Exhibiting Exceptional Leadership Aribues

Any institution, whether it is society or organization, in the present century cannot function effectively without women’s equal participation in leadership activities. Women create a perspective that brings to competition and collaboration to organizations and teams.

In today’s world, organizations that are led by inclusive leadership teams make effective decisions that deliver a better result.

In the twenty-first century, the essential qualities required to lead include the ability to collaborate, connect, empathize and communicate. All these qualities exhibit sheet aptness in nature and assist in building a more sustainable future.

Standing out with these significant qualities is Christy Mindell , Executive Vice President of Marketing , at Champions Funding

Champions Funding is a lender focused organization on the wholesale/third-party origination platform where Christy and team empower mortgage brokers and originators to help underserved borrowers who have been either turned down for a loan from a traditional lender or have haven underbanked and marginalized when it comes to obtaining financing.

Under Christy’s leadership, the organization is driven with the ideology to maintain seamless interaction with clients, customers, vendors, and each other is important and their voice is heard.

In an interview with CIOLook, Christy shares valuable facts that highlight her professional tenure and her journey along with the challenges in the dynamic business arena.

Following are the excerpts from the interview:

Brief our audience about your journey as a business leader until your current position at Champions Funding. What challenges have you had to overcome to reach where you are today?

I’ve always been interested in the banking arena since I was a kid. I took a ROP high school course that specialized in banking and finance, thinking one that day I’d like to be a bank teller. My path led me to my first “real” job working as a Front Desk Coordinator at a Remax office with 4 locations which quickly led to a more senior role where I was doing Administrative work like accounting, signing up new Realtors, etc. I was going to college and took a real estate course so I could get my license to show new model homes with a builder. At least, that was my goal then.

Fast forward to a few jobs later and I found my way into a Private Money/Hard Money lender who primarily financed commercial real estate through trust deed investing. It was fascinating. I started as the Executive

Assistant to the CEO. Besides my assistant duties, I also helped with sales and marketing, which wasn’t really formalized, nor did he have established departments, so I started running those. After finding success, I asked to be his Director of Marketing and created my own role. He agreed, and we built a sales and marketing department. I hired and formed teams.

I had to quickly learn how to manage others, from identifying candidates who would fit the company culture, to training, to being effective in work, to effective communication and workflow, to motivational support; all the while, I’m still learning for myself since I was in my 20s. And because I was in my 20s, leading people much older than me, I was faced with resentment and belief that I wasn’t fit for a managing role.

I’d find it a challenge to turn those doubters into believers through hard work and walking the walk alongside them, support for their work, and enabling them to grow their career in new ways.

I fell in love with marketing along the way, and it allowed me to put into practice what I’ve learned; I had great mentor bosses who showed me the way, and ultimately got my bachelor’s degree with an emphasis in marketing, working full time as a marketer.

After 13 years and a mortgage meltdown later, I found myself looking for a new adventure that took me to residential lending. I stepped out of my comfort zone to learn a new way of life in the mortgage. Walking into an existing marketing team, building cohesion within the marketing departments, bridging a gap with the sales team and finding opportunities for growth for everyone. Taking action was my mantra and mission.

That passion and that success led to more advanced roles that ultimately led me to run marketing teams for mortgage lenders, such as my role today as EVP of Marketing. It’s been a passion of mine to make a difference and help others. I’ve been grateful for the journey, in both the ups and downs, of it all because it led me to what I’m today.

Tell us something more about your company and its mission and vision.

We fill that gap in the market with products that help achieve homeownership goals. We are a Community

Development Financial Institution (CDFI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Treasury to provide nontraditional access to mortgage financing with a mission to serve underserved communities as well.

Enlighten us on how you have impacted the marketing niche through your expertise in the market.

I’d say the biggest contribution to marketing and the companies I work for is the ability to bridge the gap between sales and marketing. That has always been the area with the biggest disconnect. I believe the strong partnership between departments and the trust between departmental stakeholders earns the biggest rewards. I believe that you are always listening, finding cues, learning, asking questions and finding what you need.

