Women in Business - String and Bold with Marissa Schulze (Rise High)

Send us Fan MailWomen in mortgage broking in Australia are underrepresented — and in this episode of The LVR Podcast, Ruan Burger flips the script and puts Marissa Schulze in the hot seat to explore why, and what needs to change.Marissa's journey into mortgage broking is one that many women in the industry will recognise. She left a career in commercial banking — frustrated by the conflict between shareholder priorities and client interests — and started broking nine months pregnant with her first child. With no residential lending experience, no existing client base, and most lender BDMs openly sceptical of investing time in someone about to give birth, the early days were a steep learning curve by any measure. But she proved herself quickly, and those same BDMs came around fast once the results started speaking for themselves.What's striking about Marissa's perspective on women in mortgage broking in Australia is that she never saw being female as a disadvantage. If anything, she saw it as an edge — particularly in her ability to connect with female clients on a deeper emotional level. The real challenges she faced were the same ones any broker faces starting from scratch: building a client base, developing systems, growing a team, and evolving as a business leader at every stage of that growth.But the conversation goes beyond one broker's story. Ruan and Marissa explore what the industry as a whole needs to do to genuinely improve the representation of women in mortgage broking in Australia. Two structural barriers stand out: the confidence gap that holds many women back from backing themselves in a commission-only or self-employed model, and the lack of businesses with the support infrastructure needed to make part-time broking genuinely viable.Marissa's argument is compelling — and backed by her own experience. Part-time female brokers, when given the right support structure, tend to punch well above their weight in productivity and loyalty. The businesses that create those environments don't just attract more women in mortgage broking in Australia — they build better, more stable, more diverse teams across the board.The broader challenge Marissa puts to the industry is this: diversity isn't just about gender. It's about building a mortgage broking community that genuinely reflects the community it serves — across culture, age, background, and experience.Thank You To Our Hosts: Ruan Burger and Marissa SchulzeMore From Marissa and her company, Rise High Financial Solutions:Marissa Schulze Linkedin Marissa Schulze Instagram Marissa Schulze Facebook Rise High Financial SolutionsMore From Ruan and his company, Success and Broker:Ruan Burger Linkedin Ruan Burger Instagram Ruan Burger Facebook Success and Broker