Ep #104: Using Events to Close 327 Loans, Drive Agent Referrals and Explode Your Volume

In today's highly competitive mortgage industry, building profitable relationships with the real estate agents is essential for success. However, finding effective ways to secure agent relationships can be a challenge. With so many mortgage loan originators vying for the attention of real estate agents, it can be difficult to stand out and establish meaningful connections. Our new case study featuring loan officer Chris Cogill is a must-read. Chris has closed a remarkable 36 million in funded loans from agent referrals. And in this case study, he shares his proven strategies for building strong relationships with real estate agents and leveraging those relationships to drive more business. To get your hands on this resource, head over to LOKestudy.com and download your free copy of the case study today. You'll find actionable insights and practical tips that Chris used to close 36 million in funded loans from agent referrals and how you can too. Don't miss out. Go check it out right now, visit LOKestudy.com and download your free copy today. Brought to you by the Mortgage Marketing Institute, your number one source for truth in mortgage marketing. Here's the point, I wanted to just take a moment to say thank you to you. You know, it's unfortunate that it's only around this time of year that we are really compelled to acknowledge those that we care about and that make a difference in our lives or things and people that we're grateful for. But I just wanted to say I'm grateful for you, my audience. I'm so blessed and just really touched sincerely that you listening to this right now would choose to take time from your day and tune into what I hope has become a relationship. What I hope is a valuable exchange of ideas and inspiration to help you in your business and your life. So thanks so much. I couldn't do this without you, it's why I do it, you know, just to make an impact for you guys. So thank you so much. This episode, I'm very pleased and honored to bring my special guest to you and her name is Dana Meadows. She is a mega producer, top producer with movement mortgage. And what I love about Dana is that she's not only obviously highly successful, but also humble and hard, but she's probably amongst the hardest working people that I know. She's committed, she's driven, she's focused, she's smart and intelligent. Yet, she knows how to have a good time as well and she, for the most part, doesn't let this business get the best of her because it can. But Dana Meadows superstar, 2017 numbers, 71 million in originations on 327 loans, also known as 327 families helped get into a house. So what are we talking about in this episode? We are talking about largely one of the most successful channels that Dana has in her business for driving referrals is events. She has built intense loyalty with real estate agents through a number of ways, one by having just a kick ass process for onboarding a new loan and blowing the socks off of clients and over delivering and just being known as the person who gets things done in her local market. She's built that reputation as knowing that you want to deal done even if it's in the 11th hour, Dana Meadows is your gal. She's got about 40 or 50 consistent agents that she works with, that send her the bulk of her business. She's got actually over 100 that are part of her sphere of influence. And you'll hear how we talk about how she stays top of mind with those agents, the types of events she does, how she builds and promotes around those, how she activates relationships, you know, that classic situation where you have a meeting with an agent and the hope is that you're going to activate that relationship and start getting business. We talk a little bit about that as well. We also talk about pop buys, pop buys where you just pop buy somebody's office and drop off, right, some gifts. And these are fun gifts. These could be called by some cheesy gifts, but you'll hear Dana talk about how these things work. She's got some really cool ideas and how she's optimizing that pop buy experience, not just swinging by, dropping off a gift and, you know, hey, good luck, whatever. She's got a very surprising, right, of course, Dana knowing who she is. She's got a very specific outlined intentional process for how to leverage all the different pillars of her business that she's got, whether that's the, you know, post agent meeting, after they've come to the event, whether that's ensuring that an agent, you know, connects to the value and the impact of a pop buy, you know, across the board, right, she's got an incredible processing system for herself and her business. And one of the goals she'll talk about is every year she makes a goal to add another million dollars a month in production to her business. So I know in 2018, she's grown her business approximately 10 million in originations. So she went from about 71 million in 2017 to approximately 80 million in 2018. And in a year that many would argue there's compression and market shrinkage and all that kind of stuff. Well, how do you do that? Listen to this episode. Dana's going to pack and explain how. And lastly, before I let you go and we get into this show, this show, if you are interested, for instance, doing events, right? One of the things we offer at the mortgage marketing institute is a pro membership. And what that includes is every month, a done for you class, a lunch and learn class on a hot topic, digital marketing, Facebook, business planning, branding, you name it, you get a turnkey done for you system in there every single month. In addition to a bunch of