Influential Woman · Mortgage
Nichola Orr
Mortgage Broker, UNIVERSAL TRUST MORTGAGE
Biscayne Gardens Estates, FL
Her Story
About Nichola
I get the greatest satisfaction when I am able to close those who thought they could never have a home. There is a segment of society where many lenders, they go to the bank, and the bank says no way with a 515 credit score. They haven't been able to get it, and they've been saving and trying. That is the most satisfying, the more challenging mortgages. When you're able to give a person the confidence that yeah, you can buy this house today, and in 3 years, we're gonna get you a second house, and so that the first is kept in your portfolio - that, to me, is more satisfying. I do everything in my business. I sweep the floors, I build the building, you know, I do everything. I believe that once one is able to engage a person in something, or show the common ground of how it relates to their lives and their betterment, then it is much easier for both parties to participate and for each person to grow, the teacher and the student. And I mean, that works with mortgages also.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Nichola
01What do you attribute your success to?
I was very, very fortunate. My success, I want to believe, is due to my upbringing, and I have to give credit. I very fortunately came from a very successful family and background. I come from a long line of very strong women - my mother, my grandmother, all my aunts. I had a wonderful father, had because he's no longer with us. My grandmother was a Supreme Court judge and a businesswoman in the early 1900s, a very successful businesswoman. And her three daughters, one of which was my mother, followed in her footsteps. So with that type of training, then you see that it's the norm that you try and try until you succeed. You see what I mean? Anything is possible if you believe in yourself and you do what you're supposed to do. Those are the kind of lessons that I learned from my family, and my family molded me for this moment.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
One should try to go after one's dreams, realistic dreams. One should attempt to do something which they love to do, because then it's not work. When I have to work 18 hours, it's not work because it's something I like to do. If you're trying to put a square peg in a round hole, it's not gonna fit. This one says we have to follow our passions, just try to monetize our passions, because we will continue until we succeed if it is truly a passion.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Be persistent. Do the writing. And it takes a while, but it comes around. There are no shortcuts.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest opportunity is to enable someone to achieve their goals. The biggest obstacle would be the entire financial or fiscal health of a country, or of the world, is what affects my business. If the economy is not doing well, then the people in the economy cannot do as well as they can do. It's very holistic. It's not just the city that you live in, or the people that you work with. It's all of us have to be doing relatively well for all of us to succeed.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Honesty, integrity, and the golden rule is the rule of my household. I have one child who I just keep on saying that I am privileged to have him as my child. The only rule we had, and I was a single mom as of 3 months pregnant, the only rule we had growing up is the golden rule - that we respect others and treat others the way we want them to treat us. Once you respect yourself, then it becomes easy to respect others, and we have to agree to differ. Your opinion isn't wrong because it's yours. I just have to agree that I may not agree with your decision or your thought process.
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