Rocket Fuel Newsletter – 08/19/2024

In this edition: All eyes are on the Fed and this week's economic data as we inch toward a highly anticipated September meeting. And if that’s not enough to get your blood pressure up, the Arizona Cardinals have begun to offer a cotton candy burrito at their home games!

The Cardinals’ new State Farm Stadium food lineup includes a cotton candy burrito.

Fed watch continues as the markets try to predict how large the first rate cut the FOMC makes will be. The rhetoric points to a cut to the Federal Funds rate in September, but markets have their eyes on the data – most importantly, you should watch reports impacting jobs and the strength (or perceived strength) of U.S. consumers.

U.S. retail sales came in stronger than expected last week, which shows consumers holding steadfast amid stubbornly higher interest rates, a cooling job market and uncertain economic outlook.

The market found its appetite for mergers and acquisitions this week in the food industry with the purchase of Kellanova by Mars. Also acquired were the talents of a former Chipotle CEO by Starbucks as the brand looks for a jolt of new energy.

Brandon Abidin, Intelligent Mortgage

Tell us about the beginning of your career. What got you started?

I say, “I fell into mortgages.” I was in my third year of college, bartending to pay for school and had a group of subprime mortgage brokers my mom worked for that took a liking to me and offered me a job when I graduated.

I use the term “fell into” because after my third year of college I was in a near fatal motorcycle accident where I almost lost my leg and spent a year having surgery and recovering. During that year I had debt mounting and dropped out of school. I remembered those guys offering me a job as a mortgage loan officer and picked up the phone after I was able to start walking comfortably again. The rest, as they say, is history…

Tell us about some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned in your tenure.

I’ve learned that sales skills are the universal key to success in any business and in life. Learning to serve and please your clients while providing great service will benefit you in all aspects of your life and your business.

I’ve also learned that you’re never able to relax and rest on your laurels. The higher you climb, the harder you must keep working to stay relevant and reach the next level. When you get complacent you will go backwards and lose ground.

I’ve also been fortunate to learn this business from past and present market cycles, amazing business coaches, mentors, and finally my own mistakes & successes. I preach to my team, “always be a student of the game, never stop learning and educating yourself to be the best you can be.”

What is one thing you wish you knew when you got started?

Hire a coach! Don’t try to figure it out on your own. I waited 10 years before hiring a coach. I was a top originator and manager, so I thought I had it figured out. Then when I left Louisiana and met real top producers and coaches doing 10x what I was doing locally it opened my eyes to what is possible.

What are some of your goals?

My current goals are mostly focused on recruiting and growing Intelligent Mortgage to one of the top 5 fastest growing brokerages in the country by 2025 – 2026! I want to bring a platform to the industry that has the best of both worlds from branch model to individual LO’s that want to grow and become high producers. I want everyone on our team to earn six figures (or seven)!

What’s one thing you want to tackle this year, personally and professionally?

Personally I want to hit our goals and take my family on a real vacation that is 10 days long or more! I’m a workaholic and didn’t take my family on summer vacation the past 2 years. This year we’ve put in the work and they deserve that quality family time to make memories and enjoy some beautiful destinations. I also want to shift my fitness focus from weight training to more athletics, Jiu Jitsu, and wrestling to be a better mentor for my son who is becoming a champion wrestler.

Professionally I want to make Intelligent Mortgage a household name in our markets and inside our industry. Once people see what we’re doing and see our first 5 branches are crushing it, more will want to join! I expect us to add 10 teams/branches and 50 – 100 loan officers over the next 24 months.

What is one thing you want to learn this year?

I want to learn more about scaling and building some of the infrastructure to handle the rapid growth of our company. I have 4 amazing managers now on my team that will be instrumental in this next phase of growth! Building our CRM, database mining, and having that managed by someone much more knowledgeable than myself is a key part of my focus for 2024! The book “Who Not How” showed me it’s less about me learning new skills and more about finding WHO we can hire that has those skills!

Why Rocket Pro^SM TPO?

[From the start], Rocket’s top executives and managers all set up to meet with me personally and heard everything I had to say. The service at Rocket Pro TPO is on par with my smaller boutique wholesale lenders that I loved working with for years. As large and impressive as the Rocket organization is, we have a personal team, great service and my calls get answered and when there is any issue it gets resolved quickly.

Rocket is committed to our growth and success, not just asking us to send more loans. That to me goes a very long way! It’s also something to do business with people you like, and the team up there are all people I would sit and enjoy being around outside of work. I looked around and noticed the guys who are where I want to be with the fastest growing brokerages had all made the move to Rocket, and that made the decision obvious!

Crypto Breaking Through: The Rise Of Bitcoin And Ethereum ETFs

Larry Fink – the CEO of BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world with over $9 trillion in assets under management – recently went on TV and praised Bitcoin. Once a skeptic, Larry has changed his opinion after studying Bitcoin and now believes that “it is a legitimate financial instrument,” and his firm is investing heavily in the future of it.

He is not the only prominent figure who has recently expressed support for Bitcoin. During the Bitcoin 2024 conference held in Nashville at the end of July, Donald Trump delivered an in-person speech, reaffirming his pro-Bitcoin stance ahead of the upcoming election and outlining his goal of making the United States a global leader in the industry. Other speakers at the conference included Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Russell Brand and U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis.

Bitcoin has gained more mainstream attention since the launch of Bitcoin ETFs in January. These ETFs have made it much easier for traditional investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin without directly buying or holding it themselves. The Bitcoin ETFs are the fastest growing in history and now have over $50 billion invested in them.

Source

The approval of the first Bitcoin ETFs paved the way for the approval of an ETF for another cryptocurrency – Ethereum. The Ethereum ETF was approved by the SEC 7 months after the Bitcoin ETF approval, launching on July 23. This brought even more attention and capital into the crypto space. While the Ethereum ETFs launched with much less fanfare than the Bitcoin ETFs, the trading volume on the first day still exceeded $1 billion, and they are now approaching $10 billion in market cap.

Now that two cryptocurrencies have their own ETFs, what's next? Will all 25,000+ cryptocurrencies get their own ETFs? While that is unlikely (and unnecessary), an ETF that tracks a combination of the top cryptocurrencies – similar to how VOO (Vanguard S&P 500 ETF) tracks the 500 largest U.S. companies – would make a lot of sense and could be the next step. In addition to this, options trading for these ETFs are gaining traction with regulators, and there is belief that it will be approved by the SEC prior to the election in November.

Cryptocurrencies seem to be gaining momentum and could become a major topic of debate in the upcoming election. If this continues and more attention and capital flow into the space, the entire financial system will eventually be impacted in one way or another. The mortgage industry is no exception, and things like bond market and mortgage-backed securities could become more volatile.

Rocket Pro TPO was the proud title sponsor of Originator Connect’s California Mortgage Expo in San Diego! We appreciate everyone who took the time to stop by the booth and all those who listened to Vice President Chris Behrns speak on what it means for us to #EarnthePartnership!