Ep #112: Lessons in Going From $24 Million to Over $100 Million in Less than Five Years

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. Hey listeners, welcome to this episode of the mortgage marketing radio podcast. So glad you tuned in and I bet you're going to be glad to in just a couple of moments. So let's take care of a couple housekeeping issues. Number one, first and foremost, if you're a new listener, let me know, give me a shout out on our Facebook page at the mortgage marketing radio podcast on Facebook. Look us up. And if you're a been listening for a while, you're getting value, hey, we'd sure love you leaving a review wherever you listen to this podcast, wanted to share a quick review with you from John Dolbeck. John says, hey, the podcast is a great tool. I've used your increased my business over the last few years. The one-to-one podcast with top producers has been a great way to sharpen the saw. Jeff is great at always asking the question that I would have asked them. It's like he's reading my mind. That's what we do here, the mind meld. So thanks John Dolbeck for that. Appreciate you. And so if you could do that, we'd appreciate that. Secondly, a couple quick announcements. Due to much demand, we are rolling out a very limited, exclusive invite only small group, quick start coaching program called LO launch. What is this? This is a six week kind of boot camp, if you will, fast-track to success in focusing on the key areas that we've been told, loan officers want the most help with. That is number one, real estate agent referral partners, more success in getting in front of real estate agents, capturing their attention, converting them, activating past relationships they've got with realtors, you know, soup to nuts, everything, realtors. So that's going to be a key area of our six week coaching program. In addition, we're going to talk about mining your past database for clients, right? Some smart and intelligent ways to do that. And then talking about building your personal brand, going consumer direct online social media, Facebook ads, video, all different strategies to help you build your personal brand, raise your awareness and become chosen as the go to lender in your local community, both among real estate agents and consumer direct. So not sure when you're listening to this. So either we already have a class underway or you need to get on the waiting list. Here's what you want to do now. You want to go over to L-O-Launch.me, L-O-Launch.me. That's where you get more info and it is invite only. So we're not taking everybody, as I said, it's a very small group. It's an elite group and so go there, learn more and we'll be in touch with you to find out if you fit the profile of who we're looking for. That's that. And of course, without, you know, I'd be remiss and not mentioning if you're looking for a platform all about teaching agent classes, delivering you a done-for-you class every single month, an awesome topic with a proven system that gets butts and seats and loans in your pipeline, done-for-you agent classes, turnkey PowerPoints, speaker notes, handouts, video tutorials, coaching for me on all that, a private Facebook group, and more, well then go check out the mortgage marketing dot pro membership. And then lastly, we want to make sure say hello to our fellow colleagues at the industry syndicate. What's the industry syndicate? It is real estate's first media network. You're looking for access to more good content shows, podcasts. That's where it can be found, real estate mortgage focused, over at the industry syndicate and it is industry syndicate dot com. So check that out for more details. All right, let's transition into my very special guest for this week. It is Nicole Ruth. Nicole Ruth out of Denver, Colorado is a superstar. Yes, she is. Rockstar who took her business in just under five years from 24 million to over a hundred million dollars. Folks, did you hear what I said? And under five years went from 24 million to over a hundred million dollars. I mean, crazy, right? How do you do that? You're going to hear Nicole explain exactly how she did that. It's an education and a lesson on mindset and on making decisions and commitments and following through on yourself integrity that you commit to yourself, to others and your family. Also, you're going to hear her talk about how she leads with education, wealth building through real estate. That is the primary channel, if you will. That is the primary brand that she communicates out there. She does tons of classes. I think she mentioned on this podcast, she was doing four alone. This month, perhaps, and a lot of her classes focus on educating real estate agents on the various topics of how to leverage real estate to build wealth, but also personal branding, marketing, social media, mindset coaching, as a matter of fact, she's bringing in our mutual friend and mentor coach Bill Hart, author of white color warrior, Bill was on the podcast last year. And we look forward to having him back in the near future. But she has taken her classes to the point where now she does them, she's got a consistent theme, right? Thursday of every month, it's called agent ignite, and it's a different topic every month. It sounds interesting. It sounds a little bit like what you get through the mortgage marketing.pro membership with our tool that's called my agent classes. Nicole said she spends hours creating those PowerPoint presentations herself. Good news is, like I had mentioned to her, hey, we've got a system that actually does those for you. And so just a little subtle plug right there for those of you who haven't yet checked out mortgage marketing.pro. That's where you can watch an eight minute video all about that. So what I love about what Nicole's doing is she's focused, she's intentional, she's driven, and she really understands what her area of expertise is. And that's where she works to spend most of her time because that's where she feels most energized and passionate and that's where she gets the most results she possibly can. So I think you're going to really dig this week's episode. She is just giving an idea. Let's say 2018 over 353 family served for over $116 million in funded