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Jeff Zimfer
Foreign hey, what's up my friend? This is Jeff Zimfer coming at you. But today I wanted to bring with you a very special timely conversation with a longtime friend, Todd Bookspan. And Todd you've probably known or heard of, if not, where are you? Where have you been? Todd is the founder of Win by Noon, which is this excellent program for getting all your primary work activities done before noon, winning the day by noon, essentially. Right. And obviously he's very closely involved with Dave Savage, Mortgage Coach Community, the first home IQ platform which you haven't checked those out. I'm going to put those links into the show notes which all these platforms simply help you become a better, more fiscally educated loan officer who al also knows how to reach clients and achieve your goals in a more progressive. So what are we talking about here today? For the last three years in a row, I believe it is I've attended the Modern Mortgage Summit and Modern Real Estate Summit that is held both live in Vegas on Thursday, March 6 and virtual. And the cool thing about this is as you'll hear Todd and I talk about is it's an incredible opportunity for you to reach out partner with your referral partners, realtors. So there's, there's basically two parts to this summit. The first part is the best of the best mortgage originators in the country coming in and sharing in 15 minutes like their top, top key strategy that's helping them kick ass in this market. And then part two of the day is real estate agents. And this is where you want to listen closely to this conversation with Todd and start to identify and think about who for real estate agents, you could invite to a virtual streaming of this Modern Mortgage Summit in your office, a title rep office, a shared office. We work space, you know, Regis, whatever it is. But don't overlook the tremendous opportunity that you have for yourself personally to attend this, whether it's in person in Vegas or virtually. And thing is so wildly affordable. I mean it's only 100 or 150 bucks for the virtual tickets. And then secondly is remember if I were doing this right now as an originator, here's what I'd be doing. I'd be calling all my key agents. I'd be reaching out to agents who I've gotten referrals from in the past but have gone a little bit radio silent. I'd also be calling listing agents and I would be sharing with them the website Modern Mortgage Summit. I would be have my talk track and my script ready of who is going to be appearing at this modern mortgage summit for the real estate side of things. And I would be asking if they would like a VIP ticket to come join me for a live streaming of this part two of the session for the Realtor session. Do they want to come in and sit in and hear? A few of the best agents in the country that are producing crazy volume are going to share some amazing strategies that are working in today's market. I thought of you, wanted to invite you first. I only have a few seats, you know, would you like me to hold a seat for you? And then I would send them the details and confirmations, I'd make sure that they're there and I would leverage this one time opportunity, one to many, right? And I would use this to jumpstart my Realtor engagement and start to create conversations that'll lead to referrals this year. So not only that, but in this episode, Todd and I are going to unpack this one idea of like how he had this hundred conversations in one day initiative that's that he's working on. So he kind of breaks down his strategy for how he's making this happen. And by the way, you don't have to do 100 conversations in one day. Let me ask you a question. What if you had 100 conversations in a week? Like how much would that move the needle in your business? See, because oftentimes it's simply that we're just not doing enough of the things that already work. So do whatever is work, whatever works, right? Do more, do better. And hopefully you have these takeaways from this conversation with Todd. Most importantly, check the link in the show notes. It's modernmortgage summit.com go check it out. Sign yourself up, whether it's in person or virtual. But most importantly, get the opportunity to sign your agents up for this as well. I don't care if it's 3, 5 or 30, team up with some other folks in your office. It's an incredible opportunity to pour value in education. And if you've listened to me long enough, you know I'm a big believer in leading with educational content and events that is one to many, which will drive engagement for you at scale. So without further ado, let's get into this conversation with Todd Books man. Todd Booksman, welcome to the show.
Todd Bookspan
Jeff, it is so exciting to hang out with you again.
Jeff Zimfer
I know, right? Do it more virtually than anything else I think these days. But that's okay. That's about to change. Hopefully for the people listening, we'll tell them More about that in a moment. You know, it's, it's. Listen, we don't know, we don't need to tell anybody. Who's Todd Booksman? What's he all about? Win by noon, Mortgage coach, community, all that stuff. Like people should know you by now. So what I want to do is use our time wisely because you spend a lot of time both obviously still originating. Built a hell of a business as a mortgage originator. I would say one of the top production volumes in the country still tied into the business. What did you say you did secretly during COVID How many refis?
Todd Bookspan
I secretly did almost 700 loans total. And you know, it's probably 100 plus purchases, but you know, mainly refis. And so, you know, yeah, I don't technically originate anymore, but I do business development for the team and I talk to, you know, typically 10 real estate agents a day minimum. And so I find that I tend to, for someone who's not actually originating loans, I tend to actually be doing the things that loan officers should be doing more than they're doing them themselves.
