for a long period of time, you're going to eventually win. In the early days, it was ugly. I mean, we were ridiculed. People made fun of us. You know, these guys are never going to make it. You know, I got a lot of people saying good luck and in that tone, not in the nice way, which would be good luck. Like this guy hasn't got a hope. You know, a lot of it was just passion, right? You just, I mean, I always use that negativity to fuel my drive. You know, every time someone said to me something that was negative or spoke poorly about us or discounted us as a competitor. I mean, I doubled down and went home and I made 30 more phone calls to their agents, you know, to the industry.

I just really use that to keep us focused. And today we still use that negative innuendo as our passion, as our fuel to help us continue to do good things. We see a lot of people that, a lot of business leaders that get some sort of a burnout. They're like, oh, everybody just continuously hates me.

Is there, when is the win? When is the, you know, when does it all stop and it all becomes smooth sailing and tailwinds and life is great? I think we all know the answer to this, CEO to CEO. It never becomes that paradise and utopia that everybody's looking for in life. So you fall in love with the process, not the result. Yeah, that's exactly it, right?

I mean, listen, it's almost like a liberating experience to sort of get to a position in your life where you feel like, hey, I know for the rest of my life, disruption, breakdown, chaos, death, destruction is going to happen. It's going to happen. There's always another bus looking to run us over in some area of our life. And as soon as you understand that, you know, this is part of life and that's it and it never gets easier, it's quite liberating because when something does happen, it doesn't decimate you. It doesn't devastate you. You just go, okay, I was kind of expecting this. And you, you know,

you carry on. Great point. It's, it reminds me of this quote. I think it was Gandhi that was, what is it? First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. Right. But, but that fight continues to, you win. But that fight continues, that fight and win cycle. Sometimes there's fight and lose, but you keep fighting. And I love that philosophy, because you talked about nobody knew who we were, then we started getting under their skin. And I know you kind of benchmarked against Dave Linegar and starting Remax and things like that. Tell us how you paralleled those two ideas in business. It's really interesting because as sort of karma has it, many years later, obviously, you become a friend of mine.

David is a friend of mine. We do some stuff together. But when we started – this is a really fascinating story, actually. When we started Dominion Lending Centers, my business partner was with Royal LePage and in Canada Royal LePage was a hundred year old brand it was the de facto brand and as an owner of Royal LePage at that time my business partner Chris said to me hey we have to build a national ad campaign you know he said Remax came to Canada has a national ad campaign has done incredibly well in Canada and he said they've had this campaign to educate the consumer, but also their agents and their top negotiators are above the crowd. So it was interesting. I like, you know, it's the point that he was making.

So I went and read David's book, Everybody Wins. And we literally modeled in the early days Dominion Lending Centers off of these stories in that book. I mean, I was literally that guy, Chris and I, we would just be in our car and we'd drive city to city to city. I would pass a mortgage office and I would literally would pull in the parking lot and walk through the front door. And I'd say, my name is Gary from Dominion Lending Centers. I'm sure you've heard of us. And they go, well, no, actually we haven't. Well, listen, give me five minutes because it won't change your life. And it was really that guerrilla marketing.

And it was interesting because as we started getting some success, the people that came over were saying, wow, this is a great company. They're full of passion. They're growing. We were able to hire some sales team members. And they started modeling, modeling the leader, exactly what we were doing. They had the same conviction and the same authenticity and the same energy as us. And now all of a sudden they were calling on doors. So it's really amazing. There's so much of that book that I'm happy to get into either on or off with you that really was the fabric of how we started Dominion Lending Centers in Canada. Wow. And I'll tell you, Gary, you've always had this can-do

attitude, just like Dave Linegar has always had this can-do attitude. But you translate that into relationships and creating an environment. And Dave always says creating an environment where people can be as successful as they want to be. And that's a big part of the book and the, what is it, the terrarium story where he would continue to break this little glass terrarium that was in the bedroom, and then they would replant the plants that were in there, and they would grow to the size of the terrarium story where he would continue to break this little glass terrarium that was in the bedroom, and then they would replant the plants that were in there, and they would grow to the size of the terrarium, and they'd grow bigger and grow bigger and grow bigger. And I know it was fascinating to hear your stories, because you would take and go to an area and

