From Surviving to Thriving: Redefining Property Management

Watch this powerful online session with industry leader, Sarah Cincotta, and discover how to shift from simply surviving the demands of property management to truly thriving.

The property management landscape is constantly evolving, and so must we. This online session is designed to help property management professionals shift from reactive firefighting to strategic, thriving operations. We’ll uncover the habits, systems, and conversations that build stronger relationships, reduce stress, and increase revenue.

Walk away with a 30-day action plan, and practical tools you can implement immediately to lift your results and transform the way you work and live.

Sarah Cincotta is the founder of RISE With Sarah Cincotta, a specialised mentoring and training business dedicated to supporting Property professionals in the property management industry across Australia and New Zealand.

With a background as an award-winning Business Development Manager and now award-winning Mentor, Sarah brings deep industry insight, strategic clarity, and an authentic, people-first approach to every session she leads. Her career spans across property management, business development, and training, with a proven track record in helping teams grow rent rolls, strengthen client relationships, and create memorable service experiences.

Known for her energetic and honest delivery, Sarah is committed to elevating the standard of business development in real estate by equipping professionals with the skills, confidence, and mindset to thrive.

What You’ll Gain:

✅ Discover the habits, systems, and conversations that build stronger relationships.

✅ Reduce stress while increasing revenue and client connection.

✅ Implement a 30-day action plan to lift results and transform the way you work and live.

This isn’t just another webinar—it’s a practical, empowering experience designed to help you and your team thrive in an ever-changing property management landscape.

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Sarah:

Welcome, everybody. If you're joining us, thank you so much for joining us for our last Wellness Webinar for the year.

Kylie:

My name is Kylie, and I head up the Rise Initiative, the mental health charity for the real estate sector, and we are very excited and grateful to have the fabulous Sarah Cincotta from RISE with Sarah Cincotta as our last webinar for the year.

Now, just to kick off, RISE understands the importance of having a roof over your head and belonging to community as part of good mental health.

So, we welcome… I'm coming to you from Wangoland in part of the Eora Nation in Sydney, along the beautiful Parramatta River in Sydney and the Rise Initiative acknowledges elders past, present, and emerging, and the traditional owners of the land, and we extend our welcome to any, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders who might be joining us here today.

Now, we're very grateful to have Sarah on our… on… hosting our webinar at this special time of 10.30 in the morning and Sarah is an award-winning BDM trainer, across, and has won awards across Australia and New Zealand and she is the founder of RISE with Sarah Cincotta, and she has been a very generous and supportive Rise Influencer and ambassador for the Rise Initiative and the Real Care app. So, thank you so much for joining us here today, Sarah.

Sarah:

Oh, thank you, Kylie, what an introduction. Thank you so much. It's really, really important, I think, for everyone.

We just wanted to start off by talking about, you know, the Rise Initiative and, you know, how great it is. So, if you haven't already, or you don't already know, there is a wonderful app, the new Real Care app, so I really encourage you to download it and actually start doing some things if you are having a break, or even if you don't have a break coming up, I'm going to be talking about a couple of things that you can do, to help you. So, awesome to see that you've downloaded it. It's so great that we look after ourselves, and part of, like, our growth plan should be that we nurture ourselves first before we can nurture other people. So, that's the… just a reminder, download the app. It is so great. I use it myself in my daily practices, which I'm going to share a bit later on.

So, kicking into it, team. Has your year felt like this? My ear has totally felt like that.

Kylie:

What's it, Sarah? Is he on a, like, is he on a… is he on a glider?

Sarah:

He's on a zipliner! He's on a zipliner 3.

Kylie:

For the trains.

Sarah:

Yeah, but I just thought I would start with that team, so let me know in the chat, has your year felt like you've been up and down, you know, the highs and lows, the happiness, and then perhaps the sadness?

And I think it's a great reminder that… of the duality of life. So, duality of life meaning that we can have highs and lows at the same time, and it's a spiral effect also to know that

When we are down, there's always the opportunity to come back up again. So, yeah, might not be as extreme, Joseph, but, you know, we can have our days or our years. So, what I would love for you all to do right now is I would love for you all to just write down an intention.

And I want you to drop your intention of 2026. What are you bringing into 2026? What is the energy that you're wanting to bring? What is the mindset that you're wanting to bring with you? How do you want your year to look? And if you feel called enough, I would love for you all to share it in the chat so we could see all of the beautiful intentions that you would love to bring in 2026.

Tasma, you've said work-life balance. Amazing. I call it, “Work and Life Integration”.

Would love to hear from other people, like, what's your intention for 2026? How do you want your 2026 to feel?

My 2025 intention was evolution. This filtered through with many different parts of my life. It was the evolution of becoming a mum, the evolution of my business expansion, and the evolution of my contribution in property management, as well as evolving my friendships and relationships with my family, friends, clients, and colleagues. So, just think of a word or a feeling.

Catherine, you've said balance and structure, beautiful. Kylie, Joy, I love that. Kayleen, my intention is to change parts of my life that I'm not happy with. My happiness needs to start with me. Beautiful, thank you for sharing that. Angela Evolution is a great one. Yeah, feel free to use that for 2026.

My intention for 2026 is expansion. So, I wanted to evolve first, before I then lead into next year with expansion. So, please, everyone, write that down, and I encourage you to put it somewhere that you can see daily to remind yourself next year how you want it to feel, how you want it to look, and let that be your anchor for how you show up every single day.

Okay, so why are we doing this? Why do we want to go into thriving, not surviving? We want to have stronger relationships, we want to feel more fulfilled, and we want investors to actually value our service over price, because we are facing some really significant challenges in our profession on a daily basis.

