It’s Not a Secret: Why the Best Letting Agents Share Everything

In this episode of The Viking Chats, Kristjan Byfield is joined by the powerhouse behind Liberty Blue, Regina Mangan, for a vibrant and unfiltered discussion that every forward-thinking letting and estate agency leader needs to hear.

Titled “It’s Not a Secret: Why the Best Letting Agents Share Everything”, this episode dives headfirst into one of the industry’s most overlooked superpowers: collaboration. In a sector where many still operate behind closed doors, clinging tightly to their ‘trade secrets’, Kristjan and Regina make the compelling case that the true path to faster processes, happier clients, and a more respected profession lies in open dialogue, shared experiences, and collective progress.

Regina shares the transformational journey of her business—from a frantic, noisy office where staff were drowning in phone calls and paperwork, to a calm, tech-enabled environment where efficiency, service, and job satisfaction coexist in harmony. And the catalyst for this shift? Knowledge shared by fellow agents. From her initial visit to Kristjan’s Base Property Specialists office in London to years of masterminds, mentoring, and idea-swapping with UK agents, she reveals how generous collaboration—not competition—has been the key to Liberty Blue’s success.

This is a masterclass in real-world transformation: 14 technologies adopted, a cultural overhaul, improved trust ratings, and clients who are not only better served—but genuinely happier. It’s not just about reducing admin (though Regina talks about slashing hours off her team’s workload); it’s about shifting mindsets. About rejecting the idea that being ‘busy’ means being effective. About focusing on delighting residents and owners with systems that work and staff who have the time and energy to show they care.

Listeners will gain insights into:

• Why agents who share knowledge often outperform those who stay siloed.
• How to adopt a mindset of continuous improvement without needing to be a tech expert.
• The business case for self-service platforms, streamlined maintenance, and modern communication channels.
• Why language and cultural clarity in your brand matters now more than ever.
• The unexpected ROI of mentorship, masterminds, and generosity in business.

Whether you’re managing 50 tenancies or 5,000, this is a call to arms for agency leaders to rethink how they learn, grow, and operate. If you’ve ever wondered what’s really working behind the scenes at the best agencies—or wished you could peek inside the playbook of a high-performing team—this episode gives you that access.

It turns out the biggest barrier to success isn’t your competition—it’s isolation. And the solution? Start talking. Start sharing. Start collaborating.

Because in today’s lettings world, it’s not a secret. The best agents are already sharing everything.

