TL;DR: Today we’re releasing a new episode of our Thought Leaders podcast that unpacks the practical side of growing a values-led agency. Dion Besser explains how he stabilised a team that tripled overnight, balanced culture with accountability, and kept clients loyal through volatile markets. Listen on YouTube, Apple Podcasts or Spotify—and sign up to get it in your inbox each week.







Dion Besser has spent more than two decades living what keeps a real estate business steady when markets, regulations, and staffing levels change simultaneously. After gaining experience in London, he returned to Melbourne to found Besser & Co., where a 2022 acquisition saw his staff list jump from eight to 24 in a single day. Instead of patching problems on the fly, he doubled down on a simple playbook: start with clear values, document the right way to work, and let those guardrails drive performance.



Today, that 20-strong crew runs on transparency, honest feedback, and a habit of celebrating small wins. In this conversation, Dion explains how he hires, trains, and motivates people so that the next growth spurt feels orderly, not chaotic.




“Most of the skills in real estate can be taught. What I look for is trust, loyalty, openness, accountability, drive.”






Values come first—hire for character, train for skill



Dion screens candidates with personality tests to see how they handle feedback before they even start. If they push back, they won’t suit an environment built on constructive candour. With values aligned, new hires step straight into detailed playbooks—everything from rent reviews to auction campaigns—so expectations never feel fuzzy.



Culture is a journey—celebrate wins before cracks widen




“It really is a journey for our clients and it’s a journey for our staff.”




When an acquisition stretched the team, morale dipped until Dion formed a “Culture Collective” that meets monthly to spotlight quick victories—five-star reviews, seamless VCAT cases, record rent per square metre—and flag tension early. Regular recognition reset the mood and curbed turnover.



Intrinsic meets extrinsic—design rewards beyond the paycheck




“Find out what motivates them, and help them achieve that.”




Commission still matters, but Dion ties KPIs to personal goals like clearing tasks daily or making 80 calls a week. When agents hit targets they set themselves, the reward lands deeper than trophies—and retention climbs because progress feels personal.



Patience and persistence—guide clients through choppy markets




“If you can’t take your clients on a longer journey, you’ll find yourself losing business.”




With Melbourne prices wobbling and tenancy laws changing, Besser coaches his team to prep vendors and landlords for longer campaigns. Clear timelines, frequent check-ins and upfront reality checks convert possible frustration into trust—even when the news isn’t great.



Own your agency choice—interview the interviewer




“Ask a potential employer: What path to success do you have for me?”




For newcomers eyeing 2025, Dion flips the script: treat job interviews like due diligence. If an office can’t outline a documented growth track—training, database strategy, social-media playbook—move on. The right environment, he says, is half the battle.



Listen or watch → YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify



What’s one cultural tweak you’ve made that instantly lif...

Curtis Thomson is something of a systems whisperer for industries bogged down by manual processes.



Having cut his teeth in the construction world and then co-founding and scaling the field service management software Simpro across the globe, he witnessed firsthand how disjointed systems and repetitive tasks can drain businesses and the people within them.



He saw friends in the trades working grueling hours only to face business failure and personal hardship, sparking a passion to solve these efficiency problems with technology.



Now, Curtis brings his outsider perspective and deep experience in streamlining complex operations to the property management sector with Our Property.



Property management, as he notes, is rife with accepted pain points—manual trust accounting, compliance burdens, endless maintenance cycles, and the thankless task of arrears management.



Thomson sees a future where technology handles the "donkey work", allowing property managers to escape mediocrity and focus on high-value activities like building relationships and growing portfolios.



The conversation dives into the practical application of automation and AI to solve core property management challenges.



It’s not just about surface-level fixes, but fundamentally rethinking processes like trust accounting, maintenance coordination, and even arrears collection to build more resilient, efficient, and ultimately more human-centric property management businesses.





Breaking Free from "How It's Always Been Done"—The Inertia Problem



A recurring theme is the industry's tendency to stick with outdated processes simply because "that's the way we've always done it".



