Hyper Pony Studio

Owner

North Square Investments

Digital Marketing Consultant

FortéOne

Fractional CMO | Chief Marketing Officer

Ariel Investments

C.S. McKee

UX Collective

Contributing Writer

MAQTOOB

Digital Bootcamp

Instructor

The Simons Group

Senior Designer

👑 Web, Marketing, & Design Expert for Advisory and Consulting Firms 👑 Websites driven by marketing expertise 👉 hyperponystudio.com

👋 Hi I'm Manda!

Follow me and ring my 🔔 if you're in the financial services industry and want to learn more about:

👉 Marketing persuasion techniques 
👉 Writing copy that converts
👉 Attracting potential clients
👉 Turning those prospects into clients
👉 Professionally presenting your brand 
👉 Attracting your ideal clients
👉 Creating an EFFECTIVE website
👉 Establishing trust and building authority

🔻 🔻 🔻 Want to work together? 🔻 🔻 🔻

For advisory and investment firms:
🔹 Complete brand, website, & marketing overhauls
🔹 Ongoing marketing and fractional CMO services
🔹 Deep-dive website audits

For independent financial advisors:
🔹 Deep-dive website audits
🔹 Web and marketing flash audits
🔹 Ignite Your Site course coming soon!

Learn more, view samples of my work, or start your project at hyperponystudio.com!

👑
Hyper Pony Studio 
Digital marketing for the financial services industry

Manda Szewczyk

While everyone else is hurrying to add AI to their platforms, this is the message I received when I clicked the chat/help option on the app I use for my proposals:

"Don't worry, we don't use AI, bots or canned replies. Just 3 guys in different parts of the world ready to help you use Better Proposals."

What a relief! Thank you Better Proposals!!

 - - - - - - - - - - 

🤔 So what's the lesson here?

If you're doing something different (or something better) SAY IT.

Don't expect people to notice on their own.

 - - - - - - - - - - 

👋 Hi I'm Manda - I share Tiny Tweaks to help financial advisors improve their marketing and level-up their websites.

👑 Websites & Marketing Overhauls for Financial Advisors & RIAs 👉 Sharing digital marketing tips

I'm noticing some disturbing behavior on Linkedin.

I've been away for a while, and I'm longing for the days when all there was to complain about was pitch-slapping in the DMs.

Here are some new LI tactics that I'm NOT loving...

- - - - - - 

🙄 People selling their services in the comments section of my posts

Not just chiming in or offering anything useful, but literally saying, "These are the services I offer" – like a little ad in the comments. Most of them are other marketers or web designers.

Not cool.

- - - - - - 

🤨 Adding me to their email newsletter list just because I accepted their connection request

Um, I agreed to connect. Not subscribe! As soon as someone does this, I lose all trust in them and their business tactics.

Unsubscribe. Unfollow. Goodbye.

- - - - - - 

😡 Sending me calendar invites when we've never communicated before

This one is the WORST! I'm getting meetings on my calendar and in Zoom from people I've NEVER met!! Some of them are for webinars, some are demos, some are pitches – but NONE of them are with people I've ever met or talked to.

What the actual...???

- - - - - - 

I get it. Building a business is hard. But come on!!

Have you experienced any of this? Or is it just me?

Quick tip for anyone creating a video. 

Take a pause every now and then, look at the camera, and smile. 

Because at some point, someone is going to have to go through that video and find a nice screenshot to use as an overlay. 

And, if you never stopped to smile, you're not going to like the options.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

🛼 Hi I'm Manda - I share Tiny Tweaks to help financial advisors improve their marketing and level-up their websites.

No alternative text description for this image

My least favorite part of Halloween? The commercials.

Even as an adult, ads for scary movies freak me out. 

As a kid? I'd have nightmares for weeks.

I don't like the images or the sounds – it messes with my nervous system.

And I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Why isn't there a law against showing ads for R-rated movies during G- or PG-rated programming?

I'd like to be able to opt out of the horror category in my streaming services too.

I know lots of people love those movies and that's great - but they're just not for me.

Anyone know who I can talk to about this?

