Opening Keynote: The Glenn Stearns Guide to Thriving

Join us for an interview with CEO & Founder of Kind Lending and star of "Undercover Billionaire, Glenn Stearns, to hear how the mogul overcame personal and professional obstacles to build one of the largest mortgage operations in the United States.  We'll discuss Glenn's road to success, his perspective on market conditions today and hear his thoughts on how to create a flourishing, results-driven company culture. The conversation promises to give attendees tangible tools and insights to thrive in the mortgage industry and in life.  

Transcription:

Video Recording (00:06):

Good morning. Welcome back to Dig Mo Day two. It's officially time for the keynote presentation, the Glenn Stearns Guide to Thriving. Failing fourth grade, having a daughter in eighth grade at 14, having a dysfunctional upbringing, your life is over. Right there goes my life. 30 years ago, Glenn Stearns started with nothing and built a billion dollar lending company, one of the largest in the country. I went from rags to riches, but it wasn't luck. What is it about Glenn Mindy that makes him such a good businessman?

(00:47)

He was a kid from humble beginnings with a troubled path you expected much from a young Glenn Stearns.

Glenn Stearns (01:02):

That was embarrassing. I've never seen that before. Sorry, you had to sit through that.

Maria Malkova (01:42):

So Hi everyone, my name is Maria Volkova. I'm the tech reporter for National Mortgage News, and this morning I have joining with me Glenn Stearns, and we're going to discuss his book Integrity And it takes us on a journey through time from Glenn's rough childhood growing up in Rockville, actually 10 minutes away from where I grew up to becoming the founder Glen's of Stearns lending and now kind lending. And also as a side note, we will save 10 minutes at the end of our chat for questions. So to start this off, Glenn.

Glenn Stearns (02:26):

 I love your accent.

Maria Malkova (02:27):

Thank you. I'm originally from Russia, so that's where my accent is from. So my first question is, your book is named Integrity. Can you maybe tell us a little bit about why this name, why the title?

Glenn Stearns (02:46):

I grew up with a dad that really pressed on truth, and I think when I started looking back on my own life, it wasn't so much about being successful, it was about being happy. And I think the common thread is integrity is keeping your word, is being proud of who you are, being proud of what you do. And even when it doesn't turn out maybe the best, but when you do the right thing, I think you can always hold your head up high. And so that's been a common theme in my life that seemed to have worked out really well. So I thought pretty good name and saying that then all of a sudden I saw the grit in there. And that's half of what you, it's all about is life isn't easy. I mean, sometimes we've got to really bear down and push through a bunch of crap. We don't want to push through.

Maria Malkova (03:45):

Can you please give us three takeaways that are most important from your book for those who haven't read it?

Glenn Stearns (03:55):

Sure. I'd say one is never confuse effort with results. I used to go out there as a young loan officer and think I was working hard, but I just wasn't working smart. And then there's a lot of things in my life where I found it was easy to feel good and say I was keeping myself busy, but was I really getting to the goal? That's probably one of the main themes. Life doesn't happen to us, it happens for us. That's another one. I've had so many things in my life happen that I say, why me? And then later the answer gets kind of exposed, but might take a little longer than I want it to.

Maria Malkova (04:50):

Can you maybe give us an example of something that happened and you thought to yourself, why me? And then it made senses?

Glenn Stearns (04:57):

I was 14 and I got a girl pregnant. Being in eighth grade, you don't normally have those kind of things happen. And so I thought my life was over ruined the worst thing. And it turned out to be a wonderful gift. Having a daughter now two granddaughters, she's 45. One example of just and talk about I wouldn't be here today had that not happened, thicken my skin. A lot of those things that when you're young and impressionable, things happen. And I think that adversity is a wonderful teacher and there's a lot of times when we go through things with our own kids, you want to protect and you got to let them fall. And I a lot as a young person and I'm very grateful for those lessons I learned throughout that.

Maria Malkova (06:06):

Great. So let's talk a little bit about your childhood growing up in Twin Brook and maybe how some of these experiences growing up in a poor household, how it impacted your business acumen as the founder of Stearns Lending. What did your childhood teach you that helped you run your mortgage business successfully?

