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From There to Here

From Framing Houses to Forging Customer Relationships

Jeff Watson, Home Depot’s Senior Director of Pro Sales West By Carole VanSickle Ellis When Jeff Watson was framing houses in college, he had no idea that his decision to leave that job and look for “more consistent” work at The Home Depot would result in a career with the company spanning more than 29 years (and counting). That initial decision shaped Watson’s professional life — for the better, he said. “For me, it has been a wonderful growth opportunity,” Watson said. “I was going to college and framing houses, then came to Home Depot to try to have a more consistent job so I could get through school. When I graduated from college, I ended up staying and have had some incredible experiences ever since.” Currently, Watson serves as Home Depot’s senior director of Pro Sales West with a specific focus on “outside sales.” This division of the company is dedicated to what Watson describes as “pursuing the professional customer in a more complex project environment;” his team works with some of the company’s largest Home Depot Pro customers to help them source products and services needed to complete jobs and perform on a larger scale. “It is definitely a unique position,” Watson said. “We have always been grateful for the Pro Business that walks into our Home Depot stores or shops with us online, but we realized over the past several years that some of our biggest customers really needed new types of support and solutions that would enable them to thrive in their businesses and steer their larger project purchases to Home Depot. That might mean consulting with them about the best product choices and decisions or helping them figure out when to start thinking about the next purchase so their timeline remains intact.” Whatever the need, Watson’s team is dedicated to first identifying it and then meeting it in unique ways only possible because of their close working relationships with these customers. Translating Personal Experience to Professional Success Over the course of his own personal real estate journey (buying and selling seven homes over the course of roughly two decades), Watson became very tuned in to the elements of the industry that are most important to keeping projects on track for his clients. In the end, he said, it boils down to two elements: products and services. “So many of our customers’ entire focus has to be on getting properties up to speed — either by updating or renovating new assets or fixing up and maintaining existing ones — so those properties can be either rented or sold,” Watson explained. “When you have a really large company, you need strategies and capabilities to alleviate friction that comes with purchasing products for those projects. That is where my team comes in.” Watson recalled an incident while in a previous role that really drove home for him the need for a new infrastructure when it came to serving large-scale real estate investors. A renovator who was dealing with multiple assets in markets distributed around the country ordered doors for a project in one area that were identical to those the investor had used successfully on another project. Unfortunately for this individual, the maxim that “location is everything in real estate” held true in this scenario, and the doors that had been appropriate for his project in one state turned out not to meet code in the new market. However, Watson said, the customer who placed the order with the store failed to note this potential issue, simply replicating the original order for the doors. When they came in, the customer was furious. Watson returned early from a family vacation, resolved the situation, and realized there was a clear need for a more “centrally located” type of associate on the team. “We saw that there was a need for people who would understand some of these clients are transacting in multiple areas and markets and would know to ask the customer to check the local building codes,” he observed, noting many of his team members have a deep familiarity with local building trends and can assist customers in need of insight in this arena as well. “Today, that is something our outside sales representatives are capable of recommending along with the Home Depot Pro Support Center folks, whereas sometimes store associates may only leverage the closed quote order history. We knew that bringing this element to our team could give customers a better experience.” Watson is particularly proud of his work with Home Depot and recalled an opportunity in his previous role over National Accounts to expand in order to better serve the Pro customers and specifically serve the real estate investing industry more appropriately. Over the past couple of years, he headed up an initiative to segment this area of business into four distinct verticals and establish experienced, qualified leadership positions in each vertical, including a vertical dedicated entirely to residential property managers and investors. “The result has been we are now able to generate lots of value and create a more streamlined approach and better pricing tools to help that industry,” he said. And the original irate renovator? Well, Watson and his team were able to resolve the situation to his satisfaction. After remaining a steadfast Home Depot customer for nearly 10 years after that incident, the investor sold his company to a private equity firm and has started several other businesses. “They are all Home Depot customers, of course,” Watson laughed. A Proud History of Growth & Career Enhancement As a long-time Home Depot employee himself, Watson does not fail to note how the expansion of the outside-sales program has changed lives within the company as well as outside of it. “Six years ago, the National Account team consisted of about eight associates, and, five years later, it was up to 32. The Outside Sales organization has grown three times over in the last three years alone with over 1,000 associates impacted. That is a

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From Broadcast Journalism to Real Estate Finance

