CONNECT by California MBA

Hosted by The California MBA

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Episodes

270

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Oct 2026

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About the show

Welcome to California MBA's podcast, Connect, our all-new podcast featuring one-on-one interviews with some of the top movers-and-shakers in the mortgage industry. California MBA serves to represent the residential and commercial real estate finance industry before all governing bodies. The California MBA encourages and promotes sound business practices and honesty in marketing, origination, lending and servicing of mortgage loans through our educational and networking opportunities.

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60 recent

October 26, 202622 min

Stop Chasing Shiny Objects: Meghan Tidgewell on Technology, MISMO & Real Operational Change

Technology transformation in mortgage isn’t a big bang. It’s an ongoing process of figuring out how to work smarter, adapt to change, and improve the way you do business. And most lenders are doing it wrong. In this episode of Connect, California MBA CEO Paul Gigliotti sits down with Meghan Tidgewell, founder of T-Rex and one of the first six consultancies in the country to earn MISMO’s FRAME AI governance certification. Meghan has spent her career working between business and technology teams, and she brings a refreshingly practical perspective on digital evolution, MISMO standards, AI governance, and what mortgage operators actually need to do to modernize without losing their minds. In this episode: - Why technology transformation is not a one-time event and what a “digital evolution guide” actually does - How to define the real problem before you ever talk to a vendor and why you need input from every level of the organization, not just leadership - Why naming an implementation owner who’s already overloaded is one of the most common project killers in mortgage - The human side of change management: “you’re gonna move my cheese” and how to bring front-end employees along instead of pushing them out - MISMO standards explained in plain English: why shared vocabulary and data patterns reduce integration time and integration headaches - MISMO Link: a new tool that makes finding the right data definition faster and easier than ever - FRAME unpacked: the Framework for Responsible AI in the Mortgage Ecosystem, including the getting started guide, governance policy, system risk assessment, and AI inventory - Why AI is predictive, not rules-based and why that’s a massive mindset shift for front-end mortgage employees - The one practical first step every lender can take in the next 90 days: create an inventory of problems and pick one Connect is the California MBA’s podcast where strategy, innovation, and leadership come together to shape the future of mortgage finance. Subscribe for new episodes featuring the voices driving the industry forward.

October 20, 202621 min

Only 1 in 5 Trust Their Loan Officer — How First Home IQ Is Fixing That | Kristin Messerli | Connect

There are buyers in your market right now who qualify, have the savings, and have the income — but won’t pick up the phone. Not because they can’t buy. Because they’re afraid to. In this episode of Connect, California MBA CEO Paul Gigliotti sits down with Kristin Messerli, Executive Director of First Home IQ, for one of the most thought-provoking conversations we’ve had on the show — covering financial shame, the psychology of homeownership, the ROI of education, and what mortgage professionals can do right now to earn trust with the next generation of buyers before someone else does. First Home IQ is a 501(c)3 nonprofit bringing research, education, and advocacy together to close the homeownership gap — and the data behind the mission is striking. In this episode: - Why over 80% of millennials and Gen Z surveyed reported some form of financial shame — regardless of income or savings habits - Why only 1 in 5 next-gen buyers trust loan officers to help them make smart mortgage decisions - The real ROI of education: how loan officers who invest in community education are expanding their pool of buyers, not just nurturing the ones who already called - The First Home IQ ambassador model: what it means, how it works, and how professionals are growing their brand and business while giving back - MBA Home Base: a new MBA initiative giving loan officers a real voice in advocacy, coaching, weekly market insights, CE credit, and more - Why Dave Savage is leading monthly coaching calls for Home Base members - Financial Fitness Week: November 9th — and why getting involved is one of the easiest first steps - What Kristin would tell every lender right now: stop waiting for buyers to come to you and start showing up where they already are Connect is the California MBA’s podcast where strategy, innovation, and leadership come together to shape the future of mortgage finance. Subscribe for new episodes featuring the voices driving the industry forward.

