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How to Build a $100 Million Dollar Team with Michelle Oddo · Mortgage Marketing Radio

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1:03
Hey, listeners, what's up, Jeff Zimper.
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Once again, thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Mortgage Marketing Radio Podcast.
1:16
I hope whenever you're listening to this, it's either around the Thanksgiving holiday.
1:21
So I hope you were able to get some time for yourself, your family, for unplugging
1:25
disconnecting, reconnecting to those people, places, and things that matter to you.
1:31
And if you're tuning into this, I appreciate you and you taking time from your life to
1:37
give us some attention over here and hope that we continue to bring value because you are
1:43
definitely among the list for me of people that matter my audience and I do this for you.
1:49
So what we're bringing you today is a new episode with somebody I consider a friend in the
1:55
business.
1:56
Somebody I've known for a number of years now, who's, again, another one, just a great,
2:00
you know, person, human being, but also a phenomenal producer when it comes to mortgage,
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professional mortgage business.
2:07
Michelle Odo, out of the Denver Colorado market with leader one financial, Michelle is doing
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some incredible things for her business.
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She, in 2020, as the time we recorded this on November 20th was at $294 units, $135 million
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in production.
2:25
I think her previous year, if I recall, was, yeah, so prior to that 2019, she did approximately
2:34
85 million in about 200-ish units.
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So obviously some significant growth, a part of that is market related, but also part
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of it is not part of that is, as you'll hear her unpack, one of the questions I ask her
2:47
is, what was she already doing in preparation to be able to grow?
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So what this conversation is, what many of you listeners have been asking for, which
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I try to deliver, and that is a breakdown of a mega producers team.
2:59
And obviously Michelle is a mega producer.
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So what she does in the first half of this conversation is break down her team structure,
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who does what, what roles do they play, where she involved, when she hired them, how
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she dealt with the issue of an LO, junior LOA wanting to become their own LO and leave
3:17
her and, you know, on and on.
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So first and foremost, I think what this is is a case study in growth.
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So for those of you that are in a place right now where you know you need to hire somebody,
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where you know that you want to duplicate this past year's volume and or units, or at
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least hold steady, maybe even grow, but a lot of a lot of you are coming off a wave right
3:43
that's coming in, right, the high tide, right, and so it's been raising all the boats.
3:47
So the question though is, how do you keep riding the tide, right, how do you keep that
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wave moving forward?
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And you do that by being very intentional and focused on areas such as hiring people,
3:59
right, implementing certain processes and technology to allow you scale and grow.
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And that's what Michelle shares is kind of how she's done that personally for herself.
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So that's part one.
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Then part two is we get in and unpack kind of what she does in terms of marketing before
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during and after the loan process, what she does with referral partners and what her plans
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are to improve and have some efficiencies in her process in the coming year in 2021.
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So I think that this is time to get a pen and pencil out, a blank piece of paper, sit
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down without any interruptions and take notes because there are more nuggets per minute
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in this podcast episode than maybe you'll ever hear listening to any other podcast episode
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on planet earth.
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Okay, well, maybe not, but pretty darn close.
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And so by the way, you're going to hear Michelle talk about some marketing activities and
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everything.
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And at the end, she is gracious enough to acknowledge what we're doing over at the
4:53
Pro membership for some of the done for you turn key educational classes that she uses
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to attract real estate agents.
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If you want to learn more about that, you can go to mortgage marketing.pro and check
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out the brief video that's put up there and take a look at the exact same program Michelle
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uses to reach out to real estate agents.
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So without further ado, let's get into this week's show.
5:12
Michelle, welcome to the show.
5:14
Hey, thank you.
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Have a good year.
5:16
Thank you.
5:17
Yes.
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So great to have you.
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Really great to connect with you again.
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You're incredibly busy.
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So I know it's really hard.
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Let's do this.
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Let's just set up who's Michelle auto quick background.
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How many years in the biz and then year to date?
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What have you done for volume transactions?
5:31
OK.
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I'm pulling up my pipeline over here so I can give you a little bit.
5:35
Yes.
5:36
OK.
5:37
So Michelle Odo with the Long O, I am from Florida.
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I've been in Denver now 23 years.
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I've been in mortgage for going on 28 and that's with the seven year gap in between when
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I have my kiddos.
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28 years working, really, 30 some years.
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A lot of underwriting background.
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I was a host cell rep for a bunch of years and then I've been in the retail loan officer
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side since 98.
6:02
Got it.
6:03
So yeah.
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And then you said numbers.
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So year to date through in November, where we're at, it's November 20th.
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We're at 135 million and just 250 for units right now.
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Looks like.
6:21
Wow.
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That's not right.
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No, it's more like 294.
6:25
Hey.
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Fundings are coming in as we speak.
6:27
Yeah.
6:28
Right.
6:29
Wait.
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The ticker's moving now.
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It's like 94.
6:32
294 units.
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And what was it?
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The volume was 135.
6:36
Wow.
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I thought I'd get you with that.
6:41
Yeah.
6:42
That's amazing.
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Seriously.
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That's off to you.
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How does that compare to?
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You don't have to be specific.
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Just ballpark.
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Previous year.
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2019.
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2019.
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I did 85 million and I forget how many units, but I want to say, I think it was 206, 206 and
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it was 85 million.
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Wow.
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All right.
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So obviously the market has driven a lot of growth for people.
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How do you look at your growth?
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Like do you just chalk it up to, hey, thank God for the market or do you think you've also
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done some things intentionally or we're already brewing that plays a factor into your
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current numbers?
7:20
No, I definitely did things to facilitate growth to prepare for growth.
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My goal was to hit 100 million this year.
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So I wanted to go from like 85 to 100.
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I usually try to do like 10 to 20% increase for year if I can.
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So my goal was to get to 100.
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I didn't know if I'd do it because I thought I didn't know what this year was going to hold
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when I made that goal, right?
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I think the whole mortgage industry, obviously with all the horrible things that COVID brought,
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but with the low rates, it was a blessing for us this year.
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And so what I planned to be 100 million and I'd be in more like one, I end up at one,
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I don't know, maybe 160 or so and 70, but in terms of what I did to prepare for growth.
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So I knew I had to grow my team, that was my number one goal.
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And we had also moved platforms.
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So I was at a different lender up until July of last year, July of 19.
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So we moved to July of 19 and we opened up our own branch with a different company.
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And so there was a lot, you know, there was all that transition moving, moving the office,
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and then hiring more staff and growing our team.
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And so my goal all along was to get, I had an LOA who kind of functioned like an LOA and a loan coordinator.
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So really more docs oriented versus like selling,
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although she could take from lead to close if she needed to, she's licensed.
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And she's worked for me, she's worked for me for like 20 years.
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So Carlos, my right hand, you know, she's my work wife, she's amazing.
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So I knew I needed to hire like a true LOA that was going to be sales,
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and then Carla could be act more like in that loan coordinator capacity.
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And I did do that March of, let me think, what data, I don't even know why.
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It's like been a fog, honestly, it's been kind of a whirlwind.
9:18
But you did that in 2020 this year.
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Yeah, well, I hired her a year ago, I hired my second LOA a year ago,
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but she didn't really move into that LOA role till like March.
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We had her doing some marketing things up until then, so from March until now.
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So hired Tanya and she, you know, within her, I don't know,
9:36
third or fourth month, she was up to do in 10, 15 loans a month.
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And that's what she's been averaging.
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So she's doing phenomenal.
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And then I hired another LOA in September.
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Just to clarify, when you say doing 10 to 15 loans a month, what do you mean?
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Is she originating or?
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So leads that I can't get to, right?
9:53
So I give her the lead, I give her the name.
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I mean, it's as simple as I might give her, you know,
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forward an email to her or a text or a waistmail or whatever it may be.
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It could be a home bot lead, you know, that comes in or it could just be a website
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that comes in and then I'll just, you know, she can take that lead from start to finish.
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Usually I'll do an intro if I've talked to the client.
