The Balancing Act of Being a Mortgage Originator

Summary

Podcast Summary: Mortgage Marketing Radio – "The Balancing Act of Being a Mortgage Originator"

Episode Overview

Title: The Balancing Act of Being a Mortgage Originator
Host: Geoff Zimpfer (Jeff Zimfer)
Guest: Kelly Yale, Digital Marketing Executive and Founder of Octostrategies
Release Date: December 11, 2024
Description: In this insightful episode, host Geoff Zimpfer engages in a deep conversation with Kelly Yale, a seasoned digital marketing executive with over 15 years of experience. They explore the multifaceted role of modern Mortgage Loan Originators (MLOs), balancing traditional loan closing responsibilities with the demands of digital marketing and personal branding. The discussion delves into effective strategies for maintaining focus on core tasks while leveraging modern marketing tools to enhance business growth.

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1. Introduction and Realtor Referral Scorecard Promotion [00:11 – 02:01]

The episode begins with Jeff Zimfer introducing a new tool for Mortgage Loan Originators: the Realtor Referral Scorecard. Geoff emphasizes the importance of evaluating one's current strategy for attracting Realtor referrals to identify strengths, opportunities, and weaknesses.

Notable Quote:

“This quiz will literally take about two or three minutes and it'll give you a specific score...to help you become aware of where you currently are and identify potential areas for future growth.”
— Jeff Zimfer [00:37]

Jeff highlights the customization and insightful feedback the Scorecard provides, encouraging listeners to take advantage of this free resource to enhance their referral networks and increase production.

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2. Introducing Kelly Yale and the Core Discussion [02:01 – 03:34]

Geoff introduces his guest, Kelly Yale, a digital marketing expert who recently appeared on Kelly’s podcast. Kelly brings a wealth of knowledge in analytic-driven technology marketing, emphasizing the importance of avoiding buzzwords and focusing on what remains effective amidst evolving market trends.

Notable Quote:

“What is going to still be effective no matter what happens in the coming market and technology wise.”
— Kelly Yale [02:37]

Geoff sets the stage for a candid and transparent conversation, aiming to explore how MLOs can balance their traditional roles with modern marketing demands.

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3. The Multifaceted Role of Mortgage Originators [03:29 – 08:04]

Kelly begins by highlighting the numerous hats MLOs must wear today, comparing them to real estate agents who manage photography, videography, storytelling, and more. She points out that MLOs are increasingly being labeled as “content creators,” which can distract from their primary role of closing loans.

Notable Quote:

“My job technically is closing loans for people. And if we can keep our eye on that and refocus on it, I think we start to have a new conversation.”
— Kelly Yale [06:15]

Kelly argues that while content creation and personal branding are essential, they should constitute only a small portion of an MLO’s efforts, ensuring that the core focus remains on loan origination and relationship building.

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4. Optimizing Time and Efforts for Maximum ROI [08:30 – 19:11]

Jeff steers the conversation towards practical strategies, asking Kelly how MLOs can structure their ideal week to balance sales and relationship-building activities. Kelly emphasizes the importance of time blocking and automating repetitive tasks to free up time for meaningful interactions.

Notable Quote:

“If you're having to do all of that yourself, ask yourself how much time that takes every week away from really creating those relationships and closing those sales.”
— Kelly Yale [36:44]

She advises MLOs to segment their time effectively, dedicating specific blocks to engaging with agents and borrowers while leveraging systems and automation to handle less critical tasks. Kelly also warns against the pitfalls of chasing social media trends that may not yield substantial ROI.

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5. Effective Personal Branding and Content Creation [19:11 – 28:18]

Kelly delves into the nuances of personal branding, stressing that content should be relevant and resonate with the target audience. She shares insights on creating authentic content that showcases an MLO’s personality and expertise without overwhelming their schedule.

Notable Quote:

“If you're putting time and effort into things that are not fulfilling you, then my argument would be we do have to shift back to a hyper focus on doing the activities that bring ROI.”
— Kelly Yale [19:11]

Kelly provides practical examples of successful content, such as sharing personal stories or addressing specific community needs (e.g., VA loans for military families), to build credibility and trust with potential clients.

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6. Leveraging Marketing Tools for Efficiency [28:18 – 34:35]

The discussion transitions to the use of marketing tools like Social Coach to streamline content creation. Kelly highlights how these platforms can significantly reduce the time MLOs spend on producing and editing content, allowing them to focus more on client interactions.

Notable Quote:

“Using a platform like Social Coach where you can do all of that in about an hour... that’s a huge game changer for most loan officers.”
— Kelly Yale [21:09]

She emphasizes the importance of evaluating the effectiveness of these tools by measuring the actual ROI and ensuring that their use aligns with the MLO’s business goals.

