G'day, my name is Chris Andersen and today I'm coming to you live from Burleigh Heads. I'm sitting down here on an early morning. It's Sunday and I've been thinking to myself that I might tell a bit of a story istead of interviewing someone today.. I actually sat down at exactly the same spot, probably a bit less than five years ago with with Morgan Toane from Toronto and we had a bit of a chat about Beers Mith Mates at the time. I was just reflecting on the drive down here that it's now a decade since I moved to Canada. And I remember a decade ago, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with my life. There's no way you could have told me that, right now, I'd be working in real estate, In Brisbane. (continued below or listen via podcast or video)

Before I moved to Canada, I never would have considered becoming a real estate agent. You never could have told me, even when I moved to Canada, that I would have met one of Toronto's best real estate agents who would have brought me into real estate, but that's part of what happened, and that's part of the reason that I'm sitting here today telling this story. I hope that the ocean in the background is not too noisy for you and it doesn't entirely drown out my voice. When I got here, the ocean seemed quite rough. But one of the interesting things about sitting there watching the ocean is you really just get used to the flow of it. So hopefully you can hear that it's getting a little calmer out there now As I start to settle in, on this beautiful morning down in Burleigh and I hope you can sit down, relax, take a load off, and hopefully learn a little bit more about me, your host of the Ando & Co podcast.

It's funny, when you start a story, you're never really sure where you can start. But I'm going to start right at the beginning. When I left school, I still had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Two of my cousins had been to university before - one of them studied economics, the other one studied finance. So guess what I studied - banking and finance and economics. I would have thought to myself that I would have been a physio or a chiropractor but that would have been making a decision - that would have been too narrow for me. So I went broad. Now, as it turned out, studying those subjects has set me up reasonably well to work across a broad range of industries. And so I've was able to start in stockbroking pre 2008, watch that market crash in September 2008, lost my first job in a stockbroking firm at Wilsons and then was able to get picked up at Morgans within a month or two after that. So I went from doing domestic settlements to eventually moving into International Settlements at Morgans. I was working back office, and I had a chance to meet a whole lot of people in Brisbane stockbroking firms between 2008 and 2011. I looked to go into other roles within those firms but it didn't really work out. I was really lucky for Peter Chisholm at Morgan's to set me up to meet a few people around the firm.

One of the people I met was Marcel von Pfeiffer, who is still a close friend of mine. I looked to work with him. That didn't really work out. And so one of the guys who actually worked at Morgan's had come from KPMG. He heard that I was interested in moving into economics and so he set me up with an opportunity for me to actually meet with the crew at KPMG, to see if I could work there. And as it turned out, that worked out. So I went over to KPMG, did a couple of years of really interesting work, met a girl, she sort of threatened to break up with me, so I decided that maybe one way I could get around that is to move to Toronto with her. And so I did. I went over there, I had no idea what I was going to do with my life, but I took a break. I spent a whole lot of the money that I'd saved and, to be fair, some of the money that I'd made in the markets, post 2008. And I started working in finance. And this, this was one of the first roles that I had, where I actually work was working directly with clients. One of the things that I realized when I was working at KPMG, is that I love working with clients. And I didn't get enough experience in doing that. So since then, I've really focused on working in roles where I get to deal directly with the customer. And this has set me up for success. So over there, I worked for Investors Group, we would set people up with a financial plan, and we'd sell them mutual funds and insurance. And it was really interesting, and I got to meet some really great people, got to meet one of my first great sales leaders, Ermos, he's been on the podcast. He showed me a lot about what it's like to show up every day, be super positive, enthusiastic, and also focus on on learning a lot.

During that time, when I was in Canada, I started reading a whole lot of book and, to be honest, I was probably more focused on reading than I was on doing my work. And that probably reflected in the amount of money that I made when I was over there. I did alright. I met the sales targets, but it didn't really make all that much money. But I did learn a lot. And that was great. One of my mates, Alyssa, realized that this probably wasn't the exact right role for me working at Investors Group so she introduced me to her friend Lauren. Lauren then hired me at a firm that was called Scholarhood at the time, (Now Zoocasa) and I became their cold caller. So while I was wrapping up at investors group, I was getting my license in real estate. And I was cold calling for that team. So I was on an auto dialler every day, making 100 contacts every day. I didn't realize that that was quite a lot of activity. I just thought that that's what they did in real estate. And I actually met some people like the Provencher brothers and a couple of other people who did that sort of activity every day. I was lucky enough to actually get a chance to work directly with the Provencher brothers, when they become moved from being the real estate brothers, to the Path Real Estate team. One of the great experiences of me having worked in real estate was doing roleplay training with Dylan & Shaun. It's probably one of the coolest things that I've done in real estate and some of the best training I've received to date.

