Leading Broker Series – Brad Clucas in conversation with Sarah Smelt, Finance Society

In this episode, Brad Clucas speaks with Sarah Smelt, founder of Finance Society, about building a modern brokerage with purpose and flexibility. 

Sarah shares her journey from banking into broking, and how she grew Finance Society from a solo operation into a thriving team in just a few years. She unpacks how defining a clear niche, leveraging social media and building a strong personal brand have supported her growth, alongside her focus on financial education. 

A valuable conversation for brokers looking to build a business that supports both lifestyle and long-term success. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Hello and welcome to Connective the Talk Series. Today, we're joined by Brad Klukas and Sarah Smelt as they explore what it takes to build a modern brokerage with purpose, flexibility, and long-term success.

SPEAKER_04 0:23

Hello, I'm Brad Klukas, head of strategic member engagement, and in this series, I'll be sitting on the couch with brokers who have travelled on all different types of journeys, but are now very successful business owners who have a lot of insights to share. Today I'm very excited to be in our South Australian studio to chat with Connecticut's very own broker, Sarah Smelt, of the Finance Society. I'd like to welcome Sarah Smelt. Sarah is the founder for Finance Society, a Glenalg-based brokerage that she launched in 2021. Sarah began her career in banking, but after becoming a mum, she craved more flexibility and made the leap into broking. Fast forward just four years, and Finance Society has grown from Sarah working solo with a baby at home to a team of five with a thriving brand and a client base. Today, Sarah is not only known for her broking success, but also her fresh approach to social media and her passion for educating the next generation about financial literacy. Sarah brings unique strengths and perspectives to the table, and we're excited to learn from her expertise in today's webinar. With that out of the way, I'd like to welcome Sarah. How are you?

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_04 1:37

Oh, absolute pleasure, and thanks for having us. This is a beautiful set, beautiful studio. Thank you. Fantastic. Well, let's jump straight in.

SPEAKER_03 1:44

Let's go.

SPEAKER_04 1:45

Yeah. So uh so you spent years building your career in banking. But then, you know, big life stage and change, starting a family, you made the leap into broking. And so share with us about a bit of that journey and and uh that you, you know, what led to that change and what was it like not only having a baby, then launching Finance Society back in 2021 with a four-month at home.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Yeah, look, it was a very busy time. I was a first-time mum. So um we had our little girl Bowie in March of 2021, which was also um still part of like pandemic time. So it was, you know, a little bit interesting having a COVID baby as such. And I was on, I had no intentions of leaving my role. I worked sort of in the private space with um Adelaide and Bendigo Bank, and I had our little girl, and I felt like I had I had worked in the bank since I left school. And it sort of started to feel a little bit like Groundhog Day. I'd reached a lot of my milestones in my career, and I just sort of thought, is this it now? Is this gonna be the rest of my life? I craved a little bit more flexibility. I was always uh work smarter, not harder, um, which often doesn't work in, you know, your your big four in banking. So I was on unpaid Matt leave, like I'd finished my maternity leave, and I just thought, I feel like I have this unique window where I'm not gonna get paid anyway, because I'm still taking 12 months off. I've used up my paid maternity leave. So I'm either gonna be sitting at home with a four-month-old or I could start something. And I had got my cert for and diploma in finance and mortgage broking back in about 2016, just as something sort of almost to do. So I had that there. And I sort of started doing that little bit of research, and I thought, like, I won't name them here, but a lot of your multinational brands of mortgage brokers are bright blue, bright orange, bold. Um, there was nothing that felt young and modern and even a little bit sort of feminine, aesthetic. And all of these little thoughts just came together. And I'm sort of one of those people that um I should preempt this by saying, please do not take business advice from me, anybody listening. But I just flew by the seat of my pants. I didn't have a business plan. I didn't know how this was gonna work. I started the business thinking that if I could write one loan a week or one loan a fortnight, I think it was, it would match my part-time wage that I would have earned back at um. Going back to banking. Yeah. Yeah. And so I went in, I thought I could settle 10 mil a year, great. It'll just be enough to keep us afloat. And I think, yeah, everything sort of changed and the business began to grow um organically, which was which was really scary.

SPEAKER_04 4:44

Yeah, but exciting at the same time, I imagine.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 4:47

And and having Bowie, was that were there thoughts in your mind of thinking about making that transition before Bowie?

SPEAKER_01 4:55

There wasn't, no. But having a little girl and realizing that I sounds very, very cliche, but I was just not living up to my full potential. I always had this drive that I wanted to do more, to give back. I'd started a few little, I'd say hobby businesses back in my youth. And I just had this drive that um couldn't sort of be be quenched, of I wasn't fulfilled. And I think having a daughter really brought that to the forefront because I wanted to do more for her, be more for her, be a good role model. Um, practice what I preach is a big thing that I'm I'm very, very passionate about. And so yeah, it just everything changed when I had that little girl.

