Michael in the spotlight 🎤

First things first, the important stuff:

• Going in or staying out? Staying in! It's always so fun spending time with my little family around our home 🏠

• Summer or Winter? Summer! 🌞

• Cats or dogs? Dogs all the way. Gambino, our Wolfhound x Short Haired Pointer is my best bud 🐶

• Would you rather live in a world where all bees are the size of small dogs, or all bees are regular sized but with human brains? I'd pick regular sized with human brains. I tried to picture bees around the garden all being the size of small dogs and that's not a great sight. What would a hive look like? Too much for me 🚫

Where do you hail from?

I grew up in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne (the best side of the West Gate). I was born in Werribee and grew up throughout Werribee & Hoppers Crossing. 

I finished uni in 2015 with a commerce degree and thought I was heading down the accounting road, but quickly pivoted over to Real Estate sales. I absolutely loved this, but I realized that I wanted to move into the finance space, so I became an asset finance broker for 3 years and then spent some time as a credit analyst before becoming a BDM back in the days of 86400! 

Growing up I played plenty of sports, including footy for 9 years where I created some lifelong memories and relationships. I would love to still play now, but 2 knee reconstructions later, I am naturally a bit hesitant. 

Aside from sport, some of my best core memories surround family holidays, learning family traditions and being able to travel. My wife & I had an amazing holiday touring the South Island of New Zealand a few years ago, and this will always be one of our best memories. 

I also can’t miss a chance to give a shoutout to our hilarious little 18-month-old menace, Leo, who is the absolute light of my life!

Life as a BDM

Life as a BDM today is pretty busy! The market is currently so active, and we are lucky to work with so many brokers every day. There is a blend of being on the road as well as face-to-face, and I adapt to what each broker needs from me.

No two days are ever the same and sometimes I just stand back and laugh at all the product knowledge that we have to know about ubank. You could return a handful of calls after leaving a broker meeting and every call is about something completely different!

There are a million parts to being a BDM, but the relationships you build that become genuine friendships are the best part of the job. Being able to work with friends daily is a great luxury.  

What are your long-term goals?

Early on in my journey with the business, I always said I wanted to be able to look back in 5 years and see my DNA throughout the business. From the early stages of a startup to now, I definitely feel like I’ve achieved this, and I still have a couple more years to keep pushing for more! 

Long term, I can see myself remaining in the broker channel, but I’m unsure of what that might look like. I love being a BDM, I loved and miss being a broker, and I also love helping on internal projects that better our offering - so who knows?! 

Hit us with some life advice!

This is a hard one! For me, whether it's work life or personal life, we can only control what we can control. There are so many aspects of life that we can’t change and accepting or adapting to them goes a long way to keeping me at my best.