loans. This comes right off her website at the Ruth team. We're going to put links in the show notes to all of this stuff. Her YouTube video, you got to check it out, talk about leading with transparency in education. She's got over 250 videos, over 100 just in her realtor education playlist. She's unbelievable, right? She's ranked among the top 100 mortgage advisors in the country. She's the number one mortgage originator in, I believe, the state of Denver, a state of Denver, state of Colorado, city of Denver. You guys know what I'm saying. Why don't we just cut to the chase and welcome our special guest Nicole Reeth on this week's show. Hey, Nicole, welcome to the show. Well, thank you for having me. Thank you for being here. I know you are super, super busy. So for the listeners, give us the quick backgrounder who is Nicole, how long you've been doing loans in? Why do you still love it? Oh, gosh. So I've been in mortgage lending for going on 18 years. But for a big chunk of that, I was in operations. I used to work for Arthur Anderson and Anderson's whole thing to the whole corporate route. I had three beautiful babies in a very short period of time and kind of gave up corporate route and went, knocking on a door, said to a friend, handing a job, something low key, something to get me off the living room floor, landed in mortgage lending. You know, I'm not the unique person that landed in mortgage lending. It's kind of the normal story. But it started out in operations because that's what I knew. And it was about eight, nine years later, I was in a small, little broker shop, me and one of the person. He was all things sales. I was all things ops and worked really well together until he had to pull out, move out of state. And then I'm based with, hey, we did a really good job. The phone's ringing and our marketing's doing well. So I started doing loans because a secret swim. Yeah, like eight or nine years ago now, eight or nine years ago. And what do you still love about it? Because that's a, that's a long career trajectory. And I can tell just from, you know, observing you from a distance, you're passionate about it. So what about it makes you passionate? I love the fact that the business that we're in allows us to have such a unique impact, a lasting multi generational impact on our clients. It's not like we're selling them a bar, so we're pair of shoes. And it's not even like we're selling them the biggest asset that they've ever bought because we are, but we're selling them the ability to build wealth in a way that no other asset can. I mean, this is so unique. Have you really owned that and lean and do it and get excited about it? Your clients get excited with you and they see the benefit. Like, I've had so many client conversations where they come to me for transactional reasons. They lead as a relationship, they lead building wealth, they lead with a vision well beyond this single transaction. All right. Thank you for sharing that. So, and I hear you describe that. That's very telling for the listeners and what it kind of illuminates for me, if you will, is that you, number one, your, your, your borrow experience, I'm sure, is quite different than the average borrow experience. But also trying to think, how do I articulate this is you, you really see your role is something beyond just kind of loan officer, if that makes sense? 100% with our question. My whole team, we operate where we're really supporting and helping that client. Yes, I can close loans fast. Yes, we have market rates, competitive rates. Yes, we can do all of the loans that everybody else can do. But we bring the sense of purpose, the sense of vision, the sense of gratitude, that we are to do something bigger than that. Why is it so personal for you, did you have a personal experience or something? I, yes, I did. So it was gosh, six years ago now when I had bumped into a gentleman, kind of my chance, if I look at it, looking backwards, there was no real purpose to us meeting. He wasn't handed to me, we kind of just ran into each other, kind of got off to a good start, had a cup of coffee, he kind of took me under his wing. He was an older gentleman that had been in real estate for a long time. He was a realtor. And he just sat me down, we just started talking. It's like, who do you know, what do you do, how do you look at things, and I was relatively new in the originating side. And so he just kind of, we just started having conversations about this investing idea. And it wasn't that he was a fixed employer, he was a long-term investor. So he started talking about his investments, how he built wealth, but from an older generations for you point, you know, it wasn't about building a little generation well, it was just about securing yourself against social security, right? And so when he and I had these conversations, we're talking, we're talking. And then all of a sudden, he brings up this four flex cities guy and he says, you should buy this. And there is no, I'm not buying this for so many reasons. But he kind of talked me into it and he talked me through the fear, because I wanted to back out of that thing at least three or four times during the transaction. It was too big, it was too much money, there was too many things wrong. How do I deal with tenants? How do I get tenants? How do I get tenants? Right. Everything. So, but he did talk me into it eventually. And so we went through the whole process, the internal questions, and he held on. And then right after that, I ended up finding opportunities for a little single family. And I held on to those two for about 18 months, maybe 24 months, just those two. And really getting my feet wet with the full tenant situation and leases and turnover and management. I managed them. And all of a sudden I started realizing, especially with the four flex, I'm pulling in really good money. And I don't need the money today. So I'm just dumping it right into the mortgage. And so all of a sudden, I'm building this equity at an accelerated rate. And it's starting to click that this is bigger than just throwing my money in a stock market or any other financial opportunity I can make. So now it became an opportunity. So then I just started buying more. And it took me a while. From the first two, there's probably a lag of, you know, as I said, 24 months, a couple months or a couple of years, maybe, maybe as many as three before I bought the next one. And then the next set of buildings for flexes came rather quickly. So now I own 23 investments. 