Welcome back to Lending Leadership: The Creative Brief your front-row seat to candid conversations and powerful insights that move the mortgage and real estate industries forward.

This week, we’re thrilled to continue our deep dive with Maria Quattrone, Philadelphia listings powerhouse, as we unpack what’s holding salespeople back and how real connections, not coffee meetings are what drive business and relationships in our high-touch industry. If you missed part one, Maria shared how she built a listing-driven business with 192 listings in a single year and challenged herself to book over 100 appointments in one month. In this episode, we go even deeper on authenticity, adding value, and building meaningful partnerships.

We discuss the real perceptions realtors have about loan officers, what it truly means to lead with value, and why authenticity and courage are not just buzzwords, but the foundations of long-term success. Maria also pulls back the curtain on her “More Listings Now” operating system and details how she builds engaged communities seeking more than surface-level connections.

Here’s what we covered in this episode:

• Why should sales professionals stop leading with products and start leading with empathy and added value.
• The power of authenticity is why being the same person at work, on social, and at home matters.
• How to approach partnerships through service, not solicitation.
• Building accountability through public commitments.
• The importance of community, coaching, and proximity for exponential growth.

Key takeaways:

1. Relationships Over Transactions: We explored the critical need to connect with people on a real level, emphasizing that success in real estate and lending depends on caring about the person behind the transaction. Maria underscored that “Nobody cares about the products until they know how much you care” and that the age of superficial coffee invites is over. If you’re not bringing value, you’re not building trust (00:10, 06:00).
2. Authenticity as a Differentiator: A key theme that emerged was the importance of authenticity in business. Maria described how exhausting and unsustainable it is to pretend to be someone else, advocating instead for showing up as your true self across all situations. This establishes credibility and trust and eliminates confusion for both you and your clients (04:28).
3. Add Value, Don’t Just Ask for Business: The discussion explored how loan officers and vendors can truly stand out by genuinely helping agents grow their business, not just soliciting theirs. Maria shared a recent example where a partnership offer that actually created opportunity for her helping her secure more listings was a game changer. Initiatives like these that actively move the needle are both memorable and effective (07:42).
4. Accountability and Public Commitment: One concept discussed was the power of accountability. Maria explained how publicly sharing her goals (like her 100 appointment challenge) forced her to follow through, turning personal accountability into both motivation and community support (03:15).
5. The 10x Mindset and the Power of Proximity: We closed with a conversation on operating at a higher leve challenging yourself to think of what’s possible if you “10x” your goals instead of just doubling them. Maria outlined how surrounding yourself with growth-oriented people and investing in coaching or mastermind communities can propel you much further, much faster. Proximity to those pursuing excellence is everything (17:32, 19:24).

Whether you’re a loan officer, agent, or any professional looking to deepen relationships and make real impact, this episode is packed with practical wisdom and motivational fire. Don’t forget to subscribe there’s so much more to come on Lending Leadership.

Rach & Rin

Well, one of the things I would say, go help somebody. Go help somebody be better, because in turn, that makes you better.

Yeah.

Connect with people on a real level. No more of this bs. You want to have coffee? I can deliver this and that. By the way, nobody cares about the products until they know how much you care. The products don't mean anything. You guys lead with products. No. Know about the person.

Care about the human. It's all about humans. It's about relationships. Oh, that's why, you know, I said don't do the Popeyes. Or like, basically like, that's like saying, like, who do you have to give me business? What are you doing to bring them business? How are you helping? Why is it only a one way street?

Hey, guys, welcome back to part two of my conversation with Philadelphia listings powerhouse Maria Quattrone. Last week, we talked about how Maria built a listing driven business with 192 listings in one year. Awesome conversation. And then the challenge that she created for herself to book over 100 appointments in one month. Awesome tidbits. You're going to want to tune in. If you haven't seen that one, make sure you check it out. But today we're going to dive into part two of the conversation.

We're going to really dive into what's holding salespeople back. We're going to talk about what realtors think of loan officers when they call in some really valuable nuggets on how to give value to realtors and how to really create the connection. I'm excited to dive in. This one we're gonna get real. Welcome to lending leadership. Yeah, I like that term, borrowed belief. That's great.

And. And the thing is, you know, is never, ever, ever, ever give up. Like, if you don't give up, you will win. It may take you longer than maybe somebody else, maybe, maybe not. But if you give up, you're done. You're done. You'll never know you're done. And I do know that courage comes before confidence.

So you have to have the courage to stand up and fear being, I don't know, humiliated, maybe. It could be laughed at, yelled at, whatever. Yeah, it's okay. You'll get through it. You really will.

