UNICORNS AND RAINBOWS PAGE 18
MEASURING LEADER PERFORMANCE PAGE 22
LONELY PLANET PAGE 26
#24 SEPTEMBER 2018
The Leadership Issue THE FIRST LADIES OF FIRST NATIONAL BYRON BAY
PROVING YOUR WORTH // SHAPING THE FUTURE // MATCH FITNESS THE BUSINESS OF SUCCESS // COLLABORATE OR COMPETE
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Issue 24 September 2018 eliteagent.com | eliteagent.academy SAMANTHA MCLEAN Managing Editor samantha@eliteagent.com.au
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Contents Regulars 006 EDITOR’S LETTER Samantha McLean 010 READER PROFILE Nadija Begovich 012 WATERCOOLER Catch up on what you may have missed 016 THE LEADERSHIP DIARIES Listen on the Elevate podcast 024 DATA INSIGHTS Eddie Cetin 026 MINDSET CORNER Jet Xavier 028 PEOPLE PARTNER Sarah Dawson 030 BUSINESS MATTERS John Knight
20
032 ASK THE COACH Claudio Encina 064 THE HOME STRAIGHT Mark McLeod
First Person 018 UNICORNS AND RAINBOWS Josh Phegan 020 7 FOCUS AREAS FOR LEADERSHIP MASTERY Caroline Bolderston 022 MEASURING THE PERFORMANCE OF LEADERS Rose Kelly 023 WHO IS MEASURING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE? Leanne Howard
Cover Story 034 THE FIRST LADIES OF FIRST NATIONAL Su Reynolds, Tara Torkkola, Helene Adams and Helen Huntly-Barratt
34
Features 038 37 LESSONS TO 10X BUSINESS GROWTH Sharran Srivatsaa 040 THE BUSINESS OF SUCCESS Stefanie Dobro, Nick West, Emily-Jane Megraw, Sam Rigopoulos and Cathy Richards 044 EMPOWERING FOR GROWTH Sunil Kumar 046 BACK TO SCHOOL WITH BEEPO Hannah Blackiston 048 HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY OUTSOURCE OFFICE TECHNOLOGY 050 COLLABORATE OR COMPETE? Peter Gilchrist 052 RICHARD LUTON Energy, Enthusiasm, Empathy 056 SHAPING THE FUTURE Candice Di Prinzio 058 CHAMPIONS DO MORE Pancho Mehrotra 060 USEFUL BELIEF: THE REAL ESTATE EDITION Chris Helder 062 STANDING OUT IN A DIGITAL WORLD Stefan Williams
38 eliteagent.com 5
EDITOR'S LETTER IGITAL IS IMPORTANT FOR AGENTS.
I know you get it – how important it is for personal branding, lead generation and staying in touch. Enough people talk about it. But have you ever thought to yourself, ‘I wish someone would help me implement this stuff, step by step, in a way that will get me the biggest impact fastest?’ I’m betting you have – but let’s come back to that in a moment. As I write this, the PM Transform challenge is at the Bon Jovi stage; you know, halfway there. Normally I’m the host of the challenges and coaching
participants asked some great questions about all types of things. What’s the most important digital platform? What sort of content works well on video? What do you post and when, and how do you measure success? What do you boost and how? So it’s been a while since I’ve done this, but while it is fresh in my mind I’m listing here my top eight tips/tools for digital and social media right now (there are many more but due to space constraints I’m limiting myself!)
1Build your own home
Your own home on the web - your website - is your most important digital platform to invest in; because just like renting vs owning a home, nobody can change the rules or sell it out from under you.
REA, LinkedIn, Google Business and so on – are all as complete as possible. That will help you rise to the top of the ranks, because more complete profiles are boosted naturally in search results.
Use ‘rented’ platforms to drive traffic to your 3website Use things like Facebook and Instagram to drive traffic to your website with paid promotions. And make the most of the traffic you do get from Facebook by installing a pixel and retargeting. The easiest way to do that is with a plugin called Pixel Your Site (pixelyoursite. com – we use the Pro version). By the way, don’t boost posts from your mobile phone; use Facebook Business Manager (business.facebook.com). It’s not all that friendly, but it does give you more options.
YOU ONLY HAVE TO WIN THE DIGITAL Build an audience 4and keep in touch via GAME IN YOUR LOCAL AREA, NOT email AUSTRALIA OR THE WHOLE WORLD." sessions; I usually invite other coaches to speak and let them show off their expertise while I ask the questions. But let me confess, there have been many times I’ve sat beside a marketing coach and have wanted to 'buzz in' and answer a question or two; I’ve implemented a lot of this stuff within Elite Agent – and have first-hand experience in what works. So this round, I put myself to the test as the coach and invited participants to ask me anything to do with digital marketing. And... it was so much fun! Not only did it test my knowledge, but it also reminded me how much I love the space. The
6 ELITE AGENT • SEPTEMBER 2018
You can make all the changes, renovations and tweaks you like without needing a landlord’s permission. You cannot say the same for your Facebook presence, Instagram following or even your LinkedIn profile. The landlord could change the rules on you at any moment.
If you don’t own your home, renting is 2temporarily OK If you can’t afford to have someone build a website for you, creating your own is not that expensive and also not that difficult with tools like Wordpress. But whether you have a website or not make sure that your outside profiles – e.g.
On public platforms like Facebook and Instagram, you are fighting for attention amongst all the other things going on in your future customer’s social life. Build an email list (separate to the contacts in your CRM that are further down your sales funnel) and make sure you send them good content regularly. We use ActiveCampaign (activecampaign.com) for this as it allows us to create different interest 'buckets' and automations for people who subscribe to #TheBrief (such as a welcome) – and if you’re just starting out, it’s free.
sure you have local SEO down pat 5Make
Speaking of search results, Google favours local businesses over the ‘Trip Advisors’ of real
estate like Open Agent, Rate My Agent, Local Agent Finder and so on. So, if nothing else, make sure you have a Google Business Page set up and you can promote this on Google Ads. You only have to be the best in your local area, not Australia or the whole world. Also, once you’ve got your Wordpress website up and running, make sure you install a plugin called Yoast SEO which also has a Local SEO add-on – it goes a long way to automatically sorting your SEO for you.
with Google Marketing Centre 6Measure
If you are going to build any type of website you need to measure how it’s going so that you can make tweaks. My favourite Wordpress plugin for that is Google Analytics Dashboard for WP by ExactMetrics – it makes it really easy to install once you have set up your account in Google for Analytics.
7 Stalk your competition
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all? Tools like Buzzsumo (buzzsumo. com) and Likealyzer (likealyzer. com) will give you some answers as to how well you stack up vs your competitors on content marketing and social media. Work out what is working for others in your space, put your own spin on it and do it better (or, as Gary Vee says, build a bigger building!).
particular path. Landing pages are super easy to create with a Wordpress page builder tool we use called Elementor (elementor. com). In fact, with Elementor you can easily build just about any type of page you need – no web developer needed. Now, back to my original question. Have you ever wished that someone would sit alongside you to help you implement this stuff, step-by-step? If you have, the next round of Transform we are holding is for you. Starting on 15 November, our final 30 day challenge for 2018 will focus specifically on digital marketing for both sales agents and property managers. We will demo all of this stuff (and more) so you can implement it one step at a time over the 30 days to make sure you get well on your way to nailing your digital brand moving into 2019. Together (if you’re game) we’re going to build some Wordpress landing pages, get some ad campaigns running, pimp some profiles, start building your email list, plus much more. (Oh, and yes, this is 'The Leadership Issue'. This is just me talking Digital Leadership!)
make it an Easter egg hunt 8Don’t
Planes land on purpose built runways and so should your web visitors. Funnily enough, the technical term for this runway is a landing page. Build a landing page (or several of them) to keep a distraction free zone for your web visitors to follow a
PS: to find out more and to register, visit eliteagenttransform.com.
CHRIS HELDER
23 LEANNE HOWARD
HEAD OF GROWTH & CLIENT ENGAGEMENT, REAL ESTATE RESULTS NETWORK Where are you from originally and where do you call home now? I spent my early childhood in the UK and then moved to Australia when I was seven. I’ve also lived in London, Italy and Canada as an adult, but I’m very much settled now in Bondi.
SALES PERFORMANCE SPEAKER AND AUTHOR Where are you from originally and where do you call home now? I was born in America, grew up in Colorado – then I moved to Melbourne, the city that has four seasons in one day! That’s my home.
60
Who or what inspires you at the moment? My boys inspire me every day. What’s the most important project you are working on right now? The importance of men’s mental health – men need to communicate the good, the bad and the things they find challenging. We need to stop making everything a competition!
Trend to watch in the industry? Authenticity – drop your ego and bring your real self to the client and job. Favourite quote or words to live by? Energy is a decision!
Who or what inspires you at the moment? Having spent almost 17 years in the industry, I’m inspired that so many businesses are now focused on the customer experience. This is what will keep our industry relevant.
CONTRIBUTORS
What’s the most important project you are working on right now? Working with our clients on moving from offering good service to a consistent, exceptional, on-brand experience. I’m not sure any brand is winning in that space just yet, so it’s exciting times. I’m also working on our leadership event, The Business of Real Estate.
SHARRAN SRIVATSAA
Trend to watch in the industry? A move to be more customer-centric, for both external and internal customers. Technology plays a big role in this and can help provide better consistency, efficiency, communication – a more compelling experience for everyone.
Who or what inspires you at the moment? I’m deeply inspired by the work of Robin Sharma and the idea of leading without a title.
Favourite quote or words to live by? Seen at a conference and a great way to approach both the team and customer experience: ‘Use good judgement, use intellectual flexibility, remove obstacles and leave them better than when you found them.’
8 ELITE AGENT • SEPTEMBER 2018
CEO, KINGSTON LANE
Where are you from originally and where do you call home now? I’m originally from Chennai, India. My current home is in Laguna Beach, California.
What’s the most important project you are working on right now? Creating a community for entrepreneurs who want to wake up and have deep impact every day starting at 5am, via my 5amClub.net. Trend to watch in the industry? We are witnessing a massive shift
38 from paying for information to paying for implementation. Favourite quote or words to live by? “Your eyes only see and your ears only hear what you are looking for!” – Dan Sullivan
50 PETER GILCHRIST
REAL ESTATE SUPERCOACH
Where are you from originally and where do you call home now? I’m originally from Dunedin, New Zealand. I now live on the Gold Coast. Who or what inspires you at the moment? The great artists: Lucian Freud, Auerbach, Bacon. To have the passion and focus to go out on a limb – and love it. What’s the most important project you are working on right now? To educate the industry on what’s happening in digital! The pixel – 90 per cent of the industry has no idea what it is, sadly, including most marketing departments. We have the opportunity to keep control of the industry’s enquiries. But we need to tool up to do it. Trend to watch in the industry? Facebook and Google as they start to disrupt the current major portals. We as an industry can have a huge part in that. Favourite quote or words to live by? You can never give anything away. It will always find its way back to you in some form.
READER PROFILE
LIFE OUTSIDE THE BOX Finance broker Nadija Begovich ventured into real estate after working with several agents. Now a licensee and business owner with partner Dan at The Perth Property Co, they’ve created a clever idea for their sellers. Tell us a bit about yourself and your role at The Perth Property Co. I’m the licensee at The Perth Property Co, which is a small agency offering a service a little different to a traditional real estate agency. My partner Dan and I are the business owners and also the sales team, and we offer clients a complimentary styling and staging service. What motivated you to get into real estate? I’m a licensed finance broker; I worked closely with many real estate agents, and this led me to the idea of extending my skill set and venturing into real estate as the industries go hand in hand. What is the market like in your area right now? The West Coast market has been challenging, but we’ve still been very busy. Our styling and staging service has helped us achieve some good results for our sellers. Buyers have become very savvy and expect homes to be presented in ‘show home’ condition, so we believe that not only does your pricing need to be competitive and marketing at a high level, but the home needs to make an amazing first impression across all advertising platforms and at inspections.
Who or what inspires you? Anne-Maree Russell and Luke Russell (Cape Cod ResidentialBrisbane). I love what they do. They’re the true pioneers of styling, staging and selling homes here in Australia. In your ‘briefcase’ right now is… The Reed Gift Fair directory (I’m looking at buying more stock for our styling inventory) plus my iPad. I try to run a paperless office with everything being digital and on Dropbox or in the cloud. Something (or someone) you couldn’t live without? My spin class membership! No, really – and I know it sounds a little corny – but I’d be lost without Dan. He’s my business partner, spouse, friend, father to our daughter, confidant... we work really well together. What do you enjoy most about Elite Agent? I love hearing about the new innovative approaches to real estate, seeing the successes that people are having and also the challenges that we all face. What apps do you use most at the moment on your iPhone or iPad? I’m obsessed with Canva; it’s a great little design tool for Instagram and Facebook. I also love using the PriceFinder and
10 ELITE AGENT • SEPTEMBER 2018
RP Data apps too – they’re lifesavers! What advice would you give someone starting out in real estate? Find someone who will nurture your ambition and not be threatened by your tenacity, hunger and drive. Someone who will allow you to explore your creative ideas, yet help you to keep your feet on the ground and be happy to share their experiences with you. Any words to live by? Back yourself more, dare to be different, always look on the bright side, have less doubt and embrace the adventures that life brings!
“The home needs to make an amazing first impression across all advertising platforms and at inspections.”
Join Australasia’s best real estate Leaders 22 never-seen-before sessions . High-level networking . Leading real estate minds
Nick West
Adam Ferrier Leading Australian consumer psychologist, expert brand strategist.
CORE PMC
Megan Jaffe
Grown Australia’s first multi-brand real estate group with a team numbering 250 plus and growing.
State finalist in the Telstra Business Woman of the Year Awards. 24 years industry experience.
RAY WHITE REMUERA
Held the No. 1 office for Ray White International for four years.
Manos Findikakis EVIEW GROUP
Nearly 1000 auctions to his name and leads a team of over 140 people.
Anthony Webb
PHILIPWEBB REAL ESTATE
Leads The AFR’s #1 Fastest Growing Real Estate Company in Australia.
Sunil Kumar
RELIANCE REAL ESTATE
Sam Rigopoulos
Business growth accelerator with extensive digital and social track record.
JELLIS CRAIG
Best-selling author of the book; The Power of Connection.
Grown from humble beginnings to become a market leader.
Kylie Davis
HARCOURTS
Jeffery Gray DEXAR
DI JONES
Melissa Armstrong
Executive experience with Domain Group, Aristocrat and Lexis Nexis.
Has built a rent roll organically from 0 to 1000 in only three years.
Winners of the REIA 2015 Large Residential Agency of the Year Award.
Kylie Walsh
15 years experience in Leadership, HR Management & Learning and Development.