just start meeting people and building relationships and then cultivate those relationships like you're growing these plants in this terrarium. How did you not become overwhelmed by your quest for growth? You know, it's funny. In many ways, it's so simple. I mean, number one, I always say to people, one of the easiest wealth secrets ever in the world is speedy response. People are so used to people, you know what, like saying they're going to do one thing and then not doing it. So I made a commitment from day one. When I say something, I deliver it. I do it every time. So let's say I'm going to call you at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning.

I'm going to call you at 9, not 9.15, not 8.45, not the next day. I'm not going to send you an email and say, hey, I can't get to it today. If I say something is due, I'm going to deliver a proposal. It's going to be there by Thursday at 2 o'clock. It has to be there Thursday at 2 o'clock. Relationships are absolutely vital. They're the most important thing in my life. I mean, still today, and here's just, it's gotten easier,

but I still spend at least 30 minutes every single day on social media. Because on social media, everyone I know, they're on one social media channel or the other. And it's so easy for me to pop in and see what they're saying on their feed and make a comment and check in, see how they are, send them a message. I can broadcast very quickly to a large group of people, but I can interact on what they're doing in their day as well. So, you know, it's just, I always had this belief that get rid of the swagger. We're not saving dying children. Go to work, be humble, put your head down, outwork everyone. And I think, you know,

you know, in a lot of ways, it really has been, you know, that simple. For me, I didn't care if I saw you came riding on a bicycle, or you came driving in a Mercedes, I gave nobody more time, the best idea came from the best idea didn't matter who was my receptionist didn't matter for someone I just met, right? We have no hierarchy or business was very flat and continues to be today. And, you know, the fact of getting back to somebody and saying something thoughtful and kind and empowering to them that might, you know, make them say, wow, that was really kind of him has been sort of the staple of how we built our business. And because of it, we have this loyal following, this raving fans. Well, you practice what you preach. I mean, you're saying this, but I can tell our listeners, truly, I mean, I've seen this in action over and

over and over again. And this is one of the, like you and I spent, when we first met, we spent 18 holes on a golf course together in a golf cart and really got to know each other. It was so much fun. It was raining out. I mean, it was just, you know, one of those days you're like, why the heck are we golfing? But it was so much fun to get to know you. And the interesting part that I found was you truly, you cared. You gave personal attention to every single person that you came across. It was, whether it was the other guys in the golf group or anybody that we saw on this trip. We were on a mastermind retreat together. But it was fascinating. And then the interesting thing I noticed after that was your follow-up.

I mean, you have this unexpected follow-up that you always give, which is like this added bonus to the relationship. And you sent me this book, I think Giftology or something like that. It was really, really good. Can you take us a little bit into this unexpected follow-up and kind of some of the secrets that you use to really make people remember you? Yeah. So it's interesting. I mean, I've, I've heard hundreds, hundreds of people over the years say, Oh my God, Gary Morris is so good at remembering names. Like I see franchise owners and agents that I've only met once or twice. And, you know, I haven't seen him in two years and I

go to a conference and I walked down the elevator and I go, Hey Bob, you know, Hey Daryl, how are you? And they're just absolutely blown away, you know? And for me, it's really important. I wasn't always good at remembering names, but I use honestly my iPhone, you know, and my notes section in that iPhone when I meet somebody for the first time often and for years now, I'll step out, I'll go to the washing, I'll turn away and I'll go to my note field and I'll say, Daryl met him here and here and the daughter that was just competing in the, you know, high school high jump, you know, this weekend. So when I see him next time, I have something in common. If I run into him, I can say, Hey, how are you? Good to see you. I can look away for a minute. I can go to the washroom, come back and say, Daryl, you know what? I remember last time your daughter was, was it's, it's, it's, it sounds so elementary, but it's simple things like that, that, you know, are so important. The other thing I'd say to you is that, you know, you were always being watched. I mean, as a leader, you were you is that, you know, you are always being watched. I mean, as a leader, you are the equivalent of, you know, the front page of the National

