Structure, accountability, and zero excuses: Inside Adrian Bo’s real estate playbook

Looking to level up your real estate game? Listen to the Adrian Bo x REB podcast here.

“Real estate doesn’t need reinvention,” Bo said. “It needs recommitment to a bulletproof process that you don’t deviate from, no matter what the market’s doing.”

For Bo, there are only three reasons an agent misses out on a listing: they deviate from a proven system; they are never truly in the running but are indulged by the vendor; or someone else simply has a stronger connection.

While two of those three are out of an agent’s control, the first isn’t, so long as the agent follows a defined and robust process across every aspect of their business.

That mindset extends to every vertical – databasing, prospecting, listing, vendor management, buyer work, and personal marketing. While the tools may have changed since he started his real estate career in 1988, when RP Data was a trip to the council office and the CRM was a box of index cards, the structure hasn’t.

“If you’re reinventing your system every day, how do you benchmark success?” Bo asked. “Where’s the control group?”

He’s equally critical of what he sees as the shallow coaching culture that has emerged in recent years, which he sees as high on slogans, low on substance.

“Unfortunately, there’s a lot of people in my space who put up a motivational quote and call that coaching. It gives the agent a dopamine hit for 24 hours but the notes go in a drawer, and they go back to bad habits.”

At the centre of Bo’s philosophy is accountability, not inspiration. So much so that he refuses to work with clients who don’t agree to an accountability program and believes that true transformation requires someone, an accountability partner, a peer, or a coach, to hold agents to their commitments.

“You don’t need more information,” he said. “Everything you could want is free on YouTube. Ignorance is a choice. The difference is whether you implement it, and whether you’re accountable to anyone.”

In a profession notorious for attracting polished talkers with little follow-through, Bo said it’s the “rough diamonds”, those with drive and structure, who succeed. “The ones who surprise me are never the ones with the flash suit and a fallback plan. It’s the ones who are hungry and consistent.”

He recalled a now-legendary example from his early days of coaching, when agents were required to write a $5,000 cheque to their most loathed competitor, to be sent if they missed their prospecting KPIs. “Not one cheque was ever sent,” Bo laughed. “But we never missed.”

That clarity around prospecting remains unchanged. Bo warned that even the country’s top agents can fall into the trap of relying too heavily on digital marketing, EDMs or social media – complementary strategies that he said should never replace traditional prospecting.

He described a recent moment with one of Australia’s top-selling agents, who sells over 350 properties a year. Stock levels had fallen, and the agent reached out in frustration. Bo’s response was simple: “Call every single buyer and seller you’ve ever worked with.”

Within a week, the agent and his team had listed 20 new properties. Within four weeks, that number had hit 50.

“It’s a non-negotiable now,” Bo said. “You build relationships through phone calls and face-to-face contact. Everything else should support that, not replace it.”

Despite this, Bo remains acutely aware of the mental health toll the profession can take. “It’s an epidemic in real estate,” he said. “The question is: Does real estate create mental health issues, or does it attract people who already have them? The answer is both.”

He believes the lack of structure, coupled with the industry’s feast-or-famine volatility, is a recipe for burnout unless agents build discipline into their daily habits.

Joining Bo and Garman at the event were leading agents from across the country, including Adam Woods and Daniel Cook (McGrath), Ben Spackman (Raine & Horne), Rawa Norman and Sarah Wotton (DiJones), Shaun O’Callaghan (Natural Real Estate), and Georgi Bates (Cunninghams).

The top performers also had the opportunity to exchange professional advice and practical strategies, including how to navigate difficult conversations with clients in a shifting market.

For Bo, delivering tough feedback is one area where structure becomes essential. He challenged the notion of “bad news” entirely, preferring to call it “indiscriminate news”, the kind of information professionals like doctors, lawyers, and accountants provide without hesitation. Real estate agents, he argued, should adopt the same mindset, positioning themselves as trusted advisers rather than salespeople trying to soften the blow.

That shift begins with preparation. Bo advocates for a structured expectation-setting meeting between listing and launch, where agents outline clear, data-backed benchmarks based on previous campaign performance. With that framework in place, ongoing conversations become measured and factual – not emotional.

“If you’ve said upfront: ‘I’ll be back on Monday, and if we haven’t had six groups through, issued one contract and received one offer, then we’ll reassess presentation, marketing or price’ – then you’ve set the table,” Bo said. “It’s not bad news. It’s just news.”

Looking to level up your real estate game? Listen to the Adrian Bo x REB podcast here.