Jeff Zimfer
You're more active as a non originator than most originat.
Todd Bookspan
Well, I think it's really important to lead by example. And if I'm going to get on to a conversation like this and really talk about what I know, you know, I think what's old is new again. I don't necessarily think that everything, you know, stuff that was good 10 years ago and 5 years ago and 15 years is still good today. But you know, it's a changing market and so I like to stay in contact with real estate agents and understand what's going on in their world.
Jeff Zimfer
Yeah, absolutely. And in a moment, you know, for you listening, you're going to find out about the most influential event in the mortgage and real estate industry. That's part of the reason why I wanted to bring this conversation to you here today. But I wanted to open this up with this conversation around. You know, you said what's old is new again. And have we gotten amnesia in terms of the skills? You know, we're in this new market air quotes. It's just a different market perhaps, you know, what are the strategies? What are the skills? Have we gotten amnesia? Like what are you seeing that's working?
Todd Bookspan
You know, I think working is working. And you know, I always try not to be a jerk, Jeff. I mean, it's really one of the biggest challenges I have because I find that oftentimes when I talk to loan officers, they tell me what their goal is. For the year. And I say, oh, that's awesome. And then I say, well, what is it going to take to get there? And then the kind of the whole conversation goes off the rails there. And so what I think is a loan officer should understand first off, you know, what is it going to take from just a result side, like how many, you know, what is your conversion rate, how many applications to closings, how many leads to an application and understand those numbers first. And then you need to understand what are the activities, how many calls you have to make, how many people do you have to talk to meet with in order then to get the leads, in order to get the apps, in order to get the closings. And I think it's just a math equation. If you take the time to be really disciplined around that and then just show up in the day and do that, do that, do that number, whatever that's going to take to get you there, if that's going to be 5 phone calls, 10 phone calls, 20 phone calls, whatever it is. But if not, you're just kind of waking up and guessing. And so I feel like oftentimes when I talk to loan officers, they just don't have a discipline around their time and schedule. And if you actually just treat it like a profession, not just a job, right? When, you know, when I worked at a bicycle store in high school, I had to be there at a certain time and I had to work till a certain time. And I don't necessarily know that loan officers have that discipline. But in the end, if I get off of that soapbox and you say what's working? What's working is having conversations with people who can refer you business. What's working is having conversations with your database who even though they've got a super low rate or even though they may have a high rate, you can't refinance yet. Still would love to hear from you. And that's the part that's still the same. And then I think you add on here all the stuff that you teach, right? How do you get in front of real estate agents and teach classes and you know, learn about AI and all the other things that can help you be more efficient, all that stuff is going to be super, super important as well.
Jeff Zimfer
You know, I think that's great because you simplified and it comes down to, you know, the fundamentals. And there's a lot of different conversations that roll through my head in these type of, you know, just kind of off the cuff conversations you and I have because there's different Narratives out there in the, in the industry, in the world, of course, but in specific to our industry. I was talking to somebody the other day, I can't remember who it was. And he was, he was basically pushing back on the concept of fundamentals. And like I have on my whiteboard, literally it's been here for a year. Be brilliant in the basics. Is that enough today? I guess is the question.
Todd Bookspan
I think it is if you're doing them right. And then I think if you sprinkle in the other stuff that we all know we should be doing in social media and we sprinkle in learning the technology to be more efficient and effective in what we do on a daily basis. But in the end, if you're not doing the fundamentals and the boring stuff, then I think it's going to be really difficult to have a big business going forward. I mean, I can pat myself on the back all I want for, you know, wheeling the wheelbarrow around during COVID and having loans fall down into it. You know, really the fact is, is I did a great job when I used to do loans. And so those people wanted to do loans with me again. Right. My team kept in touch with them and did all that. I actually just, I did an annual financial review today. It wasn't intentional, but it was, but it happened and it was great. So, you know, I took the opportunity to catch up with the client. It was a nine minute phone call, by the way. And I was trying to set up a three minute phone call with him tomorrow. You know, this time has airs, it'll be the day after. But Dave Savage and I are doing 100 conversation where we ask for a referral day. And so again, you have to do the work before the work. And so I was actually went through and secretly I had my assistant doing it, but texting clients saying, hey, do you have three minutes for a call tomorrow? It said, it's Todd Booksband, your favorite mortgage guy. Do you have three minutes for a market update tomorrow? And so this guy just picked up the phone and called. So I, you know, it's Fritz, I'll answer it. Nine minute phone call. Because I wasn't trying to squeezing 100 conversations today, but I was, you know, able in it to actually ask for referrals. I was actually going to ask for business. You and I talked the other day about financial advisors. He's referring me to his financial advisor who he says is wonderful. So he's making that referral. He's referring me to an insurance person that I didn't ask for, but he's like, well, I might as well send you my insurance person. I actually got him to commit to talk to my insurance person, so he's going to be talking to my insurance person. So I got her a referral. And last but not least, I chatted with about helocs, even though he's got great credit and doesn't need one. But I just let him know, hey, if it's something you hear about out there, there's lots of people who need that, and my team would love to help. And so I didn't ask for one thing. I asked for three things and really made a big push. And I think if you just have a few conversations like that a day, it's going to be really difficult for you not to grow your business in 2025.
