Secrets to Success: Building a Strong Mortgage Team with Dan Andersen

Hey, everybody. Welcome to Lending Leadership, The Creative Brief. I'm Rach.

And I'm Rinn. Welcome, everyone. We have a very special guest today. We are going to be talking with one of our awesome loan officers in Chicagoland area, Dan Andersen, about his team and his success. Welcome, Dan.

Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor.

Thanks for joining us. Honestly, we've we've been very excited about grabbing some time to talk with you because, you know, there's a lot of loan officers out there that I think talk about marketing, they talk about video, they talk about doing all these different kinds of things, but you're in the trenches every day. This is part of just a pillar of how you run your business. And and I have to say, like, I wanna get into some dirt. Alright? Because there's a lot of people out there that when they get their hands into something that is so different and unique, they just wanna hold on to it. Right? But I think you are quite the opposite. You're such a giver. You wanna teach.

You always wanna lead That I think that's a really unique quality, Dan. I love that about you that you're always you're always willing to share your knowledge and and not just hold on to it for yourself. Where where's that come from?

You know, I think it gets to the point to where you get to a spot in your career that you look back and say, it's not enough. I want more, but now I can start giving. And I think that's what HMA has really done for me, and I wanna do that for everyone else as far as our loan officers and future loan officers and give them the ability to grow. And I feel like the more that they grow, the more our company grows, naturally, the more I'll grow. So it's not a selfish thing, but it's it's a it's a circle of life if you wanna say. If everyone's successful, you won't naturally be successful. Surround yourself in a room with five people that are successful, you're successful. Surround yourself in a room with five people that aren't, you're probably gonna fall short.

I I like that perspective, Dan. I I feel like though, you know, you know, you've established you're at a place in your career now where you wanna be on the coaching track. You wanna help other loan officers. But for those who are getting started or, who are just working to grow their businesses, You know, tell us a little bit more about that core belief and why you think or what you think they could do to grow at this point even by taking on the same mindset that you have now at a more established place in your career. So what are some steps or things that they can do to to get onto that track of helping others, in which it'll come back and and that good karma will come and help their businesses as well?

You know, I think it comes down to two words. You know, one being confident in who you are and your knowledge and what you're doing in this industry, but don't forget to be humble. You know, the number one mistake is when you sit down next to somebody that have a much more mature age, you know, an 80 year old person, and and you're just, I don't wanna hear this person, but you forget to be humble to listen to somebody that's gonna give you something very valuable and does probably know more than you. So I'd say in this industry for, you know, lenders and people getting law officers getting into this and wanting to go to next level, help out. Feed the knowledge that you have. Help other people grow their business in social media, and get rid of the fear to get in front of a camera because that's really what it's all about. It's the fear in front of the camera. Oh, I sound ridiculous.

I look stupid. Well, guess what? I sound ridiculous and look stupid every single time, but I still do it. And people like it because it's genuine. So, yeah, I think it's it's a big factor for people to step outside their comfort row comfort zone and start helping others.

How many times do we hear that, Corinne? Where it's like, oh, I got a face for radio. I feel like we've said that so many times that people don't wanna hear me talk. Well, they do. And that's the way to position yourself as the thought leader and the expert. And I love that that humble confidence that that is such a such an important way to be, you know, to have the swagger but then, you know, to be grounded as well I think is is good in any industry that you're in. Your marketing stands out in such a big way. Was that is that something that you've always done, or did that evolve? Or how how did that all happen?

A little bit of both. So, you know, it started to grow over the years. I've been doing this for fifteen years. And, really, when we brought Margaret in, oh my gosh, twelve plus years ago, you know, our marketing went to the next level. And we always try to, be the GQ of mortgages, and that's actually agents would say that just by having a different standard, a different look, really being professional. Doesn't actually mean full suits or any of that, but just really doing a good job and looking good. And a lot of that, I would say Margaret has been a huge asset for. And then we took that, and when social media became what it is, and we should have started doing a long time ago.

