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161 - From Digital Disruption to Mental Health Champion - Steven Carroll

• Lee Woodward

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Steven Carroll joins the podcast to discuss his appointment as the new CEO of RISE, an organisation dedicated to supporting mental health and wellbeing in the real estate industry. The conversation explores both the digital transformation of real estate and the growing focus on mental health support for industry professionals.

• Digital Live charity bike ride in Thailand raised $417,000, taking total contributions to over $2 million since 2019
• Steven Carroll's background includes working in UK media during the internet's early days and as Director of Sales for REA Group
• Australian consumers choose individual agents rather than offices, making personal branding crucial
• Australians are the most impatient Uber users globally, reflecting changing consumer expectations for immediacy
• COVID accelerated digital transformation in real estate by approximately 10 years
• RISE focuses on helping professionals identify warning signs of mental health issues
• The RISE app provides tools for agents to help themselves, colleagues and family navigate mental health challenges
• RISE leadership conference coming April 10-11 will focus on creating cultures where it's "okay to say I'm not okay"
• Steve shares a personal story about losing a friend to suicide due to unrecognised warning signs

Check the show notes and the link to episode 116 for a feature interview with Mark Kentwell from Nexar.




Hosted by Lee Woodward
Proudly brought to you by Lee Woodward Training Systems.

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Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome back to the podcast we Are Selling. Last week we had a great story, as Cameron Cullum shared his story about resilience and when we get a reaction from our audience and marketplace, especially about the mental health side of people, the real estate industry, the sales perfection of real estate and what we need to do. I thought this week we'd actually take that chance to further explain the support and systems available to our industry. An organisation that has become very, very popular is RISE, and RISE is an organisation that is designed to look at the mental health and well-being of our people. In a moment, I'm going to disclose who the new CEO is of Rise.

Speaker 1:

Before I do that, a lot of you would have noticed, last week I was on the bike ride for Digital Live, the Hands Across the Water charity bike ride in Thailand and the real estate industry came together and raised over $417,000 for the children, the home, and it was an incredible experience and in line with today's topic, and the digital live bike ride was put together by Mr Steve Carroll. He joins me now, steve. Welcome aboard.

Speaker 2:

Hi Lee, how are you?

Speaker 1:

I'm very, very well and congratulations on bringing it all together for the bike ride. Two rides that went over with all our riders.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely $417,000 raised for the kit a kid and we exceeded our budget by $117,000 because our goal was $300,000. And it takes us past $2 million. So since the first ride back in 2019, the real estate industry has delivered over $2 million to the Australian charity Hands Across the Water, and that's pretty remarkable.

Speaker 1:

It is remarkable and I love that saying of when all the money passes hands, the question is, what did you contribute? And the contribution is so good for everyone's mind. And being on that ride and having all the wonderful agents and principals and ex-principals that contributed their time to be there, it's an amazing vibe on that ride, steve. When you're hitting the dust, dirt and the gravel and you're on a bike and you're chatting away and someone comes up alongside of you. It's a very good different noise in our life, especially this busy life of real estate.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely. Look, I'm fascinated by the ride in that a number of things happen. If you can get rid of the ego and let's be honest with you, the real estate industry has got a fair share of ego If you can get rid of that ego and you can encourage people to open up and feel comfortable about having those difficult conversations, comfortable about being vulnerable, is incredible what can be achieved. And that's one of the reasons why I keep going back on the bike ride, because I just love meeting the real people, the people behind the suits, the people behind the ties, and really digging deep into their story and what they're about.

Speaker 1:

Now, steve, just for our international audience and our Australian audience. You've spent a lifetime in sales, marketing and media. You were the former Director of Sales for REA, but before that, working over there in the UK, take us into your background where it started, okay.

