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Show Summary
In this conversation, John Harcar interviews Jamie Steelman, a seasoned mortgage professional with a passion for community outreach. Jamie shares his journey from introversion to becoming a successful salesperson, emphasizing the importance of relationships in the mortgage industry. He discusses the significance of continuous learning, building a dedicated team, and the impact of community connection, particularly through a blood drive established in memory of his son. Jamie highlights the keys to success, including consistency and genuine care for clients.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Jamie Steelman (00:00)
Sure, sure. I’ve learned over time with the relationship business, it’s important to connect with people. being an introvert and not being real outgoing, I went through the loss of my oldest son in 2016. He passed away at 21 years old. And in his memory, we started a blood drive that we do once a year. And it’s been a great passion point of mine and something to look forward to every year for my family to…go through, look forward to, help the community, and it kind of blossomed into making me realize, you know, there were a lot more people that came to the blood drive that didn’t just donate blood. They would come and tell me their story of why they needed to connect with other people and what they need.
John Harcar (00:36)
Yeah.hey guys, welcome back to our show. I’m your host, John Harcar, and I’m here today with Jamie Steelman. And besides his journey in real estate, what brought him up to today, we’re gonna have a talk about how he’s really passionate about connecting within the community, really bringing that connection home. Jamie, welcome to our show.
Jamie Steelman (02:32)
Thanks for having me, I really appreciate it.John Harcar (02:34)
Yeah, man, I’m excited to talk about, you know, we talked a little bit, you know, off camera. Excited to talk a little bit more about what you’re doing in that outreach to the community. But before we talk about all that, why don’t you tell our audience a little bit more about you, know, kind of your journey in real estate and what brought you up to today?Jamie Steelman (02:50)
Yeah, absolutely. Appreciate it. So I got into mortgages about 30 years ago, which sounds crazy, three decades of doing this. But I kind of fell into the mortgage business like a lot of people do with mortgages and real estate. I worked for a small mom and pop vending company. So I used to go to companies and fill up the vending machines early in the morning before anybody was there. And I’d kind of just kind of do a nod as I walked by. Wasn’t very outspoken, was really to myself.John Harcar (03:12)
yeah.Jamie Steelman (03:19)
They sold out to a big conglomerate and said, hey, we’re going to take all the assets except for the employees. So good luck. We’re done kind of thing. So, ⁓ talk to a lady that I knew there was a headhunter and kind of put me through all those different tests. And, ⁓ she said, you need to be in sales. And I kind of thought, you know, that’s hilarious because I don’t, avoid people. I go in before they go to work and then I’m gone.John Harcar (03:25)
Right.Mm-hmm. Are you a natural, are
you a natural introvert? Have you always been a natural introvert?
Jamie Steelman (03:45)
Absolutely, absolutely, which is, you know, kind of funny going into this business. But I told her made no sense. So she did it a few more times and said, yeah, you need to be around people and you need to be selling. So took her advice and got into a two way radio business literally about six months before Nextail became a thing and disrupted that industry majorly. So then then I had a friend that said, you know,John Harcar (03:50)
Yeah.Jamie Steelman (04:13)
let’s talk about mortgages. And at the time I’m 22 years old and I said, don’t even know what a mortgage is. I don’t own a house. How am going to sell other people a mortgage? ⁓ So that’s kind of how it all started and kind of the rest is history, but really love what I do and it’s a great, great business.John Harcar (04:23)
Right.Okay.
That’s awesome. And I like to ask this to everybody on my, you know, on my podcast. If you think back, right, through your life, through growing up and all that stuff, was there anybody that was in real estate, you know, an uncle, a friend, a neighbor, whatever that might have planted that seed or even mortgage or did finance or right planted that seed to get, know, for you to blossom into what you’re doing now. Right. That makes sense.
Jamie Steelman (04:57)
Yeah, yeah.I don’t know if anybody’s ever asked me that question. It’s really interesting, but immediately my aunt Carolyn came to mind. She worked for a USB pain Weber ⁓ for about 35 years before she retired. And so she was in the finance world and she was a troubleshooter. So she went to different offices and kind of, you know, cleaned up how they needed to get the profit lines better and that kind of stuff. And she was kind of like a second mom to me.
