Latest / Mortgage Marketing Radio / Ep #4: Truth and Lies About Online Marketing with Scott Shang
Transcript
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- 1:17Welcome to Mortgage Marketing Radio.
- 1:19Brought to you by the Mortgage Marketing Institute, your number one source for truth
- 1:24in Mortgage Marketing.
- 1:25Welcome to another issue, another session of Mortgage Marketing Radio.
- 1:32We've got a very special guest as always, but an old friend, actually a dear friend and
- 1:38somebody who I consider to be, I don't use, I don't throw around the word expert very
- 1:43much.
- 1:44But in this case, I will because I haven't really seen more, anybody more than this individual
- 1:51really spend time investing research on unpacking and testing various lead sources, various
- 2:00productivity, ROI on effort for what's the best place for me to invest a buck or invest
- 2:07my time to build my business.
- 2:10So without further ado, let me bring in Mr. Scott Shang, who is a 17-year veteran of
- 2:15the mortgage and real estate industry, has a wonderful site that we'll talk about and dive
- 2:20into called FindMyWayHome.com is doing a lot of interesting things in the areas of content
- 2:25marketing.
- 2:26Online lead gen is a big believer in systems and automation.
- 2:30So Drumroll, please, Scott Shang, welcome to Mortgage Marketing Radio.
- 2:34Thanks, Jeff.
- 2:35Are you going to add the Drumroll in later?
- 2:38I know.
- 2:39I didn't hear that.
- 2:40That would have been super cool.
- 2:41I need to get a sound board and just get all these buttons.
- 2:45Yeah.
- 2:46Okay.
- 2:47Well, you know what I actually, I'm comfortable with you using the expert, I'm not, you
- 2:53know what, you got to be really careful when you talk about people that have invested
- 2:58a lot of time and energy into one thing and they've seen success over it or from it.
- 3:05But I think in terms of using the word expert or expertise, I like the, you know, I like,
- 3:14was that tipping point?
- 3:15Yeah.
- 3:16Well, that was, if you invest 10,000 hours into something, you can be considered an expert
- 3:22at it.
- 3:23I've easily put more than 10,000 hours into this.
- 3:27So I do feel like I possess some expertise about the specific things that, you know,
- 3:35that I've, that I have focused on.
- 3:38But I mean, I also think that a lot of that comes with just coming off as being a little
- 3:44obsessive and crazy too, because for the first, the first 3,000 and 5,000 hours, everybody
- 3:53thinks you're insane, you know, there's not, you know, what are you working on?
- 3:58Why are you, you know, why are you working on that?
- 4:01Right.
- 4:02And sometimes it, it takes a long time, which I guess we could dive into, but it takes
- 4:08a really long time until you realize that, that thing that you obsessed over for all that
- 4:12time, there's actually something to it.
- 4:15Yeah.
- 4:16You know, something significant to it.
- 4:18Well, and that's, see, that's a great way to set this whole thing up though, because,
- 4:22I mean, one of the things I hope to gain out of today is, you know, I'm trying to provide
- 4:28more professionals, right, guidance and direction in an authentic way on what's the right path,
- 4:35right, for them.
- 4:36And as you know, it's different for everybody, right?
- 4:38Some people, as we were talking earlier before the recording, it's like, look, if you've
- 4:42got a huge referral based business, then online marketing may not be, you know, in terms
- 4:46of Legion, may not be that important for you, right?
- 4:49I mean, if you've been 20 years in the business and you're getting 10 referrals a month, it's
- 4:52like, you know, do you really need to drop significant investment on online stuff?
- 4:56So it really depends on where you're at, but I love why you're here is because you, you
- 5:01and I are right, we're on the, we're torn from the same cloth and that we want to clear
- 5:06out the BS.
- 5:07There's a lot of BSN noise in this industry.
- 5:08People pitching products and services, which, you know, some have value and a lot of them
- 5:13don't.
- 5:14I'm not here to make judgment.
- 5:15I'm here to just hopefully provide value and, you know, some, a place people can go to,
- 5:18to get value.
- 5:19So that's why you're here, man, you've passed through the, through the gauntlet.
- 5:23All right.
- 5:24Let's get into it.
- 5:25Sorry.
- 5:26I have.
- 5:27You've, by the way, you've done so much in this industry, I mean, you, in terms of speaking
- 5:30used to be on the circuit, man, what was the seminars you used to speak at all the time?
- 5:35There's a bunch of them.
- 5:37Well, yeah, I mean, I, I, I dove really, really, I got really deep into the real estate
- 5:43bar camp movement when, when that first started in like 2009, I think was the first one
- 5:51up in San Francisco and I went, went to pretty much every one of those in California, probably
- 5:5830 or 40 of those.
- 6:01We started doing some similar things in the mortgage space with the mortgage tech summit,
- 6:08with Mark Madsen and, and, and we've done quite a few of those through the years.
- 6:15And now I, I pretty much the big one.
- 6:18I mean, I still get asked to speak at usually real estate events.
- 6:23So it, it was mostly for real estate agents and, and talking about lead generation systems
- 6:30and offering a different perspective in that way.
- 6:34But the big one that I'm doing now is the explode conference that comes around a couple
- 6:38of times a year and that's actually coming up next month and I'll be, I'll be speaking
- 6:44about that or speaking at that about actually about a niche that I developed on, on the
- 6:52website over the last probably five or six years that's really starting to come to fruition.
- 6:57Okay.
- 6:58So what is that niche that's coming to fruition?
- 7:04Boomerang buyers.
- 7:05So in, in 2000 and actually the first article I wrote was February 2011 and it was about
- 7:15what the underwriting guidelines are for buying after a bankruptcy foreclosure, Dean
- 7:20Lewer short sale.
- 7:22And so I started writing about that, also February 2011, so I guess it's been five years
- 7:30and today it probably, well, between about three or four blog posts, there's almost 3,000
- 7:38comments.
- 7:39I get, I get comments and calls every single day.
- 7:42It gets thousands and thousands of hits every month from that, from just mostly from
- 7:49a lot of those, from a lot of, from those articles, but there's a, that's a very much of
- 7:55an emerging niche.
- 7:56There's a lot of lenders and loan officers that just didn't want to take the time to
- 8:02talk to somebody if they thought that they had a financial hardship in the past.
- 8:06And you know, you talked about noise going in.
- 8:10That's one of the beauties of, it's one of the beauties of content marketing is if you're
- 8:15putting good stuff out there, it really does stand out, especially when you, with all
- 8:22other crap that's out there that's just people throwing up, you know, just generic stuff
- 8:28for hiring writers or, you know, putting words on the internet is not the same thing
- 8:33as using content, marketing to grow your business.
- 8:38So I mean, there's so many different areas we could go this one.
- 8:41I want, I'll come back to the boomerang buyer niche in a second, but I do want to kind
- 8:45of ask you and, and solidify something you alluded to with people just putting words
- 8:49on the internet.
- 8:51And there's differing opinions about you obviously do your own writing on your blog, right?
- 8:56Right.
- 8:57Yeah.
- 8:58So yes.
