Growing up with a single mother for my entire childhood meant If I wanted something, I had to work for it. My first job at 11 years old was as the local paperboy with the yellow paper barrow and blowing a whistle in the streets of Lakemba. I remember getting the crap beaten out of me a few times, still have the scars on my face as a memory. Despite that, on the way home, I would go by the Canterbury Golf course on Moorefields Road, collect golf balls and sell them on weekends. I bought my first BMX bike selling golf balls.
Hard work is all I knew. My mother had to work hard, even harder because when we moved to QLD, I requested to go to a Christain School. I wanted to study instead of watching my back all the time. After doing a year of School in Finland, it was from Lakemba in Sydney to Woodridge in Brisbane, (Known as Logan Central these days) I then worked at Coles Woodridge Plaza as a trolley boy on Thursday Night and Saturday morning.
By the time I was in yr 11, my mother was struggling to pay my private school fees. I then got a job at the local Pizza Hut. In 1988 the Pizza Business was booming, and I quickly racked up 30 hours a week. My routine was simple, in between basketball training, it was library and computer lab at lunchtime, homework on the bus straight to Pizza Hut. It was a restaurant, so I was able to study an hour or two before each shift and was home by 11.00 pm or 1.00 am depending on my roster. Then up at 6.30 am for the one-hour bus ride to school the next day.
I went to Finland again after yr 12, I liked the idea of a gap year, and I ended up working on a Salmon Farm. It was different. I was also in the process of getting enrolled at the University of Helsinki to study Computer Science and International Business. Then the first Gulf War happened. Mother wanted me home. My dreams crushed. Back to Woodridge.
“My Dreams were crushed when I had to move back from Finland to Australia.”
Pizza Hut re-hired me on the spot and moved to a delivery store. That is where I met my first business mentor at the age of 19. He taught me the business side while I was a delivery driver. I am still sure I hold the record for most pizza deliveries in one shift with 56 deliveries, two speeding tickets and a near-miss with a cat. Promotions came quickly, first to Shift Supervisor. When I attended Shift Supervisor training, I was already an Assistant Manager, in a few short months after that, I was a Store Manager. Some of it was right place right time, but I was also putting in 70+ hours per week and learning everything I could.
Some achievements were having managed the most profitable delivery store in Australia for three years running. I then relocated to the Gold Coast and opened a new store in Tweed Heads, the retirement capital of Australia. Footnote: older people don’t eat takeaway pizza; that store was a disaster. Pizza Hut sold that store to a franchise once I got it to break even. Hey guys, a big clue here on franchise lending. I moved to another Pizza Hut on the Gold Coast, and at that time the unions changed the payment method for delivery drivers from per hour to per delivery, causing staffing and service level problems during the day. So I went to the local TAFE and recruited students. We had desks and Unix computers out the back, so I said come along and study and do the occasional delivery.
I approached guys who were studying IT, or what it was back then. So in 1996, I created our first email list and website. And check this, I almost got a “Written Warning”, and yes I will lay claim to Australia's first website for a Pizza Store "unofficially". It was worth it. I went door-knocking local businesses to get their email addresses. Sales were up, I promoted free garlic bread with pizza purchase, broke all the rules and got that store to No.1 in lunchtime sales.
"Some times to manage change, you have to think differently, break some rules and go for it."
Long story short I left Pizza Hut in 1998 and started an A web design business with some of these students. I would go and source business during the day, and we would code at night. I wanted to learn everything I could about dot.com and was accepted to study Computer Science here in Australia. It was great for a time, but these guys moved on. Then there was marriage, two kids came along, and the wife said to get a real job.
I sought out a career in Real Estate. The year was 2000, and that is where I met my second Mentor. An exceptional sales trainer and relentless prospector. By mid-2001 I would have knocked on over 3,500 doors, talk about shoe leather and God knows how many phone calls. I had one hell of a contact list of over 2000 sellers in my local area. Then the Boom. I was making shit loads and was considered an elite performer and earning over $250,000+ pain gross comms with an average house sale of $140,000. They even gave me a ‘Gold Badge’.
I read sales books every waking second, one in the car, one in the dunny, I had books everywhere, audiobooks in the car. I was still studying Computer Science by correspondence part-time until I read 'Rich Dad Poor Dad'. I quit uni on the spot and decided to seek out this interesting term called residual income.
Come late 2004; I started as a mortgage broker. I earned peanuts; however, considering my fortune in real estate, I was able to back myself. My mentoring or severe lack thereof was when a handful of files were put on a desk and was told to read. It did my head in, so I decided to put systems into place in that mortgage brokering business. The continual improvement process has never stopped. For added excitement, I also did my Diploma of Financial Services, Financial Planning. I honestly thought I could do it all. But from somewhere I remembered the below quote;
“Don’t become a jack of all trades, master of none. Pick one area of interest, study it for an hour a day for five years, and I guarantee you by then you can find yourself in the top 1% of that industry.”
