Intro to Craig

Foreign Money, where we show you how to pay your home loan off in up to half the time of a normal bank loan. Welcome to the Crown Money Podcast. I'm Jessie Edge and today I'm joined by a fantastic guest by the name of Craig Harry, who's been with us now for over nine years. So welcome, Craig.

Thank you, Jesse. Always a pleasure to be talking with you.

Absolutely. Now, Craig is actually the brother of our CEO Scott Perry, and it took us a while to convince Craig to come and join Crown, but honestly, it's been one of the best things for us and for him, I hope. Would you agree with that, Craig?

Definitely. For me, Jesse, it was only a matter of time before I was going to come across and Scott and I always wanted to work together in some way, shape or form and I just think it was more of a timing thing and, you know, we did it at the right time and here we are nine years down the track running a, you know, very successful mortgage broking firm.

Absolutely. It's been incredibly successful for both of you and actually Craig has been the winner of six really awesome awards. So the FBA Finance Broker of the Year two years in a row, the Finshaw Essay Broker of the Year, and the Advisor Best Boutique Independent Office for three years in a row as well. So that is just absolutely fantastic. Accolades for all of the time, effort and energy you put into your business. It must have felt really good to be both nominated and win those awards.

Yeah, it was mostly getting a bit emotional, Jesse, really the really good pump. Thank you.

No, not at all.

I mean, the Best Broker is something that's, you know, I'm proud of. That's a personal achievement. I feel what we're more proud of as a business here in SA is the Best Independent Office or Best Boutique Office three consecutive years running. You know, it takes a team to be able to pull everything together and creative, successful business. Plus obviously, you know, provide that level of service to the clients, you know, so I can continue to keep referring or coming back. So that's, that's probably been the biggest success for myself as a business owner here in South Australia, achieving those awards. And that goes to Mel, our assistant. Nicholas obviously helped out with us as well. And everyone that's come along the journey that sits in the back end, that doesn't, you know, essentially receive the awards. But you know, there's a lot of work that goes in from the credit team to the money managers and the money coaches, that's a whole.

Everyone has to work together. Yeah.

That win the award yeah.

And I think you've hit the nail on the head there. Like, it really does take a whole lot of people to be able to achieve what we're able to achieve for our clients. And you do have a fantastic team in Mel and Nicola. Absolutely the dream team. And I think it allows you to do what you do best, which is your relationships with your clients and getting them the best possible loans and just setting them up on this amazing, successful journey. So I think it's fantastic what you've got going on there. You've done incredibly well. I'd actually love to have you back on the podcast another time to talk about you as a business owner and how you've made it work so successfully. I think that would be a really interesting episode.

Love to come back, Jesse. Look forward to that.

Yeah, good. Now, I just wanted to start out to get a little bit or, you know, allow our listeners to hear a little bit about you as a person. So tell us a little bit about your background and how you've come to be at Crown.

Yeah, sure. So, background. Most of my background was electrician by trade, out of school, so didn't really enjoy school as much at that point in time. Was more sort of focused on my sporting career. I wanted to play AFL football. So that was always the dream as a kid growing up. So I got out of school quite early, went into an electrical trade, did that. Really enjoyed it. But being 6 foot 4, Jesse, it's quite tough crawling through roofs these days, so I thought there's. There's definitely a different way. And got into the sales industry and was with Kings Training Transport, which is a national logistics transport company, and just worked my way up through that corporate chain there. Ended up being sales manager, national bdm, and just got to a stage where I just really didn't feel, you know, I was helping people. And that was a big passion of mine. And hearing Scott talk about this, you know, day in, day out as his brother, with what he was doing and helping his clients achieve, you know, financial freedom and, you know, reducing their financial stress, just sort of sung home to me and, you know, started doing a little bit of mortgage breaking on the side. Got all my qualifications. And then there was a stage where I just said, you know what? I've got to go all in here. And that's what we did, which was great. And it's the best decision I've ever made in my life. And now I can actually do what he was doing and impact other people's lives and love doing it too. Like I really don't feel like I come to work every single day. So, you know, I've never been in a job where I don't feel like I come to work and I just feel this is a real passion for me, that I can. That I can just help clients every single day.

