How to Build Unstoppable Momentum and Close Over 150 Loans

In today's highly competitive mortgage industry, building profitable relationships with the real estate agents is essential for success. However, finding effective ways to secure agent relationships can be a challenge. With so many mortgage loan originators vying for the attention of real estate agents, it can be difficult to stand out and establish meaningful connections. Our new case study featuring loan officer Chris Cogill is a must-read. Chris has closed a remarkable 36 million in funded loans from agent referrals. And in this case study, he shares his proven strategies for building strong relationships with real estate agents and leveraging those relationships to drive more business. To get your hands on this resource, head over to LOKestudy.com and download your free copy of the case study today. You'll find actionable insights and practical tips that Chris used to close 36 million in funded loans from agent referrals and how you can, too. Don't miss out. Go check it out right now. Visit LOKestudy.com and download your free copy today. Hey, listeners, what's up, Jeff Zimper? You know where you're at. You're at the mortgage marketing radio podcast. Thanks for tuning in today. I still don't have my soundboard yet. So hopefully the audio is coming through clear enough for you to understand. Let me get right to it. Things sure are changing fast in the mortgage and real estate market, aren't they, right? Rates are up. Price reductions are happening and buyers are taking a time out. Here's the truth, right? You know that we don't have control over what happens or what goes on or what the market does, but the one thing we do have control over is how we choose respond. It's our choices that determine our outcomes. So I've been asking a lot of loan officers that I'm talking to across the country. How are you responding? Are you preparing for a more challenging market ahead? Not just the challenge of low inventory, but couple that with the challenge of reduced affordability, right? If you're going to survive, not just thrive through this market, you've got to be prepared. One way to get prepared is to align yourself with the right partners that can keep you in the game of a steady flow of opportunities and referrals. What am I talking about here, right? I'm talking about becoming known in your local area amongst your real estate agents as an educator. It is no longer enough to show up with great products, great service, right? We've talked about that before. We need to change the conversation. Most of what you want, you listing right now, I talk to you, I interview you, you want more agent referrals. It's what you want, but you struggle to get agents to respond. Your sales pitch falls flat and offers little tangible value. Therefore, I'm excited to show you a better way. You've heard about it by now, my agent classes, part of the mortgage marketing pro membership helps you break through the noise, deliver tangible value and attract agents to send you referrals with no chasing or no cold calling. Here's a recent win from our member, Glenda White. She posted our private Facebook group, I love agent class day. She taught the class how to get more listings in a low inventory market. 15 agents showed up. One quote, veteran agent, they just closed his very first buyer. She set five appointments, a golf appointment with a prospective buyer, which happens to be the head of an HR company, a local HR company, three referrals from agents in that class before she walked out. What she hears from these classes on Tuesdays is I have a buyer I need you to connect with. First, if you want more agent referrals and less time with less struggle, less chasing and more attracting, do yourself a favor, go to mortgagemarketing.pro, watch the brief video I put up. If it's for you, take the next step. If not, no worries, I look forward to continuing to provide these valuable podcast episodes for you. With that said, I want to talk about my special guest this week, thrilled to have her on Melissa Maniadas is a mortgage professional in the Phoenix, Arizona area. She has been on a just a quantum leap of fast pace of momentum in her business. What I love about the conversation we have is we get into how she structures her business, what she does on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. In 2021, she closed over 160 units. Of course, the bulk of her business is agent referrals, relationships, past database. You're going to hear the strategies she implements in the field to be able to continually grow her business year after year after year for the last six years with no end in sight. The title of this episode, of course, is how to build unstoppable momentum in your business. And Melissa is a great example in building that unstoppable momentum. So without further ado, let's get into this week's show. Melissa, welcome to the show. Thank you. Glad to be here. I'm glad to have you. It's a pleasure and an honor. Also, thank you so much for, like, I forget how many times people come on my radar. But the thing that stands out for me was, I think you put my book in one of your stories. I did. Yeah. And I really didn't connect the dots. And I didn't know who you were prior