Episode 11: Conversation with Dan Putnam

Dan Putnam is a true industry leader that has seen a variety of the different sides of the mortgage business.  Dan has D-Putnam-1382advanced through a number of different leadership roles and has experience ranging from brokering, to running a small independent brokerage, to heading up one of the largest national broker franchises, to senior executive positions on the lender side of the equation.

Dan shares insights on sales and leadership lessons learned from his experiences.  Let me know what you find for take-aways.

Episode 10: Lessons from one of the top 100 most powerful women in Canada

Very pleased to bring you this interview with Kathy.  She does a wonderful job of sharing her passions, practices and philosophies.  You will find links to some of the things we discuss under her bio below.  Please let me know if you find this valuable.

Kathy Gregory has over 20 years of executive leadership experience in the lending industry. She is the founding President and CEO of Paradigm Quest Inc. Paradigm was incorporated in 2004 and launched to market in 2005. It was the first mortgage BPO in Canada and the first to provide end to end Private Label mortgage products in Canada.

Kathy was ranked #1 in Profit Magazine’s “Ones to Watch” in the 2009 publication of Profit’s Top 100 Women in Canada. She has led Paradigm to final nominations in two categories of the industry’s most prestigious awards ceremonies in 2009 – Best Industry Service Provider and Best Employer.

WXM ranked her as one of the “Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada.” In 2011, 2012 and she has just been added to this list for 2014.

Kathy is the past President-Elect of the Canadian Institute of Mortgage Brokers and Lenders (CIMBL) and has served three years on the Board of the Executive Committee of the Young President Organization (YPO) in the Upper Canada Chapter.

She is the Founding Chair of the Mortgage Industry Ontario Ladies Charity Golf Tournament, & BC Ladies Charity Mortgage Industry Event, 2007 – 2011. She was awarded the Best Community Service Effort Award of Year at the 2011 Canadian Mortgage Industry Awards.

In 2012, under Kathy’s leadership Paradigm was ranked in PROFIT 200 as one of Canada’s fastest growing companies by PROFIT Magazine. In the same year, at the Canadian Mortgage Industry Awards, Paradigm Quest was Awarded “Employer of Choice.”

In 2013 Paradigm was ranked in PROFIT 500 as one of Canada’s fastest growing companies by PROFIT Magazine. In the same year,Kathy was honoured with her induction into the Canadian Mortgage Hall of Fame.

Links:

Emma Watson’s UN speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-iFl4qhBsE

He for She http://www.heforshe.org/

I find the timing of this coming up uncanny as it was just three weeks ago that I published the article “Men, it’s time to woman up”

Paradigm

Ontario Mortgage Industry Ladies Charity Golf Tournament

Episode 9: Embrace the Suck!

“The difference between a good race and a bad race is how you manage the (inevitable) pain” Chris “Macca” McCormack on triathlon.

In 2013 I completed my first Iron Distance triathlon.  In the lead up, and training to complete that race I started paying a lot of attention to those that had been there before me.  My coach, other triathletes that I knew and I especially started paying attention to the pro field of triathletes that graced the covers of the triathlon magazines I had started reading.  Chris “Macca” McCormack soon became one of my favourites.  In early 2013 “Macca” published an article entitled “Embrace the Suck”.  The quote above his opening line.  I think that statement moved me from the category of ‘nervous’ into a new state of sheer terror about what I was going to attempt to accomplish.   In the article he talked about his move from short distance triathlon to long course, Ironman racing.  He talks about the fact that in an Ironman the pain is inevitable.  While in short course races he would simply put his head down and push through the discomfort of that last 10 minutes of the race.  In a full Ironman the pain was more than just physical.  There was a mental fatigue that crept in as well that he had not prepared for.  He talked about the fact that no amount of physical training is going to allow you to bypass the ‘suck’, to avoid the pain.  It is something that you have to accept and embrace.  Macca is a world class triathlete.  He has won 12 Ironman races and twice was crowned Ironman World Champion in Kona, Hawaii, the holy grail of Ironman events.  Now this is a man that knows something about how to run a good race.  This is a man who knows a lot about managing pain. “The difference between a good race and a bad race is about how you manage the inevitable pain”.  A fairly self explanatory statement when you are talking about a race that consists of a 3.8KM swim, a 180KM bike and finishes with a full 42.2 KM marathon.  If you have ever done such a race you know that it does not come without some measure of pain.