Jeff Zimfer
What was the time lapse or time gap between conversations with that particular person?
Todd Bookspan
He got his house back in the middle of 2022, so. And he may or may not have been on the list. You know, my memory's not the best, But I did 50 annual financial reviews personally last year to keep in touch with the database and, you know, again, get a pulse on the market. My team did most of them, but I don't remember that I spoke to him last year. But, you know, I think it's one of those things where you have those clients who know you love you and want to hear from you. You have those clients who are like, yeah, all right, maybe I'll talk to Todd. And then you, you know, there's going to be one or two. Or like, yeah, whatever. Nope. No, thanks. Not interested. That's fine, too.
Jeff Zimfer
So that was obviously a client that you had some rapport with. You probably something in your memory stuck out. Great person to work with. Probably something. Something about it, you know, put him in that. A category. How did you. I'm curious, with this kind of hundred call blitz, how did you open the conversation? Was it based on that context or like, give us the quick setup, if you don't mind.
Todd Bookspan
Why laugh? Because, like I say, he called me, right?
Jeff Zimfer
That's right.
Todd Bookspan
He called you because I'm, you know, I'm competing against Dave. Right. So, you know, if I literally show you my planner for tomorrow.
Jeff Zimfer
Oh, gee.
Todd Bookspan
I literally have. I literally have my call, my count, my calendar is blocked. These are all the boxes for all the people I call. I had to make more of them. And then I've got. Over here, I've got 101. These are all. There's. There's columns and so it's got a. The left column is going to be for who I, who I talk to, and the right is going to be for the referral I gave or got. So I'm ready to. I'm ready to go. I'm going to. I'm going to keep track all this stuff, and I'm going to do everything I can do in. Before my wife says, you have to quit working tomorrow night to get, you know, to get this done. And so the quick setup was I said, oh, my gosh. I said, I said, hey, what's going on? He's like, oh, I just got your text. I just figured I'd call you. I said, awesome. I said, hey, just. It's just as it said. I said, I want to just take three minutes to update you on what's going on the market. I've got a lot of clients who seem very concerned now that the election's going on to know what's going on with interest rates, housing in the economy. What do you understand about what's going on? Right. Little exactly what to say pitch. And he's like, I don't understand much. I'm like, awesome. And so then I just walked him through what's going on in rates and the housing and the economy. And then. And then went into, went into my pitch and we talked a little bit about, you know, his wife is doing well and, you know, we talked about that kind of stuff. And, oh, the flooring in his house had a problem and, you know, the. So they had to go stay in a hotel for two weeks. And, you know, I got all the other stuff in there, too. That's why I went nine minutes. Because you're not going to. I'm not like, dude, I only got three minutes. Sorry. You're going to take as much time as you have to, but as little as you need to in order to crank through those calls.
Jeff Zimfer
Yeah, yeah. Sounds very fruitful. And so far, rough estimate. Where are you on the hundred race?
Todd Bookspan
Well, my goal is not to talk anyone until tomorrow. What I'm trying to do is. So when I did loans, and I've talked about this before, I stole it from Keith Collins, my contact card for my work phone. So again, they don't have that phone. Goes to my team, but I have a different phone number. It's on Ringcentral. It's not my real phone. So clients can't actually call me on the cell phone that I carry in my pocket. And so I sent them after. I would talk to him, I would Give them a, you know, kind of like, hey, here's the rules of doing business with me. I'd say, hey, Jeff, as soon as we hang up, I'm going to text you my contact card so you can open it and save it to your phone. You're going to eventually forget my name. So just next time you need someone, just type in mortgage. And you'll see it in there because it says Todd, Mortgage guy, Bookspan. And then when I'm done, I text him, thanks again for your time. Here's my contact card to open and save to your phone. So number one is, I hope that they've all done that. And so when I'm texting them, it's not there. And really the reason I was prepping today is because I want to have a higher likelihood that people don't think I'm calling to waste their time. Right? An annual financial review could take 30 to 45 minutes. And I was like, hey, I just want three minutes of your time. And so I'm trying to preface it for the client one, even the ones who don't respond. So I probably have. If I look at it, there's already 15 or 20 people who have responded and said, yep, let's talk tomorrow, anytime. You know, one person said, I can't do it. One person said, no, thanks. You know, so again, I don't get offended by that kind of stuff. You know, the guy can do, wants to do it next week when his wife is available, but I've already got some of those that are in there, you know, in time. So, you know, there's actually in the context here that you can see there's people I've already scheduled in with a time to call. And so, I mean, I'm gunning to do it. You know, I'm competitive guy. I want to actually make sure I do it. My business partner did this about two weeks ago. He got 65 conversations in one took 30 minutes. I'm like, man, if I have 30 minute phone calls, which I'm pretty good at talking, you all figured that out by now, then I'm going to be sunk. And so my goal is to not tell people, hey, I'm trying to crank out 100 conversations. David and I have called it the Impact 100. We're trying to impact 100 people and ask for referrals. It's not text referrals, it's not DM referrals. This is actually a phone call. So I'm just priming the pumps with the text. So even the People who didn't respond will say, oh, Todd, just calling me for three minutes. And so that was my. That was my goal with the prep today.