Video Recording (06:32):

Well, you know where I grew up, so it wasn't a great neighborhood and it was an 800 square foot little house. And before that it was an apartment that had bars on the windows and all that. And I think that having, again, in a place where you didn't have a silver spoon and where you had to fight for everything, it was again, a great start for me because I was able to have all of these experiences that later when it comes to business, it didn't feel like it's such a big deal when I failed fourth grade. Okay, talk about feeling like the biggest dummy for those of you have little kids hold them back in kindergarten, they won't remember that, but fourth grade it was brutal, but I had dyslexia, so I had a hard time reading. And so when I ended up getting through that alcoholic parents, fathering a childhood, 14, just a lot of things that were early, I think you can go one way or another way.

(07:56)

And we have a group that we support, it's called Horatio Alger, and they're a lot of children, young men and women that have decided to have education be their way out. They didn't want to go the way of their family. They want to pull themselves out of the cycle. And I love that because a lot of the people in our neighborhood, they went the other way. I got so many that died or in prison or whatever, and then a few people went the other way. I don't know why, but I was one of those that took the other road.

Maria Malkova (08:36):

So you took the other road and that road led you to California. And from what I understand from reading a newspaper, you found an opening to become a loan officer and you started your journey of being in a low and then starting your own company. So tell me a little bit about the first few years of your profession as a loan officer and what struggles did you face?

Video Recording (09:07):

I mean, I came from Maryland. I'm out in California, I don't know anyone. I had an economics degree. I thought what to do with it? Got a job as a loan officer. And I remember the owner saying there was 15 of us. He says, if I keep two of you, I'd say I'm successful. And I was so nervous, oh, I'm, they're going to let me go. They're going to let me go. And little did I know that it's not that they let you go, that you quit, right? Because it was a commissioned job. And so I just did what was told to me. I went out every day in the field, I just work and I didn't have any confidence. Don't, when you start out, you don't know a whole lot. And so I just kept working it and working it and going out and just every day I never stopped going in the field.

(10:03)

At night I was a waiter and I waited tables and I did that. And so eventually I think the realtors thought this guy must be doing some business. He hasn't quit yet, right? Again, but at night I'm serving them, right? And so I did that for a few months where I finally got a deal and then got another deal. And I remember I would be so let down and in this funk because getting told no a million times can hurt your ego after a while. And I would get back in my car, I had a cassette and it would be Phil Collins, I don't care anymore. You remember that song? And I would put it in and I would go down Pacific Coast Highway and I would play that song and there's this one spot on the ocean with this house. And I'm like, I'm going to own you one day. And I'd pump myself back up and I'd walk back in and get rejected again. But I didn't feel as bad that time. So I'd do that every day. I'd go pump myself back up. And I remember one time I started doing a few loans and I would take flyers and I'd put them in the little, little deal. And this man came up and I'm kind of down on my knee putting the flyers in. He looks at my flyer and he crumbles it up and he throws it away, walks away. And I'm sitting there and I walk up to him, I tap him and I said, could you do me a favor? I said, how would you like it if you're out hanging your just list? It just sold sign. And I opened my door and I crumble up your flyer in front of you. I said, can you crumble up after I walk away?

(11:55)

And he looked at me and he started to laugh and he said, come with me. And he gave me two leads, right? And what I learned was at that point I started to gain my confidence. I'm not just a lone hack, right? I'm professional. I'm out here working hard just like everybody else, and I should have some respect. And I wasn't trying to be a jerk to the guy, but he was not being very nice. And so it taught me to be able to stand up for myself and feel that it was more than just slinging flyers that I was helping people. And so once I got that mindset, I walked in with different confidence and it changed from there.

Glenn Stearns (12:42):

Did you end up buying the house that you were ironing?

Glenn Stearns (12:45):

I went, I could have bought it and it was a piece of crap house. And so I didn't buy it and I bought a different one and then they tore it down. It's on the point if you ever go from Newport to Laguna, the one on the point, you guys will see it. And now it's a beautiful house. I wish I'd bought the land, but oh well.

Maria Malkova (13:04):

So after being a loan officer for a few years, you then commence on another journey and it's starting your own mortgage lending company. What pushed you to start your company and maybe tell us a little bit about some of your struggles in doing so and any advice for those out there looking to start a mortgage business?

