Q. What made you pursue broking as a career?
When I moved to Sydney in 2015, I was offered a sponsorship with a hospitality group, and my career grew. Broking was never really on the cards. But I got to a point where I was touching the ceiling of what I could do, and I was looking at my lifestyle (because I was managing large venues, working till late hours of the night, and 5am finishes). I wanted to use my transferable skills of dealing with people.
During that time in hospitality, I met my now fiancé, and her parents are Aussie franchisees of the Liverpool store.
Last year, it really came to the point where I was looking for the change, and it made sense to move, and they gave me an opportunity to work at Aussie and join their franchise.
Q. Did you ever think about joining any other group?
I didn’t. But it became very obvious to me pretty quickly that I was quite lucky with who I was placed with. For me, they were the best choice. They were the market leaders in terms of the technology that they’re using. And I really felt that they were the best brokerage positioned for me, who was a bit older coming into the role, to get the most out of the situation. I did believe Aussie was the best fit, and I still believe it.
Q. How did you get up to speed?
It was pretty in the deep end really. Straight onto my Cert IV in mortgage and finance broking.
Aussie has this amazing broking academy that you do for eight weeks. So, I was heavily involved in training straight from boots on the ground.
There was a lot to learn in terms of loan structuring and how to use the systems that make the role of a broker a lot more straightforward. There were a lot of benefits, but it was a lot to learn in that initial period, and I tried to throw myself in as quickly as possible.
Q. What challenges did you encounter as a new broker?
I think as a new broker, you feel like you should know everything, and there are so many different policies with different lenders. You get used to finding which lender handles a certain niche really well and which maybe wouldn’t be your first choice.
But you feel an expectation to know everything. It was really a case of taking every customer as they come, getting as much information as possible, then leaning on my peers and the knowledge that I’ve built from training to then go back and give them the best solution.
Q. What was your first deal?
The first deal I settled was a refinance. The client was a bit on the fence about where he wanted to go. In the end, he actually turned down a cashback offer to go with the choice that I’d presented him because, over the long term, it actually worked out better for him. That was a bit of a win.
I’m now actually helping him with an investment property!
Q. What advice would you give to anyone starting out?
I would have aligned myself with people within the industry faster. I think it’s really important to go out and meet like-minded brokers and share experiences. I’ve now got a really good support structure in my own store, not just my franchisees, but other brokers that have been in the street for 20-plus years. I lean on them regularly.
