Mortgage Broker Broadcast

Mastering Self-Discipline and Accountability for Mortgage Broker Success

• Craig Skelton

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Embark on a transformative journey with us as we unravel the secrets to unwavering self-discipline for self-employed mavens, a topic that's as timely as your next business milestone. Discover how accountability is less about ticking off to-do lists and more about the bedrock of your professional ethos. From mortgage brokers to solo entrepreneurs, we lay bare the strategies that keep you anchored to your goals when there's no boss but the one in the mirror. Leigh joins the foray, sharing his wisdom on nurturing industry relationships that are as robust as they are rewarding, proving that trust and value are currencies just as important as income.

This episode isn't merely a chat; it's a masterclass in crafting a bespoke accountability blueprint that sings in harmony with your business tune. I share hard-earned insights on the alchemy of mixing technology with touchpoints, like project management apps and habit trackers, that shepherd you toward your North Star. Whether it's the camaraderie of a mentor or the collective wisdom of your network, we dissect how to weave accountability into the fabric of your daily grind. By the end of our session, accountability will not just be a concept but a steadfast companion on your voyage to the peaks of professional triumph.

Looking for one to one mentoring, visit my website to see how it works craigskelton.co.uk

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Speaker 1:

Hi and welcome to this week's mortgage broker broadcast. This week's podcast is all about accountability and the reason why I wanted to pick up accountability, particularly what now, mid-february, we are sort of six, seven weeks into the year so far and it's just really good time to talk about accountability, because once we're sort of six, seven weeks into the new year, we're not going to talk about resolutions, we're not going to talk about habits, particularly in this podcast. But I wanted to do is pick up on accountability, really because it's at this time of year, this sort of six, seven weeks in, where accountability certainly comes into its own with regards to your goals, actions you want to achieve in the year, because we are six, seven weeks in 10, 15% into the year so far and really, how has it gone for you so far in 2024? And are you taking action? Are you holding yourself accountable? What about those habits we talked about in the past?

Speaker 1:

And I really wanted to drill down quite a lot in terms of accountability. What is accountability and really the power of accountability when you are a self-employed mortgage broker or business owner and this is really geared to self-employed people with regards to accountability, because to be when you are self-employed, accountability is key to success and really is a fundamental pillar of success for anybody that is self-employed. So I really wanted to pick up on a solo podcast, solo episode this week, all around accountability, and yeah, that's what I'm going to pick up. So, first of all, here's Lee with his normal regular mortgage broker bulletin.

Speaker 2:

You, craig, and welcome to the third episode of the mortgage broker bulletin. Just quick one, craig. Brilliant post about giving blood the other day. Fantastic to raise awareness of it Onto the bulletin. Couple of lenders put their rates up this week without 24 hours.

Speaker 2:

Note this. It's not very good for relationships, is it? Which brings me nicely on to the topic of today's bulletin relationship management. Now we have relationships with our clients, with our BDMs, insurance providers even check my file the lenders, estate agents, solicitors and what we need to realize is that they're all built on sort of trust, integrity and adding value to each other.

Speaker 2:

