Victoria Fifield

Jan 01
1

Start the New Year Focused on One Thing…YOU!

By | Food for thought, Mortgage Business Tips | No Comments

Happy New Year!2018newyear

It’s a fresh, New Year with all fresh new beginnings, which include: new habits, new attitudes, new risks, new hopes, new goals, new challenges, new focus, new passions, new possibilities, and THANK GOD, we’re here and able to experience it ALL!

Since everything we experience on the outside, starts with how we feel on the inside, here are 6 simple practices to maintaining a positive attitude in any situation all year long…

Break-up the Negative Stream –The moment you realize you are riding down that mental negative stream of frustration, anger or self-pity– shift your thoughts to a totally unrelated memory, to-do list or other thought. This breaks the negative pattern and keeps you from sinking into a downward spiral.

Find the Lesson – There is a lesson to be learned from every situation. No matter how unfortunate the situation may appear, recognize the beautiful lessons waiting to be discovered. Every problem is a learning and growth opportunity in disguise.

Focus on Daily Gratitude – You cannot be both angry and grateful at the same time. Start every day off by counting the blessings and miracles in your life, start looking for them and you shall find more.

Positive Affirmations & Visualization – Practice seeing yourself in a positive and confident light. Do this whenever you have a few minutes (while waiting for a friend, sitting on the bus, riding an elevator.) Keep a list of positive statements about yourself someplace where you will see them daily, like your bathroom mirror.

Inventory of Memories – Keep an inventory of memories that can immediately make you smile- Occasions where you felt happy, appreciative and cheerful and at peace with the world.

Criticizing Detox Diet – Change your approach and attitude. See if you can stop criticizing others and situations. Shift from fault-finding to appreciation-finding.

Nov 01
1

Six Pointers for Powerful Presentations

By | Mortgage Business Tips | No Comments

speakingpicBe Confident in your Content-Hot topics like Facebook for Business and Time Management are GREAT…IF, the content you plan on delivering is personalized to your skill, knowledge & experience level. There’s nothing more disengaging for listeners than when they sense someone dancing around the details or a lack of real-world experience.

Inspire ACTION-Write down what you want your audience to do differently or think differently as a result of your presentation. Every presentation whether it be a brief 15 minute Realtor office sales meeting or a ½ day C.E. presentation should be tied to specific goals.

Never, “wing it!”-Write down your presentation so that you are polished and prepared. Your audience knows when you’re speaking off the cuff. Main points and story lead-ins can be jotted down on 3×5 cards to help you stay on track. Never read your presentation or inundate your audience with an overabundance of PowerPoint slides.

First 60 Seconds of Story Time-The best of the best speakers engage us in the first 60 seconds with a story, a case study example, “a funny thing happened on the way to this event” opener, a little known fact, personal foible or victory statement, etc. This approach instantly relaxes the audience by kicking things off in a casual, personal voice, rather than a formal, instructional voice.

Eliminate “Uhms” and “Ahs”-The root of all such transitional, “thought hiccups” is uncertainly. The only way to combat this is to PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. Get a friend of family member to allow you to give your presentation to them so you get used to having eyes on you while you are standing and speaking. If no one is available, then speak into a mirror, into your own eyes.

Examples Leave Impressions-Be sure to share as many examples and personal stories as possible with your audience. People connect with lessons learned, times of vulnerability, overcoming fears, and examples of victories achieved. Your audience will recall the feelings associated with your presentation even more-so than your words.

Oct 24
1

Managing Loan Officers on the Cusp of Greatness

By | Mortgage Business Tips | No Comments

accountabilityDo you have loan officers on your team that you were sure were going to knock it out of the park, but instead do a whole lotta bunting? Do you scratch your head because outwardly they exhibit the right attitude, confidence, knowledge and willingness to take action but their pipelines reflect something else?

Before you get too frustrated and head over to H.R. to discuss an exit strategy for these folks, put on your Coach hat instead and form a Power Production & Accountability Group!

Here’s an example of how to immediately kick-start a successful Power Production & Accountability Group:

  1. Invite your select loan officers-Send out a recurring meeting invite to meet twice a month for a period of 6 months. Express in your email invite that you feel they are on the cusp of greatness and you want to help push them over that edge and unearth solutions for what may be holding them back from hitting their goals.
  2. Communicate expectations- Each loan officer who agrees to participate in the Power Production & Accountability Group will NOT focus on excuses, frustrations & complaints, but rather they will focus on solutions, accountability, sharing, possibility and opportunity.
  3. Ask for commitment-Agree to become a part of this group  ONLY if you can commit to the meetings, leave your frustrations/excuses at the door and be open and willing to exchange ideas and try something new.
  4. Share your agenda-The agenda should include, but does not have to be limited to the following: brainstorming networking strategies, sales strategies, building referral relationships and marketing ideas, follow-up strategies & scripts, hands-on training for tools & technology, time management best practices and organizational tips, product & industry knowledge.