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If I haven't even talked to the client, then she'll just call and say,
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hi, I'm Tanya, I work with Michelle Odo on her team.
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You know, I'm her loan partner.
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I'm going to work on this free day so we can get out to you right away.
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And 99.99% of the people are thrilled, you know, that they got a call right away.
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That's someone's on it.
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They're never, you know, kind of like, well, I only want to talk to Michelle,
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but that doesn't happen a lot.
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It can happen, but it's more rare.
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Are any of, would any of those be real to referrals or those typically kind of like those less defined?
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Well, I mean, I started her off with all refi stuff,
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just because that's the easy way to cut your teeth, you know, she'd been in the title industry.
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So she knew loans, but she had never like been a loan officer.
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So she got licensed and then started from scratch on that side of the business with me.
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And so, you know, started with refinance leads.
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So not really unless it was a realtor who referred a refi, but not a purchase lead, you know.
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But then once she got up and running within a few months,
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I did have her start doing some purchases and now she'll do both.
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So some of those are realtor leads.
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They're both.
11:23
Okay, cool.
11:24
Well, obviously that's, then you include your total units in those figures, her 10 to 15.
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Yeah, so as an L.O.A., they're not really sourcing any of their own business.
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They don't go out and originate like per se.
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They don't call on realtors.
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So they're really my deals that are coming in.
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They're my past client.
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They're my repeat client, my referral from a client or a realtor referral.
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And they'll act in terms of like taking that loan from start to finish,
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but they go under my volume.
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Mm hmm.
11:55
Now you mentioned home bottom and interesting.
11:58
Obviously you use that and that sounds like it's generating some positive ROI for you.
12:02
I love home bottom.
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Mm hmm.
12:05
I actually was lucky enough to get to pilot it before it ever came out.
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So Ernie Graham, you know, he was in Denver.
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He's a friend, asked me to be one attend to pilot it out here.
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So I got to kind of see the before, during and after process and the product.
12:20
Yeah.
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So I've I've labbed it from day one.
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I think it's one of the few things that you pay for.
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And it actually gives you as much or more than you expected.
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And it's very easy.
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It's a set it and forget it system.
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So people just love it.
12:34
The clients really enjoy it.
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And you don't have to chase them down.
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They're coming, they're coming to you with questions.
12:41
When I think about with you and somebody at your volume,
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and you mentioned the L.O.A. handling home bod as an example of leads,
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is do you have that then internally kind of flow process wise?
12:51
Do you have that set up already?
12:54
You know what I mean with a very direct either a director dotted line to Tonya
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so that you're kind of out of the loop on that?
13:02
So what happens is we have an email.
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One of our emails is Odo Group at leader1.com.
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So I have the home bod notifications come to Odo Group.
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And then Odo Group would be me, Tonya, Amory, and then Dennis, my other.
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He's kind of an L.O.A. hybrid.
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He's he's do maybe a few deals a month for me.
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And then do in his own stuff.
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So those deals will come in through Odo Group.
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And so we all see it.
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And I'll usually assign it, you know, or someone might say,
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Tonya might say, hey, I've been trying to chase this guy down for two months.
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This is my deal.
13:37
And it's cute.
13:38
We all do little memes.
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You know, like yesterday, Tonya had one with all the birds.
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And it was like, my, my, my, my, and she sent that out to the team.
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Like, this is my deal.
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So everybody's like, hands off, you know, and so that's been fun.
13:50
But yeah, everybody on the team is great.
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We all work together.
13:53
There's no drama.
13:55
Everybody wants to help everybody.
13:56
And that's been really good.
13:58
And do you also involve them in any other activities that might be like
14:04
past client type stuff?
14:05
You know what I mean?
14:06
As you're doing things to turn uncover opportunities, are you involving them
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in a similar way with that?
14:14
Do you mean like events?
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Or do you mean like, let's just take past out of past database, for example?
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I don't know.
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What do you do with your past database to try and so it all, it's always me.
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I'm on the face of it.
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My L.O.A.'s are not unless they want to send something to like their sphere.
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Then it would be them and me.
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But so for my CRM, anything that goes out will have Michelle Odo, you know,
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the Odo group, my picture, and it'll come out from me.
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But then those leads that come in would filter back to them.
14:42
Ah, very good point.
14:44
So it's going out from you.
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It's still your face, your branding, but if you send out 500 emails, for example,
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and you get, you know, 25 people who respond, then that's getting dispersed to your team.
14:53
Correct.
14:54
Yes.
14:55
And you know, I still, I don't know if you remember, but I do a lot of male, like
14:59
snow, male, hard male, you know, cool postcards.
15:02
We do these variable data's where their name is on it, different things.
15:06
We do all different types of cards and things.
15:08
So every time I do a drop, you know, I'll get calls, I'll get deals.
15:12
So those will again go to the team.
15:15
I mean, listen to that.
15:17
Hey, snail male, right?
15:18
Direct male still works.
15:20
It works great.
15:21
Ah, no, it's question one of the last people that, well, it's funny.
15:23
I mean, we could like, you know, segway into that conversation.
15:26
I don't want to per se, but it's just a good point and reminder to, you know,
15:29
whenever anybody says something's dead, emails dead, direct mail is dead, right?
15:33
First of all, it's not in most cases.
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And second of all, people, let's not forget that people love to get, like, here,
15:40
I got this book here.
15:41
People love to get stuff, tactile stuff in the mail that they can touch and feel.
15:46
And you know what I mean?
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Because we're so used to digital that we, you know, that shows up and gets attention.
15:51
Right.
15:52
For sure.
15:53
People love it.
15:54
Who does to you?
15:55
All right.
15:56
So you also mentioned Dennis.
15:57
So is that your aside from processor?
15:58
We've got one, two, three L.O.A.'s.
15:59
Is that what I heard?
16:00
Yeah.
16:01
Dennis is really, he came from another mortgage company.
16:04
He's a friend, you know, known for like 20 years.
16:08
He is a guy who used to do a lot of volume back in the days from California.
16:14
He's lived in Colorado a long time.
16:16
But just through life changes and whatnot, he really, he kind of got to where he was doing
16:19
maybe three, five deals a month.
16:21
That's all he was doing.
16:23
And then he, as of last year, was L.O.A.'ing for a different L.O.
16:29
And but he really wants to grow his own business.
16:31
Okay.
16:32
So, you know, he and I had been talking for a while and he's like, Michelle, I want to
16:35
come work with you.
16:36
I want you to mentor me on the marketing, doing the video, you know, all the things that
16:40
you do, I will pick up any leftover and be an L.O.A. on some of your deals.
16:45
But my goal is really to build my business and that's my goal is to help him build it as
16:49
well.
16:50
So he's in my branch.
16:51
He's an L.O.
16:52
In my branch, who is his own L.O., but he also maybe does like maybe three to five deals
16:57
a month for me.
16:58
Okay.
16:59
Got it.
17:00
And maybe, you know, five, three to five of his own.
17:03
And he wants to get to 10 to 15 of his own.
17:05
So that's our goal.
17:06
So I want to ask you about this.
17:08
And the situation with Dennis, it's for you anyways, it's a little bit different because
17:12
you're running a branch.
17:13
So therefore, you don't necessarily care that he grows his own business.
17:17
You want him to.
17:18
Right?
17:19
For obvious reasons.
17:20
Because you're going to have to.
17:21
Yeah.
17:22
But here's the thing.
17:23
A lot of people I talk to struggle with is when they're looking at hiring L.O.A.s, etc.
17:28
Is the is the constant challenge of them breaking away and becoming their own law and officer
17:34
and then leaving me, assuming I'm not running a branch.
17:37
Do you do any things in advance to kind of like mitigate that or any advice there?
17:41
Yeah.
17:42
I mean, my advice is, and I've seen that over the years, and you know, I husband and
17:46
I were brokers for years, Jeff, I think you knew that, you know, a long time ago.
