Welcome to a brand new world. If you’re not getting what you want, it’s time for change. You’re under no obligation to be the same person you were last week, last month, or even a decade ago. If you’re ready to radically reshape your future, start here.
Commit to the Decade
The greatest strategic advantage hidden in plain sight is long-term commitment. Commit to what you’re doing for the next decade. If you commit to going all in until 2036, what will it take to win? It changes how you think about your customer base, your business, marketing and your future trajectory. And it changes the way you play the game. Too many have a Plan B, and the moment adversity shows up, they shy away from the courage it takes to get to the other side and find success.
Learn to Apply Pressure
Gilbert Enoka discusses pressure. There are three ways that you can apply pressure to perform at the highest levels:
The pressure of expectation.
Who applies expectations to you? Yourself. Your partner. Your boss. The Bank. The moment you take on a home loan, you’ve committed to 25 years of mortgage payments. The moment you commit, you have to find a way.
The pressure of scrutiny.
Enter the Novice Auctioneers Competition, and you’ll build new skills you never knew you had. Book in to have your listing presentation assessed by an expert, and you’ll rise to new heights. When you put yourself in a position where you’re being examined, that’s when you build new skills and become something you never could have dreamed of.
The pressure of consequence.
The ferry leaves Circular Quay at 6.15 am. If I leave my house at 5:20 am, I’ll be there by 6:10 am. The clock is counting. It’s 5.23 am, and I decide to run. The consequence is that if I’m late, I'll miss the ferry; the next one is in 30 minutes, and I’ll miss my first appointment. I run — new personal best. The day before you go on holiday, you should see how much you perform. You operate from a task list; you’re super focused. You know that if it’s not done by 5 pm, it’s not getting done.
Pressure creates diamonds. Pressure is a lifestyle. Learn to apply it. Learn to lap it up. Learn to love it.
Layered vs. Exponential Thinking
From 20 to 22 transactions per annum, not much happens. You play it safe. Maybe you get lucky. Maybe you win an extra listing or two. You tweak for performance shifts.
From 20 to 200 transactions, everything changes. To do 200 transactions, you’ll need a larger market. You’ll need two agents, plus you, in your team. That’s 7 opens each on a Saturday. You need seniors, not new starts. You’ll need a full-time operations manager. You’ll need a sales process to reduce days on market. You go all in on marketing. You set standards and your team works systems.
Growth by choice. (Average sale price, volume and fee)
For most, growth is by chance. They get lucky. For the best, growth is by choice.
To shift the average sale price, consider transitional markets. Where do your sellers move to once they sell? That’s your future customer base. Where are the expensive streets? Prospect those. Where do your Landlords live? Sell their principal place of residence. The strategic advantages you’ve always wanted are hidden in plain sight.
To shift volume, reduce your days on market. 4 weekends of opens or 8 weekends of opens? Do it in 4, and you’ll double your volume. Sell unconditionally. Reduce friction in campaigns. Price it right. Commit to world-class property marketing where you grow your database. Do great buyer work. Work lookalike campaigns, bring buyers from other sales. Make your first open home a mid-week open home. Smoke out urgent buyers, so by the time you get to your first Saturday open, you’ve already got buyers coming back for a second inspection.
To shift fee, charge what you’re worth. Offer two fee options, a basic and a basic plus. Learn to get good at your trial closes. Close while you’re there. Summarise at the end of your presentation. Develop a document outlining three reasons why you should choose me to make the decision easier. Get good at defence, but make sure you play offence first.
It’s Always Day One
Day one, you are hungry. Ambitious. You don’t know, you just have a go. Day-one thinking forces you not to rest on your laurels. It forces you to think differently. When you’re not the incumbent, you take more risks, you ask questions others wouldn’t, you create opportunities everywhere you go.
Every number-one agent had their day one. Remember that.
Decision Principles
Get good at making decisions. As soon as you’ve made a decision, another 100 turn up. Decision principles offer a straightforward framework for making decisions quickly. Here’s 5.
1. De-risk the business. Build an agent in your team that can list for you. It reduces the business's reliance on you.
2. Growth in market share. More signs up, more opportunities created. Focus on market share growth activities.
3. Growth in people. Growing people is the most rewarding thing you can do. It helps you unlock new skills and refine your existing ones.