SPEAKER_04 5:40

So, more so opportunistic than a strategic plan. As you said, it just stars a line, and you're like, right, I'm doing this. And so tell tell our audience about the first, call it three months, six months. Was there ever a stage where you said, oh my god, what have I done? Or no? Were you just backing yourself up?

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Well, I was somewhat, I think because I, again, this is where I say, do not take my advice. I gave myself such low expectations. I just thought, if I can just do, um, because being in banking, I'm almost 37. I started in the bank at Bank SA on Jetty Road at Glenelg when I was 18. Yeah. So I've always been the bank girl. Whenever someone had a question, like growing up in Glenelg, it's a very clicky area. Everyone knows everyone. I just felt like I was already known for that. And I thought if those people just come to me, that will be enough to keep this business afloat. I, Mitch and I, so my husband, um, he was very, very supportive. But I blew through our our savings, all of it, because I wasn't getting an income. And obviously, even if I'd started writing big numbers on day one, which I didn't, that income is a lag. It's a lag. Yeah. It takes time. And so we had no savings, um, but resilience and a dream. And here we are, we are coming up in October this year, it'll be our fifth year.

SPEAKER_04 7:09

Fantastic. So, and an exciting story, uh, but a great mindset in terms of people are asking me about finance anyway, and I just need one of them every two years.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

That's all I need.

SPEAKER_04 7:20

And that's all it was.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

And I started to realize that the people that I gravitated towards in business. So if I wanted to find a new physio or a new hairdresser, it was social media that I was going to. Um, and so I did start to think, oh, I feel like there's just a little bit of a niche there. And look, I know that at the moment the market is quite saturated with mortgage brokers posting online. But five years ago, that wasn't the case. The content out there was very black and white, boring, um, factual. There was no sort of um story behind it. And so I started to notice that and I thought, I just want to be me. And I want people to come and use me because I'm a normal mum, I don't use jargon. I will either tell you you can do it, or if I can't, if we can't do it, we'll come up with a plan of how we get you there. And so I just I wanted to be the broker that I would want as a client.

SPEAKER_04 8:21

So what a beautiful way to put it.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:24

What I would want from someone. I mean, you obviously had the circa 20 years of experience in the bank, which no doubt boded you well. But it it it could have been quite easy for you to just stay there and all of a sudden being a 40-year veteran, right? But you probably would have had the the yearning within you to say, what else could have been.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

What could I have done?

SPEAKER_04 8:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Yeah, what could I have done? And it has single-handedly been the best decision that I and we as a family have ever made in my life. I would not change it for a second.

SPEAKER_04 8:54

Yeah, it's a it's a common theme I hear from um, you know, bank bankers that have made the leap of faith because you're leaving guaranteed salary every fortnight, every month to nothing.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

And it's a pretty good these days, like I was getting paid very, very healthily in the bank. There was a good bonus structure. Um, we had flexibility. Obviously, we still had, you know, your KPIs and things like that, um, which I will I do want to touch on when we get a little bit later down the track if we talk about staff. But I sort of took, and and given I'd worked for a couple of the majors in that, you know, 15-year career, I sort of wanted to take the best of all the little things that those banks did. Because as we know, not one bank does everything right. Correct. But I took those good things from each either leader or um or bank that I'd worked for and tried to incorporate them into my business.

SPEAKER_04 9:48

And you can learn just as much from good leaders as you can bad in terms of how you can be as a business owner. And so let's move into that. At what stage did you get to the point where you said to yourself, I think I need another pair of hands here. I think I need support. Yeah. So what was that process like?

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Part of part of starting this business was not, I'm I'm not, I'm not into the hustle culture. I will not sit here and tell you that I work 50 hour weeks because it would be a lie. I try and work about 25 hours a week. And again, like I said earlier, I work smarter, not harder. So suddenly my business was building, my clientele was growing, and I was working more. And I thought, is this why I started the business? No. Am I being taken away from my family? Yes. What's the point of this then? And that's when I thought this is gonna go one of two ways. I either hire or I've got to scale back. And I'm very determined. And so scaling back, and I'm very competitive. So scaling back didn't feel like the option. And I thought, come this far, what have I got to lose? Why not? Um, and I actually hired from social media. I did not post on Seek. I popped something up on my story and I said, Hey, this is me, this is what I'm after. Being a female in the banking industry, having a child, it can be really difficult to go back into your role post-mat leave. They often want you full-time, um, which I understand from a business sense, but that makes it really hard as a mum. Definitely. And so obviously, you know, we we can't say I'd I'd I'd love just to have a mum, but in the back of my mind, I knew that I would love to give another mum an opportunity that maybe I didn't get. But I'm thankful that I didn't get because if I had gotten flexibility, I'd never started the business. So whilst I'm thankful, um, I I really wanted to support a mum.

