AIME Podcast Network

This episode is sponsored by Fuse National Conference 2024

In this extremely informative episode of Broker to Broker, host Marc Summers is blown away by the financial wizardry and knowledge of Kurt Brandly, the President of Greenside Capital. Try not to let your jaw drop along with Marc, as Kurt provides the insight that brokers need in order to be the experts for homebuyers.

Perpetually monitoring the raw federal data of the ebbs and flows mortgage market, Kurt takes it upon himself to share his expertise with the rest of the broker community. Kurt regularly posts and provides predictions based on trends and real numbers that the rest of the broker community can use to guide their business, so they don’t have to rely on headlines and articles made to stir up controversy. He also lends his expertise for a look into the future with predictions for the mortgage market from the end of 2024, into 2025. 

All this expertise and resource sharing leans into Kurt’s personal brand, which is his financial expertise, paired with his desire to share it with those that don’t have it. Kurt breaks down his approach:

“I’m passionate about finance. I’m passionate about money. I’m passionate about gaining long term net worth. When I sit a new client down, I of course, do what we’re supposed to do. I go over their income, assets, credit, talk about their goals. But, I also want to get their emotional side of why they’re buying a home or why they’re refinancing. I go through the whole picture and I’ll talk about things like, ‘I see that you have a good amount of debt, you have $23,000 in debt right now. You’re not really taking care of that. Why not?’ and just be silent, let them open up about what’s going on in their life, and they’ll really give you the picture. They’ll tell you the information you need in order to steer the conversation in the right direction. They’ll say something like ‘I wanted to retire at 55, but I’ve got this debt and everything, and I don’t think that I can do it.’ and here’s where I say ‘Well, if you take cash out, and retire all of that debt right now, then you start taking $200 in your savings, put it into a retirement account, you’ll generate $200,000 for your retirement by the time you get to age 55.’ I’m the guy that wants my clients to know that I know a lot about finances, and that I can really guide them in the right direction. That is my personal brand. That is how I’m unique. That is what I bring to the table for clients.”

Key Points:

1:14 – Getting Started

5:48 – Comprehensive Financial Service

11:11 – Knowledge Share: Personal Finance

16:51 – Future Predictions: 2024 into 2025

22:26 – Personal Brand as A Business Model

The post Personal Branding for Brokers: Why Details, Numbers, and Relationships Matter (With Kurt Brandly) – Episode 191 appeared first on AIME.

This episode is sponsored by Windsor Mortgage

Learn how to survive and thrive in any market by focusing your service on education, as Marc Summers is joined by Chuck Mathewson, Broker Owner of Mathewson Mortgage Capital.

Chuck has had a long, varied career in Mortgage, having started in retail in 2007, to opening his own brokerage after learning on the wholesale benefit. Chuck has the perfect mindset for success in the mortgage industry: The abundance mindset of sharing, educating, and providing service to his community. Chuck educates, then collaborates and strategizes with his clients to give them the best deals possible, with a focus on their long-term finances. 

Chuck breaks down his exact process for how he guides his clients through the current market, via utilizing DPAs: “As more wholesale DPAs are utilized, it’s going to open the doors of a lot more brokers and consumers. Brokers will be saying ‘Oh, wow…. Let’s start utilizing these more.’ Chuck states “The way I look at them is like this: I do a DPA for a customer today, and when rates come down, they’re going to call me back to refinance, because I gave them the strategy for that. So, necessarily you’re going to keep saying you’ll stay in touch with them, and a year or two down the road, you’re doing that call. In fact, I just did a DPA appraisal for $50,000 over the purchase price, and they’re going to refinance with me one year to the day of closing.”

Key Points:

1:19 – Getting Started in the Industry

5:54 – Market Comparisons: 2008 to Now

11:49 – DPAs: Wholesale’s Missed Opportunity

19:41 – Service Through Education, not Sales Pitches

25:25 – Finding Your Peers & Mentors

The post The Educated Approach: Why Service Wins Over Sales (With Chuck Matthewson) – Episode 190 appeared first on AIME.

This episode is sponsored by EPM TAG 2024

In this episode of Broker to Broker, host Marc Summers learns how to organically grow a mortgage business $11M a year when he’s joined by Hunter Bolling, Team Lead & Senior Mortgage Broker with Edge Home Finance, and Television host for American Dream TV.

