Grow A Small Business Podcast · Troy Trewin

Nevada Matthews of Cube Loans: The Incredible Journey from Sweeping Floors at 16 to Leading a $300M Mortgage Business — Scaling with Systems, Community Marketing, and a High-Performance Team. (Episode 764 - Nevada Matthews)

·28 min·1 clip

Munish joined after writing one loan, and Nevada says attitude mattered more than experience.

1. Grow A Small Business Podcast features Nevada Matthews discussing Cube Loans and the path from a small brokerage to a $300 million settlements business. 2. Troy Truen interviews Nevada Matthews, a co-owner at Cube Loans in Brisbane, Australia, and Nevada explains why Scott, his former mortgage broker, is now his business partner. 3. The episode asks how Cube Loans scaled from 16 team members and $86 million in settlements to 18 team members and $300 million in the last 12 months. 4. Nevada says he dropped out of school at 16 and started in his family's printing and book publishing business sweeping floors and doing basic work. 5. He says he became general manager of that family business in his early 20s, with close to 20 team members, and learned to like the numbers and growth side more than the industry itself. 6. Nevada explains that he moved into financial services, worked there for a year to understand the industry, and then joined the mortgage broking arm. 7. He says he called Scott, joined Cube about five years ago, and later bought 50% of the business with his wife about two to three years ago. 8. Nevada gives the growth numbers in detail: 2021 had 16 members and 183 transactions, 2023 had 19 members and 297 deals, and the last 12 months reached 300 million in settlements over 526 deals. 9. He says the business also benefited from a good market and from having two owners working on growth instead of one. 10. Nevada describes stress points including rapid growth, process strain, overseas processing staff losses, and cash flow pressure because brokers are paid months after the work is done. 11. He says he moved from trying to outwork problems with massive hours to focusing on strategy, systems, and handing responsibility to other people. 12. Nevada says the hardest part has been being pulled between client work and business work, with 40 to 50% of his time still spent with clients. 13. He says one of his favorite parts of the job is helping first-home buyers, but the bigger reward is watching junior team members become skilled and confident. 14. Nevada says local community Facebook pages are an untapped marketing channel, and one post from a team member can produce two to three leads a week at no cost. 15. He says related businesses work best when they are in a similar growth phase, using an accountant example to show why shared ambition matters. 16. Nevada says hiring for personality has been one of the biggest wins, and he points to Munish as someone who started with only one loan written and later became highly capable. 17. He says culture has to be more deliberate as the team grows, because six people can stay aligned naturally while larger teams need scheduled time to reinforce how they operate. 18. The conversation is practical and interview-driven, with Troy pushing on numbers, stress, hiring, marketing, and balance while Nevada answers directly. 19. People growing a service business with 5-30 staff will get the most from it. 20. Listeners wanting abstract theory without operator detail may skip it.

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