Sachin Nair: from badge to brokerage - his top relationship and rapid growth hacks

From badge to brokerage: his top relationship and rapid growth hacks with Sachin Nair 👮👉🏦

In episode 10 of Raising the Bar, we sit down with Sachin Nair, co-founder of Fincode Loanmarket and former Queensland Police officer, to unpack how he went from child protection policing to building one of the fastest growing brokerages in the QLD property industry 💰

We cover:
- The brokerage journey: from side hustle data entry to leading a 12 person brokerage, and why trail income and doing things the right way matter 🚀

- Relationships over everything: how trust, EQ and showing up for people (without kickbacks) built a referral network and client base that lasts 🤝

- Building a team and culture: lessons in hiring, leadership, and keeping a brokerage fun, sustainable and people-focused 🎯

Sachin shows what resilience, community and growth look like in the QLD finance and property market 💪

Contact Sachin: https://broker.loanmarket.com.au/fincode/contact/
Follow us on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/empirelegal/
More podcast episodes: https://empirelegal.com.au/podcast/
Check out our blogs: https://blog.empirelegal.com.au
Website: https://empirelegal.com.au

Chapters

• 0:56 The brokerage journey
• 11:00 Relationships over everything
• 20:30 Building a team and culture
• 30:30 Golden nugget

Transcript

Hello ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Season two of the Raising the Bar podcast, where we story tell excellence in Queensland Property. Today I have a very special guest and an old friend, Mr. Sachin Nair from Fincode.

Welcome to the Raising the Bar podcast, where we story tell excellence in Queensland Property. I’m your host, George Sourris from Empire Legal.

Loan Market Fincode. There we go. Yes. Fun fact. Sachin used to work in the police force, looking after children, what technically would you call that?

Child protection.

Child protection, yeah. You did that and you were a part-time broker when I met you.

Full-time policeman. Part-time broker. That’s absolutely right. Yes. And we’re going to unpack in this episode, that journey for you and the the transition into running a successful, busy brokerage out on the Bayside in Wynnum Manly

Thank you, George. I’m ready.

Thank you.

All right. Let’s just dive straight into the journey for you. So the brokerage journey. Let’s rewind right back to when you first started as a broker. Paint the picture. What were you doing? What was your life like? What was the brokerage journey like?

So brokering started out of necessity.

I was a full-time police officer.

Yep.

And I happen to have too many kids. How many kids do you have? I’ve got three kids. We’ve got twins the second time around, so, yep. Suddenly life became very expensive. Yep. We had no money and, I needed to find more work. Yep. And brokering started, I had a friend who was a broker, and I just happened to bump into him and we started talking and I said, Hey, I’m looking for more work.

Would you have any work for me? And the answer was, yes. You can come and do data entry for me. Okay.

So it started as data entry. Data entry for a broker for a broker.

Outside of hours of the police force. Absolutely. Like as a second job, like a side hustle. Yes. Right, right.

I used to get $200 for every application I did.

Okay, so you’d process it, and get 200 bucks as a reward? Yes. Yes. Okay. And then I just got introduced to the world of brokering and I started seeing the potential. I started seeing that they can be a place for me in this world. And I started doing my courses and I then became a broker under the same friend.

So I did data entry for roughly two years while I was policing. And then, I got into brokering and I still kept policing for probably another couple of years, while I was a full-time broker.

What was that like? Because I, I believe that’s when I first met you. That’s right, yes. Is you were, or maybe you, you weren’t doing data entry then you were writing loans.

Yes, yes. Yeah. So you were writing loans on the side. But you know what, as an outsider looking in, it didn’t feel like it was on the side. Because you were responsive on emails. We always got the deal settled, so yeah, it didn’t feel like a side hustle. It just seemed like you were a broker.

I was very lucky and very fortunate that even making connections with you at an early stage of my career I could, I could finish those jobs.

I could finish my application if I, if someone trusted me with their loan, I could go, yep, I will get it done. Yeah. It would’ve been unfair if I wasn’t paying attention to brokering while I was focusing on policing. So I think, yeah, and I, I was very, very fortunate.

Well, for your client’s sake as well, right?

As we know, it’s stressful times buying a house, if you’re writing their loan, yeah, you, you sort of have to give it focus, otherwise you’re going to have big problems.

I have done loans for myself and even after doing it for so long, I’m stressed when I’m doing my own applications. Same here, mate, with the

conveyancing, it’s always when you’ve got a friends matter or family members matter, that something is always a bit hairy and you think, oh man, I’ve done this thousands of times.

Something always seems to pop up.

Yeah. So if I’m going through that stress, I’m sure my clients or anyone that’s dealing with me is going through the same stress. So it’s fairly important to give them the comfort that they need. And yeah. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s stressful.

Well, professional services, it is, mate. You’re always managing expectations, and trying to keep everybody happy and keep all the balls up in the air. But if we just zoom in on your journey in particular, when did you decide when the scales tipped and you said, you know what, I don’t want to be in the police force anymore, and I want to give broking a full-time go. You got a young family wife, you got a lot going on, man. That would’ve been pretty stressful.

Yeah. Also, I think brokering has a beautiful thing called trailing income. Yep. So every month a broker gets paid a trailing income.

Yep.

One once that hits a certain stage. You now know your expenses are looked after. You can then pay your mortgage. You can look after your kids because every month you are guaranteed an income that you work for, over a few years.

So that was a tipping point. Also when I left policing and joined brokering, COVID was ripe. Yes. And everyone was buying a house. Everyone wanted a broker. Suddenly you became. Extremely busy, so, yep. You didn’t really have to look for work, it was just falling at your feet, you know, you would just wake up and there’ll be 10 new clients.

