In this inspiring episode of Lykken on Lending, David Lykken sits down with Brian Covey, Divisional Senior Vice President at CrossCountry Mortgage, former D1 athlete, and executive coach, to explore what really defines leadership in today’s fast-paced world. Brian pulls back the curtain on his journey—from the soccer field to the boardroom—and shares why being present, not being in power, is the secret to authentic influence. You’ll hear practical strategies on intention-setting, minimizing distractions, and how to break free from burnout by leading yourself first. If you’ve ever felt like your title doesn’t reflect your potential, this conversation will give you the clarity, tools, and motivation to lead with impact—right where you are.
[David] Listeners, we’re in for another treat. We’re gonna be talking to Brian Covey. If you’ve heard anything from Brian or heard him talk, you know what an inspiration he is. He’s always got a positive message, focusing people on having the right mindset, building success, this guy has got success around him. It follows him, it everything. He’s walking in a cloud of success and so I’m really excited to have Brian on there. Listeners, we’re focusing on two things. Number one, we’re talking about technology that can change your life. The industry’s changing. If you’re not using AI technology, you’re gonna be left in the dust, and AI can make your life so much easier. The other thing is we’re interviewing guys like Brian that can help set your mind get it in the right tack. When they talk about a sailboat can sail into the wind. It’s how you tack and how you learn skillfully handle the wind that’s coming at you to move it off the sail and so Brian Covey, good to have you here, friend
[Brian] David, It’s been an honor to get to know you and I get to hang out at the last event there at HousingWire and all that. And I was like, yes, we gotta jam because you’re an icon in the industry and I was like, okay, we have a lot of things.
[David] We got a lot in common. That’s the other thing. We share our same faith and we have the same optimism. We both care. We bring a lot of energy to wherever we show up and the thing that we don’t have in common that I am seeking to emulate is you are discipline to work out. You’ve got almost zero body fat. You’re just a maniac on there. I’m 74-year-old and I gotta get rid of some of this and keep working at it. So we’ll be going at it so keep inspiring me in that. One thing you are, Brian you’re a Divisional Senior Vice President, Cross Country Mortgage. I’m really interested in why Cross Country, why that’s working so well for you, because you’ve moved around some and to, and it takes a while to find the right community to be a part of and I’m really excited to hear what Ron and the community has done there. I’m really excited about the fact that you invited me to attend one of Ron’s events, one of your leadership. I’m gonna be doing that this fall sometime. Really looking forward to that. But let’s get into this and for those who don’t know you, I think it’s important that we start out with where your journey in mortgage lending started. So give us that story. How’d you get into this crazy business?
[Brian] Oh, Dave, I’m sure like all of us, I went to school for mortgage and not true, right? We all know I played D one college soccer, that was my ticket in really scholarship.
[David] Oh, wow.
[Brian] Yeah. So University of Memphis. Interesting enough I thought I was going to a different school. Let’s just say God had a different plan in the coach at Memphis. I kept following up would come to my games. I was playing there locally or high school, won three outta four state championships. Like we had a pedigree of we had some athletes ahead of me, but they just set the standard. So I was always around these guys. I got to captain my last junior and senior year. I got to go play at Memphis. I played all four years, which I told by, that meant a lot. I got to play. Whereas at some of the other schools, maybe a little bit larger. Higher rank. Maybe I would’ve sat for a year or two, don’t know. But I went to Memphis and I got a chance to become a Tiger. Got a great business education there. Fogelman College of Business.
[David] Oh, you did get a business degree. Okay.
[Brian] I did. So I was say like, I got that and I [loved marketing. So I look back, like my classes I enjoyed, the professors I enjoyed. They were talking about Warren Buffet, they were talking about investing, they were talking about accounting. I’m like what do I do with this? I went, I got drafted out early. I got to play a little bit of pro ball, and that was always my dream. So I left school in the spring. When I got drafted and picked up by Nashville. Interesting enough, interesting living here now. So full circle. But man, that was my dream, David and I went and did that. I got my coaching license. I thought I was gonna become a coach. I was gonna go back, get my graduate degree. I happened to go one day as I’m finishing up my classes and promised my parents I would graduate. So I came back, get my scholarship done, go to a career fair. Wells Fargo Financial is there. I dunno if you remember those guys.
[David] Oh yeah, I sure do.
