Jason Smith on Serving Veterans Through VA Loans

Kyle: Hello, I’m Kyle Johnson. This is CCM Talks, and I’m joined by Jason Smith, the regional vice president at CrossCountry Mortgage.  

Jason: Yes, sir.  

Kyle: Jason, the number three Veteran originator in the country.  

Jason: Yeah, I appreciate that. You’re killing it on the VA side yourself, too. Like you do a ton of VA. We talk all the time on our trips.  

Kyle: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, man. How does that feel to be in the number three? I’m sure that wasn’t your goal coming into the mortgage business.  

Jason: No, I didn’t even know it existed until we started. You know, just pushing forward. It’s, it’s, it’s pretty amazing. You know, I take it serious, being a Veteran myself. I think the the VA community is underserved. I think the the lack of understanding of guidelines and the flexibility within almost like frustrates me. It gives me, like, a passion to take care of them.  

Kyle: Right. Finding, finding someone who when you, when you see another client out there and they’re told no right from another, from another lender, they come to you and they’re like, I told I was told I couldn’t do this. And you’re able to find the solution because you understand the guidelines.  

Jason: Yeah. And it’s literally sometimes just reading one paragraph down. Where you can make an exception. I’m sure you go through that all the time. You do a ton, Kyle. And it’s, it’s just frustrating, but it gives me passion for it. That’s the positive part, where I want to come in like the knight in shining armor and save the day. And they make it easy for us to, like, look good in the transaction.  

Kyle: Right, right. No, I agree. CrossCountry, what I, what I always say is CrossCountry doesn’t limit the benefit. You know, you have a lot of lenders who have the overlays restrictions to the VA benefit with minimum credit score requirements or max concessions or how you can apply the concessions. So there’s all these different things that really CrossCountry kind of steps out of the way, allows us to really serve the Veteran client and, and just do whatever the guidelines allow us to do.  

Jason: Oh, I call the regional underwriting manager. And I’m like, hey, this is the scenario. And she’s like, yeah, let’s do it. That’s like almost the answer every time. High debt ratio. Who cares? We’ll still do it. 

Kyle: If the VA allows it, we’re not going to stand in the way. I love that. Now, how has your Military service shaped your leadership and approach in the mortgage business? 

Jason: So interesting enough, I was, air traffic controller in the Military. So, like, in the in the tower, in the radar room. And there’s different positions you can achieve and become tower supervisor. And I found out that even though I might have been a lower rank, I could still be in charge of guys that are higher ranks by achieving these higher positions. So all I did was just read the air traffic control handbook constantly. I mean written by attorneys, so very similar to what we do already. 

Kyle: Sounds like the VA handbook.  

Jason: Yeah. Just, just knowledge is power. And then I ended up being in charge of people that were several ranks above me by being the tower supervisor. And I figured out that life is all what you make of it. It’s if you are disciplined and you go after it hard enough that you’re going to beat out everybody else. And that gave me the ability to see that even though I was in a lower rank in the Military. Plus, you know, just morning rituals and discipline from the Military, I’ve just carried that over to this career, too. 

Kyle: Yeah. Being an LO is very much so what you make it, so there’s loan officers who are a little bit more casual. But I agree, if you can, if you can approach it, discipline, if you can show up to the office every day, like I think the sky’s the limit, especially at a place like CrossCountry, that really just kind of opens the lid to to what you can do and what you can accomplish.  

Jason: Oh yeah, Ron’s the shining example of that. He’s one of the most disciplined guys you can meet. He does not miss workout anymore. In all his mornings he hits it every day.  

Kyle: I love that. I love that. Now, what parallels do you see between Military service and mortgage lending? You kind of talked about some routines and rituals. We talked about the handbook a little bit, but what are some parallels that you see? 

Jason: I think if you look at something amongst most top producers, they have morning rituals. They get up, they work out, they take care of themselves. They get their mind right. They do meditation like I do, whatever it is. Military does a lot of that. First thing you do, you get up in morning workout, right? 

