Connecting, leading and growing a diverse future for the mortgage industry

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Transcript

Concepcion Guerrero (00:04):
Welcome to Mortgage Connects by MGIC, bringing you the latest insights from top mortgage professionals around the industry. I'm your host, Concepcion Guerrero. Joining me today is Jade Winfrey , director of Corporate Solutions at the National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers of America, or NAMMBA, a nationally traded organization that's dedicated to the enrichment and betterment of women and minorities who work in the real estate industry. Jade Winfrey is an optimistic individual with over eight years of experience in developing strategic partnerships throughout her career, Jade has developed and maintained strong client relationships, centered on trust with each of her partners. She holds a degree from the University of Northern Iowa, and in her free time, she can be found biking around the beaches of South Florida. Jade, welcome. Glad to have you join us today.

Jade Winfrey (00:53):
Awesome. Thank you so much for having me, and thank you for this opportunity to be here with you today.

Concepcion Guerrero (00:59):
I'm excited for the conversation on hand because I can't wait for our listeners to learn more about NAMMBA, who they are, what they do, and most importantly, how can one become part of this growing and amazing organization. MGIC has been a corporate partner for the past five years now, and I get the wonderful opportunity to attend the NAMMBA Connect conference every year. And as a young Latina, it's great to see so many diverse mortgage professionals come together under one roof to learn to be inspired and connect with other like-minded individuals in the mortgage industry. NAMMBA was founded in 2016, so I have a feeling that not everyone may be familiar with who they are. Jade, let's start by having you tell us more about the National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers of America or NAMMBA. Who are they? What did they do? What makes NAMMBA unique?

Jade Winfrey (01:49):
Absolutely. Well, like you said, NAMMBA was founded in 2016 by our founder Tony Thompson, who is a certified mortgage banker. And he just saw a need for an organization like NAMMBA in the industry, and so, which is why he created it. Um, and you know, really we are a purpose-driven organization. We're really dedicated to inclusion of women and minorities in the mortgage industry who are advocates for sustainable home ownership in communities. And, you know, a little bit about our mission, it's more of a two-part mission. Um, the first part is we provide training, education, professional development to women, minorities, millennials, um, LGBTQ+. We are an all inclusive organization, um, and that's really in the real estate and real estate finance industry. And then the second part of our mission is to introduce high school and college students to careers and the real estate and finance industry.

Concepcion Guerrero (02:45):
Now, in the beginning I provided a sneak peek or a very high level explanation of what your role is, but can you expand on your responsibilities and what your role at NAMMBA is, and really most importantly, what do you like about it? Mm-hmm.

Jade Winfrey (02:58):
<affirmative>. Sure. So as the Director of Corporate Solutions, really I am in charge of trying to bring in new partners, um, from all different kind of backgrounds, whether it is lenders, credit unions, um, FinTech. So we're bringing in new partners into the organization. And then once we get them in, I do all of the onboarding. So I kind of step them through what all their benefits they get for the year, um, kind of put a plan into place on how we're gonna utilize some of those benefits. Um, and then the other part is I do account management, so I'm also kind of guiding those partners through the partnership journey. So, you know, we offer a lot of different benefits for thought leadership. Um, there's ways to get involved in our annual meeting and there's ways just connecting our partners to our lenders and vendors and any way that we can connect them to the multicultural marketplace. So I'm really just there as a liaison between myself and the organization to kind of take them through that entire journey.

Concepcion Guerrero (03:52):
You've been wonderful to work with Jade. I I, you know, just as a liaison and at NAMMBA contact, it's been wonderful. So I'm curious, what do you like most about NAMMBA?

Jade Winfrey (04:00):
You know, it's funny because I feel like ever since I've worked here, it's been almost three years and I've always had a really intense job my entire career. And I kinda kinda came from the pharma industry. So what I noticed that I love about working here is I no longer get those Sunday scaries <laugh> like on Sunday night. I don't dread coming to work. I love coming to work on Monday. I love having this mission to work towards every time we bring in a new partner, it is such a great feeling that we, you know, we've got some additional support to help us really accomplish our mission. Um, and I love our team. We've got a great team. We're growing and just seeing the growth that I've seen over the last two and a half years that I've been here has been amazing. And to be a part of it, that's why I just, I absolutely love everything about working for NAMMBA.

Concepcion Guerrero (04:42):
Jade. I get to travel quite a lot and attend different conferences that focus on diversity and mortgage, but after attending the NAMMBA's National Conference for the last four years, I've noticed that NAMMBA likes to do things a little bit different during their national conference. And personally I really like that I'm talking about nambas supporting young individuals gain the knowledge and readiness professionally and more specifically in the mortgage world. Can you talk more about what nambas doing when it comes to helping guide younger and diverse talent into the mortgage industry and why?

