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Living your Luxe Life on the Sunshine Coast.
We have conversations with people who have found “home” on the Sunshine Coast & explore how they connect home with lifestyle & community.
As Property Buyers Agent we also discuss the macro economic factors impacting economic growth & property growth & where we are in the property cycle.
We overlay local market nuances of different sub markets from Noosa Heads to Maroochydore, to the Hinterland.
I hope you enjoy the series Living Your Luxe Life.
Hi. I'm Christine Mount from Luxe Coastal Property Buyers. I'm the leading buyer's agent based in Noosa who help people step into their Luxe life, ultimately what brings them joy. Rest assured, it's uniquely different for everyone. On our podcast, we explore luxe lives with land, legacy, and luxury intersect.
Speaker 1:Now that's pretty joyful. Today, we have Emma Stevens. She's director at Flint. She invests. She's a mortgage broker.
Speaker 1:She's very passionate about building wealth for women nationally in Australia, and she's an expert in her field. Emma truly empowers women to step into their financial literacy, ultimately giving them financial freedom. Now that's a luxury. Welcome Emma.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much Chris. That's quite the introduction. You said it better than I could. Thank you. Pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1:Look I feel like I know you so well. I've been to a lot of the events that you attend and we've been talking about doing this podcast for quite a long time and I can say you really are passionate about giving women financial freedom. So Emma tell me about your career and your passion supporting women and let's do a deep dive on what are the common hurdles that you see that hold women back from stepping into their financial freedom.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Chris. My number one tip for women seeking financial freedom is twofold. So first of all, you've got curiosity over certainty. Accept what you don't know. Be willing to ask questions and talk openly, whether with friends, mentors or financial experts.
Speaker 2:Curiosity is the starting point of confidence. And number two is self compassion over shame. Too often, women carry guilt or shame around money, but giving yourself permission to release that opens the doors for others to guide, support and empower you. And that's where the real progress begins. And then it's all about the action over inaction.
Speaker 2:So awareness and education are powerful, but they only create change when they inspire action. So when women see others achieving things they once thought was impossible, those goals suddenly become realistic and achievable. That's when momentum builds and instead of bearing your head in the sand you start moving forward.
Speaker 1:That's actually really beautiful and it gives me goosebumps because in my role helping people find property you know their lux life in some cases women have actually forgotten what brings them joy. They've become frozen and then they lack that curiosity they do build their put their head in their sand and I feel like they're frozen a lot of the time so you have to sort of unlock that. So tell me about your story and how did you become so passionate about women and financial freedom?
Speaker 2:Okay so for anyone who knows me probably would say my number one thing that they would say they see in me is passion. So I'm naturally a passionate person anyway. It doesn't take me much to get excited and get behind people and be really supportive. But I've been two decades in finance and I've seen a lot and I've been around and I've seen from one generation to the next around how people are with money and more importantly I've got my own personal experiences around how I've achieved certain financial freedoms. I've gone through the ups and downs of the challenges and and the dealings of, the unexpected.
Speaker 1:If you're happy to share because I saw you actually post something on LinkedIn the other week. Mhmm. Two great posts. But one of them was about divorce Mhmm. And finances.
Speaker 1:So what did you learn through that experience because you've got an amazing career and how could you sort of inspire some other women to know there's light at the end of that tunnel?
Speaker 2:One of the biggest reasons why I was so dedicated to bringing Gin Fest to life was because back when I was at the bank and pre going through a divorce I would see a lot of other people go through the same life event and watch how they manage their money after the fact or watched where they lacked certain education and without the right people there guiding and supporting them they were left alone to make their own decisions. When I went through that myself, I guess when you're vulnerable in any situation, it doesn't discriminate. Lack of power that you have through something means that you can fall victim to financial ruins.
Speaker 1:It's really hard sometimes to make smart decisions when you're going through a difficult time because it's hard often you'll be making decisions in a space of fear rather than joy so we talk about joy being your luxe life but life really does happen, shit happens.
Speaker 2:Yes it does
Speaker 1:and I know you support women through this phase really really well so how do you help them move towards a future life that's going to bring them more joy than where they currently are?
Speaker 2:Yeah well absolutely number one is community so I think for me what carried me through that time was community.
Speaker 1:Oh beautiful.
