Episodes
Wednesday Oct 20, 2021
Season 3, Episode 2: Obstacles: In Our Way or On Our Way? (Hint - There is No Train)
Wednesday Oct 20, 2021
Wednesday Oct 20, 2021
Intro
Welcome to the Arch MI Podcast, featuring our senior customer trainer, Blaine Rada. Arch Mortgage Insurance company, or Arch MI, is a leading provider of mortgage insurance or MI in the United States. Our competitive pricing tool, Arch MI Rate Star, is the leading risk-based pricing platform in the industry providing rates based on a thorough understanding of the underlying risk. Here's your host, Blaine Rada.
Blaine Rada: [00:00:33] Welcome to the podcast. My name is Blaine Rada with Arch MI. I appreciate you taking time to invest in yourself and I promise not to waste your time. My intent is to help you separate and differentiate yourself from the competition. And I do this by sharing my perspective and experiences from doing this work for over 30 years. Like the previous two seasons of this podcast, I plan to be unscripted and conversational, which means I’m never quite sure what I'm going to say or how long it will take me to say it. However, I’d like season three to be a little different with shorter episodes and even easier to implement ideas. So let's get to today's episode.
This is probably going to be the most unique episode I have recorded yet. And perhaps the shortest. I talk a lot about less is more, I need to sometimes practice that more myself. But I'd like to start with this idea that we frequently have obstacles in our lives and in our work, right. Personally and professionally, we have obstacles that you have to either overcome or perhaps ignore or find a way to get around. And sometimes these obstacles can really feel like a roadblock. Like they're in our way, right? These obstacles are in our way. And I just like you to consider for a moment that maybe obstacles are actually simply on your way— that obstacles are actually just a natural part of life. And rather than thinking about them as something that's in our way, it might be more helpful to think of them as just part of what's on the road. Obstacles are going to be on the road. Now I kind of came to this realization myself by having a fairly unique experience that I'd like to share with you. I don't know what part of the country you live in, and I don't know if you're familiar with trains. But in the Chicago area where I live, coming across trains is a frequent event. Being kind of centrally located in the United States, Chicago is probably a major transportation hub. And so there's not only Amtrak type trains that are transporting people to and from that come through Chicago, but there are freight trains, many, many freight trains that come through the Chicago area, as well as commuter or passenger trains that take people from the suburbs to the city itself. And you know, back out to the suburbs. A lot of people who work downtown, but live in the suburbs take commuter trains. And even downtown, there are what we call the L or the elevated trains that run through the downtown area up on these tracks well above ground. So lots of trains in the Chicago area. And so what comes with that is frequently having trains as an obstacle. Frequently, you're trying to get somewhere you're driving, and you come to a set of railroad tracks, and the gates are down, and the bells are ringing and the lights are flashing, and there's a train. And sometimes there's more than one. And sometimes they literally stop right there, you know, you're trying to cross the tracks, the train literally comes to a stop, you have no idea when it's going to move. And so you have to decide, do I sit here? Do I try to pull out of this line of traffic and find another crossing? Do I take another way? In other words, it can really be kind of frustrating. So I'm just trying to paint that picture for you in case you don't live in an area where you have to deal with trains. So I want to share with you about this time when I was standing, not driving, but standing at a railroad crossing. The gates were down, the lights were flashing and the bells were sounding, but there was no train. Now I'd been running; I was out on a morning run on this cold winter morning. I'd been running for a few miles. And while I was a little bit out of breath, my eyes were working just fine. I could literally see down this train track in either direction four miles there was no train. Four miles. What I did see was a sign right at the railroad crossing that read $500 fine for crossing the tracks when the gates are down. So I looked around, didn't see anybody. Saw the sign, didn't see a train. But what would you do? Would you stay where it's safe and wait for these broken gates to lift? Or would you cross the tracks? Now as a metaphor, I just want you to think about this train or lack of a train. And these railroad tracks with the gates down and the lights flashing and the bells sounding. I'd like you to think of that as a metaphor for obstacles, right? What tracks or obstacles have come into your life where you were afraid to take action. Only to realize later on, you had nothing to worry about. These tracks were an obstacle to my forward progress. Now, again, this is a cold winter morning. I've now been standing there for several minutes. Not only do I want to keep moving, but I'm getting cold. I need to keep moving. The gates were obviously broken. No one would know.
[00:06:25] So, I crossed the tracks and continued jogging. When I got a couple more blocks down the road, a squad car pulls up beside me. To this day, I'm the only person I know of who has been pulled over while jogging. I thought, am I running too fast? Certainly not. I'm not speeding. It can't be the reason why I'm being pulled over. I mean, obviously, I knew I was being pulled over. The police officer, let's call him officer kidding, as in, are you kidding me? He approached me and said, you can't cross a railroad crossing when the gates are down. I said, but officer, the gates are broken. There is no train. As he started to write a ticket, I said, “seriously!” He said, look, if it was up to me, I'd let you go. But my commanding officer is the one that saw you cross the tracks. And they radioed to me to write you a ticket. So I said, I'd like to speak to your commanding officer. So, I got a free ride in the back of a police car, which, hey, everybody should experience that at least once in their life. I mean, get arrested for something. I'm kidding about that last part. No one at Arch is encouraging you to get arrested for anything or for that matter for crossing railroad tracks. This is one of those, you know, don't do what I did kind of stories. So I ultimately had to appear in court because the commanding officer at the station would not see me. You know, I got this free ride in the police car to the police station. The commanding officer refused to talk to me. So I had this ticket, and I had to appear in court. And I was actually looking forward to my day in court because I wanted to make the case that the gates were broken. There was no train literally for miles. I could see in either direction, there was no train coming.
