Former mortgage lender turned full-time coach, Erin Bradley, shares her transformative journey from struggling in sales to developing a replicable, value-driven strategy that doubled her business repeatedly. Erin's approach, deeply influenced by the philosophies of "The Go-Giver," emphasizes building a business through genuine connections, prioritizing value over transactions, and fostering a supportive community. Her unique perspective on real estate and mortgage lending, focusing on authenticity and mutual growth, offers invaluable insights for agents and lenders alike seeking to enhance their careers while maintaining personal integrity and joy.
Erin's transition from the mortgage business to coaching full-time underlines her commitment to helping others achieve a fulfilling balance between professional success and personal happiness. If you’re aspiring to elevate your real estate or lending career with purpose and passion, this episode is a must-listen. Tune in to discover how you can apply Erin's strategies to craft a life you don't need a vacation from, powered by a career that truly aligns with your values.
Key takeaways to listen to:
About Erin Bradley
Erin Bradley is a speaker and trainer, bestselling author, and host of the real estate podcast Pursuing Freedom. As a mortgage lender, Erin learned the hard way just how difficult entrepreneurship and success in sales can be. From flat broke to 6 figures, and then to burnout, Erin has been through it all, and quickly discovered that the stress of overwhelm is no less painful than the financial stress.
After redesigning her business to support her dream life, she’s been on a mission to teach her fellow real estate professionals to do the same. Erin operates under the mindset that you never give up, and you never settle, in life or in business. Anything is possible when you have the right mindset, great systems, and an amazing team.
Connect with Erin:
To connect with Randal and learn more about passive investing, visit www.ridgelineig.com and follow our social media pages below!
To connect with Randal and learn more about passive investing, visit www.ridgelineig.com and follow our social media pages below!
Former mortgage lender turned full-time coach, Erin Bradley, shares her transformative journey from struggling in sales to developing a replicable, value-driven strategy that doubled her business repeatedly. Erin's approach, deeply influenced by the philosophies of "The Go-Giver," emphasizes building a business through genuine connections, prioritizing value over transactions, and fostering a supportive community. Her unique perspective on real estate and mortgage lending, focusing on authenticity and mutual growth, offers invaluable insights for agents and lenders alike seeking to enhance their careers while maintaining personal integrity and joy.
Erin's transition from the mortgage business to coaching full-time underlines her commitment to helping others achieve a fulfilling balance between professional success and personal happiness. If you’re aspiring to elevate your real estate or lending career with purpose and passion, this episode is a must-listen. Tune in to discover how you can apply Erin's strategies to craft a life you don't need a vacation from, powered by a career that truly aligns with your values.
Key takeaways to listen to:
About Erin Bradley
Erin Bradley is a speaker and trainer, bestselling author, and host of the real estate podcast Pursuing Freedom. As a mortgage lender, Erin learned the hard way just how difficult entrepreneurship and success in sales can be. From flat broke to 6 figures, and then to burnout, Erin has been through it all, and quickly discovered that the stress of overwhelm is no less painful than the financial stress.
After redesigning her business to support her dream life, she’s been on a mission to teach her fellow real estate professionals to do the same. Erin operates under the mindset that you never give up, and you never settle, in life or in business. Anything is possible when you have the right mindset, great systems, and an amazing team.
Connect with Erin:
To connect with Randal and learn more about passive investing, visit www.ridgelineig.com and follow our social media pages below!
To connect with Randal and learn more about passive investing, visit www.ridgelineig.com and follow our social media pages below!
[00:00:00] Erin Bradley: I honestly sucked at sales. Like I hated all self serving sales strategies that felt just like really inauthentic. And so I just struggled really hard in the early years. And then I hired coaches and I was getting coached by real estate coaching companies like Buffini and Ninja. So I was being coached to build my business with my database rather than being told to chase realtors.
[00:00:20] Erin Bradley: And so I didn't even have realtor friends for the first 4 years in the business. It's embarrassing to say, but I ended up developing a strategy. Finally, after reading the go giver, that really changed my life. And it became this replicable strategy that helped me double my business time and again.
[00:00:36] Erin Bradley: And then I started teaching it to real estate agents. So just 1 on 1.
[00:00:39] Intro: If you're a real estate agent earning 200, 000 a year, and you want to grow your passive income, this show is for you. Learn secrets other agents use and hear from experts in our field who will guide you on your journey to investing in assets like apartment communities, so you can take your commissions and turn them into cashflow.
[00:00:59] Intro: Here's your [00:01:00] host, Randall. Let's dive in.
[00:01:01] Randal McLeaird: So did your podcast change? Did you change the name of the podcast and all of that? To pursuing freedom after
[00:01:08] Erin Bradley: the long story short is that like the podcast started in 2018. I've always been a teacher. I was a teacher before I was a mortgage lender. And then I would took that into how I treated my clients.
[00:01:17] Erin Bradley: And I honestly sucked at sales. Like I hated all self serving sales strategies that felt just like really inauthentic. And so I just struggled really hard in the early years. And then I hired coaches and I was getting coached by real estate coaching companies like Buffini. I was being coached to build my business with my database rather than being told to chase Realtors.
[00:01:38] Erin Bradley: And so I didn't even have a realtor friend for the first four years in the business. It's embarrassing to say, but I ended up developing a strategy finally after reading the go giver that really changed my life. And it became this replicable strategy that helped me double my business time and again.
[00:01:53] Erin Bradley: And then I started teaching it to real estate agents. So just like one on one and then realizing we're all human beings with like [00:02:00] insecurity and limiting beliefs. So when I recognized that it changed the whole dynamic of like lenders being taught to chase agents and put the realtor on the pedestal and hope that you do your job so that deals can fall to the lender rather than just like linking arms and being like, we're in this together.
[00:02:16] Erin Bradley: This is hard and let's get creative and let's do some stuff and have some fun with our past clients. And so it just evolved. And I always got was called the coaching. And then. When my business took off, I burned out really hard, really fast with like toddlers and pregnant and whatever. And I was like, this sucks.
