Latest / Elite Agent - The Edit / When no one’s watching: Stavros Ambatzidis on real community investment

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When no one’s watching: Stavros Ambatzidis on real community investment · Elite Agent - The Edit

0:00
Would you still do it if no one's watching?
0:01
Community isn't a marketing strategy, it's an operating system.
0:04
The Japanese have a different concept.
0:06
Buyer, seller, community.
0:08
Goodwill isn't an invoice, you're doing it because it's the right thing to do.
0:13
Real estate agents do not understand how much power they have.
0:17
We haven't invented penicillin or cured cancer.
0:20
A lot of us are acting like rock stars, and we're not rock stars.
0:24
We're there to help and assist.
0:26
I also think that there are some people that kind of misunderstand this idea of community and giving back.
0:45
Welcome everyone to another episode of The Edit from Elite Agent.
0:48
We started out calling this a podcast, but after recording the first couple of episodes, we're now calling it a mixtape, a collection of interesting questions, different voices and honest conversations about the market we're all working in.
1:01
I'm Samantha McLean and with me is my co-host for this series, Chris Hanley.
1:05
Today's question is, what does real community investment look like when no one's watching?
1:11
So Chris, before I introduce Stav properly, you are very clear that you wanted him in this series.
1:16
What made you want Stavros on the podcast and why is he the right person for this particular question?
1:22
Okay, I've thought about this so that I don't want people to think that a lot of thought didn't go into this, but very little went into it factually because he does community as good as I've seen it done in real estate is the short answer, and I've seen him speak.
1:38
But there's another reason.
1:39
The great advantage of having been in our profession a long time, there's this knowing in your gut.
1:44
And I've met everybody over the years.
1:47
I know the caring, good people.
1:50
community people because you meet them and there's something in them so the second reason Stavros is here today is I knew the first time I ever had anything to do with Stavros I asked him or told him about something you might remember it Stavros but it was to do with Rise years and years ago and I asked you or told you about it and you said yes without even I didn't get to finish all the details so you're here talking to Samantha and I because you're a really good person who does good community that's the answer Sam
2:19
There you go, Stav.
2:20
So you're a good person that does good community.
2:23
Is there anything else you'd like me to add to that intro?
2:27
Look, no, I do remember and I do recall that, Chris.
2:31
As real estate agents, we haven't invented penicillin or cured cancer and we're just real estate agents and we're there to solve people's problems.
2:41
I think that's foremost and key.
2:43
We're dealing with some people in the most difficult times, whether it's births, marriages, deaths, job transfers, whatever it is, and we're there to help them.
2:51
I think where it's been lost in translation is that a lot of us are acting like rock stars and we're not rock stars.
2:58
We're there to help and assist where we can.
3:01
So that's probably the intro.
3:02
And I've been in real estate since 1991.
3:04
So I've seen all the ups and downs in real estate and I've seen all the different types of agents.
3:09
So there you go, Sam.
3:10
I'll give you the official intro anyway, and I have asked you how to pronounce your surname, but you said to me off air that people just know you as Stav from O'Brien.
3:19
So everybody that doesn't know Stav from O'Brien, this is Stav from O'Brien, co-founder, board chairman, corporate auctioneer.
3:27
He spent more than three decades, as he just said, in the industry and called more than 4,000 auctions.
3:31
But today we're obviously interested in the part of his work that happens beyond the auction floor.
3:36
So Stavros founded the O'Brien Foundation in honour of his late father and has made community involvement part of the group's operating culture.
3:44
So officially, welcome to the edit.
3:47
Thank you.
3:47
First of all, like I always start with the hard questions, right?
3:51
And then Chris comes in and softens it somewhat.
3:55
Real estate constantly talks about this idea of community.
3:59
This is one thing actually that grinds me a little bit is that the mainstream media never, ever sort of focuses on how much the real estate industry gives back.
4:09
I'd love to do a survey one day just to find out how much we actually give.
4:13
I also think that there are some people in the real estate industry that kind of misunderstand this idea of community and giving back.
4:23
So what does good look like in terms of community?
4:27
I think if you can make a difference and you can give back to the community that's helped you over the years.
4:34
So every successful business in real estate has been supported by their customers and their local community.
4:41
So I think it's important to give back.
