Girlfunds

In this Girlfunds episode, Finance of America Companies CEO Patti Cook joins us for another episode of the Women of Influence series that spotlights the latest accomplishments of our award winners. As a 2021 Woman of Influence, Cook has been a pioneer in financial services since her earliest days in the industry. Over the course of her career, Cook has held executive roles at numerous companies, including Prudential, JPMorgan, and Freddie Mac.Cook shares her personal journey for how she got into the industry, as a woman in the finance space who has risen to the highest level of her business. She also addresses one of her most notable accomplishments — taking the company public in the midst of a global pandemic. Now, as CEO, Cook highlights how Finance of America helps advance women into leadership positions and offers other women in the industry advice on how to advance their own careers.

This Girlfunds episode continues the Women of Influence podcast miniseries with 2020 Woman of Influence Crystal Sumner, who serves as head of legal, compliance, and risk at Blend, discusses the company's recent program announcement to increase access to housing and financial services. Sumner shares the trends and topics that she is keeping a close eye on, such as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact it is having on the ability to qualify for a mortgage, specifically in regard to minority homeownership.  She also touches on how more consumers feel comfortable with online transactions and the increased adoption of RON legislation

This Girlfunds episode continues the Women of Influence podcast miniseries with Snapdocs' Camelia Martin to talk about the latest changes in digital closings. As Head of Industry and Regulatory Affairs at Snapdocs, Martin keeps a close eye on the rapidly changing digital landscape in the mortgage market, especially when it comes to how digital changes are progressing in government adoption.When she was named a 2020 Woman of Influence, Martin worked at Falcon Capital Advisors, where she served as managing director of Digital Mortgage Advisory. Throughout her career, Martin has led industry-wide digital mortgage initiatives that have directly supported eNote acceptance programs for key participants such as Ginnie Mae and the Federal Home Loan Banks. Martin is a former MERSCORP executive. She also played a pivotal role in the implementation and adaptation of digital mortgages at MERSCORP. During the podcast, she talks about her latest role at Snapdocs and also discusses the current state of the closing industry. 

This Girlfunds episode continues the Women of Influence podcast miniseries with Courtney Graham, who was a 2020 Women of Influence and is a 2021 Marketing Leader. Graham serves as chief marketing officer at Princeton Mortgage where she focuses on scaling the company culture to support its explosive national market expansion. Graham is also the driving force behind the creation of Princeton Mortgage's marketing machine that has been a large driver for increased revenue and production for the mortgage bank. During the interview, Graham talks about her current role as CMO and how she has helped the company achieve record growth.She wraps by discussing some recent marketing trends that she is closely following and what she thinks it will take to get more women in the industry.

2020 Woman of Influence AJ Barkley joins HousingWire's Daily's Women of Influence podcast miniseries, which spotlights the program's winners over the years. Barkley, who is the Neighborhood Lending and Community Lending Executive at Bank of America, discusses her passion to drive successful homeownership among low-to-moderate-income borrowers, underserved communities, and multicultural borrowers in all economic situations.Along with her main role at Bank of America, Barkley serves as the co-executive sponsor of the Black Professional Group of North Texas and launched the Black Women Ready to Lead initiative. She also shares what her work has been doing over the past year and what she thinks it will take to get more women and diversity into the industry.

Today's episode of Girlfunds continues the latest guest on the Women of Influence podcast miniseries, 2020 Woman of Influence Courtney Poulos, who is the Broker/Owner of ACME Real Estate and co-founder of ACME Florida.Poulos began selling real estate in 2005 and has remained dedicated to passing on her knowledge of the real estate market, since then having inspired women to take charge of their future through real estate investment. When Poulos was first named a 2020 Woman of Influence, she was only the Broker/Owner of ACME Real Estate, launching ACME Florida this year. During the interview, she talks about the launch of the brokerage and explores the unique trends happening in the Florida housing market. As a mentor to any agents, she also talks about how competitive the market is for real estate agents right now and how they're staying at the top of their game. 