We've got decreasing rent rolls, we've got more owners selling their properties. However, we've also got more mortgages and loans with an increase to investors, which is interesting to see across Australia. That statistics are from Piper. If you aren't all registered, they do send out regular newsletters, that just share some statistics on what's actually happening with investors across Australia. We are seeing a lot of higher expectations from our clients, like, give me a yes, yes, if you're feeling these. We've got pressure to maintain our numbers and profitability.

We have… staff morale can be low, and we are experiencing turnover or burnout. So, one of the things that I was actually quite shockingly seeing, the stats that, on average, we're seeing property managers stay at a place, you know, no longer than 12 months until they're moving on or leaving the industry, which goes to show that we need a big shift. Joseph, unfortunately, I'm not going to be sharing the slides, and it is IP, however, you know where to find me, Joseph.

But from this team, I thought, like, you know, let's have some fun. So… Has this been a scenario that you've had? You've had a text message from a landlord saying, why have you responded to my email yet, and it's been 10:35 at night? And we might be thinking, I don't get paid enough for this shit, I should start a 24-hour personal assistant fee, oh, what have I forgotten to do? Maybe I should reply at 4 a.m. just for funsie. I thought that would be a really good one, but it's really important to have some boundaries. So, the other thing I wanted to share is that I had a property manager tell me that she had a landlord who expected her to respond to emails within 5 minutes. Day or night, didn't matter.

One time, he actually sent a request at 10:30 at night. And at 22:35, he was texting her saying, “Where's the response? Why haven't you responded yet?”. So, I wanted to share this because clients today don't just expect good service, but they actually expect instant service, right? 

Tenants want repairs done yesterday. Landlords want constant market updates, and everyone thinks that their property is just top notch, right, or top priority. And with the rise of, like, social media, we've got dopamine spikes all the time, we are in a… very much of a society that we are very distracted.

One unhappy client can damage our agency reputation fast and also put ourselves in a very reactive state, okay? We're working in a profession where good enough isn't just enough anymore. So how do we look at, well, how can we flip this with setting some boundaries, making sure that we are in a proactive state, and making sure that we are nurturing our clients so that we are providing great service.

So, typically what I have seen in property management, it's 3 o'clock, and we're reaching for that 3pm coffee, right? Where, you know, had a busy day, we've exhausted, our energy has been, you know, gone to the clients, tenants, landlords, we've got our tradies, we've got our team, our leaders, and it's 3 o'clock, and we're like, oh my gosh, I just need a coffee. I've been there. I've done that. However, you could be thinking you're just exhausted, like, who has time for lunch? Perhaps you don't want to talk before you have a coffee.

So, we really want to explore, okay, how can we fix this, right? Like, how can we fix this so that we have more sustainable energy throughout the day, so that we're not relying on that 3 o'clock coffee? And no offense to anyone that wants to have a coffee or a Kit Kat, but what happens is, when we have a spike of, like, caffeine or sugar, we then can come to a plateau, right? Because we get that spike from that coffee, or that chocolate, or that sugar, and our body responds to that, but then an hour, two hours later, our body actually is depleted because of that spike that we have had in that time. So, I actually don't drink coffee anymore, I don't drink alcohol anymore, and this was because I really had to listen to my body, right? Like, we always have to put ourselves first. What I found, and I'm always a bubbly, energetic person, is when I was having that coffee, my adrenaline was peaking, and then I started to get anxiety because of the downfall from not having that coffee.

My reasons for not having alcohol is because I always want to be a very conscious person when I'm having conversations with people, and also it's just to look at my values, and my values is health, so it didn't make sense for me to have alcohol anymore.

So, let's talk about, at the moment, though, we've got tenants and landlords, increasingly vocal about their frustrations, right? If you haven't already seen who this is, this is Purple Pingers, Jordan, his name is, and he has a whole platform where he shares about, you know, pretty much the shitty things that landlords and agents do.

We're also seeing a lot more media or PR, talking about all of the bad things that can happen, and we're seeing more tenants and landlords flock to their Facebook groups and looking for either advice or complaints, and we're seeing more people leave, unfortunately, negative reviews based on their experience. So, knowing that we have more tenants and landlords that are being vocal, well, we need to be able to control this, right? And we also need to look at how to protect our energy in case something like this happens.

So, the surviving stats team, alright? So, we've got 53% of property managers report experiencing mental health challenges, right? And this is a huge statistic, right? 1 in 3 property managers feel far too busy highlighting the demand in their roles. And then we've got over a quarter of property managers who are expected to leave the industry within the next 5 years. Now, I don't know about you all, but when I look at these stats, I know that something needs to change but not just something needs to change, we need to have a really big look at ourselves.

Now, I was one of the 53% who survived burnout as a property manager. 8 years ago, I was extremely passionate. I loved being a property manager. I did not have clear boundaries, though. I did not know what my values were. I was extremely stressed. I was drinking amounts of coffee, was, you know, having my wine in the PM and unfortunately, based on the increased level of stress that my body was experiencing. With also being on the contraceptive pill for too long, I had high levels of estrogen in my body. I actually had a benign tumor, which was 8x6cm large, which you can see there, which resulted in me having 50% of my liver removed.

Now… When this happened, it was my… my reality check team, right? No one causes us to be stressed. Stress is actually something that we cause ourselves. So, at that pivotal moment, I had to really look at how I wanted to live my life, right? How I wanted to show up every single day, what my values were, what challenges were… was I facing in my life.