Glenn Stearns (13:31):

Well, I mean I did it for 10 months. I got pretty good at getting loans, but I thought I could maybe do this on my own. So I started as a broker with another guy and much harder than I ever imagined. Of course everything is, and I just didn't want to give up. I just kept trying and trying and asking questions. And I would go up to the people that were already owners of companies and ask if I could sit with them and have lunch. And why do you do what you do? How do you do? I remember one gentleman, they were Bedford and Whiting. They owned California Mortgage. I could never get to them, but they had the best reputation and I wanted to know why. So many other guys had horrible reputations. They didn't pay their loan officers. They did all kinds of shady things. And I thought, I don't want anything like that. And I tried to find these guys for years. And then one day after being fairly successful at it, I was at a dinner party and I ran into this guy and his wife and I said, I've been trying to track you down for 10 years.

(14:54)

And we became good friends. And then when 2007 and eight came, I needed some help. And when I mean help, I just needed in a year. And I had a couple great mentors and this one guy who'd been retired forever, but he came and helped me and just talked me off the ledge a couple times. And it's just great to end up seeking mentors when you don't know what you're doing, asking questions, and eventually one day maybe you'll have enough support around you where they'll help you get through some pretty tough times. 07. 08 was pretty tough.

Maria Malkova (15:36):

Yeah, actually, I was hoping you could tell us a little bit about oh 7, 0 8. How did Stearn survive the financial crisis?

Video Recording (15:45):

Yeah, I mean, a lot of people here, I'm sure you guys remember those times. And so it was hard. We had about a hundred million of bad loans, buyback loans. We had class action lawsuits. We had the Department of corporation wanting us to refund per diem interest forever. Five years back we had, oh gosh, on and on and on. We lost 85% of our business. And it was dark. And I remember literally laying in bed thinking, I cannot find a way out of this. What am I going to do? And so I ended up getting a clipboard. I wrote down Bear Stearns, 20 million Lehman Brothers, 30 million everybody, and 50,000 square feet of space. I need eight class action, just everybody. And I just went, flew to New York, flew to San Francisco, went to every single person on the list, and I said, okay, are you going to work with me or tell me to pound sand? And I said, I'm in a no lose situation. I said, if I have too many people that tell me I'm going to pound sand, here's my list. I said, I know what I'm going to do. Here's the keys. I said, but if you guys all tell me you'll work with me, I'm going to bust my ass to do the best I can. And so by the time I got through the whole list, every single person said they would work with us. And so we were early. I mean, I got global settlements on every deal.

(17:20)

And anyway, it ended up turning out pretty well in November 2007 when the world was really on fire, we opened five offices of people that had closed down. And everyone said, why would you do that, Glenn? I said, this is the best people. I could never get these people in my life. It's perfect. And then in 2008 we opened five more and then we opened a hundred more I think in 9 and 10 and just took off from there. But yeah, it was a lot of people I knew, just stick your head in the sand. Hey, if I just close my eyes long enough, it'll go away. It doesn't go away. You got to get in front of people and attack it.

Maria Malkova (18:06):

I was hoping you could tell us, you mentioned in your book, and it kind of highlights your tenacity as a businessman where, I can't recall the bank, but someone was going to pull your line of credits.

Glenn Stearns (18:19):

Oh yeah.

Glenn Stearns (18:19):

And I think it's a great story.

Video Recording (18:21):

The guy's name was Bruce Kaiserman. For of you guys that know him, he was Credit Suisse. He calls me, it's Thursday. And he says, Hey, this is in 08 and I'm starting to do well. I'm starting to do better. And he was my main line. And he says, Hey, party's over. I said, what's that mean? Party's over. He says, we're done. We have 94 relationships. We are getting out of this business. We're just keep a handful and get out. I mean the world's on fire. And I said, okay, I assume I'm one of those. Yeah, we're done. And I said, when he says, two weeks, I said, two weeks. I said, have you talked to your lawyers? I mean, you're going to put a 20 year business out of business. He goes, you're like a pimple compared to what's going on in our company. Sorry, but that's it.

