Smart Business Planning Strategies for Mortgage Loan Originators

So as we talk about goal setting, business planning, what's the difference between realistic and unrealistic goals? How do you and how do you know how like, how do you know the difference? Like, where do you draw the line? Hey, guys. Welcome back to another exciting edition of lending leadership with the mortgage pros. This is Robert Fillyaw with HMA Mortgage, and as always, joined by Tom Mills and, Dave Holland. Welcome back. We're excited to chat today. Boys, what are we what are we talking about today? What's on the what's on the agenda?

Business planning, the dreaded business planning.

Dreaded? I love business planning. It's one of my favorite things.

Planning too, but a a lot of LOs don't. You know, we were we were chatting before this. Like, LOs are basically well, not based on self employed. Right? They're they're a small business owner. If you don't have a business inside

of your business,

you can fail.

Oh, that'd be interesting to know. Yeah. Yeah. Less than half. I I would be in I would be willing or interested to know how many actually did

Yeah.

A business plan to begin with. Right? Cool.

I think we all thought we the market was gonna turn a little earlier on us this year. You know? May 5th, it was it was all gonna change. But, you know, here we are in in, the fall of q 4, and and, you know, it's been a been a slowly progressing environment. But, people would have thought the pendulum swung a little harder, but some people that have blown out of

the water too. But The great news is we're closer than we've ever been to the end of this, right, to to normal.

We're we're at the beginning of the end.

Yes. The beginning of the end. That sounds ominous, Dave. I don't know if I like that.

Sounds like scary. I don't like it. Yeah.

How about the beginning of the beginning of, like, it it getting I know. Well, I I need a better

We're we're at the beginning of the future.

Beginning of the future. Yeah. I'm sorry

right now.

I think it started to turn in June or July. But, yeah, let let let's get in the business plan. I mean, it's something that we believe in.

So where do you start?

You know, one thing that I've always done from a coaching aspect, and and this could be business planning, it could be as you're building your team, it could be anything really. Like, you it's really hard to know where to start if you don't know where you're going, where you wanna end. So I've always been a big fan, from a business planning standpoint of tell me where you want to finish, and then let's reverse engineer it backwards to build out how we get there and build the road map. Right? Like, I remember as a kid doing mazes, I never started at the beginning of the maze. I would start at the end and go backwards to the beginning. It's a hell of a lot easier. Business plan is kinda the same in my mind.

Yeah. It's also different for everybody. Everybody is not about every business plan shouldn't be like, you know, I did 50,000,000 this year. I wanna do 60,000,000 next year. Sometimes, you know, it's a it's about, you know, personal, plan and then kinda wrapping wrapping your business around that. And I think that's really important. Like, sometimes people are so focused on the business that they can jeopardize their own personal goals, and they kinda have to really run alongside each other for that harmony starting there. You know, personally, are you working too much? Are you, you know, maximizing your time? Are you getting it with your family? You know, if if if the if certain things are imbalanced, then it certainly should be a a big growth year for you, you know, if you've got everything else in balance.

Yeah. No doubt.

You have to approach it with a methodical way. Right? The and and as you set the goals, whatever goals they have to be, they have to be smart goals. Right? This is an acronym I've used for years as we business plan. So smart goals, they have to be specific. Right? The more specific you can get on that goal, the better it's gonna be and the more likely it is that you're gonna achieve it. They have to be meaningful. Your goals have to have a why behind them. If they don't, you're not you're not gonna be as driven to achieve them.

They have to be achievable. Right? They they need to push you. They need to stretch you, but they still have to be achievable and realistic. Right? Like, it's it's not if you're doing $10,000,000 and you say I'm gonna be a half a $1,000,000,000 LO next year, like, that's not achievable. Right? So they gotta be specific, meaningful, achievable. They've gotta be relevant. They need us to be in line with whatever aspect of it that you're trying to do, and then they need to be time bound. Any any goal that you set out there, you need to put a time hatch on it on what the what the, you know, the, line is to accomplish it.

Have you guys ever used that acronym?

No. Never heard of that. I love it.

I think I learned it from you.

It's it's it's pretty strong.

Yeah. And with business planning too, you need someone to show you the road map. Right? So you need a good branch manager or leader to help you with it too. It's it's hard without someone looking over your shoulder, critiquing it, and and make sure it's I guess it's a smart business plan. I really like that, Robert.

