Latest / Mortgage Marketing Radio / Lessons in Leadership and Growth from the Top 1%

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Lessons in Leadership and Growth from the Top 1% · Mortgage Marketing Radio

0:00
In today's highly competitive mortgage industry, building profitable relationships with
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the real estate agents is essential for success.
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However, finding effective ways to secure agent relationships can be a challenge.
0:11
With so many mortgage loan originators vying for the attention of real estate agents, it
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can be difficult to stand out and establish meaningful connections.
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Our new case study featuring loan officer Chris Cogill is a must-read.
0:25
Chris has closed a remarkable 36 million in funded loans from agent referrals.
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And in this case study, he shares his proven strategies for building strong relationships
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with real estate agents and leveraging those relationships to drive more business.
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To get your hands on this resource, head over to LOKestudy.com and download your free copy
0:45
of the case study today.
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You'll find actionable insights and practical tips that Chris used to close 36 million
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in funded loans from agent referrals and how you can, too.
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Don't miss out.
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Go check it out right now, visit LOKestudy.com and download your free copy today.
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Hey, what is up, everybody?
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Jeff Zimfer.
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Welcome to this episode of the Mortgage Marketing Radio podcast.
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Once again, I am always thrilled that you're tuning in and would love to see you guys
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jump in our private Facebook group.
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You know what to do by now.
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You've got a Facebook.
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You type in Mortgage Marketing Radio and you fill out a couple of questions and we approve
1:28
you, assuming you are indeed a practicing mortgage professional.
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We try and keep this group exclusive to mortgage originators, right?
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Retail lenders, brokers are all welcome.
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We're just trying to minimize vendors, software providers, right?
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People trying to sell you stuff.
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That's not what that's all about.
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So please join us in the private Facebook group and before I do announce our special guest
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and what we're talking about here today, I know that more agent referrals is what a lot
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of you want.
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And I also know that many of you are struggling to get agents to respond.
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How do I know?
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Because I talk to many of you across the country every day because I work with loan officers
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in my market here.
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I work with real estate agents in my market and nationwide.
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And what I do know is that more often than not, the same lame sales pitch falls flat when
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you're trying to approach real estate agents.
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It offers little tangible value and your sales approach is putting you in the commodity
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box because you usually show up and sound like most other loan officers calling and pitching
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with the same offer and pitch.
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Therefore, I'm excited to show you a better way.
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My agent classes turn key plug-and-play agent class platform helps you break through the
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noise, deliver tangible value and attract agents to send you referrals with no chasing
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or no cold calling.
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Never again, will you wonder where your next purchase referrals are coming from?
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How do I know?
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Let me just share one quick win with you from one of our members, the Flame Group, Brian
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the Flame, who recently hosted one of the many classes we offer.
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And he shared with us in the group his marketing win for the day as he had 20 people register
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for the personal branding class that we provide for you.
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Immediately following the class, two appointments were scheduled for one-on-ones for Brian and
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his team to dig in with those two agents to learn more and talk about a partnership
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together.
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And that's just the immediate impact, not including what happened days and weeks after
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the class and then when the agents come back to your next class or they engage with you
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on social media and we lay all this out for you in a completely plug-and-play platform
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that gives you the done-for-you power points, the speaker notes, these social media images
3:46
to promote the handouts.
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We even put together the entire event promotion strategy and system for you, emails, SMS
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messages, landing pages, confirmations and reminders and you building your own database
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of targeted real estate agents that are engaging with you so you can add more agents to your
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bus.
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If you want to learn more, you go to mortgagemarketing.pro, check out the quick video.
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Okay, so in this session, I'm actually thrilled and excited.
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I had just had an amazing conversation with my special guest, Terry Santiago Parker and
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she is out of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area.
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She is one of the top women originators in the country for 2022 on the Scotsman's Guide.
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She is closing an average of 35 loans per month and we have a wonderful conversation about
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team, building a team about your customer experience, about creating an amazing work environment
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for you and the people you work with and surround yourself with, about balance and mindset
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and getting to a place of acceptance in your business, knowing yourself worth and being
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able to stand confident in that to attract the right people to you for both your own team,
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your partners, the people that are within your own sphere of influence in work but also
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with the right partners and consumers as well.
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There's so much else we talk about on this conversation.
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I wish we could have kept on going.
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I've learned so much from Terry and I think she's also one of those special human beings
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who's got the right place in her heart and you can tell that that is true when you hear
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unpack everything she's doing and what she's all about.
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So I hope you enjoy this episode and make sure you check the links for everything we talk
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about on this podcast including how to connect with Terry on social media and elsewhere.
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Without further ado, let's get into this week's show, Teresa, welcome to the show.
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Oh, thank you so much for having me.
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I'm excited to be here.
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I'm excited too because what's great about what I get to do here is, first of all, talk
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to mortgage professionals, real estate professionals, right, all over the country.
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And oftentimes I really don't know much about the person before we hit record and that's
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where we're at today.
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So first of all, you get the bravery award, welcome.
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And then secondly, for the listeners and so for me as well, give us a brief background
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on how long have you been in the biz and then what's the unit's volume last year?
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Okay.
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Well, I won't let my age out, right?
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So I've done this since I was 17 years old and let's call it 20 years in the business
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so you can do the math.
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I run a team and a branch and I also run a region with End Cross Country mortgage, which
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is awesome.
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Okay.
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And so I always want to give volume, I give, I eliminate COVID time frame from that time
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because that wasn't really real, essentially.
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And so we do about 35 units a month on my personal team, which is about seven and a half
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to eight million a month, we're trying to achieve 10 million.
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That's the magic number.
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If we hit 10 million, everybody goes to Vegas, that's the deal.
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And so that's what our goal is at this time.
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And our branch does about 15 million and we do about 80 to 90 loans a month, which
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is my circle, basically.
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Got it.
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And obviously you're still actively originating?
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I am.
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I am the loan officer of the group, essentially, yes.
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So that's 35 a month is you?
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That's me.
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Yeah.
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That's me.
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Working hard, doing my thing.
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And what's the team breakdown that allows you to perform at a high level like that?
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Well, first of all, we make things as I call it boring.
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And what I mean by that is very systematic.
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It's everything has a process.
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Everything is very, you know, all about what the needs of that customer are and that's
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kind of our focuses.
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And so, you know, my job is to make as many friends as possible and fill their needs and
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their job is to fill the needs of the client.
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And I think just over the years when you do things for a long time, you kind of fail forward
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all the time.
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And so I probably have made every mistake in the book that you could even think of.
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And I think through those failures, it's kind of high learned to, you know, teach and
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coach them, honestly.
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So.
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Okay.
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What's the setup of your team, meaning like how many L.O.A.'s, et cetera, right, for
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all your loan staff?
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Okay.
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Have three senior L.O.A.'s.
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And so their job is basically, you know, taking the application, collecting the documents,
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you know, being the pre-approval analyst, essentially.
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I have one team captain who is my 28 year old son.
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So I kind of made the Parker team like from birth as the joke of the office because both
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of our sons are on our team.
