Anna Smith and her love of horseback riding brought her to the Capital Region, but it was a family friend that inspired her to start her career in the mortgage industry.
Anna shares how she went from not knowing anybody when she moved to Saratoga to leading one of the most successful mortgage teams in just 2 ½ years at Prime Lending. There is so much to take away from today’s episode including some of the systems that Anna uses to stay organized, keep her pending files straight and bring value to her referral partners.
Q: Where did you grow up and what did you want to be when you grew up?
I’m originally from northern Indiana- like super country northern Indiana. I grew up in a small town, one stop light, they called my high school “Cow Pie High”. I always wanted to ride horses growing up and I also wanted to be an astronaut, I thought I was going to ride a horse on the moon, I don’t know…
Q: What did you study in school and what brought you to NY Capital Region?
It’s very poor in Indiana and there were not a lot of job opportunities there so if i was going to spend money on school- I was one of the first in my family to go for a Bachelor’s degree- I needed to make sure I could get a job. I ended up studying accounting as one major and I loved marketing so I got a double major because I thought even if I don’t find anything in marketing, with accounting “death and taxes” I can at least do tax returns.
I graduated with high honors but I was so over accounting after 4 years because that’s not my passion I decided that I may as well go ride horses for a living. I had a family friend that worked in PA with horses and invited me to work at the track and ride horses, pony the racehorses and I’ll pay you. That sounds great, so I moved to PA and from there I went to KY, then to New Orleans and learned how to gallop racehorses.
That was my post college career, I galloped racehorses pretty much all over the world, I’ve lived all over the States, Canada, England, Ireland, and I spent a year in Australia riding horses. I came back from Ireland and moved to Long Island then came up to Saratoga to the race meet and decided I love it here and decided to stay. That was in July 2014.
Q: What made you want to stick around this area?
It’s a handful of things. I had a really good friend that lived here and she also rode all over the country and she helped me into retirement. I lived in her basement for a long period of time. Saratoga is a special place, it’s walkable, lots of fun bars and restaurants and the real estate market is really good in Saratoga County.
Q: You’re a TV host for Capital OTB. Is that before Prime Lending?
My love for horses hasn’t changed so when I got my job for Prime I went to a local real estate brokerage and did a presentation. One of the agents at that brokerage is married to the producer of OTB and asked if I would be interested in talking to my husband about doing something with OTB. They offered me 5 mornings a week to do back stretch insider where I would interview jockeys, watch workouts, talk about the horses.
It’s a great experience and it was pivotal in my career because there are so many mortgage people but when they find out about the OTB show and they love racing it helped to build the brand I have now as not your typical mortgage person. I only did that for one summer, because it was a lot to do the show every morning and run a mortgage business.
Q: What brought you to the mortgage industry? Why Prime Lending?
Prime Lending because no one else would hire me because I didn’t have any experience. I met my boss through the friends I lived with and in the interview I told him if you hire me I will be your top producer. That’s one level of cockiness you need to have in order to change your life. I chose the mortgage industry because I was really close with a family growing up and the mom did mortgages for a living. I always thought this lady has it made, she does really well, always seems to be in a good mood, always home for Christmas- little did I know if was very different back then. This lady had always wanted to recruit me back home because she said I was really great with people and really great with numbers, that’s two key things for mortgages.
Q: What does a day in the life of Anna look like?
Everyday is a little different. No two clients are the same. I am a mortgage originator but I am also a team leader. My job on the team is to go out and generate business. I interact with people, and make sure Prime Lending is the first people they call when someone needs a mortgage. A mortgage originator will contact people that need loans and council them and educate them on the mortgage process. Some days I will be in the office for 8-10 hours -those are not my favorite days- other days I will be in and out of meetings, buyer seminars, closings, going out and speaking. That’s the bulk of the lead generation.
Q: What made you start doing speaking engagements and seminars and how has it helped with your personal brand?
I think I have a natural affinity to want to talk in front of people. I was always the person to volunteer to go up on stage when someone needs a volunteer for something. I really enjoy bringing value to my referral and business partners by inspiring them and helping them to grow their business. I’ve done Racing to Success which was sharing tips on how I grew my business, I’ve done Moving Mountains where I’ve brought in a financial advisor and helped council people in real estate manage their finances and prepare for retirement.
I’ve done facebook and social media stuff.. next year stay tuned, I’m developing something new. I just really enjoy it and I think if you are in a commodity business like mortgages, real estate or insurance, you’ve got to do something different than everybody else. It’s not like many mortgage people are going out and giving presentations to 100 people, so that’s made the brand.
I have my right hand, Genny O’Brien that helps with the locations, all the food and things like that. The preparation for the actual speaking will take some time but I’ll find something to focus on and share a pain point for my career and this is how Ive overcome it. It’s fairly easy to put content together pulling from different sources and my own experience. I have a coach as well.
