Ep 143: Lessons In Achieving The #1 Spot for Closed Units Statewide

In today's highly competitive mortgage industry, building profitable relationships with 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. This 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. Welcome to Mortgage Marketing Radio. I'm brought to you by the Mortgage Marketing Institute, your number one source for truth in Mortgage Marketing. Hey, Listers. What's up? It's Jeff DeZimfer bringing you another hot off the presses episode of the Mortgage Marketing Radio podcast. So who are you? How are you? What's going on in your life? I'd love for you to connect with me a couple of different ways you can reach out directly to me. You can always send me an email directly and that would be podcast at mortgaredmarketingradio.com. Connect with me on Facebook. We do have a private Facebook group. Just for you, our Mortgage Podcast listeners and that is Mortgage Marketing Radio group. 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You can find her on Instagram, kind of her main channel, Chelsea Pites, but Chelsea left me a review and so on to give her a shout out where she says as relevant info and guests the podcast brings relevant content focused on the education and elevation of the real estate industry at large, interesting topics, guests and ideas that can be implemented immediately to increase your mind share and market share. So Chelsea Pites, shout out and thank you to you, we'd love to get you a podcast t-shirt as well, have you wear that proudly and all you need to do guys is when you do leave me a review, let me know you did, hit me up, typically Facebook, Messenger is the best place and just let me know you left a review what your mailing address is and your t-shirt size and we'll get one off to you. Just heads up there might be a slight delay because in between inventory and usually it takes a couple three weeks to even get those back from my t-shirt provider. So that's that and if you don't forget, by the way, these podcast interviews, if you're listening to this and you want to go deeper, we actually do have video versions of these over on the YouTube channel, we've got other video content over there we're growing that out so if you ever want to check that out, you can just go over to YouTube and search for mortgage market radio and find me on there. And then so let's get into this week's episode. So this week my special guest is Brian Case who is ranked as the number one originator by units in the state of Oregon, the equivalent of, I think it's over 270 units for roughly 70 million plus or minus, he corrects me during the interview. So if you want the exact numbers, just listen in and get that. And I wanted to have Brian on here and this is just a short, down a dirty tactical review of what Brian's doing to generate so many units, so much business and he's been in the business for over 22 years. He has an assistant that's been with him for 20 years, amazing. He's got a team, three people that are his lead to contract people and three people that are his contract to close people. And we briefly unpack a little bit how he integrates using them into his business process. But what we dive in with Brian is how he leverages home bot to get massive open rates and engagement and referrals for himself and his realtor partners leveraging home bot. And that's really coming up a lot on my radar. We're going to do a deeper dive on home bot in future episodes. He talks about how he uses bomb bomb and automates the high touch with the high tech with birthday anniversary messages, integrating bomb to his overall kind of sales process. And then of course, he's keeping it real with lunch and learns, right? More if you will traditional approach, but this is where he has the opportunity to really go deeper with agents, create loyalty, add new agents to his funnel so they do a monthly lunch and learn as well. And you're going to hear a little bit about that and how he does those types of things. Oh, and then we talk about his process, 90% of applications that Brian takes or his, you know, that people complete are online using their online application on their website. But 70 to 80% of those online apps are converted to an in person meeting, which obviously increases trust, reduces resistance, reduces rate shopping and increases conversions for Brian and his team, which leads to his ability to close so many units every year. And we'll put links and everything in the show notes to to find Brian. I just think it's a really great look. If you want to hear from right kind of a top producer in terms of units and volume, right? One of the tactical things that are moving in the needle for him every single month. Well, listen to this episode and you will hear how it's working for Brian case at Guild Mortgage without further ado. Let's get into this week's show Brian case, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. It is a pleasure. And what I always like to do is allow you to tell kind of your personal version of the intro. The listeners already heard the formal intro, but give us kind of a minute, two minute version of how long you've been in the biz. What do you enjoy about this business after how many years have you been in? You're up. You know, I've been in the business going on 22 years. I can't believe it's been that long, but you know, this business gets in your blood and it just, it doesn't get out. You can't, it's hard to leave this industry. The reason I do it mostly and it might sound cliche, but I love helping people. I get to travel a lot internationally. And I've seen what true poverty is and how people without a lot of opportunity live. And I just think in the States, we have so much opportunity and the average person has a negative net worth. And I try to take the approach to help my clients understand