Mortgage Choice broker Richard Brown was named the New Broker of the Year 2025 at the Australian Broking Awards 2025. Here, we learn more about how he went from a career in advertising to becoming the nation's top new broker.
Q: How did it feel to win the national New Broker of the Year award?
It felt amazing… I had the best day. I was truly shocked. On the way there, my wife was talking to me, she said: ‘Do you any chance of winning? Do I need to prepare myself?’ And I said: ‘There's no chance that I'm gonna win the award today!’.
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It felt really good. When I got up there I actually said it feels a little bit embarrassing and the reason for that is because I know the quality of other brokers out there and I also know I kind of just want all new brokers to feel a little bit of that success!
Q: How and why did you become a broker?
I'm new to the industry, so coming up to two years. I was in the advertising media industry for over 20 years… I loved it and had a great career and established some really good relationships (and a lot of that has actually carried through into my business). Now I've been investing in property for over 20 years. I've always been interested in finance, financial markets, personal finance. I'm okay with numbers and so broking had been in the back of my mind for quite some time. And then a couple of years ago it got to the point where my kids are a little bit older, they probably don't need or want me around as much.
Q: Why did you choose to become a Mortgage Choice broker?
My first conversation with my aggregator, who is Mortgage Choice, was at the New Broker Academy before I'd become a broker. And so there was some specific things that I was after from my aggregator… Mortgage Choice for me, the credibility in the name was really important. Coming from outside of industry, having the name like Mortgage Choice behind me was really important.
Now I'm a franchise owner but I don't have a shop front. There was lots of different discussions about how I'd actually start getting into broking and one of them was to possibly become a loan writer and work for somebody else, which has worked really well for others. I knew at some point I wanted to run my own business and so I knew it was going to be harder to start by myself but I also knew in the back of my mind that I wanted to be building something that was my own from the very start.
Q: Who was your first client and how did that experience impact you?
It was a referral and it was a young couple. They were renting a house, had a couple of young kids, the landlord was going to sell the house and they had to move out. They didn't think there was any way that they were going to be able to afford to stay in the house. But through the use of a guarantor and education, we got there. It was a really nice thing to do… just the single impact on a family's life. It was amazing.
Q: Were there any surprises you faced when starting out as a new broker?
It actually takes quite a while to get paid. It was well over a thousand hours of work before I actually got paid. I did a budget but until you actually go through it and you go sort of the months tick by and you go: ‘I haven't been paid’, it’s a lot to manage.
Q: What strategies did you use to learn about lending policies and practices?
Learn fast because there's a lot to learn. You want to speak to as many lenders as possible as quickly as possible as well. At Mortgage Choice, we've got on-the-couch sessions. So every week or every fortnight we have a couple of lenders who come and talk about and update their policy.
Q: What advice would you give to someone considering a career in broking?
If they haven't already started into broking, I would just say go and talk to everyone. Everybody that you can find, whether they're a lender, an aggregator, a current broker. Go and speak to them. You will find that everybody is so open, and it's a real collegiate atmosphere. People will give you the answers and they'll give you the time of the day, if you ask.
You can find out more about Richard Brown in the New Broker podcast.
Tune in to the podcast, New Broker – How Australia’s New Broker of the Year 2025 created a successful business, here:
