After cutting back his hours following a health scare, Rael Bricker is not only happier – he’s also making more money.
After cutting back his hours following a health scare, MPA hall of famer Rael Bricker is not only happier – he’s also making more money.
Six months ago the House + Home Loans director underwent heart surgery for two blocked arteries. While heart conditions run in his family, he says the pressure he was under from work exacerbated his situation.
“I was definitely burning the candle at both ends, trying to see six or seven clients in a day having been up since 5am to go and exercise, and I would see my last client at 7 or 8 o’clock at night and then come home and still read emails.”
While Bricker says he has always realised the importance of exercise for stress relief, trying to fit it in along with a hectic work schedule meant he wasn’t making time for things such as proper meals or relaxation and his health suffered accordingly.
Confronted with his own mortality post-surgery, Bricker decided to take serious action to fix his worklife balance.
Bricker has recently hired a fourth personal assistant to take some of the pressure off. This allows him to focus on dealing with clients and referrers, while other staff deal with paperwork.
Not only has this seen his blood pressure drop back to below normal, his monthly personal turnover has grown by 25 per cent, and that of House + Home Loans even more so.
His diary is also looking markedly different, scheduling client appointments for an hour and a half each, with time for both lunch and exercise blocked out in his calendar each day.
While he was initially nervous about letting clients down, he says he has had nothing but positive reactions so far.
“From a business point of view it was a relatively major change actually have the confidence to turn around to clients and say ‘Sorry, I can’t fit you in until next week’,” he says. “I tell them straight up that I can only see a limited number of people per day and I can get another team member to see you or you can wait... and I haven’t had anyone complain about that.”
While this needs to be taken on a case-by-case basis, Bricker says the fact that most of his clients are investors who want to talk about long-term strategy means that timelines are much more flexible than those of, say, first home buyers.
Through prioritising appointments and learning to say no when necessary, most client appointments can be kept within normal business hours, he says.
“Part of that goes along with my mantra that I’m always singing in the industry, which is that we need to be more professional. If you want to be seen in the same light as a lawyer or an accountant or a CPA, as the MFAA like to tell us, then you have to see yourself like that - and a CPA doesn’t go out to people’s houses at 7 o’clock at night.”
This has also had a direct impact on his home life, says Bricker.
“I have three kids and suddenly they see the change in lifestyle and they seem more relaxed. The whole household is calmer.”
The key to making the change, says Bricker is to realise that stepping back doesn’t necessarily come at the cost of quality or revenue.
“I sat in hospital thinking that I’ve got to make some changes, and I was concerned about how that was going to affect the business, but my personal settlements have been up 25 per cent every month for the last four months, and I’m thinking ‘Hmm, maybe it really is about doing things smarter.”
“I see a lot of brokers doing 80-hour weeks that don’t have Pas, just killing themselves to do the paperwork, get on top of things and see clients. That fifty thousand per year you pay for PA is going to increase your turnover by $10-20m, while at same time improving your lifestyle.”
