We have just wrapped Ray White’s 2024 Emerging Elite conference in Sydney. I love the feeling that you get from a conference. There’s a collective feeling of having been on a journey with the delegates, sometimes you leave on a high and that feeling stays with you for a little while.
That was certainly true of this conference.
The Emerging Elite event was created in recognition of our Premier members, who wrote an average of $494,000 in commission for the 2024 financial year and our theme for this year’s event was: “What it takes to be the best.”
We were ambitious with our line up, inviting stellar real estate agents Alexander Phillips and Josh Tesolin to speak to the group.
We were privileged to have one of Australasia’s top leadership experts, Gilbert Enoka, known for his work with the All Blacks, speak at the conference, (he has been their mental skills coach for over 20 years), alongside a plethora of other rising star agents.
While each of the speakers chosen was confirmed to be dominating their local area, what was interesting to note was that while they each didn’t necessarily replicate the exact business model, there were definitely consistent themes among them all and I’d like to share the common themes that shone through.
‘Nothing beats the Mahi’
Gilbert Enoka kicked things off by reminding us that “Mahi,” the Maori word for hard work, is the foundation for success.
Nothing beats rolling up your sleeves and doing the work that is required for greatness.
Mark McLeod was equally vocal about putting in the hard yards. He opened the conference with a statement about people coming to conferences to hear a new idea or a new hack to avoid doing what we all know we need to do.
“There is no silver bullet, you already have the bullet inside of you, you just need to pull the trigger.“
When the leader improves, everyone improves
Jake Battenally from Ray White Canberra shared, in his brutally honest account of his career trajectory, that after his first three years in the industry where he’d had continued year-on-year growth, that getting to $3 million would be an easy thing to do.
But then everything changed.
Neglecting his personal health meant that his career suffered too.
Now he has structure around keeping himself physically and mentally well, his career growth has kicked back into gear.
Josh Tesolin from Ray White Quakers Hill spoke of how he doesn’t drink alcohol and believes in keeping himself clean and clear in order to achieve peak performance.
He is also continuing to challenge himself around his process inside the business, making a change 18 months ago to adopt the auction method, having previously been an almost 100% private treaty agent. Now his whole team is following the changes that Josh has adopted himself.
Long term relationships are what it’s all about
Brandon Pilgrim from Ray White Burnside started in real estate at the age of 18 as an associate. He’s been working the same core market for over eight years and now dominates one of the most coveted markets in South Australia by simply playing the long game. He systematically built relationships with owners until one by one he got invited to more appraisals and eventually took the market from long-term, experienced agents.
Alexander Phillips from PPDRE stated a similar sentiment. He has worked in the same core market for over 20 years and even though he may not list everything, there aren’t many properties he isn’t invited into because he simply knows all of the owners in his core markets around Bronte, NSW.
Trevor Bowen from Ray White Cheltenham personally welcomes all of the new residents to “the golden triangle” as his core market is known.
Whether they bought from Trevor or someone else, he knocks on the door with a welcome pack and invites them to join local community groups.
He is personally invested in the area, literally, owning five properties in the area and feels it’s a great way to connect with his clients, demonstrating how much he believes in the area.
Focus on your volume, not your revenue
While our speakers came from all across the country and operated in a wide variety of markets, they all had a focus on their volume of activity, not their revenue, which is the outcome of the activity.
Focusing on volume of activity allows you to build a structure or system that can be replicated at scale. Every presenter could explain the amount of daily calls they needed to make in order to achieve the appraisal target that would eventually lead to listings and sales.
They all effectively built teams that could operate within their system and by focusing on activity, not outcomes, they can provide accountability which is critical to guiding cadets through.
