Meet Claire
Claire Williamson is the Director and Mortgage Adviser at My Mortgage in Cambridge, New Zealand. She has spent the past decade helping individuals and families navigate major financial decisions while growing a people centred business. Her leadership is grounded in connection, continuous growth, and creating opportunities for others to succeed alongside her.
A Career That Found Her
Some careers begin with careful planning. Others arrive quietly, asking only for the courage to say yes.
Claire Williamson never imagined that financial services would become her life’s work. Fresh from graduating university with degrees in Sport and Leisure Studies and Arts, she believed her future would unfold somewhere in sport management or perhaps even veterinary science. Instead, she found herself managing a local squash and tennis club in Cambridge, where she discovered something much more important than a career title.
She discovered that she loved people.
Organising events, supporting members, strengthening community relationships, and creating meaningful experiences became far more fulfilling than she had expected. Those early years revealed a natural ability to bring people together, solve problems, and create environments where others felt supported.
When she returned to New Zealand after spending time overseas, she had no carefully mapped career plan. A conversation with the president of the squash club changed everything. He invited her to join his small mortgage advisory business. She accepted the opportunity, believing it would simply be a temporary role while she figured out what came next.
Instead, it became the beginning of a journey that would shape the next decade of her life.
As Claire reflects,
“I was never meant to be in financial services. It happened accidentally, but I couldn’t be more thrilled by how it’s all turned out.”
Looking back, what seemed accidental was perhaps simply another expression of what had always motivated her. Whether in community sport or financial advice, the work was ultimately about helping people move forward.
That purpose never changed. Only the setting did.
Learning to Trust the Opportunities That Appear
Joining My Mortgage introduced Claire to an industry she knew very little about. There was no long history in banking or finance, no family business waiting for her, and no expectation that she would eventually lead the company.
What she did have was curiosity, determination, and people who believed in her before she fully believed in herself.
One of those people was Adam, the business owner who offered her the opportunity in her twenties. His confidence became a foundation she would continue building upon throughout her career.
That belief mattered because success rarely arrives without moments of uncertainty.
Over the years Claire steadily developed her expertise while the business itself continued evolving. The company expanded from three people to seventeen, creating a team of advisers and operational specialists committed to delivering outstanding client experiences.
As the organisation grew, Claire’s responsibilities grew alongside it.
She became a shareholder in 2018.
She became a director in 2020.
More recently she took ownership of half the business, helping guide its next stage of growth while introducing greater structure through a growing leadership team.
None of those milestones happened overnight.
Each one represented countless decisions, difficult conversations, and an increasing willingness to step into leadership before feeling completely ready.
Resilience Beyond Business
Behind every successful business story is usually a quieter personal one that never appears on annual reports or company websites.
For Claire, one of the defining chapters came in 2019 when her marriage ended.
Alongside the emotional reality of rebuilding her personal life came another significant challenge. She was determined to retain her ownership in the business she had worked so hard to help build.
Protecting those shares meant protecting her future.
Rather than allowing the setback to define her, she focused on continuing forward. She stayed committed to her long term vision while learning how resilience often grows quietly through ordinary decisions made every single day.
Business presented its own challenges as well.
Hiring mistakes occasionally placed the wrong people into the organisation. Some lacked the necessary skills while others simply were not aligned with the company’s culture. Claire learned that leadership meant taking responsibility rather than assigning blame. Every difficult decision became another lesson in balancing accountability with kindness.
The financial advice industry itself also experienced major changes that forced businesses to rethink established ways of working. Instead of resisting change, My Mortgage adapted.
The team expanded.
New opportunities emerged.
Processes evolved.
Most importantly, people remained at the centre of every decision.
Rather than seeing uncertainty as something to survive, Claire began viewing it as something that could create new possibilities.
That mindset has become one of her defining leadership qualities.
Creating a Workplace Where People Can Grow
Ask Claire about business growth and the conversation quickly moves away from revenue.
She certainly appreciates the achievement of helping grow My Mortgage by more than 900% over the course of a decade, transforming it into a significantly larger and stronger business.
Yet the numbers themselves are not what bring her the greatest satisfaction.
She is far more interested in the people behind those figures.