Important tips to ensure the success of your Power Production & Accountability Group:

  1. Everyone shares, everyone participates, including YOU.
  2. Prepare and send out your agenda 2 days prior to each meeting.
  3. Select a “scribe,” someone who is willing to capture all of the ideas shared and send them out to the group via email immediately after the meeting.
  4. ALWAYS have the participants state a goal out loud that they’d like to achieve prior to the next meeting.
  5. Encourage the group to encourage each other in between meetings.
  6. Keep the meeting to a max of 90 minutes!
  7. If your participants are remote, make sure to utilize a tool, like www.gotomeeting.com.

 

 

 

Sep 06
0

Stay Connected, Stay Social, Stay Relevant with your Leads

By | Mortgage Business Tips | No Comments

buildingtrustNobody will refute that a lot of blood, sweat and tears goes into gaining leads from Realtors, past customers, your website, Zillow and other lead-generating sites.

At first, each lead is treated like a sudden jackpot and you pour plenty of excited energy into each one and this produces results. Then you get busy. Then you get choosy. Then you even get a little bit annoyed at those, “not-so-hot” leads…you know the ones with overly complicated financial scenarios, the ones you called once or twice and never heard back from, the ones you pre-qual who go totally M.I.A. These leads just hurt your brain and so you conveniently leave their contact info and some scribbled notes in a drawer or folder some place and they never hear or see your name again.

The key nowadays to converting more leads is to stay connected and to stay social. And, even if that lead never becomes ready to buy or refinance for whatever reasons, drawing these leads closer to you out of the gates will gain their referrals to their very-ready friends, family and co-workers and why will they do that?… because they will feel like they know, like and trust you.

P.S. you cannot achieve the, “know, like and trust you factor” just with an email drip campaign.

Here are three tools to easily stay connected and social (And, RELEVANT, by the way)with every lead you gain:

Let’s say all you’ve got is a cell number and a name, you can always take that info and upload it to SlyBroadcast.com, which is a great time savings tool, and then send out pre-recorded messages to that entire group of long lost leads so they can hear your voice. A quick tip about leaving messages and using SlyBroadcast type messaging-Always keep your messages brief, very upbeat and speak like you’re already well-acquainted. Again, you want to bridge that, “know, like and trust factor.”

Always immediately look for your leads on LinkedIn and Facebook and connect there so you become familiar to them on a regular basis through your own postings. Again, this draws them closer to you on a more personal and social level, helps to build-up the trust factor and creates no extra work for you.

Lastly, rather than emailing, try mass texting tools like Mighty Text for Androids (there are apps for iPhone, too!) where you can send one general message out to an entire group from your smart phone. The message will look like an individual, personal text to your receivers. Texting is an immediate communication avenue, much more so than email and absolutely will gain more response.

Voice broadcast tools like, SlyBroadcast.com, connecting via social media avenues and utilizing mass texting services are all superior time-savings tools to bringing the leads you’ve worked so hard to get, closer to you (with much less effort/time) and will absolutely increase referrals, as well as your lead to close conversion ratio.

Aug 23
1

Are you Behaving in Ways that Lead to Success?

By | Mortgage Business Tips | No Comments

successleaderI 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…

The most successful Mortgage Professionals tend to be:

1.   Self-disciplined

2.   Action-oriented

3.   Risk takers

Self-discipline is at the top of the list because without it, most sales folks will fall victim to inconsistent lead generation, revolving door relationships and wasting time constantly recreating the wheel so to speak.

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
Aug 10
1

The Most Common Mistakes of Struggling, Producing Mortgage Managers

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overwhelmedmanagerOk, for all you thick-skinned producing mortgage managers struggling to juggle it all and feeling like you’re the only one who can’t seem to handle the competing work load in front of you, such as:

  • Originating loans
  • Recruiting
  • Managing
  • Networking
  • Marketing
  • Trouble shooting
  • Training
  • Corporate meetings
  • Sales meetings
  • PNLs, Expense Reports, Tracking overhead and all other Corporate-related documentation, surveys and reports you are required to submit…

YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

Reality is that when you opted to have your cake and eat it too, you knowingly or unknowingly accepted the fact that being an A+ Sales Professional and an A+ Manager at the same time, would be a near impossible feat to achieve.