[Brian] Oh man. Anybody that’s been in consumer finance or consumer direct and all that world, it’s a different world. But they hire athletes, they hire people that work, and I’m like, that’s me. I’m trainable if you’ll teach me. So we’re literally doing furniture financing. We’re doing auto loans, personal loans. If you got lucky, you did a big home debt consolidation loan, right? So I learned for a little over a year in that system, and then one of my friends was on the mortgage side and that’s where I got my beginning was I went over and I would watch him, I would hang out, I would send him referrals because look, we were doing like 15% rates and he’s over here at seven, and I’m going, I’m gonna send you my, I’m gonna send you my referrals and he says, Brian, you should come to mortgage. I got a whopping $2,000 a month guarantee for two months and they said, hey, here’s the guidelines, and I remember I got a Todd Duncan CD, High Trusts Sales Marketing. And they’re like, here you go, and here’s a mentor and here’s some things, but just go out there and make sales calls. So I went to open houses, did all that. But David, I’m grateful and thankful because that year plus at Financial that I’m making cold calls, doing all that.
[David] I say Brian, I started out in consumer finance, went to work for a bank. When I got into a management training program, one of the things I had to do is make car loans and those finance loans and where there’s something about when you make the loan, you look at a credit application, you make a credit decision, and we don’t have the guidelines of consumer finance that we do in mortgage. And it’s if the, do you think this person’s gonna make their payments? And then if they don’t. I had to go repossess the car and the motorcycle that we made the loan on and I don’t think there’s anything better about learning the principles and that getting that gut feel for what goes on. And it’s a great training ground. So anyone listening to this wanting to get in the industry it’s fine. Get right into mortgage if you want to, but if you find yourself getting into consumer finance first, it’s not a bad place to start. In fact, I’ll think there’s, it’s gonna give you advantages down the road. You’re not gonna make as much. Can make a lot more mortgage lending. But it’s a great place. I think I wanna underscore that with that a part of your journey. So you got into mortgage and then you got into right into the sales side of it.
[Brian] Right hand is a home mortgage consultant is what we called him. And I was a junior. And I tell people, this is, if you go back, a lot of people don’t hear a lot of this story, but for six months I was a junior under a gentleman named Donald Simpson. I’ll never forget Donald’s still, a buddy of mine moved outta Memphis. But I would study, we would literally sit in a small, almost 10 by 10 office. And I would listen to him on the phone. I would have questions and he was right there and I would ask him, say, Hey, where do I go for this? Hey, what do I do on that? and I was learning by being in the room.
[David] That’s so good. And that’s a mentor, that’s a mentorship program. It works the best. Mentorship programs it’s so much better. There’s different ones. I remember Chad Overhauser, who’s now runs production over at Guild. He’s good friend I got helped him get in the industry. In fact, I did get him in the industry and then he memorized the entire Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac seller servicer guide. He has got a photographic memory. Not many people like that out there. But when it comes through mentoring, like what you had, that is the best. So started with the finance background, got great mentoring. So how did it go when you actually got out on, started doing it for yourself?
[Brian]I was the one that being an athlete I didn’t want to be. Second or third or any of that, the competitive nature be real. I wanted to be first, and I’ll say what my, what I found my competitive advantage and edge was, is I was willing to adopt technology back then, which is not what it is today, but I would watch the videos that Todd would send out, high trust sales and marketing. I would go to open houses after church on a Sunday. Never forget, Dave, I would literally drive through neighborhoods that we couldn’t afford. They were the biggest home prices, and it’s like I would drive through and I would take pictures. I would call the agents, I would walk into there and I just made sales calls. And then during the week I would follow up with them to set appointments. ’cause my manager said, Hey, if you talk to enough real estate agents, you’re gonna get enough referrals. And I was fortunate in that my network, a lot of us were young trying to buy our first home. So what I did is I went out to all my friends, all the families I’d played soccer with and everybody, I was like, Hey guys, this is what I’m doing. I might be new, I’ll work hard. I’ll give you great service and I’ll take care of you and that was really my…
[David] That’s how you guys started. Yeah. Kudos are fine, Todd. Todd’s a dear friend. I just interviewed him again and I’m a part of Fuel Inc. Which he’s doing now and Todd and I have been friends for decades. In fact, I’m the guy that talked him into going out on his own and starting that. You’ll hear that when you, if you ever get a chance to listen to the story that we recorded your recently I was at there at the very beginning. I just recorded that story and we’re gonna be posted that out. But Todd is a great resource. What a man of, I’m just amazed at the material he has curated over the years and the powerful and so another great thing, find a good coach and is that why you got into coaching? because you’re now a coach?
