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: Hello, everybody. This is Scott Hudspeth with Millionaire Loan Officer, powered by Mortgage Marketing Animals and the Loan Officer Breakfast Club. I'm super excited, got to meet this guy, Jorge Aldrete, in San Antonio at the Freedom Club.
Man, I tell you, Jorge, you really have something special going on. I've been following your journey with your wife and just your buying properties and running a successful mortgage business. I thought, man, I want to have people hear your story, because I know that it wasn't easy at first, and I really, really, really appreciate you being here, man. [01:01.5]
Tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're located, and let's get this party started.
Jorge: Awesome. I own Elite Financing Group with Josh Bibler. The company has been around for 15, 16 years now, starting in 2005, and one of the things is I got into the industry in oh two, so kind of went through everything just like most of us have, right?
Scott: Yeah.
Jorge: We just kind of go through the tough parts, and was always and have been a struggling loan officer for quite some time, right, and was able to do also self-source doing in the $15–22 million a year and got stuck there for life. But it wasn't until 2019 when I had the joy of getting to meet the Mortgage Marketing Animals people, and it changed the course of our life and our vision, so it has been a pretty incredible ride. We're located in Texas.
Scott: Thanks. Okay, cool, and I think it's important to let people know that, when you first started, you said you were stuck at 15 to 20 million. Is that about right?
Jorge: Right.
Scott: Okay, so 15 to 20 million is not bad, I’ve got to be honest, right? [02:04.8]
Jorge: Yeah, in real life.
Scott: What was it, Jorge? What were the one or two things that took you from 15 to 20 to, I don't know, are you going to hit 100 million this year?
Jorge: Right below.
Scott: Just below, so it’s like you're
Jorge: Disappointed, right below, but we're at 97 million, man.
Scott: Ninety-seven million, which is four times, right? Four or five times what you were stuck at.
Jorge: Oh, yeah.
Scott: What were the one or two things, man, that catapulted you to the next level and pushed? I mean, was it your beliefs? Was it your team systems? What was it?
Jorge: I think that all of it, right? All of the above. I think believing in yourself is a huge thing that you can make things happen. I always saw people from afar that are doing 40 million, 50 million, 120 million. I was like, man, that's insane. Those guys are superstars, right? I'm just not that guy. I'm not that guy. That's going to be fine. I live a good life, good family, you know? And even though the competitive spirit is always there that you want to be a rock star, right, at the end of the day in the business. [03:02.2]
Going to Nashville in August ’19 and having that three-day MMA course at that time opened up my eyes, because I had done the core in the past, and so doing MMA, it was a way that it was simplified to me of here are the steps you need to do
Some of the things that I took immediately from there that I was able to implement was touching base with realtors that I have that I'm not as important as I think I am where people are going to be like, Hey, I was waiting for your call, Jorge, and Carl always talks about that, so I love that.
Then the other one was my client database, just being more involved with it because my client database, I’ve always believed, that's my biggest bread and butter. For me, it always has been. Agents were not my biggest source. It was always clients. I've always felt kind of that I connected better with the clients at that time, and so I started doing that immediately. Then the next thing I did that was in September, so in October I closed at 3.9 million, which I had never done before - [04:00.4]
Scott: Wow.
Jorge: - and then it just continued into the 3-million mark for the next four months, but I added my wife to the mix and she changed the perception I have on how to attract realtors.
Scott: Yeah.
Jorge: Then I added one great loan partner, an experienced loan partner to the deal, which was significant for me to start changing my beliefs in that. Now I can do $5 million, $6 million, $7 million, $8 million, $9 million a month in those two additions at the very beginning that I needed to create a system, because I’ve got out of MMA what I needed to say, man, I believe this. I'm going to preach it to my team, my company, but if I'm going to want to preach it, I don't want to be the coach that didn't do it. I want to be the coach that said I had success doing it and this is how I did it, and I want people to be able to look up and say, Hey, if he did it this way, that means it works and here are the results. I started doing it, implement the things people started noticing, and all of a sudden, there are a few people in our industry and our company that are doing 40 million-plus now a year. [05:04.5]
Scott: Wow.
Jorge: And we just follow those steps, but that implementation, the belief of a team and that I can accomplish it was a big change.
Scott: Huge deal, and you said you had a detailed description of what I don't know why we as sales people try to figure out, where's the shiny … where's that money tree? Let's just go plant those trees, and then, what's the easy way?
Jorge: “I just hope I get lucky.”
Scott: Right, right, the hopium, “I hope they call me. God, I hope they call me.”
Jorge: Exactly, man.