Hunter shares his incredible knowledge and success he’s found in team, brand, and business building, while illustrating that remaining successful means never losing sight that his purpose is to serve his community with the best opportunities possible.

Hunter’s brokerage, H.B. Mortgage Team, grew from $0 to $22 Million in its two years of operation. He breaks down how he did this through aggressive team-building & recruiting, consistent social media presence, and most importantly, how he established and developed his community presence via his branding:

“Even if you’re not a team, act like one. People want to be a part of that. My brand isn’t H.B. Mortgage; it’s H.B. Mortgage team. That team aspect is so important for people to feel like they’re being cared for by multiple people, even if it was just me.” Hunter continues “Share success stories. I posted one on Facebook last week, sharing that we just saved a buyer $6,000 in closing costs compared to retail. That was it. I followed up the next week with the same post, but broke it down with more numbers. This brought me four leads. One was even under contract, and we got another loan for them within an hour, locked them, and sent docs out within an hour of posting while doing other things. One of these leads were friends I knew 15 years ago that just saw my post and like we forgot you were in mortgage.” Hunter concludes “$6,000 is a lot of money that allows people to go buy a new couch, bed or whatever they need, and they have a little one on the way… that’s big. You know what you want to offer people. That’s the whole reason I got out of retail, was I wanted to know that I was selling the best opportunity for success.” 

Key Points:

2:08 – From Retail compliance to Wholesale origination

10:16 – Growing from $0 to $22M 

15:05 – Wholesale” Selling the Best Opportunity For Success

25:53 – Hosting American Dream TV

30:55 – Becoming the ‘Positive Light’ in Your Community

The post Individual Effort, Team Approach: Driving Mortgage Business with Branding (With Hunter Bolling) – 189 appeared first on AIME.

This episode is sponsored by Fuse National Conference 2024

In this spirited episode of Broker to Broker, host Marc Summers learns the business benefits of selflessness & support from the Senior Loan Officer at Open Door Lending, Kristin O’Neil! 

Kristin shares her invaluable perspective and strategies, from a career that has seen the best and worst the industry has had to offer. She joined the wholesale channel just two months before the crash of 2008, and has become more resourceful and resilient for it. 

Kristin exemplifies why brokers are such an invaluable resource for their community, as she shares her expertise with assisting Self-Employed borrowers, how the worst of 2008 helped us learn to better serve the current market, and how to get the most out of your local community, and the broker community, through selflessness:  

“Brokers have such a great, great community. I can’t say enough, it’s opening doors to things that you would have never done or pushed yourself to do before, like, being on a podcast or being interviewed by MPA, or meeting your congressman. That’s just something I would have never considered doing. It’s pushed me outside of my comfort zone in so many ways. And I think that’s really where you grow, when you feel uncomfortable. When you’re scared, that’s where you see true growth.” 

Kristin states “a few years ago, I started to pay attention to the people who were really excelling, and they were all the people who have an honest abundance mindset, about giving without expecting anything in return. I think that’s 100% true. It’s never tit for tat. All the friends that I’ve met through AIME are people that I could call, like any of my best friends, with any question. We just happen to do the same thing as a job.I can think of a dozen people I could call with any question, and they would answer it without hesitation. And I do the same. So if I’ve recently worked with a new partner or tried a new program, I try to share as much knowledge as I can because honestly, it comes back tenfold.”

Key Points:

3:41 – Entering Wholesale in 2008: Timing and Fallout

9:41 – 2008’s Market vs. 2024’s Market

16:46 – Servicing Self-Employed Borrowers

22:11 – Joining the Broker Community

26:09 – Make the Jump: Attending Fuse & Other Broker Events

The post Generosity at Work: The Link Between Selflessness and Success (With Kristin O’Neil) – Episode 188 appeared first on AIME.

This episode is sponsored by RCN Capital

This is an instant classic episode that has been a long time coming. Learn how to step up your game as a broker, educator, leader, and marketer as host Marc Summers is (finally) joined by Mike Cox, CEO or Mortgage Nerds.