[Brian] Yeah, a hundred percent is I look at the mentors I had through my journey.
[David] And was it mostly Todd, was it primarily Todd?
[Brian] It was Todd and then Wells. I will say Wells was known for this. I almost spent 13 years there. So I was just shy of 13 years. And I remember David every time, like when I got promoted to branch manager, area manager, regional, like all those levels, I didn’t know what I was doing. Let’s be real. Like you get promoted and you’re like, now what? So I had mentors shout out to one of my buddies over at Rate, Jim Ebley. Area manager and when I got promoted to area, they’re like, Hey, you need a peer mentor and they were great about that. And so I share that story because no matter what company you’re at today, you need peer mentors that have been doing it longer than you. And here’s what I knew. They from soccer. If I got around people that were already successful and like even in the pro ranks or college, you would hang out with the upperclassmen like, Hey, what are you doing here? How are you doing that? What’s your training off the field like? You just ask questions.
[David] Yeah, you’re naturally wired. You have that in your training and your athletic background. Yep. So that’s tremendous.
[Brian] I’m wired to be a coach and I’ll tell you, if you had someone reach out to me today, Dave, this is the best compliment. I don’t advertise that I coach. I’m very selective about the executives and kind of C-suite because I, I think that is an underserved market and what I’ve realized, someone reached out to me today and they said, Hey, I’m looking for a coach. They aligned up on our faith first, which was an honor there. And they said, Hey, we’ve watched you, I’ve watched you, I’ve heard you speak. You’re the same person online as offline. And they just, this is the best call. I go, I need more of you in my life. I’m willing to pay to have access to you. Will you coach me? What would it look like?
[David] Was that a sales? Is that sales coaching, did you say?
[Brian] Sales coaching and then the mortgage business course. They run a branch. Very successful by the way. And then they’ve worked with someone else and they just said, Hey, I wanna go to that next level. And the things that you’re doing, I wanna learn how you did them. Not only share that story with people is you gotta put the reps, you gotta do the things like I’m sharing all these things that I went through different versions of Brian, the one today. Yeah. You might see it and go, man, that’s awesome. I wanna do all that. I’m like. I’ve paid dues along the way and failed so many times, but the right mentors. If you wanna figure out how to get there with less big failures, I would say you’re still gonna fail, but less big failures, man. Put the right people in your life and that’s such a good point. It man. Such a good point. One of the things we talked about in prepping for this podcast interview was something you talk about, presence effect. I wanna understand what that means.
[Brian] Yeah. So Dave, this has been one, I stumbled into this a little over a year ago, and it always comes out of your own life lessons that you learned, and I realized there were too many times in my life I was not being present like either with my kids. I was in a meeting with someone, I would go to that event that I’d paid money for and I felt like I was distracted. I was thinking about the next thing I’m worried about, oh, I gotta do this, I gotta do that and what I realized is there was these moments passing me by and I wasn’t present in those and it’s almost like the the theory, like multitasking, that we all probably are guilty. We have distractions everywhere. We got TVs, we got smart devices, we got people trying to text us. They can direct message you. They can call you like, think about all the ways. You get distracted.
[David] It’s over the top.
[Brian] It’s it’s way more than what we’re used to or equipped to. And our attention span has dropped. So the presence effect is this, it’s how you show up mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually into a situation that you can give what I believe is your greatest gift, which is your presence and I’ll just ask everybody listening to this is think back to the last time that you had somebody that gave you they’re full of present. Like they’re full present. They were just full attention.
[David] Full attention.
[Brian] They’re in and think about the opposite, the last time you had a conversation, and I’ve had one of those recently, and you know the person’s they’re not even there. Are they out in the backyard like trying to do something? Are they watching tv? are they on social media? Like they’re not there. How many times in life do we go through this? and what I started to realize, David, if you just look at statistics and decision fatigue and all these things go together. We’re all craving influence. We’re all craving impact and all that and what I would charge people is if you can be present in the moments, less moments, but more presence is gonna give you deeper relationships, more connection, and more fulfillment. How do I know it? I’m living it and I’m not perfect at it. But it’s man, when you I think this.