And it's also never too late to start. But social media allowed us to be in front of our clients, be in front of our agents, in front of other referral partners on a more consistent basis, and that just took us to the next level. And I feel like how we tailor our marketing and what we do on social media has a little bit of fun. As you see, you know, JV is extremely creative, being the cash king especially. And I guess he's got a new thing he's working on right now. He just told me about props and stuff. So I'm like, oh, boy. And now he's like he's he's very confident.

He wouldn't tell me what it is. He's like, we're just filming. I'm like, oh, boy. So,

I wanna I wanna back up one second, and then we'll dive into the video and and the creative and all the good stuff. But I wanna hit upon the part where you gave, Margaret some props because I think it's important for our listeners to know, especially some of our loan officers that might be close to that breaking point where they're considering hiring an assistant or considering looking at some outside marketing consulting to just get them over that line to that next level. Dan, can you tell our listeners a little bit more about some tangible come ups that you really can cite once you had an expert like Margaret on the team who is able to focus on some of these things while you were focused on closing loans?

Yes. So, you know, that's a big, big part. I would actually say that I've done that very well throughout my career. But once I came to HMA, that changed dramatically. And the person I would owe that to really is gonna be Dave Holland. So I have the Andersen team the way I do it. And as I hired my first person, which was Renee, that changed everything. That was a huge dynamic piece for my team in growing to next level.

And then it was, you know, ID and and other people on my team and then, you know, my l my loan officers that are underneath me. Each time you step outside and hire someone, it allows you to perfect yourself and grow and get in front of your referral partners more and do more things to grow the sales aspect. And that was, like, with Margaret. Right? As soon as I stopped handling, brokers opens and open houses and can I get a flyer and can I I mean, I'm sorry? I'm a loan officer. I'm not a marketing person. And that really helped. Well, I had the Andersen team, and I was doing a very good job with it and successful. But Dave Holland does the best job at it, truly does.

So he took the Holland twist and put it on my team, and we revamped it. We promoted people with inside my team, which HMA is real big on promoting, you know, staff to go to the next level, not just hiring outside better people. They look at their people that are awesome already. Let's go to the next level. So we did that, and then we restructured the Salesforce, the front end. And I have a team that I it's unbelievable. I mean, what we're doing and how they're doing it, I could not 100% be where I'm at and where I'm heading without them or with Dave Holland's, touch on this.

Yeah. So leadership, combination of leadership and and building and promoting within has been a huge win for you.

But I think we're at a point too where I don't think the Andersen team itself will necessarily grow too much. I think we're at a good core of what we want and what we can handle, and it'll be just based on capacity when everyone's like, okay. We need another person. Fine. But, now it's about growing the branch and giving loan officers the opportunity like you guys are talking about to grow themselves, and we give them what they gave us here. This is what we learned, how we do it. We want you to have this now.

Yeah. That that passing for passing it forward of of knowledge and just trying to I think the big thing in any industry again, but certainly in the mortgage space is to not reinvent the wheel. Look at what really successful people are doing and and do that. You know, I think there's a sometimes this feeling of, oh, well, I can't do it that way. They did it. No, if something's working for somebody else, do that. Don't sit there in silence and be struggling. Look at what really successful people are doing and do that.

You know, I constantly follow you of course on and we collaborate on certain videos and fun things and you're always sharing on on social. I love that this is a really great little piece of advice. You're constantly sharing videos from your realtors on your story. It's not just stuff that you guys have created. Has that created either just more engagement or what what was the thought behind that?

So it's been huge. That really that was the number one part, I would say, that changed everything in our social media and our growth in our industry. Mhmm. So I feel like when you sharing the agent stuff, they're putting a lot of time, right, into what they're doing with making videos for their homes, talking about their own business. You wanna share it because, one, you wanna get that out there and you wanna help them, and you also wanna show your buyers and people that are following you, hey. Look at this house that's showing up. And by doing that, I've got I've obtained more organic, agents and followers following us saying that, like, hey. You know, thanks for sharing.

Thanks for sharing. And they start following. They see that you're a team player. But you're also not driving them crazy and saying, hey. You wanna go to lunch tomorrow? I wanna get some coffee. And they're like, You know, like, just start following this person. You're driving me nuts. It's a very passive approach that is organically growing, and we're seeing the leads in the business coming in from it.