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7. Balancing Fundamentals with Modern Marketing [34:35 – 38:05]

Kelly and Jeff discuss the essential blend of mastering the fundamentals—such as relationship building and closing loans—while incorporating modern marketing techniques. Kelly reassures that while digital presence is important, it should not overshadow the core activities that drive business.

Notable Quote:

“If you show up as a good human being and you want to help others... then if you're marketing to people whose heart was to serve in the military, that's already a match.”
— Kelly Yale [32:26]

Jeff reflects on his own challenges with content strategy, acknowledging the difficulty in consistently producing high-quality content that truly engages audiences without neglecting fundamental business practices.

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8. Conclusion and Key Takeaways [38:05 – 40:18]

In wrapping up, Kelly reiterates that the success of MLOs lies in their ability to balance efficient marketing efforts with their primary role of loan origination. She encourages utilizing tools and systems to automate and streamline marketing tasks, freeing up time to build and nurture meaningful relationships.

Notable Quote:

“Ask yourself how much time that takes every week away from really creating those relationships and closing those sales.”
— Kelly Yale [36:44]

Geoff summarizes the conversation by emphasizing the importance of measuring the ROI of marketing activities and ensuring that they enhance rather than detract from core business functions. Kelly provides her contact information and promotes her company, Octostrategies, which offers fractional support to MLOs seeking to optimize their marketing and operational strategies.

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Final Thoughts

This episode of Mortgage Marketing Radio offers valuable insights for Mortgage Loan Originators striving to balance traditional loan closing duties with the demands of modern digital marketing. Kelly Yale’s expertise underscores the importance of focusing on core business activities while leveraging efficient marketing tools to enhance productivity and build meaningful relationships. Listeners are encouraged to assess their current strategies, embrace automation where possible, and prioritize activities that directly contribute to business growth and client satisfaction.

Connect with Kelly Yale:
Website: octostrategies.com
Social Media: Kelly is available as @KellyYale on all major platforms.

Take the Realtor Referral Scorecard:
Visit realtors.scoreapp.com to assess your current Realtor referral strategy.

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End of Summary

Transcript

[Host]

Hello, my friend. Welcome to this episode of the Mortgage Marketing Radio podcast.

[Jeff Zimfer]

Jeff Zimfer, your humble host.

[Host]

Appreciate you tuning in. Hey, real quick, have you ever scored yourself when it comes to Realtor referrals? Have you ever been curious about your systems, your process, your conversion rates from a data standpoint? Recently, I launched a Realtor Referral Scorecard, which allows you to discover how your current strategy for attracting Realtor referral stacks up. The purpose of this is to help you gain valuable insights to grow your referral network and increase your production. It's completely free. Results are customized, 100% tailored to you, and what it'll help you do is become aware of where you currently are and identify potential areas for future growth. I've had about 200 loan officers complete this quiz already, and the feedback has been fantastic. The responses have been founded, insightful, great questions, really helped me get clear on opportunities and weaknesses.

[Jeff Zimfer]

And so this quiz will literally take.

[Host]

About two or three minutes and it'll give you a specific score, an overall score, a score on your Realtor engagement, your personal branding and visibility. The system is systemization and processes you use and your value delivery.

[Jeff Zimfer]

And I can tell you that it's.

[Host]

Very interesting and insightful to know where you stand so that you can have a better idea of what your strengths, opportunities and weaknesses are.

[Jeff Zimfer]

So if you're at all curious, it's.

[Host]

Free and I think you'll find it insightful.

[Jeff Zimfer]

You get a customized PDF report when.

[Host]

You complete it and you can go to Realtors. I'll put a link in the show notes. Once again, it's a realtors.scoreapp.com find out how ready you are for more Realtor referrals. Take the free quiz today.

[Jeff Zimfer]

Okay, we're jumping into my special guest here, bringing you back Kelly Yale. If you recall, a couple of weeks ago, we released a podcast where I.

[Host]

Was on her podcast as a special guest. And that was a really cool, fun, fiery conversation. And I had promised to bring it back and have Kelly on our podcast. And whenever Kelly and I get together, what's cool is like we just like we're just sitting down and we are just like being real, being transparent.

[Jeff Zimfer]

Right.

[Host]

And talking truth. So we spent a lot of time in this episode talking about the customer.

[Jeff Zimfer]

Journey, your customer experience, how to prepare.

[Host]

For the coming changes in 2025, both.

[Jeff Zimfer]

From an AI technological perspective.

[Host]

What will change, what we think might change, what we think won't change. You know, some of that is crystal ball anyways, but, but, you know, Kelly's just a wealth of knowledge. Right. Digital marketing executive with 15 years of experience. She's all about analytic driven technology marketing plans and not being overly focused on.

