Loans On Demand Podcast Luke Shankula

 When Jeff Van Nostran first started as a mortgage loan officer, he fell into a thought trap many entrepreneurs and other ambitious types are susceptible to. He believed he had to do everything himself.
 
“​​I was kind of a control freak,” he says. “Early on in my career, I kind of took this attitude of ‘I’m going to do everything from beginning to end. I’m going to touch everything. I’m going to look at every document. I’m going to file everything away. Nobody does that as well as me.’” 
 
Not only was this, he later came to realize, not true, but it also wasn’t scalable — professionally or personally. By overly relying on himself instead of creating the team, systems, and processes that could do parts of his job for him, he held his business back and failed to be emotionally present for his kids. Today, Jeff has learned which processes to prioritize, what to delegate, and how to go about his work more sustainably — which has, in turn, made him more successful. Last year, he closed $145 million across 325 deals. 
 
In this episode of the Loans on Demand Podcast, Luke and Jeff talk about how, as a loan officer, to build the right team, create suitable systems and get the right amount of transparency in place to optimize your business (and protect your personal life).
 
What You’ll Learn:
 
How Jeff went from a “one-man-band” loan officer to the leader of a team he can trust — and why most entrepreneurs wait too long before taking this step Why being a control freak is, counterintuitively, the same thing as being “inherently lazy” The ways Jeff advises other loan officers to build trust and rapport with clients and “turn them into raving fans” And much more!  
Favorite Quote:
 
“There are only so many hours in the day, and we can't be all things to all people. And so, how do we get it all done? How can we be thriving business owners and also have a thriving family life? I think you have to have a team. You have to have people that you can turn to and lean on to get certain things done in your business, and not be the one that's trying to do it all.”
— Jeff Van Nostran
 
Connect with Jeff:
 
LinkedIn 
 
Facebook
 
Movement Mortgage
 
How to Get Involved:
 
LinkedIn
 
Facebook
 
ParagonDMG.com

Four years ago, Shayne Hillier was in a tight spot. He was in a lot of debt, and he and his wife — who was pregnant at the time — had taken out several mortgages. They were also going through a lawsuit, his credit cards were maxed out, and he’d lost several contracts with big customers. He needed a new path, and he needed one sooner versus later. 
At the same time, he’d started doing some marketing for his wife, a licensed real estate agent. From there, he began helping the brokerage she was working on and next was introduced to the regional brokerage owners. Ultimately, he started doing marketing for brokerages across the region, and he began coaching other real estate agents and marketing agencies on his tactics, too. 
Today, Shayne is bringing his learnings to a broader audience as the co-founder of the 16,000 members-strong Real Estate Marketing Conversion Mastery group on Facebook. He’s also built up a Real Estate Marketing Conversion Academy program, helping hundreds of real estate agents and others in the real estate industry learn how to better generate leads, follow up with those leads, and convert them into actual customers. 
On this episode of the Loans on Demand Podcast, Luke and Shayne talk about the lead generation and conversion lessons that too many in the industry fail to incorporate.
 
What You’ll Learn:
The broken-down value of a converted lead, according to a case study done by Shayne Why Shayne believes the opportunity for better real estate marketing is “massive” How to create a customer worth more than the commission you’re receiving And much more!  
Favorite Quote:
“At the end of the day, if you can convert one lead into $15,000 or into $25,000, you need to look at the ROI as opposed to what it's costing you every single month to generate leads. It’s the opportunity. The more opportunities you create, the more conversations you create per cell. And the more deals you're going to get out of those conversations. A lot of people just don't understand that.”
— Shayne Hillier
Connect with Shayne:
Facebook
LinkedIn
 
How to Get Involved:
LinkedIn
Facebook
ParagonDMG.com

How can you, as a loan officer, leverage credit repair into helping you close more deals? And what does it look like to approach credit repair ethically? 
Answering these questions sits at the heart of Patrick Sciaroni’s mission as the founder of Mortgage Ready LLC, a credit repair company based out of Colorado. More so than asking questions himself, listening to the questions others are already asking has helped him break the mold and carve out success. 
“You’ve got to use your ears to find out what’s going on, and that’s really how we started Mortgage Ready, was just using our ears and asking loan officers, ‘What do you need? What are you looking for? What irritates you about other companies?’” Patrick says. 
In general, for all entrepreneurs, that’s an important lesson to take to heart. Too often, Patrick adds, people tend not to listen to their market and what they’re saying they need. Credit repair companies in particular have become infamous for having closed ears, offering solutions that don’t actually fit the problem — and can even make the problem worse. On this episode of the Loans on Demand Podcast, Patrick tells Luke about how he saw an opportunity to approach credit repair differently — and more authentically — and how that’s helping loan officers do better business in turn.
 