Vasili Hadzellis
NELSON ALEXANDER
THINKERBELL
Rik Rushton
CORELOGIC
INSIGHT PD
Winner of numerous REIWA Master & Grandmaster awards.
Stefanie Dobro
CAPORN YOUNG ESTATE AGENTS
Sharran Srivatsaa KINGSTON LANE
Served in Australian SASR; owned the number 1 real estate office; worked with elite sporting teams.
Shane Kempton
DRIVE PERFORMANCE COACHING
2018 REIQ Winner Corporate Support Person of the Year.
Emily-Jane Megraw LJ HOOKER NERANG
Over 20 years experience coaching and consulting with some of the best real estate leaders and teams.
Matt Lahood
Michael Sheargold
Leanne Howard RER NETWORK
16 years Executive experience with McGrath Estate Agents, Harcourts and LJ Hooker.
THE AGENCY
Worked around the world since 1995 leading web and mobile app teams for businesses including Lonely Planet and Qantas.
Consistently been one of the absolute top achievers within the Ray White Group since 2009.
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT... A round up of the biggest stories in real estate by Elite Agent's Deputy Editor Hannah Blackiston. Got a story for us? Email hannah@eliteagent.com.au.
E-conveyancing drama, a big investor for McGrath and two new CEOs
W
hile there was nothing much happening from the RBA with respect to interest rates, there has been lots going on in other areas of the property world in the last few weeks. PEXA was a company name on everyone’s lips, but unfortunately it wasn’t good news. A client lost $250,000 from a transaction using the platform when their conveyancer accidentally transferred funds into a hacker’s bank account. This occurred because the hacker was able to get into the conveyancer’s emails and reset the PEXA account information. All’s well that ends well, though – the client was able to finalise the transaction and PEXA are beefing up
security protocols. Also trending online was the news of a big investment in McGrath Limited (MEA). Chinese-based developer Aqualand became the second biggest shareholder in the company through a purchase of a 15 per cent stake over two transactions. The investment was to the tune of around $20 million, and part of the agreement allows McGrath agents to get first dibs on appointments for Aqualand development listings. Since then Aqualand has been adding more Australians to their board and making their plans for development domination here pretty clear. John McGrath remains the biggest shareholder in the company.
HELLO SILICON VALLEY
There have also been a bunch of new leadership announcements and plenty of people moves. VIEW has a new CEO - they appointed Toby Balazs, an ex-REA staffer who’s looking to boost their reach. Word on the street is VIEW, Australia’s third largest portal, are trying to improve their image. They’re not a regular property portal, they’re a cool property portal or at least they will be. Watch this space. The news that stopped the Elite Agent newsroom and had us all frantically logging in on our morning commute was a new CEO for Domain. Since the big Catalano departure in January, Domain has been under the management of Chairman Nick Falloon (who received $4300 per day for the honour…) as the search spread internationally. The new man in the job is Jason Pellegrino, whose most recent role was Managing Director ANZ of Google. He joined the search engine giant in 2008 and had been climbing up ever since, working across the sales, operations and strategy divisions. He’ll be joining the team in August - no word on what his focus will be yet, but with that pedigree, we can hazard a guess…
STATE CHANGES BRING FEW CHANGES
Lastly, all the state budgets were handed down which brought very little change. WA had an increase to foreign investment surcharges, and the ACT abolished stamp duty for first-home buyers - but everything else was much of a muchness. The figures on stamp duty earnings came in higher in most states than forecasted, which just added another string to the bow of those calling for the controversial tax to be removed to aid property affordability.
12 ELITE AGENT • SEPTEMBER JUN – JUL 2018 2018
JOIN THE CLUB.
S
ince launching Elite Agent’s daily email #TheBrief more than 100 weeks ago, we’ve written 400,000 or more words to help you all keep up to speed with what’s going on in the industry. That’s the equivalent of more than eight standard novels, and all of it good news. To spread good vibes even further we are creating an extra special group of ‘Elite Agents’ we're going to call Ambassadors. Elite Agent Ambassadors will help us brainstorm new content, get first dibs on cool stuff, share in our discounts on events, contribute to discussions with others in the community and, of course, get first preference on featuring here in the magazine. Want to join? (It’s free!)
Find out more at eliteagent.com/ambassadors
AMBASSADORS eliteagent.com 13
THE WATER COOLER
Our daily newsletter #THEBRIEF brings you the latest real estate news, tech and marketing tips straight up every day. In case you’ve missed anything, here are some of this month’s trending stories. Subscribe to #THEBRIEF eliteagent.com/subscribe.
FAMILIAR FACES HAVE A NEW HOME AT RAY WHITE CLAYTON Michael Renzella and Lee Botsios have branched out from their roles at Ray White Oakleigh to open their own office in the south-east Melbourne suburb of Clayton. The duo will bring their extensive area knowledge and connections to the new office, and continue to offer the service they have become renowned for as local business owners. Mr Renzella comes from a family of real estate professionals and has property investment in his blood, while Mr Botsios has been in the industry for over 18 years and has a deep understanding of what it takes to deliver great customer service. “We’re passionate about this business, and we have the experience and the energy to work with anyone in this community and help them achieve their real estate goals,” Mr Renzella said. “We love this area so much. It was a natural step for us to decide to open our very own office here, and it really is a dream come true,” Mr Botsios added.
Belle Property continues Hunter expansion Two existing offices in the Hunter region – Charlestown and Hunter Valley – announced a rebrand to join Belle Property, strengthening the brand’s presence in a market that is seeing significant growth. Peter Hanscomb, CEO of Belle Property, said the opening of the Charlestown and Hunter Valley offices was as much about the people as about the location. “The Newcastle and Hunter Valley region is going through a huge transformation – the growth in the market and the amount of investment that is coming into the area is staggering. Charlestown and the Hunter Valley has become an important location for Belle Property. “Anthony Di Nardo and his teams at Charlestown and the Hunter Valley are incredibly talented and we knew he was the right person to lead Belle Property into this area. We are very excited about our future with them,” he said.
GLOBAL ONLINE REAL ESTATE PLATFORM TWILLIS LAUNCHES Since joining the market in February 2018, Twillis has built a database of 20,000 licensed agents and has a 10 per cent market share in off-plan property sales in Australia. The platform aims to provide the ability for transactions to occur in realtime with transparency across Australia and south-east Asia. Twillis’s platform is campaign-based and charges zero per cent on commissions. The platform uses a multichannel strategy to deploy visible commissions for agents and aims to allow them to sell any type of property, anywhere in the world. “Twillis breaks down boundaries and allows agents to sell any type of property, anywhere. It gives confidence and control back to agents to sell faster, no matter the market conditions,” said Matthew McGrath, Senior Business Solutions Manager at Twillis.
14 ELITE AGENT • SEPTEMBER 2018
EXCLUSIVE EXCLUSIVE CORPORATE BENEFITS CORPORATE BENEFITS THAT PUT YOU IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT THAT PUT YOU IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT
LEXUS CORPORATE PROGRAMME Lexus represents an incomparable driving experience, and the Lexus Corporate Programme builds upon this by providing a service uniquely tailored to our corporate customers, with the highest level of benefits reserved for Real Estate agents registered in Australia. So whether your style is a luxury hatch, sedan, coupe or SUV, discover luxury automotive with revolutionary design when you drive away in your brand new Lexus. LEXUS CORPORATE PROGRAMME BENEFITS: • • • • •
Preferential Corporate Pricing 3 year / 60,000kms complimentary servicing* Reduced delivery fee of $995 (ex GST) Priority ordering and allocation Encore Privileges Programme, including: − Service loan cars or complimentary pick-up/drop-off during servicing − Lexus DriveCare, providing 24-hour roadside assistance − Lexus Exclusive events
*Complimentary scheduled servicing expires at 3 years or 60,000kms from the date of first registration, whichever occurs first.
LEXUS OF PARRAMATTA CORPORATE SALES MANAGER JAKOB KELSEY 02 9204 6520 0410 429 666 jkelsey@lexusofparramatta.com.au lexusofparramatta.com.au
THEY SAID IT...
Our weekly podcast Elevate with host Samantha McLean brings you exclusive interviews and behind the scenes coaching help you list more, sell more and elevate your results. Listen in at eliteagent.com/elevate.
HOLLY KOMOROWSKI “You just have to start. Start using it and then work out what fits for you. You need to be creative and you have to work really hard. It takes time, but I believe Facebook was highly influential in the building of my personal brand.”
SHANE KEMPTON "My focus is to create an amazing experience for them [my team] and an environment where they can shine – because then my leadership gets amplified out into the marketplace.”
Shane Kempton, one of this year’s keynote speakers at The Business of Real Estate Event discusses implementable leadership strategies that build businesses.
Holly Komorowski from Home.by Holly talks branding, how to stand out in your marketing, plus tips for leveraging the true power of digital.
NIGEL DALTON “The mirror, of course, is your mobile phone. It's black when it's not on, and ‘Nosedive’ is one of the scariest episodes because it's so close to our reality today. And property is central to the story…” Nigel Dalton from REA Group talks agent ratings, voice technology, trust ratings and what to do when you receive negative reviews.
16 ELITE AGENT • SEPTEMBER 2018
PETER SHEAHAN “There is no question that real estate is a numbers game and working harder helps, but I always want to know how do you work harder on the smarter things? In other words, how can you find faster ways to differentiate yourself in the marketplace? And I think it’s more than just working hard.” Peter Sheahan from Karrikins Group discusses what it will take to matter to consumers in the future, and what will truly differentiate your business from the competition.
JOANNA FERRARI
SHERRY CHRIS “You know how we've talked about the Millennials and Gen X and Gen Z, the Baby Boomers for all of these years... That's all going to merge together. Consumer segments, as we call them; they're not going to be statistically defined in the future. It will be all about humans. So human beings will evolve and we need to stop putting ourselves into different categories.”
“I like to give my clients a tremendous amount of value. Everyone tries to hold their ‘secrets’ back and not tell the clients everything. I like to give them everything up front. Here's everything I do. Now, do you want to work with me?” JoAnna Ferrari, one of this year’s ARPM speakers, lays out her ‘Blue Ocean’ strategy for finding leads and converting them to customers for life.
CEO of Better Homes and Gardens LLC Sherry Chris with just one of her predictions on how real estate professionals will need to evolve in the next few years.
eliteagent.com/elevate ALSO SEARCH FOR US ON ITUNES, STITCHER, AND SPOTIFY
FIRST PERSON
JOSH PHEGAN
+
Unicorns and rainbows Let go to grow: it's easy to write, but hard to do. If you want to scale your business, it's critical you stop looking for unicorns who 'get you' and start focusing on systems to scale your business, says Josh Phegan.
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he only reason a goal isn’t achieved is you don’t have a system for it. Intent matters in business; what do you intend to do, how do you want to grow? The bigger the dream, the more important the team. As a leader, you want to create a leader-leader model. Most businesses are leader-follower, where everyone in the business has to seek permission – or, even worse, they are given autonomy but then undermined in the decisions made. Once that happens you’ll never have trust, and the ability for others to lead is lost. A leader-leader model is where you back people in. ‘What would you do if I wasn’t here?’ When they present the solution, you reply, ‘That’s great; you don’t need to ask me about that situation again. Trust your instinct; go all in.’ What that produces is organisational clarity, where everyone knows who’s who, who can make the decisions and what impact each role can have on the business. That then leads to training in technical competence. What are the essential skills that need to be mastered in each area of the business and how do we teach them? We work on using the circle of competence, where every time someone gains a skill we write it in the circle. It builds confidence and clarity for the individual. The challenge for too many leaders is that they are looking
THE BIGGER THE DREAM, THE MORE IMPORTANT THE TEAM.
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Josh Phegan is a highperformance real estate speaker, trainer and coach to some of the best agents and agencies around the world. For more information visit joshphegan.com.au.
LEADERSHIP HAPPENS IN EVERY MOMENT, WHETHER YOU STEP IN OR HELP SOMEONE ELSE TO STEP UP. for unicorns – these magical new employees who get it – when the truth is you need to develop a business that’s built on systems; systems that are so good your people don’t have to be. Work the systems and watch your leadership capability scale. People resist change when it happens to them, but they love change when they are part of it. For leadership to truly exist in your business, you need to set the vision. This is made up of your purpose (the why of what you do), the mission (critical milestones) and values (the rules of the game). When you have these in play, every decision gets easier. Our purpose is to inspire estate agents to achieve their potential and financial freedom. It’s in everything we do, and it forces absolute clarity about the activities we undertake. To shift the dial on your results,
learn to ask better leadership questions of your people. My favourite is: What’s next for you? If I wasn’t here what would you do? If you became the CEO tomorrow, what would you do then? They force leadership thinking, which translates into better day-to-day actions. Most want to focus on accountability; I prefer responsibility. If someone is responsible, I don’t need accountability. Leadership happens in every moment, whether you step in or help someone else to step up and step in. It’s a choice, and it’s the difference between a chaotic, dysfunctional workplace and one where people are empowered to pursue their dreams.
FIRST PERSON
CAROLINE BOLDERSTON
Seven focus areas for leadership mastery Leadership is about sharing a vision and guiding others to achieve it, as Caroline Bolderston explains.
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E OFTEN HEAR about different forms of leadership – inspirational leadership, motivational leadership, innovative leadership and leadingfrom-the-front leadership. Leadership is many things, but in essence it all comes down to this: a leader provides a pathway to help others expand their thinking, challenging their beliefs and attitudes about what’s possible. Leadership allows others to own their contribution, which boosts confidence, growth and personal performance. A master leader encourages others to contribute to improvements and innovation, guiding them to solve problems in a way that demonstrates good judgement, thought for consequences and awareness of the impact each decision has on the team. Impactful leaders champion excellence, expect nothing but the best and are unapologetic about creating a culture around it. The best businesses I have seen have a keen focus on leadership at all levels. Investing in and inspiring every single person on a team to become incredible leaders of themselves first creates a passionate, thriving and harmonious environment where everybody wins – not just those at the top. Here are the seven focus areas to leadership mastery:
Clarity of purpose. You cannot lead if you do not know exactly what you want to achieve and why you are doing what you do. You must start with a clearly defined vision and set of core values that drive the behaviours of the team and underpin the direction that the team is heading. This is the biggest weakness that I see in many teams and is the first area to focus on. Outstanding communication skills. Great leaders develop effective listening and effective questioning skills. This means having the ability to hear what isn’t being said, as well as being able to speak plainly and with clear intention. Demonstrating
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Caroline Bolderston heads up the Being Bold Coaching Academy and provides coaching and support for principals and sales leaders. For more information visit beingbold.com.
the standards for open and trusting communication is imperative. Transparency of expectations. The strongest leadership comes with structure and benchmarks around performance. How can anyone achieve excellence without the clear framework of knowing how high to climb? Master leaders focus their efforts on building structure around detailed job descriptions and defined operational procedures and systems. This not only impacts engagement and morale, but more importantly removes the need for blame or excuses, which drives a strong culture.
