Meet Our Team – Chris Dorin

As part of RCN Capital’s 10 Year “Birthday” celebration we interviewed different team members about their time with the company. Let’s meet our team member, Chris Dorin.

I am Chris Dorin, I am the Sales Manager at RCN Capital. I grew up in the lending and banking industries. Conventional world first, and then was recruited over to RCN and haven’t looked back since.

How long have you been with the company?

I have been with RCN Capital since May of 2014, so over 6 years now. I actually started right around my birthday, which was really cool. It was my first or second day and they had a Fudgy the Whale ice cream cake for my birthday, which totally blew me away.

How did you start your career at RCN Capital?

I was previously in the conventional world of lending, and I was recruited to come over to RCN. It was exhausting being in the mundane world of disclosures and making sure you had all the proper onboarding training for all the conventional changes that were happening back then. And then I got an opportunity to come over to the commercial side of things and see how unshackled that type of lending was, and how free it really was to be on that commercial side and not have to worry so much about the government regulatory side of things. But instead actually worry about what the investor themselves were working on and how we could best help them, and meet their needs, their concerns and their worries. And it just seemed to put the proper focus where it should be. And since coming over I couldn’t be happier about the change I made, and I am always grateful to look back and be happy that I did make that change.

How has the company grown since you joined the RCN team? Especially the sales team and all its components.

When I started at RCN Capital, the room that we were in, in the back of the building, was pretty much the entire sales department, processing department, and management as well. We had a tight little room with maybe five loan officers, and one or two processors in the early days. And working in those cubicles, I remember shouting over the cubicles asking people questions like “Hey, can we lend on this?” (since back then we would really consider almost any collateral).

Between the five of us that were working deals we got to build a real team comradery and got some friendly competition going to really drive each other to do better, make more loans and hit our goals. Sure enough, those five loan officers quickly became ten, twelve, fifteen and now I think we’re up to seventeen different loan officers with more on the way. And the processing team is also growing along-side that. When I first started, we had about 25 employees at RCN and now we’re well over 100 employees in just that short period of time. The growth that has come from the increase in volume from loans that we have closed has directly resulted in new hires who will compensate for that growth.

What do you look forward to the most coming into work each day?

The best part about coming into work everyday is seeing the faces of everybody in the RCN Family. Being here for six years now I pretty much know everyone pretty well now and I wouldn’t trade this team for any other that’s out there. Everyone has such a friendly relationship with each other, we’re all pulling for each other. Everyone has the same set of goals in mind and we all appreciate the hard work everyone puts in because we know that reflects on the company as a whole. And if we all hit our big team goals, that’s bigger things for the company. When you have that level of teamwork and comradery, that that’s the reason why we’ve been able to build and become so successful in our growth. And become the premier private lender in the industry, because of the people. The people make the biggest difference, and that starts with Jeff Tesch on down. He sets the tone, and really gets everyone believing in themselves to be able to reach goals they didn’t think were achievable previously.

What is your favorite memory you have of your time at RCN?

There’s a lot of those. I have a lot of personal ones, so I’ll bring this to a team memory. It goes back to the first trip we took to the casino for hitting our annual team goal. This is maybe four years ago, we went down to the Mohegan Sun Casino and we had dinner at the restaurant under the waterfall. I just remember being on the party bus we took down there, with all the teams piled on there, and Amar plugged in his iPod and started playing some tunes. Next thing you know everyone starts singing and dancing along, and everyone is smiling. And I just remember looking around the whole bus seeing everyone’s faces and seeing how everyone’s having so much fun. I just thought to myself, wow I’ve never worked at a place like this before. I don’t know anywhere else where they have this experience at their job. Every time I tell one of my friends one of these stories, whether it be from an RCN Halloween Party, or one of these crazy trips we took, everyone just goes, “where do you work?”. It’s just really cool that you can have that kind of place where you go to work and when you come home and talk with friends and family you get to brag about it. Those memories really stick with me. The times where everybody is together, everybody was feeling the same mood, enjoying each other’s company and celebrating our professional accomplishments as a real family and having a fun time with it. Those are really the best days you’re going to have here.