[00:08:22] The judge was not interested in my explanation. He simply asked, “did you cross the railroad crossing when the gates were down?” And all he was looking for was a yes or no response. So I pleaded guilty. The judge glanced over to where the police officers sat, looking for officer kidding. And he hadn't come to court that day. Maybe he was out pulling over other joggers, I don't know. But because he hadn't come to court, apparently as the judge told me, case dismissed, you're free to go. Wow! Well, that was a close call. I mean, I almost became $500 poorer that day. But again, I learned this lesson that we think obstacles are in our way, when they're often really just on our way. You know, many of the gates and the lights and the bells that we face are only manufactured in our minds. And like leg irons they keep us from moving forward, keeping us afraid. You may have been scared of the dark as a child. You were certain there was a monster in your closet or under your bed. But eventually you learned there was nothing to be afraid of. There was no train. Again using the train metaphor. When you were nervous about your first day of school, no train. Your first date, no train. Your first marriage, okay, sometimes there is a train coming down that one. But in all seriousness, sometimes we face a challenge that seems too overwhelming to overcome. It's as if the freight train has come to a complete stop right in front of you. Well, even if that has happened, one of two things will happen. The train will eventually pass and you can get on with your life, or you'll find a way to get around it. One way or another, you will cross the tracks. Making forward progress is wired into our DNA. Pushing past fear, however, has to be practiced. So, the next time you face tracks in your life, when the gates are down, and the lights are flashing, and the bells are sounding, remember, we think obstacles are in our way, but they're really just on our way. There is no train. That's it for this episode, I'd ask you to consider what ideas you thought about as I was sharing that story with you and put those ideas into action. We really never know what an idea means until we start using it. I encourage you to do that in order to get the maximum investment from the time that you've invested with me today. I kept this really short and sweet, but I hope you found it valuable. This is Blaine Rader with Arch MI, thank you for listening.
Outro
Arch Capital Group Limited’s US mortgage insurance operation, Arch MI, is a leading provider of private insurance covering mortgage credit risk. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, Arch MI’s mission is to protect lenders against credit risk, while extending the possibility of responsible homeownership to qualified borrowers. Arch MI’s flagship mortgage insurer, Arch Mortgage Insurance Company, is licensed to write mortgage insurance in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. For more information, please visit ArchMI.com.
Arch MI is a marketing term for Arch Mortgage Insurance Company and United Guaranty Residential Insurance Company. All right reserved.
Monday Sep 27, 2021
Season 3, Episode 1: Content Marketing
Monday Sep 27, 2021
Monday Sep 27, 2021
[00:00:34] Welcome to the podcast, my name is Blaine Rada with Arch MI. I appreciate you taking time to invest in yourself and I promise not to waste your time. My intent is to help you separate and differentiate yourself from the competition. And I do this by sharing perspective and experience that I've gained over the last 30 years of doing this work. Like the other two seasons of this podcast, I plan to be unscripted and conversational, which means I'm never quite sure exactly what I'm going to say or how long it might take. However, I would like season three to be a little different with perhaps a little bit shorter episodes and some even easier to implement ideas. So with that said, let's get to it.
[00:01:12] You may have heard of Seth Godin. Seth Godin is considered a marketing genius and one of his many books, he's a prolific author, that I particularly like is called Permission Marketing. And Permission Marketing is all about earning the right to ask for business. Another phrase that kind of compliments that idea is content marketing. And if you've been listening to my other podcasts, you've noticed that I mentioned content marketing in small ways in many of my podcasts. But I decided I would just focus specifically on content marketing for this episode. And I'm going to share what I consider to be fundamentals. So if you're a person that's already well-versed in marketing and content marketing, you know, you may find a lot of these ideas to be a gentle reminder of some of the basics. But again, there's, you know, a lot of very talented people out there who are legitimately content marketing experts, which I don't claim to be. So I would encourage you if this is a topic that you want to know more about and to dive in deeper than the level that I will take you, you know, seek out those people who, you know, speak on the topic, wright on the topic, and have content of their own that you can consume.
