2025 Australian Broker of the Year winner reflects on rare triple win at Australian Mortgage Awards
It was an undeniably emotional evening when Katie Thomas (pictured, above, accepting award from Westpac's Sarah Willsallen) and her team at Focus Finance walked away from the 2025 Australian Mortgage Awards with not one but three trophies.
With nominations for the 2026 Australian Mortgage Awards now online, MPA caught up with Thomas to reflect on what the landmark night meant for Focus Finance – and regional broking as a whole.
In a rare double win, Thomas walked away with the NAB Broker of the Year – Regional and the Westpac Australian Broker of the Year, while Maddison Brown (pictured, below, accepting award from Bendigo and Adelaide Bank's Christopher Boutros) was crowned the Bendigo Bank Broker Young Gun of the Year.
"I'll be dead honest – I had a little cry," Thomas said. "But that was over Mads kicking off our night with her win. Standing up there knowing my team built the thing that got me on that stage is a strange feeling. It's a level of deep appreciation for what they do, and validation for them."
Brown’s achievement – and ongoing professional development – is clearly a source of major pride for Thomas.
"When Mads walks off with Young Gun, that's not luck and it's not just her being great – although she is – it's the whole thing working. When the people coming up behind you start collecting trophies, you can stop wondering if the culture's real.
"Absolutely shameless brag, but she has far surpassed her last year success – settling $25 million in March alone, she'll land somewhere in the $200 million-plus this year on deals lodged, and is one of the nicest, most humble humans you will ever meet.”
The triple win was also a vindication of something Thomas cares deeply about. "I thoroughly enjoyed validating that you don't have to be a big-city name with 40 brokers and a glass office to play at the top. A regional crew that's run properly can knock it out of the park,” she said.
Inspiring the next gen of brokers
Awards nights like the AMAs aren’t just a great time – they’re an opportunity to network, get seen, and lift the industry as a whole.
“Blowing my own trumpet makes my skin crawl, so I'll say it plainly – the profile is useful, and it would be commercial idiocy to pretend otherwise," she said. "But it's not really about clients seeing the name. It's that the right people see it. The future Mads sitting in some job she's outgrowing, thinking 'I want to work somewhere like that’. That's who I want finding us."
Thomas also sees events like the AMAs as a source of inspiration. "You stick excellence up on a stage with a spotlight on it, and suddenly everyone in the room privately decides they want to be up there next year," she said. "That's how a whole industry quietly gets better."
But a good time they are nonetheless.
“We spend the year heads-down, grinding through files and fixing things nobody sees, and for one night they get to stand in a room full of people who actually get what they pulled off and just be proud of it.
“The awards are nice. Watching my crew have fun is awesome. I love meeting people and sharing ideas and collaborating as well. Some really awesome long-term friendships can be founded on those tables.”
Advice for first-time entrants
"No generic AI waffle – tell your story in your voice," Thomas said of the submission process. "If our community wanted to be accountants they wouldn't be reading your award submissions, so don't write them like a tax return. Judges are going through so many of these submissions – don't help them fall asleep while they're doing it."
She also urges entrants to start early. "It's a big process. Give yourself enough time so the submission really reflects your business and everything you've achieved over the year."
What's next for Focus Finance
Away from the awards circuit, Focus Finance is doubling down on what is already working.
"This year was about cementing that the bet pays off: fewer brokers, serious volume, and a process so tightly automated it basically runs itself," Thomas said. "What's next is more of the same with the dial turned up – and keeping that support-team career path right at the centre so our people keep climbing as we grow while we find our next Maddie.
"My genuine highlights are the extraordinarily everyday ones – someone on the support team stepping into a role we'd mapped for them, hitting a milestone they didn't think they had in them, finding their voice, building confidence," she said. "That's the stuff."
