let’s talk about some practical tips and practices you need to start doing to get off the edge and dive into the deep end!

In this edition of LiveTime with Alec:

• Just like everything the more rep you put in the better
• Where you should put intentionality  
• Stop over preparing and over producing
• Just start executing you are giving yourself a head start over those who dont.

Episode Transcribe

What’s up, everybody?

 Welcome to another Live Time with Alec.

How’s your Tuesday going, which is actually effectively a Monday? Mine’s going good. I got actually electricians here. We’re pulling internet out to the back. I’m tired of this WiFi stuff. I’m in a garage. Well, like many of you are probably in garages, and we’re doing this thing live.I hope you’re settling in. I hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day. I know I did. It was a really powerful day. It always is every year for me. Some of you that know my grandfather was a prisoner of war for three years in the Philippines during World War II. And so Memorial Day always has a real special place in my family’s life and in kind of our day to day interaction. So thanks for hanging with me today.Interesting topic and a couple of fun announcements. So doing and learning. Man, I’ve been so energized by the amount of people who have come up to me through the last few weeks and just going, “How do I start engaging? How do I start creating content? How do I start getting out there, putting myself out there?” And I’ve been so encouraged by it. So I’ve got some announcements.Number one, I have put together a series of nine video tutorials to help anybody out there get more confidence to come play in this place. Hey Ben. Yeah. Thank you. Good luck with month end. Do you know it? We’re crushing it. Another record month, but you know what? It’s good to be in mortgages right now. So for those people that are willing to jump out and kind of play in this space, man, I’ve got some resources for you. And one of the things that I really had been committed to doing as a leader in my space to pour into my community is to create resources that are very tactical.You see, I know I’m not a guru. I don’t have this figured out. I’m a practitioner. I’m leaning into it. I’m I’m messing up. I’m trying to figure it out myself. The reason I did the hundred videos in a hundred days was because I was coaching people about the importance of making sure they put out content that represents them, that gets in front of the humans. And I realized I wasn’t doing it myself. And I was like, man, that’s not how I live. So I got into the space. And so if you are wanting to get more into this space, I have nine videos that I want to send to you. I’m starting up an email community because I want to be able to get you guys information. I know every time I go live, this may not hit you, you may not be ready on a Tuesday. Good morning, Jordan. Hey buddy. Yes. Hook up to me, send me a DM and I’ll get you connected to the people out there.By the way, you see this good stuff? LinkedIn comments, man. Streaming are stepping up their game. Now I got LinkedIn on here. I used to have my phone up to try to figure it out. So long story short, guys. I am building an email community to bring some of you guys into the content that I’m putting out so that I can continue to give you guys resources. I don’t like people who just talk and motivate, but don’t then turn around and say, “Here’s a tool” because that’s the real reality, right? We need a tool. We need to go into our space and be able to execute and learn. And this is why that this is the topic of today.Doing and learning. Hey, thanks, Jordan. Nowhere in there in the doing and learning did I say you need to start preparing. You don’t need to prepare. You just need to do and learn. Those two things are so powerful. It’s like practicing. It’s like practicing. You go out and you shoot free throws. You’re not good right away. But if you shoot 10,000, you’ll be much better. Doing and learning is more important than getting prepared.If you are struggling and over-preparing right now, you need to stop. You need to stop. Stop over-preparing. You need to start doing. And that’s why I’ve developed nine tutorials to send to you guys right away. DM me. Send a message in the comment. I will send them to you and it will give you the skills you need to start stepping into the space of doing and learning.I was on Lykken on Lending’s podcast yesterday. Very, very cool episode. I hope to share with a lot of you guys. One of the things I learned in having this conversation with David, whew, went out of breath, is the importance of actually doing. We over-prepare. We sit and we think, and we prep and we prepare and we don’t execute. Guys, that’s holding us all back. That’s holding us all back. I’m here to tell you that you need to step into the doing and you need to step into the learning and there you will succeed. That’s the message, guys. That’s the message on this Tuesday. What’s holding you back from doing? Seriously. Tell me. Tell me what’s holding you back from executing.I had a great conversation with a young man who is trying to get into the space. And one of the things that he said was, “I have a content limitation. I don’t have enough things to talk about.” That is a lie. There are a million, million things to talk about. All we have to do is put up