LVR Podcast
The LVR Podcast is a podcast designed for Australian Mortgage Brokers, presented by brokers.
Learning. - The more we learn, the better we deliver. We know what we know, we don’t know what we don’t know. Forever learning.
Validation. - This is an industry of numbers and percentages. As a Third Party we have not only proved our worth, but also our capacity to provide and our innate purpose.
Respect. Respect your clients, your peers, and your distribution channels. And, yourself. We have an industry that we should be proud of, however, it is up to us as individuals to influence better behaviours, better outcomes, and better solutions.
Join Ruan Burger and Marissa Schulze for the LVR Podcast as they present their views on a variety of issues that affect us all as Mortgage Brokers in Australia. Their different and shared perspectives will no doubt inspire, entertain and prove to be of huge value to how you approach your day, and your life.
LVR Podcast
Talent vs Hard Work: What Actually Wins?
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In this episode of The LVR Podcast, Ruan Burger and Marissa Schulze get into a topic that every broker should sit with honestly: is talent enough, or does hard work always win out in the end?
The short answer is neither alone — but the combination is everything. Ruan opens with a familiar pattern he's seen play out in broking and in sport: someone starts with genuine talent, has early success, and then quietly stops doing the things that got them there. A few years later, the results dry up and they can't figure out why. Resting on your laurels is the slow killer of a broking career, because client expectations keep rising and what was impressive yesterday becomes the baseline tomorrow.
Marissa makes the point that hard work doesn't just sustain talent — it actually builds it. The more deliberately you work, the more skilled you become. And that applies at every stage of the business journey. Brokers who think that building a team means the hard work eases up are in for a surprise — managing people, defining roles, measuring output, and holding a culture together is a different kind of hard work, but it's hard work all the same.
The episode also takes a clear-eyed look at AI and the "work smarter not harder" conversation. The tools available today are genuinely useful — but only if the time they free up is redirected into higher value activity. Technology doesn't replace effort, it just changes where that effort needs to go.
The challenge: be honest about what level of effort your goals actually require — and close the gap.
Ready to build the habits that back your talent? Explore the Broker Journal at successandbroker.com.au/the-broker-journal
Thank You To Our Hosts: Ruan Burger and Marissa Schulze
More From Marissa and her company, Rise High Financial Solutions:
More From Ruan and his company, Success and Broker: