Join us as we analyse the implications of the Reserve Bank of Australia's announcement on the real estate market. This episode can help agents list properties effectively and supercharge their sales.
And if you're considering selling your property or bringing a listing to market, we have some essential advice for you.
Also, let's take a trip down memory lane with John McGrath as we reminisce about selling real estate when technology was minimal.
John shares the creative strategies he used to stand out in a competitive industry. This conversation underscores the vital role of efficiency in time management, communication, negotiation, and listing presentations.
Finally, let's explore how to carve your own success in the real estate industry. We discuss our personal journey and the importance of product knowledge, remarkable service, and the unique art of buyer-servicing.
We also delve into the benefits of attending auctions and joining historical societies to bolster your industry knowledge. We underscore the indispensable role of passion, enthusiasm, and continuous personal growth and learning.
The episode is packed with actionable tips to help you stand out and thrive in the real estate industry. So tune in and let's elevate your game in real estate!
Join us as we analyse the implications of the Reserve Bank of Australia's announcement on the real estate market. This episode can help agents list properties effectively and supercharge their sales.
And if you're considering selling your property or bringing a listing to market, we have some essential advice for you.
Also, let's take a trip down memory lane with John McGrath as we reminisce about selling real estate when technology was minimal.
John shares the creative strategies he used to stand out in a competitive industry. This conversation underscores the vital role of efficiency in time management, communication, negotiation, and listing presentations.
Finally, let's explore how to carve your own success in the real estate industry. We discuss our personal journey and the importance of product knowledge, remarkable service, and the unique art of buyer-servicing.
We also delve into the benefits of attending auctions and joining historical societies to bolster your industry knowledge. We underscore the indispensable role of passion, enthusiasm, and continuous personal growth and learning.
The episode is packed with actionable tips to help you stand out and thrive in the real estate industry. So tune in and let's elevate your game in real estate!
Dollar agent. The podcast. Can you start again?
Troy Malcolm:Yeah, you know, we use like AI, so all the audio gets evened out afterwards anyway, No problems.
Tom Panos:Million Dollar Agent, the podcast. We're back again. It's that time of the week You know why John's laughing in the background? because we've had three takes at one sentence, three takes at the intro right.
John McGrath:I still think you got the name wrong. I've never heard it called Million Dollar Agent the podcast, but I like it. It's got a bit of pizzazz about it. It's funny, troy, i was watching you. How many years 10 years Are we still live? Are we still live, troy? there's a podcast in the US. I don't know. you call it a vlog. it's on YouTube. Yeah, i think it's called Keys' World or Keys' World. She goes for like three or four hours because I know we're always time conscious and, yes, we probably should be, but it's interesting. They're different. Some podcasts go for three or four hours but we actually drive people crazy. But nonetheless, million Dollar Agent the podcast is back. Podcast.
Tom Panos:This is a decade project that we've had and there have been periods of time where we've gotten busy or illness or what have you. We've missed out three or four weeks. But we've been very consistent of late And I'm really looking forward to this podcast because I heard some great feedback about something you did this morning with a greater team at McGraw And we're going to talk about that in a moment. But, john Troy, you both heard the announcement of the RBA at 2.30 yesterday. It was tipped 50%. They would raise it. 50% said no, they would put a pause on it.
Tom Panos:I'd love to get both your view on your take on it And, more importantly, how does a real estate agent use an announcement from a bank to help them make more listings and more make more sales? Because I mean, it would be hard to believe that an agent wouldn't be talking about it on their phone calls about what's going on in the economy. So, over the year, i'd love to get your view on how to use information from the RBA to help list properties or help sell more properties.