23 all total. They're not all for flexes. 23 doors. So I do have a number of that is the correct term in the investment. Yeah. 23 doors. So your first investment property was a fourplex? The first one was a fourplex. Wow. Yeah. That's a lot. Yeah. Yeah. It was scary. Because it's, you know, you've got roommate situations, right? You got, well, he's doing this. And he's doing that. It's coming over the fence. And I'm sorry. Were you living in the fourplex, by the way? One of the units? No. No way. Okay. I got it. It's got to be the right area, you know? Yes. I mean, I have a friend of mine who invests in a similar situation in Vegas, but not in the area you'd want to live in Vegas, you know? My first, okay, quick sidebar. My first investment property was bought side-on scene in Smurna, Tennessee. It was a condo. And I bought into the pitch that, you know, Nissan's opening up a plant there. And that's where all the job growth is and all that stuff. Well, I got the hard lesson in being a landlord when a pipe burst in the middle of the night and slutted into my neighbors, condo, after which they sued me. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I'm like, oh, this is fun. But no, that's all I love that. I mean, 23, man, first of all, congratulations to you for having the courage of that. How come more people don't do that? How come more loan officers don't do that? Don't invest. Yeah. Don't invest. Don't buy. Invest in the own product. Right. Yeah. Because it was a couple years before I did. I don't know. I wish they would because they served their clients better if they understood the product that they were selling. Right. Yeah. Well, sure. Let's give you a set. Now, investors, is that kind of one of your niches? First time investors are the repeat, the larger investors, they're going to typically go wholesale hard money. They're going to go, you know, local bank portfolio type situations. I mean, being in May and Freddie Mac, when we can do up to 10 finance parties. And all have clients that have 10 and they're restructuring and they're pulling cash out of this one to pay off two or three others to be able to pull another one in or buy another one. So, I mean, the advantages to go with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on an investment are substantial compared to hard money or even portfolio. So if you can restructure your portfolio so that you can state that 10 and then sometimes you just can't. It's good. We try to help a lot of people once they start going and then that they're fixing flipping obviously that doesn't work well with our world. That's going to be more hard money. So we do work with, I teach a lot of classes around first time home investors. How do you get over the fear where it is buying that warplex to begin with was overwhelming, especially as a woman and my husband was there to support me, but he really leaned on me. I was the one that was in the industry. He was traveling a lot. And so I had to make a lot of the decisions and we're not taught at an early age in general, especially as a woman, how to make those kind of financial decisions and weeps. And so to have somebody come alongside you is really important. So that's kind of been my passion for building this business and working with first time home investors much like my trusted advisor did for me on my first one. Well, that's cool. It's nice to have mentors that help you on your way. Have you always been passionate about education? I know I forget the exact tagline you guys used, but you're passionate about educating people about leveraging real estate to build wealth, right? Yes, we talk all the time about building wealth through real estate is kind of our tagline. And then we have a we believe statement that we believe in sleeping better at night giving people the opportunity to build multi-generational wealth through real estate. And I have to say I was watching one of your videos earlier and you go deep with the education. You're talking you're talking quantitative easing. I did. I do a monthly market trend report. So that one that was more business of business that's for the realtors. Yeah, they're like, what's that? They need some help educating, but that's so I'm curious then. All right, I'm going to transition into more. Let's get a bit tactical because those listening want to know if I'm correct, right? So, all right, let me go back to your website here real quickly. I love your website, by the way, very well done, very professional. What I like best about it is the rolling numbers that pop up on Hummy Street. You saved. Last year. Let me get back because I got a couple of pages here open for you. But in 2018, just refresh the page because I love to see that, it's like a telephone. You know the number. How many families did you help? We actually 363. So I did notice the website had 353. I think it was type in too fast when I updated the website. But yeah, I noticed 363 families that served for 113 million personally, 119, I think, in the branch, which includes my husband joined me. So I persuaded him over to the dark side. He left corporate America and he only does reverse mortgages. So I'm the only producer in my branch. And then he supports our clients and our financial planners with reverse mortgage options. Nice. Good to see you. Yeah. A little bit, yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. Good, good, good. Okay. So that's a big number. You then, that puts you at the number one spot for Fairway company, what? The number one producing branch manager. So there's a couple of us at the top. When I look at the Mortgage Regionage magazine, I'm the top originator in state of Colorado. And there's a handful of Fairway folks right up there in the top 60 with me. Wow. Congrats. That is an awesome achievement. You should be incredibly proud. Yes. Because any of us listening, right, we know it's not easy. You've definitely put in your sweat equity. So speaking of