Alex Tincknell: from zero experience to real estate principal - how he built Elders Real Estate Redlands

In ep 18 of Raising the Bar, George Sourris from Empire Legal sits down with Alex Tincknell from Elders Real Estate Redlands.

Alex’s journey into Queensland real estate is anything but typical. From running a family business managing large scale council grass slashing contracts to opening a real estate agency with zero real estate experience, he’s built a fast growing business grounded in trust, systems and long term thinking.

We cover:

- The journey: how Alex went from running a family grass slashing business to becoming a principal real estate agent with no prior industry experience, why he chose real estate and his top tips for anyone thinking about starting their own agency.

- Transitional skills: what carried across from the family business into real estate, the role he played before making the switch and why drive and competitiveness have been key to his success.

- Authenticity and consistency: the foundations of Alex’s approach to business, why playing the long game matters and how being genuine builds trust, relationships and a strong reputation in the market.

Contact Alex: https://redlands.eldersrealestate.com.au/team/alex-tincknell/
Follow us on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/empirelegal/
More podcast episodes: https://empirelegal.com.au/podcast/
Check out our blogs: https://empirelegal.com.au/blog/
Website: https://empirelegal.com.au/

Transcript

Alright. Back for another Raising The Bar podcast episode. You got Alex Tincknell from Elders in the Redlands with us today. Hey mate. 

Hey George. How you going? 

Good. Thank you for taking the time to come in.

We've got a good episode planned today. Yep. Got a couple of talking points. Yep.

And we're going to see where it goes. 

I'm really excited.

Mate. Fun fact, you were involved in your family business, doing council slashing, like mowing contracts in the Redlands - is that correct?

Welcome to the Raising the Bar podcast, where we story tell excellence in Queensland Property. I'm your host, George Sourris from Empire Legal. 

 Yeah, we were the main contractor for Redland City Council. We had 25 staff and uh, we were mowing, it was like something like a hundred thousand acres a month or something crazy.

Yeah. 

No worries. Just a hundred thousand acres. 

Yeah, it was full on, yeah. 

Including the Bay Islands?

Yeah. So I wasn't too involved in that side. They do all the Bay Islands, and dad opened up a separate business doing the roads for Redland City. 

Huh. 

And he'd been operating for 12 years.

I finished uni, did my business law degree, and then I said, what are you doing with this business? He said, oh, I'm, you know, probably going to wind it down soon. And I thought, you know, why don't we wind it up? And um, so I went there and I was there for eight years. Yeah. 

Wow. And we'll get into that in a bit.

Mm-hmm. And then, so you went from there to real estate. 

Yeah, well actually I didn't really leave it, I was still doing it at the same time. Yeah. So doing both - the old side hustle. 

Yeah, that was sort of my springboard. 

Yep. Okay. Alright, we'll park that there and we'll pick it up in just a tick. So it's pretty interesting.

So you had basically no real estate exposure when you went into the real estate industry. Is that pretty fair to say? 

In terms of the business processes and like listing selling - no. But what I did have was I bought three residential properties, um, and I bought our commercial office before I opened.

But no, other than that was pretty fresh. Okay. 

So buying, no selling experience. 

Yeah, so I was from on the, uh, the customer side not necessarily the service side. 

Okay. And then we blink And you're the principal of a real estate agency? 

Yep. We Cool. Yeah, literally, um, signed a five year franchise agreement.

Yep. Purchased a commercial office, fitted it out, opened the doors, had a big opening party. And on The first day I'd never sold a property and never managed a rental. 

That right there. That's a pitch, man. That's cool. That's cool. We're going to work through that. 

Mm-hmm. 

So Raising the Bar, you're here because the whole purpose of this podcast is to story tell excellence in Queensland property.

Yep. 

Mate, we think you're pretty excellent. Thank you. The fact that you appreciate that open a real estate agency, that's how many years you've been trading now? 

Be seven years in July. 

Beautiful. Seven years down the track. Empire's eight. So similar age. Mm-hmm. And you've built something pretty special out there mate.

Can I just say that Empire Legal is something special too? 

Thank you. And that you give everyone a shout out. But you and Abi deserve massive pat on the back, because you guys are dominating conveyancing. I got burnt with a couple of different conveyancers and so I'm not referring anyone anymore.

You guys have now done three properties for me in the last 12 months. Properties for my family, properties for all my clients, customers. So thank you guys for that. 

Thanks mate. I remember. Thank you. That's, yeah, it's refreshing. When we first met, I remember you saying, I don't refer anyone. And I'm like, man, what?

Like you just haven't met the right people yet. 

Yeah, a hundred percent. Because for me it was all about whoever I refer is a reflection of my own integrity, my own service, my expectations. And as soon as you said, well, we only give five star service, I said, well, we're on the same page. 

Yeah. Yeah. It's funny, I say to everybody, like I say this Empire Legal, this is a representation of me.

So anyone I refer has to go through that filter of - are they going to do a good job for my people? And is this a good thing for my brand? 

A hundred percent. 

