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.
Scotty: Hello everyone, welcome to Millionaire Loan Officer powered by Mortgage Marketing Animals and the Loan Officer Breakfast Club. I'm super excited to to have Tom Glass on with us today. We're an amazing story, man. Love the, and I don't wanna blow the bubble, but man, like tell us a little bit about yourself. I wanna make sure it's, kind of start from the beginning, cause I just wanna share with people, man, whatever you devote your time and mind to is what you can accomplish. And so, it's just pretty cool, but tell us a little bit about yourself, man. [0:55.4]
Tom: So, I got in the mortgage business in 2005, so going on 17 years in the business. I started as a loan officer assistant, helping out a, a couple guys and I really enjoyed it. Like I really enjoyed the process and like helping people buy a home. But I was a loan officer for four years, mainly because I was scared of the commission .
Scotty: Yeah man.
Tom: So, I had a couple opportunities, they were like, Hey, you wanna go into, you know, full-time loan officer? And I was like, ah, I don't know But it, I mean it did give me an opportunity to learn the business and I could handle a file from pretty much beginning to end. No problem. But yeah, I finally decided to take the dive in 2009, like right in the middle of the crazy recession. And the first year I started off a little slow and then it was just been a really good and slow progression. But I mean last year I had closed 35 million and I.
Scotty: Wow.
Tom: When you go back, it's been awesome. Yeah. [1:47.1]
Scotty: So, you started at the time that everybody else was having a really hard time too, 2009.
Tom: Yup.
Scotty: So yeah, so I wouldn't feel too bad about it.
Tom: Right.
Scotty: That was, that was the implode meter. Just going…
Tom: Yep, exactly. Yeah.
Scotty: So, did you have a choice when you first got in to go loan officer assistant or loan officer or you just going, Hey man, I think you'd make a good loan officer assistant. How did that all happen?
Tom: Yeah, so a friend of mine was working at a small broker shop in, in town and she was leaving to go teach English somewhere or something and she said, Hey, your personality looks like it would suit this job. You wanna come interview.
Scotty: Hmm.
Tom: And so yeah, they hired me as a loan officer assistant just to kind of get my feet wet and into the business.
Scotty: Awesome.
Tom: Yep.
Scotty: So, four years, so did you kind of just settle in at the four years and go, man, I'm just gonna probably hang out here for a while or were you always thinking in the back of your mind, man, I really wanna go sell or was it something.
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: That happened as a loan officer assistant that caused you to go, I'm gonna go sell? [2:40.1]
Tom: Yeah, I mean seeing what the, the loan officers were making and closing and like kind of their lifestyle that was always attractive. There was always the little barrier of like, oh a 100% commission, there's no safety net there. But yeah, I, I think probably a year, year and a half in, I had kind of in the back of my mind that I, I would probably wanted to do it. I'm a little bit of an introvert I've grown out of it some, but like back then the idea of selling and selling myself was a little contrary to my personality, but.
Scotty: Sure. That’s awesome
Tom: But yeah, at the same time I really wanted to do it.
Scotty: That's awesome. So, 17 years and I think you, you know, we were talking about kind of this, like how you, you know, 13 years now, well, after the four years. But you, like, you had milestones, you had like, you know, 12 million, 14 million.
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: Well, like what do you think it was for somebody that's kind of at that? I don't know, 4 million mark, 8 million mark, 10 million mark. What was it that kind of helped you keep going every year after year to get to where you're at, that, that 35 million now? [3:36.5]
Tom: Yeah. One of the biggest things is getting myself out of the way. like learning to delegate, learning to spend some money like on marketing, like again, getting my personality out of the way so that I could sell myself and show people like the skills and like what I can offer. But again, some of that is personality driven and just I'm little, a bit of an introvert. So, like me going to a networking event is not comfortable. I can do it, but yeah, again, getting myself out of the way, being consistent in closing deals and talking to realtors and asking for business.
Scotty: Cool. So last year you did 28 million, this year 35 like, and I think.
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: The end of 21 was really the catalyst that like that's where the rubber meets the rope.
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: Cause the refi, you know, kind of, what was it that took you from 28 to 35? Cause I mean, that's a good jump.