When you get to be a part of the whole process from the beginning of the client journey before they even know about you, all the way to the end, where they are funding loans and everything in between, it gives you the power to craft messaging that resonates with them. Through those efforts I’ve been able to create stronger content with my marketing teams and creating company-wide brand ambassadors at every organization.

Describe in detail the values and the work culture that drives your organization.

When I get asked about our work culture, it’s the synergy we have towards a common goal. We are all salespeople and brand ambassadors. We believe every interaction with clients, customers, vendors, and each other is important and their voice is heard. The mission of helping underserved communities is also a driver where we can lock arms and perform our services to help someone in need.

Within my own team, I focus on empowerment and levelling up. I want my team to know that I will always align work to their strengths yet push them in areas that I see they could excel in even though they don’t see it themselves. I motivate them through empowerment to make decisions for themselves.

They use me as a source for making sure they are on the right path but ultimately, they are “driving their own business” as I like to call it. As a leader, I also make myself 100% available to my team at any time. I have an open-door policy that even includes after hours.

If they have concerns or obstacles, it’s my job to help them clear the path or guide them in a way to get a successful outcome. I believe open communication has been key to running a successful marketing team with little turnover.

Undeniably, technology is playing a significant role in almost every sector. How are you leveraging technological advancements to make your solutions resourceful?

At Champions Funding, we were a startup in early 2022. Technology is very important to us, and building out the tools needed to ramp up, fund loans and succeed quickly was at the top of our list. Within 6 months, we built a custom UI interface for our broker portal that helps price a loan, submit and fund a loan with minimal clicking to do. It almost deems no training manual, although we still have one. It’s that simple.

We’ve also been able to build a CRM from scratch to empower marketing and sales to reach as many prospects and clients as we can.

We’ve used technology in a way to make our workflows streamlined and had the advantage of mortgage experience in our respective roles to bring modern technology to the company and build it out, without legacy technology, systems or data.

It continues to evolve, and we take our client feedback and put it into action where it takes us days, not weeks or months, to implement. That’s how nimble we are with technology.

What, according to you, could be the next significant change in the marketing sector? How is your company preparing to be a part of that change?

I see the next notable change in marketing is using technology tools to make our work more efficient when marketing resources are limited. The amount of content being created is high and in constant demand. Using tools that have hit recent news, like AI, can enable us to use resources wisely.

Another sector that is still underutilized is the ability to scale video marketing and streamline the production efforts for an integrated marketing team. At Champions Funding, we have started to employ some strategies that will help a lean marketing team perform as a large agency would.

Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run, and what are your future goals for Champions Funding?

In the long run, I see Champions as the #1 choice for non-qm mortgage lending options because we’ve earned the trust of our business partners/clients. Our future goals is to be an educational resource and thought leader to help originators earn more income through these products and educate real estate professionals to help their homebuyers understand the financing options out there for them.

In regard to marketing, I see us moving to a more personalized marketing platform that appeals to the client where they are in their client lifecycle stage. Building upon relationship marketing through the use of video, social and direct communications to help educate and inform what we can do to help them.

What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the marketing sector?

The biggest advice I could give to entrepreneurs is to be intentional with your time. Give yourself a chance to develop and learn your craft. Once you learn a skill, find a way to apply it in business. Choose progress over perfection. Striving for quality is very important but don’t hold up a project or work in spite of it. Understand and appreciate the process and the evolving way your content is created.

There’s no formula that makes a successful marketer. Everyone is on their own journey and has their own path to get to marketing. It is with listening, being curious, learning, and entrenching yourself into the business, people, and the work is where you find connections that you can tailor your marketing around and grow.

One last piece of advice is to stay humble and help others with no intention of receiving anything – as a byproduct of that mantra; good things will happen.