John McGrath:Yeah well, troy, i reckon they've been relentless and they've just given a slight reprieve, because I wouldn't be expecting this to remain status quo. I think there's another two rate rises to go, sadly, because I think we've already gone two or three too many, but I think they're just trying to give the consumers a slight reprieve for a moment. But we're finding, troy, as you manage, a lot of the growth in the business. We're finding now, tom, a lot of pain in pain, distressed sellers, and some of them are the banks that have taken control of assets. But more often, people are saying, hey, my mortgage payments have just doubled, some cases close to tripled. I can't afford it, i've got to get out, i've got to sell my investment property, i've even got to sell my home, which is tragic, terrible, terribly sad, but it is happening, and I think there's going to be a lot more of that as these fixed home loans come off fixed rates and they have to go to variable rates, and some people won't even be able to finance and some will just find it incredibly stressful, because not only is, you know, tom, not only is it mortgage rates, it's petrol, it's food, it's every damn thing that you look at has gone up double. I used to go into IGA and you get enough for a year evening meal and it might be a couple of steaks and some salad, veggies and a couple of bread rolls and it'll be $34. It's now $65. It's just the cost of living has gone up extravagantly. So very sad for us, but nonetheless we've all got to. We can't change this, we've got to live with it for the moment.
John McGrath:Here's my thought on it, troy, and you agree or disagree if you like, but add to it for sure. I think right now we are coming to the end of what I think has been a terrific run of a bull market for property, despite the market the overall market or the economy being in a very sluggish state. The property market has ignored that for a long time and it's just been thundering ahead. I think we're coming to the end of that. I think we're about to start seeing a plateauing and we might well see a correction of some description, not major 3, 5, 7% But I think, as people that are under pressure come to market and have to find a buyer and some won't be able to find a buyer immediately they're going to have to adjust their price down The minute they adjust their price down. Everybody else has got it too, because that becomes the new market and the comparable sale. So I think that we're probably what I'd be saying and I am saying to all my clients and all our agents If you have a property sold as I listed, i'd be getting it sold sooner than later post-haste.
John McGrath:If you've got a listing coming to the market, i'd be focused on getting it sold in the first 30 days, which should happen anyway. But I wouldn't be hanging around because I think, as we come into an increased volume of stock, which will include a smattering, or potentially more than a smattering, of properties sold under stressful and challenging conditions, i think we'll see a dilution of prices For those two things. Just the pure time increase of stock is going to dilute prices because it's more to go around by. Demand will be diluted. But then you're going to have these sales that come through at slightly under pressure prices and I think that that's going to reset the market.
John McGrath:So I think right now I'd be having that conversation, not because it helps us get a sale or not because it helps us get a listing more quickly. I think you've just got to tell people the way you see the market. So if you do agree to conversation to be had, because someone knocks back an offer of 2.8 today because they want 2.9, guess what? They might be taking 2.650 in two months' time. So that would be what I'd be saying, troy.
Troy Malcolm:Yes, john, i agree. I anticipate listings are going to continue to slowly increase over the coming months leading up until spring. We've seen that. We've been doing a lot of research around our group and also speaking to some of our competitors in the market and they're seeing a lot of appraisal rates go up. I think people are going to anticipate that and maybe chase the market a little bit. While the supply and demand in balance has been quite high at the moment, people have been seeing solid people that open for inspections Numbers have been really high. Auction clearance rates Tom, you and I were both around 75% on the weekend. They've kind of been high 60s, early 70s for quite a number of weeks now. I think that's going to motivate and inspire vendors, but I don't think we're probably going to see that continue. John, i'm in agreement with you. We're going to see transactions and people are going to be making those transactions to try to preempt the danger of what it could be in a year's time.
John McGrath:I mean when it doesn't make sense. there's normally a reason for that, and right now, for a number of months, the property market—and I'll take the luxury market out for a minute because those people are not buying with mortgages generally, they're paying cash. They're trading from $10 million to $8 million, or $10 million to $12 million, or $6 million to $8 million or whatever. At the very top end of most markets around Australasia. I think that's a slightly different story, but I do think for the majority of the market low, middle and maybe up and middle of the market there's going to be some new pressure that we haven't seen for the last few years And I think that that might sober the market up a little bit.
John McGrath:So my view would be get your listings sold, get your new listings on the market sooner than later, and then, when the other ones come on board, just as, back to good, old-fashioned selling. the order taking's gone. You can't just turn up an auction and expect five, six bidders to register. You're going to have to go back to good, old-fashioned working the buyers, private appointments in addition to your open homes, making sure your prices are aligned, better communication with buyers and sellers, all the good stuff which doesn't concern me. it's actually about time. I think So. I think, tommy. that's where I see the market at the moment.
