The formula for broker success is simple
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MCAP interviewed over 100 of Canada’s top brokers to uncover what really moves the needle – and then hit the road to share what they found
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MCAP’s Broker Success Formula has ambitions: it was designed to support brokers with the tools and strategies that can help elevate their business. It asks brokers to step out of their business that they live and breathe day in and day out, and assess what they’ve built with fresh eyes.
“It is a reminder; it is a validator; it is an encourager,” explains Megan McDonald, senior vice president, single family sales, MCAP. “And it is an opportunity for us to come together in a different way to better the business.”
The cookbook approach What is the Broker Success Formula? Simply put, it’s a structured framework built entirely from the ground up through interviews with a cross-section of Canada’s highest-performing brokers. With lenders always talking about the same things – product and rate, product and rate – MCAP seized the opportunity to do something different.
“We were in a unique position to pull from the top roster, regardless of brand or network, and go back to the whole team and say, this is what the star performers do”
Megan McDonald,
MCAP
One hundred percent of MCAP’s business comes from the broker market. Delivering something that would make its own sales force more successful made sense. To put it another way, “Wouldn’t you want to share what the Michael Jordan of basketball does?” McDonald asks.
“We were in a unique position to pull from the top roster, regardless of brand or network, and go back to the whole team and say, this is what the star performers do,” she continues. “We can tell them about our rate, but what if we could help them increase their business by 20 percent – or double it? That would help MCAP too.”
MCAP’s sales team set out to conduct over 100 interviews, something that’s definitely not in their job description. But they embraced the concept, owning the process and executing the initiative with skill and a lot of laughs along the way. They met with every single broker – fitting for interviews where the most used word was “relationship,” McDonald notes. Four pillars emerged: foundation, execution, engagement, and optimization. Within each, certain things brokers were doing – intentionally or not – emerged as the key drivers of their success.
Importantly, MCAP wasn’t trying to fit brokers into predetermined boxes. The goal was to capture organic insights to be shared, and what made the experience truly special was that not one broker declined the interview request; none of them even hesitated. The MCAP interviewing team, who had expected some level of protectiveness over their process, was pleasantly surprised.
“It’s very validating in that it is the simple and the consistent that’s the foundation of any long-term business. A lot of people just need to be reminded of it and encouraged to stay the course”
Megan McDonald,
MCAP
Published June 1, 2026
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“That, to me, spoke so much to what this industry’s culture is based on: sharing best practices,” McDonald explains. “Talk about being willing to be the chef, write the cookbook, and share it amongst your peers right across the country. They were elated to honestly discuss what’s gone right, what’s gone wrong, what they’ve learned, and what they’ve chosen as their formal process.”
The result is less a prescriptive playbook and more a buffet of digestible ideas – brokers are invited to pick what resonates and make it their own. McDonald underscores that this is not a comparative moment; it’s a discovery moment, and it’s one MCAP is taking on the road with a multi-city tour. Calling it a
one-of-a-kind TEDx-inspired presentation, it provides a full overview of the information from the interviews.
The true value of this initiative will play out in these sessions, with seven shows across Canada already complete. It’s about getting brokers to step out of their day-to-day work and discuss their business from an aerial view for a few hours; it’s about focusing on what’s possible.
McDonald notes that they educate on industry stats as well as the insights from their research.
“We see people sit back and go, ‘Whoa, we could do something more, we could do something differently. We should have these conversations at smaller tables.’ What we’re creating is an ‘aha’ moment for the industry.”
Simple, consistent, foundational The Broker Success Formula covers a lot of ground, but McDonald calls out the importance of mindset in an industry full of rejection. Resiliency must be there, and when she shares that foundational attribute, she often hears from the audience that they needed that reminder. They must believe in themselves and in their business.
“A positive outlook is just as important as their behaviours,” she says. “They have to make sure their minds are healthy.”
One of the quotes in the formula is “self-care is productivity.” It pushes back against the narrative that success comes only from working 24/7 and feeling perpetually burned out. Feeling good will enable brokers to build the right systems that bring efficiency: none of the top brokers reported working evenings and weekends because they define success not just by what they earn but by the life they build.
The formula also shines a spotlight on how dialled in top brokers are – and must be – when it comes to their process. Prepackaged brokerage systems don’t exist, but top brokers get creative and build what works for themselves based on trial and error. Between CRMs, Excel, their own way of working with their point-of-sale technology mixed with scripting, a little AI, and some social media, they’ve hammered out a weekly process that their business goes through for longevity.
The scripting piece made waves because many brokers don’t realize that the best in the business have one for almost everything. Instead of writing a new script for every new customer, they’ve created a process around every portion of the client experience. This gives them back time to source new business, field inbound calls, and participate in referral source conversations, as some examples.
The most important learning – outside of confirming that the longstanding principle of “relationships are everything” remains true – is that none of the advice involves wild or crazy ideas. It’s a reminder of everything brokers know they should be doing but, for one reason or another, don’t do.
At the presentation in Toronto, McDonald witnessed first-hand the impact it’s having. A broker shared that as he listened, he was trying to identify what was holding him back in his business. He realized he never asks his customers for a Google review, despite knowing they love working with him. He simply never took the time to request that they leave him five stars to prove it. He told McDonald he needed that reminder and vowed to ask the next client he talked to.
“It’s very validating in that it is the simple and the consistent that’s the foundation of any long-term business,” McDonald says. “A lot of people just need to be reminded of it and encouraged to stay the course.”
‘Try. Don’t give up. Stretch.’ What the lender stands for goes beyond the brand. MCAP was one of the first lenders to talk about mental health, to identify how to give back, and to partner with Habitat for Humanity to build homes for those in need. MCAP is also proud of its diversity, especially when it comes to representation of women in leadership.
“We have a big heart, and we walk the walk,” McDonald says. “We’re all in this together and should be helping each other every day. Our success is linked.”
It’s a philosophy that’s kept MCAP, the market leader, around
for 35 years, and one McDonald believes will carry it forward. The lender may be a large business, but “we’re entrepreneurs at heart,” she says.
That entrepreneurial spirit showed up in an unexpected way through this initiative. The BDMs, not leadership, are the ones presenting on tour. Some were nervous to step outside their typical role, but in doing so they modelled exactly what the formula preaches.
“One of the beautiful consequences of this was teamwork and collaboration like I’ve never seen,” McDonald says. “It reinforced what the formula is all about: knowing, choosing, and thriving, even when it might be scary.”
MCAP is proud to have the opportunity and voice in the industry to provide brokers across the country with a tool like the Broker Success Formula. McDonald stresses that it’s powerful in its simplicity: it isn’t asking anyone to reinvent themselves; it’s simply asking them to try.
“Don’t give up; stretch. As I said in Toronto, and I think it really resonated: if you don’t stretch, you can’t grow.”
of Canada’s top brokers
Built from the insights of
100+
pillars identified to support broker success
4
The Broker Success Formula snapshot:
An MCAP snapshot:
in assets under management
$155B+
employees
1,400+