TRUE LEADERSHIP MASTERY IS ACHIEVED WHEN YOU GET OVER YOURSELF! Culture of accountability. To truly get the best out of your people they need to know that their individual performance will be measured and rewarded, no matter what their role within the team. Recognising and communicating when values and results are on or off track is a vital part of being a master leader. Low morale or lack of enthusiasm is the direct result of inconsistency of behaviours and performance between team members. A master leader knows this and is
constantly shining the light on these fundamental drivers. Growth mindset. Master leaders understand that one of the core human needs is to be considered good enough. Your people will perform their best when they feel they are believed in and that opportunities to develop and grow exist within the business. Ensuring there are pathways for learning, skill development and career progression will keep motivation and engagement high amongst your team and ensure retention of quality people. Decisiveness. Great leaders are prepared to back themselves and what they believe in. They are ruthless when it comes to making decisions to protect culture, to innovate and to implement change. Instead of rash choices, they make bold judgements by provoking thought and challenging the status quo when decisions need to be made. Humility. True leadership mastery is achieved when you get over yourself! When you become self-aware you know that it’s not about how good you are, but how great you can be at supporting and encouraging others to be amazing. Building a team of individuals whom you genuinely want to be better than you creates an outstanding environment of belonging, respect and appreciation.
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FIRST PERSON
ROSE KELLY
Measuring the performance of leaders
With team performance often reflecting a leader’s energy and drive, Rose Kelly identifies the best way to measure how your leadership skills are impacting your real estate business – for better or worse.
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eadership in real estate is not just a business journey; it’s also a personal one. Together they are like intersecting rollercoasters: do you strap yourself in, fuel up for the long haul, learn better navigation, get your mind clear of distractions, or stay focused on the road ahead? In fact, you need to do all this and more. In every business there are measurable indicators, known as KPIs, that will determine how well the desired results are achieved. Alongside these are the behaviour, motivation and engagement of the employees. It seems that both the quantum results and team engagement are significantly impacted by the leader, and how well that person performs in their leadership role.
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As the Director and Coach at Leading Focus, Rose Kelly lives out her passion for excellence and her desire to maximise the potential of all real estate industry professionals. For more information visit leadingfocus.com.au.
It is leadership that underpins how consistently, effectively and efficiently the results are achieved. It creates, stimulates and sustains the engagement and therefore the productivity of team members. That begs the question: what do high-performing leaders do to champion the success of their teams to achieve results, remain engaged and deliver the highest levels of productivity? How can we determine whether someone measures up in their leadership role? Leadership performance in real estate sales departments is commonly monitored, albeit mostly through the results achieved. There is often less emphasis on monitoring leadership for the rest of the team – usually a mixture of property managers and administrative staff. There are some obvious
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rationales around measuring leaders’ performance based on the performance of their team or individuals within it. However, to go more deeply into why some people perform better than others and how their leader is impacting on that, we need to look at their engagement in the workplace. Employee engagement can be measured using a tool such as Gallup’s Q12 Employee Survey, which rates individuals according to their connection and commitment to the goals and vision of their company. Gallup maintain that when employees are actively engaged they are emotionally invested and focused on creating value for their employer. The research shows a direct link between employee engagement and productivity. Gallup’s own survey questions indicate that employee engagement has much to do with the behaviour of their leader: how well employees feel they are understood and cared about, how well they know what
corresponding increase in sales and productivity. This research shows there are some very real metrics for monitoring leadership performance. At a high level one might be satisfied with taking a snapshot of team and individual performance, but drilling down deeper it is clear that individual engagement is also a good metric. Some of the fallout behaviours of team members who are not actively engaged, or worse still disengaged, provide further insight into the performance of the leader. We can therefore measure the specific actions that leaders take to maintain engagement and productivity, such as how often they conduct one-onone meetings, what actions they take to hold employees accountable for their results and give feedback on performance, how often they meet with the whole team in engaging ways, and how and when they review individual performance goals
THERE IS A DIRECT LINK BETWEEN EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND PRODUCTIVITY. is expected of them, how often this is reviewed and whether they receive regular feedback. These are some of the core employee needs described by Gallup. Employees who are highly engaged are more likely to give ‘discretionary effort’ to their work, featuring alongside a reduction in absenteeism, staff turnover, theft and customer complaints, and a
and action plans. In summary, it seems that a hybrid model of measuring leadership performance makes the most sense. Leadership performance can be measured against both the results the team deliver and their employee engagement score, giving leaders more impetus to develop and apply the full range of skills they need to be a high performer.
FIRST PERSON
LEANNE HOWARD
Who is measuring customer experience?
The customer experience will keep the industry relevant in the future. But to be truly successful in delivering someone needs to own it.
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here’s been a real shift in real estate to focus on the customer experience. With all the new competitors and models around, the customer experience in sales and property management is how we earn our commissions in the more traditional models most of us work in. So where do we start on this mission to be truly customer-centric? We’ve all heard ‘what gets measured gets done’. In real estate, however, the client experience is generally neither measured nor rewarded. In my 17 years in real estate, working with three major brands, until recently customer service hasn’t been part of any reward or recognition program. Traditionally we have measured success in terms of GCI, sales volume, number of properties managed and so on, with little thought to how our customers were feeling at the end of the transaction. When I worked with LJ Hooker, one of the first strategies we took when embarking on the mission to be number one in customer experience was implementing a feedback tool. This is generically referred to as NPS (net performance score), but NPS is a branded tool not widely used in Australia. Aside from that, RealSatisfied and Customer Monitor are two systems I’ve seen work well in real estate. Every buyer, seller, investor and tenant can be surveyed on their experience. The surveys can be used in other ways too, such as lost listings – understanding why your team member missed out on a listing is very useful, and it’s also a great way to show the client that you are keen to get feedback despite missing out. The feedback was invaluable from day one. Not only did it provide great insights for agents and property managers, but it was also incorporated into the rewards and recognition
program, with many awards for outstanding customer experience and a requirement to reach a certain standard in this area to be eligible for other awards. There are other ways to measure the customer experience too: repeat business, referrals, testimonials, social media comments, complaints, longevity of your landlords, and so on. I’m a big believer that when you start
IN REAL ESTATE THE CLIENT EXPERIENCE IS GENERALLY NEITHER MEASURED NOR REWARDED. the customer experience journey, every person in the company should have a KPI around it. This could include both internal customers (colleagues) and external clients. A great customer experience is many things. It’s about making it easy to do business with you. It’s about ‘using good judgement, removing obstacles and leaving customers better than when you found them’. In real estate we have the privilege of connecting with people at significant, and often emotional, stages of life. We have more opportunity than most to provide a meaningful contribution to the lives of the
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Leanne Howard is the Head of Growth and Client Engagement at RER Network. For more information visit rernetwork.com.au.
community we serve. In the end, yes, we are all here to make a living and the number of transactions count; but what if we all saw our real estate careers to be about serving a higher purpose? What if collectively we were all in the business of guiding and facilitating the community through their life changes and resulting real estate decisions? I’m starting to see more real estate business become purpose-driven, which is obviously great for customers – but it also has huge effects on workplace morale. I think it’s part of the human condition to need to feel connected to a purpose. Out of your purpose should come your company promises. What do you guarantee to provide to every customer? What do you always do? What do you never do? Harcourts (for example) provide every customer with a list of promises at the beginning of the relationship. It’s a great way to set up the expectations for the client and another way of measuring how well we are serving our customers. There are many other parts to becoming a truly customercentric business, but defining your purpose, setting your promises and having systems in place to constantly measure how well you are meeting customer expectations is a great way to start.
Leanne will be speaking at The Business of Real Estate on the Gold Coast on 3-4 September. For more information visit thebusinessofrealestate.com.au
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DATA INSIGHTS Eddie Cetin is the founder of Agentbox. For more information visit agentbox.com.au.
8 tips for selecting a new CRM A database-centric prospecting routine is the power behind any agent focused on avoiding seasonal ups and downs. Eddie Cetin outlines how to find the right CRM software for your business.
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ourtesy of many years spent collaborating with Australia’s leading estate agents, we’ve learned their key considerations when selecting a new CRM. The industry’s best all agree that having a high-performance database paves the way to repeated success, referral business and growth. Wondering what factors to weigh up prior to committing to a new CRM? Here’s a snapshot of key selection criteria to support your decision-making process.
reinvent the wheel 1 Don’t
Reach out to high-performing agencies using the CRMs you are considering and ask for practical feedback about their experience. Create a shortlist of key questions you need answered, and dive into fine detail in relation to these. Map out your end-to-end sales and leasing processes, identifying the systems important at each step for your agency. Outline your current points of frustration, so that when you assess your shortlisted CRMs you’ll understand how they will improve your business.
2 Ease of use
CRM systems require a period of onboarding and use before your team have a true understanding of their
machinations and power. It is important that your staff embrace your new CRM, so make sure you include colleagues from across your agency in the selection process. The usability of the system needs to be intuitive, so that all team members are comfortable using it. Some CRMs are fully featured, so it pays to invest in appropriate training to get the most from your investment.
THE INDUSTRY’S BEST ALL AGREE THAT A HIGHPERFORMANCE DATABASE PAVES THE WAY TO REPEATED SUCCESS AND GROWTH.
3Mobile
Today’s agents must be mobile and therefore need the information their CRM holds at their fingertips 24-7. Being productive whilst on the go is how leading agents hit their KPIs and ensure their most important tasks are handled first. Make sure the CRMs you assess deliver on mobility. It’s critical that any updates made on the mobile or desktop CRM are synced, so data doesn’t become out of date or – worse yet – duplicated. Your
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mobile app should work on both IOS and Android, offline and on tablets at open for inspections.
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Clean data commitment
Market-leading agents understand the importance of clean data and a CRM that allows you to extract the right information at the right time in an efficient manner. Nothing discourages staff more than duplicate data; they lose confidence in their database and may upset clients. When assessing CRMs, understand how each system will avoid duplicate records whilst still reflecting the complexity of multiple owner relationships customers may have across several properties.
One solution that can integrate where 5necessary Wherever possible, reduce the number of systems your staff rely upon to get their job done. Enhance your efficiency and accuracy by having most business activities completed within one system. Where multiple systems are required, ensure your CRM has the capacity to interact with ease – this must be one of your key selection criteria, ensuring you don’t end up with a data nightmare.
6 Reporting
A key aspect of a central agency solution is the reports that you can access at various
levels of your business – everything from insights into individuals and teams to office-level and company-wide information. Make a list of the reports you require and see how each of the CRMs handle your data needs.
7 Support and training
Make sure your chosen CRM has a team ready to help you with everything from initial database training through to ongoing support. Meet with the team behind the scenes and get a real sense of the business that you are trusting to help build your agency.
Track record of stability and 8 innovation When you are relying on software to make your business a highperforming entity, it is critical you have confidence that the business you are collaborating with has a track record of success and innovation. When doing your homework, visit other leading agents who are using the systems you are considering. Get a real sense of the value they gain from their investment every day and the relationship they have with their CRM supplier. Selecting a CRM is a serious matter for any estate agency, as it represents the central nervous system of your business. Make sure you invest wisely in the right fully-featured CRM and have dedicated resources involved in the process – from investigation through to implementation and ongoing business adoption. Having a powerful CRM driving your business is the key to owning your market, so never underestimate the importance of getting it right.
MINDSET CORNER Jet Xavier is one of Australia's leading mindset coaches for real estate sales professionals. For more information visit jetxavier.com.
Lonely Planet They say there's a great view from the top – but anyone who has been there understands it can also be very lonely. Jet Xavier looks at ways you can better support yourself in your own leadership journey.
they may self-harm or selfmedicate in many ways rather than reach out for help. This impacts health, work, families and relationships as it's easier to hit the drink, throw yourself into overwork, remaining unhealthy or suffering in isolation until, tragically, something gives.
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espite the fact that many contemporary leadership environments now have become a flat leadership structure, millennial open-office collaborative affair, the essence of leadership is still the same. The buck stops with somebody. When the hard decisions need to be made, when the responsibility for everything needs to be taken, when taking the risks at the highest level is required and when things get tough for most leaders, there is generally nobody else around but the leader carrying the weight of it all on their shoulders. This is especially true in smaller operations in real estate where you are wearing all the hats, trying to keep the cogs turning and lead at the same time. The leader is the one who takes it home and has the constant worry and anxiety. The leader is the one who has most of the pressure and expectation on them, and it is the leader who finds loneliness and isolation become the only confidant they have, which then can impact performance in a big way. A Harvard Business Review article reported that 50 per cent
of CEOs say they experience feelings of loneliness in their role, with 61 per cent of this group saying it hinders performance. It was worse for first-time CEOs who experienced loneliness in their role; 70 per cent said that the feelings negatively affected their performance. “As leaders we need to lead by example and start showing some vulnerability” – Nathan Casserly, Ouwens Casserly Real Estate. So why is it lonely at the top, and why do leaders isolate themselves? Male leaders, in particular, typically do not express their feelings or seek help for their problems, whether mental, emotional, physical or for business issues – and therein lies the issue. They’re expected to toughen up, not show weakness, push on through pain and not be vulnerable. Big boys don’t cry. However, these leaders are
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BE AWARE WHEN YOU START TO ISOLATE YOURSELF OR GET FEELINGS OF LONELINESS. burning out more than ever, suffering health and relationship issues and, in some cases, dying needlessly. It is tragic we continue the narratives and stereotypes of manhood in our society that almost shame men into keeping quiet if something is wrong. “People don’t have conversations around burnout, anxiety and depression because they, particularly men, think it makes them look weak.” – Leanne Pilkington, CEO Laing + Simmons, NSW; President, REINSW. Men aren’t taught how to express themselves, so they don’t actually know how to. Instead,
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ways to beat loneliness at the top
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Be aware when you start to isolate yourself or get feelings of loneliness. Create a personal board of people you trust and can be open and honest with, and reach out about how you are coping personally. Find a mentor or coach you can bounce business issues off in a professional and confidential manner. Join a local business owners’ group or professional network of leaders who you can relate to and who are going through similar things. Manage your stress, your health and your mental game. Delegate and empower others in your organisation to carry the load.
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PEOPLE PARTNER Sarah Dawson is the Head of Growth at Real+. For more information visit realplus.com.au.
Proving your worth We’ve all heard the saying, ‘A new broom sweeps clean’ – but it’s not always easy to know when the best time is to introduce change. Sarah Dawson examines what to do (and not to do) if you've just stepped up into a leadership role.
