Welcome back to Lending Leadership: The Creative Brief.

Today, we’re especially excited to introduce you to someone who literally grew up dreaming of being a loan officer. We’re talking about Lindsay LaBonte—who, from childhood, was inspired by her father’s dedication to helping families achieve the American dream of homeownership. Lindsay joins us to share her unique journey into the mortgage business, including taking over her family’s legacy branch, becoming a branch manager, and how she built a purpose-driven team—all while balancing life as a wife and mother.

In this episode, we dive into Lindsay’s early exposure to the industry, her resilience through market downturns, and the personal evolution she’s gone through as both a leader and a mom. We discuss her decision to join HMA Mortgage, how she navigated the complexities of change with her team, and her hands-on strategies for building a supportive, high-performing branch. Lindsay also opens up about the realities of being a successful female leader in lending and the power of asking for help. Finally, we touch on her holistic approach to marketing, why genuine connection matters more than ever, and how she’s adapted to a more digital world while never losing sight of the people at the center of her work.

Key takeaways:

1. Growing up in the Business Creates a Unique Perspective: Lindsay’s early immersion into the mortgage industry—shadowing her father, interning as a teenager, and witnessing the realities of entrepreneurship—provided her with a rare foundation of both technical know-how and a passion for serving her community.
2. Surviving and Learning Through Market Downturns: Experiencing the 2008 housing crash from the inside out gave Lindsay an invaluable sense of caution and resilience. She learned the importance of strategy, adaptability, and conservative planning—skills that have impacted her leadership approach and decision-making ever since.
3. Building Team Culture Through Self-Awareness and Support: Lindsay reveals how her growth as a leader accelerated after becoming a mother, learning to ask for help and intentionally surrounding herself with team members whose strengths complemented her own. She emphasizes leveraging tools like strength assessments, coaching, and a willingness to let go of perfectionism in order to create a thriving, supportive environment.
4. Choosing the Right Company is About Values, Not Perks: Lindsay’s thoughtful, thorough process in transitioning her branch to HMA Mortgage highlights the importance of company culture, core values, and authentic relationships. For Lindsay, it was never about the flashiest signing bonus—but about ownership, people, and alignment.
5. Real Marketing is about Genuine Connection: In today’s digital-first world, Lindsay focuses on transcending transactional relationships by using technology as a tool to enhance personal connection. Her approach blends modern marketing techniques with old-school relationship-building, ensuring past clients and referral partners feel valued far beyond the closing table.

If you’re a loan officer—or any leader—seeking inspiration on intentional growth, female leadership, or how to weather industry highs and lows with grace, this is the episode for you. As always, DM us for resources like the “Acts of Freedom” worksheet, or reach out to Lindsay directly for support, especially if you’re navigating change, building your team, or balancing motherhood and a mortgage career.

Join us next time as we continue diving deep into leadership, lending, and the stories that fuel our industry. Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe—your journey to intentional lending leadership starts here!

Rach & Rinn

So nobody says, when they're in second grade, I want to be a loan officer when I grow up. Unless you're Lindsay LaBonte. And that's exactly why we couldn't wait to have her on the show today. She's someone who truly loves this profession. She's built an amazing team, all the while being an incredible wife, mother, branch manager, loan officer, friend. Overall, really cool chick. And today we're getting real about why she chose hma, what makes her tick, and how she's built a business that runs with intention, organization, and heart. Lindsay, we're so happy to have you here.

Welcome to Lending Leadership.

Thank you, Rach. That was just too much of an intro. I'm going to call you anytime I need to feel good. Thank you.

That's what we do. That's what we do here.

You really do.

So literally, you're the one. You're the one who's like, I want to be a loan officer. And probably the other second graders in class are like, what's she talking about? I want to be a princess.

