Episode 2
Host: Ben Williams, Head of Investor Relations at Homely
Guest: Kizzy Okoukoni, Founder and CEO of Flash Property Group and Super Sales
The Upshot by Homely invites you into honest conversations with the entrepreneurs, challengers and longstanding legends shaping the real estate industry today.
Introducing Kizzy
Today we speak with a Londoner, who has come over and shaken up the real estate space here in Australia. Kizzy is going to have a chat to us about how he sees things out in the marketplace and what his journey has been like since opening up a couple of different businesses here in Australia.
Kizzy started out in Australian real estate working for Barry Plant, then transitioning to auctioneering and commercial real estate. Since then, Kizzy has gone out on his own, starting Flash Property Group and his coaching business Super Sales.
Kizzy has a unique take on property, which is positivity-centric and mental health-forward, teaching agents not just how to do their job but how to cope with the day-by-day of what can be an extremely stressful job and lifestyle.
Kizzy’s take on current property news
Is the commercial property market still recovering from COVID?
Ben:
Obviously, the residential property market is a little bit challenging out there. You do both residential and commercial. From a commercial standpoint – we don’t talk too much about that – what are your thoughts on commercial sales and leasing at the moment?
Kizzy:
There’s been a big upswing in the marketplace in commercial. What we’ve seen, especially what I’ve seen within my own business, is that commercial leasing is booming again.
Over the pandemic, a lot of businesses shut down, but now we’re getting a new breed of clientele wanting to set up businesses that can withstand another lockdown.
So we are seeing a lot of enquiries for commercial leases in the medical space, and also with cafes opening up. People are really trying to find those niches within the market that are equipped to sustain anything that the world throws at it.
Ben:
I know that a lot of businesses have struggled through the pandemic, but it seems that confidence is booming again and everyone wants to throw money around, even though we should probably be clamping down on our spending with inflation as high as it is. But here we are.
Have we reached the bottom of the market in terms of rate hikes and price drops, and so – where to from here with house prices?
Ben:
A lot of agents that I’m speaking to out in the marketplace are saying that we may have reached the bottom on the residential front, even if we have one or two more interest rate rises. Is that the way that you see things?
Kizzy:
Over the last couple of years, I believe economists have basically gotten it wrong in a lot of cases.
Some of them have gotten little bits right, but no one’s actually been able to piece together what’s happening in the marketplace. Because we’ve never seen this kind of marketplace before in the residential space. It’s unprecedented.
This past weekend, we had the highest auction clearance rate so far. I was talking to the wife about this and I said to her, my theory is that over the Christmas period or the last quarter of last year, everyone that purchased the property has now settled. So they’ve all got cash.
So we are going to keep seeing an up-and-down motion over the next few months. It’s going to take a while to settle purely because the interest rate keeps going up. If it continues to go up, then vendors in particular will step back and just try to wait to see when best to put their property on the market.
Ben:
I know that when I was working in sales many years ago, it was always the busiest time of the year – February, March, April – because of exactly what you said. A lot of people sold their property at the end of the previous year.
They also get this desperation factor. They’ve got this pending deadline where they need to actually find a place. And with the way that the rental market is, it’s not easy to find a rental property. So, we certainly might start to see a spike in the next few months with property prices as you’ve said which is very very interesting.
Teaching, to real estate, to coaching. The multi-faceted career of Kizzy Okoukoni.
A summary of Kizzy’s career in real estate and beyond
In terms of your career Kizzy, you know I think we mentioned that you were a school teacher back in London. However, now you’ve come over here, you’ve met your lovely wife and she brought you across the pond as you put it earlier. Give us a rundown of your career from London to today.
Kizzy:
Okay, so literally I became a school teacher in my early 20s and taught business studies, IT and PE. I absolutely love teaching. I was in a secondary school and met Rachel, my lovely Australian wife, who was overseas in London at the time. So like every Australian, she went to England to travel around the world and then we met, fell in love and then moved over here.
Well after teaching, a friend of mine opened a real estate company in the Cape Verde Islands and invited us over for a holiday. We got there and really loved it. We went back to London just to take a sabbatical for twelve months, just to try real estate in these islands. And we took the twelve months out and we never went back. It was just that easy. It happens in life, just a change in the momentum of where you’re gonna go. And once we were on the islands, we reached out. We taught real estate, we coached the agents and I was an agent myself.