While I was with that team, I wondered whether real estate was for me, but also wondered whether it made sense that I'd be in Toronto, learning all about the market over there learning all about the neighbourhoods, when there was a chance that I'd come back to Australia. As it turned out, I did come back to Australia, but I went back to Australia on my own. I've been able to settle into some of the roles that I've had in Australia since I moved back from Canada. It's interesting, this drive down to the Gold Coast this morning reminded me of working with Adina Watches and Grant and Bob Menzies. It was just such a great time for me to be able to come back to Australia. I got to actually be a tourist in the land where I call home and met with 150 jewellery stores owners between Noosa and Sydney over that two or so year period in that role.

While I was working with ADINA, I sort of realized that it was fun being single but it probably wasn't my best long term option. So I decided that I probably should leave that role so that I could stay in Brisbane more consistently. Partly that was to help my mental health, partly because I realized that it would be best for me to be in a relationship. At that time, I actually set up Beers With Mates and I really swapped from dating being my main focus, to starting to run events and meet more people. As it turned out, I met Dani not long after that. I met Dani on December 15,2018 and really, from that point onwards, I was running beers with mates. I had a girlfriend, who's now become my fiancée. And I've just been able to meet so many people who shared so many stories with me since that time, and it's been such a great experience to run these meetup groups. It's been Beers with Mates, We Wanna Wine and there was We Want Rum. There was a year where I had my birthday party, it was a rum party at the Jungle Bar in West End. And it's been just such a great journey to go on. Like it's been all over the place.

If you've been sitting back watch me you've probably wondered what the hell are they doing? At what point is he actually going to get a hold on what it is he's doing with his life? Right, like he's sold watches, been a real estate agent, been a financial advisor, been a management consultant.. like at what point is he actually going to make a choice. And I think it's just great to be sitting here now knowing that I've made that choice. And I work in real estate. And my focus areas are Coorparoo, Camp Hill, Morningside, and Murarrie. And I've been looking at that data for quite a while. And the skill sets that I've built in Management Consulting and Financial Advice now assists me and my clients in real estate.

As I said earlier, I never could have sat there 10 years ago, before I moved to Toronto and said to myself, mate, you're going to be a real estate agent. But I know sitting here today on the 14th of May, in 2023. That I'm realizing that, while I never could have thought that I'd be a real estate agent today in 2023, It is the role that's right for me, in the areas that are right for me. As I sit here today, as President of the Old Boys in a position where I'm committed to rebuilding friendships with my mates, and fostering community across Brisbane, both in the meetup groups and in the roles where I play a part with the old boys. It's just great to sit here and realize that 10 years ago, I was wondering what the hell I should be doing with my life. Today, as I sit here and look at the surf, I realized that while Dani wave may have liked for us to be in a better financial position, I can sit here and know that I've already laid the foundations to set up our future together. And it's looking really bright.

So, hopefully that's a condensed version of some of the things that have happened to me over the last decade. We go into a little bit more detail with my guests on the podcast and hopefully you enjoy that. I've got a few in my mind that we'll record over the next couple of months. I'm interested to see how they play out. Thanks for taking a minute today to sit down with me and listen to the surf and hear a little bit about my story. If you ever want to catch up for a beer and just shoot the shit and work out what it is you want to do with your life or how it is you might be able to buy a great home in Brisbane, I'd love to take the time to do that. It's one of the skills I've built over the last decade and it's one of the things that I'll continue to do until the end of my career, hopefully in many years from now. If you ever you want to just give me a call and have a chat my number is O424 682 636. One easy way to remember that is it's O4 2468 ANDO - So, that's 2636. Bye