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And then I have two juniors.
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So the one junior assist me and the other junior assist my son who's my team captain.
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That's a pretty cool role and title.
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First of all, that you have your sons there, nice family, because what does the team captain
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do?
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So he is the escalation guy, he structures scenarios, he, you know, feels day to day questions.
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He pretty much replaced me.
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And so it's funny because I get coached by the core, right?
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And so a couple of years ago, I went to a summit and I ended up reading a book there called
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The Connectors Way.
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And before I read that book, I thought I had it all figured out because I was like, you
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know, I was doing 20 loans a month, I was working 80 hours a week and it was kind of like
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do that and repeat.
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And I just couldn't get past that.
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And so when I read The Connectors Way, I realized one, I needed to get myself out of the process
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and not feel guilty or have an ego about it.
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Unfortunately, us loan officers sometimes have like a little bit of an ego, a little bit
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sometimes.
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Yeah.
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And so I feel like just knowing that I need to remove myself and surrendering the control
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to him and empowering him to do, you know, he needs to do, allowing me to then connect
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with people.
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Okay.
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That's great.
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So I think that was the game changer or a big, you know, big game changer.
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Well, that's very, very interesting.
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And that's what I find is I kind of do some research as well, reading different books
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and stuff like I'm sure you do, as you just described, The Connectors Way, I'll make
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sure we put a link to that in the show notes.
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I'm looking at it here in Amazon.
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But what I also find is that, and this is a game I'm trying to get better at is we want
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to spend more time in our zones, so to speak, right?
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In our magic, what do you've heard it called different things?
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Our sweet spot and, you know, when we're in the zone and when we're in our superpower.
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And so I love the fact that you've got a team captain, which you wreck, you were holding
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on to those things too much because you wanted to control.
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You felt that nobody could deliver that service at the same level you could, which kept you
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from actually spending more time in your true genius zone.
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Someone said to me, in one of my coaching groups once, not in the nicest way, she said,
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would you consider yourself exceptional?
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And I was like, you know, I would say so, I think I'm a pretty good loan officer.
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You know, I would say that, you know, I would hope that I'm, you know, exceptional.
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And she said, well, then you need to realize that exceptional people need to make exceptions
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to everything, kind of like clicked in some weird way.
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And then I kind of got it and said, okay, people look at it like I want to build a team
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and I want to build an extension of myself.
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But in reality, like if that were the case, you'd have a million branch managers and a
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million top producing loan officers and you really don't.
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So what I realized in that conversation with her is that you just had to make systems
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and make it simple and hope that you're going to duplicate, you know, one out of 10 people
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to be a top producer, but that's not really like the reality because some people don't
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really want to be a top producer, really, too, you know.
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So I would think that was like a big and like, you know, I had a lot of aha moments and
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that was definitely one of them was just realizing that, you know, you had to pretty much find
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everybody's best and highest use and not everybody is good at everything, including myself.
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What do you think your best and highest use is?
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I think I am good on identifying what can help somebody grow their business and where
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I know again, I feel like I made so many mistakes doing it for so long and I'm invested
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so much because it's like, you know, my children literally are in my team and not only that,
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but I like care about my team so much truly and I want everything for them.
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And so I think I've done a good job in being so invested that I really listen, doesn't
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sound like it on this podcast, but I really listen to what like realtors need and, and,
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you know, team members need and then I try to fulfill their need, not my, not my need.
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So that's what I was curious about when you said you think one of your, you know, superpowers
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if you will is a highest and best use, I believe is the word we used, is helping others
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grow their business. Are you talking about realtors specifically?
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I'm talking about anybody and what I mean by that is like, you know, I've done this
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a long time, three or four years ago, I go meet this top producing guy, right, with
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the kind where you're like in the parking lot and you've got like butterflies in your
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belly, you know, and you're like, I'm going to crush it with this dude, I'm going to
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walk out, it's going to give me all this business, but you're all excited.
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And then you walk out of the meeting and you're like, holy crap, I'm intimidated now,
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I'm uncomfortable, right, because this guy's like major.
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And he says to me, which is so ridiculous at this stage of my career, which was talking
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a couple of years ago. And he says to me, why do you do this? Like, why, you know, why
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are you working so much? Like, why are you doing this? I guess it's the money is helping
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people like, what's your cheesy why? And I got like all star struck and everything. I
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couldn't really answer. And I left there upset not because I didn't like do the meeting
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or whatever, but I left there upset because I didn't really feel that I was being true
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to myself on what my why really was. And what I realized after in doing like a self
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inventory of that was that I really enjoyed watching other people's success, like that
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paid forward thing. And so I had like Jenny Groove was one of my top branch managers in
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Houston, Texas. And like, I remember getting a video from her like on a mountain when
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she got married in Mexico. Like, look, I take my mom and dad out of the country for the
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first time. And like, you helped me do this. And so like, she's crying in the video and
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everything. And me, while she went to work every day, she did her, like, you know, I didn't
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do her job for every day, right? But I like helped her achieve that. And the feeling
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that I got from that was so overwhelming that that's kind of what I knew between that
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and that meeting that I just want to listen to people and help them do better. And then
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I get really fulfilled by that. And then through that, you get production and money and
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things like that. It isn't that funny. If you focus on just being of service above all
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else, right? These good things come to you.
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Doesn't it really work anymore really? Right? Right? Well, you know why that's cool? Because
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you don't have the agenda of like, I have to get, get, get, get. Like there is no end
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game. There is just you being you showing up as you. And if something positive happens
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or comes out of that cool, if not, that's cool too. It seems like you're like not, not
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attached to the outcome. What's weird is that it took me longer, I think, to realize that.
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And I got to this point in my career where I couldn't grow anymore. And I was like, I
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felt like I was like, this road. And everywhere I went, I was like frustrated because I just
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couldn't do more business or I was just working more. I wasn't taking care of myself,
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like all the things. And I think even my husband had said to me, you know, like you need to
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make a decision at this point, like, you know, and we've been together, you know, 31 years,
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my husband and I, right? And so he was like, this isn't working. So I was like, oh crap,
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I'm in trouble, right? Workings too much. Red flag. Yeah. Like, oh boy, danger zone.
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And so I think that it was all those things that came together that was like,
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all right, I'm either going to the right side of this road. I'm going to the left side of this
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road. And, and I'm glad that I took the road that I took it. Let's put that way, you know?
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All right. So what are some of the shifts changes? What was difficult in your business
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that you had to, right, go through to make those changes happen?
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This is, I'm going to give you the first one and the hardest one ever. And it doesn't mean that
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I'll struggle and go back and then have to do it again. But I have found that I am the number
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one greatest of all time, Nick Picker. Okay. So I want to be like, oh, you didn't call my customer
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in 24 hours and, you know, you miss this condition and the underwriter of this and that and,
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you know, and, you know, why didn't you set up that lunch for 12 and confirm it three minutes
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early and all that. And so people I found, shocker, don't really love working for Nick Pickers.
