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We discuss in this episode:

How do you build the right team culture and become an amazing leader if you’re new to recruiting or leading? It’s a scary task for many business owners, but it doesn’t have to be. We dive into understanding team culture with Paul Findlay from REACH Ecosystem.

• Look at team culture from a leader’s perspective; people do their best work in an environment where they want to do their best work. 
• Leaders play a critical role in creating team culture; they must be someone people respect and want to follow.
• Surveying staff regularly is essential for temperature testing, but only if you take action after.
• 40% of people are actively disengaged if they don’t get regular feedback
• 92% of people agree that even if they receive negative feedback, it will improve their performance
• Strength-based recruitment places the right people in the right role; leverage tools that can help.
• Monitor your team culture to attract (and keep) the best talent.

Key Quotes:

“Surveying staff without taking action undermines culture, undermines trust and is a waste of time.” — Paul Findlay 

“Almost half of your people are actively disengaged, meaning almost half of your staff will actively work against you if you don’t give them regular feedback.” — Paul Findlay

Thank You To Our Hosts: Ruan Burger and Marissa Schulze

More From Marissa and her company, Rise High Financial Solutions:

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We’re always looking for new tech that can add value without removing the human element that makes our service invaluable. Enter: the diñeiro app! In this episode, we chat with special guest Ben Shapira about how the app can streamline managing a financial portfolio for brokers and consumers.

• Most technology solutions currently in the market are designed to simplify the process for brokers; the diñeiro app works for both consumers and brokers.
• diñeiro allows users to centralise their financial portfolio and share, allowing brokers to understand a client’s current status and borrowing potential. 
• The app is a helpful retention tool for brokers to identify whether their clients might be future property investors by staying connected to the client’s financial goals, assets, expenses, liabilities, and equity growth.
• App engagement is positive even after loan settlement, with consumers checking in once or twice a month.
• Whitelabel functionality is available for brokers passionate about building their brands, allowing brokers to have their own apps.
• Within 24-36 months, we can expect large-scale digitalisation in all areas of the lending space. deñerio expects to move into the small business lending space and anywhere that financial data is necessary — including integrations with the ATO, Xero, and more!

Key Quotes

“[With diñeiro] You don’t have to be tethered to the desk; they can meet a client for coffee or dinner and be able to talk about their finances.” — Ben

“Clients find that brokers who are making an effort to be more engaged, and it makes the relationship more solid.” — Ben

“It’s like a birdseye view for your finances.” — Ruan

Thank You To Our Hosts: Ruan Burger and Marissa Schulze

More From Marissa and her company, Rise High Financial Solutions:

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The industry has experienced exponential growth in the past 12 months; however, that’s all about to change! The lending environment is shifting, so brokers need to keep up with what’s ahead. 

• A busy year for the industry meant an emphasis on recruitment, but finding the right staff wasn’t always easy. Taking the time to slow down and focus on recruitment to grow, retain, and perform will be essential moving into the new year.
• Focus on your employee/employer value proposition and workplace culture to make sure you’re attracting the right people to your team.
• The wild ride that was 2022 — in terms of loan volume and borrowing capacity — is coming to an end, so brokers will need to look for other strategies to grow their business. 
• Brokers who haven’t experienced a rising rate environment need to upskill to have the right knowledge and education to support their clients. 
• Choose the right technologies to improve your business, client experience, and efficiency, but remember the value you bring that tech can’t.
• Mental health, diversity, inclusion, and work-life balance are top priorities for brokers — we must continue to build awareness in these areas.
• A changing market means more brokers are paying attention to lead flow and are investigating better processes to gain new leads. 
• Expect to see more consolidation of businesses in our industry next year as sole operators find it difficult to keep up with compliance requirements.

Key Quotes

“Recruitment isn’t the call to action; it’s merely the process for the call to action, which is employment.” — Ruan 

“When you’re desperate to hire is the worst time to hire.” — Marissa 

“The fixed-rate avalanche is coming, so brokers need to know how to advise and educate their clients.” — Ruan 

Thank You To Our Hosts: Ruan Burger and Marissa Schulze

More From Marissa and her company, Rise High Financial Solutions:

Marissa Schulze Linkedin 

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Rise High Financial Solutions

More From Ruan and his company, Success and Broker:

Ruan Burger Linkedin 

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Back in the day, a broker could do a deal on the back of a fax and voila. These days with more compliance, quality control and deadlines from lenders and clients a broker needs more support and that support can come in the form of smart systems. Broker Engine is a workable tool for any broker. Here's more about Broker Engine: 

• Broker Engine handles the entire life cycle of the client, the leadflow to dealflow to running reviews and client maintenance so that you retain more clients. 
  
