Empowering brokers: The transformative MCAN Icon Program

Narrator  00:00:03

CMP Talk, the Canadian Mortgage Professional podcast.

Fergal McAlinden  00:00:07

Hello again, and thanks for joining us on another edition of CMP talk. I'm Fergal McAlinden. I'm the News Editor over here at Canadian Mortgage Professional. So today we're catching up once again with MCAN to hear about its MCAN Icon program. It's a broker initiative that has been making waves across the mortgage industry, as you all know, and joining us today to share her journey towards achieving status in that program, we have Reni McNeil, a Mortgage Agent with Mortgage Brokers Ottawa, and from MCAN Financial, to tell us a little bit more about the program. Kim Mercer, who is the Director of Corporate Brand and Marketing. So Reni and Kim, first of all, thanks to you both for being here today. How's everything with you?

Kim Mercer  00:00:42

Fantastic.Thanks for asking. Hope you're doing well as well.

Reni McNeil  00:01:00

Yeah, good here.

Fergal McAlinden  00:01:02

Well, it's great to be with you and really looking forward to the chat. So Reni, maybe we're going to talk about the program in a bit. But first of all, just for our listeners who might not know you, could you maybe share a little bit about yourself and about your career in the mortgage industry so far.

Reni McNeil  00:01:16

Sure. Yeah, thanks for giving me the opportunity to join the college and AIDS. Really appreciate it. So I've been in the finance industry for a little over 18 years now, and a mortgage agent for just about seven you know, loved being in the mortgage industry, being able to help my clients much more than I was in one of the the big banks in my my previous life. So yeah, it's been fantastic, and having partners like MCAN to work with has just been a game changer.

Fergal McAlinden  00:01:41

Okay, excellent. So how about when it comes to your status in the MCAN ICON program, as I mentioned, really well received program across the industry. Can you maybe share your journey towards achieving status in that? And we understand that there obviously was a pretty well received trip to Iceland as part of that as well.

Reni McNeil  00:01:58

Yeah. I mean, that's, it's like the cherry on top, right? I mean, honestly, it's, you know, the reason I send my business to MCAN isn't because of the program that's, that's, like I said, An added bonus to have there. It's just the product, the team that works there, the products and the solutions that I'm able to pass along to my clients. It's just the perfect fit. So, you know, being able to to help my clients and have this in the background, knowing that this was something that I was working towards, it made it even easier to, you know, to recommend this lender to my clients. And you know, the the different perks that come with the icon program as well, like, you know, being able to gift clients a free mortgage payment. I had a number I was able to do this year, 7500 in total, I believe. And you know, if there's some charitable donations that that take play in in winning certain statuses with the icon program as well. So just you know, across the board, it's been fantastic to work with, with this lender. And having the the ICON program as a perk is, is perfect.

Fergal McAlinden  00:03:00

Okay, brilliant. And Kim, you know, we've talked with MCAN quite a lot on this podcast before, and one thing that always stands out is the amount of effort and time and care that goes into the company's programs and how they develop them. So when it comes to the MCAN ICON program, in your view, what is it that kind of different? Differentiates that from other industry initiatives? And there's kind of a holistic approach, which I know went into this one. So how does that benefit, you know, clients, brokers and community as a whole?

Kim Mercer  00:03:27

Yeah, so I love this question, because it gets right to the heart of the program two things. It's that collaboration. So it's always designed and continues to evolve based on the feedback of our partners, because they're obviously, you know, it's designed to help our broker partners build their business and their brand. The other thing is that connection. So obviously the connection it creates with our partners, but it creates connection with our team members, our collective purpose, again, the partners like Reni, who are amazing and really help manifest it, the clients we work with, and, of course, the communities that we get to operate in. So we deliver these, these moments of delight across that ecosystem. And nobody has to choose one thing over the other. So you've got MQ points, that's the monetary incentive, that's baseline on top of that. We've got, you know, Reni mentioned a lot of it, but we've got opportunities for promotion, chances like this, to come together and talk about the mutual benefits, obviously, access to special campaigns, you know, inclusion in different events across the country, charitable contributions, the free mortgage payments. Obviously, that's the cornerstone, the true heart of the program, and and, yeah, this year the chance to explore Iceland, which is really exciting, Reni will be with us on that inaugural voyage, and we hope to continue doing more of those in the future.

Fergal McAlinden  00:04:50

All right. Well, I'm not jealous at all hearing about the trip to Iceland, it sounds fantastic. So one thing that you mentioned there was free mortgage payments, which you said is the cornerstone. And and Reni. I mean, I know that client relationships are always number one focus for brokers. Could you maybe tell us about how you've leveraged MCAN Icon Program to enhance those types of relationships, and what your experience has actually been kind of gifting clients with those spring mortgage payments?

