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Success Secrets from a Top 1% Originator · Mortgage Marketing Radio

0:00
In today's highly competitive mortgage industry, building profitable relationships with
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the real estate agents is essential for success.
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However, finding effective ways to secure agent relationships can be a challenge.
0:11
With so many mortgage loan originators vying for the attention of real estate agents, it
0:15
can be difficult to stand out and establish meaningful connections.
0:20
Our new case study featuring loan officer Chris Cogill is a must-read.
0:25
Chris has closed a remarkable 36 million in funded loans from agent referrals.
0:31
And in this case study, he shares his proven strategies for building strong relationships
0:34
with real estate agents and leveraging those relationships to drive more business.
0:39
To get your hands on this resource, head over to LOKestudy.com and download your free copy
0:45
of the case study today.
0:47
You'll find actionable insights and practical tips that Chris used to close 36 million
0:52
in funded loans from agent referrals and how you can, too.
0:56
Don't miss out.
0:57
Go check it out right now.
0:58
Visit LOKestudy.com and download your free copy today.
1:03
Hey, listeners, what's up, Jeff?
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Is it in Per?
1:13
What do I have?
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Do I have any magic buttons for you?
1:15
Hey, you know what?
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I just wrapped up this interview and I feel so good that I have to give you, just give
1:20
it.
1:25
That's right.
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I feel so good.
1:27
I got to give a little James Brown shout out.
1:28
Why?
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Because, you know, when you're doing what you love, it shows, right?
1:35
And I love a couple of things about this podcast platform that this is creative.
1:39
We're in our fifth year now.
1:40
We're soon going to surpass 200 episodes, which, you know, when I first started, I would
1:47
have never thought I'd be at 200 episodes.
1:49
I wasn't looking that far out in the future.
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I was simply looking at like two steps in front of me.
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Hey, how can I put content out that's going to be helpful for people that I care about?
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And that's mortgage professionals.
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Why do I care about you?
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Because I'm one of you.
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Because for over 10 years, right?
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I was an originator in a tough market, Southern California, lots of competition, lots of
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realtors, and all the issues that go with it.
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And when I started, it was like, hey, here's your business cards.
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Go get some realtors, right?
2:16
All right.
2:17
Thank you for the quality management training program at that previously aforementioned company.
2:24
Anyway, that leads me to the introduction we're at right now, which is, first of all,
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before I forget, if you like this, this podcast, and of course, this episode, which I'm confident
2:34
you will, and you like the content we're putting out and you want to go deeper.
2:37
You want to have a more a bigger conversation, jump in our private Facebook group.
2:41
It's over on Facebook, right?
2:43
Facebook.com.com forward slash groups slash mortgage marketing radio.
2:48
That's along URL.
2:49
So what you can do is you can just go to Facebook and type in the search bar at Facebook mortgage
2:53
marketing radio.
2:54
And guess we'll come up, that's right.
2:56
Our group, just for you podcast listeners, and we are going to be doing some good things.
3:02
Coming, it's already happening.
3:03
We've gone live in there a few times.
3:04
We're posting downloads in there for you.
3:06
We're having guest moderators share content in there on the topics that you most want
3:10
to learn.
3:11
So go hop over there if you want to carry on the conversation on the Facebook group.
3:16
And lastly, don't forget that if you're looking to get ahead of the change in the market
3:22
with refives, right?
3:26
Because if you're looking at forecasts for refives, right?
3:28
What you're seeing is certain people, MBA and others, predict that the refi rates are
3:33
going to drop off.
3:34
And the biggest challenge I hear, it's funny when I come into the group, when you come
3:38
into the group over there at the Facebook page there, one of the questions I ask you
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I believe it's in there is like, what's your number one struggle?
3:44
And I hear a bunch of different things, right?
3:46
Capacity, dealing with the leads, right?
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But overall, one of the largest responses that people give me to, what's your biggest
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challenge or area of focus right now?
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It's how do I get more or better realtor relationships and grow my realtor referrals?
4:00
Now I don't know if that's right for you.
4:02
If it is, well, we've got a solution for that that's proven.
4:05
Literally, I've been doing this for over 10 years.
4:09
Building originators, both myself, when I was originating, this is how I built my career,
4:14
but also now hundreds of originators across the country.
4:17
What we're helping you do is put you back in charge.
4:20
Never have to make a realtor call call again, never chase, beg, borrow, plead, whatever,
4:23
have realtors come to you.
4:25
Does that sound good?
4:26
Well, you can do that by leading with education, a done-for-you-turnkey educational platform
4:30
that puts you in front of real estate agents every single month, like clockwork, building
4:34
your realtor referral base, your sphere of influence, building your database of realtors,
4:39
and consistently, like clockwork, every time you host a educational class for real estate
4:44
agents, you get relationships and ultimately referrals if you follow the system and it's
4:48
done for you.
4:49
Want to learn more?
4:50
You go to mortgagemarketing.pro to check out more about that.
4:53
Turnkey, classes, zoom-friendly, zoom-ready, promote them, post them on social, download
4:58
the PowerPoint, speaker notes, handouts, checklists, watch the video tutorial of me, training
5:03
you how to do a class over zoom, soup to nuts, this is, by far, the most quickest, most
5:07
efficient way for you to add realtor referrals and relationships to your business.
5:13
Mortgagemarketing.pro, go check it out.
5:15
All right.
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Transition now.
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Let's get into my guest this week who I'm honored, and I don't say that lightly, honored
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and thrilled to have that she was able to make time from her incredibly busy schedule plus
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living abroad internationally since COVID hit last year, and yet still running a region
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at Guild Mortgage running a branch and team at Guild Mortgage, who am I talking about?
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I'm talking about Shayla Gifford.
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In 2020, her entire team, or the Shayla Gifford team, by the way, her team did $770 for
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$213 million.
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You know what, that deserves a James Brown as well, okay?
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And that's her running a team from afar remotely, okay?
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So she's clearly a superstar, very dynamic leader in our industry and in our space.
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So whenever I have the opportunity to speak with someone like Shayla, you guys should listen.
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So she'll break down her numbers or team and things like that as we get into this.
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But what we have is a very just kind of candid conversation about she runs the coaching
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division at the Guild, she coaches hundreds of loan officers, she's been in this business
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for, gosh, over 10 years, started pretty young and has just simply continued to grow and
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evolve since.
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And I think you'll really enjoy this conversation because we talk about relationships.
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We talk about what are some of the blind spots that most originators have or what are
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the building blocks to going to the next level?
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Like what's essential, what's not essential?
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How do you stay balanced during the madness, right?
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And what are you looking at in your business to help you get to that next level, to help
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you have that quote thing, whether it's confidence, whether it's the right relationships, whatever
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it is, I just love this conversation, right?
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So without further ado, let's get into this week's show.
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Shayla, welcome to the show.
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Thank you, Jeff.
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Thank you for being here.
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I'm honored, right?
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And I don't say that just to sound cliche, I really mean it because I know how incredibly
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busy you are and a lot of different fronts.
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So for those that may not know who Shayla Gifford is, why don't you share your brief background,
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how many years in the industry and then 2020, volume and units?
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Cool.
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Well, I am almost a 40-year-old blonde chick from Reno, Nevada, grew up with parents,
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dads and the drywall business and my mom's always worked alongside my father and then
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my stepfather and the construction industry, both entrepreneurs.
