00:00I say to the Young Professionals Group all the time,
00:03you have to take initiative of your own path,
00:06your own journey, whatever that looks like for you,
00:08whatever you want that to be.
00:17Hi, everyone.
00:18I'm excited to be here.
00:19I'm with Ashley Yarbanek.
00:20She is the Director of Member Relations with the MBA,
00:24who also runs the residential side of their MPAC program.
00:28You are, I want to say, hot off the press,
00:30because that's the news term that we kind of say.
00:33But you are hot off of coming from the IMB conference.
00:36So first off, I hope you had a great trip and safe travels.
00:41Yeah, happy to be here.
00:43Landed very late last night, so happy to be home.
00:47But it was an awesome conference.
00:50Incredible takeaways.
00:51Always nice to see my industry friends and colleagues.
00:54So great, great time in Austin.
00:57Even though I think it's one of the last days of January
01:01when recording this, I feel like you've already
01:03been to at least a few, a couple conferences.
01:05You have a really good in-person sentiment
01:10on how the industry is feeling about 2025.
01:13Now that you've been to those events,
01:14I mean, specifically even looking at IMB,
01:16what have you been hearing?
01:17What is the feeling?
01:18What is the tone that you're getting from the industry
01:20right now?
01:21Really excited.
01:23I keep hearing the phrase thrive in 25,
01:26and so that's what I'm going to go with.
01:27I feel like a lot of the colleagues that I spoke to
01:31and industry professionals that I just
01:32saw in Austin for IMB are excited.
01:37They're a little definitely looking to us,
01:42especially with the new administration change.
01:44There's a lot of unknowns.
01:45But I think overall, there's hopefulness, excitement.
01:50There's growth.
01:52Hopefully, I want to say that people
01:56are really looking ahead, and I think
01:58it's going to be a really great, great year.
02:01That is what's personally, as the person who kind of oversees
02:04our events here at HousingWire, we have four of them.
02:06One of my favorite reasons to come together in person
02:09is you kind of leave with this air of,
02:13I don't even know if the word is hope,
02:15but coming together really just creates this new momentum
02:19of how you can conquer the year going forward.
02:20We're all in this together, and you notice that
02:23when you're at an event.
02:24Absolutely.
02:25I couldn't agree more.
02:26I feel like always being in person, it's this energy.
02:29It's this excitement.
02:30I keep saying I run off of caffeine and adrenaline
02:32when I'm at those events, and the adrenaline just
02:34keeps going.
02:35I feel like I haven't come down to earth yet.
02:38But that's the excitement part.
02:40That's exciting to come home and, like you said,
02:42continue that momentum and really build off of that energy.
02:45I really feel it this year.
02:47The amount of coffee you drink at a conference
02:49does not count in my book.
02:51You can have unlimited amount if you're traveling for work.
02:54That's good, because it's way too much.
02:57On that same note, I mean, you kind of touched on it well.
03:00We are at the turn of a chapter as far as even
03:02with a new mission to a new year.
03:04It's a new all at once.
03:07You specifically have a great pulse
03:09on what's going on with young professionals
03:11and how this industry is supporting young professionals,
03:13helping them move forward.
03:15I mean, looking at it through your lens of impact,
03:17how can young professionals make an impact right now
03:20in 2025 or January even?
03:23There's so many different opportunities
03:25for the young professionals to get involved.
03:28And so I want to kind of start this and preface it with
03:32MPACT is the Young Professionals Networking Group within MBA.
03:37It is for anybody in the industry who is 40 and under.
03:41You actually don't even have to be an MBA member
03:43to be a part of MPACT.
03:45So if your company for any reason isn't a member,
03:48send them to me first and I'll make them a member
03:50or hopefully make them a member.
03:52But you can join MPACT regardless.
03:55And there's so many different things
03:57that we're doing on this side.
03:59I do quarterly webinars focusing
04:01on professional development skills.
04:03I put a lot of the MPACTers that come to conferences
04:08in front of opportunities for them to meet a mentor.
04:11So there's so many different ways to network
04:14and come together and really come with your peers.