to that. And then I started connecting the dots. I'm like, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Hold on. You're a top 1% mortgage originator in the country. So I wanted to learn more. So before we unpack that for the listeners, brief background, hauling in the bin in the biz. Where do you work and then units volume? Perfect. Awesome. So I've been in the business since 2003, which is I read your book and you've been in the business since 2003. So awesome. I've been in it for a long time. I got in when I was 23 years old. I moved from Northern California to Arizona, got a job as a receptionist at a mortgage company. And within six months, my boss came to me and said, do you want to be a law officer? And I said, I know nothing about loans. There's no way in heck I could be a law officer at 23 years old. He gave me a piece of paper. It had a script. Give me a list of leads to call. And my first paycheck, I was like, holy cow, I am quitting college. Was originally going to be an accountant because I love numbers. And that just kind of went out the window. And after six months, I was hooked. And I've been doing loans ever since then. I was always on a team. I was always fearful of going out on my own, didn't think I could even have a team. It wasn't even a goal of mine. It just kind of happened. Funny story, though, when the market crashed in no way, I dived into real estate. So I did a real estate for four years from 2008 to 2012. I joined the real estate team. And then in 2012, I met Todd Bookstan, interviewed with him to do some business together. Me as the agent, him as the lender. And then he was looking for a bilingual law officer. And I went out my license and joined his team. And I was there for about five years till 2017. And then November of 2017, I finally just took the plunge. And I went all in and went on my own. I joined a guild mortgage who I'm still with. And I've been here for about four and a half years. And I now have a team who would have ever thought. So yeah, so I've got a team for including me. Okay, and so who are they? Identify their roles. So I've got Brendan. Brendan McCarran is my pre-approval manager. So he made sure to review all the financials, make sure to cross his teeth, dot his eyes, and that we're good to go. The loan's not gonna fall through. So that's Brendan. And I've got, we call her KK, her name's Kyreen. She is my admin. She's in charge of all the emails, financials, making sure that I stick to my calendar. And she handles a lot of our campaigns, which I'll talk a little bit more about that. And then I actually have my husband on my team. He is my other loan partner. He's kind of like another me. He was in real estate and last year he joined our team. No longer does real estate now. He's just another me, basically. Okay, and that's everybody, right? Yes, yes, and yeah. And of course, we've got like our branch admin, Gina, she's amazing and she helps with a lot of other stuff. That's your core team. So does your husband originate then? I'm sorry. Does your husband originate? He does. He is a licensed originator. So is Brendan McKiernan. So we're all licensed and other than my admin, KK. All right. All right, so let's briefly get to the numbers then. The 2021, what did you close out at? I closed 162 units. Sweet, good job, congratulations. It's funny how it comes around full circle. Now you have your own team. Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. Yeah, it's like my first year I closed like 65 units. I came over thinking, I just want to close a few loans a month. That's it. Not really thinking big, right? You've been growing ever since though. Like you're at an Baker team and then you're left there. But you kept growing. Ever you've not had a reversal year or down year. You've kept adding on units. Yeah, so yeah. You're letting me highlight that as well. You've not had a flat year because a lot of people do that too. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's just been increasing since I joined the end of 2017. All right, I'm going to be, it's Friday. So it's just don't take it Friday or I don't know. I'm trying to come up with something. No fluff Friday. How much? And so you know where I'm coming from and my questions are all respect. But how much growth do you attribute to the market versus your marketing versus my marketing? What do you know what I mean? I would say the market. Well, so obviously the last couple of years as lenders, we did a ton of re-fies, right? Yeah, yeah. And I know it's not a fair question. And by the way, none of this has been prepped. And maybe it didn't present it the right way with context. But what I'm thinking about is this. Let me give you a little bit more. What I'm thinking is, so a lot of L.O. struggle with how do I grow? How do I add another 20, 30? How do I double my ratings? Yeah. That's the long lines. Because yes, the market can fuel us and we'll get us just winded our backs. I know you well enough, even the little I know you, that you didn't rely on that. You were intentional about growth. Right, absolutely. Absolutely, as I've been in growth mode, I just keep adding someone to my team, right? And so obviously, I started out closing 65 units my first year, then 120 in 2019. About 123 units. And then 2020, COVID hit. I didn't really get into the ReFi stuff until mid 2020. And I closed 163 units. And then last year 183, yeah. The balance of ReFi to purchase on that, roughly, I know it's probably a little heavy ReFi, but. I was 59.9 purchase. And then 40, like 40 in change, 40 proofs, like 60, 40. More heavier on the purchase business. Hey, you don't love numbers, do you? I love numbers. 