that, let's then transition because what caught my attention was kind of your trajectory. If I can bring this back up, it was just about what, roughly four years ago, you did what? 25 million? Yeah. So I went from 24 to 48 to 78 to 111, 213. All right. And as you know, the question that's coming next, right, how the heck did you do that? Yeah. You know, I really do think it's once you decide what you want to do, right? You decide what you're passionate about, you decide what your branding is, what your lane is. And I talk about that all the time is what's your lane. Then you dive all in into that lane. And that, I think, has been the difference because it's really easy in this industry to chase shiny pennies. I mean, it's like so easy. Everybody wants a part of the mortgage industry and the originators that work here, right? So once you say yes to this lane, I get to say no to all the rest of the stuff, which is beautiful. Like, I'm not good at leads. I'm not good at one-on-one videos. I'm really good on one to many. I'm really good about speaking up message and I'm passionate about. So I'm not good at a lot of things. So everybody will start listing out, I'm not good at more things than I'm good at. But I know what I'm good at. And so my focus on those things, and I focus at leaning into the passion, then I get to, I get to spend my time there, right? And I get to design ways to get that message out. I get to be in front of the camera. I get to be in front of the clients. I get to talk about how exciting this industry really is. And so I do get invited to speak in front of a lot of aging groups, kind of instilling that passion in them because it's a hard work. There's a lot of disruption going on right now. And people are trying to figure out where they belong and what their lane is and what their branding is. And if they don't have that innate sense, then they're going to get swallowed up by the Zillow's node. So I think that's what's given me the growth is just the passion. Yeah, we'll come back to the disruptors for, let me just make a note here. But I have to ask you just for clarification. I think I know the answer, but what is your lane? So our lane, it really is the whole concept around the building wealth through real estate. So my lane is using the history that I've had over the last eight years in property ownership, right, in the bumps and the bruises and everything that I learned and taking that, turning around and helping others. So it's through teaching, it's through the mode in which I get to do it is through the presenting, is through the video, is through the classes that I teach. The lane is really about working with realtors and helping more buyers understand and capitalize on the opportunities that they have in real estate. And really then I guess it comes back to your educating people, being a guide for them along that journey. Yeah. And it's deciding that, you know, I don't work well with financial planners. I don't work well with CPAs and the push attorneys and new builds and yada, yada, yada, yada, right? I'm very chasing them that I wouldn't be everything that I am to the realtors that I serve. So you've gone all in on real estate agents. I have. I have. How did you know, maybe it's just trial and error and experience, but how did you decide that, you know what, this is my lane, it's not financial planners to use your example. Did you, did you try financial planners and it just didn't feel right? I tried financial planners and it's a different cycle. It's a different mode that I've got to communicate with them. Right. And it's a different series of touch points that I've got to do, right? So I have no doubt, I can do it. I have no doubt I can do any one of those things, but it takes me away from the presentations and the classes and the dedication that I have to this group. I already give like a number of different presentations on any given week. This week, as an example, I have four different presentations I'm giving on slightly various topics, real estate groups. And if I then add on presentations and conversations I need to have with builders and with financial planners, I just don't have enough hours in the day, I already work hard. Yeah. And you dilute your focus, which is I think what you're realizing. Yes. No, that's great. Because to your point there about if you add on, if you add on, it's like the old saying is like, you know, saying no is, is oftentimes more powerful than saying yes, what you say no to, right? So it allows you to really kind of live in that space that you are energized by, which maybe you're similar to me in the fact that you get energized by teaching classes. I totally get jazzed up my T.C. classes and I love it. I love, I don't love being in front of the camera per se. I love having the opportunity to reach in and talk to so many more people at a time. So I love the impact that video has. I love the aspect of classes. I mean, we'll do classroom settings anywhere from 20 to 60 ages in a room, depending on the topic or depending on the time of the year. I was able to give a presentation at Deemar, our local association of realtors to 400 agents. And that was pretty, most people out and I was like so excited about it that I didn't sleep at all the night before. And it wasn't a fear, it was truly the excitement. Are you always comfortable speaking to large groups? No. No. You know, I've always talked to some level, but I'm a bike rider. So it is absolutely time to saddle. That's a solo sport, so that's a solo sport, isn't it? It's totally solo sport. But it's one where I can go really fast and nobody gets to my way. There you go. Yeah. And this and me, I get to take it out of my bike. I do, it's time to saddle, it's doing it and doing it again and doing it again, that you get more comfortable and you're allowed to, and I even said, like if you went back and looked at a video of me from four years ago, they're awful. We've all got that, yeah. No, but so there's a couple key lessons here is one of the things you said are about the cameras. You don't love the camera. You don't love being on video. And I think, first of all, thanks for being honest with that because I think most of us don't. Right? I mean, it's a little bit awkward and we're a little bit self-conscious, but here's the trick gang. As you focus on, like you said, the impact in the reach or for me, it's like, I focus on the message I'm trying to communicate and who I'm trying to impact on the other end. Right? 