4. Growth in revenue. The more revenue, the more you can do to hire the best people, build the best systems and reinvest in your business.
5. Fun and exciting. Make it fun to be in your team. Make it exciting to be a part of. No more dull, dreary, by-the-numbers. Focused energy and a place where you celebrate success.
Countdowns.
Every 4-6 weeks, make sure you’ve got something to look forward to. We use the ‘momentum’ Google Chrome extension. The countdown feature lets you set dates for specific events, and counts down the number of days until the event. You can also set a metric, like 10 listings for the month, then count down until you hit your goal. Keep your goals in front of you. Keep what you’re working for front and centre.
Expect adversity.
Join CombatSim.com - you can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf them — simple advice. Don’t be surprised when adversity shows up. Expect it. There will be more bad days than good. Challenges build strength. They build new capabilities, and capabilities build confidence.
Visualise the day.
At the start of every day, visualise what success looks like. Spend a few minutes really thinking through what's ahead. Scan through your calendar, play by play, set your intentions high, then deliver with great actions.
Win today.
What would make today a win? Think that through. And do that every day. Regardless of what shows up, what one thing could you do to make today a win? From watching the sunrise? To seeing the sunset? Take that mindset into the future, and make it your way of life.
Plan holidays 12 months in advance.
For 2026:
December 14 - January 9.
March 29 - April 10.
June 28 - July 12.
November 1 - November 6.
When the holidays are clear, you should see how hard you work.
Call lists on your phone: Top 100, Favourite 50.
Open iCloud. Click on contacts. Add call lists — import key contacts. Take a CSV file and convert it to ‘VCard’ format using Claude or ChatGPT. Import that Vcard file into your contacts. Instantly, it shows up on your iPhone. Think call lists that matter, like your Top 100 clients of all time, based on spend or volume of transactions, your Favourite 50, think suppliers, stakeholders and referees, and even every past client by the month of their transaction over the life of your career. The possibilities are endless. The better the relationships, the better the business.
There will always be moments of unexpected opportunity. Capture it, and exploit the opportunities as they happen.
Great work list.
1. Call every person who has transacted with you this year. Thank them for the opportunity to serve.
2. Call every past client who has ever transacted with you in your career and offer them your 2026 forecast. That could include resilience in the first-home buyer category, with the Government's First Home Guarantee Scheme, renewed activity in the sub-$5m price point, and great buying opportunities above $5m. We expect January and February to be really strong, and April to be bumpy, with Easter and then Anzac Day on a Saturday, observed on the following Monday.
3. Refresh your best buyers list. Call every buyer you’ve dealt with over the last 90 days, and see who’s still got an appetite to buy.
4. Call your suppliers. Thank them for being great.
Systems.
Building a business of systems helps you to scale at speed. Forms to collect information. Checklists to ensure tasks are completed. Dialogue to speed up conversations and improve conversion. And visuals like workflow diagrams, or key stats to sell and tell better brand stories in your listing presentation.
Operational excellence.
Reset strategically now, for next year.
What are your best three strengths?
What three strengths do you need to develop?
Where were the big wins for you this year?
What’s the biggest opportunity ahead for you?
And if there was one move that would change the game, what would it be?
Capture, Communicate, Context, Calendar
Capture.
Get good at capturing. I take a notebook and a pen everywhere I go. Write things down. It helps your brain process and remember.
Communicate.
Change how your team communicates.
SMS = Urgent.
Slack = For daily activities, as they happen, non-time dependent. Like what’s happening, as it happens, so you can review at 3 pm and reset the focus in the critical hours before the close of business.
Email = For client communication where there’s a legal trail required. Ideally, two sentences or fewer.
WhatsApp = For client communications in real time, during campaigns.
Context.
Where are you?
What do you feel like doing?
What can you do?
Easy to make a call when driving, and write proposals when you’re in front of a device.
Calendar.
Calendar = Life. Schedule what you want to see more of. Have a daily directions list, day by day, by role in the calendar, so everyone is super clear on expectations.
This is the greatest business. Real estate is a phenomenal career. It requires you to go all in. Don’t worry about the competition; worry about the customers. Don’t look good, be good. There’s a big difference. Some are 'all hat, no cattle' - all show and no go. Work quietly to be the person you want to become. And remember this, you are only a few decisions away from a completely different life.
The lights are on, and it’s time for you to perform.
