Mortgage Broker Coaching, LLC

Blog Consulting, LLC recognized as a TypePad Independent Expert

We were just listed on TypePad's services page as one of their blogging "Independent Experts".   Thank you TypePad!

We are having a blast working in the social media industry, and daily find businesses, and organizations that are greatly interested in better communicating their message, building their authority, gaining new patrons, and deepening the relationship with their existing database.

If you have not visited our Blog Consulting, LLC blog, come give us a visit.  As a professional in the mortgage industry, you should be building your own social media site.

What must the Mortgage Industry learn from the closing of the Tucson Citizen newspaper?

There is a very somber mood in Tucson, Arizona today.  In just a very few days, the presses will cease, and the 138 year old Tucson Citizen will cease to exist.

Click here to visit their website, and witness the last words of a great Tucson herald.

Change is very difficult.  Visiting the Tucson Citizen website is difficult.  

The pages of this newspaper witnessed the shoot out at the O.K. Corral, and the statehood of Arizona.

As businesses, and organizations, we must clearly understand that this newspaper closing is not an isolated happenstance.  This is happening all over the world!

There is currently underway, a massive information revolution.  It has been brewing for many years, and now we are beginning to see the aftermath of this perfect storm smashing its way through centuries old newspaper dynasties. 

What is there for businesses, and organizations, to learn from this?

There is a vacuum being created, as these mighty oaks crash to the ground.  Main stream media is slowly, but surely, being brought down, and its pieces are being driven into the long tail of the Internet.

As a business, or organization, as heartless as it may seem, you have incredible opportunity in this unprecedented change of paradigm.

Quite simply, you must build your own media channel.  You now have the tools in your hands, to speak your message in your own voice, through your own media distribution system.  You now possess, through Internet technologies, a television station, a radio station, a newspaper, a magazine. 

Your company must now develop your own voice, find the proper distribution channel, and start singing, at the top of your lungs, the message you have to share.

We stand with you, and are prepared to help you find your voice, and would delight to see your company start to more powerfully share its vision.

Building a Facebook Outpost for your Mortgage Blog

One of the things that every business, organization, or professional blogger will want to do, is build an outpost on Facebook.

Facebook is easily one of the fastest growing social networks on the planet. 

Furthermore, Facebook has now provided "pages" for businesses, and organizations to have a place on their network.  It has proven to be wildly popular.

Look at these stats directly from Facebook: 

• More than 200 million active users
• More than 100 million users log on to Facebook at least once each day
• More than two-thirds of Facebook users are outside of college
• The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older

• Average user has 120 friends on the site
• More than 3.5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide)
• More than 20 million users update their statuses at least once each day
• More than 4 million users become fans of Pages each day

• More than 850 million photos uploaded to the site each month
• More than 8 million videos uploaded each month
• More than 1 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each week
• More than 2.5 million events created each month
• More than 25 million active user groups exist on the site

We just built our initial Facebook page, and within on day, I was reconnected with a business acquaintance, across the country, who is a very likely candidate for our blog consulting services.

As a client of ours, we will make certain that you have a Facebook strategy in place. 

You simply cannot afford to  be absent from 200 million active users! 

Besides, it also great fun!

10 Reasons Smart Real Estate Agents and Realtors® will build their own Blogs and/or Social Media Sites

Give your Realtor® clients a helping hand, in moving their real estate practice into the 21st century, and Web 2.0, by referring this article to them:

10 Reasons Smart Real Estate Agents and Realtors® will build their own Blogs and/or Social Media Sites

To refer this article, simple use the "Share This" button, just below.

Congratulations! You survived the Mortgage Implosion! Now What?

Congratulations!  You survived the roughest business climate the mortgage industry has ever seen.

You deserve a huge pat on the back.  A great number of your competitors have imploded into extinction.

Your phone is ringing, and you are beginning to have "good problems", instead of wondering if you would even be in business tomorrow.
May I give you a couple doses of hearty advice?

1. The most important thing you have to do, as a mortgage broker, is build trusting relationship with your clients. 
2. If you build enough of them (I had 1,200) you will never, ever, ever suffer like this again!

Stop thinking like a salesperson chasing the deal, and build a living, breathing, relationship with your clients.  Healthy businesses have a great many relationships with people who like them, trust them, refer them, and come back to them over, and over.

With this current refinance boom underway, you have incredible opportunity to take the relationship with your clients significantly deeper.

Do this, grasshopper, and you will have a much easier time in the next down market.

Shameless Commercial Plug

We have a number of ways to help you accomplish this:

1. Our $99 consult is a very inexpensive way to tap into the mind of a very successful, 20 year veteran of the mortgage industry. 
2. Our new blog consulting company is designed to help you bring your story, in new and powerful ways, to your clients.  Five years from now, every company in America will be using blogs/new media in their organizations.  Do you want to be ahead of the curve, or a "me too" kind of business?

