THE 3 THINGS THAT MATTER MOST

As America opens up from national quarantine, mortgage professionals are positioned to be a fiscal stimulus to America’s homeowners. What we do over the next 30, 60 and 90 days will define your success for the next two years.

To optimize your energy and success you need to work hard and you need to work SMART. Last week I interviewed Hunter Marckwardt, a top producer who averages $135M annually. He’s also chief production officer at RPM Mortgage and a coach with The CORE.

For the last eight years, Hunter has been sending out his “Sunday Thoughts” email of self-reflection, designed to help people stop and think about the week ahead. This helps him visualize, plan, implement, and better achieve his goals every day. In the email, he talks about wins, losses, lessons learned, and how to turn negatives into positives. A few weeks ago, Hunter sent out a message I felt could be extremely inspiring to all loan officers.

BE SURE TO WATCH THIS 20 MINUTE INTERVIEW

Here, Hunter explains what drove him to write this particular email. And his story may sound pretty familiar to your own.

I normally am pretty deliberate with my morning routine. I wake up at 4:30, go through my process, meditate, pray, journal, read, go for a run, and jump in my pool. Then I get into work. And if I do that every morning, I'm pretty guaranteed to have a good day. But with everything that's been happening in the mortgage environment and my new role as chief production officer, I’ve lost my center. I don't sleep, I wake up at 4:00, 4:30, I jump on email, I respond to as many as I can. When I get into the office I'm on Zoom calls or phone calls all day and I'm just getting nowhere with anything. I get home at night and my 14- and 16 -year-old boys, and my wife, are looking for my time and attention and not getting it. I'm still looking at texts, looking at emails, I need to call people back. And I’m miserable.

I'm working 15 hours a day, I’m not sleeping, and I’m not getting anything done. So three weeks ago, I was talking to a first-time coaching student. Anyone who’s in The CORE, the first six months are hell because you're trying to fix and change everything about your business. And this guy was saying the same thing I’m saying. So I gave him an assignment. I said, why don't you send me an email every day for the next three weeks just giving me three tactical things that will help you win your day. They don't need to be complicated. You don't need to create a new business plan. Example: Talk to 10 clients, have dinner with the family, whatever is important to you so that you can put your head on the pillow at the end of the day and sleep comfortably. And as I'm saying that, I’m realizing that often the advice we give other people is the advice we need to listen to ourselves.

So then I brought it to my coaching group. I said, ‘all four of us are going to wake up and we’re going to do it.’ Then I started doing it with my other coaching students and the guys who coach me, and it has just turned into a morning ritual where 22 people state their three wins for the day.

I could tell people are gaining momentum with it and I'm gaining momentum with it just because it crystallizes another thing I wrote down. My head is always going a million miles an hour and when I actually have to type it, it solidifies my thought process and it makes me be more purposeful with my day and I want to control what makes my day successful as opposed to letting it control me.

Does this sound like you? Between emails, incoming phone calls and all the stuff you’re doing, if you don't have a purpose with how you're going to win your own day, then all you're doing is taking bullets from everybody else.

“I’m not the first person to do this. But I’m implementing it, and it’s been super impactful for me and my coaching students. And when I put my head on the pillow at night, I feel a sense of relief instead of feeling like a hamster.”—Hunter Marckwardt 

KEY TAKEAWAY:

?Starting tonight, write down the three things you feel are going to be your wins for tomorrow. Do it every day. And every Sunday, take 30 minutes to an hour to think about and write down your thoughts about the week ahead. As you do this, think about how you can be a better light to your customers and partners.

Today, we have a historical opportunity to lock in lower rates and to position a family to build wealth with real estate. I believe real estate is going to lead us out of the recession and it's a huge opportunity for families. So it's more important than ever that we are the light, which means we have to have our own self together.

Here are some strategic wins that can help make a loan officer be the light for their customers in today’s market:

#1 Complete a perfect week: Meet all your daily goals, i.e., update Realtors on Monday, update clients on Tuesday, call past customers on Wednesday, do pre-approval calls on Thursday, and call VIPs on Friday. Whatever your system is, have a perfect week.

#2 Make your goals attainable and include one personal goal, such as have dinner with the family, or write 5 thank you cards a week. 

#3 Keep your approach consistent—your scripts, your routines, your processes, etc. When it works, replicate it across your organization so that your approach, and your team’s approach, has the best possible odds of being successful. For example, give every customer a Total Cost Analysis and use a short video to deliver it and walk them through it. Don’t vary. Do it across every customer.

CLICK to see a sample of one of Hunter’s Total Cost Analysis

If you commit to this opportunity to invest in how you’re handling your business, how you’re talking with your clients, and how you’re communicating with your business partners, you’ll start to see significant improvements within days and if you make writing down the 3 things that matter most it could change both your career and your life.

Stop what you're doing now and write out the top 3 things that matter most today