Mortgage Broker Acceleration

When it comes to benchmarks, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Triages, strategy, submission, settlement, dollar size, revenue... These are all important metrics for brokers.

In this episode of Mortgage Broker Acceleration, James Veigli and Ash Playsted argue that there is one ultimate benchmark. And you can only achieve it once the other benchmarks are locked in place. Tune in to discover what that benchmark is and learn how to identify what it looks like for you and your business.

The Key Questions

• Are glory numbers the be-all-and-end-all? (2:17)
• What is the ultimate benchmark and why is it so? (9:07)
• How do you use your ultimate benchmark to reverse engineer your daily priorities? (12:43)
• What are the most important functions in your business? (24:05)
  
  

What You’ll Discover

• An overview of the different benchmarks (0:51)
• The myth that how hard you work is the main factor that determines how much money you make (11:25)
• The three rules that lead to success in the mortgage business (17:45)
• What work-life balance looks like for different people (25:22)
  
  

Accelerate Faster

• You can visit Broker Ideas Group to learn more about us, access special events and download useful resources designed exclusively for mortgage brokers.
• Want to work with James, Ash and the BIG team to grow your mortgage business faster? Our Growth Coach team can help you. Let's talk!

Most brokers are taught to live and die by the “yes mentality”. But that mentality results in a scattergun approach. Because when you say yes to everything, you fail to prioritise. You fail to optimise your time and energy.

In this episode of Mortgage Broker Acceleration, James Veigli and Ash Playsted explain why saying no is so important. This may seem counterintuitive, but it’s the key to your health and success. You need to say no to everything that’s not aligned with your particular goal or vision. Tune in to learn how you can apply that wisdom in your day-to-day life.

The Key Questions

• What’s wrong with the “yes mentality”? (1:49)
• How does the wisdom of saying no apply in your everyday life? (5:05)
• When is saying yes a good idea, and when is it a distraction? (7:30)
• Is saying yes to everything related to the one-stop-shop mentality? (19:56)
  
  

What You’ll Discover

• A powerful lesson that illustrates the importance of saying no (9:36)
• The importance of closing skills (15:53)
• What brokers can learn from doctors, dentists, and accountants (27:42)
• Specialization vs diversification (32:14)
  
  

Accelerate Faster

• You can visit Broker Ideas Group to learn more about us, access special events and download useful resources designed exclusively for mortgage brokers.
• Want to work with James, Ash and the BIG team to grow your mortgage business faster? Our Growth Coach team can help you. Let's talk!

Our contemporary hustle culture pushes us to try to accomplish everything by yesterday. That’s well and good in the short term... but it usually leads to burnout. If it’s not already causing health problems, it will happen down the line.

In this episode of Mortgage Broker Acceleration, James Veigli and Ash Playsted explain how you can break free from this toxic mentality. After all, you don’t want to be constantly busy for the sake of being busy. Discover how you can expend the minimum amount of energy to achieve your goals as quickly as possible.

The Key Questions

• Why do we fall victim to the myths about hustling and being busy? (5:19)
• Why shouldn’t you say yes to everything? (12:03)
• How do you protect your personal time (13:26)
• How can we focus, invest, and conserve our energy? (18:53)
  
  

What You’ll Discover

• Blocks of intensity vs. rest times: a useful analogy from boxing matches (2:45)
• How to use Pareto’s Law in your daily life (7:41)
• Useful life habits and daily rituals to optimise your energy (21:26)
• Alternatives to the 9-to-5 workday (29:03)
  
  

Accelerate Faster

• You can visit Broker Ideas Group to learn more about us, access special events and download useful resources designed exclusively for mortgage brokers.
• Want to work with James, Ash and the BIG team to grow your mortgage business faster? Our Growth Coach team can help you. Let's talk!

Do you believe in overnight success? While success stories are inspiring, they are actually only the tip of the iceberg. And there’s a danger of overlooking the 80-90% of the iceberg that lies beneath the surface.

In this episode of Mortgage Broker Acceleration, James Veigli and Ash Playsted explain why brokers need to move beyond false expectations of overnight success. They talk about why it’s great to be inspired by such successes but people need to look beyond that and have reality checks. You’ll also discover the key to lasting success.