17:50
And we hired a lot of people that we trained and then they left us, you know, and it just
17:54
like it's like it breaks your heart, you know, you're like, oh, that hard work and nothing
17:58
else is going to get it.
17:59
So I kind of changed my mindset on that mainly because Carla, who is, she's our operations
18:05
manager now, but she was my loan officer associate.
18:10
But before that, she was my processor for a lot of years.
18:13
And I've learned that I personally really like like a processor type person who does not
18:19
want to be on commission.
18:20
They do not want to go find their own deals or straight commission.
18:25
They don't want to have to source their own deals.
18:27
They don't want to be out in the street.
18:28
They don't, they're not comfortable in that piece, but they're really good with people.
18:33
They're good on the phone.
18:35
They've good personality and they really know how to put a deal together.
18:38
They understand the backside of the deal.
18:39
They know how to structure the deal.
18:41
They know if the deal works, they know if the income works.
18:44
So it's like all the hard stuff is done.
18:46
And when you know how to do all of that, you're not selling.
18:49
You're just providing, you know, guidance, you're an advocate, you're putting together
18:55
structures and strategies because that's what you know how to do.
18:58
And if you're a good communicator and you're good at sales, just because, you know,
19:03
you know how to communicate and you're good with people, then you're a great L.A.
19:06
So I really, Carla was my first L.A. and she worked out, you know, she was amazing.
19:11
So then when I hired Tanya, there was a lot of vetting in that, like, what is your goal?
19:17
And I interviewed quite a few people.
19:19
And if they said to me, oh, you know, I want to start with you and then with the
19:22
need year or two, I want to be a loan officer, they think that I want to hear that.
19:26
I'm like, yeah, scratch, you're not a hearoff, let's, like, I don't want somebody to
19:31
be my L.A. that wants to go and be their own L.O.
19:34
That's not my goal.
19:35
I want, and that was vetted up front and we talk about that.
19:38
Like, I love that personality that just wants to sit in their cube or at their desk
19:43
and work and get deals done, but they don't want to go out and be their own L.O.
19:47
That's not their goal.
19:49
When you think you get very clear on that by setting expectations, by asking some pressing
19:53
questions, for example, are using any like, you know, disk profiles or anything like that?
19:59
You know, I have been lucky.
20:01
I've done that in the past.
20:02
The people that I have now, I didn't do it on any of them, but I got lucky because they
20:07
were all people I've known and, you know, just having good discernment and kind of knowing
20:12
their personality styles and that it would fit.
20:14
But we've done those in the past.
20:15
I had a team when I was at my previous company, I had a team of, there were three, four of
20:20
us actually at one point at two L.O.A.'s, a marketing person in myself.
20:25
And we did the animal one, you know, like we're everybody's the animal.
20:28
So of course, I was the lion.
20:29
Nobody was surprised.
20:30
And then Carla, my, you know, my one coordinator, she was the beaver because she just like
20:34
works and works and works.
20:35
You know, the world's falling down and she keeps working.
20:38
And then we had a golden retriever and an otter.
20:40
So we were like the perfect team, you know.
20:42
But yeah, I think those do work.
20:44
I think those are good to have and it's good to have somebody who's maybe has some of
20:49
your strengths that maybe something's your weekend and vice versa.
20:54
No, thank you for sharing that because it's so often that I deal with L.O.'s who are
20:59
trying to address the capacity problem and think the answer is hiring a junior or this
21:06
hybrid role and eight out of ten times it winds up imploding in their face because of
21:11
exactly what you said.
21:12
Because if there's always that, well, yeah, I'll, I'll, you know, I'll shovel elephant
21:18
dung for a while, but I really want to go be my own L.O.
21:21
Right.
21:22
You recognize that early as a red flag for the world.
21:24
Well, and you, you're really, there's so much trust that has to be given because they
21:29
have your database, they're talking to your vultures or tech, you know, so really knowing
21:35
the person, like the character of the person for me is super important as well.
21:40
And like I said, I've been very blessed to have amazing people come into my path and, but
21:46
yeah, for sure, like, I think you really have to bet that out.
21:50
And here's the problem, when we're desperate and we're really, really busy, you can convince
21:55
yourself, right?
21:56
Like, oh, they're going to feed, they'll, we'll make them work, they'll be fine, you know,
21:59
they're going to change them.
22:00
I'll fix them.
22:01
We're going to marry them and change them.
22:02
No, that doesn't work, you know, so that is funny.
22:08
I thought you had a biz dev person, or am I missing it?
22:10
It's one of the people you described.
22:12
No, I do.
22:14
So they're really kind of the branch.
22:16
So my, my branch right now, I have quite a few people in here, so my husband does reverse
22:21
mortgage.
22:22
That's all he does.
22:23
So he's his own team.
22:24
He's not in my numbers.
22:26
He has a processor and he has kind of an L.O.A.
22:31
But his L.O.A., you know, reverse does, they do last month, he did nine months loans,
22:35
which was ridiculous.
22:36
Wow.
22:37
That's a lot.
22:38
I, you know, which is still a lot, but his L.O.A. does a lot of my marketing stuff, because
22:46
she's kind of got that time, you know, so we have her kind of do tools.
22:50
So we have that L.O.A., who does, so she's kind of a half, half my person, she does a lot
22:54
of my marketing.
22:55
And when I say business development, I don't have the traditional business development
23:01
person that calls up realtors and says, Hey, you want to meet for coffee?
23:05
Like, I don't have that and I don't do that.
23:07
It doesn't mean I wouldn't want to do it at some point and I've done it at times in
23:11
my career, but I don't, I haven't done that for the last couple of years.
23:16
So, but Tanya, who's my L.O.A., I hire her in that role, but she wasn't in it very long.
23:22
You know, we hired her in November and by March, she was in L.O.A., we took her out of that
23:27
role.
23:28
So anyway, so I have a kind of a half marketing person.
23:31
The way my team runs, we have a assistant processor who kind of opens the file so they
23:38
order like the credit, not the credit, they order the title, the V.O.E.s, the appraisal,
23:43
you know, all that stuff.
23:45
And then, so that's the assistant processor and then the processor.
23:50
So they're for the branch.
23:52
So they're for me, they're for, you know, Dennis and then my L.O.A.'s and any other
23:57
L.O. that would come on board, would use like the branch processor, we'd probably need
24:01
another at that point.
24:02
Sure.
24:03
And she's here, she's in the office.
24:05
She's in my office.
24:06
Yeah.
24:07
Okay.
24:08
So we have our own processor, our own assistant processor, and we have our own underwriter
24:11
that we just hired.
24:12
Nice.
24:13
Not too long ago.
24:14
That kind of volume, I mean, you know, you need it.
24:17
Well, we needed it.
24:18
Yeah, we were dying because when everybody was, you know, like just exploding with volume,
24:24
our turn times were getting, you know, slower, slower.
24:27
Right.
24:28
Right.
24:29
Like we were just dying.
24:30
I'm like, no, I got to have my own person.
24:31
Okay.
24:32
And so we left off an underwriter as far as like your, your ops.
24:36
Yeah.
24:37
That's pretty much it, right?
24:38
Yeah.
24:39
So the opener, which is our assistant processor, same thing, processor, so if I take a loan,
24:46
this is what it looks like.
24:47
Yeah.
24:48
Let's say I do my own loan.
24:49
Yes.
24:50
I take the application, whether it's over the phone, pretty much online anymore.
24:51
I'm sending them to the, to the web.
24:52
I really have changed my process and I like that.
24:56
So they go to the web.
24:57
They fill it out, take some five minutes.
24:59
So if it's my deal, I'm going to call them up.
25:02
I'm going to walk through the deal with them, get it all structured, sold, locked, whatever.
25:06
If it's a refi, have their docs come in and it'll nearly go to Carla, who's my, my
25:11
loan coordinator.
25:12
Mm-hmm.
25:13
She's kind of like mellow a loan coordinator.
25:15
Right.
25:16
She's really a loan coordinator.
25:17
She doesn't sell anymore.