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: That's like half million a month. I mean couple, two, three loans a month. [4:32.6]
Tom: Yeah. Some of it was I, I was introduced to Carl and to you I think like five or six years ago started listening to the podcast and I saw that what you guys were offering is great stuff. I didn't implement it right away. So, I moved over to Success Mortgage Partners, Lending Path Mortgage beginning of 2020. And so yeah, just started implementing the systems that you guys have and growing my team, helping again, delegate stuff, get myself out of the, the process to, and that was a huge driver is that my team has been fantastic and allowed me to continue to grow.
Scotty: So, I think a lot of people have a hard time finding a team. You have a team; we'll talk about your team in a second.
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: But was it hard for you to let go knowing what, you know, being a loan officer assistant? Or was it like, man, get this off my plate, I'm tired of it. Or like how was that? Cause I think a lot of people struggle with man, everybody wants to talk to me and I'm the one, this is my business and.
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: How'd you work through that? [5:28.9]
Tom: Well like brass tacks, it's not sunshines and rainbows and flowers every day. But yeah, I did have some, some people that brought on and had to let go and or shift around and but yeah, there's is definitely some resistance in letting stuff go. But now that I have let stuff go, it's like, why did I ever hold onto it for so long? Yeah.
Scotty: Yeah. Good point. So, tell us a little bit about like, what does your team look like? Like is it 35 million? I don't know, how many loans is that? Is it but 300,000-dollar loans?
Tom: 160.
Scotty: 160 loans. Okay. Okay
Tom: Yeah, 165, something like that.
Scotty: So, 13, 14 a month. Good for you man.
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: Impressive.
Tom: Mm-hmm
Scotty: What does the team look like that's closing 13, 14 loans a month. [6:07.9]
Tom: Yeah, I currently have three people on my team. The, the main person is my loan partner 2, or contract to close person. So, she's actually a hybrid loan partner processor. So, she takes care of a, a ton of stuff, but she's awesome. She's on, it works really, really hard. The other two people I've got a lady that's kind of office manager / admin person. So, she helps answer my phone calls. She's just here Monday to Thursdays for eight hours every day. So, I mean, it works out really good, but she also does or order outs like appraisal, title, homeowner's insurance, stuff like that. And thank you cards and little, little stuff like that, but she's amazing at what she does.
Scotty: Awesome.
Tom: And then I just about three months ago hired a new guy, new to the business, but I'm training him up to be loan partner 1, which is upfront person. So right now, he scrubs all the online applications that come in. So, he pulls credit, kind of cleans up the file, gives me a preliminary, Hey, I think it could go this way or that way.
Scotty: Love it.
Tom: Or you know, he is 430 credit score, not gonna fly . So, it saves me quite a bit of time actually. And then he also does the disclosures and collects a little bit of documentation and then we hand it off to loan partner two. [7:14.3]
Scotty: I love it. So, the LP one that takes the applications, does he call like what, like if he gets a 450-credit score, does he call the customer back and say, here's what you need to do to make it happen? Or how, like how do you deal with those?
Tom: I've still been holding onto that. But yeah, that's the goal is to, to have him start working those. The main focus has been in putting him into the business, learning what happened.
Scotty: Yeah.
Tom: But yeah, that's kind of next step is calling the, those clients that it's an immediate, no. And saying, Hey, we can't help you. Here's a game plan for you. Or Tom asked me to call you to come up with a game plan to move forward.
Scotty: Love it, love it.
Tom: Mm-Hmm
Scotty: So, what do you do, like what is your number one priority to help this business grow? Cause now you, I mean you have enough bandwidth.
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: What do you do on a daily basis that's helping you continue to grow this thing at like leaps and bounds?
Tom: Yeah, so I just started coaching with a freedom club. So, I officially have a coach.
Scotty: All right. [8:06.2]
Tom: But yeah, we've been working on just implementing DSP, a step at a time. Cause again, the money comes from those activities and another step in getting myself out of the business and into doing more sales. We started with just ask. So, I've never really been consistent in that. So now Tuesdays for hour, hour and a half, I'm calling clients and the, the agents involved and giving them an update quick update and then asking for business.
Scotty: Love it.
Tom: So that's step one
Scotty: Very cool. Isn't it fun to do those phone calls? I mean, are you seeing results from it already? I mean it doesn't take long.
Tom: Yeah, yeah.
Scotty: Yeah.
