In this Ten Minute Talk, Brena Nath and Mosi Gatling of New American Funding discuss how diversity in housing isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a necessity for meeting the needs of today’s homebuyers. Gatling explores how personal experiences shape consumer connections, marketing strategies, and leadership in the mortgage industry. They discuss why hiring diverse talent leads to stronger market understanding and how companies can better serve all borrower segments.
From culturally aware outreach to inclusive hiring, this conversation highlights the power of lived experience in driving meaningful change. Tune in to discover how businesses can foster innovation and build deeper connections with diverse consumers in 2025 and beyond.
From culturally aware outreach to inclusive hiring, this conversation highlights the power of lived experience in driving meaningful change. Tune in to discover how businesses can foster innovation and build deeper connections with diverse consumers in 2025 and beyond.
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00:00We all do, in fact, buy things that we see ourselves in.
00:03If people see themselves in your brand, they'll buy it.
00:06They're more likely to buy it.
00:07They'll go out of their way to actually buy it.
00:18Hi, I'm Brenna Nath.
00:20I'm Senior Director of Events and Subscriptions here at HousingWire,
00:23and I'm super excited to have someone on this show
00:27that I've been able to frequently converse about this topic on
00:31and get updates on that now.
00:33I would say particularly is when that's important to bring back to the forefront.
00:38Despite what's happening at the federal level right now with DE&I,
00:42Mose Gatling, who is Strategic Growth and Expansion,
00:45she's SVP at New American Funding.
00:47She has great insights in the past, but also, okay,
00:50what does this look like in 2025, despite what's going on the federal level?
00:53What do we need to do specifically to help serve diverse home shoppers,
00:58diverse homebuyers this year without all the noise that's going on around us?
01:03There's some very specific strategic things that you've been doing
01:06that you can continue to do going forward.
01:08So with that, Mose, let me just start off by saying welcome to the show.
01:12Thank you so much for having me.
01:14I always love talking to you.
01:15We have such great conversations about life and real estate.
01:22That's so true.
01:24I mean, to kick us off, one question that you and I discussed back a couple years ago now
01:30was how you were able to succeed and grow your business even in a tough market.
01:372025 isn't looking like it's going to be that drastically different of a year.
01:44With that, you already succeeded in a tougher maybe market,
01:47and you're still doing some things this year.
01:49So how are you continuing to grow?
01:52Even in this lens of how you are helping serve diverse borrower segments
01:56and how you're even just helping other people in your business,
02:00what are you doing this year?
02:02This year, a little bit different because I have branched out a little bit
02:07within New American Funding to make sure that I'm helping
02:10other people within the company also succeed in this current market
02:15and really using the ability to connect with who you're serving
02:21as the catalyst for that.
02:23And that's how I was successful.
02:25And being able to show people, other people within the company,
02:30how to leverage that in their business has become a huge focus.
02:35So going forward for 2025,
02:38I was able to co-create the Housing Advocate Certification.
02:43So here at New American Funding,
02:45we have trained and certified people within the company
02:48so they are equipped to go out into the community
02:51and not just connect from a verbal standpoint
02:53or when they physically show up to do classes or whatever that looks like,
02:58but also to connect from a marketing standpoint.
03:01So people don't just choose you because you're the easy click,
03:05right, on the internet,
03:06but because they see themselves in your brand,
03:09the way you talk, the way you present yourself,
03:12that way you can also excel in business that way.
03:15That's such a great way to put it.
03:17Digging in that a little deeper,
03:19I think that's how you're in my conversations tend to go.
03:21It's like you take a level and like,
03:22okay, let's extrapolate that a little bit more.
03:24So looking at even New American Funding to the mortgage industry as a whole,
03:30one thing you and I have touched on is this advice.
03:31How can this industry as a whole step forward into this initiative?
03:35Because we all need to be thinking about this, I would say.
03:38So what are some of the ways that leaders should be rethinking
03:41how they're serving diverse groups in 2025?
03:44You touched on it a little bit there.