And I really had to take a hard look and make a decision how I wanted to be in the future as a property manager. Now, I actually stayed in the industry for another 5 years after that, but I did step into the business development manager role, which I, you know, was very busy still, but I had control. I had control of my time, I had control of how I was nurturing my body. I had control of how I showed up, and I had control of some practices that I'm going to share with you later that really turned my mindset and my energy around when it came to my role in property management. So what I would love for you to do is write down

What is your biggest challenge right now? What are some challenges that you're facing, or what is the challenge that you have faced in 2025? And please, also, I encourage you, if you feel called to it, would love for you to share it in the chat on what's your biggest challenge right now, or a challenge that you have faced in 2025 and I'm reading the comments, guys, and I love some positive changes that some of you have made in your life and in your role.

Tasma, constant changes to legislation, yeah, can be a challenge. We… I'm personally from Victoria, and we had not only the pandemic, and then we had, like, all of the new reforms come in, so I can feel you, and it… trust me, you'll get through it. And we've also, Victoria, got new legislation changes that have come through again, so I definitely feel you there but it's only a bit of a time that we need to adjust. Joseph, thank you for sharing the volume of work resulting from these changes, yeah, for sure. Kayleen, been in the industry for 24 years, started young, allowed to be pushed to my limit, hit burnout about 10 years ago, had to take 4 years out of the industry. I've been in burnout ever since. I've learned to compartmentalize the stresses and set my boundaries for my clients. Amazing. I'm so sorry that you had to experience that, Kayleen, and I'm glad that you're here today, and hopefully we can get you into some bit more flow state. Cherie, owner's expectations, yeah, legislation changes, tenants, claiming bonds before the vacay day. Okay, cool. So, it's really great to see some challenges that you're all experiencing. Now, I would love for you to just explore despite your role in property management, what are some challenges that you personally are facing, whether it is at home. Whether it is… is the juggle that some of you have said, whether it is that, you know, you're a parent, whether it is nurturing those relationships or the expectations of other people, would love to know some, you know, more of some life challenges. Kayleen, the struggles this year as landlords are constantly fighting with you with legislation changes, tenants pushing back with what they know, yeah.

Thanks for sharing, Sarah. Kayleen gives people incentives. Yeah, sure, yeah, for sure. We definitely want to take control. So, I think a thing here is there are things that are in our control team, and there are things that are not in our control. So, when we look at, as a society, and I know that we've said, like, landlords' expectations have changed, or tenant expectations have changed. But in fact, if we remove the titles of a landlord or a tenant what's actually happened is, as a society, we have changed.

Humans have changed, our human behaviors have changed. Now, whether that… this is because we have accessibility so much at our fingertips, right? We've got, you know, the models like Uber, where you can literally see when your fruit is coming, what time it's going to be coming? Communicating with someone in real life, these things aren't going away, right? In fact, we're probably going to see them coming forward. When we're looking at the changes that we are facing, we need to go, “Okay, is this in our control? Have we communicated to our clients on those boundaries, what they can expect from us, when they're going to be communicated with?”

Like, what is your communication style? Is it that you've got a guarantee within 24 hours that you will get back to them? Have you clearly outlined your hours of work with your clients? And if not, I think it's really good to have some systems and processes and procedures in place, right?

Kayleen: “I want to be more motivated when I'm not at work.” I love that one! I love that one. And I really encourage you all to do a Wheel of Life assessment. It's really great to see, like, what areas, and you can just Google it, what areas you're exerting your energy in. You'll find that most of our business is consumed with, like, our energy, and not so much in some of the other areas in our life and by doing that assessment, you can see then, okay, well, outside of work, what do we love to do? What are our hobbies? What are our recreation? Yeah?

Sherry, not enough hours in the day, constantly rushing, owners contacting me after hours, feeling like I'm not getting enough time with my family. Great. Definitely need to put some boundaries in place there, Sherry. I'm so mentally exhausted by the time I get home. Yeah, it's a lot, alright? I get it, team. Being in property management, our energy is, you know, outwards so much that we need to focus on inwards and how can we nurture ourselves, because part of our role is to help people, so that's not going to be removed, but it's just protecting our energy whilst we go.

So, I find I've seen a common mindset, and it's, we just need to get through the day, versus, you know, looking at our days going, I had the best day. And that's what I want from all of you, is not just to feel like, it's another day, we've got clients, these are their expectations, I had a challenging tenant or a challenging expectation. I would love for us to move into a place where you had the best day, and you moved through those challenges and you were able to really assist someone through the challenges that they were facing. Because mindset matters here, team, alright? So let's look at a strong mindset first. I'm not going to say a growth mindset, I'm going to say a strong mindset is we embrace new technologies and we adapt to stay ahead.

We are leveraging emotional intelligence, so your EQ, and we're building trust and those lasting relationships with our clients. We set… we see setbacks as opportunities to learn, grow, and refine our skills. We go the extra mile to deliver exceptional service and results. We treat feedback as a tool for continuous improvement and leadership growth, and we commit to our ongoing learning, development, and mastery of our craft and I think when we look at these are all opportunities that we all have. We all have the same opportunities. We all have the same ability to tap into this strong mindset. Whereas, if we are running from a place of vulnerability or a vulnerable mindset, we can resist the new technologies, and we can reject change without any consideration. We can rely solely on knowledge and undervalue our emotional intelligence.

We can view setbacks as failure, rather than challenges to overcome. We can avoid putting in the extra effort, and going beyond their basic responsibilities. We can dismiss feedback and become defensive instead of using it to improve and we can reject opportunities for our professional and personal growth. Now, whether you are maybe some of these, or perhaps you're more in a vulnerable state right now, I want you to know that being in a strong mindset is purely your control, alright? We can control our mindset, and one of the beautiful things about our mind is that every single day, you can create new neurological pathways to break old habits.

