I’m glad you are reading this; your life is about to get much easier. These days with all of the paperwork involved in the every day mortgage process, time is a commodity you can never get enough of. I’m sure you are just like I was a few years ago. All day you chase down current clients to get additional paperwork from and at the same time you have to take applications and prospect for new clients. What top producing loan officer has time to do anything for themselves? Reading this book will not only show you easy, free ways, using video to attract new clients, I’m also going to show you the exact videos you need to make as a loan officer, to free up your time and keep from being asked “What’s the status of my loan?”
But before we get into all of that, allow me to introduce myself…
I’m Ryan Stewman but my friends call me “Ryan”. I’ve got clever nick-names that people call me from all over the internet such as “Hardcore Closer” and “Rock Star Closer” Before I started my journey and career as a video marketer, I was a loan officer just like you. And a pretty damned good one, thank you very much. The last full year I originated loans was in 2009 (worst mortgage market ever) and in that year I managed to close 163 loans. That’s 13 loans or better every single month in the worst year of the modern mortgage era.
You know as well as I do, that in order to close that kind of volume you have to spend a lot of your time at work. I hired an assistant to do tasks for me, and I still found myself working twice as hard for the amount of money I made in 2006. It was frustrating. In order to close that many loans at that time in the mortgage crisis, I had to take on a lot of leads. I’m talking 10-13 leads a day every day 6 days a week. There had to be initial calls, emails, follow up calls, answering calls and “MAN” it was taking its toll on me and others around me.
While my wife was happy with the money I was making, she was frustrated because she rarely spent “quality” time with me. At the end of each month, I was virtually nonexistent and in the office 14+ hours a day. When I would come home or have a day off (yea right, what’s that?) my mind would be so numb from fighting appraisers, underwriters and title companies, all I would want to do is melt away on the couch, before I had to go face the madness again.
Honestly, I though the tough regulations would fail, but they didn’t. I thought things like “we can’t keep having to do this much paperwork forever” but I was wrong. As the year 2009 came along, it brought with it more legislation and more paperwork requirements for loans. My clients were having their loans turned down left and right. The rules were changing daily and I fought the good fight, and many times, lost. I wanted the good old days of 2006 to come back. The time when a good loan officer could go out on the golf course and prospect. As the Money Man, you didn’t have to do much paperwork as long as the clients credit was good.
And then a few assholes fucked that whole thing up and 2009 happened and it got even worse in 2010. Who am I kidding? You know these things, you probably weathered and survived them, and otherwise you probably wouldn’t be reading this.
I had to figure out a way to put my mortgage business on autopilot. I had to figure how to leverage technology, any technology to grow my business, but more importantly, give me more time freedom. I’m not one of those guys who needs and drives to make a million a year. A few hundred thousand a year has always made things easy enough for me. I wanted to maintain the level of business I had without having to invest the same amount of time.
After tracking every step of the process I took my clients through, I realized a wasted a shit-load of time doing the same boring, non-productive activities over and over. Here is a short list of some of the activities I’m referring to: Fielding “Where is my loan” phone calls from realtors, clients, title companies and builders. Chasing down clients to get more required paperwork. Explaining to clients why we had to verify their income directly from the IRS. I’m sure you get the point.
We spend so much time, wasting time. We repeat the same 6-10 sets of explanations or instructions to our clients and referral partners, over and over and over again. Why is that? Some of you are smart and have outlook (or whatever) email signatures set up to save you time. We can all agree, the tone of voice can easily be mistaken via email, especially when money is involved. I went down that road and while it did save me some time, it also took up my time, because some clients misinterpreted the inflection of my tone.
And then it hit me…
YouTube is completely free, why didn’t I go out, buy a camera and try shooting videos to solve my problems? I could get on camera, show them my energy, flash a BIG smile and make them comfortable doing business with me. I had it all figured out back then! Yea right. I’m known for taking imperfect action. I’m the type of person that just does stuff and if it works, I’ll repeat it. If it does not work, I drop it. Because of my heavy implementation skills, I made more stupid mistakes than I can count. At the same time, I’ve made some genius moves that have yielded me over 200,000 YouTube views, and I am not cool, popular or famous in any way.
After 3 years of rigorous trial and error on my part. After testing my theories and methods on dozens of loan officers in multiple markets, I have come up with the most bad-ass method to use video to free up your time, and get you some more loans in that fancy pipeline of yours.
