Latest / Mortgage Marketing Radio / Ep #54: Stop Talking and Take Action With Jen Du Plessis

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Ep #54: Stop Talking and Take Action With Jen Du Plessis · Mortgage Marketing Radio

0:00
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Hey listeners, Jeff Zimper, welcome to this week's episode of mortgage marketing radio.
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As always, I am so grateful you're taking time from your busy day to spend some time
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with us.
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If you're getting value, I'd love to hear how you're liking the podcasts.
1:46
You can always email me at infoatmortgagemarketinginstitute.com.
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2:09
marketing institute.
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So let's get into this week, my special guest, very honored and humbled to have Jen DePlessis
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on.
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Jen is a mortgage originator's originator.
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What do I mean by that?
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I mean, Jen, 30 plus year career in mortgage origination, seen, heard, done it all.
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She's consistently named on the top 200 originators in the US and in 2012 and the top 1% for many
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consistent years.
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She's also not just an originator, she's a trainer, speaker, author, coach, her own company,
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CEO of Kinetic Spark Consulting is really, it's her passion project.
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It's evolved from Jen's desire to help others in her industry as well as real estate agents,
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fellow mortgage loan originators, et cetera.
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And I like Jen's approach because, as I said, she's an originator's originator and she's
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very pragmatic, practical, but also very smart and savvy with how she goes about building
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her business and a business that doesn't control her.
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And I really enjoyed the conversation we had on this episode where we talked about some
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of Jen's ideas about, you know, defining your role in this business.
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What is your role?
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Are you a finder, a minder or a grinder?
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Or sometimes, depending on where you're at in the business, maybe you're all three.
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And then we definitely talk about scheduling priorities and I asked her, right, this is
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a woman who's done a billion dollars in loans in her career.
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And I asked her, what's the number one, the biggest obstacle to most originators, building
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the business that they want that gives them the income and the lifestyle and the enjoyment
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that they seek?
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And in order to answer to me was managing priorities, managing priorities, okay?
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So this is a mini workshop on how to identify the roles that you're best suited for in
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building and growing your business and referrals and then creating a plan and a strategy for
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how to put that into work in your business on a day-to-day basis.
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And you hear exactly how Jen does it, how she coaches and teaches others, how to do it.
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And then you hear some of the resources that Jen's made available for us if you're interested
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in connecting with her more.
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You can do so by way of the show links.
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I provided links to her website to a lifetime membership offer she's got and I encourage
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you to go out and purchase her book launch.
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How to take your business to new heights.
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And I've gone through the book and I've highlighted, underlined, written, scribbled, made notes.
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And I've already pulled out lots of great ahas, strategies, tactics, and mindset about
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how to not only be more productive, right?
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But also lots of gems I'm sharing here with other people that I work with personally.
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So Jen Deplasses has my highest endorsement and recommendation and you would do yourself
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well to check out what she's got to offer a little bit further.
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So with that said, I hope you enjoyed this week's episode.
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Let's get into the show.
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Hey Jen, welcome to the show.
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Thank you for having me.
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I'm excited to be here.
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We are thrilled to have you and I appreciate you making time for us on a crazy busy day.
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And let's get right into it.
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So the listeners kind of heard the official formal intro before I brought you on.
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But why don't you give them kind of your version?
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Who's Jen Deplasses, what's she all about?
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Oh wow.
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And you want me to encapsulate that in a few seconds.
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Let me see what I could do.
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Well, let's see, you know, I've been in lending for 34 years.
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It'll be 35 March first.
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Wow.
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That's all I've done.
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And I've done pretty much everything you can do in lending, you know, the early years
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and ops, just like most women in our industry, you know, start an ops.
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And then I've been a, you know, national regional sales manager, a lot of management experience
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and then went into origination about 20 years ago, I guess, in 15, 20 out of, there's
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an overlap there.
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And you know, been in the top 200 a couple of times, always in the top 100% and have a team.
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But I'm in, you know, I'm going to place in my career now where I'm trying to give back
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to my industry in any way and capacity that I can.
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All right, Jen.
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Thanks very much for that.
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So, yes, you're in a place where you want to give back to the industry.
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You know, whenever I hear that, I'm kind of curious.
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Why?
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What happened because many of us have mentors that change in shape our lives?
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What happened for you?
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Why do you want to now give back?
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You know, I think the biggest reason for me is that I've been an advocate for education
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in our industry for years and years and years and years.
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Even when I was an originator, I knew I, you know, when I started off, I was an underwriter
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by the way.
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And I, you know, I started off saying that I'm not going to be delivering donuts and
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rate sheets or refuse.
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In fact, I, I don't even remember a time where I did rate sheets.
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And for me, I thought, I'm going to set myself up to be the resident expert on everything
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and teach, teach, teach.
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And so I was a huge advocate about licensing before it was popular years ago.
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And I think that it's just ingrained in my, in my DNA, you know, to be an educator.
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I teach classes left right and sideways for realtors, financial planners, attorneys,
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people in my own company.
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I'm, I'm the, you know, official mentor for our company.
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I'm, I mentor and coach people at my company as well.
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And I think that that just is ingrained in what I do.
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I just feel like, you know, as professional, I was real estate, sorry, not real estate,
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lending professionals.
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You know, we need to up our game.
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We, we are the professionals.
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We can't be rate quoters.
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We've got to up our game.
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And so it's just sort of a little, you know, a little all me out there trying to make
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us all better.
