Secrets to Mortgage Marketing Success Through Mastering Personal Branding: Mortgage Industry Marketing Part 4, Marisa Carey

Transcript of Episode #004

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[MUSIC] We’re back with another episode of the Niche Marketing Podcast.

I’m your host, John Bertino, and today we are delighted to have Miss Marisa Carey.

Marisa is the business development and marketing manager for NFM Lending out of the Haddonfield branch office.

Correct.

And we were excited to have you on Marisa for several reasons.

Thank you.

In addition to being very pleasant to talk to and extremely well informed about the space, you’ve been in the space for some time.

You’ve seen both the marketing side of things, the sales side of things.

You’ve worked for a small family business in this space.

worked for now a larger entity in the space.

Yeah.

And you’re our first guest of the several in the mortgage marketing space that we’ve had on, that’s actually brand side, all of our other guests were marketers.

And so, it’s fantastic to get that kind of rounded out perspective on what it’s like to do these things from the inside.

Yeah.

So, with that said, could you give a couple minutes or a minute or so of background on yourself and your exposure in the space, so on and so forth?

Yeah, of course.

So, I actually started, like you said, in the mortgage space quite some time ago, a little over four years ago.

We are working in the same space at the time actually.

– Physical space, co-working space.

That’s right.

But I had, previously was in the fashion industry.

So, kind of at a left field, but when I was in college studying for fashion, I worked for my landlord for four years, and I was managing his finances.

He started with about 20 properties, ended with about 85.

He was a property management company.

He had a brokerage contracting company.

And so, he did kind of everything in house.

But he really allowed me to kind of watch behind the scenes, sit in on his mortgage deals, watch him do rehabs and things like that.

So that was when I kind of knew I wanted to eventually get into the real estate space.

I just didn’t know how yet.

Fast forward, after graduation, I worked for Urban Outfitters and Free People Headquarters in Philadelphia at the Navy Yard for about two years.

It was a very, fashion industry is hard.

We all know that it’s cutthroat industry.

It was a little too catty for me on top of the fact that I was working really, really long hours for crap pay.

Yeah, no doubt.

Such is life right after college, right?

We all go through it, okay?

Exactly.

But after two years in the space and I was taking work home all the time, sometimes I was working 12-to-16-hour days.

And again, I’m willing to put in the time, but I needed to see it long-term.

So started asking around other people who had been there five and 10 years and the money just wasn’t there is what I really came to the conclusion of.

So, I had a conversation with my dad.

He had recently sold a text message marketing company at the time, and he was looking to get into a new space.

He had done flips on the side, and he had asked me to go to dinner one day with him and his partner.

They sat me down and they were like, listen, I think we want to open a mortgage company, but we both have full-time jobs, we’re not quitting, so we need somebody to really run the company and start this up and get their mortgage license.

And I quit my job the next day and started studying for my mortgage license, so.

Yeah, so both mortgage and marketing are literally in the family genes.

Yes.

Which again, I think gives you that unique perspective.

And so, you did that, I think, for a couple years and now at NFM.

Yeah, so well, a little bit of things in between.

We opened the company pre-COVID.

COVID hit about eight months later.

Everybody was capitalizing on refinances at the time, and we didn’t have that past book of business.

So, we eventually ended up dissolving the company.

I went into title for a little while.

So now, I was in, I saw the real estate side of things.

I went into mortgages, now I went into title.

So, I’m kind of, I’d like to think well-rounded, but I was working as a processor and title.

And they had wanted me to be in business development at the time, but in all honesty, when I first got in the mortgage space, it was kind of hard being 23 years old and I had a lot of pushbacks with people, quote unquote, using me, you know, just to do things for them and the business wasn’t coming back.

So, I was tired of that.

I didn’t think I wanted to do sales anymore.

I was like, let me just try nine to five.

You know, I think I can do this build a, at the time I was doing personal training on the side.

So, I was kind of all over the place.

I could not do a nine to five.

Sitting behind the desk was not great.

– Don’t blame me one bit.

You’ve had up a long time ago.

And honestly, they couldn’t give me enough work.

So, I ended up getting out of there about eight months in and got recruited by my now boss at NFM.

So, I’ve been here for a little over a year and a half now.

Okay, fantastic.

Well, thank you for that context.

Again, you’ve really seen multiple sides of the equation here.

Yeah.

Let’s get into our first kind of core topic as it relates to how to market a mortgage company or how to market yourself as a mortgage agent.

And so, I wanted to talk about networking a little bit.

I mean, let’s just start with the obvious.

We all know it’s about networking, but through your experience in this space, what have you learned that works doesn’t work?

