How Focus Fuels JJ Mazzo and Gavin Ekstrom

Gavin: Welcome to CCM Talks. My name is Gavin Ekstrom and I’m with the great JJ Mazzo. Today we’re just going to do an interview style, ask some questions back and forth to hopefully help you impact your business and continue the growth. Thank you for being here.  

JJ: Thanks for having me, buddy. Good to have you here too. 

Gavin: It’s been a great event. What have been some of the takeaways that you’ve learned just this morning in the early breakout?  

JJ: I mean, I think, you know, the, the scaling and integrating technology and AI and how to use it properly for your branding in the marketplace and how to utilize social media to scale like Tom Ferry did.   

I mean, you know, prior, I was like, if you could teach us all exactly how you do what you do, that’d be great. He’s like, okay. And he literally went up there and gave us his exact strategy from going from, you know, $10 million to $75 million in revenue. So for us to be able to have that blueprint to replicate is, is valuable. 

Gavin: Are you embracing AI or is there a fear around AI?  

JJ: I love it. Like yours, you’re, I know you and your AI or like best friends. Mine is like, it’s like I have Albert Einstein to help me strategize and, and like, what’s the word I want to use? Strategize. And just like spitball, that’s spitball on, like ideas. 

So it helps me be really creative and scale that creativity way faster than I ever was before. I love it, so I embrace it and I’m all about leverage and scaling. So if I can utilize technology to do that, I’m going to embrace it all day long.  

Gavin: Technology is a big component to minimize burnout in today’s market, but with all we’ve dealt with over the 36 months, and it’s still lingering, how have you continued to not just stay complacent, but actually rise in this environment where most people are burning out and taking it, throttling it back? I’m watching you writing a book, partnering on a coaching program, and it’s like full throttle. How are you, how are you minimizing or not coming up to burnout?  

JJ: I think I focus, every day I spend two hours on my mind, body and soul before I start the day. So we’re in a business where for both of us, right? People are taking withdrawals all day long. And so I need to make sure the cash machine is full, that I’m putting in those deposits myself before I start the day. And high accountability and coaching. 

I have lots of coaches and lots of outside counsel to help me in all areas of my life that I leverage to be able to help me through that and hold me accountable. And then I just find that sometimes we cut ourselves short from the standpoint of what we think we can handle versus what we can actually handle. 

And I think what we can handle when our tank’s half full versus what we can handle when our tank is full, or two totally different things. So making sure I focus on keeping the tank full mind body spirit so that I can output a whole lot more for other people, for myself.  

Gavin: So I understand that. But you can’t pour from an empty cup. And so who and how are you filling your cup? Is it the mind body, soul that that actually helps you fill your cup and take us deeper into that then?  

JJ: Yeah. So for me, it’s my faith. So my faith in Christ, it’s also my workouts in the morning. It’s my meditation in the morning. It is spending quiet time. So it is about 2.5 hours journaling, reading, I mean, if I go through my whole thing, visualization, I mean, I take the time to really set that aside every morning, and I wake up early to do it. And I love waking up early. So 4:30 is when my day starts. 7:30 when my, my me time is over, and then I get dressed and then hit the ground running at 8:00. So I just that time for me is is everything.  

Gavin: How long is that practice been into play? Is it new for you?  

JJ: It’s newer. It’s been in play for about a year and a half. A year and a half, maybe pushing two years now. Prior to that, I probably, you know, I was 80 pounds heavier. I was stressed out. I had multiple layers and levels of anxiety, in all areas of my life. And, and when I read a book called the 5 a.m. club by Robin Sharma, who’s one of my favorite authors. And by the way, I didn’t read a book for 25 years, and now I read two books a month.  

So it’s those things that those limiting beliefs and those things we tell ourselves that are total BS, that when you do hard things, you push through them, it builds confidence and increases performance in all areas of our lives. And so after I read that book, I put a routine together and it started small. I had one thing that I did two things and three things and four things and and now I have just an array of things that I do in the morning time and in the evening time because it feels good, you know? 