  
• All these systems help a broker to manage a successful client relationship over time and ensure that you are retaining more clients. 
  
  
• If I was to sign up tomorrow to Broker Engine, how much time will it take to get it running? With Broker Engine we supply the workflows out of the box and have a customer success team to support our clients so we suggest it takes about three weeks to get it up and running, so not long at all. 
  
  
• For Broker Engine, we see: The broker likes it, team likes it, the client likes it. 
  
  
• It helps to document the processes and systems so that the things that typically gets missed from a workflow are put into a structure, allowing a team to become at least 20% more efficient. 
  
  
• Broker’s who are business builders and building a team to scale, then Broker Engine can help you achieve a more powerful business flow. 
  
  
• The whole workflow and the client engagement can be managed in a powerful way with Broker Engine. 

Key Quotes

“Leadflow is what gets you the appointments and what gets you the activity.” - Ruan 

“After the loan settles, aftercare can be built into the system via email and sms, so it takes the headache away from brokers having to remember everything.” - Will 

Thank You To Our Hosts: Ruan Burger and Marissa Schulze

More From Marissa and her company, Rise High Financial Solutions:

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Rise High Financial Solutions

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Ruan Burger Linkedin 

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Success and Broker

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• A lot of brokers struggle with the attraction and retention side of the business. REACH  is a great tool that business owners can rely upon in their recruitment process to have the confidence that they are finding the right people in the right team. However, it’s also about retaining them and keeping your culture thriving. 

• The goal is to have a team that love what they do, adding value to the business every day and shouting from the rooftops of what a great place your business is to work! 

• REACH is a capability and culture platform which is data led and automated. There is a profiling element as well as a huge learning platform, a culture platform and a leadership element plus much more.  

• A typical profiling tool helps an employer identify someone who fits the role (but it doesn’t say this is some learning you can dive into to help you get to the next stage in your career and it doesn’t say this is our culture, and this is where you want to work) REACH does. 
  
  
• REACH uses data and automation that gives a team member their own micro learning that is in the moment and specifically suited to that team member’s growth. 

• REACH helps to create the foundation for learning then gives a team member their personalised learning which they can work through independently and grow their skills.

• For leaders, owners and managers who enjoy coaching their team and having their hands in the upskilling then the platform gives the learning platform for managers to use in their coaching process.  

• You can apply REACH surveys to any part of the application process. 

• You get the insights into whether an applicant will genuinely enjoy the work associated with the role on offer, and how they will fit in with your existing team and culture. You get the data to be confident that you can bring them into your business and sit them up for success. 

• The culture survey element of REACH can bring so much feedback and awareness to a leadership team on how the team and individuals are feeling (and how engaged they are) about the business. 

• When you don’t have the data point to get some awareness, then you have a revolving door of people who keep leaving the role and company and you don’t know why.

• Key Quotes

• “The talent is out there, it’s just a very competitive marketplace…and people are moving jobs a lot, trying to find the workplace they can add value and have a meaningful career”. - Paul 
  
  
• “There’s more to it than the recruitment piece. The culture element is huge and the 360 platform for the managers too.”- Ruan 

• “Every time you bring in

Thank You To Our Hosts: Ruan Burger and Marissa Schulze

More From Marissa and her company, Rise High Financial Solutions:

Marissa Schulze Linkedin 

Marissa Schulze Instagram 

Marissa Schulze Facebook 

Rise High Financial Solutions

More From Ruan and his company, Success and Broker:

Ruan Burger Linkedin 

Ruan Burger Instagram 

Ruan Burger Facebook 

Success and Broker

Send us Fan Mail

Thank You To Our Hosts: Ruan Burger and Marissa Schulze

More From Marissa and her company, Rise High Financial Solutions:

Marissa Schulze Linkedin 

Marissa Schulze Instagram 

Marissa Schulze Facebook 

Rise High Financial Solutions

More From Ruan and his company, Success and Broker:

Ruan Burger Linkedin 

Ruan Burger Instagram 

Ruan Burger Facebook 

Success and Broker

Send us Fan Mail

How Beneficial Are Pre-Approvals In Changing Market Conditions?

