Standing out from the pack

You could say that Johnson, a broker based primarily out of the Greater Vancouver Area, started  late in the game. To look at where the 28-year-old sits today – with sales figures among the top three at Global Mortgage, having a team of two working under him and recently expanding into White Rock to oversee the financing requirements of over 150 agents –you would think that he started on this career path fresh out of high school, not a mere three years ago.

To do this, Johnson capitalized on his reach for the top personality and fresh approach to marketing, even in the face of adversity. The most outlandish of these ideas saw him promoting his website on a banner being towed behind a plane atop a fireworks celebration – a move he admits did spike his site traffic but resulted in little business.

“Some people laugh at the way I market myself and they think it’s stupid,” he says. “But if potential clients call me from it then I don’t care. Your bread and butter comes from yourself, your personality and your ability to talk on the phone.”

Born to work
When most six-year-olds were learning addition and using their fingers for painting and counting, Johnson was officially open for business, selling unopened items from his mother’s fridge. That endeavor was shut down after a month by the reluctant supplier after she realized she was footing all the expenses for her son’s rather prosperous business. It may have cut into the piggy bank books at the time, but it definitely instilled an entrepreneurial spirit within him that would carry on as he matured.

Throughout his high school years, Johnson was an ambitious concert promoter and DJ, organizing about 20 concerts with crowds ranging from 500 to 6,000 – his personal best for attendance.

Even now with his busy broker schedule, he still manages to do a DJ set twice a month, but admits he’d like to do more. In fact, the day after he spoke with CMP, Johnson was opening in Vancouver for Judge Jules, a leading British dance music DJ.

The next step was a power washing business, which he ran right up to the time he became a broker at 26. Power washing allowed Johnson to control his own hours, not unlike the world of brokering.

“Although the work was only seasonal and I was cold and wet half the time, the pay of $45 per hour cash was reasonable,” he says. “I just didn’t feel that I was able to push myself enough, though.”

He felt that no one he employed cared as much as he did about work quality and often found himself doing everyone else’s
job. “People used to say I was anal,” he says, adding “and I guess I am, a bit.”

In the five years he operated the business, he never had a staff member last more than a few months. “In the mortgage industry, people are far more professional and now I feel that I’m able to push myself.”

He went to a first-time homebuyer seminar in his early 20s and realized that he was more interested in a career as a mortgage broker than purchasing a home.

Answering the call
To say Johnson’s transition to becoming a mortgage broker was difficult would be an understatement.

“I literally drank only water and ate rice for the first six months,” he says. During that time he found himself working under a senior broker and making little money. He then decided that he’d  had enough and trapped himself in the basement, learning as much as he could about the lenders and the business in general. He also considers himself lucky to have been able to spend a few days with Global Mortgage co-owner, Joanne Vickery, to complete his learning process.

“I’m not gonna lie – it was hell,” he says about the transition, but it was a lesson well learned. Johnson now knows, for instance, that it is more than prudent to have at least six months of sustainable income sitting in your account to use in the event that you don’t get a single paycheque while you’re starting out as a broker.

“The worst thing is starting off and trying to get what your clients need, but in the back of your head you’re terrified you won’t be able to pay the rent.”

Luckily for Johnson, the business picked up quickly and by the next year he was within the top three for sales at Global Mortgage, with his eyes set on the top prize.

“Right now I’m going to break my record for the third time this year,” he says, which equates to 10 deals he’s made in a
single month. He admits this isn’t huge, but he’s happy that he’s been able to do it on a consistent basis.

Looking back, Johnson says he loves being a broker and would do it all again, just making a few changes here and there. “I should have started out as an assistant to an experienced independent mortgage broker and saved more cash before starting out on my own,” he says.

And while the oversight did make for a rough start, Johnson has no plans to look back.

The Limelight
When Johnson talks about what his future as a broker has in store for him he doesn’t hold back.

“Essentially I want to become a mortgage celebrity,” he says. “I think it’s from all the music that I did that I have issues with liking the limelight.”

That’s why he’s taken an active approach to marketing – whether it’s calling radio and TV stations to offer his knowledge of the industry, holding seminars for prospective first-time buyers or even contacting CMP to tell us what he’s been up to.

As an added coincidence, of the two brokers Johnson recently hired as part of his team, one, Kevin Schallie, happens to be
a singer in a British Columbia-based band called Columbia that released a new album in November.

“Schallie recently took time off to produce a record and I haven’t seen him since,” says Johnson. “His music career is picking up so I am very proud. I don’t think he’s going to be a broker for much longer.”

The celebrity approach seems to be working. Johnson was interviewed  last month on CBC Radio One about the $25 billion government purchase of insured  mortgages and he had hosted six seminars with five other agents for first-time homebuyers in the Vancouver area when CMP talked to him, with plans of bringing it to other cities.

“I’m trying to get myself known to the media as the go-to guy for questions about the mortgage industry and first-time buyers,” he says. “I should be able to do it, too. I’m young – only 28 years old, but I look like I’m 25, if that. I’m also targeting other radio stations and hoping to get on Global TV.”

That’s not to say he doesn’t engage in typical marketing venues, such as grocery carts and referrals, but he figures the more he gets his face out there, the better. This was the idea behind his recent website, firsthomeinfo.ca, which features a video blog of Johnson doing everyday things, such as going out for drinks with friends, while talking about mortgage-related issues.

In addition to appearing on his website, he also posts the videos on a number of social media websites, including YouTube and Facebook, and credits the YouTube postings for the reason why CBC contacted him for an interview.

“I have about 39 video blogs right now and I actually had a number of people e-mail me asking me to do more, which is kind of weird,” he says. “I’ve been told that ‘you’re not going to get any sort of significant response until you hit about a hundred posts,’ but it’s already working.”

Johnson acquired two deals by the time his video blogs had been live for a month. His social media networking is all part of the greater plan to get his name out there. While he’s now concentrating his efforts on his video blog and firsthhomeinfo.com, his future plans include a couple of book ideas he’s been mulling over.

“Books show that you have credibility and so does having investor seminars,” he says. “These are things I’m going to look into. For now, I’d just be happy if somebody who is looking to buy his or her first home comes across my name on the Internet.”

His youth, coupled with his experience exploring the limitless social networking sites available today, have definitely given him an advantage in this new niche marketing approach, but it’s not all about self-promotion.

Johnson also gives back to the community, occasionally organizing fundraising dinners for his clients and business associates, and has also run a charity aimed at raising money during Christmas to hand out meals in downtown Vancouver.

“It’s not that giving back to the community is an important aspect of the mortgage broker, but we’re pretty lucky to get
into this and be successful, so we should give back a bit,” he says.

Asked how he finds the time to maintain this full schedule, his reply is simple:
“I don’t.” CMP

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