Speaker 2:

Well, look at the end of last century, Lee, which makes me sound incredibly old. So the sort of 1998, 1999 era. One of my jobs was working for the largest media company in Europe, and the largest media company in Europe had a revenue stream of billions of pounds from real estate agents that was falling into print publications. And so back in 1998, 1999, I would be sitting with principals telling them about this new thing called the internet and how the internet was going to replace print, and real estate leaders needed to open their mind to this change. And we know what happened. Online and digital is just now an everyday way of searching and selling and buying property, but back in 1998, 1999, it wasn't that obvious.

Speaker 1:

Then, Steve, you came out to Australia and eventually scored the gig with REA, where you were there for a long period of time and when you got to meet all these wonderful agents and you and I were touring together there around the country as the seminars, webinars and conference work was done. You've appeared at ARIC on multiple occasions. What did you most learn about the real estate industry while in that position of digital?

Speaker 2:

Well, I think the big difference between the UK market and the Australian market is in the UK, if you're selling a house, you choose an office and you will walk into a real estate office on the high street and you'll say I want to sell my house, Will you send somebody around?

Speaker 2:

And that's exactly what happened. The receptionist would send somebody around and whoever came around really was potentially the agent that was going to sell your house. So when I came to Australia and I saw that it's completely different, because you don't choose an office, you don't necessarily choose a brand, you choose an agent. And that was obviously alien to me and that got me really interested in, well, how does a real estate agent use digital to build out their digital shop window? How does a real estate agent use digital to dominate the digital high street? And I was really intrigued with all of this and I was very fortunate at REA in that they sent me on international trips to companies like Google and Facebook and LinkedIn, and from those experiences I learned a lot of stuff. And that's what I do today I share that stuff with real estate agents to help them dominate that digital high street. Lee.

Speaker 1:

Steve, I saw you speak at ARIC with Sarah Hackett and it was a great session. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and you brought to my attention the power of immediacy. Take us into that.

Speaker 2:

Well, it's interesting because on one of the trips that I made over to the States with a bunch of real estate leaders, we went to Uber and we were met by a product manager, a very stern-faced product manager, whose opening line to me and these fellow Australian leaders was what's wrong with you Australians?

Speaker 2:

And what she basically was saying was in the 120 countries Uber operated, they were able to obviously track the behavior of people that use the app, and what they noticed was the most impatient users of Uber and this is four or five years ago, but I tell you now it hasn't changed the most impatient users of Uber are Australians, and she told us that if someone called an Uber and it was more than five or six minutes away, then the response was well, screw that, I'm not waiting five or six minutes for an Uber Cancel rebook, hoping that suddenly a quicker Uber has appeared. And so what I learned from that is these Uber drivers are homeowners and they are the people that we are working with. And so if you as a business owner, if you are as a real estate agent or a property manager, are not switched on to the fact that people want things quickly and they want it fast, because if you don't deliver on that, they move on to the next.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely amazing, and I think our industry is getting a better pace. We've got the digital price updates, we've got the proposals, the plans, the digital sale coming in. This is the time of digital and we've got to be careful of that as well, because there's a lot of people feel the pressure of change, and change management is one of the. Well, I think we both know Steve, from educating and consulting to people as we do on a daily basis.

Speaker 1:

Covid created rapid change that you couldn't write things on paper had to be digital, because you can't have contact, you can't do an open house, you can't do an auction on the lawn, you've got to do it digital. And I was right in the thick of the coaching of all that of how to do a digital auction, how do I get a digital authority signed, and the progression that came out of COVID was absolutely amazing. We went forward like 10 years in time in just under the first 12 months of that hitting. But while that was going on, mental health became a huge issue. The anxiety kicked in and a lot of our listeners out there don't know or may not know of the group Rise. And, as I said at the beginning of this audio, I'm going to announce the new CEO, which is Mr Steve Carroll. You've been appointed the CEO of Rise. Take us into that.

