Latest / Mortgage Marketing Radio / How to Build Unstoppable Momentum and Close Over 150 Loans

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How to Build Unstoppable Momentum and Close Over 150 Loans · Mortgage Marketing Radio

0:00
In today's highly competitive mortgage industry, building profitable relationships with
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the real estate agents is essential for success.
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However, finding effective ways to secure agent relationships can be a challenge.
0:11
With so many mortgage loan originators vying for the attention of real estate agents, it
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can be difficult to stand out and establish meaningful connections.
0:20
Our new case study featuring loan officer Chris Cogill is a must-read.
0:25
Chris has closed a remarkable 36 million in funded loans from agent referrals.
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And in this case study, he shares his proven strategies for building strong relationships
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with real estate agents and leveraging those relationships to drive more business.
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To get your hands on this resource, head over to LOKestudy.com and download your free copy
0:45
of the case study today.
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You'll find actionable insights and practical tips that Chris used to close 36 million
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in funded loans from agent referrals and how you can, too.
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Don't miss out.
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Go check it out right now.
0:58
Visit LOKestudy.com and download your free copy today.
1:03
Hey, listeners, what's up, Jeff Zimper?
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You know where you're at.
1:13
You're at the mortgage marketing radio podcast.
1:14
Thanks for tuning in today.
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I still don't have my soundboard yet.
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So hopefully the audio is coming through clear enough for you to understand.
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Let me get right to it.
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Things sure are changing fast in the mortgage and real estate market, aren't they, right?
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Rates are up.
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Price reductions are happening and buyers are taking a time out.
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Here's the truth, right?
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You know that we don't have control over what happens or what goes on or what the market
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does, but the one thing we do have control over is how we choose respond.
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It's our choices that determine our outcomes.
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So I've been asking a lot of loan officers that I'm talking to across the country.
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How are you responding?
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Are you preparing for a more challenging market ahead?
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Not just the challenge of low inventory, but couple that with the challenge of reduced
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affordability, right?
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If you're going to survive, not just thrive through this market, you've got to be prepared.
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One way to get prepared is to align yourself with the right partners that can keep you in
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the game of a steady flow of opportunities and referrals.
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What am I talking about here, right?
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I'm talking about becoming known in your local area amongst your real estate agents as
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an educator.
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It is no longer enough to show up with great products, great service, right?
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We've talked about that before.
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We need to change the conversation.
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Most of what you want, you listing right now, I talk to you, I interview you, you want
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more agent referrals.
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It's what you want, but you struggle to get agents to respond.
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Your sales pitch falls flat and offers little tangible value.
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Therefore, I'm excited to show you a better way.
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You've heard about it by now, my agent classes, part of the mortgage marketing pro membership
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helps you break through the noise, deliver tangible value and attract agents to send you
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referrals with no chasing or no cold calling.
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Here's a recent win from our member, Glenda White.
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She posted our private Facebook group, I love agent class day.
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She taught the class how to get more listings in a low inventory market.
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15 agents showed up.
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One quote, veteran agent, they just closed his very first buyer.
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She set five appointments, a golf appointment with a prospective buyer, which happens to
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be the head of an HR company, a local HR company, three referrals from agents in that class
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before she walked out.
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What she hears from these classes on Tuesdays is I have a buyer I need you to connect with.
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First, if you want more agent referrals and less time with less struggle, less chasing
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and more attracting, do yourself a favor, go to mortgagemarketing.pro, watch the brief
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video I put up.
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If it's for you, take the next step.
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If not, no worries, I look forward to continuing to provide these valuable podcast episodes
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for you.
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With that said, I want to talk about my special guest this week, thrilled to have her
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on Melissa Maniadas is a mortgage professional in the Phoenix, Arizona area.
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She has been on a just a quantum leap of fast pace of momentum in her business.
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What I love about the conversation we have is we get into how she structures her business,
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what she does on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.
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In 2021, she closed over 160 units.
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Of course, the bulk of her business is agent referrals, relationships, past database.
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You're going to hear the strategies she implements in the field to be able to continually grow
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her business year after year after year for the last six years with no end in sight.
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The title of this episode, of course, is how to build unstoppable momentum in your business.
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And Melissa is a great example in building that unstoppable momentum.
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So without further ado, let's get into this week's show.
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Melissa, welcome to the show.
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Thank you.
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Glad to be here.
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I'm glad to have you.
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It's a pleasure and an honor.
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Also, thank you so much for, like, I forget how many times people come on my radar.
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But the thing that stands out for me was, I think you put my book in one of your stories.
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I did.
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Yeah.
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And I really didn't connect the dots.
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And I didn't know who you were prior to that.
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And then I started connecting the dots.
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I'm like, wait a minute.
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Wait a minute.
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Hold on.
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You're a top 1% mortgage originator in the country.
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So I wanted to learn more.
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So before we unpack that for the listeners, brief background, hauling in the bin in the
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biz.
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Where do you work and then units volume?
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Perfect.
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Awesome.
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So I've been in the business since 2003, which is I read your book and you've been in the
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business since 2003.
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So awesome.
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I've been in it for a long time.
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I got in when I was 23 years old.
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I moved from Northern California to Arizona, got a job as a receptionist at a mortgage
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company.
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And within six months, my boss came to me and said, do you want to be a law officer?
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And I said, I know nothing about loans.