And if it's not, then I'm not referring them. 

A hundred percent. 

And I think that's why we're mates as well, mate. Because I think our core values, 

yeah, pretty much on every front.

Yeah. 

Directly align. 

I think our reputation's more important than one more dollar or one more customer. 

Oh, a hundred percent. It's a long game. It's a long Do the right thing. Don't rip people off. I say this on my podcast all the time. 

Yeah. 

If you can hang your hat on the hook at night 

Yeah. 

And you sleep easy.

Yeah. 

You're doing a good thing. 

Yeah. But I think a lot of people talk the talk. 

Yeah. 

But you have to have evidence and you need to categorically walk the walk. You actually have to give good service. And not leave a trail of destruction, which is I think what we have in common. We are very big on making sure that that's not what happens.

Well mate, that's why you're sitting in this seat. 

Yeah. Appreciate it. 

Let's see if we can literally raise the bar on this industry. 

Sounds good. 

Alright, so we've got three main questions we're going to dive into. Yep. And we'll basically wrap up with a couple of mini questions. Mm-hmm. And that should do us.

Sounds good. Love it. 

All right. Question one is all about your journey. And we touched on this. So going from working in the family business, I guess I want you to talk through just quickly what that was like. Yeah. High level stuff. I know we spoke off camera before about the growth that you achieved working with your folks and all of that.

What I want to get at is those transitional skills into real estate, as not only a selling agent, but a principal. 

Yep. Okay. Well, a bit of a quick recap to give some context. When I joined that business, they had about 14 staff. We were mowing all the contracts for roadsides in the City of Redlands.

I joined dad, and at the time dad had three or four managers in place. My number one goal was like total domination. I want to learn how to run this business. I want to make it the biggest, best grass cutting business in Australia. You know, I want to win contracts, I want to win all the contracts in Redlands, Brisbane, Logan, Gold Coast.

I just started studying everyone. Fast forward, um, I won all the contracts in Redlands. By the end of the second year, I actually got rid of all the management staff. It was just me managing it. Then I doubled the business. I won all the parks. And overnight we went from 14 staff to 25 to 30 staff.

I was the only manager. And basically started putting people in place. And then we had all our contracts come up for the next five years. All in one hit. And, uh my now wife, brought her in the business, got her to run the accounts because she had a degree in accounting. We were running it all.

And then we waited seven months, and found out that we won it all back for five years. And from that point, I then went, okay, great. We're good now. But I loved that competition of tendering and winning and winning the work. But the council took so long, seven months that dad said, Alex, I think you need to look at other businesses.

I had purchased three rental properties and thought, you know what I really love this game of property management, but I don't think anyone's doing it very well. 

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember when we first met mate, that was actually the conversation we had was you scratching your own itch. I forgot about that. Yeah. For property management. Yes. Yes. 

And so I hired some good staff, put them in place, and we opened up Elders. And on the premise that, you know, we, I, every property I bought, I bought undervalue. And actually felt sorry for the sellers because I could see that all of them, I was paying at least $50,000 below market value.

The agents didn't care. 

Yeah. Wow. 

One agent in particular, I bought a house, and they hadn't advertised it well at all. They couldn't answer any questions about the property. And when we sent back the signed contract, he said, oh, we were all cheering in the office. I was like, cheering for me as the buyer?

Oh no. 

But long story short, that property, the owners in 2007 had purchased it for $670,000. 

Mm-hmm. 

I bought in 2017, 10 years later for $695k. 

Wow. 

And they had tidied it up, renovated. They did not make a dollar on that property. And. Like undersold completely, like you're 

saying. It was completely, it was worth $750k all day. 

Yeah. Wow. 

And it was like a no brainer.

10% under.

And I just think for me, I looked at the commissions being paid, the type of business it was, the amount of service I was giving, cutting grass and thought, no, there's huge opportunity here. 

Yeah. 

People are not happy. The industry has such a bad reputation.

Let's have a crack. 

Why property? B ecause you love property? You said you bought some investment properties and stuff and you obviously liked that process. Winning, getting it cheap or...? 

No, it goes way deeper. Um. I grew up from that, you know, that old school mentality of like, get into property, buy a property, have investment properties.

The old Italian playbook. 

Yeah. Right. Greeks have the exact same, same 

playbook. Yeah. 

And I was reading every property investment book when I was 17, 18. I didn't even have a job yet. 

Wow. 

When I left uni it was like my number one priority - to just get into a property. And ended buying a little property over on Russell Island, which is where mum and dad some of their businesses are.

Brainwashed from being a child mate. Yeah. Just buy a property. Buy property, but it's 

only $200,000 and I could put a tenant in it, you know? 

Yeah. Straight off the bat. How old, if you don't mind me asking, were you when you bought your first property? 

About 19, I think 18-19. Oh man. 

Yeah. 

Wow. That's very young.

I've always been very good with money, saving and, always wanting to invest it and, but also had a lot of help too, so can't take all the credit. My parents are phenomenal.

