Transcription

1 Welcome to the "Create WOW Summit Show". My name is Clay Cahoon, and I'm the marketing director here at SocialSurvey. We welcome all you WOW creators out there. This show will serve as a springboard for our un-conference that we are hosting in September, 5th through 7th, here in San Ramon, California. Welcome, everybody! I'd like to introduce a special guest who's with us today. He's a longtime friend and partner of SocialSurvey: Jason Frazier. Jason Frazier, welcome! Hey, Clay! Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. Thanks for coming! Really appreciate you kicking off our first "Create WOW Summit Spotlight Speaker". I want to dive in with your background. And, I'm gonna read it, because it's quite a background, here. Jason, for those, probably few, of you who don't know him already through the real estate/mortgage industries, Jason has got a couple monikers. "The Real Estate CIO", and "The Agent Marketer". He has over 20 years of experience in technology startups and venture capital, working in senior roles alongside some of the most talented innovators, disrupters and visionaries in Silicon Valley. I kid you not, he's part of the PayPal mafia. We'll get into that a little bit later. As a national speaker and top marketer, Jason was chosen as HousingWire's 2016 Young Rising Stars. And then, the next year, became the 2017 Vanguard winner. He was also honored as one of the Top 50 connected mortgage professionals by NMP, and has recently been named one of the Top Mortgage Video Influencers by BombBomb. #CreateWOWSummit CreateWOWSummit.com createwow@socialsurvey.com

2 He is the CEO and founder of The Agent Marketer and Built in Salt Lake. He's an executive advisor to Mason-McDuffie Mortgage, Blend, Nest and also co-founded one of the top social media marketing focused real estate Facebook groups, called The Snap Pack. Jason, welcome again. That's quite a story to read, that you have there! Man, that sounds awesome! Geez, let's just - You've really been creating some WOW in the world, buddy! I just need to figure out how to fit all that on a business card, man. It was a lot to read. Yep. Well, thank you for coming. And, before we start talking about the "Create WOW Summit Show" and your participation in it, I have to ask a question that I'm sure that all of our listeners want to know... And, I've kind of foreshadowed it before. What was it like being an insider in the PayPal mafia, working with people like Peter Thiel and Keith Rabois and Joe Lonsdale? Please tell us a little bit about that experience. Yeah. And also, first off, I just want to make sure that... I'm not actually... I wasn't part of the PayPal mafia. That's the group of... Like, Reid Hoffman from LinkedIn and the guys that did YouTube, and Stoppelman with Yelp, and stuff of that nature. But, I did get to work alongside a lot of those people, and it was a tremendous experience. They truly are great, great minds. And, to be around them and seeing how they work, and seeing what they do, the decisions they make. For me, when I came in, for me it was all about being a sponge. I knew who they were, I knew what the potential was. I knew that these guys were gonna do something awesome or had already done awesome things. And, just to be around that energy and that mindset is great. And, for me, how I've always been is trying to do something different, to look at an edge or an opportunity and figure out, what can I do that hasn't already been done, regardless of whatever vertical I happen to be working in at that time. And, seeing what they did at that time... And, this was from 2005 to 2009, and then seeing what they'd done after, with Keith obviously with Coastal Ventures and Opendoor, and Joe being a founder of Palantir and all those other interests going forward. And then, obviously Peter needs no introduction. He's just awesome.

3 And so, for me, it was a great experience to see how top minds think. And then, also how they approach business. And, see how contrarians, in its truest form, how they dealt with everyday issues. And, so, that to me was... It was a priceless education. It was like going to school again, seeing that. And, like I said, I was just a sponge, just seeing how they were doing everything. And I wouldn't have changed it for the world. That's amazing. I know you probably have some very late night working with that group for a very long time! Yeah! Tell me about the legacy that they're building there. Tell me how you pivoted and started creating a legacy in the mortgage industry, and how that kind of was a touchstone for your upbringing and family. Yeah. So, that was my life until And, like I said, I wouldn't change it for anything. But, it's a rough life, right? It's a lot of work, a lot of late nights, a lot of no sleep. And, after a while, it wears on you a little bit. So, I took a sabbatical for a little bit. I had grown up... Even though I had never worked in it, I had grown up in the mortgage industry with my mom and other members of my family, big real estate. So, I've been a part of the industry for a long time, just never happened to work in it. And so, in 2009, I left what I was doing trying to decide what I was gonna do next. And, I got an opportunity with Mason-McDuffie Mortgage, which is a family-owned business. In 2005, I got a chance to kind of help them jumpstart everything with some consulting. But, in 2009, they were trying to do something different. Mortgage is pretty much been binary for a very long time. And so, low-tech, not very consumer-friendly, no digital presence at that time. And, everyone was basically on the same playing field. So, in 2009, I saw an opportunity, one, to join the family business for the first time. Like I said, I grew up with a lot of these people. But then also, I saw a chance to do something different, right? And, what I saw is a need for technology, a need for automation, for innovation. Marketing was terrible. There was no social media presence. I mean, it was basically a blank canvas. And, you know, I like to fancy