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I grew up early on as an achiever, always wanting to gain love and appreciation for my achievements,
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whether it's straight A's or slamming the volleyball or winning the soccer tournament, whatever
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that look like, went to college on an academic scholarship but dropped out after one year
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and got in a network marketing, did direct sales, lived on a mattress with five people
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and one bedroom apartment for a few years.
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One point lived in the bathroom inside of my office, so I know what it's like to struggle
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financially and to be unnatural at sales and unnatural at even relationship building.
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But anyway, that's where I kind of got my formal education and got involved in the industry
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at 23 years old now, gosh, almost 17 years ago.
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Mm-hmm.
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Yeah.
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I've got some questions around that, but keep going on, yeah, kind of 2020, what did that
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look like for you?
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Okay.
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Been a loan officer since 2004 and started day one, just jumped into the deep end of
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the pool, was handed a phone and a rate sheet and you just figured out.
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I didn't have a team at all, Jeff until 2010.
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I heard my first assistant, but did big volumes still?
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I did 200 loans a year, processed my own loans, did the whole thing start to finish, major
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control and trust issues, workaholic, maniac, just doing whatever I could to achieve and
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be successful.
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Kind of took a big turn when I found Guild Mortgage and I started getting coached and
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started putting together a plan and a purpose and understanding how to build a team, trust
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others and that led to growing a branch and growing a network of loan officers that
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I now lead today.
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So I have about 44 loan officers, I think it is between 10 different branches.
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I coach almost all of them.
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Some of them are professionally coached in our Guild coaching program and I still run
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a team on an origination team, the Giver team, going strong.
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My original very first Eloise still with me almost 11 years later and in 2020 we did 770
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loans on the Giver team for I think 213 million ish somewhere right around there.
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And then with the network of loan officers that I have got the spans from Dayton, Ohio
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now to Arizona and Northern Nevada and a little bit in California.
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We did about 1.9 billion and that is the district that you oversee.
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Yeah, that is what we are going to call it, the district network, whatever.
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Alright, that is funny.
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So I am curious, MLM, that is an interesting start.
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What company was that?
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I have to ask.
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So the first come to me was called Trek Alliance and they were shut down by the FTC for calls
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advertising.
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Okay.
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Then the second company I think is still in existence called Symmetry but always in kind
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of the health diet nutrition product sector because you have always been into health diet
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nutrition.
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Totally, since I was 16 I was reading those kind of books and avoiding sugar and I am totally
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a nerd Jeff.
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I did my homework like reading my books for AP History or whatever on the treadmill after
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high school.
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Like I didn't go play with friends, I didn't skip class, I was working out and reading
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my history book on the day I am treadmill at the same time.
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And so it makes me really curious, somebody like you who is naturally driven, right, kind
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of self-motivated.
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I am wondering, where does that come from?
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Have you looked back?
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I know you have done a lot of self-work and stuff like that, where do you think that comes
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from?
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Yeah, I have done a lot of self-work, I am fascinated about what makes this tick and
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elevate our lives and breakthrough to new awarenesses.
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I am just eternally fascinated by that myself and other people.
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I think it is that same thing, I mean both of my parents are achievers, both of them probably
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have the same kind of dysfunction that I have where they don't feel deserved unless they
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are the first one in, the last one to leave that works harder than everybody else that provides
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more value.
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And so I have had that since a young age, I was considered very bossy when I was younger.
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So I wanted to say, you know, leadership qualities, but in first grade I stood up and took
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over a class and started teaching because my teacher was so old and slow that I had to
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take over.
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You are like, look, handle this.
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So I had that kind of edge about me from a young age and just my willingness to say it
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like it is.
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I have been wanting to just tell, you know, you are the true teller, but I am definitely
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wanting to say, this is the truth, this is what it is, just take it.
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That is very interesting.
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The drive then comes behind that, I guess maybe to back it up, maybe to stand out because
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you know, I never was popular, I never was cool, I never felt like it was natural for
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me to build rapport with people, it's all things I had to learn.
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So I think I always wanted to stand out because of my achievements.
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So I just worked hard, worked hard on it.
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How did you say, how did you say going into the mortgage business?
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I was living in Indianapolis, Indiana and selling vitamins and I had one of the neighbors
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in our office complex, Mike Noble, still a friend in the industry, Facebook friend, and
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he just kept saying, you got to get in this business, you're made for this business,
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I promised, promised, promised and I told him no about a hundred times until he took me
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to lunch with his female mentor who, you know, made 500 grand a year, drove a minivan,
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wore jeans and a leather jacket.
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And I don't know what it was between the combo of the minivan, the jeans and leather jacket,
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but it was definitely like, okay, this is a real business.
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This is a career.
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This is something I can put my whole heart, my whole self into, and I can really make
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an impact in people's lives.
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And that is where the incongruency was for me in network marketing at the time, because
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although I was selling products that I believed in, I was really selling the opportunity,
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a freedom, a flexibility of, you know, driving a nice car, I was driving a convertible Mercedes
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at 20 years old, wearing a suit, and then living on an air mattress in the department
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for other people.
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And so I really like congruency and authenticity and just saying it like it is.
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And I love that the mortgage industry was something that you can make a real impact
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for the customer, where it's really needed and skies the limit.
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You could also grow and be and do and make whatever it is that you want to make.
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And you saw that opportunity early on because of this other, this female mentor in terms
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of income wise, you saw essentially those things.
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I just thought when I met her, I was like, this is a real chick, like, this is a real
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mom for me, she wasn't faking it.
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She wasn't flaunt and faking, there was, I don't know, you were a nice watcher and that's
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me.
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I still have my 11 year old car, and I don't even wear one, you know, it's always been
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about like winning for real, not for the show of it.
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And that's what she showed me, I couldn't have met a better person than Rocky all those
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years ago.
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What aspect of the mortgage business do you enjoy the most?
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And it could be two things because I know there's the origination side and now there's
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a leadership side for you, but what comes up for you there?
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So it's so funny because I have really trained my mentality to love it all.
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And I had a friend challenge me the other day because he's like, do you really love it?
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Because I just like literally, I love it all, I could get in and cross those loans and
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I could love that.
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I could get in and manage and be in spreadsheets and, you know, dive deep in strategic
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things.
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I love that.
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I love, you know, speaking in front of people and being with the customer like I love
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it all.
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And he's like, do you really?
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And I just had to really dive in and go, you know, I don't know if all those things bring
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me energy.
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I can certainly muster my own energy and bring it to it because that's what I've trained
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myself to do.
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So I found a way to love it all through the process and I think that's what's helped me
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have this like catapult mega career because people can feel that passion and the love that
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I put into whatever the heck I'm doing at the time.
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But my number one strength on the strength fiber and for anybody listening who doesn't
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know their top five strengths and hasn't done a gallop strength fighter, I highly recommend
17:11
it because it was really empowering for me, but it's to be strategic.
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And at first, that really bummed me out, Jeff, because I was teetering on burnout at
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the time that I took this test.
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And to me, when I thought strategic, that means your brain is never shutting off that you're
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always constantly thinking about a way to solve a problem or fix something or prepare or
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plan or.
