Full Transcript is Below:
– Hi. I’m Greg Sher from NFM TV. Welcome in to our 2019 Year-End Review and what a year it was, filled with great insights and guests, so much power and knowledge shared with our audience. It was not easy but we narrowed down our absolute favorites, the highlights, if you will, of 2019, starting with our exclusive sit-down with former FHA Commissioner, David Stevens as he gave us great insight into what it was like during the financial crisis when he first met, then president, Barack Obama.
– And I walked in and I immediately knew I shouldn’t sit at the table, I was gonna go sit at the back couch in the room and Geithner looked at me, who I’d never met before, and he looks at me and goes, “You’re Stevens, right?” I said, “Yeah,” he goes, “I want you sittin’ at the table,” and we’re literally 10 minutes into the meeting and the president walks in, he’s read all the information and he goes, “Look, I just have one question, “could somebody explain what a warehouse line is?” And the table goes silent, all these PhD’s and leaders of the free world are sort of stumbling on how to answer. Geithner looks down at me, he goes, “Stevens, answer the question.” So, I started explaining what a warehouse line is, I look up and I had the president of the United States staring at me.
– And we featured many top producers in 2019. With combined lifetime volume well into the billions. Let’s take a listen at some of the nuggets we learned. How hard is it to break into the builder business?
– What helped me is just figuring out what business most lenders don’t want to do. So I mean, I started out doing turndown business. Most builders have their own lenders, they want the cream of the crop and then you have to see what business they’re shedding that you can somehow get and capture and then close and do what you say you’re gonna do. I think the biggest piece to that is not dealing, necessarily, with the deal itself but dealing with the people and their emotions and getting them back on that horse after they’ve just been turned down trying to perform.
– Okay, so it’s all about the agents, right? If I was a brand new agent and Jan, I still do this sometimes when I just want to get more business, you gotta go to open houses, you gotta work Saturdays and Sundays, you gotta meet new agents, you gotta start that list, you gotta make the phone calls. Then, it’s that extreme followup, on whatever you told ’em that you were gonna do, you gotta do it. You gotta deliver. Then you leverage every person on that deal and it just snowballs.
– One, you have to have a really good team. So, I attribute a lot of my success to my amazing team. Two, you have to have good partners and you have to show them value every single day. So I think, just being a good lender, unfortunately, is not enough. You have to be able to help those business partners, whatever they need help with as a partner and then they treat you like a partner and refer business like a partner. So, having really fantastic deep relationships with high producing individuals that you’re adding a lot of value to on a daily basis.
– Wow, how insightful that was. We can’t wait to bring you more top producers in 2020. But wait, before we get to that, there’s more. We sat down with the leaders of NFM Lending. CEO and Founder David Silverman and President Jan Ozga as they shared their infinite wisdom will all of us. It’s safe to say you’ve seen more changes in the last two years then you saw in the first 18?
– It’s amazing, this industry, for the longest time I couldn’t figure it out. Why it seemed to move so slowly in the area of technology and now it’s a race. It’s a technology race that’s goin’ on, it’s a big part of NFM’s focus, we’re not gonna be left behind. I think we’re out in front in a lot of ways and actually embracing it. Really excited about it. For those of you who are listening, if you haven’t embraced the revolution, you need to if you want to stay in this industry ’cause that’s where it’s goin’. All about proving borrower experience, proving your backend processes with the use of technology, that’s where it’s goin’.
– At NFM, we really work on pulling both the culture of sales and the culture of operations together so that we all understand that we are working as one unit. Sales can’t function without operations, operations can function without sales. But, between the marketing, between NFM TV, between doing premier video for realtor partners, these are things that have made massive changes in how an originator does business and how they get out there to the referral partners.
– And of course, we honored our veterans, handing out 12 NFM Salutes, including one to 93 year old former Marine, Willie Woods, as we travel to his house to learn about what it was like to serve as part of the Montford Point Marines.
– I remember the general who was in charge of the Pacific, he came to Montford Point and gave a speech and said, just out, point blank, “You’re not fit.” It made me feel like I’m gonna disprove what he said. You set yourself above me but I’m gonna show you that I can walk right beside you.
– And you’ve done that now. All these years later, looking back, you see all the opportunity for African Americans in prominent positions, tell me how that makes you feel in knowing that you were a part of that, making that happen.
– I’m proud of it.
– What a remarkable man and an honor it was to sit with Mr. Woods. We also continued our efforts to send troop boxes overseas, sending over 300 boxes of non-perishable items to our troops for the 12th consecutive year. And what would be a successful year without grabbing NFM volunteers and heading to the airport to welcome home planes filled with troops returning from overseas?
– I haven’t seen my niece in about 2 1/2 years. I’m just so excited to see her. I can’t even put it into words how proud I am of her and I love her and it’s a little bit scary but I’m happy and proud of how far she’s come with this.
– We can never thank you enough. To those who have served and who are serving, and to those of you that have supported NFM TV in 2019 by watching, we really appreciate it. I’m your host, Greg Sher. I really hope you enjoyed this year-end review in 2019 and cannot wait to bring you more valuable content in 2020. From all of us here at NFM TV, Happy New Year.