[David] And this is one of those things where your kids can grab your attention. I have two daughters, you talk about what you’re doing with your family and boy, they’ll be in your face. Dad, Eyes, eyes talk to me. And we have a tendency because, they’re little kids. They don’t think at, they don’t process things at our level and we have so many important things we’re doing. There’s nothing more important to be present with your kids in that moment. But also with the customers. We take it across the board in everything we’re doing and so true, we have so many distracted conversation, distracted driving. We have now apps that tell us we’re being distracted as we’re driving. It’s, it’s such a good. Place to go, but how do you apply this? So when you’re coaching someone and they’re saying, I do struggle with being present. How do you coach someone to, to increase their skills, to be in the moment, in fully engaged in that conversation?
[Brian] I believe it starts with your intention.
[David] Oh, intention. Okay. Good.
[Brian] And I start there because if you set an intention and everybody’s done this in your life, whether you realize it or not, you’ve set an intention that you wanna lose weight, you set an intention that you want to do more production, that a specific goal. Yep. You’ve just set your intentions. What typically will happen for majority of us, is that intention will last for a little bit. We’ll become more aware of the things we’re eating, we’ll become aware of our workouts, we’ll become aware of our sales activities, and we start just to pay attention and what I say, everybody is your intention has to be aligned with your goal because if you’re not setting that intention. Then you’re not going even be in the right mindset. You’re not gonna have any chance of creating habits that will align. So anybody’s listened to this. Where I would start is, what’s your intention? What is it that you’re trying to create? You wanna be more present. There’s a four-part framework, and I’ll walk us through this, but the first one is, your intention should be, I wanna be more present in the moments that matter, and pick those with your intention. Hey, when I’m with my kids, when I’m with my spouse, when I’m with a customer, when I’m in my workout, can I lock in? We all can for the 15 minutes, the 30 minutes that’s there, the answer is yes. If your intentions are aligned, you’ll see yourself do that. So I’d say, Hey, that’s where I’d start. Be present. Set your intentions on that, and then you can self evaluate. Then it gives you a little bit, almost like a self reflection of a scoreboard of, Hey, create yourself after that conversation. Was I a one which really would’ve been horrible or a five, like I crushed it. I didn’t crush it, distract it. I was in it. Rate yourself and go through the day. Try this for three days. It’s gonna be awkward, but think about that.
[David] So do you have a little tablet off the side? How you making some notes of present, where you’re going through it? Every, I was just thinking as I’m doing these calendar appointments that I have, I’m I’m real good on calendar, blocking, time blocking and is that then you go in and put some, or do you do it at the end of the day journaling as you think about your day? What is the practical way where we do the evaluation and really make the course corrections in our lives?
[Brian] Great question. I love to do it right after.
[David] It’s fresh right after each call.
[Brian] Right after. So let’s just say this morning, like I’m playing soccer in the driveway with my son, right? We’re juggling the ball, we’re doing that kind of stuff. How I can rate myself fairly is, Hey, did I pull my phone out? Did I get distracted? was I fully present in that moment? What was I doing in that? Did they feel like I was fully present? I can immediately give myself a grade, replay the tape in two minutes or less, and go, Hey, what did I do well? What were the things I could have improved on? Okay, the next time I get a chance that’s there.
[David] How about this? Is this something where you do, where you ask the person their feedback, Hey, I got a question. I’m really working on being present. Did you feel that you had my full attention during this conference? is that a something that you practice?
[Brian] Yes. This is where you get into seeking feedback and that’s actually part of the steps there. Where when you get into this and you’re able to ask for feedback, I think that’s an elite level. I’m be honest, most people don’t ask for feedback in their job. They don’t ask for feedback in their relationships and if you were to ask your spouse or ask your kids, ask your best referral partner. How present was I? And let them know I’m working on being more present in these moments that matter, and with people that matter and you’re one of them.
[David] That’s so good. That’s good. What’s so funny, what’s so funny about that is as you’re talking, my phone is ringing, I’m going, I wanna shut that off, but I’m going, I’m not gonna miss this moment.
[Brian] But you’re aware of that.
[David] We all have constant interruptions. They’re coming at us constantly. How do you manage those, Brian? How do you coach people to manage those? interruptions.
[Brian] So here’s the thing that I’ve done and again, this is for everybody. You can do this. It’s not a perfect science, but I would say you wanna limit the distractions in your world, right? So I’ll talk about your environment, where you work, where you’re gonna be spending time, limit the distractions, the people that have TVs in their office, that doesn’t work for me. Like I can’t have a TV on, I can’t have other things. I can’t have multiple devices going like my phone’s turned over. That for me works and I would also tell you, I turned off all of my notifications except for my text message and then if my wife calls. So you can do that on your phone. So I don’t get dinged if somebody hits me up on LinkedIn, somebody’s on Facebook, somebody’s on Instagram, somebody sends me an email, somebody sends me a teams message.