[Jeff Zimfer]

The hype, the noise and the buzzwords.

[Host]

And the hacks and secrets, but what.

[Jeff Zimfer]

Is going to still be effective no.

[Host]

Matter what happens in the coming market and technology wise. So she's helping a lot of companies with their marketing. She's very savvy when it comes to digital strategy, social media, content, CRM optimization, things like that. So I think you'll find this podcast useful. Please make sure you check the show notes for links to follow Kelly on LinkedIn and other places. And so, without further ado, let's get into this week's show.

[Jeff Zimfer]

Kelly Yale, welcome to the show.

[Kelly Yale]

Thank you so much for having me, friend.

[Jeff Zimfer]

It is good to be with you again. And so I love the fact that you and I just get to. And it's a Friday, so I'm in. A Friday's a little saucy, a little spicy. Like, I just. Whatever. There's no rules. How's that?

[Kelly Yale]

Okay, I'm for it.

[Jeff Zimfer]

All right, so I want to open up this conversation because I know based on the conversation you, I have had before on your podcast, you like to point out. Well, let me put it this way. You put a post up that says, now if you guys can visualize this, you're listening. The post says I am in big bold letters. And then there's using two CRMs, buying leads, trying to post videos, running social media, meeting new agents, and following up with my database to soi. So following up my database so I can be. And all that's crossed out and what you have on the image is what's actually only visible or intended to be focused on is I am closing loans. So hopefully you get the visual example of that. But what the hell did you mean by that?

[Kelly Yale]

I used to train a lot of real estate agents and I used to talk to them. I used to say, isn't it amazing how many hats you're asked to have? If you think about what a real estate agent has to be the master of, right? They have to be the master of, like, taking pictures. And they have to be understanding videography and storytelling and buyer psychology and then go over to the other side where you have to be a decent writer. I mean, we have AI now, but you know what I mean? You had to really be good at organization, all these different hats you wear, right? And it used to be, it seemed that that was only for realtors. And then the last five or six years it seems like we've taken. If you look at, like, most loan officers, like LinkedIn pages right now, it'll say mortgage originator and content creator. And, you know, we kind of shifted into this. You know, I have so many hats that I have to wear. I don't have an LOA anymore. I haven't been able to afford them in the last couple of years. I know I need to be doing 10 different things. I have two different systems. I have this one with my old database, and this one's through my company. And there are so many distractions. There are so many to do lists. There's so much new technology and new things to learn. And at the end of the day, I think it's really taken our eye off the ball, which is how do these systems and these practices serve me so that I may serve my customer? Because my job is not content creation. My job technically is closing loans for people. And if we can keep our eye on that and refocus on it, I think that we start to have a new conversation.

[Jeff Zimfer]

Yeah, so let's. Let's kind of pick at this a little bit and peel all the layers back, because it's. Isn't that how I get to the loans, though? Because there's so many ways today to originate. Right. There's the fundamentals, which, you know, you and I know what they are, and we'll probably talk a little bit about those. But don't I need to be a content creator today? Don't I need to be putting video out? Don't I need to have this personal brand if I'm going to actually close loans?

[Kelly Yale]

A million percent? But I would argue if you don't already have a personal brand, you're in deep water right now. But yes, you have to create messaging around your brand. That's going to be an important thing. But that should be 10%, maybe of your week. And I think there is so much distraction and so much competition when it comes to how people are doing things. You know, watching what other people do, thinking that, you know, keeping up with the Joneses, if you will. And so much of that practice can be automated. So much of those things can be easier to do. You have to do all of the relationship work. I am never going to be on another side. Then you've got to be creating relationships. And sure, content is important for that and all of that, but at the same time, the closing of loans and the focus on mortgage, I think can sometimes get a little bit lost in all of the other things that we spend our day doing. If you told me that somebody was going to spend their entire day on creating relationships and that would be their focus, I would actually take that over the myriad tech solutions and ChatGPT experts of the loan world. And I just feel like the conversation has shifted somewhat.

[Jeff Zimfer]

All right. I'm writing notes and I want to come back hopefully to some of these things because you mentioned personal brand. If you don't have one, you're dead in the water. I'm going to come back to that ideally in a minute. And if I forget, feel free to remind me, but I'd like to then maybe line up how you think. If you were to map out a productive loan officer's ideal week, what would those activities or theme days and structure look like potentially?

