Broker-to-Broker AIME Association of Independent Mortgage Experts

This episode is sponsored by RCN







Season 4 of Broker To Broker is officially in full swing, as host Marc Summers is joined by the President and CEO of Summit Lending, Darren Copeland. In this episode, Darren graciously shares a comprehensive coaching on how to recruit, train, empower, and equip your staff as you grow your mortgage business, giving the exact details that helped make him a top loan originator. 







Darren shares and breaks down his leadership, training and coaching philosophies that he’s gained from nearly 20 years in the mortgage industry. After working in the retail channel for a decade, he joined wholesale to start Summit Lending. Within five years, Summit has grown from a husband and wife duo, to one of the top brokerages in the country, expecting a staff of 50 LOs, representing ~20 states by the time you’re listening to this episode.







Darren lays out everything a leader in a brokerage needs to know: What tech stack he uses. How to reach out to potential recruits or members of your network. How to generate leads. How to set up a pipeline for your leads. How to naturally market and grow your business. And, most importantly, how to be an effective leader once you’ve set all these pieces in place:







“There was one thing that I had to do when building Summit Lending into a true company; I had to get better at leadership and organization from a 30,000 foot-high view, because I'm not great when it comes to details. I knew we had to do a better job of communication, so I had to become a master of delegation. First, make sure whoever you have on the staff, are the salespeople who can go out there and sell.” Darren shares “We have one non-negotiable thing here at Summit Lending, it's called the ‘ABC rule,’ which is ‘always be cool.’ I know it sounds simple, right? But man, there's just no room for people to be jerks or to keep everything to themselves. Everyone here is sharing an abundance mindset. People with abundance mindsets? They collaborate. People with smaller mindsets? They compete against each other. So ,it's all about lifting each other up, especially after the last year with this crazy market. Make sure you mutually support the people that are on your side.”











Key Points:







4:00 - From Husband & Wife, to 50 LOs in 20 States







7:47 - The ABC Rule







13:48 - Tech Stacks, Recruiting, and the Vital 5-Star Review







24:51 - Referral Pipeline & LO Training







27:48 - Routine, Delegation, and Supporting Your Pillars











Darren shares and breaks down his leadership, training and coaching philosophies that he’s gained from nearly 20 years in the mortgage industry. After working in the retail channel for a decade, he joined wholesale to start Summit Lending. Within five years, Summit has grown from a husband and wife duo, to one of the top brokerages in the country, expecting a staff of 50 LOs, representing ~20 states by the time you’re listening to this episode.







Darren lays out everything a leader in a brokerage needs to know: What tech stack he uses. How to reach out to potential recruits or members of your network. How to generate leads. How to set up a pipeline for your leads. How to naturally market and grow your business. And, most importantly, how to be an effective leader once you’ve set all these pieces in place:







“There was one thing that I had to do when building Summit Lending into a true company; I had to get better at leadership and organization from a 30,000 foot-high view, because I'm not great when it comes to details. I knew we had to do a better job of communication, so I had to become a master of delegation. First,

This episode is sponsored by Windsor Mortgage







It’s the Season 4 premiere of Broker to Broker podcast, and we’re kicking it off from the top! Host Marc Summers is back, joined in a momentous conversation with none other than the CEO of AIME, Jonathon Haddad. 







In an episode that becomes an important moment for the broker community, Jonathon very honestly and candidly addresses the current headlines and events taking place within our industry. Nothing is off the table as Jonathon discusses becoming AIME CEO, tangibly supporting the broker community, current issues within the housing industry, and the looming UWM lawsuit, the threat towards brokers everywhere. Jonathon calls the broker community to action to defend, support, and empower themselves & each other, by doing what only brokers can: making homeownership possible for as many people and communities as possible. 







Jonathon goes into further detail of how he and AIME are fighting for the entire wholesale channel:







“AIME is going to extract HMDA data to show you exactly the truth, the real truth about these lawsuit charges, about consumers, and show how much better they are with a mortgage broker. We're going to fight this with real data, real education, and we’re going to make it very difficult for people to point the finger back at our channel.”







While discussing these high-level issues, Jonathon doesn’t lose sight of consumers, taking time to acknowledge struggles for current homebuyers. Jonathon emphasizes how invaluable homeownership is for so many groups of Americans, relating the current market back to his own personal experiences growing up, and breaking down why it’s important to never lose homebuyer empathy, as it’s a broker’s duty to assist homebuyers in need, so everyone can achieve homeownership. 







While Jonathon discusses tangible efforts, benefits, and resources he’s sharing and providing to the broker community, he iterates that he, and the rest of the broker community are personally there for support:







“You’re a member of our community. Surround yourself with winners. You already know who they are. You already know there's people dominating in your market, who are more than happy to help you. Find those people, get away from all the noise, and focus on what you can control. The more you do that, the better you will be long term. And that's what I have is a message to the entire community.”











