Katie Bean

I love telling the stories of businesses and leaders.

Photo by Leah Kelley on Pexels

Writing

Featured Articles

Much of my most recent work comprises leadership profiles.

The Christian Century •

Saving church buildings to save the planet

Editor’s note: This story is part of “Growing a Green Church,” an ongoing series focused on churches’ efforts to steward their buildings and land effectively in the context of a changing climate. The project is produced in collaboration with the Christian Century, Episcopal News Service, Faithfully Magazine, National Catholic Reporter, and Sojourners, with support from the Solutions Journalism Network and funding from the Fetzer Institute. Find more stories in the series here.

In the United Sta
American Association of Private Lenders •

Three’s Company for Founding Trio

Mortgage Automator’s partners rely on each other’s strengths to move the company forward.

Some say it’s not advisable to go into business with your friends, but the founders of Mortgage Automator wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Toronto, Ontario, tech company has evolved from a proprietary software project to an award-winning business with 50 employees and 275 clients across the globe. Partners Pavel Tchourliaev, Lawrence Schwartz, and Joe Fooks see more growth ahead.

‘We’re Going to Sell
American Association of Private Lenders •

Boldness and Bravery Defy Adversity

Cindy Nasser’s early life experiences taught her lessons about business, empathy, and leadership that drive her success.

Cindy Nasser’s career path has been anything but typical. But her life experiences have equipped her with insights that uniquely qualify her to lead teams at PCV Murcor.

As chief operating officer, she touches nearly all parts of the business, including IT, vendor management, client services, order fulfillment, quality control, and support teams.

Watching her successfully l
American Association of Private Lenders •

An Unexpected Journey

Susan Naftulin navigated a career from history major to fashion retail to private lending and entrepreneurship—a path she never envisioned.

Susan Naftulin is an unexpected entrepreneur. Perhaps no one was more surprised than she was to find herself on this path.

“I always call myself the accidental entrepreneur because I am not a risk-taker,” she said. “I’m not entrepreneurial. I like the security of knowing that someone else is doing most of the work to make sure I get my paycheck.”

Yet her

My Latest Work

The Christian Century •

Saving church buildings to save the planet

Editor’s note: This story is part of “Growing a Green Church,” an ongoing series focused on churches’ efforts to steward their buildings and land effectively in the context of a changing climate. The project is produced in collaboration with the Christian Century, Episcopal News Service, Faithfully Magazine, National Catholic Reporter, and Sojourners, with support from the Solutions Journalism Network and funding from the Fetzer Institute. Find more stories in the series here.

In the United Sta
American Association of Private Lenders •

Timing Is Everything

Private lending attorney has capitalized on serendipitous opportunities throughout his career.

Reflecting on his career, Nema Daghbandan can see that luck has played a large part in his success.

Today, he is a partner at Geraci Law Firm in Irvine, California, general counsel for the American Association of Private Lenders, and CEO of Lightning Docs, an automated loan document solution. The events leading him to law, to his firm, and to a specialty in private lending have a basis in hard work,
American Association of Private Lenders •

Three’s Company for Founding Trio

Mortgage Automator’s partners rely on each other’s strengths to move the company forward.

Some say it’s not advisable to go into business with your friends, but the founders of Mortgage Automator wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Toronto, Ontario, tech company has evolved from a proprietary software project to an award-winning business with 50 employees and 275 clients across the globe. Partners Pavel Tchourliaev, Lawrence Schwartz, and Joe Fooks see more growth ahead.

‘We’re Going to Sell
Think Realty | A Real Estate of Mind •

Remembering Aaron Norris

Real estate investing lost a visionary, thought leader, and philanthropist this summer. Aaron Norris, vice president of The Norris Group, succumbed to stage 4 intimal sarcoma, a rare cancer, on July 1, 2022. He was 45.

Despite his life being cut short, he made an outsized impact on the industry as an advocate at the state and national level and as a forecaster of trends in the market and in technology.

Aaron worked with his father, Bruce, at The Norris Group in Riverside, California. He told T
Think Realty | A Real Estate of Mind •

Serial Entrepreneur Shares His Experience

Garrett Sutton is no stranger to starting new ventures. He’s a real estate investor, author, and film producer on top of running his law firm, Corporate Direct, which helps business owners, including real estate investors, start and maintain their business entities. In his career spanning more than 40 years, Sutton has started, failed, pivoted, and succeeded—all of which have helped him gain the knowledge he shares with clients and readers of his many business books.

From an early age, Sutton w
American Association of Private Lenders •

Lessons from a Lifetime in Real Estate

Paul Jackson recognized the appeal of real estate from an early age.

“Everybody in my family was in the real estate business,” he said. “It’s in my blood.”

Jackson, president and CEO of Residential Capital Partners (ResCap), grew up in Dallas, where he saw his father, uncle, and friends’ parents find success in the booming market. His father was an attorney who became a developer and started a brokerage. Jackson worked there during the summers as he studied at Baylor University to earn a busin
Think Realty | A Real Estate of Mind •

Taking the Bull By the Horns

A common thread running through Kemra Norsworthy’s career is that she doesn’t like to lose. From her time selling cars to many years in the mortgage and private lending industries, her outlook is “if there’s a will, there’s a way.”

She taps that determination as founder and CEO of Bull Funding. The company offers loan options, including ground-up construction, fix-and-flip, commercial and long-term. The company has a new fund launching this year.

Norsworthy discovered mortgage lending through
Think Realty | A Real Estate of Mind •

The CIVIC Difference

Bill Tessar fell in love with lending early in his career. During his freshman year of college, he worked as an originator—and he hasn’t looked back since.