She believes leadership exists where empowerment, thoughtful decision making, and action meet. Great businesses are built by helping talented people recognise their own potential before they fully see it themselves.
Watching colleagues develop into confident professionals has become one of the most rewarding parts of her work.
Within My Mortgage, career pathways are intentionally designed around effort, competence, and opportunity. Younger employees are encouraged to take ownership, develop leadership skills, and even become shareholders while still early in their careers.
That philosophy reflects something much bigger than succession planning.
It demonstrates trust.
Claire believes that when people are genuinely supported, they often exceed expectations not because they are pushed, but because they feel valued.
Her leadership style is equally honest about its challenges.
She describes herself as a perfectionist who naturally worries about making the wrong decisions. Rather than allowing that tendency to create paralysis, she continually reminds herself that meaningful progress requires action.
Growth rarely arrives through perfect decisions.
It usually arrives through consistent ones.
Making Financial Advice Feel Human
Mortgage advice is often viewed as a technical profession built around lending policies, interest rates, and financial calculations.
Claire sees something entirely different.
She sees moments of transformation.
Over the years she has helped hundreds of people purchase their first homes, including many single professional women who once believed home ownership might remain beyond their reach.
She has supported families as they expanded property portfolios, entrepreneurs pursuing business ownership, and individuals building greater financial confidence.
For her, these achievements extend well beyond transactions.
Every home purchased represents security.
Every investment represents possibility.
Every financial conversation becomes an opportunity to replace uncertainty with confidence.
This perspective explains why education has become such an important part of My Mortgage’s future.
Alongside serving clients directly, the business is developing an online platform focused on improving financial literacy and helping more people understand the choices available to them.
The company also actively supports community organisations while encouraging young people to develop stronger financial awareness early in life.
Claire believes successful businesses carry responsibilities beyond commercial performance.
When knowledge is shared generously, entire communities benefit.
The Meaning of Connection, Growth, and Sparkle
Claire often returns to three personal values that quietly shape every area of her life.
Connection.
Growth.
Sparkle.
Connection means building genuine relationships with colleagues, clients, business partners, podcast listeners, and community members. She believes meaningful conversations create stronger organisations because trust always begins with people rather than processes.
Growth reflects a commitment to lifelong learning. Whether facing success or failure, she continually asks herself whether the experience is helping her become better than she was yesterday.
Sparkle is perhaps the most personal of the three.
To Claire, sparkle represents authenticity.
It means embracing individuality, encouraging others to do the same, and bringing energy, warmth, and optimism into everyday interactions without pretending to be someone else.
These values also shape how she maintains balance during demanding periods.
Rather than searching for complicated productivity systems, she returns to six simple daily practices that consistently restore her energy.
Movement.
Breathing.
Nature.
Gratitude.
Dancing.
Fun.
Those habits remind her that sustainable leadership begins with caring for herself as intentionally as she cares for everyone around her.
Looking Beyond the Next Milestone
Success has changed meaning throughout Claire’s career.
Earlier in life it naturally centred on financial achievement and measurable business growth.
Today her definition is much broader.
She wants to create freedom for others.
She wants to create opportunities that help people build meaningful careers.
She wants her work to leave lasting positive effects on clients, colleagues, and communities.
That vision extends beyond mortgage advice alone.
She hopes to continue expanding My Mortgage into broader financial services while developing new ventures that reflect her interests, including a farm to table restaurant and event space that brings people together in entirely different ways.
At the heart of every ambition sits the same purpose that first appeared during her days managing a local sports club.
Helping people flourish.
As she looks ahead, Claire continues to be guided by a simple philosophy:
“Always take the next smallest action to achieving your dreams, because they are possible.”
It is practical advice that reflects her own journey.
She did not become a business owner because every step was planned.
She became one because she kept taking the next step, even when the destination remained uncertain.
A Legacy Built Through People
Claire Williamson’s story is not ultimately about mortgages, business ownership, or financial success.
It is about believing in people before they fully believe in themselves.
Others extended that belief to her when she was beginning her career, and she has spent the years since passing that same confidence forward.
Whether helping someone purchase a first home, mentoring a future leader, or building opportunities for her team to thrive, she continues to prove that leadership is measured not simply by what a person builds, but by how many others rise because of it.
For Claire, that may be the most meaningful investment of all.
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