Transcript

Jun 12, 2025

Viking Chat with Regina Mangan - Transcript

Hi everybody and welcome to the latest episode of the Viking Chats. I am joined today by the fabulous Regina Manga of Liberty Blue in Ireland. Darling, thank you for joining us.
 Regina Mangan: Thank you so much. And I love that intro. And I'm looking at you with your Viking mug. And you know I am sitting in Waterford which is Ireland's oldest city founded by the Vikings.
Kristjan Byfield: The Vikings, you know, they
Regina Mangan: Yes.
Kristjan Byfield: they found a lot of fabulous things. So, and still need to take you up on your invite to come and see you.
Regina Mangan: Oh yes, definitely.
Kristjan Byfield: Now, just to give a bit of context, you and I have known each other for a few years. So,
Regina Mangan: Yeah.
Kristjan Byfield: uh, you and I met a few years ago at a prop tech event, eight years ago. Exactly. We had our our kind of friend, didn't we, come
Regina Mangan: Yes.
Kristjan Byfield: up on
Regina Mangan: Yes.
Kristjan Byfield: Facebook. Funny enough, we were talking about
Regina Mangan: Yes.
Kristjan Byfield: how long have we known each other? And then like two days later, it was like, congratulations. So, you uh had had this kind of, you know, you'd been looking at your business and you decided, I need, you know, we don't know what we don't know. We're going to go over to London, meet some agents, meet some people, see some suppliers, and kind of figure out what we do next. You and I met at one of the propt tech events and we got talking and obviously I told you a lot about base and our kind of attitude to automation streamlining and that blend of of tech and people to deliver a great service but an efficient business.
Kristjan Byfield: Um and yeah, we went from there. you I don't think it was long after that you came over with your whole team um and came and spent was it one or two days with us was it it was
Regina Mangan: Yeah. I actually invited myself over. I said, "Christian, would you mind if a couple of my team came over?" and you went, "Yeah, sure, sure, sure." Two weeks later, we were in your office for an entire day. And there was four of us that went over and it was an incredible experience for us and for me. It was like I was able to look into the future and see how I wanted my business to be whilst I was sitting in your office. So there was a huge difference between your business and ours in that our office was like a train station at peak time. People coming in reporting maintenance over the desk, people coming in to pay deposits with their credit card,
Kristjan Byfield: Loads of phone calls.
Regina Mangan: loads of phone calls, phones jammed, just crazy.
Regina Mangan: And then your office was this sea of calm and you're all like, "Hi." people walking past and I said, "What's the story with the phone?" I said, "It's really quiet and yet you had this you have this amazing business." And I'm going, "He's still making money. They're still really profitable. They seem really happy. They don't seem a bit stressed out." And then you introduced me to various technology that you had and ways of communicating with your clients. For example, you were using fixed flow at the time which we since implemented. So over four years we implemented somewhere in the region of 14 different pieces of technology, small pieces and big pieces and it was transformational for us and it was also a mindset transformation. So continuous improvement and change became part of our DNA. We're always wanting to get better. And what I learned from that event and from you was that people need and expect um self-service platforms. In other words, that when they want the information that they get a pronto, they're not waiting ages for it.
Regina Mangan: And the best piece of technology I suppose that had the biggest impact was fix flow whereby tenants could upload the maintenance problem in up to 40 different languages. They get automated replies, tutorials, videos that you were showing us how you can show them reduce the cost for our landlord. It was absolutely a phenomenal game chamber
Kristjan Byfield: Well,
Regina Mangan: changer
Kristjan Byfield: look,
Regina Mangan: for
Kristjan Byfield: Fix Flow is still a great product, but I think in the early days it was a brilliant example of a tech solution that tackled so many different elements challenges within that
Regina Mangan: Yes.
Kristjan Byfield: maintenance thing like you know you I mean you've mentioned most of them you know like you said it it kind of streamline the reporting process so rather than people walking in sending you an email calling in and having to track that, you know, it brought it all into a system. Like you said, if you work in an international market,
Regina Mangan: Yes.
Kristjan Byfield: um, you know, it solves that language problem where you're dealing with tenants where language where English isn't necessarily their first language.
Kristjan Byfield: Um, it resolves that issue data gathering in terms of agents, you know, that that problem of, oh, great, you've reported this to me, but you've given me no information. And you've just given me like a three-word thing about, oh, my my oven doesn't work. Great.
Regina Mangan: Yeah.
Kristjan Byfield: What is what does that mean? Like, it doesn't heat up. It doesn't get hot enough. The light doesn't come on. It doesn't come on at all. Um, and it it brought structure to that, right? Because you could customize it. You could make it say, "Oh, have you checked this and checked that?" You could bed in videos or photos saying, "Oh, you know, this is how you reset the clock on an oven." As we all know, that's a classic reason ovens don't work. It's also a classic thing that tenants find utterly beusing. I think I think the world still finds that amusing quite frankly that the fact your oven clock isn't set can mean your oven doesn't work at all.
Kristjan Byfield: Um but but yeah and I think you know it like you said it takes away that noise and it takes away it just delivered a system and a process.
Regina Mangan: Absolutely. And it's also a really good way to um run KPIs with your team and you're looking at different color codes for what's urgent, not so urgent, how many outstanding tasks and there's just nowhere to hide
Kristjan Byfield: No,
Regina Mangan: and
Kristjan Byfield: talking about mindset as well. I think you know something really interesting you said I think you know um what you were saying about your office being very busy but not necessarily in a productive way actually
Regina Mangan: Yeah.
Kristjan Byfield: and quite frenetic way and I think that is common in agency. I think, you know, agents feel like there has to be this, you know, the phone should be ringing and people should be and it's like, well, yeah. Um, if that delivers a solution, if that is actually getting stuff done, then great. If that's if that's deals over the line and maintenance actually getting fixed, great.
Kristjan Byfield: But don't be busy for busy sake. You don't need to look busy. You don't need to sound busy to actually be busy and be productive. And I think