Now that you have a little extra jingle, in your pocket, invest some of it back into your business.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Blog Consulting, LLC - our newly launched company!

Today we officially launched our new blog consulting company, Blog Consulting, LLC.

The paint is still wet, and we are still moving furniture around our new web site, but here is our service offering:

Blog (New Media) Consulting

This will be our flagship service.  Here we will provide the actual building of an online blogging presence for businesses, organizations, or certain individuals.  This will include, but is not limited to:

• the actual building your new blog
• connecting your new blog to all appropriate social networks, such as facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
• plugging in appropriate widgets, gizmos, and doodads to make your subscribers experience pleasant, and very Web 2.0.
• designing, with your direction, a custom banner for your new site.
• sitting you in the seat of your new blog, and teaching you how to work all the knobs, buttons, and dials.
• working with you to subscribe your clients/patrons/members, etc to your new enterprise.
• working with you to create a vision, mission, and  purpose into your new media site.
• teaching you how to create video posts, audio post, upload media to iTunes, as well as instruction in textual composition with rich photography to create extra pizazz in your posts.
• most important of all, I repeat, most important of all, I will consult, and work with you over a 12 month period to assure the success of your new enterprise.  Here lies the biggest roadblock to most blogs:  they start with will all the good intentions in the world, but three months later, it is barren waste land.

I have 20 years of business networking, and community building experience.  I have started from scratch, and sold a very successful business.  That, together with my love of technology provides me with the tools to help you succeed. 

Please drop me an e-mail to set up a free, no obligation conversation about your new site.

Social Media Management

This is where a company, organization, or individual would hire me (Blog Consulting, LLC) to actually manage the day to day operations of your online blog (new media). 

This would involve a contracted amount of dedicated time each week, where I would actually sit in the drivers seat of your online media division.   This might include such things as:

• writing a determined number of blog posts each week.
• managing your social media sites, such as facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
• conducting video interviews, for your site, and uploading them to iTunes.
• conducting audio interviews, for your site, and uploading them to iTunes.
• creating subscription, marketing, and/or fund raising campaigns.
• working in tandem with you to create, maintain, and give vision to your new media enterprise.

I could only do this for a very limited number of organizations, and it would need to be in an area where I have great passion, and expertise.  Remember, a successful new media site is built with passion!

Areas that I could entertain for this type of venture might be:

• the mortgage industry
• business consulting/management
• blogs revolving around the Christian faith
• Church and/or seminary blogs
• author blogs in business and/or faith issues
• travel blogs
• hiking blogs
• Arizona, Phoenix, and/or Scottsdale blogs
• personal finance blogs
• photography
• visual arts such as museums, galleries, and or individual visual artists

There may be others, but you get the point.  This particular service would need to be a passion of mine, in order for it to be effective.  I would be highly ineffective blogging about football, for example.

Please drop me an e-mail to set up a free, no obligation conversation about Blog Consulting, LLC managing your blog/media site.

The Top 5 Reasons Your Mortgage Organization Must Embrace Blogs (New Media)

Reason #1 - A Significant Informational Shift

If you haven't noticed, there is a gargantuan shift occurring in the way information is delivered.  When is the last time you opened the yellow pages of your phone book?  Do you even own a phone book?

Once mighty print dynasties are crumbling all over this country.   Centuries old newspapers are quickly becoming extinct, and magazines are fast becoming informational Dodo Birds.

There is a swelling black hole for information, and it is all moving to the Internet. 

In my humble opinion, 10 years from now we will all be subscribed to RSS Feeds and will have the information we want, delivered right to our desktops.  Why would you want to read what a 20 year old newspaper employee thinks about this, or that, when you can subscribe to the RSS Feed of thousands of sites, and get your information right from the horses mouth.

In the future, the Warren Buffets of the world, will have their own media sites, and control their own messages. 

I present to you exhibit #1, the President of the United States.  Whitehouse.gov is now a blog, and President Obama has built his own media distribution center.

You must do the same!

Reason #2 - Inexpensive to Own!

I used to spend around $5,000 each month to get my message out to my clients, using snail-mail.  If I had used television, radio, or newspaper it would have cost me significantly more.

With a blog (new media), you have at your disposal a television station, a radio station, a magazine, a newspaper, and an e-mail newsletter, all rolled up into one! 

You will have the ability to communicate with your patrons in video, audio, pictures, and text.  A very rich environment delivered with video podcasts, and audio podcasts delivered right to iTunes for your clients to download on their iPods.  Furthermore, you will be able to take advantage of social networks such as facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and many more.

Because you own the media distribution, it is very inexpensive.  I found that my initial investment was quickly returned, and I was able to significantly reduce the money I was spending in other communication channels. 

Reason #3 - Inbound Marketing rather than Outbound Marketing

Let's face it, your clients are sick and tired of being bombarded with advertisements everywhere they look.  Our e-mail in-boxes have become a nightmare!  Right?

This is because of outbound marketing.  You create something, and send it out in hopes of a return.