[00:02:33] But I thought I'd start with just a basic definition of content marketing. And this is specifically from the Content Marketing Institute. Yes. There's actually a thing called The Content Market Institute, and this is their definition for content marketing. I'll just read it exactly as they have it. The creation and distribution of valuable, relevant, and consistent content that attracts, engages, and inspires a clearly defined audience with the objective to ultimately drive profitable action. Okay. If I were just listening to that myself, my first reaction would be, what the heck is this guy talking about, right? I mean, I don't even quite understand it. Don't you love definitions that require that you actually go to a dictionary to like look up some of the words that you didn't know what they were? And then when you go to the dictionary, now you have to look up even more words because you didn't understand the definition of the first one you looked up. So, what I've done with that definition and this isn't a criticism of the content marketing Institute, I just think that they made the definition of content marketing so complex that I'd like to break it down for you. Break it down into basically nine words, you know, three different themes that are expressed in a total of nine words. So, here's kind of what I take from that definition that I really want to emphasize for your benefit. Content marketing needs to be valuable, relevant, and consistent. Those three words valuable, relevant, and consistent are key. In other words, the point of content marketing is to provide value. And it needs to be relevant to the audience that you're trying to seek, right? The audience that you're either trying to do business with, or build relationships with. If it's not valuable and relevant to them, it doesn't matter what you say, right? If it's not valuable and relevant, it has no meaning. And they're not going to pay attention. But the third word in that phrase, valuable, relevant, and consistent is also important. Because if you're going to put marketing and content out there to try to get business or build relationships, you can't just kind of do it, you know, haphazardly, whenever you feel like it Because people will actually come to rely on seeking you out for that information. And they will come to expect that, you know, however you're doing it in the form of, you know, social media posts or a blog or a podcast or whatever it might be, that it's something that, you know, will be ongoing. So valuable, relevant, and consistent were important parts of that definition. Next three words that I want to bring from that definition is a clearly defined audience. So, who is it specifically that you're speaking to? Who is it that you're trying to attract as a customer or who is it that you're trying to build a relationship with? Or who are you trying to simply get their attention, right? Without a clearly defined audience, it's hard to know what to say, right? It's hard to know what your content should be. And then the final three words that I want to pull from that definition is to drive profitable action. Because ultimately, it is about you getting more business. The reason that anyone would engage in taking the time and energy to produce and distribute content marketing is to get business, or to build their business or to deepen their relationships. In other words, there's a business reason. But, notice that's the last thing that I said about that definition. In other words, it wasn't the beginning of the definition, but it needs to be a component. It needs to be a part of the reason why you would do it. So let me just give you an example of something more specific. In the mortgage industry, people who get mortgages find that process to be confusing. And so I came across a recent survey that asked, you know, would people agree with the statement, ‘the loan process was extremely difficult for me’. ‘The loan process was extremely difficult for me’. And they asked this question based on the generation that the folks were in and basically anybody who is about 55 or younger. So that excludes the baby boomers, right? The baby boomers have, you know, they're over 55, they have owned homes before, probably several homes. They probably would not say that the loan process is extremely difficult for me. But anybody younger than that, so from your 20 somethings, all the way to mid-fifties, almost half of the people that were asked agree with the statement, ‘the loan process was extremely difficult for me.’ So wouldn't it make sense if you were trying to put some content out there that would be valuable and relevant, that you might specifically focus on how to make the loan process less difficult for people. Because they believe whether they actually know from experience or whether they just have a perception, they believe that the loan process is extremely difficult. So it makes sense to me, that would be the kind of content that you would want to create. Would be content that would make the loan process less difficult for people. That way it would be valuable and it would be relevant. And as long as your defined audience is not baby boomers or older, right, if your defined audience is people who are younger than baby boomers, then you've hit that target. You're hitting the appropriate target that you're trying to build a relationship with.
[00:08:01] So let me step back for a moment and kind of talk about the differences between what's referred to as content marketing versus traditional marketing. Because I may have made an assumption that you would have already known that difference, and that probably isn't a fair assumption to make. So traditional marketing is what some people would call, push marketing, where a message is simply being pushed onto an audience. And content marketing in contrast is pull marketing, where you're actually pulling people toward you. You know, pulling people in, so to speak as opposed to just pushing on them. And if you think about it, if you were researching an organization to do business with, you want to buy a product or a service and you're thinking about, you know, various choices of companies or people that offer this product or service, wouldn't you rather get to know them, you know, before you make this business decision of who to work with? Wouldn't you rather get to know them because they're informing you and making you a smarter consumer or through their advertising. See, their advertising would be traditional push marketing. But them informing you about the things that you need to know to make this important decision would be pull or content marketing. In other words, traditional marketing is talking at people and content marketing is talking with people. Traditional marketings intend to simply sell, content marketing's intention is to inform or advise. Now again, in the background, yes, there is an intention to sell and do business, but that's not the primary focus. Traditional marketing's primary focus is to sell something, content marketing's primary focus is to advise or inform. And so what happens with traditional marketing is there's a lot of convincing that must be done. If you're using traditional marketing, you have to convince people to buy what you're selling, but with content marketing, it's more about expressing your conviction, right? And so what do I mean by that? Your content marketing should say, this is what I know, and this is who I help. This is what I know, which establishes you as an expert, and this is who I help, which makes it very clear to the person who's absorbing this marketing to know whether they're that person or not. Do you help people like me or do you not help people like me? Do you notice how with most traditional marketing, none of that is in there, right? There's no establishing about, you know, someone's expertise or what they do. And they're definitely, it's like a one shoe fits all approach with traditional marketing. It's like, let's just push something out randomly to, you know, millions of people and see who responds as opposed to this is specifically who I help. So that as people absorb that marketing, they can decide for themselves, are they one of those people or not.
[10:55] Now the goals of marketing, whether it be traditional marketing or content marketing, I could probably summarize, you know, are three things. And certainly, you know, folks that are true marketers, have marketing degrees, work as marketing executives in companies, they'd probably have a lot more to add to this than you know, me. I'm an amateur at this stuff. But I think you'll find this helpful. The goals of marketing are threefold. One is to get attention. So traditional marketing could certainly get attention, right? But content marketing is also very good at getting attention because it's relevant and valuable and useful, right. And people, if you think about it, just think about yourself for a second as a consumer, you're online and you're either looking at like, you know, search results, pages and pages of search results, or you're on someone's website and you're scrolling through a website. Or you're on your social media platform, whatever social media platform you might have. And you're kind of scrolling through the feed, so to speak, ask yourself what actually makes you stop as opposed to continuing to scroll, right? What is it that actually gets your attention that is compelling enough that you will stop and at least start to absorb that content before moving on. And again, it seems pretty obvious, it has to speak to you, right. It has to be something that is speaking specifically to you that is valuable and useful and relevant. So marketing needs to, number one, get attention, right. So something has gotten your attention, but that doesn't take it far enough because marketing also when done well should establish whether you're a good fit. Are you and this service provider or this product a good fit for each other? Well, that's where traditional marketing starts to not be so good anymore. So traditional marketing might get someone's attention, but it doesn't usually do much to establish if this is a good fit. Content marketing, on the other hand, does that very well. So marketing gets attention. Marketing establishes if it's a good fit and ideally marketing should try to reduce the risk associated with making the purchase. The marketing itself should be done in such a way that it makes people feel comfortable with moving forward and taking the next step. Again, traditional marketing doesn't tend to do that unless it might specifically say something about a guarantee or, you know, your satisfaction. We have a warranty, things like that make people feel comfortable. But notice that content marketing is more about building a relationship, establishing you as an authority and that you have an understanding of what, you know, this particular customer needs and that you have something that is probably a good fit for them. And just the act of doing that reduces their risk and makes them feel more comfortable. I wanted to make sure that you kind of understood overview-wise what is the difference between content versus traditional marketing and what are the goals of marketing in general.