So it used to be, wake up in the morning, eat some donuts, smoke a cigarette, get rid of the hangover, start work at 6:30. Right, and then grind till 8:00. Drink till I passed out like, those aren’t great habits. And I think a lot of times when you’re stressed, when you’re stressed out and you’re in a sales environment, it’s highly competitive and you want to win really, really good. You can either have the good habits or the bad habits. And until it is that you take the time to really embrace them, know what they are, and have someone help hold you accountable to those, and you’re going to go with the path of least resistance, which is, you know, donuts, smoking and booze.  

Gavin: How would someone get started? What would be one tip that you could give them today, that they could get started? 

JJ: To get their mind, body and soul? Man, I would just say, get up, get up in the morning, read and move. Read and move. Like, read, move and pray. If you just did those things and I don’t care, moving, I’m not saying do a crazy workout like we do, but then you just get up and go for a 45-minute walk. And if you want to lead a read, listen to an audiobook.  

And then just just gratitude. Man, if you just wake up and the first thing you do is fill your mind with all the things that you’re grateful for and how blessed we are, then it doesn’t stand to all of the negativity bias that’s going to come your way through the rest of the day, which is very easy to overtake. 

Gavin: Yeah, you hadn’t read a book in 25 years. Now a USA Today Bestsellers list with your first book. One of many, I hope. But did that help inspire you to be able to write it?  

JJ: It did, you know, for me, writing the book was man, it was just something that as I was going through some transformation in my, in my life after my father passed, it was on my heart, you know, we were going through the branding stuff with impact. And then I went and did the branding stuff for my own business. I was having like, an identity, like, how do I wrap all these hats I wear into one? And out of that came this format for the book. And then it was, oh, you should talk to this person and oh, you should talk to Wiley. And oh, you should do this. 

And I just followed the thread. And I think a lot of times people are have a thread to pull, and a lot of times we don’t pull it. This time I just pulled it and kept pulling it, and I’m still pulling it and seeing what comes out the other side. It didn’t have any intentions other than making sure it was going to be a bestseller, because I’m like, if we’re going to do it, we got we got to do it big. 

And then having amazing support from, you know, from Ron and, and you know, CCM and all of the other coaches and people in my life. So it’s been a blessing.  

Gavin: Did you find that book helped you identify your purpose? Because I feel like sometimes I’m chasing what is my purpose now? I’ve done all of the things and it’s like, well, what’s next? And so I feel like even today as I’m sitting here talking to you is I’m chasing purpose, right. How did you lock into that? Now I feel like you know your purpose more than ever before.  

JJ: I definitely, it definitely guided me towards when you’re reading about your past. So it it did a few things. I had to become more at peace with my past. And in doing so, my purpose became more clear through my faith. And, you know, my faith was in my head. It wasn’t in my heart. And after my father passing at 45 and I was, I was 45, he was 90. So we’re talking half life. Right. And I took care of him for about 15 years prior to that. And you’re expecting it, you know.  

And when that all came to head at the exact same time, it was just this, this area that just all happened at once, man. And and I think just embracing it. And once it is that I was able to do that, then I had found my purpose through my faith. And then in doing so, as a man of faith, it’s how to give, how to help, how to push, which just happens to be really what we do every day, whether it’s helping CCM or helping loan officers, or whether it’s helping at impact or anything else. 

Gavin: Yeah, I feel like the one reason I haven’t had burnout is I, I do what I love that I’m passionate about and now is tying that purpose to it. And so before we get to the next question that you’re going to ask me, is there another book inside you?  

JJ: Yeah. There is. So we’re almost done with the second one, which is, these devotional. So part of my morning routine is I write devotionals, I send them out to the entire division every day, and those have been collected. And we have a year’s worth of those. So those will be coming next. So exciting. I just, you know, you just want to focus on one thing at a time and execute. And so I feel like we’ve done that. And and now it’s time to, you know, go on to to the next one.  

Gavin: What did you learn from this book about you?  

