Welcome to the mortgage game. I truly, truly believe that building a mortgage business, a successful one, is like playing a game. There's winners, there's losers, there's certain things you try. Some of us are playing checkers, while others are playing chess. I've had the ability to coach and mentor hundreds of mortgage brokers.
I myself built a very nice business, so now I want to distill all that information, all the things I've learned from that, and bring it directly to you in a simple -to -understand way. I hope you enjoy. All right. Welcome to the Mortgage Game Podcast. West Coast Wiley here in traffic, Dodge Ram Studio, on the way to pick up my son from EcoCooks, which is like a weekly thing where it's two hours. They teach these kids. They give them a budget. They have to shop. They have to prep.
They teach them the origin of food. They teach them. you know, the farmers, the ecosystem behind the food, how it gets to your table, what you do after with it, how to actually cook and saute. And it's pretty cool. Eight weeks in, he's good now. This is the last one. Anyways, just filling in. Yeah, it's pretty cool. So once again, I'm doing this podcast, I'm finding time, right? I could just be driving, listening to music, or I could be doing this. So I've chosen to do this for you.
to add ideas in my head and things I want to talk about. None of this is scripted ever. 270 episodes. I don't even know how many hours that is. 85 hours of just talking. It's kind of crazy to say that out loud. Anyways, there's no reason you can't do whatever you do when you're driving here. I usually do content when I'm driving. Talk this, do this. You could be... doing opens on your phone, on Instagram. You could be responding back to people. You should be doing your five texts.
There's tons of stuff you can do in these little slivers of time we have through the day instead of just doing the norm. That's not what the podcast is about, though, is it? No, this podcast is about... So I'm just going to share a couple of tips and tricks that I used in my mortgage career and we're using now with Team Wiley stuff. Even in Strategy Hub, we're pushing this a lot. And I understand how... chaotic, I don't know if chaotic is the word, how unorganized you are.
I was unorganized, but I was organized more than the average broker. But the thing is with me is a lot of people love organization. They just, they love the checklist where you just keep going, oh, the checklist, the next one, the next one. They get just a feeling of gratitude, maybe not gratitude, gratification for doing that. Totally get it. Awesome. I gave myself such little easy things to do that nothing seemed like a big challenge to me.
And so a lot of you are out there and you're learning and you're taking notes and you got scripts and you got processes or you don't have processes and you're just kind of winging things and a little all over the place. I'm starting to look under the hood of a lot of people's businesses and I'm realizing it's basically just banging around in your coconut the whole time. And then you're just hoping you get to it or remember to get to it.
So I'm just going to give you some basic structure around this, like the simplest thing. And sure, could you have cello boards and SOPs and, you know, these booklets that outline all the things and these video like, sure, absolutely. You could have all that. That sounds like a nightmare to me. It does. This business isn't complicated. There are a lot of hats you have to wear in departments, but we overcomplicate the fuck out of it. We do.
You could just do two things and accomplish someone else doing eight things, right, for what you need it for. And so I'm going to give you a couple examples. And so we recently just went through content creation on Friday. And you build the process. Okay, I have an idea. And how do I get that idea into a fully edited video that is cross -posted on three platforms, let's say. And how do I take that idea and take it from there? And then build an email around it.
And then how do I build a blog around it? So how do I like do all that? So in your head, if someone asked you with a gun to your head, you would say all the things. But when it comes to the day you're supposedly going to make the video, which is every day or every second day or you batch it out or whatever, you sort of sit there and you go, I kind of know what to do. Can't remember. I had it written down somewhere. It's on a sheet. It's on a Google Doc. It's over here in my email.
And you're kind of just scrambling all over the place. So I came up with the simplest way of just making sure, A, it gets done, doesn't get missed. And B, you know what to do. And you're not wasting time looking for all the parts of the puzzle to put together. And so in that example, I gave you of content creation. So it's like, okay, pick an idea. And then what do you do with the idea? Well, how do I pick the idea? Well, look at my calendar. I'm just giving you an example.
I look at my calendar and I find calls I've had and I pull out some there and I put in a structure of problem solution outcome and I open up Google Docs and I go into voice memo with the under tools and I just start brain dumping problem solution outcome based on the Smith family phone call I just had. And they called me with the problem of they were stressed out. They couldn't send their kid to any more hockey because finances were tight and they had to make a judgment call.