Nate Zielinski, Senior Partnerships Coordinator at RCN Capital By Carole VanSickle Ellis When Nate Zielinski graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism in 2015, he did not foresee real estate investment financing in his future. Nevertheless, when he joined private lender RCN Capital in 2020, he knew his background in communications would be an asset in his new role. “I went in as a blank slate as far as the real estate investment slate goes, but I think everyone has a ‘that friend’ who is investing in real estate and telling you that you should try it out, so people were flooding into the industry at that time,” Zielinski recalled. “Fortunately for me, RCN’s guidelines for lending are very pro-investor, so they were able to keep going full steam ahead during the pandemic and now as we are coming into a new type of market as well. It made it easier for me to succeed and help investors who were bringing in their deals to succeed also.” “The Coolest Thing to Do” As a kid, when Zielinski dreamed of his future career, he dreamed of sports broadcasting. “At first, I really wanted to be in the NBA, but it became pretty obvious I was not going to make it there,” he admitted. “I figured the next best thing would be for me to be one of the guys sitting courtside and talking about the game. As far as I was concerned, that was the coolest thing to do.” Zielinski pursued his dreams, majoring in broadcast journalism and honing his writing and hosting skills throughout college and in his early professional years. “It just affirmed my belief that creating content and talking to other people about things that I am passionate about was really, really fun to me,” he recalled. He also gained experience writing podcast scripts and even calling high school basketball games, which he says even today help him maintain the “muscle memory” needed to be able to come up with ideas and talk on the fly. Today, however, what gets Zielinski excited is networking and building relationships in the real estate industry and bringing investors’ stories to new audiences via RCN’s podcast, “Uncontested Investing.” The goal of the podcast, he said, is for more people to understand just how much opportunity exists in the real estate investing space. “It is these people and their stories that are truly the stars of the show,” Zielinski said. “When they share information about their lives and passions, we all benefit.” Building Relationships & Spreading the RCN Message Zielinski started out with RCN as a loan officer, but his skills in communication and relationship building soon were the impetus for a move into his current position as senior partnerships coordinator. In this role, he writes monthly, educational articles for multiple publications, networks in person at trade shows, teaches classes about private lending, and, of course, is excitedly working with the company to re-launch “Uncontested Investing.” Zielinski is particularly excited about the podcast, which focuses on real estate professionals and both their personal and professional stories and successes. “It is all about how people succeed in the real estate industry, letting people know this is a huge space you can be a part of in a multitude of ways,” he said. His first episode as the new host will launch in late March. “It is going to be a little bit of industry knowledge, a little bit of entertainment, and a lot of behind-the-scenes information on what leaders in our industry are doing to support real estate and private lending,” Zielinski said. He also teased several other upcoming guests, including Erica Sarway of the Global Financial Training Program and Jon Hornik, co-chair of the Real Estate, Real Estate Finance & Leasing Practice group at law firm LaRocca Hornik Rosen & Greenberg. Hornik specializes in lending practices, real estate transactions, private placements, and commercial lending and leasing. He is also serving his second term as mayor of Marlboro Township in Monmouth County, New Jersey. “That is going to be a really interesting and enlightening conversation because a lot of investors do not really know a lot about what Jon does from a legal standpoint, so that will be a really interesting angle,” Zielinski predicted. “And, of course, Erica is going to basically be giving us a crash course on how to make more money.” Learn more about RCN Capital and see the latest news about the Uncontested Investing podcast at RCNCapital.com. SIDEBAR Navigating New Markets with Consistency and a Team Mindset One of the things Nate Zielinski loves most about working with RCN is getting to see the teamwork that exists in the real estate industry firsthand. However, he noted, developing those early relationships and network connections is not always easy. “There is an onus on the investor to network and develop those relationships over time,” he said, adding, “There are many facets to real estate investing, and it is crucial for investors to open up, identify, and accept the help and expertise available to them.” For Zielinski, this means part of his job is making sure investors know what is available to them, particularly in the context of financing for investments. He is always on the hunt for new connections and companies that can help RCN Capital clients alleviate pain points in their investing trajectories and processes. “Our loan officers have been able to continue closing loans at a significant clip throughout the pandemic and post-pandemic environments,” Zielinski observed. “Today’s market is constantly changing, and part of my job is to form relationships that will help us identify companies that can partner with us in any economy and help us reach investors through different education platforms.” RCN Capital is a nationwide, private direct lender established in 2010 that provides short-term fix-and-flip financing as well as long-term rental financing for real estate investors. However, Zielinski said, many other real estate professionals do not realize RCN is prepared to serve them as well. “We

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From Appraiser to CEO And Everything In Between

