Don't take an opportunity at face value – look beyond it, says entrepreneur
When broker Sam Mason (pictured) began working in a fish and chip shop as a teenager, little did he know that he was laying the foundations of his future mortgage business – his employer there would go on to invest in him years later.
“I realised early on that I was just really good with people and I have an ability to build rapport,” Mason told Mortgage Introducer, explaining that growing up in a single parent family on a modest income helped shape the person he would become.
“I've always been entrepreneurial and trying to find my own way, making my own money. I had a paper round at nine, worked at a fish and chip shop at 13, and I was always buying and selling sweets or anything that I could get my hands on when I was at school. So I'd say I'm extremely money-motivated, I'm extremely motivated to get rich, and I don't think it's a bad thing to say. It's looked down on, seen as negative, and I don't know where that stems from. While it may be dangerous to just focus on the materialistic things, money is still a tool that will allow you to do the things that really make you happy.”
Mason quit college to work for an insurance brokerage before joining Lloyds Bank and working in its mortgage collections department. He trained as a broker and wrote his first mortgage at just 19 years of age. Now aged 25, Mason is founder and managing director of The Mortgage & Protection Hub, which offers independent, whole of market advice.
“My biggest strength is building relationships and networking,” Mason said. “I think the earliest memory would be when I did work at that fish and chip shop at 13. I worked there for four years and rather than take that job for what it was, which was working on the tills and packing up people's fish and chips, I quickly realised that actually building a relationship with the owner of that fish and chip shop could be advantageous and could serve me in the future. Exactly 10 years on from when I started working, he actually invested into the business to help me get started, much earlier than I may have been able to do so. He trusts me, he backed me, so I'm always grateful for that. Don't take an opportunity at face value - create your own opportunities.”
How important, then, was it for Mason to become his own boss? “Extremely important, I've never really warmed to authority,” he shared, “but it's also served me. My mum wanted me to go to college, and when I left college, she wasn't too impressed, but then it worked out for me. Then when I left my first job, she wasn't impressed, but it worked out for me. When I left a really good mortgage advice business to set up my own business, she wasn't impressed, but then it worked out for me. So all of those decisions, have led me to where I am. I'm pro looking at the norms that exist and just going against them. If I look at all of the successful people out there, they've all been told that things are not possible.”
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When’s the best time for a broker to go self-employed?
Mason was conscious of not leaving it too late to make the jump to a self-employed role, having seen older colleagues get too comfortable in their employed positions. “That's probably the best thing I've ever done,” he said. “If you start earning too much money then it becomes harder and harder to take that risk.”
The business launched in 2023, amid the market turmoil that followed the short-lived Liz Truss tenure in Downing Street. “It wasn't an easy year, but the way I looked at it was if I stayed in the mortgage industry, especially in a commission-based role with an employer, I was going to have a bad year, whether I was employed or self-employed.”
Mason now heads up a team of three, with a plan to double that by the end of the year. So, what does he look for in a good broker? “A good broker can be someone that is an extremely good sales person and extremely good at building rapport and has got a really, really high and intense work rate to just get stuff done and over the line,” he said. “They might be really messy with their admin and they might not be process driven, but they build such a good relationship with clients. I've met other brokers who are not great with people, they're more introverted, but they're extremely process driven and systemised and go on to do like amazing things for clients and for the business in terms of numbers.”
Mason would ultimately like to take his team to around 50 advisers and envisages a model where they can build their own businesses within the business. “Everyone's end goal is different, my goal is to just enjoy each stage of the journey and I'm very conscious of that,” he noted. “The goalpost always moves, but I find that quite exciting.”