Now of course everyone’s definition of what it means to be A+ at something is going to vary and at the end of the day what really matters is that you go home from work feeling accomplished, satisfied with your efforts, up for tackling tomorrow’s challenges and fully expecting victories.

But what do you do if you don’t feel that way much of the time and after some introspection and a thorough review of your business numbers you find that you’re not setting the world on fire in your origination and your team seems to be sucking wind, too?

First, read through the following most common mistakes of struggling, producing mortgage managers and jot down everything that you can honestly admit that you are guilty of and willing to change.

Next, set a goal to focus on 3 of the items for the remainder of the year and certainly feel free to reach out to me for a complimentary session as the solutions to each of these issues are abundant and I’m happy to share my insights on what would work best for YOU and your particular set of circumstances.

Top 3 Most Common Mistakes of Struggling, Producing Mortgage Managers:

Poor hiring practices: Does not cast a big enough net to locate candidates-Lacks a standard interviewing process-Does little to no background investigation of ability to produce/sell-Hires based on personality vs. sales abilities-Hires friends/family members- Hiring out of desperation to fill seats, rather than waiting for the, “right” team players to fill roles.

Poor management style: Acts as a crutch, a motherly/fatherly figure rather than empowering team players and teaching them how to find their own solutions-No set on-boarding & training schedule for new hires-No set scheduled time for employee concerns, questions, suggestions, loan challenges, etc.-Brings personal issues/shares personal issues at work-Leans towards wanting to be liked more than wanting to lead- Blames Corporate for challenges-Passes the buck-No accountability measures-No formal progress reviews-Does not walk their talk-No communication regarding goals & vision, expectations & boundaries.

Poor planning/poor time-management: Does not engage in daily planning-Does not review and reset goals on a weekly basis-Does not review business numbers consistently-Lacks a Business Plan-Lacks a proper project management system-Does not fully utilize/embrace tools & technology-Does not properly delegate-No set work hours-Allows too many personal/family interruptions.

Jul 27
1

How to Pin-Point Opportunities with Potential Referral Partners

By | Mortgage Business Tips | No Comments

coffeemeetingtodayGetting comfortable with facilitating VALUABLE face to face meetings with potential referral partners such as, Realtors, Financial Planners, CPAs, Attorneys & Insurance Agents is the key to opening up opportunities and quickly identifying if the person with whom you are meeting, is a good target for you for cross-referral purposes or not.

It’s important to have a set of open-ended questions prepared that will allow the other person to be in the spot light and share their business growth goals, hopes, ideas and challenges with you so that you can pin-point ways in which you can help them and vice versa.

Here are two sets of questions that I hope will aid you in this extremely important endeavor, which is a key pillar to growing your business…

Questions for Financial Planners, CPAs & Insurance Agents

  1. What types of marketing methods or lead-generating type activities are you engaging in this year to grow your business?
  2. How are you hoping to separate yourself from the competition, your brand, your special services, tools or systems you offer, etc?
  3. Where do you network or what groups or memberships or associations are you a part of that helps you to meet people and add them to your database?
  4. Do you ever give presentation or, “Lunch-n-Learns” for your clients or for the general public?
  5. If you felt zero fear, what would you do in order to build-up your business?

Questions for Realtors

  1. What types of marketing methods or lead-generating type activities are you engaging in this year to grow your business?
  1. How are you hoping to separate yourself from the competition, your brand, your special services, tools or systems you offer, etc?
  2. Where do you network or what groups or memberships or associations are you a part of that helps you to meet people and add them to your database?
  3. What do you feel are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve seen Realtors make, that you want to make sure to avoid?
  4. What types of scenarios have been creating hiccups for you and your clients in terms of closing deals and working within today’s mortgage loan processing environment? (This is how we get them to open up about “complaints” “gripes” “mishaps/disappointments” with other Lenders)
  5. Is there any type of home buyer situation that has been tripping up your team, such as condos, 203K, VA buyers, buyers from overseas, down payment assistance issues, etc.?

Come prepared to your face to face meetings, ready to facilitate, ready to inquire, ready to listen!

Jul 11
0

Will YOU Benefit from Hiring a Coach?

By | Mortgage Business Tips | No Comments

CoachsCornerclearfearNot everyone is ready or in the right frame of mind to truly benefit from engaging with a partner whose whole purpose, drive, expertise and mission in life is to help you achieve exactly what you really, really want!