Larry Goodman, CEO, HomeVestors of America By Carole VanSickle Ellis When Larry Goodman, CEO of HomeVestors of America, graduated from the University of Alabama with a real estate finance degree in 1987, he dove right into the industry as a real estate appraiser in Miami, Florida. It was not long before Goodman expanded his area of expertise, branching out from residential real estate into commercial properties. “That was a great thing for me because I learned these really good observational skills,” he recalled. “When you are an appraiser, you are really looking at everything with a fine-toothed comb. It opened my eyes to all the things that I did not see [before].” Goodman’s eyes were opened to more than just the vitally important details of buildings and construction, however. He began to see just how big the opportunities in real estate really could be. After several years as an appraiser, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and began working in the real estate investment management space with a firm specializing in real estate investments on behalf of institutional investors. He remained with that firm through thick and thin, staying on board for 15 years and working in myriad positions during that time. “I did everything from acquisitions to asset management to portfolio management,” Goodman said. He also gained valuable experience and excelled in working with myriad forms of institutional capital, multifamily and single-family properties, hotels, industrial properties, office space, and retail space. “It was a very broad, well-rounded experience in all facets of real estate,” he concluded, “and I worked with pension funds, insurance companies, high-net-worth individuals, and other various comingled funds and individual accounts.” While he was in Atlanta, Goodman branched out personally as well. He started a family, marrying his wife, Marge, of 28 years and eventually having three daughters: Nicole, Brittany, and Madison. “Family comes first. They are my top priority. It is not even a question,” Goodman said firmly. “I have learned over the years that it is important to have a good work-life balance. We are a close-knit family and I am very proud of my girls and what they have done so far in their lives.” His oldest daughter ultimately chose a career path in real estate finance, a choice Goodman describes as “very interesting.” He added, “There are so many areas of real estate you can go into; it is such an interesting business and has changed so much over the years and there are so many ways that people can have success and generate returns just by owning real estate.” When he finally opted to leave the Atlanta firm, Goodman moved to Dallas, Texas, where he worked with a national multifamily management company before ultimately branching out once again into the startup world, where he (and the PropTech company he led as COO) flourished together until HomeVestors brought him on in October 2022 as chief operating officer (COO). Upon the retirement of former HomeVestors CEO David Hicks in August of this year, Goodman assumed the role and has been hard at work applying his more-than-three-dozen years of diverse work in real estate to one of the most famous companies in the industry, the “We Buy Ugly Houses people.” An Intriguing Growth Opportunity Paired with “Incredible Culture” If it is not already apparent from his storied work history, Goodman will tell you in no uncertain terms that growth and opportunity are non-negotiable when it comes to where he wants to work. HomeVestors, which bills itself as “America’s #1 home buyer,” has been an industry leader since 1996 and has been ranked in the Franchise 500’s top 100 companies since 2015. For someone who values the opportunity to be a part of huge growth, moving into a position, however prestigious, with a national company with more than 1,100 existing franchises throughout the continental United States might seem like moving into a peak position rather than a growth-oriented one. Not so, said Goodman. In fact, if you believe that HomeVestors is approaching or has reached its peak, Goodman suggests you take a second look. “What intrigued me so much about working with HomeVestors was that it is a sophisticated, mature company that has retained many of the elements that make startups so exciting,” he explained. “That there is still great opportunity in a mature company and that I can be a part of that growth is really, really interesting because I really love to grow. I cannot be stagnant.” Goodman added, “At HomeVestors, it is really exciting to me that I will get to be a part of the next phase of change and growth in the company.” Goodman said his focus as CEO will be on enhancement of HomeVestors resources, culture, and value because the company already has a firmly established foundation upon which to build. “We are really excited about enhancing the entire structure,” he said. “For instance,” he added, “we will enhance training, technology, deliverables, and all the related services that we offer to help potential applicants and franchisees succeed.” Goodman is already planning substantial growth in advertising and marketing strategies in the coming year to support both new and existing franchisees. “This will really level us up because we are partnering with a very sophisticated marketing agency focused on franchise sales,” Goodman said. He added, “We are also going to dramatically increase our content volume and trainings so we have a better repository for our franchisees than we have ever had before.” Completing the Mission By Staying on Message Goodman recalled that when he was working with the startup just before joining HomeVestors, the company was very focused on delivering a clear, strong message to its potential customers and clients. He explained that when a company is young, keeping things consistent throughout the entire infrastructure as well as with customers is imperative to growth and success. Because of this experience, he said, he headed up an update of the mission, vision, and core values at HomeVestors. “Everything is focused on our