SPEAKER_04 11:54

Yeah. And there are fantastic female mothers out there who, from my perspective, can work part-time and punch out just as much and better quality work as a full-time employee.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Absolutely. We are still, and this is as a solo, I'm still a solo rider, hitting, you know, between 40 and 50 mil a year. And that is working 20 to 25 hours a week.

SPEAKER_04 12:16

Some people would say that's where they want to get to, but they just can't find and I don't want, I don't want to ride 100 mil a year.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

Because if I'm doing that, I'm gonna be away from my family. So whilst I would grow the team, absolutely, but me, just as myself, and I know it's hard because for someone listening in in Sydney or Melbourne, they might think, wow, those numbers are really small. When you look at the average house price in South Australia, those numbers are really good.

SPEAKER_04 12:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Um, because our my average loan size is about 485,000. So you think about riding, you know, 50 mil a year with that average. It's a bloody lot of um pedaling.

SPEAKER_04 12:53

It's a lot of units.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

It's a lot of work to get there. So um, yeah, I think for South Australia, for me, for our market, I'm happy to sort of hit those numbers.

SPEAKER_04 13:03

But I love how you're fiercely defensive of the purpose is this business, which you obviously love and are good at, but the priorities for the my family and and you know, supporting them and being there and being present for them. Yep. And absolutely. We have some people that that do it and do it well, and then we have some people that would like to do it and not do it well. So they'll be really curious about you know the rest of the this webinar.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

And and this isn't for everyone. Some people love the grind, they love the hustle. It's not for me. I love people, I love conversations, I love education. Um, but I don't want to work even a 38-hour week. It's just it's not for me.

SPEAKER_04 13:40

Love it. Yeah, love it. And so now, um, share with the audience the size and structure of the team that you have.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Yeah, absolutely. So I started at home in our spare bedroom and then realized that I was outgrowing the space. My daughter was now, by this stage, getting to be one moving around, banging on the door when I'm on the phone with clients, and I realized I needed to find a space. I am local to Glenelg, as I mentioned, and very passionate about investing back into our local community. And so it made sense. I had to be in Glenelg. Um, my first job was on Jetty Road. Like I love the place. Um, you know, if people from Adelaide know, um I spent my whole youth at the Jetty Bar in the Grand. It's just a, you know, it's it's a way of life down there. And so I got my office on Brighton Road in Glenelg, which is a beautiful spot. And I share it with a real estate agency and a strata company. And so I was in there, and that's when I thought I need my team member. So I found Geordie, who is amazing. She's a mum of two beautiful young girls. And she was in banking, she was a branch manager, same sort of thing. Had her second, and found it really difficult to get back into a branch manager role. They said it's full-time or it's nothing. Yeah. So I'm so lucky to have Geordie. Now, she's been with me for three years, which I think as a small business is such a huge achievement.

SPEAKER_04 15:06

I agree.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Um, my goal, and I said this to her when she started, was I can't afford to pay you what you would have been earning as a branch manager. Because, you know, they get paid quite well. Yeah. But I will get you there. We will do it together. And I'll have to check in with her, but I reckon after, you know, year three, we are getting pretty close to her earning that sort of same hourly rate, which I'm so proud of. And then we started sort of referring out to other asset brokers. Um, and then I decided that I really wanted to keep everything in-house. So we um also then got Casey on board. So she looks after all of our asset. And then we've got my husband as well, who So Mitch has joined the business. Yeah, he's a carpenter. Yes. Um, but he does um sort of some office management, does all of our um gift deliveries and things like that. So it's actually this business has meant that Mitch could step away from work.

SPEAKER_04 15:59

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

So he now works essentially just in the business. Fantastic. Often.

SPEAKER_04 16:04

But he's no longer a carpenter anymore.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Always a chiffon. Always a chiffy, right? But he's he's no longer employed as a chiffie. Yeah, he just works for us.

SPEAKER_04 16:12

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

Yeah. Or looks after at the moment. He's essentially on maternity leave. So we've had a second child and he's a stay-at-home dad to our one-year-old Albie.

SPEAKER_04 16:21

Great. Congratulations, obviously. So you've got Bowie and Albi. Albi, yeah. Which is great. Uh, and I think that's great that he's stay-at-home dad and Albi.

SPEAKER_03 16:28

He loves her.

SPEAKER_04 16:29

Yeah. Oh, I would be the same.

SPEAKER_03 16:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:32

Uh so what about when you hired? I think you said it was Geordie.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

Geordie.

SPEAKER_04 16:36

Um, what were some of the learnings from your first hire?

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Look, I hit the jackpot. So I wouldn't change a whole lot about meeting Geordie and hiring Geordie if I could find, if you could find me 10 more of Geordie's, um, I would have them all.

