Leadership Takes Centre Stage at Launch 2025

Launch 2025 – Domenic Belfiore, Craig McCrae and Dan White 

More than 1,200 Ray White members from across Victoria and Tasmania gathered at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre for the network’s annual kickstarter event for sales and property management specialists.

Launch 2025 is the starting gun for the year and 2025’s attendance was the biggest one ever. Focusing on this year’s theme of leadership, the audience heard from key leaders across the Ray White Group, along with top coach, Collingwood’s Craig McCrae.

In 2024, Ray White’s market share in Victoria and Tasmania grew to nearly 12 per cent. Ray White Victoria and Tasmania CEO Domenic Belfiore said this demonstrates the enormous strength of the Ray White Group and its people.

“This past year was a tremendous success for us, and we should all be incredibly proud of our efforts. We have laid a strong foundation to build on our ambitions for the year ahead, and our results have never been better,” Mr Belfiore said.

“For those looking to learn and grow, there is no better place than Ray White to fulfil your ambitions. At no other time in our proud history have we been better placed to succeed.

“This time last year, I set a challenge for us to increase our internal auction share to 50 per cent, and we did it. Some 51 businesses made auctions their preferred method of sale, creating transparency for buyers and competition for sellers.”

Mr Belfiore cited leadership as the key to success in 2025.

“It’s time to build momentum and aim even higher. It all starts with leadership and living above the line,” he said.

“Leadership is our theme for 2025. It is not defined by tenure or job title, we are all responsible for it.

“Living above the line means taking responsibility for our choices, leading by example every single day. Leaders don’t just react to challenges, they rise above them and create opportunities.

“They are open-minded, curious, disciplined, and committed to making things better. Taking 100 per cent responsibility is the only way forward.”

“Below the line thinking embodies a disempowered mindset. But I ask you, will you take ownership and act like the leader I know you can be? If we all do that, there is no limit to what we can achieve.”

Ray White Group Managing Director Dan White (pictured above) expressed his immense pride in the corporate team who continue to lead the network. Reflecting on the group’s 123-year journey, he emphasised Ray White’s best days were still ahead.

“Our history is a story of resilience, growth, and contribution from countless individuals. From humble beginnings in regional Queensland to becoming the market leader across Australia and New Zealand, our story is unique, shaped by four generations of family leadership,” Mr White said.

Highlighting the group’s rapid growth, he noted, “We are the fastest-growing real estate group, with record growth achieved over the last five years. How does a 123-year-old business maintain such momentum? By staying young at heart, adapting to change, and continuously investing in technology and the right people to remain at the cutting edge.”

Ray White’s footprint spans 853 businesses across Australia and New Zealand, supported by 4,800 productive agents.

“Our market share has increased by 25 per cent in just five years, a testament to our business owners investing in their teams and the unwavering support for our auction culture,” he said.

Mr White stressed the importance of auctions which sit at the heart of the group, with auction share now grown to 25 per cent nationally.

“We’ve never lost faith in the auction process. It creates transparency for buyers and competition for sellers, forming the backbone of our most successful offices,” he said.

Leadership remains central to Ray White’s ethos.

“We challenge our leaders to grow. Every year, we welcome around 50 new business owners, which underscores our commitment to succession and leadership development,” Mr White said.

Investment in technology is another pillar of Ray White’s success.

“Our technology is designed to amplify leadership and improve communication with customers. The data we have today allows us to identify opportunities for improvement and drive productivity,” Mr White said.

Looking ahead, Mr White reaffirmed Ray White’s commitment to staying fresh and relevant.

“We want to be the hunter, not the hunted. Our story is vibrant because it evolves. It’s not just about our past; it’s about creating a stronger, more dynamic future. We are proud of where we’ve been, but even more excited about where we’re going,” he said.

Keynote speaker, Collingwood Football Club head coach Craig McCrae spoke about how to create a winning culture.

“I am a winner,” Mr McCrae said.

“I’ve spent over 30 years working in AFL, and I still can’t believe I get to live my hobby. Winning is a process. I was lucky enough to win three premierships as a player, but I’ve always been focused on getting better.