Break old mindsets, break old behaviors, and create new habits, new behaviors, new mindset, new positive mindset, or a growth mindset, yeah? So, I want to teach you some 3 C's. The three C's that I believe are going to help you with your growth, both personally and professionally, in 2026. Now, the three C's are… the first one is connection.

Connection to self, though, right? Connection to your team, your leaders, your tenants, and your landlords, because I believe the stronger relationships that we have the increased retention we will be able to bring, right? And by having really strong connections, as well in your place of business, means that you aren't wanting to go somewhere else because you feel valued where you are because of those relationships that you have built. And I know as a property manager, I was very protective of the relationships that I had built with my clients, as well as when I was a BDM because I worked really hard on building those strong foundations, connections with my clients.

Now, the second C, team, is confidence, right? So, the confidence to know your worth. Knowing your worth, knowing the value that you bring, and being able to articulate that value with every conversation that you have, with every client that you meet, from every email that you send out, or every conversation that you have with someone. Because the more confident you are in the value that you provide, the more you're going to back yourself.

Right? The more you're going to set those boundaries and the more you're going to be able to switch off, Outside 5 p.m. or 5:30 p.m., right? Because you are confident in your ability, in the value that you bring, and in your worth, alright? So confidence is a really big piece. Now, before confidence though, team, comes courage.

Right? The courage to set those boundaries. The courage to look at yourself and ask yourself, do I value my team, the business that I work for, and myself? Right? We need to have those conversations with ourselves. The courage to have those conversations so that we can build that confidence, right?

Okay The third one is care. So, turning your satisfied clients into what I call advocates or brand ambassadors. So, literally, right now, when you are here and we are doing this webinar, who is talking about you? And the amazing things that you do, and the amazing value that you provide, right? And how well you are at connecting with your clients and how you've helped someone with their property journey, or with their new home, right? That's the EQ that comes in. Now, I know some other trainers might not agree, but I really believe in 2026, this care factor is going to be huge.

Now, why do I say that, team? With AI and our technology, now we've got some really great service providers that are helping give you back more time, like Tarpie and Inspection Express that helps you to your day-to-day, people are actually craving more human connection.

Right? And I want you to let me know in the chat, are you craving more human connection? Drop me a yes or no in the chat. Are you craving more human connection? With your clients, with your team, with your partner, with your children? Right? When you go to the shopping center, and you're buying something, when you're at the grocery store, right?

You are… you're all giving me yeses, yeah? Because, as human beings. We are built to connect. We have basic, foundational needs. We want to be seen, heard, and understood. So when we look at those needs that we have as humans. Our clients want the same thing. They want to be seen, they want to be heard, they want to be understood, and that's when that care factor comes into place. Rochelle, with family and friends only.

I know, but your team is also going to be wanting to connect with you, Rochelle, and your clients are going to want more connection with you. So, I truly believe, with where we're heading in our profession, if we can turn that care and really elevate that next year, you're going to really turn people into those brand ambassadors, right? Because we want more referrals, we want more business, yeah? But we also need to maintain that care for ourselves. So, the path to thriving to, to do a 30-day action plan, alright? Now, this is a challenge for you. Your 30-day action plan… is actually looking at your mindset. And we're gonna establish some attitudes that you can hold, right? And we're going to be exploring for you to have a positive mindset, because I know that by having that strong mindset, or positive mindset, it's going to improve your job performance.

It's going to enhance your creativity, it's going to boost overall how you feel about your role and about yourself, right? So if you all want that for next year, if you want to be thriving, drop me a rise in the chat. If you want to be thriving in 2026, drop me a rise in the chat.

Told you guys today was gonna be interactive. I wanna keep you engaged and interact.

X-Rise, I love that! Extra Rise, Angela!

Awesome team. Okay, so, the first thing is, it starts with you, alright? It all starts with you, the success that you're going to have, not just over the next 30 days, but in 2026, alright? So let's look at some foundations. The first one is mindfulness.

Now, this is where I really think that the Real Care app can help. There is a section on the Real Care app, and it is called Rapid Relief. So, I did have it open earlier. I'll just get back into my app. So, what Rapid Relief does is it's actually got exercises that you can do that helps you just either control… oh, I don't know if you guys can see it, you can control your breathing, manage emotions, have a bit of a reality check, and release tension. So what I would be encouraging you all to do is, every single day, have time.

Now, whether this is 5, 10 minutes a day in dropping in and doing this practice, okay? Now, it's going to help you stay present, it's going to help you stay conscious, and it's going to help you stay calm. Okay? Now, I believe that when we are in this state of mindfulness. We aren't reactive, we are nurturing our nervous system, okay? And we are reducing stress and when you have that mindfulness, and you are calm, and you are conscious, this then plays out to how your day will be. How you respond to that email, how you respond to that call, how you respond to your partner, how you respond to your children.

So, the first challenge is, for the next 30 days, 5 to 10 minutes a day, you go on the Real Care app and you do one of the four exercises that they have. Now, team, I do this for 20 minutes a day, except I do medication or breathwork. And I do a guided meditation or a guided breathwork. 