JJ: That I still had to make peace with my past. You know, when you when you’re writing a book and you’re you’re telling your story in that book, you have to realize you’re telling their story. And maybe you’ve, you know, you’ve like, you’ve got through therapy, you’ve thought about it, you’ve lived through it, whatever. 

But when you have to read it six, eight, ten times and edit it for accuracy, so you’re making sure the story’s very, very accurate, right? Like, like, I’m pretty sure that my mom was pregnant when she when she had me and my dad got married and I went to go get their marriage certificate so that I because I couldn’t remember their wedding date. 

And it’s locked down and I can’t like it requires a judge to unseal it, which I found was really, really weird. And it just things like that. You’re like, well, now we got to deal with this. That’s pretty strange. So you have to really go through and really get the details right and live through that. So that was the biggest surprise. 

Gavin: Love it. Love it. All right.  

JJ: All right. Here we go, Mr. Gavin. So how do you define impact in your career today? You know, knowing career and, you know, home life and everything. But how do you define impact in your career? And I would add to that life.  

Gavin: Yeah. So I’m going to be more vulnerable than just giving you the cliche of working in business, but understanding being present where you are. So often in life with my kids, I would be there, but I wasn’t really there because I was focused on something else. And the minute that I shifted that, I’m going to be present where my feet are and be present in the time, and that God’s given me that time with these children, I’m not going to be here forever. They’re not going to be here forever. And just knowing that those are opportunities for me to impact their life in a positive way.  

And so I take those moments as coaching moments. I was sitting at dinner last night with a group and my daughter called me, and so I took the calling and she starts rambling off and she goes, wait, it sounds really loud. Where are you? And I’m like, I’m at a business meeting. And she goes, dad, but I just want to tell you, I did five interviews, nailed all five of them, got an opportunity to go work for Ralph Lauren. And they asked me the question, where did you get my your work ethic? And she said, so, dad, I was just calling to tell you that I got my work ethic from you. So thank you. And so I said, baby, I’ll call you. I’ll call you a little later. I’m super proud of you.  

But just taking those moments, like when I take a kid to to practice or to school, not taking a work call or a friend call, it’s like, hey, the 15-minute drive, I’m going to give you better coaching than the two hours with your actual coach, because I’m going to teach you on life. And so telling them, hey, these are some of the things that I’ve done wrong. These are that this is the path I see you going down.  

I always remember my mom saying, show me your friends and I’ll show you your future. And I didn’t really understand that. Right. And so then as you get older, you’re like, that’s what she meant. And so I’m telling my older son, I’m like, hey, son. Like, listen, show me your friends and I’ll show you your future. I said, I see some of your friends that that they’re good kids. They need your leadership. Yeah, they need your guidance. They don’t know it yet because they’re immature, but they’re they’re yearning for it. They want that. 

So, so reach a hand out to them, be vulnerable with them and lead them. Because that’s what God made you as a leader and continue to do that.  

JJ: When did that switch for you? You know, I know, you know, when you’re in sales and crazy, you know, we’re crazy people and you’re you’re as competitive as anybody. When did that really switch from you? I mean, you have six kids. They range all over the place, you know. So you know, and we always joke, right. Like, man, I hope I don’t screw them up. And you think you screw them up and then they get older. You’re like, I didn’t screw them up. Right. So when did that where did that being in the present, in that moment clicked for you? 

Gavin: November 6, 2023. When my daughter was diagnosed with leukemia. That was the day that, nothing else matters.  

JJ: Nothing else matters.  

Gavin: Yeah. It was that shift of, hey, you don’t want that for any child, but she has it. So now how are you going to make sure that she’s embraced and loved all the way through, but your other children are not going to be forgotten.  

And so that was the shift where I just said, hey, this is where God needs me, this is where I need me. And so just focusing more in that space than and letting everything else work itself out, my team rose up, the company rose up, and you rose up. Everybody put their arms around me, letting me know that, hey, it’s going to be okay. And that this is in God’s hands. And, you just this is just one more thing.  

