Ray White celebrates its elites in Port Douglas

Ray White acknowledges that its size and scale will not guarantee its future success and that it needs to be “more than just a brand” to all its 13,000 members.

Ray White Head of Performance and Recognition Bianca Denham (pictured at top) said the Elite Performers’ Conference was centred on three key themes: accountability, volume and future proofing.

“We have an unwavering commitment to accountability, managing high transaction volumes, and our focusing on future-proofing each and every business. These three themes will ensure our businesses keep growing,” Ms Denham said.

Ray White Managing Director Dan White (pictured above) said the Elite members were the “pinnacle” of the leading group.

“It’s important for us to recognise what you've achieved and keep going forward but we know there’s more potential in all of us,” Mr White said.

“We are always looking for ways to get better, to push our limits and we are always challenging ourselves. There’s more potential in all of us.

“Elite effort is to be respected, recognised and praised. How can we as a family and a corporate team provide a framework to enable more people to reach Elite status?

“We know there’s more in all of us as nothing fails like success. Most industries hit a peak and get to a level of success but how do you keep going?

“Please take some time to sit back and reflect, and take pride in where you have reached over the next few days. We want to provide you all with the right frameworks, the right tools and enable people to use the best tech.”

Keynote speaker Dr Alan Thompson (pictured above), of Perth, is a world expert in artificial intelligence (AI), specialising in the augmentation of human intelligence, and advancing the evolution of ‘integrated AI’.

Dr Thompson provides AI consulting and advisory to intergovernmental organisations including member states of the United Nations, European Union, and the Commonwealth. His applied AI research and visualisations are featured worldwide.

“AI is very good at putting things in plain English and how you construct your prompts is the key to AI,” Dr Thompson said.

“AI won’t be explosive but the adoption of it has been. Artificial intelligence is here and which companies will embrace it and apply it first.

“Businesses who adopt AI will overtake the contrarian businesses or luddites or those who choose to leave it alone.”

His advice was to start with poe.com and ChatGPT4 to “try anything”.

“AI creates a competitive advantage and increased efficiency and more insights. AI is not a one size fits all solution. Not all businesses need to adopt AI immediately to the same extent but the future is now," he said.

Ray White Chief Officer of Strategy (Real Estate) Mark McLeod ran a panel session with Chairman’s Elite performers Rebecca Cuderman of Ray White Marsden on Brisbane’s southside and Ibrahim Merjan of Ray White Macarthur Group in south-west Sydney (pictured above).

Both these top agents have unbelievably consistent high volumes of sales.

“What Ibrahim does better than most people is he prioritises calls and appraisals every single day from 9am-12 noon in the office. He prospects every morning using NurtureCloud. It’s not that people have a time management problem, they have priority management issue,” Mr McLeod said.

“Skill is overrated. If you do an hour and a half of calls every day, you’ll change your family's life forever. Stop prioritising everything that doesn’t matter. Make calls consistently, and with empathy and with care.

“Every moment in time at this level must have an outcome. Use your time more sparingly, and create efficiencies.”

Mr Merjan said the calls were a daily non-negotiable. “The calls will only pull back if I stop. Leadership and accountability run hand-in-hand,” he said.

Ms Cuderman reminded the Elites that you can never do enough.

“Do some self reflection, look at how many hours you actually work on prospecting and talking to vendors. Rip apart your business model if it's not working. We change our team structure every three months, we are always reevaluating and never get comfortable,” she said.

Ms Cuderman said if she had one thing to remind her younger self it would be to “be more patient.”

Mr McLeod said within five years everyone will have the same technology that Ray White has so “it’s going to be a race to intimacy”.

“Our business centres on relationships and when you lose the excuses you will find the results,” he said.

NurtureCloud founder Michal Kot (pictured above) gave his insights to the Elites on how he built the proptech tool which is reshaping the face of the real estate industry across the globe.

“Some 40 per cent of all listings in Ray White now come from NurtureCloud and we have finally rolled out in New Zealand. The full buyer module rollout will be available across Australia and New Zealand from February 2024. The endgame of NurtureCloud is an agent operating system that agents can work out of,” Mr Kot said.

“We are continually enhancing and evolving NurtureCloud and we will become a CRM soon.”

Mr Kot, who has a robotics background, simply loves making tools easier to use.

“A real estate AI assistant cookie is the future, this will possibly even use your own voice and prepare your messages for your vendors. We are moving to a pitch model too.”

Ray White West End Principal Luke O’Kelly (pictured above with Mr McLeod) told the Elites that he has a calling culture inside his business.

“Calls and auctions and nothing else matters. We have a 100 per cent auction focus in our business. I only know how to lead by doing. I started with making 20 calls a day, and that had built to 80-100 calls per person per day inside our business,” Mr O’Kelly said.

“Our office is open plan, I don't have an office but the office comes alive with calls. The team just does it and they celebrate the wins. We celebrate the calls, not the GCI, and that is cool.

“We track call volume, not connections. We get 76 per cent of all our listings from our database through our calls.

“We also send a daily report to every team member on how many calls they made. This is a reconfirmation of the work that is being done. The focus is on volume and we measure what matters.”

Jessica Cao (pictured above), leading agent at Ray White Roseville, showed how she has transformed her business through working with the media and regularly sharing her auction success.

Ms Cao joined the Ray White Group three years ago and her business has grown exponentially since she started to focus on auctioning.

“And I love working with the media team. They have genuinely helped grow my profile and they are always so responsive and ready to help.”

Ray White Macarthur Group Principal Mark Jennings (pictured above with Mr McLeod) discussed leadership in a high performance and high volume business.

The Macarthur and Nepean businesses have risen to make one of the most successful groups in the network. With a 17 year history, Tim Doyle and Mark Jennings have built a business with a coveted reputation for achieving phenomenal results.

