Episodes

What if the secret to taking the next step was actually surrendering control? Fannie Mae West sits down with Tressa Pope, founder of the Loan Officer Playbook, for a conversation about building up your team the right way, so that you have a chance to grow without burning out. Tressa brings over 25 years of mortgage experience and a first-hand understanding of what happens when you have the right LOA in place, and what happens when you don’t. They talk about why most training programs can miss...

Episode 68: Adaptability, Resilience, and Leading Through Uncertainty with Christine Beckwith Hosted by Jonathon Haddad, AIME’s Chairman & CEO, and Tommy Golightly, AIME’s Marketing Manager, featuring special guest Christine Beckwith, CEO of 20/20 Vision for Success Coaching & Consulting. Jonathon and Tommy are joined by Christine Beckwith for a deep conversation about what it takes to survive and thrive in any market. Christine shares her journey through multiple industry cycles, the importa...

Episode 67: “This Happened. Now What?” Hosted by Jonathon Haddad, AIME’s Chairman & CEO, alongside Tommy Golightly, AIME’s Marketing Manager. In this episode, Jonathon shares a deeply personal story about his great-grandmother, who lost everything and still found a path forward. Her motto, “This happened, now what?” became the foundation for a three-step framework that applies to sales, business, and life. Broker Buzz – Whether a mortgage debt can be excluded from DTI if someone else has bee...

What if the hardest thing that ever happened to you was actually the thing that set you up for your greatest success? In this episode, Amanda LeDuc sits down with Allison Thenhaus for a conversation about resilience, reinvention, and building a business that truly fits your life. Allison shares her remarkable journey from a life changing detour in her twenties that forced her to rebuild, to becoming a thriving mortgage professional who now travels seventy days a year with her daughter to horse...

Episode 66: Controlling the Conversation Hosted by Jonathon Haddad, AIME’s Chairman & CEO, alongside Tommy Golightly, AIME’s Marketing Manager. In this episode, Jonathon and Tommy break down advanced sales techniques for taking control of conversations with clients, agents, and team members. Jonathon shares a six step framework that moves beyond basic objection handling and into true conversation leadership. Broker Buzz – The best tools for seamless team communication, including Slack and Ro...

Episode 65: Leading the Conversation with Confidence Hosted by Jonathon Haddad, AIME’s Chairman & CEO, alongside Tommy Golightly, AIME’s Marketing Manager. In this episode, Jonathon and Tommy share practical strategies for taking control of sales conversations without being aggressive or rude. Drawing from lessons learned in his grandmother’s home, Jonathon explains how to be direct, kind, and effective all at once. Broker Buzz – Whether a property inspection report can be transferred like a...

In this episode, Julie Yarbrough sits down with Elizabeth Cassidy, an Air Force veteran, military spouse, and mother of four who also happens to be one of the most outspoken and successful VA loan officers in the country. Elizabeth shares what it really means to fight for veteran families, from the moment a listing agent told her an amputee from Afghanistan didn’t have “enough skin in the game” to the cease and desist letters she’s turned into paper airplanes. She also talks about balancing a ...

Episode 64: How & When to Fire Your Real Estate Agent Hosted by Jonathon Haddad, AIME’s Chairman & CEO, alongside Tommy Golightly, AIME’s Marketing Manager. In this episode, Jonathon and Tommy discuss a difficult but necessary skill for any loan officer: knowing when a partnership is doing more harm than good and how to end it professionally. Broker Buzz – The latest AI compliance guidance from Fannie Mae, including the eight things every broker must do regarding governance, documentation, a...

Episode 63: Proactive vs. Reactive Sales Hosted by Jonathon Haddad, AIME’s Chairman & CEO, alongside Tommy Golightly, AIME’s Marketing Manager. In this episode, Jonathon and Tommy explore the fundamental difference between loan officers who consistently close deals and those who watch opportunities slip away. The gap is not talent or luck. It is preparation. Broker Buzz – Whether a husband who is a realtor can use his three percent commission as a gift for his wife’s cash to close, and what ...

What if your superpower wasn’t just closing loans, but helping people truly understand what they’re signing for the first time? In this episode, Melissa Rifai sits down with Jade Taylor, broker owner of her own mortgage company, for a beautiful conversation about serving the Brazilian community and building a business around connection, not just transactions. She opens up about the early days when she almost gave up after six months without a single contract, how her husband pushed her to keep...

Episode 62: Building Relationships That Last with Jason Taormina Hosted by Jonathon Haddad, AIME’s Chairman & CEO, and Tommy Golightly, AIME’s Marketing Manager, featuring special guest Jason Taormina of AutoPayPlus. In this episode, Jonathon and Tommy are joined by Jason Taormina to discuss what it really means to run a relationship based business in an industry that constantly pushes you toward the next deal. Jason shares how loan officers can stay connected with borrowers after closing, hel...

Episode 61: Certainty Over Information Hosted by Jonathon Haddad, AIME’s Chairman & CEO, and Tommy Golightly, AIME’s Marketing Manager. In this episode, Jonathon and Tommy discuss the fundamental shift in how consumers approach major financial decisions. With five hundred million weekly users on ChatGPT and nearly half a billion on Reddit, your clients are already researching before they call. The question is no longer about whether they have information or not. The new question is whether yo...

