WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH
MARCH 2023
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
Women of NAMB... 4
Empower Yourself... 6
BY KIM NICHOLSThe More You Know... 8
BY LINDA McCOYBe Assertive... 10
BY JILLY MacDOWELL#NAMBLRC2023 Preview... 12
MARCH 2023
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
Women of NAMB... 4
Empower Yourself... 6
BY KIM NICHOLSThe More You Know... 8
BY LINDA McCOYBe Assertive... 10
BY JILLY MacDOWELL#NAMBLRC2023 Preview... 12
After a very successful Focus 2023 in January, NAMB immediately turned its attention to the celebration of Black History Month. In February, NAMB spotlighted the contributions of African American mortgage professionals, including its first-ever black association President.
NAMB has launched its new website in March thanks to the outstanding efforts of the staff and board of directors volunteers. NAMB will also hold its first Industry Partners Retreat since 2018. Industry Partners are critical to NAMB’s ability to serve our members and the mortgage industry as a whole.
Additionally, NAMB will celebrate Women's History during the month of March. The contributions of women in the mortgage industry have often been overlooked in what was once considered a male-dominated industry.
NAMB is grateful to have several women among its current leadership: Director of Operations Brandie Starks, President-Elect Valerie Saunders, Immediate Past-President Linda McCoy, and Board Directors Audrey Boisonnou and Helga James.
Finally, this month, NAMB is preparing its annual Legislative & Regulatory Conference in Washington D.C. from April 14-18, 2023. Please see namb.org for details and to register for the conference.
NAMB appreciates and thanks you for your support. NC
NAMB STAFF
MARKETING:
Jilly MacDowell
MEMBERSHIP:
Hunter Higginbotham
OPERATIONS:
Brandie Starks
TRY NAMB FOR FREE!
Look for “Courtesy Associate Membership” at namb.org/joinNAMB.
INDUSTRY PARTNERS IN THIS ISSUE
Lending Pad... 6
Motto Mortgage... 7
Lender Price... 9
Goosehead Insurance... 11
LiveSwitch Video... 13
Windsor Mortgage... 14
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©2023 NAMB All rights reserved.
The National Association of Mortgage Brokers is the voice of the mortgage industry, representing the interests of mortgage professionals and homebuyers since 1973.
This is a huge responsibility & very important for you as members! Step up & nominate someone you feel will be able to lead NAMB into the future.
Openings are for President Elect, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary and Directors. We will be holding interviews in DC on Saturday, April 16, 2023.
Deadline is March 21, 2023 at 5pm ET. Submit your nomination today! namb.org/nominations
COVER PHOTO: CENTRAL PARK, NY, STATUE OF SOJOURNER TRUTH, SUSAN B. ANTHONY AND ELIZABETH CADY STANTON.Valerie currently serves as President-Elect for the National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB).
With almost 30 years of experience in the mortgage & title insurance industry, she is also the Vice President of RE Financial Services, Inc., a Florida mortgage broker business, and President of Title ClearingHouse of Jacksonville, a Florida licensed title insurance company.
Valerie serves as Chair of the Communications and co-Chair of the Industry Partners Committee for NAMB. She is also a course writer as well as instructor for loan originator continu ing education.
In 2012, Valerie was selected by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to serve on a SBREFA panel to discuss proposals concerning loan originator compensation, pricing concessions and MLO training & qualifications. She was selected in 2022 to serve on a CFPB SBREFA panel focusing on appraisals and automated valuation models (AVMs). Read more about Valerie on page 10.
Linda is the owner & president of Mortgage Team 1, Inc. in Mobile, Al., where she has been in the mortgage industry for more than 30 years. She currently serves as Immediate Past President of NAMB, and has been on the Board of Directors since May 2011. In 2021, she became the first woman president of NAMB in 25 years.
Linda has a real love for her trade association, chairing the Education/Certification, Ethics & Nominating Committees. This year she will have served on or chaired every committee NAMB has to offer! She is most proud of the certifications that she has helped create for NAMB members as Certification Chair since 2017, and holds NAMB’s CRMS, CVLS & CCS Certifications herself.
