PHOTO: Reese Witherspoon
More than 4000 real estate professionals packed the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre for Day 1 of AREC 2023. This year’s headline speaker was Oscar-winner and Hello Sunshine Founder, Reese Witherspoon, who revealed storytelling and connecting with people is the most powerful marketing tool of all, whether you’re in movies or real estate. Here are all of our Day 1 highlights….
Reese Witherspoon – The power of storytelling
Star actress and Hello Sunshine Founder Reese Witherspoon says the strategy for long-term success is to put the client or, in her case, the audience, at the heart of every story you tell.
The Oscar winner told a full AREC crowd that ego is the antidote to creativity and does not create a recipe for longevity.
“I’ve been in this business for 34 years now, I’ve seen people come and go and ego is the death of creativity,” Reese said.
“My business is very collaborative, but ego will stop every collaboration.
“I’ve seen some of the most high ego people who, they succeed, they really do, they peak, but they don’t have longevity.
“Why? Because it’s all about them. It goes back to how they’re making the client feel.
“If you’re looking only at yourself in the mirror, that might be good, it might last a minute, but it is not a strategy for the long-term.”
Reese said storytelling was one of the most important skills you can develop, with the most critical element being having a clear view of your end viewer or client.
She said when she created Hello Sunshine, she did so knowing it was to be a multi-platform media company that put female filmmakers and storytellers at the centre of each production, knowing that the core audience would also be females.
She said storytelling was the way to connect with people.
“There’s nothing more powerful as a sales tool than understanding there’s a beginning, a middle and an end to every story and the result you’re trying to produce,” Reese said.
“But the one thing I tell everyone in my company is, rather than the story you’re trying to tell for yourself, is how does it make people feel?
“So before you tell the story, have an idea of what response you want to elicit.
“With every Instagram post you make, with every movie, with every piece of copy that you’re writing, with every picture that you’re taking, think about what it is that you want to make people feel.”
Ryan Serhant – Big money energy
Australian real estate agents can “control the market” and forge their best year ever despite tougher market conditions, according to the biggest agent in the world, Ryan Serhant.
The founder of SERHANT. and star of Million Dollar Listing New York said it all comes down to mindset and your ability to present yourself with ‘big money energy’.
“You can have the worst year of all time if you allow the market to happen to you versus you happening to the market,” Ryan said.
Ryan said the market is tough at the moment, with lower than normal stock levels, higher interest rates, but that doesn’t mean success is not within reach.
“You can actually control the market and have the greatest year ever right now because volatility creates opportunity,” he said.
Ryan said the secret is to act and operate as if you have already made it because “success begets success”.
He says when he applied to be on Million Dollar Listing 13 years ago, he was living in a tiny apartment that saw him share a bathroom with 17 other people.
But when he went into the audition he acted as though he was already highly successful and he won the roles despite his relative lack of experience.
“There is one unique quality that all ultra successful people share, and it completely unlocked the way I think about this business,” Ryan noted.
“It set me up on a rocketship of success and it’s what’s carrying me in this market today.
“It’s big money energy.”
Ryan said at that point in time he couldn’t control how good his suit was or where he was from, but he could change his energy and that could change his life, the kind of deals he made and the kind of money he could make.
“I could control the image I presented to other people,” he said.
“I remember thinking to myself, ‘If I walk into a room where no one knows me, do I want to present low rent Ryan in a $50 suit, or kickass Ryan, who’s successful?
“I’m going to be that person, so why don’t I start acting like it now.”
Madison Sutton – Mastering social media
Don’t let the pursuit of perfection stand in the way of engaging an audience on social media.
That’s the message from Madison Sutton, one of SERHANT’S young guns, who is well known as The NYC Agent across multiple online platforms.
READ MORE VIA ELITE AGENT