other content to help you be a modern mortgage originator, things around how to build your online brand, your social media profile, scripting and so forth. So if you want to learn more, you just go to mortgagemarketing.pro and check that out. So let's get into this week's show with my very special guest, Dana Meadows. Dana Meadows, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. It is a pleasure and honor, especially the close proximity I have to you within movement mortgage, seeing all the incredible things you're doing there. Go for the listeners, right? As you know, I always ask for the personal summary of who Dana Meadows is, what she all about. So how long have you been in the mortgage business, why are you doing this? I've been in the business for 14 years and my why is my family. I started with a infant 14 years ago, I'm got into the business with an assistant to a mortgage broker. And as he's aged, I've grown my business, which has worked out well now that I have a teenager who does not care if he's in the same room, town, city, state or country as me. He only needs me for money, clean clothes and food. So it works, it's worked really well that as he's gotten older, my business has been able to grow and develop. Okay, thank you for sharing that and the fact that I'm not the only one who feels that way with money. So why is your family? I love that. What about, you know, would you say 14 years, right? Yes, 14. So 14 years, obviously, this isn't an easy business. It can wear on you. It can, you know, it's got its challenges. So what about the business do you still enjoy after 14 years? I just love the feeling of helping someone get into a home. I mean, the appreciation that we get back from our customers for the service that we offer them for making it a seamless process and for helping them achieve that dream. That one thing you are that one shout out is just what makes me keep ticketing. It still feels fresh every time, huh? Absolutely. Yeah, I know. Kind of missed that myself to see that smiling face of somebody getting in their first home or, you know, you helped them through a tough situation. They didn't think they could get in or qualify and you're the hero, right? Absolutely. And I love to be the saver. I, a lot of the agents in my market recognize me as the one of the ill-sluened sideways. And they had to pick up the phone and call and those are the ones that, that really mean the most to me because they were someone that was shot down at the last minute somewhere else and we were able to come in and say, today, is that something you consciously wanted to pursue becoming, you know, quote, the saver or did that just kind of happen? It's just kind of happened. No, it's definitely not the business that I've gone after, but the reputation that I've built in the market places that I truly know this, this is a craft for me and I know what I'm doing. It's a way to make something work. I can make it work, especially with the resources that I have with the movement. Yeah, so explain that a little bit. You think you've got an advantage out movement to do rescue loans? Absolutely. I just closed the deal last two weeks ago that I took an application five o'clock in my Thursday afternoon. It was a tough, complicated file. It actually took to the following Wednesdays the minute to underwriting and we had that thing cleared to close about two o'clock the next business day. Wow. Yeah, that'll earn you some loyalty and referrals when you do that. It was a tough one, but we had a lot of people working in our operations and underwriting department pushing that file through and making sure it closed in time. And how many years have you been at movement? This is my six year. I've set timber on my six year anniversary. Okay. Awesome. All right. Let's get the last little bit of housekeeping out of the way for those listening, give us a quick summary of what does your team look like in them 2017 volume and units. So I have two assistants that work on my files. They obtain the paperwork from the customers, organize it for underwriting, submit it and request conditions. I have a full-time marketing assistant who works with my agents and creating, you know, we do events for our agent. She does co-branded marketing, all of my pop buys. She plans all of those. And then I have a client care coordinator who lives in my pipeline to make sure that we don't miss any dates. The phrases don't order right away. They're back before the end of due diligence. Things are in closing early that we have those initial closing disclosures out five days before closing and the final God willing three days before closing. And then I have currently have one junior loan officer and getting ready to bring on my account. And so 2017 volume. What was that? It was just shop 71 million. All right. Just shy 71 million. And I think that was over 300 families you helped, right? 