Today we're proud to release the first episode of our brand new podcast "Thought Leaders". In this episode, Samantha McLean goes in depth with Andrew McCulloch, former CEO of Ray White NSW/ACT turned business owner of Ray White Shore Group.
Andrew McCulloch is a master of real estate transformation. He's spent his career understanding what makes high-performing agencies tick—first as a top salesperson, then as a corporate leader who helped double New South Wales's market share.
Now, as the owner of Ray White Shore Group on the Gold Coast, Andrew is applying every lesson he's learned about recruitment, leadership, and technology to build his dream agency from the ground up.
In this episode, Samantha McLean talks to Andrew about what he learned from examining hundreds of real estate businesses over decades. They discuss why the most valuable approach to leadership is about relationships, not recruitment; how studying Sydney's top performers like Gavin Rubinstein show the power of high performing cultures; Andrew's belief that commission splits matter far less than providing value and support; and why he's betting on AI to transform everything from admin tasks to customer relationships.
You can check out their full conversation here:
If you want a quick summary, here are some of the themes they touch on:
Leadership is everything—pick the right leader, not just the right brand
Andrew spent years recruiting top performers like Vivian Yap and Josh Tesolin to Ray White. His secret? He never tried to recruit them at all. Instead, he built genuine relationships.
"Don't focus on them joining the business, focus on building a good relationship with them," he explains. He'd go to family dinners with Vivian, meet her in Bali on holiday, and simply care about the person first.
This philosophy extends to his advice for agents: "The number one thing that you should be considering is pick the right leader...because that's so important in your success or failure."
Don't underestimate the power of competitive culture to break performance ceilings
When Ray White introduced leaderboards through their Pulse app, Andrew watched something extraordinary happen.
Top performers like Josh Tesolin, Vivian Yap, and Gavin Rubinstein began pushing each other to new heights—from writing $3 million to eventually $10 million in commissions.
"I don't believe that any one of them would be writing those levels if it wasn't for the other," Andrew observes. He calls this the end of self-limiting beliefs:
"Until people have seen that it can be done, they can't do it."
Value trumps cost every time—whether it's franchise fees or commission splits
Having worked under different models throughout his career, Andrew learned a painful lesson early on. At 20, he left Ray White's 60% split for an independent offering 90% with no franchise fee—and made less money than ever before.
"I didn't have all of the bells and whistles and all the stuff that I thought I didn't need," he recalls. His advice? "Stop looking at costs. The cost is irrelevant. Look at value."
He now pays substantial franchise fees but gets his money's worth, knowing that support systems enable agents to focus on what matters: building relationships and making sales.
Customer service doesn't end at settlement—and that's where the opportunity lies
Seventy percent of property sellers don't return to their original agent—a statistic that horrifies Andrew.
Taking inspiration from the car industry's after-sales service, he's created a dedicated role at Shore Group focused purely on post-settlement care.
"The automotive industry does this so much better than us," he notes, describing how dealerships maintain relationships long after the sale.
His customer service team handles everything from anniversary letters to market updates, an investment he believes was costing his business $2-3 million annually in lost repeat business.