[00:13:58] So, what I'd like to walk you through now is I hate to say a formula, so maybe we should just call it key considerations. I've got about a half a dozen key considerations that you should be thinking about as you're developing your own content marketing or your own content marketing strategy. Again, I hate to use the word formula. You'll find a lot of information out there that sounds like that. A lot of people who will say things like, oh your content marketing, you know, it should be this length and it should be this platform and it should be done at this time of day, and you should do it this often. I mean, those are all formulas that somebody has discovered works for them, but that may not work for you. So rather than, you know, push a formula on you, I thought maybe just gave you some key considerations. But again, you could look at it as a formula if you like that idea. So one consideration, number one, would be the topic and headline of your content marketing. The topic and the headline. Obviously the topic we need to go back to relevant subject matter, right? The topic should be things that are relative and useful and valuable to the audience that you're specifically targeting. The headline, just know that you're competing with a lot of other media for someone's attention. So, you know, headlines are important in terms of getting noticed and getting attention. Again, if you're not good at coming up with catchy things that get people's attention, then maybe that's something that you should seek some help on. But not only does the topic have to be relevant, the headline has to be interesting enough that it at least gets somebody's attention. So that's one consideration of about a half a dozen I'm going to give you is the topic and the headline.
[00:15:42] Number two, the format and type. The format and type of your content marketing. And so what I'm referring to here are all the various ways that the content marketing can be put out there. So for instance, I'll just rattle off a bunch here: a video, a blog, an article, a quiz or an assessment, a social media post, a white paper, or an ebook, case study, an infographic. You're probably thinking of examples of these things that you've seen, a podcast is a form of content marketing. Again, I'll run through that list again quickly, cause I'm sure you weren't able to remember all of them, a quiz or assessment, a video, a blog, an article, a social media post, a white paper or an ebook, a case study, an infographic or a podcast. And I'm sure there's many more, those are just the ones that came to mind as I jotted it down. So you'll want to give some thought to, you know, what kind of format or type of content marketing do you want to use and will it be a combination of those things or will it just be one kind? That's part of this formula, so to speak. Ultimately, you want it to be something that is kind of easy to absorb. Something that's easy for people to take in. And so being kind of conversational in tone, you know, easy reading, basic reading level, you know, not using words and jargon that people don't understand. It needs to be something that you know, is probably written at a seventh or eighth grade level, honestly. And I'm not saying that to insult anybody's intelligence, but when you write things at a seventh or eighth grade level, it's very easy reading and that's kind of what gets people's attention. Nobody wants to read something that sounds really academic, where they have to have their dictionary nearby.
[00:17:30] All right. Third consideration would be the length. The length of this content marketing. And again, I've just given you lots of different ways that content marketing could be put out there. Basic suggestion with length is that less is more. Just know that people's attention spans are fairly short. You're competing for their attention with lots of other types of media that they're interacting with on a daily basis. So, when in doubt, you know, make it shorter. Next consideration would be frequency. How often would you do this? Again, I'm going to go back to what I said earlier, consistency is important. There needs to be kind of something that people can count on in terms of a consistent thing that they can absorb. But quality over quantity. So don't get so hung up on this has to be perfect. It has to be exactly right. It has to be, you know, exactly what I wanted to say. It has to be professionally produced. It has to be, you know, on and on and on. The perfectionist comes out in us and we end up not doing anything because we're waiting for the right time or waiting for it to be perfect. It would be better that it was less frequent but high quality, than frequent and garbage, right. In other words, your frequency doesn't matter if it's not valuable and the quality isn't high. If the quality is high, people will kind of excuse you, so to speak for not being as frequent as they might like.
[00:18:44] All right. The next key consideration would be perspective. What perspective are you sharing in this content marketing? And again, I'm going to share a couple of ideas here. It can either be your perspective, or it could be the customer's perspective. If you're sharing your perspective, then obviously you need to talk or write about things that you care about, right? Because the things that you care about are probably things that you know a lot about, so you have expertise and you have some passion and enthusiasm for what you're sharing because these ideas are important to you. More often than not though, content marketing to be really effective needs to be from the customer's perspective. So that it's not really about you. So what are some of the things that you could ask to figure out? Well, if it's not about me, it's supposed to be about them. You know, how do I develop content that is about my audience? And so you want to give some consideration to things like, well, what would they want to know, right. So this is where you have to step aside from your perspective. This is what's so hard when you've been doing something for a really long time. You can't help but look at your business from your own perspective, as opposed to the perspective of the people that you're trying to serve. The perspective of the people that you're trying to do business with, they have a very different perspective of your work and how you do it and what it is than you do. So you kind of have to force yourself to ask questions like, well, what would they want to know? You know, if they weren't me, and they're just trying to make a buying decision about this business that I'm in, what would they want to know or what would they need to know?
