Track racer, Top 100 Broker and investment specialist Deanna Ezzy is emerging as both a rising industry star and trusted advisor to her clients at Trilogy Funding
Slow and steady doesn’t win the race in mortgage broking. This is an industry where you don’t have to ‘do your time’. With talent, confidence and just a little bit of luck you can quickly make the leap from diligent assistant to rising star.
That’s exactly what Deanna Ezzy has done. After five years in the industry she’s won Your Investment Property magazine’s Broker of the Year award and fought her way into MPA’s Top 100 Brokers 2015 at number 46. Most importantly, she’s become a trusted advisor to her clients.
When people see that I do respond to emails and answer phone calls, I’m positive and there are smiley faces in there… they start to realise they can come to me,” says Ezzy.
Gaining that level of trust isn’t easy and, talking to Ezzy, it’s clear that her confidence has given her a major advantage. She works for Top 10 Independent Brokerage Trilogy Funding, down in Canberra, a brokerage which specialises in investors, providing all the financial services and referrers they’ll need.
But fi rst, she explains, they need to know what they’ll need. “I always upfront tell people, usually in the fi rst conversation, ‘If you’re just not understanding something, don’t hesitate to ask me over and over again until you get it, because I want you to feel comfortable’.”
From Whakatane to Trilogy Funding
Canberra is the latest stop on a long journey. Ezzy was born in Far North Queensland but grew up in Whakatane, a small town in New Zealand’s idyllic Bay of Plenty, which boasts New Zealand’s ‘Most Loved Beach’, Ohope, among its charms.
In common with other Canberrans, Australia’s capital wasn’t necessarily her dream destination – she moved there in 2005 to be closer to her mother – but it opened up a new direction for her career. “You get stuck here, but when I got this role at Trilogy I got quite passionate about it early on, and now I’m glad.”
Like many of the best brokers specialising in investors, Ezzy came to the job from her own personal love of property.
“I bought a property in 2007, and it was really easy,” she recalls. “I had a mortgage broker, and I’m one of these people that will let someone do their job and completely trust them, and the whole process was very easy from my point of view. All of a sudden I had this property, it settled, and it was great.”
On the advice of a property investor friend, she rented out the property and began investing herself. Eventually, Ezzy decided she wanted to work with property full time.
“I didn’t say to myself, ‘I want to be a mortgage broker,” Ezzy explains. “I started looking for any sort of job that involved property. I went for a job at Independent.JPG)
Property Group, and got it, but turned it down to work at Trilogy.”
Finding her feet
As Ezzy remembers it, Trilogy’s job advert didn’t ask for finance experience, but for ‘someone with personality’ – an approach Ezzy now understands.
“You can train anyone with nous how to do the job and calculations, but it’s being able to connect with clients and get them to trust you that is really important.”
Working for Trilogy provided a number of benefits – a part-PAYG starting package, Ezzy’s Cert IV and Diploma, and, crucially, mentoring by company CEO Ed Nixon.
“I sat next to Ed for two years – literally sat next to him [and was involved in] every phone conversation and face-to-face meeting he had. I think I was cc’d on nearly every email he sent out. For the first couple of months, I simply watched what he did… I think the fact I got to learn from the best in the country was really, really valuable.”
Ezzy credits Nixon with building her confidence. “I would sit next to Ed and hear him talking to a client, saying all these great things about me. He had a lot of faith in me and was continually giving me positive reinforcement. I didn’t know I was going to be a good broker but, early on, he said, ‘You’re going to be a much better broker than I ever was.’ [He] had this faith in me.”
Nevertheless, it took initiative on Ezzy’s part to emerge as a broker in her own.JPG)
right. When Nixon went away on leave Ezzy took care of his clients, and when he returned started to run meetings herself. Once she got started, Ezzy started to understand Nixon’s faith in her. “I caught up to his way of thinking and started to realise that I was pretty good at it, and my clients kept coming back to me, referring to me and I was lodging more loans every month. They had to dedicate an assistant to me. That was quite exciting, and nice to know.”
Becoming the first point of call
Nixon still runs Trilogy and the two are still close. Ezzy herself jokes, “I have a lot of Ed-isms! I talk a lot like Ed talks, I say things he would say.”
But Ezzy now has her own brand of broking, one in which she is the centre of her client’s financial lives. “People would start coming to me with questions that weren’t broker questions, but more, ‘I want to sell my property, what should I do?’ I just sort of became the first person people would talk to, rather than their accountant or solicitor.”
“Now,” Ezzy notes, “I make a point of saying to people, ‘I would like to be your trusted advisor, so if you need anything regarding property, send me an email, give me a call and I might be able to point you in the right direction’.”
She’s built up a referral network alongside her client base, finding out the names of clients’ accountants and solicitors in her meetings. These referral contacts are highly important to many of her clients, 80% of whom are investors, many of them complex, she explains. “They’ve got 10 properties and two jobs – there’s all different multiple trusts.”