[David] Yeah, you’re out there, all over the place. Yeah.
[Brian] You can’t, I’ll just tell you this, you, you think you can manage these notifications? We’re actually, psychologically, we’re not wired to be going boom. That’s like chasing the squirrel that you just saw and so if you can start to eliminate these, then what you’ll start to find is this new habit and routine, which is, Hey, I’m gonna check my messages after this 30 minute podcast we do and within that next 30 minutes, I can get back to everybody. And you’re building a muscle is the way I like to think of this.
[David] That’s a great way to put it. Yeah. It’s peak spoken as an athlete. That’s a great way to put it.
[Brian] It is a muscle. Because here’s what I know is if you don’t use a muscle, it atrophies. So what we’ve had happen is we’ve atrophied over time and we’ve gotten. I think we’ve bought into a lie. A lot of us have said, I need to be on call. I need to be answering this notification, that notification performance, that is not a system, that is a broken system. That we can fix.
[David] I think a lot of it is a FOMO where fear of missing out, there’s a FOMO thing going on. It’s also with text now, there’s almost an expectation. I just texted you. I expect an answer immediately. I’m on a phone call. Yeah. Can’t you just give me an answer yes or no? No. I think these are the things, and it’s setting up the boundaries, and that’s where I want to go next is this is a, this is not a position you are talking to me about. It creates real leadership. Explain what you mean by this is not a position.
[Brian] Yeah. I think for a lot of us we look at our title, we associate ourselves with what we’ve been told and the reality is then we try to become this title or what the world has said, Hey, this is what a divisional does. This is what a loan officer does, or branch man, or whatever you want to call it. And I think for many of us, if we were to take a step back and define success and define this role, where I think about, I’m a leader. I’ve accepted that title. I used to fight with that and wrestle, like I, I’m not a leader. Like I don’t, I’m not qualified. I’m not, yeah. I’ve yet to find a perfect leader except for Jesus. Let’s just put. We got to end. Okay.
[David] That’s right, that’s the only one I got figured out that is you can trust.
[Brian] Hey and we set these high expectations or standards for things that no one else lives up to, but we think we’re gonna live up to. What I have come to find out in my journey is being a leader is finding out what is success in your life. Find out what success is for the people that you care about most. Your spouse, your kids, those on your team. You understand that you can step into a role that could be more of a coach right now? Nope. I could be leading them over there and just set standards. My coach always says standards over feelings and what I think for many of us is we need to set our standards. What are those? For me, I’m working out every day. For me, I need to spend time with God every day. For me, I wanna be a kind, caring person every day. I want to compete every day, right? You start to go through these standards that are there and you start to create this version of yourself that you’re always trying to strive for that and I believe for most people that’s who God intended you to be, by the way, right? The best you. But if you don’t get clear on what he has designed for you, what your strengths are, be present in these moments, then we’re chasing this worldly view of here’s what success is, and if you buy this, you’re gonna be happy and you go on this vacation that’s gonna make your life and it’s and none of that stuff is real. And so being present, getting clear on who you are and who you wanna be, right? That’s the gap we all have is I’m here, but I want to show up as this person and I’m working towards that every day.
[David] That’s really good. That’s really good. How does this play? How does this play into leadership?
[Brian] Oh I think this is where most people know it, but what I’ll tell you, I had to learn it again last year myself in my own health journey. And most of us don’t lead ourselves. Just be real. Most of us don’t lead ourselves well. If we were to ask, what are your priorities? what are your standards? and then we were to look at how many days we stack that we consider a win. How many days are we winning? and the elite, I will tell you, have high standards. And they also have a high percentage of days that they accomplish what they said they were gonna do. They do what they said they were gonna do when their feelings tell them otherwise. And Dave, this could be, Hey man, you’re tired. You know you’ve done enough this week. Like you’ve already hit your sales goal. You know what? You’ve already lost the weight. Like you don’t have to go do that workout. You don’t have to go make those extra sales calls. Like we have these voices inside our head and then we have other times where it’s like. Yeah. I don’t even know if it’ll be worth it if I go make these extra five calls today or go work in my database today.