“The whole ‘love at first sight’ type of thing that people talk about—I think that applies to me and the business,” he said. “It has always remained amazing to me that I can earn a living by helping people make the most important investment of their life.”

He’s spent more than 30 years in the business he loves, now as president of CIVIC Fin
American Association of Private Lenders •

Calling His Own Plays

Former NFL player Josh Baker jets into high gear with his new venture.

Josh Baker’s career path has been unorthodox, veering from a major in criminal justice to a stint in the NFL to a career in private lending. Through every step, he’s made forward progress, grinding to make that next first down.

Josh grew up in Chesapeake, Virginia, where he played high school football. His talent took him to the University of Delaware. Unfortunately, some minor infractions like lighting a candle in his dorm
Startland News •

Plot builds momentum as its new-to-market tool digs into construction communications tech gap

Plot builds momentum as its new-to-market tool digs into construction communications tech gap

Startland News’ Startup Road Trip series explores innovative and uncommon ideas finding success in rural America and Midwestern startup hubs outside the Kansas City metro. This series is possible thanks to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which leads a collaborative, nationwide effort to identify and remove large and small barriers to new business creation.

WICHITA — A massive construction projec
Startland News •

KC Can Compost grows green infrastructure while expanding its own footprint

Spring in the face of ‘doom and gloom’: KC Can Compost grows green infrastructure while expanding its own footprint

The market for commercial composting services goes well beyond restaurants hoping to dispose of food scraps — a welcome discovery for Kristan Chamberlain, who saw such specialized demand disintegrate in 2020 amid a pile of bad news for struggling eateries.

Today, KC Can Compost has helped divert more than 1.4 million pounds of waste from landfills since 2019 — where it otherwise
Startland News •

Trees might fall, but this duo’s salvaged, custom hardwood pieces are crafted to stand the test of time

Trees might fall, but this duo’s salvaged, custom hardwood pieces are crafted to stand the test of time

Jay Norris and Nick Bianco witnessed an unexpected sight when dropping off debris from the remodel of their KCK warehouse — a discovery that would add new rings of life to their budding custom hardwoods business.

“We see a bulldozer pushing trees into the dump, and we were like, ‘What the heck is going on over there?’” said Bianco, co-founder of KC Custom Hardwoods. “We started doing more re
Startland News •

They fought to end Lee's Summit's neon ban; now they’re relighting a grinning, spinning Katz face in KC

They fought to end Lee’s Summit’s neon ban; now they’re relighting a grinning, spinning Katz face in KC

How a Lee’s Summit duo is reviving eye-catching signs of KC’s past

The iconic face of Katz Drug Store — the famed retail operation that grew from the streets of Kansas City to eventually become CVS — is set to return to its hometown thanks, in part, to a pair of unlikely neon sign restorationists.

Dave Eames and Ben Wine’s work stems from a desire to keep Kansas City’s glowing history on pu
American Association of Private Lenders •

The Thinker

When first meeting Noah Martin, president of AlphaFlow, you might wonder how a philosophy major who casually mentions Jean-Paul Sartre in an interview ended up in private lending. But once you get to know him, you realize Martin constantly seeks to know more about any subject that interests him. So, once he got into finance and lending, he dove in with both feet to learn everything he could about the industry.

Martin’s eagerness to learn and adapt likely stemmed from a childhood spent traveling
Startland News •

New in KC: How Travis Kelce lured Pennsylvania startup inventXYZ (and its team) to Kansas City

New in KC: How Travis Kelce lured Pennsylvania startup inventXYZ (and its team) to Kansas City

Editor’s note: New in KC is an ongoing profile series that highlights newly relocated members of the Kansas City startup community, their reasons for a change of scenery, and what they’ve found so far in KC. This series is sponsored by C2FO, a Leawood-based, global financial services company. Click here to read more New in KC profiles.

Nikil Ragav’s journey to Kansas City was set in motion by a frien
Startland News •

The problem with asking customers what they want? They lie (but not to this KC data duo)

The problem with asking customers what they want? They lie (but not to this KC data duo)

For years, Diana Kander has researched how to interview customers — specifically how to get the truth from them, she said. It’s been key to helping her work with companies to innovate and grow.

But in early 2021 the consultant and author of “All In Startup” and “The Curiosity Muscle” was perplexed by a problem shared with her by a colleague: Customers registering and completing a company’s onboarding proce
Startland News •

Their company didn’t sell a single puzzle during the pandemic; today the best-sellers need restocked ASAP

Their KC company didn’t sell a single puzzle during the pandemic; today the best-sellers need restocked ASAP

The puzzle finally fits together this holiday season for Tim and Stefanie Ekeren as the couple discovers the missing pieces that kept Kansas City Puzzle Company boxed on the shelf for more than a year.

The small business, based in Mission, Kansas, offers a line of 10 puzzles, most featuring Kansas City-area landmarks or illustrations by local artists. The puzzles are 500 or 1,000 pieces
Startland News •

Gritty startup’s unique construction, Koch partnership essential to the Plot of a surging industry

Gritty startup’s unique construction, Koch partnership essential to the Plot of a surging industry

Startland News’ Startup Road Trip series explores innovative and uncommon ideas finding success in rural America and Midwestern startup hubs outside the Kansas City metro. This series is possible thanks to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which leads a collaborative, nationwide effort to identify and remove large and small barriers to new business creation.

WICHITA — Communication is a nearl
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