How We’re Scaling Our Mortgage Company to $1.1 Billion in 2026

Welcome back to Mortgage Daddies. 2025 is officially over, and we’re on to 2026. Uh, I think 2025 was a pretty good year. What do you think? Yeah. Business-wise, 2025, uh, you know, we were able to double our production from, uh, year over year from ’24. So we finished the year about 635 million in, uh, in loans closed, so kudos to everybody at the Milestone team. You guys rocked it this year. And, uh, 2026, man. The sky’s the limit on this one, I think. Uh, you know, if you don’t put it out into the world, I tell people, “If you don’t put your goals out there so everybody can kind of laugh at you and put you down,” when we sat down, we put out a 600 million goal for 2025, there’s a lot of people that even internally were like, “These guys are crazy. “And then we, uh, we hit it. Um, you know, so I think 2026, we put it out to goal 2,400 units for 1. 1 1000000000. So, uh, we have our work cut out for us. But, you know, if you don’t set your goals high, you know, what do you strive for? I’m Vernon. I run the top mortgage brokerage in Massachusetts with over 20 years of experience. I’m Craig. I’ve done $100 million consistently since my second full year in the business and our Massachusetts top mortgage broker. We’re the Mortgage Daddies, with real advice, real stories, and real results. Let’s get going. Somebody used to always say, “Shoot f- shoot for the moon, land on a star,” right? No matter what, you’re gonna end up winning. Uh, I mean, I won’t be happy if we hit like a billion 50-if we’re that close, but, uh, I think 1. 1 billion is a, it’s a fetch. It’s a stretch. It’s, uh, it’s gonna be a lot of hard work from the 100 plus employees that we have here. We’re gonna have to, you know, recruit and, and continue driving and dominating and keep doing the things that we do well here. Yeah, I mean, I think anybody that hit their goals in 2025 was a pretty good year. You know, it wasn’t super easy, and I don’t think most people, uh, probably say that they did better than they expected in 2025 in this market, you know, and I think that just really stems from the culture that we have here. Yeah. You know, from the top down, nobody really has that attitude, which I find, you know, and I see it a little bit in some of the real estate offices that we work at, or you talk to people, and it’s just like, they get so down, like, “Oh, the market’s this, rates are this,” and they almost just throw in the towel before they even start. Yeah. And there’s still plenty of business out there. You just have to work a little bit harder to go get it. Yeah, I mean, listen. Y- you’re, uh, you’re the epitome of consistency, right? You’ve consistently done over $100 million the last 6 years. Uh- 120, but who’s counting? 120 million consistently. I mean, seeing those numbers at $10 million a month on average, month in, month out. Like, kudos to what you’ve done and the growth that you’ve had. And honestly, I know where you’re trying to go in 2026, which is awesome. It’s an insane goal you set for yourself. Um, I really enjoy, and I know you- you know this about me, is seeing the person who’s come over to Milestone, or never been in the business. You know, their best year is 6, 7000000, and, you know, seeing some of those guys in 2024, you know, do 15 million, and then 2025 they’re doing 25, 27, 28 million, and now I’m on the phone talking to them and going over goal setting for 2026, and they’re telling me that their goals are like 40, some of them had $50 million goals, and, uh, deep down in places I don’t usually want to talk about, I know for a fact if they work for 12 months out of the year, and don’t take, you know, large timeoff. Y- you just take a couple days here, take a week off for vacation, everybody’s got to do that, they’re going to hit those goals, right? I mean, they’ve, the processes, the procedures that we have in place, the people we have in place, I think we’re really set up to do, you know, that 1. 1 billion without a lot of crazy growth, right? I mean, 0 obviously we’re going to need some, some help with the market and inventory. I think all those things have kind of slowed down the conversation, right? I’m, I’m not hearing a lot about rates anymore. Like, rates are what they are. They always have been. Everybody just needs to get it out of their heads. The inventory is definitely freed up. So I’m really looking at 2026 as this is a banner coming out year. You know, like, I think a lot of people, even internally myself, like, you and I are almost cut from the same cloth when I say this, like, all right, cool, 2025 was awesome. Patted us on the back. We enjoyed it for a few days. We talked. That’s great. Now it’s like, what’s up for the next goal, right? So, um, you know, somebody asked me the other day, like, “When’s enough going to be enough? “Like, when are you going to stop setting the goal? think about it. 1. 