The Key Questions

• What’s wrong with the idea of overnight success? (2:13)
• How should we define success in the mortgage industry? (2:24)
• Is there a danger in aiming for success in a short period of time? (5:44)
• What is the difference between realistic vs. unrealistic expectations for new brokers? (8:29)
  
  

What You’ll Discover

• How the iceberg analogy relates to overnight success (1:35)
• Why the mortgage industry differs from other industries (7:35)
• How Ash achieved success (and why you can do it, too) (12:35)
• Why it’s important to read beyond the headlines (15:14)
  
  

Accelerate Faster

• You can visit Broker Ideas Group to learn more about us, access special events and download useful resources designed exclusively for mortgage brokers.
• Want to work with James, Ash and the BIG team to grow your mortgage business faster? Our Growth Coach team can help you. Let's talk!

When is the perfect time to hire a new employee for your business? Most people tend to wait until the very last minute. That is, they only hire somebody new when they’re really busy. But if you do that, you’ll be too busy to execute the recruiting and training process properly.

In this episode of Mortgage Broker Acceleration, James Veigli and Ash Playsted make a case for hiring sooner rather than later. They also get specific on when is the best time to hire someone what you need to watch out for. Tune in to discover why it ultimately pays to be proactive, not reactive.

The Key Questions

• When do you make your first or next hire? (1:08)
• What are the challenges involved when hiring early? (4:19)
• Is hiring someone a business cost or an investment? (7:55)
• How do you know if you’re going to need somebody in the near future? (9:18)
  
  

What You’ll Discover

• Why the standard corporate mindset is flawed (2:14)
• The difference between emergency and non-emergency hires (4:07)
• The critical distinction between a forward-thinking vs reactive mindset (5:03)
• The wave analogy: how your business activity is like the ocean (5:20)
  
  

Accelerate Faster

• You can visit Broker Ideas Group to learn more about us, access special events and download useful resources designed exclusively for mortgage brokers.
• Want to work with James, Ash and the BIG team to grow your mortgage business faster? Our Growth Coach team can help you. Let's talk!

Far too many mortgage professionals take pride in being a martyr. A martyr to their business, their clients, and to being busy. This psychology of martyrdom justifies being constantly overworked and doing everything you can for your clients. It even makes it seem saintly to sacrifice your work-life balance.

In this episode of Mortgage Broker Acceleration, James Veigli and Ash Playsted challenge the common tendency to equate perpetual busyness to productivity. They also discuss why the mindset of being productive equals success is false. Learn why it is actually healthier to prioritise yourself over your clients and your mortgage business.

The Key Questions

• Isn’t working hard a virtue? (2:29)
• Is this simply a question of working smart vs working hard? (5:10)
• How can we find a better definition of productivity? (8:04)
• What are the limits to a broker’s job, duties, and responsibilities? (12:31)
  
  

What You’ll Discover

• The three issues with martyrdom (1:40)
• How martyrdom gets formed (3:29)
• What you really need to become an effective business owner (7:18)
• Why some clients are beyond helping (10:41)
• How you can avoid becoming a martyr (13:34)
  
  

Accelerate Faster

• You can visit Broker Ideas Group to learn more about us, access special events and download useful resources designed exclusively for mortgage brokers.
• Want to work with James, Ash and the BIG team to grow your mortgage business faster? Our Growth Coach team can help you. Let's talk!

"Why should I deal with you and not someone else?" The truth is that rate-shopping cold leads who do their homework pose a great challenge to brokers. And to get them as clients, you might be tempted to lower your prices to convert these savvy bargain hunters. But there’s a better way...

In this episode of Mortgage Broker Acceleration, James Veigli and Ash Playsted teach you how you can turn the tables around. The fact is, you can tip the power balance in your favour. Discover how to turn a conversation about rate-shopping into a showcase of your value and convert cold leads.

