Grant Botma runs a brokerage, insurance agency, and investment firm. He owns a software company, hosts two podcasts, releases two videos and a blog every week, and takes 2 full months off a year. The one single entity that allows for Grant’s success? His team. But it’s not just a team to Grant. His “team” is his family. They care about one another, they have trust, and they hold each other accountable, all to benefit the overall goal of Stewardship Mortgage; to serve their community with wisdom and love. 

But that starts at the team level first. When hiring, Grant looks for four main characteristics; innovation, transparency, humility, and love. Loans are a complicated process, and creativity is needed to personalize the loan process to each individual. Transparency creates social accountability. You work harder for your friend rather than just some random co-workers. Humility breeds confidence without arrogance, and love allows you to put other people’s needs ahead of your own.

Once he brings new staff on board, he doesn’t retain them with money. Grant believes that if money is all that motivates someone, there is nothing stopping them from leaving for a higher paycheck somewhere else. Instead, Grant offers his staff freedom, real time affirmations (positive and negative) and accolades. But at the end of the day, Grant has chiseled down the key to talent retention to a single question: Does your boss genuinely care about you? If they can’t answer this question with a resounding “Yes!” then Grant believes he isn’t doing his job. 

Grant sets goals using unique language. He doesn’t measure the amount of paper pushed, but instead, the amount of lives changed, the amount of families educated and impacted. And he doesn’t measure this individually from each team member, but instead from the team as a whole. When all goals are team based, and the team trusts each other like a family, this creates a social accountability that makes each team member want to be better. As Grant puts it, “our mission isn’t about appointments, our mission is about making a positive impact on real people.“

This all trickles down to the client experience. For many families, a home loan will be their biggest financial risk of their lifetimes, and sets up their family with wealth that spans generations. Understanding the importance and impact a single translation can have, Grant’s objective with each new client is to build trust. From a financial perspective, this includes a unique fee structure. Stewardship Mortgage caps income, and only charges a flat fee or percentage (whichever is lower). Not only does this build trust with a potential client, it also ends up bringing on borrowers with more wealth and easier loan processes, which then opens up more time to help more potential clients.

In this week’s episode of Broker To Broker, Grant goes over his hiring process, his staff retention plans, and the key characteristics it takes to always do right by the consumer. 

Show Notes: 

* Attracting Top Talent (5:16)* Culture & Accountability (10:36)* Goal Setting & Best Practices (20:16)* Pros & Cons of Finding a Niche (30:54)* Grant’s #1 Time-Saving Tip (35:11)