In an industry often defined by rates, guidelines, and transactions, Molly Dean reminds us that mortgage lending is ultimately about people. In this inspiring episode, Molly shares her unlikely journey from studying genetics and selling cars to becoming one of the mortgage industry’s rising leaders. Along the way, she reveals the moment that shaped her purpose—helping a real estate agent provide for her family through a successful closing—and how that experience continues to drive her passion today. From building authentic relationships and creating a client-first culture to balancing a thriving business with family life, Molly offers a candid look at what it takes to succeed in modern mortgage lending. Her story is a powerful reminder that every loan impacts far more than a borrower; it creates opportunities, supports families, and strengthens entire communities. Whether you’re a mortgage professional, industry newcomer, or business leader, this conversation delivers valuable insights on purpose, leadership, and building a career that truly makes a difference.
[David] Listeners, as you know, we cover a wide range of topics on this podcast. We talk about AI, we talk about the way things are being done in the future. We also look at who is doing the business out there. And we have the joy of talking to someone who I’m hearing is coming up and has already established herself well in the industry, but is also really growing to new levels. And I think it’s so important that we have these conversations with individuals like Molly, who’s going to be on this on the podcast in just a minute to talk about why she got in, how she got in, what’s driving her. We need to connect back to our how and our why. Most importantly our why. We’re gonna talk to Molly about it. So without further ado, let’s get started. Molly, good to have you joining me on the podcast today.
[Molly] Hi, thank you. Pleasure to be here.
[David] The company you’re with is leader one, one of my clients, dear, dear friends, and I have so much respect for the company, all the way around and the the leaders that are in it. And so it’s not surprising that you’re there. and I one of the things I love about your story is at one point in time you left and you came back and that’s I think those are some of the best stories. We’re gonna get to that in little bit more because I do want to give a shout out to Leader One and why it is that they drew you back. Because I think those are we sometimes we need to explore different things and then we come back. But I want to first start with your story of what got you in this industry. How and why did you get into the industry in the first place?
[Molly] Totally by accident. Totally by accident.
[David] Many of us are that’s a story for many of us, yes.
[Molly] I was actually in the car business and I graduated from KU with a degree in genetics and human biology and sold a car to a guy that was in the mortgage business and started talking to me about it and the rest is history. Here I am.
[David] Well, I think there is human genetics. Now that’s an interesting one. Maybe that gives you an advantage as you’re working in piecing loans together from different different aspects of what’s going on, all the uniqueness’s that go on with humans as we’re working and putting loans together. When did you know the mortgage industry was for you? You had been in auto, you knew that you had done well there, if I understand correctly your story. But when did you figure out that the mortgage industry was for you?
[Molly] Maybe that first transaction that meant something to me. I tear up, you’ll hear it in my voice when I talk about this. I actually started in non-prime, so I did subprime loans. So every deal I got like had issues coming my way, right? And it was a real estate agent in the office that I was in, and she was like, I’m gonna give you a chance to see if you can really save this deal. And I did. And that day at closing, I actually still work with her today, but she had twins and she grabbed that check that day and said, I’m gonna go buy my twins new shoes. So it was like about the time school was getting ready to start. So it was into the summer, you know, and that moment has been so impactful to me that when we talk about my why and we talk about what got me into this industry and why I do this, I still reflect on that moment because it changed who I am. Everybody gets in this and says, I want to help a borrower, right? I want to help this person buy this house and create wealth for their family. Of course I want to do that too, right? But it’s so much more than that. It’s helping that real estate agent put food on the table for her kids or shoes on their feet. It’s that title closer hitting their number of transactions that month to get a bonus that pays for school supplies, it’s my team, it’s their bonuses, it’s their paychecks. So, every transaction is more than just a transaction. It’s all of the people involved and it’s how they survive and how they pay for their families, right? And so yes, I’m helping someone achieve homeownership, but what I’m doing more of is I’m putting shoes on kids’ feet.
[David] Yeah, I think what you’re really speaking about is it’s a community. We work not isolated in silos. Sometimes it feels like it, but we really are part of a community, the realtor, the title agent, I mean all the real, the appraisers, all the whole ecosystem. Talk a little bit about that because you how have you developed those relationships and do they help you in in getting the new business in the door?
[Molly] Well, I always say that the relationships we form are more than just a transactional relationship, right? I think when you start working with a realtor partner, you start investing in their family. You start investing in their life, you start investing in what makes them tick and what makes them love this job, right? So those relationships become deeper, stronger, and more meaningful when you start asking those questions. You start learning how many kids they have. You start learning how many grandkids they have. You start learning the things they love to do. And that relationship isn’t just a business transaction anymore. It’s a friendship. It’s a relationship. It’s you are just as invested in them as they are in you.
