How They Crushed It

Michelle Jacinto | Service with a Smile, Treating Others Like Family, & Back to Basics in Business

• Direct Mortgage Loans • Season 2 • Episode 6

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In this episode of the How They Crushed It podcast, host Dean Johnson of Direct Mortgage Loans interviews Michelle Jacinto, a top producer at Direct Mortgage Loans. They discuss Michelle's journey from her formative years in a family business to her successful career in the mortgage industry. The conversation highlights the importance of customer service, mentorship, and building relationships in business. Michelle shares her insights on adapting to changes in the industry, the significance of networking, and the return to basics in a chaotic market.

Direct Mortgage Loans (00:

00.366) it's the formative valuable moment until you look back on it. No, it's just second nature. You're just learning service with a smile and treating people right. It's like 99 % of what we do. 15.022) Welcome everybody to season two, episode six of the How They Crushed It podcast brought to you by Direct Mortgage Loans where both myself and Michelle Jacinto work and spend our time all week. My guest this time is Michelle Jacinto. She's with my company, Direct Mortgage Loans. She's based in the greater Chicago, what market do we even call it? Midwest, Chicagoland area, Northwest Indiana. She's got the better voice than I do, being a midwesterner. And Michelle's our biggest producer at DML and we're pumped to have her with us today. Welcome, my friend. Thank you, thank you. I've been excited. I've been watching all of the episodes and it's really interesting to see all the different backgrounds. We need fans, so thank you for being one. We at least have one fan, everybody. Here's one right here. love that. Michelle, we typically do a couple of segments. I ask you a couple of questions that only Google knows the answer to. I didn't realize everybody until today that that's the part most people get nervous about. That's what I was nervous about. I don't think any of these questions are anxiety inducing, but maybe they are. We'll see in a minute. Then we talk about your story, your business story, how you got into business and what got little Michelle to this point in life. Then we talk about sales and marketing a bit and we kind of end with what's going well right now. You know, I'm pumped to jump into it. So without further ado, and let me pull my notes back. Here's one I asked Google, you're gonna laugh at this one. Here's one that Google will not give an answer to. What? When does Pumpkin Spice get released by Starbucks? It's late August right now, everybody. When does Pumpkin Spice get released? I would say it would be late September. I think it's early September, but Starbucks and Google won't give us a specific answer. My wife would know the answer to this question, but I don't drink pumpkin spice. Are you a pumpkin spice person? I am, and so is my daughter. She was in the drive-through, and the other day she was like, man, pumpkin spice isn't out yet. She wants it in the middle of summer. I love it. So you guys are the people that, my god, it's out? Get out of work and rush to Starbucks? Absolutely. Well then good, I'm glad I asked this question.

Direct Mortgage Loans (02:

18.19) So being from the Chicago area, do you know the name of the Chicago Bear Super Bowl song from 39 years ago? I do, it's a super bowl shuffle. I love that. I love that. was wondering whether you know that. I can still picture it. think it, you know, like the grainy video. The dancing. Yes, totally. We have a VHS copy of that in our house. I'm two for two with good questions. I told you these aren't anxiety inducing. And here's one that I know some people at our office have asked you in the past. So this is a public service for all of you who might travel to Chicago. According to Google and according to Michelle, what's the best pizza in Chicago? Blue Malmati's. Okay. Check that one out, everybody. The Butter Crust. You have to go with the Butter Crust. She's an expert. That's perfect. Well, those are the only three questions I had from Google. Yeah. So how about one I couldn't believe when I asked about pumpkin spice that Google, it's rare everybody, Google does not give you an answer. Yeah. Well look, let's get into, and you know what's funny everybody, I know Michelle and we've worked together now for, up on two years, but I don't know the Michelle story, so I enjoy this more when I don't know all the fine details, because then it makes this a little more fun to go through. But like, you're a very successful person running a very successful team for an extended period of time. Talk to me about little Michelle and give me a little of your story and how you go from being a kid into being the business person that you are. I mean, no bad answers here. Well, I was thinking about that recently and like starting back, I'm from the Midwest and it's called the region where I live. It's a bunch of hardworking people. have a lot of, I would say union workers, steel workers. Everybody is really just hardworking in the Midwest and my parents were no different. They ended up opening a business when I was... I don't know, maybe in second or third grade, they ran a car lot. So I've always been around the entrepreneur, the person that works from in the morning to in the evening, nights, weekends, whatever it takes to kind of make the business go together. I just knew I did not want to be around cars. It didn't interest me. I'm more or less always pictured myself in a...

