Lizy Hoeffer: Arizona’s #1 Female-Led Mortgage Team

Guests: Lizy Hoeffer, Daniel Ramsey
Recorded: December 17, 2019

Excerpt

Lizy Hoeffer’s Team was recently honored as Phoenix Arizona’s #1 female-led mortgage broker team for the second year in a row – and in this exclusive interview, she joins us to talk about the values, quality & commitment to excellence that’s driving her business to achieve to produce remarkable results.

Learn Lizy’s secrets to being a top-producing loan officer and her insights into effectively managing your time, energy & schedule to maximize productivity and grow your business.

Lizy is a senior loan officer with Guild Mortgage — one of the largest independent mortgage lenders in the United States — is the No. 1 female-led mortgage team in Arizona for the second year in a row, according to data recently released by the Scotsman Guide’s Top Originators 2017. The Scotsman Guide is a leading resource for mortgage originators and a publisher of prestigious lists of America’s top-producing mortgage brokers, originators, and bankers.

“These rankings are the result of our passion for our clients, the mortgage process and our business partners. We create raving fans through client education, finding the best products for our customers, outstanding customer service, competitive rates and on-time closings. We are fortunate to have the leadership, products and tools offered by Guild Mortgage.”

 

Transcript

00:00:06:13 – 00:00:18:15
Daniel Ramsey
Hey, everybody. Danny Ramsey here, and I’m really excited. Well, I’m silly. Excited because we have the number one mortgage professional in the entire country. Lizzie Hoffer, thank you for joining us today.

00:00:19:04 – 00:00:23:03
Lizy Hoeffer
Yes, I’m actually the number one. Do you want to try that again?

00:00:23:07 – 00:00:36:06
Daniel Ramsey
You’re a bad ass woman is what you are. And no, I think we’re just going to call you the number one. I think that’s the right thing to do. You know, you’re we’re I’m excited because you’re using our virtual assistants. Is that right?

00:00:36:15 – 00:00:58:10
Lizy Hoeffer
Yes. I love your service. I mean, the people that we can outsource to literally across the seas with following up on events, helping with administrative activities, I mean, it’s been really incredible. And then also them working in hours when we’re normally sleeping to let them have that stuff prepared first thing in the morning. It’s just like I can’t even say how much it’s helping.

00:00:58:19 – 00:01:12:17
Daniel Ramsey
That’s so awesome. That’s so awesome. Lizzie, what let’s start off with just your story. Like how many you know, transactions are you have you done in the 2019? Like are you on track for? I think, as you said, more than 500. Is that correct?

00:01:13:14 – 00:01:16:15
Lizy Hoeffer
No. So we’ve done a lot more than that.

00:01:18:10 – 00:01:22:23
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah, I love it. How many total transactions do you think you’ll finish in 2019?

00:01:23:21 – 00:01:36:13
Lizy Hoeffer
You know, I’m really trying to push it. So right now it’s 12, 13. So we’re midway through the month. I have 37 fundings already and we’re at 936 units club as are 235. So.

00:01:36:24 – 00:01:42:21
Daniel Ramsey
Wow. And so you’re trying to push it, try to cross that thousand mark or what do you what are you trying to shoot for?

00:01:43:04 – 00:02:03:24
Lizy Hoeffer
As close to a thousand, if not a thousand? You know, you know, the here’s the deal. I’m never going to sacrifice service for units. So it’s all about what we can close efficiently and. Well, you know, for the year, I’m already super proud of this. I don’t need any more deals. You know, this has already been my best year ever, but it’s always cool to hit a number that you never thought you could.

00:02:04:07 – 00:02:13:00
Lizy Hoeffer
Yeah, Amazon has always been like that really big stretch goal. So the fact that we’re so close right now is like, I just want to get there.

00:02:13:08 – 00:02:14:17
Daniel Ramsey
How excited is your team?

00:02:15:04 – 00:02:30:10
Lizy Hoeffer
My team is awesome. They’re super excited also. But I just I don’t want this to feel like a loss for them. So it’s just always been like, Oh my God, we made it, guys. We hit it. We’re so excited. Everything on this is crazy, you know? Right. How about the messaging? Because it could also go the other way, right?