4:43
And you'll hear me say this probably a couple of times, but I think we have a responsibility.
4:47
The ones that are able have a responsibility to help those that aren't able.
4:51
And what I mean by that is one day I'll need help.
4:53
You know, I'm still young, healthy, fit, fit enough anyway.
4:57
I'm not that young anymore.
4:58
But regardless, I'll get to a stage where I'll need someone to support me and help me.
5:02
So that's our responsibility.
5:03
And I think that's been instilled in us regularly.
5:06
I grew up in the country on a farm and I am of ethnic background, of Greek background, so I think that's got a lot to do with the community spirit that we do give back.
5:16
And I think that's pretty much the crux of it.
5:18
I mean, we could talk about it all day, but that's the crux of it.
5:20
And, I mean, look, I've learned from Chris, I think that the first interview that I ever had with Chris, he talked about, was it St Paul and the give-to-give community?
5:33
Yeah.
5:34
Mindset rather than the give to get.
5:36
So, Chris, I might get you to explain that for anyone who hasn't read that article or seen it.
5:42
Yeah, there's a few pieces here.
5:44
Good works is the phrase, and it's in Vincent de Paul's.
5:49
And I saw it on a side of a building in Cleveland Street 15, 16 years ago on a rainy night.
5:54
I was sitting in a taxi and I looked out and then I went and found out what it meant.
5:58
But good works.
5:59
But Stavros has hit on three or four things there and used some really important words.
6:04
Responsibility is one of them or return to.
6:06
But
6:07
Let's go back to the basic idea that I think in our profession we maybe, I won't say misunderstand, but maybe has never been explained.
6:16
The Japanese have a concept.
6:18
It's called senpo yoshi.
6:20
I found this years ago by mistake.
6:22
I was looking for something else.
6:23
And I love the fact that, and I'm not a linguist, but I love the fact there's all these words that exist in other languages, but...
6:31
that better describes things than we've got English words for.
6:34
Nunchy is another one.
6:35
But Seba Yossi is very important.
6:38
If you look at every transaction we do in real estate every day, every transaction,
6:44
We just think that we are taught buyer and seller, and we are taught that that's enough.
6:48
The Japanese have a different concept.
6:50
Their concept is there's buyer, seller, community.
6:55
Every transaction has three pieces, not two.
6:59
Now, it's one of those things, if you stand back to it and think about it, it isn't an extra then.
7:04
It's an extra.
7:05
It isn't like marketing or something else.
7:08
This is integral to what we do.
7:10
If you reposition your business with that in mind and use Stavros' word of responsibility, it's just that's what you do.
7:19
The second piece that he touched on before, and I'll say it in just a different way, is this.
7:25
When you set up any business in any community, whether you're in a suburb of Melbourne, whether you're in where Stavros is down in a beautiful part of the world in Victoria, whether you're up where I am, doesn't matter.
7:36
Here's how it works.
7:37
When you build an organisation, you get a choice.
7:41
you put your organisation smack bang in the middle of the community or you put it on the edge.
7:48
Now, some businesses, no offence, their model is to take from the community as much as they can.
7:55
There's nothing wrong with that.
7:56
They're transactional.
7:57
But the best business model for longevity and sustainability is to put yourself right in the middle of any organisation or any community and see what you can do
8:09
to help that community on an annual basis and regularly.
8:13
Stavros, talk to us about your fundraising activities over the years because you're very good at this.
8:20
So tell us how you do that because it's an essential part of what you do in your business, isn't it?
8:25
It all started with MND.
8:28
If I go back to the very beginning, it started with MND.
8:31
My father got diagnosed with MND.
8:33
The famous Neil Danaher had MND for many years.
8:36
Everyone would know Neil Danaher and he's recently passed away.
8:39
And I got very involved with MND because I found there was a lot of money going towards finding a cure for MND, but nothing for those that actually had it.
8:47
So until there's a cure, we wanted to provide money for care.
8:51
And that's how it started.
8:52
And
8:54
In total, we raised over a million dollars over the years for MND.
8:59
We did things like 150Ks across the Great Wall of China, which was a big challenge.
9:04
And at the time, it was a lot larger than I am now.
9:07
So for me, I wanted to make my enemy my best friend, to do things that made me feel uncomfortable for it to be a challenge.
9:16
I ran the New York Marathon, which was very difficult.
