Laugh, Lend and Eat

He walked away from a company that was generating $80m in annual revenue...he had built it from scratch. The reason why will change how you think about your career. Ricky Peacock, SVP at AnnieMac Home Mortgage and the architect behind their construction-to-perm lending division, joins Fobby and Justin to break down everything loan officers need to know about CTP lending — including AnnieMac's...

What do CEOs say after a town hall meeting ends? Two sitting mortgage CEOs. No script. No talking points. Just the conversation that usually happens after everyone else leaves the room. Fobby Naghmi sits down with Keith Cantor, CEO of First Community Mortgage, and John Overfelt, Owner and Director of Sales at American Security Mortgage, for a roundtable that goes places most podcast conversations...

Seven out of ten buyers don't believe their loan officer is acting in their best interest. That's not a perception problem — it's the biggest barrier standing between you and your pipeline. Kristin Messerli returns to Laugh, Lend & Eat to share six years of consumer research and one powerful truth: decision fatigue is quietly killing pipelines across the industry. She walks us thro...

Most mortgage professionals have no idea how many critical housing decisions are being made behind closed doors in Washington, D.C.While most of us are focused on rates, inventory, and closing loans, there are people working every day on Capitol Hill to influence the policies that will shape the future of homeownership, housing affordability, and mortgage lending. One of those people is Justin Wis...

What if loan officers could explore their options without anyone knowing? Ellen Duncan , Founder & CEO of mLOOP and former CMO of AnnieMac Home Mortgage, joins Fobby on this week's episode of Laugh, Lend & Eat — and the conversation goes places we didn't plan. Ellen built mLOOP after sitting in a Discovery Day and realizing something was deeply broken about how recruiting works in...

71.5% of all mortgage volume. Closed by 30% of loan officers . Is the data lying? Or are top producers just pulling away? In this episode of Laugh, Lend & Eat, Fobby debuts a brand new segment — "Can We Stop" — calling out the conference culture posts that need to go away forever. Then things get real. Fobby and Justin break down the data behind the 2019–2025 mortgage market share sh...

In this high-tech mortgage world we live in, we forget how important the human touch is. In true form, Dale reminds us that we need to not only survive 2026 but to move forward with our business. 43 years in the mortgage industry. Rates at 17.5% when he started. Still closing 30+ loans a month. Dale Vermillion has seen every market cycle there is — and his message for 2026 loan officers is simple:...

We've had meditation teachers, psychologists, nutritionists, and a psychic on this show trying to fix what's wrong with mortgage people. None of it worked. So this time we went deeper. In this episode of Laugh, Lend & Eat, Fobby and Justin sit down with a married couple who may be the most interesting pair in any industry — Dr. Saloumeh DeGood , licensed clinical psychologist and Presi...

Nobody is coming to save you . The sooner you accept that, the faster everything changes. Maria Quattrone has been in real estate for over 30 years. 10,000 YouTube subscribers. 2,800+ videos. A book of business that rings before she picks up the phone. And it all started with a 10-year-old girl, two bus tokens, and a two-mile run through Philadelphia. In this episode of Laugh, Lend & Eat, Mari...

Most mortgage professionals don't know they could be forced to move with zero warning. Every year, we bring in the best recruiters in the mortgage industry for one unfiltered conversation — and this episode delivered. Andi Arroyo of CONVERT, Noah Zimmerman of Z-Talent, and co-host Justin Neal joined Fobby Naghmi on Laugh, Lend & Eat for 50 minutes of real talk on mortgage recruiting, what...

If you think rates are the reason your business is slow… you’re already losing. This episode pulls no punches. In this conversation with Christine Beckwith , we break down the uncomfortable truth most loan officers don’t want to hear:👉 It’s not the market👉 It’s not the leads👉 It’s not even the ratesIt’s the conversations you’re having… and the ones you’re avoiding. We go deep into:Why talking a...

Is mortgage marketing actually broken — or is the real problem leadership? Fobby sits down with two of the sharpest fractional CMOs in the mortgage space, Bri Lees and Lauren Dobie, to have the conversation most internal marketing teams can't have in front of their CEO. They get into: → Why most mortgage marketing is still stuck in 1989 → Company brand vs. loan officer brand — who wins borrowe...

While you're blaming the market… others are quietly winning. So what do they see that you don’t? In this episode of Laugh, Lend & Eat, I sit down with Melissa Langdale , Founder & CEO of Praxis, to break down one of the hardest truths in the mortgage industry right now: 👉 It’s not the market 👉 It’s not the rates 👉 It’s not the volume It’s how you’re running your business. We get int...