Now, this isn't some woo-woo stuff, team. Our bodies are not built to be on the go all the time. Okay? You have so many thoughts that go through, and right now, in this webinar, there'll be different thoughts that will be coming through right now. Our mind is literally on the go. We need to still our mind and create space, solitude. Okay? So that we are nurturing our mind, body, and what I call soul at the same time. I love it, Sherry, that you're accepting the challenge. Beautiful. So, the next 30 days, 5 to 10 minutes. Every day, go on the Real Care app and do one of the four. That's the first one, okay? The second one, that was a game changer for me when I was recovering from my big surgery that I had.

I landed a book, and it was called The Resilient Project. If anyone has read it, let me know in the chat. The Resilience Project is a fantastic book. Joseph, love that you've read it. This was a game changer with practicing gratitude.

When we are in a place of gratitude, your focus shifts from the negatives to the positives; To the wants, to the already have because this is the reality, team. There is someone out there who would love to have a role like yours, where they get to help people every single day. There is someone out there who would love to be able to have a coffee at 3pm. There is someone out there that would love to have a family. There is somewhere out there that would love to have ducted heating. And that's just a reality check.

So, are you guys ready for the gratitude practice? Okay? So the gratitude practice is, you get a journal; a journal that looks nice to you. Now, keeping on brand, my color is orange, this is my… what my journal looks like at the moment. I have all my journals, I keep them, because at the end of every year, I actually go back and flick through and read through my journal. So get a journal that feels good to you, you can get some nice ones, something that makes you feel good when you pick it up, yeah?

And then with your gratitude, there are a few steps here. So, to express gratitude, the first one I want you to write is what were you grateful for today? Was it a person, place, or a thing? So what are you grateful for today? The next one is, why are you grateful for that person, place, or thing? Was it because your mum called you unexpectedly, and she just was so loving to you on the phone? Was it that you met with a client, and you just had a really great connection, and they said really nice things about you. Whatever it is. But why are you grateful for that person, place, or thing? It could literally be that you are grateful for a pen, because it allows you the ability to write down your notes while you're having a conversation with someone. Over time, you will get really great at being grateful for just the smallest things, right? It could be you're grateful for your water bottle because it allows you to stay hydrated throughout the day.

And this is just… I know how to do this because I've done it so many times, right? But it could be the smallest thing, or the biggest thing. So, who are you grateful for? Person, place, or thing? Why are you grateful for that person, place, and thing, or what happened, or that conversation?

The next one is TAME. How did it make you feel? Right? How did it make you feel? So drop into that feeling, it could be loved, it could be valued, it could be appreciative, yeah? And then once you've identified how that has made you feel, the next part of that is if more people felt loved or valued every single day, how would that make the world a better place? And that's your gratitude practice.

Every day, before you go to bed, brain dump. Okay?

Joseph, I use the 5-Minute Journal app every morning, have a chance you'll mention… get it mentioned tomorrow morning. No? Awesome. It's great. Let us know what the app is called, Joseph. So, I love apps, but what I try to do at night, I don't like using screens, that's why I journal. The other reason why I like to put pen to paper is neurologically, it rewires our brain when we're actually writing, because it's like we're reading it at the same time. So it's really a powerful thing when we can't put pen to paper. And if you are a very digitally-based office, and you perhaps don't write, I just love writing personally now. It just makes me feel good, and then I can reflect.

If you want to use ChatGPT Team as well, you can use ChatGPT. It's got the voice function, and you can literally create your journal logs of gratitude through your ChatGPT. The beautiful thing about doing that is, at the end of the 12 months, ChatGPT will be able to give you a bit of a snapshot of your 12 months, what you wrote about, what your highs were, what your lows were, what your lessons were, the challenges, all of those things. So are you guys up for that? So, apart from the morning 5-10 minutes, at night, again, 5-10 minutes that you do your gratitude, okay? So that you're expressing gratitude, and that we're shifting focus to things that we are already grateful for.

The next one is awareness. So, every Friday, team, I would love for you to block out maybe 20 minutes, 20 minutes on a Friday and mine is called the Rise Factor Fridays. You can call it whatever you would like. It could be your name factor, so it could be Joseph Factor, Sherry Factor, Tasma Factor but something that's gonna make you feel good. And during these 20 minutes, I just want you to reflect on the week.

So what were your wins? What were the challenges? What were the lessons from those challenges? It could be that, okay, you responded to a client at 6pm at night. The lesson from that is you need to set your boundaries, turn your phone off, have an automated message that goes out, right? Have your auto-reply emails on, okay? That could be it, but it's just to give you a chance to be more self-aware of what's happened during the week, so that you don't carry those challenges, or the things that didn't work that week, into the next week, and then the next week, and then the next week, right? Because we need to ask ourselves those questions. What worked? What didn't work? What are the challenges? And what were the lessons from that? Okay? So, again, that's just every Friday, 20 minutes.

The rise factor is what I call it, you can call it whatever you like, but it's just to give your chance… give yourself some time and a chance to reflect on the week that was, so that we're not carrying that into the next week, and to your weekends, where you want to spend time with your family, and your friends, or your children, or your pets, whatever it is, yeah?

Now, the last one is… I would love for you to set a goal.

Alright, and I would love for you to think about your goal over the next 30 days and I don't want your goal to be surviving December. I want your goal to be intentional and purposeful on what you want to achieve because when we set goals, it gives us a sense of accomplishment when we reach it, right? Too many times, we just go, day to day, we're on the hamster wheel, and we're like, what are we working towards, team? Right?

What are your goals for 2026? Start thinking about that and get clear on that. Now, a really easy way then, once you have established a goal over the next 30 days or if you want to set a big goal for 2026 is by using the smart method technique, right?

