#58 | Build Your Best Life with Sherrie Storor Business Coach

Speakers: Jessica Reynolds, Sherrie Storor

Sherrie Storor:

This is not what society wants. Society don’t want walking, talking egomaniacs and infomercials. You know, they don’t wanna be treated like walking dollar signs and transactions. I guess one of the big things that I sort of see is that a lot of developers spend time, you know, building out the most perfect product, but then they don’t actually spend a lot of time investing on the salespeople to actually get it sold.

Jessica Reynolds:

Hi there. Welcome to the Creating Australia Podcast. My name is Jessica Reynolds, and I’m a private town planner and business owner based in Brisbane, Queensland. I’m passionate about engaging with the amazing people that make the property and development industry what it is today. In Creating Australia, I want to learn from experts in the industry and share their knowledge and wisdom with you.

In each episode, we’ll talk with different people and unpack their past experiences and innovative ideas for the future. Join me now for an episode of Creating Australia, where we dive into the industry, exploring local stories, projects, businesses, people, ideas, and more.

Welcome to the Creating Australia Podcast. Today we have Sherrie Storor. Sherrie, welcome. Thank you for coming on.

Sherrie Storor:

Hi. Thank you so much for having me. Super pumped.

Jessica Reynolds:

Excellent. So what we have you here today to talk about is you and I really want to understand, you know, about your career, your journey, because you have made some pretty epic changes, you’ve achieved some great results in the industry. So first of all, can you just tell us a little bit about what you do day-to-day? Who do you help?

Sherrie Storor:

Yeah, sure. Okay. Well, I guess today what I do is I really see myself as a sales coach and a business coach. So I work with all kinds of businesses, whether they be service orientated, whether it be retail products but as long as there’s a strong sales focus, which let’s face it, is pretty much every business on the whole planet. But my jam and what I really specialize in is the real estate industry.

So I work with a lot of agencies, particularly residential in terms of, you know, building their businesses. Obviously decreasing their cost and increasing their revenue. I also work with a lot of project marketers and developers in terms of getting their product right, their mix right.

And I guess one of the big things that I sort of see is that a lot of developers spend time, you know, building out the most perfect product, but then they don’t actually spend a lot of time investing on the salespeople to actually get it sold. Because let’s face it, that’s where we make all the money. So, yeah, so that’s what I do. I work with high performing agents and agencies all around the country.

I work with companies such as real estate.com, domain.com, Rate My Agent, and a few other industry suppliers to help educate agents in terms of really leveling up, putting in systems and structures into their business, building celebrity profiles. And in general, kind of building their best lives, having a good time.

So getting really good at what they do and harnessing their real estate career, but also having a life outside the industry, which is a trap we typically sort of fall into.

Jessica Reynolds:

Well, that’s a very specific niche that you’ve fallen into. Well, I guess it’s probably a, a bit more strategic than actually fallen into it. So you started your career in real estate and then now you’re doing this, like, what happened between, you know, point A, point B? Why did you get into real estate? And then I guess we’ll get into how did you go from real estate to then business coaching and mentoring and sales and, you know, getting people to live their best lives?

Sherrie Storor:

Yeah. Cool. Well, essentially I went to university. I studied PR and, you know, communications. So I was really into media studies and, and production. And I’ve always been really interested in marketing. And I kind of worked out pretty quickly that I didn’t really enjoy university and that I really love doing selling.

And I think like a lot of people when we’re teenagers, we’re still trying to work out what it is that we want to do. And I remember I was at school and I got pretty good marks, so I was doing things like physics and so forth, but I actually hated all that. What I liked doing is I liked talking to people.

And so, you know, I decided to give it all up and move to Brisbane and I worked in retail. And I’d always worked in retail as a kid, sort of you know, through my earlier years. And so I basically just said, yep, let’s do retail. And then I kind of realized, okay, the company that I was working for is a very well known Queensland business called Wallace Bishop Jewelers.