And they're extremely stressed out. They have equity in their home. They thought they'd be further along. The solution was I jumped on a 15, 20 -minute call. It looked like to me we could do a debt consolidation. I laid out a proposal for them. We could save them $700 a month. The outcome is they're extremely happy. They are using the equity, which is dead money in their home, to improve their quality of life now instead of waiting until later. So I brain dumped that out on Google Docs.
And then I take that from Google Docs and I put it into ChatGPT or Gemini or Grok or whatever, some sort of AI software. And I go, hey, can you summarize this in a problem solution outcome? And put it in point form so I can use it as a reference for an Instagram reel. And I want to make the reel 45 to 90 seconds long. Okay. And it goes, I'm just going to put it out. Then I have that beside me on the screen. I put my camera up and I start recording.
And then after I go, can you summarize that email to ChatGPT and put it into a description? So it puts in a description for Instagram and I take that out and I audio, I voice memo that into my Instagram description. And then I ask it, what's the best title? And four to six words, it gives me a title. I put that on on Instagram and blah, blah, blah.
So that whole thing I just walked you through, plus how to edit, plus all this stuff, plus a reference point for maybe sheets I have on ideas I've had in the past or whatever. I lay all that out in the description. A, I have to put, if it's on the calendar, it doesn't exist. If it's on the calendar, man, I'm getting jacked up again. I've got to slow down. If it's not in the calendar, it's not going to get done.
And you're going to have every great intention in the world to get your task list done every week, this never -ending task list you keep adding on to. And eventually, stuff will start falling through the cracks. Eventually, you won't be able to lie in bed at night. And remember everything. And it's just cycling around your brain like a windstorm. And you're never going to be able to keep up. And you're always going to forget. So guess what? Put in your calendar.
So if you're going to do a video and you're going to do it three days a week, commit to the day. So let's just say it's Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Should be doing it every day. But let's just say it's those days. You're going to put, what time are you going to put it? Put it in and commit. If it's on the calendar, it doesn't exist. So I'm going to put it in. I'm going to put it in from 8 a .m. to 8 .45. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Repeat every week. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
And then when I go into that email or go into the calendar in the description, I'm going to lay out my process. I'm going to have everything I just mapped out for you. Look at my calendar, pick my topic. And I might have, if I have a topic sheet with topics I already have from somewhere, guess what? That's going to be hyperlinked in there.
If there's somewhere I have to log in a URL to go to, to complete whatever's in the calendar task, then I have the URL in the description, hyperlinked, and I have my login and my password in there. So anything I need to get the task done is inside the calendar description. So guess what? It's all baked into my calendar.
Now, all these processes all around you, the follow -ups you do on Monday with your realtor lead tracker sheet, the follow -ups you do with buyer and seller agents on Wednesdays from any file you're on, the follow -ups you do, the reach -outs to referral partners, the anything, everything, anywhere. The content, it's all in your calendar, on repeat, time blocked with all the links, all the resources. So you can remove any excuse you have. You could be on an island of Mexico on your phone.
You don't have your three screens in front of you. You don't have your laptop with passwords memorized. You can do everything you need in your calendar off of your phone. If you set your business up this way, you can set it, forget it. You can now. Understand it's in the calendar, my process, all the things I've always wanted to do. Anything. I'm doing database mining, rate arbitrage this day. I'm going to put it in on repeat every week, every semi -weekly, every month, whatever.
I'm going to check in on renewals. Whatever I'm doing, I'm going to link the information in there. I do this for birthdays. Please, if you're emailing people on their birthday, that generic thing that goes out. And you know, like. I could take two stances here. I could go, good for you for remembering. Good for you for at least sending something. Or it could be like, how freaking lazy are you? Is that what you're doing? How do you feel when you get those? I get those from some realtor partners.
And I'm like, lame. You could have called me, could have texted me. You could have left a voicemail. You could have done something that took you 20 seconds, not something you did one minute eight years ago. And then you send me this bullshit card with a fake birthday card. taking it and you're like, hey, happy birthday. If referrals are the best thing, I'm always here. Like, come on.
So what do you do? At compliance, well, right now you should pull all your data and put the birthdays in your calendar. At compliance, you can put birthdays in your calendar. I always put them at 5 a .m. So when my calendar baked in, I have all the birthdays for that day. Guess what? I have their email, their name, their email, and I have their phone number. So I can text, email, call, whatever. And I just fire that out. And I usually do voice memo. Hey, happy birthday, Jim. Happy birthday, man.