Definitely. I mean, I actually remember in think I was 10. So what's that? Fourth grade? There was a project where we had to pick who our hero was. And, you know, everyone was picking all these different people. And I picked my dad. And, you know, I really. If he's listening, he's going to cry because, you know, but seriously, I think from a really young age, I just, for whatever reason, saw that he went out and was so passionate about his job and truly felt, you know, this is helping people achieve the American dream of homeownership, and came back and told us, my, I have a brother who's a year younger than I am, told us about that all the time. And he'd bring us down to realtor offices and really just integrated us as young kids into his profession.

And so there was never really a boundary between, you know, my dad working versus the family, although he was working all the time, crazy hours and. Yeah. So at a young age, I knew what it was to be a loan officer, and that was a potential career path. I don't know that I literally said I wanted to be that as a kid. I did at one point want to be a veterinarian, which I think most kids. Right. It's like animals, astronauts, whatever. But pretty quickly, loan officer was on the docket.

How did. That's so cool. What a cool story, Lindsay. How did it continue to grow as you got older and you started, you know, watching him more and participating in the business? So like, what were the next steps as you started getting older and realizing, oh, my gosh, this could be a profession that's really, for me. And you started feeling more serious about it?

Yeah. Well, it's funny, in. I was a very good student, but I also, I have. I think even from, you know, high school age, I wanted to kind of just get to being a grownup a lot faster than, you know, you can when you're 14, 15, 16, and you want to be 30. I recently was talking to my mom, and I was like, you know, I feel like right now I'm finally at the age that I've always wanted to be. And I just always. Even as a young kid, I knew, like, I wanted to be working, I wanted to have a family, I wanted all these things. So I went to school and I did well at school, but I didn't necessarily love it.

And I wanted to work. I wanted to. I saw my dad. He was out in the community, he was earning money, he was supporting us financially, and he was helping people, and people knew him. And, you know, it was just this whole connectivity. And so when I was 16, I convinced my dad to let me start working for him that summer. And basically, I was his salad getter. I would, like, literally go to the same place every day and order his salad and pick it up.

I helped with some filing, you know, just really basic things. And then from there, I always joke that he couldn't get rid of me. And really, in hindsight, not that he was literally trying to get rid of me, but I think my parents always. They wanted me to get out of town and make sure I was, you know, seeing the big picture and experiencing the world. And, you know, not that there's anything bad about just staying where you live. I certainly. That's something I've had to actually get over, is like, okay, I'm just a townie, but hey, you know what? That's all right. But I think they did.

They wanted me to do more. Nonetheless, I. I stayed local. I worked with my dad that summer. My. My high school was really cool. We had this block scheduling where once you took enough classes, you could actually make an internship and you could go take college classes. And so I did all of that while I was in high school, and I was able to actually work part time in the business through high school and then also through college.

And I was licensed as a loan officer when I was 20, I think in my junior year of college. And, you know, now I'm 35. So there you go.

Wow. That is like, that's really just a cool, unique story. You don't hear of people starting that young or knowing what they want to do when they're that young. It's not the usual situation. There's usually a lot of twists and turns. So it's kind of cool to hear how you were so focused at that age, Lindsay. I feel like that's a unique quality.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it. There was. And it was an interesting time because. So 2006 was that summer that I was 16 that I started working. And then of course, from there was basically right into the whole housing bubble, market crash, everything that happened. And so it also gave me a really different lens. I think as a child of. At the time, my dad owned his own mortgage brokerage.

And so I also watched my. Well, didn't watch him. I mean, I was there with him as we were kind of navigating all of these different market changes and then also old enough where I saw how it impacted my parents and, you know, their financial situation and their decisions that they were making. And. And I think a big part of me felt like I really wanted to stay and see the company through and help my dad and. And I knew how much the business mattered. I mean, our Applied mortgage team, it's a legacy business at this point. We've helped thousands of people in the community.

We give back to a ton of organizations and. And that really, I think my dad was a little ahead of his time in a way with that corporate social responsibility and especially being a mortgage. A big bad mortgage broker. Right. But still giving all this time and money into the community. And so, yeah, so that was a. It was. I wasn't a loan officer during the crash, but I was supporting my dad.