1 billion from 2025’s goal of 600 1000000. That’s almost double year over year. And we haven’t s- not hit those goals, you know, since we started. So, you know, being partnered up with you and looking forward to the future, this is the first year I’ve gone into the business. I didn’t go into it in 2025 where I sat back and reflected over the last couple weeks, it’s slow at the end of December, I take some time off, and you start reflecting on the things that you accomplished and what you didn’t really do well. And then when you can identify the things you haven’t done well and you concentrate on those going forward, I think that this is the best I felt going into a year with the support, the operations staff, the sales staff. Dude, some of the young guns that we have on the team, I mean, I don’t want to call anybody out, but you, you got the Jacob Ashworths, the Jared Mathias. These guys, um, you know, rows, they’re just getting started. You mix that up with a Steve White and a Rob Serpa who are, you know, already in the high 20 1000000, their goals are in the 50s this year, right? Ah- every once in a while you have to t- you know, poke yourself and say, “Is this real life? “Like, I- I remember talking to, uh, a recruit yesterday on the phone down in Texas and he’s like, “You know, how long you guys been in business? “I’m like, “Oh, we’re coming up on 7 years in March. “”Did you”And then he said something, he’s like, “Is this, was this always the plan? “I’m like, “No, the plan was 7 years ago, me and Craig were going to sit on 77 State Road in Dartmouth, we were going to do $100 1000000. “I thought I was going to just be the only $100 million producer. And then Craig comes out, he’s $100 million guy, and then-What ends up happening is, you attract people to the culture, to the way. Everybody wants to know how successful people are doing it. And then when they d- do actually come over and join, they realize there’s no secret sauce. There’s nothing special about what we’re doing here at Milestone other than the culture of the office. So I guess it is special, ’cause not everybody’s doing it. But it’s just hard work, consistency, communication, accountability. Uh, these are all, like, cliché words that people throw around all th- all the time. You’re on Instagram, say the word “accountability”, next thing you know, your Reel is all popped up with that. But if you really break it down, you’re one of the most consistent, and you hold yourself accountable. Like, I’ve never walked in your office and I’m like, “Craig, what’d you do with us today? “Like, no. It just never happens, and I think we finally havecrew around us, right, like the- the- the core group, even a lot of the newer people and the younger studs that we’ve brought in that theySome of them haven’t even closed $3 million in their career yet. And in my head, and Iand we’ve talked about it, I’m pegging these guys to do 15 to 20 million in the first year. That’s a crazy number when you start looking around at the competition that we have in Washington and Texas and Florida and Massachusetts and the markets that we’re really strong in. That’s- that’s like a really good loan officer in a lot of states. If you’re- you’re a really good loan officer if you’re doing 15 or $20 1000000, right, pretty consistently. But we never stop, and I think that’s so, you know, the big differentiator, uh, at Milestone is we just don’t stop. Like, you know, I w- I was on the phone today with Bobby Z on our coaching call. He doesn’t have aHe’s- he’s in a hyper-focused zone right now where he- he wants to hit 50 1000000, 60 1000000, right? He’s got that taste of success. He’s had a great 4th quarter, and he just wants to keep rolling that into, you know, uh, Q1 of 2026. And honestly, it gets me super excited, right, just to see everybody’show many people are in the office. first week into the new year, office is- is jamming, office people are all happy, everybody’s grinding. We’re still closing loans at the same pace we were 3 weeks ago, 3 months ago. Um, I justI can’t be more happy with where we are as a company and as a culture and the people that we’ve all surrounded ourselves with, right? Like, there’s not one person that I walk into the office and I’m like, “Ugh, I wish I didn’t have to see them today. “Right? Like, ’cause we’ve- we’ve been there. We’re likeYou know, in our early days, we’re not gonna say any names ’cause, you know, maybe we have 3 or 4 followers at this point. Um, you know, there were days we were like, “Ugh, I just- I can’t wait to not hear that voice for 12 hours. “”What time do you guys have to go? All right, everybody leave early today, 4 o’clock,” and then