Shad of the Day, 14th October 2024. The guy behind these ads is not particularly savvy, and his technical illiteracy and lack of financial knowledge results is a non-compliant and low-performing experience. It's not my job to educate competitors but I gave some of my time to this chap - he's implemented some of my suggestions but ignored most of them. While the above ads are *very* poor (one of the landing pages doesn't even work), it's the exclusion of the comparison rate that is the focus of this Shad. I've referenced ASIC's RG234, although the guide points to the relevant legislation.RG178.23"An advertised comparison rate must be identified as a comparison rate and the comparison rate must not be less prominent in an advertisement than any interest rate or the amount of any repayment stated in the advertisement: s164, National Credit Code.We [ASIC] consider that the following examples would result in the comparison rate being less prominent than the advertised interest rate:(a) a comparison rate is smaller in size or faded in colour when compared to the interest rate; or(b) an interest rate is published online and a consumer is required to click through or additionally do something (such as move their cursor over the interest rate) to view the comparison rate; or(c) the displayed comparison rate is not in close proximity to the displayed interest rate."RG178 5"Information in advertisements should be current (changes should be made in a week - is this rate current?)RG178/RG234.156"It is not necessary to show that consumers have actually been misled - the law prohibits conduct that is *likely* to mislead.Consumers cannot be expected to study or revisit an advertisement - the most important consideration is the overall impression created by the advertisement when viewed for the first time. Silence can be misleading or deceptive when it is reasonable for a consumer to expect disclosure of important information - silence on important details can render a statement misleading, even though it is factually correct."It's not hard to be compliant.

The company managing the advertising for the group pictured on the right have simply copied Macquarie's logo, creative, and general formatting. There's generally no rule against leaning on recognition, but it will always come at the expense of your own brand. It's always a shame to see such a lazy advertising effort (the copy, landing page, and everything that comes afterwards, tends to reveal the 'quality' of their digital representation).

Shad of the Day, 11th October 2024. It's been a while since I've posted a Shad. After the first couple of thousand I started to bore myself with the repetition. However, while we've had an impact on dodgy pay-per-lead leadgen, this has shifted many into selling their 'magic broker flow pipeline accelerator unicorn' systems, all of which aren't worth having if they're non-compliant or broken (I just recorded 7 broken ads from BrokerGrow, but I'll post those to our private groups).Of all our guys currently running Facebook ads, not one is paying more than $80-90 for a conversion (not a lead, but a conversion - lower than what the shonks charge you for a dodgy lead).I don't need to tell you what's wrong with the attached stepped form. I don't normally call out real businesses (assuming this is a legit business), but it's typical of the nonsense the pretenders are selling the industry.

This is a note for clients, and it's important.As per our deprecation schedule, and in line with Telstra's own retirement timeline, we have ceased all support for V2 of their API and diverted all functionality to V3. This change introduces some significant updates and a large number of improvements.Pictured is the Voicedrop panels which have seen some updates, but we've also introduced tagging and categories for more detailed reporting, updated the SMS-to-email system to better support multiple numbers, added triggers and webhooks for incoming texts, and we've integrated sent and received texts (with attachments) into your CRM.A significant update that we hope some will use is a text-to-social module that permits incoming texts (with a secret hashtag) to a defined number thatll filter through to multiple social media accounts. We've got a large number of social tools, but this is just another that's made available for those occasions where you need something posted immediately.The forms ('Formly') module now learns on the new system exclusively, and this includes SMS verification.Our focus when building the system was around AI integration. While we can't use it just yet, the AI can record voicedrops in your own voice, create custom messages, attach documents, and (contact) vcards etc. Once we get the green light from legal we'll release it to heavy users for more testing. This same system also works really well as a Q&A service since it has access to our entire library of crawled policy content and lender resources - it's (sadly) smarter than all of us put together. We're still updating a few components but they'll be finished within a couple of days. The only feature that we'd prefer you didn't use is the sending of SMS/MMS messages to custom or Microsoft (Outlook) lists. This will be tested by the end of the day.If you're not using text messaging, we really need to talk. Results are brilliant.Apologies for the minor interruptions.

