Welcome to another episode of Lending Leadership: The Mortgage Pros!

After coming back energized from our annual company sales rally, we decided to shine a spotlight on one of the most pivotal aspects of mortgage leadership: getting the most out of industry conferences. As anyone in our business can attest, conference season never really ends, and for us, these events have made a profound impact not just on our bottom line, but on our overall growth, mindset, and approach to leadership.

In this episode, Dave Holland and Tom Mills break down what top producers actually do at conferences, why so many people get it wrong, and how to ensure you turn your investment of time and money into concrete results. We share candid stories about our first conferences, the discipline required to make meaningful change, and how the true ROI is never handed out in a swag bag; it comes from intentional actions and follow-through.

We’re sharing our hard-won truths from years of conference-going, coaching, and leadership in the mortgage space. Whether you’re a rookie or a seasoned loan officer, this episode will give you a fresh perspective and a tactical game plan for attending your next event.

Key takeaways:

1. Intentionality and Preparation are Everything: Don’t let conferences drain your bank account and time. Go in with a clear plan for what you want to get out of it. We focus on leaving with two or three solid takeaways that we can realistically implement over the next quarter, not 115 “half-built bridges.” (00:10, 04:46)
2. Motivation is Fleeting Discipline is Forever: The initial energy boost from a conference is temporary. The real long-term value comes from the discipline to revisit, implement, and consistently act on what you learned. That’s where actual growth both personal and professional happens. (04:12, 23:51)
3. Network Outside Your Circle (and Your Comfort Zone!): The best conferences aren’t just about the speakers on stage, they're about connecting with peers from across the industry. Sometimes the most actionable takeaways come from late-night conversations, not keynotes. Don’t stick with your coworkers, branch out, ask what’s working (and what isn’t), and don’t be shy about starting conversations. (07:39, 12:22)
4. Be Present Physically and Mentally: Resist the urge to “work” the whole time or let distractions steal your attention. Keep your laptop in your room, take intentional notes (whether that’s old school with a legal pad or using the latest AI notetaker), and really engage with the content and people around you. (08:44, 09:03)
5. Consistency is the Missing Link: The gap between where you are and where you want to be is bridged by consistency, not hacks or shortcuts. Conferences are a catalyst, but only sustained, disciplined, day-in-day-out action delivers real change in your business. (24:22, 25:47)

If you have recommendations for can’t-miss conferences or want to share your breakthroughs, drop us a note. And don’t forget to treat every conference as an investment in yourself, not just a line item in your budget. The difference is in how you show up, follow through, and make it count!

Robert, Tom, and Dave

My team used to hate when I go to a sales conference, I'd come back with like 115 ideas, you know, and I drive them crazy.

We're doing all these things, we're do

all these things like tomorrow, you know, but I want to have like two or three solid takeaways I can either take back to my life or my business and implement over the next quarter.

Conferences can either change your business or just drain your bank account and take your time. Today we're breaking down down what top producers actually do at conferences and the mistakes that waste time, money and opportunity. I'm Tom Mills, welcome to another episode of Lending Leadership, joined by my co host, Dave Holland. Dave, how you doing today?

Good, how you doing, Tom?

Awesome, man, awesome. I know we were inspired by this coming off the heels of our annual company sales rally and we were just rapping about conferences and how to take away and teaching our people that and how to implement things. So great, great topic, great timing for us and a great topic.

Well, it's kind of timely too because you know, year round is basically conference season in the mortgage world. Right. And for me personally, and I think I can speak for you to a certain degree, Tom, conferences not only change my business, but professionally, like on a sales side and then operationally. But I, I can also say conferences changed my life. I didn't start going to conferences to 2018, but as soon as I got in kind of the rhythm, they definitely changed my life and changed my business. But there's we're to get into briefly the right way to conference and then the wrong way to conference.

