I Hate the "R" Word

Loan Officer Freedom

Carl White

Education, Business, How To

4.9 • 753 Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2026

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Episode 620

If you are ready to stop asking what is realistic and want help mapping out an unrealistic target and a simple weekly plan to make it happen, give the team a call by heading to GetMoreLoans.com and schedule a sample coaching call to walk through your numbers and next steps.

Welcome to Loan Officer Freedom, the #1 podcast in the country for loan officers, hosted by Carl White.

In this episode, Carl breaks down the one word he believes has quietly held more loan officers back than rates, competition, or the market ever could. That word is "realistic," and Carl explains how it often becomes a permission slip to play small and protect past results instead of building something better.

Carl shares why "realistic" usually means avoiding disappointment, negotiating with your past performance, or aiming so low you cannot miss. He explains why asking a better question completely changes the outcome and opens the door to breakthrough years instead of incremental progress.

The conversation walks through a real example of a loan officer who doubled her production in a single year by stopping the question of what was realistic and focusing instead on what it would take. Carl breaks down how most big jumps in production come from simple math, consistent activity, and a plan that fits real life.

If you have ever caught yourself setting safe goals just to avoid failure, this episode will challenge that mindset. You will walk away with a clearer way to set bigger targets, build a simple weekly plan, and create results that once felt out of reach.

Transcript

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0:00.0	All right, hey everybody, Carl White here.
0:08.9	Hey, today I want to talk about a word that I honestly wish we could remove from the mortgage
0:16.3	vocabulary.
0:18.3	And so it's what I call the R word.
0:20.6	I hate the R word. And by the way, it's costing you
0:25.5	closing. So the R word, it's not rates. It's not realtors, of course, right? They're a single
0:33.2	most responsible thing for loans closed by loan officers nationwide.
0:39.3	Certainly not renters, right? We convert those too. It's the R word I hate the most is realistic.
0:46.3	Realistic. You go, all right, Carl, what the heck do you mean by that? That one word, I'm convinced, has quietly talked more loan officers into playing
0:58.0	small than any market, any lender, any lead source, any competition ever would. And if you've ever
1:05.8	said it, no shame, we've all said it, myself included. But I want you to notice how it shows up so
1:14.3	like I'll be talking with a loan officer this what brought this with this subject up for me
1:17.7	today I'll be talking with a loan officer and I'll ask a simple question and a question
1:22.6	oftentimes is something a year from today where are you at that you're happy with the progress of you and I working together for the next year?
1:31.2	And almost always they respond with, you mean realistically?
1:35.2	And I always say, no, screw realistically. Like absolutely not realistically.
1:40.9	I want you to tell me unrealistically where would you be a year for today that you're happy with the progress of you and I working together.
1:49.0	Because here's the thing. The word realistic usually means one of four things. It's either number one, I don't want to get my hopes up.
1:59.0	Number two, I'm trying not to be disappointed. Number three, I've tried before and it don't want to get my hopes up. Number two, I'm trying not to be disappointed.
2:02.4	Number three, I've tried before and it didn't work. Or number four, this most popular, I'm going to aim so low so I can't miss.
2:11.5	And look, those are human feelings, right? We all have them. But if you build a business plan around protecting your emotions, you're not going to end up with a very good business plan.
2:22.5	You're going to end up with more of a permission slip to stay the same.
	...

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