Smart business plan. I'll share I'll share I'll send that to you, Dave, so you have it. I like it.

I like it. At the end

of the day, like, we we always say, everybody's either trying to figure out how to make more money working the same amount or make the same amount of money working less. So, usually, you know, it kind of all wraps around that. You know? So then we get into, a smart business plan. What this smart business plan consists of is is, you know, time being spent on the highest and best use areas, the critical success factors that help you achieve that plan. I've always kinda found it's down to that. Like, if if you know, man, when I spent I spent half only half of my time doing this, but it produces a 100% of my results. My question usually is then how do you figure out how to spend more time doing It's

usually not half. Spend the half. Yeah. It's it's usually like I've spent 5 or 10% doing the money making activities in a product.

80 20 rule. Right? It it it applies to everything always. So it's it's interesting, you know, as we talk about business planning and, you know, we kinda have have we need to kinda set the stage, though. Right? Like, what like, what's the actual results? Did you guys know that 42% of people, or or the people that business plan are 42% more likely to achieve their goals than those that don't? That's almost it's almost a 50% lift. Right? So think about this, Ellis. If if I am out there leading you and I say, I can tell you one thing that's gonna make you give you a 50% lift. If you do it, would you not do it? Like, it seems kind of like a no brainer to me.

Well, you know, maybe it's a personality trait, but people with business plan, maybe they're just more driven and they hold ourselves more accountable. That's something we're gonna get into. Might as well jump into it now is is accountability. Right?

And have someone back to, yeah, back to the leadership and and, you know, coaching as you develop your business plan that Thomas is saying. Mhmm. I pointed to Tom and it went to Dave because the cameras are are very slow.

So if you have an accountability partner and someone you that you don't wanna let down, that's that's huge. So we encourage that, within our organization is grab an accountability partner.

You create self accountability too just by sharing that plan with others. You know, your your spouse, your children, your business partners, your higher ups, people that work below you, for you. They they know there's there's a lot to that because then you you have that feeling of not wanting to let them down. You know, you've you've announced this is what I'm gonna do. This is how I'm gonna do it. What you kinda get is buy in, and people wanna help you with that. Your family wants to help you with that. They understand that there's what they've gotta do, and, you know, you kinda get that, rally behind, mentality.

We have a guy here, and he has 3 big goals next year. I'm not gonna say his name, but I I told him. I said, hey. Take a post it note, post them on your mirror. When in the morning, the evening, you're brushing your teeth or shaving. You see that day in, day out, day in, day out. You kinda like it just becomes you and and you get more and more driven.

It's interesting that you mentioned that, Dave, because I was just about to say, you know, as as you do your goal planning and and you start setting these, you're sharing them with everyone around you for accountability and with your leadership. But posting reminders, visual cues that bring you back to focus on it, is really powerful. So you you kinda read my mind there.

Well, some of that's old school blocking and tackling in Napoleon, what's Napoleon's last name? But Think and Grow Rich. Is it Boneapart? No.

I was not. No. I'm thinking, like, Napoleon Napoleon. No. No. No. Napoleon.

He's a writer from, like, the thirties or forties. But thinking Oh, that's alright. Yeah. It's it's it's a lot of visual clues. It's a lot of self talk and stuff like that. So yeah. I mean, we'd definitely recommend that. And we do business planning too.

If anyone wants a copy of our very basic business plan, message us. There's also a lot of personal goals on there. Like, my personal goal, you know, is to take 1 week long vacation where I'm really next year, when I'm really focused on my family and my vacation and and not on email. One week long vacation a quarter.

That's a great I love that goal. I think

I But totally un totally unplugged. Totally unplugged vacation now.

I think you stole that from me or I stole that from you, though. One one of us stole that from each other.

I I stole it from someone from the freedom club. She was Okay. She wanted to take a week long vacation every month with her girls. So

okay. I know you're talking about I stole it from her too then. That's where it was. It's, it's really interesting just to see, like, I'm thinking back on my life and and the people that I've been, you know, fortunate enough to partner with and coach and mentor and lead and seeing the results and the, the determination and focus that they had when they didn't business plan compared to when they do. And, man, I'll tell you, it's it's kind of a night and day difference. Right? Like, just their confidence, their aura, their their swag, their riz as my 14 year old son would say as they attack their day and their business when there's a clearly defined plan.