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Organise a team event
anaging people and leading a team – it’s a career goal that most aspire to. For some it’s considered the ultimate achievement; you’ve made it when you have a team of people looking to you for guidance every day. For others it’s a terrifying experience as they move from an operational role to a whole new ball game. The first two weeks are crucial. Opinions are formed, emotions are high and unfortunately this is the time that most want to prove capability. Yet this is actually the time you shouldn’t do anything, except the following.
A lunch, a casual catch-up, time for coffee and a chat. Get to know the team on a personal level. Seek to understand their motivations; what they like, what they don’t like. Provide a space where people can relax and get to know you and where they can feel comfortable to share. Change is always confronting. They are nervous too!
Don’t change anything
Be humble Spending time with each team, from reception through to the CEO, means there are small wins in every direction. Listen to client contact and learn the queries your team deal with every day. Spend time studying the company history so you can understand the passion behind the business. Ask as many questions as possible. You have a lot of respected experience – that’s why you’re there – but this is a new space!
FOR SOME IT’S THE ULTIMATE ACHIEVEMENT; YOU’VE MADE IT WHEN YOU HAVE A TEAM OF PEOPLE LOOKING TO YOU FOR GUIDANCE EVERY DAY. Don’t take notes Wait until the end of the meeting, or the end of the day, and capture the key points that have stayed with you. Frantic note-taking can be comforting for you, but not so much for the person who is trying
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to hold your attention. What percentage of our notes do we actually review and rely on? Use your time with people engaging in their enthusiasm to share. Providing full attention will help stimulate the conversation.
It’s normal to see a potential win and want to dive in, but true understanding takes time. There are always a lot of mechanics around the ‘why’ - why is it this way? What else would a change affect? It’s often easy to assume a change will provide immediate impact, but the risk is not understanding what the impact might be – whether that’s to the team or other processes. You don’t know until you feel comfortable with the bigger picture. Set yourself a two-month restriction and then make wellinformed decisions. No one is perfect; we all do our best with the tools we have onboard. We can learn so much from our peers and colleagues. As a leader, the ability to tap into those around us and encourage them to feel confident and empowered to share their skill set will promote success for everyone. My advice for the first two months is listen, learn and leverage!
BUSINESS MATTERS John Knight is the Managing Director of businessDEPOT, a team of energetic accountants and advisors. For more information visit businessdepot.com.au.
How to secure a tax-free business sale Retiring? Real estate agencies are perfectly positioned to take advantage of a number of tax concessions when they exit their businesses as long as the rules are followed. John Knight explains.
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t is not often as an accountant that I can tell a client they have no tax to pay on the sale of their business. For many real estate agencies, however, that is exactly the case thanks to the Small Business CGT (SBCGT) Concessions. It doesn’t matter whether you are selling all of your business, part of your business, units in a unit trust, or even just shares in the company that operates the business. However, there are some hard-fast criteria you must meet to be eligible for these concessions. These rules are complex, but let me share with you a simple case study of a fairly typical real estate agency so you can see the benefits of planning ahead when you are contemplating an exit. Joe and Flo started Sunrise Real Estate in 1995. They have worked in the business since then – Joe looks after the back office and the rent roll while Flo is the leading sales agent for the office. They operate in a company structure but now want to exit the business and have agreed to sell the shares in the company to their leading property manager for four million dollars. They have no other assets, other than their house and superannuation, and are both now 60 years of age. Joe and Flo meet the basic eligibility requirements for the Small Business CGT (SBCGT) Concessions, in this case being: l Selling shares in a company that
has always carried on business. l Annual turnover is more than $2 dollars, but their net assets (that is, net of debt) are less than $6 million excluding their home, superannuation and other personal use assets. l They have never bought nonbusiness assets in the company and never borrowed significant amounts from the company. l Shares in the company are currently owned by a family trust, but they have always distributed dividends on a 50:50 basis from the trust. l Joe and Flo both plan to retire on the sale of the business; this sale is specifically in connection with their retirement. Because Joe and Flo have operated the business for more than 15 years and they have met the basic eligibility criteria, they will pay no tax on the sale of the business, using the 15 Year Exemption under the SBCGT Concessions. That’s $4 million
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Sale Proceeds Cost Base
LET ME SHARE WITH YOU A SIMPLE CASE STUDY OF A FAIRLY TYPICAL REAL ESTATE AGENCY. tax-free. Joe and Flo walked away from the business with a smile on their face, but let’s imagine an alternative scenario. Let’s assume now that Joe and Flo only started the business in 2005, 13 years ago. Both 60, they are worn out and need a break but may still contract as sales agents to the business after they have sold it. In this case, tax concessions would be applied as follows: Although Joe and Flo do not $4,000,000 $-
General 50% CGT Discount
$4,000,000 $(2,000,000)
Active Asset Reduction
$2,000,000 $(1,000,000)
Retirement Exemption - Joe Retirement Exemption - Flo Taxable Capital Gain
$1,000,000 $(500,000) $(500,000) $-
plan to fully retire, they can still exit the business, crystallise a tax-free gain on sale and are well set up for the future. I do not want to underestimate the complexity behind meeting the requirements for the SBCGT Concessions, but these rules are made for businesses like real estate agencies. You can also use the SBCGT Concessions to bulk up the balance of your superannuation as they fall outside the normal super-contribution rules. If you are under the age of 55 at the time of the sale, to be eligible for the Retirement Exemption you may need to contribute the amount to superannuation if you don’t want to pay tax on the sale. There are many tricks and traps with these rules. If you can meet the requirements, great! If not, maybe put a plan in place to work towards meeting the requirements by the time you exit, because the benefits are significant.
There are many other variations and scenarios which would apply the concessions differently, so please seek advice from an expert to help. Please note that these scenarios and comments are intended to only be general in nature. You must consider your own specific circumstances. Legislation may change at any point in time; there is currently a bill before Parliament to make some minor changes to the basic eligibility requirements, but we still see a great application to the real estate industry.
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ASK THE COACH Top coach Claudio Encina answers your questions about motivation and how to cope with a sales slump.
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How can I more effectively motivate my team? Francois Vassiliades, LJ Hooker Campsie
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The future of leadership is becoming not a good leader, but about becoming a highperformance leader. I normally raise this with clients if they are struggling to get their team to perform at their highest level. They need you to step up; they will never outgrow or outperform you with the level of effort you bring. The fact is, they will never care as much or work as hard as you do; you set the boundaries for your team. There are seven traits that make a high-performance leader. Constant state of growth. For high-performance leaders it’s always about how to keep growing week by week, month by month and year by year; not growing is a foreign concept to this type of leader. Look at always expanding your skills, talents, mindset. Get yourself into a growth process. Five areas where I believe you should always be growing are spiritually, mentally, physiology/exercise, relationships and skills. As they say, lead by example. High level of responsibility. Always take 100 per cent of responsibility with anything and everything in your life, including your team. If you take responsibility and ownership then your team will start to take responsibility too. Love the process. It’s the process that will give you the necessary outcome. Most agents or principals don’t like processes and prefer to focus only on the outcome, but you can’t achieve great things in life without hard work. Learn to love the process. Spring-loaded towards action. You’ve heard the saying ‘Just do it’. That’s what the high-performance leaders do;
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YOUR TEAM WILL NEVER CARE AS MUCH OR WORK AS HARD AS YOU DO; YOU SET THE BOUNDARIES FOR THEM. they don’t dwell, think or ponder but just take massive action. Don’t get stuck with paralysis analysis. Make sure your focus is in action, not inaction. Run toward your fears. The brave eat their fear before the fear eats them. One of the daily practices of excellent leaders is to do something that stretches them and causes them to confront their limits. That’s how you build self-confidence and become invincible. Push risk. Hug change. Go for your biggest opportunities. Persistent level of determination. Failure is quitting before you’ve reached your outcomes. High-performing leaders are able to pursue their outcomes and not quit until the job is done. It’s not about the setbacks, falling short or missing the goal; you only fail when you quit going for the outcome.
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No lone wolves. You can’t do this on your own. You know your strengths and weaknesses. A team will always outperform an individual, so learn to empower others, delegate and trust people. Go through the rest of your life being one of the rare individuals who’s not a good leader or a great leader but a high-performing leader.
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Any tips to get yourself out of a sales slump or rut? Paul Ephron, Richardson & Wrench Bondi Junction
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The first thing is to let go of the past and don’t think about the future; just focus on what’s important right now – the present. Thinking about the past and the future can bring anxiety and stress. High achievers are able to manage their moods and emotions through the highs
and lows of the real estate rollercoaster. Getting yourself out of a sales slump starts with your self-talk, as that becomes your thoughts. Your thoughts become your focus, your focus becomes your actions and your actions lead to your results. Self-talk is critical. Focus is nothing more than the questions you repeatedly ask yourself. It’s how you determine your focus that counts; it’s the power of the right question that ultimately produces that attitude, which in turn determines the kind of actions you take. So if you want to be in the right action you’ve got to have the right attitude, starting with your body, your self-talk, and your focus. When you take action – when you make those phone calls, knock on those doors, do the things you know you’re supposed to do to go out and win – you produce results. And the results simply reinforce your body, your self-talk and your focus. Think about it like this. Does your income get impacted by your personal psychology? Does your income get impacted by the way you move your body? You and I both know confidence with your clients is everything, and if you’re walking around in a sulky state they don’t want to buy from you. If your self-talk is slightly off around the customers it’s almost like they can smell it – like sales B.O. Wherever you put your focus the customer is going to follow. All these things are critical to your success as a salesperson: attitude, actions and results. Get into the right state of mind, cast a larger net and produce the kind of results you desire.
To have your question answered email askthecoach@eliteagent. com.au. To connect with Claudio visit claudioencina.com.
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cover story
The First Ladies of First National IN THE SOUGHT-AFTER REGIONAL destination of
Byron Bay, First National Real Estate has carved out an outstanding reputation. Over three decades it has grown to become not just the leading agency in the region, but First National’s leading agency in Australasia. Contributing to this stellar reputation is a team of high-performing agents, four of whom happen to be women, each achieving remarkable results.
W
hen First National Byron Bay principal and director Chris Hanley speaks of his agency, he talks in terms of the “likeable people” who make up his team. “Basically, they’re just good people who happen to be real estate agents,” he reflects. “We have four women who have made a huge contribution to us being named the top sales office of the 430-plus offices in the First National Network for the second year running,” Chris says. “That’s no small achievement for little old Byron Bay.” Chris makes it sound simple, but this is a hand-picked team put carefully through
34 ELITE AGENT • SEPTEMBER 2018
their paces. Before becoming a sales agent each is required to prove their mettle, notching up months of prospecting calls and swatting up on the best practices in the business. He likens it to learning a sport, where you have to build up the required callouses in order to become proficient. “They need to get used to the industry, the rejection and people who say no, and that takes a while,” he says. The result is a passionate group of real estate 'athletes' who are committed to playing the 'long game'. The average time people work at First National Byron Bay is over a decade, and among them is a group of highly experienced, highly successful women, each leading their own team.
From left to right: Su Reynolds, Helen Huntly-Barratt, Helene Adams, Tara Torkkola
eliteagent.com 35
cover story
SU REYNOLDS •
Leading the charge is director and sales agent Su Reynolds, who is ranked amongst the brand’s top 10 agents in Australasia. With almost 30 years’ experience under her belt, she says she couldn’t imagine a life without real estate. Her expertise ranges from residential to lifestyle, commercial, industrial and rural properties, and extends across all price brackets. And, like all at First National Byron Bay, her career started by putting in the hard yards.
“I knew it was a big thing leaving my listings with someone else, but I had complete confidence it would be as if I were there with Luke.” “I came to Byron Bay and First National in 1992. In the early 1990s people weren’t prospecting that much so I started at one end of Byron Bay and continued to the other, knocking on doors and building a database of people who I kept in contact with.” That database reaped results, with Su establishing an enviable profile in the industry and the community. Then, about three years ago, she reached a turning point. Averaging about $700,000 a year in gross commission, Su knew she physically couldn’t put in any more hours to achieve further success. “I couldn’t sleep any less, I was already working nights and there simply weren’t any more hours in the day, but there was still business to be had.” It was time to take the step of building her own team, and the catalyst came as she was about to go on annual leave. Su already shared a few listings with fellow sales agent Luke Elwin and the pair seemed a good working fit. “I knew it was a big thing leaving my listings with someone else, but I had complete confidence it would be as if I were there with Luke.” They were soon joined by Kate Stanford in sales support. Now the team of three works as a well-oiled machine, with Su
36 ELITE AGENT • SEPTEMBER 2018
handling sellers and listings, Luke looking after prospecting and buyer management, and Kate taking care of organising and reports. “It’s not only changed my results, but my life as well,” Su reflects. “I don’t work any fewer hours but they’re a lot more productive.” The relationship is built on implicit trust, mutual respect and accountability. And that offers everyone freedom to learn, grow and achieve success, Su notes. “I know my team learn best by following my example. I’m always aware of that; it makes me a better agent. Not only does their income depend on me but their quality of work life and their life outside work as well.”
TARA TORKKOLA •
With a background in sales that started at the age of 14, Tara Torkkola
“We would pass the baby around while prospecting. It was all about multitasking and the work was being done.” always knew she wanted to work in real estate. She made the commitment 10 years ago when she first moved to Byron Bay and hasn’t looked back. “I spent a year talking to Chris and doing research,” she explains. “I started out in hard-core prospecting, all day, every day. I feel like I started with the hardest part, but it paid off.” Tara soon moved from sales assistant to sales agent and, with impressive figures to her name, the impending arrival of her first child three years ago saw her decide it was time to bring in help. Tara now leads a team of two others, with Sally Green looking after client care and Lilly Jones working part-time on the ‘backend’ tasks of systems and social media.
“I think when I reached a GCI of $500,000 to $600,000 I felt I couldn’t manage any more on my own,” Tara explains. “It was just before my first baby and it was a huge risk to make such an investment at that time; but it was the push I needed, and I’ve had my three best years ever as a result.” Tara says her team members are not just colleagues but also part of her family. “I have responsibility for their welfare, but they also feel that for me. I trust them. They are the type of people you welcome into your home.” Ten months ago, Tara had her second child, and notes in the immediate weeks afterwards the crew rallied around her, working from her home. “We would pass the baby around while prospecting. It was all about multi-tasking and the work was being done.” Tara says her leadership style is one of example. “I want everyone to own their role. They’re making decisions on my behalf and when they start making the wrong ones, that’s when I’ll look at getting involved.”
