Episode 178 Transcript
Heather Porter (00:01.208)
Chris, thank you so much for being on the show. How's it going in Melbourne?
Chris Christofi (00:05.572)
Pleasure being here. Melbourne's great. Always very, very cold. My friend always says if you don't like the weather in Melbourne, just wait 10 minutes.
Heather Porter (00:14.284)
That's so true. Four seasons in like an hour. Yeah, so true. I always like to get stuck into some really great tactical takeaways at the start. So we're going to do that and then we're going to learn more about your business and some of your really amazing movements that you're creating. But let's start with you. And what I'd to start with is the three top strategies that you have for growing a successful business while staying grounded in your own personal life.
Chris Christofi (00:16.858)
100%.
Chris Christofi (00:42.817)
look.
think everything comes down to personal growth. So you always need to surround yourself with very, very good people. You always need to have the mindset of a student. So you're always learning and wanting to know more and get better and better to keep refining your skills. I think that's super, super important. Think number two, have a very, very good mentor. Someone who's walked the path that you wanna walk. But I also say it's very, very important they've done it in the manner that you want them to. Have the integrity.
Heather Porter (00:49.741)
Yeah.
Chris Christofi (01:13.948)
their social responsibility, if that's what's important to you. So having a mentor is one thing with a proven track record, but having someone achieve those results and those outcomes in a manner that you look up to and respect, I think is very, very important.
And thirdly, I think everything comes down to having an amazing team. You can't do things by yourself. So you need to be a good leader by fostering a good environment, which will allow people to grow, allow people to be heard. And we don't say a rev in time, that's not my job, that's not my role. We're one team, we work together. We understand our goals. And I think when you do that and you have clarity,
It doesn't mean your vision and mission doesn't grow, doesn't evolve, but your teams should have clarity. They should have the tools to do what they need to do, and you should be able to empower them to grow, to make mistakes, to say it's okay, but to take account of bidding and learn from them. So I'll say they're probably my three key components to running a successful business.
Heather Porter (02:17.324)
So want to talk to you about mentorship. How often do you change up your own personal mentors?
Chris Christofi (02:23.835)
Look, I've had mentors for many, many years.
I've got one who's in Dallas. My podcast, Run Endless Life on Your Terms, episode one, was with my mentor. I've been with him for four or five years. I have mentors that I've been with for many, many years. I have some that are little bit more seasonal. I had a coach, coach me little bit about social media, how to get out there, but I liked what he stood for, so I reached out to him. Funny enough, he developed a product at the back of that and then he was helping other people. Because I think it's very, very important to hang around people you enjoy.
Heather Porter (02:34.71)
Chris Christofi (02:57.24)
being around, hang around people you think are good people, are good, honest human beings, and people that push you and inspire you to do better things, people that celebrate your success.
Heather Porter (03:08.588)
Yeah, agreed. So guys, you have to go listen to Live Life on Your Terms in episode one if you want to know who Chris is mentors.
Chris Christofi (03:16.026)
Kevin France, he lives in Texas. My next mentoring session is in August and I fly him down to Australia. So the first episode was filmed in my office, probably five meters from where we're filming this and I flew him down from Texas. Every year or two, I like to do face to face and I'll bring him down to Australia.
Heather Porter (03:23.063)
Nice.
Heather Porter (03:36.65)
Love it. If you think about the work that you guys have done together, is there one core theme or discussion that you've gotten the most out of in your time together?
Chris Christofi (03:48.93)
Look, it's great question. remember, funny enough, it's in the episode, he talks about making it very, very easy for your clients to do business with you. So make that an easy proposition, but very, very hard to disengage. you become like, for lack of a better word, I think he used octopus, which means hard to disengage. So we do their property, we do their finance, we do their property management, we do their accounting, we their planning. So make it easy for people to engage with you, but make it super hard for them to disengage because they need
Heather Porter (04:05.229)
Yeah.