During this episode, MIke references & recommends these two essential books for the broker community to purchase and read:
Chop Wood, Carry Water – Joshua Medcalf
ReThink Everything You Know About Being a Next-Gen Loan Officer – Kyle Draper, Brian Vieaux, feat. Mike Cox

Mike left his two decade-long retail career to become a beloved wholesale community member within just four very productive years. Mike is an AIME leader, a Fuse speaker, marketing guru, and a leading force for VA program and homebuyer education. Mike is more than happy to share his proven advice & strategies for stepping up broker marketing, organic lead generation, network growth, and of course, the best places to find cheese curds.

Mike shares the exact approaches that have worked in making himself two of the most important things in the wholesale industry: memorable, and reliable. Making yourself a valuable resource to your network and homebuyer peers, and making yourself just as memorable with those same people, so you can add them to your network and pipelines.

Mike shares his favorite strategy for this: “I have a metal business card and it looks like a flag. And the back of it, it says our slogan for Veterans: ‘We love our vets every day.’ So, it’s not just Memorial Day and Veterans Day where everybody celebrates Veterans. We celebrate Veterans every single day. So let’s say you’re at an event and there’s ten other lenders there, and everybody hands you their cards. I just hand mine over. I don’t say a word. Yet, 100% of the time, whoever I give it to, they look at me and go, ‘this is the coolest card I’ve ever seen in my life’. People ask ‘why do you do this?’ I say it’s because I know that you won’t throw this card away, and I want you to know how much we care about our Veterans. Now, if you ever run across a Veteran, you tell them that they need to call us because we are the best option for a Veteran, right? It’s a strategic, intentional, thought. So I don’t have to wedge my VA niche into conversations and go, ‘Well, hey, you know, we do great work for Veterans.’ People ask me, instead of me needing to tell them. You know, these cards aren’t cheap, but they’ve gotten us tons of loans”

Key Points:

1:05 – Intro to Mike & Starting in Mortgage

7:14 – Joining Wholesale 60 Days Before The Pandemic

9:51 – Mortgage Nerds & VA Loans

19:57 – The Value of Making Yourself Memorable

29:07 – Advice for New Brokers & The Broker Community

The post Education is Everything: Marketing, Client Education, and Wholesale Recruiting (With Mike Cox) – Episode 187 appeared first on AIME.

This episode is sponsored by The Loan Store

This episode, we flipped the format. For the first time this year, the show goes from ‘Broker to Broker’, to ‘Broker to Processor’ as host Marc Summers is joined by beloved wholesale community member, and the CEO of Coastal Breeze Processing, Cheryl Dempsey.

Though she is a Processor, Cheryl is one of the most active and selfless members of the Broker community, setting the example by putting so much of her time and efforts towards supporting her Broker peers across the country. She takes this energy back to her own work with her Processing Company, Coastal Breeze. She shares how she entered the industry due to how rewarding it was to selflessly work with clients to find success in her business, and upon scaling up her selfless business model, is now experiencing the rewards of growth and leadership.

Cheryl also breaks down everything Brokers should know about Processors: the Processor pipeline, client outreach, when to hand off client files and assistance, and much more. Cheryl speaks to the Broker community directly, giving the tips on how to best collaborate and utilize the Processors they work with and get the most out of their working partnerships:

“Everybody’s first instinct is to go to Optimal Blue and check rates. Then, it’s locating picking the Lender with lowest rate, because that’s kind of what we’ve been trained to do. I would say, instead, work with your Processor. Talk to your Processor. Walk through the loan. Tell us the avatar of that client, what the pain points are. Is it self-employment? Do we need gift funds? Is it a DPA? Let us help you find a good home for that, because it’s not always about the rate. It’s about that client’s experience. Getting them a slightly lower rate via a miserable loan process isn’t it isn’t serving your clients. So let us work with you, and help guide where that possibly can go for newer loans. Once you know who you want to work with, and which systems you like, now is when we’re here to help. We’ll support you on the back end. For new Brokers, really lean into the advice from Processors, because we’ve worked in all of those systems, we’ve seen it all. We banged our heads on the walls with underwriting. We know which lender is going to take what, and we can help make the best experience for your client.”

Key Points:

1:48 – Entering Wholesale, and Current Growth Initiatives

6:50 – Starting a Processing Company

9:02 – Leadership: You Can’t Do Everything

11:54 – The Broker/Processor Dynamic

21:21 – Wholesale Mindset: Doing what Retail Can’t

The post The Loan-Processing Mindset: Selflessly Doing What Retail Can’t (With Cheryl Dempsey, CEO of Coastal Breeze Processing) – Episode 186 appeared first on AIME.

