Newsletter # 3
How I’m Combating The Push to a ‘Contactless’ Society
How a little bit of luck, lots of hard work, and the concepts of ‘Micro-Communities’ created a thriving mortgage career… and how these concepts can help any sales professional!
Here’s me, trying to take a selfie! At the time of making this terrifying face, I was attempting to squeeze 50 Realtors from Nashville into frame, and boy, did I fail. This group had invited me out to Nashville for an afternoon workshop. I spoke with them about the Three Megatrends Changing the Business World right now!
But today, for my readers, I have a question: What are you willing to fight FOR in your life?
Or, maybe more accurately, what are you willing to fight-BACK against?
Strangely, people are generally willing to fight harder AGAINST something that they see as a negative, versus fighting FOR something that they view as a positive.
For example…
As I write this email, I’m currently consuming some unhealthy chemicals in the form of a Diet Coke. I know that this drink is not particularly healthy for me. I know I should stay disciplined and be drinking water. But here I am, sipping a refreshing beverage.
Trust me, if you want to enjoy a Diet Coke from time to time, DO NOT do a Google search about what chemicals are found in diet sodas. Definitely do NOT ask ChatGPT about the industrial applications of where these chemical compounds originated from!
Ending my addiction to Diet Coke is NOT something I’m willing to fight that hard for. As you may have heard, it’s often hard for us Americans to fight for putting healthy food into our bodies!
Conversely, if you or I were diagnosed with cancer, I bet we would be willing to fight tooth and nail for our health, for our survival, and would vigorously fight back AGAINST Cancer! We likely wouldn’t put a single unhealthy ingredient into our bodies.
It’s a weird human dynamic that we will fight harder AGAINST something that negatively affects us; but won’t fight nearly as hard FOR something that positively affects us.
In my first newsletter I addressed the three megatrends that I see affecting sales-professionals, sales-leaders, & entrepreneurs. You can reference that article here!
In newsletter #2, which you can reference here, I outlined some of the solutions to these problems and how that might be relevant to you!
In today’s newsletter I want to fight-back a little harder AGAINST Trend #1 - Moving to a Contactless Society.
I’ll tell you a bit about how I got here, why I’m willing to fight back against this trend, and why it matters to you!
I Don’t Want to Live in a Contactless Society & Why it Matters for You
One of the things I’m willing to fight AGAINST is this idea that Community doesn’t matter! I want to fight back AGAINST the idea that technology can solve everything, and human interaction is now a BUG, and not a FEATURE of the business world.
Looking back on my 25-years in the mortgage business, much of my success was defined by a lot of hard work, a desire to build ‘Micro-Communities,’ and a bit of luck!
Like the villain said in the movie Under Siege 2: Dark Territory…
“Chance Favors the Prepared Mind!”
I would rephrase that to say that ‘chance,’ or ‘luck,’ favors the prepared business professional!
My goal in writing this newsletter is to help you learn how to better navigate the changing landscape of the business world. I want you to have additional tools to build your business, your brand, or your sales-pipeline.
Sidenote, while Under Siege 2: Dark Territory is entertaining, is NO match for the 1992 original Under Siege. I rank the original Under Siege, a 1990’s Steven Seagal masterpiece, in my top 10 action movies of all time.
There’s also a certain birthday cake scene in Under Siege, featuring Erika Eleniak, that might have been of great interest to me as a 13-year-old boy going through puberty!
But, back to business! I care deeply about the hard work + mico-communities + luck that led to a wildly successful career in the mortgage industry - Because, let’s be honest, technology and AI evangelists are trying to convince us that these things no longer matter.
YouTube is over-indexed with influencers telling you that AI and technology is the magic pill that solves all your business challenges! Supposedly, AI and tech will alleviate the need for hard work and community in any business vertical!
This wasn’t true 25 years ago, and it’s not true today!
After I got out of the Army, I started as a teller at Washington Mutual bank. Like everyone else in our industry, very few people grew-up thinking they wanted to be a Loan Officer, a Realtor, an Insurance Agent, or Financial Professional. However, life happens, we fall into these jobs, and within a year of working at Washington Mutual I was doing home-loans.
I worked hard, I learned my craft, I loved talking to people, and I was good at building relationships. However, there was a secret ingredient to my success that materialized at the perfect time in my career.
About a decade into my career as a loan officer I had built a reputation of being local to the eastside of Los Angeles. My parents had grown up in Eagle Rock & Highland Park California.
As a kid we bounced around schools and social activities in Eagle Rock, Glendale, Burbank, and the surrounding communities.
Back in the 1960’s and 1970’s, these sleepy east-side towns in Los Angeles were mostly defined by auto-shops and textile companies. In the 80’s and 90’s when I was growing up, these were very affordable places to raise a family.
By the time I started my mortgage career in 2001, it felt like a new coffee shop, gastro-pub, or trendy boutique was opening up weekly. I made it a point to go to all of them.
Almost by accident, the corridor between Burbank & Eagle Rock is where I decided to build my mortgage business, build referral partners, and host get-togethers with friends, clients, and Realtors.
Shortly after the financial crisis of 2008, the Eastside of Los Angeles became one of the fastest appreciating markets in America.
For five years in a row - Eagle Rock, Highland Park, Atwater Village, Echo Park, Glendale, Burbrank, and other surrounding neighborhoods were named by Redfin as several of the ‘hottest real-estate markets in the country.’
The tail-winds of a hot market helped me go from making $18,000 in 2008 (yes, that’s $18,000 for the entire year) to over $1m in 2016. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky instead of good.
