A sell-out crowd of 200 property managers from around Australia descended on the Marriott at Surfers Paradise yesterday for the 15th annual PPM Conference.
The event was jump started with the electric Amanda Gore, who blends the science of EQ, Positive Psychology, Neuroscience, Epigenetics with a frank and hilarious presentation about mindset. Amanda challenged delegates to be more aware of the thoughts and feelings which, once repeated, become our mindset.
In the property management space, where many are struggling with stress, Amanda’s message was to re-frame stress as a biological reaction designed to enhance performance when it is most needed.
The message of mind over matter was an important theme of the day, with delegates John and Mary Sdregas of JMRE North Melbourne, describing day one as, “professionals educating us on performance and growth within our industry and ourselves.”
Amy Sanderson on LJ Hooker said, ‘My takeaways from day one are it isn’t necessarily what you do or how you do it, but the energy you apply to it, as Amanda Gore said.”
The notion of property managers having the luxury of time to contemplate their existence and value was also a prevalent theme. Property management veteran and conference MC Malcom Riley said, “I think PM is on the edge of a new era and in business, I think the disruptors and technology have had their air time, and it’s now to look at solutions.”
“The messages are starting to address the value that we can provide as property managers and how our roles and services might change to focus on value and profitable activities.”
A more balanced focus on the value of humanity and technology was brought to life in Martyn Rogers’ presentation on ‘The Perfect Property Manager’. In a world where the same technology and products are accessible to everyone, Martyn said: “Our single competitive edge is our people.” A specialist in pre-employment testing and interview, Martyn analysed the different predictive factors that could help place the right person in the right role based on a combination of skills and ability, behavioural testing and personality profiling.
There was also fantastic day-to-day tactical advice from a panel of property management experts, including Katie Knight from Remax Success. Katie urged property managers to get off email as much as possible, to learn from sales dialogue, embrace negative feedback on social media, only pay for your mistakes once adding that discipline is the only way to access freedom.
For BDMs, Tammy Hutchinson of McGrath in Port Macquarie who said, “Don’t just have a database, have a system to use it.” For Tammy, this means developing a plan of what content to send to whom and at which time. The integrated value chain between sales and property management was a common denominator of success across a panel on growth. Lauren Robinson of Rental Results, a specialised property management business, outlined how she used LinkedIn to leverage sales referrals from outside of her organisation, in the absence of a sales team.
Day one wrapped up with an outstanding and intelligent presentation from Apmasphere’s Jodie Stainton called ‘The Baseline”. The concept of a baseline is to establish a future vision, identify key goals and to create the strategy map that will progress a business from where it might be today towards where it needs to be tomorrow.
Jodie talked about a variety of strategies demonstrating that strategy is about choosing the best course of action, and compromising in other areas, to ensure that an organisation and it’s people are aligned and doing the right thing for the right reasons.
Conference organiser and Director of PPM Group Debbie Palmer said that “Day one has been received very positively by the delegates and I have seen the speakers react to the high level of engagement from people who have come here committed to a process of listening and learning. It is very difficult to resist the energy of Amanda Gore, and I think that she set the tone for an uplifting day across all of the sessions.”