I love where Ed Mylett says life happens for you, not to you. And so this was just one of those things that it was happening for us, and we just had to figure out why. And I think we’ve come to terms with that. And on January 17 of ‘26, she’ll ring the bell and, it will be a chapter that my wife gets to write about in her book.  

So yeah. Yeah. But, I think impact is all around us. I think it’s a choice. Right. And, just by opening impact comes in such small little forms, it could be just seeing a lady and opening the door for her. I do that all the time. Is if I see a lady coming in, I’ll wait and hold the door for her.  

JJ: I saw you do that with Kimberly here.  

Gavin: Yeah, yeah. It just makes an impression on them that you can change the trajectory of their whole day. Right? And so I just look for the little opportunities to make a big impact. And I think that I’ve lived my life that way. Watching my mom work three jobs and no one really pouring into her cup and doing everything I could as a young man to do that for her. It’s just carried on to my adulthood.  

JJ: How do you stay grounded? You know, throughout all the success that you’ve had, how do you stay grounded? 

Gavin: That’s a good question. I, I think I’m the same person that that, I’m still a little shit. I’m still the, I want to be the energy of the room, and I want to have fun. But I want to show a lot of love. And so I think that just over time that you realize that any of this can go away and you’re left with just yourself and your family and your friends, and so don’t do anything to disrupt that and keep that as close as you can. 

And just understanding that, this is all, you know, we talk about God a lot, and my faith isn’t as strong as yours. I’m working on it. But this is all for him. It’s for nobody else. And it’s like, you know, you have a nice shirt. Well, this will end up in my son’s closet and eventually at goodwill. 

It’s just stuff. And so enjoy what you can do. It don’t, value over vanity and just be humble. Be the same person because you were once there. You were once there. And so just making sure that they realize that you remember those days that you’re not so far removed for it either.  

JJ: What, what is your, as a high performer, what is your biggest insecurity?  

Gavin: Love, still being loved. That’s the thing I’m in therapy and I’m I’m okay to admit it, but when I look back at it, it’s like, I just want to be loved. Yeah. There’s a difference between like and love, right? I can like many people, but I like the embrace and love and, that’s that’s truly it. I just want to be loved by many. 

JJ: I love it, yeah. I love you, buddy. So how do you, we’ll change gears. How do you help originators? Because I feel like you’re really good at this in your marketplace, right? How do you help originators stand out in the marketplace today? How do they really differentiate yourself? What advice do you give them?  

Gavin: Yeah, just just focusing on what works for them. Right. It’s not a one size fits all. Some some loan officers may want to be on social, some run from social. Some may want to do events and some may just want to do a one on one rather than a one to many. So really honing in and identifying what moves the needle for them. And then just building a system structure process with the right people to support that avenue.  

And it’s super simple. It’s like every year and I’ll do it again this year is is a T-Square of of what you love and what you don’t like to do. And then let’s just focus on what you love to do. Because if we can just focus on those 3 or 4 things and find somebody else to take care of the rest, it’s magic. It’s magic. And I think so many people don’t take the time to really hone in on that, or they don’t even know the skill set to really just, hey, let’s just focus on what stay in your lane of what you’re really good at doing. And if we just rinse and repeat that, it’s not like going to work. I haven’t gotten to work in like ten, 15 years.  

JJ: And I think that because you have a coaches, coaches mindset, you know, which kind of segways me to my next question is how do you translate a coaching mindset into your own business results? 

Gavin: Gosh, that’s a tough question too, because, I, I practice what I preach, right? And so if I’m coaching on it, I have to be doing it in my own day to day. Other than otherwise, I’m a hypocrite. And so when I made the transition of partnering with you and starting impact, it was I didn’t believe in that model that I was doing. And it wasn’t it wasn’t for me. And so I’m coaching on something that I truly didn’t believe in, and I wasn’t doing it in my own business. And so now we have the platform where I’m coaching on what I believe in. I’ve got proof of concept, and I’m doing it every single day without without fail. Consistently. 