Post 24-7, 365. So everything you do, every interaction, every time you wait in line, every time you get served from, you know, someone in a restaurant, going through an airport, getting a massage, you have no idea if somebody knows you or knows, you know, if someone who knows you and you are being watched all the time and you just sort of get in this habit of just trying to be a good person. Oh yeah. Right. Just trying to have patience. I mean, we get busy and, you know, and people are quite often, you know, standoffish. I've always gone the other way. You know, it doesn't matter when you send me a message, it doesn't matter how it gets to me. Typically within 24 hours and often within inside of minutes.

I quickly get back to you. Hey, good to hear from you. Hope you're well. If I can do anything for you, let me know. So the relationship piece, the EQ of it, I think is so unbelievably important. There's three things that kill a relationship, being aloof, indifferent, or dismissive. If you're running your business and you're aloof because you just think things are going on, I haven't got time. Sorry. Or you're dismissive. Oh, it's not a big deal. Or you're indifferent. Like you don't take a side. You haven't got the focus on, you know, to listen

to what somebody's saying to you. If you're either one of those three things, your relationship and your business in big trouble, alof, dismissive, or indifferent. Or indifferent. Okay. Wow. That's strong. You rattled that. I mean, that seems like it's a checklist at the front of your mind.

Yeah. I mean, it's something that I've been saying for years to people, right? I mean, it's the most insidious word that someone can say is I'm too busy. I'm too busy. I'm so busy. I'm not going to be busy. Somebody walks in and goes, hey, boss, can I get a minute of your time? I'm really busy. You know, he basically just said, beat it by saying, I'm too busy. I'm too busy. I'm so busy. I'm not going to be busy. Somebody walks in and goes, hey, boss, can I get a minute of your time? I'm really busy. You know, he basically just said, beat it by saying I'm really busy. Right. You know, and the other thing is like, it doesn't

help us. If we say we're busy, then maybe a client who wants to use us as a realtor or a mortgage broker says, oh, I don't want to bother Gary. He's too busy. Right. So I just, you know, it's like little things like that, that, you know, are inconsequential. But, you know, words that work really matter. And those three items, aloof, dismissive, are indifferent for me are three things that I know are relationship killers. And I try to avoid them at all costs. So I could see totally that busy part. I say busy is an excuse for not wanting to do something for somebody. And you're right. It's like this immediate repellent

to get people away from you. What is, I mean, I use, you know, people go, how's it going? What are you up to? I'm like, I'm excited about the things I'm working on is, you know, what can I do for you? How do you approach that yourself? Yeah. I'm just sort of in the, I'm just sort of in the, in the, the auto, you know, automatic response. I'm going to say, Gary, how are you? I'm fantastic. I'm awesome. I'm great. You know what I mean? Like, oh my God, good to hear. They want more of it. They want to hear about you.

I just, I don't even, like into that negative crap. Well, I don't know. It's raining. Well, yeah. I wish the weather was better. I mean, rates are going up like six or seven times this year. Like, you know,

like that kind of crap I don't even buy into. I just go, how are you? I'm awesome. I'm great. You know, and I mean, you know, not every day is an unbelievably great day, of course.

Right. But how we react and how we attract people, we can control. And I just find that I get way more dialogue and people want to be, you know, in a conversation with you when you have that energy and you're positive. So, yeah, I'm just an avidist and I'm fantastic. Unbelievably great. Thank you. Right on. Hey, let me shift the conversation here a little bit. I know earlier on, we talked about

your health and things like that and what you work on. Let me say a few words here and get your perspective on this because you're a business leader and business leaders need to understand that life is not just about leading a business. It's about life, self, family, finance, faith. Business is just one of those, you know, like eight components of it. Um, how can someone learn from your balanced goals and your, you know, I say multi-intentional goals because there's really no such thing as balance, but it's, it's intention. How can someone learn from your advice on that? What do you have to share with that? You know, I mean, I think just, you know, all the sayings that you heard when you were a kid, you know, you are what you eat.