9:19
And we did Kokoda.
9:20
So they were probably the three catalysts and the first things.
9:23
From there, the O'Brien Foundation was born.
9:26
We wanted to then bring it more locally rather than just nationally to things like breast cancer and MND.
9:33
And we started getting more into a micro and a community level in each suburb.
9:39
And we did things like contributions from each sale.
9:42
So across our 40 offices, every sale that occurred would take $50 off the top.
9:47
And we started building a tally.
9:49
We did fundraising events.
9:50
We did golf days, fun runs.
9:53
We do an annual fun run every year.
9:55
We were doing an annual golf day every year.
9:57
We did charity auctions.
9:59
We sold merchandise.
10:01
We had keep cups with the foundation.
10:04
That's the foundation badge, and that's the foundation logo that we had.
10:08
and we still do.
10:10
We sold, we had fundraising challenges like the push-up challenge, and I think we raised, we did 978,000 push-ups across the group, direct donations, and we offered time and resources.
10:23
We even started a couple of little side, little hustles as well.
10:28
So more importantly was the $50 off the top of every sale.
10:32
I think that was the most important part because it gave everyone ownership
10:36
and they would take it as a file fee off the top, and that really was something that connected us all together.
10:44
I raise money and I've been doing it for 30 years.
10:46
More than a million dollars is not any substantial, it's awesome.
10:51
One of the things that pops up when I talk about community, and I often don't talk about community, and I'll tell you why later, but one of the things that pops up is people...
11:00
They slide down and they say, I haven't got any money.
11:04
How do I do community, right?
11:05
Easy.
11:06
There's always my act, real easy, because there's three parts to community.
11:11
There's raising funds from third party.
11:14
There's putting money in from your own mob team, your own pocket.
11:18
And then there's the third one, which is the most important.
11:21
It's called toil.
11:23
Right?
11:24
Toil.
11:25
And this is the piece, in my view, Savarosa, I'm interested in what you say.
11:29
Real estate agents have these amazing capacities to do things, to connect other human beings, to run auctions like you do.
11:35
You're a fantastic auctioneer.
11:37
What did I see?
11:37
4,000 auctions or something you'd done.
11:40
Is that right?
11:40
Is that the right number?
11:41
Yeah, over 4,000.
11:42
4,000, like, that's amazing.
11:44
But here's the thing.
11:45
The third piece is toil.
11:47
So if you're out there now and you're a salesman on your own or you work in an office where nobody wants to do that or you're a young boss out there, it's all good.
11:55
I started with toil.
11:56
I bet you started with toil.
11:58
Like, that's all you got at the start.
12:00
You got your skills.
12:01
Now...
12:02
What do people say to you?
12:04
Do they sidle up to you after you've given a talk on community?
12:07
Do they ask you questions?
12:09
And what do they ask you?
12:11
They ask me that question you just asked them, what are the most important things?
12:16
And you mentioned three things.
12:18
I found the most important thing,
12:20
is when you get to the other side of the fence.
12:23
Sure, you can have your signage up.
12:24
Sure, you can have all that stuff.
12:26
But what I mean by that is getting on the other side of the counter.
12:29
And that's something my dad taught me, and I'll talk further on that.
12:32
But it's actually participation.
12:34
That's when you get on the other side of the fence and the other side of the counter.
12:37
You know, the days that...
12:39
probably mean more to me rather than the donations that have been made, are days where we had a group of us get together for Backpack for Kids.
12:48
Now, these are kids that have been displaced, and it happens very quickly where they get displaced and they need to have a backpack with their essentials in there.
12:56
And that day for me was a very special day because a huge group of our O'Brien people from all offices, not my office, but all offices got together and they went out to the suburb where it was and they started packing these backpacks.
13:10
Now, for me, that's important.
13:12
We've got a situation here in Chelsea in one of our offices where every Christmas they put together a pack full for people that don't get presents.
13:20
And it's like a food bank.
13:21
And our team gets together there and they box everything.
13:24
You know, all the donations that have been provided by the local community from canned soup to presents.
13:30
And then you've got the McKillor Foundation, which used to be an orphanage near just behind our head office.
13:35
You've both been to our head office in Albert Park, South Melbourne there.
13:38
Every year we give to their Christmas fund, which is usually toys and things.