Key notes: 

Are they worth doing in the current market where assessment rates and interest rates are changing. 

We have got to start understanding the time we spend with the client and the time we work for the client. 

If you get a client pre-approved through a particular lender and you know that another lender is coming out with a better offer in a few weeks, then you’re doubling your work. 

Pre-approvals can be worthless in a lot of situations if the property price changes, or a client’s situation changes or so many other things so there are a lot of challenges. 

For some clients it’s dicey for them to bid at auction if they don’t have a pre-approval. Make a call on which clients can proceed with the application and have plenty of spare equity and deposit so that if something changes, they’ll be fine. 

A mortgage broker needs to educate your clients that a pre-approval is not a guaranteed approval. You can help them to understand what it is, and what it really means. 

If you’re not willing to do a pre-approval for a client you may lose that client, or your client might not feel comfortable going for auction properties without the pre-approval. 

Understand a client’s ceiling of what they can borrow and educate them around the options available for them. 

The lenders reserve the right to reassess applications after pre-approval or even formal approval. 

A pre-approval is not as valuable as most clients feel that it is. 

If we’re doing a pre-approval then why are we doing it, what is the value, and how do we maintain it to become an approval for the client? 

Key Quotes

“We need to tell the story a little better for the client. A pre-approval is just a piece of paper, but you tell the client the story and get them to talk to you as their advisor and connect with you.” - Ruan 

“Find your skill of engagement rather than your skill of securing pre-approvals” - Ruan 

“Making sure your clients understand what a pre-approval is, what it means and that it’s not a formal approval.” - Marissa 

“How valuable is a pre-approval for most clients? Probably not as valuable as clients think. But is it important?” - Marissa

Thank You To Our Hosts: Ruan Burger and Marissa Schulze

More From Marissa and her company, Rise High Financial Solutions:

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Ruan Burger Linkedin 

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Diversifying into Commercial is a big topic! 

• When you work in the Resi space it’s the “know what you and don’t know what you don’t know” point that holds a lot of brokers back about diversifying. 

• There’s a fear that commercial lending is a bit harder than residential lending, but like anything it’s a learned skill. 

• Diversifying is important, because if you’re not servicing your customers' needs then they’ll be going elsewhere where they can get all their needs met. 

• Having that suite of offerings for your clients is about not loosing your clients to a competitor and there are plenty of opportunities to learn commercial lending, the support is there if you go looking. 
  
  
• If you’re entering the industry, put Commercial on the front of your list and learn it at the same time as Resi so you can learn both at the same time. 

• Mortgage Brokers are so busy and they’re keen to do their best and some brokers see Commercial as taking time away from them, so if you’re new to the industry learning how to do both at the same time is a great idea. 

• Diversifying into Commercial means you’re adding another revenue stream for your business. 

• Third party networks or Referral offerings can give you on the job training as you build up your commercial knowledge, whilst earning some extra income. 

• The commercial lending space is growing, and if you’re not starting to get a piece of that market share now, then you will miss out on some clients who are looking for commercial writers. 

• If you’re starting off, brokers are advertising what they’re doing better than what they were five years ago, so businesses are becoming that one stop shop. 

• Mature businesses are also starting to offer more diversify through introducing a commercial broker or partnering with a third party.
  
  
• If you’re not a part of commercial lending and start learning today, you will get left behind. 
  
  
• Commercial projects can stay on your books for longer periods of time so it can be challenging with a broker writing a lot of residential loans writing commercial loans. 

• If you do work with a third party partner then start to communicate that your business can do commercial loans now. 
  
  
• Start building stronger relationships with your referral partners and advise them of your desire to do commercial loans. 
  
  
• Use your BDMs to build stronger connections for commercial. 

Key Quotes

“What are your thoughts on whether a Resi broker

Thank You To Our Hosts: Ruan Burger and Marissa Schulze

More From Marissa and her company, Rise High Financial Solutions:

Marissa Schulze Linkedin 

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Marissa Schulze Facebook 

Rise High Financial Solutions

More From Ruan and his company, Success and Broker:

Ruan Burger Linkedin 

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Success and Broker

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• Markets are changing!

• Lead flow has been in abundance, and now you could find yourself in a moment where it stops happening, becomes a little harder. 
  
  
• How do you ensure your flow is protected and it remains? 
  
  
• We’ve had a good run of people wanting to buy, due to our last decade of changes and now we’re going to see interest rates rising and the demand for property easing and that will change the demand for mortgage brokers. 
  