Chris Christofi (04:18.684)
your business, they need your service. So it's kind of like, look at technology now. It's very, very hard to imagine our life without it or without having mailways or, you know, what do we have now? The ways to take us to different locations. But there was time when we used to have a book, we had mailways, we didn't have ways and Google Earth and all this stuff, Google Maps, sorry. So it's very, very hard to be without those things. So the analogy that he gave me is make it very, very easy for clients to engage
services, know what you're about, offer clarity, but make it hard for them to walk away because they need your service so much. And I think that's a very, very good lesson.
Heather Porter (04:55.394)
Hmm. That's good. And you mentioned one other thing about your team that I feel by all the interviews I've had over the last couple of years is becoming more difficult. And that is with your team, not having a team that says that's not my job. So how do you foster that? How do you let your own team know that they're there to collaborate and do what it takes?
Chris Christofi (05:18.084)
think the easiest way to let them know is you do that yourself. Don't do as I say, do as watch me. I don't listen to what people say, I watch what people do. There's a key distinct difference. So there's no job that's too small a revanton for me. I'm probably the local resident dishwasher in this office. I probably wash more dishes than anyone here.
Heather Porter (05:38.446)
No.
Chris Christofi (05:39.16)
So if they see me doing that or picking up the phone and calling and doing whatever I need to do, I'm sure they can do that as well. But it's not a culture that we force people to do it. You either want to do it, you're a part of it and enjoy it, or maybe this business isn't for you. So yeah, it's kind of like that. don't force anybody to do anything. No one can force me to do anything. It's something that I want to do, something that I want to collaborate with my team. So I think the way to do that is to have good values and to have
clarity around what values are important to you. Like we've got client experience, client, client, client is very important. We've got, we care, we care about our team, we care about our clients and we care about our community. So it's about understanding those core values because I think like tracks like, whatever you are as a business owner, I'm, you know, relentless on getting results. You'll most likely attract people like that. I'm very, very good with clients. You'll attract people like that. People that don't micromanage.
you'll attract people like that. And even if you don't, if you stay true to those values, those people will be, I'm not gonna say...
exposed, but you'll see them very, very quick. They won't fit into the company or organization. Nothing's wrong with that, by the way. I don't think there's a wrong or a right way to do things. You find your tribe and you find the company that you like and you work with them. If it doesn't fit, and I've said to people, we're not the company for you, with all due respect, I want them to be in a company where they enjoy. I want them to be in a company where they're going to thrive and more importantly, be happy. So when I speak to people and I'm the third interviewer and people come into the organization,
say this is a two way interview, I want you to be interviewing me like I'm going to be interviewing you. You can ask me any questions. Nothing's off limit. Personal or company. And let's have a chat. And we have one non-negotiable at Reventon is you need to not take yourself too serious because we have a very big culture of taking the piss out of each other. As for me, we take our jobs very, very serious and we work relentlessly for our clients to get the job done and we're super serious. But we do it with a smile on our face.
Heather Porter (07:38.518)
That's good. Yeah?
Chris Christofi (07:49.356)
and we don't take ourselves too serious. And that definitely comes from me because I'm always joking around. I've always been like that since I was a kid. I'm 45 going on 46 and I'm exactly the same.
Heather Porter (08:03.586)
Good. Don't ever change. I'm all for that. You seem very protective of your team and your culture and your business and your community. And you did briefly mention, you you'll let go of clients when they're not the right fit. How do you know that? I guess, how do you let go of clients when they're not the right fit in the best way for both of you?
Chris Christofi (08:06.49)
I'll go again.
Chris Christofi (08:25.528)
I always answer that the same way, in an honest, candid and respectful manner. Everything is how you deliver that message. And you can deliver it with respect.