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And I just kind of got a little press on my, how is this going to help me be the mother
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I want to be that is connected and calm and peaceful and encouraging and and is just
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being with my kids instead of always achieving and producing and going and thinking ahead.
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I really, I really was at that point where I wanted to be more in the being part of my
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life instead of just doing and having a checklist run my life and 10,000 goals on the list.
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The other thing was how does that, how does being strategic allow me to be the kind of
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friend that I want to be because I sacrifice a lot of time with friends.
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I mean, you just, I've had the blinders on for at least the last 10 years.
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And so it took me a little while to start really understanding for me what my strategic
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strength means and what it means, Jeff, is to meet somebody really care about them, listen
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to them and then part intuition to just say, this is what I think your block is.
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This is where the issue is for you.
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And I'm willing to be bold enough to tell you and strategic enough to tell you what
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I think would be the steps if you're open to the coaching behind it.
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Same as if our friends want to achieve some goal or we want to book some kind of a trip
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or we want to do something.
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My strategic brain will figure out the best way to book a travel or to put together a
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party or an awesome evening.
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So it's not just all obsessing about planning and future things.
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I can use my strategic strengths to help create the lifestyle for my family that is harmonious
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where we're all thriving, where we're eating healthy food, where everybody's balanced,
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where everybody's needs can be met.
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And I can think through complex things and then try to boil that back down into implementation
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and action.
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So I don't know if that gave you any kind of an answer that you're looking for.
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I could have just said, I love managing.
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No, it did.
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It did.
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And the other question I was going to ask you, which you kind of alluded to, this is what
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you're super power.
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And so clearly it sounds like you're all about strategy.
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So I think that super power is getting a sense of somebody.
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Like really, what their brilliance is.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And how quick does that, do you have like a radar?
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It's interesting because some people have this where you can, you've got these vibes,
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you can pick up from somebody and know what that is in a short period of time.
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Yeah, like if, if I would have done what I like to normally do, I would have spent the
20:10
first 15 minutes grilling you a quick, reverse the process.
20:15
Yeah, that's okay.
20:16
Let's go.
20:17
Start grilling me.
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I don't get the chance to be interviewed much.
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Yeah, so I, you know, and generally, generally within 15 minutes, I've got a real sense
20:27
of a person.
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And what drives you, Jack, and what motivates you and what, what your fears are and what
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you really care about and maybe what, what are those things that are kind of pulled
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you back, you know, I have people that are such good originators, like amazingly talented
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originators.
20:45
And I always say, the best loan officer doesn't always win, doesn't always do the most
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loans.
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Isn't the most successful?
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It's the person that knows their strengths and can communicate those and harness those
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to serve the most people.
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And sometimes the best technicians don't know how to get out of their own way to say,
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I can help you, I want to help you and have the mindset of like, if I don't clearly
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communicate this to you, Jeff, I'm going to be doing a disservice to you, like you're
21:19
going to be the loser in the field because I'm not helping you with your business.
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And I know what your kids are and I have the skill set to help you.
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That's a very strong personal belief.
21:30
Yeah, well, to be able to say that.
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I think, I mean, if you want to be effective and not work a bazillion hours and take forever
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to get where you want to go, that's the number of things to work on.
21:42
So believe in yourself and your capabilities.
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You've got to know what your strengths are, you've got to know what your values are and
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how to like put that in a verb.
21:52
So if you say, you know, achievers also in my top five.
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So what, you know, what an achiever means is that you're willing to do long, hard, persistent
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effort to get what you want, something you just want to achieve, but you can sustain
22:08
work for a long period of time to get what you need to get done.
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So how do you put that in your own words so that the other person actually cares about
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what you're saying?
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Because me just talking about myself doesn't help you, Jeff, and what your goals are and
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what you need.
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I need to find out what you need.
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And then I need to be able to communicate and know when it's a no, it's a no.
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When it's doesn't fit, when you're the wrong guy, I'm not going to try to jam a round
22:36
peg into a square hole.
22:37
I'm going to just say, wow, this was great and move on.
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But to be able to say, I know that I have that belief in myself, I have these strengths
22:47
to help you with what you need.
22:49
Yeah.
22:50
So there's a lot in here that I could unpack.
22:52
I guess let's go there.
22:54
Strength.
22:55
Well, let me just talk to you for a sec.
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What are your top five?
22:59
Do you know your strength on the strength?
23:00
I haven't done the strengths finders.
23:02
I've heard about multiple times and I want to do it now for sure.
23:05
You're going to want it and you please please send it to me.
23:08
I will.
23:09
I know I know my disc profile, but I'm a strength finders is a whole different thing.
23:12
So I want to do that.
23:13
You're going to love this.
23:17
So you talked about blocks, know your strengths.
23:20
I was curious as I'm listening to you, I guess the place I want to go is, did you start
23:25
with that belief or certainty in yourself when you don't 20 plus years ago, let's roll
23:30
the clock back?
23:31
Did you have to work through some stuff for that to, you know, I'm up for you higher.
23:37
We're all working through our stuff, you know, I mean, my biggest fear honestly is that
23:42
I'm not valuable enough, that I don't deserve it enough, and I'm still, after all these
23:48
years, dealing with that same thing and it pops up in various ways, right?
23:53
So I might take over the microphone in a branch meeting and go on and on too long because
24:00
I'm really trying to like make sure you feel me in the value and how much I care about
24:05
it.
24:06
Well, that's coming from a place of insecurity because I'm overdoing it.
24:12
So and same, it's the reason that I got into a place of burnout was like I was, I was
24:19
kind of leading my life out of obligation, you know, well, I feel like it should be at
24:23
that.
24:24
And I've got to attend that and I feel obligated to show up for this.
24:29
And, you know, that's when we start becoming a person, yeah, is that what I couldn't say
24:35
no?
24:36
It's just that I could find a way to say yes to everything.
24:39
I could justify it and rationalize a reason that it was important to me to go or something
24:45
wasn't important.
24:46
It's a no, you know, so some level, which means you found a way to say yes, okay.
24:51
Exactly.
24:52
And I just meant that I didn't have the clarity on what is essential.
24:57
What are my values?
24:58
What is essential to me and then where are those boundaries so that I also know that being
25:06
the most fired up, clear-headed, creative person authentically, not forced energy is the
25:15
salespeople.
25:16
We learn how to turn it on, you know, we all learn how to drive in the car and smile
25:22
until we're laughing and put on the show face and get it going, but like true authentic
25:29
energy of like, no, I feel good and I'm not overgassing.
25:33
Yeah.
25:34
Yeah.
25:35
You're in this place of confidence and certainty and also to use your word is congruency.
25:39
It's because when you're congruent, if in a dare I say all areas of your life, although
25:45
mentally I'm like challenged, is that even possible, right?
25:48
But I think like you said, we're all working towards it.
25:50
But the whole thing about if you're congruent in the certain areas that you're making the
25:53
right choices, you're saying yes and no when it makes sense for you internally, you know,
25:57
it's like that thing of balance, although we can be out of balance for a period of time
26:01
for a good reason sometimes.
26:03
But you know what I'm getting at?
26:04
It's just like, yeah, you're in this place of like, no, man, like, I don't need to wave
26:07
my own flag.
26:08
I'm confident in my skills and my ability and sometimes that takes quite a while in our
26:11
life to get there, right?
