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Published: January 1st, 2018 • Last Updated: January 6th, 2021
Author: Ross Taylor on AskRoss.ca
Ross Taylor Is Mortgage Professionals Canada Financial Literacy Leader For 2017
Last month Ross was honoured by his peers at the annual Mortgage Professionals Canada 2017 awards night. He won the Financial Literacy Leadership Award. We ASKED ROSS how this came about.
I began focusing on Financial Literacy and writing about personal finance matters eight years ago – and a simple do it yourself WordPress blog was born.
Back then, I struggled with finding my online identity and purpose. I already had my own homemade website, and my blog was hosted elsewhere.
Around the same time, I thought I would join the cool kids and start tweeting – @rosstaylormoney on Twitter came into being. My Facebook business page followed – Ross Taylor on Money Matters. My LinkedIn profile came later.
I recall thinking all this would be helpful when people wanted to check me out – I would differentiate myself from the thousands of other mortgage brokers out there.
I really did not know if I would ever gain an audience, or where it all would lead to; but I did commit to spending time maintaining all these endeavors over the next few years.
At first, I re-posted and commented on interesting articles I found online, and then I began to write about things my clients had asked me either in meetings or by email. This was the genesis of ASKROSS.
I realized I loved to write and educate. Give me a question and I wanted to answer it, AND share the answer with whomever else might be interested.
I also realized every client was on their own unique journey – and often they were dealing with financial matters which might also be affecting other people. So I sometimes shared their experiences; names always changed of course.
As the years passed, through sheer brute force (hundreds of pages of content) I noticed people were finding me online through Google searches. Perhaps I had written an article about something they were looking for information about.
Calls and emails from these people sometimes led to a new client relationship. I realized my writing hobby was morphing into a key component of my marketing and business development strategy.
It is always difficult to stick to a publishing schedule – and I admit there have been occasional gaps of silence in years past where I developed writer’s block. But the desire to write and educate never left me, and I remain committed to sharing my knowledge in a way I hope people find interesting and informative.
I try to post a new, original article each week, create and email our monthly newsletter; and update our Facebook business page, Twitter account and LinkedIn profile several times a week. It’s super gratifying when I meet someone new and the conversation starts along the lines… “I was searching on the internet and one of your articles popped up”.
Winning this award from Mortgage Professionals Canada though is sobering, in that it reminded me there is so much more that could be done to help Canadians be better informed about personal finance matters.
It should start at home at a VERY early age, and teachings should be reinforced throughout school and beyond. I believe strongly that learning about and feeling comfortable with money matters should be a lifelong pursuit. I promise to continue to do whatever I can to help people with this!
Here’s a video of Ross accepting the award.