Below is an excerpt adapted from our Inspired By podcast conversation with 40 Under 40 Honoree John Pavlakovich, Senior Mortgage Consultant at Prosperity Home Mortgage. It has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Raised By Resilience

John Pavlakovich grew up fast. When he was just 10 years old, his mother passed away — an event that would shape not only his worldview, but his enduring sense of gratitude and purpose.

“She’s my guardian angel,” he told Inspired By. “I still pray to her every day.”

Pavlakovich was raised in Arvada, a small town in northern Colorado. After his mother’s death, his father — whom he calls his hero — moved the family closer to his workplace in the Denver Tech Center. That move changed the trajectory of Pavlakovich’s life.

He and his siblings enrolled in Catholic schools. Pavlakovich attended Regis Jesuit High School, where he played football, basketball, and baseball, participated in the Christian Life community, and forged friendships he still holds close.

“I wouldn’t be where I’m at today without that,” he said. “It was a foundation for everything. That sense of community — it’s still with me.”

A Calculated Leap

Pavlakovich stayed local for college, attending the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business, where he double-majored in marketing and real estate. But one of his most formative decisions happened outside the classroom: a semester abroad in London.

“I’m a big communicator,” he explained. “So one of my requirements was studying in a country where English was the primary language.”

That ruled out options like Semester at Sea and landed him at Queen Mary University of London, where he unexpectedly found himself playing on the basketball team alongside students from around the world.

“I think I checked off 14 or 15 countries on my passport in six months,” he said. “It was one of the best experiences of my life.”

While he joked that most of his education abroad happened “outside the classroom,” the real-world lessons he absorbed through travel and team dynamics continue to inform how he operates in business: with adaptability, curiosity, and a hunger for connection.

The First Mentor

Back in Denver, Pavlakovich was facing a familiar anxiety: What now?

“I had no idea where I wanted to hang my hat,” he said. “I studied marketing and real estate, but I didn’t know how I was going to land somewhere.”

That’s when a mentor stepped in — John Coombe, the brother of the university chancellor. They bonded over shared experiences abroad and on the basketball court. When Coombe asked Pavlakovich what was next, Pavlakovich gave it to him straight: “I need your help.”

Coombe introduced him to Jim Snow, a family friend who worked at Wells Fargo. Snow would become a foundational mentor. Soon after, Pavlakovich landed his first job at the bank as a personal banker, earning $30,000 a year.

“I was just grateful to start somewhere,” he said.

He quickly rose through the ranks, moving from personal banker to private banker, earning his Series 7 and 66 licenses, and positioning himself for a path in financial advising. But internal politics began to shift his trajectory.

The Detour That Became The Road

Just as he was considering leaving Wells Fargo, a surprising pivot came from a different mentor — Tanya Alexander, his boss at the time. “She’s like a second mom to me,” he said. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without her.”

She told him he had an interview on the 48th floor with the private mortgage banking group.

Pavlakovich was skeptical. “Mortgage banking? I had no idea what that even meant,” he recalled. But he showed up.

And he never looked back.

That opportunity became the next major inflection point in his career. The relationships he’d already built within Wells Fargo’s wealth management team — financial advisors, trust officers, business bankers — translated quickly into a book of business. He was their go-to for mortgage needs.

“It was one of those big leaps,” he said. “I didn’t know what I was doing, but I leaned on relationships.”

Leaving The Nest

By 2017, Pavlakovich was ten years into his tenure at Wells Fargo. He had just gotten married. He had no plans to leave. But fate came knocking — again — in the form of Dan Dexter, another mentor.

Dexter had tried to recruit him years earlier to a different bank. At the time, Pavlakovich respectfully declined.

“I told him I just wasn’t ready,” he said. “I didn’t have the knowledge or the agent relationships to go out on my own.”

But this time, the offer was different. Prosperity Home Mortgage, a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate, was expanding into Colorado following Berkshire’s acquisition of Kentwood Real Estate. Dexter wanted Pavlakovich to help build their Colorado presence from the ground up.

