Stay true to your passion and dream – you never know how close you are to ultimate success.
Graeme Holm has a career spanning in 17 years in the financial services sector. He has completed accreditations across finance, real estate and financial planning. After almost a decade in the major 4 banking environment, Graeme became frustrated with only pushing one branded products and service offerings. Graeme was appalled when he learned that most families in Australia receive a poor deal from financial institutions directly. This provided him the inspiration and drive to start his company, Infinity Group Australia Pty Ltd., where he aims to fix and change the lives of Australians financially, one home at a time.
What is one idea that you have brought to life? Where did the idea come from?
In the Australian Loan market, the majority of clients unfortunately live pay check to pay check and only make the minimum loan repayments across the 30-year term. At Infinity we brought to life the concept of ongoing guidance and support throughout the life cycle of the client loan journey, think of “a personal trainer for your finances” “if you go the gym with a personal a trainer you will get better results than without one”.
Having a financial coach keeping you accountable to budgets, expenses and needs vs wants purchases, ensures clients’ success with 100% of our clients reducing more loan principal in the first 90 days as a client then they did in the previous 12 months with the old bank structure.
This result is seeing clients repay home loans with 30-year terms within 7-10 years on average. My Partner and I spent 6 months in R & D on what was wrong with the Australian Mortgage market. We found that the key issue associated with any client failure was lack of ongoing support, advice and guidance in conjunction with a lack of access to ongoing services. Banks do not have a system in place that incentivizes employees and representatives to provide ongoing assistance.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
My day starts at 5:30am and always starts with physical exercise to get body functioning followed by at least 30 minutes of brain feed ie: Reading a book, listening to a podcast etc. This ensures I am at peak performance physically & mentally for my day ahead. I also have a personal schedule in addition to my business schedule that breaks my day down into 30-minute increments to ensure productivity. My daily task lists are separated into 2 categories: Transactional, which I delegate to appropriate staff and Transformational which I attend to (things that will change my business).
My days end around 10:30pm. After evening client meetings, I always take 5-10 minutes to plan out my next day as this is instrumental in getting ahead.
How do you bring ideas to life?
Through collaboration, we find that people and ideas are stronger. We have a strong culture within our business and we encourage employees to fill the suggestion box, share innovative ideas and collaborate with other industry professionals.
By collaborating with other professionals and sharing ideas and innovations, we bring innovative ideas to life at a rapid pace. This benefits us from a multi-prong perspective and we are able to implement ideas quickly. Speed of implementation is everything. A great idea is nothing more than an idea if you do not quickly implement.
What’s one trend that excites you?
FinTech is definitely changing the face of financial services globally however I am excited by the CX Customer Experience. I’m curious to see how CX and Fin Tech combine to deliver exceptional customer centric outcomes moving forward.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
I create a list of my top 5 transformational actions for the next day. Before saying goodnight, I make a commitment to these actions. Nothing gets in the way of these 5 goals (and I mean NOTHING!). You will wake up knowing you will complete these 5 Transformational actions and you’ll crush the day!
What advice would you give your younger self?
Do not deal with ANYONE that does not have integrity & a strong set of morals. Dealing with just one person who is not in line with your personal values and or societies values and expectations can severely impact your career. Stay true to your passion and dream – you never know how close you are to ultimate success.
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.
30-year loan repayments can happen in as little as 3-5 years but on average 7-10 years with the right structure in place!
By having a financial coach, sticking to a weekly cash-based budget and depositing all other forms of income directly into a fully transactional loan account, you reduce daily interest charges and learn to live on the weekly budget. If you combine these strategies without falling victim to excessive spending like those new shoes, or that new Tech gadget you can and will repay your home loan in record pace (typically in under 7-10 years).
It is a mathematical formula, numbers do not lie but people can (Believe in the math).
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Make sure you “eat the frog”. Every day I start by dealing with my most difficult order of business first after my morning routine. If you tackle the most difficult thing first each day, it will propel you into the day with confidence and charisma. You will walk a little taller and speak a little more confidently.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?
CX Customer Experience and the management of CX. We also provide Customer Centric products and/or service offerings. This has been instrumental in the growth of our business.
Our entire business is now guided by CX and we most recently won Customer Experience Management Awards 2018
“Overall Best Organisation CX” in Australia based on this strategy.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
Finding equally passionate and genuine industry talent – this has been my most significant hurdle to date.
Stay true to your passion and success. Stop searching and focus on your core objective. The right talent will present itself and it is usually when you’re not looking at all.
People will come and go from within your business but staying true to the outcome is key. Nothing can get in your way and do not let anyone alter your journey.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Coaching / Consulting is already becoming one of the fastest growing sectors in the business world. You don’t have to be an industry expert to make astronomical change within a person’s business. Most business owners forget more than they know about their business, but they are doing multiple things fundamentally wrong.
Just by offering a free consultation with an outcome for the business owner of reducing expenses by X or increasing productivity by Y will certainly land you a paid consulting opportunity within the firm.
Always provide value for free, but don’t be scared to give value for free. My persona motto is if I have delivered so much value for free imagine what value is aligned with my paid service offering.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
Buying lunch for another Multi-Award Winning Mortgage Broker, you will be amazed at how easily you can be inspired and how you can inspire others. Perspective and experiences can vary astronomically and by sharing and discussing innovative ideas and experiences you can change an industry overnight!
Don’t Compete, Dominate! Together we are stronger!
The outcome of this lunch catch-up resulted in learning multiple industry changing concepts and innovative ideas that are already being implemented. We also learned some JV opportunities that we did not think possible prior to meeting.
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
My Prosperity. Not only do I use this FINTECH to manage my clients’ financial performance, I personally use it to track and monitor my own ongoing financial position in detail.
I highly recommend any business entrepreneur give it a go to manage your personal finances. It is incredible!
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
“The Art of Thinking Clearly” – Rolf Dobelli
This book is a book I read at least twice a year. It mentions one of the most profound business shifts I have ever experienced. One of my favorite chapters is “the Sunk Cost Fallacy.” I highly recommend this for all entrepreneurs
What is your favorite quote?
“For you to get from where you are financially right now to achieving
your financial dream, you cannot do it all by yourself. It is impossible.”
Quote by Author Robert Kiyosaki on The Benefit of a Money Coach.
Connect:
Graeme Holm on Linkedin:
Graeme Holm on Facebook:
Graeme Holm on Instagram:
Carlyn runs the day-to-day publishing operation here at ideamensch and interacts with our awesome customers and entrepreneurs. She is likely editing this with a cat on her lap.