Read on to see how:
First off, I’ve heard every excuse there is on why people won’t and don’t do videos. I’ve heard ’em all. From “I don’t want people to see me.” all the way to “I have old lady flabby arms I’m shy” I’ve shot hundreds of videos for realtors and loan officers over the years and almost every damned one of them resisted in the beginning. This, my friends, is good news. This means that 99% of your competition is NOT using video. That is what we in sales call an “angle”.
If you are slightly technologically advanced you can create PowerPoint videos, if you truly are that overly shy. You have no excuse still, so I don’t want to hear it.
Think of it in the long term. Let me put videos into a different perspective for you:
My Great-Grandpa Dick McCord was supposedly an awesome guy. I never met him, he died in 1978 and I was born in 1979. I’ve heard stories all my life from my Dad and Papa (Grand dad, I’m Texan) about the things he did and who he was. All I have to go on is their stories and some faded old photographs. People did not smile much in old photos. You get no sense of their true personality or any revelation of their identity. An old photo that is faded does not show the character in they eyes you see these days either. I wish I could know or learn more about him.
Because of this, I started doing videos so that my great-great grandchildren can look back and see who I was. Laugh at my calamity and ADD. So my kids could say things like “Hey your great grandfather did some cool stuff want to check him out?” long after I’m gone my videos will be a small legacy for my descendants to gaze back and catch a glimpse of who I was. Isn’t that alone, important to you? What if you have this massive wealth of information you never share with the world? What if some random video you make changes things in a big way? You never know.
As far as excuses for not doing video that revolve around vanity issues, get over yourself. If you are using an old picture from your 20s on your facebook and website, when you are really pushing 40, you’re a lying asshole. Period, end of story. You are a fake person that is lying to your audience and you can 100% for a fact believe that they talk about you behind your back when they see you. They say things like “Holy shit that was not what I expecting her to look like in person.” And you are brining this all on yourself.
The key to marketing and especially marketing on social media (YouTube is a social media site by the way) is being authentic. You want to be you, so that you can attract the right type of people in your life. If you are fake, you will attract fake people. Iron sharpens iron, and one heated idiot can burn a whole factory down. Be real online, be yourself, put yourself 100% out there and you will find that people have a new found respect for you, simply because you have done what they wish they could do. No shit, I promise you. Just try it.
So now that I have taken away any BS excuses you had about doing video, let’s talk about reasons to produce videos.
Video is hands down the most influential way to communicate with anyone. You don’t believe me? Let me run this quick scenario by you. This week you watch a TV show for the fist time. You spend 30 minutes to an hour watching this show and getting familiar with the story line and characters. Next week when you watch the second episode of the same show, you automatically feel like you know the characters and where they are coming from.
You don’t have to be a Hollywood trained actor to accomplish this. Matter of fact, it just kind of happens naturally. Video has that effect on the human psyche. It’s not their superb acting skills that familiarize you with them (all though that helps a lot) it’s the fact that you see a “real” person doing something you have dreamed of doing (being on TV) since you were a kid. You are by nature, mesmerized by these phenomena. YouTube and any other video outlet have these same effects without the big Hollywood budget.
Shitty videos are viewed 3:1 on YouTube. That’s not counting because there are more of them; I’m talking sold views and a real audience. The top stars on YouTube are Ray William Johnson and Jenna Marbles. They make home videos that contain no major production or fancy camera, but they get millions of views a week. There is a fine line between complete shit, and shitty video. To be clear I’m talking production quality. As long as the message is good, the delivery quality does not matter. The biggest thing you want to focus on for a video is the clarity in the audio, but we will get to that later.
YouTube is also the second most used search engine online. Yep google is #1 and google owned YouTube is #2. Knowing that most of your competitors are scared to use video, this is the SEO dream of a lifetime. All for free! For every minute in the day, there is 3 hours of YouTube videos uploaded. By the year 2017 the web will be 90% video. You got a chance now, to get in on all of this and stake your claim before anyone else does.
Video reveals the true emotion of a person. You can see if they are sacred, worried, lying, nervous or any trait. Video reveals it all and people connect with emotion, it’s what drives us all. A phone call, text or email does not affirm the complete context and emotion used when you communicate. Video does. Video pulls back the iron curtain and puts you right out on Front Street for the world to view. You get your chance to show the world that million-dollar smile, the passion you have for what you do and most of all that you are not a coward and you will get in front of the camera.
