How Loan Officers Grow in a Tough Market

0:00 What if the market isn't the thing holding your business back? For the last few years, mortgage professionals have been waiting, waiting for rates to come down, for inventory to improve, for the market to change, waiting for things to finally feel normal again. But what if this is the new normal? And what if the people who win the next market cycle are the ones actually building while everyone else is pulling back? You're listening to Mortgage Marketing Radio. My name is Jeff Zimfer, and I help mortgage loan originators grow production, build stronger referral relationships, and create a business that stands out in today's market. Today on the show, we're asking a critical question. How do you stop surviving this market and start using it to build momentum for what comes next?

0:42 To help us answer that, I'm joined by Don Getling, mortgage industry veteran and founder of Momentum Builder. Don spent nearly four decades in this business as an originator, leader, coach, and community builder. In this episode, you'll learn three things. Number one, why pulling back in a difficult market may be the exact opposite of what you should be doing. Number two, how getting around other high-performing people can completely reset what you believe is possible for your business. And number three, why what you do in the final months of this year could determine how strong you start in 2027. Plus, Don will give us a look inside this year's Momentum Builder live event in Dallas, talking through some of the strategies, speakers, and tech, like AI and other things that are going to be designed Plus, Don gives us a look inside this year's Momentum Builder live event in Dallas, including the strategy, speakers, technology, AI, and relationships designed to help you turn ideas into actual implementation.

1:40 I've been to the Momentum Builder event. It is a one of a kind. And if you're in a place where in your head you're feeling a little bit stuck, a little bit funky, a little bit challenged by some of the headwinds that are happening in the market right now, You owe it to yourself to get around the right people in the right room with the right mindset and strategies to help you go from just surviving to thriving. And the Momentum Builder live event in Dallas is the place where you can do that. The link is in the show notes for you to check out more and register today. And I encourage you to stay tuned and listen into this entire episode. And I encourage you to stay tuned and listen to this entire episode. So if you're ready to build your own momentum, stick around for this episode of Mortgage Marketing Radio.

2:31 Hey! Don, welcome to the show. I'm stoked to be here, Jeff. Thanks for having me, buddy. It's September 10th, we're recording this, so you're listening to this soon after that. And I wanna talk about, because in a few minutes, we're gonna be talking about your upcoming event, Momentum Builder, in October. I was at the Momentum Builder last year, I believe it was, and it's a great event. There's some reasons why you wanna listen, stay for that, because it's fresh, it's different, it's not the same old, same old mortgage event, but we'll talk about that in a moment. I want to start with what a lot of people probably aren't aware of with you, I'm going to guess, is that, well, first of all, you've been around a long time, okay?

3:14 Yeah, almost 40 years. I started when I was very young. Yeah, yeah. You can tell by my young looks. Yeah, almost 40 years, but you also have built over your career a very successful origination business, right? Not only personally, but also you as a leader. I'm reading here on the website. kind of the origins of Momentum Builder, and I want you to unpack this a little bit, but what I'm seeing here that I didn't know by the way, so I wanted to bring this to light, is that from starting as an originator to a regional leader, right, where you went on to oversee nine offices, 163 employees, and 1.5 billion in volume. Why I want to really double tap on that is because you've seen a lot, you've been around a long time, but you're also, the thing I like about you, first of all, you're a guy who's my age, so whatever that means, but you're also still very, you're still very, let's just say over 50, if that's correct.

4:05 Yes, you're safe on that one. All right, cool. I've had a little bit of margin. So, but you're also still willing to adapt, right? And pivot and learn new skills and not be kind of stuck in the old ways. And I think that's what I love about what you guys are doing with the Momentum Builder community. But tell me this. We were talking about this before we hit record. We're in this challenging market. It was an interesting news day today for mortgage rates and all that. There's a lot of headwinds that we've been facing in this industry for some years running now. What's, I mean, put yourself in the chair of you're overseeing your region, you're coaching LOs right now. Like, what is the, what's the headline you're telling them as we head into fall of 2026? Yeah. And I appreciate you asking that, Jeff, because it's so easy right now with the challenges of the market to just want to survive, to just buckle, you know, put your head in the sand and just wait for the market to get better, for the rates to go down, for it to get back to normal, which what is this is the new normal.

