Ep. 126: Why Cause Marketing is Good for Your Business and You

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Go check it out right now, visit LOKestudy.com and download your free copy today. Welcome to Mortgage Marketing Radio brought to you by the Mortgage Marketing Institute. For a number one source for truth in mortgage marketing. Hey listeners, Jeff Zimfer. Welcome to this episode of the Mortgage Marketing Radio podcast. I am so happy you've decided to tune in. I know you've got a lot of choices with your time and attention and I appreciate you giving me just a little piece of that time and attention today. My goal is on every episode to make this as impactful as possible for you. So as always, this podcast is brought to you by the Mortgage Marketing Pro membership. Look here we are in June, right? It is midway point of 2019. The markets hot, rates are low, activities high. This is the time to double down and get active in your local market. This is the time to go to where the business is happening right now. Right now, what's the shortest path you've got to getting in front of buyers in your local market? Yes, I know refires are happening but don't make the mistake that so many loan officers make of neglecting their purchase business and going all in on the refi. You've got to manage both. You've got to be able to be a juggler, right? National juggling day was June 15th. Well, hey, you got to be a juggler through the rest of June and perhaps the rest of this summer as well. But now is the time for you to invest as well in those referral relationships, those partner relationships, real estate agents. It's the shortest, quickest path to getting yourself in front of the flow of buyer activity that's happening in your local market right now. Why is that the case? Because eight out of 10 people still use a realtor to buy a home and I forget the exact percentage, but roughly 60% of the transactions that happen in a local market happen with a real estate agent and those transactions come from past clients referrals and sphere of influence. So you're tapping into that expanded network, building your own sphere of influence, you're expanding your network by intelligently and effectively partnering with real estate agents, adding value and building a true partnership, not a vendor arrangement. Now, if you're looking for better strategies and ways to do that, well, let me tell you about the sponsor of this podcast, which is the mortgage marketing pro membership. What is that you ask? It is done for you aging classes, social media courses, skills training, sales training, scripts and more to help you get more agent referrals, grow your business and become a modern mortgage originator. In fact, I've got a success story to share with you by two of my favorite people. If you're listening, Jill and Rob Garrison from Michigan Mortgage, what is up? Great to connect with you in person at the recent mastermind summit in Vegas. Jill and Rob say, thank you for creating great content for us to share with our referral partners. This has just been awesome to spend more time in front of real estate offices, less time creating content, just what we had hoped for. When I met with Rob and Jill, they're doing about 20 loans a month, I think. And they're doing a consistent schedule of a variety of different things, part of which includes done for you, turn key agent classes delivered to you by yours truly in the mortgage marketing pro membership as well as a host of other tools and resources. If you want to learn more, go check it out, mortgagemarketing.pro. You've got a short video we put up there that explains everything. Secondly, podcast listeners, what is up? What is up? Shout out to you. Thank you for tuning in on this episode. I always like to give a shout out to my listeners and this one comes from an iTunes review. It says A Medford 2007 on repeat as a new MLO. This show has been on repeat during my workouts and while learning, I love the variety of interviews and there's so much great information to take in and apply. Thank you. A Medford 2007. Hey, there's a podcast t-shirt in it for you. Hit me up on Facebook, PM me, tell me your address, your shirt size and we'll get you a podcast. It's a podcast with a big, awesome, orange logo on the blue microphone on there. You can wear that proudly while you're working out or hanging on at Starbucks and people ask you, what's that all about? All right. With that said, let me get into this week's episode. It is my second time featuring give back homes and originally they were one of my early guests way back. I think it was April of 2016. This podcast was started in January of 2016. Just grateful that they were able to make time to come back because the story is one you need to know about and hear and if you haven't found yet that place for you to give back to get renewed, to recharge by selflessly contributing to others in a way that makes true value and difference. This might be the opportunity for you. Listen closely to this podcast because you heard my previous interview with Mark Schaefer, the author of Marketing Rebellion, where he talks about how the most human company wins. Let me share with you another quote that I pulled off the give back home's Facebook page. This quote's by Bob Goff. It's just, it sums it all up. Okay. Here we go. We won't be distracted by comparison if we are captivated by purpose. Wow. We won't be distracted by comparison if we are captivated by purpose. I read that just before we hit record on this episode and I was like, oh, impactful. I was like, man, that sums it all up right there. Many of you listening are listening because you're looking for that slight edge, you're looking for ideas