100%. I've always visualized that person that I'm talking to and the other side of camera. Yeah, and that gets you over the whole, hey, how do I look thing? You're just like, I don't give a damn how I look because I'm here to just present a message, man. Right. I get some later, like, all that was about a hair day, and I'm doing whatever I can't change it now. No, but the key is really February, I mean, I just did a class earlier today with realtors was like 20 in the room. It's like, hey, how many of you are on video, like two hands out of 20, you know, it's like, we know they need to be on video, but they got all the BS getting in their way, you know? Right. Right. Just need to get over it. When did you realize that speaking into groups of agents was kind of a game changer for you? So it's, I've only been, well, I started my fourth year. So we, it was probably by the second year I figured out that this was going to be our niche. The whole first year, I made a commitment that I was going to do it. So I wasn't planning on it, I was planning on just having a little January, thank you event. I was talking to making it a bigger year-long event and committing, I committed. And then when I commit, I'm done. Like, I got it. I put it on the calendar and it's going to happen. And the first year was a struggle is, you know, how do you get the butts in seats? How, what's the messaging that I'm putting out there? Who am I attracting? How do I find them? How do I RSVP system them? How do I feed them? Everything, right? And there's some trial and error to that. But by the end of the first year, we kind of had figured it out. And it was a lot of hardship to get there in a lot of hours to put butts in seats. But once you figured it out and I started figuring out, then that almost then duplicated what I got passionate about because I got to speak about it more often than before. It really started to cement who I was inside that passion, right? How do I express it? And so the second year was when I started realizing, this is, this is our lane. This is where we belong. And did you see results, you know, quickly from the classes? Yeah. I mean, the volume takes care of itself, right? That's, and we, I always tell everybody, it's not about, it's not about the number of transactions. It's not about the money. It's about being able to lean in and the fact that people recognize that this is me, right? Like this is the authentic people who's for better for worse, like, I'm not a jovial and you're not going to see me as a comic and you're not going to see me making jokes and you're not going to see me do a lot of things. I don't like number. I tend to be really excited and passionate about this one thing and I talk about it a lot. But people know that by now. They know I talk about my hands. They know that I lean in and I get off and they get what I am, they know who I am at this point. Yeah. You're just being real showing up as your authentic self, you know? Yes. All right. So, you, and I love that we're talking about this because I don't know if you know this or not, but I've been preaching and teaching classes for like 10 years and it's just interesting. It seems to be L.O. is our home. It's coming around because, you know, of the market shifts and the, you know, the volume of overall businesses down, now they're like, gee, I guess I better go back to like, you know, marketing and sales 101 and getting front of people. I notice you've evolved and I see a number of loan officers do this. You evolved into the Agent Ignite program, right? So Agent Ignite is the name I gave my class four years ago. Okay. I've been involved on its own. People know that, you know, I'm sure there's an Agent Ignite anywhere else and it's not an uncommon name tonight, but that was just a name that we loved the inspiration. It was first realtor night. I did that for probably seven. Yeah. I learned it later. So I divided it for seven or eight months and I had the website and I was like, yeah, realtor night. I got the website. I got all that stuff. And then I got a call from North. And I was like, well, yeah, I've had something like that happen to, where it's just like, I was a trademark, you know, I was like, so how long do I have? I'm going. So, but, but I think what's really cool about this is, it goes back to what you said earlier. So you know, decide, know your lane, you know, I'm checking my notes and so you decided you were going to use classes that's kind of like your platform, like if you think about the book from Michael Hyatt, right? And he talks about platform and in today's noisy world, how do you rise above the noise? And I love the fact that you said you recognize what you're not good at. We didn't touch into social media yet. And I don't want to make any assumptions, but it seems to me like you're clear on your lane, not that you're not on social because you are, but your lane is much more face-to-face in front of groups. Yes. So we have a pretty strong social presence, I think. We're on all the channels and we're talking about the events that we have. We broadcast those a lot, not broadcast in live, but advertised for them. We also do like daily postings on what's going on in the market. If our postings are definitely more informational, they're definitely more, I'm on the Market Trends Committee of our demore, which is our Denver Metro Association Roadsters. And so we put out a 28-page, I'm plus or minusing a couple of pages, Market Trends Report every month. And it goes through all the stats of the market. And I'm on that committee, take a big part of that, that's why I did a video that gets a little bit more theoretical, and so I put that out every month. And I do lean into the data because the data helps me be a better landowner, it helps me be a better mortgage professional, it helps me be a better partner to my realtors. So being the kind of data geek that I am, you'll see a lot of our postings are centered around what demore saying, what nar