327. To be exact. Back. Do you have. Now that you've been, you know, specifically a movement six years or just in general, do you have? I assume you do, but let's for the listeners goals. Like for instance 2017, you did 71 million. Did you then look to 2018 this year and just say, OK, I want to beat that. Because so here we are, you know, in November of 2018. I guess the better question is this, how are you looking towards planning for 2019? Setting your goals and things like that? Well, when I came to movement, I was an eight million dollar year producer and never thought that I would ever achieve the level of production that I'm at. But as I began to grow and grow my business and close more loans, I decided that my goal every year will be to close a million more every month. And it doesn't matter how many customers meet that million. My goal is a million more. And this year we're we're pretty on track. We should be close to 80 million by the end of the year. So a little shy of the goal. We had a little bit of compression in October. But we should be really close to making that goal this year. Wow, that's a big jump. You've got to have big goals. Yeah, exactly. Well, when you say adding a million dollars a month to your production, when you look at, you know, the new year coming, what's your average loan size? About 225 to 50. Alright, so you're looking at another, what, four loans, let's say, to get that extra million? Exactly. And you know, for those that do their numbers, and I know you know this well, is like to get to close those four loans means, what do you need to originate in a additional, what, six, seven? I would say my pull-through rates usually 50 to 60%. So yeah, I would say I would need to originate an additional eight to 10 loans. Wow. So for those listening, that's important math to know. You know, quick side stories, the importance of knowing your numbers. And I'd love to hear how you dig into knowing your numbers. But I was talking to a loan officer yesterday who said you was all excited. I generated 26 apps, you know, for the month. And I'm like, that's awesome. How many of those led to a contract? I don't know. Like, dude, you got to track your numbers, you know? Yeah, absolutely. It is so easy to get called up in the next phone call that comes in, and forget about follow up and follow through, which is something that I've really had to work on as my business has grown, because if you don't pick up the phone and follow up, the next person that they talk to may get the business. So tell me about that a little bit in your process. Your number one source of business is real estate agencies, that correct? Yes. Do you have a process for tracking referral partners like that realtor? And, you know, I mean, do you put people in various categories, ABC? How do you manage your whole like realtor referral machine? Because I know you got a machine going. Well, I don't really look at it as managing the realtor referral. I look at it as each individual agent and what they need from me. From a perspective of how many does one eight referrals is one agency me over another? I don't track it quite so much that way. I track it more as what do they send? What do I convert? And what can I do to make that happen even more often? And that's whether they're an agent that closes three deals a year or a team that has 30 buyers, agents own their team producing leads for them. So I kind of look at each agent relationship individually and see what we're getting and what we can do to help those agents grow and thus us grow with them. Okay, I've written down notes from our original conversation. This is a hot topic I've talked about because, you know, one of the objections you often hear with loan officers working with real estate agents, they're not loyal. And I wrote down from our chat last time was that you drive intense loyalty with agents. And I'm curious if you might share what that means and how you do that. Sure. So first and foremost, doing a good job, knowing your craft, not taking an application, not looking at documents, not being thorough, best your first place you're going to fall for. If you deliver thorough service to the realtor of the customer every single time, you'll start to build that loyalty. But then you have to do things to invest in your realtor partners, things to help them grow. I share their listings and their information out on social media. I'll work with them to try to build their brand, whether it be through something that movement offers at no cost or something that I invest in monthly, that they don't have to pay for. Anything that I can do to promote an agent to the public that might get them another lead, that also builds that loyalty. So you have to be twofold. You have to offer the service that they need for their clients, but you also have to be willing to invest in them. And one that you mentioned earlier, you do events. Is that one of the ways you invest in them? Absolutely. So we do monthly events, some are educational and some are just fun. We've done everything from interview with an underwriter to just a laid back mix and mingle networking event next week. I'm hosting a realtor safety event. And the gentleman that's coming in to carry the event on is actually a realtor who will be talking to other realtor about how to keep themselves safe while they're out showing properties and hosting other houses. I'm looking at your calendar on your Facebook page of events. By the way, very smart to put that on Facebook listeners. If you're doing events, you better be putting them on Facebook. Sounds obvious, but a lot of people don't. I'm looking at the various attendance levels for these things, because I was going to kind of get into what has been the most successful for you in terms of building loyalty and driving referrals, driving engagement. Are there certain types of events you notice that maybe rise above the others? Well, the way I start from my event is a little different than most. Agents don't want to be talked to and talked, even though they need to be talked to and talked. So I create more of an interview interactive events, and that tends to drive more traffic to the events. So the interview with an underwriter, I had pre-slated questions, and he knew what his responses were going to be, and then the agents were able to stop and be involved. So the structure as an interview, it really made the agents feel like they were part of it. So the next event that was