we could work until 9 o’clock-peace and quiet. But, um, yeah, I mean, 2026, it’s just gonna be another year, but it’s gonna be another year of, like, growth and opportunity and, uh, you know, I’m excited. Um, you know, even- even the new guy that we just added to Team Snell, uh, Max. I mean, I met Max in the most unusual way I’ve ever found a potentialWe’ll say potential ’cause he hasn’t closed a loan yet. Loan officer. I was, uhMy son’s into sports cards collecting, which we’ll get into, you know, maybe later on, butYou know, he was- he was set up atHe was- he was one of the vendors at his sports card, him and his, 2 or 3 of his buddies. We started talking, he just graduated from West Virginia University with a business degree, he couldn’t find a job. He’s like, “I’ve applied everywhere, nothing. “I said, “Hey, give me a call on Monday. Here’s my contact info at 12 o’clock. “That guy did not call me at 11:59, he didn’t call me at 12:01. At 12 o’clock, my phone rang, and that’s when I knew. I was like, “All right, this kid knows how to tell time. That’s- that’s a first good sign. “And, uh, you know, he’s- he’s just on-boarded, um, you can tell he’s got the drive. Mm-hmm. He’s just got that little it factor where he wants to work, he wants to learn, right? Um, too many times, you know, we get away fromand I’ve gotten away from it. I’m looking for people who want to learn. The more you learn, the more you earn, right? When you start thinking like thatLook at where- where you were. You were like a sponge when you came in. I talk to people all the time, like, “Dude, you’re not gonna be Craig Snell. Like, get that out of your head. “I tell people this all the time, like, “Yes, can you do 100 1000000? But go sit with Craig for a week, a month, and see what he does, how he’s grinding every single day. Do you have that dedication? Do you have that accountability? Do you have that consistency? “AnybodyYou know, we have, we have loan officers here who can have a great quarter. Can you have a great half of the year? Now, can you push that into a great year? What you’re doing is almost unprecedented in our business, right? You’re going on, was it 6 years, 100 million plus that you’ve done? That’s 6 years of doing $100 1000000. And now you can set your goals at, you know, 150 to 200 million for next year and ge- and just keep growing that. How many people do you think woke up and decided to write their goals down going into 2026 and they said, “I’m gonna do $100 1000000. “And they have a track record of doing 50 or 75? There’s not a lot of loan officers out there, right? So, um, you know, one of the things that we talk about is, you know, year over year growth. And, you know, I looked at the, the end of year numbers. We have like 20 loan officers that all went and did 25% more business than they did the year before. That’s wild to me. There was nothing special about 2025, for everybody watching. Interest rates did not go down. The market didn’t free up. There wasn’t an, an immense amount of inventory. It was just a pretty standard kind of run-of-the-mill type year. A lot of people say it was a down year. Um, but to see that many loan officers all increase their business year over year, even somebody that did the same amount or 10%, that’s a great year if that was your goal, right? And that’s what we talk about a lot here. Yeah, I think that, you know, that’s one of the things that we do a great job at here is taking somebody that has maybe plateaued, you know, somewhere else and kinda giving them that kick in the ass that they need to kind of push them and showing them. And when you’re around a bunch of people who are all hitting their goals or all increasing their business andYou know, it’s all about market share. There’s only so many people buying houses. There are only so many people that want to refinance. You have to just go get more market share. You have to go get more business one way or another. You know, you’re not gonnaRates aren’t gonna drop tomorrow and you can just sit back and, and get fat and lazy and just hope that people call you to refinance. You have to go and work one way or the other. And it’s so many people I find in this business kind of like take a while to get going, start getting going, they get some business and then they kind of like, they don’t know how to push it to that next level or they forget some of the things that they did that got them that business and they just kinda get complacent with it. And here, I think that, uh, you know, across the board, you have everybody, the person next to you, the person on that call doing what they’re saying or doing what we’re saying to do, and they’re succeeding and they’re getting bigger commission checks. Yeah. They’re closing more business and it can drive you. And, you know, that