And it was a. Oh, a. A climb to get from that point to, you know, 2,000, whatever, 15, maybe, and. And move on from there.

Yeah, that's trial by fire, I'd say.

And.

And actually, no, it's probably. Man, what a unique perspective because when. When you come up in this business and things are great, oh, yeah, I can do this. Sure, everything's going well. But when things are not going well.

And you have to learn in a.

Situation where you have to be creative and you've. You've got to strategize in a different way, I think it gives you a different backbone.

Yeah. I always have this feeling that the other shoe is going to drop. And I. When my husband and I are, you know, figuring out our plans and goals and all that, I. I tend to just be A little bit more conservative. And I think for anybody probably who grew up with parents who are entrepreneurs are just surrounded by it, there's the excitement of being an entrepreneur and taking those risks and doing your own thing. And then there's also the, well, what happens if it doesn't work out? And so I, I do think also there's always kind of that fallback plan, what if situation. And, and, and what's really cool is, you know, working with my dad.

He always said, you work with me, not for me. And really, from almost day one, he taught me everything that he was doing and let me be a part of a lot of those decisions. And, and not everybody, you know, I totally am aware that's a huge Privilege. Not many 20 year olds starting off in the mortgage business would get to see how all the books run and see how the decisions are made and, and all of that extra education and insight.

Yeah.

Really?

Nobody. I mean, that's. And, and it's. I think it's completely apropos. If you're listening to this podcast, Lindsay, in her background has a little plaque that says, a goal without a plan is just a wish. I mean, that sums it up perfectly right there. But going back to what, what you had started to say, it reminded me of that movie 13 going on 30. You know, have you seen that?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, definitely.

You're in this place in life, in life, at this precipice of like being everything that you, you had dreamed about and all the work that you've put into to being where you are now. That just gave me a really cool feeling. I'm really. If we could have 10 Lindsay Levantes, we would take. There's only one.

Oh, I don't know. Ask my husband. Actually, he basically has three, because my daughters are pretty much the same. So we just got back from a 10 day vacation and I think if he heard dad one more time, he was probably gonna. Because we're always, Sam, can you get this? Dad, can you get this? Can you go fix that? Can you go do this?

Wait till they start calling him Sam.

Oh, they already.

Yeah, go get this.

They call me Lynn's sometimes, and I'm like, okay, my son does that.

He'll say Corinne. And I'm like, Corinne to you. And they'll say, corinne, can you do this?

I'm like, pretty funny.

Makes me laugh.

Yeah, that's cute. As long as it's in an endearing way and they're not saying it, you know, out of spite, that's fine.

100% Lindsay, I have to ask, I mean, this is such a cool story and how you became a young woman developing with your dad and learning how do you feel like it kind of transitions you over into a leader and a branch manager? Like, what were some of the things you kind of touched a little bit upon some of the tricks your dad was showing you behind the scenes. But did you take a lot of his leadership skills too? And how has that applied in leading a team?

Yeah, my dad and I are, I would say, really similar and also really different. Right. So we kind of ended up complimenting each other, so we really worked. He wrote his last loan in 2017. So from like 2010, when I was licensed, 2017, we were really working side by side. And he, he is. And was a really successful top originator. And so a lot of what motivated me is I did not ever want to be riding his coat tails, coattails ever, Ever.

And that's the one thing that still I have to. What do they say, like, kick the monkey off your shoulder when you start speaking badly about yourself? It's, you know, the, the, oh, she just stayed at home and never moved away, and, oh, she just works for her dad and gets whatever she wants and that I have to like, just boot that thing off my shoulder because I know it's not true, but it's. That was a big insecurity for me, that imposter syndrome, and just, you know, like, do I even deserve all of this? And yes, because, you know, so that motivated me to also be a top originator. And so when my dad was doing, you know, 120 plus units a year, I was doing 100 plus units a year with my own book of business. And yes, certainly the community connection, the family connection, 100%, I understand that helps to build everything, but there's plenty of people who wouldn't have that skill set or that desire to even do that. And so I think that's what worked, obviously, the, the guidelines, the confidence, all of that to be able to actually originate loans. And then he also has a great way of leadership by example. And so it's always look sharp, feel sharp, be sharp is one of his mottos.