Regina Mangan: completely and I think it's really important as agents and business owners that we work smarter not harder and that's what this is all about and the technology helps us deliver a more prompt service but also not doing non-gen generate non-revenue generating activities. Even emails now and all these emails, if people were sending in emails about their maintenance, there's no way of tracking that. It's like throwing a needle into a hay stack and and the whole continuous improvement mindset is so important to a business because there is so much waste out there. So much waste and that implementation of that technology really helped us. But the other thing is what's interesting is how us as humans are changing how we want to communicate.
Kristjan Byfield: Yeah.
Regina Mangan: Um in terms of people receiving phone calls now I think it's well over 40% of people do not like um answering the telephone.
Regina Mangan: They definitely don't like answering the phone to a number that's not saved in their phone. People
Kristjan Byfield: Yeah.
Regina Mangan: text use WhatsApp.
Kristjan Byfield: Or they look at a landline and they're like, "Oh, that's a landline. I don't recognize. It must be a sales call,
Regina Mangan: Exactly.
Kristjan Byfield: you
Regina Mangan: So,
Kristjan Byfield: know.
Regina Mangan: so how people want to receive communication is totally changed. And even when we look at online shopping, we're not only just competing with estate agents, we're competing with other industries. The expectation of the customer booking a hotel. You never ever get the anyone to answer a telephone in England. I thought this was crazy. I can't ring up talk to a human. Now, I would never drink dream of ringing a hotel. I go online and I book it. I put in my special requests. People want to shop. They mostly shop online. That is how the world is changing. And we have to wake up to that.
Regina Mangan: My office is really quiet now. The phone isn't ringing, but our business has never been doing as well.
Kristjan Byfield: And look, I think you you've made some really valid points there. I think you've got to as an agent, you can't treat what we do. We can't treat our industry as something unique and special that is exempt from from customer expectations. And like you said, I think whatever it is, whether it's your supermarket shop or you're booking a hotel or holiday or, you know, going to an experience or you you go to your your hairdressers or barber, you know, whatever it is, your daily banking, everything you do, you've got to think about, right, this this is like you said, this is the new world of working. This is what I want. Like this is I want to be able to pick up my phone and go bop bop and I've, you know, whatever. I've paid my rent or I've booked that holiday or I've, you know, asked for quotes for whatever. Like you said, I don't want to speak to lots of people.
Kristjan Byfield: I don't want to be going and and searching for two hours doing research. I just want it all to happen quite quick and easy. And I think, yeah, there's too many agents
Regina Mangan: AB:
Kristjan Byfield: out there who are like, "Oh, that's all well and good for the travel industry, but you know, selling property or renting property is different." And it's like, it's it's really not. you know those consumer expectations, that customer journey that
Regina Mangan: Absolutely. And and there's another thing to remember as well and during our conversation as estate agents worldwide, we are regarded very poorly in the trust bracket.
Kristjan Byfield: Yeah.
Regina Mangan: And the more transparent and efficient we are, the more likely that the public will trust us more. For example, we mentioned before we started recording, you know, bidding on properties, you know, that people didn't have trust around that for a long time, both in Ireland and the UK, but we're heavily regulated now. But we use a bidding platform called Offer OFFR. Shout out to them because they provide an amazing customer service, but also um how they work with us is amazing.
Regina Mangan: But when we load a property on to offer and somebody places a bid, they have to give us their data. They have to give us proof of funds and we approve them. And when they place an offer, nobody else can see who they are, only us. So their their status is confidential. But anyone else placing an offer gets a notification and they can place a bid. So they see real life bidding. the vendor gets an update. So, it's moving at the pace that business needs to happen now, but also it's transparent. So, uh the buyer can trust the process and they feel much happier about it. We do tend to get a better result as well for our clients using the platform. So, it's a real win-win. But my stepson was bidding on a property some months ago and it took eight days to get an answer from the agent. I feel that's quite unacceptable in today's world.
Kristjan Byfield: We've all seen those. We've all seen the metrics, right?
Kristjan Byfield: you know, there's there's the stat that gets wheeled out at every kind of industry event each year, at least it does at EA Masters. Um, and it has remained largely unchanged for the last 10 years. And it's that stat that half of all leads never get responded to. And you know, that to me, that stat still absolutely blows my mind. You know, when you think how often agents have a damn good moan about how much they spend on portal advertising, um, and then you contrast to the fact that they've got half of their leads and, and the shocking thing is, right, we know that that statistic is right, but we also know the top 20, 30% of agents will be contacting 80, 90, 100%. So what
Regina Mangan: Oh.
Kristjan Byfield: that means is down the bottom that bottom 20 or 30% do they contact any leads? Are they contacting like 10% of their leads and leaving 90% unanswered?
Regina Mangan: H
Kristjan Byfield: Um
Regina Mangan: look, it's there's always going to be poor performers, I guess, in every industry.
Regina Mangan: But that leads me onto another great tip you gave me a number of years ago was around Google reviews and you know um you said to me, do you get Google reviews? I was like, oh no, not really. So we started focusing on that and obviously Sanjay totally drove that point home during mentoring for me because we're talking about certain things that great agents have helped me with and advised me on and stuff that's worked. Google reviews have been amazing and helping build our profile, build our SEO, but building trust that um customers can see what other customers are saying. And I think that's really important.
Kristjan Byfield: So that you've brought up Sanjay there and that that brings us into really, you know, it's something obviously we've already touched on because we've talked about having you in our base offices for a day with your team, but I
Regina Mangan: Okay.
Kristjan Byfield: think it's something I really want to talk to you about because it's something we keep coming back and it's this collaborative piece. It's like
Regina Mangan: Yep.
Kristjan Byfield: it's great, you know, the putting stuff into your business is great, but sharing ideas about what to put in your business and how and what works and what doesn't. I think one thing I find really exciting, but I I still think a lot of agents don't do, and I think largely because they're cynical, is collaboration and talking. Right now, we're not for one second saying that you're going to collaborate with your competitor across the street. you know, we're not we're not mad and you know, that would have to be a pretty special relationship. Although, you know, we in London, we collaborate. We've got very good close relationships with agents who in theory you could call competitors because we're fundamentally in the same market,