4 myself a bit of a creative, so I just saw an opportunity to go in there and do something different. And you had mentioned legacy, and that's a big thing for me. In fact... You know, a lot of people pick a word of the year, each year, kind of like a New Year's resolution. And that was mine for this year. But, for me, how I approached this business is that... And, just any business, but how I approached this industry is that I could come in and do my job, nine to five, whatever, and not leave a mark, right? I don't want to be a mechanical person that doesn't leave anything behind. And, I'm not just talking about for the family and making sure that they're okay, you know, when my time on this planet is done. But, really, it's about if you look at big names, coaches and trainers, and educators... I like helping people. I like giving value that way and making sure that I can help anybody be as successful as they want to be. And, you know, you look at, like, Tony Robbins and stuff... Not that I'm putting myself in the same light, but when they're dead and gone, you're gonna remember their names, their programs, their shows, how they helped people, how they made people feel. And, the mortgage industry and real estate industry... It's a relationship business, and we never... I mean, we're starting to do it now, but we never really focused on the emotional part of this business, and knowing that, when we do our jobs, at the end of the day, we're fulfilling dreams, right? And that's something that doesn't go away. You can make an impression on someone's life forever if you do this business right if you're in it for legacy. If you're not in it, if you just close, you know, ten loans a month or whatever it is and then you're on to the next deal... If you're in it for relationships, not only can you do what you want to do long term, right, not what you want to do in order to make money, but you can branch off to so many different things, and get to know people and their families, and do business with their cousins and daughters and grandparents and everybody else. And, it's truly only one of the industries that can do that, that you can create a long, lasting relationship with people. So, that's what I look at, is that, if you're in this business for a legacy, long term, and you decided to do this career, why not leave something behind? Why not do something so that, when you're... Again, when I'm dead and gone, there's something left behind, whether it be The Agent Marketer, or something that I did, or something that I helped create. Or, a process or something that someone is still using today, and after I'm gone.

5 That's what I really want. I want to be known for something, and I don't want to just be known for just to be known. I want to be known for actually helping people, and helping them achieve what they want to in this business. That's fantastic. I mean, you are already known for that. And, it's so great to hear the legacy touchstone, and that was part of your New Year's resolution, 'cause I think you're really hitting home on that, literally and figuratively. So, at SocialSurvey, just to kind of along those lines, we're trying to build a legacy here too. And, with this Create WOW Summit, you were a part of, actually, the inaugural Summit last year. And, we'd love to get your take on how we are building a legacy with this event program. Yeah. So, I think I mentioned it during the Summit last year, is that I've never been to one of these... What do you call them, either collaborations, case studies, whatever. I've never been to that at a mortgage partner where it was true collaboration among competitors, right? Now, our business... Don't kid yourself, is a dog-eat-dog world when it comes to recruiting and competing against each other for business. And so, a lot of times, there's not a lot of synergy or possibilities for people to kind of work with each other, to help each other out, for the good of an industry or a product. And, so that was the only time that I've ever had a chance to do that. And, you know, you mentioned it with SocialSurvey and your legacy. The reason why I like SocialSurvey so much is the fact that, you know, from Scott on down to everyone that I've met, there's such a great culture and such a great feeling for this product, to where they... It's one thing to make a product to where you're getting money from somebody, right? That's fine, that's everybody. That's how we... You know, we're a capitalist society. That's what we do. There's another thing when you have a true emotion into making sure that the clients are not paying for things that they're not using. And, I hear Scott talk about that all the time. In fact, he's the only CEO of any company in this mortgage space that ever heard that got upset, not because he's making money or because the product is well-received, but because they're not getting all the value that they could get. And so, that type of stuff resonates with me because, again, it's what I want to do in my own life. And so, that's why there's such a synergy there.