And, you know, he just expects the best from everybody. And, and people respected that. And I, I think, I hope that I kind of adapted that similar style. And the team building is huge. So what I've learned even more about my dad, I think, as. Even as he's gone into now retirement is I think he does a fast, fabulous job of surrounding himself with people who Support his strengths. And so when I eventually decided that I wanted to take over management and I wanted to build my own team, that was a big part of the learning curve. And I had seen my dad do that, which was definitely helpful.

So finding the right people to kind of fill the gaps between my own strengths and skill sets versus what I needed, the support with which I saw my dad do too. So, Lindsay, I do just want to.

Go back to that mantra that your dad had, because I want to reiterate what you just said, because it's so powerful, it's so simple, but it's so powerful. The look sharp, feel sharp, be sharp. And. And I love what you also said about finding people to fill in your strengths. I hear people say that a lot. But how do you do that? You know, how do you begin to, number one, know what your strengths and weaknesses are? I guess that's take the very reflective person. But then how do you find people that are kind of your opposite, equal, you know, fill in those gaps? What did that look like for you?

Well, the best, I think, thing that happened to me actually for a variety of reasons and also work related, is having my girls. So Charlie's four and a half and Penny's three. And growing up in this business, I mean, it's such a part of me that I had such type A tendencies and all these plans and everything had to be perfect. And when I had the girls that, like, went out the window, frankly. Right. For anybody that's listening, that's a parent, maybe you feel the same way. Maybe, maybe you're just way better at it than I am and you don't feel that way. But all of a sudden, no one is.

It was like this, but it was almost a relief because in a way I was like, you know what? I'm a mom now. I've got spit up on my shirt. I showed up late to this meeting. Like, it is what it is. I. I've gotta, you know, my kids are more important. And so. So when I had my first daughter, I had no idea what I was doing.

I had no maternity leave plan. I was 100% working in the business on my own files with one loan partner. It was horrible. I took 10 days off, barely, and just like dove back into it. And. And that's a whole other podcast segment, but it did not go well. So we with my second pregnancy delivery birth plan, I actually worked with a variety of different coaches, and I was like, I'm taking four months off maternity leave. I'm not going to open My computer, unless it's making sure the business is going in the right direction, like bookkeeping, paying bills, that kind of stuff.

So, again, very fortunate timing that Charlie was born in 2020 and Penny was born in 2022. And, you know, we had this incredible time in the mortgage world, so that probably made things a little bit easier, but nonetheless, I started building out my team, you know, as soon as I found out that I was pregnant again with Charlie. And I set that goal of four months. And we did strength finder assessments, we did disc profiles. You know, the. The. I had a personal coach, I had a business coach, I had a therapist, I had a personal. Personal trainer.

Like, I was like, I'm getting all the support I can possibly muster, and it really takes a village. And let's just figure this out. And so the. Well, from Freedom Club coaching, the Acts of Freedom work, I would say, is probably one of the most important pieces. If you're not familiar with that, I'm sure it can be linked or something, basically to just get yourself doing only the most important things, things that you should be doing that make you the most money and also that make you the happiest. Right? Like, get all that onto your plate and then essentially offload the rest of it. The second thing that was the most helpful, I worked with Scott Groves in Consolidated Coaching, and he does this awesome calendar planning hack, which is all like, time blocking, task blocking. Again, putting in the things that are really most important and committing to those.

So we had this whole year of just like, reworking job roles, responsibilities, and our calendars, and my team is so incredible. I have actually three people on my team who have been with me for 10 years. So they're like. I'm like, all right, guys, we're going to jump. And they're like, how high? You know, it's just. Well, actually, usually they're like, Lindsay, really, like, can you just settle down for a second and like, let's not fix what's not broken here. But. But no, they're really wonderful.

