Opening The Gates To More Listings

Another solo special, and this one comes from three very different rooms.
I went to see Chris Williamson of Modern Wisdom live at the Hammersmith Apollo, with James Smith warming up. I was at EAX 11 in London, put on by Iceberg Digital, with talks from Mark Burgess, James Peach and Chris Hunt, Rob Brady hosting, and two world class agency panels. And I watched Gary Vaynerchuk’s keynote online at the eXp conference in America, which I think is one of the most useful things any UK agent could watch right now.
A comedy and philosophy show, an industry conference and a marketing keynote. You’d think there’d be no overlap. There was loads.
In this episode:
Why the vendor who leaves feeling clever is the one who instructs you, and the Disraeli lesson behind it
The curse of competence, and why hitting target never feels like enough
Outputs versus outcomes: new listings, viewings, offers and exchanges, and why nobody recommends an agent for updating the CRM
Revenue per employee, and whether you’re hiring to grow or hiring to cope
Why it’s never the fee, it’s the presentation
“It’s not marketing to consumers, it’s mattering to people”
Gary Vee’s barbell theory, and how to use digital to go analogue
Becoming the mayor of your town
Chris Hunt’s mental game toolkit for agents
Why the answer to all of it is: do it anyway

If one line from this episode gets you, tell me which one and what you’re going to do with it in the next seven days.

On the 26th of October 2025, I pressed publish on the first edition of the Opening the Gates journal, not even sure anybody would read it. Fifty two Mondays later it has just turned one, and I haven’t missed a single week.
To mark the anniversary, I sat down and read every edition back, from the very first to the most recent. What surprised me was how often the same few ideas kept coming back. Seneca in December, Alex Hormozi in September, Tom Panos over lunch in June, an Olympic rowing crew and a snooker player. Different people, different weeks, all telling me the same handful of things.
So in this solo special, I’ve pulled out the seven biggest lessons from a year of writing to the estate agency community, where each one came from, and what I think it actually means for you, your branch and your diary.
In this episode:
How the journal sat empty for three months, and the late nights in Marrakesh, a hotel room and after a stag do in Mallorca that kept the streak going
Lesson one: stop waiting for perfect information, plus Alex Hormozi’s two decision hack
Lesson two: execution beats education, the forgetting curve, and how Dean Coleman won a £1 million instruction within minutes of a chat
Lesson three: consistency and the boring middle, and what Ben Hunt-Davis and the British rowing eight can teach agents
Lesson four: making your own luck, from James Clear’s dartboard to Dr James Austin’s four types of luck
Lesson five: why the market is never the excuse, from the credit crunch through to permacrisis
Lesson six: your fees, your worth and the people you surround yourself with
Lesson seven: confidence, and looking after your head
Some of my favourite things that made me laugh this year, including Mark from Perfect Property, South Park and a half eaten fry up on Rightmove
Why a quote often credited to Bill Gates (no relation, sadly) ties it all together

If one of the lessons makes you shift in your seat a bit, write down one thing you’re going to do about it and do it in the next seven days.
The journal lands every Monday and it’s completely free. Subscribe at simongates.substack.com, or find everything else I do at linktr.ee/Gatesy91.

The Autumn Budget, what it means for the property market, and what to do about it this week.
On Wednesday I was on back to back calls while the Chancellor was on his feet. Then I got a train down to London for The Spectator’s post Budget briefing at the Emmanuel Centre, chaired by Michael Gove, with James Kendall. I got home at midnight and was back at my desk at 6am the next morning reading through the lot.
That meant the Budget documents, the OBR’s 200-page forecast, the Lloyds Market Insights call, and the reactions from Rightmove, Zoopla, Savills, Knight Frank, Moneyfacts, the brokers and plenty of agents. This episode is the bits that actually matter for our industry, explained the way your clients will want to hear them.
I cover what was announced and, just as importantly, what wasn’t. Stamp duty is unchanged, and the big tax reliefs that protect homeowners all survived.
Then the bit that barely made the news. How the gilt markets reacted, how gilts feed into swap rates and fixed rate mortgages, why “boring” was the best result your buyers could have hoped for, and why that still doesn’t mean cheaper mortgages are coming.
Your First Home, the new 2.5% deposit scheme for first time buyers. How it works, the small print, and why Rightmove found most new builds in some areas wouldn’t qualify.
What it means for sellers, including the mansion tax bands, and why your lettings book could be your best source of sales instructions after landlords took their second tax rise in twelve months.
What it means for tenants and rents, what the government’s own forecaster expects for prices, sales and new homes over the next five years, and what happened to the market around the last four Budgets.
Plus what the Spectator panel and Lloyds’ economists think could happen next, from rate rises to election talk, and why every time you hear it, you should think gilts, swaps, mortgages.
And finally, the six things I want you to do this week. Starting Monday.
Your clients don’t need you to have an opinion on the Chancellor. They need you to explain what it means for their move, calmly and accurately, before anyone else does.
If you have any questions at all, or want a copy of my written Budget article to share with your own clients, send me a message and I’ll happily share it with you.