59 point. 949. Yeah, something like that. But yeah, I was definitely more purchase heavy. And obviously now that's my focus is purchases, yeah. That's just the opposite of like a, it's 60, man. That's what I was. 60, 40. Right. No, that's great. That's good, healthy balance. OK, what is your primary source of business? Realtors. Realtors are my number one source of business. I've got it good. I would say five realtors that have really stuck with me since I started back about four and a half years ago. And then a lot of them are onesie twosies, right? They don't do a ton of business. Maybe they use a couple, two or three different lenders. But believe it or not, you get a lot of those onesie twosies. And then I would say now, as far as like eight agents, I've probably got about nine. So not a ton, not a ton of agents. And then the rest are bees. And then obviously the seas are the onesie twosies. But my main source is realtors. OK, so the onesie twosie thing isn't surprising, especially for those that are podcast listeners, and they just listened to two episodes ago where I had Derek Polter on, who's also there. You know, Derek? He's one of the court coaches. Yeah, I've in the court as well. Is he your coach? He is not my coach. I have not been coached by Derek as of yet. I've been in the court for a couple going on two and a half years now. OK, cool. Good for you. Yeah. I mean, can't say enough about that. But what I was going to say was he also spoke to the fact of most of his deals of the 170, whatever, he can track that those were all onesie twosie agents. Yeah. Like the idea of you're going to get 80% of an agent's business isn't realistic. Absolutely not. No way. No way. And we shouldn't bank on that, right? Just knowing that they might only want to close a certain amount of deals per year. They might be part-time agents, right? They may not do a lot of transactions. So it's interesting. A lot of people are like, check the MTA or MMI. I'll be honest. I don't ever check my number. I don't ever check the agent's numbers where the rankings are at. I really don't. It's kind of like if I like them, they like me. And I could picture myself hanging out with them, right? Having a cocktail or whatever. And they're just fun. I love people that are fun and want to have a good time, that are positive. And if we mesh well, then we're going to work together. Speaking of MMI, that's what I sometimes do while we're talking. And just to prove a point. So if you don't mind, I've pulled you up on MMI. But regarding the agent relationships on the buy side, yeah, your dominant agents are Rosa, Thomas, Rosa, Linda, Patrick. And even those aren't double-digit numbers. Right. Like your big volume is, as a matter of fact, it seems to be more on the listing side, for listing agent relationships. Do you work with a lot of listing agents? I know a ton now. Carlos Martinez. Oh, yeah, he's the listing agent. Yeah, he's like one of my new top agents now. Do you pursue listing agents? I do. I do. I haven't always, but obviously being in the core, they teach you, right? You do your Tuesday updates. You call the listing agent. You ask for the appointment. So I'm more intentional, I would say, this year than I was previous years, right? And so as a matter of fact, on last week on Thursday, I called about 60 listing agents. 60, 60. Well, I called 100 people, but 60 of them were listing agents that I closed the transaction in the last 12 months. It was part of our homework. We had to call 100 people in one day in the month of March. So I did it on March 31st and called 100 people. And yeah, a lot of them were listing agents. What do you say? You put it off to the last day of the month. Well, I tried previous to that. It didn't happen. I got to like 50, you know, I just couldn't get to 100. But I was here from 80M to 845PM. Over 12 hours, it took me to call 100 people. But it was probably the best thing I've ever done. What came out of that? Man, a lot. So I booked about seven appointments. But from, so that was for listing agents and from those voicemails that I left, I am continuing to get emails. Hey, I got your email. I would love to meet or hey, I got your email about some programs you have. I'm sending you to client your way. I then called pass clients. And it was kind of towards the evening when I started calling those, left a ton of voicemails, letting people know equity is high, rates are on the rise, great time to cash out debt consolidation, things like that. And I got eight people email texts call back wanting to numbers on a cash out refinance. And that's all in one day. So that was definitely an eye opener. So to be clear, I'm back to the 100 calls to the listing agents. Did you say, do you know how many you actually spoke with? Oh, man, there was a lot of people answering before 5 o'clock. I had a ton of conversations, which is