Do you think the sentiment might hold equally true in our daily life?  Do you think it might apply to the world of pain and ensuing negative emotions that life throws at us from time to time?  If success in long distance triathlon depends on your ability to ‘manage the pain’ then perhaps the same holds true for the inevitable “suck” that life will sometimes throw us.  You know the stuff I’m talking about.  The external events that may or may not be under our control that manifest themselves as a stew of emotions.  Our natural instinct is to try and avoid these events in order to avoid the negative emotions that come with them.  As Macca talks about in his article, he soon realized with long distance triathlon there simply was no amount of preparation, no amount or type of training that was going to allow him to avoid the pain that comes with the grueling effort of the Ironman triathlon.  His conclusion was that rather than focusing on how to avoid it, he needed to find a way to embrace it and manage it.  “You have to start planning for pain and understand how you deal with it when it comes” Macca says.  I think this advice holds equally true for life.

There is simply no amount of life preparation, no amount of caution that you can take that will allow you to avoid pain in your life. Whether that pain is the dissolution of a relationship, a job loss, a business failure or an unfavourable medical diagnosis.  There is simply some pain in life that is truly inevitable.  Therefore the quality of our life becomes directly correlated to how well we manage that pain.  The earlier we accept and recognize that pain is unavoidable, the more effort and emphasis we can put on learning how to personally manage these emotions.  It has been my experience that when the negative emotions strike the more I fight them (and trust me I’m a fighter, so this is hard) and try to simply make them disappear, the longer they stay.  By allowing myself to recognize the emotions and say “here comes the suck, baby!” I can step outside of them and put on my scientist hat and really evaluate and analyze the thoughts and feelings that accompany them.  In doing this I circumvent the compounding effect of having the negatives snowball, build on one another and grow instead of dissipating. I am able to actually let the emotions run their course.  I can observe and I can learn. The more I can objectively do this, the more skilled I become at understanding and managing my emotions.  The result is that the duration of these negative emotions becomes shorter and shorter.

Earlier this week I delivered these thoughts as a speech at a toastmasters demonstration meeting.  Shortly after that I had the good fortune to interview a leader in our industry, a friend and someone who I truly respect, Hali Strandlund.  In our discussion during the interview Hali brought up a quote “Sometimes things fall apart so better things can fall together”.  This coupled with the sentiment of my speech really got me reflecting on where I am at in my life and how I have arrived at this place.  Three years ago this was not the case.  My personal world had fallen apart, I had components of my business that I thought were built on a solid foundation that completely disintegrated and I feared for the emotional health of my children after the dissolution of my marriage.  I was not in a good spot at all.  It would have been easy for me to drop into a freefall, downward spiral of negative thoughts and emotions.  My world was falling apart.

Fortunately I truly do believe that everything does happen for a reason.  I wholeheartedly “embraced the suck”.  Sometimes I would allow a deep sorrow to overcome me and stay home alone, savoring the feeling.  Exploring it in depth.  I made a conscious decision not to fight it but rather to let it envelop me and explore the emotions, understand how I reacted to them learning at every turn.  I “trusted the process”.  I “believed”.  I “kept my chin up” (well sometimes).  Pick a cliche, I did it.  The result today?  Today, I am at a point in my life where everything is absolutely falling together.  I am in the best physical shape of my 45 years on this planet, my business is thriving, I am surrounded by loving friends and family, my children make me proud every day and I am achieving the life of my dreams every day.

Trust me.  I know that this is not as easy as it sounds.  I know that there are times in your life that it is hard to imagine things are ever going to turn around.  But I also know this… I know that no matter what life throws at you you will get through it. I know you’ve got the strength to pull through.  If you need help ask.  If you need to be sad, be sad.  If you need to be mad, be mad.  But remember that these feelings will pass.  The next time that life throws you a lemon, the next time life kicks you in the gut, knocks you down, drags you back up again only to kick you in the teeth one more time, instead of thinking about how you could have avoided that situation .  Imagine what would happen if you made a conscious decision to step back, try and look at how you are feeling objectively and watch how you react. Imagine how your experience might be different if you embrace the emotions, explore them, learn from them.  The next time life throws you a beat down, imagine what would happen if you firmly, gladly and wholeheartedly chose to “Embrace the Suck”.

