Inside the Locker Room: Rick Ruby's Live Coaching Basics That Build a Referral Business

Every Tuesday, The CORE opens up The Locker Room for a live coaching session, and this week's call brought out nearly 400 loan officers and real estate agents ready to sharpen their business. Rick Ruby, founder of The CORE and head coach for 25 years, took the mic himself. Forty-two years in the mortgage business. Thirty years as a public speaker. One message that never changes: the basics, done consistently, build wealth.

Here's what Rick covered:

Your Business Is Referral and Repeat, Not Transactional

Rick opened with a simple but pointed question: where does your business actually come from?

"You are a referral and repeat business," Rick told the room. "You need to write that down." For loan officers, that means local agents sending business your way. For agents, it means your community and your past clients coming back.

And past clients, Rick said, are the most ignored people in America across every industry.

That's why he gave the room a homework assignment on the spot: call 20 past clients this Thursday. Check in. Apologize for not checking in sooner. Tell them what their house is worth today. Thank them for being a client. Then ask if they know anyone else you can help.

He even scripted the call. Remind them what rate they locked in, tell them what their home is worth now, and let them feel good about the investment they made. When they say "thank you" or "wow," Rick said, that's your cue to close: "I need your help. Who else do you know that I can help?"

Those two words — thank you and wow — are trigger words. "Trigger words give you the opportunity to close," Rick said. "You say thank you, I'm going to close you. You say wow, I'm going to close you."

The Non-Negotiable Basics

Rick doesn't believe in complicated systems. He believes in a handful of habits, done every single week, without exception.

A printed day-at-a-glance and week-at-a-glance schedule. Not a phone, not a computer calendar. "You cannot run your schedule out of your computer or phone, because you do not have access to it the whole day at a time, so you will not be punctual."

Phone time from 10:00 a.m. to noon, every day. Not fixing files, not working inspections — making calls to book meetings.

Fifteen meetings a week for loan officers. Ten meetings a week for agents. Buyer showings, listing appointments, business meetings — all of it counts.

Seventy-five conversations a week, or fifteen a day. Rick still makes his outbound calls from a flip phone with no text, no email, no browser. "My phone makes outbound calls and takes inbound calls."

Four "buddy lunches" a week, breaking bread with an agent, a past client, a coworker, or a local business owner. "That's how you build the best relationships."

Twenty handwritten cards a week — birthdays, anniversaries, thank-yous. Rick pointed to his own 23rd wedding anniversary as proof it works: 25 presents, 75 cards, and a stack of phone calls, all from people who wanted him to know he mattered to them.

A 50 to 70 hour work week. Seventy when you're building, fifty once you've made it. Rick still works from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., protects family time from 7 to 10 p.m., then gets back on the phone until midnight.

And exercise, twice a week, minimum. Rick jumps rope for three minutes every Friday. "You want to be fit, so you can make more phone calls and see more meetings."

The Greatness Tracker: Four Things to Build a Real Plan

Everything Rick teaches runs through four steps, and he asked the room to write them down.

First, a clear vision. If you make $100K, your vision is $250K. If you make $250K, it's $500K. Rick keeps a vision for his marriage, his faith, his kids, and his business — because a vision without a number attached isn't a vision.

Second, a simple, clear plan. That's the Greatness Tracker itself: a goal-setting sheet, a lead tracker to know where business is actually coming from, a pay log, and — for CORE's most advanced clients — a full P&L, personal budget, and portfolio review.

Third, accountability. "Information like this, I give 450 of you all of it. You won't implement anything,"

Rick said bluntly. That's why Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 coaching inside The CORE exist to check activity, not just hand out ideas. Rick's rule for anyone falling short of their goal: get to four open houses a weekend.

Fourth, celebration. "Let's celebrate when we have victory. Let's do some touchdown dances." Rick's own tradition: a nice watch, no more than $7,000 or $8,000, every time he hits a million dollars in income. He's done it 32 times.

Live Q&A: Rick's Rapid-Fire Answers

The back half of the session opened up to questions from the room, and Rick didn't slow down.

On paying down debt while building wealth: save 20% of every paycheck. Half goes to debt reduction; half goes into the S&P 500 and blue-chip stocks.

On working open houses as a loan officer: "Fifteen minutes. Walk in, look at the house, tell them you've got a bunch of pre-approved buyers, get their card, and get out. Get in, do damage, and get out."

On hiring your first employee: look for charming and ambitious over experienced. Your first hire should be an admin who manages your schedule, your list, and your gifting — not someone doing loans or transactions.

On cold internet leads versus warm referrals: Rick converts roughly 10 out of every 150 internet leads he gets each month, but 35 out of every 50 referred leads. "You want to eliminate cold lead marketing, and you want to go direct consumer, warm lead marketing."

On building a VIP list from scratch: scroll your phone contacts right now. Everyone local that you like and remember is a VIP. Real estate agents call ten a week on Monday. Lenders call ten a week on Friday.

On assistant pay structure: flat W-2 salary, full-time, local, and in-office. No bonuses, no per-deal fees. "Ninety-five percent of the world wants a guaranteed paycheck. They don't want commission."

The Bottom Line

Rick closed the session with two parables: the sower, who scatters seed knowing some will land in bad soil but some will produce an abundant crop, and the mustard seed, small and tough, which is how Rick describes The CORE itself.

His point was the same one he opened with: marketing barely works. The internet barely works. What builds a lasting business in mortgage and real estate is relationships — with agents if you're a lender, with your local community if you're an agent, and with the past clients everyone else has forgotten to call.

"We're going to be relational," Rick said. "We're not going to be transactional."

If this session lit a fire, don't let it fade by Monday. The Locker Room hosts a live coaching call like this every Tuesday, with real Q&A and real accountability tools like the Greatness Tracker. And if you're already doing the basics but need someone reviewing your numbers, checking your activity, and pushing you past where you'd stop on your own, it's time to talk about Level 1 Accountability Coaching.

Rick's rule still applies: information without implementation changes nothing. Get in the room.