- 8:59So in the context of either search ranking or anything like that, what is your, I'm
- 9:07just going to put it out there because I know there's people in various, you know, positions
- 9:11on this.
- 9:12But what is your take on automating that, meaning having somebody else is, you know, the big
- 9:18way, why don't most loan officers blog, whatever, I don't have the time, I don't know what
- 9:21to write, blah, blah, blah.
- 9:23So they outsource that to a service that does that.
- 9:26What's your take on that versus doing it yourself?
- 9:30Well, I've always treated writing as though I were, I write, when I'm writing in my mind,
- 9:41I imagine that I'm sitting across the table from a consumer.
- 9:47And so I'm sharing my experience, I'm, I'm, I'm showing them who I am, what my knowledge,
- 9:56what my experience is.
- 9:57I mean, every single conversation, well, there's two things, I guess, I write every article
- 10:03like I'm talking to a consumer and I treat every consumer like my parents.
- 10:07So how would I, how would I try to explain to my mom, how to not get tricked or fooled
- 10:14or twisted up on a one guideline or another?
- 10:19So for me, I think it's, I think writing is it, if you're going to do it for the right
- 10:26reasons, now you say right reasons, I mean, there's different strategies just putting content
- 10:31on the web to make yourself feel good.
- 10:35And for rankings, I think if you were trying to do it for SEO alone, I think that's kind
- 10:41of an insane play anymore, I wouldn't, I wouldn't recommend anybody try to start a content
- 10:48marketing site around mortgages today.
- 10:51It just SEO just doesn't have that much value if you've, you got to put a lot of consistent
- 10:59stuff out there for it to, for it to really build a, I mean, I think that the best way
- 11:06to do it is as a someplace that you send people just to assist them and to have conversation.
- 11:14It's a destination and absolutely and if you treat it that way, the SEO will come.
- 11:18Okay, so that's an awesome point there and a very important one.
- 11:22So just to reiterate that you don't, you feel that today for somebody to start a content
- 11:27marketing related site about mortgages, meaning about qualifying for a mortgage, whatever,
- 11:33you think that's a pretty difficult task to overcome.
- 11:36Is that because of the other, and if you're expecting for that to pay off in SEO rankings
- 11:41specifically, which is a very focused thing you're trying to achieve online coming up
- 11:45in SEO, is that because of the companies with huge dollars that are essentially buying
- 11:50up that space and pretty much near impossible for the average Joe to come up in search rankings?
- 11:59Not, it's mostly because of the noise.
- 12:05So the first thing you've got to understand, if you've got to understand who's looking
- 12:09for that content, so search engine optimization is implying that a consumer has a question
- 12:16and they're typing it into Google.
- 12:19So search engine optimization means that your content is optimized to show up in front
- 12:24of that consumer.
- 12:25Now that's where it gets challenging because when you're writing about, most people think
- 12:31that you should be writing about generic information.
- 12:34You know what's detaincom ratios, all of this kind of stuff.
- 12:37How do you qualify for a mortgage?
- 12:38Well that generic, non-specialized content that doesn't require any sort of personal experience,
- 12:49there's so much of it out there because it's generic, there's so much of it out there,
- 12:54you'll never be found.
- 12:56Search engine optimization comes from niche.
- 12:59It comes from writing about something that nobody else is writing about.
- 13:02Writing about the same thing that everybody else is writing about.
- 13:06This is what I always say when I'm speaking because everybody always says, well look at this
- 13:10website, look at that website.
- 13:13See the best thing that could ever come out of trying to keep up with the Joneses is
- 13:17you just get to be another Jones and nobody wants to be the Jones, right?
- 13:22You don't want to keep up with them because then you're just going to be another one of
- 13:26them and there's a billion of them out there.
- 13:29Search engine optimization is about having something unique to say in all that noise.
- 13:39How do you stand out in the noise?
- 13:41Where's the signal that there's intelligent life out there?
- 13:44If you got to listen a really, really hard setty has a hard time finding intelligent
- 13:48information on the internet.
- 13:50They're listening for the signals, but it's just not there.
- 13:53It's mostly just noise.
- 13:55Okay, so you're talking about being unique and writing about something that, quote,
- 13:59no one else is writing about.
- 14:02Or something that's genuinely you.
- 14:05Well, that's what I was just going to say.
- 14:07So you take the subject of boomerang buyers.
- 14:09It's not that no one else is writing about those.
- 14:11You're writing about them in your own unique way and voice, which is your point.
- 14:15Correct.
- 14:16Okay.
- 14:17Yeah, yeah.
- 14:18And while it, see, here's, there's a lot right people writing about boomerang buyers.
- 14:24Yes, I will give you that.
- 14:25There's very few probably, right?
- 14:27And especially on a consistent basis in ways that you're doing, like, you know, anybody
- 14:31listening can go to findmywayhome.com and, of course, search for boomerang buyers and
- 14:35you're going to see these articles and content come up.
- 14:38So go ahead.
- 14:39I interrupted you.
- 14:41The true, well, the, I mean, the true value of that didn't come from the article because
- 14:45all I literally did was bullet pointed and there's, you know, anybody who's a conversion geek
- 14:52will look at it and go, man, that's crap.
- 14:54How do you ever get anything out of that?
- 14:57There's a lot that I could do to make it convert better.
- 15:01But the value in that really came from the comment section.
- 15:06So all of the value of that and people call it a forum.
- 15:11But there's a page there that just has the guidelines and there's almost 1400 questions
- 15:16on there that I answered every single one.
- 15:19And it, and that's one of the byproducts of being a niche content marketer is you really
- 15:28get to know, you really get to learn what it is you're talking about.
- 15:34You know, this, this comes down to the mentality.
- 15:36You said something important.
- 15:38It was my perspective and, and that's true and I make it unique to me.
- 15:44It's not just, while the information may initially be just generalized, the conversation that
- 15:51takes place around that is very specific and, and it is experience based writing and,
- 16:00and you're, again, you're treating it like you're talking to people one on one and when
- 16:07people see that, it, when people see that they'll respond accordingly.
- 16:13I mean, in those comment streams, you know, there's, there's more than 25 different
- 16:20comments on there at least that say, you know, I spent the last six hours reading all
- 16:26of these comments or I learned more in five minutes than I've learned in the last five
- 16:31months with people giving me wrong information.
- 16:34Yeah.
- 16:35So you get a lot of that.
- 16:37Yeah.
- 16:38And that, that's something you can't do if you're completely, completely automating everything.
- 16:42If you're never really engaged to write, and that's obviously the point of social media,
- 16:46right, is engaging.
- 16:48So if you're never actually jumping in the pool with your, you know, fellow community members
- 16:53there, then you have, you don't have an access to the pulse, to the tone, to the issues
- 16:57and challenges that come up that you can use in so many different ways in your business.
- 17:02So one question I have that I'm sure a lot of people are thinking about is, um, okay,
- 17:06you got, you know, a thousand plus comments or whatever.
- 17:08So how did you get so many comments where these, where did these come from?
- 17:13Did you show up in rankings because a, the content was unique to be the engagement started
- 17:18to build.
- 17:19You got this a thousand people following you already, right?
