Nathan Smith was all smiles during the 2025 Bankwest Broker of the Year Awards, after his team walked away with the best dressed award.
But after nearly two decades in the business, Smith, who is founder and director of Miranda, NSW-based brokerage Birdie Wealth, clearly has more insights to offer Australia's broker community than fashion advice.
Smith has been celebrated as one of Australia's top 30 brokers under 30 two years in a row. In 2015, he was also recognized as one of the best newcomers in New South Wales.
"The secret to a successful broker is relationships," Smith told Australian Broker, while surrounded by his team.
Smith — who's resume includes broking stints at Mortgage Choice, Aussie Home Loans and Property Planning Australia, in addition to working in the finance and insurance sector at Lexus and Toyota — founded Birdie Wealth in 2017. He went on to launch Birdie Conveyancing three years later.
Australian Broker sat down with the South Sydney-based broking professional for the secrets to his success, what others can learn from him and his thoughts on the market. The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.
AB: What is your niche in the market? Are primarily in residential lending?
Smith: We deal predominantly with mum and dads doing residential lending. That's what works for us. We've been able to scale that and put a lot of volume through that. So that's the niche.
AB: Australians are increasingly relying on brokers for their financial needs, which means more people are becoming brokers. You're someone who has clearly been successful as a broker. What's the secret to your success?
Smith: I think the secret to a successful broker is relationships, and that forms in many ways. Sometimes that can be internally, amongst the team. Obviously, with the clients, you need to hold good relationships. You need to hold good relationships with the banks as well, and also with any referral partners who choose to work with you. If you can have a large group of relationships, both internally and externally, I think that is the key to what makes good progress.
AB: What tips and tricks would you give to somebody who's new to being a broker and wanted to get recognized in the future?
Smith: Find people you connect with genuinely. People get quite intimidated by networking and going out and meeting people and having coffees. There are times where you may need a referral partner, and if you don't have a genuine connection, then that's going to be really hard to have a long-term relationship with [them]. So it's important if you can find people you truly connect with, who hold the same values as you, who have the same type of clients as you. That's going to make you successful as a broker.
AB: How do you go about finding partners or establishing relationships?
Smith: One of the keys, the really easy one, is if we've dealt with somebody in a matter. So if we've dealt with a conveyancer in a matter, or dealt with an accountant in a matter, and we've had a really positive outcome for the clients, and we've enjoyed working with them, we'll call them up — not to ask them to send us business — but to go to them and say, 'hey, we enjoyed working with you. You did a phenomenal job as an accountant. We need good accountants in our business. Tell me a little bit about your business, what you're looking for and what type of clients you're after.' And we look to share our clients with them prior to demanding clients [for ourselves].
AB: What are you seeing in the market right now? Is it busy? Or is the current hold on rates causing people to wait to buy?
Smith: I certainly think it's busy. And I certainly think there's another surge coming too. A lot of people are looking for a sign to buy and a reason to buy [at the moment]. We've had one rate cut already, and there's potentially more coming, and that often for people, is a sign that they should be buying a property. We think one or two more rate cuts will certainly light a fire and push the market forward. So we're expecting a really strong year and a lot of inquiry coming through.
AB: How do you prepare for that busyness? Do you reach out to clients and let them know what's available? And how do you prepare the team?
Smith: For our clients, at the moment, we're telling them to buy now, buy fast. We think that the level of inquiries are going to grow significantly and there's going to be a lot more competition in the market. So we're telling them to get out and purchase a property now. For our team, we spent a lot of time last year training and upskilling our team in preparation for a surge of inquiries. And for the start of the year, we've been recruiting quite heavily to build our team to make sure they're prepared for these upcoming rate cuts.
