by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Getting the financing to buy a house can often be a stressful experience.
A little humor might be just what the doctor ordered and Amy Johnson, a loan officer with First Horizon Home Loans, is up for the challenge.
A former stage actress, Johnson engages clients in friendly banter to help them feel more comfortable and relaxed.
“It melds everything that I have been working for, towards and with into one profession,” she said. “I get to use my teaching skills, selling skills, people skills and my theatrical skills. When I am giving a presentation or talking in front of a crowd, I have an agenda and a system. I’m teaching and providing comic relief. It helps in a typically boring profession. I like to make it an enjoyable experience.”
Johnson, born and raised in Jacksonville, loves literature and theatre and left several years ago to go to New York to pursue her dream of stage acting and teaching.
She chose stage acting because of her love of literature. She enjoys doing all types of theater, though comedy is her forte.
“I’ve been compared to Carol Burnett my whole life,” said Johnson. “I love comic roles. I can do physical comedy and I can make my body do certain crazy things. I can change my whole look through my body like Carol Burnett did in some of her characters.”
Johnson also enjoys Shakespearian plays and other types of stage acting.
“It’s hard to do because it is so repetitious,” she said. “You have to be consistent and well read. When you are telling a story to someone else and you want them to believe you, you have to be prepared. When someone writes something down and you are embodying that, it’s interpretation. It’s kind of like interpretive dance. What you get from it isn’t definitive, but if it’s enjoyable then I’ve done my job. I love that. I also love that anything can happen in front of a live audience.”
She has a bachelor’s degree in education and performing arts from Flagler College and a master’s degree in fine arts from the University of Florida.
She completed her master’s and thesis in New York City by doing an internship with the Broadway company of the Roundabout Theatre Company.
She was then hired by the theater to work there as a teaching artist.
“I brought Broadway to the inner city classrooms,” said Johnson.
She continued teaching, waitressing and acting as most actors do in the big city until 9/11 happened.
“I then decided I wanted to teach at the inner city full-time,” she said. “I taught English and drama at a school in Harlem for two years while still acting.”
Over the last 20 years, she has performed in over 40 plays and will continue to remain active in the Jacksonville theatre community on her downtime.
She recently appeared in a play with Theatre Jacksonville and is excited to continue her acting career locally.
“I need some sort of artistic side note and I am enjoying what I am doing now a lot,” said Johnson.
In addition to acting, Johnson also did stand up comedy and improvisation.
“Improv is important for even a straight actor because some nights are not perfect,” she said. “Someone might come on stage and skip three pages and you have to be able to improv to make it work. I’ve been in shows where the phone doesn’t ring when it’s supposed to or something falls on someone.”
After five years in New York City, teaching and acting, Johnson decided she wanted a change. Her mother still lived in Jacksonville and her fiancé wanted to return, so she decided it was time to leave the Big Apple and come home.
“I wanted to move closer to my mother and where there is better weather,” she said. “I love trying new things and challenges so that is why I decided to try the lending business and it has turned out that I absolutely love it.”
A friend of the family, who happened to work at First Horizon Home Loans, was helping Johnson with her interview skills when he suggested she come work for him as a loan officer.
“He was coaching me on my questions and then he asked me what was important to me,” she said. “I said stability, traveling and being able to have choices. He said ‘Why don’t you come for work me? We could really use someone like you.’”
Johnson joined First Horizon Home Loans a year ago and feels comfortable in her new role.
She grew up around the banking business since her mother, Kerin Reeves, was a mortgage banker for over 25 years and is now the regional builder manager for the State of Florida with First Horizon Home Loans.
“It was like falling into step with something very familiar because of my mom,” she said. “I have a lot of respect for her.”
Johnson uses her waitressing and teaching background to help her in her new position.
“I waited tables in a pretty big restaurant, Isabella’s, and there were stars in there all the time,” she said. “Jerry Seinfeld, Alec Baldwin and Brittany Spears were there all the time.
“The restaurant life is very different experience, but it’s very similar to selling. Everything is how you present yourself, the kind of product you have and the consistency that you give. That’s been pretty consistent throughout.
“The teaching comes in and also helps me because people might really be informed and are afraid that you are going to take them for a ride. But then you can sit there and tell them exactly and specifically where things come from and why things are the way they are or how this product would benefit them.”