Alex McEwan: Fast Rise in QLD Bayside Real Estate, Wynnum

Alex McEwan from McGrath Wynnum/Manly shares his journey from mechanic to top-performing Bayside real estate agent.

We cover:

• Career pivot from the workshop to real estate
• Wynnum, Manly and Bayside property trends
• Winning listings in a competitive QLD suburb
• Building client relationships that last

Full show notes + links: empirelegal.com.au/blog/news/episode-11-alex-mcewan

Raising the Bar is Empire Legal's podcast for Queensland property - hosted by Brisbane-based conveyancing solicitor George Sourris. Visit empirelegal.com.au or call 07 3088 7675.

Transcript

Alec, welcome to Season two of the Raising the Bar podcast. Thanks Georgie. Mate, good to have you. Thank you for having me. We've known each other, oh gosh. How long, mate? Over a decade, I reckon. 

Yeah. It'd be 11, 12 years. 

Yep. Yep. How long have you been in real estate for? 

Actually four years, two days ago.

Welcome to the Raising the Bar podcast, where we story tell excellence in Queensland Property. I'm your host, George Sourris from Empire Legal.   

There you go. Already four years in, so you would've started in 2021 then. Peak COVID. 

Peak COVID. 21st of September, 2021, was my first day in real estate. Yeah. 

There you go. You remember the date? 

Yeah. 

Yeah.

This podcast is titled: From Spanners to Sold Signs. Yeah. Alec McEwan's Journey. I've known you since you were a teenager then. 

Yep. 

Yep. You were working at Midas, at Tingalpa. You were fixing up cars for a living. I was, yep. Still love cars. Love cars. Now you're not on that side of things, mate. 

No, not for a working profession. 

Just for fun. Just for your weekend.

5:00 AM wake up letter box drops, growth mindset. See you at AREC every year. Zoom's with John McGrath. Let's talk about mindset and discipline and how you've gotten where you are. 

Yeah. Mindset and discipline. It's such an important part of, no matter what you do. I won't lie and say that the, the 5:00 AM wake up and the letterbox drops, actually it was 4:00 AM. So I'd wake up at four gym and then I'd go in letterbox shop 250 homes every day.

I did that for the first three years of, of when I started out. 

You'd message me early in the mornings. See I never got up at four, but I'd be up at five. Yeah. And I remember you'd Instagram message me because we'd have like early posts or whatever. Yeah. So you'd wake up consistently at four? Yeah. Every day.

And letterbox drop 250 homes every day. How long does that take? Hour and a half. 

Okay. Hour and a half to do about 250. Yep. Yep. 

Yeah. But as things have changed over the last sort of six months to a year, sometimes you'll work, I was busy till 11.30pm last night, so the 4:00 AM wake up doesn't happen.

Some weeks it's good. You know, I'll go three, four times a week and then sometimes I don't go at all. It really just depends. But the consistency in, still putting in the work, it just depends on what the work was. It used to be letterbox shops, now it's making sure I'm servicing clients and running a team.

I've got a team now under me, which is great. 

Which we'll get to. We'll get to that. So is it fair to say then that you did those letterbox drops to build your profile in the area? Because now I'd take a stab in the dark and say that you've got inbound inquiries. People are calling you because they know who you are.

Yeah. But maybe three, four years ago when you were doing this consistent letterbox dropping. It's probably pretty fair to say people didn't know who you were. 

A hundred percent. 

In the Bayside. So we're talking Wynnum, Manly and surrounds. That's your core area? Yeah. 

Manly is my main target suburb.

Yep. We spill out to Manly West, Lota and Wynnum. I don't target Wynnum at all. That's actually my mum's BDA, I'm sure we'll touch on that. We will, yes. But yeah, I still pick stock up and have clients that they're selling to each other. 

What's a BDA? 

Business Development Area.

Okay, so that's like your core Yeah, my core market area that you're targeting. Yep. Gotcha. Gotcha. 

Some people call them a farm area. 

Yep. Yeah. So mate, McGrath. Mm-hmm. I know when we were talking, this is back a couple of years now, you do zooms with John, like a coaching session.

Is that what happens to new guys? Is it available to anyone in the network? I just remember when you told me that in the moment, I'm like, man, you get to talk to John McGrath, like coaching? That is just amazing. 

Yeah. It's awesome. I mean, many benefits of being a part of the McGrath team and family.

Being able to text or, or phone, in many people's opinion, the greatest mind of Australian real estate, the Godfather we call him, it's, it's awesome. Being able to bounce ideas off him. But also have his input, he's seen it all. He's done it all. He, he's had a lot of agents working with him over the years, so he's, a massive wealth of knowledge.

Yeah. So McGrath. Every Wednesday morning we have a company wide zoom webinar. Yep. I've flown down to Sydney and spent the day with John. He comes up quite frequently as well. Yep. And then, yeah, I can text him when I need. 

That's very cool. He's an available resource to you as part of the McGrath network? Yeah. Yeah. He's, yeah. I think that's just spectacular, mate. 

Yeah. Yeah. He's a great person.

He's obviously the founder of AREC. Yes. Yep. Whenever he does a market update, talking about suburbs and whatnot, I like to have a bit of a read myself.

Because he's pretty much bang on. 

Yeah. 

He's he's been doing it a while. He knows what he's talking 

about. Yeah, he is. Yeah. 

Well, let's jump back into this, this first point then we're talking about mindset, consistency. 

If you reflect on your time as a mechanic, and then now your time as a real estate agent, I imagine it's just two different worlds.

It is and it isn't. 

Tell me more. 

So about halfway through my apprenticeship, I realised that it wasn't what I wanted to do as a career, but I was halfway through and I'm never one to give up. It's always, well, I'm this far into it, let's see it through. Yep. By chance, I picked up the phone at the workshop one day and it was a client calling back, oh, my card's in for service, you left me a voicemail. You said it needs lots of work and to call. And I picked up the call by chance and I didn't sell her anything. I just took the time to explain why she needed bits and pieces on the hit list of items that were wrong with her car. Yep. And she ended up doing all of it. And my boss was like, that's great.

