Samantha McLean: from aspiring accountant to media maven

Sally’s conversation explores Samantha's journey from aspiring accountant to digital publisher with a focus on providing quality industry news and content, events, education and coaching. They talked about embracing change, taking accountability and responsibility for the direction our lives take, and AI, which is a special interest topic for Samantha.

Samantha on leaving accounting and pursuing technology:

“There's always been that creative spark in me, and I just saw technology as something that was new and different and exciting, and even back then moving at quite a rate of knots more so than just anything else that I was doing.”

“It was back in I think 1991 or two when I was offered the technology supervisor role at Greenwoods. They put me through Nobel training, so I was a Nobel Network certified engineer. I still have the certificate. And then when I moved across to the legal world, I ended up being, I think, the first female in New South Wales as a Microsoft certified engineer. It was all really very male dominated at the time, and funnily enough it was back then, I never found that there was any sort of ceiling or anything like that because I was the exception, not the rule.”

On juggling her career with parenting:

“I don't think as a working woman, anyone really has it all. And if they say they do, they're probably lying because the reality is that you have to always, something is always at the expense of something else. But I think if you can look at it, I used to look at it as juggling and feeling like, well, out of balance and things like that, because I've done some crazy things. I had two jobs at once, which was hard being a single mother at the time because my husband and I broke up. But I had to think of it more as, not as juggling, but tilting. There were some times that it was necessary for me to tilt towards work, and there were times that it was sometimes necessary for me to tilt towards family or tilt towards my health or whatever. And so I think you've got to accept that sometimes we need to tilt one way and sometimes we need to tilt the other.”

On how she started Elite Agent, after the magazine she was working for, Sold Magazine, closed

“So when that magazine ceased to exist, everyone just said to me, why don't you just create your own magazine? Simple. But the thing is I had no job, no money, no magazine and no qualifications in journalism either. So it was not as easy on paper as it looked, but I did think there was something inside of me that said, maybe there is more to come. I'd like my own magazine, but I want to do it differently. I want to do something that's really positive for the industry and something uplifting. A lot of the media about real estate agents is not always flattering.”

On holding yourself accountable and taking ownership over your own destiny

“I do think that the three things that you've really got to own in your life are ownership over your own destiny, accountability for what you want and taking responsibility for yourself. And where this comes from is there were a few things that happened to me where I was blaming other people. I was sort of thinking that it was their fault or someone else's fault. And to a degree, they probably were to blame. But as soon as I took that off the table and took myself being a victim off the table and became accountable for it, then that's when other people start to show up for you and things start to happen. And so I do think ownership and accountability, and “that happened to me”. Not “woe is me and it's their fault”, but “that happened to me.” What can I learn from it? How can I move forward?”

On the impact Elite Agent has on the industry

“I really wanted to do something better that would uplift people. And in the beginning it was just like, well, what if it's one person? What if we help one person in one day at a time? That's enough. It's really interesting. Now, that's still our ethos and still elevate, educate, entertain, but we've started adding some other words to our vision, which is something that fuels ambition. And for me, really, I think in the last 10 years, the real estate industry has become quite homogenous in a lot of ways because everyone's bombarded with the same information. And even like we sold a house a couple of months ago, everyone's saying the same things, everyone's doing the same things. And so I don't know, I sort of feel like now's a bit of time to ruffle a few feathers and encourage people to be different and break out of the, you don't have to be the same as everybody else. To be a great real estate agent, you can be different.”

On AI

“I'm crazy interested in AI at the moment because it's been the biggest thing since social media. And obviously I think that everyone sort of needs to get on board with that because there are unfair advantages to be had everywhere if you can use AI well, but along with that, I think everyone needs to be really honing their relationship building skills because there'll be things that AI can’t do, and people will expect AI to do those things. And I think real estate agents, even too, will let AI do those things. But what are the things we're going to pay you for in the future? And so I think that's where we need to be thinking now is how do we hone our relationship skills? How do we tell better stories? How do we serve our clients better? How do we make them feel seen? That sort of thing, because those are the things that AI can't do.”

On the importance of networking for women in real estate

“I think it's up to us as a collective to really nurture, particularly the young women that see real estate as a great option. It is a great career, I don’t know of anywhere where you can sit on the edge of technology, on the edge of negotiation and make your own path that is anything like real estate. And so I do think that networking is so important. And the other thing is you just never know who you might meet. I went through periods of wanting to be a hermit. I am an introvert. And then there was six months after COVID where I just said, I'm just going to say yes to everything. And it was probably one of the most fun six months ever. I said yes to so many things, just say yes, just to say yes, just get out there because you just never know who you might meet.”

The Samantha McLean podcast with Leading Ladies will be available Tuesday 28 May 2024.