  
• It’s fair that mortgage brokers will be concerned about this - but there are ways to bulletproof your business and adapt with the change. 
  
  
• Go back to the very things at the start that brokers do really well. 
  
  
• We’ve been so reactive on activity and you may find the gap widening now. 
  
  
• Bring in different strategies: once a week force yourself to have more proactive conversations with your database and your referral sources. 
  
  
• A lot of mortgage brokers have been so busy writing loans they haven’t put in the time into lead nurturing and lead generation work. Now is the time to do this. 
  
  
• Some of us have been spoilt over the last 18 months and now you will have to shift.
  
  
• Block out time each week or each day to allocate working on your business and building your client base. 
  
  
• Understand what pipeline is vs what database is. 
  
  
• Be conscious about being busy for busy-ness and busy for business. Understand the work you’re doing vs the return on investment. 
  
  
• Be clear on your reason for calling and your reason for engaging with your leads and with your database. 
  
  
• Some mortgage brokers thrive when there is complexity in the market and consumers turn to brokers for support and education. You can be there to stand up and support your clients in a new way.

• Your clients want that feedback from you and for you to be an advisor and a trusted voice, but you need to make sure you plant that seed and become the source they turn to when they need advice and education. 
  
  
• Families grow and change and life events happen and need to restructure their finances and talk to their broker - so you need to be Investing time in your business to proactively find and nurture your leads.
  
  
• Proactive time invested in lead nurturing and building your client base is a long term goal but it is worth it. 
  
  
• Create rhythm in your business and you don’t need to look at the moment. 
  
  
• Build these activities into your routine and they become habits so no matter what is happening in the market you can support your business growth. 

Thank You To Our Hosts: Ruan Burger and Marissa Schulze

More From Marissa and her company, Rise High Financial Solutions:

Marissa Schulze Linkedin 

Marissa Schulze Instagram 

Marissa Schulze Facebook 

Rise High Financial Solutions

More From Ruan and his company, Success and Broker:

Ruan Burger Linkedin 

Ruan Burger Instagram 

Ruan Burger Facebook 

Success and Broker

Send us Fan Mail

Key notes: 

• Each State in Australia has different rules when it comes to risk and insurance. So you need to introduce insurance early with your clients, especially in Qld and SA. 

• The recent floods have really highlighted exactly what an insurance broker does. It’s super important. Insurance brokers do a similar thing in working one-on-one with a client from A to Z.

• When it comes time to lodge a claim you have a broker that is representing you in that claim. We lodge the claim for you and deal with any assessors or property managers and we take that stress away from the client. 

• My role as a broker changes in the times of big events like floods. When that happens then I become a claims specialist. 

• At the moment it’s an interesting time; building industry has been hit hard, building materials are low, insurers are flying assessors over from different companies to help with claims, it’s an interesting period. 
  
  
• When buying a new home, there is typically a 21 day cooling off period for your policy or if the house contract falls over, so you need to be aware of what your policy covers, from when and what happens when settlement happens and when the charges are due. 

• The option of paying your home and contents insurance monthly is a great way to manage your monthly household budget. 
  
  
• Any area that has been affected by the floods could see a rise in premiums and the mortgage broker can help to make clients aware of this early. 
  
  
• Generally you will save 20% on insurance when you go direct to an insurance provider however policies with a broker will be worded more in your favour and at the end of the day, if you have a claim then you’re represented come claims time and you get what you pay for. Working with an insurance broker you are creating a long term relationship and you have someone taking care of you. 
  
  
• A mortgage broker and insurance broker really work hand in hand and I work to make the mortgage broker look great. 

Key Quotes

“It’s so important to have those insurance conversations early on”- Marissa 

“Each State in Australia has different rules when it comes to risk. You need to introduce insurance early with your clients.” - Corey

“Having a broker back you up takes that stress away from you.”- Corey

“It’s the service proposition that sells it. ” - Ruan

Thank You To Our Hosts: Ruan Burger and Marissa Schulze

More From Marissa and her company, Rise High Financial Solutions:

Marissa Schulze Linkedin 

Marissa Schulze Instagram 

Marissa Schulze Facebook 

Rise High Financial Solutions

More From Ruan and his company, Success and Broker:

Ruan Burger Linkedin 

Ruan Burger Instagram 

Ruan Burger Facebook 

Success and Broker