How Loan Officers Can Work Smarter, Not Harder
When you first got started in the mortgage business, did experts tell you that you had to work 24/7 to be a successful loan officer? Did they tell you to be prepared to give up evenings and weekends so you could hustle nonstop?
Those “experts” were wrong.
Before you get upset about being lied to, I didn’t say they were lying. They probably honestly believed what they were telling you. No doubt they were hustling 24 hours a day, 7 days a week themselves.
But they didn’t have to be.
Commit To Taking Evenings and Weekends Off
I’ve been a loan officer for a lot of years now. Guess how much I work. Two hours every morning Monday through Thursday. That’s it. I take afternoons and evenings off. I take every Friday off. I enjoy a three-day weekend every single week. And I’m making more money than I ever have before.
Realistically speaking, you can’t get to where I’m at overnight. But it’s not going to take you as long as you think. The first step is this: don’t work on evenings or weekends.
For three reasons:
- You need to rest so your mind stays sharp.
- Life is a marathon, not a sprint.
- Family is everything.
If you’re not working evenings and weekends, you need to make every one of your 40 hours count. That means you need a fresh brain and the ability to laser focus on the task at hand. If you’re stumbling into the office every Monday morning tired from working the whole weekend, you’re off to a really bad start. And it will just get worse. Let your mind and body rest. If you’re rested, you’re going to get more done in a shorter period of time anyway. That’s just how it works.
You’re going to make a career out of this. You don’t want to burn out after a year or two. You want to do this for life (well, until you happily and richly retire).
Family First: Now or Never
I really want to take some time to talk about the importance of putting your family first. I know a lot of people who have worked 24/7 for years and years to “provide for their families.” But they weren’t present for their families when it mattered. Their kids grew up, their partners grew distant, and they were left with a lot of regrets. They thought they’d work now and choose their family later, but later never came.
No amount of money or success can take the place of your family. Even if you’re not married and don’t have kids, you might someday. You can start to be the kind of parent and partner today that you want to be in the future. Or maybe you have parents or siblings or good friends who would love to spend time with you if you weren’t so “busy.” Don’t wait to invest in those relationships until it’s too late.
I often tell the story of the time when I asked my young daughter if she wanted to go for a ride on a Saturday with me. She said, “Sure! You need to make some phone calls?” She knew that’s what Dad did in the car—tried out his loan officer scripts on potential clients. And she still wanted to spend time with me. That punched me in the gut. And it was the last time I ever made work calls while my wife or kids were in the car.
Make your loved ones a priority. Don’t make them feel neglected or that they’re less important to you than your work. You know what they say. No one lies on their deathbed and whispers, “I sure wish I would have spent more time at the office.”
Partner With a Team Or Build Your Own
What if you’re so busy right now that you can’t fit all your work into 40 hours a week? Well, if you have a huge workload, that means you’re getting a fair amount of business. So you can afford to make some changes. There are two primary ways to lighten your load: partner with an existing team or build your own (hire help). My personal preference is to hire help, but let’s talk about partnering with a team first.
When you partner with someone that’s already established, you don’t have to worry about hiring people yourself. You can share resources as well as the cost and services of some of their support team members. You need to make sure you find a compatible partner though. Remember that you’re committed to working just 40 hours a week and spending quality time with loved ones. Say no to any potential partner who thinks loan officer hours are all day every day without any downtime.
One downside to partnering with an existing team is your limited potential for growth. If you build your own team from scratch, the sky’s the limit. Make a list of all the tasks you have to do that don’t fit in your normal eight-hour work day, and find a qualified person who can do all those things for you. Hiring that first employee takes the burden off of you and gives you time to focus on being the best loan officer you can be.
I’ve shared extensively about hiring help and building a team, so I won’t rehash it all here. Go check out those podcasts for some great loan officer tips.
Need Help Working Smarter?
When you’re just getting started, and you’re absolutely exhausted from all the hustle, you wonder if the day will ever come when you’re making a ton of money without working so hard. That day WILL come for you, but it won’t come naturally. And it won’t come if you try to do it on your own.
The absolute fastest path to freedom is getting loan officer coaching from someone who has been where you want to go. I would love to sit down and chat with you about where you’re at right now and where you’d love to be. Why don’t you go ahead and schedule a FREE no-strings-attached strategy call with me TODAY? It could literally change your life.
View Related Article, How Loan Officers Can 10x their Income While Working Less Hours: https://mortgagemarketinganimals.com/how-loan-officers-can-10x-their-income-while-working-less-hours/#more-90249
