Scotsman Guide - February 2009 Residential Edition

Perfecting Your K.I.C.K.

It’s not time to slow down — it’s time for brokers to step it up, literally

By Louise Thaxton, branch manager, Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp.

Record-breaking U.S. Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps inspired and captivated audiences worldwide with his performance at 2008’s Summer Olympics. He also likely would be the first person to admit that he could never have achieved the success he did without a strong kick.

While mortgage brokers don’t even need to know how to swim to find success, they can use the acronym K.I.C.K. in their pursuit of professional success.

Here’s a look at each letter.

Kicking

The first letter of the acronym is eponymous. In this case, however, we’re not talking about how to swim faster but instead how to do the following:

■ Kick out negative thinking: Brokers seeking success should stay positive. Some great ways to do this include reading positive books, listening to positive teachers and associating with positive people. In physics, positives attract negatives and vice versa. In human relationships, however, the opposite is true. Stay away from negative thinkers.

■ Kick up your discipline: It’s easy to start to slack at work. Perhaps you’ve been going in a little later or going home a little earlier — or both. If so, you should reverse that trend immediately.

“What can you do to
help you stand out from
everyone else? That’s the
question at the root of
finding your creative niche.”

Rather than slack off, make calls to your database or build a new relationship with a Realtor. Right now is the perfect time to build relationships with Realtors, many of whom have lost previous business partners after the recent contraction in mortgage-industry employment. It’s a great opportunity for you to buckle down and expand your network.

■ Kick in your motivation: Get up and get to work. Brokers who whine about all of the reasons they can’t be successful ensure their own failure. You can whine or you can win. Today’s economic hardships are hardly unique to the mortgage industry. Remember, if you’re not willing to do your job and do it well, there are plenty of people looking for work who would be happy to sit at your desk.

Inspiration

Inspiration refers to something that instigates action. Brokers who lack inspiration will find it difficult to motivate themselves.

If that is the case for you, make a conscious effort to seek some form of motivation that changes that. Ask yourself: What inspires me most about the mortgage business?

If you’re most passionate about forming client relationships, spend extra time calling your database and reconnecting with past clients. Ask them for referrals and testimonials. If it’s Realtors you enjoy talking with most, carve out the extra time you need to form more relationships with them. Start with the most-successful Realtors in your market and go from there.

Perhaps your passion is helping people find liquidity, safety and rate-of-return in their finances. Now also is a great time to connect with accountants and financial planners looking for new alliances with mortgage brokers. You might also consider joining a business networking group and establishing partners that way.

When you show your passion all the time, people will want to do business with you and form relationships with you. There’s a magnetism to passionate people that starts from the heart and cannot be denied.

their new home, think about sending a gift to the referring Realtor at the same time.

Whatever you decide to add to your business model, make a special effort to add a creative twist that will set you above your competition.

Louise Thaxton has been a producing branch manager at Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. for eight years. She is a certified mortgage planner with more than 10 years’ experience in the mortgage business. Thaxton speaks at industry events and is one of the featured women in the recently released book Stilettos in a Loafer World: Mortgage Women Who Walk Their Talk by Karen Deis. Contact Thaxton at lgthaxton@fairwaymc.com.

Creativity

What can you do to help you stand out from everyone else? That’s the question at the root of finding your creative niche.

One idea is to improve the level of service that you provide to clients. If you decide to go this route, make a list of the action steps you want to take with each client. Aim to create a client experience rather than just a business deal. Incorporate others in this, as well.

For example, if you decide to send clients a housewarming gift after they move into

Keeping on keeping on

It has been said that perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of the hard work you’ve already done. To find success in today’s market, mortgage brokers must keep on keeping on.

Someone once said, “The race is not always to the swift but to those who keep on running.” Michael Phelps again exemplifies this. In 2004, he had a goal of winning eight gold medals at that year’s Summer Olympics. Instead, he won six gold and two bronze.

Many people would have accepted that as success. Not Phelps. Instead of calling it a career, he trained for four more years and achieved a level never seen before.