03:46I think that going forward,
03:48it is not something that's necessarily mandated,
03:51like you said, at the federal level, DEI.
03:54We are, in fact, in the people business.
03:56It's hiring people, retaining people within our companies
04:00and mortgage and real estate.
04:02It's also attracting the consumer.
04:04And we talk a lot about shopping online and online shopping
04:08and some of the great thing retail people do in their business
04:12that we don't really hit on when it comes to mortgage and real estate.
04:15And that's being connected to the audience
04:17that we literally need to and want to serve.
04:20So I think that leaders have to really bring in different lived experiences.
04:27And I feel that I'm at New American Funding
04:30because they already had that benchmark set
04:34to make sure that they attract people that are from all different walks of life,
04:38whether it be culture, people that have kids,
04:41people that don't have children.
04:42There's so much when you talk about diversity
04:46and what that actually encompasses
04:48to make sure that we have that internally
04:50and our decisions that we make reflect that too.
04:53Lived experience is just a different opportunity to connect with people.
04:58Let's dive into lived experiences a little bit more.
05:01That's something that when you and I were, you know,
05:03chatting on the update about this conversation
05:04that really stuck out to me.
05:06It's such a good framing for how people should approach
05:10serving borrowers of all kinds, diverse, just their whole gamut.
05:14I mean, you mentioned yourself that you are married to a veteran.
05:17That's another whole group of borrowers that needs to be served.
05:20Can you talk about what does lived experiences look like in action and helping?
05:26Man, lived experience is huge.
05:28Being a leader means that I've been able to look at the things that I'm great at
05:33and look at the things that I'm not great at
05:35or don't have the experience in to be able to tap someone that does.
05:40And being a great leader literally means you can do that.
05:44And you surround yourself with people with different lived experiences
05:48so you don't have a singular lane of thought in a boardroom,
05:54in a C-suite, on your executive level, and even in your employees
05:58because that means you're not able to connect with people the way that you should.
06:02So I think it's less DEI and more connective tissue
06:08when it comes to your company's ability to have lived experience
06:12so you get that different lane of connection
06:15from your employees, for your employees, and even your consumers.
06:20Because we all do, in fact, buy things that we see ourselves in.
06:24If people see themselves in your brand, they'll buy it.
06:26They're more likely to buy it.
06:28They'll go out of their way to actually buy it.
06:31We do it every day.
06:33So we should become really good at that when it comes to mortgage and real estate.
06:37And we're not great at it to start with.
06:40Yeah, to your point, there's a lot of things that I've bought online
06:44because someone has a lived experience that I have that resonates with me.
06:47I do want to click.
06:49I do want to purchase as a result.
06:50It's our brain that tells us that we should when we see ourselves.
06:54And we did talk about how I'm the spouse of a veteran.
06:57And veteran spouses a ton help their active duty spouse in the home buying process.
07:04So understanding that means you have people that are within your company
07:08that can give their experience that speaks of them buying a house as a spouse
07:13and what they went through because their spouse was traveling
07:16or they were temporary duty, which we call TDY.
07:19And it's only someone that's either military
07:21or been a military spouse that can speak to that.
07:24So why not seek out or find out a valuable attribute when you're hiring people
07:29or when you're putting together a board or your C-suite
07:33to make sure those experiences are at the table,
07:36because it's going to set forth what decisions that you're making for your consumer.
07:41And in fact, our consumers are all of those things.
07:44Like both of us, we're mothers.
07:45We could talk all day about motherhood and what our kids have went through.
07:49And I have my kids.
07:50My oldest is turning 27 in a couple of months,
07:54which I'm like, oh, my gosh, I feel like I'm getting old here.
07:57But I can tell a lot of people that don't yet have a 27-year-old what I went through.
08:02And that means colleagues of mine call me to ask me what I think on marketing
08:07because they're doing a meeting or an event for a group of mothers, right?
08:12You don't have to be a mother.
08:13But if you have that lived experience around you,
08:15it makes you a better human out in the world
08:18to be able to connect with these people and them to see themselves in your brand.