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You know, well, you're clearly having an impact.
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I mean, I, I've kind of seen you from a distance, you know, not that I stalked you by any
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mean, but, you know, it's a small, it's a small industry, you know, for those of us that
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are kind of in the circle.
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And you recently came out with a book called Launch, How to Take Your Business to New Heights,
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which will definitely provide links in the show notes to get that.
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It's a great book.
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It's a beautiful, hard cover book.
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I'm standing here with it in my hands.
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And so first of all, everybody gets a book number one.
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Number two, right?
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Whenever I do these podcasts and I've got someone who's an author, I kind of decide,
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okay, what can I extrapolate from the book that I think will resonate and hit home with
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most?
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And so I want to start there if that's okay.
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Yeah.
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Of course.
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I want to start with chapters three through six, where you talk about are you playing
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offense or defense?
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Because I know you see this very often as I do is, what do you mean by that?
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What's an example of somebody playing offense or defense as an LL?
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Yeah.
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Well, you know, where this started was, you know, years ago, I, it's a great, it's a fun
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story.
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I can't remember I put it in the book or not, but I was, I remember when Barry Habib and
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Jim McMahon and Greg Frost used to do their tours and stuff.
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And I was in one of their meetings and, you know, and I hear I was one of the very few
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women at that time.
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I mean, we're going back to the late 80s, you know, very few women that were in any kind
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of, any position they had to do with anything other than ops.
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And here I am learning about this and these guys kept getting up and at the time, that
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was never where the guys were, suspenders, but anyway, you know, and the Larry King suspenders
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in.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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And everybody, they would get up constantly from these meetings.
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I'm like, what are the heck is going on?
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Well, at that time, we didn't have phones.
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We had pages.
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And so they were, you know, responding to the pages, getting in line at the hotel, you
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know, to call back somebody figure out what was going on.
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And, you know, so I went to another one, not too long from after that.
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And I said to my husband, Brian, I go, hey, listen, anyone.
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I'm at the saying, I need you to page me five times.
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I need to look just as important as they do, you know, and so my page would go off and
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I'm like, who's look at me?
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I'd get up and then I'd be in line with them and I'd be saying, so you want me to get
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milk and bread?
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Yeah, yeah.
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Mortgage, mortgage, love, love, you know, and then, you know, fastward a little bit and
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I was a sales manager for world savings at the time.
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And, you know, now I'm managing these people that I was seeing getting busy when I found
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out they didn't have control of their business at all.
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And that's why they were being reactionary.
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So now my phone rings two or three times a day and it's for referrals.
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It's not to check on the status or anything else.
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So it became a game for me is like, how can I get the information out to everybody faster
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and at milestones, which is now everybody's building software around this.
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But I've been doing this for 25 years.
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I have this proprietary system in reaching out and communicating with people at every single
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milestone and anticipating what their needs are.
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So to me, that's a leaning in mode.
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I'm leaning into my business and rather than being a reactionary, not the other part
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of that is that when you make an offensive phone call, you know, not offensive, but when
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you make an off, right, offensive, when you make an offensive phone call, it makes people
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smile.
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It's two minutes long.
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It's like, hey, Jeff, it's Jen.
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I just want to let you know the appraisal was ordered and the next step is, right?
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And you know, and that next step piece is very important versus having a realtor call
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me and say, hey, is the appraisal been ordered?
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Well, I don't know.
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Let me check.
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And then you check it.
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Yes, it was ordered and they say, okay, great.
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When's it coming up?
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I don't know.
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Let me check again.
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So whenever you're in the defensive mode like that, I feel like you lose.
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So it became a game.
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If somebody calls and wants to status or is calling to find out what happens next, we've
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lost.
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We have lost.
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So building a system around being in an offensive mode, it's a time waster to be in defensive
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mode.
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It's a time saver to be an offense.
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It's a customer experience to be an offense.
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It's a negative customer experience to be in defense.
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Yeah, I love that.
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I love the analogy.
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I love the fact that you want to get ahead of it.
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And so never have anybody kind of surprised you with that question or those questions.
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Yes.
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So then what do you see as the biggest roadblock for LOS to stay in offense, which is, you
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know, proactive in action?
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Time management.
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And I hate using the word time management.
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I actually call it priority management.
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I don't call time blocking time blocking.
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I call it interval working because everybody needs to get over their damn associations to
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that word time blocking.
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You know, I know.
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It's crazy.
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It's silly.
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It's like, oh, it's a negative connotation, but the thing is time blocking will set you
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free.
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It will not constrict you.
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And so you've got to get control and start doing things, you know, in a timely basis.
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And, you know, in the book, I explain this, but, you know, it's fun when you hear it from
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me and it's my voice, but it's like when you're doing laundry, why do you take all your
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clothes out and put them in a basket and then fold them into piles?
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Why don't you just take one thing out and run it to the bedroom and come back and fold
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another thing and then run it someplace else?
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When you look at your email and you come into the office every day and you look at your
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email, that is a basket of clothing because the first email says, hey, did you get my
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pay set?
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Hey, what's the status of the appraisal?
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Hey, do you want to come to my grand opening?
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Hey, I have to talk to you about this alone, the DTI is too high.
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Hey, you know, in each one of those items represents a different type of clothing.
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If you can bucket those and compartmentalize those and then I go after them in one concise
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timeframe, you're going to be much more effective.
