Chris Watkin: Why is it important that UK estate agents listen to what you have to say Tom?
Tom Panos: It's not mandatory. It's not life-threatening. I think to myself, why wouldn't they? One of the reasons is that for the last 15 years, Chris, what I've done is gone backstage and looked at the thoughts, attitudes, practices, structures, mindsets, marketing models of people that do 100 deals a year, people that write a million dollars in gross fees, Aussie dollars, which is around £500,000, and you learn a lot. You learn a lot from actually talking to these people. I think that if I'm an estate agent in the UK, I would love to find out what is it that someone successful doing that I can rip off and duplicate in my own business?
Tom Panos: What I've learnt in the time I've worked with UK agents, there is pretty much no difference on things such as how you win business, prospecting, developing a personal brand. It is pretty identical. They have the same issues. Chris, there are discount agents that will do things at pretty much zero in Australia, so that's a common practice. I mean you've got discount agents. Pretty much in Australia, you've got vendors that want this and buyers that want this.
Chris Watkin: You need an estate agent that's a deal maker, not an order taker so they can learn on what is it that these deal makers are doing?
Tom Panos: Social media, now, everyone is a media company so how do you actually develop a personal brand online without putting a photo of your avocado and poached eggs
Chris Watkin: What qualifies you to come over from Australia? I mean some people, I mean not many people, might not know who you are. What's your background? How are you qualified to give this advice?
Tom Panos: I opened up a real estate office when I was 20 years of age.
Chris Watkin: 10 years ago?
Tom Panos: 10 years ago, yes. It's been a long 10 years.
Chris Watkin: Rough paper round.
Tom Panos: Rough, yeah. My audio matches my video, and that is that I'm not a textbook trainer. Even when I go back to Australia, when I leave here, I sit in vendor meetings. I still run an auction business.
Chris Watkin: Oh, so you're actually in the game at the moment?
Tom Panos: 100%.
Chris Watkin: You're not just one of these gurus that just preach from on high.
Tom Panos: I mean it's really normal to go listen to a real estate trainer to say, "Here are the things to say. When a client says this, you say this. When a client says this, you say this. When a client says this, you say this." Guess what? Somewhere along the line, the client doesn't say that. That's real life. What I've learnt is no training course survives collision with reality.
Chris Watkin: True.
Tom Panos: Right? What I've learnt is this, being an estate agent, being someone that's set up a business, being someone that lists and sold real estate for a very long period of time, that gives me the authority and the permission to say, "I feel the pain of an estate agent." I know what it feels like to go home and actually have spent two weeks thinking that you had a sale.
Tom Panos: As you drove home, you got a phone call that said, "Tom, thanks for everything. You're fantastic, but... " I know that you go from the heights of exhilaration to the depths of depression in 24 hours. How do you actually stay positive when the world's falling apart around you? I think what gives me the authority is that I'm telling people stuff that I've already done. Right? That's the first thing.
Tom Panos: The second thing is my business model is pretty much a lab. What I do is I continue in doing research and development, what's working, what's not working. I think what gives me the authority to do it is that if you were to ask the top 1% of real estate agents in Australia, "Who is the person that has influenced your model, what you do, how you prospect, how do you stand out in a crowded marketplace?" They would say, "Tom Panos and The Real Estate Gym." I mean just if you go onto my social media engagement, you will see that probably the closest person would probably have less than half the engagement that I've got.
Chris Watkin: You've got to promise me here now that it's not just going to be a sales fest for your Real Estate Gym, and you're actually going to give cracking good value and actionable points to the people
Tom Panos: I don't have commission breath. I never, ever plug a product. I use the law of attraction. I give out free content.
Chris Watkin: You certainly give a lot
Tom Panos: Sorry, you were there?
Chris Watkin: Yeah. I was on stage with you before, I was your warmup act.
Tom Panos: Okay. That's right, I just remembered. We did videos outside.
Chris Watkin: We did
Tom Panos: Yeah. It was a lot colder than what it is in this room, yeah.
Chris Watkin: There you go.
Tom Panos: I think you're probably a good person to answer it, did you think that I actually pitched any products?
Chris Watkin: You didn't pitch anything, you were just giving away. Again, a lot of people go to these conferences and they just feel it's a sales fest. I think it's important that people who are spending their hard earned cash coming... There's lots of events out there that they know they're going to get value, actionable value. Let's be frank, it's hard work out there, isn't it?
Tom Panos: The first thing I'll say is if you just go to YouTube, put Tom Panos, people will turn around and think, this guy is a charity worker. Why does he just give out all this free content, right?
Chris Watkin: You've got more videos than me, mate.
Tom Panos: Yes, yes.
Chris Watkin: Not many people have.
Tom Panos: Yes. What it is for me, look, I have the approach. I get people all the time saying to me, "Why do you give out free content?" It's really simple. If they don't like what they're getting to you for free, what makes you think they're actually going to pay for anymore. It's actually not as dumb as what people think. At the end of the day, I think that what you've got to do is to be the person that provides the most education. If people like your approach, they want more of it, they'll exchange their dollars for it, so yeah.
Chris Watkin: Thank you Tom
Tom Panos: Thank you.