Welcome to The Millionaire Loan Officer podcast with your host, Scott Hudspeth sharing tools, tips and strategies so that you can go from a mortgage loan officer to a millionaire loan officer. It's your host, Scott Hudspeth.
Scott: Alright, alright, alright. Hey, this is Scott Hudspeth with The Millionaire Loan Officer, super excited to have a dear friend and business partner with me Hakim Singleton. Brother, man, I, you know, I've been following your journey now for five years, we met five years ago and man, you just been doing some incredible things, amazing things. And I just want to share with the world, man, I want to let people know who you are and how you're changing lives, one person at a time. I know your marketing has like out of control and just some really, really cool, amazing things. So, thanks for being here, brother. I appreciate you, man. How you doing?
Hakim: Absolutely. I'm good, I'm good. Everything is well.
Scott: Good.
Hakim: Thank you for having me.
Scott: Yeah.
Hakim: I'm excited as you can still see even post COVID I'm still in the garage a little bit. [01:08.3]
Scott: That's good, man. That’s good, I’ll tell ya. Post COVID well, you know, it's funny, we're going to talk about that. COVID changed things for everybody, right.
Hakim: Hey, absolutely.
Scott: You guys obviously need more room.
Hakim: Absolutely man. Absolutely. It's a, it's crazy. Crazy how, how, how COVID has changed how you look at your home situation.
Scott: Yeah.
Hakim: It's been, it's been an amazing learning experience for me just to say the least so. Scotty, I'm always truly humbled to be on any kind of show with you, man. So, thank you for having me.
Scott: No, the honors are all mine man. Dude, so yeah. Yeah, it's been a good time. So, dude, tell us a little bit about you. Like how long have you been in the business?
Hakim: I’ve been in the business for 12 years; I just celebrated my 12-year anniversary this month. You know what I said when I met you was about seven years in.
Scott: Yeah.
Hakim: And it's, it's been a wild, incredible life-Changing ride.
Scott: Life-changing ride. Well, cool man. So, what's we won't go back 12 years, but let's go back five and we should probably go back one cause everybody's had such life-changing things happen to us over this COVID crazy stuff.
Hakim: Hmm.
Scott: But going back five years, man, like what would you tell yourself five years ago for listeners that maybe are struggling or maybe doing good for that matter? What, like what would you tell yourself five years ago that you've been like knowing what you know now. [02:22.0]
Hakim: Man, five years ago, I would tell myself, pick up the phone and reach out to Scotty. Cause no you laughing man, but I'm really serious. I, five years ago I was just trying to find my way I was working hard, trying to figure it out. By that time, I had read The Million Loan officer book two or three times.
Scott: Uhhm.
Hakim: I was too poor to afford any subscriptions to any coaching classes or anything like that. And so, I was just pulling out what I can get from the book and just implementing the strategies that were listed in the book that I couldn’t get, that I didn’t have access to.
Scott: Hmm.
Hakim: And I started picking up some traction and as fate would have it, you would pick up the phone and call me for a recruiting call. And that call changed my life, man.
Scott: Well, man, I'm, I'm humbled, man, that you're putting all this back on me, but I would.
Hakim: Listen.
Scott: I would throw it back to you brother and say that, you know, it's one thing to hear an idea, it's another thing to implement it, right?
Hakim: Yup.
Scott: And push through and be persistent, consistent. And the man, the first thing you said that I hear most of the time is picking up the phone. Did you have a fear of the phone at first or like, and if so, how'd you overcome that or what was it that one thing about picking up the phone? [03:32.1]
Hakim: I never had a fear of picking up the phone.
Scott: Beautiful.
Hakim: I legitimately, love it. Like I love the chase. I love getting on the phone and getting the news, but making sure that people give me the news nicely. I have a very good skill at getting a nice note. If you're mean to me on the phone and you give me a harsh no, you know, you're, you know, you're not a nice person. I don't want to do business with you anyway.
Scott: Gotcha.
Hakim: And so, for me it wasn't picking the phone up. It was all right, I got, I want to call people, I want to do this. Who do I call? How do I call them?
Scott: Hmm.