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There's no way in heck I could be a law officer at 23 years old.
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He gave me a piece of paper.
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It had a script.
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Give me a list of leads to call.
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And my first paycheck, I was like, holy cow, I am quitting college.
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Was originally going to be an accountant because I love numbers.
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And that just kind of went out the window.
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And after six months, I was hooked.
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And I've been doing loans ever since then.
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I was always on a team.
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I was always fearful of going out on my own, didn't think I could even have a team.
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It wasn't even a goal of mine.
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It just kind of happened.
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Funny story, though, when the market crashed in no way, I dived into real estate.
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So I did a real estate for four years from 2008 to 2012.
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I joined the real estate team.
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And then in 2012, I met Todd Bookstan, interviewed with him to do some business together.
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Me as the agent, him as the lender.
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And then he was looking for a bilingual law officer.
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And I went out my license and joined his team.
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And I was there for about five years till 2017.
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And then November of 2017, I finally just took the plunge.
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And I went all in and went on my own.
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I joined a guild mortgage who I'm still with.
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And I've been here for about four and a half years.
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And I now have a team who would have ever thought.
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So yeah, so I've got a team for including me.
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Okay, and so who are they?
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Identify their roles.
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So I've got Brendan.
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Brendan McCarran is my pre-approval manager.
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So he made sure to review all the financials,
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make sure to cross his teeth, dot his eyes,
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and that we're good to go.
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The loan's not gonna fall through.
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So that's Brendan.
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And I've got, we call her KK, her name's Kyreen.
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She is my admin.
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She's in charge of all the emails, financials,
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making sure that I stick to my calendar.
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And she handles a lot of our campaigns,
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which I'll talk a little bit more about that.
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And then I actually have my husband on my team.
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He is my other loan partner.
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He's kind of like another me.
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He was in real estate and last year he joined our team.
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No longer does real estate now.
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He's just another me, basically.
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Okay, and that's everybody, right?
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Yes, yes, and yeah.
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And of course, we've got like our branch admin,
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Gina, she's amazing and she helps with a lot of other stuff.
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That's your core team.
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So does your husband originate then?
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I'm sorry.
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Does your husband originate?
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He does.
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He is a licensed originator.
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So is Brendan McKiernan.
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So we're all licensed and other than my admin, KK.
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All right.
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All right, so let's briefly get to the numbers then.
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The 2021, what did you close out at?
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I closed 162 units.
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Sweet, good job, congratulations.
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It's funny how it comes around full circle.
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Now you have your own team.
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Yeah, it's crazy.
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It's crazy.
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Yeah, it's like my first year I closed like 65 units.
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I came over thinking, I just want to close a few loans a month.
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That's it.
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Not really thinking big, right?
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You've been growing ever since though.
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Like you're at an Baker team and then you're left there.
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But you kept growing.
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Ever you've not had a reversal year or down year.
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You've kept adding on units.
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Yeah, so yeah.
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You're letting me highlight that as well.
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You've not had a flat year because a lot of people
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do that too.
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Right.
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You know what I mean?
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Yeah, it's just been increasing since I joined the end of 2017.
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All right, I'm going to be, it's Friday.
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So it's just don't take it Friday or I don't know.
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I'm trying to come up with something.
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No fluff Friday.
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How much?
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And so you know where I'm coming from and my questions
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are all respect.
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But how much growth do you attribute to the market
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versus your marketing versus my marketing?
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What do you know what I mean?
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I would say the market.
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Well, so obviously the last couple of years
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as lenders, we did a ton of re-fies, right?
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Yeah, yeah.
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And I know it's not a fair question.
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And by the way, none of this has been prepped.
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And maybe it didn't present it the right way with context.
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But what I'm thinking about is this.
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Let me give you a little bit more.
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What I'm thinking is, so a lot of L.O. struggle
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with how do I grow?
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How do I add another 20, 30?
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How do I double my ratings?
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Yeah.
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That's the long lines.
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Because yes, the market can fuel us
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and we'll get us just winded our backs.
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I know you well enough, even the little I know you,
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that you didn't rely on that.
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You were intentional about growth.
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Right, absolutely.
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Absolutely, as I've been in growth mode,
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I just keep adding someone to my team, right?
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And so obviously, I started out closing 65 units
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my first year, then 120 in 2019.
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About 123 units.
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And then 2020, COVID hit.
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I didn't really get into the ReFi stuff until mid 2020.
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And I closed 163 units.
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And then last year 183, yeah.
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The balance of ReFi to purchase on that, roughly,
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I know it's probably a little heavy ReFi, but.
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I was 59.9 purchase.
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And then 40, like 40 in change, 40 proofs, like 60, 40.
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More heavier on the purchase business.
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Hey, you don't love numbers, do you?
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I love numbers.
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59 point.
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949.
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Yeah, something like that.
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But yeah, I was definitely more purchase heavy.
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And obviously now that's my focus is purchases, yeah.
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That's just the opposite of like a, it's 60, man.
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That's what I was.
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60, 40.
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Right.
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No, that's great.
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That's good, healthy balance.
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OK, what is your primary source of business?
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Realtors.
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Realtors are my number one source of business.
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I've got it good.
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I would say five realtors that have really stuck with me
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since I started back about four and a half years ago.
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And then a lot of them are onesie twosies, right?
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They don't do a ton of business.
