Angie Moss, Sales and Leadership Coach and Certified Trainer with Southwestern Consulting, and Brad Moore, Senior Vice President with BancorpSouth Wealth Management, talk about the principles of working ON your business not IN your business, moving your on goalpost for success, and becoming a leader even before you have people to lead.

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This episode is brought to you by Southwestern Coaching.

Southwestern Coaching

Today we have Angie Moss. She is an absolute delight, just a woman of an incredible, incredible resilience, and one of her clients, Brad Moore, who is the vice president of Bancorp South mortgage down in Fair Hope Alabama. So Brad, welcome to the show.

Thank you, sir. Thanks for having me on.

So tell us a little bit about yourself and your business. How long you been there? What do you do? How long you been in the mortgage business? Just give us a little background.

Absolutely, I've been gosh, I guess I started in the mortgage business in 2009 you know, didn't know what a mortgage was, but, but they said it was commissioned and kind of sales oriented. So I said, Sign me up and started in 2009 I've been doing it since.

So you started in 2009 that is so crazy to me, because that is when most people left the mortgage business.

You know, it's funny. It's funny. You say that that, you know, I get that a lot. But one of the cool things was, is in 2009 that's when rate kind of dropped off the table and and so most everybody else was, you know, in their office, doing refinances and, you know, just stacking checks. And I was the only kid. I was 26, 27 years old. Was the only kid outside, you know, the only person out there, if you will, knocking on doors and getting purchase business. And so, you know, it would just so happen that those two years I was, you know, building up for when, you know, the market kind of stabilized, and everybody started buying again. I'd already kind of gotten a niche with those agents. It worked out well. My boss said, Hey, y'all, we got a meeting tomorrow morning with someone who wants to come in and talk about sales training. And, lo and behold, I remember sitting there thinking, Man, this is right up my alley. You know, I'm kind of a self help, self motivated guy.

And, you know, but at the time, I think I told Angie a little bit of this, you know, at the time being, 27, 28 you know, the investment, and I couldn't want the investment, of course, now you know, it's definitely more than worth it.

And so Angie, welcome Angie, so good to have you.

Thank you so much. Good to be here.

So what tell me when you first, you know, had your first call with Brad, what were, what were some of your first impressions about him, or what were some of the things that you kind of noticed about him or his situation? Is there anything you remember about where he was like when you when you first met him?

Yeah, you know, it's interesting, because a lot of times clients have come to us and they're not real clear on what it is that they want to accomplish through their coaching. They know they want some changes, but sometimes they don't have a lot of clarity around what those changes are going to look like or how they're going to manifest. But Brad was not one of those people. It was fantastic. So very early on, it was so good to hear somebody that had such clarity of thought. I mean, I know exactly the three things he wanted. He had a volume goal. He wanted to do it in an easy, easy, easy way. He didn't want to have to work crazy hours. And he wanted efficient systems. And he that he didn't even pause. We said that. And so it was nice to be able to really focus in early on, on working on those things.

So, Brad, why did you decide to get a coach?

When I came to Bank Corp south, one cool thing about them is they are very sales oriented. When I was sitting there one day, and kind of my intro, if you will, to Bank Corp south, I remember I'm making the comment, you know, if you produce x amount, we provide for you a year's worth of coaching at Southwestern I remember that was, to me, was just as cool as, you know, getting your little trophy or name on, you know, certain emblem on a car. I thought, Man, I could, if I can get to this point, I get a year's worth of coaching. And the cool thing is, is before, you know, maybe a month or two into it. Instead of doing that, they actually, some of your company, bancor south, approached me and said, you know, hey, we're trying to give you we'd like some people to do the southwestern coaching. And, you know, they knew I'm kind of that self help process and systems kind of guy said, Would you be interrupted? And, you know, I didn't blink an eye. I had a number

that I was doing every year. I was happy with that number. It was providing from my family and then some but it got into it. I only needed Angie and I joke, I only needed maybe three hours a day to do that, you know. And and I definitely wanted to push it. I had systems. Employees had processes in place. Definitely wanted to push their processes. And, you know, Angie really helped me. And Angie does a good job of, you know, as far as challenges, you know, the holding me accountable. And then also, you know, never fails. Every single time we have a conversation or we do our meeting, she comes up with a new idea that are a saying or something to think about that I'm. You know that you can't put a price on and I'll tell you something cool is Angie made a comment that said, you know, write your, you know, you got your vision boards. All that's great. We do all that. But Angie made a comment, you know, why don't you, instead of just your vision is where you want to end up? You know?