Regina Mangan: Yes.
Kristjan Byfield: you know, targeting the same properties, but we readily talk and share ideas and business practice. it. Do you know what? It was encapsulate for me. I saw an agent rain maker promo video the other day. um you know and and one thing that stood out for me, it had all these kind of vox pops in it, but one of the vox pops from I think their event last year or one of the one of the midyear events they do was uh a business owner saying, "Oh my god, you know, I felt so alone and so out of the loop until I came to Agent Rain Maker and I sat in a room
Kristjan Byfield: of agents and I heard them all have the same problems and the same stresses and
Regina Mangan: Yes.
Kristjan Byfield: all of a sudden we've got this network of people and we talked to each other and you know I mean I'm I'm massively paraphrasing but the bottom line was they kind of had this epiphany thing of going to agent rain maker and that delivered that and it's great that that delivers that. So shout out agent rain maker but to all of the agents out there who are being cynical reach out. There's a lot of us out there who either put information out if you don't want to contact us in person. There's a lot of us out there who put a lot of information out there and make what you make what you will of it. Um, and there's a lot of us who are happy to jump on a phone, you know, jump online, have you come into offices, you know, I mean, you mentioned uh Sanjay, so Sanjay Moss Properties, I
Regina Mangan: Yes.
Kristjan Byfield: think it is.
Regina Mangan: Sm properties.
Regina Mangan: Yeah. And also they have the fine and country in New York as well. But look, Sanji is super connected and he's a wise man. He used to before he went into real estate about 18 years ago, he used to run very big bingo businesses and he's a very shrewd operator. I I I had learned a lot from Sandra, but also was part of a mastermind group with other UK agents and I learned so much from him and the other people in the mastermind group and also knowing what good looks like,
Kristjan Byfield: Yeah.
Regina Mangan: what does good look like, you know, and sharpening the
Kristjan Byfield: So, let's, you know, let's shout out some of the people. So, we talked about Sanjay. Um, Matt Giggs, I know you
Regina Mangan: Matt G is a great guy. He's so Sandy's been to Wartford. Matt Giggs has been to Waterford. Matt is a great guy. I did some mentoring with Matt and the big thing that I got from Matt Giggs was all around values and culture.
Regina Mangan: And we had written up our values and our culture document and was in a drawer somewhere. And we didn't really live it and nor maybe we didn't really get it until we sat down and wrote values that really meant something to me and the team.
Kristjan Byfield: Yeah.
Regina Mangan: For example, we do the right thing. Even I had a conversation with John, my colleague, this morning, and we've got very big legislation around rental in Ireland, and I see England is going the same way. But um he was saying that an agent, another agent rang our tenant to say, "I'm selling the property. You need to move out." And
Kristjan Byfield: Heat.
Regina Mangan: John said, "Can you imagine that?" He said, "The tenant has six months notice. Why would you tell them they've to go? And we had this and I said, you know what I love when we're having this conversation, you you're with us from day one. You understand our values. We do the right thing. We never ever even even when it might suit us to do the wrong thing.
Regina Mangan: So I'm just turning this around. So I would say that Matt Giggs drove this home to a point that it is in our DNA now. So we strive to bring happiness to customers, colleagues in our community to be helpful experts and champions in Waterford is a great place to live. So that meant one, for example, one day uh one of the team said, "Oh, this guy's after rain." He said that our for sale sign is tipping off his curb. And I said, "Right, so what you going to do?" And he said, "Well, it's not tipping off the curb." I said, "Does it matter if it's tipping off the curb?" He's not happy.
Kristjan Byfield: Yeah.
Regina Mangan: Read the wall. We strive to bring happiness to our customers, colleagues, and our community. Is that man happy? No. Right. So, what are you going to do to make him happy? Gonna move it. Great. And what else you going to do? We'll deliver a card, an apology, and some chocolates because that's what we do.
Regina Mangan: It's not about being right. It's about doing the right thing. And it stood to us so well to
Kristjan Byfield: And
Regina Mangan: understand.
Kristjan Byfield: people remember how you make them feel.
Regina Mangan: Exactly. So that I would say to MacG Sanjay for all his wisdom and experience in the in the mastermind um we've done training with Steven Brown um and that's been really brilliant.
Kristjan Byfield: Have you visited the the Titans that are paramount? Have you been to see Spencer and Reagan and their their
Regina Mangan: No,
Kristjan Byfield: team there?
Regina Mangan: no, no.
Kristjan Byfield: So, that's one you got to that that's one you got to put on your wish list. Shout out to those guys who I sometimes wonder how they ever get any work done. The amount of agents that they that they welcome
Regina Mangan: Paramount Relay.
Kristjan Byfield: boxes.
Regina Mangan: Where are they based?
Kristjan Byfield: So, Northwest London uh in Hamster, Northwest Hamstead. Um yeah, fabulous. I mean, again, you talk about culture and ethics um and also what's capable.
Kristjan Byfield: you know, they've kind of turned the typical attitude particularly in London, you know, the the the general consensus used to be lots of branches to build a substantial business. They are a single office estate and letings agency. They manage a couple of thousand tenencies.
Regina Mangan: Yeah.
Kristjan Byfield: Yeah. So, we're talking seven to 10 offices worth of letings and property management business all run through a single office.
Regina Mangan: Wow. Yeah.
Kristjan Byfield: and
Regina Mangan: proper technology systems and
Kristjan Byfield: proper
Regina Mangan: people
Kristjan Byfield: technology. They're constantly evolving. Everything we've talked about, huge focus on culture and ethics. You know, they were one of the first agents I know to really look at the language and they're they're passionate about talking about their owners and residents, which is a language we've we've adopted within our business. um you know just just they literally you know this culture of looking at everything and coming back and revisiting things and so generous with time and ideas and and everything else. Um,
Regina Mangan: And
Kristjan Byfield: yeah.
Regina Mangan: you know that's a really important point you made there about language. I love that owners and residents. And I remember I live in Ireland and we have a very very very negative connection with the word landlord
Kristjan Byfield: There.
Regina Mangan: going back to the famine and how landlords displaced people and how millions of people died of starvation in Ireland because of the landlords and and we're still talking about it. I call them small property owners, but I think our owners I like that much better. Thanks. Yeah.