“It was terrifying,” he admitted. “All I knew was Wells. I knew all the players. I was comfortable. But Dan remembered our conversation. He came back, and I knew it was time.”

A Better Client Experience

The decision wasn’t just about career growth — it was about delivering a better experience for clients.

“I had realtors telling me, ‘We love working with you, but Wells is just too big of a machine,’” he said. “They were frustrated with the client experience.”

The biggest pain point? Speed. “It was hard to close a loan in under 30 days,” Pavlakovich said. “In Denver, most contracts close in 20 to 30 days. If we couldn’t meet that, we lost business.”

Prosperity’s model changed that. As a correspondent lender, they offered more flexibility, more investor relationships, and significantly faster closing times — sometimes as quick as 10 business days.

Learning The New Landscape

Transitioning from Wells to Prosperity came with a steep learning curve. At the bank, Pavlakovich operated under one umbrella for jumbo loans. At Prosperity, he had to master guidelines from more than 25 different investors.

“It’s like studying an encyclopedia,” he said. “You’ve got to know which investor does what. What’s the best fit for the client? What pricing is available?”

The learning didn’t stop at technical knowledge. He also had to build internal relationships from scratch — underwriting, processing, closing management.

“I’m so blessed to have an amazing team,” he said, giving shoutouts to LO assistant Kristin Bornhofen and processor Shelly Joyce. “It takes a village.”

Communication And Follow-Up

Pavlakovich credits much of his success to one simple principle: over-communicate.

“I’d rather err on the side of too much communication,” he said. “Clients need to know what’s going on. Agents need to know. And it can’t stop at closing.”

That mindset has paid off. Pavlakovich has been recognized with Prosperity’s President’s Club Award seven years in a row — and in 2024, he was inducted into the company’s Chairman’s Club. He was also ranked #1 for customer service by Experience.com out of 300 mortgage consultants in Colorado.

But even now, he’s still learning.

“I had failures last month that taught me new lessons,” he said. “And I’m not going to let those happen again.”

Next-Level Ambitions

At 39, Pavlakovich sees himself not as someone who’s arrived — but as someone still climbing.

“I want to be number one in Colorado. I want to be among the top mortgage consultants in the country,” he said.

He’s not just focused on production. He’s stepping into mentorship himself. Prosperity recently launched a mentoring program, and Pavlakovich is flying to corporate headquarters in Virginia to take part.

“I’ve been blessed to have amazing mentors throughout my career,” he said. “Now it’s time to give back.”

Thinking Outside The Box

As the mortgage market grows more complex, Pavlakovich is eager to leverage Prosperity’s expanding suite of non-agency products. These programs allow him to serve borrowers who wouldn’t qualify under conventional guidelines — without penalizing them with higher rates.

“Just closed a loan for a client with no income,” he said. “They sold their home in San Diego, had 125% of the mortgage value in assets, and we qualified them with asset utilization. No income docs. No tax returns. Same rate as conventional.”

That kind of flexibility is a game-changer, especially in an unpredictable market.

“Last Friday was one of the best days we’ve seen in two years. Then Monday was one of the worst,” he said. “You have to stay sharp. You have to adapt.”

The Secret Ingredient: Relationships

If there’s one thread running through Pavlakovich’s story, it’s relationships. Whether it’s family, mentors, agents, clients, or colleagues, he invests deeply — and it pays off.

“I’ve learned that mentors don’t just appear,” he said. “They show up when they see something in you. And when you’re someone who wants to learn.”

Pavlakovich’s mentors didn’t just guide him — they stuck with him. And when the time was right, they came back.

“I told Dan, ‘Not now, but please keep me in mind.’ And he did.”

What Comes Next

Looking ahead, Pavlakovich is focused on two things: leveling up and lifting others.

“I’m still learning every day,” he said. “But now I get to help others avoid the same missteps. That’s exciting.”

For the boy from Arvada who once just wanted to play baseball, it’s been a journey of hard work, heartache, and humbling success.

“I used to be anxious about what I’d do when I grew up,” he said. “Now I know. I want to build something that lasts. And I want to do it by doing right by people.”