25:18
So it goes to Carla, Carla gets all the docs together, makes sure it looks cool, gets
25:23
it to the opener, who's the AP, right, assistant processor.
25:27
Then she, and she orders all the preliminary staff, and then it goes to the processor,
25:32
and then it goes to the underwriter.
25:34
So if it's not my deal, let's say I give it to, you know, Tanya or Amory, they would
25:40
do the same thing.
25:41
They would get the loan out of the, you know, go into the web, go over the deal with
25:44
the client, sell it, lock it, structure it, get the docs, they'll go through the docs
25:48
themselves, that if I won't go to Carla, unless it's difficult, like it has difficult
25:54
tax returns or something they need help with, and they will put it into processing.
25:58
So it'll go to the assistant processor and then the processor.
26:01
Okay.
26:02
I'm on your website here.
26:03
I clicked on Apply Online, so I wanted to just get a sense of, you said it takes five
26:09
minutes.
26:10
Is this like connecting bank assets and all that kind of stuff too?
26:14
Yeah, we used to have that set up.
26:16
I disconnected it because it was freaking people out.
26:19
They thought they had to do it, and then they stopped the app.
26:22
Yeah.
26:23
So we don't need it at that point.
26:24
They basically put in basic, you know, name, social data, where they live, where they
26:28
work, how much they make, it lets you put in like one bank account, so it's a pretty
26:32
simple app.
26:33
They hit, you know, what they want to do, submit, and then we get on the phone and fill
26:37
in any gaps and complete the process.
26:41
Are you using the app at all?
26:42
I noticed you haven't had it as well.
26:44
Yeah, we use both.
26:45
So I can text the app or I can send them right to the website.
26:48
I mean, from a consumer standpoint, I like it because I'm seeing the images here on
26:51
the website, and we can put links in the show notes.
26:55
You've got this scan and upload docs securely, which is cool, like a snapshot of your W2.
27:00
You know what I mean?
27:01
Yeah, I love it.
27:02
Yeah, people want that streamline thing, you know.
27:03
Oh, it's easy.
27:04
It's fantastic.
27:05
Yeah.
27:07
It did.
27:08
Well, it's interesting when you say you push people off to the side of the app, and I'm
27:13
not saying I disagree with you, but it's funny because I hear some people, and I guess
27:16
look, that's what's cool about this business, you do it anywhere you want.
27:22
Some people choose the opposite of the route, which is no, let me take it with you over
27:26
the phone because they feel like that locks it up more.
27:29
I did that.
27:30
I was a person.
27:31
You were.
27:32
I would have sworn up until a year ago, that was the only way to do it.
27:36
That's how you build your relationship.
27:39
That's when you lock them in, like that's how I felt, and I believed it, but I was forced
27:45
to do something different because when I moved a year ago and opened a branch, and I had
27:50
to get a lot of deals in the pipeline quickly, you know, deals that, you know, new deals,
27:58
but I wanted to try to build that pipeline as fast as I could.
28:01
And so there was no way I was going to do that by taking every single app, right?
28:05
So we came up with like a canned email and a canned text, and it was very warm.
28:11
Like, hey, you know, we'd love to help you with that.
28:14
We want to provide you with the same great service we always have.
28:17
You know, if it was a repeat client that reached out to meet your Facebook or however they
28:21
found me online even, and we would immediately send that out and say, this will take you
28:27
five minutes, get your info in, and then we'll work on it for you right away.
28:31
And I have found, so then what happens is I've just, I've flipped when I build the
28:35
relationship, 99% of the people go, I literally hardly have anybody say, no, I don't want
28:40
to do that.
28:41
They're like, oh, okay, like that's what I'm supposed to do.
28:43
That's what I do.
28:44
So they go, they fill it out.
28:46
I open the app and I call that.
28:48
And then I go through it with them on the phone.
28:50
I pull their credit.
28:52
I tell them what their score is.
28:53
I make sure I know what they want to do.
28:55
I structure it all up.
28:57
I run a read.
28:58
I see that they like the read.
28:59
They commit to it.
29:00
I'm like, cool, we're going to lock it right now.
29:02
You're good with this yet.
29:03
I love it.
29:04
I lock it.
29:05
And then I go, okay, as soon as I hang up, you're going to get this and this and this, send
29:10
them the needs list, five minutes later, they're uploading their docs.
29:14
It's such, it's a way better system.
29:16
Because now when I'm building my relationship, I actually have all of their information
29:21
in front of me.
29:22
I've pulled their credit.
29:23
I'm looking at their numbers.
29:24
I can, oh, wait.
29:25
So you say you worked here.
29:27
What did you do before that?
29:28
Or, you know, wait, are you contracts?
29:29
So how does that work?
29:30
Yeah.
29:31
I'm going to work with it in front of me and I'm actually kind of buttoning it up.
29:35
The problem with what I used to do is you build this awesome relationship.
29:40
Now you have to hang up.
29:41
You have to get in the system and you get busy.
29:44
And then you get 10 of those.
29:45
And by the time you get to it, you kind of forget.
29:47
And then you're like, and they forget.
29:49
They've talked to three more people.
29:51
And then you're like, wait, what was, and then you might have your notes or whatever.
29:55
But, you know, you promised it that day.
29:57
Now they didn't get it till the next day.
29:59
It just, it wasn't, I feel like this is like when they're hot,
30:03
I'm like closing it, locking it and it just where I love it.
30:06
It's way better.
30:07
Interesting.
30:08
Regarding doing the review, once they've submitted their information on your site or app.
30:14
And then you want to get together and go through that with them.
30:17
Are you scheduling those calls?
30:20
I don't.
30:22
I just literally pick up the phone and call them.
30:24
And if I don't get them, I leave them a waste mail and a text and an email.
30:29
And then I'll just go ahead and work the deal.
30:31
Because usually there's enough in there and that I can put it together.
30:34
And I'll do what I want to do.
30:35
I'll send them the estimate with the needs list, the lender.
30:38
I have form, all these form emails that I do, you know, that I tweak, but just canned emails.
30:43
So I just like, you know, pull up, oh, refight email or purchase email or whatever it is.
30:47
And then I tweak it, you know, you're, you know, it's going to save you X amount per month.
30:52
We don't need anyone had a pocket.
30:54
We don't even need an appraisal.
30:56
If you close in December, first came in February, you'll get your escrow account back, you
30:59
know, all the staff included the needs list, the estimate and email that to them and then
31:05
follow up with the phone call that email and the text.
31:08
Okay.
31:09
And then once you are green lighted, good to go.
31:10
They say, yes, Michelle, let's go forward.
31:12
Let's lock it.
31:13
I got my timeline, whether it's Revire escrow or purchase.
31:18
How involved are you in the transaction and the communication after that?
31:23
So because I use that auto group email, usually what will happen is, so now the docs come
31:29
in, again, it goes to Carla, Carla reviews it, sends them an email and disclosures, right?
31:36
The disclosures go out.
31:37
She sends them an email and says, you know, you're so and so, thank you so much for sending
31:41
these things in.
31:43
I've reviewed everything.
31:44
All I need is XYZ and your disclosures, they were just email to you, you know, look
31:50
for them in your email if you didn't get them, let me know.
31:53
And then they'll reply to that auto group email.
31:55
So I see it all, I'm a very high level.
31:58
I do not get involved unless I see something happening, like something, like, you know,
32:03
somebody goes sideways or they don't like something that's, you know what I mean?
32:07
So then it goes from that to opening the processing and I can see all that happening.
32:11
And I just slide those into their file, you know, I have a, I make their files over on
32:15
the left in my email, outlook, you know, and then I, or I delete it, if it's, if it's
32:20
like, oh, now I know that happened.
32:21
I don't need it.
32:22
It's delete.
32:24
But at least I always kind of know what's going on, but I'm not involved unless they say,
32:29
you know, well, that's how it was all told me or something like that or I don't want
32:33
to get that.
32:34
I shouldn't need to get that.