to help you rise above the noise, to show up differently, to get chosen. It's a hyper competitive, very noisy market out there. How do you rise above the noise, get chosen? How do you not be compared to others in the market? One of the ways to do that is to be about something more than just getting alone mortgages or real estate. It's to be about purpose and that's why give back homes is so relevant for real estate and mortgage professionals because they help you captivate and get attention based on purpose. The conversation isn't about price. It's about the impact and the difference that you're making in the local market. We got special two special guests with us on today's episode, bringing back Caroline Pennell, who is one of the co-founders of give back homes who was on the original podcast with the other co-founder Blake back in 2016. We have top real estate professional Jessica Northrop from the Denver Colorado area who's a superstar. She's with Compass Real Estate. She's been doing a real estate for 24 years. She is a top producer, dare I say mega producer. You're going to hear her story about her involvement in give back homes. What about it attracted her to it, the impact and difference that's made in her life and her business and her personal brand locally. We're going to talk about how give back homes helps equip you as a real estate and mortgage professional to have your brand be about more than just real estate that drives engagement. A conversation creates awareness and ultimately leads to business for you. There's going to be links in the show notes. When you hear us talk about if you want to get involved in a build project that Jessica has going on. If you want to learn more about give back homes, you can go to givebackhomes.com, check the links for the show notes. You want to reach out to my special guests and ask questions. Links are in the show notes. I hope you're going to appreciate this episode as much as I did and enjoyed having the conversation. Folks, get involved somewhere. Maybe give back homes. For you, maybe it's not, I don't know, but that's one of the reasons why I wanted to bring it to you. Many of you are looking for that place to get involved, get connected, make a difference. This might be it for you. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Let's get into this week's show. Welcome to the show, Jessica and Caroline. Thank you. Hello. All right. Let's do this. As always, whenever I have two guests on, I have to allow you guys to introduce yourself so people know who you are by voice. Caroline, why don't you go first? Hello, everybody. My name is Caroline. I'm the co-founder of Give Back Homes, which is a community of real estate professionals who are all dedicated to giving back to their local communities and throughout the world. Awesome. Hey, Jessica. Hi, how are you? Good. Tell us who you are. My name is Jessica Northrop, and I am a real estate broker in Denver, Colorado. I've been licensed for 24 years, and I'm also a proud member of Give Back Homes. Wow. 24 years. Congratulations. Thank you. Awesome. So glad you guys are both here for the listeners' little background, because since you and I originally talked Caroline, this podcast has grown a lot, and I think you guys were like in season one, if you will, how crazy is that sound. But I think that was back in 2016, if I remember correctly. And I was really attracted to you guys because I'm a big believer in obviously finding something that we can be passionate about. That's not just work related, but a cause or something we can get behind. And then I saw you guys with Give Back Homes connecting real estate, if you will, housing and matching that up with helping real estate mortgage professionals step up there. They're not only their brand, but also simultaneously feel good about, you know, being involved in this industry and providing a way for people to give back through real estate. Did I sum that up fairly? You did. Yeah. That was great. Thank you. Yeah. We've, and a lot has happened since we first talked in April 2016. I mean, congratulations on all of your growth as well. And, you know, we're really excited about where we've, you know, taken this to since then we've built nearly 400 homes for families in Central America. And we just celebrated our 80th US build day as well, just affordable housing here in the United States. Our Chicago build day last week was our 80th build day, so yeah, we're pumped. That's fantastic. And okay. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to go back and forth in this conversation. And we've got a lot of ground to cover in a relatively short period of time. So Jessica, when did you get involved with give back homes? Also in 2016, that's when I was introduced to give back homes. Okay. And when you saw it, like what, if you go back to like when you first saw it or heard about it, what about it kind of connected for you? What connected was my managing broker at the time, Ryan C. Crest. He had been, I'm going to give back homes. And he actually showed me a build date where he's actually able to go on the build date stick, or Agua, and beyond the ground, doing the build, he's dirty. And that's what really kind of like intrigued me, excited me. Sometimes we spend money or we send money or our time, but actually being able to go and do the build was what was really kind of like captured me. Right. Yeah. Ryan's a very good friend of both of ours, an awesome member of give back homes. They're brokerage in, he has a, he's a managing broker at Venture Sotheby's. That's in Plezans in California, but he traveled with us on our very first build trip to Nicaragua. He was on that trip. So, and then he like introduced Jessica