Jimmy Yan

Last year, Ironfish Melbourne CBD Managing Director Jimmy Yan moved his family into their brand-new house in the affluent Melbourne suburb of Toorak. The move in many ways marks a milestone in a highly successful career with Ironfish that began when Jimmy was in his early twenties.

At 24, Jimmy was delivering newspapers by day and working late as a kitchen hand by night. He took an interest in property investment after reading an article in one of the newspapers he was delivering. He wanted to learn more and to start investing, but struggled to afford it.

“I was working hard but not really moving forward. At the time, Ironfish was the only company I could find who were helping people learn about property investment and I went along to a seminar in 2007 – because it was free (and I had no money!). The content was great, really interesting and I learned a lot about investment. But I was still a bit skeptical, and in ‘self-protective’ mode – I thought their seminars were all about selling property, and I couldn’t afford to buy.

“But around a year later, someone from Ironfish got in touch with me and came over for a one-on-one appointment at my house – free of charge. The experience completely changed my perspective on Ironfish. Throughout the entire meeting, we never talked about property. We were from similar backgrounds and we had a frank discussion about life and where I was at.

“Although I wanted to buy, the Ironfish strategist told me I should wait, and instead think about how I could earn more money to achieve my goal of investing.”

Jimmy kept in touch with his Ironfish strategist and the following year, he decided to come along to our income expansion master class.

“It cost nearly $2,000 to join the course, so it was a massive commitment for me – more than half of what I had in my bank account at the time. But looking back, it was the turning point in my life. It totally changed me. I learned that if you want to achieve success in life, you need a coach or a mentor. Listening to Joseph [Ironfish CEO & Founder] – I knew I had found my mentor, I thought he’s the guy that I want to follow and that’s why I decided to join Ironfish.”

After starting as a strategist in our Melbourne Box Hill office, Jimmy quickly found his niche under the mentorship of Joseph and our Melbourne Managing Director, Ellen Bian. Jimmy fully embraced his training, immersed himself in study and soon developed a loyal customer base.

“After 6 years of working as a strategist and building my own portfolio, I really took to heart the Ironfish ethos of ‘adding value’. I was given an opportunity to become a team leader within my branch for an internal comp we were running. But even after the comp, I kept my team, and continued to meet them weekly, working together to build on our achievements.

“One day, about 2 or 3 years ago, I was having lunch with Ellen and Gary [Gary Ma, Ironfish Melbourne General Manager] and Ellen asked me where I see myself in the future. Have you thought about opening your own branch in the CBD? I was grateful for the opportunity, and for Joseph and Ellen in seeing my potential as an honest, reliable person who is willing to take responsibility as a leader. But that’s just the Ironfish culture – if you prove yourself as someone willing to take responsibility, opportunities come to you. It’s why the company has grown so quickly in the last 13 years.”