32:35
You don't need that or anything like that all immediately, like, you know, shoot them
32:39
and we're like, hey, I'm going to give you a call here in a minute.
32:41
You know, let's discuss this and then I'll call them.
32:45
And then what does your, like, pipeline review meetings look like, how often, et cetera?
32:50
You know, we probably do that.
32:52
We don't do them as often as I know some people do.
32:55
I think that auto-gruby mill eliminates a lot of that.
32:58
I always know what's going on.
33:00
And I also have, we do a pretty serious pipeline.
33:03
Let me see if I turn this if you can see it, just do it like this.
33:07
There's my other screen.
33:08
It's your exact spreadsheet.
33:10
Yeah, it's pretty, it's a Google Doc.
33:12
Oh, okay.
33:13
Anyway, it's, you can't really see it, but it's like this.
33:17
You got lots of colors on, lots of yellow.
33:19
Yes, depending on the says, and dates and columns, you know, so I can pretty much tell what's
33:23
going on at any given time between that.
33:25
And then my team, so my processor, my LWA, I'll talk, you know, Carla and the processor
33:30
will chat or whatever.
33:32
But we usually meet maybe once every two weeks, believe it or not, and yeah, we don't
33:36
need to meet a lot.
33:37
It's a lot through emails and a lot through.
33:40
Do you feel though that, like, you know, I mean, do you feel, yeah, I'm thinking of
33:43
that that must be a large flow of information through your email to that auto group email.
33:49
You know, it is.
33:50
And we, once the files in process, then it, then it would be Carla and me, like, then
33:58
we kind of, but yeah, I mean, that is the complaint that it does, it's not a complaint
34:02
for me.
34:03
Yeah.
34:04
I like all those emails because I just read them and swipe, so type, and I always know
34:07
what's going on with the race files.
34:09
But like for, you know, Tom, your Amory, it's a lot because they get a lot of those emails,
34:13
but they've learned, you know, I have rules and they just kind of, but yeah, we're going
34:17
to try to, we need to find, we need to kind of, that's a problem with growing.
34:21
Yeah.
34:22
It's like, you, everything's perfect.
34:24
And now we've just interjected new people and then we have to change our system again.
34:28
Right.
34:29
So it's like, it's, it's good until it's not good.
34:32
And that's kind of where we're at right now.
34:33
It's still really good.
34:34
I mean, we're closing seven months this month.
34:35
It's good.
34:36
Yeah.
34:37
We need to find out that system and that communication, and do more like tasking through
34:42
the CRM, which we're not doing.
34:45
Is there a particular CRM here you use?
34:47
So my company uses shorefire.
34:50
So that's where all of my like automatic notifications go out to the realtor and the
34:54
client.
34:55
That's where I send on my videos out through.
34:57
That's where.
34:58
Yep.
34:59
By the way, videos, are you talking about status update videos or?
35:03
No.
35:04
So the CRM, shorefire automatically has status update videos that are really cute.
35:08
Yeah.
35:09
Like the animated videos.
35:10
Yeah.
35:11
They're dynamic.
35:12
Like the client's name isn't it.
35:13
It kind of tells them where they're at in the process each time.
35:16
So those go out automatically.
35:18
But no, like, let's say I do a video this week on what's going on with the rates or what's
35:23
a reverse mortgage or.
35:24
Sure.
35:25
So it's comfortable.
35:26
Yeah.
35:27
Yeah.
35:28
I think fullness video I did last month or last week.
35:29
So that'll go out through the CRM.
35:30
Tell my clients and milters.
35:33
Okay.
35:34
Um, what was I going to say?
35:36
Oh, so how about when you have purchased transactions in place?
35:42
You guys are you doing status updates to all the parties?
35:47
Like the realtors and both both sides.
35:49
Yeah.
35:50
So we do, but you know, again, it's amazing to me that those auto notifications go out
35:57
so quickly.
35:58
Uh huh.
35:59
And most realtors are replying.
36:00
Thank you so much, Michelle.
36:01
Appreciate that.
36:02
Thank you.
36:03
Thank you.
36:04
And then by the time we get to closing, they're like, you were amazing.
36:06
Your communication was amazing.
36:08
And I didn't do any of it.
36:09
You know, it's just a lot of.
36:10
Yeah.
36:11
So I'm like, yeah, thanks.
36:12
I know.
36:13
We're so great.
36:14
You know, but we didn't really do it.
36:15
It's the CRM.
36:16
But we still have certain touch points in the file where we also reach out like with
36:20
the appraisal.
36:21
You know, we always send it again in our own email and say, you know, the value is X to
36:25
the buyer and the buyer's agent as is or to the listing agent value came in fine.
36:31
We don't give them the appraisal.
36:32
And then I usually call, you know, once or twice throughout the transaction, both sides
36:36
of the agents.
36:37
No, usually the buyer's agent, the listing agent, I'll introduce myself in the beginning.
36:43
So that's my first touch point.
36:45
And then usually right before closing, you know, they're, I'm just letting them know
36:48
we're good.
36:49
Yeah.
36:50
Are you pursuing listing agents at all?
36:54
So, you know, for years, that was always how I built my business, right?
36:58
And I fully pursued.
36:59
I mean, we just tried to do an amazing job and we built that way.
37:03
And then a lot of marketing.
37:05
But my team now, you know, so my L O A is if they have a great transaction, that listing
37:10
agents for game for them, that's how I have it set up.
37:13
So they can build that if they want, they're not going to go out and meet with them because
37:16
they just don't want to do that.
37:17
But they'll call those same thing, you know, they, they want to build, they want to have
37:21
more deals coming in that of their own, even though they don't want to go get business.
37:25
So it's, it's like a high, it's a little bit of a, I know I said before they don't want
37:29
to go get business, they really don't.
37:31
But they do, if they have a great listing agent transaction, you know, I'm like, go for
37:35
it.
37:36
A lot of those just circle back to me anyway because my name's been on everything throughout
37:41
the process, you know?
37:42
Yeah.
37:43
Right.
37:44
You said something earlier about growth and if I recall correctly, what I wrote down,
37:48
you've pretty much grown your business, I believe like roughly 20% every year, right?
37:54
Yeah.
37:55
I mean, some years more than others, but I would say from definitely from 2012 to current
38:01
was when I was like on a mission to grow, to really grow it.
38:06
And I would say started, you know, back in 2012, I think I was doing like 20 million,
38:11
25 million, you know, and because again, I had stayed home with my kids.
38:16
I told you for like six and a half years.
38:18
So when I came back in 2009, I had no business.
38:21
Yeah.
38:22
And we had no programs.
38:23
Yeah.
38:24
Yeah.
38:25
Yeah.
38:26
That's right.
38:27
You know, no PMI, no 125, no stated, like what?
38:30
We can't talk to the appraiser.
38:31
Like everything was different.
38:32
One, two, five.
38:33
So that was kind of weird.
38:34
You know, I had to learn all that again, but so from 2009 or 12 was like just getting
38:39
my feet under me and kind of building my business.
38:41
And from 12, I was like, no, I'm going to blow this thing up.
38:43
So that's when I really tried to start like growing every single year.
38:46
Okay.
38:47
So, I mean, I could ask you a bunch of questions about how to grow.
38:50
But the one I want to ask first is we're in this, you know, amazing year we've all had
38:56
of band or growth, second, best year on record, I think.
39:00
And so I'm asking that question of a lot of people, because as I'm sure you probably feel
39:04
some overwhelmed right now, right, capacity overwhelmed, been working hard, all that stuff.
39:10
So my question then for you as I've asked other people in a similar situation to you is,
39:15
do you plan on growing again this coming year or is it a matter of like, what are you thinking
39:19
when you know what I mean?
39:21
Yeah.
39:22
So I think it'll shift from refight, you know, I think right now, like a healthy business
39:26
model is maybe, you know, 60, 70 purchase, 30, 40 refight, right, that's for me a healthy
39:33
business.
39:34
Yeah.
39:35
Like 70 refight, 30 purchase, that's not a healthy business model, right?