and I via email, I don't think Jessica and I had even met in person. And Jessica immediately respond on the email, I was like, I'm in, I want to go to Nicaragua, I want to go help build a home. What do I got to do? I'll book my flight. Like she was like instantly. And I was like, I knew right then, I was like, Jessica and I are going to be friends. She's the kind of person we need to give back homes. That we've been so grateful ever since. How does Jessica, how does your involvement in give back homes, I know you're involved in other charitable organizations and things like that and causes. How does your involvement with give back homes differ or make you feel differently? Yep. I think it just pairs perfectly with our profession. I think real estate professionals, work as professionals are seen or should be seen as community leaders. And something that we can do to help everyone find their place in the world. There's a little compass over there. I'm completely in a pot. We can connect people, our clients, our community and directly impact those who are in meat. Okay. Love it, love it. Yeah. And it just made a lot of sense when I saw that the docs really connected as well, which is like we talked about before, we have to set something up for you here in Vegas, find some kind of build project, Jessica, Caroline in Vegas. For sure. Okay. So Jessica, you've been to Nicaragua. You did a build project down there, right? Yes, I have. And also you're doing stuff locally in Denver, your surrounding area. Yep. My goal every year is to fund and build dates internationally and also to build on a build date here locally in Denver. And so far, Jessica's built two homes for families in Nicaragua and two buildings in Denver, right? And then this next one coming up in August to be your third build day. So basically she's not human. We don't know how she has the time to do all this, but she's amazing. And we're excited to continue building upon what she's created. Okay. So, all right, before we hit record, I was kind of talking about a little project I have this book and it's all about surviving that the digital shift. And I know branding is important for real estate, it's important for mortgage, it's important just across the board. And I don't have to tell you Jessica about differentiation and personal branding. So I'm curious then to what, how has this impacted your business, right? Just your involvement with this cause locally? Yep. Well, to backtrack a little bit, you know, I think we can all work really hard. We can grind in our brand. For me, I think it came to a point where you work so hard, you're doing all these things. And then I still felt, I don't know if the word is emptiness, but a lack of fulfillment. And so I think I was looking for something in my business to kind of bridge that gap and create fulfillment. And that's when I found get back homes. And so being able to, yes, work, build my brand and make money, but also make an impact is what kind of bridged the gap for me and completed my business. And yeah, it's been very impactful, you know, growing your business, your brand, you're kind of seen as some of a leader, someone giving back to the community. So it's naturally, I think, has built increase my business. And the bigger picture for me is what's done for me personally. No, that's a good way you used emptiness and that kind of goes back to what you said earlier. It's easy for us to like cut a check and be at arm's length, right, involved with charities, but with you guys, we're talking about getting dirty, right? I think you're getting dirty. For sure. And especially, especially to go down to Nicaragua and like that's, that's transformational experience. Yes? For me, for sure. Yeah. I, you know, I, you, we went the first day and you see the family. These are people, not just one little community, it's entire country living in poverty, living in fact, living on dirt floors, pull up, Americans coming in there. There's a little bit of maybe awkwardness at the beginning, but as we're working with the families, they start to see the transformation over that two to three day period. You can see the pride, their eyes, the excitement, their eyes. This is going to make an impact on them for many years to come. And that was really rewarding to see. Does your involvement with Get Back Homes kind of drive you, right, to continue to grow and work hard? Absolutely. Absolutely. The more, at the end of the day, we can, again, go back, we can grind, we can work, and then, the moment you stop marketing, the moment you start spending money, what's left? Mm-hmm. What's the legacy that you're leaving? Yeah, exactly, right? Like you said, the empty feeling. Caroline, on your Facebook page, for Get Back Homes, I just brought it up this morning. There's a quote on there by Bob Goff, which was really impactful. It says, we won't be distracted by comparison if we are captivated by purpose. And I was like, wow, did you want to do it, right? Yeah. Thank you for taking a look at the Facebook page and for appreciating our quotes that we threw out there. Well, and I think the reason why that jumped out for me is obviously in preparing for this conversation. I'm thinking of the multiple threads I'm trying to play here, which is, you know, yes, giving back, getting involved in something that fills us up and allows us to contribute to the world. That's something we all should do, whatever that is. Get Back Homes is one great thing. However, at the same time, we all know, right, there's this phrase called, cause marketing. You've done the research. You've seen it that, by and large, given a choice between company A, company B, company A's involved with a cause, such as a lot of time shoes. And we can talk about that story, right? People will choose the company that's involved with a cause versus the one that doesn't, assuming all of the things are equal now. So that goes into this quote, which was like really bam right in the chest. It hit me. It's like today, right, in the context of real estate and mortgage, people are distracted by comparison, right? 