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Maybe they use a couple, two or three different lenders.
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But believe it or not, you get a lot of those onesie twosies.
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And then I would say now, as far as like eight agents,
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I've probably got about nine.
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So not a ton, not a ton of agents.
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And then the rest are bees.
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And then obviously the seas are the onesie twosies.
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But my main source is realtors.
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OK, so the onesie twosie thing isn't surprising,
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especially for those that are podcast listeners,
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and they just listened to two episodes ago
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where I had Derek Polter on, who's also there.
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You know, Derek?
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He's one of the court coaches.
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Yeah, I've in the court as well.
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Is he your coach?
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He is not my coach.
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I have not been coached by Derek as of yet.
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I've been in the court for a couple going on two and a half years now.
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OK, cool.
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Good for you.
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Yeah.
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I mean, can't say enough about that.
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But what I was going to say was he also
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spoke to the fact of most of his deals of the 170, whatever,
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he can track that those were all onesie twosie agents.
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Yeah.
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Like the idea of you're going to get 80% of an agent's business
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isn't realistic.
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Absolutely not.
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No way.
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No way.
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And we shouldn't bank on that, right?
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Just knowing that they might only want to close a certain amount of deals
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per year.
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They might be part-time agents, right?
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They may not do a lot of transactions.
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So it's interesting.
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A lot of people are like, check the MTA or MMI.
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I'll be honest.
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I don't ever check my number.
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I don't ever check the agent's numbers
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where the rankings are at.
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I really don't.
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It's kind of like if I like them, they like me.
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And I could picture myself hanging out with them, right?
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Having a cocktail or whatever.
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And they're just fun.
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I love people that are fun and want to have a good time,
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that are positive.
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And if we mesh well, then we're going to work together.
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Speaking of MMI, that's what I sometimes do while we're talking.
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And just to prove a point.
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So if you don't mind, I've pulled you up on MMI.
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But regarding the agent relationships on the buy side,
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yeah, your dominant agents are Rosa, Thomas,
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Rosa, Linda, Patrick.
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And even those aren't double-digit numbers.
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Right.
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Like your big volume is, as a matter of fact,
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it seems to be more on the listing side,
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for listing agent relationships.
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Do you work with a lot of listing agents?
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I know a ton now.
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Carlos Martinez.
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Oh, yeah, he's the listing agent.
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Yeah, he's like one of my new top agents now.
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Do you pursue listing agents?
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I do.
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I do.
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I haven't always, but obviously being in the core,
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they teach you, right?
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You do your Tuesday updates.
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You call the listing agent.
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You ask for the appointment.
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So I'm more intentional, I would say,
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this year than I was previous years, right?
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And so as a matter of fact, on last week on Thursday,
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I called about 60 listing agents.
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60, 60.
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Well, I called 100 people, but 60 of them were listing agents
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that I closed the transaction in the last 12 months.
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It was part of our homework.
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We had to call 100 people in one day in the month of March.
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So I did it on March 31st and called 100 people.
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And yeah, a lot of them were listing agents.
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What do you say?
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You put it off to the last day of the month.
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Well, I tried previous to that.
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It didn't happen.
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I got to like 50, you know, I just couldn't get to 100.
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But I was here from 80M to 845PM.
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Over 12 hours, it took me to call 100 people.
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But it was probably the best thing I've ever done.
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What came out of that?
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Man, a lot.
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So I booked about seven appointments.
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But from, so that was for listing agents
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and from those voicemails that I left,
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I am continuing to get emails.
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Hey, I got your email.
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I would love to meet or hey, I got your email
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about some programs you have.
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I'm sending you to client your way.
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I then called pass clients.
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And it was kind of towards the evening
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when I started calling those, left a ton of voicemails,
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letting people know equity is high, rates are on the rise,
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great time to cash out debt consolidation, things like that.
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And I got eight people email texts
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call back wanting to numbers on a cash out refinance.
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And that's all in one day.
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So that was definitely an eye opener.
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So to be clear, I'm back to the 100 calls to the listing agents.
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Did you say, do you know how many you actually spoke with?
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Oh, man, there was a lot of people answering before 5 o'clock.
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I had a ton of conversations, which
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is why I needed to stay a little later.
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But God, I want to say I called about 60 listing agents.
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And I probably talked to, I want to say about 40%.
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OK, answered.
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So do the math.
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That's 24, right?
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Yep.
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And you got seven appointments?
18:41
Yep.
18:43
That's really good.
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Yeah, and it was an easy script.
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What was the script?
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Beast Clay said, hi, Nancy.
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It's Melissa with Guild Mortgage, UNI
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Clothes of Transaction on 123 Main Street.
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I was the lender.
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You were the listing agent.
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We had a great transaction.
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I'm calling to let you know that we are doing things
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differently on our team.
19:06
We have an internal bridge loan program, where your clients
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can buy first cell after.
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We also educate our clients on how
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to do appraisal gap strategies to help clients
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feel comfortable going over appraise value or waving appraisal.
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And we have a cash buyer program coming out in the next 30 days.
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Would you like, if you like more information,
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I'd love to meet for coffee or get on a Zoom call.
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That was my script.
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It worked like butter.
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I was super shocked, because obviously,
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you're always hesitant to call the listing agents,
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because it's been a while.
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But yeah, it was amazing.
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I told my team, just lock me in my office
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and get me on the phone.