[00:20:32] Another question you could ask is, well, how might they be feeling? So, in other words, your content could be addressing not only things that they want or need to know, but even the feeling or emotional part of this decision about purchasing this product or purchasing this service. What would they type into Google? If somebody knew nothing about your product, what would literally be the kinds of things that they would type into Google to get information about your product? See, you would search with very different words because you already know what the jargon is. You already know what the language is, of your business and your industry. But your average person that you're trying to reach through content marketing probably doesn't have that expertise. And so they would use, you know, different language even. So when you ask yourself things like, well, what would they want to know and how might they be feeling and what would they type into Google or what keywords would they use if they were searching for information about what I offer, that gets you out of your perspective and your frame of mind and helps you create content that's from the customer's perspective.
[00:21:33] Okay. So just to recap, I've gone through five of these key considerations in creating content marketing. The first was topic and headline. The second was format and type. The third was length. The fourth was frequency. The fifth was perspective. The last point I'll make is transparency. I think the most effective content marketing is honest and authentic. You actually get to know a little bit, you actually get to feel like you're understanding and getting to know the company or the person that's creating the content marketing. So don't be hesitant to share a little bit of yourself, to be a little vulnerable, to risk being a little vulnerable, being honest and authentic. And I guess I'd add one more. I know I said there'd probably be six. I'm going to add what you could call number seven, or this is also potentially just an afterthought. I think content marketing needs to be not only consistent, but I think we need to think of it as an ongoing process. What do I mean by that? I came across this number the other day that really kind of surprised me. It was a recent study that basically highlighted that of the people who get a mortgage, as an example, and have a great experience. So this percentage of people who get a loan and say that they had a great experience, very few of them ever go back to that lender when they need another loan. It's under 20%. And that kind of made me think, why would people who had a great experience with a product or a service, why would such a small percentage of them go back to where they'd had that great experience the next time they need that product or service? Now, there could be a lot of reasons why that is and the survey didn't go into what are the reasons why they don't go back. But I would tend to think that one of the reasons is that you're no longer top of mind. You're no longer relevant. You're no longer useful. In other words, you might have used content marketing to get that business, to attract that customer and ultimately do business with them. But then once you kind of close the transaction, so to speak, the loan closed, then you're on to securing new business, new customers. And you're no longer really in contact with the people that said they had a great experience with you. So I think we need to re-think marketing as not just being an acquisition of new business, but the retention of existing relationships. And again, that's where content marketing, because you don't need to sell these people anymore. If somebody has already purchased your product or service, they're not going to want to get advertisements from you. They're no longer going to want you to be sending them things that sound like you're selling them, but to stay relevant, to stay useful and valuable and continue to send them things and push information out through content marketing that is engaging and useful, to me, that just sounds like a brilliant idea because they already liked doing business with you and you just need to stay top of mind, so that when they are ready to purchase again, they’ll at least consider you. And who's been helping them all along. Who's been there even years after they purchased the product or service. Who's still the one that keeps in contact with them? I think that would say alot. But so much marketing, especially traditional marketing, is always focused on just getting the customer. And so you have to just repeat that process over and over. And I think it's a lot harder to acquire new business than it is to keep existing business. I mean, even though existing customers may not purchase that often, especially something like a mortgage, right. They're not going to be getting a mortgage every year, but it's a whole lot easier to get them to come back and get another mortgage than it is to go find new people who need a mortgage. And I think content marketing is a way that you could do that as well.
So there you have it. That is it for this episode. But as I always say at the end of these, these ideas are just the beginning not the end, right? Because we think that clarity leads to action, when in fact, it's action that leads to clarity. It's only when you put ideas into practice and use them will you really understand what they mean? So I encourage you, please take some of what you heard today to get the maximum return on your investment of time, put them into action, use them. That's where the real value for you is going to be. This is Blaine Rada with Arch MI, thank you for listening.
Outro
Arch Capital Group limited US mortgage insurance operation, Arch MI is a leading provider of private insurance covering mortgage credit risk. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, Arch MI’s mission is to protect lenders against credit risk while extending the possibility of responsible homeownership to qualified borrowers. Arch MI’s flagship mortgage insurer, Arch mortgage insurance company is licensed to write mortgage insurance in all 50 states, the district of Columbia and Puerto Rico. For more information, please visit ArchMI.com. Arch MI is a marketing term for Arch Mortgage Insurance Company and United Guaranty Residential Insurance company, all rights reserved.
Monday Jun 22, 2020
Season 2, Episode 6: Become An Influencer
Monday Jun 22, 2020
Monday Jun 22, 2020
03:24 - Blaine introduces today's theme, becoming an influencer. He talks about today's episode going a bit differently, there are paradigms involved with becoming an influencer. Blaine defines the word ‘paradigm’ and explains why it's significant.
06:21 - Blaine shares a bit of his bio in regards to influence. He talks about being a member of Mansa and being named America's Greatest Thinker from the annual event the Great American Think-Off. He talks about needing to be able to communicate and influence. Paradigm is brought up again, Blaine wants to share a few lessons learned leading up to and during his time in the event.
09:33 - Blaine talks about the Great American Think-Off and the question he wrote an essay to, ‘Competition or cooperation, what benefits society more?’
