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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_04: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:06] SPEAKER_04: So, Carla, great to meet you and welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:11] SPEAKER_04: And as I always say, before we get too deep into our conversation,
[00:15] SPEAKER_04: let's get a little bit convoluted at times.
[00:18] SPEAKER_04: Tell us a bit about yourself, what you do, and why you're here, basically.
[00:24] SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you Phil. Appreciate the opportunity to be on the podcast
[00:28] SPEAKER_00: and look forward to having an engaging conversation.
[00:32] SPEAKER_00: I help customize mortgages for people across Canada, whether they're a sit-in
[00:38] SPEAKER_00: and PI, North Balfour, it's a scratch one, or BC, and specifically for the self-employed
[00:44] SPEAKER_00: to tailor it regardless of their financial profile.
[00:48] SPEAKER_00: And prior to doing this, and I've been doing this for now, eight plus years,
[00:52] SPEAKER_00: I leveraged my capabilities in my former work, which was in capital markets,
[00:59] SPEAKER_00: and also in wealth management as well.
[01:02] SPEAKER_00: So, it was really just pivoting to where I could leverage my capabilities into an area
[01:06] SPEAKER_00: that still speaks to finance.
[01:09] SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'm interested because I did look at you back around and you know,
[01:13] SPEAKER_04: you know, you were some fairly high, fairly large names there,
[01:18] SPEAKER_04: and reached a VP type of position.
[01:21] SPEAKER_04: Why did you move to entrepreneurship?
[01:24] SPEAKER_04: Because, you know, I think it was ban your life you were with.
[01:27] SPEAKER_04: Why don't I just sit it out and have a good career there, kind of thing?
[01:32] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, the nature of the positions there, when there's a certain shelf life of these positions,
[01:39] SPEAKER_00: and they usually like, I'm not going to give you my age,
[01:42] SPEAKER_00: but they usually like people who are slightly younger and a little bit more robust.
[01:46] SPEAKER_00: So, at some point, there's always a decision that you've got to make the pivot.
[01:51] SPEAKER_00: And one of the areas that I explored was the mortgage financing,
[01:56] SPEAKER_00: and some of the reasoning behind that is, one, it's a huge addressable market.
[02:01] SPEAKER_00: It's in the billions of dollars in terms of mortgages.
[02:05] SPEAKER_00: And then also, I can leverage my current capabilities.
[02:08] SPEAKER_00: And thirdly, it's got like a recurring revenue stream,
[02:10] SPEAKER_00: and also like for most people, it's a little bit more control of my time
[02:15] SPEAKER_00: and how I express myself.
[02:17] SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so what do you find best about choosing an entrepreneurial route versus a corporate route?
[02:26] SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, I say this tongue in cheek, there's only the 360 degree reviews you can take
[02:32] SPEAKER_00: in that corporate environment, but more importantly, I think it's about building equity
[02:37] SPEAKER_00: and controlling what you can to build that equity so that ultimately,
[02:42] SPEAKER_00: you have an opportunity to build to more wealth.
[02:47] SPEAKER_02: You know, the mortgage business is, you know, changeable, let's say.
[02:56] SPEAKER_04: What's sort of the most exciting thing?
[02:59] SPEAKER_04: I mean, there's been, what's the most exciting shift, let's say,
[03:03] SPEAKER_04: that's happened in the mortgage business in the last decade?
[03:08] SPEAKER_00: I would say the, in finance in general mortgage as well,
[03:13] SPEAKER_00: if we're going to talk about shifts, it would be the increase in compliance specifically.
[03:21] SPEAKER_00: And what I'm driving at that in terms of compliance specifically within the mortgage financing setting,
[03:27] SPEAKER_00: that's going to be speaking specifically to qualifying criteria, right?
[03:31] SPEAKER_00: So that's changing and the impact of that qualifying criteria is it's not getting easier.
[03:36] SPEAKER_00: It's the winters coming is that it's constantly changing and getting more challenging.
[03:41] SPEAKER_00: And that's where you need the leverage to expertise is somebody like myself,
[03:45] SPEAKER_00: who's working with 7,000 plus mortgages in the experience of 20 plus years with my team.
[03:50] SPEAKER_00: So I would say compliance specifically, changing and qualifying criteria is what's pressing.
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[04:07] SPEAKER_04: So what's the biggest challenge you faced during your career,
[04:14] SPEAKER_04: this side of the career kind of thing?
[04:17] SPEAKER_00: Well, I think in more recent times it's really been, you know, we had the impact of COVID,
[04:24] SPEAKER_00: but and then most recently COVID then related to inflation coming in,
[04:29] SPEAKER_00: and that inflation, what that has done, has really increased the interest rates.
[04:34] SPEAKER_00: And interest rates obviously again, circle back to impacting qualifying criteria,
[04:40] SPEAKER_00: specifically something that we would call the stress test, which ultimately is probably now,
[04:46] SPEAKER_00: let's call it in the last two years, reduce the affordability baseline by 30%.