So I got to learn real estate from the grassroots on those islands. And it was really, really, really exciting to be there. So from there, we got married and we went back to Australia in 2009, bought a house and we looked at the marketplace. Do I go back into teaching or do I go into real estate? At the time teaching paid really poorly. So we decided to go into real estate. And then I kicked off at Barry Plant in Oakleigh.
Now, there were absolutely amazing people that I worked with. There was a husband and wife couple, Dean and Kylie Siriani, who were phenomenal. They really worked hard with me. They did a lot of stuff with me to help me get up to speed. And one of the interesting things about working in Oakleigh is 6’4, and I used to go door-knocking. And people let me in. People let me in the house.
I was like, ‘yay!’, because in London, people will not let you in. But they let me in and I was able to get listings. So it was interesting starting my career with Barry Plant. The training they provided me with was really top-notch. I really enjoyed the training that it did. Did my auctioneering with them too.
From there, I transitioned into commercial. Part of the reason we moved to commercial was the wife and I wanted to have kids. I also wanted my weekends back so I could spend more time with them. So I moved to commercial, worked for Dixon Kessels in South Melbourne, a phenomenal brand.
John Pratt, Amon Regan. They literally schooled me on commercial real estate. And they showed me a lot of systems which I use to this day. And I have so much admiration for those guys. They really helped me through the time. And then from there, I moved to one of the top firms in the city.
And after that, I got made redundant in 2016. And literally the week I got made redundant, we found out we were having baby number three. And so the wife and I sat down, discussed ‘what’s the next step’ and she goes, ‘I think it’s time you went out on your own’.
So I took a leap and opened up Flash Property Group. It’s been amazing. The last six years, I’ve had lots of ups and downs, but it’s just the best thing I’ve ever done because it’s given me more time to build my family and to do what I want to do and do real estate my own way.
And to kick that off, in 2012, just part-time doing coaching. And that in 2017 really kicked off as well. So we now coach schools, councils, and real estate agents. And just trying to help people to be the best version of themselves on a daily basis.
Ben:
To do a number of different things in the property space, you’ve worked in the commercial and the residential, you’ve got a range of different skills, but also the coaching. That’s really great to impart the knowledge that you’ve picked up along the journey as well, to budding real estate agents out there.
What transferable skills do you think translate well from teaching to real estate and coaching?
Ben:
You’ve worked in the education sector. Are there any transferable skills that you picked up from the kids who used to call you Mr. O. Are there any transferable skills that you picked up from looking after younger kids that you applied to real estate?
Kizzy:
Communication is a phenomenal tool. If you’re not able to really articulate what you want someone else to understand, you’re not going anywhere. I want the biggest aspect of teaching is being able to really get your point across to the pupils so that they get what you are saying. And then when you see that ‘ahah’ moment happen, you’re like, ‘wow’.
There’s no amount of money that you can pay any teacher, because if they know that they’ve influenced you and you become better, it hits you right there.
For me, that was one reason why I started teaching and why I’ve continued it. It’s now become one of the principal things I get when I stand in front of a group. It’s just seeing them, taking it in and then you can see the light bulb coming on or they come, they’re asking questions whereby you can see where it’s leading to with their own understanding. And for me, that is really, really cool in education.
Ben:
I spoke to a guest last week, and one of their responses was very similar to yours regarding communication. And I guess getting the message across to vendors or landlords, if you’re speaking on the renting front about how things operate, if you can’t articulate things clearly and concisely, you won’t get your message across. And I guess that’s the same with kids as well. If you’re not getting your message across clearly, they won’t understand what you’re talking about. So I think that that’s certainly a very important skill that you’re bringing across to the reader. real estate space, which is fantastic.
Ben:
Now, obviously you’re very entrepreneurial, which is fantastic. You made the big jump back in 2016 when you started Flash Property Group.
Now, you’ve obviously spoken about being made redundant at your previous job – is there anything else you want to add to that?
Kizzy:
Well, for me, after working for others, I found that I gained so much from them. There were things that I wanted to achieve more within my own real estate business and really grow the education part of my business. I couldn’t do that by working for somebody else.
My wife and I were planning the next five years of our life really meticulously – and we tend to work backwards. So from where we start to where we end, we have a general idea and you can tweak it as you go along. Having a plan in place means you can move forward.