[00:02:34] Erin Bradley: I'm making all this money and I am miserable. This isn't freedom and flexibility. So then I started scaling my business and I was hiring like close friends and stuff and teaching them, like training them up. Eventually, I just kept scaling and scaling. And then I started teaching realtors how to scale.
[00:02:49] Erin Bradley: And finally, like I really wanted to be a coach, but I didn't want to let my team down and abandon them. And then I finally was just like standing on a stage at a real estate conference talking about like living your [00:03:00] life on purpose and listening to that calling. And I was like, Oh, shit, I'm not listening to my own advice.
[00:03:05] Erin Bradley: No, I came home and told my husband, I'm like, I think the whisper just became a roar. I think I have to do this and leave the mortgage business. And I did a little over a year ago. So I've been coaching full time and. And I resumed the podcast and it's unfolding very organically, like creating partnerships and now coaching lenders too, which makes sense because that's what I did for 17 years.
[00:03:24] Erin Bradley: But I was always coaching realtors just because that's what I did. And
[00:03:27] Randal McLeaird: There's a course for everything essentially. So did you go to a course on how to create a course? I know there are guys out there that are like, because I've taken all the
[00:03:34] Erin Bradley: courses and I never finished them.
[00:03:36] Randal McLeaird: Yeah,
[00:03:36] Erin Bradley: but no, the content started evolving and then last year, like I had burned the boat.
[00:03:42] Erin Bradley: I did not renew my license going into 2023. And I developed like a six month curriculum in a grouped format and I have relationships with a lot of real estate companies. So they were having me come in and do talks and then I would open up enrollment to this six month program. So we did that and people got success and I did it a few [00:04:00] more times.
[00:04:00] Erin Bradley: And then there were people that couldn't afford it. So then I was like, and it's only 2, 500 for six months. And I'm thinking to myself that's a fraction of one commission. How can people not invest in themselves? So then I was like, let me roll out this special pop up four week bootcamp for 397 to get referrals fast.
[00:04:18] Erin Bradley: And it's like the content of my book that, that strategy outlined in a four week program. And people got amazing results, like 17 new leads in the first two weeks by following the plan. So then I was like, let me make this self paced for 197. So then I'm like, like inching my way into digital courses.
[00:04:35] Erin Bradley: It's just tough for me. It's a limiting belief probably, but I just feel like agents and lenders are not the like, They just aren't the target market for a self paced thing. Like they're going to buy it maybe and then waste their money and not do anything with it. So I tried to make it like the self paced gives them access to two live group coaching calls that are recurring.
[00:04:53] Erin Bradley: Like I have a bi weekly Monday mastermind. So they get access to two of those calls. Cause I'm like, The issue isn't that they don't [00:05:00] know what to do. The issue is some block in their mindset that's holding them back from just doing it. And it usually requires a little bit of like conversation to identify that.
[00:05:08] Erin Bradley: So I'm, dude, I'm winging it.
[00:05:10] Randal McLeaird: Yeah. That's the thing. If you have the following and you're building it and you're organically building it over time, because I've seen. Like masterminds that I've joined and I've just watched the meteoric rise of the membership of these guys and a few different masterminds that I've been in, like, how in the hell did they orchestrate that?
[00:05:27] Randal McLeaird: And so it's just interesting. If you're currently working on that and doing that is something that I dabbled with. And I was like, maybe I'll go and create a course. I've been flipping houses for years and like pretty good at it. And there's a thousand courses on flipping houses, so it's like having something like that. But anyway, it's just one of those things that building a community, if there's a playbook for it, then. I'm always
[00:05:48] Erin Bradley: happy to mastermind on it. I'm part of go abundance. Have you heard of that? And so in it we have, so there's a women's organization started a couple of years ago.
[00:05:55] Erin Bradley: The men's been around for like over 10 years, but we created a co [00:06:00] ed course creators, coaches, and mastermind, like micro tribes that we meet bi weekly and we brainstorm on stuff and mainly it's just, everybody would have agreed that they're winging it, but there was a guy that was leading it before it became co ed.
[00:06:13] Erin Bradley: Yeah. And he has a website called content creator dot com.
[00:06:17] Randal McLeaird: Okay. It's
[00:06:17] Erin Bradley: like a step, a very robust program, step by step on how to create and monetize digital courses. He's making 300, 000 a month from his digital courses. And I'm like, what? So I think the thing about it though, is like digital courses, like you've got to make that your focus.
[00:06:36] Erin Bradley: So if I'm busy over here on coaching calls, podcast interviews, myself, like speaking engagements, whatever. And then I'm trying to cram in the nooks and crannies of taking an online course to monetize my online courses. I know that it needs more attention for that to be like meteoric success you talked about.
[00:06:56] Erin Bradley: I feel like it's more of an afterthought and I want it to be, I want [00:07:00] passive income from it. There's value in the courses. So it's I think I need to put the attention on it for it to be successful,
[00:07:05] Randal McLeaird: yeah. I think like anything, it's not going to just happen. And I agree that if If that's the thing, that's the thing, right?
[00:07:11] Randal McLeaird: Turn it into the thing. So really, why don't we just go back and talk about the starting. Were you, again, I read your bio, you're like self employed 2009. I think it was 2008, something like that.
[00:07:21] Erin Bradley: 07. 07,
[00:07:22] Randal McLeaird: 07. Okay. So what were you doing before that? Were you working with a mortgage company or were you?
[00:07:27] Randal McLeaird: Already self employed or what was the story that led into the actual origin story that you have posted in your bio?
[00:07:33] Erin Bradley: Yeah I'm the quintessential free spirit. I'm the youngest of five kids and all of us went to school for business. We all grew up in Philadelphia, followed the script, get good grades, go to a good college.
[00:07:46] Erin Bradley: My dad was a stockbroker and financial advisor. And so even as my older sister who was number three was going into college, she wanted to be an art major. And my dad said, Even artists need to figure out how to sell their work. So I would recommend majoring in business [00:08:00] and minoring in art. And she ended up being a marketing major with a minor in art.