They have a plan. Yeah. I mean, it it it it's a road map. Here's what I gotta do today. Right? I'm behind in this. I gotta make 10 more calls. I gotta have 2 more meetings this week. I I gotta get after it.

It gives you that determination when you get up in the morning. I I gotta get after it. Right?

What's what what's it that Ben Franklin said? If you're if you're, if you failed a plan, you're planning to fail, something along those lines. I made a friend. Are you making that up? No. That's been frank. You can look at it. Alright. Verified. Bonafide.

Go check it out.

You know what else you do is you avoid there's a lot of shiny objects out there that can distract people from a bit from a plan. So you have a plan to set out to do things this way. And sometimes, absolutely, sometimes you need to pivot that plan or opportunity comes, and it's it's time to, you know, to change course. But, you know, when you have a plan and then things come up or you could go down a certain path, another opportunity comes up, you really have to ask yourself, is this in line with my plan? You know, is and as you guys know earlier, you know, top of summer, we we pass on a massive opportunity. It just, you know, maybe we'll regret it one day, but it wasn't in line. We had a big plan and it wasn't in line with it. And we started to look at the time and resources and what it would mean and what it could have pulled from on our plan, and and we we stopped moving on it. And we even put a little time into it and thought and even started to get excited about it for a minute.

But the reality of it is the reason we didn't is because we were like, you know what? This isn't a part of our plan. Let's stick to course. And and maybe, you know, sometimes it's worth pivoting, but,

maybe, that's that's a whole that's a whole we could do a whole topic just on that on some of the biggest wins being my nose. Right?

Like Absolutely. Absolutely.

We could do a whole podcast on shiny object after a neck. You just gotta stay focused and have the blinders on.

Yeah. But this topic is about business planning. So what so but to that pivot point, Tom, what happens when you're on your business plan and it starts to go sideways or or you're gonna fall short? Like, it's not going as you planned. What what do you do to get it back on track?

I mean, assess what's working, what's not working. You know? You are you really I think in most cases, like, if it's falling off, it's not because the activity determined is isn't effective. It's usually it's falling off because you weren't doing the the activities. Right? There

it is. That's it.

It takes

the re a recommitment back to that. And what did I pledge to myself? And you gotta be true to yourself. You know? And I think, you know, you have to learn trust in yourself. Like, trust is earned from tiny promises kept. So if I say I'm gonna do this every Monday, if I'm gonna do this every week and and and next week, I did all those things, I feel more confidence going into next week that I'm gonna do that again. I don't lie to myself. If I say something to do something, I do something. That's one of those where, you know, things that ring through your mind.

If I say I'm gonna go in, you know? But I think it's usually that. And and a lot of times, we all need a reset. I probably need a couple of my ears. Why why you shouldn't write the plan and tuck it away and and never go back to it. You need a reset. You need a reminder. You gotta kick yourself in the ass a little bit. You gotta regroup.

You know, look at your time. How are you spending it? Are you protecting it? You know, our time our schedules are a lifeline and and and get that shit

in line. That also goes back to the, to the accountability and the coaching, right? The having someone to hold you to it because those activities slip away and the activities. Right? So also by the way, guys, if you're doing a business plan and you don't have, you don't take it that step to where it's the activities to achieve the business plan, like you're just writing, I wanna increase my business by 2 times. Right? Well, that doesn't hit those smart goals. Right? That acronym that we talked about. So you gotta have the activities, and then that's what you gotta be accountable to. That that's where the wind comes in. I cut you off, Dave.

I'm sorry.

No. I mean, I was just gonna say these are good reminders for us when we go into business planning with our team is let's look at their business plan from last year. Let's see, you know, the things we hit. I mean, there was both production goals and personal goals, and then a reminder us to do quarterly check ins with our people when they business plan. I mean, we I know we do that, but to be much better about that, to hold them accountable and hold us accountable.

That's a big piece. And the quarterly check it, like, everything has to be driven down. Like, you're gonna start with this bog. Right? That's what they call it. Big, hairy, audacious goal. Right?

Mhmm.

