The Bay Builds Podcast

Don't Call Me Boss: Brett Lindquist, Co-Founder & CEO of The Mortgage Firm

He was the first one through the door. His two partners hadn't arrived yet, the office was empty, and Brett Lindquist sat there alone in 1995 thinking, "I hope this works." Thirty years later, The Mortgage Firm has grown into dozens of branches across more than twenty states, more than 30,000 reviews, and a near-perfect rating. But Brett still refuses to be called boss. In this episode of The Bay Builds, host Tracie Domino sits down with Brett Lindquist, Co-Founder & CEO of The Mortgage Firm, to trace a career that began long before the branches and the billions in loans. A scholarship swimmer and team captain at Florida State, Brett learned discipline, focus, and a high tolerance for pain doing three practices a day from the age of five. He carried that grit into residential lending, a business he describes less as paperwork and rates and more as managing fear and obsessing over communication with the people on the other end of the biggest investment of their lives. The conversation moves through the hard things that built the company: launching into the teeth of the 2008 mortgage meltdown, surviving the rate spike from three to seven percent that cut the industry by 60 to 70 percent, and running every branch like its own business. Brett talks about scaling without losing the relationships that matter, why he hires people who already have a track record, the rare 30-year partnership built on three partners and majority-rules decisions, and a leadership team that is roughly 85 to 90 percent women. He and his wife Cindy have given generously back to Florida State, and when asked what he hopes people say about him a generation from now, his answer is simple: one of the nicest guys I ever met. If you are building something in Tampa Bay or thinking about buying a home in a market Brett calls the hottest in the country, this one is worth your time. Follow The Bay Builds, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. 00:00 Mortgage Cycles and Fear 00:57 Meet Brett Lindquist 02:11 Starting The Mortgage Firm 03:54 Mentors and Athlete Mindset 05:40 Swimming Discipline Lessons 07:15 Real Craft of Lending 08:38 Scaling Through Meltdowns 13:00 Five Star Service System 14:16 Downturns and Home Values 17:29 Hiring and Branch Leaders 20:28 Tampa Bay Market Outlook 21:58 Grit and Giving Back 28:00 Partners and Future Legacy 31:57 Lightning Round and Wrap 33:31 Final Takeaways

Tampa's Greatest Days Are Now: Santiago Corrada, President and CEO of Visit Tampa Bay

Santiago Corrada was 13 years old when his family visited Tampa from New Jersey and he told his parents they were not going back. Decades later, he runs the organization responsible for putting Tampa Bay on the map for the rest of the world -- and he will tell you plainly: the greatest days are not coming. They are already here. In this episode of The Bay Builds, Santiago Corrada, President and CEO of Visit Tampa Bay, sits down with Tracie Domino to trace a career that began in fast food, moved through inner-city education, city government, and the mayor's office, and landed in one of the most visible leadership roles in the region. Santiago breaks down what destination marketing actually is, why Tampa was a blank slate when he arrived, and how Visit Tampa Bay transformed a city that people in Mumbai thought was a neighborhood in Miami into a destination that Time Magazine named one of the 50 greatest places on Earth. This conversation covers the Bollywood Academy Awards, Brentford Bees, pet influencers on the Riverwalk, the bed tax most Tampanians don't know they benefit from, and a destination development plan that is already reshaping how developers invest in Hillsborough County. Santiago also gets candid about what keeps him up at night: transportation, housing, and the very real risk that prosperity can disappear faster than it arrives. If you love Tampa Bay, work in hospitality, lead a public-private organization, or want to understand how a city builds a brand that actually sticks, this is the episode for you. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts and follow The Bay Builds on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube. 00:00 Miami Growing Pains 00:41 Meet Visit Tampa Bay CEO 02:31 Roots and Early Hustle 03:47 From Education to City Hall 05:18 Leading Visit Tampa Bay 06:52 Leadership Lessons Tested 09:16 Building Tampa's Brand 12:21 What DMOs Actually Do 15:58 Tourism Powers the Economy 17:27 Post Pandemic Marketing Shift 21:11 Big Events Without Dependence 23:16 How Bed Tax Funding Works 26:11 What Excites Him Next 26:46 Rethinking Strategy 27:30 Destination Development Roadmap 30:11 Luxury Gaps and Smart Placement 30:40 Leadership Misconceptions 32:24 Why Tampa Feels Like Home 34:08 Tampa in 10 Years 37:57 What Young Pros Need 39:25 The People Make Tampa 41:30 Legacy and Handing Off 44:36 Lightning Round Favorites 48:23 Closing Thanks and Wrap

A Century of Women Who Built This City: Katie Crowe, President, The Junior League of Tampa

