Growing Your Reach and Reputation [Voice Note]

Summary

Growing Your Reach and Reputation

Podcast: Mortgage Marketing Radio
Host: Geoff Zimpfer
Episode: Growing Your Reach and Reputation [Voice Note]
Release Date: January 3, 2025

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Introduction to Awareness and Marketing Challenges

In this insightful voice note episode, Geoff Zimpfer delves into a common challenge faced by many Mortgage Loan Originators: the struggle with marketing and building awareness in their local markets. Geoff emphasizes that while professionals may excel in structuring and closing loans, their expertise often doesn't translate into effective marketing strategies, limiting their business growth.

Key Point:
Many mortgage professionals are adept at their core responsibilities but recognize marketing as a "weak spot" that hinders their potential for greater success.

Insights from a Coaching Call

Geoff shares experiences from a recent coaching call with a member of his Agent Classes Community. The conversation highlighted the disparity between loan officers' skills in deal structuring and their marketing capabilities. The mortgage professional in question excels at solving problems and structuring deals but admits to never having been "great at marketing" (00:45).

Notable Quote:
"I was great at setting up loans, doing loans, love structuring loans... but I haven't been great at marketing." – Mortgage Professional (00:45)

Geoff relates to this sentiment, acknowledging his own struggles with marketing over the past several years while building his platform. He underscores the importance of leveraging both creative and analytical skills to enhance marketing efforts, something that often doesn't come naturally to many in the industry.

The Importance of Awareness and Reputation

A significant portion of the discussion centers on the critical role of awareness and reputation in driving business growth. Geoff illustrates that knowing more people in the local market leads to higher referral rates and, consequently, more closed deals.

Key Insight:
“Everything you want is just on the other side of your reach and your reputation.” – Geoff Zimpfer (03:20)

Geoff references a conversation with Cindy Ertman, highlighting how even top real estate agents may not recognize the efforts of those diligently working on their platforms. He emphasizes that being the "best kept secret" is not desirable for sustained business success.

Strategies for Expanding Reach

To address the challenge of limited reach, Geoff outlines several actionable strategies that Mortgage Loan Originators can implement:

1. Paid Advertising:
   Geoff began running ads on platforms like Facebook and Instagram to increase his visibility, acknowledging that his primary issue was reach rather than offer (04:15).

2. Leveraging Social Media:
   Consistent and strategic social media posting can help in building a recognizable presence in the market.

3. Newsletter and Past Client Database Marketing:
   Engaging with past clients and maintaining regular communication through newsletters can foster trust and encourage referrals.

4. Teaching Agent Classes:
   Educating real estate agents not only positions one as an expert but also builds strong partnerships that can lead to increased referrals.

5. Video and YouTube Content:
   Creating video content can enhance online presence and attract a broader audience.

Actionable Advice:
Identify the one to three most leveraged growth levers that can significantly expand your reach without overwhelming your resources. Focus on these high-impact strategies to maximize efficiency and results (05:30).

Embracing Growth Beyond Comfort Zones

Geoff encourages listeners to step outside their comfort zones to scale their reach effectively. Whether it's adopting new marketing tools, experimenting with different advertising channels, or enhancing their social media presence, the goal is to consistently expand one's visibility in the market.

Key Takeaway:
"If you want to build and grow a business, you need to look at the funnel, the top of the funnel, how much is in the top of the funnel. And the answer to that is going to be marketing." – Geoff Zimpfer (06:10)

Conclusion: Building a Strong Market Presence

Geoff concludes by reinforcing the message that exceptional loan officers must also excel in marketing to achieve substantial business growth. By effectively increasing their reach and enhancing their reputation, mortgage professionals can secure more referrals and close more deals.

Final Thought:
"You’re a wonderful mortgage loan officer, professional, you help people, you solve problems, you're good at structuring deals. Fantastic. Tell the world about it." – Geoff Zimpfer (07:30)

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About Speaker B’s Segment

At the end of the episode, Speaker B provides a brief overview of the Agent Classes system, designed to help mortgage professionals double their agent referrals in 90 days. However, adhering to the summary guidelines, promotional content such as advertisements, intros, and outros have been excluded from this summary to maintain focus on the episode's core insights.

