Leanne Clune had a calling for financial along with an irrepressible desire to guide others toward financial security.
Leanne Clune had a calling for financial along with an irrepressible desire to guide others toward financial security.
Like many seeking a tertiary education, Leanne Clune self-funded her way through her uni days on a tight budget. Unlike most of her fellow graduates however, she and her husband had easily saved a whopping $30,000 in her first year as a working professional, while they spent up to their limits and became bogged down in debt.
It was then that she knew she had to join the finance world and help people reach their financial potential. “I felt like I was ‘winning the lotto’ every fortnight, every time I got paid, because I was used to living off nothing – and they were all wasting it,” says Clune.
“I became fascinated in talking to them that none of them had any money. They had all seemed to buy new cars and gotten themselves into high interest consumer debts.”
But before her drive and self-starter outlook would see her become a successful business owner, Clune’s talent in the sciences and maths in school led her to gain a degree in marine biology from James Cook University in Townsville. Hailing from Geelong, Victoria, Clune hopped over state borders again from Queensland to settle in Western Australia.
“I’ve always been interested in finance, always,” says Clune and although working for the Department of Agriculture WA in 1999, her intrigue in her peers’ not-a-penny-to-spare situations prompted her to study financial planning along full-time work.
“This is how I got really interested and intrigued in the financial planning side of things and I thought ‘I just want to make my money work for me’.”
While Clune and her husband were both working full-time and kids were a while off, they invested their savings in real estate and leveraged it. Clune began broking soon after completing her Certificate in Finance (mortgage broking) in the new millennium. “The more I studied it and talked to people, the more I thought, “I really need to help people with this because they don’t understand it.”
Another memory that only strengthened her resolve to help people through their monetary maze was a chance visit from a financial planner while she was still working for the WA government. At this stage Clune had studied a great deal on financial planning, had those substantial savings and was set on investing them.
“He was clearly just chasing the high income, pre-retirees and I didn’t even notice that because I was only young,” says Clune. The planner had made an assumption of her financial standings based on her young age and told her to come back when she had some money, unaware of what she had sitting in the bank. “So I started to see I could really help people and just thought I could do a better job actually.”
And Clune clearly knows her strengths as she now has a successful business that is rapidly expanding, so much so that Leanne Clune and Associates, based in Mundaring, Perth Hills has brought on two personal assistants to help share the load.
“I have two brokers coming on board within the next few weeks and I partner with Wealth Today for the financial planning aspect of my business.” Although Clune studied financial planning, she began her business as a mortgage broker first as it was easier to start out and build from there to financial planning services, due to its demanding compliance levels.
She says Wealth Today was instrumental to the successful growth of her business, their BDM often making the 90 minute return trip out to the Hills to visit her office. “Wealth Today provided me immediately with a business coach who met with me fortnightly and absolutely changed my whole business. I also had access to the coach by phone at any time. It was instrumental in growing my business to where it is today.”
Like many seeking a tertiary education, Leanne Clune self-funded her way through her uni days on a tight budget. Unlike most of her fellow graduates however, she and her husband had easily saved a whopping $30,000 in her first year as a working professional, while they spent up to their limits and became bogged down in debt.
It was then that she knew she had to join the finance world and help people reach their financial potential. “I felt like I was ‘winning the lotto’ every fortnight, every time I got paid, because I was used to living off nothing – and they were all wasting it,” says Clune.
“I became fascinated in talking to them that none of them had any money. They had all seemed to buy new cars and gotten themselves into high interest consumer debts.”
But before her drive and self-starter outlook would see her become a successful business owner, Clune’s talent in the sciences and maths in school led her to gain a degree in marine biology from James Cook University in Townsville. Hailing from Geelong, Victoria, Clune hopped over state borders again from Queensland to settle in Western Australia.
“I’ve always been interested in finance, always,” says Clune and although working for the Department of Agriculture WA in 1999, her intrigue in her peers’ not-a-penny-to-spare situations prompted her to study financial planning along full-time work.
“This is how I got really interested and intrigued in the financial planning side of things and I thought ‘I just want to make my money work for me’.”
