His rallying call chimes with industry colleagues, who acknowledge the challenge
As a busy mortgage professional, do you find time to do the things which are important to you outside of work – or do you make time? Finding or making time is a subtle but important difference, that industry thought leader Saam Lowni (pictured left) identifies in the challenge of managing a work-life balance in financial services.
“What I’ve learned,” Lowni said, “is the difference between finding time and making time. Finding time is often an excuse - it’s passive. Making time, on the other hand, is intentional and non-negotiable.”
Specialist broker Lowni, founder and managing director of Merryoaks Finance, cites as an example an old friend he met during a recent trip to his home town of Durham, who played football for the first time in years. He declared he wanted to try playing regularly again, but struggled to find time. “Time won’t just appear, you have to make it,” Lowni told him. “I make time to play football once a week, swim at least twice, and I’ll be adding one 20-minute home HIIT (high intensity interval training) session into the routine to keep the body ticking. But honestly, I haven’t been as good at resting the mind. I have done lots of meditation in the past but rarely find the time to do it.”
Lowni has just returned from a one-week holiday in Turkey, which he describes as a much needed break, enabling him to clear his head, reflect, and reconnect with the spark that made him start out in this business in the first place. But managing his life is not without its challenges. With a property portfolio to manage, a growing finance brokerage, a YouTube channel and a podcast to oversee, and a young family to look after, time can feel like a luxury, he acknowledges.
“It’s easy, in the middle of all that, to sacrifice your own health, both physical and mental in order to keep every plate spinning,” Lowni said. “The biggest problem I have though is not the amount of things I have to do, it's that I genuinely love everything I do. I love living and I love each part of my work, as it all plays a role in my growth and purpose, and they all mostly interconnect beautifully. So scaling back isn’t something I feel ready to explore, at least not right now. Instead, I make it work by surrounding myself with a strong team that supports all these moving pieces. It’s not without challenges, but it works, and things keep moving forward.”
Lowni added: “Even on holiday, I had to handle a few unavoidable things. I operated on a reduced schedule, and thanks to the solid teams I’ve built, the most important matters were handled without stress. The overall holiday though really helped calm my mind and helped me think about things differently.” He urged his industry colleagues: “Make time not just for your goals, but for yourself.”
Hannie Mason (pictured second from left), a broker and the director of Mortgages with Hannie & Co, agrees with Lowni that if you don’t make time for life outside of work, it just doesn’t happen. “This job can easily spill into every evening and weekend if you let it, especially when you genuinely care about your clients,” Mason said. “But I’ve learned the hard way and I've learned that protecting time for myself isn’t just good for me, it actually makes me better at my job.
Mason tries to set clear boundaries around her working hours and plans things into her week that, in her words ‘fill my cup’. “Whether that’s time with family and friends, getting outside, or just switching off for a bit,” she said, “It’s not always perfect, but being intentional with that time helps me show up more focused, present, and energised when I’m working.
“It also sets the tone for clients. If I’m always available 24/7, I can’t expect them to respect boundaries either. So, making time for myself is about sustainability. It helps me stay in this for the long run, without burning out or losing the passion that made me love this job in the first place. It’s something I regularly reinforce with my team too, we’re big on boundaries in the office, because I want them to thrive in this career, not burn out from it. Making space for life outside of work isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity.”
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An employer’s flexibility
For broker Luther Yeates (pictured second from right), the reason he set up his business, Orton Financial, was to achieve a better work-life balance. “I find there is a difference between implied flexibility and actual flexibility, which an employer can offer,” Yeates explained. “I do feel it is important to work in a role where your employment and income compliments your lifestyle. If you have been able to maintain friendships or pursue hobbies alongside your working week, you will have a different approach to your work. You will likely have lower levels of stress, and better health overall. I’m now rarely, if ever, unwell and I put this down to a more relaxed day-to-day lifestyle.”
The solution to achieving this is fundamental diary management - and sticking to it, Yeates believes. “If you plan your day around finishing at a certain time, you usually find a way to make it happen,” he reflected. “If your day is on more of an open-ended basis, you will overwork yourself and it will come at the expense of your personal life. I’m currently training for a charity swim, alongside my regular activities outside of work, and this hasn’t come at the expense of my work or social life. It doesn’t mean I’m not frustrated when a lender makes a decision I disagree with, but it means I can approach this from a more balanced perspective.”
He summed up: “My work is busier than ever, but so far, I’ve been abroad for at least three weeks this year, something I’ve only been able to achieve by planning ahead, and ensuring I have personal goals to work towards.”
Sheena Campbell (pictured right), a mortgage broker and managing director of Campbell Financial, concurs that finding time for the things you enjoy is necessary. “That applies to everyone, not just brokers,” she said, “but in our world, where time is pulled in so many directions and responsibilities stack up fast - especially when you're running a business - it can be hard to prioritise yourself. Your business, your clients, your family, your friends, all come first before there's any time left for you.”
As a business owner, in the early stages of building her brand, Campbell acknowledges that this comes with long hours and sacrifices, not just for her, but for her family too. “I’d love to be at the point where I have more balance and more time for the things I enjoy,” she shared, “but that just isn’t the reality at the moment. It’s a temporary chapter and I’m optimistic about the freedom and flexibility that will come from the groundwork we’re putting in now.”
Campbell added: “I’m learning how important it is to be mindful of your limitations and to give yourself something to look forward to. I’ve been trying to carve out time for photography, but I haven't picked up the camera in about four months, now that I think about it - see how hard it is!. Getting creative space away from work gives me more clarity and more motivation, but it's so hard to make time.”
Mortgage adviser Michelle Lawson (pictured inset, above), director of Lawson Financial believes she is probably the worst person to ask about this as her work-life balance is ‘appalling’, in her words. She had been at her desk since 6am, when Mortgage Introducer caught up with her. “My sacred time or family time is the weekends,” Lawson said. “With this job ,you can end up working 24/7 to meet everyone’s needs so I have tried to set clear boundaries. People, including me, find the time for things that are important to them and, if they want to work with me, it is on my terms. It isn’t always possible to keep to these though with unsociably timed, last minute rate pulls and the ongoing, ever-increasing admin and servicing.”
Lawson never feels guilty for taking time out of my day for personal time, she notes, but the knock-on effect on the business can be significant. “I am fortunate that I work with my husband from home, so we are together anyway - we look for time apart!” she laughed. “We do have a no work talk rule in the house, of which our daughter regularly reminds us.”
Finally, Peter Tsouroulla (pictured above, inset), head of mortgages at Trinity Lifetime Partners, advises that to ensure a quiet evening, he uses his commuting time wisely. “I have a relatively easy journey to and from the City and I use the time to reply and send emails,” Tsouroulla said. “I have an excellent support system behind me which makes life a lot easier - a motivated admin team are essential in our world now, in my view.
“If I am away, I put on my ‘out of office’ on, and keep WhatsApp to a minimum. It can be hard to do. but important. But I have never really had an issue with two-minute calls if I am away, to be honest - especially for purchases.”