00:02:30:10 – 00:02:37:00
Lizy Hoeffer
Where you have the most epic year ever, you miss the stretch goal that everyone feels like they’ll lose that it’s crazy when they’re overachievers like this.

00:02:37:05 – 00:02:42:23
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah. Yeah. And you probably have a team of little ninjas that are just working their butts off every single day.

00:02:42:23 – 00:02:48:07
Lizy Hoeffer
I am super grateful. I do. I mean, they’re the most awesome people possible.

00:02:48:16 – 00:02:57:00
Daniel Ramsey
Well, this is cool. Lizzie, can you talk to us about how you got started in the mortgage world? Like, what’s your story? I always like to start with how you began.

00:02:57:12 – 00:03:02:08
Lizy Hoeffer
Yeah. So I got into mortgages as a 19 year old.

00:03:02:08 – 00:03:06:00
Daniel Ramsey
I was that last year or the year before with.

00:03:06:08 – 00:03:20:11
Lizy Hoeffer
Your it was back in 2002. So for those of you who want to do the math, yeah, it you know, I needed a job that was high paying and the highest paying job I could find was a $10 receptionist job at a mortgage company.

00:03:20:19 – 00:03:21:02
Daniel Ramsey
Nice.

00:03:21:03 – 00:03:41:00
Lizy Hoeffer
I was raised by a salesperson. I had literally started in selling rocks when I was ten. I mean, so I already gravitated to sales. So when I was the receptionist, I would listen to all of these loan officers. They called it selling and loans back then. Yeah, yeah. So dialing for dollars. And I just always felt like I could do it.

00:03:41:11 – 00:04:01:17
Lizy Hoeffer
And then one day they task me with shredding this gigantic stack of what they called dead leads. Yeah. And I was like, Well, why are we shredding these? These are the leads. And they’re like, Yeah, these are dead. We’ve called them over and over again for the last two years. No one’s answering these leads. And I was like, Well, what if I don’t read them when I call them?

00:04:01:17 – 00:04:07:11
Lizy Hoeffer
You don’t have to pay me. I’ll call them for 2 hours every day. But if I book an appointment, I’m going to want you to pay me 50 bucks.

00:04:07:23 – 00:04:08:07
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah.

00:04:08:21 – 00:04:27:01
Lizy Hoeffer
Right. And so that was like for me, I was like, I, I just knew I could do it. It’s kind of like a, you know, nice video or whatever that is, you know, your ambition. You’re like, I could do this. So I knew I could do it. And it was a quick way for me to double my income without doubling my hours.

00:04:27:01 – 00:04:48:21
Lizy Hoeffer
Yeah, because $50 was 5 hours of work. And literally if I called for 2 hours a day, I basically and book one appointment, I got 3 hours for two, right? So I was like, okay, I’m going to do this. And so I actually got really good at it and I was able to turn that receptionist job into dialing that job within 90 days.

00:04:49:02 – 00:04:56:15
Lizy Hoeffer
Yeah. And then I was good at that. And then I hired other people underneath me and taught that my strategies for booking appointments and I did that throughout college.

00:04:57:03 – 00:04:59:13
Daniel Ramsey
I love it. And then that’s how you paid for college?

00:04:59:19 – 00:05:00:18
Lizy Hoeffer
How I paid for college.

00:05:01:03 – 00:05:03:18
Daniel Ramsey
Wow. Wow. How proud is your parents? Right.

00:05:05:04 – 00:05:24:18
Lizy Hoeffer
You know, I don’t it’s funny because it’s I don’t know 100% that they get it. My dad was a serial entrepreneur, so obviously he was really happy that I was, you know, selfish, employed, you know, I don’t know how, you know. Yeah. But my mom, she has a very strict government job. I mean, she just has stressed out for me all the time.

00:05:25:03 – 00:05:34:09
Daniel Ramsey
Right, right, right. But she’s she’s now now that you’re the number one female loan officer in the country, she’s like, she’s probably got this thing figured out, right?

00:05:34:19 – 00:05:37:06
Lizy Hoeffer
Who knows? She really.