This episode is sponsored by RCN

Season 4 of Broker To Broker is officially in full swing, as host Marc Summers is joined by the President and CEO of Summit Lending, Darren Copeland. In this episode, Darren graciously shares a comprehensive coaching on how to recruit, train, empower, and equip your staff as you grow your mortgage business, giving the exact details that helped make him a top loan originator. 

Darren shares and breaks down his leadership, training and coaching philosophies that he’s gained from nearly 20 years in the mortgage industry. After working in the retail channel for a decade, he joined wholesale to start Summit Lending. Within five years, Summit has grown from a husband and wife duo, to one of the top brokerages in the country, expecting a staff of 50 LOs, representing ~20 states by the time you’re listening to this episode.

Darren lays out everything a leader in a brokerage needs to know: What tech stack he uses. How to reach out to potential recruits or members of your network. How to generate leads. How to set up a pipeline for your leads. How to naturally market and grow your business. And, most importantly, how to be an effective leader once you’ve set all these pieces in place:

“There was one thing that I had to do when building Summit Lending into a true company; I had to get better at leadership and organization from a 30,000 foot-high view, because I’m not great when it comes to details. I knew we had to do a better job of communication, so I had to become a master of delegation. First, make sure whoever you have on the staff, are the salespeople who can go out there and sell.” Darren shares “We have one non-negotiable thing here at Summit Lending, it’s called the ‘ABC rule,’ which is ‘always be cool.’ I know it sounds simple, right? But man, there’s just no room for people to be jerks or to keep everything to themselves. Everyone here is sharing an abundance mindset. People with abundance mindsets? They collaborate. People with smaller mindsets? They compete against each other. So ,it’s all about lifting each other up, especially after the last year with this crazy market. Make sure you mutually support the people that are on your side.”

Key Points:

4:00 – From Husband & Wife, to 50 LOs in 20 States

7:47 – The ABC Rule

13:48 – Tech Stacks, Recruiting, and the Vital 5-Star Review

24:51 – Referral Pipeline & LO Training

27:48 – Routine, Delegation, and Supporting Your Pillars

Darren shares and breaks down his leadership, training and coaching philosophies that he’s gained from nearly 20 years in the mortgage industry. After working in the retail channel for a decade, he joined wholesale to start Summit Lending. Within five years, Summit has grown from a husband and wife duo, to one of the top brokerages in the country, expecting a staff of 50 LOs, representing ~20 states by the time you’re listening to this episode.

Darren lays out everything a leader in a brokerage needs to know: What tech stack he uses. How to reach out to potential recruits or members of your network. How to generate leads. How to set up a pipeline for your leads. How to naturally market and grow your business. And, most importantly, how to be an effective leader once you’ve set all these pieces in place:

“There was one thing that I had to do when building Summit Lending into a true company; I had to get better at leadership and organization from a 30,000 foot-high view, because I’m not great when it comes to details. I knew we had to do a better job of communication, so I had to become a master of delegation. First, make sure whoever you have on the staff, are the salespeople who can go out there and sell.” Darren shares “We have one non-negotiable thing here at Summit Lending, it’s called the ‘ABC rule,’ which is ‘always be cool.’ I know it sounds simple, right? But man, there’s just no room for people to be jerks or to keep everything to themselves. Everyone here is sharing an abundance mindset. People with abundance mindsets? They collaborate. People with smaller mindsets? They compete against each other. So ,it’s all about lifting each other up, especially after the last year with this crazy market. Make sure you mutually support the people that are on your side.”

The post Mortgage Leadership Mindset: Finding the Right Talent, and Delegate  (With Darren Copeland) – Episode 185 appeared first on AIME.

This episode is sponsored by Windsor Mortgage

It’s the Season 4 premiere of Broker to Broker podcast, and we’re kicking it off from the top! Host Marc Summers is back, joined in a momentous conversation with none other than the CEO of AIME, Jonathon Haddad. 