What if the hardest part of running your own brokerage wasn’t the loans, the systems, or the compliance, but learning to say no? In this episode, Amy Hulett sits down with Ashlin Endter, broker owner and CEO of 4MG Mortgage LLC, for a raw and real conversation about building a business from the ground up. Ashlin gets real about her journey from single mom to running a multi-state brokerage and gets honest about the confidence that drove her to open her own shop, the hard lessons she learned al...

Episode 60: Cash Out Refinances, Reciprocity, and Never Showing Up Empty Handed Hosted by Jonathon Haddad, AIME’s Chairman & CEO, and Tommy Golightly, AIME’s Marketing Manager. Episode 60 is here and in this milestone episode, Jonathon and Tommy reflect on consistency, community, and the strategies that separate top producers from everyone else. Jonathon shares six actionable steps for winning more cash out refinances and explains a psychological principle that has guided his entire career. ...

In this episode, Christine Beckwith sits down with Sparkle Swann Middlebrook, a newer loan officer who walked into her very first industry event knowing absolutely no one. She traveled through a hurricane, slept in her car, and showed up anyway. That decision changed everything. Sparkle gets real about the intimidation of being new, the power of sitting at the right table, and how being welcomed into Women’s Mortgage Network gave her the confidence to keep going. Christine shares her own story ...

Episode 59: No Company Will Save You From Yourself Hosted by Jonathon Haddad, AIME’s Chairman & CEO, and Tommy Golightly, AIME’s Marketing Manager. In this episode, Jonathon and Tommy respond to an anonymous post from a new loan officer asking which company to join for guaranteed success. Jonathon delivers a candid reality check about mental toughness, pain tolerance, and why you have to fix yourself before any company can help you. Broker Buzz – How to choose a CRM, and why the tool matters...

Episode 58: Cash Out Refinances, Effective Interest Rates, and Having the Hard Conversations Hosted by Jonathon Haddad, AIME’s Chairman & CEO, and Tommy Golightly, AIME’s Marketing Manager. In this episode, Jonathon and Tommy dig into fresh HMDA data that reveals a massive gap between retail and broker cash out refinance volume. Jonathon shares three things that every broker needs to do in order to start winning more of these deals. Broker Buzz – How to approach a twenty one million dollar p...

What if you stopped chasing a hundred loans a month and started focusing on the two families you could truly help instead? In this episode, Nike T. Ojo sits down with Meredith Herr, co-owner of Lake Tahoe Mortgage, for a warm and honest conversation about building a mortgage business that fits your life, not the other way around. Meredith shares how she went from IPO consulting to working alongside her dad, why she calls herself a “mortgage coach,” and how she helps first-time homebuyers get p...

Episode 57: AI, Objections, and Knowing the Difference Between ‘an answer’ and ‘The Answer’ Hosted by Jonathon Haddad, AIME’s Chairman & CEO, and Tommy Golightly, AIME’s Marketing Manager. In this episode, Jonathon and Tommy explore how artificial intelligence is changing the way borrowers prepare for conversations with loan officers. They share practical strategies for staying ahead of AI-informed clients, handling objections with confidence, and knowing when to trust the technology and when...

Episode 56: Framing, AI, and the Art of Asking Better Questions Hosted by Jonathon Haddad, AIME’s Chairman & CEO, and Tommy Golightly, AIME’s Marketing Manager. In this episode, Jonathon and Tommy explore how the right mindset and the right questions can transform your sales conversations. They dig into listener questions about real-world borrower challenges and share practical advice on using AI as a practice tool rather than a crutch. Broker Buzz – Why an IRS tax lien that transfers from p...

What if you stopped trying to make a hundred phone calls and just focused on having five conversations instead? That simple shift changed everything for Kym Mason. In this episode, Julie Yarbrough sits down with Kym Mason, the creator of the Mason Method, for a raw and energizing conversation about habits, mindset, and the power of showing up as yourself. Kym shares how a traumatic brain injury forced her to rely on the systems she had built, why she stopped chasing someone else’s definition o...

Episode 55: Ascent, Tone Setting, and ‘How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything’ Hosted by Jonathon Haddad, AIME’s Chairman & CEO, and Tommy Golightly, AIME’s Marketing Manager. Fresh off the AIME Ascent VIP retreat in Puerto Rico, Jonathon and Tommy reflect on what it takes to bring together top producers, set the right tone, and create an environment where even the most successful people in the room can lower their guard and grow. Broker Buzz – Navigating hard money and credit union op...

What if the biggest thing standing between you and the life you want isn’t your business, but your belief that you have to do it all alone? In this episode, Nicole Ahles sits down with one of the most respected leaders in the mortgage industry, Cindy Ertman. Cindy spent nearly three decades as a top producing loan officer, a branch manager, and an executive leader before stepping into her true calling: helping others rise. Cindy gets real about the moment she realized she needed help, how she ...

Episode 54: Compliance, Culture, and Managing Conflicts Hosted by Jonathon Haddad, AIME’s Chairman & CEO, and Tommy Golightly, AIME’s Marketing Manager. In this episode, Jonathon and Tommy dig into listener questions about the real-world challenges of running a brokerage, from compliance gray areas to keeping the peace among producing loan officers. Broker Buzz – Whether an affiliated business agreement is needed when a realtor also owns a mortgage company and handles both sides of a transac...