Eddy Perez shares his tips to help real estate entrepreneurs develop their leadership skills.
This month, the CEO of Equity Prime Mortgage (EPM) Eddy Perez featured in the inaugural Leadership Mastermind Podcast, a show that helps aspiring leaders learn how to best support their teams in the mortgage and real estate space. The award-winning mortgage executive Laura Brandao hosts the podcast alongside Mitch Peek, an expert in sales, communication, and networking in the mortgage industry. Together, they invite forward-thinking leaders from lenders and real estate companies to share their experiences, insights, and perspectives on effective leadership.
In the show’s second episode, Laura introduced Eddy Perez to the podcast as one of America’s top mortgage bankers. As president, CEO, and co-founder of EPM, Eddy oversees all company departments, including sales, revenue, operations, compliance, technology, and marketing. Not only is he listed in National Mortgage Professional Magazine’s “40 Most Influential Mortgage Professionals under 40,” but he has also earned the Certified Mortgage Banker (CMB) designation, acts as chairman of the MORPAC, holds a position on the panel for the MBA Future Leaders’ Program, stands as one of the MBA’s directors, and co-chairs the MBA Affordable Housing Council.
Mitch kicked off the episode by asking Eddy to share some of the skills that make up his “Pillars in Leadership”, which have already gained traction from his Lending, Leadership, and Life vlog. Here are some of the skills Eddy recommends team managers work on to improve their leadership.
Emotional Intelligence
Though emotional intelligence encompasses many facets, Eddy highlights empathy as an important characteristic of a strong leader. He explains that when you lead with empathy, you gain perspective on others’ situations. You can understand and relate to your team and clients to problem-solve pragmatically. Eddy notes that one of the best ways you can empathize with others is to practice being a good listener. When you can listen and ask the right questions, you can identify exactly what others are trying to convey, what motivates them, and why they’re acting a certain way.
However, as you progress up the ranks, there can be pressure to talk more and listen less. More people are likely to want or expect to listen to you. But you can maximize your leadership skills by ensuring you take as much time—if not more—to listen to them, too. As a leader, you need to cultivate two-way relationships.
Keeping Things Fun
Eddy then moved on to his second tip—keeping things fun. Fun is key to EPM’s ethos, and Eddy fosters an enjoyable office culture to promote wellbeing and uplift his team. For starters, he keeps a megaphone in the office, which he uses to share jokes and keep the atmosphere light. He also runs a monthly awards ceremony to share achievements from each department and show each team member they are valued. Plus, Eddy suggests introducing healthy competitiveness to uphold motivation and improve output. This can apply to all departments, not just sales teams.
Workplace Culture
Eddy stresses that leaders must think about how to improve their workplace culture on an evolutionary scale. Things need to change all the time, especially as people come and go. Leaders must accept this; once you’ve unleashed an employee’s full potential, they may well find a new challenge in a new role to push themselves further. A good leader can consider this a success.
“In my job as a leader, as CEO and president, there are three things I’m responsible for: the vision, the culture, and the results. I believe you’ll get the results if your vision and culture align. You’ve got to always fine-tune that—like a high-performance car.”
In a bid to constantly improve workplace culture, Eddy asks his team to complete an anonymous monthly engagement survey. The survey gives each team member a voice—even about topics they might not feel comfortable discussing openly. This shows Eddy where EPM’s weaknesses and strengths lie. But Eddy doesn’t just work on the weaknesses. He also works to continuously improve the company’s strengths.
Knowing Yourself
Eddy explains that you need to know what activates and motivates yourself before you can work out what activates others. You need to be relatable if your team is to trust and follow you. It’s only then that you can unleash the potential in your team. In short, you can’t lead others until you can lead yourself. Leadership starts with you.
Eddy took the Big Five Personality Test to delve into his own character. He scored highest as an extrovert. But he now realizes that our characters are more complex than test results can show, and that being extroverted doesn’t automatically mean you’re good at communicating. Eddy explains that there’s no such thing as over-communication, so he always makes an effort to be transparent when chatting with team members.
“You might find that sometimes when you thought you were saying something, you really weren’t,” Eddy says. “I’ve even noticed that with my own children. So, I not only want to be a great leader for the organization, for the consumers, for this country, for this great industry, for what we do for so many millions of people every year—but even for my kids as a parent.”
Embracing Conflict
Eddy explains that, over the last year, he has improved his ability to embrace conflict as a leader. It’s easy to want to avoid conflict, but sometimes we need to face issues. When your team members bring up problems, they’re communicating with you. This means they have your interests and your company’s interests at heart. They’re telling you about a problem because they care, and they want to fix it with you. Embrace this. Because when they stop communicating, that’s when they stop caring about the problem and will potentially seek new work opportunities.
Motivating Yourself as a Leader
Eddy concludes that to be a leader, you have to really want to be a leader. You can’t just want the paycheck. You can’t just want to direct people. You have to want to achieve the best and help others achieve success, too. You have to be willing to pay the price of dedication.
“In anything great in life, you’ve got to be willing to pay the price. And the greater you want to be, you have to pay a bigger price. Some people want to do that. Some do not.”
Here’s what motivates Eddy as a leader. He doesn’t consider EPM a company in the mortgage landscape. Instead, he considers the mortgage industry as the driver of his personal development business, a business that empowers people to take the hugely important step of buying their homes. Once someone has bought their own home, their risk of exposure to domestic violence and drug abuse falls—and helping someone to reach that milestone can be essential to their mental health. Knowing that EPM helps people to change their lives for the better motivates Eddy every day.
Eddy left listeners with a final thought-provoking question. “Do you want to be the person on their deathbed who did not give birth to their thoughts and ideas?”
Listen to the Leadership Mastermind Podcast.
About EPM
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, EPM is a national lender that assists its clients with numerous mortgage products. The approved Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Seller is recognized as part of the Inc. 5000 and has more than 50 years of experience in the mortgage arena. The company’s dedicated mortgage originators help clients to secure loans with competitive interest rates and guide them through the process to make life as easy as possible. EPM is licensed in 49 states.
Learn more about EPM.