Her Story
About Kloi
I've been in the mortgage industry since 2017, and I'm coming up on 9 years in the field. My background has always been in recruiting and sales. Right out of college in 2015, I worked in recruiting for an IT staffing firm, and I also did sales for a scrap metal company. During that time, I was also a professional cheerleader for the Carolina Panthers, which was an amazing experience. How I ended up in mortgage was really relationship-based - it fell into my lap through a friend I met on the dance team at the University of Charlotte, where I earned my mathematics degree. I'm very thankful it worked out this way because it's been life-changing for me and my family. As a mortgage recruiter for Guild Mortgage, I recruit licensed mortgage originators. I don't have to take state or national exams myself, but the people I recruit do. What I've prided myself on is building genuine relationships with people so that I can set myself apart from the many other recruiters who contact these professionals daily. I think it's important to be intentional with how you reach out to people and not make it robotic. People can tell when you're being inauthentic and sending the same text to everybody. Recruiting doesn't end once you get people in the door - it's also about retention and making sure that everything we said we would do, we follow through with. I take people's livelihoods very seriously, and I continue those relationships even after they're hired. The mortgage industry can be very volatile and cyclical, and it's been a trying few years after COVID, with many companies going out of business or being sold. But I believe it always comes back around, and there's always a time to buy.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Kloi
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to just being myself. I think that in sales in general, some people want to be perceived a certain way, so they may change or try to come off as not genuine. That's not how I operate at all. I've been told to just always be myself, and it has worked really well for me because I'm just genuinely who I am, and you attract that around your sphere. Another thing is that I don't have to know everything, which seems kind of funny, but with what I do in recruiting, I certainly am not - I've been in the industry for 10 years, but there are people that have been in the industry longer than I've been alive. I don't claim to know everything that they do. I know enough to be dangerous, but going into phone calls and speaking with people can be very daunting and scary in a way. Just knowing that I don't have to know everything and being confident in what I do know has taken me very far.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've received is to just be myself. I think that in sales in general, some people want to be perceived a certain way, so they may change or try to come off as not genuine. That's not how I operate at all. Just being told to always be myself has worked really well for me because I'm just genuinely who I am, and you attract that around your sphere. The other piece of advice is that you don't have to know everything. With what I do in recruiting, I've been in the industry for 10 years, but there are people who have been in the industry longer than I've been alive. I don't claim to know everything that they do. I know enough to be dangerous, but going into phone calls and speaking with people can be very daunting and scary. Just knowing that I don't have to know everything and being confident in what I do know has taken me very far.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Some challenges in recruiting, specifically in the mortgage industry, is that the people that we're reaching out to are being contacted by several recruiters daily. So they are inundated with outreach from people. The difference and what I've prided myself on is being able to build relationships with people so that they do - setting yourself apart. It can be annoying, so it's just coming off and setting yourself apart and being more intentional with how you reach out to people, and not making it so robotic, which is a lot of what people do. People can tell when you're being inauthentic and sending the same text to everybody. I think that the mortgage industry as a whole can be very volatile. It is very cyclical as well, so it always comes back around, but it has definitely, after COVID, been a trying few years. There's been a lot of companies that have gone out of business, that have sold, and just being able to trust certain things. But overall, I feel like those are really the two big challenges, just in the industry.
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