Hakim: What do I say?
Scott: Hmm.
Hakim: And you know, that was my struggle. When I first started with my career, I started with a big bank and all I was doing was in, you know, 2009 was a refi. It was a refi time. I picked up the phone, it was just dollar for dollar. So that completely eliminated my fear of the phone because all I did was refis. I was doing quick refis, just to put food on and see what that time. And so those calls and that struggle set me up to be okay with picking up the phone and getting beat up a little bit. [04:34.2]
Scott: Well, love it, man. Love it.
Hakim: Yeah.
Scott: So, the refi and we just went through another refi boom is of course you know, just, you know, just amazing time for the consumer lowest rates in the history of mankind. And obviously you took advantage of that. What's, has that been, or like, has the refi thing been the big for you, purchase I mean, I know you were into purchase too, you were heavy into purchase. You started some marketing.
Hakim: I did.
Scott: Like it was incredible, man. Seriously incredible. I don't know if that was your idea, you’re doing. Like what inspired you to step out and put yourself out there? Because some of that stuff, I was just like, man, like, it's kind of like these showed up on the scene you know.
Hakim: Thank you, man. Thank you. I'm a big fan of vulnerability.
Scott: Hmm.
Hakim: And that all that marketing is about just me being transparent and being vulnerable.
Scott: Hmm.
Hakim: The whole goal of what we do is to connect with people on a level where they feel comfortable. They know like, and trust me, right. And before you pick up the phone, I want you to know me and I want you to like me. And so, I geared my marketing around knowing me and liking me and recognizing that my story is not for everyone. It's not going to resonate with everyone. But the people that does resonate with they're going to want to do business with me because they're going to connect with who I am. And so, my marketing was geared around and it still is. I'm still working on it, but it's all geared, it's literally all geared around where I come from. I'm not a spoon-fed guy. You know, I grew up in the hood, man. I up in North Philly. [05:57.7]
Scott: Yeah.
Hakim: You know that stuff you see on TV, dirt bikes in the street, I lived there. That was what I saw. You know, those are the sounds, the sirens, the guys, you know, all of those things.
Scott: Ahh.
Hakim: And when you put all of those things together and you know, my childhood wasn't the best. It was difficult. I had, you know, I had daddy issues and mommy issues and you know, all of those things and to be able to say, you know what? I overcame that. And I did it by believing in myself.
Scott: Hmm.
Hakim: And you can too. And the whole message is, if you believe, if you believe in yourself, you should believe that you can own a home.
Scott: Hmm.
Hakim: Let me help you achieve that goal. And everything had that scarlet line right through it.
Scott: Unbelievable man. Yeah. So, it came from the box, man, the King from the blocks.
Hakim: That's it.
Scott: I love it, dude. You got to admit though back in the day when we're riding dirt bikes, was that not some fun times, man, right? Cause I was doing the same thing right. I mean like kids today; I mean some kids today don't even know what a bike is.
Hakim: They have no idea; they have no idea. Dude there something about Rhonda, not quiet.
Scott: Yeah. [06:59.0]
Hakim: On broad street.
Scott: I love it! Good for you man. So, what’s the book that’s changed your life, that if you were to give someone something of inspiration, you've got a book that you, your favorite that’s
Hakim: I do. I have two books that I, that I, I really favor. One is the Five Second Rule. The Five Second Rule is, by Mel Robbins. That book taught me to train my mind, to do the things, even if I felt I wanted to do, I knew I had to do it. And those little things pop up, a Facebook post or a text message. Anything that I could grasp my heart onto, or my eyes went to, to take me away from that task. And I just started using the five second rule. You know, I got to give a client bad news, five, four, three, two, one, pick the phone up, get their message out the way, you know, from doing that to, to getting up in the morning, sometimes, you know, after a long day of doing what we do. [07:52.4]
Scott: Yeah.
Hakim: And spinning the whole day in the car, the next day get out of bed is hard. And so, five, four, three, two, one, let's get it. You know, that's one book. And the other book I use in conjunction with the tip with the five second rule is that's the next rule.
Scott: Hmm.