HELENE ADAMS •
At 47, Helene Adams entered the real estate game a little later than most but came armed with a 20-year background in sales. Now she’s building a successful business focusing on the lifestyle property segment. Helene explains her career turning point came when purchasing her own home in Byron Bay. “I dealt with a lot of agents and had the chance to sift out the good and the bad. I found Su Reynolds and was just so impressed with her customer service. I had an epiphany that I should become a real estate agent. “So I approached Su, who put me on to Chris, and then I went through a gruelling six-month interview process.” That was four years ago and initially
"I was a lone wolf and needed to do something. Now I go to bed smiling at night.”
Helene worked with Su before going solo. “My first listing was two properties in a strata set-up, one at $1.4 million and the other $1.2 million. I learnt the process and my next listing was $2.4 million. I’ve then stayed in that price range. I’ve had a couple of really good properties.” Helene says she has also known a lot of people in the community for a long time. “Real estate is about building trust and relationships. And the foundations are set for that so far.” Recently those foundations proved so strong that Helene took the step of bringing on team members to assist with sales creation, digital media and IT. “All of a sudden I’m blessed with two guys who specialise in that. Within two weeks I had my own website and blogs. I’m loving it. I know the results are coming and already they’re trickling through. I talk all day and [the team] prop me up.” Helene’s team comprises former real estate coach and industry veteran Adam Guthrie and fellow sales agent Jade Thomas. “It’s like a marriage made in heaven and already we’ve surpassed the results of last year. I was a lone wolf and needed to do something. Now I go to bed smiling at night.”
HELEN HUNTLYBARRATT • Helen Huntly-
Barratt came to First National Byron Bay with a wealth of experience behind her. She had previously worked for some of the industry’s biggest names in Sydney, with a resume that included establishing new offices and training agents. “That’s how I met Chris,” she says. “I walked into the First National office and could see it was by far a standout business. Basically, I doorknocked him and he’s never forgotten it.” Helen took time off to travel overseas, but when she returned knew it was time to “get back on the tools”. “I was about to sign a contract with another brand. Chris said, ‘Don’t sign anything yet. Have a coffee with me and just give it 20 minutes’.” Two hours later, Helen was an agent for
"It was the support of the team around me that gave me the confidence, tenacity and determination to kick some goals in a community I didn’t know.” the First National brand. “At the time I didn’t know anyone here. It was the support of the team around me that gave me the confidence, tenacity and determination to kick some goals in a community I didn’t know.” And kick some goals she did, working tirelessly to establish a presence in the tight-knit community. Twelve years later, Helen is a director of First National Byron Bay and has just appointed an assistant. The decision to bring in help comes off the back of one of her best years to date. “It’s just not sustainable. We all talk about real estate being the long game, but how many agents consistently write $800k to $900k on their own? I did it once, but I was exhausted. You have to have people to step into the role if you need them to.” Helen’s team member is Jasmin McClymont, who came to her through the “Chris Hanley recruitment filter – which is one of the best recruitment filters I’ve ever seen,” she adds. “He has this knack and feeling for it.” Now Helen is looking to employ similar leadership tactics as she takes her business to the next level. “It’s about listening, trusting, and caring, rather than just talking. People need to trust you and see you doing everything in their best interest. Great leadership is just that.” Meanwhile, Helen notes, agents may get the focus but behind the scenes there’s a wealth of invaluable support. “We have so many resources in our business, it’s like a jigsaw. When it’s working beautifully it’s just a beautiful thing to watch.” • CASSANDRA CHARLESWORTH
eliteagent.com 37
business growth
37 BUSINESS LESSONS TO 10x
GROWTH BEFORE ITS ACQUISITION BY US POWERHOUSE DOUGLAS ELLIMAN, California’s prestigious Teles Properties experienced 10x growth in just five years. Realising success leaves clues, Sharran Srivatsaa summarises a decade of learning into 37 actionable takeaways.
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TRUE CULTURE is built when you can remind people of the past but keep them focused on a bigger and better future. TRANSFORMATIONS don’t happen in isolation. If you don’t have a coach, mentor or operating board of advisors, you are underperforming. Guaranteed. THE WAY TO CREATE 10X is not by optimising a process or tweaking a system. It is by taking ideas and turning them into reality. There is a great quote by Robin Sharma, “Ideation without execution is delusion”. FOCUS ON BUILDING a community, because community drives achievement. Pour your heart into the community. People love you for who you are, not who they think you should be.
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Take vacations. I really didn’t take any. I paid the price in every way imaginable.
8
TAKE CARE of the right people. As I look back at our 10x growth, the turning points were always marked with great hiring or firing decisions. YOUR ARTIFACTS OF SUCCESS are the insurance policy to achieving your goals. When you have your plans written down, your tracking systems established, reporting dialled in, everything changes because you start operating from a powerful place where facts meet inspiration. When you work with me, I will always go back to building out our artifacts of success.
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10 Wake up with a fierce intention to crush it. The leading indicator for your success is the commitment to your morning routine.
Don’t be an a**hole. 11 You will always lose. 12 6 13 TAKE 100 PER CENT responsibility for your actions. If someone doesn’t respond to your email or text message, that means your communication wasn’t compelling enough to deserve a response.
38 ELITE AGENT • SEPTEMBER 2018
7
PONY UP. It’s okay to pay for access to a mentoring relationship; it’s a symbol of seriousness. “SELF-DISCIPLINE is the ability to make yourself do something you don’t necessarily want to do to get a result you would really like to have.” - Andy Andrews IF YOU CAN’T DO DEEP WORK, you are bound to be outworked. Read the book Deep Work by Cal Newport. It will change your life.
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LUCK IS REAL and often you can create it. It is also sometimes just a belief system. CELEBRATE YOUR WINS. It will make you have many more. GOOD PROCESS drives good results. If you know me, you know this is one of my brain tattoos. FOCUS is more important than intelligence – because your eyes only see and your ears only hear what you are looking for. WHAT YOU DO every day builds culture. With every turn, every decision, every opportunity and every pivot, ask how it’s going to affect your culture. Guard it with your life. It’s the heartbeat of your success. YOU CANNOT 10x anything without having insanely amazing health. If i were to go back and do just one thing differently, it would be to prioritise my health and vitality over everything else.
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20 Commit to personal growth every single day. Make it a part of your daily nonnegotiables. It’s the one silver bullet in your life that is the gateway to creating massive success.
21 22 23 24
WHAT YOU SAY really matters. (Ugh, I can’t believe I said that.) Remember: If you don’t script, you don’t care. IF YOU DON'T HAVE mentors, you will always live a mediocre life. IT'S OKAY to have your own hashtag: #TelesDomination was ours! IF YOU DON'T LEVERAGE a worldwide workforce and take advantage of time and payroll arbitrage, you will lose.
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Focus on building your inner circle. Your life will change instantly when you find your 1,000 true fans.
IT'S NOT ABOUT what you read. It’s about what you do with what you read. Think about how to transfer ideas and skills from your reading and learning, not just cranking through books and podcasts. IT’S OKAY to use the words ‘I love you’ when you mean it… may it be at work or home. (Clearly HR didn’t approve this list.) WE LIVE IN THE results economy. Take a meritocracy approach if you want to win. I don’t care about FaceTime or office hours. I don’t care if you work from Barcelona or Bombay; it’s all about results. Give your team the flexibility and creativity to enjoy their work, their time off and their contributions. YOUR PERSONAL stability is the foundation for 10x growth. When you have your family, friends and inner circle supporting your obsession, it becomes exponentially easier to focus and thrive. I LEARNED THAT the number one problem that plagues high achievers is ‘Big Goal/No Plan’. If you want to create lasting transformations for people, help them to align their big goals with an inspiring and thoughtful plan. WHAT IS RISKY TO someone else need not be risky to you. Just do the work. The only time you are underprepared is when you are not over-prepared. WHEN YOU FIND great partners, you will find great joy that transcends everything. ISSY SHARP, the founder of Four Seasons, once told me, “The answer is always yes. Now what is the question?” GREATNESS IS in the granularity. I knew every single thing about how every single thing worked at Teles. It sometimes bothered people, not because I was in their business but because I knew how everything worked and it was just hard to BS me. That gave our key stakeholders confidence because I was always able to help find solutions to problems. If you think about it, this is one of the reasons why many people
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bounce from coach to consultant; it’s hard to find someone who can think both top-down and bottom-up simultaneously. Very few people out there have done the work in the trenches. Very few people know how to take an idea and make it a reality. I keep my coaches and mentors on their toes because that’s what I need to keep my edge… and they secretly love it. Commit to knowing how everything fits together; nobody expects you to do everything because (news flash) you can’t. However, when you take responsibility for everything, you will realise that greatness is in the granularity. “YOU CANNOT DO epic sh*t with B players. Upgrade the bench.” -Peter Loewy WHEN IN DOUBT, go work out. Clear your head and refocus.
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37 It is impossible to 10x just one part of your life. Every domain in your life has to level up to support the 10x charge. Once you commit to 10x in one part of your life, start to look for its daisychain effect in other parts of your life. Sharran Srivatsaa is the CEO of Kingston Lane, a push-button technology execution platform for real estate. Sharran will be speaking at The Business of Real Estate in the Gold Coast on 3-4 September. For more information visit thebusinessofrealestate.com.au.
eliteagent.com 39
leadership • THE BUSINESS OF
REAL ESTATE is a two-day leadership conference held by Real Estate Results Network for real estate principals, managers and leaders. In the run-up to their fifth event from 3-4th September on the Gold Coast we caught up with some of this year’s keynote speakers to find out more about their businesses, where great ideas come from, how they onboard new team members and who they look to for inspiration to take their businesses to greater heights.
STEFANIE DOBRO CAPORN YOUNG What’s the most important thing you’re currently working on? I’m working on tidying up our systems and our database to focus strongly on building quality relationships and creating an attraction business.
THE BUSINESS OF
SUCCESS
What’s a recent ‘great idea’ you have implemented? At AREC, one of the speakers talked about setting up a WhatsApp group for each new listing with the whole team, as well as the sellers. I texted my assistant and we immediately set up groups with most of our sellers. It has been a big success; it doesn’t replace telephone calls and face to face meetings, but it really helps with time management and communication. Favourite question to ask someone in a job interview? I generally want to know what they do when not at work and where they see themselves in the next three to five years. This gives an insight into who they really are, whether they have goals and are prepared to put in the work to achieve them, and what is really important to them. What is one characteristic that every leader should possess, and why? Leaders need to have a vision and
40 ELITE AGENT • SEPTEMBER 2018
"WhatsApp is a fantastic tool for exposing new team members to our business' culture." be approachable, ready to listen and understand where others are coming from. Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People has so many valuable leadership lessons; the one that I always come back to is ‘seek first to understand’. Leaders who are approachable and focus on supporting people growth will have the best company cultures and experience business growth and success.
How do you help a new employee understand the culture of your business? Culture is caught, not taught. Actions speak louder than company statements about what we stand for and how we treat each other. WhatsApp is a fantastic tool for exposing new team members to our business' culture. The welcome messages the team send to new members, or when they get their first listing or sale, or when another team member sells something – this shows we are not just a company working as a team, but individuals who support each other and celebrate each other’s successes. Who are your leadership mentors and what do they do to inspire you? I can think of no better leadership mentor than Megan Jaffe. She is really genuine about creating an environment where every person has the support they need to grow. By focusing on and supporting them, she’s created an amazingly profitable business. Megan spends a lot of time working on herself, keeping her at the forefront of the industry. That’s a leadership style that really inspires me. What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time? One of my favourite leadership books is Robin Sharma’s The Leader Who Had No Title. I’d encourage anyone who wants to become a leader to read this book, as it shows that you don’t need to be put into a leadership role to be a leader. Leadership isn’t about a title; it’s about your actions.
NICK WEST NELSON ALEXANDER What’s the most important thing you’re working on right now? We’re reviewing our PM Platform to ensure we can offer the best service and efficiencies, backed with effective communication to our clients – both landlords and tenants. We’ve set up a review committee who are currently reviewing the needs of our PMs and those of our clients (again, both landlords and tenants) and then reviewing the best platforms in the marketplace that suit our business now and into the future. Where do great ideas in your business come from? Many of our ideas and inspirations come from within our own business, from our own people and from our leadership team, who are always curious about improving the business and the environment that we provide for our staff and clients. We are members of various business groups where we are exposed to new ideas
“Leadership isn’t about a title; it’s about your actions.”
(not necessarily in real estate). We also share experiences with others in the real estate industry. We have recently adopted an internal employee platform that assists with staff learning, personal development and wellbeing.
What is one characteristic that every leader should possess, and why? Be an effective communicator. Give a vision that staff can relate to, that drives self-motivation and empowers them to work towards that vision as a team. If you can articulate a vision – where you are going, why you are going there and what’s in it for your staff – then you are more likely to get the best out of your team. Who are your leadership mentors and what do they do to inspire you? My mentor is a brilliant man named Dr Fred Grosse. He forces you to step out of your comfort zone and look at what you really want to achieve in your life, and what your life passions are. What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time? Have a mentor and seek advice from others who are leaders in the real estate industry. Learn from their success and from the mistakes they have made, as that often provides the best learning as a leader.
eliteagent.com 41
SAM RIGOPOULOS JELLIS CRAIG
EMILY-JANE MEGRAW LJ HOOKER NERANG What’s the most important thing you’re working on right now? A new human resources cloud-based platform that will streamline the induction and continual smooth running of the employee systems in the office. My boss and I are in talks with our HR representative and the CRM provider to negotiate terms. If successful, I will be responsible for championing the roll-out to our office and be of assistance to other offices within the LJ Hooker network should they follow suit.
Who are your leadership mentors and what do they do to inspire you? The person who really has mentored and inspired me is my boss, Shane Colquhoun. When I started as a trainee in property management here, I knew I had landed somewhere special. After many years in hospitality, I had seen the good, the bad and the ugly. It was refreshing to work for a passionate individual, whose goals were not only to build a profitable business, but to ensure the team around him were successful and had the opportunity to grow.
What is one characteristic that every leader should possess, and why? I truly believe passion for the industry is key. If you have a leader who is passionate about what they do and why, it rubs off on the team and generates great culture. If you have a leader who displays a chipper attitude, they are more likely to attract the right kind of people and retain them long-term.
What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time? You must listen! It is imperative you focus on people that inspire you; take on information, criticism and ask as many questions as you can. Don’t fall into the trap of feeling you need to be everyone’s friend, either. There will be times that your decisions aren’t welcomed with open arms. You need to learn to not take these criticisms How do you help a new personally, learn to evaluate employee understand the and move on. Knowledge is key. culture of your business? Make sure you know how to We have a culture paper with guidelines of what we are about walk the walk. There is nothing worse than someone telling you and trying to achieve as a team. to do something if they haven’t In our office, you can walk in and feel our strong team culture. done it or won’t do it themselves. Get stuck in, be a team player, be We are a happy tribe who enjoy each other’s company in and out present and be willing to have a door-open policy to assist your of work. crew at any time. Ultimately, that leads to respect.