100%. Because there's all this media, like, you know, it's all based on price and discounters and disruptors and low price and reduce your career. But people are attracted to something that's about something more than just price at purpose. Exactly. So I'm kind of teaming this up if there's some relevancy, maybe, to talk about that, right? And how that plays into when real estate professionals get involved with Get Back Homes, do you think that has a play? I mean, absolutely. Everyone is human instincts for everybody to want to try and seek out purpose in their life in one way or the other. And so what we've done has really made it very easy for them to incorporate it into their everyday business and to include their clients in the process as well. Jessica had some stories of when, you know, she shares with her clients, you know, what during her listing presentation and things like that, she gets to the part where she says, you know, what the sell this home, I'm going to be building a home for a family in need. And she can probably speak to what kind of, how that creates a different kind of bonded connection with your, with your clients. Mm-hmm. Yeah, tell us about that, Jessica. How do you integrate your, your Give Back Homes story, right, in your listing presence or however? Yeah, two care lines point. I always, at the end, say, you know, love selling real estate, but I also, I'm very passionate about giving back and the charity that I've chosen to partner with is Give Back Homes. And so out of the sale of this home, we're going to help build a home for a family in need. And I share that with them. I have some obviously marketing pieces that I leave there. It usually is a, something people want to, that's, if you're looking to be different, that's something that's different. Catching, they've listened to your boring listing presentation for the end. That gives them something to kind of capture to grasp on to, ask about. We use signs. That's another great thing. Give Back Homes a little like offer, name writers for our signs, different things that people at something they can talk about their friends. Oh, give Back Homes. What is that? Oh, we'll sell our house, our agent, you know, helps build homes for families in need, which I think is great. One of the best stories that I've had was at a closing. I'll bring, you know, there's three different families, which family, you know, when I get to the end, and I'm ready to go in the house, I go to my client. I'll say, here are the three different profiles for families who are in need. I want you to choose which family you would like to build the home for. And so they read through them. And I have a lady say, oh, definitely this one, Martha. I want Martha. That's my grandmother and I want to be built in her honor. And then she went back to social media and said to sell our house. This is what it did. And, you know, that's nice to have that extra little marketing piece from your, from your clients as well. And they're thankful. Wow. So I want to make sure I understand that you're sitting at the closing table, right? Yes. And are you, do you actually have like pictures of the various? Yeah. Give Back Homes a provided profile. So I'll have a picture of the family and say, whatever. Martha lives with her three grandchildren in the back of a little shack. You know, she works for whatever $10 a month. It'll be the whole profile telling about that family. And then they can actually choose what, who we're going to build the home for, which is really cool. Wow. I mean, who doesn't just kind of get, you know, melt like that, right? And make sure clients feel special. I mean, that, that, that hits home, it doesn't make a big impact. Well, and it's like, um, it's like the, the quote from, from Jeff Bezos on branding. It's, it's what people say about you when you're not in the room is branding. And I'm sure, and it's all about creating that amazing customer experience. We all know that today, but the question is, how do you do that? Uh, it reminds me, and I'm full of quotes and cliches this morning. But, uh, from a previous podcast, I interviewed Mark Schaefer, author of marketing, rebellion, and the tagline to his book is, um, the most human company wins. And I think that's, if that were to sum it up with, give Back Homes, I think that what, that's what that does to a degree is it helps. Right humanize, like you said, the dry, boring listing president takes kind of all the usual stuff about real estate and changes it to, to, to a more of a human element. And if that, if everything is the same, same listing presentation or agents, we're always trying to be different. That's a different, that's, that's the study you apart. Same as lame. That's right. All right. So I know, I like on your website, give back homes.com. There's lots of different success stories on there. Um, one I use, uh, in my, it's a matter of fact, so, so I'll say this right now. I don't know if I mentioned this to you before Caroline. I think I did. But for those that are listening, um, and are not part, this isn't meant to be a plug or whatever, but here's the thing. I was so passionate about give back homes and what you guys are doing. I included in, I included it in one of the presentations that I, um, design and create for loan officers to give the real estate agents. And it's all