Hakim: So, everything, all my goals, everything is supersized.
Scott: I love it, man.
Hakim: You know.
Scott: Take her down baby.
Hakim: Yeah.
Scott: That’s a good one.
Hakim: Yeah.
Scott: We both get the five second, but you know, you just, you know, the five, four, three, two, one. It's amazing when you're like, you don't give your mind. I mean the whole mindset behind the five second rule is not to not let your mind give you excuses of why not to do it, correct?
Hakim: Exactly.
Scott: Which is what kills all of us.
Hakim: Exactly.
Scott: Including myself, right. Yeah.
Hakim: Exactly.
Scott: Should I do it? I dunno, man. My hair's not right today. Oh, a video. I don't like, Oh, all these things so.
Hakim: Yup.
Scott: Thanks for bringing that up, man. You know that, I'm glad you brought that to the forefront. That's a great one.
Hakim: For sure, man. I don't send books anymore to them. I send audible, I send audible.
Scott: Audible. Yeah man, I love audible
Hakim: I stopped sending books. I saved money on postage now.
Scott: Yeah. I won't even go there about USP Dude, what's an apparent failure that you look back on and go, man I'm thankful that it happened because it put me here. [09:04.1]
Hakim: So, five years ago after we had talked, I'll tell a quick story and then I'll talk about where I started with that process and where I ended and what happened in between. Five years ago, you recruited me. I won a trip to a company in another state. And when I tell you I was poor, I was I packed my lunch in the end when I traveled, just because I liked it, I like to have my own food when I travel. But at this time, I packed my lunch because I couldn't afford to eat while I was there. And I packed my lunch, I packed my dinner, I packed breakfast and I'm on a plane with a plastic bag full of food containers, right. And so, I get there trying to figure out how am I gonna get from the airport to the hotel, that type situation. I spent my last 40 bucks on an Uber, right? Get there, feel like crap. I'm tired. And I go through the impressive stuff, right. They show me the impressive stuff. And the next day I sit in front of the CEO and this guy told me how much origination he's done, right. And millions upon millions, hundreds of millions of dollars in origination. And I'm sitting across the table with my chest stuck out, with a dollar 87 cents in my account. [10:12.2]
Scott: Wow dude. I’m getting chills on this one.
Hakim: And so, I just believed that I had to believe in myself, going into it, that I could stand up to the expectations that were upon me. And I held on to that. And so, as I made the transition and I came aboard that company, great company, phenomenal leadership, phenomenal team, but my loans are very difficult. I have very difficult loans. And they were not necessarily equipped to handle that kind of volume. They kind of that type of loan, and the pressure was on because they didn't know. So now.
Scott: Hmm…hmm.
Hakim: I'm helping underwrite the loans. I'm helping process loans. My loan partner is doing what she can, but she's struggling because now she's overwhelmed because I did all this marketing that the company educated me when I started implementing it into the leads are flying in. And I had a little hole in the bottom of my bucket that I couldn't seem to plug. And you know, I tell this all the time, but if you watch Kevin Garnett. There’s an interview with Kevin Garnett. I think my man talking to his coach and Kevin Garnett was at the Timberwolves at the time. And he asked Kevin, how you're feeling sick, man, I'm losing, I'm losing. So, I go out every day, whether I'm 40%, 50%, a hundred percent, I'm giving it everything I got and I'm losing, I'm losing. And he, he almost broke into tears. He said, but I'm not going to stop. And I felt that I felt that in my heart, like I couldn't, I can't stop. How do I plug this bucket? How do I plug this hole up? And I met Carl White. [11:40.0]
Scott: Hmm.
Hakim: And Carl had a nice piece of duct tape to help cover that hole at first. Then we fill up the bottom of the bucket with water and I learned to appreciate not having such a big bucket sometimes.
Scott: Hmmm.
Hakim: Sometimes it’s time to make the bucket a little shallow.
Scott: Hmm.
Hakim: So that way you can control all the water that comes in.
Scott: Hmm. Wow, man. That's powerful bro. Powerful. Shout out. Big shout out to Carl White man. He's a.