finances better and create, use real estate as a tool to create future wealth and prosperity. When you say you travel internationally, I'm immediately curious about that. Is that, are you involved in some philanthropic, like mission opportunities or what is that really? Yeah, I'm on the board for helping hands international. And so I've been teamed to Africa and places to do well projects and basically house building in Mexico, all kinds of projects that we do around the globe. And we do disaster relief locally as well. So again, it's just about trying to help give people a hand up, right? Yeah, but I think that's actually an interesting and a relevant point for the listeners, because so often we're caught up in our own bubble and to your point, right? We don't realize how good we have it here in the States. Absolutely, absolutely. We just did it last week. We did a campaign for the Oregon region for our company to raise $20,000 to put a new well in the orphanage or a school in one of the biggest slums in Nairobi, the Matari slums, and so we were able to do that. So like we are so blessed to do what we do and earn the kind of money we can and live the life that we can that you've got to give some back. Yeah. And do you incorporate any of that? I mean, I've interviewed other people who are active in various organizations, like give back homes, for example, or others. Do you incorporate that into any of your kind of just overall branding? I know. I was trying to do it from the heart, not for the business aspect of it. Obviously, some of that spills over from your social media and stuff when you post stuff that does go up. But again, that's not the reason I do it. I do it nearly from a heart perspective. And perhaps I should have asked that a different way. I know that's not why you do it. But oftentimes when I do talk to people that are involved with those types of activities and they're coming from the right place, to your point that spills over, that gets into the topic of cause marketing, right, and that people like to be like to a social people that are doing it. So have you seen that come up at all in conversations with clients over the years? Yeah. And we've done groups, group builds with like Habitat for Humanity. We've been involved in here as a group and we'll, you know, we've had a partner with some real estate agents and gone down out and got a Habitat house built and a day build and raised funds for that as well. You know what's interesting about that? I've done that too, back in the day Habitat for Humanity, back when I was with Country I'd too many years ago to remember. But the bonds that come out of that, like if you can do that with real estate agents, I mean the bonds, the relationships that are forged there usually are solid and last a long time. Well, it's, you know, this is a farce stretch of an analogy, but it's kind of like being in a foxhole with somebody, right? You make lifelong friends. Well, if you're kind of in that realm with them serving side by side for a common cause that doesn't, that's not about you. That does, that does seem to create some good bonds and it just goes deeper and isn't that what we really want to do with our entrepreneurs and the folks that we're doing business with, the deeper that relationship is, the more business you're going to be able to, to, to sustain over that lifetime relationship. Yeah, absolutely. Good stuff. Okay. Cool. All right. I'm sure that kind of enriches your life in many, many different ways. Let's pivot then and get into our, our previous conversation, you know, you kind of loaded on me all these tactical things that you're doing that help you become, if I'm correct, looking at my notes, 2018, number one unit lender in Oregon. Yes, sir. Okay. And that was for 252 units. Is that correct? I believe it was 271. I'd have to double check, but. All right. Well, I mean, we don't have to be exact. That's a heck of a lot of units. And the volume on that though was what, 64 millionish? No, it was about 76 million. Where am I getting my numbers from? I am completely off. What's good, good is the numbers are even higher than what I'm saying. All right, man, how do you become the number one unit lender? By the way, that's a heck of a lot of units, so congratulations. How do you become the number one unit lender in Oregon, the entire state? Well, I got to give a lot of it to my team. I've been able to track some great team members and build my team over 22 years. I did it wrong for so many years, and finally, I started hiring better, and again, I've got one assistant that's been with me for 20 years, so she's been phenomenal, but we were able to finally hire the right and track the right talent and just kind of leverage what we were doing. So the team is just extremely strong, again, it's about building your brand, doing a good job and then leveraging off of that, right? You mentioned you have an assistant that's been with you 20 years? That's correct. What's his or her role? She is now my production manager, so she handles contract to close. So I have my team broken up into two sections. I have the front end. There's what we call lead to contracts back in this contract to close, and she's basically my production manager and runs the whole contract to close. All right. So that's like a really incredible statistic, as you I'm sure you well know in this industry to keep somebody that way. Yeah. Secrets? Well, here's the, most of my employees, most of my team members have been here long term. It's about building a good culture. Most of the coaching programs you listen to, they try to have you extract as much out of people and pay them as little as possible, and I've taken a different approach to that. My motto is that rising tide floats all boats. So if I'm making good money, if I take care of people, the cost of replacing an