Jeff Zimfer
I love the framing of that man, because it really makes it clear that, okay, this isn't. If I'm your client. Right. It's like, oh, cool. Not a huge time commitment, assuming I'm in that a category of, like, I like Todd and all that kind of jazz. Beautiful setup. I'm curious, do you also, or have you been sending over time, historically, like a newsletter to your database?
Todd Bookspan
We've been pretty terrible at that. You know, the biggest thing that we've done, which a lot of people have done, is Homebot, you know, so if you've got one of those of things, I mean, that's. That's great. You know, he told me he's still getting that. So that, you know, from that perspective, that's, you know, that's basically a newsletter. That's. That's really good. I don't know that you need to do more than that. We're, you know, we normally, like, I invited the, you know, I'm teaching. I mentioned to you the first home IQ I'm doing. They have 10 weeks of content for high schoolers and college students. So I'm. I'm doing that right now virtually. And so, like, I invited my whole database to that. So I try not to overshoot them. Information. But I feel like, you know, if I'm offering something that's of value, then they're going to open it up and read it.
Jeff Zimfer
So it sounds like. Back to my original question, air quotes. You know, we need new strategies. Do we? You know what I meant? I'm sure you got it by that comment about amnesia. Do we have amnesia? Is, you know, Covid really kind of like, put us all under the ether of, like, business just drops from the sky like manna, you know. But I think a lot of us, I don't know, some people, I think, are a little bit slow to the pivot of, like, we need to do exactly what you just described, which is create opportunities.
Dave Savage
And this is one a great example.
Todd Bookspan
Well, I appreciate it. You know, I'm. I'm excited for it. You know, I mean, I still love talking to people, and I love a challenge. And I did a couple years ago, I did a hundred calls in a day, and that took a long time. I didn't. But I only talked like 55 people, so I'm. I'm a little petrified, don't get me wrong. And, you know, and I'M really optimistic that I'll be able to crush it. So, you know, if you answered my phone, call, whoever is watching this, you know, and I happen to call you as a loan officer, thank you in advance. I appreciate that.
Jeff Zimfer
How many hours do you think this will take you to get through it?
Todd Bookspan
I think the. When my business partner did it, he did it with about 30 other people. Shayla Gifford was running a group and he took 13 and a half hours. I heard people, some people did like 14 to 16 hours. You know, I'm going to go to the gym, I'm going to work out, I'm going to come home and I'll start dialing. I'm going to, you know, I'm trying to round up some loan officers in Texas who want to refer business to our insurance company. And so I'll call those folks first. So, you know, I won't only be calling clients, I'll also be calling real estate agents in there as well. And so I'll get an early start. But I, you know, for me, I've got a. I've got a hook from the family that, you know, probably got to be done by six. So that's. I guess I'll be dialing for whatever 7:30 ish is to six.
Jeff Zimfer
Are you trying to get all 100 in one day?
Todd Bookspan
100 in one day. That's the goal. 100 conversations in one day. Because I can do 15 a week. I mean, I do that all the time. But this is really different. And it's, you know, you got to be planned. Like, I've already thought out the chili that I'm going to have for lunch, right? I'm already, I'm thinking through it, all right? I've already got the call list of the real estate agents. I mean, because if you just show up and you're not prepared, you're not going to win. And so I think that's just a lot of it is we want it to be easy and it's just not easy right now. And I'm okay with that. I mean, I'm no different than everyone else. I mean, I don't want to have to work that hard. But, you know, in the end, I feel a commitment, right? I feel a commitment to the clients that we served in the past to keep them informed. I feel a commitment to my team to help them generate these leads and, you know, and do that. And I feel my commitment to Dave and the community so I can show them I can do it. And, you know, what if I crash and Burn. I mean, David Lynn, a call on it. You know, at some point, we'll talk about it and see how we did. And, you know, I'm excited. I'm excited, and I'm terrified at the same time, but I'm. I'll be rolling.