[04:53] SPEAKER_02: As your typical kind of mortgage application,
[05:02] SPEAKER_04: has it noticeably changed the persona changed over the last five or six years?
[05:10] SPEAKER_00: You know, if I was to really draw down on the persona,
[05:13] SPEAKER_00: I say to people now that in terms of affordability,
[05:19] SPEAKER_00: 135,000 is the new 85,000, meaning that the persona is that the household income
[05:28] SPEAKER_00: to qualify for mortgage has really needed to increase just to buy what you would call a standard purchasing home.
[05:37] SPEAKER_00: So for example, in Toronto, you know, the average price of a detached home is 1.1 million.
[05:43] SPEAKER_00: So you can imagine if we take that takes in that we've got to have a much higher dual household income.
[05:52] SPEAKER_04: And I mean, in terms of persona, a lot of your kind of prospects entrepreneurs.
[06:04] SPEAKER_00: Well, the baseline in Canada, you would know probably just as much,
[06:08] SPEAKER_00: is that about 15% of the workforce is self-employed.
[06:13] SPEAKER_00: And to your point, because of the growing pressures on household cash flows,
[06:18] SPEAKER_00: more and more people are, you know, calling, whether you want to call it a gig economy,
[06:22] SPEAKER_00: but are looking for self-employment to support themselves in addition to whatever job or salary.
[06:28] SPEAKER_04: I think 15% is more like 20%, 25%, they don't think themselves as entrepreneurs,
[06:37] SPEAKER_04: but freelancers and things like that, you know.
[06:39] SPEAKER_00: Absolutely. So I would say that if there's one trend, it's increasing.
[06:43] SPEAKER_00: And ironically, to that point, the compliance issue is actually affecting the self-employed more.
[06:51] SPEAKER_00: Because there's, I mean, no one of the benefits of being self-employed is, you know, some of the tax benefits.
[06:55] SPEAKER_00: But the flip side of that is that it can impact your income, which can then impact your qualifying,
[07:01] SPEAKER_00: which is where we step in and help out.
[07:04] SPEAKER_02: Interesting.
[07:08] SPEAKER_02: What do you see as the biggest challenge in your future as an entrepreneur?
[07:15] SPEAKER_00: You know, if I'm going to be dead honest, the one thing that keeps me up at night is just,
[07:19] SPEAKER_00: and it's an unknown unknown, meaning I don't even know if I, is that impact of AI.
[07:24] SPEAKER_00: Right? I'm, you know, how is AI going to impact not only for me, but for everybody else,
[07:31] SPEAKER_00: just even my, my, my, my opportunity set of people I can help if job losses are kicking in.
[07:38] SPEAKER_00: So that's a real concern across the board.
[07:40] SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I guess automation, a lot of things moves away from the human element to just a measurable automated decision, basically.
[07:54] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you can see, I mean, you could see all those, all those stress that's happening in Hollywood,
[07:59] SPEAKER_00: because AI is doing a lot of the writing.
[08:01] SPEAKER_00: I mean, that could now be shifting to all kinds of industry.
[08:03] SPEAKER_00: So that's a growing concern.
[08:06] SPEAKER_04: So what would you, if you sort of where you are now, what advice would you give yourself, you know, 20 years back?
[08:19] SPEAKER_04: Sure, that you didn't, that you didn't come in with and that you've learned.
[08:25] SPEAKER_00: You know, I think if I was to say, you know, one of my, you ask any friend of mine, they probably say,
[08:31] SPEAKER_00: I'm always curious.
[08:32] SPEAKER_00: So when I'm driving at that is, you know, I've got three degrees, you know, two in business,
[08:38] SPEAKER_00: and I'm always about, you know, that Japanese thing, Kai's Ann about learning.
[08:42] SPEAKER_00: So if I could, you know, go back 20 years and now I think I'd go two inches wide and a mile deep,
[08:48] SPEAKER_00: meaning, you know, it's one thing to know a lot of things, but I think I'd probably just specialize a little bit more
[08:54] SPEAKER_00: and focus on learning something that I know is going to be a recurring issue.
[09:00] SPEAKER_04: Interesting.
[09:04] SPEAKER_04: What's the best piece of advice you've received that you use, you know, that kind of thing that you use it all the time?
[09:11] SPEAKER_04: You can know every day, but it's deep, deep there kind of thing.
[09:17] SPEAKER_00: I think if I'm going to be dead honest, it's from, it's a quote that I heard from the late Charlie Munger, who's the old Warren Buffett partner.
[09:25] SPEAKER_00: And I say this and not to sound offensive at all, but it would be, don't be stupid.
[09:33] SPEAKER_04: Okay.
[09:34] SPEAKER_04: So I asked you sort of about the concerns, but what are you most excited about in your business?