This Girlfunds episode continues with the Women of Influence podcast miniseries and features 2020 HW Woman of Influence and Mr. Cooper Group Chief People and Communications Officer Kelly Ann Doherty. Within just three years at Mr. Cooper, Kelly Ann Doherty was promoted from senior vice president of corporate communications to the chief communications officer, a member of the executive team, and now serves as their chief people and communications officer. During the episode, she dives into her career growth and her thoughts on how to get more women and diversity in the industry, especially in prepositions of leadership.   She also talks about the latest projects and initiatives that she is working on and passionate about, along with why she thinks it is important for people to find things outside of the office to support and serve in. 

This Girlfunds episode continues the HousingWire Daily Women of Influence podcast miniseries. The episode features 2020 HW Woman of Influence and OJO Labs Chief Marketing Officer Karen Starns. She was also named a 2021 HousingWire Market Leader for her work transforming the fast-growing brand into a real estate powerhouse.Starns has more than 20 years of experience building two of the biggest names in consumer tech, Amazon and Microsoft, giving her a unique perspective on the tech developments in the real estate industry. During the episode, Starns shares her thoughts on the state of tech in the housing industry compared to other tech industries, addressing the idea that housing has been historically behind when it comes to tech. 

Introducing HousingWire's Women of Influence series, which belongs to the HousingWire Daily podcast. As Girlfunds comes to a close, each Women of Influence episode will be featured in GirlFunds. Girlfunds will soon say farewell but listeners can tune into HousingWire Daily to listen to more insightful interviews from the housing industry's most talented women.  HW+ Managing Editor Brena Nath interviews one of HousingWire's remarkable Women of Influence on their latest contributions to the industry, the women they look up to, and how they're moving markets forward.  This first episode features 2020 Woman of Influence Laura Grannemann, vice president of Strategic Investments at Rocket Community Fund, as she discusses how COVID-19 has starkly highlighted inequity in housing across the country. 

We are teaming up with our sponsor, Citi, to bring you this episode of Girlfunds. We’re excited to have two amazing guests join us from Citi this week: we have Larissa Longchamp and Desireé Rideaux, and each is vice president, strategic markets business development officer.During the episode, Longchamp and Rideaux talk about their best piece of financial advice, define what community lending is and share some common misconceptions around programs designed to help low-to-moderate-income borrowers. They also discuss how listeners can help bring more awareness to their own peer groups on the realities of buying a home for people who think it's impossible. Here are two Girlfunds takeaway tips from the episode, as Longchamp and Rideaux touch on the best piece of money know-how that they’ve ever received:“The best piece of financial advice that I've ever received is to always live below my means and to save for a rainy day. I know that's such a cliche type of statement, but it's helped me through my entire adult life,” said Rideaux.“I have two that [are] tied for best... Look at money as a tool. And when you do that, you see it as something that you can use to get you to where you want to be or to reach a goal. I like that because it takes some of the emotion out of making financial decisions. The second one is to just set individual savings goals and when you save, save in buckets,” said Longchamp. Join the two best friends who met as financial journalists at HousingWire, Brena Nath, a twenty-something first-time homebuyer with her husband and pups, and Sarah Wheeler, an empty nester on her third home, every week for our girls night focused on everything from affording your best friend’s wedding to how to turn your side hustle into your main hustle. Each week, Girlfunds will have a special guest join us as we intertwine finance and friendship. And don’t worry, you don’t have to have your finances all together to join our girls nights. We’re all in this together to learn - women supporting women - and in the words of our producer, so we can all be #confidentqueens.

The latest episode of Girlfunds features Liz Gehringer, Coldwell Banker Real Estate chief operating officer, who talks about how she created the Women in Leadership platform at Coldwell Banker and how the program champions Coldwell’s next generation of women leaders. Gehringer also touches on some of the challenges that women face when it comes to growing their careers and how they can start dreaming bigger in their career goals.