So for me, a lot of what I wanted to do was really try to influence the real estate market by becoming a better educator. I also wanted to help people become better in the industry. So I, for example, am a trainer and assessor. I work for RTOs providing real estate training and for people to become agents rep and fully licensed.
It’s one of the best parts of training and what the government has done recently, changing the training from three units in agents rep to a full set form. So they’ve made it harder, but they’ve made it a lot more interesting for me. And people now have to finish that full qualification before they can become an agent rep, which means they learn. They’re more prepared to enter the market.
And if everybody’s got a similar style of training to move forward, I believe we’re going to see a big difference in agents of the future who are more ethical and who have better systems.
The marketplace would flow much better and hopefully it would change the ethos that some people think about real estate agents and the whole thing of we’ll drive flash cars and wear nice suits 24 seven.
Ben:
Well, I know when I got my agent’s rep, I basically got it out of a cereal box. I did your three units and I was away. So, they’ve certainly changed that recently, which as you said, I think is a really positive thing. It means you need to know what you’re doing. You can’t just wing it now.
Because, you know, when you’re dealing with someone’s biggest asset and you’ve got no idea what you’re doing, that is just very, very irresponsible. So, I totally agree with what you’re saying. And kudos to you for helping agents get their sub-agents licence and getting into the industry. That’s fantastic.
If you were to start over again with no referrals to rely on, how would you build your business from the ground up?
Ben:
Now we spoke a little earlier about your business and you obviously get a lot of business through referrals. For any new players coming into the industry, how would you go about setting up a new business and building out the brand? How would you do it if you were to start over again?
Kizzy:
Well, it’s similar to what I first did actually. The first thing I did was look through all my contacts and pick up the phone. And I called everyone and told them what I was thinking of doing.
I asked for a lot of advice. I went to quite a few friends who I had already established in business and I asked them what the pitfalls are. And one of the biggest pitfalls someone told me was, you’ll chase people to pay their bills. But it is any small business person’s biggest headache if they do the job and people take a long time to pay you.
Being able to regulate cash flow is one key piece of advice I will give to people: keep in the back of your mind that you need constant cash flow within your business.
You must be able to set up systems to start with. Once you set up systems within, that is your listing systems management system, trust accounting. These are all key areas that you would need to have available and be well versed in so you can actually teach it to others within your team. Because you will also become a teacher now, not just someone that owns the business. If you’re just going to go out on your own, the bomb is going out on your own, but you still need to have the systems in place.
You need to have your forms, know how to fill out the forms, know where the mistakes would be, and have a mentor that can actually look over you for the first six months. And that is pivotal to what you are doing moving forward – if you don’t have the right mentors around you, you will not grow in your business. And then you look at all the sub-businesses that complement your business.
For example, I catch up with a solicitor, conveyancer, or financial advisor. And we just discuss each of their industries. What’s going on in yours? What’s happening and they become your referral partners.
And so as I close deals, I refer them to a conveyancer or a solicitor and vice versa. So these are people that are critical within our industries that we must meet up with, find out what’s going on therein because your business affects their business.
And right down to the people that do fit out in the offices. It is phenomenal the amount of business I receive from fit out people. Because if I go to a tenant leaving and they need to de-fit, I refer to someone else. And they come and de-fit. And if they know someone thinking of leaving, they might say, “oh, give Kizz a call. He might come and help you find a space.”
As an advocate, we have so many avenues of different businesses now that if you don’t go out and actually meet more people, your business is going nowhere.
I was coaching a new student who started in real estate recently and he said to me, “nobody knows me in this area.” So I said to him, “what are you doing at the moment?”
He goes, “I just walk, I walk around and I do letter drops.”
I say, “okay, first thing, go around to every cafe in your area and introduce yourself. Ask them if you put your cards on the table. That’s your first start.”
I asked him to put his name badge on. Whenever he’s walking around the street, they have your name badge on. So people see you and say, “Hii, Bob. How are you doing?” And he started getting noticed. And I said to you, “When your colleagues are doing auctions, go to the auction, work the crowd. Go around and introduce yourself to people in the crowd, and say, ‘hi, I’m Bob, I’m from this company. Are you looking to buy today? Can I help you bid?’”
