devcast...

How are you feeling this Mental Health Awareness Week?

We're strong believers that an employee’s (and an employer’s) wellbeing should be valued year-round. To raise awareness of the importance of mental health and the challenges it can bring, deverellsmith has created a toolkit to help employers support their staff and individuals, specifically when working from.

Featuring in the toolkit is this master mix of feel-good sounds, curated by our CEO, Andrew Deverell-Smith.

We hope you enjoy it as much as we did in creating it...

Early ambitions and building resilience

Peter shares with us his humble beginnings as a young entrepreneur working a variety of jobs to earn some extra cash. Whether it was flipping burgers outside Twickenham, washing cars, or selling beer merchandise, Peter has done it. 

From this experience, he realised he was a superb salesperson and got his first sales role selling AXA cash back on health insurance outside Reading train station, stopping people in their paths and persuading them in a brief amount of time to buy into what he was offering. 

He advocates any perspective salesperson to gain experience in that kind of cutthroat sales job, because as an employer, that stands out above any university degree as it gives a person invaluable experience in learning how to deal with people and most importantly, deal with rejection. 

Talking openly, Peter voices there were many times he would phone his dad crying thinking he couldn’t make it in the industry, but that early experience gave him the resilience to drive through his self-doubt. 

This resilience transferred into his first job with Romans, and it enabled him to open more opportunities for the business. Peter was willing to get out into the town centre with a clip board and talk to people face to face, where others may not have felt so comfortable in that setting. 

Romans to Right Now 

After just 18 months at Romans, Peter was offered a career altering job opportunity in London, and this is where he gained valuable experience in lettings and where Right Now Residential was born. 

Commencing his prosperous business in his council estate flat in Clapham, with no investments and just a small desk; whiteboard; laptop and camera. Peter divulges how he progressed from making no profit in his first six months of business to running an amazingly successful estate agency today. 

What is happening Right Now

Peter gives insight into the present substantial growth of his company and his recent success in the Build to Rent sector, highlighting the biggest reason for success lies with hiring the best talent, who are passionate and hungrier than ever. 

At the end of the day, it is all about the people.

Listen now to learn more about what it takes to make it in the estate agency industry, gain expert insight into the current market and how Peter Murphy uses sport to help him achieve a healthy work life balance.

Beginning her career within HR in the late 90’s, Lucinda joined Shell and worked in various roles, starting in Shell Trading. She then wanted to take her passion for sport and blend it with her career and this is when she moved to the Rugby Football Union, working as the HR Director there for over 4 years. 

It was here she met ex rugby player, Tim Rodber, who is also the CEO at Instant. With no real desire to work within the property world, she knew that she wanted to work in a fast moving and everchanging industry, with room for growth. And that is how she was pulled into the ever-evolving world of property, through the environment, culture, and the businesses growth potential. 

Beginning his career at Foxtons after university, Alex saw a gap in the London property landscape to take ownership of the lettings market. He explains that he saw the London property world was becoming saturated with estate agents, and there was room for the world to become more specialised. Being a huge believer in being an expert in one area and becoming the best in class to provide the best service, this is where Winchester White was born.

Setting up in Wimbledon in 2010, Winchester White is now about to open their fourth office in South Kensington taking their lettings expertise into Central London, after dominating the market in and around Wimbledon for several years.

Alex shares how his impressive passion for running has translated into his business success and gives expert advice to anyone looking to take the next step in their career. A key take-away from this; be fearless and un-afraid to get it wrong!

Listen now for an expert’s insight into how to excel within the London lettings market.

Sarah fell into the property world and became the first female Sales Director at Foxtons when it was still very much a male dominated space. Since then, she has held positions within a diverse number of departments covering lettings to corporate services!

Spending 20 years with Foxtons, Sarah shares how the people there have helped her to remain loyal for so long, and the challenges she has overcome in her career ahead of setting up the BTR Team.

Nick explores what changes Sarah has seen for women in property, any advice she has for to help grow their careers and how the sector can better promote careers in BTR for women and other minority groups.

In this podcast episode, Andrew Deverell-Smith questions Richard Margree further on the largest regen scheme in Europe, innovation and challenging the status quo of the conventional built environment.

Are you putting the people of your business first this year? 

The property industry has significant growth plans upon the horizon; platforms like RightMove have reported their ‘busiest ever start to the year’ and HMRC’s numbers highlighted that December’s sales were 30% higher than October’s. 

Each business will want to strategically capitalise on the market’s bounce-back and its shared knowledge that having the right people in your business will help you achieve your tactical end goal. 

Our goal? To advise on the hiring market, how to retain talent and candidate behaviour. 

Our team at deverellsmith spend their career talking to professionals within the property industry – from entry-level to C-Suite – and we’re confident our market intelligence can help with key business decisions. 

Every quarter, deverellsmith’s CEO (Andrew Deverell-Smith) and Managing Director (James Campion) will provide insight, uncover data and have some fun whilst doing it.

For the launch episode, the duo will respond ‘true or false’ to statements regarding six topics which we often get asked about: candidates, hiring process, interview process, salaries, leadership and Employer Value Proposition. 

www.deverellsmith.com 

As the festive season draws to a close, the new year seems to fill with a sense of pressure to make resolutions and intentions to better oneself. The month tends to drag, due to fads like Dry Jan and Veganuary taking over. Most days are filled with grey clouds and rain, and to add to top it all off it feels like a lifetime until payday.

What’s the result? Blue Monday, supposedly the ‘most depressing day of the year’. 

The day was given the ‘Blue Monday’ label by a travel company with the aim to boost travel sales. 17 years later, the day is now nationally recognised and typically takes place on the third Monday of the year. Although a myth and originally a marketing ploy – like Valentine’s Day - we believe the January blues can still be real for many. 

Similarly to the Samaritan’s and their #BrewMonday movement, our Employee Wellbeing Ambassador, Ryan Doyle, was on a mission to create a positive spin this year, as well as raise awareness and bring an expert into our ‘devcast studio’. 

Throughout the episode, Ryan speaks with Rhonda D’Ambrosio (Founder of Mental Health In Recruitment and UK Director of The Kite Program) to offer support and advice for anyone wanting to level up their knowledge on mental health, coping mechanisms and how to provide support to those in need.

We hope you find this podcast useful, and always remember to take time to look after yourself and make yourself a priority.

If you are feeling low, you can use the following helplines to speak with someone:

• Rethink –

https://www.rethink.org/aboutus/what-we-do/advice-and-information-service/get-help-now/

• Mind –

https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/guides-to-support-and-services/seeking-help-for-a-mental-health-problem/where-to-start/

• Samaritans –

https://www.samaritans.org/

Who lives in Build-to-rent?

BTR is a booming sector, and each development attracts a multitude of people all with similar interests: but what’s in their core?

Nick and Ian will be revealing the DNA behind a BTR tenant in this episode of A New Lease of Life. ‘Who lives in Build-to-rent' is Ian’s second publication and unveils data, analysis, key findings and expert commentary on the sector and its customers.  

Ian’s considered a highly trusted pioneer in the BTR world – trusted by Government, MPs and other decision makers – and is an advocate for housing policy, sustainability, planning and regeneration.

With a passion for housing and providing an additional source of quality housing, he was on the Board of National Approved Lettings Scheme (NALS), formerly Chief Economist and Head of Policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, as a representative of the UK’s small business and entrepreneurs.