Beyond The Numbers With Christian Stevens

Your First Property Should Be the Worst One You Ever Buy

Lauren Franzmann is a finance broker at Flint, based in Newcastle, and a founding member of Sheinvest. At 23, she's already five years deep in an industry where most people take a decade to see what she's seen in two. She fell into broking through a Facebook ad for a loan processing role while studying economics at Newcastle Uni, and is now working alongside one of Flint's top brokers, handling first home buyers, investors and everything in between on a team processing over 1,000 applications a year. This conversation covers how she got here, and where she's taking it. Lauren breaks down what she's learned seeing "everything there is to see" in two years, why time management (not knowledge) is the biggest challenge at this volume, and how Flint's Newcastle office is structured across local and offshore teams aiming for a billion-dollar book. She talks about her own property strategy, targeting blue-chip growth areas with development potential, working alongside a builder partner who can add value most investors can't, and why she tells every first home buyer the same thing: this isn't your dream home, it's your worst one. She also opens up about Sheinvest, the initiative she co-founded to get more women into property investing, why retention, not entry, is the real issue for women in broking, and what the next 12 months of events, webinars and content look like. If you're a young broker wondering what's possible early in your career, or a woman thinking about property but not sure where to start, this one's for you. 1:49 — Two Years, Everything Seen — The Variety That Took Her From 0 to 100 3:19 — Time, Not Knowledge — The Real Challenge at This Volume 8:17 — What Is SheInvest — Inspiring Women Into Property Investing 13:18 — The Property Strategy — Blue-Chip Growth, Development Potential and a Builder Partner 20:50 — FY27 Plans for SheInvest — Webinars, Events and a Daily Content Push 23:13 — Women in Broking — Why Retention, Not Entry, Is the Real Problem 26:02 — Advice for Women Starting Out — Connection Over Competition 28:05 — The $1 Billion Target — Flint Newcastle's Growth Plan and Team Culture 32:33 — Becoming an Advisor, Not Just a Broker — SMSF, Commercial and Equity Strategies 47:03 — Why Your First Property Should Be the Worst One You'll Ever Buy Learn more about Flint: https://flintgroup.au/ Connect with Christian Stevens: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/propertyfinance/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cmrstevens/ Connect with Lauren Franzmann: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-franzmann4010999/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurenfranzmann/

Your Story IS Your Niche: How a $34K Teller Built a Community Empire

Paritosh Wadhwani is the principal broker and director of APW Finance. He’s a migrant from India who arrived with no job, talked his way into ANZ as a part-time teller, and worked his way to commercial lending manager in just under three years. Paritosh breaks down what bankers actually want to see in a submission and why most brokers are presenting deals in a way that makes the assessor's job harder, not easier. He also unpacks how he structures his team across Sydney and India, why he's focusing on clients who want to go from two properties to ten, and what it actually looks like to build a brokerage while running a development business on the side. Paritosh talks candidly about the migrant experience, arriving with nothing, the pressure of building the Australian dream from scratch, and why that background has become one of his biggest advantages with clients. If you're a broker trying to understand complex lending, property investing, or what it looks like to build something real over a long period of time, this one's worth your time. 1:07 — From Scaffolding Sales to ANZ — Why He Took a Pay Cut Everyone Called Stupid 6:05 — What Banks Actually Want — How to Present a Deal So the Assessor Can Say Yes 9:06 — The Indian Migrant Client Opportunity — Why 60% of His Book Is Indian Heritage and What That Means 12:29 — Building an 11-Property Portfolio — The Duplex Rinse-and-Repeat Model and the Mentor Who Changed Everything 14:52 — Buying Interstate in Perth in 2021 — Why He Was Hesitant and Why It Was the Right Call 18:15 — Development Realities — Why Things Never Go to Plan and Where the Numbers Are Breaking Down Now 23:06 — Team Structure — Sydney Office, Three Direct Hires in India and a Marketing Agency 33:17 — FY27 Plans — Scaling the Team, Mentoring New Brokers and Moving to a Strategy-First Model 35:04 — Telling a Client Not to Buy — Why the Right Advice Isn't Always the Transaction Learn more about Flint: https://flintgroup.au/ Connect with Christian Stevens: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/propertyfinance/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cmrstevens/ Connect with Paritosh Wadhwani: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paritosh-wadhwani/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apwfinance/

