Utterly Indispensable Podcast for Estate Agents

For years, estate agents have shouted about sales agreed, new instructions and record prices.

Ben Madden says that’s the problem.

In this episode, I sit down with the founder of Digital Sparks, Fine & Country operator, and serial business builder to unpack a simple truth:

Attention is the currency of modern business.
And most agents are broke.

Ben shares the unfiltered story of building and exiting Thorgills, surviving the 2008 crash, navigating Brexit, scaling to 30%+ market share in West London, and why resilience beats perfect timing every time

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We dive into:

Ben doesn’t believe in buzzwords. He believes in stories. Real ones. The fall-through. The mistake. The lesson. The bit that actually proves your value.

If AI is levelling the playing field, personal brand is how you rise above it.

This one’s about visibility, consistency, and having the courage to put your face to your business before someone else does.

Because in a world where everyone claims to be “honest and trustworthy,” the only thing left is being unmistakably you.

Enjoy.

In this episode, I sit down with Chris Scantlebury, founder of ProConvey — and a man on a mission to fix one of the biggest bottlenecks in our industry.

Chris spent a decade inside conveyancing. He’s seen the chaos. The delays. The endless back-and-forth. The duplicated AML checks. The paper forms. The “we’re waiting on the other side” syndrome.

So he did something about it.

ProConvey’s Digital Sales Ready Packs are designed to get everything sorted on day one — ID checks, Source of Funds, Material Information A–C, TA forms, title documents, EPC data, even searches and contract packs. The result?

⏱️ Completions shaved by 20+ days
📉 Fall-through rates reduced dramatically
📈 A faster, cleaner, more professional pipeline

We get into the uncomfortable truths too.

Why do some agents resist upfront information?
Is the industry addicted to slow?
Are panel conveyancers creating a race to the bottom?
And could AI finally help us hit 28-day transactions?

This isn’t theory. It’s a proper look under the bonnet of how deals actually get done — and why speed, structure, and systems matter more than ever.

If you’re serious about improving pipeline velocity, client experience, and profitability, this one’s for you.

You can find Chris and book a demo at www.proconvey.co.uk or connect with him directly on LinkedIn.

Because 19 weeks might be normal.

But it doesn’t have to be.

Opening your first estate agency is brave.

Opening your second is something else entirely.

In this episode, I sit down with Pete Courtis, owner of The Mather Partnership in Helston and Hayle, to talk about what really happens when you decide to expand.

We cover the part no one talks about.

The empty office.
The six month wait for income.
The recruitment mistakes.
The second guessing.
The cost of Rightmove before you’ve banked a single pound.

Pete bought his original business at 27 on a seller finance deal. He ran sales and lettings. He sold the lettings department, calling it both his worst financial decision and his best lifestyle decision. He rebuilt after losing key team members to a competitor.

But this episode centres on the difficult second office.

What it takes emotionally.
What it costs financially.
Why it rarely performs in year one.
And how to structure it so it doesn’t quietly damage your main branch.

We also dig into culture, recruitment, AI, and why average estate agents might struggle in the years ahead.

If you are thinking about opening another branch, this conversation might save you a lot of stress.

Growth sounds glamorous.

The second office is where it gets real.

This is not a glossy highlight reel.
It’s a proper, boots-on-the-ground conversation with Tony Ruby, one of the most consistently high-performing agents in the UK and one of eXp’s global standouts.

Tony didn’t start with a grand plan, a war chest, or a safety net. He started after redundancy, with responsibility on his shoulders, a fear of failing, and a decision that he was done building someone else’s business.

In this episode, Tony walks through the real journey, the good, the brutal, and the bits most people leave out:

This is a conversation about independence, responsibility, values, and building a business that works for you, not one that slowly eats you alive.

If you’re an estate agent who’s ever thought:
“I could do this better on my own”
or
“There must be a smarter way than this”

You’ll see yourself all over this episode.

No hype. No scripts. Just experience, perspective, and straight talking from someone who’s actually done it.

🎧 Guest: Tony Ruby
Helping and mentoring agents on their journey
eXp UK No.1 volume agent | No.2 worldwide
Quadruple ICON | 5x Capping Agent
eXp Agent of the Year 2022

📲 Connect with Tony
Instagram: @tony_ruby_estate_agent
Email: [email protected]
YouTube: Tony Ruby
Mobile: 07900 010 507

This one’s for agents who want ownership, not just another target. 

This episode is a proper deep dive into the engine room of estate agency software.

My guest is Riccardo Dawson, CEO of Alto Software Group, the platform powering over a third of the UK property market. But this isn’t a corporate victory lap. It’s an honest, behind-the-scenes look at what really happens when you take over a complex SaaS business, strip it back to fundamentals, and rebuild it for the future.

We talk about:

Riccardo also shares his non-linear career journey, from architecture and fashion startups to founding Yourkeys, selling to Zoopla, and ultimately leading one of the most influential software platforms in UK property.

If you’ve ever complained about your CRM, felt overwhelmed by AI noise, or wondered what’s actually coming next for estate agencies, this episode will make you think very differently about where the industry is heading.

This conversation is grounded, practical, occasionally uncomfortable, and absolutely essential listening for agency owners who want to stay relevant rather than reactive.

If you think HR is just contracts and common sense, this episode might save you a small fortune.