And if we sit down with these people, create the trust and the integrity, then we come down to actually thrash out the numbers and we're in a different position to them and then we try and force them into that relationship with those numbers. It's never, ever going to work. So we've got to be aware of where each person is within their journey of business development and then review after six to nine months. Let's all help each other out a little bit. Let's not put off other aspiring businesses by asking for too much upfront. Good business relationships work mutually, they're mutually beneficial and in the end hopefully everybody's happy and everybody can make some money. That's it from me onwards. Up with some forwards, build those relationships and I'll speak to you next week.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for that, lee, and some great points on there with regards to relationships. So thanks for taking the time again this week to deliver the Morgie's Broker Bulletin. So, as I said before, this week's podcast is all about accountability and it doesn't matter whether you are a Morgie's Broker or a business owner. It's really aimed at self-employed people with regards to accountability, no matter whether you are part of your own firm or on your own firm. We're going to talk about accountability and why really, accountability is important, because being a self-employed Morgie's Broker does offer incredible benefits in terms of, obviously, freedom, flexibility, but it also comes with its challenges as well, and one of those big challenges probably one of the most critical ones, if not the biggest one is accountability when you are self-employed, because when you're your own boss like I said, whether you are self-employed in a firm or running your own firm it's easy to fall into the trap of procrastination with regards to being self-employed and also, as well, losing sight of your goals, and mid-breed is that sort of critical time really in terms of we're halfway through quarter one and so, yeah, that's why I wanted to pick it up With regards to accountability. Having accountability can be a real game changer for your success as a self-employed Morgie's Broker and that's why I wanted to pick up. So we're really going to get into detail about that, looking at various points around accountability. What is accountability benefits various other things as well, but just so we can talk clear first of all, with regards to accountability as part of the podcast, accountability is taking responsibility for yourself, taking responsibility for your actions, your commitments and results. That's what accountability is about. It's holding yourself answerable to all your goals and your promises and the achievements that you want into achieve. So when you are self-employed, there is no one out there. In the past, if you was employed accountability you could have accountability a line manager or a firm owner, however that may look, and there's a lot of accountability guys under the micro management banner, which is we're not going to talk about micro management and the difference on this podcast. However, when you are employed, you've got that micro management there, which is some form of accountability. However, when you are self-employed, no one at all is holding you accountable, but yourself, and that's key to look first when you need to understand that that that's where the accountability comes in is down to you, and so without this accountability, then you will and you can Easily get off track with what you want to achieve. There is less motivation there there and ultimately, you are not going to Unless likely to achieve your full potential, and that's important when you are self-employed in terms of moving forward, and growth and progression is making sure that You're achieving your full potential, which is important. So that's what accountability is in terms of why.

Speaker 1:

What the benefits have been with regards to accountability is that, with regards to accountability, the one thing it does is it keeps you focused on your goals. So, if you have set those goals for the year, you've got the business plans, you've got your goals and your actions. If you're not reviewing which is part of accountability, which I've talked about on podcast before and about habits as well, but let's see if you are not doing that, then because you've got no one to answer to, you're not focused on those. You're less likely to focus on your goals. But when you know that you have to someone to answer to whether that's a mentor or coach or even just yourself In terms of holding yourself accountable Then you're more likely to stay on track. You're more likely to commit to those achievements and achieve Excuse me and then achieve those objectives. You're more likely to do that when you are holding yourself accountable or you're working with somebody that is going to hold yourself account, holding you accountable. So, and like this focus is really critical to Overcoming distractions, which I've talked about in the past.

Speaker 1:

It will help you stay away from those distractions and also the challenges that often come with being self-employed, because there are, as we talked about, there are loads of Distractions, loads of challenges with begin with regards to being self-employed, and those challenges can hit you very early. You can, if you look at moving from employed self-employed, then the challenges your face and the distractions your face can be that will be there from day one. So it's how quickly you're coming up. You can overcome those. So, but yeah, the benefits of Having, of having accountability, is that you will stay on track and you're more likely to hit your goals. Also, as well, accountability can help you stay on track with regards to your working habits as well. We talked about a lot about habits in 2024 on the podcast so far and, if you've not listened to the previous episodes with Lee at the start of the year, when we talked a lot about habits, we had four episodes all around habits, so I'm not going to talk about those Right now.

Speaker 1:

But that is also as well. With regards to having something that holds you accountable, you're more likely to stick to your schedule. You're more likely to stick to that structure, the routine, all those things we've talked about. With regards to have it, we'll be more likely to meet your deadlines as well. You will not kick things down the road. When you've got, when you're holding, when you have accountability, they say you're not gonna. And also, as well, procrastination is a massive, is a long word anyway, but but procrastination is a big deal for a self-employed mortgage broker and for a business owner as well. So, again, when you do have accountability, that stops a procrastination as well and it's a sort of real sort of Having accountability is a real discipline for staying productive and making progress.