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Right. And so with that comes being a control freak and, you know, all that, right? So then I thought,
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okay, at what point do you, do you get to this point of balance? We're like, you're still doing
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those things somewhat because you got to run a business, right? So it's got to be accountability
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and stuff. So there's got to be some of that to determine how to help people be better and stuff,
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right? Versus doing it all the time. And like, basically, the message that I found out what
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sending was, hey, by the way, I don't trust you. I don't have confidence in you. You're not
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going to do it as good as me. Like, those are the messages I was sending. And I was being like,
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oh, you know, horrible leader, basically. And so that's so hard. Like, everybody does that, right?
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You, you know, you go time steps forward, you take 20 back and so forth. And so, you know,
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my team would be like, yeah, sure. I send those emails at 2 a.m. Bring it. We love them, right?
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But I do them. I would say 90% less frequently than I did before. And I would say that was like
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the biggest thing that was something that I had to let go going down that route. It was like a
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decision, almost like an alcohol, like a weird way. Like, I'm not going to drink anymore. You know,
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like, I don't drink, but you get my point, you know. And, and, and did you, because most people
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are reluctant to do that because they think the level with their business operated or the service
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level is going to drop off when they delegate control. What did you find that happened?
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I found that if you give clear communication, which is funny because we all know all the right
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things to do, right? We all know if I have a direct path of how to send leads in and if my
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wheelchair knows exactly what's going to happen when they, you know, give us a deal and that they
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know that I'm there if they need me and like all the things. We all know what to do. The thing
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is is that we all grow, I think, at different times and levels to be able to implement all those
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things. And so what's shocking is the more you implement those things that you know you're
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supposed to be doing, the more you do more business. Is that kind of like forced growth because you
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kind of said, if I don't heard you correctly, like, we may not always be at the right stage to
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implement those things. Well, I think you've got to be ready. And well, I can say this. I can say
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that's the way that it was for me. And so it took me, so I joined this coaching program. I'm
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spending $3,500 a month. My husband's like, maybe it's a cult. Maybe it's not, but 500 hours a
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month, right? And you know, finance family, you know, faith, all this stuff and everything. And so
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I didn't listen or implement the things that they taught me for the first two years. Wow, really.
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And then when I did shocker, my income tripled.
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What would you say if you could identify? It's not necessarily an easier fair question.
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But are there, you know, you know, the, you ever see that old example of like, you know,
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you're filling a, a, a canister or a vase with little pebbles and big rocks and all that. So
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that's like life and business. There's a bunch of little pebbles. They're sand, but then there's
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big rocks. What were the big rocks you think that helped you once you finally adopted what they
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were suggesting you do? I'm like, boy, this is the podcast last therapy session, right? Yeah.
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I would say I wasn't having the best life. And I would be like, hey, my husband got more
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love on Father's Day than I got on Mother's Day. And that kind of would sting, right? Or,
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you know, you know, my son broke his arm and I was like, yeah, I'll be right over there because,
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you know, my top loan officer drove in from South Carolina and I got to get him set up first.
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And it was like, I had everything backwards. And then when I realized I wasn't being like the
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person that I wanted to be because I didn't have my things that mattered most in the right order.
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And that's for me. That's personal, right? Everybody might have their own thing, but that's
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me. And that is when I realized that what I saw in my mentors with that they had all those things
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in check. They had, you know, working 30, 40 hours a week, they had being a good mom. They had
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spending time with their grandchildren. And they had, you know, doing 30, 40 loans a month,
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they had all those things. And I was like, all right, why won all those things?
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And so I finally like surrendered in a sense of saying like, what is it that I'm going to need
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to do to have all those things? Because if they could do it, let's be real. There's not really
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Wonder Woman. There's not really Superman, right? They don't really exist for real. Yep.
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And so I started to think like, well, if somebody else can do it, then I can do it too. And I just,
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I'm going to have to get uncomfortable to do it. Okay. Which I'm still going through by the way,
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just to be transparent. Like, I'm still working on that right now. Well, I think that's, that's
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a danger zone when you're feeling comfortable. You know, I've been listening lately to
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this audio book called Winning by Tim Grover. Tim Grover's the guy who wrote the first book was
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called Relentless. And some of the listeners, I don't know if you know who he is, right? It's
22:21
pretty big out there in terms of personal on the speaking stages. But for those who don't know,
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he was the physical strengths and conditioning coach for Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant,
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Dwayne Wade, I think Charles Berkeley, Scotty Pippin, like, you know, is as a who, who for
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Michael Jordan was his very first client. Anyway, this concept about Winning is that that's
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one of the things that you realize with people who win, right? At a high level is they never,
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like, you know, they'll take a moment and celebrate. Yes, acknowledge their wins. But then it's like,
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it's like the Tom Brady quote, what's your favorite ring? The next one.
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So it's like, once you get like complacency is the onset or beginning onset of like,
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of mediocre, you know, you can't stay the same. You're either moving forward or backwards.
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It's funny that you say that because just the other day, I was listening to a like a YouTube
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thing with Kobe Bryant. And I actually listened to it, I think, on Monday, right? Because we're not
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always waking up on Monday morning, like, I have a joke. I call it mortgage Monday,
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mortgage Monday. I do all these things. And so this Monday, I woke up. It's like raining,
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all these things. I'm like, so I'm like, listen to this Kobe Bryant thing. So then I was like,
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crap, this is good. I listened to the same thing and on Tuesday, same one. Call my team and I was
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guys, do you feel that if you're on my team that I expect winners, like I expect to be
23:53
everybody playing, like, like, I hate to say it, but it's like, if you're not wanting to play
23:58
at that level and you're not wanting to be in the seat above you, then I'm not the team for you.
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And Kobe said that like in that YouTube video. And I always like felt weird, like, hey,
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I don't want to tell my team, like, I don't want them here, right? Or that I don't appreciate them.
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Like they say, you know, thank your team members 10 times a day, right? Never complaining to your team,
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duh, duh, duh, duh, all the stuff. But I just was like, wow, I'm so focused on like clear
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communication. Have I, have I been clear with them that I want you to play at a super high level?
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That's my expectation. Because that's what I want for my client. And that's what I'm,
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that's what I'm promising. So if I'm promising that, you had to deliver that for me.
24:38
I love that. How do you maintain that level of excellence or, you know, expectations with your
24:46
team? Do you structure weekly meetings and stuff? What does that look like?
24:49
So first, I believe in super crazy psychotic and sane fun.
24:55
Okay, nice. Like, I mean, ring the bell and, you know, like run through the office and
25:01
we have snack attack every day at two o'clock, right? So our team meetings are at two o'clock,
25:05
our office meetings at two o'clock for 15 minutes, our sales meetings at two o'clock,
25:09
15 minutes, our snack shows up at two o'clock. Everybody is like water ice and whatever.
25:13
So we're all eating, sitting on the couches, talking about what we need to have done.
25:18
We're making ourselves available to them at two o'clock. So if anybody's on the phone,
25:22
they're like, hey, listen, I'm going to sit with my manager at two o'clock. So I'm going to have
25:24
that answer for you. So very clear expectations. We also do quarterly team outings.
