Special Episode: Military Community Engagement Through Education with Bryan Bergjans

In this episode of The Power Producers Podcast, David Carothers interviews Bryan Bergjans, National Director of Military & Veteran Lending at Caliber Home Loans. Bryan talks about what Caliber is doing for military personnel and veterans during COVID-19 and how Caliber works to bridge the home loan education gap with community outreach. Bryan also discusses why it is important to think outside the box, expand your commitment, and message through organizations that are outside your industry.

Episode Highlights:

• Bryan shares what Caliber Home Loans is all about. (3:15)
• Bryan shares that Caliber started military and veteran lending 4 years ago. (4:23)
• Tells why it is important for us to think outside the box, expand our commitment, and message through organizations. (6:34)
• Bryan shares his interesting history with the military. (9:11)
• Bryan thinks that the reality of VA borrowers and clients were kind of aligned with FHA. (9:40)
• Bryan says that credit scores, credit profiles, and financial management are extremely important. (10:37)
• How did Bryan match up those numbers of customers a decade ago? (12:04)
• What is Bryan’s role specifically in Caliber? (12:40)
• Bryan talks about the big Veterans Day they do for the reservist every end of the year. (14:01)
• Bryan talks about the goal of his team. (14:37)
• What does Caliber do to help their current customers? (16:13)
• Bryan talks about why banks are in a bad situation. (25:52) 
• What are the two things that Bryan can think of that everybody should know right now, and the best way for the locals to get hold of the people from Caliber to get whatever help they can give? (27:39)
• Bryan says that if you’re impacted by COVID, then you have to reach out to your servicer if you think that you’re not going to be able to make your payment. (27:54)

3 Key Points:

1. Bryan’s team does partner up with active-duty military components, and our caliber locations together doing community stuff, and some of our marketplaces.
2. Caliber focuses to ensure that all the customers that are having problems and impacted by COVID are able to stay in their houses.
3. Bryan says that they have built their business strategy around the education of their clients, loan consultants, underwriters, processors, and business partners  – calling it community engagement through education.

Tweetable Quotes

• “Make sure you’re making good financial decisions, make sure you’re not putting yourself in a bad position financially.” – Bryan Bergjans
• “If you’ve never said thank you to one of the vets that work here, it’s hard to go out into the marketplace, and say we’re open for business for military, and veterans.” – Bryan Bergjans
• “Call and talk to somebody first, before you decide to pull the trigger on something.” – Bryan Bergjans
• “There’s always a consequence to every decision you make.” – Bryan Bergjans

Resources Mentioned:

• David Carothers LinkedIn
• Bryan Bergjans LinkedIn 
• Caliber Home Loans