13:42
That for me is more important than all the other stuff is the participation of.
13:47
and getting into the coalface of it all because you can actually see who you're helping and assisting rather than just pressing a button and giving a credit card over the line.
13:57
Going and helping MND like I did, and Sam, I'm going to talk about this one because it was very special.
14:03
There was one of our ladies that we sold a property for many years ago.
14:06
She got struck with MND and she was a Commonwealth participant for Australia.
14:12
And the last thing she wanted to do before, you know, it got to the end for her, she wanted to do the city to surf for one last time.
14:18
And I remember I flew up to Sydney.
14:20
She was in a wheelchair and we pushed Leanne all the way through.
14:24
And that Heartbreak Hill, I think it's called in Sydney there.
14:27
Yeah.
14:28
Talk about pushing someone up a hill in a wheelchair.
14:31
That was the hardest thing.
14:32
Then it gets harder on the way down because you try to pull it back and there's no brakes on these things.
14:36
So that, for me, is more important than everything else in the world, participation.
14:42
Stavros, tell people listening who aren't involved in this about the inside of you when you're doing these things.
14:50
And I mean in your head and in your heart.
14:53
Tell people what goes through you when you're doing these things.
14:58
At the end of the day, when we get to the end game, what is my family going to think of me?
15:03
How would my kids see me?
15:05
Is there anything in the closet?
15:07
Have I done something wrong by people?
15:10
I think doing the right thing is very important.
15:12
So I want my father and my mother to be very, very proud of me.
15:15
Now, my father's passed away from MND, but I want them to be proud of me.
15:19
I think that's the key thing.
15:20
I want, how can I put this?
15:21
If I'm doing something for Facebook or for posts, I'm doing it for the wrong reasons.
15:26
I'm, you know, so the right thing, and this is going to be touchy, okay?
15:31
I think substance abuse is killing our industry.
15:34
That's one thing.
15:35
We've got this addiction to different substances, and whether it's gambling or drugs, that's one thing I stamp out.
15:44
It doesn't fit my behaviours or my values.
15:46
I'm sorry, it just doesn't.
15:47
I think if you've got good values like that, you'll do really, really well in the community.
15:52
You'll do well at your job.
15:53
You'll do well as a leader because you've got to do what you say and say what you do.
15:57
I think that's really, really important.
15:58
Now, it doesn't sit with everyone, okay, so I do apologise,
16:03
and we all make mistakes and we all do the wrong thing.
16:05
But I think sticking to the path is so, so important.
16:09
I got into this industry because my young wife was pregnant to my daughter and I had a responsibility.
16:16
Again, there's the word responsibility.
16:18
And I worked three jobs.
16:19
I wrapped newspapers in the mornings at a news agency.
16:23
I worked
16:24
for a guy, Brett McEwing at Ray White, at the time who gave me an opportunity.
16:29
And then at night I was pumping petrol at the Ampol petrol station at Baxter Hill because my wife was an immigrant and she didn't have Medicare.
16:38
So I had to pay for the ultrasounds, I had to pay for everything.
16:41
And I had a responsibility not only to her, but to her parents, who were back in Greece, who allowed her to come out here at 18.
16:48
So I think you've got to remember where you started, where you're from, and we've got to give away any vices that we've got.
16:54
Motivation is important, but having a routine and dedication, I think, is more important.
16:59
Can I pick up on a word you used before?
17:01
And I'm going to ask you a direct question.
17:03
You used the word proud, and we'll circle back and talk about your dad later.
17:07
He plays such a pivotal part in your life.
17:10
You think if you're, I don't say this, I don't want people to take this the wrong way, but let's say you're a real estate agent who's very good at transactions.
17:18
Do you think it's easy to be proud of being great at transactions without having,
17:25
doing work in your community or work for others?
17:29
Do you think it's easy to have a pride in being someone, for example, that writes monstrous GCI but doesn't do other things?
17:39
I'm not saying you have to, but...
17:42
From my point of view, from what I've observed, people like you, you're passionate, you smile, you're happy when you talk about and proud when you talk about, as you should be, about community.
17:52
One of the things for me in our profession that is lacking is enough leaders like you who can talk about community to show the younger people you've got to find something that nourishes your soul and...
18:05
Because GCI is not going to do it forever.