25:31
We do. I offer, hey, I'll do your budget with you. I'm going to help you with your bills,
25:35
your savings. As a matter of fact, I just had my personal financial planner come into the office
25:40
on the clock, sit with every employee I have for 30 minutes, answer any financial questions they
25:46
have, anything, whatever, like whether it's life insurance for OK, whatever. And then what my
25:51
husband and I are going to do is we're going to bonus them accordingly based on what they want to
25:56
have that they don't have, whether that be, it's like, hey, you need life insurance and you can't
25:59
afford it. And it's, you know, three hundred hours a year. Well, we're going to give you a bonus.
26:03
If you, you know, you meet ex metrics and we're going to pay for your life insurance for the year.
26:07
That's cool. So we want to like be all in. We want to be like, you have like people look at
26:12
and go, or let's put this way, I used to look at it and go, I'm paying you. I expect you to show
26:18
up big and do all my things and whatever. And then all of a sudden, I realize, well, darn,
26:23
there's a real difference between paying people that want to be here and paying people that
26:27
don't want to be here. And at the end of the day, they're the ones off on your
26:32
client about you. Yeah.
26:36
Hmm, love that love that. That's awesome. You know what I mean?
26:40
Have you had to let anybody go because they weren't playing at the level you expected?
26:48
Well, first, I'm going to give them every opportunity to get there, right?
26:54
And so I have. I had to let go recently. I had a processor work for me for eight years.
27:02
Like he was like a brother to me. It felt like I was so devastated and very girly like when
27:07
we had to let him go and mind you to make matters worse without disclosing too much his wife worked
27:12
for us also. Yeah, well, that stuff. And so the problem was one of them worked in the office,
27:19
one of them worked on the floor and they complained to each other across the room all day.
27:24
And it was like, I think when I finally let them go and we went to write the HR thing up,
27:29
I had 218 coaching or corrective emails to them about like the complaining.
27:36
Well, so I'm like, I think I pretty much made effort 200 times talking to them, right?
27:42
And so I had to let them go. And here's the craziest thing. He was my best processor.
27:48
He was my showed up all the time, never late, never called out, never sick, showed up all the time.
27:54
Most knowledgeable, systematic guidelines got the job done.
28:00
The thing that I couldn't get past was like the office cancer of complaining.
28:05
I just couldn't do it. It was like making me like I wasn't, I was like I'm not excited to get
28:09
there every day. It's my company. And I forget where I read it. I might have been like a
28:14
Michael Jordan thing or something, but they said you become an entrepreneur because you then choose
28:20
who you want to surround yourself with. And so I was like, yeah, I just don't want to be around
28:26
that anymore. And that was really, really tough. But you know, but it made such an example for
28:32
everybody else that they were like holy crap. If we're going to let go somebody that's like,
28:37
you know, an ace. Yeah. Then they really take complaining like seriously.
28:45
Oh, what was the net impact of morale on your team?
28:51
Surprisingly, I ended up with the best team I've ever had in 20 some years.
28:56
Very difficult decision to do though, obviously, as you said, like it took me,
29:01
let go of the wife first, hoping that the husband would be like, okay, maybe they were working
29:07
well together, right? Because that's be real. In the mortgage and real estate industry,
29:10
it's super common now for spouses and families to work together. It's like thing.
29:15
And so I know for myself working with my husband, when we first thought it working together,
29:21
the first six months, I think was the first time we ever were going to end up divorced.
29:28
Sorry, like rural is like, oh my god, this is not going to work. Now obviously I can't imagine
29:34
my days without him there, of course. You know, it's been six to seven years now. But
29:38
but I thought, okay, if we let her go, maybe, you know, they're not just, maybe it's not the
29:43
work environment, maybe they're just not working well together. And it's just too much of their
29:46
relationship. Right. And so I quickly realized within 90 days that wasn't the case. And sometimes,
29:52
and I don't know if this is true or not, because I don't know. But maybe sometimes people,
29:55
they need a new start too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. I think, I know, I think back real quick,
30:02
flashback, when I have been let go someplace in the past, it was probably ultimately the best
30:06
thing that happened. Right. It was some people need a wake up call, right? Yeah. And you gave them
30:11
plenty of chances, by the way. So yeah, it's funny, because earlier today, I had a coaching call with
30:18
my team. And what I wrote down was right activities and right people. Right. Are we doing the right
30:25
activities? And are we doing them with the right people? That's such a key. Well, that's interesting,
30:30
because Ron, the owner of Cross Country, first of all, is the most amazing. And this is not
30:37
like a suspicion or recruiting or nothing like that. But this dude straight up changed my life.
30:42
And mind you, I'm going to say he changed my life. And in the seven years of inner Cross Country,
30:46
I may have spoken to him five times. So imagine we say that statement, right? Yeah. And so
30:54
he said something to me before about top reading. I never knew what top reading meant in business.
30:59
I was like, Oh, what does that mean? And it basically means like you have somebody that's a
31:02
processor, but really should be a salesperson. And then you don't really like need a salesperson,
31:07
but you put them in sales because it's what's best for them. And like some business leaders say
31:12
that's a horrible idea because you should just let them go if they're not doing a good job in their job.
31:17
But I look at it and go, well, maybe they're better at something else. And they're a really good
31:20
like worker and person. And let's try this job instead. And I have right now like four or five people
31:26
on my team, actually, that I've actually moved around a different positions over time. And
31:31
till they found the right position that was good for them. And now they're like the most amazing
31:35
whatever that they're in. Yeah. Well, like you said, they're good people. They've got the work
31:40
asset ethics. They're a good fit, right? For the culture and all that. Maybe they're just, yeah,
31:44
in the wrong role. And if that's great that you are willing to find a role for them, that really
31:48
speaks to how you value people. I'm getting older, right? Let's be real. I plan on giving my
31:56
business to, you know, my book of business to my son at some point when that time comes. And so
32:01
I want to, you know, not just because he's my son, but I have a lot of young people on my team.
32:07
I would say 60% of my team are under 35. And so hand some lot of podcasts, which is like, you know,
32:18
kudos to them. They're like, you gotta do that. It's like amazing. I'm like, I wanted it.
32:23
And so I feel like this is their future. And I want to build something amazing for them that I
32:32
can look back on my retirement and be like, look at these awesome careers that I left for these
32:36
people. How cool would that be, you know? Yeah, it's very interesting. It strikes a chord with
32:41
me as well because you're building something special, you know, your leaving legacy is what you are.
32:48
And I think that you can tell a business when you're dealing with a business, business owner.
32:53
I think of recently, I just went through two transactions installed two new air conditioners
32:58
here, a water software. And I, you know, and I've interviewed the three different companies. And
33:02
I approached this as this is going to be a test for me to test people's customer experience
33:07
process and see what it's like and how passionate are they? And do I get that feeling?
33:11
And it's very obvious. You can tell by people's how well are the employees trained, how great is
33:16
the sales pitch? What's the follow up like? Like it's very obvious and we are drawn to want to
33:24
have more of those experiences. I'm going to give you something that's such a big nugget.