You have to step out of your comfort zone. And the one thing I would say to everyone who’s after success is to know it’s on the other side of your comfort zone.
If you are sitting there thinking it’s going to happen and not doing anything about it, get over it. Move on. Because once you get over that hump, success comes.
Ben:
That is fantastic. I really like that. I know that when I started my business in 2017, I started a property management business. I just thought that I could put ads up online and wait for clients to come. But if you get out there, and network as much as possible, they’re the easiest wins, right?
You don’t have to pay for those leads. It’s just about getting out of your comfort zone and speaking to as many people as possible. This is because ultimately there will be something that comes out of that, some nugget that is worth an absolute fortune to you in the long run. And so I really like what you’ve said there. That’s very powerful.
In a world full of ‘multiple income stream’ discussions, do you think real estate really is something that can be done ‘on the side’, or does it need your full focus?
Ben:
You have a couple of different businesses as we’ve already discussed. There are many people out there talking about multiple income streams. It seems to be the craze at the moment. Do you think that real estate is a job that you can do part-time? Is it something you need to do full-time? What are your thoughts on having multiple businesses up in the air at the moment?
Kizzy:
Well, somebody said this to me a lot long ago – if you focus on just one area of your business, you’ll kill it.
But, my personal take is, I love teaching and I love real estate. So what is best to do is to put them together and teach real estate – hence why I ended up having Super Sales coaching and then Flash Property Group.
If real estate is the vehicle you want to use to generate wealth, feed your family, own properties, you need to be 100% committed to it. That means you’re doing 12-hour days, 14-hour days. There’s no 9-to-5 and then you clock off and you’re gone.
It’s hard work. It is not easy. List, manage, sell, rinse, and repeat. literally it, we list, manage, and sell. And then we do it again. And in each of those stages, there are multiple parts.
So within listing, for example, there is the prospecting part, where you should do that every single day. If you’re not, if you’re going to be a top performer, he’s making 40 to 50 outbound calls every day. Without a doubt,
I teach my clients to have an hour of power. And in that hour of power, you have your headset on, you stand up, you have your phone, and you got your numbers. Beforehand and then you get on it and you call as many people as you can.
If you are just getting started in the industry, start with 10 calls a day. 10 calls, that’s 50 a week, 200 a month. I guarantee you will see what happens. And one thing I always encourage industry members to do is learn your scripts. Make it your own, put in your own language and chant it. You find people in your office, at home, your wife, your cousin, your auntie, your next neighbour to roleplay with.
Role play 24-7 until you are comfortable with it and then go out into the public. Another thing you can do as well within that is when you are coming into the marketplace you’ve told all your friends that you’re in real estate and ask them can I appraise your house so I can learn my pattern go and appraise your friends’ houses and walk through and then sit down with them and discuss what it is that you’re trying to do and how you’re progressing because in those safe spaces, you can become better and better.
What people tend to do is think that if they just go with an agent who has been doing it for 20 years, they will listen to them. They will also copy their style.
Do not copy others’ style. You can take bits from them and make it your own. However, you have your own style and you embrace that style because not everyone’s gonna like that style, but it’s okay.
Not everyone’s going to like you. That’s okay. Move on.
It’s like water off a duck’s back, move on. Because people get hung up on ‘they don’t like me’. In other words, they think you were cheated out of being listed. No, your performance wasn’t good enough. Right? Your skill set was not good enough to get that listing. Well, that’s okay.
You need to be able to look in the mirror and say to yourself, “right, well, what do I have to do in order to increase my skill set? Do I need a mentor? Do I need a coach to do this? Do I need to get help with role playing and how to overcome objections?” If you’re not able to ask yourself those difficult questions, you’re not moving forward in real estate.
Ben:
I believe that training is very, very important. You know, you’ll be in a living room one time and get asked a question you’ve never thought about in your entire life. So the more you train up and think about all the random questions that may come up, you’ll have more time. It’ll be easier to answer. You’ll be far more confident in delivering it and win a lot more business. So, I think that’s very, very important.
Why is mindset the most important thing for agents to work on during this tough market?
Ben:
Now we are obviously in a very difficult market at the moment, particularly from a residential standpoint. And we’ve already seen many agents leave the industry because that’s too difficult. They list properties fine, but they’re not selling, not getting paid for all the hard work they do. This is difficult, right? And it can be mentally draining. You can get into some pretty dark spaces. You’re doing a lot of training on this front and helping people with their mindset. During these challenging times, what advice would you give people?