There's something to that, too, you know, if you. If you share this, and I'm sure you probably experienced this since you had put it out there, it's like, well, now other people know. Yes, they can share my experience. Yes. Root for me.

But it's the other piece of it. It's.

Yes. The accountability where it's like, oh, well, now they know if I don't do it, I'm going to look stupid.

Right. Myself and to everybody else. Yeah, that's the accountability part, where it's part of the process and making sure that you stick to whatever you committed to is the accountability piece.

Yeah.

That's why I posted it on social. That's why I did the video. That's why I told everybody people knew about it because they. I did videos about it.

Yeah. No going back then, Right. It's like, well, it's out there. Everybody knows. So I gotta. I gotta keep on going and figure it out.

Today I'm going to do a video on proximity. On proximity, yes. And I have some props for this video.

I love it.

Yes. And it's three pine cones. And I'm going to do this video on proximity and the three pine cones.

We'll have to check it out. That sounds intriguing.

Nothing to do with real estate, but everything to do with real estate. Estate and mortgage and title and insurance and whatever it is.

I love that. I love that. I love kind of telling stories and, you know, now I want to know more. Even you just describing it. So if I'm scrolling through and I see Maria holding three stinking pine cones, like, what the hell is she talking about? I mean, that's. That's stuff that's going to stop the scroll and make people go, oh, okay, I get her a little bit more now. I understand her. And, and showing up as that expert, that's.

That's really important. That's an important piece that I didn't mention. Is that authenticity and you being you is everything. Nobody else can be You. You're the only you. And this is another piece. I see an identity that people miss. They want to be and act like that other person.

Yeah, I see that.

The problem is that the other person that you're trying to emulate has different skills than you. Has different. It just, it never works in people's favor because eventually you get found out that you're not the person you said you were. Yeah, I'm this exact same person. At the office, at home, on the phone, on the car, wherever I am, on the beach, at the restaurant. How you hear me on the video is exactly what I am in real life. There's no two different Marias. There's only one.

That's exhausting that up.

Yeah. Different people.

It's like, wait, who was I supposed to be again?

Well, that's the other thing. You can't. You, you can't. That's too much thinking going on.

Yeah.

And then. Yeah, it doesn't. Yeah, yeah. So authenticity is critical.

I love this. This is like, that's right up my alley, you know, something we're talking about all the time. I want to switch gears a little bit and just. I want to talk about what realtors think about loan officers calling and saying, hey, you know, I was just checking in and I'd love to grab some coffee.

What's your. It's on the other line of that. I am disgusted and I have no time for coffee with you. Yeah, I talk about this. I said, mortgage, mortgage people, loan officers want business from real estate agents. Why not do something for them that can give them an opportunity for more business? What is that? An opportunity for more business. How can they get more listings now, for an example? Because everybody who's in real estate should want to have listings because listings equal leverage. And then when you go to that, you're selling their house.

Those people usually have to buy a house. There's the business. Yeah, that's the business. But everybody gets it backwards. They're thinking about, you know, oh, go to all these little buyer agent people. I mean that. Those people, too. There's people in there that do want to move up in the business and they can become a great partner long term, but why not provide them some real value versus coffee? I could tell you, nobody wants coffee.

Nobody wants to go out and drink or go to dinner or go to lunch either.

So is there anything that you've heard that just, you know, that was a real moment from maybe a. Could be a loan officer that you have a relationship with or maybe somebody that was cold calling you, that you were like, wow, okay, well played. I will take an appointment with you.

It just happened on Friday. Somebody reached out. He had a guy call me and say, we have this system where we'll call expires for you and fizbos and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, you know what? I'll listen to what he has to say. See, that's the person I am. I'll always take a call. You never know where the relationship will go.

Yeah.

And I'm a very, very busy woman, but I always can take a call. So he set it up. I said, well, he's like, when do you want to do it? I said, how about 4 o' clock Friday, which is Memorial Day weekend? So the guy calls me and he's like, yeah, I have a. I do this. I do this, this podcast, but I put it on TikTok. We get all these views from it. I love to have agents like you on. Then he's tells me about the calling the expireds and ask me where my business goes to.

And I said, well, we have a few people that we work with, you know, and mainly we have to have a few people because not everybody does a CRA program, which is very big in Philadelphia, for our listings. And I thought that it was genius. I thought his angle was great, you know, because what is he trying to do? He's trying to help me get more listings now.

Yeah. And he's creating value in a different way. I love that I'm gonna know who that is. I'm gonna call him and try to recruit him, or maybe he was from my company, I don't know. I love that. I love thinking outside of the box and think how you can actually move the needle together rather than just doing the same thing that everyone else is doing. And look, we all fall prey to that. And especially early in your career, you do what someone else before you tells you to do, but then you realize very quickly that that thing is what everyone's doing, and that's not going to differentiate you from anybody.