 

Episode 8: Hali Strandlund – Born to lead

Hali Strandlund is the Senior Vice President Residential Mortgages and Broker Relations at Fisgard Capital Corporation.  Hali says she was born into the business and she is not kidding.  Hali is a leader at Fisgard, she has been the president of the Mortgage Brokers Association of BC (Twice), she is a past chair of the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals and has recently helped found WIMI (Women in the Mortgage Industry).

Hali shares her leadership philosophies and lessons that she has learned over the years.  A life of consistent action has made her who she is.  Hali’s leadership philosophy is all about sharing your knowledge.  Hali shares lessons she has learned from her leadership positions in the industry as well as what she continues to learn from the Women in the Mortgage Industry group that she helped found.  We talk about leadership opportunities and how we can grow as individuals and as a channel.

Resources

In the interview we discussed some resources that Hali recommends.  Here are some links to some of these.

Women in the Mortgage Industry can be found on Facebook.

I Love Mortgage Brokering Podcast

Canadian Mortgage Hangout TV

Mortgage Brokers Get Serious Facebook Group

I know Hali has touched a lot of you.  I’d love to hear your Hali story.  Post in the comments below.

You can reach Hali via email at Hali.Strandlund@fisgard.com

Episode 7: Everyday Leadership; Conversation with Drew Dudley

I am very excited to share this interview with you.  I first met Drew Dudley after we hired him to come and speak at the Axiom Leadership Summit in New Orleans.  After watching Drews Ted talk on Everyday Leadership I knew he would be a good fit for our organizational values and vision.  I was not wrong.  Drew was the perfect compliment to our conference and I see much of his message shine through in our organization daily.

I have had the opportunity to get to know Drew a little bit personally since the conference and am proud to call him a friend.  You can find most of Drew’s work here at his website at http://drewdudley.com.

The Leadership Challenge

In the interview Drew referenced research done by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner.  They have come up with the five practices of exemplary leadership.  They are as follows:

  1. Model the way
  2. Inspire a shared vision
  3. Challenge the process
  4. Enable others to act
  5. Encourage the heart

You can read a detailed description of these on their website here.

Their book The Leadership Challenge can be found on Amazon here

My challenge to you after listening to this interview would be to take some time and sit down and follow the excercise Drew outlines.

1) Identify your values
2) Define them
3) Develop questions you can ask yourself daily to ensure you are embodying those values.

I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.  Please leave any comments or feedback in the comments section below.  I’d love to hear how you are implementing any of these five currently.

Episode 6: It’s the simple things

This episode I wanted to introduce you to a friend and inspiration Drew Dudley.  Drew gave a Ted talk entitled the lollipop moment.  This episode is me telling the story of one of my lollipop moments.  Drew picked it up and published it on his site.  You can see Drew’s talk here http://www.ted.com/talks/drew_dudley_everyday_leadership?language=en.  I will have Drew on in an interview format next week.

I hope you enjoy my lollipop moment.  You can read it here http://drewdudley.com/lollipop-moment-the-note/

Episode 5: The power of the podcast

As I continue to share my podcast with the world I am realizing that I am in fact not the last person on the planet to discover them.  I thought I would take the time to talk a little about the value that I see in podcasts in general, talk a little about the technical side of getting started listening to podcasts and then talk about some of my current favourite podcasts so that you have a place to start.

Why Podcasts?

If you are anything like me and love to continually learn then I think you will find podcasts as a great way to do exactly that.  I think of the podcasts I choose to listen to as the audio vegetables for my brain.  Yes, I love music and listen to a variety of playlists and radio stations but I tend to think of most of the music I listen to as the junk food in my audio diet.  While they taste great and are extremely enjoyable they really do not do much for my personal development.  Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting you should cut music out of your diet but for me adding some brain food to my diet was important.