Tom Panos:Yeah, and I don't think just listening to you and I concur with both your views it doesn't mean it's. I get a lot of direct messages from people that are not in real estate, from both TikTok and main Instagram and a bit of Facebook, And one of the most common things comes up is buyers say listen, i like this house, i want to buy it, but do you reckon I should wait till spring? I love getting questions from the public because it helps you understand what's on their mind, and I actually responded back to this buyer today and I said look, here's the deal, because he actually said to me I do want to buy before the bank takes my loan away and gives me less money, which is a very valid point. If you're a buyer and there's a house out there that you like, you might not have the option of being able to buy this house after another two more rate rises and you get re-rated and you're given a different borrowing capacity. So it doesn't mean that if you're a buyer, you stop buying. It means that if you haven't seen anything that you like and you've been looking for a while, you'll probably have more to pick from in spring. That's all it means And you might end up getting a bit of a bonus. But yeah, i agree with what you're saying If you're a seller, come on the market sooner rather than later.
Tom Panos:But I'm fascinated, troy, tell me about the webinar this morning. Actually, this is music to my ears because I've always thought one of the things we never really dig deep enough is to how did John list and sell real estate, particularly like the model was different back then. People didn't have an army of sold Some teams. Now I was having a training session with a guy today and he's got two admin PAs, he's got a buyer's agent, he's got a lead generator, he's got a business manager. So there was five plus in there six people there, right, you know it's like a little real estate office.
Troy Malcolm:We were laughing this morning and I'll get to the question. but we were laughing because, john, you had a fax machine in your car right, that was one of the comments that he made this morning. You had a fax machine and Tom, mobile phones were kind of the size of briefcases and that was kind of A backpack.
Tom Panos:A backpack, a bag, a bag, a uni, then backpack. But here's the thing.
John McGrath:I tell you that, troy, you know just basic things like core logic, which is now in the palm of your hand, and you punch in sales and what do they buy this for? I mean, you used to have to go well, our council is where I did most of my business or Waverly Council used to have to take a checkbook up there and yet to go and wait for the counter and ask them to hand this big fat list of sales which was a spin out or a spit out They did every few weeks and pay them $5 to do a search and sit there and then transcribe. So things have definitely changed a lot. I mean, a lot of stuff has stayed the same auctions open for inspections A lot of stuff has changed the same. Obviously, realestatecom and the portals have changed the way by a search and that sort of stuff.
John McGrath:But yeah, i often wonder why a lot of people need so many. I mean, i get people saying to me oh, you know, i'm thinking of getting an assistant. I say, okay, what are you writing? And they say 250. I said how many properties you're selling? They say 12. I said, dude, why do you need an assistant? Like, let's build some volume here and let's work it out, because at 12 sales a year or one a month, you actually don't have a lot of paperwork. You probably don't, unfortunately, have a lot of buyer inquiry even or a lot of opens to handle. So I get investing ahead of the curve.
John McGrath:But when I go back, i had a three by five card box Tommy, you'd have been the same on my desk And when I got really successful, i had three, three by five card boxes And, once you know, there was a mobile phone at one point. But for probably half of my career you had to ring up clients and catch them at home or work. There was nothing on the run, so very different. But yeah, now I. How did, johnny? I'm curious, yeah.
Tom Panos:Yeah, got a title. I guess How many properties were you selling a month?
John McGrath:I was personally selling 10 to 15 a month and I would then have an additional number of properties that I was selling with my colleagues. So I was very much and Troy was my assistant for a period there, which was awesome. We were a great team. But I was personally selling initially myself, then with the team that sort of volume. Then I'd probably have another 10, 15 that are being handed out to agents. That I'd have to have some involvement and running the team.
John McGrath:But yeah, people say do you feel it was really busy? I guess so. But I think when you're working 12 hours and you're fairly time effective and you learn to be more succinct in your communications, sharper in your negotiations, better at your listing presentations, because you just don't have the time, just like a parent that's all of a sudden got twins. They didn't have the first kids, they got twins. They got to get more efficient of the way they run their life because you don't any longer have the time to deal with the stuff. So I guess it evolved. But I never thought of it as a chore, i never thought of it as under pressure or stress. I just funny enough. I just loved the whole thing.
