How to Use Creativity to Sustain Your Micro Business During The COVID-19 Period with Tracy Mayo

Tracy Mayo is the owner and mortgage broker for Savvy Mortgage Lending located in St. Pete’s, Florida. She is a certified mortgage planning specialist who left the corporate world to start her own mortgage practice.

In this episode, Tracy describes the benefits and challenges she experienced in her journey from the corporate world to a business owner. She talks about the advantages of being in control of who she works with as opposed to how it was dictated to her as an employee.

Listen in to learn micro business growth strategies that Tracy uses to keep her business afloat during this COVID-19 period. You will also learn the importance of supporting the community as a small business before marketing to them.

“We made a very quick decision that if we were going to keep business coming in the door, we had to get creative about it because I’d rather lower my commission and make less on each transaction than to make nothing.”- Tracy Mayo

What You Will Learn:• [1:11] She explains how she made the transition from the corporate and cubicle world to start a mortgage practice.• [2:15] The advantage of being in control of who you work with as a business owner as compared to working for someone else.• [3:38] Learning how to offer clients what you’re promising as part of providing great customer service.• [4:54] How she consistently communicates with her clients even when they do not have any active transactions.• [6:17] She explains the software system that sends information to their existing clientele.• [7:45] She describes some of the benefits and challenges she has faced as a micro business owner.• [9:59] She mentions some of the causes they support in the community including the LGBTQ community in St. Pete’s Florida.• [12:14] The inclusivity of St. Petersburg community which makes it a place for everyone even with all the differences. How it has helped them market their business to the community.• [13:45] She describes how they were caught off-guard by the many expenses needed to run a business when they first started.• [15:00] The importance of having a coach to get you out of your comfort zone.• [16:22] Why they decided to lower the commission that the lenders pay them to sustain their business.• [18:16] The importance of marketing even when you’re losing money during the COVID-19 period to stay ahead when things resume normalcy.• [21:00] Learn to get creative in your business during hard times to stay in front of your audience.

Relevant Links:Website: https://savvymortgage.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/traciemayo

Tracie Mayo Interview Transcript

Robert: My next guest on the AIDtoNAV podcast is Tracie Mayo. Tracie is the owner and mortgage broker for Savvy Mortgage Lending located in St. Pete Florida. She's a Certified Mortgage Planning Specialist, and she talks about how she left corporate life and the cubicle world to start her own mortgage practice.

Tracie Mayo, welcome to the AIDtoNAV podcast. How are you doing on this beautiful Tampa Bay day?

Tracie: Hey, Robert Earl, I'm doing great and the weather's awesome as always in paradise. But yeah, we're doing great.

Robert: So, Tracie in the intro I went over you are the founder, owner, mortgage broker of Savvy Mortgage Lending. You were in the corporate, really the cubicle world, and made that decision to branch out on your own, like a lot of micro business owners to do. How was that transition and has it been everything that you expected or more?

Tracie: It was a hard transition. Yeah, we were in the cubicle environment. I was an in-house lender with Keller Williams. Great location to be a part of, but I was kind of stuck in that cubicle. I really, really needed to work with other realtors. I had other realtor clients. I needed to get out of the office, and we needed a little more control over the processors to make sure everyon...