And then how do you eat an elephant? Well, it's one bite at a time. So you gotta break it down into the steps, the morsels that you're gonna take daily. And then 6 months, a year down the road, you look up and holy crap, I've achieved massive success. Right? But it comes down to the activities. I think a lot of times as we're talking about business planning and the activities and, you know, we we look we get we get paralyzed by just the enormity of some of it. Right? And then that leads to inaction. So the one thing that, you know, I would make sure that you are acknowledging and taking steps, against as your business plan is to not get into inactivity. This isn't like flipping a light switch.

Right? Like, it's okay. We have this mindset of all or nothing. Maybe your business plan is that you wanna be making 40 outbound calls. One aspect of it is you're gonna be making 40 outbound calls a week. That doesn't mean you're gonna go from 0 to 40. That means you're gonna go one call, 2 calls. Like, it's building up. If you're gonna go run a marathon, if you were gonna go climb Everest, Dave, you wouldn't start at Everest.

Right? You're gonna climb a bunch of mountains first. Right? Like, it's all part of it.

Yeah. People think it's an all all or nothing. You you can't do it all at once. It's it's a slow it's a slow burn up, and there's no shortcuts to the top.

Yep. And when when you have that all or nothing mindset and you don't take the steps because you can't do all of it, you do none of it. And then Well, you know, to you

You just said, like, the oldest business plan analogy that's, like, been out there. Like, you just said it like it was the first time it's ever been said too.

But it works. Everybody loves

the gym analogy, the January gym analogy. Everybody loves it.

With it but then, you know, then it becomes part of your part of your being. Right? I can't go a day without exercising. You know? You just get used to it.

Yeah. 21 days. That's that's true. Form a habit. It should be

like all the things.

21 days to form a hat. What are the things that, like, get you ticking? Like, I I know there's certain routine I can have in the morning that's gonna make me a better person that day. You know? And the more days I can get that routine in, I'm I'm gonna have more better days. I know that sometimes it's pulled off. And, you know, that's another thing. Give yourself grace too. Like, you know, let me sort of held, held to, I have to do it here. I have to do it.

This has to happen on Monday. Like, you know, they get it done. Adjust. Life adjusts. Like, you know, we gotta we gotta pivot, but that doesn't mean that you know, because you're supposed to do something on Monday, but Monday, your kids are off school because of the holiday, and you chose to spend your day with the kids that you don't do that that week, and that was gonna be a major part of your plan. You gotta shift. It's gotta go to Tuesday. What's from Tuesday have to go? What do you have to do to make it up? How do you stay on course and stay true to that?

Yeah. I think grace is important. Right? Because that that kinda goes back to that all or nothing also. Right? Like, we see it with the gym. Oh, well, I didn't go back to the gym analogy. I didn't go Monday. I didn't go Tuesday. Well, now I'm gonna start back Let's

do diving. But let let's do diving. Right?

See, now now now I feel attacked. Now I feel attacked. Right? It's funny because that literally, Lacey, my wife and I, we laugh about this because we'll make a plan, and on Monday, we're gonna start eating right. Right? Like, it's Tuesday of that week, and come Monday, we're gonna start eating right. Why don't I just start on Tuesday? Right? Just chill.

Like, well,

I'm a every Monday, I'm gonna start eating better. Monday hasn't come yet.

Because then you can feel really good about eating like shit on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday because you're not really having to do it till Monday. Then it's counterproductive.

I feel attacked, Dave.

So let's talk about a couple mindset books. I mean, I sent to our teams 2 years ago and then last year, the slight edge 2 years ago in the gap in the game. But it it's it's everything we're talking about. Accountability partners, having a plan, do as I say, not as I do. I have to get in the back in the mindset of before I go to bed, write my top five things I did, I'm gonna do tomorrow, my top three things that I accomplished during the day. Just little things like that makes such a big difference if you do it day in and day out. I get it sounds a little hokey, a little cheesy, but, you know, it works, and it it makes you more successful. So I'd encourage everyone who's listening to read the gap in the game and to read the slight edge.

And if you don't like it, I will send you your money back. Actually, no. I won't do that. But, yeah. Check out the books. Read them. 2 of my favorites.

That's the slight edge by Jeff Wilson? That that's the one?

I should know who that's by. I don't think it's it it might be.

I'm putting you on the spot.

Yeah. I'll I'll mail you a copy, Robert.

I think I have a I I don't know.

I I might have mailed you a copy.

