Young star aiming to become $100m broker

Mr Hawley told The Adviser that he settled $33 million of loans in 2013/2014, with half of those volumes coming in the final three months.

He said that he had set a target of $85 million for 2014/2015, with more than $18 million already booked in July and August. His target after that is to write $100 million in 2015/2016, he added.

Mr Hawley said one advantage of being young was that he could focus more “aggressively” on his career because he didn’t have family responsibilities.

“Being able to put in those extra hours helps you to speed up your entry into the industry – that’s been a huge advantage,” Mr Hawley said.

He said his youth also made it easier to master the technology that is increasingly used to interact with clients, lenders and referral partners.

Mr Hawley said one area in which he had greatly improved was in understanding how applications progress in each bank. That has come through constantly asking questions of the credit staff and BDMs, he added.

Mr Hawley told The Adviser that he had also learned from early mistakes, one of which was to assume that clients only wanted to discuss rates.

“I still talk about rates, because part of what we do is make sure people don’t pay the banks more than they have to, but I’m more understanding of people’s long-term objectives rather than selling them on trying to save a couple of basis points,” he said.

Mr Hawley said another mistake had been a lack of persistence with potential referral partners.

“Some of my best referrers now are guys I tried to sit down with for nine to 12 weeks or maybe more. One guy in particular cancelled on me four times and I just kept on him and kept on him,” he said.

[Related: Shore Financial expanding rapidly]