Mate, our business was still pretty new at that point. Yes. And yeah, same thing for us. We were very worried about what would happen, and it was a blessing that it was so busy, but we didn’t know what to expect. No, no one saw

that coming. We all thought the world’s always, always going to be a very different, you know, the market’s going to crash and houses won’t sell, and then suddenly – everyone’s buying a house.

In Queensland, in Brisbane, with the Olympics coming up and the Sunshine  📍 State, it couldn’t have been more perfect for Queensland.

I don’t know where the money came from, but everyone suddenly had money and everyone wanted a house. So it was perfect timing and yeah, it was a simple transition, and I’ve never looked back.

2% interest rates, mate, I

remember 1.99%, that’s where the money came

from. I remember the client that was fixing his loan for five years at 2.29% and we were laughing at him. I’m like, why would you choose 2.29% when we can get you 1.89%? He was the happiest client. Yeah, it’s probably

still on that now.

It’s probably just running out now. Just came,

just came off this year. Yeah. 2.29%. That’s wild. Whereas meanwhile, everyone else went up to 6.5%, scary times, myself included.

But yeah, you get through it. Scary times and you know, but again, look, a lot’s changed. I think good things have happened in the market.

If you are fortunate enough to be in the market, you know, you’ve suddenly made some money, equity, you’ve got equity in your property. For sure, a bit of equity and just gives you a bit more comfort.

Yes. Yes. Just wrapping up this first point, then just talking about the journey for you. So the trail, that’s a really good point.

I hadn’t even thought of that. So that was part of the key decision making for you. Guys, for anyone that may not know what it is, what Sachin said is basically if you write a loan for someone, the bank will pay you a trail every year as long as the loan remains with that bank.

With them. Yeah. Yeah. So over time, that just keeps growing and you’ve got stable. Income coming in. Yeah. So for you, you thought, I can look after my family. I’m going to give this a go. And, and just touching on

that point again, any new broker starting in, read your contracts. If you’re joining a company, make sure you’re getting your trail.

Trail is one of the most important things for a broker. Eventually at some stage you should be getting some sort of trail for your work. Any broker out there, anyone starting, anyone new, think about the trail.

That’s a good point. Because otherwise, if you’re cutting your teeth learning for a few years and then you decide to leave and go to another business or start your own, that trail, if you don’t have access to it, if it stays with the principal, then you’re starting again, right?

Yeah, yeah. Which I, it could imagine would happen quite a bit.

A lot. Biggest thing for me is doing the right thing. I’ve got a few brokers that work with us now, and you got to look after them and you also got to look after them from the start. Because when things go bad, you know, if things don’t work out, relationships go bad.

People end up doing wrong things. But if, if at the start, you know, your contracts are good and everything else is written down, their life becomes easier.

I always say when people exit a business, there’s two ways to do it. Mm-hmm. It’s actually just as simple as that. There’s the “right” way and the “not right” way.

And they’re very different paths, mate. We’ve had people that have exited our business that have come back. Yes. Because they’ve gone and tried other areas. Yes. Or worked in different firms and realized it wasn’t a good fit for them. Yes. And they exited the right way. So the door was open when they wanted to come back.

Absolutely. And, and why burn a bridge? Why burn a bridge? You’re allowed to leave and you’re allowed to do other things. Why burn a bridge? Hmm.

And it’s a small industry, isn’t it? Oh, that’s right. The amount of deals where we know the real estate agent on the deal, you know, the buyer’s agent on the deal, it is a very, very small industry.

Everyone knows everyone. I’ve never been surprised at how connected everyone is. And as you said, number of files we worked on, application we worked on oh, hundreds over the years. Yeah. And yeah, probably would be. Yeah. And we’ve known a lot, a lot of people connected in that, those applications.

You’re right. Very small world.

If you don’t rip anyone off, you do the right thing, if you can hang your hat on the hook when you go home every afternoon, and sleep well at night, that should be, in my opinion, the driver for success. If you do the right thing, it will come in perpetuity.

It’s a simple act of life. If you are doing the right thing, you grow. It might take a bit longer and if you’re not cutting corners and you’re doing the right thing, it might take you a little longer. But once you get there, your base is strong, everything is good, people love you.

We’ve spoken about this every time we catch up, pretty much. Because the reality is with the conveyancing, you meet the client before us. Yes. Every single time. Yes. And you ask them if they’ve got a conveyancer, and if they don’t, no pressure. Yes. You say, Hey, we know these guys. Use them. But

also get excited when I get an opportunity to send someone towards you. It’s a genuine excitement because it’s helping my mate grow. And you know, that relationship we have, it’s a beautiful thing, and when you have those relationships in the world, when you are connected with other people, you want them to succeed.

Everybody wins should be the motto. Yeah. Yeah. But it’s a beautiful thing. It has to be a genuine thing. You can’t just fake it. That’s it. And you know what that’s comes down to, as the audience would know, listening to this, my passion point is no kickbacks, right? I, I like not paying 50 bucks for a deal.

I was going to ask you, ask you today for start a kickback, please. But that’s it, right? Our relationship’s been built on just genuinely going – “these guys will do a good job, and it’s not because we’re paying you $50 to introduce a client every time”.

And, and, and you. You lose the purpose. If that starts happening, then you go, Hey George, well gimme 50 bucks and if I send this client, I lose the excitement.

All I think about is my $50.

