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I’ve been fortunate to have had many great mentors throughout my career, all of whom gave me a great deal of valuable advice. But the one piece of advice that has stuck with me over time and has had the most tangible effect on my career is about raising your hand. I heard it from the first female CEO of PepsiCo. She talked about a time when she volunteered for a project that no one else wanted to do. The benefit of that was that she got recognition inside the company, people saw her differently, and what she could do became more broadly known.

The lesson I took from that is that you can’t be afraid to take risks – calculated risks – in your career. You have to be willing to put yourself out there, to take on a challenge, and raise your hand. This can help you advance inside your company or even get you noticed outside your current company. But make sure you’re always running toward something, not away from something – that’s another great piece of advice I took to heart early in my career.

As women, we tend to not give ourselves enough credit, so another part of raising your hand is knowing your own value, understanding what you have to contribute and can accomplish. For example, if there’s a promotion opportunity, a woman may look at the job description and say, well there are 10 requirements, and I have 8 of them, so I’m not qualified. Whereas a man might say, I have 6 of them, I’m qualified and thus going to apply.

What I would tell young women in the mortgage industry is, first, to look for opportunities to constantly broaden your knowledge of the business and expand your skill set, not just the silo you are in. Expand your network as well. Get involved in the industry by actively participating in a trade association for your industry — it will increase your knowledge and allow you to add more value at your company. It will also broaden your network. So, my main message is to raise your hand, be ready and willing to take on new challenges, and think about things from a calculated risk point of view.

Second is have fortitude! While improvements have been made, gender biases do exist, and having fortitude will help you to keep moving forward. Collaborate with your manager to create and execute your development plan. Make sure that people know your accomplishments: the people who you work for and other people in your sphere need to be aware of your achievements and capabilities. You can do that without being braggadocious. That’s something else that I learned along the way.

I think oftentimes a woman brings a more diversified skill set and valuable perspectives to the table. It’s very exciting to see more women in leadership roles in the mortgage industry, and also people of color. There have been some noteworthy firsts recently, like Kirsty Fercho, the first African American, and an African American woman, becoming chair of the Mortgage Bankers Association. When I started getting involved in the leadership at MBA, often I was one of only two women in the room, and sometimes there were two people of color, but sometimes there were not.

We have made significant progress but till have much work to do since women make up less than 20 percent of the highest-level jobs that have profit-and-loss responsibility in American banking, insurance, and mortgage companies, according to the Harvard Business Review. Diverse representation is important, so I believe we need to be intentional about bringing more people into the industry if we want to move the needle. It’s a career area that many people don’t really know about – many people, including me, since I began my career as a lawyer, would say they sort of fell into it.

Particularly, if you are a woman or person of color, you may not have grown up knowing people in this industry. We need to reach out to college students and help them understand the excellent opportunities in financial services. Also, we should help connect the dots on how this work touches the lives of individuals and families who are able to have a home of their own.

More women being able to buy and own a home is good news, and a growth opportunity for the mortgage industry, certainly. To respond to the needs of female borrowers, having an industry that more closely resembles its customers is helpful, and outreach to women should be a priority, too.

Being educated about the homebuying process and some of the challenges that come with homeownership can be very helpful – for anyone, but especially for those who have been or still are underrepresented or have experienced discrimination. Housing counseling and first-time homebuyer courses are empowering and should be widely available. With the right information, women can see more possibilities, make good decisions, and build wealth through homeownership.