Scott: You said your wife changed the perception. What was it? Because I think a lot of people have them and I know I did. What kind of perception did she help you fix? Was it just, Hey, man, I'm not as important as I think I am, or what do you think it was?
Jorge: She came on board to start helping me attract more realtors, in the sense she knew that I’ve been in the business since ’02, and when she came on board, in November ’19, I was working with only eight realtors and everything else was client database. I mean, that year, I did $22 million with eight realtors and my database. [06:12.5]
The way she came in was like, Hey, I'm going to go, and we started looking into MMA, the website, and saying, Okay, what are the things that we can go after with agents? She started talking to you as well, getting some ideas. And she was a teacher, so she is able to absorb information and just get on the video and teach it, right? I mean, it's so natural to her. For me, I’ve always felt awkward at that stage, I don't know why.
Still, even now, doing the volume that I'm doing, the only time I feel comfortable talking to agents is during the process because I feel like I do a fantastic job in the service, know what I'm doing and know the answers to everything that they have questions to, but those initial calls, man, I still struggle with that, right? I mean, the other day I was just even making phone calls to agents just to touch base with them and just, they're not in process right now with the loan, but just even those calls, my anxiety, man, I mean, I am nervous as hell just to even say hi and say thank you for the year and this and that. I still struggle, right? Call reluctance, man. It's a big negative factor in our career, unfortunately. [07:18.0]
But what I did was her coming on board and her having that natural connection with realtors, and just being able to bring walls down with them where they just tell her their life story, I wasn't able to do that really quickly and I don't feel comfortable doing it still to this point.
Scott: Yeah.
Jorge: But she was able to do that immediately, tell me the story of who they are, and that perception know agents that I had about their loyalty, right, that their loyalty is minimal or “I'm just as good as my last transaction”, and so because I’ve always believed in building great relationships with realtors that I wanted to work with that, even if I ask them for a day or a three-day extension, I mean, I have agents that say, “Sounds good, Jorge. It's because we need it. Not a big deal.” They don't question me.
Scott: Wow.
Jorge: It's like, Hey, this happened, boom, done, and some other agents are like, Oh my gosh, this is horrible, blah, blah, blah. That's some of the perception that I had in the past that it wasn't going to work out with agents, and with her, she would tell me their story and it helped out a lot in the sense of understanding their life, their situation. I was able to connect a little bit more with the agents and started building a relationship. [08:17.8]
She came in. She makes a phone call. She makes the connections. She helps them with social media stuff. She helps them with branding. She did a bunch of this research on it to help them grow their business and, for me, it's easier to connect that way when we can provide something of value to them.
Scott: Yeah, is it kind of like a biz dev? A lot of people talked about a biz dev person in San Antonio. Is that kind of what you classify her as, as the base dev, she's out there building, nourishing, deepening?
Jorge: Absolutely. I mean, without a doubt, she is constant, for one, on social media with them, so she creates basically a Facebook business page for me and with all those agents that want to work with us or that want to get some of that value that we provide. [08:59.1]
So, yeah, I mean, I would say it's some sort of business development, right? I mean, because she is on those relationships and it got to the point where we built. In two years, she has got a list of a little over 400 agents. Not that they all send us business, but she has connected that with that, and the idea is to earn their business as we continue to grow. That's what I'm saying, the perception it was that it is easier to build those relationships with agents and it's not as hard as I thought. It is hard for me, without a doubt. It just wasn't hard for her.
Then I brought her best friend, my wife's best friend, on board to do all my calls with agents, all my daily success plan, my [unclear 09:39.6] calls, my Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays, and I do what I love to do and they do what they love to do.
Scott: Yeah, good stuff, man.
Jorge: It changes the way the business is done, without a doubt.
Scott: Awesome. Obviously, going from 22 million to 97 million, you had to let go of some stuff.
Jorge: Without a doubt.
Scott: Do you do the extra freedom often or are you just always looking for who is the next one? How can I remove myself even more because when Jorge does what he's supposed to do, obviously things happen? You've put a couple people in place. What does your team look like? What is one of the biggest things you let go of that was the hardest for you? [10:16.0]
Jorge: I think that, at the beginning, it was still even letting go, still being involved in the transaction with clients because I hold myself to a certain standard of first-class service to clients and realtors during the process, and so that even to this point, sometimes I find myself responding to an email that my team operations manager literally tells me like, Back off, I’ve got it, right, which is that first hire that I had in 2020.