SPEAKER_04 16:56

Did you have many um applicants? Yeah, we had about much interest.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

15 applicants, which I think is amazing given I only put it on social media. And I actually ended up with about four that I was really like, I can't decide. And one of those, I won't name any names just for privacy, but one of the people that was on my probably top two, um, didn't quite get there just because only because Geordie had banking experience, has now gone and worked for another amazing broker in South Australia.

SPEAKER_04 17:29

That's great. And doing well.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Really well, really, really well. So, and she wasn't in the industry. She was new to industry, in similar industry, but that just even makes me happy that obviously whatever, however, our interviews went didn't turn her away and she didn't go running. She kept pushing and she found a home. So that makes me really happy.

SPEAKER_04 17:48

That's great. And and so we we often hear that principal owners will have a preference to uh uh appoint people that have who who come with banking background. But then you have some that say, no, no, no, I'm going to hire based on the intent of the individual or the or the um work behaviours or whatnot. And I can teach everything else. I can teach systems, process, and products. Where do you lie with your hiring?

SPEAKER_01 18:16

Probably a little bit on the fence. Like, although Geordie had the banking experience, it probably doesn't quite translate into broking. She hadn't had the lending experience. So I still had to show her that side. But for me, our biggest thing is our clients. That we don't do any paid advertising. Everything is essentially social media or word of mouth. So being amazing with clients was my number one priority. Given she had the banking experience, was just like a little icing. Like an add-on that a little add-on, but I could tell, and she's honestly, I know that any of my existing clients can attest to. Like, she's spot on with um nothing is too hard. Like, she goes above and beyond. I'm very lucky.

SPEAKER_04 18:59

And I imagine that staff will do that when they're genuinely engaged, they're happy. I know you mentioned the aim will be to get her to a to a REM package that's similar to what she was on. However, I would imagine that there'd be so many other positives in her mind that she'd be thrilled with.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

And, you know, I so she works from home um a couple of days a week. She only comes into the office one day a week. And anytime, like I I encourage her to be at home. She's got a beautiful elderly dog. And if it's really, really hot here, because you know, we in Adelaide, we get up to 40 degrees. I'm like, do not, do not come into the office. I'll be mad if you do. You've got to look after Obi. Because I know that that worries her. Um, so I think for her, her her two girls um have had a couple of, you know, your normal childcare illnesses, school illnesses, and knowing that I don't care. You go, you do whatever you need to do. I trust you. Um, I know that one day you'll make up the hours. There's no checking, I trust her, she's an adult. Um, the the best leader I ever had was, he's actually uh an ex-crows player.

SPEAKER_03 20:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

And he's obviously very structured given his career. And he was now in in finance. And the one thing he said to me, he used to say all the time was, I trust you, which felt really foreign um working in this industry. I I trust you, you do, and you're an adult. I I trust you to do. Because I used to feel like I'd need to say, Oh, um, Jammo, I'm I'm on my way home, like I'll log back in or whatever. Yeah. I'll let you know. And he was like, I don't care. You do your job, you do it well. That's all I ask.

SPEAKER_04 20:33

And and that I imagine just makes you walk taller, shoulders back.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

And so it's I wanted to do the same with Geordie and know that I trust her and she does a great job. And I'm actually lucky to have her, it's not the other way around. Like, I I need her. Um, she's the backbone of this place. So and I really want her to feel appreciated. And if that's little things like um, she's we're going to the Better Business Awards and she's taken the night away from her two girls. It's also her birthday. Right. So it's in the city. She lives a little way away. I've booked her a hotel with her husband at EOS for the night because I want her to feel appreciated and to know that I appreciate that leaving your two girls at home when both you and your husband are going out is a big thing. So that should be, you know, rewarded.

SPEAKER_04 21:22

It should be special, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:24

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 21:24

I imagine that Geordie's not leaving you anytime this year.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

She's stuck. She's stuck to me.

SPEAKER_04 21:29

It's good. Um, so you mentioned a bit uh earlier, uh you touched on social media and obviously in the intro, that's one of the reasons why we have you here. So, you know, one of the things that you stand out, embracing the likes of Instagram and TikTok. So what why do you think social media has been so powerful for you in attracting clients?

SPEAKER_01 21:50

We make uh lending simple. And that is about as much as there is to it. Right now, we uh attract. Clients that maybe, you know, that they get it, but they mightn't be necessarily super financially savvy. I'll be honest, I'll put my hand up and say we don't get a lot of, you know, your investors that have 15 a property portfolio. They don't tend to find us, and that's fine with me. I stick in my own lane. I know what I'm good at. A lot of, you know, your mum and dad lenders who are either selling their first home, buying an investment, a lot of first home buyers. And I think it's because we put out simple information and we make it clear that maybe it's actually not as far away as you think it is to buy your first home or to buy that investment property. Or someone slid into my DMs today and asked if they could buy a yacht legitimately, $400,000 yacht. Yeah, we can we might be able to make we might be able to make that work. Yeah, yeah. But it's simple. Um I see a lot on social media at the moment about people are very loud. There's a lot of um like swearing and and people being like crass, and this is what you need to do, this is how you get there. Um, your bank's lying to you, don't trust anyone. We just have really tried to avoid that. Yeah. Um again, it's that whole hustle culture. I'm me. I'm a bit of a bogan, I'm a bit of a bogan online. The Sarah that you meet on Instagram is a Sarah that will doing school drop and you'll see it will eat. No difference.