18:09
What do you think?
18:10
You've got to have a purpose and you can't just take from the well.
18:13
You've got to give back to the well.
18:15
I think that's very important.
18:17
And GCI, if GCI was the most important factor, our industry would,
18:22
wouldn't have some of the mental health issues that we've got because it doesn't actually fulfill you just you're just making money and and having things like things are important don't get me wrong and money you know gets me to travel back to Greece to visit my family and visit my daughter I think that's all important but it's not the be all and end all because the sun will come up tomorrow regardless of what day you're having and how bad your day is and and how catastrophic the market is at the moment the sun will come up tomorrow and you know you're going to be
18:51
You know, we're a long time dead.
18:52
So we might as well just see the most positive side of life, not the negative.
18:56
I don't get negative often at all, Chris.
18:59
I always see the positive side of things and it drives my wife insane and sometimes my team.
19:04
But you know what?
19:05
There's laws changing here in Victoria.
19:07
And I'm the chairman of the ROV option committee as well.
19:11
So and they're talking about all these changes in the rules, as you would know, Sam, you know, declaring the reserve seven days out.
19:17
Guess what?
19:18
Big deal.
19:19
If it happens, we'll just find another way to play under the new rules.
19:22
When dummy bidding was exiled, we all thought the world was going to fall apart.
19:26
When statement of information came in in Victoria, SOIs, we thought, geez, what's going to happen?
19:31
We found a way.
19:32
The best teams in the AFL are the ones that learn to play under the new rules.
19:37
They don't whinge about it.
19:38
They just get on with it.
19:39
It's so important that you've got to have a purpose.
19:42
You've got to have a belief system, and you've got to stick to it.
19:45
The problem we've got at the moment is social media is huge.
19:49
And I see it with my team.
19:51
They see what other people are doing.
19:52
And comparison is the killer of joy, right?
19:55
You've all heard that.
19:56
But what they're doing is all of a sudden they've got all this information coming to them and they don't have their operating system.
20:03
You've got to have an operating system.
20:04
And I think that's what's different about us and about me is our operating system.
20:11
You know, community isn't a marketing strategy.
20:14
It's an operating system.
20:15
So that's what I can say about that.
20:17
I guess knowing that and hearing you say that, you probably get a lot of requests from all sorts of people to support all sorts of charities and things like that.
20:28
Yeah.
20:28
How do you decide what you want to support?
20:32
We were hamstrung a little bit and there was a lot of red tape because there's thousands and thousands of foundations in Australia, registered foundations.
20:39
We recently moved across from the O'Brien Foundation to...
20:43
to the O'Brien Community Program.
20:45
And the reason we did that, we became a community program, not a foundation anymore.
20:50
With the foundation, you could have a local child in our community that's unwell with leukaemia.
20:58
And we couldn't donate directly to him through the foundation because...
21:02
There, there's red tape and you've got, they've got to be DGR, that they've got to have a DGR status, a deductible registered organisation status, whatever DGR stands for.
21:13
And, and we couldn't do that.
21:14
So we'd have to donate to the Leukemia Foundation of Victoria, which we in turn would choose whether that they would donate to local TIMI in the community.
21:24
With the community program though, we've changed it and we're shutting down the foundation.
21:30
We can now put those funds into our own account and we can give those funds accordingly and localised.
21:39
Each office can do it localised rather than corporate doing what you've just said, giving to whoever puts an application in.
21:48
So we did have to move because you want to be able to get that money quickly.
21:54
Like there was a house recently that burned down out in Dean O'Brien's area.
22:00
And we wanted to get that money quickly to that family because she was a single mother.
22:04
Her husband had passed away.
22:06
And we wanted to get it quickly to support them.
22:08
And we band together as a foundation and a community program to get furniture funds quickly to her rather than going through the ring morale.
22:18
When it comes to distributing the money, these are a couple of rules I've used over the years.
22:22
If I've got staff member, lead agents, but other members of the team, it doesn't matter which part of the business they're in, and they come and ask me, generally I'll find a way to give something because it means they're involved in it.
22:36
And the same people often come to me, but not always, but...
22:40
Number two, anything to do with schools, they've never got enough money.
22:44
So schools, we give a lot of money to.
22:47
We have for 30 years and schools need supporting.
22:51
The third thing is this.