So I love things like that, where somebody's actually going to be a partner.

Right. And so one of the. Part of. Part of my. My business with more listings now is really partnering with other entities in real estate, where. Whether it is a brokerage or a mortgage company or banker or title, people that want to be in front of real estate agents. Right. How can you deliver them value? Well, let's see.

Have, like, somebody like Maria Quatrone come and speak, you know, like, those are ways that people want. People want to know, how can I be better? How can I make more money in the least amount of time possible? That's what agents want.

Yeah.

They don't need coffee. They drink plenty of it.

No one needs coffee. We're gonna be too caffeine and sugared up to actually make a decision. No, bring. Bring value. That's. That's gonna get you.

That's gonna get you in a door that you may not have been open and may not have been open. The other thing I would say is timing and just continuing to build a relationship with nothing happening.

Yeah.

I mean, I have relationships with people that. I don't know what necessarily. We weren't doing any business together. But long term, you have to think of this as very, very long term. There's a long Runway in this industry, and you need to be cognizant of that. And understand, sometimes you don't have to understand. You understand that you may not understand, you may not know. And I always say for loan officers, you keep offering value to that person you want to do business with, and you never know when their number one becomes a dud for whatever reason.

Yep.

Because it's happened. It's happened to me.

Absolutely.

And so don't give up and really be of value. And don't just pop in the office either without an appointment. We have mortgage people. Other. We have vendors that come in, in our office off the street. We know them, but they do Popeyes. And Popeyes are disruptive to a business. Yeah, don't do that.

Don't be that. Ello.

Yeah.

And if you. And if you know when people at the office are gluten free, don't bring a box of Dunkin Donuts.

Nobody wants Duncan either. Either. Everyone's trying to be fit and get healthy and nobody, nobody wants that if it's there.

When I, I come in the office, I see a box of Dunkin Donuts. I'm like, they're like, yeah, this vendor, blah, blah, blah, brought it in. I'm like, we told them so many times to stop bringing crap into the office. We literally actually told them, do not come. They're not bad food. We do not eat bad food here. Yeah, we do not eat junk in our office. If anything, I'm making like a gluten free banana bread and bringing it in, sharing it with everybody.

I do things like that. The holidays, you know, we'll have like a little more junk around then. But generally, you know, we have a bowl of fruit and protein bars.

That's so funny. Straight up. Tell them. And they're not getting the clue. People pay attention. This is where Maria listening is so important. And you're. I feel like that in itself is a trust factor.

You're like, I told you. You didn't listen or care enough to pay attention to what we're actually telling you. I wouldn't really give my business to somebody like that. You're not listening to me on the little things. How are you gonna listen on the big things? I mean, people read between the lines on all of this. And all of it goes to build trust, build the relationship. All of the above. Nobody needs donuts.

No donuts, no coffee. No. I wanna wrap it up just a little bit. I mean, I feel like we could chat all day. So many different avenues to go in. I wanna talk about in closing. Just more listings now. I mean, I know you've got Your book coming out, it's dropping in a few weeks.

You, that you've put together multiple courses. I know, but you're working towards this more listings now community. Tell me just a little bit more about that because I know we're, we're going to be talking, we're going to have you at one of our talk about it Tuesday sessions that we have for our loan officers. But talk to me about, you know, what you're really looking to do in these, these mastermind courses, whatever you're. You're calling them.

So it's an operating system, it's not a course, it's not a place to come and just watch videos. It's real live training every other week and then a hot seat, Q and A the opposite week. So we can actually implement the work that I am teaching in the training labs. And it's a whole community. It's based around getting more listings now. And it's a little bit different than most of these communities because you're, it's, you would be logging into it every day, putting your numbers in the system, sharing your wins, getting, you know, cheered on, having your questions answered. It's like a real live, Gosh, I wish I had this two years ago because most of the agents don't have anybody to ask questions to. Yeah, the broker's not around and maybe the broker gets back to them days later.

There's not like broker in most places sitting just like in the office all day. It doesn't work like that. And so they may have multiple offices. They're a broker ad and they go from office to office or you know, with all this online, a lot of people aren't even doing that. And, or maybe they have. In a lot of organizations they only have one sales meeting a month. You can't get questions answered. You can't get real life situations answered.

And then we have guest speakers that come in industry icons every month. It is a very, very robust community. And then from there I have listing intensives where you actually come to my office and we actually like do the work. We do the work on the listing, making the calls, doing the consultation real live in person, which is really cool. And then. That's great. Yeah. And then I'll have my one on one and other a lot of other stuff in store.

Like I have a extremely thorough executive plan that I wrote out and I was super excited about it. But one thing at a time.

