Advisory for commercial loan brokers, from the other side of the table.
I built and ran a direct lender that funded over $100 million per month. I have seen tens of thousands of broker submissions: the ones that funded, the ones that died, and exactly why. Now I work with a maximum of ten brokerages at a time to fix their pipelines, their placement, and their P&L.
Most broker coaching is sold by marketers. They can help you buy leads. They have never sat in a credit committee, never priced risk, never watched a thousand submissions per month come across the desk and seen which shops consistently got deals funded and which ones burned lender relationships.
Your problem is usually not lead volume. It is deals structured wrong before they ever reach a lender. Placement with the wrong lenders, or at the wrong commission tier with the right ones. A funnel that leaks between application and submission, quietly costing five figures a month. A renewal book sitting untouched while you pay for cold leads. A P&L you have not truly read in a year.
I find these in the numbers, not in a vibe check.
Four offers. One standard.
The Business Diagnostic
$7,500 · One TimeA complete teardown of your brokerage in 14 days. Financials, marketing spend and ROAS, lead quality, stage by stage conversion, every live deal in your pipeline, your lender panel and commission tiers, renewals, operations, team, comp, and compliance exposure.
You get a written report of 15 to 25 pages, a graded scorecard, deal-level notes on your current pipeline you can act on the same week, and a prioritized 90-day roadmap. We walk all of it together on a 2-hour readout call.
This is not a discovery call in disguise. It is the most thorough review your business has ever had, and it stands on its own whether or not we ever work together again.
The Advisory Retainer
$4,500 / Month · By Invitation, Following a Diagnostic- Two strategy calls per month
- Deal desk: submit live scenarios and get my structuring and placement input within 48 hours
- Quarterly re-review of your financials and pipeline metrics against the roadmap
- Direct async access between calls
90-day initial commitment, month to month after. Diagnostic fee credited toward your first quarter when you join within 30 days of your readout.
That is the total across the retainer and the Executive Tier. When seats are full, the diagnostic is the only way onto the waitlist.
Executive Tier
$7,500 / Month · Up to Four SeatsWeekly calls, priority deal desk with same-day input on scenarios received by 4 PM Mountain, my direct involvement in lender negotiations and key hires, and the Syndication Masterclass included at no cost on release. Offered only to existing retainer clients.
The Syndication MasterclassComing Soon
$5,000 · One TimeFor brokers who want to put their own commissions to work on the deals they already originate. A private, funder-side education in how syndication actually works: how participations really perform after defaults, how to read a funder's participation agreement and where the traps sit, which structures treat syndicate partners fairly on collections and fee netting, deal selection criteria, portfolio construction so your capital is not concentrated in the same risk that already pays your income, tax treatment, and when not to syndicate at all.
This will be taught from the funding side at scale, not by a broker guessing at the funder's math. It is strictly educational: I do not place capital, arrange participations, or promise returns.
The Masterclass is in development now. It will be available standalone and included free in the Executive Tier. Retainer and Executive Tier clients get first access when it opens.
The fit matters.
The right fit
- Established shops funding deals every month that have hit a ceiling
- Owners who suspect they are leaving serious money in their pipeline, their placement, or their renewal book
- Brokers willing to open their real numbers, because that is where the answers are
Not the fit
- Brand new brokers with no deal flow yet (different problem, different program)
- Anyone looking for a lead vendor or a hype coach
- Shops that want a silver bullet instead of ninety days of focused execution
Built by a lender. Not a marketer.
Derek Dooley built and scaled a direct lender to over $100 million per month in funded volume before selling the company. The terms of that sale are confidential. He has spent his career on the capital side of this industry: underwriting, pricing, operations, and the economics of what makes a brokerage actually valuable. Dooley Advisory provides fractional CFO and COO services to operating businesses and advisory services to commercial finance firms.
All engagements are flat fee. I take no per-deal compensation, no commission splits, and no referral fees.
Straight answers.
Because at ten clients, you are buying my attention, not a course. The diagnostic exists so you can get substantial value from me in a bounded, one-time engagement.
Yes. Pipeline review is a core section of the diagnostic, and the deal desk is the heart of the retainer.
No, and be wary of anyone in this industry who does. I guarantee the analysis will be honest, specific, and grounded in your actual numbers.
About an hour for kickoff, a data package your bookkeeper and CRM can produce in a day or two, and a willingness to hear what the numbers say and what to do about it.
Ready to find the leaks?
Request a Business Diagnostic. Tell me where the brokerage is stuck, what you have already tried, and what you want the next twelve months to look like.
There is no pitch deck on the other side. Just a real conversation about whether we are the right fit.