00:05:38:12 – 00:05:57:12
Daniel Ramsey
Love it. I love it. All right. So, you know, one of the things that I always like to ask folks that have had massive success, most loan officers would love to break 100 transactions, let alone 500, let alone even consider a thousand. So let’s talk through what your whole thing looks like. What do you do that is different?

00:05:57:13 – 00:06:04:23
Daniel Ramsey
What is your team look like? How have you had so much success? What would you attribute that to?

00:06:04:23 – 00:06:30:03
Lizy Hoeffer
So the biggest thing is doing the activities, right? So it’s all a math problem if you can figure out your conversion and pull through rates. So for me, tracking has always been a very big part of the job. I learned early on that tracking the numbers was the key to figuring out how to scale. And so I did that first with the Buffini program, then I did Building Champions, and then I graduated to the core, and I’ve done that for a long time.

00:06:30:15 – 00:06:51:13
Lizy Hoeffer
And so it was all about just knowing if I did this many activities, it would yield this on average in terms of leads. And then I had to be at X conversion to hit my goals, right? So every year I’ve just kind of worked out the math that way. For me, tracking activities was really crucial because it also allowed me to figure out where I actually excelled in prospecting, right?

00:06:51:16 – 00:07:11:13
Lizy Hoeffer
So I am good at calling cold feet. I’m good at circle prospecting, I’m good at things like that. But I’m actually not really great at calling people that I know or like bugging people that could get like potential referral partners know, I’m calling you to sell you a deal. I could do it all day long. Right? If I know that I’m calling to let you know about an open house listing.

00:07:11:22 – 00:07:35:13
Lizy Hoeffer
I could do it all day long. But if I’m calling you to try to sell you on the phone for why you should do business with me, I’m actually not that great. Okay, so I realize that cold calling for referral partners was not my thing, and just I wasn’t converting very well. I mean, that is a numbers game too, but I did find that when I held a class that I was teaching things that I knew, right, which is like, how do you do metrics?

00:07:35:13 – 00:07:47:23
Lizy Hoeffer
How do you do business plan? Like how you do marketing plan? Like if I could teach and provide value, it was an easy way for me to sell. Nice, right? And if I knew what I was calling about or what I was doing, I can do it all day, every day.

00:07:48:06 – 00:07:48:15
Daniel Ramsey
Right?

00:07:48:21 – 00:08:06:15
Lizy Hoeffer
That was really helpful for me because then I switched my prospecting activities to mostly face to face interactions. And so, you know, for me, prospecting looks like, you know, 33 face to face conversations with however that happens. And then I’ll probably do anywhere between like 40 to 60 like dials week to.

00:08:06:22 – 00:08:14:15
Daniel Ramsey
Okay, hold on. There’s so much in what you just said. So number one, you had a coach like you realized early on that you needed a coach, is that correct?

00:08:15:00 – 00:08:15:18
Lizy Hoeffer
100%.

00:08:16:00 – 00:08:17:04
Daniel Ramsey
And you still have one.

00:08:17:19 – 00:08:40:19
Lizy Hoeffer
I am still coached. I, I just finished my last semester. At the core of the core was the best coaching program I’ve by far been a part of. I mean, but tactically I learned so many things. The only reason I decided to to differ off is because, like, my goals now have changed a little bit. Yeah, I’m proud of doing 900 loans.

00:08:40:19 – 00:08:47:22
Lizy Hoeffer
I don’t know. I don’t necessarily want to grow in that aspect of my business. I would like to, you know, I’d like to do some other things.

00:08:48:11 – 00:08:51:24
Daniel Ramsey
So you’re looking for a new coach too, for a new chapter of your career.

00:08:52:07 – 00:09:19:02
Lizy Hoeffer
A high level entrepreneurial mastermind this last year. So it’s all for the love of money. It’s very time consuming. It’s on just like global business strategies, you know, I feel like I have and you can always learn more, so I don’t ever want to sound like I’m not willing to learn. Like I’m so open to learning things, but I feel like I’ve maxed out or at least burnt out on what I can do prospecting wise.