- 17:23Well, I mean, the website already, already did pretty well, but this was definitely an
- 17:31organic move and it, and it was because I was very early to address those issues.
- 17:38So, and then there had been a lot of changes with the guidelines since I started writing
- 17:45about it.
- 17:46So, Fannie and Freddie and FHA, I mean, FHA hasn't really changed, Fannie's switched their
- 17:53stance on, on the guidelines a couple of times in that particular topic, but it was really
- 18:00just investing in, it was investing in that, I mean, I guess the whole reason I ever went
- 18:07online in the first place is because I don't think I'm a great salesperson, but I love
- 18:12to educate.
- 18:13So how I earn business is like a, how I earn business, it's a very personal thing for
- 18:21me is I want people to get good information and that's the whole reason why I got on
- 18:26the internet is because I instantly knew fourth quarter 2007, nobody trusts lenders anymore.
- 18:36So this is finally an opportunity to have a voice that if you can create a voice that
- 18:42is genuine, that it should stand out amongst, you know, because people are already skeptical.
- 18:48So that's why I started publishing stuff online and, and I published stuff online as though
- 18:54it was actually me talking to people and that's how I approached it as though I were having
- 19:00one-on-one conversations because you are, if somebody reads your information, you're having
- 19:04a one-on-one conversation with that person.
- 19:07So what's the impression you want to leave them with?
- 19:10Okay, so the, and by the way, I really appreciate your comment about, you know, you're saying,
- 19:16you don't think you're good at sales, so you decided to like do more on teaching, which
- 19:19is actually a hallmark of a great salesperson, you know, I don't know if you've heard
- 19:24that I think it was Dave from Dave Ramsey talk about that whole, right, come from a standpoint
- 19:28of a teacher and educator rather than just a salesperson and it's a whole reciprocal
- 19:32kind of thing which we know and which is why, you know, we see, we're seeing the shift
- 19:36in the traditional sales model we have, right, from interruption marketing, all that to
- 19:40more, you know, to your point about teaching and educating content marketing.
- 19:44But naturally, I'm thinking about, as I'm sure some people are wondering, okay, cool,
- 19:48man, you got this, sorry, you got some, doing some really cool stuff with this particular
- 19:51niche, what can we track for business, you know, either as a whole from this site find
- 20:01my way home or from the specific stuff you're doing around boomerangs, any, any color
- 20:04you can provide there?
- 20:07Yeah, absolutely, I mean, my, for many years, I took, I took a hiatus from originating for
- 20:19quite a few years as the site started building up and we just used, I used the site as a branch
- 20:26manager to feed the loan officers in my office and there was a time with another niche
- 20:34product that I had early on that probably 90% of our business was coming from, coming
- 20:41from the site on this particular niche and then that niche went away.
- 20:47So then I was kind of left with a commodity again and the commodity being the loans that
- 20:54are available for everybody through, through everyone, I've recently been going through
- 21:00some changes.
- 21:01I was working as a direct lender or the branch manager as a direct lender for the last
- 21:04eight years, recently I went back out into the marketplace, got my boots back into the
- 21:11trenches and, and the amazing thing happened instead of handing out the leads to my loan
- 21:19officers, I just started answering the emails and the phone calls and the leads myself from
- 21:24my, just from the website and I've been doing that for, it's been about three or four months
- 21:32now and I'm buried, I almost can't do it, there's just, I mean, I've got too, too much going
- 21:43on every single day, it's, it's bringing in business and that's, I mean, the site gets
- 21:49about 20,000 visits a month.
- 21:51So it generates a little bit over a hundred leads a month that don't come to me that just
- 21:57go through the league form and get distributed to loan officers and then we have about another
- 22:01hundred people a month that'll sign up, that'll just give us the email address because
- 22:06they want to be updated on the, with the next payment that, or the next article that comes
- 22:11out.
- 22:12So what I started doing very early on is, and I know this is something that you, this
- 22:18is kind of part of the magnetism that brought us together that, like minded thinking, is
- 22:27I'm a huge believer in this one to many concept and writing is a one to many strategy, even
- 22:34though you're having a personal conversation with the person reading it, you're sharing
- 22:38your knowledge with, with, with many, many, you know, with many people at the same time.
- 22:45So I've been writing two to three articles a week for almost eight years.
- 22:51So there's a lot of content out there.
- 22:54And so every week when I write new articles, I send them out to the people that have either
- 22:59filled out web forms or opted in.
- 23:02And today, that list is around 11,000 people that I'll send to them every, you know, every,
- 23:08when I write new articles.
- 23:10So there's always that, that combination, pretty good database.
- 23:15The biggest, yeah, no, it's getting there.
- 23:19It's getting there.
- 23:20And I learn more about it every single day, you know, as we were discussing before we got
- 23:24started, I'm working with a new CRM product to create, you know, more automation.
- 23:33But the interesting thing, when you talk about conversion, when you talk about production,
- 23:38I mean, those numbers sound, they sound good and they're probably pretty good.
- 23:43I don't know, I don't know what to compare it to.
- 23:47But what I know for, what I do, I do know for a fact is that I tend to, I'm just building,
- 23:58building, building.
- 23:59And the reality is, I'm probably about 30% efficient.
- 24:04So when I say that is, do I have great calls to action in my content?
- 24:09Is the website laid out perfectly?
- 24:12Are my key, you know, where I get the most traffic?
- 24:15Am I capturing that information and converting it properly?
- 24:19And I'd say the answer is no.
- 24:20I really do think I'm probably, I honestly think I'm probably under 50% capacity for what
- 24:27we could be pulling off of that.
- 24:29I mean, there is just a, there's a lot of traffic.
- 24:33Now that doesn't mean leads, you know, just because you have fans on Twitter don't mean
- 24:38that they really know who you are.
- 24:41If you pay somebody on Fiverr for 10,000 Twitter followers, you know what that is.
- 24:46You know, so it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's people, but it is people taking a look
- 24:51at you.
- 24:52And if you're actually providing value, that value never goes away.
- 24:57And I think that's probably one of the reasons that I don't have the sense of urgency
- 25:02to try a lot of conversion, different conversion strategies, because this is kind of good
- 25:09enough for now, until I figure out a better way to do it.
- 25:13And that's kind of the stage that I'm at right now.
- 25:16Well, I mean, this thing's about to get real, yeah, it's about to get real, huh?
- 25:21Yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm learning more and more about it all the time, but I, I mean,
- 25:28I basically, I mean, I kind of feel like I've got to blanket on the floor with all of the
- 25:33parts for a Ferrari.
- 25:34Now all I got to do is learn how to build a Ferrari, but once it's done, all the parts
- 25:40are there.
- 25:41If I follow the instructions and I do it, you're going to have a Ferrari at the end,
- 25:44but right now it's just, I feel like it's potential.
- 25:47I mean, it's, it's a good start on the potential, but there's still a lot more that we can do
- 25:52with it.
- 25:53So, can you attribute a certain percentage then of your overall, you know, production towards
- 26:00or from this site?
- 26:02It's ballpark.
- 26:03It doesn't exist.
