The Successful Adviser by James McCracken

Hearing Hannah Nguyen’s story will be aspirational for many - and rightly so. She is shooting the lights out with her volumes, though she is far from resting on her laurels.

Currently writing around $86 M with a goal of $100M (and then $150M), Hannah and her team operate with precision and structure to enable deals to flow smoothly through their well-oiled machine without every task being reliant on Hannah’s personal effort.

If you think of a surgical team, which has the prep-nurses, the surgeon and the post-operation support, that’s much like Hannah’s setup. Where Hannah is the surgeon and sets the tone for how the business operates.

Impressively, her last appointment time slot is at 4 pm, and clients find a way to fit around her schedule, not the other way round.

As you’d expect, Hannah has a strong grasp of loan structuring and though has a highly tuned loan submission process, in my opinion, what’s even more impressive is her capacity to guide and empower her team members to perform their role to the best of their ability.

This skill earns her loyalty, and moreover, gives her the confidence that clients will be well serviced, and provides her with the opportunity to have a work-life balance where she can enjoy the other responsibilities in her life.

Visit Hannah’s website here.

Luke Howes is the typical story of an ‘overnight success’ 15 years in the making.

Better known as the founder of bankstatements.com.au, in our interview, Luke gives us the back story that brought us his fantastic innovation that now provides value for thousands of brokers and tens of thousands of clients alike.

Immersed in the entrepreneurial world for the better part of his working life, Luke readily admits that bankstatements.com.au was born out of continually listening to the market, tweaking and refining tech solutions until they landed on something ‘big’ (aka a ‘unicorn’ in the world of tech).

And like many a small business owner, Luke learned on the job through trial and error. He advises that while tech isn’t his strong suit, he was fortunate to have a brother who he partnered with to co-create their vision.

Experiencing rapid growth, Luke quickly found himself needing to hire, lead, promote, sell & delegate so he could build the business.

Luke’s story is a parallel for many brokers who also experience the challenges that arise at various points in their business, and I hope you enjoy his forthrightness, energy and get inspired about taking your business to the next level.

You can connect with Luke here on LinkedIn.

Like many a high performer, Nathan Aird is vividly clear on what’s important to him, and he is incredibly consistent in his approach to operating his brokerage so it can support his chosen lifestyle.

And, these days, Nathan strictly operates a Monday-Friday brokerage. For some, the thought of not putting in some hours on the weekend or doing ‘home appointments’ might make them nervous, but in Nathan’s case, it’s doing him a world of good...

By defining his boundaries and his values, it ensures that his time spent in the office is highly productive.

As Nathan said, he built his business by design so he could do great work for clients, and also have time to enjoy with those who matter most, namely his wife and his 3 boys.

And, though he doesn’t chase the ‘numbers’ or the ‘awards’, he does have his eye firmly on the key drivers that influence business results - namely, delivering a great client experience, always exceeding expectations, and having a great back office that can move each file quickly from application to settlement.

To introduce commercial lending to his clients, Nathan is well poised to deliver even more value and delight his clients, which in turn will be the catalyst for driving new business.

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In this refreshingly honest interview, you’ll hear Mark Stevenson talk about the tribulations and triumphs of operating a broking business.

Mark is the Managing Director of Finance division of Bell Partners, a multifaceted professional services firm that aims to ‘put a ring’ around their clients so they can offer a suite of services to each client without needing to refer to people outside of the group.

As looking from afar, you’d think Mark has and the team have ‘got it made’ with all the referrals they could garner in-house.

And you’d be right, to a degree.

Though Mark certainly enjoys the benefit of generating a lot of leads in-house, as he candidly shares, the past 12 months hasn’t been without its challenges.

With operating overheads staying the same and settlement volumes being less predictable, Mark discusses how he has had to pivot, embrace resilience and remain highly focused to work through this challenging period and set up himself and his team up for the months and years ahead.

Visit Mark’s website here.

In this interview with Liz Wilson, we focused the conversation far more on culture, people, leadership and systems.

Like all mortgage brokers, Liz has needed to embrace the change of recent time so she and her team can remain relevant to their clients and continue to deliver outstanding levels of service.

What interesting to hear is Liz’s mindset and openness to personal change, growth and thinking differently in order to achieve different outcomes.

Not only does she embrace change, but moreover, Liz also engages her people in the process so there is buy-in at the ground level. As Liz would know first-hand, the more the buy-in, the easier the transition.

In terms of Liz’ personal growth, as she eloquently said, “The only way to survive is to grow”, and that’s a very healthy mindset so she can continue to explore new avenues for optimising the engagement and focus that her team members bring on a daily basis.

Liz also touches on how employing and engaging the right people and helping the wrong people get off the bus has made a profound difference to how their business operates and the energy & attitudes that are brought into the office.

If you’d like to find out more about Liz and her team, you can visit their website here.