"For the majority of people who may have stumbled into this marketplace, vast numbers have remained, prospered and appreciate what a vibrant, friendly and empowering place it is."
As the mortgage market evolves, so too has the range of topics covered. We are now over halfway through series 3 and we have already focused on how to maximise opportunities (in this case green mortgages), explored how brokers can develop and expand their business, focused on breaking the bias to celebrating the achievements of women, delved into the new normal to evaluate how intermediary firms and advisers can improve their working practices in a post-pandemic world and investigated the global events currently affecting the UK economy and the intermediary market.
In the latest instalment of the Mortgage Insider Podcast, we continue exploring new trends and success stories by speaking to Patrick Glennon of Patrick James Solutions, a brokerage specialising in providing advice to the Armed Forces, both current serving and veterans. Within this, Patrick shares his journey from the military into civvy street, his experience of starting a brokerage from scratch, how it has since evolved and what’s next for the business. This offers a fascinating insight into what can be a challenging transition for many service people and how he used his experience, contacts, luck, mentors and social media to build a successful business in the intermediary market.
The mortgage market is full of personalities from a host of different backgrounds, all with a story to tell. I’m sure that if you surveyed everyone operating within this field there are few people who will admit to dreaming about working in the mortgage world when they were young as opposed to being a footballer, ballerina, astronaut, surgeon etc. But here we are and it’s fair to say that for the majority of people who may have stumbled into this marketplace, vast numbers have remained, prospered and appreciate what a vibrant, friendly and empowering place it is.
When it comes to building a business, there are many distinct aspects to consider. For mortgage brokers starting out, friends and family are a great, natural starting point but, as a source of new business, these quickly run out. Therefore, it’s important to chart the next phase of the journey where possible and, like Patrick, try and have a specific target market in mind which you appreciate, understand and can carve yourself a name in.
Finding your niche will represent a very different journey for everyone but this Podcast will hopefully inspire people who may be starting out on this quest or who may be thinking of changing direction. At the very least, it’s simply an entertaining, engaging and enlightening listen.
You can listen to the Barclays podcast directly on Financial Reporter.