And what about when that client finds out that you got paid it? It sucks.

It’s gross. Also, if a client finds out and you haven’t done the good job, you know, I want to send a client to you because I know every time I send a client, my clients are looked after.

You know, I’ve never had a client complain. Actually, one person complain. Early in the days but that was nothing to do with you. There’s just, you know, how people, how people are and,

and we work through it together, right? At the end of the day, we’re a team. Eight

years, if one person has complained, I’ll take that.

I’ll admit, I’ll take that. It’s a funny story about that, but, you know I was trying to keep both sides happy and one of my staff managed to send an email that was meant to send to you.

Oh yeah, I remember, I remember this to the client and yeah, look, they still used you in the end.

We got them settled.

Yeah.

Yep. But again, I think one in eight years is not bad I think George. Pretty good.

Yeah. I’ll take that. Yeah. Alright mate. Sorry. No, no complaints ever. George, let’s wrap up point one there.

Transitioning. Okay. Sachin, if you were to start over tomorrow, what would you keep doing and what would you avoid? Just as a quick answer.

I would keep being genuine in my relationships. I would work really hard to maintain them. . And then promise things I can deliver.

It’s the relationships. I was literally just looking down at my little cheat sheet here. This is literally going to fire us straight into the next point, which is on the back of this. So I’ve got – Sachin, the power of relationships.

I know you’ve supported our business since the start, eight years ago. We’ve had heaps of mutual professionals to work alongside and we share a very similar sentiment in the way that we’ve grown in business. Yes. In particular, I think personally, your EQ and social skills are second to none, mate.

Thank you. It’s like Sachin secret sauce is just there. Everyone loves Sachin. It’s always fun. And just on the back of that, how have you managed to have a laugh along the way and still get the job done? And this whole section is just all about relationships. Every person we have on this show, I do a little list of what I think you can add the value, and I think this is your strongest point. Thank you man.

I’ll take that. I think the reason I call myself successful now, but the reason I mate you are

successful. I’m, I’ll say it for you. There you go. George, I’ve had some really good relationships and everyone I’ve connected with, it’s been a very mutual sort of a relationship.

The biggest relation at the start of my career would be with a woman, Daniella Roovers. Met through policing, we connected. And the things she did for me, I might have done a few things for her family when I could. And then she, she returned the favour, Yeah. And with no pressure, right?

No pressure.

It wasn’t, it wasn’t because of returning a favour, it’s just you help people that you

like. Yeah. She connected me with a lot of people that she knew in the industry. She used to be a financial planner. She’s one of my best friends now. And look, that’s where it started and that’s where, you know, you learn about relations going, okay, this is important. Like I have given her something, but she’s trying to give something back to me.

Yes.

And then genuinely wants you to succeed and do well. And, and that’s a beautiful feeling. And when you find those relationships, you just don’t, don’t let go of those relations, you know, you just work hard on those relationships.

And I think once you understand that how simple and how beautiful it is to have a few good people in your life and then, and then just work really hard with them.

How do you know who’s going to be a good person though? Like, just playing devil’s advocate here. I think about you and man, you just know so many people.

If you’re walking down Wynnum Manly, like where your office is and where you live, you know every second person. How have you done that? It’s, it’s a, it’s a special skill man. It is.

It’s simple. I, I heard this somewhere and it resonates with me that people that are liked by a lot of people actually, like a lot of people themselves, so, if I know a lot of people, a lot of people know me. If I’m walking down the street, I’m generally keen to talk to anyone. And I, and you’re ha, you’re a

happy guy too. I think that’s part of your skill. And I want to

say something funny.

I want to crack a joke. want to make that person, it’s like, oh,

it’s Sachin. Yeah. Yeah.

I just want to, I just want to, you know, so that’s. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s a hard thing to explain, but once, once you understand, it becomes really simple.

You also have to like people to be liked by people, and you have to do it on everyday basis.

You can’t just, you know, you can’t fake it. You actually have to be invested.

You took the words out of my mouth. I was going to ask you is Sachin a happy guy? You seem like the happiest guy ever. Are you a happy guy?

I love it. I love being happy and I, I don’t have to fake it. I just wake up happy every morning.

I can sleep for three, four hours and I wake up, I’m like, I’m ready to go. I’m happy and nothing makes me upset. You can upset me every now and then, but we’re all human.

And I’m not just saying this for the podcast, we’ve spent a lot of time together. I don’t ever think I’ve seen you in a shitty mood or yelling or like upset. I’ve seen you stressed. You’ve probably got one or two phones all the time. And I’m like, man, this guy is hustling, but I’ve never seen you where you’re like. Or hate my life or this sucks. It

doesn’t, I’ve had the most beautiful life and it does not suck.

And I’ve got a wife she does yelling and that’s, sorry bub, shout out to Hayley. Keeps Sachin in line. I’ve had a very blessed life, so I’ve got nothing to complain about and where I’ve come from and where I am right now.

I can’t be thankful enough. And yeah, I think being happy, it’s just a way of life. And you’ve got to be thankful every day. And I think everyone knows this, you know, we got to, we’re in Australia, mate. You, you weren’t born in Australia, were you? No, I was, were, were you born Was I was born in India.

Yep. I was 21, 22 when I moved to Auckland, NZ. I knew you were in police force in NZ.

And you met Hayley in NZ as far as I believe.

We met through policing. Yeah. Through policing. Yep. And then we moved here, came for a holiday. Mum and dad were here and we’ve gone, yep. This is a much, better economy and much better place to live.

