Closing On Camera

The premise

Bradley and Jacobson grew up together in small-town Wisconsin. They reconnected a few years back when a mutual friend passed away.

“Randy Cross was pivotal in Fairway’s origin story in that he was the one who came up with the name Fairway,” Bradley says. “His death brought us back together in the sense that we just bonded sharing our feelings about Randy, then it gradually developed into a working relationship.”

With many years producing and directing television shows and documentaries for HBO, CNN, and ESPN, Bradley and his work have been recognized with 33 Emmy Awards, three Peabodys, and two duPonts. He did a few promotional videos for Fairway, then came on board full time in January 2021 to start a video production department at the company.

“I traveled all over the country, met a lot of loan originators, and was really impressed by how dedicated they were to their jobs. I thought it was great material and really outside of the box.”

So Bradley and Hechanova pitched the idea for the series to Jacobson, who helped them locate three Fairway branches that would be ideal for the job. “I wasn’t really sure they would be willing to do it,” Bradley says, “but they showed a lot of faith and gave us the green light.”

An Investment

Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Fairway is the #2 overall retail lender in the U.S., with more than 650 branches and $42 billion in loan volume in 2022.

Filming a docuseries mostly in-house was not a huge financial commitment, though it did take Bradley, Fairway’s chief content officer, and Hechanova about six months to do. Company officials did not disclose the project’s budget in interviews. The first episode had close to 4,000 views by Jan. 24.

“When Kirby Bradley pitched us the idea for L.O. Confidential, he stressed that, even though the project was large in scope, he would be able to tap into his decades of experience creating award-winning TV programming and would be able to keep the budget very manageable,” Jacobson says, adding, “We have been extremely happy with the impact the series has had across the industry.”

Discovering the series could motivate other mortgage companies to use this medium as a tool of engagement with potential clients and workers.

“If any other company is willing to invest in high quality video production like this, how far are they willing to go for their employees and customers?” says Fairway Sales Manager Austin Smith, whose team in Greenwood, Indiana was one of those featured. “I think that speaks to their character and vision.”

Company officials’ main goal for the project was to share Fairway’s mission and potentially recruit new LOs to its team. Sales Manager of Fairway’s Heritage Group in Garland, Texas Craig Brown put together an action plan to promote the series and let other mortgage companies and even real estate agents know it exists. As to how they are measuring its success, the best is yet to come.

“We’ll let you know in six months,” Brown says. “Obviously, you can measure based on views on YouTube, but there’s more to an impact than that. We have several different avenues and strategies that Fairway will be taking and our branch alone will be taking. As we get the word out through more of a strategic placement distribution, then I think we’ll see a lot more attractions start taking place. In terms of recruitment, it’s going to be hard to really track whether that is organic or through the video. We’re looking at the click through rate, conversion rate, form fields that they’re able to acquire from these videos.”

It was important for Fairway to showcase its nonprofit arms in the docuseries — the American Warrior Initiative, (AWI) and Fairway Cares. AWI helps wounded military heroes, providing service dogs, business grants, home upgrades, and mortgage-free housing.

“Steve, the CEO of our company, cares about the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) but he cares more about the impact this is making,” Brown says. “We don’t necessarily want to raise this flag and say, hey, we’re the biggest, best mortgage company out there. Being the most philanthropic, that’s what we want to be known for.”

The Teams

Brown’s mother Linda Davidson happens to be the Heritage Group’s senior LO and branch manager. While stronger than ever, family and office harmony took time to bolster — a recurring theme in the show.

“If you had told me when he was 16 that we could even stay in the same room for more than an hour but most of all, work together, I would have said not just no, but heck no. We’re both very headstrong, opinionated, and stubborn,” says Davidson, who brought her son onto the team 12 years ago only to discover their strengths balance each other.

“He brings a technical, business development and marketing side, and I bring the mentorship of just loving to lead and help others grow,” Davidson says.

“Linda definitely brings the heart of the branch where I bring a lot of the head,” Brown adds.

The Martinez sisters — Ericka, Jessica, and Jazel — head up the 3M Group in Phoenix, AZ. The cameras follow them from the gym where they begin their day to the office, where they do their best to drive success while keeping their own family dynamics under control.

The sisters were flattered that Fairway’s corporate team chose their branch to feature in the docuseries, and it actually strengthened their individual relationships with each other.

“The reality is that we’re sisters but it’s not perfect — we fight like sisters,” Senior LO Ericka Martinez Hirons says. “Going through that process and seeing it from a different lens gave Jessica and I an understanding that the things we were upset about didn’t really matter. At the end of the day, the most important thing is family.”

Prior to the project even being announced, the pair had been seeing a therapist to work out their personal and professional grievances. Post filming, they have overcome those divisions.

The third branch featured is headed up by Smith, a husband and father of three.

“How often does somebody say hey, let’s film a documentary on you. Naturally I was curious,” Smith says. “I talked about it with my wife and our team and everybody was supportive.”