As a third-generation Realtor, we’re honored to have 2020 HW Woman of Influence Kerry Melcher on the Girlfunds podcast. With more than 33 years of experience in real estate, Melcher serves as head of sales and brokerage at Opendoor. From how we can encourage more women to take ownership of their finances to her unique advice on how she saved for college for her kids, Melcher brings a passion for supporting woman in their financial goals to the podcast, creating an engaging conversation on the powerful role that homeownership can play in building wealth.

Our guest on the latest episode of Girlfunds is no stranger to the podcast world. Ashley Lee is the host of The Financial Key podcast, which focuses on helping millennials uncover the keys to financial independence. During the episode, she shares her own debt-free journey to paying off over $40,000 of debt in 22 months, and why she is so passionate about normalizing money conversations among Millennials and minority communities. She also shares how listeners can start to have these conversations in their own peer groups and tips on how to reignite your financial goals.

This week’s episode of the Girlfunds podcast features the chief marketing and communications officer at the largest trade association in the country, the National Association of Realtors.In this episode, Victoria Gillespie shares how she helped mentor and lead her team, along with the 1.4 million realtors who the association serves, through COVID-19. Throughout the pandemic, Gillespie and the marketing team at NAR focused their efforts on sharing resources and information with Realtors to help their businesses survive and continue to thrive. During the interview, she shares the financial lessons that she thinks could be learned from navigating a crisis like COVID-19 that could apply to anyone.

We’re excited to welcome Marcia Davies, the chief operating officer for the Mortgage Bankers Association and 2015 HousingWire Women of Influence, to the podcast. Over the last couple of episodes, we’ve focused a lot more on leadership and what women can do to better support other women. Davies continues this conversation, sharing her own journey in dealing with “imposter syndrome”. From actionable tips for women just starting their career to how to negotiate a higher salary, we cover it all in today’s episode of Girlfunds.

Our newest guest on the Girlfunds podcast, Sue Yannaccone, is no stranger to the real estate industry. As the CEO of Realogy Franchise Group, Yannaccone oversees the franchise operations of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, Century 21 and ERA, as well as the franchise and owned operations of Sotheby’s International Realty and Corcoran. During the episode, Yannaccone talks about what women can do to better support other women and how she has created boundaries in her own life in order to create more balance between work life and personal life, especially after a year like 2020.

We’re honored to feature Navy Veteran and Real Estate Agent Breanna Brower on this week’s episode of Girlfunds. From breaking down the intricacies of getting a VA loan to the top mistakes home shoppers make, this episodes provides new homebuyers with a guide on how to navigate the housing market. This audio version of a new homebuyer’s guide details where to start the process and how to create an offer that stands out. For some background on Breanna, she is a real estate agent and native Houstonian based out of Pearland, Texas. Before becoming an agent, Breanna served in the United States Navy from 2011-2017 and now gives back to her community.

This week’s episode focuses on one of the biggest barriers to homeownership – student loans. In this Girlfunds episode, student loan expert Catalina Kaiyoorawongs shares her practical and tangible advice to people who feel overwhelmed by their student loan debt. She also speaks to parents who are walking their students through the student loan process, breaking down the long-term impacts that they might not be considering. Student loans and homeownership are closely tied together, and Catalina Kaiyoorawongs gives listeners the direction they need to navigate their debt to accomplish their goal to own a home.

This week’s episode of Girlfunds features Ashlee Weaver, who created a percentage-based budgeting journal. She is also a photographer, entrepreneur and mom. We highlight that she is a mom because during the episode, Ashlee shares her why behind making money, which is to make money to be a mom and spend more time with her kids. From this foundation, Ashlee shares how she created a percentage-based income budgeting book to help her and her husband take control of their finances.

We’re thrilled to have Financial Coach Frances Feinberg on the Girlfunds podcast as we focus on setting and creating 2021 financial goals and intentions. While we’re firm believers that you can set goals at any point in the year, the start of the year offers a great opportunity to begin the year with a fresh start. During the episode, we discuss actionable tips and challenges that can serve as a starting off point for creating your 2021 financial goals. We also take a step back from creating 2021 financial goals and try to address the building blocks and foundational elements that are creating how you view finances.

