Loss and Leadership with Michael Nitschke
5 October 2023
Written by Acme Mag
Michael Nitschke took over leadership of Nitschke Real Estate over five years ago. What can be an exciting venture for some, starts from loss for others. In the space of a few years, Michael sadly lost both of his parents and was propelled into the family business – taking on the role of Managing Director at 30 years old.
With 12 years of experience under his belt, Michael’s vision moving forward was clear. With his new book, Leading Out of Loss, due to launch this month, Michael explores not only the trials and tribulations he faced, but what he learnt from them.
Acme: Can you tell us about becoming Managing Director of Nitschke Real Estate?
Michael: It was a really crazy time. My parents had started the business back in 2000 and like a lot of agencies, they started out as a husband and wife team. Shortly after, they went their separate ways and Mum exited the business. Upon my father’s passing, I assumed the role of leader within Nitschke. It’s worth noting that my mother had also passed away 18 months prior to his passing.
It was a pretty tough time. It was obviously a lot of grief to manage along with taking on this new role. My Dad was a very traditional real estate principal, it was a very top-down leadership style. I knew from the start before Dad passed that I wanted to be more involved within the business over the years. He was quite reluctant, even after his diagnosis of cancer. He was reluctant to discuss what the succession would look like.
Long story short: I was suddenly thrust into leadership. Within a week, I was made a Director alongside my Dad. A few days later, he finally let me see the financials and I saw that we had six weeks of cash left and we were millions of dollars in debt. I had no idea. Then he passed away two days later. It was a week of being hit with the baseball bat of reality.
Acme: Wow, so you had no idea before becoming a Director, that would’ve been a lot of pressure.
Michael: Yeah, exactly. I had agreed to this journey of becoming a Director, purely for the leadership side. That was it for me. I didn’t really have any understanding of the other aspects. I just wanted to make sure that the legacy of the company could continue.
For me, it was this idea of all this potential I could see that wasn’t being realised at the time. But I had no idea about the financial side. I was just a reasonably good-performing salesperson. I’d been active in the area for about eleven or twelve years at the time, I felt I had a good sense of what I could do with the business but obviously found out really suddenly how bad it was.
Acme: What were the key lessons you learnt in this time?
Michael: There were obviously a lot of key lessons, but the biggest lesson that I learnt through everything that happened during that period – and leading up to it – is the power of vulnerability as a leader.
My Dad was someone who would always have the armour up. I was his eldest son, but his family and colleagues had no idea what he was going through. From the struggles within the business to his cancer diagnosis. He was determined to beat cancer to the point where he would deny that it was even there. So he wouldn’t talk about it, wouldn’t let people know what he was going through.
When I was hit with the news of the state of the business, I was still going through grief. I still had a young family to think of. At the time, my two daughters were under the age of three. So just sleepless nights. It’s pretty wild to look back on.
I almost instinctively decided at that point that I was just going to do the exact opposite as my Dad. I’m going to be very vulnerable and authentic. That’s my natural style anyway. I knew I was going to be transparent with the team about what we were going through. It took courage that I didn’t realise at the time.
I would go to meetings where we would identify problems and I wouldn’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know the answer”. There was a lot I didn’t know. I didn’t know how to read a profit and loss or a balance sheet. So it was really messy but I embraced vulnerability as our biggest asset. We didn’t have any money and we didn’t have any other resources. But I thought if we could just bring everyone together and share what we’re going through, we might have a chance.
Acme: I imagine if you’ve got a whole team of people thinking about solutions, you’re going to have a better outcome than trying to take it all on your own.
Michael: Yeah, definitely. Part of it as well is that I wanted that support. I wanted to feel like the team and I could lean on each other. We were so stretched for resources that I was making sure that if anyone in this room or in this agency has any ideas that we can kind of practically implement, then let’s put them all on the table and let’s work through what we can do.
In the beginning, resources were really limited, but I discovered a concept that we still live by today, which is, ‘better before bigger.’ You have a very clear picture of your vision of what you want the company to be, but at the same time, you can’t lose the reality of the present and what you can actually do today to drive it forward. Better before bigger for us became little wins that we could kind of implement each day to keep the business running.
Over time, we started to generate enough momentum that we had a little bit more cash available, a little bit more resources, we could recruit a little bit more, we could market a little bit more. By having this momentum you can continue to grow. Here we are today, nearly five years later, and we certainly haven’t made it, but we’ve got a bit more momentum behind us and feel a little bit more in control as much as we can in business.
One of the things that really struck me in the beginning was the need to change my mentality. By having an attitude of gratitude around the circumstances. A lot was happening and it felt messy and noisy. People around me were saying, “just sell the business and get out”. Instead I looked at this opportunity as it was, my only chance to run a business – particularly a business in the area that I’m really passionate about in Mount Barker.
Acme: So what was your inspiration behind your new book, Leading Out of Loss?
Michael: The idea to write a book was first and foremost my wife’s idea. Looking back, it’s such a wild story in terms of how things kind of happened. There’s a lot before my journey at Nitschke as well. The tipping point for me to embrace the idea of writing a book, was to write it for my children.
If you’ve ever gone through losing a parent, or in my case, both of them, you kind of find yourself really longing to know more about them. There’s a lot of unanswered questions that I’ve got about their lives and I was pretty determined. I guess it’s part of vulnerability to put some thoughts down, most notably for my children. The book was for Peyton and Harper initially, but once I started to work through the process, I realised that there was probably some broader messaging behind it that would go beyond my kids.
Acme: Who do you think would resonate or benefit the most from reading your book?
Michael: Perhaps there are some other business leaders who are going through some similar circumstances, maybe not exactly the same, but maybe they’re faced with this challenge of rebuilding a business or rebranding or whatever they’re going through. The intention is more for those with a leadership journey in front of them.
It could be someone who is facing some odds that seem very overwhelming in that space. I know it’s probably unique for someone to have the same set of circumstances that I had, but it could be as simple as just a big change in their business dynamics. What I’ve tried to do in the book then is really articulate the lessons that I learnt, particularly in those early years, to get Nitschke on a better path.
Michael’s book is part memoir, part business wisdom and all around compelling. If you’re interested in reading more about Michael’s journey, you can buy it from 23 October or pre-order it here.
