Building a culture of high performance

Q. How did you start your career in broking?

I was working for a newspaper here in Adelaide in advertising. [I] had been there for about nine and a half years and was getting frustrated. [At the time], my then-girlfriend, who’s now my wife, had decided that we’d go and have a
look for a property.

My dad was a real estate agent, so he suggested that I need to get some finance. He referred me to my former business partner, Jamie Christie of Mortgage Choice.

Jamie came around on a Friday. I’d had a bit of a tough day, so we shared a couple of beers together. [We] filled out an application for a pre-approval and two days later he rang me, gave me pre-approval, and offered me a job!

Q. How have you evolved your broking business?

I was employed straight away as a broker and got trained up. We started in [Jamie’s] garage. We were there for probably two and a half years and then went to a small shopfront and then moved to the building we’re still in now. We’ve been there for about 16 years, but we wanted to get out into a shopfront, a branded office, as soon as possible.

[We wanted to] build a bit of recognition in the area. People knew of us because of the conversations we’d had with agents and other people around the area. [But] having a shopfront and having your logo out there, [meant] it was a place that people knew about.

Q. How did you find your first deals?

Initially, we had a relationship with a local real estate agent and we shared a staff member. Every Monday, she would contact all the people that had been through open inspections and had spoken to the agents and give us those details.

That was a really good way to get traction and build relationships.

Q. What kind of loans are you writing these days?

[When I first started] it was just the mums and dads, first home buyers, refinances, purchases. Now it’s similar, but I have a team around me. It’s myself and two other brokers.

I focus more on commercial or SMSF loans now – a bit more complex stuff.

Q. How has this changed over time?

At the start, you tend to do a bit of everything. I think it’s more interest-based as you evolve, particularly as you’ve been with the industry longer.

I’m now writing loans for the children of my first clients, for example. And those [first] clients, as they’ve gotten older, I’ve found their needs have changed.

So, you sort of morph through your career. You start off with first home buyers because they’re there and then, before you know it, five years down the track, they’re buying investment properties or upgrading their house.

Q. How do you approach hiring staff?

A lot of it is gut feel, but I also involve the rest of my team.

I’ve worked really hard on the culture in my office – that’s key to me. You can teach people the job, but you can’t teach attitude.

You can teach people the job, but you can’t teach attitude

I go through the interview process, have conversations with [the candidate], and if I like them, generally, the last interview they get is without me [but] with a couple of my staff members, just to make sure the vibe fits and that they’ll get along. We’re a small team, so we need to get along.

Culture is really important to me.

Q. How do you retain great loan writers in your business?

A lot of it is that culture piece. It’s giving them autonomy to do their job.

I hate micromanagement. [I focus on] giving staff the skills, training them up, rewarding them well, but giving them the support too.

If they want to grow and build a career, they need support from above and below. So, it’s very important to build a team around them.

Q. What are your plans for the future?

I’m trying to transition to not writing as many loans myself, building the team around me.

I’ll still have that core of clients that I’ve been dealing with for 25 years, who can just ring me. I still like to play with commercial finance and the complex stuff, just to keep myself interested.

But I’m leaning more towards becoming a bit of a relationship manager of my own business and driving leaders – that sort of thing. I’m much better at talking about it and coming up with the structure than I am at the compliance and the paperwork.