Speaker 2:And it is facing into your fear and when you're in a safe space you allow others in. I think the number one thing that you should not do is isolate yourself and as we were talking about before without anybody guiding you you won't know what best thing is.
Speaker 1:So I just got goosebumps there and this is so important is you feel like retreating, feel like isolating but if you just have the courage to step out into community and then speak to a few people and I know you speak at many events like we're just at Gemma Mitchell's launch of her book and you spoke so well and that group of women have a huge community that goes nationally but how would you sort of encourage people to have the courage to go to those events when they're probably not feeling their best?
Speaker 2:Well I think for me because I've been there and I know exactly what that feels like and I know how much I had to drag myself out when I absolutely didn't feel like it but each and every time that I did that I was always super grateful and I always felt so much better. Obviously me being able to on the same level of another person going through the same thing is a level of empathy and understanding of how difficult it is. But once you do get out of your funk and you connect with other people you realise that you're not alone and I think coming back to that guilt and that shame and that vulnerability, it starts to feel less of a burden and more of a place of choice around where you want to go from there. Do you want to stay in that or do you want to connect with others who can help build you up?
Speaker 1:Yeah that's a really important thing do you want to stay in that place because one thing I also do see a lot of you know women who have gone through the divorce as well or the other one is a single woman who still never bought a property so that maybe the divorced person hasn't bought a property on their own before or a single woman in their late 30s 40s have not bought a property and I do believe there's some fear around that because I think they're looking towards this dream which everyone does let's dream but it may not be their reality on that day. So how do we bring people back to reality and giving them choices and this is when you come back become a rent vester. There are other choices in having that sort of that family home being your first purchase or your first purchase post divorce.
Speaker 2:Look I think whether you're a woman or not doing this is scary and it's difficult and people are going to have emotions take over at some point so regardless of being a woman or not typically what I've found though is that a lot of women don't even pursue because all of that fear and shame overtake them from opening up that door of opportunity to allow other people to step in and show them how. So for me what my biggest, I think what my biggest strength is when I sit down with women is being able to actually listen to what their fears, their concerns are, and then tell them that there's no commitment, but let's go through the exercise. Let's talk to the experts. Let's surround you, as Gemma calls it in her book, with a village of people who are going to help you feel more confident and the confidence only comes from the knowledge and the knowledge is power.
Speaker 1:You've just hit the nail on the head. Knowledge is power because we all do it. We make up up stories to say I can't afford, nobody will, I can't and then you sit down with them and go actually here's the first step to saying you can and I think during that process that's when some people are actually surprised they could do actually more than what they'd currently told themselves in their reality today.
Speaker 2:Oh absolutely and you know circumstances change and I am really, really invested in building out a community of other female brokers to join SheInvest because we need more people who are willing to hold this space to say, okay, this is what the current circumstance is, but how are we going to get you there? And I think the missing point for a lot of women who potentially do take on the courage to seek support often get let down because they may not be ready right now or they may be a little bit of extra work or they may not feel a sense of understanding and compassion.
Speaker 1:Well they actually just simply might go to the wrong person who dismisses them.
Speaker 2:Well that's exactly right. So it's about how many women have I helped in the years that would probably have never ever seeked any support because of that. It's not about what can be done today and for me it's about building out what do we need to do to get to here. And sometimes people's circumstances aren't going to be ready right away and they may not be ready for another year or even two to five years. But it's about making sure that they understand that it is possible and giving them the ideas, the suggestions, the networks, the people who can help them get themselves set up for that potential goal later on in life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good. The work you're doing around this is absolutely incredible. So you're on the stage the global stage but you're also at events like Gemma's Book Launch which is a real practical guide for people to actually fill in right at their goals really find out where they're at. Can you give an example of someone that you've helped when they were sort of really thought there wasn't a pathway out and you've actually just shown them a few steps and then they've gone off and launched themselves?
Speaker 2:Yeah absolutely and I actually just did a podcast the other day with
Speaker 1:my love this, she smiles by the way, there's huge smile. So many.
Speaker 2:There's a lot. So for one, when I first started my mortgage business I absolutely dove in and people knew what I was all about. Maybe it was because I was fresh out of a divorce and everybody knew that I'd been through it. Perhaps I attracted a certain particular client who knew that I would understand their situation. So I've helped many divorced women but in particular some who have come from that financial abuse backgrounds and when we talk about guilt and shame and fear someone who's come out of that space where it's just too hard to unpack and look back on, it's yeah.