He found that there were three parts to influential communication, expertise, eloquence, and engagement. He briefly describes these words.
14:48 - Blaine walks through suggestions in all three categories and goes into the words in more detail. He hopes you find the advice he gives is considered uncommon and that you find value in it.
22:09 - Eloquence is broken down in this section. Eloquence is how to say something well. Blaine finds there to be another set of three words that help to do this. The three C’s are to be concise, confident and conversational.
25:30 - When talking about the last E, engagement, Blaine talks about how he needed to engage with the audience in order to do well in the Great American Think-Off.
30:01 - Blaine ends today's podcast by telling the story of when he was on Toast Masters, how moving the audience emotionally can instantly connect you to them. He shares another story on the word, ‘think’.
Thank you for listening.
Monday Jun 08, 2020
Season 2, Episode 5: Lessons from the Courtroom
Monday Jun 08, 2020
Monday Jun 08, 2020
03:28 - Blaine starts today's conversation with a disclaimer. He hopes to show how courtroom verdicts are like making loan decisions and shares the similarities between the two.
05:57 - A retired lawyer by the name of Gerry Spence is mentioned and Blaine gives some background information on Spence so he can bring him back into the conversation later.
07:28 - Blaine talks about an event called the Great American Think-Off and points out the traits and qualities the candidates represented in the event have are similar as those in the loan industry.
10:43 - Blaine mentions the essay portion of the event in which candidates are chosen in the first place for the Great American Think-Off. He wants to get across that there are three mental muscles at work here, and he would like for you to work them out as well. Work on being able to pick a lane, back it up and appreciate the other side.
18:26 - Gerry is brought back into the discussion along with the idea of winning exceptions. In these cases of winning exceptions, Blaine noticed Gerry has two traits that translate into his line of business, reasoning and documentation. He further ties in the idea of courtroom verdicts being like making loan decisions.
20:23 - Blaine wraps up today's podcast with key takeaways, plus the thought-provoking story of Baby M. This story highlights the processes in trying to make the best possible decisions. Blaine finishes with a quote by French Essayist, Joseph Joubert, “The aim of an argument or of discussion should not be victory but progress.”
Thank you for listening.
Monday May 18, 2020
Season 2, Episode 4: The 9 Ps of Professionalism
Monday May 18, 2020
Monday May 18, 2020
03:10 - Our host, Blaine Rada, introduces today’s theme: The Nine P’s of Professionalism.
After much research, Blaine has devised a way to define what it means to be a professional in a sense of a salesperson and shares it with the audience.
06:13 - Blaine covers his first category along with the first three P’s, Positive, Passionate, and a People Person. He directs these words beyond what's already obvious.
09:24 - Category number two is explored along with the next three P’s, Persistent, Polite and Patient. Blaine gives more context to these words as well to show the importance before you're tempted to dismiss them altogether.
14:12 - Blaine shares some insight on what happens when compassion and kindness are expressed, leading to category number three along with our last three P’s, Keep Promises, Anticipate Problems and having a Flexible Personality. He explains that these last three are not difficult but easy to not do.
19:31 - Blaine talks about our final ‘P’ and breaks it down by using the words speed and temperature to simplify how to have a flexible personality.
23:05 - Key takeaways on professionalism and a recap of our three categories, Blaine asks to consider these nine P’s and as always to take a step, tell a friend and talk with Arch.
Thank you for listening.
Monday May 04, 2020
Season 2, Episode 3: Growing Realtor Relationships
Monday May 04, 2020
Monday May 04, 2020
04:28 - Blaine introduces today's topic, growing Realtor relationships. He explains why relationships with Realtors are important in today's world and how to grow or enhance these relationships with new or existing Realtors.
08:02 - Blaine goes into the three things Realtors would say they need from a mortgage lender, and what the relationship between Realtor and lenders should look like.
12:37 - Blaine gets into the nitty gritty of the ten specific things Realtors want from a lender. He wants to emphasize not having one of these qualities is in no way a dealbreaker, this is just what Realtors would love to see in a lender to comfortably do business with them, plus one additional outcome of these types of healthy Realtor/lender relationships.
23:14 - Blaine goes through a five-part framework for selecting and building relationships he likes to call The Five A's. Aim, Analyze, Approach, Appointment and Assess.
30:09 - Blaine talks the audience through an exercise in imagining your ideal Realtor. He asks to have three questions in mind, this goes hand in hand with figuring out how to build the five-part framework.
33:43 - Blaine reminds us of the importance of keeping a relationship with listing agents and also a few ideas on sealing the bond with a lender.
Thank you for listening.
-----
Monday Apr 20, 2020
Season 2, Episode 2: 12 Qualities of Top Loan Officers
Monday Apr 20, 2020
Monday Apr 20, 2020
03:59 - Blaine introduces you to today's topic, The 12 qualities of top loan officers. After much speculation and research, Blaine has discovered twelve traits every top officer has in common. This episode is going to explore them all.
08:44 - The first quality is that they love a challenge and two, they attend closings. Blaine explains how this displays professionalism and how a closing should be viewed as a celebration. He also gives advice on the stops you should take if you're not able to attend a closing.
12:12 - The third trait is that a top loan officer is a good communicator. This sounds very basic so Blaine shares some examples to put it into context.
15:16 - Trait numbers four and five are explained and that is that they are competitive and use a database. Blaine explains the use of healthy competition and a great analogy to expand on number 5, as well as what they don't use their databases which work in their favor.