We track it. I was at a I actually missed a golf outing, but my team was there. And several agents are like, oh, you guys we see on Instagram all the time, and you guys are the best and blah blah blah. And they spoke so highly of us. And a lot of them didn't even actually ever meet me, but they might have done a deal with me or maybe not, but they see the social media. So sharing, it's great. You have to have a combination of so many different things that I think, you know what? You're in this industry. Take care of your agents.

Share them. That's what it's all about.

I like that because I feel like, Rach, that's, like, also another way. Dan's treating it as, like, a strategic touch. Right? Like, as we call it, when you're reaching out through the CRM or you're submitting you know, you're giving them email, you're giving them a text message, you might do a phone call. He's looking at sharing what they're working on on social media as just another way to promote them, and it's another way to just kind of stay in front of your partners too, Dan, or ones that you might want to be your partners. Right? It's a great tip for loan officers to remember that, spending that time on social media, however many hours it is a week, a little time towards your business is gonna pay off in a way that you might not be able to directly attribute to, you know, ROI on the week. But as you have those conversations when you're out in the field and somebody says, I noticed something you did online, that's when you're gonna see the true impact of the effort, and it's super important.

And it's so different now too. You you can't really just go into a real estate office like we used to. I mean, we would be dropping off pizzas. We'd be doing flyers and all this. You're lucky if you see a handful of people or one or two realistically. And you're doing that once a week, once every other week. Then you get busy, and they'll do it for a couple months. With social media, you're consistently in front of agents, and you're giving them something, same with your clients.

You know, how hard is it to all clients and your past clients consistently? It's hard. And especially if you get really busy, you fall off. By doing the social media, you're staying in front of them. They're engaging. They're watching you. When it comes time to refinance or grow to a bigger home or downsize, they're like, oh, I see Dan all the time. And Dan's doing better. Dan's growing.

His team's doing great. And, again, people like successful people and people that are gonna be doing a really good job and and have, you know, an obscene amount of reviews. You know, the company alone has over 10,005 star reviews. It says it on our branch. That's huge. I mean, you you if a client can't see the confidence in the company alone just by 10,005 star reviews, then there's no winning that client. It is just what it

is. You know what, Dan? You bring up such a good point, and I I've heard you use this word a couple of times now. Consistency, everybody listening, it's consistency, you can't just post one or two times or go really strong for two months and then it's not working and give up. It's the consistency. It's every day and making this part of your business plan, not just have it be a fun little hobby like this is part of your business. And I think a lot of times, maybe spouses or other people might look at you and think you're on your phone all the time. Not I'm not speaking from personal experience, but maybe, but it really is. It is part of your business.

It's not just, you know, a casual scroll and, like, it is sharing people's posts and then, hey, guys. Listen. I'm this takes some, some of the heat off of your back to constantly come up with content, right Dan? Because you're filling in the gaps with your realtors content that they're making, but sharing, liking and commenting is huge and that's that's part of the relationship build. But the consistency, you do a very good job at it's not just every now and then. This is part of what you do. Do you build out time? Do you block out time to do this, or is it just second nature now?

It's twenty four seven. It's second nature. I'll be on the phone with a client doing a preapproval. JV will as I'll say, he doesn't know how I do it. And I I share two things or make a post while I'm on the phone with a client. I'm my mind is nine pounds an hour constantly going. So it's it's it's nonstop. But I also think that because I'm sharing and I'm building algorithm of social media around what I'm doing, those posts that I wanna share are starting to come up more.

Sure.

So I can get on. I can see things quicker. And then I'm also branching off and trying to find more agents and more being suggested to me in the Chicago land area and other areas that I'm licensed in. But now I'm seeing that, and that's growing too. So it kinda gets easier as you continuously do it. Like, making videos, when you first start off in doing a video, I mean, you all know it's not easy. It's intimidating. You it's it's so hard.