And then the other. The rest of my team, too. I've known them even. They haven't necessarily been with us that long, but I've known them for a long time. So it's the right people, and it's finding the right roles for the right people and then committing to it in the calendar. I think those are the. The keys to making that transition.

I love that. And I also think we do need to just take a quick second and just address, like, successful female loan officers who are also mothers and how difficult it is and how well you just illustrated how you learned. You learned from the first one that you wanted to do some things differently with the second. And if you have the resources, if you have the connections, if you're able to bring in support in any fashion, what a difference that was for you. Because I think a lot of times, and I don't want to stereotype it as working women and mothers, we sometimes think we can do it all, because a lot of times we can. But that doesn't mean it always makes sense and it doesn't mean that it doesn't take a toll and affect you. So I love how you touched upon that and just addressed how you went for the full monty of support the second time around and how successful that was when you just said, I need support and I'm going to go get it.

Oh, yeah, it's so hard to ask for help, especially in this business. We have such a hustle mentality. And as soon as I learned to switch that ego, right, and say, like, I don't need this to be the Lindsay labonte show. I don't need to do everything. I'm not better than somebody else's. Like, let's get the support. And you just. It's exponential and it's growth in all directions, right? Like, whatever you.

You want to do, go to a yoga class, go to we. There's such a mental toll in this business, too.

I just want to say really quickly, for anyone listening, if that is you and you don't know where to start and you're going to go back and write down everything Lindsay just said, you DM us also because we do have the acts of freedom that we can send you. We can work with you on that. You know, we have a lot of tools for loan officers. And hey, even if you're not going to be a part of hma, we give a lot of info for free. We want to help people in this business thrive. So please reach out.

I just want to call me. That was one thing. I was kind of pissed off too when I was handling all navigating this, that there's not a lot of women oftentimes featured on these types of platforms where you can learn their stories and kind of resonate. And I reached out to a lot of people I knew in national coaching programs and all that, and I was like, where are my other young top producing moms that I need to talk to? And I did speak with quite a few and it was super helpful. So, yeah, DM me too. That's totally. I'm here for you.

So hma, are we going to talk HMA and transition a little bit. I heard from Rachel and knowing the history Lindsey, that it was a process of you figuring out what your next step was, where you were going to go. And there were some moments of thinking through this transition. Can you tell us a little bit more about how you got to this place of coming to HMA Mortgage?

Sometimes I'm like do I really work here yet? Because it was a little while so. But I'm here. Yeah. And it's awesome. So I knew I wanted to make a change. So you know when I said like 2017 was when my dad stopped originating and he still hung on and kind of we co managed for a little while and then, and then I had the girls and so like 2020 to you know, 2024 still now 25. I was kind of figuring, you know, I, I knew I wanted to change but I also knew I didn't. I wasn't there.

Right. Once my kids were self sufficiently three and four years old, it felt a little easier to start doing the recruiting. Actually answering those recruiting phone calls and, and I probably talked to I don't know, 25 at least different places and did a lot of research and have these great coaching networks that I reached out to and Rachel and I had spoken a while ago in between one or the other kids I think and you were in a different spot. I was in a different spot and it didn't make sense. But I really respected out of any recruiter that I had ever spoken to, Rachel was, you know, make you recruiter. But you were and are hands down the best person to speak with and, and the company you were with at the time didn't make sense. But then it was so weird. It was like divine intervention.

I decided to start talking to these other places and all of a sudden you had messaged me about something on Instagram and I was actually thinking about you because I was thinking about podcasts and all this stuff and then we ended up chatting and so it, it's a weird experience leaving a company especially. I really love the people who I worked with and had a great company. It just we ended up being bank owned and that wasn't where I wanted to be. I wanted to be with an independent mortgage company when it, that's all it came down to really. As simple as that. Yeah. And, and you know, it's a lot to navigate what's out there. There's a lot of people that offer shiny bells and whistles and, you know, sign on bonuses and all these promises and what I really focused on more so were just the people.