[David] I think you’re bringing up something that a lot of people don’t really realize, just you know how many people are involved in the transaction, which comes down to communication, this the need for communicating with all the counterparties involved in in the loan. Talk about your community. How did you develop that? I’m thinking of someone new to the industry right now, Molly, that is not doesn’t have that community, hasn’t developed that. How have you successfully developed that and how much does that contribute to your success?
[Molly] Well, I think it starts with your circle of influence, right? So when I first got in the industry, did I have a background in finance? I did. I worked at a car dealership, right? But my true background was in genetics. But I was a bartender. I mean, I bartended in college and so who was my first circle of influence? It was my patrons. It was the people that sat across from me and talked to me about their day every day. I started doing loans, I started realizing that several of those people were realtor partners. They were selling houses, or they were someone that needed to refinance, or they were going through a divorce, or they were a financial advisor and so for the first two years in the industry, I really focused on my COI. Like these people have influence that they trust me, number one. So I’ve already grown the foundation of trust. They’re allowing me to help them with the biggest purchase or the biggest financial decision of their life and if I do a good job, they’re gonna send me more people, right? And so it became very simple. After I worked, my first about five transactions I closed were for the people that sat at the bar that I bartended at and from there, they would refer friends, or it was a realtor that was there, and they started bringing me their additional buyers, and it just fed off of each other, right? Like one good transaction becomes many if you do it right.
[David] Yeah, so that’s so true. It really does. If you do a good job, maybe do a bad job, it’s even more so the reputation follows. But if you do good job, I think that’s so important. When you’re coaching and bringing up someone, what are you looking for when you’re looking to add to your team? in as far as the personality, the makeup, all aspects. Is it a type? What do you what do you look for in in adding to your team?
[Molly] You know, that’s a great question and something that I often didn’t have an answer to until recently. I added a business partner that actually we share production together at this point because at some point there’s just too much, right? And it wasn’t until I sat down in a CI tier up talking about this too, until I sat down at lunch with him and he took a truck out of his pocket and it was a little toy matchbox. And he was like, he got teary-eyed and was like, I’m meeting with one of the top producing loan officers in the city. This is such an opportunity and I just felt my little kid’s truck and realized my why. His why is his kids, which my why would be my kids too, right? And I say kids, I have one kid. So my daughter and my husband, and when he said that, he was teared up and I was teared up, and I was like, it’s perfect. We are the same individuals. So our reason that we spend the time away from our families at endless hours, making homeownership happen for our realtor partners and for our clients is because we do it for the people inside our home.
[David] I think you’re bringing up a really more important point. Having an EQ, an emotional quotient where you can connect with people. This is the most important transaction and there’s a lot of emotions that come up. We get a lot we watch a lot of borrowers, realtors, everyone gets triggered with especially when there’s some surprises that come up and so when you’re talking to someone and recruiting someone and they have they’ve demonstrated the ability to connect with you emotionally, I think that just begins to give you a clue. How have you managed that? I’m thinking about also the work-life balance. You had all the success you’ve had and you’re growing. As you grow your business, how do you manage that work-life balance?
[Molly] Well, I think that I similar to the answer I gave you for the people that mean the most to join my team, it’s about a partnership, right? So Kenny is an amazing business partner. But when it comes to that work-life balance at home, that really is your partnership with your spouse, right? I can tell you that I would not be doing the production that I’m doing if it wasn’t for my husband. So my husband was this was an elementary school teacher and when my business started ballooning, we had a conversation. And he was like, I’m okay stepping back, taking care of Rhea, doing all of the things outside of work so that you can spend more time doing what you’re really, really good at, right? and obviously financially, there’s a difference in our salaries or our, you know, our income levels. And so it made sense for him to try and step back and me to try and do more, right? And so over time, he does all the things. Like the joke is like, what’s your daughter’s bus number? I have no idea, right? Like I couldn’t tell you that. Who’s your daughter’s homeroom teacher? Don’t know that either, right? But I do know when I’m supposed to be at sporting events because my husband tells me. I do know, you know, when they are. I try and be as present as I can at the times that I need to be a mom. But I also know my role now too and it’s different. I’m not the person that cooks the dinner in our house. I’m not the person that goes to the grocery store.
[David] That’s all right. Yeah. I’ve there’s a number of couples that have done that where the husband has stayed or has reduced his career so they can serve the family while mom goes out and does really well. You can make really good money in this business. And I think it’s so good from an economic standpoint. But so kudos to your husband, for making the sacrifice and stay in ho staying there and be more involved so that you could go out and do that. But it still comes to that point. You are there. When you’re there with at a game or whatever you’re doing socially with your child, do you are you finding yourself torn to the point where you have to check your cell phone all the time. I mean, how you how do you manage that?