But once you do five of them, you're like, oh, it's easier. Next thing you know, you're a year later and you look back, like, oh my god. I can't believe how bad I was at this, and now I'm such you know, doing such a good job. So it does become easier, but it has to be a part of your life, not even just your business. And I think one mistake that a lot of people do, is they don't bring their life and their personal life into social media.

Mhmm.

They're too much about business, business, business. And, yeah, at first, it's it's really good, but I think the audience starts to lose interest. They wanna see stuff. You know? Like, I posted my truck. I, did some work on my truck, and everyone's like I got so many comments and so many people went crazy about it because, oddly, they can they would not know that I had the mechanical background to be able to tear apart a brand new truck and do what I did and put it back together.

People wanna see you as a person and understand your hobbies and interests, not just the the business side. And I think, yeah, sometimes you can get caught in tunnel vision, you know, as a business owner, just posting about an article or a product or something that you want them to know about instead of just remembering to stop and share about what you're doing personally. I, I wanna go back to something you mentioned, JV, and we we have to talk about JV, Rach. So, I mean, you two are like the dynamic duo. I mean, it's like, you know, you wanna see online, what are they doing next, what's coming out next, where tell me about the history of how, you know, you and JV met, how you guys got started on this path. I know JV is a successful, video company too, and I know he's got a lot of experience with video, which is probably very helpful. But how did you guys start this whole process together? Meeting, the creative brainstorming process, some of the ideas you guys come up with. Give us a little bit of the scoop on it.

So, you know, with JV, we met years ago, and he actually used to be a real estate agent. And he worked for his dad and stuff like that. And I was a loan officer, naturally. That wasn't the field he wanted to be in. He also went down a a path of professional training and, bodybuilding and all that stuff. If you do scroll through his Instagram, you can see his pictures of him doing competitions and stuff. So he did that. I think he does still dabble that a little bit in the morning.

So he's like me where he's nonstop, I mean, up at 4AM, gym, and then training a client and then gets into mortgages. But he came to me one day about wanting to get into mortgages. And I said, sure. And like I tell everyone, get licensed first, and then we'll talk because everyone talks and nobody gets licensed. So he got licensed, and then the next thing you know, he joined our team. And the first year hit off very, very good, and it was very impressive. And then all the COVID stuff happened, and, yeah, that just kinda affected everybody. And, you know, their business leader skyrocketed or didn't.

And then we had some changes on our team, and he became my right hand person. And it's been unbelievable ever since. And the one thing about JV is you can look at somebody and say that person is gonna be better than me one day. And I look at JV and I say that. I think he has an unparalleled skill set that I can't even live up to, and I try to. So he makes me wanna do better and do better for our team. You know, if I fail, the whole team fails. So I always try to make sure that I live up to their expectations.

But when they start getting a little too excited, I come in and put five loans in in two hours. They're like, how do you just do that? So I don't let anyone get too ahead of me. But, no. JV and I are a great dynamic. It's a ying and yang. They complement each other in multiple ways, and there's also a really good friendship and a a trust that I have actually really never experienced in business before. So it's it's been a privilege and an honor to have him a a part of the business and a part of my life.

That is so special. And so I don't wanna say

so random.

Teary eyed.

I know. No. It but it's really it really is a very special thing, all the feels. And, you know, I'm a big, big believer that iron sharpens iron and and you're right. You are the sum of the people that you spend the most time with. So be very careful to our lovely loan officer listeners, real realtor listeners out there who you let in your circle, you know, who you let influence you. And, and I love that you you want him to level up. You know? You have to look around if if you have someone that's mentoring you, but they're kinda squashing your light, they gotta go.

They gotta go.

I'll be honest with you. For it's the opposite with JV. It's me leveling up to him. I mean, he's he's nonstop. I mean, his work ethic, how much hours he puts in, his dedication, it it's it's unreal. And and it's not just him. Every one of our team members, I think, has felt what we are doing, and they've all grown. I mean, take Dora, for example.