Mate. Same. My parents helped me get in my first property. We’re very lucky in that regard with the family values and stuff. 

Yeah. 

But here's a point. Mate, you're not buying a house in New Farm as your first property. No. But you bought a house on Russell Island as your first property. Yeah. Which is neat. You know, I think that's something for the listeners out there.

You don't get your dream property first. No. Like really? No. You don't. Like we talk about now that people of our vintage, some own property, some don't. 

Yeah. 

And the ones that don't, that maybe grew up around this area. 

Yeah. 

As in, um, the Bayside. 

Yeah. 

They want to live in that area, but, you know, things are expensive now, and maybe, maybe it's not property one or even property two, that gets them into that dream location. 

Absolutely. I mentor a lot of people who are younger and have a lot of these sorts of conversations. And I always just say to work to your strengths. I say to them if you've got any trade, if you're a chippy, electrician, you know anyone that can do work.

Do not buy a new home. 

Yeah. 

Buy a cheaper older home. Fix it up, create equity. You're either going to have a nice house that you've fixed up, or you've got a future rental you can bounce off. Or you can capitalize on the equity, buy a bigger, better home, hopefully have dual income.

Or for other people, I say just zero in on the deposit, figure out what's in your affordability range and will also suit your long term goals. So many people think short term, you got to think long term. 

Yeah, it's a long game. 

And then use that as a stepping stone. I'm always very future focused. I'm always building long term, long term, always working for tomorrow, which obviously has helped me a lot.

Yeah. Looking five years down the path or 10 years down the path, I think people get so caught up in the day to day. But if you don't have that longer term vision, you don't really know what you're working towards as well, I feel. 

No, no. And then a lot of people go around in circles. They save up the deposit, go on holiday, or they finally get into the house and they go, oh, I don't like it for this reason or that reason.

And they don't know why they're there. They're bouncing around a lot rather than - life's up and down, but if you have some long-term goal, then it will eventually be a bit of a upwards trajectory. 

It's certainly a trend I see with guests on the podcast with things like: having a good calendar, goal setting, not only short-term goal setting, but medium and long-term goal setting.

It's super cliche. 

Mm. 

But we don't need to reinvent the wheel. 

I don't think it is cliche though. I think it's a fact of life that if you don't set big goals and go after them, you're probably going to go around in circles. And you see people chop and change all the time for their twenties and thirties and then they ah, finally figure out in their forties.

No, they don't figure it out. They just finally have something they really want. 

Yeah. Yeah. Which is usually a goal. 

It's that old saying, you know, the ship with no course just sort of sails around aimlessly and doesn't get anywhere. 

Yeah. Understand. 

Certainly not where it wants to go.

Because it doesn't even know where it wants to go. Yeah. 

I'm so big on that. 

Look, we could talk mindset. I know we we're both very, very big on this. Let's dive back into the family business. All right. So you are there, you're growing it, you've got the bug for property, you bought a few properties.

Yeah. Let's just spend the next five minutes on creating your agency. Yeah. And then let's link up those skills. Yeah. And we'll move on to point 2. 

Beautiful. So yeah. Day one - opened up no skills, no experience, but like a deep insatiable desire to make it work. 

Yes. 

Um, and probably, uh, naive confidence that, you know, I could, I, I was instantly going to have this impact and make this big dent because I had my business law degree.

You know, I had already bought property. 

And you've, you've built the family business, so you've probably come off the back of having a bit of wind in your sails. Well, that's right man. We're, we're, we're kicking butt here. Yeah. Like, we're doing good stuff. I'm going to go do real estate now. 

Exactly. Like the five years worth of work was, we're talking over $10 million worth of contract work, so locked in.

So you're like, all right dad, you take care of this. I'm going to go give real estate a crack. Well, or you were still involved. 

Yeah. So day one of running, opening the agency, I'm still working full time, six days a week in the other business, and I would turn up at 6:00am, get the day ready, 6.30am, run my toolbox talk to 6:45am, 6:45am to 7:00am, get the boys out, make sure they're all off cutting grass.

Because as Dad always says, if the blades aren't spinning, we're not making any money. Then from 7:00am to 8:00am I would follow up my emails, make sure everything's happening. I might induct a new staff member or maybe even run some interviews. And then 8:00am to 9:30am would go out, do checks, have meetings with council, and at 10:00am I'd pull into the office at Elders and I'd go from there from 10am, to 6, 7, 8 pm whatever. I just stayed until pretty much I ran out of gas.

No kids yet. 

No kids yet. 

Yep. Okay. 

Yeah. 

Wife still working in the family business as well? Yeah. Both. Doing all the accounts for both.  

Both. Okay. Yeah.

So she's a machine in her own right too. Uh, 

Taylor. Taylor and now she's a mum of three, so 

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. No un undeniable that Taylor - couldn't have done it without her.

In the first few years she really took care of property management side of things. Because I quickly found out that, just being an agent, it's not as simple as it sounds.  

My goal was property management. But to grow a property management agency, you need a sales team to bring the leads in, and a lot of people go with the agency that they buy off.