And then, I mean, just the discipline and the attention to every detail, like, everything little thing matters. In the Military, from when you’re folding your clothes to everything else. So every little part of the application, every little part of the transaction, every little bit matters because we know how bad something can go for just one little silly thing. 

Kyle: Yeah. And it’s interesting because, like, why is that so important? It’s like we make a bed a certain way, we fold clothes a certain way, and it’s like we take applications a certain way. And it’s like that consistency is so key so that you don’t have that little miss because as you know, all it takes is one small miss on income review or income calculation or whatever. And that’s the difference between, you know, a client closing or a loan officer having to call a client, you know, two weeks into a transaction saying, hey, we can’t do your deal.  

Jason: And those are learning moments, right? When you break from your traditional way you do things with your systems and everything like that. You’ll notice that usually that’s when there’s the mistakes. 

Kyle: Absolutely.  

Jason: So you learn from that and then you become so you almost lose your mind in the process, in the process where your OCD kicks in so bad that you’re just so similar in everything you do every day.  

Kyle: Yeah, yeah. So so you’re known for this discipline and motivation. What’s like one of your top things that you feel like you do that keeps you on track, is the first part of the question? I also want to know how to keep your team fired up.  

Jason: I know it sounds silly. It’s an old school way of doing things, but every day I come in, rewrite my to do list of everything I have to do that day. Non-negotiable and everything like that. I get in before the staff every morning. 

Kyle: What time?  

Jason: I try to get it around like 7:30. Okay. Before everybody comes in, before the madness. So, I can get my day set aside without them coming to my office and just going, hey, we got a problem here, we got a problem. At least I can get set up for success before they come in.  

Kyle: Yeah. Okay. And how do you keep the team fired up? 

Jason: I mean, I, I keep preaching to them that there is a higher calling, a purpose behind this because we are really helping families. We do a lot of first-time homebuyers, FHA, VA stuff that people don’t want to do. But they can see through the amount of transactions that we’re doing that their success in that, and it really feels genuine, like you’re actually helping people.  

So they get to stay, you know, I preach that, you know, this is the butterfly effect, right? Like, even if the client is a huge pain in the butt. They have kids. One day the kids are going to get that equity, and one day they’re going to do something with that for themselves. And it’s not just about that one person. It’s about everybody involved.  

Kyle: Well, and it’s like we’re taking someone in the most, one of the most stressful things of their life, you know? So I always try, I always try and remind my team like give tremendous grace because they’re facing these challenges. That’s stressful. It’s a lot of money. I always make a joke like it’s not every day it’s been a half a million bucks.  

Jason: Well you’re right. So great way to say it is, your clients are your children. They’re going to do stupid things, be silly, make mistakes. You just can’t tear them apart and get mad at them. You just have to take a step back and go, they’re just going to do this. Okay, now we have to figure out how to fix this basically. Just give them grace. Just like you’re saying.  

Kyle: Yeah, but I like what you said to remind our our team of the why. Like why we do what we do. Because it’s so easy to get in the mundane in the transaction. So taking the moments of like your client gives you a good feedback. You get a great review. A team member, I love when a team member gets mentioned in a review and I get to share it with my team and said, hey, Jill, you got, you know, you got referenced and, and they find so much joy in that. 

Jason: Yeah. Exactly.  

Kyle: Yeah. Yeah. So so speaking about like social media, you’ve built a powerful social media presence. So what’s your secret to staying authentic and relevant? Because I think that that’s like kind of a missing piece. I think some people are so scripted. How do you do that?  

Jason: I appreciate that. I wish my social media was bigger, but yeah, it’s it’s not bad. It’s been organic the whole way. I’ve stayed true to myself. And I just make sure that I’m putting out content that just really is informative. A lot of people are like, why are you putting that out? Your competition is going to learn from it. Most of the time when the competition listens to it, they still can’t implement it. Right?  

