1563 – People Know When You’re Authentic with Kind Lending’s Glenn Stearns

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0:58with us right now it's the founder and ceo at kind blending and the host of the grit happens podcast and the author of the book just came out integrity my slow and painful journey to success glenn stearns thank you so much for joining us how you doing josh excellent excellent well thank you again for being on. And I'd love to maybe just kind of start with just a kind of overview of like your, I know you've done a lot and you've made a huge impact. You have some amazing successes. Today, what would you say is kind of your impact in the world or kind of, you know, what you do that you're most proud of?

1:40Well, I mean, in the financial realm, you know, I had founded a mortgage business that I had for about 30 years. I sold the Blackstone and we restarted a new one that's been three years now and we've grown to be one of the largest lenders again in the country. So I'm real proud of my relationship with the residential market. We're really big in that. And then I'd say probably the other thing is mostly is my association with the Horatio Alger Foundation, which is all about really helping youth and, and, you know, in education. So, yeah. And you also Glenn, were you, you were on Undercover Billionaire?

2:27I was the founder of it, so to speak. Oh my gosh. I had a good on me for doing my research before the interview, right? That's all good. I did a show about 18 years ago called Gilligan's Island and I won real Gilligan's Island. So for years, they kept asking me, Hey, do you want to do another show? And I'd say, no, I'm a business guy. And, and I said, I'll tell you what I would do. You put me anywhere in this country with no money, no contacts. And let me start over. I bet you I can build a million dollar business again. And so discovery took me up on it, said, you got a hundred dollars, 90 days, build a million dollar business and uh it was her biggest hit in five years so um yeah i think they liked it um liked watching me suffer that is right so uh it was uh it was pretty pretty interesting now there's so there's two seasons of it and and so i i recall i think i watched maybe the first uh four episodes uh of course grant cardone was on there and a couple of other great folks um and so that was season two so i was the executive producer of that at that point because because you know i happened to have had the first show and yeah yeah it's uh it's fun it's fun to watch them in pain that already been through it yeah yeah what what's your experience with um you know and again with the experience with uh gilligan's the gilligan's island uh experience as well so you know you're a business guy um and and here we are you know you have an opportunity where you get to you know create entertainment like value-driven entertainment but still you know to someone else who might want to pursue an opportunity like that like they've they've done good stuff like they're very good at what they do and this is a very public facing opportunity um which is going to be potentially good and bad uh what would you say to other business leaders who maybe have that opportunity well i i think you know i think people are you You know, you have to be you're usually people are pretty transparent.

4:32And when they're trying to do something to peddle a product, it doesn't usually go over so well. I never really wanted to do the shows. So I think when I have seen so many people so hungry to do things and they never get in. And I think you have to do it. You have to be authentic. Right. And, you know, I was asked to do the first show because some people at my work that work for me had recommended us to the. producers, I said yes. And, and, but I didn't do it to try to hawk a product, so to speak. Right. And same thing happened the second time. And so I think it's really about just being in there and going for it because you are going to enjoy what you're doing, you know, and, and if there's some by-product that comes out of it, I think that's great.

5:22And usually there is, right. So if you're in there just being yourself, you can end up getting the eyeballs that you're looking for, right? And because, I mean, being on those two shows was no doubt great for my business, right? And yet it wasn't the primary driver. So I don't know if that makes sense, but, you know, it absolutely does. You know, my background in media training, you know, just like, listen, you cannot be the guy in a TV segment who goes, you know, on page 62 of my new book, you too can be a winner. You'll find the three secrets. And then you don't share what those three secrets are.

5:58Like people are going to hate you. You cannot do that today. You just give it all away, be a hundred percent transparent, just lay it all out. And, you know, folks and audiences connect and they know when you're being authentic with them. There's no faking it. It's absolutely true in anything you do. Right. And so, and you see a lot of people, you know, I mentor a lot of younger people and they're like, I want to be a millionaire. It's like you're focusing on the wrong thing you can't focus just on money focused on wanting to find passion and something that you love and then all that stuff will come if you continue to surround yourself with the right people and you grow something that you're really you that you really believe in and then you'll you'll get all that other success and so a lot of people kind of they're they're they're diving for the dollar and they're just really not paying attention to whether it's the right thing to do.

6:51On that same note, if we think about, you know, the traits of an effective leader today, I would argue the same holds true. You know, just presenting a persona to your people, they're going to know. They're going to, you know, they're going to know when you're dialing it in. They're going to know when you're being insincere. Because again, there's just going to be evidence that there is, you know, something's out of alignment there, right? So be who you are at all times with all people at every opportunity. I would imagine that that's, if you were kind of giving this mini TED Talk based on kind of this philosophy about effective leadership today, particularly leadership with internal, your operations, your staff and that sort of thing.

7:37Well, you know, I started a new company called Kind Lending, right? And I did it because the industry had been so full of so much just, you know, it was just very different than when I had started. And a lot of, I think, I call it Wall Street influence, where it was more about balance sheet than about coming from a heart came in. So I named it Kind Lending. And I went back out and I rang the bell once. I'd done very, very well. Again, Blackstone bought us. and so I said I'm going to do this my way this time right kind of lending we're all about having fun we're all about being different our portal that all the brokers had to use we called it the quickie right we have happy beginnings and happy endings and people are like did you just say that you're in finance you can't say stuff like that I'm like you know what then don't use us don't and then the more that we became authentic and laughed at ourselves and had jokes the more people wanted to work for us.