And it's not the of the world if a client's not for you. It's not the end of the world if someone's not there for you. Wouldn't you want to know that sooner rather than later? Now, why draw out that process and make it uncomfortable for the client or your team member when it's just not going to work? So by calling that upfront, that conversation, you're going to make that person happy because they're going to find somewhere else. And usually the clients that are the most difficult, that will take energy away from you. could have serviced 10 other clients better. But more importantly than that,
If they're not happy and they have an unrealistic expectation of what you can deliver, that's okay. You can bring that up and say, I'm sorry, we might not be the company for you. So for me, I value people's business. I don't need it. And I say that with all due respect and no arrogance about it. I've just learned after 20 years in business and having over 10,000 clients that it's okay to say no. Now, when you're starting and you're new, I want every client and you can't say no when you're trying to please everyone.
Heather Porter (09:17.55)
Mm.
Heather Porter (09:35.799)
Yep.
Chris Christofi (09:37.004)
and you're everything to everyone but really you become nothing to no one because you need to be very very clear with what you offer and what you do and there's never a I guess there's never a good way this I guess people might not receive you're not the right fit for the company whether that be a client or a team member so you need to be respectful about it now for me when when a client or when a team member is not the right fit
I'll have that conversation if they've been with us for years because I think it's a difficult conversation. So they deserve the respect of a coming from me. At the end of it, I'll ask them for a hug if they're okay. And I always take them out to lunch if they want to just so they can, even if they leave on good terms, I exit always that way. And I always finish off by saying, it's not goodbye, it's until next time. Now that could be in any way, shape or form. Could be as a friend, could be as a client, could be as a business partner, could be back working here. You can have a boomerang team member.
anything.
Heather Porter (10:35.586)
Yeah, yeah, well shared. Thank you. We're going to talk a little bit about your business because I know you started Revinten when you were actually in debt. So talk to me about that. How did you start the business and where did you go from that first day of being in debt to growing it to where you are now?
Chris Christofi (10:53.498)
Well, I started the business on the 21st of March, 2005 from my parents' home. And I had a debt of 348,000 at the time. So I always say when people say to me, I started the business with zero, I always think or I say, I wish I'd had zero when I started. I would have snapped your arm off if you offered me that offer.
Heather Porter (10:58.306)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (11:09.08)
Yeah.
Chris Christofi (11:13.754)
I always knew real estate was the way to go. I knew real estate was a great investment for clients and I always wanted to build a fully integrated financial services company that can help people make smart investment decisions. So even in day one, when I was at my parents' my vision was to always build what I've built now. I would say I would have thought I would have done it a lot sooner than I did. So about eight, nine years in, I started the finance company.
Five years ago, I started a property management company, financial planning firm and an accounting firm. So now we're fully integrated. But it was always the vision from day one. And it was so people can have access to great information. People can learn how they can create, build and protect their wealth for now and generations to come. Now, Australians love bricks and mortar, as you know, it's a very popular investment. And to be honest, coming from an ethnic background, my father's a big on real estate and I fell in love with it at a
young age and my father helped me get into my first property when I was about 20 years old.
Heather Porter (12:19.854)
You mentioned that you wish you would have done it sooner in somewhere in that conversation or things would happen quicker somehow. What did you mean by that comment?
Chris Christofi (12:29.902)
Well, when people say the comment like, you think you'd get here, quietly in my head I always think, yes.
But the other part of me says, thought I would have built this quicker or sooner. So it took me 20 years, but in 20 years, we've helped over 10,000 clients, three and a half thousand clients get into real estate. We've had $3.45 billion in sales, over a billion dollars under management, over five star Google reviews. We're featuring over 150 publications, won close to 60 awards, wrote an Amazon bestselling book, run a podcast. We've done quite a lot, but in my mind,
Heather Porter (12:47.758)
Yeah.
Chris Christofi (13:07.804)
When I hear and see all that, I think I could have done it much quicker, or much sooner, maybe 5 or 10 years quicker.
Heather Porter (13:16.088)
What do you think you could have done differently then to make it all happen quicker?
Chris Christofi (13:20.962)
Look, I think as you grow, you become more mature, you become better, faster and more efficient and that comes down to having the right people around you. The old adage, hang out with champions, you lay down with dogs, you get fleas. Could have been a bit more strategic with some of my decisions that I made, I think, because as you're growing and as you're learning, I always take a lot of shots and that's one of my strengths.