26:13
Yeah.
26:14
Oh, totally.
26:15
So you asked the question, have I always been that way?
26:17
And then the answer was no, that I'm still working at those fears from very little childhood
26:23
still come up all the time.
26:27
But the biggest transition for me, so the first six years, here's what I relied on to be
26:31
successful.
26:32
And I think this will never fail because it will always work.
26:35
Answer your phone.
26:36
Always answer your phone.
26:37
It's amazing how many people just don't answer the phone and don't call people back.
26:41
Yeah, but what about, all right, let me play desive that devil's advocate, nothing to
26:44
interrupt you.
26:45
But, you know, there's some people who preach the, you want to be not on demand, but in
26:49
demand, you know?
26:51
When you're broke, and you have no option to go against the fricking phone, right?
26:57
So it was the first six years of my career.
27:00
I built a successful business because I was easy to work with.
27:04
I was eager.
27:05
I was hungry.
27:06
I was available.
27:07
And I built a brand.
27:08
I also built all my skillset during that time, Jeff.
27:12
I was out there on the battlefield looking at loans, looking at pre-proels, pre-proels,
27:17
pre-proels, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
27:19
That's what builds the belief in yourself.
27:21
You've got to get to add that.
27:23
So this is why I love people joining a loan officer team when they have no experience.
27:29
Like yes, right now, it seems great to just jump in the deep end and be a loan officer
27:32
and go get loans.
27:34
And yeah, you can slug through.
27:35
There's, you know, 19 million borrowers that should be easy refires and you can kind
27:39
of figure it out.
27:41
But, you know, you interviewed Amanda Ray, who was my very first pre-approval teammate.
27:48
I have one at.
27:50
And then I think I had Dan and then Amanda, she was like my third hire, right?
27:54
And she just closed $103 million as a loan officer.
27:58
But she spent two years on my team just swinging the bat every day, pre-proels, pre-proels,
28:04
pre-proels, pre-proels, pre-proels, pre-proels, looking at stuff, building her skillset.
28:07
So I think being on demand in the beginning of your career is important.
28:14
And we were just talking about college.
28:16
If you can take two years of being on demand and all in, you will have the skill set for
28:21
the rest of your life, right?
28:23
Right.
28:24
For knowing you can ever take the skill set away from them, if you, even if it takes you
28:29
four years to really hack the technical, effective abilities that you need, then that is what
28:36
it is.
28:37
What I got from network marketing was listening and finding out what matters to the other person.
28:44
And then just catering to whatever that person needs.
28:47
What I didn't do well the first six years is actually think about building relationships.
28:53
I was 100% transactional.
28:56
I was looking for the next rep by the next deal, the next deal, the next deal, the next
28:59
deal.
29:00
And, you know, I was fine to say next, you know, they're shopping me next, you know,
29:06
they didn't like my presentation next because I always knew if I just had enough leads and
29:10
enough people in the pipeline, it would work out.
29:13
And yes, I was rollercoastering like every loan officer does before you have a team 18
29:17
loans one month for the next month, 22 the next month, you know.
29:23
But I didn't have a mentor, I didn't really have a manager, I wouldn't even call it that.
29:27
I never had a coach.
29:29
And so I was just grinding and building my skill set.
29:32
And then right when I made that change to get coaching, join guild, like it was a real
29:38
defining moment for me, I just gotten married.
29:43
Flagster bank was where I had worked.
29:44
I had been number one in the company, but they had come in and they closed my branch down
29:48
and so I was like left with nowhere to work.
29:51
And so I just became really intentional in 2009 and said, okay, I want to build a long
29:56
lasting career.
29:57
I can't be burning the midnight oil and doing 12 hours a day.
30:02
I don't want to end up divorced like my parents did.
30:05
You know, I want to like travel, be madly love, make an impact on it, live a big life
30:11
and crush this.
30:13
So that's when I actually started going to coffee appointments with realtors after six
30:19
years.
30:20
Wow.
30:21
And I might believe actually strength and Jeff when I said, so what do you love about
30:26
certain loan officers you work with?
30:27
What are things that they do really well?
30:30
And then you get the feedback and you just listen and note what the people say, well,
30:35
if you could be a loan officer for a day, what would you change?
30:38
You know, what drives you crazy about lenders and loan officers?
30:42
And I started hearing the same things over and over and over again, you know, simple things
30:47
like they never answer a phone.
30:50
When things go wrong, they hide.
30:52
They hide under a desk.
30:53
I don't find out until the last second that don't do a really good job at the front for
30:58
you proving somebody.
30:59
So I waste a lot of time with somebody when the end can't get pre-fall upon.
31:03
I mean, all this stuff, Jeff, that I like, for me is the bare minimum.
31:08
Like this is how you do this job well.
31:10
I was doing that all day long.
31:12
I didn't realize I needed to tell people I did that.
31:15
Right.
31:16
I didn't realize how bad it was.
31:18
You know, that that was a sellable to real estate.
31:24
So that's why you got to get out, you've got to meet your competition.
31:27
You've got to ask those questions to realtors and you'll start building belief in yourself
31:32
because you'll start going, oh, what they really need is this.
31:35
They need somebody.
31:37
Oh, you hear me?
31:39
Yep.
31:40
Go ahead.
31:41
Okay.
31:42
Well, sorry.
31:43
How did you then?
31:44
Because I know how we market or grow our business changes over time.
31:47
But for the listeners who, you know, are listening and they've got, you know, share the gift
31:53
on the line who's, you know, team is rocket and crushing it and, you know, 200 million,
31:58
770 loans and all this kind of stuff, you know, you're obviously, and you're able to
32:03
manage such things at a high level.
32:06
So, so I want to, we're going to come back to that conversation for those people.
32:10
But when I go back to the blocks, you coach a lot of people, a lot of loan officers.
32:15
And we're looking at my notes just so you know.
32:19
What do you see then come up as the repetitive blocks for loan officers who want to go
32:24
to the next level?
32:25
Well, it's funny.
32:27
When I prepared for Dave Savage's event, the Montemorgan summit, and I did that talk
32:33
that was about how you can harness your dysfunctions to get rich, right?
32:38
Because a lot of times you try to hide them or avoid them.
32:41
Right.
32:42
And so, you know, for me, realizing that I don't feel deserve it is one of my things.
32:48
The way that shows up is I do XYZ and how can that be positive?
32:54
And then also what are the negative things for that and things that I have to really work
32:57
on curtailing?
32:58
And where do I put in, you know, boundaries and where do I, you know, start healing some
33:02
of that stuff if that's what it takes and I've done that.
33:07
But what I did is I went through every loan officer have that hasn't made a million dollars
33:11
yet any year, okay?
33:13
And sometimes it's easier to find the answers when you think really big, you know, I did
33:18
a talk to realtors.
33:19
I'm like, okay, what would you have to do to make a million bucks this year?
33:23
And these are people that are trying to make a hundred thousand.
33:25
Doesn't that just like immediately the rock, their perception and their bring up a lot
33:31
of issues?
33:32
Perfect.
33:33
That's what I'm looking for.
33:34
I want all of your issues.
33:37
That's if I'm setting a goal here that's like, well, maybe I could.
33:42
Yeah, I think I can't.
33:43
I'm not getting the real like elephant in the room and it's like, oh, like, no, that's
33:48
not me.