an interview became even more well attended. I could say we started with maybe 25 or 30 at our first event, and now we averaged 50 to 60 agents to come to all of our events. Wow. And yeah, you're doing pretty consistently every single month. Every month. Where do you rank events among your activities? How do you rank events as far as biggest impact for driving realtor referrals? It's all about exposure and staying in front of the agent. If you're not doing different things to pop by the event, the videos on social media, and I hate doing them, but I do them. If you're not doing something to constantly stay in front of the realtors, and you're not changing it up, you're going to become boring in plan. And I see somebody else who's going to come in front of you and get their attention. So I would say, I mean, it's definitely in the top five of things that I do to stay in front of the realtors, so that I'm always top of nine. And when I host these events, I would say I've got a 50, 50 split of agents that I work with, and agents I've never even spoken to. So it's an opportunity to get in front of agents that are with firms that I have other relationships with. And that's an opportunity for me to grab another agent partner to get a lunch with, let them get to know how I really do my business, and then start working with them. All right, so I'm going to stay on this thread for a little bit because events are near and dear to my heart. What is your process then for, like you said, you've got agents you haven't worked with that come to the event. Do you have like a real structured process around moving them from attended to event to lunch meeting, for example? Yeah, so every single event, we send a handwritten thank you note for them coming to every attendee. Every attendee gets a handwritten thank you note for coming to the event. If it's someone that I have not worked with, I've been followed off with a phone call thanking them again for coming and inviting them to have lunch or coffee with me. And usually they will take the time to sit down and talk to me about who I am and what I can bring to the table to benefit them. How much of at that event is a quote unquote movement commercial? I'm not one and oddly enough, we're talking about me, but I'm not one that likes to stand up in front of a group of people and say, yeah, yeah, I'm the best in the business. I make it more about the age of and what they need. I do talk about movement and how quickly we can close loans, but I keep it very, very short and sweet and focus on the topic. Otherwise, every event that they come to, they're going to expect us to hear ourselves feel about with the mortgage. And they're not coming for that, they're coming for the content. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. So in terms of like you following up with these agents that have attended this your classes, your events, do you do any qualifying ahead of time, any research on the agent or is it just no, you're going to meet with everybody who wants to meet with you. Absolutely. Before I contact an agent, the schedule of meeting, I'm going to do my Facebook talking to see what I can learn about them personally. Just try to figure a little bit out about them. So I have something to talk to them about. And when I go into a meeting, I don't start with, hey, let's do business together. I asked to get to know them. Tell me about your family. What do you like to do in your free time? I want them to feel like I want to know them, not just get business from them. And that helps. They get a comfort level with you that you're not just there to ask for business, you're there to really create a partnership and get to know them. Have you ever done one of those meetings, those coffee lunch meetings, and you knew it wasn't right at some stage of the conversation? Absolutely. And not every realtor is going to be fit to work with every long officer. I have fired a handful of realtors in my career where I've just had to say, this is not going to work. We don't work together. And it's okay. It is okay to do that. And you can even have even made recommendations of other loan officers that I know that they might work better with. Whether it be because they want me to answer the phone every single time they call. I can't do that. I'm taking applications, I'm meeting with customers, I'm hosting them. If they're, if they needed immediately every single time, I know they need someone that is sitting at a desk waiting for a phone to ring. How many agents roughly do you work with right now that are part of your, you know, active community? I definitely have over a hundred agents that I work with. I would say consistently I have 40 to 50 that send me consistent business. And those range from the agents that they do five deals a year and they send all five deals to me to large teams that have multiple buyers agents. And maybe they are getting the town leads and it's kind of round robin with other with other lending partners. I would say there's a consistent 40 to 50 agents that I get regular business out of that over a hundred that I work with fairly regularly. I assume you have those people in your database and there's some various outbound touch points happening. Oh, absolutely. And I make it a point when I am, you know, when I've got some downtime. If I'm in the car on the way to pick my son up from school. If I don't have a customer on the phone, I think of an agent to call and talk to and just see how they're doing. I try to stop by office in a regular basis and just leave something fine. It doesn't have to be anything that does what has to do with mortgages, just something fine. And they reach back out