It's been a while since we chatted. I hope all well. I hope Gene's treating you well. I hope you're going out for a big dinner. Anyways, if you got some cool going on, let me know. Otherwise, happy birthday. Sometimes I sing happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Jim. Happy birthday to you. It's Ryan Wiley, Mortgage Broker. Have a good day. And boom. Now, is that memorable? Fuck yeah. That cost me any money? Fuck no. Is there a wow factor? Fuck yeah.
It's the fuck yeah, fuck no show. Right? Yeah, do that. Don't be lazy. Put it in the calendar. You never miss it. Just as an example. So as I go through all these things, I'm looking, I'm looking around and there's a lot of people that have Google Doc Sheets on top of Google Doc Sheets, which really, you should have one master resource sheet that has everything. So this is... outside of the calendar thing, because this master sheet could be inside all of your calendar descriptions.
So if you've got scripts for DMs, if you've got content ideas, if you've got scripts for calls, if you have a prospecting sheet, if you have a rate tracker, if you have any training that you thought was interesting, if you have a green screen video you liked on YouTube, hyperlink it on your master resource sheet. Call it how to green screen on Instagram and hyperlink it. So you're not scrambling going, what's that thing? What's that thing?
You start building this resource folder, this one page that lives forever with all the things you need and you can categorize it accordingly. It's your one -stop shop to run your mortgage business. You're not going off to all these different things. If you have budgets, you can have the master on there. You can have, right? So this is where we go. We just have to like, a lot of you are there. Some of you have blown this out of the water. Some of you are.
way too organized, right? You're way too organized because you're doing all the organizing because you don't want to go do the prospecting. And so you're like, I have it. Everything's tidy. And I got my scripts and all the emails gone. You're like, you're like Ned Flanders skipping around. Hey, how's it going? Got my checklist, got my thing. How's your lead pipeline? Whoa, we don't talk about that. Fight club. The market's down, man. The market's down.
Markets down, lenders are crushing me, blah, blah, blah. But I got automated emails going out. I've got this, right? You're just, you're tinkering too much. It's a fine line there. So I feel like I rode the middle there, but maybe even more to less tinkering. I'm like, man, and I, cause I would always catch myself cause it's super easy to tinker. You get in there and you're like, Ooh, I'm going to put a logo on this. Ooh, I'm going to put a footer on this. presentation thing.
I'm going to put that down there. And guess what? I'm going to put my phone number and my email address in the footer, and it's going to be with my logo colors. Yeah, I'm good. Like, is it moving the needle? Hell to the no. That's just you being super anal about things. And if you're doing that in your spare time and whatever is a hobby, sure. But if you're doing it during business hours, tricking yourself into thinking you're actually doing work, that's not the case.
And this is why I could do so many mortgages when I was brokering. in so little time is because I wasn't tinkering. I had things, they worked, they didn't break. We used the same checklist to track all of our documents for 10 plus years. We had printed out sheets tracking 10 to 15 files a month. Our fulfillment would have a stack of 25 files on the go, printed out, easy to track. I'm just saying because we didn't, like there's this.
ai and software and apps and paperless and it's like this sexy sexy stuff sure but it comes at a cost and some of you have knocked it out of the park where you've went extremely paperless which is awesome and you've got it dialed in and you geek out and all the stuff and it's that's really cool and i have respect for all that saying it doesn't have to be there's majority of you are in no man's land in the middle you're tinkering away on things that does not move the needle I had this
conversation with a broker today. If you're listening to this, you know who you are. And I firmly believe it was your words. I just kind of reframed it. Very strict with my life, with where I spend time and energy and who I'm helping. If it's not moving the needle on my mindset in a positive way, if it's not moving the needle with friendships and relationships, or it's not moving a needle in my bank account, chances are I'm not going to do it. You're going to get a big hell to the no. Right.
As you start getting pulled in directions and you start building things and, you know, be selfish with your time because you should. You only have one life here. Let's live it like I'm not here to spread it out for everybody. You have to start doing that. If you're not moving the needle in one of those things. That's like, what are we doing here? And I'm very, very, very strict my time. And we're having these conversations inside the businesses. It's our strategy hub and VIP club and team Wiley.