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Recipe for Success: Building Trust and Bringing Out the Best in People

John Gordon — Director of National Accounts, Home Depot By Carole VanSickle Ellis In 1980, a newly married John Gordon and his wife were heading toward Lansing, Michigan, where they expected Gordon to join computing powerhouse IBM in the company’s marketing department while his wife earned her master’s degree at Michigan State. They were loading the truck to head for Michigan when they got the call: IBM was in a hiring freeze and Gordon’s offer had been rescinded. The job was not available anymore. “This was 1980, and the unemployment rate in Michigan was either 16% or 13%,” Gordon recalled. “I can’t remember whether unemployment or interest rates were higher.” They arrived at their new apartment, unloaded the truck, and Gordon started looking for work. “I had paid my room and board in college doing handyman jobs and had enjoyed doing those kinds of things. I had worked as a carpenter’s helper in high school,” he said. “When my wife told me she saw a “Now Hiring” sign at 84 Lumber, I applied and got a job as a counter salesman. I worked there for 12 years in positions from salesman to VP of Regional Purchasing before joining Home Depot.” Gordon joined Home Depot early, starting out as an assistant manager in the Pineville, North Carolina, store. It was the company’s first store in the state. Ultimately, he took over as manager of that store before opening a store in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and eventually helping launch the company’s Pro Initiative in 1999. “When we started the Pro Initiative, we did it because we believed we could be doing business with professional customers as well as our DIY customers, so my 84 Lumber background made me a good fit. Today, that initiative accounts for about half the revenue of a $150 billion company!” “We Knew We Had Something Big” Gordon laughed when asked how things were in the beginning before the team knew for sure that the Pro Initiative would be a success. “It was great, and it was terrible,” he said. “I was doing all the things I like doing — dealing with contractors that I knew could benefit from all the resources at Home Depot and that previously had only shopped in our stores to a small degree — but we were already a really big, $30-billion business that only could change the way things worked so quickly.” Gordon described the process of integrating Home Depot Pro into the greater Home Depot body as “teaching a monster to dance.” He explained, “When your monster dances one way, it turns out you don’t have to teach the entire beast to dance differently. You just figure out which parts need to move and change those.” Gordon said the joke in the early 2000s was that every Home Depot was different. “If you saw one Home Depot store, you saw one Home Depot store,” he laughed. “So at every store, we had to go in and figure out what things had to change.” That involved everything from Pro Desk placement to product inventory and how to serve the needs of customers who would order 50 or 100 of an item at a time instead of fewer than 10. “It was an exciting time,” Gordon said. “It went screaming by, still feels like it was yesterday.” Gordon emphasized that in those early days with Pro Desk, as today, the group of people he worked with made up an incredible team and support system. He noted that many of his former team members and customers have gone on to work in high-profile positions across the industry, and he is proud to see them sitting on speakers’ panels onstage and still figuring out solutions to problems that real estate investors encounter today. “Working with all of these people, trusting them and having their trust as we figured things out in this industry, those are things of which I’m really most proud,” he said. “It’s About Relationships” One of the most constant themes in Gordon’s career in the industry has been his dedication to building and maintaining trust and solid relationships with peers and colleagues. At its foundation, Gordon said, this core behavior has its roots in a conversation he had with Dave Young, an executive and colleague from his earliest days at 84 Lumber. “Dave was getting ready to retire, and I think he was trying to make sure I understood that just because now I was in a big position at a big company it did not give me permission to be anything but respectful and to build strong, strong relationships,” said Gordon. He continued, “He told me a story about a time he was trying to sell a certain type of siding that he simply could not make profitable in a particular market. No matter what he tried, he sold at a loss or very close to a loss. When he shared that with the leadership at the siding company, they told him they would send him a separate blank invoice for that market and he could fill in the cost he needed that would allow for both competitive and profitable sales.” Gordon recalled being dumbstruck. “Who is going to give you a blank invoice?” he asked. Young told him, “It’s about relationships,” and 42 years later, Gordon has never forgotten this. “When I’m in a scenario to make decisions and be in the driver’s seat, I remember what Dave told me that day, and I make the decisions based on being the kind of person that people can trust.” This dedication to being trustworthy and honest has made Gordon a perfect fit for the Home Depot culture, he said, adding, “If you go in a Home Depot store today, there are people who have been there 20, 30, even 40 years, and I get asked a lot, ‘Why do people stay at Home Depot so long?’ The truth is that it is because Home Depot makes it easy to