Tom: Yeah, absolutely. And again, kicking myself why didn't do this sooner.
Scotty: right. You're like why?
Tom: Find my emails and you know, all this silly little stuff that we have to do.
Scotty: And distractions, good stuff, man. Good stuff. So yeah, it's just the little things we, yeah, we, I don't know, maybe creative avoidance suit. I mean, you know.
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: Like the more you let go of the more we find like other things to do, but now you have a team to take care of. So, it's easier to get out there. What would you tell somebody, man, like I was gonna bring back up, you know, maybe it's better that you were an assistant. So, when you have this new guy coming on, you know, when he is ready or you know, what it takes to get somebody ready.
Tom: Right. [9:13.4]
Scotty: To be in this business. But that might have been a blessing wouldn’t you say?
Tom: Yeah, absolutely. I mean like when people call me about getting into the business, if we don't have a spot for them, I, I usually recommend that they try to find a position like as an assistant or someplace that they can get exposure to, to the mortgage business. Cause in one sense, it it's a easy business, but there's a lot to it that can be very complex.
Scotty: Yeah.
Tom: And so, I think if you get dip your toes in start to learn how to handle things little by little like that, that goes a long way to when you become a loan officer, you know how to communicate and expectations and, and whatnot to clients and realtors.
Scotty: Awesome. So, what's next for you man? What's next for Tom? Is he like now he is at 35 million, you know, we were talking before, you're like, it's amazing the kind of money we can make doing this business?
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: And like, what I hear is you're letting more stuff go. What's next for Tom man? What's the 2022 goal? [10:05.7]
Tom: So, I'm bilingual. So, I speak Spanish.
Scotty: Wow.
Tom: So, like 30, 40% of my business is Hispanic. So that's the next step.
Scotty:
Tom: This year is hiring a bilingual loan partner to help with take that off my plate again, move myself out. from there.
Scotty: Okay.
Tom: You know, in general, the people that know what's going on are saying, there's gonna be maybe a 20% drop in, in business this year. So, my goal is I'm gonna shoot for 40 this year, cause I like I'm gonna grow and continue to sell myself. But if you kind of account for a little bit of a drop, I think 40 is a, a little bit realistic. I'd love to be 45-50.
Scotty: Sure.
Tom: But Hey 40 is a attainable goal I think.
Scotty: Yeah, absolutely. You know, and here's the thing, man, if you shoot for 50 and you only hit 42, 43.
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: 44, you didn't fail, you know?
Tom: Right. Absolutely.
Scotty: So, you just gotta do different activities to hit the 50, then you do the 40, you know, so.
Tom: Yeah. [10:54.5]
Scotty: Cool man. So, the bilingual.
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: So, of your business that you do was 2020 a ton of refis, 2021 what was the mix there? Or you got a healthy mix or what, what are you doing there?
Tom: Yeah, I've, I've always been purchase heavy. Like I think 2021 25-30% were refis.
Scotty: Okay, perfect,
Tom: I I've always focused on purchase. So, if I like refis, I took them as I could. And, and there were several times last year where I'd be like, Hey, I can't get to you right now. I'll call you next week about a refi. I, you know, so I'm sure I lost some business, but like again, purchases has always been my business.
Scotty: That's awesome.
Tom: Yeah, and the Hispanics are they're, it's kind of cool. Like there's challenges to it of course, but they have a different buying timeframe. Like I can be dead as far as English-speaking Americans or whatever. And like my phone is blowing up with Hispanics.
Scotty: Hmm. [11:46.5]
Tom: And then it'll flip flop, like the Hispanics are dead and then the, the English-speaking Americans are going crazy so it’s.
Scotty: Interesting.
Tom: It's a cool, like subset to the business that helps kind of even out the peaks and valleys.
Scotty: Interesting. Yeah. I'll tell you, I, I hear the bilingual thing is like unbelievably.
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: Untouched.
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: Like there's so much, so much there, there.
Tom: And they're super appreciative and you know, they're a tight community. So, if I do a great job for one, I usually get a family member or two and then another for, and it's pretty good repeat business.