Hakim: Big shout out Carl
Scott: Been life-changing for me as well, man, from, you know, I met him at 16 years ago, so pretty insane.
Hakim: Absolutely.
Scott: Yeah, I love change. So, bro, that's that's pretty heavy there, dude. So I appreciate you saying that and putting that out there, man. That's a big deal. So, congratulations on.
Hakim: Thank you.
Scott: All your success dude. Loan officer, that's seven years in, right where you were five years ago.
Hakim: Yeah.
Scott: What would you tell him man? What like what's the one thing that you would tell them to do that could help them to get more referrals, get more loans, build more relationships. I don't know, whatever it is. What's the one thing?
Hakim: Look at the last 12 months of production you had and pull out all the buyer's agents and all the seller's agents, because those are people that if they have tasted the soup, right.
Scott: Hmm. [12:49.9]
Hakim: And so that is where you focus your marketing efforts. You start with a big event of some sort, whether it's a virtual party or an in-person event, or if, I've been low on funds and trying to figure out how to treat people nice, dude, I've, I've rented out a park for a hundred bucks and took my grill out to the park and cooked food for 30 or 40 people.
Scott: Wow.
Hakim: And brought wine and beer. And I've had an amazing day, amazing day. And those are the people that you focus on. You focus on treating those people nice. And then after you've had that event, six months later, you do it again. But this time you invite the new six, the next six months of new agents and new partners, you invite your title companies that you work with. You invite insurance agents that you've worked with. If there was an accountant or an attorney involved in the transaction, you invite them. Those are your pool of people that you want to, you want to spend time with. You can't always spend your wills, looking for new agents, looking for new agents to prospect. Sometimes you got to fill the diamonds, right at feet and you don't even know it. [13:57.6]
Scott: Yeah.
Hakim: And so that's where you prospect, that's how you grow your business. I mean, getting a big agent is amazing. You want to get those huge agents, right? Because they want to give you business. But listen, that huge agent is going to have a level of expectation that may be uncomfortable for you. And people don't think about that, right? You want to work with these, these super huge agents. Their expectations are going to be incredibly high because of the level of clients, now that they work with. And so, the year seven was me working with the Tilapias, right. And you know, I'm mixing a tuna here or there and tilapias and tunas and whales, right. So, tilapias are zero for me, it's tilapias for me. I re kind of defined it for myself. But tilapia for me was someone doing three to five deals a year. You know, you have your tunas when we doing, you know, five to 10 deals a year. Well for me, if someone is doing 10 plus deals a year and you know, you mix in the whales. You don't want to have too many whales because you don't want, you don't want that kind of pressure. You want to be able to sleep at night. You want to be able to, to live because when the whale calls or whale expects you to answer their phone, because they've been spoiled by every loan officer they've ever worked with. When a Tilapia calls me and I said, I need to call you back. They're okay with it, because guess what? [15:12.3]
Scott: They are used to it.
Hakim: Exactly. Exactly.
Scott: I love it, dude.
Hakim: And that’s okay.
Scott: Dude, amazing advice. A 100% agree. You know, it comes back to connecting, engaging, and interacting with those that know I can trust you for starters.
Hakim: Exactly.
Scott: What is it about the chase that some people forget about the easy stuff. You know, like we, as salespeople, we find ourselves looking for more leads, more like all this stuff. When you know, like Carl says, we know enough people already, right.
Hakim: Yup. Yup.
Scott: What is that? Like, how do you over, like, you've done well, overcoming that like just working like you're so good at working the people that already know, like, and trust you for more referrals, for better relationships, for deeper relationships. What is it that, cause what you just said is life-changing obviously. [15:57.4]
Hakim: Right. I think most loan officers are just salespeople in general, we all got our touch at ADD of some sort. I know my attention is like, I could be talking to you now and Ooh…new car. Ooh…that's a nice watch. Ooh…that light is pretty, you know.
Scott: Yeah.
Hakim: And that's what happens. You know, loan officers get this shiny thing syndrome. They get, they see that their next idea, you know, they watch your podcasts, they watch, they, they see you, they see you on the loan officer morning show, they see you getting it. And they were like, Oh, I can do that. Or I can do this or I can do that. And they lose track or lose sight of what got them from zero to five loans or zero to 10 loans.
