This is my story about my journey into finance, and I would have to say it probably starts like any good tale and most major psychological issues… In my childhood. Growing up I had an extremely wonderful and fairly sheltered childhood, living in the tropical paradise of Far North Queensland. My Dad was a self-employed builder, so I grew up around construction sites and I think this is probably where my fascination with property began. The teenage years were far more character building, full of interesting events like bankruptcy, cancer and divorce. Both of my amazing parents are doing well and have individually shown me time and time again that you can overcome anything and rebuild. Needless to say, things were tough and money was tight for a time and this was perhaps the greatest thing that I could have experienced. As this gave me the desire early on to understand finances and build wealth. I really believe our upbringing shapes us and the path that we choose, and it really must have influenced us somehow as my sister also works in banking.
Lesson #1 Any setback or defeat is only temporary and success is inevitable with enough persistence.
So here I was fresh faced and just finished school. An experienced checkout chick recently promoted to supervisor and ready to take on the world. I enrolled to study accounting because whilst I disliked maths in school, I liked money, I liked budgets and I liked the things that most people found boring. After deciding to first take a gap year I came across an advertisement for a traineeship at a local credit union, getting paid to study seemed like a win so I took the job and progressed to bank teller.
As a crazy driven young adult, studying and working full time wasn’t enough and so I started working nights and weekends at the RSL. Although I stand by the fact that you can order smashed avocado and still own a home. I definitely sacrificed plenty here, saving almost my entire fulltime wage and using my waitressing money to pay the bills and my expenses. Like my extravagant meal plan consisting mostly of 2 minutes noodles, because the $2 for 5 meals was helping me smash goals.
Fast forward a year and I had saved enough to buy my very first property! Now with my modest position at the time I could seemingly only afford a small apartment, but none the less I was ecstatic! Honestly that settlement day it felt like I was picking up the keys to my very own Mansion. That day and feeling changed my life, and it is that exact feeling that I now love to help my clients achieve! Seriously even after hundreds of property settlements I still do a little happy dance every single time.
Lesson #2 Sacrifice on the small stuff so that you can achieve the big stuff - Delayed gratification.
Now a home owner at only 19, I was hooked and wanted more. At this point in time I had also been given a promotion at work, so I quit my 2nd job and focused on my career in finance. The people I worked with were amazing and gave me such an enjoyable and customer centric introduction into banking. I am so thankful for all the opportunities that they provided me with in my 5 years there. The credit union I worked for was also a head office so I was fortunate enough to work in all areas, like fraud, collections, payments and facilities, basically every area of banking until finally moving into a lending role - my latest obsession. All the while still budgeting and saving and buying another property just weeks before my 21st birthday. At this point my property empire had come to a halt after being advised that I could not borrow anymore and had reached capacity. Knowing what I do now though, I could have progressed but I just wasn’t asking the right questions. The thing about growing though is, you don’t know what you don’t know… So always seek out an expert.
Lesson 3# Take every opportunity that comes your way, and if they don’t then seek out opportunity.
Ok now comes the juicy, derailing and shake it up part of my life. I will spare you all the intimate details especially because this story is fast becoming a very long story. In short, I had my first heartbreak and breakdown and you know what? It was fantastic. This experience caused me to really evaluate my life plans, giving me the courage that I needed to get out of my comfort zone and leave Cairns. As I was also wanting to further progress my career in Finance, the most obvious cities for better banking opportunities were either Sydney or Melbourne and without getting into the capital city rivalry here… Melbourne wins the most liveable city every time.
Lesson 4# With every adversity comes an opportunity of equal or greater benefit (Napoleon Hill)
After moving to the big smoke and being thoroughly impressed by just about everything, I landed a job in lending at an innovative and well-known bank in the CBD and got to work. I became the youngest ever credit assessor (at the time), working my way up to hold the highest approval limit so I could sign off almost $2 Million on my own and also specialised in the more complex loans (LMI). The plan was to build my lending experience as an assessor, then transition to a mobile banker for field experience before launching my own business as a broker. After being unsuccessful for mobile banking roles at the bank, I was told that I didn’t have enough sales experience and that my skill set was better suited to just approving loans, so naturally I decided to skip that step altogether.
Whilst working I had been completing more study and qualifications for financial planning and mortgage broking, I had envisioned operating as both at one stage (queue all of the laughs, as mortgage broking is all consuming). Once again, I had still been budgeting and saving, but this time with a different goal in mind. The goal was to save 1 year’s wage as a buffer so I could pay myself when I was starting out. As leaving a comfortable stable job to start my own business was really quite terrifying. I find the best way to overcome fear is to logically find solutions to all of the things that scare you, until you eventually run out of excuses. Hence all of my extremely conservative broker business preparation otherwise known as overkill and procrastination.
Lesson 5# Believe in yourself, even when others do not, especially when others do not - Be Brave.
So now as a Mortgage Broking business owner at age 26 I was in for one of the more challenging times of my life. I only had a fairly small network in Victoria and had chosen a business model that provided no leads and therefore no income, in the hopes of having greater flexibility and ownership as my business grew. So I hit the networking scene hard, and I will be forever grateful to the people that I came across and also within my small network that gave me a shot when I was so new. That was all that I needed, just a chance. Armed with my handful of clients I went above and beyond, delivering the best service and solutions I could as a Mortgage Broker and my business exploded.
Settled loan volumes tripled annually for the first 3 years of business, all thanks to my incredible clients and network. To this day I have never had any referral partners or done any paid marketing, my business has been built organically using the all powerful word of mouth. I am so grateful to all of my clients who have helped make my success possible. It was still a long road with a very tough, slow start and an even tougher period handling the massive workload increase. Although I have a tendency to be a workaholic, especially when I love the work I do so much. I was still running as a solo operator at unsustainable levels, hence the next business phase: Epic Burnout.
My 4th year of business was the most difficult time of my life by far, but not just because of the overwhelming growth and also at the time those devastating industry changes and uncertainty. Don’t get me wrong there were still some great things, like another property purchase, more travel, a stint living by the Great Ocean Road and also becoming an Aunt. But have you ever noticed how when things go wrong, it is never just one thing? It’s like the universe is saying hey you think things can’t get any worse? Challenge accepted! So on top of drowning in work and another relationship break down, cancer came to visit my family again. Another thing I am so grateful for is the flexibility that this business and my loyal clients allow. I was so thankful to be able to spend significant amounts of time in Cairns to be with my family when it was needed the most. I am relieved to say that one family member has miraculously kicked cancers butt multiple times! Whilst another is sadly living on borrowed time. All of these events though have taught me the lesson that I think I needed to learn most of all – to slow down, be present and not take anything for granted.
In a valiant effort to claw back my time and still uphold client expectations and my reputation, I set about streamlining my business and outsourcing the more mundane tasks. Still maintaining all client engagement and advise, as I really do get so much joy from these interactions. In a world that can be heart breaking, it is so rewarding to be a part of a process that has a positive impact on peoples lives. Finance is the pathway to dreams so as finance & mortgage brokers we help make dreams a reality, such a cringy statement but I stand by it. So where am I now or at the time of writing this? Well I am still being the best broker I can be, whilst living life to the fullest & creating as many memories with loved ones as possible. After relocating back home in 2019 I am predominately based in Cairns, but can often be found anywhere along the east coast visiting clients and enjoying this beautiful country.
Lesson 6# Live a balanced life. Make time for yourself and your loved ones. Be a good human.
If you have made it this far thank you for reading. Also thanks to Dien for asking to share my story.