What's the people? What are the core values of the company and HMA from day one, I mean, Rach, I already knew you and then anybody else you introduced me to beyond just. I. Every time I got off a call with y', all, I was like, wow, these people have it. They know what's going on, they're down to earth, they're sincere, and it's the right size. It just felt like it made sense. However, me being me, I needed to make my pros and cons and do all my research. And this wasn't just a jump for myself. It wasn't a.

A selfish change. I was also potentially bringing along, you know, eight other people. And so I needed to make sure that it made sense for them, most importantly, to keep. Keep the team happy and, and motivated and supported. So it's. That was a process. I'm so glad to be moved and to have made that decision and just no longer be doing that because it takes a lot out of your production, dealing with recruiting and moving and all of that. But it's been a great, great couple months.

What is it? April 1st? So three months so far. I don't even know. I feel like it's been a lot.

Longer, I guess, because we've known each other for a long time. But yeah, I mean, I, I really want to speak to people who are thinking about leaving. It is not a snap decision and it's not about a recruiter. Right. Like that, whether you like the recruiter or not. You know, like, we, we happen to vibe really well together and like, like we had a relationship, but if it didn't work, it's not going to work. You know, like, you really have to make it work for your family, for your team. And I loved that you were talking to all these different companies and still we came out on top.

Like, that is so exciting to me because I feel the same way. You know, we do have such a special, unique group of people here. And it's not about just throwing enough loan officers against the wall to see who sticks. It's a really, really special group of people.

So.

And you fit in. I think you went to our sales rally the first week you were here and, like, just came right in. Like you've been here for years.

Yeah. And you know, I was just gonna say with the sales rally, what I was so impressed by, of course, the rally itself and the content was great, but every HMA staff member I met, whether sales, marketing, operations, whatever, in speaking with them, everybody, you. I could hear the way the core values just inherently ran through the group. And it. And it's. These are unprompted conversations. You know, I just went up and introduced myself right. To as many people as I could, trying to get to know everybody.

And there were just so many commonalities about just the love for the company, the way the operations team is awesome, the way, you know, everyone works together, and also the vision for. For growing, but growing in a way that is still beneficial to, of course, our home buyers and providing excellent service and also the loan officers and the whole team. Right. And making sure that everybody is going in the same direction. And ownership, who cares? I mean, that's the. That that is. Was the deciding factor for me wanting to get back to, like I said, that independently owned mortgage company where there's actually extreme ownership. There's somebody, and in this case, three somebody is who.

Every decision, it actually impacts them. They're in it. Right. It's not just this massive conglomerate or a bank board or whatever. Robert and Tom and Dave are in the weeds with us helping day in and day out.

They are. And we hear that a lot. Lindsey, I'm glad you said that because we hear a lot that that makes a big difference and decision making of coming here. And. And in addition, I've heard so many of our officers say. I felt welcomed by the other loan officers. I felt like they were all trying to help me share tips and tricks where I realized maybe that's something to take for granted. Maybe there's some other groups where you just feel like it's more competitive or it's not quite as warm or people aren't sharing ideas as much.

So I think that's something that we, we really love and you can just kind of feel the vibe of it. We all have that opportunity to get together at something like rally. So what a cool week to start, right? Right, Rach? I mean, that was like awesome that we got Lindsay like right before that week and we're able to all meet together.

And then you had me on a panel and I'm like, y' all don't even know me because I just started.

Here, but they're putting me down, you know, we're gonna get Lindsay on a panel.

Man, Lindsay, you have drank the HMA Kool Aid.

I love it.

Oh, yeah, well, it's not difficult. I mean, in that first it was spiked with a little bit of tequila. So that might have helped as Many were.

As. Many were walking around.

