Sydney-based broker Ankur Ahluwalia of Smartfinn Advisors is rapidly rising through the ranks. In this episode of the New Broker podcast, he reveals how he built strong foundations early in his career, the pivotal role mentorship played in his success, and the strategies he’s using to double his volumes in the year ahead
Q. What made you pursue a career in broking?
I’d been working in accounting and tax since 2012 when I qualified my chartered accountancy back in India. Came here in 2017, so I worked almost seven years in company corporate tax, again in corporate as well as public practice firms.
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While I was working in my last role, I had the biggest leave of my corporate life, which was paternity leave for my son. And that was the time when kind of things changed.
Prior to going on leave, I was in the running for a promotion. I was slogging it out and doing everything to make it happen. I didn’t really focus too much time on the family and just kind of gave it my best shot. But to my dismay, it did not happen. Things were not in my control.
And it just hit me hard, while I was off for my parental leave that I had given too much control over my progression to someone. How can I get that back? What am I doing? Is this something I’m really passionate about? Had I been promoted today, would it have been any different? Or I would have been just running for another promotion again and again?
So the answer was very clear. I needed something, which I could take control of.
Q. How did you find out about Smartfinn?
It was actually through a Facebook group. I was discussing where to start and Demal George, the head mentor at Smartfinn, started talking to me. He told me to come in sometime and have a look and see how you feel with other brokers. I went in there, and I really liked the vibe. I liked Demal in person because he was a very non-salesly, non-pushy kind of person.
Q. What was the first loan you wrote?
I had a friend back overseas, and he introduced me to his elder brother, and we both had a chat. I wrote his elder brother’s loan – refinanced his owner-occupier loan to St.George at that time because they were offering cashback and a better rate. I still remember writing that loan. I was at the Smartfinn office, and the team really helped me work that out.
Q. What tools or tech would you recommend to brokers?
The biggest one is Quickli. Every broker should use it. It’s probably the best tool I’ve got on my table. And I think it really helps to also give comfort to the client.
If they’re able to tell me his numbers in clarity, I would give him a number like a borrowing capacity range straight away on the call. That helps us as well to know whether there is a deal which we should make an effort on, or this is something in the making and probably would need another three months for the client to come back with better numbers or stuff like that.
Q. What advice would you give new brokers?
I think the biggest one would be back yourself. There’s nobody else who’s gonna do that for you. So, best to back yourself and go all-in if you think you want to do this.
Tune in to hear more!
You can find out more about Ankur Ahluwalia on the New Broker podcast. Tune in to the podcast, ‘New Broker: How this new broker aims to double his volumes next year’, here:
