ELITE AGENT Issue 20 Dec Jan 2018

HOW FAR WE’VE COME PAGE 18

BALANCING FAMILY AND REAL ESTATE PAGE 26

BEATING THE NEW YEAR BLUES PAGE 52

LEARN FROM THE BEST #20 DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

LEADERSHIP

THE BIG GIVE ADRIAN BUTERA MARKETING

THE IRRESISTIBLE PULL OF GRAVITY PROFILE

CLIMB EVERY MOUNTAIN STEPHEN BOCK

Special Report

AUSTRALIANS OF REAL ESTATE

TECHNOLOGY

YOUR WISH IS THEIR COMMAND TRANSFORM MASTERS 2017

Kylie Maxwell CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

2 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

eliteagent.com.au 3

Issue 20 Dec 207 – Jan 2018

eliteagent.com.au | eliteagent.online SAMANTHA MCLEAN Managing Editor samantha@eliteagent.com.au JILL BONIFACE Sub-Editor jill@eliteagent.com.au SHANTELLE ISAAKS Marketing Assistant | Producer shantelle@eliteagent.com.au

CONTENT MARKETING IS THE NEW BLACK One blog post might be all it takes to attract your next listing. If you are stuck for ideas or lack resources to get consistent in your digital marketing, hire a team that is always full of fresh ideas, and always on time.

FEATURED WRITERS Iolanthe Gabrie iolanthe@rubyslipper.com.au Kylie Dulhunty kylie@connectedmedia.com.au

MARK EDWARDS Publisher | Commercial Partnerships mark@eliteagent.com.au TIM DUNK Videographer | Editor tim@eliteagent.com.au CHORUS DESIGN Art Direction | Design thegoodpeople@chorusdesign.com COVER STORY PHOTOGRAPHY Paul Chapman Developing Agents developingagents.com.au

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4 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

Contents Regulars 006 EDITOR’S LETTER Samantha McLean 010 READER PROFILE Nichola Buchanan 012 WATERCOOLER Catch up on what you may have missed 026 MINDSET CORNER Jet Xavier 028 DATA INSIGHTS Eddie Cetin 030 BUSINESS DEPOT John Knight 032 ASK THE COACH Claudio Encina 048 THE HOME STRAIGHT Mark McLeod

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Everybody’s talking about 016 TOP SNAP One decade on

First Person 018 HOW FAR WE’VE COME Josh Phegan 020 YOUR WISH IS THEIR COMMAND Kylie Davis 022 TIME FOR A HEALTH CHECK John Cunningham 024 THE IRRESISTIBLE PULL OF GRAVITY Julie Masters

Cover Story 034 CHALLENGE ACCEPTED Kylie Maxwell, LJ Hooker Queanbeyan

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Features 038 A USTRALIANS OF REAL ESTATE Census 2016 data reveals more about the real estate industry 040 ADRIAN BUTERA: THE BIG GIVE Iolanthe Gabrie 044 TRACEY FELLOWS: WHAT’S IN YOUR HEART? Kylie Dulhunty 046 STEVEN BOCK: CLIMB EVERY MOUNTAIN Azal Khan 048 ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS Aimee Engelmann 050 FOCUS ON THIS James Clear 052 BEATING THE NEW YEAR BLUES Sherrie Storor 054 TAKING THE ‘I’ OUT OF GIVING Kylie Dulhunty

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EDITOR’S LETTER

W WHAT I KNOW FOR SURE...

This time last year I wrote my editorial based on something Oprah Winfrey does every year: the O List, a list of her favourite things of the year dressed up as Chrissy gifts for sale on Amazon. com. I made a list of my favourite things of the year too. I re-read that editorial the other day and thought wow, how things can change in a year. So, in closing 2017 and perhaps giving a few thoughts on next year I’m still going to take some inspo from the great Lady O, but in a slightly different way.

There’s a famous story about Oprah. Early in her career she was no Sandra Sully, and pretty much sucked at being on live TV (hard to believe, but even she had to start somewhere!). As she was interviewing the late Gene Siskel, a movie critic, he asked her at the end of the interview, “What do you know for sure?” It’s well documented that she got all flustered and couldn’t come up with an answer. But, ever since then, Oprah admits that she has never stopped asking herself that question. It even became the topic for her book, “What I know for sure.”

What do we really know for sure from one year to the next, from one week to the next?

For each of us it changes as we grow older, and absorb life and business lessons; people come and go, and the world around us goes through a bunch of changes.

There are some great quotes in that book, and I will draw on those to give you an insight into what I think I know for sure going into 2018.

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WIKFS #1 “You can have it all.

Just not all at once.”

A valuable lesson for our Transform 12 provided by Fiona Blayney again gave me pause to think about life and business while the #DirtyDozen were learning about theirs. Balance is a crock. Nobody has complete balance; if they tell you otherwise they have a lot of help (paid or free) or they are lying, so don’t feel bad if you’re not there.

Also, we’ve sometimes made the mistake of chasing shiny objects when we should have been polishing the solid ones.

Chasing shiny objects puts the solid ones at risk. I don’t think I need to go into any detail, but let’s just say there is probably something in that for all of us.

WIKFS #2 “Turn your wounds into wisdom.”

There have been plenty of people who, for different reasons, have crossed what I’d call my ‘boundaries’ this year. A few of them have understood and apologised. And, says wise owl Oprah, “Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past could have been any different”.

I’m actually grateful that I have butted heads this year with a few people; it’s taught me a lot about who I am and to listen to my gut more, as most times now I can predict where these slippery slopes are going to end. If you can identify with that, it means in 2018 we need to take better care of ourselves. People are who they are. The lessons we learn are a gift and we need to see them as such. For me, that gift says I am responsible for being

clearer on where my boundaries (and expectations) are.

WIKFS #3 “Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure just is another steppingstone to greatness.”

This is going to be my mantra for 2018, kind of based on #2. I love to tell people about marketing, ‘Everything is a test until it’s not’. In 2018 I will start taking my own advice.

In my keynote at ‘How to Lead a Winning Team in 2018’, I made the comment that publishing is an industry that has been disrupted for so many years now. We always say to you guys in the real estate industry that the way not to be disrupted is to find new ways of remaining relevant to your customer. On this one, the goal for us is to get creative and lead by example; a queen must have some sparkle, but not from chasing aforementioned shiny objects.

So, yeah, watch this space.

WIKFS #4 “Everyone wants to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.”

I’ve been surprised a bit at times by the perception that what we do at Elite Agent is all glamour, parties, photoshoots and networking. The reality is something quite different. Hard Work. Very ‘un-pretty’ 5am starts every weekday. Deadlines.

You have to really love it to push past that! There have been a few people come and go since this time last year where the perception didn’t quite match the reality.

On this one, I will say I am pretty lucky to have a partner and husband who has been willing to sit beside me on that bumpy old bus for three years, in the sparkly moments as well as in the 5am grind. Every queen needs a superhero, and for mine I am incredibly grateful.

WIKFS #5 “Surround yourself only with people who are going to take you higher.”

What I’ve learned this year are two things: 1) Being in business can be extremely lonely 2) The people you have around you make all the difference. Again, this is something that gets highlighted in Transform for the participants in the quest to grow their businesses, and for us when our resources during those 12 weeks get stretched every which way but loose. It really pays to have people around you that understand that you don’t mean it to happen that way, and encourage you to keep going.

“Every day brings a chance for you to draw in a breath, kick off your shoes, and dance. Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure,” says Oprah. I think this has to be my favourite. One of the best tips from the year has been from Julie Masters; it’s an oldy but a goody that reminds me of all of those episodes of Grey’s Anatomy where Christina and Meredith would have a crap day and one would say to the other, “Let’s dance it out”. On would go the music and they would be dancing in their scrubs in the hospital or at home. Just that simple change of state created by music and movement can change any ‘funk’ into ‘funky’.

(If any of you saw Julie and I having a sneaky groove down the back at #win2018, that was what was going on.)

When the clock strikes midnight on December 31, you can guarantee I will be dancing it out. But you might also find me dancing at odd and unusual times in 2018, assessing what I know for sure. A New Year brings everyone new opportunities and new challenges; I hope you guys find space and time to breathe and do the same.

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INSPIRED GOALS 2018

Once again, Elite Agent would like to thank all of our readers, commercial partners and contributors for their support in 2017. As the year draws to a close we asked some familiar faces about their goals for 2018; here are some snippets to inspire you over the break.

ADRIAN BO MCGRATH ESTATE AGENTS

JOHN MCGRATH FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MCGRATH ESTATE AGENTS

MARK MCLEOD CEO GROWTH, RAY WHITE GROUP

The four key areas for 2018 for me will be on talent attraction, agent productivity, digital marketing and social media, as I believe that growth in the near future will be connected to these key areas. You will either win or lose dependent upon how well you execute these areas.

First and foremost, my family is always the most important thing on the personal front. On the business front, to continue to understand the customers’ needs and adjust our focus to suit; if our customers are not completely satisfied and we are not matching their needs as consumers change, we will be left behind. In 2018 we will continue to survey every customer that comes into the Ray World world, evaluating our offering from one customer to the next.

My goal in 2018 is to coach every McGrath agent in Australia to support them to reach their own personal and business outcomes. Working in the McGrath brand for 23 years, I feel I am intimate with our culture and DNA, and would like to ‘pay it forward’ through office training presentations and one-on-one intimate-style coaching. This will elevate awareness, and promote synergy and referrals amongst the network.

SONYA TRELOAR RAY WHITE BRIDGEMAN DOWNS Since my husband and I bought the Ray White Bridgeman Downs office we have been diligent in ensuring that my brand and the Ray White brand are foremost in the minds of our community. Our community and the families we look after are very important to our ongoing success of our office. I’ll be aiming to continue to grow market share in my office and implementing social media as a key part of the marketing strategy. During the last six months we have had a key focus in this area with fantastic results

MANOS FINDIKAKIS CEO, EVIEW GROUP On the personal side, health, fitness and back to the 5am Club! We went right off the rails this year with this aspect of our personal life; the work/life balance went out the window (and we’ve always been pretty good with that) so number one focus will be to get back on track.

With respect to work, we are in a really happy place so our focus for 2018 is to apply what worked in 2017 and continue to grow our multi-brand network across Australia. Our goal is to double our network size in 2018 as we stretch for our big audacious goal of an Eview Group member agency in every suburb of Australia.

8 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

NIKKI HORNER LUTON PROPERTIES In 2018 I am looking forward to re-launching my career in a completely new hood (Perth to Canberra) and also learning how to become a leading auction agent. Moving from an area where private treaty is king to a competitive auction market means I have a thing or two to master.

Most of my challenges, as they do for most people, will come down to the battle of my mind. With a supportive family and new agency team, I have the tools; I just have to remember to breathe.

STEVE CARROLL REA GROUP DIRECTOR OF INDUSTRY RELATIONS, FOUNDER DIGITAL LIVE

DARIN BUTCHER WISEBERRY HERITAGE GOROKAN

I think 2018 will be a blockbuster year for business change. Understanding what Facebook, Amazon and a plethora of other disruptors are up to has to be a key priority for all business leaders in real estate. On a personal note, I would like to follow up the success of Digital Live 17 with two Digital Live events in 2018; my goal is to raise 50k for children from disadvantaged families to assist them with their digital education.

In my new role at realestate.com.au, I think if we can work together with the industry there’s life in the traditional real estate model for many more decades.

The Wiseberry Heritage Group have just acquired their eighth office at Lake Munmorah with another partnership formed between Renee and me, with long-time agent and sales manager Kimberley Burke and her husband Dean. This is the third partnership with key staff and certainly has opened the opportunities for the team for further expansion. Our market seems to be affected with turnover and for that reason our team’s connection with the community is vital. We are hoping to increase sales in a decreasing market to over 100 sales a month during 2018. Property management increased services implemented in late 2017; we expect to grow to over 2,000 properties, and if the right businesses are there to acquire we are ready for that as well. My tip for 2018: Treat the little things like they are the big things.

CHRIS HANLEY OAM PRINCIPAL AND DIRECTOR, FIRST NATIONAL BYRON BAY Our main focus in 2018 will be on growing our team and coaching our younger and newer team members. We are also refreshing our brand and rebuilding our website, and we have developed a detailed new communication strategy for our company which includes new social media marketing and much improved digital communication. These areas are important because they are a way of engaging earlier with buyers and sellers in their real estate journeys.

MICHAEL CARTER STONE REAL ESTATE MANLY My main goal for 2018 is to continue learning, growing, being challenged and levelling up in all aspects in my life. I am someone who always has to improve in whatever I do. I hate being comfortable and complacent, because when that happens you are not growing and reaching your full potential.

You only have one life!

GAVIN RUBINSTEIN RAY WHITE DOUBLE BAY To have a significantly better and bigger year than 2017, because I am always motivated by progression. There are no shortcuts; it’s simply hard work!

LUKAS PEDDER ELDERS REAL ESTATE MILDURA The focus for me is to continue to implement systems and aim to quadruple our business, because I want to provide for my family, travel through Europe and be able to enjoy more experiences like driving a Formula 1! My goals are to develop and nurture our team, prospect like a maniac and be super-controlling of my schedule.

LEANNE DRUERY GARDIAN REAL ESTATE Since winning Transform I’ve expanded my team rapidly, with a PA and a buyers consultant to accommodate new business, and for personal reasons. On a healthy note my focus will be to do a half-marathon. I’ve only learnt to run since February, but I love challenging myself physically and mentally.

2017 has been the most confronting, tough and crazy year for me. But 12 months on I am proud to say that sometimes our most ‘Difficult roads can lead to beautiful destinations’. Thank you Elite Agent Magazine, Mighty Mackay, Gardian and all my amazing friends and family who have walked this windy road with me!

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READER PROFILE

MIX AND MATCH Following a successful career in marketing and advertising, Nicola Buchanan retrained in real estate.

Now using that background in running her own agency, @realty Bundall on the Gold Coast, Nicola explains how her talents and experience blend perfectly with those of business partner Scott Euler to offer a boutique service to clients.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your role at @realty.

I retrained in real estate about two and a half years ago, when the youngest of my three children started school. Before having kids, I had a successful career in marketing and advertising, and while I loved this field of work I didn’t want to go back to a nine-to-five job with inflexible hours. I partnered up with Scott Euler early in my real estate career. Both coming from big business backgrounds we were keen to get out on our own and offer our own brand of service. The @realty model, which supports agents to run their own business, has been ideal for us.

What motivated you to get into real estate?

I’ve always been interested in real estate, having invested in and renovated properties for over 20 years. I was looking for a career that would enable me to use my marketing and interior design skill set, and yet be flexible around the needs of my busy family. Running my own business through the @realty model has enabled

me to do this. How lucky to have a career that combines my passion for property with my marketing and design background!

