Ian, you hold the envious title on the Global Real Estate stage as International Mr. Real Estate Advertising , just how has this title come about?

Grant it happened about 1996 based on the work I was doing throughout Australia, the New Zealand Herald dubbed me Mr. Real Estate Advertising in Australia, the rest of the media picked it up and then as I continued working around the world the title stuck! Doing lots of work for the media of course they used it from paper to paper and then I became International Mr. Real Estate Advertising .

What are the key learnings from your Real Estate Advertising training?

I tried to simplify it

and I think Hoodoo , which is the way we have branded our material, says it in one go! Agents try to sell the features of a property where they should be looking at Who is the best prospect who will pay the most money and then showing and telling them what they will Do as a result of their purchase. Other quick tips like tying photos and headlines together and also tying different media together to get maximum impact, something which unfortunately most of them don t currently do!

So Ian in your training you would share a lot of the secrets of effective real estate advertising to ensure real estate salespeople

have the most opportunity to increase their income throughout the year?

No shadow of a doubt there Grant, and I aim to make it as simple as possible, so whether someone is brand new to the industry or has been doing it for thirty years, I ll show them how it could be done, and how it should be done. So they have the confidence to go off and do it themselves. Many of the secrets you mentioned in fact absolutely change what they had been doing. But they can see why it will logically work for them and they share the successes of other agents before them.

Ian, I know you live just south of me on Australia

s Gold Coast - arguably one of the most amazing places in the world to live how do you ensure you create a balanced lifestyle with your busy global travel and training commitments?

As far as timing goes ,I very rarely work weekends but down here it s easy, we see the lake or visit the sea nearly every single day, work decent hours these days , and also a bit of flexi-time so we can keep our social life together. We meet with friends, we have our children visit us, and we make each weekend a mini- holiday for us as a couple. Plus regular exercise, healthy food and things like a massage every single month

and a regular facial and pedicure for my wife. Also playing with our dog so keeping that mix of relaxing with other people, family and friends and a healthy lifestyle is the answer.

Presumably health and fitness play a big part in your life Let s hear a few Ian Secrets about what do you do to maintain your fitness?

Grant I have always exercised and particularly with all the travel and hotels you stay in and the food you eat, I believe it is an absolute necessity to keep physically fit. If I keep physically fit then it obviously makes me feel mentally better and stronger, so they tend to work in tandem. But it

s like most other things ,I set goals because with my travel I don t often go to gyms, but I have my own workouts that I discipline myself to do. So I set little goals with my own particular physical workouts and look at maintaining those goals and achieving them on a regular basis. And of course here on the Gold Coast we go down for a run along the white sandy beach most days and go for a cycle around the lake and the river as well! So it is very easy down here, because you have such a convivial atmosphere to keep yourself fit and healthy.

One thing I have been dying to ask you -

is about the little known secret that you also write Children s Books?

Yes, that s probably been more of a hobby, it doesn t relate to real estate -but it started about 18 years ago, our own children said Dad, don t read us a story tell us one , so I started making up all these children s stories . All the children seemed to love them and I was eventually convinced to put them into writing , it took about three attempts over a number of years to finally get them illustrated so the first one is published and the next two in the series are ready to be launched shortly. They are

very simply stories with good moral values for kids, which I believe is missing a lot these days. They love them, as do the parents and grandparents because they love imparting those good values to the kids. They also incidentally make a great tool in real estate because the majority of the clients out there have children or grandchildren.

Ian, I hear one of the most exciting events on the International Real Estate scene is about to take place on the Gold Coast of Australia later this year- let s hear about it?

Yes it s been the accumulation of a dream, to showcase the Australian Real Estate industry to the rest of the world. Having spoken worldwide for many

years now, I have realized that Australian agents are actually world leaders in a number of different areas of real estate. Most of them here aren t even aware of that themselves.
So that was the dream - it follows on from an exhibition titled The Best of Australian Real Estate we put together at the National Associate of Realtors Convention in San Francisco in 2005. We are very happy to say that whist this is our second year, we have already achieved international publicity across USA, Canada, and the UK. And with News Limited being our major sponsor it s publicized throughout the whole of Australia too

And I understand one of the major attractions

is the unbelievable quality of world recognized speakers- what sort of people can the attendees expect to hear from this year?

As I just mentioned, News Limited is our major sponsor and in their publicity you will see speakers like Sherry Chris the COO of arguably the biggest real estate group in the world, Coldwell Banker from the USA, she s coming across. Gary Hockey, the President of Coldwell Banker from Canada who has achieved a staggering 98% customer service rating for their group year in year out. We have Australia s best agent, just won the award recently, Anthony Toop. We have Philip Webb, one of the most awarded agents in Australia. We have Noel Whittaker the

finance guru who is front of over 6 million people every week in newspapers and 50 radio stations around the country. And the list goes on, with many more in that ilk. We have what we believe is an absolute World class program; we are very happy and very proud of it!

Haven t you forgotten someone else Ian
Oh and plus Of course myself Ian Grace who will be speaking as International Mr. Real Estate Advertising
And
Oh, I always forget the two people that are speaking .
Yes, of course the internationally famous, unbelievably motivated, super over achiever Business Coach, Mentor and Professional Speaker Mr. Grant Thorpe who has come across from New Zealand to

show us Aussies how to do it at last!

Grant Thorpe is an internationally recognized achievement based Business Coach, Mentor and Professional Speaker.

His specialty as a coach is working with high performing entrepreneurs, business owners, CEOs, corporations and salespeople from around the world.
With a business coach, you will heap success on success until you gain the balanced and rewarding life you desire and know you deserve.
Read more about the results Grant Thorpe can achieve for you on his website at http://www.grantthorpe.com

He can give you the how, enable you to sidestep the distractions and define, focus on and achieve the things that really matter to you”.