The Marketing Habit That Turns Followers Into Mortgage Files

Most mortgage brokers spend a lot of time trying to create better content.

But what if the biggest thing holding your marketing back isn't your graphics (trust me graphics don't do anything), your captions, or the algorithm?

In this episode, I'm sharing one simple shift that can help people trust you faster, feel like they already know you, and become more comfortable reaching out when they're ready for a mortgage.

If you've ever struggled with showing up online or wondered why some brokers seem to build relationships so quickly through social media, this episode is for you.

🗓️ Next round starts soon!
 👉 https://brokerlifesocials.com/register/broker-growth-collective/

Why Work With Me (and Broker Life Socials)

I’ve been in the Canadian mortgage space since 2005.

I started at Genworth Financial Canada, working inside the default insurer side of the industry for five years.
Then in August 2010, I became a licensed mortgage agent… and I’ve been in it ever since.

I’ve seen this business from every angle.
 Underwriting. Broker side. Real client conversations. Real files.

And here’s why that matters

Marketing in this industry isn’t just about “posting consistently.”
 It’s about understanding:
 • how mortgage clients actually think
 • what they’re worried about (but not saying)
 • how to explain complex scenarios in a way that builds trust

That’s not something you can outsource to a generic marketing company.

Because if they’ve never:
 • structured a deal
 • explained a refinance
 • walked a client through a tough approval

…they don’t truly understand your client.

Inside Broker Life Socials, everything is written by someone who lives and breathes this industry.

So your content doesn’t just “look good”…
 It actually connects, builds trust, and converts.

Work with Me

Inside Broker Life Socials, you can choose what fits your season of business:

• Done for you social media content
• Plug and play email marketing
• Group coaching inside the Collective
• 1:1 custom content support

Simple. Consistent. Repeatable.

