Embrace Employee Spotlight: Nicole Hawkins and Jason Will

There’s a lot to love about Embrace Home Loans, but one of our strongest assets has always been our employees. We have teammates who have been with us for 10, 20, even 30+ years. And we’ve also been hiring new employees at a furious pace recently.

In this Employee Spotlight, we’ll be featuring two Embrace teammates — one new employee, and one employee who has already been with us for a while. Each will give different perspectives on the Embrace experience and a little more personal info so you’ll be able to get to know them better.

Want to nominate someone to feature in a future spotlight? Email Mary Mack at [email protected]

JASON WILL, SVP of Market Growth

What is your official title and what do you do at Embrace?

SVP of Market Growth — we are focused on recruiting new sales team members and implementing strategies to create new business opportunities to benefit our existing team. Our goal is to understand the vision and passion of each sales team member and to help them design and execute a plan to turn that vision into a reality. We want every salesperson to feel supported and engaged knowing they have a team side by side with them helping them grow.   

What made you want to work at Embrace?

The potential of the organization. Embrace has a rare combination of a clear vision, dynamic leadership, deep culture, sophisticated competencies, and an organization of people who care about one another. No company is perfect, ours included, but we have the confidence to learn from our failures and the potential to be limitless.

How has it been starting a new job during COVID? And just working for Embrace in general?

In general, the experience has been fantastic. Perhaps more importantly, it’s met or exceeded my expectations which creates trust. I’m still learning how to navigate some areas of the company, but when in doubt there is always someone willing to help. One thing I love about Embrace is that we recognize the value of individuals for how they conduct themselves and the quality of their actions, not just their production result or financial contribution.

Like so many others COVID has left scars on my family that will take a long time to heal, but we’re grateful for our blessings. I am looking forward to a more normal environment when we can get back to being in market more often and holding in-person meetings not just internally, but with our clients and customers as well.

What did you do for a living before you came to Embrace?

I spent 21 years at Wells Fargo in a variety of sales leadership roles. Over the years my wife and I have also enjoyed dabbling in real estate and have renovated and sold a number of properties. Most recently we’ve been focused on apartment complexes in low to moderate income areas in need of safe, clean, and moderately priced housing.

They say life’s two greatest joys are raising kids and building a business. So real estate gives me that outlet to take some risk, expel some creative juices, learn, and leave something better than when I found it. It’s also fun when you can make a couple bucks along the way.

We’d love to get to know you better! Tell us about yourself.

My wife, Tricia, and I live in Tampa, FL with our 7-year-old son Asher, 6-year-old daughter Dylan, and Violet our family Australian Labradoodle. My family is Canadian and I’m the first American. I was born and raised in Oklahoma City and moved to Tampa over 20 years ago.

Some unique facts about me…

• My family had a full-grown mountain lion as a pet growing up (long story).
• My mom was the fourth woman to serve as a Deputy Sherriff for the State of Oklahoma.
• I had to wait until my 18th birthday to close on the purchase of my first home because I was only 17 when I put it under contract.

For fun I love to play golf, beach volleyball, ski, travel, hike, read, workout, work with wood and spearfish, to name a few. My recent hobby is co-coaching my son’s flag football team. He threw a touchdown pass on his very first play as a QB in his first game — I had to hold back the tears of joy I was so proud.

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NICOLE HAWKINS, Strategic Alliance Manager

What is your official title and what do you do at Embrace?

My title is Strategic Alliance Manager and I am part of the Market Growth Team reporting to Jason Will. I recently transitioned into this role from Marketing. I am responsible for overseeing our strategic partnerships with organizations with whom we have a Desk Rental or Advertising Services Agreement (ASA). This oversight will include evolving how we operationalize and manage these partnerships, ensuring we compliantly deliver on our contractual commitments while driving production growth.

I work as a liaison between the client, sales, marketing, and legal/compliance to understand our client’s needs and local market dynamics to serve more customers better. I also work closely with the Market Growth VPs to prospect and acquire new partnerships, as well as Marketing, to strategize out-of-the-box ideas to keep our partners engaged and excited to grow and work together.

How long have you worked for Embrace?

I came to Embrace with over 20+ years of marketing and customer service experience, always wanting to do what’s best for the team and my customer. I have been working with Embrace since 2017.  

What made you want to work for Embrace?

I knew I wanted to work for Embrace the minute I walked through the lobby at 25 Enterprise. I had heard that Embrace’s leadership team was a class act and Embrace’s culture was unique, but the icing on the cake was seeing all the “best places to work” banners hanging from walls. As a marketer, I knew Embrace would be a perfect working environment; after working for some companies where the leadership team wasn’t always truthful or dependable, this meant a lot to me. And so did the branding!

What’s one of your favorite Embrace memories?

I’ve had plenty of great memories over the years I’ve been at Embrace, so it’s hard to name just one. But I love this question because it’s making me think about so many times I’ve loved working with my teammates. And I’m recognizing how much we accomplished and laughed along the way. As much as we worked like crazy, we had a good time doing it. I think my favorite parts have always been around events — prepping and traveling. Too many people and events to name, but we still talk about those funny times today. 🙂

How has it been working from home? Has Embrace made it easier for you in any way? Are you back in the office now?

Embrace has made it very easy to work from home. I am currently a hybrid employee, mixing my time at home and in the office. I see value in both locations. I enjoy seeing my co-workers in person because it keeps me connected with them on a personal level.

We’d love to get to know you better! Tell us about yourself.

I am a first-generation American, born and raised in New York. My mother was born in Berlin, Germany, and lived through WWII taking place all around her. My father was born in Brazil to Lebanese parents and went to school in Egypt. He spoke seven languages, which was not unique in that area. Both met in Germany and got married shortly after, moving to Brazil. They eventually moved to New York and I was born shortly afterward.

Growing up with older, foreign parents, and a grandmother (Oma) that only spoke German, my childhood was filled with pronouncing words incorrectly (German was my first language) and strict parenting. Their love, over-protectiveness, and culture molded me into the person I am today.

Today, I live in Middletown, with my husband Brian, two teenage sons (Owen and Grayson), and my only female housemate, Maggie, our 6-year-old rescue dog. The ocean is my happy place — on sand or in the salty water. And tennis keeps me sane (I’m definitely not a pro — I just love playing!)