19:25 - Number six, they are disciplined and seven, they are experts in not only the role of being a loan officer, but they have an extended understanding of other related roles. Number eight, a top loan officer is a life-long learner. They are interested in learning no matter how good they are. Nine, self-motivation, and ten, they are conscious of their professional posture. Blaine explains that this is not in the physical sense, but they perceived posture others have regarding them.
26:04 - The eleventh trait Blaine has noticed in these officers is that they are relationship builders, not because of the obviousness of the skill but the urgency of the bond. And lastly, number twelve. A top loan officer is that they enjoy serving. He explains a few specific examples in these loan officers.
28:13 - Closing thoughts and a quick rundown of all twelve of the qualities of top loan officers. As always, remember to take a step, tell a friend and talk with Arch.
Thank you for listening.
Monday Apr 06, 2020
Season 2, Episode 1: The 3 Ms of Marketing
Monday Apr 06, 2020
Monday Apr 06, 2020
Podcast Shownotes
S2E1
03:24 - Blaine introduces today's theme, becoming an influencer. He talks about today's episode going a bit differently, there are paradigms involved with becoming an influencer. Blaine defines the word ‘paradigm’ and explains why it's significant.
06:21 - Blaine shares a bit of his bio in regards to influence. He talks about being a member of Mansa and being named America's Greatest Thinker from the annual event the Great American Think-Off. He talks about needing to be able to communicate and influence. Paradigm is brought up again, Blaine wants to share a few lessons learned leading up to and during his time in the event.
09:33 - Blaine talks about the Great American Think-Off and the question he wrote an essay to, ‘Competition or cooperation, what benefits society more?’
He found that there were three parts to influential communication, expertise, eloquence, and engagement. He briefly describes these words.
14:48 - Blaine walks through suggestions in all three categories and goes into the words in more detail. He hopes you find the advice he gives is considered uncommon and that you find value in it.
22:09 - Eloquence is broken down in this section. Eloquence is how to say something well. Blaine finds there to be another set of three words that help to do this. The three C’s are to be concise, confident and conversational.
25:30 - When talking about the last E, engagement, Blaine talks about how he needed to engage with the audience in order to do well in the Great American Think-Off.
30:01 - Blaine ends today's podcast by telling the story of when he was on Toast Masters, how moving the audience emotionally can instantly connect you to them. He shares another story on the word, ‘think’.
Thank you for listening.
Monday Jan 13, 2020
Episode 6: Transform Your Business (and your life)
Monday Jan 13, 2020
Monday Jan 13, 2020
Podcast Shownotes
Episode 6
Welcome to the Arch MI Podcast, featuring our Senior Customer Trainer, Blaine Rada.
Arch Mortgage Insurance Company, or Arch MI, is a leading provider of mortgage insurance (MI) in the United States. Our competitive pricing tool, Arch MI RateStar®, is the leading risk-based pricing platform in the industry, providing rates based on a thorough
understanding of the underlying risk.
---------------------
00:30 - Welcome to the Arch MI Podcast! Blaine Rada is back to share some insight and ideas about sales and the mortgage industry, in which he has spent over 30 years. These episodes all have a sales theme to them, and these sales tactics can be applied anywhere to help you stand out as a unique provider in an oversaturated market.
2:40 - Blaine likes to start by giving the foundation of his view on sales, which is: selling is not just about getting the sale. It’s actually about finding if you are the best fit for the customer. Blaine truly believes that if you seek to be of service and value to your clients, you will find that you have plenty of business.
3:25 - Today’s topic is a bit of a departure from Blaine’s norm. The conversation today is grounded in the concept of transformation and how it affects or is applied to our personal and professional lives. Transformation can seem intimidating but it can actually be empowering.
5:18 - Blaine recalls a quote by a motivational speaker: “You don’t ever have to be the same after today except by choice.”
5:50 - Blaine shares a significant experience - taking the pilgrimage of the Camino de Santiago - that he found transformational. A lot of research, heart, and risk went into this journey, and this is just Blaine’s way of pushing his boundaries, finding out who he is, and realizing his spiritual intention. This really made Blaine think about his why.
11:40 - So, what does this mean and how does it relate to you? Blaine asks you to think about what your intention is, what is your why? How are you pursuing your own transformation in life, personally and professionally?
12:05 - Blaine is going to highlight some moments in his journey that carry some significant teachings that actually tie into doing good business, because these are universal life lessons.
13:00 - Blaine dives into Day 1 of Camino de Santiago, the difficulties he faced on this physically challenging day, and the lessons he had to learn as he started his journey.
19:23 - When Blaine found himself alone and worn down, his strength to keep going was renewed by fellow walkers that he encountered before. From this, he learned that you never know how a comment or random encounter may change a person, but can also change you. It showed how much we as humans really need and depend on each other. Blaine uses this example to ask us: How do you act when you reach the end of your limit? How are you acting as the lifeboat for others when they have hit their end?
23:43 - Blaine skips ahead to Day 12, which he remembers as Sometimes People Are Jerks. Before a 10-mile stretch of nothing (no towns, stores, food, water, etc.), Blaine restocked on all his essentials and had a bad sense from the store owner. On the stretch, he managed to find an “oasis” for travellers to buy supplies and rest, but received an unfriendly welcome there. Blaine’s ugly thoughts of retaliation caught him off guard and made him evaluate his experience.
28:24 - Fast forward to Day 20, the day that it was Blaine’s turn to be a jerk. After 12 hours of walking and trouble finding a place to stop for the day, Blaine was faced with some family issues that he couldn’t address that night. After finally connecting with his wife, they decided that he should continue on his pilgrimage, even though he later discovered that it hurt his partner. The lesson he took away from this was how we handle adversity can define us or destroy us. How do we react and handle life when it hits us?