Yes. So then quickly I sort of said, okay, well hang on. I need to do sales, I need to build a sales team. So yeah, long story short, we were just busting our asses. And we did that for three years. Three years, six days a week. Burnt out multiple times and then reached a point where I realised that working harder wasn't the answer.

So you are mid twenties at this point, right? So you're roughly 

mid twenties? I've been at about 26. Yeah. So probably about 28, 29. So in that three years of doing both, my first year I sold four properties.

Second year sold 12 properties, and then I kind of capped out. And by the end of the third year, I did the same as the previous year, but I hadn't really grown, and I felt like I was giving it my absolute all in both businesses, six, seven days a week. You couldn't work harder.

Okay. Yeah. You could not work harder. Yeah. You're flogging yourself. there was not more time in the day. Yeah. Let alone having a life. 

Yeah. And I delegated, I'd hired, I'd done everything I could, but just reached that point where it wasn't, I, I, I was giving 70% to each business, and both I wanted to give 110% and so I had to make a decision to, I pick one.

Yeah. 

Okay. And that business was successful. 

Yep. 

You know, that was going to give me and my family a great life. 

The slashing business you're talking about. Like if I just hang out here, like, we're locked in for five years. We're growing. Yeah. I buy, we're winning contracts. 

Yep. Yep. I, I know it backwards.

Yeah. I, I've done my 10,000 hours. Yeah. I'm an expert in this field. But I chose property. Because it's what I'm passionate about. Because it's what I wake up and will want to do. It doesn't feel like working. 

You can smell it on you from a mile away, mate. Yeah. You can, if you just get on your socials or anyone that's interacted with you or your team, you can pick it. 

Yeah. 

And in this short amount of time, I think you've attracted good talent.

I think about the area as well, like traditionally out that way, the Redlands, they'd call it like the "Dead-lands" and it's, you know, it's, yeah. It's old people and it's dry.

Well, it's really not. I don't agree with that. 

Yeah, no, no. It's, but that was the stigma, right? Yeah. That was the stigma. And it's certainly, it's certainly not that, and it's nice to see, refreshing young blood in the industry that, that cares. 

Yeah. 

Because there's lots of cowboys that, you know, they'll talk the talk and they'll walk the walk and all that sort of jazz.

But man, we've had so many conversations about, you know. Old people, like people that are going to downsize into a retirement home, for example, just getting stitched up. 

Oh. Big time. 

And then, and it's just, it breaks my heart and it's horrible. Yeah. And it's just, it's not on, you know? Yeah. But people following the shiny object and ending up in a really bad position.

And we've even spoken about you telling people maybe this isn't the right move and you shouldn't sell. Because you're not chasing the commission. It's not commission breath. It's like - you're a person and you have, there is, we have to do what's best for you. And if I don't win this business, that's actually okay.

Yeah. 

Because it's a, it's a long game. It's a big world. Yeah. And you can hang your hat on the hook at the end of the day. 

It's one of the hardest things in real estate. Because a lot of people get into real estate with good intentions. And what happens is, is over time they just get beaten.

And what I mean by that is, other agents come in, they lie and they tell them owners high prices and that it'll be easy and just fluff it and get the business. So the hard part is merging the what needs to be said to win the business, but also the truth and the reality of the situation.

And if they trust you, and they can see that you're authentic and honest and that you're trying to do the best by them, then you win the business. The good thing with that is you're holding the other agents accountable. 

Go on. 

Because when the other agents win the business and they have told a few furphies to get it, they now need to actually prove that what they said was true.

And now they might jag it once in a while and get an easy one and sell it, and off they go. But ultimately we're talking about raising the bar. Well, it means that also, you know, holding yourself to a standard that you're prepared to lose business in the pursuit of making sure the whole industry is getting better.

So every appraisal I do, if I'm giving the honest, raw, authentic truth to my clients, even if they don't go with me, they now have that information, and that makes them more powerful, and it's improving the industry as a whole. 

You've armed them with some tools as well. A hundred percent. For example, you think, say properties around, say the $1m, $1.1m mark for example, old mate down the road's like, I'm going to get you an easy $1.3m.

I've already got a buyer lined up. 

Yeah. And then you're like, okay, well I'm not just going to tell you that because I don't believe that's the honest to god truth. So off you go, go over there if that's what you want to do. And when he can't sell it for $1.3m, I'll be here and I'm waiting. 

Yeah. But I'm not salty about it.

Yeah. I mean if and if you can get $1.3m for it, mate, great. You snagged a winner and on, on your go. But that's not your style of business. Yeah. And you said, my favorite word and I harbor on about this, the T word - trust. 

Yeah. 

Business is built on trust. 

Yeah. 

Good business is built on trust. 

Well, I'm teaching my whole team in every situation, in every scenario, take the high road. Take the moral high ground, you'll never lose.

Even if a seller goes, oh, you know, you guys are trying to undersell my property. It's like, if the other agent can get you that price I'm so happy for you. You're raising the price of the area. I own property in this area. It's good for me too.