Direct Mortgage Loans (04:

39.736) you know, in a little nice jacket, cute clothes. You're not. She looks better, you look better than I do, by the way. I'm not as accessorized. Well, I, that's like my little hobby is I like jewelry. So it just really didn't go with the car lot type of, you know, type of business. So I wanted to do something more in the business and office environment. As I grew up, We moved around a lot before my mom and dad opened the business. I counted, I went to six different schools before sixth grade. So we never really had a home until that point. We moved around a lot. as I grew, I was always looking at things like, Where will I, you know, when I grow up, I'm gonna do this. When I grow was the car, like where was the business? Northwest Indiana. It was just a mom and pop car lot where my mom and dad bought cars, cleaned them up, fixed them up, and then put them on the lot for sale. So most of the time people were buying with cash or maybe like a buy here, pay here type of place. Back in the 80s, my mom, they would come in, shake my mom's hand, and... people would walk out with a car and everybody paid her. Like my mom was just really great with clients and I think I got a lot of my customer service skills from that. I'm writing down customer service as you're saying it. And I worked in the car lot so I had to clean out cars. How old are you at this point? Maybe like fourth, fifth, sixth grade all the way through high school and then I mean, I also had regular jobs, know, Taco Bell and, you know, the teenage stuff, but I always helped out my mom and dad when they were going out of town, when they were busy, when my mom wasn't feeling good. I would be at the car lot helping them sell cars. I was There's no better on the job training for customer service than, I mean, and a lot of the entrepreneurs I've interviewed, that's what they talk about. They're involved in family businesses from a young age. I even wrote down the word formative years, because I mean,

Direct Mortgage Loans (06:

56.962) You're in fourth, fifth grade, you're learning how to deal with people before you even know that it's important to learn that. I have a weird question. So like you learn customer service from the car lot and you go to Taco Bell, is it second nature to you in a place like that? I mean, I just think that it's ingrained in my personality at this point. It's just something you always want to treat people right and you have service with a smile. know, tonality I think is really important. I had a young age, I learned to make sure that I didn't have the normal teenage attitude of, I was taught to be positive from a young age. Michelle, see, so me having known you but not knowing this about you, you're one of the most positive people I know in your business every day. This is a very successful woman, but you learn it from a car lot and having to adapt to customers, I find that fascinating. I didn't think it was a big deal at the time, but looking back, really was the foundation of what led me to where I am. Well, we never realized. I think that's an important thing I've heard from lot of entrepreneurs. You never realize it's the formative valuable moment until you look back on it. No, it's just second nature. You're just learning service with a smile and treating people right. Amen to that. That's still a foundation of your business now, right? It's like 99 % of what we do. Service with a smile, making sure... you treat people like family and if you treat people like family and you take care of them, you have repeat business, you have tons of referrals and you can feel good about what you have done every single day. I just give people the advice that I would give my mom, my dad, my sister, my brother and it always tends to work out really well. So Michelle runs a mortgage team in Northwest Indiana. How many people are on your team? 15, 14. Do you ever tell them the story? mean, do you give them much of this? No, no. Really, probably only one or two people know anything really about my background. That's what I keep it all in here. You don't actually. You're letting it all out here. You might not tell the story, but being positive and treating people right and treating people like family is not, mean, that's, on, that's not keeping it in here. That's letting the world feel your energy. Yeah, I guess that's true.

Direct Mortgage Loans (09:

18.154) I never really thought about it like that. Well, now we both learned something today. but I see that as your differentiator. Having watched your business but not knowing your story is that positive energy. by the way, everybody, this is not something she talks about in the sound bite. This is something she lives with her team every day. The amount of success you've had over a long period of time proves the concept. You agree with that, Yeah, I do. Okay, well, good. You should. Okay, so keep going. So now you're teen Michelle, still working jobs, learning all this in your formative years, you know, but now you're adult Michelle running a business. I love this. How do you get into business as you're getting older? geez. So let's see, through high school, I was the person that got along with everybody. So I come to find that that's called a universal personality. Like you can kind of fit in with any crowd anywhere. talk to anyone, even though I'm an introvert, really, just I can get along with every single person. That helped me make a wide network. I didn't know it was a network at the time. I've been telling my kids, don't think of it as a network, but building your network is the most important thing you can do when you're in college. Not just attending class, but building a network. So keep going on this. I've been saying this one to them. You don't realize it's what you're doing. No, I didn't realize that at all. And I think it was just, again, always treating people nice no matter what background, no matter where they were from, no matter how other people thought about them. I always made my own opinions and treated people nicely. And I I started out as a kid doing that. I still do that to this day. and I think it's really served me and my team and my business and my family really well. And I raised my kids like that too. So when I graduated high school, I went around to a couple of colleges to try to figure out what I wanted to do. And I just didn't, nothing really caught my eye or made me excited about it. So I did want to serve in the military. I went ahead and joined the army, served in...

