RWC network comes together for day of learning and development

MC Daniella Jones opened the day, introducing the day’s first speaker, solo rower Michelle Lee, who was the first Australian woman to row the Atlantic Ocean and the first woman in the world to row the Pacific Ocean non-stop and unassisted.

In her training to row the Atlantic Ocean, Ms Lee trained to break the one million metre record on a rowing machine.

“I read a book and I had a dream, but I realised I needed to step up and do the work,” Ms Lee said.

“I had to row 167,000m each day for six days to break the record for the one million metre row, and I broke the record by about 11 hours, and that record was held by a German Olympic rower, so that proved to me: if you do the work, stick to the prescription and follow the method to the madness, you will see results.”

After rowing the Atlantic Ms Lee decided to take the lessons she learned and use them to become the first woman to row the Pacific.

“Don't ever be afraid to change the way you do something, we can always improve and refine,” she said.

Ms Lee said rowing the Atlantic and the Pacific changed her perspective on life.

“Why do I do this? It’s for all the natural beauty and uninterrupted sunsets,” she said.

“There are some challenges but that's what builds your resilience. If I had just stayed in my 9-5 I never would have known what I was capable of.

“But you have to fully commit, and go into it with all of your head and your heart.”

Next the audience heard from RWC digital performance specialist Taegan Seto. After investigating how the group can improve the way they manage their data, including tracking metrics for goal setting and accountability, Ms Seto shared her thoughts for future development within our One System tech stack as she looks to close the gap.

The conference then broke into breakout sessions each specialised for the sales and property management experts.

The first sales breakout session featured an auction masterclass where Ray White NSW head of auctions Perry Edmondson-Clark interviewed RWC’s top auction agent Jackson Rameau from the Gold Coast. Mr Rameau shared his meticulous process for pitching and converting clients to the auction method, a core strategy at the heart of the Ray White Group. The session provided exclusive insights into how Mr Rameau consistently achieves a high clearance rate, from client engagement to the final gavel drop.

“The Gold Coast has always been an auction friendly market which we’re very grateful for,” Mr Rameau said.

“It was an edge for us as the larger corporates were doing EOI campaigns, whereas we were showing confidence in auctions."

At the first property management breakout session RWC property management performance specialist Leteicha Wilson hosted a Q&A session with RWC WA’s Chris Matthews and Kayleigh Harvey, and RWC Queensland’s David Peterson.

Mr Peterson shared the secrets behind the rapid growth RWC Queensland had achieved in growing a rent roll organically over the last few years, while Mr Matthews and Ms Harvey discuss how they have maintained their position as RWC’s top property management business for the past four years. Both businesses share how they have achieved common successes in emphasising the importance of processes, having a growth mindset, and working in synergy with their sales and leasing departments.

The second sales breakout session saw RWC head James Linacre chat to First Title’s Billy Dent and MinterEllison’s Adrian Rich about facilitating due diligence with AI.

“There is the appetite for AI to do something and then there’s the reality of what it actually does,” Mr Rich said.

“The appetite is huge. If you don't have your head in the game now, you’re going to find yourself behind the eight ball when the penny finally drops and the gains are there.

“The demand is there, but what is it actually providing? I still have a bit of a question mark around that.

“But I think there are some seminal moments that will happen in the next 12 to 18 months which will really turn the dial.”

Mr Dent said there were a lot of potential risks and rewards associated with the implementation of AI.

“I’d really like to see someone develop a product that packages a commercial property well and takes some of that legal work out of the process,” Mr Dent said.

“But I think there is a lot of risk and issues, with fraud for example, and someone is going to get into trouble with it which will lead it to become highly regulated.”

The second property management breakout session featured Rosalind Coffey head of people, culture and client experience at Macquarie who shared her expertise in client service capabilities and human capital management.

Ms Coffey spoke about the recent overhaul that Macquarie undertook to provide a better customer experience, providing learnings that could be transferred to a property manager who is looking at improving their client’s experience.

“The bulk of the interactions we had with our clients were the day-to-day interactions. We aimed to ensure they were seamless. The next level was if they needed help, which we wanted to be an automated and easy process for people to find help for existing problems,” Ms Coffey said.

“Then finally the last step was talking to a human; for complex, personalised and curly problems. We aimed to improve every single one of these steps for our customers.”

Ms Coffey spoke about ‘human centred design’ which is the reason why companies like Amazon have been so successful; they have a laser focus on their customers.

“Customers are now buying based on experience. Organisations that offer consistently best in class customer experiences grow fast and more profitably,” Ms Coffey finished.

Ms Coffey also walked through the concept of the customer journey, and the importance of ensuring an optimal experience and every touchpoint with a customer.