a whiteboard, and I’m telling you in 30 minutes, I can give you 50,000 things to talk about. In 30 minutes. The amount of content at your fingertips is unbelievable. And it’s not a… Yeah, cool. Would love to stop procrastinating. See Nathan, this is the deal. But we procrastinate either out of fear, out of insecurity, out of a million reasons, but hopefully you can get some confidence if you can just get some of these tutorial videos I’ll send to you. And then all of a sudden you realize, hey, I don’t need to procrastinate anymore. I can really step into this space.Here’s some of the things that can pull you out of procrastination, guys. Accountability. Accountability. I love challenges. I live in challenges. I think they’re very fun. Here’s a fun challenge. I want you to post 10 videos in 10 days, right? That’s doing, and the 10 videos can be centered on why you do what you do. Very easy topic, right? You should know why you do what you do, and you should have at least 10 topics you could talk about to deliver that. Ten videos, 10 days. Make it public. Put it out to the universe and watch what happens. You won’t procrastinate. You’ll be pulled into it because you made it public.I sent a tweet out this morning. If you’re not following me on Twitter, please do. The tweet said, “The universe,” basically I’m paraphrasing, “will bend to your will if you publicly declare your goals.” You’ve got to put it out there. Yes, that puts you in a place of vulnerability. I get that. But that’s where life is, man. It’s in the beat. It’s in being vulnerable. So here’s the deal. Here’s my challenge. Ten videos, 10 days. Put it out in the public. Put it out in your social media. Ask for community support, and you will be radically surprised in how it works.Now, for those of you that are freezed up, I’m going to kind of try to unfreeze you, unstick you with a couple of pieces of advice. Here’s the advice. On my podcast with David, Lykken on Lending yesterday, we were talking about what’s too much with video, and here’s how I want you to see it. Imagine going to a business meeting, a very, very important business meeting. And you want to nail this thing. Whether you’re pitching a sale or selling a company, whatever, you want to nail this thing when you go in there. How do you get to show up? I’m telling you right now most people would wear a suit. They get dressed in a professional attire, right? They wouldn’t come in in their pajamas. They wouldn’t come in and sweat pants. They’d come in cleanly shaved or groomed. I don’t know what my beard is doing, but it’s not something. My quarantine beards are out of control.But they’d come in with intentionality. They come in with notes and a briefcase and a PowerPoint, and they’re ready to go in the meeting. That’s what showing up on camera is like. When you put on a light and you set the camera up high above eye level and you have a nice microphone, that’s putting on a suit. That’s preparing yourself for this conversation for this meeting. When it goes too far is, and I joked on this, like you get flown in on a helicopter, you land, you have a chorus line behind you, you have walk-in music, you have spotlights on your face, now you went too far. Now you’re in a meeting. And I think you’re kind of crazy unless that’s my thing and you went. But do you get me? That’s too far.That’s what overproduced content feels like for me. I don’t need the catchy jingles. I don’t need the catchy music. But I do respect somebody who has lighting, camera, sound. Now I feel like they’re wearing a suit. So for you, if that’s helpful, great. Use that as a springboard to launch into video.Here’s the deal. Here’s why doing and learning beats preparing. When you actually do, you start to get ahead of everyone else who isn’t doing. That’s just a fact. I don’t know how else to say it. When you do things and execute, you are getting yourself every day one step ahead of somebody. Who’s not, you have to view it like practice. You have to view it like practice. This is practice. This is me getting better. This is me chatting with you guys on a Tuesday, or whenever you’re watching this. This is how we improve.And then the next step is the learning. I step back now and I listen and I watch a lot of my content. I don’t sit there and play the whole thing. But I look for points of audience drop-off, audience participation comments. I start to understand. Are people with me? Are they not with me? Is my timing off? Is it just the day? Is it Tuesday and it’s hard because it’s after Memorial Day,? this is the learning opportunity we all have in this space.And so this is my encouragement to you: do and learn. Pay attention. I always had this great line, “Be a student of your own experience.” When you pause and you listen to what the world’s telling you, you have an opportunity to get better. It’s not negative feedback. It’s just a thing. Let it come through, flow through and go, “Okay, I can get better next time.” Or that obviously didn’t land, or et cetera, et cetera. But don’t beat yourself up. That’s the game. Stop preparing and just start doing. And then from doing learn, listen, pay attention. Does that make sense? It makes sense up here. I don’t know if it makes sense out in your land, but it definitely makes sense right here.All right. As a reminder, I am kicking off a email community. Man, I’d love for you guys to be