Q: I looked you up on Zillow and found some great reviews. How do you stay so organized and keep up with the clients, work on follow ups, do the seminars… share your secrets how you are so successful!
I work a lot. I also have systems in place for how things should go. I have help too. As an example, I get birthdays from clients going through the mortgage process so I have those on a google calendar and there will be a few people every day to send a note to or call. We have a lot of systems in place. My whole life since I’ve been here has been doing mortgages, I will max myself out. That hard work doesn’t bother me. Maybe it’s from corn husking Indiana or the horses instill a 7 days a week 5am work ethic, I was riding early in the morning 7 days a week so I really don’t know anything different. But you really need to have a lot of systems in place and put it all on your calendar. You cant be lazy in this industry.
Q: What are some of the systems you use?
The biggest thing is an electronic calendar, putting everything in it, blocking out time for it. I’m not naturally organized, this industry has made me this way. I also use Trello, its like a flow chart so when a client calls you can put their name in and it has a drop down to categorize the clients. It sends alerts and notifications to keep track of the clients progress.
Most days I will take a piece of paper and break it down into priority, medium importance things that need to get done and cross things off throughout the day. At the end of the day I will transfer what’s left onto a new piece of paper to start on the next day. It’s really old school, but it works. I block it out with priority because if you look at a long to go list it can be overwhelming when in reality only 3 of those things have to get done. If you do have a team, other things can be delegated, delegation is huge. There are 4 of us on my team so I will delegate tasks out.
There are always ways to improve on what you’re doing. Reach out to a coach or a mentor for new ideas and to bounce things off of.
Q: Do you have a routine or a mentor to keep you motivated?
I’m a self proclaimed workaholic, I’m motivated by doing my best on the regular. My coach is huge. I bounce things off of her all the time. There’s a woman I rode horses with when I was a kid, her mom was a realtor and very successful and her best friend is a highly successful mortgage originator that works for one of the biggest mortgage companies in the country. She doesn’t do mortgages but she founded a national group of mortgage women with a website- mortgagegirlfriends.com. Her name is Karen and she’s awesome. If you ever need a kick in the pants you can call her and she’ll push you.
Clifton Strengths Finder is like a personality test and my #1 strength is to basically just do it. I’m one of those people that likes to get things done. Reading is also great, something motivational to keep you in a good headspace.
Q: What do you do to pull yourself out of feeling down?
In addition to Karen, my friend Lori is in Texas and I’ll pick up the phone and call her. I also ride my horse. I lease a horse in Galway and I only go maybe once or twice a week but that’s my original passion. Going back to that makes everything that seems really important and terrible just fall away. How many times have I fallen off a horse and I still want to ride. Doing something that you love and are passionate about, get out of the office and take a break.
Q: What is some advice for someone beginning the mortgage pre-approval process?
Get pre-approved as soon as possible. Not all pre-approvals are created equal. Online sources don’t do a great job of accurate tax amounts, closing costs, down payment. When I’m working with a client we will have a phone conversation and I will listen for all those red flags that online services won’t screen for. I will gather documents from you to make sure I can get you the loan, my reputation is on the line as well unlike the online systems. After the phone call and gathering documents we’ll have a meeting called a CMPS- Certified Mortgage Planning Specialist- we will go through your comfort payment, NY State transfer tax, homeowners insurance. That’s like mortgage 101 class.
Q: What are some misconceptions about purchasing a home during the winter?
Less buyers on the market gives you the power to negotiate more. The mortgage processing is slower this time of year so you’re more likely to get through faster and the process will feel less stressful. The competition is less. A lot of people don’t like to do this during the holiday season because that’s stressful enough but we can really make this process smooth and you can save a lot of money this time of year.
Q: What advice do you have for someone new to this town who is trying to build up their career?
Watch Racing for Success with Anna Smith on YouTube. I share step by step what I did. There are 2 things that are the most important:
1) Not sitting at home, go out and meet people. I went on 2 coffee appointments every day for a year. Each appointment was then replaced by another just by asking people who needed a mortgage if they didn’t?
2) Make sure to keep track of all those people in a database. Keep notes with names, kids names, etc. That network is going to help you start and grow your business. I also started an email newsletter with a target audience- mine was to realtors so I would put information about their listings and then some horse racing tips. At first I sent it out to 3 people, now its 3800 people going out every week. Meet people, keep a database and interact with that database and they will remember you. I also say have a big heart to heart about what your brand is, what do you want people to remember about you.
If you have a hard time identifying your own strengths, reach out to a coach or mentor and ask them. Build your personal brand on your unique strengths.
Q: What do you do for lunch?
There are days I skip lunch. In my early years of my business I ate lunch with a different person every day. Sometimes I’m at my desk or in the car.
Q: Where can people find Anna Smith on social media?
