Shad(s) of the Day, 17th August 2024. If you know any of the businesses listed in the attached screenshot, let them know they're throwing money into a void - their basic subscription is broken. It's a garbage experience. BrokerGrow popped up on our radar when they started leveraging our Broker Growth program brand, and they're responsible for ongoing mediocrity every since.If you're running one of these ads, I suggest you stop doing so now.Video in our Facebook group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/financemarketing

News is reporting on yet another person led into a fraudulent transactions. The MO is typical and often involves gift cards (nobody will ever ask you to buy a gift card). We need supermarket counter staff to be better educated (they'd spot the scam in a second if they know what they are looking for), we need Virtual (VoIP) Mobile numbers flagged when they originate offshore, better inbound scammer ID (Apple is still a few years behind), and better overall consumer education. Further, we need a team of commandos to hunt these crooked charlatans and throw them into the same human meat grinder used for the boneheads that sell leads.As brokers, we have a responsibility to educate those that lean on us for all types of monetary advice. Make your social count!

There's a Facebook group called 'Mortgage Brokers Australia' that I get banned from all the time. Unlike others in my field, I don't start conversations, but I'll often call out marketing pretenders on their ubiquitous BS.One such example is 'Jessica'. I only know of her because I inherited somebody that had worked with her, so I'm familiar with her entry-level methods and poor results. Normally I'd just ignore false and/or misleading information in the group, but in this case I was directly exposed to her incompetence so I thought I'd take her to task on her porky pies. My reply got me banned (again). Her comment of ".. just continue doing what everybody else is doing and see how it goes" rubbed me the wrong way because *nothing* we do is what anybody else is doing, and her methods are literally a cut-and-paste of every other BS Facebook program in the country.I find it staggering that some weekend-educated marketing stooge will willingly engage others when they know they don't have the knowledge, skills, or expertise, and they'll knowingly introduce worst-practice methods into an operation. If the same style of deliberate misconduct and malpractice took place in the finance industry you'd end up in prison, but 'marketing experts' seemingly have a free pass.The conversation was innocent enough, but Jessica was wrong in *so many ways*. I would have though moderators would welcome and encourage competing arguments when replying to beginners, but they instead willingly allowed brokers to be led into the arms of absolute mediocrity in complete contrast to the overarching best-interest ethos that is meant to be the foundation upon which the industy operates.I understand my posts in these groups may sound a little self-serving, or maybe even a tad egocentric, but I'm also leaning on a lifetime of experience. To put it bluntly, I'm always right (except when I'm not, which is never), and to silence my expertise was a little offensive. For moderators to actively allow promotion from a charlatan is despicable.The pictured post never made it. Rant over.

This is a very important note for clients. You'll be hearing more from us via email as recent and pending Yabber changes will impact everybody. The number of brokers that use more than one CRM, or multiple pieces of software, is quite staggering, and any tool or process that duplicates data will impact productivity and potentially compromises compliance. This has to end... and we certainly can't let our own clients lean into worst practice tech stacks (this is you, James). A long time coming, we're leveraging the entire Microsoft suite (beyond the current capability) and making certain MS applications a primary source of Yabber data. For example, one should never have more than one source of contacts, so we've migrated our entire contract module into Microsoft (Outlook). This means modules such as the SMS toolkit reference Outlook Folders and Categories almost exclusively rather than any isolated Yabber list. The contacts example is a big-ticket change, but it's just one change of many. We've found that many brokers use a second CRM (a nutty concept), so we're building features into the free Microsoft Planner Kanban Board (made available with your 365 subscription). With our revised trigger module - and native connectivity with other MS apps - Planner comes alive in a way that makes it one of the best Kanban facilities on the market. Planner integrates directly with email, files, OneDrive, Tasks (ToDo), Groups,, Teams, and other apps, making it a ridiculously efficient tool.We've met every few days with top brokers in order to determine how facilities like OneNote or ToDo might be used to assist with workflow/compliance, and we think we've designed some brilliant solutions.We'll be migrating the SMS module over the next 48 hours so we ask you not create any new SMS autoresponders, voicedrops, or even send any messages, until the migration is complete.Edge (Repricing), BDMset, and Saturn (Relationship Manager) are all limited until Friday. More information to follow via email.