[David] That’s the negative self-talk. I think the most important type of leadership there is self-leadership leading yourself, and then it starts with how can you lead someone else if you’re not doing effective job of leading yourself, which gives me into talking about Oh, I wanna get there in a minute. I was just about ready to get into your role as senior vice president there, but I wanna also touch on breaking free from burnout and distraction. You touched on that briefly, but I wanna go into that a little more in depth. How do you coach people to do just that, break free from burnout and distraction?
[Brian] Yeah, I think we’re experiencing a pretty high level of burnout right now. Just let’s just so I see you. I hear you. If that’s what you’re feeling right now, what I would say one is that’s unfortunately more common than it should be. Now what I know is people that are coached and in the right environments will experience a significantly less burnout. Just those two factors alone.
[David] Say that again. I want our listeners to hear that. Those that are coached.
[Brian] Yep. And those that are in the right environment. So your proximity to other people that are performing at a high level will decrease that percentage of you being another casualty of burnout.
[David] Just That’s a really great point.
[Brian] Those two decisions and so how do I know that to be true? It’s been true in my own life time and time again where I go, man, when I’ve been feeling burned out, it’s usually because I’m not aligned with my goal or I’m not aligned with the people that might be in my life and that is one of those decisions that we all have the power to change, but we think we don’t and so I would tell you, if you don’t have a coach. Man, please reach out. Get a great coach. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get.
[David] I love that grit. You talk about grit a lot, especially as an athlete, it’s so critical because those that are successful are not doing what feels good, they’re doing what’s necessary, and that’s where it comes in the determination and grit, just pure fortitude. Grit is a great word for it.
[Brian] I think all this, they like, I played in soccer. Done was like a separator from high school. You get into that and you’re like, it starts to separate. I say the men from the boys. But what I noticed is it wasn’t always talent that separated people.
[David] That’s interesting. So true.
[Brian] It’s up here. It was the people, and I think back to this isn’t oh, Brian did something wonderful. There were a few of us that we would come early and we would stay late. We would go work in the weight room, which for soccer players is not the norm. Like we had to put on weight and we had to lift weights. But I remember staying after practices and my junior year I got called up to the U23 national team again, and I remember that lit a fire under me is if I’m gonna be called up to that level, I’m not at that level today. I need extra trainings. I asked our coach and I remember he would stay after and do shooting practice with me and you need to look for these opportunities to put yourself into challenging, difficult situations. That’s how you expand the comfort zone. That’s how you grow your capacity. And I think many of us, Dave, and I’m included in this as. Too often we’ll have a little bit of success and we’re like, okay, now I can kind of coast and I think that’s where burnout, one of the areas it comes from. We just coast it and if you’re not growing and you’re not improving, lemme just tell you. Tony Robbins says it right. You are dying, you are going the other way. It’s either forward or backwards. There is no neutral in this life. So just if you find yourself in that zone, the easiest thing you can do is, what I did last year was I said, what’s the one area if I attacked? Attacked for 90 days would then make the other areas of my life better. For me, it was my health and fitness. I looked at a picture I saw, I was not happy with the way I looked, and I said, if I get my health in order, I’ll have more energy. If I get my health in order, I’ll be able to connect to people on a weight loss journey. If I get my health in order, I’m gonna feel more confident and better about myself and my relationships and all these things and lemme just tell you like I’m still on the journey, but I ended up having such breakthroughs in that year. The conversations, my business, my relationships, David, all off of that. My faith. It’s my energy to go, Hey, you know what? At the end of the day, I still need energy with my kids. In the beginning of the morning, I wake up with no alarm clock. I’m weird, like I just wake up. There’s a five in front of it. I’m up. And I think you just build, I would same thing. It’s but I need that.
[David] I don’t need alarm clock anymore. It’s just that you just, if you’re really focused and determined, which is really talking about mastering how you show up as the most valuable asset. You talk about this and expand on this for our audience.
[Brian] Yeah. So I believe all of us have this version of ourselves. If we were to look as an outsider watching a movie of ourselves, right? I think of it this way and we’re watching. How would that person, that character perform, how would they show up? And I look at it from.
[David] It’s like almost if you were casting a movie, you’re looking at it from that standpoint as how would I imagine this character to be, have a successful movie having a successful outcome? How does this person that weird?