Reni McNeil  00:05:15

Yeah, for sure, it's actually one of the best things ever. I think my first 5000 that I was able to allocate to my clients came right before the holidays. So we were presenting these free mortgage payments to our clients late November, meaning that in December, they would have that discount on their mortgage payment. So it was just fantastic to be able to do that. And you know, an already challenging time of the year for most people leveraging it. You know, for myself, there's a few different reasons I selected the clients that I did mainly was who I thought could benefit from it the most. You know, I had a single mom of three, and monthly budget was very important to her when we transitioned her mortgage into MCAN. And I knew right away, as soon as I had this, you know, this free mortgage payment, I could gift my clients that she was definitely going to be one of them, because it was a game changer for her during the holidays, and would have been any time of the year. But another way I look at it is clients that have multiple rental properties. So sometimes we see, once you hit a certain number of rental properties owned, you know, the the affordability for getting approved with certain lending statuses, certain lenders. I should say, lending channels changes a little bit. So I have a client that has multiple rentals with MCAN, and I knew gifting him a mortgage payment towards one of those was was really going to help, and it's going to build the connection I have with that client to, you know, foster that relationship, and hopefully have his return business, you know, over again. So there's a number of different ways to go about it, but I think my my biggest one was always just the who I feel could use it the most and would make the most impact in their lives.

Fergal McAlinden  00:06:52

Okay, brilliant. So, so, great feedback from brokers. Great feedback from borrowers. Kim, maybe just one last point from you in this one, we all know that the broker lender relationship is obviously really important for both parties in that relationship. For MCAN tell us a little bit about how the MCAN Icon Program has reinforced partnerships between brokers like Reni and MCAN, and how has it proved to be a valuable business tool for generating referrals, fostering client engagement and things like that.

Kim Mercer  00:07:21

Yeah, I mean, ICON's been a really powerful connector for our team and obviously our partners and our clients. So when possible, like Reni mentioned, the check presentations are done in person, we have that opportunity to meet our clients and their families. And it's, it's really meaningful. Last year we we co-hosted an event with our grand prize winners and Orangeville rock capital. So we hosted 10 client families for a lunch. It was covered by local media. Our president, Abu Bucha, was there, and we spent the afternoon just chatting and getting to know these families that we wouldn't normally have the opportunity to do that. So partners like Reni make that possible by bringing us all together. And I can't it's a really special way to spend an afternoon. I think in all, we've given away more than 300,000 in mortgage payments. We've got one partner in London who's given away more than 75,000 just alone. I mean, that's really significant. And obviously, like Reni said, you know, it's these decisions can be personal. They can be story driven. They can be tactical based on client need, you know their story, where they are in the mortgage cycle. But I do think it's really compelling for our partners to be able to share this as you know, a differentiator that they can offer. I think it creates shared purpose and support. It develops relationships that, like I said, they're more they're more personal and story driven than transactional. So that brings everyone, everyone a little bit closer. I think, listen, I think partners like Reni, we have, they have a lot of choices in their lender partners. So our goal, it's just to design a different kind of experience that delivers benefits to everyone involved. Creates goodwill, and it obviously aligns with our purpose. But more importantly, I think it creates opportunity. We can we can help, we can give back. We can get to know people. We can create relationships, and maybe even, yeah, have an adventure too.

Fergal McAlinden  00:09:24

Absolutely. And speaking of the adventure, I'm sure that everyone is counting down the days until a trip to Iceland. Look, we're going to leave it there for today. But thanks to you both for joining really great to hear about the MCAN Icon Program, what it offers for brokers agents across the industry. Really looking forward to hearing more from you both very soon. I know it's going to be a going to be a really busy, eventful year, but until then, we appreciate you both joining us today, and best of luck to you both for the rest of the year.

Kim Mercer  00:09:49

Thank you so much. Thanks, Reni.

Reni McNeil  00:09:52

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Fergal McAlinden  00:09:53

Okay, well, that is just about all we have time for on today's edition of CMP Talk, my thanks once again to Reni McNeil, From Mortgage Brokers Ottawa and Kim Mercer from MCAN for being with us. Thanks to you for listening, and we will see you next time.

Narrator  00:10:07

Thank you for tuning in to CMP Talk. You can listen to the latest episodes on Apple, Spotify, Amazon and all major listening channels. Just search for CMP Talk.