00:09:19:08 – 00:09:46:08
Lizy Hoeffer
Yeah, I mean, and like for me, it isn’t always just now at this level. It’s not about Mormons, right? But it is about like how to make this business more efficient. How do I sell online? Like, that’s a really big interest of mine right now, like how to go consumer direct. And I believe that like, you know, that is an avenue that we’re going to have to pursue, especially as loan originators, you know, especially as we have a more informational society.

00:09:46:21 – 00:09:57:06
Lizy Hoeffer
So I just think that those things are interesting now. And I, I needed to go to a place where people were actually doing that at a very, very high level in order to pursue that next leg of my career.

00:09:57:15 – 00:10:13:04
Daniel Ramsey
I love it. The other thing that you said is that you are on 33 face to face conversations every single week. Is that how long have you been doing that. Many or more and and tracking that like what what do you think.

00:10:13:05 – 00:10:14:05
Lizy Hoeffer
The last six years.

00:10:14:14 – 00:10:18:02
Daniel Ramsey
Okay. So you’ve never strayed from that. It’s 33 every week. All the.

00:10:18:02 – 00:10:21:00
Lizy Hoeffer
Time. I just know that that’s the magic number to get me to do it.

00:10:21:15 – 00:10:22:07
Daniel Ramsey
And that’s it.

00:10:23:04 – 00:10:23:11
Lizy Hoeffer
Yeah.

00:10:23:22 – 00:10:29:20
Daniel Ramsey
I love it. And you teach your team that. I’m assuming too everybody in your organization is doing a very similar activity.

00:10:30:04 – 00:10:48:09
Lizy Hoeffer
You know, I run a branch, so I have some loan officers who, you know, I definitely coach I coach them on their areas of strength. So some of them will never do a face to face because it’s just not their style. Yeah. $4 all day long. So, you know, teaching them value propositions, you know what I would say?

00:10:48:09 – 00:11:04:05
Lizy Hoeffer
What I would do differently, you know, because even though I don’t I don’t it’s not my highest converting rhetoric, you know what I mean? I still can call pretty well, you know what I mean? Yeah, but so I just kind of coach them and hold them accountable to doing numbers that will yield them the results that they’re looking for.

00:11:04:14 – 00:11:28:12
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah, but I think what’s cool is, I mean, as I listen to you, what’s unique about your, you know, success in probably it’s not unique at all is that you’re very focused on the numbers like and not very many people you know everybody who everybody wants to be very successful. But nobody’s not very many people are as hyper focused on numbers, you know, activities like you.

00:11:28:12 – 00:11:30:00
Daniel Ramsey
How how did you get to that space?

00:11:30:20 – 00:11:49:05
Lizy Hoeffer
Well, I was raised by a rocket scientist, so there’s you know, honestly, when I first started getting into the business and sales, I just sucked. I just I was really good at, like, cold calling. And I couldn’t and I could not sell a loan to save my life. It was like super weird. And so I was like, okay, well, I need some actual structure here.

00:11:49:05 – 00:12:09:00
Lizy Hoeffer
And, and the training that you get in the real estate and mortgage space when it comes to companies is like slim to none, right? Like here’s how to use in companies or here’s how to use myki or whatever. The system has the skills, right? And like that’s the training. They don’t go, here’s how you make a sales call and your schedule should look like and here’s what you should say.

00:12:09:00 – 00:12:28:08
Lizy Hoeffer
Like there’s zero of that unless you go to click and hold. And then in that regard, they’re teaching you one aspect of it, right? So you never leave right at all. You never know how to do a script. You don’t know how to be a good technician. And I just, you know, for me it’s like, well, you know, after I was the dealer, I became a loan processor and a loan officer assistant.

00:12:28:08 – 00:12:42:09
Lizy Hoeffer
So I just had a ton of operational experience before I became a loan officer twice. But I just knew early on I needed structure and I needed to know what to do in the day. And that’s when I got into coaching. And coaching was like, you got to know the numbers.

00:12:42:22 – 00:13:01:08
Daniel Ramsey
Right? And that’s how it happened. Talk to us about what you’ve learned in terms of team building over the last ten, 11 years as you’ve built your organization. What what are what are the appropriate things when you’re new, when you’re kind of growing? And then for somebody who’s in your space, what’s what does the team look like?

