He quit weather forecasting and overcame personal grief
So a meteorology major and a mortgage broker walk into a bar and grill. No, it’s not the start of a rea
lly good joke, but the beginning story of how Jason Quigley (pictured) stumbled into the mortgage industry as a young man in a hurry.
“I graduated college with a degree in geographic information systems, which did nothing,” he told Mortgage Professional America in a tone of palpable derision so many years later. “I went to Central Michigan University to study meteorology. The first, physics-based class was difficult, but I was one of two students to get an A.”
That’s enough to keep anyone’s head in the clouds with visions of a stellar career in meteorology. But then, reality struck and it all came crashing down: “The professor who ran the department said ‘you have a 50% chance of getting a job with a degree in meteorology, but if you do this up-and-coming technology, you’ll 100% get a job,’ “ Quigley, now CEO of Good Day Financial, recalled. The job description itself was no motivator, consisting of “tracing lines on a computer,” he added. And then he learned the top salary would range between $35,000 to $40,000 – in 2000s dollars, mind you, but still.
He decided to end his meteorological quest for the exciting restaurant industry instead: “I started working at a Macaroni Grill,” he said. But even as a lowly server, he displayed a competitive streak too big to be contained within the laid-back Italianesque confines of Macaroni Grill – notwithstanding its surprisingly tasty and nicely presented Butternut Tortellacci – or the parameters of a computer screen. “I’ve always played sports,” Quigley mentioned casually. “They tracked our sales, and I drove the most sales at Macaroni Grill as a server.”
Quicken Loans comes calling
As fate would have it, a well-heeled broker from Quicken Loans was at one of his tables one day. As if on cue, he ordered the most expensive thing on the menu – a $35 steak-and-shrimp combo the patron ordered without the slightest hesitation. “He explained to me what he did, and got me an interview,” Quigley recalled.
He was initially rejected before talking himself into a second chance at an interview, after which he got hired. “I had a third cousin who worked for the company, and she was able to talk to one of the VPs there to get me a second interview,” he recalled. “I got hired, and my first year I won an award for generating the top revenue in the entire company. The guy who gave me that award was the team leader that passed on me. He said that was one of the biggest mistakes he ever made in not hiring me. And that’s how I got into the industry.”
Immediately, he knew he was home. “I come from a pretty humble beginning, and to see the top producers’ commission checks which they would hand out – holy crap. It was more than my family made in a year almost, and you’re mostly talking to people on the telephone. I’ve always studied people who were successful, and I was fortunate to be on a team that had successful people.”
A couple of years into the job, he opted to apply for a job at Detroit-based Quicken’s newly opened offices in Scotsdale, Ariz. as a loan officer. After about five years, he was tapped as regional vice president.
Overcoming personal turmoil in rising to the top
Despite his meteoric rise in the mortgage industry, it wasn’t without personal challenges. His brother died after his first year at Quicken Loans, and his mom and dad would be seriously injured in a car wreck. Quigley said his father was paralyzed in the aftermath before passing away a year-and-a-half later. A second car accident in 2015 left his mother even more delicate, prompting his return back home to Michigan to help care for her. “That second car accident, there’s no way she should’ve lived,” he said. “But she chose to stay.” That will to live allowed her to see the birth of grandkids, Quigley’s son and daughter, before she passed away he noted.
All told, Quigley spent 14 years at Quicken Loans before having to devote more time to his mother. He then had stints at other firms (including Next Door Lending) before launching Good Day Financial in July 2020. Undeterred by the shifts in the economy, he chooses to see it as a challenge to gain market share and excel even amid uncertain times in a softened housing market.
“What we went through last year as a company was very difficult,” he said. “It was very challenging for the people who work here – all of us. Did I do a great job? No, but I learned, and I think those lessons are set up very nicely now to build something special. I’m really happy with the trajectory we’re on. On the other side of fear, there’s joy. And I haven’t felt the level of joy I’m experiencing now working. I’m really thrilled to be building this business.”
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