Yeah. Yeah. No, it's really. It's been great. And it's so motivating to be excited about a company too. Right? I mean, our Applied Mortgage team has always been my brand and my focus, but I am so. Yeah, I guess motivated is really the word that keeps coming to mind. To just get out and sing the HMA praises too, because having a parent company, that's so supportive marketing, y' all are unparalleled, I think, of an idea, and boom, it just comes into fruition.

So, yeah, talking about that support is awesome. Yeah.

Well, we love to see our loan officers, too, you know, really embrace what we're doing in marketing, because it's not for everybody. And we don't make everybody just do everything because we want them to do it as part of our agenda. It's really.

Each loan.

Loan officer is very different, so. So I love seeing you do more video. I love seeing you, you know, with all these great posts, and I think you're up to almost 200 reviews on your experience.com reviews. Like, I love seeing that and. And really seeing people shine. That is unique to them. Not in a way that we want. Right.

Not our agenda in any way, but to really just kind of see them step into the best versions of themselves, like, that is so rewarding. We feel like proud mama bears over here watching everybody just grow and shine. It's really cool.

And there's room for more. So I'm excited. Keep growing.

I want to. I want us to wrap on a segment talking a little bit about you, specifically with marketing, Lindsey, because Rachel and I were discussing this. You have. We have some loan officers that have just kind of led in all the categories. Right. Like, it's not like they're just focusing on video or they're just focusing on what work through their CRM. You have really kind of spread out your expertise. You've ingrained all of it into your system.

Is there anything you want to share, like, during this process, you know, that might be helpful for other loan officers to understand as you've tackled different sections and divisions of marketing to make sure you're covering, you know, communication in every different format so that, you know, some person might really respond well to text messages while another person is watching podcasts, while, you know, another person is just attending events and likes to connect with people in person. How have you kind of mastered all of this? Because we really feel like you're one of those leaders in the industry that has marketing mixed with mortgages.

So there's such a shift. I mean, I told you, I started with my dad when I was 16 and there were some carbon copy applications still happening. Right. So the way that business is done now, 19, 20 years later is the process of getting a mortgage is actually pretty similar. The programs are actually kind of still the same. Right. But it's become so transactional with just the click button, click button, do it online, do it on zoom, do all of that. And so everything that I try to incorporate into the process is to transcend that transaction.

I want to make sure that we are partners for life, that whenever they think of their next house, their kids, next house, they want to refinance, build, upsize, downsize, second home, investment property, whatever it is that they think of us and more so beyond that, that they even think of us when they need to go find a new hairdresser or they need to go to find a new auto mechanic or their kids are going to preschool and they know I have preschool aged kids. So how do we do that when we're not meeting people in person anymore? How do we get that same relationship and that same authenticity and that true connection that I watched my dad get belly to belly and that I did for 10 years before it all switched to digital. So for better or for worse, I just throw it all in. And you said mastered. I don't think that's the right word. But utilizing technology to enhance the relationship is the bottom line goal that I always have. How can I make every single correspondence, communication, email, notice, phone call, whatever it is coming out from my team an opportunity for a better and stronger connection. That's the goal.

I like that.

Yeah, that's really important to remember. And this is something we say often but should, should or is worth repeating. I guess I should say is that it's social media, right? It's to be more social and sometimes we forget and we hide behind a computer. But it's so important to use that to enhance your business and to enhance everything that you can bring to the table for somebody. I love how you put that.

Lindsay. This was so awesome. I hope everybody got something good out of this. And learning from a leader like Lindsay Labonte out of Massachusetts and with her team being an awesome leader and branch manager for HMA Mortgage. Guys, we invite you to continue our journey here. We're going to have so many more topics to come. Please like follow, share, subscribe, do all the things and if you have any questions or follow ups from this episode, specifically you have our contact information and Lindsay is available to you as well. Thanks, guys.

Thanks, Rach. Thanks, Lynn.

Thank you. Bye, guys. Thanks. See you later.