Troy Malcolm:John, we spoke a lot this morning about what were the key things that you were focused on in the sales business that really made you stand out from the competition, and I think sharing that and digging deeper with the MDA audience would be something that I think a lot of people would appreciate. The consistency, the attention to detail, those types of factors that we talk as just the staple of our business was something that was really differentiating compared to the rest of the market.
John McGrath:Yeah, it's interesting to try. I started when I was 20 years of age which is pretty young today and I think it was certainly pretty young back then And most of my competitors were double that. They were sort of somewhere between 35 and 55, probably they're about. So the first thing I had to really do because I was trying to figure out it was going to be very hard for me as a newcomer to the industry with no track record, no real life experience. It was going to be very, very hard for me to compete with people that were far more experienced in every facet of the word. So what I did was I built product knowledge, which I fear was honestly even better than the people that had been in the game a long time. I studied the industry. I went to every auction I could. I went to every open I could. I read every book that I could. I studied the architecture of the area that I worked in. I joined the historical society so I could get information and I sort of did a hell of a lot of things that really good. So I think the first thing is product knowledge And if you are lacking in confidence or new to the industry, i'd really encourage everyone to swat up on that. Second thing is I realized I may not be as competent at listing for a little time, but I knew that I could serve as buyers as good or better as anyone else. So I really made a fine art of dealing with buyers better and more of them than any of the competitors. Why did I know that? Well, i ended up selling a lot of properties, but I also got great feedback from people that said, hey, not only any person that rings us back follows us up, but you've been following me up for nine months while I've been looking, and that seemed to be quite unique at the time. So I really made an art of bi-servicing, of great open for inspections, being developing a set of great questions to ask, making sure I was organized to capture the feedback so I could serve them better once I knew the answers. And this was really a great joy for me. And I often talk about the late Lawrence Hope. He wasn't anyone famous, but he used to ride a bike to Opens and it took him five years to buy a property And I kept following him through and everyone in the office thought it was a bit amusing that I was sort of sticking to this guy three, four, five years later And I ended up selling the property finally on Ocean Street, wallara, and I remember it was one of my proudest moments because I kept sticking to him and kept ringing him and, despite other people being a little bit skeptical or cynical, it was really good. So bi-servicing Troy was really, really important.
John McGrath:What are some of the other key things that I think? passion, enthusiasm. There was no one more passionate or excited. I just couldn't wait to get to work. Sleep was a distraction for me. I just wanted to get back to work and back servicing people and prospecting and talking to buyers and keeping my vendors informed. This was just coming out of school and not doing too well Coming into this and finding my feet. This was just like winning Lotto every day getting to go to work.
John McGrath:So I think people got the passion, the enthusiasm, the excitement around what I was doing. I think they were the sort of core. Yes, i was organised. Yes, i was punctual. There were some nice little niceities around the edges of those, but I was very, very committed to those things.
John McGrath:Personal growth and learning was key. So I used to. Any spare moments I got, which were few, i would listen to cassette tapes. Tommy Panos would remember those cassette tapes, tom Hopkins. Go to any seminar that came to town. Go to any sales seminar. Go to any real estate seminar, of which there were very few, but I had this great passion to learn more. I was a sponge for learning about stuff, so that was really important And I guess the final thing was just what I talk about now when I'm coaching.
John McGrath:I talk about Remarkable Service, which is service that people feel so enthralled with that they actually tell others about, and building raving fans. So I figured I didn't really have any money and there wasn't too many channels to market yourself in the marketplace. There was no social media. You know, an ad in the Wentworth Courier was kind of never done and probably too expensive to afford. So I just figured that you know word of mouth, having people really delighted with the service I gave the buyers and sellers was going to be the fastest and best way for me to build a database or relationship network.
John McGrath:And I did find that, no matter where you go, what's up, people love telling others about a good story and, of course, a bad story. So when you really look after them and you talk straight and you don't bullshit and you follow them through and you do what you promise to do and you cross your T's and dot your I's. When you do all of that in an industry or a market which is actually, that's a rarity, unfortunately, people start talking about it And this is a big decision for people. Agents get a little bit used to it and immune to the importance of it, but someone that's buying or selling a family home, this is a massive decision and a massive time in their life other than having a child and getting married or those sort of important life moments. This is kind of right up there. So I treated it like an important life moment And I found that that really went over, went over very well and I would deal with, as I said, one, two, three boxes full and each one of them had, you know, sort of 30, 40, 50, 60 cards And I broke them into little price brackets and then I just get in the morning and I take them out and start ringing through, then the next one and then I get a listing.