00:13:02:04 – 00:13:22:16
Lizy Hoeffer
So there’s many different ways to formulate a very successful mortgage team. Yeah. People who have junior loan officers that they coach and mentor, there’s people that do the core model where they have like a I’ll be one and then I’ll be two. I’ll be one’s colleagues up to take it. Your contract to close for me. I run a core like model.

00:13:23:05 – 00:13:48:13
Lizy Hoeffer
I’m the only person that originates team. The leads for the Lizzie Hofer team. Okay, I gotcha. Any person that’s out in real estate offices, teaching classes, doing things, I have an assembly line of things. So like I have people who take a leave run. Do you follow up on a needs list that I have people who actually pre-approve a file and then processors actually act as like the contract clients without an update.

00:13:48:13 – 00:14:04:02
Lizy Hoeffer
All the clients every single Tuesday send out weekly updates on their loans via email. Right. So I have everybody feels like they’re a part of sales, right? So that’s like really my goal is that everybody feels like they’re part of sales now.

00:14:04:04 – 00:14:13:00
Daniel Ramsey
Because you’re, you, you own a sales organization like your product is loans. But really all you do is sell stuff.

00:14:13:15 – 00:14:35:21
Lizy Hoeffer
Yeah. And I, my processors are also responsible, honestly, for getting corporate clients to send us deals and stuff like that. So it’s like hard to say because, you know, there’s a lot of unfortunately in this space and I don’t know if it’s just in mortgages or real estate. There’s so many weird haters out there. They’re like, Oh, well, she doesn’t really do this or she doesn’t do that, or she buys all of her.

00:14:35:21 – 00:14:54:06
Lizy Hoeffer
It’s like, you know, I do a variety of things. I get a lot of these from real estate agents. We partner a lot on Boomtown. I have a huge referral database from past clients right? And so for me, I mean, I’m, I’m an everything like my big thing is to close a lot of deals. However I get there as however I get there, it’s really hard no matter what you do.

00:14:54:24 – 00:15:03:14
Daniel Ramsey
What are your three favorite lead sources or your top three that you really kind of think have been great for your business over time?

00:15:04:03 – 00:15:26:01
Lizy Hoeffer
So real estate education has been super huge. So I coach real estate agents and loan officers around the country. All right. So real estate like loan officers throughout the country and different cities and my and Arizona have attributed to a large percentage of the deals I close. Yeah so like and real estate agents have been huge. So I love education.

00:15:26:01 – 00:15:46:04
Lizy Hoeffer
I, you know, a database management, you know, I teach money from schools to my clients so that they can make better home investments, that they can invest in real estate in the future or other things. You know, that’s always been a huge driver for me. And I mean, I love cold sales. I mean, I’m just always going to love it.

00:15:46:04 – 00:15:47:11
Lizy Hoeffer
It’s my roots. Yeah.

00:15:48:00 – 00:15:49:10
Daniel Ramsey
So you’re always pounding the phone.

00:15:50:10 – 00:16:04:21
Lizy Hoeffer
I mean, I love connects with realtors. I mean, like, well, you know, all of the leads that we’ve been buying together and found them out. And my goal is always to beat everyone and, you know, is just like who I am as a person. I just like it.

00:16:05:05 – 00:16:21:18
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah, I love it. I love it. You know, we’re going to talk about tools now and you have kind of a special gift that you’re going to give out to our to our folks, which is always awesome. Lizzie, what are you giving to our folks or what are you sharing with them about being successful?

00:16:21:18 – 00:16:27:06
Lizy Hoeffer
Well, a couple of things, right? So one, so is this like where I can talk about overnights and stuff.

00:16:27:06 – 00:16:33:15
Daniel Ramsey
Like that was my yeah, that was my up of you got it or not. But that was my topic.

00:16:33:15 – 00:16:54:18
Lizy Hoeffer
So I actually developed a prospecting journal called Overnight Success and I named it Overnight Success just because I mean, it takes a whole lot of work before people even notice that you exist. Yeah. I finally closed 600 loans before people were like, Where did she come from? You know what? Being like you came out of nowhere, and I’m like, Well, I’ve been doing this for, like, ten years.