[09:43] SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, this year, 2024 and 2025 specifically, there's about 25% of all mortgages are coming up for renewal.
[09:57] SPEAKER_00: And that is an opportunity that provides where we can help a lot of people because, you know, one of the issues, you know, this is a behavioral finance issue is a lot of people just anchor themselves.
[10:09] SPEAKER_00: So for example, they're like, you know what, my mortgages 5%, my renewal offer is 4.75.
[10:17] SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's a quarter percent below.
[10:19] SPEAKER_00: I'll just hit the bid on that.
[10:20] SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, the market's at 4.
[10:22] SPEAKER_00: So what I would say is that's an opportunity for all who are listening when your renewal comes up, reach out to a mortgage agent planal like myself because there are alternatives that are probably going to be better than the offer on the table.
[10:36] SPEAKER_01: Stay ahead of the game with our expert tips and strategies that will help your business thrive in a digital era.
[10:43] SPEAKER_01: Canada's podcast.com subscribe now.
[10:46] SPEAKER_01: Let's move on.
[10:47] SPEAKER_01: Let's move on some rapid fire questions.
[10:49] SPEAKER_04: Have some fun.
[10:50] SPEAKER_04: So.
[10:53] SPEAKER_04: I can guess this answer, I think.
[10:55] SPEAKER_04: If you weren't doing what you're doing now, what would you be doing instead?
[11:01] SPEAKER_00: I love to solve problems.
[11:02] SPEAKER_00: I think I probably being consulting.
[11:05] SPEAKER_04: No, I thought you said a tennis player.
[11:07] Speaker UNKNOWN: But that.
[11:08] SPEAKER_00: Which I like.
[11:12] SPEAKER_00: I try.
[11:15] SPEAKER_04: What book are you currently reading, listening to how you're absorbing it?
[11:22] SPEAKER_04: And what would what book would you recommend to to our audience?
[11:26] SPEAKER_00: Sure.
[11:27] SPEAKER_00: Like again, I fall the Kaizen.
[11:28] SPEAKER_00: I think if there's one book, I think I'd highly recommend for the self-employed is a book called Seven Powers by Hamilton Hamler.
[11:36] SPEAKER_00: Another book I just recently read is what I learned about investments from Darwin.
[11:42] SPEAKER_00: And lastly, a third book, the score will take care of itself.
[11:48] SPEAKER_04: You're mourning our night person.
[11:51] SPEAKER_00: Well, I like to get my work done in the morning, but I do also stay up late.
[11:55] SPEAKER_00: So it's it's a.
[11:58] SPEAKER_00: But morning is where I like to do be productive.
[12:01] SPEAKER_04: Okay.
[12:03] SPEAKER_04: If you had to pick one word to describe yourself, what would it be and why would you choose that word?
[12:11] SPEAKER_00: I'd use steadfast and that would be about consistency to my commitments.
[12:19] SPEAKER_04: Interesting.
[12:22] SPEAKER_04: Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
[12:25] SPEAKER_00: Well, I'd ideally like to see myself as a go to for those who are self-employed looking to explore options for their mortgage financing across Canada.
[12:38] SPEAKER_02: Interesting.
[12:40] SPEAKER_02: But that in mind, one more thing before we do that, what's keeping you up at night?
[12:50] SPEAKER_02: Well, I think we can keep you up.
[12:51] SPEAKER_04: I'm from AI.
[12:54] SPEAKER_00: I was going to say that's.
[12:57] SPEAKER_00: Because that was the major thing that's, you know, exploring only because it's creates uncertainty across the board.
[13:06] SPEAKER_00: But I think really it's it's about helping people understand that there are options regardless of their financial profiles.
[13:16] SPEAKER_00: I think there's just a lack of awareness of options that the traditional ways there's better ways.
[13:27] SPEAKER_02: So you know, people listening people looking at us.
[13:30] SPEAKER_04: How can they get a hold of you after this?
[13:33] SPEAKER_00: Sure. I think you know, there's a couple of ways that if birth number one way is if you know how to spell cola, which is with a K and their way knows Coca-Cola.
[13:42] SPEAKER_00: And then Malcolm, you can find me on LinkedIn. So Cola Malcolm on LinkedIn.
[13:47] SPEAKER_00: Or if you want directly, my website is cola again with the K mortgage dots.
[13:51] SPEAKER_00: And that will have all my contact information.
[13:54] SPEAKER_04: Okay.
[13:56] SPEAKER_04: Cola has been great. How are you on it?
[13:58] SPEAKER_04: Interesting. I don't think I haven't done much on the mortgage side of things.
[14:03] SPEAKER_04: So this is a, you know, a new type of content on on our network.
[14:10] SPEAKER_04: So I'm sure some people will be taking a good listen to it.
[14:13] SPEAKER_04: So thanks for thanks for taking the time to meet with us.
[14:18] SPEAKER_00: Much appreciated for the time, Phil. Thank you.