While I have been enjoying Ted Talk and other educational/motivational videos for a number of years I have just recently discovered podcasts.  The thing I love about audio podcasts over video Ted Talks or youtube channels is that you can ingest them just about anywhere.  It is certainly not appropriate to watch a video while driving but listening to a podcast is certainly a great use of your in car time.  I listen to podcasts during my work day to both challenge my mind as well as keep my motivation up.  I listen while doing chores around the house or while I am working out.  All of this gives me ample time to ingest thought provoking content from a variety of different perspectives.

The other thing I love about podcasts is the sheer amount and free access to high quality content out there.  You can find podcasts on just about any subject you could imagine.  You can find content from some of the most notable individuals in any field.  For me, sales, leadership, entrepreneurship and personal development are the subjects that I find most interesting.  Podcasts give me direct access to the thoughts and inspiration of some of the best in their field.  Just last week alone I had the opportunity to listen to the likes of billionaire Peter Thiel, the first outside investor in Facebook and the founder of PayPal.  I listened to Ed Catmull president of Pixar animations.  I have heard discussions on business concepts from some of the brightest minds at Harvard as well as hearing best practices from some of the best and brightest from our industry.  The access to information is staggering.  Not to mention free!!  The ability to access insights from the worlds best and brightest is really not something we should take lightly.  It is a great privilege and one that I plan to continue to utilize and my hope is you will as well.

How do I listen to a podcast?

Let’s talk a little bit of the technical side of this.  OK Mike, you’ve got me excited about the potential of these things but how do I actually listen to them?  I won’t rewrite a full tutorial as there are many good ones already in existence.  You can listen to podcasts easily on your mobile device by simply downloading a Podcast app and subscribing to your favourite ones either by way of a search or by adding the URL directly.  Here are some links to some good tutorials I found for a variety of different platforms:

iPhone
Here is a tutorial directly from Apple.  There are other apps that you can use to listen to podcasts but this will get you started.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3281

Android
http://www.androidcentral.com/top-5-best-podcast-apps-android

Blackberry??
http://crackberry.com/podcasts-blackberry-10

Windows
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-ca/how-to/wp8/music-and-videos/play-my-podcasts

What should I listen to?

So now you have the why and the how.  Let me give you a start to the “What” by sharing with you some of the podcasts that I am currently subscribed to:

1) Connecting the Dots with Mike Cameron
Come on, you didn’t really think I would start with anything other than my own did you?
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/connecting-dots-entrepreneurs/id919006080

2) Harvard Business Review IdeaCast
The HBR IdeaCast is our weekly audio podcast, bringing you the analysis and advice of the leading minds in management. Subscribe on iTunes.

3) The Tim Ferriss Show
Tim Ferriss is a self-experimenter and bestselling author, best known for The 4-Hour Workweek, which has been translated into 40+ languages. Newsweek calls him “the world’s best human guinea pig,” and The New York Times calls him “a cross between Jack Welch and a Buddhist monk.” In this show, he deconstructs world-class performers from eclectic areas (investing, chess, pro sports, etc.), digging deep to find the tools, tactics, and tricks that listeners can use.
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-tim-ferriss-show/id863897795?mt=2

4) I Love Mortgage Brokering
For all you Canadian Mortgage Brokers this is a must.  Scott Peckford, a broker out of Kelowna interviews brokers from across the country to get insights into their best practices.  There is always something you can take away from an episode.
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/i-love-mortgage-brokering/id897731323?mt=2

5) Ted Talks
TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. On this feed, you’ll find TEDTalks video to inspire, intrigue and stir the imagination from some of the world’s leading thinkers and doers, speaking from the stage at TED conferences, TEDx events and partner events around the world. This podcast is also available in high-def video and audio-only formats.
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/tedtalks-audio/id160904630?mt=2

6) Six Pixels of Separation – Mitch Joel

https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/six-pixels-separation-marketing/id157616278?mt=2

So there you have it.  My top six podcasts picks for this week.  I certainly have others on my rotation but this will get you started or search the itunes store and let me know what you find.  Please leave your favourite podcasts in the comments section so others can explore and enjoy.

Episode 4: Two words to avoid in your professional life at all costs

It happened. I caught myself doing it today, September 2, 2014 . I swore I would never do it and there I was doing exactly that. As I started hanging up the phone I knew exactly what I had done. And it pissed me off.  But let’s back up.