33:28
It's the silliest thing that was such a game changer, right? So my husband and I love Myrtle Beach.
33:35
It's like our place. And so I had to call the water company there, right? I call the water
33:41
company there and the lady goes, it's a great day in South Carolina. How can I help you?
33:48
And I stop. I look at the phone and I'm like, well darn, that's different, right? Kind of like
33:54
the Chick-fil-A, my pleasure. So I sit down and I write down all these word, I call them
33:59
wall, uh, wall words, right? So words you can't say, words you can say, can't say busy, can't say
34:06
unavailable, can't say those words, right? Can say, my pleasure, it's a great day, uh, need,
34:14
you know, all those things. Anyways, so I do a lot of Spanish speaking loans because I'm Spanish,
34:20
I'm a Spanish being team, I do a lot of Spanish speaking loans. And so my receptionist does not speak
34:24
Spanish. So when Spanish speaking customers come in, if they call the direct number, they usually
34:31
there's a gap in communication. Oh, I need to speak to someone so I don't really understand,
34:35
can you give me your number, et cetera. Anyways, I have a contest, I go, guys, this is just
34:41
two weeks ago, May 1st, I go, we're going to answer the phone when you call my office that it's
34:45
going to say it's a great team, it's a great day at the Parker team with cross country
34:49
mortgage going to help you. And I want to, I want to do a test and see what the reaction is.
34:55
Do you, I will tell you for a fact that I have not had one Spanish hang up,
35:01
I have had customers compliment me when they actually spoke to me and or loan officer on
35:06
my team saying, you guys are so warm, it's such a pleasure calling your office. It's like,
35:11
what do you feed them there? And like all this stuff, all because of the way they answer the phone.
35:18
First impression. But it's like, I mean, I was like, I want a, wow, I want a,
35:24
like I was like, I want you to put them on hold, I want you to walk over to somebody's desk,
35:28
I want you to tell, like I want you to take their cell phone, I want you to do all things,
35:32
I don't want you to let them go and I want to let them go. And I literally gave my reception
35:36
as a hundred bucks on Friday for answering the phone. So, well, oh, that's awesome.
35:43
We're rewarding behavior, but even better than that is I love the fact that you
35:47
intentionally thought through that and decided to architect a actual process.
35:53
You know, well, that could be good and bad because I'm always like trying to improve.
35:59
And I'm always like, hey, if you're going to be around me, but I like that Michael Jackson song,
36:03
you know what I mean? Because I know which one. Oh, oh, got it.
36:08
You know, we're going to be singing that song holding hands together. That's how that's
36:12
going to go. People tend to look at change and go, they change things all the time. Things
36:17
are always changing, but you know, and I look at that like a positive.
36:20
Well, for sure, you know, it's funny because I remember one of my bosses back in the day said
36:24
something to me, he said, go where you're celebrated, not tolerated. And if people are just tolerating,
36:29
right, the Teresa Parker team and the vibe and the style, then they're on their way out, right?
36:34
You are attracting people who want to, like you said, be excited to come to work. Not
36:39
it's a drag, you know, since you're going to get better performance, you're going to get people
36:43
who go the extra mile instead of bowing out early. Let me stay late and finish this file because,
36:48
right? They have a vested interest in it. Plus all the extra stuff you're doing with,
36:52
you know, the financial advisor and all that jazz. That's really great. I really hope that
36:57
I'm creating something special because I just, like, I love it so much and it's literally,
37:01
like, it's what I am so passionate about. Like, you know, my husband's like, we're going
37:05
on to dinner and we can't talk about loans, okay? I can relate to that 100%.
37:13
No, it's funny because I remember there's an old saying from an industry,
37:16
whereas people come for the opportunity, but they stay for the personal development,
37:23
for like, who they become, right? And so they're coming to you for a job initially.
37:26
They don't know what they're getting with the TP team, you know what I mean? They might,
37:29
like during your interview process and all that and they're like, oh, shit, this is something
37:32
different, right? But then once they're there, they're like, A, does it live up to the
37:39
external perception, right? And then B, when they are getting recruited away or whatever,
37:44
oh, we're going to give you X amount of more money. Like, yeah, but you don't have what I have.
37:48
You know, I'm giving example something that I do and I know that we're on a podcast,
37:52
but I'm going to show you. Go ahead. We can just scribe it.
37:56
Literally right here. Every month, I pick three people, right? And they rotate.
38:04
And I write a thank you card to them. And in it, I'll do like, you know, $50 to
38:10
$25 to whatever or something very small, right? And mail it to their house. And the card is like
38:16
mushy. It's like, Mike, like I appreciate you so much, you know, I love that you did this on that
38:21
file, like whatever, whatever, whatever. And I mail it to their house and everybody gets one every quarter,
38:26
right? Or like, so an employee might get one once a year. Let's put that way because I rotate
38:31
quarters and like you send three people, right? Usually I wait for somebody to do like something
38:35
really amazing. And I send it to them. And you know, my husband was like, why don't you just give
38:39
us some of my work or why you just leave it on their desk? And I go, I mail it to their house because
38:43
when they get home 30 minutes late, if they're wife or husband, that's like, you didn't make it
38:48
to the soccer game. You didn't make it to dinner. Like I know because I was, I'm them, you know what I mean?
38:54
And so I hear all the time, like the wives of the husband's going, like I just had a sofa. I gave
39:01
to one of my loan partners that bought a house. And he came on his wife to pick it up. And as he
39:06
was loading in the truck, his wife said to me, he loves working for you guys. And she was like,
39:12
seriously, I've worked at my job for nine years. And I never got like, thank you. This is that
39:17
nothing. And she's like, I can't believe that you guys actually took time to hammer at a card
39:22
and mail it to him and give him, you know, a $50 gas card. She was like, I literally told my entire
39:28
family that like Roger has the best job ever. Wow. Hmm. Think there's any potential referrals
39:34
down the road there. But I'm like, how easy that would be for other, you know, it's like why that's
39:41
not like super hard. Well, you know what's funny about this. I was attempted to go cliche for a moment.
39:46
But we all know this. We like, we are aware of that this could be done. The problem is, why aren't
39:54
you doing it? What's the excuse? And by the way, did you have an excuse before you started? I'm too
40:00
busy. It was I'm too busy. I don't have any time. I was just tired. Um, the reality is to be honest.
40:09
And this is why I learned again through like coaching self inventory, all the things is that you
40:14
do the things that are that you want to do. Yeah. And you do the things that you think are important.
40:20
And I just didn't like, I'm instead of be like, oh, I'm going to send a real, you know, an email to
40:24
10 more realtors instead of doing that. And it's like, well, why don't I do that instead? And then
40:30
he's going to take an excellent care of the 10 realtors I have. And then I won't lose them. Yep.