08:22You don't necessarily have to be that brand.
08:25But if you are prepared with the marketing
08:27and the connective tissue within the company to do so, you're fine.
08:31Yeah, yeah.
08:32What you just said there, too, there's nuances.
08:35Whether you, I look at myself from being a mother
08:38to another group of being a single mother,
08:40to being a wife of a veteran, to being a veteran yourself.
08:43There are so many details.
08:44And something that you have experience on that I think shows
08:48when you bring in talent who have all these different experiences can say,
08:52oh, did you know this is how they're viewing taxes?
08:55This is why they're looking at this time to buy it.
08:56It just helps frame it into your marketing throughout a company
08:59to ensure that you are kind of, I think, meeting,
09:02it sounds like the needs that are out there.
09:03Right. You hit the nail on the head,
09:05especially when it comes to taxes, believe it or not.
09:08Because a lot of times in the Black and Hispanic community,
09:11they start advertising, filing taxes, the large tax companies
09:15with your last paycheck stub that you got in December.
09:20So what I brought to the table for a home builder I work for
09:23is they were talking about advertising really heavy,
09:25using your tax refund that you get in April to be able to buy.
09:30And I said, mentally, in the Black and Hispanic community,
09:32they already started making that decision back in December,
09:36in early January.
09:37So again, it's my lived experience that forms that marketing a little bit
09:42because I do bring something different to the table.
09:44It's people who might not be getting a refund
09:47that are waiting until April 15th to file their tax returns.
09:51It's not people that might need that as cash flow
09:54or made spending decisions during the holidays
09:57because they've been mentally trained to try to file their tax refund
10:02the second the IRS opens up filing, which they did a week ago.
10:07It's different.
10:08And not knowing that means you don't have the right people around you
10:12to dictate that and make sure that you're connecting to your consumer.
10:16Yeah, it's so important.
10:18I even think about that in my own company
10:20as someone who is first generation on her mom's side.
10:23My kids are first generation.
10:24There's so many different things that you can bring to the table.
10:28As a fast lightning last question, what is this one step?
10:32If you're sitting in a room with leaders in the housing
10:36or even just the hiring agents in housing, maybe,
10:38what is one step that you would recommend for them
10:42to help serving diverse home shoppers?
10:46What is one thing that they could immediately go do
10:49or should think about?
10:50Besides the lived experience and making sure it's in the room,
10:54they can immediately start when they're hiring,
10:56not just looking at the numbers of the last person the company worked for,
11:00but look at the sphere of influence they may have
11:03in the other parts of the business that they may touch
11:06because of who they are as a person.
11:09It's going to change who you hire,
11:11who people can look up to within the company.
11:14So it's the talent that you attract to your company
11:17because you have different lived experiences.
11:20How you can connect with the consumer.
11:23When we say diverse, to me, I'm thinking women,
11:27which again, I'm super proud that at New American Funding,
11:2953% of our entire staff is women,
11:33which is more of an anomaly in the mortgage business.
11:36We have people that are executives
11:38that literally embody different lived experiences.
11:43When decisions are made and we're talking about the consumer,
11:47it's not a performative type of outreach.
11:50It seems so honest and authentic
11:53because we're talking about our personal lives
11:57and the psychology of the home buyer
12:00or the consumer and the people we want to hire
12:02and who would be a good fit for that
12:04because we can all talk about what we bring to the table
12:07or experience in our lives.
12:09So making sure that you do that is an easy step.
12:12It doesn't take extra money.
12:13You're already doing it.
12:14It's literally a mindset when you're going out into 2025
12:19to be able to do business.
12:20And people will choose companies
12:22that they feel that they connect with.
12:25From talent to serving the future of home buyers in 2025
12:30and even beyond.
12:31Mo, it's always great chatting with you, I would say.
12:34So thank you once again for providing
12:36kind of like this fresh update
12:38on how people can approach the year.
12:39So thanks for joining me on Temmin Talks.
12:41Thank you for having me.
12:42I always appreciate you guys.