What happens when you turn mortgage recruiting into a game show? In this episode of Laugh, Lend & Eat , we take a real-world recruiting conversation and flip it into a live, unscripted challenge: Can a recruiter successfully recruit a loan officer… on the spot? No scripts. No prep. Just raw, real interaction. And what unfolds highlights one of the biggest problems in the mortgage industry toda...

What if the biggest challenge facing the mortgage industry isn’t rates, guidelines, or loan products—but trust? In this episode of Laugh, Lend & Eat, Fobby Naghmi sits down with Kristin Messerli , Executive Director of FirstHome IQ, to unpack the growing trust and knowledge gap between the mortgage industry and the next generation of homebuyers. Drawing from the FirstHome IQ Impact Report, Kri...

Most mortgage companies are making the same leadership mistake — and it’s costing them millions. In this episode of Laugh, Lend & Eat, we flipped the script and let the guests, Gabe Gillen , Wes Costello, and our favorite mortgage comic, Justin Neal , ask the questions in a segment we call Ask Fobby Anything. What followed was a mix of hard truths, leadership lessons, recruiting insights, and...

What does a peanut butter and jelly sandwich have to do with leadership? In this episode, we sit down with James Beard Award–winning chef JJ Johnson to explore leadership lessons learned not in boardrooms—but in kitchens. From managing high-pressure teams to creating safe spaces for employees, Chef JJ shares how the chaos of a restaurant teaches what corporate environments often miss: leadership i...

The one contingency killing real estate deals right now isn’t interest rates—it’s the home-sale contingency. In this episode of Laugh, Lend & Eat, Fobby Naghmi sits down with Nick Friedman, President of HomeLight, to explain why buyers are still losing bids even as mortgage rates come down—and how solutions like Buy Before You Sell are helping buyers win in today’s housing market. Nick breaks...

In this episode of Laugh, Lend & Eat, we break down what’s really driving today’s mortgage market—and why the headlines aren’t telling the full story. We talk mortgage rate volatility, political pressure on the Federal Reserve, and the proposed 10% credit card interest rate cap that could unintentionally shut millions of consumers out of credit. We also explore how uncertainty impacts buyer ps...

Most mortgage leaders won’t struggle in 2026 because of interest rates, regulation, or technology. They’ll struggle because they fail to evolve how they lead people. In the Season 7 premiere of Laugh, Lend & Eat, the conversation challenges conventional thinking around leadership, retention, and AI in the mortgage industry. Instead of chasing trends or blaming the market, this episode focuses...

For the final episode of Season 6, we close out an incredible year with someone who has always brought her own rhythm, truth, and energy to the show— Raquel Boras . No longer in the mortgage industry yet more impactful than ever, Raquel steps in with a message that directly challenges how we connect, communicate, and lead. This episode centers around one powerful question: What does Gen Z really w...

In this breakdown, Fobby Naghmi and Justin Neal cut through the noise and unpack what the numbers actually say. We look at today’s foreclosure activity side-by-side with the peak of the housing crisis, revealing a very different—and far less frightening—story than the headlines suggest. Drawing from decades of front-line mortgage leadership and data trends, Fobby and Justin explain how foreclosure...

In this episode of Laugh, Lend & Eat, Fobby brings on one of the most respected voices in housing research, Kristin Messerli , to tackle a problem the mortgage industry can’t afford to ignore: 👉 Loan officers are losing Gen Z homebuyers — fast. 👉 And most LOs don’t even realize it’s happening. Gen Z is the most educated, tech-native, socially connected generation in history — yet they’re als...

In this segment, Fobby sits down with James Kleimann, Editor of the Mortgage Scoop , to tackle two of the most talked-about trends shaking the mortgage industry right now. 👉 The 50-Year Mortgage: Real Solution or Just Noise? Everyone’s buzzing about it, but does a half-century loan actually fix affordability? Fobby and James break down: Who it might help (and who it won’t) Why the idea exploded o...

Mortgage innovator Aleyna Groves joins Fobby Naghmi to share how she’s reshaping operations through Groves IQ —a platform turning 30 steps into 3 clicks . From her early real estate lessons to building scalable systems and smarter AI integrations, Aleyna reveals what adaptability, leadership, and manifestation truly mean in today’s mortgage world. 00:00 – Opening Monologue & Season 6 Finale In...