33:35 - Blaine recounts a day walking through a mountain storm to get to the Cruz de Ferro. It was a decision he made in order to give himself the space to create a meaningful and encouraging experience that was deeply personal.
35:51 - The last day, Day 25, the end of his journey. The reality of what Blaine had done hit him, but he also realized that the recipe for completing the Camino de Santiago was easy: he just had to do it. This was a huge commitment that made Blaine realize that if you want to accomplish something amazing, you have to subtract some other things from your life.
37:50 - What did this change in Blaine? First, he actually enjoys walking now. Second, he gained some perspective that only a personal journey can bring. Third, Blaine wrote a book about this experience, which he never imagined would be something he would do. All proceeds from his book, From Sore Soles to a Soaring Soul: Changing My Life One Step at a Time on the Camino De Santiago, go back to taking care of the Camino!
40:18 - This is the point where Blaine usually recaps the takeaways and makes a call to action for listeners. But today, he’s leaving that up to you - you are the one who decides how transformation happens in your life.
Monday Dec 30, 2019
Episode 5: Five Steps to Better Goal Setting (GRASS)
Monday Dec 30, 2019
Monday Dec 30, 2019
Podcast Shownotes
Episode 5
Welcome to the Arch MI Podcast, featuring our Senior Customer Trainer, Blaine Rada.
Arch Mortgage Insurance Company, or Arch MI, is a leading provider of mortgage insurance (MI) in the United States. Our competitive pricing tool, Arch MI RateStar®, is the leading risk-based pricing platform in the industry, providing rates based on a thorough
understanding of the underlying risk.
---------------------
00:32 - Welcome to the podcast! Hose Blaine Rada shares some insight about what this podcast is all about and what he hopes you’ll walk away with. These episodes all have a sales theme to them, and even though Blaine focuses on the mortgage industry, these sales tactics can be applied anywhere.
2:04 - As always, it’s important to understand Blaine’s worldview when it comes to selling, which could be seen as a little confusing or controversial, even. His philosophy is that selling is not about getting the sale. Selling is about establishing if you are the best fit for the customer, and in doing this, the sales will come.
3:33 - Today’s podcast is going to focus on planning and goal setting. Why bother with planning anyway, when we can’t predict the future? Well, Dwight Eisenhower, General in World War II in charge of the Allied invasion, said something along the lines of: “Plans are nothing. Planning is everything.” The planning part is where it matters.
5:10 - Planning is essential to goal setting. There is value in expressing a goal and what you want to achieve, and in going through the thought process of how you might achieve it, but we can’t be too rigid in our approach.
5:44 - Blaine is going to share five steps, which conveniently spell the word GRASS. For those of us who enjoy affirmations, think about standing on your lawn and saying “There are no weeds. There are no weeds on my lawn.” But, if you don’t do something about the weeds, they’ll take over your lawn. This is a good analogy for affirmations without action - just saying that you want something to happen won’t actually make it happen.
7:30 - First step is the G: the Goal! Every plan starts with the outcome. This can really apply to any part of your life, personal or professional. But a goal without a deadline is just a dream, so it’s important to set a timeframe around achieving the goal.
8:52 - The R stands for reality. Evaluate where you are today in reference to your goal, so you can determine the gap between the now and achieving your goal. We need to be realistic in our goal setting so we ensure we are setting attainable and achievable objectives.
10:51 - The A stands for accountability. There are people who can help you with your goals, even if you are an independent person like Blaine is. Think about who can help teach you what you are seeking to know, or even who can hold you accountable to meeting the milestones of your ultimate goal. Blaine calls these people “drift catchers,” who alert you to when you are drifting off of the course that you’re pursuing. These people are so helpful!
12:39 - The first S stands for strategies. This is the heart of planning; establishing the steps that you will take to get from where you are to where you want to be. Blaine identifies three mistakes that people often make with strategizing:
1) We have too many strategies! People aren’t good at changing multiple things in their lives, so focus on a small number of strategies at a time.
2) Your strategies are too similar to what you’ve been trying before. Strategies generally have to be something new that you’re not currently doing.
3) The strategies are too painful. People are motivated to avoid pain, yet we pick strategies and practices that we hate. This doesn’t encourage us to improve or stick with our strategy. You can’t sustain doing something that you actually hate doing.
21:27 - The second S is the word Stop. With a new goal and strategies, you’ve just decided to add more to your plate, more responsibilities and tasks in your life. Stop and evaluate everything in your life and remove the things that don’t serve you, don’t move you towards your goal, or that waste your time. This is an on-going step to work on throughout your progress towards your goal - you will have to constantly stop and evaluate what is useful and what needs to go.
24:40 - Blaine shares a detailed example of how to put the GRASS steps into action with something that nearly everyone has thought about - the goal of losing weight.
31:26 - Let’s cover the key takeaways from today. The act of planning and creating a plan is where the value is, because you are thinking through the steps you will take to create change in your life and career. We discussed the GRASS method of breaking down a goal into achievable and understandable steps.
33:50 - Blaine has three final asks for listeners. First, take a step! Implement a lesson that you learned today, maybe change up your direction or approach using some of the ideas presented. Second, tell a friend about this podcast! Share this information with as many people as possible, so we can all grow and improve together. Third, talk with us at Arch MI! Tell us how we can be of service and value for you, and let us know your feedback on the podcast!