Scott: Hmm.
Hakim: And they completely switched gears because they're trying to get to the next level. But getting to that next level doesn't mean you stop doing what you're doing. It just means you do more of it. You clone yourself so, you can do double the same activities. [16:51.5]
Scott: Yeah. Amen brother. Amen. Good stuff. We'll finish off with a couple of last questions here. Where in your business would you like better results? What is the team working on right now that's going to put him to hit his goals in 12 months from now? What is the focus?
Hakim: Right now, my focus is really on my processes. I've learned that.
Scott: Hmm.
Hakim: I can turn referrals on like a faucet. I will.
Scott: Gotcha. Yeah.
Hakim: You know, once you get to a certain point, you know what you're doing, creating referrals and creating new partners and making the phone ring becomes second nature. It's like riding a bike. I can jump off the bike and then jumped back on and I'm going to push those RPMs up all the way. For me at this point is really focusing on my process, focusing on growing my team and not just like hiring new people, but training and developing who I have to be better. And so, I think have one, one person away. The virtual assistant has been a game changer for me. I just need that one person that can help structure a deal up front to take the weight off of my shoulders from clients, calling for pre-approvals and costs. That's a miss because right now and this market, each pre-approved and looking person, I'm doing 15 to 20 pre-approvals for offers.
Scott: Wow. [18:15.7]
Hakim: For cost estimates. And when you have, pre-approved looking at 30 people, all of a sudden, you're doing over 150, pre-approvals 150 costs estimates, and it becomes time consuming. So, I'm looking for someone who can just do that, like just do, do those, make sure the files are clean, run desktop underwriter. And then when the contract comes in and push it over to my loan partner and get me out of it and let me just let me make my pile calls, let me go out and see people because the world is open and people can see my face again. And I think it's important that I do that. And so, I'm, I'm planning a hip hop brunch.
Scott: I was gonna say, sounds like there's a party in the mix here.
Hakim: I'm planning it, yeah. I’m planning.
Scott: You are gonna do exactly what you say? [19:00.1]
Hakim: I am, man. So, this is my thing. Like I, you know, over the last 12 months I couldn't connect with people. And so, I'm doing a brunch because guess what brunch is cheap. You can do a nice brunch
Scott: Yeah.
Hakim: And I'm going to have a dress code. I'm a big like Jay Z fan so. You know, Jay Z does this. He does this, hit this rock nation brunch every year. And it's the who's who will hip hop. And so, the theme is going to beat the hip hop brunch. And it's the who's who of real estate.
Scott: Wow.
Hakim: And you guys are going to get treated. You guys are going to have mimosas. You guys are going to have shrimp and grits, and we're going to have a nice time. We're going to have a DJ and there's going to be outside inside location. I'm only going to spend 1500 bucks. [19:39.2]
Scott: Unbelievable dude. Who's who of real estate. I would assume sponsors or
Hakim: I do.
Scott: You got sponsors. Yeah.
Hakim: I have a, an insurance sponsor and a title sponsor helping out.
Scott: Love it, bro. Love it. Congratulations.
Hakim: So.
Scott: Can’t wait.
Hakim: You know, 500 bucks a piece.
Scott: Wow. Unbelievable man. So, man, just to wrap this up, brother, I appreciate your time today. Like what are some final thoughts that you would tell loan officers in today's day and age? Man, we've come through so much in the last year and a half with COVID. I'm hearing a two to three years shortage in inventory is what we got are well ahead of us. What would you tell somebody in the business right now that maybe is struggling a little bit or maybe they're doing good? What do to do to keep doing good? [20:18.1]
Hakim: Focus on the positives right. There every year there’s always something right. Over the last three years, oh, we got constriction and pricing. Oh, the margins are shrinking. Oh, there is too much inventory, the prices are low. Oh, there's this. Oh, there's that. Oh, we have Republican. Oh, we have a Democrat. It's always some noise. And all I see when I look at the inventory, shortage is noise.
Scott: Hmm.