04:18But the biggest thing that I would say,
04:20especially if you really want to make an impact
04:23and do something to create lasting change
04:27within the industry as a young professional
04:29is focusing on the advocacy piece.
04:33There was a webinar that we did previously
04:36just a couple of weeks ago
04:38on young professionals using their voices,
04:40both on the state association level
04:42and the federal association level.
04:44So MBA as a whole.
04:46And there is multiple different ways to start,
04:50whether you're able to come to conferences or not.
04:54The first one I would say is you can always start locally
04:57with your own state association, state chapters.
05:00They have different ways for young professionals
05:03to get engaged, whether that's on the state
05:07or Capitol Hill days that they have
05:09with their own advocacy efforts.
05:10You can always ask them to learn more
05:12about what bills they're looking at,
05:14what pieces of legislation their current state is looking at
05:18and why and how that impacts them
05:20and how that impacts the industry as a whole.
05:22Just another way to learn.
05:24But then if you are able to travel to a conference
05:27as a young professional, any conference,
05:29I would say as a young professional,
05:32hands down come to the NAC
05:34or the National Advocacy Conference.
05:36This year it is April 8th and 9th in Washington, D.C.
05:40And our legislative team does an absolutely incredible job
05:45the first day prepping you for everything
05:48that you're gonna see on the second day,
05:50which is the Capitol Hill day.
05:51And that's the most exciting piece to me.
05:53And especially as a young professional,
05:55being able to use my voice and see how my voice
05:59is actually impacting change
06:01and impacting the people that are on Capitol Hill.
06:04We always think of people on Capitol Hill
06:06like the congressmen and the senators
06:08and that's who we're meeting with,
06:09but we're also meeting with their staffers.
06:11And the staffers a lot of times are younger than me
06:14and I'm 32.
06:15And sometimes they are fresh out of college
06:17and they're 23, 24, 25
06:19and they know nothing about the industry.
06:21So you are the, I'll say the smartest one in the room
06:24when it comes to the mortgage industry at that moment.
06:27So it's our job to really educate them
06:29on why it's important.
06:30And as a young professional,
06:32being able to use your voice in that way
06:33can be a really powerful thing.
06:36And so if you go back and listen to that webinar,
06:38it really kind of takes the intimidation factor out of it
06:42because sometimes it can be really scary thinking,
06:44oh, I don't wanna go on Capitol Hill
06:47or oh, I don't wanna talk to,
06:49I don't think I'm well-versed enough
06:51to talk about some of these points.
06:53And our team does such an incredible job
06:56prepping you the first day
06:57that it should take all that intimidation out of it.
06:59That's such a great call-out
07:01because even when you and I first started this conversation,
07:05I was talking about the value in coming together
07:09and the momentum that sets going forward
07:11from even the fact that you had a webinar
07:12to bring everyone together,
07:13but then also saying,
07:14hey, here's what it looks like in action
07:17when we all come together and we get to see the change.
07:21And I think that even more than a conference
07:23is as a young professional helps them see,
07:25oh, this is the ways that I can make a difference,
07:27this is how the mortgage industry is making a difference.
07:30And I bet you that's a lot of kind of
07:33what people are walking away with,
07:34what are some of the attitudes when people are there,
07:37or when they're leaving,
07:38what is the feeling that people have?
07:42It's so like leaving, you mean the like meetings?
07:45After, yeah.
07:46So the biggest like piece that I always see
07:50is like a surprise on their face
07:53or like that hopefulness that we talked about
07:55because they're, and especially,
07:57I mean, I get this almost every time
07:59I leave the Capitol Hill day
08:02and kind of leave the conference debrief
08:04is so I'm always so surprised
08:07of how easy the conversations were with like the staffers
08:12or with the congressmen or the senators
08:15because they'll ask questions,
08:16but they know they're six inches deep and six feet wide.
08:22Like they know a little bit about a lot of things.
08:26And so it's our job to come in as industry professionals
08:29and really educate.
08:30And that's that education piece
08:31that we think sometimes we're not well-versed
08:34to speak about or speak on.
