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Jason Madiedo approaches his business like a coach. As CEO of Panorama Mortgage Group, he has created a leadership space fueled by curiosity and a desire to learn. This model not only drives company-wide growth but also advances the professional mission he’s had from the start: to serve underserved populations.
His main inspiration is his parents, who moved to the US from Colombia in search of a better life. “My mom came here with less than $100 in her pocket,” he says. “From nothing, she built a career in mortgage and was able to provide us a good life. It’s my duty to her to keep that legacy going forward. I owe it to her.”
In fact, Madiedo began his career in mortgages with his mother in Los Angeles when he was eighteen. “We started this journey to help underserved families, especially Hispanic families, build wealth through home ownership,” Madiedo says.
He’s now head of a multibillion-dollar organization, but his objective hasn’t changed.
“We started this journey to help underserved families, especially Hispanic families, build wealth through home ownership.”
In the wake of the 2007 market crash, Madiedo relocated to Las Vegas and founded Alterra Home Loans, which focused on underserved home buyers by offering affordable lending products. Their client base expanded, revenue grew, and Alterra eventually evolved into a holding company, which became Panorama Mortgage Group.
“We decided to take the core, if you will, of Alterra Home Loans and centralize it to be shared among other purpose-driven, mission-driven leaders,” Madiedo explains. “We created this model that has a core-service platform with [six] different brands.”
These brands—Alterra Home Loans, Legacy Home Loans, Inspiro Financial, Americana Home Loans, New Vision Lending, and PMA—share the core services required of any mortgage bank, but each brand has its own mission and purpose. That’s why they are called “brands,” Madiedo notes—the word encompasses mission, purpose, and, more important, culture.
While traditional mortgage companies don’t focus on a specific market segment or demographic until they reach the right level of growth, each of Panorama’s brands specializes in strategically serving a specific segment and is thus able to better serve the needs of that community.
“Usually what happens with minority lending is that people are left by the wayside because it’s more difficult to do,” the CEO says. “But we started that way, so [as we] evolve into other brands and missions, [we apply] the same level of care.”
Madiedo found a way to make inclusivity profitable—and as CEO, his job is to educate others on how to do the same. “The C-team we are building are more collaborators and coaches of future leaders of this industry than executive managers.”
His coaching style focuses on identifying the weaknesses of team members and building strategies to overcome them. Entrepreneurs often believe they can master everything instead of homing in on their strengths. “We look to coach through building those muscles that need to be stronger,” Madiedo says, “and sometimes [it] takes coaching to show someone they don’t need to be the best at everything.”
A seasoned entrepreneur himself, Madiedo understands the importance of openness and transparency as well as how much time it takes to build trust. It doesn’t happen overnight.
“Times are different. It’s a different mindset,” Madiedo says. “People want to grow and be part of something special, something with purpose. However, they also need the ability to be vulnerable through the learning process and to be held accountable to perform at their full potential. It’s a balance.”
And investing time into the next generation of leaders has paid off. Revenue growth in the last few years can be directly attributed to the coach-based model Madiedo has adopted.
Panorama doesn’t just invest in its workers—it aims to educate clients as well. “There is no secret to it,” Madiedo says, “It’s all about serving people the way they need to be served, [which] means having service options and understanding customer financial profiles.” Considering a client’s life, philosophy, cultural background, or financial literacy is important in manufacturing a mortgage. Taking time to explain the process, sit down face-to-face, or start conversations in their language makes all the difference.
“People want to grow and be part of something special, something with purpose.”
Oftentimes, companies get stuck in the credit underwriting phase. “Maybe [clients] have had different jobs. Maybe sourcing down payments is difficult,” Madiedo explains. From his view, credit behaviors of certain demographics can look different. Instead of halting the process due to that difference, each brand aims to understand why there’s a difference and use that information to create a specialized approach. From start to finish, this method aligns credit behavior with certain operational groups.
Panorama’s culture has a lot to do with supporting diversity from within. In a growth-based business, Madiedo does his best to find people with unlimited potential and unchecked curiosity. Coaching them through challenges, he says, increases discipline and encourages people to frequently ask themselves where they can improve.
Looking to the future, Madiedo will stay dynamic and flexible to accommodate a rapidly changing market—he already has plans to keep improving user experience. Armed with a powerful team and guided by a mission to serve, Madiedo believes
Panorama can develop and evolve the next generation of leaders in the mortgage industry.
