The Finance Brokers Association of Australasia (FBAA) headed to the Gold Coast for Halloween weekend, for its annual conference, networking and to honour some of the best in the industry.
At the gala dinner and Halloween party — aptly themed Monsters & Mayhem — the broking industry body handed out 18 awards across the sector.
Australian Broker was on the ground to hear from the winners, including Redom Syed, cofounder and managing director of Flint Group, who took home two awards: the "New South Wales / Australian Capital Territory — Finance Broker of the Year" award, as well as the "Finance Broker of the Year" award.
Amid tears, Syed thanked his family for inspiring him to win. We caught up with the Sydney-based broker to find out the secrets to his success, how industry events like this one helped support him throughout the year, and his thoughts on the market as we enter into 2026.
RS: I'm stoked. It was a big surprise. I've never won a big award before, so I'm pretty, pretty stoked at the moment, and it was really nice to share the story in front of so many people. I like telling people why I do what I do, and it's nice to share that with everyone.
RS: I wasn't. Especially not the big awards. I saw all the names [of the finalists] here, and I was like, 'Oh, it's not going to be me.' But yes, it's pretty cool to be nominated and to win.
RS: I hope it's because of the connection to what our mission is and what my mission is. And that is really about trying to help as many people as I can to make money decisions. And I feel really connected to my purpose. So I hope others in our industry feel the same, because it is really a privilege that we all have to work in this industry.
RS: They teach us a lot. It's a great connection tool as well, between brokers and our network of people. And they teach us a lot about how our industry works and what we should be sharing with everyone as well. They give us the information to disseminate to everyone else.
RS: Work on finding a way to cut through and get attention if you're not already seeing you're visible in this world. Increasingly, those who are seen are going to become the most visible and successful brokers of tomorrow. So focus on being seen today with networking and marketing through social media. I use YouTube. My YouTube channel — 'Australian Property Talk with Redom' — is what won me this award. I started it 18 months ago, and people know who I am now. I think that's why I won. There's also Tiktok, LinkedIn, other social media, whatever it is for them. It's about getting attention and making sure people know who you are and what your story is. I post [on YouTube] four times a week, and LinkedIn as well.
RS: The market in general, with businesses, there's a lot of consolidation in the broking industry. I think more and more the individual players will group together, which is what Flint is. It's a consolidation of businesses and different leaders coming together to run a bigger business. I think that's going to happen more and more in our space as we try and get more scale to battle some of the changes that are happening in our industry, particularly with AI and in terms of market share. And I think it's going to be a particularly strong year for brokers. It could be the strongest year ever. I wouldn't be surprised.