Jade Winfrey (05:14):
Sure. So that's gonna be our mission 2025. So that's through our foundation. Um, and what we've done over the last couple years is we will go into universities. We were in Atlanta previously. Now our new home is Orlando, Florida. So last year specifically we went to University of Central Florida, Rollins College, Bethune Cookman, and we are making awareness for their students that, Hey, this is going on. We'd love to bring you to the events. We actually have a college date event going on in tandem of the conference. Um, so we're busing in, you know, 200 or so college students to the event that get to stay at the Marriott for those couple days. We have a whole agenda just for them. Um, we brought in a LinkedIn, um, professional to help them kind of brush up their LinkedIns. We brought in resume writers, they were able to get headshot and then we just had a great agenda.

Jade Winfrey (06:03):
Um, our partners are able to come connect directly to the college students, whether they wanna, you know, share resources with them or maybe potentially talk about, um, internship or co-op. So that is like a huge initiative of ours is, um, the College Initiative Foundation Mission 2025. In addition to the conference, we're also starting NAMMBA chapters on college campuses. The goal is a hundred college chapters over the next three to five years. Um, so where we have the support of those local chapters, we're starting college campus chapters and introducing these students to careers in the industry. Cuz as we're finding out, a lot of students are not even aware that there are these careers out there, or if they are, they're not, you know, aware of the huge earning potential. So we're connecting them. And then as a way of hopefully kind of bringing in some new generation, some fresh talent into the industry because we know it is kind of aging out where it is currently. So we, that's important to bring that new, um, fresh generation of young, talented individuals into the industry. So that's what we're doing, um, at NAMMBA Connect with those college students in Mission 2025.

Concepcion Guerrero (07:07):
That's wonderful, Jay to hear. I mean, I know the conversations that I've had with other mortgage professionals, you know, they stumbled upon their mortgage career or, you know, any career in the, in the mortgage, uh, industry by accident or not intentionally. So, you know, to have NAMMBA take that initiative and that's that step ahead and introduce these opportunities for, for young individuals, that is, it's, it's wonderful.

Jade Winfrey (07:33):
I know, it's it's so true. It's the same. I, everybody I've spoken to has gotten into this industry accidentally, like, oh, I was working for an uncle one summer and I got this internship. And then, yeah, and I'll be honest, I wasn't aware of these careers either, um, when I was in college. So that's a big focus of ours. Um, and just introducing them and then just kind of ushering them along the way. So once we get 'em in, we wanna help them find jobs and we wanna help them, um, you know, get to those jobs and kind of grow, you know, climb that ladder in those positions too. So we're there for them at kind of all those different steps. So yes, absolutely.

Concepcion Guerrero (08:04):
Yeah, and it's good to see, I mean, I, like I said, I've attended the NAMMBA conference for the last couple of years and to see them get immersed and, and have conversations and just position and introduce themselves to other mortgage professionals. So, you know, it's, it takes, it takes a little, you know, training, it takes a little getting used to, but by the end of the conference, their smile, their confidence has changed and grown so much. It's wonderful to see.

Jade Winfrey (08:31):
Exactly. Yep. Now we mm-hmm. <affirmative>,

Concepcion Guerrero (08:35):
No, go ahead. Oh,

Jade Winfrey (08:36):
No, I was gonna say it was just funny to see some of these kids walking around with their suit and ties and they're like, Yeezys on their feet, <laugh>, it was like, oh, this must be a college student. Yes,

Concepcion Guerrero (08:45):
Yes.

Jade Winfrey (08:46):
It was great to have him there. Yeah, absolutely.

Concepcion Guerrero (08:48):
<laugh>,

Concepcion Guerrero (08:50):
Throughout various conversations with lenders, I've noticed everyone is on a different path when it comes to advancing and supporting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Some are already well developed with the efforts, while others, they still need a little bit more support and guidance on how to go about this. What would you say to those lenders or organizations looking for that extra support in their DE&I efforts and how can NAMMBA help?

Jade Winfrey (09:16):
Sure. Well, I think it kinda, no matter where they're at in that DE&I journey, NAMMBA can, NAMMBA can really help, um, them with their efforts in helping making sure that they're doing a good job connecting to the multicultural marketplace. Um, we're doing that with our A-SIL certification and that stands for the Accredited Social Impact Lender Certification. Um, and what we're seeing is that we're able to go in, you know, do a really robust assessment of kind of how people are connecting to the marketplace. So, um, we're looking at your recruiting strategies, you know, are you doing a good job at reaching out to the best and brightest? Um, and, and not only recruiting, but retaining some of that talent. We're looking at your marketing and seeing, you know, you know, we're helping you develop marketing materials that really kind of helps you do a better job at connecting to communities of color, um, centers of influences, those type of things.

