Do You Need a Gap Year?

Do You Need A Gap Year?

What if it was possible to take a year off the tools but still have your highest performing results ever? Georgi Bates discusses the benefits of a gap year, how she managed it with her team and its impact on her GCI.

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Michael Buckland:

Thank you. Now we are talking about a gap year and what led Georgie into deciding to do that and, you know, some systems and processes in place for that to be successful. And during that gap year had one of the most successful years on record.

You've had an incredible career, 20 plus years in real estate, raised an amazing family, and you do enjoy your holidays. But before we go into that, did you want to give us a bit of a rundown on who you are and what your why is?

Georgi Bates:

Sure, so I'm a partner in the business at Cunningham's Real Estate. I've been there for probably just over 20 years, 22 years or so. Been a partner for 10 years. I'm a wife and mother of three children, aged 8, 10 and 12. The why for me is a lot to do with, I mean, that last quote was, that pretty much summed it up. It's the moment.

So over years, we all have something that goes on in life. And at an early stage, we lost a child quite early on in our first pregnancy post after she was born. I've then gone through IVF. I've had certain things through life of losing people, et cetera. And for me, what's really important is the quality time that I have with my family and the experiences.

So that could be the experience of just going and, I don't know, it could be a theatre. It could be a staycation in the city. But yes, I absolutely love holidays. And if I'm not doing that, it's really how am I making my community a better place to live in? So I'm pretty highly invested in that too.

Michael Buckland:

Yeah, excellent. And I suppose we've been talking the last couple of weeks around a gap year. And when I think of a gap year, I think of that time between finishing school and deciding on what you're going to do at a younger age. And I find it really interesting because it's something that I don't, you know, I even think of around, you know, you're so successful in your career. Can you have a gap year in a 20-year component of particularly real estate? What led you to the decision to actually have a gap year? And it was a 12-month gap year.

Georgi Bates:

Yeah, it was 14 months. We went away during the lockdown and ended up spending some time at the snow there, which was not planned, but we got stuck there. And that was, in hindsight, turned out to be a pretty amazing thing to be stuck in, a place to be stuck in.

Whilst there, the second day we were there, I had a seizure. And I split my head, I ended up with stitches. I nearly lost my eye. I, again, it was just another one of these things that you realise life is short.

And I planned with my husband, we had such a great time there, but we were talking about, well, what more can we do as a family together and have that quality time? From there, the plan was that we were going to go and do a trip around South America for six months or so, but we couldn't get out of the country to do that. So we then planned to get a caravan and embark on a trip around Australia.

Michael Buckland:

Yeah, excellent. I find that fascinating because you were still running your business, successful, over a year, and one of the highest writing years that you had. What systems and sort of processes did you put in place that allowed you to actually go and have that time away from actually being in the area that you serve?

Georgi Bates:

Yeah, good question. John Cunningham and the partners at Cunningham were instrumental in this. And John was always, when I sort of talked about it, it was like, how are we going to make it happen? Let's make it happen. He completely backed it.

It hadn't been done before. So I guess the partners probably may not have been too sure about how it was going to happen or how to make it work. But we ended up, so any listings that I had, I still wanted my name out there.

I was still actively doing letterbox drops and things when my team were coordinating that for me. And then I would have my face out there and everything, but I would have Chris's phone number. So Chris essentially had only been with me for, I think, a year or two. He got completely thrown into the deep end. And he just elevated him.

He's probably one of our, he's getting very close to being, you know, our top agent, one of the top agents in Cunninghams. So there were little things like that, that we had to think, okay, how can we still keep me there, but away?

Yeah. Is it Starlink? Yeah, yeah. So I didn't want to be on the phones and on the internet and so forth so much, but naturally I can't. It's just like when I go to Europe or go on holiday or anywhere, I can't help but look at real estate. I'm sure there's more of you out there that are like that.

I did from time to time come back. So I came back for Rise. There were certain conferences or I probably came back four times within the trip. And then just put my face out there. So the local school that I support had their 100th year celebration. I made sure I was back for that. And just, so a lot of people didn't know that I was actually away.

I was probably more paranoid about it myself and worried about what the competitors, you know, everyone sort of hijacking that and making the most of it. But John, you know, pointed out, he said, look, think about how often do you sell one of your client's houses? How often does that, you know, come around? And he's right, it doesn't all happen in that one year.

Michael Buckland:

Yeah. And you've got an incredible name in the area. So people do generally come to you. So, you know, you were still having those conversations, but you might've been down in Adelaide, but you had Chris there sort of doing the day-to-day, which I find is absolutely, you know, incredible. How important is that team during that period? Like they've got to be on everything.

