In this interview, we tackle a taboo issue on having a great family and operating a successful business as a female in the Australian mortgage industry. Who says you can’t have both!
And what better person to share their opinion than one of the most successful brokers in the country, and arguably, Australia’s leading female broker, Sarah Thomson.
Sarah takes us behind the scenes into her business where she shares what has worked, what hasn’t and how she has built a reputation that well and truly precedes her - both with clients and across the industry.
With droves of raving fans all over the Bellarine Peninsula and beyond, Sarah has built a high-performance brokerage that manages some 40 to 50 applications each month with a business based almost exclusively on repeat business and client referrals.
Beyond great technical skills as a broker, through persistence, mistakes and continual learning, Sarah has also built a team that cares about the brand, that works hard and celebrates their success.
Equally, each member is clear on their role so they deliver a seamless customer experience.
It’s part of the secret sauce that’s helped Sarah build an enviable reputation as a broker and as a lead woman in finance.
Double Your Settlements:
Watch this free training so you can double your settlement volumes with structure and consistency.
In this interview, we talk about how Alex transitioned from being an accountant to a top mortgage broker that he is now. He started with absolutely no experience in the world of banking, but how did he get to where he is now? Read more.
Alex, like many brokers from the Wizard Home Loans brand began his broking life without a trail income, not many referrals and their tactics for growing volumes were like a melting pot of strategies combined together.
What Alex had in spades is a passion for serving clients - and with perseverance, sharpening his sales skills, and delivering exceptional service, he was able to build his momentum, confidence and his volumes.
It may sound like a cliche but Alex believes that there is no easy path to success.
The entirety of the interview is a timely reminder, whether in the industry or not, that hard work and dedication to better service each time for clients is a foundation of growing a sustainable business.
Double Your Settlements:
Watch this free training so you can double your settlement volumes with structure and consistency.
In this interview with Graeme Holm, you’ll hear him share a host of tactics that have helped him quickly build his brand and profile as a preeminent broker.
With a mantra for ‘people first, profits last’, Graeme refers to his clients as joining the ‘family’, which is reflected in the service proposition and ongoing support his team provides to help clients improve their financial wellbeing.
Having won a host of service awards, combined with various other lead generation and brand-building strategies, Infinity Group Australia is building a respected and trusted brand that is quickly becoming known for delivering outstanding client results.
Like most brokers, Graeme enjoys educating clients so they feel more confident about the lending process, which in turn enhances the customer experience and earns him more referrals.
In this interview with Graeme Holm, you’ll hear him share a host of tactics that have helped him quickly build his brand and profile as a preeminent broker.
With a mantra for ‘people first, profits last’, Graeme refers to his clients as joining the ‘family’, which is reflected in the service proposition and ongoing support his team provides to help clients improve their financial wellbeing.
Having won a host of service awards, combined with various other lead generation and brand-building strategies, Infinity Group Australia is building a respected and trusted brand that is quickly becoming known for delivering outstanding client results.
Like most brokers, Graeme enjoys educating clients so they feel more confident about the lending process, which in turn enhances the customer experience and earns him more referrals.
I hope you are inspired by what Graeme shares, and you can find out more about his business via these two links:
If you’re an established, busy broker who is considering to hire or you have hired other people to help carry the load, you’ll enjoy this conversation with Paul Wright.
Paul exemplifies many of the qualities we have come to see and expect of high performing brokers.
Diligent, professional, builds trust, nurtures relationships and a strong commercial acumen are a handful of the qualities that come easily to mind.
Equally, Paul has also made the transition into a successful business owner, where he’s established a loyal and productive team of people who do a lot of the heavy lifting to consistently deliver great client outcomes.
Like many who’ve walked this path, Paul built collaborative relationships with other professionals so they could create new opportunities for each other, which is complemented by ongoing service to turn clients into his referral army.
Impressively, Paul has firm boundaries around client appointments, which are all conducted in-office between 9:30 to 5:30 pm. This structure enables, if not forces Paul to be highly productive during office hours so he can enjoy quality time with those who matter most to him.
In our interview, Paul also talks about some simple yet powerful ways to engage and demonstrate care and commitment to his employees - which in turn earns their loyalty and mitigates his biggest internal risk - losing staff and needing to train a new person.