Hakim: Because guess what? It might be an inventory shortage, but it doesn't mean there's a borrower shortage.
Scott: Hmm.
Hakim: It means there's more people looking. That means there's more people you can talk to about getting a mortgage. It means you can carve out more of your lion's share while you got other guys are sitting around, looking at all. The inventory is crazy. Figure out a new way, a new way to sell a preapproval, figure out a new strategy to call the listing agents, figure out a way to make your pre-approvals stand out, is all opportunities. [21:15.5]
Scott: Hmm.
Hakim: You know, when COVID hit its well known, man, I lost 26 deals.
Scott: Hmm.
Hakim: When the FHA crunch hit, I lost 26 deals. I had a option. Everyone said, well, you need to change them. You need to change your borrower; you need to change who you're going after. You need to get how you buy your loan. So, you're not doing FHA. I said to myself, I said, forget that. And I doubled down on who I am and that is how I live my life. And I realized I couldn't do run my business any other way. I am who I am. I wear baseball caps and t-shirts; I'll wear bright colors and bright color shoes. I do that. And that's who I am, but I'm not going to change who I am to fit a mold of something that people think I should be because people will see and feel authenticity. And if I'm fake, who am I going to attract?
Scott: Right.
Hakim: That's what I would say about the inventory shortage. [22:08.4]
Scott: Yeah. Noise, man. That's probably the biggest message of the whole show bro, is like, there's always, always, always noise. So, I appreciate you bringing that to the forefront too as well, man. So many nuggets here, bro. Just unbelievable. You're amazing. I love you bro.
Hakim: Thank you man.
Scott: So, if someone wants to connect with you, engage with you or like find you where do they need to go?
Hakim: Oh man, you can find me on Instagram, itsdakeemshow. I T S D A K E E M S H O W. And you can find me on Facebook under that same tag, Twitter under that same tag. And I'm going to be starting like a motivational type by group. And so, I want to try and provide like a little nugget every week just to motivate people. I think that's one of my gifts. And I'm, I've been selfish and not sharing it. And so, I want to be able to share it, I want to make sure that I can touch people and they can get a little bit to keep them going.
Scott: I love it! And say that one more time. Is it your last name. [23:02.9]
Hakim: Keem. It’s my nickname, my nickname is Hakim. My name is Hakim. My nickname is Keem.
Scott: Okay.
Hakim: And so, it's K E E M. So, itsdakeemshow.
Scott: Keem Show.
Hakim: Yup.
Scott: K E E M.
Hakim: Yup.
Scott: Show, S H O W. Awesome man. Unbelievable. So, man, dude, you're amazing. Unbelievable. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your time. I appreciate you sharing some deep stuff, which is awesome. And just, it's always nice to see somebody go from zero to hero, man. And that's exactly what you've done and you've changed so many people's lives and I appreciate you being you and doing you man. That's that's just huge. So, it's easy to listen to the noise and change and you didn't and you stayed strong. So, congratulations, man. Thank you so much.
Hakim: Thank you.
Scott: Thank you man, I appreciate it, brother.
Hakim: Thank you bro. Thank you. Thank you, Scotty. Always a good time, bro.
Scott: Always was a good time, man.
Hakim: Always.
Scott: Thanks again guys. Thanks for joining us on Million Loan Officer. Don't forget about MLO live. Maybe, maybe, maybe we can get Hakim on there with us. I'm keen to going to be doing a once a week live just Q & A.
Hakim: Yeah.
Scott: To help out anybody that has questions and so man, it would be really cool after a year, so just to have everybody show up and just like throw up, you know, show up and throw up some good stuff. So MLOlive.com guys. Hakim, thank you so much again for being here brother.
Hakim: Thank you.
Scott: And then if I can ever do anything for you, man, just let me know, bro, I'm here for you.
Hakim: My man, you're a life changer. Thank you, bro.,
Scott: Thank you, man. [24:14.0]
I'm a Millionaire Loan Officer.
Thank you for tuning into the Millionaire Loan Officer podcast with your host Scott Hudspeth, don't forget to visit MLOlive.com to have your questions answered. See you next time. [24:33.6]
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