- 26:04100% 100% of my production is from the site, it's doing, well, for mine, yeah, I mean,
- 26:12I'm doing probably two to three million a month off of it, but it's also being, you know,
- 26:18we're also distributing it to, distributing it to the other loan officers, yeah, so
- 26:23it's getting to you and a bunch of others, right?
- 26:27Yeah, yeah.
- 26:28I mean, in a perfect world, I would, in a perfect world, I still think it's less than
- 26:3550.
- 26:36It should be 50, less than 50% of your of your production, because if you're not getting
- 26:41the referrals and you're not getting, well, you're getting their past client business,
- 26:46your referral business from clients and from business partners, it's, it's just a piece
- 26:51of the, you know, it's a small piece of the puzzle.
- 26:54I don't think it would ever be.
- 26:56It's 100% for me because I haven't originated in eight years, but I know that the day that
- 27:01I started originating, I had loans open, right?
- 27:06So, well, not the day, but within a couple of weeks, as soon as I started taking the calls,
- 27:11they were, they were there and they were ready.
- 27:16So how do these, for me, it was, it's, yeah, no, I mean, I think, no, I was just going
- 27:22to say it.
- 27:23Yeah, the, the, the, again, it's a sales process.
- 27:28So if you're bringing people in based on the conversations that you're putting out into
- 27:32the internet, it's really, that's an easy transition.
- 27:36So I mean, I guess if we circle back a little bit to your initial question about having
- 27:43ghost writers and writing the stuff out there, when people call you or when they contact
- 27:49you from your content on the website,
- 27:52they expect that they feel like they already had a conversation with you.
- 27:57So if you're, if you're first real conversation with them is completely inconsistent with
- 28:03what the content of what they were reading is, then you're not going to have, you're
- 28:08not going to have a connection there.
- 28:10But if it's your content that comes from your heart and your experience, when they call
- 28:15you, they, it's never about, well, I don't know if I'm going to do business with you.
- 28:22By the time they call, it's how do I do business with you?
- 28:25Because they already know you and they already read what you have to say.
- 28:29And they already, you've already had that introduction.
- 28:33The trust is already there.
- 28:35There, see, this is the thing with content marketing is there is a, there is an enormous
- 28:40trust gap that needs to be bridged.
- 28:44And there is so much crap on the internet that you really have to have some layer of,
- 28:53of genuine exgenuinness and genuine experience in, in there, there's got to be, there's got
- 29:00to be some soul in that song or nobody is going to sing it.
- 29:03Well, you know, they just have to, it has to feel like something.
- 29:06It goes back to what we talked about earlier, it's your voice.
- 29:09So if you take a, you know, quote, ghost written content versus, you know, self generated
- 29:13content, there's going to likely be a position taken or an angle or a slant, perhaps, or an
- 29:21opinion on the personally generated versus the ghost, right?
- 29:28Yes.
- 29:29And here's what what the, and now this is my experience.
- 29:32So it's difficult to say this is the chicken or the egg argument, probably.
- 29:37So do I have the kind of interaction and, and attract of the type of visitors to my
- 29:42site because of how I write or, or is it, or is it because of what the consumer is
- 29:53looking for?
- 29:54Because here's, here's the thing, nobody will go to Google and type in who's the best
- 30:01loan officer in this city.
- 30:03They're going to Google because their last loan officer forgot to call them back or told
- 30:10them that they don't qualify for some reason.
- 30:13Google is, is a safety net for, for mortgages.
- 30:18It's not, nobody's going out there actually believing all of the, if you could walk into
- 30:25Bank of America or Wells Fargo and get alone by just, you know, showing, putting a thumbprint
- 30:32because you've got a long experience with them.
- 30:34If you're a perfect borrower, you know, you're not, they're not necessarily, those aren't
- 30:39the people that I attract.
- 30:40I attract the people that everybody else already said no to.
- 30:44And, and, and I think you've got to be careful about that.
- 30:48You've got to be careful about that because you've got to be able to help, but that's
- 30:51how you get, that's how you get the traction telling something, telling somebody something
- 30:56that anybody can tell them is how you get lost.
- 31:00Again, that's, that's how you, you know, knowing the motivation and, and how they would
- 31:07use it is, has to be a big part.
- 31:09And I think that's the part that people have challenges committing to.
- 31:14I mean, it's, it's hard to measure because when I started in 2007, WordPress wasn't what
- 31:21it was today.
- 31:22I'd never run a blog before, I'd never done anything like this before at all.
- 31:28I didn't have any online presence.
- 31:31So I mean, it took about 18 months until I could attribute my first closing to the actual
- 31:37website.
- 31:38So it was almost two years before I really realized that this is something that's going on.
- 31:45But now, you know, almost eight years later, there's so much momentum, but it took years
- 31:52to build that momentum.
- 31:54But now it's, it's pretty legitimate.
- 31:57I mean, it's a, it's kind of a powerhouse right now, but that's just because of years.
- 32:03Yes.
- 32:04Yeah.
- 32:05You've done your 10,000 plus hours.
- 32:06So we're going to pivot a little bit then because obviously, you know, to your point
- 32:09about this investment of time and effort, what do you say to somebody who doesn't have
- 32:14that years to make it pay off if they're looking to, you know, well, I, yeah, I alluded
- 32:22to it in the very beginning is, is you're not doing a website for SEO.
- 32:27You're doing it to make it easier to share your experience with, with your clients.
- 32:32So whether that's your referral partners or your past clients or every single, I always
- 32:39tell people, if you start a blog, just don't expect to be number one on Google and start
- 32:45generating, you know, there are so many different disciplines and, and things to learn how
- 32:52to convert readers into leads.
- 32:54That's a whole another thing.
- 32:56But if you're not putting content on the website, I find that the whole reason why I started
- 33:02a website is because I found I have the same conversations with almost every client.
- 33:07So if I'm having the same conversation with every single client, why don't I just put
- 33:11that conversation online so that if you meet somebody, you know, let's say you meet somebody
- 33:17in the grocery store and you hear them talking about mortgages or whatever and, or, and you
- 33:23say, oh, well, you know what, I, I actually have a lot of experience with this.
- 33:28Do you mind if I email you this article?
- 33:31So, so then you can, you, it's kind of understanding how consumers like to learn, how to consume
- 33:38content or educate themselves in today's market.
- 33:41And so you're making this available to them.
- 33:45And this strategy is, is, is really advertising.
- 33:51So you're establishing yourself as an expert, you're earning their trust and then they wouldn't
- 33:56do business with anyone else because you're the one that gave them the answer because
- 34:00like you said, there's a, there's so much noise out there that it's pretty easy to be
- 34:08recognized as genuine if you actually put some effort into it.
- 34:13So I just use it as a tool.
- 34:15Forget about SEO, but it's one of the best broadcasting.
- 34:19It's one of the best ways you can get your message directly to people that you'll ever
- 34:24find.
- 34:25Yeah, and I think that's a great point and one to highlight, right?
- 34:28About SEO, unless you've got some really deep pockets to invest in a long period of time
- 34:33to see the results on that.
- 34:36And more importantly is using your, your blog, right?