Oh, that's amazing. Maybe. Maybe we don't tell your wife, Nicola, that coming to Crown was the best decision you ever made. Maybe we leave that one. Yeah.

I look up that passionate I am about this and the clients and what we do for our clients. I think that's why that's a tribute to a lot of the awards we've won. We're doing something different to, you know, the standard mortgage broker that's, you know, it's more of a set and forget sort of solution. So love what we do. But, yes, Nicola would. Would certainly be, let's say, equal to marrying my. Which we did in 2019, right before COVID So the last wedding to take place before COVID I can't believe that.

That was so lucky. Like, honestly, they were so lucky.

Yeah. It was a great day. We're at Beresford, Beresford House in McLaren Vale and the day was just spectacular. We had a little one before then, so we'd had little Ella. So she's now four. No, is that daughter. And she's starting to keep goal. She's at school next year. My God.

Time, fly time.

We had the wedding in 2019 and then also we then have had our little boy Jordan, who turned to a couple of weeks ago.

Nice. Oh, that's so exciting. And he looks exactly like you. Like, it's freaky. He's a mini Craig.

He seems like a little bit of a dead ringer of me and although he does have Nicola's personality, so I feel my daughter has my personality. She's got quite a bit of fire behind her, which is. Which she's good. But she looks like Nicola, but Jordi definitely looks like me, but has a softer personality. Very cuddly.

Yeah, that's awesome. I love that. And you, you brought up an interesting comment there that Ella's got a lot of fire in her, like you. And I was trying to think just before this episode how I'll describe you, and probably the word I would use is tenacious. You have an absolute fight in you when it comes to getting your clients home loan applications through, you know, settled and onto the program. Like, it is an amazing energy that you have and you put into these loans. And I think a lot of the Time. Clients don't realize the amount of work that goes in behind the scenes to get their deals through. And we always say that we go into battle for our clients to get their loans approved. I mean, the lending space right now is really quite challenging, as we all know. So I think that's. Yeah, I would definitely use the word tenacious for you. I think it's a great quality that you have. Yeah.

Thank you, Jesse. And look, for me it's about, if I feel I can help a client, then I'm going to do everything in my power to be able to make that happen. And you know, my credit team, sometimes, I mean, they love me, but sometimes because I'm always pushing, pushing the envelope to ensure that. No, there's got to be a way.

Yes.

You know, I can't leave these clients in the same situation they're in because it's not. The situation isn't doing them any justice. I really think we can help these people. So I fight to the now to try and get my clients loan accrues and across the line so we can actually get into a position where we can start helping them.

Yeah.

And it's a tough market out there.

It really is.

Credit policy, everything, plus 4% increase in, in rates adds a lot of financial stress to people. So you know, if, if myself or the business can take away any of that financial stress for people, you know, that, that is, that's a huge focus for us.

Yeah. And I couldn't, couldn't agree more. I think it's really hard with the results that we see for our clients. You know, how effective this program is and how life changing it can be for most people. It's hard when you can't get a client across the line into that program. It's, it's just such a, it's such a challenge. We always say that we wish we could do this program without having to go through the lenders and the challenges that they throw up for us.

So.

Yeah, I agree with you.

Yeah, sometimes it's the, the people that you want to help the most that you can't. You know, unfortunately, their financial situation may be too far gone. They've had too many arrears or defaults and unfortunately lenders, they like that or seeing that. So yeah, coming out of COVID you know, a lot of people were on hardship. So you know, we're sort of six to 12 months past that now and hopefully we're starting to, you know, help a lot of those people that got stuck into, you know, a situation financially where, you know, they're just in that unfortunate situation where they, where they couldn't progress financially.

