For this week’s episode of the LodeStar Lending Leaders podcast—the very first of the new year!—CEO Jim Paolino sat down with Hoyt Mann, President and Co-Founder of Alanna.ai, a virtual assistant software for the title industry.

Horace brings Octavia up to speed on his New Year’s resolutions.

I’d like to talk a bit about the etiquette of job seeking. I’m pretty particular about what I look for when I’m seeking new team members. Especially when it comes to consumer or client facing positions or sales people.

2022 has been, well, a year. To quote Jim: “Least fun but most important year of business we’ve had.”

While market conditions may tamp down travel in 2023, there will still be onsite conferences, seminars and conventions. So I ask the question again, since it seems more than a few of us are asking it: why do we spend large amounts of money to attend conferences?

Horace and Octavia are looking forward to holiday break.

This week on LLL, LodeStar Sales and Marketing Director Alayna Gardner interviews the CEO of Lender Toolkit, Brett Brumley, to talk all things automation and the mortgage industry. They touch on scalability, layoffs, market downturns, and leveraging tech during tough times.

Horace chafes at being warned about phishing scams.

Now is a great time to rethink how well we pool resources and collaborate for mutual benefit. Especially in markets like this, our tendency is to cut expenses and then cut some more. While that’s a cry for even better use of technology, it’s also a great reason to explore strategic partnerships and scaled resources.