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This episode of Mortgage Marketing Radio serves as a valuable resource for Mortgage Loan Originators aiming to enhance their marketing strategies. Geoff Zimpfer's practical advice and personal anecdotes provide a roadmap for overcoming marketing challenges, ultimately leading to increased business success.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign hello, my friend, and welcome to this voice note. In case you haven't heard, this is a new addition to the podcast where I once a week share something I'm thinking about working on or something of relevance, just you and me, one on one. And so today I want to share with you. I just wrapped a coaching call with one of our members over at my agent class classes community, which is the platform we equip loan officers with a turnkey done for you, Plug and play classes and marketing social media to go reach more agents, get more awareness, engagement conversations, because that's what leads to referrals. So this is a relevant message for I find everybody, both myself and for a good percentage of the mortgage professionals that we work with on an ongoing basis. And so the discussion we were having was partly around awareness and how many agents are aware of you in your local market. And the comment from this mortgage professional was that he was good at setting up loans, doing loans, love structuring loans. Like, you know, the whole process of that, like we're figuring out the deal, you know, which is awesome. And by no way am I trying to put this conversation with this mortgage professional in any negative light, because I think it's something we all face as an originator and that is, well, one of the things we love is to solve problems, right? And I find that there's a lot of loan officers who love to structure deals and love to put deals together and make those things happen, as did I to a certain degree when I was originating. And so that's fantastic. That's partly how you deliver value, right? But the comment to me was, you know, he was great at those things, but has never, you know, quote, never been great at marketing and referred to marketing as like, you know, a weak point, a weak spot. Maybe the sense I got didn't even feel that drawn to marketing and to want to promotion. And I can definitely relate to that because. Right. For the past, I don't know, four, six years I've been building this platform, my agent classes community, and it's a project that has utilized the best of me, my problem solving skills, my ability to put solutions and systems together to build something that is impactful for people who engage and use it. And I love it, right, because it uses my creative side. It uses both my left and right brain sides, right? And what I've been weak at, perhaps like you listening, is marketing. I suffer from the same fate many of the people who come into my community suffer from, and that is lack of awareness. You know, I often Say, and I joke with people, that I'm the best kept secret in the industry. I was having a conversation with Cindy Ertman about a year ago or so, and we were walking through everything that we do on our platform to help mortgage professionals. And Cindy said, how come I don't know about you and you doing this? And that's where, you know, I basically said, I know I'm kind of the best kept secret in the industry. Here's the point, guys. You don't want to be the best kept secret. When I do classes for real estate agents, I often ask this question to real estate agents. I say, hey, who here in the room knows an agent who's not as successful as you? Who. No, I'm sorry, let me start again. Who here knows an agent who doesn't care as much as you, who's not as professional as you, who's not as knowledgeable as you, but who outperforms you every single month? And guess what? Every hand in the room goes up because every agent knows some agent like that. And the question then is, why is that agent more successful than you? Right? Air quotes, more deals, closes more transactions. It's not because of their knowledge, it's not because they care more, right? It's because they're more well known. They simply are better at marketing. And as I shared with this loan officer on the call, right, this wonderful quote that I've got basically tattooed on my forearm, I believe it's from Rory Vaden at Brand Builders Group, which is everything you want is just on the other side of your reach and your reputation. You want to close more deals, you want to structure more deals and, you know, be able to do that more often. What's your reach? What's your reputation? That's the secret. That's the answer. And so the mistake I've seen be made with many, many loan officers is that they fall in love with structuring loans, they fall in love with deal setup, they fall in love with problem solving and working with the clients. And all of that is well and good. But if you're looking to build and grow a business and you, you need to look at the funnel, the top of the funnel, how much in the top of the funnel. And the answer to that is going to be marketing. The answer to that is going to be awareness and how much awareness you have. And so there's obviously various choices and options for marketing, right? Different strategies for doing that, different segments and niches. But the real question, I'm trying to get both myself and you to Think about is how can you reach more people now for me, what I started doing was running some ads. I'm doing some ad testing on meta, Facebook and Instagram because I realized I didn't have an offer problem, I have a reach problem. And I needed to reach more people. So I started implementing tools and resources that can help me reach more people. For me on a very small scale running some paid ads, what's the solution for you? How are you going to scale your reach so that you can achieve your transaction goals? You're going to have to like I expand outside of your comfort zone. So whatever that mechanism is for you, I don't know if that's going to be doing more social media posts, running ads, you know, the newsletter, past client database marketing, teaching agent classes to reach more agents at scale video, YouTube. I mean there's a bunch of things you could do. The question is what can you do? And what would be the most leveraged growth lever you could pull? Right, I'll say that again. Most leveraged growth lever you can pull what one to three things, growth levers that if you executed would have the largest the leverage for you, right? The reach, the expansion, the focus on relationships that could be done right without overly taxing you and your time. So that's what I wanted to share with you today is to think about that is you're a wonderful mortgage loan officer, professional, you help people, you solve problems, you're good at structuring deals. Fantastic. Tell the world about it. Put yourself up on that pedestal, build your platform, run for mayor, right? Be reach more people, become well known, become five mile famous in your local area. That will help you achieve your results. Both for myself, that's a message to me today and for you. I hope you enjoyed today's voice note. And by the way, if you're curious and want to learn more about what we do in the Myasian classes, platform link is down in the show notes. Go ahead and just click the link down there. And if you're liking these podcast episodes, please leave us a review. It does help us reach more people, but check the show notes for links. Cool resources, ways for you to connect with me in there and I appreciate you listening. We'll see you on the next one.

[B]

Okay, that's it for today's episode. 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 check out the success stories from other mortgage pros who've already seen incredible results. Thanks for listening and I'll see you on the next episode.