- Former corporate bankers Alissa and Elle founded Two Birds One Loan to create a brokerage that prioritises family flexibility over traditional office hours.
- Establishing strict boundaries, such as only holding meetings during school hours, helped the founders manage six children while gaining client respect.
- The business overcame early financial struggles and burnout by hiring a mentor to implement structured systems and clear role descriptions.
- Success in the brokerage industry relies on building a supportive team, protecting mental health, and having the courage to ask peers for help.
When Alissa Childs co-founded Two Birds One Loan with her best friend Elle, they weren't just chasing a paycheck. They were building a business that actually fit their lives, not the other way around.
Today, the award-winning brokerage has grown from two women with laptops and a big vision into a thriving team of eight. Along the way, Alissa has helped hundreds of Australians secure home loans and investment properties while building a company that fits around family life.
But the journey from corporate banking to entrepreneurship wasn’t easy, and it didn’t happen overnight.
Falling into finance, and never leaving
Unlike many brokers, Alissa didn’t originally plan a career in finance. After finishing school, she thought she might pursue something creative like hair and makeup, but her mother encouraged her to get a job first and save up.
That job happened to be with a mortgage broker.
She spent several years working in broking before moving into banking, eventually becoming a business development manager (BDM) and working across several banks, most recently Macquarie. That early broking experience would later bring her full circle.
The turning point: Motherhood
Alissa’s career path shifted dramatically after she had her first two children.
“I realised I couldn’t stay in the corporate world,” she says. “It really rattled me to not know where my career was going to go after I had my first two, quite close together.”
At the same time, her high school best friend Elle — now her business partner — was thinking along similar lines. So they decided to take the leap.
“We probably had a big vision and maybe rose-coloured glasses about how hard it would be,” Alissa says.
Still, they left well-paid corporate roles and launched Two Birds, One Loan in 2018, even if the reality would prove tougher than they expected.
The tough early years
Like many brokers starting out, the early financial reality came as a shock.
“We were thinking, we just have to write $5 million, $10 million, and we'll be laughing,” Alissa says. “And the reality is [...] you need to have 30 million of leads to be settling that.”
The work was constant, but the paycheck didn't keep pace.
“There was a time where I said to Elle, ‘I don’t know how much longer I can keep earning $70,000 a year.’”
Despite the pressure, they pushed through, believing their long-term plan would eventually pay off – and it did.
Designing a business around family
One of the biggest reasons Alissa and Elle started their own firm was flexibility. Between them, they now have six children, all under nine. So they built a business model that prioritises family life.
“I only offer meetings between 10am and 2:30pm,” Alissa says. “So it's very rare that I can't do drop-off or I can't do pick-up.”
The surprise? Even high-net-worth doctors and specialists respect those boundaries.
“You think you have to craft it around other people's schedules,” she explains. “But if you say “This is when I'm free,” they'll book it within those times.”
It’s a lesson she wishes she’d learned earlier, and one early client meeting still stands out.
“The two of us went out to the other side of Sydney at 7:00 at night. In hindsight I'm just like, what were we thinking?” she says. “You learn so much as you go, around boundaries, your time, and what you're willing to do.”
Overcoming personal challenges
Alissa’s journey has also involved deeply personal struggles. For most of her life, she lived with severe anxiety, though it wasn’t formally diagnosed until after she had children.
“I did grow up with probably internalised debilitating anxiety,” she says. “But I think back in those days, anxiety wasn't something that was really known about or recognised. And I'd sort of figured out how to not externalise it.”
“It really came out in my adulthood, but mostly postnatally,” she revealed. “It hit me like a ton of bricks [...] It was a constant debilitating feeling of fear, dread, and “I just don't know what's next” sort of thing.”
Starting the business became a turning point.
“The business actually saved me,” Alissa says, and her business partner Elle played a huge role during that time.
“She is the opposite personality to me. She has not an ounce of anxiety in her body,” Alissa says. “So she's really balanced me over the years.”
Today, their business supports the Gidget Foundation, a charity focused on perinatal mental health. For every settlement they complete, they donate $50 to the organisation.
The secret to their partnership
Much of Two Birds, One Loan’s success comes down to the complementary skills between the two founders. Alissa brought lending expertise and sales ability. Elle brought marketing, systems, and business management skills.
“Running a broking business – maybe 10% of it is writing loans and 90% is running the business, getting leads in,” Alissa says.
From building systems and websites to managing marketing and processes, the backend work is extensive, so their differences have ultimately been a strength.
Avoiding burnout
As the business grew, another challenge emerged: burnout. At one point, both founders had newborn babies just weeks apart, while their only staff member was also on maternity leave.
“The kids are in the office, they're in the baby carriers, we're working late nights,” Alissa says. “We were settling a lot at that point, but we were dead on the inside just from how busy we were.”
That experience pushed them to seek outside help, and hiring a mentor became (another) turning point.
From processes to role descriptions and organisation charts, this mentor helped them bring structure and clarity to the growing company.
The result was a more sustainable business model where Alissa and Elle could focus on strategy and client relationships while their team handled much of the process work.
“You cannot do it all,” Alissa says. “If you try to, you’ll burn out.”
Building the right team
Today, the business has a mix of onshore and offshore staff. Customer-facing roles remain in Australia, while administrative and processing support is handled overseas.
The key hiring lesson? Personality and values matter as much as experience.
One hire Alissa mentions was quite green from a lending perspective, but “she has been invaluable for us because of her personality and her ability to make beautiful relationships.”
The power of marketing
Marketing often feels like a line item you can cut when things get tight, but for Alissa, it became the engine room.
What started as a "nice-to-have" specialist hire quickly turned into a lead-generation machine. Website traffic didn't just grow; it exploded from 700 to nearly 4,000 monthly clicks.
The lesson? When you find a way to cut through the noise, the ROI speaks for itself.
Standing out in a crowded market
Broking is a crowded room, but a strong brand is how you cut through the noise. Choosing the name Two Birds One Loan helped them stand out from day one.
“In the Hills District, I feel like everyone's heard of us,” she says. “Whereas if we had a company called [...] something plain, I'm not sure we would stand out so much.”
Another differentiator: being visible.
“It's so important to just put yourself out there,” she says. That includes speaking at conferences, appearing on camera, and sharing their story publicly, even when it’s uncomfortable.
“It’s terrifying,” she says. “But every time you do it, you relax a little bit more.”
What’s next?
Despite their success, Alissa and Elle are still figuring out the next chapter. One new venture involves working closely with the medical community through a partnership with a doctor-led investment group of 30,000 members.
Longer term, they may split that operation into a separate company, but the mission remains the same: steady, smart growth that doesn't compromise the family flexibility they’ve worked so hard to protect.
Advice for brokers starting out
Looking back, Alissa says there’s one piece of advice she would give brokers starting their own businesses: ask for help.
“That's the good thing about this industry is that no one has ever said, "I don't have time for you."” she reflects. “Someone will always have a solution to your problem. If they're a few years ahead of you, someone will always have something for you, but you've just got to ask.”
Bottom line: resilience is the ultimate differentiator. Push through those early years, stay open to learning, and the effort will pay off.