saying, what's this month, we have a campaign going on for National Women's History Month, right? So we're talking about women and how far behind we are. You look at the numbers on our consumer choices and we're 91%, 86%, you look at all these numbers of our involvement and all these consumer purchases. We put the word investment in front of housing and all of a sudden it drops to 25% of women are involved in investment, real estate, you talk about a regular real estate purchase in the numbers is like 91%. So those are the kinds of things that you're going to see on our social media to circle back to that, not regretfully or not regretfully, my kids and the dogs and the pictures of houses. It's not, I need to start to be more authentic and be, you know, some of that personal side on social, but I tend to just lean into the day because I love it so much. You know who you're reminding me so you're a road biker, do you know the realtor Nicknick, Nicole Nicolay? I don't. If not, I'll send you a link to her, but she's a realtor up in the Bay area of California and she's a big time triathlon gal and she would have a lot in common. And she does a lot of, you know, like pictures of her on her bike or she's competing or she's like busting her ass for a workout or whatever, she's like, you know, sharing all that up. Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah. And I used to do that more because I was an adventure race competitor. Right. So I loved that. Um, I want to race like like, um, like what, tough mudder or, uh, yeah, a lot of fun. Yeah. I've been wanting to sign up for, um, what's the other one, the ninja, not the ninja, the Spartan. Oh, the Spartan. Yes. Have you done that? I have. I've done those two. And we did at the height of the game. Okay. This is back when I was, was I 30? No. I was not 40 when I was 40. I did, um, a six day adventure race in Utah. So that was the primal quest. That was a big thing. It's even on TV. Um, so I, it was a lot of fun. Yeah. Six days. Yeah. That's, that's a long stretch. Oh. Um, okay. So what, back to the whole classes thing. I mean, the, here's what's great, right? Back to the like, you just, you just made a decision. You're going all in. You're in your lane. Even we're so committed to it. You gave it a name instead of like, I think I'm going to mess around with classes or whatever. Do you do, um, any CE classes? I do. So there's a handful of my classes that I, I see, I don't do that as a staple. Um, I'd say that there's a handful like renovation loans and, and, you know, mortgage 101 and, uh, what do I do? We're at the Burr, verse mortgage. We put a CE down that one. So there's a handful of my deal. Yeah, but it's not like, you know, your, see, here's the thing. I hear a lot of L.O.s. They're like, you know, I have to do a CE class. And I'm like, why? No, you don't. You do a ton of classes that aren't CE classes. No, I do. Most of my classes are not CE classes, but it's about content. It's about, is it relevant to the problems that they're facing today? Am I giving them something that's, and sometimes it's completely out of the box. Sometimes it doesn't have any in doing real estate, but it might just give them a different idea. It might give them a different vantage point to get them outside of their typical triant thought. So I try to be relevant, helpful business propelling, and sometimes it's just motivational. Well, exactly. It's like you said, it's like you're trying to deliver value. You're pouring into them. And here's what I often say is that, look, what they struggle with as a realtor is often the same issues we struggle with, right? How to manage your business, marketing, branding, social media, all that kind of stuff. It's like, so I'm sure by you taking ownership of educating and teaching, that's partly how you learn, right? Oh, 100%. Doing these, I would say now, like, because I'm always reading every morning, I'm reading articles, I'm listening to podcasts, but a lot of my learning comes from having to put these presentations together. If I'm going to put together 45 minute presentation on the current market trends or buying your first investment or branding, I've got to figure out what that whole topic concept is and then condense it into a 40 minute conversation. So it takes, I probably put three, four hours into every 40 minute presentation. I do it on myself. I create all the slides. I create all the data. I can't let somebody else own that. That's mine. There you go. Can't let somebody own it. Yeah, I put about 20 hours into mine. So I want to know your secret. Anyway, speaking of different topics, we have to give a shout out here, because on March 21st, you are bringing in somebody who's been a big part of, I think your journey and your growth. And that is, I'm just get back to my camera here to make sure Bill's book comes in view. Speaking of pouring in in that value, Bill Hart, if you're listening to this, Bill was on the podcast last year, white collar warrior, great book. If anybody's listening, if you haven't got it yet, white collar warrior on Amazon, Bill Hart, or go to, I think it's white collar, white collar warrior book.com. Hopefully I'm getting that right. But tell us why you're bringing Bill Hart in. He's one, right? He's amazing guy. Two is he's been a huge part of the growth that I've seen. I have, I do incredible coaches and I have to give a shout out to Sarah Melton, who is a champion for fairy mortgage. I mean, really, she's been instrumental in its growth over the last five years and she introduced me in fairway mortgage. Sarah Melton and then Bill Hart have coached me for the last four years. And they totally have perspectives, one inside fairway, one outside fairway. And Bill has offered a perspective of that lane, right? From all the people that he talks to, it's that feedback loop on what it is. And I'm doing how I can continue to tighten it up to really laser focus, where I'm going. Because again, it's that being able to say no to everything else makes this lane really sweet. And so he's kept me on the lane. He's continuously pushed me towards bigger numbers. He's, he's championed and celebrated the wins with me. So it's been really phenomenal. And now he's got his own