The Estate Agent Consultancy Podcast

Why is it so hard to form a consistent habit? How do we form habits that stick? What should we do if we fall off the wagon?

In this replay of Toby's weekly live YouTube show Distracted, he discusses the secrets to success with his guests. They cover the psychology of how our brains form habits, how to plan your day to produce consistently good quality work, and practical techniques that help to form new habits that last.

You can download a one-page summary of the practical tips in this episode from www.tobyisdistracted.com.  

📚Want a free copy of the ‘Your First £100,000 Estate Agency’ book?

✅ DM me the word “BOOK” on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/estateagent.consultancy/ and I’ll send it straight over.

📥 Want FREE materials to help get you your next instruction? 
Head to: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/freeintro

💻 Want to launch or scale your own estate agency business?
Book a free discovery call here: https://theestateagentconsultancy.as.me/sixty-consultation

🎓 To access to our ‘Your First £100,000 Estate Agency’ video course. 
Head over to: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/your-first-100000-digital-course

📅 Want to join our next free webinar?
Get added to the VIP list to find out first: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/webinar

Any questions? Just email: [email protected] or visit us at https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com

Ollie Hawkins has spent nearly 25 years in estate agency, but it was moving into the self-employed model that allowed him to build the type of business he’d always wanted.

In this episode, Ollie joins me to talk about how he’s become a highly recognisable estate agent in Tadley, built a business around delivering a genuinely personal service, and created a growing stream of referrals and recommendations.

We talk about why he deliberately chose not to compete on cheap fees, how specialising in family movers has shaped his proposition, and why he wants clients to see him as their “estate agent for life”.

Ollie also shares his “price to entice” approach, how his Beat the Portals strategy uses social media to generate early buyer interest and create competition, and how this contributed to him achieving an average of 104% of asking price in 2025 with an average listing-to-sale time of 13 days.

We also cover lettings, personal branding, becoming known in your local community, building financial security before going self-employed, and what happens as more personal estate agents enter the market.

If you’re building a self-employed or personal estate agency and want to create a business based on reputation, service and long-term relationships rather than simply chasing volume, there’s loads to take away from this conversation.

📚Want a free copy of the ‘Your First £100,000 Estate Agency’ book?

✅ DM me the word “BOOK” on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/estateagent.consultancy/ and I’ll send it straight over.

📥 Want FREE materials to help get you your next instruction? 
Head to: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/freeintro

💻 Want to launch or scale your own estate agency business?
Book a free discovery call here: https://theestateagentconsultancy.as.me/sixty-consultation

🎓 To access to our ‘Your First £100,000 Estate Agency’ video course. 
Head over to: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/your-first-100000-digital-course

📅 Want to join our next free webinar?
Get added to the VIP list to find out first: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/webinar

Any questions? Just email: [email protected] or visit us at https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com

Another round of your estate agency questions answered — and this time we’re tackling four big ones.

Should you reduce your fee when another agent is cheaper? When is the right time to make your first hire? Should you ever take on an overpriced property? And are you better off covering a huge area or becoming the dominant agent in a much smaller patch?

I break down how I’d approach each situation, including how to defend a premium fee, when outsourcing starts making commercial sense, the dangers of taking instructions you know won’t sell, and why being a big fish in a small pond can transform your marketing.

📚Want a free copy of the ‘Your First £100,000 Estate Agency’ book?

✅ DM me the word “BOOK” on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/estateagent.consultancy/ and I’ll send it straight over.

📥 Want FREE materials to help get you your next instruction? 
Head to: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/freeintro

💻 Want to launch or scale your own estate agency business?
Book a free discovery call here: https://theestateagentconsultancy.as.me/sixty-consultation

🎓 To access to our ‘Your First £100,000 Estate Agency’ video course. 
Head over to: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/your-first-100000-digital-course

📅 Want to join our next free webinar?
Get added to the VIP list to find out first: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/webinar

Any questions? Just email: [email protected] or visit us at https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com

Referrals and recommendations are brilliant, but there’s one major problem: you can’t control when they arrive.

In this episode, I explain why every estate agency needs a predictable lead generation system that you can turn up when you want to grow and dial back when you’re busy. We look at the three main sources of instructions, why relying too heavily on referrals creates feast-and-famine months, and how to work out which marketing activities are actually producing a return.

If you want to stop hoping the phone rings and start building a more predictable pipeline of market appraisals, instructions and sales, this episode is for you.

📚Want a free copy of the ‘Your First £100,000 Estate Agency’ book?

✅ DM me the word “BOOK” on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/estateagent.consultancy/ and I’ll send it straight over.

