EP. 1426 AREC 2025: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN 5,000 REAL ESTATE AGENTS UNITE?

Ever wondered what happens when 5,000 of Australia's top real estate professionals descend on the Gold Coast? We're bringing you the inside scoop from AREC 2025, the Southern Hemisphere's largest real estate conference, now celebrating its 27th year.

The star-studded speaker lineup featured former US Vice President Kamala Harris, commanding a reported $500,000 fee. Despite the hefty price tag, her presence created an electric atmosphere with Secret Service personnel and helicopter surveillance transforming the Gold Coast Convention Centre into a high-security zone. Harris shared personal insights about her upbringing and career journey, displaying remarkable humility that resonated with the audience far beyond industry-specific content.

Entrepreneur Steven Bartlett delivered one of the most impactful presentations, introducing revolutionary concepts about failure and growth. His company's "Failure Award" celebrates team members who implement the most new ideas weekly—regardless of success—recognizing that nine failures are worth enduring to discover one breakthrough concept. Bartlett also emphasized the compound effect of small daily actions: "If you just do one small thing every day, imagine how that compounds over the rest of your life." This simple yet profound advice offers agents a practical pathway to sustainable business growth.

The technological innovations showcased throughout the event signal transformative changes ahead for real estate. AI developments dominated conversations, with vendors demonstrating sophisticated tools designed specifically for property professionals. Among the practical tips shared was the "deep search" functionality within ChatGPT, which conducts comprehensive research across the web in just eight minutes. As one attendee remarked, "You will not believe what some of these software IT guys are developing. It is unbelievable."

Between networking opportunities, innovative ideas, and practical strategies, AREC 2025 delivered invaluable professional development that will ultimately translate to enhanced client service. As we launch into day two of this extraordinary event, we're more convinced than ever that stepping away from daily operations to learn and connect is essential for any forward-thinking real estate professional. Ready to join us next year?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, guys, we're at ARIC 2025, the largest
conference, real estateconference in the Southern
Hemisphere.
What happens when 5,000 agentsget together?
We're going to tell you.
Stay tuned.
I'm the ringleader, so what'sup?

(00:27):
Good?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
morning everyone.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Aric 2025, four and a half real estate thousand real
estate agents are in the GoldCoast.
Sunday we came and sat down andlearned.
Monday we're sitting down tolearn and back to the office
tomorrow.
How's it going here?
Day one completed yesterday.
It's busy.
The energy is really good up onthe Gold Coast this weekend and

(00:57):
it's my first time at ARIC, butyou're like a seasonal pro,
yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
I like it.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
How does it compare to other years?
Well, I think it's pretty good.
I think this is 27 yearsthey've been doing this for Yep.
I heard yesterday they paidKamala Harris $500,000 to come
and attend to do the conference.
Yes, the lady that was vyingfor the presidency of the US is
now on the speaking circuittalking to real estate agents on

(01:25):
the Gold Coast.
So she was good yesterday, yeah, and what an amazing
opportunity to get someone ofthat profile basically in a room
with thousands of agentslooking on and not talking about
real estate either, justlistening about the upbringing,
her career, what's worked forher, and there was just a huge

(01:48):
amount of humility.
Just an amazing.
And it's nice to have a blendbetween industry speakers and
non-industry speakers, and bothof my favorites yesterday were
actually people completelyseparate to real estate.
Hey, lisa, what do you think?
Lisa's here as well doing alittle bit of behind the scenes,

(02:10):
but she hasn't got her makeupon so she doesn't want to go on
screen.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
But we can hear you.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
If you want to talk, you can hear Lisa.
What do you think Do?

Speaker 2 (02:18):
you know what?
Hang on a minute, I'm going tocome on, okay.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
We're going to get her an appearance in a few
minutes.
Stay tuned.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, I have no makeup on.
Actually, if the truth be told,I've just woken up, but that's
okay, you still look good.
So what did I think?
Look, I think this is anincredible conference and I just
want to say congratulations toJohn McGrath.
John's actually been a friendof mine for many, many, many

(02:50):
years, but he's a phenomenalreal estate agent and he's done
brilliant things.
He was a phenomenal real estateagent.
He's done amazing things forour industry.
Sorry, I've got a very noisymicrophone.
You know, to put a conferencetogether, like John has done for
the last 27 years, is not aneasy feat To bring along talent,

(03:13):
whether you like them, youdon't like them, whatever your
views are but to get someone inthe room like Kamala Harris is
not an easy feat.
You know, there was SecretService everywhere, there was a
helicopter overhead and, as Isaid, whatever your political
views, to be able to get anysort of talent.
Like you know, we had RyanReynolds, we've had all sorts of

(03:33):
people over the years and Ijust want to say a big
congratulations to John becauseyou know, as I said, there's no
one else out there that has beenable to organise the calibre of
this event, for most industrieslet alone.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
And congratulations also to some of the agents.
Like some of the effort theyput in on Saturday night with
drinking beer was prettyincredible on this conference.
So it's been a pretty amazing,amazing effort on everybody's
part.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah, no, it really has.
It's sensational and you know,the speakers have been
unbelievable and I always saywith these conferences that if
you can just take one thing away, you know I think people come
and they write notebooks andnotebooks and notebooks full of
stuff.
You know you can see everyonefrantically putting notes into
their phones.
If you can just take one thingaway, then you know you're like

(04:25):
a dog with a bone.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
What's yours, Billy?
What are you taking away?
Yesterday was what's your onetake?
I might go and put it off.
What's your one takeaway?
I might go and put a bit ofpaint on.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
This is Lisa Novak, without make-up on.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Give us your one takeaway before you go.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
One takeaway is there was one thing that one of the
speakers said, and I'm so sorry,it's just slipped my mind.
I don't usually get up at thistime on a Monday.
Usually I'm up at about 6o'clock in the morning.
It was the guy that we allliked.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, there was a big wave surfer.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
No, no, not the wave surfer, it was the other guy.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Stephen Bartlett.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Stephen Bartlett.
Okay, excuse me for myignorance.
Stephen Bartlett said if youjust do one small thing every
day, imagine how that compoundsover the rest of your life.
One little thing and you justcelebrate that one small thing
in your daily meetings, weeklymeetings, whatever it is.