Speaker 1:

Natural human beings, naturally as brokers, we want to feel that moving forward. So our goals will always be growth. Whatever that looks like, as I've talked about, is your goal. Your growth, whatever that looks like to you, is what you want to achieve. Running your own race, that's what that talks about. But having accountability will make sure that you are growing. You are moving things forward. You are steadily. Whatever the pace is is your pace. Whatever growth will look like to you is your growth. However, accountability will help you grow, will help you move forward, will stop that procrastination, will stop that drift while I talk about where you're not taking action. You're just drifting day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year. That will stop all that.

Speaker 1:

The other thing as well with regards to accountability is that it provides you with valuable feedback as well and guidance. So when you have somebody holding you accountable, they can offer insights into what's got you going on. They'll offer constructive criticism, they'll give you sort of quality feedback in order to help you improve. So you have got somebody that is holding you accountable. It's important as well that they do offer you that feedback, offer you that support and are able to give you that in a constructive way. Constructive criticism is quite a strong word. However, that's what needs to be. There is a constructive to help you improve. Having somebody that's there holding yourself accountable or having somebody that work with a holding you accountable is then will help you improve, will give you that feedback and help you grow, help you progress and you're more likely to see this mortgage broker business as a long-term objective and you are progressively moving forward, and having somebody to work with or holding yourself accountable will help you move your business forward Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

And so coming on to that point with regards to podcasts is that if you don't have somebody accountable, if you don't have somebody that's there to hold you accountable and you are self-employed, what do you do in that instance? What do you do if you don't have somebody that does hold you accountable? And in that case you can sort of create your own system, shall we say, of accountability. You can have sort of this include. This could sort of be having yourself clear goals, making sure you are tracking your progression with regards to those goals on a regular basis, making sure you're reviewing those goals by reviewing that as holding yourself accountable, and so you can do this yourself. You can have regular check-ins with yourself. Journaling helps as well with regards to your regular checking sessions and really to evaluate your performance. As long as you are, as what I talked about before is giving yourself sort of constructive criticism, giving yourself feedback it's okay, reviewing, reflecting check-ins, but then you don't do anything with those, then there's just no point doing that. So, again, having that self-accountability can work. If that works for you, then that's good and you do feel as though you're progressing and moving forward with your self-accountability. That is fine.

Speaker 1:

One other way of doing things is you could have a sort of support network of accountability. You could have things like friends, family or sort of other business owners that you might know, or mogies, brokers that you know, that can sort of provide you with that kind of environment and that kind of world where you feel as though you can be held accountable to them and you feel like you're motivated to them. The thing is with, they say, with those kind of partnerships, shall we say, because you could hold each other accountable. That's something that could work. With regards to holding yourself accountable, that can be massively beneficial as well. The question I ask and this is something that people that work with me and I hold them accountable from a coaching point of view, from a mentoring point of view, one of the things that one of the big things that the reason why they work with me and they've tried their friends in the family room it does work for some people.

Speaker 1:

However, if you do look at that option the person that you're working with holding you accountable do they really get the industry? Do they really get what you're trying to achieve. Do they really understand that? And so some people might not want to have that burden the relationships with your guys, your family and friends to have that accountability there. Some people might not want that, some people will, some people might not want that. So again, that's something to be aware of. But the big thing is is that they actually get it? Because if you're having to spend most of the time when they're holding accountable of the reasons why and not understanding the industry, that can be a challenge as well. But again, do they really understand the challenges that you face as a mortgage broker and as a business owner?

Speaker 1:

If you were looking at friends and family to hold your accountable, like I say, you can do that, just making sure you've got the right person that gives you that constructive criticism and it's whether you can take that as well from a member of the family or a friend and do you want to muddy the water of that relationship? With regards to accountability, just something that I've seen work and I've seen something that's not worked in the past with regards to friends, family, but it is an option. That is something that is there. The other option with regards to accountability is using technology. There are plenty of apps out there, tools out there that will help you stay on track with your goals, manage your time and help you stay focused on what your priorities this week, this month. So, again, with that, there is technology out there as well. This project management apps is like habit tracking tools things you can use, or even just a simple task in a calendar or to do is something like that. It again will help. You can hold you accountable.

