On this episode of the Massimo Podcast:

Rod sits down with Chris Hurn of Fountainhead Commercial to discuss his life, business, and how his team is ramping up to help small business owners fight the economic destruction caused by Covid-19.

Chris Hurn was born to be an entrepreneur. He is fast-paced and always thinking big so it’s no surprise that at every turn in his career he was able to look around and clearly decide what came next. Over the years he’s faced major life events that initiated and then expand his entrepreneurial success.

Chris is a people person and an advocate for small businesses. He was voted CEO of the year in Orlando twice and both of his companies were voted top places to work for. He may have laser focus these days but as a teen Chris admits he was more focused on chasing girls than business! But honestly, he was your average teen with lots of responsibilities including playing sports, going to school, and helping his mom get her real estate license. He recollects he had lots of plates in the air and it hasn’t stopped since!

At age 13 his parents divorced after a long separation and Chris remembers helping his mom study real estate. Back then he loved the finical side of it and he carried that fascination into his adulthood and became the CFO of a commercial real estate company.  By that time in his life, Chris had already worked with hi-tech start-ups, taught himself marketing skills, and been recruited into large lending companies.

But a series of life-altering world events changed his professional trajectory. After the dot com crash, he worked as a management consultant, a job that required some travel. But due to the birth of his daughter, he skipped his meeting in New York in early September and was not in the Twin Towers on 9/11. This became a turning point in his life, and he decided he didn’t want to work for big cooperation anymore.

He knew a lot about SBA 504 loans (specifically for small to mid-size businesses to purchase their buildings) and felt that not a lot of other people who could benefit from them did and thus a new company was born. Mercantile grew quickly and was going to convert itself into a national bank but that was put on hold when Lehman Brothers crumbled in 2009. He sold the company and eventually moved on and started Fountainhead Commercial.  After all that he has faced in his personal and professional life he is now running a successful lending firm with 35 employees and two locations and they are just getting started.

Rod and Chris Address Current events and business:

As of this episode in mid-March 2020 covid-19 is wreaking havoc on the health of the nation and, as Chris puts it, has become an economic pandemic. The business of America is business and that has come to a grinding halt which is sure to have ripple effects across the economic landscape. Legislation to support small to mid-sized businesses has been rolled out in these unprecedented times and many people who are being impacted are turning to their lenders for guidance. Chris and his team hope to bring lawyers and financial planners and others who are looking at reduced hours of their own onboard to be trained to process these much-needed loans and help people maintain their livelihood. He and Rod encourage people to be the resource in these times of uncertainty.

Rod and Chris end the show with an insightful round of Five in Five about him and his business. Listen in to learn something new to incorporate into your day!