How Top Agents Use Data, Goals, and Systems to Win BIG | Our Final Episode 2024

🎙️ Elite Agent Masterclass | Final Episode of 2024 🎙️

As 2024 draws to a close, we’re wrapping up the year with a powerful conversation that every agent and business owner needs to hear. This week, Jack and James dive into the biggest lessons of the year, share insights that have transformed our business, and reflect on the incredible value shared by some truly inspiring guests on the podcast.

Whether you’re in estate agency or running your own business, the insights in this episode will help you step into 2025 with clarity, purpose, and a rock-solid plan to achieve your goals.

🧩 What We Discuss:

• The number one lesson of the year: "Systems Create Freedom." Learn how processes, structure, and automation will help you move faster, achieve better results, and reduce overwhelm.
• The importance of planning and patience: How taking time to plan your goals and systems can save weeks, even months, in execution.
• Innovation in business: Why staying ahead of the curve is essential, and how data-driven decisions will help you innovate smarter.
• A look back at our favourite podcast episodes of 2024: From Emma Nugent’s life-changing journey to Perry’s game-changing advice and insights from industry leaders like Simon Gates and Ross Mackenzie.

We also give a sneak peek into what’s coming for the Elite Agent Masterclass in 2025, including incredible guests, valuable resources, and opportunities to help you elevate your performance and create your best year yet. 🚀

🗓️ Start Planning Your 2025 Goals!
If you haven’t yet set your goals for 2025, now is the time. We talk about the Your Best Year Yet framework—a process we’ve used to set meaningful, tangible goals—and invite you to join us for a goal-setting webinar in January to kickstart your year with purpose.

🎧 Tune in now to:

1. Gain actionable insights to build processes that free up your time.
2. Understand how small changes can create monumental results.
3. Get inspired to plan, innovate, and make 2025 your best year yet.

⭐ Thank You for an Incredible 2024! ⭐
To our loyal listeners: thank you for your support, engagement, and feedback this year. We’ve loved sharing these conversations, and we can’t wait to bring you even bigger, better content in

Engage With Us
Have questions or topics you'd like us to cover in future episodes? Send us your thoughts and stay engaged with the Elite Agent Masterclass for more expert insights on transforming your career.