42 ELITE AGENT • SEPTEMBER 2018
Where do great ideas in your business come from? We have a strong collaborative focus in our business; many ideas come from within and others come from the coaches and mentors we engage with. Dr Fred Grosse is a mentor of mine and he has been helpful in providing me with industry connections to people performing well in the virtual assistant space. Phil Harris has been great to us in this space also; we have met with him on a few occasions to refine our progress. Favourite question to ask someone in a job interview? What does the answer tell you about the person? ‘What style of management do you respond well to?’ The response usually tells me if they are a good autonomous worker who also likes to learn or a victim who likes to hide. Another good question is, ‘If you are not successful in real estate what is your fall-back plan/Plan B?’. If they have an answer to this they are not committed enough; this is an industry that requires you to burn the boats to truly succeed. What is one characteristic that every leader should possess, and why? Empathy is key. Everyone is at a different level on a different journey, and the simplicity of making time to listen and understand your team will help them feel validated and a part of something.
How do you help a new employee understand the culture of your business? Lead by example and call people out immediately on issues that go against the culture. Silence implies consent, so if you see something happen – even if you know it is a one-off mistake by a colleague – you must address it. Who are your leadership mentors and what do they do to inspire you? Dr Fred Grosse; he inspires me to stay focused on what I can control and to get clear on what I want. Other mentors for me are the likes of Robin Sharma and Tony Robbins – I listen to their podcasts regularly and always feel inspired to believe in myself, and trust that the universe will reward the effort and intent I show up with. What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time? Leadership doesn’t mean less work and talk; it’s the opposite. Stay humble, double-down on your work effort and lead from the front so your team know you are prepared to go as hard, if not harder, than them to create the outcomes you are looking for. And do the dishes! A good leader doesn’t walk past paper on the floor or dishes in the sink. Set the tone, set the standard.
"IT’S IMPORTANT TO STAY INFORMED AND IMPLEMENT PROCESSES THAT ALLOW US TO BE PREPARED FOR ANY CHANGE IN MARKET CONDITIONS.
CATHY RICHARDS PLACE ESTATE AGENTS
What’s the most important thing you’re currently working on? This time of year, coming into spring, we’re customising marketing strategies to ensure we have a fresh, competitive edge. Also important at the moment is constant and clear communication with all clients; with the tightening of the banks’ lending criteria it’s important to stay informed and implement processes that allow us to be prepared for any change in market conditions. Where do great ideas in your business come from? I draw ideas and inspiration from the people around me, Family, friends and co-workers – I believe it’s important to bounce ideas off others and
incorporate a fresh perspective into every day. I incorporate a lot of my children’s social media ideas into the promoting of my business, as this is becoming an integral component of successful business branding in the modern world.
How do you operate under pressure? I work in an incredibly fastpaced industry and [when recruiting] need to know my staff will enjoy this aspect. It’s important to understand there are different personality types and to employ people who will not only succeed but who will love the environment they work in. How do you help a new employee understand the
culture of your business? By selecting the right fit for the position. My employees play a key role in my success, so I am very careful to select people who already encompass the culture of my business – hard workers who love what they do and have a thorough understanding of the importance of delivering a high standard of service. Who are your leadership mentors and what do they do to inspire you? I have been extremely fortunate to work within a great company with a very successful principal who has been instrumental in the growth of my success and certainly acted as a mentor in the early days of my career. He, along with other leaders in my
professional life, has inspired me by keeping me on track and teaching me throughout the process.
What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time? Be confident in your dream and believe it is worth sharing. It’s important to have a great attitude and work ethic as you’ll be a role model to others. •
The Business of Real Estate will be held on 3-4 September at QT Gold Coast. Book tickets at thebusinessofrealestate.com.au.
eliteagent.com 43
leadership
EMPOWERING FOR
GROWTH
RELIANCE REAL ESTATE CEO Sunil Kumar chose to focus on respect and empowerment when he opened his first office in 2011. That philosophy has seen his agency ranked the eighth fastest growing business in Australia.
4 4 ELITE AGENT • SEPTEMBER 2018
“O
ur focus is looking after people,” Sunil Kumar notes. “It’s about giving more and taking less in the interests of the client and the team.” Sunil started Reliance Real Estate in 2011 with the philosophy of providing great service to clients by empowering his real estate team. “I previously worked with another brand, but it was ‘my way or the highway’, and when that’s the philosophy you feel disempowered and lonely. “Our aim is to give our people motivation, keep them empowered and have them equipped with the right training to do what they really love.”
This ethos has seen Reliance grow from the initial office in 2011 to a brand that encompasses seven offices across the western suburbs of Melbourne. It also saw the company listed as the eighth fastest growing in the country by the Australian Financial Review, which reported three-year average year on year growth of 108.8 per cent, and revenue of
“Reliance Real Estate has a Future Leadership Club which meets monthly to help promising staff attain their goals.”
$4.67 million in 2017. “Last financial year we opened three new offices and 45 people joined our business,” Sunil explains. “We doubled our sales and enjoyed 60 per cent growth in the rental department. We are planning for more growth this year and are currently shoring up our systems and procedures to go again.” Sunil continues by outlining how one of the key features of his business model was facilitating the success of the team within it. Reliance Real Estate has a Future Leadership Club which meets monthly to help promising staff attain their goals. “We offer our staff the opportunity to grow in different areas of the business,” he said. The result has seen staff managing their own offices in as little as two and a half years. Amongst the company’s success stories is sales agent Taney Jain, who went from
“Taney [Jain] is testimony to what can be done. Each fortnight he also offers training to the team, devoting his own time.” zero to writing $1 million in sales in just two years. “Taney is testimony to what can be done. Each fortnight he also offers training to the team, devoting his own time. Reliance leadership is about putting the team’s interest first and helping others achieve.” “Business is hard, but at the same time it’s easy. It’s about giving more, taking less and focusing on the best interests of the client and the team.” ■ CASSANDRA CHARLESWORTH
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Sunil Kumar
Sunil will share an insight into his business and growth philosophy when he takes to the stage at the fifth annual Business of Real Estate conference on the Gold Coast this September. As part of the two-day conference that focuses on “thinking, strategies and success”, Sunil’s session on growth will include an insight into recruiting the right people, how a team can become trusted advisors and how to create relationships with clients that surpass the value of a property transaction.
human resources
Back to school with Beepo Despite a growing trend for outsourcing in real estate, the industry still lags behind other early adopters. Beepo plans to change this with their ‘staff leasing on steroids’. Hannah Blackiston went along to the Philippines on a recent study tour to find out what outsourcing is really like for both employer and employee.
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he idea of outsourcing often conjures up images of large factories or warehouses with bad working conditions, but the Beepo offices in the Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone in the Philippines look much the same as any you would find elsewhere in the world. Split across two levels, with offices upstairs and a reception, canteen and break rooms downstairs, the workforce are organised in teams based on the work they do. Each team reports to their team leader, acting as your eyes and ears on the ground. The outsourced staff can do almost any task onsite staff can do, from accounting to marketing, customer service to data entry. There’s a big property management division and a growing sales support department, alongside other departments focused on accounting and other industries. The Beepo system is based on ‘staff leasing’. Essentially, the member assigned to help you works for Beepo and you pay Beepo to use their services, making the service easier for the client. This also means that if a staff member isn’t right for you they can be assigned elsewhere, removing any personal issues from the process.
The hiring process for an offshore staff member can be as in-depth or as simple as you want. If you have specific requirements, including systems you want them to be trained in, experience you want them to have or just someone to suit specific tasks, you can ask for these at the hiring stage. For a staff member who might be interacting with customers you can make specific language requirements. Ongoing communication with the Beepo team in the Philippines also means you can monitor your staff with complete transparency, and in the event they don’t work out you’re able to find someone who fills the role better.
Training
Training is an important part of the outsourcing experience. The staff at Beepo are trained using the same systems commonly used in the real estate industry in Australia and New Zealand. They receive legislation training, and can be trained in specific systems or processes necessary for your business. The real estate team leaders in the Philippines are also trained in the necessary systems and platforms, providing an onsite backup for staff queries. The Study Tour isn’t just for businesses who are looking to bring on offshore staff; clients who already have Beepo staff often
attend to have one-on-one training time with their offshore team, which is allotted in the program. Each offshore staff member logs their tasks and time spent in a log sheet which is shared with you as often as you require it. You can pair this with meetings with their team leader as often as required, giving the whole process maximum transparency and accountability. As for local area knowledge, it turns out it isn’t as hard to pick that up as you might have thought. With the magic of search engines and some ongoing training and experience, it isn’t long before the outsourced staff are as fluent in the areas you work in as you are. On the Study Tour you’re able to see some of this at work, and it’s impressive how much the team can pick up about regions without ever having been to them.
of the process. Understanding the cultural differences is just a part of the process, and these can be heightened by the remote working. Setting up transparent working conditions, being clear in your needs and expectations, and acknowledging your worker and the output they produce is even more important when there’s a distance barrier. Once your team has become used to working with an outsourced staff member, and they fully understand your expectations and how you work, the boundaries can be easily overcome.
Security
Sharing data with offshore staff members brings up the question of security. In some instances this is a particularly big concern; private information associated with clients and banking data is often involved in the real estate team’s work. Beepo take security very seriously. Their systems are set for finance industry standards and are triple levelled, including 24/7 security guards, Access Control Systems at the entries, four biometrics devices and a full CCTV system. All staff keep personal items, such as smartphones, in their lockers which are located in the break areas away from the offices. Beepo has a strict clean-desk policy, and any technology used is either supplied by the company hiring the outsourced staff member, or Beepo themselves. Then there’s the web security. Staff members only have access to the specific website they need to do their job and Beepo have their own security system for all portals that require a log-in. Beepo Secure allows staff to access the systems you need them to without knowing your passwords or login information. The access is also matched to specific IP addresses, meaning the workers can’t use the portal outside of work.
Culture
Culture can be a significant barrier when taking on outsourced staff, but it doesn’t have to be. The best way to onboard an outsourced team member is to treat them the same as anyone else new to your team. Getting to know your new team member, involving them in work events, even remotely, and spending time involving them with your work culture is an important part
clear explanations is more likely to get you an optimum result. If your staff won’t work harmoniously with the outsourced staff then you’re never going to get the maximum output from your team, so it’s in everyone’s best interest that the process is handled smoothly. The tasks you select for your outsourced staff is one of the first areas you can ensure a happy onboarding process with your current team. High time input with low value output are the tasks which staff members usually hate, and they’re also the tasks outsourced staff excel in. By sitting down with your staff before you begin the hiring process and understanding the tasks which could be removed from them to improve their work output – and also make them happier in their roles – you’re more likely to win them over to the concept. This is also a great time to introduce other tasks to your team, partly so they don’t suspect you’re reducing their workload to get rid of them, but also to give them more satisfaction in their role.
Making offshore staff work for you
THE OUTSOURCED STAFF CAN DO ALMOST ANY TASK ONSITE STAFF CAN DO, FROM ACCOUNTING TO MARKETING, CUSTOMER SERVICE TO DATA ENTRY." Establishing a harmonious workplace
One of the main concerns businesses and managers have is how to explain the outsourcing process to their current staff. Especially when seen against a backdrop of companies who have outsourced entire departments in other industries, the thought can strike fear into the hearts of your established staff members. Education is an important part of the process, which is part of the reason that Beepo run their Study Tour. Rather than springing outsourced team members onto your current team and forcing them all to get along, a slow onboarding process with
The main takeaway from the Beepo Study Tour is that the experience will work as well as you let it. If you’ve got a team who are keen to explore the options of outsourcing, you’re ready to dedicate the team to onboard and you’re looking at your offshore staff as an extension of your current team, then the system works. Education is one of the most important parts of this process – from the education of the business looking to bring in offshore team members to the education of that team in the required systems and processes. The offshore staff experience is part of a wider movement to streamline business, improving procedures and making them more financially viable. Outsourcing goes hand in hand with cloud-based business and, as we move to a potentially tougher real estate climate, it makes sense to adopt these processes which will see a business work smarter and save money. Beepo are striving for ‘staff leasing on steroids’, and in doing that they’re aiming to make this process as simple as possible. But, as they say, seeing is believing; being onsite and witnessing how seamless the process can be if all the cogs align is a really important part of the process. All in all, offshore staff are definitely at the forefront of what’s to come for workforces; it’s just about how we adapt to it. ■
The next Beepo Study Tour takes place on 15-16 October. Find out more at beepo.com.au/tour.
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technology
HOW TO
SUCCESSFULLY OUTSOURCE
OFFICE TECHNOLOGY Along with the trend of outsourcing human resources, we are also seeing a growing number of businesses outsourcing IT. The result? In most cases a better, more efficient method than managing in house. But there are things you need to know before signing on the dotted line as Hannah Blackiston found out from EFEX Director Andrew Herrmann.
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e can outsource almost everything in our lives, from our accounts to our cleaning. But how do we go about finding the right IT solution for our real estate businesses? First things first: when it comes to outsourcing your IT you’re looking for a managed service provider. This is instead of a ‘break it and fix it’ option, where you’ve just got a person you call when something goes wrong. A managed service provider will cost more than an on-demand option, but in the long run it brings far more benefits to your business and will allow you to get a more tailored experience.
Andrew Herrmann, Director of EFEX, says the first thing you need to keep in mind is that your needs as a real estate professional won’t be the same as other offices, and you need to make sure your provider can match them. “You need to ensure your managed service provider understands the real estate game. Agents don’t work nine to five, so neither should your IT, print and voice provider. This includes weekends,” says Andrew. Next you need to make sure you’re getting the right model for your business. Andrew recommends an operational expense (opex) model over a capital expenditure (capex) model. “Renting, leasing or subscription-based models allow agencies to keep money in the bank as opposed to sitting on the office desk
depreciating. Not only does this help with cash flow, this also allows scalability as the business grows,” says Andrew. Taking on a managed service also allows you to opt in for upgrades and refresh strategies, which is something you should look for. New is often better; and while you might pay a little more for upgrades and new hardware, ultimately it’s often worth it. Along that line, make sure you take advantage of the offers from your service provider. There’s no point wasting your time doing low-value activities like fetching toner. A good provider will have all your tech needs answered before you even knew you had them. One of the things you’ll need to consider when you sign up to a managed service provider is your soft cost loss. Andrew says agencies should be careful about falling for short-term savings which lead to long-term problems. “The soft cost of not having a printer when you’re trying to get a contract signed, or a phone dropping out when you’re trying to book an appointment, isn’t just the time of someone running down to the local stationary store or redialling the potential seller; it can ultimately be what wins or loses you the listing,” says Andrew. “Ensuring you have service levels agreed and redundancy solutions around all of your technology infrastructure will ensure you aren’t in this predicament ever again.” Once you’ve selected the provider you want to go with, Andrew recommends having them complete a technology infrastructure audit. In this process they might find ways to save you, and your business, money, or be able to identify outdated technology and practices which are having a detrimental effect on your work. The most important factor in your decision is allowing flexibility for you and your office. “Find a solution that changes with your business. We all know real estate
AGENTS DON'T WORK NINE TO FIVE AND NEITHER SHOULD YOUR MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDER."