Direct Mortgage Loans (11:

33.998) served for three years on early discharge, came out and tried my hat. I opened a lawn service, decided that wasn't great because I don't like to be sweaty. And I was riding those huge lawnmowers. She likes her jewelry. She does not like to be sweaty. no. But I did that. We made money at that for a while. I opened a t-shirt shop in the malls. I had that open for a few years. Also not super exciting because I didn't get to wear like my cute. my cute clothes and be at a desk and in charge like I wanted to be. And I took a job managing Express. It's a clothing store. And I met a woman, well, girl back then. She was probably like 20, 22, 23. Her name was Erin and she was an assistant manager. I was a manager. She decided one day, and this was different back then. Back then you didn't have to have a license. So she went to become an account executive, which I said, my gosh, that sounds so fancy. I want to do that. Well, she left and she said, you should come and try this out. I went and I interviewed and I sat next to Erin and I just emulated her like, because there was no formal training back then. You just kind of learned on the job. I was blessed to have really good mentors, people that taught me the right way to do business. When back then, you know, I was new, I didn't know that there was a bunch of really terrible loan officers that didn't do things the right way. But I was really fortunate and was mentored by really great people. By the way, that's something every single guest we've had on this podcast has said. really? Every single one. I mean, that's one of the common denominators. Having good mentors and then becoming a good mentor becomes part of the journey for those that are the most successful, I found. And I didn't even know that it was a mentor at the time. Like, I was just following what Erin did. Erin was doing a great job and I was like, I could do that. And I just did it. She taught me how to take applications. I just emulated what she said and learned the business and here we are.

Direct Mortgage Loans (13:

51.386) I will say that every experience in life, you don't realize at the time how it brings you success later. So I got my real estate license when I lived in Tennessee and I took a class, it was called Sweat Hogs. And they make you open up the phone book and they teach you how to call out of the phone book. And you have a script, picking up the phone, calling, hi, my name is, would you like, Do you know anybody that would like to buy, sell, or invest? Please let me know, hang up, and you have to make a certain amount of calls, or you have to land a certain amount of appointments. I did not know, even though I didn't continue in real estate, that that was like the foundation, because I was making 100 calls back then. That was the foundation of what helped me be a successful loan officer. I took a job as an operator. Probably the worst experience of my life. But in retrospect, really a big experience. One, I didn't know how to type, but it taught me all the phone skills that I needed to be able to field calls and get to the point, take control of conversations. I would wake up in the middle of the night typing. was so nervous about not being able to keep up with the conversation typing. But fast forward. That was a really big part of what made me successful as a loan officer too, because I could get on the phone. didn't mind making phone calls and I could take control of the conversation. You don't realize it's a great, one of your formative experiences until afterwards. You have to just experience. mean, get out there and do things and yeah, taking a sweat hugs course you might have never thought would be a game changer for you and it is. Yeah, it was like old school real estate training. One of the things I've heard a lot from people is, I find it fascinating that you are an entrepreneur, but you didn't want to take over your parents' version of they were entrepreneurs. You didn't want to take that over. wanted to chart. That's what a true entrepreneur is. They want to chart their own course. But learning customer service, learning how to make friends and adapt, those are things. God bless you. You can't teach it. Well, and you learned it in fourth and fifth grade.

