Shownotes
- Unconventional Career Paths Can Lead to New Opportunities: Both of us, Corrine and Rachael, shared how our previous careers, ranging from radio and podcasting to direct response marketing, ultimately led us to marketing for mortgage firms. These diverse experiences bring unique perspectives and skills to our current roles.
- Personal Branding Is Crucial: Rachael emphasized the significance of personal branding, stating that clients often buy into you as an individual first before they consider the company you represent. Therefore, loan officers should focus on developing their personal brand to make a lasting impression.
- Treating Loan Officers as Clients: Corrine discussed how at HMA Mortgage, the marketing team operates as a service to the loan officers, treating them like clients. This client-centric approach involves customizing marketing strategies and branding efforts to fit each loan officer's unique needs, which is not a common practice in all mortgage companies.
- Efficiency in Marketing - The 15-Minute Rule: One pivotal concept introduced was utilizing 15-minute time blocks to achieve significant marketing efforts. Corrine shared how this simple yet effective strategy can help loan officers consistently work on their marketing, even with busy schedules, leading to impactful results.
- Direct and Effective Communication: We highlighted the importance of direct communication between the marketing department and loan officers. This proactive approach ensures that the loan officers are well-informed about their marketing efforts, fostering a more cohesive and productive relationship.
- Rach and Rinn
Transcripts
Hey, everybody. Welcome to Lending Leadership, the creative brief. I'm Rach.
Corrine Bibb [:And I'm Rinn. Welcome, everybody. We have a space here for loan officers to learn more about marketing. And that's really what Rachael and I wanted to come together and do for everybody, put our backgrounds together and give you guys an opportunity to get some bite sized pieces that you can take with you every morning with your coffee or your tea to get your day started.
Rachael Tresch [:So do you ever start in a career, like, maybe out of college and you think, oh my gosh. I'm gonna do this. Well, I I feel like nobody ever starts and says, I wanna be in mortgages when I grow up, and yet here we are in mortgages in the marketing space, and you know, I think the way we got here is kind of interesting.
Corrine Bibb [:Yeah, I would have to say so. I mean, you had a background, what, in radio, Rachael? You were in radio. Yeah. You've done podcasting in your background, and for me, it's all been about direct response and working with entrepreneurs in all different categories, medical, dentists, chiropractors, and now we're with loan officers and having a blast doing it.
Rachael Tresch [:You know, it's really funny when you can look back at your career, right, and say, like, okay, well, I don't know how this strange path and how one thing led to another, but when you can look back and see, wow, all of these steps have have led me to where I am right now, and all of those skills and crazy things I learned along the way have put me in a place where you can use all of those things. Like before before I got into mortgage, actually, it kind of fell out of the sky. I was I I didn't even know, you know, this was even a thing And, I was giving voice and acting lessons to kids and was looking for something a little different and and honestly, this position fell out of the sky. And when I was talking with Tom Mills, had this great a friend of mine was like, Rach, you gotta you gotta talk to this guy. He's they're looking for someone. I think he'd be perfect. We have this great conversation. At the end of the conversation, I was like, you know, this is great, but I don't know the name of your company, and I don't know what you do.
Rachael Tresch [:It was like this very strange happenstance. Like, one thing didn't really it it just kind of fell out of the sky and, you know, here we are. And, Corinne, I know you have a crazy story of how you came to HMA.
Corrine Bibb [:Well, I don't know if that means it's kind of similar to yours in in some regards in what you just said. I mean, I I lost my job, in 2020, lost a couple accounts, and, you know, I was in an agency where it was just a couple of us, so we were eating everything that we killed basically. And, we were just kind of hitting a lull period where we were searching for business, and I was starting to look around a little bit and, ended up making a networking list literally, like, on my notepad, like, call this person, call that person next. And at one point, I picked up the phone and called Dave, who was at a conference, like, somewhere. I think he was in I don't know if it was the Pittsburgh or Denver area, and picked up the phone, and I said, you know, listen. Wanted to chat with you. I don't know if you know anybody that needs help with marketing, but you know a bit about my background and, you know, I have a lot of experience with entrepreneurs. And he basically said, well, when can you start? I need to get some things done on Monday.
Corrine Bibb [:I can't pay you very much. I was like, well, that sounds like a great opportunity. I can't wait. I mean, you wanna talk you wanna talk about not knowing what you're doing, but, you know, as the conversation went on, you know, Dave and I started laughing and got into some things that I found out pretty quickly I could help him with, and look where we are now. I mean, we've got a department, you know, a marketing department within a successful mortgage firm, and we're helping hundreds of loan officers a day, whether it be the ones that work with us, the ones online. And that is kind of what inspired me personally to join you, Rachael, and do this podcast.
Rachael Tresch [:Yeah. So let's back up a little bit. Let's, let's give everybody a little insight into who we are and what we do. So, Karim, why don't why don't you start?
Corrine Bibb [:Well, my as I mentioned, I'm the vice president of marketing, at HMA Mortgage. So we've got a team of about 7, and we have different divisions within the department. And, really, we treat our loan officers like their clients, so we're pretty customized with how we, handle their marketing strategy and branding. And that really came from literally just as I said, Dave and I just working together 1 on 1 in the beginning about four and a half years ago to what it's become now. You know, I really take a lot of pride in just working directly with loan officers and and helping them build their business.
