(upbeat music) - Welcome to The Real Estate Conversation. The real estate industry has been a great industry to work in, for the last five years. However, it hasn't always been necessary to give a great service. This is because the demand has always outweighed the supply and therefore, agents could just show properties and sell them, without necessary training. During this period, many new companies and agents have jumped on the bandwagon.
Unfortunately, due to them being untrained, they have contributed to the low trust factor. Today the picture is changing as the market gets tougher due to a transitional period, we are moving from a sellers market into a buyers market. Agents without training are finding it difficult to cope and have to adapt to a changing market and continue to educate themselves so they can survive. My guest today is Nathan Farrugia. He is a physiotherapist by profession, and an MBA graduate.
A keynote speaker, coach, motivator, triathlete, and the CEO of Shireburn Limited, and the founder of UP Academy. The topic today is related to perseverance in a marketplace that is changing and how an individual or a company can overcome new challenges that one faces. What can they do to improve their productivity despite the surrounding economic environment? And what kind of mindset do they need to be successful in business?
In a changing market, what must an agent or anybody that is self-employed do to overcome their fears of change? - Well, I think you know ultimately the goal of the mindset shift that you're talking about is one of resilience. So what you're trying to do is build enough resilience by getting out of your comfort zone often enough to be able to build the strength, the mental strength sometimes, to be able to deal with the ups and downs of being self-employed and being an agent in real estate.
Obviously, the obvious point here is, doing the difficult things is actually going to help you build that resilience. So if you take it easy, obviously is gonna be difficult to build that resilience, but swimming upstream will actually make you stronger. What you're looking for, ultimately, is a growth mindset. A growth mindset is that of a person that looks at a difficulty as a challenge that sees the opportunity and adversity and always looks to self improve. How can I learn from mistakes?
How can I fail forward? How can I figure out what's not going wrong? And what can I do about it to be able to change the outcome, rather than just sort of rely on fate and rely on your external market and your environment and blame what happens to you, rather than take control. - How can they go out of their comfort zone? Would you be... - I think there's an element of personality here as well.
You've got people that are risk takers that are happy to stick their neck out and try new things and try in different ways. But those people perhaps who are not comfortable doing that, or are not used to doing that, particularly maybe if they're new in the market and new in real estate, then obviously, training is much more important. And therefore, then the training needs to be oriented around the skills that they need to be able to, to prepare for our sake preparation is key in this,
in this process. So it's whether or how you, you know, understanding the property you're trying to sell, understanding who the customer is, what is it that they're looking for, and trying to make sure that you are there to be able to facilitate a transaction, a matchmaking process. And so therefore, the skill set element here is, is very important for people who are still relatively green.
Those who have more experience, however, may also need to make sure they don't get stuck into their experience when it comes to the way that they do things. 'Cause they might say, well, I've seen this before, or I know how this works and take things for granted. And therefore, sometimes retraining here comes in, particularly with new technologies and the new way of doing things that they need to rescale themselves in that aspect of communication and delivery.
But also, I think the element of creativity here. Because just using experience makes you look back at what worked or what didn't in the past, but that may not necessarily be the case anymore. So an element of creativity requires an element of new thinking and less reliance on experience. - Nathan, you have run marathons, triathlons on many different terrains. What was your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it? - I think every environment is a different challenge.
And so what I've learned from this experience is that you can plan to a certain extent and then you are going to, have to deal with the eventualities. So you know, and the example of running across the Sahara obviously you are expecting to be in hot weather and you're expecting to be always on the edge when it comes to your physical and mental limits. So you plan appropriately, you know, the right clothing and the right food and the right drink and all that sort of stuff. But then stuff happens.
And therefore you need to be able to have that resilience to be able to adapt. And it's the same thing, and when we were running, you know, we're running up and around Mont-Blanc, nice, sunny August day, you're out there in a T-shirt and shorts, and all of a sudden, at 2,500 meters you get hit by a blizzard, it's minus 10, within half an hour, you know, need to know how to adapt to those situations. So I think in real life, to a certain extent it's the same.