What makes your agency stand out from the crowd?

We offer a boutique service with the backing of the national @realty network. They take care of all our back end, which allows us to focus on the important stuff – delivering great service to our clients.

Scott and I have very different skill sets, but both of us had extensive experience in negotiating multi-million dollar contracts throughout our previous careers. Between us we can offer our clients a great wealth of knowledge and experience, from styling a home ready for marketing, creating effective and economic marketing material that works (that’s my job) and making sure we manage our contracts right through to closure. That’s where Scott’s construction background comes in handy – he can do a mean analysis of a pest and building report and make those contracts stick!

10 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

Who or what inspires you?

I’m lucky to have always been surrounded by smart and sassy ladies. My mum is the smartest person I know and most of my friends own their own small businesses or have fast-paced careers. It takes a special kind of tenacity to make a go of that while managing a family. It’s inspiring and contagious, and I’m grateful to have their energy in my life.

In your ‘briefcase’ right now is…

My notebook – it goes everywhere with me as if I don’t write it down I forget it. My phone, glasses, snacks, a good black pen and about five tubes of lippy!

Something (or someone) you couldn’t live without?

My phone and my very patient husband.

What do you enjoy most about Elite Agent Magazine?

Reading about other agents kicking goals in their businesses.

There are always good ideas to borrow and seeing others succeed helps to keep me motivated.

Any words to live by?

About 20 years ago I was lucky to hear Bryce Courtney speak.

He said he had lived his life with the mantra ‘Somebody’s got to do it, and it might as well be me’.

That has stuck with me, and I have blatantly borrowed it and used it as my own!

What are your goals for 2018?

The Commonwealth Games are coming to the Gold Coast, which will have a great effect on both the property market and the Gold Coast community.

It will be an exciting time to be a Gold Coaster. My goal is to simply enjoy this special year and reap the benefits of this event both personally and professionally. •

How lucky I am to have a career that combines my passion for property with my marketing and design background!

EVENTS

SEEN & HEARD

#WIN2018 IT’S A WRAP! On the 14th November, 2017, more than

220 leaders and aspiring leaders gathered at Doltone House for a day of learning, networking and gaining powerful insights on leadership, teamwork, trends and more. The action packed day left “little time for boredom” from our five star lineup of speakers and sessions. For more from the event, including some of the speaker insights please visit eliteagent.com.au/win2018.

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THE WATER COOLER D

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.au/subscribe.

REX SOFTWARE TO LAUNCH NEW PRODUCTS BASED ON USER FEEDBACK In 2017 Rex launched the first comprehensive, truly mobile real estate CRM experience for iOS and Android: Pocket by Rex. Since launching, they’ve been intently listening to user feedback and developing their own time-saving

Anton Babkov

hacks: caller ID, reverse buyer match, open home improvements, spotlight and force touch integrations are all recent additions.

Rex Software CEO Anton Babkov says, ”Some see tech as a device for disruption. Rex sees an opportunity to armour agents with tools to increase productivity and efficiency, ensuring they succeed in the brave new techno-future.”

Mr Babkov also says that Rex has been focusing on consolidating and updating processes to allow more frequent updates to its core product, plus other integrations with third parties.

“Next year, the Rex team will continue to build on our achievements of 2017 with lots of new features the industry hasn’t seen before.

“We can’t tell you what they are right now, but I can tell you they will change how agents work forever.”

For more information visit rexsoftware.com.

BE ‘QUICK’ FOR YOUR FREE 12-MONTH SUBSCRIPTION Is quickrealestate.com.au the next property portal to have a major impact on Australia’s real estate industry?

With 250 agencies nationwide having subscribed to QRE within six months, and a 90 per cent increase in buyer and tenant alert registrations in the last month, the numbers suggest it is.

“We now have a footprint in every major real estate marketplace in the country and it’s growing daily. We are still in our infancy being a start-up, and that is why we are offering agencies a free 12-month subscription to trial our product,” says Lara Tehennepe, the recently appointed Head of Engagement.

For more information and to claim your free 12-month subscription, visit quickrealestate.com.au.

12 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

Sending and tracking video made simple If you’ve ever tried to send someone video and then track if they have watched it, you’ll know it’s not that simple. If you’re on an iPhone and sending to an Android or you want to send multiple videos it can be frustrating. Now there’s an app for that.

Busivid Send Video is an easy-to-use video messenger. Simply upload and send your videos quickly via text, email or social media. You can also create playlists.

Send Video is a smarter way to leverage video because you can receive push notifications so you know when your videos are watched, giving you insights into when they are being viewed and allowing you to reconnect at the peak of interest. Looking at customer patterns you can then refine your videos to what your customers are really looking for.

Busivid Send Video is available on iTunes and Google Play stores and is free to download. Visit busivid.com for links and more info.

VISIT ELITEAGENT.COM.AU/CATCHUP FOR FULL VERSIONS OF THESE WATERCOOLER STORIES

CREATING CULTURE

By Ash Farrugia, CEO ActivePipe Craig Pontey

Elliott Placks

Michael Finger

RAY WHITE DOUBLE BAY TO CELEBRATE 30 YEARS As Ray White Double Bay gears up to celebrate its 30-year milestone, Directors Craig Pontey, Michael Finger and Elliott Placks shared some of their insights gathered over many years in the property game.

With 25 salespeople and a total staff of 70, Ray White Double Bay sold in excess of $985 million worth of property in 2016-17.

“We are much more nimble now but our business is much bigger, more enjoyable and more profitable. It’s quicker and faster now. I love it.”

The Ray White Double Bay 30th birthday celebrations will be held on December 9 at Doltone House, Jones Street Wharf, Pyrmont.

The cocktail party will be hosted by celebrity MC Larry Emdur and will showcase a short documentary on the last 30 years.

There will be a Veuve Clicquot Champagne Bar, Johnny Walker Whiskey Lounge and Penfolds 389 Magnum Pop-Up Cellar.

Entertainment will be provided by Fasika from last season’s The Voice. No doubt it will be a night to remember for everyone who has contributed to the success of the Ray White Double Bay journey.

More at eliteagent.com.au/rwdb30.

According to a survey by SEEK Learning, less than half of Australian workers are happy with their jobs. But creating the right culture leads to more fulfilled and productive teams, contributing to staff retention and a positive mindset.

As we roll into 2018, I encourage you to think about the culture in your office. Is it one you are proud of? Is it a place you wish you worked when you were younger?

In the last twenty years of leadership I have learnt that a business is only as good as the people within it, and that creating the right culture is important for retaining staff and attracting the best talent in the industry. This takes work.

LISTEN TO YOUR STAFF Each team member has their own unique value proposition.

It doesn’t matter if it’s your receptionist or your most senior salesperson, listen to what they have to say. There are some amazing ideas hidden within your team and it’s up to you to make them feel like they can contribute.

SUPPORT THEIR GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT You shouldn’t only consider your staff’s careers objectives; you should prioritise them. Sitting down with team members to discuss where they want to be in five years’ time will show that you are on their side. I have found that my staff value training and development, and that investing in their skill set is investing in our company’s future.

REAL ESTATE BOOKINGS ANNOUNCES INTEGRATION WITH AGENTBOX Real Estate Bookings, a leading marketing automation platform for real estate agents, is proud to announce advanced integration with Agentbox CRM. This integration means real estate agencies who use Agentbox and Real Estate Bookings can extend their capability and user experience.

Both parties are excited by the possibilities that this integration will bring, noting that the platform is used by a number of Australia’s fastest-growing agencies. Eddie Cetin, CEO of Agentbox, said, “A core aspect of our offering is our focus on providing one central platform where agents can manage their business. Integration with leading solutions such as Real Estate Bookings is an example of how we continue to jointly work towards streamlining the day-to-day activities of busy, successful agents.”

Real Estate Bookings CEO Greg McCutcheon told Elite Agent that the project had been realised efficiently and that the team at Agentbox had been great to work with.

“Integration work can be complex; however, the team at Agentbox have been excellent and made the whole process run smoothly. We have found the API to be technically advanced and very easy for us to work with.”

For more information visit rebconnect.com.au/agentbox.

Ash Farrugia

ARE KPIs DEAD? Being a salesperson with constant, unachievable KPIs hanging over your head is exhausting. Not reaching them leads to stress and an unnecessary perception of failure. The right culture creates an obligation to perform because team members don’t want to let their team down; they genuinely want the company to succeed.

ENCOURAGE YOUR TEAM Most managers only give feedback when it is negative or corrective. Giving positive feedback will make your team feel appreciated, reinforce their value and ensure they know their work is actively contributing to your business’s success. I believe publicly recognising individual achievement is a great way to build culture in your team and make sure each person feels like they belong.

To find out more about ActivePipe visit activepipe.com.au. eliteagent.com.au 13

THE WATER COOLER VISIT ELITEAGENT.COM.AU/CATCHUP FOR FULL VERSIONS OF THESE WATERCOOLER STORIES

Your holiday reading – sorted

Don’t know what to read on the plane to your exotic holiday destination? Want to catch up on some study at home? We’ve got you with our reading list compiled by Elite Agent Editor Samantha McLean directly from our website, straight into amazon. com. It’s got everything to get ahead of the game in 2018, from Seth Godin to Tom Ferry, Gary Keller, Scott Stratten and more.

Visit eliteagent.com.au/ library to find out more.

TOP OF THE A-LIST Congratulations to Harcourts Kingsberry Townsville agent Julie Mahoney, who was ranked #1 on the Queensland A List.

The A List is determined purely on sales, revealing the top 150 performers in the state across all markets in Brisbane and regional centres.

Sponsored by Mercedes-Benz Brisbane, the A List is determined by sales data scrutinised by Pricefinder analysts.

Ms Mahoney has been consistently named on the list since it launched in 2013, which shows her sales strength.

Mark Flinn of Ray White Port Douglas was named the number one coastal agent, Judi O’Dea of Space Property Paddington the number one city agent, Melita Bell of RE/MAX Success Toowoomba the number one regional agent and Alexandra Porter of Coronis Aspley the number one suburban agent of 2017.

Two other agents were also named as A List Excellence Awards winners, both top 10 agents who are engaged and involved in their community.

Congratulations to Nyree Ewings of LJH Cleveland and Clint Hynes of Ray White Oxenford.

LOOPER APP LAUNCHES TO SUPPORT MENTAL HEALTH IN THE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY Headsup, an organisation concerned with creating healthy workplaces, reports that real estate has the highest number of claims for mental health disorders for the size of the industry and has the fourth highest average compensation claim size for mental health disorders ($22,600).

A new app called Looper has just launched to help keep a close eye on those you most care about anywhere in the world.

The app was developed by Amanda Hart, who has seen her husband Josh Hart, Director of One Agency Launceston, work long hours in an industry where burnout is rife and there is not much support or research into mental health.

The free app allows you to keep in the loop with five people who check in daily and rate how they are feeling that day.

“We want to give people that channel to communicate authentically in a safe place. It’s not about getting people on their phone, it’s just about starting that conversation,” says Amanda.

Download Looper on the App Store.

14 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

Julie Mahoney

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE: INHERITED OR LEARNED? Emotional intelligence is sometimes held up as the ‘X-factor’ in success; the special ingredient that defines the people who stand out in life. It’s what separates the leaders from the followers.

But is our level of emotional intelligence all mapped out for us when we’re born? It is often said that we are born with our intelligence (IQ)

level and the same has been applied to emotional intelligence.

EI expert Ush Dhanak says that from her experience and from available evidence the people who claim it is inherited are wrong.

“Emotional intelligence can most definitely be learnt!

Far from having a fixed emotional intelligence ‘quota’, EQ is something that you can work on, improve and learn to be more adept at; and in doing so you can increase the likelihood of success in business, relationships and in life in general.”

To find out more visit eliteagent.com.au/catchup.

Pimp My

COMPETITION

AUSTRALIA, IT’S TIME TO choose a winner for our window makeover competition. It’s now over to you to vote for who you think should receive the $10,000 VitrineMedia prize.

Shopfront

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ASSET EDGE RESIDENTIAL SUBIACO WA We have a small but beautiful little corner office in Subiaco; located on a busy corner near Subiaco Oval and Officeworks. Being on a busy street with lots of passing traffic a modern revamp of our window displays would be the icing on the cake for our artdeco building.

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COAST REAL ESTATE MILTON ULLADULLA NSW Our office is under new ownership. We aim to be different - style and subtlety with an overall feel that reflects our unique area is vital to us. The display is our front door, quite literally, for sales and establishes the tone and presentation of our office and staff.

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ELDERS REAL ESTATE WODONGA NSW Our office window needs ‘pimping’ as we are now in the middle of two brand new shopping complexes and have an amazing amount of foot traffic passing daily. But, we hang our heads as people walk past as we know it could look so much better than it is!

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NEW IMAGE REAL ESTATE MARSDEN QLD Eight years ago we opened a small family run office, and to this day the shopfront has not been updated from its original design. The window display cards were initially purchased second hand with the hopes of being replaced in the future. (The future is now!)

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OUWENS CASSERLY WILLUNGA SA Ouwens Casserly is opening our third office in McLaren Vale. McLaren Vale is considered one of the best wine producing regions in the world. The wines are distinguished by elegance, power and brightness... much like Vitrine Media’s Mike Toweel...we’d like our shopfront to be the same!

To cast your vote visit eliteagent.com.au/shopfront

vote now!

As a bonus each of the finalists will receive 25% off any VitrineMedia Australia installation they take out if they don’t win (including free freight). Thank you to everyone who entered.

EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT…

TOP SNAP: ONE DECADE ON THIS MONTH, TOP SNAP celebrates 10 years in franchising. That’s a decade of visual

marketing excellence and expertise. CEO Ralf Barschow reflects on how real estate marketing has evolved over the last 10 years.

THINK BACK TO 2007: smartphones had

just been released, only 15 per cent of adults were using social media and video marketing was only used by sizeable companies, with extravagant marketing budgets for TV advertising.

Ten years on, there are more active mobile phone accounts than people in Australia, 78 per cent of us have at least one social media account and over eight billion videos are viewed every day on Facebook alone.

The real estate industry has seen a major shift; not just in the way properties are presented and marketed, but also in how agents promote themselves and their ‘personal brand’ to potential vendors.

With the industry so highly competitive and fragmented, the face-to-face meeting is just not enough in this digital era.

Agents need to build awareness, reinforce their brand and enhance customer relationships and satisfaction through

16 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

their online presence.