There’s one area in which being open and having a strong referral network really stands out, Ezzy explains. “Separations. I have two women that I’m dealing with at the moment who are both going through separations.” These are clients with “no idea where to start” and who are dealing with a huge number of intertwined legal and financial issues. The rewards for Ezzy are far more than financial.
“I’ve had a woman cry on the phone to me and say how thankful she was for me helping her out,” Ezzy reflects. “Luckily, there’s not too many people who I’m dealing with out there who are getting divorced!”
Guiding other brokers
With an established and successful approach to broking – after just five years in the job – Ezzy is now looking further afield.
“I joined Canberra Women in Business maybe 12 months ago, and I actually became the secretary, so I’m now quite heavily involved.”
Founded in 1992, the CWB runs monthly meetings, trivia nights and a Christmas party for its members to network and build their businesses.
She’s also involved in a national Facebook group for property investors, and is still investing herself. “I’m thinking I might just go to Queensland to buy… I have some buyer’s agents who are basically my friends now, having built up a relationship with them.”
She’s currently looking at “somewhere in Brisbane, not too far out, with land, or somewhere in Toowoomba with development potential”. Closer to home, she’s building a 80sq/m ‘granny flat’ in her backyard.
In addition to property investment, Ezzy has a number of more eclectic hobbies, including latin dancing and motorbike riding. “I was very heavily involved in the dance scene in Canberra and Sydney for five or six years. I performed at the beginning of this year at the Sydney Latin Festival.”
However, she’s eased off the dancing because of the late nights. “As my work here became more involved and required more brainpower, I had to back off the dancing because I couldn’t handle it.”
She’s still regularly riding motorbikes, as she’s been doing for more than eight years. “I’ve owned heaps of different bikes. I’ve been to the track three of four times and I’ve done superbike schools at Eastern Creek Track in Sydney. I just really enjoy it!” However this year, she bemoans, will be the first time she hasn’t owned a bike. But her racing days aren’t over – she’s applying her racing instincts to her car, alongside several of her colleagues.
In many ways, Ezzy has moved across the desk to the seat Nixon occupied, guiding newer brokers through the challenges of starting out. “I had a friend who was working at a bank and considering broking but was unsure, and I said, ‘You’ll never regret it, you’ll love it’, ” she recalls.
For brokers who, like her, may be underestimating themselves, Ezzy advises them to keep calm. “It can be quite overwhelming when you start – there seems to be so much to learn. Just take it two months at a time. Once you’re six months in, every month thereafter you realise how much you’ve learnt. Take all the support you can get. Don’t let yourself be overwhelmed, because it will all start to make sense.”
That’s exactly what Deanna Ezzy has done. After five years in the industry she’s won Your Investment Property magazine’s Broker of the Year award and fought her way into MPA’s Top 100 Brokers 2015 at number 46. Most importantly, she’s become a trusted advisor to her clients.
When people see that I do respond to emails and answer phone calls, I’m positive and there are smiley faces in there… they start to realise they can come to me,” says Ezzy.
Gaining that level of trust isn’t easy and, talking to Ezzy, it’s clear that her confidence has given her a major advantage. She works for Top 10 Independent Brokerage Trilogy Funding, down in Canberra, a brokerage which specialises in investors, providing all the financial services and referrers they’ll need.
But fi rst, she explains, they need to know what they’ll need. “I always upfront tell people, usually in the fi rst conversation, ‘If you’re just not understanding something, don’t hesitate to ask me over and over again until you get it, because I want you to feel comfortable’.”
From Whakatane to Trilogy Funding
Canberra is the latest stop on a long journey. Ezzy was born in Far North Queensland but grew up in Whakatane, a small town in New Zealand’s idyllic Bay of Plenty, which boasts New Zealand’s ‘Most Loved Beach’, Ohope, among its charms.
In common with other Canberrans, Australia’s capital wasn’t necessarily her dream destination – she moved there in 2005 to be closer to her mother – but it opened up a new direction for her career. “You get stuck here, but when I got this role at Trilogy I got quite passionate about it early on, and now I’m glad.”
Like many of the best brokers specialising in investors, Ezzy came to the job from her own personal love of property.
“I bought a property in 2007, and it was really easy,” she recalls. “I had a mortgage broker, and I’m one of these people that will let someone do their job and completely trust them, and the whole process was very easy from my point of view. All of a sudden I had this property, it settled, and it was great.”
On the advice of a property investor friend, she rented out the property and began investing herself. Eventually, Ezzy decided she wanted to work with property full time.
“I didn’t say to myself, ‘I want to be a mortgage broker,” Ezzy explains. “I started looking for any sort of job that involved property. I went for a job at Independent
Property Group, and got it, but turned it down to work at Trilogy.”Finding her feet
As Ezzy remembers it, Trilogy’s job advert didn’t ask for finance experience, but for ‘someone with personality’ – an approach Ezzy now understands.