40:37
And um, I just, you know, you just have it all like some people just have it all wrong. And I
40:42
still have a lot of things all wrong. Don't get me wrong. But I think the one thing that I got is
40:48
that I really just feel like my people, when you want to like duplicate yourself or meet
40:54
clones or whatever, some people are like, oh, I'm going to train them. I'm going to do this. I'm
40:58
going to do that. I'm like, you've got to just take care of them and make sure that they know that
41:01
you care more than anybody else. Well, yeah. A leader's job is to lead, right? To draw people
41:09
right forward in the direction that you want to go. And if they're not willing to fight for you,
41:15
you know what I mean? Based on who you are and how you make them feel. Then you're going to have
41:20
unloyal people who are trying to get away with stuff. Probably when you're not looking.
41:25
You know, the one thing I used to do so bad, which, you know, I still work on, is we have a tendency
41:31
to like get like all buddy, buddy with our team because there are team. And then we have a tendency
41:35
to complain to them. All this customer, you know, or, you know, this agent doesn't know this,
41:43
and, you know, and when I go to coaching, I just hear they always say, like, don't complain to your team,
41:48
don't complain to your team, don't complain to your team, don't complain to your team. So it's like
41:52
every time I go to catch myself doing it because it's so natural to do it when you're so cool with
41:56
your teammates. My husband will be like, you, you know, so I feel like if there was one thing that I
42:04
learned that I think was one of the most impactful things was just don't complain to your team.
42:10
Exactly. Yep. Yep. It's okay like in private with your fellow, you know, executives or whatever,
42:16
or your partner, right? Maybe your husband or whatever. Like you can have those conversations.
42:20
Yeah, because it all, we don't want to, we don't want to pollute people's minds.
42:26
Yeah, it's weird how something so, you know, I just, you know, because you know, you do it, right?
42:30
So I just, I just did it recently about something, about a loan, the guy didn't understand,
42:34
he explained things so much times like all the stuff. And then like two days later, I heard
42:38
one of my loan partners go, you know, I really want to work with her. She's just such a pain,
42:43
blah, blah, blah, blah, I thought they're realtor. And I kind of was like, oh, how do I now go
42:48
recover from that? One two days ago, I was doing something similar. Interesting. So, you know,
42:56
I don't want to lie, right? I want to be like myself. It's like that's important. And so even,
43:02
you know, just this week, you know, it's like I learned something that I was like, wow,
43:05
I realized how important that is and I need to not do that. Yeah. Well, people will kind of rise
43:11
to the level of expectations or not, right? And if they don't, well, you know, the conversation
43:15
there, but that we've got to have those high standards. Who else is going to set them besides the
43:19
leader? This is, this is an awesome conversation. I think I'm listening, I'm here putting my audience's
43:24
ears on. And I know there are people, because I've talked about building teams in the past. And
43:29
this is one of the most sought after tops of topics is how do I build a team, right? And all the
43:34
different things. So I think you've been doing great, by the way. Thank you. I appreciate that.
43:38
I want to, the last few minutes we have, I want to get a little bit more tactical because these
43:42
are the usual boxes I like to check. What is your number one source of business?
43:49
You're going to think it's crazy, but it's past lines.
43:53
No, I don't think it's crazy, but what I am curious about now, then, let's let's see,
43:58
you're doing, let me, would you say like 35 deals a month, something like that. So what, do you
44:03
have any idea what percentage that is? Yep, it's 44%. 44%. So how do you do that?
44:11
I do gifting quarterly and not production alone size or anything. I literally do gifting. For example,
44:21
I'll do hand sanitizers or, you know, funny thing. When rates went down, it was October.
44:28
I got these little skeletons from Amazon. And my girls cut my face out. And it was one of those
44:35
skeletons where you can stretch like a, like a gummy. Right. Put my face out. I sent the
44:41
skeleton with a little candy. And the flyer said, don't be scared to call me and, you know,
44:47
review your mortgage and my little face scale and people, people literally were taking pictures
44:52
of it and sending to me saying this is like the funniest thing they've ever seen and stuff.
44:55
And so I try to be very, very every day with them and not like fake and stuff.
45:01
I'll do things like jot mother's day plants on their front doors when they get home.
45:06
They have them and, you know, they're like five bucks. And what I do is I will take like,
45:12
and when I say monthly, I might do 15 in a week. Right. So you got 60 in a month.
45:18
Okay. And then I get everybody in my entire office to maybe drop off two.
45:23
So it's not like I'm taking a whole day running them out on a Saturday and running all over
45:26
the place and dropping off 15 plants. Really? You just like roll those out your team and say,
45:32
hey, you take two, you take two and on your way home or whatever? Yeah. You live in this place.
45:36
So does this person you live in that zip code? So does that person? Can you leave 30 minutes early
45:40
on Friday and drop them off for me? Wow. And I have a little like string around it, like one of those
45:47
these yarn and on the yarn, it's my card and the realtor that funded the loan with them card.
45:54
Very cool. And I bet you show that to the realtor too, right? Of course.
45:58
Or a lot of times the client calls the realtor and thanks them and thinks that they left it.
46:03
Ah, really? Ah, interesting. That's, that's cool.
46:09
And then we work off a perfect work week. So Monday, we call 40 agents and there's a metric
46:16
to what 40 agents we call Tuesday. We do Tuesday updates, right? That is updates on your pipeline.
46:23
Wednesday, we work what's called our lead tracker. So we re try to connect with any leads. We
46:28
haven't converted in the last 60 days. Um, Thursdays, we work our VIPs and pass clients. So things
46:34
like Mother's Day, Father's Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, things of that nature. And Friday,
46:38
we call our pre-approvals because obviously buyers are shopping on the weekends. Right.
46:43
And so Monday calling agents, I can't tell you every time it's on Monday, I call agents and they go,
46:49
you know, I call my mortgage guy three times this morning and he didn't answer and I have this
46:53
contract. I really have this question. Can you answer for me? Can I give you this contract?
46:56
All right. So let explain that. What do you mean? You just like, who are these agents you're calling?
47:01
On Monday, we call 40 agents, 10 of them are agents that we deal with all the time.
47:06
So these are existing partners. Right. Right.
47:09
10 of them, we call that are listing agents on deals we did within the last 90 days.
47:14
Okay. Got it. 10 of them are whales, just agents that we want to do business with, right?
47:20
And 10 of them are off a roster of an agent we're already doing business with. So if I'm
47:25
already doing business with, you know, Gina Romano, Romano, really, I'm going to call 10 people
47:30
in her organization and I'm going to say, hey, I have any work with Gina and, uh, you know,
47:35
I saw your name. You're within the same brokerage. I'd love to, you know, how was your weekend and
47:40
blah, blah, blah. Interesting. So everything that I do, although it seems, it comes from a good
47:48
place and it's like, you know, comes to my heart and everything or an idea the middle of the
47:52
night when I wake up and stuff, right? Right. But all of it is very calculated, although not fake.
47:59
No. Well, it's intentional. Yes. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I just wrote that down, by the way.
48:06
Because I've heard people, I know that's a big thing for the core. It's a matter of fact,
48:08
somebody asked that on a call earlier today. So let me pose you that question.
