There's a temptation, once you build something that works, to remove yourself from the work that made it work in the first place.

In real estate, it’s the journey from salesperson to non-selling principal. You hire people to do the thing you used to do, and you focus on the business. It sounds like the obvious move. It's what growth looks like on paper.

I tried it. And somewhere in the planning of my own replacement, I realised I was about to make a mistake.

Selling houses isn't incidental to who I am as a leader. It's the thing that keeps me connected to the team and makes me a better leader – so I'm parking the planned replacement agent for the medium term.

I made a deliberate decision this quarter: To sell 25 to 30 houses a year, by choice.

This allows for sharper forecasting because my relationship equity and near 20 decades of selling helps me close more deals, and faster. We finalised our financial year 2026-27 budget with our leadership team and accountant, and we're excited for a profitable growth year ahead.

We ran quarterly conversations across all 16 of our staff. We do this every quarter just to surface ideas, issues, and opportunities that don't otherwise come up. But this round was different – it was the first time we ran it with our expanded leadership team. Our emerging leaders sat across from their own direct reports and had real conversations.

As a leadership department, we also made a decision to step away from our first major development project. We helped sell a majority of stage one allotments, and we're proud of that work. But doubling down on residential sales and property management is where we should be focused right now. Sometimes the strategic decision isn't what to start. It's what to stop.

Operationally speaking, we’ve achieved some great wins thanks to AI. I rebuilt this website and Nitschke one from scratch. I also built something I call Studio, an internal tool that runs our operational workflows. It's going to become the backbone of how we operate in the year ahead.

I'm building an operating system for business leaders, which gives you access to a lot of these features. Get on this list for first access.

People underestimate what it takes to actually use AI well. Anyone can open a chatbot and get mediocre output. What's harder is building systems that make your team faster, more consistent, and genuinely better at their work.

Back at the REINSW WIRE conference in April, I gave a keynote around a single question: what is my next move?

It's a question I believe every professional should be asking constantly – not anxiously, but honestly. There’s always something you can do. The leaders who figure that out early are the ones who don't get stuck. Read my conference breakdown here.

To round out the quarter, I also formally launched my coaching offerings. I’ve been supporting real estate and property professionals, which is a full circle moment if you know my story).

Here’s my Q1 recap in case you missed it.

If you’re struggling with a business or leadership issue, book a free 15-minute call and let’s discuss where you’re at. I’d love to help you start off the second half of the year strong.