There’s been a subtle paradigm shift in the mortgage broking industry in recent years. More and more brokers are embracing the idea of being a broker AND a business owner. It’s no longer about being a one-man-band. Instead, it’s all about structure and substance – building a team and growing a business.
Anthony Landahl of Equilibria Finance sat down with me for this episode of The Successful Adviser.
We discussed how brokers can best equip themselves and their businesses for this ongoing transition. Brand-building, hiring, systemising… There are many practical insights for the industry leaders of tomorrow.
The Key Questions:
What You’ll Discover:
As a stalwart of the Canberra mortgage broking scene, Gerard Heffernan is well known and respected by clients and peers alike.
Having joined forces with his brother Bernard in 2015, their business hasn’t looked back. And, like many a bespoke brokerage, Gerard and Bernie understand intimately the need to provide personalised service and advice according to the needs of every client.
It’s with this premise that they have continued to grow their volumes year-on-year in what is clearly a forever changing and dynamic lending landscape.
Seeing the need for additional admin support, their business has invested in back-office staff which frees up Gerard’s time to do what he excels at - conducting client interviews and structuring their loans.
In the interview, Gerard goes into detail on the core strategies that allow their business to continue growing despite all the challenges in the marketplace today.
Like to continue the conversation with Gerard? You can reach him on 0402 026 246.
In this interview with Liz Wilson, we focused the conversation far more on culture, people, leadership and systems.
Like all mortgage brokers, Liz has needed to embrace the change of recent time so she and her team can remain relevant to their clients and continue to deliver outstanding levels of service.
What interesting to hear is Liz’s mindset and openness to personal change, growth and thinking differently in order to achieve different outcomes.
Not only does she embrace change, but moreover, Liz also engages her people in the process so there is buy-in at the ground level. As Liz would know first-hand, the more the buy-in, the easier the transition.
In terms of Liz’ personal growth, as she eloquently said, “The only way to survive is to grow”, and that’s a very healthy mindset so she can continue to explore new avenues for optimising the engagement and focus that her team members bring on a daily basis.
Liz also touches on how employing and engaging the right people and helping the wrong people get off the bus has made a profound difference to how their business operates and the energy & attitudes that are brought into the office.
If you’d like to find out more about Liz and her team, you can visit their website here.
With a love of people, processes and numbers, though Cathy Brown started life as an accountant, she has found her calling as a mortgage broker.
From the early days of smashing out long hours and driving all over town, Cathy has restructured her business to fit around her life all while leveraging processes, technology and an off-shore team to deliver exceptional client outcomes.
Like many a broker, Cathy found it difficult to relinquish control but has found that with continual & effective communication, she can empower, upskill and support her team to take as much ownership over the delivery of service so her time can be spent on clients appointments and acquiring new business.
Cathy would be the first to admit that having an offshore team has provided both challenges and new learning opportunities for her. In particular, the proximity of distance has forced her to improve her communication skills so her team understand the ‘why’ and the ‘what’, not just the ‘how’.
Moreover, in her downtime, she can also tweak processes and system so they continue to stay relevant and enable her and the team to deliver on exceptional client experience.
In today’s interview, you’re going to hear from Ilse Strauss, a leadership consultant and advisor for people who want to ensure there is alignment between their values and their business.
In this interview, you’ll hear Ilse share specific insights into how having clarity of your value can and does make it easier to operate your business in a way that feels authentic for each person.
The reason for asking Ilse to share light on this very important topic is because quite often, in the cut and thrust of getting deals done, it can be easy to operate in a task-centric manner without having the clarity of purpose or being able to calibrate if or how the tasks are contributing to organisational success.
Ilse shares her perspective on mission, vision, values and clarity of purpose.
Yes, this interview is different, and by intention, so it can provide the opportunity for you to consider what else, if anything, you could be doing to help you, your business, team members and clients progress to the next level.
If you’d like to connect with Ilse, you can visit her website or connect on with her on LinkedIn.
Some brokers go quietly about their business, making an impact where it matters most - with the outcomes and relationships they have with clients.
This is certainly true for Kelly Cameron, the entrepreneurial director of Get Real Finance.
At age 30, Kelly sold her first brokerage and ‘retired’ from the workforce, though boredom, the need to be challenged and passion for making a difference soon brought her back to the finance industry.
Having since established Get Real Finance, Kelly has since brought on a total of 8 other staff members to accommodate the continuing need to service existing and new clients.
In contrast to some others, Kelly is a fervent believer that the PAYG model ensures her loan writers and admin staff are only ever focused on what’s best for the client. As she says, “keep it small and keep it all.”
And if the business results and loan book size are anything to go by, there’s merit to her philosophy, as her staff continue to grow in skill and confidence and Kelly is progressively transitioning from being in front of clients to overseeing business operations.
You can visit the Get Real Finance website here.
In this interview, Aaron Christie-David pulls back the curtain on some of the business processes and optimisation techniques that are helping him and his team operate an efficient and productive brokerage that delivers a smooth lending experience for their astute clientele.
As a marketer turned broker, Aaron has a keen eye for the small details that help influence consumer perception of him and his brand. For example, Aaron is masterful at communicating online and recognising and appreciating his clients and his team for the joint success experienced. It’s one of many subtle yet powerful positioning techniques he incorporates to drive advocacy, repeat and referral business.
To complement his outstanding broking and human skills, Aaron’s wife Bernadette has helped transform business operations through her knowledge of systems, processes and measuring tasks to optimise their ROE (return on effort) so they understand the cost and value of the work being delivered.
In a few short years, together, they have built a respected brokerage and client base of predominantly astute investors that recognise exceptional advice and service.
To connect with Aaron, visit the Atelier Wealth website or email him here.
When Otto Dargan started his mortgage broking journey, he had a modest vision of having 3 staff members and to service a local client base.
But, while trekking in Nepal, he broadened his horizons in more ways than one. With a more worldly view, he came back to Australia inspired about what else was possible.
With the newfound energy, he started experimenting with his business, and though not all experiments worked out, he failed often enough and quick enough to let go of the bad ideas and follow through on the good ones.
These days, his company, Home Loan Experts looked very different from those early days. With 150+ staff in Australia and Nepal, he operates an efficient, effective business from their Sydney office.
In a complementary way, Otto’s approach to business reminds me of Frederick Winslow Taylor, father of the principles of ‘scientific management’, as Otto, just like Frederick before him, has mapped out the various functions of the role to ensure the broker maximises their revenue per hour worked with all other functions being looked after by their support staff.
Further to this, Home Loan Experts have set up a significant Nepalese based operation that provides white-labelled loan processing and credit analyst services for brokers.
If you’d like to find out more about the services available from Home Loan Experts, you can contact Otto via his email.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Jason Cunningham, co-founder of The Practice, shares his insights to how business owners can lead and support their staff to ensure stay with the company longer, perform better and deliver on the business’ promise to its clientele.
With a background in hospitality, sales and customer service, when Holly Bundy made the transition across to lending and then into her own broking business, she leveraged her existing skills and left no stone unturned in terms of building her network, her reputation and her results.
Lorraine Pirihi, aka ‘The Babyboomer Specialist’ is the founder of Relaunch Your Life, a consulting and coaching practice where she specializes in helping babyboomer finance professionals who are tired, worn out and over it to get their mojo back in business and in life.
As the managing director of Buyer’s Choice, Mick heads up the largest sub-aggregation group for PLAN Australia, and thought they have aggressive growth plans, they also have a focus around quality before quantity when it comes to recruiting new-to-industry brokers.