[Kelly Yale]

Yeah, well, it's funny because I used to build systems based on this philosophy, right. Because what we did was we would automate a lot of behavior on behalf of the loan officer through systems. And what I used to talk to them a lot about time blocking. Right. And our. In my. In my world, right. And keep in mind, not Kelly L. Does not have a mortgage license nor has she ever done a loan. So you can feel free to ignore me because in many ways, I am not an expert in doing loans, but I am an absolute expert in creating relationships. And if you think about the way that your week sits there, right, you have. But let's say you work 40 hours a week, which we all know is sort of a joke, but in this current environment, maybe you do work 40 hours a week. How are you segmenting out your day to be in front of the people that you need to be in front of? And who is that audience that makes it smart? A lot of people that's going to be meeting new agents, it's going to be talking to the current agents you have in order to create a strategy for growth for both of you. And that's reinforcing the relationships with those agents who are amazing to you and figuring out how you can become even more valuable to them in 2025. So you've got sort of those three pillars where you have to set aside time and figure out what's actually going to be of value in serving them. For your best agents, that may be going to lunch, that may be taking a yoga class with them. It may be something that's deeply personal for those new agents that might just be. How do I get you to like me, to trust me, and to understand that I'm not here just to take your money? I'm here to truly partner with you so that our businesses grow together. And then on the other side, obviously, they're talking to borrowers. And borrowers are much the same. We have borrowers with high intent who we need to spend a good amount of time with, talking about how valuable working with us is and talking to them about what their overall financial objectives are for the next 20 years. And then you have people who, you know, you have to nurture along the way. And if we look at, I like to encourage loan officers a lot of the time to look at the world as if every single human being could do business with them, because every single human being can. And that's not true of a lot of different industries. But everyone likely is going to be in some situation of wanting to buy a home or knows somebody who wants to buy a home. And how we show up every day, whether that is ourselves or through systems that we create to communicate, it's smart to follow up as a human being. And so when you're thinking about what Q1 is going to look like and you're segmenting out your day, what do I need to do to drive sales? Those are going to be the top, most biggest priorities. But then what are you doing to drive value to relationships? Should be the other part of your day.

[Jeff Zimfer]

Okay, got it. Sales. And I'm drawing an arrow to add value to relationships. What I heard in there was a lot of talking to people. You know what I mean?

[Kelly Yale]

You know, to be fair and you know, in an increasingly AI world, I hope that sounded super chat GPT when I said it. In the increasingly digital landscape, we are going to delve into a more robust conversation about this. You know, if you think about the way that relationships start. Right. And I'm going to use a terrible analogy. That's probably not going to be pg, but if I'm on a dating app and I see somebody who I like and I connect with them and my first message is, can't wait to sleep together. So we got a problem.

[Jeff Zimfer]

Well, which app is it? That's the first.

[Kelly Yale]

So you may actually be messaging correctly and I stand correctly, but in general, think about it, right? How do we start a relationship? Even if that's your end goal, if you go in guns blazing, then what are you doing? Right. So how do we build a relationship with a stranger? Because that actually is technically the job.

[Host]

Yes.

[Kelly Yale]

So whether that's a new lead or whether that's a new agent, how do we start? Well, we can start by stalking. To be super fair, there's plenty of Information on the Internet about human beings. And then we know at least the people we have in common, the kind of warmer conversations that we can have. Maybe you went to the same school, maybe you have kids the same age, Maybe you used to live in the same area of town that they live in. But imagine how much different the conversation becomes when you do a little bit of investigative work and you don't act like a stalker, but instead you say, hey, Jeff, I'd really love to have a conversation with you. I know that, you know, Brian, he actually was the best man in my wedding. So I'm sure we have some funny stories that we can tell. But my agenda today is not to sell you on why I'm the best loan officer in the world. My agenda today is to get to know you as a human being.

[Jeff Zimfer]

Okay, so, but how are we doing that? How are we doing that stalking per se?

[Kelly Yale]

Well, you know, stalking can be a variety of ways. Ideally, you know, you have a system that can kind of socially stalk and give you some data. If you don't, that's okay because that's what Google is for. And you know, Facebook is preposterous with the amount of information it will give us about a human being. Right. We know where somebody just vacationed, we know what people are doing. And if it's a real estate agent, Real estate agents are on Facebook, period. You can play app to app all you want to, but when it comes to real estate agents, that's going to be a really good spot to start. I always suggest to loan officers that you start by connecting on maybe Instagram first, right? Follow them, connect with them, and then start becoming a cheerleader of the things that they do. Not obnoxiously. Maybe sometimes you dislike things, maybe sometimes you say, gosh, this is a really great listing, I'd love to share it. Maybe you just slide into their DMs with a hey, I notice what you're doing. It's not easy to create so much good content, but you're doing a good job. I'm not selling yet. I'm just talking. Right. I may be opening, asking open ended questions, you know, how. Listen, you're 20 minutes away from my office. You know, how do you feel about December and January? You know, do we think it's gonna be hard or are you actually seeing some housing prices fall where you are? You know, what are you struggling with getting new listings. Really try and solve a problem in the question you ask so that they know that you don't just want to get coffee with them. Actually, if you say, can we get coffee? I want to slap your hand immediately. Because imagine how put yourself for one second in the place of a real estate agent for the last year and a half, where every single day their phone is full of messages from loan officers who want to work with them, who are asking them to meet for coffee. Differentiate yourself by not swiping right and going, hey, you ready to hop in the sack? Don't do that. You know, put a little romance into it. You know, put a little work into it. The effort is really going to make a big difference because when you approach relationships differently and when you're giving before you're asking, it's a different, different conversation.