Do you want to do another call? And I went, yeah, sure. and it was really easy. It was just taking the time to understand their situation, actually help them understand why their car needed all those bits and pieces. Yep. And then worked out a solution, whether it be a timeframe or finance or whatever it might be to be able to afford those repairs.

And through that, prematurely, I suppose, went to become a service advisor and workshop controller within that business. Which is rare 

for mechanic, usually mechanics, you're swinging the spanners, you're in the workshop. That role talking on the phone is usually a different person, right? Yeah, it is. 

Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy playing with cars. I was, working on cars on Sunday for fun. But I enjoyed the customer service side of it more so, like you said, it's different roles and it's mindset, but it's also product knowledge, customer service, and then, how do you help people? 

Yeah, yeah. I'm a solicitor, obviously the principal solicitor here. Mm. I enjoy the talking to people aspect of the job more than the actual technical legal work. Yeah. So I'm picking up what you're putting down. Yeah.

Some solicitors love doing the "law" and sitting and, you know, crafting documents and debating with the other side. Yeah. I've been there and I've done that and, you know, it's a, it's a cool skill to have, but I'm a people guy. I like talking to people. Yep. Yeah. So I, I get you like, it's one thing to know how to fix the car.

It's another thing to help talk someone through what it costs, what it looks like, timeframes, expectation setting. Yep. You've transferred those skills into real estate. 

Yep. 

And for those playing at home that may not know, the principal of your office is your mum? Yes. And your dad's involved in the business as well?

Yep. Yep. And at one point your wife was involved in the business. She was. Yep. Yep. And I'm going to sandbox that to a different topic, but yeah, that's just a, that's just a really cool dynamic, that we'll ask a few more questions on in a bit. 

Let's tidy up consistency and mindset. Is there anything else for the audience out there that's listening that you think you do, that is pretty unique or just helps you get success mate?

Obviously those early wake ups, doing the letterbox drops, you would've been feeling good on those days. Yeah. And you said you were doing that pretty much every day. The 

consistency falls into mindset. There was a saying I heard really early on, probably in my first few months, and it was:

action, traction attraction. So if you take the time to do the actions that are necessary to get some traction, eventually you'll have an attraction business. Like you said, I was doing letterbox drops because I didn't have any inbound inquiry. It was all me chasing, and I had to do something.

So it was a layered approach. Like anyone, you know, if you look at any of the good real estate agents, they say pick your farm area, pick your BDA, and go and get market share. So it was letterbox drops, phone calls, door knocks. It was layered. Social media as well. Through that, got some traction.

And then once I had some traction, leveraged it. Now look, I still chase heaps. I'd love to say it all comes to me. It doesn't. Oh mate. But it's, I think we all do. We all do. But it's starting to, it's nice to get called in now. 

In only four years. Yeah. That's pretty great. I recall you were top sales performer in Manly in the last year.

Yeah. Is that correct? There was a stat I saw kicking around? Yeah, mate, that's pretty impressive. Yeah, it 

was nice. It was one of the goals I wrote down when I started. So it's nice to tick that off. 

Like are we talking literally like number one sales in Manly? Yeah. For realestate.com 

and Domain. 

There you go.

In my 

opinion, they're the ones that matter. Yep. Yep. 

And you know what the cool thing about that is, it's publicly available, right? Anyone can go on realestate.com, they can look up, this is an agent that sells this much in this suburb. Yeah. That's very cool mate.

Congratulations. Thank you. And your mum, is your mum the queen of Wynnum? Yeah, she's top of Wynnum. 

Yeah, she is. 

They're sister suburbs, right next to each other. Yeah. So, yeah, there you go, the McEwan's have got the Bayside. Yeah. How's good is that! 

It's a good area. There's a lot of good agents. My parents were a part of a different franchise before McGrath. That was before I joined the business. And at the time of joining, their franchise agreement was up and we were looking at different options. And I remember actually Yeah, just as you were coming in.

That's right. Different office. Yeah. And it was really nice to be included in that conversation because we were looking at brand perception in a marketplace, and not just our marketplace, but the whole eastern seaboard of Australia, the tools that are available, how ethical and well received those brands are.

The franchise were part of, we had another office open up five kilometers down the road and it was, well, what happened to the 10 kilometer radius? And then they went, oh, well, better we just keep it all in the same house and protect it. And it was completely out of what we're happy with.

So value 

alignment wasn't there, right? A hundred 

percent. Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. But then, you know, you look at John and, and McGrath as a brand and the perception and the marketplace, but also ethical practice and the morals, that aligned with us perfectly. So for someone that was starting out with zero credibility, being able to leverage the McGrath name was really beneficial.

It does truly have a brand. I'm thinking back to what we spoke about just before, about having access to John and even, you got Alex Jordans of the world that are aligned with the brand. It is cool, you don't see a McGrath on every corner, which was another interesting point. When you guys moved over to McGrath, in my network, I didn't really know many others.

And I mean, you've since opened a few doors for us to work with a few other agents in different offices in the network, but at the time I was like, oh, I've heard of these guys. And then after starting to see more, I'm like, yeah, this is a cool brand. 

Yeah. So it is a really cool brand. And what's nice about McGrath is we have our designated farm areas. Thankfully through the hard work, we managed to hit number one in Manly, and my mum is the top agent in Wynnum.

But they are sister suburbs, there is an imaginary line down the middle. So there's a little bit of interoffice competition there. But it's done respectfully. It's great. We actually push each other to do more, and because we're family, it's handled correctly.

We're not competing against each other. Well, you do stuff together too. We do, we do. Yeah. I 

don't know if you still do that, but I've certainly noticed, for years, it was you and your mum working together to get good results for the clients. 

Real estate's no longer a single man sport. It's become a team sport or a team business environment.

You can go further as a team. Instead of competing against each other and butting heads as to who goes first on the listing, look, whatever's going to benefit the client the best. And if that means we're both working on it together, then, great. 

Well said. And I'm sure there'd be certain clients that would be better suited for you to lead, and there's better clients suited for your mum to lead. 

A hundred percent. There's been clients where I can just tell, being a younger man, that, they'd rather talk to probably more experienced agent or, sometimes some people prefer to talk to a male or a female.

Yep. 