39:40
Long term.
39:41
It's not sustainable.
39:42
Right.
39:43
So my goal is that I, when you said, you know, we're all burnt out, we're all like overwhelmed.
39:48
For the first time in, I don't even know, like probably a year, I don't feel that way.
39:54
And this is literally the first time because I finally have all my people up and running.
39:59
Our team is like ironclad, everything is smooth, we have our own underrated, like everything
40:03
is cool.
40:04
So now I'm going, okay, so the one thing I am doing is sales, I'm trying to do the sales
40:09
trainings with my team once a week.
40:11
So we're talking about all the things we need to do to be amazing and provide that wow
40:18
experience for the realtor and for the client as well, because a lot of its client direct
40:23
anymore, right?
40:24
Right.
40:25
So to answer your question, if I could maintain the volume, but shift the mix, I think that
40:31
would be incredible.
40:33
I think even if we went back a little bit in volume, like, you know, I don't need to do
40:37
150 million.
40:38
I mean, I'd love to.
40:39
I'd love to do 200 million.
40:40
Yeah.
40:41
So, you know, what are my goals going to be for 2021?
40:42
It's like my far reach goal, 200 million.
40:45
My, you know, maintain, like if I hit this, I'd be super happy, probably 150.
40:50
And I think, you know, I think a realistic, like, like if I get less than this, I'll cry
40:55
for a long time.
40:56
It would be maybe 100 million.
40:57
You know, so if I could do between 100 and 200, which is a huge range, right?
41:01
I think you're happy, but if I had, you know, if I went with my gut, I'm going to guess
41:06
we're going to hit maybe 125, you know, I don't know.
41:10
Now 100 million is your new minimum has to be, yeah, can't do less than that.
41:16
Because again, that was my goal this year, and we're going to blow that out of the water.
41:18
So I can't go less.
41:20
Do you recall at how many units you were, and I don't know if your company provided it
41:26
or not, but a lot of people are in the situation where the only way for them to grow or sustain
41:30
or get some sanity back is to hire somebody, right?
41:34
So what's, is there a sweet spot you think of units or something?
41:36
Yeah.
41:37
I mean, so I think it's six, I think somewhere between six to eight, I like six.
41:43
I think for every six, even every five, like if you want to be overstaffed and just be
41:48
amazing, you know, every five, I think every six units, you need a person.
41:53
And I was actually just doing the math on this before I got on the phone with you.
41:56
It's kind of funny.
41:58
But I went through it and I was thinking, okay, so, you know, if we're doing like this
42:04
month, we'll close 70 units.
42:05
Well, that's unusual, right?
42:07
But let's just say 50.
42:08
If I was doing 50 units at six units per person, that's 8.3 people.
42:16
So that's nine people, right?
42:19
So I need nine people.
42:20
Well, I have one, two, three, four, five, I have probably seven because two of them are
42:28
half, right?
42:29
Dennis is a half and, you know, diamonds a half.
42:32
So I have one, two, three, four, I'm, yeah, I have like six and a half people.
42:38
So or six people.
42:39
So I need to hire more people if I want to sustain.
42:42
But you know, we went from like 45 units to 70 like that.
42:46
So we didn't, we weren't ready for that, right?
42:48
Yeah.
42:49
So to answer your question, I think every six, you should hire somebody.
42:52
I am getting ready.
42:54
I want to see if what January and February look like, right?
42:57
Because we don't really know.
42:58
Yeah.
42:59
But if it stays even halfway, you know, to this level or even went back a little bit like
43:05
50 to 60 units, I will hire another opener and I will hire so that I can split that volume
43:12
because it's a lot for one person.
43:15
And I will hire another processor and I will hire another marketing person.
43:20
And I will pull that marketing off of diamond is so she can just be an L away for reverse.
43:26
So anyway.
43:28
Was there some point you let go of, you know, the resistance to hire, give up money so to
43:35
speak, right?
43:36
No.
43:37
No, you know, my mom always ran hair salons, okay, she was a hairdresser, she always ran,
43:44
she'd open them, build them, sell them, she did that a lot.
43:48
And she had like kind of an opposite philosophy of most people.
43:51
She's like, when it gets really slow, you market more, right?
43:56
When you're so, because then you're doing, you're providing, you're in their face a lot
44:00
and then you have amazing service, you're going to build and you're going to grow.
44:04
So like for me, I would always rather make a little less money, provide amazing service
44:10
because that's how you're going to get repeat business and more deals.
44:13
So making a little less is actually going to make you more money, right?
44:17
It's that well factor and the referrals and then your deals snowball.
44:20
It doesn't make any sense to make more money and give a crappy experience, you know.
44:25
Yeah.
44:26
You're stepping over dollars to pick up pennies.
44:28
Only.
44:29
That's something to have a life, you know?
44:32
Well, exactly.
44:33
You need to have some margin back in your life, for sure.
44:35
I mean, there's some L.O.'s, not everybody's branch manager and you're, there's some
44:39
L.O.'s who listen, who are waiting for their company to give me that L.O.A.
44:44
I had that understand that before.
44:48
Right.
44:49
But, but, you know, what I tried and tell them is, you know, are you going to continue
44:52
on this road, which you can't control whether or not they're going to give you that or not?
44:57
So question is, do you just hire on your own, whatever that person is?
45:00
Maybe it's not on L.O.A.
45:01
Maybe it's somebody to free you up, you know what I mean?
45:03
Doing tasks.
45:04
Oh, totally.
45:05
And if the company will allow you, I would say don't wait for them to pay for it.
45:10
You do it.
45:11
Some companies, and I worked at one that just wouldn't allow you unless you had eight units.
45:15
And that was a problem because eight units is a lot and if you're paying a hundred percent
45:22
because we have to pay for our own L.O.A. anyway, you know, what does it matter?
45:26
But so not to slam another company, but talking to those L.O.'s, like if they're in a company
45:31
where they're allowed, but they're not going to subsidize it, do it anyway.
45:37
Because like my husband used to always say, if you don't have an assistant, you are the
45:40
assistant.
45:41
Right.
45:42
You know, and if you're the assistant, you cannot make you are losing money.
45:46
You're losing a lot more than you would be paying that person to help you make more
45:50
money.
45:51
I always do it in loans.
45:52
How many loans do I need to pay for that person?
45:54
Well, that person helped me do two more loans a month or whatever it is.
45:59
And that's how.
46:00
And then you just have to trust.
46:01
You have to trust.
46:02
Yeah, that you're going to do that.
46:04
Make that happen.
46:05
Wonderful conversation on the whole team structure.
46:07
I knew you were going to knock it out of the park with this.
46:09
I want to close out with the last few minutes, maybe just kind of high level stuff.
46:12
I know you're pretty savvy with marketing and videos and things like that.
46:15
What are anything big planned for you for 2020 regarding your marketing for 2021?
46:20
I should say.
46:21
Yeah.
46:22
I know.
46:23
Gosh, where did this year go?
46:24
Yeah.
46:25
In fact, I was just talking about this this morning with Diamond who does my marketing now.
46:28
So we do some things like when the loan goes into processing, the L.O.A. sends an email
46:35
to Diamond, our marketing person, that says agent to add.
46:40
So if it's an agent, we don't already have that we don't already work with.
46:43
That's an agent ad.
46:44
So they get added to a bunch of places like they go into a place where we're going to send
46:50
you know, videos, postcards, whatever.
46:52
We face them, we link them in, we Instagram them.
46:57
We have a thing that we do.
46:58
We send them a card that says, you know, lender 911, if you're loans falling apart, call
47:03
us.
47:04
Like, we have a whole little process we do, right?
47:06
But what we don't do, and we used to do, but we don't have time to do it now.
47:11
And this is why I need my own, I just need like a full-time marketing person.
47:14
Is we really need to Facebook and link in the borrower right about the time we're going
47:21
to go to closing?
47:22
So what friends?