Speaker 2:

Well, absolutely Well. Look, I've been talking to Nick West and the board members of Rise for a number of months now and you know, I think they've seen what we have created with the digital life bike ride, the movement that has been created, the camaraderie, the sharing of information amongst all the people that have done the ride, and so that led to a conversation with Nick and a number of the board members, and they asked me if I would be interested in coming across as their CEO. I think it's probably the first time they've had a CEO, because obviously, the Rise charity is a voluntary charity. But you know what it's like, lee if you want to take anything to the next level, you need to have focus, and obviously the appointment of a CEO will give Rise that focus, and a couple of key KPIs they've spoken to me about is number one the awareness of Rise and the fact that it is a tool that real estate agents can use for themselves, for their mates, for their families, to help us navigate through this challenge of health and mental well-being, which is rife. It's a challenge that we cannot run away from, and they also want to.

Speaker 2:

Obviously, as the movement of Rise gathers pace, they want to find partners and sponsors, and that's something that I've obviously have done with the BuyCride and learned a lot of things working at realestatecomau, and I think what they also want to try and create with Rise is a movement where people like me well, not people like me, just normal real estate agents say to their mates have you downloaded the Rise app onto your phone? Because if you haven't, you need to, because one day it might just save someone's life. And that sounds dramatically, but let's call it as it is Stress, ill health, mental well-being can be and is the downfall of a lot of great people, and the RISE initiative is all about trying to help the industry become a safer, a happier, a more healthier environment, and it really was a no-brainer for me to get involved and share my knowledge, and I'm delighted to get stuck in.

Speaker 1:

Now, steve, you had a direct experience with this, where you were back in the UK putting a rugby shirt back on. Take us into that.

Speaker 2:

Well, it's the last time I actually played rugby and we were honouring two great guys that I played rugby with a guy called Martin and a guy called Peter and Martin. Unfortunately, his life was ridiculously cut short because of illness and Peter, of similar age, sort of early 50s, sadly decided life wasn't worth living anymore and he committed suicide. And we pulled this game together and it was a Martin 15 versus a Peter 15. And it was a martin 15 versus a peter 15 and um, it was a an emotional game, uh, remembering two people and I. I think the the saddest thing of it all was in the bar afterwards when I was speaking to a lot of the guys and I said well, surely you must have noticed a change in behavior with Peter, surely there were signs. And the answer was well, we didn't see it. Now, the interesting thing is the signs were obviously there, but the lack of knowledge was the downfall and was the reason why we couldn't help Peter and Peter's not here today.

Speaker 2:

And again I go back to Rise, what the Rise app does and what the Rise conferences do, and there's a Rise leadership conference coming up on the 10th and the 11th of April. The speakers coming and they're not talking about how to become a million dollar agent. They're not talking about scripts and dialogues. What they're talking about is how to spot signs that things aren't right and how to actually respond when things aren't right, and how to create a culture where it's actually okay to say I'm not okay. And all of that, lee, is something that I'm very passionate about, and if I can share my knowledge and help just one person, one family, then I think it'll be a good move for me.

Speaker 1:

Steve, couldn't agree more, and you've done an amazing job in the real estate industry in many spaces, be it the digital live seminars and webinars and workshops. You've done to the bike ride and now to be appointed the CEO. I couldn't think of a more perfect person. And you've got a lot of connections and you're right in the center of the real estate community. You're not on the edge of it, and when you notified me while we were away that you were going to be appointed the CEO, I thought, wow, this is going to be a fantastic time for people to get the help they need and have you there as an understanding person to get them connected to what they need to do. So, Steve Carroll, a big congratulations and thank you for sharing your story on we Are Selling. Thank you, Lee.

Speaker 1:

Today's episode of we Are Selling was brought to you by Nexar. Nexar is the platform that is now partnering and delivering best-in-class real estate growth solutions that continue to perform over time. The Nexar platform has now partnered with some of our leading principals in teams in Australia. They are assisting with the lead generation engine of the company, agent loyalty and the growth of the rent roll through connective communication. Nexar is doing the heavy lifting on nurturing your database to generate a pipeline for your agents and BDMs to convert to listings, sales and new managements. Check the show notes and the link to episode 116, where there was a feature interview with Mr Mark Kempwell. Thank you for listening. I look forward to speaking to you next week. My name's Lee Woodward. Goodbye.