The sun is always shining and especially in Queensland. Oh, so wait, you

lived in India until you were 21. 21, yeah. Huh. Yeah, so I’m about 45 now and yeah, now been well, so, okay. Question. Did you learn English in school?

Yes. Yes.

Yes, yes. Okay.

Yeah. I think British spent a lot of time in India before.

Okay, cool. And most Indians now speak English.

Yep. Yep. Cool. Yeah. So random question. I go to Greece, where we are from, and the island that my dad’s side’s from, rare to get someone that can speak English there.

No, I think most kids most of our books are in English.

Okay, cool. Yeah. So yeah, they’ve got yeah, English is everywhere and, yeah.

Beautiful. I guess that would’ve been easy with the transition. Otherwise, you’ve know what to, I had to work

in my accent, in my head. Shaking, but nah, just kidding.

So. Relationships. I want to build a business more like Sachin’s, which is relationship driven. How do I do it? I know it’s probably a difficult question to answer considering the individual personalities of everyone, but say I want to grow my brokerage, grow my business, and I I’ve come to you for advice. What are you going to tell me to do?

The biggest thing would be give more than you expect. If I can have a good relation with you and I’ve been giving you clients, that should be a need for me. You know, rather than going, Hey, George, give me something back. You do things for other people without any expectations and your business would grow, any relation would grow. Even now, if I can find a client that I can send your way, I get excited.

Mm-hmm. Never

lose that excitement. Thank you. If you can do something in someone, don’t lose that excitement, and give more than what you expect. And that’s being genuine.

Yeah.

Yeah. Just help people.

Yeah. And then you grow. When you’re not waiting for George to do something for me before I do something for you, George.

Oh, mate. The reality is for every a hundred deals, I’d be lucky to send you one. Let’s be honest. It’s the way that this works. Where am I going to find a random client that needs a loan?

To answer that is every a hundred deals I send you, you do a good job with them. So then you are, that’s why I like working with you, mate. Yeah.

Because you understand that we’ll still give the value to the client and to you guys, we’ll make your life easier.

It’s as simple as that. When my clients are not calling me, I’m going, my settlement’s not booked, i’m stressed. Yeah. This is not happening. Solicitor doesn’t call me back. And it’s a horrendous experience when communication’s missing, especially in our job because everyone has big expectations. You’re buying a house, you’re going to, you’re going to set your family up and then we stuff it up?

Yeah. It’s not, it’s not acceptable. Well, thank you. Thank you for those kind words. George gave me 20 bucks to say, yeah. Slip you 50 bucks later.

Alright, I’ve got one more point then on relationships. I’m going to take a stab in the dark and you tell me if I’m wrong, please.

You’re walking down Bay Terrace in Wynnum, you know, all these people would it be fair to say that you spend a lot of time, just out in the community? Is it coffee shops? How are you making all of these friends? How do you do it?

Because I need to know them. There’s my need to know these people, so it’s not well, like

who’s the shop owner of the coffee shop or who owns the dress shop down the road? I just want to have a

chat to them. And I see them every day. So why can’t I stop and say hi. And I’ve got this mad need and my wife hates it. We went to a wedding recently, the wedding was done and we had a spare day on Sunday and the whole family was there. Hayley wanted to go out and do things, and I’m like, nope. I just want to find out who these people are. So make friends with all these people. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I just, I think that’s my need. I need, I need to know who these people are. And does

that give you, that gives you energy, that makes you feel good?

Absolutely. You enjoy just meeting people, talking to people. Yeah,

just, just smiling at people. I would sit down with anyone out there and have a coffee and actually have a good time. I wouldn’t hate it. I would. Oh, I totally believe that. Love it. And the

irony is made off the back of that is these people are going to, they’re going to know, this is my favorite thing, know, like, and trust.

Yes. They’re going to know Sachin. They’re going to like Sachin. Yes. Because he’s a fun guy. Yeah. And they’re going to trust Sachin. Yes. And they know that when it comes to a loan. Yeah. Your team does it. Yes. I guess it’s a win-win. You are getting energy. Yes. You’re making new friends. Yes. And you’re probably going to help them one day, right a loan.

Just finishing off there is you have to do a good job. You can like all those people, you can go and make friends, but when you don’t do a good job, the word travels again. Yeah. You have to do, and it’s unfair. You know, you can get business when you can’t deliver, don’t get that business.

Yeah. Just say no. We’ve been big on that in our firm. Mate, every day, oh, can you help me with this traffic infringement? Or can you help me with this family law thing? And we just have to say, no. I want to help everyone. I’ve got a bit of a people pleasing problem.

Oh, I’m trying to get better at it. You and me. Yeah. I mean, I’ve gotten pretty good over the years now, just being like, look, I actually just can’t help you with that because it’s not fair for you. Yes. I don’t know how to do family law.

Yes. And I think one thing I’ve learned also is not to ask people to do things that they can’t, don’t make it hard for other people. I might come to you and say hey George, do you know someone that can do family law? Don’t put your friends and don’t put your relationship into a hard position.

Yeah. It’s probably a whole nother side topic, but I could imagine you would probably have a list of people to connect people with. People like you that know so many people go, oh, I’ve got a mechanic, or I’ve got a guy that does this, and I’ve got a guy that does that. And I imagine you introduce them.

Yes. Free of charge. You’re doing it because you just want to help. You’re not doing this to make money. Oh, I’ve got a guy, and he’ll help you out.

See, I make my money in brokering and I make good money in brokering. I don’t need referrals. I don’t need a hundred bucks, 50 bucks.

