MFAA membership services officer's seven-day journey proved that when the going gets tough, you just need to get tougher
What motivates a self-professed beach person to go on a seven-day, 40-kilometre trek through the Himalayas?
For Melissa Petsalis, Membership Services Officer at the Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA), it was a means of escaping her comfort zone, reconnecting with nature and her spiritual side, sharing an adventure with her boyfriend, and making new friends.
Reconnecting with nature she certainly did, but for Petsalis, the trek was also one of personal discovery and an affirmation that when the going gets tough, she gets tougher.
“Nepal and seeing the Himalayas are things I’ve always wanted to do,” says Petsalis. “I think trekking is the best way to experience Nepal because you’re not just in the mainland – you’re out in nature, in the mountains, walking through little villages, meeting Nepalese people and visiting their tea houses.
“It’s a completely different way of seeing the country. It was amazing, and it lived up to what I’d imagined, especially the spiritual side.”
But the trek was also incredibly gruelling.
“There were tears,” Petsalis admits. “It wasn’t the altitude; it was more that feeling of I didn’t know how much more I could do, I didn’t know how much more I could take.”
A previous knee injury certainly did not help. At one point it even gave way, but Petsalis gritted through the pain.
“I kept thinking, ‘I don’t want to let the team down’,” she recalls. “It was a group of us, and I really wanted to get to the hot springs at the end and to base camp."
“Every time a helicopter flew past my boyfriend joked, ‘they’re coming to get you’, but I’d say, ‘No, they’re not, just keep going’. He could see how much my knee was struggling and suggested if it gets too hard, to get on the mule, but I refused. I’d paid to be there too; I didn’t want to quit or be carried out.”
Breathwork and meditation became invaluable tools as the days wore on, and she stayed motivated with a lot of self-talk.
“I’ve got this. I know I can do this,” she kept repeating. “I was literally talking to my knee ‘Come on, you can do this, we’re capable of doing this’.”
Finally, on the last day, Petsalis and her trekking group reached Annapurna Base Camp. Little more than a sign nestled within the breathtaking Annapurna Mountain Range, it was nonetheless a symbolically huge milestone.
“When we got there, we were jumping, singing, playing music and dancing around the sign. It was that feeling of ‘Yes, I’ve made it to the end’.”
Throughout the trek, the shared camaraderie with her friends made each step just bearable enough to keep going.
“Their support meant so much. Whenever I sat down, they sat with me and waited until I felt better before moving on. At the same time, I didn’t want everyone stopping just for me, so I kept pushing on, even though in the end that meant I was doing more damage to my knee.”
The experience made Petsalis challenge the way she approaches difficult situations.
“In life generally, when things get tough, I tend to step away and think. I need to remove myself from the situation for a moment, reflect, prepare myself, and then come back when I feel I can return stronger and better prepared.
“But on the trek, there was nowhere to go – I was already there. I couldn’t walk away from a mountain halfway up, so my self-talk was, I can do this, I’m here, I can’t walk away. That constant internal encouragement is what carried me through.
Completing the trek reminded Petsalis that she is stronger than she sometimes thinks. “And it reflected how I approach my work too, being committed to the people around me and not wanting to let the team down.”
An unexpected career journey
Petsalis never set out to build a career in financial services. In fact, she once vowed she would never work in a bank.
But, as is often the case, “it just happened”.
A series of customer‑facing roles at CBA’s CommInsure, Macquarie Bank and then UBank gradually guided her into a specialised path supporting brokers and members of Australia’s peak body for the mortgage and finance broking industry.
Today, Petsalis works in the MFAA’s Membership Services team as a Team Leader, bringing a people-first approach shaped by her life and travel experiences, which have played a pivotal role in how she has navigated her career and built strong connections with others.
She handles the core frontline work – guiding brokers through onboarding, assessing applications and renewals, and fielding day‑to‑day queries – while also running team meetings, leading team huddles and keeping colleagues aligned and informed.
“I genuinely love my job. That’s a big part of why I get up in the morning. The people I work with are great, and the work we do is meaningful,” Petsalis says.
“If I’m helping a broker who has a lot of enquiries and sounds confused, I’m able to simplify the process so they understand it. When they then say, ‘Melissa, thank you so much, you’ve been so helpful, this is all making sense now’, I feel like I’ve succeeded in helping that person.
“If I can do that for another five or ten brokers in a day, then I’m having a great day.”
