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Patrick Johnson recently sat down for The Adviser’s New Broker podcast to talk about how he broke into the industry, who helped him along the way and some of the challenges he’s faced as an up-and-coming broker.
Coming from a successful broking family, Patrick Johnson had broking in his blood. But he didn’t break into broking until the onset of the pandemic. Since then, he’s been developing his team and business as a part of the family-run Mortgage Choice franchise. We find out how he did it.
How did you become a broker?
So, a bit of backstory, I used to run pubs and I was actually a manager at the casino at Star City for a while. Basically, I packed up, ended my lease, and I was heading to Canada to manage a bar over there, but just when I’m about to board the plan, COVID-19 happened.
Out of pure boredom, I started watching my dad, Peter, who’s been a broker for over 15 years and I decided to help and do what I can because of how hectic things had gotten from COVID-19. Once lockdown ended, Peter asked if I could come into the office and do a bit of admin work for him.
Once that happened, I was up and running, did my Cert IV in lockdown, and was ready to go once the lockdowns were done.
What was the first loan you wrote?
It was actually an investment purchase and as it would have it, Peter was away on a cruise. The client was hoping to exchange with a 66W and at the time, things were really picking up with the auction market in the post-COVID-19 interest rate boom, so things had to move quickly.
I was terrified of being there on my own and I was hoping it would be a refinance, so if things go wrong, there’s a bit of time to fix it, but I managed to get the purchase settled in time and I ended up with a very happy customer.
Whom did you choose as a mentor?
I had a great mentor in my dad, but we would butt heads a lot to the point where it would almost end up in screaming matches, but that just comes from that father/son relationship.
Although he was a good mentor, I felt like I could never approach him, so we reached out to a few other people who were doing well in the industry.
I was lucky to have some connections through Mortgage Choice, we went up and saw Deslie Taylor in Queensland, spent some time with Antony Muir, and some time with Keith Kane in Adelaide.
These guys are all titans of the industry and to be able to learn from those guys was invaluable.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced and how did you overcome them?
There’s no shortage of challenges in this industry, but from my own personal experience, one of my biggest challenges is the business itself in terms of differentiating myself from my dad. He has a lot of clients, but now I’m starting to see those clients because he’s taken on more of a chief executive role of the business.
The challenge there is if you’ve got a client who has spoken to Peter for 15 years and they’ve done their first property, family property, all their refinances through high and low-interest rates, they’re now talking to someone they don’t really know.
I usually try to soften the situation with a bit of humour, which disarms them a little, but at the end of the day, it’s still difficult because they see youth as a sign of inexperience, or not as knowledgeable, and that’s a situation that I’ve been trying to overturn.
What would be something you’d introduce to make things easier in the broking industry?
I would start by removing clawbacks because I’m sure that would garner me some popularity.
Outside of that, I would try to maintain or improve consistency throughout the assessors. Each bank has a different assessment team and a different person, but often you’ll submit a deal with a bank and there’ll be two of the exact same deal.
My biggest bugbear is consistency. Everyone’s going to interpret things differently but it would be a lot nicer because there’s not 100 per cent certainty in the industry that I’ll submit something and it’ll get approved.
If you would like to find out more about Patrick Johnson and Mortgage Choice Sutherland, tune in to the episode New Broker: Patrick Johnson, Mortgage Choice Sutherland, below:
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