That has been hard, but I continue to have those conversations with her, with the team. I'm at the top and then I have my team operations manager. She's an experienced LO who just didn't want to do the hustle of getting the business, but she was like, Put me to work. I just want to get some stuff done. I'm like, Cool.
Scott: Interesting. [11:01.0]
Jorge: And then I have three other loan partners right below her that handle from applications, prequels, income, qualifications to disclosures. They do all the rest of the tedious stuff as well, right?
Scott: Awesome.
Jorge: Then I have Jenny, my wife. She is what we call director of agent support, so she is literally in touch with my real estate agents constantly and she's doing social video classes on Instagram, Facebook, you name it, right, TikTok and all that stuff, as well as social media content for them talking to them about branding, about our business.
Then I have Jenn Goodner that is the director of client relations, which she literally handles Monday through Thursday calls constantly from agents to my client database, to my just-ask business to the prequels and the prospects.
I put everything in place, because as owner of the company and as we continue to grow, I want to get this company to, of course, a billion, 2 billion, whatever it is that we can get to, right, and so I have other goals on top of just my personal production. I know that in order for us to accomplish that, I have to completely step away. [12:09.4]
Yesterday I just had a meeting with my team operations manager, where it was like, Okay, I’ve been training you for I stay away from the process, but now, next year, I want to fully step away from the operations. I don't want to be any more involved in these transaction phone calls, you name it, that I have to feel right now, so I want to step away. I want to just supervise from the top. You handle everything. I will structure the team how you see fit, so if people that are there are not working for you, you tell me and I’ll replace them or add more people if we continue to be busier, because the goal is to do 15 million, 20 million, right, a month just with the team. I told her, it was like, I want you to be in charge of that, because she's amazing, right, at the end of the day. She does a great job with agents as well, the way she handles clients, so I trust her completely on that part. [13:05.6]
Scott: Was that a hard conversation to have? Was that hard, like, I mean, I'm stepping out, I don't want to know one name of one customer?
Jorge: No, it was not a hard conversation to have. It was an “I'm ready.”
Scott: I'm ready. Okay.
Jorge: I'm ready, man. This year almost took a toll, right, in the sense that a lot more business than I’ve done in the past, a lot more clients, a lot more agents that we're working with, and on top of that, we're grown as a company, so my commitment is to my company, to help each LO become that rock star. That's my commitment to every person that we hire, which is, I want you guys to be a 30-million-plus per year, that's it.
We don't hire a lot of people, but we're hiring quality people that believe or that I can make them believe that, Hey, you can be a superstar in the industry and have an amazing life, so that's my commitment to that. That's why I need to step away from what I'm doing.
Scott: What did you close in 2020? Do you remember?
Jorge: Sixty-six million.
Scott: So, 40 million, almost 40 million, 35 million more. What did you do in ’19? What'd you do in ’19? [14:03.3]
Jorge: Forty-four million? Yeah, 44 million more than 2019.
Scott: Okay, wow. Amazing. Knowing what you know now, man, I got it in ’01, you got it in ’02, knowing what you know now, what would you tell somebody that’s at that four loans a month, five loans a month, or maybe they're doing 20, 22 million, still really good? What would you say to them? What would you tell them, knowing what you know now?
Jorge: I lived it, so I would tell you that it’s investing in coaching. I wish I would have done it sooner, man. Even though I heard about the core back in the day and I tried it for that first phase and it just didn't resonate with me at the time. It's investing in you and investing in coaching because that will change your life. I mean, it will change the perspective of how you approach the business smarter.
I mean, you guys preach this all the time. It's not about working more hours, which is what I believed for a long time and I would tell my wife that I would be like, I can make more money, but I have to work longer and won't see the kids and won't have a balance, and it's not about that. It's about building a team around you and building the right team, right? A quality team around you that you can do the things that you are great at. [15:10.5]
I always believe, okay, what am I great at? That's another conversation I was having recently. What am I great at? In 2020, I would have told you, Man, I'm great with the process, right, with my clients, filling them great, building that connection, that rapport, and I get more business from them constantly. That has been easy bread and butter over the years, I stay in touch with them, with agents. That's not my strength, right? So, I had to hire people [based on the question], What are their strengths? and so I did.
