It’s been said once or twice that the mortgage industry tends to “eat its young,” when it comes to development and mentorship. There’s not enough emphasis on recruiting or, especially, developing the next generation of thought leaders.

I remain optimistic that there are better times just around the corner. We have yet to experience a market downturn that wasn’t followed at some point by a rebound. But after a couple of quarters of depressed volume, widespread layoffs, and an overall conversation centered on doom and gloom, it is a little exhausting.

The first milestone in sending a direct marketing email is, of course, to get the reader’s attention. Mission accomplished. But small victories don’t always lead to larger victories. The main point of any marketing email, for the most part, is to turn the unaware into the aware and get people to buy more of your stuff, eventually.

There are any number of title agencies, mortgage companies or even appraisal management firms that have, rather than seeking out the right fit (or, sometimes, in the absence of any useful technology for their needs), have created their own.

Babar and I had a lot of fun digging into what the word “automation” really means. And I love his definition: “If you left the office and turned off the lights, everything should keep working as-is.”

Think about how Chat GPT-like technology could help us in the mortgage industry, especially with one of my favorite targets, the borrower experience.

Unlike past down cycles, the focus for lenders—at least the ones we talked to—isn’t just keeping costs low until volume rebounds. It’s automation.

I’ve been thinking about innovation a lot lately. When the market slows and order volumes decline, we suddenly have the time we didn’t have when things were busier.

For whatever reason, some folks assume “mentorship” needs to come through some kind of formal program with titles and labels. But it’s much more than that.