How do you network better?

What tips can you give our listeners on how to network effectively in this space?

Yeah, so I mean, big point there.

Network in general in this space is really your net worth.

Anything that you could do through social media, any events that you can go to, any networking groups.

I mean, when I first started, I was just doing it all, you know?

Um, and you’ll find your way as you go, but you have to try is what I really found.

Um, in the beginning, I was kind of closing myself off to only, you know, groups or people who were directly related into the industry.

So real estate agents, title insurance, that kind of thing.

Right.

As I’ve gone, I’ve found that widening that array of people that I’m working with or networking with is really to my advantage.

So, I don’t cut anybody off as long as the networking group or the person or whatever is giving back to me, I will in turn give back to them.

And we kind of grow our businesses together.

And then again, my reach is not so cut off.

Narrow.

Exactly, and it’s not just people in real estate who are buying houses, you know what I’m saying?

It’s any average Joe out there who’s buying house.

So, for me, I wanna make sure that everybody and anybody knows what I’m doing at all times.

I always say that if I walk in a room, regardless of if it’s I go to a restaurant or I’m at a networking event, wherever I’m at, I wanna leave with at least one person knowing what I’m doing.

So that’s kind of my big thing is really getting my name out there and making sure that people know what I do.

And so, as it stands today, is there any one either type of networking event that you found to be the most effective or types of individuals with occupations that you found to be the most valuable?

What are some of the best either types of events or individuals you’ve worked with that you found to be the most helpful in your networking or is it really just across the board?

I mean, as a mortgage lender, I’m directly fed by real estate agents.

So, they’re definitely my biggest group of networkers because when I start working with an agent, kind of the way or expectation of how it works is that I help you, you help me.

I feed you, you feed me.

So now in a business development role, rather than just a role as a loan officer, that has expanded for me to allow me to do other things for real estate agents.

So, you know, now I’m helping them grow their social media by doing things like photo shoots and videography.

You’re helping the agents grow their social media.

Correct.

It’s actually a really interesting approach and now is where you put your marketing hat on, I suppose.

So, sorry to interject, but you really piqued my interest with that.

So, you’re helping the real estate agents with their own social.

Tell us more about what that looks like.

So again, it’s me doing photo shoots with them, me doing videography and helping- – You’re behind the camera?

Correct, yeah.

Okay, wow, Jack of many trades here I see, all right.

The fashion background, I used to have a blog back in the day.

So that kind of really helped on that aspect of things.

And it’s always been a little passion of mine.

But yeah, I mean, even from, you know, planning their day, planning their schedule for social media, time blocking, like all of these different things are things that I do with agents now to really help add value other than just buying leads or, you know, a lot of people rely on that.

I’m always saying, okay, listen, as a real estate agent in the beginning, I can understand your, you know, want to buy leads and do things like that, other marketing tactics, but everybody wants to work towards a referral business, right?

So, the only way of doing that is continuing to build your network.

And right now, especially in today’s day and age, the way of doing that is through social media.

So, I’m providing a free service and the way that I’m able to do that is because I offer it to anybody and everybody.

And it’s not like I’m necessarily– – Managing their social media.

I’m not managing it completely.

I’m more so teaching them.

So, in the beginning again, we’ll sit down, and we’ll go through what your schedule should look like.

I will help again with your content.

So, I’ll do your photography and videography for you, but it’s on you to do your posts.

So yeah, I mean, again, the way that I’m able to do that is really just being able to, I guess, allow everybody to have that option.

So, I’m not just saying, listen, I’m gonna do this for you and you send me leads.

It’s more so like I’m building a relationship with you while doing so.

And you want to send me leads after that.

I’m providing you this free service and we’re building a relationship while doing so.

And I found a lot of the times too, not everybody’s very comfortable behind the camera.

So, it’s that coaching that comes along with it that really helps to build that relationship and coach that gap.

And then, yeah, and then I just, I see the business come in.

Yeah, it takes some time to get comfortable.

For sure, we just did another photo shoot just recently for our new studio space and for Tag.

And, you know, I remember it gave me flashbacks of the first time we did it and how awkward I felt and how comfortable.

And you do it a couple of times, you get used to it.

And so, I’m sure you probably tell the Realtors the same time, same thing.

Okay, that’s a really interesting premise.

My mind goes to like maybe mortgage companies everywhere out there should have some type of small branch, small division that helps Realtors with their marketing presence.

I’m actually kind of shocked this is the first time I’ve really come across this.

So, it’s kind of brilliant.

Sorry, now it’s all over the internet, but that’s really the idea.