00:16:54:18 – 00:17:19:02
Lizy Hoeffer
What do you mean, nowhere? Like nothing then. So I called it that this is a joke, but it’s really my recipe for like how I market, how I business plan, how I track metrics, how you put together a really good yearlong roadmap for success. And then it just has a place for all your meetings, all your prospecting, all the leads so that you really know how to follow up on it and be able to track it.

00:17:19:02 – 00:17:36:24
Lizy Hoeffer
So for me, it’s like an all in one, you know, lead converting tool. And so it launches for sale at the very beginning of January. And for the first hundred people that buy it, I’m actually going to do one on one. Well, it’s a Zoom call once a month. Yeah. Putting on best strategies.

00:17:37:07 – 00:17:53:16
Daniel Ramsey
I love it. I love it. In fact, I think we might give it away to anybody who’s a loan officer that hires a virtual assistant. I say we do that and then we’ll send them our book and you can send them your planner. And together we’ll we’ll, you know, help everybody grow their business. What do you say?

00:17:55:05 – 00:17:57:01
Lizy Hoeffer
I’ll say, yeah, why not?

00:17:57:12 – 00:18:14:17
Daniel Ramsey
Okay. I love it. I love it. So, hey, let’s talk real quick, because this is definitely a client success interview. I want to hear about your experience with my out desk, what position you put a virtual assistant in. Yeah, how it’s been for you and what’s been the Aha. Working with us.

00:18:15:14 – 00:18:21:06
Lizy Hoeffer
So one, I will say that I’ve tried a variety of virtual assistants in the past year, services by best.

00:18:21:14 – 00:18:22:06
Daniel Ramsey
Yes.

00:18:22:08 – 00:18:42:09
Lizy Hoeffer
BUZZER Incredibly responsive, great customer service. The quality of the virtual assistants that I have found has been the highest. Do you guys? Yeah. So a lot of the big concerns with hiring a virtual assistant is how well they’ll speak English. Yeah, English perfectly without accents. I mean, they’re really responsive. They’re easily trainable. I mean, they work so hard.

00:18:42:20 – 00:18:59:12
Lizy Hoeffer
So I have them in a variety of different positions, mainly administrative. So I’ve had them helping me with graphic design work, marketing, editing, doing that kind of thing, helping with Excel spreadsheets when it comes to like our CRM or things of that nature, right?

00:18:59:12 – 00:19:04:10
Daniel Ramsey
Tracking, basically tracking leads, tracking calls, tracking all the activities.

00:19:04:18 – 00:19:31:23
Lizy Hoeffer
Doing reporting and stuff like that. So that’s been super huge. And then I’ve actually had them help us do like cold calls. So they so there’s limited on what they can actually do. So obviously they can’t take an application, they can’t have anything. But when you have like these cold leads from people that came to an open house, like they’re really good resource to have helped you or to help you invite a bunch of people to come to an event or a lunch and learn or, you know.

00:19:31:23 – 00:19:48:16
Lizy Hoeffer
So we’ve used them in a variety of ways to scale. They’ve also been a call center, so like a helped us. So like when people call in, you know, they’ll answer the phone, text messages and ping us. Yeah. So they’ve just done a variety of different things, mainly on an administrative basis and an informational business.

00:19:48:16 – 00:20:09:09
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah. What do you. I love that you’ve had some experience with virtual assistants and you said were by far better. But I want you to quantify it for the audience and we none of this is prerecorded. I didn’t know I was asking this question, but I’m just kind of curious as a loan officer, you know, the other option versus my out desk, what’s been the delta?

00:20:09:09 – 00:20:11:19
Daniel Ramsey
Is it 25%? Is it 100%.

00:20:12:12 – 00:20:28:14
Lizy Hoeffer
Night and day? So I hired an integrator for my team. So I was trying to launch a project with our salesforce and I was like, I really need this extra help. I need to get these people hired. And he’s like, Well, let’s go the virtual system route. And I was like, No, I don’t even want to try that.