podcast, right, called all in. Yeah. And so we're talking at this agent at night, we're talking about branding. We're talking about that micro level. How do you separate yourself from, from the Zillows, from the open doors? Lenders are, we're right there too. Like we've been fighting quick in for years. Like this is not new to us. So for us to go, hey, this, this big brother is coming in from the side door. So how do we do that together? How do we differentiate? How would we brand ourselves to, to not play their game? But to play our game, right? Because they can't, I can't play there's, they can't play my game. Like I'm really good at my game and it's not one that they can play. So, uh, so he's coming in and then he's going to take that one step further and go, how are you all in? Like, so okay, you decided your lane, you figured out your branding. How do you multiply that, right? So how do you multiply the success by being all in? So in the, in the remaining minutes we have, you did talk about the Zillow thing. What is your game? What do you mean, how, how you can't play quick under Zillow's game and they're not, they can't play your game? Well, I don't have the money behind the technology, right? That's not my game. They have, they've done what they've done. If I think of the Zillow, Zillow and quick, and I'll just take those, right? The, the two biggest pie competitors in the real estate world, real estate and lending. They created their own niche. People go to them to research, to find the data, to, to do that legwork. But that's, that's their game and they've got all those people that are coming on the internet, people surfing on the internet, although I look at, and I work on SEO, they might not find me because quick and, and they're going to pop up. But, but my game is relational, right? My game is down here, boots on the ground. My game is, I know the Denver market. I'm not trying to even play the game in Salt Lake City or, or Los Angeles, right? I'm playing the game here because my 23 doors are here. My market knowledge is here. My kids are here. I just helped my 20 year old by his first house last spring. So how, my game, I know this game. Quick and can't play this one. They don't have boots on the ground and they can't compete at the level that I'm competing in the way I'm competing with the classes, with the video, with the content. Well, no, that's 100%. Thank you. Right on there. And I was going to ask you earlier about like some of the things you may do differently in your, your customer process, like, you know, from your first conversation and stuff. I mean, I know you lead with transparency and education. So, let me ask it this way, I mean, I'm just kind of getting a sense of who you are. I know the answer is like, yes, I'm intentional about, right? The first words out of my mouth on it, I know, but, but here's the thing, right? You've seen L.O.'s, I see L.O.'s all the time where they aren't aware or conscious or not being intentional about differentiating that borrower experience. Therefore, they're going to lose to somebody like a quick and a Zellow or a grade. If you're transactional, so is quick and a Zellow. So, I mean, that's your plan, their game. Mm-hmm. So, how do you get relational through your question and answer process when you're taking a 10.03 through some of the like, you know, Ritz Carlton level service you deliver or what? So, we do, we are intentional about getting to know each client's goals, right? And that's just my link, right? Anybody else can do differently. They can come in and learn about the kids and the dogs and the family and the lifestyle and all these other things. Or they could, I know a couple of people right off the top of my head that have kind of this more structured wealth building type of a spreadsheet that they go over a plant. We talk about building wealth. We talk about, okay, so is this your only house or is this your first house? Like, where are we going from here? Because it changes the loan options I present to you. Mm-hmm. So, it's about being that champion for them long term. It's about building that relationship, not just for this home, but for the next five. Are you taking a lot of, starting in a rep, but are you taking a lot of the, you know, the incoming first calls when you get a referral from a realtor or whatever? Personally? Yeah. Personally. Okay. I take, I don't take all of them. I do take a number of them, especially if they're looking to invest. Okay. I'll have those initial conversations and then I'll have one of my production partners work with those clients going forward because we talk about the fact that we, it wouldn't be fair for me to be that person that liaison for each borrower because I'm just not in the office as much as they are. They're in the office all the time, so for them to be the liaison through the whole process gives them a step up in customer service. Okay. So, I can lean into them, find the solution, help them out, and then they'll take it over for them. Got it. Okay. What are you doing differently as we enter 2019, maybe that you haven't done before? So, we are continuing to look at additional education opportunities, so what can we do to meet our clients where the need is? We know, I know that there's this whole conversation around the recession and what's going to happen and is it going to be a bust and you know, we saw it, right? I mean, December 4th quarter was, was awful. First quarter started out slow. January, actually, backwards was negative, and baby worries is, you know, cattle pluring across the ground. It's like inchworming, but where it's slowly building, you can feel it, like it's building the momentum. So, you have to lean into your buyers and sellers because they're getting their news from national news and from clickbait, if you will, that those headlines that you can't even read the article because you don't have a subscription. Right. So, of course, they work those headlines so well, and so it's our job to kind of continue to lean in and help them understand that the data supports the strength of not only the economy, but the housing market, and so what we're doing in 2019 is really leaning into that. How can we continue to get that messaging out? Like