5:04 But I always tell my team, I go, how's that worked out for you in the last four years? Waiting for something to happen. On the other hand, because of momentum building and all the people in my podcast like you do, I get to interview a lot of producers and leaders finding out what's really working and what isn't working and what the difference between those that have pivoted and adjusted to this market are absolutely using as an opportunity. So a lot of times these downturns like... You know, honestly, if you look at September 10th, you're going to see that it was a horrible day in the bond market. So you're going to think what I'm going to see is people are going to leave the market. More of our competitors leaving. A lot of people are going to basically pull back.

5:46 This is when you lean in. This is when you go grab their freaking market share. And I mean that passionately because there are, I interviewed plenty of people that are doing a hundred million plus 60 million, 80 million on a regular basis. But their mind shift is, it's all about mindset. They have changed the game and they believe in leaning in and being very specific of what they want and not just waiting for the market to get better. There's not enough market share out there, but there's plenty for you if you lean in. There's just, we don't have enough transactions for everybody to really flourish. But there's plenty of professionals that are flourishing right now. Well, it's interesting you say that. I guess it's a matter of like, what do you really want, right?

6:28 Some people are happy closing three or four loans a month. And if that's what you want, okay. But are they? I don't know, right? I know there's a couple guys in Newport Beach that are closing four loans a month, and they're pretty happy. Well, there you go. That's when they're $2.5 million plus loans. Right, exactly. And they've been doing it for 30 years, you know, and they're like, I'm good, man. But wherever you're at listening to this, I think that's one of the reasons why you need to get around other people like your communities, because it brings you perspective, a different mindset, different framing around, like you just said, okay, so we had some tough news with the bond market. What is, how does Don see that? Don doesn't see that as, oh my God, bad news. Like this market sucks.

7:09 I'm going to go home. Don sees that as opportunity to go grab market share because he knows the average LO is pulling back. Right. Right. Now, it's it's really important that the perspective and I don't want to you know, I'm not going to make light of that. There's challenges. I'm not going to make light that a rough day, a quarter percent, you know, rate day. you know, is not a challenge. But remember that you don't have any control over the rates. Every LO out there is dealing with the exact same market. No one's got some special secret sauce of like, well, it's okay. I got lower rates here in my back pocket. No, we're all dealing with the same thing. It's just how you deal with it makes a difference. And that's why I'm very fortunate because I get to talk to leaders that are figuring out, producers that are figuring out, vendor partners that are helping people create their own business and so forth.

7:57 There are ways that you can treat this as an opportunity, an opportunity to go grab that market share. And even those that are waiting for the market to get better and the rates to go down, are you going to be prepared for that? Are you really going to be prepared? You're going to try to relaunch your entire business once it picks up. What if you already own that market share? You're going to even crush it more. You're going to 10x your business while everybody's trying to 2x. Why don't you prepare and 10x your business? Yeah. So the message is, if you're in this game for the long haul, don't sit on the sidelines. Don't wait. Get off the stands. Get into the game and build. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, you and I both know the negative part is rates are going to hit 7%.

8:38 Me, I'm like, I got a lot of refis coming in the future. Think about it. This is creating your next refi wave, which is our gravy, our extra money where you can really within two or three months make more than you made the entire year last year when the rates come back down. And They will eventually. I'm sorry, they always do. They just haven't for an extended period of time. I get it, but they will. So this is just creating your next refi boom, but you better be in contact with your clients. Otherwise, no one else is going to grab those. All right, so take me back to 2018 when you started Momentum Builder. What was the purpose of starting that? I love this question because it's my passion project. Basically, my business coach at the time, after being in the business so long, we were killing it with our $1.5 billion.

9:22 He was like, I don't know what else I can teach you, dude. You're doing great. You've forgotten more about mortgage than I've ever known. He goes, what do you want to do, though, with your legacy moving forward? You know, I'll give back. And I'm like, I would love to create an environment that has all the resources for the industry. So you don't have to try to find them. I'd love to put them all in one place because believe it or not, Jeff, I almost quit the business because I didn't have those resources. And I have extremely good work ethic, which everything's that's that's your your fail safe. If you're a hard worker, you always make money. That's not always true because there's a point where you'll run out of time or energy. One of the two. And I. You know, race professional motocross.