John McGrath:I'd sit down and I just ring, ring, ring, ring, make notes And it was just such a pleasure.
John McGrath:And I said last week in our webinar internally told me I said one word that will change your life. I said, instead of saying I have to prospect or I have to anything, say I get to prospect, i don't have to take the kids to school, i get to take the kids to school, i don't have to go to the gym, i get to go to the gym. I don't have to visit my friend in hospital, i get to visit my friend in hospital. And that was kind of the way I just lived at Troy and you know, you became a very important part of my life. You know, sort of midway through my, my sales career, and it was just a pleasure, honestly a pleasure, to be able to serve people. And I can't, i could never believe person buys a liars and, oh Jesus, i've got to keep this person there. I keep looking for 12 months, that sort of dialogue. I could never fathom why people would speak about other human beings going through a process like that.
Tom Panos:So you're selling John, you're selling principle. I mean, that's the other side of it. You're a selling principle.
Troy Malcolm:You're running the business And the sales manager.
Tom Panos:I mean, i find it really interesting because I can relate to it, because I worked in that era, and I'm thinking to myself how much harder everything was in terms of time. Like simple things, like chasing expired listings You have to go up and down the street for 13 weeks to see whether the property was still there. Now we do it on a touch of a button, contacting 10,000 people. We can send a video out to people in in New Zealand, in Greece, in in seconds.
John McGrath:Now We can have contracts, yeah the good thing, tommy, was you and I didn't know at the time that there was going to be a better way. So we knew was that's the opportunity? three by five, card boxes, landlines, that was all there was. So you, just, you just use that and you didn't complain and you didn't think it was going to be easier one day. And Troy to your point.
John McGrath:You know for principles of sales managers, listing I found the best way to coach and mentor was do joint listings with my agent. So as I, you know, started taking on much, much more business, you know there was a period there I'd never go to a listing without a colleague because one is. I never wanted to miss an opportunity to teach someone within our team. You know how to handle a listing and how to handle objections And the best way was not in the classroom or the sales room. The best way was in the lounge room with client. And secondly, then I, whilst I would list it and then sometimes work it well, generally speaking, often work it with my colleague, again best way to coach and mentor them. So it was a lot of my training and mentoring was done in the field, on the spot, at open for inspections, at auctions, at pre listing appointments, at listing appointments. So again, if people say I've got it, where did you get all the time to do that? Well, you know, it's like if you have twins, you just got to do it. You can't not feed them, you can't not pay them, you can't do it. And if you're an agent and you've got 15 listings but you're also running a business and you've got 12 agents that are working under you, well, you've just got to find an efficient way to motivate, educate, inspire, and that was kind of for me, just part of the fun.
John McGrath:Then doing the auction Well, you know, you guys are great auctioneers. You know how much fun that is. That's one thing I do think people should do more of today. Tell me, i think more agents should develop the skill of being an auctioneer. Melbourne, victoria, in general, i'm very good at it, But generally speaking, a lot of people leave the auctions to be to one other central person. I think you should build the skill in yourself. Anyway, even if you don't do auction, you should build the skill. But so that was. That was kind of all. I was pretty simple. It was a lot about energy. I'd say it was 75% energy and 25% talent or skill or whatever, and you and you were recruiting.
Tom Panos:I mean, I remember talking who I think was Matt LaHood. He told me how you you recruited him. You know he said he was working for for Yeah, and he was actually at our webinar, at our seminar on Friday. I just saw him there. His name is George, Is that not George? Yeah, george he was there. He was there on Friday And he was there.
Tom Panos:He was there And Matt was working for him And Matt was working then it was interesting because I remember at the time there was a little bit of there was there was a buzz about McGraw, the building that you're in, the marketing that you were doing. It was let's join, join this fast growing, new, innovative way of doing real estate. So you must have been doing also recruiting at the time, john, because you recruited a lot of real estate agents in a short period of time.
