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
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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
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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.
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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:
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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
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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:
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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.
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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.