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Breaking the Status Quo

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From Dreams of Baseball to Leaving the Insurance Industry Better Than He Found It Shawn Woedl’s journey to becoming the President and CEO of National Real Estate Insurance Group (NREIG) has been guided by one saying by Rear Admiral Grace Hopper: “The most dangerous phrase in the language is, ‘We’ve always done it this way.’” Woedl took this same approach when entering the insurance industry many years ago. NREIG provides insurance solutions for nearly every type of investment property. The company had humble beginnings in an Ohio basement office in 2008. Woedl and Tim Norris, the founder of NREIG, had initially built the business by speaking at different Real Estate Investment Association (REIA) groups across Ohio. The company has grown to over 140,000 locations across all 50 states, with over 20,000 investors enrolled in their programs. Woedl’s “all or nothing” approach has helped him achieve great success in the insurance industry. Although, when he was young, he had his sights set elsewhere. Woedl spent his youth dedicated to baseball; it was all he ever thought he would do. He had huge dreams of making it to “the show,” but it wasn’t in the cards for him. As he put it, “I did things the hard way, but I’m better off for it.” While driving one night in high school, he was struck by a drunk driver who ran a red light. He sustained significant damage to his right shoulder, requiring surgery and extensive rehabilitation. Although he experienced constant pain in his shoulder, Woedl was committed to rebuilding his swing. He signed to play baseball at DePauw University, a Division III school in Greencastle, Indiana. “But like many other times in my life where I chose the hard way,” he joked, “I decided that having all of my college paid for was too easy, and I left DePauw.” After fumbling around for a few months, he enrolled at a junior college in an attempt to save his dream of making it to the major leagues. Unfortunately, he had missed too much time during rehab to catch up. It was time he came up with a plan B. Finding a new dream A few years later, after finishing a shift at JCPenney (one of three jobs at the time), he ran into an acquaintance at Best Buy loading several high-ticket electronics into his $100,000 SUV. “So, of course, I asked him what he was doing,” said Woedl. “We met up a couple of days later, and he explained that he owned a few insurance agencies and offered me a job.” The agencies were mainly comprised of home and auto accounts, an area Woedl had very little interest in, but commercial real estate immediately stuck out to him. The two started an independent agency focused primarily on large apartment complexes. With a $10,000 investment and a list of apartment owners and property management companies across the country, “I started smiling and dialing, and that was the beginning of my career,” said Woedl. “I’ll admit that in the beginning I was in it for the money,” said Woedl. “But that didn’t last long.” He recalled one of his first encounters with an investor who is still a client to this day: “He nearly got destroyed on a property claim because his insurance agent at the time did not explain to him the limitations of his coverage and how it would affect him following a loss. I watched as he only recovered about $28,000 from what should have been $250,000 because of all the things he got dinged for. He was under-insured, he had coinsurance, and his deductibles were too high. I thought to myself, ‘What the hell is going on?’ “ Woedl began having every new client send over their existing policy so he could do a line-by-line comparison. If the client’s needs were not being adequately addressed, Woedl would point out where he could set them up with better coverage. Though he spent three to four hours on each policy, reading these contracts is how Woedl taught himself about insurance policies and how to identify trap doors that could harm his clients. He strongly believed that the industry had to change. “The more I read into some of these insurance policies, the more disgusted I was at the state of affairs in the industry. I developed a passion for insurance that I never expected, and it set the stage for me to move into the insurance program space.” As time passed, Woedl gained traction in the insurance industry. Instead of just brokering one-off deals, he began building programs. “This was where the revelation really started to hit me, and I realized how impactful my profession could be. I learned how to build programs for the benefit of investor clients, and a whole world opened.” By this time, Woedl had joined up with Tim Norris, the founder of NREIG, who had also discovered this real estate investor niche in the market. The two realized that many insurance carriers were hesitant to work with investor clients for two main reasons. “Insurance is a transfer of risk. Insurance companies are trying to minimize risk. And as for investors, there is plenty of risk to account for,” Woedl explained. For example, a tenant is more likely to burn down a rental property than the owner. A vacant building is more likely to be vandalized than one that is occupied. And a property under construction is more likely to have accidents. The second major factor — a lot of time for little money. “Here’s how it works. Investors will buy a property that is occupied. Two months later, the tenant will move out, and the investor needs to renovate it. And that means a policy will have to be canceled and replaced by a whole new policy, which brings a slew of paperwork for little money,” explained Woedl. He recognized that an investor’s insurance needs are just as unique and challenging as the properties they hold. It