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The same story would be, have you ever done Christmas cards, you know, the first one's
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like, hi, Aunt Sue, we've been doing this that, you know, you sign it and you stuff it
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and you write down below and you lick it and you stamp it and then by the time you get
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to the 10th when you're like, hey, we've had a great year, hey, we've had a great year
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and you do all the cards, you do all the stuffing, all at the same time.
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And so what you've developed over the course of that is efficiencies by compartmentalizing.
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It's exactly the same way.
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So if you want to be able to get more done in a shorter period of time, you need to learn
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to compartmentalize and carve out the time to do those things, you know, and not be distracted
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by the shiny object or the phone call or the, you know, reactionary type things that
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we do as lenders.
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Okay.
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So you don't call it time management, you call it priority management?
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Yeah, because it's really managing your priorities.
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I mean, what is your priority today?
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And, you know, if your priority is to make phone calls to get business and you get distracted
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and that doesn't become a priority anymore, and the priority is standing by the water cooler
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and yacking about some underwriter, you know, I mean, spending hours and hours fighting
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over a condition instead of just going and getting it.
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It's like, do you want to make the money or no?
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I don't know.
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Okay.
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So now, I know you coach people, how often do you see, yeah, it's on my calendar and it
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is time-blocked.
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It is priority-blocked.
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But I still get distracted and I get, you know, pull up.
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You hear that?
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Yeah.
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A lot.
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So how do we fix that?
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So, well, there's a couple of ways that you're going to fix it.
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I mean, one is you've got to be true to yourself.
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You know, that's part of it.
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The other part is not.
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What does that mean?
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Be true to yourself.
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I mean, it's a great song.
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I think.
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Be true to your school.
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But what is it?
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Yeah.
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It's, you know, you have to be true to yourself.
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I mean, if you truly want to make money and you have your passion and your goals, your life
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goals, and you know what they are, then nothing's going to stand in your way.
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And so I would say that, you know, and Darren Hardy's a mentor of mine, you know, when he
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wrote the compound effect, he's got this great illustration of you being in a tall building
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and another tall building, there's this plank between them.
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And if I told you to go over there and get, you know, a piece of paper, you're really
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hesitant to do that.
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But if I told you that your child was over there and the building's going to burn up and
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explode in two minutes, you would do anything to get over there to save them.
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So I would say to you, you know, are you in the mortgage business that I love saying this?
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Are you a 7-1 or 10-1 loan officer?
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Because have you been in the business 10 years, one year at a time?
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Or have you been in the business for 10 years where you're growing your business?
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If you haven't identified, why are you in this business?
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Because for me, I'm not in this business because I like doing mortgages.
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I'm in this business because I want something for my kids.
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I want a perpetuity, a trust fund that lasts for perpetuity for my children.
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And so every loan is a means for getting there.
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So if I have my eye on a long term and what that is, then nothing's going to get in my
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way.
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So that's a long game, right?
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That's a long game of that.
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The short game is knowing what your priorities are.
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I think so many times, and at least with the people that I coach, and of course I speak
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at a lot of places, everyone gets up in there just like, okay, so, you know, I'm a loan
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officer today.
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I wonder what's going to happen.
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I have purpose every day.
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I know exactly what my time blocks are.
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I know exactly who I'm meeting and I know exactly the people I'm meeting and why I don't
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waste my time with people that aren't going to help move the needle in my business and
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move my business forward to achieve my life goal.
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And everyone talks about this, but no one ever sits down and actually says, well, what
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do I want?
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You know, it's not the monetary things.
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It's not, I'm going to work my butt off so I can buy a big massive boat or a $20,000
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watch, or it's not those things.
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It's much bigger than that.
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And to have any stank power in this industry and to be able to fund, now I've funded over
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a billion dollars and loans now over my tenure, in order to be able to, in order to be able
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to have any of that stank power, you have to have real clear goals.
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And so that's why you have to be true to yourself instead of saying, you know, I don't
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have to be somebody's back and call girl.
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Yes.
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I mean, that's really what happens.
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And I want to provide good service and I do provide a good service and good experience
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for my client.
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But I think we need jerk reactants.
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It's like, you know, we need a, you know, a realtor cause and said, I need a pre-approval
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letter.
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You stop everything.
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If you're a church, you run out of the back of the church and do a pre-approval
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letter.
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And instead, we could just ask a very simple question.
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Great.
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When do you need it?
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Because they, oh, I'm not making the offer till next Tuesday.
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Great.
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You know, so we have to quantify these things and be true to ourselves instead of, you
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know, saying, okay, I'm going to drop everything.
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Instead of saying, I'll call you back at four, I'll call you back at 10 minutes.
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Say, can I call you between four and six because that's your time block when you call
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people back?
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Yeah.
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And then that loosens it up.
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And that is a question I get all the time is, you know, well, I get calls from realtor,
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so I have to drop everything because they have a referral.
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No.
18:14
All right.
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So let's talk a little bit about the communication then because this gets back to there I bring
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in that other word scripting.
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This gets back to how you're, you have the conversations, how you set up, right, your
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business process with your referral partners like realtors.
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I'm sure you have a description for them of like, okay, so this is how I work, right?
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And then you walk through the conversation about time blocking whatever if I'm unavailable.
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People have system set up to deal with that.
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Yeah.
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You know, I mean, I think that's a very loaded question because there's different levels
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of realtors that we work with.
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Yeah.
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First of all, I think if you're a loan officer and you're, you know, like a cat on a
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marble floor trying to get any realtors guard in meet with them and you tell, you know,
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you sit there and tell them, you know, this is how I work.