And that the company at that particular time was very much a family owned business. And the people that were in super high level management, essentially kind of, you know, were there for very, very long term. So I sort of realized that somebody almost needed to pass on in order for me to kind of move up to that next ladder.

Jessica Reynolds:

You weren’t helping them?

Sherrie Storor:

No, definitely not. So, you know, I was really working in there in terms of taking underperforming stores and turning them into over performing stores and, you know, helping their salespeople and training their salespeople. And so I realized pretty quickly that, you know, hey, listen, I was making great money for a 21 year old, but I wanted to make more. I wanted a lot more.

And so I was quite hungry and quite driven. And so I got into, you know, selling projects off the plan, which was very similar to walking into a jewelry store, right? Because at that time we would have sales displays, people would walk in, they wouldn’t necessarily know that they wanted to buy something until obviously we sold them on why it was so great.

They had lots of equity in their homes. We got them to sign ERY, and then before you know it, they’re buying investment properties. So it was very much like, you know, project marketing’s like retail real estate. So, you know, that kind of grew out.

And then from that point, obviously started to make some really great money. I really learned a lot of skill sets. I then decided that I wanted to build like a home that was already kind of completed. It wasn’t off the plan.

That was also a really new step for me, because beforehand we’d just be signing pieces of paper and selling this dream of what it was going to be. And so after that, I ended up starting up my own chain of agencies, which was quite a large business.

So it was a residential business where we were onsite selling off the plan in 10 different locations from [inaudible] the way down to Byron Bay. You know, had three residential offices built up and sold my own rent role.

I had a cleaning division, a PR division for actually all of these developments and launching them, which was kind of really cool. And so life was pretty great until the GFC kind of happened. And, you know, my company, we were selling in a lot of very coastal areas.

And then all of a sudden, you know, these coastal properties stopped selling because nobody wanted a holiday home. And so, eventually I was forced to put the company into administration when I had, you know, a number of developers that just didn’t pay, you know, commissions and so forth.

So essentially at that point, I had a really wonderful opportunity to decide how I wanted to move forward in my life. Because, you know, before that I was really hamstrung to the business. And after initially having a bit of an identity crisis, sort of saying, okay, well what am I going to do next?

And who am I if I’m not Sherrie’s story, the high-flying real estate agent, right? Because that was very much who I’d attach my identity to. And so I worked down at this point in time, Hey, listen, I really loved helping people and I love training people. And so I started business coaching at this point in time.

Now, not a lot of people know that since 2008 I’ve been business coaching. And then I got back on the tools and basically sort of started selling and building up my name and my reputation. But it was at this point that I decided that I actually did want to be a business coach and a sales coach, specifically in the real estate industry.

And this is kind of obviously back some time ago now. This is in 2011. So you’re right, there was some strategy behind it. And then got back on the tools, rebuilt my name, rebuilt my reputation, and then three years ago I basically gave it all up for my side hustle, I suppose.

Which was a hard thing to do because I was obviously making a lot of money as an agent. And I was working, you know, three, three and a half days a week. I had a lot of systems and structures into place, but I decided to do that because I felt that there was a number of narratives that were kind of happening in the real estate industry that was really uncomfortable for me.

And I felt that, you know, this tone was really uncomfortable for a lot of others as well, but no one was kind of doing anything to change it. And so whilst it was my plan to go out and do, so, I ended up moving it forward a little bit earlier than probably what my initial timeline was. And some of those narratives were really around, you know, working 24/7 because agents are always sort of on call 24/7.

Well, that was the narrative, and I just don’t think that’s a normal way to live any kind of life. And I feel like society has certainly been changing over that period of time, and I’ve certainly been a catalyst for trying to drive change internally in the residential real estate industry.

I think if you’re in commercial, I mean, you’ve got a pretty good here, Monday or Friday kind of thing, but residential, we need to be there when other people are available. The second one was that we really, you know, didn’t see a lot of women in our industry being celebrated for being powerhouses or for what they were really truly capable of.