with appreciation. A lot of times I'll stop by and the agent will take a picture of me with whatever I'm bringing by and tag me in social media for bringing something by and just taking the time to see them. I want to come back to Popeyes in a second, but before I leave the agent conversation. Oftentimes I hear from loan officers after they meet with agents that it's crickets, you know, the expectation from the L.O. was that, hey, you know, they're going to send me a deal or whatever. Have you had that happen where they're the expectation is kind of there or not? Yeah, I mean, you first meeting does not guarantee referrals and you have to invest in each individual agent in the follow up and follow through. As soon as you leave up your initial coffee or lunch meeting, they probably get three more phone calls from other lenders wanting to visit. I mean, you can't just expect that, yeah, I impressed you, you're going to start sending me deals. You've got to follow up and follow through is there anything I can do to help you remind the agents that you work on the weekends or that you don't shut down at five o'clock like the base does. Stay in front of them and that consistency is what drives the future referrals. Okay, how do you stay in front of it? As far as saying in front of them, I mean, like I said, we do the events are big and we consistently get similar people, you know, it's around robin. Some months will have the same people from the prior month or sometimes it'll take three or four months for them to come to be able to fit it in their schedules to come back. The pop-ups are big. I do have a goal of doing them monthly does not always happen, but we do try to get those out monthly something just fun that they can use and not eat. Don't take cookies to a realtor's office, they don't want really. They don't want them. Well, they might, but they're going to eat them and then they're going to be gone and they're not remember you. I do stuff like that. I have hand sanitizers with my logo and my contact information. We're going into the winter box. How many agents are going to put this in their car? They're going to use them. I have a lot of rollers that have my logo and contact information. How many agents are going to use a one roller? Things that are useful and consumable that last a long time so it constantly stays in front of them. Somebody I had on the show before talked about 100 cheesy ideas. The sound cheesy can be cheesy in some people's minds that I guess, but question is, do they work? They do. They do. Actually, the last month I was a little bit different. It was very much a consumable item. We did. You can boost. We had a couple mini bottles, but I can't tell you how many agents tag me on social media, thanking me for their boost gift. They're breaking up for what? What was the good? They're booze. Yeah. They got mini bottles. Now we're talking. That's the way to get loyalty with agents. They got mini bottles for Halloween and the day, the two days that I dropped them all, I got more text messages and tags on social media for having delivered these boost gifts. I even got pictures of agents that had the mini bottles poured into wine glasses that have my logo that were provided to them at a prior event. That is awesome. Very creative. What I love about that idea is you're smart enough and your team to recognize. You take advantage of what's already like popular or happening current events that's already on top on people's minds. Obviously Halloween, right? I mean, pretty obvious. Next one. Thanksgiving. Next one Christmas. So you've probably got some plans in the works for tying in those holidays. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. So I've got 150 of admits on the way to me and the tag will say don't get burned by the wrong lender. Those are 150 agents. And he doesn't need to have a net, right? So every time they go into their, their diss drag George to pull something out of the oven, they're going to grab my other net and use that. And so that's a lot. How do you how do you get those? Are you dropping those off or you are those in the mail? I drop every single one off in person. I'm going rapid fire now. My coffee's kicked in. So is it a plan? Drop by. Obviously, you're, you're time blocking it in your calendar. But I mean, many times you're doing a pop by in the agents not there. Is that correct? Well, for example, if I'm dropping off at an Alan Tate office, there might be 15 agents that that Alan Tate office. I'm leaving something for. You're just going to cover them all. You're not necessarily going for one agent in that office. Correct. So I will take the 15. I'll take a picture of whatever the gift is so that I can text them if they're not there and let them know there's a gift waiting for them. And somebody's going to be at the front desk that I may not work with and I'll be able to introduce myself. I'll have a few extras in the car. I'll run back out and grab one and give it to him. I love the texting idea, though, or the photo of that. Well, so many agents don't go into the office on a daily basis. So if I leave something for Thanksgiving and they don't go back until the middle of December, it's not quite as big of an impact. So if I text them and say, you know, like I would be the Halloween booze gift. I took a picture and I would text them and said, you've been boozed by the office to get it. They appreciate that. Yeah. Well, you're making it fun is what you're doing. And we need to bring the fun back darn it to this business, you know. Absolutely, absolutely. All right. I want to go back to my question earlier, which I unfortunately didn't ask us succinctly as I wanted to with