Direct Mortgage Loans (16:

13.294) 11th and 12th grade when we're trying to you know somebody's trying to grow up you learned it as in your formative years where it becomes part of who you are as opposed to I believe it's becomes part of who you are as opposed to something you learned correct it just became part of you and there's a difference I think yeah I'm really blessed to have the parents and about bringing that I have we didn't have tons of money or anything like that so my mom was a really good person my dad was really good person and they led by example. But if you see something bad happening around you in business or in life, learn from that so you don't make the same mistake. I have a saying. Tell me. A wise person learns from their mistakes, but a wiser person learns from the mistakes of others. That's one of my favorites. A wise person learns from mistakes, but a wiser person learns from other people's mistakes. Correct. Write that one down everybody. That's one to write down and put above your desk. That's great. You've got some training in customer service and some outbound marketing, but how do you evolve into being the sales and marketing leader that you are now? Because you're a leader. You're doing well. You've got a team. You've put up big numbers over multiple markets, over multiple years. How do you evolve into the adult version of the sales and the marketing? Talk to me just anything about that. I think it's insatiable. When I first started doing loans, I was like, well, I did five loans. Now I have to do six. I did six. Now I have to do seven. I did 10. Now I have to do 11. And not only achieving that, but then maintaining it and just kind of building. I did not have leadership in the past. I just always knew that I could do more. I was told by one of my former managers, and I mean, somebody that I really, really respect, when I told them I wanted to do 20 loans a month, they said, that's a pipe dream. Like that doesn't, people don't do that. How many were you doing at the time? 10, 10, 12, know, 13, stuff like that. So I wasn't, you know, humongous, but I really knew that I could do more. And then when I hit 20, I was like, I, that wasn't the end for me, right?

Direct Mortgage Loans (18:

29.866) I wanted to help more people. I wanted to connect with more people. And I was told that it was impossible. It is not impossible. It is. I'm writing that down. takes thinking outside the box and it takes kind of forging your own path. I didn't really have the support before coming to DML. I was just, you know, trying this and trying that. feeling at this and feeling at that. It is not impossible everybody and what I hear you saying there is scaling. You're scaling, you you've proved you can do this. So to do 2x or 4x is scaling. Right. And it is not impossible if you get the right people and you teach them, you train them. And look, I wrote that I'm underlining the word insatiable because I understand what you mean by that. You can't teach, I believe you can't teach hunger. You can't teach somebody to really want it. And if you want it and your team follows your lead. Well then anything's possible. Again, it is not impossible. So you and I, I mean, we've been in this a long time, but the industry's evolved. There's more technology, there's more social. I I'm just glad to see this on social. Growing it and scaling it is sales and business growth. What about marketing and adaptation to technology? Talk to me a little bit about that. At the beginning, there was no marketing. I didn't do anything. I didn't have a CRM. And if there's one thing that I can tell anyone getting in this business is Day one, you start a list of all the people that you've ever helped. All your friends, all your family. Time out, that's any business, not just this one. Yes, really any business because people are what makes the difference. I probably would be retired right now had I kept a CRM or any kind of contact. didn't have one for 15 years. Hear that? Wiser people will learn from others' mistakes. Anybody in any business, start a CRM. but a CRM, meaning a database. Start keeping track of all the people you, and not just, I would say not just people you have helped, the people you could help. Yep, people that you've spoken to, your dry cleaner, your friends, your family, your coworkers, people that you've said no to, people that you've connected with at the grocery store, because you never know where that will take you.

Direct Mortgage Loans (20:

49.914) Lots of relationships. We're in a business everybody where we can help most people, most adults, whether they're buying or not. Not all businesses are like that. Other people sell more specialized things. But either way, managing your potential clients is crucial. Not just the clients you've been fortunate enough to have, but the ones that you might be able to In the future. Or maybe you can help their family or maybe you can help their friends or their kids.

Direct Mortgage Loans (21:

19.086) It's unending because your sphere becomes their sphere. Well, I always joke with people I'm coaching. It's the I call it the hug and high five group. Anybody that if you're walking down the street and you saw them, you give them a hug or a high five. Every one of those people need to be in your CRM. That's a really, really good thing. Because they can refer you even if they don't need your service. Correct. In any business, everybody. Correct. And is that a big part of what you guys do today in 2024 in your team? That was the beginning. So the first thing that I did when I came to DML was start a CRM. So mind you, I've been in the business for 23 years. I've only been here for six. So if I would have had a database from the beginning, it would be way better than it is right now. But yes, CRM was my first step. First step because everything else prior was word of mouth. And then when Facebook came out, I was an early adapter to getting on there and sharing what I did. So Facebook is big thing for me. Or somebody who knows a lot of people. Yeah. And I added my clients, I added my friends, my friends' friends. And we're just this collaborative network now. But now I'm getting into the young people stuff, the Instagram and Snapchat and stuff like that. And now a podcast. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think it's important. And look, I'm a little older than you are. Adapting is, and you said adapt earlier in a different context about learning to deal with people and adapt. But I think adapting to new mediums and new opportunities is crucial for anybody. can't just stay successful the same way. I believe in that one. And good for you for pushing your team forward this way. That's great. I think one of the big game changers for me, and this started probably in, I don't know, 2009, 2010 when the market still was not great, right? I started something called Meet and Mingles and I would invite agents to come to, and it was for no purpose, it wasn't a class, it was a networking group. I didn't know it at the time.

