Michael Killiner, founder of Tusk Finance, has never been afraid of the hard work required to succeed in the Western Australian market and now writes close to a loan a day. We caught up with the Subiaco-based broker to discuss his "give first" philosophy and how he leverages video technology to write over 320 loans a year.
Q. How did you get started in the mortgage broking industry?
I didn't realise what broking really was initially. I was working in real estate sales, and my mum, who is a business owner, sat me down and suggested I become a broker. She saw that while I loved property and numbers, sales wasn't my passion.
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My uncle had a Mortgage Choice franchise that was in Perth. I moved from Darwin to Perth to start fresh, which was intimidating because I didn’t know anyone, but it forced me to put all my eggs in one basket and try harder.
Q. What was the transition like moving to a new city without a network?
I learned prospecting habits from real estate—making 100 calls a day and door knocking. When I started in Perth, I made 30 calls every single day for the first two years. My ratio was one appointment for every 30 calls. It wasn’t high, but by consistently hitting those numbers, the appointments stacked up. You have to realise that friends and family referrals run out quickly; you need a system to find new people.
It takes a lot of trial and error before you actually get enough sort of people through the door that you can start building momentum.
Q. You started your own brokerage a few years ago under MoneyQuest Group. Why did you choose the "Tusk" name for your brand?
I found that there was just so much branding around home loans that I wanted to differentiate myself from that. And so that was the criteria. But finding the name is so hard.
When choosing a name, I wanted something easy to say, easy to spell, and exactly four letters for "punchiness." It's very easy to remember something that has four letters; iIt's one syllable. It's very easy to say on the phone.
My wife yelled out: ‘Tusk’ one day and I love the Fleetwood Mac song, and it fit the criteria perfectly.
Q. How have you integrated video technology into your daily workflow?
I use Loom every half an hour. Whether it’s team training or client interactions, everything is on video. When I create a lending scenario, I record a video over the top of the calculations. I show the client: "This is your borrowing capacity; if you close this credit card, this is what happens." It provides total transparency.
Clients don't want you in their house at 7:00 PM; they want to watch a video in their PJs and discuss it with their partner in their own time.
Q. You have a large client base outside of Western Australia. How did you build that?
It’s a "spider web" of referrals. I went to uni in Canberra and I'm originally from Darwin, so my network naturally scattered to Sydney and Queensland. I still find it fascinating when two clients meet at a dinner party in Canberra and realise they both have the same broker based in Perth!
Q. How is your team currently structured?
We have a team of 10. That includes myself and another broker, Ed, who joined a year ago. My wife, Jemima, is the key behind the scenes, and my dad works remotely from Darwin as a loan strategist. We also have six offshore staff.
I hired for post-settlement care very early on because I felt it was disingenuous to settle a loan and then never speak to the client again.
Q. What advice would you give to a new-to-industry broker?
It takes two years. Whether it’s fitness or business, you need two years of hard graft to see traction. My advice is to put your head down for that period and just do the actions you know lead to outcomes. Also, get comfortable on camera. You don’t have to post everything on social media, but practicing your delivery on video makes you much better at explaining complex financial concepts to your clients.
Tune in to hear more!
Find out more about Tusk Finance’s approach to leadership, referral "spider webs," and using video for ultimate transparency in the Elite Broker podcast episode, ‘How this broker leads WA’s best boutique non-franchise office’, here:
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