So, you know, I think it was really important to create those role models. And then I think the other narrative was that I just saw a lot of people talking about doing the same thing that they’ve always been doing for the last 20, 30 years. So I talk a lot about the fact that we’re stuck in the eighties as real estate agents, and we need to be more modern with our approach.

So, you know, doing things such as social media, and really, you know, creating leak capture pages and so forth. So, you know, investing in training and educating our sales teams so that they can, you know, the time that they’re putting into their work, they’re really capitalizing on that.

So I mostly work with high performing agents and agencies, most of which are riding anywhere, you know, around that sort of 2 million plus a year. My agencies are obviously significantly more than that, but most of the big guns that you see out there, you know, the number ones in various different franchises, I’m lucky enough to help them, and to work with them on their journeys.

Jessica Reynolds:

Yeah, no, well, I wouldn’t say that’s luck, I’d say that it’s well deserved. Like that’s been a 10 year journey by the sounds of it, from 2011 to today to get to the point you’re at. That’s just, that’s an amazing story and I think it’s so great. But do you think that you would have gone into this if 2008 hadn’t have happened?

Sherrie Storor:

I think my life probably would’ve been quite different full stop. You know, I was engaged to someone else. I’m now married to an awesome, beautiful man. But, you know, I’m really grateful now that that finished up. I think, you know, I probably would’ve been living life very differently.

I’m perhaps a little bit embarrassed of how I acted at that time because, you know, I would catch helicopters on weekends. Like, that was a really common theme to go to a winery. I just spent money really previously, to be honest with you, and was a bit egotistical about the whole thing.

So I think that come down, whilst it was really hard at the time, and I wouldn’t wish not anybody it actually was really wonderful. Because it then gave me an opportunity to design my life and the life that I really wanted to live instead of the one that I thought I should be living.

And really getting back to who I was which is also, you know, a big journey in itself. We’re getting quite philosophical here. But that was a beautiful, beautiful opportunity in my life. I just think it would’ve looked completely different and I wouldn’t change it for the world now. I’m grateful for the experience of it.

I also think it’s made me a much better business owner because I’ve learned what to do, but also what not to do, and the repercussions. And being able to find those little sorts of symptoms and signs early on to say, okay, well, you know, we really should be taking a U-turn about here. Or, you know, a slight directional sort of shift. So I think that’s been a really beautiful blessing as well.

Jessica Reynolds:

And you’ve just really touched on something there about, you know, catching the helicopters and the ego. And I think that that’s something, I guess that is still very much perceived of real estate agents. You see the fancy cars, you see, you know, the money, the watches, the cars, the girls. And I feel like that’s still got a huge presence in the real estate industry. And obviously you are very much into your branding.

That’s just, you know, you see it all over social media as you said, it’s how you build business these days through socials and branding is, you know, do you encourage your agents to, you know, splash that sort of wealthy lifestyle? Or does that sort of suit certain agents and not others? Where is that going? Do people still respond to agents showing extreme wealth?

Sherrie Storor:

Yeah, I think it’s really interesting because I think there still is that narrative in the industry, however, I don’t think it’s anywhere near as large as what it used to be. And again, this is part of the reason why I decided to really make some changes, right? Because this is not what society wants.

Society don’t want walking, talking egomaniacs and infomercials, you know, they don’t wanna be treated like walking dollar signs and transactions. They really wanna have a relationship with the people that they’re doing business with, you know, and real estate’s no different to that.

So I think that was really important. The unfortunate thing is, and I do feel it’s a small percentage now. Like I feel like once upon a time that was probably around 90%. I feel like maybe now it’s around 30%, maybe 40%. The problem is that the media really perpetuates that notion.

There are some agencies that do have some of those kind of people and, and use them as a great sort of recruitment tool. But most of the businesses that I work with, most of the agents that that I work with, you know, are very, very different. They’re very community orientated.