Paul Wright’s MoneyQuest website
Contact Paul: 02 4229 5459
Double Your Settlements:
Watch this free training so you can double your settlement volumes with structure and consistency.
To say James Hasselle is an impressive individual is an understatement. From starting a ‘greenfields’ Mortgage Choice in Burleigh Heads over a decade ago, these days, James enjoys having 3-times the market share that a typical broker would earn from their own suburb.
In real terms, this means they write a significant volume from local clientele due somewhat to their positioning in high-traffic areas, but also to investing into quality relationships with other local traders, and providing their clients a service experience that they can’t help but want to tell others about.
For example, clients are offered a snack and beverage from the in-house menu. It’s different, and worthy of talking about. And, if you call any of their three offices, there’s just one phone number, which keeps things really simple for clients.
Combined with other touch points like their annual home-loan health, it makes it easy for existing clients to return and for James’ team to be kept front of mind.
Equally impressive is the decision James implemented to change the delivery model for his business. With a team of 4 loan writers, he has personally stepped back from loan writing to he can focus solely on operating the business.
Not easy to do when you were writing $141 million per annum, but it’s a decision James knew would enable him to mentor and empower his team to become even more exceptional in their own right.
July 2019 was their first month under the new model, and they submitted the same volume as a year earlier without James writing a single loan.
Naturally, he will need to communicate effectively with existing clients to manage expectations, and to have great processes in place to handover new client enquiries, etc. Equally, this decision provides James an opportunity to establish new referral partnerships, and to spend quality time at home with his wife and young family.
Though it’s early days yet, James might just be onto something here and it’ll be interesting to see which other brokers will be bold enough to follow in his steps.
James Hasselle’s Facebook page
Double Your Settlements:
Watch this free training so you can double your settlement volumes with structure and consistency.
Daniel Hustwaite’s journey into becoming a broker was more by accident and good fortune than intention.
Starting out as a carpenter, then moving mortgage collections to help people who were in arrears, Daniel’s capability saw him quickly grow his corporate career where he eventually supervised a call centre that helped brokers understand the status of their loan applications.
At this point, someone whispered that he’d make a great broker, which was all the encouragement he needed.
For 6 years Daniel learned the craft at a brokerage called Loan Site, upon which he mustered the courage to start his own brokerage and hasn’t looked back.
A core source of generating new clientele came via strategic relationships with local estate agents.
Yes, they pay referrers for being warmly introduced, and as Daniel said, this provides the opportunity to service another client to an exceptionally high standard and earn new introductions into that client’s personal networks, which they would otherwise never be able to access.
And the strategy is clearly paying off.
Daniel’s personal settlement volumes are well in excess of $100M, and the brokerage is nudging $300M.
The collective volume has been achieved through ensuring that each broker is aligned to an estate agency near their home so their commute is small, but more importantly, that the rapport is high with the agents and clients alike.
Daniel is also acutely aware of the need for good systems and people, and to provide a culture where each person’s contribution is valued and recognised. As he says, he will look in the mirror and ask “would I want to work here”, and the answer is ever anything but a “yes”, he knows something might need to change or improve.
These strategies have seen Aqua FS’ volumes continue to grow along with strong employee loyalty and client advocacy.
With a passion for the industry, Daniels generously shares all in his interview.
Daniel’s mobile: 0408 985 611
Double Your Settlements:
Watch this free training so you can double your settlement volumes with structure and consistency.
Nowadays, as a veteran and consistent MPA Top 100 broker, Whiltlam Malkoun shares how some things have changed while some are still the same.
As an Aussie broker, in the early days, the head-office leads proved a lifeline to help him get in front of more people - which in turn boosted his experience and his confidence.
Over time, as Whitlam’s reputation grew, he found he went from being the hunter to the hunted. Or, as he says, he embraced the “AAA Theory”. Anyone, anywhere, anytime. It’s a simple yet powerful philosophy that has contributed in no small way to building his network, his reputation and his income.
With a fervent belief that the more people you speak with, the more business you will do, Whitlam’s number do the talking for him. Not only is he an avid people-person, he loves educating clients on finances regardless of whether they’re an astute investor or a first-time home buyer who need some hand holding.