Speaker 1:

So I think, through all this is looking at whether you're working on a one-to-one basis with a mentor or coach, whether you are doing it yourself, whether you're working with family or friends, whether you are doing it yourself. With regards to using technology, embracing technology, to that, whatever you're using, find out what works best for you and make it part of your routine and your structure. That is the important thing, but I think that's again going back to running your own race. Some people can hold themselves accountable. Some people want to work with family or friends. Some people use and embrace technology. Some people work on a one-to-one basis with a mentor and coach. Find out what works right, what works for you, and use that platform, use that avenue, use that path to make sure that you are being held accountable.

Speaker 1:

I think that's the important thing, but just find something that's right for you and if it's not working, don't be afraid to change it. If it's not, if it's something that's not working, you don't feel as if you're getting the benefit out of accountability and you continue to drift, not take an action, and you are not holding yourself accountable. And, again, it's making sure that you're growing, because the thing is, with all this, with a big-ass accountability, it's not about perfection. You are never going to achieve perfection with regards to accountability. You will always be growing, you will always be moving forward, you will always be progressing, and that's the thing with it, with accountability, is making sure that you are progressing.

Speaker 1:

As I said before, you are growing, which is important with regards to accountability, and accepting that it's okay sometimes to stumble, it's okay to fall, it's okay to not achieve what you set out to achieve not all the time, but on the occasion when that happens. Again, it's learning from those mistakes, learning from those falls, learning from those stumbles, because you might find that you try to think of how are you going to do that rather than just focus on the way that you do it now, whether it's self or mentoring or coaching or group or however that looks. But the key thing through all this is that accountability has to be part of your daily, weekly, monthly routine as a mortgage broker, as a business owner. You need to stay committed to that because by staying committed to accountability will help you stay committed to your visions, to your goals, to your plans, to your achievements, both short term and long term as well, which is sort of important because holding yourself accountable along the way will make sure that you achieve, and more likely to achieve, what you wanted to achieve. And being a self employed broker, going back to it, like I said, it's easy to drift because in employed, you micro manage, you're held accountable. It's not really accountable, but that's that you are being held accountable by the micro management that's gone. Now you're self employed, so just understanding that. So then, what does accountability mean to you and how are you going to achieve that accountability? Because you are more likely to achieve what you want. You want to achieve short term and long term if you're being held accountable. So the key thing from this for me is that if you are self employed, as a mortgage broker, as a business owner, the challenges for you is to embrace accountability, and I think if you are embracing accountability right now, then great, you will see the benefits of it and you'll understand the benefits of it. If you are not embracing accountability right now, look at something that's going to work for you. But embrace accountability because it really will help you achieve your goals as a mortgage broker and as a business owner, because it's all about self discipline and achieving what you want to achieve. So so yeah, accountability, that is accountability. In a podcast that's gone on for 18 minutes or so quite a long solo podcast, that one for me, but I think it's important to get across the key points with regards to accountability. I'm very proactive in terms of accountability and very pro accountability. I think it's an important part of daily, weekly, monthly structural routine with regards to accountability. I talk a lot about that Because they say it has got massive powers to help you achieve what you want to achieve, get away from the distraction and stop procrastinating and get on with it and achieve what you want it to do. Achieve what you want to do when you set out being self-employed or as a business owner. So yeah, that's accountability.

Speaker 1:

Thank you to everyone who's listened. Any questions, comments. Please leave them on the platform that you listen to or watch this podcast on Any of the topics you want to pick up me to pick up, then please leave them in those comments as well. Thanks again to Lee for the mortgage book bulletin this week. Next week we've got David Coleman from Positive Lending onto the podcast talking about his kind of world and that market for 2024. Last week was Mark Grant on about the commercial market and that lending space in 2024. So I've listened to that. If you've not listened to that already before, that was obviously what I talked about earlier. We've got to Lee's podcast with me about habits and habit changing. So thank you for listening and, as always, don't forget to run your own race.