- 34:39The hub and spoke model that I know you're familiar with.
- 34:41I've brought up here before on the podcast and, you know, knowing that the blog essentially
- 34:45your website is going to be that, that hub, right, where you can, it's a destination and
- 34:49where you can drive people to and to your point about the grocery store setting, I alluded
- 34:54to this, I think earlier, which is about, you know, the traditional sales model is broken.
- 34:59Nowadays, you know, your point about how consumers make it make decisions about what to buy.
- 35:03They're not only doing that when they go to Best Buy and check out a TV they want to buy
- 35:06and going online and doing it on the research.
- 35:08If they meet you in the grocery store, if they get referred to you by an agent or whatever
- 35:11the case is in your networking group, they're going to want to be able to go someplace
- 35:15online to learn more about who you are, right?
- 35:19Exactly.
- 35:20Educate themselves about, you know, what is your knowledge, expertise level?
- 35:23What is your positioning?
- 35:24How do you, do you show up as professional?
- 35:26I think that's the other benefit that you're talking about when it comes to having a good
- 35:32online presence.
- 35:33Absolutely.
- 35:34I, and I think that should first and foremost be everybody's concern is you're, you know,
- 35:41this is also kind of my argument with, with, with reviews, reviews aren't necessarily
- 35:48online reviews.
- 35:49First of all, I don't know how many people actually put any weight into online reviews.
- 35:54I know it's kind of a cool buzzword and they like it.
- 35:58Like you to think, yeah, everybody knows they're made up.
- 36:02I mean, if you dig into how the internet works, it's pretty easy to manipulate that stuff.
- 36:08But I think most people, it's something that's good to reinforce, but just having somebody
- 36:16else saying something about you is one thing, but it's, yeah, it's really giving them
- 36:22the opportunity because consumers want to do the research on you.
- 36:26So people aren't going in and they're not going in and they're saying, where's the best
- 36:30loan officer in, in Irvine, but they're saying, oh, this, you know, my buddy told me about
- 36:37Jeff Simfer.
- 36:38I wonder what's, I wonder what he's all about.
- 36:41So they go online and they look for you.
- 36:43What are they going to discover?
- 36:46And so you want those engaging, you know, pieces of content, right?
- 36:50That's going to, if we go back to, it's funny.
- 36:53I think we were trying to isolate the definition of content marketing and I'll pull that from
- 36:57my friends over at Content Marketing Institute, right?
- 36:59It's about something that's focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent
- 37:04to attract and retain a clearly defined audience and ultimately to drive a profitable customer
- 37:10action.
- 37:11I would add to that, right, it solves a problem.
- 37:14And so what's the problem somebody has if they're looking for a mortgage?
- 37:18Well, they want to find somebody who's A knowledgeable, who's got experience, who's
- 37:22who's respectful and authentic, I guess, if you will.
- 37:26And then they want to understand, right?
- 37:29The nuances of buying, of qualifying for a loan, the ins and outs of that, because we
- 37:33know most, you correct me if I'm wrong.
- 37:37Most of the borrowers still in today's market are not your vanilla A paper borrowers,
- 37:40right?
- 37:42Yeah, not online.
- 37:44That's not my experience, is there a lot of the ones that, again, I don't know if that's
- 37:50just what the market is or that's what I've extracted from the market.
- 37:54That's what I've attracted because of the type of content that I write.
- 38:00So you definitely get what you write for, but one of the things that, as we're talking
- 38:10here and I'm thinking about where the greatest success comes from, from my website, you know,
- 38:17I think if you were going to start a blog, I think that's great, but I, what I would think
- 38:22would be even more valuable is some sort of publicly accessible Q&A on your site that
- 38:28people could ask questions or every time you get an email, I mean, I tell everybody
- 38:34that they say, I don't even know what to blog about.
- 38:37Well, check your send folder in your email, you know, I mean, your clients email you questions
- 38:44all the time.
- 38:45If you get those questions posted on your website, and then you answer those questions,
- 38:51there is no better display of your expertise than how you help other people answer the questions
- 38:58that they have.
- 38:59And that's ultimately what it comes down to is when I have questions, are you going to
- 39:05be able to help me to navigate that because everybody is a professional until it all
- 39:09goes sideways, right?
- 39:11And as we know, anybody that's been in the market long enough, most of them go sideways.
- 39:16So your expertise is limited to the, a lot of times limited to the challenges that you've
- 39:26encountered and overcome.
- 39:28And until you start the process, people are choosing a loan officer without testing their
- 39:34expertise.
- 39:35They're just trusting it.
- 39:36Yeah, when they're trusting the implied trust of that referral, if that's where it comes
- 39:40from as well.
- 39:41But, you know, we want to do as much as we can to shore up that perceived trust and of
- 39:46course build that as we engage with them.
- 39:48And that's where content marketing and that's where your website really can come in.
- 39:52And I like that point about check your send folder because you've got multiple blog posts
- 39:57in that send folder itself or an FAQ page.
- 40:00I kind of like the blog post thing because it's more frequent and consistent.
- 40:02Each one of those can be a short little snippet, you know?
- 40:05And it's real world, right?
- 40:06It's like, hey, you got a question from a borrower today on X, but there's your blog post.
- 40:11Yeah.
- 40:12And here's how, and here's how I answered it.
- 40:15Right.
- 40:16And the title is always the question.
- 40:20So how can I do this or what happens on this because that's what people type in a Google.
- 40:26So as soon as somebody else has that issue, like, you know, when can I use, can I use
- 40:33income from my second job, right?
- 40:36That's a great piece of content that somebody who goes out there and and applies with somebody
- 40:43an inexperienced loan officer doesn't recognize that they have a history of having second employment
- 40:49income.
- 40:50And so they try to fit it into a program that won't allow that.
- 40:54They get turned down, they go online and say, why can't I use my income?
- 40:59So and then your article pops up and hopefully you have an answer to that.
- 41:05Well, we have a program that only requires one year worth of income.
- 41:08Right.
- 41:09Yeah.
- 41:10And there's ways for you to collect that information.
- 41:11Obviously, you know, the cent folders won your exchanging emails, but you can actually, you
- 41:15know, I could see this doing this in front of a group of real estate agents as well, right?
- 41:20One of the biggest questions, challenges, issues that your buyers have.
- 41:26And it's this, seriously, if we, if you've been in the business more than a year, you've
- 41:31had the same questions over and over and over again.
- 41:35Right.
- 41:36Yeah.
- 41:37So why not leverage that and just say, you know, answer the question with the person live,
- 41:41right?
- 41:42And then say, oh, by the way, should you have more questions?
- 41:44Let me direct you to such and such page.
- 41:46Right.
- 41:47We're all.
- 41:48Yeah.
- 41:49I mean, the way that I approach, yeah, the way I approach it is you're, you're an expert
- 41:55in what you do.
- 41:57You, you, we manage people's, we're responsible for a sometimes people's biggest investments
- 42:05in their entire life, at least monetarily.
- 42:08There's a certain amount of expertise that you have, be in selfish with it.