[Jeff Zimfer]

So, yeah, some good tips in there.

[Host]

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[Jeff Zimfer]

Then settle the this might be in my own head because if I go back to that opening post where you had all those activities that here it is right here. Posting videos, running social media, meeting new agents, following up with my database like those would seem to be. Are you. You are not saying that Ellos should not be doing those, Is that correct?

[Kelly Yale]

I'm not saying LO should not be doing those but we, we are just because we live in a current environment where there may be a handful of loans in the pipeline. Let's be realistic. About six months from now when we're doing 20 to 25 loans in the pipeline, it's easy enough to be able to do those activities right now, because you don't. You're not really that busy. Maybe you're super busy, but for the most part, people are struggling to kind of get those new leads and loans. Of course those are going to be good activities for today. But I will argue too, Jeff, that a lot of people don't actually know how to do some of the things that we're talking about today.

[Jeff Zimfer]

Okay.

[Kelly Yale]

And I think it's that situation where instead of, like, stressing out over that, there are actually a lot of solutions for how to streamline those. There are a lot of coaching platforms that will teach you how to do it. So you're not really stressing out and you're actually able to focus on bringing in more production.

[Jeff Zimfer]

All right, I'm going to scratch deeper here. I'm going to pull. Let's go deeper. You're saying there's a lot of LLs who don't know how to do that, but they are doing it, and they're doing it to the detriment of that activity or they're not getting a lot of ROI or bang for their buck on it.

[Kelly Yale]

I don't think people are really getting the ROI that they have been promised by the. By the people who they follow. Right. If you like, just a normal TikTok feed, right? It's like, oh, everything's easy. And you can scale this and you can sell your business model and you can, you know, this, this is. This is shooting fish in a barrel. And the reality of even an extraordinary video content strategy, it may not get anyone to come and do business with you. In fact, if you ask most loan officers, how many loans have you received from TikTok, what's the answer going to be? Right? So you can concentrate on those efforts, and I highly suggest that you do some. But I would very much argue that in the last few weeks of 2024, what we should be doing is thinking about and really analyzing, hey, here's what I did in video this year. Here's how long it took me, and here's the ROI I actually saw from it. Did that help me close more loans? Here's how much time I put into my CRM and chatgpting everything in the world. Did I see anything from that? Is my system providing opportunities for me or am I still having to fish every single day for new business? And if those kinds of answers are different, Right. If you're not, if you're putting time and effort into things that are not fulfilling you, then my argument would be we do have to shift back to a hyper focus on doing the activities that bring roi.

[Jeff Zimfer]

Yeah. So I wrote down clarify for a second. Is my system bringing me opportunities? What do you mean by that? Meaning, hey, I'm posting videos and I'm truly trying to make it happen on social media. That's a system. And you're saying let's evaluate kind of the return on effort for those.

[Kelly Yale]

I think you have to, I think, you know, we've been, the last few years has been heavily short term, short form content. Right. And I love short form content. But if you are spending, you have like an entire content day and you're, you know, writing your chat GPT scripts out and you're reading those and then you're editing those and you're uploading those and you spent eight hours on that. My argument would be why are you not using a platform like Social Coach where you can do all of that in about an hour? And so it's really more about like how do you make the best use of systems available to really dial in how your efforts, how long do your efforts take you? If you're not showing up at all, how can you dive into doing it for the first time? And then what are true ROI proven strategies that you have seen work over the last few years that you can really, really, really double down on in 25? Because I feel like the amount of things that loan officers can do, that list just grows and grows. And what we really need to kind of get back to is how am I going to get loans through the door? Now all these things factor into it for sure, but are they distractions or are they really proving to be beneficial to business?

[Jeff Zimfer]

Yeah, I guess that goes back to tracking and measuring. I mean, I'm just, I'm thinking about the social coach thing for a second. I don't know a ton about that platform, but isn't that essentially. And I don't know what your affiliation is there, but we can talk about that like a social media scheduler and planner and poster.

