I thought marketing was something you squeezed in when you had the time… or when the pipeline was running low.
Wrong.
The marketing is the job.
Think about it — if no one knows you, trusts you, or hears from you regularly, it doesn’t matter how good you are at the mortgage side. You can’t help people you never meet.
The turning point for me was when I flipped the order:
Marketer first – building relationships, making calls, following up, staying visible.
Loan officer second – once the leads came in, then I got to do the mortgage magic.
The thing is, the best time to market is when you don’t “need” the deals. That’s how you avoid those feast-or-famine cycles.
So today, block the time. Make the calls. Send the notes. Do the follow-ups.
Every day. No exceptions.
Because when you see yourself as a marketer who happens to do mortgages… the game changes.
I saw this diagram the other day, and I’ve gotta be honest…
It made me laugh… then immediately feel a little called out.
Ouch!!! right?
I call it “The Alignment Gap.”
Most of us are stuck doing the stuff in the bottom right corner: Things we do. Not things we like. Not things we’re great at. And not things that make us a lot of money.
Just… things we do. Because they’re on the calendar. Because they popped up in our inbox. Because somebody needs something. Again.
I See It Every Day…
Loan officers with enormous potential, amazing personalities, and rock-solid experience…
…spending most of their day chasing down paperwork, solving fires, overthinking social media posts, or sitting in meetings that don’t lead to closings.
Meanwhile, the work that does bring joy and income: talking to people, building relationships, getting referrals – keeps getting pushed to “tomorrow.”
If you’ve ever felt that, you’re not alone.
But here’s the good news: You can fix it. Quickly.
The Fix = Alignment
The top-producing LOs I work with, the ones closing 10+ deals a month without losing their minds, don’t work harder.
They work more aligned.
They’ve built their day around the overlap of:
What they love
What they’re good at
What makes them money
Everything else? They delegate it. They automate it. They don’t touch it.
That’s how they get more done, enjoy their work more, and scale faster, without burnout.
So Here’s a Challenge…
This week, try this:
1. Audit your time.
For 2–3 days, jot down what you do and mark it:
I enjoy this
I’m good at this
This makes money
Anything with zero marks? That’s your red flag.
2. Rebuild your day around the 3-circle overlap. That’s where the magic happens.
3. Get help with the rest. Yes, it’s allowed. No, you don’t have to do everything yourself.
Want Help With That?
This October, I’m doing something special.
We’re hosting a small-group Mastermind Workshop in Clearwater Beach, FL.
It’s not a big hotel ballroom. It’s hands-on, practical, and full of real loan officers doing real business, just like you.
You’ll meet some of my team. You’ll see the systems I use. And you’ll walk out with a customized plan to work in your genius zone and scale your closings.
I didn’t have a single pre-qual lined up. No flyers. No strategy. Just a folding table, some stale cookies, and the hope that someone — anyone — would ask me for a loan.
And guess what?
Nobody did.
The listing agent was polite… but clearly underwhelmed. Visitors walked in, grabbed a cookie, avoided eye contact, and walked right back out.
At the end of the day, I packed up my little table, tossed the uneaten cookies, and sat in my car thinking:
“What the heck am I doing wrong?”
That drive home was quiet. But in that silence, a thought hit me like a brick:
“I came to get, not to give.”
I showed up to the open house hoping for leads… But I didn’t bring any value. No help. No strategy. No reason for them to want me there.
That’s when everything shifted.
From that day forward, I decided:
Every time I show up — anywhere — I bring value first.
Not just rate sheets… But real help.
The one that really moved the needle was the Follow Up Refer Back program.
It’s a game plan that helps the agent win more deals, and me too 🙂
And when I started doing that?
Agents turned into partners. And referrals started coming in like clockwork.
So if you’re showing up and not seeing results?
You might be missing what I missed that day:
It’s not about being present. It’s about being helpful.
It wasn’t supposed to rain that day — but there I was… Soaked. Broke. And trying to figure out how the heck to close my first loan.
I’d just stepped into the mortgage world. No fancy CRM. No team. No clue.
Just a cheap umbrella that flipped inside out if the wind so much as sneezed.
I remember standing outside a real estate office, waiting for a meeting that never happened.
They forgot. I didn’t.
I stood there dripping in the Florida rain, feeling like a failure with a wet folder full of ways I could help them close more deals.
And I thought to myself:
“Did I make a mistake getting into this business?”
But right there in that moment, something shifted.
I realized… the successful folks didn’t get there by avoiding days like this. They got there by walking through them.
That was the day I decided: If it’s gonna be hard… let it be worth it.
So I wiped the rain off my glasses, rescheduled the meeting, And the next day, I showed up again.
Because the difference between the ones who make it and the ones who don’t?
Isn’t talent. It’s tolerance.
Tolerance for the rejection. Tolerance for the setbacks. Tolerance for the rain.
Fast forward to today… I’ve helped thousands of loan officers build wildly successful businesses — But every single one of them had a “soaked and broke” moment too.
So if you’re standing in the rain right now…
You’re not off track. You’re just in the part where the story gets good.
I learned more about grit riding my bike to Zephyrhills Elementary than I ever did in school.
It was first grade. I was six years old. And I rode that old banana seat bike down Geiger Road every morning.
No helmet. No phone. No GPS. Just me, two wheels, and a lunchbox swinging from the handlebars.
There were no sidewalks. Just sand, dirt, and the occasional rattlesnake. And let me tell you — Florida sand is no joke when you’re pedaling through it.
Some mornings it was cold. Some mornings it rained. Some mornings I just didn’t feel like going.
But I got on the bike anyway.
Why?
Because there was no backup plan. Nobody was coming to give me a ride. If I didn’t pedal, I didn’t get there.
That lesson stayed with me.
Years later, I got into the mortgage business… And at first, it felt like that same sandy road all over again.
Calls that went nowhere. Realtors who ghosted. Deals that fell apart the day before closing.
And just like that little boy in first grade…
I got on the bike anyway.
Because I’d learned something valuable early on:
The people who keep pedaling — even when it’s hard, even when it’s uphill
—
They’re the ones who make it.
So if you’re in a rough stretch right now…
Keep going.
You’re not doing it wrong — you’re just in the sand.
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