Utterly Indispensable Podcast for Estate Agents

This is not a glossy highlight reel.
It’s a proper, boots-on-the-ground conversation with Tony Ruby, one of the most consistently high-performing agents in the UK and one of eXp’s global standouts.

Tony didn’t start with a grand plan, a war chest, or a safety net. He started after redundancy, with responsibility on his shoulders, a fear of failing, and a decision that he was done building someone else’s business.

In this episode, Tony walks through the real journey, the good, the brutal, and the bits most people leave out:

How being made redundant became the turning point, not the end
• Why most agents misunderstand fees, profit, and what “busy” really means
• What it actually feels like to go self-employed with no guarantees
• Building a personal brand before it became fashionable, and why that mattered
• Why higher fees didn’t lose him clients, but didgive him his life back
• The mistakes, the burnout warning signs, and the decisions he’d change
• What eXp got right, and what people still get wrong about it
• Why success looks different for different agents, and that’s the point

This is a conversation about independence, responsibility, values, and building a business that works for you, not one that slowly eats you alive.

If you’re an estate agent who’s ever thought:
“I could do this better on my own”
or
“There must be a smarter way than this”

You’ll see yourself all over this episode.

No hype. No scripts. Just experience, perspective, and straight talking from someone who’s actually done it.

🎧 Guest: Tony Ruby
Helping and mentoring agents on their journey
eXp UK No.1 volume agent | No.2 worldwide
Quadruple ICON | 5x Capping Agent
eXp Agent of the Year 2022

📲 Connect with Tony
Instagram: @tony_ruby_estate_agent
Email: [email protected]
YouTube: Tony Ruby
Mobile: 07900 010 507

This one’s for agents who want ownership, not just another target.

This episode is a proper deep dive into the engine room of estate agency software.

My guest is Riccardo Dawson, CEO of Alto Software Group, the platform powering over a third of the UK property market. But this isn’t a corporate victory lap. It’s an honest, behind-the-scenes look at what really happens when you take over a complex SaaS business, strip it back to fundamentals, and rebuild it for the future.

We talk about:

What it actually takes to turn around a large PropTech business without breaking customer trust

Why Alto deliberately went “back to core” before chasing shiny new features

The concept of “jobs to be done” and why most CRMs quietly fail agents every day

How AI should removeadmin, not just repackage it

The uncomfortable ethics of AI in lettings, tenant scoring, and automated decision-making

Why some AI features are just hype, and which ones will genuinely change how agencies operate

What the estate agent of the next five years will really be managing (hint: it’s not dashboards)

Riccardo also shares his non-linear career journey, from architecture and fashion startups to founding Yourkeys, selling to Zoopla, and ultimately leading one of the most influential software platforms in UK property.

If you’ve ever complained about your CRM, felt overwhelmed by AI noise, or wondered what’s actually coming next for estate agencies, this episode will make you think very differently about where the industry is heading.

This conversation is grounded, practical, occasionally uncomfortable, and absolutely essential listening for agency owners who want to stay relevant rather than reactive.

If you think HR is just contracts and common sense, this episode might save you a small fortune.

In this episode, I’m joined by Paul Fitzsimmons – an HR and employment law specialist who’s spent 15+ years helping business owners avoid expensive, stressful, tribunal-shaped disasters.

Paul doesn’t do fluffy HR. He’s run his own business. He understands commercial reality. And he’s seen everything – from cocaine-fuelled Christmas parties to dismissals that looked obvious… until they cost £60,000.

We talk about:

Why you can’t just sack someone on the spot(even when they really deserve it)

The simple HR mistakes that land good businesses in serious trouble

What the new employment law changesactually mean – without the scaremongering

Why performance management should be constant, not reactive

Christmas parties, social media, drugs, discipline… and why alcohol plus staff is a legal minefield

The uncomfortable truth about average staff, tough decisions, and avoiding six months of misery

How bad HR drains profit, energy, and leadership time

Why outsourcing HR is often cheaper, safer, and saner than winging it

We also get into Paul’s refreshingly honest take on conveyancing, margins, service quality, and why racing to the bottom on fees breaks businesses on both sides of the transaction.

Paul brings humour, clarity, and zero nonsense. You’ll laugh. You’ll wince. And you’ll almost certainly rethink how exposed your business really is.

If you employ people – or are thinking about it – this episode is required listening.

How to contact Paul

You can find Paul Fitzsimmons on LinkedIn. Drop him a message with your biggest HR headache and he’ll translate it into plain English before it becomes expensive.

What if the way buyers search for property is about to change forever?
And what if estate agents finally have a way to loosen the grip of ever-rising portal fees?

In this episode, I’m joined by Mal McCallion, a true industry heavyweight. Mal was there at the birth of PrimeLocation, helped launch Zoopla, and has spent over 25 years inside the engine room of property portals and proptech.

Now he’s back — and this time he’s taking aim at the very model he helped create.

We talk about how AI is already reshaping how buyers search, why traditional filters are broken, and how “vibe searching” will replace rigid portals. Mal explains why estate agents have been boxed into an expensive, outdated system — and how AI finally gives them leverage again.

This is not a fluffy “AI might be useful one day” chat. It’s a hard look at what’s changing right now:
– Why AI search will challenge portal dominance
– How agents can win market share, cut costs, and increase revenue per deal
– Why being small, local, and human may become your biggest advantage
– What the next 2–3 years mean for estate agency businesses that adapt… and those that don’t

If you’re an agent who wants to stay relevant, profitable, and in control of your future, this conversation will make you think — and probably make you uncomfortable in all the right ways.

How to Contact Mal McCallion (Show Notes)

Mal is currently touring the UK, speaking directly to estate agents about AI, portals, and the future of property search.

Register for the UK tour:
👉 https://myporta.ai/tour26

Email Mal directly:
📧 [email protected]

If you’re curious about where AI is really heading in property — not the hype, the reality — this is one conversation you’ll be glad you listened to.

Most training in estate agency exists to stop you going to prison.

Very little of it helps you win instructions, progress sales, or actually understand the law you’re meant to be complying with.

That’s why this conversation matters.

In this episode, I’m joined by Charlotte Jeffrey-Campbell, founder of The Able Agent—and one of the most grounded, no-nonsense voices in estate agency training today.

Charlotte has done the job. Lister, manager, trainer, business builder. She’s seen what works, what doesn’t, and why most agents are quietly blagging their way through regulation they don’t fully understand.

We talk about:

Why qualifications aren’t the enemy—but bad training is

What actually happened to RoPA (and why it hasn’t gone away)

The dangerous gaps in estate agents’ knowledge (even after 20+ years)

Why compliance and business generation should never be taught separately

How most agents learn sales progression the hard way… and why they shouldn’t

And why “free training” often turns out to be the most expensive option of all

This isn’t a scare-story episode.

It’s a grown-up conversation about raising standards without killing the soul of the industry.

If you want your team to be more confident, more credible, and genuinely expert—not just box-ticking—this one’s for you.



Life’s too short for bad training.