You know, there's guys that walk in and don't want to talk to me at all, and then that's great. They can go and talk with my mum and that's 

okay too. Yeah. 

And I understand that. 

Yep. We do a similar thing here. When our contracts come in, we try and pick who we think would be a good fit for that person to run that deal. At the end of the day, we want to get a good result for the client. And if they're not going to be happy with someone, then why would we expose them to that? For sure. It's already a stressful time. It's already a lot going on. We want to make it as easy as possible. Yeah.

I think that's probably a good spot to move on, mate.

Unless there's any final words you've got for consistency or mindset, if there's anyone out there that's listening to this, what would you boil it down to in a couple of sentences? You look at your journey from zero to four years, consistency, building your brand up, becoming number one in a suburb.

What value can you give to the listener out there about this mindset, consistency point, that you would've loved to have heard years ago? 

It's a bit of a cliche and I heard it, any young guy, there's a bit of ego that goes into it and that's something had to really reign in. Do the work with no expectations of it paying off instantly. We all walk around looking for the low hanging fruit in this industry. Just put in the work, be consistent, do the action, you'll get some traction. The attraction will come. And trust the process. It is a cliche to say, but it's 100% true.

All you have is your work ethic and consistency in it. You can't have a go for five minutes, and throw arms up in the air and say, oh, it's not working. 

Lots of agents do that and they don't last in the industry and they certainly don't lead suburbs. Everyone wants to chase the shiny object, and I've spoken about that in the past on this podcast. But yes, those tried, tested, true processes work. 

Yeah, they do. Someone told me that early on, it was, I think it was it was Cayle Blaxland from McGrath at Wilston. He's similar age to me. He was doing really well and he was three or four years ahead of me when I started.

And he said, mate, you just got to treat it like you're uni student for four years. You're taking a pay cut, you're going to have to eat two minute noodles and, apprenticeship. Yeah, exactly. It was the same. Yeah. You know, actually took, 

which you've been through ironically. 

Yes. I, I took a pay cut from being a mechanic. Which is, you know, pretty hard to do. Put the work in and put the consistency in and, had to believe it was going to pay off. 

I love that. If you are saying you treat it like an apprenticeship, give it a few years, you're then not expecting an overnight result.

Yeah. 

I remember when I was at school, going back a little while now the guys that were doing trades, they were making six bucks an hour. Six. I remember it was $6 an hour was pretty normal. $8. 

43 was my first year starting wage. 

You're a bit of a younger vintage than me.

Yeah. Yeah, there you go. You can't buy much for eight bucks an hour. 

Spent it all on the Smoko truck and the tool truck. 

For anyone that's listened to the Kos Comino episode, that's giving me Kos vibes. Did he, did he say the same thing? Laughing out loud, he said I would work to pay for my food. It was literally I was, I 

was working for the Snap-on truck and then the Smoko truck had a massive tab with Dave Smoko dave. Literally though, 

Not a joke. 

No. Yeah. Crazy. No, it's horrible.

Mm-hmm.

You said: action, traction, attraction. Action, traction, attraction. Yeah. It's a pretty simple formula, isn't it? It is, yeah. Yep. And that just compounds over time. Yeah. Cool mate, let's leave that point there. Cool.

If I had to start over tomorrow, what would I keep doing? What would I avoid? I wouldn't jump into the whole egotistical, I'm a lead agent, look at me thing. It was a bit different starting out for me. Starting tomorrow, what would I do?

Yep. I would go and pick the number one agent in the area that I want to be in. So I love Manly. I wasn't living in Manly. I do now. I would go and pick the number one or, top one or two agents, and see who's interested in taking an apprentice on. And being a sponge because, like I said before, it's a team sport and there's so much to learn.

I know Lee Woodward, who's a real estate trainer, he was a fantastic agent and probably one of the best trainers in the country. He said, you've got to earn the right to become an agent. He said it's around 200 transactions or maybe 500. So it's a loose number. I don't remember exactly.

Hundreds. Yeah. Hundreds. Yeah, hundreds. Because it, it really takes that much. We were starting out this franchise within an area that was new to us. We were selling in the Camp Hill, Carindale area. Yes. My mum was dubbed the Queen of Carina for a long time and wanted to sell and Wynnum and be in the Bayside.

So she was building a business and market share and a reputation in an area. And we both felt that two of us on listings, me, as a co-agent, was just washing out her name in Wynnum and we weren't really getting any traction in Manly or Manly West. So we just decided, look, it's premature, but it's what we're going to do anyway. Let's, let's do it now.

When you say that, you mean breaking away from being like secondary agent under your mum to being a lead agent on your own? Is that what you mean? 

Yeah. So if I was starting out again, I'd go and pick one of the top agents in a suburb. I would learn from them, be a sponge. Over time, you grow as a business and a team, then you can take on your own suburb next to theirs and continue growing as a team. That's what I would do.

I would avoid leaving prematurely, but I think for me it was what was right, and in a way it was a bit of a blessing because it got me swimming faster. It was sink or swim. Real estate's an industry where you eat what you kill and, while it was tough, wouldn't recommend it. It was what was right for me at the time. 

Yes. Let's leave that there. That's good.



Point number two I've got for you, being genuine. So when I think of an agent that I can't stand, they're pushy, they use gross tactics, feel a bit slimy, not genuine. When I think Alec McEwan, I think the opposite. And that's hand on heart. That's the truth, mate. Thank you. So can you tell me more about how you've chosen to fit into the market as a real estate agent?

I recall getting a phone call from you, gosh, a couple years ago, talking about, oh mate, I need a model and I need you and your fiance to come to a house, not in the solicitor capacity, just as a mate. And then how that ended up turning out to be good business for both of us. And that was not even the intention. 

Yeah. So it's all about being 

genuine. Let's, let's unpack that, mate. Yeah. Where, where do you want to start? 

When you talk about real estate agents and the mould, unfortunately as an industry, and a collective, we don't have the best reputation.

I think there was a survey out there a long time ago that had us just above or next to used car salesmen. Thankfully we're not all tarred by the same brush. So when you talk about, how did I want to fit into a marketplace? That's a good question. I didn't really want to fit in. I wanted to come in and be a little bit different.