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I think you're going to get a negative reaction to that.
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I think it's more about us in interviewing, you know, you have to remember when we interview
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with realtors, there's going to be, you know, three or four outcomes.
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One is going to be, you know, you're either going to, they're going to hire you.
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They're not going to hire you.
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Or the third truth we never think about is, I might not hire them, okay?
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So I have to first interview them to see if I'm going to hire them and if I do decide
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to hire them and they agree that this is a good mutual, you know, we all have common
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interest and then I'm going to address those issues with them on how each of us works.
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That's just how I work.
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It's not, you know, this is how I work.
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I don't call you back.
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If you're a top player with me, I'm going to, I'm going to bend for you.
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But if you're not, you're going to go into my voice mill and I will get to you.
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I promise.
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But it's the difference between being in demand and being on demand and you want to increase
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the level of your business, you know, I have clients that will wait for two weeks to meet
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with me because I'm so much in demand versus being on demand.
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So it's a psyche for yourself in saying that, you know, yeah, I want to help you and
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I want to want to help your business.
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But quite frankly, a realtor that calls you and is, I mean, to keep using these comparisons
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because I love them, are they complementing or complicating your business?
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So just because a realtor doesn't have control of their business, doesn't mean they have
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to lay that on me and call me, you know, at eight o'clock in the morning on a Sunday morning.
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So make sure you're aligning yourself with the people that aren't doing that.
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I would say that's how you solve the problem, not just tell people what to do, but, you
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know, align yourself with the people that have the characteristics that you're looking
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for and really the best way to do that is to identify what you don't want, you know,
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so I don't want a realtor who's part time.
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Therefore, one of my characteristics is they have to be full time.
20:49
I don't want someone who works, you know, chaoticly, therefore I want someone who's
20:53
a little more structured.
20:54
So when you're interviewing them, we're sharing with them how our process works, but we're
20:58
also asking them how theirs works so that we can make the decision whether we want to work
21:02
with them or not.
21:03
Believe me, there's thousands of them out there.
21:05
So what do you then say to agents who, you know, come out of the gate with like, you
21:10
know, here's what I expect from my loan officers and there could be a variety of, you know,
21:14
oh, well, you know, my current loan officer buys Zillow leads or I expect my LOs to respond
21:18
within 30 minutes, you know what I mean?
21:20
Yeah, the four letter word because it doesn't align with my characteristics, right?
21:26
If it lines with yours, if you're listening and that aligns with your characteristics,
21:30
then take it.
21:31
It does not align with my characteristics.
21:33
So next.
21:34
So now, everyone says, well, that's really easy to say when you've got business.
21:38
No, no, no, that's real easy to say when you want to have some control of your life
21:43
because if you start going down that path and you're new or you're, you know, trying
21:46
to get business and you feel like you have to be everything to everyone, you will always
21:50
be everything to everyone.
21:53
And you will never be able to scale your business.
21:55
Don't be a doormat.
21:56
Yeah, because it's always, it's going to be like that forever and then you're going
21:59
to wonder why you can never get past relones, five loans a month because you're still helping
22:04
them in the manner that they've grown accustomed to and, you know, make that decision case
22:10
by case.
22:11
Right.
22:12
You know, for my top people, like I said, I'll bend and I will do the things that I will
22:15
never do for just took some Tom Dick and Harry realtor or any other referral partner
22:20
for that matter.
22:21
Yeah.
22:22
Okay.
22:23
That's awesome.
22:24
Good stuff.
22:25
Let's switch into defining your role.
22:26
And I love how you call it.
22:28
Find your mind or grinder.
22:29
Yeah.
22:30
Explain that.
22:31
And is there a one that's better than the other?
22:33
Well, yeah.
22:34
Okay.
22:35
All right.
22:36
So break it down for us.
22:37
Okay.
22:38
Yeah.
22:39
So finder is us.
22:40
We're loan officers.
22:41
Our job is to go find the business.
22:42
So all of our activities should be, you know, again, compartmentalizing all of our activities
22:46
and based around doing, you know, business, our high value, the highest and best use of
22:51
what what we do.
22:53
And really identifying, you know, two or three things that you do really, really well
22:56
and you do them all the time.
22:58
So for example, we would meet with our clients or talk to them on the phone and do loan
23:02
structure, right?
23:03
We're developing relationships with our referral partners.
23:06
And maybe we're teaching a class or, you know, to realtors or maybe we throw networking
23:12
in there or maybe we do both, but finding the business.
23:15
Maybe maybe you're saying maybe if, if you like it and you're good at it.
23:18
Yeah.
23:19
If you like it and you're good at it, I have something else called the trifecta of triumph,
23:22
you know, it's just, I only do things I really, really like that are really good at and
23:27
that make economical sense for me.
23:29
So for now, for example, this many years into the business, I don't do broker opens because
23:35
I did them in the beginning because I wanted to meet realtors.
23:39
I don't want to right now.
23:40
So I mean, I'm otherwise is what I'm saying.
23:44
Because you always have to be working.
23:45
But I don't do broker opens because I'm okay at it, but I'm not that great at it.
23:51
I don't like standing in the middle of the kitchen is, you know, that's, you know, one
23:57
reason I don't like to do it either because I have other ways that are better for me.
24:02
And so therefore, it doesn't make economical sense for me to spend $150 on a gift certificate
24:06
and a lunch with someone who most likely will never be business, right?