6 And so, as I said last year, I had never been to any collaboration event like that, to where everyone was around the table and generally coming together to kind of help each other's business. And so, when the Create WOW Summit for this year came up and was a bigger stage and whatnot, I was just really, really excited to be a part of that. Well, we are super happy to have your part of it. And, thank you for saying those nice things about our company and our leader. We definitely feel the same way about him, and I feel like that's... We feel that everyday here, that culture, as you could probably hear! A couple reactions! Yeah! Yeah, that's good! Yeah. So, different than last year, we will be bringing competitors together again to share in some ideas. But, this year, there's gonna be a little bit more of a focus on marketing and culture. And, because that is a strength of yours, I'm curious what you plan on bringing to the table, so that people who are listening can understand what kind of experience they might have. Yeah. So, one thing that is been kind of a core element to everything that I've been doing... Not just this year, but last year, is that, going back to Peter, he wrote a book called "Zero to One". And in it, he talks about economics 101. You've got two default states, you've got perfect competition, and then you've got monopoly of profits. And, when you really break that down and you apply it to our industry... Especially to mortgage, right? You look at what we're doing to be competitive, right? And, right now, for the most part, everyone's in the perfect competition, with the exception of a few companies. But, when you look at it, the way you get out of a perfect competition to where the market is setting the value as opposed to the company, is you look at it, and from a mortgage standpoint, you really want to be ten times better in some major facet in order to get yourself to that next level. In the mortgage industry, you have service. No company is gonna be ten times better than the other in service. They may be better in service or worse in service, but they're not gonna be ten times better. Products. They may have more or less, but for the most part... Well, in fact, no part, no one's gonna be ten times better in products.

7 Pricing. Same thing, especially with rates going as it is right now. I call this current conditions that we're going through in the market "the great equalizer", because, when it comes to pricing, no one's ten times better in pricing, either. Again, it might be a little bit higher, it might be a little bit lower, but within that range. Not ten times better. The only thing, the only thing that a company can be ten times better at right now is their marketing and their consumer experience. They absolutely can be ten times better than the competition because the mortgage industry, as a whole, has been slow to adopt this. It's been slow to adopt technology, modern marketing, consumer experience as an absolute, not as a maybe or "if it would be nice to have". But, as an absolute. And so, what I talk about in regards to marketing is, how can we do that? How can companies invest in their marketing to really give them that edge? Because... Don't kid yourself. We're going through, right now, a complete cultural and economical shift, the likes that we have never seen, alright? We're in an ondemand, self-service mentality when it comes to consumers. We're in the social economy. And, to meet the modern consumer is different than we've ever had to deal with. Marketing, as you know, has had the foundation in demographics, in how you reach certain audiences based off of what the standards have been. But, what they don't realize is, now, with the rise of social media and technology being in everything, from cars to having the voice-enabled devices like Alexa in your house, to everything else in automation, is everything is aging the consumer down. So, the normal silos of demographics of where "boomers wouldn't do this" and "millennials aren't doing that", it just doesn't exist anymore, right? Yes, true, you'll find certain people that don't like what would be a "stereotypical" millennial, or a "stereotypical" boomer, right? But, my mom's a boomer, and I only text with her, right? I don't talk to her on the phone. It's all about texting, right? Or, Facebook messenger, or SnapChat, or something else. And I'm talking about age ranges from 75 down to 25, right? And so, if you're marketing specifically for 25- to 30-year-olds, you're gonna be missing. Because, guess what, some of the 60- to 70-year-olds I know do exactly the same consumer behaviors as the 25- to 30-year-olds, right?

8 So, we had to really rethink what marketing is to people. We had to rethink how we're going to engage and reach consumers. And understand that, when it comes down to it, the mortgage industry has always been about what we like, what we want, what we want to provide, and it just isn't that way. There's too much competition out there. There's too many startups out there. But, understand it's like, "Guess what, the consumer does not care about you, the loan officer, or you, the real estate agent, in regards to what you like", right? If you don't like to use Facebook messenger, who cares, right? The consumer wants to use that, so then you use that, right? You can't get romantic about the way things used to be, the way that you used to prospect, the way that you used to close deals, the way that the agents used to drive couples around to look at houses, and now they just want to meet them at the... You've got to adapt to these things, right? So, that's what I want to talk about, is about how you can use everything that's happening. Because, right now, we're living through the greatest opportunity and the greatest times to be in mortgage and real estate, though the conditions may not seem like it. But, you absolutely are. There's no gatekeepers anymore with the rise of the internet, social media, modern marketing. Anyone can change their stars. Anyone can grow a business. Anyone can reach any consumer at any time, anywhere. We've never had that power before, and instead of looking back at it as a negative, look at it as a positive and as a tremendous opportunity to ten "x" your business, and reach them where they want to reach. Because, guess what? Before you can tell me how great your rates are, before you can tell me how great your service, or products, or how many houses you sold, or how many buyers you helped get into houses... Before you can tell me any of that stuff, you have to have my attention. And, the only way you're gonna get my attention is through modern marketing. I'm pumped! That's some wow right there! That's great. Along those lines, we tout this as an "un-conference", the Create WOW Summit. And I want to understand what that means to you, in the experience that you're going to deliver. I mean, you just gave us a bunch of wow. Yeah.