Key Points:







1:26 - Transitioning into AIME Leadership







3:41 - The Renewed Vision for AIME







9:56 - Homebuyer Awareness Week: Making it Personal







17:01 - UWM’s Class-Action Lawsuit: Defending Brokers with Qualified Data







22:29 - Wholesale’s Call to Action: Serving Consumers as Only Brokers Can

On this episode of Broker to Broker, host Marc Summers talks to a familiar face as he’s joined by Broker Owner of Align Lending, Samantha Shelton.



Samantha’s story is one shared by many in our community, one of constant growth; starting with her own business, to nurturing and ensuring the success of others under her leadership. Starting in the Retail channel, she made the jump by joining Marc’s staff of Loan Officers, where she worked for 8 months. Now, from employee to peer, she’s the Broker Owner of her own brokerage, and is doing amazing things in her and Marc’s community by making herself a local resource, and establishing her brand.



Samantha is known to be a very proactive leader and team builder. She shares her experiences and strategies in how she sets up all of her employees for success. On top of her proactiviry, she’s known as an integral part of her community, utilizing events, outreach, and strong branding to generate leads and expand her network.



Sam shares her philosophy behind strong community branding all throughout, and has a few slogans to keep in mind that may help with branding consideration: “Find something you're passionate about and execute it and execute it at the highest level possible. Get your brand out there. Your brand speaks highly of you even when you aren't there. So getting out into your community, buying water bottles for the school, doing a local festival, free events like Easter egg hunts, just making yourself very noticeable in your community. People would have t-shirts or water bottles, and now brand recognition is important. You want them to look at that and be like, Oh, I remember I took my kids, this or that event, we did pictures with Santa, and so on. That recognition of ‘Oh, I need a loan. We went to this event.’ It's just like going backwards. It’s important to make sure that you're always representing yourself in a way that you would be proud of, even if you weren't around.”

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On this episode of Broker to Broker, host Marc Summers talks to a familiar face as he’s joined by Broker Owner of Align Lending, Samantha Shelton.



Samantha’s story is one shared by many in our community, one of constant growth; starting with her own business, to nurturing and ensuring the success of others under her leadership. Starting in the Retail channel, she made the jump by joining Marc’s staff of Loan Officers, where she worked for 8 months. Now, from employee to peer, she’s the Broker Owner of her own brokerage, and is doing amazing things in her and Marc’s community by making herself a local resource, and establishing her brand.



Samantha is known to be a very proactive leader and team builder. She shares her experiences and strategies in how she sets up all of her employees for success. On top of her proactiviry, she’s known as an integral part of her community, utilizing events, outreach, and strong branding to generate leads and expand her network.



Sam shares her philosophy behind strong community branding all throughout, and has a few slogans to keep in mind that may help with branding consideration: “Find something you're passionate about and execute it and execute it at the highest level possible. Get your brand out there. Your brand speaks highly of you even when you aren't there. So getting out into your community, buying water bottles for the school, doing a local festival, free events like Easter egg hunts, just making yourself very noticeable in your community. People would have t-shirts or water bottles, and now brand recognition is important. You want them to look at that and be like, Oh, I remember I took my kids, this or that event, we did pictures with Santa, and so on. That recognition of ‘Oh, I need a loan. We went to this event.’ It's just like going backwards. It’s important to make sure that you're always representing yourself in a way that you would be proud of, even if you weren't around.”

On this episode of Broker to Broker, host Marc Summers talks to a familiar face as he’s joined by Broker Owner of Align Lending, Samantha Shelton.



Samantha’s story is one shared by many in our community, one of constant growth; starting with her own business, to nurturing and ensuring the success of others under her leadership. Starting in the Retail channel, she made the jump by joining Marc’s staff of Loan Officers, where she worked for 8 months. Now, from employee to peer, she’s the Broker Owner of her own brokerage, and is doing amazing things in her and Marc’s community by making herself a local resource, and establishing her brand.



Samantha is known to be a very proactive leader and team builder. She shares her experiences and strategies in how she sets up all of her employees for success. On top of her proactiviry, she’s known as an integral part of her community, utilizing events, outreach, and strong branding to generate leads and expand her network.



Sam shares her philosophy behind strong community branding all throughout, and has a few slogans to keep in mind that may help with branding consideration: “Find something you're passionate about and execute it and execute it at the highest level possible. Get your brand out there. Your brand speaks highly of you even when you aren't there. So getting out into your community, buying water bottles for the school, doing a local festival, free events like Easter egg hunts, just making yourself very noticeable in your community. People would have t-shirts or water bottles, and now brand recognition is important. You want them to look at that and be like, Oh, I remember I took my kids, this or that event, we did pictures with Santa, and so on. That recognition of ‘Oh, I need a loan. We went to this event.’ It's just like going backwards. It’s important to make sure that you're always representing yourself in a way that you would be proud of, even if you weren't around.”