employer, they say it's five times their annual salary. So why are we going cheap with some of these folks that are an integral part of our production process? I believe in paying people above what the industry is because again, it's, if the old zig-zag with the right help people get what they want, you'll get what you want. You treat them nice, you pay them above average, they're going to give you above average results, and they're going to stick with you a long time. That pays dividends over the years because your realtors get to be dealing with the same people as well. They're not saying a new person in your office every six months because you've blown them out. Let me ask you this question. I don't know if you remember in this case or other people you fired, I'm actually dealing with a couple of originators right now who are looking for assistance. Where did you find her or any recommendations on finding good people? She actually started out as our receptionist, 20 years ago, and then as we grew, she kind of then moved into kind of a processing assistant role and then processing, and then I finally hired her to my, she was my processor, but then I hired her on as my first loan officer assistant. So you just saw something in her, how she behaved or how she carried herself and things like that? Yeah, you know, that's, I think giving people opportunities when they're younger like that and you kind of grow them the way that you want. I think there's a lot of ledity to that. Another guy that works for another team that I managed here in Medford, she started out as working for Jimmy John Sandwiches and we hired her out of that environment as our receptionist. And then we see how they do in that role. They're multitasking. We start giving them more responsibility, which gives them more pressure so you can see how they react and how they operate under, you know, we have a lot of stress on our jobs, right? And so, you know, the resistance, right now it's under job description was the ability to multitask in a high pressure environment, right? So you can test them out in that reception role to see, do they have what it takes to make it? And you kind of expose them more and more to the industry and folks that are at that entry level position to give them an opportunity to make the kind of income that you can make in this industry over the long term. I just think they're more appreciative of it. Yeah, absolutely. That's awesome. Congratulations. So it's all about the good people in the quality of your team for you to be able to grow. They allow you to do what you do so well, which we're going to get back into now, which is, you know, obviously not just tax because you're a very strategic person, I know also. But for those listening, let's unpack kind of like the key activities, if you will, that drive your business. Back to my notes here, if I'm reading this correctly, bulk of your business is real state agents? Yes, and real state agents are probably our top and then we'll pass clients as well. But real state agents are our main focus. Yeah, let's take pass clients for a second, because I know you are a user of home boss, right? Absolutely. How long have you been using it? Great. Yeah. We've been using it now. I think about seven months, the open rate on that is phenomenal. I mean, the normal open rate on an email is about 5%. The open rate on these is about 85% and the click through rate is about 80%. It's pretty amazing. How do you primarily use it? So after we send it out on every loan that we fund, they end up getting home bot again. It's kind of self serving in a way as well, because what we're trying to do is keep them off the internet, right? Because unfortunately, the lowest of the world, the red fins of the world, they're all coming after our jobs. And no one's going to serve them better than I think than we are, right? Because we have a local vested interest. We sit face to face with them. And so if we can give them the information they're looking for without them having to go elsewhere, and it drives them back to us, I think that protects them as well as protects our business. Yeah. Because the home bot gives them a valuation tool every month that says, hey, here's your digest. Here's what your home is worth this month. And then it takes them down a whole bunch of different rabbit trails based on whether they, as they're an opportunity to refinance, opportunity to use some of that equity to buy an investment property or to consolidate or do some other functions. Are you utilizing any of the co-marketing teaming up with agents, features within home bot? Absolutely. Yeah. I've had some agents that we've partnered with on that. And they can actually upload their whole database, and it's relatively inexpensive for them. I think it's like a $50 set up fee in 20 bucks a month or something like that. Don't quote me on those rates. But then they can send that out to all their current database, which helps you partner with them. And there's some statistics. I think it's like 85% of the people said they would use their realtor again, but only about 5% do because they forgot who they are. Right. Right. So if you're staying in front of them every month and that home bot, to me, is a great tool that's about the client, not about you, but then still reminds them that you're there. Yeah. It's funny. I've had a lot over the past just a couple of weeks. And so I'm due to have Ernie, I briefly met Ernie at a conference this past weekend. Ernie, the CEO on, because I've talked about home bot on a previous episode as well, interview day, you know, Todd Bookspan, when by noon. I don't know if you do, but. