The keynote speaker at the event was Mat Steinwede, who spoke about caring and authenticity when delivering services to real estate clients.
The Announcement:
It was back to the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground for Melbourne’s iconic real estate brand, Barry Plant, for the group’s annual Kickstart event this year. Attended by hundreds of principals, sales agents and property management business development managers, the sessions were focused on sharing tactics to build success in the year ahead.
Keynote speaker was high profile agent Mat Steinwede, who rarely takes speaking engagements these days, delivering a powerful session that clearly resonated with every person in attendance. Freshly appointed Barry Plant COO, Lisa Pennell, said his presentation really hit the mark.
“Mat’s was a starkly different message to the type usually delivered at these types of events. While many businesses in our industry are turning their attention to PropTech as a means to success, Mat’s message focused on the importance of caring and authenticity when delivering services to real estate clients and really reflected the group’s lived values,” Ms Pennell said.
She added that while the use of effective technology is increasingly important in the real estate space as in all sectors, “those who want to survive and thrive going forward should never forget that real estate is a people business and that relationships, built on trust, are everything.”
It was Ms Pennell’s first major event since joining Barry Plant in December and she was amazed by the energy.
“I’ve attended a lot of these types of events over the past two decades, but I’ve never seen that level of excitement and genuine enthusiasm for change. The Barry Plant team heard real truths from real people and embraced it,” she said.
The second session was a panel of home-grown Barry Plant agents – Ghizlaine Digby, Caleb Venneri and Hayley Taufa – all inaugural members of the Barry Plant Pinnacle Club for high achievers. They have all very quickly built amazing success, but all of them have travelled quite different roads to get to where they are.
Ghizlaine Digby, who works at Barry Plant Gladstone Park, has built her high profile in just five years. She believes if you look after yourself and put out good energy – then good energy is what you will get back. While she sets goals she also “wings it”, letting her highly tuned intuition guide her.
Caleb Venneri, from Barry Plant Essendon, launched his solo sales career in October 2020 and within a year his success grew to the point where he hired a PA and doubled his business. He believes there’s a great interconnection between brands and agents, with a respected brand providing the reassurance to open the initial discussion with a prospective client, while the agent delivers their own unique experience.
Hayley Taufa, from Barry Plant Berwick, commenced her career in real estate in March 2021 and in September 2022 won the Barry Plant Rising Star award as well as topping the list for gross commission. The mother of six children, real estate is Hayley’s second career after achieving great success over many years in the retail sector. She believes in always having a “why” and hers is providing for her family. She always asks for the business and isn’t afraid to have tough conversations.
Barry Plant CEO, Mike McCarthy, said there was tremendous value for agents in hearing from their peers. “Listening to three of our own, who have built sensational careers very quickly, was just gold for the newer agents,” he said.
He added that the event was a great success and that he believed the lessons taken away from today will see Barry Plant agents build their market share in this challenging market.
Source: Barry Plant Group
