As with most things, the best place to start is probably the beginning. I was blessed with a traveling family so I’ve seen quite a bit of the world. My parents are missionaries, focusing mostly on developing family values and fighting the spread of AIDS in Africa. I was born in Modesto, CA and after three long weeks, went back to Zimbabwe in Africa with my parents. I lived there until I was seven and a half, at which point our now-larger family (I have three younger sisters who were all born in Africa) came back to the States and settled in Tacoma, Washington. After two years there, we moved up to Victoria, BC in Canada and from there way up north to 100 Mile House, BC (six hours north of the US border). After high school, I traveled around a bit trying to find my passion and spent time in Smithers BC, Grand Rapids MI, Kamloops BC, and Ripon CA before finding the promised land in beautiful Southern California. I’ve lived in Moreno Valley, Upland, Orange, Tustin, and Rancho Santa Margarita, and am now settled into my current home in Foothill Ranch. I’ve also traveled to Montreal, Belize, northern England, Holland, Cyprus, New York City, Park City, Las Vegas, New Orleans, and 24 of the 50 States.
I’ve been in the mortgage business since 2002 after spending time as a computer consultant. I owned and ran a computer consulting company which had a mortgage brokerage as one of their clients. Although I was good with computers and loved being able to help companies solve their computer problems, I didn’t love spending a majority of my time with machines that couldn’t talk back and only getting calls when things weren’t working right. At the same time, it seemed like my mortgage broker client was having a lot of fun and being able to do some great things for their clients.
I spent two and a half years working as a loan officer in a brokerage that I absolutely loved. Unlike a lot of mortgage brokerages, I was allowed to do what I thought was right for my clients and not always go after the almighty dollar. I’ve always had a long-term focus to things I do, making sure I do the right thing every time and develop strong relationships instead of going for the fast buck or taking the easy way out. This company allowed me to do that while I developed my skills, and I’ll always be grateful to them for that.
Opening January Financial in the summer of 2005 was the realization of a long-term dream of mine. After getting my bachelor’s degree in Finance from Cal State Fullerton I felt I was finally ready to spend the time and resources necessary to open my own brokerage and follow my dream of providing an outstanding customer experience for everyone I deal with. Focusing once again on long-term relationships and building a referral base allows me to spend the majority of my time with the people who depend on me the most, my clients.