And over the years, while volumes have grown, so too has his need to manage the diary and ensure that family commitments are treated on par with his business responsibilities. As Whitlam shares, he’s now got his time management down to a fine art.
Actively involved in his local footy club and in his kids sporting activities, Whitlam is giving of his time and keen to continue making a difference at the grass roots level by making a financial contribution to the club for each person who books an appointment with him.
In Whitlam’s words, if starting out again, he’d bring on an admin support person sooner. Other than that, enjoy the nuggets of gold that Whitlam generously shares.
Double Your Settlements:
Watch this free training so you can double your settlement volumes with structure and consistency.
Occasionally, it’s easy to label high performing brokers as a ‘machine’ who just pump out the deals like a production line.
In reality, like many high performers, Nathan Taddeo shares that his success is really a combination of many attributes brought together.
And, this has evolved over time as the business has reinvented itself.
From a ‘one stop finance shop’, they decided to divest their interests in accounting and financial planning and focus solely on the one thing they are great at and could build their reputation around - lending solutions.
In doing so, they found it was easier to establish new referral relationships and drive an increase in lead volume. And, as Nathan explains, this was from ‘traditional’ and non-traditional referral sources.
Either way, that move paid off where Nathan and the team now have an abundant lead supply and their focus is on nurturing relationships, building trust, and delivering an exceptional level of service which is at the heart of their business model.
Though Nathan’s personal volumes are still impressive, they have been marginally decreasing so he can establish the right level of support back of house to ensure deals move quickly through to formal approval, while also growing the broking team.
The result? Credo Financial’s total volumes have grown 20% and look set to grow even more.
Like Nathan says, he backs his process, backs his people and together, they genuinely believe in the value of what they are doing, which is a powerful combination to build upon.
By the same token, Nathan readily admits there are days he wakes up and wonders what they are doing - which I refer to as being human. We all have moments of doubt, and it’s not the doubt or the challenge that defines us, but our decisions and actions as to how we move forward.
If you’d like to connect with Nathan or the team @ Credo Financial, you can do so here:
Double Your Settlements:
Watch this free training so you can double your settlement volumes with structure and consistency.
He might be Wyld by name, but when it comes to the lending solutions, Joel Wyld is anything but.
As the founder of Peasy, Joel’s honesty in this interview is refreshing in that even though the team @ Peasy are committed to exceptional service standards, he readily admits there are still opportunities for improvement, which will bring about future growth.
After transitioning out of AFG and into another broking business, Joel found the first 12 months tough going. With persistence and tenacity, he was able to scrape by, and eventually, build a more stable client base.
Then, he transitioned and moved into Oxygen Home Loans, and though they have strong relationships with the McGrath estate agencies, he found that most businesses were coming through relationships outside of the office.
Enter Peasy.
Peasy was where Joel could build his business his way without needing committees or red tape to make things happen.
In collaboration with his wife Amanda, together, they have built the foundations of the business, where Amanda’s structured and process-oriented style complements Joels’ more outgoing and optimistic approach.
These days, as the business matures, they’ve allocated specific team members with different personalities to perform the various roles to ensure the expectations and service standards remain high.
Like many other high performers, Joel has invested in good quality operational and administrative help to ensure clients continue to be serviced beyond settlement.
With a future goal of not just growing volumes, but growing a family as well, Joel will have a lot on his plate to keep himself challenged and occupied.
Phone: 0428 863 159
Double Your Settlements:
Watch this free training so you can double your settlement volumes with structure and consistency.
With a passion of helping other people, Sean Soole took his brokerage from a small operation to quickly having several divisions across multiple disciplines - namely conveyancing, insurance and property investment.
For the mortgage business, he grew this by acquiring trail books, putting on loan writers and building an efficient ‘back end’ to his business. And he got it down to a fine art - where his personal hands on time was only 30 to 40 minutes per file.
And in determining the ‘risk to reward’ benefit of acquiring trail books, Sean factored what return he’s achieve even if he never wrote a single loan from the trail book and only ‘collected’ the trail. And based on that math, he still came out ahead, so it made for an easier decision.