John Harcar (05:07)
Mm-hmm.Jamie Steelman (06:10)
I hadn’t really made that connection before you see you missed it. But yes, she was in finance and we talked a lot about it. Yeah.John Harcar (06:11)
Okay.I love it. Yeah. And I, and I like
to make that connection because it, I mean, a lot of people don’t really, like you said, don’t, don’t realize that that was there. And there’s always something that will be driving them then. So she says you need to be in sales. You’re an introvert. What do you do personally? Right? Like what things, ⁓ know, ⁓ tricks or tools or things that you use to break yourself out of that introvert mold and, be more.
Jamie Steelman (06:23)
Yeah.John Harcar (06:43)
what the salesperson needed to be.Jamie Steelman (06:46)
Yeah, I mean, I think I learned a long time ago kind of through the process, you know, that there’s no way to help people if you’re quiet. You can’t share your knowledge with people if nobody knows who you are. So I’ve always had to kind of push myself out there and ⁓ keep in mind that I’m not, I’m doing this as a business because I make a living and take care of my family, but I’m not doing it for me. I’m helping people get into homes. I’m explaining how refinances work, why home ownership matters.John Harcar (06:56)
Hmm.Right.
Jamie Steelman (07:13)
So that’s probably the biggest key. And I don’t remember who, but somebody taught me that a long, long time ago, to never think about it as what I have to do. It’s what I can do for other people. And there’s no way to reach out to them, let them know how it works if I’m a quiet person and don’t connect with people, don’t network, do that kind of stuff. So I’ve always just kind of pushed myself out of that comfort zone and realized, I’ve got to reach out to people if they’re going to know what I know.John Harcar (07:29)
Yeah.Yeah, you got to tell everybody, right? You got to be the voice on the mountain. ⁓ So as you improved your sales skills, ⁓ how did you really learn the mortgage industry? Did you just kind of learn it by assimilation, you know, the step by step from ground up? Did you have a mentor within that industry?
Jamie Steelman (08:00)
Yeah, I’ve been really lucky. I’ve been on the broker side. been worked for some large companies, worked for Wells Fargo for a couple of years. I’ve been on the independent side, the banking side before I’m with an independent mortgage company now. And so I think along the way, a lot of people, you know, I learned some great things. I learned some things. I definitely didn’t want to do it that way type of thing. So I think a lot of, know, whatever you want to call it, kind of hard knocks. ⁓John Harcar (08:28)
Right.Jamie Steelman (08:29)
You know, and I always did a lot of training. Learned something else I learned a long time ago is, you know, staying up on this business, it changes as with most industries. And ⁓ the more you dig in, the more you learn. So had some great mentors along the way that were really good. Biggest thing they always did was just encourage me to learn more. ⁓ No matter how long you’ve been doing it, always, you know, this kind of stuff, talk to other people, see what’s going on out in the world. ⁓John Harcar (08:36)
definitelyYeah.
Jamie Steelman (08:55)
You can get so caught up in just your little world and think this is all that exists. And you really got to, you know, look at what’s out there. I mean, we do the same thing with products. I know a lot of people that are in mortgage lending that talk about two or three different products. Well, you know, especially coming out of COVID, we’ve got people that earn money all kinds of different ways now, which is amazing. Entrepreneurship is at its height. And so we’ve got to learn how to, how to take those.John Harcar (09:00)
Mm.Yeah.
Jamie Steelman (09:22)
those incomes and figure out how to get people in homes doing that. It’s not always your cookie cutter version. So always learning is probably the biggest key.John Harcar (09:27)
Right. OK,what were as you got into the you you started learning, you started feeling more comfortable. What were some of the initial challenges you came across when you started getting more heavier and doing the mortgages?
Jamie Steelman (09:41)
I mean, you I think like with any sales, especially coming from somebody who’s kind of introverted is why is somebody going to use me? You know, I talked to lot of people, people that I hire and people that I bring into our company, you know, they’re like, I’m a pretty nice guy or I’m a pretty nice girl, but why is, you know, if somebody’s got somebody they use day in and day out, what do I do to set myself apart from other people? And there’s a lot of ways you can do that. You know, this is, I feel like it always has been, always will be a relationship business.John Harcar (09:49)
Hmm.Jamie Steelman (10:46)
So you’ve got to get to know people. You’ve got to see where you connect, where your people are. ⁓ But yeah, it’s getting in front of people and letting them know you know what you’re talking about. So you’ve got to get the knowledge, but you’ve also got to go a little ways with making sure you connect with people. The old phrase, people you know, like, and trust is real. Yeah. Yeah, always.John Harcar (11:01)
Mm-hmm.Exactly. And that’s who people work with. ⁓
It sounds like a part of it is not a part. A lot of it is mental, right? Getting out of your own way, getting out of your own head. What were some of the mindset things you use, maybe books, maybe podcasts, maybe whatever, to just to kind of help you get at get into that that right mindset.