[00:08:05] Erin Bradley: And today in her late 40s, she is a well known full time artist and owns a furniture and art gallery after many other careers right in corporate America and things like that. And so for me. I was a sophomore in college realizing that I was studying finance and had no interest in being a stockbroker.
[00:08:22] Erin Bradley: And I, I said to my dad, I think I want to be a teacher and switch over to the school of education. And I called the school about that and they said you can't study abroad if you switch your school, because you have to start over with all the core classes. And my dad said to me, you can always be a teacher with a finance degree or a business degree, but you can't be a stockbroker with an education degree.
[00:08:42] Erin Bradley: So just get. The business degree. And so I did, and I actually switched over to operations and strategic management, which came into play later on in my career as I built a business and had a team and systems and culture and all those things that we learned about. But my heart was in teaching. So after college, [00:09:00] I ended up living in Barcelona for a couple years teaching English.
[00:09:04] Erin Bradley: Cash under the table, making like 900 a month and living like a hobo running out of money every month and living on buttered noodles, selling beers on a street corner to get money, and so I came back to the States and I got back to Philadelphia and quickly realized I wanted something different and had the opportunity to move to Colorado.
[00:09:22] Erin Bradley: On a whim for 3 months and got out here and, started bartending instantly started teaching classes of English of the 2nd language. And I had taught Spanish in Philadelphia for a year. Anyhow, I'm out here. And then at the time I had watched my oldest sister. Be very successful in corporate America and climb the corporate ladder.
[00:09:41] Erin Bradley: And then as soon as she was having her first child, she left her career and not knowing if I would want to be a stay at home mom someday. I just had that feeling of I want to take advantage of these early twenties and just have a huge adventure. And so when somebody came up to me and said, I think you'd be good in the mortgage business.
[00:09:56] Erin Bradley: I was like, Oh no, hell no. I'm like, that is [00:10:00] not the path for me. I am not going to be dressed up in a suit sitting at the big mahogany desk. And they're like no, just trust me. And. Come check out this company. And it was actually a small Latino mortgage company. And I was the only American. So they needed a bilingual American to help out with some marketing and lead generation, like internet leads in 2006, which is so funny.
[00:10:20] Erin Bradley: So I was calling all the John Smith's and, Kevin O'Leary's because everyone in the company had an accent when they were doing cold calls. It was really interesting. So I fell into the mortgage business then. And after about a year of, Being an assistant and learning about the business. I thought to myself, I want the freedom and flexibility to be the loan officer.
[00:10:38] Erin Bradley: I want to be self employed. So I go a hundred percent commission at 07 and I have no safety net, no money in the bank, no game plan really. And within a year I fall flat on my face. I am 35 grand in credit card debt by the summer of 08. I'm riding my bike to a client meeting in July in Denver in the heat because I don't have enough money for gas and I get to the Starbucks [00:11:00] early to let the sweat dry off and the client gets there early too, unfortunately, and he introduces himself to me as my credit card is being declined for a 2 cup of coffee.
[00:11:10] Erin Bradley: And I'm just like, oh, my God, this is so embarrassing. He buys my coffee. I call my dad later and I'm like, how did you do this? How did you go a hundred percent commission? This is so hard. I'm failing miserably. And he's listen, do you think you're going to be good at this someday? And the teacher in me really wanted to help people make this process easy.
[00:11:27] Erin Bradley: So I said, yeah, I think I could be. And he said then you just do whatever it takes. And so I did, like I was 35 grand in credit card debt. I hired my first coach. Most people won't do that. They say, I need to wait until I have the money to get the coach. And it's No, you get the coach to make more money.
[00:11:42] Erin Bradley: And so I did and did whatever else it, bought internet leads, whatever that means at 08 and, just started following the plan and eventually started closing deals and it was fine, but I still think today, as I give people advice that do whatever it takes is fine, but it's a little [00:12:00] bit of resistance and uphill upstream energy, if that makes sense, because I was still lacking authenticity.
[00:12:06] Erin Bradley: Like I was closing deals. But I was still wrestling with imposter syndrome and I was desperate. So I told my coach, literally tell me what to do and I'll do it. And I don't think there's any shortage of game plan in our industry. There's no shortage of books and trainings and resources on what to do.
[00:12:22] Erin Bradley: But the bottleneck is in why do I not feel like doing it? And how do we re engineer? Or reverse engineer the process from I need something. I'm in fear. So I'll do this to solve my problem versus. I'm running towards this activity from a place of contribution and inspired action, and I like it and I'm having fun with it.
[00:12:42] Erin Bradley: You can get to the same destination with 2 totally different approaches. The long story long is that I read The Go Giver in 2011, and now I've been at this for a while, and the whole philosophy is that the goal is to give more in value than you hope to receive in payment. And I read that book, and it just shook me to the [00:13:00] core, and I developed a strategy that worked for me.
[00:13:03] Erin Bradley: To build my business by referral without feeling salesy, without feeling self serving, and it more than doubled my business. And I started teaching it to others and I realized I wasn't alone. And so ultimately it all comes down to one thing is that we're all human beings. We all navigate fear and insecurity and limiting beliefs and all those things.
[00:13:21] Erin Bradley: And our job title doesn't really define that, right? As human beings, we are all going through this journey. And once I started helping other people. It became a passion for me to help more people build a life. They don't need a vacation from and design a business that fuels your life instead of just sucking it up and surviving your life and settling for what you can get.
[00:13:41] Erin Bradley: And that's just how it all unfolded. So yeah, definitely a winding road
[00:13:46] Randal McLeaird: to where
[00:13:47] Erin Bradley: I am today.
[00:13:48] Randal McLeaird: I love it. In my mind, when you were telling me. About coming back and working behind the mahogany desk is okay, you got to put down your tambourine or whatever, you're busking out on the street with and then sitting behind a desk.