Andrew Herrmann
markets can move up and down, so choose a solution that moves and adapts to your changing environment,” says Andrew. By carefully weighing up the options before you commit to an outsourcing solution for your IT, you’re less likely to face issues down the track and spend more money fixing them. While a managed service provider might command a higher cost, there’s a reason they do – and that reason could be what saves you buying a new printer in a panic on Saturday morning. ■ HANNAH BLACKISTON
For more information about how IT oursourcing may benefit your business, visit efexgroup.com.au.
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leadership
COLLABORATE OR COMPETE? I THE LEADERSHIP ROLE IS OFTEN DISTORTED IN REAL ESTATE because most leaders are also salespeople. This presents a challenge for leaders to manage priorities especially when the biggest problem may be even closer to home.
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would estimate that 90 per cent of those in a leadership role are also still in the sales room, competing with the rest of the team on all levels. In addition, many oversee property management, with sometimes as many as 600 properties on the rent roll. If that is not complicated enough, these ‘leaders’ are also in charge of everything from customer service to finance to any other issue that arises in relation to operations and strategy in the growth of the business. Impede this further by throwing in partnerships, with
some partners selling and others silent. Now, in our industry, some of these partnerships take this leadership complex to a whole other level because they involve family: wives, husbands, partners or children. This makes for a multifaceted discussion of leadership that requires exploration and development, with all these scenarios taken into consideration. A really good exercise for managers is to write down four words: Leadership, Management, Sales and Self. Alongside each of those headings write down the percentage of time you are
Your effectiveness in management and sales is directly proportional to where you spend most of your time. spending in each area; then write down the percentage of time you should be spending in each area. Where are the gaps? Effectiveness in management and sales is directly proportional to where you spend most of your time. I would suspect that for most managers leadership would get a paltry five per cent of that time. Imagine, for a moment, great leaders like Sir Alex Ferguson (regarded as one of the greatest and most successful football managers of all time). What if, while managing, he was one of the top three players on the field at the same time? Picture it: Sir Alex, Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney all playing in the front row, but at the same time Sir Alex needs to be leading the team as well.
Then complicate the situation even more by noting that Sir Alex’s little brother is the fullback. And, just to make a point, add in the fact that Sir Alex, his wife and two other people own the whole team. It would be an untenable situation for any professional leader to be in. But yes, this is what we do in real estate! So how do you get on top of all this? It would be easy for me just to reel off the top 10 leadership things you need to focus on. But I would suggest that the number one leadership issue is YOU! If you understand yourself and know what sort of leader you are and what sort you want to be, then you have a shot at being a leader who can and does manage the variable leadership role effectively.
So where do we start? Neuroscience tells us we live from two different zones. To simplify, let's call them the Red Zone and the Blue Zone. The Red Zone is your ‘fight, flight, freeze’ zone, activated when you are stressed, reactive, judgemental or feeling under pressure. It is most likely to present itself as autocratic, possibly narcissistic, confrontational and even aggressive. The Blue Zone is our relaxed, content, safe and happy zone. When you are operating from this zone you are likely to be more aware, conscious, calm, responsive and open in solving and managing anything that arises.
I would like to suggest that the number one leadership issue is you!
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EFEX is a young, and keenly progressive managed services company that provides print, IT, cloud-based and voice solutions that are flexible, scalable, elegantly simple yet extremely robust, and suprisingly cost effective.
My experience is that leaders operating out of the Blue Zone have teams that last longer. Autocratic, aggressive management born out of stress and lack of awareness always seems to end badly – top people leave, the story changes, others follow suit and the ‘leader’ is left to start over again. Being conscious of who you are and how you lead is the start of the process of becoming not only a better leader, but perhaps a happier person. •
Peter Gilchrist is a leading coach who has been working with both top managers and top salespeople in the area of growth for over 30 years. For more information visit petergilchrist.com.au.
principal profile
“It’s important to have that smile, that personality and have the energy to make it contagious.”
RICHARD LUTON EMPATHY, ENTHUSIASM AND ENERGY
THERE’S A DECENT PORTION OF THOSE in our industry who quiver at the thought of managing a team or office, let alone over 160 staff spread across nine agencies as part of Canberra’s largest privately-owned real estate company, Luton Properties. But Richard Luton’s 25 years in the industry have seen him overcome a range of market challenges as he takes it all in his well-dressed stride. 52 ELITE AGENT • SEPTEMBER 2018
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true embodiment of the term ‘attraction agent’, Richard’s larger-than-life personality has not only built a successful business for himself as an agent, but has helped him master the three ‘C’s of leadership: culture, continuous improvement and community outreach.
After 25 years, what is your proudest moment in business? It was on 28 August 1999, [when] we opened up our first office in Manuka; we actually invited about 200 people. I had already been in real estate six years with another company, so it was really good to get our brand out there. How did you know it was time for you to take the step from high-flying sales rep to principal? At that stage, in the late 90s, the market wasn't great. We went through the Howard years of government where things were very, very tough, especially in Canberra [with] the public service cutbacks. We thought, ‘Okay, we've got three children under 10; what are they going to do for jobs in 10 years’ time?’ So we opened up the office. What do you think is essential from a leadership perspective for nurturing your newcomers to the industry, especially if they're completely green? Having a detailed induction for a new person to the company. We have a Head of Sales and a Head of Marketing and they are involved from day one to welcome that person, so they're not out there lost. We put them with somebody as a mentor; they’re with them for the first few months. We don’t want this affecting their performance, but also
WE HAD THREE CHILDREN UNDER 10; WHAT WERE THEY GOING TO DO FOR JOBS IN 10 YEARS’ TIME? SO WE OPENED UP THE OFFICE.” [the chance of] our agency losing a listing because somebody was not educated in our brand and in the market. You've got such a widespread base of employees – how do you keep your training on track and your staff motivated? I can't do it all by myself these days. I like to get around every week to each of the offices and talk to people and see if they have any issues. I've got managers in place, not only the directors in each office, but our Head of Sales is in each office weekly. It helps me to not have as many calls from agents. Sales is not the only thing that's important in a real estate team. We also have a Head of Property Management, and the driver behind the sales and property management is a successful admin team. We also have HR and administration managers to assist those people. You can never have too much training. We bring in four successful international or interstate trainers each year, sourced from real estate trade shows. Every three months we have a new person coming to train our staff and we set aside a full day to have our agents and property managers sit with those trainers. What are the top three qualities you see in successful agents? Successful agents have empathy, enthusiasm and an energy. It’s important to have that smile, have that personality and the energy to make it contagious to the rest of the people in your office. Have the empathy, you know. I came from the airline industry. I had 15 years with Ansett Airlines before I got into real estate [and] we always had empathy for our customers. If the airport was fogged in we had to say, ‘It's clearing a bit’, you
couldn't say, ‘Well, I don't know’. If an airplane broke down, you had to show some empathy for those people when they've been disrupted in their flights. The same thing when a home goes to market and doesn't sell; we have empathy for those owners. In a falling market, you're probably explaining why it hasn’t sold more than in a buoyant market when people are getting 100 per cent clearance rates at their auctions. It’s hugely important. I suppose I go back to my first years in real estate; I used to get a bit of feedback that ‘You real estate agents are making too much money, you're charging too much’. So every year we do a charity ball; we're about to do our 16th this year. We help put money back into the community in different charities and we've raised probably close to $4 million in total. What would you say to someone thinking about taking the leap to start their own agency? I wouldn't say it's good for everybody to do it. You can just work for a strong brand and make your name strong underneath that brand. Leveraging off that is really important. You have no overheads, you've got no rent to pay every week, you have no wages to pay every week, so it's a lot easier if you work underneath somebody else's brand.
“I WANTED TO MAKE SURE ALL MY AGENTS WERE WORKING HARD, BUT ALSO REAPING THE REWARDS OF A GOOD CULTURE.
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principal profile
“Sales is not the only thing that's important in a real estate team.”
How important is community to you? It’s hugely important. I suppose I go back to my first years in real estate; I used to get a bit of feedback that ‘You real estate agents are making too much money, you're charging too much’. So every year we do a charity ball; we're about to do our 16th this year. We help put money back into the community in different charities and we've raised probably close to $4 million in total. What would you say to someone thinking about taking the leap to start their own agency? I wouldn't say it's good for everybody to do it. You can just work for a strong brand and make your name strong underneath
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that brand. Leveraging off that is really important. You have no overheads, you've got no rent to pay every week, you have no wages to pay every week, so it's a lot easier if you work underneath somebody else's brand. Looking back now, is there anything you would do differently? I suppose it always goes back to the world of databases. Start a database from day one. The real estate market in my 18 years of Luton Properties has changed a little bit; it’s far more digital. What are your goals for the next 12 months? I have to look at succession planning, I suppose. I'm 60 next year and looking at
retirement in 20 years’ time! The current situation with our office partnerships is probably more of a sell-down for me and purchase from the current directors. Also bringing other people into our offices to keep the brand hiring young people, to keep modernisation and that energy that I've had for the last 18 years – to keep it going forever. •
Nikki Horner is proud to work with Richard Luton at Luton Properties, Canberra’s largest privately owned real estate agency.
SHAPING THE
FUTURE
CANDICE DI PRINZIO HAD AN UNUSUALLY EARLY START in real estate – at just five years old. Her parents’ work ethic taught her she could do everything and, as a busy salesperson who is also a mum, chair of a community organisation and would-be councillor, Candice has certainly made the most of those early lessons.
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A local music event held by Shape Mandurah and the music company Good Nights.
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hat was your first job and what did it teach you? My first job was slave labour! My parents had a real estate office from when I was five years old and they used to let me do small tasks: filing, emptying bins and so on. I absolutely loved it – probably why I’m still in the industry today. It taught me a few lessons. 1. Be grateful for hard-working parents – they taught me that I can be everything all at once: a mother, career woman and wife. 2. Know the value of hard work and take nothing for granted – everything is earned. 3. Have fun in your workplace – you can be social and get your work done all at once. Enjoy your time at work as you spend so much time there.
How did you get your start in real estate, and what does your current role involve? My start in the industry was due to my parents being in the biz, but I was never forced to follow in their footsteps. I chose to do so after leaving school and have never looked back. I started at the humble reception desk learning the ropes, went into sales coordination and marketing, completed my Sales and Property Management certificate and started working as a PA to my dad. I then finally completed my Triennial to own and run an agency, and was the Licensee of the office for a period of time. I still remember making the jump from administration into sales. I would be working with a purchaser and, when they made an offer, would run through negotiation techniques with my dad. Slowly but surely, I started to feel more confident
A laneway which was transformed from drab to fab through Shape Mandurah
“Have fun in your workplace – you can be social and get your work done all at once.” in working through offers, and now one of my favourite parts of a real estate transaction is bringing together willing buyers and sellers, to help make both their dreams a reality. What do you think is unique about your area, Mandurah? Mandurah is an amazingly diverse, fastgrowing city. It takes its name from a Noongar word meaning ‘meeting place’ and, to me, that truly is what Mandurah is all about – our vast social demographic, our beaches filled with dolphins, the PeelHarvey estuary with abundant migratory waterbirds... there’s a definite theme of coming together and working in with each other. Our real estate is similar – we have everything from old shacks on large blocks of land to brand new, smaller cottagestyle lots to an award-winning marina showcasing multimillion-dollar properties.
Tell us about your community work, Shape Mandurah, and what your role as its chairman involves. This group was formed with the intention of activating under-utilised city-centre spaces to create a more vibrant community. It helps local residents to become involved through different workshops and projects. Shape Mandurah wants to know what the people of Mandurah have to say and uses their ideas to help solve pinpointed issues. I’ve been the chairperson of Shape Mandurah for the last two years. My role ranges from facilitating and organising marketing, meetings and workshops to meeting with local community members and working with our voluntary committee members on community projects and events. What do you believe are the qualities of a good community or real estate leader? Be a nice person! Others will want to work with you (and for you) if you are genuine about what you’re doing and kind in your approach. Be organised, resilient and don’t let anyone make you feel unworthy or incapable – have strength in your own self and your abilities. Do you have a mentor, or someone that inspires you? My family are my complete self-help unit! Each and every person in my life showers
me with love and acceptance, and truly inspires me to be the best version of myself – which is constantly changing. What other goals would you like to achieve? I would love to run again as a councillor in my area in the next year or so. Last year I missed out by a small margin (it was hard ‘pounding the pavement’ whilst seven months pregnant!). I really feel that I can give back to my community by being their advocate and discuss ways to make action happen from the ground up. It’s all about bringing people together to help further shape Mandurah’s story and ensure a thriving community. What advice would you give someone starting in real estate? Listen and learn. Find out the key players in the industry in your area and ask to shadow them. Don’t go in with an ‘I already know’ attitude – be a blank canvas and learn from the bottom up. Be confident and sure in yourself and your ability. And if you don’t know, ask! There’s no shame in finding out the answer instead of giving the wrong one. Approach the industry with the same morals and values as you would approach anything in your life; this helps earn trust and respect in the long run. ■ SHANTELLE ISAAKS
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peak performance
CHAMPIONS DO MORE
The New Zealand All Blacks are one of the most successful sporting teams the world has ever seen. Their winning culture is based on 'doing more' and 'inspirational leadership', yet no one person is 'bigger than the jersey.' Pancho Mehrotra applies some important lessons from the All Blacks to the world of real estate.
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he Rugby World Cup-winning All Blacks are the most successful international rugby team of all time; in fact, one of the most successful sporting teams in the world. Their statistics are staggering; in November 2017 the All Blacks celebrated
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eight years at the top of the world rugby rankings. That’s 2,922 days at the top, playing 108 tests and winning 96.