Yeah. And uh, there's definitely, definitely a difference. I agree with you though, Dave. Without question, sales conferences did change my life. I remember the first mortgage conference I went to, it was 2013, 2014. Mortgage magazines, you know, Vegas Mastermind, that they did. And I remember being there and of course it was Vegas, it was a

show and not a good place to have a conference. Let's couple cities. That's not a good place.

Vegas is definitely one of them and, and put together then. So I had a heck of a time. But I remember, I remember Rick Ruby up there talking man, and he spoke to me and you know, earlier at that point in my career I was young, doing well and it was a bunch of has beens that were telling me what people are supposed to do and then I'm like, this guy gets it. And I, I went and found him and I started coaching like you know, two weeks later and then always, you know, look to Attend one. I always find two, you know, two sales conferences a year. Usually like the spring and fall are great times to, you know, there's a lot changing our business to get different perspectives and just get rejuvenated.

Absolutely. The first conference I went to, I went with my sales manager and I turned to him at the first break and I said, this is going to change my life and this is going to change the complexion of the company going forward. So my goal, like high level is when I go to a conference, a couple things. Number one, I want to meet some people, you know, network. That's always great, you know, that's how you and I met Tom. And I have friends in the mortgage space from all over the country. Right. And I, you know, some deep friendships have been formed, but also whatever I pay for the conference, right.

You know, time away from family, travel, airfare, per diem, I definitely want to get my. If I pay four grand to go to a conference, I want to get 4, 4 grand of value out of it for sure. And for me, when I go to a conference, it energizes me, it gets me pumped up, it fills my cup again. And like I told, you know, we told our ellos today on our sales call, like we're all one week off our sales rally. People are super motivated, they're ready to run through a brick wall. But what the important thing is, motivation is fleeting. It fades. Right.

Discipline of what you learned in some of the ideas can stick with you forever if you go to a conference. You know, my team used to hate when I go to a sales conference. I'd come back with like 115 ideas, you know, and I drive them crazy,

do all these things, we're doing all

these things like tomorrow, you know, so my goal now, you know, and even at our sales rally, I want to have, you know, I'm gonna get a lot of takeaways and be inspired, get energized. But I want to have like two or three solid takeaways I can either take back to my life or my business and implement, you know, I'm not going to say I'm gonna give myself a week implement over the next quarter and I'm going to see them through conclusion, not build half built bridges and really focus on because, you know, some conference are sales related. But you know, our last conference, and I've been to some recently that really are kind of life related to improve your life and improve your mindset.

Yeah, yeah. And I think, you know, we should probably talk about that a little Bit more before we talk about the right things to do is, you know, why do people get it wrong and leave conferences without any real result or anything to say? Oh, I went and learned this and here's what I'm going to do. I think, you know, I think they very much try to take on too much is one of the biggest things. I mean, first of all, try to have a little too much fun while they're not.

We've all been guilty of that in the past. And I talked to a wise man, Rich Svensky, and he said there's, there's nothing more despicable when you go to a conference with two sets of workout clothes and they never leave your suitcase.

Tension is always good.

Intention is always good. That's always my number one goal. In our last sales rally in Philly, I ran every single morning all three days. So you can't, you can't be out till 3am and expect to get up at 6 and have a productive day.

Yeah. It's funny, they also happen to be at places that tend to go late night. Yeah, so the 10th is there, but

showing up, it's not to interrupt, but showing up is half the battle. If you actually go from the conference to nine to five, there's usually like a happy hour or a cocktail reception or networking event. If you hit those afterwards and really make it an extension of your job just showing up, you're going to get so much value out of it. And a lot of these, you have to go in to them with an opened mind. You can't be like, ah, that guy doesn't know what he's talking about or this is never going to work in Kalamazoo or Pittsburgh or Florida. You got to go with an open mindset.