You might have mailed Let let's give a little guidance. If you're writing a business plan, what what should really be in it? You know? I I think, you know, especially so we're talking about loan officer business plan. Let's let's leave it to that. You know, I think sometimes there's too much complexity to it. And, you know, it it's just it's it's focused too much on on fluff. And the other day, I I think it should be with your personal goals, with your business goals, what's your steps to achieve each.

Yeah. The the the the activities. And then we break ours down, what, 1st month, quarterly, and and yearly? And yearly. Yep. Yeah.

1st 30 days, 1st 90 days, and then 12 months. It's a really simple format. And you know what I love to do is is if you can do it in a group setting and then collaborate with everyone else and and almost almost have to defend it. Right? Have people come and try to poke holes in it and not not to be mean, but to get granular, to make sure that it is is detailed enough and that it is, you know, going to get you where you're trying to go. I think that that's that's a really cool and fun exercise in every, like, as long as everyone's participating, then it there's a little bit of a quality factor in it as well. Right?

We talking about whiteboarding, Robert?

It may be whiteboarding, Dave.

Yeah.

I love whiteboarding. Change. It's changed my changed my life. Literally. First time I ever whiteboarded, I was doing it with a guy named Paul Dolan. Lacey was standing there and he was looking at the numbers. I was, working in a small community bank and we whiteboarded, and I, you know, had my goals and stuff on there. And he looked at me and he goes, are you a moron? And I said, excuse me? He goes, do you not like money or something? Are you stupid? He's like, you you need to make these changes.

Right? Like, bam, bam, bam from the whiteboarding, and then I'd left and made those changes. And now here we are altogether. Right? That, like, that was one of the initial catalysts that is eventually led me to here in my career. So whiteboarding is a powerful thing.

Yeah. No doubt.

What is whiteboarding? What does that mean?

I guess we should have explained it.

So, yeah, whiteboarding is basically where you come together as a group. You put a big, big piece of white paper up on the, the wall, and you start

post it note.

Big post it note. Yeah. And you start looking at, you start looking at doing it's it's basically doing a business plan out there for the world to see, and then you go around the room and kinda defend it. Right? The first thing that you're gonna write is what's the single greatest activity, right, that you do that makes you money. Identify what do you do that has the most impact on your business to make you money. Right? And then the second thing that you're gonna identify is what do you wanna farm out? What do you wanna move off of your plate? What do you wanna eliminate? What do you wanna stop doing? So what makes me the most money? What do I not wanna do anymore? The 3rd section is here's where I am today. How much volume you're doing? How many units you're closing? This is specific to ellos. Right? How much income I'm making? Here's where I wanna be in 90 days.

Here's where I wanna be in 12 months. Following me so far. And then the next section is gonna be what activities do I need to do to make the 90 day and the 12 month goal happen? And it needs to be 4 or 5 I can't say that word. Specific activities, detailed activities, go back to that smart analogy that need to happen for you to be able to achieve that 90 day and 12 month goal. And then you revisit it every quarter. Right? You you have people come around and poke holes in it. You defend it. You tweak it.

You make it better. You take suggestions, and then you revisit it every 90 days. Have you guys you guys have done this. Right?

I've done it probably a dozen times.

I knew what it was, but I I was more asking because they

were talking about it

and I went to

the Right. The listeners

What's the what's the craziness when you go to revisit? Have you guys experienced this?

You've actually hit the goals or exceeded the goals? You exceeded the goals. Yeah.

Yeah. It's pretty pretty badass.

Well, you know, then if someone's doing a business plan, how how does someone be coachable? How how does how do you get someone coachable, and how how does someone actually take

constructive criticism feedback? That's a good question. That's a great question because I think that's the that's the heat. Like, I think that they have to be open and bought in on it. Right? Like, you can't coach someone that doesn't wanna be coached. It has to start there.

You know, with with me, I was so desperate, right, to be coached and and shown the light, you know, because I was so burned on and working that whatever my coach said, I actually did it. Like, 90% of the things she told me to do, I listened attentively, wrote it down, and then went back and executed it. She was smart. Right? She knew I was like a squirrel looking around, but she so she gave me a little bite sized things to do. And every 2 weeks, she gave me a couple, and I did it. And then, you know, next thing I know, my my business changed, my life changed, and, you know, and and I worked through it all. So

Kinda funny that somebody would pay somebody to tell them what to do, but not do the things that they paid them to tell them to do.