Scotty: I love it. I love it. So, you know, when I think of people that aren't introverted, right. Have a hard time with really estate agents who like, how did you, like, what did you do to overcome that to where man, I just have to do this. I'm gonna go out there. What, was there approach? Or was there some, like, what did you do to help you overcome that? [12:32.7]
Tom: So weirdly enough, a BNI group has been one of the biggest things that has helped with that. It's a good mix of, cause BNI is very structured. You go in and you know exactly what's gonna happen and that helped me a lot. But then it also forces you to come up with a little 60 second pitch and then do a presentation and interact with people. So, it, it really helped me kind of get outta my shell some which then translated to when I met with realtors, I had a 60 second pitch like down pat. No problem.
Scotty: Interesting.
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: Interesting.
Tom: So yeah, that was a looking back at it. Sure, I got a good bit of business from that, but it also helped me kind of grow and kind of get out of that and introverted personality thing.
Scotty: Amazing. Yeah, there's something so simple as a 60 second pitch. I mean that's.
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: Yeah. And so when you make the phone calls, do you use, lean on that and say here's who I am. Here's what I do. Here's what I can do for you. Or like how does that, cause I know a lot of people have this fear of failure, fear of the unknown fear of the, no, obviously you've overcame that leaps and bounds. What would you tell somebody to, how would you tell somebody to push through on that? [13:34.5]
Tom: Yeah. Lean into that and just some realization that you're talking to people, they screw up, we screw up, they're accepting. I mean, unless you like completely offend them,
Scotty: Right.
Tom: They realize that we're people, we have lives, we have personality quirks and whatnot, so yeah.
Scotty: Awesome. Very cool.
Tom: Yep.
Scotty: Very good. Any final words that you wanted to tell anybody that's at that 10, 20, 30 mark that is just trying to get over that like, man, I'm just.
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: Cause I have a ton of conversations where like I'm stuck, I'm stuck. I'm stuck.
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: Reliving the same chapter year after year. What I kept hearing was let go, but what, like what would your think be?
Tom: Yeah, let go. Get yourself out of your way. I mean, look for something that's keep being you from, from going to the next level.
Scotty: Gotcha.
Tom: And then work on that and, and it might not, it's not gonna be an immediate thing. Like it takes a baby step and another baby step and, and then all of a sudden, you'll be like, oh man, I'm doing 20 after previous year, you were 10 or 12, yeah. [14:29.6]
Scotty: Interesting. And so how do you manage your team? Like, do you have daily meetings? Court like every other day meetings? Like how do you manage what's the LP one, LP two and your admin? How, how does that all, how does that take place?
Tom: Yeah, we have weekly like pipeline calls usually about once a month, just general like team, like what's going on kind of calls and then just kind of ongoing conversations.
Scotty: Awesome. Okay.
Tom: Of different files or via email or teams. Microsoft teams.
Scotty: Gotcha. Okay. Easy stuff, man. No big deal. You're so calm. You're just like so humble. So, calm it so cool. Like I, you know, I've met you before and I was at that event down there and then I saw you at the, at our national conference.
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: When it was you're just always so chill. Like I'm just guessing everybody that meets with you loves you, you know and yeah, yeah. How can I not work with this guy?
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: So, you like that, you have that going for you. I know you call it a introverted, but I think it's a beautiful thing that fits you well.
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: That like the more conversations you have, the more, I mean, you make people feel calm. You have that confidence about you.
Tom: Yep.
Scotty: And so, congratulations man. [15:28.1]
Tom: And that's, that's helped a lot. I've had realtors say that like we were really appreciate your keeping things calm. Cause things happen, things get hectic, but you're always like level. Like you can bring people back and get through it, so.
Scotty: Super cool. Super cool.
Tom: Been very helpful for me.
Scotty: Unbelievable man. Well, it's been a cool five or six years, I don't know when I first met you when I was down there.
Tom: Yeah.
Scotty: But it was a lot of fun and like that. It's nice to, you know, call you a business partner and see at the local events and stuff like that. It's anything I can ever do for you, man. I'm here for you. Congratulations and man, I have no doubt that that 50 mark is totally doable for you, man. No doubt.
Tom: Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me on.
Scotty: All right, man. All right guys. Thanks guys. Thanks for listening to Millionaire Loan Officer with Tom glass powered by Mortgage Marketing Animals and Loan Officer Breakfast Club. We'll see you same time, same place right here on the web. Take everybody, be safe. [16:14.0]
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. [16:33.5]