Jeff Zimfer
Well, if anything, the one takeaway from this is you don't even have to do 100 calls in a day. Like, if. How many people listening? I know you know this very well. How many people like to do 100? Have 100 conversations in a week would be a world record, you know.
Todd Bookspan
Absolutely. And the hard part is I suck at asking for referrals. And so in this one, I'm doing that. I'm using the Phil Jones, hey, could you do me a favor? You know, line? And so that way, I, you know, I feel like I've got a little bit of reciprocity by that point in the conversation. And I know most people, you know, my business partner, he was asking for, you know, like, kind of leads, like, referral kind of leads. But I think there's other opportunities in the marketplace. And so, you know, it's not about me. I'm helping, trying to get other people some referrals as well. And I think it'll be. I think it'll be fun. And I think if you're listening to this and that sounds interesting to you, you know, reach out to Dave and I. I mean, take a look at it. Dave. And I'll probably take a break. He thinks we should do a Facebook live during the day. I'm like, dave, I'm not gonna have time for that. But, you know, you know, he's prepping the world. He's gonna make a post telling people that he's doing it. So answer his phone call. And I'm like, ooh, I'm not people. I'm going in cold. They just know I'm calling for three minutes.
Jeff Zimfer
Just get out there and make it happen. I love that.
Dave Savage
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Jeff Zimfer
Look at this is just one takeaway, one idea. I know you've got tons more of ideas and so what I want to do right now is talk about for anybody who's listening right now, and you got value from this one idea. Imagine spending an entire day, right, with people that are at the highest level of production, of productivity and results in any market. And that's why I want to talk about this event that, you know, you and Dave have been putting on for how many years now?
Todd Bookspan
This is our sixth year. Yeah. We started in 2020, so that makes the sixth year. And you know, it's been kind of fun. Right. First few years were just virtual only and now we're virtual and live in person.
Jeff Zimfer
Yeah. And so I've been I think three times. It's the Modern Mortgage Summit and the Modern Real Estate Summit. It's two events in one day. It's in live in Las Vegas, but you can attend in person or virtual. It's on Thursday, March 6th. We're going to link up everything in the show notes for you to go ahead and grab yourself either a virtual in person ticket. But I can tell you it's kind of like, you know, the best of it's. I don't want to equate it to you think about the. An awards show, right? An award show where somebody shows up and you got the best of the best that are walking across the stage and spending. It's a break it down for me. What is the. They got like a 10 minute session or something to give you the best, right?
Todd Bookspan
Yeah. So what we've got is we've got about a dozen, you know, speakers in the mortgage space. So we always have, we try to have about Half who you've seen before, right? The Deese Donahue's, the Jeremy Forciers, the Shayla Giffords. And then we try to bring back some people who either haven't been on for a while or that are kind of new to you. So we've got like JJ Mazo on the stage for the first time, Sosia Avila on the stage for the first time. James Allen is a big producer, you know, so we've got some kind of new blood up there as well. And so they literally will start at 8am Pacific Virtual, right? So you just go to modernmortgagesummit.com you can pick up a ticket. You might be lucky enough that your company has bought tickets because that's how we sell most of the tickets. We normally have about 5,6000 people that are on watching. And so it's a lot of fun. And it starts at 8:00 sharp. Dave and I do a quick intro and then it's 15 minutes. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Speaker, speaker, speaker. And their whole idea is to show up with an idea that's executable by you. And it's kind of weird because it always works out magically. But we don't ever tell anyone what to talk about. We want someone to get on there and talk about what they're super passionate about. And so that goes from 8 to noon sharp. And then since we're live in studio, right, there's about 50 tickets that we sell for people to show up live. And so literally, you sit in these leather chairs in this fancy studio in Las Vegas and you're sitting next to all the speakers. And so people kind of dig, you know, dig that part of it. And then we break for lunch. So we have a live lunch in the studio and that's when you're going to have lunch, lunch and fuel yourself. And then at 1pm Pacific, we have about a two and a half hour modern real Estate Summit. And so you buy one ticket, you get real estate and you get mortgage. We've got like Ken De Leon. He's the number one buyer's agent in America. He's gonna do something. We've got Shannon Gillette who's gonna talk about Instagram. We had her on a couple years ago. She was really highly rated. She did YouTube back then. And so the Modern Real Estate Summit's designed, if you do it right, it was, was kind of fun. I always love it when somebody executes at