Heather Porter (13:35.213)
Ha
Chris Christofi (13:47.13)
But if I'd done something different, I would have taken a little bit more time at the front of those decisions being more strategic. And I wouldn't have taken as many shots, but I think that would have had more impact. I would have grown more because when you make a mistake in business, it takes time, it takes money, but it's also a lesson. But unwinding that mistake costs money, costs time as well, costs opportunity. So I guess there was a few things I could have maybe done a little bit better, but I don't regret those learnings, but maybe make
a few less decisions might have got us here faster, but I always say whatever I haven't done in these 20 years of my career at Reventon, I'm coming back in the next 20 to do a lot more. So if I feel I've lost five years here, I owe myself five more years here. I'm gonna come and get that speed later. That's what I always say to myself and it calms me down.
Heather Porter (14:38.382)
Good. So if we just hone in on the last year, because I feel like, what's that saying from Tony Robbins? You know, you underestimate what you can do in a year or overestimate in a year, but underestimate what you can do in a decade. Isn't it good? So based on that, we're talking about a year, your last year specifically, what do you think something that you did exceptionally well?
Chris Christofi (14:52.122)
I did my podcast recently,
Chris Christofi (15:03.962)
reflected on my first 20 years in business. So we celebrated 20 years on the 21st of March this year. And I made it a point of mine to sit down and ascertain what I did very well as a company. When I say I, mean my team, and I mean my team past and present. I have a five-year club at this business. So if you'll serve five years in this business, past or present, every year I invite you back to a beautiful lunch or a beautiful dinner just to celebrate you, to say thank you.
year club whenever you've done five years and it's a lifetime membership we've been doing it I think first year we picked everyone up in a helicopter took them to a winery gave them all a gift we do this every year I think this is our third or fourth year coming up just to celebrate and pay homage to the people that have helped this business so yeah it's basically reflecting on the team we put together what we did very well what we could have maybe
Heather Porter (16:02.037)
Mm. Yep.
Chris Christofi (16:02.424)
not done, not executed on, because that energy and that investment could have been redeployed elsewhere. So I think what we've done, two things I think we've done very well that stand out I should say, is we've got much more clarity than we've ever had. And we're also reflecting on things not to do or things we could have done better.
Heather Porter (16:22.072)
Got it. I want to refer back to your clients. I love that you give you do the community and the connection and the gifts and the trips. I think I read somewhere that a lot of your clients have been with you 10 or even 15 years and the education's a really important part about what you guys do. So I want to talk to you a little bit about longevity and thinking about your clients in a way of long-term versus transactional. How do you make that happen?
Chris Christofi (16:49.53)
We don't have customers, we have clients. I take a long-term view on everything. I don't care if I don't make as much money on this deal, because I say to my clients, my goal is not to sell you one property. When I was selling real estate, my goal is to sell you five or 10 over a 20-year period. I'm going to ask you for your trust once, but I'm never going to ask you to do that again. My results will lead the way. The way we service you will lead the way, and our team will show how much we care. So it's going to be a one-time request. And when a client buys off me, I always say to them, this is where I service
Heather Porter (16:52.141)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Christofi (17:19.514)
begins, doesn't end. So I'm very, very relationship based when it comes to our clients. I take a long term view on things. And if our clients have a challenge or an issue across the company, I say, pick up the phone and deal with it like it's a new lead coming into this business. You show that client the same respect when they've got an issue, then when you were trying to close a sale or do a deal, you show that client the same respect. A lot of people disappear, their head in the sand. If there's an issue, get behind it and fix it.
So when you're dealing with so many people with builders, developers, banks, solicitors, property managers, mortgage brokers, there's so many things that can go wrong.
But if you were man enough or woman enough or person enough to speak to the client and convert them, when there's an issue, you better be behind that phone call or behind that computer or go to the client's house and you better fix it because it shows a level of respect. So when people come to even my events, when I run charity events and they buy things at my auction, they're always surprised when I deliver them personally with the guide, the memorabilia do they go, Chris, we didn't expect you to be. I said, why not? I called you, I should have come to my event. You invested money to be here. You bought something.
