From the Skies to Settlements: Matt Symons’ runway to broking

What happens when you pour over a decade into a career, only to have it evaporate overnight? That’s exactly what happened to Matt Symons when the COVID-19 pandemic grounded his aviation career as a pilot. With a baby on the way and a newly purchased home, Matt didn’t have the luxury of waiting for the industry to bounce back.

Matt began looking for a way to transfer his skill set and existing financial knowledge into a new industry—and made the bold pivot to become a mortgage broker. Initially spending time contracting in the industry, in mid-2024, he launched his finance brokerage, Balmoral Financial on Sydney’s Lower North Shore and has written a staggering 91 deals valued at $71M in his first seven months with LMG as his aggregator. So how did he do it?

Matt’s runway to success started years earlier. Before becoming a pilot, Matt travelled to 55 countries, lived in four, and learnt to speak three languages fluently. During this time, he met his wife from Sweden and was deeply influenced by two key mentors. The first was his father-in-law, a property investor and hotelier from Gothenburg.

“My wife’s dad started with nothing and built a significant property portfolio, including hotels—and even a castle. The biggest lesson he taught me was the power of positive thinking and goal visualisation. You can literally think something into reality.”
Matt Symons, Director of Balmoral Financial

The second mentor runs a venture capital firm in Brisbane and has been involved in every strategic decision Matt’s made. For anyone building something meaningful, Matt believes having a mentor who inspires and holds you accountable is non-negotiable.

“I feel good about my decision. I used to have to fly away for work for a long, long time, and now, I get to be home with my family every night. I’ve got a three and a 1-year-old, and I haven’t missed any of their milestones.”

Leveraging his analytical thinking, risk assessment skills and task prioritisation – skills he honed in aviation – Matt knew that mapping his desired income and reverse-engineering the activity he needed to do every day to achieve his targets was crucial for business success. Each day was met with intent, clear goals and the discipline to show up for them every day. For Matt, that meant two high-value client meetings a day, room for follow-ups in between, and the operational capacity to service his customers without bottlenecks slowing down momentum.

“Success in meeting your financial goals is borne from the ability to have delayed gratification of the result. So, putting in the activity today and not realising the result for 12, 18 months, two years, and beyond and being comfortable with that.”

Working on the business was just as critical as working in the business for Matt. The difference between being busy and being booked came down to one thing: learning how to sell. By mastering sales and investing in his development through education, Matt gained altitude, enabling him to lead every client interaction with confidence and ensure they felt informed and empowered in their financial decisions.

“For me selling shouldn’t be ‘salesy’ – it should be about providing value to your client base, and the transfer of certainty about a topic that you feel passionate about.”

He was equally intentional about how he positioned himself in the market. Every client touchpoint—from the website to how he spoke about the strategy—was designed to shift perception. Not Matt, the former pilot. Matt the broker. Matt the educator. Matt the trusted advisor in all things finance and property investing. An impact that’s resulting in a high conversion rate and promising customer loyalty.

“I took property courses, listened to audiobooks, learned how to handle client objections and built a structured system to keep Balmoral Financial’s pipeline flowing. The only thing separating you from where you want to be is the knowledge in your head. We all have 24 hours in the day.”