about millennial marketing. And there's some facts in there about, and you can speak to this Carolina, perhaps about, right? Millennials like to do business with cause related companies. Um, and so I put that in there and, and hopes to drive awareness and attention for give back homes and hopefully some agents choose to get involved. But, um, there's one, the one testimony all I have in there, and I'd love to like add, add yours in there Jessica now as well. But it's from another Jessica Jessica foot and pow away. Um, who, uh, on, on your website here, it says she got a listing just from her give back homes listing page because her, uh, seller was passionate about giving back. Mm hmm. Yeah, I mean, we hear stories like that all the time. You and our very first member, um, you know, Nick Schneider, when he first took out a full page ad in his local, you know, magazine, real estate magazine, he got 10 calls directly from the ad, you know, some of the more people who are just calling to say, I love what you're doing. That's amazing, you know, keep it up. And some of them were actual, you know, direct leads and things that led to an actual transaction. So, um, it's happening all the time. And Jessica was featured in what, which are the Denver Post cherry Creek magazine, like a bunch of other magazines for because people find out what, what they're doing. And it's such a cool, unique thing that people want to share that story. Yeah, absolutely. How else do you equip, uh, real estate professionals, Caroline, to, to kind of embed this into the overall brand? What are the cool tools do you give them? I mean, we have tools as simple as the social media toolkit, which is like all of those graphics, like the, like the quote, graphic that you saw, but in all different formats, you know, so they're ready to go for your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, all that sort of stuff. We also provide them with how to start a fundraiser, how to do a volunteering event, how to read your own build day, like how Jessica does in Denver. You know, how to talk about this at a listing appointment. We also provide them with PR support, you know, like getting local media to your build day and that sort of thing, um, trying to think what else? And just our kind of, our support as well, um, just kind of guiding them and, and talking with them on, okay, so you did this, this year, like you want to increase your giving goals for next year or what can we do, change it up? So we kind of strategize with them on their giving goals year after year. Yeah, all right. So let me ask you this, uh, for instance, Jessica has a build day coming up in Denver, right? Um, and we're going to talk about that. And then on your Facebook page, I can see you've got, um, a section dedicated to that Northrop group, Northrop group Denver build day, uh, how do you guys help, like in Jessica, Jessica's case, tell us about how you help her or other people is to coordinate a build day locally? I mean, we do everything for them helping coordinate the signups, um, creating the invites to giving them a timeline. Okay, you're one month out from your build day. It's time to use an e-blast out to your friends, family and clients posted on your social media multiple times. We start collecting RSVPs. We coordinate t-shirts, lunches. Uh, we make sure everyone's prepared, you know, before the build day, during after we send the photographer to capture the day, um, and possibly some, some local media as well. So yeah. And then we help with the recap as well and, um, sharing the stories afterwards. And how does that work in terms of in the local area, like in Jessica's case, was, did, uh, give back homes already have a, a build project going on? Yes. So we partnered with Habitat for Humanity Denver. Um, so we've partnered with them. We've probably done over 10 buildings in Denver alone. Um, but, yeah, so there are, our building partner there. And so we work with them to, um, integrate into a project that they have going on already. Hmm, um, Jack went something really quickly. I think this is a really important piece of the puzzle. Um, I think many, many people want to be involved. They want to do stuff. They have, we have all these ideas. I'm going to do this there. I want to implement and we don't. And I think the reason we don't is because we're so busy. Yeah. That comes puts it to you in a silver platter. Um, they, they serve it up. They make it easy on you. It's right there. And it's, it's easy and it's perfect. And I think that's one of the reasons it's really easy to keep it going because of everything that give back homes does. And the way they, you know, things, the marketing they provide, um, the support they provide is, is very, very strong. Now I see you also have someone else, uh, a planomatic associated with that day. Yes. A planomatic, um, is our, they do our photography for our building. All right. Got it. So photographer. Uh, what I was alluding to was, I think Jessica earlier you had mentioned that there might be other, um, organizations, uh, uh, uh, involved with you on this particular build day. Um, this is just going to be, um, just our compass. Just you guys. We also, on other buildings, we invite our clients. And I have people, then they see it on open on social media and they'll say, Oh, Jessica, call me, um, make sure you let me know when you're next build day as I do that. Just make sure you let me know. So that's another, just another way to connect and be seen again and not just seen as the real, you know, a realtor out there selling homes. Yeah. They're calling me to try and connect and be there for the buildings. Well, you know, it's funny. Often the objection or the resistance out