That's a fair point. Happens all the time, though. Right? Happens all the time. So I listen. Not for nothing. If you're out there and paying for coaching and you're not doing the things that they're coaching you to do

Quick coaching.

Just quick coaching. Like, just stop. We we're a little bit on a tangent here, but I think it's all relative and hand in hand. If you're not using a coach and you really wanna change your life and improve your business and you're gonna put in the work, it's something you should look at. Right? I remember when I was first thinking about coaching, I thought of it as kind of this new age hippity dippity, like, you know, I don't need that. Someone positioned it to me. They said, hey, listen. Tom Brady's the greatest quarterback to ever live, and he has a coach.

Right? If you think that you don't need a coach, you're pretty naive. This is a pipe hole moment for me.

All 3 of us have coaches. All of our top LOs have coaches. Our topic you know, a lot of our executives have coaching, and and there's some of the sharpest, brightest people at the company. But let's get off coaching because we're gonna steal our thunder for another podcast that we're gonna use.

Yeah. So as we talk about goal setting, business planning, what's the difference between realistic and unrealistic goals? How do you and how do you know like, how do you know the difference? Like, where do you draw the line?

I mean, I think one of you put up the example if you're doing 10,000,000, you know, your goal next year shouldn't be 70,000,000. It's it's gotta be achievable. Right? I think a lot of it's by feel. I mean, I I don't I don't have a good answer for you there. A lot of it's by feel and knowing the personality of the person that you're you're working with and work on the business plan with.

I have a I have a different take on it. Right? What so where I see it is if we talk about that roadmap and, you know, where do you wanna finish? And then you work backwards. Like you should be able to quantify the data for your business. Right. And know that, okay, well, if I'm gonna close, my average loan size is x. So if I wanna do, you know, x amount, let my average loan size is a 100,000. So if I wanna do a million, I need 10 deals. Right? I know that for every deal that I close, I need to talk to 5 clients.

So if I'm gonna do 10 deals, I need to talk to 50 clients. Well, if I wanna go to 20 deals, so now I can do 2,000,000. Right? Well, now I need to talk to a 100 clients. So then you look at it and say, okay. Well, what activities does it take to talk to a 100 clients in a month? It can you can you feasibly do that? Is there enough time in the day? Do I need help? The team and system? Do I have help? So if you start again at the end and kinda work it backwards and know what those numbers are and can engineer it down to activity, and then you look at capacity because everything that we do is capacity based in our business. Can't do I actually have the capacity to be able to achieve the goals that I'm setting? Or can I get the help or a system or support? And if you can't, the goal's out of scope. You need to readjust it. You need to reevaluate it.

Mhmm.

What do we think about that?

Or expand those capacities. Yeah. But I agree. I mean, there's only we only have so much time. Right? Some of those valuable thing that we have. So, you know, if the if the time doesn't align, you know, if it's gonna take you 26 hours a day, there's there's 24 and you need to sleep and you've got some other things you have to do as well.

What's the sleep you speak of? I heard about it.

It's a little overrated, but, no, sleep is very important. Everybody should have sleep within their business plan.

That's a great point and a whole different tangent. Right? But sleep is probably the single most important aspect of success that's out there. Dave?

Yep. Most people don't get enough of it.

You look deep and thought, Dave.

I'm a good sleeper. Go to bed early, wake up early.

That's funny. Well, guys, this has been an awesome topic, and I've enjoyed kicking it around with y'all a little bit. One of my favorite subjects. I'm excited for this time of year and to go in and do this. Hey. If you're out there listening, I hope we brought some value to you. One great takeaway, if you haven't gotten a takeaway yet, that I'll give you is this is a fantastic subject in class to go and present to your realtor partners. They most of them don't business plan, and they can use it, greatly.

I actually have a a pretty decent PowerPoint I've put together. I'm happy to share it with anyone out there that that would like it. So thanks so much for tuning in to lending leadership with the mortgage pros. If you haven't already hit that subscribe button, go ahead and smash it to make sure you don't miss any of our content that's upcoming. Robert Fillyaw with HMA Mortgage for Dave Holland and Tom Mills. Thanks for joining us.

See you next time. Thanks so much.