Filming and seeing the series back was “a humbling experience” for Smith, who has a son with autism. “As my wife and I watched it back it made us reevaluate some things in our life. I hope any LO that watches this realizes they also need an opportunity to reevaluate things for themselves. I hope it gives them a chance to look at things from a different microscope.”

Getting Personal

Having built a career in media that features professional athletes, Bradley (30 for 30, Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel) was not accustomed to these high-profile subjects getting personal on film. “They learn fairly quickly that there’s not really a huge advantage to opening up and letting people in because it turns into bad publicity a lot of the time,” he explains. “It was refreshing to be with the Martinez sisters and have them invite us into their home for their family dinners, being able to watch their kids play together and just being so open about the positives of their life, but also their struggles.”

Bradley echoed the same sentiment about filming in Texas and Indiana. “They didn’t have to open up to us, but they did. The way that most of these teams are structured kind of blends work and personal life together in a way that is really interesting. At Fairway, we place a lot of emphasis on the importance of creating the kind of environment where you can devote the time and effort you need to keep your family life in balance as well as your work life. I think that comes through in the stories.”

Smith hopes that mortgage professionals find the episodes relatable and informative.

“I think what this does is it shows that balance and rhythm in life is necessary. If you’re out of balance with your family and company then you won’t be able to navigate this difficult lending climate we’re in.”

Bradley and Hechanova worked in their usual style, shooting for a few days, choosing material for the screen, writing scripts and then editing.

“It was just the two of us, which is a small team for a show like this, but we’ve worked together for years and really know how to work efficiently,” Bradley says. “So we were able to do it for very little money, which obviously was attractive to Fairway.”

For LOs

At the beginning of the first episode, participants reflect on the various paths their lives took which led them into the mortgage industry.

“No kid grows up wanting to be a mortgage loan officer,” says Smith, who originally went to the Air Force Academy but didn’t end up a fighter pilot like he once dreamt.

“When I was growing up I wanted to be an ER doctor,” Davidson says.

Whether or not they had loan stars in their younger eyes or not, viewers learn that these LOs are good at what they do and satisfied doing it.

“I get to help people with arguably the biggest financial decision of their lives,” Smith says.

“We get to help families have that white picket fence, and how cool is that, that a kid from the projects gets to do this every day,” Davidson adds.

Making a later appearance in the show is Jacobson, who Fairway LOs describe as “a loan officer at heart.”

“Life on commission — it’s a hard thing to describe,” Jacobson says. “You don’t really know what the next day is going to bring, so you have this mentality where you have to be a star today … ”

The series doesn’t fully explore the challenges of the 2023 market, but it does offer a sense of what several teams of successful LOs are doing to keep production up in these times.

“I think the biggest thing that it showed is the stress level that loan officers and branch managers and just anyone in the mortgage profession right now is going through,” Davidson says. “You want to make the wisest decisions as far as personnel, running a day-to-day business, and taking care of clients, even if you’ve had to lay off people. For many of our own officers, this was the first time they’ve been in a down market.”

Having the support of a strong team and company is more important than ever, her son agreed.

“I don’t think that they really wanted to go into the, ‘woe is me, let’s play this poor violin for the mortgage industry, because we had two years of unparalleled, historical success,” Brown says. “But it really was a tough year. I think any originator can just kind of connect, like we’re on the same page. The impetus for this was, ‘Hey, originators, we get you. We’re in this market with you. But this is how we’re responding. This is why Fairway is different.”

A Plug For Fairway

One sentiment that rang true for all the LOs involved in L.O. Confidential was their mutual appreciation for their parent company.

“I can’t imagine being in this industry at this time without Fairway,” Davidson says. “I would not want to be in any other company. That’s for dang sure. Fairway is not isolated from the storm. They have been very wise in making decisions to keep us steady until that storm turns. And so I do think that leaders in other companies will certainly look at this and say, what can we pull from this? What can we look at to be better?”

Hirons has worked at different mortgage companies over her career and feels very supported in her current position.

“I’m proud to be under the umbrella of Fairway because from underwriting to branch support to just every single department, I’m very well supported. I think if an LO watches this, I hope they can truly see the value of working here and it has a positive effect on them.”

Smith notes that the series offers a behind-the-scenes look at lending, which hasn’t necessarily been available to the general public before this.

“The perception of lending is one of two things — that you sit at a bank or you’re online, and that’s not the case,” Smith says. “I want to be able to go to the same grocery store as my clients and have them recognize me. I feel like this series attempts to build that bridge, and at the end of the day Fairway gives us a fantastic opportunity to give the best to our clients.”

Brown laughs about the fact that he participated in a reality show, and its contrast to the angst-filled nail-biters out there in the world of television.

“There isn’t the drama that you would see in a normal reality series. But hey, here’s a peek under the hood of what we go through on a daily basis and how we help each other through struggles. The strength, the support, the backbone of Fairway and what it provides for us.”

The question everybody is asking: will there be a part two?

“I hope so,” Bradley says. “We’re discussing it. No decisions have been made, but the reception so far has been very positive and there has been some talk about doing this again. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.”