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Transcript

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Elite Agent Masterclass. It is the final episode of twenty twenty four. So today, Jack and I are going to wrap up the year. We're going to share the lessons that we've learned from this year in business. We are going to recap over some of the amazing episodes that we've recorded, primarily with the guests that we've had on. It would be too self-congratulatory for us to say the amazing episodes that we've recorded on our own. And we're also going to give you a little insight into what's to come in twenty twenty five for the elite agent masterclass. So, Jack, let's dive in. Lessons learned from twenty twenty four. What are you saying? so well first firstly I think it's a good time to be sharing this part as we've got our um avenue christmas do a little bit late tonight so it's a good job we got this out of the way today and not and not tomorrow probably some sore heads tomorrow morning um but yeah I think these there's been a lot of that's been learned and I suppose this whole podcast is all about how we can improve the industry innovate look for new ideas. And I think we've had some amazing guests come on and share some great processes, great systems, great innovation that they've got throughout their businesses. My biggest lesson for this year so far is probably everything has a process. And the more clear you can get on that process and taking the time out to build the process, taking time out to plan and be prepared will help you move a lot quicker. I think I'm someone and I know there's a lot of other people out there that just like to get stuff done. But when you continue to get stuff done time and time again, you're not going to make the change that you need to get to the next phase or the next level or the next place within your business. So for me, it's definitely taking the time out to build new systems, new processes and make sure those are streamlined so you can move further forward and advance and get to the places that you need to get to within your business. Yeah, there's a phrase, isn't there? What's the phrase? You touched on it just then. If you keep doing what you've always done, you can't get what you want. I can't remember the actual phrase. So any guests listening in, drop a comment to let us know what the phrase is. But it's about being able to move forward, right? Yeah. If you keep doing what you've always done, you're going to get the same. Yeah. Yeah. Something along those lines, isn't it? Keep doing what you've always done. You'll always get what you've always got. And so, you know, it's an interesting lesson that you've shared because I would be inclined to agree. What I say is my number one lesson. No, but I would agree that from a systemization perspective, like as a character, you're very much a doer. I'm like I'm a creator. I like to come up with new ideas. So between the two of us, actually, it's quite a good blend. You know, I can be really creative. You like to get shit done, you know, hashtag GSD and all that. But actually sometimes taking a step back and going, how can we automate that in some way, but still keep it personal, still maintain the standards of, And the quality and without losing the personalization. But is there a way to systemize that process, automate that process, use AI in some way to drive the business forward? And actually, sometimes like I'm creative, you're a doer. And sometimes I would say we've been very good at getting to where we've got to. But we've done it probably slightly harder than we needed to because it didn't actually have the most robust plan behind it. Yeah, yeah, no, I'd agree. I think there's, well, the last few weeks and over the next few weeks coming, we've spent a lot of time looking at the business, how we can improve it, how we can use modern technology to streamline processes, provide better support to the agents, help the agents systemize their businesses more and become then more productive. And I think in doing that, like you said, You could move a lot quicker if you are able to put those systems and processes in place. And going back to that phrase that you just mentioned, since I've noticed it and since I suppose it's been my lesson this year that I've learned, put the systems in place. And if you don't make those changes, you're always going to get the same results. It's something I've been sharing with sellers quite a lot as well. If you continue to work with the agent or similar agents to the current agents that you're working with, and they're not going to do anything different, you're going to end up getting the same results. So if you want something different and you want to get the results that you're looking to achieve, you've got to do something different. You've got to look at a different approach. And it's very similar in business. And you can relate that back to clients as well. So it's something that we've used quite recently with a lot of clients. And going into the new year, we've got a lot of new listings that are coming on, a lot of new clients we're going to be working with because they want to see that change in the new year. They want to do something different. So I think it relates and it's quite useful to relate that back to clients as well as using it in your business. Totally agree. I think the other lesson I think is a spinoff from your share. Systemization, absolutely. Automation, you know, try to create processes that can make the journey easier. But I think the number one, the core lesson for me and amongst all of that is be patient enough to sit and think these things through, plan them out. More time in the planning phase, more time in the creating the plan phase will save shed loads of time in the weeks that then follow when you're implementing said plan. I think that would be fair, the patience to sit, because we're not particularly patient