Curtis argues this isn't unique to property management but a common human trait.



He shared an anecdote about a customer acknowledging their agency hadn't changed in 20 years and was actively trying to reconfigure.



Escaping this inertia requires honestly evaluating which tasks add value versus which are just "busy work".



Curtis notes, "A lot of the time it's just, we just keep doing it this way because it's just the way we've always done it".



He stresses the importance of questioning processes: "Are you adding value to the conversation with the landlord right now?



Are you adding value to the tenancy right now? Like, is it, is this good for the customer? Is this good for the business? If not, Why are you doing that?".



Trust Accounting Reimagined—Automating Compliance and Reducing Risk



Trust accounting has always been a major compliance headache.



Thomson explains how Our Property integrates the trust account differently, automating many manual reconciliation and disbursement tasks.



This approach aims to eliminate human error and the associated risks, effectively outsourcing the compliance burden.



Untangling Maintenance—Coordination Through Automation



Maintenance is another area plagued by inefficiency. It involves numerous moving parts: capturing requests, coordinating trades, getting approvals, managing quotes, and handling keys.



Thomson highlights the potential for automation to manage these complex workflows based on predefined rules and landlord preferences.



He points out the absurdity of manual follow-ups: "Why am I having to chase the trade to bring the keys back? Can't the systems just do that for me?".

Today we're proud to release the first episode of our brand new podcast "Thought Leaders". In this episode, Samantha McLean goes in depth with Andrew McCulloch, former CEO of Ray White NSW/ACT turned business owner of Ray White Shore Group.







Andrew McCulloch is a master of real estate transformation. He's spent his career understanding what makes high-performing agencies tick—first as a top salesperson, then as a corporate leader who helped double New South Wales's market share.



Now, as the owner of Ray White Shore Group on the Gold Coast, Andrew is applying every lesson he's learned about recruitment, leadership, and technology to build his dream agency from the ground up.



In this episode, Samantha McLean talks to Andrew about what he learned from examining hundreds of real estate businesses over decades. They discuss why the most valuable approach to leadership is about relationships, not recruitment; how studying Sydney's top performers like Gavin Rubinstein show the power of high performing cultures; Andrew's belief that commission splits matter far less than providing value and support; and why he's betting on AI to transform everything from admin tasks to customer relationships.



You can check out their full conversation here:





If you want a quick summary, here are some of the themes they touch on:



Leadership is everything—pick the right leader, not just the right brand



Andrew spent years recruiting top performers like Vivian Yap and Josh Tesolin to Ray White. His secret? He never tried to recruit them at all. Instead, he built genuine relationships.



"Don't focus on them joining the business, focus on building a good relationship with them," he explains. He'd go to family dinners with Vivian, meet her in Bali on holiday, and simply care about the person first.



This philosophy extends to his advice for agents: "The number one thing that you should be considering is pick the right leader...because that's so important in your success or failure."



Don't underestimate the power of competitive culture to break performance ceilings



When Ray White introduced leaderboards through their Pulse app, Andrew watched something extraordinary happen.



Top performers like Josh Tesolin, Vivian Yap, and Gavin Rubinstein began pushing each other to new heights—from writing $3 million to eventually $10 million in commissions.



"I don't believe that any one of them would be writing those levels if it wasn't for the other," Andrew observes. He calls this the end of self-limiting beliefs:



"Until people have seen that it can be done, they can't do it."



Value trumps cost every time—whether it's franchise fees or commission splits



Having worked under different models throughout his career, Andrew learned a painful lesson early on. At 20, he left Ray White's 60% split for an independent offering 90% with no franchise fee—and made less money than ever before.



"I didn't have all of the bells and whistles and all the stuff that I thought I didn't need," he recalls. His advice? "Stop looking at costs. The cost is irrelevant. Look at value."



He now pays substantial franchise fees but gets his money's worth, knowing that support systems enable agents to focus on what matters: building relationships and making sales.



Customer service doesn't end at settlement—and that's where the opportunity lies



Seventy percent of property sellers don't return to their original agent—a ...