a high level, right? I talk about these things and I never know who does what, but Deborah Burton. I just did an exactly what to say certification and memo. Zazweta. I got to make sure I pronounce his name correctly. I loved it. He's been in the business for six years and he's crushing it. He's actually had a busy year last year, busier than the year before. And I said, well, tell me some of the things that you did. He's like, well, Todd, I took your advice. He said, I filled up conference room full of real estate agents, and we all watch the Modern Mortgage or Modern Real Estate Summit together. And so the morning is for you to learn and learn some tactics that hopefully will get you excited to implement to grow your business. And then the afternoon, you're going to sit there with your favorite real estate agents. It could be just you and one agent watching on your laptop. It could be you and 10 agents watching in your conference room. You could go to a title company. Every year we have a couple people who do in a movie theater, which scares me, Jeff. My head, 40ft tall. I don't think that's a good site, but it's a good opportunity. And so go back to my hundred calls. Right. I mean, that's such an easy thing. If I thought about it till just now, I can tell you, I'll probably add it to my list. I'll find out what my team is going to do. They'll probably host it. They do it every year with a title company. The title company puts it in their office. They buy the food. My team shows up and it's an invitation to them, hey, would you join me on March 6th in my office? Now, the other part is that you get the recording for at least 30 days when you buy a virtual ticket. And so you could also do it where you can't see it on the Thursday the 6th because you're like, oh, I'm out of town, or whatever. And you could just do it the next week. And it doesn't have to be live. You could actually watch the recording of it. In fact, I was talking to a loan officer today up in Colorado, and I'm going to co host it with her. We're going to actually do a virtual one on Zoom the next month, or maybe it'll be person, who knows? But we're doing it together, so that'll be kind of fun.
Jeff Zimfer
That's awesome. Yeah. So once again, it is Modern Mortgage Summit. Go check it out.
Dave Savage
Whichever of the three options, live event.
Jeff Zimfer
Virtual ticket or virtual365, which is you get access to the recorded content for the entire year. But I agree with you, Todd.
Dave Savage
Leveraged opportunity.
Jeff Zimfer
You know, as you know, that's a lot of what I talk about is.
Dave Savage
The one to many.
Jeff Zimfer
And if you can put butts in seats and just get however many agents in a room, team up with your title affiliate and other people, show them this website if they've got the room. Like, don't, don't let an excuse get in the way of you accelerating your results. Just like you heard from Todd. Whether you do the 100 call thing or you put right half a dozen agents or so in a room and you be the host of that, you're going to get all the credit, guaranteed.
Dave Savage
You're going to get relationships and referrals out of that.
Todd Bookspan
Well, you must have story after story of results of the, your coaching students who've come through your program and gotten your content and then gone out there and taught it. Right. I mean, I mean, give a good example of that.
Jeff Zimfer
Absolutely. I mean, there's so many, you know, it's funny I've been describing it and this is perfect for what you guys are doing with the event as well. I don't know if this works. You tell me. So hosting a class or event is like the tip of a spear or how do I combine these two metaphors? You think about decorating a Christmas tree, right on the top is the angel, or what I'll call the event or enter the class. But then what else has to go.
Dave Savage
On the Christmas tree?
Jeff Zimfer
All those ornaments and the decorations and the accents. And what those are when you're hosting an event is think about all the peripheral activities that spin off of that one event. Social media posts, phone calls, DMs, reaching out to partners and affiliates. And all of a sudden you've got this like beautiful, fully, you know, dressed Christmas tree that looks amazing. But guess what? You can keep that up the whole year instead of having to take it down because it actually continues to, to pay benefits. Because now out of that one event, you've created this incredible goodwill experience that draws people to you. So, yeah, I mean, I have an example just the other day from one example, Janelle. She's been a member with me, I don't know, four years or whatever. Anyway, she had been doing classes over and over and over again and she gets a, an email back from a realtor after the class that says, hey, I'm sorry I can't come to your class, but I'd love to talk. Can you grab a phone call? And she gets on the phone and next Thing, you know, this realtor, whom, by the way, never met this realtor in person, ever. Realtor has never come to an event ever, and says, hey, I have a million dollar referral I'd like to send you, right?
Todd Bookspan
It's reciprocity, right? You're adding value to somebody else. So I mean it. Right? You're right. I love the Christmas tree analogy. That was.
Jeff Zimfer
Does that one work?