people, right? We like to just go, yeah, we're going to do that. Go. That's very much our natural instinct. Whereas I think one thing that you and I have had to really work on from a business leadership perspective over the last year is starting to really flex that patience muscle that is quite weak in both of us. Yeah, definitely. I think the... we've got to a place now, and I think it's different for different people in their businesses. When you first launch a business, I think it's so important to have a plan. I think so many people go into the self-employed environment, not really having a plan, just thinking they're going to go out there and finally, yeah, wing it. Essentially, There's no methodology to what they're going to be doing. I suppose over the last eight months to two years, we've built a pretty robust process for new agents coming into the business. But it is, we say to everyone, it's a ninety day program. And until you've hit those ninety days, you don't have much to be able to review. As soon as you've got that to review, like for us now, three and a half years into the business, coming up to four years, we've got a lot of data and we're now able to look at that data and see what's worked really well and see how we can use that data to make the right decisions, because the decisions we're making are much bigger than what they were three and a half, four years ago. So I totally agree. I think the planning is really important. And once you've got the data, you can then start to use that data to change or twist the plan slightly to make sure you're moving quicker and in the right direction. And some people listening to this that are either employed agents or operate as self-employed agents. So they don't run a brokerage like we do. They are operating day to day. They might be listening and going, OK, so how is that relevant to me, my role, being an elite agent? And I think data, no matter how big the business is, no matter how big your role is, no matter whether you're employed or self-employed, it can drive decision-making and any level it's a little bit like and the analogy is always a very easy one to use and it's connecting it back to the gym isn't it and that's you know you see people in the gym that have got the little notebooks and they're writing down their weights and the number of reps and all this sort of stuff that's all data and all they're doing is tracking their data so the next time that they work out if they're in a stage of progressive overload they want to put on a little bit more weight than last time or they might want to push out a few more reps than they did last time or they might want to run a bit further than they did last time or they might want to run in a faster time than they did last time And so all of that is data. So to contextualize that for those listening in that think, OK, I'm not running an estate agency business. It doesn't matter. Think about the data points that influence you day to day in your business and personal life and then work out how you can make tweaks and changes to but take the time to review it. Take the time to implement a plan and then go, okay, cool. How can I make that one percent better? How can I make it ten percent better? That's where we've got to, right? And that's the whole marginal gains. You know, just before we came on, we were looking at the P&L for a new business that we're launching in the new year. And so, okay, but if we tweak that by ten percent, what difference does it make to the annual result? And that ten percent is nominal in the numbers, but is monumental over the course of a year, right? Yeah, yeah. I think For anyone that is, we talked about changing plans and Now is the perfect time, I think, if you are considering what next year is going to look like. And we went through this the other day with our business coach. We also spent some time with our agents planning for the new year in twenty twenty five. I've got the book for anyone who's listening on Spotify or Apple Play. I'm holding up your best year yet book, which was introduced to us by our coach. And there's some really good questions in there around. opening your mind to thinking what's possible next year and helping you build your goals and your plan for the new year I think you have to start with what you want to achieve and then your business plan will help you achieve those goals and then it's putting those steps in place to make sure you can achieve them I think now is the perfect time as things start to slow down and lead up for Christmas. It gives you the headspace, the time to really think about what you really want to do next year and really form a plan or put a plan together or reach out to people that can help you put these plans together, get some advice, get some ideas on what next year is going to look like and go for it, go smash it, go have your best year yet in twenty twenty five. But I think now is the perfect time to be thinking about that and what that's going to look like. I'm going to throw out a conversation that you and I had the other day, Jack, and you didn't know what I was about to say was coming. It happens quite a lot with me, I suppose. So I'm going to throw it out to the people that are listening in, watching, and interacting with this content. Who, if you haven't yet sat down and worked out your goals for twenty twenty five personal and professional or you're one of these people that goes, oh, yeah, I'd love to do that. I don't know where to begin in order to set meaningful, tangible results, results based goals. Who would be interested? And so whatever platform you're watching this on, drop a comment. If it's on Spotify, there is the ability to message us, etc. Drop a comment if you'd be interested in Jack and I running a workshop webinar style in January, early Jan. If you haven't yet set your goals, but you'd like to do it in a meaningful way that's going to give you the ability to elevate