The trail book provided a solid source of recurring income, and allowed Sean to invest into more office support so could progressively step away from the business.
But it wasn’t all peachy. Though Sean has a passion for helping others, he was also needing to work through his own personal demons.
About this time, he scaled down the business from an east-coast operation to a smaller, more manageable business operating from Sydney. And through a partnership arrangement, he was able to step back from loan writing altogether while maintaining an equity arrangement.
These days, Sean’s focus is on helping others to operate their business with clarity and purpose. By helping people become more capable leaders, more adept and thinking and to connect and engage more effectively with their staff, suppliers and their customers, they can build a business which is more reliant on great systems and great people.
If you’d like to reach out to Sean, you can find him at:
Double Your Settlements:
Watch this free training so you can double your settlement volumes with structure and consistency.
If you were judging Daniel Pym purely by office location, you’d think he’s got it made to be sitting in Australia’s highest performing Ray White office and writing up 7-figure deals to cardiologists, executives and other members of Sydney’s high-income community.
But that would be a narrow assessment.
The truth is that over 15+ years of broking, Daniel has made more mistakes than most, and had some experiences that you wouldn’t envy.
But these experiences, good, bad and indifferent have moulded Daniel’s values, his service proposition, and his work ethic.
Upon entering the industry, Daniel accelerated his learning simply by doing 50+ appointments per month. Back then, his process was less refined than it is today, but the sheer volume of activity built his knowledge, his competence, and his client base.
And, though the early days didn’t always go to plan it’s the sum total of these qualities that have contributed in no small way to Daniel earning the trust of his affluent clients and the estate agents whom he collaborates with.
With a philosophy of holding onto good people, Daniel recently opened up a second office in Erskineville and promoted his loan writer Tommy to run that branch.
You will appreciate Daniel’s candor in this interview where he helps us understand exactly what it’s been like to earn the kudos that is now coming his way.
Double Your Settlements:
Watch this free training so you can double your settlement volumes with structure and consistency.
When some people start their business, it’s to build a company that will outlast them. For others, like Victoria Coster, it was simply a means to support her young family.
But what started out as a part-time venture run from a small office in Parramatta has grown into a highly regarded agency that’s now helping thousands of consumers fix their credit problems.
This was achieved through key strategic decisions Victoria made.
# 1. Articulate a “no result, no fee” value proposition similar to that offered by brokers to their clients.
# 2. Build strong relationships with the broker network, who now provide the bulk of new clients that Credit Fix Solutions are able to help. This includes broker education, attending PD Days and building strong relationships at a broker and aggregator level.
This has proven to be a catalyst for ongoing growth to the extent that Victoria has now employed BDM’s in each state to service the ongoing demand and support the growth initiatives.
These days, the company is far more purpose-driven with the view of building an enterprise that is reliant on a great culture, systems and people, while also expanding its footprint into a new vertical market, legal.
The new division, Credit Fix Legal will offer legal support to people who are credit impaired.
Moreover, Victoria’s honesty about her journey is refreshing and inspiring.
Troy Chapman is the founder of Country Wide Wealth, a boutique financial planning practice that has seen exceptional growth since it’s inception 10 years ago.
As a business banker turned financial advisor, Troy Chapman recognised that to turn his practice into a business of substance would require more than just delivering outstanding service to clients.
For that reason, he sought to approach local service professionals such as accountants to establish formal joint venture agreements that would help deliver ongoing value for clients and for both service firms.
The net result is that Troy has since grown his practice into a business that now employs 4 full-time team members, with another advisor likely to join the team soon.
Though the JV formalises the process, like any good relationship, it still requires ongoing communication and investment into maintaining trust with each other so they can derive the full value. This means that occasionally, Troy will sit in a JV partner’s office, and so too will the broker’s that have joined his business.
The expansion into lending happened somewhat organically via a mortgage broking client whom Troy was already referring people to, and for which that broker is now an equity partner. The bulk of clients who are referred for lending is for refinancing, though as Troy outlines, the goal is to look at their whole situation and ensure that beyond a great rate, they are given a lending structure and strategy to pay their down as quickly as possible.
Key insights from the conversation with Troy include:
Find out more about Troy and the team here:
Tanya Somerton is on a mission to help people move onwards and upwards in their life during what is no doubt generally regarded as a less-than-ideal experience, divorce.