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yep. He had a loan officer on who's been using home bot since the beginning. Like, I don't know what's that to you three years. Like that. Right. And just, yeah, crushing it with. Well, the other thing I love about it too is it's automated, right? I'm big into automation and systems, because we've got a huge database, and there's no way that I can, you know, be reaching out to these people as much as I want to on a regular basis. That's why I also use some of the tools with video email and stuff that we use that are automated, because it really, anything that we can do to set it, click, set it, forget it, but still make it personal to me is the way to stay in touch with you. Yeah. So let's go down the list here, because that's what we did in our original conversation. So home bot, you're using that people, I'm going to put links in the show notes to all this kind of stuff. But bomb bombs, it's what you're referring to with the video email, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. So a couple of ways that you really integrate that into your process that you think differentiates you. Well, like, I used to try to call, you know, call all of my past clients on their birthdays and their loan anniversaries, and, and you'd have great intentions with them, you know, how our, our day can blow up on us. And next thing you know, you're two or three days behind, you're like, well, now I'm, I would just look silly. Yeah. I'm just going to scratch that. I'll get them on the next one, right? Right. Well, bomb bomb has something that you can upgrade to called bomb bomb prompt. And you can actually record a video and use a script that isn't, it's personal, but it doesn't use their personal name. But you can, you basically make it, it looks like it's made specifically for that individual. You know, might be something like, hey, I heard you're special day to day. Hope you get a chance to spend it with family and friends that you love. Hey, just want to tell you that we appreciate. We're thinking about you have a great day, right? And the email comes from you to them. And the cool thing is you can record those about every three to six months. And then they, on their, on their birthday and their home loan anniversary, it automatically goes out to them without you having to do it. You just upload your database in there. So you never miss, you never miss one. And you know, you mentioned open rates earlier with, with home bot. Have you looked at kind of the open or engagement rates with bomb bomb? Yeah, I mean, it's not near what home bot is. But again, because it is, it's about, I think it's about 23%. I'd have to double check those numbers again. But it's again, because it's about them. It's their birthday. And you get some nice feedback from them and, hey, thanks for thinking of me. You know, and I'm not trying to be disingenuous in that, because I do really want to wish them a happy birthday. But, you know, if you got a 4,000 person database, it's impossible to make that many calls on that. Yeah, absolutely. And to some degree, I think you're intent with the video element of it is a certain degree of personalization or personal connection back to you, right? Exactly, exactly. And you said, so you know, we want to be high tech, but high touch. That's, I stole that slogan from, from my company, because that's their goal. Right now, but there's a lot of high tech low touch. We want to be high tech high touch. Yeah, so did you say you had a 4,000 person database? There's about 4,000 in the area. Wow, that's a lot. Yeah, that's tough to, and what is your CRM of choice? We use Salesforce. It's phenomenal. Salesforce. Do you use the jungle version? Our company actually institutes Salesforce into our, that is their company's CRM, and it's institutes into our workflow. And everything, it's, it's been phenomenal. Okay, awesome. Good to know. Okay, so we've talked about some technology you're using to kind of automate, to create, you know, high tech plus high touch, bomb bomb, home bot as well. But then you're also doing some of the more traditional, if you will, boots on the ground, face-to-face stuff, with lunch and learns. Is that correct? Yes, yep. We do lunch and learn here in our office, the first Wednesday of every month. And we invite realtors in, we cover a specific topic. It's kind of cool. One of the reasons is obviously to get them in there and give them some information of value. But one of the things that comes out of those events, a lot of realtors are stuck in their silos, right? Like, John L. Scott's agents, only hanging out with John L. Scott's agents and Kelly Williams, only hanging out with Kelly Williams's agents. And when you get them into a room and they, they might have heard their name, but they've never actually met them. And it seems to me like, when you're in a deal, if there's a relationship involved, details don't really get in the way. If there's not a relationship involved, details seem to always get in the way. So if you can get them in there, they create relationships. I've had people become great friends that they've met at one of our events. And then when next time they're in a deal together, they're like, Oh, I'll just give them a call. We know each other. It just makes it much easier. Yep. On average, I know that it varies greatly based on a variety of factors. But on average, how many agents are you getting to show up for your classes? You know, it's their agents, right? So again, they have a lot on their plate. So we might have 12 registered and have two show up. We might have three registered and we'll have 10 show up. You just never know. Right. Right. Right. But just the key is just keep doing it. And are you the one typically presenting content? Do you mix it up? What's that look like? I was for a while. My daughter has been on my team now for about five years now. And she's kind of heading that up now. Again, I'm trying to get better at the delegation. And what is that nature? But normally what we would