a part of it. A lot of people when I go live or when I have my podcast, don’t know what’s going on because we’re all living our own lives, but I am creating an email community. Definitely drop a comment if you want to be a part of it. DM. I’ll get you into the loop. And then from there, I want to send you resources. I want to send you tools. I want to send you actual things you can practice and use to win and step into new space.I’m going to go live next week and talk about attention. We are in a war for attention for our customers’ and our community’s attention. If you don’t think that’s true, just pause and look around at your social media. Pause and pay attention to what’s happening around you. You are being attacked by advertisers, attacked by corporations, attacked by messaging all the time in your Instagram stories, in your slide. Alec is listening to it. Somebody just got triggered. For sure, Alec is listening to it.Where are you in that noise? Where are you in that process? Yeah, Renee. I’ll get you hooked up. You’re very welcome. I got some stuff to send you. I hope it’s helpful. Where are you in the noise? So you have this unbelievable opportunity. Yes, John. You’re in, brother. I got you. You have this unbelievable opportunity to show up with the same level of relevancy as the commercials during the Superbowl. You do. You do. In this media, you have the same opportunity to show up at the same level of relevancy as a Superbowl commercial if you are willing to get out and get in front. I know it takes guts. I know it takes intentionality. I am there. I’m with you. I’m literally with you right now. I’m here. This is it. Come play. Put the camera on. Put the light on and come play.Execute. Do, do, do, and then learn, learn, learn. That to me is the secret to your success. Do not get stuck in the planning. Do not get stuck in the over-producing. You don’t need a chorus line behind you. You don’t need a fancy tunes. You don’t need a helicopter to parachute you in. You just need to show up in a respectful, appropriate manner. And some of us don’t know what that means yet. And that’s why I recorded some of these tutorials send out to you guys because our dads taught us or somebody taught us, our mentors taught us how to wear suits, how to tie ties, how to dress up appropriately for a business meeting, how to come prepared. We roleplayed our business meetings. We roleplayed our pitches. And now we’re like, “I got to turn the camera on and I got to talk to people? What am I going to say?” It’s a whole new world.COVID exposed it. COVID exposed it. Without COVID, we would not be in a place like this. And as terrible as this thing is for our country and our world, it is absolutely powerful in the transition and the transformation that’s going to enable you to take. And that to me gets me really excited. So if you’re interested, I have some stuff to send you. I’ll email you some tutorials. They’re all on private YouTube links. I’d be thrilled to get you guys excited and part of my email community because we’re in this together.I made a decision in my career a long time ago to stay in the game. I like the mess. I like the fact that I’ll be live with you guys right now. And I’ll be off handling loan problems or HR problems or recruiting problems or recruiting successes. And in 20 minutes, I’ll be on a strategy call with the head of our company and our head of retail to try to what’s next for our technology platform. And then at the same time, we get to turn on the camera and hang out with you guys and talk tactics, talk about being what it is to be a loan officer, to be an originator, to be a salesperson in a digital age when we’re stuck in this little box.Guys, you’ve got to do. I have no other encouragement to tell you. You have to step into the space of doing and then sit back and step into the space of learning and then repeat the cycle. That’s the game. I’ll say it again. You are in a war for your community’s attention and I mean your digital community, those around us in our social spheres. You’re in a war for their attention because when they need help on a mortgage, who are they going to talk to?Here’s what I believe. I believe as we go back to work, I believe that once we leave this COVID land and go back into a new whatever this is going to be, I really believe that we’re going to see interest rates at the lowest point they’ve ever been in the United States history. I believe that I don’t think they’re there today because there’s tremendous risk in the mortgage industry today. Tremendous risk. Guys, tons of people are filing for unemployment. The world’s almost effectively shut down. Essential businesses are the only ones kind of still hanging around. It’s brutal out there. People are getting furloughed, losing their jobs, losing their companies. We are in a dark place, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel. We’re coming through it. And as we come through it, you’re going to see that risk leave the pricing of mortgage coupons. And you’re going to see rates in the lowest they’ve ever been.So my question is for you, are you prepared? Are you prepared for the wave of your lifetime? Are you posting every single day where the people are? Here’s my encouragement if you’re paying attention, guys. I get asked this question all the time. What social media platforms should I be on? Where should I