- - - - - - - - - - 

BTW, my favorite part of Halloween? Half off candy the next day! I'm also a fan of toddlers dressed as Care Bears and older kids who make their own costumes. I always give extra candy for home-made creativity 🎃

What's your favorite/least favorite part of Halloween?

This is a rare post for the non-advisors who follow me.

One of my clients wrote a book, and for today, it's only 99 cents if you order the Kindle version. 

Here are some of the things you'll find inside:

👉 Why the “4 percent rule” and other retirement myths could be sabotaging your future

👉 The Three Tax Buckets strategy that gives you control over your retirement income

👉 How to create a “retirement paycheck” that feels like real income rather than raiding savings

👉 Dynamic Income Planning with guardrails that adapt as your life evolves

👉 Why most estate plans fail, especially after the SECURE Act, and how to fix yours

It's a book about retirement, written for people who want to do their best to avoid mistakes and set themselves up for success – and who don't enjoy reading financial novels. This one is short, actionable, and free of financial jargon. 

If it sounds interesting, search for "From Work to What’s Next: Designing a Life you Don’t Want to Retire From" on Amazon, and choose the Kindle version.

All three of these tweaks come from real samples I found on a professionally designed advisor website.

Take a look and let me know which is your favorite, and if you're planning to make any of these changes to your own site.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

🐙 Hi I'm Manda - I share Tiny Tweaks to help financial advisors improve their marketing and level-up their websites.

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GO! Coaching

Empowering the Modern Loan Advisors to double their lead count while lowering their hours worked through modern marketing, sales, and operational systems.  

GO! is now the top Loan Officer Community in the US, all within 3 years.

Co-Founder & CEO

Lower

Driving the recruiting, retaining and production growth of our Loan Officers

Chief Growth Officer

Guaranteed Rate

Branch Manager/SVP of Residential Lending

Branch Manager/SVP of Mortgage Lending NMLS# 218863 Guaranteed Rate NMLS# 2611

Branch Manager/SVP of Mortgage Lending

Perl Mortgage

Private Mortgage Banking

Baytree National Bank & Trust Co.

Senior Vice President - Mortgage Division

American Street Mortgage Company

American Street Mortgage Company was a boutique mortgage firm in Chicago best known for it's composition of the brightest and hard working mortgage planners. Additionally, the core philosophy for consistent charity efforts quickly earned American Street a reputation of a high morale and ethical organization.

President

Illinois Mortgage Funding Corp.

A start up company that grew exponentially with the help of the 2003 refinance boom.

Managing Broker

CEO at GO! Coaching | Helping 10,000+ growth-minded loan officers win in business and life

Sales saved my life. 

In 1985, my parents and I emigrated Iran for better opportunities in the United States. 

We left everything and everyone. 

My mom could not get a job at McDonald’s and my Father was earning $3.75 an hour as a shoe salesman. 

We lived in a 600 sq foot apartment and moved multiple times and by the age of 14, I was working. 

I started off as a car porter and janitor and then learned how to market and rent apartments and then eventually sell cars (all by the age of 18).

School was not my thing. 

I barely graduated high school (1.7 GPA). 

I dropped out of college. 

I became a telemarketer for a small mortgage brokerage 

I made over 50,000+ cold calls and quickly became the top telemarketer in the country. 

English is my second language, but sales is my first language. 

I became BUY-lingual. 

At the age of 25, I purchased my first property: a 17-unit apartment building for $1M that I still own today and amassed 100 units before ever leaving my parents home. 

As a residential loan officer, I’ve also personally funded over $1B in home loan volume and $100M+ yearly from 2019 to 2022 alone. 

As a Co-Founder and CEO of GO! Coaching, we achieved 8 figure yearly revenue within four years of inception (all through impacting hundreds of careers). 

And as the Chief Growth Officer of Lower.com, a multi-channel fintech mortgage lender, we recently raised $100M in Series A funding (the largest in Ohio state history) to help catapult us in becoming a top 5 lender by 2030. 

Not bad for an immigrant kid from Iran. 

Selling is the most important skill you must seek. 

Understanding how to illustrate your value verbally, visually and textually, will open doors you won’t believe. 

And I’m walking proof.  