do is we don't necessarily, we have lunch and learns that we can do and present ourselves. A lot of times we'll just pull up some content from another coaching service that we're involved in, which also coaches real estate agents and tap into some of those resources. Because we want it to be relevant to them. We don't want them to be a lender, right? So it allows them to. What are, like when you do pull that, by the way, you mentioned that before from the core. They provide some of that stuff. What are some of the topics that are, you know, quote relevant to them or that you find that they are more interested in? Typically again, if it's anything to do about helping them succeed better at their job, like listing presentations, how to attack your database. Time management is always a good one, right? Because they didn't say any that more than I do. And I need a lot of sales and marketing stuff, right? Digital marketing. You know, the good thing about it, a lot of stuff isn't new. It's just we need to be reminded of these things. So we know what to do half the time, but it's just getting those free freshers at, oh, yeah, I got to stop doing that. Oh, yeah, I need to start doing that. Just keep fine tuning stuff. And what, by the way, I'm just kind of drilling down on this a little bit because this is, you know, for those listening, they're like, you know, here goes Jeff talking about agent classes again, but it is a sweet spot of mine. But, but, and again, you may not know because you turned it over to your daughter, but I'm just curious, like, you know, what, what percentage of those attending are like existing, you know, you're investing in those existing relationships versus new, getting in your fun, all, et cetera. I would say probably 80% of the ones that come are already people that we're doing business with, but we try to have some new ones in there as well. Because what happens if you can invite a new one in, they're going to talk with the people that already know and love you there, and they're going to be like, yeah, these guys are great. Now, they have to say we use and it kind of helps cross south. All right. So then last question on this is, do you then find that a good feeder, if you will, right, to maintain the stickiness and loyalty, but then also to, to add new agents to your, you know, database and partners? Yeah, and it's always given you a reason to reach out to them, right? Because if you're calling them, you want to be inviting them to something or thinking them for attending something or not just calling up, hey, it's not raining today. What's going on? So again, it gives you a reason to reach out and add something of value. Okay. Awesome. Good. Thank you. Okay. So back into some more more tactics and how your business is set up. You are taking, I've wrote down a figure from our last conversation. You might want to correct me a little bit on this, but 90% of your apps are online. Is that correct? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So in, by the way, is that like to your website? Is that a mobile app or is it both? It's your website. So within within our, our system, we can send them an invitation to apply online. It allows them to give us information to convene to their own home when they have access to some of the data that they normally don't end up bringing to the, to the appointment. And our goal is still to get them face to face, but what we want them to do is give us the information of front that we have a chance to work on the file before they actually get there. And then when they are, when we are meeting with them for our face to face, we can have an actual tangible conversation and they can walk out of there knowing exactly where they stand. So we get their permission to pull credit. We have them upload documentation or give us the authority to pull that documentation for them. Don't we get in? We're not, you know, I'm not sitting there spending an hour taking in 1003. That's already done. We can leverage our time by getting right to what their goals are, walk through some different options for them and just have a much deeper conversation about what they're afraid of, what their goals are and how we can help them get there. Is your online process, the online app you refer to, is that also asking them to connect their various financial institutions, assets, things like that? Correct, account checks, they want certainly stuff, yes. Okay, and I'm curious, like, do you, what percentage of the people actually follow through on that? The reason why I ask is because I've gone through the process myself on a few different lenders. Some are better than others. I haven't done your app, so I can't really judge it. But I'm curious if that's a breakdown point, do you find most people are actually going through all that? It's we're not getting a high percentage right now, being on it's probably three to five percent. And then what we're doing is we're changing our scripting these days to try to encourage that more. And if they don't do it in the original app, when we're talking with them on the phone, setting the appointment, we're trying to add again, because again, there's so many reasons why I'm pushing my team to do more of that day when certain these staffs. Yeah, it makes my experience better. It makes our jobs easier, makes underwriting easier, removes reps and warrants on some of the deals. So okay, cool. Then tell me about your process for getting people to come in person. At some point, because you use scripting, I love that. So what that tells me is you have a structured process to move them from offline, I'm sorry, online to offline. So just articulate kind of what that process is, because this goes back to your team that you have. Your lead to contract would probably be the people who handle that. Exactly. So when a new application comes