It’s 2006 and I’m travelling back from a conference in Montreal. I’m booked on a reasonable flight that will get me home at a reasonable hour and man was I looking forward to getting home.  It had been a “long” conference.  I had no corporate responsibilities that weekend and the last I recall was a smoked meat sandwich from Dunn’s at 4am followed by a power nap leading into a 9am power session with Tony Robbins.  Did I mention that I was fairly eager to get home? I’m at the airport and feeling relieved that this trip is over.  I am heading home.  Unless…. you guessed it.  I’m booked on Canada’s favourite airline and they have oversold the flight!  As you can well imagine I am not impressed.  I make my way to the counter to “discuss” this with the “lovely” young lady behind the desk.  She does not have her game face on and makes it very clear that this is my issue not hers.  I started by challenging the reality that something like this could ever happen.  I mean let’s face it, there are a finite number of seats on the plane it really shouldn’t be that hard to match the number of tickets sold to the number of seats on the plane.  I begged with her to check again.  After all we have computers now.  This couldn’t possibly be happening.  I have to get HOME!  Yes, I was in denial.  It was then that she hit me with it.  She used the dreaded word.  As she shuffled me off to help the person in line behind me she said “Someone will call you soon with alternate flight arrangements”.

And there it was.  The most ambiguous word on the planet.  “Soon”  Clearly her and I had a very different meaning of the word.  In my lackluster, exhausted and utterly defeated state “Soon” could not come soon enough.  To be honest I cannot recall exactly how long I had to wait to get on another flight home.  What I can tell you is that I can certainly vividly recall the feeling of sheer exhaustion and disappointment that those two terms gave me.  I mean who exactly is someone and when exactly is soon.  If there was ever a time that you might have seen a grown man cry in an airport that was it.  I was destroyed. Devastated.

Which brings me back to my conversation today.  We have just brought on a new mortgage agent.  They have been working on getting all their paperwork in line to make the move from their old employer to us.  Our mortgage associates are independent, self employed, commission based contractors.  Any downtime costs them money so we work very hard to make the transition as smooth as possible.  There are a couple of pieces that are dependent on our suppliers and can take up to 48 hours.  Our admin team had done everything properly and we were just waiting on one last piece.  I made the call to formally welcome them to the team and review the process that would follow.  I explained that the last piece was out of our hands and we were simply waiting.  We discussed a few other formalities and finished off the conversation.  As I said goodbye with one of our transition team sitting in front of me at my desk it happened.  I said “Thanks for the conversation.  Someone will get back to you soon to wrap up the rest of the loose ends”.  As I hung up I immediately looked across the desk at our admin with a sly smile and said “What did I do wrong there?”  She smiled back with a grin that told me she knew what I was talking about and replied “You said ‘Someone’ and you said ‘Soon'”.  Bingo!  What I should have said was “Shawna will call you before 4 o’clock today to give you an update”.  I had Shawna call her back immediately and clarify “who” someone was and “when” soon would be.

You see whether we are talking to peers, customers or subordinates ambiguity only leads to confusion, frustration and uncertainty.  When it comes to our mortgage consumers this is especially true.  We all know that purchasing or refinancing a home can be an extremely stressful process.  Often times not only are clients waiting on deadlines for financing approval but they are also emotionally vulnerable as well.  I mean lets face it.  Who likes to be “declined”, “denied”, or “refused” anything.  Making application for financing puts our clients in a position where they are susceptible to rejection.  It is not a fun place to be.  And while we, as mortgage brokers, don’t always know exactly what approval timelines are going to look like we can certainly make sure our clients know exactly when we will get back to them with an update.  Certainly the phrase “Someone will call you soon” does not leave anyone with a very comfortable feeling.

Be specific about your touch points, how you will make contact and who will be making the contact.  If it is to be an assistant make sure they know that up front so they do not feel slighted.  If it is to be an email over a call, set the expectation.  Be very clear on your next steps and even if there is trouble down the road you will have earned the trust of your client by doing exactly what you say you will do.

Beware of the language you use with your staff, co-workers and clients.  “Someone” and “Soon” are two words that you should avoid using in your professional life at all costs.

Episode 3: Take my money please!

