At first glance, this may seem like it doesn’t have anything to do with mortgages and helping you ramp up your business, but I’ll tell you this may be one of the most important messages I have ever sent to you.

Making sure everything at home is good is critical to how we do things at work.
It all overflows to each other, home and work.

Think of a jar of water and then putting even just 1 drop of red dye in it.  The red dye doesn’t just sit there on one side of the jar, in short order the entire jar is red.  This is the same for “work and home” for us, it all overflows to each other.

That’s the set up for a life changing conversation I had about 7 years ago…

I was sitting on my front porch visiting with my then 30 something year old niece.  Out of the blue, she said “You know why so many people end up in divorce (or separating from their mate or life partner)?”

My first thought was, what is somebody that just got married a year or 2 ago going to have to say to me about How To Make Relationships Work…  what the heck does she know..

But then she shared with me something that has been an absolute game changer for me…

“The reason so many romantic “living together” relationships break up is because they confuse “marriage (or mate) issues with “roommate” issues.  You see couples really have 2 different relationships going on at the same time.  They are a romantic (or married) couple and they are also roommates.”

She went on to explain, “You see, “roommate” issues are things like leaving the cap off the toothpaste, using up the last bit of coffee without picking up more at the store, leaving the car empty of gas, or having the TV turned up too loud while the other is trying to rest or wants quiet time.”

“Marriage issues” she said, “really boils down to 3 things, beating, cheating, and/or addictions.”

She explained that we have to be very careful when we are having an argument with our mate, not to elevate “roommate” issues to “marriage” issues.  Roommate issues are just part of living with somebody and not to be elevated to “I can’t live with you because you didn’t put the milk back in the refrigerator…”

So these days I remind myself to keep things in perspective and that if I’m feeling a bit of strife in my marriage, it’s extremely likely just a small roommate issue and not worth getting upset about.

When I started doing that about 6 or 7 years ago, it was a game changer! 

Now things are pretty darn good at home, and with things pretty darn good at home, it’s way easier for things to be pretty darn good at work.  I find my work conversations go way better and I feel more confident about putting together my team, asking for the business, getting more sales and loans closed with the entire mortgage team over here.

I guess it really all boils down to, “Don’t sweat the small stuff and it’s all small stuff.”

Now I realize that some of the people that read this are single and enjoying life in that way.  Awesome.  Perhaps you know somebody that could benefit from this bit of wisdom that can be a life changing awareness for them, if so, please pass it on.

OK, so I know this isn’t my typical message, and I sincerely debated about sharing this as I didn’t want to offend somebody or perhaps seem “uncool”.  But I decided that real friends take risks to help each other out.  Thanks for letting me be a part of your awesome journey. 

If you need help with anything else, give my team a call.

Another branch manager that I hadn’t seen or spoke to in a few years called me up the other day.

“Carl, who turned off the “more loans” switch?” he asked me in a panic.

First of all, we have to have clarity of the current situation.  Here’s the truth:

2022 is expected to be the best year ever for purchase mortgage business.

Yepper, you heard that right… 2022 the purchase business is expected to be $1.739 TRILLION.  Just for comparison, 2021 was $1.646 Trillion in purchase mortgage business (2^nd only to this year’s projections).

So what in the heck is everybody worried about?  This is going to be the best year EVER for purchase mortgage business (just in case you forgot I said that just 1 minute ago).

Ahhhhhhh, oh, I see, some LOs haven’t been doing our referral partner marketing as part of their weekly routine.

Ok, here’s the thing, It’s not your fault, I see this kind of thing all the time.  Many of our mentors just shared what worked for them way back, and it did work for them way back.

No big deal, it’s going to be ok, we just need to map out how to get agents to refer to us, and it’s not buying Zillow or online leads and dumping those things that will never close on their desk like a pile of rotting fish.

The reason I focus on referral partner marketing is the CLV (client lifetime value) is soooo much higher with them.  You see, with each dollar invested and with each hour invested, the return on investment is so much higher with referral partners than consumer direct.

Focusing on “consumer direct” is like trying to fill an empty lake by buying buckets of water.  It would cost a fortune and likely evaporate faster than you could fill it that way.

If we want to fill a lake, we need to dig a well, and then run a hose from that well to the lake.  In short order, we will be ready to enjoy the fruits of our smart (and wayyyy easier) activity.

While I do some consumer direct, for market research purposes for ongoing loan officer training that I offer and for research for my own mortgage branch, I can tell you that the referral partner marketing is what has made my branch one of the most successful in the entire United States industry… and without overly exerting myself.

So that’s where you and I together want to spend the majority of our time.  When we do, all the stress of “what am I going to do” all goes away. ☺

As the famous hockey player said, “Go to where the hockey puck is going, not where it’s currently at..”

It’s a purchase game, and the next two years are slated to be the best purchase market ever, let’s just go there together. ☺
Focus on referral partner marketing and the good news is, we just have to put into place a simple, easy to implement, predictable process to make that happen.

If you need help mapping out a plan to get more purchase loans that are referred to you, without ever buying another lead, let’s get on a 1 on 1 zoom call here.  <no charge>.

Talk soon.

If you want to make and sell shoes, you have to buy leather…

When changes are happening in the mortgage world, this is not the time to “Hunker Down”.
This is the time to DOUBLE DOWN.

It’s times like these when I have had my biggest growth, and I’m expecting it again this year.

Somebody asked me earlier this week:
“How do I build my mortgage business without spending money (investing in it)?”

Look, we are running real businesses here.  Even kids running a lemonade stand understand that they have to buy Kool-Aid or lemons if you want to sell lemonade. 

If you want to make and sell shoes, you have to buy leather.  It’s as basic as business gets.

Here’s the thing though, we have to invest in things that actually work, that have a proven track record, you know, things that actually bring loans in the door.
The things that “get your name out there” <wherever “there” is..> and things that “brand me”, well, I have found those things to be pretty lame and makes me “feel famous”, but does nothing to bring in more loans, help more families, and make me more $$$.

If I want to try to compete with the companies that put their names on stadiums and blimps with “branding”, last I checked, they can outspend me on those things…

Evaluate where you are spending money.  The things that you invest in that you can actually track that brings you in not just a few more loans, but WAYYYY more loans, it’s time to double down on those things.   I can tell you that I sure am.

The things that you can’t actually track for how many more loans you closed because of them, well, I would shut those things down, and frankly I DID shut those things down years ago…

ONLY FOCUS AND INVEST IN THE THINGS THAT MAKE YOU MONEY!

If you want me to show you the activities my mortgage team does that makes us more money, I’ll totally hook you up.  This is the exact conversations we are having with the top LO’s in the nation that are part of our Loan Officer Freedom Club.

I’ll show you how much we can help you “move the needle” in just one 45 minute 1 on 1 call.

The winners don’t “Hunker Down”, they “Double Down”…

So I did a killer podcast episode the other week, and I was going to send the link out to it today…  But gosh dang it, Steve Kyles put out an episode on his podcast that was better than mine <that silver tongued rascal>.

It’s an episode showcasing a loan officer, Doug Wagner, that went from zero $$ in his bank account, to just a few years later, he has over $1MM in his personal bank account all from just doing loans….  and he’s younger than my daughter…

It would be a very good use of your time to Go Listen To It Here.  Today is a great time to listen.

It’s a true “small town boy does good” type of story. 

He talks about how he pushed through self-doubt and hard times, and how he made more money when he started taking Fridays and weekends off (and how he did that).

After you listen to it, let me know what you think about his method and how he did it.

<OK Steve, you won this round, I’ll give you that, but know that I’m upping my game even more…>

See you guys on the inside.