Jamie Steelman (11:28)
Yeah,I would say, and I was really bad about this for a long time, but I will credit people that tried to get me to do it over and over. I’m really big about systems and time blocking now more than I’ve ever been. And that allows me to read books, to listen to my podcast, do that kind of stuff where I really was just kind of haphazard. I was busy and busy all the time, but if I took time to stop and write down what I was doing, it was such a mess. So really time blocking and going, okay, I know I want to
John Harcar (11:50)
Mm-hmmYeah.
Jamie Steelman (11:58)
I wanna get through these three books. I wanna check this podcast out. I wanna reach out to that person and learn more about what they’re doing. When you’re just running and your day’s running you, you have no time to figure that kind of stuff out. Or if I didn’t time block religiously and put everything in my calendar, I would say, I’ve got a couple hours on Tuesday in the back of my head. And then Tuesday comes and I go, God, I forgot about that. I forgot about this. So really just being systematic and really living by a schedule.has done wonders for me.
John Harcar (12:30)
Yeah, it’s being intentional, right? It’s it’s it’s you know, we can all keep busy, but is busy really moving the needle, right? If you if you time block like for me, how it helped me is, you know, it really helped me focus on the time I need to do those income producing activities, right? The things that are going to change my business. So what does your business look like now? I think you mentioned you’re in Murphy, Murfreesboro, Tennessee.Jamie Steelman (12:44)
Yes.Yeah, so like I said, know, my company is Team Stillman Mortgage at CMG Home Loans. And I have a branch here in Murfreesboro, which is about half an hour outside of Nashville. And I have a team of four people that are a part of my production team. And then of course we have assigned processors just to my team and assigned underwriters, which has been a huge key in the mortgage world. know, a lot of people do a round robin and use different kind of people, but having…
Having that has been really great. So I’ve got people in all different areas of the process from start to finish on my team. And that’s something I structured over the last couple of years that’s made a huge difference in my business. Really finding somebody that specializes in each part of the process. So while I’m sitting up here talking to you, somebody applies for a mortgage, where am I at? I’m sitting up here talking. So I’ve got somebody that handles front end stuff that immediately reaches out to that client, gets things rolling with them.
John Harcar (13:44)
Yeah.Jamie Steelman (13:51)
Then I have somebody that kind of picks it up from once it’s ready to go to processing. Then I also have somebody on my team that helps manage client relationships. So if there’s servicing issues, if they’ve got some trouble with their homeowners insurance after they’ve bought a home, all that kind of little stuff that people shouldn’t have to deal with, you know, it shouldn’t be frustrating for them. So I’ve kind of built a team around that and it’s, it’s had a lot of success doing it that way so that people know they’ve got somebody to call for whatever stage in the process they’re at.John Harcar (14:01)
Mm-hmm.Why was it important for you to build out those individual people? you see the lack of that from other mortgage companies? Did you feel that or were you getting feedback that was a need?
Jamie Steelman (14:34)
Yeah, I saw a lot of it out there. You know, one of the things I tried to do when I started building my team was talk to clients and get feedback. And we still do that to this day, not just in the way of testimonials, but I’ll call them and say, you know, what was great? What was not so great? because that’s invaluable. And then, you know, we sit down. So I’ve got a couple of people that work remote for me, which is very common these days as well. ⁓ but we get together once a month and we just sit down.John Harcar (14:57)
Mm-hmm.Jamie Steelman (15:00)
we get to relationship with each other a little bit more and talk, but we just, we have a checklist. We’re like, hey, what have you heard? What’s gone good? Hey, I talked to Mr. So and So, he said this was a problem. Was this a isolated incident or is this something we need to address with a system and really kind of look at it? And so yeah, we’ve built it around feedback from clients, feedback from agents and stuff that we’ve seen out there. I tell people all the time, agents I work with, a couple of my…biggest producing teams that I’m a preferred lender for came to me because they said whatever it was. I liked working with this team over here, but I never talked to that person. So another big focus of mine is, you know, if somebody needs me, client, an agent, we have a team, but I’m available. ⁓ I never want to be, yeah, Jamie’s great, but I just got passed off to his assistant. I don’t really know Jamie at all. ⁓ So I try to be real personable.