“We don't run in silos, anyone can show a piece of stock, it’s not your listing and only your sale. We run a highly systemised and sustainable business that is built for growth and volume,” Mr Jennings said.

On day two, Craig Hodges of Leading Teams, a former rugby league coach, gave the Elites his insights into managing high performing teams.

“Establishing a common purpose is crucial but you need mechanics and dynamics. We can't help any team with the mechanics, we have no HR manual, most things can be fixed with a conversation. Dynamics is how we can help, we specialise in culture,” he said.

“Knowing is not doing. You can learn from experiences, you need to put these things into action.”

Bianca Denham interviewed Mark O’Meagher from Ray White Clare Valley (pictured above) about his work in the community regarding his active sponsorships and engagement.

He spends $35,000 to $45,000 a year on community sponsorships and said they get immense value in the business from sponsoring local clubs.

The top principal in Ray White internationally for number of sales, Peter Diamantidis (pictured above) of Ray White St Marys talked about his business growth and personal investment philosophy. He sold 334 properties himself in the last financial year.

Peter Diamantidis is the leader of Ray White Diamantidis Group

Working in real estate since the age of 15 he started in property management then moved into sales which has crowned him the top principal by volume in Australasia in 2022-23.

His exceptional attention to detail, dynamic energy and impressive negotiation skills sets him apart from many in the industry.

He bought his first investment property at age 18, on his 18th birthday.

“I now have 44 investment properties. I bought a property every year until I was 30. I kept buying properties and last year I bought 13 properties,” he said.

He had 28 empty tables when he opened in St Marys with only four staff and he had filled all the seats within a year. He has a process driven high volume business.

He and his team are famous for their speed of response and his team preps his whole week on a Sunday.

Ray White AKG Principal Avi Khan (pictured above) said the Elite Conference sent two strong messages. “Technology, whether it be AI or habit-forming CRM software, will play a larger role in our daily lives as real estate agents and property managers - we have to embrace it for future success in a fast evolving industry,” Mr Khan said.

“Relationships however will always be the core of our business. Our technology and habits all have to work towards building relationships. We are very fortunate that some of our best performers in the Ray White network presented to us their success stories and know-how.”

Ray White Surfers Paradise sales agent Lana Faulkner (pictured above) said her main takeaway was that by fully embracing the Ray White brand, utilising the network, and leveraging NurtureCloud's resources “we can create a culture of calling and level up the business.”

Ray White Dalkeith | Claremont sales agent Emma Milner (pictured above) said she was nervous coming to the conference as she didn’t know many people.

“But I was greeted and taken into the fold the second I walked into the welcome drinks by my fellow Ray White colleagues from around Australia and New Zealand. The networking has been absolutely amazing, with me asking so many questions of everyone I’ve spoken to. My colleagues have been willing to help and share any information they have to help build my business,” Ms Milner said.

“The biggest takeaway is that I need to work on developing a team. Rebecca Cuderman and Ibrahim Merjan have given me the tools to start looking for the perfect team members.

“The artificial intelligence session was also incredible information that will assist us in running a better business while giving us back more time due to the efficiency and intelligence of the suggested apps.

“Alex Tilbury and her marketing reach and PR strategies and how she can apply this for us to benefit our PR and media spread was also a critical part of the presentation. Branding is everything and she is an asset there for us to utilise which is another feather in the Ray White cap.”

Ray White Paddington sales agent Max Hadgelias (pictured above) rated this Ray White Elite Conference in Port Douglas as another awesome event. “Getting insights from some of the best is a great way to reflect and review our own businesses.”

Ray White Inner West sales agent Tina O’Connor (pictured above) said she really enjoyed the conference and the sunshine. “One of my key takeaways was to use AI more in my business. The best part for me was listening to how Luke O'Kelly completely turned his business around in nine months. It was a great opportunity to learn and connect with professionals in the field.”

Ray White Burleigh Group Principal Tiger Malan (pictured above) said he always enjoyed catching up with other like minded people. “Conferences like this give me a chance to get other perspectives on my problems or opportunities from people who understand but are objective. It was great to get the future roadmap for NurtureCloud directly from Michal Kot - you can see how excited he is by the product. I had the most fun at the pool bar unwinding with my Elites, not talking about work.”

Ray White Inverloch Principal Fiona McMahon-Hughes (pictured above) said she loved the Elite conference. “What a line up of amazing people sharing their knowledge. I especially loved the AI session and where we can take that into our business. Thanks Ray White for bringing us all together.”

Ray White Lara Principal Jo Boothroyd (pictured above) said the Elite Performers’ Conference 2023 was an opportunity to network with great people walking the same path, dealing with similar challenges and listening to the best of the best present their journeys.

“The best take away for me was the Leading Teams Workshop with Craig Hughes, he made me think about my team and how I could improve some of my behaviours to get the best from my people. Oh and the White Family definitely knows how to throw a party.”

Bronwyn Scott-Woods (pictured above) of Ray White Titirangi in Auckland said the conference had been incredible and so well run. “It was such a good opportunity to network with some of the most successful agents in the business. My main takeaway was to lead by example, to model the behaviour you expect from those around you and also how committed Ray White is to providing us with the tools to succeed,” she said.

Brynja Bell (pictured above) of Ray White Mt Maunganui said she enjoyed conversations with like minded peers within the industry. “I loved hearing about what drives them, what works and what doesn’t, lessons learned and successes. The networking, and of course the stunning venue and weather. The conference sessions have been motivating and empowering,” she said.

“As a property manager for more than 20 years, it’s been incredible to achieve Elite success in my own right, and to connect with brilliant and dynamic professionals here at Port Douglas. What a rewarding opportunity.”