10:04 So I knew how to be a professional athlete. I knew that kind of work ethic and I had no problem with it. But the problem is I ran out of hours until somebody fortunately said, hey, have you gone to sales mastery, met Todd Duncan and all the people around that? I'm like, no. And once I went to the event, and I'm not, this isn't just some event, this is why I do the event, is it changed my entire outlook. It changed everything because I got to see what was possible. I got to be in a room with winners. I got to see what they're doing. I got to figure out their processes, their tech, their coaching. I went and got coaching. Everything changed for me. All of a sudden I went from struggling and not... decided whether I'm going to be in the business or not to, wow, there is so much opportunity to absolutely crush it.

10:49 We make more, when you crush it, you make more than doctors and don't have to have a pager. I mean, it's an incredible, and you get to help the American dream of getting people in a home. It's a wonderful career, but you do have to be very smart about it. And that's why I created this is now it's going to, you're going to see at the event, we're going to release it, but we're going to have an ecosystem that will have I'm agnostic now. I don't work for any one company. So I have a list of coaches and leaders like you, Jeff. I'm going to have all the tech that they need. I'm not telling you which coach to use, but I'm going to introduce you to them. Pick one. See who talks to you. Hey, here's all the tech. I'm not going to tell you what tech you need or what you should use, but Use some of the tech to grow.

11:30 We're going to have a community site where we can share best practices, where my vendor partners and coaches like you can give tips and ideas to help that community grow. So now it's going to be in one place, a place you can trust too, because a lot of people are like, who do I trust? Who do I hire? What do I use? What tech do I use? It's going to be in one place. It's going to be in our momentum builder collectives. And anyone that's going to be part of our community is going to lead the charge. Everyone else is not part of it. It's going to be left behind. All right, so I think that's a key difference when we're talking about events and learning and things like that. And to your point about the Sales Mastery event you went to years ago, I mean, it's a similar experience for me and other people I know. You get in the room, you get immersed for two or three days, whatever it is, and that's where real transformation can happen.

12:13 It's difficult to have transformation happen on a 40-minute webinar or listening to a podcast. It can open the door and start to shift some things. But there's something that happens at a visceral level when you're with 500 or 1,000 other people in the same room. And so that's why it's important. If you haven't been to Momentum Builder, you're gonna have an opportunity at the end of this. But also, if it's been a while since you've been to any event, now's the time to get back in, right? You gotta keep the ax sharp. But what you said here is very important. This is what makes what you guys do different than other, quote, events. It's not just an event, one and done. It is this ongoing resource community of places, a place people can go, one-stop shop to get access to people, resources, tools, a community, right, where they can get answers to their questions.

12:57 They don't have to wait for an event to come around once a year. Yeah. And I love you. You brought that up. I mean, it's so important to be in that room, that energy level. I mean, Jeff, you and I, I think we met at one of the events. You don't know who you're going to meet that's going to literally change my life. Some of my best friends in the industry and my mentors were at these events. And now I can't wait to see you and others. Like I told you, whatever I need to do, Jeff, you got to be at my event. I want to hang with you, buddy. Your friends will be there. Your mentors will be there. New friends, new mentors will be there. It has changed my entire, but the energy too. What's nice about our event, it isn't just a sit down behind the desk and take notes.

13:38 It's high energy. It's high value. It's high fun. God knows we need some fun right now. And you know, we like to have fun. You know, we start off opening night with a giant party. We end the event with a giant party and a cornhole contest. We believe in networking. We believe in getting re-energized. How would you like to be re-energized for the industry? When you leave an event and you have even two new ideas, let alone maybe eight to 10 new ideas, you're actually excited because you have something new to work on, something new to share with your team, something new that's going to create business. It is exciting when you leave and you're pumped up. But like you said, what's cool is with the collective and this community, we're We're going to actually help you implement.

14:22 We've all left with good intentions and then go back home and go back to our normal habits and putting out fires. I get it. That's our life. That's how we pay the bills. But to get true transformation, like you said, Jeff, very eloquently said, you need help in implementing. It's all about implementation. And we're going to help you with that. We're going to help you throughout the entire year. It's going to be phenomenal. Yeah, 100%. And yeah, I mean, look, if you, the other thing too that happens being in the room, and I know people who've been to an event can relate to this. I'm not sure if you've been to a momentum builder, but you should because you've got a serious lineup. We'll talk through in a second. Sick. But the other benefit of being around winners, like, you know, the rising tide lifts all boats, right?