Yeah, I agree. Conferences also have to make sure that they put people on stage to speak that deserve to. I, I love a speaker that kind of validates who they are and why they're up there and why they're successful to, you know, give you a good reason to capture, you know, and give them, give them your full on attention. But I agree we can always, we can always learn from, from, from anybody. I think, you know, there's, there's that aspect of conferences where I don't know, I'd probably say 50% of my takeaways are from what was actually presented from a presenter in, in, in a conference. 50% of them are usually from a conversation I had, which is sometimes at the bar. You know, you truly are kind of networking, talking shop all night. A lot of the time.

So um, you know, I'm always in that mindset too, making connections and, and, and, and learning from people and picking people's brain. But in the same sense you got to get the blend and got to get the best of both.

Yeah, I mean when you go to a conference, if you go to a mortgage conference, you're going to be around generally high level operators, top producers from all around the country. So that's gonna inspire you. If you go to a leadership con conference or like a marriage conference with your spouse, you're going to be around like minded individuals that are, that are go getters. And that's like we said at our sales rally, it's kind of like a rising tide. Lifts, lifts all boats. So yeah, the conversations, like you said, are probably half the battle. You're not going to connect with every single speaker. It may not be something that interests you.

And another pro tip, like I see this all the time and I don't do it. But don't bring your laptop to a conference unless you have something burning. I usually try to turn my phone off for an hour and then just check emails during break. Like you don't want to be working the entire time because you're going to miss all sorts of good nuggets.

Yeah, I try not to bring my, my laptop in. I always keep it in the setup in my room so I can like run back to it in a break or lunch and knock something out if I got to. I don't have to get all set up, you know, check my phone here and there. Are you. I, I don't like when, you know, when you have like the auditorium seating, you don't have like a good place to like take notes. Do you usually bring your own notepad or, you know, how do you, how do you kind of take notes and gather your thoughts to look back on?

Yeah, you've seen me, Tom. I'm scribbling notes the entire time. I just do old school. I always bring like a, like a yellow legal pad and that's, that's what I put notes on. And then it's only for conference notes. Right. And then after the conference I review them, type them up. Now I'm throwing in AI to kind of like get my thoughts together in a real organized manner.

But I take all sorts of copus notes and I make sure like one month and three month out, I, I review them in a little bit of detail as well too.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got, I, I used to, I was always a little scattered with that and honestly, that was one of my problems is I would, you know, they would give handouts. I would take some notes there and take some notes in this notepad and I would leave that thing there that may before and hope it's there the next day. It's like I lost the notes on that. I did that all the time. But I actually, a couple of months ago, and I've been to two conferences since I bought one of those small plaud AI note taker devices that just connects to an app on your phone. You can just sit it on the table. It records like hours on hours on hours. You can be in an eight hour conference, respect, press, play, record the whole thing.

The audio is ridiculous. The cool thing is if you bring your app up and you like, there's an area you like or speaker saying something like that's really speaking to you and you want to go back to. You can like hit a button to spotlight it. You can toss a little note to it and then boom, when you hit done, you download it and then boom, here's your whole report. You can click on links here, everything. You can throw it in there, anger deeper and further with it and take actions and all that kind of stuff. But there's some cool tools out there today for those, those that aren't the best note takers or if you have the, you know, if you're engaged, something for some reason you have to step away or miss, you know, something. There's some ways to capture that nowadays.

Yeah, we, we have a conference coming up in a couple weeks and I'm really excited about some amazing speakers. I think there'll probably be 800 mortgage professionals in the room. So let's, let's follow our own advice on this podcast. Yeah, so, you know, I think something like we chatted about that's really important about conferences is meeting new people, you know. So with that in mind, I'd encourage, you know, we're going to this conference in a couple weeks, Tom, with a bunch of people within the company. Let's try not to sit with each other much during the sessions and the breakout sessions. You know, let's not sit together at lunch.

I thought we're gonna hang out, Dave.

Well, we are gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna hang out. There's just plenty of time to be together. But it's, it's so, it's great meeting other people, getting different perspectives, kind of putting yourself out there, do a little, you know, to a certain degree.