If I’m getting 50 bucks from Empire Legal, I’m sure I can find someone that’ll give you a hundred bucks.

And you know what? It’s funny you say that you can actually find someone that will probably give you 150 or 200. Yeah.

Then you, then you lose focus.

I’m not brokering, I’m suddenly trying to make money out of other avenues. That is not my core skill and I stick to my core skill and make good money there.

That’s why you’re sitting in this chair with me, mate. Thank you. Very means a lot. Thank you.

Let’s go on to point number three. Let’s shift the focus onto your team. How many people in your team, how many people do you help? What do you now love about what you’ve created from being part-time Sachin, doing data entry and then writing loans outside of 9 -5, to leading this team now. Let’s talk about that.

Mate, team’s quite big right now. It’s 12 or 13. There’s one school kid that does, so that’s the 13th person. Older than 14, right?

Yeah. Oh yeah. She’s almost graduated. She wants to be a broker. I’m like, yeah, come along and does really good work. I’m stirring you up. . How old’s the business? The business will be five years in November. Okay. Yeah. So it’s five years full time now.

I have a business partner, Paris. He’s based out of Melbourne. Funny story there. So he started off, I mentored him into broking. He wanted to do it and conquer the world and do his own thing, and he left, left me, broke my heart, and then I managed to bring him back.

That’s why you were crying? Yeah. Oh, look, look, I think he

had a really good point. I’ve been doing brokering for longer. I don’t want to give you 50%, but I want you as my business partner. And he’s like, hold on, that doesn’t make sense to me. I know you want me. So did he go? He went and did his own

thing for a while. Yes.

Yep. Yeah, but he became my best friend and we did everything together. We would talk 20 times a day. We’re doing property developments together. We’re doing so much together. Didn’t make any sense to be running a business away from this fella.

But you

know what, this is what we were talking about at the start. The first point of the way you exit. Oh, absolutely. So what, even he was a broker down there and you were still like talking and then you realised, do you know what, we should actually team up, resource

pool.

Everything. We were spending so much time doing the same thing just in two different entities. Yeah. So we’ve gone hold on, that makes no sense and there’s been a lot of growth since. Just came across really good people that helped grow my business and get it to a good stage.

And, you know Amber, you know Amber, she’s, yeah, of course Amber’s been

the backbone of your business for pretty much the whole, almost the whole time, right? Yes. How long have you had Amber? Nearly the whole five years since. Since the start. Yeah. Oh, there you go.

And she’s been amazing.

There was another really good worker with us. She’s, full-time mum know. Kaitlyn Yep. I think you knew Kaitlyn. Amber, Kaitlyn and myself, we grew the business on this side and Paris was growing his business in Melbourne. Best thing that happened to me was all these people. And they’ve just stuck around and we’ve formed six brokers now, including Paris and myself, and then six support staff. And then we also got a part-timer.

That’s pretty similar to us actually. Yes. I think we’ve got about six file handlers with assistants.

Beautiful journey. As you asked me that question, I’m thinking back, it’s been a really good journey. In only

five years. Yes. That’s the other thing to remember, you’ve built a successful brokerage in under half a decade.

This is the part where you probably need to stop and think for a sec. Going, man, I was hustling after hours, by myself part-time. And now I’ve got more than a dozen people in my team now, and we are kicking goals and we’re helping people write loans and help people buy their dream properties every day.

And at the same time, you actually enjoying the whole process. You come into work and you actually feel like being there, you know, we’ll have bad days. We’ll hate each other on a certain day, but then by the time you go back home, you’re back in love and you go, you realise, we are all in this together.

That is it, mate. That is it.

We go and catch up every now and then, not as often as I’d like, but you know, we catch up. We usually drag Alec along a few others and man, we’re always having a laugh. And the irony is, it’s not even a business catch up. And that’s what we always say. We’re actually just catching up as mates.

I can’t even remember a time where we’ve actually had a serious business chat. Because if there’s a problem, we just fix that in the moment during the workday.

When you try to catch up a business, it’s not fun. Yeah. You don’t enjoy your formal, you’re like, oh yeah, I want to catch up with you. Too stiff. Too stiff. Yeah. Yeah. I want to be silly with you. I want to say things that shock you and you go, no one says that. Why you say that? I just want to make you laugh. Thinking back, I met so many good people through your connections.

I met Alec through your boat party. I met Ash Hanson through your first Christmas party and yeah, they are my best friends and you know,

yeah. Isn’t it cool? Man, I met Ash. I was, I bought a house off Ash. Really? I didn’t even know her. I literally bought a house off her and then we sort of had a bit of a chat and became mates and then it’s cool you got introduced, but on the flip side, I’m just thinking out loud now.

I recently reconnected with Emma through you. And that was ironically over a lunch. Yes, but not a formal sit down. We were just at the local pub and we just got some chips and had a laugh and you’re like, oh, you guys should chat. And then Emma introduced me to somebody else. Yes. And it’s just like, man, this is just the power of you find your people and you work together.

It’s amazing. And you look back how you met these people. I met Emma. Emma sent me an email when she worked at Universal, and then I wanted to catch up. She never followed up and I hated her. I’m like, I hate you, Emma. You got ghosted, got ghosted by a girl. Classic. Yeah, I’m used to that one. And then we reconnected through Ash and it’s been the most amazing.

And Emma and I share an office now, and she’s running a beautiful buyer’s agency through that space. And she’s helping me grow. She knows everyone out there and she’s introducing me to, a lot of people. I’m enjoying it. Shout to Emma and Acquired buyers agency.

She, she does amazing work.