48:12
As we know, the Revi market is off the cliff and, you know, the assumption is we've got a bunch
48:17
of L.O.'s back into the chase after real estate agents. And the question this morning was,
48:22
you know, should I be that L.O. that's calling agents cold? Because I don't want to, you know,
48:28
be like that other, all the L.O.'s that are also chasing those agents as well with the same approach.
48:33
What do you say? So that's the wrong way. I think the wrong way to look at it. I don't coach my
48:38
loan officers that way. I say the person with the most friends wins if they just happen to be agents
48:46
than good for you. Mm-hmm. But what you're doing is you're calling and making friends. You're not
48:51
calling to call agents. And if you look at it like, I'm calling to get agents to get business,
48:57
then it's not going to, it's going to seem like you're calling to get agents to get business.
49:01
Well, then what's, what's the, the, the talk track then, right? Because let's say you're an agent.
49:06
Maybe I don't know you and you're like, on my 40, I'm just like, hey, what's up? This is Jeff
49:09
at Cross Country. Just checking in. I'm here to help you, me help. How was your weekend?
49:15
Yeah, do that call whatsoever. I really asked for business at the end. It's more of,
49:20
not keep in mind. I have two business development person, you know, girls. And I also have
49:26
an assistant. And so before I make my calls, like on Friday, for example, they'll go through
49:32
and list commonalities. Hey, I saw that, you know, you go to Village Pub there too.
49:39
Or I saw you put an ad in Clipper magazine. What's your return? I'm not calling to
49:43
soliciting you. I'm thinking about putting an ad on the same shopping cart. And I just want to
49:48
know, like, what's your return on investment? Like, does it work for you? Does it not work for you?
49:52
And now there's the whole guard.
49:57
Because I'm not soliciting her now. I'm, I'm befriending her, right? So then she's going to be like,
50:01
yeah, like it works to me or it doesn't. I'm like, oh, that's so awesome because I've really
50:05
wanted to do it too, but I didn't want to waste any money. So let's do this market. You know,
50:08
how it goes, girl. And then I'm like, you know, and I'm Terry. I'm like, listen, if I can ever
50:12
have anybody for you, let me know. But I really appreciate your time in giving me your advice on,
50:17
you know, the marketing that you're doing. And you're doing all some things. And now I've
50:21
a sudden, like, two days later, I'm getting a call from her going, you're so nice and blah, blah, blah.
50:27
I love it. That's strategy. I was a big believer in that as well. I was originating as well
50:31
for 10 years. And I used to spend like, I would spend 20, 30 minutes easily researching the agent
50:36
before I call them because I want that. I want that context are then the horses. Do they have a
50:40
kid who plays at this university or whatever, right? So I have something or they have a new listing
50:45
that I wanted to have a comment on. I'm like, holy crap, that's a, that's an awesome house.
50:48
You know what I mean? I'd love to swing by and see it and yada da da da, all that kind of judge.
50:51
Yeah. I think if you're just calling to to call, right? Like to throw crap against the wall,
50:56
then that's going to suck. You're like, all phone burner. I'm going to dial the calls and bang
51:00
them out in an hour and whatever. And I'm like, here's my rule. I do for it. So the quarter is 48
51:06
on Monday. I do it this way. I call 48 on Monday. Every loan partner I have has to call 20.
51:12
So they have to do half the work that I have to do if you want to be on my team, right? And so now
51:17
we're calling, you know, 150, 60 agents, whatever, right? And you're not going to reach everybody in
51:22
whatever. The rule is, can't be in front of your computer when you're making the calls.
51:26
Gotta be in a different room. So you can't take your email, text, none of that stuff. Gotta be
51:31
away. We have a form. It's called the mortgage Monday form. And on there, I was going to have to
51:36
show you, but it shows who they called, what they talked about and a fun fact. I want to know a fun
51:42
fact about them. Why do I want to know a fun fact? So when I call them back, the next week, right?
51:47
I know I was at the gym last week about whatever. Thanks for taking the time. It's up to her.
51:52
And the agent's like, Oh, you remembered? No, I didn't remember. I got the newspaper in front of me.
51:55
Now you're calling the same agents every week. So if you're calling your 10 that you're doing,
52:03
this is all the time, then sure, sure. But no, we rotate. So Jen, for example, we'll call her 10
52:11
new agents, right? And then she'll come to me at that two o'clock meeting and be like, this one's
52:15
good. She's going to like us call her next week. I see. Okay. Got it. I got it. And then on the big
52:20
guns, I come in and call them the next week. And then you go for a meeting or a zoom or what?
52:25
So then my husband pulls their numbers off core logic. We only really will try to do somebody,
52:31
you know, something with somebody if they're doing 15 to 18 transactions a year by your side.
52:36
Right? And then I'll try to do a coffee or zoom or something with that, you know. It's very
52:40
interesting. You say that because I've interviewed a lot of people, right? In your category,
52:47
your echelon of top producers in the country, Scottsman's guide people, all that stuff, right?
52:51
And what I find, and I'm actually, I have MMI open here. This is this is usually what I like to do.
52:56
What I find is most top producers have their source of loans spread across a wide patch of
53:04
realtors. Like, you know what I mean? I'm looking at yours right here. Clearly, Romano Realty is
53:09
your number one. Then you got Ricky Brody. Then you got, you know, you got Hasse and Joan and
53:15
but then from then on down, it's like two loans, three loans total. So this whale concept,
53:22
this hunting whale concept. Like, first of all, whales are already, right? They've got a lot of
53:29
other fish feeding off of them, right? And they typically want something. But the biggest thing is
53:36
that right now anyway, is that, you know, if you were to look at that two years ago, you would
53:41
have probably saw 20 agents that mostly all of our business. We're now, it's like one, two,
53:45
three, three, four, three, whatever. And that's because you got so many people attacking them,
53:50
right? And in reality, right now, like if you were to Google my zip code as an example,
53:55
there's one house for sale. Yeah. And so if you have a top realtor that had, you know,
54:01
let's say Joanna Pat or, you know, Patty Setter that you stepped 17 to 20 listings, you know,
54:07
now they have two. And so the facts are, I think in this market, you just need more realtors to
54:14
do the same amount of business. Right. Because there's a hell of a lot more realtors slicing up the pie,
54:19
right? Although the pendulum swinging and we might see that kind of return to more normal. I know
54:25
here in Vegas where I live, we have 17,000 licensed, right? License. So that could include loan
54:32
licenses in the board of realtors for 4,000 transactions. Yeah, it's like it's nuts. I think I read
54:39
somewhere. I don't know if there's the fact or not. So don't want me to do this. But I think I heard
54:42
or read somewhere that one third of all licensed loan officers right now got licensed in the last
54:48
24 months. Really? A lot of a lot of people rushing into the parade and they don't realize it's
54:56
it's coming through town. You know what I mean? It's like, you got to catch it. Yeah, it's like,
55:01
oh my gosh. And so I say that because like literally, I think in the last like 90 days,
55:06
that two loan officers approached me like, hey, I want to, you know, get a job with you guys, blah,
55:10
blah, blah. But they're like, you know, brand new. Like one dude hasn't even done a transaction
55:16
before. And I'm like, you know, you know, yeah, I mean, look at I'm a big believer in you can
55:23
write, achieve anything you've got the skills and the right mindset to do it. But it's funny
55:29
because you know, we have my wife, whatever she's like, you know, maybe I should be her,
55:33
maybe she should be a realtor. I'm just like, I don't know that you want to play that game
55:38
right now. What does your wife actually do? She's actually a senior vice president for a technology
55:44
company locally here in Vegas. She's been there 10 years and she's just a workaholic. So if you're
55:48
listening, dear, I love you. I appreciate you. Well, you mentioned you guys have been married.