There's two really good operators in my area that I was coming to compete against, or three, maybe four. There was a guy that's been there for 20 years, had the reputation for selling the high end. Mr. Manly. There was another guy that was high volume. Lower average sale price, but a higher volume of sales, doing comedic videos and, I looked at both of them and went, well, great agent, great agent, good operators, but pigeonholed themselves in two opposite ends of the market.

How do I fit in? Well, I'd like to be someone that's approachable to everyone. Respectful and professional for the high end. And I find it's, it's so crazy. I look at so many people go, oh, I don't want to sell things sub 500. I actually sold a unit just up here from around the corner, and that led into selling a one and a half million dollar property in Wynnum, which then turned into selling two sub $500,000 investment properties for him in Kelvin Grove and West End, which is completely out of my area. But I took them on, everyone deserves good service. And then that led into selling his uncle and aunt a house in Manly for $3.6 million.

We all talk about picking and choosing price points. I just wanted to be approachable and offer a good service  📍 to everyone. No matter whether you're a lawyer or a mechanic or a real estate agent, you just got to be true to yourself and be genuine. I know that sounds a bit cliche, but you have to be. A lot of sales agents, I hear it all the time, they'll tell a buyer something on a Monday and then they'll tell them something different on the Thursday.

And what that does for the buyer and the seller, it, you know. They lose credibility and with that lose trust. Yeah. Lack 

of trust. Yeah. Trust. Man, you took the words out of my mouth. Trust. Yeah. Yeah. 

So, if you be yourself, a hundred percent always telling the truth and you're authentic, you'll never get caught out and you'll connect and resonate with people that appreciate you.

It might not be for everyone, but that's okay. There's enough business out there for everyone. If we don't mesh, we don't mesh. 

Yep. But that's actually fine because there's other agents in the area, there's other walks of life, you'll find your people. It's a common theme that I've come across recently - that there's enough of the pie for everyone to eat.

Yeah. Everyone's got to eat. 

And you know what? You want to actually enjoy the work you're doing, and if you're partnered up with a client that you actually get along with. Yep. And that you're on the same wavelength, isn't it just such a better experience?

So much better. Kale from the Wilston McGrath office said it to me when I first caught up and I was in my first month or two, and he said, not all business is good business.

And this is from someone that had zero listings and zero credibility was like, oh, I'll take on anything. And now, different position, four years on, I walk away from business, because if we're butting heads at the initial meeting, there's no point. We're not going to mesh. We're going into a three to four week selling partnership.

By the time you throw in preparation, sale, and then settlement, we could be working together for three to six months. I don't want to have to dread answering the phone when I see your name come up. That's not nice business. We're better off not working with each other.

Yeah. But it takes maturity and experience to realise that upfront, doesn't it? 

Yeah. I had a few where we'd got halfway through and I'm going, oh, I shouldn't have done this. 

But you know what, it's part of the journey. Yeah, it is. We took anything on at the start. Anything in our wheelhouse. We were always very firm, on going,

we are a property law firm. We're not going to do other areas of law, which we've always stuck to. Yeah. Just so we can give a good experience. 

Yeah. 

But there were clients we got at the start. We were like, oh man, this is pretty, pretty much red flag territory. From interaction one. Yeah. But we were a new business and we need to grow and we needed to survive. You take the work on, it's difficult.

But now, if these red flags pop up, if the prospect is being rude to the team or the receptionist here, or anyone in our business, that's just something we just don't tolerate now. Because we've learnt that that one person can derail that whole file handler, who is helping around 30 other people a month, takes up a lot of their time and it's just not worth it for us.

I've had sales before where they've been so time consuming, and not just time - energy consuming, and energy's a big one you've got to protect. I remember there's two instances in particular where I have actually tried to, I suppose, sack them, for lack of better words.

Like, look, we're not working. We are looking for two different, separate things here. I think it's better if we part ways. And they just straight up refused. And, it did bring it back in to align as to where it needed to be. But looking back on those, for the time and effort and energy that that property and that particular client consumed, I could have sold five or six other properties with 

happy people.

With happy people been happy just to follow your lead and let you do your job. Yeah. Yeah. Not micromanage. Yeah. 

We always say the people that get the best results, the ones that go, you know what, we trust you implicitly, whatever you think. 

Again, that trust word. I love that word. We built our whole business off trust. There's no secret sauce beyond trust, which is this piece we're talking about now with you and the perception you wanted in the market. It's the same thing, right? I recall we were catching up in Manly, probably a year ago now. And we're at the pub, just getting a steak for lunch. 

Yep. 

And you're just like, man, I've met so many people in this area, and the goal isn't to sell their property. And I remember this conversation. It was Trailer Boat Club two years ago.

It is. Yeah. The goal is not to sell their property. The goal is to help them. Yeah. And man, I'm getting goosebumps. So it's, it's creepy. And, and I'm like, man, this guy gets it. This guy gets it. Build a 

relationship for the long term, be their go-to agent or industry contact before they actually need one. Be the trusted choice.

Yeah. And man, that's why 

you're sitting in this seat. John, 

John McGrath says it be their trusted advisor. 

Huh - there you go. It's good enough for him, mate. Yeah, but it's true, right? Yeah. If you just help them, I'm sure you've had prospects where you are like, you know what? This house you are looking at doesn't fit what you are looking for.

When something else comes up, I'll be there. Or I can put you in touch with X, Y, Z agent down the road that has this other listing. If you just genuinely help those people, you win in the long term. 

Yeah. Yeah. It's a, it's a long game. I've had people say look, I don't think this one suits you. I'm not going to try and sell it to you. It's a decision you need to make. They'll respect it. They go, okay, well thanks. I think you're right. They'll buy something else, and then three, four weeks later, we get a call, hey, look, we really liked your approach. Can you sell our property? 

Or, you start with one unit in Spring Hill, and then it turns out they've got other properties and near your area and they've got cousins and friends. One into six.

Isn't that crazy? Mm-hmm. 

There you go. Build a clientele base of raving fans. That's what you guys have done really well as well. 