SPEAKER_04 23:29

No different individual that you meet or see.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

Absolutely. I'm just me and I'll tell you how it is. Um and I think for us that's been really important. It's just that authenticity. Um, I'm also, I can be like a little bit crass, like if I'll swear or whatnot on my own socials, not often, but because I I swear in real life. So it just happens, like it pops out. I don't mean to. So I just think it's really important for us personally to just be authentic. Um, I couldn't sit here and try and say, Brad, you need to build a property portfolio, but because I it wouldn't roll off the tongue.

SPEAKER_04 24:05

But it's and customers or potential clients would see that. Yeah. So it's probably the authenticity that they see and the fact that it's the same Sarah here as it is here. And that makes me feel more confident.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

Yep. So for I'll give you an example. This one makes me laugh. So I had clients that reached out and they had seen a broker, they'd seen another broker, and a few things had happened, but they said for them, they were young. The straw that broke the camel's back was they called his wife the wrong name in an email. So me being me replied and said, thanks. And I called them both the wrong name, but very close. Um, and then I just wrote in brackets, like, I'm sorry, it was just such an easy one. Like you opened it up and they loved it because that is my personality. I had to have that little bit of because they laughed about it, but that's just me. And I want to be able to have that relationship. And do you know what? If they had turned around and thought that was really rude, well, do you know what probably not a good fit?

SPEAKER_03 25:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:03

So they had a laugh, we had a laugh, now they're my clients. So that works. Like my whole personality is banter. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:13

Well, it can help build relationships. It can, you know, anything finance can be heightened in terms of stressful times for, you know, we do it every day, but for someone buying their very first home or their first investment property or a $400,000 yacht, there's still a boat license.

SPEAKER_01 25:29

I just want to add that in.

SPEAKER_04 25:30

We do that often. But let's not get into semantics, right? So, but you know, I think the the the way that people see that, and obviously you mentioned at the start, you just make it easy. You're real, you're you.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

Because it is easy. It can be. It can be easy. Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, we don't deal with, you know, your corporate um complex trusts, things like that, because I, again, work smarter, not harder. I feel like if I do a deal like that that's going to take me a week, I could have done five first home buyers that I can do one a day. That's just how I work. Um, the complex stuff doesn't drive me. Ringing a client and telling them that their loan got approved is like my favorite thing in the world. And if a bank goes in and cuts in, watch out. Uh-huh. You'll hear about it.

SPEAKER_04 26:17

I imagine that uh that call, you can hear it in their voice or you can hear the relief or the excitement.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

It's the best.

SPEAKER_04 26:24

Which gives you everything, right?

SPEAKER_01 26:26

Everything.

SPEAKER_04 26:27

What so for you, you're focused on education with your social media post, financial literacy. Correct. Just explaining to people here's can you give us an example of what that might look like?

SPEAKER_01 26:37

So one of the posts that we do a lot, and it actually does really well, will pop up. I'll go in real estate and find a house in Adelaide that might be 700,000. We will green screen it. So you'll see the house behind me, I'll talk to the house and I'll say, you can buy this as a first home buyer, you can buy this house with this deposit. These are your fees, this is what it's gonna cost you. Easy. Because that's what people want to know. They want to know, okay, if I want to buy that house, how much money do I need? I'm too embarrassed to bring you and ask you because I feel that's a bit of a, what are they, Gen X? Whatever the newest one is, they don't want to ask.

SPEAKER_03 27:14

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Um, they just want to know the answer. And or we tell them that you don't have to be embarrassed that you've got after pay. You don't have to, you know, you don't have to hide that you've might have gone and use sports better. Like those sort of things that give people some some ease. But yeah, a lot of times it is just saying, you can get this with this. If you don't have this, this is how we can get you there.

SPEAKER_04 27:37

It's a really smart way that you're thinking about your, you know, your client base, whether it's the primary focus or not. But I'm going to give you the answer to a question that you may or may not ask or may not be confident in asking. So I'm just going to give you the answer or at least start the conversation.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

Or you've asked your dad or your uncle or your uncle's neighbor, and they've said you need 20% deposit, but you've believed that because that's what you do in Australia. We take people's word. Yeah. And you think that you need 200 grand when actually you need 35. And suddenly you can buy a house this year rather than the five-year plan that you had. So we do find that happens a little bit that people think, like, yes, I can say this because we're in a broker forum, but you know, it is tough out there at the moment for first home buyers, but there are some great schemes. So you can get into a home as a first home buyer with not a lot of deposit.