we did some stuff at the end of 2018 around that and created kind of a different, some different video content that we're doing around the market trends, and we created additional pages on our website and outlets for getting that messaging out there, and now we're looking to continue that in 2019. So, if I heard you correctly, then you are using data to support buying a house or invest up 100%. It is, I can support the opportunities in housing six different ways. I am a math geek. I mean, I graduated with an accounting and finance major. I love the numbers and the numbers have the benefit of not lying. Like, they are what they are, and they work for you or they don't. 100%. And I, you know, whether you're using mortgage codes or some tool like that out there, that it's, you know, keep in mind, like you said earlier, I think it was, you know, referring to the fact that we've got this, this perception to overcome. And it's one thing to say, hey, now is a great time to buy versus to present, well, here's what the data is saying about why is it now a good time to buy. Right. Yeah. And that just helps you obviously look more as a professional. It builds trust and all that stuff. So right on. Lastly, I want to close out real quickly with video. Your YouTube channel is just like amazing. You've got, if I'm correct, over 100 videos on your Realtor Education playlist. Let's see, playlist has over 100 videos in your Realtor. So do you have two different playlists, Realtor Education, and then a different one? We have a list of playlists. So we have content. We cycle through concepts, right? So we might have helping your children buy a home, helping your elderly parents move, you know, next year, what's the relationship with like women's month? We've got a playlist for that. And then we stick the ones that are relevant to realtors and realtors and then mortgage education. I don't even know. 12 playlists probably. But you've got over 250 videos. Yes. Wow. What's real quickly? How do you structure schedule those, you're kind of like your filming schedule? So we have themes. And so I'll record theme videos at the beginning of the month so that we can schedule those out during the month. And then we have, you know, like breaking news type videos. You know, the Federal Reserve Board just meant this is what they did or Zillow just broke into the Denver market. So we'll have those. And then every once in a while, we'll have, you know, like we have a couple of kind of appreciation events. So we might have a video around that that we just kind of throw up there real quick or invites to our events go up there as well. So it's a myriad. Like some of them are very scheduled. And then some of them are just based on ad hoc when the news comes out. Yeah. Well, I mean, your realtor education playlist itself got 122. The agent ignites got 110 mortgage education. It's got 120. Yeah. You're racking up some serious videos. Do you, by the way, I'm curious, has, has what's been kind of like the, you know, the ripple effect of everything you're doing education and video wise? Is that the ripple and really the goal? So I was trying to make what is the ripple effect of? I mean, it's hard to separate out to say, well, this did that and it's like, it's a greater role. Do you see it feel a greater sense of like, Hey, Nicole, I've seen your videos or hey, you're the, you know what I'm saying? That kind of bubbles up. Yes. And we do. A lot of people say that or they'll say, Hey, I forwarded that video on to my clients or it gives them access to content that is it. It's like, you know, it's like having a kid and having a best friend tell your kid something versus you telling them something, something works out better. Or somebody else's third party expert. So it's, it's that it's being able to give the realtor something that they can pass on. And a lot of our realtors in the Denver market know our name. So it knows us when we put in an offer, they're like, Oh, Nicole Ruth, we, you know, it's just, it helps with getting the image out there, getting the branding out there, getting your name out there, which ultimately the only reason I'm doing that is to help my clients, help more clients build that well through real estate and be an advocate for them and their kids, right? You're building multi generation well. I imagine you've helped the number of your realtors get started with their own investment plan. I have. Yeah. That's, that's a good feeling. That's awesome. That's fantastic. All right. So we are out of time because you're crazy busy and I'm going to go pick up my son from school. Yes. I'm going to be there soon. Don't worry. No, but I greatly appreciate you making time for being here today. Thank you for sharing your story and I think it's inspiring for anybody who, you know, wants some help in getting clear, making a decision on what's your lane, go all in, right? And just be your authentic self. Right. Awesome. If anybody wants to reach out to you, what's the best place for them to find you? Well, our website's got all my contact all over it. I give my cell phone out to everybody. You do? Yeah. I do. I have no boundaries. All right. If somebody wants to call me, they can. It's a 30388-2300 or you can check out our website. It's theroutine.com. Right. And we're going to put links to all that in the show notes, everything else we talked about, Bill Hart's book, all that fun stuff. So the call can't thank you enough and hopefully I get to cross paths with you sometime at an event or when I'm in Denver or whatever. Absolutely. Would you love it? It's a pleasure. All right. You take care. All right. Have a great day. Bye. Hey, guys. What's up? Real quick. You've heard about the mortgage marketing pro membership before and you just want to quickly remind you of that you're in a place in your business where you simply need more purchased loans. You need to fill your pipeline with purchase business. Let's just face it, agents are still a solid pillar of business and sources of purchase business for you. Well, good news. Our mortgage marketing pro membership helps loan officers like you close more loans without the hassle of chasing agents or cold calling. 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