[Kelly Yale]

I mean it is so I don't have any affiliation whatsoever with it. But you know, here's the thing. Whenever I see something come up on the market, right. And you know me, I'm not a cheerleader of anything really. But when I See, something that like, makes loan officer lives easier. I'm like, wait a second, hold on a second. I use it now, I'm not a loan officer, I technically shouldn't be using it. But I asked them if I could because I saw it at a thing I was at in January. I was at a moment builder and I, and I saw their platform and I was like, oh, this is really cool, let me test it out. And I thought, wait a second, if I look halfway decent in the morning, I can turn my camera around. They've got a script. Now, they don't have a script for me, but they've got scripts for loan officers. And I can fire off a 90 second video for myself, click a button, and then later that afternoon or the next day, I have a fully edited, you know, video that has all of my hashtags, all the things, and I just push a button to send it out in the world. That, to me, that's a huge game changer for most loan officers who look at video creation as sort of a, an enormous sort of hill to climb.

[Jeff Zimfer]

Okay, so what I'm hearing there is, that's an operational efficiency, using their platform to go from posting to, you know, editing, you know, post production, all that kind of jazz. Right? And so that's, that's a, that's a possible solution. There are some others. Okay, cool, I got it. I mean, so. So once again, just to be clear, you are not saying you shouldn't be creating content. You should be looking at how efficient are you at getting it out there and also how, how effective are you in the content that you're producing? Meaning it's got to be relevant, impactful. And that, by the way, that's part of the rabbit hole, Kelly, that we're talking about here is. And I think this is the struggle. I know probably you and me. Anybody who's tried to create content, it's not easy. It's. I'm gonna, it's hard, like to create really good content. This is what I've really noticed and I've been spending the last three months, quick side note here, like really evaluating my podcast, my content and my strategy. Content strategy Moving forward for 2025, who do I wanna show up as in the world? Because I don't wanna half ass it. And I sometimes feel like that's what I do just to get it out there. Does that make sense?

[Kelly Yale]

It took me seven years to start a podcast. It's not because I didn't understand how to do it. In fact, I had a whole Podcast studio built as a gift from my fiance two years ago that I never touched. The reason I didn't touch it is because I wasn't going to do a podcast like everyone else was. And there was this time in the mortgage industry where everyone was like, I have a podcast and these were my customers. These are loan officers I coach. And I was like, timeout. Why? Who's your listener? Who's going, man, I'm gonna go on an hour walk today and I am going to listen to George from Phoenix, Arizona, tell me why. First time home buyers are gonna be in a great position this year. Yeah, no one's listening to that, friends. And I love you to pieces, but come on. So it genuinely is important. I've had so many different loan officers tell me that they want to go viral with a short form video, and I say, great, take your shirt off. And then they look at me and I'm like, well, you said you want to go viral and I don't know that you know this, but ain't no mortgage video unless it is extremely well done.

[Jeff Zimfer]

Right? Which is difficult.

[Kelly Yale]

It's going to go viral. And if it's going to go viral, it has to go viral for a reason, which is either because it embarrassed you or because it genuinely is so good that people can't help themselves but to share it. Now, caveat to that, I do love really solid things that Realtor partners can share because this loan officer has given something of true and meaningful value. That is not. Loan limits have gone up this year. That is not. Rates have dropped this teeny tiny percent. It's. If you're thinking about buying a home in the new year, here are the conversations you want to have upfront. And I'm the kind of person you can have these conversations with. And likely your realtor shared this with you because they're somebody who trusts me and I'd love to have the opportunity to have a conversation. Great video. Now, is that going to work across all platforms? Maybe, maybe not. But if you think about the way that you're positioning your message, you have to take yourself into the mind of your audience. Is someone on TikTok today hoping they're going to run across a local loan officer who's going to tell them that conforming loan limits are different? How is that going to really bring them into the fold? Or are you saying like, hey, not only am I a loan officer, but I have a collection of bulldogs and here's the craziness that we go through every morning before I get to Sign on my computer because I got to feed these crazy dogs and you're showing them like a walking through your life, Right? Hey, yesterday I was really scared because somebody dropped the ball and my clients weren't going to be able to close. And so I worked together with a title company and the realtor to make sure that that didn't happen. Because can you imagine anything worse at the holidays than not having the home that you imagine putting a tree up in?

[Jeff Zimfer]

Wow, that's pretty good off the top of your head.

[Kelly Yale]

Well, I don't know if you know this or not, but I've been in professional mortgage marketing for about 12 years now.

[Jeff Zimfer]

Get up.

[Kelly Yale]

I can't do that. Smack me right in the face.