It's on the team, but unbelievable. What she's done since she's come on and became a part of our team. So it's like it goes JV, Dora, and then Angelos, and she's unreal with people on the phone. I mean, the way she treats our clients, her knowledge basis around loans. Again, I I could not do the branch. I could not focus on what the owners of HMA want me to do without them because I can seriously step back and know the clients are 100% taken care of, and the agents are beyond thrilled with them. And then the same with Angelus. I mean, he's he's really our backbone for all three of us.

If Angelus, is sick, we're like, oh my god. How do we disclose along? What do we do? I mean, he's he's awesome. So it's it's pretty wild what we have and what we can do, and it allows me to focus on everything I need to focus on and the tasks that, the owners have me doing.

Well, that's awesome. I mean, I feel like you've got the full package of team members that are just kind of vibing together, and you have to have different players on different areas of the field. Right? Because everybody has slightly different skill sets and and to be able to, develop each person and see how they each complement each other is really when it's all firing together. You know, I have to ask what's coming up next with the Cash King. I mean, what what, come on. Is there any any good are we gonna get any snippet, Rach, on what's next in team Andersen's, arsenal of creativity? I don't know what's coming out next week

of April. Do a video of, like, us now waxing the Cash King. I mean, I got all that hair going on. I was like, Jesus, JV. Sitting in my bathtub. What's going on

here? Gonna get me a man's cape. Some shots. We'll have to put that in the future here, Rachael, that when they sub in some photographs on our podcast, dear. There are definitely some close-up shots of the cash king enjoying his cash.

Yeah. It was, it was quite funny. I don't know if there's anything left on the Cash King. There might be. I mean, JV, who knows? We we filmed so much of it. But so so, supposedly, there's a whole new thing he's got going on that we're gonna start filming next week. And then today, I'll be doing some filming for myself. I haven't posted in the last couple weeks.

Mostly, this is my favorite time of the year with snowmobiling, so it takes away a little bit. So that's why, again, your life is gonna alter of your freedom of what you can do. So you have to have different content, which is your team members posting. You're sharing HMA stuff. You're sharing realtor stuff. You're sharing fun things, motivational stuff. You know? And I post the motivational stuff not to be that person that's a motivating type person. I just posted of I just like it.

You know? Positive thoughts, positive way of thinking, and and hopefully people enjoy

it. I think they do. And I think people can see through very quickly if you're trying to be someone you're not. You know, if you're trying to look at other influencers or other people in in the mortgage space and say, oh, well, that's working for them. So I'm gonna do that too. You you really have to be authentic to the things that are important to you. Let people get to know you, your family and and Dan, you do such a great job of that. You know, final takeaway here.

I'm very curious for any loan officer who's listening, who wants to elevate their brand, what's the first step you think they should take? Because I think a lot of times we look at this marketing space that is a very big umbrella, and there's so many things underneath social media, you know, print materials, events. Just really there are so many different categories. It can be very overwhelming. So what do you think is a really good first step?

First step is design a brand that will be very, organic in your growth and giving to everyone else. So the Andersen team has always been very giving in charity and giving into helping our agents, giving into giving the best deal to our clients, giving the best rate, giving. Just simple as that. So we have our golf outing every year to give back. Anything you do in this industry or I think in any industry, if you want people looking at you and want people to use you, you have to be genuine. You have to have an organic feel around you because nobody wants to feel like they're being sold. I don't wanna feel like I'm being sold, so we never sell any of our clients ever on any product. It's all based on facts.

But give back. Just be there. Be there to help everyone else grow, and I think naturally your brand will grow because people wanna be around you. So my biggest thing is giving.

I love that. I feel like that's a great way for us to kind of, wrap a little bit if you agree, Rach. Giving is always a way to not only, feel like you're doing something for others, but you can just see a direct impact that you make on their lives and others around them. So I absolutely love that, Dan. I think that's great. And, on that note, I feel like this has been quite an awesome interview. I hope every I hope everybody got something out of it. And for all of you out there, please like, subscribe, share all the good things, and definitely follow team Andersen because these guys are creative as heck.

I mean, they're just a lot of fun to watch. It's not just about mortgages. It's about having fun, which you'll clearly see if you're not checking them out already. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Dan.

Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Thanks, GQ of Mortgages.