[Brian] I like to gamify it a little. Like I have this self talk with myself. It’s like, how would I show up if I was watching myself work out, if I was watching myself playing with my kids, if I was watching myself, talking to that customer referral partner like. Would I be any good? Like, how would I want to show up? That’s a little bit of visualization. And so everybody out there, if you ever wanna do that, I’ll actually close my eyes, visualize how am I gonna show up in that meeting? How am I gonna show up before I speak to a group? And if you can get clear on that, [what’s interesting is our subconscious doesn’t know the difference between the reality of what happened in the movie I just created and so when those start to come together, my dad’s a psychologist, so I use a lot of things up here that I go. There are things that you can hack into your brain and create a better version of yourself that when you show up, you are your best.
[David] That’s really good.
[Brian] And so that, that’s how I say show up is your best self. Always aim for that and visualization has been a tool for me. I learned it in sports. It’s so good. It’s no different in life. Visualize who you want to be and how you show up and watch how you start to assimilate and become more like that person.
[David] There’s a great movie that I recommend to anyone I’m coaching. It says Seven Days in Utopia, and it talks, it’s, have you ever watched that movie is one? I’ve heard of that. Oh, you go grab that. You, that’s one that you’ll bring into your coaching practice and one scene in there. Robert Duval is teaching this. Robert Duval is a fell out of the professional circuit of golf. He ended up in Utopia, Texas. Just happens to be just a short distance from where I live and in this story. And this kid who’s good trying to be a professional, golf has a meltdown and he gets mad, throws his clubs in his trunk and drives and ends up in Utopia staying here and Duval starts taking him under his wing and showing him and teaching him to paint a picture of how to stroke this ball to get to from around this tree. It’s the most brilliant. It’s got so many metaphors and so put that out there. We’ll put a link in it in the show notes so you people can go. Our listeners can watch it. I recommend you do it. It’s just the most amazing story and it’s got a great message as well. What I wanna talk about your success with Ron, you’ve moved around a little bit, trying to find the right community. I respect people who will do that. A lot of people say yeah, but moved around a lot. You go it took me a little while to find my community. But when you find it now, Ron, I have not met Ron. I’m so looking forward to doing that. But he is a fierce competitor, but he’s also not wanting to be a guy on center stage, as you described him to me. Talk about your relationship with Ron and why is this working there so well for you? Why has this been such a good land place to land for you?
[Brian] I’m glad you said it that way ’cause I was reflecting back and I’m one of those, like I was at my first company at Wells almost 13 years. And I thought, I mean I came in the business thinking that’s just where I’d retire and that’s what would happen. But I look and go now it’s an advantage because the people I’ve been able to wake work with there at Wells, working with Casey and Toby at Movement, my time at Loan Depot with Bianchi and then Dan Hansen and Anthony Shea, and like all those guys. And then my time at a smaller company with Revolution. Like what those guys have been able to do is super cool. And I got to see a different version and I’ll tell you what I learned is where I am in the season as I look back at my success and where I thrive the most. And you said it is, Ron’s a fierce competitor. I like to be part of a winning team. That’s just how I’m wired. I wanna be part of that. I want to compete, do everything fairly, but I want to compete. I was looking for an environment like that, that had a entrepreneurial spirit that I’ve experienced before, but also had some structure. They were very innovative on tech and marketing. And when I got to know Ron, the last year I was introduced to several CEOs and I was fortunate, Dave has had an executive recruiter reach out and they introduced me to all these people and Ron just stood out when, and I’m like, man, what this guy has built his humbleness like not wanting to be. The way he recognizes his team. I will tell you, Dave, I’ve never seen anybody do it better and that how he is such a fierce competitor and he also instills that in his team. And I always look and go, man, the more you’re around winners like that, a coach, a leader, a CEO, the rest of the team is gonna follow suit. And where I am in my career is I still have a lot of years left. I wanna compete, I wanna win, and I wanna help more people achieve their definition of success and it was really, for me, it was a no brainer because once I got to know Ron and then the rest of the group, I have a ton of friends here at CCM, I’m like that’s where I fit. And it’s a little piece of all these other companies. As I started to look back, what did I love most here? What did I love most there? And I started to put together and I said, man, I can’t say it’s the best kept secret because obviously number one retail lender, not really a secret. But I will tell you, this is where we’re going, excites me even more than what the team’s been able to accomplish. And i’m at the right place.
[David] Yeah. When you have, when you hook up your train to someone who has a vision and you should have a shared vision, what a powerful thing, how can people learn more about your coaching? You’re, you are an inspirational guy and I am. Every time I get on the phone with you or I sat and we really got started developing our relationship at the HousingWire event at the Economics Summit, and I’ve heard about you. I’ve admired your videos, but people need to get to know you. Spend some time with you. You are a treasure trove. Just first of all, just a wonderful human being, but you’re a treasure trove, a knowledge of wisdom, especially when it comes to how to being, having sales success. How can people learn more about you? How do you sign up for your program? All of that.