- 42:13If the only way to get that expertise is to sit down with you face to face, you're
- 42:17being selfish and you're, you're keeping that information from the, from people that
- 42:24really could use it.
- 42:25So that's where content marketing really helps as you put that expertise online so that
- 42:30people can find you.
- 42:32You're a, you're a lighthouse.
- 42:34You're a beacon of hope in a sea of noise out on the internet.
- 42:40And so I take it super seriously.
- 42:42I guess maybe that's the, I guess maybe that's the point.
- 42:45When I write, I'm not thinking about how many leads this is going to generate for me.
- 42:50It's usually something that's, I'm angry about or passionate about or a challenge that
- 42:55I overcame or something that I think is really going to help people, it's, it's not always,
- 43:02it's not fluff, it's not for the sake of doing it.
- 43:05You get angry?
- 43:06I think this has been, this has been like a one hour answer to like your very first question
- 43:12about SEO is what it seems like.
- 43:13No, I'm actually, I'm, I'm constantly, well, what I'm angry about is ignorant.
- 43:22So here's, okay, so here's a really quick example and, and I know this is kind of crazy,
- 43:27but this is what I run into every single day.
- 43:31I, I got a call like two weeks ago from a gentleman who's in a boomerang buyer situation
- 43:38and a loan officer told him that he qualified for a specific loan product.
- 43:43It's down in San Diego, a loan officer told him he qualified for FHA.
- 43:48He never qualified for FHA due to the timing of his short sales and his bankruptcies.
- 43:53Now this guy's got seven sixty FICO scores, fifty percent down payment and the first thing
- 43:59is the loan officer was trying to approve him for an FHA, which he never, he never qualified
- 44:05for the FHA in the first place.
- 44:07He never, never met guidelines.
- 44:09But this loan officer decided to let him go into escrow and try it and do it without having
- 44:16the experience to go on and it definitely wasn't malicious.
- 44:18It was ignorance.
- 44:19They just didn't know.
- 44:21So when they get down to the closing table, of course they don't qualify for FHA.
- 44:25So he flipped him into an eight and a quarter percent interest rate on a five one arm with
- 44:32a seven sixty FICO with fifty percent loan to value.
- 44:35Well, it just so happens that the guideline that would have allowed him to buy using conventional
- 44:43financing with no mortgage insurance, he was eligible for that.
- 44:48So this guy closed his loan last week, hasn't even made a payment.
- 44:53I'm doing a rate in term knocking his interest rate down by more than half saving him over
- 44:59five hundred dollars a month on a loan that's under two hundred thousand dollars.
- 45:05And so he's able to refinance out of it, but he never should have done it.
- 45:09And the reason is, after he went through that experience, he went online and he asked
- 45:13the question, when should I be able to buy after this?
- 45:17And my content came up and he called me and he's not even going to have to make a payment
- 45:21on that eight and a quarter percent interest rate loan.
- 45:24He's going to be able to skip a couple more payments and his first payment is going to
- 45:28be at today's market, today's rate without mortgage insurance and he's not going to have
- 45:33to worry about it again.
- 45:35Wow.
- 45:36So that's, you know, those are the stories that happen every single day.
- 45:41So if you specialize in something, if you specialize in something, you get it out there
- 45:49because there's not everybody specializes in what you specialize in.
- 45:54And I think that's a big piece of, that's where the SEO comes from.
- 45:59So the SEO comes from that, are you saying something different from everybody else?
- 46:03That's where your SEO comes from.
- 46:04Everything else is just establishing yourself as an expert and being accessible.
- 46:12And you got to put in the work is what I'm really taking away from this is, you know,
- 46:17if you're going to have that online process, it's going to take some elbow grease.
- 46:22Yeah, everybody thinks that the internet was access to every money spending person in
- 46:30the universe and I'm going to get them to all spend it with me.
- 46:33It's way harder than face-to-face sales.
- 46:36Okay.
- 46:37I love it.
- 46:38So now we're going to pivot.
- 46:39We're going to pivot from, you know, not exclusively from online to off, but I love
- 46:43that you transition to that because, you know, in some regards, I would call the internet,
- 46:49you know, the various subsets of that SEO, whatever, you know, kind of that bright, shiny
- 46:53object, even even Facebook for people, right, where they get distracted by that.
- 46:57And there's purveyors of that, you know, message of like, hey, man, just, you know, it's
- 47:02all online today.
- 47:03And if you're not online, you're dead and, you know, this, that, and the other thing.
- 47:06And of course, you know, I am a believer in the combination of both, right, with what
- 47:10I do for loan officers and real estate agents with the seminars we help them put on.
- 47:16But how do you see the overall, because you have loan officers, obviously, as you said,
- 47:21that report to you and all this stuff and you've been doing this for many years.
- 47:24You've done lots of presentations.
- 47:26You do online clearly, exclusively, you know, and I always ask these silly questions that
- 47:30I like.
- 47:31If I only had one, which is a dumb question, one way to actually promote and build my business,
- 47:35well, we don't ever want to have just one.
- 47:37But let me ask it this way, what do you are, I talked about this on the last blog.
- 47:42I love this new acronym.
- 47:43I have ROE return on effort, right?
- 47:45It's about leveraged activities.
- 47:47What are the most leveraged activities for you and your experience for generating business
- 47:51be a director referral?
- 47:55Oh boy.
- 47:57Wow, that's a good question.
- 47:59I mean, my, for me personally, it, it really is just coming out with that new content.
- 48:07That's, that's a hard question for me to answer because I have access to a resource
- 48:14that most other people aren't going to have access to.
- 48:17I mean, for me, I actually do have an audience.
- 48:20I, I mean, I literally have, I call them conversations.
- 48:25If somebody goes to my website, I had a conversation with them because that was really my, when
- 48:32I wrote that, I was having a conversation with somebody.
- 48:36So I literally have 20,000 conversations a month.
- 48:41And, you know, a certain percentage of those I can do business with, but the rest of them,
- 48:45you just don't know.
- 48:47I mean, I get these things, people come back years and years after, you know, at least probably
- 48:54five times a month, I'll get an email that the very first sentence is, I've been reading
- 48:59your website for the last three, four or five years.
- 49:03And so you just never know what's, you know, what's out there.
- 49:07You know, as far as what activities, what activities you invest in, and if I just went
- 49:14on a rabbit hole, put me back on track, but, but I don't think it, I think it just has
- 49:19to be something.
- 49:21And I think before you decide what that thing is that you're going to engage in, don't
- 49:28listen, don't just listen to what somebody's, how somebody's telling you that there's
- 49:34a better mouse trap, there's a better way to trap those mice out there.
- 49:39Take the time to understand what the mice want to eat.
- 49:44Find out where they're, where they're looking for the food.
- 49:48Why are they looking in those places for the food?
- 49:51If you're going to be online, you have to have this empathy with, you have to be able
- 49:55to connect with the consumer.
- 49:57You can't sell online.
- 49:59The very best thing you can do online is earn somebody's trust.
- 50:03And that's not something to be taken lightly.
- 50:06Some of it has to do with what your site looks like, but more of it has to do with how
- 50:11you connect with the person once they find it.