Technology is a key element in real estate marketing; being at the forefront and embracing emerging trends is crucial to stay relevant. Potential buyers are no longer looking at print media as their main source of information, and just having good photography is not enough any more. Every marketing campaign requires a strategically selected range of professional visual content.

To visually stand out from the crowd has never been more important than it is in today’s global world. Professional photography, interactive floorplans, walkthrough tours, 3D or video are the means to present a property now and in the future to attract more potential buyers and offer the real value proposition for every property. •

Ralf Barschow is the CEO of Top Snap International. For more information visit topsnap.com.au.

FIRST PERSON

Josh Phegan

How far we’ve come You can’t do anything in business or life without intent. To grow a great business you’ve got to have something that drives you.

Whether you call it goals, a dream, vision, a purpose, mission, whatever it is, it needs to be the number one thing that drives all your activities. Josh Phegan explains what needs to come next to make those dreams realities.

Anxiety is created when we look at the ideal and realise just how far we are away from achieving it. If you want perspective, though, the best thing you can do is to look at where you started and realise just how far you’ve come.

With any coaching client, the best thing to start with is a list of achievements. As you achieve things every week, write them on a list on your phone. When you get to the end of the year review the list, and you’ll realise just how much you’ve done.

Once you’ve written out your achievements, it gives you the launching pad to decide what you want. Often the things you achieved last year are similar to the things you want to accomplish this year. There may be some variance: new goals, new aspirations, new ambitions. Sometimes they’ll be entirely new.

How you write the goal is just as important. Do you speak in specific outcomes, or do you list the action that needs to happen? ‘Going to the gym’ isn’t a goal to me; it’s an action item.

The outcome – flat stomach, ideally between 65 and 70kgs, the ability to run 5km in under 20 minutes – now that’s a goal.

It’s specific, it’s measurable and you can work out straight away if you’ve achieved it or not.

take more time off? The more time off you take, the more you’ve let go, the more you’re now running your business on systems with great people.

No dream, no team: it’s that simple. There’s not a year that goes by where I don’t grow.

That’s what I love about the game of business; being in a position where you get to learn about how to adapt to the conditions of the day.

The most important asset you’ll ever have is your vision for yourself. Without a goal it’s difficult to score, so no matter what level agent you are remember this: there’s already someone out there who’s achieved what you want to achieve. All you need to do is get close to them and learn their systems.

If you don’t get clear about what you want, then you’re waiting for someone else to decide what it looks like.

‘Financial freedom’ is vague.

To pay off $5,000 from your credit card debt and save $40,000 for a deposit, that’s specific and measurable.

The only reason that a goal isn’t achieved is that you don’t have a system for it. Once you design the system, you need people to run the system, to produce the result. If you’re not getting the result you want you have to rework the system or retrain the people.

Simple systems set you up for success. ‘Cue, action and result’ is one of my favourites. The cue is the bottle of water; the action is to drink it just before you go to sleep. The result, you’ll get out of bed straight

18 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

away in the morning.

So what’s the cue you need to inspire the action to get the result?

It starts by asking two critical questions: What does success look like for you? And how will you know when you’ve achieved it? The answer to those two questions will rapidly change your world. To write more in fees, to grow a business, you have to focus on four numbers: Average sale price, Average fee, Volume, Annual leave days taken.

What’s your plan for 2018?

Will there be price growth? How will you be more valuable? Is there room for more market share? More transactions? And is it possible to do more and

Think: an agent who writes $100,000 a year has $100,000type systems, someone who writes $1,000,000 a year has $1,000,000 a year-type systems. That’s all it is.

The quality of life is measured by the experiences you have and the people you get to share them with. If you don’t get clear about what you want, then you’re waiting for someone else to decide what it looks like. 

Josh Phegan is a high performance real estate speaker, trainer and coach to some of the best agents and agencies around the world.

For more information visit joshphegan.com.au.

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FIRST PERSON

Kylie Davis

Your wish is their command

Technology is at a crossroads, where its promise of delivering us into a better world that is cleverer, more connected, more powerful and generally more cool, yet still requires an awful lot of hard work. But voice-activated gadgets can really make life simpler, explains Kylie Davis.

FOR EVERY DOLLAR

we save on the new connectedness, we need to spend $20 on learning the skills and make the time in our day to ‘do’ it. In this space, the efficiencies we’ve been promised with the technology are not yet being realised, our most precious commodity is now time and focus, and the effort often hardly feels worth the benefit.

It’s no wonder technology fatigue is a real thing!

Gartner has a great framework for this called the ‘hype cycle’. In it, they chart the five key phases of the life cycle of technology, including the Peak of Inflated Expectations down to the Trough of Disillusionment.

But voice-activated technology could be one significant thing

that helps us all back up the Slope of Enlightenment and onto a Plateau of Productivity.

Google Home launched here in Australia back in July and Amazon’s Alexa is due next year. Will it ever take off? Well, in the US the latest figures, depending on who you ask, are between 15 and 18 million units of the Amazon Alexa sold.

Amazon is estimated to hold 76 per cent of what is called the ‘home speaker’ market.

But what do they do? Both the Alexa and Google Home are like Siri – but for your house.

They connect to your wifi and are constantly listening for instructions. Start any sentence with ‘Hey Alexa!’ or ‘Hey Google’ and your online searchable wish is their command.

THE HYPER CYCLE

VISIBILITY Peak of Inflated Expectations

Plateau of Productivity

Slope of Enlightenment

Trough of Disillusionment Technology Trigger

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TIME

Now I have friends who ask: what is the point of this? And how do you know what to ask for? But I say ‘Bring it on!’

Because the power of these bots lies in their ability to bypass bad user experiences on a screen and give your tired eyes a break. Technology starts to become a lot simpler when all you have to do is ask the computer a question – not peer into a device and type.

Here are some of the things you can make Google Home or Alexa do: • Play music • Check your calendar and tell you what you’ve got coming up • Create a shopping list • Set an alarm or timer • Tell a joke • Help with your maths homework • Read out the news • Tell you how long it will take to get to your next appointment • Tell you what the weather is going to be • Find what movie is playing • Recommend a restaurant nearby • Answer trivia questions • Tell you the results of your favourite sporting team As long as it doesn’t involve a physical activity such as cleaning the bathroom or picking up the kids from school, the bots can

answer pretty much anything.

But they’re now starting to ‘do’ as well. When they are connected to smart home devices, they can turn lights on and off, shut garage doors and moderate the temperature.

In the US, where Amazon is omnipresent, you can even tell Alexa to place your order – and your shopping list will arrive that day in many areas, taking online shopping to a whole new level.

According to Kleiner Perkins, publishers of the annual Mary Meeker technology overview, Amazon’s Alexa now has over 12,000 skills, up from just 2,000 in 2016. The technology is galloping ahead in leaps and bounds, with its major strength being that voice is replacing typing. This is because the level of accuracy that a human being will tolerate when speaking so that we feel understood has now been reached and surpassed.

Remember the Starship Enterprise and how Captain Kirk would call out “Computer!” and

For every dollar we save on the new connectedness, we need to spend $20 on learning the skills and make the time in our day to ‘do’ it. sending emails and documents, making calculations, sending quick messages and checking availability will no longer require multiple apps and sign-ons into different systems, but will be done just by speaking.

And when that occurs, the technology promise that we’ve all been hanging on for will be delivered.

Personally, I can’t wait – and really hope Santa puts a Google Home under the Christmas tree for me. 

Kylie Davis is the head of content and property services marketing at CoreLogic.

12,000 10,000

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Our new podcast “Elevate” takes you behind the scenes at Elite Agent with additional news analysis, exclusive interviews, extended Transform coaching and more.

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1/16 5/16 7/16 8/16 9/16 10/16 12/16 1/17 2/17 4/17

Number of Skills

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Echo Installed Base (MM)

issue a command? What was once a sci-fi fantasy can now sit on your kitchen counter.

So it’s pretty easy to imagine how these could start to change searching for property for buyers, or even change how we run our businesses – and our lives.

It won’t be long before Alexa and Google will be able to hunt down and provide you with a list of properties that match your criteria, rank them according to suitability and put them in your diary, with alarms to alert you to the open for inspection based on a calculation of how long it will take you to get there.

Equally, making appointments,

NOTHING FAKE ABOUT OUR NEWS

Source: Kleiner Perkins Internet Trends 2017

eliteagent.com.au 21

FIRST PERSON

John Cunningham some big gaps here and certainly no standard principles for the industry to follow and stand by.

SCORE:6/10

Time for a health check

AS WE APPROACH the conclusion of another interesting year

in real estate, it is the perfect time for both reflection and forward planning in our businesses and the industry. John Cunningham looks at the different areas where improvements could be made in 2018.

THE PROGNOSIS Over recent years we have had boom markets in many parts of Australia and life’s been good. Lately there’s been more competition. In some markets stock is tight while in other markets buyers are in short supply; fees are getting some serious pressure in most capital cities and there have been new discount or intermediary entrants into our space almost daily.

Sure, some agents are behaving badly and respect seems to have disappeared between competitors, but we all get our slice of the pie so we accept it and think it’s OK. Sellers, buyers, landlords and tenants are getting very demanding; the digital and social space is getting flooded with options and there seems to be an app for almost everything.

On top of all that, Governments keep giving us a hard time over things like underquoting and new tenancy laws, and material facts are still hard to define, but we should be fine… shouldn’t we?

Familiar story? We all think it looks manageable and if we just keep improving bit by bit all will be well. Or could it be like not reading the signs of an impending heart attack; ignoring them, avoiding the doctor and then suffering the dire consequences?

Well, I believe we are well overdue for that check-up.

There is an old saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” – but these days we need to rethink and consider “If it ain’t broke yet, fix it before it does”.

This is not meant to be a whinge about the ills of the real estate industry; it’s a constructive point of view on what we can do in a positive way about treating the causes of the symptoms, so that we stay healthy and survive and thrive in a new, ever-evolving environment.

I am going to approach this check-up as any medical practitioner would, by looking at the four key indicators of overall health.

These are where the clinical indications of health are identified; they apply exactly in the same manner to business – and for that matter a whole industry. I am going to score every one out of ten, so let’s see how we are going. Once diagnosed, we can put in place a 12-month treatment program for 2018.

THE CORE We hear the expressions: ‘Core values’, ‘at the core’, ‘core strength’ and, unfortunately, ‘rotten to the core’, so it is clearly the foundation

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of everything we do.

At our core, we are a service industry and that means we are here to serve the interests of our principal: the people who pay for our services. And the most effective way to serve that purpose is to take care of our customers, the people who buy or lease the products owned by our principals.

So how well are we doing that?

Is our core strong enough? A healthy professional has a set of core values; guiding principles that apply to everything they do in their daily life, both personal and business. These are the ethical standards, culture and disciplines that ensure strength of character, integrity, honesty and trust, upon which everything else is built. There seems to be

THE HEAD We can usually blame bad decisions on head choices: ‘I went with my head’, ‘I shouldn’t listen to my head’, ‘a confused mind stalls’, ‘what was I thinking?’, and so on. When your health goes off the rails it usually means you have been making life choices with your head, and the same in business.

They are often choices of shortterm gain and long-term pain.

The ego lives in the head and as such leads to selfgratification and self-centred behaviours as a default. Don’t get me wrong – we all need ego, but if it is your sole driving force then there is no way you can function in a service environment.

Our head can also be very positive; it has resulted in some serious creativity in our industry in the areas of marketing and technology adoption, but it does not rule the core ‘others before self’ service mantra of a professional.

It begs the question: are we becoming self-obsessed in this industry and have we forgotten our core functions?

Being ruled by our head without the influence of all the other elements leads to a lack of analytical intelligence and often results in ‘Twitter insanity’ like behaviours, and that is seriously not a good look. Lots of work to do here.

SCORE: 5/10 THE HEART They say your heart is where your true self dwells; it is from where your lifeblood pumps through your veins and without it you are nothing. Expressions such as ‘from the heart’, ‘home is where the heart is’, ‘heartfelt’, ‘close to your heart’, ‘heart of gold’ and ‘heartache’ tell us that it is our emotional

centre, and it is where we connect and relate to others.

So it comes as no surprise that in our industry everything we do is about connecting with people.

Your heart enables you to show you care, show empathy, have understanding, go above and beyond and help people; in other words, to truly serve.

Could it therefore be said that having our heart in the right place is where our energy and focus need to go if we are going to thrive as a viable industry in the evolutionary consumer-driven age of the property professional?

If I take a look around the industry right now I am seeing two distinct trends emerge: those who get the connection

feeling that we are not being honest with ourselves and that we can really do a lot better than we are. Expressions like ‘we have been fooling ourselves’, ‘we are our own worst enemy’ and ‘It makes me feel sick to the guts when I see what is going on’ – and this is from some of Australia’s leading agents.

This gut reaction I am seeing is what gives me confidence that we can collectively change direction and reboot our industry into a being a real profession. It is this gut of the industry that is making the first moves towards a recognised professional standards scheme. Work in progress.

SCORE: 7/10

We all need ego, but if it is your sole driving force then there is no way you can function in a service environment.

THE DIAGNOSIS We all know that we cannot connect with people and serve them with just our head (knowledge and skills). Our gut (intuition) will not be enough on its own; neither will our core (ethics and values) be all we need to strengthen our industry.

There needs to be balance in all these elements for it to function effectively and, as there is no substance without the heart’s involvement, we need our heart to bring all the elements together in a genuine desire to make a difference to people’s lives.

So the diagnostic advice is clear.

A score of 24 out of 40 leaves plenty of room for improvement.

There is too much head focus going on and not enough care for the heart to function properly.

Our gut is feeling a bit troubled and has been fed a lot of the wrong ingredients for far too long. And we need to put in place a stringent fitness regime to stabilise and strengthen our core, which will set new standards of values, ethics and behaviours for us all. •

of the heart to everything we do, and those who couldn’t care less and see it all as a load of claptrap. Well, it therefore remains to be seen how the prognosis will work out. A tale of two hearts and minds here.

SCORE: 6/10

THE GUT The gut is usually the first place we feel something isn’t quite right. We have gut feelings, gut instincts and gut-wrenching moments. It is of the body as distinguished from the soul, mind and psyche, and is probably the hardest element to understand.

It can be called intuition; it is often an immediate reaction and it is where most people I talk to in the industry are feeling it.

They are feeling a bit tenuous,

DON’T MISS WHAT EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT #THEBRIEF brings you the latest real estate news, tech and marketing tips, how-to’s, and inspiration. Make sure you are on the only list that matters and be ahead of the game before you reach the office.

