Check out this real world success story from a Connecticut mortgage broker…
Like many mortgage professionals I was seriously thinking about changing careers. For three years prior to 2006 I had consistently made over 100k. It was great; I was spending less and less time chasing new customers and more time writing loans from referrals and past customers. I had no real strategy to grow my business. I took a month to month approach. All this was working fine until rates starting creeping up and lenders became more and more cautious. Many of my best funding sources went out of business completely.
At first, I thought I was just having bad luck. I was losing deals at the last minute, some to appraisals others to cut throat competition. I convinced myself the bad luck would pass and my pipeline (my income) would bounce back. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. Things continued to get worse.
As my income decreased, my debt increased. I became more reliant on credit and I was seriously depressed. The biggest mistake I made was blaming my situation on “the market” instead of adjusting my strategy. I wasted a lot of time complaining about things that I could not control.
In the summer of 2007 I started working part time as a bartender to help make ends meet. I still had no real strategy for turning my business around. I wasn’t spending any money on marketing, I was getting an occasional referral but it wasn’t enough to support my lifestyle. I was seriously considering getting a full time job as an insurance claims adjuster, something I really did not want to do.
How did you turn it around?
After a long night of bartending, I was home surfing the internet. I was looking at web sites and web advertising of some of the brokers I knew in my home town. At the time I did not have my own web site, I was never a big believer in internet marketing. In truth I had never really done any formal marketing. As I sat there, I caught myself saying things like, “what a stupid site, that will never work, I would never..” In that moment I realized the real problem wasn’t the market or bad luck, it was me. I had refused to adjust my strategy and now I was paying for it. I didn’t want to spend money on advertising, I didn’t want to invest in my business, and I wanted customers to find me like they did in the past. My refusal to change was the real problem.
The next morning I woke up with a renewed sense of purpose. I was committed to making my business work. The first thing I did was create a budget to start marketing myself. From my research I knew the internet was a great place to start. I contacted several internet marketing companies before choosing Astonish Results. Astonish was the only company that offered a complete system. I liked the way they talked about things like accountability and sticking to a plan. I realized there would be no quick fix and this would require effort and INVESTMENT.
The Astonish system works great as long as you are willing to work.
Every Monday I receive coaching messages that hold me accountable in addition to sales and marketing tips for the week. It’s like having a business coach but much less expensive.
The most valuable lesson I have learned from partnering with Astonish is that nothing happens by accident. You must take personal responsibility for your business. YOU have to make it happen. No one is going to do it for you. Also, I realized that you have to change with the times. Success requires hard work and money and any one not willing to commit to both will not make it in the new market.
My biggest mistakes weren’t even business related. My biggest mistake was I did not believe in myself and I allowed my life to be controlled by fear, I will never let that happen again.
If you’re like me, you’re probably reading this and saying to yourself, there’s no way this is true. I encourage you to ask yourself one question:
Is what I’m doing right now getting me closer to my goals?
If not do yourself a favor, call Astonish today. If not them, at least begin to take steps toward a real strategy to grow your business.
Jason
Mortgage Broker
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