47:23
We've just gone smooth, everything's cool, we're going to go to closing, which all of
47:27
our deals go smooth, but you know, you never know, you might have that one off where you
47:31
just don't want them on Facebook or whatever, but you know, so that's what we do.
47:36
So right now, we don't have the time to do that, but I want to implement that because
47:39
I feel like so many of my clients come back to me year after year, refer, refer because
47:45
we've become friends on Facebook.
47:47
And it's like we're buddies, right?
47:48
And they see my stuff and they see my videos and they see everything I do.
47:51
So it's just very organic and that let in a net coupled with the mail I send, coupled
47:56
with the videos we send off through, even so all of those things combined, right?
48:00
So we haven't been good about it all year in Facebook error clients.
48:05
So what am I going to do next year?
48:06
A lot better job of getting those clients in my fold on social media, making more lists
48:15
in Facebook so I can target certain things in Facebook.
48:19
That's another thing I need to do this year.
48:21
By the way, for those listening, what she's talking about there is custom Facebook lists.
48:26
You can Google how to do this, but essentially Facebook will allow you to create a custom
48:29
list.
48:30
So it's quick and easy for you to get in there and follow like comment on people.
48:33
Right.
48:34
So you have all your realtors.
48:35
You could have past clients.
48:36
You could have all your veterans.
48:37
You could have whatever, right?
48:39
So that would be cool.
48:41
And then I, and we've always done events and of course this year, every event we had
48:45
got canceled.
48:46
We were going to do the Top Gun premiere and that was awesome.
48:49
I got cancer.
48:50
Right.
48:51
So we did do one thing.
48:52
You put it on the group, the pumpkin patch.
48:53
We did that.
48:54
But, you know, so some more events again this year and a lot more loving on my referral
49:00
partners.
49:01
I've not been good about this.
49:02
So if I get a referral from whether it's a referral partner or a past client, I want
49:08
to go way above and beyond in the gratitude there.
49:11
And we're not doing it.
49:12
We just haven't had the time.
49:14
So meaning like, you know, a huge thank you.
49:16
It could be a card.
49:17
It could be, oh, we noticed it's your birthday, you know, all the things, the, the realtors
49:21
birthdays, the client just had a baby, all the things.
49:25
So catching it all on the social media and then actually doing something with it.
49:30
That's my goal this year.
49:31
Oh, wait a second.
49:32
Catching it on, what do you mean catching it on social media?
49:35
Well, so if you're on Facebook with these people and you're on LinkedIn, you're seeing
49:38
these events, right?
49:39
Like, so just random acts of kindness or gratitude.
49:42
Yeah.
49:44
So combination of the referral, like they give you a referral.
49:48
That's an easy, you know, we need to send a card, we need to call and give them a thank
49:51
you.
49:52
Right.
49:53
But then in addition, really loving on our clients and our referral partners, just
49:58
through interaction, you know, through seeing what's going on in their life.
50:03
Yep.
50:04
Right.
50:05
By staying connected to them on social.
50:06
Yeah.
50:07
Yes.
50:08
Connection.
50:09
Yeah.
50:10
To do more of that, to have a better, have a full-time marketing person that's helping
50:14
me with that.
50:15
Do a lot more of that.
50:17
I also do a lot with the chamber, like I'm in three different types of networking groups.
50:21
So I'm in a national association, a divorce professional group, so I'm a divorce professional,
50:27
you know, certified divorce.
50:28
So I do some stuff with that and then I'm with the chamber and I'm in another networking
50:33
group.
50:34
So just you, you kind of hit this.
50:35
You said if somebody was trying to build their business, yeah.
50:38
My number one thing I would say is get on social, build your brand, meaning be very
50:43
authentic, be posting all the time, talk to people, connect, join some groups, whether
50:48
it's a B&I, a chamber networking, a knitting group, like I don't care whatever you're into,
50:54
you know, if you buy your bicyclist, you know, get with your people and nobody sending
51:03
you alone just sitting in this chair, you know, unless you're connecting online, which
51:06
a lot of us are doing that right now, right?
51:09
But I would say if you're trying to build your business, you have to get in some groups
51:13
and you have to get on social, and you have to provide an amazing experience and then
51:19
you have to touch, you know, we touch our clients a lot during the process.
51:23
They get, they get to think, you know, they get the Starbucks card when they go in, they
51:26
get a lottery card again, they get different things.
51:28
So just, you know, staying in front of them and then doing a great job and then after
51:33
you close, staying in front of them.
51:35
I used to do the congratulations, your loan is approved, whatever, you know, send it
51:40
to the office, that kind of stuff, that's gone now with COVID, because now it's gonna
51:44
be the office.
51:45
Yeah, we didn't do the office, but we do the, so we do like a Starbucks card when they
51:50
go, well, we were doing movie tickets, which we're not doing that anymore, either right
51:55
now.
51:56
So we replaced that with like a scratch ticket and it just says, I wish I had the card,
51:59
it's so cute.
52:01
It says wishing you a lot of luck, you know, and then you open it and it says, um, do
52:06
I have it?
52:07
You just buy those at the store or do you have these special ones printed?
52:10
Hold on.
52:11
Okay.
52:12
Diamonds.
52:13
Will you bring me a lottery card real quick so I can show somebody?
52:16
Okay.
52:17
She's gonna bring this one.
52:18
I love it.
52:19
I can just shout to her.
52:20
She's right there.
52:21
But no, it's super cool.
52:22
We had printed, you know, so my graphic designer came up with the idea of what to,
52:25
like the verbiage and we had him printed.
52:27
So we send that with the scratch ticket.
52:29
What are they?
52:30
What are they, what are they wind though?
52:31
I mean, is this an official day?
52:32
Well, it's more of what here.
52:33
I'll show you.
52:34
Are you, are you involved with gaming or hello greetings to everyone?
52:38
Stop dammit.
52:39
Diamonds.
52:40
Okay.
52:41
So it says wishing you, can you see that?
52:43
Hi, right there.
52:44
Right there.
52:45
Wishing you a lot of success and then when you open it, it says, um, whether you pay off
52:52
your loan in this instant because it's a scratch ticket or over time, you're taking
52:57
fantastic strides to meet your financial goals.
53:00
And then at the bottom, it says, thanks a million for, thanks a million in caps for choosing
53:04
us to handle your love.
53:05
All right.
53:06
You're putting a scratch ticket in there.
53:07
All right.
53:08
Thank you.
53:09
Right?
53:10
It's a touch point.
53:11
I thought you were running your own lottery in the state of Colorado.
53:13
Yeah.
53:14
It's a scratch ticket.
53:15
Whatever you want to do.
53:16
We used to do movie tickets.
53:17
We can't do that.
53:18
No, I know.
53:19
But the scratch card's awesome.
53:20
Again, people love that.
53:21
It's interactive.
53:22
Yeah.
53:23
Cast a buck.
53:24
Yeah.
53:25
No kidding.
53:26
And they'll post it and they'll tell you and then you pray get arrested, for example,
53:30
I don't know.
53:31
But then we also do the Starbucks cards when they are getting ready to go to closing and
53:37
then they get a closing get, you know, we send popcorn to their house after they close,
53:41
they get $5,280 for a year, $5,280 magazine with our little thing on it every month.
53:47
You know, so just they're all little inexpensive things, but they really mean a lot.
53:54
Yeah.
53:55
You're doing a lot of things right.
53:56
I mean, I love everything I'm hearing.
53:57
It's a very intentional system for you.
54:02
For marketing, branding, awareness, reminding, stay on top of mind.
54:05
You know what I mean?
54:06
Yeah.
54:07
For sure.
54:08
It's not the average transaction.
54:09
Right.
54:10
Yeah.
54:11
Yeah.
54:12
It's like every time they turn around, oh, I just got this in the mail.
54:13
No, I just got this video and oh, now they just called and now I got another card and now
54:17
I got popcorn and, you know, it's like, it's the gift that keeps giving like it never
54:21
ends.
54:22
Right.
54:23
Right.
54:24
Not to sound self-promotional, but I know in the past you've done some events.