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John Cunningham is the Principal of Cunninghams in NSW, and Chairman of the Professionalism Committee REIA

eliteagent.com.au 23

FIRST PERSON

Julie Masters

The irresistible pull of gravity IN BUSINESS AND PERSONAL relationships it’s not necessarily

the loudest or the most confident person in the room who is the most influential. If you find yourself worrying about not having the “right personality” to stand up in front of people to present your solutions or ideas, Julie Masters explains how to use gravity instead to pull your audience in.

A FEW MONTHS ago, I

was on a panel about influence. Somebody from a very respected brand was asked what the key to influence was.

His answer went something like, ‘I think there needs to be at least an element of aggression; I think you need to be forthright, aggressive, assertive even.’ I sat there and I thought, no, no. If that myth doesn’t get busted soon, the world is going to become a very scary place.

Because, for me, the key to personal influence is gravity.

It’s the exact opposite of aggression. Gravity is a stillness and a certainty about your presence, the same as that natural phenomenon by which all things with a ‘mass’ are brought toward one another; why we as humans don’t fall off

the face of the earth. Gravity pulls us in.

Gravity feels very different to confidence. Confidence is an upward motion. It’s a rush of energy and a rush of adrenaline.

Confidence is something that you earn, that you get when you show up over and over again.

Gravity feels very different. It’s a grounding down.

If you watch flamenco dancers, when they take to the stage there’s a thing called ‘duende’ that arrives before the dance begins. By definition, duende means a

heightened state of emotion, expression and authenticity.

The audience know when the duende arrives because you see the performers ground down and become still. Something just happens. And at that moment they become utterly compelling; but it’s all in silence.

Often the most powerful person in the room and the person who has the most influence is the quietest. It’s the one who listens most actively.

It’s the one where you trust their intention. It’s the one who can sit with you in space and

Often the most powerful person in the room and the person who has the most influence is the quietest.

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come up with a great solution in collaboration with you. And that is the complete opposite of aggression.

Does aggression or being loud ever work as a strategy for influence? If we talk about aggression as a volume strategy, it can work in the short term. You can out-shout somebody. You can out-bold them, you can outsize them.

I would say it works OK for gorillas, but not so much for humans. In the long term it’s gravity that will work for you in most situations.

There are three keys to gravity: firstly, being clear in your intent and speaking your intent, secondly listening, and thirdly being able to collaborate.

All too often, I watch people not do what they need to do, or say what they need to say, or stand up and own their space because of fear, or because they’re waiting to feel confident. I’ve worked with some of the most powerful thought leaders in the world; I can promise you, none of them felt confident in the beginning. None of them even feel confident probably now, but they’re certain about their experience and being open to change when a new experience or when feedback comes along.

Don’t wait to feel confident; if you are someone who shows up, who is an expert in what you do, who has years of experience, then you have something to offer – but you need to believe that.

Take a breath, listen, don’t be afraid to be still, let new ideas come to you; then collaborate with others to let them shine.

Allow the pull of your gravity to do the work – and watch your personal ‘attractorship’ grow. •

Julie Masters is the Founder of Ode Speakers and the Founder and CEO of Influence Nation. To subscribe to Julie’s podcast ‘Inside Influence’ visit juliemasters.com.

Join us on a remarkable journey.

Century 21 is building the future of real estate. We bring together the latest technology and forward thinking agents — and through innovation, we help you generate more leads so you can list and sell more property.

If you’d like to join an office network committed to looking forward, you should talk to us today.

1300 24 21 21 — c21future.com.au

Think Future Think C21

Mindset Corner Jet Xavier

Balancing family and real estate Have you made a New Year’s resolution to spend more quality family time? Jet Xavier shares some practical tips for giving 100 per cent in both your work and family life using practical examples from some of today’s successful agents.

M

any parents in real estate struggle to find the right balance between doing fun things with the kids and working the long hours of real estate. But it can be done.

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LET GO OF FOMO One of the biggest impacts of juggling family and work is the guilt parents feel for working too much and not spending enough time with family. One mum said, “The hardest part by far would be wanting to be a mum and have a career. I often feel guilty being away from my baby when I feel like I should be the one raising him every day.”

There is also feeling guilty if you are not on call all the time for clients or team members.

One of Australia’s best agents, Marcus Chiminello, said his business changed when he let go of the fear of missing out and guilt associated with not being on call 24/7 and focused on what was important instead, which was self and family.

Nothing good comes out of guilt, so let it go.

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SET CLEAR BOUNDARIES On his road to becoming a million-dollar agent, Nick Papas suffered burnout. Nick said he had no boundaries and was always pushing himself, and in reality wasn’t enjoying life

or work. He was always saying ‘yes’ to everybody else and ‘no’ to himself and his family.

To recover he started to set clear, non-negotiable boundaries; he learnt to say ‘no’ and become self-focused.

As he said, “If I’m not OK, then everybody and everything else in my life is not OK”.

Part of setting work/family boundaries is when you are at home, be present. Turn the phone off, don’t look at emails, get off social media and be present with your family. Work can wait. In the end what is really more important – your family or your job?

Be a person who sets clear boundaries between work and family, and learn to say no!

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BE ORGANISED REIQ Property Manager of the Year and single mum Rachael Byrne realised things were wrong when she had her child on her hip, was cooking the dinner and dealing with an angry landlord all at the same time. She ended up taking 12 months out of the industry.

This time around she uses an effective work hours process whereby focusing on power hours of productivity help her maximise her time; she also has structured hours for work and home, and makes clients aware of when she is available.

As Rachael says, “It’s no point stressing yourself trying to work at home with kids and then stressing about not being with your kids whilst at work”.

26 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

Be a parent who is highly structured and create routines that support you.

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BE REALISTIC Parents set unrealistic expectations and place unneeded pressure on themselves to be the perfect parent and career person.

A mum commented, “I was working 60 to 70 hours per week, seven days a week. I’ve

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CREATE FLEXIBILITY Many parents are now working with their employers to create flexible work hours and work-fromhome scenarios.

This director put it best. “I have six children and found it difficult to juggle work and kids, mainly because of my employers not having any understanding or empathy. Now that I have my own business all my employees

“You don’t have to be an absolute workaholic; you can still be totally productive and enjoy family time.” finally realised life balance [having] almost missed out on my kids’ lives... I am no longer stressing about what others are doing and what unrealistic expectations I believe were put on me.”

A parent with eight kids summed up how to deal with unrealistic expectations in family and work perfectly. “It requires communication, and unless it’s life and death roll with the punches. Everything is negotiable; you can’t be everything to everybody and it’s OK not to keep on top of everything. It’s all right with things at times just being OK but not perfect.”

Be realistic about what’s achievable with work and family.

are paid full time but work around kids. I find they are so much more productive and happy to do things at home. You don’t have to be an absolute workaholic; you can still be totally productive and enjoy family time.”

So look for ways to try and create flexibility for you and family at work.

And finally, understand that you make the choices in your life and business. As a mum with four kids says, “It’s as easy or as hard as you make it”. 

Jet Xavier is one of Australia’s leading mindset coaches for real estate sales professionals.

For more information visit jetxavier.com.

Data Insights Eddie Cetin

New year, new numbers Just like that, 2017 is almost at a close. And whilst summer holidays are on the horizon, there’s one critical task to complete before you kick off your heels and pop on your togs: that’s reviewing the hard numbers your business has achieved in the last year.

I

know it might be the last thing you’ve the patience for in between December’s settlements and client parties, but this is one metrics deep-dive you can’t afford to neglect. It will give you and your team the concrete knowledge you need to adjust your trajectory across your agency, from marketing through to recruitment and prospecting practices.

Numbers should inform every decision you make in your real estate business – and with advanced CRM reporting, numbers should regularly be at everyone’s fingertips,

the business and each agent.

See how many appraisals you have achieved and where they have come from. Do you have hard definitions around what constitutes an appraisal – is it a kerbside estimate, or a loungeroom meeting? Through this exercise you can see what you can do to breed more success and what opportunities are up ahead.

Listing conversions: A particularly important metric.

Behind the numbers, take care to drill down into how listings were won and lost. This is where the gold lies: understanding your team’s listing behaviour, what works and what doesn’t. You

Take care to drill down into how listings were won and lost. from principals and agents to administrators and BDMs. In order to lead a winning team, your CRM is a crucial tool that will assist you in setting targets and keeping each member accountable to the results they set out to achieve for themselves. We see our top clients tracking Budget vs Actual on their dashboard daily to keep on target.

Take action and gather the team together for a ‘jam’, unpacking your projected versus actual results across these five critical metrics categories.

Appraisals: Run reports on your appraisal pipeline for

can then implement training or provide support systems to improve your conversion ratio.

Commissions: What was 2017’s projected average commission? What did your team actually achieve? Did you make your goal, or fall short? Either way, explore the reasons behind your average commission rate. Adjust your expectations for 2018 in a realistic fashion – by amping up the percentage, or reducing it if market forces demand.

Sales written and gross commission: How many properties did you sell, and what was your average gross

28 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

commission? These two figures are the tip of an ‘improvements’ iceberg – revealing slow spots in your year, seasonal changes and listing behaviours in your agency.

If you notice a discounting culture emerging from these statistics, explore the reasons behind the shift in team confidence. Set 2018’s sales written and gross commission goals with this knowledge behind you. Hint: your CRM should provide the whole team with a live ‘sales written and gross commission earned’ dashboard, immediately available on both on your laptop or desktop and on your mobile devices.

Phone calls made: The future might be digital, but the phone call is still where client relationships are made and deals are done! Your CRM’s phone app should easily track your team’s daily phone call output – both attempted and connected calls.

When calls are missed, it should prompt team members to follow-up, in addition to setting call targets and a countdown to the number of calls necessary to make today.

MARKETING TAKEAWAYS Once you’ve looked back at 2017’s key metrics, you’ll have a wide variety of useful information at your disposal.

Here’s how to take your marketing to the next level with this knowledge.

• Be Discerning You’ll now be able to see what’s working and what isn’t when it comes to advertising. Do more of

what works, and cut back on activities that don’t offer returns.

• Social Media Digital marketing is part of leading real estate agents’ marketing mix.

Embrace social media and see what works for you. You might enjoy writing blogs, or you could be terrific at Facebook Live – experiment and try new things.

• Refine your Email Marketing Which emails worked for your database this year? Check your open rate and click-through rate. Don’t forget to clean all ‘bounced’ emails out of your database – an important endof-year data hygiene activity.

The only thing standing between you and a 2018 of better decisions, amplified results and agency growth is knowledge fuelled by data.

The question is: can you easily gather these key metrics yourself or are you relying on someone else do to it for you?

If you’re still running your real estate business via Excel spreadsheet accountability, both you and your team are in the dark. If you do have an advanced CRM, ensure you know how to plug in your key data and produce these critical reports.

If you’re not using an advanced CRM already, use a portion of your summer break to research investing in a CRM that will empower your agency . 

Eddie Cetin is the founder of Agentbox. For more information visit agentbox.com.au.

Business Depot John Knight

Making your business goals a reality Principals in real estate businesses wear a lot of hats – from accounts to HR, leadership, compliance and marketing; there is a never-ending list of things to do. If you are forever coming up against all types of barriers that stop you, or distract you, John Knight has six tips that may be of help.

J

uggling your to-do list between strategic and operational issues can become a job in itself. Once you have a clear picture of where you want to take the business and a plan as to how you will get there, it is then all about implementation.

These are our top tips to make your business goals a reality:

TIP 1: KNOW YOUR NUMBERS NOW Building a business plan based on unreliable numbers is no different to building a house on weak foundations. You must start by truly knowing how your business is performing now. The best way to do this is to start tracking profitability by division: sales, property management, principals and admin.

TIP 2: FOCUS ON JUST A FEW CORE KPIS It is easy to track sales, but KPIs that also reflect how efficiently you are working are so much more valuable. Pick a few KPIs to assess your current performance and track your future performance. Some of my favourites include: • Number of sales per person per month • Properties per FTE (full time equivalent) PM employee • Average rate of commission (total payout to the sales team including benefits divided by total sales

you want to double the size of the sales team you may first need to focus on brand as an employer and start positioning you and your business as a leader within the industry.

Focusing on too many things at once will result in nothing being achieved.

Most plans fail at the implementation stage – because it is hard. division income excluding principal sales).

TIP 3: BIGGER IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER When looking to grow, it is easy to default to strategies focused on being bigger rather than better. A neat exercise I like to do is what I call ‘the perfect year’. Before even thinking about growing, calculate what profit you would make if you had a perfect year – a year when you had no abnormal events impacting results and the best historical result across the other performance metrics of the business given your current structure.

30 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

This is also a useful way to simply calculate your ‘profit potential’ based on your current business structure before taking a risk and investing in material change.

TIP 4: BEWARE OF THE DEADLY SQUIRRELS In business, it is so easy to be distracted by the next idea, next initiative or next project.

Those bright shiny objects that grab your attention and distract you can be deadly. I call them squirrels. Focus is the key to implementing your plans and realising your vision. Look ahead, but focusing on what is most important now will reap more rewards long term.

TIP 5: YOU CANNOT DO EVERYTHING AT ONCE You need to clearly set out how you think you will achieve your goals, but it’s the steps in the path that matter most. Identify what you need to do today to achieve what will be important for tomorrow. For example, if

TIP 6: TAKE THE TEAM ON THE JOURNEY WITH YOU Sometimes the team need to be involved from the beginning. Sometimes they just want to know what the plan is. Either way, if you are trying to change the way things are done, you are going to need to take them on the change journey with you. A team that is ready for the change and understands why this change is being implemented is critically important to the success (or not) of your plans.

Most plans fail at the implementation stage – and that is because it is hard.

Making your business goals a reality is also going to require a lot of hard work, grit and determination. Rome wasn’t built in a day – but make sure you celebrate the wins along the way too.  John Knight is the Managing Director of businessDEPOT, a team of energetic accountants and advisors.

For more information visit businessdepot.com.au.

Top tips when working with a Virtual Assistant

1. Voice memos save you a tonne of admin time that is better spent on dollar producing activities.

Create voice memos of meeting notes and send onto your Virtual Assistant to set up relevant tasks, make CRM updates & manage your calendar / reminders.

2. Create an appraisal and listing template.

Then have your Virtual Assistant draft them for you.

3. Use Zoom for meetings, it's free and works seamlessly on your mobile or desktop.

Great for one click screen share, it even has a recording function built-in.

4. Have your Virtual Assistant schedule social media posts in advance using a tool like Buffer.

Then you review prior to posting and your Virtual Assistant will take care of the rest.

Remember....if you don't have an Assistant, you are the Assistant!

Download our free social media posting template: www.beepo.com.au/socialmedia Experts in Real Estate Outsourcing

Q&A ASK THE COACH – Claudio Encina New year, new challenges: top coach Claudio Encina answers your burning questions as we head into 2018.

