07/28/2026
35 Years!!
I can’t let July end without a little look back at the last 35 years. I fell into the mortgage industry in July 1991. We had just moved to Utah after living in Germany for 3½ years. Robert was going to school and serving in the National Guard, so I was looking for work... and I thought the perfect job would be as a secretary at Utah State University. Benefits, decent pay, and it fit my skill set, but no one was hiring.
I took a job as a receptionist ($6/hour!) at Academy Mortgage in Logan, Utah. Computers weren’t really a thing yet in the mortgage industry, but we did have fax machines. I started learning how to process loans over the next year and a half and was then offered a processing position at Cache Mortgage. I'm not great at details, so I didn’t love being a processor. Luckily, I was offered a job as a loan officer the next year. Who knew that would be such a great fit!
In 1997, Robert had finished his master's degree and was deciding between PA school in Salt Lake City or getting a PhD at BYU when Cache Mortgage offered me a branch manager position in Orem, Utah. PhD at BYU it was, and we moved our family of five to American Fork. Being a branch manager was an amazing learning experience, but also challenging as I had our fourth bundle of joy during that time.
Jon Chamberlain and Charles Green had just started Security Home Mortgage and offered me a position in 2000. My oldest had just had a brain tumor removed, and being a branch manager was no longer the right fit for our family. What great timing!
In 2004, Robert graduated from BYU and accepted a teaching position with Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. I was a bit burned out and wanted a new challenge, so I started Mortgage Marketing Strategies and began training and coaching mortgage professionals. This allowed me to work from home (before it was a thing) and also travel a bit—a great fit for me.
In 2010, we moved from Lubbock to Edmond, Oklahoma, for another teaching position and then back to Utah in 2011 for Robert to teach at UVU. The coaching and training kept me busy, but I had started to miss origination. Moving back to Utah in 2011 put me right back at Security Home Mortgage with my favorite people. (Hi, Jill!)
Looking back over these 35 years, I realize how incredibly blessed I've been. I'm grateful for the clients who trusted me with one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives, the Realtors and business partners who believed in me and referred their friends and family, the coworkers who became lifelong friends, and the mentors who taught me so much along the way. Most of all, I'm grateful for a career that has allowed me to serve people, support my family, and create opportunities for adventures I never could have imagined.
I have now been back originating loans for 15 years, making this my 35th year in the industry. I can’t imagine a better career, and I am so grateful. In 2018, my son-in-law, Tyson Cook, came to work with me, allowing me to start taking my crazy adventures. We have an agreement that as long as he lets me romp around the world a few months each year, I won’t retire. I’m pretty sure I got the best end of that deal.
Here's to 35 years... and hopefully a lot more. 😊
Currently writing this from Dayton, MN where I am about 1/2 way across the US on my charity bike ride. Live life fully!
