Full Transcript is Below:
– It’s that time again, time for our Top Producer series. This month it is September and we are going to Central Virginia where we find our very own Blane Stewart from the Blane Stewart Team of NFM Lending. He is a superstar of a human being and producer and we welcome him in now to NFM TV. What’s up, Blane?
– All kinds of stuff, Greg. Thanks so much for having me today.
– We’re really happy to have you. You’re one of my favorite people I’ve ever met in this business and that spans over 20 years, sadly. I’ve been around a long time, dating myself. But Blane, your branch is going to do over $70 million in 2019. You personally are going to approach $50 million. Let’s first start off by talking about, how do you get to those kinds of numbers? It’s a real big accomplishment.
– Absolutely. Well, I think it always boils down to just having a servant heart, Greg. I think the top producers in this business tend to get past just wanting to close loans. They really have a passion for serving others, so I’ve been in that mindset for probably about 10 years and that’s probably been the biggest key to getting to those kind of levels, it’s just having a servant heart and also just having a lot of discipline and structure.
– So having a servant heart. Sounds great. What does it mean? How do people, how do they exhibit that?
– Well, the sad news is it’s really just taking better care of people than you get treated. So, as I go out and consume services, I find that the service level is just not way up there, so in today’s world, it’s really just about going out and serving people better than you get served. That’s really what my team and I strive to do is just make sure we’re taking better care of the realtors and the borrowers than we get served.
– So you’ve been in this business over 18 years. You’ve been at NFM for two and a half years. You and I have talked in the past about what it took to get you from a $20 million a year producer to where you are right now, approaching $50 million. What were some of the keys to taking you from that point A to where you are now, point B?
– Let’s see, I’d say the biggest thing from to go from $20 million because at my branch, we don’t let loan officers work here unless you can close at least six deals a month, which is roughly about $18 million a year. And so I’d say as a branch, the way that we get our producers doing a lot of business is just set the standards really high. I have really high standards just ’cause I really want to shine in my community. As far as personally to get from $20 million to $30 million, I think it’s more about just setting a vision for yourself, Greg. I have a really clear vision of what I wanna have happen in my business and my life over the next 10 years, so I feel almost like I’m drawn to do the next level, so I think it’s more about just mindset, choice, and then implementing like crazy.
– You’re very regimented. I’ve gotten to know that you’re an extremely disciplined person. Can you give everyone kind of a window into your day-to-day?
– Absolutely, I am very robotic. I’d say that I do pretty much the same thing every day of the week. My MO at work is that I’m kind of the nerdy guy, but the truth of the matter is I’m an adrenaline junky. I love excitement, I love fun, so what I do is I have my calendar set up to where it just reminds me of all the important things to do each day. So my biggest thing is that I have, I report to my calendar. So my calendar in the morning tells me the important things like pray and be grateful and live life like it’s your last day on Earth. I then get up, I grind my coffee each morning. I have my faithful Chihuahua sitting on my lap. I do a thing called a daily to-do email, so I get up every morning, I go through every email, every text that I have the day before, all the appointments that I had and I get a task email prepared for our daily team meeting, which probably doesn’t surprise you, we do it at the same time every day. And then we do the daily team meeting, we delegate everything that needs to take place in all the different sectors of my team, which encompasses application, approval and underwriting. We delegate things clearly and then I hate white space, Greg. If there’s white space in my calendar, it’s my enemy. So my team and I’s goal always is just to crush the white space so we’re gonna have structured appointments all day long.
– I know you’re also very passionate about growing people. You’ve got a particular individual there in Anthony Cellini who came to you very green and is now closing over 10 units a month. Tell us about that fire that burns within you and what you brought to Anthony to help get him to that level.
– Absolutely, I have I think one of the better training programs to bring green people into the business. I, like you, Greg, I’ve been in the business for a long time and in my past I’ve had offices where I’ve had lots of loan offices and I just wasn’t happy coming in. So I ended up changing my whole business structure about seven years ago where I literally just decided to only bring in new people in the business. Anthony was just a super dynamic guy when I met him. He was trying to sell me some upgrade plan at a cellphone store and I told him, I said, no, no, no, I’m nerdy, I understand all the plans. Let me tell you how to do it. I said, why don’t we do lunch. We went out to lunch, he’s just taken off in the business. He’s super at the mortgage business. He’s a great man and I just really help people bring out good habits and then with good people the sky’s the limit.
– How long have you been working with him?
– Anthony has been on my team for about five years and he, of course, we wanna win the Rookie of the Year Award every year at NFM, that’s our team goal of course, so I won the Rookie of the Year Award, Anthony won it, now one of our new guy’s, Scott’s, really pushing hard to be the the Rookie of the Year, so we really like to compete around here.
– That’s incredible. Congratulations on that success. It’s one thing to be a great producer yourself, it’s an entirely different thing to be able to help somebody else become a great producer. It’s not a given that if you’re a great producer you can help others, that’s for sure. I’m curious to know as regimented as you are if you have any work-life balance. I would imagine that someone as structured as you tries to shut it down when they get home at some point. It’s very hard to do in this business. Are you able to achieve that and tell us how you go about it.
– Absolutely, I would say balance to me, Greg, is a word that a lot of people talk about. I don’t think there is such a thing as balance. I think there’s just a matter of just making choices and setting priorities. So I do make really conscious choices of like when I get home at my house, I will do all my business in the car before I’ll walk in my house, and as soon as I come in my home, I turn my phone off and it doesn’t come on until the morning to get ready for my daily team meeting, so I do that. I also schedule in all my personal time into my calendar so I have my trainer, I have my personal spiritual things I like to do, so I put in all that into my calendar first and that would probably be my version of balance where I on purpose show that I care about doing more than the mortgage business.
– That’s so hard to do. Congratulations on being able to accomplish that. Blane Stewart, thank you so much for your time. We really love having you as our top producer for the month of September. It’s very easy for everyone to see why you are such a successful person and a great human being serving the Charlottesville and Culpeper area, that’s Central Virginia. Blane Stewart from the Blane Stewart Team of NFM lending. We hae your contact information up here, Blane. There’s a good chance that someone’s looking at this going, I’d like to say hello to that guy, so that will enable them to get a hold of you and I know you’re always open to making new friends in the business.
– Absolutely, thank you, Greg, so much for having me and if anybody needs anything, please give me a call. I’d love to help you.
– All right, Blane, all the best to you, continued success. I’m Greg Sher from NFM TV. We’ll see ya next time.