SPEAKER_04 28:31

Fantastic. And totally different conversation. So don't listen to uh your uncle at the barbecue. Give Sarah a call.

SPEAKER_03 28:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:39

That's the way to do it. What what advice? So I've spoken to some brokers and and they're, you know, in terms of social media and the cadence and consistency, they're really nervous about putting themselves out there. And what am I even going to talk about? So I'm really great at you know writing loans, but this is an avenue I should follow. So what would be some advice you would give brokers who want to start, but perhaps are too nervous or just don't know where to start?

SPEAKER_01 29:04

Yep. So I one piece of advice I would have, and I've I've had a few brokers reach out where they want to spend $10,000 on a website and hire a social media manager that they pay $3,000 a month for their content. And then they wonder why they don't get any business from it. We started with a $400 website, and I did all of our social media for the first 12 months. And after that, yes, I did, we do sort of outsource to a company, but it is all still me. I still do all the filming, or they come out and film me. But I think it's that whole walk before you crawl. Nobody's in nobody's comfortable in front of a camera. No, I don't not wake up in the morning and go, oh, I can't wait. Can't wait to film this.

SPEAKER_04 29:47

Not even today.

SPEAKER_01 29:48

Oh yeah, well, because seeing you, Brad. But it's uncomfortable. I'm a one-take wonder. So I do it once. Unless I've really, really stuff it up because I feel like you get caught up in your own head if you just keep filming it and then you've got five and you don't know which one's the best one. We film once. If there's a little mistake in it, no one cares.

SPEAKER_04 30:06

Again, real authenticity. This is me.

SPEAKER_01 30:09

It's me. Yeah. Yeah. And so we don't um I, you know, I go on with, you know, no makeup in my pajamas. If you ever see a video of me and I've got like a blanket pulled up, it is not because I'm cold, it is because I'm in a nighty. So I think it's just understanding that no one is comfortable doing it. Yes, it is acknowledge it. It's it is uncomfortable. Um, but we get 60% of all of our business from socials. It is bloody worth it. And it's free.

SPEAKER_04 30:38

How often would you be posting? Are you once or twice a week?

SPEAKER_01 30:42

No, so we um post four to five times a week. Um, and it's a it's a range of different content. So it's not always video. It might be video, reels, um, education, carousels. That's like, you know, your pictures that you flick through. Some of it isn't work-related. Um, sometimes it'll be about like we were um a sponsor at a charity day on Friday. So all of the content on Friday was about um the charity. So we kind of mix it up. Um and Jem, who manages my social media, she lets me, as she says, like go rogue sometimes, where like I'll be allowed to just make something. But yeah, we just we don't have a big plan. There's no 12-month, you know, this is what we're gonna do. Sometimes something big will happen. There'll be a big change. So we've got to focus on, you know, when um rates go up or down or whatnot. So it's being flexible, um, but also knowing that um it's not comfortable. And the more you do it, the better you feel.

SPEAKER_04 31:41

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 31:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:42

Yeah. But but in saying that, the audience also doesn't know what you're going to say. So, you know, just start is what I'm hearing. Just put yourself out there.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

Yeah. Make sure, make sure the advice. I feel like I'm the social media police. Just make sure the information you're providing is correct. It's accurate. Otherwise, you'll have me sliding into DMs. But that's another story for another day.

SPEAKER_04 32:03

Just letting you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:04

Um, I'll be watching.

SPEAKER_04 32:06

Yes. One of the things that I love this about you. So beyond your brokerage, you spend a lot of time teaching financial literacy to young people in schools. Why is this a priority for you?

SPEAKER_01 32:18

Um, because we didn't get it. So I, the only financial literacy I received as a child was from my mum and dad, who do not get me wrong, I love them, but they're in their 70s. They've never ever had a credit card. They paid their home off in full by the time they were like 40. It's a different world. They've never bought an investment property. They do not, like when I tell them what things cost, my dad almost has a coronary that I would spend $200 on a dress or something. It's just out of this world. So I never got any education in school. I went to a private school.

SPEAKER_04 32:54

There was nothing about there's nothing in the curriculum really about it. Or back then.

SPEAKER_01 32:58

No, no, I look, and I've got to say, I'm not sure. I haven't recently looked at the um Australian curriculum, but it's it's I don't teach them about a home loan because no 15-year-old kid gives a shit about a home loan. Correct. It's about what a tax file number is, why it's important, signs to watch out for um financial coercion, um, you know, why it's important to, you know, have savings, um, just things like that, real basic stuff. Um because I think it's really, really important. Um, because a lot of the time all we hear about is you're a kid and you get pocket money and then you can go blow it. But what's the bigger picture here? Because sadly, the youth of today will probably need to be saving when they're 18 for for their first home. Whereas we probably didn't have to worry about it as much. Um, whereas it's different times now.