here from real estate agents, when it comes to personal branding, social media content, things like that is I don't know what the post, right? Uh, and I'm just looking at the photos from what would looks to be perhaps one of your recent build days is, I mean, look at, they're sending a photographer for you, right? Uh, bring a young person and grab a phone and video tape. I mean, there's no shortage of content from a build day, right? Exactly. I'm specialty. Yeah, that's all right. So speaking of the Denver build day, we want to make sure for those listening, if you feel compelled to participate, you just want to support, uh, you know, Jessica with what she's doing in her build day locally there in Denver. This link will be in the show notes, uh, to donate to her Denver build day, coming up August 9th. Actually, um, I'll give the URL. It's donate dot give back homes dot com forward slash compass. Uh, once I said once again, that'll be in the show notes. You can just click that and that'll allow you to participate in a way that will make a difference for those local residents. Okay. So what, what, what else is, uh, give back homes doing? What do you guys have planned for, you know, the rest of this year? Um, we're very busy. We have a lot going on. I mean, we, since we last talked as well, we developed a program called key for key with a luxury auction real estate company called concierge auctions. Um, so that program alone has built nearly 200 homes, um, for families in Nicaragua and Central America, and we're actually taking groups of their employees down there to actually help build the home so they can experience their impact, um, first hand. So that's been something we've been so proud of. And it's been keeping us really busy in the best way possible. And it's really, that was kind of the vision from the beginning, you know, like kind of a one for one model. And now they're, they're actually doing it. And we're actually bringing down their employees to experience it as well, which is something that's super important to me. So we're really excited about that. Um, we also recently launched, um, disaster relief fund to help agents who, you know, have been, who basically have lost everything, um, to recent natural disasters. So that started, um, after Hurricane Harvey about two years ago. And we've just kind of been helping families at, you know, agents after terrible things happen. And most recently we helped after the wildfires in California. So we went up to Paradise, um, about a month ago. And that was just so bizarre. Like it was so crazy driving down miles and miles and miles of devastation. Like there's still burnt trees, burnt cars all over the road. Like you, you would have thought the fire happened yesterday. Um, so that was a really eye opening experience for me. And, um, we're going to be fundraising to continue to help families after natural disasters. Um, so we thought that going, um, and then just continuing with all, you know, our local build days, our volunteer events. Um, we're doing a lot of stuff in LA around the rescue mission in downtown. And then we also, we also launched a water initiative. So we started providing, um, communities with access to clean water, um, because what would your home be like without, you know, being able to turn on the water and have safe, clean water there? Um, and that's really cool. We've, we've provided over 400 water filters for families in need, um, in El Salvador, Puerto Rico, and just recently in Colombia. So yeah. So you're busy. Yeah. Stay busy. Um, that's fantastic. What, what is the mission of, uh, give back homes on the spot, but, I mean, I think very simply, you know, we wanted to create a community of, um, you know, real estate professionals who want to give back, um, and then to Jessica's point earlier, we just really want to make it easy to give back. I know it sounds, you know, it might sound silly to sound like, oh, giving it back is so easy. Why do you need help to give back? But it really, it's the easier you make it for people, the, the pain free, you make it for people, the more they're going to do. And so as long as we just keep serving it up, you know, people will, we'll continue to take the opportunities that we're providing. And that's really our mission is just to try and provide more and more people with opportunities and get them engaged either locally or internationally or both. Um, and then it just is a, is a ripple effect after that. You know, once you kind of light that fire and someone wants to bring someone down to Central America and witness poverty, like we have and build a home for family that you've never met before in a country you never even thought about traveling to before. Like people come back, um, really changed, really changed. And that's, that's really beautiful, a really beautiful thing to see how they take it on after that. You know, Jessica is a perfect example of that. Yeah. I mean, what comes to mind for me is the phrase of, uh, you know, like a renewal of spirit in some ways. Cause this, let's face it, this dog on world can get you down sometimes, right? Yeah. And it's like, where, how do you renew that spirit? And, and nothing feels as good as selflessly, right? Helping somebody else, else out and you guys do it in a really neat and impactful way, I think. Um, thank you. I know you guys are busy. So before we wrap up, I want to, if you could give a, for those that are, this is new for them, they haven't heard the give back home story. We don't have Blake here, but could you give kind of the, the short version of his story and how you guys founded this company? Yeah. So Blake, Andrew's and I, um, my business partner and I, we both used to work at Tom's