why I needed to stay a little later. But God, I want to say I called about 60 listing agents. And I probably talked to, I want to say about 40%. OK, answered. So do the math. That's 24, right? Yep. And you got seven appointments? Yep. That's really good. Yeah, and it was an easy script. What was the script? Beast Clay said, hi, Nancy. It's Melissa with Guild Mortgage, UNI Clothes of Transaction on 123 Main Street. I was the lender. You were the listing agent. We had a great transaction. I'm calling to let you know that we are doing things differently on our team. We have an internal bridge loan program, where your clients can buy first cell after. We also educate our clients on how to do appraisal gap strategies to help clients feel comfortable going over appraise value or waving appraisal. And we have a cash buyer program coming out in the next 30 days. Would you like, if you like more information, I'd love to meet for coffee or get on a Zoom call. That was my script. It worked like butter. I was super shocked, because obviously, you're always hesitant to call the listing agents, because it's been a while. But yeah, it was amazing. I told my team, just lock me in my office and get me on the phone. When you have a team, you start to find out what you are good at and what you enjoy doing. And I feel I'm at that point where it's like, I just love talking to people, love helping people, love educating, but I don't like doing the paperwork. I don't want to follow up on financials. I don't want to figure out, you know, I love numbers, but I don't want to be reviewing financials. It's not where I want to spend my day. I just, I love meeting new realtors, getting to know people, making friends. I'm very close to a lot of my agents. So just making those connections is where I think I thrive. And that's where my time is best used. So your disk profile probably is very high on the eye? You know, it's funny, it's definitely changed, but yes, I'm an IS. Okay, all right. Yeah, I'm very consistent, very consistent, hardworking. Emode when you need to and turn it on. When I need to, yes, now that I have a team, I have a little bit more of a higher D. But when I was on a team, like when I was on Todd Bixman's team, I had no D. It was very, very little. So. Now you have to because you're, yeah, the driver seat. Yeah, I love that strategy, because first of all, it's so simple, oh, do you do anything with video when it comes to, you know, outbound reaching out, that kind of strategy? I do. So as far as video, I have a videographer. I don't do any of my videos. I don't edit crop nothing, right? I have a videographer. He comes every Tuesday for an hour. We knock out 70 videos. If I'm out of place where I don't have anything prepped, then I'll come up with, you know, we'll come up with some templates or scripts. He'll put it in his teleprompter. And I just read off the script. And there we go, and I have a bunch of videos. So now I've got, I probably have over 100 videos in my library now, just because I've been doing that consistently every week for the last gosh. It's been about seven months now. So those videos then go on social media. They go on YouTube. They go on Homebot. So that's, yeah, that's kind of what I've been doing with the whole video. I knew to it. And if you would have asked me last July when I started with my videographer, if I would have done video, never, like, if you're not, I'm super shy. My I'm super shy. And I used to watch all these people doing videos on social media, and I thought I can never do that. Like, no way I would not even know what to say. So I've come a long way, but it's definitely gotten me out of my comfort zone. So I think the things that you fear the most, you just gotta like dive in. Right, right. Just gotta go all in. But your primary social platform is Instagram? It is Instagram, yes. Are you hanging out and all that, right? Yeah, that's kind of where, you know, I get, I make connections with realtors, and starting to get leads from it. And yeah, it's kind of just where I stay in touch with, you know, my friends and all that good stuff. I do a little bit of TikTok, not a ton. It's kind of like I want to go all in on TikTok, but it's hard to keep consistent on all platforms. Okay. So I did close my first TikTok deal in January. So we can't scheme over this. Wait a minute. You got a transaction off of TikTok? Oh, yeah. Okay, tell me about that. So I don't post a ton on TikTok. If you go on there, maybe I've got like 20 videos. But I did this one video with my husband that was, they were payment scenarios, like conventional versus FHA. This one gal in Washington saw my video. She wanted to move to Arizona. She gives me a call, she's like, this is so embarrassing. But I found you on TikTok and I love your videos. And so I asked her like, what did you like about the videos? And she pointed out that specific video. And if you go on my TikTok, you will notice that the ones I have gotten the most views, like over 200,000 views are the ones where I say, what's my payment on a 400,000 dollar home? We're a 500,000 dollar home. Those are the ones that have the most views. So it's interesting, that's what people want to know. The one, I'm not sure which one it is that you got the deal. Is it the, how