October 12, 202620 min

The Perfect Storm for Non-QM: Why the Time Is Now | Lisa Schreiber, eResi Mortgage | Connect

Non-QM is having a moment. Agency production is down, non-agency is up, and the calls are coming in — not going out. In this episode of Connect, California MBA CEO Paul Gigliotti sits down with Lisa Schreiber, who leads client strategy at eResi Mortgage and brings nearly four decades of mortgage banking experience to the conversation. Lisa makes the case that the market conditions driving non-QM growth right now aren’t a blip — they’re structural. And the lenders who build their product suite now will be the ones ready when rates eventually move. In this episode: - Why 35% of homeowners generate 30% of their income from a side hustle — and what that means for product strategy - Why Optimal Blue data is showing agency production down while non-QM and non-agency production climbs - Ability to repay is not optional: how bank statement, DSCR, and alternative income programs all include built-in credit guardrails - Why DSCR loans typically come in at 70% LTV — and what that means for risk profile - The equity product opportunity: HELOCs, closed-end seconds, and tapping into equity without touching a first-lien rate - How OCR, income analysis tools, and built-in QC layers are changing the economics of non-QM origination - Lisa’s seller experience rebuild at eResi: from Encompass Investor Connect to Guideline Guru to eligibility engines - Why a major insurance firm acquiring one of the non-QM OGs is a massive vote of confidence for the asset class - Why these products are not rate sensitive — and why that matters right now - What lenders should be doing before 2027 to be ready when volume returns Connect is the California MBA’s podcast where strategy, innovation, and leadership come together to shape the future of mortgage finance. Subscribe for new episodes featuring the voices driving the industry forward.

October 5, 202622 min

Where the Friction Really Lives in Mortgage Operations | Michael Danlag & George Schultz, Solugenix

Lenders know they need to modernize. But ripping out the entire technology stack isn't realistic — especially when rates are rising and headcount is getting cut. In this episode of Connect, California MBA CEO Paul Gigliotti sits down with Michael Danlag, Vice President of Strategic Relations, and George Schultz, Vice President of Mortgage Sales at Solugenix, for a practical, no-hype conversation on where operational friction really lives in mortgage, how to modernize without adding complexity, and what it takes to build scalable capacity while keeping quality and compliance intact. Solugenix brings mortgage operations, digital engineering, workflow automation, and AI-enabled solutions together — and this conversation is exactly what lenders navigating 2026 and preparing for 2027 need to hear. In this episode: - Where the most expensive friction in mortgage operations actually is — and why it always lives in the handoffs - Why you should never go in with technology first — identify the business problem, then overlay the solution - The "proof of value" approach: prove what's wrong before spending a dollar on a fix - Why layering technology over a broken process doesn't fix it — it creates a train wreck - How to build nonlinear growth: volume goes up 30%, but headcount doesn't have to - AI and humans working together: where human judgment is non-negotiable and where automation belongs - What trust with a technology partner actually means — and why it matters more when compliance changes - How lenders should be scenario planning right now for what 2027 could look like - Why the AI marketplace is creating a "cloud" of confusion — and how to cut through it Connect is the California MBA's podcast where strategy, innovation, and leadership come together to shape the future of mortgage finance. Subscribe for new episodes featuring the voices driving the industry forward.

September 28, 202625 min

Standards Are the Foundation - Amy Moses on MISMO, MCD & the Future of Mortgage Data | Connect

Standards are invisible when they're working well — but when they're missing, the entire mortgage ecosystem feels it. In this episode of Connect, California MBA CEO Paul Gigliotti sits down with Amy Moses, Vice President of Strategic Growth at MISMO, for a wide-ranging conversation on the data standards, compliance tools, and AI governance frameworks that every mortgage lender needs to understand right now — before the deadlines hit. From UAD 3.6 rolling out in November to the Mortgage Compliance Dataset piloting with California DFPI in Q1 2027, the pace of change in data and standards is accelerating fast. MISMO is building the infrastructure — but lenders have to show up and engage. In this episode: - What MISMO actually does behind the scenes — and why every lender is already benefiting from it whether they know it or not - UAD 3.6 explained: why this is a systematic change, not just a technology change — and why lenders who haven't started are already behind - The Mortgage Compliance Dataset (MCD): how one standardized file could cut state exam costs in half and end the era of paper-based regulatory reviews - California DFPI's pilot rollout of MCD — Q1 2027 is closer than you think - FRAME: MISMO's AI governance framework — the toolkit small and mid-sized lenders are calling a lifeline - Why 27 state regulators have already downloaded FRAME — and what that means for lenders who haven't - How to get started: mismo.org/CD for MCD resources and mismo.org for FRAME - What the next 12-18 months look like — and the one action every lender should take right now Connect is the California MBA's podcast where strategy, innovation, and leadership come together to shape the future of mortgage finance. Subscribe for new episodes featuring the voices driving the industry forward.