Yeah, no, I get it.

Like one of the Coaches says, and maybe not for this, but being shy is expensive. Right? So just, just meeting new people, getting new ideas, getting inspired, you know, by other folks. Because you never know who you're going to meet that's going to trigger something in your mind.

Yeah. What do you usually ask people?

Like, you know, like, like, you know, it's real basic small talk where you're from, blah, blah. But I'll usually ask what's really working in your business right now and what's not working, and you usually get relatively insightful answers. Yeah, something that's regional, you know, across the country, but you can get some good nuggets, some of the best nuggets and ideas. Well, first of all, I have very few original ideas. All of mine are borrowed from, you know, someone else. But that's where I've learned some, you know, just some great stuff at conferences.

Yeah, and that's like you said, that's important because, you know, ideas don't always come from, from those on, on stage. You know, I always ask people what they're, what they're there to work most on, you know, which tells them where they're kind of at in their business. And you know, of course, I mean, just, if I can add any insight to that, I'd love to. And if not, just learn and ask questions and get to know people. But, you know, it's, it. I love just being in a room, you know, you already know that people are there. They're the mindset of growth. Mindset to be the best they can be.

I love just putting myself in those rooms and have as much conversations as possible and, and, and connecting with people and learning.

Yeah. Favorite parts of this business, it, it makes you grow, right? At our most recent conference, we had the youngest loan officer in attendance, Thomas Strout. And I said, thomas, I wish I started going to conferences when I was 21. And he said, why? And I said, I'll tell you why. It, you're around top performers, right? He's just starting his career. He's gonna have a successful career, I can already tell. But you're just starting your career. You're around all these top los, like you're around 50 million, $100 million producers who are willing to share and willing to be open.

And if anything, it just, it gets you excited, it raises your game. You, you sometimes put yourself in, you know, uncomfortable situations. You're out of your comfort zone. And we all know that's kind of where growth happens. And. Yeah, like minded, hungry individuals who want to grow.

Yeah. You know, it's interesting too, you know, let's just say you're a loan officer's closing four, three, four, five loans a month. And you go there and you know, you spend time and connect with those multiple hundred million dollar producers. You leave there thinking like they're just like I am. They're the same, they're normal people. They're just like me. I can do this too. You know, they don't have this superhuman power.

They didn't put a cap on in the morning. Like they just, they, they're just like me. They're here to learn and you know, ask questions, learn and, and I always thought that in a, in a non arrogant way, like what's this person that I can't be? You know, and in a non arrogant way, just very normalized.

And I can honestly say any, every conference that I have gone to, I've gone in a little bit better, I've learned a little bit, I've grown a little bit. I can genuinely say that that has happened every conference I've been to. Maybe I'm just picking good rooms, good conferences.

Yeah. So you're going away. How many ideas are you like, are you looking for ideas? Are you always looking for ideas?

You know, Yeah, I mean you're, you're going to the gathering, I guess next week and I, I think you probably have a plan of action, you know, that, that you want to chat with people about either probably on the sidelines. Right. Have some conversations, probably have some people you want to meet. But yeah, I'm always looking for one or two, one to three good takeaways. Right. And if I have a problem that I'm working on in my business, I'm muddling through my mind. I'm going to seek out people who are doing that at a high level and just pick their brain. And you know, usually you go to these things, everyone's open, right? No, no, no one's a jerk at, at these conferences.

So you usually get really candid conversations on what's working and what's not. And you know, like AI for example, AI this, AI that. And then when you peel back the covers talking to some mortgage executives, they're doing about a third of what you thought they were and they're struggling the same way that you are. Your company is.

Yeah, they, they, they present it in the perfect world. Right. If everything else was lining up perfectly, this is how it would be going.

Yeah, absolutely.