Speaker 2:So if you were
Speaker 1:to describe financial abuse, I know it can look many different ways.
Speaker 2:There There are so many different ways. So in particular, this particular client's financial abuse was a partner racking up debt and leaving her with debt and ultimately leaving a bad debt many years ago on her file. So that's one example. Yeah. So what happens is when you have and you carry the weight of that, there's so much shame attached to it, and then that's that fear of, like, I'm never gonna be able to do anything ever again.
Speaker 2:And it's even just the courage of showing up and sitting down with someone.
Speaker 1:Oh, and telling them, talking, actually verbally saying their current situation is it makes people feel sick and they just don't do it. Yep.
Speaker 2:This is the reason why so many people and women don't seek any any guidance. So this particular person came talking about community before. This particular person actually found me a few years later. I spoke at an international women's day event. I was fresh out of my divorce.
Speaker 2:I had been through the personal work. I'd come out and said, you know, it's about taking action, it's about taking risks, it's about building out community. And this particular woman who was there that day held on to my business card and I was still at the bank and a few years later she was situation where she had to move and she said, You know what? I don't want to move again. I really want to buy my own property.
Speaker 2:And she somehow dug out that business card and went back into the bank and found that I wasn't there, but thanks to Google she was able to locate me but changed my name and whatever else she was dedicated to mine. But this particular person came into my office that day and obviously one, it was the hardest thing ever for her to do, two, once we, you know, talked about what her concerns were, I went in and I get a credit check and there was absolutely nothing on there. And the tears and the release of emotion and the relief was just like, you know, I'll remember that forever and so will she. But fast forward
Speaker 1:So you were both crying over the computer terminal because her credit There was was nothing there holding her back.
Speaker 2:So all those years of holding on to that guilt and shame and not wanting, you know, the bury the head in the sand situation, not wanting to face into it. That that's the part that we get to shift.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So And that changes her life completely because I I understand she was too ashamed to even tell someone that that was her worry.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:But she had the courage to speak to you. Yeah.
Speaker 2:In her own words, she would never have sat down with anybody else. Yeah. So fast forward, was she in a position? This is again what I'm saying about people going, sorry computer says no, we can't help you. This particular client wasn't in a position to buy straight away.
Speaker 2:She didn't quite have her deposit and it was, as a single parent, a 2% deposit with the first home family guarantee that had come out. But this is what I'm saying about we need to build out a plan and show them how to get there. So we sat down and this particular client was self employed and we looked at what her situation was. We had some hard conversations around what you'd like to do versus what you can do. And I think the beautiful thing about this story is that this is someone who listened, took on board what, you know, what suggestions were put out there for her to be able to go away and make this a a reality.
Speaker 2:And then and then I did, you know, a couple of boring calculators around this is what it looks like. If you were to take up a part time job and can still manage both, this is what it will look like. So suddenly it gave her the motivation to go away and put this all into place. So call it three to six months later she came back.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's just like, you know, manifesting or everything falling into place. The person, one of the people that she contracted to through her work actually really wanted this to happen for her as well and offered her part time work managing one of their practices in the area in which we discussed that she would need to buy in. So it almost felt like it was meant to be. So by the time she'd come back, we had one, enough income to service what she was able to borrow with the deposit that she had. And a few months later, we had her approved to purchase property, which again, outside of what she ideally wanted.
Speaker 2:But fast forward to today, that property from a $15,000 deposit is now worth almost $290,000 more. So that is an incredible and outstanding result. But this is the thing that I get so excited about and this is what it's all about. She has now come back to me ready to buy the next property. So again it's not about saying you can't do this right now it's about how do we get from A to B to?
Speaker 2:To C now like we're moving on to C
Speaker 1:and this is a real life journey and this is, I think that's absolutely incredible because if you'd gone to someone else she may still be renting. You know what mean? If she'd gone to someone else who wasn't prepared to put those steps in place, give her options. So I think you could say manifestation but it's also motivational but it comes back to the knowledge piece. You actually gave her knowledge which
Speaker 2:the knowledge motivated her. The knowledge was the strategy of how to get there. And whether or not she chose to do that or not, mean the difference between inaction and action, that's the part where I believe my strength of my passion around going I really want to see this happen. I don't stop at okay, we'll just leave it there. I had another client, similar time, set her up with her first property, came back, we're looking at an investment property, surrounded her with all the right people and she came back and said, I think I might save a little bit more money.