00:20:28:16 – 00:20:50:13
Lizy Hoeffer
I’ve already done this, you know, really frustrating. They don’t understand us. It’s a lot of back and forth. And honestly, I just feel super frustrated. Right. And so I was completely opposed to it because the experiences that I had before were just so difficult to work with to manage. Like, you know, they wouldn’t abide by. I mean, sometimes it’s a nine hour time difference.

00:20:51:03 – 00:20:56:14
Lizy Hoeffer
So like we would have people making phone calls at 12 in the morning and you’re just like, what are you doing? Yeah.

00:20:57:09 – 00:21:03:20
Daniel Ramsey
Or just it just didn’t work, is what you’re saying. It just didn’t work. And it cost you money and you would have you would never do it.

00:21:04:03 – 00:21:25:09
Lizy Hoeffer
Yeah. And so that’s kind of what my standpoint was. And then Justin, who had used you guys for an Infusionsoft project, I was like, Well, no, let’s try this. Like, I promise you you’ll love it. Yeah. My very first personal assistant is like the sister to the one that he had and she’s awesome. I mean, and super receptive, very coachable.

00:21:25:09 – 00:21:30:20
Lizy Hoeffer
I mean, six perfect English attends all of our team meetings. Like, she’s just like part of the team. Like, we love her.

00:21:31:05 – 00:21:36:18
Daniel Ramsey
Right? And that is night and day compared to what you experience with the other companies.

00:21:37:08 – 00:21:42:01
Lizy Hoeffer
Yeah. Like I couldn’t even compare. Like, it’s just it’s not the same service at all.

00:21:42:11 – 00:22:02:22
Daniel Ramsey
I love it. I love it. Okay, well, what advice would you give somebody who is considering hiring virtual assistants as a loan officer? Loan officers? You know, they’re not a huge part of our business. We probably have about 100 clients that are loan officers, but it’s growing rapidly. So you guys are coming on board, you know, like people.

00:22:02:22 – 00:22:03:12
Daniel Ramsey
Like you.

00:22:03:19 – 00:22:04:17
Lizy Hoeffer
Guys. Yeah.

00:22:04:17 – 00:22:13:01
Daniel Ramsey
Come on board. But what would you tell a loan officer who’s never outsourced, never hired a virtual assistant? What do they need to get ready so they can be successful like you?

00:22:13:14 – 00:22:33:18
Lizy Hoeffer
So one thing is, you’re going to have to have a plan, an actual detailed job description with measurable success items. Right? So one of the things that we did wrong the very first time is that I gave them a script, ask them to call a bunch of real estate agents to book an event for us and like didn’t lay down.

00:22:33:18 – 00:22:53:24
Lizy Hoeffer
But this is what you say. This is what you say when they say this. This is what you do, which is like one script, because I figured that they would just figure it out. And communication skills, right? And I was just like no measurables for what determines success. So now it’s like when we get because now I hired three, so I have three virtual assistants.

00:22:53:24 – 00:23:13:02
Lizy Hoeffer
It’s, Hey, this is what you do on day one. These are the scripts. I have somebody who actually spends time to train them. You know, I just hired a trainer specifically to teach them on some different things. So I invest in them just like I invest in an employee that’s with me. They’re just for. And so I don’t treat them any different.

00:23:13:02 – 00:23:24:06
Lizy Hoeffer
I think the biggest mistake I made the first time was just thinking that I could give them, like, crappy instructions with no direction, really. Like, I wasn’t. It wasn’t like what I would do if somebody was sitting in front of me.

00:23:24:14 – 00:23:34:05
Daniel Ramsey
Right. Right. So you have to we’re on a zoom call right now. So did you have to implement like some sort of video chat or phone system or how did you do all that.

00:23:34:10 – 00:23:55:08
Lizy Hoeffer
Video meetings as well? We do, yep, a bunch of video meetings. So we’ll send them an agenda for what we’re going over, what the details are of the new process that we’ll do. We’ll have I’ll have my trainer meet with them on a daily basis to go over the things that that we know that they’re getting it, you know, then book and then it’ll be two weeks of like, you know, training before we set them loose.

00:23:55:08 – 00:23:59:05
Lizy Hoeffer
And then it’s like management after that. And then after 30 days, they should be ready to go.