Who/What has had the biggest impact during your time at RCN? What/Who has been your biggest motivator?

The biggest impact on me individually as a professional is by far Jeff Tesch. As I said, I came from the conventional lending world, but he made sure I had my sights readjusted for the private/commercial lending space. He really let me know the what the opportunities were, and how to be successful within this space.

As far as being individually motivated as a loan officer in the early days, taking what Jeff had given us, and getting into a friendly rivalry with the other loan officers at the time was great motivation. You didn’t want to be the team member not putting up numbers, so you busted your butt to put up as big of a number as you could, and try to see if you can beat Matt Ferrigno in any given month, which was always a big deal. You wanted your name at the top of the list. You wanted to make sure that you were doing what you could for the team. All that friendly rivalry, we always made sure it was a healthy competitiveness, and just seeing the way Jeff set that tone to allow that environment to take place was really eye opening and really helped me later on as I stepped into a leadership role.

What’s one professional achievement that you feel especially proud of? Biggest accomplishment since working for RCN.

Some of the biggest accomplishments individually for me, let’s see, I’ve won a number of awards such as the Top 1% Mortgage Originators in the country for a bunch of years, which is really cool. We have some other loan officers who have hit that, and for any of you guys who haven’t hit that mark yet, it does make you feel cool and special on the inside to know that you have this validation for how hard you’ve worked and something to show for what you’ve put into this. Also, that feedback you get from clients when you really come through for them or even if it’s a bad day, something doesn’t work out, but being able to explain things and really help people to understand what’s going on in the marketplace is motivation in itself too.

I would say as I have gotten more mature here at RCN and grown in my own self and my position, and evolving more into a managerial role now, now my proudest moments are something like what took place last year in 2019. When in the beginning of the year Jeff said we’re going to hit $500 million in originations, that’s our goal for 2019. We all just kind of rolled our eyes and thought well that’s not going to happen. Throughout the year, especially in the early days when this goal felt like an uphill battle and such a stretch, he kept the motivation going that we can achieve this goal. Then we then started getting closer and closer. And then you can start to see the goal in your sights, and everyone pushes hard and rallies around the goal and each other, and we pulled it off! It was just unbelievable to see that we can pull something like that off and how uplifting it really is as a team to achieve a big goal like that. And to know everyone had a hand in it, and I think that’s really what brings out the best in all of us. It’s Jeff seeing what we are capable of, before we even know it, and bringing out the best in all of us.

How does this company differ from others? What makes RCN stand out?

Internally, the biggest thing that makes RCN stand out from any other place I have been, or any other lender that may be out there, is the big family that we are at RCN. That teamwork, that comradery that we have, really lends itself to transferring that same environment and energy to our customer-base we have. Whether that be through our servicing department, the loan processors following up on documents, our closing team working with title agents and borrower’s attorneys, the sales, intake and marketing teams. All these teams who pull together in different areas, whether it be tradeshows, on the phone with clients, or back office stuff. This really translates over to the outside world and the people we interact with, our direct investors, mortgage brokers and correspondent partners. That our clients get to feel like they’re part of our RCN family too. It’s amazing how many times our terms may have been the same terms another lender is offering, but that deal came to us because they know they get to work with their RCN people. They get to work with their same loan officer and processor they know well. That level of comfort and the security of knowing that RCN can get that deal done really makes the biggest difference at the end of the day, both internally and externally.

Chris Dorin, Sales Manager, works with brokers and borrowers to manage loans through origination and underwriting processes. Chris’s focus is to develop long-lasting relationships with RCN clients and maintain a prosperous partnership for all sides. Chris has over 10 years of experience within the finance industry, working for banks, credit unions, and insurance companies. His primary experience has been in the areas of lending, underwriting, and sales, which are all put to use at RCN Capital. Chris is a graduate of Bryant College (Now University) in Smithfield, RI, with a B.A. in Finance.