One thing at a time. Yes. I mean, you don't seem like the kind of person who slows down or sleeps much. But, but that's, you know, I get

my eight hours every day.

When you have a goal and you're, you know, you're passionate, I mean that there's no stopping you.

So, no, it's really about what do you think you can do? And then kind of say, okay, I think I can do that. Well, what if, what, what does it look like 10x? What does it look like? 10x? Because, you know, I don't know if you know this, but it's easier to 10x something than the double it.

Yeah, that's what I've heard. Because once you get those down, wash.

Because in order to 10x, you have to say no to all the other stuff. And all the other stuff is holding you back from reaching what you really want to reach. And so it's called opportunity cost. You know, if I take, if I go and take a listing that's, you know, a half hour away and then I'm there for an hour and then I'm half hour back, and then that's opportunity cost. What else could I have been doing at that same time, you know, and thinking about it. Thinking about your business and your life that way you'll say, I don't have time to go on vacation. I'm like, well, that's sad. That has to.

That should be the first thing you put in your schedule every year.

Yeah.

Like this is when you work for then.

Right. What are you doing all this for if you're not going to spend time with the people that you, you love and care about the most and life

goes by way too fast.

Yeah.

So really deciding what you want and, and being open to being uncomfortable and taking the steps. You know, I've had a coach and, and, and training coach for my, almost my entire career. Like all professionals have coaches.

They do.

And trainers. Like. Yeah, that's my, and my coach, my coaches, they both have coaches. And the one spends on one of his programs he's in, he spends like $250,000 a year.

Yeah, I believe it. I believe it.

And that's one of a couple he's in. So it's, again, it gets back to proximity. Proximity is everything. Growth is the people you spend time with, you surround yourself with.

Yeah, this is great. Yeah, this is great stuff. We, I want to, I want to wrap up, but I want to have you. I don't know any, any last bit of advice. Let's, let's talk to our loan officers out there. We spent, we spent a good time talking to the real Estate community. Let's talk to the mortgage community. Is there any one last piece of advice that you could give to loan officers out there? It's probably very broad.

You could probably give them a lot of things, but.

Well, one of the things I would say go help somebody, go help somebody. Be better because in turn that makes you better.

Yeah.

Connect with people on a real level. No more of this bs. You want to have coffee? I can deliver this and that. By the way, nobody cares about the products until they know how much you care. The products don't mean anything. You guys lead with products. No, know about the person, care about the human. It's all about humans.

It's about relationships. Oh, that's why, you know, I said don't do the popeyes. Or like basically like that's like saying like, who do you have to give me business? What are you doing to bring them business? How are you helping? Why is it only a one way street?

Yeah, this is gold. The good old golden rule, right?

The good old rule, treat people the

way you want to be treated. If you don't want people stopping by your office. And that foundation of knowing somebody, creating the relationship, bringing value. This has been great.

Yeah. Like what about I get emails yesterday. How many emails I got that said happy Memorial Day from my lender. From the lender. Like you're just junking up people's inbox. Do send out. Oh, it's time to change the clocks. We if you want to send out something on like a holiday, say maybe do a video that connects with them and what it means to you.

Like I always do a fourth of July video because it's one of my favorite holidays and this year it's going to be a real big one. And I tell a lot and I say why it is the freedom that we have here in America, the opportunity. Our streets are truly paved with gold. Barry Habib says it. He wrote a book on it. I mean I pay attention.

Yeah.

What's going on? And there is so much opportunity. You gotta get uncomfortable. You have to do things that you not used to doing and you have to be out there, you have to be seen. You gotta be on social media, you know, comment on an agent's post, share their stuff, you know, be there. Don't just say, oh, we give you the best service or that's you should be given the best service. Like you should deliver the best service. That should be a no brainer. But.

And you don't need to lead with that because that's like a bunch of bs. Yeah, I know. Get to know the person. How can you help them?

This is great. I love this. Like I said, I feel like we could. We could chat all day, but we're just about at our time, so I am going to grab some time with you because you're going to hopefully come in and chat with our loan officers and some other big things that we're cooking over at hma. I'm really excited about that. You're just. You're so fun. You have a wealth of information, and I feel like, you know, we're not that far.

I'm in Yardley, you're in your Jersey. Philly, you're kind of all over the place. So I'm excited to meet in person one of these days. Thank you so much for joining me on this podcast.

My pleasure. Rachel. Thank you for the opportunity. It's been great, and I look forward to seeing you real soon.

Absolutely. All right, everybody, we're going to connect Maria's info down below. Make sure you follow her on all of the places, and don't forget to like and subscribe to lending leadership. We'll catch you next time. Bye, everybody.