By taking the MORTGAGE SATISFACTION ASSESSMENT
As you lean into this new decade, it is always a good idea to look at what’s working well in both your business and your life and to identify areas that need your attention. I suggest you ask yourself some serious questions in order to create a road map for the coming year to set the stage for further success.
Nearly 10 years ago I went to see a therapist, as my marriage was in a challenging place. The therapist asked me a question that changed my life and certainly has changed my business.
She asked, “Cindy if you fast-forward your life 10 years from now and nothing has changed, everything is as it is today, are you happy, satisfied, and fulfilled with your life?” Then she added, “If not, I suggest you make changes now!”
That question was the catalyst for a series of changes that have paid tremendous dividends in my life and my mortgage and coaching careers. With that one question, she helped me see that I was stuck and that if I continued doing what I was doing, I would have found myself in the same exact place today, 10 years later. I would be in the same relationships, financial state, and health. I would continue to be overworked, overwhelmed, etc.
So if you are not happy, satisfied, and fulfilled in every area of your life and business, then the time to make a change is now.
So many of us go through life on autopilot, trying to make it through each day as it comes and feel like we have little control over the outcomes of our life and our businesses.
The mortgage industry can be like drinking from a fire hose some days. It’s critical to get out of the day to day and see things through a different lens.
The secret to creating a life filled with purpose, meaning, and prosperity is living each moment with intention and deliberately choosing our thoughts, feelings, and actions to align with our goals, dreams, and desires. In order to do this, we need to start by assessing where we are and where we want to go.
One of the first steps that I address with my high-performance coaching clients is to assess their mortgage business and their life to see where they need focused attention. Setting business goals and action steps are important, but we also need a road map of where to start and what to focus on first. It’s like building a house; we need to start with the foundation and build from the ground up.
My Mortgage Satisfaction Assessment can help you determine what areas of your business and your life need the most attention so that you can make informed choices when determining your goals and the actions needed to move your business and life to a greater level of success.
“If you fast-forward your life 10 years from now and nothing has changed, are you happy, satisfied and fulfilled?
To start, take a few minutes to rate your satisfaction level in the eight key areas of your business using a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being highly satisfied and 1 being dissatisfied. The key to this exercise is to be honest with yourself. Take a few minutes to score yourself on the areas below:
#1 Number of Committed Referral Partners
Are you satisfied with the number of committed partners currently referring business to you, or do you need to work on building stronger partnerships with your referral partners and creating stronger value propositions?
#2 Personal Production Levels
Did you reach the production levels that you were striving for last year, and do you feel confident that you can reach your production goals in the year ahead? If not, what action do you need to take to increase your production lev- els? Do you follow a daily plan?
#3 Compelling Client Experience
Have you created a process for a compelling client experience? Do you have systems and processes in place to make your clients feel cared for, nurtured, and even wowed as they are going through the loan process with you?
#4 Marketing Execution Plan
Do you have a marketing plan created for the year ahead? Will you manage to a plan or just market haphazardly along the way? Do you have a sound database management system with processes in place to market to your past clients and referral partners consistently? Do you use social media platforms with consistency to expand your reach in your marketplace? Do you host quarterly “lunch and learns” or offer other education events?
#5 Management of Time, Energy & Productivity
Do you manage your day, or does your day manage you? Do you manage to a daily plan with time blocks to focus on daily income-generating activities? Do you have a consistent work schedule with goals for how many weekly meetings and calls you are targeting? Do you have an accountability partner or a coach to help keep you on track?
#6 Management of Your High-Impact Team
Do you have a competent loan officer assistant or team who supports your mortgage production? Do you have the right talent supporting you? Are they properly trained and held accountable? Are they empowered to take the day-to-day loan flow responsibilities off your plate so that you can focus on income- and relationship-generating activities? Do you have practices to show appreciation for your valued team?
#7 Self-Care
Do you have a self-care routine to help you maintain your mental and physical health? Are you working out and moving your body, eating healthy and getting enough rest? Do you have morning rituals to support a strong, vital daily mental attitude? What are you doing to support you? Taking care of yourself is critical to your success. Without it, nothing else matters.
#8 Work/Life Balance
Do you have clear boundaries and have you established non-negotiables to support your work/life balance? Do you fit your family and personal life around your business, or have you created the life you want to lead with your business built around it? Do you take scheduled time off to rejuvenate and recharge? Are you spending quality time with family and friends?
Are you focused on what matters most in your life?
Now that you have completed the exercise, I recommend you pay close attention to your two lowest scores and start to take action on those areas first. By concentrating on raising your scores in those two areas, you will be well on your way to making relevant, impactful change. After all, success is a journey and taking intentional and focused steps each and every day is what ultimately leads to success.
As a side note, don’t allow yourself to get overwhelmed by this exercise. We aren’t striving for perfection; we are striving for progress. Consistent, daily, intentional actions to make improvements to your processes and systems will help you make the greatest shift and improve the quality of your business and your life.
What often happens when we achieve a certain level of success is that we get trapped by that success. We strive to keep up with what we’ve created, but often we don’t take the time to assess and tweak our methods. This puts us in limbo, so to speak—we are pushing ourselves and producing, but we can’t get to the next level because we are too busy trying to do everything. By putting the right processes and supports in place, we can get out of limbo and move forward.
That is exactly what happened to me when I was building my mortgage business. I hit a breaking point when I found myself with $30 million of loan volume in process in a single month, all while raising three young kids and running a branch. I couldn’t fit all my responsibilities into the course of my day, and I knew I had to make changes to reach sustainable success in the mortgage industry.
Up until that point, I had been making my family and personal life fit around my business. I realized that I had to change my way of thinking and commit to consciously creating a business that served my family, my health, and my life first. Staying committed to this vision changed the game for me and drove my business and my income to seven-figure success.
So as we forge forward into 2020, make sure to find the time to assess where you are and where you want to be in the next year, five years, and even 10 years. The time spent identifying and focusing on areas of improvement will pay off in spades!
As a mortgage coach, I have the great pleasure of watching my clients make intentional change to their systems, processes, and support levels. With a plan in place, they learn to make bold choices that fuel their momentum and ultimately increase their production and their income levels dramatically.
More importantly, they begin to have fun again and find renewed passion for the mortgage industry and the ability to change more lives and serve more families through homeownership.
Visit the Store page on my website here to receive a free, downloadable copy of my Mortgage Satisfaction Assessment and to learn more about my coaching programs.B