[Molly] I mean, you know, this industry never sleeps, right? Like there’s that coined phrase, money never sleeps. I say real estate never sleeps. I mean, that’s how that phrase should be. But yeah, I mean, I do check it, but I for the next three days I’m gonna be out of the office and Kenny steps in and runs my business. Like my clients, my referral partners, they know that if they can’t reach me, Kenny is fully invested in their transaction as much as I am and can take over. Now my team at this point is of 14. So it’s not just Kenny. I mean, you can call the office and speak to any of the loan officers on my team, our assistants, our processors, like all of that, right? It is a client-first experience. And I say that from the beginning of the transaction. If you can’t reach me on my cell phone because I’m tied up for 30 minutes, call the office because any of those additional 13 people would love to help.
[David] Great point. When you’re when you’re working and developing a career in this, how important is those organizational skills? Putting together that team and organizing it? Do they do that on their own? I’m thinking again, someone considering this industry for the first time, or do you have do you do a lot of hands-on training or setting a
[Molly] I am very involved in the training, right? Because I think people forget that the industry, yes, we all might be mortgage loan officers, right? But we all do it our own way. That’s what’s unique about the company that I work for. All of us top producers run our teams very, very differently, right? And so
[David] Which is big part of Leader One is how they do allow you the autonomy to run your business the way you want, as long as it’s convenient meeting the compliance aspects of it. Yeah.
[Molly] Absolutely. But then when it comes to like because you run your business a certain way, you realize the way each step works for you and your realtor partners and the people you put in those places to do those different pieces. You know, when you do your first loan and you know what works, and then you get to the point you’re doing 10 loans and you need help, you teach that person how you did it and where they fit in that role. They do the same thing, right? And so yes, I would say hands on training is is the case, but it’s just doing the things the way that I know work for my partners. That’s important.
[David] What is the most important characteristics for someone wanting to get into the industry that you’d be telling a new loan officer candidate?
[Molly] I tell every person this to learn your guidelines. You can be an amazing salesperson, but if you don’t know your guidelines, it doesn’t matter how many people you talk to. If you don’t know your guidelines and you can’t get them to the finish line, it’s gonna ruin your reputation. So learn the guidelines, then use your sales skills.
[David] That’s good. Really become a true, a true financial professional, which is really what they’re talking about doing. I’m interested in the story. At one point in time, remember David Hopper told me this, that we lost Molly, and there was there and there everyone was saying, We lost Molly Dean. She’s been one of our favorite people producing well. What made you go away? And then more importantly, what made you come back? or compelled you to come back. Not made you, compelled you to come back, better way to do that.
[Molly] I think every producer has to figure out who they are in the industry, right? And when I first got in the industry, I worked for two big huge companies and I was I was an employee number, not a name. Leader one made me feel like an individual, like I had my business model was accepted, I could do things my way. However, when you’ve been with a company for 15 years and you have recruiters reaching out to you all the time, all the time, all the time, about that greener grass, it does make you question after so many years, like maybe there is something out there that I really don’t know, right? And honestly, at the end of it, the day that I told David that maybe I needed to, you know, try something else out, I was crying my eyes out. I knew that it was gonna be hard to leave. But coming back was even better because I was able to experience things. I was able to learn things, but I was able to grow the appreciation for David, number one, and the entire executive team at Leader One to a different degree than I had before. I already loved and appreciated them, but it was it was so dynamic in learning how they supported and how they grew my business over the course of fifteen years, it was there wasn’t even a thought in my mind of when it wasn’t gonna work over there where I was going back.
[David] Yeah, and we see that now in Randell, who’s there. He genuinely cares. In fact, it was Randell that reached out to me to say, You gotta have Molly on your podcast. She is just is she’s developing her program and expanding. And I think if we give her a platform, I’m so glad we did, Molly. It’s just fascinating to hear about it. Let me ask one detail that comes about because I’m thinking about the questions that might be coming in from people listening to this. Again, the podcast they can’t interact with us directly, so I try to dissipate as much of the questions. How important is details? I mean, being really detail minded versus having a strong sales skill set is important in this
[Molly] I am very detail-oriented because you can salespeople are people, they’re just people pleasers, right? And so they can go out and formulate a relationship and gain trust quickly. That’s a good salesperson. A good loan officer has to understand the product, the program, and pay attention to the details to make the loan go smoothly. It’s so much more than just a sales call. Yes. That’s a part of it. That’s how you get the people that trust you, but you gotta know what you’re doing with it. ⁓
[David] I think it’s the important part is the communication part of it. Being communicated details and being on top of the details, you you can’t be someone that is not detail-oriented, and yet you have to have that. So it’s it takes a unique blend of personality and skills to really to be successful and that’s why I think you find someone like yourself who’s been able to develop those. Did you feel you had those skills initially or out of the gate that the auto industry helped develop those? So it was a natural fit for you, or are you had to really work?
