Category Archives: Uncategorized

Jan 16
0

Time for an Attitude Tune-up?

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Brian Tracy, entrepreneur, sales guru and motivational coach says this about ATTITUDE:

This attitude of looking for the good in every situation, of looking for the advantage or benefit in any problem or difficulty, is the way that the most successful people think most of the time. Superior people, leaders in all areas, face the inevitable ups and downs of daily life on the way to their destinations by taking complete control of their thinking and their emotions. They do this by choosing the words they use to describe a situation, their tone of voice, and their behavior in dealing with problems.

So, what’s YOUR attitude about getting out there and creating new business for yourself?positiveface

Here are three quick and simple ways to tune-up your attitude today so that more opportunities head your way tomorrow…

A Morning Dose of Positivity –How long has it been since you listened to a motivational series on the drive into work? Download your favorite positivity guru and use your commute, whether it’s 10 minutes or an hour, to accelerate your attitude.

Check Your Attitude at the Door-Every day, before going home from work, take two minutes to complete the following sentence in your journal or notebook: “Because of my positive and willing attitude, today I was able to………” 

Partner-up with a Positivity Pal-Ask a teammate or peer to engage in 30 consecutive days of positivity with you. Agree to send each other one email each day where you communicate one positive experience from your day and a specific wish of positivity to your partner. It could look something like this:

Dear Daniel: Today I made it a point to get out of my office. I had a very productive lunch with a Realtor partner of mine. It was well worth my time and effort and so much more pleasant than I thought it was going to be. I wish that you have a surprise encounter with someone tomorrow that leaves you feeling GREAT!

Remember, everything starts from the inside – out. Giving yourself the gift of a positive attitude today will directly influence whether opportunity knocks once, twice, three times or ever knocks at all.

 

Jan 05
0

What Does a Great Mortgage Business Plan LOOK Like, Anyway?

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Every Loan Officer who reaches out to me for a complimentary business coaching session can expect to be asked the following question, “Do you have a business plan?” Nine out of ten times, the answer is, “No.” In the beginning of my career, this used to surprise me. Coming from a corporate background, strategic planning, business planning and goal setting were expected at least, annually. How else was a business going to meet their market growth and business growth goals? How else would they be able to track sales projects, Marketing R.O.I., customer service levels, employee training & retention, systems implementation, etc., etc., etc?

What I discovered was that most mortgage companies were not providing the tools or education, nor were there any expectations of their Loan Officers to develop and share their goals or full-fledged business plans. No doubt part of the reason for the extremely high turn-over of Loan Officers across mortgage companies. Heck, if you’re not investing in and tracking your sales force, how are you effectively hiring the right team members, forecasting sales growth and providing the right tools and education to ensure retention? Hmmm? I’ll step down from my soap box now.

Ten years later, I’m happy to report that this has seemed to change somewhat, in a more positive direction and more and more, I am told that some type of goals are being requested and some companies have even taken the leap to provide business plan templates to their Loan Officers to fill out each year.

Helping Loan Officers to develop detailed business plans that will get them excited about taking action and give them a greater sense of direction and purpose about their businesses is one of my favorite specialized services that I offer as parexamplepicofexamplebizplant of my particular coaching platform.  It is a value that has proven its worth 10-fold for those individuals I coach.

I’d like to share an example of a detailed, mortgage-specific business plan with anyone who is interested enough to request it. Please email me at bizcoachvictoria@gmail.com and I will be happy to send you a copy of one of my own client’s co-developed 2017 Business Plans, who has graciously agreed to allow me to offer it anonymously.

2017 is going to be a GREAT year for those of us who PLAN it that way! Cheers!

 

Be on the look-out next Thursday for Business Planning Season Part VI-The Do’s and Don’ts of Business Planning

 

Jan 03
0

Pave a Positive Path Toward Prosperity

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One of the toughest things to do as a solo-entrepreneur is to tell yourself the big, bold and sometimes, ugly TRUTH 100% of the time. The second toughest thing to do is to ask yourself questions, that telling yourself the truth about, will create real and positive change.

As sales folks, Mortgage Professionals must keep a keen focus on their customers at all times. If they don’t, the outcome has a direct and immediate effect on their pocket books. A regularly generated paycheck, regardless of effort, focus or customer satisfaction, simply is not part of the Loan Officer package. Every dollar derived is in direct correlation to the Loan Officer’s individual efforts with their customers.

The following, highly-specific, customer related questions may be tough to swallow if you’re not ready to tell yourself the 100% truth. However, I believe, if you’re up for the challenge, your answers to these questions will lead you to take actions that will surely have a positive impact on your pocket book in 2017.

This exercise is also an excellent one to share with your team of Loan Officers if you happen to be a Branch Manager.

  1. Do you do what you say your going to do BEFORE you say you are going to do it?
  2. Do you take a complete application, ask your clients the right questions and get the appropriate information/documentation up front?
  3. Do you know your program underwriting guidelines?
  4. Do your underwriters think you know your underwriting guidelines?
  5. Do your processors respect you?
  6. Do the processors in your office refer their family and friends to YOU?
  7. Do the title/escrow reps think highly of you?
  8. Do you go ahead and do a loan for a client even though you know it is not the best thing for them?
  9. Do you return ALL your phone calls?
  10. Do you return all your emails?
  11. Do you do the things you least want to do first?
  12. Do you complete your, “things-to-do” list for the next day before going to sleep?
  13. Do you prioritize your tasks and work on them in their order of importance?
  14. Do you surf the web when you still have calls or tasks to complete?
  15. Do you AVERAGE more than 30 minutes of television a day?
  16. Do you complain about not having enough business?
  17. Do you keep in contact with all your clients?
  18. Do you have all your clients, prospects and referral partners in a database (ACT, etc…)?
  19. Do you mine your customer database?
  20. Do you have systems in place to optimize your clients’ mortgage experience?
  21. Do your clients always know where they stand and what they need to close their loan?
  22. Do you withhold information from your clients and let them know “the real story” towards the end of the transaction?
  23. Do you read at least one book a quarter on business development, communication, ethics or the mortgage industry?
  24. Do your clients want do business with you again?
  25. Do your clients refer people to you?
  26. Do you have a compelling reason for someone to do business with you?
  27. Do your referral partners and clients think of you as an expert?

 

Oct 10
0

Three Telltale Signs of Success

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I have been coaching mortgage professionals for over 10 years now and I can tell you there are 3 telltale signs of a person which indicate to me a very strong probability that they will hit their stated goals and then-some…

They are…

  1. Self disciplined
  2. Action-oriented
  3. Risk takers

Self discipline is at the top of the list because without it, the rest just never seems to truly gel.

Some characteristics of a self disciplined mortgage professional:

  • Writes and reviews goals
  • Adheres to positive habits and when they fall off the wagon, they’re fast at getting back on it
  • Plans out their weeks ahead of time
  • Creates systems
  • Gets fueled-up by completing task lists

Some characteristics of action-oriented mortgage professionals:

  • Asks a lot of questions about how to get things done
  • Engages in a fair amount of networking
  • Doesn’t have a tendency to get caught up in details
  • Rallies others to help them implement tasks
  • Produces a variety of opportunities from week to week

Some characteristics of risk-taker mortgage professionals:

  • Significant income growth
  • Creates various streams of income
  • Involved in community/strong public identity
  • Speaker/Presentations
  • Manages a significant support staff
Feb 22
493

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Jul 15
971

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Mar 03
971

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Feb 24
493

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