(19:20)

I was like, all right. So I hung up, thought about it, and 8:30 in the morning, the next morning, Friday morning, I call him back New York. I said, Hey, Bruce. I said, I was thinking about it all night. I said, you were saying a few things. I said, I wanted to talk to you. I said, you said you had 94 relationships. You're done. You're out. You're just keeping them a handful. Can I talk to you about that handful? He goes, okay. And I said, but I want to look in your eyes. And he said, alright, but you're in LA and I'm in New York. How do you want to do this before Zoom, right? And I said, you know what? I said, I'm in your lobby, Bruce. I said, I flew all night. I said, I'd like to come up. And he kept us and he kept quick and I was the only two he kept saved my butt. But you'll find, and I think there's so many people out there, you guys know this, that business, you can do really, really well. And then there's times like this that there's a lot of opportunity, but sometimes it's just a hair that you get by and you just got to figure a way to, but you can get by every time if you just surround yourself with the right people and you're open and you communicate.

Maria Malkova (20:43):

So you made the decision to sell Stearns in 2015, and I wanted to ask you what lessons were learned. And as a side question, at a time when there's a lot of consolidation in the market for founders of mortgage companies currently pondering the same thing, selling off their companies, what should they keep in mind before doing so?

Video Recording (21:10):

In my case, I mean, we were largest wholesaler in the country. We were doing really well. Retail joint ventures, we were huge. But I got cancer and I went, oh crap. I got to focus on my family. It became real simple. To me. That was the only thing I was thinking about. And so I wanted to bring a partner in, and Blackstone had been bugging me forever. So I sold to those guys. I was out of the operating I entity and the day it closed, I never in my life cried harder. I knew that I sold out. I knew that I've never done anything in my life because of fear and because of that type of mentality. And I felt like a sellout. I felt like a fraud. It was a bad feel. I felt like all these people had people, 20 something years that had been with me.

(22:14)

We had so many people that were loyal and I didn't do them a service. I thought it was wrong, but at the same time, I was really nervous about it whether I'm going to live or not. So I was just torn. And so when I finally got out, I went around the world with my family and that was the best thing I've ever done. I don't regret it at all, but the company became a different company. And so I regretted that. And there's a lot of guys, excuse me, that went public the last few years or took on private equity. And it's nice when you have an idea, you build a business and you have an idea and you think, well, I wonder if other people will buy into this. And you build it and the company grows, and now you've got thousands of people and then somebody comes along and validates you had a good idea and they buy you. That feels good. But it's very short-lived. Tell you for me, I love the business. I enjoy the people. I love problem solving. I liked being a part of the solution and changing the industry. That was fun.

(23:36)

And I think, well, I know I've talked to a lot of guys that recently took on private equity or whatnot, and some of very happy and good for them. It's the right time for them. Others said, ringing that bell, it didn't suffice. It wasn't what you thought it'd be. It depends on where you are in your life. I think everybody's going to be different in how they look at that. But for me, I love the industry and why did I get out? I mean, I know why I got out, but after I didn't die, after I'm going, oh shoot, I'm still here. What next? And so then when Blackstone in the company went through their bankruptcy, I was not a part of it obviously, but I had a non-compete up until that moment. And when that was over, I jumped back the first second I could.

Maria Malkova (24:38):

So you jumped back and from what I understand, you bought the same office space that Stearns Lending was in and you bought the same tables back where your employees worked?

Glenn Stearns (24:51):

That's a long story, but yeah, I'll tell a short version. So it was 07 I've got the office probably as big as this, full of cubicles, brand new. I spent 150 grand on them. And so I went to all my friends and I said, look, I got to get rid of all this. Do you want them for a hundred thousand, 75, 50? I finally got a guy, I had to pay him five grand to take all the cubes out of there. So I negotiated them up to just, you can have them for free. And he got them all knocked down. The landlord said, I've got to be out by that Friday or they're going to keep charging me. So they were all down and my assistant comes up to me and says, these two great companies just went out of business. And I went, hold those cubicles right there.

