My Week with Brad Inman

In Feb/March of 2018 I got to spend the best part of a week with Brad Inman traveling in Sydney and Brisbane.

Here’s my 5 take-aways from a week with the man, the myth, the legend!

1. Leadership

During our chats we spoke at length about the leadership mindset of the military that should be adopted in real estate franchises and business. Brad said, “Feed your troops. The last person to eat in the mess hall is the Leader”. Many here have much to learn in this space!

There is without doubt, a global leadership revolution going on. Eg: Brexit, Trump, etc. At all levels from politics to community, corporate to shareholders, franchisors to franchisees, institutes to members, and businesses to teams. In many cases, the leadership model is now being driven from the bottom up. Brad has just completed a survey of the real estate industry at all levels on the topic of ‘Leadership’ and is compiling a book on the topic of new Leadership in Real Estate I think it’ll be a fascinating read!

2. The need to embrace diversity

Brad’s simple thoughts on diversity struck a chord with me: “If there’s a man on his stage, then there must be a woman on stage” Now, he had MUCH MUCH more to say on embracing diversity, but when I look at so many Events in the property industry, there has been a long history of a strong bias towards what I once infamously called a ‘sausage fest’. Ie: Too many of us blokes on stage!

Brad continued to challenge that “if we continue to listen to the same old speakers and stick in the same old circles, we’ll only ever reinforce our own bias and learn nothing” . He noted if his recent events didn’t embrace diversity, we wouldn’t have heard and learned from 3 of the worlds leading scientists on climate change, artificial intelligence, and emerging technology, who happened to be transgender. We need to stretch our minds and be prepared to challenge our own bias. But that won’t happen without each of us embracing diversity.  

3. Old school still works

Brad shared a wonderful story of being set the task, by his ailing father from, his hospital bed, to find a Realtor to sell the family home. Brad, who had built a 100 million dollar tech company that helped consumers find real estate agents, spent 3 days researching the right Realtor to sell his Dad’s home. He met again with his Dad who asked, ‘”is the house on the market, Brad?’… Brad’s reply was “not yet, i’m a bit confused, Dad”…
His fathers reply was priceless…. He simply said:… “Brad, go home. Go to the fridge. On it you’ll find a magnet. Call that guy. He sells all the houses in our neighbourhood” 🙂 A priceless reminder that tech can be cool. But that people with proven track records and simplicity are still at the forefront of what we do.

4. Having more cheques than bills

Brad’s wisdom on business and changing markets. He said.. “Don’t waste your cash in the good times”. “It will ensure you have plenty of cash to 5 times your business when others are in trouble”. “Always make sure you have more cheques than bills”.

5. The power of personal the recommendation

I’ve always been a huge proponent of the power of a personal recommendation. More and more we are being driven by the power of ‘Social Proof’ in our decision making. Eg: Tripadvisor – RateMy Agent etc.

But what Brad Inman had to say in the video below, blew my mind!

Brad Inman Peter Brewer Tara Christianson from Peter Brewer on Vimeo.

Why not join me in San Francisco for Inman 2018? Private message me for a cracking deal for my Australian and Kiwi colleagues!