Kyle Draper knows that he doesn’t resemble a typical book author, nor the words associated with one: academic, bookish, serious. Draper, owner and CEO of Kyle Draper LLC, is a keynote speaker and mortgage industry coach who focuses on social media marketing. Draper, a former youth pastor and founder of Content Compounding, a company that helps businesses create and repurpose video content for multiple platforms, wrote his first book “Rethink Everything You ‘Know’ About Social Media” back in March 2023. Draper never intended to become an author. For him, it was divine intervention. “My wife and I were on vacation in Mexico. I couldn’t sleep in the middle of the night. And I felt like God said, ‘Go sit on the balcony and write a book.’ And I thought I don’t know who would want to read anything that I would write,” Draper said. “But I went, I sat on the balcony at 3:00 in the morning, and I wrote two chapters, and then I wrote two more chapters during the rest of our trip. I came back to Texas with four chapters written of a book … I had no idea what I was doing.”
Draper, who is based in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas, continued, “I think there were a lot of people that were like, ‘Did Kyle Draper write a book? I would have never put him in the category of friends of mine that I would see writing books.’ But the outpouring of love and support was unbelievable and just so much more than I could have ever anticipated, and it opened my eyes to the fact that people desired a new style of reading.”
Draper’s book, which he describes as “an adult coloring book,” is a practical guide to effective social media outreach and marketing. Draper exudes fun energy, so he wanted his book to have the same feeling. “We threw some pictures in there and QR codes to go watch [videos] and I just wanted it to be a really fun read and experience,” he said.
Brian Vieaux, president and COO at financial data platform FinLocker, was gifted Draper’s book in the mail in September 2023 from Scott Payne, chief product officer for CRM platform Shape Software. The book was signed by Draper and included a QR code tucked in the back cover, which scanned to a video message from Payne. Vieaux, who is based out of Michigan, didn’t know Payne personally. But he said “I’ll bite,” and scanned the QR code. “I hope you get something out of this book,” Payne said in the video.
Vieaux read the book four times in one week, the wheels turning in his head with every re-read. “I don’t even know [the author] and I was already packaging a sequel to the book,” Vieaux said with a chuckle. “So I started taking screenshots of the pages of his book and posting them on LinkedIn with my review and commentary, tagging Kyle in every post. After the fourth post, he messaged me to thank me for blowing up his LinkedIn.”
“The purpose of that title was not to speak to [a] next-gen loan officer as an age demographic, but to speak more to the way you must evolve if you want to remain relevant as a loan officer.”
Kyle Draper, owner and CEO, Kyle Draper LLC and founder, Content Compounding
Draper suggested the two meet, so Vieaux invited him to join in on his podcast, Fintech Fridays. (The two now co-host a podcast called Mortgages and More.) After the initial podcast recording, Vieaux pitched his idea: Why don’t we continue the Rethink Everything brand and write a book about rethinking everything you know about originating?
Draper loved the idea right away. Both he and Vieaux knew they wanted the book to be contributed (to?) by people in the industry. They initially thought they’d each write a chapter for the book, but didn’t feel like they fell in line with other industry experts. “Nobody wants to hear Kyle or I,” Vieaux said. “I personally haven’t originated a loan since 1993 and Kyle’s never originated a loan.”
The Title
The book title both Vieaux and Draper agreed upon was “Rethink Everything You Know About Being A Next-Gen Loan Officer,” which was step one in continuing Draper’s “Rethink Everything” brand.
Brian Vieaux, president and COO, FinLocker
But, the book isn’t just for newbies. “The purpose of that title was not to speak to [a] next-gen loan officer as an age demographic, but to speak more to the way you must evolve if you want to remain relevant as a loan officer,” Draper explained. “You could be 65, and if you’re engaging with video and meeting people where they are, you may be old by number, but you’re young in the way you’re running your business. We didn’t want a book full of a bunch of 20-something-year-old loan officers [who] don’t know anything because they’ve been doing this for three minutes. We wanted to help people realize that the most gifted people in this space are the older people who have been doing this for 30 years.”
Finding the Experts
Draper knew five experts he wanted to include right off the bat, and Vieaux had 10 in mind. “Fast forward from then, which was early October [2023] to the second week of November, we had commitments from 24 people to write chapters in the book,” Vieaux said. “We had a group meeting, and somehow we ended up with 37 experts who contributed.”