To hit home this last point, I’m A BDM. My primary role in the business is to find more people to work with. Yes. And vet them and see if they’ll be a good fit for our team. We don’t just take anybody, I actually go meet with them and vet them.

The best, most fun introductions I’ve gotten is through a channel like this, where we’ve just caught up and you’ve given me a name or two. Yes. And instead of going, oh, you know, go, go call Emma or whatever, yes. You’ll just introduce me to Emma, or you’ll just send a text going, you two need to talk about working together and then the door’s already open.

That, compared to me looking through the realestate.com top 100 and trying to call them, which, you know, I hate that stuff.

I want it to be a real relationship. It has to be though. When you meet good people and you know they are good businesses, you want them to connect.

If Emma’s doing business out there, you know, she’s getting busy. She needs support, then she can go, hey, don’t need to worry about it, with Empire Legal. You know, I can just pass the name on. I stole Alec McEwan’s food at one of your parties.

And he was like, who is this guy? Why is he eating my food? I think GAbi, his wife, was like, we don’t like this guy. And we are best friends now. Yeah, yeah.

And that’s another point as well, mate. The pie is big enough, and I’ve said this from eight years ago and I’ll continue to say it.

There is so much work out there. I think about. Empire Legal. We’re not the biggest. We’re not, we’re not the biggest. There’s guys out there humble. There. Being humble. Being humble. Right. I know firms out there that write a lot more volume than us. Yes. But our game’s not a volume game. Yes.

I’m not interested in, in doing the most amount of deals. I want to give the best service, the best experience. And all these other guys out there, power to them, because there’s so many deals out there, there’s so much for everyone to eat.

There is so much. And even, even often, you know, George, I will get clients and I’ll send them your way.

And you will come back going, no, we can’t represent them. We are doing the other party. Mm. You know, and then, you know, I will send them different lawyers. Yes. You know, we, you know, we use other lawyers. Of course, and it’s allowed and you’ll have to have the relation and you also want the other lawyers that you refer to to do the same good job, because then life becomes easy.

And mate, other brokers, I’m sure you don’t try and  trip them when you see them walking down the street. At the end of the day, there’s enough for you guys to eat as well.

My street is full of brokers, literally every third door. Like I can probably rattle off six or seven names right now on your street where they all are.

They’re all good people. And I want to walk down the street and say hi to them. I drink with Kieran from Ola all the time. Now we are good friends and you know. He’s a much bigger broker than myself. That office where he is,

that’s where I used to work. My second job as a lawyer was in that exact office.

I knew Abi back then. Yeah. You knew Abi before me. Yeah. Yeah. Pro Law. Pro Law. There’s enough in the market for everyone. You don’t hate anyone and you wish them well. When you wish other people well, good things come to you. Power of positivity. I think you have to be positive, I think. Yeah. Otherwise, you’re rocking

in a corner crying. Oh look.

Yeah. Just, yeah. Stressful enough.

Yeah.

Mate, I’ve got just two more quick things for you. The first one – w hat’s a daily habit or hack that keeps Sachin sharp in this business 24/7? Oof. You can take a few seconds to think. This is your personal spin on it. It doesn’t even have to be business. It can be in your personal life too. What’s one little thing, a little hack you reckon that keeps you going?

From heart to heart, and I think everyone talks a big game. You just got to be happy, you got to wake up and be thankful for what you have.

There will be days when you be hating your life, you know, you’d be going, I can’t get this done. I can’t solve this problem that I have. But you got to, overall, you got to be thankful. You got to wake up every day. You can have three hours of sleep. Yes, I know you wake up tired. But you got to be, you got to be still be thankful and going, yep.

Hey man, we’re still in Australia. I think about that all the time.

It’s a beautiful life and the problems that we have are not really problems.

There’s no jets flying over or we’re not starving. We’ve got a pretty good life over here.

Yeah. And we have though.

I have a very blessed life. If I have to live again, I probably won’t change a lot of things. How good’s that, yeah. So that’s my personal hack every day I just be happy, man, and just be thankful and, you know, keep going. Even if I’m tired and I have to work, I’m working for myself. I’m not doing it for your family. I’m doing it for my family. So I don’t like being a victim. I don’t want to go, I’ve worked too hard, I’m too tired.

Nah, man, I’m doing it for myself. So get up and go. Yeah, either do it or don’t, don’t do it.

It’s mindset, isn’t it? Yeah. Really a lot of it comes down to if you’ve got a good mindset, good stuff happens. I’m a big believer in that

Mindset has to become an everyday thing. You can’t get up and read some quotations and go, yeah, I’m going to have a really good day. You actually have to start living a good life. Your life is what you make it.

I like that. Another little one-liner I heard that I quite like is,” the harder I work, the luckier I get”. Oh, absolutely. That’s a good one.

If you’re in sales, be out there. Don’t sit at home. Everything we do is sales. Yes, you might be a lawyer, but you are selling, you know,

We’re recording in my office here at Spring Hill, and I, I barely come to this office anymore. Because I’ve got a totally different job now. If George 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 years ago wouldn’t have got up off the desk – just to go heat up some food in the microwave. Yes, George today, if I’m sitting at this desk, something’s wrong. Like a real estate agent. You should be out talking to people, meeting people you know, working out how I can help them so my team can do the work for them.

Even getting an opportunity from you to go, hey Sach, you want to come and do this with me? I want to be here. Yeah. I, and I hate public speaking. I hate anything like this. If you go into my Instagram, I don’t even have Instagram anymore. There’s nothing out there. I’m just lucky the business keeps coming. But this is an opportunity that you’ve given me and I want to take it. Yeah, I want to be here.