Just because you are using video, does not mean you have to be the star of the show either. You can make videos with your clients and referral partners showcasing them and what they have to offer. This is also a great way to demonstrate expertise in advance to your prospects. So before I tell you what videos you should make about YOU, let me tell you how you can get others involved first.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way. Testimonials are a must and video testimonials are the best. But not the same old boring stuff where they clients say “She was great we got what we wanted” in some robotic voice. I’m talking a REAL testimonial something that goes straight to the heart and pulls the viewer in. You know the story:
“We were worried sick, we had already been turned down at one lender for the weirdest reason. We already sold our home and had been renting it back from the buyers until we could close on our home. Our rent period was up and we were going to be out on the streets, or at best sleeping in the moving truck. We were scared to death. About a week before we reached this stressful peak, we called Ryan Stewman. He got to work immediately, within 5 days we had loan approval and he even negotiated with the people who bought our house, for us to stay there another 3 days so we could close. Without his intervention we would have had to spend weeks, maybe even a month in a hotel blowing all of our money. I HIGHLY recommend using Ryan for your loan, unless you are willing to risk getting stuck-out like we were. Thank you Ryan”
That’s a real testimony, from a person, with real emotion, and real joy behind it. People see the authenticity and the genuine thankfulness they have for you and want that for them. I’m not even bullshitting. Even though this is totally about you and how awesome you are, the context is in a dire situation of the client. This type of testimonial is the most powerful of them all. The best way to capture these types of testimonials is at the closing table. When the relief is there, the deal is funded and all is week, use that momentum and happiness to capture that emotion. Get that moment on video. That’s as real as it gets and it’s as good as it gets. Never produce boring testimonials. Better to have only 1 or 2 good ones that 100 lame ass testimonials that nobody will ever watch.
The second way to showcase someone else as the star of your videos is through interview. People love to talk about themselves and what they do. Especially realtors. Real Estate Agents have to get their name and brand out there any way they can. Most of them will be more than happy and matter of fact, ecstatic that you care enough about them to interview and promote them. They will love your forever. Ask them questions about their business; get them to reveal their passion. Ask them what they love, what they hate and what they do best for their clients. Really “T” the agent up and promote them as the super start they are. Once word gets out that you are doing this consistently, agents will come from all over trying to be a part of what you have created. The same works for small business owners too.
The third way to include someone else in your video is to feature communities, local charities and children’s sports teams. You can make videos about the communities you prospect in by narrating the video and showing the landscapes, parks and amenities that area available there. These types of videos get huge search power on google. When people are moving to a new area from far away, you can be the first person, to provide the first person point of view for them. If that ain’t branding I don’t know what is. Feature the activities that are available for families, especially in family based communities. Showcase how some of the local charities are making a big difference in the area. Make others the star of the show and they will share your videos for their own agenda.
I personally believe in leading by example. It would be hard for me to instruct people on what they should be doing, if I haven’t done it myself. For this reason, I believe you should do your own videos first. We will start with something easy, natural and that will help free up more of your own time so you can do the things you want to do.
I’ve created a 6-step process for creating the perfect video sequence for loan officers. If you do nothing else after reading this book, you absolutely 100% have to at the very minimum create these 6 videos. If you are not down to do these videos, stop reading now, and forever remain an idiot. If you don’t create these 6 videos you will not only kick yourself in the ass later, you will miss out on the best and easiest way to get referrals known to man.
Let me break these 6 videos down step by step along with a “guide script” to help you determine what you should say in each video. Each of these videos should be no longer than 30 seconds. That’s right, 30 seconds. The shorter and to the loin, the better. Remember as you record any video, ever, you should always say everything with a smile. People will picture that smile every time you talk or email them. They will even picture your smile and pleasing attitude when you have to deliver bad news. Smiling is something too many people forget to do; yet it has such a huge impact on the viewer.
Video #1 Setting the Tone for the Overall Loan Process.
Here is the script: [smiling]
“Hey there, it’s Ryan Stewman and I just wanted to thank you for applying for a mortgage with me. I just wanted you to rest assured that I have received your mortgage application and attached to this email is a list of additional documents I will need from you to make the mortgage process move along quickly. The sooner you get these items to me the faster we can close your loan. As we progress through each of the 6 mortgage steps to close your loan, you will get a video similar to this one, giving you a full update, on exactly what part of the process your loan is in, and what you can expect next. Be sure to check your email regularly because I will only email you or send you videos like this one, when they are important. Thanks again for putting your trust in me and I promise you will be 100% satisfied with my services thorough this whole painless process. Talk to you soon, don’t forget to check your email.”