Vieaux candidly admits that neither he nor Draper edited the chapters as they came in, sans a few grammatical errors here and there. Why? Draper says that he didn’t want to take away any personality embedded in each chapter. They knew each contributor personally and wanted their separate personalities to shine through. “We wanted it to feel exactly the way the author would have said it,” he explained.
When submissions came in, Vieaux and Draper started grouping them by themes, which led to sections titled “The Power of Personal Branding” and “Top Producer Perspectives,” among others. The sections were ordered intentionally, Draper said, noting that they chose to make the first section “Mindset Matters” since “the first approach to becoming a better loan officer is your mindset.”
The first section was intentionally placed at the forefront of the book as a productivity boost. “The vision that we had together was that this book would be permanently sitting on a loan officer’s desk and anytime they’re in a rut, they can flip it open, go to a chapter, and find some inspiration,” Vieaux said.
“The vision that we had together was that this book would be permanently sitting on a loan officer’s desk and anytime they’re in a rut, they can flip it open, go to a chapter, and find some inspiration.”
Brian Vieaux, president and COO, FinLocker
The advice to each contributor was to “write about what you know.” Vieaux first approached Mike Faraci, founder and CEO of Red Button Media, who offered to write a chapter on video production. Draper asked industry coach Bill Hart to also write a chapter.
“He is one of the pioneers in the mortgage industry. He’s coached tons and tons and tons of loan officers, and also wrote the foreword to my [first] book,” Draper said. “He asked me what I thought he should write about, and I said ‘For me to tell you what to write about would be cheapening who you are. And so whatever you want to write about is exactly what we want written in this book.’ So those are the only parameters we gave him.”
The book came together relatively fast, Vieaux added, noting that by early December, contributed chapters started to trickle in. Of course, the chapter contributors were responsible for supplying QR codes and videos for their respective chapters.
Do Vieaux and Draper have a favorite piece of the book or one that they would recommend above others? Each remarked, “That’s like asking me which child I love the most.”
“It’s been so rewarding to see people I’ve known in the industry for a long time posting that they read the book and that they’re rethinking how they go about their business planning.”
Vieaux
Vieaux says he thinks every LO knows where they fall short. “If you’re a loan officer today and haven’t embraced social media, you’re depending on yesterday’s methods for marketing and building awareness. And that’s okay, people still have success doing that … if you’re that loan officer and that’s your weak spot, I’d say go to the personal branding and social media sections of the book,” Vieaux mused.
Draper agrees. “I think the social media section is wildly important because I think that’s where most loan officers fail … they don’t understand how to leverage it correctly,” he reasoned.
Synergy One Lending gave a copy of Rethink Everything About Being A Next Gen Loan Officer to each loan officer at its Sales Rally and invited Brian Vieaux as a guest speaker.
The Future of the Brand
The book’s release in March 2024 garnered “overwhelming” social media attention, Vieaux says. “I’d say 60% of [responses] are seasoned loan officers who are probably 10+ years in the business versus newer, younger LOs,” Vieaux said. “But the next-gen loan officer isn’t about age. It’s been so rewarding to see people I’ve known in the industry for a long time posting that they read the book and that they’re rethinking how they go about their business planning.”
The buck doesn’t stop with one book, both Draper and Vieaux assure. Draper says he’s cooking up new ideas every day, and Vieaux says there will “definitely” be a sequel. “I want to turn this into “I’ve got a book that’ll be very similar to [Rethink Everything You Know About Being A Next-Gen Loan Officer] written from the real estate perspective for realtors,” Draper said. “I’m working right now on two other books that aren’t necessarily loan officer-specific which will be ‘Rethink Everything You Know About Chiropractic’ because I have a lot of friends in the chiropractic space … then that leads to the opportunity for ‘Rethink Everything You Know About Social Media For Chiropractors, for accountants, for roofing companies, etc.”
Draper added that it’s not time to reinvent the wheel. “I think it’s the book that can just keep on giving. We’re also working on a Rethink Everything You Know About CRMs,” he said. “I have people all the time [tell me that they’re] hurt that [they] didn’t get to be a part of that book. I think there are probably four or five editions of this book that every couple of years we’ll put out another one with 39 new perspectives [to] keep it fresh.”
Go behind the scenes of the story on this episode of Editor's Cut.
This article originally appeared in National Mortgage Professional, on the week of July 1, 2024.
