Outside of my leadership and sales responsibilities at Nitschke, I’ve been conducting more coaching calls with principals across Australia. It’s become one of the parts of my personal brand that I enjoy most, alongside speaking at industry events.
While I love the energy of conferences, big events and team days, speaking to leaders 1:1 gives me an intimate look into a business and its management – and the problems that connect us, even as we serve different markets, customers, and communities.
I’ve come to believe every real estate leader should have a coach. I’ve just invested in one myself, because I realised what got me here won’t get me to where I want to go next as an agency. The problems just grow with you.
A coach isn’t there to solve all the problems for the leader. He or she is there to open new pathways and help the leader (who knows the business best) to come to an epiphany. It’s the same lesson I learned recently with my team, as my love language is ‘doing’ and by constantly jumping in to solve problems, I was unconsciously robbing them of these moments of empowerment.
In a recent call with a director of a franchise agency she co-owns, this coaching client shared how she’s at breaking point managing all of the operational aspects of the business, while trying to motivate staff who see the brand as unique. She reached out for an external perspective and actionable strategies to improve lead gen, brand perception and overall business profitability.
The sales team consists of one very experienced agent, her husband, and three other supporting agents, so while she doesn’t need to worry about her lead agent leaving, it’s basically a business with two performers. She spends more time than she wants pushing the team, checking their work and applying the pressure, which is contributing to her burnout.
She has a vision to go independent (like Nitschke did back in 2018), especially as she’s operating in a competitive town. We discussed shifting to hyper-local lead-generating campaigns, distributing leads based on agent performance, introducing a commission structure that heavily rewards self-generated business, launching a residential brand before leaving the franchise, among other ideas.
While a lot can be covered in one call, we can change the course of a business in a few sessions and get the principal to where they need to be.
If you’re struggling with a problem around people, recruitment, cashflow, leads or positioning, book a 15-minute free call and let’s see where you’re at.