yourself in twenty twenty five. If you would like us to run a webinar style workshop, drop a comment. Let us know. We don't even need to pull that together. It's a conversation we've been having. So I'd be really interested to know because we've got it ready. It's just a case of who would be keen. Drop us a note. A little bit of a side note there, Jack. And apologies, took it off piece. But now's the platform. Yeah. And I think for for us, it's been really useful having that time with. I mean, we're very much people who want to be surrounded by learning development. So we spend a lot of time with Nick, our coach and coach. that day we had the other week where it was put in the plans in fact I I mentioned it at the meeting but I was really struggling to form I set my goals every single year but I was really struggling to come up with what do I really want next year what do I want my goals to be what's really important to me my family alice um like what how do I need to set these and I was struggling and these questions really help open your mind up it's not direct questions on what your goals it will ask you questions that can help you lead to those goals um so it really helped me set my goals now for the new year, but sharing it with the partners and having the meeting that we had a few weeks ago with the partners on how they can set their goals and build their business plan. The feedback we've had from the agents across the business has been amazing. And I know now how motivated, how driven they are to making sure they can achieve what they want to do in business next year. But it's because it's attached to the goals that they want to do for their family and what they want to do personally. not because it's just down to the money the money is just a vehicle to get them to where they want to want to go what they want to achieve next year um so yeah the wire is bigger than the money Yeah, definitely. So as James said, if anyone wants to jump on a webinar, reach out to me and James. As you can probably tell, we're really excited about talking about it. We'd love to share it with anyone else who would be interested in building and setting their goals and their plan for the new year. Yeah, always been someone to set goals. But I must admit those ten questions that form part of it when we were part of the mastermind group. I have to be totally frank and honest and humble about it. It was enlightening. It was an emotional process. I'll be honest for me personally. But actually, it's probably enabled me to build the most meaningful goals I've ever built. And they just go so much deeper. So, yeah, really, really great exercise. I, for one, as Jack has just shared, I would love to share that with others. I'd love to see people win. We're very much built around a growth mindset as a business, not just me and you as owners of the business, but as a business in general. So, yeah, very keen if anyone is keen to share that. So far, the lessons learned then are that systems and processes, which interestingly, the last pod we released was with Holly, who heads up our ops, and she was very much talking about various systems and what have you that would be beneficial. So systems, processes... Actually create freedom. That was the whole point of her pod episode was, you know, it may feel constricting. It may feel like you're putting shackles on by having lots of systems and processes and diary structure and all this sort of stuff. And I said it on the pod. I'm the antichrist of process and structure. But actually, the more I've implemented it into my life, the easier my life has become. Because I just have to look at my calendar and go, okay, cool. That's got to get done today. I'll spend the time I've allocated doing that thing onto the next thing. And for anyone else out there that struggles with overwhelm or busy brain, and when you start your self-employed business or any kind of business where you run it, overwhelm is a major thing right the stress of I've got to do so much so the time you take to sit down and go what is it I've got to do and then putting that into a plan and then taking that plan and overlaying it into your calendar with allocated times will just remove that stress so systems and processes is one lesson learned um setting meaningful goals is another um for me what is the biggest lesson I've taken from the last Innovation. The biggest lesson for me, we're big on it anyway, we like to innovate and iterate. But the biggest lesson I've taken away is that there are so many ways to do things. Innovation is so important. But by using the data to drive the decision, you can innovate in a much better way. Have I articulated that cleanly? Yeah, I think as well, the way that we discuss and look at innovation, it always has to be a win for the people that you're serving, the clients, the people you're working with. It has to be beneficial to them, not just beneficial to your business. And if you can put the clients first in terms of how you innovate, looking at new ways that you can streamline the process. I mean, we had Ross McKenzie on the pod talking about his tech system that's going to be able to improve the sales progression process. and bring solicitors and mortgage advisors and estate agents together to make it a more enjoyable experience for the client. Innovation is really important as long as it is innovating for the clients and they're going to make the whole journey or whole estate agency experience a better place. And I think as well, there's, We've looked at different ways we can improve our marketing over the years, and there's going to be people that are going to start to catch up. I think it's really important that we continue to stay one step ahead, but making sure that we're doing it for the benefit of the customer, I think is the most important thing as well. Yeah, we look at it through when we're making decisions. We look at it through the lens of free wins, don't