It’s no secret that exceptional work stems from the power of collaboration. So in addition to featuring notable young professionals and entrepreneurs every single day, we’ll be chatting to some of Canada’s best teams every Thursday to get an inside look at how they combine talents to stand out in their industry. Today we’re talking to the Head Office of Dominion Lending Centres….
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WORK
Describe what you and your team focus on in less than 140 characters. Go.
We focus on creating a unique and informative experience for our customers while educating consumers on the value of using a mortgage broker.
What kick ass projects/programs have you been working on recently?
In the last 12 months at DLC we have donated 3000 bikes to underprivileged kids across the country through our Bikes for Kids charity initiative, welcomed 700 + mortgage brokers to Whistler, BC for our DLC National Sales Conference, awarded 200 brokers on a 5-star trip to Mexico, and partnered for the first time with author of The Compound Effect and publisher of Success Magazine, Darren Hardy, for his three-day High Performance Forum – an event never offered directly to any single company, ever!
On top of this, DLC has maintained 35% market share and the #1 spot in the country overall. Recently, we just announced that we’ve sold 60% ownership to FCF, a Canadian capital investment firm. With this announcement we are excited for the growth potential that DLC and its group of companies has in the future and look forward to launching new kick ass initiatives.
What are some of the benefits of working on a team?
There are a ton of benefits to working on a team – especially one as dynamic, creative and fun as the DLC Head Office team. The best part of the team at DLC is that we all support each other and our crazy, fun and adventurous ideas. I’ve never experienced such a supportive group of people. The thing that makes this team work so well is that we are all so different and creative, but work together so perfectly to highlight the good ideas that we each bring to the table.
What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced? (tell a funny story here)
Our biggest challenge that we face is that, although we successfully service three large companies and their 5000+ agents across the country, we are actually a very small head office team – a total of 40 across the entire company.
Do you have any advice for other young professionals working within a team?
My advice to other young professionals working within a team would be to always stay open-minded and learn to fiercely support those working within your team – a well-blended and supportive team works better together than a team that is constantly disagreeing or undercutting each other. Teamwork makes the dream work!
Does your team have a designated leader?
From a head office prospective, our leaders are Gary Mauris, President & CEO, and Chris Kayat, Executive Vice President. We do have department heads that are responsible for managing and believing in our dreams. Jay Seabrook, VP of Operations, is no doubt the brains behind our brilliant madness. Gary and Chris often say that they come in with a crazy idea, make a mess, and Jay comes in to clean up that mess and make these crazy ideas come to life. That statement couldn’t be truer!
Within your organization are teams switched up every once in a while or do they maintain the same? What are some of the benefits and cons of that?
Within DLC we don’t tend to have too much turnover. Our culture is one that you don’t want to leave! As with every company, there is slight turnover, but the core of DLC has stayed essentially the same since inception 10 years ago! The benefit of this is that everyone knows how to work together perfectly and has a firm understanding of not only DLC’s goals and ambitions, but the Canadian mortgage industry as a whole.
We have great relationships with our lenders and service providers that continue to get stronger on a daily basis. A con could be that without new people in new positions, the company could get stagnant. But as you can see, DLC has no worry of that. Gary often says that in order to stay #1, you have to constantly act like #2!
What does the word collaboration mean to you?
Collaboration to me is when creative, brilliant minds come together, idea vomit on a table, then find a way to bring all this creative brilliance together. The key here is to take small snippets of everyone’s idea and turn it into a large, collaborative one that best fits the company’s mission/goals. Collaboration to me is bringing together unique ideas to create something memorable.
What has been you and your teams favorite project/campaign/ initiative to work on and why?
My personal favourite is our DLC National Sales Conference. Bringing together 700 + brokers from across the country for three days of fun, learning and networking in a unique and fun way is a project I work on for two years. Palm Springs 2017 will be a blast!
PLAY
Where is your teams favourite place to wine/dine in your city and why?
We don’t have one place in particular that we like to wine/dine in our city – but we do spend a lot of time at Earls!
Do you and your team go out together? Where and why?
Yes, we go out together often! From Friday afternoon/evenings spent on a local patio, to weekends spent camping or on extended business trips, we truly enjoy spending time with each other.
What’s the best thing that has happened to you and your team recently?
60% sale of DLC – this is exciting and gives us much more opportunity to grow, build new technology, and launch exciting initiatives.
And finally, what does success look like to you and your team? Work, play, or otherwise…
Success to me is dreaming big and living out those dreams in a fun, vibrant, and unique way. For me, making a big move across the country, taking a large career move, and being myself in an authentic way is what makes me feel successful.
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