Heather Porter (18:27.469)
Yeah.
Chris Christofi (18:30.136)
Who else is going to deliver it? And I said, we didn't think you're going to be here. said, of course I'm going to deliver it myself because that's the Christoffy touch and that's the Revoton touch.
Heather Porter (18:40.758)
Wow, is that your product your brick by big brick project that you're talking about the donations? What what's that charity?
Chris Christofi (18:45.466)
That lead with kindness, I started an event called Lead. I never mentioned that when I was mentioning what the company does.
because I didn't know, but the proudest thing that the company does is our philanthropy work and that was the, I always leave that last because for me that's the most important, along with my client results and our longevity. I've been working at Vinny's for eight years. I shouldn't say working, I'm an ambassador for seven, I've been involved for eight. I'm an ambassador and every year I do the Vinny CEO sleep out. So year two they've asked me to be an ambassador.
Heather Porter (18:58.84)
Tell me.
Heather Porter (19:20.354)
Yeah.
Chris Christofi (19:23.736)
because I was a big advocate for homelessness in Australia.
and we've done amazing in eight years. This year we raised $400,000 in one campaign. It's the highest that anyone's ever raised and it brought our collective total to $1,218,882 and that's the highest anyone's ever raised in 20 years. So we've got a company like Revinton that's given back more than any other business. So for me, when I look at feather in my cap, when I look at something I'm most proud of, outside my four kids, of course, my family, my work at
Heather Porter (19:43.318)
Chris Christofi (19:57.206)
achievements, it would definitely be the fact we do lead the way when it comes to caring about our community and we don't just give money because out of that 1.2 million over half a million was invested by Reventon and me personally.
So wasn't just we give time, 42 % of that money, I look at all the numbers so I know exactly what they are, I'm very left brain, was donated and given from this company. So I'm very, very proud of that. So we are someone that's conscious about our community, we do lead with compassion, and we always try to pay it forward because we're very, very fortunate.
Heather Porter (20:30.926)
That's, um, congratulations on that figure. That's, that's incredible that you guys have done that. Very cool. I was, tell me.
Chris Christofi (20:35.962)
And you were mentioning the brick by brick. Alongside that, three years into this charity, I'm in Guntree on Turaq Road shopping with my wife and kids. My ADHD is going everywhere and I'm thinking, what can I do more than the sleep out? And I thought, you know what? I wanna buy, build, pay off a house and donate it to charity. So I called Jen Newk, who's the general manager at the time of Venus, and I said, hey, Jen.
Heather Porter (20:50.156)
Yeah.
Chris Christofi (21:05.778)
I had an idea, I want to build a house and pay it off and donate it to you guys. Can you get the lawyers in my office? And she goes, sure. So they came in and we had a chat. Now we made over 250,000 profit, no capital gains because it was bought under a trust or a charity. This year we sold that house for 840,000. So just from an idea that I had a few years back.
Heather Porter (21:23.874)
Nah.
Chris Christofi (21:27.502)
We did the sleep out. We also done it at a house. these are all the cool things that we get to do every day through working out. So we're very lucky.
Heather Porter (21:35.442)
wow. Amazing that I love how important community and longevity are for you. It's a rare talent and gift to have these days. So that brings me to the future of of you and your business. There's a lot of things changing really fast, as you know, in tech and finance and even property in Australia. What's your vision for the future of wealth creation and how should people prepare for it?
Chris Christofi (22:03.766)
Open-mindedly put, I'm a very people person. love people. I love sales. That's my strength. Tech and stuff is not. So need to make sure to surround myself with people that are very good in that space. Be open-minded. Welcome change. Business is changing constantly. The most inevitable thing in life is change. People fear it. We need to embrace it. Change could mean better, faster, more efficient. It could, how do I optimize? How do I redeploy my energy, my capital?
Heather Porter (22:08.545)
Yeah.
Chris Christofi (22:33.66)
So there's a lot of good things happening.