in, they reach out immediately, welcome them, thank them for applying online, check to see if they've uploaded any documentation yet. If not, they follow up and explain how to get that documentation uploaded or to just fax it in, if they're not comfortable scanning and uploading on their own into our secured portal, get the documentation, and then set the appointment to meet with either myself or one of them. Okay. And what is, I sound like I'm asking all these numbers and percentages, but this is kind of my style. Do you have a sense of how many people you were able to bring in person versus who just want to do everything kind of virtually? Yeah, I'd say we're probably getting about, I would say 70 to 80% would be coming in in person. That's our goal. We do a lot of stuff for people moving up from different states. So obviously they can't come in, but we try to get them to come in if they're up shopping for homes and stuff. Because again, we want to create that bond. We want to create a relationship. Because if you're just quoting them numbers and they've just given you a little information over the phone, what stops them from picking up the phone and calling that online lender, they just sent them a quote that they're never going to get? Yeah, no, that's a great point. And maybe that's worthy to just unpack a little bit in that, like if you, let's just say you get a referral because a lot of your businesses referrals from real estate agents, what's that process? Do they go to somebody on your front end team or do they go directly to you? What's that look like? If a referral to refer to a lead-in, typically it's going to go to my front end team. And they're going to contact the person, again, encourage them, find a little bit of information about them. We have a sheet that they fill out, a purchase sheet, kind of gives us some preliminary information, kind of what their 10,000 foot goals are. And then we encourage them to do the online application, get them in, cross sell, the real estate agent, obviously. And then, since then come in to meet with us one-on-one. Yeah, good point, by the way. Don't overlook that, cross sell, the real estate agent. That's a huge opportunity. What occurs about real quickly, because I've heard L.O.'s in the past kind of push back on this whole team concept and have agents allegedly say that they don't like that because they want their clients to work directly with you, right? The name and face of, yeah. How do you work with them? Well, that's something that we all struggle with, and I've struggled with in the very beginning. And what it takes is for you to, at first, you're going to be the one that's talking to all of them. But then as those agents get used to your team and talking to your team, that's part about inviting them in as well, right? Getting them in front of your team to meet these folks so that they know that I'm not disengaged with them. And what I tell them in front is, hey, I'm still very much involved in that. I do a pipeline meeting every day, so I know exactly where those are. We've got a funding log, so I can tell them exactly when their praise was ordered, when it's back. I mean, we've got some systems in place. So if they call me, I'm not list. Gee, I have no idea what's going on. But I'm still very much involved, and they're still my client, but we can give them better service. I'm a big picture guy. I'm not a detailed guy. We can tell them that, you know, a lot of times, this personal team is going to give them a much better experience than I would if I was collecting the condition, or if I was doing it. And then I can turn that around, too, to try to help those agents build their own team. It's like, why are you doing this by yourself? Let me show you how you can leverage yourselves, because your highest and best use isn't probably out opening up the lockbox for the inspector to come in, right? Your highest and best use is prospecting, doing presentations, so it's always fine tuning that business. And you can use that as an opportunity. To not just be a lender for them, but maybe help them help be a business coach with them as well. Yeah, you set a couple of really great things in there. One, I like the fact that you're introducing the agents to your team, so they're getting comfortable with them, because it's about trust, and they need to feel that they're competent, and that you're not trying to dish off those relationships. So that's another cool thing on that, too, is that some of my contract to close people, so I've got some meetings, so hey, I want that person to be my contract to close person. Great. You know, they might like their personality better. And so another benefit of having a team is you've got multiple people on there that might mesh differently with different types of personalities, so. Interesting. So then if you've got three people on the front end for your lead to contracting and three handle contract to close, what's your primary role today? My primary role today is, again, prospecting. Okay, great. You make a lot of prospecting. That's it, right? What's my highest and best use is I like to go out, I like to get with agents and talk to them about business strategy, try to deepen those relationships. I'm also just looking for new opportunities for us to go after. I still meet with clients. You know, that's still something that I like to do, but I'm just, I do not, I don't care if I ever take another 10 or three again in my life. Right? It's just not that's not something I enjoy. So I'm trying to do what I do best. So it's lead the team, make it rain, and just continue to prospect and, and strategy build strategy. Tell me a little bit about just real briefly, you know, your daily method of operation. You know, some people ask the question kind of, what's your morning routine? You can kind of tie that in, but