Now, the biggest… You know, entrepreneurs, coaches and clients use the SMART method. Now, what this is, is that you set a specific goal, so what is it specifically that you want to achieve? How are you going to measure it? So, M stands for measurable. Is it achievable? What are the things that you need to do to achieve your goal? Right? That's what the A is, achievable. And then T is timely. When do… sorry, R, sorry, is relevant. So, how… by you reaching your goal, how is that going to help you, and then how is it going to help the business? or your life. And then T is timely. When do you want to achieve that goal? Right? This is holding yourself accountable, team by setting this SMART Goal because you're being specific on what you want to achieve, you've put down how you're going to measure it, whether it's daily, weekly, or monthly. Right? How is it going to be helping you in your life or your career? And then when do you want to achieve that goal?

So that is the smart method. Alright, team, can you commit to those 4 things over the next 30 days? Drop me a yes if you are committing to dropping… to commit… sorry, drop a yes if you are committing to this 30-day challenge.

We've got 38 people online, so I would love to see 38 yeses in the chat, because this is going to help you going from surviving to thriving, not just for the end of the year, but in 2026. This is going to help you with your relationship with yourself, the relationship that you have with your clients, the relationship that you have with your team, yeah? This is going to elevate every single component in your life.

Beautiful. I love it. Awesome. And I hope, like, if you needed to take a photo of that, feel free to remember it, but I hope that you have written it down so that we're starting to be consciously aware of the things that we need to do going forward. Okay, so, how do we enhance the client experience with needs? Alright, because we've got clients expect relatability, reliability, communication, and results, right?

So the first thing is, team, under-promising them. Under-promise them and over-deliver them. Don't be setting your expectations so high that you are running all the time in trying to meet them where you potentially can't. Under-promise and over-deliver them, right? Even if you know you can get back to a client by the end of the day, allow yourself time. Say you'll get back to them by 10 a.m. tomorrow morning so that you're not rushed. So, you have set that expectation, right? Because the more you manage the expectations of your clients, you're going to have realistic outcomes, and you're going to be able to exceed them. And then that makes them feel good, they're happy, they know when they're going to be hearing from you next. Right? I see that we talk about communication so much in property management, and I know landlords and tenants are screaming at the moment for proper communication, but we need to understand what that looks like for our clients and set those boundaries when, with our processes, procedures, and systems we have around communication so that they're happy, they know how… that you're going to fulfill their needs, and we have the ability to exceed the expectations for our clients.

But we're not under-promising and exceeding, we're actually just over-delivering, based on our capacity and knowing what we can do. I think the other one is, team, is personalisation. So, really understanding and catering to the individual client so that you can build stronger relationships.

Now, I'm not saying to message clients at 5 p.m. or 5:30 at night, but we need to understand that on the other side of a landlord or a tenant, they are people, and they're also working, they also have families, so if it's at, you know, during lunchtime, typically that would be your lunch. Is it that you are having lunch, and you're having to make calls, and then you're having a proper break later? That's what I had to do.

Some of you might not agree with it. However, I knew that I would rather make calls during the day than have to get back to people at 5.30 or 6 o'clock at night. Right? So if that meant I was having lunch and making calls and then I would go and have my 3 o'clock break in the afternoon, so that I was still able to switch off and have that time during the day. Mind you, team, it is so important that, you know, your 6 to 9, or your 5 to 9 p.m. is your nurturing time. Is that time that you are doing those practices that's going to help you care for yourself, alright?

Okay, so, personalised communication. What this can look like is understanding your client's preferences, understanding their communication style because a lot of the time, we're not actually understanding how they want to be communicated with. So, is it text messages? Is it emails? Is it phone calls? Do they want to have in-person meetings? Do they want to have Zooms? Like, how do your clients want to be best communicated with? And can we meet them there or not? Right? But setting those processes for your office and what you're wanting to do.

Update. So, some of your clients want to hear from you a lot, some of them aren't going to want to hear from you a lot. Now, the great thing is that you can automate a lot of your communications, whether you're using PropertyMe or your CRMs, but it's really great to have a yearly check-in with your clients. Remember, earlier I said our clients want to feel seen, heard, and understood. If we're not understanding their preferences, then how do we give them great updates during the year? Alright?

The other one is personal touch. Again, knowing that they are human. Remembering their names, remembering important details about their properties, or their children, or their pets, and putting all of your notes into your trust accounting system that you're using, or your CRM, so that you have things that you can reference based on your past conversations. Right? This isn't rocket science stuff, team. This is just little, small details that you pick up from the conversations that you have with your clients. That makes them feel valued. That makes them feel cared for, because all of their situations are going to be unique to them, right? So, if you know a client prefers email communication, then send a detailed quarterly update on their property performance. Right?

Quarterly. This isn't saying you have to email them monthly, but this is just so that we are nurturing our clients in a really strategic way in 2026 because we're going to see more of this coming up, where we're going to be into more of an asset management role, and if we're moving towards an asset management role, we need to understand how we can personalize the experience, because I know that landlords want this, right? Like, I'm a landlord, I'm a tenant, and I'm a trainer, and I can tell you what, I would love it if my property manager did a quarterly video update and sent it to me. I don't need to hear from them monthly but a quarterly video update would be awesome.

So whether it's a webinar, I've got some ideas for that. But we're heading into being a solutionist. As property management professionals, we have the solutions for our clients. So there are some things that we want to look at.

So, risk mitigation is a huge one for our landlords, right? So, we want to be able to identify potential risks on their property, and speak to the solutions that we offer them. So, a big one is the maintenance team, right? The stats are out, and the main time that a landlord hears from their property management professional is because of maintenance.