Speaker 2:There was absolutely no reason for her to save any more money. She'd made an extra $400,000 in equity. She had 40,000 additional savings in the bank and the proof is in the pudding with the fact that her property from a $70 odd thousand deposit that she first purchased is now worth $400,000 more.
Speaker 1:That's it and what time frame was that in for her?
Speaker 2:Not even five years.
Speaker 1:Not even five years yeah and I think that's before you've purchased your first property I think what you often can't see is that growth in equity over a five year period you actually can earn that amount of money tax free. So the principal place of residence is a real thing but how do you then leverage that for your next property purchase? Are you going to buy an investment property or are you going to upgrade your principal place of residence? Or the first thing is you buy your first investment property and you grow that equity and then you're stepping into your home with your own keys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's all about actually instead of hearing the words no, it's about okay, well how can we do something? And I think the number one reason why a lot of women over the years haven't received the guidance and support that they deserve is because no one on my side has been curious enough to open up
Speaker 1:that conversation. Yep and I can say that from my experience as well. Mean I'm a lot older than you I would say so we're talking when I was going for my first loan in my 20s. The the guys at the Bank National Australia Bank were saying oh but we can't give you a 30 year loan if you're going to have babies and blah blah blah blah blah. Well fast forward I've never had children but it wasn't the point it limited the amount of money they could lend me you know it always come down to like career is going to be put on pause
Speaker 2:and then like, I sort
Speaker 1:of fed into that story.
Speaker 2:And then I thought, but if I
Speaker 1:had babies, wouldn't I be married? And then there'd be more income. But, you know, but anyway but it was it was a conversation that they probably aren't allowed to have those conversations anymore, to be
Speaker 2:honest. The the funny thing is, I mean, those conversations, whether or not they've been had or thought, I think a lot of the time, you know, depending on the situation, the reason why some women don't get, the support is because people have already got an unbiased, what do call it, a biased unconscious mindset around whether or not this person can be helped or not. And the reason why they think that way is because it's all those things that fit into those reasons why they didn't lend money to women all those years ago.
Speaker 1:Do you know? And that could be a really long another topic of conversation or a podcast really is about and and then the risk profile of lending to women versus men would be another interesting one. But anyway, one of my closing comments was going to be what's your top tip to give women? But I actually think you've already answered that question it's actually knowledge empowers you to act. So have courage, go to speak to someone who will open the door, set out a pathway for you.
Speaker 1:If you can't get on to Emma, have to find a clone of Emma somewhere. I'm building them out.
Speaker 2:I've got amazing women in the business already
Speaker 1:in Flint.
Speaker 2:We've just launched the She Invest community and we've
Speaker 1:just landed the front page of the NPA Magazine. Congratulations, that's just well deserved, very well deserved.
Speaker 2:Very excited about all the opportunities that we're going to create for women in this industry. So I received a message this morning from a client that I helped back when I was at the bank and again when I left and she's reaching out because her daughter wants to go into finance and she wants me to have time to sit down and work out. Is there work experience? Is there a traineeship? What can we do?
Speaker 2:So, this is about building out a purpose, a mission and a movement that not only is supporting the women in our community, but it's creating those pathways for women who also want to help make a difference and help empower the others.
Speaker 1:So people want purpose, mission and what was the third one? Movement. Where do they find you?
Speaker 2:Okay, so they can find me. So my community is SheInvest, It's not the name of my business, but it is a community that I lead at Flint. Flint Group is my mortgage business. We are found online, so Flint Group, but we've also got, several other businesses that are intertwined under that Flint Group. So at the end of the day, you can jump online and look up Emma Stevens at flintgroupsheinvests or you can look me up on Instagram and on Facebook.
Speaker 2:I have a community there as well. But I'm also doing work with the Finance Broker Association as well. So Artemis is another space in which I am helping guide other women in the industry and breaking down barriers to make it more sustainable and successful for women to build out their careers in finance.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much. It was absolute pleasure speaking to you and I'm just so in awe of all the work you're doing and congratulations on all your success.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. Thank you.