A Toast to Todd

Todd Veinotte and Clinton Wilkins discuss their eight-year journey hosting a weekend show.

Todd Veinotte
All right, joining me here in the studios, the one and only, Clinton Wilkins, our mortgage guru. Clinton Wilkins, you knew that you were the first in my list when I was planning this last show. what?

Clinton Wilkins
I would change my entire schedule to be here. And, before, while we were on break, I’m like eight years really is a long time. It was 2018 when we started doing our weekend show here. And so much has changed over the last eight years. And, in the news with us personally, there’ve been marriages, there’ve been breakups, there’s been buying and selling of real estate and businesses and all kinds of interesting health challenges on my behalf, health, yeah, for sure. And, we’re eight years older. I think we still look pretty good, though. Well, yeah, you’re looking good. I don’t feel a day over 33 but my government age is much higher.

Todd Veinotte
Have you ever lied about your age?

Clinton Wilkins
No, never. No, I might internally. I feel 33.

Todd Veinotte
Are you 41 or 43?

Clinton Wilkins
I’ll be 44. I don’t feel a day or 33 though, that’s what I internalized. And I don’t know if 33 was just a magical year or something, but I feel good.

Todd Veinotte
There are lessons to be learned here, because I mean, when you talk mortgages, everything dovetails into it, health and look, people. When you put products in front of people, you put insurance products in front of them, right? Definitely. And Case in point, me, right now, I am fortunate to be working for a company which has short-term disability, has long-term disability, which I’m which I am taking advantage of.

Clinton Wilkins
And thank God I have it, because not a lot of people do, to be frank, and the bulk of Canadians are underinsured. Now I’m not an insurance salesperson. I’m knowledgeable about insurance, and we do offer creditor insurance to all our mortgage customers that are qualifying, but there’s a magic formula that people should have eight or ten times their annual income in insurance, and so many Canadians are underinsured. We’ve had Mario Coultier from Manulife MPP here on our show, and you’ve interviewed him before. And I think there’s a stigma around taking credit or insurance, but the way that we kind of present it is, let’s worry about the debt. And, manually, would also pay a penalty if there was going to be a life claim. And, the whole life in term, that’s really what’s going to protect the income. When you spoke to it, e peopleneed short term, they need long term. They need a whole life. They need term insurance. They need credit insurance. It’s all based on that financial outlook.

Todd Veinotte
And our show, Mortgage 101, which we started, talks about conversation.

Clinton Wilkins
And it’s not just about mortgage lending. And I think people think about a mortgage show. And, when we started this over eight years ago, on on the weekend, we’re like, Okay, we’re gonna do one season, and we’re gonna say everything there is going to be to say about mortgage lending, and then we’re going to be done. That’s boring. It’s it’s a boring subject. But guess what? Buckle up folks. Things really have changed over the last eight years. And there’s so many conversations about real estate and about mortgage lending, and we’re talking about everything on the show that we started.

Todd Veinotte
And you’re so incredibly passionate about it. And that, I think, is what the secret sauce is.

Clinton Wilkins
I think it makes it interesting. I am not a trained media person. I’m a mortgage broker. I see clients every single day. You’ve never seen a microphone you didn’t love. That’s true. I always joke. I’m like, I’ve never seen a mic I didn’t like. So I don’t know if that, is that a double entendre, entendre, or what is that? I don’t know. It might be that’s, that’s true. But what, under very good leadership and coaching, I mean, you’ve, you’ve cracked me into shape a couple times, and given me a lot of feedback over the years, and it really kind of,, shaped the show. We’ve changed it. We’ve had live calls, we have had guests and been on location.

Todd Veinotte
What do you think you’ve learned from doing this for all these years? What have you learned?

Clinton Wilkins
I think the one of the things that I learned is I really have to be up on my craft. Yes, I’m seeing clients all day long, but I need to have a broader outlook. I think sometimes when you’re doing one thing, you have blinders on. You don’t see everything else that’s going on around you, and , I’m not a media person. I’ve fumbled, I’ve said the wrong word, I’ve said, um, too many times. You just need to forge forward, especially when you’re doing live media. It doesn’t matter if it’s TV or radio, be the expert and whatever you’re talking about, and just try to deliver that as effectively and I think, authentically as you can.

Todd Veinotte
How often do you hear from people who listen to the show or hear you on already?

Clinton Wilkins
All the time, all the time, I would say this is probably the number one thing. And I’m sure our listeners have seen me on TV, they’ve seen billboards. You really can’t get away from us. It’s really about being in the right place at the right time. And this is a very long sales cycle widget, and for us, it’s around education, and as much as it may be marketing and sales, yes, we don’t get paid unless we lend people money. For me, I’m so passionate about the education piece and really being an advocate for. Our industry, housing is so important, it doesn’t matter if you’re a homeowner or you’re a renter. We want people to have a house, and we want people to have a roof over their heads. That’s really what our number one goal is here. Yes, I’m biased. I want to get the mortgage, and I want to lend people mortgages every single day. That’s my business. I want to continue that. I want to make sure that the industry is going to be protected, but the financial literacy overall of Canadians is very, very low. When I started doing this 20 years ago, 60% of mortgages were happening in the branch. But as there are fewer and fewer branches, and there’s less and less folks in the branches. There’s just such a huge turnover, and those numbers really had shifted. I heard a stat the other day, 90% of first time home buyers are getting a mortgage from a mortgage broker, which is wild and wonderful and all kinds of fun stuff going on here in the studio.

Todd Veinotte
Indeed, we’ve been bombarded by politics.

Clinton Wilkins
We always like live radio. You just have to keep on rolling.

Todd Veinotte
Well, my gosh, I guess so. I guess when the premier comes in, I know it’s all good.

Clinton Wilkins
And we’ve met several times before all over the place. It’s really interesting. And, I’m so passionate about the show that we do, and it’s going to continue along. And, Dan was so gracious to step in during the periods that you were off. And we’re going to keep this show going, which is amazing.

Todd Veinotte
When, when’s the next one? You must know the next one’s in April.

Clinton Wilkins
We’re recording it in a couple weeks, and we’ll be here in the studio doing a good promo and and Dan, so, so gracious to keep that torch going. But Todd, I really do thank you for all the kindness that you’ve shown me, and all of the knowledge that we’ve been able to give our listeners around homeownership and mortgage lending here, consider.

Todd Veinotte
You’re a seriously good friend, a kind guy, your true maritimer, and you’re an inspiration, your self-made man. And congratulations on all your success, my friend. Let’s keep in touch.