They’ve got a very humble nature and a very humble spirit. You know, like I’ve got an agency that I work with in Melbourne where for every, it’s called Shelter, actually, big shout out. And for every three properties that they sell, they actually build, you know, a home for the homeless over in Cambodia.

So these are the kind of businesses that I work with you know, that are really about giving back and want to embrace charity, want to embrace community. It’s just that these people haven’t been as good about promoting themselves and getting that message out there.

I also feel the media don’t wanna get onto that message either, because it’s not as, you know, it’s really easy to hate on a particular group, but that’s not as exciting, and so forth. So, you know, we’ve seen a number of articles even here in Brisbane. There was a terrible one, you probably read it earlier, this year.

And, you know, again, I reached out to the [inaudible] and say, Hey, how about we promote some of these people that are doing this good for our community, no response. And I have a relationship with them, right? So I think that’s kind of really, really normal.

So my personal viewpoint, and maybe this is because of the tone of voice that I have, that this is the kind of people that I attract, but that is what I see in this industry all day, every day. You know, I look at the RAI NSW who are trying to really make the real estate industry, a profession, and to be accredited as such.

And that there needs to be constant and consistent learning in the industry. So I do think that there is a number of us making voices, but the media doesn’t love to pick up on it. So, my job is to really show agents, you know, how to build their profile because essentially they can then create, you know, and build a digital kind of attraction business where business is coming into us instead of us having to go out there, and try and get it.

And so part of that way is yes, with branding and to obviously, you know, leverage that through social media, which is a great sort of marketing tool and channel. And it’s essentially a second database, right, to our CRMs.

Jessica Reynolds:

Yeah, no, that’s beautiful. And that’s yeah, it’s really good to get your opinion on that and industry insight. So you created a very successful event called Women in Real Estate Business Breakfast, and I believe you started in 2018?

Sherrie Storor:

2017.

Jessica Reynolds:

2017. And you had sold out events in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and I believe Adelaide as well. Why were these events so popular? Like, it’s just like, it came out of nowhere, it was so popular. You’re selling out. I’ve been to one of your events as well. It was amazing. Like you went above and beyond. It was just such a great experience. How did you come about creating this? Is this just you? Is this just what you do?

Sherrie Storor:

Yeah. The short answer on that is yes. And secondly, can I say, Aw, thanks. So yeah, so I think it is about these personalized touches that really make people feel special. And number one, when people go to events, like, I’m sure when, when you came along, you sat down at your, you know, table. And I’m not about the freebie goody bag because it’s all got stuff that we’re not gonna use, but we want to have that Instagrammable moment.

\So when you sat down, there was that real moment where I have special icons that I’ve, you know, had designed and created and that I constantly use. So really embracing those cool quote tiles. So, everyone was taking photos of these, and literally posting them all over their social media, which is in term building my business and my brand, which is really great.

But look the reason why I started the breakfast series is a bit what I mentioned earlier. I just felt that we have these amazing powerhouse women in our industry. And at the time in 2017, you know, we really weren’t seeing at conferences like ARIC and so forth, which I was lucky enough to speak out in 2016.

But, you know, typically whenever we heard people speak on the stage, women speak on the stage, it was all about work-life balance and how to balance it with their families. And I was like, no, these women are actually achieving amazing, remarkable things. They’re getting unbelievable results. You know, they’re CEOs, they’re COOs.

It’s just that they get in and they do the work and not so much about their profiling. So I wanted to create more role models in the industry. That was a really important sort of aspect for me. And I wanted to be more about that particular narrative that was really shining through, because I don’t think people necessarily understood that.

Or they thought that women working in our industry were property managers, that they weren’t like professionals like you and like me. So that was, that was really important. So, you know, so initially when I started this Series Domain I remember just having this conversation with Domain and with the marketing manager there.