Don’t be afraid to give it away, right?

Which actually is the core premise.

Right, yeah.

All right, cool.

And so, you had mentioned to me offline that you’d also done some stuff with just direct messaging, certain potential referral partners.

Is there a specific strategy there?

Or is that the strategy?

Yeah, I think that’s the strategy.

So in general, if you were an agent and I see that you, you know, add me as a friend, I’m immediately reaching out to you.

Again, talking about that network.

Regardless of if we’re going to work together, I can tell you right now that any meeting I’ve had with a real estate individual, I’ve took away something from that.

So, you know, an hour of my time, it’s worth it for me, regardless of if I’m gonna get business where I’m just taking something as a learning lesson from them.

So, you know, I’m reaching out and I’m introducing myself, you know, thanking them for giving me a follow, telling them that I’m always looking to expand my network.

I would really love to grab coffee or lunch sometime.

Let me know if you have any openings next week.

So, one theme I’m picking up on that’s been kind of a common thread through everything we’ve talked about already is just this idea of not being afraid to give value first.

And being willing to do that with a lot of different potential referral partners.

Now, of course, here’s a hard question for you.

How do you do that in such a way that you avoid wasting a bunch of time?

I mean, it’s always a numbers game.

Some of it’s always not gonna pan out.

How do you do it without spreading yourself too thin?

Yeah, so we have a program on our end that allows us, if you’re an agent, I can look up the numbers at your thing out.

Oh, okay, sure.

So, I mean, to a certain extent, yeah.

I’m running you through the system to see what you do.

And, you know, again, that’s to your point, not wanting to waste time.

You have to, you have to have some type of mechanism by which you prioritize.

Yeah, so it’s not that I won’t meet new real estate agents because for me, they’re also a long game.

If I meet with you and you’re a shark, I’m coming after you still, you know, because not for nothing, my top agent right now has only been in the industry for two years.

Interesting, yeah.

If I, you know, she’s a personal friend of mine and I knew from the beginning that she was a shark and that she was gonna be very successful.

But again, I think I’m a very good vibes person.

You know, I can really tell like if a person is somebody who works hard or not when I meet with you.

And you know, when I ask you questions about what you’re doing throughout your day and whatnot.

But again, some people just need that guide, you know, to really help them when they first get in the industry.

It’s not that they’re not hungry, but they just don’t know what to do.

That’s a good point, because if you’re there to provide, for lack of better phrasing, unless shepherded them through and be in their corner, they’re gonna forever look at you, but you have to judge character well up front.

Correct.

That’s definitely an art and not exactly a science.

Okay, all right, that makes sense.

Let’s go back to just your own marketing efforts of NFM or yourself as an agent, what are some strategies for what mix of content you choose to post on social or similar question in terms of like, how are you prioritizing what makes sense or is worth your time to post for yourself or for your company?

Yeah, so videos are number one.

I think that everybody can relate to the fact of you going on Instagram, Facebook, whatever it is now, you’re mostly seeing videos in your content.

And because of that, we all have to get out of our comfort zone and put ourselves in front of the camera.

Now, I don’t mind doing so, but I can’t be our whole brand, especially because I’m, I mean, I’m technically a licensed loan officer still, but I’m really not acting as a loan officer anymore.

So, I need the loan officers in my office in front of the camera.

And that was the struggle, because as a loan officer, you’re constantly on the go as well.

You’re constantly on the phone.

You’re constantly behind your computer, working numbers.

Your days are really busy.

And so, finding the time consistently for them was really hard in the beginning.

Um, again, what I had to do was create a schedule.

We have 11 loan officers in our office.

Now I have a different loan officer recording tweak, you know, and you can’t tell me that you can’t give me one hour every two months.

And what do you have them talking about?

Um, really whatever they want.

Again, the industry is changing constantly, so there’s new topics that could be talked about every week.

They could be talking about a specific product; they could be talking about a market update.

So, it’s really, I give them the reins because I don’t wanna control completely what they’re doing, and I think that you’re more comfortable through talking about something that you come up with.

So, I really let them run with the topic.

But again, I’d like to say that I’m very good at helping them throughout the process of recording.

So being behind the camera, if they get stuck or I’ve had some people come in and they didn’t have anything prepared ahead of time, I’m helping them script as we’re going.

We’re actually in the midst of getting a teleprompter as well.

So that’s a lot easier for them.

Yeah, we’ve talked about the same thing here, yeah.

But again, recording with somebody who you’re comfortable with and who’s able to give you those tips and stuff like that as you’re going, It just helps create a smoother process.

But yeah, for me, it’s really been the scheduling of it and videos are definitely first and foremost.

