Global Success Coach

International ‘Mr. Real Estate Advertising’

Ian, you hold the envious title on the International Real Estate stage as International ‘Mr. Real Estate Advertising’, just how has this title come about?

Grant it happened about 1996 based on the work I was doing throughout Australia, the New Zealand Herald dubbed me ‘Mr. Real Estate Advertising’ in Australia, the rest of the media picked it up and then as I continued working around the world the title stuck! Doing lots of work for the media of course they used it from paper to paper and then I became International ‘Mr. Real Estate Advertising’.

What are the key learnings from your Real Estate Advertising training?

I tried to simplify it and I think ‘Hoodoo’, which is the way we have branded our material, says it in one go! Agents try to sell the features of a property where they should be looking at ‘Who’ is the best prospect who will pay the most money and then showing and telling them what they will ‘Do’ as a result of their purchase. Other quick tips like tying photos and headlines together and also tying different media together to get maximum impact, something which unfortunately most of them don’t currently do!

So Ian in your training you would share a lot of the ‘secrets of effective real estate advertising’ to ensure real estate salespeople have the most opportunity to increase their income throughout the year?

No shadow of a doubt there Grant, and I aim to make it as simple as possible, so whether someone is brand new to the industry or has been doing it for thirty years, I’ll show them how it could be done, and how it should be done. So they have the confidence to go off and do it themselves. Many of the secrets you mentioned in fact absolutely change what they had been doing. But they can see why it will logically work for them and they share the successes of other agents before them.

Ian, I know you live just south of me on Australia’s Gold Coast - arguably one of the most amazing places in the world to live – how do you ensure you create a balanced  lifestyle with your busy global travel and training commitments?

As far as timing goes ,I very rarely work weekends but down here it’s easy, we see the lake or visit the sea nearly every single day, work decent hours these days , and also a bit of flexi-time so we can keep our social life together. We meet with friends, we have our children visit us, and we make each weekend a mini- holiday for us as a couple. Plus regular exercise, healthy food and things like a massage every single month and a regular facial and pedicure for my wife. Also playing with our dog – so keeping that mix of relaxing with other people, family and friends and a healthy lifestyle is the answer.

Presumably health and fitness play a big part in your life – Let’s hear a few Ian Secrets about what do you do to maintain your fitness

Grant I have always exercised and particularly with all the travel and hotels you stay in and the food you eat, I believe it is an absolute necessity to keep physically fit. If I keep physically fit then it obviously makes me feel mentally better and stronger, so they tend to work in tandem. But it’s like most other things ,I set goals because with my travel I don’t often go to gyms, but I have my own workouts that I discipline myself to do.  So I set little goals with my own particular physical workouts and look at maintaining those goals and achieving them on a regular basis. And of course here on the Gold Coast we go down for a run along the white sandy beach most days and go for a cycle around the lake and the river as well! So it is very easy down here, because you have such a convivial atmosphere to keep yourself fit and healthy.

One thing I have been dying to ask you - is about the little known ‘secret’ that you also write Children’s Books?

Yes, that’s probably been more of a hobby, it doesn’t relate to real estate -but it started about 18 years ago, our own children said ‘Dad, don’t read us a story tell us one’, so I started making up all these children’s stories . All the children seemed to love them and I was eventually convinced to put them into writing , it took about three attempts over a number of years to finally get them illustrated so the first one is published and the next two in the series are ready to be launched shortly. They are very simply stories with good moral values for kids, which I believe is missing a lot these days. They love them, as do the parents and grandparents because they love imparting those good values to the kids. They also incidentally make a great tool in real estate because the majority of the clients out there have children or grandchildren. Click here to see The Never Ending Strawberry Patch

Ian, I hear one of the most exciting events on the International Real Estate scene is about to take place on the Gold Coast of Australia later this year- let’s hear about it?

Yes it’s been the accumulation of a dream, to showcase the Australian Real Estate industry to the rest of the world. Having spoken worldwide for many years now, I have realized that Australian agents are actually world leaders in a number of different areas of real estate. Most of them here aren’t even aware of that themselves.

So that was the dream - it follows on from an exhibition titled ‘The Best of Australian Real Estate’ we put together at the National Associate of Realtors Convention in San Francisco in 2005. We are very happy to say that whist this is our second year, we have already achieved international publicity across USA, Canada, and the UK. And with ‘News Limited’ being our major sponsor it’s publicized throughout the whole of Australia too

And I understand one of the major attractions is the unbelievable quality of world recognized speakers- what sort of people can the attendees expect to hear from this year?

As I just mentioned, ‘News Limited’ is our major sponsor and in their publicity you will see speakers like Sherry Chris the COO of arguably the biggest real estate group in the world, Coldwell Banker from the USA, she’s coming across. Gary Hockey, the President of Coldwell Banker from Canada who has achieved a staggering 98% customer service rating for their group year in year out. We have Australia’s best agent, just won the award recently, Anthony Toop. We have Philip Webb, one of the most awarded agents in Australia. We have Noel Whittaker the finance guru who is front of over 6 million people every week in newspapers and 50 radio stations around the country.  And the list goes on, with many more in that ilk. We have what we believe is an absolute World class program; we are very happy and very proud of it!