Todd Bookspan
I love it. If I ever use it, I'll give you, you credit. And we're all looking for reasons to overcome our own call reluctance, right? I'm no different than everybody else. I'm creating this event to overcome my call reluctance. And so, you know, you have something to invite them to, you have something to call them afterwards to check on, get feedback. Even if they didn't show up, you still have the opportunity to call them and talk to them about it one on one. And, you know, I feel like, like I said, you know, even the people who ignore my text, I send them and ignore my phone call, call tomorrow, you know, they still saw my name. It still said Todd, mortgage guy, bookspan when I phone him tomorrow. And it's still going to mean that the next time someone says mortgage, they're going to go, oh, let me look in my phone for that guy. I forgot his name, but it says mortgage in my phone. And my team will get the referral. And so I think it's just one of these pieces where, you know, you said, hey, what, what should people be doing? I mean, do the thing that gives you passion, do the thing that makes it easy. You know, I just like the idea you got to put yourself in the path of opportunity. And one of the things that I really have enjoyed about us doing the Modern Mortgage and Modern Real Estate Summit, we used to run as two events. We used to charge separately for them. We said, you know, let's just combine them up, you know, make it good. Proceeds go to First Home iq. You know, we partnered up with Kristen Messerly and the crew over there for the event. And so we're just really always fired up to give people something different, right? It just pop away for a day so that you can actually learn. And it's a little hard when people are virtual, you know, because I know they're like, oh my gosh, my phone's ringing and my dog's barking and, you know, all the things that can go on in the world or if they're in office, you know, their processors knocking. But. But I'm gonna encourage you all check it out. I think it's just a great opportunity. We continue to get amazing feedback year after year. And I'm kind of excited. This is actually the most new speakers we've had in a long time.
Jeff Zimfer
Yeah, no, I'm a huge fan. Like I said, I think I've been there three times. And every time, time, you know, you hand out these notebooks and it's just like page after page after page of notes. And so it's like a fire hose of ideas. So if you're listening right now and you're curious, what do you do next? You take action. If there's one thing we've heard about, Todd, it's about taking action, right? And so you go to the link in the show notes, or you go to modernmortgagesummit.com, choose which of the options.
Dave Savage
Is right for you.
Jeff Zimfer
But I'm telling you, don't overlook the opportunity. Todd, you said the key thing, which is call, reluctance, call. Now you have a quote, reason to call real estate agents, buyer's agents you haven't talked to in six months, listing agents who you closed deals with in the last year or whatever, doesn't matter. You're calling extending the olive branch. And I guarantee that's a warm call and it's gonna go well. And let's say, you know, half of the people show up, right? Well, fantastic, Right? Now all of a sudden, you've got in front of five, 10 people that you wouldn't have gotten in front of and more importantly, had a conversation you weren't gonna have otherwise. So, anything else you want to add?
Todd Bookspan
No, man, I'm just. I just love hanging out with you. So I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to chat about it. And, you know, I think you and I could probably talk for six more hours, but I think the people listening probably prefer we don't.
Jeff Zimfer
Yeah, exactly. Guys, you know what to do. We've already said it. Enough links in the show notes, go check it out. Sign yourself up, get your agents involved. Todd, always good to see you, man. We'll see you on the next one.
Todd Bookspan
Thanks, Jeff. Take care.
Jeff Zimfer
Okay, that's it for today's episode.
Dave Savage
Before we wrap up, I just wanted to remind you about my agent classes. Your proven system to double your agent referrals in just 90 days. Imagine never having to cold call again. Instead building real lasting relationships with top producing agents who want to send you business with done for you. Presentations, marketing, automation, weekly coaching. It's all designed to make growing your business easier and fun. So if you're ready to take control of your agent referrals and grow your income. Visit MortgageMarketing Pro or check the link in the show notes. And while you're there, don't forget to.
Jeff Zimfer
Check out the success stories from other.
Dave Savage
Mortgage bros who've already seen incredible results. Thanks for listening and I'll see you on the next episode.
Episode: 100 Conversations in One Day
Release Date: February 12, 2025
Host: Jeff Zimpfer
Guest: Todd Bookspan
In this milestone episode of Mortgage Marketing Radio, host Jeff Zimpfer welcomes longtime friend and industry expert Todd Bookspan. Todd, renowned for founding Win by Noon and his involvement with Dave Savage’s Mortgage Coach Community and First Home IQ, shares invaluable insights aimed at helping Mortgage Loan Originators amplify their business growth through strategic conversations and effective partnership building.
Jeff and Todd delve into their experiences attending the Modern Mortgage Summit and Modern Real Estate Summit, annual events held both in Las Vegas and virtually. These summits feature top-tier mortgage originators and real estate agents who share their best strategies in concise 15-minute segments.