One of the things that I look for on a daily basis when I interact with other businesses is how they run their sales process and how it makes me feel as a customer .  I had an interesting experience this summer that really highlights the need for a “Connecting the Dots” approach to your sales process.

I really enjoy networking on Twitter and often times when I am away on vacation, in my down time, I will strike up a conversation with someone on Twitter.  This summer I had listened to an interview with a Facebook advertising guru and I thought they had done a bang up job with the interview.  They had gone out of their way to give real, practical, and useful advice that one could actually implement immediately without the need to purchase their services.  I always respect that in a professional so I reached out to them on Twitter and ended up having a fabulous Twitter conversation.  We talked about the interview and I indicated that I could see a need for their services down the road.  They commented that based on our conversation they could tell that I would be a great client one day.

As we got further into the conversation I started thinking about some immediate application for their services and tweeted to them “Actually I can see an immediate need for your service.  Can you tweet me on Aug. 27 when I am back from vacation”.  The response I receive floored me.  They directed me to their online lead capture page and asked me to input my email address on the form there.  Again, I was a little taken aback.  When someone says to me “Call me on such and such a day because I want to buy what you have to sell” I am certainly not going to make them enter my drip campaign so I can ‘set it and forget it’.  I thought I would give them the benefit of the doubt and went and filled out the online form.  I even included my Twitter handle in my name so they could identify me.  I had hoped that they would cross reference this with the request for follow up on August 27.  Well it is well into September now and while I am receiving some ‘valuable’ free information via their newsletter, I most certainly did not receive a follow up anything.

I find it fascinating that these lead generation gurus seem so intent on ‘building their lists’ that they appear to forget how to serve the customer once they actually want to buy.  While I am a huge believer in process and having a clearly defined sales process, you cannot expect your customer to bend to your way of doing things.  It seems to me that we all want to think ourselves so valuable that our clients will beat down our doors to work with us.  I worry that this has become an ego thing and that perhaps we have lost sight of what truly matters here.  The customer.  While I understand there is some merit to building scarcity around what you sell, at the same token you need to deliver when you have a serious buyer.  There is no point in spending money building a list and capturing leads if you refuse to convert them when they put up their hand and say “I want to buy from you”.  Qualifying your prospect is important so that you do not waste time, however it is equally important to meet that qualified prospect where they are in the buying cycle.  If I have done my research and decided you are a strong candidate to complete the work I need I don’t want to read your latest white paper.  Please don`t make me join your list.

I see it time and time again.  Experts who make me resubscribe to their list to view their latest `Free content”.  If you are emailing me then you already have my contact info.  Why make me go to your lead form and fill it in all over again?  I seriously do not get it.

As mortgage brokers it is important to make sure that we work with our clients to ensure that we do our best to meet them where they are at in their purchase decision.  Ask questions to find out where they are in the process.  If they have already researched and decided that a mortgage broker is the best option don’t spend hours trying to “sell” them on the merits of a broker.  Instead point out why you are the best broker for them to choose.  Conversely, if they are new to the concept of a mortgage broker you may want to spend some time bringing them up to speed on the value of working with a broker vs. their regular bank.

Am I the only one who sees the folly in this?  Surely there must be an “Expert” out there that will concur with me.  I can assure you that if you contact me and want to hire me as a speaker, trainer or private coach I will respond directly and not make you go to my website to fill in my lead capture form.  I think there is a real opportunity for us “Experts” to step up and stop talking about “value” while forcing our audience into our “funnel”.  Let’s try simply providing the value and being ready when our customers need us.

In any event start paying attention to how your suppliers treat you and how it makes you feel.  Are there lessons that can be learned that you can implement in your own business?  Share with me your experiences in the comments section below.

Episode 2: The Challenge/Support Balance

I believe that the path to growth is paved with the right balance of challenge and support.  Whether we are talking about an organization or an individual this holds true.  Challenge is the catalyst for change.  Finding the right balance between challenge and support is critical.  If there is too much challenge without enough support this can lead to discouragement.  If there is too much support with not enough challenge this can lead to a lack of growth.