Don't get focused just on noise when everyone's trying to scare people and freak everybody out. Take a little bit of time, speak to good people that know what they're talking about. Very, very important. And you'll be fine as long as you're open minded. One of my goals is to walk into Revintown every year and to not recognize it. That we've improved so much. And that goes through the skills of our team, through our systems, through our processes. Innovation doesn't mean creating something brand new all the time. It also means optimizing. It also means improving.
So you can innovate always by asking yourself, can I do this better, faster, more efficient? How can I deliver this service or product to my client better? How many steps does this take? 10. Hey, can we do it in seven? Can we do it faster? Can I eliminate a part of this process? So I had a meeting yesterday actually looking at our processes for one thing and said, guys, everyone in the room that was responsible for this process, could we do this better, faster? How many steps does it take? Can we do it in less?
And you measure that stuff, because what gets measured, you can optimize and improve. And how do you measure something? You look at it. You analyze it. You look at the data. So don't be scared. Whatever's going to happen is going to happen. Put a smile on your face and go for it.
Heather Porter (23:53.27)
Love, love it. Okay, so if somebody wants to be a client of yours, where do they start that journey?
Chris Christofi (23:59.765)
They can call Revinton. They can email chris at revinton.com.au. If you google revinton.com.au, it will come up.
very, very happy to know our first meeting is a strategy session, is no cost, no money, no obligation. We will share with you exactly what to do and how to do because we want to understand the client's goals and objectives. We want to see what they're trying to achieve, what your risk tolerance is, what your borrowing capacity is, you know, how old do I, how many more years are going to be in the workforce, how many kids do you have, do you have good debt, do you have bad debt, do you understand all these things? What are you thinking when it comes to investing? The first
important, the first meeting in my opinion is probably one of the most important. It's all about the client. It's like when you go to a specialist, the first thing they do is analyze the situation, ask you a lot of questions. So people ask me random questions. What should I do here? What should I do here? And I go, before I answer that question and do it justice, I need to ask you so many more questions. I can give you a general answer, might not be applicable to you. Where should I buy? What should I buy? That's probably, that's probably meeting three or four. Let's understand why you want to buy. What are your goals?
Heather Porter (24:58.135)
Yes.
Chris Christofi (25:09.532)
What's your risk tolerances? What are you trying to achieve? And then I'll answer those questions for you.
Heather Porter (25:15.756)
Love it. Now, because we are on a podcast and you have your own podcast, Relentless Life on Your Own Terms, give me a little synopsis of what that podcast is all about so people can come and check that out.
Chris Christofi (25:26.404)
We're currently in its seventh season. We have filmed in America and all over Australia. I film in my office and I take the show on the road as I call it. We're about to film in Cyprus in September plus London. We've done over 130 episodes. Currently, as I said, in its seventh season, we've had some amazing guests from around the world. We've had five-time world heavyweight champion Sam Greco, five-time champion Sam Solomon, another world champion Nick DeTouros.
Brownlow medalists, amazing footy players, Olympians, CEOs, health experts, you name it, we've had it. The reason for that podcast was I wanted to get great people on that can share their experiences, their lessons, because there's so much knowledge out there. Let's talk about it and let's actually see if we can help or inspire someone. So it's been like a passion project for me and it's taken me to some really cool places and I've met some amazing people.
with some insane journeys. We talk to some people around philanthropy as well. It's just people that living life on their terms.
Heather Porter (26:35.598)
Beautiful. I like that you take it on the tour as well. It's very smart. So as we start to wrap up, are there any last words of advice that you'd like to leave people with?
Chris Christofi (26:46.958)
Be open minded, love what you do, be happy and just go for it. What's the worst that can happen, I always say. No matter how bad things are, put a smile on and you're gonna figure it out.
Heather Porter (26:59.288)
That is the perfect way to end our chat. Chris, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it.
Chris Christofi (27:04.098)
It's an absolute pleasure. Thank you very much for having me on your podcast.
Heather Porter (27:07.534)
Thank you.