33:49
Well, yes, it is.
33:50
If it's possible and we're in this industry and she can do it, he can do it and he can
33:54
do it and she can do it.
33:55
Here's the playbook and I'll coach you and hold you account to it.
33:59
Why not you?
34:00
Right.
34:01
And so that is exactly that's the stuff that I want to get out.
34:05
So the blocks, the way they're displayed is differently than knowing what the root
34:10
is.
34:11
But like very typical alone officer who is messy and frantic, I definitely was this as
34:16
well.
34:17
Like their desk is just stuff everywhere, they're running always ten minutes late.
34:23
They don't really have time blocking together.
34:25
They don't have a start time.
34:26
They don't have an end time.
34:27
They're putting everything to their anniversary to the kid's birthdays and everything's last
34:31
minute and winging it.
34:34
That shows up.
34:35
So why does that show up?
34:37
Well, it could be a worthiness issue that I've got to show up for everybody the minute
34:43
that they need me.
34:44
And then if I don't do it right now, they're going to leave me.
34:47
If I don't answer the phone for this leave right now, they're going to leave, right?
34:52
If I don't take a pre-approval meeting at 6 p.m. on a Saturday, then this realtor is
34:56
going to leave me and go with somebody else.
34:59
That's a worthiness issue and it's also a confusion about what that realtor really
35:04
needs and how to sell your strengths and your value act to their business because, you
35:12
know, it's just like I said in the beginning, you've got to be available and you've got
35:18
to be hustling and you've got to do all those things.
35:22
But it doesn't mean that you sacrifice everything and that you don't have any parameters and
35:27
you don't have a way in which you do business.
35:31
I meet clients on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays for pre-approvals.
35:35
I have one slot in the morning and I have three in the afternoon those days.
35:40
You've got to have some basic parameters put in place otherwise you have no rules.
35:44
So when anybody asks you anything or any question like we talked about earlier, you're saying
35:48
yes to everything and then you're always going, oh, what did I commit to and trying to
35:54
pull it off?
35:56
So that's one example.
35:59
Another one is just belief, I mean, it all comes down to worthiness, am I good enough?
36:07
What is so special about me, why would that realtor work with me?
36:11
Why isn't everybody calling the top realtor in town and saying, you do a lot of business,
36:15
I want to do a lot of business, I'll do whatever it takes to help you succeed but I need to
36:19
know what your issues are and what your problems are, can we meet and see if I can add value
36:24
to your business and make you more money?
36:28
I'm not asking you for the deal, I'm just curious and I want to know if I can maybe add value
36:32
but people aren't doing that.
36:36
So I think it comes down to like, well, I'm not good enough, what if they say no?
36:43
What other structure, I want to come back to structure a little bit because from what
36:47
I've seen, probably similar to you with a lot of officers, it's one of the most common
36:51
areas where they struggle is having structure used the dreaded word, time blocking and
36:56
people have various reactions to that, like the classic one I get is like, well, if time
37:02
blocking, what happens if a call comes in from a realtor?
37:06
What do you do?
37:07
So I'd love to hear how you would coach somebody to handle that.
37:12
If something's on fire now, it'll probably still be on fire in two hours.
37:17
Like it just let it go, have time in your calendar to deal with loan drama and fires.
37:24
So when you're all by yourself, you need to put a few of those blocks in.
37:28
But rolling out of bed the minute you wake up and doing emails is the worst way to jump
37:33
start your brain.
37:35
And most of us have this fallacy of like, well, I'm being super efficient.
37:38
Now you just killed all your creativity.
37:40
You jumped a bunch of, you know, stress hormones into your body, like, not good.
37:46
And then answering the emails, the minute that they pop up all day long does not allow
37:51
us to focus and complete anything.
37:54
So the way that we show up in the email versus the phone call versus this versus that is
37:59
like a freak where we aren't grounded.
38:02
People can feel it's energy.
38:04
People can feel energy in a relationship.
38:06
And if you're really here with them and you heard them and you're delivering and you're
38:10
taking notes, it's about the quality and not the quantity.
38:15
So if something's on fire, it'll stay on fire.
38:18
You don't need to check your emails every minute, same thing with your text messages.
38:23
And then, you know, I've never successfully done leaving a voicemail saying, I will return
38:27
calls at 12 and 4.
38:28
I know a lot of people have.
38:32
But that's why I'm, you know, driving in the car and I'm always on the phone because
38:36
I'm not going from appointment to appointment.
38:37
I'm catching up on those windows and I'm figuring it out, making it happen.
38:41
But I said the expectation, Jeff, when I'm meeting with a real term that, look, if you
38:46
need a loan officer that's going to answer your phone call, me personally at 215 every
38:52
day of the week when you need help or need something, I'm not your girl because the best
38:57
value I can add to your business in my opinion is that pre-approval appointment.
39:03
When I'm consulting the buyer, first thing I do is edify the hell out of you and talk about
39:09
how amazing you are and that there's 3,000 real estate agents in this town and I'm lucky
39:13
there to find you, what a great negotiator you are, how committed you are, you know, what
39:19
you know how to do in terms of relationships and creativity and structuring like they're
39:23
so lucky to meet you because I know you can't sell yourself, nearly like I can sell you.
39:29
So that is my number one role in helping you with your clients in conversion.
39:35
And then second to that is really educating that client so that they walk out of my
39:40
office super focused and motivated and they don't waste a lot of your time looking at,
39:45
you know, stuff that isn't in the price range that doesn't qualify, that doesn't work for
39:49
the loan type that they need.
39:51
So if you call me at 215, I might be in a pre-approval meeting and I don't answer emails
39:56
of phone calls when I'm meeting with a client 101 because I'm totally lasered in, that's
40:01
when I'm on stage and wowing your client because you put your neck on the line or refer
40:07
him to me and I want to blow them away.
40:10
Now I'm always returning all my phone calls, it might be 6 p.m. at night but I also have
40:15
a team and probably 80% of the calls that you, you know, questions that you have can be
40:20
answered by the team but still some realtors don't like that.
40:24
So if you're that realtor that that's what you need at this stage of my career, I'm not
40:28
the right fit for you.
40:30
All right.
40:31
And just straight up saying it, most of my, I'm fine working with your team and-
40:36
Well, it gets back to, it's like you were saying earlier, what do they really need?
40:40
Like, like, ask the question, you know, what do you really need in a relationship from
40:44
a loan officer?
40:45
Tell me, like, what are your non-negotiables?
40:47
And I think what you'll find is it's rather simple, you said it earlier, one is, returning
40:51
your calls, right?
40:52
I don't think any realtor that I, I mean, there's always the crazy real, and people
40:55
always like hold up these examples of like the psycho realtor, you know, we've all had
41:00
them.
41:01
Like, I had the guy who's like, if you don't call me back in 15 minutes, it's going to
41:04
another lender.
41:05
You know, that's not the norm.
41:06
That's the exception.
41:07
Most who have realtors that are mature, you know, adults, if you will, understand, right?
41:13
Well, and, and if, be grateful when people show you their colors, so if somebody please
41:20
not card with you and says, if you don't call me back in 10 minutes, I'm going to have
41:25
to refer this to somebody else, and you could beat yourself up for that and go, gosh, how
41:28
can I not do that?