I wanted to share a story about our CAAMP board meeting last week.  If you know me you know that I am very passionate about what we do as an industry.  We have one of the best jobs on the planet.  We get to make a good living and at the same time we truly make a difference in the lives of others.  We matter.  So when it comes to looking out for the best interest of our channel you know I am pretty vocal and I challenge a lot because I want our channel to continue to grow, thrive and prosper.

Last week when we get behind the closed doors in our association meetings I tend to challenge a lot. I push very hard to make sure that we are moving forward and growing.  Our 14 person board is comprised of volunteers.  Some of the best and the brightest in our industry that give up their time for the greater good of the industry.  I think it is important for us to keep that in mind.  The good news is that we are most definitely headed in the right direction.  While we all agree on the overall vision we don’t always agree on how we get there.  As a result there is a lot of challenge being thrown around and some really great heated discussion.  We discussed a number of topics from the AMP to membership.  It was interesting to see that there is so much passion and energy in that room that there were a couple of times where individuals stopped to apologize for their passion.  I think that this is a fantastic thing.  A diversity of opinions and respectful healthy debate will ensure that we stay on track.

As I was sitting in the airport getting ready to head home I reflected on our meetings in relation to that challenge/support balance.  I reflected on how much I challenge the association and therefore our president and CEO Jim Murphy and it got me wondering if I was also giving enough support with my challenge.  In that moment I felt compelled to send an email to the board re-iterating my support for the organization.  I talked about the fact that it seems that the amount I challenge has a direct correlation to how much I care.  I pointed out that the board could therefore rest assured about how much I care about our association.

One of the topics that we debate is membership and the fact that our current bylaw states that if one member of a franchise is a member than all individuals in that franchise have to be members.  This is something that I have struggled with and wasn’t certain I agreed with.  I have always felt that the association has the obligation to demonstrate their value to each individual mortgage associate.  I am happy to say that I am not always right.  I have changed my mind on this one after our debate.  While I still wholeheartedly agree that we, as an association, have an obligation to demonstrate our value, it is equally incumbent upon all players in our channel to get informed on what it is we do.

A few weeks ago a delegation from our association had a meeting with Joe Oliver, our Finance Minister.  These are the big boys.  The ones making policy decisions that affect our livelihood.  The fact that we have their ear is worth the price of membership alone.  There are so many other things that your association does that you may not even be aware of that make membership worth the paltry fee they charge.

My challenge to you reading this is to get involved.  Find out what the association is doing for you.  The next time you find yourself complaining ask yourself “What have I done to inform myself on what I am complaining about?”.  There is a lot of rhetoric out there and much of it is inaccurate.  Go to the source.  Pick up the phone.  Send an email.  There are regional broker councils and a number of committees you can get involved in.

My support for you is to be here as a resource to connect you with the right people at the organization if you have questions I can’t answer.  We have directors in every province.  Pick up the phone and talk to one of yours.  Find out why they are part of the association.  Why they are giving up their time to shape this organization.  I think you will be pleasantly surprised by what you find.

Episode 1: Connecting the Dots

If you have followed me on social media at all you know that I love to share.  I love to share my experiences and more importantly I love to share my learning moments.  I find that sharing really helps me solidify the lesson in my own life and hopefully I can help make an impact in the lives of others.  This podcast was the logical progression of my social media sharing and as you may know I love to speak and present.  Not to mention that I may have also been told that I have a face for radio ;0)  The format for now will be to keep these to 10 minute or so stories of things that I experience and the lessons I learn from them.  I will publish weekly or as frequently as I am inspired.  The more you let me know you enjoy it the more I will publish.

Why “Connecting the Dots”?

Over the years as I have worked to develop my presentation skills I have continued to seek out and develop my best presentation.  One of the things I love to do is to speak to large audiences.  The more solid my content the more opportunity I have to present to larger and more diverse audiences.  If you listen to most of the presentation gurus and content marketing strategists they will tell you that you need to specialize.  That you need to find a specific niche that you can fill.  Well for me this became a little disheartening as I searched for that one thing that I was not only expert at but also passionate about.  As I continued to be cognizant of what it is I specialize in it started to dawn on me that there may not be any one thing and that perhaps what I was actually expert at was bringing together a number of different things.  I have been a closet technology geek since grade 7.  I had written many software programs and really understood technology well.  I also was an adept mortgage broker and soon realized that when I first started brokering there was not a whole lot of individuals who had as much of a grasp of both technology and our industry as I did.  I started looking for ways to use that to my advantage.  This passion for both technology and our industry culminated into Axiom Mortgage.