But I also don't want you to be disappointed with a three month campaign, $3,000- $4,000 in marketing down the drain, and no sale.

Sometimes we get people kick back, and it's not that we tell people low prices. Sometimes we tell them high prices and they're shocked. Good example, this week, this couple have been on market for 130 days. They call me in, they said the agent told us we'd get $1.5 million.

We sat on market for six weeks, nothing. Then he dropped us to $1.4m. You know, now we've been on market 130 days, no offers. Like, what do we do, Alex? He, he's going to bring one more buy through on Friday. I said, okay, your property was never worth $1.5m. And I explained to them. The characteristics of their property, the size, the dimensions, what's recently sold, it was worth about $1.3m-$1.4m.

Mm-hmm. And they'd killed the market going on market $1.5m. But that agent in our area is notorious for overpricing and then getting reductions. 

Yeah. Gross. 

So I said to them, 

gross way of doing business. 

Yeah. Terrible. 

Personally, I just think it's gross. 

So without sort of, you know, hanging him out to dry, I said that this is a style of business in real estate that I don't prescribe to, but this is what's happened for you.

And ultimately your best buyers are in the first six weeks where you should have been priced correctly. I said, however, if you get an offer on Friday and it's about this number, which is less than what you want, take it. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that if you do another three months with me, I'm guaranteed to get you more money.

Be realistic about your price. And if he has got a buyer there, don't muck around. Just take it. So I think in that situation, that's where the moral thing to do was to help them. 

Yes. 

But there was an opportunity to say, oh, no, no, no. I'll get you more money. Yeah. No, no. Just take it offline.

His buy are not real. He's had 130 days. You're off contract. 

Signed this form six. 

Signed this form six. Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Would've been, would've been so easy. And it is in those situations that you have to have the integrity. But they are so happy with the advice I've given them, they're telling all their friends, like it's... 

You'll get them next time brother.

And they'll tell their whole family.

But you know why? Because they trust you. 

Yeah. 

And I just harp on about this - is the major key unlock to business is trust. That other guy, that's clowned around with a high price, the baiting, they're not using him again. 

No. 

Even if he sells it for the $1.3m, whatever.

He’s toast.

A hundred percent. 

You gave the advice, you didn't make a dollar off it. 

Yeah. 

They're going to trust you mate. 

Absolutely. 

Yeah. 

And that doesn't mean that we kill their dreams. I still tell people, hey, look, there's a possibility we could get this price. It's just we would need the perfect buyer. We would need competition, and we would need a very good marketing campaign to find them.

And then we would also need very good negotiation skills to get them up there. And if we can get you that price, we will. But if we can't, this is where the market at the moment would probably be where your property sits compared to what's recently sold. And that's just the reality. 

Oh mate. The best thing I, I reckon one of the best things I ever heard was when I took my house to auction about five years ago down in Carindale, and Kos Comino sold the property for me.

Mm-hmm. Shout out to Kos. He is one of the earliest interviews we did. He managed my expectations, because I was a typical Greek client. I was like, how much money can you get me? I want overs, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he managed me really well. He never committed to a particular price point.

Gave me an honest range and said he'll do his very best on the day. It was an auction campaign from the start. And what I loved about Kos is we were setting the reserve, and he said to me, he's like, Georgie, if on the day you are not happy with the number I get you. He goes, do not sell the house.

He goes, there'll be offers after, might be able to get more whatever. He goes, if you are not a hundred percent happy with the price on the day, do not sign the contract. My guard completely dropped. Not saying my guard was up, because I trusted him from the start. I often reassure people in when I'm signing them up and say, hey, this isn't the contract to sell your house.

This is just an appointment to give me an opportunity to get you a price. 

Love that. Because man, I felt like he wasn't just trying to get commission out of me. Yeah. He, he was like, man, if you are not happy, I do not want you to sell it. I will not make a dollar and that it's okay. Huge trust built immediately.

And, and then when it came to his building in pest guy, get the staging - everything, man. He just had all of his people. Yeah. And I'm like, dude, I trust you. You just do it. 

I like him. 

Yeah, me too. 

I haven't met him, but yeah, you were like Kos. 

That's my style. Like, you know, like, what's going to be an issue?

And how do we solve it now preemptively before we hit the market. Always great way to go. But also working within the constraints of what our sellers can do.

And I just explained to them, look, this would be good, however this is what we can do instead. Great customer service ultimately is meeting someone's expectations. So you've got to set the expectations at the beginning, and then work towards achieving them and exceeding them. Because if you try and have one cookie cutter model, some people are going to be happy and some people aren't.

But if you can set expectations, work towards achieving them, you're never going to have an issue. And then if someone has absolutely like insane expectations, you should figure that out early enough. 

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a whole nother topic, isn't it?

About like, whether that's even the right client for you or how that's managed. 

Absolutely not. You cannot please everyone, but you can identify people who you might not be able to please. Not all business is good business. Like it's a common saying in real estate.