[Brian] Thank you. Number one, because I always say this as this, as like from my dad being my first mentoring coach to the people I had through sports and now in businesses. I’m a byproduct. Each one of them imprinted something that they gave me, right? I always say they gave me a lesson, a gift, and so I’m this byproduct of all these people and I look back at that lineage and I’m like. Wow and I always wanna make them proud every day and so thank you because that’s how I wanna show up, is to honor those people that have got me here. And, Dave, the easiest way I tell people I hang out on LinkedIn a lot, right? So you can find me there. I am on Instagram. And so if this is resonated or you want to connect up, just drop me a dm. I always say that’s the easiest way. Let me know what resonated. Connect up with me. I don’t promote the coaching because I’m building a division here and we’re gonna build out, my ultimate goal is a three to $5 billion division. And so that’s where I’m focused and in my family, so leading that, the coaching thing really came, it’s interesting how God will put you in situations where even the speaking and the coaching, where it was, people would call me and say, Hey, I really need help with this. I’ve talked to other people, I’ve worked with other people, and I feel like you’re the right one. So it’s more of an answered calling versus I’m not going out there Hey, come coach with Brian.
[David] I think there’s the law of attraction. I think when you are genuinely yourself, you’re gonna attract people that are seeking that or seeking that the same outcome or the same goals and objectives I do. So it’s a law of attraction. I think. I can understand why people would be drawn to you. I was drawn to you after I met you and we spent some time together at lunch. I’m going, I wanna spend more time with this guy and then I find out your best friends that used to be in a band was one of my clients. Garrett Locklear and you and Garrett and Garrett is a rockstar when it comes to his originator. You both are there in the same community and then his Candid product is just over the top as well.
[Brian] So incredible. Friends like that along the way. Some people don’t know. I play bass. Garrett play guitar. Great guitar player, by the way, indeed, you might reach out. I do put out a newsletter. That’s what we’ve been promoting lately, is every week, we’ve gone to two a week. We’ve got the podcast. So if anybody wants, if this really sparked you and you’re like, man, I want more of that. I put out the podcast. We’re moving. I’ve got a solo episode and then a guest every week, and then the newsletter is twice a week. Go connect with that and then connect up with me individually and we’re gonna be working on some projects together too. It sounds like working with Todd on the Fuel piece. And I’m working with Richard Milligan in 4C recruiting and getting to speak. So there’s a lot of things that I’m, I just think they all compliment each other as we’re building out our mortgage division and my vision with that. Dave, my thing is I’m gonna serve people where they’re at. If they join CCM and our team, cool. But if not. Great. How can I serve you on the journey? because I think there’s a lot of underserved, especially producing leaders certainly are that, Hey, if I can help and be a surrogate leader, is what we call it, it’s help them win more.
[David] Surrogate leader, I’ve never heard that expression. I love that though. That’s exactly it. That’s good. Brian, what a joy to have you here today. I’m just so grateful to connected with you in such a meaningful way, and now to have you as a guest, I can’t wait to share this out to our listeners and have you back. There’s just a lot more in you. We just barely hit the tap on this one. Just a little bit more. Can’t wait to get all out of the principles. Thank you, friend. Appreciate you so much.
[Brian] Appreciate you.
[David] You bet. God bless.
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About the guest:
Brian Covey is the Divisional SVP at Cross Country Mortgage, one of the nation’s leading mortgage lenders known for its growth, innovation, and culture. With over 20 years of experience, Brian has consistently delivered results, including leading 10x growth in regional production from $245M to $2.45B in under five years. A proven leader in building high-performing teams, he is passionate about empowering others to achieve excellence and exceed expectations.
Recognized as a LinkedIn Top Voice and one of the top two most-followed leaders in the mortgage industry, Brian shares impactful insights on leadership, growth, and innovation with his extensive audience.
Outside the mortgage world, Brian has built a diversified 8-figure investment portfolio across multifamily apartments, car wash franchises, and small businesses. A former professional athlete, he brings a winning mindset to every area of life—career, investments, family, faith, and fitness.
As a sought-after speaker, bestselling author, and host of the Competitive Edge Podcast, Brian continues to inspire audiences to unlock their potential and lead with purpose.