And if you’ve read this far, I have a promise for you: 

Every day, I will share one specific business gem to help you think better, do better, and to be better.  

I do, I learn, I share. 

Let's win together. 

🤜🤛

- Amir 


Email: amir@growthonly.com
Instagram: @amirsyed 
Twitter: @realAmirSyed
Instagram: @amirsyed and @bankofamirica

Amir Syed

Love this idea. But there's some crucial nuance to it. To make this switch, you have to:

1. Believe you can learn. There's some deep psychology behind that, so I won't try to give you a how-to guide, but self-belief is required. If you don't think you can do it, you won't. If you believe you can, you have a shot. Get to a point where you have at least a little confidence, and this usually comes from competence and preparation. 

2. Get the right education. Learning 100% on your own costs you lots of time and money. Learning from the wrong people costs you even more. Make sure the person you're learning from has actually done what you want to do, then create enough accountability to apply and adjust based on results.

Most people can do a lot more than they think.

Nail those two to find out if you're one of them.

I talk a lot about marketing and selling and earning on here, but I want to make something clear:

1. The point of making money isn't to buy fancy cars and feel like you're better than other people. It's so you can better take care of yourself and your family.

2. I've been in places before where I was predominantly there for the money, but I didn't love what I was doing or who I was doing it with. That’s not where you want to be, believe me. 

3. When you approach things like this, there's nothing wrong with ethically pursuing more money. I actually think it's one of the most moral things you can do.

Make money. 

Not for the Ferrari or Rolex or the vanity. 

But because it leads to a better life.

Learn how to market and sell so you can make more money, so you don’t have to do things just for the money.

This made me laugh. But there's a huge lesson hidden in it for career and business builders:

Studying can only take you so far.

It's definitely true that a piece of information can:

- Grow your business
- Change your mindset
- Find you new connections

Still, you can't be a theorist for life.

You always have to:

- Apply what you learn
- Get your own data from it
- Adjust based on that data

So don't just read about water.

Jump in the pool, start at the shallow end, and get wet. 

That's the only way to truly learn.

I've gone from the bottom of the mortgage industry to near the top, and I can tell you from experience:

1. People tend to get nicer as you level up. That's not always true, but it is more often than not.

2. People also get more collaborative near the top. They prefer to work with others, not against them.

3. This is true in most industries, not just mine. That might seem counter-intuitive to you, but it's true.

So here's my advice:

- Refuse jealousy and negativity in yourself
- Avoid the people who you see those in
- Keep pushing till you reach a high level
- Then turn around and help others 

That's the perfect path.

The smartest and most successful people in the world are the ones who are willing to look weird.

Because it's not normal to:

- Send DMs to people you don't know
- Create content that nobody reads (at first)
- Go out of your way to introduce yourself to others
- Invest real money in your craft and growth 
- Reroute your free time for creative hobbies

That's all "weird." 

It's also required if you want to hit the top 1% of the mortgage business and every other business.

So, be a little bit weird. Being exceptional will require you to be different, which is weird. 

The worst thing that can happen is a few people judge you for 10 seconds, then move on with their day.

The best thing that can happen is that you completely change your career and life, which will happen when you do more than most.

A few years ago, I hit a plateau.

Volume flatlined. 

Referrals slowed down. 

And I started questioning everything.

My first instinct?

“Time to change the strategy.”

Maybe I needed a new script.

Maybe I needed to switch CRMs.

Maybe I needed a new marketing system, a new lead source, a new something.

Maybe I need to go to a new company. 

So I did what most LOs do when they feel stuck:

I got busy rebuilding everything and adding more fancy complexities to my business. 

But a few weeks in, I had this moment of clarity:

"Amir, you’re not stuck because your strategy’s broken...

"...you’re stuck because you stopped working on the one that already worked for others."

Oof.

See, I didn’t need a new plan.

I needed to actually execute the boring one I already had - consistently.
‍
Not just when I felt motivated.

Not just when the market was hot.

Not just when I had nothing else on my plate.

We don’t talk about this enough in the LO world:

Most people don’t fail because they had the wrong strategy.