JJ: Yeah yeah yeah. That it’s that this that self accountability. Through integrity. Right. That helps which listen we I can say for myself, I haven’t always had integrity in all aspects of my life at all. But as you get older and you get wiser and you gain wisdom and you get closer to your faith, suddenly it’s a thing. And the more that you do it, you start realizing how much that that self accountability and outside accountability really does move the needle and make you know it makes a big difference.  

Gavin: And it goes back to the first question you asked about impact. It’s taking all that wizardry and wisdom. And teaching your younger self you’re best equipped to teach your younger self. And so taking that opportunity to do that not just in business but in life. So again, going back to my son’s friends, well, I have those same friends that over time I keep them at a distance, but they’re still friends. And so it’s understanding that and being able to to share that with them from your lens. So they then see it too. 

And it takes a lot of time. Like we’re stubborn even as adults think of us as kids. And so it’s just identifying that. And I think every, every opportunity is a coaching moment. But you also have to be careful when I approach my wife or I approach my kiddos, I have to ask them, hey, is this a coaching moment or is this a listening moment? 

JJ: Yeah, I’m working on that. You’re really good at that. I mean, you are. You know how we got close, I remember was because you’re really, really great at asking questions. Where does that curiosity come from? Because I’ve known you a long time. I don’t know that you’ve always been like that, but I feel as though you’ve always been like that, but you really have honed it down. And when you’re as curious as you are about other people, it’s just. It is fuel on the fire in building relationships and trust. And I think that’s really something that we can all take pages from. Where does that come from?  

Gavin: Yeah, just truly, as a young man, always being curious and wanting to know more, that I wasn’t going to be the kid that’s going to sit down and study. But I’m going to ask you the questions to help me get the answers that I’m looking for and just not being afraid of it. And so if I feel like if I’m interested in you, I’m going to ask you those questions. And there’s not many people that I’m not interested in really getting to know them. And, you know, I’ve had some questions where I’ll just tell you, I was with Jesse Itzler, and I know him and David Goggins have some strife between them. 

And, so I was in backstage talking to Jesse at our event and leading up to the question that I really wanted to ask, and I said, tell me about your relationship with David. And he said, David who? I said, David Goggins. He said, what’s your next question? Just didn’t want to touch it. Right. And so sometimes you can go too far and then you got to know to pull back. 

But it’s truly out of being curious. I think as a, as a young man and as you get older, you lose that curiosity. And I think that’s what the world needs is more curious people. So I tell my kids right now is just don’t ever lose that curiosity, really want to learn and always be growing and have that growth mindset because the person that may impact your life the most may not be the person that you actually think would. 

JJ: Yeah, that’s the truth. When I when I look back now, all of those people are those people.  

Gavin: Yeah. So you had this amazing, amazing career and you’re not done. You’re not done.  

JJ: I’m not dead yet.  

Gavin: Yeah, but what does this next era look like for you? Where are we going, JJ?  

JJ: I don’t know, buddy. I, you know, you know, I work with my coaches to, to hone that in. I’m focused on the here and now. So I’m focused on scaling and growing, the business here at CrossCountry. I’m focused on building the best manufacturing line of loans that we can for the division, in conjunction with all the tools at CrossCountry, and working to do so in order to increase profitability and drive down interest rates the very best that we can with what we can control. Right. We can’t control the outside things. I mean, that is my focus. And then making sure, though, this year I am focusing on making sure that I have creative time set aside. You know, when we talk about forgetting, about leaving curiosity behind, I think we also leave creativity behind. 

And doing this book had really sparked a lot of creativity. That brings me joy, that helps me in all the other aspects of my business. So now, as I go into business planning, into next year for the team and the division and everything else, it’s from a how can I make this better? And really having some fun with it and having, you know, chat, be able to be there to spitball with and just make this how can I make this super cool and super efficient and super profitable and super fun and make it better? So really taking that creative approach as I go into the next year and setting aside time for that and making it a priority is what I’m doing.  

