Her story might start out like one you’ve heard before, but by the end, we believe you’ll find this story to be one of a kind. Whiteboard CRM President Kevin Ducey sat down to chat with Brittany Black about how she got started working in the mortgage industry; continue reading to learn more about her exciting tale.
When her marriage ended in divorce, Brittany knew she would be re-entering the full-time working world. She hadn’t focused on a full-time career outside the home prior to her relationship change, instead choosing to focus on raising her three young children – but now she knew she needed to do something more.
With a hiccup in her first attempt at finding her path, she soon heard of an opportunity close to home as an office assistant and started learning about working in the mortgage industry. From there, 10 years later, possessing a wealth of knowledge and connections in the mortgage industry, Brittany Black is proud of her role at Kismet Lending.
Creating a niche in the mortgage industry
In 2019, Brittany chose to leave the comfort of the team she had been working with for the previous eight years and started something completely new with a friend, Jessi Bostic. Together Brittany and Jessi built Kismet Lending on a solid foundation filled with industry awareness, transparency, education, and empowerment as the key components.
She was nervous for a few reasons – it was her first time working in the industry without the team she had been working with for the last eight years, hers was a brand-new business that would rely solely on her and her friend, and they were coming out with strong opinions about some practices that were currently considered standard.
“Everyone knows in the mortgage industry there can be collusion,” Brittany said. “And there was a huge crash in 2008 and mortgage brokers took a lot of the blame for that whether it was theirs to take or not.”
Another issue in the mortgage industry is known as “marketing service agreements”. These agreements would happen when a lender would go to a realtor’s office and in return for making them their “premiere lender,” they would pay for a ton of mortgage marketing materials. The problem happened when the buyers wound up paying the price for all this collusion.
At Kismet Lending, Brittany and her circle knew that was exactly the kind of thing they stood against. As they created their business, they were diligent in sharing the truth and being transparent about industry practices, as well as what they were willing to do and what they were not.
Going a step further
Brittany’s team at Kismet Lending may be small, but what they lack in size they make up for in gumption. All five women are self-described self-improvement junkies and are continually trying to not only make their own lives better, but improve the lives of their families, friends, and community.
“We really believe that our mindset, our spirituality, what we’re surrounding ourselves with is very important – is the most important thing we can do for ourselves,” Brittany said. “We’ve intertwined that with the people that we work with and with our clients.”
Brittany continued talking about hosting events like “Yoga in the Park” or classes where they teach about awareness – including information about whom you are surrounding yourself with and how that can affect your life. Brittany and her fellows at Kismet Lending are excited to empower their community and help them tap into their spirituality.
What other brokers have you met who were this concerned about the lives of their customers, partners, and community?
Two key points of advice from Brittany Black
As Kevin and Brittany’s conversation began to come to a close, Kevin asked Brittany one last question. He wanted to know what advice she would share with someone who was new to the industry. In response, she shared her TWO favorite bits of advice.
Ask all the questions.
Brittany’s first bit of advice was to make sure you never let an opportunity for absorbing knowledge pass you by. She goes on to underline the fact to make sure you don’t take the answer for granted, however.
“Know how to look up the answer and find out if it is right,” said Brittany.
Use a good CRM.
Brittany’s second bit of advice means a lot to us here at Whiteboard but wasn’t prompted by us. She chose to underline the fact that for more than nine years of her career she didn’t use a CRM and lost track of many customers she could have continually been in touch with throughout the years.
When you’re ready to learn more about Whiteboard – if you’re curious if it would be the right choice for your business – schedule a demo. We’ve got answers, and if we’re not the right choice for your business we’ll be glad to help you figure that out too.