15:07 And so the other cool thing is you see in network and talk to other people winning, and all of a sudden this new paradigm opens for you where you've met these people, like, oh, it's a challenging market, but here's so-and-so over here doing 20 units a month. Here's this person over here doing 12 units, and you're at your three or four, and all you want to do is get to six. Well, all of a sudden that, you know, your whole, identity of what's possible for you is stretched. And I think that's one of the biggest benefits of being around these other people is it really opens up the idea of what's possible. So dude, that's why I love having you as a friend and you're such a blessing to the industry because you get it, you see that. And that was so eloquently put that, okay, maybe I'm not gonna be able to get to 20 or 40 like that person on stage, but hey, if I do just part of what they're doing.

15:56 I can go from three to six and six to 12. That's your catalyst. That's your spark, you know, that's going to get you there. And what's really nice, Jeff, is it's real. All my speakers are just real. They're you and I, they're not untouchable gods that they're, they actually will hang out with you. They'll talk to you and they're going to share their secrets. They're literally not worried about you. Just like when I go on stage, like, why would you tell all your secrets, Don, shoot. I'm not worried. I'm not worried about you taking my market share. That's why I own my market share. And if I can help someone, then more power to you. And that's what they feel. And what's really cool too is I bring in a lot of outside speakers too to help with fresh perspective, fresh mindsets, fresh ideas, personal branding, health and wellness.

16:41 We even have a wealth panel to start talking about how to build wealth because our industry sucks at it. We always get on the hamster wheel, make a lot of money, spend a lot of money, go make a lot of money, spend a lot of money. Now we're going to talk about how to create real freedom. This is a holistic approach that we're putting together at Momentum Builder to really change your mindset and help you be fulfilled personally and financially. I mean, that's what our goal really is. Let's talk about some of the speakers. You've got panels. There's too many to talk about all of them, but who are some of the standouts for you that you want to make sure you highlight? Okay. Opening night alone is going to be worth it. You're going to be super pumped. We don't start till 4.30 on opening night on Tuesday.

17:22 Reason being, so you have all day to get into Dallas. We moved from Vegas to Dallas to get rid of the distractions for one, because I really want transformation. Yeah. Vegas, really tough. I'm sorry, too many distractions. You go to most of those events early in the morning, it's empty. And in the later afternoon, that's empty because they're at the pool. This is, this is focus time because this two days is going to change your life. And don't worry, we're going to have some fun and, and all that. So it's not just a complete grind at all. when you listen to speakers, you're going to be excited. So opening night, we have Brian Biro, who is the number one breakthrough speaker in the world. He's going to help you really pull back and figure out how to break through whatever level you're at. I don't care if you're a two producer or a 20-a-month producer.

18:02 Everybody wants to get to that next level. He's going to help you peel back what's stopping you from breaking through. And he's going to do it in a very fun way. We have... with Coach Bill. Hard opening night. He is one of the masters in this industry for decades, sharing his perspective. And then we go to a great party. Next day we have Coach Michael Bird. You probably saw him last year. I brought him back. Because this dude is a rock star. He was a coach, but now he teaches people how to release their genius. and basically create their business as a business. Because remember, this isn't just a job. This isn't a salary job. You need to create it like a business, and he sparks it. And then right after him, Rory Baden, are you kidding me?

18:45 I can't believe I have him on the stage. One of the number one brand builders in the world. This guy knows how to build brands. And I saw him on Neil Dinger's stage. I had three pages of notes from this guy. So that's why I was so excited to get him on our stage. Chris Welton, you know Chris. He's going to talk about how to overcome adversity. The guy was born with one arm. I mean, come on. Yeah. Right. But he crushes it. And he does like Ironmans and he does all these things you don't think someone could do. We have Neil Dengra, again, the master in our industry right now with personal branding to create more business. I have neuroscientists showing up. They're actually going to do, Jeff, they're going to do brain scans at the event.