📥 Want FREE materials to help get you your next instruction? 
Head to: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/freeintro

💻 Want to launch or scale your own estate agency business?
Book a free discovery call here: https://theestateagentconsultancy.as.me/sixty-consultation

🎓 To access to our ‘Your First £100,000 Estate Agency’ video course. 
Head over to: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/your-first-100000-digital-course

📅 Want to join our next free webinar?
Get added to the VIP list to find out first: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/webinar

Any questions? Just email: [email protected] or visit us at https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com

Friend of the pod and Alto Software CEO, Riccardo Iannucci-Dawson, is back!

Fresh from Alto's Summer Boat Party on the Thames, Ric's fills us in on what exciting things are happening at Alto. How they are using AI and "Skills" to help agents customise their CRM experience around the way their agency actually works.

How Alto welcome genuine feedback to help them continuously improve and why events like theirs bringing agents together with no agenda are so important for community and collaboration in the industry.

And of course we get Ric's thoughts on how he thinks technology is going to continue changing the way agents work.

Put the kettle on, settle in and enjoy.

📚Want a free copy of the ‘Your First £100,000 Estate Agency’ book?

✅ DM me the word “BOOK” on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/estateagent.consultancy/ and I’ll send it straight over.

📥 Want FREE materials to help get you your next instruction? 
Head to: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/freeintro

💻 Want to launch or scale your own estate agency business?
Book a free discovery call here: https://theestateagentconsultancy.as.me/sixty-consultation

🎓 To access to our ‘Your First £100,000 Estate Agency’ video course. 
Head over to: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/your-first-100000-digital-course

📅 Want to join our next free webinar?
Get added to the VIP list to find out first: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/webinar

Any questions? Just email: [email protected] or visit us at https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com

Networking can be a brilliant source of estate agency business — but only if it actually produces opportunities.

In this episode, I share a simple strategy for going beyond attending networking breakfasts and instead becoming the person who connects the local business community together.

I explain how to use local Facebook groups to find tradespeople and business owners, create your own free networking group, build a WhatsApp community and organise simple local meet-ups. Done properly, you become the estate agent sitting at the centre of a network of people who are speaking to homeowners every single day.

Instead of simply joining somebody else’s network, build one that makes you the person everyone knows.

📚Want a free copy of the ‘Your First £100,000 Estate Agency’ book?

✅ DM me the word “BOOK” on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/estateagent.consultancy/ and I’ll send it straight over.

📥 Want FREE materials to help get you your next instruction? 
Head to: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/freeintro

💻 Want to launch or scale your own estate agency business?
Book a free discovery call here: https://theestateagentconsultancy.as.me/sixty-consultation

🎓 To access to our ‘Your First £100,000 Estate Agency’ video course. 
Head over to: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/your-first-100000-digital-course

📅 Want to join our next free webinar?
Get added to the VIP list to find out first: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/webinar

Any questions? Just email: [email protected] or visit us at https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com

On the 3rd of September I sat down in front of a camera and didn't get up for twenty-four hours — forty-four sessions with some of the best people in estate agency, raising money for Breast Cancer Now and Andy's Man Club. Rory Sutherland on why the negatives are what sell the house, Stephen Brown winning a £14,000 fee with a single question, an Australian buyer's agent explaining why "just listed" is the worst marketing you can possibly do.

This is one lesson from every single session, in the order they happened. 

You can donate to the fundraiser and get access to the on-demand videos at 24hourwebinar.com 

📚Want a free copy of the ‘Your First £100,000 Estate Agency’ book?

✅ DM me the word “BOOK” on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/estateagent.consultancy/ and I’ll send it straight over.

📥 Want FREE materials to help get you your next instruction? 
Head to: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/freeintro

💻 Want to launch or scale your own estate agency business?
Book a free discovery call here: https://theestateagentconsultancy.as.me/sixty-consultation

🎓 To access to our ‘Your First £100,000 Estate Agency’ video course. 
Head over to: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/your-first-100000-digital-course

📅 Want to join our next free webinar?
Get added to the VIP list to find out first: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/webinar

Any questions? Just email: [email protected] or visit us at https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com

AI is everywhere in estate agency right now — but are agents actually using it to transform their businesses, or simply using new technology to do old jobs slightly faster?

In this episode, I’m joined once again by Mark Burgess, founder and CEO of Iceberg Digital, to talk about what AI could really mean for the future of estate agency.

Mark argues that simply plugging AI into an existing CRM isn’t enough. The estate agencies that win over the next few years will rethink how their entire businesses operate — using data and AI to identify the right opportunities while allowing people to focus on the work humans are actually good at.