24:11
But for a new loan officer, I did it.
24:13
I did it as a new loan officer.
24:15
Yeah, I'm spending money.
24:16
I'm not that good at it, but I'll get better at it.
24:18
And I really don't like it, but it's the only way I'm going to be able to pick from
24:21
the litter is these agents come in and say, yeah, I want to meet with you.
24:24
Heck no, all you care about the food, you know, and being able to isolate who I'd like to
24:28
follow up with.
24:29
So as a finder, that's why I'm saying is do it, do what you really love to do.
24:33
So if I say teaching classes and you can't, you know, you're uncomfortable standing in front
24:37
of a group of people, then don't do that as a finder activity.
24:40
Find another activity that you feel more comfortable doing.
24:43
Got it.
24:44
So the finder stays in their lane because if you move into somebody else's lane, accidents
24:48
happen, right?
24:51
So the minder, the minder part of it to me is the most important role to me that is that's
24:58
the customer experience.
25:00
That is my right hand person.
25:01
That is the person who makes sure that the deal goes smoothly, you know, and you're
25:06
sustained.
25:08
You know, I mean, you know, all the different names that we have in our industry, the L.O.A.,
25:12
the mortgage planner, however you want to call it.
25:14
So the minder is the one who makes sure that the customer service is taken care of.
25:18
It's the nuts and bolts, a gritty, the nice and say gritty.
25:22
This is all the nuts and bolts of making sure that the loan gets, goes through smoothly.
25:25
And I don't want to know anything about the loans that are in process unless there's
25:29
a problem.
25:30
I don't need to know.
25:32
And I've even had many times that loan closing is like, yeah, you don't, yeah, that
25:36
loan closed.
25:37
And I don't even know because we have such a strong system, right?
25:41
And so my role, and I think everybody's equal, even as a team leader, you shouldn't think
25:46
that you're above everybody else.
25:48
Your role is to bring in business.
25:50
The next person's role is to make sure that it closes and if they do a great job, then
25:54
you can continue to bring in business so that everyone can make money.
25:58
The grinder is your person who does your events and maybe makes your phone calls for me.
26:03
It makes my appointments, manages my database, gives us, you know, lets us know when it's
26:10
a time for an annual review and they schedule the annual review and they're kind of grinding
26:13
out the business.
26:15
And everybody's role is equally important because I can't do mine if I'm stopping and having
26:20
to change lanes and work on something, then who's bringing in the business, right?
26:26
If I have to change lanes and do something in the database, then who's making sure the
26:31
loan closes on time?
26:33
So it's easier to understand those three roles and as a new loan officer, someone who's
26:38
not producing a lot, you have to be in all of those roles but you can't be all of them
26:41
at one time and that's why the time blocking is so important.
26:44
I love the way you just tied that together because I was thinking that exact same thing
26:48
because-
26:49
I knew you were.
26:51
I figured you were.
26:52
You've got the-
26:53
You've got the-
26:54
Been there.
26:55
Yeah, the Jedi mind trick going on.
26:57
Yeah.
26:58
Yeah, I mean, look, I hear this every single day, right?
27:00
Yeah, but I keep getting pulled back in and pulled back, but it's like I'm glad you point
27:03
in.
27:04
Look, early on until you have the minder or the assistant or whatever, guess what?
27:07
You're going to have to wear all three hats and that's just how it is.
27:09
Right.
27:10
Don't wear them minute after minute after minute.
27:12
Do it in time.
27:13
Right.
27:14
Very structured, focused time.
27:15
Exactly.
27:16
Which is what I'm trying to get a lot of people to do is, right?
27:18
It's very clear.
27:19
I tell them the worst thing you can have is white space on your calendar, right?
27:22
Do not show unless that's like a total blow-off day, which you've scheduled, then that's
27:26
cool.
27:27
But don't show up on a Monday Tuesday, you know, with white, what am I going to do today?
27:30
Like you said earlier.
27:31
Right.
27:32
And I think that's important.
27:33
So, you know, I just wanted to share something about this, too, like if you're having that
27:35
phone call for realtor, so let's say you have to answer the call because you're just
27:38
freaking out.
27:39
You got to answer the call.
27:40
Hi, Jeff.
27:41
Thanks so much for calling.
27:42
Listen.
27:43
I'm about ready to walk into a meeting.
27:44
You don't even have a meeting schedule.
27:45
Okay.
27:46
This is how you start going from on demand to in demand.
27:49
I'm about ready to walk into a meeting, but I just want you to know that I'm, you know,
27:53
I want to answer the call.
27:54
Can I call you back between three and five when I'm in front of my computer and I can
27:58
dedicate 100% of my time and attention to serving you?
28:02
Mm-hmm.
28:03
Comes back to the script.
28:04
Because otherwise, I'll listen now, but I'm not going to serve you and I'm not going
28:08
to dedicate my time and attention.
28:09
Yeah.
28:10
So you're telling them that you're, you want to do a better job in another time slot.
28:14
And most people will say, oh, of course, absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah, I was just calling
28:18
you.
28:19
You know, yeah.
28:20
Call me back whenever.
28:21
Love it.
28:22
Love it.
28:23
Yeah, because how many times you take that call and it winds up, oh god, I didn't really
28:24
have to take that call.
28:25
That's right.
28:26
That's right.
28:27
Awesome.
28:28
I love that.
28:29
So, all right.