What You’ll Learn:
Why being a good salesperson sometimes — often, even — means telling people what they don’t want to hear Why it’s not necessarily just the “580 crowd” that needs credit repair help, including when purchasing a home How loan officers can incorporate credit repair to help give clients a better opportunity to succeed in this space And much more!  
Favorite Quote:
“The best salespeople have the best ears. They’re listening to their customers and their customers are saying, ‘Help me for this and this reason,’ and you can put your product naturally along the line to their goal. Because in general, nobody wants a mortgage. Nobody wants credit repair. They want a home… and if you listen to them, they’re going to tell you exactly what you need to know to make the sale.”
— Patrick Sciaroni
 
Connect with Patrick:
Mortgage Ready LLC
LinkedIn
 
How to Get Involved:
LinkedIn
Facebook
ParagonDMG.com
 

Aaron Martinez’s early days as a YouTube content creator, when he was just 13, were pretty magical — in that he was literally doing magic tricks. He started making videos of his hobby, and soon this segued into him making gaming videos, back “before competitive gaming was cool,” he says. But it wasn’t until he started putting instructional videos on YouTube of himself sharing SnapChat hacks that his digital brand really took off.
“I went from zero to 170,000 subscribers in less than a year just from talking about SnapChat and being the only person that really talked about it,” he says. “I hate the word influencer, but that’s what I was labeled at the time — a ‘SnapChat influencer.’ I got to work with Disney. I worked with Coke. I worked with NASDAQ. I actually worked with Zillow.”
The last of these he finds funny, given the direction he’s since taken his social media-hacking career. For the past seven years, Aaron has zeroed in on real estate and, as co-founder of Revamped Real Estate, helps agents and loan officers unlock the power of YouTube and digital marketing. On this episode of the Loans on Demand Podcast, Luke and Aaron talk about the idiosyncrasies of YouTube, the promise it holds for loan officers, and common pitfalls to avoid.
 
What You’ll Learn:
Why YouTube tends to be undervalued as a tool for growing real estate-connected businesses — and why it absolutely shouldn’t be Why Aaron takes a “travel channel” approach to content The five videos he recommends you create first And much more!  
Favorite Quote:
“Organic YouTube is not instant. You’re not going to see instant results, right? What’s cool about Facebook and Google ads is that you’re basically paying for quicker results, whereas something that’s organic, like SEO and YouTube, takes time. They take time to develop, and it takes a lot of content and iteration.” 
— Aaron Martinez
 
Connect with Aaron:
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube
 
How to Get Involved:
LinkedIn
Facebook
ParagonDMG.com
 

Eric Braun, more commonly known online as Not Your Average Lender, is a loan officer out of New York who did just under $40 million in production for 2020. Having gotten started in the business five years ago at the ripe old age of 20, today he’s been licensed for just three years and already has a processor, an assistant and a loan coordinator working for him. But success didn’t find him overnight. 
“Everybody sees me as the, you know, overnight success. But that's not my story at all,” he said. 
Eric first entered the business as a telemarketer for a loan officer and thought for a while that the job was a temporary one before he ultimately transitioned into becoming an EMT. But despite how grueling the telemarketing gig was, he realized there was potential for him in the mortgage industry — lots of it. He decided to get licensed as a loan officer and build a brand for himself on Instagram. It took about two years of consistent, daily posting for him to start seeing results, but the results did come. Today he has about 14K followers on Instagram alone, and he credits the platform with helping him carve out space in the industry. 
On this episode of the Loans on Demand Podcast, Luke and Eric talk about the tools that helped him build his online presence and the shortcuts he recommends taking for people who want to do the same.
 
What You’ll Learn:
How, after starting out as “anti-Facebook” and building his presence on Instagram exclusively, Eric’s perspective on social media marketing has evolved How he takes the online offline and drives real, lucrative results from his marketing How he’s approaching this “very weird market” we’re in And much more!  
Favorite Quote:
“I started to look at relationships as a currency, right? Let me just develop as many relationships as possible. And that took out a lot of the fear and the unwillingness to cold email, cold DM and cold call because it was more so like, ‘I'm reaching out to this guy because he looks like a cool dude and I want to be his friend and who cares if he sends me business? It took a lot of the pressure off. And then it became something that I wanted to do.”
— Eric Braun
 
Connect with Eric:
Instagram
LinkedIn
 
How to Get Involved:
LinkedIn
Facebook
ParagonDMG.com

Jimmy Hobson is confident in his abilities as a mortgage broker for a reason. 
“If you get approval from me, you’re buying a house,” he said. “I’ve had one deal not close since January of 2019.”
Things weren’t smooth sailing at first, though. Having supported two kids as a single parent on his jobs as a car and Medicare salesman, he ultimately made the switch and got his license as a broker in 2016. He started generating leads, and at first, “it was ugly.” But the tides did turn. In 2018, he did $11 million in production. In 2019, that number became $37 million, and last year it was $73 million. This year, he’s expecting to bring in between $80-90 million in production — all from his wife’s six-by-six foot craft room.
On this episode of the Loans on Demand Podcast, Luke and Jimmy talk about what, exactly, helped him turn those tides and why being a “little rough around the edges” has (literally) paid off.
 
What You’ll Learn:
Why Jimmy thinks it’s essential as a broker to be “obnoxious” on social media How he taught himself the business after a career in car and insurance sales (and how mentors helped) Why the “whip effect” is part of what’s made him successful And much more!  
Favorite Quote:
“That’s what frustrates me, is I look at these guys that have 15 to 20 years in this (business), these guys and gals, and they have 1,500 people. I’m like, how are you not doing $100 million a year in your sleep? Why would you pay for ads for more people when you’ve got all the people you need?”
— Jimmy Hobson
 
Connect with Jimmy:
Facebook
LinkedIn
 
How to Get Involved:
LinkedIn
Facebook
ParagonDMG.com