It’s never easy making the decision to switch from one mortgage industry sector to another, but TMG The Mortgage Group’s Joanna Zhou made the right decision when she moved into the commercial lending space from the residential side. We caught up with Zhou to hear how that move paved the way to her win at the 2025 Canadian Mortgage Awards as Broker of the Year – Commercial.
Fergal McAlinden 00:00:02
Hello again, and thanks for joining us on another edition of CMP TV. I'm Fergal McAlinden, News Editor here at Canadian Mortgage Professional as you know, the Canadian Mortgage awards returned in early May for another unforgettable night at a packed Toronto Congress Center with the best and brightest of Canada's mortgage industry competing for honors across a range of really prestigious categories. One of the most competitive of all, as always, was the Commercial Mortgage Broker of the Year Award, which went to Joanna Zhou, a Broker with TMG, the Mortgage Group, who was also an excellence already in the young achiever category at the 2023 CMAs, but won her first overall award this year. It's been a really good year so far for Joanna, who is also recently named in CMP Top 75 brokers for last year, and I'm very pleased to welcome her today to talk us through some of the secrets behind that win and how she carved out success and what we all know has been a really challenging market this year. Joanna, first of all, great to see. How's everything with you?
Joanna Zhou 00:00:57
Yeah, it was great. Fergal, thank you for having me great self.
Fergal McAlinden 00:01:01
Well, I mean, first of all, congratulations Joanna on winning the Canadian Mortgage award for broker of the year in the commercial space. Tell us how it feels to win?
Joanna Zhou 00:01:09
Yeah, I feel like very honored to win, to receive this award, because if you look at the nominees in my category, there are so many industry professionals. They are more experienced. They have already built an incredible, successful business. Some of them have been my role model for years. So I find that I've studied their stories, I've studied their website, subscribe the newsletters, and I also pay to some seminar with their with them as guest speakers, I just want to learn how they market themselves, how they serve the clients, and how they operate in such a high level. So I feel winning this award is not just a recognition. It's also a reminder of how far I've come and how far, how further I still want to go. So yeah, it just motivated me to keep growing, keep learning and keep delivering values to my clients and the industry.
Fergal McAlinden 00:02:11
So Joanna, obviously a really important moment in your career, as it always is for everyone who wins a CMA, but tell us a little bit about your journey through the mortgage industry. How did you get your start? And what's your career been like today?
Joanna Zhou 00:02:24
Oh, yeah, yeah, sure. So I came to Canada in 2016 before that, I have I worked for one of the biggest accounting firm, Ernst and Young in Shanghai. So after two years exploring career in Canada, I find, I finally find my passion in real estate and got licensed as a mortgage broker, as a mortgage agent, like in 2018 So, but at that time, I had no local network, no experience in Canadian banks, no clients. Like, just starting, like from zero. I still but I still remember, after I get licensed, I start receiving magazines from Canadian market professionals. So I flip them through, and I find those there are a lot of awards winners. I didn't know any of them in the like any of them in the industry yet, but I took the time to look them up online, explore their websites, understand their niches, and study like what they have done to achieve the award. So I think from that process, I finally found a few role models which really inspired me, like I want to follow. So since then, I just started focus my mortgage business for real estate investors.
Fergal McAlinden 00:03:46
So one of the really interesting things about your career path today, Joanna, is that you've made a switch from residential to commercial lending, which is always a really big move. Tell us a little bit about that. It's obviously paid off. But how did it come about in the first place?
Joanna Zhou 00:04:00
Yeah, so the switch from residential to commercial lending is kind of a natural progress for me. It really came from growing with my clients. So after a few years in residential mortgage business, I've helped some of my clients, starting from purchasing their first rental property to their 10, but they look to choose together to scale further, it's become like I both of us found, like the residential mortgages have a lot of limitations and that no longer fit their needs. So and at the same time, I started working with some more sophisticated investors, like who were transitioning from single family homes into multi units and purpose built rental projects, so they need some more advanced financing solutions, and I realized that I want to evolve with them, yeah, at the same time and I also. So like I also noticed a gap in the market. So for many commercial borrowers, especially for those newer investors, they were struggling to get good advice from those institutional commercial mortgage brokerage because they are doing bigger deals. Yeah, let's say that. So, for example, the CMC insured lending, lending and multi family financing. So I just decided to lean in that space and learn everything I could and position myself and helping them to get a good financing product that institutional investors can get.
Fergal McAlinden 00:05:41
Okay, great. So then when it comes to this year's CMAs and your victory in the commercial category, what were some of the main reasons, Joanna, behind that win? What do you think were the keys to your success?
Joanna Zhou 00:05:54
Okay, so from why I won the award, I think it's because I told a good story. You know, the nominee like, you need to submit like a 1000 word like 1000 word essay, right? So instead of focusing on how much volume I founded, like how big deals I worked, or how complex my dears were, with which, honestly, I couldn't think I could compete with any of those other nominees, so I just shared my journey. Yeah, like I talked about how I learned from industry role models. So this helped me triple my residential business in my third year in the industry, that was 2021 and in last year, 2024 after shifting into commercial financing, I tripled my business again, yeah, but sure, I worked very, very hard so, but I think it really was the story of growth and transformation I made that make me sound like different.
Fergal McAlinden 00:06:59
Okay, great stuff. And Joanna, before we wrap things up today, any words of advice for brokers about finding success in the commercial space, or even any tips for brokers who want to make the switch from residential to commercial lending?
Joanna Zhou 00:07:12
Yeah. So I think first thing is always find your passion and also find a role model like you could follow. You need to look at the top of the industry you want to be, and then believe in yourself in like you will be there someday. So but, but for sure, for it's definitely not easy to pivot from residential to commercial, like it's completely different world. You really have to, you really have to be okay with the feeling like you're a beginner again, and be patient with yourself where during this like learning curve. But if you are serious about like, making the switch, my advice would be, be patient, stay curious, have your passion and commit to learning so we can study like, how commercial lenders think, understand the numbers behind commercial properties and ask questions, or even find industry mentors. But it also helps to choose a niche like, for me, it was the CMC in shorts term and construction loans for purpose built rentals. But everyone's different. So find a niche you really understand and you really have passions with Yeah, and we need to go deeper and deeper, yeah. So that is like, where you can build real value and like, credibility for your clients. And one more thing I want to add. Don't give up if your early deals don't found like I've learned as just as much for the files that didn't work with, like it was, like I learned a lot. So just treat every deal as a learning opportunities. It will pay off.
Fergal McAlinden 00:08:55
All right, great stuff. Well, look, we will leave things there for today. Joanna, but thanks for joining us. Really great to have you on the show. Really appreciate your insights and words of advice for brokers. And again, congratulations again, not just only in your win at the CMAs, but also on being named in the Top 75 Broker list. Great Year so far, and all the best for what's in store.
Joanna Zhou 00:09:15
Yeah. Thank you. It's my pleasure.
Fergal McAlinden 00:09:17
All right. Well, that is just about all we have time for on today's show, my thanks once again, to Joanna Zhou, Commercial Mortgage Broker of the Year, for joining us today. Thanks to you for watching, and we will see you next time.
