[Antonia]
I'm joined today by Angela Stergou of Leo Tsimpikas Real Estate. Angela, welcome. Lovely to have you with us.
[Angela]
Thank you.
[Antonia]
Angela, I want to talk about your transition into a sales role. You are now a sales star with your office. It's a wonderful family run business and of course it's been at West End for a long time. Tell us about how you've made that transition into sales and the different kinds of stress that are associated with being in sales rather than property management.
[Angela]
I think property management, I kind of got the job done during the day and I only did a little bit of work at night if I needed to. There's always relationships there. But they I feel that the sales, you've got to connect that little bit more and be available a lot more with your clients, whether they're buyers or sellers.
[Antonia]
Outside of normal business hours?
[Angela]
Absolutely, yeah.
[Antonia]
Is that one of the key differences you've noticed? That yes, property management is stressful, but it's quite process driven and that tends to happen in business hours. Sales is perhaps a little bit more 24, seven, seven days a week potentially. So let’s talk about that, you have two young children and a very busy family life. How do you go about ensuring that you are looking after your physical and mental being and still getting the job done and being so successful at it?
[Angela]
My number one rule with no negotiations is that I work out every morning. Whether it's 5:00AM or 7:00AM that I wake up, I will still do half of an hour workout. And even if it means not washing myself properly in the morning.
[Antonia]
That's hard to believe. You always look immaculate.
[Angela]
Thank you. But I need to do that half an hour. I need my music on. I need to work out. I need to sweat and think about my day, what's going on, and kind of getting ready for my day. Because the days are always huge and there's so much going on all the time. Phone calls here, emails there. Meeting all these people that time I really need it. And if I don't have it, I actually can't perform.
[Antonia]
Do you see the difference if you miss that work out and what does that work out look like? Is it at a gym? Is it at your house? What does it at home?
Yeah, just a basic home. Little gym. I do. I've got a few bar grills, I have a yoga mat, I've got a treadmill, I've got those balls where I always fall off them. Just normal things, like even crunches and sit ups and lunges and all that sort of stuff. As long as I've got my music on and I am powering through that, yes, I feel excellent. And then I run upstairs and I make myself and my husband a coffee - screen the children to “get ready, get ready!” and we start our day. But always, even Sundays, I workout.
[Antonia]
No days off? Even on a Sunday?
[Angela]
No, I don't think so. If we're going to go to the beach and have an early Sunday morning, I'll do a workout the night before, just so I don't miss out on that because it's all about consistency. So I'll do a work out the night before or if I didn't do that, I'll do it that night.
[Antonia]
So it sounds like it's not really just about your physical wellbeing. It's actually about creating some space in your mind and again creating that mental mindset for the day ahead.
[Angela]
Absolutely.
[Antonia]
We've talked about the fact that sales can be 24, seven, seven days a week. People are calling you at all hours. What sort of rules do you implement around that? Will you take phone calls in the evening? What does that look like?
[Angela]
It depends who it is. Not that I've got favorites. But if I know that one of my vendors that I've currently got a listing of and they can't speak during the day, I know that I will be speaking to them when I'm cleaning the kitchen at night, or when I'm making lunches and stuff. And I'm OK with that because I have an appointment to act on their behalf and I need to talk to them. Sometimes buyers and stuff where we're chatting about the negotiations or the conditions or whatever it is. And so occasionally a text message. Yes, I do. And I'll do that sometimes up until 9:00 at night. It's a given, I've got to do it. I just feel that you can't switch off at 5:00PM. There is no way that you can do that in sales.
[Antonia]
I want to talk a little bit about how important process is within your office. Is that something that plays a critical role in your success - technology, setting up processes, support behind the scenes? What does that look like at your office?
[Angela]
I'm a one person sales person in my office, so I don't have an assistant that's going to do all the running around for me. The buck stops at me right there. So I have an office manager who will help me. If there is a tenant in place, they'll do up the entry notices or they'll always check my sign boards and my deals and my brochures that go out just so there's a second set of eyes on it in case I've made a mistake. That I've got a list of everything that I have to do prior to a property going to the market. And so I just tick it off.
[Antonia]
So it's a checklist?
[Angela]
There's a checklist. Yeah and we've made up that ourselves. We've taken a little bit from the REIQ checklist of course, but we've added more stuff because there's a lot more that goes with putting a property on the market now with social media, with photography, people going to videos - there's a lot more.
[Antonia]
So that checklist is really what keeps you. It's about being processed, driven, you know, you've got to be able to tick each and every box on there.
Absolutely and with that, I just find that I would love to find someone who can do all of that stuff for me. But I just don't want to get too big too quickly because I still have young children that need me.
more.
[Antonia]
Yeah, and I know that with you, Angie, you're very much about building relationships. You're very much about one on one.
[Angela]
Absolutely and I think that that's just the best thing. The relationships that we create in our industry last a lifetime. I'm going out for lunch with a buyer that I sold a property to six months ago in New Farm today. Yeah like the buyers and agents get along after the sale. Yeah, I vendors do, but I was invited to. Well, that's right.
more.
[Antonia]
So I think that relationship has I think it was created and it will stay for a long time.
[Angela]
And every time I talk to you, I get the sense that you just love real estate so much.
more.
[Antonia]
Obviously it's in your blood, it's a family business, but you seem to really love what you do. And of course, the old adage is you don't feel like you're working when you're doing something you really love.
[Angela]
Yeah Yeah. That is so true. Yeah
more.
[Antonia]
Thanks so much for joining us, Angie. It's been a pleasure.
[Angela]
Thank you so much.