much does a 300K home cost? Is that the one? Yes, is DC my husband and I? Yeah, it's side by side. Yep. Okay, so first of all, quit downplaying your TikTok presence. First, you've got 5,000 followers and you've got videos that have gotten thousands of views. I mean, yeah. Hello, like a lot of people listening right now are like, shit, I don't have a new TikTok. I really, you know what I mean? But what I love is now, I'm gonna put the links to your TikTok if it's okay in the show. Absolutely, yes, yep. What I'm seeing is this is that I see a pattern of who is actually getting deals off of social media and it's the type of videos that you're doing. Right. I think of BJ on Instagram, who's doing that? I think of Nim, who's doing that with his educational videos. Yep. And it's all problem solving, scenario related, like how much down, how much does it suck payments? Yeah. So people want to know. That's what they want to know. And now I know that and I just need to do more of that, right? We need to give people what they want and that's they want to know what their payment is. They want education and they will go to TikTok. Believe it or not. And I've gotten calls off of it and believe it or not, you know, when you think of TikTok, you think like, oh, that's for teenagers. That's what I thought. And my videographer, he's like, just, you need to get on TikTok and I went in and I closed the deal in January and it turned out amazing. That client didn't have a realtor so I was able to give that client to one of my top agents. Okay, so back to the situation with the client. So she messages you and then you move that to what? A phone call or something else or? Yeah, so just move that. Yeah, she actually called me. It was a phone call, got her qualified. She flew out from Washington. Herner has been to meet me here in my office and we just kind of figured out what they needed to do to get pre-approved to buy a primary home in Arizona, right? Obviously, they needed to get a job here. So they came here, got a job, stayed in an Airbnb for 60 days, got it under contract and they closed. So we made it happen. And you're batch filming, this is part of your batch filming. The TikToks and your editors putting the captions and all that stuff. Yeah, they're doing everything. So I've got a videographer and I've got a social media manager. She manages all of my social media. I rarely go on to, I mean, obviously in the evening when I get home and I have a little bit more time, I can go in there and reply to my messages and stuff like that. But during the day, I'm just focused on my calendar. And yeah, she does everything else. Calendar, I want to talk about that. But I just want to stress the point. Even though your outsourcing are delegating the production, meaning recording, editing, right? Which is a smart play if you have the budget to do it. Because that allows you to focus on your core activities. No pun intended to the core people. But all right, so you mentioned your calendar. I love this brings up the, how religious are you about it? Or how do you, you're coming out of the book span? So are you using win by noon? I want to put it on the spot there in case Todd's listening. No, it's okay. So when I left Todd's team, he had just started the win by noon. So I never, I mean, I obviously used it when I was on his team. But then once I left, I just, I've always used my calendar. But I've never been really on purpose about my calendar. You think a calendar, you think it's like, oh, that's simple, right? But it's not. You've got to make sure you have your reoccurring events, your reoccurring theme days, which is one thing I learned from Todd in the core. You have theme days, and you've got to plug those in. And you've got to color coordinate all of the, you know, your green time. That's your money making activities, right? And so that should be reoccurring every week. If you're meeting with an agent, you know, that's going to be a different color. If you're going to have a lunch and learn. So every, every, every appointment or event has a different color. And I have a lady, her name's Gina, who I love. She's our branch. She runs her whole branch. We call her like mom. But she worked for Robin Levasser, who's like one of the top loan officers in Oregon. And she was her right hand for seven years. And so Gina brings a lot to us here in our branch. And she just sat down with me and just taught me all about the calendar and how to get organized. And so now I just, I have my calendar printed like this. Uh-huh. So every morning, I have my calendar right here in front of me. And I just do what my calendar tells me to do. That's it. It's simple. I don't even think about it. When do you build it out night before, week before what? Week before. So, um, we'll meet on Fridays and then I'll look at it at a glance, right? Make sure that I've got four or five agents I'm meeting face to face with or break in bread, you know, the week, the week after. Okay. Yeah. I love that. Let's deal with the question then. I'm sure you've heard, um, which is, uh, you know, when I've talked to people about time blocking and calendaring before what they, what they throw back at me usually is, you know, well, what if something happens during the day or a blow