kid Max, you know, that you brought on, he, he literallyHe reminds me of me when I first started. Like, and there’s not a lot of people because, you know, when we were just talking about what we’re going to expect, and this is something new for us. I mean, I very rarely have ever brought somebody on as like a brand new loan officer in like a team structure. I haven’t really, I mean, probably since Eric, I haven’t really had somebody on my team really as like a loan officer. But going over like the tasks that he’s gonna do and, and he’s just sitting there and he’s hungry and you know he wants to do it and you know he’s gonna go- Yeah. it’s like a goodIt’s exciting, you know, feeling. And I think that’ll be a big piece of this year for, for us with, with our team, you know, trying to hopefully hit 200 1000000, you know, and break that. Um, you know, I think the closest, uh, probably around 150 million was the most ever, you know, back in 2021 or so, somewhere around there. But to get to 200 million is a big push. And, you know, IYou can’t do it all alone. No. You know, you can’t generate all the business yourself, so having some people that are gonna be in place to do some of those little things that I would say I don’t necessarily have the time for or the drive to do anymore, like some of those things we were talking about, but I think that’s like a huge piece that’s missing. Yeah. So figuring it out and, you know, if you are that loan officer that’s hit a certain plateau, you know, figuring out, well, where, where can you get help? Like, I always went on more ops, like help wise. Yeah. Like, what can I take off my plate that way? But then at a certain point there’s only so much that you can do or time or, you know, quality of life that you end upYou make all this money and it’s like you want to enjoy it a little bit too. So you gotta figure out that balance a little bit, but, you know, having him there where he’s young, he’s hungry, getting out there and doing those open houses, getting out there and calling those cold call leads that isn’t fun for anybody- Yeah. But, you know, it’s exciting to him. And, you know, when he lands that first one, he’s gonna be excited. He’s gonna want to do it more and more and more. And I think adding him and maybe looking at adding a few more people to the team this year will really help get it there. I mean, the thing with Max was, when I met him at the thing, he was confident, but he was driven. You could just see it. He had that sparkle in his eye. He had that go get it, done now. Like you, uh, you can just see like if I told him right now he had to go and call 2,000 people by 4:00, it’s literally impossible to do, he’s gonna dohe’s gonna try his best to do it. He might not succeed more than likely, but he’s gonna do it. Um, you know, and th- that, that’s really what we’re looking for. We’re l- really just out there looking forIf you haven’t been in the mortgage business and you w- and y- and you want to give it a run, you have to have that type of, you know, kind of mindset, uhWe talk about, a lot about mindset here at Milestone, but he’s, he’s definitely got a, uh, he’s got a rare attribute. You have to have a self-drive. Yeah. You know, you have to reallyYou have to want to be good at it. You can’t justI don’t think you can just look at it as like I want to make a lot of money, because the money is gonna come if you’re good, but you have to have that drive of I want to be really good at this, then the money is gonna come, and I think that was always like the mindset I had in the beginning wasn’t necessarily about making money. I wanted to make money, but like it wasn’t what my driving f- Yeah. It wasn’t like, “Oh, I made this much last month, I want to make this much more. “Mine was like, “I did this many loans, I want to do this many more. “Yeah. Because I wanted to be the best at it, you know, and I wanted to have that drive to just continue to do more and it was like a competition where, you know, y- y- you never wannaAnd I think we, in the beginning with being such as sponges-I wanted to know and be confident when I was talking to somebody. You know, you don’t wanna be in a situation where you’re trying to talk to somebody about a massive financial decision and you’re falling all over the place- Yeah. and you’re not sure. And, you know, and y- then you just get better at it and better at it over time, and get more at-bats is, like, the most important thing. So, you know, bringC- if you’re l- thinking about coming into this business or wanna get into it, you know, I think we’ve already said this, like, you have to get under somebody that is gonna help- Yeah. But you also have to have that drive yourself becauseAnd I think this is why I got away from it withand I was ta- talking to Max, actually, earlier