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When you have a team, you start to find out
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what you are good at and what you enjoy doing.
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And I feel I'm at that point where it's like,
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I just love talking to people, love helping people,
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love educating, but I don't like doing the paperwork.
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I don't want to follow up on financials.
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I don't want to figure out, you know, I love numbers,
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but I don't want to be reviewing financials.
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It's not where I want to spend my day.
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I just, I love meeting new realtors,
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getting to know people, making friends.
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I'm very close to a lot of my agents.
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So just making those connections is where I think I thrive.
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And that's where my time is best used.
20:40
So your disk profile probably is very high on the eye?
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You know, it's funny, it's definitely changed,
20:46
but yes, I'm an IS.
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Okay, all right.
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Yeah, I'm very consistent, very consistent,
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hardworking.
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Emode when you need to and turn it on.
20:57
When I need to, yes, now that I have a team,
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I have a little bit more of a higher D.
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But when I was on a team, like when I was on Todd Bixman's team,
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I had no D. It was very, very little.
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So.
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Now you have to because you're, yeah, the driver seat.
21:13
Yeah, I love that strategy, because first of all,
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it's so simple, oh, do you do anything with video
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when it comes to, you know, outbound reaching out,
21:23
that kind of strategy?
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I do.
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So as far as video, I have a videographer.
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I don't do any of my videos.
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I don't edit crop nothing, right?
21:35
I have a videographer.
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He comes every Tuesday for an hour.
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We knock out 70 videos.
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If I'm out of place where I don't have anything prepped,
21:47
then I'll come up with, you know,
21:49
we'll come up with some templates or scripts.
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He'll put it in his teleprompter.
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And I just read off the script.
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And there we go, and I have a bunch of videos.
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So now I've got, I probably have over 100 videos
22:02
in my library now, just because I've been doing that
22:05
consistently every week for the last gosh.
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It's been about seven months now.
22:13
So those videos then go on social media.
22:16
They go on YouTube.
22:18
They go on Homebot.
22:21
So that's, yeah, that's kind of what I've been doing
22:24
with the whole video.
22:25
I knew to it.
22:26
And if you would have asked me last July
22:28
when I started with my videographer,
22:30
if I would have done video, never, like, if you're not,
22:35
I'm super shy.
22:37
My I'm super shy.
22:38
And I used to watch all these people doing videos
22:41
on social media, and I thought I can never do that.
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Like, no way I would not even know what to say.
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So I've come a long way, but it's definitely gotten me
22:52
out of my comfort zone.
22:54
So I think the things that you fear the most,
22:56
you just gotta like dive in.
22:58
Right, right.
22:59
Just gotta go all in.
23:00
But your primary social platform is Instagram?
23:03
It is Instagram, yes.
23:05
Are you hanging out and all that, right?
23:06
Yeah, that's kind of where, you know,
23:08
I get, I make connections with realtors,
23:13
and starting to get leads from it.
23:15
And yeah, it's kind of just where I stay in touch with,
23:18
you know, my friends and all that good stuff.
23:20
I do a little bit of TikTok, not a ton.
23:25
It's kind of like I want to go all in on TikTok,
23:29
but it's hard to keep consistent on all platforms.
23:33
Okay.
23:34
So I did close my first TikTok deal in January.
23:39
So we can't scheme over this.
23:40
Wait a minute.
23:41
You got a transaction off of TikTok?
23:43
Oh, yeah.
23:43
Okay, tell me about that.
23:46
So I don't post a ton on TikTok.
23:49
If you go on there, maybe I've got like 20 videos.
23:52
But I did this one video with my husband
23:56
that was, they were payment scenarios,
23:59
like conventional versus FHA.
24:02
This one gal in Washington saw my video.
24:05
She wanted to move to Arizona.
24:07
She gives me a call, she's like, this is so embarrassing.
24:10
But I found you on TikTok and I love your videos.
24:14
And so I asked her like, what did you like about the videos?
24:18
And she pointed out that specific video.
24:22
And if you go on my TikTok, you will notice
24:25
that the ones I have gotten the most views,
24:28
like over 200,000 views
24:31
are the ones where I say, what's my payment
24:34
on a 400,000 dollar home?
24:36
We're a 500,000 dollar home.
24:38
Those are the ones that have the most views.
24:41
So it's interesting, that's what people want to know.
24:46
The one, I'm not sure which one it is that you got the deal.
24:49
Is it the, how much does a 300K home cost?
24:52
Is that the one?
24:54
Yes, is DC my husband and I?
24:56
Yeah, it's side by side.
24:57
Yep.
24:58
Okay, so first of all, quit downplaying your TikTok presence.
25:03
First, you've got 5,000 followers
25:05
and you've got videos that have gotten thousands of views.
25:09
I mean, yeah.
25:10
Hello, like a lot of people listening right now
25:13
are like, shit, I don't have a new TikTok.
25:15
I really, you know what I mean?
25:17
But what I love is now, I'm gonna put the links
25:18
to your TikTok if it's okay in the show.
25:20
Absolutely, yes, yep.
25:22
What I'm seeing is this is that I see a pattern
25:24
of who is actually getting deals off of social media
25:27
and it's the type of videos that you're doing.
25:29
Right.
25:30
I think of BJ on Instagram, who's doing that?
25:33
I think of Nim, who's doing that
25:36
with his educational videos.
