Been just jotting things down on a notepad the past week or so to work towards this post. What is the most valuable advice I could give anyone looking to start or grow something right now?

Here's what's working best for me and my peeps that are killin' it.

1️⃣ The two superpowers in business right now: being better at AI than 95% of people, and knowing how to create content. Everything else you're good at gets multiplied by those two. Like anything in life, there's only one way to get better at them. Make the time for it.

2️⃣ Attention is insanely underpriced right now because of algorithm changes. LinkedIn boost is SERIOUSLY underpriced as the world abandons company pages and embraces leaders voices. We went from social media to attention media. The algorithms stopped caring how many followers you have and started caring how good your stuff is. There is still far more demand for good content than supply of it. That gap is the opportunity.

3️⃣ Jab, jab, jab, right hook. Pour into other people. Give away value ten times before you ask for anything once. The long game pays the best and has the least competition.

4️⃣ You are what you consume. The content you read, the people around you, the things you study. Avoid negativity and doom scrolling like The Plague. If you follow and read narcissistic assholes you slowly become more like them. Curate your inputs like your output depends on it, because it does.

5️⃣ The only way to get better at anything is to do it. So go fast and make mistakes. Reps beat research. Mistakes are tuition. Nobody has time. According to them. Smart people make time. One hour a day getting better at AI and content will change your business inside a year. Most people won't do it, and that's exactly why it works.

6️⃣ Surround yourself with people who tell you the truth, and make it safe to. The moment bad news slows down on its way to you, you're already losing.

7️⃣ Self-awareness beats self-improvement. Find the things you're freakishly good at and double down on them. Partner or hire for everything else.

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The first VantageScore® loans just hit the secondary market. Think of it as the score's first day of school, and the other kids immediately charged it 25 basis points in rate to sit at the table.

Backstory ...FHFA launched a pilot this spring letting 20 lenders close and deliver VantageScore-only loans to Fannie and Freddie. Those loans are now getting pooled and sold to investors. Which means the great credit score debate, after a year of press releases and $0.99 pricing stunts, finally gets settled the only way anything actually gets settled in this industry: by the people writing the checks.

A capital markets writer over at Buyback Capital (Forbes Jamieson) just published the first real look at how it's going. Three findings, translated from bond-nerd into English:

1️⃣ The GSEs are letting pilot lenders price VantageScore loans on FICO's old LLPA grid. Building a real pricing grid for a score with no loss history would take a full market cycle, so for now a 700 VantageScore gets treated exactly like a 700 FICO. Fannie and Freddie are essentially telling the market "trust us, they're twins."

2️⃣ The market checked. They are not twins. June loan-level data showed VantageScore loans pricing roughly 25bps higher in rate than comparable FICO loans, with spreads bouncing between 20-100bps depending where you look on the score ladder. On a $400K loan, 25bps is about $1,000/yr in additional interest payments to the customer.

3️⃣ Why? Not defaults (new issuance). Investors have DECADES of data on how FICO-scored borrowers pay, prepay, refi, and behave when life happens. On VantageScore borrowers they have roughly four months of data.

So where does this go next? The only loans lenders will send Vantage are the ones that look way WORSE under FICO. Investors aren't stupid, they'll figure out the VS pile is where the score-shopped stuff lives, and price it accordingly. Spread widens. Which makes VS-only loans even less economical. Which means more cherry-picking.

There are two types of companies in 2026: those with a dog content strategy, and those losing market share to the ones that do.

That's why it brings me extreme levels of joy to bring you: LEAVE NOTHING BUT PAWPRINTS: Total Annihilation Of Your Competition Using Weapons Grade Dog Content. A 7-hour executive masterclass.

Ben Franklin said nothing in life is certain except death and taxes. Ben Franklin never saw a golden retriever in a hard hat pull 40,000 impressions on a Tuesday. There are three certainties now: death, taxes, and dog content crushing your entire marketing department's quarterly output before lunch.

The data is devastating ...

~ Dog content engagement: up 847% year over year
~ "Thrilled to announce" posts: down to an audience of your co-founder and your mom
~ Number of people who have ever commented "well, actually" on a beagle: zero, in recorded history
~ ROI of one labradoodle in sunglasses: our spreadsheet crashed trying to calculate it

Inside this masterclass you'll unlock ...

~ The P.A.W.S. Method, the framework my competitors pray I never release
~ Dog Selection Theory: breed as brand voice
~ Crisis Management: what to do when the cat people find you

Your competitors are reading this exact post right now. One of you will act. The other will spend Q4 explaining to the board why a Pomeranian ate your pipeline.

Full deck below. And yes, I need help.

Running a mortgage shop has been an incredibly difficult job these last 5 years. Staff restructures, margin compression, tech investments you regretted a year later, volume whiplash in both directions.

And the people making the big calls at lenders are mostly making them with incomplete information. The vendors will tell you whatever closes the renewal. The case studies only show you the wins.

Here's what changes when a couple hundred lenders compare notes off the record. You find out what that LOS migration actually cost, not what the deck said. You find out which "AI-powered" tool is shelfware at three other shops before you buy it. You find out you're overpaying for credit before the invoice tells you.

That's the entire premise of The Mortgage Collaborative. Not another conference. A room where the other seats are filled by people wrestling with the same decisions you are, with no reason to sell you anything.

The lenders who got through the last five years didn't do it alone. That's not a coincidence.

FICO vs Vantage Score, Round 1

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The MLB HR Derby is tonight - predictions, live updates, etc.

July 13 - MLB HR Derby

July 14 - MLB All-Star Game

July 14 - Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation reading

July 15 - Producer Price Index (PPI) inflation reading

July 19 - World Cup Final

July 28-29 - Fed Meeting/Decision

July 30 - Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and PCE inflation reading releases

AUGUST

Aug 7 - July Jobs Report

Aug 12 - Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation reading

Aug 13 - Producer Price Index (PPI) inflation reading

Aug 27-29 - Fed Jackson Hole Retreat

Aug 28 - FINAL NFL ROSTER CUTS FOR REGULAR SEASON!

Aug 29 - COLLEGE FOOTBALL RETURNS!

Aug 30 - US Open Tennis Tournament begins

"Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man." — Ronald Reagan

Until the next one,
Swerb
[email protected]