Kizzy:
One of the areas we developed five years ago was something called PMA, which is Positive Mental Attitude. Now I’ve delivered that to schools, secondary schools, and youth leaders and councils around Melbourne.
With help from my psychology friends, we are now putting together something for real estate agents. This is because the number of people that have come to me to say they’re going through a lot of anxiety and having to deal with it. And in many cases being anxious is trying to live in the future. So we’re trying to say to them you need to be back in the present and understand what is going on.
And if you’ve ever met anyone that is depressed or anxious at times, they can feel trapped inside themselves and not know what to do. There are people that will say to them kids I feel like everything and everyone is against me and I don’t know what to do. Or they will say I want to make friends, but I don’t want to be social. I want to be alone, but I don’t want to be lonely.
So the first thing I would say to them is, okay, let’s look at this. What is your self-talk like? What is your self-talk? What are you saying to yourself when adversity occurs? Because if adversity is occurring and the first thing you do is have negative self-talk, you need to stop listening to yourself and start talking to yourself. Literally. So stop listening to yourself and start talking to yourself.
When I say talking to yourself, positive things, affirmations that you are going to use and in the presence of others, I am, I am, I am, I am, I am a great real estate agent, I am a great presenter, I am a great husband, I am a great father, I am a great friend as well. Things that you know to be true to yourself. Keep saying these things to yourself and if you catch yourself about to be negative, you need to flip the script.
I have a friend from the UK at university. He used to, every morning, wake up and all I heard from him from his room was, “I’m a tiger, come on!” Literally every day – I was like, ‘what’s wrong with you?!’. But that was his wake-up call for himself. And whenever he felt down, he’d go in the mirror and tell himself he was a tiger.
So if that works for you, go for it. Because you’re in control of your emotions. And if you let negative self-talk, that, then you’re just going to keep yourself down. So the more you talk to yourself and be positive in that talk, the more you can literally flip the script and move forward. Starting out. it isn’t easy. It’s not easy at all. But you have to be able to beat that down. I have a client who has actually named her self-talk. And it’s quite cool. She calls herself talk Debbie Downer.
So whenever Debbie Downer says something interesting, I bring her to that, oh, there goes Debbie. That is a way for her to defeat Debbie Downer. And I think that is great. Naming your self-talk with something ridiculous so you can beat it down. I said, no, no, no, no, no. I am Kizzy. I am great at what I do. I’m striving to become the best I can be. And just keep pushing forward because at the end of the day, we’ve got one life. There’s no rehearsal.
You can’t rewind and do it again. You just have to deal with it. We need to learn these skills so that as diversity comes to us, we flip the script. For the people that live in the industry, it’s purely because many have never experienced this marketplace. I don’t know what to do. So in order to do that, you need to increase your training. They need to find out what others are doing. Go to your top performer, ask him, “can I buy you a coffee?” Tell me, what are you doing differently to learn?
People are happy to help. Ask for help. It’s simple. Please help me. I want to be as good as you. Help me. Tell me what I can do differently with my business to grow. And if you’re not able to ask for help, then you should leave.
But if you want to stay in the industry and grow and improve, ask for help. Ask for help. What I know is your mental state, your business state. Ask for help. It’s something humans can do and whenever you want to ask for help, what have you done? You’ve always helped because we want to help.
What advice would you give an agent struggling to get out of a negative headspace?
Ben:
So I’ve got a question for you then. I would always get very negative when I didn’t have a good month of sales or a couple of months and my retainer was building up and building up and I was getting very, very down on myself.
What would you say to me in that situation? How would you get me out of that hole when you’ve got this financial pressure building up in the background, things have seemed all too much. It seems like the only thing to do is to get out of the industry. What would you say in that situation?
Kizzy:
Okay, the start in real estate, is going to be hard. And I went through the same thing when I started at Barry Plant, the first three months I freaked out. But I was fortunate enough that I had some good people around me. I remember seeing Dean Sirani, telling him that I was struggling. He replied “why don’t you come on a prospect drive with me?”.
