Episode 36: Mat Ishbia - Lessons from an NCAA Basketball National Champion Turned People-First CEO

05/07/19 • 71 min

Whereas most successful high-level executives point to business juggernauts like Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs or Elon Musk as their biggest inspirations, Mat Ishbia attributes his own extraordinary career trajectory to a different kind of leader—acclaimed Michigan State University basketball coach, Tom Izzo.

After winning an NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship title under Izzo’s leadership, Mat took the lessons he learned on the court like top-down respect, family-like teamwork and constant hard work into the corporate world. Today, Mat is the President and CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) with more than 3,000 team members. Listen to his story on this week’s donothing podcast.

Mat’s a visionary who combines a keen business mind with a unique ability to create an award-winning corporate culture that has been lauded nationally. UWM has been recognized as a Tech-Savvy Lender by Mortgage Technology magazine and the gold standard for client service, both within the mortgage industry and across the general business landscape.

His high-energy, relentless pursuit for innovation and pragmatic perspective of the mortgage industry has accelerated UWM as the number one wholesale lender and number two overall purchase lender in the nation.

Mat is also one of the “Most Influential Mortgage Professionals Under 40” and a Vanguard Award winner by HousingWire. He’s also widely recognized as a prominent advocate for mortgage brokers nationwide, promoting wholesale mortgage brokers on CNBC, Fox Business and Bloomberg TV.

Connect with Mat Ishbia

Twitter

Connect with United Wholesale Mortgage

Connect with Mat Ishbia

Twitter

Connect with United Wholesale Mortgage

Previous Episode

Episode 35: Laura Boone - Want a Better Company Culture? Create a Smarter Workspace

On this week’s donothing podcast, I chat with Laura Boone, the co-founder and principal at turnerboone. Listen and discover countless, unexpected nuggets of entrepreneurial and everyday life wisdom. From the science behind workplace design to building an award-winning company culture to her love for astrology, learn how Laura blazed a path to success her own way.

Laura Boone is co-founder and principal at turnerboone, a 100% women-owned office furniture dealership, where she is responsible for business development, marketing and brand strategy. Laura combines her art and design background, over 20 years of experience in the contract furniture industry and a passion for relationship building to bring industry insight into turnerboone’s leadership team.

Laura builds and earns trust directly with her clients through her high level of accessibility, integrity and accountability. These relationships don’t end upon project completion. Instead, they flourish and continue for years.

turnerboone was named a Forbes 2017 Top 25 Small Giant in America which recognizes America's best small businesses. In 2010, Laura was awarded third place in Business to Business Magazine’s Top 25 Entrepreneurs. She is also a former board member of CREW Atlanta.

Connect with Laura Boone

Connect with turnerboone

Additional Resources

Next Episode

Episode 37: Whitney Bromberg Hawkings - From Fashion Exec to Floral Industry Disruptor

For nearly 20 years, Whitney Bromberg Hawkings worked alongside iconic fashion designer and filmmaker, Tom Ford, as one of his most trusted team members. Then, she left her beloved industry behind with a mission to disrupt the outdated floral industry with FLOWERBX.

Whitney started working for Tom Ford while he was the Creative Director at Gucci in Paris. Eventually, she rose to the position of Senior Vice President of Communications at his own fashion brand, TOM FORD. In 2016, Whitney resigned from her executive position to found FLOWERBX, the online flower delivery service that’s slated to become the first global flower brand.

In just over three years, she’s expanded FLOWERBX from the U.K. and France to over 20 countries across Europe. While the company continues to focus on strengthening and growing their European markets, it also just launched in its first U.S. location—New York City.

Learn how this native Texan found her place within the European fashion world and discover why she ultimately chose the path to entrepreneurship in this week’s donothing podcast.

Connect with FLOWERBX

Whitney’s Recommended Books