[Antonia]
I'm here with Brett Andreassen, salesperson at Plum Property. Brett, Thanks so much for joining us.
[Brett]
Thanks very much.
[Antonia]
Now you are, of course, an REIQ Residential Salesperson of the Year Winner for 2015 and 2020.
[Brett]
Yep!
[Antonia]
Great, so wonderful to have you with us today on Close Ups where we’re talking about all things health and well-being. So I have to start at the obvious starting point - you have two children under four. A four-year-old and an under 12 month old?
[Brett]
Yeah, under 10 month - yep.
[Antonia]
So let's talk about that because often men aren't asked about how do you juggle work, babies and children. So I want to ask you with such young children and sleepless nights, how's that juggling act working for you? Is it working?
[Brett]
Yeah, yeah. I've got a pretty set routine when it comes to the kids, family, wife and everything where - for one, I don't work Fridays. That's a full stop. I don't work Fridays so I can spend the day with them because I don't want to be the dad that's not there all the time because we have to work Saturdays, so I don't get that day with them. So they're not in daycare on Fridays and I can spend that day with them. I will always do drop-off. I will nearly always do pick-up for daycare as well with them, because I like to have that interaction with them where I can go on and pick them up and watch them play for a bit without everything else going on.
[Antonia]
So that's lovely. And is that something that's supported in your workplace - having a Friday off?
[Brett]
Yeah, it originally started off where I would not work Friday afternoons, and then that slowly morphed into just not working Fridays at all. And then it became where you would do the occasional point because you had to. Now, I'm at a point where I can just say, no, I'm not.
[Antonia]
And on most Fridays, you're not physically going into the workplace. Are you still answering your phone?
[Brett]
No no. My phone doesn't get answered because there's voicemail. My voicemail gets changed on the Friday morning to say I'll be unavailable until after 5:00pm, and then I'll do all my phone calls quickly back at two people. Once you set the expectation for clients, people understand completely.
[Antonia]
Interesting. And I want to talk a little bit about that idea of setting the expectation because I think real estate is often seen as being a 24-7, seven day a week job. Do you think that's part of the key to success, stress management and work-life balance management? Is it about setting some parameters up and making sure that that's properly communicated so that people aren't disappointed?
[Brett]
Yeah, having the power or the courage just to say no to someone is probably more important in my career now than to say yes to every single appointment that I possibly can.
[Antonia]
I think there's something in that - learning how to say no. I think that's a really difficult thing for many of us to do. Is that something you've had to work on or is that a little bit inbuilt into your personality so that you don't struggle with that?
[Brett]
Yes and yes. Especially when you're younger and you feel obligated or you feel like you're doing the wrong thing by not saying yes to every appointment. Or, having a buyer who wants to see it at 5 o'clock on a Friday and they're flying in. And they say, no, we cannot make it on Saturday - when invariable, we know that they can, but they just don't want to. And I just thought, you know what? I don't want to do it, so I won't. That's it. And I can say no really easily now to appointments for Fridays. It hasn't cost any business. People really understand. I explain to them that that's my day with my kids, and I found that people really respect that now that I've that, I've set that boundary. If I was to say it was a day off, they might say: “Surely you can come into work.” But now I say, that's my day with my kids and they go - “Yep, completely understand we can do it another time.”
[Antonia]
I did want to talk a little bit about the floods. You've been impacted in quite a significant way by both the 2011 floods in particular, but even the most recent floods we had earlier this year. I know you've done some speaking on behalf of the REIQ to help others deal with this. What are you happy to share with us about that time in your life? I mean, particularly the 2011 floods - it had a very significant impact on your real estate practice.
[Brett]
Yeah. When you have 20 properties come off the market overnight and you sort of go, oh, there goes all that potential income over the space of 24 hours… That was a rough one. I sort of learned a bit of fortitude just then to sort of say, all right, what do we need to do? And what I learned from there is all we can do during that period is to help. Like, I couldn't be a sales person during that time. I couldn't be the real estate agent making 50 phone calls, 100 phone calls. All I could do was just be present and offer assistance where I can. I can remember, post the 2022 floods, like I had to take a few days just to get my head back into gear because of having to go through that again. On a Monday, I sent a text out to my clients just going, “hey, I'm working from home today, just on a mental health day. I'll give you a Buzz to check in later on just so you know.” The response was “Yep, no worries, Brett. I understand completely.” That's OK. Everyone understood that.
[Antonia]
Was that to your work colleagues or to everyone?
[Brett]
That was to everyone - clients, colleagues.
[Antonia]
And they responded positively?
[Brett]
Yeah. There used to be such a stigma around men not taking mental health days, not looking after themselves, and that was never looked on favorably. Whereas I think that's changed a lot as people have talked about that a lot more. And so that's really important because you can only go through so many burnouts in your life to do that.
[Antonia]
Yeah, I think that's something that we're getting much better at. I think Aussie blokes have historically not been great at talking about mental health or perhaps doing things that are about looking after their mental health. And again, I think there's been a considerable shift there, which is great. Any final messages for anyone out there who might be listening, looking at you for some assistance? Any wise words of wisdom for them?
[Brett]
All I can really say is just set your boundaries. That's the most important thing. Or else you're going to just work 24/7 and then you'll start resenting everyone who calls you.
[Antonia]
That's great advice. Thanks, Brett.
