Ep #7: Shashank Shekhar: Top 200 Originator

Shashank Shekhar shares how he went from knowing three people in the US and closing 7 loans in 14 months to $116M/year by deliberately building an expert brand around first-time home buyers — through blogging, book authorship, strategic speaking, and social media. This episode is for LOs who feel invisible in their market and want a blueprint for positioning-based growth rather than cold outreach.

Takeaways you can run this week

• Pick ONE narrow niche and own it for 2–3 years minimum. Shashank chose first-time home buyers, tied it to FHA expertise, wrote a book on it, and spoke only on that topic — resulting in agents voluntarily routing all FTB clients to him without being asked.
• To get in front of agents without being ignored, pay a well-known local speaker or past real estate board president to headline an event — negotiate shared stage time as your condition. Shashank did a 3-event series with a past NAR local board president and got 40–70 agents per event who then saw him as a peer.
• Sponsor existing real estate board breakfast meetings — not to pitch your services, but to promote your educational event. Use that sponsorship slot to announce and drive registrations for your speaking event.
• Post every blog article and industry update to 15+ LinkedIn real estate groups (each major real estate board has its own group). Use the same content across all groups to multiply reach without extra work.
• Intentionally friend 600–1,000 local real estate agents on Facebook. Never post rates or sales pitches — only educational content and personal life updates. The goal is familiarity: agents who recognize your name on a pre-approval letter will fight harder to get your buyer's offer accepted, even at a lower price.
• When calling a listing agent on a competitive offer, use this exact claim if it's true for you: 'In my seven years, not one client I pre-approved has ever been declined in underwriting.' Then explain you underwrite at pre-approval like an underwriter would. This one statement can win deals at $5,000 below competing offers.

The playbook

1. 1. Choose one niche (e.g., first-time home buyers) and commit to it as your only public identity for at least 24 months.
2. 2. Start a weekly blog on a standalone domain (not your company site) to retain full branding control. Write every week for at least 6 months before expecting inbound calls.
3. 3. Write or co-author a book on your niche topic. Use Amazon publishing. A published book immediately repositions you from salesperson to expert in agent conversations.
4. 4. Identify the most respected speaker or association leader in your local real estate community. Offer to pay them to speak at an event you host — with the condition that you share the stage.
5. 5. Promote the event by sponsoring real estate board breakfast meetings and through your speaker's existing email list to their agent database.
6. 6. After the event, follow up individually with agents for one-on-one meetings. You are no longer pitching — you are a peer who spoke on stage alongside someone they already respect.
7. 7. Expand to LinkedIn: join 15+ local real estate LinkedIn groups and cross-post every blog and industry update to all of them to drive ongoing engagement.
8. 8. Concentrate 70–80% of loan volume with your top 4–5 lenders to earn exception-level service and reliable turn times — this protects your reputation with agents.

Worth quoting

“I decided I need to create a brand where I do not have to go to people — they come to me.”

“Marketing just gets you people in the door. What happens after that is equally important, if not more.”

Best for

LOs who are competing on rates and feel like they're begging for agent business — and are ready to invest 12–24 months building an expert platform instead.