While Clune and her husband were both working full-time and kids were a while off, they invested their savings in real estate and leveraged it. Clune began broking soon after completing her Certificate in Finance (mortgage broking) in the new millennium. “The more I studied it and talked to people, the more I thought, “I really need to help people with this because they don’t understand it.”
Another memory that only strengthened her resolve to help people through their monetary maze was a chance visit from a financial planner while she was still working for the WA government. At this stage Clune had studied a great deal on financial planning, had those substantial savings and was set on investing them.
“He was clearly just chasing the high income, pre-retirees and I didn’t even notice that because I was only young,” says Clune. The planner had made an assumption of her financial standings based on her young age and told her to come back when she had some money, unaware of what she had sitting in the bank. “So I started to see I could really help people and just thought I could do a better job actually.”
And Clune clearly knows her strengths as she now has a successful business that is rapidly expanding, so much so that Leanne Clune and Associates, based in Mundaring, Perth Hills has brought on two personal assistants to help share the load.
“I have two brokers coming on board within the next few weeks and I partner with Wealth Today for the financial planning aspect of my business.” Although Clune studied financial planning, she began her business as a mortgage broker first as it was easier to start out and build from there to financial planning services, due to its demanding compliance levels.
She says Wealth Today was instrumental to the successful growth of her business, their BDM often making the 90 minute return trip out to the Hills to visit her office. “Wealth Today provided me immediately with a business coach who met with me fortnightly and absolutely changed my whole business. I also had access to the coach by phone at any time. It was instrumental in growing my business to where it is today.”
Clune also credits the success of her business to a mentality where a client’s needs always take priority. “I have always focused on customer service and the holistic approach rather than volume of loans to be written.”
Since her school days, Clune says she was always the person people could come and talk to and open up to about things and this has flowed on through her career and become a useful attribute to have as a broker and financial planner. “There’s a lot of the counselling aspect to (the work) and you’ve got to be able to empathize with people and understand and put yourself in their shoes.”
She says many financial planners are ignoring the normal everyday people looking for advice. “It was always my intention to work with normal average people, not just chase high net-worth clients,” says Clune.
“I actually prefer to work with normal mums and dads and especially love working with my young clients, because I know what we did for ourselves and I know what I can do for them - and the younger I get them, the more of an impact I can have and it’s huge.
“I’m really passionate about working with them and they’re my broking clients, so it goes hand in hand. If I’m changing their financial position through the broking then we need to look at the whole picture and that’s what my business is all about.”
“I didn’t have any existing clients, I started from scratch,” says Clune. “It was very challenging.” She also had young children at the time and balancing both was difficult but Clune embraced it and recognizes those challenges lead to success down the track.
“It can be really tough in this industry but we have a lot of fun in the office and the clients pick up on that and they just love it.”
Referring back to her first experience with a financial planner, Clune says it’s important to let projections and assumptions go. “Really let the clients talk and really listen to them, because they know what they want and don’t want and there’s no use trying to give them something they don’t want - they’re not going to be happy.”
Since her school days, Clune says she was always the person people could come and talk to and open up to about things and this has flowed on through her career and become a useful attribute to have as a broker and financial planner. “There’s a lot of the counselling aspect to (the work) and you’ve got to be able to empathize with people and understand and put yourself in their shoes.”
She says many financial planners are ignoring the normal everyday people looking for advice. “It was always my intention to work with normal average people, not just chase high net-worth clients,” says Clune.
“I actually prefer to work with normal mums and dads and especially love working with my young clients, because I know what we did for ourselves and I know what I can do for them - and the younger I get them, the more of an impact I can have and it’s huge.
“I’m really passionate about working with them and they’re my broking clients, so it goes hand in hand. If I’m changing their financial position through the broking then we need to look at the whole picture and that’s what my business is all about.”
“I didn’t have any existing clients, I started from scratch,” says Clune. “It was very challenging.” She also had young children at the time and balancing both was difficult but Clune embraced it and recognizes those challenges lead to success down the track.
“It can be really tough in this industry but we have a lot of fun in the office and the clients pick up on that and they just love it.”
Referring back to her first experience with a financial planner, Clune says it’s important to let projections and assumptions go. “Really let the clients talk and really listen to them, because they know what they want and don’t want and there’s no use trying to give them something they don’t want - they’re not going to be happy.”
