Educate. Lead. Repeat. That’s how Jay Tolisano shows up every day. He joined CCM Talks to talk about how he built his branch on mentorship, simple systems and genuine care for his team. Tune in for honest leadership advice you can put to work right away.

Welcome to the CCM Talks. I am Bridget Linton, and I'm so excited to be sitting here with Divisional SVP of Production, Jay Tolisano. Jay, how are you?

Jay: Excellent. Thanks for having me.

Bridget: So good to see you.

Jay: Yes, you as well.

Bridget: I mean, you are just so impressive. You really do it all. Mentoring, producing, leading, educating. How do you balance it?

Well, first of all, you have to love it. And I do love it. So I think that is one of the things that really kind of carries me every single day. But it really comes down to systems and time management. And I know people don't like the word systems or time management sometimes, but if you follow a plan and keep it simple, that's what helps you execute on the daily and execute to a high level.

It's impressive too for your branch. You've really built it on mentorship and training. So can you talk a little bit more about your approach?

Yeah, sure. So I'll kind of talk about the sales side and the operational side. So what I've learned over my time in the business, I've been in the business for 24 years, and I've probably been managing to some extent for 20 years. You, on the sales side, you have newer producers, that have not been in the business that long, and then you have those seasoned veterans that have been in the business a long time, and your management style and how you help them grow has to be different, in my opinion.

If they're a seasoned veteran, I kind of feel like you have to meet them where they are because they've been doing this for a long time and have a lot in their mind of what they've done and what works. And just kind of tweak along the way. And that's what we kind of help them do. And then for the newer guys and gals in the business, it's a little bit easier because they're a little bit more moldable. But we want to try to make sure with all of them, we're helping them achieve their dreams, their visions, their goal, and what they want to do in this business.

And you continue to help people. You're educating them. He's also no stranger to being on video. Let's talk a little bit more about your Homebuying 101 webinars. They're amazing. What's next for them?

So the Homebuying 101 webinar was really started about 2 to 3 years ago. Just based upon hearing another gentleman in the business who did it. Right? And a lot of good ideas come from people before you. So I took what he did and basically expanded upon it. The CCM Marketing team had a great presentation that kind of fit the bill that I was looking for, made some changes and tweaks to it. But, you know, for me it's all about education, whether it's with our sales team, our operations team, our realtors and/or our clients.

And so getting them educated and having information in one spot where I can teach them over 30 to 45 minutes. Listen, we can all go to AI, we can all go to Google, but it doesn't mean we can get the right answers. So we do a very, when I say interactive, it's interactive in that they can pose questions as I'm going, and the clients love it. And the realtors love it too, because it helps these people, a.) convert quicker to be clients; b.) be more successful homebuyers; and c.) know what they're talking about and not just kind of being all over the place.

So in a perfect world, my goal would be to really have every single buyer in our community on it, even if they're not working with me. Right? Like if I'm hosting this webinar, it doesn't matter if there's five, ten, 15 or 100 people on it, I'm educating the same group about the same topic. So in a perfect world, my realtors are also going to be promoting it as well.

I love that, and it's so refreshing to see an actual person teaching you now. You mentioned AI and the technology and everything is just becoming technology at this point, but you're using it in a positive way. Yes, it's a webinar, but it's you and you're speaking from your experience. You continue to produce while educating. So how do you find that balance between both of those?

Yeah. So, you know, producing and educating, I think go hand in hand, especially with the clients and also with our loan officers and our realtor partners. Right? To lead a team and not have your hand in the business to me on the daily doesn't just seem to fit as well as producing because you're in the trenches. You know what's going on every day.

That doesn't mean you cannot be a leader without producing. I just feel it's a very good thing to produce because you see what's going on in the moment with the current market, with the current trends. If something needs to change on a dime, which as you guys know, in this business, it does. We can adapt and adapt really quickly.

So whether it's my homebuying education class, right, things are changing. There was just a guideline that hit today that is going to be impactful, maybe short term, but that needs to kind of roll out into our sales folks, into our realtor base, and also, into our clients.

Bridget: And it's so much easier when you can speak from your own experience too. It’s much easier to educate in that way.

Yeah. I just always feel like, how can I help one of my sales guys or gals if I'm not in the trenches working every day, I can help them. And I feel like by being in the trenches, I can help them to a greater extent.

And I feel like it goes hand in hand with educating people. Your, everyone trusts you that, at that point, because you're actually willing to help. So you've been able to build this really strong culture within your branch. So what's the secret?

Really the secret, I think, is treating everybody like family and connectivity. So I grew up with a father who owned a business. It was a medical industry, nursing home business, three shifts a day. And I always remember him going in for the 3 to 11, the 11 to 7, and the 7 to 3, and he would have a meal with them and he would take care of them.