41:29
Or you could say, thank you so much.
41:31
The quicker you get those people out of the way, that aren't going to value you or you
41:37
for those amazing pre-approval meetings that are going to help make more money, make
41:41
everything less stressful and help them, you know, close faster, then they're the wrong
41:46
person.
41:47
They don't really get it.
41:48
And that's, that's not who you need.
41:51
So.
41:52
Go ahead.
41:53
No, go ahead.
41:55
How do you deal with the realtor or realtors who maybe aren't clear on what your true value
42:02
proposition is in the relationship or in the dynamics of closing a purchase loan, and
42:08
what I mean by that is, and I'm not saying we shouldn't do extra things to add value
42:13
to two relationships, like, you know, whether it's classes or networking events or, you
42:17
know, I mean, co-marketing and all, but, but so many LOs, I think feel like, like just
42:22
being an LLO isn't enough.
42:25
And you said something earlier, just a few moments ago, that, you know, not the paraphrase
42:31
if you will.
42:32
So, so one of your big value ads is that pre-approval conversation.
42:36
Yeah.
42:37
And I've tried to hone that message as well, where it's just like your number one value
42:41
is to create a referable experience, right?
42:44
And so we say to that, like, do you agree or what?
42:48
Yeah.
42:49
Yeah.
42:50
It's really do your job.
42:51
Yeah.
42:52
And do it well.
42:53
Yeah.
42:54
That's the number one thing.
42:55
And I think a lot of people miss that.
42:56
I think a lot of people are running around and having a lot of meetings, but they don't, they
43:00
don't take the time to really dial in a solid pre-approval and it's a mess later.
43:06
And they're always apologizing and begging and, you know, and all of those things on the
43:10
second.
43:11
And so I think being highly technical is super important.
43:14
But once you've got the technical ability, then you've got to articulate your process
43:19
and why that process helps them achieve their goals.
43:24
So if they're, if they like, I just want deals to close on time.
43:28
It's so stressful for me to, you know, coordinate the utilities and the move and date and the
43:33
signing and all of these things to just have to redo it all over again and deal with
43:37
the emotions and all the phone calls and I just don't know why lenders can't close on
43:41
time.
43:42
Like, why does it all pop up?
43:43
And then I could say, okay, well, let's talk about how you, you're riding your contracts.
43:48
Do you ride all of your escows to close at the end of the month, generally?
43:52
And they might go, well, I don't know.
43:54
Well, have you been really consciously to pick a Wednesday, like in the middle of the month?
44:00
Because that's a great technique.
44:03
That's a great strategy.
44:04
A lot of people don't think about.
44:05
So that really matters to you, that really derails your business.
44:09
First number one trick is let's pick good closing dates.
44:13
Second, are you communicating with your loan officer before you write the close best
44:17
for date?
44:18
Because so often, I'll get a contract before I've even got a free proof of that for somebody.
44:24
And now we're all working behind the e-ball the entire time because we've made promises
44:28
all over the place that now we have to deal with and it's so much stress the whole time.
44:33
So yeah, we all want to close a deal on 15 days or 25 days or one of the cases.
44:38
But you may be better off riding a 48 close of escrow and you have no stress.
44:45
And we give very, you know, explain timelines to the buyer and we communicate.
44:51
If I don't have this in the next 48 hours, it could jeopardize our closing.
44:55
And this is the way we communicate because we also value closing on time as our number
44:59
one value.
45:00
And does it happen 100% on time?
45:02
No.
45:03
But I feel like I'm doing a damn good job of 95% in time, I close on time and I close smooth.
45:10
I don't like flopping over the finish line.
45:12
I like sailing through the finish line and it doesn't always happen.
45:17
But I work backwards on that same goal and metric and I'm a loan officer that will work
45:22
with you together so we can keep strategizing on ideas and ways as the market changes,
45:27
as appraisals get tracked out.
45:29
Because you've got contingent offers or multiple back-to-back contingencies, sometimes we
45:33
have no choice but to do a 20-day deal and it's just going to be stressful the whole
45:37
time.
45:38
But in normal, you don't want to do that for every transaction.
45:42
And when you start talking to people like this, it's like, most sales people, Jeff,
45:46
will just say, no worries, I'll get it closed on time.
45:49
You send me the mail, I'll get it done.
45:51
That's it.
45:52
That's the end of the conversation.
45:53
And then they wonder why relationships kind of don't really work or why there isn't
45:57
respect there.
45:58
And they're like, well, you just promise something without like setting the ground rules and
46:02
the process and the structure, how you're going to make it happen.
46:06
And ultimately, people choose you because they like you, but they stick with you because
46:12
of your process.
46:13
I mean, there's no other way to explain the people that are still doing business with
46:17
me and my team, when they don't get me at all, the customers don't get me.
46:23
They don't even get me on a Monday call or face-to-face happy hour or nothing.
46:28
But what they've come to trust is how we work and what the structure and the process
46:34
is.
46:35
And that's why we go to McDonald's is why we go to in that order, it's not because of
46:39
the best food in the world.
46:41
We just know what we're going to get in terms of the process and we trust it.
46:45
And when push comes to shove, people always go back to what they trust and what they know.
46:50
Yeah, yeah, because people want a certain amount of certainty in their life.
46:53
And especially in a transaction like this, they want certainty.
46:58
Any gaping holes that you see most often when you're first working with a loan officer
47:02
and looking at their process for those that are listening, it's like, what are some
47:06
easy hot holes to fill in, if you will, on the process that might be broken or missing
47:11
something?
47:12
Don't rush to the pre-approval letter.
47:15
Be very specific of what you require and you need for your pre-approval letters.
47:20
Your letter is going out as your name and your brand and your company's brand every single
47:25
time.
47:26
So I don't care how much pressure you're getting from the realtor or from the client
47:30
or wherever else, you've got to have a process to doing a pre-approval letter.
47:35
I used to the first six years I never really had a process.
47:38
I mean, I was just running the gun and the answer to the phone and I never met with clients
47:41
face to face, everything was over the phone.
47:44
And I don't even think I collected documents, although there was a lot of stated income loans
47:49
and, you know, it was less important today, but when I changed to requiring every person
47:55
to book an appointment and come in face to face and we spent an hour together face to face
48:02
and going through, you know, a very structured process every single time my business completely
48:10
blew up for a couple reasons.
48:12
Number one, I'm working from appointment to appointment to appointment.
48:15
So if I have 15 appointments I'm looking to book, I want those all filled.
48:19
I want to be like the orthodontist that just shows up and there's people in all the
48:23
chairs with their mouth open and I'm moving around from mouth to mouth like that's where
48:28
the money is made is pre-approval appointments.
48:31
The second thing is is if people take the time and the invest time in you and meeting with
48:37
you face to face, which in now is saying synonymous with video, you're taking this hour
48:41
of your life, Jeff, to come meet with me.
48:43
We will forever have a relationship because we've spent this time over camera.
48:50
And, you know, I, I would say it's pretty similar to meeting face to face.
48:54
Now, Grant, if we have a three hour dinner, that's going to be different than a one hour
48:58
zoom.
48:59
But still, it's, it's the important thing is investing in that relationship and I was so again
49:05
because of my insecurities wanting to so quickly give out the pre-approval letter and just
49:10
get them on a phone.