(25:49)

The guy said what? And I go, just take them. And so then that week I made a deal with those guys and I ended up opening five offices, like I said in oh seven. But the next week I had to go buy my damn cubicles back for 50 grand, the same ones. I was so pissed. So they'd been in our building Stearns, and let's just say I was the largest creditor in the bankruptcy. So besides the bond guy, I was the one they wiped out. Well, that didn't feel very good. I mean, it's business, I get it. But it kind of pissed me off. So I go, I'm going back to the same building. I'm taking down the sign, my own name, right? Taking down the fricking sign, putting up the other, I filmed it coming down as we gobbled it up and ate and put the other one up. And then I go, I'm going back into the same office. And it was good to feel fire to want to do it, but then I called the CEO at the time. I'm like, what are you going to do with those cubicles? He is like, do you want to buy them? I'm like, yeah, a dollar right? I've been down this road. Trust me, they're not worth anything. So I got my cubes back. Yeah.

Maria Malkova (27:06):

I feel like they deserve a book.

Glenn Stearns (27:08):

Comes full circle. You never know.

Maria Malkova (27:09):

Deserve a book too. The cubicles.

Glenn Stearns (27:12):

The cubes have their own life.

Maria Malkova (27:15):

So you launched Kind Lending. Can you maybe tell us a little bit about how was it similar to Stearns and what are you doing differently in running this business compared to your last one? What is your goal with kind lending?

Video Recording (27:32):

I think when you get in anything you get going, you look around, what am I supposed to be like? Am I supposed to be those guys? Those guys? What do I do? How do I navigate in this world? And the second time around, I realized I like who we are. I don't have to be like anybody else. I don't want to be like anybody else. So we went and opened up kind. We called it kind on purpose because it felt like the last few years before there was a lot of companies that were suing the employees. We gave you a 200,000 signing bonus and pay us back all this stuff. And we'd never sued an employee in our life. We'd found a way to keep everybody pretty happy. And so I thought maybe we can get in there and put the kindness back in this industry a little bit. And so we kind of big lofty goals, but we went and thought, that's a good name. So we did that. And then I thought, well, let's be different. Let's just really be what we want to be. Let's have some fun. So I hired the Chief Happiness Officer, my wife. I said, you go out there, it's all about mindset. I want it's culture. So we have maybe 150 people getting started. She's like, hello everybody. I'm the Chief HO. She goes, I go, you can't say that. He goes, no, I'm sleeping with the boss. Okay.

(29:19)

And so that's kind of how we got started. And so now she's the chief Kindness officer. I'm like, try to figure that one out. So we had to change her title, but then we started again little. This is so hard. And people spend so much time in their life doing this. Let's have some fun. So our portal at Stearns, why we were number one, it was called Snap one. And it was easy. It was fast. And then when they changed it to make it perfect, it's when we lost ground. That's when I had gone. But they decided to try to make it different and we started losing ground. So I went back at the same people that did Snap one. And so we caught it, the quickie. It's the quickie, the fast portal. And we're like, yes, happy beginnings and happy endings. And we've got, if it's your first time, we're going to go easy on you.

(30:29)

And people are like, are you serious? And I'm like, look, we're here to have fun. I hope you can laugh. So it's attracted a lot of people and they get into it, they realize, wow, it is fast and it is easy and you get used to it. I think UWM has done such a great job by getting that muscle memory of getting people into it and used to it. So we had to attract them. It's the quickie, come on over. And so now they see that it's fast, it works. And we've gone from, what, two years ago we were number 500 or whatever is the lowest guy you could be, because we started with no volume, and now we're number six. We missed five, four, and three by a hundred and something million. Not a lot of business. And we were up 83% last year.

(31:24)

The top five were all down 68 to 15%. We were up 90% last quarter over first. Over second quarter they were up 15 to 60% or something like that. So we're gaining ground, we're growing. And to me, again, that's what it's, I like, this is the best time to be in this business. It really is. You got to be able to turn your mindset and realize it's hard, right? It's like, I love it. I think about we just, were on Necker Island doing this thing with the Navy Seal, the guy that shot Bin Laden, and they talk about when he's laying in the surf, they all lay there together, arm to arm, and we're laying here until five of you quit. I would love to be in that thing. You're not there forever. I can sit and have some pain. We're not all going to go through this forever. It's like there'll be people that are going to decide enough waves have hit him in the face, but it's not going to be me. And so I like it. I, it's got opportunity. There's so much wonderful people out there, so many wonderful people that we can all build our teams right now better than we ever could.

Maria Malkova (32:45):

Speaking of wonderful people, from what I understand, a lot of former Stearns employees came over and joined kind lending as well, Right?