up or this or that, you know what I mean? Am I supposed to not take that realtor call? How do you address that? Yeah. Um, so, you know, I think at every loan officers have, you know, we go in stages depending on our, on our experience or the amount of people on our team. So at one point, yes, when I was just just solo loan officer, nobody on my team, I had to deal with that. Right. So, um, it was very difficult, but now that I've grown, and I don't have a large team, it's just three people on my team, um, now I've delegated that. So I've been learning a lot about delegation because that was probably my weakness is I wanted to just do it all, I'll figure it out. I can handle it. I can do this better, but now I just learned to delegate it to my team. So my team already knows that first processor comes with an issue. It goes to Brennan on my team, right? He has to problem solve and try to figure out a couple solutions. If he can't, then he'll go to our team manager, which is my husband, um, if they both cannot figure it out, then they're letting me know, hey, we need to sit down and talk about an issue we're having. How does that work structure with, you know, realtors? Are you coaching them, mapping out, hey, here's how my team works, so they don't like, you know, bug the hell out of you? I'm working on it. Um, so I, and I'm just being honest, right? So the one thing, um, now that I'm very calendar based, I'm either on a call, I'm in an appointment, I'm hosting a class, um, so now it's just like back-to-back meetings. I don't have a lot of white space on my calendar, um, so the struggle has been that I have my cell phone, right? And people are calling my cell phone. So now what we've done is I have a team line through Grasshopper. And so it's just, you know, teaching the agents to, hey, if you can't reach me, call my team, right? They'll answer the phone, answer any questions you have, and if they can't, then I can always give you a call back. So that's kind of where we're working on right now is all of our systems and processes and stuff like that. So it's just educating the agents and letting them know that, hey, I might not be the fastest one to answer you. My team can answer, but if they can't them, you know, I'll definitely give you a call back. So Grasshopper using that for call forwarding? I am using Grasshopper, um, it's a separate phone line, so I have a team line. So like on my signature, yes, pick up, I see, yeah, it'll rotate out and somebody will get that, that, okay, got it, yes, yeah, yeah. So systems, processes is like that literally 2022 is all about dialing in our systems in our processes and trying to automate as much as we, as much as we can, right, others and of course, like the calling stuff like that, but yeah, working on a lot of automation. That's good. All right. You mentioned classes. Of course, that got my attention. Tell me how are you going to classes? Um, so doing, um, a lot, I did, I was doing a lot of zoom classes. Now I'm kind of moving towards zoom and in person. So hybrid classes and, um, so that's just kind of, that's how I'm able to stay relevant. I'm able to stay in front of agents, meet new agents. We just did an awesome Google business profile with a teacher. We just brought a teacher in. He taught on zoom and so we had about, gosh, how many people did we have, maybe about 15 people on zoom and then I had six people in person. So, um, that's kind of what I'm doing with classes right now is I'm just going to go hybrid. I know a lot of people still want to do the zoom. Some people want to do the face to face. They want to come into the office and, um, but yeah, it's worked out pretty well. When you in person, do you host a mat, your office? I do. Yes. Interesting. How often do you, agent classes, um, I would say about once a month, we're doing agent classes. I want to bump that up to twice a month, do a couple of lunch and learns every month. So that's actually what I'm working on. I'm going to put it on the calendar and then just, you know, make sure it's on there. It's set to go and I just, you know, need to make sure that my team kind of helps me execute that the marketing. A lot of times I'll partner with the title company and they'll do a lot of the marketing and the flyers, um, however I did see that you do, you teach about agent classes, right? You teach loan officers how to teach agent classes. So I thought your program and, uh, looking forward to learning a little bit more on how I can teach my own classes. Well, thank you. Uh, we're honored to have you in. We got to schedule your one on one call that and this is it. Yes. Yeah. I love it. So I signed up and you sent me a video text message. Yes. Yes. Exactly. