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From creating videos to recording podcasts, the newly crowned Mortgage and Finance Broker of the Year at the Women in Finance Awards 2020, Evelyn Clark, reveals how she uses the online medium to educate her clients.
Ms Clark, who is a broker at Accession Finance Melbourne Mortgage Brokers, was reflecting on the silver linings of the coronavirus pandemics, explaining how she has become more efficient with her time by conducting client and business meetings virtually.
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She is now contemplating developing online courses or a learning platform specifically for the first home buyer (FHB) market to educate them on everything that is involved in purchasing a first home.
“Prior to this [COVID-19], I was doing first home buyer workshops in person,” Ms Clark told The Adviser’s Elite Broker podcast, partnered by AMP Bank.
“They were really starting to get quite a few interest clients and a number of attendees through that. [At] the last one, we had over 50 attendees.”
While Ms Clark had planned on conducting these workshops on a regular basis, she has been unable to continue with them due to COVID-19.
However, Ms Clark does not wish to stop providing education for the FHB cohort because she believes the knowledge is not only beneficial but necessary in order to prepare them to purchase a home, whether they wish to do that six months or a year from now.
“I would love to develop either some sort of course or learning platform that gives them access to that education without me necessarily having to provide all of it as an in-person experience,” Ms Clark said.
Ms Clark is already reaching and educating her audience and client base through a different podcast, which she launched about a year ago by partnering with a buyer’s agent.
Titled I Wish I Was Taught That at School, the podcast is based on three underlying pillars or themes: finance, property and mindset.
Appearing in front of the camera
As well as recording podcasts, Ms Clark’s passion for educating her clients led her to create videos to help her clients with understanding their financial position.
She began recording videos with a videographer at the beginning of 2019 and adopted the format of answering frequently asked questions in simple language to ensure that it was accessible to her clients.
“I think I did 15 videos the first day with him,” Ms Clark said.
“Since then, I have recorded over 40-50 videos and I now put them out on a weekly basis. It’s gotten to the stage where we probably do a three-hour recording session and I’ll get anywhere between 10-15 videos out of that.”
Since the COVID-19 crisis, Ms Clark has found a significant shift towards refinancing, noting that many brokers would have seen a trend where purchase enquiries have dropped and refinance enquiries have skyrocketed.
“A lot of people really sat down and were starting to think more about their financial positions because they either had the time or, all of those excuses that they’d probably used in the past, they were kind of looking at and realising that they were probably saving a bit more money in lockdown, they still had their jobs,” Ms Clark said.
However, since the number of COVID-19 cases have been brought under control in Australia, clients have shown renewed enthusiasm for purchasing property again, according to Ms Clark.
“What I’m doing a lot now is trying to educate people on the importance of getting a pre-approval before they come out of lockdown so that they're in a position to buy when they do,” she said.
“Because I find that a lot of people think about getting pre-approval but they don’t necessarily do it until they find their ideal property and then their auction is two days away.
“I’m kind of using this period now to educate people on ‘how can you set yourself up for the future’,” Ms Clark concluded.
To listen to the full Elite Broker podcast with Evelyn Clark, as well as AMP Bank’s director of distribution, Adrienne Smith click here:
[Related: In Focus: Celebrating women in finance]
