This week we find out Lisa Whitman’s Secrets to Success. How Lisa started in the mortgage business, what are her secrets to success and the one piece of advice a realtor(r) gave her that changed her career?

Dave: Lisa we really appreciate you being with Mortgage 1 how long have you been with the company?

Lisa: I’ve been here twenty years

Dave: Twenty years Wow! How did you wind up getting in the mortgage business?

Lisa: Actually it’s a funny story, I ran a motorcycle dealership for a few years. I was doing the financing and insurance of the business and I thought,
there’s gotta be something bigger than motorcycles.  I thought home financing could be a great career path. Coincidentally Mark Workens walked in
one day and bought two jet skis from me.  I kept in touch with him and set up an interview.

Dave: It’s weird how you kind of wind up in this business, you certainly don’t start out dreaming up being a Mortgage Lender.  What do you like best about working with Mortgage 1?

Lisa: The company itself,  I think that Mortgage 1 is a really big company but it still has the small company feeling.

Dave: Sure, they’re big enough to get all of the advantages from being a larger company but then it’s still focused around the loan officer.

Lisa: Yes, absolutely, we can contact people at the corporate office and it’s great to be able to do that.

Dave: Sure…and you get the flexibility of kind of running your own shop, they’re certainly not micromanaging the branches.

Lisa: Yeah right that’s great!

Dave: Can you paint a picture of how your branch works?

Lisa: We’re really tight with our realtor base,  we do a lot of work really closely with our Realtors and business partners we have a really well-oiled machine.

Dave: You have specialists in different departments and then hand that off the work to that specialist, maybe in a production line?

Lisa:  Absolutely, the people that are best at what they do is where they’re assigned.  We do move people around a lot, like changing seats on the bus.

Dave: Who’s driving the bus?

Lisa: I’m driving the bus on Team Lisa, we do have other teams at the branch.

Dave: You’re always at the top of the list as far as volume and production. We really appreciate you being with Mortgage 1. Now I want to ask a few personal questions;

• Are you married?
• Do you have kids?
• Where did you go to school?

Lisa: Yes, I’m actually married to my high school sweetheart, we connected again.  I have a stepdaughter and a grandchild.

Dave: You’re a Grandma? I wanted to point that out,  don’t feel bad,  we all get there hopefully.

Lisa: Yeah right.

Dave: Now I have a few rapid-fire questions, What is it the most interesting thing about you that people wouldn’t learn from your resume?

Lisa: I gotta say people don’t realize I like to get my hands dirty, I do like to be outdoors, I’m still a motorcycle gal, four-wheelers mostly, I just went riding for a few hours last weekend.

Dave Do you have a motorcycle?

Lisa: I have several four-wheelers.

Dave: What’s your favorite motorcycle.

Lisa: Probably my quad TRX 250r or my a two-wheel enduro. I did have a CBR 600.

Dave: Very cool, I grew up on a Honda trail 70 and then I had a Suzuki 185 enduro, What is your favorite Band from your youth?

Lisa: I was a big hair big hair band fan.

Dave: If you could go back to the 80s right now, what band would you like to see.

Lisa: The Outfield

Dave:  What’s the weirdest thing you have ever eaten?

Lisa: I’m a very picky eater so I’ve had escargot but that’s about it. It was amazing was at  Mr. Paul’s and it tasted like a filet.

Dave:  If you could fly anywhere for free, where would you go?

Lisa:  Well Vegas is probably my favorite spot but if it was for free it would be like a like a Bora Bora or Fiji

Dave:  What is your favorite tropical location?

Lisa:  I have been to Florida and Mexico.

Dave: To Mexico with Mortgage 1 Inc.

Lisa: Yeah! it’s a beautiful place!

Dave: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Lisa: When anybody asked me this question I can answer it really easy, one of my Realtors told me probably 10 years ago that I needed to slow down She said I’m just way too hyper.  I was a little irritated at first. I felt like, don’t tell me what to do I know how to handle it and I have to tell you ever since then when I switch my thinking. It has changed my business. It was the best piece of advice I ever received.

Dave: What they were talking about is mirroring.

Lisa: absolutely,

Dave: You feed off the energy that the customer is giving and give it back. People like to do business with people that are like them.  That’s the whole theory behind mirroring.

Lisa,: It’s difficult for me because I’m so fast-paced but it’s changed everything I did.

Dave: You don’t want to lose your personality but you want to conduct yourself in a way that makes them comfortable.

Lisa: Right, it was a great piece of advice.

Dave: Where did you go to high school?

Lisa; I went to Fraser High.

Dave: Frasier, born and raised in?

Lisa: Roseville and went to Fraser we were right on the border.

Dave: If you could teach a college course where what would you teach?

Lisa: I would teach how to deal with stuff after 40.  You know later in life. Nobody tells you further down the road know what retirement really means. Now looking back if I just put that 10 bucks a week away what a big difference, It would have made.  Insurance Dave too and going through a lot of stuff with my parents as far as Medicaid and Medicare I didn’t know there was a difference.  sure there is no class to tell you how to take care of your parents or the elderly.

Dave: This is a fun one what would your ideal superpower be? You can’t pick time travel because Brandy picked that.

Lisa: I don’t I don’t think much about superpowers. I would be passionate about healing people if that’s a is that a superpower that would be a superpower I would like to have.

Dave: Like Jesus.

Lisa: Right, I guess healing the ill.

Dave: What advice would you give to maybe a new loan officer what would help them in their career?

Lisa: I guess is showing people that you care and do what you say. Everybody’s has good rates if I was really giving advice to somebody new does the right thing to do is show people you care and if it’s genuine it’s what drives me.

Lisa Whitman’s Secrets to Success.

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