Jeff Zimpfer [00:00]: "For the last three years in a row, I believe it is I've attended the Modern Mortgage Summit and Modern Real Estate Summit... an incredible opportunity for you to reach out partner with your referral partners, realtors."
The summits are designed to provide actionable insights on lead generation, building agent partnerships, and mastering the latest marketing tools. Jeff emphasizes the importance of leveraging these events to create meaningful connections with real estate agents, which can lead to increased referrals and business growth.
A significant portion of the episode centers around Todd’s ambitious initiative to have 100 conversations in one day. This strategy is aimed at reigniting connections with past clients and real estate partners, thereby generating new referrals and business opportunities.
Todd Bookspan [04:21]: "I talked to, you know, typically 10 real estate agents a day minimum. And so I find that I tend to, for someone who's not actually originating loans, I tend to actually be doing the things that loan officers should be doing more than they're doing them themselves."
Todd explains his methodical approach, which includes organizing his calls, maintaining detailed records of conversations, and following up with meaningful interactions. He shares his success in securing multiple referrals through personalized outreach, highlighting the effectiveness of consistent and intentional communication.
Todd Bookspan [05:23]: "What's working is having conversations with people who can refer you business... and you have to do the work before the work."
Jeff challenges Todd on whether the industry has lost sight of fundamental strategies amidst evolving market conditions.
Jeff Zimpfer [08:45]: “Be brilliant in the basics. Is that enough today?"
Todd responds affirmatively, stressing that foundational activities—such as disciplined calling, understanding conversion metrics, and maintaining regular contact with clients—are crucial for sustained success.
Todd Bookspan [08:45]: "I think it is if you're doing them right... if you're not doing the fundamentals and the boring stuff, then I think it's going to be really difficult to have a big business going forward."
He further advocates for integrating modern tools like social media and AI to enhance these fundamental practices, ensuring that loan officers remain efficient and effective.
The conversation shifts to actionable strategies for engaging with real estate agents. Todd emphasizes the power of personal invitations to events like the Modern Mortgage Summit as a way to rekindle relationships and foster new collaborations.
Jeff Zimpfer [19:13]: "The one takeaway from this is you don't even have to do 100 calls in a day. Like, if you have 100 conversations in a week... How much would that move the needle in your business?"
Todd agrees, suggesting that even a reduced number of meaningful conversations can significantly impact business growth. He shares his approach to overcoming call reluctance by providing a clear and respectful reason for reaching out, such as offering valuable market updates or inviting agents to join summit viewings.
Todd Bookspan [20:19]: "You're going to get relationships and referrals out of that."
Jeff and Todd provide an in-depth overview of the Modern Mortgage Summit and Modern Real Estate Summit, highlighting their structure, key speakers, and the value attendees can expect.
Todd Bookspan [22:20]: "We start at 8am Pacific Virtual... it's designed to show up with an idea that's executable by you."
The summits feature a mix of seasoned experts and new voices in the industry, ensuring a diverse range of insights and strategies. Attendees can participate live in Las Vegas or join virtually, making it accessible for all professionals regardless of location.
Jeff Zimpfer [30:44]: "Once again, it is Modern Mortgage Summit. Go check it out."
As the episode wraps up, Jeff reinforces the importance of taking decisive action based on the strategies discussed. He encourages listeners to attend the upcoming summits, engage in Todd's conversation initiatives, and consistently apply fundamental marketing practices to achieve business growth.
Jeff Zimpfer [31:07]: "Take action. If there's one thing we've heard about, Todd, it's about taking action."
Jeff and Todd conclude by reiterating the benefits of participating in industry events and maintaining proactive communication with real estate partners. They emphasize that these efforts not only build stronger professional relationships but also drive sustained business success.
Jeff Zimpfer [00:00]: "Todd is the founder of Win by Noon, which is this excellent program for getting all your primary work activities done before noon."
Todd Bookspan [05:23]: "What's working is having conversations with people who can refer you business."
Jeff Zimpfer [08:45]: "Be brilliant in the basics. Is that enough today?"
Todd Bookspan [22:20]: "They literally will start at 8am Pacific Virtual... it's designed to show up with an idea that's executable by you."
Jeff Zimpfer [31:07]: "Take action. If there's one thing we've heard about, Todd, it's about taking action."
This episode of Mortgage Marketing Radio serves as a comprehensive guide for Mortgage Loan Originators aiming to enhance their business through strategic conversations and event participation. Todd Bookspan's "100 Conversations in One Day" initiative, combined with the invaluable insights from the Modern Mortgage and Real Estate Summits, provides listeners with a robust framework for achieving sustained growth and success in the competitive mortgage industry.
For more information and to register for the Modern Mortgage Summit and Modern Real Estate Summit, visit modernmortgagesummit.com.