Q.

How can my team and I have better one-on-one meetings? – Ali Oksuz, Century 21 Brighton Le Sands

A.

I would say consider a five-step framework.

STEP 1: CHANGE YOUR APPROACH How you think – your mindset and beliefs – controls how you behave. For example, if as a principal or sales manager you believe that your job is to hit them over the head yelling, ‘Where are the sales and listings?’, you will probably not get the best from your sales agents. Conversely, if you believe your job is to guide and develop your team in order to help them close more listings and sales by providing different ideas and strategies to achieve their goals, you’re going to behave like a coach. A coach is someone that you as a leader must become.

Change your behaviours.

STEP 2 : CREATE THE ENVIRONMENT Once you’re clear as the coach, your real job is to pull every ounce of potential from each person on your team.

You’ve then got to create an environment each week that’s conducive to coaching. Have a plan and agenda to lay a foundation for your one-on-one meetings that the team feels is beneficial and will get value from. For many agents, if they don’t feel they get value they will eventually consider it a total waste of time.

STEP 3: TRANSFORM THE CONVERSATION Here are a couple of keys to keep in mind in your weekly one-on-one conversations:

Don’t just celebrate each week the sales or listings; celebrate the small steps, for example making 20 calls per day or a breakthrough targeting expireds, and so on.

Long-term success requires short-term focus. And the fastest way to improve performance is to help your agents set weekly processorientated goals and then reinforce small, incremental improvements. Follow through after each one-on-one meeting with an Action Plan for the next one with some of the ideas and strategies you discussed.

STEP 4: EMBRACE MISTAKES AS COACHABLE MOMENTS Building a highly productive team can be achieved through the identification and perfection of seemingly small things consistently done right

32 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

“Celebrate the small steps, for example making 20 calls per day or a breakthrough targeting expireds.” over time. However, we learn more from our mistakes than we do from our successes.

So, as you’re evaluating your agents and giving positive reinforcement, it’s also important to take note of mistakes as well – but keep in mind the objective here is not to criticise; it’s to coach.

STEP 5: WORK ON THEIR BIG DREAM AND GOALS Help them get what they want, and they will help you get every one of your goals.

Find out what is their 10- or

15-year dream. This is the most important step as it will connect not just their dream but also the activities, actions and behaviour needed as an agent to reach it. Also, as you help them step by step towards their dream they will see you as a mentor. Zig Ziglar said, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want”. •

To have your question answered email askthecoach@eliteagent. com.au. To connect with Claudio visit claudioencina.com.

eliteagent.com.au 33

cover story

34 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

KYLIE MAXWELL CHALLENGE Y

ACCEPTED

ou’ve been in the industry for more than 25 years, owning and operating a very successful business.

Why did you apply for Transform Masters?

At the time, I felt that I was TRANSFORM MASTERS not leading my team to their full potential. I found myself doing a lot of the hard stuff to ease the stress and keep everyone happy; in turn I was getting increasingly burnt out and starting to resent my job.

I also increasingly found myself hitting my head against a brick wall. Behind the highlight reels I am a social worker, advice giver, support person, the go-to person, the office pacifier, the problem solver; it takes its toll and from that point I could see things needed to change.

Throughout my career, I have always worked alongside my husband, Jason. He has always been the face of our business, and although he knows exactly how much work I’ve put into the business I felt the perception may have been that I worked for my husband and just looked after the trust accounts!

As a leader and business owner it can be lonely at the top and there is very little recognition for you personally; the recognition is always for your team. Transform was an opportunity for me to be recognised personally for my role as a leader, and gave me a chance to learn some new skills and challenge myself against some of the best in the industry.

Champion 2017 Kylie Maxwell from LJ Hooker Queanbeyan was not part of the original #SuperSix chosen to compete in this year’s program. But showing consistency, experience and an extra special care factor for both business and people, Kylie ‘stole the show’ and made it her own. Here are some of the highlights of what she learned along the way.

How do you and Jason lead the team together, as well as separately?

Jason and I play very different roles in the business when it comes to supporting and dealing with our team. Jason is a selling principal so, as you can imagine, he is not in the office a lot.

He deals with the sales team and I deal with the property management and administrative

team, as well as all the HR issues.

It’s important for us to be on the same page and share the same vision for our business. Our strengths are different and that’s OK. We never undermine each other’s decisions in front of our staff; we stuff up sometimes, but usually that’s a discussion for behind closed doors with beer in hand, where we say to each other, ‘How on earth are we going to fix this?’. It’s very important with any business partnership, married or

eliteagent.com.au 35

cover story otherwise, that you have each other’s backs and work in sync.

What are the hallmarks of a good leader?

Leadership to me means being able to support, coach, mentor and train your team and individuals to be the best they can be for their own future success, and the future success of your business.

What is it they say? People don’t leave because of money; people leave because of a lack of opportunity and support.

I don’t think my view of being a good leader has changed a lot since Transform, but the way I interact and lead my team has changed. I don’t step in and do as much for them. I put my trust in them to do the job and I let them fall so that they can learn from their mistakes and grow. You cannot run a great business and provide great leadership if you are trying to deal with everything and everyone; it’s not possible.

“I found myself doing a lot of the hard stuff to ease the stress and keep everyone happy; in turn I was getting increasingly burnt out and starting to resent my job.”

It’s funny, though: now that I’ve won Transform, my journey has made me realise that you don’t give to get and you don’t need to receive the recognition to know how ‘great’ you are. The rich rewards are seeing how people perceive your team and your business as an attraction agency. Ultimately, if these things are going great then you know that you have led and supported your team in a good way.

What was the best part of Transform Masters 2017 for you?

The network of industry professionals I have been able to meet, and the resources and tools they have provided. Also, just getting to know the rest of the #DirtyDozen and realising that we are all in the same boat, facing the same challenges and struggles in our day-to-day business life.

The support and inspiration from them has been amazing.

What is your vision now a leader of your organisation?

We spend a lot of time at work and with the people we work with. It’s important to have a happy and stress-free environment.

That has to come from the top. There has to be a little bit of humour in every day and we all have to have each other’s back. As a leader I have to display a positive attitude and practise what I preach. For example – it’s always been about people to me, not

property. I like to provide great customer service to all our clients. If my team sees how I treat customers, I am setting an example for them to follow and do the same.

Our intent is to create and inspire. Our core values are integrity, respect and leadership, and our ethos is to have passion, strength and innovation.

Which coaching session stood out to you, and why was that lesson important for where you are now in your leadership journey?

The number-crunching session with Fiona Blayney was a standout for me. I’ve always done this on a bit of a wing and a prayer: closed my eyes and hoped for the best. The bills get paid, clients are happy, there is some profit and the doors stay open. However, what gets measured gets managed, and to grow your business and market share you need to know your numbers in every aspect.

How did you win over the Sharks?

My Shark Tank investment pitch was about growth. I identified an area that was lacking in our marketplace that we could leverage off for growth in our rent roll. The pitch was based around a shock-and-awe advertising campaign. I demonstrated to the Sharks that I was low-risk and there was a proven return on investment for both income and asset value.

I was able to confidently pitch our business to them based on a few factors: I knew my product, I have years of industry experience, I knew my business figures and what the return on investment would be.

After surveying clients we knew how our service levels were perceived and I could demonstrate we had the structure in place for this growth.

To be able to win the Sharks over I had to make them believe in me and I had to be confident in what I was delivering.

To do this you need to practice, practice, practice. You need to look at your business holistically and really know it. It would be no different to doing a listing presentation for sales or property management; you need to have your scripts, you need to prepare and you need to know your facts and figures. Once a client sees confidence in you, they also see confidence in your ability.

What are your specific goals now personally and for your business?

My personal goal is to ensure I am mentally and physically healthy: practising gratitude, being present and in the moment when I’m with family and friends. From a business point of view, continue to work on the business, the

36 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

vision and the culture for future growth, and to be the best we can – not only in our marketplace and local community.

I’m also passionate about being a role model for other businesses. With so many years of industry knowledge under my belt in so many facets and levels of operating a real estate business, I think it’s important to share your knowledge with others. I’m always happy to answer a question from a fellow industry peer. Personally, in the future I would to love to be able to mentor and coach in this space. We can all learn something from each other; Transform was a perfect example of this.

What advice would you give anyone thinking about making the leap to leadership?

The landscape of business is changing and changing quickly. As a future leader you need to be embracing the changes and adapting your business to this. You

need to learn how to deal with different generations, embrace new technology, flexible work hours, robots and outsourcing. You’ve got to back yourself and always be open to learning. You are not always going to have the answers and know what to do in every situation, but that’s the great part about the journey. What

Leaving the Transform classroom, what are your goals for the next six months?

Over the years we have built a great business on solid foundations, systems, experience and good reputation. As a business, in the next six months we are going to be focusing on employing an offshore assistant to take on some

“You are not always going to have the answers, but that’s the great part of the journey.” works for one business and one team may not necessarily work for another. There is no cookie cutter on leadership; you grow into it. It’s not about being the boss – it’s about developing and growing people and yourself. Be authentic, be real and share your experience and don’t fear the future. It can be lonely at the top, so have an industry mentor/coach to keep you accountable.

administrative tasks and we will be looking at the best CRM system for our database.

We will also be looking to move our PM system to the cloud. The days of having a street frontage office will soon diminish as clients want immediate access to 24/7 service. We have great culture, great people and we love what we do. We are in growth mode and the future is exciting. 

As part of winning Transform Masters 2017, Kylie wins the Shark Tank investment fund of $5,000 courtesy of:

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eliteagent.com.au 37

industry report

AUSTRALIANS

OF REAL ESTATE CENSUS 2016 TOLD US what the average Australian looked like: a 38-year-old married

female (with kids), born in Australia, who spends somewhere between five and 14 hours per week on domestic duties. With the release of new ABS 2016 Census data showing occupational details1, we now have a view of how the data depicts an average worker in the real estate industry.

T

HE DEBATE IS finally over.

If you imagined the average person in real estate to be a man in his 20s working 40 hours a week and taking home $1 millionplus a year, you couldn’t be further from the truth. There are many big hitters in the industry, but it’s far from the norm.

The data shows the average is most likely a woman in her 30s, working in the city and earning about $58,468.

She is mostly likely married, spends up to 40 hours per week working and combines this with unpaid domestic work and childcare.

Across our large, sunburnt country there are 109,930 employed in real estate services.

Of that number 62,523 or 56.88 per cent are women and 47,415 or 43.13 per cent are men.

38 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

Two-thirds of industry employees are under age 50, with most, 24,823, aged 30 to 39.

A further 24,486 are in their 40s, while 24,144 are in their 20s.

Startlingly, there are still 30 industry participants aged between 90 and 99. That’s a good innings in anyone’s language.

The overwhelming majority of industry employees work in cities, with 79.60 percent in metropolitan areas compared to 20.40 in regional Australia.

The pattern for which state most work in follows capital city population data, with 37,703 agents in NSW, 25,916 in Victoria and 25,274 in Queensland.

There’s then a drastic drop to the 11,440 real estate workers in Western Australia.

When it comes to salary you might want to make a move to the ACT where

the average worker takes home $83,462, which is almost $10,000 more than their NSW counterparts who earn an average of $73,828.

Country-wide the average wage is $71,724, with men averaging $89,239 and women significantly lower at $58,468.

However, the figures also showed that men are more likely to work longer hours.

While 26 per cent of women and 15 per cent of men worked 35 to 40 hours per week, 15 per cent of men and only 7 per cent of women worked more than 49 hours.

This correlates with the statistics that show that 17 per cent of women work parttime while just 6 per cent of men do.

There’s an even spread of men and women making up the figures for the number of sales agents at 30 per cent apiece.

The numbers of those in management

Total 109,930 Employee 76% • Business Owner 24%

MALES

FEMALES

43% of the industry 15% business owners

57% of the industry 9% business owners

10% work in management 3% admin 30% sales

8% work in management 20% admin 30% sales

AVERAGE INCOME DISTRIBUTION BY STATE

hours work in the home compared to 0.57 per cent of men.

More than half of industry workers, (53.96 per cent) are married, while 31.83 per cent have never married, 9.75 per cent are divorced and 3.33 per cent said they were separated.  WORDS: KYLIE DULHUNTY DATA ANALYSIS: MARK EDWARDS 1. Analysis based on data class 6720 Real Estate Services. This class consists of units mainly engaged in valuing, purchasing, selling (by auction or private treaty), managing or renting real estate for others.

Primary activities: Broking service (real estate), Real estate agency service, Real estate auctioning service, Real estate management service, Real estate rental agency service, Time share apartment management service, Valuing service (real estate).

AVERAGE INCOME MALE VS FEMALE

NSW

VIC

QLD

SA

WA

TAS

NT

ACT

Men

Women

Average

$73,828

$73,660

$66,843

$65,397

$73,723

$64,637

$73,343

$83,462

$89,239

$58,468

$71,742

AGE AGE

20% 20%

Men Men Women Women

10% 10% 5% 5%

STATE STATE

ACT ACT

$60000 $60000 $40000 $40000

HRS/WEEK HRS/WEEK

80–89 80–89

70–79 70–79

60–69 60–69

50–59 50–59

$0 $0

40–49 40–49

49+ 49+

41–48 41–48

4040

35–39 35–39

25–34 25–34

16–24 16–24

$20000 $20000

1–15 1–15

0% 0%

00

ACT ACT

NT NT

TAS TAS

WA WA

SA SA

QLD QLD

VIC VIC

$45000 $45000

$80000 $80000

30–39 30–39

$55000 $55000

$100000 $100000

10–19 10–19

$65000 $65000

$120000 $120000

INCOME INCOME

15% 15%

NSW NSW

INCOME INCOME

$75000 $75000

INCOME VS AGE

20–29 20–29

$85000 $85000

$35000 $35000

STATE STATE

HOURS WORKED PER WEEK (BY GENDER)

INCOME BY STATE

TAS TAS

5000 5000 0 0

90–99 90–99

80–89 80–89

70–79 70–79

60–69 60–69

50–59 50–59

40–49 40–49

30–39 30–39

10–19 10–19

0% 0%

VIC VIC 23.6% 23.6%

20–29 20–29

5% 5%

QLD QLD 23.0% 23.0%

10000 10000

WA WA

10% 10%

15000 15000

SA SA

15% 15% NSW NSW 34.3% 34.3%

Men Men Women Women

20000 20000

QLD QLD

20% 20%

VIC VIC

NUMBER NUMBEROFOFWORKERS WORKERS

WA WA 10.4% 10.4%

25000 25000

NT NT

25% 25%

NT ACT TAS 0.5% NT ACT TAS 0.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% SA SA 5.2% 5.2%

INDUSTRY WORKERS BY STATE NUMBER OF MEN VS WOMEN

INDUSTRY AGE SPREAD

NSW NSW

INDUSTRY WORKERS BY LOCATION TOTAL 109,934

90–99 90–99

are also close, with 10 per cent of men in management roles and 8 per cent of women in such positions.