And she said, well, what are you gonna do about it, Sherrie? I said, I don’t know. She goes, well, here’s some money. Go put something on. I was like, okay, . And then the next year, and I had a call from real estate.com as soon as I launched it.

And the first one was in Brisbane where I live. And Blackbird have always been an amazing sponsor and, you know, you’ve been along to there, it’s such a beautiful venue. And that first year when I launched it, then I had a call from REI saying, Sherrie, like, are we out of favor? You know why did you not approach us for this?

And I was like, oh, I’m so sorry. So anyway, so they were my sponsor in the next two years. And so, you know, what was really important is that we really grew, you know, as society was changing it as you know, the interest was moving because I think now this narrative is very different to what it was five years ago.

But you know, the last you know, season that I did prior to Covid, which you came along to, thanks Jess, was really important. We kind of had a debate and I had men and women on the stage and I think it’s really important to have both sexes in the room because essentially we’re not going to create any change unless we actually have all the right people in the room and all the wrong people in the room.

And I should also mention that I fired two people off the series because we had 32 speakers. Very, very high profile speakers from all around, you know, the industry for this, but actually fired two of them for being divas who were all about themselves and not giving back to the community.

One of which is actually on a television show that may have just launched last week. So, is this gonna go wide? I don’t know maybe I’ve just taught a really big secret, but

Jessica Reynolds:

Look, I’m sure it’s no secret. One person knows. I’m sure there’s others.

Sherrie Storor:

But I think, you know, that was really important to, you know, to have the right people in the room to actually show everybody, Hey, listen, there are male champions of change, there are female champions for change. And that there also, you know, is good conversation.

So even if you don’t necessarily believe in it, sometimes it’s because you just haven’t heard a particular point of view or had some education in and around that. And we do have a lot of principles in our industry that are male. And so for them really understanding, okay, well what can we do to further promote women into business ownership or business growth or high level management, sometimes just takes other people’s sort of explaining where they have been.

So yeah. So I think that was really great. But look, the events are fun. You would know this. There’s a DJ there, you come on in and you know, you have, you’re photo taken against this really epically large, you know, media wall. And it’s always a really good, good time.

Jessica Reynolds:

No, it’s definitely one of the top events, you know, I’ve been to industry wide. You’ve made something that is educational uplifting, motivating and fun. And that’s definitely something to be proud of. Like, it’s huge. Obviously Covid has hit a lot of events hard in the past, what has it been 14 months, 16 months? I don’t even know, I don’t track it anymore. But what has that been like for you? Was that just devastating or have you been trying to get the events happening?

Sherrie Storor:

Look, I think, you know, there’s no point trying to force something. And one of the biggest lessons that I learned way back when in 2007 with the GFC or 2008, was that you can’t control what you can’t control. And so you just need to let it grow, and be and embrace it when things come back around.

I mean, I would love to be doing events right now. I also run, you know, a mastermind series where I have, you know, a high profile agents flying from all around the country. We do at the Carlisle Hotel in Brisbane. So very glamorous. And you know, we have these Rockstar keynote speakers that come in. So, you know, so far this series we’ve had, you know, Lorna Clarkson next up we’ve got Dr. Phil Jauncy.

We’ve got Noel Whitaker, Nathan Sharp, you know, who is Captain of the Wallabies. We’ve had a former Paralympian and his wife. So we’ve had these really amazing people, Susanna George I should mention, CEO and founder of the Urban List talking about content creation, and building your, you know, digital attraction business.

But, you know, that was really hard to kind of, to do. And initially when I launched that I said, okay, well only, you know, people in Southeast Queensland can attend because, you know, I want this to be a face-to-face kind of series. And of course what’s ended up happening is that I have had people who’ve said, no, we’re gonna take the risk. We’re gonna commit to it.

And, you know, if we can’t get there, we can’t get there. So we have postponed a couple of different events, but, you know, it is kind of frustrating. There’s a lot of different events that I would love to be doing right now such as the Women in Real Estate Breakfast series. I would love to be doing, you know, I’ve got a retreat that I want to do.