- 50:16And I think that's the, that's the single most important part is whatever you do, you
- 50:20got to be genuine about it.
- 50:24And, and you just have to commit to it because, especially when you're talking about emerging
- 50:28markets, and I think that's something that I kind of specialize in.
- 50:31I'm sort of hardwired for delay reward.
- 50:35I'm not one of those guys that, that wants to do something and then get a reward out
- 50:39of it.
- 50:40I'm the guy that thinks that, you know, if I work really, really hard at this for a really
- 50:45long time, nobody else will put that much effort in and I'll win in the end.
- 50:50So I'm wired a little bit differently and I think that's why I was okay with working
- 50:56on this for, for seven, eight years and I still think I've only scratched the surface
- 51:01of what I can do with this as we were talking about this new CRM that I've got that, that
- 51:07takes my ability to create a customer experience to a whole new level.
- 51:13Right.
- 51:14And, and I'm really excited about converting that traffic in that audience and, and learning
- 51:20new ways to build, to build trust.
- 51:23Awesome.
- 51:24Did I answer that question or did I just spin off on a tangent?
- 51:28Well, you know, as far as I, what I heard was a great answer is the real answer is it
- 51:33depends, right?
- 51:34If you talk about, you know, hey, what's the most highly leveraged activity I could be
- 51:37doing to get, to build my business and get, you know, loans in production.
- 51:42It does depend because it depends on where you are, who you're at.
- 51:44And I, I'm a big follow up Chris Brogan and, and I always, you know, like his response
- 51:49to people, to your point about people telling you, hey, this is the way it should be done.
- 51:53You know, his answer is, says who, right?
- 51:55I mean, it depends, it depends on what, like we opened up with, if you've got a massive
- 51:59database of 20 years in the business of referral business, you know, you're not necessarily
- 52:03worried about where your next loan has come from, because as long as you're obviously,
- 52:06you know, keeping that wheel greased and engaged and all that.
- 52:10So the answer does depend on, but you, yeah, but, and if you're one of those referral
- 52:15people, you can absolutely start looking at some automation tools so that it's easier
- 52:21so you can free up more time to talk to the people that are interested by creating systems,
- 52:26whether it's a website or a CRM, to stay in communication with that database.
- 52:31If that database is sitting in Excel and doing nothing, then you need to adopt some technologies
- 52:38and some different communication tools so that you, it'll free your highest,
- 52:42invest use is talking to people, not necessarily dialing the phone or handwriting cards,
- 52:48even though there's huge ROI on that personal touch, but creating some sort of automation
- 52:53in there is absolutely necessary.
- 52:58You know, I think with any of this, what's so hard about doing business in this day and
- 53:04age is that things change so quickly and people tend to get distracted because there's
- 53:12so many shiny objects and you, you're one of the rare, rare people and this is why you
- 53:19and I are friends is you're really going out there, you're trying to teach people things
- 53:24that are hard to learn and that take time to learn and they need to perfect them and
- 53:29they're super smart strategies, but the other 99.9% of the people in our space in real estate
- 53:37and mortgage, they're trying to sell us easy buttons and it simply doesn't exist.
- 53:42There's no such thing as an easy button, the stuff is hard and you have to choose something.
- 53:49I think you always have to be working on the immediate, you know, you have to close loans
- 53:53today, but this is where I say it's harder because there's this learning curve you have
- 53:59to learn to reengage with consumers in today's market.
- 54:04You as a consumer, we as consumers, we make buying decisions totally differently today
- 54:11than we did 10 years ago, totally differently.
- 54:15Consumers are so empowered, we can say yes, no back space, close that website, we don't
- 54:22have to, we're not limited to the choices that are geographically convenient to us anymore.
- 54:29We can go online and find the cheapest price and Amazon might have it there by 3 o'clock
- 54:34today.
- 54:35It just depends on where their distribution center is, you know, it's a different, it's
- 54:39a different world out there and you've got to, so I think you have to, anybody concerned
- 54:46about this stuff and you touched on this and I know this is one of your philosophies,
- 54:52you have to, you have to be willing to invest time into developing these new emerging markets,
- 55:01new emerging contact strategies and conversion strategies and nurture strategies at the same
- 55:09time you're doing what you've always done.
- 55:12So that's kind of why I'm saying it, for me, it's twice as much work as it's ever been.
- 55:19You know, if you're going to go into something like this and if you're going to get into
- 55:26internet marketing and online marketing, that's in addition to what you already do to make
- 55:31a living because it's seriously going to take, it's this learning curve.
- 55:37There's absolutely no way around it.
- 55:40So there's no way to get around the learning curve.
- 55:44So that's just going to take patience, trial, testing, measuring, tweaking, you know, re-launching,
- 55:53it's a process and it's a whole new set of, it's a whole new mindset and a whole new set
- 55:59of skills that you need to develop and it takes time.
- 56:02Yes.
- 56:03So don't look for the easy button.
- 56:04If you press the button and you don't get rich, don't give up because the button was
- 56:10a lie, the strategy is probably, it's probably very relevant and it probably works.
- 56:16Yeah, and we so much want to believe in the easy button.
- 56:21It's very attractive and intoxicating, but I think, you know, we've all, hopefully, you
- 56:26know, been down that road enough times to realize if it's that easy, right?
- 56:30Everybody would be wildly successful.
- 56:32And the truth is, right?
- 56:34So no, I love that.
- 56:35Way to kind of button it up.
- 56:36Okay, we're almost out of time, a couple of minutes left, but I do have like two rapid
- 56:40fire questions to throw at you.
- 56:42So I'm just curious on your take on this because obviously you're, you're really tapped
- 56:46into what's going on technology related to consumers.
- 56:49All right.
- 56:50First question.
- 56:51Quick and rocket loans.
- 56:54Thumbs up, thumbs down.
- 56:55Question mark makes an impact, takes market share.
- 56:58What's your take on that?
- 57:02That's a great question.
- 57:03I've been having that conversation a lot lately.
- 57:07It's, I think that for me, I'm actually excited about it because that's more
- 57:13business for me.
- 57:15I get a lot of traffic.
- 57:16I get a lot of traffic from people that talk to the customer service agents at, at
- 57:22Quick and Loans, the, the, to say that those are loan officers and that's a mortgage company.
- 57:30It's really, they skim the, the cream off the top of the cream.
- 57:35And that's all they're going for.
- 57:36And they spend billions of dollars to do it, but they make a good ROI on it.
- 57:41It's not the market I'm in.
- 57:42I'm not concerned about it at all.
- 57:44I get, I get calls every day from people that said that the Quick and Loan Officer
- 57:48told them that their computer told them that they don't qualify, but they don't know
- 57:52anything beyond that.
- 57:53Well, no, I mean, and that's not, that's not a dig on anybody that works there, but
- 57:57they don't hire for that.
- 57:58No, I don't.
- 57:59They don't hire people with years of experience, they hire people to answer films and, and punch
- 58:04keys.
- 58:05Yeah.
- 58:06So, um, you know, I think the reality is, I think it's smart.