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I love that you do that. It's so funny because, you know, back to Derek, right? The core coach, you know, I mean, I just find that there's, there's patterns and that's why I asked the questions I do. And by the way, thank you for going through this interrogation with me. Thank you. I don't know if it feels like that, but I'm really trying to bring to the surface when somebody looks at somebody who's a top one percent originator, it's like, what do they do? Folks, if you've been around here long enough, you've heard the conversations. Have you noticed? There's some things that you guys and gals do. Yeah. Exactly. Over and over and over again. Right? Yeah. It's, uh, it's simple, you know, like even in the core, it's so simple what we do and what they teach. It's not rocket science. It's just accountability, right? Right. And obviously the masterminding and thinking outside the box and how to differentiate yourself from other loan officers, um, using technology, high tech, high touch, that kind of stuff. Right. Um, you know, I think we all speak the same language, right? But coaching is like, I realized that most successful realtors or loan officers, most of them have a coach to keep them accountability, you know, accountable accountability is huge. I mean, I think, you know, I have a personal trainer. Otherwise, I pray wouldn't, I'd make excuses, you know, about going to the gym, but I have a personal trainer. I have a Gina who is our branch admin. She keeps me accountable. If I'm late one minute, I have to put $100 in a jar. If I, you know, lay on my homework for the core, swipe $100 on my credit card. So all those things keep me accountable. And if somebody doesn't have a coach, I think just finding an accountability partner. Mm-hmm. And I think it's, I think everyone needs that, right? We're not perfect. No. I wasn't born this way, you know, so 100% and when you're alone and in those, those moments of weakness, which we all have, you're going to take a nap or a third time. Exactly. Exactly. Get on social for 30 and then take a nap. Yeah, just following a system, we don't need to reinvent the wheel, right? And, you know, it's like, I've got my theme days and if I just follow that and my calendar, you know, it's simple, but it is, it's very hard to do, right? Okay, so this has been great. And so I guess to close it out, I usually kind of like to ask the question around, what do you focus on for this year or what's one big thing you're trying to implement? You mentioned systems. Yes. Would that be some say? Yeah. I'd say systems are, are huge for us right now. Systems across the board or any specific, are you talking about your customer experience, your will, your loan workflow? Well, yes, definitely our team workflow is one thing we're focused on. We use, we have a CRM, it sells for us. A lot of people use those for us, but not so it's just the fact of like making sure you put in your notes, because you're not going to remember the conversation you had with that lead you think you will, but you won't. So it's just making sure you put your notes in, we are able to click a button and it updates the agent, sends them an email automatically with the note. So that's one piece of it, but one system that I am loving right now and I think every loan officer needs to have this is outreach, it's a campaign, I don't know if you've heard of outreach. It's integrated with sales force, it's kind of like an add-on or a plug-in and basically outreach is a campaign. So I can build out as many campaigns as I want. For example, I've been, right now I'm focused on meeting new realtors, right, to bring up my purchase business. So when I meet with a new realtor, I have a new realtor campaign already built out. And you know, so every week they'll get a video or a text or a call or cookies. It's all built out, again, I don't need to think about it, obviously when it's time for me to call that week, I'm going to pick up the phone and call. And I don't send out the email, it just goes out automatically. Once you build the campaigns, take some time, but once you build them, it's like set it and forget it. That's interesting. I'm looking at it right now. Yeah, thank you. I'll have to check that out later. Have not heard of that. It is a game changer. One of the court coaches talked about it and we have access to it here at Guild and yeah, so that's one thing I've been doing or working on a lot is different campaigns. If someone doesn't have a qualifying credit score, they go into a credit plan campaign. If someone just closed on their home, right, they go into like a first payment kind of thing, it'll remind them their first payment, loan out anniversary, past client campaigns, all sorts of anything you can think of, you can create a campaign around. Does that connect into your sales force? Yep. Interesting. Very cool. Yeah, so I'd say that's probably the biggest system that I am working on right now is just leveraging these systems, right? And obviously, the one thing I didn't mention about going back to Instagram really quick is the one thing I love about Instagram and combining that with meeting new agents is back in the day, you had to pick up the phone and do some cold calling, right? They didn't know who you were. You could tell them, hey, I'm, you know, 1% toppling officers, they don't know you. There's no trust factor there, but I am leveraging Instagram, right, because I have a presence there now and a lot of realtors follow me. So what I'm doing is reaching out through just private messaging them on Instagram and just reaching out. And if I like their Instagram, I like what they're doing. I let them know that and I just let them know, hey, I'd love to connect, meet with, you know, some realtors in my area. Let's meet up for