One of Linda’s passions is to help more women succeed & get to the top of their profession. She is a founding member of High Heels in High Places, which became Inspire, a Women’s Mentoring Group, now hosted by NAMB & helping women across the nation.
Some of Linda’s many awards include Women With Vision Award, National Associsation of Professional Women Excellence Award, Sal Shining Star Award from the Women’s Business Center, AMPA’s Broker of the Year Award, AMPA’s Presidential Award, AMPA’s Distinquished Service Award, and NAMB’s Mortgage Professional of the Year Award in 2019.
NAMB is grateful for this opportunity to recognize some of our amazing women members.
Audrey, a native of Walnut Creek CA, thought she was headed for a career in law, but a brief stop in the family business ended up being a life-changing opportunity. From collecting rents to processing loans, it was the perfect education to learn the mortgage industry from the ground up.
Today, as a sales leader with Guarantee Mortgage/ American Pacific Mortgage, Audrey has built her business working with borrowers to figure out the best strategies for their specific financial & life situations.
After the “meltdown,” Audrey got involved in advocacy for the mortgage industry. She saw first-hand that mortgage brokers could easily be regulated & legislated out of business, and that decisions are often made by those who have no understanding of how the borrower is impacted by those decisions. She also teaches continuing education to LOs and hosts a podcast, Mortgage Pros 411, with market updates & interviews.
Audrey is now a Director on NAMB’s Board, having served as President at both the local & state levels. Her philosophy: serve others first, lead with your heart, offer outstanding service, help clients improve their lives, speak the truth and advocate for consumers.
At 27 years old and with her whole life savings of $7K, Helga opened her mortgage company, Barr Group Mortgage, which today has grown to more than 20 employees and four offices. Helga is the “fixer.” Years ago, one of Helga’s loan officers called her Winston Wolf from “Pulp Fiction” – because she will find a solution! Helga knows that no one is a lone wolf. It takes a team… and she & her group are loan wolves.
Helga has served as a board member & president of the Alabama Mortgage Broker Association. She has been in the Top 10 Loan Officers of the State of Alabama and her company has been honored to be the top in southern Alabama and in the top 5 for the state since 2017. She has been a long-standing member of NAMB & is excited to learn in her first year as a board member.
A proud parent of two, Helga is actively involved in her community as a board member of the Foundation for Education and Arts for her city school system. Her company is the proud sponsor of its finance lab, to teach children the importance of finance in the everyday world.
Currently NAMB’s Director of Operations, Brandie started her mortgage career as a loan officer with Bridge Capital in 2004. There, she utilized her expertise as a curriculum & development specialist by becoming the sales & services training instructor. She designed & facilitated courses to help new loan officers learn how to be more successful in the mortgage industry. Recognized for her knack for networking & developing relationships, she became an AE with WMC Mortgage.
Brandie believes strongly in giving back to her community. She partnered with other mortgage professionals to teach financial literacy & homeownership readiness to church groups in her area. She served as the VP of Programs for her state’s Association for Talent Development, helping create events to support others in their career development goals. Brandie feels that educating our youth is critical; she enjoys serving as a volunteer instructor for Junior Achievement USA, teaching children, grades K-12 financial literacy & entrepreneurship skills.
Sought out for her mortgage experience, management background & training design skills, Brandie is enjoying overseeing the day-to-day activities of NAMB. NC
1776 Abigail Adams
Makes a plea to her husband Founding Father John Adams to pay “particular care & attention to ladies…[we] will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”
1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton
First women’s rights convention with 300 attendees, organized by women including Stanton.
1869 Susan B. Anthony & Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Founded the National Woman Suffrage Association, which coordinated the national suffrage movement.
1890 State of Wyoming
Wyoming is the 44th state admitted to the Union & becomes the first state to allow women the right to vote.
1920 19th Amendment
Ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution is completed, declaring “the right of citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”
1963 Equal Pay Act
Signed into law by President John F. Kennedy, prohibiting sex-based wage discrimination between men &women performing the same job in the same workplace.