28:30
So for my listeners anyway, a lot of people are in that finder mode, right?
28:33
Yeah.
28:34
And you've got some finder basics from your book, which we're going to put a link in the
28:37
show notes, which everybody listening must buy at least one copy if not 10 each.
28:42
Finder basics.
28:43
Yeah.
28:44
People time activities, right?
28:45
Yeah.
28:46
So what do you, what do you coach people on what to do to, I love what you said, how do,
28:49
how to move from on demand to in demand?
28:51
So what am I asking you is, how do we get more in demand?
28:53
Right.
28:54
Right.
28:55
So again, the people, the time and the activities that you're doing, you really have
28:57
to isolate it.
28:58
And, you know, recently, I was just talking to someone about this on, on my podcast as
29:02
well.
29:03
I just released it as, you know, just a simple ad is like, how do we bring this down
29:07
to the, the lowest common denominator?
29:09
And it's like, if you could just think of 12 apostles or apostles, right?
29:15
12 people.
29:16
12 people giving you one lead a month, let's just use the basics of that, we're all in
29:22
this business, right?
29:23
12 people giving one lead a month, that's 12 referrals, right?
29:27
These are your focus people, these are your people that you're going to spend the most
29:30
time with and do the most activities with.
29:34
So the PTA, right?
29:36
So they each give you one deal a month, that's 12 loans a month, times 12 is 144 transactions
29:43
a year.
29:44
Now let's say that the people that you're choosing, your 12 apostles that will give up their
29:48
other situations and be loyal to you, give you two a month, that's 288 loans a year,
29:54
right?
29:55
These 12 apostles don't have to be 12 realtors, they can be a combination of realtors,
30:00
financial planners, attorneys, the guy who owns the Jerry sub who gives you referrals,
30:04
your yoga instructor who gives you referrals, the, you know, person in your B and I group,
30:08
the person in your chamber group, it doesn't matter, but you want to identify these 12 people
30:13
that have the capacity to refer you 12 people every month, I mean, one person every month,
30:20
right?
30:22
So if we just bring it down to the lowest common denominator of all I have to do is find
30:26
12 people, I have to identify the characteristics so that I can select and say no to some other
30:32
people, right?
30:33
And put it still be dripping and dabbling, 12 people.
30:36
Now understand that you know hundreds of people as a loan officer, you're still going
30:39
to get business from all these other people, but your focus is on the 12.
30:44
The others will get an email blast or you'll see them in a networking event and they'll
30:48
occasionally send you a deal and that's wonderful.
30:51
And maybe they'll become one of your 12 apostles at some point in time.
30:55
The right now, just focus on those 12 to just one deal a month, one deal a month, one
31:00
family that you can help every single month.
31:03
And so that's the people, the time is then all of your time, you know, the broker open
31:09
for them, the activity, sure, I'll do a broker open for you, yeah, I'll come out at six
31:14
o'clock in the morning and freeze my tissue up and win her for some, you know, 5k race
31:18
because you have a table, because you have a table that has a skirt with rocks on it,
31:23
because I know when I get up to go do a 5k, I hope there is a realtor there.
31:27
Nice.
31:28
Right?
31:29
I mean, I'll do those things for you, but I will not do those things for other people.
31:33
I love the costume bowling event, that's like right up there.
31:36
Right.
31:37
Right.
31:38
So that's the people and where you spend your time, you know, is checking in with them
31:43
constantly and working with them and building relationship with them and helping their business
31:47
grow and helping that expose their business.
31:51
What do they need to get exposed to get more business too?
31:54
And so how can you help each other?
31:56
You know, it's like, I'm in my little boats, you know, rowing in a circle, they're in
31:59
their little boat rowing in a circle occasion, we hit, a fish flops back and forth, right?
32:03
And we go, thanks, that was cool, let's do it again and then we go row again.
32:08
Instead, let's get in the same boat.
32:10
Let's row together towards a common goal, but work really strong with them.
32:14
The rest of you all do all the same little activities, but it's focusing on those people
32:19
first and foremost.
32:20
And they're going to be loyal.
32:22
You want to get to the point where their business cannot succeed without you being in
32:27
it.
32:28
Yeah, absolutely.
32:29
And I think that's the right mindset to take.
32:30
And too many times it's reversed, like we alluded to earlier where, you know, we're just
32:33
so desperate for, right, that realtor to like us, you know, it's really not the right
32:38
mindset.
32:39
You know, and there's no rule that says that we can't go get our own clients.
32:43
Why are we waiting to be hand clients from them?
32:45
I mean, they're horrible again clients.
32:47
So, you know, that's why we all struggle, right, is they're horrible at getting clients.
32:51
They only have five deals at a year because they're horrible at getting clients.
32:55
So why would you ever base your entire practice on relying on someone else who's less than
33:01
you are at getting business, right?
33:04
So we're better at it.
33:05
We have more means to be able to do it.
33:07
We just need to go out and actually do it.
33:09
Any quick tips you would have for how to go outside of realtors and do that?
33:12
Oh, my gosh.
33:13
I have tons of tips on that.
33:14
I mean, I, you know, remember, we are in the financial services industry.
33:17
To me, realtors are in home services, okay?
33:20
Therein lies the difference, right there.
33:23
The most they know about, about, you know, calculating anything is their commission check,
33:28
right?
33:29
So we are in the financial services industry.
33:32
If you want to level up your game and notice I call it a practice.
33:35
I don't call it a business, right?