It's a journey as well. When you're young and you're new, you sort of take on everything and then you get bitten a few times,

then you know for next time, right? A hundred percent. 

Yeah.

Alright. We've gone into the matrix here. Yeah. Which is, this is, this is where all the good stuff comes out. 

Yeah. 

All right. I understand you've got your new business now. Tying back to your experience prior, what were the key parts that you took from say the family business. Yeah. Other jobs, whatever. Yeah. That helped you, that you really go Yep. I look back now like these were great transferrable skills. 

As hard as learning to sell and learning how to run a great property management agency and have good systems and processes, which we have now.

Business wasn't an issue. The formation of our company, the way we set up our trust, our rental and sales trust accounts, our staff, our HR, like the structure, all that jazz. Yeah. The structure was You were fine with all that?

Easy. Because of the experience in the past?

Yeah. Yeah. And so no one could, pardon my French, but bullshit me. 

Yeah. 

I knew what we were doing knew were setting up. Even in the process of formulating it all, it was exciting to me. We set up a Rolls Royce structure right from day one, even though we had no business yet.

And so that part was great.

Dude, that's ., And this is totally not part of our talking plan, but let's just spend another minute on that. I have a completely different experience to you. I came into Empire having not much business experience. I'd worked for Apple for a long time and worked for big corporations.

Yeah. 

Empire Legal was in my personal name, which years down the track. Sole Trader? Uh, well it was a partnership because Abi and I, yeah. Was Abi and I, but I didn't, mate didn't have a family trust. I didn't have 10 cents to rub together. Bloody sold my car to start the business. Pretty, very normal. But yeah.

But you know, you, but not ideal. 

You hook, line and sinkered it from the start, with your setup. I had to like scramble after getting advice years down the track and, you know. Paying fees and transferring stuff. Yeah. And going, oh man, I wish I knew about this years earlier.

So I haven't, 

I've had zero false starts in terms of business structure, partnerships, like understanding what I'm doing. So many agents learn how to sell, make some money, and they go, I can do it myself - which is, good on you. But they just fumble and, and then the, that's a normal journey though.

Yeah. The common boots on the ground. 

Commonly known that most agents, if they leave and go out on their own, will halve their commission first 24 to 36 months. Because they did not understand how much time would be required to work on their business, not in their business. 

Some people never are able to get off that hamster wheel.

Yeah. 

That's a journey within itself. 

Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. My, my first three, four years, it was every single thing I did. I made sure that I documented it, created a process with it. If it worked, fantastic include it. If it didn't work, scrap that. Okay, where, where does this next thing fit in? Every time someone came out and said to me, oh, Alex, you need this in your business.

I said, well, where do I need it? How does it make it more efficient? How does it make the service better for the customer? And that way, over time, I have system and operations manuals that are handmade for everyone in the business to ensure we give five star service. Which I, I know you guys would have in some form because you give five star service. 

Mate.

We talk about this golden nugget at the end, and I've never done this on an episode. I'm pulling a golden nugget out right now that I'm going to use selfishly. What you just said there with building a system for everything.

I'm in year eight of this firm now, and mate, we are basically almost completely overhauling our entire systems, because they weren't built for scale.

It works really well. We've got an amazing business here with our 20 guys. You know, we service about 300 deals a month. But you want to think bigger and go, how do I service 3000?

We don't have the right systems to build for 3000. It's great for 300. It's not great for 3000.

Your, your systems have got you here. 

Yeah. 

And the systems to get to 3000 would've been too big. 

True. 

So businesses have to transition. And in business you start it's, it is just like a person. You're an infant, you're a baby, you're a toddler, you're a child, you're an adolescent, you're a teenager, you know, and then all of a sudden you're an adult, and that's maturing.

And then you mature and mature and then you arc. And that's, that is the lifecycle of business. It's no different. And at each stage of life, you need different things, different structures.

Have you read the E-Myth? 

No. 

Great book. Haven't anyone out there listening, if you haven't read the E-Myth, it is about systems and structures and processes.

In a nutshell, if you're a builder and you think I can build houses better than my boss. So you go out on your own, you start, you build a beautiful house. And you get another customer. Suddenly you're building two houses and you, you're trying to work on them. So then you're high staff, suddenly you're building 10 houses and you got all these staff, you're not building anymore.

You're managing. And the only way to do that is through systems, processes and procedures. And if you don't, you're going to be back on the tools.

That's the whole concept of the E-Myth. Okay. It's a really good book. I'm keen. It's about scaling, it's about systems, processes, procedures. And if you are in the construction industry, there's a thing called quality assurance.

And basically what it is, is about documenting and systemizing every single aspect of your business, so it is a consistent and repeatable. In every business, not just construction, we can do that. And all good businesses have that. 

That's how you get five star service. A hundred percent 

With the QA. Because you can't fake these five star reviews and this word of mouth referrals.

They all have to be real, otherwise it just doesn't work. 