[00:13:59] Randal McLeaird: It [00:14:00] was just an image that I had anyway. It's very funny. I have a similar story in the sense that I started mortgages in 2004, right? When I got out of college. And I was a loan officer. I was doing these things and had no money. And yes, it all resonates very close to home for me. So you touch on something about almost, I call it lifestyle design.
[00:14:16] Randal McLeaird: Like you're creating a lifestyle the way you want it to be. And then you pursue your life that way. So you obviously got to that point. You had a coach. What kind of coach was it? And how did you find this coach type? Was it a life coach? Was it a real estate specific coach? Was it a mortgage coach? How did you initially start that with coaching?
[00:14:33] Randal McLeaird: Who was your 1st case?
[00:14:33] Erin Bradley: So it was funny because I was a loan officer, but someone had recommended Buffini and company. And at the time they were primarily, if not all coaching realtors, but they had recently opened up enrollment for loan officers. So when I enrolled in that coaching and got myself some accountability.
[00:14:52] Erin Bradley: The game plan for me as a loan officer was very well was the same essentially as the game plan for realtors. I didn't have [00:15:00] mortgage specific coaching until 2015. I've never been without a coach, but for many years, I hired coaches that were referred to me by realtor friends. And it resulted in a journey for me as a lender that was unique to many in the industry because I was solely focused on building my own business with my database, with my sphere and by referral and not on chasing agents and asking them for their leads.
[00:15:26] Erin Bradley: Not to say that those relationships didn't naturally evolve. It's just that It wasn't until 2015 that I started going to mortgage specific trainings where it was all about the system was how many agents are you calling? How many agents are you seeing? And today, now that I'm a coach full time, I teach lenders.
[00:15:44] Erin Bradley: a strategy of owning your success and owning your business and owning your database. And in doing so you can be more of value to your realtor partners than taking them for coffee ever will. And it's a way of linking arms together and sharing that [00:16:00] responsibility in in past client follow up and finding ways to be a value beyond the closing table and all kinds of things.
[00:16:06] Erin Bradley: And so I feel like I was blessed in that regard because I had a unique perspective from the very beginning that helped mold my journey as a real estate professional, if you will.
[00:16:16] Randal McLeaird: Yeah. So give me an example then how you want to go back to lifestyle design in a minute, but give me an example of you're coaching one of your clients.
[00:16:24] Randal McLeaird: And it's not authentic to them to go and just make 50 cold calls to realtors. How do you work with them in order to find a game plan for something that works for them and suits their needs? Or is there just a, this is the path that you promote to your clients or to your customers?
[00:16:38] Erin Bradley: Yeah. So I can give you the strategy that I started teaching realtors, which eventually was this, which was my strategy as a lender and which I now teach mortgage lenders as well.
[00:16:47] Erin Bradley: It's funny because as a mortgage lender, I found myself teaching workshops. I was a teacher turned mortgage lender, right? So the way for me to grow my personal brand was in teaching workshops and real estate offices, boring into people [00:17:00] as a teacher, more than a salesperson. And so over the years, it evolved into coaching agents, even though I was a lender, but since leaving the mortgage business in 2022, I now coach lenders as well.
[00:17:11] Erin Bradley: And it's the same strategy across the board. Number 1 is that the goal is the go giver philosophy to be more of value than you hope to receive in payment. What does that actually mean? In our industry, we're given a lot of marketing advice, how to be top of mind. And I just felt while I was following the plan and following the prescription of being top of mind, the marketing was all about me or like mortgages or houses or real estate.
[00:17:35] Erin Bradley: It was home improvement tips and turn back the clock and pumpkin pie recipes. And I don't even like to bake, but I was just doing it all the time
[00:17:43] Randal McLeaird: still.
[00:17:43] Erin Bradley: Yeah. So I was just following the plan. And so when I read the go giver, I was like, wait a minute. What does it actually mean for me to be a value to somebody when they don't need my services?
[00:17:53] Erin Bradley: I thought about this and realized that our clients only need our services once every couple years, unless they're an investor that's buying more [00:18:00] frequently, right? And meanwhile, life continues to happen. So I heard this saying one time that it's when you step back from the single brushstroke that you can see the entire painting.
[00:18:10] Erin Bradley: So I looked at the real estate transaction as one brushstroke in the painting of people's lives. So when we think about keeping in touch with past clients, there's often a lot of resistance around picking up the phone because we have this call anxiety of what are we going to talk about? Because we don't, the deal's done, right?
[00:18:26] Erin Bradley: They don't need my services. So what am I going to talk about? They don't want to talk about real estate. You're right. They don't. Because the thing is that what keeps your clients up at night at three o'clock in the morning is not your business and your bank account. It's whatever brushstroke of the painting they're on.
[00:18:40] Erin Bradley: And your job is to be more curious. Then you are needy. So I believe the bottleneck between the execution of the activity we're told to do is in this. I'm thinking too much about myself, like I have a need, which is get more business. They've told me to do this and now I'm having this resistance. Why am I having resistance?
[00:18:59] Erin Bradley: I'm thinking [00:19:00] about myself. I'm thinking about what I need and because that doesn't feel good to be self serving, I'm not picking up the phone. So I encourage people to replace your insecurity with curiosity, to seek that rough stroke of the painting and then find a way to be a value. What does that actually mean?
[00:19:16] Erin Bradley: It means you need to have a network of people that can be a resource to your clients. It means that. before, during, and long after closing. So I systematically leveraged the relationships I had with friends and family and past clients to build what I refer to as the tribe of trusted local service providers.
[00:19:32] Erin Bradley: So I start calling my clients and my past clients and also just friends that I have not had the opportunity to work with yet and just say, Hey, Randall, I'm, I've got a random question for you. I'm working on a project for my business for 2024 and part of my goal is to be a resource to my friends and family above and beyond just real estate.