about this, ’cause he was like, “Hey, man, you know, I really appreciate this opportunity. “I’m like, “Yeah, no worries. “Um, he goI go, “Honestly, I haven’t done this in a while. “He’s like, “Why? “I go, “I just felt like they got in my way. “And, and I was so driven that I wanted to just do what I needed to do and always, like, control the whole thing that I never really took the time, likeI know I didn’t take as much time as I should over there, you know, to try to help him with it. And I just wasn’t in a position ready to do it at that time. But, you know, if you can find somebody that does have thatbut you have to be very self-driven. Like, if he’s self-driven and he pushes himself, it’s gonna make me wanna put more time into him. If he’s not self-driven- He’s out. and he’s like, “Hey, well, if Craig’s not gonna give me anything to do, I’m just gonna chill here and talk to somebody, or I’m gonna leave early and go, you know, down the street with, with everybody and grab a drink,” you, you think that I’m gonna wanna spend a lot of time with you? Yeah. Probably not. Yeah. You know what I mean? It takes the right person to, to join the team and have that drive. And one of the things that you said earlier was you, you were driven at the time when you ver- getting in the business of just wanting to do more units, it wasn’t about the money. You’re still there. Mm-hmm. Right? Like, you just said that and it made me think, why are we now looking to add, you know, that junior loan officer type spot? “Because you’ve realized, “I can do 120 plus million every year pretty consistently, 6 years in a row, 120 1000000, great. “You can have that breakout year, 150 market, you have a couple things going. But how do you do 200- Definitely coulda done more this year. 300, 400 1000000? Yeah. You need to start scaling it and taking off some of those responsibilities and ha- and training the people under you. But most importantly, we talked about this on one of the last episodes, is that work/life balance, right? Like, and there’s no such thing as work/life balance, right? Like, I’m not a big fan of saying that. But at the same time, like, I feel like you have to prioritize. Like we talked about, you know, sports with your kids. Like, now we can start building a team around you. They can start doing some of those things, and you have your weekends freed up from doing open houses. Like, open houses are super important. But when you’rey- y- you’re there and you have, you know, 3, 4, 5 kids, whatever, you know, s- people watching this have, you need to make time for them, right? So now it’s like, “Hey guys, we’re gonna share in the wealth. You’re gonna be on the team. You go do some of these things. We’ve already done it. “Right? Like, that’s what I try to explain to people that are getting in this business. Uh, and I, I have one loan officer, it pops in my head, I’m not gonna say his name. Jacob. Um, you know, I feel like, you know, he was scared, he was timid. And he’she had a great year. He, he crossed over 15 million this year. He’s starting to come out of his shell, right? So he’s gonna get there, but it takes time, right? It took time for him. So somebody like, you know, hopefully, we don’t know, it could be a complete wash here, we don’t wanna blow him up, but you see somebody like yourself when you came into the business. It took me, like, aboutI don’t know. We went on, you know, one meeting, uh, when I first met you, and the next morning, I woke up and I’m like, “That fucking kid’s gonna do as much loans as he possibly wants. He’s gonna kill it. “You just get that sense, that vibe, like, they wanna learn, they’re super driven, and in the back of my head I’m like, “As soon as this guy starts cracking checks where I know what he can earn, the sky’s the limit. “Because at that pointYou got into this business to make a little bit of extra money, but then you feel that sense of, um, success, of helping homeowners achieve the greatest purchase that they’re gonna make. That, you know, they, they buy a house and they make it a home. You help them achieve that goal. That’s always been one of the top priorities for me, is I was j- I got in this business, and then the crash came. I was helping people save their homes and do loan modifications, and I wasn’t making any money, but I learned a lot. I had at-bats, just the wrong way, I wasn’t making any money. But that helped me down the road build that business, because I helped hundreds of homeowners do loan modifications, save their house from going to foreclosure or, uh, you know, go through a bankruptcy process and- and- and kind of coach them through that. Those are the type of things are driven by top producers. IThere’s very rarely do you see a top producer doing 75 to 200 plus million and they’re