John McGrath:I think yeah, look, i think I did. And two things I actually really prospected, which will disappoint a lot of people, but I had such a volume of business flowing through me and I was focused on creating raving fans out of my sellers and buyers And I would be meeting 60, 70, 80, 100 buyers every week on the phone or in person That became. I've never done a door knock in my life other than if I had heard someone was thinking of selling or if I had a particular buyer for a specific house. I've never just gone and done the 10, 10, 20s or the street door knocks. I've never done a cold letterbox drop. The only letterbox dropping I did was just listed, just sold, and I'm not saying any of the other things aren't good. I know a lot of agent are very successful, but that was just my way of doing. It was creating raving fans.
John McGrath:And the other thing about agents, i think it was when you're active in your business, you're bumping into agents, you're catching up with them, you bump them into them at a cafe or you see them after hours somewhere at a restaurant, or when you're someone that hopefully is a nice person and are interested in them and enjoy getting to know them about their business, prospecting for agents or let's call it recruiting. It's kind of like just it just happens almost invisibly. Like the prospecting I used to do. I didn't go to the office for two hours and just prospect. I would follow up on my pipelines for a specific time of day and my buyers. But same with recruits, i didn't just sit down and say, okay, well, i got to start bringing these people. I was just active and interested and networking all the time and networking at whatever events I could go to. Real estate institute events in those days were kind of the only ones you could go to and I'd meet people and I'm interested in them and I like them and I'd stay in touch. And it's kind of a bit different but it worked quite nicely And I think people pick up on your vibration, both buyers, sellers and potential colleagues or recruits.
John McGrath:When you've kind of got a good vibe about you and you do give a stamp about people and you've got a clean energy and you're not being sort of narky to people, i think people pick up on that and they quite like it. So that was how I did. It spun a different number of plates in the air and it was never seemed stressful to me. It was always. I had good systems. To be honest, i created good systems, and when you got good systems and you got a little modicum of discipline, like ringing my windows every day, that was just a system I created out of thin air.
John McGrath:I thought, well, as I'm starting to grow the business, if I don't keep in touch with these people regularly, call it daily, i'm going to get overwhelmed. So I did that ringing my A buyers twice a week. Most people don't ring buyers until they've got a property for them or unless they're negotiating or they've been through an open. I used to ring my A buyers which was a box full of people twice a week because I wanted to know what did they look at. I wanted to let them know I'm still looking, suggesting listings for those sort of things.
Troy Malcolm:So anyway.
Tom Panos:I'll end the video. Tom the head, great associate.
Troy Malcolm:Say that again, troy, the head great associate's working with him as well. 100% That looks. John, the one thing that I always and I know this was a mantra for our team was never let perfect get in the way of better. And when you talk about systems and processes and checklists and the fact that you're calling buyers multiple times per week, that was a really big lesson for me, because after every week we'd be reviewing those systems and checklists and processes to see how that we could make them better in the future. And I think that was a really great lesson, tom, because so many times you get complacent and I know a lot of agents are in that mindset now where they rely on their CRM to tell them when to do things, as opposed to reestablishing the processes that made them successful and then enhancing them. They're relying on the technology too much and then not doing the human element, which I think John, above everyone else, did so well for so long.
Tom Panos:I was just sitting here listening. I was fascinated with that conversation because it brings back memory. You like looking back and remember how life was back then. But here's my summary, troy, and you tell me if I'm reading this right, because I'm trying to work out is that plan, that blueprint, that philosophy that was used? we're talking about the 80s and the 90s is that philosophy relevant today?
Tom Panos:Well, let me go through it. Number one I could tell 100% you had passion in your paper. Passion was passion and energy, so that definitely applies. Number two is you said that the easiest people to speak to were the buyers, and that's still the case in 2023. There's more buyers that you can speak to than having to go do cold doorknocks. The third thing that you've said which I find fascinating is you got to attraction level very, very quickly, where they were coming to you for various reasons, whether it's your, the raving fans and the great service you've given a client, and they say it. It's also the fact and I don't think you talked much about it, but, john, you did take real estate marketing to the next level. That was the big differentiator The average home that was advertised. No one was advertised as big or as colorful or as detailed as the marketing that McGraws brought in.
