How To Stop Procrastinating

There’s a phenomenon I’ve been talking about for years, and I call it “getting ready to get ready.” One of the biggest things that holds loan officers back is the feeling that they need to be “ready” before starting something new.

This inevitably leads to procrastination, and it holds LO’s back from making major progress in their businesses. Over the years at Mortgage Marketing Animals, I’ve found myself having the same conversations over and over again with LOs in the program. One of those conversations goes a little like this:

“I knew about Mortgage Marketing Animals 15 years ago, but I kept putting it off. My biggest regret is that I didn’t join back then—I would be way further ahead if I had just joined when I had first heard about it! I had friends that did and I could see them growing, but it took me another six to seven years before I joined.”

The reason so many people say they wished they had joined us earlier is because even within the first few minutes of their onboarding call, they developed a completely different view of their business and their lives.

Only after that first call did they understand the changes they needed to make and how to get ready to maximize their success. They realized they didn’t need to get ready to join Mortgage Marketing Animals, because they had no idea what to get ready for. It was just procrastination.

If you need help overcoming procrastination in your mortgage business, I think there’s one lesson we can all learn here. Just dive in and get started!  Schedule a Discovery Call to see how our Program can help you overcome procrastination and other loan officer obstacles. You’ll be energized that you took the first step, and you’ll enjoy the process.

Yet another inspirational story

Check out the text that Tara McCafferty, a great friend of mine (and Freedom Club member) sent me.

What you may not know is, she just moved to Jacksonville, FL from Reno, NV knowing literally nobody here, and yet working Thor’s Hammer strategy, 67% of her scheduled closings are from her new connections in Florida.

#RealCourageRealLeadsRealClosings

A screenshot of a phone

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Come to find out, good ol’ fashion prospecting works!

Proud of you Tara!!  Leading through inspiration.

Come to find out this actually works…

So I just got a message from Jennifer Roy, a super cool loan officer out of the Orlando area where she mapped out just how simple closing an extra few loans each month is…  Read on..

Here’s the message she sent:

“Had a call today with an agent for one of my preapproved clients – I met and preapproved this client today (referred by a friend) and called the buyers’ agent to connect after emailing her the preapproval.

I explained when I send updates that I’ll also call every Tuesday during the transaction to give file updates. Y’all – she referred me another buyer ON THE SPOT.

I have never in my career of 35 years had that happen. These scripts are powerful. Work the system, trust the system.

Just for additional clarity – this agent is not in my market, she’s several hundred miles from me, and I have never once spoken to her before.”

First of all, congrats to Jennifer for taking action and being a great inspiration for all of us.

She just reminds me how simple it can be and to just follow the plan.  Sometimes we / I get caught up in complicating the plan, and instead, we / I just need to do what actually works and follow a proven plan that now ten’s of thousands of LOs have started.

That’s it. 
1. Get a plan that is proven and actually works TODAY.
2. Follow that plan
3. Get results
4. Inspire others

Want to see the plan that Jennifer is using as a step by step roadmap, email our office at
support@themarketinganimals.com with “Show Me The Plan” and I’ll hook you up.  <no charge>

What do you think we should do?

Do you find yourself getting sucked back into the files once you’ve submitted the file?   
 
See, the problem with that is it’s not something we can grow with.   
 
Having a team that closed around $105,878,352 last month, one thing I have learned is, we have to act like we are a real business, or better yet, like we are the CEO of a big business. 
 
We can’t allow ourselves to be sucked into the files.   
 
We have to surround ourselves with amazing people…  People who can solve problems instead of asking us/you what they should do about a situation.    
 
I have this policy that has worked for me very well.  Any time somebody on the team asks me to solve a problem, I ask them “well, what do you think we should do?”, and then just be quiet and see what they say. 
 
I find that about 95% of the time, the solution they came up with is the right one, and it empowers them to make decisions in the future. 
 
Now, 5% of the time, perhaps they do something that I may disagree with, and sometimes that does cost me a deal or even a referral source.. 
 
.. however, because I/you can now focus on bringing in the next 20 loans and the next 20 referral partners instead of worrying about that “1”, well, I think you get the idea. 
 
We have to focus on the big stuff that really moves the needle and not concern ourselves with who parks where in the parking lot. 
 
That’s what I think, what do you think?

Your voicemail reported to Google 

OK, this is going to get a little weird… 
 
Google often knows if you answer your phone or if it goes to voicemail…  
Yepper, they often know way more about you than you may have thought. 
 
See, companies share info and such. 
 
but it gets worse… 
 
If your voicemail is what often picks up instead of you, google penalizes you on your Google search and rankings. 
 
“So is this really a problem Carl?” 
 
ummmm, yeah, it’s a huge problem, read on… 

You see, any time you are referred or somebody sees your social media post, or is interested in the services that you offer, many of the times they will go to Google for validation of who you are. 
 
And if you show up way down the list (or not at all), that’s a real problem. 
 
We actually get a fair amount of loans each month from people finding us on Google, and right now we aren’t getting those from paid ads, it’s from Google searches… 

… and part of that is because we actually answer our phones.  And when I’m busy, an assistant or an answering service (that doesn’t sound like an answering service) answers it for me. 
 
In my case, my business lines don’t even have voicemail set up.  We literally don’t have it because either somebody in the office or an answering service picks up on EVERY call. 
 
Just as an FYI, a study showed that 79% of the loans were closed with the loan officer they talked to. 
 
Wow!!  That’s a HUGE number.   79%!! 
 
Sooooo, what do we do with this info? 
 
Get a team, or work with somebody who has a team that can help with these kinds of things. 
 
The days of the “1 man band” or “1 woman band” have been over for about 3 years now.  
 
It’s these seemingly small things that can make all the difference. 
 
The good news is, answer your phone and you will likely have a 79% chance of closing those that end up financing a home or refinancing their current deal. 
 
Those are some good odds!