We Are Selling with Lee Woodward

Stack the Deck in Your Favour with Emily Morgan

• Realtair • Season 1 • Episode 87

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The special guest, Emily Morgan, Head of Growth for EXP Australia and New Zealand, shares her personal journey from being a real estate salesperson to her current role. She highlights the significance of maintaining a healthy mindset in the real estate profession and the importance of listening, empathy, and feedback in supporting agents during challenging times.



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Lee Woodward:

Hello and welcome to the podcast We Are Selling. Brought to you by RealTear, the home of pitch, sign, and sell. This week we're moving away from our prospecting, listing, vendor management, buyer management, and we're going to talk about you and your brain and your management of you. And as a real estate sales professional, we serve everyone. And however, sometimes we forget to serve ourselves. And I think over these last five years, we've learnt so many lessons about protecting your mind. What do you do? And how do you keep that sanity as we look after people in one of the most testing times of their life when they are moving? And in my observation, with working with so many real estate salespeople, a real estate salesperson is a giver. Every day they're giving, I'll be there, I'll I'll make sure the marketing's done, I'm popping over to see you now, I'll meet you on Sunday, that's okay. And we'll meet the building inspector as well, who's your Uncle Bob, and we just keep on going. And as great real estate sales professionals, if you are a giver, that could be your strength. However, the biggest weakness is people take advantage of it. And we've got to know how to keep ourselves together, and as real estate sales professionals, as a community, uh have this topic as we go through all the changes of our industry. So today I have a special guest. Joining me is the head of growth for EXP Australia and New Zealand, and she happens to be a Kiwi living here in Australia. Please welcome Emily Morgan.

SPEAKER_01:

Thanks for having me.

Lee Woodward:

Now, Emily, you've been a real estate salesperson, you've then gone out and done your own real estate business, and now you're right at the top of the chart helping all agents. Tell us about your new role. What are you doing?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, I am now the head of growth for all of Australasia actually, so Australia and New Zealand combined. And for me, Lee, it's possibly the best job that any person could ever have because I get to help people every single day to have a better life and have a better business.

Lee Woodward:

Emily, when you're a real estate salesperson, and just for some background for our agents, when did you stop selling the actual process of real estate?

SPEAKER_01:

I guess I've been uh over the last fifteen years I've sort of fluctuated in and out, and I know that that doesn't make sense, but there's been different periods uh within my life that has required me to go back in and start selling again. One of those times was when I did uh connect to EXP very early days, and that was really just to create social proof that hey, this is amazing and it works.

Lee Woodward:

Now, Emily, on our topic today of we're in sales and service, but the the salespeople can get exhausted, they're drained, uh we've got single mums running around selling real estate, we've got kids, we've got families, but there's all so much going on. You've got over 220 agents now that you're supporting. What's your observation of how people can best manage themselves in a real estate sales professional life, especially for those that are working in isolation and not around uh 20 people at all given times?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, firstly, I think that sometimes potentially working in somewhat isolation can be a little bit better. It just depends on who you are. Personally, I've found that it really has worked for me. I get a lot more work done because I don't have those 20 people coming and tapping me on the shoulder or wanting to go for a coffee or asking me questions about the office. But it is really important to look after yourself first. And I think that a lot of us put ourselves, particularly when we're parents or when we have very busy careers, we put ourselves on the back burner and we forget that if we don't look after ourselves, our health, and our minds more importantly, then it we can't actually be in service or help anybody else. It's absolutely vital. We always need to be continuing to work on ourselves, keep showing up, learning, growing. I read a lot of books, I ask for a lot of feedback. It isn't always pleasant, um, but uh it's a part of my growth. You know, I'm even going across to America soon, just between you and I and everybody who's listening, I'm petrified of flying, particularly that long, but I know that that's the next phase of my personal growth in order to be able to service other people. I'm going to EXPCon. It's a huge, massive conference. If you can imagine that every single person there is um connected to EXP, we'll probably be at 100,000 agents um by early next year. But just being around those people who have already grown those huge teams, helping people to have hugely better lives, helping them to have phenomenal businesses. And I want to help more people here across Australasia to have what they have already created. So in order to do that, I'll be in the same room as them, learning from them.

Lee Woodward:

That is an enormous amount of real estate agents, a hundred thousand.

SPEAKER_01:

I know.

Lee Woodward:

I was blessed I did the interview with Glenn, uh the founder of EXP, only a couple of weeks ago and doing some research for yourselves. And just an amazing human. I I'd love his mental thinking. Uh but I don't think I've interviewed anyone like that before at that level who's created so much. And when I look at that, I look at all the agents on the ground here that you're now here supporting. Just for our listeners who do go through those darker times and things aren't good at the moment, I haven't got my listings on I'm trying to pull everything back together. How are you best supporting them and what do you feel they what what's the the way through for the agents? What gets them through those different times?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I actually you might you you'll probably laugh at this or smile, but I often say that most of the coaching that I do is mindset because people will often know what to say. They will often know what to do and they often have this in their diary. But something in between the knowing what they have to do and the doing stops them. And that's the part that I want to discover because once you help them to shift that everything else can flow for them. And until that is shifted, there most certainly will be a bit of a block. And so one of the major, major things that I do is listen not not to respondly, but to listen to what they're actually telling me they need. And that's really important.