So it’s, it’s not about them. It’s about the clients out there and putting out real content and actually just being that guiding light in the industry to like, give people hope, you know, because some people, even lenders or even clients are just one step away from doing something great. And hopefully if I put that out there and that makes them take that one more step forward and all of a sudden things start clicking for them. That’s why I do it.  

Kyle: I love that it’s like I always say knowledge is power. And I you know, my job is to help my clients make a well-informed decision, right? So like, I’m going to tell you what you can and can’t do. And like through our consultation process, we’re going to determine, you know, what, what should you or shouldn’t you do? 

Jason: And you’re genuine, Kyle. Like every time I’ve met you, like you’ve been super genuine through your social, through everything. It’s it feels good too, right? Just your genuine person. 

Kyle: I think, I think it’s, again, it’s, it’s a reminder of, like, why we do what we do and getting fired up to, like, help the client, you know, make this big move, show them what was, what they thought was not possible. 

Jason: 100%. 

Kyle: So, I love that note. Now, obviously, we connect because we both work with a lot of Military. It’s a huge part of what I do. As a Veteran yourself, that’s, that’s a unique thing because I’m not a Veteran. But what does serving Veterans through the VA loans mean to you as a Vet yourself? 

Jason: I mean, for me, I think if you’re a loan officer and you don’t understand VA, you’re doing wrong by your country because these people went out there and gave the ultimate sacrifice to be away from their families, to do everything else, that if you’re going to do VA loans, then you better understand them. You know, it’s your duty to do so. 

Kyle: Yeah. It’s, it’s the only program that’s actually a benefit. Which again, is like I try and keep that reminder in place like with my team and stuff like, hey, these guys earned this, right? And as a Veteran, like there’s a lot of benefits, and as you know, like a lot of Veterans don’t really know what they’re entitled to. 

Jason: Exactly, it’s crazy.  

Kyle: So we have to educate along the process.  

Jason: I think the best way to put it is they served you, so you have to serve. That’s the best way to do it. 

Kyle: Yeah. Love it man. Yeah. So, so something you say is there’s no big or small task. What does that mean? 

Jason: So it comes from an old samurai saying basically. So when the guys went to to go train, they didn’t get a sword, they didn’t get anything. The first thing they had to do was clean decks, clean, you know, banisters, clean the building, do everything. But they had to do everything 100, like there was no step left out of the process. And then one day they might get to pick up a wooden sword and train basically. 

It’s the same thing with everything else. In what we do for a living, one little step, one little mistake makes a huge difference in a transaction, makes a huge difference in the experience for the client. So I preach on the fact that everything matters that you do. You have to do it 100 no matter what. Accomplish the task, because that will come back to haunt you later on. 

Kyle: Yeah dude, I love that. I love that idea. So I got one final question for you.  

Jason: Go for it.  

Kyle: What does the next phase in your business look like? What are you gonna do next?  

Jason: I’m going to beat Matt Weaver.  

Kyle: Haha.  

Jason: No offense, Matt. I love ya. I’m taking coaching from you, but I’m going to beat Matt. I’ve said it every company I’ve worked at and I’ve ended up beating the top producers there, step after step after step. I’m just going to lose myself in the process even more, I think. I’m just going to go a little mad and try to push the envelope even further, where I’m going to try to develop a lot of newer agents that I’m working with and to just top producers and see what happens.  

Kyle: You know, I think that’s one of the cool things about CrossCountry is like every time you think you’re like getting close, like I was getting close to crack in the top ten. And, and then we go and we recruit or other people start to just really crush it in their business. There’s always someone that’s doing a little bit better, someone to chase. So, Jason, thanks for paving the way, man, and always setting a great example.  

Jason: I got, I got a path to follow, man, I appreciate that.  

Kyle: Let’s do it. It’s great chatting with you, man.  

Jason: Appreciate it, bro. 

Kyle: Thanks so much for watching CCM Talks.