I saw a post on LinkedIn a few weeks back where a broker was celebrating the fact that he was working his weekend in his pyjamas. Each to their own, I guess, but the same weekend was very different for me. Starting on a Saturday morning, I supported four of my brokers and property guys with a seminar in SW Sydney. We had 400 attendees booked and expected 150-200 to turn up. Over 400 attended. The rest of the weekend followed a fairly standard pattern of meeting a few partners and attending a ton of open homes and auctions (have you ever announced yourself to a large and eager crowd once sold?). The net result: over 120-million in likely settlements and 9 properties sold (off the back of the seminar). The weekend was one of the best we've had in a long, long time (keeping in mind a second-year broker set a BM record recently with over 100m in a single day.The property world comes alive on weekends - don't waste it in front of a PC.I say it all the time: more conversions = more conversions. I even have a few brokers walking with (golfing) stroke counters in their pockets to motivate them to meet targets.Digital always plays a significant part (and we genuinely do it better than anyone else), but that doesn't diminish the value of organic funnels - they'll always return better results.If anyone wants to unplug themselves from the Matrix and join us for part of a weekend, give me a call.

This is an important note for clients. We've updated the 'Formly' module on your website and in Yabber. We're migrating all foms manually over the next couple of days, so you might experience some minor disruptions. This major update coincides with the new Trigger and Email Marketing features, but the first step is migrating your forms.There are a large number of stylistic and functional changes in Formly, but it's the backend where you'll see the majority of updates. When building a form (now a 10-second process), you may use recycled components, such as calendar options, images, or redirect profiles. The number of changes and new features is seriously significant. We've built an alternate booking calendar in the style of Calendly (for your website appointment page), but our option is obviously far more refined with a ton of automation. More information to follow. We'll update our FAQs/BeLearn with information and videos later this week.Why? Apart from the fact new forms were required for the property module (and property modals), the new forms are completely error-resistant in that they can't be broken by configuration errors. All other forms will be integrated with the new Formly framework, such as Fact Find, Venus, Referrals, and others, and these changes will be progressively introduced over the next couple of weeks Remember, every page on your website is a potential organic entry point, so every page is a type of landing page that requires a calendar-integrated form (made easy, of course, via our one-click form assignments). The form should then conditionally redirect to that ridiculously important second page. It's such a basic high-converting concept that most businesses ignore - just crazy.Your competitors don't have a chance.

The single most significant change we've introduced to our website framework in the last few years is the inclusion of full-featured Property Listings. The module will make its way out of a lengthy Beta sometime soon and find its way into our standard website and Elementor plugins. The Property module is significant and unique in that the effectiveness of the rendered widgets are supported by around 30 of our own APIs retuning data of various types. It's *very* cool. As part of this API architecture we required the inclusion of address and spatial property data, and most of this information (around 16-million pages) was all built directly into your website.The 'Streets' module shapes itself into a property matrix that has ridiculous value when the pages are leveraged as intended. The problem is that the module is not quite ready for a true production environment. To avoid having the same conversation over and over, we've updated our website with a short introduction. In short, the pages are designed to render a page that will return an option to deliver a property report (based on data obtained via third-party sources), and it gives us scope to return property listings, analytics, historical data, and other information relevant to the address. When you understand how and why the module will be developed, the early naked framework will make a little more sense.https://www.beliefmedia.com.au/website-streets-module

Berger & Sons Paint Works, Rhodes, Sydney, 2nd August 1937.Operating since 1916, Berger was (and still is) a popular local brand (who can forget "keeps on keeping on"). In 1923 Berger Paints contributed 22,7125 litres of paint to the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge to protect the bridge steelwork, so they're an important part of Sydney's history. Rhodes had been part of Sydney's industrial heartland since the 1900s when it was purchased for chemical manufacturing by CSR in 1930. The following 60 years saw Allied Feeds, Berger Paints and Union Carbide operate major industrial plants in the area. As a result, the 20 hectare Rhodes Peninsula became heavily contaminated with some of the most toxic man-made chemicals on the planet, including Agent Orange.The area was developed into Rhodes Waterside by Walker Corp and is now the home to thousands of properties, commercial premises', and a shopping centre.The side-by-side comparison photo shows the broader Rhodes area in 1930 (top) and 1972 (bottom).