Every once in a while, a person comes along who sets standards for others can aspire to in terms of results and contribution.
Andrew Mirams is such a person.
A former banker, Andrew decided to take control of his own destiny by establishing a business where he could offer superior outcomes, services, and solutions to his clients.
And though this mantra is the fundamental proposition of many brokers, in Andrew’s case, it’s delivered upon in every component of his business to such a level of refinement that clients can’t help but want to tell others about their experience.
To be sure though, Andrew’s current standing amongst the top-most echelon of the broker landscape has been a journey of learning, effort and paying it forward.
With a positive ‘glass half full’ attitude and a way of communicating with clients that inspire what they can ‘gain’, not just ‘save’, Andrew’s service is complemented by a back office that frees up his time and delivers the outcomes clients expect.
A father of two, Andrew is cognisant of not just writing award-winning results, but doing something that his kids will be proud of.
Clearly, it’s working, as his son Lachlan is now a broker in the business and his daughter has helped shape his thinking and realise that difference he is making to people’s lives on a daily basis.
Naturally, a strong work ethic is a given to write prolific volumes, but it’s not without its rewards. In 2018, Andrew took 10-weeks off and is focused on playing the world’s top 100 golf courses.
Andrew’s philosophy in business includes:
If you’d like to get a glimpse into how Intuitive Finance articulate their value and present their brand, visit them via the above link.
Arguably, the most renowned agri-broking business in Australia is Robinson-Sewell Partners, which has experienced significant growth since its inception in October 2010.
In this interview, co-founder Brad Sewell takes us behind-the-scenes where he shares several insights that have enabled them to build their preeminent reputation and run a highly profitable brokerage.
Part of their strategy for success including reconciling their numbers, every month, without fail. Not just their appointments, submissions and settlements. They also review their operating expenses, total revenue and are heavily focused on their profit.
As Brad explains, one part of producing healthy profit results is to be cost-conscious whereby their operating costs are markedly less than the industry average.
To grow their footprint, the business has recently taken on several co-directors, under a Pty/Ltd model, whereby each new broker operates a separate entity under the brand with the view of servicing more agri-clients and for the business to perform.
To complement their business model, Brad and Ian have also built strong relationships with their lender business-partners so they can help co-deliver efficient lending solutions for clients.
If you would like to find out more about Brad and the team at Robinson-Sewell Partners, visit their website here: https://robinsonsewell.com.au/
Double Your Settlements:
Watch this free training so you can double your settlement volumes with structure and consistency.
As an industry veteran, there are few roles that Debbie Hutchings hasn’t been involved in. Formerly a banker with a broad range of experience, for the past 10 years, Debbie has been successfully operating her finance business in Brisbane’s sunny northern suburbs.
In her fist year, Kirsty settled 123 deals, which is no mean feat considering she didn’t have prior credit experience. That said, property and finance are familiar topics for Kirsty considering she was previously the director of a 50-staff real estate agency in Tasmania, and has been in and around property since age 15.
Having known Marios Rokka for several years, he has become a stalwart of the Loan Market brand, and built a respected reputation with his colleagues, clients and referral partners.
Building out a broking business through people, where the delivery of the service isn’t contingent upon you writing loans provides the opportunity for greater scale and leverage by using other people’s time, effort and resources (and resourcefulness). It can also create more freedom.
Jason Back isn’t your typical managing director, and the company he leads, Australian Lending and Investment Centre, is your typical brokerage.
With volumes in excess of $750 million, it’s apparent they need to have different systems, processes, ways of thinking, strategizing and delivering to accommodate this volume.
Having known Jonathan Lee for several years now, this was a fun and enjoyable interview for me – as it’s always rewarding to see people move on and achieve outstanding goals in their career – particularly when the goals once seemed like little more than a pipe-dream.
Andrew Ford, founder of Social Star and expert in helping people build powerful, influential and compelling personal brands, shares his knowledge in this episode around the importance for brokers to build a powerful personal brand that attract their ideal clients.
Louisa Sanghera, founder of Zippy Finance, has built a successful business on the back of creating a trusted reputation and a solid business strategy.