And I’m very involved while still trying to get to a decent sized team without trying to grow so much that I’m not in the process.
John Harcar (16:43)
Well, and I think I think something you kind of nailed on the head is like, know, you guys continually address what’s working, what’s not working. And I think one of the biggest lacks are, you know, what people don’t focus on enough is that part of the business, even when it’s going good. Right. When it’s going good is the time you really have to make sure you’re doing your checks and balances. So it stays that way. And it just doesn’t all of fall off a cliff. So I love what you’re doing. And I think people at home, guys, listen to this. Those are some great nuggets to take away. ⁓Jamie Steelman (16:58)
Mm-hmm.John Harcar (17:13)
At the beginning and even off camera, we talked about you have a passion for really helping the community, connecting with the community. Tell us a little bit more about that and why that’s such a passion for you.Jamie Steelman (17:24)
Sure, sure. I’ve learned over time with the relationship business, it’s important to connect with people. being an introvert and not being real outgoing, I went through the loss of my oldest son in 2016. He passed away at 21 years old. And in his memory, we started a blood drive that we do once a year. And it’s been a great passion point of mine and something to look forward to every year for my family to…go through, look forward to, help the community, and it kind of blossomed into making me realize, you know, there were a lot more people that came to the blood drive that didn’t just donate blood. They would come and tell me their story of why they needed to connect with other people and what they need.
John Harcar (18:00)
Yeah.Jamie Steelman (18:03)
So it led me to branch out to more people and to be like, hey, you know, if you need something in the business world, I’m your guy. But hey, if you just need somebody to talk to, you need somebody to bounce something off of, you know, I have…Five other children. I have my wife. I have an incredible work family and now through this blood drive for nine years We’ve built a big network of people that are just out there and have gone through You know very similar things or other things and so it’s been great to let them know that I’m here You know either way whatever they need and just kind of find ways to give back to the community and and be there for people and you know Keep the human side to everything that I do
John Harcar (18:41)
love it. The communities around the country need more of that. There’s not enough of that. People are more about me, me, me, me, me. And I love what you do as far as promoting that.Community culture condolences again on your son. Thank you for sharing that story with us ⁓ Last question before we kind of sign off what if you look back over your time, right? You look back over all the stuff you’ve been through like what are one or two the biggest keys for success that you think Contributed to getting to you to where you are today
Jamie Steelman (19:13)
I think consistency is one of the biggest things ever. Everything that I’ve done, whether I’ve had a little bit of success or a lot of success right away, is just sticking with it. ⁓ It’s amazing sometimes, you know, people say, you’re this close to success when you give up. ⁓ Being consistent, if you know what you’re doing and you have something out there that’s gonna help other people, staying consistent and continuing to do it.John Harcar (19:30)
Mm-hmm.Jamie Steelman (19:38)
even if you don’t see the immediate results that you want to is huge. And that’s something I talk to my kids a lot about. Find out what you’ve got a passion for and don’t let up until you get there. Keep pushing. And then the other thing, like we just talked about, I think it’s very true that people say, nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care. You have to let people know that you’re here and that you’re genuine. ⁓ I don’t do mortgages to collect transactions.John Harcar (20:02)
Yeah.Jamie Steelman (20:06)
We’re trying to make a difference and we want referrals. We want to work with people that we enjoy working with. What better way to do that than to find agents and clients and people that you get along with. So I think it’s definitely important to let people know where you’re coming from before you tell them how great your product is.John Harcar (20:13)
Yes.I love it. If there’s anybody out there listening that wants to get in touch, know, then maybe they’re in the Tennessee area or they just, know what you said resonated and they want to talk to you more about your, you know, your community outreach. How do they get in touch with you? What’s the best way?
Jamie Steelman (20:37)
Yeah, mean, you phones probably the easiest and best way. My number is 615-238-7426. You can call or text anytime and, you know, love to be here any way that I can.John Harcar (20:50)
Cool. And I think you might’ve sent us some, ⁓ social link, social media links or whatnot, but we’ll put all this stuff in the show notes. ⁓ Jamie, thank you so much for coming on and sharing all you did talking about your business. I love, I love what you do for your community. ⁓ guys at home, I hope you enjoyed this because there were some very good nuggets that were dropped. Really look into your business, really make sure that you’re on top of your operation. ⁓ Jamie, thank you again, folks. We’ll see you on the next one. Cheers. You’re welcome. Cheers.Jamie Steelman (21:16)
Thank you for having me. Really appreciate it.