But it's a work in progress to get there. Yeah, I love that. Now you mentioned like so there's people you're already seeking out. I think that's brilliant. I was always told a network event, you should be seeking three people out. You know that you're. So conferences are networking events as well. And nowadays, I know we did it at our, at our most recent sales rally, but nowadays I love the event apps because they make it easy to connect.

You can see the roster, who's attending. You can message them like, hey, I see you're attending. I'd love to schedule some time with you. And everybody's there with the same mindset of connecting, grabbing meetings with people. So it makes it that much easier to chart, to plan in advance of some of the things you want to. People you want to meet with and topics you want to tackle when you're there.

Absolutely. And, you know, something we talked about before the show was don't judge the speakers. Like, don't. Don't judge the book by its cover. Right. You may be in your mind, completely disinterested of what you think the speaker is going to talk about. Then you hear him or her speaking, you're like, wow, that was amazing. So I think that's really important.

Like, just don't walk out of the room, don't make a phone call. Just, you know, like, like we said in the beginning, half the battle is just being there and listening to many, as many people as possible, you know. And some of these speakers that are being brought in, they're getting paid, you know, dependent level conference, you're at a hundred thousand or two hundred fifty thousand dollars. They're authors, they're professional speakers. Like, they, they got it going on. Like, you want to hear what that person has to say?

Yeah. Who's. Who? Is there anybody that comes to mind? Maybe we'll get some of the best speakers, too. But anybody that's come to mind that, like, kind of blew you away, like, you're like, oh my God, this, this is going to be a waste of time. And then you're like, holy shit, that was life changing.

I can't really think of anyone at the top of my mind. Right.

Me neither. Like, I, I'm thinking, like a lot of times, it's like, people start out really corny, so then they. I'm like, not really into it. Realize they have a really amazing message to deliver. I'm trying to think if there's any,

you know, you know, I, I guess the one of the conferences went to in the fall, Scott Valens. I can't. Scott Valens's wife spoke her name Escapes me. But she was really good. She just talked about productivity and a routine and how to get through your day with high energy and, and focus. The guy at our. I forget his name. Help me.

The gentleman who was talking about reading people's faces at our last conference at our sales rally. I, I thought he, he's surprised.

Galky.

Yeah. Brian. Yeah, he. Brian was very good.

Very good.

Yeah.

Yeah. I wasn't. I, I didn't think that was going to be as informative as I found it, but I, I wasn't. I was expecting decent. I was expecting good. I, I love, you know, I love now that it's not most good conferences. It's not all like tactical based. Like the reality is sales.

Sales is so mental nowadays. You always have a good mix of it. Mental preparation, mindset. Mindset, yeah. Routines that, that create success. Like that stuff's as valuable as the, you know, scripts or tactics that you're given, I think.

Well, yeah, I mean a lot of that stuff. Mindset, routines, just general health. Right. It's not something you're taught. Right. It's. It's some, it's. It's items that you have to learn.

You know, that's, that, that's why I wish I go back in a time machine and start going to conferences 20 years ago when I was young in my career, because I think it will look a whole lot different. But yeah, I mean, again, I, I can't reiterate enough. Half the battle is just showing up and attending as much as you can and meeting as many people as you can.

Yeah, I remember where. What conference were we. We there when Todd Herman spoke. The performance coach. That coach. Like. Yeah, Coach Kobe got Colby, the role of the, the black Mamba. That was like.

And one of the. Probably one of the best speaking sessions I've heard in a while.

Yeah, that was really good. His breakout session was completely full. It was standing room only.

Yeah, yeah. That he talked about, you know, how to create your alter ego to kind of overcome your fears. So you went away, you met some people, you've connected, you got a couple of good ideas. You got six or seven, like good ideas. Six or seven ideas is probably too many to implement. How do you. When you ever felt like that, like, I want to do all these things, but then how do we go into. Figure out where to, where to start? What, what's your kind of method of, of doing that, Dave?