be on the internet? Should I be on TikTok? Where should I be? Guys, go where the people are. Hello? Is this thing on? Go where the people are. Where are they? That’s where you need to be. You need to be in with the humans, talking, sharing your message, sharing your heart, putting the camera on, being vulnerable, leading, telling people what services you provide, showcasing what you do as a professional. That’s how you earn the opportunity. That’s how you earn the influence. And that’s how you get loans. That’s how you do it now. So my encouragement for you is go where the people are by doing, by showing up.And if you think you can do it without video, I’m going to challenge you and tell you you’re wrong. You’re wrong. This is how you make human connection, guys. Yes, you can make dramatic human connection through a blog. Lisa, I will send you. You said you commented. I’ll get you in. Yes. You can make tremendous human connection with a blog with written word. We know this. Yes. You can make tremendous human connection with audio, spoken word, podcasts. Absolutely. Some of you are listening to this live right now, but the tab’s gone. You covered it with your email. And I’m here with you. But you’re emailing.I cannot tell you though, how many people have reinforced my belief in this and have told me time and time again, “Alec, I’ve never met you, but I feel like I know you.” That’s the power of video. The other mediums don’t create that connection. Not as powerfully, not as quick. Fight me on it. I’m wrong. I don’t care how you view this, but here’s the deal. Every single one of you has a unique, amazing audience. That’s waiting for you to show up.I said this time and time again, every single one of you from Lisa Kramer right there to John Frank, to Renee, to Nathan, to Jordan, to Ben, every single one of you people have a unique audience that resonates with you, that resonates with how you think, resonates with how you speak, resonates with how you perceive reality, resonates with the experience and the background you have. All you have to do is be bold enough to go out and put the camera on. And that audience will find you if you stay consistent and you play the long game.Not everyone wants to listen to me. I know this for a fact because people unfriend me and that’s how I figure it out. There’s like we’re done or the mute game. Mute him for 30 days or forever. I get it. I totally understand. I’m not everyone’s cup of tea. You are. You’re their cup of tea. You don’t have to be this gregarious loud, passionate, convicted person to have an audience that respects that viewpoint. You don’t. Guys, I said this again on Dave’s Lykken on lending podcast.Have you taken a personality profile test before ever in your life? Yes. Enneagram is the latest and greatest one, right? Enneagram. You know what I’m talking about. So clearly there’s different types of humans wandering around this world that we all try to categorize in different boxes, but there’s just a million types, billion types. And yet you’re sitting there thinking, “Well, they don’t want to listen to me because of how I look, sound, whatever I got in my package. No one wants to listen to me.” That’s a bunch of crap and you know it. There’s an audience looking specifically for you. You just haven’t shown up for it yet.So come join the email community. Join my digital community and let’s step into this space together. I’m not going to tell you what to do. I’m going to do my best to be in it with you. That’s my message to you. I don’t have a book to sell. If you buy my book, all the funds go to veterans. I have no dollar in this game. I have no play in this game to manipulate anybody. I don’t have an ebook for sale that I’m going to hit you with at the end. Everything I do, I do openly and free because I’m in this space together with you to figure this game out. That’s my commitment. That’s who I am. That’s what I believe in. And that’s what we’re going to do. So if you want to join the email community, I’m not going to spam you. I’m not going to send you crap, but I’m going to hang out with you. And I am going to learn new skills and I am going to push you in ways that I feel convicted in the same way as I’m pushing myself. That’s my commitment to you guys.If you’re watching this later, feel free to comment and I’ll get you into the email list. That’s my commitment to you guys. I’ll play the game. I’ll play the game with you and make mistakes with you, figure it out with you, live it with you, screw up with you, and push you forward the same way I push myself.So friends, that’s my message for you today. Doing and learning beats preparing every day every time. Doing and learning beats preparing every time, a hundred percent every time. This, Brad, thank you. Thank you for this. And by the way, I’ll add to it. I’ll add to it. Yes. Get out of your own head. Yes, just post and create. The fear part? Do it afraid. Do it while you’re afraid. Tell everybody you’re afraid. I had a really good friend who started to get into the space and realized they need to get out there, and their first video was on how they’re afraid. Great. Own it. It’s your creature. Own it and play in the space. And Brad, you’re totally right. This thing is holding you back.Let me end with this. Why do it? Why do it? You’ve got to have a burning answer to that, guys. My printer’s going. This is