00:00Hello, I'm Brenna Nath, Vice President of Events and Community here at Housing Wire.
00:12I've had the pleasure of chatting with the Momentum Builder team a couple times this year,
00:19whether that's seeing their content, seeing them in person. So I'm super excited to have
00:23as a guest on 10-Minute Talks today, Don Gatling. He's the founder of Momentum Builder and also
00:28the CEO of Sales Mastery. So welcome, Don. I'm glad to be here and thank you, Brenna. This is
00:35exciting. I love Housing Wire and this is exciting to be on the call. What stood out to me about what
00:43you're doing at Momentum Builder, but especially what you guys are creating with the Sales Mastery
00:46event is the fact that the time is now. You have a great pulse on what's happening in the market.
00:52So I wanted to start off through your vantage point. How would you describe today's market
00:58through the lens of what loan officers, what LOs are thinking about? And specifically,
01:03one of my favorite questions to ask is what's keeping them up at night right now?
01:09That's a great question and relevant right now because I don't know if everybody knows,
01:14but Gina and I are still in the grind. We're in the business. We have a region of
01:18loan officers. I've been in the business almost 40 years. Yep, that's right. I started when I was 10
01:25and we've had teams large enough to where we had 163 employees in our region doing 1.5 billion in
01:35business. Now, of course, that's slowed down like everyone, but we do understand the plight
01:40of the loan officer because we're in the grind every day. We know what their challenges are
01:46and what keeps them up right now. And of course, it's been in my 40 years, it's been one of the
01:51toughest three years that I have seen since being in the industry. And it's been challenging because
01:57everybody's been battling with higher interest rates, very few refinances, affordability issues,
02:05therefore lower volumes. So it's been really challenging because a lot of our LOs feel like
02:11they're just beating their head against the wall and not seeing as much return on their energy.
02:16But the good news is, is that it is adjusting. Rates are finally coming down. It will change. I've
02:21gone through four of these cycles before. The other side of this is amazing. And the other good news is
02:28we've lost a lot of our competition. People say that there was 450,000 now down to 120,000. But I looked
02:36up and what I found is real LOs working was about 182,000 back in 2021. And we're down to 85,000 now.
02:46So a lot of our competition's gone. So it's opening the doors. Now, will the LOs gain the skill sets and
02:54the ability to gain relationships like they should? Because that's, what's going to be important. Those who
02:59do will crush it in the, as things pick up, the others will be left behind.
03:05Those are some interesting stats that you just shared. And to me, paint the truth of what's
03:09actually happening in this market level setting with LOs and saying, this is where the market
03:14currently stands. What are the extra bullet points that you might flag when it comes to, okay, this is
03:20what's happening out there. This is probably what they're thinking about and keeping them up at night
03:24to, okay, here's some truths along with the fact you just, you know, listed out about what it takes
03:30to lead and win and grow in this market, because you still have optimism that they can succeed.
03:35Oh, there's a lot of people that are succeeding, but the main issue is so many loan officers today,
03:45including some of ours, worry too much because it's been so tough. They worry too much about what
03:51the competition's doing, what they don't have, what shiny objects they need. They're looking for
03:58solutions. And right now it's really just going back to some basics and learning what's working
04:04in today's market. I hear a lot, Brenna, that LOs are waiting for the market to go back to normal.
04:10There is no normal. It's changed. Our industry has completely changed and it's time to change with
04:15it. So have you shifted with the market? And what's nice is, you know, being part of sales
04:21mastery and momentum builder is we get to talk to a lot of the top professionals in the industries
04:26and finding out what they're doing to be successful there. We're bringing people to sales mastery that
04:31are doing well over a hundred million dollars in production and no, not with 20 person teams.
04:35We're talking mere mortals, friends of ours that are crushing this market and they've changed their
04:41mindset. They've changed their processes. They changed how they do business and how they build
04:46relationships. Because thank goodness, everybody's worried about AI taking our jobs. But I think
04:52building relationships is more important than ever right now because people have a little lack
04:57of trust because of AI. So now building relationships is more important than ever. But how do you do that?
05:03And I have a lot of people on stage for the three and a half days that are going to share those
05:08strategies. Something that sounds like it's coming across the entire house industry, whether that's
05:13talent to the home shoppers and home buyers is everyone's anchoring to this market that's not
05:21coming back. And like you said, I'm just waiting for things to get back to normal. No, like you need
05:25to anchor the current market to where we are right now, which I think is a great call out. Something
05:32that really stood out to me about the sales mastery event is your call out on the power of coming
05:40together. And you shouldn't be isolated. And when you come together, you have the opportunity that comes
05:47with collaboration. And what you just said, you have a lot of people on stage who are talking about how
05:53they've shifted their mindset to make it work in this market. Can you dive into that some more?