8:38Some more people came. We've been the fastest growing mortgage company in three years. We've had 601 % market share growth over the last year. We're profitable. The only mortgage company right now, we've been with all our warehouse lenders. Everyone's dying and we're growing. And so it's all because of that exact reason you said, we're just authentic. If you don't like us, it's okay, but we like to have fun. We say we're easy. We got the quickie. We use all these little fun puns and it works because it's just real, you know. I can see why that would be so appealing. You know, we think about, you know, I think largely with social media, I think, you know, people appreciate more of a glass house kind of brand and company.

9:27Like, who are you? You know, what's your culture? What do you stand for? What are you doing in the world? And I agree with you. I think that there's a, you know, and I, my, my background is I've been a consumer columnist for about 16 years and, you know, teaching people on consumer skills. And I agree. I think people don't love banks inherently. So there's already, so it's like, I feel like there's not a high bar, you know, if you say, you know what, we're going to be a little bit different. We're going to be transparent. We're going to laugh at ourselves and we're going to be more human. And, you know, I think along with that, what I'm feeling is this authenticity, but also empathy.

10:06And, but, you know, what I'm curious about is, how do you allow empathy to influence math? Because, again, in the lending world, it is, it's very hard numbers, typically. So again, when you think about a consumer, he says, I want the best rate. I want the best rate for myself. And it's true, you should get the best rate. But every day, every single rate's different. And every day, somebody might lead by 0.125 or whatever. So you're never going to be the best. What you are is going to be the best for that consumer. When you get to look at their overall picture and weigh their credit, weigh the property, and weigh their job and weigh everything in, then we can sit and we can say, we're gonna hold you in a place where you don't feel stressed, where you're gonna be able to get your transaction done in a very professional way.

11:00And we're gonna make it feel good. And so when you've got that, then the other people start believing in you. And when you know that's your core, that you're gonna take care and make it a great experience, right? And then they know you have great rates. Then they don't go out and go, okay, let's just pitch you up against a 0.125 against somebody else, because it's not about that. There's so much more. When you think about a good deal, it's a state of mind, right? It's about the overall picture of people feeling good. And so you have to start with getting people to understand it's not, we're not transactional.

11:37Okay, well, that's the one thing that we don't want to be. We're a very, you know, relationship-based business. And when you get past that and you understand that, I think the rest follows and people start to understand that, you know, we're not just one and done. So we've talked about Undercover Billionaire season one, and of course, you're the executive, which you're the star on season one, season two, you're the executive producer. And of course, the website for Kind Lending is kindlending.com. Who should be connecting with Kind Lending at this point? Well, if you're a consumer and you want a home loan, one to four unit home loan, any range of value, come to us.

12:23If you're a broker that brokers loans, come to us. If you're a bank that wants to sell loans to us, you can come to us. So we kind of fit the gamut for just about anybody in residential finance. We service just about everybody. For a consumer, what's the best website for that? They can go to kindlending.com. Okay, great. Right. And I see lots of opportunities on the website I'm looking at right now to click partner with us. So for someone that's in the lending space, we've got the link. If you're listening in your podcast app, you just click around, you'll find the show notes. We've got that direct link.

12:59And then Glenn, your book, which has just come out, Integrity, which the word grit kind of highlighted there, kind of your slow and painful journey to success. um what would be the the i guess your hope for the reader's transformation that might take place uh when they read or listen to the book okay um look i started out i i was dyslexic i failed fourth grade i had a child in the eighth grade at 14 years old okay first to go to college my family people did not think that i'm going to be a guy that would be on the show undercover billionaire right let's take it all the way to the other end they wouldn't think I owned a home that Bill Gates spent his honeymoon an island with Richard Branson and so on and so on right and so how does that happen that's kind of what the book is about I lead with my flaws because nobody's perfect and the fact is that it's not where you start but it's where you finish in life right and I don't just money, but I mean, happiness.

14:04Okay. So the book is, yeah, you can take this and look at it from a financial point of view, or you can look at it from just a, how do you feel about yourself in general? And just because you've got a bunch of bumps along the way, what happens and how do you use that as your fuel to feel and be and do better? So that's basically what the book's about. A lot of life lessons. So you can also, you have a separate page I just found as well. And that's thebookintegrity.com where you can order from Amazon and so forth. There's a Kindle version for Amazon users that you can grab as well. Just hit number one last night.

14:50So in two different categories on Amazon. So that's terrific. I'm along very well right now. That's good. Congratulations on that. Glenn, you know, finally, you know, I want to celebrate you as a podcaster as well. I would imagine you're related to Mindy, your co-host. That's right. Mindy's my wife and a wonderful human being. She's been a television personality for a long time, been in movies and done a lot of other things. So she really knows the entertainment space very well. Yeah. And what is the, so the podcast again, to a friend that's listening right now, I just kind of just do a search right now for grit happens.

15:33And what's the podcast about? you know again a lot of the same thing i interview a lot of my friends that have been through a lot of adversity and have come out the other side right it's really about just how do you go from really you know backs against the wall and you come out the other side how do you become the victor not the victim right and so we just talk a lot about you know picking yourself back up and getting back up and doing it again. I love it. Glenn Stearns, quite a list of accomplishments. Again, go watch Undercover Billionaire season one. Go ahead and watch season two. It's a lot of fun too.

16:17The book Integrity has just come out. And again, to anyone in the lending space or consumers, go to kindlending.com. Glenn, thank you so much for the conversation. Thank you so much for being a guest. Thank you, Josh. Really enjoyed it. Have a great day.

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