22:52
If you've got $5,000 or $10,000 or $20,000 and that's your yearly budget and whatever else, break it.
22:58
Add an elephant one bite at a time.
23:00
It's the same.
23:01
Break it up into small pieces and share it around.
23:03
Right.
23:04
That way you're giving something to everybody.
23:07
And I've got to forget sometimes $1,000 is still a lot of money.
23:11
$2,000 is a lot of money.
23:13
You know what I mean?
23:14
And sometimes you think, oh, they won't want that or it's not enough to do anything.
23:18
And the last thing is if we've got any extra money here, I get on phones.
23:22
I just go and ring people.
23:24
You know, do you need some dough?
23:25
And there's a youth service here and there's a homeless centre and there's a place here and all near Stavros knows my town.
23:32
Just across the road, my office, I can see what's going on in the street.
23:36
So, Stavros, let me ask you another question that relates to this piece.
23:42
You used the phrase before, it's an operating system.
23:45
Right?
23:46
I love that.
23:46
Or an operating principle.
23:48
I should have said operating principle.
23:50
I get you.
23:50
Explain what you mean by that, because I'm going to figure some people are thinking, okay, what does that look like?
23:56
Tell us what that looks like, an operating principle.
23:59
Goodwill isn't an invoice.
24:02
You're doing it because it's the right thing to do.
24:05
So you've got to have principles in why you do things.
24:08
And you did say something before, you know, your budget might change, but your value shouldn't.
24:13
So that comes down to the principles.
24:15
So it doesn't matter what amount you've got.
24:18
It's what you actually do.
24:20
So your principles, I suppose your principles are your operating system as a person individually.
24:27
And you've got to understand what do you stand for.
24:30
Principles and operating system for us is doing the right thing, helping people.
24:35
And I do find the ones that have the least do help the most.
24:39
You see that in a lot of third world countries.
24:42
You'll go there and they'll give you either if they've got a loaf of bread, they'll cut it and give you half.
24:48
And they're not just Christian values.
24:49
I think they're just human values.
24:51
It doesn't matter which part of the world you come from.
24:53
You've got your own values that you were brought up with.
24:56
So you've got to have an operating system, not...
24:59
not be everyone's ideal.
25:02
And that's why I came back to social media before.
25:04
Everyone's trying to be everything to everyone.
25:06
You can't.
25:07
We've all got to be individuals.
25:09
And we might have a disagreement of opinion, but we can't have a disagreement of direction.
25:14
And that's where I think a community bands together really well.
25:18
Some people text me or ring me up and say I work in a company, an individual office or a brand, but they don't do any of that stuff, right?
25:27
And you must get that too.
25:29
What do you say to people when they're a salesperson or they work in an office?
25:33
And I know you give advice to people.
25:35
You're non-denominational.
25:37
What do you say to them?
25:38
It's an interesting one.
25:39
I mean, if they're not giving back to the community, it's, I mean, you've got to have a why.
25:44
What are you doing?
25:46
It's a little bit, I suppose, selfish too.
25:47
It makes you feel good.
25:49
Like giving, giving does make you feel good.
25:53
It gives, I suppose, fuel to the soul.
25:55
It makes me feel good.
25:57
Like giving rather than receiving.
25:59
I'm a bad receiver, by the way.
26:01
I hate it.
26:02
And I don't know how to say thank you sometimes that I've got to get better at that.
26:05
But I love seeing smiles on people's faces.
26:08
That gives me a buzz.
26:11
So when someone doesn't have that, it makes me wonder why.
26:15
We're going through a difficult time here in Victoria and probably all over Australia where the cost of living is affecting everyone.
26:23
And I get to see a lot of what people do to get listings.
26:27
And they're giving away massive prizes.
26:30
You go in the chance to win a prize.
26:32
And I sat down with my business partner and with Fred Harrison, who is the CEO of Richie's Australia.
26:38
He's always on the Channel 9 show.
26:40
And he's a good friend of mine, too.
26:41
So we sat back and we thought that Richie's do it really, really well.
26:45
They have a slogan that says, you know, Richie's where the community benefits.
26:48
Yeah.
26:49
and they give back to the community.
26:50
So we decided for every listing and sale that we did, we'd give everyone $1,000 Richie's voucher.