(05:24):
But I loved that and he's likeit could be as small as spray, a
bit of spray at your open heart.
I'm always popping a mono downthere at your open home.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
I'm always popping a mono down there on the phone.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
That is crazy.
He said if you did just thatone small thing and it could be
as small as spray a bit of airfreshener, have your own
fragrance for your open homes,whatever it is, but just that
one very small thing every day,and that's the thing that I'm
going to be implementing.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
Um, because you can only imagine how that looks
after 365 days bye thanks, liseI was just like brought on just
to say hi and she's like on theshow.
So with with that closing notes.
Meanwhile we're back and whatwas your nugget from the trip?

(06:19):
It was interesting Listeningagain to Steven Bartlett.
He's got an award at the end ofthe week for failure how many
new ideas they put into practiceand how many of them went wrong
.
And the person that innovatedthe most during that week got
the award the failure award.
But the way he framed that upis you only need one good idea

(06:44):
to go really right and it coversnine others.
So if you can average 10 newideas, then we call that like
the graveyard.
Yeah right the graveyard effectand you only need one, you know,
really outstanding idea toshine and cover all the losses
for all the time and energyinvested in the others.
I love the Kamala Harris.

(07:04):
I didn't get like, look, theconviction that I felt from her
on stage.
I was thinking like, like thisis one like fierce competitor.
She is one tough lady, um, andalthough she was uh, you know,
the pleasantries are uhexceptional and she's an

(07:26):
excellent speaker, I was justthinking like she, you know what
she's had to do like in herlife.
You know, like I think she wasthe top dog lawyer for the whole
country.
Um, I don't know what they call.
They call that the top of, notthe senate, or um, justice,
justice of the attorney ofjustice or something.
Yeah, she's really, really a, areal rot wheeler, a real rot

(07:51):
wheeler.
What a powerful, powerful lady.
Just by profile, good on her.
She said she's out of a job, soshe was having a bit of a laugh
about that and what else.
So are you coming next year?
Yeah, definitely.
I can see why people come backyear on year.
There's a number of agents thatthis will be like their 10th
year running.
I can see the bigger picture.

(08:12):
Now it's really nice to take astep um back from our day-to-day
activities and skill up likewe're doing this, what feels
like 365 days a year.
Yeah, and in any I think in anyjob, if you don't take two days
for yourself to train, getinsight as to what other

(08:34):
professionals are doing, youcannot serve your clients as
good as you can.
When it just takes a little bitof investment of your time to
hear what's coming up as well, Ireally like networking, so
meeting people you haven't metbefore saying g'day learnings.

(08:55):
I've had a lot of aiconversations, a lot with agents
.
It's hilarious, so that'sreally changed.
Um, but yeah, I thinkdefinitely it's from that
networking side of it.
How many people did I see umpull up billy.
It's funny, how many people,how many people know I was on
social media I counted just whenI've been with you.

(09:15):
I haven't been with you thewhole time.
You know more than a dozenpeople.
It's the power of social media.
It seems so obvious.
Now we've been doing anythingno one's watching right now you
feel?
Like you're just talking to noone and then you walk out there,
really, really, really, billy,oh, there are people that watch,
that watch, yeah.

(09:36):
So there's many takeaways, butultimately, I think our clients
are going to be serviced better.
The year ahead for real estateis exciting.
The AI coming in isunbelievable.
You will not believe what someof these software IT guys are
developing.
It is unbelievable,unbelievable.
I was taught how to do a deepsearch yesterday.

(09:58):
What's a deep search?
I know, see, see that see that.
I'm glad you asked chat GPT,deep search.
Okay, so if you, if you arebroadly researching something,
normal search, there's a buttonon the bottom there you press
deep search and it goes andtakes about eight minutes and it

(10:18):
does a full-on deep search onwhat you've just asked it.
So it'll search much, muchdeeper across across the web.
And I've also found there'sanother one that actually it
brought uh gronk um chat gpt.
It actually is the chat GPT forall of them.
Okay, I think it's good.

(10:39):
It see, I think that that's mymission for today.
Going back into the exhibition,we'll find out the number one
up-and-coming game changer yeah,there's a lot of them.
Real-world learnings get topractice advice that's yes, tick
.
Latest marketing trends yes,tick, uh.
Motivational, fresh ideas yes,tick, yeah.

(10:59):
And you need big name speakersuh, they don't.
You don't um.
Get the potential to see everyday wow, well done, well done,
all right, good on you, johnmcgrath, great, great setting as
well they put it on it's on abrilliant show.
Well done, gcs.
The restaurants are pumping,everything's pumping.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah, it's great.
Anything else you want to saybefore we go?

Speaker 1 (11:20):
That's it.
We're straight into day two now.
We will see you tomorrow and ifyou're a real estate agent and
you see this and you see ustoday, say g'day, love, ya.
See, ya, I'm the.