SPEAKER_04 33:52

Yeah. Sorry. And what's the response like for you know the the kids after they hear from you?

SPEAKER_01 33:58

Yeah, it's really good. It's really positive. Um, and you know, I'm sure some are bored shitless, but the majority I think, I think really enjoy. And we make it like I'm obviously quite normal. We make it normal and fun and um relatable and talk about, you know, things that that they understand and what's important to them. And um yeah, no, it's it's really positive. And clearly we've we keep getting invited back. So um we're doing something right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:26

And the feedback is obviously great.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:28

Fantastic. So you're a mum, you've got a growing successful brokerage, and I and success in that is when you say I ride X amount, but I work 20 to 25. That's success. That's my success. Uh, you've just launched a podcast. Uh, how do you juggle it at all? What's the balance look like for you?

SPEAKER_01 34:46

Um, the bit the biggest game changer for us was Mitch taking the step back. Um we really wanted a second child and realized that it probably wasn't a great time for me to step away from the business. I absolutely love my children more than anything else in the world, but I'm not your super maternal. I never have been. Even with Bowie when I had my, you know, maternity leave. Mitch is very maternal. He's the cuddly one. I'm the one that's like, come on, up you get. He's the cuddler. So it it actually almost made sense without us realizing that he should stay home. So I had about six weeks off after the birth. And then I just got straight back into it.

SPEAKER_03 35:26

Into it.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

And even the comments, like, oh, you people wouldn't say that's great. They'd say, Oh, you poor thing. And I was like, oh no, no, this was by choice. I I'm I'm lucky. Yeah. Like I feel worse for Mitch. Like he's at home with a beautiful newborn. Like I get to, you know, get away each day. So I'm the lucky one. Um so yeah, that was interesting. That's a whole nother um conversation started.

SPEAKER_04 35:49

But it's worked out perfectly for you.

SPEAKER_01 35:51

Honestly, the so good. He's the best. And we just, I feel like we've been so blessed. Um, you know, he gets to have the time with the kids. I still do as well, obviously, because of my my work-life balance. But yeah, we get the best of both worlds.

SPEAKER_04 36:06

So it sounds like you've got the business at a level where you're really happy, it's working for you. In saying that, it doesn't mean that you're thinking about what's next. So for finance society, what does what does the next 12 or 24 months look like for you?

SPEAKER_01 36:20

I'm I obviously always want to grow. I would love to get another, maybe another broker or another broker or two on board so that I'm not the main writer. And for us, it's all about the team, the fit. So we're in no rush. Uh, we bought a caravan, so I'd like to go away more in the caravan. Would so that's probably leads into the hiring more staff. But I, yeah, it's just keep doing what we're doing. Um, the the biggest things for me are almost not the numbers, it's the the little bits of recognition recognition, like even connective reaching out, the fact that someone in connective thought of me, little old Sarah in Adelaide, to do this. Like that's all I need. Like people just can do that. And that is that fills my cup. Um, my big goal for the year is we want to partner with a charity. We we're sort of, it's a couple we've got a couple in the work. So that's sort of our goal for 2026. Um, probably something in the women's space that we can work directly with and you know, give a portion of our profits to to them.

SPEAKER_04 37:26

And you know, we're quite fortunate in Australia and you know, in finance and and broking. So I love that about you. We're looking to go, who can we help?

SPEAKER_01 37:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:35

You know, it's uh Well, it's surreal.

SPEAKER_01 37:37

Like to think that five years ago I was, you know, essentially an unemployed mum, kind of. I had a job, but I wasn't going back to it, to the fact that you know, we're here today having this conversation is mind-blowing. So I'm very thankful to Connective as well.

SPEAKER_04 37:52

That's right, we're thankful to have you as a member of ours. So uh, Sarah, one last question before we get to some QA. So, what is one piece of advice that you would give, you know, a principal owner that is thinking about, I think I'm going to take the next step and grow uh, you know, my business in terms of either staff andor volume?

SPEAKER_01 38:12

Uh again, I don't have that business switch in my brain. I think you've just got to do it. Um, I fly by the seat of my pants. If it feels right and it's a good gut feel and it makes sense, um, that's how I make my decisions in life. And so far, so good. I haven't made too many poor ones. Uh, but you've got to trust yourself. And I think if you trust yourself and you trust your judgment and you've got a good team around you, like an accountant, you know, financial planner, um, and you you've got people you, you know, you know like and trust, then you've just got to trust those those gut feelings that you've got.

SPEAKER_04 38:49

Fantastic. So for you, how do you how do you come up with the different ways in which you put social media posts on? Just the the content. Are you sitting there for an hour or two a day thinking, right, up, what am I doing in three weeks' time?