Agents, if you’re not doing a prospect drive of your zone, you’re doing a disservice to yourself. Dean took me in his car and we drove up and down every street in his zone that he looked after. He said “The reason I do that, religiously, once a week, is to see what’s going on in my area. Who’s building what? Who is doing the garage sale?”
Then when he saw something of interest, he’d stop the car and go in and knock. Or left a handwritten note. Take a blue pen, and keep it with you at all times. A handwritten note, in the letterbox, with your signature and your number.
Another cool thing he taught me – while driving through one of the streets we saw just an immaculate garden. Immaculate. And he told me to put a note in their letterbox saying ‘your garden’s amazing’. So I did.
It must have been months but this guy called me and thanked me, and I ended up meeting him, at his house, we started talking and he gave me insight into what was happening on the street. I ended up selling a house in that street because he introduced me to one of his neighbours. Go figure, just by being nice and just doing something, it can change everything. So in that instance, if you’ve had a bad month, pull your socks up and go again!
Because what’s done is done. You can’t change the past, but you can do things differently. Next month, what can I do differently?
Ask yourself; What did I do right? What did I do wrong? So self-reflection is one of the biggest parts of our business. You are going to fail. And failure is simply a necessary part of learning. Try again. Flip the script. Try something different.
They’re not saying no to you. They’re saying no to your pattern, to the way you spoke or to the way you presented yourself. So, find out what the top people are doing. Make it your own and go and try it again. If you come to me and saying you’ve had a really bad month.
How many calls did you make this month? Five? Do Ten next time, then keep moving up. Are you doing your letter drops? Are you doing your that physically yourself? Because if you’re just paying someone to do your letter drops and you’re new in the industry, stop doing that.
Get out there, because you’re gonna meet people. The best time is Sunday afternoon, three to five. Guess what? Everyone’s at home. And if you’re walking up the street, people are in their gardens doing stuff, ‘hey, I’m Kizzy. I’m from this estate agent. We’re just selling this down the street.’ There you go. ‘You want to come to the open next week?’ Done. That’s simple. You’re not selling anything. Move on to the next one.
Ben:
I love that.
Kizzy:
Try different things. If you don’t try different things, you never know what will work in your marketplace. So if you just keep doing what everyone else is doing, and expect a different outcome, guess what? That’s insanity. That’s the definition of insanity.
So change it, change it, try different things, and make it work. And in that way, when the second-month rolls in, you’ve seen the numbers increase. Take a look at what worked and what didn’t, it’s trial and error always.
Ben:
Activity breeds activity, right?
How did you get into ‘mindset’ coaching? Did something influence that passion for you?
Ben:
What got you into the mindset stuff? As a key focus of your business method, did something happen in your life that influenced your mindset of helping people?
Kizzy:
Well, I would say it really started from teaching. I remember as a school teacher, I was head of year 10, and so I did all 15 years in London, and I had 120 pupils. Now, on a Monday morning, I’d have a line of kids outside my office, wanting to talk to me about their weekend, and I became an agony uncle to them, and they would just dump on me. I remember I would come home, and the missus would go, are you okay? I’m like, no, I’m emotionally drained, because I was just giving.
So really, it started from there, whereby I realised that actually I wanted to help people. So as we started doing more and more coaching, I found that more and more people were asking me the questions of how to deal with the mental state. So I ended up doing courses in mental health. I’ve done a set of four in mental health. Did my working mental health first aid course.
And all of these things really helped me to better understand what is going on. And then I’ve got quite a few good psychology mates who are just phenomenal in the field. One of the critical people is Peter Zaris, an organisational psychologist, he’s a phenomenal guy, based in South Melbourne for 25 years. He has an unbelievable work ethic. He’s so cool and he’s helped me to develop a lot of different parts of my own business in relation to mindset and mental health.
So I would say that from being a school teacher helped me to move into this, and then the more and more I’m working with people, the more and more I’m realising that we’re all in the same boat
In 2009 when I came here I didn’t know anyone. I had to start from scratch. So I ended up making friends by joining the Five Side Football Club, and that was quite cool. So I played football for a bit, met new people that way doing sports, and it just moved on from there.
So at the time, I remember always making sure that my self-talk was always positive. But I caught myself being negative. Then I literally walked to the mirror and I would start saying positive things to myself. It’s a process and you have to just keep going through and have those systems and steps in place to get over things.
In light of your mental health passion, what does success look like to you?