The audience will get so much value. There’s some pretty cool nuggets that can be taken out of that.

Well on the back of that, we’ve got one more question ready? So we’re here to raise the bar.

Yes. The whole point of this podcast, its purpose, is to story tell excellence in Queensland property, right? Yes. And we, we think you’re pretty excellent, mate. Thank you. You’ve, you’ve built, coming from you a very successful business and you’ve helped countless amounts of clients. Thank you.

So, what I want from you, and you can have a few seconds to think about it, is just one golden nugget. Doesn’t have to be strictly business related. It can be personal, just anything for the audience that’s listening out there. If you could say, here’s just one piece of advice or one thing to help you in your life.

Mm-hmm. What is it?

I think I’m, I’m ready. I’m ready for this. He’s ready. Straight outta the gates. Shoot. Learn to listen. Learn to listen is the biggest thing I would say. If I am sitting here, and I want to tell George everything by myself, I’m losing the point. If I’m sitting next to George, I need to know, what has George got to offer? Make people feel important, listen and then deliver. In our world, it’s all about making people feel important. Clients come to me with nothing. We have clients who have zero deposit. They leave our office feeling that they’re doing really well in life, you know, and that we give them a plan. Do this. A

pathway to how they can get there. Absolutely. Yep.

I can sit here and tell a hundred things that are wrong with them. You know, we don’t tell them that.

We just tell them what’s going good. So when you learn to listen, and when you learn to make people feel important, you’ll do well in sales. So that my golden nugget would be, you know, listen, listen. This is not your time to tell them, hey I did this, this, and this.

That’s just, that’s the first way to get ’em to shut off. If you’re actively listening, and you can follow up and build on what they are asking, that’s probably how you’ve made so many friends, mate, is just listening to people.

Listening and just making people feel important. And everyone’s struggling. We all have our own struggle. You are a brand new dad, man. I don’t know. I don’t know how you, why you’re sitting here. So Anna’s going, George, I’ve got a good wife mate. Shout out to my wife Anna. Oh, we need good wives. We need very good wife. Without a good wife, I wouldn’t be sitting here either. My wife has done so much for me. My kids have been looked after. I’ve never had to. And Hayley’s in the business as well now. Yeah, right.

I get yelled at home and at work and I love it. I love it. Lady just moved a whole house by herself without me packing a box. Isn’t that amazing. And same with your Anna. She does a good job with, you know, keeping you, you know, being up like giving the opportunity to be out here.

Oh mate, she’s very emotionally regulated. Yes, very calm. It’s very good energy for me. Because I’m very go, go, go, a hundred miles an hour.

It’s a good, good balance for us.

You need that, you need that to be successful. You need that.

We always used to joke going, oh man, Hayley must be a very patient lady.

She’s not patient. She means well, she’s not patient. I love you. I’m sorry, but you, you know, not patient. On the back of your golden nugget tip, my dad always says: “two ears, one mouth, use them in that proportion”. That is a very powerful piece. I totally, totally agree with you on that listening part.

Look, I’ve worked with some really good police officers, and the best skill they had was, they’ll listen. When you’re dealing with stressful situations, you’re not trying to prove, you’re not trying to tell how amazing you are. You just sit back and listen. Listening is amazing skill, and once you listen, people want to tell you more.

Last thing and then we’ll, we’ll put this to bed for this episode. Just on the back of that, I just think this is valuable and it’s a side quest, but you think about now – technology, phones.

For years I’ve been making a conscious effort if I have a lunch, for example. Yes. I’ll put my phone face down. Yes. And now I’m trying to even get better at using do not disturb. Yes. Because, do you know what? I live at the Gold Coast. Yes. If I’ve come to Brisbane to meet with you for a meal. To share food with you for an hour. Yes. Hour and a half, whatever it might be. I actually want to know how you are. I get life comes up and there’s busy and there’s settlements and there’s time of the essence and there’s all this stuff, but you know, I’ve got a very good team.

I’m very lucky, that for for 60 minutes, if I can’t just sit and have a chat with you and see how you are going, yes. What am I even doing? Why do I even bother driving all the way to come and chat to you if I’m just some scatter that’s just cooked on his phone or sitting on Instagram or TikTok, like, I didn’t drive to see you for that.

That’s rude. I, I, I’m there just to, to chat to you. This is a really hard one, right? It is a hard one. It’s

really a hard one because I think we are the last generation that actually would do that, you know, the way the world’s heading.

But do you struggle with it? I personally struggle with it, man.

I’m not, I’m not amazing at just leaving my phone. I’m trying to get better at not needing my phone.

Look, I, as I said, look, when you start enjoying that conversation, when you start listening. Your phone becomes non-existent when you are in that conversation. If you’re listening, you can’t be on your phone.

You can’t be distracted.

Providing mate, if you had loans due, like you’ve got a team that can help with that. If you didn’t have that team though, there’s no way in the world you’d even be able to go to the lunch. I’d be, let alone you’d be glued on your phone.

It’s more important to get that client’s deal settled. Yes. Yes. Whereas you know now, oh, the team’s got that. That’s their role. I’m actually here to meet someone.

I would be lost. The biggest thing that I have is my team. They give me everything. Again, I’m so blessed with people. I genuinely think I’m the luckiest person out there. Everything falls into place for me. That biggest thing is again, the people that I work with, they’re all so genuine with me.

They’re also dedicated to me. And same with Paris. He has created a very similar world in Melbourne. And that’s why we all gel together. We have, really good people at work, that do so much for us.