“You can train anyone with nous how to do the job and calculations, but it’s being able to connect with clients and get them to trust you that is really important.”
Working for Trilogy provided a number of benefits – a part-PAYG starting package, Ezzy’s Cert IV and Diploma, and, crucially, mentoring by company CEO Ed Nixon.
“I sat next to Ed for two years – literally sat next to him [and was involved in] every phone conversation and face-to-face meeting he had. I think I was cc’d on nearly every email he sent out. For the first couple of months, I simply watched what he did… I think the fact I got to learn from the best in the country was really, really valuable.”
Ezzy credits Nixon with building her confidence. “I would sit next to Ed and hear him talking to a client, saying all these great things about me. He had a lot of faith in me and was continually giving me positive reinforcement. I didn’t know I was going to be a good broker but, early on, he said, ‘You’re going to be a much better broker than I ever was.’ [He] had this faith in me.”
Nevertheless, it took initiative on Ezzy’s part to emerge as a broker in her own
right. When Nixon went away on leave Ezzy took care of his clients, and when he returned started to run meetings herself. Once she got started, Ezzy started to understand Nixon’s faith in her. “I caught up to his way of thinking and started to realise that I was pretty good at it, and my clients kept coming back to me, referring to me and I was lodging more loans every month. They had to dedicate an assistant to me. That was quite exciting, and nice to know.”Becoming the first point of call
Nixon still runs Trilogy and the two are still close. Ezzy herself jokes, “I have a lot of Ed-isms! I talk a lot like Ed talks, I say things he would say.”
But Ezzy now has her own brand of broking, one in which she is the centre of her client’s financial lives. “People would start coming to me with questions that weren’t broker questions, but more, ‘I want to sell my property, what should I do?’ I just sort of became the first person people would talk to, rather than their accountant or solicitor.”
“Now,” Ezzy notes, “I make a point of saying to people, ‘I would like to be your trusted advisor, so if you need anything regarding property, send me an email, give me a call and I might be able to point you in the right direction’.”
She’s built up a referral network alongside her client base, finding out the names of clients’ accountants and solicitors in her meetings. These referral contacts are highly important to many of her clients, 80% of whom are investors, many of them complex, she explains. “They’ve got 10 properties and two jobs – there’s all different multiple trusts.”
There’s one area in which being open and having a strong referral network really stands out, Ezzy explains. “Separations. I have two women that I’m dealing with at the moment who are both going through separations.” These are clients with “no idea where to start” and who are dealing with a huge number of intertwined legal and financial issues. The rewards for Ezzy are far more than financial.
“I’ve had a woman cry on the phone to me and say how thankful she was for me helping her out,” Ezzy reflects. “Luckily, there’s not too many people who I’m dealing with out there who are getting divorced!”
Guiding other brokers
With an established and successful approach to broking – after just five years in the job – Ezzy is now looking further afield.
“I joined Canberra Women in Business maybe 12 months ago, and I actually became the secretary, so I’m now quite heavily involved.”
Founded in 1992, the CWB runs monthly meetings, trivia nights and a Christmas party for its members to network and build their businesses.
She’s also involved in a national Facebook group for property investors, and is still investing herself. “I’m thinking I might just go to Queensland to buy… I have some buyer’s agents who are basically my friends now, having built up a relationship with them.”
She’s currently looking at “somewhere in Brisbane, not too far out, with land, or somewhere in Toowoomba with development potential”. Closer to home, she’s building a 80sq/m ‘granny flat’ in her backyard.
In addition to property investment, Ezzy has a number of more eclectic hobbies, including latin dancing and motorbike riding. “I was very heavily involved in the dance scene in Canberra and Sydney for five or six years. I performed at the beginning of this year at the Sydney Latin Festival.”
However, she’s eased off the dancing because of the late nights. “As my work here became more involved and required more brainpower, I had to back off the dancing because I couldn’t handle it.”
She’s still regularly riding motorbikes, as she’s been doing for more than eight years. “I’ve owned heaps of different bikes. I’ve been to the track three of four times and I’ve done superbike schools at Eastern Creek Track in Sydney. I just really enjoy it!” However this year, she bemoans, will be the first time she hasn’t owned a bike. But her racing days aren’t over – she’s applying her racing instincts to her car, alongside several of her colleagues.
In many ways, Ezzy has moved across the desk to the seat Nixon occupied, guiding newer brokers through the challenges of starting out. “I had a friend who was working at a bank and considering broking but was unsure, and I said, ‘You’ll never regret it, you’ll love it’, ” she recalls.
For brokers who, like her, may be underestimating themselves, Ezzy advises them to keep calm. “It can be quite overwhelming when you start – there seems to be so much to learn. Just take it two months at a time. Once you’re six months in, every month thereafter you realise how much you’ve learnt. Take all the support you can get. Don’t let yourself be overwhelmed, because it will all start to make sense.”