26:59
They can use it for whatever they want in a Richie store.
27:01
And that made a huge difference.
27:03
Now, $1,000 doesn't make a big difference off our commissions, but it did make a big difference to that family for groceries.
27:09
And there was one family with five kids and he said, that's going to last us a whole month, four weeks.
27:14
So thank
27:19
prize yes where you don't you don't want people because everyone does a little prize you know they do go the chance of winning x you know a holiday or or whatever it is you know but i tell you what giving everyone something feels a lot better
27:35
Well, even if it's small, like, and here's an example.
27:38
I was at Kmart, my favourite store, a couple of weeks ago.
27:42
And at Pacific Fair, they've done as a lot of Kmarts have done lately because people are stealing their trolleys, is they've put in this Audi system.
27:53
You've actually got to put a $2 coin in the trolley.
27:56
Now, when I was leaving, I saw this mum who was juggling, you know, three kids and all the rest of it.
28:02
And I took my trolley back and said, here, have my $2 coin, you know, because she didn't, she was trying to find one.
28:09
She couldn't have one.
28:10
And she was like overwhelmed with, really?
28:14
Can I, like, you know, because nobody carries cash anymore.
28:16
I just happen to have one in my pocket.
28:18
Yeah.
28:18
But, you know, it made me think if I was a real estate agent in this area, I'd just go and station myself outside of Kmart and hand out $2 coins.
28:28
And, you know, like I might have spent $20 by the end of the day, but how many people would you have like actually have helped?
28:36
I want to know, Davros and Sam, I'm interested in both your answers to this question.
28:41
Can you coach, train people to give?
28:46
Meaning it's like care.
28:49
Is someone, can you help someone learn this?
28:53
And for me, the secret source of giving has always been how it makes you feel internally and it's very hard to explain it to anybody because
29:03
But at the end of the day, it makes you feel fulfilled.
29:08
It makes you feel quietly.
29:11
And there's a big difference between making noise about it and do it quietly, but that's someone's choice.
29:17
I'm not saying one is right.
29:19
I'm not saying if you give money, you shouldn't, I won't say leverage it, but you shouldn't tell people about it.
29:24
That's up to you.
29:25
It's your money.
29:26
My view is, so do you both think...
29:29
In your observations that you can teach, train, coach people in this space, do you believe you can teach this to people?
29:36
Here's the thing.
29:37
Like, I remember when I first wrote that story, I knew we were doing a round of Transform or something like that.
29:42
Chris doesn't know this, by the way.
29:44
But I was very inspired by what Chris said at the time.
29:47
And so I introduced a challenge in Transform called Give to Give.
29:52
and everybody had to perform some random act of kindness in their community and it was not allowed to cost them more than $20.
30:01
It was interesting, like, you know, the things that people came up with when you actually pointed out there was a real estate agent that rescued that baby shark in Cronulla, we remember that, or the real estate agent that, you know, sat with a crying baby on the plane.
30:16
But I think what's missing these days, and this is going to be an unpopular opinion, is people are so inward looking at the moment that they don't do the scan of the environment to understand what's going on around them.
30:29
And if you stop for a moment and, you know, and did a scan of, you know, like, who's about to get a parking ticket or is that mum with three babies in a pram struggling?
30:40
And I think it's like we're so wound up in our own stuff these days and...
30:44
possibly how bad things are that we forget to look out there you go there's my view so i don't i don't know if the question is can you train it it's training for more external and self-awareness there you go
31:00
I think you're right.
31:01
The old question is always when you're recruiting, what trumps what?
31:05
Does culture trump experience and systems, or does systems and experience trump culture?
31:12
Now, I find that you can't necessarily teach culture, but I can teach systems and I can teach experience.
31:19
Yeah.
31:19
And I've done that with many agents here in Victoria where we've nurtured them and they've become great agents.
31:26
And there's many of them that have come through our stables, that's for sure.
31:31
But I think also people do change.
31:34
I know people say leopards don't change their swaths, but I like to believe they do.
31:39
And I think people can change.
31:41
But you've got to understand from their lens and their perspective where they're coming from.
31:46
We're all who we are because of where we grew up and our environment and experiences that we've had.
31:51
People that aren't trusting is because they've had people in their lives that let them down.
31:57
Okay?
31:58
So it's not their fault that they're not trusting.