my wife. I tell her not to print when I have the sign up. I have a sign that says I’m live, but she doesn’t care because she’s homeschooling two kids and I’m not going to pick that fight. What is your why? Why make yourself vulnerable? Why face your fears? Why turn the camera on? What’s your why? You got to nail that. You got to have that tacked to your computer screen as your background next to your camera. What’s your why? Andy, I got you, bro. What’s your why? Otherwise, it’s not worth it, is it, to get uncomfortable. It’s not worth it to make a content list and a content strategy to post it. Why? Why do it? Why do it?I’ll tell you why. I’ll tell you the best why I have and I really believe it’s your why too. It could be. Do it for legacy. Stay with me for a second because someone heard that and was like, “Ugh.” You can say I want to do it for success. You could say I want to do it for success. Yes, Lisa, God bless you. Yes. Because guess what? Another 68-year-old doesn’t want to listen to a 38-year-old. I mean, they do. You do. We’re hanging out around fun, but for mortgage advice, maybe, maybe not. But if they saw you and me next to each other, they’d be like, there’s Lisa. Look at Lisa killing it. And they’re more likely to call you and earn you and work with you. God bless you, Lisa. That was fricking awesome. Thank you for that. Yes, do videos because that’s where the humans are. And we’re not all 38 or 28 or 22 or 68.David Lykken on Lykken on Lending podcast is 70 years old doing the podcast. Guy’s crushing it. Seventy. He told me he was 70. And I was like, “Whoa.” Here’s the why. Legacy. Guys, every time you show up and you put a video out, you show the world what you’re capable of doing. And you spread your message. And obviously you’ll get business. You’ll get loans. That’s all good. That’s all good. Have a great career, make a lot of money, give it away. Serve a lot of people. Awesome. That’s a great why. Do it for your kids. Great. Good why. Do it for your wife. Great. Good why. Husband. Great. Good why. But do it for the legacy you leave behind.People forget every single one of these videos is going to live on forever. Live on forever. One of the things I’m most proud about is my stupid Drive Time with Alec YouTube channel that I did 10 years ago. A lot of you don’t know this. I used to be very embarrassed about it. I never said anything about it and I almost deleted it, but I never did. I never deleted it and took it down. But about 10 years ago, I started filming myself driving to work and talking about a topic that would pop into my head. I filmed almost 270 Drive Time with Alecs. I’m really proud of that stuff.Not all the episodes are good. Most are crap. Most are absolute dumpster fire, terrible. Some are really funny. Some were pretty good. But it’s part of my journey. It’s part of my path. It’s what I came through. How dare I delete that? It’s a stepping stone I did in my life. It brought me to Live Time with Alec. It brought me to my podcast. It brought me tons of confidence to speak to you guys now. Oh Mikey, no bro. No, there’s some nuggets and gold. When that jean on jean gal rode by me on a scooter and I almost crashed my car, that was incredible.But guys, legacy. What message are you leaving the world? What are you pouring into the world? That to me is an incredibly powerful why. Deeper than your career. What message are you leaving the next generation of originators? What message are you leaving the communities you’re inspiring and serving? That’s going to stay around for forever. I’m telling you guys, I don’t get many views today on my lives. Even though I go live every single Tuesday at 9:30, I don’t get tons of views. You know why? Because I’m not telling people I go live every Tuesday at 9:30. So no one knows. Not like everyone out there watching this puts a calendar invite going, “Let’s remember that Alec go in live at 9:30.” But I get thousands and thousands of views later because these videos live on forever. And that’s your opportunity, to leave a dynamic legacy of who you were as a human, who you were as a business professional, the lives you changed, the people you served. That’s incredibly cool.Hopefully that gets somebody off their ass to start filming some videos and start showing up in the digital community because you matter and you’re worth it, and you have an amazing story to tell any unique audience waiting for you. And if you want to be part of the email community, drop a comment, send me [inaudible 00:26:10] tips and tricks, things I’m learning, things like that. And so we can play this game together and win. Winning means a lot of different things to different people. I’ll tell you what winning means for me. Winning means for me that I go to bed every night saying I played the biggest game I could play. Whether I won the deal, got the recruit, didn’t get the recruit, helped the loan officer, didn’t help a loan officer, did I play the biggest game I could play? Come play with me.Thank you, guys, for hanging out today. If you’re watching this later on a replay, drop a comment, get into my email community. Let’s hang out. Let’s learn this game together. I appreciate all you guys. I hope you have a kick ass Tuesday/Monday, whatever this is. Hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day with your family and I’ll see you guys on the internet. Take care.