How covid helped Jo Croft reduce office hours and grow her volumes
The Successful Adviser by James McCracken
Release Date: 04/09/2021
Recruiting Mortgage Brokers with Tim Barnard
The Successful Adviser by James McCracken
When it comes to recruiting mortgage brokers to help you build your firm, Tim Barnard has his finger on the pulse. Whether you are looking to hire a salaried or contract broker, there are a number of considerations to ensure you select the right talent and provide them with the tools and means to set them up for success so they produce win-win outcomes that are good for them, you, your business reputation and clients alike. With more than 20 years of recruiting experience under his belt, Tim established Blue Wave Talent to help brokers with the sometimes laborious task of sifting through...
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Client Acquisition and Retention Tools with Roxi Becker
The Successful Adviser by James McCracken
With a passion for data and property, it’s no surprise that Roxi Becker is now supporting the 3rd party channel in her role at CoreLogic. In this interview, Roxi provides a brief time of her career and what brought her to Australia and current gig. From there, we discuss key tools that brokers can use to help them with their client acquisition, retention and service delivery efforts. Most brokers would be familiar with CoreLogic, and many would have pigeonholed them into the behemoth that does the lender valuations. And though they do this well, as Roxi explains, other tools brokers can use...
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Steve Palise: The Buyer’s Agent for Commercial Property Investors
The Successful Adviser by James McCracken
As a well known authority and buyer’s agent for commercial property investors, Steve Palise has also purchased more than 1,000 residential properties for his property investing clients. This of course makes him well positioned to share his knowledge and experience and pay it forward to brokers and consumers alike. With a professional background in engineering, Steve was an active property investor and eventually made the transition to being a buyer’s agent because he identified a skill and opportunity to help others while also supporting his chosen lifestyle. In our interview, we cover a...
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How to Build a Sustainable and Successful Broking Firm with Blake Buchanan
The Successful Adviser by James McCracken
There's no question Blake Buchanan would be one of the most trusted and respected leaders in the mortgage and finance industry. Having started in the industry over 20 years ago as a broker and subsequently moving into distribution and aggregation, he has accumulated significant knowledge and wisdom, which he imparts in this interview. Some of our discussion points with Blake include: That being a successful broker isn’t necessarily just about writing more volume or growing, and it can definitely be about achieving and enjoying quality of life, not just quality of income Insights on the...
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Leading a $100M per month firm with Otto Dargan
The Successful Adviser by James McCracken
As the founder of Home Loan Experts, Otto Dargan, or at the very least, the firm he built, would be no stranger to a lot of mortgage brokers. In today's conversation with Otto, he elaborates on how he has developed his own leadership skills and he shares some mistakes insights and perspectives that have enabled him to grow personally and professionally and contribute towards the culture and environment that is enabled Home Loan Experts to be one of the more revered broking firms in the country. From sharing his perspective around hiring motivated people, to recognising and playing to his...
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The no BS approach to building a firm
The Successful Adviser by James McCracken
With a penchant for speaking the truth, there’s a reason Jamie Holroyd has built a trusted reputation as an advisor and confidant to his clients. This would have to be the most candid interview I have done in terms of a guest speaking freely about the constraints or challenges that impede their ability to deliver the service, results and experience that clients have come to expect from the 3rd party channel. As a broker, when you listen to this interview, I have no doubt you will resonate with Jamie’s concerns and frustrations. It is important to recognise and appreciate the...
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From Lender to Leader: Andrew Stevens' Journey in Brokerage
The Successful Adviser by James McCracken
Unlike most of our guests, Andrew Stevens is a well known and respected supplier to the industry rather than a broker from within the industry. Andrew has established Online Broker Think Tank, which is both a broker-specific Facebook group as well as a brand that’s become synonymous with providing value and insights to brokers. By way of prior experience, Andrew did write loans many years ago, and moreover has a wide range of life experiences that hold him in great stead to provide guidance, support and assistance to other brokers who are looking to run a more profitable, rewarding, and...
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From corporate banking to a commercial broking with Charles Zerafa
The Successful Adviser by James McCracken
When you’ve assessed and approved over a billion dollars in lending within the banks, it is more than just a good apprenticeship to set you up for a life in broking, it’s the foundations to a rewarding career. In this interview with Charles Zerafa, he takes up through a career assessing commercial transactions before making the switch to broking and becoming the trusted advisor to a portfolio of high quality clients who lean on his expertise to help them fund their and facilitate their business growth objectives. Charles outlines how the benefits of being a broker enable him to offer a...
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Lessons From a Trusted Property & Finance Professional
The Successful Adviser by James McCracken
It’s seldom you come across a person who has started a movement, though that’s exactly what Philip Robison has done. As the the founder of Saving Brothers and a property professional, Philip is driven by the desire to impact people for the better. Not just in their hip pocket, but equally if not more so to look after one’s health and wellbeing - and with the scars and war stories he’s gathered, Philip is empathetic, compassionate and insightful. In our interview, we talk about the highs and lows of his journey, his love for regional property and how people can live their best life. If...
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Mandy Love Shares How She Is Helping To Solve A Key Broker Problem
The Successful Adviser by James McCracken
As we all know, time is arguably the most precious commodity for every mortgage broker. In this podcast with gun loan administrator turned business owner, Mandy Love, we look at the importance of having the right people in the right seats to help deliver an efficient, referable and repeatable service to grow a broking practice. Having personally seen Mandy make a significant contribution to the growth of one of our broking clients, she is all too familiar with how to help brokers ensure their focus is on income producing activities that contribute to their financial and quality of life goals...
info_outlineBased in northern New South Wales just shy of the Queensland border, when COVID hit last year and borders were closed, for 8 weeks Jo Croft was unable to drive to her Brisbane office to see staff and clients.
They say necessity is the mother of invention, and Jo had to find a new way to keep the business running. And do it fast.
Suffice to say, Jo found a new level of leadership and decision making that caused her to empower and support her staff to take more ownership over their roles and the outcomes being delivered to clients.
Like many a broker, Jo has embraced technology to operate remotely, which has proved to be a game-changer.
She is saving around 9 hours per week in commuting, which is time that can be spent on better servicing clients, operating the business and quality of life.
Moreover, despite the challenges, Jo’s volumes have grown year on year, and there are no signs of slowing down.
In this interview some of the topics we cover include:
- Leveraging technology to provides operational efficiencies and operate remotely
- Strategies for being a more effective business owner and manager for staff who are interstate
- How to do an effective succession plan for the business
- How to build a trusted local reputation in a ‘greenfields site’
- And what Jo would do differently next time if she was to start all over again
If you want to connect with Jo, you can reach her on her Facebook business page or via Instagram.