Wintrust Mortgage
While in school, Tricia Brouwers worked at a job handling retail purchase agreements. A natural advocate, she rallied for a customer whose loan was being denied by calling the local branch president to discuss it. What happened next was life-changing. “He offered me the opportunity to learn the mortgage business,” she says.
Brouwers, assistant vice president/business development manager of mortgage loan originations with Wintrust Mortgage, has worked in the industry for 27 years. A veteran in mortgage, sales and management, she received Wintrust’s 2016 Sales Manager of the Year award and its 2017 CEO Award of Excellence. She also landed in the Honors Circle and President’s Circle. As a national speaker and certified trainer for the best-selling book “The ONE Thing” by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan, Brouwers delivered messages from the book last year to more than 2,150 real estate professionals, assisting them in being productive in every aspect of their lives: work, personal, family and spiritual.
“Our team motto is, ‘Through education comes trust, through trust comes business,’” she says. “We love helping our Realtor partners transform their lives personally and professionally.”
Naturally, making a difference in clients’ lives is what inspires her each day. “We are not just providing a housing solution — we are providing a place to call home,” she says. “I like to think that I shake up the status quo, challenging the industry to be better than we were yesterday, providing better tomorrows.”
Brouwers says she learned what to do — and, more importantly, what not to do — from the mentors and influencers around her. She and her team serve clients from first-time homebuyers to luxury buyers to owner-occupants to investors in Chicago and nationwide. Most importantly, she understands it isn’t about a transaction; it’s about a relationship. “They are not files; they are families,” she says of her clients. “We miss the mark when we don’t perform with that basic principle in mind.”
A longtime advocate for autism in honor of her son who is affected, she has been involved with Autism Speaks since its 2005 inception. She has served as its chairman of the board in Chicago and is currently an advisory board member. With all of her commitments, the intention is always the same: to positively impact the lives of others both personally and professionally.