Which is all about, you know, getting experts from outside of our industry coming in and showing us about their businesses, instead of just getting the same kind of Narratives. So I think that’s really important, you know, so there’s a number of different things that I’m wanting to do, even how to build your business, how to build teams within businesses, which is a big part of what I do.

Actually helping, you know a solo agent really become a team which helps them, you know, write more revenue create more dollars, do more transactions. Because some of my agents are doing, you know, I’ve got one in Toomba for example, I was just talking to her on Friday, she’s already sold 150 properties so far this calendar year.

So it’s like, you can’t do that on your own. You need to have a team. So I’m really keen to kind of get this narrative out and I can’t do that because we can’t do conferences and I think online, I feel everyone’s got a bit of exhaustion about it at the moment. So look, I’m just gonna be patient with it.

I’m just gonna roll with the punches and just wait to see what kind of happens. And in the meantime, you know, I’m doing a lot more online, so, you know, I’ve got a lot of products online such as my agent toolkits, which have letter packs and manuals, and I’m launching an online sales school in December. So we’ve kind of, you know, trying to do well, it’s more like a university with different courses.

Jessica Reynolds:

Do you sleep?

Sherrie Storor:

Oh, totally. And I think, you know, I’m all about having the balance too, so I’ve just got back from Nissan, which is awesome. I’m in Agnes Waters next week for seven days. But I try my best to work, you know, I say two weeks out of four, but at the moment it’s probably like three weeks out of four. I think it’s really important to have that balance in life.

Jessica Reynolds:

Yeah, no, that’s absolutely great. And I guess that leads into my last question. What is success to Sherrie?

Oh, okay. Well, I do like the idea of not working 24/7, as I mentioned , but I think doing things that really fulfill you and I think success, and you know, it looks different to different people at different times in your life. If you ask me that question in my twenties, the answer would be very different to my thirties, very different to my forties, which I am now.

So, you know, for me really, you know, I just want to build a life that I feel is my own. A life that is right for me. And, you know, I really enjoy dressing up and getting in a suit and talking business, but I also really enjoy walking along the beach barefoot. So I think, you know, having a combination of both of those balances in life is really important. I think helping others gives me the feels.

And it’s really enjoy enjoyable to see, you know, you put forward to a company and change that business owners sort of life. Because let’s face a lot of business owners, you know, they’re paying everyone else first and they’re getting paid last. So once you sort of start to change the revenue that’s coming in and the profitability of a business, like life’s really, really different.

And that’s really exciting when you see people kind of get to those levels where you double and triple their income and their profitability. That’s kind of the stuff that I really enjoy because it makes me feel really happy that I’ve impacted them in such a positive way. So yeah, so I guess that’s kind of my version of my best life and success, what it means to me today.

Jessica Reynolds:

No, that’s great. It sounds like you’ve, you do know what success is to you and obviously it makes it a whole lot easier to achieve. And I’m a hundred percent believe you are probably already there and you are just living your ongoing successful life. So Sherrie, if people want.

Sherrie Storor:

Trying to.

Jessica Reynolds:

Yeah, trying. We’re all trying, but you’ve definitely seem very successful to me. I’m like always been very impressed by the things that you’ve done and you seem like a very well-rounded down to earth person who also gets shit done. I like that. So if people wanna contact you, what’s the best way?

Sherrie Storor:

You can look on my website, sherriestoror.com or obviously follow me on social media. All my handles are at Sherrie Storor, which is spelled S H E R R I E S T O R O R.

Jessica Reynolds:

Beautiful. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks for joining me on today’s episode of Creating Australia. Don’t forget to subscribe and join us on our socials to keep updated on our latest content. On Creating Australia, I love talking about everything to do with people, property, and development. So if you have something you’d like me to explore, let me know by searching, Creating Australia on Instagram or searching Jessica Reynolds on LinkedIn.