How to Quadruple Your Income In A Year Like This Loan Officer
I met Scott Griffin at the beginning of 2016. Scott is a mortgage broker located in Los Angeles who is knocking it out of the park in one of the most competitive markets on earth. He’s a humble guy who’s letting me share his recent numbers to inspire others to believe they can do the same.
In 2015, Scott made $69,000. In 2016, which he calls The Year of Carl, he quadrupled that to $289,000. In 2017, his loan officer income was $404,000. In 2018, he brought in $705,000. And in June of 2019, he’d already exceeded his total income from 2018. If I had told him in 2016 that he’d go from $69k to $1.4m on his W2 in less than 5 years, he never would have believed me.
Scott’s Cinderella Story
To really grasp how incredible Scott’s story is, we need to go back a few years. Scott was actually a loan officer from 2003-2007, and things went really well for him. But in 2007, his body physically shut down right before the industry did. He left the mortgage business, decided to take a different path, and swore he’d never come back.
But he missed it so much. He missed the conversations, the relationships, the joy. After a very dark 2008-2009, struggling with depression, he tried to come back in 2010 but couldn’t find his footing. In 2016, he heard me speak at an event and said he was so moved. He realized there was another path available for him to find his way back into the industry, but with a different methodology. The tools his previous mentor had shared with him were outdated and just didn’t work.
He wanted to be amazing again, and I helped him see that he could be. We had a chance to chat one-on-one, and I encouraged him to believe in himself. He didn’t really have the extra money to join our Freedom Club, but being around like-minded folks who were striving for excellence in an industry they loved was too good an opportunity to pass up.
He knew that struggle invites change, and he needed a really big change in his life and career. When he committed to himself and his success, he immediately saw results.
What Was the Biggest Difference?
Let’s get into specifics. What was the biggest difference in Scott’s day-to-day activity? What action item happens at $1.4 million that isn’t happening at $69k?
Scott’s first step was getting a team. When he was at $69k, it was just him. His previous mentor had taught him that, as the loan officer, he was responsible for every loan from beginning to end. He had to learn to let some of that go, to delegate to people who were perfectly capable of handling various steps of the loan process. He says he stopped hoarding everything and started sharing the journey with others.
The second big change for Scott was “realtors, realtors, realtors.” He found passionate people like himself who loved doing what they did. He would go out, get familiar with an area, then go online to meet realtors. He looked for qualified, active, successful agents and got to know them.
How to Develop Relationships With Realtors
Scott is one of the best people I know when it comes to developing genuine relationships with people. What’s his secret? Working on himself first.
“I’ve learned your inner story matters and that your energy matters,” Scott says. “I work on my emotional inner story, because it’s going to find its way out.”
Every day he takes a long morning walk to focus on inner thoughts of appreciation and things he wants to create. He believes that, if his inner story is full of joy, it will be there when he picks up the phone to talk to realtors. He says we love to be around others who are happy and like-minded and have passionate energy. If you’re real and joyful, people will be moved.
He also loves stories of joy and uses them in conversations, and he has some great ways to engage people when he calls them on the phone. He’ll say things like:
- Did you know…?
- I bet you’re going to love this…
- I can’t wait to show you…
- I’d love to learn…
And he makes one very important point: life deserves filtering. “I don’t want to work with everybody,” Scott says. “I’ve learned it’s okay if they don’t like me, or I don’t like them. There are so many people in the industry I’ll never even meet. I like you. Do you like me? Heck, I know I’m amazing. And I have a feeling you are. Let’s see if we’re amazing together.”
We all want to get more realtor referral partners, but you don’t need 20 people to love you, he says—just get 5.
What Scott Would Like to Share With the Class
Scott has some encouragement for loan officers who are having trouble letting go of responsibilities and delegating them to others. He says it didn’t happen instantly for him, but someone once told him to think of it as an experiment, and that was really helpful. Give yourself a timeframe and it doesn’t have to be permanent. What do you have to lose by testing a new idea? He couldn’t let go of everything all at once, just inch by inch. When he saw it working, he started believing, and he let it out more and more.
He also encourages loan officers to focus primarily on their relationships with their referral partners—sharing knowledge, talking, inspiring each other. These people aren’t just business partners to him; they’re friends. Some have even become like family. And he spends a lot of time going out there and making new friends, all while enriching the friendships he already has. He’s attracted to the people who love what they’re doing—who have a positive, helpful energy—and they’re attracted to that in Scott as well.
He also loves doing presentations for real estate agents and says it has catapulted his business. It’s his opportunity to impact people with his energy and love, and that invites follow-up steps later.
One very unique and special part of Scott’s story is that he grew up in foster care, boys’ homes, and institutions from the time he was eight years old. “If I can do this,” he says. “I feel like everybody can do it. I have that self-belief that everything is possible. What I love about our industry is that there are no ceilings. The only ceilings are the self-created ones.”
I agree 100%. We have to believe in ourselves and believe that we’re worthy of these good things happening to us. Through karma—and us being good, nice people—the good just happens for us. But we have to take action.
I asked Scott what advice he would go back and give “2015 Scott” if given the chance. He said he would tell that earlier version of himself to set aside fear, believe in yourself, get a mentor, and don’t do it alone. Things are going to be amazing. Stay focused on helping others, and just believe.
If you’re a loan officer and inspired by Scott’s story, we’d love to help you get your numbers to where you’d like them to be. If you’d like to map out your next 90 days, and reverse engineer your success, we can show you how to do that step-by-step. Schedule your FREE strategy call today.