As we wrap up 2020, we’re excited to have a guest on Girlfunds that literally hits close to home. To help our listeners set and achieve New Year’s resolutions to buy a home this upcoming year, we sat down with Colorado Springs-based Real Estate Agent Scott Sanchez, who helped our host Brena Nath buy a home this year. This episode aims to answer your top home-buying questions for 2021, and set the record straight on some common misconceptions around buying a home. During this episode, we go through a list of the top home-buying questions to ask from Bankrate, diving into how to figure out your total budget, how much you should care about your potential future neighbors and what really goes into closing costs. After touching on the top home-buying questions, Scott Sanchez also touches on how to be a competitive buyer in today’s seller’s market and his thoughts on the best way to start the home-buying process.

We’re thrilled and honored to have HousingWire 2020 Woman of Influence Dava Davin on Girlfunds this week. In this episode, she not only shares her amazing insight and wisdom on the home-buying market but also on how to teach your kids about finances and being an empty nester. We also discuss everything from her best financial tip to her No. 1 piece of advice to people starting the homebuying process.

Courtney Poulos, who is not only the broker/owner of LA-based ACME Real Estate but is also a 2020 HousingWire Women of Influence, joins us on this week’s episode of Girlfunds. During the episode, she reframes the idea of buying a home, helping take fear out of the equation, and also shares how we can take control of our finances as women. This episode is packed with a ton of actionable tips that you can apply as a listener on how to take control of your finances and some extremely catchy quotes that you can’t help but feel inspired by. For example, during the interview, Courtney Poulos likens buying a home to dating, stating that buying your first home doesn’t need to be like buying your forever home, saying you should think of it as your long-term boyfriend but not your husband.

This week’s episode of Girlfunds features Tomeka Lynch Purcell, as she joins us to talk about her own passion for female financial empowerment. During the interview, she talks about why she strongly believes in helping women take ownership of their finances and how to repair your “broke mindset” when it comes to money. From how she brings money into the conversation with friends and family to how to teach your children about money management, Tomeka Lynch Purcell provides listeners with actionable tips around finances. For some background, Tomeka Lynch Purcell is an educator, entrepreneur, and financial coach. She specializes in helping women establish financial goals, build wealth, and change the way they think about money. She’s a nationally recognized financial empowerment coach, mentor, speaker and strategic planner with over 15 years of experience. Tapping into her background in financial planning, corporate finance, and real estate, Tomeka Lynch Purcell founded Credit Solutions Services, a credit and finance management firm, where she teaches women financial stability and wealth that encourages personal and financial assertiveness and evolution. Girlfunds takeaway tip from Tomeka Lynch Purcell:One thing I recommend for all of your friends who are willing to discuss things with you is to definitely talk about money. One of the ways to get them to do that is to let them know that you are open and that you're vulnerable and you understand their situation. Your friends won't talk with you if they only see you as someone who is never in a bind.Join the two best friends who met as financial journalists at HousingWire, Brena Nath, a twenty-something forever renter with her husband and pup, and Sarah Wheeler, an empty nester on her third home, every week for our girls night focused on everything from affording your best friend’s wedding to how to turn your side hustle into your main hustle. Each week, Girlfunds will have a special guest join us as we intertwine finance and friendship. And don’t worry, you don’t have to have your finances all together to join our girls nights. We’re all in this together to learn - women supporting women - and in the words of our producer, so we can all be #confidentqueens.