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Racing Full-Speed

RCN Capital’s Jeffrey Tesch is Pushing the Limits and Staying in the Fast Lane By Carole VanSickle Ellis If Jeffrey Tesch, CEO at private direct lender RCN Capital, were not involved in the private lending industry, he would probably be zooming at top speed around an asphalt track in Daytona or Talladega. “My wife might not agree, but I think if I put a helmet on and really worked at it, I could be a truly great NASCAR auto racer,” he laughed. Fortunately for the world of private lending, Tesch has elected to stay out of the fast lane — at least where driving is concerned. When it comes to business and lending, however, it is a completely different story. Tesch has spent his entire career pushing the limits and creating solutions in two very different industries. “I started out in business with a single Subway franchise,” he recalled. At 22, Tesch bought the business using a loan co-signed by his father, and for nearly 20 years he focused on growing his business, buying more franchise locations, and raising his family. Of course, this was all conducted at top speed, with little time to slow down between one responsibility and the next. Nights, he would mop the floors of any shop where the closers did not show up, and in the morning he would do the prep work if the early crew did not make it in. “There was no job I did not do,” he recalled. “I never really liked mopping floors at 10 o’clock at night, but it had to be done because I cared about the business. I always remember that.” Not an Easy Business Over the 20 years he was expanding his Subway franchise business and raising a family, Tesch invested in real estate. He preferred to buy rentals, and did so throughout the 1990s until about 2010. “I did not have time for flipping because I was so busy running the sandwich business,” he said. “At that time, Subways were popping up everywhere. If I was going to buy real estate, I was going to rent it out and keep it simple.” He recalled getting started with RCN in 2010 and expecting lending to be relatively easy compared to his experiences in the restaurant business. He soon learned the lessons from Subway would be highly applicable in his new role at a lender trying to forge a niche for itself providing capital to real estate investors who were acquiring distressed homes, fixing them up, and putting them back into the marketplace. At that time, the types of loans Tesch and his partners envisioned making were largely unprecedented. “There was no good solution,” he said, “and the industry, the housing market, and the economy needed one,” he said. “Of course, that was 2010. There was a horrible recession, and the marketplace was extremely fragmented,” Tesch continued. “I knew that we could build a company that would provide a true service to the industry, but it was not easy — not even compared to food service!” RCN Capital began providing time-sensitive bridge financing to real estate investors in 2010, creating much-needed solutions for investors who needed faster-paced, more flexible lending solutions than the traditional banking industry could provide. There was no time to slow down, however; the next solution needed, Tesch saw clearly, was the need for transparency in a burgeoning industry with very few rules. “Back in 2010, there was not really an industry for real estate investment loans,” he said. “It was mainly investors just looking for money with no good way to find it. It was a mess.” Tesch and RCN implemented a series of internal standards to help the lender and borrowers know where things stood with a loan, to uphold standards for customer interactions, and to maintain clarity throughout the transaction. “It was common stuff you would expect in a residential loan, but at that time it was not standardized for the commercial world of private lending,” Tesch explained. “It was as simple as mandating that once you had spoken with a customer and come to terms, you issued a commitment letter. We were very above-board, and it had a lasting impact on our business and on the industry.” “Nothing Without the Team” Not surprisingly for a man who daydreams about being a professional race car driver, Tesch places an extremely high value on his crew at RCN. Today, that crew numbers nearly 250, and he emphasized that the RCN infrastructure and his extended team are the key to the company’s success and the success of clients. “Lending money is not an easy business, and you have to work with people who are truthful, honest, and hardworking. What can be even harder on the lender’s side is that you need people willing to have difficult, honest conversations with customers about loan approvals and denials when necessary,” he explained. “We have a really, really deep bench of people who do exactly that. They care about the company and making a difference as well as their paycheck.” Tesch hires with this type of mindset as his goal, noting, “We want people who are fired up to make a difference.” He described one of his earliest hires, a young employee who had been working at a car dealership answering phones. Despite the mundanity of the position, “she came in with the attitude that she was going to do an amazing job,” Tesch said. “In fact, she did such an amazing job we moved her into a position as a loan processor, where she wrote a manual for all the other processors we have ever hired. Then, she moved into underwriting, and now she is a loan officer. She could have come in with no expectations, but instead she helped build up the entire company and our customers as well. That kind of fire is what we are all about.” In addition to direct, private lending, RCN operates a proprietary system dedicated to supporting real

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