[00:19:51] Erin Bradley: You given the subtle plug that the hope and expectation is, if they need real estate, you're their person. And with that. I have a gap in my directory for a good blah, blah, [00:20:00] blah, whatever. And I know you're in this line of work. So I'm wondering if you know a good, so maybe you're in finance, would you, do you know a good estate planner or attorney or CPA, or maybe you're a massage therapist?
[00:20:11] Erin Bradley: Do you know a good chiropractor or acupuncture or other health and wellness? If you're a dentist, do you know a good orthodontist? Like we can build off what we know on people, or we can simply say, who do you have on your team in your wealth building journey that is invaluable to you? Or who do you know and trust that you want to support by introducing them to me so I can add them to my directory.
[00:20:32] Erin Bradley: And so your clients start opening doors for you to new relationships. And then the conversations with those potential tribe members comes from a place of curiosity, not need. So it's not just like I'm building a vendor list. And this is where a lot of realtors and lenders fall short in the strategy is that they say I have a vendor list.
[00:20:50] Randal McLeaird: Yeah.
[00:20:50] Erin Bradley: And then there's frustration around lack of reciprocity. Like I refer my inspector all the time, but don't get anything in return. Or I refer my lender and don't get any leads in return. And my challenge [00:21:00] for you is, What do you know about them personally? Like the fact that you even referred them as a vendor makes it sound transactional and like they're dispensable, right?
[00:21:09] Erin Bradley: So what does it look like to build deeper relationships with the people in your tribe and to find out why they got into this line of work and what their goals are and what their challenges are and what's their biggest bottleneck and what's their biggest fear? Or worry or whatever, and then find a way to be a value.
[00:21:24] Erin Bradley: So it always comes back to the Go-Giver. It's, how do I be a value to every person I interact with today? Not because I need something, not because of my agenda, but because everyone's on a brushstroke of the painting. And my only purpose in life is to find out what the brushstroke is and then either connect them with someone that can be of value.
[00:21:41] Erin Bradley: Give them a gift or hand a handwritten note. Anything that says, I see you. I hear you. I'm cheering for you or I'm feeling for you or whatever. And so as a lender, what happened was I recognize in getting to know more agents over the years that a lot of agents also struggle with keeping in touch with [00:22:00] past clients.
[00:22:01] Erin Bradley: And we were pretty religious about tracking our source of business. And I did this experiment in 2019, where the mortgage business had gone down because rates had gone up in 2018. So not too different from right now, as we're recording this in 24. And there was this desperate energy in the industry of lenders, chasing realtors, because purchase business was all there was, and I didn't want to be like that.
[00:22:23] Erin Bradley: So I decided to get back to my same strategy that I developed in 2011, because I needed to grow my business and quickly. And I started reaching out to the past clients and the database and doing the thing. And then what I did was I tracked everything and within four months, our business increased from 22 percent repeat and referral from past client to 50%.
[00:22:46] Erin Bradley: And what was a scary statistic is that only half of my repeat clients were working with the same realtor again, only half. And I was friends with the realtors. So I was like, Oh my gosh, what am I going to do [00:23:00] about that? This is so awkward, they're working with a different realtor. So we made it our mission as the lender partner to say we honor and appreciate the sacrifice you agents make on nights and weekends.
[00:23:12] Erin Bradley: To get our clients under contract, and we understand how energy draining it can be. And when your energy is low, you're not in the mood to pick up the phone and call those past clients. We've got your back. Our mission is to make sure that no past clients ever slip through the cracks. If you're consistent with your past client follow up.
[00:23:28] Erin Bradley: Awesome, it's a double whammy, but if you fall short. We've got your back and we're going to consistently keep in touch at two weeks, two months, six months, a year. And we're going to find the action item. We're going to find the brushstroke. And then we're going to call you and say, did you know that they're having a baby?
[00:23:42] Erin Bradley: Did you know their mom's in the hospital? Did you know their dog died, whatever. And now we're helping the agents be accountable to that conversation. Because again, the bottleneck between The idea to call somebody and the actual execution of it is usually the fear of what people are going to think of you.
[00:23:57] Erin Bradley: So you don't pick up the phone. But if you have a [00:24:00] reason to call, hey, I heard your mom's in the hospital. I'm so sorry to hear about that. Is there anything we can do? You then become unleashed because the caregiver within you. Is reaching out, not the salesperson that you're trying to be. And so we just need to awaken within everyone that light within you.
[00:24:18] Erin Bradley: That is the version of you that shows up with your friends and family on the weekends, the person who laughs and cries and is a heart and soul and get away from putting on the work hat. And feeling a shift in your persona from you, your heart and soul to you, this real estate professional who's supposed to do these things to get some deals, to make some money, to pay the bills.
[00:24:37] Erin Bradley: So I hope that makes sense. It's like a very long answer.
[00:24:40] Randal McLeaird: Tons of sense. And I love it. You're very passionate about it. And I, and it shows through. And I have a bunch of notes. So one, the first thing off the top of my head is somebody still making those calls. How are you and the mortgage team Reaching out and finding that brushstroke one.
[00:24:54] Randal McLeaird: I love that analogy too. That was, it's a very good analogy for defining where somebody is in their life. [00:25:00] So anyway, how do you on the mortgage side, find out that brushstroke in order to share that information with the realtor team?
[00:25:08] Erin Bradley: Yeah. So we just, everything is a system. I genuinely believe that The reason our businesses tend to be inconsistent in the real estate space, whether you're realtor or lender is because the success or the consistency of your activity is heavily dependent on your mood, your energy, your emotions.
[00:25:25] Erin Bradley: So you might have all the best intentions at the start of your day, and then 1 hard conversation knocks the wind out of your sails. And yeah, you don't feel like doing the thing, right? So it's got to be a system that runs the business and then people run the system. So all that means is that on Tuesdays, we call, we make these calls on Wednesdays.
[00:25:43] Erin Bradley: We make these calls on Thursday. We make these calls. We only do proactivity Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Mondays are for reactivity, money, mindset, marketing, planning, all that kind of stuff. Nobody wants to get sales calls on a Monday anyway. Fridays are for fun, family and friends. Obviously still managing the business, [00:26:00] but not worrying about having the foot on the gas all the time because there's so much reactivity in our industry.