Kristjan Byfield: I mean full for full credit to paramount on that one. You know, look, there's there's always that challenge. I think whenever whenever you adopt a new language, you've also got that marketing split in your brain, right? Because you're you there are realities with culture, but there's also terminology. And in terms of attracting clients, you know, the fact of the matter is your average owner, your average landlord out there is going to typically search for terminology like tenants, landlords, letting agents, etc. So, you've got to find that that balance.
Kristjan Byfield: I think we take, you know, we kind of take a view that in conversations with our owners and residents that language that we use with that is the language centered within our website and how we convey our attitudes. Um, but you will often see when I'm posting articles and thought pieces and stuff, I will talk about landlords and tenants because, you know, that is
Regina Mangan: You
Kristjan Byfield: the
Regina Mangan: have you kind of have to I get that.
Kristjan Byfield: technical
Regina Mangan: But it
Kristjan Byfield: terminology. But but as a as a culture as the way we look and treat the people we actually do business with our our clients and our customers then yeah it is very much owners and residents and that kind of like you
Regina Mangan: And
Kristjan Byfield: said removing kind of toxic um Yeah.
Regina Mangan: uh also shout out to Christopher Watkins because um Christopher shares an amazing amount of information and wisdom and whether some people agree and some people don't agree with him, he's quite brilliant and he's very very generous. Like one of the things and I saw you guys doing it which works is talking about good properties to buy for investment but
Kristjan Byfield: Yeah.
Regina Mangan: not only talking about your own portfolio talking about properties with other agents because then you are being the expert. You're not you're also being impartial. And I I got really nervous. I did it a few times and I got a call from an agent. I thought, "Oh my god, he's going to bollock me for giving a shout out to his property." But thankfully was ringing about something else because it's it's just such a deviation from the norm. But it makes so much sense.
Kristjan Byfield: Oh, look, I think, you know, I've I've I've we've like you said, we've done it for quite a while now. We I mean, we stopped for a little bit. That was just that was on us just knocking on top of our marketing, but we've done it for a while now. And yeah, I think, you know, it adds a real validity to you as an expert to say, look, my expertise isn't tinged by what suits me and what's going to necessarily put business through my door.
Kristjan Byfield: like I'm an expert and you know these are the opportunities to you. You know we've we've I I will regularly do shout outs to other agents as well when we read an article about an agent who's done something either really impressive within the business or they've brought in a new service or a new approach to doing
Regina Mangan: Yes.
Kristjan Byfield: something that has solved a classic customer conundrum or frustration. You know, I I love giving agents shout outs to that. And I I always find it funny like I have had agents at conferences stop me being like, why why do you pick up other agents? Like that's that's really weird. Why would you be complimentary about another agent? And I'm like, but
Regina Mangan: But you know, Christian, you're absolutely secure in yourself and your business, and it's it's it's a really positive reflection on you to give a shout out to another agent. It's just not something that's really done. It's like the book I wrote, Maria said, you know, they're going to know all our secrets now.
Regina Mangan: I put in all the technology. I've listed all off. I lifted all the mentors off. I've lifted off the books, the podcasts. It's all there. And if somebody wants to use it or copy it, brilliant.
Kristjan Byfield: But look, and I think, you know, if if you're really honest with yourself, you know, there's nothing stopping your average property owner selling or letting a property themselves,
Regina Mangan: Mhm.
Kristjan Byfield: right? there's nothing stopping them. If you were and even if you want to do it properly, you go out there and educate yourself. The amount of content that is available online that will educate you on legislation, regulation,
Regina Mangan: Yes.
Kristjan Byfield: marketing tips, all this sort of stuff, it's out there. But the reality is it's a whole lot of work, right? and actually let your let your prospective seller or or or landlord or owner go and do that research and figure out because do you know what very quickly they're going to come back to you and go oh do you know what I when we spoke two weeks ago I thought you were really expensive but I've now wrapped my head around just 10% of what you too.
Regina Mangan: But even sharing it with other agents, you know what we're talking about. I like I would share openly the technology we use and some of my competitors would ring me and I have no problem with that because at the end of the day nobody can be you, nobody can be me and a rising tide lifts all boats. That's kind of the view I take on it.
Kristjan Byfield: And that's right. You know, it's one of the one of the burdens we all bear, you touched on it earlier, is this lack of trust and respect as agents within the public forum, you know, and ultimately as an industry, if we ever want to be to become a bonafide profession, if we ever want to lift ourselves out of the doldrums of how we are perceived in public, it has to it has to be about us all lifting each other up, right? It has to be about us as an industry moving forward and raising standards. Us saying to, you know, the agents that struggle, don't worry, do this, it'll fix that.
Kristjan Byfield: If you implement this, it'll solve that problem. You will manage those inquiries better. You will resolve those maintenance issues better, you know, and and the general perception of us as an industry lifts and we all benefit from that. So, yeah, you know, and what I would say is that
Regina Mangan: There we go.
Kristjan Byfield: Every business has a different motivation, you know. I love your um uh your mantra that you've got on the wall there and it's you get it like everything is in that sentence that you guys drive for. Now, there might be agents watching this who are like, "Oh, it's a bit flowery, a bit fluffy." You know, again, I'm not we don't
Regina Mangan: But you but you know what though? If you drill into it like anyone who knows me would know that I'm not remotely flowery or fluffy. The language at the end of the day, what do we all strive for in life? It is actually happiness.
Kristjan Byfield: Yeah.
Regina Mangan: You don't get up in the morning and think I want to grow my profit margin.