- 58:12I love where the technology is going, because when the technology gets cheap enough to be
- 58:16able to make, you know, to make a good and automated underwriting decision with 90% accuracy
- 58:25for 5% of your database, I mean, that's, that's pretty sexy to me.
- 58:31I love the fact that that's where technology is going is going to places that can, that
- 58:37can make it an easier process for the consumer.
- 58:41Now the reality is, is that going to help more or less consumers.
- 58:44I think it's going to help less consumers, because you're setting yourself up for, if you're
- 58:50going under the, the, the implication that we're going to be able to give you an approval,
- 58:56we, anybody who's been in the industry knows that that almost never works.
- 59:03Once you get the paste up, what, wait a minute, what's, what's this?
- 59:08What's this over time?
- 59:09What's this?
- 59:10You know, there's always something else.
- 59:12So when you're basically promising a pain-free mortgage experience, the first time that
- 59:18pain bubbles its way up, and then if you don't have an expert there to help walk you through
- 59:24that pain, then, then now, quick and has a reputation of, you know, not being able to
- 59:30help.
- 59:31But they, they don't really care.
- 59:33I mean, their business model isn't designed around referrals, it's around one and
- 59:37now.
- 59:38You know, it's how many people can I get through, get in, get done, get out.
- 59:43It's not the same type of experience.
- 59:45So love the technology.
- 59:49I don't think it's a bad thing at all.
- 59:50I, I, I, I, I like it.
- 59:53I think the easier that people think that it is, the more they need people like me.
- 59:57There you go.
- 59:58Awesome.
- 59:59For a dose of reality.
- 1:00:00All right.
- 1:00:01Last one I guess just for sake of time.
- 1:00:03Facebook or Twitter, and I know there's no context around that, but it's two places,
- 1:00:11two places.
- 1:00:12I don't spend that much time on absolutely by far learning Facebook and Facebook's marketing,
- 1:00:22power editors and marketing tools, learning how to leverage their insights, putting a cookie
- 1:00:29on your website, running, you know, we're pulling the demographics on your, on your,
- 1:00:36your traffic.
- 1:00:38Facebook has, has so far and above everybody else, some of the greatest marketing and segmenting
- 1:00:45and insight tools that are out there today, and it's still inexpensive.
- 1:00:51So I, I don't see, I don't see how I can sell mortgages over Twitter, but I still think
- 1:01:00Facebook is an incredibly powerful tool.
- 1:01:02I think if you're going on there, telling people about the loans that you've closed, and
- 1:01:08I still think that's kind of annoying.
- 1:01:10I, I spend most of my time on Facebook and private groups, but as a marketer, Facebook
- 1:01:19as a marketing platformer, as a way to communicate with your potential clients, super,
- 1:01:27super fascinating, haven't cracked it yet, but it's definitely something that I'm putting
- 1:01:33a lot of effort and energy into right now.
- 1:01:35Well, that's, that's a great summary, actually.
- 1:01:37And it's mostly, just, it's mostly putting, it's mostly putting education out there.
- 1:01:41Yes, I was just going to say.
- 1:01:42It's like, hey, how do I buy after bankruptcy?
- 1:01:44Right.
- 1:01:45I'm able to target that person, target that first time home buyer, and advertising a webinar
- 1:01:51that says the top three, top three ways to buy a home with no money down in California,
- 1:01:58you know, and, and, and checking those audience insights and getting them to sign up for a
- 1:02:02webinar, that, that kind of thing.
- 1:02:05I think there's, I think there's a super powerful strategy there.
- 1:02:08Yeah, it's just another place to drive that engagement and deliver that content marketing,
- 1:02:12like you said, to be relevant.
- 1:02:14Awesome.
- 1:02:15Well, this has been great.
- 1:02:16I know you are busy and probably got a few more loans in your pipeline since we've been
- 1:02:20talking.
- 1:02:21So you need to get at those.
- 1:02:22Yeah.
- 1:02:23Once again, though, how direct people to your page, which would be a great learning experience
- 1:02:28for them.
- 1:02:29If you don't mind, I've already alluded to it during this call already, findmywayhome.com.
- 1:02:33Sure.
- 1:02:34Any other places you want to direct people or is that good?
- 1:02:38No, that's good for now.
- 1:02:41I'm, I'm working on a new, working in a new startup right now.
- 1:02:46It'll actually probably be launched by the explode conference.
- 1:02:52I think April 19th is Orange County.
- 1:02:56So I'll be out there talking about some stuff and talking about my new company, but yeah,
- 1:03:01I'm building a new mortgage company right now, kind of around everything that we've learned
- 1:03:07and, and, and kind of leveraging all the stuff that I've done to help, you know, to employ
- 1:03:14people that don't have the time to necessarily do it all themselves, but still grasp the
- 1:03:18concept and know how to operate in that kind of an environment where you've got these
- 1:03:22trust-based online leads coming in.
- 1:03:25So no, lots of stuff coming up, but findmywayhome is a good place.
- 1:03:29Okay.
- 1:03:30I'm always hanging out there right in articles, answering comments and all that other stuff.
- 1:03:34You definitely are.
- 1:03:35So you'll get some new stalkers, hopefully, as a result of this.
- 1:03:39And just to clarify too.
- 1:03:40Sure.
- 1:03:41And people can call me.
- 1:03:42Yeah.
- 1:03:43People can call me anytime.
- 1:03:44You know, send me an email, reach out if you have a question about something.
- 1:03:47I've, I've never had a secret in my entire life.
- 1:03:50I'll tell anybody everything that I do, because I know most people won't do it.
- 1:03:56So, but, but a lot of times I'll find super smart people like you and you'll come back
- 1:04:01and say, well, that was great.
- 1:04:02Check this out.
- 1:04:03And then you start that, you know, you create those relationships where you have other
- 1:04:07like-minded people and, you know, we're all on little bit different islands, but we're
- 1:04:12in the same ocean and we can help each other out.
- 1:04:14So, I really invite that.
- 1:04:16Well, thank you for that.
- 1:04:17And just a quick note for those listening.
- 1:04:19The explode conference that Scott's referring to, he's speaking at in Anaheim, California
- 1:04:24on April 19.
- 1:04:25There's a bunch of those shows happening across the country.
- 1:04:27If you want to learn more about them, go to explodys.com and by the way, explode is without
- 1:04:32the e.
- 1:04:33It's exp.
- 1:04:34L-O-D-E.
- 1:04:35This.
- 1:04:36Explodys.com.
- 1:04:37And hopefully they're coming to a city near you.
- 1:04:38We'll put it in the show notes.
- 1:04:40That is it, my friend.
- 1:04:41Scott Shang.
- 1:04:42Thank you so much for making time.
- 1:04:43This is a class in and of itself, man.
- 1:04:45So, thanks again.
- 1:04:46Yeah.
- 1:04:47Okay.
- 1:04:48Thanks, Jeff.
- 1:04:49Have a great one.
- 1:04:50All right.
- 1:04:51Thanks everybody for listening.
- 1:04:52So, you mortgage marketing radio.
- 1:04:53One more truth in mortgage marketing, get more free training and resources at mortgagemarketinginstitute.com.
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