Ladies and Gentlemen, If You’re Over 62…
Every single day you walk a tightrope while holding the hand of your customer, whose head is spinning with numbers and banking concepts they’d rather not think about. You try not to lose them, literally and figuratively, while simply working to help them enjoy their golden years. Much of the time your “audience” is skeptical:
“Say! What’re you tryin’ ta pull?”
“Yeah, what’s the catch?”
Your critics force you to perform acrobatics in your head, so you trying to keep the lions from biting yours off.
Come One, Come All!
You have to have a certain type of personality—or persona, under your makeup—to thrive in the center ring. You’re performing for the audience’s ultimate pleasure, and not all reverse mortgage consultants have the patience to wait for the roar of the crowd or can take it when their customers start throwing produce their way.
To survive in this kind of job, you have to be patient and put in the hours to learn the ins and outs of what works for you. You can’t just hit the trapeze and be a Flying Wallenda; you’ve got to constantly hone your craft and become the flawless expert. Or risk being a Falling Wallenda.
Death-Defying Feats in the Big Top!
At its most basic, you need to be the ringmaster of your success, steering the crowd toward the next death-defying fact (the fact that could convince them that you are indeed the most competent advisor they could have come across) so they’ll buy some more cotton candy— or start an application.
And of course, the customer is always right. Sometimes that means you’re wrong, even though you know you’re right. And not every customer will marvel at the same artist’s material. You have to have all the acts under one roof: jugglers, aerialists, animal acts, human cannonballs, pantomime clowns and, yes, sometimes even a freak show or two. And you, as ringmaster, need to know when to call on which performer to send a customer home happy… forever.
Not a Job for the Faint of Heart
This life you have chosen is not for the thin-skinned. Your feelings could get hurt if you let them. You always need to bear in mind that tomorrow there’s another show—with a new audience. And sometimes, even after years and years, a customer could return to see the show again, and catch something she or he missed the last time.
My husband says he’d be in prison for life if he had to do my job for one day. Some roustabouts aren’t suited for this reverse mortgage carny circuit. I’ve been in the business for 11 years and I have had my ups and downs, and I have seen reverse mortgage consultants come and go at five different companies. The ones who don’t go have mastered the show, and they too love life in the circus.