As I looked around I started to realize that perhaps my specialty was in being a bit of a generalist and being able to bring things together.  To see the vision of how to interconnect different pieces for a greater outcome.  “The whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts”.  As I started looking broader, to the market in general I realized that this concept had vast application and really spoke to a lot of different industries and a lot of different aspects of our life.

As a mortgage brokerage leader I have seen many individuals in our industry come and go and I am always fascinated by what makes some successful and others not.  I have seen many individuals who, if you had asked me for a checklist of all the things that you need to be a successful mortgage broker, would have checked off every single one on the list.  For some reason though they were not able to bring it all together and there are a few I can think of at the moment that have actually left the channel.  That to me is a real shame and really spoke to the need for some specialization in this area.  In this concept of connecting the dots.  Connecting all the pieces and making sure that all the ingredients do in fact lead to success.

I see examples of where this falls apart all over the place and feel that there is a real need to put some focus on a holistic approach to life, leadership and sales.

Business

In an entrepreneurial setting we see it all the time.  I will save the full story for another time but my most recent experience buying a vehicle is a perfect demonstration of what happens when a business has not connected the dots.  In this case the dealership spent a ton of money on radio advertising to get me in the door to the dealership.  This worked fine until I actually got in there.  It doesn’t matter how good your marketing or lead generation is.  If you can’t deliver on the sales experience it all falls apart there and all that time, money and energy you have spent on driving that customer to you is wasted.

Personal

We often hear about the concept of work/life balance and I am not so sure I believe there is such a thing.  We do not live in silos.  The days for most of working and shutting off the brain when we get home are long gone.  I don’t care how much you try you can’t expect to have a crappy experience in your work life and be able to simply shut it off and not expect it to affect your family life.  The counter to that is that you cannot expect to have a stressful family life and not have that affect your work.  It is less about balance and more about finding a way to successfully interconnect the two realms.

Fitness/Health

This is a piece that many of us neglect because of time constraints.  This is a mistake.  Your overall health and fitness is vital to creating a successful life.  No matter how you define success.  For me, my fitness endeavors center around triathlon at the moment.  Triathlon is a perfect analogy for the connecting the dots concept.  Not only do you need to focus on the individual components of the swim, bike and run but you need to deal with transition, with nutrition, pacing and a number of other facets.  It is one of the things that I love about triathlon.  There is so much strategy involved in “Connecting the Dots”.

The bottom line is that we really need to connect all the pieces together to really achieve success.  One of my favourite sayings is this: “Success comes when you stop trying to prove to the world how good you are and start trying to prove to yourself how much better you can be”.

My final thought before I sign off is this.  I wanted to give a shout out to Mitch Joel and his podcast “Six Pixels of Separation”.  I have been enjoying Mitch’s podcasts of late and was impressed to see he is on episode number 427 as of the writing of this article.  I thought it would be interesting to jump in the way back machine and go listen to his first episodes.  I did that.  Mitch works for a marketing company so obviously “brand” is important to him.  He talked a little about how he was concerned that the quality of the first podcasts may not be up to their usual high standard but decided to start anyhow.  You can rest assured his 427th podcast is substantially better than his first.  The lesson I took from that is the fact that he would have never gotten to the 427th if he hadn’t done the first.

If you have the opportunity find someone who you want to emulate, someone who has accomplished what you want to accomplish, go back and find how they did that “thing” when they first started.  I think you will be inspired and you may even find that you are not that far behind where they were when they started.  They just started first.

So get off your ass and go do “it” ;0)

You can find Six Pixels of Separation here:
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/six-pixels-separation-marketing/id157616278?mt=2

I’m still finalizing my podcast feed but if you want a sneak peek you can do so here:
http://connectingthedots.libsyn.com/rss You can simply enter that URL in your podcast player.  On iPhone I think it will automatically add to your podcast feed.

If you have read this far THANK YOU! I would love your feedback on the concept.  Leave me a note in the comments.

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