Which in the construction industry, a lot of companies go and get the ticks, but their staff don't abide by it. You got to have unity between those systems, procedures, and processes and your staff, to make sure they're actually being done. 

Yeah.

That's what the QA literally is, is assuring the quality is there. 

Yeah. Yeah. So in your leveling up of this business, it's creating the systems, process and procedures that will allow for what you have now, and take you to where you want to go. And you'll get massive hesitation from the staff because they'll go, oh, you're doing something different to how we've always done it.

Change is scary. 

Change is scary. 

But necessary. 

Yep. But, a gentle hand will guide. I always find in change, there's one person that wants to change the least, and if you change that person, everyone will change. 

Mm-hmm. 

That's the key. 

And they're usually some sort of like, not the ring leader, but they've got some sort of social influence.

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Don't go with the "yes" people who went, this is a great idea, we should do that. Find the person who doesn't want to do it. I'm very lucky, me and Taylor look at things from different angles, and so I'll always run things past her. And if I can't convince her, then I can't do it. 

Yeah. 

True. You know, and a lot of times I'm like, ah, you know, I struggle with it.

And I'm like, this is how I want to do it. But what she'll do is she'll allow me the process of figuring out whether it's worth doing, and how I'm going to do it, before I do it. Because we can have all these great ideas, but we can also make a big mess. 

Measure twice, cut once.

One of my dad's favorite sayings.

Yep.

But in saying that, in the first few years, I just failed over and over and over again. But made sure that I learned from that, and basically built the systems. Don't be under any illusions. Basically made sure we improved our business every single time.

Let's talk on that to wrap up the first point then. The question I had for you to round this out is ,what's a challenge that you had, say from becoming a real estate agent with no real estate experience except for buying some properties.

Looking back now, mate, if you could say to yourself when you opened up those doors, what was a challenge that you overcame or that you learned a lesson from, that you'd tell a young buck today to beware of or to..? 

Everyone starts with high energy, good intentions, as did I. And I think by the end of year two, we had COVID. I had 10 staff away in the slashing company.

We had four weeks of rain. In, in a four week period, council knocked on my door and said, hey, we're going to take a hundred grand worth of work off you. I said, how am I going to pay my staff? At that same time, the last six months prior, Taylor and I had gone through two miscarriages, but then finally got pregnant and all of a sudden, kind of came as clear.

We had a new baby. He had colic, he had everything under the sun. Taylor getting goosebumps, man. 

Yeah. 

Everything that could have gone wrong in a short period of time did. And then literally to, to throw a nail on the, on it all, or I dunno how to explain it, but my grandfather died. All in the space of like a six to eight week period.

Then on top of that, our property manager had not been doing her job, whilst we had been dealing with our new baby, and left. 

Oh. 

And so that to me was like one of the biggest wake up calls in business of like, okay, I'm spread too thin. And I'm giving it everything and more, 10, 12, 13 hours a day. Like I, I was, I'd put on weight.

I was like, just at my absolute tether of what I, what I could do and accomplish. And I went through this process of I felt like I was being burned alive. Like everything was going wrong. And I'd done, I had, I'd done nothing but give it my all. And help people. It's not fun anymore, is it? 

No, 

it's no element of fun anymore.

Yeah, it's like survival mode. It's horrible. 

So I'm two years in, we'd had the worst 12 months, like in terms of things that could go wrong, but I'm just such an optimistic person. And like, just around the corner, just around the corner. And then all of a sudden it just avalanched on me. To overcome that challenge, I just always had this internal saying, that if I can't do it, no one can just like I have to do this.

I have had so much help. I have the best people around me. I have most amazing wife, the best parents. I've got this business backing me like to, to that I've launched from. Like I have to succeed. And so what I'm doing is not working. What I'm trying to do is not working. I have to change. And I had this massive breakthrough, which was to do something you've never done, you've got to become somebody you've never been.

And I just overnight, just changed. In every facet. Like as in I just started going to the gym every morning. I rearranged our staff. That was a pivotal moment where I got through that side. So it took about seven months, and then the storm cleared.

Had a new property manager. Things change. 

I just turned up every day, and I never, never took a step back. Just kept moving forward, moving forward, moving forward. And that was a huge challenge. And the number one lesson from all of that was for me, was energy management. I was throwing myself into it so hard. In my mind I said, I'm going to leave nothing on the table every day.

I, I'm going to pour from this cup. What happened? I was like, I had nothing left to give. 

Smashed yourself into the ground. And then you got to go home and try and be a new dad. And you're not sleeping. And yeah, and this and that. 

And spend time with your wife. 

So it took me two and a half years to start to think, I got to manage my energy.

I got to eat better, I got to go to the gym. I've got to get better staff. I've got to change things in my business to support the whole ecosystem. And going back to council, I went in and fought that, made sure that they didn't take that work off us, and I just kept turning up, turning up.

That to me was the turning point of where I'd come in and just got beat up. And then we started to win. The lesson that I'm now teaching, I got new staff and my business and I've got a young guy who's four months with me, and I'm saying to him, as you grow, you have to let go of who you were.

