Top Commercial Brokers 2024 winner is passionate about mentoring colleague
Knowledge is power, but for Thomas Tang, Australia’s Top Commercial Broker for 2024, sharing that knowledge with brokers and customers so they can flourish is where the real power resides.
The dynamic and highly successful broker, who settled more than $471 million of commercial loans to take the No.1 spot in MPA’s Top Commercial Brokers, is a partner at brokerage AUSUN Finance.
Tang (pictured above) has amassed an impressive set of skills during his career, including property development and investment and all aspects of commercial and residential lending. He also wrote a book, Retire on Rent, providing tips on how to achieve financial freedom through property investment.
He has shown his leadership capabilities as a lieutenant in the Australian Army Reserve, as co-founder of AUSUN Finance, and as a mentor to other brokers.
Tang is clearly passionate about mentoring and “paying it forward” after learning so much from others.
He started his career in finance in 2012, working as a marketing assistant for a big bank, and then moved into a personal banker role in the branch network.
After taking on the role of lending manager for just a few days, Tang left the bank in July 2015, deciding that it wasn’t for him and chose broking instead.
“I didn’t want to be put in a box in a big machine,” says Tang. “I want to find out what’s best for the customer, but as a residential lending manager I can only offer one product.”
Tang praised his mentor Jun Sun, the managing director and founder of AUSUN Finance, who helped him become a successful broker and was ranked No.3 in Top Commercial Brokers 2019.
Tang says Sun assisted him immensely.
“When I was in uni I established two student societies – I was very good at networking, marketing and hosting events. Finding customers is for me never a struggle, but delivering a solution is a struggle for new brokers.”
Sun provided Tang with one-on-one coaching for the first few years. “He would sit down with me in the appointments and we would see customers together.”
While Tang would do the research and data entry, Sun would assist with compliance and risk management, checking files and negotiating loan deals.
With Sun as his mentor, Tang says he was able to leverage his experience to deliver high-quality solutions to clients and mitigate risk.
He describes Sun as being approachable 24/7, reliable and fair, with a strong commitment to grow the AUSUN team.
When AUSUN started in 2015, the brokerage consisted of Sun and two assistants, with Tang joining as a partner. Now the business has 30 licensed brokers, with two offices in Melbourne and locations in Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth.
Tang says one of the big lessons he learnt from Sun was the difference between knowledge and experience.
“Knowledge you can learn quickly, but experience comes with time – this is why you need to leverage someone else’s experience to ensure that the client’s expectations are met.”
When it comes to his own ongoing professional development, Tang says he’s very willing to “pay and learn”. He has spent $300,000 in fees in the past 10 years to take part in mentorships and joint venture projects, learning “different things from different people”.
His mentors include business coach Mark Creedon, broker business coach Jason Back, former Telstra CEO Andrew Penn, Hotspotting founder Terry Ryder, Robert Kiyosaki, Michael Yardney and Tony Robbins.
Creedon has helped him to understand processes and his business ideas have led to fast growth that remains sustainable.
Tang has also studied short courses to learn how to manage property developments and commercial property investments.
He also mentors other brokers at AUSUN Finance through an MFAA accredited program.
“I have mentored others from day one,” Tang says. “As soon as I learned something, I would share it with others in a systematic way. In the past eight years, I have coached more than 20 brokers from non-industry experience to more experienced brokers.”
Four of Tang’s mentees have won trophies in MPA’s Rising Star awards, including Kiki Feng (2021), Lee Hao (2022), Christine Hong (2023), and Carl Hou (2024).
Carl Hou was recognized as one of Best Mortgage Brokers Under 35 in Australia. See the full report here.
“And I will keep that track record,” says Tang.
Tang wants to help as many clients as possible but says his time is limited.
“So I want to coach other brokers to help them earn money, enjoy work life as a broker and enjoy their growing relationships with customers.”
Those brokers he mentors go on to mentor others.
Through his business consultancy service, Tang also teaches brokers about running their businesses like a branch or business centre, and about staff recruitment, training and retention.
Tang says it’s important that brokers know more than just lending policy. Knowledge of tax, legal issues, the commercial property market, valuation risk, technology and money psychology can all affect lending outcomes.
To help answer new brokers’ basic questions, Tang is developing his own ChatGPT software called Ask Thomas 24/7.
On top of that, he runs an education program to teach people how to do small-scale developments, including a project manager and an architect.
Tang is proud of his involvement in the Army Reserve, now eight years and counting.
“I treat it as my free MBA degree – when I was in uni I didn’t have the money to do an MBA. I have learned a lot in the army’s leadership program – they teach you about how to manage stress, how to make quick decisions strategically, how to look after your people.”
These skills have been useful in his broking career and he encourages other brokers to consider joining the Army Reserve.
Tang says by the time an officer in the army graduates, it has invested about $1 million in taxpayers’ money into that person. “It’s very appealing and I have no regrets.”
He has also invested in software that generates feasibility studies for development projects.
“I’m keen to launch to the market for all commercial brokers and lenders in coming months.”
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