Q. How long have you been in the finance industry, and how did you get into broking?
I registered in about 2018, 2019. I didn’t do too much for the first 12 months. It’s pretty hard out there, and my mentor gave me a good kick in the backside to speed things up.
It wasn’t until about 2020 I started to write consistently – one to two to three to five, 10 loans. Things kind of really kicked off during COVID-19, actually. That was when technology changed and digital ways of working and Zoom calls and Docusign, all that stuff, and cash rates dropped.
Q. Did you ever consider joining another person or a major brokerage brand?
That definitely crossed the mind. When I started out, it was either start on your own or join someone else and learn the ropes over there. And I think, looking back on it, if I wanted to speed up the results quicker, working under someone for maybe a year or two definitely would have got my knowledge up there a little bit sooner.
But I’m actually a lot more grateful now, going my own way, because we’re able to deal with the processes and things. I basically had to fall out of the tree, hit every branch on the way down, learn from it, and then implement that into a policy and process.
Q. How did you find your first clients when you were starting out?
Once you get a bit of momentum, you hang around for a while, you’re talking to your friends and family, and you do a good job for them. You start to build your internal kind of referral network from your clients, which is a really big one.
For me, it was all about leads. I was looking at numbers, making the calls, going through the process, trying to make it happen, and gradually building from there.
So, what I would say is that your leads are number one. You can be the best at knowing everything, but if you can’t get leads, it’s very difficult.
Q. What types of loans are you writing now?
At the start, for us, it was mainly investment property. So, residential standard existing bread-and-butter properties. At the start, they were around $200,000– $300,000.
Now, that’s obviously shifted to $600,000. But yeah, smaller entry-level stuff in capital cities.
I’ve tried to be a jack of all trades over the years, but I just find you’re the master of none. So really, stick to what you know. To this day, it’s still investment loans for residential. We’ll do a lot of SMSF as well. That came probably two years afterwards, and obviously, with the changes from the government, that’s a bit of a kick in the guts. But we do a bucketload of that for residential. Obviously, your investors, refis, cash outs, and your first home buyers as well.
We are doing more commercial, but that’s just the evolution of people’s portfolios.
Q. How did you manage the transition from sole to a multi-person operation?
Looking back on it, I started hiring only when I was pretty much at breaking point. So, for anyone thinking about this, if you feel like you’re leading up to it, maybe look at hiring someone first, so you don’t get super stressed out.
But yeah, I learned from that. I had a part-time credit assessor. Her name was Lisa, and she had probably spent 30 years in the space. She was really good at mentoring me on the fly.
That’s my advice: invest in yourself, go all-in early, and get the results that you need.
Q. What advice would you give to new brokers just starting out?
Get yourself a good mentor and tell your aggregator what your goals and plans are. Really start talking to people and find people who’ve done it before and ask them questions. If you need them as a mentor or whatever it is, find the people you want to surround yourself with who are aligned with your goals and values. That’s the number one thing.
There are so many people online who have differing opinions and everything like that, but find the people who work best for you and who have been there and done that. Because when you speak to them, they might know someone who knows someone, and there could be a professional service that could change your life or your business.
So, I’ve been very lucky to do that over the years through speaking and networking. It took a couple of years to get the confidence to do that. But again, if I’d done that a few years earlier, it might have saved me some time and stress.
That’s my advice: invest in yourself, go all-in early, and get the results that you need.