However women are more likely to work in administration than men, with 20 per cent compared to 3 per cent respectively.

When not working, women are also caring for children, both their own and others, more than men, with 21.83 per cent doing so compared to 14.97 per cent of male agents.

Women also do more unpaid domestic work with 22.40 per cent completing between five and 14 hours at home compared to 13.47 per cent of men.

A further 9.33 per cent of women do 15 to 29 hours unpaid domestic work compared to 2.29 per cent of men, and 4.38 per cent of women do more than 30

AGE AGE

eliteagent.com.au 39

feature interview

ADRIAN BUTERA

The Big Give ADRIAN BUTERA FROM Compton Green has won some

big awards this year, including REIV President’s Club recognition and the AREA Award for Game Changer of the Year. Here, he talks to Elite Agent about disruption, innovation and the surprising secret of his success.

C

OMPTON GREEN’S Adrian

Butera is someone who understands priorities. When things get tough, his team come first.

“The first thing I’ll do is go to an Italian supermarket and buy fresh ingredients – pasta, tomatoes, parmesan, herbs – before going back to the office and cooking lunch for my team.

40 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

That’s what I do on days when real estate is really hard: I get practical, I get in the kitchen and I give back.”

Whether giving back with a bowl of pasta or by generously mentoring his peers, this former Director of the REIV understands the simple relationship between giving and success. As Adrian clearly identifies, “My success comes from two things only: sharing with others and growing my community.”

An icon of the Australian real estate industry and recipient of the 2017 REIV President’s Award, Butera is not only sole director of thriving independent agency Compton Green; he’s also an awardwinning auctioneer with multiple gongs in his trophy cabinet, having coached many of Australia’s leading auctioneers.

Under Adrian’s leadership, Compton Green have been named as AREA’s Innovation/Game Changer of the Year for 2018, having instituted multiple industry firsts – including their signature ‘Goes Green’ environmental audit for landlords, ‘Green Stays’ (their unique take on Airbnb) and ‘Goes Green Solar’ (an energy-positive, environment-positive offering in the works for the coming year). Needless to say, he’s a thought leader to watch.

SUCCESS LEAVES CLUES Reflecting on Adrian’s 27-year real estate career, it appears that working within the property industry was written in his stars.

“Back in the day, I thought I’d be a lighting designer. My father and I ran a lighting business – both commercial and residential – for three years, before the late 1980’s recession hit. Afterwards, I entered the real estate industry and quickly realised it was a business that gave back to you what you put

“My success comes from two things only: sharing with others and growing my community.” in. The harder I’d work, the more I’d earn, the luckier I’d get. I figured that to be successful, I needed to work as hard as I could.”

Despite the influence of technology upon the industry, Adrian remains optimistic about real estate as a profession of great potential. “I still believe that effort equals reward, but these days I also appreciate that burnout is a real thing. Today there’s more smarts to working hard, and success leaves clues in its wake. Just as important as working hard is being smart: if you’re smart, you get lucky in real estate.”

But is hard work paired with smarts enough to beat the demon of disruption, seemingly hot on the heels of real estate agents from Hobart to Darwin?

“I think disruption is life,” smiles Adrian. “The real estate is certainly being challenged – we’re reminded of that daily on social media and at conferences. We had disruption 30 years ago too, but we just

called it ‘different tools’ or ‘new ideas’.

Like many principals, Adrian identifies property management as the area at highest risk from disruption. “The systems and technologies that run rental databases and trust accounts – they’re not cutting edge. They don’t compare to sales databases. Somehow, property management been left behind.

I’m aware that companies like Console and Rockend are working aggressively to improve their digital platforms – but poor property management technology is a real threat to the marketplace, because an estate agency’s only asset is their rent roll. If disruptive players simplify property management, it may mean our fees get cut – and our assets will diminish as an industry.”

It’s not unusual for principals to lose themselves in the glamour and high fees of their sales departments, at the peril of their rent roll. Adrian agrees: “We often get caught up in sales fees, but there is very little value in an estate agency’s sales fees.

The real catastrophe of disruption would be the loss of value in rent rolls.”

Day in the middle of the year, off-site for maximum team focus.

“We choose to do our planning at the start of the financial year, using the quieter months of December and January to really implement our plans. This strategy leads to a really good lift in February and March. As a principal, Innovation Day puts healthy pressure on me: I know I need to have products to roll out and ideas ready to present to our team in July.

There’s a lot of infrastructure that goes into the event, to help us launch new products, new tools, new initiatives.”

It makes sense that all the newness takes time to action – which is why Compton Green’s implementation plan is rolled out over the following 12 months. This measured approach to change benefits from a clear vision and a fair timeframe, lowering stress levels for everyone involved in the evolution.

THE CHALLENGE OF INNOVATION So how will Adrian help set Compton Green’s compass for 2018? “Compton Green constantly challenge the status quo. Every year, we run an Innovation Day to set the tone for the coming 12 months.” Rather than doing this work going into holiday season, Compton Green hold Innovation

“We had disruption 30 years ago too, but we just called it ‘different tools’ or ‘new ideas’.”

Innovation Days have instigated unique offerings for Compton Green, resulting in their AREA award for Innovation/Game Changer of the Year 2018. “‘Goes Green’ has improved our business, going from a concept to an offering that’s at the core of our brand. We’re recognised as thinking progressively about the environment by our community.” Compton Green’s ‘Goes Green’ offering is an ecoaudit for landlords – identifying ways they can make their investment additionally energy-friendly.

“With our new offering, ‘Goes Green Solar’, we’ll be extending our focus on ‘greening’ investments, allowing tenants to have solar panels on the roofs of their properties and lower energy costs. This also provides a benefit for landlords by lifting equity in their property with the addition of valuable technology,” says Adrian. “The landlord is

eliteagent.com.au 41

feature interview better off because there’s solar on the roof, the tenant has lower energy outgoings – and importantly, the environment is better off.

It’s just a no-brainer!”

But beyond the feel-good factor of supporting landlords to do their bit for the environment, has ‘Goes Green’ benefitted Compton Green’s bottom line?

Most certainly. “It’s just improved the number of landlords that come to our business,” nods Adrian. “We’ve attracted landlords who have identified ‘Goes Green’ as a unique service that sets Compton Green apart. Every agent collects rent and manages maintenance. But not every agent is focused on environmental benefits for their tenants and landlords. That’s the difference.”

SHARING THE VISION Want to take your agency to the next level?

You need your team to adopt your business vision. “There’s no easy answer to team buyin,” says Adrian. “But one of the best ways to help people feel connected to goals is to involve them in their creation. For example, we had one of our property managers do a professional 15-minute presentation at Innovation Day. We asked her what she’d do if she were boss for a day, and the insights she provided were really amazing.

“Dee Gibson – my wife who’s been in sales for 20 years – did a presentation on ‘Great Words’, highlighting clever turns of phrase to be used in email and copy. If you hand your team creative freedom on what they can discuss, and ask they use presentation tools and take the challenge seriously – you can learn so much, and they get a new life skill. Everyone has a smile on their face!”

Beyond evolving your agency’s culture, how does a principal set sales targets that don’t alienate or intimidate their team?

Again, Adrian suggests a collaborative approach gets best results.

“On Innovation Day, I’ll share our sales goal. It usually looks huge. But the team are aware that the goal is cumulative – it’s not mine alone. It’s a number built from their personal commitments and professional goals, which comes from a one-on-one conversation with each team member. I ask each salesperson where they want to be. We might have challenging conversations about what more they can try to make this month

42 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

“It’s important to allow your mind to relax, to get away from your phone. When you’re away, be away.” different, this year extraordinary. There’s no pushback on this collective goal, because everyone has contributed towards it.”

THE SECRET OF GIVING With goal-setting firmly squared away, Adrian and Compton Green will focus on reflection and rest during the holiday period. When asked if the real estate industry takes the concept of rest seriously, he is unequivocal. “The answer has to be no. It has to be no, because it’s still something our industry needs to learn to respect. You have to rest. I know when I need time away from real estate: whether it’s a week in Bali with my family, or just a day in the high country fly fishing by myself, it’s a reset. I think balance is different for everyone.”

And it’s not just the rest that Adrian benefits from – it’s the fresh ideas that come from committed rest. “I can be flying back from a holiday or camping trip and new ideas are going through my mind. It sounds corny, but I often have great ideas in the 24 hours following my return from rest. The length of the break doesn’t really matter. I reckon taking lots of small breaks is a great idea.”

Time to book that getaway to the beach – and while you’re there, try to turn off your phone and minimise social scrolling. “It’s important to allow your mind to relax, to get away from your phone. When you’re away, be away. We’re in such a connected world that a client can still reach you when you’re on a beach in Bali or a resort in Rome. It can ruin your day; you can still feel an overwhelming pressure to respond regardless of how many assistants you have.”

Does this sound familiar? If the concept of switching off your phone brings on anxiety, it’s time to put your device in aeroplane mode more often – for the benefit of both your mind and your business.

As you head into your annual holiday period, restoring and nourishing your soul for what will be your best year ever, consider Adrian’s reflection. “The secret to success is ensuring that you are giving.

That comes in all shapes and forms; it could be giving time to a colleague or someone else in the industry. It could mean supporting a professional in another category, or giving to the local Rotary Club or community group. Always be giving.”  IOLANTHE GABRIE

leadership

WHAT’S IN YOUR HEART?

DURING TRANSFORM MASTERS 2017, Elite Agent Editor

Samantha McLean spoke to one of our top industry leaders, CEO of REA Group Tracey Fellows. Here, Tracey shares some of her career and leadership journey, including why being a great leader does not need to be complicated.

T

HE BEATLES sang All You

Need Is Love and Tracey Fellows’ leadership philosophy doesn’t deviate too much from the Fab Four’s chart-topper.

A little cryptic? Perhaps.

Eternally simple once you understand what the REA Group Chief Executive Officer is alluding to? Definitely.

“Be authentic,” Tracey says. “Be who you are, own good things and bad things, but let people really know what you stand for and what you believe in.”

It’s advice Tracey has adhered to since early in her career, when she was Managing Director of Microsoft Australia and her

“Be who you are, own good things and bad things, but let people know what you stand for and what you believe in.”

Italian mentor shared his observations about leadership, saying, “Tracey, it’s all about love”.

“I can remember I was going, ‘What the hell is that supposed to mean?’” she says.

“And then he said, ‘It’s not about big words and it’s not about pretty pictures. It’s about what’s in your heart. And only when your people know what’s in your heart can they follow you.’

“I think that for me, that’s been the hallmark of my leadership.”

Tracey is the first to admit the real estate industry is, unfairly, maligned for its apparent lack of credibility and honesty.

It’s why she believes being authentic, as an agent to clients and as a leader within a business, has the power to take you places.

“I think people can spot falseness, they really can. People want real people; they want to trust them, they want to feel like there’s a connection.

4 4 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

“They care about what they’re doing for them, and that they’ve got their interest at heart. I think everybody wants that, whether it’s from their manager or from someone they’ve got a commercial dealing with.

“You want to feel good at the end of each of those discussions, and if the outcome of the discussion is still tough, on whatever commercial terms, but you feel you’re sitting across the table from someone who is accountable and authentic, I think it’s a much easier conversation.”

It’s sage advice from the former Microsoft vice president for the Asia-Pacific region and Executive General Manager of Communication Management Services at Australia Post.

Surprisingly, Tracey had to take a ‘bold leap’ to take both of those positions, entering them when she feared she didn’t have all the skills to get the job done.

“That was a job [Microsoft Australia] that when I was first asked if I wanted to be considered, I said no. And I said no because there were a couple of things I thought the job needed that I couldn’t do.

“The biggest one, the one that scared me the most, was inspiring a large group of people. At that stage Microsoft Australia was 1,000 people and the thought of inspiring 1,000 people truly intimidated me.”

Born in a garage in Doncaster, Melbourne, in 1995, REA Group is now a multinational digital advertising company specialising in property. It has digital real estate sites and investments in Australia, Asia and North America, including the market-leading realestate.com.au Tracey has been at the helm since August 2014 and says one of the key ways to develop a team passionate about what they do is to hire self-starters.

“I don’t mean that that abdicates me hopefully inspiring and motivating them, but you want people who have a level of ambition. People who have a level of drive – but I also want people who care about the purpose that we have embarked on.

“I think there’s something about hiring a group of people who play to each other’s strengths and weaknesses. You want that diversity of thinking around the table and I think that makes us better.

“I think that helps keep everybody energised and excited about what we do.”

This year the REA Group was named in LinkedIn’s Top Companies in Australia, coming in at No.16.

With 930 employees across the country, REA Group rolled out its generous parental leave scheme in 2016, giving primary carers six months’ leave at full pay and secondary carers 13 weeks. This is in addition to

continued superannuation payments for up to 12 months.

Other benefits of working at REA Group include four ‘hack days’ a year, where employees can experiment with tasks and products outside their day-to-day role, and being able to bring your dog to work at the Group’s Melbourne headquarters.

That’s not to mention exercise and wellness programs, including yoga and boxing, prayer rooms, meditation rooms and monthly social get-togethers.

Tracey says the LinkedIn accolade was not something the Group set out to achieve but was recognition of its organic focus on creating a desirable workplace.

“Ultimately I want it to be the place where people can do their best. Where they can be their best because we create an environment that lets them do that. There’s a lot of energy within us as a leadership team and me as a leader to try and do that.

“The reason we do it is because I want to attract the best people and I want them

things we’re wondering about.”

Tracey says a key element in the Group staying on its toes is tapping into the knowledge of its employees.

“I don’t think any company should be reliant on one person to have it and certainly not a company like ours in the fast-paced, moving, digital world that we’re in. What you want is smart people understanding what’s important to us, and what we do within our strategy. Thinking about all the different ways we could do it.”

The result is a vibrant workplace with camaraderie and an ever-evolving culture, with six employee-created values woven into everything they do.

One such initiative is the Group’s support of Launch Housing, a housing and homelessness support service provider.

Since 2014 the Group has helped 1,367 women and children from 483 houses with financial assistance through the National Rapid Rehousing Fund, which gives financial assistance to women and

“I want to attract the best people and I want them to stay.”

to stay. I want them to love it so much that they want to stay.”

Tracey says it’s that drive and desire to succeed and better themselves, along with a vibrant team culture, that helps the REA Group stay ahead of the curve in a swiftly changing, high-tech world.