Although perhaps less extreme, we are facing difficulties and change that happens on a regular basis, whether it's the markets you're in, whether it's the people you're around, whether it's the clients you're dealing with, it's always difficult to predict an outcome. And therefore, this ability to be able to absorb what's going on around you and pay attention and take notice and how the external environment affects you as a person is very important.
If otherwise, we just simply react to our external environment then we have less control over our situation. Whereas if we've got the ability to be able to step back and observe and understand what's going on whether it's something that's happening to us, inside of us, I'm upset, I'm frustrated, I'm stuck, or, you know, the situation around me is changing. How do I adapt myself without getting stuck into a blame game of it's not my fault, it's the weather?
- We train our agents to specialize, take a niche market, know that market, and if they are known as the guru's of that area, then they will be successful. Do you agree with that methodology?
- Yes, I think that, if you look at people who are successful, so most of the people I work with, you know, coaches and Olympic athletes, that we work on the mental side of performance, we realize that there are certain traits and in high performers and these people are typically people that have a growth mindset as I said earlier, they are people that are curious.
They are very self aware, they look at their strengths and weaknesses and understand that they need to play to their strengths and minimize the effect of their weaknesses. They also have to study, they have to understand how things work in order to excel. So this element of, you know, continuously sharpening your saw and practicing is very, very important.
I think also when they share knowledge, when they work as mentors, when they support their teams, they also actually build more credibility in themselves. It gives them more confidence and actually improves their performance. So the idea of sharing and supporting teams as an expert, as a leader, as a guru to you use your words. I think also actually adds value to the outcome of that individual person. - An agent in the market, how could they, so to speak, stand out more than the other agents?
- I think it's really about being authentic. Yeah, for me, authenticity is the key because unfortunately often people try to be someone who they are not, perhaps they might think that to be an agent, you need to be extremely extroverted or extremely assertive. But on someone who is not by nature that way will come across as fake or as false. So I think this element of authenticity is important.
And this allows you to be able to build trust with the client, and allows the client to have trust in you as a representative of your business, but also as an individual. And therefore, it's easier for things to happen, you know, deals to be made when there is trust coming from both sides. So I think you know, rather than trying too hard to be someone you are not, I think it's really about looking at yourself and trying to be authentic.
- I know that you're very focused on getting things done that's the way I call it, and maximizing productivity is a key part of your coaching at the UP Academy. How would you suggest to the audience, they would get into the zone and improve their productivity? - Okay, this is always a tricky one. I think for me, the simplest way to start off this, is actually to create a not-to-do list.
Yeah, so what are the things that you're doing all day on a regular basis that are actually holding you back because they're wasting time. And the trick is obviously what do you put on a not-to-do list. And there it's about prioritization of value. So we often prioritize on time. So okay, this requires a whole day, therefore, I'm gonna give it a whole day, I'm gonna fence off time, and I'm gonna do it. This is a small thing, I'll postpone it till tomorrow or the next day.
Whereas if you look at it from a value perspective, something smaller may have a greater impact. For example, making a quick phone call to unlock someone else's performance for them to do something on your behalf while you're busy doing something else. Delegating therefore is a perfect example of putting something on your to-do list and making sure stuff that you have to do, you try and minimize on your to-do list, which means you put it on your not-to-do list.
Now, this takes a lot of discipline, it takes self-discipline to actually say, okay, can I afford not to do this stuff? But actually here what's important is that you understand the compromise. So when you decide you're gonna do something, you are doing it with the time you've got, the 24 hours that everybody has, instead of something else. and there for you to discern what is most valuable.
When you decide, when you compare something is more valuable to another, then you don't feel guilty by not doing the other thing. What is if you just stay, I'm not gonna do that, the guilt causes you to start getting stressed out. And so what I typically work with people in looking at differentiating value versus time, and then prioritizing according to the outcome.
