Broker aims high after early foray into meteorology

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.