08:37And I will say too, in those settings,
08:39like in that conference setting and in those meetings,
08:42you're not like one-on-one with those congressmen.
08:45Like you're in a group delegation with your state.
08:49And so there could be 20 people in the room.
08:51There could be five people in the room
08:53and maybe other industry professionals
08:55are able to speak a little bit more
08:57and you can just watch and learn.
08:59That's what I did my first year
09:00as a young professional going into NAC
09:02for the very first time.
09:04So you can take a passive approach.
09:06You can take an active approach
09:07and really use that voice if you feel comfortable.
09:09But surprise is I feel like the biggest takeaway
09:13that I've seen.
09:14Like, oh my gosh, that was way easier to talk about
09:16than I thought.
09:16Or, oh, the meetings, the legislative team
09:21prepped me with all of these talking points.
09:22And I was able to actually speak on this
09:25in a much better way than I anticipated
09:28with the staffers in the room
09:29writing all of these notes and questions down
09:33to be able to take back to their constituents.
09:36So definitely surprised at how easy,
09:40much easier it is than people realize.
09:42Yeah.
09:43I can feel the energy and passion
09:45just even as you talk about it,
09:47which I think leads really well
09:48into this kind of like final question
09:50that really sums up what I think
09:52this industry constantly needs to point back to
09:53is like, okay, what do we do now?
09:55Like we see this is how young professionals
09:57are getting into this space.
09:59These are how they're able to make an impact,
10:02help create change.
10:03But what about the companies
10:05surrounding the young professionals?
10:07How can they step in and support
10:09the next generation of workforce or the workforce?
10:13I think it's really just recognition.
10:16It is recognizing the people that you have,
10:19the people that are actively raising their hand.
10:23I say to the young professionals group all the time,
10:26you have to take initiative of your own path,
10:29your own journey, whatever that looks like for you,
10:31whatever you want that to be.
10:32And part of that initiative is raising your hand.
10:36It's speaking up and being that squeaky wheel
10:38and saying, hey, I want to learn more.
10:40I want to do more.
10:41I want to have more responsibility.
10:43But as senior leadership
10:45and the executive leaderships,
10:46they need to be able to recognize
10:48when people are doing that.
10:50And when the young professionals
10:51in their current organizations are doing that
10:53and say, oh, hey, she's come to me twice now
10:56and wants more responsibility or wants to learn more
11:00or wants to cross train in a different department
11:02to be able to be more well-rounded
11:04in the current role that she's at.
11:06Let's get her the opportunities to do so.
11:09The MBA has opportunities for that to happen.
11:13Your own organization can implement
11:15what that succession planning looks like for you.
11:18There's so many different ways,
11:19but it's really just that recognition piece
11:21of the executives looking at their own staff
11:24and saying, hey, I have a handful of people
11:28that have expressed interest
11:29in learning more about advocacy
11:31or learning more about their position
11:33or the industry as a whole.
11:35What can we do about that
11:37to really help them grow in their career?
11:39Impact is free.
11:41There's so many resources that we can create
11:44that will provide those professional development skills
11:48so that when those executive leaders do want to retire
11:51because nobody wants to work for the rest of their lives,
11:53the people that they have under them
11:55are poised and ready to be able
11:57to take over those positions
11:59or step into those roles
12:01when people want to start retiring or moving up
12:04or there's a shift in your organization.
12:06So really just having that recognition
12:08and I think it's really just owning your own journey
12:13and taking that initiative.
12:15Yeah, that's so true as far as owning your path.
12:19And what stood out to me
12:21as you talked throughout kind of our conversation
12:24was you guys have made Impact so accessible,
12:27whether that's free
12:28or there's not a barrier to join, stuff like that.
12:30And I think that's so important
12:32that it's a great resource that people should step into.
12:34So all of that to say, Ashley,
12:36I appreciate you kind of diving into this.
12:38It's personally, as someone who is also growing her career,
12:41it's always great to see how this industry
12:43is helping take the next generation forward.
12:46So thanks for your time.
12:47Yeah, absolutely.
12:48Thank you so much for having me.
12:49It's been a pleasure.
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