Shad(s) of the Day, 17th August 2024. If you know any of the businesses listed in the attached screenshot, let them know they're throwing money into a void - their basic subscription is broken. It's a garbage experience. BrokerGrow popped up on our radar when they started leveraging our Broker Growth program brand, and they're responsible for ongoing mediocrity every since.If you're running one of these ads, I suggest you stop doing so now.Video in our Facebook group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/financemarketing

News is reporting on yet another person led into a fraudulent transactions. The MO is typical and often involves gift cards (nobody will ever ask you to buy a gift card). We need supermarket counter staff to be better educated (they'd spot the scam in a second if they know what they are looking for), we need Virtual (VoIP) Mobile numbers flagged when they originate offshore, better inbound scammer ID (Apple is still a few years behind), and better overall consumer education. Further, we need a team of commandos to hunt these crooked charlatans and throw them into the same human meat grinder used for the boneheads that sell leads.As brokers, we have a responsibility to educate those that lean on us for all types of monetary advice. Make your social count!

There's a Facebook group called 'Mortgage Brokers Australia' that I get banned from all the time. Unlike others in my field, I don't start conversations, but I'll often call out marketing pretenders on their ubiquitous BS.One such example is 'Jessica'. I only know of her because I inherited somebody that had worked with her, so I'm familiar with her entry-level methods and poor results. Normally I'd just ignore false and/or misleading information in the group, but in this case I was directly exposed to her incompetence so I thought I'd take her to task on her porky pies. My reply got me banned (again). Her comment of ".. just continue doing what everybody else is doing and see how it goes" rubbed me the wrong way because *nothing* we do is what anybody else is doing, and her methods are literally a cut-and-paste of every other BS Facebook program in the country.I find it staggering that some weekend-educated marketing stooge will willingly engage others when they know they don't have the knowledge, skills, or expertise, and they'll knowingly introduce worst-practice methods into an operation. If the same style of deliberate misconduct and malpractice took place in the finance industry you'd end up in prison, but 'marketing experts' seemingly have a free pass.The conversation was innocent enough, but Jessica was wrong in *so many ways*. I would have though moderators would welcome and encourage competing arguments when replying to beginners, but they instead willingly allowed brokers to be led into the arms of absolute mediocrity in complete contrast to the overarching best-interest ethos that is meant to be the foundation upon which the industy operates.I understand my posts in these groups may sound a little self-serving, or maybe even a tad egocentric, but I'm also leaning on a lifetime of experience. To put it bluntly, I'm always right (except when I'm not, which is never), and to silence my expertise was a little offensive. For moderators to actively allow promotion from a charlatan is despicable.The pictured post never made it. Rant over.

This is a very important note for clients. You'll be hearing more from us via email as recent and pending Yabber changes will impact everybody. The number of brokers that use more than one CRM, or multiple pieces of software, is quite staggering, and any tool or process that duplicates data will impact productivity and potentially compromises compliance. This has to end... and we certainly can't let our own clients lean into worst practice tech stacks (this is you, James). A long time coming, we're leveraging the entire Microsoft suite (beyond the current capability) and making certain MS applications a primary source of Yabber data. For example, one should never have more than one source of contacts, so we've migrated our entire contract module into Microsoft (Outlook). This means modules such as the SMS toolkit reference Outlook Folders and Categories almost exclusively rather than any isolated Yabber list. The contacts example is a big-ticket change, but it's just one change of many. We've found that many brokers use a second CRM (a nutty concept), so we're building features into the free Microsoft Planner Kanban Board (made available with your 365 subscription). With our revised trigger module - and native connectivity with other MS apps - Planner comes alive in a way that makes it one of the best Kanban facilities on the market. Planner integrates directly with email, files, OneDrive, Tasks (ToDo), Groups,, Teams, and other apps, making it a ridiculously efficient tool.We've met every few days with top brokers in order to determine how facilities like OneNote or ToDo might be used to assist with workflow/compliance, and we think we've designed some brilliant solutions.We'll be migrating the SMS module over the next 48 hours so we ask you not create any new SMS autoresponders, voicedrops, or even send any messages, until the migration is complete.Edge (Repricing), BDMset, and Saturn (Relationship Manager) are all limited until Friday. More information to follow via email.