coffee. And that is how I book appointments with new realtors. How is there a period of, are you trying to be conscious or aware of time before you go for the ask? Are you just like in whatever man, hey, I like your content, boom, we should grab coffee. So every Friday, we look at my Instagram, we look at all the agents that are following me. And if I like their content, it looks like somebody that, you know, we might have some commonality. I'll send them a message and, you know, I'd say about 60% said, say yes to having a meeting with me. And that's how I book them on my calendar. That's it. I don't do any cold calling. You know, going after a listing agents heavily, but I would say for the past 90 days, that's kind of what I've been doing is I feel like I found a system now. Like this is how I can meet new agents. And I've got some credibility because they follow me, they see my videos, I'm in front of them, you know, that kind of thing. So that has been a huge game changer as well for my business. That's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Yeah. Love it. Great strategy. Okay. So we are officially out of time and you've been very gracious with your time. This, I've learned a ton and I'm comfortable listening. I mean, seriously, it's like, makes me want to go originating again and just like, I'll follow you. That's the recipe for success right here. Come join my team, Jeff. I'll move to Arizona. We've been close to mom, right? There you go. All right. So what's the best, obviously, it's Instagram for people to connect with you, right? Yes. Yes. Okay now, what's your Instagram handle? It's at Home Loans with Melissa. At Home Loans with Melissa, we'll put it in the show notes and other links and stuff like through to your TikTok for sure. Which by the way, let me just pull that up real quick. That's Home Loans with Melissa as well. Yes. Good job on the branding consistency there. Thank you. You know, none of this like surfer girl, one, two, three or whatever. No, none of that. None of that. All right. Well, I can't say thank you enough and obviously I'm looking forward to working with you in our agent class membership and I want to say I'm grateful for your time today. Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. You bet. Listeners, you know what to do. If you like this episode, hey, leave us a review and make sure you check the show notes. Go follow Melissa online and we'll see you on the next one, guys. Bye for now. Awesome. Thank you. Bye. Hey, thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Mortgage Marketing Radio podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. And remember, if you like this episode, please leave us a review. It helps us reach more people and bring more good value and content to you, our listeners. And then don't forget, if you are a loan officer who wants more agent referrals in less time, be sure to check out the Mortgage Marketing Pro membership at mortgagemarketing.pro and learn more about our turnkey system of agent classes that puts you front and center of your local real estate agents, attracting agents instead of chasing them and getting agent referrals like clockwork every single month, just like Kerry Cobb, who her first year in the business with closing over 75 loans, achieved 40% of those 75 loans exclusively from agent classes. And if you want to learn how she did it, now you can do it too. Once again, go to mortgagemarketing.pro and I'll see you over there. Thanks for listening. Bye for now. 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 of that you're in a place in your business where you simply need more purchased loans. You need to fill your pipeline with purchase business. Let's just face it, agents are still a solid pillar of business and sources of purchase business for you. Well, good news. Our mortgage marketing pro membership helps loan officers like you close more loans without the hassle of chasing agents or cold calling done for you agent classes, expert training videos, a marketing automation platform that automates the entire process for you, everything you need to build your personal brand in your local market, attract and convert agents into referral partners. Plus done for you proven marketing materials and plug and play content to make promoting your class, getting agents, butts and seeds, partnering with affiliates, real easy. But that's not all. You'll also get access to our weekly mastermind calls with top LOs, authors, speakers and coaches to learn the best strategies to grow your business right now in today's market. And as an extra bonus for limited time for all new members, you'll get access to a database of 200 agents in your local market that have closed anywhere to from eight to 50 transactions in the last 12 months and we'll provide that list uploaded into our platform for you. So you can get off to a fast start in reaching actually productive agents. So what are you waiting for? You can check out more at mortgagemarketing.pro, see more of the success stories there. And if you feel compelled to do so, book a call, we'll have a chat, we'll see if it's a fit. Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your mortgage business to the next level right now. Head over to mortgagemarketing.pro.