September 21, 202622 min

Treat Your Loan Officers Like Clients — Artin Babayan's Formula for IMB Growth | Connect

What does it actually take to build a relationship-driven IMB that grows 80% year over year — without losing its culture? In this episode of Connect, California MBA CEO Paul Gigliotti sits down with Artin Babayan, Founder and CEO of Premier Plus Lending, for a candid, open-kimono conversation on what separates focused IMBs from the pack, why saying no to good opportunities is sometimes the best growth strategy, and how deep relationships — not AI automation — will determine who wins the next cycle. Artin spent 20 years as a top-producing loan originator before building Premier Plus into a high-performing Southern California IMB with 43% of production in non-QM, a $20 million minimum production standard, and a culture built from the core out. This is the playbook. In this episode: - Why smaller IMBs can move at light speed when it comes to technology adoption — and why that's their biggest competitive edge over larger lenders - The LOS transition that takes a small IMB 6 months vs. 18 months for a big one — and why that gap matters - Why complexity is the enemy of growth — and how Premier Plus is tackling it head-on - The hard choices: when to let someone off the bus — and why waiting always makes it worse - Why 43% of Premier Plus production year-to-date is non-QM — and why that's intentional in the LA market - The internal model that treats loan officers like clients — and how one LO went from $10-15M a year to on pace for $50M - "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care" — the accountability culture behind the growth - Why deep relationships with referral partners, not AI automation, will separate the winners in the next cycle - The counter-intuitive advice Artin would give any IMB leader right now: say no to good opportunities Connect is the California MBA's podcast where strategy, innovation, and leadership come together to shape the future of mortgage finance. Subscribe for new episodes featuring the voices driving the industry forward.

September 8, 202624 min

Do You Really Know Who You're Wiring Money To? | Andrew Liput, Secure Insight | Connect Podcast

The closing table is where a lender's money, documents, reputation, and borrower relationship all come together. And it's also one of the most vulnerable moments in the entire mortgage transaction. In this episode of Connect, California MBA CEO Paul Gigliotti sits down with Andrew Liput, President and CEO of Secure Insight, for a wide-ranging conversation on wire fraud, closing risk, business email compromise, and what lenders must do before money ever leaves the account. Andrew is an attorney by trade who saw the problem 25 years ago — lenders sending millions of dollars to closing professionals they had never verified, never vetted, and had no real relationship with. He built Secure Insight to fix that. Since launching in 2012, Secure Insight has overseen close to 60 million closing transactions with zero lender losses. In this episode: - Why the FBI considers business email compromise the largest element of white collar fraud in the United States today - How AI is making phishing schemes more sophisticated — and why criminals are tracking the same trends as the rest of the industry - The real anatomy of a wire fraud incident: how clicking one wrong email three days before closing can open a backdoor into your entire system - The origin story of Secure Insight: why a real estate attorney in 2001 thought it was strange that lenders sent millions of dollars to people they'd never verified - How Secure Insight's database of 95,000+ closing professionals across all 50 states works — and what a risk rating actually tells a lender - TruePay: how settlement agents can instantly verify that a payoff recipient and bank account are legitimate before disbursing funds — no onboarding, no training required - The KYB/KYC enhancement: verifying that the party receiving funds is who they say they are - Why slowing down is the most important thing a closing professional can do — and why speed is the fraudster's best friend - The single most important question every lender should ask before money leaves the account Connect is the California MBA's podcast where strategy, innovation, and leadership come together to shape the future of mortgage finance. Subscribe for new episodes featuring the voices driving the industry forward.

August 30, 202624 min

Meet Penny: The AI Agent Removing the Back and Forth From Mortgage | Copperlane | Connect