25:38
Yep.
25:38
And it's all problem solving, scenario related,
25:42
like how much down, how much does it suck payments?
25:45
Yeah.
25:46
So people want to know.
25:47
That's what they want to know.
25:48
And now I know that and I just need to do more of that, right?
25:52
We need to give people what they want
25:54
and that's they want to know what their payment is.
25:57
They want education and they will go to TikTok.
26:00
Believe it or not.
26:02
And I've gotten calls off of it and believe it or not,
26:05
you know, when you think of TikTok,
26:06
you think like, oh, that's for teenagers.
26:08
That's what I thought.
26:10
And my videographer, he's like, just,
26:12
you need to get on TikTok and I went in
26:14
and I closed the deal in January and it turned out amazing.
26:19
That client didn't have a realtor
26:21
so I was able to give that client to one of my top agents.
26:26
Okay, so back to the situation with the client.
26:30
So she messages you and then you move that to what?
26:33
A phone call or something else or?
26:35
Yeah, so just move that.
26:36
Yeah, she actually called me.
26:38
It was a phone call, got her qualified.
26:41
She flew out from Washington.
26:43
Herner has been to meet me here in my office
26:46
and we just kind of figured out what they needed to do
26:50
to get pre-approved to buy a primary home in Arizona, right?
26:54
Obviously, they needed to get a job here.
26:56
So they came here, got a job, stayed in an Airbnb for 60 days,
27:01
got it under contract and they closed.
27:03
So we made it happen.
27:05
And you're batch filming, this is part of your batch filming.
27:07
The TikToks and your editors putting the captions
27:11
and all that stuff.
27:12
Yeah, they're doing everything.
27:13
So I've got a videographer and I've got a social media manager.
27:18
She manages all of my social media.
27:20
I rarely go on to, I mean, obviously in the evening
27:25
when I get home and I have a little bit more time,
27:27
I can go in there and reply to my messages and stuff like that.
27:30
But during the day, I'm just focused on my calendar.
27:36
And yeah, she does everything else.
27:39
Calendar, I want to talk about that.
27:41
But I just want to stress the point.
27:44
Even though your outsourcing are delegating the production,
27:47
meaning recording, editing, right?
27:51
Which is a smart play if you have the budget to do it.
27:54
Because that allows you to focus on your core activities.
27:57
No pun intended to the core people.
28:00
But all right, so you mentioned your calendar.
28:02
I love this brings up the, how religious are you about it?
28:07
Or how do you, you're coming out of the book span?
28:09
So are you using win by noon?
28:10
I want to put it on the spot there in case Todd's listening.
28:15
No, it's okay.
28:16
So when I left Todd's team, he had just started the win by noon.
28:22
So I never, I mean, I obviously used it when I was on his team.
28:25
But then once I left, I just, I've always used my calendar.
28:31
But I've never been really on purpose about my calendar.
28:36
You think a calendar, you think it's like, oh, that's simple, right?
28:39
But it's not.
28:41
You've got to make sure you have your reoccurring events,
28:45
your reoccurring theme days, which is one thing I learned from Todd
28:49
in the core.
28:50
You have theme days, and you've got to plug those in.
28:53
And you've got to color coordinate all of the, you know, your green time.
28:58
That's your money making activities, right?
29:00
And so that should be reoccurring every week.
29:03
If you're meeting with an agent, you know, that's going to be a different color.
29:07
If you're going to have a lunch and learn.
29:09
So every, every, every appointment or event has a different color.
29:15
And I have a lady, her name's Gina, who I love.
29:19
She's our branch.
29:20
She runs her whole branch.
29:22
We call her like mom.
29:23
But she worked for Robin Levasser, who's like one of the top loan officers in
29:28
Oregon.
29:29
And she was her right hand for seven years.
29:31
And so Gina brings a lot to us here in our branch.
29:35
And she just sat down with me and just taught me all about the calendar and how to get
29:41
organized.
29:42
And so now I just, I have my calendar printed like this.
29:47
Uh-huh.
29:48
So every morning, I have my calendar right here in front of me.
29:53
And I just do what my calendar tells me to do.
29:56
That's it.
29:57
It's simple.
29:58
I don't even think about it.
29:59
When do you build it out night before, week before what?
30:01
Week before.
30:02
So, um, we'll meet on Fridays and then I'll look at it at a glance, right?
30:07
Make sure that I've got four or five agents I'm meeting face to face with or break in
30:12
bread, you know, the week, the week after.
30:16
Okay.
30:17
Yeah.
30:18
I love that.
30:19
Let's deal with the question then.
30:20
I'm sure you've heard, um, which is, uh, you know, when I've talked to people about
30:27
time blocking and calendaring before what they, what they throw back at me usually is,
30:31
you know, well, what if something happens during the day or a blow up or this or that,
30:36
you know what I mean?
30:37
Am I supposed to not take that realtor call?
30:39
How do you address that?
30:41
Yeah.
30:42
Um, so, you know, I think at every loan officers have, you know, we go in stages depending
30:49
on our, on our experience or the amount of people on our team.
30:53
So at one point, yes, when I was just just solo loan officer, nobody on my team, I had
30:59
to deal with that.
31:00
Right.
31:01
So, um, it was very difficult, but now that I've grown, and I don't have a large team,
31:06
it's just three people on my team, um, now I've delegated that.