Glenn Stearns (32:54):

A lot, very proud of that. And there's a lot of great people that weren't with Stearns that have said, oh, it's my turn. I can come over. But when we sit in these meetings with Fannie or Freddy or whatever, they're like, well, we worked together 18 years, 15 years, so we're not a new company. To them they know, oh yeah, we worked with your secondary and we worked with all these people before. So feels familiar.

Maria Malkova (33:23):

So shifting gears a tiny bit, you mentioned it's a tough time right now in the mortgage industry, and I was wondering if you could share your thoughts about your outlook on the mortgage market at this point in time. Any forecasts going into next year and any advice to lenders currently struggling?

Glenn Stearns (33:48):

So there was, first off, there's this book called Man's Search for meaning Viktor Frankl. And it was about being in the concentration camps. And he talked about that. There were so many people that would say, we're going to be out of here by Christmas or by a certain date. And when that date came and passed, they lost hope. And then they just basically died. And when I look at, I think our industry, it's not if it's when, right? Because it's all cycles. And I think this cycle is such a long, hard one because it was so great. And so people, there was a lot of people that made more money than they've ever made ever in this industry. And so you've got a deeper well to try to keep the team together and you try to keep this great team. And so what you've done is you say, alright, I'm going to go buy the market.

(35:04)

So we all went to this pricing war, and yet you got a lot more money to back it up. So I think it is extended longer because we didn't do the harder things quicker. And so it's tightening up now, but it will change. It's not a matter of, again, this Christmas or whatever. It'll happen whenever it happens. And there was a guy I was talking to and he said he was climbing this mountain and are these rocks, and he was way up on this rock and he had a rope on and he got to a place and he got stuck. And the guys down below were looking at him and he's just frozen and he couldn't figure out what to do. He was to get down to get up. He was just freaked out. So this other guy climbs up no ropes. He hangs with one arm and has a cigarette.

(36:05)

And he says, your problem, you're looking at how to get way up there or way down there. He goes, you could just deal with the three feet around you, the things that you can touch. Don't worry about all the other stuff. I'm a big fan of that, meaning I won't predict when the interest rates are going to go down or will inflation curve by next quarter it's going to happen. So let's do what we can do now. Let's go get better relationships. Let's go get more loan officers or more brokers or more relationships. Let's offer them different products like a lot of the non QM or whatever there is. And let's find ways to help our partners, whether they're real estate companies or builders to figure out how to make their life easier. And it'll come. But I'm not real big on predicting when rates are going to go down or those kinds of things. I don't really care. I care about how to affect change now.

Maria Malkova (37:14):

So before we open it up to questions, I wanted to ask you one more question. Near the end of your book, you mentioned your encounter with Cal Ripkin, and you asked him what he would take out of his house if it was burning down. And I wanted to ask you the same thing. What item would you take out of your house if it was burning?

Video Recording (37:40):

Yeah, before I go that that was really cool because house become a good friend. But in his big wall of fame, he had all this amazing stuff and I said, quick fire, we got to go. What would you take? And he's looking at it, he goes, man, none of that's important. I don't really care. And he goes, well, that's kind of cool. I'd take that. It was like a piece of trash on the bottom. What? And they proceeded to tell me about when he broke Luke Eric's record for most games played and the whole thing. He took me every step of the way through it. And he said, and at the end of the game, he did what he always did. They'd always sign autographs, take his ankle tape off. He changes. He does his stuff. He said his trainer for 23 years, I'm making up the years, by the way, I don't remember. Took my ankle tape out of the trash, put it on that board, she lacked it. She lacked whatever the word is. He goes, that's pretty cool. That's what he liked. And I found that real interesting. I'd take a bottle of champagne.

Maria Malkova (38:51):

Oh, that you mentioned in your book.

Glenn Stearns (38:53):

Did I mention that?

Maria Malkova (38:53):

Yeah.

Glenn Stearns (38:57):

When I was in 2007, and I'm part of a group called YPO. If any of you guys are 45 and under and run a company, join YPO. It's the best thing I ever did in my life. And I was there. And what happens is when you become 50, you get kicked out. You're not young anymore. So you go on to the old group, but you're still kind of in. But so we were there and we were celebrating somebody's departure. And so my wife came and brought some bottles of champagne for us to toast him onto the next part of your life. And when I was cleaning up, there's one bottle that was still not opened, and I went and I looked at it and I said, one day when I get out of this mess, if I can just survive 07, I'm going to pop this open and celebrate.