1964 Civil Rights Act
Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, Title VII bans employment discrimination based on race, religion, national origin or sex.
1972 Title IX
Title IX of the Education Amendments is signed into law: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."
2013 Women in Combat
The U.S. military removes a ban against women serving in combat positions.
2021 First Woman Vice President
Kamala Harris is sworn in as the first woman & first POC U.S. vice president.
– COMPILED BY VALERIE SAUNDERS
As we celebrate the women in our past and present this month, we must also celebrate the empowerment of women in the workplace. Throughout my career and even now, there are various themes that stand out to me. Here are a few things I’ve leaned on and have observed in others that I believe may resonate with other women in this industry as well.
My career started in a closet – literally. I took a part-time temp job while in college and ended up in the shipping department of a mortgage company where I copied loan files all day long in a closet that had been converted into a copy room.
Lucky for me, that closet was strategically located on the executive floor. I got to know many executive leaders from where I was. I asked questions. Then more questions. These conversations landed mostly on the ears of our company’s head of capital markets who loved teaching as much as I loved learning. And eventually, it turned into an informal mentorship. There are leaders who have strong passion for their work, and who also love to share that passion with others. Ask
Strong technical knowledge is an incredible confidence builder. This industry is fascinating & dynamic. It would be difficult for a single person to be an expert in all facets of mortgage lending, so I recommend you find an area you’re most interested in and master it. Is it marketing? Maybe mortgage math interests you most.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 13 >
“If you don’t like the road you are walking, start paving another one.” – DOLLY PARTON
year so that the members who wanted to give back to their communities could become facilitators.
I took one of those seats and am preparing to teach my first Freddie Mac Credit Smart class next month in Mobile, Alabama. I’m excited to teach younger people –and the older ones who want to learn more – about making the right choices for their families.
The program features one of my favorite topics, “Being a Savvy Borrower,” which covers how important it is to have good credit & how to make the best choices when buying big ticket items like cars, houses, boats, etc. Other topics are “Earn, Then Spend Smart” and “Plan to Save.” Freddie Mac will be giving us more seats this year so if you would like to teach people in your community how to have a better life, please let me know!
I spent the last half of 2022 studying, getting a Certification on Freddie Mac’s Credit Smart program and finally becoming a Certified Facilitator at the end of December. The Credit Smart program is designed to teach others how to make the right choices in life. It covers many things which cannot be taught in just a few classes. It’s a lifelong learning course and should have been taught in junior high & high school so that many of us would not have made the financial mistakes we made in the past.
NAMB has partnered with Freddie Mac to take the course across our country to create the opportunity for a better life for attendees. NAMB was given a number of seats last
NAMB & Freddie Mac are also going across our wonderful country together with NAMB Road Shows, educating the mortgage industry on the products they’ve created to help consumers with their financing options. They’re bringing speakers who talk about what’s going on in the mortgage industry and provide valuable tips to help originators work smarter & more efficiently. Additionally, NAMB is offering certification classes the day before or the day after to offer more value to our members.
NAMB is introducing two new certifications this year, the FHA & CREV (Certified Reverse Mortgage Specialist). Each course will be an 8-hour class with a required exam to earn the certification.
Finally, NAMB will also introduce an 8-hour Continuing Education class very soon. NAMB is all about educating our members – take advantage of what your trade association is offering you! NC
See namb.org/events and namb.org/certifications for more!
Valerie Saunders may be the only mortgage broker to enter the profession via a Masters in Historical Administration. The Eastern Illinois University graduate has put that education – which included fiscal management, volunteer and fundraising – to excellent use in her many years at NAMB.
Currently NAMB's President-Elect, Saunders is also the chair of NAMB's Conference and Delegate Committees. Saunders was selected for the NAMB board back in 2010 and rolled her sleeves up immediately.
“I've always been that person that volunteered," she says, reflecting on her tenure as a “teacher's assistant” at age 10. “I wasn't being utilized (as a NAMB board member) so I tried to resign. They wouldn't let me.”