Let’s break down what this short video does in the mind of your prospect. The first thing it does psychologically for them is the video puts a name; emotion and competency level with your face. They now know who you are, what you sound like and how you talk. This creates a familiar feeling to them. The second thing this video programs your prospect to do is check their emails to be sure they are not missing any communications from you. This assures that when you send an email out, it will be read. The third item this video puts in order for the viewer, is it sets an agenda for them. They have an outline of what to expect through the whole loan process. This takes pressure of the unknown off of the client and eases some of their anxiety. All of this is done in less than 30 seconds. Pretty damn cool huh?
Video #2 Your Loan is in Processing.
Here is the script: [always fn’ smiling]
“It’s Ryan Stewman again and I want to thank you for taking action and getting all of your loan documents signed and sent over to me. I’m glad to announce that your loan is now in step two of our 6-step loan process. You loan has been placed in our processing department. What happens next is an appraisal is ordered, title is requested and all of the documents we need to get from the IRS and your work will be requested. You can expect to hear from an appraiser to inspect your property soon, so keep your house in tip-top shape for them. Once everything is done and submitted back to us from all of these various third parties’, your loan will be sent to the next step in the process. Be sure to check your email and you can expect to hear back from me in the next 72 work hours. Thanks again and I’ll see you soon.”
This video continues to bring the viewer information that is relevant to them, on their terms. The language in this video further sets an expectation of how the process will work. Oddly enough, this video creates that 2nd episode feeling that I referred to in the beginning of the book. The viewer feels like they know your character, and that you are there for them. Plus you are delivering a powerful, important message to them in a way no one else ever has. If you do this right, your client will really begin to like you and trust you. More importantly they will be there waiting for your next video. I shit you not.
Video #3 Your Loan is Now Being Underwritten
Here is the script: [still smiling]
“Hey there, I’ve got great news for you! You’re loan is out of our processing department and now in underwriting. The underwriter has the final say in regards to your loan approval. The Underwriter is the person with the final set of eyes on your mortgage that makes sure all of the “i’s” are dotted and “t’s” are crossed. Our underwriting turn times typically run 48 hours. As soon as I get your loan approval back from the underwriter, you will be the first to know. Be sure to check your email and I will be back with you in a couple of days. Thanks again and I’m SO excited for you!”
You have now got them ripe with anticipation and they are no so patiently waiting to see if their loan approval is going to come through or not. They know to check their email because the very next video they will receive will contain life changing information for them. The next video is the symbol of stress being removed from their shoulders. Not to mention, you have again appeared in front of them in video form and tightened up that familiarity and bond. Their interests are peaked and you are they trusted source of information. What more could a salesman want?
Video #4 Congratulations Your Loan is Approved
Here is the script: [smile damn it}
“Congratulations! Your loan has come out of the underwriting department with an approval! This means all of the stress and hard stuff is behind us. There are always a few small items we need to clear up on our end to get to the next step in the process. We are on top of everything we need to do to insure your loan closes on time. I will be contacting you soon to schedule an exact date and time to close on your mortgage transaction. Be sure to check your email for the next video, it’s the most important one in this whole process, the video that sets up your closing time! Thanks again for trusting me with all of your mortgage needs. I’m delighted to be here and help you with one of the biggest financial designs you will make in your lifetime. Catch you on the next video.”
Do you know how much raw power you just unleashed on to the client? This video is the key video in this whole process. Even though it seems like a simple message, it holds tremendous power. This video is where you become the hero. You have accomplished their goal for them. You let them know you made it happen as well as made them aware how much they had to trust you to get the loan done for them. It’s the perfect set up to ease their mind and let them fall in love with how easy it is to work with you. Even though you have had minimal actual contact. Pretty darned skippy huh?
Video #5 You Loan is Now Clear To Close
Here is the script: [big ass smile, huge]
“Hey there it’s your favorite loan officer Ryan Stewman and I’m happy to announce your loan is clear to close! Go ahead and share this video on facebook, twitter and LinkedIn to let all of your friends and family know that you are approved and over with. There are no more conditions, stipulations or any other items that can interfere with you and your mortgage. The whole stressful process is officially behind us. It’s my pleasure to serve clients like you. This is one of the most exciting times in your life and I want to congratulate you on your bright future. Again it has been my absolute pleasure serving you and if you need anything in the future please leaf me know. You will get one more video from me as the 6th step in the process after your loan has funded. Congratulations and I will see you soon.”
I’ll bet you did not see the “share” part coming did you? This is the happiest time for them throughout this whole process, why not capitalize on that emotion and ask them to share that joy in the heat of the moment? That’s the emotion I have been referring to this whole time. Not to mention that when they share they video they will probably add all sorts of authentic prose for how easy it was to work for you or how cool your videos are. You are the superstar and they want to help promote you. Can you say “momentum”?