we? It's the win for the agent, the partner agent within our brand, the win for the customer and then the win for the brokerage. And it's in that order because for me, and I think we're very aligned on this, the partner agent comes first because as long as it's very much Richard Branson philosophy, right? It's if the people that... you look after the the in his world the staff but for us it's our partners if they're happy and they're thriving and they've got the best tools and the best resources then their customers are going to be happy so then the brokerage wins right so if it's a win for those three then for us it's a good decision to make um so yeah for me it's about the innovation staying ahead um That's probably my biggest learn. So Jack, we talked about the episodes we've recorded this year. Do you have a top three? It's difficult because I think we've had some great guests on the pod. We've had I really enjoyed the one that you and Perry recorded. I thought there was some great advice in there. I also really enjoyed the one with kind of Harris as well. Again, he runs a very similar self-employed model as well down the south. some really good stuff shared um we had chris webb on the pod which is a great episode as well um simon gates ross mckenzie we've had some really really interesting guests I don't think I can pick a top three um but I think it's certainly It's been all of those guests that we've had on that have been able to share their experiences and have also, I think there's been a lot of alignment with the guests that we've had on the pod. Very similar in terms of the vision, very similar in terms of them wanting to improve the aesthetic experience, either for the clients or for agents across the industry. So I think it's been really good and I'm really excited for some of the guests that we're going to be seeing next year as well come onto the pod too. But yeah, to pinpoint one, I think it's difficult. What about you? Have you got a top one or top few? I was thinking about it before we jumped on because I knew this was one topic we'd be talking about. It's like the past episodes that we've recorded. And there were three that I wrote down that sort of sprung to mind. I was looking back through the old episodes. I was like, yeah, that was a brilliant share. And two of them are our partner agents. And one of them was an external guest. I think all the external guests we had on shared some absolutely amazing, Brilliant tips, advice, stories, anecdotes. But one of the episodes that really stuck out, and I've listened back to it a couple of times, is the one I recorded with Perry. I think Perry does share some immense value. And there was just five or six things that he shared on that episode where I was like, It's just either a really great reminder or do you know what? What a great idea. So a real light bulb episode for me. So that was one. And then the other two is very much because the Avenue as a brand was built to help people create the lifestyles and the freedom that they wanted to create and whatever, in whatever shape that looks. And some people might listen in or watch this and go, Oh yeah, here we go. You know, work life balance and you know, work four hours a week and all that bollocks. It isn't about that. It's about having choice. And so the two episodes were Emma Nugent and Ben Dunn because they have changed their lives by being a part of the Avenue brokerage. And that for me is so exciting. I don't give two shits really about the money. It's not about that. It's about the lifestyle. Emma Nugent joined us from Purple Bricks earning sixteen hundred pound a month. She is now in a position where they've just moved house to a lovely big family home, dream home. They have just gone to the F-One in Dubai for her husband's fortieth, fully paid for by Emma. They've been on half a dozen holidays this year with their three boys. She is living the exact life that she wanted to create because of the freedom that this has created for her. And she's sixteen hundred pound isn't even a fraction of one deal for her now. Yeah, it's the difference. The difference in what she's been able to create through the platform has been has been crazy. Absolutely. And she's what? And just for the record, for those listening in, this isn't about me saying, look at what we've done for Emma, the platform we've created. This is about me shining the light on her and saying that. Yes, great. We've created the brand. We've created all this, that and the other. She was a major part of that happening. But it's more about the work ethic and the commitment and the long term commitment to the vision she wanted to create. Because there were a hundred percent moments during her journey where she went, I don't know that this is going to work for me. And yet she pressed ahead. And now it's in a life changing position. Same for Ben. He's on the up. He's on a different trajectory, slightly newer into his journey. But the same principle, he's ten months into his journey alongside us this December. And as we talk now and he's already out, earn his best income. that he had when he literally physically paid into his bank account, earned more in ten months than his best ever years working as a traditional agent for ten years. And that for me is what it's all about, because now it gives him the freedom. We were talking about him being able to move house. He's having another baby that's due any day and being able to move house, the freedom around what he can buy now because of the money he's earning. and being able to buy a new car and go on a lovely family holiday. All of these things that sometimes get taken for granted, but he's got the freedom to create that. And I love it. Yeah, I think that's also what there are other self-employed models out there. And I think that's what the self-employed models do offer now. And it's becoming so, so popular. It's growing rapidly. There's multiple brokerages out