Yeah, absolutely. All right, Craig, I'd love to know, you know, what have you enjoyed most about your time with Crown?

The people I love working with the people. The people at Crown are great. You know, we've got a really good culture here, I feel. And you know, catching up once a year, even at the Crown Christmas parties is always fun, but very fun, let's say.

Very fun. Yeah, very fun.

So I think the most important thing for me and why I get up every single day and why I work so hard and I'm here at the office late doing appointments or whatever it is, is I just feel the more people I can impact, you know, the better I feel. So, again, it's just coming back to, you know, being able to help people move forward financially, show them there's a different way of looking at finances other than the standard rate option, which most Australians do still, unfortunately. And we are 100% referral based business and, you know, we like receiving referrals from, you know, people that we've helped that also then want to pay that forward to their family, friends or work colleagues. So for me, it's just about making sure that I'm making a difference and that's probably been the most impactful thing of my career here in sa. But the number of clients we've been able to build and service over that nine year period, there's a lot of people that we've helped and people that we've helped pay off their debts and, or even just get back into a financial position where they're less stressed.

Yeah, that's amazing. You've had some incredibly successful clients. I think you've got some of the highest savings rates across our whole loan book. And I think I would attribute that to obviously the program working really well, but also your close personal relationship with every single one of your clients. And you're really great at holding them accountable and pushing them forward and really supporting the finance coaches with their kind of reviews and suggestions and everything. So I think that's a really, really great relationship that you've got with the clients, which is awesome.

Yeah, thank you, Jesse. And look, it's about like there's, there's built in accountability. The structure does that for our clients and always talk about that, you know, when we're sitting down in front of a client that you know it's going to help you reduce your impulse buyers, which is a great thing, certainly helping you as a client be Able to move forward financially, pay less interest, but at the end of the day, sometimes you've got to have the conversation. And that's what I'm here for. I'm your financial coach. You've employed me to do that. I'm here to try and help you get in the best financial position possible. And if I have to have that hard conversation, I have to have it. But, but, but our clients like that.

Yeah.

Times, you know, they need a bit of accountability just to ensure, you know, we can just push them back on track, you know, and then we can start moving forward again. So I tell my clients that I'm here to be your accountability partner. I am your personal trainer for your money. So. And I'm very upfront with them. If I have to have that conversation, I will. And I think they appreciate that.

Yeah, that's fantastic. I absolutely think they do as well. Okay, so what would you say has been your biggest challenges so far, both in this industry and with Crown?

I think the industry, the ever changing policies, I got vacuums nine years ago. They might have used to change their policy, you know, once a year. It just seems to be happening on a much regular occurrence now. And you've got to keep up with those policies. For us, it's just making sure that we understand, you know, what's happening and what's possible for our clients. The ever changing policies makes that quite difficult. You know, we've now been in a rate decreasing market, we've been in a rate increasing market. So, you know, we've seen the best of both worlds. But at the end of the day, I feel we're at the peak of the market right now for the rate rises. You know, we may see one more, potentially the new governors come in. So she put them on hold. So hopefully she's a saving grace for Australians.

Yep.

I feel people are just very stressed and very challenged right now. I mean, if you'd never owned a home before COVID and you'd purchased a home for your first home at a rate of, you know, two to two and a half percent, and now you're at a 6% interest rate, you know that that is going to add a lot of stress onto a lot of people. So again, I feel our product really helps our clients reduce that, that stress as much as possible and just automates that process so they can again help them move forward.

Yeah. Yes, absolutely. I think that's probably all I've got for you today, Craig. I know you're a very busy man, so thank you so much. For making the time to join me. That's always wonderful.

It took us nine years. Jessie, thank you for, thank you so much for having me. And I look forward to doing many more of these podcasts because I think it's important. It's great for what our business is doing and obviously for the listeners out there. Thank you for listening. And hopefully you can come back next time and listen to some talks about some business insights.

Absolutely. Thank you so much, Craig, and we'll speak to you next time.

Thanks, Jesse.