regards to the agents post coffee meeting. Do you have a specific plan for those agents that you've met with that, you know, okay, there's this good meeting, good engagements, like, oh, yeah, I'd love to work together, Dana, and then it's crickets. Are you just like putting those people on the same kind of touch campaigns with all your agents, or do you kind of, you know, have a special plan for them because you just met with them and you're hoping to accelerate that. Yeah, I kind of build into the bigger investments that I have. So I have some things that I do that is open to any agent that I work with some of the marketing tools that I use. We will then build into getting the monthly gift. Now, if it's a larger agent that does a lot of business that I've been trying to get business from for a while, they're thrown into full, full mix right away. If it's somebody that I know that maybe newer to the business and probably doesn't have a lot to send to me, we kind of build into it slowly with the investments because as the end of the day, you're spending money, you've got to send it wisely. And are there agents that you put in a, you know, an A level criteria, I can't think of better way to describe it, but, you know, your VIP agents, let's say, where you're going to maybe do some additional investments of time or resources or whatever. Absolutely. So there are several groups that I will get in front of monthly and maybe they've got 15 on their team. And at least every month, I'm in front of five to six of them as part of a meeting to talk to them about something that's new or what have I brought they all that that would be a benefit to them. Who's definitely there are agents that I consider my bread and butter and I know that if somebody else comes with a shiny object, they could get distracted. So there's more effort put into those because I've spent lots of time building into those relationships. But we do what we call pop up classes for some of those roles or groups to just bring new information to them. Well, I love that pop up classes. What does that mean? Basically, it means listen, is there a date on your calendar where you don't have something going on and you just have it had three events around it? Okay, great. Let's take that date and let me come in and talk to your agents. Let me bring something new to the table for them. Maybe they it's a group that they get together twice or twice a month as a group. And then, but they also just they know that they're going to have a big open house caravan or they're going to have something else going on. I don't want to be part of that week because they already got a lot going on that week. I want to be part of a week where they don't really have anything going on and they would have time to come to the office. And how long is that session the pop up class typically? It could be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half depending on how the conversation goes, you know, typically an agent will play an hour for me. Sometimes you've got two people that show up and they, you know, you have one on one interaction and maybe it doesn't take as long. And other times you might have 10 show up and there's more conversation and it takes a little bit longer. Very, very interesting. I'm just thinking about how can I trademark that name the pop up class like those pop up stores right that show up everywhere. Exactly. I mean, it's all about it's about being different. I mean, you can be an awesome loan officer. But if you're not different and you look the same as everybody else, they're going to think that agents are going to think you're the same as everybody else. You've got to bring something to the table that somebody else is already giving. All right. And speaking of being different, let's transition. By the way, thank you for sharing all that stuff on the agents. That's a mini, mini seminar. That was a pop up class right there, by the way. Love it. Okay. So like you said earlier video, you're doing video. I'm on your Facebook page right now. So clearly you've got videos there. Is there any strategy or scheduling? Do you do map out a content calendar for your social media plan? Yes, I know. I have lots of ideas in my head. But I do, I try to at least every Friday, do a video targeted towards realtors. And that is shared on my business page, my personal page. I share it to groups. So I'm part of some closed groups that are realtor groups. I share to that. And then it's part of my Friday newsletter. I would say three of the four weeks of the month. That video gets produced. There is always one Friday where it's just not going to happen. And that's just because it is what it is. And then I try to twice a month, put out a video targeted towards the consumer. Something that an agent can download and share on social media or share in their email campaigns. Something that's educational. So I did one this morning about, you know, rates arising and when rates start to rise, Linda start to instead of showing the actual market rate, they start to increase their fees. So it looks like they're more competitive when they're really costing your client more money or costing the client more money. And so I posted that this morning and then I shared it to my various realtor pages with a Dropbox link so they can go in and download it and make it fresh content when they go to share it. Oh, that's unique. You allow them to download it from Dropbox. Very cool. So do you find some realtors do kind of embed your video in a newsletter or something? Yeah, when I give them the Dropbox link, it allows them to make it their own content versus sharing mine. And while them sharing my content better