Of course 2008 kicked me in the ass… as almost no lender in America was willing to fund a home loan.
However, I didn’t just get lucky because of my geographical location. Leading up to this real-estate boom, I had been doing all the right things.
I didn’t just rely on tech, emails, and text messages… I picked up the phone, built relationships, hosted happy hours, visited open houses to meet new Realtors, and delivered in-person education to the professionals who would eventually become my referral partners.
It wasn’t about building a bigger database, serviced by a CRM, with emails that our ‘corporate’ office wrote for me! It was about getting to know the needs, desires, and the goals of the people I wanted to serve.
It was about building in-person ‘Micro-Communities’ that would eventually grow into a thriving base of clients & referral partners.
And the truth is… this process can STILL work for YOU! TODAY!
I believe that moving to a contactless, faceless, email-only business landscape is a recipe for disaster for most sales people.
To be clear, I love my CRM.
I use a contact manager daily. I enjoy brainstorming with ChatGPT about business development ideas.
The “Reach” texting app has made it easier to send personalized text messages to a larger audience.
AND, not BUT, AND… most new technology tools create a paralyzing disease amongst sales-people that I call SOS -OR- ‘Shiny Object Syndrome!”
The business world is littered with the failed careers of salespeople who mastered their CRM, bought all the new tools, attended the conferences, sent all the emails, posted the right things on social media… but still failed within years of starting.
They were a failure to launch, and they don’t even understand why.
So why do these tech savvy sales people often fail?
Because they didn’t master having conversations!
They didn’t master building relationships!
They didn’t know how to build a ‘Micro-Community’ of referral partners & clients!
They never got in the habit of making calls and connecting with people!
The OnGoing Power of Face-to-Face
I’m frequently talking to my coaching clients, sales leaders, and other entrepreneurs about the power of meeting face-to-face… about building ‘micro-communities.’
This isn’t just my opinion, the topic has been well studied.
An article in the Harvard Business Review (October 2025, by Sinha, Shastri, and Lorimer) effectively begged sales teams NOT to undervalue the power of face time with customers.
Some insights from the article reaffirmed what I’ve been coaching sales professionals on for years.
The authors- Prabhakant Sinha, Arun Shastri, and Sally Lorimer, make a point that feels totally obvious, but that I believe a lot of companies are missing…
When the client or referral partner's situation is complicated, you do not win from behind a screen or via email.
They point to Microsoft, John Deere, and several other companies that sell complicated or expensive products or services.
The patterns for success have become very clear.
Being physically present builds trust faster.
You notice things you never would have caught on a Zoom call.
You uncover problems the client did not think to mention.
You spot opportunities that do not show up in a CRM data field.
Digital tools can give you reach and data, but when the relationship stays purely digital, it gets watered-down, it becomes fragile, and WE become easy to replace.
Meanwhile, the competitor who is willing to get in the car, shake hands, grab a beer, play a round of golf, or just walk “on-site,” is quietly taking market share.
He’s doing this by building ‘Micro-Communities’ that are rooted in trust with clients & referral partners.
I believe that a lot of modern sales teams are accidentally talking themselves out of the one advantage that still works in any market: showing up.
We have convinced ourselves that speed and convenience equal effectiveness. Sometimes they do. But when someone is making a high-stakes decision to work with a potential referral partner or trusted advisor, IN-PERSON STILL WORKS BEST! More tech, more tools, more AI, more emails is rarely the answer for building trust.
Digital communication is great for follow-up, quick answers, and staying top of mind. It is not great at replacing the trust that gets built when you sit across from someone, read the room, and have the conversations that actually need to happen. In person, you get the nuance.
You get the pauses.
You get the side comments or side-eye.
You get the real story and can adjust your sales process accordingly!
So, after nearly 2,000 words on the topic… I guess what I’m really trying to say, what I’m willing to fight back against, is this idea that business environments can be sterile, contactless, and void of community.
Building ‘Micro-Communities’ has worked for me, it’s worked for hundreds of my coaching clients, and it can work for you!
Even if you feel lost, just get started! Organize a happy hour. Block out time on your calendar to have lunch with at least one referral partner or potential client weekly. Take a look at the last 20 people you texted and see if you do something fun together. Surprise the people you count on to help you generate revenue by stopping by their office with coffee. Have a BBQ at your place and invite a few referral partners you get along with. Do some educational training - IN PERSON!
Just do something strategic to get in front of your ideal clients or referral partners. You likely know what to do, you’ve just fallen into the technology trap of thinking electrons and emails can do relationship building for you!
My Invitation to you is this: If you’re feeling like YOU need to get back out there seeing people in person, IF YOU need to build a micro-community, HIT REPLY to this email!
I’d love to hear your thoughts. I personally read each and every response.
Hearing from you would not only mean the world to me, but it would also help me shape the upcoming issues of this newsletter.
And as a bonus, I will be doing my best to individually respond to each email I receive to this brand new “Scott’s Thoughts” newsletter!
Till the next time I have 2 hours to think,
Scott :-)
P.S. - None of this was written by AI, my assistant, or a ghost writer. Just me. A real person who probably made a few typos in the newsletter above. Please forgive me!
P.P.S - Some of the graphics and charts were created by AI because design simply isn’t my zone of genius. I’m not anti-AI, I’m anti fake thoughts written by a large language model. I didn't spend the 10,000 hours required to make graphics by hand, so you’ll just have to deal with this average AI image!
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