A life of turmoil has given Beaver a deep desire to help others – with integrity, resilience and perseverance
Minh Beaver at a glance
- Location: Sydney, NSW
- Services offered: Residential, commercial, SMSF, low doc, reverse mortgages, asset finance, overseas borrowers, expats, coaching and education
- Years in industry: 20+
Like many Aussies, Minh Beaver (nee Vu) arrived on these shores with little more than the clothes on her back.
Beaver was just 18 months old when her family fled their home in the wake of the Vietnam War.
Rescued by an American gas tanker after drifting in the treacherous waters of the South China Sea for five days, she and her family spent years in limbo in Japan before making their way to Sydney’s southwest suburbs in the early 80s.
Although Beaver was barely five years old when they made the journey to Sydney, she has vivid memories of it – memories kept fresh by retellings passed down by her garment-making parents.
While it was a tumultuous start to her life, Beaver fondly remembers being embraced by the country her family has called home for 40 years.
“You come with empty hands – nothing,” she says of the refugee experience. Yet to her and her family’s surprise, they were endowed with the riches of a supportive, giving community.
Her first-hand experience of her family’s hardships – first as refugees, then losing everything again in Australia’s brutal ’80s recession – fuelled a deeply industrious work ethic in Beaver that has shaped her into the highly successful broker she is today.
Beaver’s journey into the world of finance was not entirely of her own design. As she recalls, not with self-pity but humour, “My parents were not okay with me doing anything creative.”
But helping others with their finances was a deeply personal venture for Beaver, shaped by witnessing the pain of bankruptcy, which she admits was compounded by her family’s relative lack of financial literacy.
“I’m always dealing with people’s finances, so I take everything seriously. Because for me it’s do or die.”
Beaver developed a strong understanding of mortgage finance through her numerous roles in the retail banking and mortgage management sectors.
“My bosses always told me my working ethics were through the roof,” she recalls. “I would just work, and I would be quite relentless to get things done. I’m always searching for an outcome.”
Mentorship played a big role in Beaver’s early years as a financial professional.
“When I started working, I had really good mentors,” she says. “And they really got behind me to channel my energy into something. They helped me with the emotional intelligence side of things too.”
It goes without saying that Beaver believes mentorship is a must-have for any aspiring broker. “Surrounding yourself with the right people is essential, because even though I had so much drive, I didn’t connect with people that well.”
She warns against isolating yourself when starting out on your broking journey.
“I think everyone just kind of sticks to themselves, or they consider each other as competition … I think a lot of brokers independently just feel a bit scared to network,” says Beaver.
“I’m always dealing with people’s finances, so I take everything seriously. Because for me it’s do or die.”
To Experity and beyond
Beaver’s journey through the financial services industry led her to join boutique brokerage Experity Group in 2020, where she was given the tools to expand her client portfolio and trail book.
Beaver describes Experity as “a group of really experienced brokers, a group of really good people who have been in the industry for a long time”.
She adds, “When you surround yourself with really solid business, you’re going to get a solid business as well.”
However, Beaver has reached a new point in her journey, setting the stage for the next big chapter in her unorthodox life. She is preparing to leave Experity to launch her very own brokerage, Evolve Money.
Like most of her biggest life moments, it will be a family affair, with husband Corey coming in with a complementary set of skills and knowledge to support the business.
Corey is a sales and marketing expert in his own right. He has helped generate leads for Beaver in the past and will no doubt be a driving force behind the success of Evolve Money going forward.
To help get Evolve Money off the ground, Beaver purchased a trail book in 2022. In fact, that’s where the brand name Evolve Money came from. But while the name will remain, she is making some meaningful changes to the branding.
Evolve Money’s logo is imbued with symbolism from Beaver’s Vietnamese heritage. It symbolises "Đức", explains Beaver, meaning "integrity" in her mother language.
Integrity is important when, as Beaver says, “my clients have been with me throughout their life journeys, through marriage, buying a home, upgrading, having children and even divorce”.
Through her experience as a refugee and all the hardships of her upbringing, Beaver has learned the true value of resilience and perseverance – virtues she now uses to guide her clients towards achieving the Australian dream.
“I’m always dealing with people’s finances, so I take everything seriously,” she says. “Because for me it’s do or die.”
While launching your own business is a stressful endeavour, Beaver’s 20-plus years of industry expertise gives her some solid foundations to build on. Having platinum status with a number of top-tier lenders won’t hurt either.
Yet there are always more lessons to be had. “I don’t consider myself a top broker,” says Beaver. “I’m always learning, there are always challenges in this industry, and you’ve just got to stay ahead of the game … My strategy is to continue helping Australians like I do.”
The importance of having a plan
Not everything goes to plan in this world, but that shouldn’t stop you from having one in the first place. Discussing lessons she learned on the way to becoming a broker, Minh Beaver says, “I wish I’d planned better. It would have been easier if I’d actually had the capital to fund myself for at least a year into brokering.” It’s a lesson every new-to-industry broker should heed, particularly when more than half of all brokers fail within the first year.