She says it’s a team effort, rather than her flying solo, that predicts trends and maintains the Group’s position as a market leader in the property marketing sector.

“I don’t think I’m going to be the one who is going to spot that new thing. I think it will be the collective of things that different people see, and that one thing will spark another idea that will spark something else.

“So we dedicate time for us as a Group to talk about things, things we’re seeing,

children at risk of, or who are experiencing, homelessness as a result of domestic violence.

Orange Sky Laundry, which runs a fleet of vehicles with free showers and laundry services for the homeless, is another charity the Group supports.

“Initially, when we decided we wanted to do something in the community, we asked our employees what causes were important to them and homelessness rated very highly.

“I think one of the reasons it rates very highly is because of our purpose and people. We are a bunch of people who are passionate about property, but we also recognise we are very privileged that, for many of us, property is something that we can aspire to.

“Some of us are fortunate to have a house, but we know for many that’s not the case.”

It should come as no surprise, then, that the overarching value the REA Group teams developed to embody them is ‘Do it with heart’.  INTERVIEW: SAMANTHA MCLEAN WORDS: KYLIE DULHUNTY Listen to the full Tracey Fellows interview with Samantha McLean on the official Elite Agent podcast “Elevate” at eliteagent.com. au/elevate. Also available on iTunes.

eliteagent.com.au 45

profile

Climb Every Mountain WRITING $1 BILLION WORTH of property over his 20-

year career isn’t enough for Stephen Bock. To push himself a bit further, he climbs mountains and flies planes in his spare time. Elite Agent’s Azal Khan caught up with Stephen to find out more.

H

AVING BEEN in the industry

for almost 20 years, McGrath Manly agent Stephen Bock has been in a variety of team structures – so he knows a thing or two about effective leadership

and goal-setting.

His personal goals (he’s preparing to climb Everest again) take him away from the business for months at a time, so creating a supportive team and planning ahead is key.

PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY ON LEADERSHIP Stephen has a benchmark for measuring himself as an effective leader: when those he leads become better than him.

“My personal philosophy on leadership is to, in a real and honest way, help people grow and reach their own capacity. I’ve had clear focus on helping people do better than I have and help them along that path.”

He prefers to steer clear of the limelight

46 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

and enjoys helping other people get exposure.

“If you look at the last 10 years or so, for me it has been about other things in my life. I’m off busy running [my] speaking business and enjoying doing other things.

If you have a good team of people, it creates opportunities.”

HOW THE STEPHEN BOCK TEAM OPERATES In true Stephen Bock style, the team he leads operates in a structured way to maximise productivity and hit their goals.

The team of four meets on Mondays to discuss existing properties, inspections, key buyers and progress on properties for sale. Tuesday is set aside for future opportunities and prospecting. Just don’t expect Stephen to sit back and let the team do the heavy lifting – he likes to ‘roll up his sleeves’ and help on the front line.

“I’m there to help guide and coach, and I get called out into various meetings; I might

have someone out doing door-knocking of properties that might not have sold with other agents, or I get called into vendor meetings.”

The team has already set their goals for 2018. Stephen says that as a benchmark planning should take place 90 days ahead of any goals to get into the headspace.

“We already have a framework of what 2018 looks like for us, so we go into Christmas with a sense of clarity on what our key objectives are, and we use that time to get recharged and focus on those things.

“The work you’re doing now is relevant to 2018; that’s the prospecting which will set us up for the first quarter and whether it is a winning quarter or not.

We like to have properties for February ready by November so we can unwind in the break.”

“Mountains are incredibly humbling. There is no white noise, no distractions we have at sea level. You get the opportunity to review your life with clarity.”

When he is not climbing, Stephen is an aerobatic flyer and has competed on state and national levels.

“Flying isn’t dissimilar to mountaineering.

You must give it all your attention. You can’t be thinking about anything other than being focused. In both sports, it’s very humbling and you’re never good enough. It’s a continual growth journey.”

Stephens calls himself a ‘creature of discipline and routine’, which is a factor in his drive and success.

“I get up at 4am and I run through some personal development training and review my goals at 5 in the morning.”

In that early-morning window, Stephen goes through his goal list. He has a yearly goal list, which is broken into financial, personal mountaineering and aviation goals, and then a ‘100 things I want to achieve in my life’ list.

“For the yearly list, I have a series of laminated pictures which I review every morning, particularly before a big climb. The phone’s not going off, the emails [are] not going off; it’s my quiet time to think of my life journey, where I have been... mentally every morning I retake ownership of those goals and things I’m heading towards in my life. I

“Mountains are incredibly humbling. You get the opportunity to review your life with clarity.”

find that helps me.

“Real estate can be a challenging business at times, so this visualisation can snap me back quickly and get me back into energy and keep moving forward. Those things that drive us and keep us passionate may not be sitting in this industry, and real estate for me is just one piece of that puzzle.”

After his hour of goal reviewing, Stephen knocks out one-and-a-half to two hours of training.

If he is training for a mountain climb, that can mean hill climbs with heavy packs plus strength work. Other goals require him to run 20 to 30km then a 50km run once a month.

THE SECRET OF SUCCESS What does Stephen believe is the secret to his success? In one word: Attitude.

“I don’t care what other people think about what I’m going after; I pursue my dreams and passions with integrity.

“I think it’s important that people understand what drives them and what they’re passionate about, and go for it.

When you’re on the right path, your life has purpose; you’re going after those things that scare you the most. There’s a sense of energy that comes with that.”

So does that mean 4am starts for everyone?

“I recommend having that structure and routine in what we are doing, but it’s got to come from within. If you’re rubbing the sleep out of your eyes and pressing the snooze button three times and not excited and motivated for Monday morning, you haven’t got the reason to wake up that early. You must do some soul-searching and understand what your life is all about.”  AZAL KHAN

PERSONAL GOALS Stephen climbs a mountain every year and is now working his way through the Explorers Grand Slam – a challenge to reach the North and South Poles and the seven highest summits in each of the continents. He’s ticked five off that list and has the South Pole and Denali in Alaska left. He has climbed Everest once and is preparing to climb it again via the North East Ridge from Tibet.

Why mountains?

eliteagent.com.au 47

best practice

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS...

MARIAH CAREY WAS WRONG.

All I want for Christmas is...

Time! Time, if it were possible, would be on the top of the wish list for most agents and business owners, but it is the ultimate Catch-22 for anyone wanting to scale and grow.

W

ITH SOME success

comes growth and growth is good. However, once you have reached your capacity, growth begins to feel uncomfortable. Uncomfortable in the same way that a suit becomes too tight – the fabric holding it all together is strained.

If your suit feels too tight, there are two options before you.

You can shrink and fit back into your old suit, but in doing so you will miss out on the opportunity to do more, earn more and be more. There is nothing Branson, Musk or Zuckerberg about that road, and as costs rise around you the shrinking will continue.

The far better option, and the secret to success and productivity for many, is making the decision to invest in creating more space with room to grow. It is a brave decision to leap when faced with the delicate tipping point between committing precious cash flow and gaining the help you need.

AN AFFORDABLE INVESTMENT IN GROWTH Outsourcing is an affordable solution that can handle administrative back-of-house activities, and in doing so creates room for growth and increased productivity. That is essentially the definition of leverage.

A virtual assistant (VA) enables agents and business owners to regain productivity and refocus their time where it has the

48 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

greatest impact: in customer-facing hours to help you list and sell more properties.

OUTSOURCING IS LOW COST, LOW RISK AND HIGH RETURN A VA does not mean a compromise in service, and cloud-based technology has made borders largely irrelevant. At Beepo, the talent we engage in our offshore facility are high-calibre, universityeducated administrators, who have completed their schooling in English and are fluent.

Once you have reached your capacity, growth begins to feel uncomfortable.

Countries such as the Philippines are excited about exporting their talented workforce, and the low cost of living relative to Australia creates the perfect economic conditions for a global win-win.

Plus, you may just be surprised at just how many tasks you can delegate to a VA while you focus on high-value and dollarproductive activities. •

Aimee Engelmann is the founder and CEO of Beepo, one of the fastest growing outsourcing companies in the Asia-Pacific Region. For more information visit beepo.com.au.

CASE STUDY: A LITTLE TO LOSE, A LOT TO GAIN MEET TINA Tina is a Beepo Team Member who works as a Sales Assistant assisting a Beepo agency client in Belconnen, ACT. HOW TINA HELPS Orphan Client Prospecting Calls These are clients whose sales agents are no longer with the agency. Tina calls these (lukewarm) clients and ask whether they are interested in a property appraisal. Interested clients are then booked for appraisal either directly into the agent’s diary or via email. Tina updates the CRM (MyDesktop) with new or updated contact information given by the clients.

Post-Appraisal Process Tina performs a strategic survey in the form of a call, asking for feedback from appraisals conducted by sales agents. This feedback is then used to enhance performance and refine future appraisal policies for the agency, due diligence and coaching. eFiling Database Management Tina updates the CRM with new contacts and sales documents.

Comparative Market Analysis Tina conducts a comparative analysis of property prices on a specific suburb through MyDesktop.

Local Market Research Tina researches community news and updates related to properties offered by the agency. These are collated and can be used by agents as a reason to call clients, or in newsletters and drip email campaigns to potential buyers and sellers.

OUTCOMES AND RESULTS Within the above scope of work, Tina was able to reconnect with orphan clients and book appraisals. She also gained new contact information and additional leads.

Summary Results of calls for 4 weeks Total number of clients = 361 Total booked for appraisal = 6 clients Total booked for Quarterly Update and Property Appraisal = 73 clients Total booked for Quarterly Update only = 25 clients One listing was successfully achieved from this campaign.

THE NEXT GENERATION OF TRAINING IS HERE MORE EFFICIENT MORE MOBILE MORE INTELLIGENT PROGRAMS AVAILABLE Certificate of Registration / Agent Representative Licence and Diploma Programs Continuing Professional Development

1300 115 144  MYREALESTATETRAINING.COM.AU

personal development

FORGET ABOUT SETTING GOALS

FOCUS ON THIS INSTEAD

IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR when most of us are focusing on what we want to achieve

in the next 12 months. While it’s good to have a plan, we then put ourselves under pressure to get there – and feel we’ve failed if we don’t. James Clear has a different view: forget about the goals and still achieve what you set out to do!

W

E ALL HAVE things

that we want to achieve in our lives – getting into better shape, building a successful business, raising a wonderful family, writing a bestselling book, winning a championship and so on.

And, for most of us, the path to those things starts by setting a specific and

50 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

actionable goal. At least, this is how I approached my life until recently. I would set goals for classes I took, for weights that I wanted to lift in the gym, and for clients I wanted in my business.

What I’m starting to realise, however, is that when it comes to actually getting things done and making progress in the areas that are important to you, there is a much better way to do things.

It all comes down to the difference between goals and systems. Let me explain.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOALS AND SYSTEMS What’s the difference between goals and systems?

• If you’re a coach, your goal is to win a championship. Your system is what your team does at practice each day.

• If you’re a writer, your goal is to write a book. Your system is the writing schedule that you follow each week.

• If you’re a runner, your goal is to run a marathon. Your system is your training

schedule for the month.

• If you’re an entrepreneur, your goal is to build a million-dollar business. Your system is your sales and marketing process.

Now for the really interesting question: If you completely ignored your goals and focused only on your system, would you still get results?

For example, if you were a basketball coach and you ignored your goal to win a championship and focused only on what your team does at practice each day, would you still get results?

I think you would.

As an example, I just added up the total word count for the articles I’ve written this year. In the last 12 months, I’ve written over 115,000 words. The typical book is about 50,000 to 60,000 words, so I have written enough to fill two books this year.

All of this is such a surprise because I never set a goal for my writing. I didn’t measure my progress in relation to some benchmark. I never set a word count goal for any particular article. I never said, ‘I want to write two books this year’.

What I did focus on was writing one article every Monday and Thursday.

And after sticking to that schedule for 11 months, the result was 115,000 words. I focused on my system and the process of doing the work. In the end, I enjoyed the same (or perhaps better) results.

Before we talk about how to get started, I wanted to let you know I researched and

We place unnecessary stress on ourselves to lose weight or to succeed in business or to write a bestselling novel. Instead, you can keep things simple and reduce stress by focusing on the daily process and sticking to your schedule, rather than worrying about the big, life-changing goals.

When you focus on the practice instead of the performance, you can enjoy the present moment and improve at the same time.

2

Goals are strangely at odds with long-term progress

You might think your goal will keep you motivated over the long term, but that’s not always true.

Consider someone training for a halfmarathon. Many people will work hard for months, but as soon as they finish the race, they stop training. Their goal was to finish the half-marathon and, now that they have completed it, that goal is no longer there to motivate them. When all of your hard work is focused on a particular goal, what is left to push you forward after you achieve it?

This can create a type of ‘yo-yo effect’ where people go back and forth from working on a goal to not working on one.

This type of cycle makes it difficult to build upon your progress for the long term.

Solution: Release the need for immediate results.

I was training at the gym last week and I was doing my second-to-last set of clean and jerks. When I hit that rep, I felt a small twinge in my leg. It wasn’t painful or an

If you completely ignored your goals and focused only on your system, would you still get results? compiled science-backed ways to stick to good habits and stop procrastinating.

Let’s talk about three more reasons why you should focus on systems instead of goals.

1

Goals reduce your current happiness

When you’re working toward a goal, you are essentially saying, ‘I’m not good enough yet, but I will be when I reach my goal’.

The problem with this mindset is that you’re teaching yourself to always put happiness and success off until the next milestone is achieved. ‘Once I reach my goal, then I’ll be happy. Once I achieve my goal, then I’ll be successful.’

Solution: Commit to a process, not a goal.

Choosing a goal puts a huge burden on your shoulders. Can you imagine if I had made it my goal to write two books this year? Just writing that sentence stresses me out.

But we do this to ourselves all the time.

injury, just a sign of fatigue near the end of my workout. For a minute or two, I thought about doing my final set. Then I reminded myself that I plan to do this for the rest of my life and decided to call it a day.

In a situation like the one above, a goalbased mentality will tell you to finish the workout and reach your goal. After all, if you set a goal and you don’t reach it, then you feel like a failure.

But with a systems-based mentality, I had no trouble moving on. Systems-based thinking is never about hitting a particular number; it’s about sticking to the process and not missing workouts.

Of course, I know that if I never miss a workout then I will lift bigger weights in the long run. And that’s why systems are more valuable than goals. Goals are about the short-term result. Systems are about the long-term process. In the end, process always wins.

3

Goals suggest you can control things that you have no control over

You can’t predict the future. (I know, shocking.)