Georgi Bates:

Oh, crucial. And they really wanted me to go. Like they wanted me to have that break. Lossie, who was with me, she's been with me for 13 years. She's in another, she's down at our Newport office now or Avalon. Yeah, they just did anything to make it work.

They wanted me to just go and have that quality time. She's seen how hard I've worked over all those years. And I was kind of getting to a point of a bit of burnout. I was exhausted. I sort of went through a stage where I wasn't loving it as much, or I wasn't as confident as much, or my listings may have gone off the boil a little bit.

It was just time to have a break. And in hindsight, really what happened, I came back and then I ended up having like my biggest quarter ever when I got back. My energy levels were through the roof.

I still love what I do. I mean, I love it. You can't get me away from a negotiation. Like that's my key, even though I'm a partner in the business, fundamentally, that's where my love is. Yeah, excellent. That's what I'm better at doing.

Yeah. So for people that are out there that had their concerns about it, you can see that it's absolutely, you can do it. You've got to do it or you've got to help your team do it.

And it's not necessarily, you know, my kids, I could go and book a motel on the side of the road, on the way to the snow, that's got crappy, you know, steel bunk beds or something. And they get just as excited as staying in a flash somewhere.

If you work out what your why is, and that might be doing, you know, the bike ride in Thailand, or doing something, some community initiative, or something bigger out there in the big wide world. It's just, how can we make it happen?

And I think when you've got that support from the greater partnership, and we've got an incredible, I mean, everyone at Cunningham's — the culture there, we've got an incredible business aligned with that.

You see people that are going through divorce, we've had staff that have gone through, you know, suicide didn't happen. But you know, whether it's divorce, or personal things that are going on with their children of different stages of age and life, and I've still got that to come, right? My kids are still going to hit the teenage years.

But I want to at least have built that relationship and time with them. That, you know, I'm probably going to have to need, do more time at home as they're hitting those ages, I think, than I needed to do when they were younger. And I've been fortunate to see, you know, I was so late having children.

But a lot of my girlfriends and I see in my community that have all got kids now that have finished school and on to university. So I get to learn through all of them. And yeah, I think it's paramount as much as I can be present and doing the after-school sports and Monday's basketball, Wednesday's the girls got swimming, but not overstacking it at the same time.

Because I think it's so easy to get on to the whole, you know, every, I don't know, kids having to keep up with the Joneses and what sports everybody is doing and what extra tuition and this, that and the other. It's for us as a family, we've worked out what is going to work for us so that we're not just in the car racing kids around the whole time. We're at home being bored and just having time together.

And I think that's the best time to switch off altogether. It's good to make kids bored to be at home. Let them use it. I mean, my girls just want to be at home doing Lego and using their imaginations — are incredible. When you just sit back and watch what they're doing rather than being at every other sport and running around. And otherwise, it's the conversations in the car taking them to the sports.

Michael Buckland:

So exactly like Hale said this earlier this morning, 15 minutes is her time with her children in that car, which is, you know, incredible.

So now if you were to do it again, obviously you definitely recommend it. We were talking yesterday, there were some speakers around that, you know, the kids that age between 8 and 12 or 13, I think it was, that's that key point. So you've got a few children in that age bracket, which is fantastic to be with them.

What did you... How did you deal... You know, you mentioned earlier around the people that sort of had their hesitations, not just in the business, but the community. How did you deal with that component? Like were there competitors that sort of said, well, she's not even here. So how would you sell your house? That sort of thing.

Georgi Bates:

Oh, look, they would have done that for sure. Look, I just had honest conversations with my clients. I just said, I'm not going to be there. Chris is incredible. Sometimes we lost listings through it. Also the other partners, whoever was relevant would be able to step in and go to the appraisal with Chris because he was still kind of at a bit more of a learning stage.

Yeah, I think you just had to have honest frank conversations. Some of them said, I'll come back for the auction. I'll be there. And I did.

Michael Buckland:

Excellent.

Georgi Bates:

But yeah, not many. We still had a really incredible year.

Michael Buckland:

Yeah, incredible. And would you do it again? When's the next one?

Georgi Bates:

Well, if I wasn't coming to this today. My husband's in, he should be arriving anytime now in Namibia. And I was so tempted to go this weekend.

Michael Buckland:

After this? Yeah. Yeah, excellent.

Georgi Bates:

And just go. But we're going to do a road trip instead. And we're just going to get in the car on Monday. I haven't booked anything. I'm going to wing it and just head up the coastline. And yeah.

Michael Buckland:

Awesome.

Georgi Bates:

Meet friends along the way. And yeah.

Michael Buckland:

So good. Well, we are on time. Some incredible things there. Just shows that gap years can work if you've got the right systems, procedures in place. So thanks so much for joining us today, Georgie.

Georgi Bates:

Yeah. Thank you.