I also think that this is a big reason why we are facing so many challenges from our landlords, because they want more of a human experience and a personalised experience from us, but they're only hearing from us when something goes wrong then we're not able to show these other support and care and the value adds. So, looking at your processes around maintenance, but how can you already get on top of that beforehand?

So, yes, this might start with the BDM, and when they onboard the property, and writing a list of, like a plan, or a maintenance plan, over the year. Knowing how old the appliances are, knowing the depreciation on the carpets, the painting, etc, helps you to manage that property before problems actually arise, and then we have to go into a reactive mode, rather than being proactive, right? So, looking at the risks that are associated with landlords owning an investment property, and being on the forefront of that. That's in your control team.

So, a few of you said earlier legislation changes have been a big challenge. So what are we doing to educate our landlords, and this can be done in bulk around those legislation changes because you'll see the same questions coming up. You'll see the same challenges that your landlords are facing. So this is when your value add comes in here. Send those web… those videos to all of your database, to all of your landlords, all of your tenants, advising them of the legislation changes, referencing the Act and where those changes have been, take that onus off you. Right? And I would say, sending out a blast email isn't good enough. Show your face, right? We need to be showing our face to our clients. And videos are so powerful, it takes 2 seconds, not 2 seconds, but literally, you can jump on Zoom, record, do a video, done some edits, and it goes out, right? Having some things on your website to help. So, like your maintenance tips, or things to look out for, for their properties, right? The new legislation changes have come, so what does this mean for them? But doing a video about it, alright?

I think we also want to look at the market. Our landlords are wanting to know the market trends, like, what renters are coming through. Okay, so the vacancy rate is 1.7%, what does that mean to them? Have you had a record rental price? Like, share that, create some hype around the services that you do, and the results that you get for not just your landlords, but for your tenants. Cool? Now, support and care. So I want you all to think about… this is the festive season. Right? There is a great opportunity to connect with your clients during this time of the year. Whether that is a handwritten card, or maybe some of you will guess what I'm gonna say, is send them a video. Send them a video, wishing them a Merry Christmas, thanking them for their partnership, right? Looking forward to continuing to work with them in 2026. Send some love, because that's going to show your support and care for them. Some other things, you can do gifts. You can celebrate significant milestones, so whether that's you're starting to, write down and send birthday messages to your clients, or anniversary gifts, so if they've been with your agency for 1 year, 2 year, 5 year, 10 years, like, how are we celebrating them? Because this is about retention. Retention is just as important as bringing on new business property. Because we want to be invested in their long-term success. We want retained clients, we want more referrals, which means we have increased revenue. But we need to back ourselves. Remember, the value starts with you first. Right?

Value's gotta start here, your confidence, your care, your connection, so that we can showcase that to our current clients then they will refer us to more people, which means we've got more revenue coming in for the business, alright? So, a few things, like, some ideas, I know you guys have dropped some great ideas in the chat as well, offer some educational resources.

Now, I don't see enough of this on real estate agency property management websites. In fact, I would say a lot of websites that I oversee and have to do an analysis on are missing resources. Resources meaning blogs, videos. You can have guides, so you could have, like, e-booklets, downloadables, market insights that they can have that goes out once a month. Right? You could be doing your investor renter nights, your trading nights, you could be doing free webinars to invite your, like, tax depreciation, insurance, compliance, REA, Domain, they can all jump in and do a webinar to continue to educate your clients, right? So that we aren't just being the professionals for their property management, property… sorry, for their investment property, we are also utilizing the people in our network to help educate them more, alright?

The other thing is, feedback loops. So, we want to be getting feedback. So, NPS scoring, Google reviews. Let me know in the chat, are you guys getting Google reviews from your clients? Drop me a yes, or a no.

But, I want to encourage you, and a challenge for 2026, is to get some video testimonials. I have a client, Jess, she's from Bice Property. She actually just sent a message to some of her tenants and said, would you mind doing a no minute than 60 second video testimonial? But with that, she actually sent an example of how the video testimonial should look like, so just, you know, how to position the camera so that they're talking to the camera.

Have a guess, team, how many video testimonials she got back from her clients? Drop it in the chat. Have a guess. Angelo, I love that. You're, the 16, no. Kayleen, pretty close, she got 6.

She got 6 video testimonials back just from sending out an SMS to some of her clients, saying, would you do a video testimonial? Why is this powerful, team? Because we can tell people what we do, right? And I know a lot of you will be pretty confident in being able to do that. When we can actually showcase to people the results that we're getting, and the people behind those properties, it creates visibility, relatability, and trust.

So, another challenge for you in 2026, or this time of the year, if you're going to be sending out some personalized videos saying Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, ask them if they would do a video testimonial for you. Okay? I think it's really great. So, team, we've had the challenges, right? Yes, I love that, Kayleen, a world of negativity. Yes, I call this a law of attraction, so if we want more video testimonials and Google reviews, guess what I would love for you guys to do?

Go and leave Google reviews for other people, and go leave a video testimonial for someone that you have been so happy with their services from this year. Right? The law of reciprocity, if I said that word right, it definitely works, okay? Alright, so, challenges might seem daunting, and the opportunity always suggests potential and growth, okay?

And the words we play are so crucial when it comes to reshaping our perceptions that others have of us. And language can frame a situation positively or negatively, influencing how we feel and react, and also influencing how other people feel and react to us.

So, here's some techniques to do some bit of a reframe. So, this is going from, like, I can't to I'm capable, alright? We want to turn obstacles into stepping stones instead of focusing on what can't be done. We want to look at what we can achieve, right? And the other part of when we do this reframe is we can then create some really strong affirmations to boost our self-esteem, and to encourage that strong mindset that I was talking about earlier.