It’s interesting.

I suppose unsurprising in hindsight, but I wasn’t expecting coming into this interview that one of the main things that you’re doing to make this all work is this kind of like media training, coaching, helping other people both in your sphere and literally in your organization, feel, oh, I don’t know, empowered and/or comfortable to start pushing out the content.

But it makes sense, right?

That that would be a major part of your role as the person internally responsible for marketing.

Can’t be you, you can’t always be the name and face of the organization.

You need all the other agents to own their own personal brands and push out the content.

But that comes easier for some than others.

So, okay.

I guess while we’re on the subject, any specific tips for the other individuals like yourself within a mortgage company, trying to empower their team members to get out there and talk more.

What are some of the coaching tips or training recommendations you might offer them?

I would say scripting is big for me.

I’m somebody who likes to write it down, read it out loud, and then try it on my own.

So again, it’s just like really anything else in life.

If you go in and you’re just going off the cusp, you might not hit everything that you wanna hit rather than if you come in prepared, you’re probably gonna go throughout the process a little bit smoother.

So that’s really my biggest thing is that like preparing and I’ve even seen the guys who are recording with me next door, when they come in prepared, it might take them anywhere from three to five takes.

They’re not coming in prepared.

We’ve gotten upwards of 40 takes in a time because it’s just, you don’t know what you wanna say, you get nervous because you don’t know what you wanna say, you’re trying to get the scripting right as you’re going and then you’re coming up with all these different ideas and so it just becomes a little bit messy.

Okay, putting you on the spot.

Both when you’re putting your colleagues on the camera or you’re engineering a creative direction for a photo shoot for a realtor and you say, be authentic, be yourself.

Do you have any tips for how to do that?

Because that, I mean, that is just that conversation, that talking point transcends or runs through all aspects of marketing these days with all social media content across all industries.

You gotta get on the camera and be yourself.

How do you be yourself?

– The one thing that I see a lot of people missing is a smile.

And especially for loan officers who are typically sitting behind a desk, they’re not meeting their clients in person a lot anymore.

They don’t really have to worry about that.

And so I’m constantly, I actually said it to my boss last week when I was recording with him.

I was like, you can’t forget to smile.

That’s what’s gonna translate the other person watching to actually wanna watch that video.

And he was like, and he said exactly what I just did.

He was like, I keep forgetting because I don’t ever have to worry about that being behind the phone all day.

But so a smile is the biggest one.

And again, recording with somebody that you know.

A lot of people are hiring, right?

Other people, and it might take time to get comfortable with them.

If you’re recording with somebody that you already have a relationship with, you can laugh about it and move on to the next one.

Whereas if you don’t know that person, you’re likely getting clammy, now you’re even more nervous, you know?

So, I’ve actually seen, because we have a NFN video crew that’ll come down from our headquarters, or yeah, down, up.

Where’s headquarters?

Yeah, okay.

But so, we’ll do it and there’s been times where I haven’t always been there throughout the whole entire shoot.

And I can tell, when I hop in, I’m like, what’s going on?

And they’re like, I feel like I can’t do this, whatever.

And the second I start kind of coaching them through, you see it start to be a lot more fluid.

But so yeah, that’s the one big thing I would say, a smile and recording with somebody that you actually know and have a relationship with.

Those are fantastic tips.

Thank you.

They’re simple, but they make all the sense in the world.

And the smile thing, I mean, it’s, look, again, so simple, but it makes a world of difference.

I find that with, you know, many aspects of business, sales, and in a lot of ways that’s what we’re talking about, right?

But like a lot of people on sales are a little too serious sometimes, or aren’t afraid to show some authenticity, or, you know, that ability to kind of let your guard down seemingly let your guard down a little bit and give a smile can be huge and helps develop the poor.

And somebody needs to write a whole book on the power of the smile because I think it warrants it.

For sure.

Okay, so for what about those that are like, hey, look, I’m brand new to this and I feel like I’m being fake.

What do you say to those that feel like they have imposter syndrome?

You have to find what works for you.

So, you know, you see, especially now with TikTok and stuff like that, there’s a lot of people who will do like the voiceovers, you know what I’m saying?

And sometimes those work for people who aren’t good at, you know, remembering like what to say.

Some people like doing more comedy type things.

Some people like doing more informational, you know?

You have to find what works for you and it’s not gonna be the same for everybody.

you might have a mix of both of them, you know, but really do your research and look at different videos online, try a few different things by yourself first and see what makes you most comfortable.

And maybe it’s just you are taking your camera and recording yourself this way while you’re trying to do it.