33:37
I call it a practice.
33:38
I'm like a doctor.
33:39
It's my practice and because it's my expertise and what I'm good, you know, good at.
33:45
And so if I'm in the financial sector, I want to talk with other people that can speak
33:49
my language, who can talk about, you know, optimal use of funds, who can talk about effective
33:54
interest rates, who can talk about return on investment, I are our internal return on
33:59
investment, who can, who can talk about different, different parts of IRIS and, you know, all
34:05
the pieces that go along with that.
34:07
I want to level up my game.
34:09
I can't level it up, always work with realtors and don't give me wrong.
34:12
I love some realtors.
34:14
Okay.
34:15
I love some.
34:16
I don't.
34:17
That's right.
34:18
I love some.
34:19
And the ones I love, I love on them and they love on me because we, we, we gel.
34:25
I do not have to subject myself to the other people that are out there.
34:29
I will go replace that person with a financial planner.
34:33
They want to love on me and then I can love on, on their practice as well.
34:38
And the same, and I'm a divorce, a certified divorce lending specialist as well.
34:42
So I work with a love divorce attorneys and, and we do that same thing.
34:46
We're going to love on each other and heck, 53% of people get divorced.
34:50
A divorce happens every 13 seconds in the United States right now.
34:54
That's a huge market.
34:56
They have referrals.
34:57
Did you find it difficult to break into that?
34:59
No.
35:00
No.
35:01
I actually found it, uh, it came a little too fast.
35:05
Really?
35:06
It came in where I, I heard you're a divorce specialist and now they're talking about
35:09
everything.
35:10
Should I give him, should I give him that set of books?
35:12
I'm like, okay, that's not what I do as a divorce specialist was.
35:15
Oh, you mean like all the, uh, the relationship books?
35:19
I got, I got everything.
35:20
I got all the questions, you know, can you help me with this and me?
35:23
He said this.
35:24
No.
35:25
No.
35:26
No, that's not my realm.
35:27
Yeah.
35:28
So it came a little too fast.
35:29
You can find other resources to be able to refer business, but guess what happens when
35:33
I refer them out for those types of things, they then in turn refer them back to me.
35:38
So, um, so I would just say, you know, if you're truly going to be in the business for
35:42
any extended period of time and you want to have a longstanding career that, that's to,
35:47
you know, set you up financially, spiritually, emotionally, you have all these friends.
35:51
You have a rich relationship with, with people not a deeper, but a richer.
35:55
It goes wide and deep.
35:57
Um, you know, you've got to level up your game and just not be the typical car salesman.
36:02
You got to, you got to do something that makes you an expert in this industry.
36:08
You're a mortgage expert, right?
36:10
And so act like one, you know, and then, yeah, I love what you're talking about because
36:13
you mentioned that in the book as well, you know, investing in yourself, go to conference
36:17
events, right?
36:18
Get coaching.
36:19
Listen to tapes, books, it's after podcasts like yours.
36:21
I mean, yeah.
36:22
Yeah.
36:23
It's actually such a great point.
36:25
It frustrates me to, at times, when I run into people who are kind of phoning it in, you
36:30
know, and I'll ask them, have you read this book?
36:32
Have you seen that?
36:33
And they're like, no, never even heard of him or her.
36:35
Like the dude.
36:36
Yeah.
36:37
Where are you living?
36:38
Yeah.
36:39
You know, the, the name of our book, my book, and it was so funny because when I, when
36:41
I started writing it, I'm like, they, you know, my publisher said, what do you want
36:43
to call it?
36:44
And I said, I want to call it shut up.
36:46
Go.
36:47
That was awesome.
36:48
And he goes, well, that's a little harsh.
36:51
So then we changed it to stop talking, take action.
36:54
And then he's like, I don't know.
36:56
So in the book, I do say stop talking, take action.
36:59
Because really what it's about is it's just that all this, this white noise around
37:02
us about, you know, do this, go to these seminars, but we don't say about, what are you
37:07
doing after you go to the seminar?
37:09
Go to the seminar.
37:10
Okay.
37:11
I went.
37:12
But now what?
37:13
You know, so stop talking about the fact you went there and learned all these great ideas.
37:17
Let's talk about, you know, carving out time rate after the seminar to implement some
37:21
of these things.
37:22
So it truly is an implementation issue because people have so much capacity, so many talents
37:30
and they're just not putting one step in front of the other.
37:34
And that's why this book was meant to be, yes, you know what you need to do, but I want
37:38
to show you how to do it so that you actually do it.
37:42
That's awesome.
37:43
That is awesome.
37:44
That's very inspiring.
37:45
I love that title too.
37:46
Okay.
37:47
Cool.
37:48
So we are at the end of time.
37:49
But let's do this.
37:50
I want people where they can reach out to connect with you more, especially those that
37:54
are interested in going to the next level with you.
37:57
You and I talked about this and you were mentioning you have a mortgage mastery lifetime
38:00
membership, which for those listening, if you're not sure, you've been doing coaching
38:04
for quite some time now with your company's called Kinetic Spark Consulting.
38:08
I've seen you present and obviously, you know, you know, your stuff, a billion dollars
38:12
in closed loans.
38:13
So you know, we're thinking about getting it done.
38:16
What do you want to tell us about mortgage mastery lifetime membership?
38:18
Yeah.
38:19
You know, what it is is I'm just giving you all my stuff.
38:23
That's what it is.
38:24
You're getting all my stuff, all my scripts, all my signature, you know, my email signature.