The Key Questions

• How can you change a rate-focused conversation? (4:17)
• What can you do to demonstrate your expertise? (11:48)
• How do you convert clients who think they know exactly what they want? (8:12)
• What can you do to make an instantaneous intervention in the way the conversation is going? (10:29)
  
  

What You’ll Discover

• How to deal with clients who have done all their homework (1:29)
• The condition that will make clients buy based on price
• The two things that clients are really looking for (8:36)
• CRL: an acronym that helps you remain in control (18:56)
  
  

Accelerate Faster

• You can visit Broker Ideas Group to learn more about us, access special events and download useful resources designed exclusively for mortgage brokers.
• Want to work with James, Ash and the BIG team to grow your mortgage business faster? Our Growth Coach team can help you. Let's talk!

It’s great to embrace high tech innovations! After all, you can really improve on speed, efficiency and scale by bringing new technologies on board. But you don’t want to let it happen at the cost of making your business seem robotic and impersonal. At the end of the day, this is still a people-focused business.

In this episode of Mortgage Broker Acceleration, James Veigli and Ash Playsted explore how you can actually have the best of both worlds. Discover how you can set yourself apart from your tech-savvy peers by keeping the old school hacks alive.

The Key Questions

• What do we mean by ‘new school’? (3:43)
• What does ‘old school’ primarily refer to? (4:39)
• How do you combine old school and new school hacks to grow your business? (26:06)
• Which school is the fastest path to success? (28:10)
  
  

What You’ll Discover

• The danger of focusing on new school hacks (5:22)
• A crucial mistake people make when using new school strategies (6:48)
• Two winning old school hacks (16:11)
• Three secret hacks to grow your business (18:31)
  
  

Accelerate Faster

• You can visit Broker Ideas Group to learn more about us, access special events and download useful resources designed exclusively for mortgage brokers.
• Want to work with James, Ash and the BIG team to grow your mortgage business faster? Our Growth Coach team can help you. Let's talk!

The unicorn trap is a cautionary tale, not a success story. You’re caught in the trap when you start believing in your own (mythical) brilliance. You think that you’re the only one who can do what you do - no one can do it at the same level as you. And because of this, you fail to systemise and delegate.

Sounds familiar?

In this episode of Mortgage Broker Acceleration, James Veigli and Ash Playsted explain how the unicorn mindset turns your business into a one-man show. Tune in to learn why everyone must escape the unicorn trap — and how.

The Key Questions

• What is the unicorn trap? (1:58)
• Do you have a unicorn business? (13:26)
• How do you become a true business owner and not a unicorn? (16:24)
• How do you escape the trap? (18:34)
  
  

What You’ll Discover

• Two ways to know if you are a unicorn (7:14)
• The unicorn example (and what made him a unicorn) (10:21)
• Why you can’t be a one-man or one-woman band (14:36)
• Why people stay stuck in the unicorn trap (24:41)
  
  

Accelerate Faster

• You can visit Broker Ideas Group to learn more about us, access special events and download useful resources designed exclusively for mortgage brokers.
• Want to work with James, Ash and the BIG team to grow your mortgage business faster? Our Growth Coach team can help you. Let's talk!

Being a mortgage professional can be a liberating path to professional and financial freedom. But it can also be a long and lonesome journey. Your friends and family may not understand what you do at all. And you might feel disconnected and isolated, even if you have several people working for you.

In this episode of Mortgage Broker Acceleration, James Veigli and Ash Playsted share practical and powerful ways to keep loneliness at bay — in a way that enhances your mental health and bottom line!

The Key Questions

• Is there really nobody that understands you? (4:58)
• What’s the key reason why mortgage professionals experience loneliness? (6:36)
• Why do mortgage professionals feel lonelier than other professionals? (8:22)
• What’s the biggest solution to loneliness? (11:24)
  
  

What You’ll Discover

• The paradox of freedom and loneliness in the mortgage industry (2:19)
• Two reasons why mortgage brokers can have a lonely life (7:25)
• The difference between physical and mental loneliness (13:41)
• A game-changing solution to overcoming loneliness (17:34)
  
  

Accelerate Faster

• You can visit Broker Ideas Group to learn more about us, access special events and download useful resources designed exclusively for mortgage brokers.
• Want to work with James, Ash and the BIG team to grow your mortgage business faster? Our Growth Coach team can help you. Let's talk!