They fail because they:

1. Stop following up after week three or four.
 
2. Get bored with the routine that actually gets results.

3. Abandon what works the second it feels “slow” or “unsexy.”

We’re addicted to novelty.

But FAITH and discipline in the boring reps are the difference-maker.

Let me ask you:

How many times have you said,

“I need a better system for XYZ…”

…when what you really needed was to do the thing you already know works for more than four weeks in a row?

You don’t need a better follow-up plan. 

You need to follow up.

You don’t need a new video strategy.  

You need to post consistently (at first). 

You don’t need more fancy scripting.  

You need to just pick up the phone. 

Simple ≠ easy.

But simple gets results.

Simple is the soul of speed. 

Before you toss your whole playbook and chase the next shiny tool…

Ask yourself:

“Am I even executing the current strategy at a high level?”

And followed by:

“Is my strategy simple and not overly complicated?”

If the answer is no?

Don’t scrap it - DOUBLE DOWN.

Your next level isn’t in a new plan.

It’s in the plan you stopped working.

P.S. This is copy-pasted from my newsletter, the LO Launch Letter. Subscribe to join 23,000+ getting useful strategies and mindsets for LOs every Saturday morning.

I lead a highly dynamic company, but my most important jobs are being a great husband and dad.

Yes, that's cliché, but I 100% believe it and own it. 

Now, let's be real. Life is complicated.

There are going to be times when I have to pick between family and work, and it's not always clear which one should come first in every moment.

But no matter how ambitious you are, remember:

1. In 30 years, the only people who are gonna remember you working late are your life partner and kids.

2. On your deathbed, the chance you'll be wishing you worked harder is pretty slim.

Make sure you're there for your family by making sure you hyper-focus on the minutes that matter at work, because:

If you're not winning at everything that matters, you're not winning at anything.

I've coached, consulted with, and mentored hundreds of people in the last few years.

So I can tell you the biggest differentiator between those who win big and those who don't  isn't:

- Natural ability
- Being born rich
- Getting randomly lucky

It's actually:

- Having a growth mindset
- Being extremely consistent
- Executing fast and furiously
- Staying coachable no matter what

If you're new at something, be new.

Accept that you're not going to be good for a while. It might take years, and that's okay.

Just keep going until you're not new.

Then you'll probably find that you're also not bad anymore. 

And when you're not bad at it anymore, stretch yourself to do the next "new", otherwise you'll stay comfortable, and that's bad :)

I won the NAMB Battle of Coaches event for the second year in a row.

Honored to have the continued respect of my peers. 

And I do want to say:

As cool as that guitar is, what really makes me happy is the impact that led to getting it.

At GO!, we:

- Coach hundreds of loan officers 
- Reach 23,000+ with our newsletter
- Get millions of views on social media

Every day, people come to us and tell us we've changed their businesses, careers, and lives.

Awards are fun.

But awards are just recognition of the real work that takes place. 

PS: That guitar cost $900 to ship back to my home, but the memory of it will always be priceless and a reminder that the work matters.

Alright, I'm posting one more GrowthCon video.

I just can't help myself.

It's widely considered the top event in mortgage, and wait 'till you see what we have in store for the Spring 2026 event. 

One of the best things about these events is that they're not just useful. They're also tons of fun.

Because what we learn in fun, we never forget. 

People are making real friends at them, along with valuable connections. 

I hope I see you at the next one.

Watch till near the end to see my daughter getting into the party 😍

One more shoutout to everyone who came to Fall GrowthCon this year. It was easily the best one yet.

My biggest takeaway: 

If you want to go far in the mortgage business, or any other business, you must invest in the right relationships.

Every big level up in my journey has come from:

- Getting a favor from somebody
- Learning something from somebody
- Receiving an introduction from somebody

When you know good people, and you yourself are a good person, good things tend to happen.

It was an honor to share the stage with incredible speakers like Todd Hermann (The Alter Ego) and Jon Gordon (Energy Bus, Coffee Bean, and so many other legendary books). 

I'd love to see you at the next one.

Happy Sunday.

taplio

The Battle

Manda Szewczyk

Amir Syed

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The Battle

Manda Szewczyk

Amir Syed

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Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Manda Szewczyk's LinkedIn Performance

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