Newsletter # 4

How I Just Fired Myself

Published on: March 29, 2026

Today I’m going to start with a lengthy story about me (sorry), and then circle back to lessons we learned about ‘Micro-Communities’ in Newsletter #3. If you haven’t read that issue, I recommend going back and reading it!

Here I am celebrating at Dave & Busters after getting fired! Can you see how happy I am? LOL!

So… a lot happened between Thanksgiving 2025 and March of 2026. I was actually “fired,” twice, to close out the year. But I’ll get to that shortly.

First, a confession from ME, Scott Groves, to YOU, the Reader.

For most of you who know me from the mortgage industry, my sales coaching business, or are just a friend from social media, this is likely the first email you’ve read from ME in almost a decade!

“But Scott,” you say… “I get your emails all the time?!?”

Well… kind of.

You see, as my mortgage business scaled over the last 15 years, my coaching business scaled over the last 10 years, and I had more and more obligations & commitments hoisted upon me… I ran out of time.

Building a coaching business, writing a book, designing a daily sales planner, doing a podcast, starting a local newsletter business, all while still functioning as a top-producing loan officer… yeah, that took a little bit of time!

Over the last decade, I’ve frequently put in 10–12 hour days, 6–7 days a week.

That, in turn, caused me to lose my voice. It took a decade, and it was a slow process, but ‘you’ probably have not heard from the real ‘me’ in a very long time!

For years, my talented assistants have been writing our coaching recap & marketing emails.

I had someone writing my ad copy, and I would just rubber-stamp it.

Our corporate marketing team, various software providers, & my partner, Leah James-Vega, took over the correspondence that was coming ‘from me’ to our Realtors & mortgage clients.

And recently, with the rise of AI, our entire email library has been more and more influenced by, created by, and/or refined using ChatGPT.

Much of my social media & marketing, even though it’s me on camera, has been curated, edited, and chopped up by agencies or apps doing the work for me.

It’s weird to sometimes look at your own content and cringe… but it’s happened more than I care to admit.

Probably the only place where you’ve gotten the ‘real’ version of Scott is if we are friends on Facebook. If you’ve interacted with one of my very long political, economic, or current event posts, that was me.

I try, in those posts, to let people hear my real voice, be thoughtful in my approach, and bring relevant information to my group of friends.

Not that I expect you to zoom in and actually read this Facebook post, but here’s a recent political essay I wrote about the disgusting infighting I see on social media and the cowards who participate the most.

Apparently, I can get a bit wordy when I’m fired up about politics and the economy!

Depending on which side of the aisle you’re on, you may find these Facebook posts invigorating or alarming.

Whatever you ‘felt’ when reading those rants… you were feeling a real response to the real Scott.

My goal in writing this bi-weekly ‘Scott’s Thoughts’ newsletter is to connect, in a real way, to whatever audience finds me and decides to follow along.

Not everyone will be a fan. Some may even have a negative reaction and unsubscribe.

But that’s OK.

For the first time in a long time, you’re getting a real email from the real me! No ghostwriter, no AI, no curation.

Just me and a Google document!

Now, on to the firing…

Firing #1 - I Fired Myself!

If you’re a mortgage client or a Realtor I’ve worked with, you recently got an email entitled ‘My Last Email as a Loan Officer!’

I won’t go into all the details here, as it’s probably not relevant to why you are reading this newsletter.

However, in short, I’ve been doing loans for 25 years. It’s been my life, it’s been my identity, and it is the thing that has paid my bills for most of my adult life since leaving the Army in 2000.

Although there have been stints where I loved the job, have several past clients I keep in touch with, and love many of my referral partners… it has been a long time since this job has fulfilled me!

After a daunting five-year process, I finally found, trained, and most importantly came to TRUST my replacement, Leah James-Vega. She has taken over my book of business and is the absolute right person to take care of my clients and referral partners going forward. BTW, if you need a mortgage, just email [email protected]. ( See, I can’t help myself. 25 years of prospecting doesn’t die easily. LOL. )

I can tell you that this transition would NOT have been possible had Leah not been a loan officer who lives right down the street from me. When we interviewed, when I hired her, and when she started working with me, this proximity offered us the opportunity to work side by side as she learned how I handle our book of business.

Working together in person accelerated our relationship, built trust faster, and allowed me to transition out of the mortgage business faster. I still think some work is better served when it happens in the same room.

Firing myself was possibly the scariest thing I’ve ever done… which probably means I should have done it sooner.

The other thing that made it possible to “quit” was six men I hold near and dear in my heart. My “Band” of brothers from the Front Row Dad’s mastermind group.

I have to give a special shout-out to these six men in the picture below.

This is my ‘Band’ from the mastermind group Front Row Dads, also known as FRD.

I’ve been part of FRD since its early days, and our mission is to be fathers with businesses, NOT businessmen trying to find time to be fathers.

If it wasn’t for this group of men, I don’t know if I would have ever had the courage to fire myself.

I can tell you that the encouragement that came from these men was ONLY possible because we meet every 4 to 6 weeks on Zoom and get together in person several times a year.

It’s that live interaction that created the emotional trust, over years, that allowed them to call me out and help me make the tough decision to fire myself.

Which finally brings me around to the lesson of this week’s newsletter. Micro-Communities MATTER!

I believe that in a world where everyone seems to be talking about the rise of AI, all-consuming social media platforms, and endless ‘done-for-you’ technology apps, people still matter.

Micro-Communities, and the people you choose to be surrounded by, matter!

I believe that in order to live a fulfilling life, we need to get back to being in person and live.

Fewer pre-recorded videos. Fewer emails. Fewer digital trainings.

More real voices, more real emails, more real connection, and more ‘Micro

Communities’ of real people we can lean on when we have to make tough decisions!

BTW, that picture at the top of the newsletter was more or less a joke.

Here’s how I’m really feeling after firing myself and leaning into a career path that is more in alignment with who I want to be:

Over this next year, I’m committed to writing this bi-weekly newsletter to talk about living life, building ‘Micro-Communities,’ fighting back against the perceived need to design a ‘Contactless Society,’ and convincing some people that the solutions in 2026 are about more conversations, not more tools!

There will be some personal stuff, some business stuff, maybe some political stuff, and some truths that I think are self-evident to me, but maybe not to the reader. I hope you join me on this journey!

I know I opened this email talking about getting fired TWICE! Don’t worry, I’ll get there in the next couple of newsletters.

SPOILER ALERT: In December 2025, I got fired from the META platform and lost 20 years of content on Facebook & Instagram. It created, for me, an existential crisis that I’m looking forward to sharing with you in an upcoming newsletter.

Don’t forget to subscribe, share this newsletter with someone who might be interested, and connect with me on social media if you want to see the changes I’m making in 2026. If you got forwarded this email, you can subscribe at www.ScottsThoughts.com

My invitation to you is this: If you’re feeling a bit disconnected from humans right now, or have ever been fired, HIT REPLY to this email and give me 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 for 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 ghostwriter. 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 may have been 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!