for me, they get better results if it's original content and they posted themselves or they put it out themselves. So that's why I create, I have a video Dropbox and when I post a shareable video, I say realtor friends feel free to access and download the video with this link. And then they can go in and download it, upload it straight to social media. And you find that you get a pretty good, pretty good involvement on people grabbing the video. Yeah, I haven't looked much this morning, but I think within just a few minutes, I had a couple of agents already share it out this morning. Wow, that's really cool. I like that strategy because I hadn't thought about that offering them to download it versus just sharing it. And once again, that just proves that you're putting their needs, what's most important to them, right? Kind of above your own. Exactly. And I look at the realtor as my first client, whatever I can do to serve them is going to allow them or give them to the desire to send me their clients. So I can serve their clients. But at the end of the day, you don't have clients. If you don't have someone who is willing to refer you to business, you've got to invest in your realtor partners and show them that you're truly vetted in them to help them be successful. What are you using to shoot these videos? Is it a smart phone? I use a good probe where I can do it wirelessly from my phone, but versus trying to my phone constantly bring so if I try to shoot a video on my phone, it's not going to happen. That is true, constant interruptions. That's cool. Very nice. Very nice. And so your video content is it mostly on Facebook, and if you said earlier, I apologize, but are you doing anything on YouTube? I have not branched into YouTube. So I am the girl that hates social media, but has been forced to use it. So I have only branched into Facebook and Instagram at the point. Instagram whole another animal, isn't it? Yes. Well, and I am thankfully blessed to say that I am able to have a third party that handles my social media. So I send her, you know, when I do a video, I send it her and she uploads and takes care of all that. So I don't have to deal with that. Well, you know, that's fine. Let somebody else kind of upload it, but it's still it's you. It's your content. That's what counts. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Okay, very good stuff. And of course, we'll put links to your Facebook page and you know, give that out at the end and all that stuff. So if people want to, of course, they could just search you as well. Dana Meadows, Movement Mortgage Facebook. Pretty easy to find. All right. So in the final minutes, we've got here. I'm just looking at my notes. I want to. You from from what I know about you, Dana Meadows. You are a very driven person. You are. And shall we say aggressive in your in your work ethic and your desire to grow your business. Is that a safe assessment? Oh, absolutely, absolutely. I'm very, very driven. And I'm driven. Not only like I said before about family, but I have a 14 year old and we're in a world where kids think that you don't have to work to get stuff. And I can tell you that my child is he knows that's not the case. You know, we, this millennial generation, they expect it's in gratification. They expect to not have to put a lot of work into to to grow in themselves regardless of their career path. I can tell you my 14 year old will tell you I'm the hardest work of mother he's ever met. And that to me says that I've done something right as a parent. He knows that when he goes, he when he goes to school every day, he said to put the work in to get the grades back out. He knows to get into the college that he wants to get into. He's got to do all of these things that are now required to get accepted to a college. And he knows to be successful and make lots of money when he grows up, he's going to have to pick the right career and he's going to have to put the work into it. Lead by example, that's awesome. One of the things I know about you as well is that you make yourself, if I'm correct, available, you know, essentially 24 sevens that right. Absolutely. I was on the phone with a customer at 8 30 last night taking an application. This career gives us the flexibility to really work wherever we want to. My hashtag is mortgage my morals. So I constantly I'm running here to there, you know, with whether I'm picking them up from school, dropping them off at a golf course, picking them up from a golf course and dropping them off somewhere else. I'm not aware, let's maybe flex, go and do that. It lets me work from home some, but it also requires that I be available for the client that's not allowed to talk on the phone that work. Or the husband and wife that are on different work schedules and would like to be together to have a conversation with me. So I've got the flexibility to be free in certain areas that it requires me to give back at other times that other people might not necessarily want to work. Yeah. So yeah, you have to make yourself available for for the client. And that's actually would you agree that's kind of a differentiator in today's market as well. Oh, absolutely, but the loan officer that wants to cut out at four o'clock on Friday. You're not going to be as successful as the loan officer that is taking an application at 7 30 on Friday night while your husband's there and actually going at time to get some dinner. That's true commitment to not just the realtor that referred that client, but also to the client to making sure that they know that you're willing to you want to serve them the way that they need to be served. Do you have a process then for like when