“When I was at Richmond, we were winning! There are clues, there are breadcrumbs – winning is a process. It’s a series of behaviours. It’s winners only.

“I remember walking across the spring floor during COVID, thinking about what it takes to keep moving forward.

“Find your motivation – everyone has a different purpose. You need to find yours. You can be creative and inspire yourself to work towards a higher purpose.

“I was lucky enough to be involved with the Melbourne Storm. I used to talk to Billy Slater about the Maroons, they play for the people, they play for Queenslanders. When they put that jumper on, they represent their state. That’s a high purpose. That’s a powerful headspace.

“Family is important to me, and I’ve seen firsthand how the Melbourne Storm treat their families. Collingwood has a family-first culture too. Our kids run water during school holidays, and our partners are part of the football club. When we sing the song after a win, our kids come in. It’s about connection.

“Our higher purpose is also about honouring our past. We play for the legacy. We want to win at all levels.”

Ray White head of marketing Todd Alexander (pictured above) shared his two key ambitions in the marketing space for the year ahead.

“I want to share two key ambitions of mine for this year,” Mr Alexander said.

“The first ambition is to introduce our exclusive proptech offering NurtureCloud to the world. It comes with incredible functionality that will benefit our sellers in a big way. Now is the time to communicate that and show them what it can do.

“The second ambition is to redefine our AFL partnerships. By the end of this year, we will have a total of eight AFL partnerships. But it’s about more than just sponsorships, it’s about making our best people even better.

“How do we tap into our local footy clubs and align with other parts of the sporting sector that are on a similar journey to us? What can we learn from them? Because at the end of the day, when we have better leaders, we have better people in our Ray White family.”

Ray White Victoria and Tasmania digital specialists Jess Groves and Fiolla Ziba spoke to the network about the OneSystem, which holds the group’s cutting edge tech stack.

“The technology houses our agent operating tools which benefits each agent’s profitability and growth. We own our own technology too, so we control their features and functionality,” Ms Groves said.

“Our tech cannot be replicated and we are at least a decade ahead of our competitors. Our networks are the combined efforts of our network through all our activity,” Ms Ziba said.

Ray White Group Head of Performance and Recognition Bianca Denham spoke about the extreme visualisation of goals.

“Take Arnold Schwarzenegger for example, he believed his goals so clearly that they became a reality for him. Setting intention for 2025 is critical. Arnie had so much adversity and look what he achieved.”

Born into a poor family in the tiny Austrian village, The Terminator and Kindergarten Cop star used his muscles and charm to be crowned Mr Universe and went on to be a high level politician in the US.

“People who have bigger goals get more. It’s as simple as that. You have to write your goals down and share them with people. You need to understand the difference between a goal and an aim.”

Ms Denham interviewed Ray White Upper North Shore sales agent Thomas Merriman, who has been with the group for the last five years. So far he has doubled his performance and is well on track to hit Chairman’s Elite level status this year.

Last year he committed to Ray White’s six-month long Pathways course and implemented everything he was taught there. “I didn’t initially want to attend as I figured I had been an agent for 10 years. I thought I knew everything but I realised in the first 20 minutes that I definitely didn’t.”

Appraisals is the leading indicator that Thomas Merriman’s team tracks. They have weekly targets for sales, calls, connections, appraisals, presentations and listings. “We knew we had to do 300 appraisals to reach our GCI goal. So we reversed engineered our goal and worked out how may calls we had to do to produce the number of sales,” he said.

The day also included a property management break out session with keynote speaker Peter Thurin.

Mr Thurin spent more than 20 years owning, building and selling successful businesses and shared his learnings with Victoria’s top property managers.

“What are your non-negotiables – write them down. If you write nothing, you’ll do nothing,” Mr Thurin said. “Doing nothing is a choice.

“I have one simple formula, it is experience or event plus response equals the outcome. You can’t choose the events you experience but you can choose how you respond and how you respond shapes the outcome.”

“When you leave here today, what will you stay focused on? How will you maintain momentum? And who will you have as your accountability partner?”

“Small steps taken over a period of time result in massive achievements.”

“If everything is important, nothing is important. You need to be fiercely focused about what matters to you.”