John McGrath:Yeah, i'll just tell you and we'll finish on this, tom, because I know that we're running out of time. But I went and I can't remember whether it was a cassette or a seminar or whatever, but I remember Seth got and I think it was actually really his book Purple Cow, and that's where I got the whole essence of Purple Cow. So be different, be prepared to be different. If you just follow the person in front, very hard to stand out, and so, off the back of that, the first thing I did was I started getting sketch drawings done of our terrace houses rather than black and white photos, which is the standard of what most people did, and just these little ornate pencil sketches seem to make them pop out and stand.
John McGrath:Then I got someone that I sold the property to in Underwood Street, paddington, and she went on maternity leave. She was out of advertising and I said would you consider typesetting our ads? Because, as you know, tommy the Wentworth Courier would do typeset everyone else's and to stand out with a different font and a different, cleaner palette, you had to actually do your own. So I started paying Michelle once a week to typeset these. So all of a sudden the ads were cleaner and crisper and they had nice sketches rather than photos. Then I started using price guides for auctions, then we started putting spotlights on signboards. So just I talked about it this morning the skill stacking or layering 1%.
John McGrath:There's not one thing I think we did that was particularly brain snapping, but I think there was a lot of little things we did that caught the attention of the consumer And, as you kindly said, and the real estate community as well. So be prepared to be different. That's just work out. How can you be different? It doesn't have to be your company or brand, it can be you. What do you do differently that separates you? So anyway, we'll finish up on that, but hopefully that will work.
Tom Panos:So this is a great podcast and I think if you're a real estate agent out there that is doing three, four sales a month and you're feeling overwhelmed that I need to bring in a PA I mean, john, i think there's enough information there And there are plenty of case studies where I know people that are doing six and seven, eight sales a month and they're doing it using the office support And they just they make it work, like if you're a, if you're a divorced mum with two kids, you make it work. You make work what time you have available And that's the other thing I got out of that conversation You had. There was no option B. This is the method, so I'm going with it. You know there's no. There was no get out clause, put it that way 100%.
John McGrath:I look forward to talking more next week.
Tom Panos:Yeah, we'll talk next week And next week we'll be having a fight. Next week We'll be doing a podcast, i think, around the state of origin team. I was actually speaking at a conference for energy Fari yesterday in the Southeast And I was at a hotel called the Crown Plaza. I actually saw Paul checker that I had a coffee with Paul yesterday too. Yeah, actually did more than that. I did a video with him on coaching, which is very he's very listen, i've got to tell you he's he's not a real estate specialist, but for those that are listening here, i've got to tell you Paul checker is an empathetic person that hears you out and can help you look at a problem with not just your eyes, he's eyes. He's very, very good. But I was there and the state the New South Wales state of origin team was there was about 30 of them rock up. They're obviously sleeping at the hotel there.
Tom Panos:And I jokingly said to to Cyrano Cyrano was there jokingly said to Cyrano, if you, if you, if you need, if you need anyone to give them a good pump up half time, talk Cyrano. I said, mate, i'll do it for nothing, i'm an ex Tigers supporter. And he and he, just he, just, he just laughed. He just laughed and I was about to laugh back and say, mate, i might not be an expert, but I'll probably do a better job than the ones that you've got at the moment. You know, because they're all running for cover now. They're all blaming excuses, brad Fittler's, blaming the media. You know, they're all running for cover. I think we just got accepted. They're a better team and they've got a better coach and they're yeah.
John McGrath:Ultra will find out tonight, tonight.
Tom Panos:No next Wednesday.
John McGrath:Next Wednesday Next Wednesday, ok, so that means they're in camp for 10 days or something. Because they're in camp, they moved in.
Tom Panos:They moved into the Crown Plaza yesterday. I saw all the bags coming in. You know a bunch of people. But yeah, that's interesting, they go in and stay at the hotel. I don't know, i couldn't do that, i thought. I thought it very difficult to to sleep in a in a room where there's other people as well. So I don't know how these footy players do it. We'll see what happens next week. Troy Malcolm, thank you so much. You're welcome. John McGrath, thank you so much started.