I mean, I look at things some maybe one that's a quick win. I can do right away without a ton of Effort that will move the needle, and then I take another two. That would possibly take some time and implement that in my business. Like, I give me and my. My team and I a deadline. Like I said to my team, we have a new CRM that we're implementing. And I said, hey, our goal is to log into it every day. Our goal is to have this dialed in by the end of the second quarter.

So I'm not saying, like, I mean, so we're using the CRM, but we're not using the CRM at a high level. So you want to give yourself realistic time frames, right?

Because something you can start immediately, right?

Yeah, immediately. And some stuff that you give yourself a deadline. I'm going to have this done by X date. And it's realistic because you're coming back in. You have a personal life. And, you know, if you're in loans like us or you're an executive, yet you have all sorts of other competing priorities, right? You can't be a slave to two masters. So you, you want to give yourself a realistic deadline and then maybe like little milestone goals along the way. And, you know, after a conference, that's real.

That's when the real work starts, right? You gotta review your notes, review them again, reference them from time to time, and slowly implement that into your business.

Like we talked about the other day, the motivation, all these excitement and all these ideas. I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. It fades really fast, right?

Heck, yeah. Yeah. Motivation in anything in life is fleeting, right? You need in life, which this is a whole nother mindset podcast, but you need discipline. You. You need to discipline yourself because, you know, if you're just running your business or your life in general, on motivation, it's gonna be up and down, up and down. You need the discipline to get out there and do it every day, day in and day out. And that's real. What was the quote? I read the.

Where you. Where you're at, in where you want to be. That delta is consistency. And you know, that's, that's, that's a great way to live your life, being consistent day in, day out, doing the boring stuff.

Yeah, you're absolutely right. You know, there's no shortcuts. You don't go to a conference because you went to a conference. There's this aha moment that just catapults things. There's this aha moment that sends you back to put you into action, to make those things catapult. But it's the consistency. It's day and day out. And honestly, you know, when people, a lot of times people look to make change in their business, they want to, you know, they want to grow.

They want to grow. They're tired of doing the same amount of business. They go hire a coach. Like, the reality of it is, is, you know, you have bad routines before you do that. Like just have some self discipline and start to get some really good routines together. Like, you know, the simple things. What makes you money, how much time are you spending on that? Every coach does it. How much time are you spending on that?

What do you like, what makes your

money, how time doing that? They're like, oh my God, my coach says I need to spend more time doing the things that make me money. It's like, yeah, I, what else are we going to, how else are we going to grow? Well, you know, focus on the things that make us money. Doing them day in, day out, consistently. That's the key to everything.

It's the key to life, brother. All right, Tom, so just to recap, right when you go to a conference, don't be out till 3am Take your workout clothes out of your suitcase. Exercise, show up, show up to all the, all the most. Conferences aren't starting at 7am they're usually like 9, 9:30. Right. Reasonable hour. Pay attention. Don't go to a conference and then pop on the phone with, with customers or realtors every 15, 20 minutes because you're not going to get out of it.

So it's important to be present, it's important to listen, take good notes, follow up afterwards, meet people, network, have fun. I mean, there's usually good events after the, you know, in the evening hours for these. Yeah. But B, this is an extension of your job and when you go to a conference, treat it like that. So yeah, if people out, out there listening have some good ideas about conferences or want to chime in and ask a question, we're, we're always here to answer those. We probably get a couple dozen questions a month. Tom, anything else before we wrap up?

Now, if any of our listeners know a good conference that we may not know of, that you're planning to attend, let us know. I'm always looking for, for some new way to learn, but I agree, I think you great, you know, a couple conferences a year, it's an investment you make into yourself. So not just a time investment, but a money investment. And you got to be able to turn that money investment and, and, and make ROI out of it. So the action from it is everything.

Hey, if you like this podcast, leave us a review, hit the subscribe button. And this is Dave Holland with Tom Mills, lending leadership with the Mortgage Pros. Thanks so much, Sam.