Regina Mangan: You want to be happy. Now how each of us are happy is very different and individual, right? But our clients, if we make our clients happy, each client is a different it's understanding what the client's needs are. So if we're selling a property, we must listen and understand what the client wants. So they want to move quickly or they want the best price or they want, you know, to wait until the probate's done. If we get a great do a great job, then we create happiness for our clients. Then the staff are happy because you're enjoying delivering it great. Now, obviously, the world of real estate is stressful. It's not always going to be a bed of roses. There's going to be really tough days. Sometimes bad days are followed by bad days and then good days are followed by good days. But usually it's not bad days all the time. But really, if you focus on happiness, getting rid of s***** clients who bring down the happiness barometer, firing those clients,
Kristjan Byfield: again
Regina Mangan: having the
Kristjan Byfield: the power
Regina Mangan: confidence
Kristjan Byfield: of know
Regina Mangan: to do that, right?
Kristjan Byfield: we won't dive into that too much but
Regina Mangan: Right.
Kristjan Byfield: get like you said getting
Regina Mangan: But
Kristjan Byfield: rid of those energy
Regina Mangan: but
Kristjan Byfield: sins
Regina Mangan: that's really important. So if you are doing a great job for your clients, you're making them happy and you're enjoying it yourself. And then you create a a um profitable business because we have to have a profitable business otherwise we don't stay in business.
Kristjan Byfield: Exactly. Exactly. But I think the point I was I was just going to make was look great, you know, look up some of the people that we've mentioned. Look up your your Spencers and your Reagans at Paramount Properties. Look up your Sanjays. Look up your Matt Gigs. Look up Chris Watkins, Steven Gates. Like you know,
Regina Mangan: Oh
Kristjan Byfield: lots of
Regina Mangan: great
Kristjan Byfield: people
Regina Mangan: guy
Kristjan Byfield: out
Regina Mangan: Stephen
Kristjan Byfield: there.
Regina Mangan: G. Yeah.
Kristjan Byfield: But loads of stuff out there. go out there, educate yourself. But you know, if you look at these people, if you look at these businesses and you think, "H, not really my sort of person, not really my sort of business."
Regina Mangan: What is this?
Kristjan Byfield: Cool. Go and find go and find the person in the business that you do align with. Go and find that person that is achieving what you consider success and is doing it in a way that that you align with. Um, and reach out to them. you know, there are these kind of go-to people and and you know, you and I are both advocates like you said, bring the joy, be happy, deliver service, look after people, and you know, that's kind of rewarding in itself for you and your team. But, um, you know, we we all run different businesses with different objectives that cater to different personalities and different
Regina Mangan: Exactly. And if I if I could just on that say that I'm in business 28 years, I've always had a mentor, either one or two mentors and that's a really good way to help you sharpen the saw uh to be accountable and I I met Rob Graves there in Cornwall while I was over on holidays a few days ago and I'd done a podcast with them, but there's nothing like meeting somebody face to face.
Regina Mangan: That connection
Kristjan Byfield: Yeah.
Regina Mangan: is just totally different. and Rob and I had a great conversation. He was sharing how he used to improve his business before he sold it for a lot of money. Um, so I love getting advice from successful people by the way. Um, and he um talked about interrogating their processes. He used to go in and look at each process, a different process every week with the team and see how they could, sometimes there were small tweaks, sometimes there were bigger tweaks, but that helped them improve the business. no end. And I think so many people in the real estate business get caught up in new listings, winning more listings, but they're not actually looking at the profitability of their business or the joy or lack of joy that the business brings them. And Rob, actually, I'm going to give him a shout out because I thought he was a good guy. He goes in and he looks at the numbers. He's a money man.
Regina Mangan: And then, you know, Matt, different uh coaches bring different things, but I once worked with a a a mentor and we weren't the right fit, so I moved on. And then you get somebody else. Not everybody's going to be the right fit for you.
Kristjan Byfield: and that's it. And I think, you know, just you you've just got to be honest to yourself, right? There's no point. You don't want to turn yourself into something unauthentic. It's it's it's got to be authentically you. Um, so you've got to find, like you said, those those allies, those coaches, those mentors that that you gel with. And that doesn't mean that they just constantly pat you on the back and tell you that you're fabulous because that's
Regina Mangan: no
Kristjan Byfield: all you don't need. You need accountability. Um,
Regina Mangan: and areas to work
Kristjan Byfield: yeah.
Regina Mangan: on for improvement, you know. And if you're listening here and you're feeling a little bit lonely and you want to sort of learn from others, maybe even set up your own mastermind group.
Regina Mangan: Find out, go on to forums and find out, are there mastermind groups? Sometimes small shares can be a big deal. Even you're having a bad day, how to deal with a a tenant or a landlord or a vendor. Being able to bounce that off somebody else is is great. And as you said earlier, a lot of agents, we all have the same problems. They're not unique to
Kristjan Byfield: Yeah.
Regina Mangan: us.
Kristjan Byfield: Look, I think I think for some agents, they've got so many things they want to change in your business in their business that is kind of the problem that they just get paralyzed by where to start, right? I think they become overwhelmed
Regina Mangan: Yeah.
Kristjan Byfield: and then it's kind of where do I start? And I think, you know, the only advice I would give anyone like that is it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter where you start. All that matters is that you start.
Regina Mangan: All right.
Kristjan Byfield: So pick somewhere. If you can't pick somewhere, do something random.
Kristjan Byfield: Put five things in a hat. If you can't pick between five things, put them in a hat and pick one. Or, god forbid, ask your team. You know, if there was one thing we could change this week, if there's one thing we could get rid of or make better by the end of this week, what would it be? I can almost guarantee you that you will get a very strong answer to do a specific thing if not a unanimous like please Christ can we not do that anymore. Um,
Regina Mangan: Absolutely.
Kristjan Byfield: but start doing it. And I think, you know, moving on from that, we we it wouldn't be a Viking chat if we didn't delve a little bit more into the tech side of things. And you and I touched a little bit um on AI um before we before we got on
Regina Mangan: Yes.
Kristjan Byfield: the call. And I think um you know, we we were talking about how, you know, I'm looking at this, we're we're kind of looking at a supplier.
Kristjan Byfield: We're we're building our first our first of three planned AI tools within the depository, and that first one goes into
Regina Mangan: Good
Kristjan Byfield: testing.
Regina Mangan: morning.
