Ash Borland (@ashborland)

I used to believe that nobody was watching my content, but one moment changed my mind completely_

I've helped over 350 mortgage brokers grow their businesses by focusing on three very simple things_

Most mortgage brokers that I speak to think that growing their business means_

If you're a self-employed mortgage broker looking to get more repeat clients, here are five ways to do that_

I've spoken to over 300 self-employed mortgage brokers, and this keeps coming up again and again_

A broker said to me recently, _I wish my content got more views._

Years ago, I bet everything on an idea that I'd basically just made up

So my worst year in business taught me way more than my best year has ever done_

the advice that I give every single broker who starts working with me in our first session

If I was starting as a mortgage broker again, here's exactly how I'd build my business_

I remember the exact moment that I knew my career had changed for good_

I spent years selling protection to clients' budgets before I admitted that it wasn't working_

If you want more time with your family as a mortgage broker, then please don't do this_

This is boring, but it gets my brokers clients_

My best tip for building a sustainable mortgage business right now is actually really simple_

here is a really simple way to increase protection income as a mortgage broker_

A broker I worked with wanted a garden for his daughter to ride a bike in_

Here's how I helped a mortgage broker stop leaving £2,400 a month on the table_

99_ of mortgage broker business problems come from this

last week, a client asked me how long should family income benefit run for_

if you're earning less than six figures in your mortgage brokerage business, fix these five things in your process first

The biggest mistake that mortgage brokers make when it comes to protection sales

my three controversial takes on running a mortgage business_

I've spoken to over 300 self-employed mortgage brokers and this thing keeps coming up

The sales mindset that makes mortgage brokers more money, not less An old boss once said one sentence to me that I still think about years later: chase the money and the money runs away. He ran a financial planning firm, and it landed at a formative point in my career. Obvious, and yet it reshaped how I sell. Do the right thing for the client, eliminate their risk, make them safer, and you always end up in the right place. Sell from conscience, not for commission. The strange part is that when you actually do that, you make a lot more money, not less. Five things to work on: 1️⃣ Stop chasing the commission. The moment a client becomes a cheque in your head, they feel it and it costs you. Chase the money and it runs. Focus on them and it follows. 2️⃣ Sell from conscience. Ask what genuinely eliminates this client's risk, then recommend that. Doing right by them is the strategy, not the soft option. 3️⃣ Trust that it pays better. This isn't the noble-but-poorer route. Brokers who lead with the client's interest consistently earn more, because trust converts and referrals compound. 4️⃣ Reject the 80s revival. The pushy, hard-sell tactics doing the rounds right now feel like a step back in time. You don't have to play that game to do well. There's another way. 5️⃣ Hold the principle under pressure. It's easy to drift toward the commission when a month's slow. That's exactly when doing right by the client matters most, and pays off longest. Chase the money and it runs away. Look after the client properly and it turns up anyway. That one sentence is still the best sales advice I've ever had.

5 ways mortgage brokers keep clients coming back (and stop losing them) Most brokers lose repeat clients not because they did a bad job, but because they went quiet after the good one. Retention isn't luck and it isn't charm. It's five things done consistently, so the client never has a reason to drift back to the lender direct or the next broker who posts. Get these running and repeat business stops being something you hope for. Five things to work on: 1️⃣ Give a consistent service every time. Don't run on mood, attentive one week, silent the next. A set process and customer journey everyone goes through guarantees the outcome, and that's what brings them back. 2️⃣ Ask for the Google review at mortgage offer. Right when you've delivered exactly what you promised. Asking at that peak moment locks in the good experience while it's fresh. 3️⃣ Send a custom moving-in card on completion day. Moonpig, Funky Pigeon, whatever. Just make it personal to them and their move. Small touch, and clients genuinely love it. 4️⃣ Move them into a monthly nurture email. Once a month, something actually useful. It keeps you in the back of their mind so that when a mortgage comes up, you're the name, not a forgotten one. 5️⃣ Build a remortgage countdown. Reactivate the client six months out from their remortgage date. Reaching out before they start looking is how you keep the business instead of losing it. Do these five consistently and you've got a bulletproof retention system. The clients you already worked hard to win stop leaking away.

