PROFILE: Women at the Top; Karen Deis has written a book examining what makes up a successful woman mortgage originator and why women are attracted to the business. Karen Deis has written a book examining what makes up a successful woman mortgage originator and why women are attracted to the business.(Features)

Byline: Brad Finkelstein

One of the more unusual aspects of the mortgage broker industry is its seeming lack of barriers. Because of its relative youth and entrepreneurial nature, a large number of groups outside the white male dominated world of banking have seen members succeed as mortgage brokers. But even with the lack of a glass ceiling, the sharing of success stories from women and minorities has not been prevalent.

Now, noted sales trainer Karen Deis has written a book entitled "Stilettos in a Loafer World: Mortgage Women Who Walk Their Talk." She interviews 20 women and shares their stories. Ms. Deis is one of the authors of this publication's Marketing Maven column. The idea for the book came when Ms. Deis was asked to speak at a mortgage industry conference. There were approximately 20 male speakers but just one other woman. "I asked why there were only two women involved in the conference and I was told 'we don't know of any other successful women.'" But having spent plenty of time as an originator and later a trainer in the business, Ms. Deis realized she knew plenty of successful women, but that other people were not aware of them. "So I decided to start interviewing women and write a book about how they're successful and how they run their businesses differently," she said. In addition, men run most marketing seminars, and most preach that their way is the only way to be successful. Women, Ms. Deis said, should trust their own instincts and while these seminars have good information, women should consider doing business their own way.

"There is nothing good or bad between the sexes, just different, and that's what I attempted to illustrate in the book," she said.

Ms. Deis has created her own niche in supporting women sales people. She has held five MasterMind conferences for women so far and many of those in the book have attended at least one.

Among her findings is that of the 20 women interviewed, seven were the first-born in their families while five were the last-born. First-born children are considered to be leaders, while the last-born are believed to be better at social skills.

Another finding was these women relied heavily on their databases to obtain business; but this is not really a gender-specific trait, Ms. Deis admitted. Most successful loan officers, men or women, use database marketing.