00:23:59:13 – 00:24:08:24
Daniel Ramsey
Right? So is it typically two or three weeks of training, 30 days of actually doing the job? And then you have a sense of whether or not they’ll be successful? Is that kind of the time frame?

00:24:09:15 – 00:24:29:13
Lizy Hoeffer
And that’s actually also my training plan for any onboarding of any employee that I have, right? So we just don’t treat them any differently than we would somebody that’s sitting with us. I think. I think that’s like the hugest mistake. And I’m not 100% sure why I took that approach the first time, because it makes no sense not to say it out loud, but it just that we did.

00:24:30:03 – 00:24:41:16
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah, well, it’s normal. I mean, we hear that all the time and we always that’s why we have folks like you on the call and that you say it and then people are like, Oh, well, if Lizzie said it, then, you know, it’s got to be the case. You know.

00:24:42:00 – 00:24:43:00
Lizy Hoeffer
Just kind of listen to Lizzie.

00:24:43:06 – 00:25:00:07
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah, listen to Lizzie. That should be that should be a whole podcast series right there. Listen to Lizzie, too. Funny. Okay, so cool. What is the what is the what would it be like if you couldn’t hire virtual assistants from from us? Like what? What would be your alternative? What does that look like?

00:25:00:15 – 00:25:08:21
Lizy Hoeffer
I probably wouldn’t go on the virtual sister app. Like, just be honest. I never had luck with it prior to this and I literally tried it more than one time.

00:25:09:12 – 00:25:12:16
Daniel Ramsey
But you had a need so you would you have to hire locally and.

00:25:12:21 – 00:25:15:09
Lizy Hoeffer
Hire locally and we just wouldn’t be able to hire as many.

00:25:16:02 – 00:25:19:13
Daniel Ramsey
I see. I see. So this has doubled the amount of people you can actually.

00:25:19:21 – 00:25:27:03
Lizy Hoeffer
Put your cost effective. It’s very efficient. I mean, like if you. So for instance, I needed this Excel project done on a report.

00:25:27:11 – 00:25:27:17
Daniel Ramsey
Yep.

00:25:27:21 – 00:25:46:05
Lizy Hoeffer
Email that had it in the morning right. Because they’re working hours that I’m not working, you know. And so I had that report that probably would have taken somebody else maybe two or three days to get me right. The next morning, like that stuff. I just frickin love, you know what I mean? Like a marketing flier done, right?

00:25:46:05 – 00:25:57:09
Lizy Hoeffer
And I need it done, and I need to get it to my compliance department for approval. Like, I can send it to them in the afternoon, have it in the morning, be able to get it approved. It’s like the timing is awesome.

00:25:57:21 – 00:26:18:11
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah, well, and I’m thinking about all the reports that I request all the time. What that allows us to do is lead and help our people be successful. That’s ultimately what we’re doing is we’re giving you the ability to just quickly see the report, know what needs to happen, and then lead your people. And that just speeds things up as that’s how I see it.

00:26:18:11 – 00:26:19:05
Daniel Ramsey
Anyways.

00:26:19:05 – 00:26:19:23
Lizy Hoeffer
Totally too.

00:26:20:09 – 00:26:40:11
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah, I love it. All right, Lizzie, you are amazing. I can’t believe you’ve had so much success. And and I trust that it took 11 years. I believe that that’s what it usually takes to look like an overnight success. And we’re going to give a guide away. So I really love that. Go ahead.

00:26:40:20 – 00:26:42:23
Lizy Hoeffer
No, I’m so excited. Yes. I can’t wait.

00:26:43:06 – 00:26:53:21
Daniel Ramsey
Oh, so in the notes, if you want to get here, you just click on that link. We’ll get you a copy of that. And thank you so much for joining us today and sharing all that good, sweet, you know, loan officer love.

00:26:54:12 – 00:26:58:09
Lizy Hoeffer
Oh, you’re very welcome. Thank you for having me. And thank you for running such an awesome company.

00:26:58:23 – 00:27:02:13
Daniel Ramsey
My pleasure. Thanks, guys, for joining. Bye bye.