Video #6 Thank You for Your Business and Referrals
Here is the script [smile now]
“I just wanted you to know that it has been a HUGE pleasure working for you. I know when it comes to selecting a mortgage professional; you have a lot of choices. I’m very thankful for the opportunity you gave me and I hope I exceeded your expectations. I also hope you enjoyed my video series and saw how easy it was to stay informed though out this whole process. You can trust me to treat any friends, family, co-workers and peers you may send my way, the exact same as I treated you. Please share my contact information of your experience from working with me on one or more of your social media outlets. Thanks again for your business and any referrals you send my way in the future. If you have any questions or need my help at any point in the future, feel free to reach out to me. I’ll always be here for you.”
This is the coolest way to say “gimme’ some referrals” ever. You need to make sure you are projecting happiness when you shoot this video. It’s best to shoot this video live, after you have just gotten a hard deal done, and then use that video over and over. This way you can be sure to put the most emotion into it. After all, this is the video that is most likely to be sent to referrals from your viewer. That may be via email or social media. Either way, rest assured that more than you clients will see this. Bring your A-Game.
As you probably noticed, the overall theme of these videos is, “be sure to catch the next video.” This assures that your client will view every video and actually want to see the next video. After all, what good are videos if no one ever watches them? You’ve also created your brand that will be forever embedded (video term) in their minds and you will always be the person they think of when they think mortgages.
You clients can also rest assured that their referrals will be treated in the same manor as they were. After all, they went through your video process first hand and enjoyed it. They will have no problem sending referrals your way, because they already know the expectation.
Don’t forget the probability of the clients sending your videos to their realtors is high too. Right now, in every real estate office, agents are talking about making videos. Some are making them, but most are still talking about them. When an agent sees that you took the plunge and got in front of the camera, they too will be intrigued and want to reach out to you.
After you have uploaded these videos to YouTube, simply make an outlook signature for your email with the link to the video in it. This way, all you have to do is shoot an email out for every step of the process. Imagine how much time you are going to save by not playing phone tag. You can set up default emails that look exactly like this: (I’m even giving you scripts here sheesh)
————————————————————————
Subject line: Important Email Mortgage Process Step 1
Body: {First name}
Thank you for applying for a mortgage with me. I’m a believer in effectively communicating with all of my customers. I know, first hand, how stressful this time can be. So to better serve you every step of the way, I have made a video for you. It is very important that you take 30 seconds to view this video now. After watching the video, you will know exactly what to do next.
Thank you for your business,
-Ryan
————————————————————————
Real Estate Agents love marketing ideas. They love seeing what works and others implementing innovative practices. When an agent sees that you have a video process in place they can trust, you will earn all of their business. It’s a super cool way to prospect agents without having to buy lunches or drop off rate sheets. (If you still do that dumb shit) Very few loan officers do any type of outside the box marketing, so when you stand out and show results in advance to an agent, you will win their heart and business for sure.
I highly suggest you make videos to introduce yourself to sellers’ agents on transactions as well. Sellers’ agents are the best realtors to work with. They have all the seller and buyer leads. This is not common knowledge between loan officers, but trust me, sellers agents are where it’s at, regarding leads.
You can also offer a 6-step video marketing process to your agents to help them gain more time freedom. This alone can be your unique selling proposition as a loan officer. When you provide an agent with value like this, interest rates do not matter any more. You can be there for them to comfort them and remind them when you did your videos you were nervous as hell too. The best part about doing this for realtors is the fact that for 2-3 hours you are in a room shooting the shit, bonding with them on a personal level, while you shoot business videos. During that time, be sure to listen to the agent. Let them do most of the talking, be the opposite of every other loan officer.
All in all, video is the future and now you have an easily implemented strategy to use them in your mortgage business. You don’t have to buy fancy cameras, special editing equipment or anything. All you have to do is make the videos and send them out. Your clients, realtors and referral partners will all love your innovation and secretly wish they could do the same. You might see quite a few of your peers follow your lead. Remember, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.
If you are ready to take your mortgage game to the next level using video, social media and other free communication mediums to attract quality leads, realtors and referral partners, fill the form below out. You and I will have a private, one on one, conversation over the phone and we will talk about your business and how you can get to the next level. I’ve got more than just one trick up my sleeve when it comes to winning at the loan origination game. I travel all over speaking at real estate offices, infiltrated as one of their own! I see first hand, what agents want and need from their loan officers. I can help you break the $2MM a month wall every month.