Gavin: How much time are you spending in the business versus on the business?  

JJ: I spend one day a week working on the business. I work on financials every single week. So I would say I spend five hours or 5 to 6 hours on financials, and I dive deep. I dive deep into the branches, I dive deep into mine. And then I spend time working on the business. So I have on Fridays is my work on business day. I have an agenda. These are the things that I do every single week. So it’s going to be thank you cards, reviewing financials, checking and returning all tax emails, voicemails, etc. It’s going to be preparing for then the other is preparing for all the meetings next week.  

So then I have a list of all the meetings or presentations and things that I’m doing the next week so that I create the preparation around those, and then anything additional that I might have that’s coming up. So then the following Monday, I just execute the play, I grab the play and I run the play. 

Gavin: With the technology that CCM provides, which is so robust and ahead of the competition, what are some of your favorite tools that you use at CCM? 

JJ: I would say the Cube from a marketing standpoint, from a personal producer, it’s going to be Total Expert because it is on steroids. And it’s it’s fantastic. And I think that’s just something I need to dive in more and more and more because it just it evolves so fast. 

And then I do love, the prospecting tools, you know, a loan prospecting tool, the realtor prospecting tool, getting it how it all sorts. And I love the financial tools, man. For me, like, you know, Ron, I’ll tell you when I came here, it’s like. And I was telling everyone in our class today, I was like, I came here and I lost a lot of money really, really fast. 

And Ron’s like, what are you doing? I’m like, not sure I know, buddy. I just got it. And we worked really, really hard to turn that around. So once you really understand, you start seeing the matrix, so to speak, then, man, that reporting system that we have in Edge and then some of the new ones that that the accounting team and Glen has come out with our next level, man.  

What used to take me for reports and hours a time and I can pull this up really quick, see and identify where the area of pain is so we can address it and then just move past it.  

Gavin: How much has the servicing of CCM servicing the loans at CCM? How much is that helped you not only in a refinance market, but stay in front of your your past client base? 

JJ: Well, man, I mean, having my ugly mug on every single mortgage statement doesn’t doesn’t doesn’t hurt, right? I mean, they’re seeing it over and over again. And I think the biggest thing is, man, you were in the same correspondent business that I was, right? They sell every single loan or you broker all your loans. And then you could kiss kiss that client’s ass goodbye.  

And then nowadays you’re already going to get people pounding on it just from a technology standpoint. So for us to have a system where our CEO’s really one of his top goals is to retain as many of our clients as possible. I couldn’t be in more of a alignment because that’s obviously our goal as well. So it’s really just integrating that at every chance that we can. 

Gavin: And how often are you using that as we wrap up, how often are you using that in recruiting? Because I feel like it’s a it’s an unfair competitive advantage we have at CCM and we’re spoiled. But yet the competition doesn’t quite understand it.  

JJ: No they don’t. I think I just I’ll ask probing questions like, so what does your company do to help you keep your current past clients? What what happens when that loan gets sold to another servicing? Do you find that in doing so that you tend to have more competition that you used to when you have them? So I think asking those right probing questions and then just utilizing especially now the rapid refi tool man, I mean, to be able to go in from an efficiency standpoint, identify, make calls. 

Like I joke around, I was like, dude, I can pay my kid like 200 bucks a file to do refi. She’s never done a loan in her life because it’s really just that comprehensive. Obviously there’s a little bit more to it, but seriously, to be able to find it, identify it, bust out my HP 12C calculator would take me 35 minutes to be able to do something. Now that I just look and I go, oh, click, you know.  

Gavin: I think that’s one of the attributes of Ron. It’s like taking the complex and making it simple. And that’s what that’s what CCM is about. 

JJ: 100%. Yeah that’s my theme of the year is simplify and do it daily.  

Gavin: Well this has been awesome. It’s been a lot of fun. I’d love to do it daily. So maybe we can make that happen.  

JJ: Yeah. Let’s do it again, brother. Thanks.  

Gavin: Thanks.