55:56
How many years again? So we've been together 31 years. We've been married for 26 or seven,
56:03
I think. All right. So you got me to be I'm coming up on 22 here in July. Oh nice. It's not
56:10
heard of that. That's a thing anymore. You know what I mean? It's what? It's not heard of that
56:15
people are married that long anymore. You know, it's really sad. You know what I mean?
56:19
Well, like anything, it's work, right? It ain't easy. It isn't always the better roses.
56:23
And you that's that's the secret though to success. I think in most things is you have to be
56:28
willing to commit through it when it sucks, right? And go through the hard time and have this bigger
56:33
picture and vision for where do you want to go? And there are definitely some dark moments and
56:37
times in business and in relationships. But you just can't you can't ever make that decision
56:41
to just throw in the towel, you know? Assuming my husband just said to me the other day,
56:46
I'm in the kitchen cooking. It's 730 at night. He comes in and he goes, I got this great idea.
56:52
I go, all right, right? And he's like a he's like a I and C personality, right? So I'm like, okay,
56:58
what's your great idea? He's like, I think we should sit down and and and and and and and
57:04
convers on what it is I really, really need from you and what it is you really, really need from me.
57:09
And I was like, now we've been here 31 years, I was like, I think I pretty much have this idea
57:14
down at this point. But I actually thought about what he said and I thought, what a great idea
57:20
because it's constant communication and relationship change. For example,
57:27
Kaji Kosi, I've been working with for years. Like I would say, I had to give a guess, he's probably
57:33
going to kill myself that was listening to this. But I would say, you know, you know, six years,
57:36
five or six years, right? Or so. And he used to be, we used to do a lot more business together,
57:42
me and his brother, Byram and stuff. And, you know, and Byram now is using someone else. But my point
57:47
is that it's like, what people need from you changes. Yeah. Right. So I thought to myself, wow,
57:56
my husband literally just sat down like and came up with this like great idea that I didn't even
58:00
think about. And now it was like, great idea, babe. Let's do that on Saturday. But tomorrow,
58:04
my car is tomorrow. My brother doesn't ask them what they need from me now. That's such a good
58:09
point. And I usually do those in the in January, right? And then the end of the year, kind of a
58:14
Q1 planning. What are your goals? Right? I want to better like what's going on in your business.
58:19
But that's also appropriate for right now in the market considering what's happening with this
58:23
shift taking place. Very cool stuff. All right. So we covered a lot of bases here. Unfortunately,
58:29
we are out of time. But I really, really enjoyed the conversation. But I didn't get to with the
58:34
social media. Are you on social? I am. All right. Where do we find you? What's your favorite
58:40
platform? So I'm old school, some Facebook girl, but definitely use Instagram as well. And
58:47
I'm under Terry Santiago Parker with an eye. All right. Cool. And that's on both platforms.
58:54
Yep. And I do a lot of video products of the week. I try to be as educational as possible on
59:00
there as well as my beautiful grandchildren, of course, and and and boys.
59:05
All right. It's real quick. Then I have time for one question. How you've a number of times you've
59:11
you've referenced the whole I'm getting older, right? You came out and like you disclosed your
59:15
age. What are that? Hey, I'm fifth or seventh. So I can get it. Have you found that to be a
59:22
challenge pivoting to social media? Yes. I mean, I honestly just asked the girls like Tweet
59:28
Skulls, like I don't know how to go and Instagram and look up certain things. Can you show me?
59:33
Okay. And you know, honestly, because I feel like, you know, different ages,
59:38
is Facebook, different ages Instagram. And now there's TikTok, which I'm not on yet,
59:43
but I'm told that's my next journey. So look out for me on TikTok sometime soon.
59:46
But, you know, I just hired a top producer, right? Top top producer named Joanna Valdes,
59:56
does about 25 loans a month. Super talented. No, it was a crap. Awesome. Not on social media.
1:00:02
I'm like, are you kidding me? Do you have any idea how much business I get from social media?
1:00:06
It's unbelievable. I believe and I don't want to quote myself on this, but I believe it's like 18%
1:00:11
of my my fundings. Really? Are these consumers realtor's both combination of the netches from
1:00:18
you posting content, having a presence? Yeah. One person said to me, I had Roger, like,
1:00:23
was one of my loan partners doing a product of the week for a while. And one of my
1:00:27
rotors hit me up and was like, can you do them? Because I like him doing them. But I want to hear
1:00:32
what you have to say. And I was like, well, I'm telling him what to say. But regardless,
1:00:36
you know, it was cool to have somebody like give me feedback to say that they're actually
1:00:39
listening and watching to the product of the week. And so I thought, all right, if I do a
1:00:43
product of the week or at least a message, you know, whether it be motivational, whatever,
1:00:47
then I'm going to get, you know, once a week on Mondays, I try to post them as much as I can.
1:00:53
That's 52 times, you know? Right. Right. Wow. I'm going to have to check that out.
1:00:57
Product of the week. That's very cool. All right. We'll put links to your social Facebook
1:01:02
Instagram in the show notes. And that isa, I can't thank you enough. Appreciate it very much.
1:01:10
It was so nice meeting you. I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to, you know, do this for
1:01:15
the first time. It was super cool and not what I expected. You're awesome. So hopefully we can
1:01:21
stay friends and stay connected. I love that. Sure. I got to come out with Philly. Yeah.
1:01:28
All right. So listeners, hey, if you like this episode, you know what to do. Leave us a review. We
1:01:31
appreciate you tuning in and we will see you on the next one. Hey, thanks for tuning in to this
1:01:36
episode of the mortgage marketing radio podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. Remember if you like this
1:01:40
episode, please leave us a review that helps us reach more people and bring more good value and
1:01:45
content to you, our listeners. And then don't forget, if you are a loan officer who wants more
1:01:52
agent referrals in less time, be sure to check out the mortgage marketing pro membership at mortgage
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marketing dot pro and learn more about our turnkey system of agent classes that puts you front
1:02:04
and center of your local real estate agents, attracting agents instead of chasing them and getting
1:02:10
agent referrals like clockwork every single month, just like Kerry Cobb, who her first year in the
1:02:18
business with closing over 75 loans, achieved 40% of those 75 loans exclusively from agent classes.
1:02:26
And if you want to learn how she did it, now you can do it too. Once again, go to mortgage
1:02:29
marketing dot pro and I'll see you over there. Thanks for listening. Bye for now.
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