In 1926, 22 women sat down together in Tampa and decided to do something about the unmet needs of women and children in their community. They did not have cell phones, fax machines, or the internet. They had a mission statement that was, by any measure, ahead of its time: to foster interest in the social, economic, educational, and civic conditions of the community and to make volunteer service efficient. One hundred years later, The Junior League of Tampa has 1,900 members logging 50,000 volunteer hours a year, has launched permanent nonprofit institutions into the Tampa Bay community, and is still asking the same question those 22 women asked in 1926 - where is the gap, and how do we fill it? In this episode, Tracie Domino sits down with Katie Crowe, President of The Junior League of Tampa, during the organization's centennial year. Katie pulls back the curtain on how a volunteer-led organization sustains a coherent long-term strategy through rotating leadership, what it actually takes to spin a project out into a self-sustaining nonprofit, and why a third of what has been built in Tampa Bay traces back to women who never collected a paycheck for the work. She also talks about the stereotype the League has spent decades dismantling, the hiring of the organization's first ever Chief Operating Officer, and what keeps leadership up at night as they look toward the next 100 years. This is a conversation about legacy, leadership, and what it looks like when women decide to build something that outlasts them. 00:00 League Strengths 00:53 Century Legacy 02:51 Founding Vision 05:36 How It Works 07:10 Diaper Bank Impact 10:00 Centennial Projects 13:53 Learning From Leagues 15:37 Projects That Last 17:09 Strategy With Turnover 19:28 Breaking Stereotypes 22:05 Recruiting Next Gen 24:08 Evolving The Model 25:44 Next 100 Years 28:37 Tampa Storytelling 32:14 Gala Highlights 34:10 Bicentennial Hopes 35:24 Lightning Round 37:20 Closing Call To Action

Doubling Down Before Anyone Believed | Mike Griffin, Vice Chair and Co-Head of the Florida Region, Savills

Before Mike Griffin knew what commercial real estate was, he was walking up and down the sun-baked stands of Tampa Stadium selling Cokes and peanuts to a crowd of strangers. That early lesson in showing up, working hard, and earning something stuck. So did Tampa. Mike Griffin is Vice Chair and Co-Head of the Florida Region of Savills, responsible for more than 13 million square feet of transactions across 18 states and 15 countries. He brokered the first Fortune 500 relocation in Tampa's history and signed the first lease in Water Street. He became the youngest chairman in the 135-year history of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. He was appointed to the Tampa Port Authority by the governor. He serves today as Vice Chair of the USF Board of Trustees and Chair of the Finance Committee, where he has been a central architect of the new on-campus football stadium. And he did all of it from the same city where he grew up, choosing to double down on Tampa before most people believed it was worth the bet. In this conversation with host Tracie Domino, Mike talks about what it means to invest in a place before the world catches up, how his mentor Ann Duncan hired him as her first employee straight out of USF and changed the trajectory of his life, why trust is the only thing he is actually selling, and what it cost him personally to build a city-level reputation over two decades. He also gets into the global lens he brings to Tampa deals, why life sciences is the city's next North Star, and what it took to get a $400 million on-campus football stadium across the finish line at USF. This one is for the builders. The ones who stayed. The ones who are still deciding whether to stay. And the ones who just need someone to remind them that the best time to bet on something is always before everyone else figures out it's worth it. Find Mike at savillsus.com and follow what's happening at USF at usf.edu. Chapters * Betting on Tampa Before Anyone Else Did * Selling Cokes and Learning Everything * The Publix Years and the Standard of Excellence * Ann Duncan and the Job That Changed His Life * What He Is Actually Selling * The First Fortune 500 and the First Lease in Water Street * Telling Tampa's Story to the World * Why Life Sciences Is Tampa's Next North Star * The $400 Million Bet on USF Football * Legacy Versus Leverage * What Building a City-Level Reputation Actually Costs * A Message to the Next Generation * What Makes Tampa Still Special * Lightning Round

Can't Get Any More Broke, Might As Well Keep Going: Mike DiBlasi, Senior Managing Director and North Florida Market Leader, CBRE

There is a moment Mike DiBlasi does not forget. It is 2008, the market has collapsed, every broker around him is either making excuses or making an exit, and he is beyond broke. Not almost broke. Beyond it. His dad is telling him he should have stayed in accounting. His friends are leaving the business. And Mike is standing there thinking: at this point, I can't get any more broke. Might as well keep going. That decision to stay when everything said leave is the thread that runs through everything Mike DiBlasi has built. A former closer on the FSU baseball team that went to the College World Series three times alongside future MLB players Kevin Cash and Matt Diaz, Mike came out of school with a CPA he did not love and a plan that fell apart fast. He cold-called every major Tampa brokerage looking for a shot. Most did not call back. He found his way in anyway. What followed was nearly two decades of grinding through commercial real estate at Cushman and Wakefield, Liberty Property Trust, and Feldman Equities before landing at CBRE, where he now serves as Senior Managing Director and North Florida Market Leader overseeing Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville. Nearly 650 transactions. More than 9 million square feet. Four consecutive years on the Tampa Bay Business Journal Power 100 List. And a 125-person office he has helped build into the number one commercial real estate operation in the market. In this episode, Tracie Domino sits down with a guy she has known since the late 1990s at Florida State, and the conversation goes everywhere. How losing a lead in the College World Series semi-final taught him more than any win ever did. Why locker room culture is the non-negotiable he never compromises on. What he looks for in people that goes way beyond a GPA. How AI is reshaping demand for commercial space across North Florida. And what he tells every young professional who reaches out to him still grinding and wondering if it is ever going to turn. This one is for anyone who has ever been told to go back to the safe path and chose to keep going instead. Visit cbre.com to find Mike DiBlasi and his team across Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville. 00:00 Beyond Broke Beginnings 00:51 Podcast Intro Mike Delos 02:41 Closer Mindset Under Pressure 03:25 Pivot After Baseball Ends 04:27 CPA To Brokerage Hustle 06:23 Early CRE Lessons And 2008 08:08 From Producer To Leader 10:31 Building Team Culture 13:26 North Florida Market Trends 14:58 Failing Forward Like Sports 17:01 People Skills And Hiring 20:38 Legacy Vision And Growth 21:44 Advice For Next Generation 25:02 Lightning Round Fun 26:16 Closing Thoughts