Rachel Symone Gilliam joins us for this week’s episode of Girlfunds, a female financial empowerment podcast where we intertwine finance and friendship. During the interview, Rachel not only shares how she sets goals in her own life, but how she empowers others to achieve their goals. From how she helps friends negotiate their salaries to how she bought her first home, Rachel gives actionable tips and advice on how she lives a life with purpose. And most notably, she shares all these stories with well being and mental health at the center, diving into what you need in your own life in order to be successful. For some background, Rachel is a speaker, encourager, host, digital marketer and more. She created a space on the internet to empower others to own their grief and their stories. As an advocate for mental, physical, and spiritual health, Rachel shares her journey and lessons learned along the way to help people live their best life on purpose. Girlfunds takeaway tip from Rachel Symone Gilliam: #1 As an enneagram 3, what parts of being an enneagram 3 do you think could be taken out of the enneagram world and really just be helpful, intentional tips that others could benefit from when it comes to setting intentions for themselves in life?You need to realize what you need to be successful every day. I've kind of coined this as my core four. And it'll change because I can have a core four for the day, I can have a core four for the week, or for the year or whatever time frame. But, what are the four things that you need to be successful for that period of time? Today, for me, because I'm having such a crazy work week, that is water, sleep, movement and supplements. I know I've had a successful day when I've checked off all of those boxes. Nothing else matters to me because that's what I need to be successful. But for you, it could be your core four for your finances. What are the four things you need to avoid in order to hit your goals? Or what are the four things that you need to be focusing on at work in order to hit your sales target or your marketing goals? I've adopted this core four a couple months ago, and it's been really great to live by.Join the two best friends who met as financial journalists at HousingWire, Brena Nath, a twenty-something forever renter with her husband and pup, and Sarah Wheeler, an empty nester on her third home, every week for our girls night focused on everything from affording your best friend’s wedding to how to turn your side hustle into your main hustle. Each week, Girlfunds will have a special guest join us as we intertwine finance and friendship. And don’t worry, you don’t have to have your finances all together to join our girls nights. We’re all in this together to learn - women supporting women - and in the words of our producer, so we can all be #confidentqueens.

Joining us this week on Girlfunds, we interview photographer and entrepreneur Jess Henderson. Weddings are often the first time we talk to our friends about our finances, making it the perfect topic for Girlfunds, where we intertwine finance and friendship. How can we navigate these initial financial conversations with friends, especially when it’s their special day? Also, as a bride, how can you set up a realistic budget but still get the wedding of your dreams? Jess shares her unique and insightful tips on these questions. For some background, Jess is a wedding photographer, owns a photography studio, and has also worked in the real estate industry. During the episode, we also discuss some of the greatest financial lessons she’s learned from running her own business, how to pursue a job that you’re passionate about and her biggest tip on how to buy a home. Girlfunds takeaway tip from Jess Henderson: #1 Weddings are often the first time friends talk about money with each other, have you ever seen this go badly? And if so, how do you think it could go well to prevent a potential strain in relationships.I think this goes back before you get to the wedding and your close friends that you're inviting to be a part of your wedding party or to help on that day. I think it's respectful to kind of know where people are without having to know what's in their bank account, if that makes sense. As a friend, I think it's nice to be situationally aware of one of your bridesmaids maybe expecting their first child or maybe they’re getting married two months after you and this is a large amount of time and money. All of those things that they have to figure out. And then, kind of giving permission to your bridesmaids to say back to you, that's too expensive. Join the two best friends who met as financial journalists at HousingWire, Brena Nath, a twenty-something forever renter with her husband and pup, and Sarah Wheeler, an empty nester on her third home, every week for our girls night focused on everything from affording your best friend’s wedding to how to turn your side hustle into your main hustle. Each week, Girlfunds will have a special guest join us as we intertwine finance and friendship. And don’t worry, you don’t have to have your finances all together to join our girls nights. We’re all in this together to learn - women supporting women - and in the words of our producer, so we can all be #confidentqueens.