I saw a post on LinkedIn a few weeks back where a broker was celebrating the fact that he was working his weekend in his pyjamas. Each to their own, I guess, but the same weekend was very different for me. Starting on a Saturday morning, I supported four of my brokers and property guys with a seminar in SW Sydney. We had 400 attendees booked and expected 150-200 to turn up. Over 400 attended. The rest of the weekend followed a fairly standard pattern of meeting a few partners and attending a ton of open homes and auctions (have you ever announced yourself to a large and eager crowd once sold?). The net result: over 120-million in likely settlements and 9 properties sold (off the back of the seminar). The weekend was one of the best we've had in a long, long time (keeping in mind a second-year broker set a BM record recently with over 100m in a single day.The property world comes alive on weekends - don't waste it in front of a PC.I say it all the time: more conversions = more conversions. I even have a few brokers walking with (golfing) stroke counters in their pockets to motivate them to meet targets.Digital always plays a significant part (and we genuinely do it better than anyone else), but that doesn't diminish the value of organic funnels - they'll always return better results.If anyone wants to unplug themselves from the Matrix and join us for part of a weekend, give me a call.

This is an important note for clients. We've updated the 'Formly' module on your website and in Yabber. We're migrating all foms manually over the next couple of days, so you might experience some minor disruptions. This major update coincides with the new Trigger and Email Marketing features, but the first step is migrating your forms.There are a large number of stylistic and functional changes in Formly, but it's the backend where you'll see the majority of updates. When building a form (now a 10-second process), you may use recycled components, such as calendar options, images, or redirect profiles. The number of changes and new features is seriously significant. We've built an alternate booking calendar in the style of Calendly (for your website appointment page), but our option is obviously far more refined with a ton of automation. More information to follow. We'll update our FAQs/BeLearn with information and videos later this week.Why? Apart from the fact new forms were required for the property module (and property modals), the new forms are completely error-resistant in that they can't be broken by configuration errors. All other forms will be integrated with the new Formly framework, such as Fact Find, Venus, Referrals, and others, and these changes will be progressively introduced over the next couple of weeks Remember, every page on your website is a potential organic entry point, so every page is a type of landing page that requires a calendar-integrated form (made easy, of course, via our one-click form assignments). The form should then conditionally redirect to that ridiculously important second page. It's such a basic high-converting concept that most businesses ignore - just crazy.Your competitors don't have a chance.

The single most significant change we've introduced to our website framework in the last few years is the inclusion of full-featured Property Listings. The module will make its way out of a lengthy Beta sometime soon and find its way into our standard website and Elementor plugins. The Property module is significant and unique in that the effectiveness of the rendered widgets are supported by around 30 of our own APIs retuning data of various types. It's *very* cool. As part of this API architecture we required the inclusion of address and spatial property data, and most of this information (around 16-million pages) was all built directly into your website.The 'Streets' module shapes itself into a property matrix that has ridiculous value when the pages are leveraged as intended. The problem is that the module is not quite ready for a true production environment. To avoid having the same conversation over and over, we've updated our website with a short introduction. In short, the pages are designed to render a page that will return an option to deliver a property report (based on data obtained via third-party sources), and it gives us scope to return property listings, analytics, historical data, and other information relevant to the address. When you understand how and why the module will be developed, the early naked framework will make a little more sense.https://www.beliefmedia.com.au/website-streets-module

Berger & Sons Paint Works, Rhodes, Sydney, 2nd August 1937.Operating since 1916, Berger was (and still is) a popular local brand (who can forget "keeps on keeping on"). In 1923 Berger Paints contributed 22,7125 litres of paint to the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge to protect the bridge steelwork, so they're an important part of Sydney's history. Rhodes had been part of Sydney's industrial heartland since the 1900s when it was purchased for chemical manufacturing by CSR in 1930. The following 60 years saw Allied Feeds, Berger Paints and Union Carbide operate major industrial plants in the area. As a result, the 20 hectare Rhodes Peninsula became heavily contaminated with some of the most toxic man-made chemicals on the planet, including Agent Orange.The area was developed into Rhodes Waterside by Walker Corp and is now the home to thousands of properties, commercial premises', and a shopping centre.The side-by-side comparison photo shows the broader Rhodes area in 1930 (top) and 1972 (bottom).