38:29
So you don't have to duplicate.
38:30
I'm trying to reduce the barriers or eliminate the barriers to you starting and getting going.
38:35
So my my perfect loan process is there, all the emails that I send, all the scripts that
38:40
I use for that.
38:41
I've thrown in a couple of classes and CE classes and I will continue to add them.
38:46
I've got several more that are coming out or that I actually teach.
38:50
I just need to formulate it and get it prepared to be able to present them up there.
38:54
But it's I did the syllabus and the time outlines, all you have to do is take it to your
38:58
local association or whatnot and you become approved to teach CE classes to realtors.
39:04
One is a math class.
39:05
In fact, I'm teaching it tomorrow.
39:06
I have 30 some people coming to my office to teach it tomorrow.
39:10
You know, so it's a lot of really good, really good content, but you will get it for life.
39:15
So as I continually, you know, put presentations in, get a new script idea, you know, have
39:21
a new email signature, you're going to get all of it.
39:23
I just I'm just giving you my stuff, you know, 30 some years and I just want to accelerate
39:29
your success by just handing it to you.
39:31
Yeah.
39:32
And you mentioned, you know, implementation is the key.
39:33
And sometimes the challenge with implementation is, you know, if you've got to build the
39:37
boat or the plane, you know, that you're going to take to your destination.
39:40
Exactly.
39:41
Yeah.
39:42
Exactly.
39:43
That's where people get bogged down.
39:44
Exactly.
39:45
It's done.
39:46
It's done.
39:47
You know, hey, you can do it.
39:48
You can type out all your little signatures or you can just copy mine.
39:50
I don't care.
39:51
You can reinvent the wheel.
39:52
You know, right.
39:53
That would take much time.
39:54
Right.
39:55
That would take much time.
39:56
Yeah.
39:57
And like I said, it's for life.
39:58
So anytime I ever do anything, I'm just going to keep throwing stuff in there.
40:00
So yeah, so that's what they say.
40:02
And then of course, I have my podcast, Mortgage Lending Mastery.
40:04
Right.
40:05
You know, I'm trying to teach people just like you are.
40:06
We're doing the same thing and, you know, sharing and, you know, just how wonderful
40:09
you are, you know, giving this information to people as well.
40:12
And so we do that.
40:15
And then the coaching, yeah, you just get more information on Kinetic Spark and reach
40:18
out to me about coaching.
40:20
Okay.
40:21
I do consulting for companies too.
40:23
So if you want your whole team, you know, come in and, and teach for a whole day and
40:26
straighten everybody out.
40:27
That's right.
40:28
Right now we've got to help.
40:29
In a very, in a very nice way.
40:32
No, no, no, no.
40:33
I know how you open up your training sessions.
40:35
You open it up with, okay, first, first is two words.
40:37
Shut up.
40:38
Okay.
40:39
Right.
40:40
No, I don't know.
40:41
You know, of course not.
40:42
You're incredibly gracious.
40:43
So I'm going to make sure I put all the links to Kinetic Spark Consulting in the show knows
40:47
podcast.
40:48
Obviously, the book is well, which, you know, I'm holding right here in my hands.
40:53
I've got a highlight.
40:54
So I have a question for you.
40:55
Have you taken the sleeve off the book?
40:56
No.
40:57
Should I?
40:58
Yeah.
40:59
Take it off.
41:00
All right.
41:01
But then you can see what it is.
41:02
Yeah.
41:03
A little special treat that's in there for taking the sleeve off.
41:07
And, you know, what I wanted to do is make this book be a workbook.
41:12
Take the sleeve off.
41:13
You don't need to have my picture on the front of it and turn it into a workbook, you
41:16
know, dog gear it, highlight it, do make a mess out of it because it becomes a workbook
41:20
for yourself.
41:21
Oh, I see what you're saying.
41:22
The cover on the front of the same printing.
41:23
Okay.
41:24
Got it.
41:25
Yeah.
41:26
No, there are very few books have that.
41:27
That's right.
41:28
Yeah.
41:29
It has the nice.
41:30
It's very, that's, that looks killer too.
41:31
I love the kind of gold.
41:32
Yeah.
41:33
That's really sweet.
41:34
Good job.
41:35
I have an effort and money on this publication, so hats off to it.
41:39
Yeah.
41:40
So please buy some books.
41:41
A labor of love.
41:42
Awesome.
41:43
We'll listen.
41:44
I know you're busy.
41:45
You got stuff to go get after and I just, you know, can't thank you enough for sharing
41:49
some of your timeless wisdom insights and experience with our listeners and people for
41:53
listening.
41:54
Go out there and buy Jen's book, check her out.
41:57
Get on the podcast.
41:58
Thank you.
41:59
Yeah.
42:00
My pleasure.
42:01
Thank you so much.
42:02
I appreciate what you're doing too.
42:03
It's very appreciated.
42:04
But in the time that you have to put in to create this, so thank you as well.
42:09
You betcha.
42:10
And so we'll say goodbye listeners for you that are tuning in.
42:13
Thank you for listening to this episode.
42:14
As always, if you like us, leave us a review, comment, and make sure you're subscribed so
42:18
you don't miss another episode.
42:19
It's Jefferson for your host, and I appreciate you, and we will see you on the next one.
42:24
Bye for now.
42:25
Thanks for listening to Mortgage Marketing Radio.
42:28
One more truth in mortgage marketing.
42:30
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