By Laura Brandao, President of American Financial Resources, Inc.

January is National Mentoring Month, and a new year is the perfect time to explore the positive impact that mentoring can have. Whether you are the mentor or the mentee, there are a myriad of benefits. In fact, mentoring has proved so beneficial that 71 percent of Fortune 500 companies offer mentoring programs to their employees.

Success only happens when both parties take responsibility for making it work. Mentorship requires a willingness to reflect on and share one’s own experiences, including one’s failures. There is tremendous benefit to being vulnerable enough to seek out and accept guidance from a mentor. As women, we have to be ok with saying, “I need help.”

There is also tremendous value in opening yourself up to candidly sharing your experience, and being willing to commit time to mentor others. Women must take ownership in empowering other women.

As the first female president of CNN Productions and PBS, and the first woman to own and host a nationally syndicated daily talk show, Pat Mitchell is a serial ceiling smasher. She is also a passionate mentor, who believes mentoring is one of the strategies that can close the gender gap in leadership. Now serving the world as the editorial director of TEDWomen, Pat Mitchell has spent decades demonstrating that mentoring is one lever we can activate to advance more women in their work, to help them gain access to capital and economic opportunities they might otherwise miss, and to be better prepared for opportunities when they come.

Women’s Mortgage Network

In the past several months, I have witnessed an outpouring of women empowering other women in our industry. In less than a year, the Women’s Mortgage Network (WMN)has grown from its inaugural summit to a growing network of more than 2,300 actively supportive mortgage professionals. Last March, 50 women, who serve in various positions throughout the industry, were invited to engage in an intensive workshop which highlighted collaboration and communication, and culminated in an affirmation exercise that many women have memorialized in their respective offices to provide an ongoing source of motivation. Every day since, I have witnessed women opening themselves up to ask for the help they need, and reaching out to help others.

The broker/owner of Next Generation Home Loans, which is headquartered in Littleton, CO with additional branches in NM and TX, decided to answer a challenge to be intentional in bringing new talent into our industry. Since she was previously a corporate trainer, Jackie Dunlap figured she could tackle training her team during COVID. But that quickly evolved into, “How can I help?”

Well, Jackie took to YouTube and starting offering training to anyone who expressed an interest. She broke down loan processing into digestible sessions, and began offering boot camps. As of August 2020, Jackie had trained hundreds of mortgage newbies, had over 1,000 subscribers to her YouTube channel, and had given out 15 scholarships to people who had been negatively affected by COVID. Her mortgage processor training, now available under The Mortgage Calculator moniker, is still going strong, and still bringing new talent into our industry, while helping them prepare to add value.

Another mortgage broker, in Tucson, AZ, accepted a challenge to be her own inspiration for the year ahead. On April 1, Amorette Hernandez, or #MoeTheMortgageLady, wrote a love letter to herself. She did not see it again for eight months, splitting her time between her company office, home office, and working from the road, traveling to support her daughter’s softball pursuits. She rediscovered the letter while cleaning up and organizing her office over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, and shared it with her “sisters” in WMN, in case they needed to hear the message for their own encouragement.

“I see you struggling with the daily decisions you have to make and the amount of stress you are constantly under. Know that I am proud of you, running towards finding solutions instead of cowering in a corner. You are a fierce leader and I know you hold yourself back. Believe in yourself and know that the power you hold inside is exactly what you need to get to the next level you so deserve. Believe that you’ve got the power to control your schedule and make time for yourself. You are beautiful and deserve to age beautifully. Be selfish so that you have more of yourself to give to others. Be relentless as you continue to run towards the future. Be faithful in knowing that He is already working on the path ahead of you. I love you and I’m cheering for you. Love, Me”

No Guts, No Glory

As a young woman coming up in the mortgage industry, there were no women leaders to be found. I learned very early on that I would have to figure things out for myself, or seek out people with the specific knowledge or skills I wanted to gain, and ask a lot of questions to learn what I needed to advance my career. I had to find a way to self-mentor during a time when information was not so readily available as it is today.

So now, when someone has the courage to approach me to request mentoring, I say yes!

One such woman called me last fall, following a presentation I did at a virtual conference. She didn’t know me, she had never even met me, but she had the guts to approach me. Jessica Fitzgibbons was a successful insurance broker and was trying to get to the executive level. We scheduled a call, and she started by asking questions about my career path, and then jumped into sharing her journey, her current situation, and obstacles she was trying to overcome. I asked her a number of direct questions and suggested a few things to try in certain scenarios. We scheduled our next call to check in and follow up.

Truth be told, I learned from her just as much as she learned from me. I gained insight into how she processes things, from her perspective, and at her level in the organization. In her telling me “my boss said this,” she was teaching me what my team could be hearing when I say certain things. By being candid and vulnerable, Jessica has helped me be a better leader.

Benefits of Mentorship

Among the numerous benefits, a successful mentoring relationship can help escalate a career, including promotions, raises, and increased opportunities. It is no secret that organizations that embrace mentoring are often rewarded with higher levels of employee engagement, retention, and knowledge sharing.

But let’s take a closer look. Individual mentees open themselves up to:

• Gaining experience from seasoned professionals
• Enhancing their strengths, and getting assistance overcoming their weaknesses
• Creating concrete goals and career-enhancing activities
• Personal development, and a sounding board for innovative ideas and strategic thinking

Mentors have a lot to gain as well. They open themselves up to insights into other fields, younger generation issues, and partaking in a conscious reflection about one’s own career. Mentorship provides mentors the opportunity to facilitate the growth of young talent, and encourage other women in the workforce.

When and How Do We Mentor

We need to be willing to be a mentor when and where needed.

Being a mentor is about asking smart questions, not having all the answers. As mentors we need to resist the urge to provide direct advice. Instead, offer supportive advice so that your mentee has the information to make her own decisions, which she’ll then be able to stand by with greater confidence.

Our careers and our lives often go through cycles. We continuously need to learn to grow and continue to be successful. Sometime you should be the mentor, and sometimes you need to be the mentee. All women should know that they have the power to succeed, and we each have value to impart to others. We should all aspire to leave our industry better than when we arrived.

Say YES to mentoring and empowering others.