That’s a common theme, across the podcast is people, people, people.

We built Empire on the back of people. Yeah. We’ve been trying to get another paralegal or lawyer to join our team. Mate, no one has fit in yet, so we haven’t taken anyone. And you know what, we decided as a group that we’d rather split the work across who’s remaining, yes, than bring in the wrong person.

That’s always been our ethos.

We’ve hired wrong a few times, and it just takes you backward. Yeah. All businesses have the same problem, you know, finding the right people. When you find them, hold onto them, just don’t let them go. There’s more to it than, you know, putting photos on Facebook and telling them how much you love them. There’s so much more to it there.

They spend a lot of hours at work. People spend a lot of time working and if you’re not actually having a good time, yeah, you can’t, you will burn out. Yeah. You won’t last, no matter how good the money is.

Absolutely. They can’t turn up and, you know, you spend eight hours with them every day. Lot of time, and they’re giving so much to you and your business and your family.

More than you’d see your own family, the amount of time you spend with your work colleagues. Yes. You’ve got to have a bit of a laugh along the way.

And be genuine with them also, again, I think coming back to the same thing, listening to what they need also is a very important thing. Once you master all those things, life becomes pretty simple.

Listening, again, that’s a super, that’s another superpower. Listening is the superpower for Sachin.

It’s these ears! Yeah.

Thank you for your time. Thank you for your words of wisdom. We’ll pop in the show notes where people can find out more about your team and your business and get in touch if they need any help with writing loans or understanding their position or whatever that may be.

Georgie and thank you so much for even giving me this opportunity, man. I feel, I feel special. I feel, I feel like I’ve made it, but, you know, thank you so much. I’m sure it’s going to help my business a little bit and, you know, if it does, then I know who to thank. Thank you, Georgie.

It’s, it’s just about adding value to whoever’s listening. That’s what it’s all about. It is, if you’re listening out there, if you do want to get in touch with Sachin or myself, my email’s publicly available on our website, we’d love to help.

I’m going to add another thing. If there’s a new broker that needs some advice, please call up. Yeah. I’d love to, like, I genuinely enjoy those conversations.

Here’s a real life testament. My brother was looking about a year ago to get into broking. I was on my honeymoon. Yes. And I contacted three people. There’s three people that I said, I’m going to reach out and see if we can open up some doors.

You were one of them. Yes. And mate, I was on my honeymoon and I reached out to you and you’re like, no worries. I’ll chat to him anytime. Man, it’s important. How good is that? Even if it wasn’t a good fit for your business, you were still willing to have a chat and work and see if you could help him. It’s important.

And it’s about helping.

It is about helping. I might be a very different stage of my career. People are starting out. They need those good conversations. They need those genuine conversations. They need to know, hey, this is what I need to do. This is what I don’t need to do. Helping people succeed is such a beautiful thing.

It’s part of the great circle of life, mate. It is. We take the juniors on here that are doing their placement from university. Yes. That was me 10 years ago.

I’m telling you, I used to think, why would someone come to me for a loan? There’s so many brokers out there. And they’re nonstop coming now because we do a good job with them. And you know, you make your own place.

That’s a limiting belief though, isn’t it? Because we thought the same thing. We’re like, oh man, there’s a conveyance on every corner pretty much. But you know what? There’s not good conveyances on every corner. Oh, look, there’s, yeah. Same as brokers. Same as agents.

Yeah.

Look, there’s so many brokers out. Then we had to do a simple exercise before I joined. I was doing a course to join brokering, and the exercise was call up a local broker in your area, and write down the experience. There were 13 people in their class. Not one had a good experience. And that goes, okay, well there’s a big, there’s a gap in the market there a big gap in the market.

Now I’m going to get that gap. Yeah. Yep. And look at you now. Ah, thank you mate.

Think like we’re still warming up, to be honest. I feel like we’re. I don’t even feel like I’m a veteran yet. It’s nearly been a decade.

I’m telling you. We’ve had a beautiful relationship and you know, seeing each other grow and you know, I connected with Abi before I connected with you, and then you and I just took off and I think very similar journeys where, we’ve done well in our businesses and we very honest with our cause.

Wouldn’t have even had empire without Abi.

Like, like Abi. Abi taught me. Everything I know. Yeah.

Well, I just had a lawyer that was stuffing up and someone said, talk to Abi. And that was one of the best things that happened. And Abi just absolutely sorted everything out. If you haven’t bought a house and if you haven’t been through the process, and it’s hard to explain how important a good lawyer is, you know. And we’re not

here to plug that, but it’s true, right?

You’ll see something online for 1500 bucks and you’ll go I want that, they’re doing it so cheap. Please stay away. Please stay away. You can go with them and nothing bad might happen, you might never find out, but when things happen, the extra money that you pay for quality is very important.

I literally say to people. It’s not a problem until it’s a problem. And when it’s a problem you wish you had the guys that knew what they were doing. And we can

have another podcast about this problems and things that go wrong. That would be an interesting episode. Yeah. Thank you so much again, and thank you for having me.

And look all the best with the new, beautiful chapter of your life with, with bub and you know, beautiful things happening there. Thank you mate. Yeah. And truly thank you. I think I’m going to be going to be friends for a long time. We will be, be we already, we’ve already stood the test of time.

I can’t wait for a few more years, to come back and sit in these chairs again.

Oh mate, I still think you should pay me a hundred bucks for every, just saying.

Not asking for much. This guy. Thank you, mate. Thank you.