2025 NZMA winner reflects on what drove the success of his business this year
For Eugene Bartsaikin, director and mortgage adviser at Twine Mortgage Advisers, winning the Pepper Money Adviser of the Year – Residential at the 2025 New Zealand Mortgage Awards was a recognition of a carefully cultivated business philosophy – one that prioritises longevity, intentional growth, and a deep investment in people.
Reflecting on his successes over the last year, Bartsaikin noted that a lot of growth came from considering what wasn’t going well, as well as what was. This meant drilling down into day-to-day tasks and identifying what gets left behind in the hustle of the day.
“One of the challenges I had is just managing workflow,” Bartsaikin told NZ Adviser.
“If I'm on the phone talking to a client on a renewal, a 20-minute block can become a 45-minute conversation. And I feel invested, I want to keep talking – but that’s where emails can fall behind, and it can start to get a bit overwhelming.”
It’s a sentiment many brokers can relate to. As the day-to-day demands of the job stack up – renewals, new enquiries, compliance obligations – it’s easy to fall into the trap of reacting, rather than leading. For Bartsaikin, the turning point came when he realised the only way to stay ahead was to step back.
“What I've started doing is blocking my calendar off on certain days,” he said.
“I spend time reflecting on the business and finding where we can do things better, be more efficient, and make the axe sharper. If we're just working and working all the way through, we don't realise that the axe got blunt throughout the week, that we’re becoming less efficient and effective, and ultimately facing burnout.”
The strategy is simple – the calendar gets set to “unavailable” on Mondays and Fridays. That leaves a chance to catch up with the post-weekend rush on Mondays, and then use Fridays as a chance to catch up with staff, do quarterly reviews, and work on the business.
“If something is urgent, I have that capacity to talk to the client and do whatever needs to be done,” he said. “But investing your time like that really pays off in the long run.”
When it comes to the team, Bartsaikin’s approach is all about upskilling and growing from within. A self-taught trainer and mentor, he’s quietly built a high-performing team by nurturing talent from day one.
“I want to have the capacity to upskill our loan writer to become an adviser at some stage, and also continue training our staff,” he said.
“I’ve trained everyone in the business from ground up, and I’ve had people with limited to no experience in lending evolving to become exceptional advisers and true professionals in this industry. I’m really proud of that, and I want to continue doing it.
“I want to grow one adviser at a time, and that way I’m confident that our business will still be thriving 20-30 years down the line.”
To see the full list of winners from the 2025 New Zealand Mortgage Awards, click here.