Today's guest is the Founder and Creative Director of Leaders.inc, Founder of Estate Agency Events and Chairman of Agents Giving.
Before this though, he started as a 17-year-old trainee at Samuel Rains and Son before he could even drive and then built a 30-branch agency, ran a property marketing agency, has been personally coached by Stephen Covey.
He is an international business speaker and coach and advises CEOs and board members - helping them to design and implement strategies to achieve profitable growth and maximise business value.
He also develops learning programmes tailored for the wider business, delivering memorable and motivational workshops that drive performance improvement.
He has spoken at 400+ events in the UK, Ireland, USA, Australia, Indonesia, UAE, Spain, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal and Estonia, and his speaking awards include UK New Speaker of the Year in 2003, Outstanding Speaker in 2010, Lifetime Speaker Award in 2012 and Businessperson of the Year.
Prior to becoming a speaker, he ran an award-winning marketing agency and he worked with businesses large and small including First Choice Holidays, David Lloyd Leisure, Moneypenny, Barratt Homes and Halifax.
Lastly, he is author of the best-selling book, 'HEMP - the Highly Effective Marketing Plan', which has been translated into 11 languages.
We get into:
Where his ideas come from, why being observant is “a curse”, and the 6,000-book library with an “important shelf” he goes back to when he’s stuck
The one book he insists future leaders read before he’ll recommend anything else
Why he thinks there’s an absence of leadership right now, and why culture and leadership are the only differentiators left when everything else can be copied overnight
Opening seven days a week before anyone else and averaging 2.75% across 30 branches
The day Roger Federer rented his house for Wimbledon, and what it taught him about reviewing your own performance
Why Paul McCartney rehearsed his ad-libs, and what that means for your next valuation
Recording your market appraisals, debriefing with a buddy straight afterwards, and how I’ve seen agents use AI to turn that into a coach in their pocket
Bringing the fee up first, and how it sent one agent’s conversion rate through the roof
Why tougher markets are the best time to make changes

If you’re not on his Monday newsletter, sign up and EA Masters is on 3rd November, with some of the best agents in the world on the bill.
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All my links: https://linktr.ee/Gatesy91

Today's returning guest is the founder of We Are Unchained, a strategic marketing consultancy that helps businesses grow faster by enhancing their market insight, strategy, activity, and talent.
Over his 8 years experience in the estate agency industry, he has worked with Countrywide, Fine & Country, Keller Williams, and Knight Frank.
He's also a mentor at Agents Together, Propertymark Trust Ambassador and Fractional CMO for Lemon and Lime Interiors.
With over 30 years of marketing experience across multiple sectors, from startups to FTSE100, he has turned failing marketing teams around, and educated hundreds of people on the science and art of marketing.
His mission is to make quality strategic marketing and practical advice accessible to every business, whether they need a virtual CMO, a one-to-one mentor, or a marketing trainer.
In this episode, we discuss the results of part nine of the Voice of The Agent 2026 (Mental Health & Discrimination), covering topics such as The Boys Club, Women In Estate Agency, the emotional demand of estate agency, gender imbalance, discrimination from colleagues and clients, plus many more very important points.
If you've not already read part nine of the report, please do contact me for a copy of it and I will happily share it with you.