(39:57)

So I put it in my refrigerator in my office. And then we opened those five offices, we started to do really well. And then 08, by the end of 08, we had the best year we'd ever had, and we opened five more offices. And I looked at the bottle, not yet. And then I said, when I do a billion a month and then you get a water. And I look at it, not yet when I sell, what I realized is I don't think there's ever a time to pop the bottle of champagne and celebrate because there should always be a higher mountain just to live. It doesn't necessarily have to be a business or whatever, but we should always be stretching ourselves. So I've never popped it and I still have it. And it's just a reminder to me that we shouldn't just sit back and stop trying, I guess.

Maria Malkova (41:02):

Great answer. So we want to open it up to any questions that the audience might have for Glenn. I think there might be some microphone somewhere. If anybody has any questions, please raise your hand. We have about five minutes left.

Audience Member 1 (41:22):

What did you do to your foot?

Glenn Stearns (41:25):

What did I do to my foot? Don't play pickleball with your kids. That's all I can tell you. I was winning too, the way it was. The last point. No, but yeah, I snapped my Achilles. Yeah, Aaron Rogers copied me.

Audience Member 2 (41:52):

Thank you for your time. That was amazing. I have a question, and I'm interested in identifying what you believe will be the most important next step for kind's growth and success as it relates to the constantly evolving industry that we're in outside of your art of kindness.

Video Recording (42:13):

Well, Thank you. I think AI plays a big part. I'm sure that's been a theme of this year. And so we're excited to utilize a lot of that as well. But a lot of people have always asked, are you going to go for number one again? Are you? And I was here a few years ago, right when we got back in, and I ran into Matt and he said, Hey, I heard you're getting back in the business, Glenn. I said, yeah. I said, I'm coming after you again, Matt. And he laughed because we were always number one, he was always number two until we sold and off world changed. And he said, I'd never had more fun than we were going head to head because we always sharpened each other. And it was fun to have somebody to really, we wanted to do more and they wanted to do more.

(43:11)

And it really, I think it helped the industry and it was a wonderful thing for everybody. And I really enjoyed the competition. I didn't care if we were number one or number two. That wasn't it as much as I liked the game. And so we enjoy that. I like that we've moved all the way up to number six. I enjoy looking and going, okay, how can we get better? And if we stayed there, I'd be pissed. And I'd like that in a weird way. I'll keep waking you up to keep moving and growing. So we're going to keep those relationships growing and try the best we can to keep, when we hire people, we don't give them big bonuses. We say, if you want all that money, we'll pay you every time you do business. We'll give you a spiff on that and you'll get the same money.

(44:14)

But if you want to leave, I don't want to be mad at you want to be mad at me because it's something we did as a company, not something you did. You shouldn't stay because you have to stay. You should stay because you want to stay. And so I hope what we do is continue to grow the footprint, continue to maybe have the industry change a little bit. We saw a few more chief happiness or kindness officers out there. I like that. I think it's good for the industry. And I'm friends with a lot of the owners and we share a lot of information. There's nothing secret in this business. It's like we should help each other. So we do. And I hope I can do a little part to make it a little easier.

Maria Malkova (45:09):

I think we have time for one more question if anyone wants to ask.

Audience Member 3 (45:14):

What happend to your voice?

Glenn Stearns (45:23):

My voice. So I told you I had a little cancer. Well, they ended up cutting my, not my epiglottis, so I don't have an epiglottis. The thing that closes your windpipe when you swallow. So it's been a little interesting to, I don't eat anymore, if that makes sense. I have to have these little shakes that I take. And so I've now picked up cooking because I'm like, I don't want to be out of the game. I've made all my friends, you have to take me to lunch and dinner. I'll talk. You eat right. And then we cook a lot. I want to be a part of the game, so my voice is a little different, but I'm alive, so I'm happy with that.

Maria Malkova (46:16):

That's all that matters. Glenn, Thank you so much.

Glenn Stearns (46:19):

Thank you. Thank you all. Appreciate it. Thank you all for joining us.