We couldn’t be more thrilled about interviewing a real estate agent for the second episode of Girlfunds, a show where we give you our two cents on money. They say money talks, so why can’t we? We love to talk with our girlfriends about everything — except our finances. We’re here to bring money back into the conversation with our sisters — and that includes you. For our second episode, we interview LA-based Real Estate Agent Xio Sandoval For some background on Xio Sandoval, she has been a leading and respected Latina Realtor since 2004. Recently, ranking number 19 in California with CENTURY 21, she is among the nation’s Top 250 National Association Of Hispanice Realtors (NAHREP) and distinguished by the Montebello Board of Realtors since 2014 as the number one agent in sales, total listings, and most escrows closed.During the episode, we discuss how she is helping her clients lock in a home in today’s competitive market, along with some creative financial ways she has helped people buy a home, like renting out the basement. Girlfunds takeaway tip from Xio Sandoval: #1 What tips would you give potential homebuyers when it comes to creating a budget to save for a home? Or even, where to start on a six-month plan or a one-year plan?You do have the families who are just not ready, whether it's credit or down payment. So, we meet with the lender anyways, and we give them a financial analysis as to where they're at right now and what they need to do to get to the purchasing stage. Sometimes it's paying down credit card debt. Sometimes it's saving additional money towards the down payment fund. Sometimes it's knowing that, hey, you know what, we probably don't need the full 3% or 3.5%. Let’s see if you qualify for one of the state's down payment assistance programs. We really just tailor their scenario to them at the time. And if they're not ready to buy, we put them in a database, and they get drip mail for me once a month. And they get phone calls for me maybe twice a month, just making sure that they know that we're here. Join the two best friends who met as financial journalists at HousingWire, Brena Nath, a twenty-something forever renter with her husband and pup, and Sarah Wheeler, an empty nester on her third home, every week for our girls night focused on everything from affording your best friend’s wedding to how to turn your side hustle into your main hustle. Each week, Girlfunds will have a special guest join us as we intertwine finance and friendship. And don’t worry, you don’t have to have your finances all together to join our girls nights. We’re all in this together to learn - women supporting women - and in the words of our producer, so we can all be #confidentqueens.

We couldn’t be more excited to launch Girlfunds, a show where we give you our two cents on money. They say money talks, so why can’t we? We love to talk with our girlfriends about everything — except our finances. We’re here to bring money back into the conversation with our sisters — and that includes you. For this week’s episode, we sat down with Kendall Berry, a certified financial educator and money coach. For some background on Kendall Berry, she is a certified financial educator and a graduate of the Ramsey Solutions Financial Coach Master Training program. She discovered her passion for personal finance after going through her own journey of paying off over $53,000 in debt.During the episode, we discuss some of the foundational elements to financial empowerment and taking control of your finances. Kendall Berry shares why she is so passionate about finances, along with some tips on where to start when it comes to gaining financial freedom and how to create a plan that is sustainable. Girlfunds takeaway tip from Kendall Berry: #1 Why do you think people struggle with budgeting and how can you stick to it?It sounds really easy when I talk about it right there, but so many people, even when they get this information, don't stick with it. I think what it really comes down to is the same reason that people don't stick with other healthy habits – either they haven't given it enough time to become an ingrained habit or they don't have a big enough why. When it comes to taking enough time for it to become an ingrained habit, I like to suggest to people, “Let's take the next three to six months and make this your thing.” Just like you would if you're trying to get into a workout routine, or something else. Make this your thing. Set a reminder every day and make sure that you're in the budget and in your financial situation often, so that it becomes second nature to you. Once it becomes one of those ingrained habits, it's not as difficult. It's not as time consuming. It's just something that you're checking up on. That comes really easily. But then, of course, not having a big enough why, that can really stop people from staying motivated with their budget. I like to help people dig deep. What's the real reason this is important to you? Do you have children that you want to create a better life for? Do you want to have children? That was my why that was really motivating. And it's usually not the first thing that people say. It's like, okay, but why? But why? And it's way down there. So once people have to dig deep and understand why they're doing this, that can really help them stay motivated.Join the two best friends who met as financial journalists at HousingWire, Brena Nath, a twenty-something forever renter with her husband and pup, and Sarah Wheeler, an empty nester on her third home, every week for our girls night focused on everything from affording your best friend’s wedding to how to turn your side hustle into your main hustle. Each week, Girlfunds will have a special guest join us as we intertwine finance and friendship. And don’t worry, you don’t have to have your finances all together to join our girls nights. We’re all in this together to learn - women supporting women - and in the words of our producer, so we can all be #confidentqueens.