Jade Winfrey (10:06):
What are you saying and how do you say it correctly? So you're really able to kind of break down those barriers. Um, we're also able to look at some of the benchmarking, see how you're stacking up against some of your competitors and different segments. Um, could you do a better job and certain segments that you may not already be doing. And so that is all part of the A-SIL. And then the last part is social impact, and we're really looking at some of your programs and products and see, you know, what your competitive advantage it is and if we could do a better job at kind of coming in there at through the lens of a multicultural consumer and looking at how you're doing all these things and maybe there's ways that you can improve kind of closing some of those gaps. So that's what we're really focused on through our A-SIL certification to help organizations, um, connect to the DE&I and the LMI market. And there's a huge, I think nine 2.99 trillion market out there that we can help, um, really connect you to that multicultural marketplace.

Concepcion Guerrero (11:02):
Now I've mentioned NAMMBA National Conference, and this year it will take place in Orlando from September 14th through the 16th. But for those that can't make the national conference, what other ways can they get involved with NAMMBA? Are there any local chapters, for example?

Jade Winfrey (11:16):
Yeah, we actually, uh, and in addition to the college initiative, we, uh, we or we brought on a new director there, Dr. Lathan Turner. We also hired a new chapter development director, um, Lynn, her name is Jeanette Zaragoza, and she's based out of Chicago. And she has done a really good job at ramping up our local chapters. They took kind of a hit during the Covid era, so now that everybody's back, um, we are, we've done a really good job of ramping up those local chapters. We have over 30 local chapters, uh, but recently we were able to add, uh, Boston, Chicago, Knoxville, Seattle, um, south Florida, New Jersey, Buffalo, New York, Phoenix. I mean, there is a lot of movement going on in those local chapters. And so if you follow us on LinkedIn or the NAMMBA event page, you will see, um, all those, there's usually a chapter event about every month.

Jade Winfrey (12:06):
So you will see all those different events that are going on. So we definitely encourage you to get involved at the local chapter level. Um, if there's interest, you can go on right now, I believe, um, and become a NAMMBA member for free. They've waived the membership fee for the rest of the year. So you can definitely go onto our events page, register as a local, um, chapter member, and then you'll start to get some of those notifications in your areas and ways that you guys can get involved at that local level. So yes, we are building up those chapters. Um, next to come, I know St. Louis, um, Charlotte, Atlanta, and as well as Orlando are gonna be next on our list to kind of really beef up those efforts at that local level.

Concepcion Guerrero (12:43):
Now, looking ahead, what's in store for NAMMBA? Is there any exciting plan that you wish to share with our listeners?

Jade Winfrey (12:49):
Um, we're just really ramping up for our annual meeting. There may be a kind of exciting announcement coming out soon about that meeting. But yes, we are excited, we're really focused on that. We're focused on getting people involved in that local level. We're focused on our college initiative. This is a big year for us. Um, just really, we know that there's a tough time in the industry, so we are really focused on being here for our partners in any way we can help them connect, uh, to this marketplace as well as, um, getting involved at NAMMBA. So there'll be a, you know, there's just a lot of different networking opportunities, professional development opportunities. We really are just focused on their kind of core values and keeping those going so we can get everybody involved. Um, and of course our annual meeting September 14th through the 16th at the JW in Orlando, Florida. We are super excited, um, to do this all over again. <laugh>, I mean, it is, like Tony always says it's our Super Bowl, so we, um, we really look forward to seeing everybody in person at September. Um, so that's, yeah, really just continuing on our mission is what we are really focused on right now.

Concepcion Guerrero (13:49):
And to close, what is the one thing you want our listeners to walk away with about NAMMBA?

Jade Winfrey (13:55):
Um, that we are an all-inclusive organization. So, you know, we are not just focused on minorities, we're focused on women, we're focused on millennials, we're focused on the college students. Um, we're all inclusive. Um, we just really wanna help connect, um, you know, our partners and to that multicultural marketplace. And, you know, really just trying to connect anybody that we can. You know, it's about connect, grow, lead is our mission. So that's what we would just want everybody to walk away. Um, come join us at a local chapter, get involved. Um, if there's, um, any interest in a partnership level, I would love to speak to you about becoming an NAMMBA partner. Um, but we just, you know, walk away just knowing that we're here. Um, we wanna help you do good by doing good. So please reach out with any questions and we would love to, you know, get people more involved at NAMMBA local chapters or in the national level. We're here for you.

Concepcion Guerrero (14:45):
Jade, thank you very much for your time today. It was a pleasure getting to chat with you.

Jade Winfrey (14:49):
Thank you so much for this, this opportunity. And thank you guys for your partnership. We really appreciate it.

Concepcion Guerrero (14:54):
And thank you all for listening. For the latest industry insights, subscribe to Mortgage Connects on Apple, Stitcher, Google Podcast, Spotify, Amazon Music, or go to mortgageconnects.com.