Kristjan Byfield: now. Um, but wearing my other hat, my base hat, we actually haven't done too much with AI yet. We've been looking at it a lot. You know, we we're leveraging it a lot within our marketing, but the next six months that is going to be my biggest project is really looking at again like we said, every element of base and where can we plug in AI um and again focus on the things we've talked about where where what's the tur stuff? what do we have staff do that isn't fun where they add little to no value, you know, and and really they're just put in a success or fail situation because because they either do a task or they don't, but whether they do it or not, they don't actually add any value to that task. They just complete or fail. So, um you know, that's going to be um our focus of the next six months.
Kristjan Byfield: And I think the interesting thing for us as well is and and I think there's lots of agents you you I think you'll identify with this and I think there's lots of agents out there. We are a very proudly independent letting agent. We are very proud of the fact that we are small that we have a very large personality as a brand and that the people within our business are very much a vital part of what we do and how we do it. So, we're not for one second saying that by the end of this year we want to become some autonomous digital leviathan that is literally just AI doing everything and and you know, no one ever gets to talk to a human anymore. Um, absolutely the opposite. You know, we absolutely want those people in. We love the people we've got in the business and the personalities they've got. So, what we want to do is we want to give them more capacity. who we want to see like we talked about and and it's the same mindset of everything that we've you know you and I have been doing in our businesses for the last 10 or so years is it is still fundamentally that same thing of what can we make better what do the staff not like doing as a business owner what do I sit there watching my staff doing going I can't believe
Regina Mangan: and
Kristjan Byfield: I'm
Regina Mangan: Christopher
Kristjan Byfield: 30
Regina Mangan: focus
Kristjan Byfield: year to spend half their week doing XY Z you
Regina Mangan: agreed and that's a huge thing in terms of staff retention but also reducing wasteful activities that don't bring any monetary value to the business but also creating moments of delight. Steven Brown often talks about that moments of delight for your customer. Imagine 8:00 at night or 10:00 on a Sunday morning get getting your AI response that feels good and as you said you're ahead then of your competitors. It gives you a competitive edge and then Monday morning one of the team members can follow that up. So it's an extra touch point. It's a quicker touch point. So
Kristjan Byfield: Look,
Regina Mangan: I
Kristjan Byfield: I
Regina Mangan: think it's
Kristjan Byfield: can think
Regina Mangan: really
Kristjan Byfield: of
Regina Mangan: important
Kristjan Byfield: nothing better in terms of what our staff deliver as employees as as as part of the business. You know, I can think of nothing better in the next 6 to 12 months.
Kristjan Byfield: you know, if we can if what we can achieve with AI means that let's say at least 50% of the dayto-day grind that they do is gone.
Regina Mangan: Yeah, Thank you.
Kristjan Byfield: Half of their working hours is gone. So, they're still that other half is still where they add the value, right? So that's where your property managers are tackling that really tricky leak or handling that really complex insurance claim on behalf of a client or you know you're you're taking through a really difficult sale and navigating all the different
Regina Mangan: Exactly. And making prospecting calls. Making calls. Prospecting calls. Check-in calls with your clients. Human connection where you're really really adding value.
Kristjan Byfield: make people happy going out and moving that sign not because you have to, not because you're obliged to, but because it makes someone happy. You know, I would be delighted if Yeah. of that 50% of work we remove. Now, obviously the idea is we're going to use that partially to leverage their capacity so we can deliver the same service over more properties.
Kristjan Byfield: But what I'm really hoping is of that 50% that we free up, if half of that, if 25% of a member of staff's time can be spent purely like you said, bringing the joy.
Regina Mangan: Exactly. Creating moments of magic, you
Kristjan Byfield: Yeah.
Regina Mangan: know. Creating moments of
Kristjan Byfield: Yeah.
Regina Mangan: magic.
Kristjan Byfield: Whether that's going to meet a tenant at 1:00 in the morning who's got a bit drunk and locked themselves out when
Regina Mangan: No,
Kristjan Byfield: you
Regina Mangan: no,
Kristjan Byfield: don't
Regina Mangan: no. We don't do that. We
Kristjan Byfield: but you
Regina Mangan: have a
Kristjan Byfield: go
Regina Mangan: security company that does that. We draw a line.
Kristjan Byfield: I mean literally I did that one off the cuff but I'm like you know what whatever it is a contractor messes up and you know you you don't need to but you dash down to let them in or you know a tenant needs a boiler topping up and rather than them wait for a plumber tomorrow and they don't feel comfortable doing it you pop down and and do it.
Kristjan Byfield: It's it's there's no intrinsic value. That hour spent doing it is probably not financially worth the time spent on it. But that magical moment that that you know tenants don't expect, residents don't expect it from letting agents, particularly if they've been renting for a while, if they've been around the houses, they've had those poor experiences, they've had that apathetic landlord, they've had that agent who doesn't get back to them for days, if ever, you know. So when you deliver those things, you get those wows and people
Regina Mangan: And
Kristjan Byfield: remember
Regina Mangan: there's so many things we can do. One of the things that we do that works really well is business spotlights where we do a video spotlight on another business. So you free up the time to do that. So you're helping another business. You're getting profile for them. You're connecting with their audience. In terms of the world of marketing, it's so competitive now. We'd be better off to invest in the marketing and the connection with our customers or prospective customers than these doing these wasteful activities.
Kristjan Byfield: Yeah.
Regina Mangan: One thing I would like to share before we finish is um I'm really crap on technology. So if anybody's listening and think well look I'm not good at technology. We have invested a lot in technology. We've transformed our business through technology. But I want to say I'm absolutely rubbish at it. Unlike you. You have a natural I suppose understanding of technology. It comes easy to you.
Kristjan Byfield: Okay,
Regina Mangan: We've
Kristjan Byfield: the cake.
Regina Mangan: we have five we have five remote controls at home. I genuinely can never figure out which one to use for the television. That's why when I said I was going to prop tech that they all laughed and and so I'm really bad at it. What I do want to share is that I look at how we do things and I look at how I want them to be and then we do the research on what technology can solve the problem and I look at the potential return on that investment and when people think oh that technology is too expensive and yet they don't mind sending someone out all day long doing these wasteful long administrative jobs which could be solved like a simple app like inventory base