So how can I get the best out of time, or make more of an impact to add more value out of the time I've got, and that really makes a difference. So rather than just simply saying, this is my list and I'm gonna start at the top and hopefully get to the bottom, revisit that. - Organizational leadership?
- Yeah, I think, you know, I think organizations need to create a culture around this, you know, so it's useless, just having one or two individuals that are working on their performance unless the whole organization is doing the same thing. Because often, we'll find that the way that people improve things, for example, the not-to-do list means that some things won't get done. Now, if the organization doesn't allow that, then there's gonna be a problem.
Because you're gonna have people trying to perform in a different way than the rest of them and you're gonna get stuck. And this creates discord and upset. So therefore the organization needs to make sure that it communicates effectively, that performance for the individual is very, very important. And this is the concept of interdependence, which means that it's useless having say, a team, you know, like a football team, everybody playing the same role.
Yeah, you can't have everybody attacking or everybody defending, or everybody in goal. So an organization works the same way. Interdependence means that each individual can shine as an individual, depending on what their strengths are. And therefore, by having a diverse team, people are playing different roles to the best of their abilities, and therefore as a team, you get the added advantage.
What we typically do unfortunately, is we try and create stability by saying, okay, everybody gets the same, everybody does the same, everybody works the same hours, everybody gets the same sort of remuneration, and the same benefits. And once that's, sometimes as misconstrued as fairness, actually, it isn't. You wanna create a meritocracy, where people can shine, and be themselves and be the best version of themselves. But at the same time, they must contribute to the team.
So they can be their best, as long as they're not deteriorating from the performance of others. And this is the concept of interdependence. So, high performing organizations, whether they're football teams or, you know, or RE/MAX, or any other, you know, global organization, or a local organization is always trying to be the best by making their people the best, but at the same time, not compromising on the camaraderie the way of having teamwork.
- So, for the audience, how would you prepare for the future? We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, the day after so? - Well, that's the trick. You know, typically, we are telolithic as human beings, which means we're always typically wondering about what's gonna happen, so we then try and prepare for that future.
You know, I think I've left the home in the morning, and I know I need to get to work, so I think about the route I'm gonna take or what traffic I might encounter, so we're constantly trying to do that as human beings. Now, the trick here is not to get stuck in that. Which means that if you take a bit of a step back and you accept the fact that the future might not be what you predicted, then you're gonna be less stressed out.
Whereas if you've set an expectation for the future, which doesn't come true, then you're gonna get very stressed out. So here the idea is to be a little bit more observant and accepting of change. Now, it's very difficult to do because we are obviously always trying to create stability in our lives. You know, the last thing we want to be is, - We are programmed. - Yeah, we're programmed that way, you know not to know what's gonna happen tomorrow is very difficult.
However, if we take that too far, then as I said earlier, we start getting stuck in a predicted future. Which stops creativity, it doesn't allow us to create options, we just say, okay, that's my goal and that's what I'm going to achieve. But then we may sometimes the wood for the trees. So in fact, with some of the top CEOs we work with, one of the things we try and challenge them to do is actually not set to fix the goal.
Which allows them to have flexibility in making decisions as long as they've set the right course. So you know, instead of sort of sailing your boat by standing in the front, looking forward at the next piece of land, sit at the back and control your other and read the wind, and eventually you'll get there.
So the idea here is to be less stressed about trying to achieve something but more importantly looking at the way that you are being and behaving and acting in your day to day, and also to better yourself moving forwards. And that inevitably will give you the best outcome going forward. So I think the answer in short is don't worry too much about the future, worry about now, and make sure what you're doing now is helping you prepare for the future.
- Well, thanks a lot Nathan for coming on The Real Estate Conversation. It's been a real pleasure. - Same thank you, thank you for the invite. - Thanks for joining us on The Real Estate Conversation. (upbeat music)