Mortgage Women Magazine

What Does “Trying Hard” Really Look Like?

By Karen Deis
I talked with a loan officer the other day who wanted
to jump start her marketing with regular emails to past
clients and real estate agents!

She said she was “trying really hard” to find the time to fit email marketing into her busy schedule.

It got me to thinking—what does “trying hard” really look like?

Trying (the verb) means “an attempt to accomplish
something.” So, let’s say I wanted to lose weight. My
friend asks me how I’m doing and I reply—“I haven’t lost
any weight but I’m trying really hard!”
Trying (the noun) means “exertion and a determined
effort to face a situation or problem.” Same scenario—
only this response is different. “I’m trying to cut back on
eating bread every day.”
While the word is spelled the same, by using the noun
definition, I’m actually taking steps to lose weight.

So, here’s a “trying hard” exercise for you:

Step one – Write down one thing that you are trying really hard to do.

Step two – Determine if you have just been
Step three – If have just been thinking about
it—write down one action step you
could do today.

Step four – If you’ve taken the first step, write down two or three more steps you could do today.

Karen Deis had been in the mortgage business since 1972 and left the industry in 2000 to focus on helping loan originators and company owners increase their business and close more loans. Karen can be reached at Karen@kar- endeis.com.

Going back to the conversation with the loan officer about implementing her email marketing program, the noun-version of “trying hard” could simply be…

1. Write a realtor article to email.

2. Add a task to her calendar – “Send email to realtor database list.”

3. Copy and paste the article content into the body of the email.

4. Click the email “send” button.

Use the same four steps if you would like to email past clients on a consistent basis!

Okay, you might be saying to yourself—I’m one busy woman—of course I am trying hard, but I can’t find the time!

I get that!

Consider assigning the task to an assistant, part-time help, or your children. Explain what you are trying hard to do, get their input (from which they become vested in the task), and work with the person to create a system and an easy way to implement it. When writing out each step of the process, ask them to be very SPECIFIC in the description. The goal being that ANYONE would be able to follow the instructions.

The exercise above can be used for virtually anything you are thinking of doing—from cleaning your office, to hiring an assistant, to spending more time with family, to taking that dream vacation (or buying more shoes).