In this testimonial, Jim Tulin, producing branch manager at OnQ North Scottsdale, discusses the difficulties he faced in recruiting mortgage consultants and how his perspective shifted from self‑focused, commission‑driven goals to a purpose‑driven, service‑oriented mindset. He shares personal anecdotes—including a battle with cancer and his passion for cycling—to illustrate resilience and the importance of daily self‑service. After a candid conversation with his business partner Sean about the meaning of their work, Jim discovered Richard Milligan and 4C Recruiting via LinkedIn. Through weekly coaching with Richard, Jim learned to abandon scripted pitches, focus on authentic relationship‑building, and view recruiting as a service to others. This transformation led to recognition as the top recruiter in his company and a sense of freedom in his role. The interview highlights the value of mentorship, mindset shifts, and purposeful recruiting in the mortgage industry.
Chapters
But the hardest part of this job is recruiting, and most people are running around like a chicken with their head cut off, and they don't know anything about how to do it. Well, as my father always used to say, if you want to learn how to hit a backhand, hire a tennis pro. All I have to do in the morning is default to my one word, and my one word for this year is serve. So the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is think, The first person that I can serve is me. Well, my exercise is my service to myself. My name is Jim Tulin. I am the producing branch manager here at OnQ North Scottsdale along with my business partner. We're continually looking for mortgage consultants who want to do their life's best work, people who are looking to live a balanced and fulfilled life. You know, I lived almost 36 years of my life where I was the only Why? You know, unfortunately, having gone through a life-altering experience, I realized it didn't start and end here, that there was a bigger purpose and there was a bigger role I was supposed to fill in this business. And where the focus was on me and commissions and my volume and my career, and generally, like I said, just me for the first 16 years of my career, it's now completely about Everybody else. One of my passions is riding my bicycle. I used to get sidetracked fairly easily with adversity, and I never really knew how tall I would be able to stand up to a real test. A few years ago, a brief battle with cancer taught me just how tough I was. What I love about getting on the bicycle is that every time I do it, it's a daily reminder that, yep, your legs are burning. Yep, you're sweating. Yeah, you're out of breath. Um, yeah, there's a big hill in front of you. Stand up and About a year and a half ago, my partner Sean and I were sitting at our old company and I said, hey Sean, what are we doing? And he said, we're making money, why? And I laughed and I said, yeah, yeah, I know. I said, but what are we doing? And I said, you and I have enjoyed long, very successful careers in this industry. We're not here if somebody hadn't taken the time to teach us how to do this. Yeah, you're right. I said, okay, we gotta pay the bar tab. When we came here, I figured we'd just open up the doors of the branch and everybody we knew would hear that we had a branch and they would come in and work with us because we're awesome. Well, we are awesome, but that's not exactly how it unfolded. There are so many people out there actively recruiting loan officers, or at least they think they are. They're doing what they think recruiting loan officers looks like, and they may, some of them, be achieving some average results, but those average results are going to yield average fruit. Most people are going about it all wrong. So I realized that the weakest part of my job duties was my recruiting. I came across Richard by chance. He sent me a connection request on LinkedIn, and I started looking at who he was and what he was all about. Well, I realized that Richard enjoys coaching. Richard enjoys watching people take the things that that he's taught them and run with them and grow. So I started digging into who Richard Milligan and 4C Recruiting was all about, and I realized, huh, just found my tennis pro. I've spent the better part of the last year every week working with Richard, only to get compliments from the higher-ups here saying that I'm the best recruiter they've got. Everything changed. I, instead of trying to go and explain to everybody why my company was the best, I just went out and said, here's who I am. Of all the things that I've gained from my time working with Richard and with 4C Recruiting, I would say if I had to pick one, I would say freedom. I only knew one way to recruit, and that was to go out and explain why my mortgage company was better than yours, and I felt very boxed in. So how did you
get out of that box?
Richard! With that added liberation of, of not having to stick to a script and just get to know people, it's made it even that much more enjoyable.