The Referral System That Built A Billion-Dollar Brokerage

Ruan Burger is the founder of Success and Broker and one of the most credible voices in Australian mortgage broking. As a former top 1% broker, he settled 367 deals in a single year out of a regional town of 44,000 people and built a $1 billion brokerage. Ruan breaks down the growth framework he uses with every client and why writing business is easy but finding business is hard. He also unpacks what the $3–5 million broker needs to stop doing, how more staff often slows you down before it speeds you up, and why the bank is your credit team when you don't have one yet. If you're a broker at any stage of the journey, this one will recalibrate how you think about growth. 1:00 — Starting in Gladstone — 44,000 People, 367 Deals, and What Structure Actually Taught Him 8:45 — What's Ahead for Success and Broker — Succession Planning and Why You Need It Before Things Go Wrong 11:21 — The Three-Stage Coaching Model — Growth, Scale and Established — and What Each One Actually Needs 14:12 — The Art vs The Science of Coaching — Why Good Brokers Often Can't Teach 17:26 — The 2–4–6–10 Growth Framework — The Roadmap From New Broker to Top 1% 26:23 — $3–5M Broker Playbook — Less Is More, Hiring for Roles and Letting the Right People Go 30:03 — Grow With the Flow — Credit Analyst to Senior Broker and Why Every Support Person Should Be Able to Write 42:26 — If You Had to Start Again Today — The Perfect Roadmap to the Top 1% as Fast as Possible Learn more about Flint: https://flintgroup.au/ Connect with Christian Stevens: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/propertyfinance/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cmrstevens/ Connect with Ruan Burger: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruan-burger-broker-coach/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/successandbroker/

This Broker Generates 1,000+ Warm Leads a Year From TikTok - Here’s How You Can Too

Ashley Van Rosmalen is a 26-year-old asset finance broker and the founder of Noma Finance. She started her business from a bedroom in Adelaide, took a yacht chef job in Croatia to pay the bills, and was scrambling eggs in a galley while fielding car loan enquiries from her old Mazda clients. When she returned to Australia she decided to go all in on TikTok and Instagram, and is now one of the top 0.5% of car finance creators on TikTok, generating 20 inbound bookings a week as a solo operation. Ashley breaks down why she borrowed her brand strategy from outside the broking industry entirely, how she turned her Mazda dealership background into her strongest content hook, why most brokers pick the wrong niche for the wrong reasons, and what she'd do differently if she started again. If you're a young broker trying to cut through a saturated market, or wondering what's actually possible when you back yourself and go all in, this one will show you. 1:00 — The Origin Story — Starting Noma in a Bedroom While Cooking on a Catamaran in Croatia 3:57 — Going All In on Noma — TikTok, Instagram and the Strategy Behind the Brand 5:23 — Niche Done Right — Why She Stopped Chasing MedFin and Leaned Into What She Already Had 7:29 — TikTok Results — Top 0.5% in Car Finance, 20 Bookings a Week, Near-Zero Ad Spend 10:25 — The 10-Touch-Point Rule — Why Inbound Leads Close Differently 13:29 — Team Building at 26 — Lending Assistant, Commercial Broker, Social Media Manager 17:01 — FY27 Plans — Online Applications, Back-End Systems and Where Noma Is Heading 19:30 — Google Reviews Over Commission Slips — Client Lifetime Value and Why Stickiness Beats Volume 36:12 — Buying at 21 Against Everyone's Advice — $347K Unit, Now Worth $600K Learn more about Flint: https://flintgroup.au/ Connect with Christian Stevens: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/propertyfinance/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cmrstevens/ Connect with Ashley Van Rosmale: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-van-rosmalen-4450b0153/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashley_vanrosmalen/

From Architect to Leading a $150M in Mortgage Business | Joanna James

Joanna James is the Chief Development Officer of the FBAA, a licensed architect, former mortgage manager, published author, and one of the most quietly formidable people in Australian financial services. She co-built a mortgage management business to 140 people and $150 million/month before most of the industry had even heard of offshore processing. Then she walked away, went to India, wrote a book, built Australia's first Bio home, and eventually joined the FBAA because she wanted to contribute to something bigger than herself. But this conversation goes well beyond the résumé. Joanna unpacks what she's actually building at the FBAA: a four-stage broker development framework spanning new broker to exit broker, why the industry's approach to mentorship is still fundamentally broken, and what the coming wave of consolidation and AI disruption means for brokers who haven't yet defined what their real value is. She talks candidly about what holds women back in the industry, and why she believes it's less about external barriers than the internal ones, and gets into her concept of human ROI and why the old model of profitability at the expense of people is finished. If you're building something in this industry or trying to figure out where it's all heading, this one will make you think differently. 2:55 — Building to 140 People and $150M a Month — And One of the First Offshore Operations in the Industry 6:28 — The Divorce, the Break, and the Book — What Happened Between Mortgages and the FBAA 8:32 — Why She Joined the FBAA — Moving Laterally to Move Forward 10:16 — What's Really Holding Women Back in Broking — Imposter Syndrome, Physiology and the Internal Barrier 16:43 — The 4-Stage Broker Development Framework — New, Grey, Scale and Exit Broker 24:32 — Leadership, Responsibility and Showing Up — What a Third Grade Lesson Taught Her About Leading People 29:45 — Presenting on Stage, 76 Flights a Year, and How to Not Burn Out Doing It 34:04 — Burning Man, Byron Bay and the Reset Button — What Nobody Knew About Her Learn more about Flint: https://flintgroup.au/ Connect with Christian Stevens: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/propertyfinance/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cmrstevens/ Connect with Joanna James: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanna-james-84a34b2b/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joannajames_illuminate/