In an episode that becomes an important moment for the broker community, Jonathon very honestly and candidly addresses the current headlines and events taking place within our industry. Nothing is off the table as Jonathon discusses becoming AIME CEO, tangibly supporting the broker community, current issues within the housing industry, and the looming UWM lawsuit, the threat towards brokers everywhere. Jonathon calls the broker community to action to defend, support, and empower themselves & each other, by doing what only brokers can: making homeownership possible for as many people and communities as possible. 

Jonathon goes into further detail of how he and AIME are fighting for the entire wholesale channel:

“AIME is going to extract HMDA data to show you exactly the truth, the real truth about these lawsuit charges, about consumers, and show how much better they are with a mortgage broker. We’re going to fight this with real data, real education, and we’re going to make it very difficult for people to point the finger back at our channel.”

While discussing these high-level issues, Jonathon doesn’t lose sight of consumers, taking time to acknowledge struggles for current homebuyers. Jonathon emphasizes how invaluable homeownership is for so many groups of Americans, relating the current market back to his own personal experiences growing up, and breaking down why it’s important to never lose homebuyer empathy, as it’s a broker’s duty to assist homebuyers in need, so everyone can achieve homeownership. 

While Jonathon discusses tangible efforts, benefits, and resources he’s sharing and providing to the broker community, he iterates that he, and the rest of the broker community are personally there for support:

“You’re a member of our community. Surround yourself with winners. You already know who they are. You already know there’s people dominating in your market, who are more than happy to help you. Find those people, get away from all the noise, and focus on what you can control. The more you do that, the better you will be long term. And that’s what I have is a message to the entire community.”

Key Points:

1:26 – Transitioning into AIME Leadership

3:41 – The Renewed Vision for AIME

9:56 – Homebuyer Awareness Week: Making it Personal

17:01 – UWM’s Class-Action Lawsuit: Defending Brokers with Qualified Data

22:29 – Wholesale’s Call to Action: Serving Consumers as Only Brokers Can

The post Thriving and Surviving: Strategies for Every Mortgage Market (With Jonathon Haddad) – Episode 184 appeared first on AIME.

This episode is sponsored by Fundloans

In this episode, host JP Hussey is joined by Joanne Russell, Broker Owner of the Mortgage Place.

Joanne has been a champion for the Broker channel for 25 years. She’s seen all of the ebbs and flows that the mortgage industry could possibly offer; though she’s been a broker since 1997, she’s been in the mortgage industry for 35 years. She was early in her Wholesale career when Black Monday happened. She persevered as a Broker through the 2008 crash. She helped the channel during its rebuilding period and helped restore the good name of Brokers through the 2010s. She had firsthand experience of the dysregulation 2020 had on the mortgage industry, as well as the rebound year that 2021 was for homebuyers and Brokers alike, all leading into the market we’re experiencing today.

Joanne’s experience makes her wealth of knowledge, wisdom, and perspective on all forms of mortgage markets, especially as Brokers everywhere are preparing for the coming year. Joanne shares how to persevere through the tougher markets, and how to capitalize on the markets when they’re strong, to bolster your business through thick & thin markets and become resistant to the changes. 

While Joanne has empowered Brokers since the 90s, she also has an amazing knack for empowering agents and homebuyers regardless of the state of the market. Her secret? Education:

“You can’t make the market. You can’t force people to sell houses and you can’t force people to buy them. So, the best thing that you can do is educate the community you do business with. Whether it be realtors or consumers, directly get them educated. Educate yourself. Take this time to really hone your craft and really understand how to put a deal together. Know what makes Brokers so valuable, especially when compared to somebody who’s just answering a phone at a bank or a retail shop. Really know all the ins and outs, even if you have to make a niche of what you’re doing, whether it be government loans or renovation loans, just make sure you take this opportunity to really learn. Go back to basics. None of us are above going to an open house on a Sunday to go introduce yourself and see if you can help a realtor out and in turn meet some buyers. All of these things will help you get through these months or maybe even a year until the market improves.”

Key Points:

1:00 – 35 Years in the mortgage Industry, 25 years in the Broker channel

5:12 – Taking care of the consumer

13:14 – “Weathering the storm” and surviving changing markets

21:03 – The Agent / Broker dynamic going into 2024

24:50 – Empowering first-time homebuyers with education

The post The Key to Survive? Take Care of the Consumer (With Joanne Russell) – Episode 183 appeared first on AIME.