What if the back and forth that slows every mortgage application — the missing documents, the unanswered questions, the manual follow-ups — could be handled automatically, without replacing the loan officer? In this episode of Connect, California MBA CEO Paul Gigliotti sits down with Athan Zhang, Co-Founder and CEO, and Brianna Lin, Co-Founder and COO of CopperLane AI, for a conversation on what's possible when AI is built specifically for mortgage origination from the ground up. CopperLane's AI agent Penny works from the moment a borrower starts an application — fetching documents, flagging inconsistencies, explaining why each document is needed, and keeping the loan moving — all so the loan officer can stay focused on what only a human can do: own the relationship. In this episode: - Why the loan officer will always own the relationship — and what should never be automated - How Penny works from application intake all the way through post-underwriting conditions — it's the entire loan lifecycle, not just the top of the funnel - What CopperLane means by the copilot-to-autopilot spectrum — and why starting in co-pilot mode is the right call for every new lender - How reasoning traces let CopperLane literally open Penny's brain and see why she made every decision - Why Penny doesn't just request documents — she explains why they're needed, flags inconsistencies across files, and follows up proactively with the borrower - The letters of explanation use case: how Penny catches a large unexplained deposit and goes back to the borrower before it ever hits the loan officer's desk - Why siloed systems and inconsistent workflows are quietly costing lenders more than they realize - The one thing lenders should stop doing manually — and the one thing they should never stop doing personally Connect is the California MBA's podcast where strategy, innovation, and leadership come together to shape the future of mortgage finance. Subscribe for new episodes featuring the voices driving the industry forward.

August 17, 202631 min

UAD 3.6, AI & the Future of Property Valuation | Kenon Chen, Clear Capital | Connect Podcast

Appraisal modernization. UAD 3.6. Property data as infrastructure. These aren't back-office compliance topics — they're the next competitive battleground in mortgage. In this episode of Connect, California MBA CEO Paul Gigliotti sits down with Kenon Chen, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Growth at Clear Capital, for one of the most forward-looking conversations on collateral, data, and AI we've had on the show. Kenon has spent more than two decades at the intersection of strategy, product, and valuation — and he's here to talk about what's changing, what it means, and why lenders who aren't moving right now will be in survival mode when November hits. In this episode: - What appraisal modernization actually means right now — beyond the buzzword - UAD 3.6 explained: why moving from a doc-based to a data-based approach is the fulfillment of the digital mortgage promise - The November 2 deadline — what lenders need to be doing operationally, technologically, and with their people - Why the lenders jumping in early are gaining competitive advantage — and why the ones waiting will be stuck checking boxes - How Clear Capital is already live on UAD 3.6 with hundreds of reports — using computer vision and AI to deliver quality earlier and reduce round trips - Why property data is the glue that stitches together disconnected systems across origination, servicing, home equity, and capital markets - What happens when a borrower sees a different home value in their servicing portal than when they apply for a HELOC — and what that costs a lender in brand trust - Why silence is still an answer: if you're not giving consumers accurate property analytics, they'll get them somewhere else - Where AI is headed in valuation over the next 12-18 months — and why appraisal needs to be part of the top-of-funnel strategy, not an afterthought Connect is the California MBA's podcast where strategy, innovation, and leadership come together to shape the future of mortgage finance. Subscribe for new episodes featuring the voices driving the industry forward.

August 10, 202622 min

The Human Side of Disaster Servicing: Forbearance, Rebuilding & What Must Come Next | Connect

When a natural disaster destroys a home, the mortgage servicer is one of the first calls a homeowner makes. What happens in those first days and weeks can determine whether a family rebuilds — or falls through the cracks. In this episode of Connect, California MBA CEO Paul Gigliotti sits down with Ron Malik, Senior Vice President of Default Servicing at Dovenmuehle Mortgage, one of the nation's most experienced mortgage subservicers. Dovenmuehle has been an instrumental partner in California MBA's wildfire recovery and rebuilding work — bringing the operational expertise that turns strong policy ideas into solutions that actually work for homeowners. This is the conversation behind the work. In this episode: - What a servicer's disaster response actually looks like from day one — proactiveness, task force deployment, and identifying impacted borrowers immediately - How Dovenmuehle balances speed, empathy, efficiency, and investor requirements all at once during a disaster - What forbearance really is — and why it has to be clearly explained to every homeowner before they sign - Where the rebuild process breaks down: insurance proceeds, draw schedules, inspections, liens, and the gap between what insurance pays and what rebuilding actually costs - Why the $100 million California Disaster Rebuilding Fund matters — and why that solve isn't always available - How Dovenmuehle's participation shaped real legislative outcomes — helping California MBA move to neutral or supportive on key forbearance bills - Why no one can do this work alone — and what true servicer and trade association collaboration looks like in practice - What success looks like for wildfire families and participating servicers one year from now Connect is the California MBA's podcast where strategy, innovation, and leadership come together to shape the future of mortgage finance. Subscribe for new episodes featuring the voices driving the industry forward.

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