And it's always like. Does it move the needle or is it just another thing to give someone to do? Does it actually help them to move the needle? And we just come down to that super basic. And a lot of times it's us just tearing a sheet up going, nope, cool idea. Sounded great. Does it move the needle? It could. Does it move it enough to justify the resources and the time versus what else we could be doing? No, not even close. Okay, shut it down. So we come up with ideas all the time.
Same for Team Wiley, same for Stroud. We come up with ideas all the freaking time. That's how my brain operates. That's how Jason's brain operates. Even Courtney, to some degree, now she's like, just because she's been around it for so long, it's how we're wired now. And like, but previously, I would run with it. And then I'd run with it. And then I'd tinker. And then I'd tinker. And I'd tinker. And now it's like, does it work? Yep, do more. Okay, let's tinker. Nope, do more.
Okay, I want to tinker a little bit. Nope, do more of the stuff that's working. Before we move on to anything, what is already working? So same with you. And this is where I'm getting back to. Simplifying your world. Complicated is easy. Simple is hard. One of my favorite sayings out there. Everyone's complicating the fuck out of this. Another example. We had a conversation in a coaching group. And we're talking about prospecting. And it was basically like, yeah, go do this. Send a DM.
Reach out to everyone you know. And tell them what you do. Just remind them what you do. Ask them if they have a question. Okay. And then what? What if they come back and they say something? I don't know. Have a conversation like a human being? Like, I don't know. Like, what would you do? Like, oh, yeah. Yeah, that's true. Okay. Yeah. And then if they come back, yeah, you, yeah. Right. Oh, go and talk to 20 people a day.
We had this conversation today and it was, I'm going to touch on this a little and then we'll wrap this up shortly. But it was. If leads is your number one problem, I'm going to go back to things I've said over and over. I'm like, this is the world around. I'm seeing it clear as day, clear than I've ever seen it before. The people that do just the same things over and over again, they're the ones winning.
So if you need leads, you either pay for them, you create content to build a brand and get people to reach out to you, or you start conversations. You're not going to pay for leads. A lot of you aren't going to do content. And I say content. I mean like two, three posts a day across four or five platforms. I mean like you actually go do content, not just Mickey Mouse stuff one off. So let's just say you're not doing that. Okay, then you start conversations.
So your goal is, and it could be people who already know you. You're just starting a conversation with someone who didn't think they'd be talking to you that day. And if you're not doing that, then what are you doing? And if you need business, it's really that simple. Who do you talk to? Doesn't matter. Right? I can give you ideas. Referral partners, direct -to -consumer, friends and family, past coworkers, people connected on Instagram, on Facebook, on LinkedIn.
But everyone's like, nah, they don't want to hear from me. Nah, I don't know. Nah, it doesn't work. Okay, yeah, you're right. Even though I'm seeing it work right in front of me all the time. We always get back to this, don't we? The same old stuff. Tried not to, but I'm just extremely passionate about it. like just the boring business. So there you go.
You got some tidbits there, how to basically bake your processes into your calendar and help maybe organize all the chaos, all the stuff you've learned, all the little pieces of information you have around. If they're scattered on pieces of paper across your desk, go build your one master resource sheet. And then if you're confused and you're not getting stuff done, even though you know you should be doing it, put it in the calendar. And then guess what happens? It's Thursday. It's 8 a .m.
You look at your calendar. It says prospect for an hour. Here's the list I'm prospecting. This is what I'm saying. Here's the script. This is where I'm doing it with. And this is how I track it. Then you just have to do it. And if you don't do it, we'll shame on you. But it's not anybody else's fault. You don't have to keep coming up with excuses anymore. I was looking to see who I was going to know. The list is in there. You should have that done.
It's homework, right? And if you know you're going to be prospecting and calling on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and you don't have a list built, then it should be as a reminder in Monday to remind you to get the list. So you can bake this stuff in your calendar. It's pretty interesting what happens. You help stick to the thing, right? Lock yourself in a freaking room and just follow the processes in your calendar. So there you go. That's it, kids. This is a shorter one.
Hope you got some from this. These are like simple tidbits that... I'm pulling the curtain back on my mortgage business and allowed me to just do things that I don't see a lot of brokers doing. Get out of your own way is what it is, right? And shut your brain off and just do it. So that's it, kids. Enjoy the rest of your night. Mortgage Game Podcast. Peace out.