Rachael Tresch [:Yeah. And I love that that client approach because it's not like that in every mortgage company. And and I'm the I'm the new newbie on the team. I joined, HMA this year as the director of brand and media relations, and and I love being in that space of just helping people really brand themselves. That's something big we're gonna get into in this podcast, branding yourself. Because a lot of times when you're dealing with clients, they they don't necessarily know or, I hate to say it, or care what company you're with. They buy you first and foremost. So, you know, really making sure that you are putting yourself out there as the thought leader, that you are branding yourself, that you are out and playing in traffic and talking with people in a different way.
Rachael Tresch [:And, it it's like wherever you are, really, whatever company you work for, you can think of yourself as working for yourself to brand yourself first and foremost. So I love helping our loan officers shine and sparkle in a different way and help them just do what they're doing, but a little bit better. Maybe kind of support them in different ways, whether it's video or podcasting or to tell their story. And, so so I love being a part of this team that we're that we're creating and I wanna kind of focus in on on that aspect of treating loan officers like their clients because I think in a lot of companies that's not necessarily like that. You know, the mortgage company, the marketing team within a mortgage company is there just to make flyers and, you know, do do basic things for the overarching brands, but not necessarily for the individual loan officer.
Corrine Bibb [:Well, yeah. I hear it all the time. I mean, you know, loan officers come in all the time just saying, you know, I don't know what even went out in our CRM. Our marketing department doesn't communicate that to us. Or, you know, we reached out. We had a custom project or something we needed to get done and didn't hear back for 2 weeks. So, you know, a lot of conversations that we're having in the field, you know, result around kind of understanding and seeing what other marketing departments, other firms are like and how can we treat our loan officers differently. You know, they are our clients, so, you know, being on the phone with them once a month, customizing their campaigns, that personal branding element that you talked about, Rachael, you're so good at working with them directly on that.
Corrine Bibb [:Finding what really makes them tick is what sets them apart in the industry and what helps make all of us successful together. So it's I think that's what's fun about it. That's what's fun about doing a podcast like this, quite frankly, is just having open conversations about marketing in this specific category and space, and, you know, I hope we have a lot of fun stories to tell too.
Rachael Tresch [:Yeah. And I I really feel like for for the people listening, watching, wherever you're finding this lovely Lending Leadership, the Creative Brief podcast, you know, we really wanna give you tangible bite sized things that you can implement into your business right away. And, you know, a lot of times when we go to conferences, I'm a note taker. I take up, like, it seems like hundreds of pages of notes that I have.
Corrine Bibb [:A lot of notes. So do I, guys.
Rachael Tresch [:I love them. These rewritable things. They're so fun. But, you know, it's like pages and pages of notes. And how many times do you come home from a conference and don't implement anything? So, you know, if you're listening to this, I really would would love you to dive in and and come along the journey with us, and we we hope to give you ideas that you can start implementing right away. And, Curran, I love that 15 minute aspect that you have because this is some this is like the foundation of what we stand on for our loan officers. Right? Just that those 15 minute time blocks, and talk about that a little bit. I love how you just kinda came up with this.
Rachael Tresch [:I'm like, it's brilliant, and it's simple, and it's it's just one of those things that, yeah, you can start doing right away.
Corrine Bibb [:So we had we had a sales rally. Our sales rally kickoff was in, you know, May of this year, and, you know, our department plans the rally. So I'm, you know, micro focused with one of my team members on all the logistics around an event and making it successful. And then we had to help, you know, all the speakers with their presentations. So my presentation naturally came last. As I know many of you would probably know, it's kind of like with your kids. You do everything for your kids and then you get back to yourself. You're like, oh, I need to do some things for myself too now after you handle everything for them.
Corrine Bibb [:So that's kind of how I felt with the sales rally and I'm like, well, you know, I have about 15 to 20 minutes to speak. I'm like, what am I gonna say in this period of time that's gonna be dynamic or valuable or really help loan officers while I'm up on stage? And I just kept focusing on the fact that I only had 15 minutes. I was like, really? Like, oh, I only have 15 minutes. And then it just kinda hit me. I'm like, there's actually a lot that can be done in just 15 minutes. And I really just came up with a list of different marketing tips and strategies that loan officers can implement 15 minutes a day or even 2 to 3 times a week if you don't have 5 days of a business week to do it. And we just developed really a lot of categories and information, based around this theme and build it out a little bit, and it's a lot of what we're gonna talk to you guys about during this podcast. So we want it to be simple.
Corrine Bibb [:We want it to be brief just like the title, the creative brief, and we want you guys to just come in at your schedule and be able to grab some great information about how to market your business, and then go back to your day feeling inspired. I think that was kind of Rachael and I's goal, and it just came from really a brainchild idea around, a talk that I really had no initial idea for, to be completely honest. But it, but it's gotten somewhere to a place of value, so I'm I'm excited to share more.
Rachael Tresch [:That's awesome. I love that, Corinne, and I'm so excited for what we're gonna be doing here. You know, we've got tons of ideas and and ways that we can bring people information. We are in the thick of it with loan officers all the time in the marketing space, so really, really thrilled to share all the stuff that we hear from the front lines.
Corrine Bibb [:Yeah. What we want you guys to do right now is like, subscribe, and follow us. And we're really excited. The next bit that you come in for, we're gonna get right into our first topic so you don't wanna miss it. Take care, guys.