19:26 Really? Yeah. and figure out what works in your brain, what isn't working. That could be dangerous. Yeah, that's what I tell them. I go, I don't know, I'm gonna give away my joke that I'm gonna have the stage, but I'm a little afraid of them doing that with me because they might not find anything in there. Any signs of life? Yeah, yeah, like, Sorry, Don. Now we know what your problem is. But they're going to talk about how your brain can be more resilient and how to handle things like anxiety. And believe me, our industry has a lot of anxiety right now. There's a lot of inconsistencies in business right now. I mean, I can go on and on. You know the players, Kim Perry's and Josh Pitts. And it's powerful. Powerful. And then we have panels, really strong panels.

20:07 Dave Savage is leading two amazing panels with rising stars, sharing very simple steps of how they're crushing the market over 100 million right now. It's going to be awesome. Well, I know there's a couple on there who I personally know I've actually done some work with. People like Brady Thomas. He's one of our rising stars. And what he's sharing, Jeff, you know him. What he shares, you're going to go, that's all he did? Very simple. True. But he is killing it. And he doesn't even live in his market. Most of the time, his market's in Oakland, California. He lives in Boston most of the time because his wife's a professor in Boston. And he does over $100 million in production. Yeah. And he's able to do that, right? Because of some shifts, very simple shifts he made in his business.

20:48 But I'll just, I'll tease it out a little bit. At least, I don't know if he's talking about this, but I know part of it was how he approaches realtors and how he changed the dynamics of how he works together with them. So he stopped chasing and all that stuff. Yeah. So he became more of a partner and that grew his business 40%. So that, that alone. And then you have Abdel there, who the gorilla, who's going to be talking about AI, I'm sure. Right.

21:30 percent this year wow really 178 and he's going to talk on that of how he's actually using ai not talking about how cool it will be and yet you should be using it he's actually using it and he's crushing it yeah he's built systems and processes that help streamline his overall efficiency which allows him to scale and do more volume without necessarily actually hiring less people to scale and do that volume so right All right, so let's do this. People are teased enough. They're curious. They want to know more. Give us the details. This is when in October? October 6th through the 8th in Dallas at a beautiful hotel. Badass hotel. You saw it. I mean, the ballroom's amazing. And what's really cool as I moved it there is because one of the most important places pieces that you have to understand by being at the event is the connections and the networking and the people you're going to meet.

22:16 And I moved it to this location because in Vegas, when the event was done, everybody disperses. You never get to go and meet people or see your friends, even. You're like, oh, where the hell did Jeff go? Jeff, Well, you're off at a concert or you're with somebody else. But so this has one central area, one giant 100 foot long bar with seating all around it. And whether you drink or not, you know where your friends are going to be. You know, the leaders are going to be besides the networking party at the opening night, besides networking party on a terrace outside outside. it's going to be game changing for you because you're going to be pumped up and you're going to have new friends. They're going to help you hold you accountable. And like you said, rising tides lifts all ships.

22:58 And that's, that's what it's all about. So October 6th through the 8th in Dallas, but you need, I, I, You just need to pull the trigger. The problem is, is a lot of people, a lot of you will think about it. But once you actually purchase your ticket, and this is not a sales pitch, I want the right people in the room. But because you want to grow, I want you there. Because this is the right. You'll see that the group that shows up at our event, you've seen it, Jeff. They show up on time. They come back on time and they stay the whole time because it's all value. Every single speaker and panel adds value. You don't want to miss anything. So I want you to pull the trigger so that as soon as you do, you're going to go, all right, I'm going to do something to make change. I'm going to do something to grow. I'm going to do something to improve my life for me and my family, whether it's for you or not.

23:42 So it's not a cost. It's an investment and a very small investment to change your life. Oh my gosh, it's like one third of one loan, a commission on one loan or something like that. It's absolutely completely reasonable. So October 6th through the 8th in Dallas, we're gonna link the website in the show notes, but I'm reading some of the success stories such as income is up 300%, doubled my sales, I'm working less than 25 hours a week now, right? Advanced to the next level. The thing I want to kind of double tap on is it's going to be October, right? And before you know it, January is going to be here. Oh, good point. The question is, how ready are you for 2027? Because you know this, and I'm sure you've preached this to your people in the past. What you do starting October 1st, I'll give you that leeway, I say today, but October 1st, what you do from that moment on through Q4, build your Q1 pipeline.