So instead of, “I can't do this.” or “This is too hard.”, “I am capable.” and “This is an opportunity for me to learn and to grow.”

So here's what a negative mindset could look like. “I can't do it, this problem is too difficult to solve, we have to deal with so many issues.”

On a positive or a strong mindset is, “Here's what I can do. This is a great opportunity for me to learn and improve, and we have the chance to address and resolve important matters.” This is one of the things I reminded myself every single day when I was a property manager. I have the ability to help someone's life. Not just their investment property, not just their home, not just their house. I have the ability to help someone's life. And that was my driver. We're not just dealing with the people, we're not just dealing with the houses, we're dealing with their livelihoods.

So rather than dwelling on problems, direct your language towards finding solutions. This is going to help you reduce stress, and it also encourages you to have a proactive approach. So, speak as if the desired outcome is already on its way. So, phrases like, when we achieve this, instead of if we achieve this, is so powerful. Right? So, instead of if, it's when, or I will.

So it's, like, already happened. So, let's look at the… the shift in the language, because using positive language helps your motivation; helps uplift you, but it also builds confidence that I was talking about earlier, and creates a really great environment for you, your team, your clients, your family, your friends. And it helps create more of that optimistic outlook on a day-to-day basis. So now we want to reframe your challenge. So, that challenge that you wrote down earlier, team, I want you to just take a minute, and I want you to reframe it.

So, reframing, meaning we want to use, instead of ‘you can't’ to ‘this is what you can do’. So I'm just gonna give you a minute, and I want you to look at that challenge that you had. And I want you to reframe it, or write an affirmation that's going to help you move past that challenge that you're experiencing at the moment. And if you feel called to share, once you have done that reframe or that affirmation, I would encourage you to share it in the group chat, because it's really powerful when we're learning and developing. When we conceive from other people, positive outcomes for 2026. Yes, definitely, we're all going into 2026 with momentum.

So I'll give you a minute and I would love for you, once you've done that, to share it in the group chat. Anyone feel like sharing? No. That's okay, you don't have to share. But I really encourage you to… to… oh, here we go. Joseph, Hugh Van Kollenberg, on their podcast, tells a great reframing story about people pushing in traffic. Oh my gosh, I've heard that one, yes. You can let it piss you off, or you can think the person has something really important to get to and wish them the best of luck. For sure, that's all it is. All it is, is all mindset. It comes back down to mindset, and what we're telling, how we react and respond to that. Glasses half full and putting myself around positive people is a must. Encouraging colleagues that everyone's intent is always good intent. Shannon, I love that. So powerful. I will be using this every morning. I love it, Catherine. So, yeah, reaffirming your affirmations. Remember, go back into your anchor, alright?

So lastly, team, is your implementation, right? So we want to look at your mindset, enhancing the client experience, right? Using positive language that's going to lead to better outcomes and more opportunities for your career, for your clients, for your businesses, and for your relationships.

So here's the step-by-step guide, right? You want to assess your current mindset and language that you're using, and use those four steps that we went through earlier about mindfulness, gratitude, awareness. Then we want to set realistic goals and achievable goals using that SMART method. We want to personalize the communication and be that solutionist that our clients want. Then, we want to review every year, or review every month, or have it in your Friday calendar as the rice factor 20 minutes that you're reviewing how your week was, so that we're continuing to move forward in a really great way. So, change loading.

Why change? Because we've become attractive people. And when people feel heard, seen, and supported, we have less conflict, we have less stress. And our focus goes to the quality, not the quantity. We've got less pressure in our roles. We're happier, yeah, which means that we are… have a happier environment. And we enjoy where we are, work, life, we enjoy our careers, and you go into each day with enthusiasm, because the motto here, team, is that you'll take care of you for them. Right? You've got to take care of yourself first. And the positive changes don't just benefit the business, they benefit your career, and they benefit your well-being. So, team, let's rise in 2026.

Thanks, Kylie. Thanks, everyone. Let me know, how did you find today?

Kylie:

Thank you so much, Sarah, that was awesome, and I just absolutely love how you incorporate the Real Care app into it, so thank you so much. And so much great engagement on the chat, that was absolutely brilliant. So well done, everybody who was listening.

Sarah, I think you've really set us up brilliantly. Like, I was feeling, when I came into the webinar, like, I was kind of exhausted and had nothing more in the tank and, like, just couldn't even, and I feel, like, really energized now. So, thank you so much for Sarah, for your energy and your supportive rise, and for helping us, like, reframe and reset for 2026. So, thank you everybody for joining us and thank you so much, I can't… I never do that right, but any…

Sarah:

Big love, everyone. Thank you so much for joining. I really hope you got what you needed from today. You know, I'm always open for a chat as well, you know, I know that Kylie is too, so, you know, there's so much support here for you all, and… I've been where you are, and I know that there are always going to be challenges, but there's so much of… in control that we can do, and it really does start with you all. So, I encourage, like, yes, Kylie, love it, spread love, positivity, let's go into 2026 with intention and positivity, and with love and care.

Kylie:

Fantastic. That's a great, that's a great point, Pat, to end up on. So, thank you everyone for joining us. We will be sharing our webinar, our wellness webinars. Big thanks to MRI Software for making them possible for us and we will be sharing our topics for the new year in January, so keep an eye out for them.

And thanks everyone, have an awesome Christmas. Do hope everyone gets a bit of a break so that you can sharpen the axe and get positive again, and we will see you in the new year. Thanks again, Sarah, thank you.

Sarah:

Thank you, bye, everyone.