Yeah, mate, it's been a journey. Trying, trying. Do good work, don't rip people off and in time, you win. Lawyers get a bad rap too, mate. You're not the only one on the list of hated professionals. We cop a bad rap, but we do a fixed fee structure here, as you know.

And that's worked really well for us. Because it builds trust. Yeah, it does. Like we're not going to rip you off, we're not going to rip off any clients, and no matter how many phone calls, emails, hand holding, sit down and do documents. You don't pay any more for that service. 

When I was a first home buyer, I went with, I can't even remember which law firm it was, and I wouldn't name drop them anyway, you know, very nervy. My mum was in the industry, but I had an ego, like I said back then. And I didn't want to ask her questions.

I knew what I knew, and I didn't know much. First home buyer knows everything. Classic. Yeah. The solicitor would call me and then I'd call them with heaps of questions and then at the end of it there was this big bill and I was like, whoa, phone time. What do you mean? 

No one told me about this.

And this was before you and Abi started Empire. It wasn't a thing back then. All my transactions since with you guys, credit to you. Fixed fee's great, service is always spot on. We try not to call and and bug your conveyancers, but we're here if you need us.

But occasionally there's the odd phone call and because you're not offshore VA's you answer, and that's really beneficial. And when I can actually tell my clients, hey look, I've actually known George for like 12 years. If there's an issue, and there won't be, I can call them. That gives everyone the peace of mind that we can move forward.

Thanks mate. 

But I say that with a, with an asterisk, don't call George every day. He's busy. 

It's just about having the relationship, right? Yeah. And, and the the trust to help each other. Yeah. That's what It's all been built off. Yeah. But it's not about me, it's about you. So let's keep pushing on.

I want to talk about this photo shoot experience. I think this really sums up just who you are as a person, and how that's become you as a professional . So, I'll paint the picture. You called me and you said, I need you for this Mediterranean house that we've got.

You got a new nickname in my phone after this day. 

What's my nickname? 

Miami. 

Miami. Oh, because of the sunnies? Yeah. Yeah. The gold sunnies that I wear in the videos mate. That's it. So you had this house.

Yeah, it was Mediterranean. Yeah. Very unique. I'm not overly creative. Sometimes I have little moments, and I went, I want to do a property video that gets attention, that isn't cringe. It's a Mediterranean House, let's use the Narcos theme song because it was trending on Instagram and TikTok at the time. And let's do you and Anna, your now wife, looking very Mediterranean as well. This house looks like it's summer on one of the islands of Greece.

Did a really cool video. Asked you to be in it. You did. Thank you. It was really funny that turned into, oh look, we don't want to use your friend that's in the video for our conveyancing, we know someone. And just from you being there and helpful and authentic led into handling the conveyancing on the sale for that property. 

Well, yeah. Yeah. Let's rewind a bit. Not only was my fiance now wife in the video, you also had: your mum was there. We had Sachin, a mortgage broker from the area, a mate of ours as well. He was a mate first. And the owners, both of the vendors were in the property video as well.

I do that 

quite a lot. I get the owners in the video. 

That was the cool part. So I had no expectations. Alec's like, rock up mate. You and Anna are going to go do this video thing and get you on the jet ski and you know, do the video and then off you go. I'm like, oh man, sounds good.

This was not about me being a solicitor, this is about me just helping my mate, because he needs a European looking bloke for video. And off the back of that yeah, the owners were there. Really, really lovely people. And we were just chatting and, oh, what do you do? Oh, I'm a property lawyer. And then 

he straight up was like, oh, I won't be using you. Yeah. Because we've got someone. And I was like, oh, that's a bit harsh. 

Yeah. But mate, you know, I've got broad shoulders, man. All, all good. I'm actually not even here for, I'm not a lawyer right now.

I'm a model. Ironically enough. How funny is that? I said, man, all good. I said, if you've got your people and you are happy, thats sweet. Let's get this video sorted for your property. Yeah. And then we finished the video and we did the cheers champagne thing on the roof at the end.

Yeah. And we were just chatting. 

Yeah. 

By the time we were ready to go home, he had said, oh mate, you seem like a pretty good fellow. We'll give you a go for this conveyance. And, and we represented him and that was just what I was getting at, is you, you have brought these people together for this video, and off the back of it just good things happened.

Yeah. Not only for for me, but for, for you and for the vendor. And it was just a really wholesome, cool experience. Yeah. It was good fun. With no expectations, right? 

But I think what's great about that is that turned into the conveyance on the sale, and then they bought an investment unit to temporarily move into, so you acted for them on that. And then they bought another, like an upsize, like full floor panoramic view of Wynnum, and you acted for them on that as well. So, no expectations turned into but zero expectations. Yeah. Yeah. I wasn't there for that. Three transactions. Yeah. Isn't that 

just crazy? I was just there to help my mate out and then, good things happen.

So Good. 

Yeah. Very cool. Very cool. 

Good video for those that want to check it out. 56 Boswell Terrace, Wynnum. 

Look it up. You see me in there, it's pretty good. Yeah.



Alright, mate. How much have you written in the last financial year? I did a bit of stalking on realestate.com and I saw 40 properties with a $1.5 million average price point. At the ripe age of, how old are you now? 

Yes, I'm 27. 

You're 27 years old. 

Yep. 

If you're happy to share mate, like again in four short years, what are these stats? 

Yeah. So 27 years old.

Last financial year. Yeah. It was 46 or 47 transactions, including the stuff that you don't see on realestate.com. 

47 sold, so nearly one a week. 

We try not to do the off market stuff too much. Average sale price. Yeah. $1.56 through my CRM. I think the lowest sale was $580,000 for a two bedroom unit in Capalaba, and then highest sale was just over $4m.

We don't see too many properties transact between two and a half and four five in Manly. Was that a 

Manly Hill property? That was Wynnum 

actually. That, that one broke the Wynnum record. Wow. That was one I did with my mum. Average sale price, $1.56m, 47 transactions.

Mate, that's pretty cool. And if you rewind like a few years ago, your goal would've been what? Maybe try sell like one a month maybe?

Yeah, early goals. The first year it was list and sell one a month. Yep. Then it was, which is not 

unrealistic.

