An excerpt from Volume 1 of Be The Better Broker.
Invest in Yourself
Too many new Mortgage Brokers view a commission cheque as their paycheque. It is not their paycheque. It is the gross sales revenue of their business.
The commission cheque belongs to their personal business, an important differentiation to live by. A Broker is running a small business. This is a big mental shift for a lot of us to make if we are coming into brokering from a previously held position as an employee.
That commission cheque is not yours personally; it represents your business’s gross sales. A business has overhead and expenses. It cannot put 100 percent of revenue back in the owner’s pockets and still survive, let alone thrive. You have to reinvest in your business — your baby — to keep it progressing and growing. And one of your best investments is learning.
Don’t look to your Brokerage house to teach you what you need to know. They no longer have the budget for high-end, in-depth training. Don’t blame them for it either. The problem was created by the Brokers who came before you. It boils down to Broker commissions and how they’re split. Twenty years ago, the split was 50/50 — half for the broker and half for the brokerage. When I began in 2008, an opening split of 60/40 was relatively common. Today, most Brokers are getting more than 80 percent of the split or better.
If you are a brand-new Broker and have signed on at a split of 80/20 or better, you need to recognize that you must be the one to invest in yourself. You are being given the money to invest in yourself, but you might not understand that without the correct frame of reference. If you commit to investing 10 cents of every dollar you earn in bettering yourself, you will advance beyond every other Broker around you. That is a fact.
I am a huge proponent of attending any and all industry-related events, and our industry truly puts on some excellent ones. Every Broker should be a member of their provincial association and at least one of the national associations as well. Yet each year I hear Brokers complain about the cost of these events, they have no idea what they are missing. The opportunities are there to meet your peers, to meet your lenders, to hear great speakers. Embrace every one of these opportunities and work it.
Start with annual membership. I myself am a member of both Mortgage Professionals Canada & the MBABC as I am aware that the work these two organisations do for our industry is important. The publications they produce and the events they put on each year are all part of my own ongoing professional development. Are you reading industry publications like CMP? Support your Provincial and your National organisations, so they can support you.
Invest yourself, and invest in yourself.
It is up to you!
Thank you
If you found value in this piece, please forward it to another Broker you know and respect. Also, please reply with any comments.
For a steady diet of posts like this, please click here to subscribe.