And the older you get, the wiser you get. And a million other sayings, they're all true. They always stood the test of time because, you know, they're all true. And I think you learn you know um it was interesting because talking about david linderger last time we were together he said to me i said to us actually there's sort of three stages he said you know there's the young years where you're 20 30 40 and you're earning you're working hard at all costs it doesn't matter how many hours you're just earning and then when you finally get uh you know maybe 40 mid 40s through

your 50s you know even into your 60s you're learning you become so much better you've taken all that energy of those earning years now these are your learning years and that's where you become really smart that includes your health and your personal development and your family relationships and that balance and then he said obviously when you get a little bit older you hit your late 60s or 70s you get to the point where you're yearning. You just go, oh my God. I look back to the days when I had that youthful energy and all those experiences. So for me, I always look for hacks or always look for ways. I take my health and my family balance more than ever. I've always been fairly good at balance. I run really hard. So when I go to work and let's say I work eight hours a day, let's say it's eight

to four or nine to five or whatever I work, right? My office door is closed. My head is down. I'm making calls and following up. I have my vital tasks, but even when I used to travel 150 days a year, you know, I would fly home every single Friday afternoon, like religiously, and I would fly out every Monday morning religiously because I needed the weekend for my family. I wasn't going to sacrifice that, you know? So that balance is something that, you know, is as important in your life as your businesses. And guess what? It's going to be hard work. Trying to do everything is excruciatingly hard. We don't always like what we're doing when we build our business. I mean, it's painstakingly, it's gross. It's so hard sometimes. But I love the result. I love being number one in Canada. I love dominating the

market. And I just understand that trying to find that balance and the actual commitment to getting there is not expected to be easy. Exactly. Wow. Some major leadership principles here from Gary Morris, CEO, founder of Dominion Lending. You're a great friend. You're a great leader. I mean, a man of intention, but a man of kindness as well. We talked, giving bicycles to needy kids and some of the other amazing things you're doing. Uh, Gary, I have one question I ask every one of our guests on this show, and I'm sure you have an amazing answer to this. And that is, how do you start your day with a win? You know, interesting. Uh, it really, I've sort of changed. I mean, I'm really focused now on my sleep, trying to get eight hours of

sleep, uh, every single night. And then when I get up, I find that I have lots to unload. So the first thing I do every single morning is I just find a very, very quiet spot, right? And I grab a book that I'm reading, or maybe I want to read a chapter or something. And I just sit down with a hot cup of coffee and a good book for 15 or 20 minutes every single day. And then usually I follow it by either my yoga session or a walk or a 60 minute walk outside. And for me, it's just something that, you know, has become sort of second nature for me. I like that nourishment early in the morning with reading something that I'm reading. I'm reading all about plant-based eating right now. And, you know, and a lot of, you know, like heart health books and that sort of stuff. And, you know, that quiet

time first thing in the morning, followed by yoga or a long walk is vital to me. It's very important. Awesome. Great information, Gary. Great advice from an amazing leader. Thank you so much for being on Start With A Win. And I look forward to seeing you soon, my friend.

Adam, listen, I've known you for a long time and I've gotten to know you really well in the last few years. You are an exceptional leader. You're just way more important than that. You're just such a good human being. You just absolutely care. So I appreciate you having me on today. Mark, really good to meet you and continue the great work guys that you continue to do. Awesome. Thank you. Thanks, Gary. You're welcome. Thank you for listening to Start With A Win. If you haven't yet, subscribe. Click on that subscribe button and then you'll get episodes

every single Wednesday. And for more great content, head over to adamcontos.com and sign up for the Leadership Factory. You won't want to miss out. Until next time, remember, start with a win.