In this episode, I’m joined by Paul Fitzsimmons – an HR and employment law specialist who’s spent 15+ years helping business owners avoid expensive, stressful, tribunal-shaped disasters.

Paul doesn’t do fluffy HR. He’s run his own business. He understands commercial reality. And he’s seen everything – from cocaine-fuelled Christmas parties to dismissals that looked obvious… until they cost £60,000.

We talk about:

We also get into Paul’s refreshingly honest take on conveyancing, margins, service quality, and why racing to the bottom on fees breaks businesses on both sides of the transaction.

Paul brings humour, clarity, and zero nonsense. You’ll laugh. You’ll wince. And you’ll almost certainly rethink how exposed your business really is.

If you employ people – or are thinking about it – this episode is required listening.

How to contact Paul

You can find Paul Fitzsimmons on LinkedIn. Drop him a message with your biggest HR headache and he’ll translate it into plain English before it becomes expensive.

What if the way buyers search for property is about to change forever?
And what if estate agents finally have a way to loosen the grip of ever-rising portal fees?

In this episode, I’m joined by Mal McCallion, a true industry heavyweight. Mal was there at the birth of PrimeLocation, helped launch Zoopla, and has spent over 25 years inside the engine room of property portals and proptech.

Now he’s back — and this time he’s taking aim at the very model he helped create.

We talk about how AI is already reshaping how buyers search, why traditional filters are broken, and how “vibe searching” will replace rigid portals. Mal explains why estate agents have been boxed into an expensive, outdated system — and how AI finally gives them leverage again.

This is not a fluffy “AI might be useful one day” chat. It’s a hard look at what’s changing right now:
– Why AI search will challenge portal dominance
– How agents can win market share, cut costs, and increase revenue per deal
– Why being small, local, and human may become your biggest advantage
– What the next 2–3 years mean for estate agency businesses that adapt… and those that don’t

If you’re an agent who wants to stay relevant, profitable, and in control of your future, this conversation will make you think — and probably make you uncomfortable in all the right ways.

How to Contact Mal McCallion (Show Notes)

Mal is currently touring the UK, speaking directly to estate agents about AI, portals, and the future of property search.

Register for the UK tour:
👉 https://myporta.ai/tour26

Email Mal directly:
📧 [email protected]

If you’re curious about where AI is really heading in property — not the hype, the reality — this is one conversation you’ll be glad you listened to.

Most training in estate agency exists to stop you going to prison.

Very little of it helps you win instructions, progress sales, or actually understand the law you’re meant to be complying with. 

That’s why this conversation matters. 

In this episode, I’m joined by Charlotte Jeffrey-Campbell, founder of The Able Agent—and one of the most grounded, no-nonsense voices in estate agency training today. 

Charlotte has done the job. Lister, manager, trainer, business builder. She’s seen what works, what doesn’t, and why most agents are quietly blagging their way through regulation they don’t fully understand. 

We talk about: 

Why qualifications aren’t the enemy—but bad training is 

What actually happened to RoPA (and why it hasn’t gone away) 

The dangerous gaps in estate agents’ knowledge (even after 20+ years) 

Why compliance and business generation should never be taught separately 

How most agents learn sales progression the hard way… and why they shouldn’t 

And why “free training” often turns out to be the most expensive option of all

This isn’t a scare-story episode.

It’s a grown-up conversation about raising standards without killing the soul of the industry.

If you want your team to be more confident, more credible, and genuinely expert—not just box-ticking—this one’s for you.

Life’s too short for bad training.

Most estate agents think they have a CRM problem.
What they really have is a data, discipline, and decision-making problem.

In this episode, I’m joined by Mark Hinkins, Commercial Director at Rex, to tear into one of the most uncomfortable truths in estate agency:
almost no one is using their CRM properly—and AI is about to make that painfully obvious.

We talk about why most agents under-use powerful systems, why moving CRMs is less about software and more about strategy, and how your database is quietly becoming your most valuable asset. Mark shares what he’s seeing on the front line of PropTech, how AI is changing prospecting, pipelines, and productivity, and why agents who “wait and see” will already be too late.

This isn’t a tech demo.
It’s a reality check.

If you’re an agency owner who wants to win more instructions, scale without piling on headcount, and actually work smarter (not just talk about it), this conversation will challenge how you think about CRMs, data, and the future of your business.

AI isn’t replacing estate agents.
But it is replacing the ones who don’t adapt.

This episode is a proper behind-the-scenes look at how sellers choose estate agents — and why so many get it wrong.

I’m joined by Colby Short, co-founder and CEO of GetAgent, the UK’s leading estate agent comparison platform. Over the last 11 years, GetAgent has analysed millions of data points, worked with over 7,500 agents, and helped more than 1.2 million homeowners try to answer one deceptively simple question:

Who is actually best to sell my home?

We dig into the original insight that sparked GetAgent — a single London postcode where 800 sellers chose 200 different agents, half of whom had never sold a property there — and why that chaos still exists today.

Colby explains:

This is an honest, commercially grounded conversation about data, cash flow, fees, lead quality, and the brutal reality of running a business where you only get paid if everyone else performs.

If you’re an estate agent who believes you’re good — but wonders why the market doesn’t always reward that — this episode will make you think very differently about how sellers see you, long before you ever sit on their sofa.