[00:26:05] Erin Bradley: And the reality is that the inconsistency of execution on that plan is disappointing because. I'll hear realtors and lenders that are going through a tough time maybe in 2023. And they're considering getting a job. And I say to them, what's the expectation of you getting a job? I need to make money.
[00:26:27] Erin Bradley: I'm like, okay, let's unpack that a little bit. What do you expect out of the job? I'm going to get a fixed monthly income. I'm like, okay, that's assuming that the manager that's hired you or the boss or the business owner, right? They have a business plan so that they have a projection for profitability.
[00:26:43] Erin Bradley: That's going to ensure that you get paid, providing you show up to work on time and do the things that they ask of you. And they're like, yeah. And I'm like, okay if you did the same thing as the boss of your business created a plan, and then you show up to work on time and you do what you say you're going to do, [00:27:00] you're going to get paid in return.
[00:27:02] Erin Bradley: And you're probably going to get paid handsomely, not what you would get as a W 2 employee of someone else's organization. Who's going to have the lion's share of profitability at the top. Then they're always like okay, sure. I'm like it sounds simple. And I know it's hard. Yeah. Like our fear and controls our emotions.
[00:27:21] Erin Bradley: So if you're feeling stuck, if your pipelines dried up, if your bank account is not looking good, or your credit card debt is building, you have a legitimate fear going on and it creates a panic and unfortunately those emotions are energy draining. And then even if you muster up the quote unquote courage to go through the motions and check the boxes, it can fall flat.
[00:27:42] Erin Bradley: And we just, again, need to come back to are you running from a problem you're trying to solve, which is your debt? Or are you running towards? A goal that feels alive and exhilarating and from a place of contribution. Because if you can just fine tune the [00:28:00] purpose of this activity from, I need something.
[00:28:02] Erin Bradley: I have a problem. I better do this thing. That's very upstream energy to I'm curious. I love this person. I genuinely care about them. I'm curious. I want to find out how I can be a value to them. That's in flow. You can become unleashed and you can create radical exponential growth in your business In 90 days from when you begin and create consistent growth and it's not, I know everybody says the market, but how is it that one person gets the real estate license and is rookie of the year with 36 closings in year one and someone else has one closing or how is it that one mortgage lender that I work with did 86 million in 2023 and another barely did six.
[00:28:44] Erin Bradley: It's mindset. It's decisiveness. It's the willingness to act and it's the willingness to redefine why you're even doing what you're doing.
[00:28:51] Randal McLeaird: Yeah. And
[00:28:52] Erin Bradley: that's the work. Honestly it's an inside out approach because if the inside game is flawed and the foundation is cracked, [00:29:00] it is going to feel hard and upstream all the time, but it doesn't have to feel that way, but people have to be willing to get intimate with the stories in their brains.
[00:29:08] Erin Bradley: And then. Rewrite the stories and then come from a different agenda, if you will, which is contribution.
[00:29:15] Randal McLeaird: Yeah, no I agree. It sounds, I don't know what percentage it would be, but you're like business coach slash. Therapist slash it's like all these things,
[00:29:24] Erin Bradley: I always joke that my superpower is catching you in the story of why you can't, why you shouldn't, why you have to, and then just like calling people out and be like no.
[00:29:33] Erin Bradley: What do you really want? And then it's not a matter of whether you can, it's just a matter of whether you're willing.
[00:29:38] Randal McLeaird: Yeah. We have this conversation with my kids all the time. They say, I can't. I'm like no, you never asked that. You say, how can I? And then you solve the problem. And then you go through it.
[00:29:46] Randal McLeaird: It's the same. With sales reps and agents that I've had, that is again, just working the system and like this works, you have to do it. But one thing you've mentioned multiple times without actually saying it or using the word, but it's framing. Like I notice the calls, [00:30:00] the outbound calls that you make in the way that you have framed, even the language that you use in the conversations, the hypothetical conversation that you just went through is.
[00:30:08] Randal McLeaird: I don't know poetic. It's not it's just like the way it's set up and structured and then the framing with, your lifestyle and the way that you are pursuing a goal. You said upstream rather than in flow. And I agree with that. 100 percent if you can frame it or reframe it in a certain way, then.
[00:30:25] Randal McLeaird: It makes all the difference in the world. So one thing I want to ask you about, are you, I've heard you say unleashed. I've heard you, have you done Tony Robbins? Have you done a few of these? No, because I
[00:30:34] Erin Bradley: haven't done any Tony Robbins. It's just a word that kind of came up for me. I had a word in 2020. It was like unbecoming.
[00:30:42] Erin Bradley: We took our kids on a six month RV road trip and homeschooled them in that COVID school year, because we were like, if not now, when let's rewrite the crazy, And I was working on unbecoming rushed and stressed and overwhelmed. And this process of surrendering to what was and finding a way to, [00:31:00] to lighten up and enjoy the downstream, get in the current and go with the flow because you're not going to control it anyway, and then as I started to like resurface, I was using this word unleashed with my team members at the time because If you have a deep, authentic desire to help somebody, there should be nothing stopping you from picking up the phone or wanting to reach out to somebody that you care about, and you can become unleashed in activity.
[00:31:28] Erin Bradley: And when you do that conversation leads to creativity, you and I could be shooting the breeze. And then I'm like, yeah, I'm working on this thing. And I just want to bounce ideas with you. And you're like, you need to call like, I want to connect you to so and so that wouldn't have happened if you and I don't have the conversation.
[00:31:43] Randal McLeaird: And
[00:31:43] Erin Bradley: so each conversation begets another conversation. And all of a sudden you can be in flow, like a snowball gaining momentum, rolling down the Hill, getting bigger and bigger. And I believe that our business can look and feel like that and be a kind of a thrilling adventure. More like reveling in the unknown and just playing with [00:32:00] the game of life rather than fearing the unknown.