[Molly] I think the auto industry taught me how easy it is to ask for the close. it’s not hard to ask people to apply. It’s not hard to ask people about a payment. It’s not hard to ask people the hard questions. You have to in the car business. So I do think that the car industry gave me an easier path because I’m not scared to ask those questions at all.
[David] That’s a really good point, especially when you’re first starting out, you’re dealing with the most important transaction of someone’s life and getting them to ask for the difficult things, the tax returns or whatever, or confronting more a difficult situation that came up in the in the in the gathering of the documentation. How have you helped yourself to get better, Molly? Do you get coaching? What do you do to improve your game?
[Molly] When I first got in the industry and was first kind of growing, I did some coaching, but I really don’t do a lot of it. I think my best coach is my husband. There is nobody that knows me better, right? Like he knows me and he knows what makes me happy, he knows what makes me sad, he knows the type of people that make me a better person. He reminds me of, you know, when to stay confident, how to answer questions. But he also knows the other side of me, the side that a salesperson doesn’t place when they’re in front of a realtor partner, in front of a borrower. He knows the person that doesn’t sleep at night because their loan is keeping me awake, right? He knows the person that starts her days at 4 AM to make sure that every task is completed. He knows the person that is behind the loan and what I love and what I care about. And so it’s easier for him to remind me why I do this and who I’m doing this for, simply by the way he communicates with me. But then beyond that, you know, one of my best friends is a person in the industry who leads a team bigger than mine. And we work for the same company, and I’ve learned a lot, and that’s Kevin Roller. And he is literally one of my best friends, and we talk a lot about how different our teams are, and you know.
[David] Yeah, he’s a great guy.
[Molly] Being a loan officer takes a a different mindset and not all days are easy days and Kevin is someone that easily I can communicate with that gets it and can help me on the tough days.
[David] Yeah. Kevin, I mean the what’s really interesting about Leader One, there’s such a great collection of really amazing compliment. Different some not all of them are operate the same way, but it’s good really fun to see how different they are. David and Kevin are different, but they’re great partners. And then you’re part of that organization, that part of the organization within Leader One. it’s really good.
[Molly] Well. And Kevin’s kind of stepped into some coaching more. And, you know, he’s a few years ahead in where I see myself in the next few years. And so maybe I’m a scapegoat where he’s learning how to coach, but it’s great. I mean, he is reminding me of things that I don’t think about and we do get to spend more time together. So I guess if you’re gonna ask, Am I being coached? Maybe. I guess Kevin counts and so does Josh, you know.
[David] Couldn’t get anyone better to coach you than you know, watch the example of Dave Hopper for leadership and then Kevin for how to execute. I mean that’s great example. Molly, what a joy to get the chance to meet you and have you on the podcast. How can people reach you if they’re thinking they wanna get into the business or learn more about how you operate? How can people reach you?
[Molly] My website, mollydeenteam.com. It’s got all my info on there. It’s got the office info. It’s got my teams info. So yeah, anytime.
[David] Mollydean.com, is that right?
[Molly] Molly Dean team.
[David] I like that. Very good. Molly, thanks so much for coming on the podcast. I really appreciate it and sharing some of the vision. I aspire, many of you that are listening to this that are not in the industry, or you know someone that’s thinking about getting in the business, listen to this podcast, share with them, get on the phone with Molly. We want fresh new ones come into the industry. We need We’ve got too many of us old guys in it. But we encourage you to get a hold of Molly and talk to her. Thanks so much, Molly, for coming on. Appreciate it.
Important links:
- LeaderOne Financial website
- Molly Dean website
- LinkedIn – Molly Dean
Molly Dean began her mortgage banking career in 2003 after graduating from the University of Kansas. Starting in the nonprime lending market gave her a unique perspective and taught her to think creatively when helping clients navigate the mortgage process. More than 20 years later, Molly continues to expand her knowledge of loan products and programs, ensuring her borrowers receive financing solutions tailored to their individual goals and needs.
Molly understands that choosing a mortgage professional is about more than securing a loan—it’s about finding a trusted advisor and a dependable team. Her commitment is to provide a fast, friendly, and seamless lending experience from application to closing.
Together, Molly and her team bring more than 50 years of combined industry experience. They specialize in a wide range of loan programs, including Conventional, FHA, VA, USDA, 203(k), and Reverse Mortgage loans. Their dedication to exceptional service has made them one of the most successful mortgage teams in the Kansas City area.
Molly’s industry accomplishments include:
• Scotsman Guide Top Originator (2016–2025)
• Scotsman Guide #1 Producing Woman in Missouri (2020 & 2021)
• Mortgage Executive Magazine Top 1% Mortgage Originator (2016–2025)
• Ranked #32 nationally for Most Loans Closed in 2025
• The Molly Dean Team was the #1 Producing Local Mortgage Team in the Kansas City Metro (2020-2025)