00:00The passion for what they do keeps me energized. I mean, I love my job.
00:11Hi, Sarah Wheeler, Editor-in-Chief at Housing Wire, here with Laura Hopkins, the Senior Vice
00:16President of Membership Meetings and Empower at the Mortgage Bankers Association. Laura,
00:20thank you so much for sitting down. Thank you for having me. Exciting. So let's,
00:24this is a new position. Tell us a little bit about what you're doing now.
00:28All right. Awesome. Well, I'm super excited to be here and to take on new responsibility to MBA.
00:35I've been at MBA almost nine years now, always under the membership umbrella. And most recently,
00:41with the retirement of Marsha Davies, I got some added responsibility of our meetings and conferences
00:48and the Empower community. So very exciting. You know, of course, I've always been to our conferences
00:55and our Empower events. But this is really opening a whole nother world to me of seeing it on the
01:03other
01:03side. That's so great. I mean, you're stepping into big shoes at the same time. This role is also
01:08evolving and it's pretty exciting. So tell me a little bit about why membership is important right
01:14now in this environment, in this market, at this time. Well, it's funny. You can relate if you've been
01:21in the mortgage business for any small amount of time. It's really always a good time. There's
01:26always something going on that MBA is working on, on behalf of our, our members. So we're on the hill
01:34fighting for our members, their growth in the industry, compliance, regulation is heavy. And I mean,
01:43right now for our members to have a seat at the table to explain what's going on in their particular
01:49businesses and how that impacts the consumers is important. And we've got some pretty serious issues
01:57going on right now. You really do. What in your background has led you, what prepared you for what
02:02you're doing right now? Oh, that's a good question. So I've had a background always in some membership
02:09or customer facing role in the industry. So I've worked at LendersOne Mortgage Cooperative and that
02:18probably has prepared me the most because I got a good view of every facet of the industry. And I've
02:26seen the side of hedging at a hedging firm and, and some fintech too. I also helped start up a
02:34fintech
02:35company. So all of that is a good culmination to what I'm doing now. The conferences, the content, what do
02:43people want to talk about? How do they want to experience the conference experience? Um, and, and what do
02:52they want to talk about in our industry is based on relationships. So that comes full circle in membership
03:00and meetings. How do you stay in touch with the members? So, you know, what they want? Like, is
03:05that a lot of in-person meetings? Do you, you know, travel out to, to where they are? What does
03:09that look
03:10like? Yes. I mean, we're meeting the members where they are now because not everybody can get out and
03:16travel and budgets have been tight for a few years. So I do all of the above. I have one
03:21-on-one calls with
03:22members outreach. I do prospecting as well. I have two great teams on membership and meetings. And so
03:31we're all always prospecting, talking about member engagement, really on a daily basis, helping the
03:39members realize the value of the MBA membership. So yes, we're on the Hill. We have our mortgage action
03:48alliance, but you also get a lot of data and education and information exchanges in our
03:54communities. So it's, it's ongoing. And then when I'm onsite at a conference, like the one we're at
04:01today, I'm going between backstage and the member engagement suite and doing interviews like this.
04:09And doing interviews like this. And so really, I don't believe you can ever lose touch with members
04:15because then you're just somewhere thinking of topics that you may not even know are the right
04:23ones. I think especially as things change so fast, I mean, I think about like, so I do the daily
04:28podcast and in between one podcast and the next podcast, I'm like, I have no idea what's going to
04:32happen. Right. Right. That's true. We had an AI session this morning and the speaker, David Pogue,
04:41was saying next week, I'll have to update my slides because everything is constantly changing.
04:48And I think that's such a benefit for the members to have this steady organization that's been here,
04:53that has done the work, has the connections with everybody in the industry, but also with all the
04:59other people that they need to talk to. And we have the best subject matter experts who are on the
05:06other
05:06end of the phone when members have a question. And I think we really excel at that. When a member
05:12asks us a question, we are on it and they get the information they need. That's incredible. Well,
05:17let's talk about Empower. So Empower is something that, you know, has grown up through the years.
05:23Yeah. Marsha, you know, spearheaded it. Now you're leading it. Where is Empower going next?
05:28So two answers to that. Where it's going next is the next iteration, the next chapter for Empower.
05:36We have a phenomenal foundation. We've defined Empower. I think we have a great presence in the
05:43industry and state local conferences. The next iteration to me is what does the community want?
05:54What, what do they want for themselves? So we do a lot of professional development. We have speakers
06:02come in. We, we are starting to talk a lot about wellness and health and wellness. And men are
06:10hopping on board too, because we're, we're a significant part of the workforce, especially in
06:17this industry. I mean, look around, there's women all over the place in different capacities as leaders,
06:26but you don't have to be a CEO of a company to be a leader. And I think we need
06:32to see more of that
06:33in Empower. I want to meet more women. There are so many stories and there's a few fun things coming
06:40up,
06:40leading up to the Empowering You Summit to help us meet more extraordinary women that may not be
06:48movie stars or CEOs, but are extraordinary women. I love that evolution, right? Everything has to
06:56change and, and, and get even more representative, even more where we are. How do people, how do you
07:01want people like, if they're watching this, they're like, Oh, I have an idea. Oh, I have an opinion about
07:05this. How do they reach you? LHopkins at MBA.org. I'm always on my email. So definitely ready to
07:12answer. We also have the Empower community and you can join that. It's free. Anybody, you don't have
07:18to be an MBA member to be part of Empower, just in this industry and just hop on the site,
07:25MBA.org
07:26and look up Empower. I love that. Okay. So we're here at servicing, obviously. What is the next thing?
07:33Like I think about your advocacy days coming up. Is that a national advocacy, advocacy conference
07:38in our state and local and that another group, the mortgage action Alliance, you don't have to be a
07:45member to, to take part in that. And we want to have everybody and anybody come join the mortgage
07:56action Alliance and then our members. You do have to be a member to come to NAC, but come represent
08:04your
08:04state and learn from us how to communicate to your legislators. From the stage today, I was,
08:12I was sitting in the audience when we had the leaders of FHA, Ginny, VA up there and they were,
08:18they were making the point that the people in Washington making a lot of the rules don't really
08:23have a background in housing, but especially when we get into like servicing or anything that's not
08:27just like very top level. Yeah. And it just struck me that like, this is why this is so important.
08:32It's like, it's really, it's not just advocacy, it's education. Yes. And when you come to the conference,
08:40our legislative group, they really simplify the message for members. And we, we practice,
08:48we give everyone materials and they do make a difference. We all make a difference when we're
08:54on the Hill and talking to our legislators. And we do have lots of ways for different groups that are
09:00partners with MBA to get to the national advocacy conference. So again, anyone can email me, get in
09:08touch with your favorite person at MBA and we'll, we'll help you with that. Let me ask you this. So
09:14being
09:14in charge of members and meetings and power, that's a lot of people, that's a lot of power. So what
09:19inspires you? Like what gets you energized to do your job? That's super easy because I mean, my husband
09:26will tell you too, like, I'll be getting ready to go to go on a trip. I might be tired
09:31and oh my gosh,
09:33when I get around everybody that the people in this industry are so passionate and driven. And we've got
09:42a great contingency of entrepreneurs and business people on the, on the commercial side, but the passion
09:49for what they do keeps me energized. I mean, I love my job. I love what I do. It's, it's
09:55easy to me.
09:57Well, Laura, that definitely comes through. Thanks for talking with me today. Thanks for having me.
10:01We'll be looking at what's coming next. All right.
10:13You
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