Seems odd to think that someone might not be ready or willing to receive everything that they really, really want, right? However, to get those things that we set our sights on, that seem challenging at the least and impossible at the worst, we have to be willing to change and possibly, change a whole lot!

Obviously there is something keeping us from getting what we want and if nothing needed to change, well…we’d already be living the life we envision or in possession of the things we covet, right?

Change is the most difficult experience to embrace and enact. Hence the reason why there are a million different varieties of coaching: business coaching, life coaching, executive coaching, relationship coaching, creativity coaching, wellness coaching and the niches go on and on…

But at the very core of each coaching discipline, you find one person or persons helping another person or persons to change in some capacity.

Here are four questions to ask yourself prior to reaching out to a Coach:

  1. Do you know what you want to change?
  2. Are you passionate about what you want to change?
  3. Are you willing to do things differently in order to bring about change?
  4. Is the change you seek, something worth failing to achieve at, over and over again until the change happens?

If you can answer Yes to all four questions, then you’re ready to investigate coaching.

If you answered No to any of the questions, then the return on investment you hope to gain from a coaching relationship will likely take A LOT LONGER to achieve as you and your Coach whittle away at deeper issues that may be better suited to discuss with a licensed therapist or clinical psychiatrist skilled at deeper-rooted challenges.

If this is something you suspect you might need, it’s important to ask the Coaches you interview if they have those credentials.

Please don’t misinterpret what I’m saying here, just because you don’t get everything done on your to-do list in a day and you feel fear at the thought of calling on prospects sometimes or speaking in front of a group, or you get down in the dumps because the industry can be challenging, does not mean you need a shrink necessarily.

My point is simply that there’s a difference between everyday challenges vs. chronic stalemates and there are the right professionals for each situation so just make sure you align yourself with the proper expert for your situation.

Every Coach has their own unique methods to assisting their clients to achieve MORE from their business and/or personal lives.

In my particular mortgage-specific, business coaching platform, I help my clients to…

  1. turn wishes into goals and goals into calendar-driven action plans
  2. consider alternate perspectives/stretch out of one’s comfort zones
  3. embrace already-proven business growth strategies that fit your personality type
  4. hone-in on your strong points as a sales person and leverage those strong points
  5. incorporate your passions/interests into your business
  6. balance competing priorities between home and work
  7. remain focused on high pay-off activities
  8. determine business growth strategies that fit your current capacity
  9. use solution-based thinking as you approach challenges and make decisions.
  10. identify and eliminate “time-sucking & energy-draining” activities, tasks, people and mindsets from your daily experiences.

To aid you in uncovering the best Coach match for YOU, please download my Coach Interview Questionnaire Knowing the right questions to ask will save you time, money and oodles of frustration and disappointment.

Jul 10
0

Rise Up and Tackle Today!

By | Mortgage Business Tips | No Comments

catinmirroWe all only get one spin around this amazing lifetime and just as our parents would annoyingly tell us, “Time only goes by faster as you get older, so you better enjoy it.” Don’t you just hate how so many of those parental nuggets of truth are dead-on? Darn it!

What’s truer still, though we don’t hear it as often as would be helpful, is that our happiness stems from our choices.

If you think about all your happiest memories, best victories, times when you, “slayed the dragon” so to speak, weren’t they all colored by your choices? And didn’t they feel brilliant because you had somehow risen to the occasion, rose above the challenges, climbed that mountain or pushed that enormous bolder up hill?

It’s no coincidence that our very own cliché’s for happiness and victory involve, rising.

Today is a new day and THANK GOD you made it. Look for one thing you’ve been avoiding in your business and tackle it with gusto and gratitude. Remember, if you weren’t presented with challenges how could you ever know the joy of rising?

Jul 03
0

Three Near & Clear Ways to Grow your Business

By | Mortgage Business Tips | No Comments

getoclasswithcoachvDo you know how to harness the power of the low hanging fruit that is available to you to drive in more business?

Learn the strategies to steer your business towards the top 3 near and clear ways that immediately drive in additional production from an experienced mortgage professionals business coach. Then learn how to actually execute these strategies in a database /CRM tool from a mortgage industry database management and marketing expert.

If you are a mortgage professional, or manage a team of mortgage professionals, this webinar will provide you with the blueprint and the tools that make an immediate upswing to your revenue stream.

SIGN UP HERE for your free limited time access to the webinar