How about it's on your to do list? Why don't you put down, you know, your career goal, and maybe some things to do to reach that career goal, and maybe your ideal career, if you will. And so slowly but surely, I put that down on a piece of paper, and here we are.

So coming back to you, Angie, what was the plan, or what was some of the strategies that you saw as an opportunity to kind of focus in on and say, This is what we need to do, this is what is going to take Brad to the next level.

Well you know, I have to credit Brad. I He is an incredible student of the game. And I think, you know, just hearing him talk about how into that self help and all of that stuff, he is that he's an incredible student of the game and, and what struck me early on was how motivated he was getting better and and it not necessarily, was tied to the results of those. Those were nice. He had this drive to be better. And so early on, I thought, you know, let's focus on that. You know the results are going to come, but this is a guy who really wants to be better for himself and for his family, and he his family has always been in the forefront for him, and talks about them a lot, but for me, it was like a recognition of this person who has the drive that he couldn't necessarily put his finger on, but it was just a drive to be better. And what interesting and the thing that I love probably the most about his story was this guy who went from producing and just was thinking about

producing, he hadn't really put in clear thoughts down about what he wanted to do outside of just producing and doing what he was doing. But he always knew he wanted to be able to go back home. He always knew that he wanted something over and above what he was currently googling. And we had one phone call in particular that stands out to me, and he said, You know, I met my production goal. And he said, but if I'm feeling guilty, you're feeling guilty. What do you mean? He said, well, because I can do this production now in about 15 hours a week, all it takes. And he said, So what I'm really wondering is, what do I want to do with my career? Really? What do I want? How do I want this to evolve? And so it was this wonderful transition from him focusing on his production and himself to beginning to focus on how he could help others, and he clearly had a drive to reach out and sort of help people. He said, You know, I've created a lot of systems, and I've learned so much. He said, I

really want to be able to help other people, and I think I could help other people that are loan officers like me do the same thing. And I think I really want to do that. And he told me he got a call basically saying, Hey, would you be interested in moving back to your hometown and open an office for us there? So now this is a guy who you know, reached his own personal goals and said, Yeah, I want to help other people. And just the doors opened up two weeks later. And so now he was able to move back home with his family and open up a second market, and now he's in a position that he can take what he's learned and started helping other people do the same thing.

Yeah. And it was, you know, it was, you know, we put, like I mentioned earlier, we put some processes in place. And I told Angie the goal was we had, it was the number goal. And if you hit this certain amount, it puts you into kind of, like, the top producers of the company. And I think maybe when I started the company, I was just or when I started coaching, it was maybe just a couple months, but maybe six months before the year ended. So I didn't quite have a full year under my belt. So I told Angie, listen, you know, this is something I want to do. I want to hit this number. You know, I like to be invited to this little producer's retreat and all that. So we hit our number, we put our systems in place, you know, with, uh, constantly changing them, making them better. And we hit our number, and I told Angie, I said, you know, this is just, you know, I feel especially, you know, I feel like I've got all this time, you know, you talk about multiplying time,

and I'm sitting here thinking, Man, I got so many more hours, you know, so many more hours in a work week. You know, that we could be, you know, let's we need to be doing more, and then we need to be and not just volume, you know, volume, yes, but also, you know, what are we? What are we not doing? What are we not for? You know, thinking about, you know, being proactive. And I just thought, you know, we there's got to be more. We got to be doing something more.

So since you moved into management, have there been any major like roadblocks or speed bumps that you have run into in this sort of next level, new role?

You know, we're getting there, you know, kind of it's cool, you know, Angie, she and I were sitting there talking about one on ones and closing a sale, etc. And now our calls, we're spending 20, 30, minutes talking about hiring and interview tactic, I guess, right now, the challenge is, we'd identified a couple people to, you know, invite to come on board. And so the new the challenge that awaits us, you know, besides penetrating a new market and getting our name out there and our reputation and our brand, is having to settle again, if you will, those processes our company to potential other loan officers and hopefully get them on board.

You know, it's been really so much fun. I mean, just the whole transformation has just been incredible. And, you know, I think what happens is a consistent focus on, let's make sure that we spend time working on your business, not in your business. You know, it's a constant reminder of what kinds of things do we need to be looking at and attending to from that 10,000 foot view, if you will. And now it's not just about managing the people that he has on his team for his own personal production, but how is he going to take that and expand it into a bigger role, and what traits have Has he seen in others? What does he look for in people that he admires and looks up to from a leadership standpoint. And what does he need to do to sort of work his way, that way, and be that leader that he really wants to be. And it's just such a fun thing to do, to be able to sort of make such a clear path from producer to leader. He was already a leader. He just hadn't, didn't have

people to lead yet.