24:30 And so if you're going to show up flat footed in January, you're going to already be behind. So you better have the right process and system in place. Most importantly, the right mindset if you're going to show up to win and crush it in 2027. So that's my great leader, Jeff. That's that's so important because, you know, we've managed people for for years and and in most cases in our industry, January, February, March suck. That's a technical term. But that's only because they didn't do their work during the holidays. I tell my team, some of my best months are November, December, because my competition's distracted. They're dealing with the holidays. And then I start the year off on fire, which then puts your mindset in the right place that I'm going to have one of my best years ever.

25:13 But if you start off behind then you're going to stay behind and you're going to actually just wash the year away. You're going to go, oh, my year sucks, another bad year. Do not, no more excuses. You need reasons, not excuses. This is the reason to change your life today. And I guarantee it, I always tell people, I'll give you more money back if you don't get value out of it, but I've never had to pay it ever. Absolutely. Yeah, we worked so hard at this event. I mean, I'm pouring 16 hour days to make sure that this event is the best they've ever been at. It's going to be off the charts. Yeah. Well, I've been to every event there is out there, both in and out of mortgage. As you know, I've been in this kind of personal development industry for over 30 years. And so I've been to all kinds of, I mean, I got to see Jim Rohn back when he was alive and spent time with Robbins and all that stuff.

25:58 But yeah, so, and that's why I'm happy. I don't usually bring a lot of people on the podcast and promote them. You're one of the few that I've done that. And that's because I went last year and I felt so strongly about it. So that's, you know, that means a lot to me, Jeff. Thank you. Yeah. That means a lot because that's my passion. It is really to provide value, not to sell tickets. It's really, this is my give back to the industry. I love the industry and I want to make it easier for everybody because it's a tough industry. Sales is one of the toughest jobs in the world, but that's why we get paid what we get paid. We get paid more than a doctor. So you have to put the time, effort, but you have to do it smart and we're going to help you do it smart. And that way you don't just get burned out. Don't make a mistake that I did and so many others did when we were originating is you're trying to figure it out all on your own.

26:41 You gotta get around the right people who've been there before you and learn from them, draft them, so to speak, right? And follow their lead. So the link is MomentumBuilderEvent.com. The link is in the show notes. You can tap it right now. You're listening to this probably on your mobile phone. So, you know, just tap the podcast app. You're listening. Go check it out. MomentumBuilderRevent.com October. I don't know of a better way for you to invest the, you know, fall months to prepare for the new year in 2027 for you to get a leg up. So, Don, I'm looking forward to this year. Yeah. I am pumped up. I'm so excited about this year. My lineup is full. It's going to be amazing. And I can't wait to see the transformations. I get to talk to, you'll see.

27:22 I don't just get on the stage and leave. You know me. I'll be around talking and meeting people. I get to hear stories of how people improved since last year and how excited they are for this year. How about being excited about the mortgage industry? I know right now it seems like it's just nothing but a kick in the you know what. there's a lot of people excited about it. So let's make sure our group that's at Momentum Builder Live, October 6th or the 8th, are the ones that are excited about the industry and leading the charge. That's my goal. Right on. All right, my man. Well, listeners, you know what to do. Check the link in the show notes. Go ahead and register. You will not regret it. And for whatever reason, like Don said, he's got a money-back guarantee. So go check it out right now. And come see me at the event.

28:03 Let me know that you listened to the show. And that's how you got here. So I can report back to Don and say, hey, man, we got some people to show up because of this podcast. Oh, and grab your tickets now. Prices continue to go up. And VIPs are almost sold out, which I'm really excited about. There's only a few VIPs left. So you want to grab those. You want to be in that room. You get to be in the front. You get to be with other VIPs. And you get your lunch and lunch and learn with some rock stars. It's going to be really cool. Yeah. Well, all right, listeners, you know what to do. Go ahead and register. I looked forward to seeing you in Dallas. Don, thank you as always. And we'll see you soon. All right. Thanks for the opportunity, buddy. And we'll see you in Dallas. That's right. You bet. Bye-bye.