Introduction and the orange tie

Welcome to Give It A Nudge. Today’s a great episode. A friend of mine coming on the show, Damien, who some of you may recognise, and his business. We’re going to talk about a little bit about his past but more about where he’s at now, what his business does now, how it works now, and maybe what might be coming in the future.

Thanks Steve, thanks for having me. My pleasure. And you’re probably the best dressed guest considering, well, I even think the private equity guys that came on didn’t have a tie on, so you’re definitely the best dressed guest we’ve had on.

In the real estate industry I think a lot of agents are getting a lot more funky with the way that they dress. For me, my orange tie is my brand. I put a huge emphasis on marketing, the way I look, the way I dress, how I feel, and the orange tie has become synonymous with our business as auctioneers. They may not necessarily know my name but they might say, “Oh you’re the guy with the orange tie.”

20 years and 75,000 auctions

I’ve been in real estate as an auctioneer for 20 years. We’ve done over 75,000 auctions. My first year in auctioneering I did 392 auctions. Auctions happen typically on Saturdays, Wednesdays, and maybe the odd night, so auctions every day of the week.

My best year as an auctioneer I did 2,364 auctions. And incidentally that same year I did an Ironman, marathons. I was probably the fittest I have ever been and I did the most amount of auctions I’ve ever done in a 12-month period. That’s incredible but I charged less than what I do now so the model has changed a little bit. I still want to do the volume but charge more.

Getting fired and starting Cooley

The catalyst for me opening my own business is that I actually got sacked from McGrath. Often people say I fell into this or fell into that. I literally did fall in. I was more kicked into it. I made mistakes in my early years and those mistakes turned into opportunities and I guess it was the way that I handled that situation that has enabled me to be where I am today.

It gave me the courage to go out and start my own business. A lot of people think that it’s a scary thing. To me it wasn’t very scary at the time because there was no other option. I didn’t have a lot of money. I rented a little apartment in Maroubra with a couple of mates and I started with a laptop, made phone calls, cut cuttings out of newspapers, wrote people handwritten notes, made appointments, met people. It’s all about prospecting really hard.

How the specialist auctioneer model works

We don’t generally speak to the person who’s selling their home. Our main client base is our real estate agents. The agents are the ones that refer us to the owner. Some of those agents have their own in-house group of auctioneers that they only refer to. Some of them give owners choice.

There’s a huge advantage to have a third party doing the auction. They’re a specialist in what they do. The agent is a specialist in what they do. The agent’s time is often taken up by working the floor, talking to purchasers who have registered, during the auction encouraging them to bid, talking to the owner. The auctioneer is the orchestrator, maintaining the momentum and energy of the room.

For us we are specialists at what we do, we only do auctions. I prefer not to know the buyer because I don’t have any preconceived ideas on value. I come as a third-party professional who can give them advice based on the situation that’s in front of me rather than having any vested interest.