like, “The only thing I care about is my paycheck. “Yeah. No, like, they’re on the phone with a borrower. They’re never gonna hit that number. I mean, I’ll tell you a story about a conversation I had yesterday and- and Pearl was sitting. For anybody who doesn’t know, Pearl’s on our team. She’s one of our LOAs. And, uh, you know, she always sits in when I have these conversations with clients. She takes notes so they can speed me up so I don’t have to go and do it, so delegating. the borrower called about, you know, pretty much under contract rate shopping, and he already had a really good deal, you know, at best we could match it. And, uh, I spent some time talking to the guy, he was really nice, had a bunch of questions about some different things. I spent probably 25, 30 minutes talking to this guy and at the end of it, like, I knew halfI knew probably 5 minutes in that, you know, we weren’t gonna do the loan. Like, he was already pretty committed with his own bank, he was getting the b- like, just as good of a deal or- or not better from the bank that he’s currently already with. But he had some other questions because, you know, he hears things like, “What’s the difference between a broker or, you know, uh, like, a rocket mortgage type of place or, like, a bank? You know, what’s the advantages? “So I spent 30 minutes going over it, answering some questions, helping him out on some things. Uh, you know, and heat the end of the call he was like, “I can’t believe you just spent 25 minutes talking to me about this when you knew, like, pretty much right away that, that we weren’t gonna do anything. But you spent 25 minutes. I learned more talking to you thatin this call than I have ever learned from anybody that I’ve ever talked to. “And this guy’s probably talked to 5 or 6 different places trying to shop for- for this mortgage. And I spent that time with him and I even told him at the end before he even said this, I said, “Listen, when you get”Because there was one other place he was talking to and he’sthey weren’t answering him back, but he was likeit sounded like a too good too- to be true kind of a thing. And I said, “Listen, if you can get ahold of them and they can get it to you, sendY- you have my email, send me the email with the loan estimate, I’ll look at it and I’ll let you know if there’s anything that’s not right right- Yeah. ” or, you know, if it’s a good deal or not. “He’s like, “Really? You’d do that? “I go, “Yeah, absolutely, man. I’m here to help you, whetherI mean, listen, you may not use me right now but you may use me down the line or you may have somebody that will. “And he was- he was so happy about it. And then Pearl- when we got off the phone Pearl’s like, “That’s why you’re the best. “She go- she goes, “Nobody would spend that much time talking to somebody and trying to help them when you’re not gonna make any money. “And it’s not always about the money. It’s literally like,it’s- it’s about helping people- Yeah. and trying to, you know, do the best that you can to help them. And I think when you have that kind of an attitude with any situation or- or a scenario that you get put into, you’re gonna succeed because people feel that. Yeah. You know? And, and, like, what I did before was helping people but it was a little bit different in, it wasn’t like a measured thing. I think, like, what’s nice about this is, like, it’s very measurable. You can measure- Yeah. how many loans you did. You can measure how many closings you had, you can measure, you know, the amount and loan volume that you did. And you can gauge and you can compare. You can’t really compare that, you know, somewhere else. So I think that’s, like, what really, like, helped to drive me, because it was like, you’re helping people but also there’s, like, a measure side of it that you- you can kind of look back at and be like, “Oh, wow, you know, I did this much. “I mean, like, my first year in the bu-We got in- started in March in 2019- Yep. and I think we did 35 million my first year, s- 60 million my second year. And then after that it was over 100 million after that. But it was like my attitude has never changed with people. Yeah. No. That’s, uhWhile you’re telling me that story I’m having a flashback to, you know, I don’t r-Everybody that knows me pretty well knows I do not have the greatest memory in the world, it’s very short term. Like, as soon as it’s overI think it’s actually a strength of mine because I- I d- I can’t remember. Like, if you did me wrong or you said something crazy, I- I let itit’s in and out. But going back to my sophomore year at UMass Amherst basketball camp, uh, with one of my best friends, Matt Brown, um, shout out to Matty. We’re out there with Coach Calipari, John Calipari, #Calipari on this, uh, podcast. We’re all sitting in the