54:28
Yes.
54:29
Super busy.
54:30
And some of those on your calendar for the new year, perhaps?
54:32
You know what?
54:33
I'm really glad you brought that up because the thing I've been struggling with and you
54:35
and I talked about this and this is absolutely in my 2021 plan.
54:39
Yep.
54:40
Is transitioning from in-person classes because I was teaching your classes and there's
54:45
a handful I love that have been very successful in people love, realtors love.
54:49
Right.
54:50
But now, you know, when everything went to Zoom, I was like, well, and then we were overwhelmed
54:56
with business.
54:57
Right.
54:58
It was like, it went to our business.
54:59
I'm not sure I'm going to get it anymore.
55:01
Yeah.
55:02
But then, but so now 2021, part of like, okay, we got to go back to, back to basics.
55:07
We got to build our business.
55:08
We got to build, you know, talk to realtors, all the things that are made us who we are
55:11
and that are important and that we care about.
55:14
So with that, what I have to do is get super comfortable teaching classes over Zoom because
55:23
I'm kind of an in-person person, right?
55:25
Like I feel like that's how I connect and just doing it over Zoom is just different.
55:31
It's a different state.
55:32
Like I need to fix my lighting, right?
55:33
Like right now, I look like I'm dark and so I need, you know, I need a little $20 ring
55:38
light.
55:39
Yeah.
55:40
It's like I need to fix some things.
55:41
I need to be more, you know, we have a green right?
55:43
We do our videos in there.
55:44
Oh my gosh.
55:45
But I don't want to teach my class in there, like I think, or maybe I do, maybe I should
55:48
actually.
55:49
I would encourage you to consider that, yeah, because you can control so many things in
55:53
there.
55:54
You can put whatever you want, obviously, behind you for the green screen.
55:56
You get to stand, I assume, when you teach and perhaps, you can have somebody like
56:01
Diamond can drive the slides for you, you know, or handle the chat.
56:04
Right.
56:05
Yeah.
56:06
But then I have to figure out, so like right now, you know, the cameras in there, when
56:09
we do our videos, I have a videographer, but I'll have to like, I have to get the screen
56:14
up where I can see it and see the people.
56:16
So I'd have to do some things.
56:18
So in my 2021 plan is to figure out how to transition those classes to an online format
56:27
and then how to drive, actually drive attendance because that's the other, you know, that's
56:33
the huge challenge, right?
56:35
So.
56:36
Yep.
56:37
So that, again, if I hire that marketing person, that's really, their function is to help
56:42
me drive business in all of those avenues, including, you know, helping with those classes.
56:47
Yeah.
56:48
Well, cool.
56:49
Well, we're going to be doing some extra things around that as well, helping you drive
56:51
attendance.
56:52
That'd be awesome.
56:53
Yeah.
56:54
No.
56:55
And like, not to, you know, I know you don't want to self promote yourself, but I can promote
56:56
you.
56:57
Um, no, because your classes are amazing and they really are, um, I mean, they're, they're
57:02
always like surface enough, but deep enough that, you know, you can get through, um, yeah,
57:07
you don't have to be like a super duper expert to teach them, but there's enough there.
57:12
There's enough meat for the wheelchair to like go, Hey, um, I can take that work with
57:16
that and maybe I want more.
57:17
And then that's an offline conversation.
57:19
So right on.
57:20
Love it.
57:21
Love it.
57:22
Okay.
57:23
What I want to do is put links in the show notes so people can follow you and all that
57:24
kind of stuff.
57:25
What's your, are you more Instagram or Facebook?
57:28
I'm really more face.
57:29
I mean, I'm on both, um, but my videos and stuff.
57:32
I'll go to Facebook.
57:33
I do do Instagram.
57:34
I'm on Instagram.
57:35
Which by the way, I don't want, I don't want to leave the scene of this conversation without
57:38
giving you props for your videos because we, we, everyone, hello, here's, oh, I know
57:43
I should do video or whatever, but you've done so many great video examples.
57:46
I've shared them, as you know, um, of you in a real estate agent talking topics, you
57:49
an insurance person and a prazer or whatever, you're like interviewing people a lot, you
57:54
know, which is awesome content for you because it builds up your expertise at the same
57:58
time.
57:59
Thank you.
58:00
Yeah.
58:01
I think I like doing the most, um, like writing a blog is kind of a drag, but I can sit
58:07
and talk for a long time and someone could edit it all up and make it, you know, so videos
58:11
are great.
58:12
I think they're easy.
58:13
I think it's the best way to connect with people and let them know who you are and show
58:17
them that you are an expert.
58:18
I would recommend everybody do them.
58:20
Um, so yeah, that for sure, but you don't have to learn, um, we could do this offline
58:25
Jeff.
58:26
Or if somebody knows you can email me is I have all these amazing videos, but I don't,
58:30
I know they have to be shorter for Instagram and I don't know how to get.
58:33
I think to do Instagram, you have to video it right on Instagram and you can't really
58:37
use your edited videos and so I just don't know how to, I need to start doing my video
58:41
on Instagram.
58:42
I'm not doing any video on Instagram at all.
58:45
I'm looking at your Instagram page right now, um, the automatic one.
58:49
Yeah.
58:50
Yeah.
58:51
You're just doing post which I need you could you could start doing some stories for
58:54
sure.
58:55
Yes.
58:56
A little circle is up top.
58:57
Yeah, I need to do that.
58:58
Oh, both stories and the little highlights up top.
59:02
Yeah, I gotta do that.
59:03
But the stories is, yeah, you just, it's, it's a video based.
59:05
It could be an image that's turned into a video or it's a video itself that becomes a
59:09
story where you put all the stickers and everything around it.
59:11
Um, but don't you have to do it on your phone like directly to Instagram?
59:16
You can't upload it from somewhere.
59:17
Correct.
59:18
Correct.
59:19
You can, there is a third party platform, I think, um, planally that you can do that.
59:23
But in general, yes, you grab content from your phone.
59:26
Whether it's a video already have, you're doing it right in the app and that's how you
59:29
create the story for sure, but you can get a bunch of videos done in advance on your
59:32
phone.
59:33
Oh, I can take the video on my phone and do it.
59:36
Okay.
59:37
Yeah.
59:38
Anyway, great.
59:39
So that's part of my 2021 also like getting that Instagram where it needs to be, but
59:42
yeah, just, um, cool.
59:43
We just happen to have a class on that topic too.
59:45
I know.
59:46
All right.
59:47
I gotta learn it so I can teach it.
59:49
Awesome.
59:50
Yeah.
59:51
Uh, listen, I know you're super busy and I greatly, greatly appreciate number on your
59:53
friendship.
59:54
Number two, the opportunity to bring your story to our listeners.
59:57
This has been fantastic.
59:58
Okay.
59:59
I haven't, look what I have on my desk.
1:00:02
See, I keep your stuff.
1:00:03
Oh, look at that.
1:00:04
Look at that.
1:00:05
Thank you.
1:00:06
Got me a book once.
1:00:07
I keep it.
1:00:08
And I gotta, I got more swag coming.
1:00:09
I've just, you know, been waiting for the right time and budget and all that fun stuff.
1:00:12
Cool.
1:00:13
I know you're busy too.
1:00:14
Yes.
1:00:15
You have to move and you're doing all kinds of cool things.
1:00:17
So.
1:00:18
Yeah.
1:00:19
Always moving.
1:00:20
Thanks for doing these.
1:00:21
Well, that's how I learn and grow and I always pick up something news.
1:00:25
So thank you.
1:00:26
You bet.
1:00:27
Thank you.
1:00:28
All right.
1:00:29
We'll see you Jeff.
1:00:30
Thanks.
1:00:31
Bye everybody.
1:00:32
All right.
1:00:33
Hey, listeners, you know what to do.
1:00:34
If you like this episode, hey, leave us a review and we appreciate you.
1:00:35
We'll see you on the next one.
1:00:36
Bye for now.
1:00:37
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