shoes, which is the company that pioneered the one for one giving model. Um, and we traveled throughout Central America, distributing shoes to people in need and, um, obviously at the same time, we saw the living conditions of families there. So that was the same, same kind of experience, right? You go down there, you see, see poverty for the first time like this. And then you come back and you want to do more. So a couple of years later, Blake was actually going through the process of buying a home for his family, um, here in Los Angeles. And so we were, you know, in working with a realtor, um, who's a good friend of ours, Nick Schneider. He, um, started asking us questions about like how, you know, he writes checks left and right. He donates to a billion different charities as an agent, but like never really knew where his money was going or never really saw the impact. And he wanted, you know, advice on how to make giving part of his business and corporate part of his brand. And so that was kind of when we had the idea of creating give back homes, which is taking a similar Tom's model and applying it to the real estate world. Um, and we immediately, we took Nick down to Nicaragua, and we built five homes. Um, and his business took off after that. And we, we were like, wow, we were so pumped on just building five homes like we do more. And we met more and more agents who were just like Nick and who wanted to give back with real meaning and real impact and, and it's just been growing and growing ever since. Yeah, that's fantastic. Okay. So Jessica, you've got your build day coming up. I'm curious, do you do involve, I mean, this is just for you, right? This is a compass build day, right? Yes, that's correct. What happens if, let's say an agent hears that you're doing this and they reach out to you and want to participate? They're in. They're in. Love it. Come on, come on. It's all about the greater good. I will. As a matter of fact, you know what? August 9th, I'm, I'm scheduling stuff for Denver. I got to teach a class there and make coordinate right around the right at the same time. So if that's the case, I'll definitely make time to be there for sure. We can do a live podcast. Yeah. We do a live stream. Boys and hammering going on in the background. That would be ideal. Actually, I would love that. That'd be really cool. All right. So let's, we got to close this out because you guys are busy. I know, listen, for those who want to check out more, I'd encourage you to do it. If you're a loan officer listening to this, by the way, this isn't just for real estate agents only. It is for mortgage professionals as well that, you know, have a kind of a heart centered DNA about themselves and are looking for a place to give back to renew themselves. But also, I mean, really, it's a great opportunity for you to introduce it to your real estate agents. You know, tell them you've listened to share this podcast with them and direct them to the Give Back Homes page or to Jessica's page. And this might be a great introduction and as a way for you to add value to that real estate agent relationship and team up on some of these build events in your local area or go to Nicaragua or wherever and have a life-altering experience, you know. Yes, come with me. That's right. That's right. It will for sure. All right, cool. So one more time, Jessica, for anybody who wants to reach out to you, where would we like to send them? Um, we can send them to email, phone number. Is that what you're asking? Website, you know, yeah. That's for another podcast. That's for another podcast. All right. How about? Comment. Just to add Jessica Northrop dot com. That would be a great place to reach me is by email. Jessica add Jessica Northrop dot com. All right, we'll be able to link there in the show notes. And of course, uh, Caroline what? Give back homes dot com probably the best place, right? Yep. Go to our website give back homes dot com. You can email me directly. Caroline at give back homes dot com with any questions or ideas. Always always open. Yeah. And guys, let me just tell you that that in terms of the ask from give back homes, I mean, the biggest ask is of your time, right? And your willingness to participate and engage versus, you know, you becoming a member of give back homes. You can learn more on their website about the various options for you becoming a member. But I mean, it is an absolute no brainer in terms of, you know, the tools that you heard some of that they assist you with. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I'm looking at the list of, you know, different tools you'll be equipped with to help you kind of build awareness of your involvement with give back homes with real estate agents, your local community and stuff like that. So as we said before, same as lame, you need to rise above the noise, stand out and make a difference, right? And to go back to that amazing quote, we won't be distracted by comparison if we're captivated by purpose. So what's your purpose? What's your why? Get reconnected, re-associated to that. Maybe give back homes is for you. Jessica and Caroline, I can't thank you enough for being here. Thank you. Thank you so much, Jeff. This was awesome. You bet. And listeners, as always, we appreciate you tuning in. So check the show notes for everything we talked about here today. And we'll see you on the next one. Bye for now. For each training and resources at mortgagemarketinginstitute.com. Hey, guys, what's up? Real quick. You've heard about the mortgage marketing pro membership before. And I just want to quickly remind you if 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. 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