[Jeff Zimfer]

Yes. And by the way, we're going to link up ways for people to connect with you both on LinkedIn and on your website for those who want to learn more about what you do. But clearly the fact that you're able to pull that out of thin air means you have a solid grasp on what is the type of content that actually will get engagement and resonate. Because there's a right time, right place. Like there is a right time to pepper in some mortgage or housing related content. But you know, to your point a moment ago, it's like, that's really not going to, you know, I'm not going to really connect with you in a big way that might build some credibility and some trust and like, oh, Kelly knows her stuff, right? But then I'm going to move on and swipe on until something like, oh, look at that, that's funny. Like our friend Kayla, right, with the four pit bulls or whatever that she rescues. Like that brings people in. Shout out, once again, Kayla.

[Host]

But go ahead.

[Kelly Yale]

You know, this is the problem is that she. No, let me start again. Obviously I love her. She's a dear and wonderful friend of mine. She listens to all my podcasts and she, I will die. She'll be listening to it. She'll go, I heard you mention me on the podcast. So here we are doing it again. Kayla.

[Jeff Zimfer]

I know, right?

[Kelly Yale]

Twice, very much. That's a perfect example because you're talking about somebody who embraces not only the trends that are going on, right? Because she will hop on a trend, she'll hop on a popular song, she will hop on a fun way to edit. So she's actually watching social media in general to watch where, like, what's going to be looked at. How can I jump on this latest trend? Now, that's not something that just everybody is doing. But what she has done an incredibly efficient job at is this is Kayla. She's got this blonde hair. She knows what she's talking about. She lives in North Dakota and she's got four rescue dogs. Now, I know all of that because of who I knew her to be before I met her. That's how you build a brand. But if, let's say you have a loan officer who wants to target the messaging and it can be about mortgage until the cows come home. If you think about things like, hey, I live 20 minutes away from a big military base, right? So I want to make sure that I'm talking to people about, hey, are you, are you in the military? Are you relocating to this area? Here are some of the things you're going to see. Here's why having a VA loan is going to be so great. You can use your VA loan benefits the following way. When you're using your VA loan to move here, here's where you can live. I don't know if you know where some of these bases are, but here's some neighborhoods now you're talking about. Here's a strategy. I'm going to talk nothing about loans and a specific kind of loan, but you've geotargeted the area, the messaging, you've thought it through and you know that that sort of information is important to the people who you hope to have follow you. So I'm not saying don't do loan. You know, obviously we still want to do a lot of loan videos, but how do you make it personal to who you are and then how do you really think about the audience?

[Jeff Zimfer]

Hmm, that's a good point. And that's relevance as well. I was thinking about that. I had a conversation the other day. Tony, if you're listening, what's up, Tony? Shout out. He is in a, in a military heavy area of the country. And I asked him if he was, if he had done VA loans first of all and understood how to do them, right. He said, yeah, I've done a ton of them. And I was like, well, why aren't you leading with that, man? I mean, it's raiding your. Like, if I was living in San Diego, right, I'd be like double tapping this VA thing if I wanted to do va, right, and become known as that person. And he said, he, here's the interesting thing. He got in his head and he had never been in the military and it started to have imposter syndrome about, well, who am I, right? And I'm like, well, dude, you don't have to have been in the military to care about the military community and the service and like, have an affinity and a connection for that. Like, you can help them save so much trial and error and overcome some of the BS that's out there when it comes to va. And I'm like, bro, like, you should go back and double tap on that thing. Wouldn't that make sense? This is kind of like the exact scenario you just described it.

[Kelly Yale]

It absolutely is. Look, I think one of the strangest and hardest parts of the last couple of years for this industry is that, you know, you have to have a certain swagger and a certain amount of ego to sell, right? Confidence and the confidence to sell. And then somebody put us all in like a rock polisher for a couple of years, right? And we've just been tumbling around in there and hoping that when we come out we'll be nice and shiny. But when we went in, I think we were shiny to begin with. And then we've just been tumbling ever since. So I think that there is this crisis of confidence that everyone has kind of experienced at one point or another in the last couple of years. I think that with so much talk about, like, where the industry goes, we start doubting like our own importance or whether the robots are coming to take our jobs or all the things and we've forgotten this one simple philosophy, which is if you show up as a good human being and you want to help others, and that is the overall message, it doesn't matter who you're going to help, whether you do reverse mortgages, VA, first time home buyers, it doesn't matter. You should and need to stand in yourself in that confidence and say, no matter what, at the end of the day, I'm here to help some people and if I can hit this target audience with a message and I'm showing them my heart is to serve, then obviously if I'm marketing to people whose heart was to serve in the military, that's already a match.

[Jeff Zimfer]

So then it's a blend of the two disciplines, if you will. The discipline of fundamentals being brilliant in the basics, which is conversations with the right people. But it's also the flip side of that, which is being a modern mortgage advisor and then having some relevance, you know, and means by which people today can connect and engage with you via these modern methods like social media, online, et cetera. Is that accurate?