Family income benefit: the protection mistake costing brokers and clients A client asked me whether family income benefit should run to the child's 21st birthday. My answer surprised him. We're trained to link this cover to the child. Kid turns 18, 21, 25, policy stops. But think it through. If I passed away and my daughter was covered to 25, great. And then what? Does my wife go and live on beans and rice? Is her life worth less the moment the kids leave home? You built that home and that life with your partner, not just for the children. Five things to work on: 1️⃣ Question the child-age default. Setting family income benefit to end at 18, 21 or 25 is a habit, not a rule. It's worth challenging on every case rather than defaulting to it. 2️⃣ Remember who's left behind. When the term ends at the child's 21st, it's the surviving partner who's suddenly uncovered. The person the client built the whole life with. 3️⃣ Consider recommending cover to retirement age. When two people marry, they plan to live the whole life together. Cover that protects that income to the end, not just until the kids fly, reflects the actual plan. 4️⃣ Frame it around the life, not the child. You're not just keeping kids in the family home. You're protecting the future that couple designed together. That framing changes the conversation. 5️⃣ Sell the security, not the product. The value here is a client knowing they can provide for the people they love for the rest of their lives, even when they're gone. That's what earns the yes. Family income benefit is one of the best tools we've got, and most brokers are cutting it short by default. Run it to retirement and you're protecting the right person for the right length of time.

Why I ditched daily content for weekly (and it grew my business) I walked away from the exact thing that built my career, right when it was still working. Daily long-form content built my brand, my business, the life I've given my family. At the start of this year I stopped and switched to one high-quality podcast episode a week on YouTube instead. Two things pushed me. I was pumping out information but never the backstory, never real connection. And asking people to consume daily long-form is a huge ask. One good 10 to 15 minute episode a week is something busy people can actually fit in. Five things to work on: 1️⃣ Question what's working, not just what's failing. The hardest thing to change is the thing still getting results. But "working" and "working best" aren't the same, and it's worth checking which you've got. 2️⃣ Share the backstory, not just the information. Pure how-to builds an audience that knows your tips and not you. Connection comes from the story behind the advice, and that's what people actually remember. 3️⃣ Respect how busy your audience is. Brokers haven't got 45 minutes for a rambling interview. A tight 10 to 15 minutes they can slot into a day beats something brilliant they never press play on. 4️⃣ Build for recurring viewers, not one-off hits. One strong weekly piece brings the same people back again and again. That rhythm builds a relationship a scattergun daily feed rarely does. 5️⃣ Judge the change by the right feedback. Not views. The DMs and the real conversations off the back of it are how I know this landed. 21 episodes in, that's the signal that mattered. I only wish I'd done it sooner. Sometimes the move that grows the business is walking away from the thing that built it.

4 growth myths keeping mortgage brokers stuck under six figures Four things brokers swear are holding them back that have almost nothing to do with why they're stuck. I hear these constantly. Not enough time, not enough leads, not enough views, no proper brand. Every one of them feels like the real problem and every one of them is a distraction from the thing actually costing you money. Here's the honest version. Five things to work on: 1️⃣ Stop blaming time. Brokers tell me they're flat out, 10 to 12 hours a day, then admit they're doing five to seven mortgages a month. That's not a time problem, it's a systems problem. Others do 30 in the same hours you have. 2️⃣ Stop asking for more leads. Most brokers don't need them, they need to maximise each one. If your average case size is under a grand, you're badly underselling that client. 3️⃣ Push your average case size up. It should be at least £2,500. If it's not, that's the number to work on, not your lead count. The money's in the case, not the volume. 4️⃣ Stop chasing views. Ten views that produce one £2,500 mortgage beats 100,000 views that produce nothing. You can build a six-figure business on tiny view counts. Reach isn't income. 5️⃣ Forget the business brand for now. Lead with your name. People refer you by name early on, and Ash Borland Mortgages makes life easier than some invented brand. Want an empire later? Rebrand then. Nobody cares yet. None of these are why you're stuck. Fix your systems and your case size, and the time, leads and views stop mattering almost entirely.

The Adviser Advantage (Episode 34) 5 process fixes that take mortgage brokers to six figures If you're earning under six figures, the problem probably isn't leads. It's five fixable things in your process. None of these need more clients. They need you to earn properly from the ones you already get. Four to five mortgages a month, each taking the protection their risk actually warrants, is a six-figure business by year end. Here's where the money's leaking. Five things to work on: 1️⃣ Treat every repeat client like a brand new one. Brokers let service slide on remortgages, doing them over email and making nothing. That degrading service is money walking out the door. Give repeats the full treatment. 2️⃣ Seed protection in the very first meeting. Not a pitch, not a sell. Just make them aware in the discovery call. Awareness early means far higher uptake later, and more income. 3️⃣ Collect full medical info with the fact find. Gather it upfront in the documents so your protection recommendations are accurate. When you present real figures, not guesses, they land. 4️⃣ Get comfortable showing expensive premiums. A mortgage is a serious debt carrying serious risk, and your job is to remove it. A £30 life-only policy isn't elimination. Proper cover costs, so own that. 5️⃣ Submit protection and mortgage together. Same time, not after the offer comes in, not later. Sending them in as one is what actually gets the protection over the line. Sort these five and the income follows without a single extra lead. Six figures is a process, not a volume problem.