And it's the hardest thing to do. The way you saw the world, the way you do things and what was required of you to get up and compete. You've got to, you've got to find more. You've got to find more. And I know that's a long-winded answer, but the challenge was understanding that your energy is the most important thing.

And what you put out. And so by being on top of myself, and then being on top of my business and then making sure that these are the things that then helped me turn the course. It wasn't the business. It was internal. 

Yeah. Yeah. Mate, you're in charge of your own destiny. You were probably around for when Mark Bouris spoke at AREC. Yep. When he spoke about health, longevity and yeah, longevity, health, diet, exercise, nutrition. 

Yep. 

All that stuff. 

Yep. 

That's a really powerful piece.

I wouldn't have guessed that you said the challenge was energy management. 

Yeah. 

Not saying you were being lazy. It was the opposite of that. Opposite. It was opposite. It was how to channel your energy to actually drive results. 

And, and there's an old saying, oh, just work harder. You know, that old school tough mentality work harder.

That our grandparents did. Our parents did that. 

Yeah, a hundred percent. My mum's Italian. My, my nonna still works today and she's like 89. Once you've maximized your work ethic, work smarter. And that's what I had to do. I had to learn to work smarter, get better, sharpen the blade before I swing the axe.

And that came from investing time and energy into training. Not just physical training, but real estate training, you know, learning how to talk to sellers, talk to buyers and, and, and all of that. 

Mate what's really cool about all that is we actually just hit my second point. We sort of blended it in, I had in here, transitional skills, which we've already spoken about. So that's beautiful. Let's just go straight onto point 3, and we'll unpack that a bit more. The Alex Tincknell superpower, superpowers.

You've got two that I can see. Authenticity. Consistency. Consistency, you pretty much just spoke about, like when you talk about, spoke about energy management and showing up every day. Yeah. We were talking off air just before about, I remember you, maybe it was in your garage of your house, like training every day.

Weight loss journey, strength journey. Let's talk a bit more about that and consistency. Because I reckon that will naturally just unpack some good little gems for the audience. 

Yep. Where do you want to start? 

What bubbles to the top for you, mate, when you think about consistency? Well, let's just talk through it. Because it's, it's a journey. 

I think. I think the, if you're a business owner or a principal, or even a real estate agent, the traditional consistency is like, go to the gym in the morning, to turn up to work by nine, work till five, you know, cook a healthy dinner. I think that's crap, because agents can't do that.

You, you are doing appraisals at 6:00pm, 7:00pm. you work open homes on Saturdays, you know, you're answering calls on Sundays. And if you're a business owner, even here in this business, it is 24/7. So if you are an entrepreneur in business, or an agent, you got to break that mentality.

Yeah. The consistency has to come from - are you getting enough sleep, are you eating healthy food, and are you fitting in a few training sessions and making sure that you are managing your own energy? Because you can't fit your life into a bubble for work. Like you can't go, oh no, my personal trainer said I have to eat a healthy dinner at 5:30pm and digest it by 7:30pm and go to bed at night.

Like it just doesn't work. 

Or morning routines. It's like, mate, you do all those steps and it takes a whole day. 

A hundred percent. 

You can't do that every day. 

So the consistency needs to be in you creating a structure that works, and then holding yourself accountable to it. But when it doesn't work, acknowledging it.

I'm always in a process of being uncomfortable, because it's constantly changing. We're renovating right now. Yeah. We Bought a business last year, which is doing really well. We've got another agency, rent rolls . We're constantly evolving, constantly changing. And the structure that I have is constantly changing.

And you're a newborn. Got a newborn baby, father of three. Yeah. You've got a bit going on, mate. 

You can't have this fixed mindset of, oh, if I do A, B, C, D, I will get to where I want to go. You've got to be flexible on the path, but consistent around your own actions.

So for me, I'm consistent about giving it my all every day. I only could only do a 20 minute workout this morning. I've got four different contractors at my house and talking to my staff on the way here, organising inspections, vendor meetings new rental managements. So what am I consistent with?

Always doing calls in my car. Making sure that I'm getting my workouts in, even if it's very short period of time. Making sure that with my diet, I have a new saying and it's that, I don't know if this can go on camera, but I can't afford to be fat. 

It can go on camera. Yeah. I, I've got, I've got three young children, I've got seven staff and I've got a business that's growing and I've got a lot of clients and customers that I need to be there for.

I do not have time to drink. I don't

 Hey guys. Unfortunately I have some pretty average news. The rest of this podcast. We had our first set of proper audio technical difficulties ever, so we've lost the backend of the interview here with Alex Tincknell. So unfortunately, his golden nugget wasn't revealed. The back end of the podcast is gone. So we'll have to get him back on the show down the track, but regardless with the 40 odd minutes that we did capture - heaps of valuable information there.

Alex. Sorry mate, never had microphone problems in all the episodes we've done, uh, these things happen. Just glad that we captured the vast majority of the interview for the audience. Alright guys, well we'll be back next week with a brand new episode.