Learn what women can bring to the finance industry and how Sarah Tucker of The Mortgage Mum used this to her advantage.
“We need to bring more females into finance”, says Sarah Tucker during our podcast interview.
“It’s about standing next to men, not replacing them”
It’s something that I’ve thought about a lot since. Working in finance for the better part of 20 years as a male broker, has shown me it is an unresolved issue and I’ve witnessed it first hand.
Finance is still very much a male dominated industry, with 526 thousand full time male employees and just 346 thousand females. Over the years, I’ve seen more women find their way into financial services. I employ female advisers, I coach female advisers and I work alongside female advisers.
But females are still under-represented in finance.
Sarah saw the gap in the market and capitalized on women wanting to work with women advisers. So, I thought I’d take the time to write about what we can learn from women in our industry, and why we need more of them.
Showing Emotion
Showing emotion in the financial industry goes against the status quo. But when you think about it, there’s a lot of emotion that surrounds people’s finances: their livelihoods, their lifestyles, their happiness, their homes, their families.
Like it or not, money makes the world go round and happiness can be the difference between a full wallet or an empty pocket.
Showing emotion humanises finance and shows your most authentic self. Be someone that resonates with people.
Females in Finance Know it’s More than Just Money
Sarah found her niche through her own experiences. As an adviser, she found she became so emotionally invested in her clients and wanted to know everything… This is because she had been in a similar position when buying a home herself.
“When you’re a woman, you fall in love with a house….generally speaking….you just want everyone to do what they need to do, so you can get in there”
She knows that for a lot of women, it’s about more than just money and who better to speak to about finding a home than passionate women who get it.
Shared Experiences
Women, especially those who are mothers, can empathise the most with single parents. Sarah has women come to her on the phone who have split from their husbands and are having to juggle a divorce with the school run.
They come to her because she knows that speaking about a mortgage on their own is scary stuff.
“That’s hard. They don’t necessarily choose it. Maybe they did, but either way, we hold them and we get it.”
This is the dynamic that women can bring. Their shared experiences can make it much easier for women in difficult times to pick up the phone. It doesn’t have to be a suited-up conversation at the bank. You can just have a coffee and a chat. It’s making your process accessible for your audience.
If you can give people that level of service, they’re going to tell people, and they’re going to be screaming your name as to how happy they are.
Sarah goes into a lot more detail in our interview, including:
- Sarah’s journey from The Voice to Mortgage Mum
- The value of selfcare
- Being genuine with your business intentions
- How to balance family and business
- How Sarah handles her social media accounts
- What ‘The Voice’ taught Sarah about running her own business
- Empowering women
Want to hear Sarah’s full story? Listen to the podcast episode here.
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Going Self Employed as a Mortgage Adviser
Remember, now is the time to become PRO!