Transcript:
Samantha McLean: Hi, everyone. Back at stand 18 in the expo for AREC 2017 and my guest is Andrew Cocks, who is the managing director of Richardson & Wrench, one of the bigger franchises in New South Wales. Welcome, Andrew.
Andrew Cocks: Thank you very much.
Samantha: Who, so far, do you think has been your favourite presentation?
Andrew: Nigel’s always a fantastic presenter because he’s talking about some really innovative things that are going on and I think that’s been the stand out for me. I’m a bit of a geek by nature, so from my perspective, it’s always good to understand some of the things that are really going on.
Samantha: We’ve had quite a few agent speakers today. Arabella Hooper and people like that. What are some of the things that have really resonated there?
Andrew: I think Arabella’s a remarkable person. She’s been so successful and done some remarkable things and I think the way that she talked about her journey and the way she does things was really impressive.
Samantha: And what about around the expo? Has anything that you’ve seen sort of really caught the eye?
Andrew: You really get a good snapshot of where things are going in terms of technology options, I mean, technology is easy to produce, but the challenging thing that I see is that once you maybe be able to produce a great little gadget or a widget, it’s how you can then apply that in your business.
That’s the really critical thing that you as an agent and you as a business operator have to think about. We don’t always see those solutions being offered. It’s all about providing a product. But this year, there’s some quite clever and quite innovative things that some of the people are doing.
Samantha: What are some of the things that you’ll take back to some of your franchises?
Andrew: What I really focus on is how I can help our network to really focus on being a business rather than as having a glorified job. That’s something that a lot of people in the industry have to really think about. In a world where the way we operate and the environment in which we operate is changing so rapidly, how do you actually sustain what you do as business rather than as a job?
That’s a challenging issue, but it’s all really about making sure you can add value to your clients with a whole lot of different layers. But also then get your business operating in a way so that you actually don’t have to be there all the time to make the wheels turn.
Samantha: Yeah. I think that’s something that we all absolutely aspire to, so some good advice there. Thank you very much.
Andrew: My absolute pleasure.
Samantha: Pleasure having you here.