This year, after I looked back, I literally was like, Man, what are my strengths now? when we were at the Freedom Club. It was like, Hey, what is it that is the one activity that you're doing that makes you the most money? Now it was building a team. It wasn't talking to people. It was building a team. It has been my most significant and the best thing that I’ve done, as well as not just for me, but also for the company, bringing in the right people, the right processing, closing department, and everybody that they do a great job that continues to help us close more loans. [16:12.8]
Scott: Do you know what's cool about you, man? Whatever you focus on is what you excel at. I mean, you focused on loans, you focused on customers, killed it. Now you're focusing on building a team, which is really truly building a business, you know what I mean? You had a business, but now you're looking, now you're working on it instead of in it, going who … I mean, I don't know, it gives me chills, man, when you said focus on what you're good at, and, man, you're talented in everything. You had huge success just being great at the process, talking to clients, making clients feel welcome and warm and fuzzy, but now you're hiring the right people to help people make the client feel fuzzy and now you can scale this like never before, which is so cool to see, man. So happy for you, brother.
Jorge: Thank you. Appreciate it, man.
Scott: What's next for Jorge, man? You've had all these conversations, team-building plan, plan in place. What's the goal for 2022? [17:06.4]
Jorge: My goal, personal goal for 2022 is for our personal production to hit 150 million. It's going to be one of those things that I'm like, whether we hit it or not, it's okay, because I know I'm building the team that I'm going to get to 150 and I'm going to get to 200 million, whether it's next year or the next year. It's just continuing to work on improving and hiring the right people to get a better investment part of it for EFG.
That's one thing that we have been most proud of, that this is a company that, in 2018, we closed $72 million as a company, right? A small brokerage Company in Austin, Tex., and all of a sudden, we are closing 420 million in 2021.
Scott: Wow.
Jorge: And it was bringing in the quality of people that were doing 15 million to 20 million, and we implemented this stuff that we're talking about, MMA, and we have guys that’s just like, Jorge, I'm going to make half a million dollars this year. [18:05.3]
Scott: That’s right.
Jorge: How freaking awesome is that, man? That is life-changing, right? That's exciting to me. That is one of the biggest motivators for me, to help others achieve their greatness, to make them the best that we can and that's what I care about, and I think that's where we're going with the EFG, man. It's continuing to grow and making people have a successful career in the industry, because we found the solution in Mortgage Marketing Animals, man, so we’ve just got to implement that every day and preach it, and that's something that we do almost on a daily basis. We constantly send them emails, giving them ideas, and so it's exciting.
Scott: Good stuff, man. Last question I have, when you hire, are you looking to hire local? Are you virtual? How are you building this monster?
Jorge: That was easy in Austin. We hire some great people locally. Now you see it as far as virtual works great. It works for some of our loan officers. I mean, one guy has two people in the Philippines making phone calls and stuff. [19:05.4]
Scott: Love it. Love it.
Jorge: It's fantastic. It works great since they set up a lot of appointments for him with agents. I mean, that's the beauty of it, that it doesn't matter where they're at now. As long as they're working, you can rely on them to get the work done and teach them the right things.
I moved to Dallas, we have a Dallas branch, so I moved from Austin to Dallas, moved the family up here. I still go back and forth, but we're looking to grow in the Dallas area as well, the FW.
Scott: Good stuff, man.
Jorge: It's a matter of just continuing to explore what else is out there.
Scott: Good stuff, man. Man, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you. I've gotten to know your wife. She's an amazing teacher. She did Agent Mastermind for me. I've never had someone just be by themselves while I was in flight. You have no idea how cool that was. I mean, I just trusted her. I mean, here's the login, go, and everybody loved the class.
Jorge: That’s awesome, man.
Scott: You’ve got a real awesome person there, so, yeah, thank you so much for everything you do and I know you're helping. I know your wife is helping my son out, which is so cool. Excited to see where that goes, anything we can do for him. [20:04.6]
Man, dude, thanks for your time today. I know you're busy. I know it's the holiday season. Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Jorge: Thank you. It’s great being here.
Scott: Man, I hope you're going to be in Puerto Rico, man. Are you going to be in Puerto rice?
Jorge: Absolutely. Yeah, I’m definitely going to be there.
Scott: Awesome. Awesome. Can't to see you there, brother. Can't wait to see you there, man.
Jorge: Thank you so much for having me, Scott. Appreciate it, man.
Scott: I appreciate you, man. I look forward to talking with you at the end of next year, man. Merry Christmas.
Jorge: Sounds good. Same to you, man. Take care.
Scott: All right, guys. Thanks for being here on Millionaire Loan Officer, thanks for listening, powered by Mortgage Marketing Animals and Loan Breakfast Officer Reference Club. Merry Christmas, everybody. I know, probably, you're hearing it after. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. I hope that all your wishes, dreams, goals, desires come true. I hope to see you at a local event, and until then we'll see you on the web. Take care, everybody. Bye-bye. [20:44.0]
Thank you for tuning in to 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.
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