A WINNING FORMULA
Historically, the All Blacks have won
435 of 564 tests played, a winning ratio of 77.13 per cent, making them one of the most successful sporting teams in any international sport. What makes this team so consistently successful, regardless of changing players, captains and coaches? As with most organisations, there are many parts that contribute to their success, but an important factor is leadership and leadership development. It’s easy to draw parallels and implement this culture of winning and successful leadership into the real estate industry, and the corporate world in general. So let’s talk about the key areas; what it takes to develop an inspirational leader with
Getting comfortable is your enemy. A leader must be willing to constantly improve and add new dimensions to what they do. people that will follow you and willingly go the extra mile. To examine the leadership style you must examine the type of culture that exists in an agency, which will indicate whether a full change or just an adjustment is required. One set of typologies based on corporate character and culture was developed by Roger Harrison (1972): l Power-oriented Organisations dominated by charismatic or autocratic founders l Achievement-oriented Organisations dominated by task results l Role-oriented Public bureaucracies l Support oriented Non-profit or religious organisations. Most real estate agencies are either poweroriented or achievement-oriented. How they perform can vary based on the leader and leadership style.
EMBRACING CHANGE
A significant development within the All Blacks is a concept called continual learning, accepting that one does not know it all and embracing a learning culture. An important point to note is if the leadership does not develop and learn, they invariably cease to be of significance to their people. Some warning signs and consequences are disloyal staff, a loss in market share and an unhealthy working culture. Look at the graveyard of companies led by leaders who did not embrace change, such as Kodak, Sony Ericsson and Nokia. The All Blacks change things up every six months. Not only does it keep a fresh outlook, but it also prevents people within taking things for granted. This ensures that there is no complacency.
In the last four or five years, selling real estate has been relatively easy and has seen salespeople and leaders get complacent. Getting the listing was the only thing that mattered; as buyers were ready, willing to open their cheque books, obtaining finance was easy. The skills agents used and learnt were the same that they learnt 10 years ago. They stayed the same. Leaders believed they could do no wrong. Now that the market has turned, these same successful salespeople and leaders are struggling, not because of a lack of effort, but a lack of new skill sets – in the selling skills arena as well as mental resilience.
DO MORE
If you think about this rationally, there is no way the All Blacks would keep on winning if they had not evolved over the last 100 years. Roger Federer would not be winning Grand Slams at the age of 36 if he did not evolve. They are certainly leaders in their field, but also role models for many. Former All Black Brad Thorn's mantra 'champions do extra' helped him become one of the single most successful palyers in rugby history. This also applies to agents; an agent who is dominant in a market can easily have their market share eroded by another agent who is willing to do more. The real estate industry is facing challenging times ahead – not only from the economic environment but also other factors, such as technology, which are disruptive factors. I am often asked, especially by principals of businesses, how they can attract the right people, with the right attitudes and capabilities. My response is, ‘Why would someone want to work for this agency?’ Often the answer is not that inspiring. Usually they respond that they have the best systems, the best marketing, the best brands, the best agent and it goes on. The question is not really answered in concrete terms. A successful leader must put aside their ego and be honest, aware of their failings and the areas where they and their agency need to improve. They need to embrace collective leadership, with input from the group, rather than an autocratic management style. This is an important part of learning – to respect the opinions of individuals.
MEASURING QUALITY
A leader must align with their team, recognise the need for change and, once again, believe that the external environment can be managed. Note that I have written ‘managed’ not ‘controlled’. Believing you can control the environment is like believing you can control the weather or economic policy. A leader must believe that the environment can be managed, otherwise they will be managed by the environment. Often people focus intently on performance numbers but not on continuous improvement to the same level. Why? Because it is easier to manage by numbers; it is quantifiable. The quality component is subjective but, in essence, this is creativity and development, where the game can be changed. A leader must be able to make decisions under pressure and not react immaturely. The greatest All Black leader, Ritchie McCaw, was unsuccessful when he first took over the leadership role. One of his notable failures was due to the decisions he made during the 2007 Rugby World Cup. He learnt from his mistakes, continued as leader and achieved folklore status with two Rugby World Cups and countless other victories. Winning at this level does not happen by accident. •
Pancho Mehrotra is the CEO of Frontier Performance and a recognised leading expert in the area of communication, influence and the psychology of selling. He has worked with top performers in a number of industries, including real estate, automotion, finance, law and academia. For more information visit frontierp.com.au.
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personal development
USEFUL BELIEF BETTER THAN POSITIVE THINKING
COACH, SPEAKER AND author Chris Helder spoke on the topic of 'useful belief' at AREC 2018. Here he shares a list of 'useful beliefs' specifically for real estate professionals. 1 Sometimes bad stuff happens. If you can’t control it, don’t obsess about it. Find the useful belief in it. This includes the market you are in. No matter what, there are opportunities everywhere. Go find them. 2 Good stuff also happens. Be grateful. Gratitude is the key to being connected to your life. You have the ability to make an impact on other people and make a difference in their day. 3 You’re never as good as you think. Stay open to learning, improvement and getting better. What are you going to get better at this year? 4 You are never as bad as you think. You are not alone. Find some people who do real estate the way you want to do it. There are many ways to be successful at this business.
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Sometimes bad stuff happens. If you can’t control it, don’t obsess about it. Be congruent with your business and yourself. It is such a great feeling when you and your business are aligned in terms of values. 5 The truth is that some days you have to do stuff you hate. Find a useful belief and get on with it. Hard work is still the answer to the question. 6 Stop feeling guilty about everything. You can’t be perfect. Agents are trying to be the
perfect mother, father, partner, employee and stay fit and never age. It’s not about being perfect. Trying to be perfect is not useful; it makes you feel bad about yourself. Have a plan and do the best you can every day. Remember, perfection gets in the way of an outstanding life. 7 Make sure you are not blaming others for things that are not working in your life. Take responsibility. 8 Understand that what the mind harbours, the body will manifest. That means if you change the way you move, then you change the way you think. There is a way successful people move. Improve your posture. 9 Smile. Every communication study
You have the power to make every vendor and buyer feel good about themselves. says the same thing. When you smile at someone, it makes them feel good about themselves. Think about that: you have the power to make every vendor and buyer feel good about themselves. To not smile is a selfish act. 10 Eyes are the windows to the soul. Be present and look at people. 11 Eliminate distractions. Identify the five things that hold you back on a daily basis and make a plan to solve them. 12 This is the best time in the history of the world to be alive. 13 This is the best time in the history of the world to be in real estate at your company in your market. 14 Energy is a decision. You can have as much energy as you want. Most people are tired. The quickest way to separate yourself from the competition is to out-energise them. Have more energy than everybody else. 15 Have a sense of humour about your life. It’s time in real estate to drop the ego and be authentic. Vendors and buyers are too smart today to put up with your ego. Be genuine.
16 Identify what gets results in your life and do more of it. This is called ‘coding success’. When do you get the greatest results? Replicate that. 17 Don’t underestimate the impact you can make with acts of kindness. You can change the trajectory of your business.
Trying to be perfect makes you feel bad about yourself. Have a plan and do the best you can every day. 18 Eat well. Exercise. Laugh. 19 Jealousy is a waste of time. People will do and think what they want. Try to avoid comparing yourself to others; run your own race. You can’t control what others think of you. The only thing that you can control is your output.
20 Finally, take action. The thing that separates people who have an outstanding quality of life from those who don’t is their ability to take action. Go make your life the daring adventure you want it to be. •
Chris Helder is a business communication genius and master storyteller whose presentations have radically transformed how thousands of people worldwide communicate with clients, customers, colleagues, staff and teams. He is the author of three bestselling books: The Ultimate Book of Influence, Useful Belief, and Cut The Noise. For more information visit chrishelder.com.
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campaigntrack sponsored feature
STANDING OUT
IN A DIGITAL WORLD SEIZING OPPORTUNITIES IN A PERIOD OF GREAT DISRUPTION, Stefan Williams explains why campaigntrack went allin on digital marketing ‘before the storm’.
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H
ands up if you’re a sheep and follow what everyone else does... Just kidding: sheep don’t have hands! The relevance of that bad joke is that if you just do what everyone else does all the time, you're not going to stand out. It's a good segue to the story of our own digital marketing product. Like many in the real estate industry, campaigntrack has been around for a while. Our whole reason for existing was to give our clients an edge, ensuring their ads looked better than their competitors’, their signs more attractive, their marketing
processes more streamlined and their brands better executed. What got us out of bed, and still does, is a passion for real estate marketing. Over the years we have seen, been part of and in some cases driven revolution and change directly – online artwork design perhaps most notably. Process perfected, job done, go home? Life is not that simple, though, and the grinding of the Darwinian wheel means change is always upon us. Technology is speeding up the world as we know it, and I can honestly say that I have never seen such enormous change in such short timeframes as we have today.
This is both good and bad. Good if you are smart enough to take advantage of major shifts; bad if you don’t. Two years back we had a good hard look at ourselves and realised that, while we had an industry-leading business, nothing fundamental had changed in a while. We needed to mix things up, challenge ourselves and lead in new directions. That was the reason that we created our Advanced Internet Marketing (AIM) division back then and invested millions into developing something new. A leap of faith or calculated futurism? How about a dash of both. Digital marketing was, and still is, dominated by traditional real estate portals. These very clever companies had been in the right place at the right time and essentially owned the digital property marketing space, pricing their product accordingly. The rise of Google and Facebook, and advances in our own technology, created an opportunity to produce an entirely different way to advertise to buyers and sellers – one that wasn't dependent on the portals and that also presented a massive branding opportunity for our clients. In our eyes it was a no-brainer, and we felt certain that solutions like ours would become as ubiquitous as the real estate signboard – every property would have it. Of course we saw an opportunity for ourselves but also for the industry, in a time of coming disruption.
The grinding of the Darwinian wheel means change is always upon us. The investment was a hard sell to our shareholders: place a bet on something that was, at the time, over the horizon. I was asked why, and my answer was this: Exceptionally well-branded marketing has built many successful real estate businesses, attracting better agents and getting higher commissions – and better selling prices, too. We can deliver this exact thing into the new digital marketing using platforms like Google and Facebook. The development journey has been in equal parts exciting and challenging.
Aside from the enormous R&D project, the biggest challenge so far has come from an unlikely place. The industry itself is change-resistant – at its peril. What has surprised me is that digital marketing seems to come second for so many people, especially with the rapid decline of print advertising. Case in point: we do many rebrands for our clients and we are always given artwork designs for print ads, brochures, signs, business cards, letterheads and so on – but rarely are we given any digital ad designs as part of any of this. Almost never is a Google or Facebook ad template included in the designs. How can this be? Is the industry really happy to be reduced to listings on portals, or ads that are branded with other businesses’ logos that direct traffic to websites you don't own? To put things into perspective with clients, I often like to cite this obvious fact. You rightly put a lot of time into ensuring your sign looks good, and hundreds if not several thousand people will likely see each sign. But digital marketing is far more visible when done right.
If you just do what everyone else does all the time, you're not going to stand out. We regularly deliver hundreds of thousands of ads per property across Google and Facebook. This is the place your brand needs to look its best nowadays; this is the place you want your brand to shine and impress. With the help of clever ad targeting and retargeting technology, this is also the place you will find buyers and sellers who are not on the real estate portals. Oh, and it's kind of inexpensive too. Why, then, doesn't every agent say they want to do something along these lines for every listing? I won’t say I suffered any doubt about our direction, but it became clear that we had a long way to go in terms of educating the market. Just because I was a convert didn't mean everyone else was. Proof of efficacy is a great tool to have, and the great thing about digital is you can measure it. We know, for example, exactly how many people see each ad, how many click on it, how many then make an enquiry or call. We know exactly how many people are in each client’s remarketing or retargeting audience. We also know that committing at scale, for most if not all of
your listings, delivers far better results on every level versus ad-hoc use. We’re talking not only more buyer interest in your listings but, critically, more leads for sellers who see your shiny, beautiful brand online a lot. We know it works, but how do you convince a potential client of the benefits? Start with talking to leaders wherever possible. So, talking about leadership, this is where we have seen true vision from some of our clients that has transformed their businesses in wonderful ways. Take this quote from one of Ray White’s largest franchise groups: “We have launched an AIM package on every listing since September last year, and our agents would never let us go back to a time without AIM. We are receiving more inquiries on some properties through AIM than we are getting through the traditional portals combined.” Ray White Leaders, Wellington, NZ Feedback like this is wonderful and helps reinforce our conviction that we made the right investment back then. Of course, there are other clients saying that they don’t think digital marketing, beyond the portals, is important enough to put on every listing. This position is not supported by the facts, though. Based on tens of thousands of campaigns of data, we know that vendors like Google and Facebook as part of their marketing campaign – actual ads, not just posts on Facebook. In fact, smart agents are using this to win business over agencies who have a more ‘steam age’ approach. Whether you’re a principal, an agent or a brand, you need to get serious about digital – and soon. It’s a time of fabulous opportunity for savvy people, and a time of inevitable decline for others. Be a leader, embrace digital, own your online brand and data – it's easy, because all the work is done for you. Lead or follow; it’s your choice. •
Stefan Williams is the cofounder of Campaigntrack, the marketing platform driving property marketing of agencies and agents nationwide. For more information visit campaigntrack.com.
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THE HOME STRAIGHT Mark McLeod is the Ray White Group’s Chief Executive of Growth. He works alongside both agents and businesses across Australia, helping them reach their ultimate potential to achieve success.
Match fitness With business standards constantly under threat from
mediocrity, Mark McLeod says leaders need to create the right environment so people stay and thrive.
STANDARDS ARE CONSTANTLY CHALLENGED BY THE MOST POWERFUL FORCE IN BUSINESS – THE UNWAVERING FORCE OF AVERAGE.
I
visited a different gym a number of months ago; the weights were all over the place, nothing was put away and there was little or no respect for the equipment. As I walked out it became quite easy for me to act in the same fashion as every other member. The environment was setting the tone. Conversely, the gym I normally attend close to home is tidy, with weights racked away; everything has a place and there is a strong sense of respect for every machine. What is interesting is that the various members of both
gyms are just reacting to the environment in which they find themselves. Let’s look at this now with a real estate lens. Every office I have ever visited starts off with what I call the agreement. This is the standard, or what the business stands for. However, standards of agreements are constantly challenged by the most powerful force in the real estate business – the unwavering force of average. In most instances, it’s not the acknowledged agreement that runs the business but the underlying agreement; and the
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difference between these two is what I call leadership. There are many factors that contribute to these agreements, like making sure you have the right people on the bus and the wrong off it. Culture is the energy or the mojo that enables a group of people to work at closing the gap between the agreement and the underlying agreement. Vision allows a group of people to see what it might be really like if all aspects of the agreement were met. Empathy, caring for people, standing beside people, whatever – the right people
deserve that. In my world, Ray White Group chairman Brian White has shown me true north on this. It's leadership that creates the environment; it makes something special and is the reason that people stay. In finishing, next time you go to the gym look around and ask yourself, ‘What is this environment telling me?’ In every real estate business the leadership is tangible the moment you walk through the front door. •
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