gym after a long day at camp and he’s like, “How many of you guys open the door and look behind you to see if you can hold the door for the next person up? “Not a lot of hands went up. And I had no idea, I was a sophomore. He’s like, “If I ever see any of you guys not hold the door for somebody behind you, and it’s, like, a little old lady or an old man, that’s the type of person you are. When no one’s looking, are you doing the right thing? “Like, no one was watching you, right? Like, you’d spendAnd you do this consistently, that was not just one isolated case. I’ve been onI’ve heard you on the phone and I’m like, “Who was that? “And you’re like, “Oh, this, you know, somebody who’s thinking about buying a house in, like, 9 months. “I’m like, “You just spent 45 minutes, 30 minutes on the phone with somebody who’s thinking about buying a house, they’re not really sure, they’re in a get ready type situation. you’ve always been like that, right? I mean, going back to that, you do stuff to help other people when no one’s watching. You’re not gonna get a loan number out of it, you’re not gonna make any money. It’s just all about doing the right thing. And that’s, um, you know, that’s one of the things I love about you the most, right? It’sI know for a fact that you do the right thing for people with no one looking. There’s a lot of things that I find out about and I’m like, “Wait, Craig did that? “And I’m like, “I think that,” and I’m not gonna give it away and I’m not gonna give a lot of it away, but, you know, there’s a lot of things that I hear 2 months, 5 months, a year down the road and I’m like, “Wow, I would have done that same thing. “I’m like, “Good for Craig. “Like, they went to him and, you know, he stepped up, he did the right thing. Sometimes, you know, doing the right thing turns out to be the wrong thing sometimes-and you’re, like, kind of second guess it. But you did the right thing and you feel good about it. And I think that’syeah, that’s one of the big things that I try to teach my kids and instill in them, like-Think about how that other person feels when you held the door for that lady. Or even if it’s a young kid behind you. If you held the door for them, all I’m trying to do is make sure that that kid learns to hold a door for the next person. Because I could be like, you know, I’m 47 now. I feel like I might need somebody to open all the doors for me in about 2 minutes, right? So, um, it just, do the right thing when people aren’t watching. I mean, I, I, I struggle with this with my son all the time. I’m like, “Dude, come on, man. “I, I think that’s like the biggestLike, if everyoneI don’t know if anyone’s ever asked you, like, you know, how do you feel like the world is today versus before? And I, I was like jokingly say, talk to my wife about this and I’m like, “I wish I was born like 60 years ago, 70 years ago. “You know, just because I feel like people were, people were better then. Yeah. Like there was a lot more of the people that were gonna hold the door or the people that were just gonna do the right thing because, you know, helping your neighbors. It’s like most people don’t even know their neighbors anymore. They don’t talk to them. It’s like if my neighbor called me and needed something, I’d go over there in 2 seconds to help him. Yeah. Uh, half the people, like they, they’re like more wanting to cause a fight or problem or, you know, worried about some crazyI’m like, th- this world needs more people that just are trying to do the right thing. And if everybody stopped, you know, looking out for just themselves all the time and started to try to just do the right thing when nobody’s looking or do the right thing just in life in general and how you go about it, this entire world would be a lot better. Yeah. I mean, it, it’s wild. I see you do it. I, I do it all the time. It’s like, you know, you see some people outside getting a coffee and, you know, they’re ordering their Danish. And I see them like, you know, going through their wallI’m like, “Hey, don’t worry about it. I got it,” right? Like, what did youI, I don’t know how it made them feel. Like theyGreat, I just, I feel good about doing it. And then they’re gonna go pay it forward hopefully, if they can, right? But like, it’s small things like that. I mean, I wish, going back to that, I don’tI’ve never thought about that, but going back and being born 60 years ago, that, that’s, it’s very, uh, it’s very deep right there. I just feel like, you know, we just came out of the holidays. We’re talking about this. We’re at the beginning of January. Can you imagine if the entire country, the entire world acted like they do between like December 10th and December 27th? Where everybody’s giving back, happy holidays, merry Christmas, saying hi, holding doors. Like, taking