SPEAKER_01 39:05

No, again, I do now have a full-time social media manager who manages all of our content. So we tend to catch up once a fortnight. We'll smash out some videos. Even in saying that, one little trick that we do is I'll catch up with her and I'll be wearing this in the same day. I'll just bring a different top, change my top so that when you look at our content, you think, ah, that wasn't all filled.

SPEAKER_03 39:28

Different day.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

Yep. Otherwise, it would just look like six videos in a row where I'm wearing this. And I don't like that because it looks very fabricated, even though that is what we're doing. Um, so yep, we do a quick, quick switch, and it is as horrible and cringe as this is going to come out of my mouth. It is keeping on top of the trends. Trending audio. Oh, can't even say it. Um, there are certain things that come out, and sadly, we do have to jump on board the trends because it's what builds your visibility.

SPEAKER_04 39:58

Right. Yes. So is this the new language that a lot of the younger potential clients are speaking?

SPEAKER_01 40:04

A little bit, but it's just like something will go a certain song or a certain thing someone's done will go viral. And then you gotta you've got to.

SPEAKER_04 40:13

Gotta jump on it, jump on it quick. Yeah, sadly. As you said, many of first home buyers that are probably your younger customers, they're scrolling, they're looking at these things, and if it's catchy.

SPEAKER_01 40:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:25

So what you're saying is you haven't done a bad bunny impersonation from the Super Bowl yet.

SPEAKER_01 40:29

Not yet. It's coming. Yeah, it's coming. Watch this space.

SPEAKER_04 40:31

Watch this space. Love it. Um, so you mentioned the bulk of your your referrals are coming from social. Where are the other referrals coming from? More traditional means?

SPEAKER_01 40:41

Um, so we don't have any paid referral. So we have really no referral partners. We have no paid referrals, and I've never had a paid referrer. I am of the opinion that if you like me, you can refer to me and I will look after your customer more than anyone else, I personally think will. But I'm not going to pay you for it. Um, I'm just going to do a bloody good job. And that's worked for most of my, or all of the people that refer directly to me. And it's actually been word of mouth. And social media does tie in there a bit because a lot of it will be you found me on Instagram, but then you told your mum. And then your mum told her neighbor, and a neighbor rings me and says, blah, blah, blah. And the amount of people that come up to me and say, Oh, you know, um, X, Y, and Z. And I've got to go, yeah, no idea who they're talking about. But it's because of that grapevine that people find you. So a lot of it is repeat clients, like in sort of internal um people reaching out to their connections and social media.

SPEAKER_04 41:40

Great. Which ties in nicely to the next question around what happens when someone perhaps comes to you if they have and says, Sarah, I'm happy to refer to you, but but how much am I going to get? How do you have that conversation if you had in the past?

SPEAKER_01 41:54

Um, yes, I have. And I just say, look, it's not something that that we um we take on board at Finance Society. So if you're looking for a paid referrer, you're probably better off to look elsewhere. And I'm so comfortable to say that. Um we work with people that want to work with us. I will not ever let client, I don't care your net worth, I don't care who you are, like you cannot speak poorly to the team. Um, and I have had to, you know, contact a client and say, we don't want your business because he was really, really rude to to one of the staff. And I thought, no.

SPEAKER_04 42:34

I totally, I think that's absolutely what should happen.

SPEAKER_01 42:37

Yeah. And so that's really important to me. Um, and I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna drop my $350,000 first home buyer for the million-dollar purchase. Like you are all equal. Um, some of the clients that I've had the smallest loans for are my biggest referrals. So everyone gets an even playing field. It doesn't matter who you are, you will get treated exactly the same from us. Sorry, I probably just went off town.

SPEAKER_04 43:04

No, no, no. It was perfect because you know, we even in certain businesses you work in, you know, there might be senior roles, but there's no senior people.

SPEAKER_01 43:12

No, we're all you all go home and you all go home to your family or if your pets like at home, you're just Brad, the dad and the husband, and that's it. Like, yeah, I that whole world blows my mind. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:26

And just be kind.

SPEAKER_01 43:28

Yeah, just be nice.

SPEAKER_04 43:29

Pretty simple.

SPEAKER_01 43:29

Yeah, just be nice.

SPEAKER_04 43:30

Fantastic. Oh, well, thank you so much uh for that, Sarah. Sarah, I've absolutely loved chatting with you. I love everything about the business. What you're doing to give back is is lovely, and I love the fact you prioritise time with Mitch and your two kids as well. But it sounds like you treat people exceptionally well in your business, and I have no doubt they'd be extremely happy and proud to say they work with you.

unknown 43:52

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 43:52

So thank you so much. No doubt the uh the socials and the followers is going to climb as a result of this with many of our Connective members and some of the staff, me being one of them. So uh thank you so much for your time. Wish you every success for 2026 and thank you to Connective for the opportunity. Oh, that's all right, we're always happy. Thanks so much, and best of luck to all of you out there. And again, please send your feedback through to us, and we wish you every success for 2026 and