TikTok, Mortgages, Mom-Life, and a Dose of “We’ll All Die One Day”, with Theoni The Lender

Theoni Rapo joins us on the season 1 finale of "Women Just Like You", a podcast full of career advice for women in the middle of their careers directly from women in the middle of theirs.  Theoni’s career as a loan officer starting as a social media internship at a bank freshman year of college and she never went back, combining both interests to build her brand as Not Your Daddy’s Lender and disrupt the mortgage industry, get speaking gigs, and set-up multiple businesses to get to BILLIONAIRE status one day. 

She’s now using TikTok and Instagram to generate leads for her mortgage business and has created an entire backend system to support going viral on her page @TheoniTheLender, which will be super helpful as her second child is due this summer and she’ll need to take some time off as her family grows.  Theoni also gets real with us about being a working mom, including the honest truth about maternity leave in her world and how hard it is to set boundaries while trying to grow her mortgage business. She shares her motivation with us and it’s a super inspiring discussion making me want to do what she’s doing after listening to this!  But more importantly, this interview will leave you thinking “If she can do it, so can I” which is the WHOLE point of this show. 

Our conversation is full of:

• The real honest truth about being a working mom and entrepreneur with a toddler in tow

• Social media tips for building a top-notch personal brand people will take seriously

• Educating consumers about the biggest purchase they’ll ever make, their home

• How she thinks about social media as a lead generator for her mortgage business

• Her approach to building out multiple businesses with her husband

• And doing all that while prepping for baby #2 (it’s a girl!)

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Childhood Dreams

06:47 Career Journey and Starting in Mortgages

09:15 Role as a Mortgage Banker and Loan Officer

12:06 Benefits and Flexibility of the Job

13:19 Tips for Becoming a Loan Officer

23:05 Opportunities from Social Media Presence

28:02 Advice for Women Getting Active on Social Media

31:07 Diversifying Platforms

32:20 Starting with One Platform

33:16 Differentiating Platforms

34:38 Navigating News and Changes

35:57 Transparency in Real Estate Commissions

37:33 Lead Generation on TikTok

38:37 Adapting and Pivoting in Real Estate

39:56 Balancing Work and Motherhood

40:55 Preparing for the Next Phase

45:13 Aspirational Goals

46:30 Asking for Help

49:39 Motivation and Inspiration

55:31 Future Career and Goals

59:32 Favorite Inspirational Quote

The things we chat about!

Audrey’s photoshoot with Christina Gavin Photography (SF Bay Area) @christinagavinphotography 

Theoni’s photoshoot with Lena Nikolaj (New Jersey / New York, but travels!) @lenanikolaj 

We Croak app: https://www.wecroak.com/

You can connect with Theoni at: 

@theonithelender on Instagram and TikTok 

[e-mail]

notyourdaddyslender.com/links

linkedin.com/in/theonirapo/

You can find Audrey at:

⁠www.audreyutchen.com⁠

⁠linkedin.com/in/audreyutchen⁠

@audreythecareerwoman on Instagram and YouTube 

Join the distribution list to get behind-the-scenes content about the making each episode, along with monthly career development recommendation