We discuss:

• Why most agents are using AI in the wrong way
• The difference between AI productivity and genuine business transformation
• Why your CRM probably doesn’t contain enough context for AI
• How data could help agents identify their best opportunities automatically
• The four outcomes an estate agency should really focus on: listings, viewings, offers and completions
• Why AI could actually result in more people and greater productivity, rather than simply replacing staff
• Why estate agents need to focus on outcomes rather than activity
• The danger of trying to run tomorrow’s technology through yesterday’s systems
• Why Mark believes estate agency is already experiencing its “Blockbuster moment”
• How agents can build a stronger competitive moat using data
• What the next 24–36 months could mean for traditional estate agency businesses

This isn’t really a conversation about getting AI to write your property descriptions or emails faster. It’s about whether the entire operating model of estate agency is about to change — and what agents need to do now if they don’t want to be left behind.

If you run an estate agency, work in property, or are trying to understand where AI genuinely fits into your business, this is a fascinating conversation about what could be coming next.

📚Want a free copy of the ‘Your First £100,000 Estate Agency’ book?

✅ DM me the word “BOOK” on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/estateagent.consultancy/ and I’ll send it straight over.

📥 Want FREE materials to help get you your next instruction? 
Head to: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/freeintro

💻 Want to launch or scale your own estate agency business?
Book a free discovery call here: https://theestateagentconsultancy.as.me/sixty-consultation

🎓 To access to our ‘Your First £100,000 Estate Agency’ video course. 
Head over to: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/your-first-100000-digital-course

📅 Want to join our next free webinar?
Get added to the VIP list to find out first: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/webinar

Any questions? Just email: [email protected] or visit us at https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com

In this episode, I’m answering four questions that come up again and again when I’m speaking to estate agents about growing their businesses.

We cover how to turn social media into something that actually generates leads rather than just likes, how to handle a valuation when you know another agent will be cheaper, and how often you should follow up a market appraisal without becoming annoying.

I also answer a big one for self-employed agents: if you only had two hours a day to generate new business, where should you spend that time?

We cover the difference between activity that gets you business today and marketing that makes life easier six or twelve months from now.

If you want more instructions, better follow-up and a clearer plan for where to spend your time, this episode should give you plenty to work with.

📚Want a free copy of the ‘Your First £100,000 Estate Agency’ book?

✅ DM me the word “BOOK” on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/estateagent.consultancy/ and I’ll send it straight over.

📥 Want FREE materials to help get you your next instruction? 
Head to: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/freeintro

💻 Want to launch or scale your own estate agency business?
Book a free discovery call here: https://theestateagentconsultancy.as.me/sixty-consultation

🎓 To access to our ‘Your First £100,000 Estate Agency’ video course. 
Head over to: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/your-first-100000-digital-course

📅 Want to join our next free webinar?
Get added to the VIP list to find out first: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/webinar

Any questions? Just email: [email protected] or visit us at https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com

This is a slightly different podcast from me.

I’m not a mindset coach, and I’m definitely not pretending to be one. But over the years, there are a handful of lessons that have genuinely changed the way I approach business, work and life — and I wanted to share them.

In this episode, I break down five ideas that have helped me enormously:

• No one cares — and why that’s actually incredibly freeing.
• No one is coming to save you — if you want the business, lifestyle or results, you have to create them.
• Design your life backwards — decide what makes you happy, then build your work around it.
• Your brain isn’t always right — fear and anxiety aren’t necessarily signs that you shouldn’t do something.
• Maximum attack — if you decide something matters, stop dipping your toe in and properly commit.

Whether you’re building an estate agency, starting something new or simply feel like you’ve been holding yourself back, hopefully there are a few ideas in this episode that give you the push you need.

Sometimes the biggest thing standing between where you are and where you want to be is simply deciding to go for it.

📚Want a free copy of the ‘Your First £100,000 Estate Agency’ book?

✅ DM me the word “BOOK” on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/estateagent.consultancy/ and I’ll send it straight over.

📥 Want FREE materials to help get you your next instruction? 
Head to: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/freeintro

💻 Want to launch or scale your own estate agency business?
Book a free discovery call here: https://theestateagentconsultancy.as.me/sixty-consultation

🎓 To access to our ‘Your First £100,000 Estate Agency’ video course. 
Head over to: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/your-first-100000-digital-course

📅 Want to join our next free webinar?
Get added to the VIP list to find out first: https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com/webinar

Any questions? Just email: [email protected] or visit us at https://www.estateagentconsultancy.com