That's, that's a good start, right? It is. You selling 12 in a year. Yeah. It's a great spot 

to start. Everyone talks about, oh, you know, you've got to do 20 calls a call session and three to four call sessions a day, and 20 door knocks a day. It's just all these numbers and fluff and confusing and scary.

Just dial it back. I want to list and sell one a month. And once I've done that for six or 12 months, let's take it to two a month. So every year that I've been in this, I've wanted to double what I've done the year before, and we've been really fortunate enough to do that. 

I have a team now, shout out to India and Sam, we've only just stepped up from India myself, to a team of three.

And that's been amazing, because now I can focus on the vendor management and the lead generation prospecting and the stuff that bogged me down. I'm not a great admin brain, I've got Sam who helps with all of that. And then India, who helps me with open homes and a bit of buyer work and prospecting as well.

And that's only happened quite recently, hey?

India's been with me for a year and a half almost. And Sam's literally just started three weeks ago. 

Let's jump onto this last point. Working with family. 

Some people swear by it, others would never. 

The McEwan's have been big supporters of our brand, at Empire Legal for many, many years. And I've watched you go from literally no sales to top performer in Manly in the 4179. As I understand , your mum holds a similar record in Wynnum 4178, which we've already discussed a bit. Let's talk about having your parents as professional mentors, plus the likes of your now wife and your brother. It's just a bit of a family affair, and it seems to work for you guys. 

Yeah, it 

does. Yeah. Let's just see where this takes us. Because, people will sell this both ways. Some will say, don't ever work with your family and others will say you can get great results with family. 

Working with family, great question. Funnily enough, I actually worked with your family before I worked with my own.

You know, your brothers and sisters, you know, bringing their cars in. Dad, we've got funny stories. The dad, Harry, and probably mum as well, right? Shout Harry. 

Whole family affair. Our family. Yeah. Yeah. And 

like anything, it has its challenges. My mum and I both very competitive, extremely competitive to the point where, early on it was, well, I want to go first, first like as lead agent. I'm trying to build my market share and and we both were, which is why we talked about earlier, I jumped off it being a team member prematurely, and ran my own race.

There's a level of trust there that you wouldn't have normally. We've got each other's intentions front of mind. And it's all very pure at heart.

Yeah. It's your mum. And you are her son. 

I've worked really hard to achieve what I have, and I would hate for anyone to think that, oh, it's been handed, because my mum and I will actually compete in the office.

You and your mum both have your own, suburbs with your own accolades. We do. Which is a testament to, you're not writing your mum's coattails. No. At the, she's a mentor to you. But at the 

time, but at the same time, full credit, due to my mum, she's been a fantastic mentor. She is a gun of an agent.

She writes $2m a year in fees, with one PA. There's some teams out there that have got four or five associates, and a lead agent to write two. She does it on her own. She's a machine. She's firing off texts and emails at. 8, 9, 10 at night. I'm just like, oh, leave me alone.



And, and in a new area as well, right? Yeah. Yeah. When I met your mum. Yeah. It was more that Carina, Carindale, so around that. section. You met her 

before we actually had a working relationship and you're like, hey, I know your son. Yeah. Yeah. 

She door, door knocked me when I was living at Carindale.

Yeah. It was awesome. Doing letterbox drops. Yeah. Yeah. 

It has its challenges, but at the same time, it's been really good. She's been a fantastic mentor. Same with my dad. Even before we were in real estate together, he ran a plumbing business, she was in real estate. And just growing up in an environment where they're both very driven business people, great customer service and sales.

What they were doing, whether, you know, whether you're helping people understand what they need on their car, or plumbing repair or buying or selling a house, it all transferred. So it's been a really good and nurturing environment to grow up in. And especially for inspiration and growth. People say, show me your friends, I'll show you your future. I've grown up in a family that's so driven and inspiring, it's hard not to be. But yeah, working with my brother's been really good. We actually had a, a film and TV media company that we're using that would do our videos and photos for property, and they couldn't do it one day.

And Michael was a film and TV graduate from university and I thought, hey, look, you do good videos. Do you want to do a property video? Jump in. Yeah. And he's like, I can earn how much from this? He was doing little bits and pieces here and there, and now he's doing these amazing property videos.

I might be biased, but I hand on heart think they're some of the best I've seen. And he's, yeah, you guys do good videos. He's taken things to a whole nother level. And that's also helped with brand, my brand in the area and the social media presence, which is really important these days. I try not to get too caught up in it, but you know better than anyone, that social media's so important.

There's more eyes on screen daily than there is on the newspaper or letter boxes. 

It's where the attention is. It as simple as that. It's where do people spend attention? On social media.

Working with my brother's been also really important, and not just for my business, but also helping him. Working with family's good, it has its challenges, but it's also become a strength of ours. And we look after each other.

Peek behind the curtain, and I can attest to this from my own, I've got my sister working, she's our head of marketing here, doing all our socials. My mum was involved in this business very early on. There has been family involved in our business as well.

And man, surely there's been times where your brother's given you a hard time with the way you're doing a video, or your mum telling you doing something wrong. That's the other side of the coin, right? Yeah. But the, the cool thing is, I'm going to take a stab here and say, you've all got the common goal of delivering a good experience. It's just your family, so you can remove that layer if you want, and just sort of say how it is. Oh, 

for people that, like you said, took a peek behind the curtain and looked in our office, there's heated conversation. It's very real. And then five minutes later, all is said, done, forgotten, forgiven, and we're family.

We can move on. I feel like if we weren't family, you could hold onto those bits and pieces and resentment for a long time and let it eat at you. We're a South African family. So you say your peace, you're very black and white about it, and then it's forgiven, forget, move on. It keeps it interesting. 

I reckon when we did that video out at Manly there that I was involved in, if I didn't know that your brother was the videographer, I would've been like, man, this videographer's pretty hardcore. Yeah. Because he was like telling you to move here and do this and do that.

Oh yeah. But I'm like, oh, okay. It's Michael. It's like his brother. It's fine. He's just talking to his brother. But if you didn't know that, yeah. You'd be like, man, this is pretty, this is pretty intense. 

He's very passionate about what he does. I mean, we all are, so, you know. Yeah. But 

good result though. The video, the video's epic. 

