A Day in the Life of a Loan Officer Superstar
It’s the question of the hour: “How do you get everything accomplished in your day?”
A lot of loan officers are stressed and overworked, and they know there’s got to be an easier way. And they’re right. At the Mortgage Marketing Animals, we get asked this question just about every single day: How can I get everything done that needs done?
I can’t tell you exactly what will work for you, but I can tell you exactly what works for me. I can tell you how to be a successful loan officer, Carl-style. Come and join me as we take a little walk through my day.
4:00-8:30 am
I’m an early riser. I don’t recommend this to everyone, but I get up between 4:00 and 4:30am every single morning. And without an alarm clock. That’s just when my body is ready to get up. First thing, I take in some fluids, then drop to my knees and thank the good Lord for another morning.
Then I jump on my bicycle. We have a bike trail here that runs about 100 miles, so 200 miles both ways. I do 25-40 miles every morning, and I listen to positive podcasts. You can find all of them at LoanOfficerPodcastNetwork.com. I get home and take a shower, and it’s time for the Breakfast Club.
8:30-9:00 am
Every Monday through Thursday, I hang out at the Loan Officer Breakfast Club at 8:30am EST. You’re more than welcome to join us. It’s an interactive Zoom meeting where a couple hundred loan officers from pretty much every state get together to share what’s on our minds. We ask questions, we learn from each other, we celebrate wins, and we have a blast. It’s like the Brady Bunch on steroids. It’s amazing.
9:00-11:00 am
I’ll tell you what I do at 9:00am in just a second, but first, here’s what I don’t do at 9:00am (or any time before that). I don’t check email or voicemail or social media or any of that. Everything I’ve mentioned so far (fluids, prayer, bike ride, shower, breakfast club) is all I’ve done. There are no exceptions to this no-checking-email rule. None.
Let me tell you why. Part of the Perfect Day for a Loan Officer Superstar is to do phone work from 9:00-11:00 am. We do 50 minutes of calls, take a 10-minute break, do 50 minutes of calls, then we’re done. And that break isn’t for checking Facebook. Take a walk, stretch your limbs. I don’t check email or any of that until 11:05 am or after.
That one simple activity—calling the right people using the right scripts we give you—will make you more money than everything else combined. Period. This is absolutely the only way you will meet your audacious loan officer goals.
When I get on those phone calls, I need to be and feel very positive, because people can sense that. I want unicorns, puppy dogs, and rainbows in my head. That’s why I don’t check email or voicemail. Who knows what negativity that will put in my head that will affect my phone calls the rest of the day?
I know my brain. It’s going to tell me to do anything but those phone calls. I call these reactive activators. It can be fidgeting with a toy, cleaning my desk, or getting my inbox down to zero. Last time I checked, there’s no $10,000 check being deposited into my bank account when I get my email inbox down to zero. What makes money is making these phone calls every day, consistently, over time.
I have to push through those thoughts, push through that fear, and make those damn phone calls every Monday through Thursday morning. And I’m doing it with nothing but good thoughts in my head, because I went for my morning walk or bike ride or chilled a little bit before work.
These aren’t cold calls, unless you’re brand new in the business and know literally nobody. For 98% of loan officers, these are warm and fuzzy calls. I’ve had people ask, “What if these calls work better for me in the afternoon?” What I’ve found is that, if we wait until later in the day, we just never get around to it. We start putting out fires, and we’re all over the place. We have to do the most important things first. And building these relationships with our referral partners is the most important thing.
11:00am-12:00pm
From 11:10 am to 12:00 pm, I check my email, and I check with my team. My team handles most of my emails for me, so that’s easy. During this time slot, they fill me in on anything I need to know.
12:00-1:00pm
I break for lunch. And I’m not crazy about a working lunch. I want to chill.
1:00-2:00pm
This is our loan structuring time, and I prefer to have an assistant help me with that.
2:00-4:00pm
This is a good time to meet with realtor referral partners to get the next deals. I don’t want to meet with the listing agent for the first time at closing. As soon as I get the contract in, I want to meet with that person. I want to provide value to them, follow up, be clearly communicating, and let them know we’re going to close on time.
4:00-4:30 pm
I meet with my team and let them know what else I need them to do.
4:30-5:00 pm
I stop everything and write down three things I want to accomplish the following day that will move the needle for me the most, that will give me the biggest results. I map out for my future self what needs to be done. This means I get to start the next day off on the right foot.
5:00 pm
In the 5:00 pm slot on my calendar, it says GO HOME. If you’re working past 5:00, make a list of everything you’re doing after 5:00, and that list is your Help Wanted ad. You need to hire someone to get those things off your plate so you can leave at 5:00.
When I hired my first assistant, those things were reviewing findings and looking at tax returns. I found out really early that I’m not the best person to do that. I’ll let someone else do it while I go get the next deal. I’m not in the mortgage industry; I’m in the marketing business. My primary job is to get more loans coming in.
And That’s It
I’m very structured and intentional in my day. I don’t allow disruptions. If someone wants to talk to me, they set an appointment. I can’t accomplish what I need to accomplish if I’m letting everybody else dictate my routine for the day.
The secret of my whole day is positivity and not letting negative things in. I eliminate the negative (other people who like that kind of problem solving take care of that for me) and stay focused on the positive, so my perfect day is exactly how I want it to be. Whatever it is you love doing and makes you money and you have a knack for, do that, and delegate everything else.
Tailor your perfect day to you. If you’re not in a position quite yet to do only the things you really want to do for an entire day, then just start with those two hours from 9-11. Follow the plan, and you’ll see a remarkable result from it. And work your way up until you have your entire perfect day.
Your perfect day gets rid of all the uncool stuff and leaves you with the cool stuff. It changes your brain and puts a smile on your face. It puts more money in your pocket, and you leave work not wanting to kick the dog. It’s a win-win.
If you want some help getting on track to that perfect day every day, we’d love to run you through those loan officer scripts and those Monday through Thursday phone calls. Your perfect day might happen sooner than you think. Schedule your FREE strategy call TODAY.