32:01
Or people that aren't givers are because they've had experiences in their lives.
32:07
So I'm very understanding that...
32:09
And you're right.
32:09
You know, you see it on the road all the time.
32:11
Some have cut someone else off and they do the horn, they follow them and they stick their finger up and they like, they cut me off.
32:17
Big deal.
32:18
Is it going to change my life?
32:19
Not really.
32:20
Big deal.
32:21
They got in front of me.
32:22
See you later.
32:23
And you just wave.
32:24
Like, why ruin yourself by, you know, like what you said, you have people get upset over the littlest thing.
32:30
So I think people are changeable when they see you.
32:33
I can't change them, right, Sam?
32:35
I can't change anyone, but I can change me that changes you.
32:39
It's the way I express myself to you is that will change you.
32:42
But I can't give you a piece of my mind.
32:45
You didn't ask for it.
32:46
You didn't ask for a piece of my mind.
32:47
Why should I give it to you?
32:48
But I can change me that will change you.
32:51
And I think the change has to be in each of us, not in everyone else around us.
32:56
And everyone else changes.
32:57
Someone once told me, you want friends, be friendly.
33:02
Whatever you want, be that thing.
33:04
Yeah, be that thing.
33:06
I was going to say, I think that's probably a great piece of advice to leave it on.
33:10
But I'm going to ask you both one thing after sort of thanking Chris for inviting you on and also Stavros for your time and wisdom and everything in what you've given to us today.
33:21
But let's just say someone out there is listening to this and they say, right, they've inspired me.
33:27
I've got to get started in my community.
33:29
What would your number one piece of advice or number one thing be?
33:33
What do you think?
33:34
What advice would you give, Stavros, to someone?
33:36
Well, I've got two pieces of advice.
33:39
And one is the last couple of years for me have been very difficult, right?
33:43
But no one would know that.
33:44
You've got to leave stuff at the door.
33:48
When you come to work, you don't bring all your baggage along with you.
33:52
So I think that's the most important thing.
33:54
There's nothing wrong with people knowing about the good work you do, right?
33:58
Awareness can actually help a cause.
34:01
And that's what I love about people.
34:03
The only reason I actually make things aware is because I want to help that cause.
34:06
But the test is very simple.
34:08
You know, would I still do it if there was a photo, Facebook, logo, database, like all that stuff, but...
34:16
If the answer is that I would do it regardless, well, then it's probably genuine community investment.
34:22
So for me, it's would you still do it if no one's watching?
34:26
And that's the important thing for me.
34:27
And you've got to help regardless of who's there.
34:31
At the moment, every time someone does something and you see the memes, someone's taking a photo of themselves.
34:37
And I think that's wrong.
34:38
My advice, firstly, when in doubt, just help kids.
34:43
So I don't care on what level.
34:45
There's an awful lot of children and an awful lot of single parents and there's an awful lot of people who need help.
34:52
So go to the schools.
34:53
If you're sitting out there, go and find one school and help them do auctions, help their fates.
34:59
help them raise money, do whatever.
35:00
Just do that and just do one school.
35:03
Like if that's where you want to start and they're your school and you help them raise money.
35:06
I think the second thing, I'll make this as an observation, real estate agents do not understand how much power they have.
35:13
We have...
35:14
more power than anyone understands because we know everybody in every community.
35:19
We can connect people, right?
35:21
So people, I said toil before.
35:24
I said you can give your own money, you can raise money from someone else, or you can do toil, right?
35:30
Toil is also you pick up the phone, you connect people, right?
35:33
So one of the places to start is,
35:35
is you ring people around, you run organisations, volunteer, they might be a soccer club, they might be a PNC.
35:42
And by the way, PNCs, if you go and look into a PNC, there's a lot of schools in our area here.
35:47
They run everything.
35:48
Everything's run by them.
35:49
They're very good organisers and whatever else.
35:52
So the second thing you do is you ring people and you find out where the need is.
35:56
It's like practice for prospecting, right?
36:00
And what's prospecting?
36:02
Talking to people.
36:03
So you prospect for people that you can help.
36:06
Been really good talking with you, Savros.
36:08
I've enjoyed listening to all of your story, mate.
36:10
See you soon.
36:11
Bye-bye.
36:12
Thank you, mate.