31:10
So I've been learning a lot about delegation because that was probably my weakness is
31:15
I wanted to just do it all, I'll figure it out.
31:18
I can handle it.
31:20
I can do this better, but now I just learned to delegate it to my team.
31:24
So my team already knows that first processor comes with an issue.
31:29
It goes to Brennan on my team, right?
31:32
He has to problem solve and try to figure out a couple solutions.
31:35
If he can't, then he'll go to our team manager, which is my husband, um, if they both cannot
31:41
figure it out, then they're letting me know, hey, we need to sit down and talk about an
31:46
issue we're having.
31:47
How does that work structure with, you know, realtors?
31:50
Are you coaching them, mapping out, hey, here's how my team works, so they don't like,
31:54
you know, bug the hell out of you?
31:57
I'm working on it.
31:58
Um, so I, and I'm just being honest, right?
32:02
So the one thing, um, now that I'm very calendar based, I'm either on a call, I'm in an
32:07
appointment, I'm hosting a class, um, so now it's just like back-to-back meetings.
32:12
I don't have a lot of white space on my calendar, um, so the struggle has been that I have
32:20
my cell phone, right?
32:22
And people are calling my cell phone.
32:23
So now what we've done is I have a team line through Grasshopper.
32:28
And so it's just, you know, teaching the agents to, hey, if you can't reach me, call my
32:34
team, right?
32:35
They'll answer the phone, answer any questions you have, and if they can't, then I can
32:39
always give you a call back.
32:41
So that's kind of where we're working on right now is all of our systems and processes
32:45
and stuff like that.
32:46
So it's just educating the agents and letting them know that, hey, I might not be the fastest
32:51
one to answer you.
32:53
My team can answer, but if they can't them, you know, I'll definitely give you a call
32:57
back.
32:58
So Grasshopper using that for call forwarding?
33:01
I am using Grasshopper, um, it's a separate phone line, so I have a team line.
33:06
So like on my signature, yes, pick up, I see, yeah, it'll rotate out and somebody will
33:13
get that, that, okay, got it, yes, yeah, yeah.
33:16
So systems, processes is like that literally 2022 is all about dialing in our systems
33:23
in our processes and trying to automate as much as we, as much as we can, right, others
33:29
and of course, like the calling stuff like that, but yeah, working on a lot of automation.
33:35
That's good.
33:36
All right.
33:37
You mentioned classes.
33:38
Of course, that got my attention.
33:39
Tell me how are you going to classes?
33:42
Um, so doing, um, a lot, I did, I was doing a lot of zoom classes.
33:48
Now I'm kind of moving towards zoom and in person.
33:52
So hybrid classes and, um, so that's just kind of, that's how I'm able to stay relevant.
34:00
I'm able to stay in front of agents, meet new agents.
34:04
We just did an awesome Google business profile with a teacher.
34:09
We just brought a teacher in.
34:10
He taught on zoom and so we had about, gosh, how many people did we have, maybe about
34:16
15 people on zoom and then I had six people in person.
34:20
So, um, that's kind of what I'm doing with classes right now is I'm just going to go hybrid.
34:25
I know a lot of people still want to do the zoom.
34:28
Some people want to do the face to face.
34:30
They want to come into the office and, um, but yeah, it's worked out pretty well.
34:35
When you in person, do you host a mat, your office?
34:37
I do.
34:38
Yes.
34:40
Interesting.
34:41
How often do you, agent classes, um, I would say about once a month, we're doing agent
34:47
classes.
34:48
I want to bump that up to twice a month, do a couple of lunch and learns every month.
34:53
So that's actually what I'm working on.
34:54
I'm going to put it on the calendar and then just, you know, make sure it's on there.
34:59
It's set to go and I just, you know, need to make sure that my team kind of helps me
35:03
execute that the marketing.
35:06
A lot of times I'll partner with the title company and they'll do a lot of the marketing
35:09
and the flyers, um, however I did see that you do, you teach about agent classes, right?
35:17
You teach loan officers how to teach agent classes.
35:20
So I thought your program and, uh, looking forward to learning a little bit more on how
35:25
I can teach my own classes.
35:27
Well, thank you.
35:28
Uh, we're honored to have you in.
35:30
We got to schedule your one on one call that and this is it.
35:32
Yes.
35:33
Yeah.
35:34
I love it.
35:35
So I signed up and you sent me a video text message.
35:38
Yes.
35:39
Yes.
35:40
Exactly.
35:41
Yep.
35:42
Yeah.
35:43
Yeah.
35:44
Yeah.
35:45
Yeah.
35:46
No, I love that you do that.
35:47
It's so funny because, you know, back to Derek, right?
35:48
The core coach, you know, I mean, I just find that there's, there's patterns and that's why
35:53
I asked the questions I do.
35:54
And by the way, thank you for going through this interrogation with me.
35:57
Thank you.
35:58
I don't know if it feels like that, but I'm really trying to bring to the surface when
36:02
somebody looks at somebody who's a top one percent originator, it's like, what do they
36:05
do?
36:06
Folks, if you've been around here long enough, you've heard the conversations.
36:09
Have you noticed?
36:10
There's some things that you guys and gals do.
36:13
Yeah.
36:14
Exactly.
36:15
Over and over and over again.
36:16
Right?
36:17
Yeah.