06:00Yeah. And I appreciate you bringing that up because the LOs have been challenged. COVID kind of hurt our
06:06industry in a way. Yes. Was it two of the best years that a lot of us have had, but it also hurt
06:11our industry because it made us isolated. It made us a little lazy now. And you don't have to do it
06:18alone. I mean, you really don't. One of the things that changed my career is I was doing alone and
06:23trying to make it on my own. And thankfully, somebody introduced me to sales mastery and Todd Duncan,
06:27and it changed my career because I was surrounded by people that were successful, people that are
06:32excited about the industry. And I was finding about the people that I need to know, the tools I need
06:39to use, and how to use them. And then getting re-energized. It re-energized me every single year
06:45and usually told me, oh, shoot, there was two more things that I said I was going to do last year. I'll
06:49do this year. But we're going to hand these playbooks to everybody. I mean, imagine just being in a room
06:54with like-minded people that are excited about the industry and pumped to go to the next level.
07:00And we're going to hand those playbooks from the speakers. And we have in the industry speakers
07:06and outside the industry speakers, bringing perspectives that we probably didn't know about
07:11and should know about. And it's going to be exciting. It's not just going to be tactics,
07:15but it's going to be a lot of fun. Yeah. That energy you feel in the room at a conference,
07:22I wish I could ball that up and put it in a shot in the days where you are working that you don't feel
07:27the motivation. Just remember and go back. And you probably could do it through video these days
07:31by just watching a video of the event. But there is something so powerful about being in a room with
07:36people who are optimistic about the potential that they have in this industry. So I'm with you on how
07:41contagious that feels. I noticed the theme for the event is beyond boundaries. It's kind of this theme
07:48for growth. And what are some of the outdated strategies that you think professionals should
07:52abandon to embrace this theme? And maybe use that to also just explain more of how that theme is
07:59coming into fruition throughout the days of the event. All right. And I love your questions,
08:06Brenna. They're really good because they're relevant to today's market. It's been a challenging
08:10market. And we brought Sales Mastering Todd Duncan back for a reason. It's what our industry needs more
08:15than ever. I know a lot of people were talking to like, I know I want to be at the event,
08:20but I can't afford it. It's not a cost. It's an investment in your business. And when you're
08:25surrounded by like-minded individuals, it does elevate your game. It does get you excited. It
08:31gives you renewed energy. And that's why we have networking events. We're even having a cornhole
08:36tournament just for fun. And all our speakers hang out. They're part of our community. Imagine being
08:43part of a community that's all helping each other succeed. Those who aren't part of this community and
08:48trying to do it on their own are really going to be left behind because doing it on your own
08:53is a long road. It's very challenging and no guarantee for success. So we're excited to be
08:59bringing Sales Mastering and all these great professionals together to get to the other side
09:06of this challenging market. And we couldn't be more excited than ever. Our lineup is sick. It's going to
09:11be really fun. And we brought it to Dallas because we want it centered in the country. Everybody can get
09:16to. Flights are cheap. We have a room block. We now have a BOGO special. Buy one, get one free
09:23to help you bring a friend, a teammate, because we know that collaboration makes it that much more
09:28exciting and that much more fun. Yeah. I want to emphasize that. I think a BOGO deal is great.
09:33Everything we talked about comes... Because not only is it a great deal, I think that's amazing.
09:38But to me, it's also... It's bringing someone into the room that I think is great to highlight.
09:43It's building on that community of like, hey, you surely know someone who also can benefit from
09:48being in here. And then you're just building upon the energy that's palatable when you come together.
09:54So emphasize that. Any other details before we wrap that you'd want to highlight?
09:58Just that the BOGO offers really, plus you can use our discount code SM25. So you get a discount
10:04on the ticket. And once you buy the ticket, you'll receive a link to invite somebody else. So you don't
10:11have to buy ticket. Buy one. And you'll get a link and say, I'm bringing my friend, my teammate,
10:16my coworker, my manager, my referral partner, maybe share the cost with them. We're making it easy
10:22because our goal is to positively impact as many sales professionals as possible and get them all in
10:27one room so that we can get to the other side of this and have fun doing it.
10:31To your point, the industry needs this. So thank you for putting this together. Thank you for coming
10:36on 10 Minute Talks to discuss it with us. Appreciate it, Don.
10:42Yeah, thank you. And thank you for Housing Wire being our title sponsor. I'm very excited to be
10:47aligned with you guys. It's going to be an amazing event. And thank you, Brenna.
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