9 But also, what you expect and hope for this conference, that everybody can enjoy. So, you know, when Scott originally told me his idea about having an un-conference, and what it was... As soon as he mentioned the "un-conference", I was in. I was like, "Awesome", right? 'Cause, for any of us, right, if you're in this industry, right, and you're not 100 years old, right? If you've been in this industry and you've gone through the MBA conferences and stuff like that... Yes, there's some value in there. But, they're all the same. They hire a speaker, they hire some celebrity or some other person to come in of note that knows nothing about the business and knows nothing about sales, but just is a good headliner to bring in traffic. This is a conference, if you look at the people, the speakers, that are coming to here, right? And, if you go to the website, you will. You're talking... And, I've had personal experience with a lot of these people. You're talking to people that can actually give you... And, I hate using it, because it's such a cliché phrase to throw out there, but actionable content, where they can go home and do blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, this is actually it, right? The people here can actually give you something. If you truly absorb everything that's happening... And there's gonna be working sessions. It's not gonna be just sitting in seats and on your phone, and it's like, "No. Put everything away and help you grow your business", right? Every speaker that is speaking is going to have just amazing knowledge and amazing tactics that you can deploy... In fact, two of them I'll mention, Barry Habib and Dave Savage, both of which, I have learned from them, via on YouTube or meeting them in person, or talking to them. I had Barry speak at one of my events. I take what they say and actually put it into play. And, that's the thing, is you could go to all the conferences you want. But, if you don't execute on what you're learning, you're never gonna do anything. And a lot of these conferences are about, "Hey, let me tell you about market conditions, or this or that." The people that you guys have lined up are gonna say, "You can do x, y and z. This is how you do x, y and z. Now, go do x, y and z." And that's what I liked about the "un-conference" idea, is because it's about people not just sitting there and listening to people speak. I don't want to speak at people. I want to answer questions. I would love it if I just go up there and just answer questions for 20 minutes or a half hour, whatever the time is, right? I'll be happy to

10 just do that. And, if I could roll down in the audience and break out computers and show someone how to do something, or actually put a tactic into play, then let's do that. And, that's what I think, when Scott had mentioned, you know, doing this conference, or the "un-conference", that's what I got, is that he wants people to actually learn. And, again, this comes from the whole culture of SocialSurvey, is they want people to get value, right? Anyone can throw a conference together, and anyone can throw an event and have speakers, and they come in and they talk and people will pay for tickets. Great. This is not that. This is, come to a conference, listen to people speak, but also work with them so that I can take something home with me and help my mortgage company through what is a trying time right now. Or, help my real estate business through what a trying time it is right now. And, understand how to reach these consumers. Every single person that s talking has some amazing, amazing talent, and some knowledge that you can take and actually rework it for you. And that's what I love about the un-conference, is 'cause it's not just about speaking, it's about actually having tactics that you can deploy that day. Yeah, it's not about getting value, it's creating it. Correct. Take that back to your village, you know? Yeah, exactly! That's great. That really helps. I appreciate that. So, Jason, I think that about wraps it up for me on my end. Were there any other "words of wow" that you wanted to leave with? For the people that are watching this, if you haven't made the plunge yet, I highly recommend that you guys go check out the website. I'm sure Clay will have the link here in the publication of the video.

11 But, go check it out. Check out the speakers. And then, not just look at that page, but then go do a little research and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. You can find various stuff on YouTube and Dennis Yu, and Dave Savage. You can find all of this stuff online. You can look at my content online and see what I'm about. But, just know that, out of all the conferences that I've ever been to, it's always been a one-way street, right? Speaker speaks, you listen, have some cocktails and then you go home, right? Fun enough, but that's not this. This is, come here and change your business, right? Come here and change your business. So, I highly recommend checking out the site and signing up. Signing up and register and... I cannot see, in any way, shape or form, why anyone would be disappointed by coming to this conference, because there are some really, really big titans of the industry speaking and, like I said, giving amazing value and amazing knowledge. And, why would you not want to spend a few days with them, to pick their brain and see how you can work that into your business? Thank you, Jason. That's a hell of a promotion for us. We appreciate that, and we appreciate your time here and at the show, and everything in between. So, kind of going off what you said, we invite all of you to be very active right now, besides registering. Or, if you've already registered, reach out to these speakers, whether through us or directly to them. Tell them the kind of experience you hope to get. You can go to createwowsummit.com, is the website. Everything's there for you, hashtag #CreateWOWSummit. We also have an if you would prefer that method, which would be createwow@socialsurvey.com. And, I appreciate all of you being a part of this. Thank you again, Jason. And, we look forward to having you all at the event. Appreciate it! Thank you, take care. Create some wow!