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How did a pierced, long-haired, and tattooed heavy-metal hard rocker from southern Sydney turn into one of the real estate industry's top-performing CEOs just four years later?
That's the story of Mahan Shishineh, who as frontman and lead singer for the band Caulfield until 2014 played head-banging "metalcore" music on stages and in mosh pits around the world.
The Band: Learning to Leave It All on Stage
As the frontman of Caulfield, Shishineh spent more than a decade touring, recording, and connecting with fans through aggressive music that featured a mix of melody and metal.
He recorded an album in Baltimore, an epicentre of punk and metal music in the USA, and signed with Shock Records, then Australia’s biggest independent label. Recording an album, he says, was one of the most exhausting and revealing experiences of his life.
"I left a piece of me on that album. That album captured a time of self-doubt and uncertainty, but I came out proud of what we made."
The lesson he took away from leaving the band and starting a corporate career? Reinvention.
"Don’t be afraid to close a chapter when it’s over," he said. "You’re not starting from zero because you’re starting with experience behind you."
Harcourts: Learning That People Create Success
After hitting 30, Shishineh pivoted into real estate, joining the group Harcourts as a franchise developer. In his best year, he recruited 14 offices in NSW, helping push a relatively unknown brand IN NSW/ACT into mainstream awareness.
He said, "At first, when I would call prospects, they thought Harcourts was an insurance company. We had to do a lot of education and helped make Harcourts the large, 866-office network it is today."
Shishineh did so well at Harcourts that he quickly rose to become CEO for NSW/ACT and helped build a culture where people came first.
"Companies don’t succeed. People do," he says, quoting a lesson he learned from Harcourts Managing Director Mike Green. “I learned to try to build a place where people can be as successful as they were hungry to be.
“I also attribute my success to networking. Genuinely caring about the success of others is what helped me expand the Harcourts brand into Canberra, the Central Coast, and Newcastle.”
The nine offices that Shishineh recruited for Harcourts in those three areas alone included some that became the best performing in the network.
TIP Group: High Performance and Hard Calls
After Harcourts, Shishineh moved to ASX-listed TIP Group. There he led the company’s home construction business. Here, the lessons came fast: especially that top performers are often overlooked because they're already doing well.
"The No. 1 salesperson gets the least attention," said Shishineh. "But they're also the ones most likely to leave if they feel unsupported. With the right support, they are also the ones most likely to generate the most new growth for the business.
Shishineh said at TIP Group he also learned that marketing is always above sales. “If your marketing isn't right,” he said, “your sales team will struggle and have to spend a lot of time educating prospects.”
While there, Shishineh reinvented the unit’s 30-year-old business model. He transformed it from a standard design model to a subscription model with unlimited edits but a monthly fee.
Plus Agency: The Final Reinvention
When Shishineh joined Plus Agency, it was through a serendipitous connection. An agent Shishineh had once tried to recruit for Harcourts called him up seven years later to introduce him to the cofounders, Peter Li and Fiona Yang. Yang is one of Real Estate Business' Top 50 Women of 2025.
A 20-minute meeting turned into one and a half hours. He was hooked.
"I fell in love with the fact that, at Plus, agents get listings from day one. Where else can a new agent be handed a multi-million dollar listing, and earn a commission when they sell it?"
As Plus Agency's Executive Director, he's helping build on its three offices to turn it into a multi-office powerhouse. Plus Agency is dedicated to project sales, and also handles resales and, one day, will expand into property management.
At Plus Agency, Shishineh is applying all the lessons he learned as a CEO and a metal rocker. He has helped build an integrated platform for agent success that combines exclusive listings, structured training, advanced AI tools, and award-winning marketing mentorship to empower high performance across every stage of an agent’s career.
"People aren’t numbers. They’re stories. If you help them, they’ll remember you. Even if they say no now, they might circle back later."
By travelling from mosh pits to corner offices, Shishineh proves that a willingness to reinvent yourself can take you just about anywhere.
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