I will resume posting new chapters from Flawed Genius September 7, 2025.
This is an everyman's update of Scott Peck's "The Road Less Traveled." Peck's book, published in 1978, is widely considered a masterpiece. It explores how we confront and solve problems.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
NETWORKING
Putting Out Your Message
Perhaps you, like me, are somewhat shy. Nobody likes rejection, though many people have learned to sidestep it. Some of us are "people persons," some of us prefer to be by ourselves. Each of us has our strengths and weaknesses, but to paraphrase one spiritual teaching, "Spirit helps those who help themselves." When setting out to help ourselves, we usually run headlong into one of our weaknesses. The best way I know to grow past a weakness is to challenge it.
In the mortgage business, a loan officer must be familiar with multiple loan programs, understand how different loan committees analyze income, credit, and property values, and know how to best meet each borrower's goals. A loan officer needs to communicate effectively with the company’s technical staff and borrowers who are unfamiliar with the business in general.
All of these skills, though, are useless unless a loan officer has clients. How do they find clients? By marketing. Without marketing skills, a loan officer is not a loan officer. No matter how marketing is approached, the fundamental ingredient to finding clients is talking to people.
Some loan officers focus solely on the business at hand: pre-qualifying the client, taking the application, assembling the needed documents, shepherding the loan file through approval, and being with the borrower at closing. The last step for many loan officers is to be paid. Their next step is to look for new clients.
What have these loan officers missed? They have failed to enable their clients to do what almost all happy borrowers are eager to do: refer friends to the loan officer who helped them meet their goal. Suppose the loan officer lets his borrowers know during the loan process that he would appreciate their referring people to him after they close their loan. In that case, he will receive more referrals than if he assumes his wishes are already known.
Why? The loan officer networked. He let someone know about his goals and was open to assistance. The principle of networking is as simple as putting your message out there.
How we network, where and with whom we network, what our message is, and how we present it will, of course, affect our level of success. The more we network, the better we become as networkers. The secret to networking is learning about other people's goals and helping them, while making ourselves available for referrals.
Whether we are looking for more business, a better job, a date, a friend, or an idea...no matter what we seek, networking can complement other efforts to meet our goals.
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