49:11
I didn't build a relationship.
49:12
I didn't hand out referrals to other business people.
49:15
I wasn't asking the client for referrals to our business and to the realtors business.
49:21
I wasn't edifying the agent.
49:22
All of these things that are how you take one hour and you turn it into five wins instead
49:29
of just here's a pre-approval good luck.
49:32
That's the real difference.
49:33
So I think a lot of people rush to the pre-approval because they want to be people plasers and
49:37
they, you know, they want to get it out.
49:40
They don't vet out all the problems up front and they don't, they're not just straight
49:43
up with the client saying, okay, you've got a 639 credit score.
49:48
I've done way worse, but we're not on the strongest foot.
49:53
The good news is, I know I can get this done, but you're going to have to partner right
49:57
feet.
49:58
We've got to clean this up and we got to clean this up.
50:00
Here's your exact plan of attack, here's your homework, here's what we're going to do.
50:06
We'll set a task to follow up with people to do that.
50:08
I think so often we also want to say, all good, no worries.
50:14
You know, no problem.
50:15
That's one of my earlier favorite statements.
50:17
No problem, Jeff.
50:18
I got this.
50:19
No worries.
50:21
And nobody knows that behind the screen it's an absolute show and we're killing ourselves
50:28
and doing gymnastics to help the client, but they don't even know.
50:31
You're like, how am I going to get this done?
50:33
Why would they ever refer me again?
50:35
They don't know that it literally just killed myself for 30 days and made miracles happen.
50:41
They don't.
50:42
So just being straight up and letting people know and also let the listing agent know,
50:47
you know, they're so often the buyer's like agents like, I don't, I don't want to tell
50:51
a listing agent.
50:52
And it's like, you've got, you know, I respect that for, for like a day.
50:58
But after that, it's like, I've got to call the listing agent.
51:01
We've got to bring them in on this problem.
51:02
We've got an appraisal.
51:03
It's $40,000 low.
51:05
We've challenged it, but it's not fair to anybody to sell or to anybody who let this go
51:10
on without getting more people collaborating on the problem.
51:13
And if the deal is going to die, the deal is going to die.
51:16
But I'm not going to let my reputation go to like, notify them two days before closing
51:20
because we're so afraid of telling anybody, like, we got to tell everybody straight up
51:25
what the issues are and then work on solving it together and you'll gain so much respect
51:30
and build your reputation, you win that.
51:33
And if you work on building your reputation as the person that's always going to do the
51:37
right thing, be thorough, be upfront, be direct, solve problems, be enthusiastic, see
51:43
the positive.
51:44
You know, all those things that people respect in a solid professional, the money will
51:48
follow always.
51:49
Right.
51:50
Right.
51:51
Yeah.
51:52
Exactly.
51:53
So you're saying then that today's version of face to face is this.
51:58
Zoom.
51:59
And you still would encourage even in this crazy market of overwhelm.
52:03
Oh, yes.
52:05
For sure.
52:06
If I'm going to spend all my time, Jeff, to figure out if this long works for you, you
52:11
need to spend time with me.
52:12
You got to, if you can't give me 30 minutes, then yeah, I got a question how committed
52:16
you are.
52:17
Exactly.
52:18
I mean, you know, the reason that I've interviewed some quick and loan officers and their key
52:25
method for converting business is to keep the people on the phone as long as they possibly
52:31
can.
52:32
Right.
52:33
That's their whole technique.
52:34
If they keep somebody on the phone for 45 minutes from the first call, by the time
52:40
they're done, they've already locked the loan, sent them disclosures.
52:44
It's in their email.
52:45
They probably have the disclosures back.
52:47
That's their secret.
52:48
And we're so quick to want to get on and off and deliver, you know, the immediate need
52:55
versus build that relationship and keep them on.
52:59
Yeah.
53:00
You said something I saw on one of your earlier videos, keeping an eye on the clock here,
53:03
is we've got to keep making deposits before we make withdrawals.
53:08
And I thought that's brilliant because that's true for both our referral partners in a big,
53:15
big way, because we so show up so off of our handout.
53:18
You know what I mean?
53:19
But then that's also true on like with with consumers.
53:22
You brought up the point of quick and I've talked to a handful of people just personal
53:26
in my life that I haven't talked to in a long time, right?
53:29
And somebody reaches out to me from the East Coast on Facebook and they're like, Hey, I'm
53:33
talking about like doing this or that.
53:34
You know, I was on the phone with quick and I'm blah, blah, blah, I'm thinking, quick
53:38
and is getting so many at bats, you know, just because of their name brand and the recognition.
53:42
And all it would take to win that would be what you're talking about here would be invest
53:46
in a little bit more time in the upfront, right?
53:49
Educating, connecting, you know what I mean?
53:51
Because we know, yeah, I don't want to beg on quick and per se, but I want, you know,
53:55
advise this person on what to watch out for in that situation, you know?
54:01
So I think that's brilliant.
54:02
I think the deals won or lost a pre-approval truly, that's when they're deciding if you're
54:09
the guy that can get it done, because yeah, they're thinking about rate at that point,
54:14
but they're in the process of going, I want to get a house.
54:18
I'm going to go into a super competitive market.
54:20
I'm going to be up against five other pre-approval letters is just pre-approval letter with
54:25
his name on it, his reputation, his, his scrappiness to call the listing agent and to be on
54:33
the flyer with me.
54:34
Is that going to be what helps me get it done?
54:36
Right.
54:37
And yes, people do use our pre-approval letters in a local market to win a deal and then
54:42
ditch us after that, but most people are not those people.
54:45
And I don't build a business around the exception.
54:48
I build it around the majority and the majority are, if they give you their word, if they
54:52
give you their commitment, if you build a bond and trust with people, if you add value
54:56
to their life, they will bring it back to you and it's the same thing with realtors.
55:00
So if you are always looking at the weird realtor or the exception or people that are rude,
55:07
you're looking at the wrong group.
55:09
I have a saying, home by wall in the office, I love realtors.
55:14
And the more you realize what they're having to go through to get a lead and to get an
55:18
opportunity.
55:19
And the fact that I'm in a warm or air-conditioned office and people come to me and I'm not driving
55:27
300 miles in a day to get a deal and knock on doors and deal with internet leads.
55:35
We have it so good and we need to be there for them and help them.
55:40
And I will tell you one of the easiest things that you can do is just encourage realtors.
55:46
Just be their cheerleader, be their champion because they don't come, you know, I do a Monday
55:52
sales call every Monday, every law officer I got, how many leads, how many deals, how many
55:56
variables.
55:57
Yeah, whoo!
55:58
Killin' it.
55:59
I mean, we do that every Monday, recognition, celebration, accountability, like it's
56:05
energy.
56:06
Right.
56:07
It's recognition.
56:08
We're back into them.
56:10
We create it.
56:11
We do a skills meeting.
56:12
We do, you know, awards trips.
56:14
We do all the things that we do that build culture and that help us succeed and we have
56:19
people to our right and our left that are doing the work and they're working Monday's
56:23
or call realtors and they're doing Tuesday update calls and they're working the plan.
56:26
They have a playbook and that one just did 100 million, that one just did 50 million.
56:30
We have all that around us.
56:32
In a real estate brokerage, they have 300 people in the brokerage, hardly any of them are
56:37
at the office.