You know, you have nobody else around, you know, adding other people only, you know, increases your likelihood of messing up and things like that.

– Are they faking it till they make it?

Is that encouraged?

So, I like to say face it till you make it.

Face it till you make it.

And what do you mean by that?

You don’t wanna be fake.

When you’re fake, personally, I think that that comes across.

Face it till you make it as in just go for it.

Get out of your comfort zone, do things that are going to help you grow as a person, as an individual.

And not only just for yourself, but for your company, for your clients, for your referral partners.

When you see those things and when you start putting those things in place, I’m telling you right now, other people are going to recognize them and it’s gonna make them wanna work with you.

That’s legit.

Bringing some heat today, Marisa, I’m not gonna lie.

All right, very good.

And so, one last thing with the time we have left, I mean, let’s just talk about personal branding in general.

I mean, I think that’s something that’s been the overarching theme to this conversation, but what else should we know about building a personal brand or, you know, what’s your general take on that and the power of building a personal brand?

Your brand is everything.

It’s essentially your name, especially as a loan officer.

So yes, I’m backed by NFM lending, but people know me as Marisa.

So, I wanna build a personal brand for myself.

Likely to add to the videos and things that I do with my clients, I also help them build their brand.

So, one of the first things that I ask is, do you have a logo?

you’re backed by your company, you know, KW.

But people don’t always know you as KW.

You know, they know you as John Bertina.

So just to clarify, sorry to interject.

But this is when you’re working with one of these agents that you’re supporting helping them build out their profile.

You’ll encourage them to put a logo in association with their individual– – Anything that they’re putting out.

So, you’ll say like, they’ll do like just listed, or I help them essentially create different branding templates for anything that they do so that their brand is consistent throughout.

So, they’ll pick colors, they’ll pick fonts and stuff that they like, and then they use those same colors and fonts and whatnot over and over again throughout different layouts of, again, just recently sold, listings, testimonials, all that kind of stuff.

So, that’s what we’re talking about when we’re really talking about planning that social media brand.

But again, for myself, when I go into a networking event, I want people to know that I’m Maris Carey, you know what I’m saying?

So networking is a really big part of branding as well, because you need people to know your name.

And I struggle with walking into a room and remembering people’s names who I’ve sometimes met two and three times, not gonna lie.

But how do you stand apart?

And for me, it’s, I’m reintroducing every single time.

Sometimes they’ll be like, oh yeah, I’ve already met you.

Oh, great, wonderful.

So, you already know that I work for NFM Mortgage.

Exactly.

Here’s what I do.

Exactly.

Right, yeah.

But what I really find leads to people remembering me the most is not just because I’m a mortgage lender.

It’s being personal with them, sharing personal stories, telling them about my background outside of mortgage.

I’m really big into fitness outside of mortgage.

On my social media and on anybody’s social media, I always like to say, building your brand is not just posting about real estate because people wanna work with people that they like.

And- – So true.

If they can’t relate to you outside of you being a mortgage lender, they’re likely not gonna wanna work with you.

So, I always say like for me, it’s like the rule of three, posting at least three different things on your stories daily that have nothing to do with the mortgage industry.

I like that.

So, for me, it’s fitness, it’s food and it’s quotes.

Those are the top three things for me that I think I relate to most and people relate to most.

And I’ll tell you right now, when I post a house versus when I lost my breakfast in the morning, I get probably about 50% more people reaching out to me about my breakfast than about the house I have.

That must be one good looking breakfast.

Exactly, exactly.

(both laughing) So yeah, you have to be posting about personal stuff in order to really bridge that connection with people.

I think that brings it full circle, doesn’t it?

Like you have to build a personal brand.

One of the keys to building a personal brand is you have to network.

If you’re gonna be out there networking, you have to be authentic, you have to be personable.

And you have to look good in terms of your brand aesthetic and the way you present yourself, right?

Very good.

Any other tips come to mind you wanna leave us with or key aspects of building a social presence, building a personal brand that you don’t think we’ve covered yet?

Or do you say we summed it up pretty good?

I think he summed it up pretty good, talking about how things come full circle.

Really, it’s just, again, being authentic, be yourself.

and hopefully you’re a likable person.

Very good, yeah, and so if you’re not a likable person, Dale Carnegie has a book for that.

There you go.

It’s called “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”

Yes, yes.

Well, you’ve definitely won my friendship and influence being Marisa, so thanks so much for being on the show.

You’re fantastic.

Of course.

Thank you.

And I’m sure our listeners really appreciate it.

That’s it for another episode of the Niche Marketing Podcast.

Thanks, guys.

[Music fades out]