This episode is sponsored by Fuse 2024: New Orleans Fuse New Orleans presents: Broker to Broker, Episode 193 with host Marc Summers! Today, we learn how to solve the hardest loan scenarios and close on the urgently needed homes faster than ever, all while supporting both underserved communities and your fellow broker peers, all from today's incredible guest, the Chief Sales Officer of Safetrust Mortgage, Mackenzie Barrett. Having previously worked at UWM, Mackenzie has had a lot of opportunities to work and train among the best in the wholesale industry. He shares his strategies and breaks down how he's able to answer any question and solve any problem: through 'Face to Face' business. Going to the experts and asking for help or the opportunity to shadow them. Reaching directly out to lenders to see if they can work with more difficult scenarios. Meeting with his homebuyers to find out what's going on in their lives outside of their mortgage in order to anticipate their needs and best set them up for long-term success. Mackenzie shares not just the steps he takes to crack the toughest mortgage nuts, but he shares his approach to how he's able to tackle the entire mortgage industry: "There's a few things that I kind of focus on, and what I try to do is keep everything bigger than myself." Mackenzie says, "My pillars, if you will, are faith, family and finance. I let my faith lead my decisions and keep me focused on what's important in that time, to really make a difference out there. I come from a background to where life can either be hard two ways: It can be hard, and you try to make something, or it can be hard, and you do nothing. So, I've just taken that challenge and say, I want my life to be hard, but to reap the rewards from taking the risks that I need to take. I was never valedictorian. I don't have a college degree. I've just been a cool guy that loves people. I see myself with the ability to actually do good out here. There's enough bad out there, to where if there's just a few of us that want to do good, there's a big difference that can be made. That's kind of what motivates me and keeps my mindset on how I can be successful, because my success is going to be great, but it's everything I do for everyone else that is really the reward. For someone to say, 'wow, Mackenzie was a part of that and helped those people' that's what I'm more proud of than any award on my desk or dollar number in the bank. What matters is the fact that my kids can be proud to say, their dad's created a positive environment where people collaborate, people help people, and families are getting homes." Key Points: 1:22 - Getting Started / Born Into the Industry 4:11 - Lessons from UWM: Relationship Focus 8:31 - Face to Face Business & Processes: Learning from the Experts 21:24 - Serving the Underserved and 0% Down Loans 28:00 - Success = Creating an Environment for Collaboration