there that are now either offer self-employed or are now offering a former self-employed, even other businesses now that are starting to build a self-employed arm to their business. And I just think it gives people freedom, especially when you are able to build the business your own way. And for people within our business, it's taking on those more premium style properties, being able to charge what they are really, truly worth and working with a lower volume of clients. But still being able to earn incredibly well and have that better work life balance or the freedom that it offers. So yeah, I think the movement of the self-employed is something that we are clearly very, very behind. We're obviously biased, but I think the reality is that the proof is in the pudding of so many, whether it's our brokerage or not. There's so many examples of people earning life changing sums of money. And I make it about the money because it's tangible. It's measurable. But it's the impact that money then has on their lifestyle and the way they want to lead their lives and the choices they make further down the line. I always had an ambition from a very young age instilled in me from my very, very first boss mentor. And it was very much about I don't want to have to work until I'm sixty five. I don't want I want the choice not to have to. And I set a goal when I was young. I'm thirty eight in March. My goal was by the time I'm forty, I will be in a position where I can choose how, when and where I work. It's not about cutting corners. It's not about being work shy. It's about having choice. I've got two young children. And when I turn forty, one of them will be six. The other will be five. I want to be in a position where I say to them and my behalf, Hayley, right, kids, it's the summer holidays. We're going on safari for six weeks. I want to have the choice to do it. It's not about the money. The money just gives the freedom to make those choices. And that's the thing I love about the model. What I will add is a really, really solid caveat to that point is if you haven't got the work ethic, If you are lazy, if you think it's just going to be given to you on a silver platter and you can just have it all your own way and you're not going to have to put a shift in for the first twelve to eighteen months, then forget it. Don't bother. It's a complete waste of your time, money and energy. So really strong caveat. If you're prepared to give it everything you've got for at least eighteen months to two years minimum, then you can create the life and the business that you dream of. You can. Fact. Yeah. And I think for anyone that's listening to this, that is still curious, that hasn't made the move to self-employed or has been thinking about it or looking into it. I would highly recommend going and listening to the episode with Emma and Ben or any of the other agents within self-employed, because I think it will give you a real insight and different perspectives as well, because they've both got very different lives, very different family lives, and they build their businesses around their life. And that's really important. personal family time, their lives come first and then the business is built around what they're looking to achieve. So yeah, I'd highly encourage anyone to go and listen to those episodes because they were two very, very good episodes and it'll give you a different perspective on two people that have done incredibly well in self-employed estate agency. I'm just thinking, I'm reflecting on the conversation we've had today. I think a lot of people have gone into the end of the year. I've had conversations with people that are outside the avenue and they're like, oh, I can't wait till Christmas. I need the break. I'm done. I'm jaded. I'm tired. I need a rest. I'm like, I'm buzzing. I'm absolutely buzzed. We've got a Christmas due later, which, of course, is exciting. But we get to spend time with these amazing people and celebrate the year. I'm buzzed for what's coming in the new year. We're off for two weeks. I'm going to massively make the most of that time with my family. And I can't wait for January so that we can kick off and get all the new plans in play. What have we got in store, Jack? got some exciting stuff next year so and I think for anyone that's listening to the pod anyone that's in the industry if you've got anyone that you would like to see on this pod next year then drop a message in the comments or drop us a message directly because we have some really exciting guests lined up for next year guests external and internal so we've got guests that have that run similar businesses in the property industry We've got guests that are self-employed and have had success in the self-employed environment. We're also going to be sharing some of the, I suppose, the changes that we've gone through as a business, some of the successes, some of the wins, some of the intricacies that we've built the processes the systems uh within our avenue business um so but we still have space for some more guests and so if anyone is wanting to get on the pod or wanting to have a chat and discuss all things property related and then let us know because we would love to line up some more guests for the new year as well Beautiful, beautiful. So big things in store. Twenty twenty five. Best year yet. If you want to build your own best year, you said it earlier. Drop us a direct mail or pop it on to the comments and we will get that organized. But until twenty twenty five, that is twenty twenty four. The elite agent masterclass. It's a wrap. Just a big thank you as well for anyone that's listened to the pods, anyone that's liked the pods or anyone that's engaged with us. Thank you for your support over this year and we can promise you next year the pods are going to be coming bigger and better. So yeah, we will look forward to seeing you all back in twenty twenty five. Let's go. Have a great Christmas all.