what I'm curious about is, you seem to be, you know, a well structured guy in terms of your daily activities that you have to do. So do you do like time blocking your stuff? How do you decide what you're gonna do in a given day? How do you build out your week? Well, again, yes, I do have my calendar block, but I'll be honest with you. It's something I struggle with the most, because nine times out of 10, I'll have something blocked, and I'll blow right through it, doing something different on my, so I'm continually being coached on that. I'm upping my level of coaching on that stuff, because again, I want to get laser focused on what we do, so I can make my money work less hours and have better results, right? That's what our goal is. But we do have structural things that we do, like, you know, we do a team huddle on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and that just kind of sets our day in motion. And we do what I call our 3-1-1. My team comes in. They have to give me the three most important things that they have to do that day, their capacity, that gives them focus. They have to give me their capacity on a scale of 1 to 10, so we can load level if we need to. Also let's them know they're not in it alone. And then they have to give me a win or something that they're grateful for, because that tries to keep people in a better positive mindset. All right, I want to make sure I follow that. I love that. Three most important activities for the day, right, for them to get done. What are the most important things they have to do yet? Yeah, give me the one. Second is their capacity on a scale of 1 to 10. Okay, got it. Now, by the way, just, so capacity, capacity to do all three? In other words, hey, I've got, because again, inevitably, you know, the business doesn't come in just on a booth pace every day, right? So one day they might be hammered and just going, man, I got four files to disclose. And I've got this many conditions I got to go at. And so many I've got to push the closing. There's no way they're going to get done. Everything they need to get done in that day. You might have someone else goes, hey, you know what? I've got some capacity. Let me disclose that one for you. Let me take that off your plate. So we can clear that. And so people, though, we can load level across the team. So that one person's not buried while the other person's totally in their thumbs. That's interesting. Do you also then attempt or try to try your best, right? It's all it's all it's an ever ending journey this whole time blocking thing. Are you structuring then kind of, you know, envisioning your calendar like outbound calls? Do you have theme days of like, you know, realtor theme, client theme, that kind of stuff? Correct. Yes, I do. Okay. Do you do anything? So this is a question I've been kind of entertaining lately. You got here, other, you know, these big podcast gurus and stuff, ask like, what's your morning routine? Sometimes it's revealing, sometimes it's average. Come on in. Well, which time for our team? So it is. All right. I got to let you go. So is that do you have a specific morning ritual? You like to follow that helps you prepare? Yeah, yeah. I mean, like from getting up to come in or, yeah. Well, yeah. So I, again, I'm getting back on track with this, but I like getting up at normally five o'clock. We're up. My wife goes to the gym. We call her buff on Puff. It works for us. But I've been getting on my Peloton, then I get off of that deluxe side, do a little prayer time and just kind of focus on the day. Meditate on what's coming up. And then again, then when I come in with my calendar, it works, starts, right? What time are you generally at the office by? Normally about eight, 15. Okay. That's kind of later than some people might think, but our hours are eight, 15 to five, 15. So yeah, well, that's actually earlier than a lot of other levels too. So I hear 10 a.m. a lot from people. I'm like, what? Right. Yeah, they come into 10. Take lunch at 11 30. Come back at two and leave it for and wonder why they're not doing any business, right? Exactly. All right, man, listen, I know you got to run, but anything, you know, now we're heading into 2020, a new decade, anything on your on the horizon for you for prepping for that? Coming up, I just jumped into a brand new coaching program that I'm really excited about. I've taken this to the next level, hopefully. We just also got the nod to open a satellite office in the biggest real estate office here in town. So I'm excited about that. So we're just continuing to try to look for opportunities to grow. Yeah, love it, man. And you're approaching in a very systematic, structured way. And obviously doing some great things with your people and your team. It is boss's day. So in the background, we can see the happy boss's day is balloons. Congratulations to you. You're clearly a good leader and caring about your people and making a difference in their life. So I wanted to acknowledge you for that. For anybody who wants to connect with you, what would be the best place? Do you want to send them? They can go. They can email me if they want. Brie, a B case at guildmortgage.net. Or they can call me at 541-890-TIME-TIME. Whoa, that's cool. Time to call Brian. Love it, love it. And I'll put links to your Facebook page and LinkedIn in there as well. Perfect. All right, listen, Brian, I know you got to jump. You got your team huddle going on. So I appreciate you making the time and being here. And listeners, as always, we appreciate you tuning in. If you like this episode or any of the others, hey, help us out through some favor and leave us a little review on the socials. 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, you've heard about the Mortgage Marketing Pro membership before. 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