Haven’t you forgotten someone else Ian…

Oh and plus… Of course… myself Ian Grace who will be speaking as International ‘Mr. Real Estate Advertising’

And…

Oh, I always forget the two people that are speaking….

Yes, of course the internationally famous, unbelievably motivated, super over achiever Business Coach, Mentor and Professional Speaker Mr. Grant Thorpe who has come across from New Zealand to show us Aussies how to do it at last!

International Cricketer Danny Morrison Snapped!

Danny Morrison tells the story of how it all happened?

Danny, what inspired you to take up cricket?

Well I was late starter, I didn't start playing cricket until I was 11 when we moved to Auckland, and then I saw the two greats, Dennis Lillee from Australia and New Zealand's very own Sir Richard Hadlee and those two were in confrontation with each other in Eden Park in 1977. I saw these two guys and thought, that's me!

Those two guys inspired me to pick up a bat and a ball and have a go at the summer code of cricket

In a brief summary, what drove you to succeed to the highest level with cricket?

Well if any of you have seen me in the flesh, yours truly is a 5 foot nothing "Garden Gnome' as they like to call me here in Australia. And I had this burning desire and drive to not so much prove people wrong, but a lot of people doubted whether I could do that because I had spouted off a bit, pretty much half way through high school that I was going to run in and bowl fast for New Zealand and do it along side Richard Hadlee. And a lot of those teachers and people at School certainly doubted me, and I just simply desired it more than anything else. I trained hard, I simply wanted it that much more than some of the other talented guys I had gone through School and club with. I was very single minded, knew what I wanted, and went for it!

What is your greatest asset?

Your greatest asset; when you listen to a lot of very high profile speakers, high profile corporate people, sports people, any walk of life and you listen to them, they talk about a lot of things but it always comes back to central core, and that is your health! It doesn't matter how much wealth you have got if you don't have your health, you are simply not going to enjoy all that wealth.

So that's always been a big issue for me, because of my physical 'non-attributes' if you like, I had to work really hard to achieve what the others had.

So for me it always comes back to health being your greatest asset, you can't enjoy life without it.

How do you maintain your health & well being?

It comes back to the nuts and bolts for me, and I know that for a lot of people they hate to get up to exercise, but I really don't care who you are, in terms of how wealthy you are and where you are in your life, if you can't get up in the morning to do it then you are going to struggle.

You need to kick start your day with doing some physical activity, because what I found over the years is that if you leave it to the end of the day, things come up, you can make excuses, your schedule changes, but if you get up and do it first thing in the morning you have no excuses. Just like you say Grant it's all about planning an Ideal Day!

What about balance in your life, what are you up to these days?

Having moved to the Sunshine Coast in Australia and like a lot of us you come over here for the sun. And there is no doubt about it, when the Sun is shining; it is so much more uplifting and inspiring. So many young new Zealanders have come over with young families to have a part of that.

And so in terms of balance for me, it very family orientated, with my wife and two children, it's certainly all about that. And while you love chasing work and being stimulated by that, the balance for me has to be around family and being outdoors. I am lucky enough to be able to still do things through cricket avenues whether it's coaching, or media commitments, certainly the balance for me is being able to be there for your children, being able to get away, exploring this whole lovely region and being involved with their sport, either my daughters Netball or my sons Soccer. It allows you to step back from busy work issues to have that balance in your life.

Now Danny I'm told that you are involved in an exciting new technology with a project called Photomax? What is this all about?

It's very exciting, its internet technology based because that's the way you access it, but in real terms it's about digital storage.

In fact it appeals to every one of us because it's about how we store digital images and ensure we protect them for future generations. This storage is not just for our precious family photos and videos but also expands into business records, various other media, and even content from you mobile phone.

All this digital technology is exploding and we know it will be changing rapidly in the next few years. My friends and family have got involved with Photomax.

Not many people realise how fragile our old photos and videos are, in fact they only have about a 10 year life span before they start to deteriorate . All these sentimental emotional memories that are traditionally stored either on photo paper or on tape, they need to be digitized, enhanced and looked after and kept for all time. Photomax has a laboratory in the USA, and one opening soon in New Zealand and Australia. Photomax also has a state of the art storage facility, where all the digital back up of the photos is kept; to guarantee their future preservation.

But also you can send off all your fabulous memories to be stored as well as have them reproduced into a variety of Albums, and DVD's etc

Photomax is the only company that allows you to have a compensation plan where you can create a business out of this, and that is what has spoken to me!

How can people find out more about Photomax?

In the first instance you can view the Photomax website at www.creativemax.myphotomax.com or contact me directly at creativemax@myphotomax.com