I placed pre-announcements on a few industry discussion boards, before the official announcement of our all new for 2007 Comprehensive Mortgage Training Packages being available, in advance of the broadcast notification in our January newsletter this coming Monday ... one member remarked that he felt the cost was high, which resulted in a reply from the board's owner! Here's what he said (and I Loved it!):

"You always pay for education... and you get to pick
how you pay for it...

You can pay a set sum to learn from those who have
walked the path before you or...

You can pay in lost earnings as you stumble around
in the dark trying to find out what really works.

The first way is always the least expensive ...."

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY

I trust you all had a nice Christmas with Friends and Family around you, I sure did! This week I'm putting the final details on our January 2007 newsletter; did a bit of a small redesign job along the right sidebar - highlighting our all new 'Bundled Services' (have gotten a good response to its development so far).

I have good feeling about the educational & training activities of our learning center in 2007, and it's based upon the converations I have been involved with these past several year-end weeks.

This morning I developed an idea and posted it in the Special Projects area of our main website.

It's something we'll be offering week after next - called "after the first of the year." It's sorta like a Happy Meal, or the Bundled Services concept HUD has been taking it's sweet time considering as part of a major RESPA reform.

Making available several Comprehensive Training & Educational Bundled Packages may be ideal for the wishes of so many Broker/Owners in our industry, who themselves are relatively new and need some additional training, plus need some assistance with teaching and educational duties for their personnel as well. This idea might be the perfect addition to our curriculum in '07.

December is pretty much over for the loan originators, what with the office parties, people leaving early to go shopping, plus this is one of the most frequenmtly utilized periods for vacation days all year long ... so I hope alf of you who are originators have closed the majority of what you expected to get funded this month already. Time for some egg-nog for me ....

Merry Christmas everybody!

I have played back in my brain several conversations I have had this month with new students at Secret! University, which has given me the notion that in 2007 I need to highlight our service & product warranty! I've determined the sort of individual that will 'plop down' their hard earned money for industry training & education is a value driven person. They are, of course, hopeful that what they pick-up will be a positive experience for their career, so our guarantee is helpful in that decision making process!

We have offered a money back guarantee at Secret! University from the very first day we started; fortunately our level of student satisfaction has been fantastic, so I'm more than happy to offer it.

Finished my Christmas shopping yesterday ... got Gift Cards for everybody, so it was easy!

What our industry faces this next 8 to ten months will get really ugly... it's aleady starting. At this point in the residential real estate mortgage loan 'cycle' - wholesale funding sources historically fail at an alarming rate, along with originators (mortgage brokers and loan officers) being killed by the shrapnel - all of which usually results in a great deal of over-reactions and finger-pointing by many. The 'fall out' from this mess, each time during the last 3 cycles I have watched, always improves the industry; they'll be new regulations, more restrictions on who can do what, and a new way to do many things. The professionalizm level will be enhanced, a badly needed effect ... so that's good news.

The folks that make this a career, end up being eager for the riff-raff to go by the way-side (as I do), and for more clarity in lending to be the order of the day. But, like "they" say, this too shall pass.

This was a very active week-end for me. We held of final 'Master Seminar - Conversation with Secret!' all day Saturday, and then I taught our 'Website & Internet Originations' class Sunday - it lasted 7+ hours! ... so no Christmas shopping for me ... gonna go the Gift Card route instead.

Last night, after I saw the NFL scores, I decided to STOP being an Oakland Raider's fan ... no more "Raider Nation" for me. They're simply terrible.

Rest of this month, we'll be getting together all our 2007 kick-off study materials ... all in anticipation of a flood of biz "after the first of the year" (the greatest stall tactic of all time). I am hopeful more people will see the wisdom of additional learning & education about their trade, and investigate the various industry training facilities. I am pleased to stack Secret! University up against any other competing training organization - ya know why? Because I search them out myself and READ all they have to offer; and from what I can find (and probably what potential students will also discover), the other guy doesn't seem to offer all that much 'meat.' Therefore the serious ones, will select us after they've done their due diligence! Those are the type of students I want anyway, since I enjoy helping people who seriously want/need support!

28.6% - that's our highest and best percentage number in quite some time! It's the ratio of people who visited our main website http://www.secretuniversity.com that were referred there by generic searches on Google & Yahoo - a number which pleases me vs. the amount of time and effort that get's put into attracting site visitors via our various SEO activities.

Also, at this point in the month, our Newsletter has been out for 3 days and has been read by 14% of those it was sent to, a good start also. As I have mentioned in the past, I am always surprised that people read it all month long, instead of immediately - as I do with newsletters I receive.

Saturday is our Master Seminar, so I'm getting things together for this Special Event all week.

PS: My Oakland Raiders with their 2 and 10 season record, are making me cry each week. They make it very difficult to be a fan.

So ya gotta see this. For those of you that don't know, my baby brother own a biz named the Land of Fruits and Nuts aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach. He sells (obviously) fruits & nuts, and also serves California Shakes - the best milk shakes in the world - been on TV many times, etc. He always talks about the quality of his products, his hand scooped premium ice creams, etc. On this webiste, yesterday he added a feature about why soft serve is not as good as his, to check it out, click this link: http://lofan.com/reason.htm - you'll get a holiday kick out of it!