Very true.

Has that been a difficult transition for you, or do you think you stepped into that naturally and and are you still producing?

Absolutely. Yeah, we're like, when they hired me. I mean, right now it's, I've got a small staff, and nearly just process right out. So if it's just process right now, and and I am definitely still producing, you know, right? They, they've, I guess, given me the task to kind of take that, as Angie said, kind of that, uh, one on ones with realtors and marketing, etc, and kind of get our name out there to our new market, um, within the at the same time, bring loan officers on board to know, hopefully, eventually, kind of, if you facilitate, if you will, some of, some of that production, you know, the vision is to, you know, it's kind of crazy. My markets are four hours from each other, you know, but they're two things that I do love is, you know, I do love Tuskaloosa, and I do love the beach. And one, one market is at the beach. And so, you know, the goal would be to really put my head down for seven to, you know, 7, 15 years, and look up and have created, you know,

maybe not just one office in Tuscaloosa, but maybe a couple same in Baldwin County, and then maybe have the opportunity to manage those. And you know, in 40s, 50s kind of slowly transition from that production standpoint into more of a leader, flat manager, if you will. So more time on the beach with Angie, haha.

So Angie, I got a question for you. What do you think is the number one thing that you have learned from Brad? What do you think has been the biggest thing you know to flip the roles a little bit that you've learned from watching him?

What consistently inspires me about about Brad is his quest for knowledge and his quest to do things a better way, or to find a way to serve more people and be better with what he's doing. And it's that level of integrity that he has that I'm just consistently inspired by his willingness to do whatever he needs to do. And, you know, he mentioned it before, trying to think of the term, you know, double prime part time for full time, free time. And that's exactly what he wants to do. That's exactly what he's focused on. You know, I think it's that, that quest for him to always stay out of that complacency. It's that plus for him to say, You know what fixed up for me is going to be a moving target, and I'm not sure you know necessarily what the end is going to look like, but I know it's a moving target, and I know I can be better. I know I can do the better, and I know I can do it with ease. And I know that I just got to keep my feet moving and and that for me is, is, is

what I love.

You know, my favorite about Angie is, there's always something every call. There's always one tidbit, a one nugget, one idea, if you will, that she comes up with. You know that is totally unrelated. Or you know that she slowly, kind of, you know, slowly, kind of ask, and she's asking the right questions, until all of a sudden we're talking about something, you know, whether it be, you know, customer relation, surveys, etc, ideas to constantly, you know, that are just unbelievable, and that every time we talk, I'll be listening to yell me about my CSS, and the next thing I know, we're talking about something that I'm right down circling the second, you know, putting it on the vision board, thinking this is gonna gonna change. And when you actually put it into practice, you're made at how much it does change.

I think that, you know, really, it's funny, because there are ebbs and flows and everything and I and especially with this transition, you know, with him and, you know, he, he sold a house, he bought a house, he had to open a new office. He had to find the leaf, you know, there's, you know, it's not a small chore, opening up a new office and moving your family and kids and so that just happened to be one of the ebbs and flows and things that we wanted to make sure didn't fall off the tracks.

On top of producing, on top of producing, we have that in there as well.

Right.

Last question for you, Brad, if there is somebody out there who is listening right now, they're not living up to their potential, and they're sitting here listening to your story. What? What would you say to that person?

You know, I would my advice, I guess you know, talking be like talking to me two years ago, is accept. Is like sanctification. I mean, you never really, ever get there, and as soon as you allow yourself to feel like you're there, you've kept your potential. And one thing that I've loved about Southwestern Angie is, you know, for once, you know, I always had these big dreams of where I wanted my career to go, but once actually putting the processes, the systems to test and seeing where you know when you're not so results oriented, as much as you are getting better, you know, and constantly trying to sharpen every knife in or every arrow in your quiver, and you know the sky's the limit. You know, you're constantly looking for ways to be better. And when you know, you look up in your life and you look in the rearview mirror and you go, Wow, I can't believe I just did that. Can't believe I'm here in it's all to thank of southwestern and kind of motivating me there.

I love that, successes like sanctification, what a good, good parallel, for sure. Well, Angie and Brad, thank you for the work that you're doing, and thank you both, and thank you for sharing the story here. We wish you both the best.

Thank you so much.