Ben:
So in light of that, the mental health and the mindset discussion, what does success look like for you?
Kizzy:
I’ve got three beautiful healthy kids, beautiful wife, I’ve got a lovely home – I am sucessful. I don’t need to wear ‘bling bling’ and all that to be successful, because that’s not success.
If material things are what people think is success, then that’s okay for them. But for me, it’s having a nice family environment, happy life.
One of my biggest joys is I coach my under-eights. Picture it, I’m 6’1 and I’ve got these little girls doing their basketball and I’m shouting at them on the court, encouragement and things. And for me, I’m in the zone for that hour and a half, nothing else matters. So that is success for me.
It’s funny, the love in the little things is important, because you can live most of your life in the little moments within your life.
If you ever go to an aged care home – and I encourage everyone to go and volunteer in an aged care home – just go there for half a day, and speak to the people. That will wake you up to what really matters because they will tell you the truth. Family, Friends, you matter. You matter.
Ben:
I think COVID did that as well, don’t you think? I mean, I used to have a different perspective on life and then COVID rolled around and you couldn’t see your friends, you couldn’t see your family and you realised how much you missed it, right?
I know a number of people I’ve spoken to that really changed priorities for a lot of people. And we’re on the other side of that now, but anyway.
What advice would you give to someone in business who feels like they are failing right now?
Ben:
Now, we’ve just talking about some advice for people that have, or are getting into the industry, but they feel like they’re failing, right? What do you think they could be doing? Is there any advice that you would give them right now to help them get through these tricky times?
Kizzy:
Look at your systems, look at what areas are failing. Do you need a business coach? Do you need a mindset coach? You need to look at who in your sphere of influence can actually help you to overcome the adversity that you’re currently going through. Because remember, many people before your time have done the businesses. If your current sphere of influence is not helping you or not good enough, change it.
You’ve got one life only. If you don’t do what makes you happy now, then in five years time, you’re gonna look back and say, why didn’t I do this then? I always think of my future self.
What would my future self think of me in five years time if I decide not to do what I need to do? Literally try and visit your future self looking at you at this moment in time. Why didn’t you do this? The biggest long-term relationship you have is with yourself.
Quickfire questions to end:
What advice would you give to a buyer right now?
Kizzy:
Okay, for buyers, buy what you can afford. Look around you, if you can get in the market now, get in the market, buy whatever you can afford. Do not try and wait for the $20, $10, $5 million property that you want to be or the zone you want to be in, buy what you can afford.
Get into the ladder, because once you’re in the ladder, it then gives you opportunity to then leverage that property to do other things. But just get on it, that’s the main thing I would say to you. And right now is a great time to negotiate. You have to future proof yourself.
What advice would you give to a seller right now?
Kizzy:
With sellers, if you’re going to sell, remember and if you’re selling, remember you’re going to sell and buy in the same marketplace. So it’s not so much what you get for your property, it’s also what you’re going to buy to replace it.
Get advice, stage your home, If there’s little maintenance stuff that needs to be done, do it. Get it done. Because that could be the difference between $10,000 and $20,000 for yourself. And remember one thing, when choosing agents, it’s not necessarily the cheapest agent that is your best agent.
So the cheapest agent is not necessarily your best agent. The one that doesn’t give you the most value and get the best for you in the marketplace wouldn’t be your best agent.
So you need to be able to understand that part of real estate.
What advice would you give to agents in this tough market?
Kizzy:
For agents moving forward, it’s hard work. I said earlier, pull your socks up. It’s a grind, but there’s success on the other side. Just remember, right here where you’re scared of everything, once you get over that fear, you’re good to go. Have your systems in place. Talk to mentors. Get someone that can help you go through the processes if you don’t already know the processes.
And learn as much as possible, because the more you learn, the better you become. Literally chant all your skills and I want you to chant your scripts, learn them by heart, and practise them with your friends, family, anyone that will listen to you. Because once you get in front of a prospective buyer, seller, renter, landlord, you haven’t got a second chance to make a first impression. So good luck.
You can find Kizzy:
- On Homely: https://www.homely.com.au/real-estate-agency/flash-property-group-38309/properties-for-sale
- On the Flash Property Group website: https://www.flashpropertygroup.com/aboutus
- On socials: https://www.instagram.com/heavysiderealestate/