[00:32:02] Erin Bradley: Instead of what if it doesn't work, it's like what if it does?
[00:32:05] Randal McLeaird: It
[00:32:06] Erin Bradley: could be really cool if it works out. So let's figure it out,
[00:32:10] Randal McLeaird: all right. I have to ask then, because I, my wife and I have this conversation and I'm like, How do you want your life to look? She's it's such a big thing.
[00:32:16] Randal McLeaird: I, like you're asking me this whole thing of how, so when you have. I guess clients that you have this conversation with, I don't know if you've had a similar response when you say, look, how do you want your life to look? What do you, how do you want to design your life? How do you approach solving that or helping them to figure it out for themselves?
[00:32:36] Randal McLeaird: Because, going on a six month road trip with your family, If not now, when type of mentality is, it's that's something maybe you always wanted to do and the opportunity to present itself, you jumped at it, right? Somebody else may not have, but designing your life and your business or your business to support your life rather than I guess your life is your business type of mentality.
[00:32:56] Randal McLeaird: Like, how do you approach helping somebody figure that out? [00:33:00]
[00:33:00] Erin Bradley: It's so crazy that you're asking me this because. I actually starting back in around 2011, I started teaching this business planning workshop for real estate companies, right? I'll go in at the end of the year. And help lead a workshop on designing your business plan for the next year.
[00:33:17] Randal McLeaird: And
[00:33:18] Erin Bradley: it's really more lifestyle design. Cause I, I really believe what is the point of being self employed if it doesn't fuel an Epic life? It's not like we took the easy route. So if you understand that this is challenging and you're not giving yourself permission to live an Epic life fueled by a business that you design, you W2 job, and follow someone else's plan. But anyhow, in this process, there's actually like a science behind these reflection questions that I. Guide people through, and I tell everyone every year that the questions don't really change. It's you that changes the answers change. So year after year, we ask questions like, what are the three greatest happenings of the last year?
[00:33:55] Erin Bradley: The answers to that question are going to give you information about [00:34:00] what really matters to you. So for example, you might go to a business planning workshop and your managing broker gives you a blank Sheet of paper or whatever and says, give me your goals. And they want to know how many buy sides and sell sides and volume and revenue and GCI and all this other stuff.
[00:34:14] Erin Bradley: And so you're like inclined to go write those numbers down. But if you're not someone who has a tangible relationship with money, then there's no emotional connection to that. It's not going to propel you into different activity to create a new reality for yourself. So if you're Reflections on your greatest happenings were more experiential like they are for me that I know that the goals have to be anchored in the experiences that money can afford me.
[00:34:38] Erin Bradley: I still need to know my numbers, but if I were to say, I want to make a million dollars next year, it literally would ignite nothing within me because I don't authentically have a tangible relationship with money. I have more of a. Money's a means to an end, blah, blah, blah. Like you can always make more money.
[00:34:52] Erin Bradley: Granted that's limiting beliefs, by the way. Like I have a limiting belief mindset with money and I've had to work through that myself over the [00:35:00] many years, but it's a truth for me. And I think that we look at the person next to us and we see what they want and what they write down and how they run their business, and we try to fit in someone else's shoes.
[00:35:10] Erin Bradley: And it's yeah, I could borrow Randall's shoes and go outside and walk down the street and not get any stones in my feet, but it wouldn't feel very comfortable. And that's what I equate it to is build the business of you. And so we go through these reflection questions. One of them is name three new relationships you've developed in the last 12 months.
[00:35:27] Erin Bradley: And everybody always has at least 3 and they've had a positive impact on your life, which is why they're coming up in your memory. And we do that question specifically that remind you that as you look ahead to the horizon to that foreign territory, which might be doubling your business or doubling your income and then your fear tells you it's not realistic, or it's going to be too much of a sacrifice.
[00:35:46] Erin Bradley: And I don't know how and we're getting all caught up in the analytical brain of like, how. Before we're even willing to give that dream a voice, the proof of the reflection process is to say you haven't even met half the people that are going to show up [00:36:00] unexpectedly, like unscripted new relationships popping up all the time on your journey.
[00:36:05] Erin Bradley: And so we literally work through a reflection process, and then we. Evaluate the answers to get clear on who you are today. Because Randall, who you were when you started in the business is not the same person you are today. Your preferences have evolved. Your interests, your things that challenged you in the past are so easy.
[00:36:25] Erin Bradley: They're almost boring now. And so we can't just keep on trying to do things a certain way. Or I don't even like saying go back to the basics. Don't go back, go forward. Treat your business and your life like the garden in springtime and be willing to pluck out the stuff that doesn't serve you anymore, pull the weeds.
[00:36:43] Erin Bradley: Plant things on purpose, design it, and be willing to continue the journey because that's where the fun is. It's in the realization that, hey, just because I liked this in the past doesn't mean I like it anymore. And that's okay. I want to pluck that out and get clear on what excites me [00:37:00] today. And be on purpose with creating that reality for myself.
[00:37:03] Erin Bradley: So there's not really a one size fits all answer, but unless you're willing to go inward and get that clarity, then any goal you write on a blank piece of paper is going to do nothing for you other than stir up all those limiting beliefs in your brain about how to, how I'm going to make it happen. And if it's possible, and if it's realistic, and if it's even responsible, some of the things we've done, it's okay. This is definitely going to destroy my business. And then my business more than doubles or has a 50 percent increase. And I'm like, wow. Okay. I wasn't that important. It turns out.
[00:37:33] Randal McLeaird: Yeah.
[00:37:34] Erin Bradley: Yeah. Awesome. And I'll just say one more thing is that. When people think about getting a coach or whatever, at a minimum, even if someone doesn't get a coach, the number one best piece of advice I could give to someone is start hanging around people that reminds you more of your future than your past.