Kristjan Byfield: And
Regina Mangan: simple
Kristjan Byfield: often
Regina Mangan: thing.
Kristjan Byfield: for no other reason than that's what they had to do when they did that job 20 years ago. Like I had to do it so you have to do it. Come on people.
Regina Mangan: Yeah. So, it's it's really about learning and sharing this information. And I'm going to Birmingham next week to the XP conference because the lovely um Adam Mackey has invited me over and a great guy, very good guy and I'm looking forward to learning and I'm going to be extra honing in on AI after this conversation.
Kristjan Byfield: Yeah. And look, I I love the fact that you've made a point of clarifying that because I think there are a lot of people who, like you say, kind of have this disclaimer of, "Oh, I don't I don't really do tech. I don't get tech. It's not my thing."
Regina Mangan: Yeah.
Kristjan Byfield: Um, you know, do stuff that scares you. I mean, that's always a generally healthy attitude to take to life.
Kristjan Byfield: I'm I'm a big advocate of of do stuff that scares you because 99% of the time, you're going to find out there was no good valid reason to be scared of it in
Regina Mangan: Heat.
Kristjan Byfield: the first place. and you'll probably have quite a bit of fun. But also, you know, pushing yourself out your comfort zone. Okay, great. You know, you're not great at tech. You don't understand it, but you've got your team around you. There will be someone in your team who will be a bit more techsavvy who will happily
Regina Mangan: Absolutely.
Kristjan Byfield: be
Regina Mangan: Yes.
Kristjan Byfield: there kind of take the lead and go, do you know what? That's great. You've you've gone
Regina Mangan: Oh, you can't do it on your own. I bring it in. I say this is the problem we want to resolve and then they decide whether it's good enough.
Kristjan Byfield: and
Regina Mangan: It
Kristjan Byfield: evolve
Regina Mangan: isn't
Kristjan Byfield: your team.
Regina Mangan: me.
Kristjan Byfield: Involve your team.
Kristjan Byfield: more often than not now most products most products there's a there's a quite advanced marketplace and in most instances you will have choices so you know let's take payments for example rental payments you know you had the initial um kind of the leaders in the market you've got payrop but now you've got let's pay you've got harmony from agent OS you've got uh casip I think is another one that's come out recently you know so have a Look, if you can't figure out, put it in front of your team who who does your accounts, who processes your rent and deposit reconciliations within your business. Guess what? Sit down with that person and figure out what is going to transform their life. You know, what is going to make it help take them on that journey with you? Because then also, they're going to have buyin when you sign up to that product. They're going to want to work with it to refine it to configure the settings so it works exactly the way you want it to. That
Regina Mangan: So just to share the power of this sharing, I'm going to ask you a favor on this call.
Kristjan Byfield: Oh, here
Regina Mangan: Um,
Kristjan Byfield: we go.
Regina Mangan: can John Darcy on my team contact someone on your team to see how you do the payments to see can we smarten our system up a bit better?
Kristjan Byfield: Absolutely. You know, as you know, always, always, and anytime
Regina Mangan: Thank you.
Kristjan Byfield: that is definitely something that will need to await uh my much wiser, sensibler, more organized business partner, Anukica.
Regina Mangan: Brilliant.
Kristjan Byfield: Uh
Regina Mangan: Praise.
Kristjan Byfield: she is back from holiday middle of next week. So, um yeah, I would say give her next week to get settled back in, but after that, have John reach out and and an will happily sit down and talk through uh what she what she does and what she loves. Um, I definitely recommend he also reaches out to Matt Bulldock if you're not already familiar with the Bulldog Brothers.
Regina Mangan: Okay.
Kristjan Byfield: They are lovely. Uh, two brothers in Essex.
Kristjan Byfield: They're very passionate. They do a monthly director's dinner in London which is just
Regina Mangan: Oh,
Kristjan Byfield: forenders.
Regina Mangan: yes, yes, yes. I've seen that
Kristjan Byfield: No buyers. Um, unfortunately I've been unable to attend for about a year because literally every month it coincides with either something I've already booked in for or it's the night before something I'm doing and I'm like that's
Regina Mangan: is. But isn't it powerful when we share this information? I just have this sneaky feeling that we're going to be able to reduce our payment process after speaking to an in a few weeks time and all of the improvements that we've made in Liberty Blue over the number of years from meeting you, from going to Propt Tech, from being part of these mastermind groups. It's it's it's it's brilliant. Also, we didn't mention if you're ever deciding to sell your business, your intellectual property is super important. It's very difficult to sell a business successfully if you do not have robust processes and systems. It's a real um added value in in the sale of your your business.
Kristjan Byfield: Yeah, absolutely. Um, so I think we I think we've kind of we've kind of done the houses there. I mean,
Regina Mangan: Yes.
Kristjan Byfield: hope lots of stuff for people to um to to
Regina Mangan: Great.
Kristjan Byfield: chew on there. But I think, you know, fundamentally it comes back to the core things, you know, talk. We're all agents. We're all fundamentally hopefully trying to do a better job, make people happy, deliver a great product or service. So find the businesses and the people that you identify with, that you align with, and reach out, you know, say hi. um fire over a question, a problem, you know, or like you did, go to a prop tech event, go to one of the big conferences, go to the EXP or you if you're more dependent, EXP, look at um FIA, they're doing a conference. Um a lot of the uh franchises and businesses there like just just find those networks where you kind of find your people and start talking and asking questions. Start sharing the problems you've got and and the solutions you need. Involve your team, but don't don't stand still and don't be scared, right? Don't, you know,
Regina Mangan: absolutely continuous improvement and a rising tide of soul boats. So on that note, Chris
Kristjan Byfield: absolute pleasure.
Regina Mangan: or Christian, did I say Chris? Chris, somebody else is waving there at me. Christian, a pleasure. And I would like to publicly acknowledge the support and help that you gave me over the years. It really really has helped us hugely. And I'll say thank you in Irish curve mil.
Kristjan Byfield: I love that. It's been fun. I can't wait to get my butt in gear and get over to Waterford and come and see your beautiful city and and
Regina Mangan: Great. You know, we'd love
Kristjan Byfield: relish
Regina Mangan: to see
Kristjan Byfield: the
Regina Mangan: you.
Kristjan Byfield: viking history.
Regina Mangan: Thanks a million.
Kristjan Byfield: Darling, all the best.
 
 
 

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