56:38
They may have a once a month rally, but they're not doing a recognition of all 300, we're
56:42
going to say, so cheer people on when they get a listing accepted, when they get a contract
56:49
accepted, call them and go, hell, yes, I'm so pumped.
56:52
Have you been jumping around your living room because I'm jumping for you?
56:56
Amazing, yes.
56:58
Then the champagne, yeah.
57:00
Yeah, this is where they, you know, they don't get to do that and their family is not understanding
57:06
why, you know, a 600 dollar listing is such an exciting big deal, you know, and what
57:13
it took.
57:14
Oh, no, that's so true.
57:15
And like I often say, you know, they struggle with many of the same issues we do as
57:19
loan officers, right, where we're independent, where commission only in most cases, right?
57:24
We were not getting, you know, the culture isn't as great as it is for you at Guild, for
57:27
whoever loan officer, realtor same as well.
57:30
We know there's some, some challenging brokerages out there.
57:33
So yeah, I don't think you can ever go wrong by pouring into the referral partners.
57:36
That's going to create that relationship and loyalty, you know, love that.
57:41
Love that.
57:42
All right.
57:43
So we are almost out of time.
57:44
This has been fantastic.
57:45
Obviously, keep going on and on.
57:46
I'm curious about, so we're in 2021, we just came out of the most crazy as year, probably
57:52
for a lot of us, right?
57:53
In recent times, have you, did you, are there any pivot or shift or change to the direction
58:00
of your ship for this year that you're coaching people on now?
58:04
Yeah, of course, it's back to basics and it hasn't changed a whole lot.
58:09
I think we're 2020 got out of control.
58:12
It's just the phones just started blowing up and ringing and every minute you look at
58:16
your email and you got another email from somebody.
58:18
And so, you know, for all of us who are really disappointed, we work a plan and we have
58:23
a playbook and we know what we're doing, we can all admit and put our hand in the air
58:27
and say, yeah, we've definitely got an off track and we've definitely just kind of tried
58:31
to survive instead of thrive.
58:35
But I will tell you that I think what is amazing about 2020 is that we've all built our
58:40
stamina.
58:41
We've all figured out how to work more efficiently and we've all figured out how to think
58:46
more creatively.
58:47
We've all figured out how to balance a lot of people because a lot of our pipelines
58:52
sat around for a long period of time and we've got a love and nurture on these people.
58:58
Those are all skill sets that you can parlay forever if you think about it that way.
59:03
You know, some people are doing 90% repy business and yeah, they're going to struggle to get
59:09
out there in the purchase market and to make the calls and happen meetings and get on social
59:15
media and do the networking events and do the education, all the things that you teach
59:18
Jeff because it's so new and it's scary and how long is it going to take and take 90 days
59:24
to build momentum and, you know, I get purchased leads and they write seven offers and they all
59:29
get rejected.
59:30
Like, yeah, absolutely, but you've got to love the game because the game is constantly changing.
59:37
So when a realtor cheats on you that, you know, you've been working with forever, you've
59:41
got to love the game and go, thank you.
59:43
I just am getting valuable information.
59:45
I needed to raise my game.
59:46
You just gave me the motivation to do that.
59:50
When all of a sudden race, jump up a half point and you have four deals that aren't locked
59:54
in your pipeline and you get squeezed.
59:57
Good.
59:58
Now you remember and don't do that again.
1:00:00
I mean, everything that we learned in this business is through painful lessons, but the
1:00:05
coaching is really just amping up on the beliefs that we talked about.
1:00:09
All of our scripting, tightening down our scripting, being super excited and enthusiastic
1:00:14
about what we're doing.
1:00:15
Like, I don't want to hear about for now.
1:00:17
It's over.
1:00:18
We're in this industry, we're blessed, put boundaries in place, have a plan, have a business
1:00:24
plan and let's go attack it because this is a golden, amazing opportunity and we need
1:00:30
to make a lot of money and we need to help other people.
1:00:32
We need to give away money.
1:00:33
We need to donate.
1:00:34
We need to volunteer.
1:00:36
We need to change people's lives by employing them and having more for our teams.
1:00:40
That's what we need to do.
1:00:41
That's the opportunity that we've all been afforded in this industry.
1:00:44
Yeah.
1:00:45
What a blessing, really, to be in this industry too.
1:00:48
Truly.
1:00:49
Yeah, for a long time.
1:00:50
Awesome.
1:00:51
Listen, I'm going to let you go because I know you're incredibly busy.
1:00:53
If anybody who does want to connect with you, should they do that somewhere on social
1:00:56
media or something, Instagram?
1:00:57
Where do you like to say it?
1:00:58
Yeah, I just, you'd be so proud of me.
1:01:01
Just started a business Facebook page.
1:01:03
Oh, congrats.
1:01:04
Nice.
1:01:05
Only after what?
1:01:06
10 years or so.
1:01:08
I rejected it for so long.
1:01:10
I said, I'm not a creative and this trust me out, but, you know, I've been hosting classes
1:01:17
and workshops and coaching and making videos inside of Gilmourgage and running and coaching
1:01:21
programming for years and I just realized like, oh, I could be just putting this all on Facebook
1:01:28
and serving a bigger audience.
1:01:30
So, yeah, Shayla Gifford page on Facebook, you can direct message me and I'll just keep
1:01:38
bringing it.
1:01:39
I'm loving.
1:01:40
I'm loving this.
1:01:41
I'm on fire.
1:01:42
I feel just stoked about what we're doing and I do feel like there's a real need to help
1:01:47
lawn officers get clarity and, you know, really build their founding right now because this
1:01:52
is going to be the start of a lot of people's careers, like real career.
1:01:58
It was just nice.
1:01:59
Yeah.
1:02:00
It was amazing.
1:02:01
The tide lifted everybody last year.
1:02:03
Yeah.
1:02:04
So, we've got to just level up our skills, all of our scripting, all of our disciplines.
1:02:10
And so, anyway, that's what I'm.
1:02:12
Be grateful.
1:02:13
Be grateful for where we're at, grateful for the challenges and for the blessings that come
1:02:17
with it.
1:02:18
So, all right.
1:02:19
We'll put links in the show notes to your brand new Facebook business page.
1:02:22
That's awesome.
1:02:23
People can go check it out.
1:02:24
And once again, it's a pleasure and honor to spend some time with you.
1:02:27
Thank you so much for being here.
1:02:29
Thanks for doing this, Jeff.
1:02:30
I mean, five years running, impacting so many people, interviewing awesome people, building
1:02:35
a community.
1:02:36
You're doing all of that.
1:02:37
So, thank you.
1:02:38
Well, for me, it's a great journey because I get to learn a ton, right, through the process.
1:02:42
So, I'm grateful for the opportunity.
1:02:44
And like you said, you've said earlier, you never know where or how you're making a difference
1:02:48
just by pouring into some people.
1:02:49
And so, that goes to the listeners.
1:02:51
Three people are listening right now.
1:02:52
Hey, I hope you enjoyed this episode.
1:02:53
This is for you.
1:02:54
You know what to do.
1:02:55
Leave us a review.
1:02:56
And we'll see you on the next one.
1:02:57
Bye for now.
1:02:58
Hey, guys.
1:02:59
What's up?
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Real quick.
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