you're busy around the phone, you're in a meeting or something, because you can't answer every single phone call. So do you kind of consciously think about as a matter of fact, I know you do because I get your email responses. I have a permanent out of office. Exactly. You do, don't you? I do. It is a permanent out of office. And that is because again, we're in this world of instant gratification. They expect that things are in box. They're going to get instant response. And that can't always be the case. So my out of office says, you know, I apologize for missing your email. I am in and out of meetings throughout the day, but you will get a response as quickly as possible. And then list out my team members that if they need something immediate, they can reach out to same thing with my voice mail. My voice mail, you know, says, please, please understand that I'm helping another client at this time. I will give you a call as soon as I'm able to do so. It's about setting expectations and, you know, people will wait if they know, hey, my realtor said she was really good. Well, she's kind of busy too. So I need to give her a few minutes to get back to me. If you set the right expectations, they'll wait for you. Do you have like a in your own head kind of a timeline you want to return those calls by? I always try to return calls within the hour. If it is something where it's more of an all day type meeting or let's say my son is on the golf course on Saturday, I will set the expectation might get him this call and I'll send a text and I'm sorry, my son's playing golf can't pick up right now, but I'll be home by 530. I'll give you a call then. It kind of depends on what I've got going on. But if it's just a normal Monday through Friday, maybe in and out of some meetings or stuff on a phone call, I always return them within the hour. That's awesome. All right, let's close it out with any specific initiatives or things you're going to be doing during in 2019 in your business. Well, with some of my events, I'm getting more sponsors involved so we can make them larger and have more attendees. So we're getting title companies attorneys, insurance agents, we're getting them involved in our events. Also, there's a couple of charities that are really near and dear to my heart that I've always contributed part of my commission to and even some volunteer hours to the meta. The meta team is going to be doing a lot more to promote those charities so that others are aware of them. One of the things we've got going into December is the cookies with Santa event to benefit one of those asking for donations to come and have your child's picture taken on Santa falls. So it's looking to try to even though we already give back. It's not just giving back to the charity and to the community, but letting those around us know what those charities are and what they do for our communities so that maybe they'll get involved. Yeah, and with your your co-sponsors, if you will, what's their participation? Is that a financial thing or their job is to fill the room? No, it's a financial obligation where we give them an opportunity to speak at the event about what they their services. But it says that we can offer it to more agents because at the end of the day, some of these events can run upwards of $2,000. And if you're going to have a really nice event, $2,000, that's a lot to have to make up on and referral from that event. So I'm looking to try to stretch budget just a little bit. No, it makes total sense and for those listening, wherever you're at in your business, start small. Obviously, Dana, you didn't start with an event that cost you $2,000, did you? Oh, absolutely not. I actually didn't start hosting events until this year. So, and that's what my advice, yes, yes. My advice to, you know, to the loan officers as far as building into the business is don't spend more than 10% of your income on your marketing and what you're doing for your realtors. If you spend 10% of your income to promote yourself and to help your realtors, then you'll have even more to be able to spend the next year. And my budget is going to be very different from somebody that's only been in the business for a few years and maybe closes two or three loans a month. It's going to be very, very different, but you can't don't spend all of your money because you'll run out and then you'll have nothing to promote. Yeah, and run it like a business, darn it. Know your numbers. Exactly. Exactly. Very good lessons. Thank you for this pop-up class and how to be a top producing mortgage originator. Appreciate it. I know you're incredibly busy. The meter's running. I feel compelled to send you a gift. So, I'm just, we're grateful for your time and sharing today. And those that want to connect with you, what do you say? Just go to Facebook and do a search on you? Absolutely. Reach out to me on Facebook or you're, you're also welcome to email me. It's Dana dot meta is at movement dot com. All right. Appreciate your being here. Dana and for our listeners, as always, appreciate you tuning in. If you enjoyed this episode, hey, let us know. We're entering the holiday times. Now's the time for giving back and saying thanks. So, what you could say thank you today is maybe leave a little review on iTunes, Stitcher, the blog, Facebook page, the mortgage working radio. Rev your app. I appreciate y'all tuning in and we'll see you on the next one. Bye for now. Thanks for listening to mortgage marketing radio. One more truth in mortgage marketing. Get more free training and resources at mortgagemarketinginstitute.com. Hey guys, what's up real quick? 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