With inbound networking, the whole paradigm gets turned on its head.  With the new media you will use permission marketing, and word of mouth marketing.  In other words, people are going to choose whether or not they want to read your material.

This is good because it puts the power in the hands of the consumer, and it forces you to create better content.  If you aren't producing great content, your clients are not going to subscribe to your media site, and come back.  Furthermore, they are not going to refer your site to their friends, and family.

Reason #4 - The Ridiculously Easy Referral

Let's say you own a financial planning company.  Let's further assume that you just hit a home run for one of your clients, and they are now raving fans of your company.  In the past, it was fairly difficult to get your client to actually refer your services.

Now, through your "new media" channel, this is done very easily, with the click of a mouse. 

You may have produced, for example, a wonderful video on how to survive a market meltdown.  If 500 of your clients watch the video, it would be very easy for them to refer the video to 2,500 people, in one day!

Do you see?  If you produce great content, people will refer their friends to it.

Reason #5 - It's now, or later!

Look.  Here's the bottom line.  Regardless of whether you have a business, a non-profit organization, a church, a museum, a financial planning company, a real estate company, or are a published author, your are going to graduate your website, sooner or later, to a living, breathing, interactive, media site.

Why wouldn't you get it done before the rest of your competitors do the same thing? 

The sooner you get started, the sooner Google will start collecting your information, and you will be moved to the head of the class.

We would love to talk to you about building, and then consulting with you regarding your blog (media site).  Please drop me an e-mail today.

Hey Look! Blog Consulting, LLC is nearly open!

A few weeks ago, I posted here that I was busy at work building a second consulting company.

This one, Blog Consulting, LLC. is designed to help businesses, organizations, and individuals get their "new media" sites built, and to provide on-going support to help them build their online communities.

We will be doing this with video podcasts, audio podcasts, text, facebook, Twitter, and a whole host of new media tools.

Our company will not only get the site built and running, but ride co-pilot with you for a year to help you find success, and, most importantly, receive a return on your investment!

Come on over and take a peek!  We still have wet paint, and the banner is yet to be installed, but I would welcome your visit, your comments, and your first impressions.

Dave! How come you haven't posted lately?

Great Question!  More than one person has asked.  Thank you!

Here's the answer:  We are completely rebuilding this company, from the ground up.

We have noticed that our greatest strength lies in our ability to help businesses, organization, and individuals build community with their clients, and/or databases.

Furthermore, there is a great ravenous desire for businesses, organizations, and individuals to acquire this skill, and perhaps more importantly, use the new media tools now readily available in the marketplace.

Therefore, we are working on the business plan for a new company, Blog Consulting, LLC.

This new company will be all about building community (somewhat akin to database marketing) using new media tools.

With the swift, ever changing pace of technology, we all find ourselves with the incredible opportunity to possess a media division (think television, radio, magazine, newspaper) within our organizations, and therefore, bring our organization's value proposition to levels never before dreamed off.

Stay tuned!  When we are ready to launch, I will make a post here.

The Little Red Hen - Free Enterprise verses Socialism

This story was sent to me by a friend who is involved with a Multi-Level Marketing company. 

Although not involved, I like the story:

Once upon a time, on a farm in Kansas

. . . there was a little red hen who scratched about the barnyard until she uncovered quite a few grains of wheat. She called all of her neighbors together and said, "If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?"

"Not I," said the cow.
"Not I," said the duck.
"Not I," said the pig.
"Not I," said the goose.

"Then I will do it by myself," said the little red hen. And so she did; The wheat grew very tall and ripened into golden grain. "Who will help me reap my wheat?" asked the little red hen.
"Not I," said the duck.

"Out of my classification," said the pig.
"I'd lose my seniority," said the cow.
"I'd lose my unemployment compensation," said the goose.

"Then I will do it by myself," said the little red hen, and so she did. At last it came time to bake the bread. "Who will help me bake the bread?" asked the little red hen.

"That would be overtime for me," said the cow.
"I'd lose my welfare benefits," said the duck.
"I'm a dropout and never learned how," said the pig.
"If I'm to be the only helper, that's discrimination," said the goose.

"Then I will do it by myself," said the little red hen.

She baked five loaves and held them up for all of her neighbors to see. They
wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share. But the little red hen said, "No,
I shall eat all five loaves."

"Excess profits!" cried the cow.
"Capitalist leech!" screamed the duck.
"I demand equal rights!" yelled the goose.
The pig just grunted in disdain.

And they all painted "Unfair!" picket signs and marched around and around
the little red hen, shouting obscenities.

When the government agent came, he said to the little red hen, "You must not be so greedy."

"But I earned the bread," said the little red hen.

"Exactly," said the agent. "That is what makes our free enterprise system so wonderful. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must divide the fruits of their labor with those who are lazy and idle."

And they all lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked, "I am grateful, for now I truly understand." But her neighbors became quite disappointed in her, for she never again baked any more bread.