From Pop Punk to Premium Property with Shaun Diviney
15 February 2024
Written by Acme Mag
Based along the central coast in New South Wales, Shaun Diviney is currently a leading agent for Brand Property, although you may have heard his name before as the lead singer for pop punk band Short Stack. In the years since the band’s first studio album, Stack is the New Black, Shaun has gone from climbing the music charts to climbing the agent rankings as the number one agent in Norah Head and Woongarrah for 2023. We got the chance to sit down and talk to Shaun about this unconventional career shift.
Acme: What initially motivated your transition into real estate after a successful music career?
Shaun: The transition from punk band to real estate agent is not the normal route, I suppose, but we were quite fortunate enough when the band took off we were quite young. We came into a little bit of cash and everyone’s advice was, ‘you need to buy property straight away.’ We all went out and we all bought property when we were 20-21 years old.
Honestly, the guy I bought my house from, he was a nice guy but he didn’t do that great a job. My young mindset was just like, ‘this dude just made $10,000 from returning calls two hours late?’ After that, I kept it in the back of my mind. As we took a break from the band and I was a bit lost figuring out what I wanted to do, I went back to real estate. I thought, well real estate agents drive pretty nice cars. I’d like to drive a nice car. Maybe I’ll work in real estate.
Acme: How did you find the adjustment from your music career to real estate?
Shaun: I was so clueless and naive when I came into the industry. I thought it was as simple as people just rocking up in the office and saying, ‘can you sell your house for me?’ I had no idea about prospecting or anything like that. That was definitely a bit of an eye opener that the majority of the job is just going out, putting yourself out there and doing it. I didn’t really have a backup plan when I got into it, and I was just a bit of a pest on the phone for the first few years.
I’m an all or nothing kind of person, and so I just dove right in.
I was booking as many appointments as I could, making 100 calls a day, letterbox dropping – it can suck at the time but you have to do it. My entry into real estate was pretty full-on but totally worth it as it set me up for where we are now. Even now, some of those people that I called from my first week in real estate, I still have relationships with them now. Having that connection with people is so important and I grew up here, I go surfing here, I kind of know everyone already and that’s so important. Our job is very relationship based and that came naturally to me. I wasn’t really starting from scratch.
Acme: Would you say networking was a large factor in your early success?
Shaun: Yeah. I had this large network so I had a head start. I look at agents like Marty Fox and people like that, and I can’t imagine him sort of sitting down making 100 cold calls a day where he is now in real estate. That’s what I sort of want to base my business off as well.
I aim for a lot of repeat referral clients because if I’m just doing a really good job for someone, they’ll tell two or three of their friends, and I get more business that way. It means I can avoid making cold calls and just focus on doing a good job for people.
Acme: Has your background in your music career helped you transition into real estate?
Shaun: It’s probably hindered it. Most people think it’s kind of cool but it comes with this stigma as well, ‘you’re that idiot from that band’. It’s also because of the clientele I have. They have never heard of Short Stack but they might say their kids have heard of me though. It’s a point of difference, but I don’t think it’s helped me gain more sales.
The only thing that I believe influenced my work ethic is the resilience and hardwork. Being in the band, we did work really hard for it. There were times we would go on tour for months, make no money, sleep in a van together and had to rough it out. There was a lot of hustling and not getting paid a lot.
Image: Short Stack
It’s similar to getting your start as a real estate agent, there’s a lot of rejection and needing a thick skin. I listen to new agents dealing with that rejection from potential vendors, whether it’s getting hung up on or losing a listing. My advice is, it just wasn’t meant to be. They just weren’t your people. Some people are going to like you, some aren’t. The majority of people are just going to be really indifferent. As long as you go out there and do the best job, you can always be professional and put a smile on your face. But apart from that, I don’t think I’ve ever won business because I can play the guitar half well.
Acme: Last year, Short Stack went back on tour, how did you balance that and being an agent?
Shaun: Yeah, we did a festival at the end of last year. We did Good Things Festival, which was pretty fun. It was a lot of fun. We ended up a year doing that. But now it’s back to family mode. My wife is due to give birth, like, any second.
We don’t plan to tour again any time soon. If something comes up that we really want to do, we’re like, yeah, we’ll do that. But otherwise I’m sort of too busy. We just treat it like a boys weekend away. It’s a bit of fun, a bit of extra pocket money but even while touring I’m on my phone non-stop. The last tour we had, they were a bit shocked at how hard I work. It’s not just rocking up with a coffee in a suit, just shake a hand and open a door, and then it’s done.
Acme: Are there any key lessons, whether from your music or real estate career, that would be helpful to new agents?
Shaun: Put your energy into just doing what you can and work hard. Learn to list property and everything else will take care of itself. That’s literally it. All your problems as an agent go away when you have ten listings, so just learn the ins and outs of listing a property.
Interested in more spotlight pieces on the importance of hardwork? Check out our interview with D’Leanne Lewis.