And I think the same thing bodes well in any business, right? You have to treat them like family. You have to take care of them. You have to give them education. You have to spend time with them, send them a note card, drop them flowers on their birthday. Just give them a call. You know? Hey, Bridget. I'm checking in. How are you doing? What do you need from me? You don't need anything, right? I'm just literally calling to say hello. Like, what's going on, you know? How are you doing? How's the thing? Like, whatever. Right?

And even though we do keep contact regularly, we have a Monday kickoff meeting. We have some daily meetings. Not, you know, we're not two meeting heavy, but we have some of the best talent in our group that are across the country. Do I love that? No. I'd much rather them in a big mega office. But to acquire some of the talent and because of what happened during Covid, we've got people all over the country and so doing a face-to-face Zoom or Teams meeting with them kick off the week, check in with them. It just, you know, again, you get to treat them like family.

Spoken like a true leader. I love that when you when you feel comfortable with someone, you trust them and you continue to do that. So how do you keep everyone motivated? Obviously this market is constantly changing, but when the market is slower, how do you keep your team motivated?

So I think it's a few things. I think it is obviously the training, right? A lot comes back to the training and making sure we are involved in what they're doing every single day. I think the random check-ins help, but I also think that adapting to what someone is looking to do or not looking to do, right?

I will very quickly tell you that a few years ago, I had one of my producers come to me during the really tough time of 2022 and 2023 and said, I think I'm getting out. And I said, you've been doing this for 20 something years. What would you go do this point be? You're so good at it. You know, when we talk through it and at the end of the day, I said to him, what is it that you like doing? And he said, I like educating people. And I said, well, why don't you take what you like doing and do that more and the rest will happen. And now it's 2025, entering 2026 and 3 years later, he's still in the business. He's doing great.

So I think, again, back to something I said before, is you kind of kind of like meet them where they are and figure out where they are because that person's challenge may not be the next person challenge.

And it's that positive mindset to, yeah, you see a challenge. How can we spin this to make you happy again? And it seems like you've done that.

Yeah. You know, we try every, every day right. It's always something. But we have a lot of fun with it. And we just, we really like people we work with.

And obviously there's a lot of success that can happen in this business, but with success comes failures as well. So what's one leadership lesson that you learned from failure?

I think for me, and I also tell my team this, is you have to own your mistake or you have to own the situation. So I'll never forget back in 2020, Covid just started, volume was up significantly. A new realtor in town started referring me, big top producing realtor, and we dropped the ball and we were going to close a day late.

And I went to her and told her the honest reason why we were closing a day late and she said, you owned it. Most people would give me some excuse and then the referrals just went from there. Like we just kept building the business. So I think it's owning it. And I think the same thing works internally with our staff. If someone has to deal with something with one of their teammates, they just need to deal with it head on. If they want to get advice from me, I'll give them advice. But I can't battle everybody's problem or challenge. They just need to do that themselves and it creates a stronger relationship between the two people afterwards. So I think it's, you know, owning your mistake and or the situation and dealing with that head on.

That is great advice. I'm going to take that one for me, myself too. So, in this industry too, when people often measure success by the numbers, what is success mean to you beyond that?

Yeah. So beyond the numbers, it really comes down to how do we impact the people's lives that we work with and how do we, and that means work with, right, employees, our staff members, our clients, our realtors. Those are all people we impact. And, you know, and then our clients’ families. Right? So yes, beyond the numbers, it really comes down to what are you doing to help other people? And there's a lot of other people to help. The numbers are super important because that's what keeps us going. But we've got to keep that community in that culture where you know, where we have it and continue to expand upon it.

It would be great if we could just clone you and just kind of put you everywhere, because it seems like you do, are able to do it all. You lead, you mentor, you continue to produce. So for other loan officers, what piece of advice would you give them to become better educators for their clients?

So I think first and foremost, you have to love what you do. And you really need to step back, and if you don't love what you do, you need to kind of reevaluate and reassess that. But if you love the mortgage business, which I do, and you love the sales aspect of it, you just have to get better at it every single day, right?

So whether that means reading a guideline, understanding a tax benefit, you know, listening to a podcast, for me, I consume a lot of that data when I'm doing my cardio. Right? I am a fidgeter. I don't sit still. I couldn't sit in front of something and just sit there. So for me, I take in a lot, of content. But the other thing too is like, we all have to, give to ourselves first, right? You have to have the right mindset. And so for me, a morning routine and going to the gym and exercising and certain things help with the mindset. So I think it's, it's a combination of all of those items.

Bridget: And it's consistency.

Jay: Everything is consistency.

Bridget: Yes, I love it.

Jay: Yes, everything.

Well, you've given such great information and advice. I appreciate you taking the time to have a fun chat. I hope you all learned something here. And if you would like to learn more about a career at CrossCountry Mortgage, all you have to do is visit CCM.com.