But every time we set a goal, we try to do it. We try to plan out where we will be and when we will make it there. We try to predict how quickly we can make progress, even though we have no idea what circumstances or situations will arise along the way.

Solution: Build feedback loops.

Each Friday, I spend 15 minutes filling out a small spreadsheet with the most

When you focus on the practice instead of the performance, you can enjoy the present moment and improve at the same time. critical metrics for my business. For example, in one column I calculate the conversion rate (the percentage of website visitors who join my email newsletter each week). I rarely think about this number, but checking that column each week provides a feedback loop that tells me if I’m doing things right. When that number drops, I know that I need to send highquality traffic to my site.

Feedback loops are important for building good systems, because they allow you to keep track of many different pieces without feeling the pressure to predict what is going to happen with everything.

Forget about predicting the future and build a system that can signal when you need to make adjustments.

FALL IN LOVE WITH SYSTEMS None of this is to say that goals are useless.

However, I’ve found that goals are good for planning your progress and systems are good for actually making progress.

Goals can provide direction and even push you forward in the short term, but eventually a well-designed system will always win. Having a system is what matters. Committing to the process is what makes the difference. •

James Clear is an American author, entrepreneur, and photographer. James writes at JamesClear.com, where he shares self-improvement tips based on proven scientific research.

eliteagent.com.au 51

sales

BEATING THE NEW YEAR BLUES IF YOU’RE IN THE OFFICE in January it can be a pretty quiet

time and difficult to get motivated. Sherrie Storor has some advice to help you make the most of this unique period.

Y

ou and the market may have just have just taken a break over the festive season (or longer!) and agents feel that they have lost all the momentum that they generated through Spring and the selling season.

But wait: there is something that you can do about this, and it starts today.

IF YOU ARE STAYING PUT We know that prevention is better than cure, so start lining up your properties for launch in the New Year right now, today and tomorrow. Work your pipeline now.

Get the listing appointments signed, book in photography, video and copywriting for

52 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

the campaigns early. Explain to the sellers that if they want the best real estate service suppliers, they need to beat the rush and book in early to avoid disappointment.

I often found that December and January is actually a great time to list, market and sell property. Buyers are still in the market and ready to purchase, but as there is less stock we quite often see record prices achieved during this time of year.

In fact, buyers often have more free time and spend more of it browsing online trying to find their new home.

It’s also a time where you might have a new segment of buyers that may not normally be looking or inspecting in your city. Some marketplaces even have an influx of holidaymakers and expats

looking to invest in property.

This is also often a convenient time for vendors to sell, as they may be going away.

If that’s the case, they can hand over their keys to an agent and escape the burden of cleaning and preparing for an inspection or open home. This set-up can alleviate a lot of stress during the selling process.

It’s also a great time to convert those properties that have been on the market with other agents to you and your agency.

If you are keen to achieve greatness in 2018, start working now whilst your competitors are on holidays. Get a head start!

IF YOU ARE TAKING A BREAK If you are one of those agents taking a hardearned break, relax, enjoy and get ready to pull it together for the next big year of your career.

In order to have great success in 2018, you need to be mentally fit, prepared and ready.

Agents who are well-rested achieve better results in all aspects of their job, as they have more energy and clarity in achieving the listing and negotiating a sale.

Do the basics and follow the process.

Send out personalised ‘Just listed’ letters, and follow up with phone calls and doorknocking. Drop brochures to the local carwashes, cafes and gyms. Use your social media. Do live video tours on Facebook and post key photos on Instagram. And advertise your open homes on these platforms and, when it occurs, the sale.

Then work the buyers. Do they need to sell to buy? Are they selling any investment properties? Can you look after them with these needs or can you refer it for a fee? And do they know anyone who is looking to buy or sell?

Then think about your business contacts and your COI. Think conveyancers, lawyers, mortgage brokers, financial planners, building inspectors. Do they know anyone who is looking to buy or sell?

Ask them for help and for business.

People love helping others and they will love helping you! But be sure to give back by asking what you can do to assist their business.

And here’s a tip: when they do refer you someone, keep them updated and be sure to send them a handwritten thank you card in

around the local neighbourhood. It could be the nail salon, barber shop, the popular café where everyone stops for morning coffee, or on the local walkways and exercise paths.

These connections will pay dividends now, but you’ll start to see the real benefits within six to 12 months. These people know other people who know other people, and in a short period you could be calling yourself an ‘attraction agent’. This means fewer hours need to be spent knocking on doors and working the phones.

The same principle can be applied to social media, which I view as real-world networking but online.

Connect online with those you meet in real life to stay top of mind and relevant.

The best networkers, both real-world and online, are those who show their personality and genuine care while interacting with others.

Showcase your market knowledge and your success. This will build a new audience of buyers and sellers. Think of social media as your secondary database.

Offer your followers real value for following you. Launch properties online before they hit the market, share stories of

Explain to sellers that they need to beat the rush and book in early to avoid disappointment. the mail. This will make them feel that they made the right choice in referring you. They will see that your service is exceptional and personal, and they will be proud to refer you business on a regular basis.

BUILD TRUST AND FOCUS ON THE LONGER TERM Personal and exceptional service is a major key to being a successful agent in 2018. It breeds trust.

Buyers and sellers are looking for a meaningful, long-term relationship with an agent who will be there for them in this and the next transaction, in 20 years’ time, and also for their family and friends.

Sellers are no longer forced to use any agent. Less and less are we seeing one agent control a marketplace. Sellers now have options due to the way in which buyers use digital platforms to purchase property.

This is shaping how we prospect as agents.

The marketplace is turning away from agents who have a burn and churn approach. Sellers do not want to be treated as another transaction or work with an agent who is only in it for the money.

A successful agent in 2018 might do their best prospecting at their children’s school or at sporting clubs, networking events or

how a property sold and for how much, and create your own community based on your personality, your real estate career and how you like to conduct transactions.

Show your marketplace that you are one of the few agents embracing digital strategies. Sellers love this as it is a costeffective method of sale and buyers love it as they are hearing about properties before they are officially launched.

This should be combined with working your own primary database and CRM. Add everyone you meet from open homes, networking, phone leads and internet enquiries.

Send out regular and consistent newsletters. Again, in order to gain traction, add some real value. Potential content that you can use might be changes to legislation, real-time advice on what you are seeing in the market today, recent auction clearance rates and market trends. Work the properties before they hit the market by including a ‘coming soon’ section. Give.

Leverage your listing in the media. Call the editors of your local newspapers, magazines and internet sites. Make sure your sales reps for REA and Domain are receiving your properties and ideas for stories and passing them through to their

MY TOP 10 TIPS TO CREATE TRACTION QUICKLY IN 2018 1. Work your pipeline now! Book in listings for the New Year today 2. Work the markets 3. Leverage your ONE listing through the neighbourhood 4. Ask your COI for referrals and ask how you can help them 5. Work your social media – ask for referrals, leverage your listings and sales results 6. Call your last 20 transactions, both buyers and sellers, to ask for business 7. Work your CRM and database by offering real value and ‘coming soon’ properties 8. Connect with media editors and leverage these relationships to share listings, sales and build your profile 9. Maintain your mental fitness. Give out great energy and stay in the zone to list and sell 10. Employ a coach to keep you on track and increase your skill set editors. Get the message out about you, your properties and your results.

Not only will you sell your listings but you will build a larger profile for yourself, which in turn assists with becoming an attraction agent. I encourage you to work smarter, not harder!

I also suggest calling your 20 most recent transactions, both buyers and sellers. Get in touch, ask about their holidays and how their new home is going, and ask for referrals.

Lastly, working with a coach and mentor is often a great way to gain traction in your business. The right coach will hold you accountable and should be able to suggest and assist in the implementation of different systems and procedures, use of key dialogues, and strategies in time management and productivity.

This expertise will take you to the next level in your real estate career. •

Sherrie Storor is a respected speaker at major industry events, including the Australasian Real Estate Conference (AREC), and is the organiser of the Women in Real Estate Business Series. She also mentors, coaches and empowers agents to succeed without sacrifice. Her individual and group consults focus on strategies which equip agents with the skills to secure sustainable success.

eliteagent.com.au 53

marketing

Taking The ‘I’ Out of Gift Giving

WHAT ARE THE best gifts

for clients? Avoid anything corporate and think outside the box, says Connected Media’s Kylie Dulhunty.

H

ands up who loves receiving a gift? Now, keep your hand up if you love getting a pack of black business socks from Auntie Maude every birthday and Christmas.

I didn’t think so.

Sure, they’re practical. You can use them, but it does make you wonder just how much old Auntie Maude cares about you.

After all, you know she’s bought the same thing for your brother and all your cousins.

Giving a settlement gift to a client is no different. You really want to avoid being compared to your elderly aunt.

As it’s the season to be gifting, let’s take a look at how you can deliver your valued clients a present they will treasure.

There’s no doubt the aim of giving a settlement gift is to entice your client to refer you and your expertise to their network and to call on you again next time they sell a property. But it’s time – well past time – to ditch the corporate branding.

That sad-looking bottle of red wine with your company’s logo on it? Bin it. In fact, anything with your logo, brand, slogan, name or contact details on it should meet the same fate. That’s what business cards are for.

Vendors, and buyers, are far more savvy than they used to be and they really do see straight through generic giftgiving marketing ploys. It’s far better to achieve your referral goals using more native advertising, where the gift itself immediately provides value to clients.

MAKE IT COUNT Forget the corporate branded bottle of wine, polo shirt or stationery set. It’s just going to be stowed away in the back of a cupboard. Instead, give a gift the client can really use and remember you by.

If they’re new to the area you might consider a framed, local historic map they can hang as a talking piece in their new living room. If they’ve purchased a historic property there are often detailed histories and photographs available

54 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

through the local library, council or historical society you could have bound into a book.

A gift such as this is often treasured and remains with the property as it is passed from owner to owner, and clients will appreciate the effort you (or your assistant) have gone to.

Rather than giving a vegan or someone with allergies a generic food hamper they’ll have to throw out or pass on, why not give a gift card to the new vegan restaurant around the corner? Most aquatic centres also have weekly and monthly passes, and such a gift would demonstrate to your client that you’ve really listened to them. That’s sure to make them eager to refer you on.

LISTEN TO YOUR CLIENT Clients often reveal tidbits of seemingly unimportant information throughout the course of you selling their home. It might be that they’re a vegan or allergic to nuts. Perhaps they told you that they’ve just taken up swimming to improve their asthma. Don’t just nod and smile; file these little trinkets away as they can help you give the perfect gift.

Forget the corporate branded bottle of wine or polo shirt. It’s just going to be stowed away in the back of a cupboard.

DON’T GO GENERIC Bottles of wine and, in more recent years, craft beers have always been popular gifts real estate agents have dished out. But is that not exactly how a gift you’ve given to hundreds of clients would make your newest client feel – as though it’s been ‘dished out’ without any thought?

It can also make for an awkward exchange if you give a bottle of wine to a recovering alcoholic or someone who abstains from drinking for religious reasons. One idea to avoid such faux pas is to have two or three gifts your clients can select from.

PERSONAL DELIVERY Nothing screams ‘impersonal’ like delivering a gift in the mail or leaving it

on the front porch. Giving a client a gift in person, after settlement, gives you another opportunity to build a strong relationship with them. Cementing that relationship is what will help generate future leads.

It gives you the chance to check on how they’re going and, subtly, ask if they can pass your name on to family and friends who may need an agent. Taking the time to deliver the gift personally, when you no longer stand to generate secure income, will create a halo effect with a client.

Other gift ideas: • Plants or fruit trees • A local family experience they can enjoy, such as zoo entry • A gift certificate to a favourite restaurant • A legacy gift such a crystal vase or platter • A magazine subscription in their field of interest. •

Kylie Dulhunty is a freelance writer and Managing Editor of Connected Media Solutions, which specialises in real estate content and marketing solutions. For more information visit connectedmedia.com.au.

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The Home Straight Mark McLeod

Unforced errors When it comes to the major sporting contests, it’s usually not the sophisticated plays that win championships, but rather the players who make the least mistakes.

G

ames of sport are mostly won by the team who plays the best percentages.

Another way of looking at this is the team that identifies the most important KPIs and executes them the best generally wins.

For example, a game of NRL is mostly won by the team that: a) drops the ball the least, and b) gives away the fewer penalties.

A game of one-day cricket is almost always won by the team who has the fewer dot balls (that is, a ball that is bowled that you don’t score a run off).

Coaches are rarely able to add sophisticated plays to their team’s strategy if they continue to lose the games in these key areas. These areas could be considered our KPIs. Those in our industry who eventually win are nearly always the ones who win the ‘KPI battle’

in their suburbs.

Here are the five KPIs that I believe will almost certainly ensure you run a winning team:

1

Appraisals. Most people view the appraisal as a vehicle to the listing; those who are winning view the appraisal as a way to connect.

The more connections you have, and ongoing continued connections, the more likely you are to create a win.

Change the word ‘appraisal’ to Relationship Commencement Meeting, or RCM, and then you understand why this is the number one KPI: 40 a month per person or team should be the goal.

2

OFIs. These are the gateway to your community – another way of looking at it is retail outlets – yet many agents are running OFIs at very low numbers. Only one or two OFIs on a Saturday

virtually guarantees little or no success. Like any case there is always an exception to the rule, but opening your retail outlets more often will ensure once again that you create connections. I believe five is an acceptable number every Saturday. If you haven’t got five pieces of stock, consider opening one or two multiple times as your vendors will love you.

3

Pipeline. The development of pipeline and a strategy to go with it will ensure ongoing consistent success. Another way of looking at it is a group of

Customer Satisfaction. We now use an international management system called NPS to measure the customer satisfaction of every client; it’s the only true way of gauging what your consumers are thinking of you after every transaction.

I can guarantee that if you win the appraisal war every month you will eventually win. If you win the OFI battle in your suburb every Saturday you will win. If you identify your sellers into the future and connect with them you will win. If you use auctions as a vehicle for connection you will win. If your customers

I have yet to see a crowd waiting outside a house whilst you negotiate a private treaty. people you continue to connect with. An acceptable number in your pipeline to guarantee success is 50. That’s 50 people you have identified who are going to come to the market in the next 12 months.

4

Auctions. This might seem debatable, but auctions are a way to further the connection to your community either onsite or in rooms. I have yet to see a crowd waiting outside a house whilst you negotiate a private treaty; pretty difficult to connect under the shroud of darkness.

56 ELITE AGENT • DEC 2017 – JAN 2018

5

are happy with you and your level of service, and you adjust that service based upon their feedback, you must win.

The agents who will win are those that understand connection is key. And, if the industry loses connection, it loses its future.  ​

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.

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