They did one the other day. I've got some amazing homes and clients at the moment. We've got the people that were on The Block a few years ago. Leah and Ash, we've got their, I saw 

that on your socials, your social media works mate. Just the other day. Yeah. Their 

Queenslander Wynnum with water views, amazing property.

That, and then he did another video at Britannia Street, manly. It's like a 40 meter length of block to panoramic ocean and island views. Amazing videos. And he's so passionate what he does, the attention to detail he puts in. And the effort. When he is there, he is focused I'm talking with the owners and he's like, quiet on set.

And I'm like, Michael, let's be professional. It is with good intentions. 

We share a very similar sentiment here. We do a lot of recording in this little office here at Spring Hill. Yeah. Maddy, my sister will just going to the girls next door and be like, look, I know you're helping clients, I know you're on the phone, but we're trying to record. 

Yeah. Yeah. That's all for the greater good. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. 



Working with Gabs, working with family, and then working with my now wife. So she was actually a manager at City Beach at Carindale. I used to love 

City Beach when I was a teenager.

Man used to, yeah, bro. The best into City Beach. So good. It was the best, the big fat tongue Etnies 

skate shoes. Dude that and then, and the big DC skate shoes and DC 

caps. Mate, the chain that connected to your Velcro wallet that had go in your back pocket. Oh, I wasn't that cool. Yeah, well, I don't know if that was, it was cool.

Maybe back in 18 years ago, but yeah. Okay, so City Beach, Carindale. Yeah. 

She was at City Beach looking for direction as to what's a career. You know, retail's great. It has its space and it's a good stepping stone. There's a lot of people that make careers out of it and rise the ladder, but she just wanted something a bit different, bit of a challenge.

So I had a conversation with my parents one night and my dad's like, oh, I'll give you a job. And she started at the bottom, at reception and worked her way up through the different roles to eventually office manager. 

You'd been dating, weren't engaged or anything? No,

we were together probably four or five years by that point.

And she's also Gaby - same name as your mum, which is just a bit confusing. So if you're listening out there, confuse everyone. She's a different Gaby. Yeah. 

Yeah. Just to confuse everyone.

But now they're both Gaby McEwan as well. Yeah. Now they're married. So how funny is that? You got 

married a few months ago and both Gaby McEwan. And it's funny, before I started in this business, my mum was only ever mum. I never called her anything else. But then, you're a listing appointment, you're trying to pitch for a three and a half, $4 million house, and it's, you go, oh, well I just, you know, let's, Gabby, what's your opinion, mum?

What's your opinion? It didn't work. So it was, oh, you know, Gabby, Gabby, what's your thoughts? So that was interesting. Hey mum. Hey mum. Yeah, so she started at the bottom, worked her way through the ladder, became office manager through a few years of hard work and development. And then she actually got picked up by McGrath head office.

That actually worked really well, because this is when I was a co-agent to my mum and training under her. And Gabs, my wife, was her EA and office manager. I'd come in, like I said, young salesman, bit of an ego. I need this form six, I need this, this. And she's like, I don't work for you.

You 

got your mum on one side and your girlfriend on the other side. How wild. Yeah, it was 

interesting. But then it, it was really beneficial for her. So now she works for McGrath Corporate, so she's employed out of Sydney, works from home, but is very rarely home. She travels around, looks after all of Queensland and Northern New South Wales. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. So she 

goes to the different offices all around the region. So she's 

operations, administration, associate manager, to an extent. Yep. New office startups, onboarding, all that sort of stuff. She's amazing at her job and, a great partner for me in life as well.

She understands it. I'm very fortunate. I don't have a wife or a partner that gets frustrated that I'm coming home at nine, 10 at night or waking up early, or shooting emails and texts at midnight when I can't sleep.

That within itself I think is such a beautiful point.

Same with my wife Anna, is a real estate agent. Has spent years and years in the industry. She's off on maternity leave at the moment. I'm so lucky that she supports me and my entrepreneurial brain is running a million miles an hour and I'm doing these crazy emails and I've got all these ideas, and she's just so emotionally regulated and supportive.

You need a rock. 

Your wife's got to be a rock. Oh 

man. I totally get how you feel. It's awesome that we've got these ladies in our lives that help us and support the journey that we're on. 

Couldn't do it 

without them. Wouldn't want to. No. Mate I used to eat like garbage freezer meals, because I'd just be working so much, because I was just tunnel visioned.

Now it just feels so nice to have a hot meal on the table that Anna's prepared that I'm sitting there like, and I'm like, oh man, this is so good. I pinch myself. I'm like, this is a beautiful meal that has been prepared out of love from my wife. This is amazing. Gab and I aren't there yet. Because

 we're both still working crazy hours. You got some time stuff. 

I rewind her before the baby, and yeah, we did that. Yeah. You make it work, but yeah. Your time will come mate. Your time will come. But yeah, it's a beautiful thing. It is. Yeah, it is.

Let's move on to our last little point here, my friend.

Do you sometimes pinch yourself and go, mate, I'm setting suburb records, I'm selling mansions with full bay views. Or was this always the plan? How do you feel about where you're at? 

I feel thankful. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't the plan, but there wasn't truly a plan.

It was a little bit haphazard. I talk about luck a little bit, and I know you and I and Sachin do, like, you create your own luck through hard work. Hard work beats hustle when hustle doesn't work hard. Truthfully, I tried getting into Manly West, I cut my teeth in this pocket. I thought, I don't have any credibility. Let's sell the $850,000, $700,000 homes. And I picked this little pocket in Manly West, 12 months, door-knocking, cold calling. I got one listing and sale. I don't know if you remember this conversation, I was like, oh, I don't think this is for me.

I actually really enjoyed the customer service side of managing a workshop. Maybe I'll just start my own workshop. And I was having a chat with Billy Jazz. He's the principal of McGrath Palm Beach. I know Billy. And Billy's like mate, his principle, Andy said it to him, he was a builder before real estate.

And he said, I don't give you permission. You, you've not actually tried this properly. You're telling me that you have, but you haven't. Six months. I want you to lock in and do X, Y, and Z. And then if you don't do it and it doesn't work, then I give you permission to resign. Billy had a similar conversation with me, and so did my mum and I went, okay, you know what?

