From Zookeeper to Broker Keeper

Jun 3, 2024Blog

From Zookeeper to Broker Keeper – Josh Hawker

Me Zookeepering in 2004

I often get asked how I got into Sales and especially Bridging Finance as it’s not something you dream about as a small child. Well, buckle up as we depart on a journey into the distant past to present day of Joshua James Hawker Esq.

Let me take you back to the summer of 1992, Freddie Mercury opens the Barcelona Olympics, Black Wednesday is a matter of weeks away and young lad from Ringwood embarks on his dream. Ever since I was very young, I wanted to work with animals. I started at 7 years old, helping my Mum out at the Animal Sanctuary she worked at in the New Forest. I bottle fed baby wild cats, hand reared abandoned birds and nursed a fawn back to health.

Fast forward to Year 10 work experience, I was placed (at my insistence) at the Heavy Horse Center in Dorset. My passion and love for the animals led to being offered a job. The summer of ’99 was a good ‘un! Even though I was only earning £10 a day (exceptionally low even for the 20th Century) from pretty much dawn till dusk work, I could not have been happier than a pig in the preverbal.

Two years later a role come up at the Oceanarium, Bournemouth. At 16 years old I was leading guided tours around the aquarium, doing public talks during the feeding times, radio mic’d up like Britney Spears (minus the schoolgirl outfit) and looked after all the animals. This is where my passion for sharks developed to a near obsession culminating to a large shark tattoo on my back.

Blacktip reef sharks in the Great Barrier Reef Display at Bournemouth Oceanarium

A levels passed, I was bound for Sparsholt College Group to study Animal Management BSc (Hons). There I lived my best life of studying animals during the week and working with them at the weekends. I had amazing experiences at university; summer placements at London Zoo with the big cats and bears, sealion training at North Devon Wildlife park and giraffe Keeper at Longleat Safari park.

After securing a Desmond (2:2) – I blame my girlfriend at time for missing out on a 2:1 (luckily, she is now my wife, so a good investment in the long term), I was offered a full-time position at the Oceanarium which I grasped with both hands. Then 2007 arrives and said girlfriend, secures a place at Westminster University. Not able to afford to go to London, she resigned herself to a lesser experience at Bournemouth University. Being the kinda guy I am, I offered to relocate with her to London, live with an old school friend of mine to afford the rent and I offered to cover our living expenses. Not all zookeepers wear capes! I approached London zoo for a role and they offered my £14k a year, not near enough. I spoke to London Aquarium and was offered £12k! I was stuck between my career and a gorgeous 18-year-old blonde. So as in the majority of these circumstances, I went with my heart and chose my girlfriend, now my wife and it was one of the hardest but best decisions of my life. We celebrated 19 years together 10 days ago.

So, I needed a job, a high paying job, a job that paid more than the peanuts I was feeding the animals. I managed to fall into a job in recruitment by passing an Apprentice style interview and tasks (6 hours of grueling tests and interrogations). 20 of us started the day and 3 of us ended it, losing some of our number after each task, never to be seen again. I still wonder to this day if they were actually just rejected or something more sinister but there were certainly Squid Game vibes coming out of that entire process. My sales career took off and I never looked back and my dissertation written on shark behavior was the perfect education for working in the square mile, especially during the crash of 2008.

Now for the property part of my career. My grandfather was a fairly major developer in Brighton in the 60s & 70s, with my own father owning a business doing “tart and flips” for a number of years. You could say I had bricks in my blood, but this was always overshadowed by the animals. Although recruitment was good to me and I had a natural flair for speaking to people (thanks Dad, the most silver-tongued person I have ever met), it wasn’t my passion. I looked at returning to animals, but I had got used to holidays, nice cars and a serious prospect of owning my own house, that it simply wasn’t for me anymore. So, I started to look at different sales roles in property and Select Resorts, a Savills Associate, were advertising. I ended up working there for 5 years, selling property abroad. I sold luxury villas on golf resorts primarily (even though I had rarely ventured on a crazy golf course, let alone the real thing). I sold property in St Kitts, Cayman Islands, Florida, Cyprus, South of France, Costa del Sol and Tuscany having to regularly visit these places. A helicopter flight over Little Cayman flown by the heir to the chateauneuf de pap empire, catamaran trip to Nevis from St Kitts and wine tasting in a Tuscany vineyard were highlights for sure. Not to mention selling a €4m villa in Cyprus with 6% commission (that paid for the deposit on my house here in the UK), a record that was never beaten at Select Resorts for largest single fee in their 35 year history, not bad for a zookeeper that was more used to clearing up sh1t rather than talking it.

Unfortunately, Brexit put an end to the holiday home market for Brits and I had to move onto pastures new (the mere mention of Brexit still makes my blood boil and I am hanging onto my burgundy passport for as long as possible to remind me of simpler, easier and more prosperous days). After a short stint at House Magazine as Account Manager, I started to look for a longer-term role. I responded to a recruiter, and she put me in touch with James at Catalyst Property Finance. We clicked straight away, and I was invited back for a second interview with Chris, the owner and founder. He turned up in his gym stuff and trainers whilst I was in a full whistle reminiscent of my city days, minus the bowler of course. Chris spoke more than I did and told me the inner workings of Catalyst and the secret strategy they were about to embark on. His final remarks were, “well I better hire you now as I have told you too much!”

Before Catalyst I was at a turning point in my career and as I had 6 job offers on the table, I thank my lucky stars I made the choice I did. Heart and head were in harmony and after nearly 5 years at Catalyst, it has been a wild ride. I joined the day my first child was born, 6 months later we went into lockdown and never having worked from home in my life, I was suddenly thrust into WFH full time for 9 months!

I thoroughly enjoy my role here at Catalyst and although I look back at my career with animals with the fondest of fond memories, I still smile to myself when I wake up on a weekend day, a bank holiday and especially over Christmas and know I don’t have to leave my family to work in a role that never stops.