Australia’s first stock exchange, located at Collins Street, looking east from Queens Street, Melbourne, 1883.In the 18 October 1852 issue of the 'Argus', Edward Khull listed 14 companies in which investors could buy shares. This was the first stock listing in Australia and led to the formation of the Melbourne Brokers Association, which traded from rented space in the Hall of Commerce on Collins Street from 1859. It was Australia's first stock exchange.From The 'Argus' publication in November 1856: "It has been the subject of constant and increasing complaint that while there are recognised marts and markets for every kind of produce, imported and otherwise, there is none for a larger and more important item in the wealth of the colony … there is no recognised Stock and Share Exchange, where quotations of stocks and shares could be made to show a real market value".The Stock Exchange of Melbourne grew out of and flourished in the economically tumultuous 1870s and 1880s when a huge influx of British capital flooded into 'Marvellous Melbourne'. It codified the behaviour of brokers, company listing requirements and trading processes. These practices remained unchanged for almost a century.The market contracted during the 1890s depression but grew again with the incredible success of mining in Broken Hill. This pattern of boom and bust drove the stock exchange through the first half of the 20th century but the stock market grew exponentially with the steady growth and diversification of the Australian economy after the Second World War.In 1987 the Melbourne Stock Exchange was absorbed into the new national trading body, the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). Text Source: nma.gov.au.

We uploaded videos to a client YouTube channel yesterday, and with a single block of just four hours with us the channel is now full of content and looks fantastic. We'll chop up the primary video to create a further 100 snippets or so that will eventually find their way onto social channels.Having video on a YouTube channel is obviously essential, but it's their use on your website and within your funnels where they'll deliver your business with results. Yabber is connected to YouTube, so after your videos are ingested they are optionally assigned to each and every page of your website with a simple point-and-click interface, with additional placements on your front entry page. Further, each video is sent to a dedicated video library with its own archive page (this feature gives you full control over your content and effectively creates your own self-hosted video library).Most website guys will give you a pedestrian website destined for a life filled with static mediocrity. Our broker website has over 600 dynamic features that includes around 30 big-ticket video tools (two of which are pictured). There are some 'web guys' that claim their websites convert (you've heard their pitch 100X before), but none come close to providing the array of dynamic conversion-focused features made available in our framework. When these jokers say their websites convert, we genuinely don't know what they're talking about.The opposite of extraordinary is what everybody else is doing. Simply because it's a great way of engaging with our broker clients, we'll be giving away a full session of video with the few discounted website spots we have left (we also try and record a couple of ads for use in paid promotion). You'll generally walk away with a library of around 25-30 evergreen videos. Call me on 0400 777 300.

Note to clients. We've updated the authentication system on your website as a result of some partner discussions last week (that moved the goalposts in a very beneficial direction). Yabber manages multiple groups of contacts, such as clients, partners, introducers, referrers, property groups, and so on, and the new system will update session permissions based on user groups and sub-groups. This update also allows for more effective online courses (the education module will be modified in the next plugin release to cater a new style of course content)We avoided using the default WordPress authentication because of inherit flaws, so our system is more effective for our use case. Login forms may be rendered as forms and popup modals, and content on your website may now be hidden 'inline' requiring a user to authenticate before 'member' content is returned. It's a great system that gives you far more flexibility with your online ambitions.We've also built an Elementor Widget to render the login form or login buttons/text. Pictured is a basic popup modal login on a demo website. More details to follow.

The former Chiltern of the Bank of Australasia was designed by Anketell Matthew Henderson of Reed & Barnes Architects and constructed in 1877. The building was a fully operational branch of the Bank of Australasia until 1943 when it closed and became a private residence. The Bank building has also been an Italian Restaurant, the Mulberry Tree Tearooms/B&B and The Old Chiltern Bank Teahouse, before reverting back to a private residence in 2018.Chiltern is a town in Victoria, Australia, in the northeast of the state between Wangaratta and Wodonga.Picture of Chiltern taken around 1880 with the old bank the last large building on the left. The colour photograph shows the 'Mulberry Tree' Bed & Breakfast (source: Google), still branding the 'Bank of Australasia' markings.