Lee Woodward:

And I think what's really important in what you're saying there is that they do reach out and do talk to you. Whereas maybe a challenge out there is people don't reach out and talk or they don't feel they've got someone they can talk to. I know myself in coaching, yep, the technique side of it's important, and that keeps that inspiration going. And you know, I I've got people that are very, very talented, but sometimes you just get bored with their own words, their own thinking, and and need some stimulation, and then that's and then there's that moment where they'll say, Oh, by the way, uh, this is going on in my life at the moment as well, and you're like, Okay, that's um that's a lot to deal with at the moment. Uh how are you coping with that? And I think we've all got to learn to sometimes flip the switch, because as you do go into those lounge rooms, you do go into those negotiations, you are representing the consumer. They count, and we've got to flip the switch, detach from our own life and being, and be that agent in sales and service for them.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely, but we're all human beings, and so every single person is going through something or has a story that you know nothing about. Um, and so I always say to people, just be kind. Just just be kind. Try and understand, you know, even if somebody is upset and you can't work out what you've done to upset them, it may not be you. You know, just try and be understanding of other people around you. And you know, if someone's upset with me, Lee, I often think, I wonder what's going on for them right now as to why this is coming out. And that's a very different way of looking at somebody yelling at you or uh or or hurling a bit of a uh abuse at you. But you know, um yes, I always maintain an open door. People know that they can come and talk to me about absolutely everything. Um and most importantly, not just their their personal and private lives, but they also know that I'm open to feedback. And that's probably one of the biggest things that the agents have have told me is that in their past lives at other agencies or businesses, they've never felt like they were allowed to give feedback on how the actual business could be bettered.

Lee Woodward:

Emily, so powerful. And one thing that I've noticed in your work, and obviously you are a Kiwi in Australia, head of growth, but you've got to go back to New Zealand now in order to uh do your second role over there. Um how many kids do you have?

SPEAKER_01:

You can you just uh see me giving my um my uh mum eye in the uh camera there the I have four. One is two years old. Uh two of them are eighteen and one is twelve. So, you know, uh who knows what will happen next um next decade, because I like to sort of start again each decade. But um I actually believe that that's life. For me, there there was no other path forward. Um, and that's actually why I chose real estate, because I like to say that I I put everything around my big rocks, and my big rocks are my husband and my children. And so everything else has to work around that. Uh real estate has always worked for me because it wasn't 8 30 till 5 30, Monday to Friday, and if I had to go and watch a show on stage, I could, or if one of my children was sick, I didn't have that person at the other end of the phone being upset with me because one of my children was sick and I couldn't come into the office. And so it was vital for me to be able to build something special but around them.

Lee Woodward:

Emily, it's interesting for everyone listening to this right now because everyone's at different stages. And and life's about timing. And sometimes I know when I'm giving advice to someone, I'll I I have to pause myself and think, hang on a minute, how did I think at 28 before I give this incredible advice to this young person who may, in some people's eyes, be about to make a mistake or take a risk or whatever it is, and I think, how what what was I thinking at 28? What was I thinking at 30? What was I thinking at 40? And I I think it's a really important point because life is about timing, and I just really loved how you explained that real estate would work around the family versus the other way around, which is you know, you're a busy mum, you you you've got a lot going on. But interesting enough, I've had a lot of principals join you, and that was really interesting for me that you know there's so many options to be a real estate agent in so many different scenarios in Australia, there is no um shortage of options. But the principals that were attracted to come over and run their business with you, and Chris Jansen just comes to mind because I looked after him since he was a kid, and then he had his own real estate business, and then i I I I lost him for a moment, and then he's popped back on the scene, which is really exciting. But I gotta say, I've never seen him happier. Uh he's fallen back in love with his real estate career. What's your observation on that?

SPEAKER_01:

It's chalk and cheese, isn't it? Um, because I love that you say he's never been happier. The smile on that guy is just he grins. He grins. But you know what? He also no longer he's making more and he's keeping more. He has more time to spend with his wife and his family. He just got back from a year nearly on the road with his family, and the only reason they came back is because they were adding to the family, um, which is amazing. And I don't blame the guy for being, you know, hugely happy. He no longer has the risks, the overheads, or any of the stress that goes with being a traditional principal owning a real estate office. And I don't think he'd go back and change it at all. You're right, so many principals uh are finding not only freedom but the the longevity, the oh, I can retire. I've got something here that's going to be ongoing. That's huge.

Lee Woodward:

Very much so. Well, Emily Morgan, we are absolutely blessed to have you on the programme today. We always look for our next intellectual thinker and to have someone like yourself, and perfect topic for you today. Like you are busy, you are juggling, you are, but you've made real estate work around what you need to do, which is a really big eye-opener for everyone listening today, is make this stack the deck in your favour. Uh becomes a really interesting part of what you do, but look after your mental health, breathe, and remember, this is still just work, it's not life itself. But if you can make it work, real estate is the greatest career in the world. Emily, thank you for joining us, and good luck in the States.

SPEAKER_01:

Thanks for having me, Lee.