So she became Super Volunteer, working alongside past president Harry Denham for nearly a decade to build namb.org and establish NAMB's education webinars, among many other projects. She doesn't mind admitting her mantra is “step aside and let me do this.”
Saunders reflected on her leadership experiences at a recent Inspire women's mentoring group meeting. Inspire meets virtually every second Tuesday to uplift women in business.
“First of all, I don't think there has ever been a man that's been asked about assertiveness in leadership,” she started, grinning. She talked about the disconnect in how men & women express their feelings or opinions and reminded us that speaking up is a good thing.
“I value the relationships that I have with women in the industry and, while we've come a long way, we have a long way to go. NC
Join Inspire’s free monthly call at namb.org/NAMBinspire
AUTHENTICITY: If you don't take this opportunity, someone else will. Always start a discussion with the end in mind – with your clients, boss & peers.
WIN/WIN: Both you & the other person involved understand your feelings. Give friendly advice and embrace any feedback.
KEEP LEARNING: Find a role model from a different level of experience. You'll be amazed what you can learn from each other.
SPEAK UP: Resolve conflicts. Demonstrate the power to be the one to do this. Why not you?
KNOW WHEN TO QUIT: End relationships that are not working. It's OK to move on to a new position or department. Don't go home miserable each night.
NAMB’s Legislative & Regulatory Conference, abbreviated “LRC” and often referred to as “The Ledge,” takes place in April at the National Press Club. This members- only event gets you up close & personal with the organization’s leadership, the legislative process & our governmental allies. NC
Space is limited for this members-only event so, register today! namb.org/lrc
FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 2023
9AM-5PM: FHA Certification Class
SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 2023
8AM-5PM: Committee Meetings (Nominating, Finance, FHA, Membership, Government Affairs)
SUNDAY, APRIL 16, 2023
3-5PM: Delegate Council and State Leadership Meeting
5-7PM: PAC Fundraising Reception
MONDAY, APRIL 17, 2023
9AM: Opening remarks by NAMB President
Ernest Jones, Jr., CRMS
9:15AM: Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Chairman, House Committee on Financial Services
12PM: Julia Gordon, Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
2PM: The Honorable Sandra Thompson, Director, Federal Housing Finance Agency
4PM: Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), House Committee on Financial Services
5PM-6PM: Happy hour featuring open bar & light hors d'oeuvres
TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 2023
9AM-4PM: Lobby Day with your State on Capitol Hill
4:30-6PM: Lobby Day Breakdown Reception
For me, I was (and still am) fascinated with capital markets, pricing, hedging & valuation, so I sought to learn as much as I could on those topics. That knowledge base, which I forged around the economics of our industry, was foundational to me and gave me confidence as I built my career.
Whether you’re a Loan Officer or hold another sales role in this industry, technical knowledge provides credibility. Develop your technical knowledge, gain confidence, build credibility and there you will find your strengths.
Moving to a digital world has been a great equalizer for women. In the past, you could walk into a meeting & go directly to the back or stand to the side of the room. Now, everyone is seen virtually in the same size box on the screen. Much like standing in the back of the room, I still see women on screen with their cameras pointed at the top of their heads, or they simply don’t turn their cameras on at all. This is where I encourage you to show up. Turn on your camera and be visible. Make eye contact to show that you’re present and engaged. How you show up matters, so own your space on the screen.
Make sure you use your voice. You may be inclined to hold back because you feel it’s polite to wait for someone to finish speaking. In the virtual environment, you don’t
have to wait because you can put your question or comment in the chat. Everyone in the meeting will see your message & you will be heard.
Then there’s social media, which gives women equal opportunity to have a voice. With LinkedIn, for example, you can take ownership of your brand. Use your voice to tell a story, teach something or simply tell people what you care about.
You also have the power to help amplify the voices of other women. When you like, comment & share another woman’s post, you help more women be seen & heard.
After three decades in this industry, I am encouraged to see the recent emergence of strong female leaders. Let’s keep encouraging each other & seeking opportunities to lift each other up. NC
Kim Nichols is the Senior Managing Director of Pennymac TPO. tpo.pennymac.com