36:18
It's, uh, it's simple, you know, like even in the core, it's so simple what we do and
36:23
what they teach.
36:24
It's not rocket science.
36:26
It's just accountability, right?
36:29
Right.
36:30
And obviously the masterminding and thinking outside the box and how to differentiate yourself
36:35
from other loan officers, um, using technology, high tech, high touch, that kind of stuff.
36:41
Right.
36:42
Um, you know, I think we all speak the same language, right?
36:45
But coaching is like, I realized that most successful realtors or loan officers, most
36:53
of them have a coach to keep them accountability, you know, accountable accountability is huge.
36:58
I mean, I think, you know, I have a personal trainer.
37:02
Otherwise, I pray wouldn't, I'd make excuses, you know, about going to the gym, but I have
37:06
a personal trainer.
37:08
I have a Gina who is our branch admin.
37:11
She keeps me accountable.
37:13
If I'm late one minute, I have to put $100 in a jar.
37:16
If I, you know, lay on my homework for the core, swipe $100 on my credit card.
37:24
So all those things keep me accountable.
37:26
And if somebody doesn't have a coach, I think just finding an accountability partner.
37:30
Mm-hmm.
37:31
And I think it's, I think everyone needs that, right?
37:34
We're not perfect.
37:35
No.
37:36
I wasn't born this way, you know, so 100% and when you're alone and in those, those moments
37:41
of weakness, which we all have, you're going to take a nap or a third time.
37:47
Exactly.
37:48
Exactly.
37:49
Get on social for 30 and then take a nap.
37:53
Yeah, just following a system, we don't need to reinvent the wheel, right?
37:58
And, you know, it's like, I've got my theme days and if I just follow that and my calendar,
38:04
you know, it's simple, but it is, it's very hard to do, right?
38:09
Okay, so this has been great.
38:11
And so I guess to close it out, I usually kind of like to ask the question around, what
38:16
do you focus on for this year or what's one big thing you're trying to implement?
38:20
You mentioned systems.
38:21
Yes.
38:22
Would that be some say?
38:23
Yeah.
38:24
I'd say systems are, are huge for us right now.
38:30
Systems across the board or any specific, are you talking about your customer experience,
38:33
your will, your loan workflow?
38:36
Well, yes, definitely our team workflow is one thing we're focused on.
38:41
We use, we have a CRM, it sells for us.
38:44
A lot of people use those for us, but not so it's just the fact of like making sure you
38:52
put in your notes, because you're not going to remember the conversation you had with
38:56
that lead you think you will, but you won't.
38:59
So it's just making sure you put your notes in, we are able to click a button and it updates
39:04
the agent, sends them an email automatically with the note.
39:09
So that's one piece of it, but one system that I am loving right now and I think every
39:16
loan officer needs to have this is outreach, it's a campaign, I don't know if you've heard
39:23
of outreach.
39:24
It's integrated with sales force, it's kind of like an add-on or a plug-in and basically
39:33
outreach is a campaign.
39:36
So I can build out as many campaigns as I want.
39:40
For example, I've been, right now I'm focused on meeting new realtors, right, to bring up
39:46
my purchase business.
39:48
So when I meet with a new realtor, I have a new realtor campaign already built out.
39:54
And you know, so every week they'll get a video or a text or a call or cookies.
40:00
It's all built out, again, I don't need to think about it, obviously when it's time for
40:05
me to call that week, I'm going to pick up the phone and call.
40:09
And I don't send out the email, it just goes out automatically.
40:13
Once you build the campaigns, take some time, but once you build them, it's like set it
40:17
and forget it.
40:19
That's interesting.
40:20
I'm looking at it right now.
40:21
Yeah, thank you.
40:22
I'll have to check that out later.
40:23
Have not heard of that.
40:24
It is a game changer.
40:27
One of the court coaches talked about it and we have access to it here at Guild and yeah,
40:35
so that's one thing I've been doing or working on a lot is different campaigns.
40:39
If someone doesn't have a qualifying credit score, they go into a credit plan campaign.
40:46
If someone just closed on their home, right, they go into like a first payment kind of thing,
40:52
it'll remind them their first payment, loan out anniversary, past client campaigns, all
40:59
sorts of anything you can think of, you can create a campaign around.
41:03
Does that connect into your sales force?
41:05
Yep.
41:06
Interesting.
41:07
Very cool.
41:08
Yeah, so I'd say that's probably the biggest system that I am working on right now is just
41:13
leveraging these systems, right?
41:18
And obviously, the one thing I didn't mention about going back to Instagram really quick is
41:24
the one thing I love about Instagram and combining that with meeting new agents is back
41:31
in the day, you had to pick up the phone and do some cold calling, right?
41:35
They didn't know who you were.
41:37
You could tell them, hey, I'm, you know, 1% toppling officers, they don't know you.
41:42
There's no trust factor there, but I am leveraging Instagram, right, because I have a presence
41:49
there now and a lot of realtors follow me.
41:53
So what I'm doing is reaching out through just private messaging them on Instagram and
42:00
just reaching out.
42:01
And if I like their Instagram, I like what they're doing.
42:04
I let them know that and I just let them know, hey, I'd love to connect, meet with, you
42:08
know, some realtors in my area.
42:11
Let's meet up for coffee.
42:12
And that is how I book appointments with new realtors.