[00:37:52] Erin Bradley: And I don't mean stop hanging around with people you care about. I'm saying be careful about the conversation that you have on a daily [00:38:00] basis, like they talk about the water cooler conversation. If you're hanging around a lot of people that are complaining about circumstances you can't control. And you're putting more attention on where you are, which is a remnant of the past and where you'd want to go, you're going to, it's like you're in the mud and it turns to quicksand.
[00:38:17] Erin Bradley: So think about what you really want in your life and then find people that represent that. Or at least have similar goals and spend time purposefully with people that are going places that you want to go. And you'll be so surprised by how quickly that the creative juices start flowing, the ideas, the new thoughts, the new relationships, and life can be really exponential.
[00:38:41] Randal McLeaird: Love it. I love that. A minute ago you said money, my view of money is a limiting belief and it didn't sound like that to me, the way you described it. So what, how do you think that's a limiting belief? Just personally, I'm like, if your attachment to money is not It's not your top [00:39:00] priority, right? You can go get more money.
[00:39:01] Randal McLeaird: You can earn it. It's going to come to you. Money is like water, it just flows, right? Why do you think that's a limiting belief if that's how you feel about it?
[00:39:10] Erin Bradley: What I mean by that is building money mindset is something that I've done on purpose. There's a great book, the secrets of the millionaire mind.
[00:39:19] Erin Bradley: Happy money by Ken Honda, lots of books, right? And early on in my career, I had the limiting belief of I only need so much to get by. And I always tell people that it's difficult to exceed your own expectations. So the most you've ever earned is like the limit to what you believe you're capable of.
[00:39:38] Erin Bradley: And so in order to consistently double my business over and over again and see my income grow to levels that I never dreamed of as a younger person, I had to get clear on the fact that if I make money, the object of this activity right now, like I'm going to do this so I can make money.
[00:39:54] Erin Bradley: They've told me if I pick up the phone and make more calls, I'll get more money. I need more money. If I make money, the object of my [00:40:00] activity, that to me is upstream. It's just like there's resistance in it. If I know that the more I contribute and the more I show up consistently and from a place of inspired action, where I have an impulse to contact someone I care about, and I just contact them not because I'm associating this with filling my bank account.
[00:40:18] Erin Bradley: Everything becomes easier. And I do become unleashed and I find myself in flow and I believe money follows that authenticity and energy and aliveness. And that's why your business picks up when you go on vacation, everybody's God, it's so annoying. I go on vacation and my business picks up and I'm like, that's because your light is on.
[00:40:34] Erin Bradley: You're excited. You're anticipating, you're planning, you're having fun. How do you curate that on a daily basis? And it goes back to what we talked about earlier, like your heart and soul is who shows up when you're with someone you really care about. When they're making you crack up laughing or your heart is breaking for someone that you love because they're going through something hard, right?
[00:40:54] Erin Bradley: That's who you are. And when you live more authentically in that version of you and stop [00:41:00] shifting from who I am, the light within me to now I need to go do this thing to get some money. It dims my light, right? It starts to feel like a grind, like I'm muscling through. And when you notice that about yourself, you have to create a why that feels authentic for you.
[00:41:17] Erin Bradley: For me, I have faith always that money follows the light within. So when I ignite the flame within me and I help ignite the flames of those around me in some way, shape, or form that matters to them, not what matters to me, it's like a wildfire and you become like a lighthouse in the storm and the ships come to port.
[00:41:35] Erin Bradley: And it sounds maybe too woo for some, but I promise you that you can curate vacation energy and prioritize how you feel and how you show up and how you impact the lives of others. And you can make that your mission. You will have more money than you need. You do not. You do not need to be stressing about money.
[00:41:53] Erin Bradley: I can't stop people from stressing about money. I get that.
[00:41:56] Randal McLeaird: Yeah.
[00:41:57] Erin Bradley: Give yourself 15 minutes to stress about money [00:42:00] and then ask yourself who's in my world that I love and what brushstroke of the painting are they on and how am I going to find out and then go find out and then go be a value and do it over and over again and track how you're doing it and you can run a business successfully this way.
[00:42:13] Erin Bradley: It is a strategy.
[00:42:14] Randal McLeaird: Yeah. No, I love it. It's fantastic. I like, again, I love your energy. I love so much about what you are doing, honestly, again, it's like things and feelings that I've had like in the past. And it just seems like you've honed in on who you are and you've been able to translate that into your business and let everything just grow around it.
[00:42:32] Randal McLeaird: So again, I love that. Just
[00:42:34] Erin Bradley: to be clear, I always tell people there's no one you admire. Or no one living a life you desire that doesn't still experience fear and self doubt and limiting beliefs. So I always tell people that if you experience like stress, overwhelm, burnout, insecurity, you're not special.
[00:42:54] Erin Bradley: You're just human. So we're all still doing, we're all human beings. We're all trying to [00:43:00] figure this out. And sometimes we just have to lighten up a little bit and stop being so hard on ourselves and seek the fun, curate the vacation energy, have more fun, have more engagement, don't take it too seriously and you'll be so surprised by the unfolding and that ultimately the only difference between you and someone living a life you want is their decision to do it.
[00:43:19] Erin Bradley: And between my chapter 1 and my version of chapter 10 right now. Is a lot of sloppy, a lot of mistakes, a lot of trial and error, a lot of failure. So it's almost like a joke. I'm like, if I've screwed up this much and I'm still here, like we're going to be okay. This is not going to define us. This market's not going to define us.
[00:43:36] Erin Bradley: The rates aren't going to define us. We define us, but we've got to be willing to do it.
[00:43:42] Randal McLeaird: Yeah. Awesome. Again, I like it. All right. Let's catch up. I will send you all this stuff whenever it's about to air. All right. Sounds good. Good meeting you. Thanks, Erin. Good catching up. Did you know that 80 percent of the agents we speak with got into real estate in order to gain passive income so they could obtain financial freedom and [00:44:00] become work optional.
[00:44:01] Randal McLeaird: If you want to stay up to date, the best way is to make sure you're subscribed. So if you haven't done that, go ahead and do it now. We'll catch you on the next episode.