care your neighbor, buying somebody a coffee, paying for somebody’s dinner. Like, I mean, it makes me feel like I, I, I joke around. Me and my wife used to go to, we used to call it like senior citizen dinner time. We’d go to dinner at like 4:30, 5:00 when she was pregnant with Liam at, uh, Cape Quality Seafood on Dartmouth Street in Dartmouth. Um, and there would only be, at like 4:30, 5:00 ’cause we were old back then still, all bunch of older people. And we’re like, “Wow, this is really cool. There’s a bunch of old people all having dinner. “There’s a, like a senior citizen home across the way or whatever. But then you start really feeling bad and like seeing the future of yourself, right? Like, God forbid we get to that point. I hope, I hope I go before my wife because I don’t know if I could survive without her. But you see like old men, old women having dinner now by themselves. And I remember my wife being like, “Hey, let’s, uh, let’s go sit with that guy. “And I’m likeI was a little, like, shot off by that. I’m like, “Okay. “And then he was like super happy about it. Like it made his day. And I’m like, like if I ever walk into a restaurant and I see like a 70-year-old person sitting by themselves, I’m just gonna go ask if I can sit with them and buy them like dinner. “That probably just made that guy’s week. Now, can you imagine if everybody did that and they just acted the way they did for 10 or 15 days year round? Like, how much nicer everybody would be around? It’s wild It’s insane. Like, it’sI don’t know. It drives me nuts. Like, when you just see all this crazy hate and negativity all the time, it’s like, it’s, it’s a cancer. Yeah. Like, I literally think it’s become such a massive cancer in this country especially. And, uh, I’m not very political at all, but, I mean, people just need to figure outThis, this countryI always think back to this, like, and I was young when this happened, but when 9/11 happened. This country has probably never been stronger after- Yeah. because everybody came together and everybody had like, like the camaraderie was like insane. Like, everybody’s likeEverybody was a lot nicer for a while. And then eventually over time, it fades and you forget. Like, I think people just have this sense of like they forget what it’s like what it could be and they just get so comfortable and they have nothing else to do besides just being miserable and unhappy. And I’m like, “What are you so unhappy about? “It’sIt’s so true. Like, how often do people just sit back and feel like they are the luckiest humans that have ever been born to live in the United States of America? At this time, when things are so easy. Like, it’s wild to me. Like, you, you, you know, you sit there and you watch other countries and, you know, I’m not getting into politics. You got Gaza and the Middle East, and now you got stuff going on in Venezuela. I have no idea about all that. But like, would you want to live there? Like, I look at my kids. Like, th- that, you know, my, my daughter just yesterday, her friends are starting to get Snapchat and I’m like, “I’m not ready for Snapchat, right? “Yeah, meltdown about not having it. She’s having a straight meltdown about Snapchat. And I’ve just looked at my wife and I was like, “Can you imagine, like, if we lived in, like, Gaza right now? “Like, you don’t even know where your parents are. Like, they might not even be alive right now. But then you walk down the street, like you’re saying, and everybody’s just bad and sad. Like, it takes so much more energy to frown than to smile. Like, so many more muscles it takes to be sad and pissed off all the time than just be happy. Like, I don’t care. Somebody said, you know, somebody was, th- uh, who was it the other, the other day it wasYou know, we were talkingAndy Bowman. Talking about, like, cars and stuff, and I’m like, “I don’t really care if somebody took my car. “If they got in a car, like, I want everybody to be safe, but, like, listen, if they side-swiped something- It’s a little-I don’t care. It’s not that big of a deal. Listen, I don’t want anybody’s health to be affected. Like, I want the people I love and everybody to be healthy and happy, but it’s like- People let, like, the littlest thing ruin their entire day. It’s wild. It’s, it’s absolutely insane. I can’t believe we just spent an entire episode of Mortgage Mondays not even really talking about mortgages other than a little recap of 2025. That was awesome. I think everyone needed a little break. Little break from the mortgage world, but it was good. no, I’m happy. Uh, I, you know, I’m, I’m really happy. I think life’s been really good for us and for our company and, you know, I think 2026 is gonna be even better and looking forward to it. Wish you guys a happy New Year. Happy New Years.