[Kelly Yale]

I absolutely think so. And you know, look, are there people who are killing the game who are still working in an Excel spreadsheet? And have never done a video in their life. Absolutely. There are, this isn't for everyone. It isn't, it isn't a one size fits all moment. But I think as we go into the future, you know, we, we put a ton of emphasis on, you know, am I a thought leader? You know, are people following me? How many followers do I have? How much engagement did I get? Were people negative in their, in their comments on my post or did it not get any action at all? And I look at content like, you know, here's this short burst of me being full of myself because that's basically how I, how I do it, you know, and I'm going to talk about something that's on my heart to talk about today. And I think that is a stronger approach to short form content than having, you know, 12 different scripts around, like, you know, borrower qualifications or, you know.

[Jeff Zimfer]

Three hacks to buy a home improvement.

[Kelly Yale]

Right, exactly right. Or you're pointing at things that are in the air. You know, that's, I just don't think that those are the right fit for us.

[Jeff Zimfer]

Yeah, yeah. But we get swayed because we see these big influencers, air quotes or people with tons of followers like doing this thing or hopping on trends. And you know, trends can be great for the right people, but for most, yeah, it's like it's a whole new skill to learn and in and of itself is almost a full time job learning how to create content with your mobile phone. And I think what I'm hearing from you, if I was to put a cherry on top of this, is place that attention. It's important, learn the new skills. Right. Don't be quote left behind, but don't do it at the expense of what we know always works, which is the fundamentals and conversations and FaceTime with people.

[Kelly Yale]

Yeah. And also you're the SME. You're the SME of loans. You don't have to, you don't have to be a content creator. You don't have to actually wear all these hats. There's a lot of easy hats.

[Jeff Zimfer]

Yeah. But Kelly, I feel like if I don't, I'm going to miss out. Like that's the pressure. That's the fomo. Because I see other people doing it.

[Kelly Yale]

Well, I mean, this is an industry of people who are afraid to know what happens if they don't or what happens if they do. Right. It's the same thing you'll hear from like mortgage C Suite. Well, if we make this decision, what if all the salespeople get Mad. Well, okay, what if, what if, what if, you know, like. Yes, you didn't. You have to look, I want you to have the foundations of an excellent business and that is your brand is strong. People know who you are and what you stand for and they understand your why you surrounded yourself with the right kind of people. The people in your sphere understand how to advocate for you. You have your systems lined up and you're always looking for opportunities for relationships and sales within that group and outside of that group. But there are simple ways that you can have content creation work for you. There are simplified ways that you can have systems work for you. But if you're having to do all of that yourself, ask yourself how much time that takes every week away from really creating those relationships and closing those sales.

[Jeff Zimfer]

Okay, I think that's, that's a good, good note to end on right there. It's, it's not that those, you know, media strategies, content strategies aren't important or can't help you move the needle and create some deals. It's quest. Ask yourself the question of right. How much time is that taking? Is that affecting other activities for you generating business? Is that fair? That's very fair. So for those who want to connect with you, by the way, great conversation. Thank you so much for bringing all this to light. How would you like people to connect with you? We'll make sure we link it up in the show notes.

[Kelly Yale]

Well, you know, one of the fun things about having a social media company before social media really existed is that I am tagged myself as my name on all platforms, which means I can never get married or divorce or anything again. I'm Eliel on every single platform, really. And yeah, yeah, got my name. Well, I mean, look, there were 12 people on Twitter when I started, okay. Because people genuinely didn't know what social media was going to be and certainly weren't starting an agency around it. And that's what's so funny is here I am trying to talk people out of social media a little bit. I don't know, I'm not really sure, but I am Elly Yale on any platform. And then I have a company called Octostrategies. And that particular post that you mentioned, the reason that I have that is because we have a group of eight C suite individuals who help companies grow and scale. And whether that is companies or whether that's really excited individuals who understand the power of aligning process and marketing and tech to create these relationships. I have a company called Octostrategies and so I'm fortunate to get to work with some really amazing human beings who lean in fractionally for people who can't afford a full blown sort of agency relationship but do need to have some of the fundamentals dialed in for their business.

[Jeff Zimfer]

Okay, and that is octostrategies.com we'll link that up in the show notes as well.

[Kelly Yale]

Awesome. I really appreciate it.

[Jeff Zimfer]

Thank you Kelly. And listen, if you guys like this episode, you know what to do. Please share it with somebody else. Leave us a review that does help us reach other people. Appreciate you tuning in and we'll see you on the next one. Bye for now.

[Host]

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.