42:17
How is there a period of, are you trying to be conscious or aware of time before you
42:23
go for the ask?
42:24
Are you just like in whatever man, hey, I like your content, boom, we should grab coffee.
42:28
So every Friday, we look at my Instagram, we look at all the agents that are following
42:33
me.
42:34
And if I like their content, it looks like somebody that, you know, we might have some
42:39
commonality.
42:40
I'll send them a message and, you know, I'd say about 60% said, say yes to having a meeting
42:49
with me.
42:50
And that's how I book them on my calendar.
42:53
That's it.
42:54
I don't do any cold calling.
42:56
You know, going after a listing agents heavily, but I would say for the past 90 days, that's
43:02
kind of what I've been doing is I feel like I found a system now.
43:06
Like this is how I can meet new agents.
43:10
And I've got some credibility because they follow me, they see my videos, I'm in front
43:15
of them, you know, that kind of thing.
43:17
So that has been a huge game changer as well for my business.
43:22
That's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
43:24
Yeah.
43:25
Love it.
43:26
Great strategy.
43:27
Okay.
43:28
So we are officially out of time and you've been very gracious with your time.
43:30
This, I've learned a ton and I'm comfortable listening.
43:33
I mean, seriously, it's like, makes me want to go originating again and just like, I'll
43:36
follow you.
43:38
That's the recipe for success right here.
43:40
Come join my team, Jeff.
43:42
I'll move to Arizona.
43:43
We've been close to mom, right?
43:44
There you go.
43:46
All right.
43:48
So what's the best, obviously, it's Instagram for people to connect with you, right?
43:51
Yes.
43:52
Yes.
43:53
Okay now, what's your Instagram handle?
43:55
It's at Home Loans with Melissa.
43:57
At Home Loans with Melissa, we'll put it in the show notes and other links and stuff
44:01
like through to your TikTok for sure.
44:03
Which by the way, let me just pull that up real quick.
44:07
That's Home Loans with Melissa as well.
44:08
Yes.
44:09
Good job on the branding consistency there.
44:12
Thank you.
44:13
You know, none of this like surfer girl, one, two, three or whatever.
44:17
No, none of that.
44:19
None of that.
44:20
All right.
44:21
Well, I can't say thank you enough and obviously I'm looking forward to working with you in
44:24
our agent class membership and I want to say I'm grateful for your time today.
44:29
Awesome.
44:30
Thank you so much for having me.
44:31
You bet.
44:32
Listeners, you know what to do.
44:33
If you like this episode, hey, leave us a review and make sure you check the show notes.
44:36
Go follow Melissa online and we'll see you on the next one, guys.
44:39
Bye for now.
44:40
Awesome.
44:41
Thank you.
44:42
Bye.
44:43
Hey, thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Mortgage Marketing Radio podcast.
44:45
I hope you enjoyed it.
44:46
And remember, if you like this episode, please leave us a review.
44:49
It helps us reach more people and bring more good value and content to you, our listeners.
44:55
And then don't forget, if you are a loan officer who wants more agent referrals in less time,
45:03
be sure to check out the Mortgage Marketing Pro membership at mortgagemarketing.pro and
45:08
learn more about our turnkey system of agent classes that puts you front and center of your
45:13
local real estate agents, attracting agents instead of chasing them and getting agent
45:18
referrals like clockwork every single month, just like Kerry Cobb, who her first year in
45:25
the business with closing over 75 loans, achieved 40% of those 75 loans exclusively from agent
45:32
classes.
45:33
And if you want to learn how she did it, now you can do it too.
45:35
Once again, go to mortgagemarketing.pro and I'll see you over there.
45:39
Thanks for listening.
45:40
Bye for now.
45:41
Hey guys, what's up real quick?
45:49
You've heard about the Mortgage Marketing Pro membership before and I just want to quickly
45:52
remind you of that you're in a place in your business where you simply need more purchased
45:56
loans.
45:57
You need to fill your pipeline with purchase business.
45:59
Let's just face it, agents are still a solid pillar of business and sources of purchase
46:04
business for you.
46:05
Well, good news.
46:06
Our mortgage marketing pro membership helps loan officers like you close more loans without
46:10
the hassle of chasing agents or cold calling done for you agent classes, expert training
46:16
videos, a marketing automation platform that automates the entire process for you, everything
46:21
you need to build your personal brand in your local market, attract and convert agents
46:25
into referral partners.
46:27
Plus done for you proven marketing materials and plug and play content to make promoting
46:32
your class, getting agents, butts and seeds, partnering with affiliates, real easy.
46:37
But that's not all.
46:39
You'll also get access to our weekly mastermind calls with top LOs, authors, speakers and
46:45
coaches to learn the best strategies to grow your business right now in today's market.
46:50
And as an extra bonus for limited time for all new members, you'll get access to a database
46:56
of 200 agents in your local market that have closed anywhere to from eight to 50 transactions
47:02
in the last 12 months and we'll provide that list uploaded into our platform for you.
47:07
So you can get off to a fast start in reaching actually productive agents.
47:11
So what are you waiting for?
47:13
You can check out more at mortgagemarketing.pro, see more of the success stories there.
47:17
And if you feel compelled to do so, book a call, we'll have a chat, we'll see if it's
47:21
a fit.
47:22
Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your mortgage business to the next level right
47:25
now.
47:26
Head over to mortgagemarketing.pro.