"What should I be spending my time on to grow?" That's what the attendees on the TLOP UNITE cruise I just attended were asking as well. And that's what I ask myself all the time. Every business person wrestles with…
A mortgage broker asked Copilot about us before he booked a call. What Bain's research says about that, what it doesn't say, and why mortgage is exposed differently than e-commerce. Short answer: no. Traditional SEO still gets your site indexed,…
The Information AI Needs Before It Can Recommend a Mortgage Loan Officer By Anthony Balsamo, founder of Vonk Digital. Published August 2026. A borrower gets referred to you by a real estate agent. Or they see your name on social…
We Spent $60,000 a Month on Bankrate and Zillow Ads. Then They Changed the Game. Key takeaways Paying to rent attention on a platform you don't control is fragile: the owner can reprice or remove it anytime, and Zillow and…
(Spoiler: it's a background check.) Your client refers you to a friend buying their first house. That friend doesn't pick up the phone. They open a browser. The time between the referral and the call is the decision-making process. The…
OpenAI Has Improved How AI Finds Information Online On March 5, 2026, OpenAI released GPT-5.4, a major update focused on research, factual accuracy, tool usage, and web browsing capabilities. While most discussions around AI focus on content creation, one of…
Real numbers from a client site, and the one thing that wins no matter which platform people use. By now you've heard it a hundred times. Borrowers are asking AI about mortgages. The Point of Research™ moved. You should "optimize…
I recently sat down with Dustin Owen, host of The Loan Officer Podcast for a reverse interview. Instead of Dustin interviewing someone else in the mortgage industry, I wanted to flip the script and get his perspective on where things…
I was on a demo call yesterday with a mortgage veteran. No website. He told me something that stuck with me. He had a borrower referred to him. Warm handoff. Already in conversation. He pulled her credit. Then came time…
I was recently looking at the 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers from the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), and one number stopped me in my tracks: 40. That is now the median age of a first-time homebuyer in…
What actually holds up and what I’m willing to stand behind This article builds on a previous piece about the current AI marketing hype in mortgage. If you haven’t read that yet, it explains the context and why this topic…
The AI Grift in Mortgage Marketing What’s really happening and why it feels off To be clear, this isn’t about loan automation, LOS platforms, or tools that streamline operations. This is about how AI is being marketed as a shortcut…