Let’s Connect

📱 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kristina.crosbie/

📸 Personal IG: https://www.instagram.com/kristinacrosbie/

📸 Broker IG: https://www.instagram.com/brokerlifesocials/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello everyone and welcome back to the podcast, Mortgage Marketing Made Simple. I am your host, Christina Crosby, and I have like eight minutes to record this podcast, and I think it's about 16 minutes long. But it's a summer with summer camps ending at really weird times. So let's just hop right in. I'm so glad you're listening to Mortgage Marketing Made Simple. And today we're jumping right in. I want to talk about something that I think is one of the most overlooked parts of marketing. I'm not talking about graphics or captions, not the algorithm, not even how often you're posting. I'm talking about you and more specifically your face and your voice. Now, before we get into this, I want to be so clear. This is not an episode where I'm going to tell you that every post needs to be a video. That's not what I believe. I so with all my heart believe written posts matters. I believe graphics matter a little bit. I believe carousel posts matter. And definitely emailing your database every single week matters. And I think every type of content has a purpose and a job. But if your goal is to build trust faster, I don't think anything compares to people seeing your face and hearing your voice. And I want to explain why. One of the things I've heard over and over throughout my career is this. A client will say to me, Christina, I feel like you already knew me before we ever got on the phone, before we ever emailed. Now think about that for a second. We've never met. We've never spoken. But they already feel comfortable with me. And why is that? It's because they've been watching. They've been listening. They've been getting to know me long before they even filled out a mortgage a mortgage application. And that's what good marketing does. I can't talk because I'm trying to rush. We don't want to convince someone to work with us. Marketing that speaks to your person helps someone feel comfortable enough to reach out. Those are two very different things, two very different aspects. As mortgage brokers, we spend a lot of time trying to educate people. We write posts explaining rates or why rates don't matter. We explain refinancing, the first-time home buying process. We explain credit, you know, down payment, why it's important to pay your credit card, minimum payment a few days before it's due, all of those important things. Our potential clients and clients need that information. But what I've learned, people don't hire a Facebook post. They hire a person. When someone is borrowing borrowing $400,000, $500,000, whatever that number is, they want to know who they're working with. They're not just choosing a mortgage. They're choosing the person who's going to guide them through one of the biggest financial decisions of their life. That's a trust decision, not just an information decision. If you think about it this way, someone could read 50 of your Facebook posts or your social media posts, whatever platform you want to think about this as. They could agree with every single word you write, but they don't know what it would feel like to actually sit across from you. Um they don't know, right? Suddenly they know. And without even realizing it, they start thinking, I could work with this person. I'm comfortable with this person, and that is so powerful. I think sometimes we forget that people aren't just consuming our information. They're trying to figure out who we are. Are we patient? Do we explain things well? Will we answer their questions without making them feel silly, without making them feel dumb? Do we actually care? That's what they're looking for. And your voice answers those questions much faster than a written social media post ever can. Now that absolutely does not mean you should stop writing posts or using our broker life social media account. Social media posts, absolutely not. Every type of content has a purpose. A written post might educate someone. A carousel post, you know, the posts with multiple pictures with text on them, they can simplify a complicated topic. And of course, you're emailing your database, and that email every single week keeps you top of mind. And a podcast lets people spend a few minutes with you every single week. Everything has value. But I do believe face-to-camera content fills a gap that nothing else can. It introduces you. Now, the good news is I'm not telling you become a creator or an influencer. You don't need fancy lighting, you know, or the perfect makeup or hair outfit. I would definitely put captions flying around your screen because people listen to people read those. Trending music doesn't matter. I do not want you editing it. I don't even edit my podcast. That way you know it's so authentic and real. But I want you to pull out your phone and hit record. Talk for 45 seconds. Answer one question. That is it. Maybe someone asked you something this week. You know, how much they need for a down payment or how much cash flow they can refinance if they refinance. Talk about that. The refinance one is what I would talk about. Maybe they asked if they should pick fix or variable. Talk about that. And like I said, talk about a refinance that helped free up a family, you know, thousands of dollars a month. Talk about that. Just have a conversation. I was at a mortgage conference last week, and I was there wearing two hats. Obviously, I was there as a mortgage broker trying to absorb everything for my mortgage business and my mentoring students. But I was also there as someone who helps Canadian mortgage brokers with their marketing and mentoring. Every chance I had to network, I found myself asking the same question. Why don't you show up on social media on camera? Why do you just rely on graphics? The answers were almost always the same. I'm scared I'll say something wrong. I'm scared I'll say the wrong thing. I don't like how I look. I hate hearing my voice. I'm afraid I'll get something wrong. I'm afraid people will judge me. What if nobody watches? It wasn't that the people didn't know video works. They knew. They know it's life-changing for their mortgage business and for their clients. Fear was just getting in the way. So I found myself giving the same piece of advice over and over again, which is why I'm doing a pod episode on it. I said, I want you to pretend you're talking to your bestie on FaceTime. That's it. For 45 seconds. Don't pretend you're speaking to hundreds or thousands of people. Pretend that you're speaking to your bestie, that one person. Don't pretend you're recording a commercial. Just imagine you and your best friend on a FaceTime and they called you to say, Can you explain this mortgage thing to me? That's the tone I want you to use. I still have to remind myself of this every single day. Even after four years of regularly talking to my phone, I still notice the second I hit record, my voice goes up about 10 octaves, if not more. I don't know why it happens. I'm trying to be professional polished, Christina. It just happens. So before I start recording, I literally have to remind myself, you're just talking to your bestie. And the second I do that, my shoulders relax, my voice sounds normal like me. I'm out of sales mode, Christina. And I explain things the way I would if we were sitting across the table having a coffee with each other. And I think that's exactly what people connect with. Because here's the thing you're not trying to attract everyone, and I say this every single week. You're trying to attract your people, the people you want to work with, the people enjoy you working. It's hard enough collecting documents. You want to work with clients who enjoy working with you and will get you all those documents without you chasing. Clients who appreciate the way you explain things. The clients who feel comfortable asking you questions. I'm gonna be so late for camp, but this is all important. If you sound like yourself, those people will find you. If you try to sound like someone else, they'll never really get to know the real you. And I think that's even more important today than it was a year or two ago. Especially with AI becoming a part of our lives every day, people are questioning more of what they see online. Was that written by a person or by a bot? Is that actually their voice? Did I AI write that? Did I create, did I, did AI create that video? There's a lot more people questioning than there used to be, which is exactly why your authenticity has become one of your biggest, biggest marketing advantages. You don't need to be perfectly polished. Clearly, I'm not, and this podcast is doing really well. And I don't think people want perfectly polished anymore. They want real. They want someone who sounds like a real person. Someone who occasionally stumbles over a word or two. Thank you for putting up with me. That is me I'm talking about. Someone who's able to laugh at themselves, that is also me. Someone who feels approachable. Because that's who they're trusting with one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives. Your authenticity isn't something to edit out. It's one of the biggest reasons someone will choose to work with you over someone else, over that perfectly polished broker. The goal isn't obviously to sound like the best speaker on the internet. We're not speakers, we're brokers. The goal is to sound like the person your future client is hoping to find. Now, example of this. Every Friday I do a series called Look at the Math Friday, being summer, I'm a few weeks behind, but it's on the list. In my feed post, I show the numbers for my refinance. What were the payments, the monthly payments before? What were the payments after? How much monthly cash flow did we create and save for that client? How much debt was paid off? People love seeing the numbers because they can picture what that might look like for their own family. But then I also jump into my stories and I talk about it. I explain why I recommended the refinance. I explain what was happening in that family's life. I explained why I explained why we focus on monthly cash flow instead of just chasing the lowest interest rate. The feed post teaches, and the stories are your inner circle. The people who are most interested in what you do, let people hear me explain it. And that is where a lot of the trust is built in stories. I always remind myself of this. When I'm recording a video, I'm not talking to thousands of people. I'm talking to one person. That one person that has enough of stressing about their finances every month. The person sitting on their couch tonight, wondering if they should reach out. That is who I'm talking to. I'm talking to the person who's worried they won't qualify. The person who's embarrassed about their debt. The person who thinks they're the only one struggling financially in their friend group. That is who I'm speaking to. I'm not speaking to all of Facebook, not all of Instagram or TikTok. I'm speaking to that one person, and I want them to feel like I'm speaking directly to them. And when we approach content that way, it becomes so much easier. If you're thinking, Christina, I don't even know what I'd talk about. Here's a simple exercise. Think about the last five conversations you've had with clients. There's your content. If one client asked it, chances are there are ten other people wondering the exact same thing. You don't need more ideas. You just need to start answering the questions you're already answering every single day in your voice, like you're talking to your bestie. So my challenge for you this week, keep writing your posts or use our membership, they're already written for you. Keep sending the emails, and we also have the emails written for you. Keep creating great content, but also challenge yourself to show up on camera 45 seconds a day. Even if it's every other day. Even if it's just 30 to 45 seconds. Let people hear your voice, let them get to know you. I truly believe. Because I truly believe this. Content builds awareness, your voice builds trust. And trust is what turns followers into a conversation that then turns into a file. And files turn into funded mortgages. Thank you so much for spending part of your day with me. If you have any questions, please reach out. And as always, I appreciate every single one of you who listens each week. If you found this episode, see there I go. If you found this episode helpful, I'd love you. I would love, oh my goodness, now I'm out of control. I'd love you to share it with another mortgage broker or entrepreneur who needs the reminder that people aren't looking for perfect. They're looking for someone they can trust. Have an amazing week. Talk to you soon.