Don't Become A Mortgage Agent

Over the last couple of years, a number of people have gotten licensed as mortgage agents after watching me.

They didn't all tell me. I found out the way you usually find out - a name pops up, someone mentions it, a familiar face appears in an industry group or they come meet me at a networking event.

At first I thought it was flattering.

Then one of them messaged me. Months in, nothing happening. No clients. No momentum. Doing everything he thought the job was, and getting silence back.

And I felt something I wasn't expecting. Something closer to guilt. 😮‍💨

Because I think I made it look easy (this isn't an arrogant statement)

Here's what people see. I talk about mortgages. Deals close. I work from home a lot. I spend evenings with my Son. There's no boss, no commute, no performance review.

It looks like a clean exit from the 9-to-5. Learn the rules, get licensed, start earning.

So let me tell you what the job actually is.

The mortgage knowledge is maybe 1% of it. 🧱

Not because it doesn't matter - it matters enormously when it matters. But it's learnable. It's rules, guidelines, and lender policy.

Anyone reasonably diligent can get there.

That's not what separates the agents doing well from the ones quietly renewing a license they never use.

The real job is this.

• Can you explain something complicated to a stressed person in a way that makes them calmer instead of more confused?

• Can you write an email that someone actually finishes reading?

• Can you sit in front of a camera and sound like a human being?

• Can you build enough trust with strangers that they hand you the biggest financial decision of their life?

Nobody tells you that when you sign up. The course doesn't test for it. 📈

The people struggling aren't lazy. They're not less intelligent than me. Most of them work harder than I do.

They just picked a game that doesn't use what they're already good at.

I don't think fewer people should start businesses. I think more people should. I just want them starting from the right place.

And the right place is almost always closer than they think.

If you're a developer, the business is building for other companies. If you work in media, the business is an agency. If you're a nurse, an accountant, a project manager, a driver, a teacher - the thing you already do every day, that someone currently pays you a salary to do, is the thing people will pay you directly for.

That's not a smaller dream. That's a shorter runway.

Because here's what nobody accounts for - Whatever you start, you'll have to learn how to run a business. Sales, pricing, cash flow, marketing, saying no, rejection. You will fumble all of it at first. That's unavoidable, and it's fine. That's tuition. Everyone pays it. 🧭

But if you're learning business and learning a whole new trade and discovering along the way that the trade doesn't suit you - that's three fights at once. Most people can't win three.

Learning to run a business is a cost you pay once.

Starting in the wrong game is a cost you keep paying.

So before you look at someone's life and think "I could do that," ask a harder question.

Not whether you could learn their job. You probably could.

Ask whether their job runs on the things you're already good at - or the things you've spent your whole life avoiding.

The goal was never to copy someone out of your 9-to-5.

It was to find the version of leaving that was already sitting inside your skills. 🤍

P.S. Hit reply and tell me honestly: what's the thing people already come to you for help with, without paying you? That's usually the clue. I read every reply. Half of what I write comes from what you send me.