Trying to cut my teeth on the sub million dollar properties isn't happening. If I'm going to be putting all this hard work in, literally blood, sweat, tears, I'm going to go, not blood, but, you know, sweat, sweat, tears, and stress. 

4:00 AM wake up. 

Yeah, 

You would've done more letterbox drops, by, seven in the morning that most people would even do in a week, mate in Yeah.

In one day. For sure. For sure. And that was every day. 

It was, yeah. So, if I'm going to put this work in, I want it to be what I actually want to achieve, which was selling the record breaking houses for the suburb, the beautiful homes. And it's funny, I remember it was the first day of going back to work in, it would've been 2023. Yeah, January, 2023. And I walked out the rock wall pier at Manly out the front of the boat house, looked back up the hill at all the houses on the hill, looking over the islands and the water, and went, I want to sell this pocket.

And I actually, without sounding silly, I actually visualised selling those homes and, being the person, the go-to agent. And it was like a door opened for me. And I wasn't meant to be selling the sub-million dollar properties. And I don't, and I really don't want to sound, you know. 

No, mate. You know what, if George Sourris five years ago. Mm. If you'd said, oh mate, manifestation and visualisation, I'd be like, oh, what a muppet. I, George Sourris today used, I used 

to laugh at that as well. Yeah, it's so true.

I 

literally sat there and pictured it, and it was like a door opened for me. It was about a month or two later I got this, hey mate, this guy thinks his house in Wynnum's worth four and a half mil. A friend of mine from the Gold Coast, was working at, it wasn't even a franchise back then, it was an independent. And he said he was looking at a unit down the Gold Coast.

He's got a house in Wynnum he wants to sell. You should give him a call. That turned into breaking the Wynnum record, and that one got me up there, and then, leveraged that got 2, 3, 4, 5 more. And that started to build this attraction business for selling those sorts of homes. That opened the door.

Mate, did you sell, correct me if I'm wrong, was it like a dark house? It was a black one. Yeah. That's, that's the one, The light house that, because I remember you sold that house and I'm like, Alex popped. Yeah. We'd obviously been mates and stuff and you know, you were doing your hustle and this and that, and cruising around, dropping off flyers.

I remember the video for that came out. Yeah. And I'm like, he's there. He's in the big leagues now. That's just cool. The cool thing is not only that, the fact that you are also just happy to help an average person sell an average home and deliver the exact same experience.

That's what I love. 

That's what I love, is it's the same for everyone. We had this when I was at Apple. , I was a manager in the retail stores, technician. So people would come in with broken products and whatnot. And I worked in this Brisbane City store towards the end. The amount of people that would come in, and they'd be like beating their chest in their suits, going, I make $5,000 an hour and I don't have time, and I need to get seen now, and blah, blah, blah, blah.

They're the ones that deserve to wait. The cool thing about Apple, taught me so many skills, and one thing to this day we've adopted here at Empire, is, everyone's the same. I get that you want your phone fixed now, but so do everybody else. And that's why we've got this process where you can book a time and we can help you.

Everyone's on the same journey here. Yeah. And you coming and beating your chest and yelling at me is not going to get you that result. 

And that's how we also service the clients here. Because we run a fixed fee model, it doesn't matter if you're some multimillionaire or you've got a thousand properties. You actually will get the same experience as the first home buyer, or the retiree or whatever, and it's consistent. And I just think that's so important. 

Yeah. It is. Everyone deserves fantastic service. You're spot on. And the process, whether it's a $500,000 unit, or a $5 million property, is the exact same.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not discrediting the amount of effort and work that goes into some of the higher sales. I mean, you've got clients, their expectations on everything, not just the actual sale. The, your process, the way you handle it.

Answering the phone, marketing, this that. There's a different level of expectation.

Yeah. But the 

sale process itself is still the same, and everyone deserves fantastic service. You just don't see me post them on socials. It's a different conversation there, a different topic, but marketing how you want to be perceived. I still do them.

Yeah. You just don't see me post them. 

They say small fish are sweet. 

They are, everyone deserves great help. 

Empire Legal is a business built on small fish. We don't chase mansions. We just help people who need help selling their house. And then the cool thing is, it just comes back to that Spring Hill story again.

Yeah. 

You do the 

small fish, and you end up with a whale. And that wasn't even on your radar. 

No. 

Yeah. It's cool. 

I got one more question for you, and then we're done. So we ask this question to everyone. You may have heard about it from previous episodes if you've listened along, but it's basically just a golden nugget.

So we're here to raise the Bar. Queensland Property, storytelling excellence. That's the whole point of what we're doing here for whoever's listening out there. We think you're pretty excellent. Thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to come into the city and do this with us. No, thank you.

So I just want you to have a bit of a think You can take a bit of time. Just one point. Doesn't have to be about real estate or business, it can just be personal. Anything that the audience out there will get value from. One golden nugget of advice that you want to give to whoever's listening out there.

I'm going to steal this piece from John McGrath. He said it to me very early on, I think I was probably about six or seven months in. Why achieve in five years what you can achieve in five months?

The only person getting in the way is you. And the only person that's stopping you from achieving what you want is yourself. So don't make plans and excuses. We talk about mooring lines, the internal dialogues. I'm not good enough. I don't have the experience. I'm not old enough. The only person stopping you is you.

So, my golden nugget is, put in the work - action, traction, attraction, and expedite the process. Because in an industry like this, where you eat what you kill, the only person stopping you from eating every day is yourself. 

How good's that. 

Hopefully it wasn't cliche, but that's, that's my golden nugget. 

Very cool mate. I reckon we wrap it up there.

Sounds good. Thanks. Thanks so much, 

George. 

We'll put all the stuff in the show notes to get in touch with Alec. So if you're on the Bayside, Wynnum Manly. Yeah. Look 

Brisbane East, but my farm area is Manly, Lota, Manly West. 

Cool thing about Alec is he is just a genuine dude, so if you got any business on that side of town, I'm sure he'd have a chat to you.

We'd love to help. 

Yeah. Leave it there. Thanks mate.