So I picked mortgage brokering, in particular, property investment finance. Many of my real estate clients become my finance clients. I enjoyed my time as a loan-writer; however, I did not own my trail, so that was a business lesson learned the hard way.
In 2012 I decided to do something different, a challenge. I wanted to mentor Brokers and build a sub-aggregation model into the current business. Something for me. I did the MFAA Certified mentors course, came back with a business plan and all rearing to go. Excited as a button I was.
Then, within two months, my adrenal glands fatigued. My body just stopped, turning into chronic fatigue. I could not focus, could not do anything substantial for any more than an hour or two. I remember one PD day I flew to Adelaide; I was that drugged up, I lasted the day, ended up in bed for two weeks afterwards. It was such a low point for me, depression crept in and then a suicide attempt. And that was not the only one, three in total. Something tells me I am meant to stay on this planet; however, life became lonely, and I struggled within myself almost every day for several years. No one understood me; everyone seemed to abandon me; many people did, especially those closest to me.
During that time, by chance, my previous real estate mentor called out of the blue, asked how I was going.
In Summary, my mentor said, “Suit up, show up”.
From that day, I started going to more PD days and wore a suit. Even If I was only there for an hour or two, regardless what medication or ‘pick me ups’ I had to take to get me through the day or some big nights out I was determined to show up and at least look good. I always paid the price in the following days, weeks afterwards. I made an effort to push forward regardless of the obstacles.
Every time I now wear a suit, it reminds me of the perseverance, mental toughness and resilience I had to put myself through to get back into the game. It took years, and, I don’t feel I am there yet. Most days, I manage a respectable 8 hours, but for me and my work ethic, it does not seem enough. One thing I did learn is the hours I can work; I will be efficient. Being fatigued forced me to Kaizen the hell out of what I do, so I know my output is more than most in far less time.
Recapping back to September 2014, I did engage my first group of mentee brokers. I only wanted to have a few being mindful of my health, I gave them my heart and soul, experience, guidance. The business model I have provided for them gives them all the blue sky and the freedom they need to come and go as they wished. No lock-in contracts. The most important thing, I believed in them. They are like family to me, and some have stuck with me through my challenges and their own.
If I do look to engage new or existing brokers, I will be very selective when I find them, or they find me. I still work with three exceptional brokers, Michael Hawton you may know, The wisdom of Tony, young at heart who still loves learning and Quinto recently took out the award for the "MFAA young professional of the year" and then backed it up with “MFAA Customer service award in 2019.”We have Patrick, and we call him Total Recall, a part-time credit analyst and loan processor that supports us.
I still battle with fatigue; most days are better than others, then early 2017 saw another diagnosis, cancer in the blood in which I have been receiving treatment since. I am managing, but It has drained me financially to stay alive, houses sold, fortunes gone. My wife at the time showed her true colours and left so the journey to recovery I am destined to travel alone. Some would say I am playing this game against the odds, I look towards the future rather than focus on the demons of my past. The simple mantra I am striving for is; “do your work sooner than expected and better than expected”. Give to others first, and the rest will sort itself out.
And I tell you;
"If I did not have a positive mindset, I'd be cactus right now."
I have had to manage change many times in my career, so looking back at the Royal Commission outcome of early 2019, was no different. We are moving onwards, innovating integrating Fintech.
2019 Saw me finally, after a few gruelling years walk away from a business partnership. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, starting from scratch, I incorporated Ai Financial Intelligence playing to my strengths and for something quirky we are trading as “Lutetium.Finance”. You can read all about Lutetium on our website.
As for me, I love this Industry. I have not written too many loans in the past years, but I am always working on them with my brokers. I could have put my boots up when my health went, but I looked for a way to be relevant while maintaining work-health balance. I never stopped being a student of this industry. Setbacks always happen, crossroads have come and gone in business and personally. I did briefly look outside of brokering, but within the industry for new challenge and focus. It was not meant to be, and I am ok with that as I now have a matter of ‘unfinished business.’ “To be the best damn mortgage broker I can be”
This business and industry can be what you make it. I have respect for the high volume writers, the top 100, award winners right down to the small operators doing a deal a month and the single mothers supporting their kids; you are my biggest heroes.
We all have a place in the industry. The fact we can collaborate and come together in a group like Finance & Coffee makes me proud to be a part of this profession, and I know my best years here are yet to come.
Even to this day, I think I see the light, a bright future, a soulmate perhaps then it comes all crashing down again. When there are so many factors in life that throw you for a six, it’s hard not to get depressed, call it quits and end it all. Do the thoughts cross my mind, almost every bloody day. I push them aside, put on a suit, show up and get on with it.
I don’t have the answers, here is what is working for me; “Suit up, Show up” and keep busy.