Direct Mortgage Loans (23:

35.626) It was a mingle, wasn't a networking group. It didn't even have a name back then. I was like, hey everybody, we're going to blah blah blah, bring somebody. And then the agents were like, well, why are we here? I'm like, well, you're supposed to meet other people because they'll be across the table from you one day. And so many people said that they ended up getting a deal. or getting a contract accepted and they were like, I met them at your meet and meet goal. When you first started doing it, how many people? Six. I My first one was six. And then it grew from there and then it was 15 and then it was 20. And there was never really a rhyme or reason of when I decided that I have them. They were just like when I had time. But now we have four scheduled per year at least. you know, somewhere between 150, 200 people coming and, you know, socializing, meeting people, getting deals done. Look, I love this because not just in our industry, in all industries, there's plenty of articles, everybody, out there now about remote workers. And all industries are affected by it. And some are bringing people back, some are staying remote permanently. lot of people in our industry, on the real estate side, on the mortgage side, on the insurance side, are all remote now. So in any industry, pulling people together in a room to just collaborate, to just meet, I mean, there's no substitute for it. Look, people want connection. They do. They do. do. And I've met so many people, people that I would have never connected with because let's say agent one, because these are realtors for this, but it would work in any industry. Hey, I'm having the meet and meet goal. It's open to everybody. Bring a friend. And so suddenly now three people from their office that I've never connected with are coming and new agents are coming and they're meeting seasoned agents. And now being able to kind of connect and build out their, their data, not database, but their, network of of just was the word I was looking for. Well, again, they, people enter your hug and high five group then, then you know them. Then when you're crossing paths, you know, you're, there's a relationship.

Direct Mortgage Loans (25:

58.222) It becomes easier to do business in any context. Yep, for sure. Right now, it's August of 2024, economy's wild, elections coming, no matter what side you're on, it's just a little chaotic out there. What do you think, and I love that, I want you to answer this question in the context of anybody, not just our industry. What is the thing that you think's working today? Like the topical 2024 late summer thing that you're doing now that's adding to or maintaining your success that people could take away from it? Yeah, it is a different environment than it's been in a long time. I would say that the theme of this entire year has been back to basics. So when things get really busy and crazy, aspects of your business maybe fall off. Maybe you're not making as many personal phone calls. Maybe you're not, like we send out a lot of thank you cards. And if we get really busy, sometimes those start to slide. So the theme of this year has been let's not let those slide and stay back to basics because it's the personal connection. I've also been spending a lot more time counseling with clients for a long time when it was really busy. was just, you you take the application and before you know it, they're under contract in five minutes. Now it's more counseling about budgets. taking the time to really understand what they're looking for. And that is what we did prior to COVID when it was bananas. And now we're just back to the basics, making sure that it's that personal service. Look, it's as if you stole this out of my brain because I believe as a guy who grew up in business over a long period of time without all the shortcuts we have now, Basics everybody is getting to meet people face to face basics is building I had a coach one time used instead of saying the word relationships you used word real relationships and in Dale Vermillion and you know So our EAL Asian shift so face to face building real relationships is what I when you say back to basics That's what I take from it And I think everybody that it's easy now to be remote. It's easy to be behind a DM

Direct Mortgage Loans (28:

21.994) And it's more difficult to do what Michelle's doing, to meet and mingle, to meet people face to face, but nothing's going to build your network and build your real relationships more than that face to face, back to basics. For sure. Cannot do business via text and email. You've got to pick up the phone or get with them face to face. I can't thank you enough for making the time. She flew in for this everybody. did. And it was, it's been very fun and Dean, always love spending time with you. So now we've got to put you in the hot seat and someone else has to interview me. You interview me. I'll make you do it. Yeah. You're going to have to write down the questions. know I won't do that. Well, look, Michelle, thank you. We both work for Direct Mortgage Loans, the How They Crushed It podcast. Look, Michelle, just sit it up, reach out to her. She's one of those people that would love to share her. stories and share her best practices in this open book. But thank you, my friend. I appreciate it very, very much. Awesome. We'll see you next time, everybody. Thank you. Bye. Bye.

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