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Episode 38 - Part 1: What Motivated You to Apply to the RICS Matrics Awards with Zoe Baker and Joe Ellison
38 Plays1 year ago
🎙️ Dive into the world of RICS Matrics Awards winners!
In the latest episode of SurveyBooker Sessions, we sit down with Zoe Baker and Joe Ellison to uncover their award-winning journeys. 🏆✨
Key insights:
- What drives surveyors to apply for awards
- Personal experiences of past RICS Matrics winners
- Overcoming self-doubt and fostering self-recognition
- How reflective practices can boost your career
Don't miss out on this inspiring conversation! Listen now and get motivated: [link]
#Surveying #RICSMatricsAwards #ProfessionalGrowth #Podcast #SurveyBooker #RICS
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Transcript
Introduction to Survey Booker Sessions
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Survey Booker Sessions. Tune in to hear from people working in a range of industries and roles to provide you ideas that you can take away and use in your own
Meet the Award Winners: Zoe Baker and Joe Ellison
00:00:08
Speaker
business. I'm your host, Matt Nally, the founder and director of Survey Booker, which is the leading CRM and survey management system for survey surveyors. In this week's episode, I'm joined by Zoe Baker and Joe Ellison, both previous Ricks Matrix Awards winners. And why is that relevant? Well, today we're going to be talking about the Ricks Matrix Awards and why they went for it. So um well thank you both firstly for coming on. Appreciate it.
00:00:28
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you. No problem. Do you want to go first but just give us a bit of background as to who you each are and then we can jump in to sort of why you went for it in a minute.
Zoe Baker's Career Journey
00:00:41
Speaker
Yeah, sure. So I'm Zoe Baker. I'm the owner of Your Surveyors Limited, um a residential surveying company. and I got into surveying about 10 years ago um by chance, by getting an operations role within a surveying company, trained to be a surveyor and then opened my own business after that. So that's sort of my route into what I do now. Awesome. What about you, Joe? How did you get into it?
Joe Ellison's Path to Chartered Surveyor
00:01:11
Speaker
ah Yeah, so I'm Joe Allison. I'm Chartered Surveyor, Business Improvement Manager at Pinnacle Surveyors. ah So I've been chartered for five years now, and I got into surveying because my dad's a surveyor, so it runs in the blood really. and Interesting surveyor, yeah, different routes in. Yeah, so I add sort of was a bit lost, didn't know what to do, so jumped at the chance to do a surveying course.
00:01:40
Speaker
ah Fair play. yeah know It's interesting actually then to to be able to look at two different perspectives and I think probably representative of of surveying where everyone comes in from completely different angles.
Winning Awards Early in Career
00:01:49
Speaker
ah um i suppose yeah I suppose the first topic we're going to cover today is like why did you apply for the awards in the the first in the first place? and I've actually won the awards twice.
00:01:59
Speaker
So I won the valuation category in 2019. And that was said that was a just a few months after I'd qualified as a surveyor.
00:02:13
Speaker
and i It was the day that I found out that I'd qualified, I found out that I'd been and nominated for the British Mortgage Awards as well.
00:02:25
Speaker
And I think you sort of just start getting a bug for awards, particularly early on in your career. So and then I saw the matrix and advert come out and I was always already part of my local matrix group in Derby. So I just thought, why not give it a go? and Happened to win win the valuation category and then just sort of left it alone for a few years. And then this so I then won the residential category last year.
00:02:53
Speaker
And I think I was just in in a good place in in where I was in terms of the business and how much I'd achieved. So I just thought I'd go for it more than anything. and No particular reasons. I'd sort of thought about it for a little while, but then thought, you know what? I'll try the residential category at this time. So went for it and didn't expect to win at all. Just went for for a bit of a night out in London. And when they announced my name, it was a bit of a shock. so that Yeah, because the drinks were on you at that point. yeah it's honest yeah So what i suppose um what what was the the so the catalyst? Because I know that I've spoken to people before and they're sort of on on the edge on the edge of do I apply for it? Do I not apply for it? but well what was the sort of What gave you the sort of yeah the impetus to go, yeah, I think of but I've got a reason to.
Reflecting on the Awards Process
00:03:46
Speaker
I think for me, it was just just sitting back and thinking,
00:03:49
Speaker
Yeah, I've done good work this year. I've i've really worked hard this year um and not going into it thinking that I could win, but going into it thinking and i want to I want to prove myself and I want to show other people what I've done because something from the outset that I think is that doing the application process is a great reflective piece.
00:04:16
Speaker
So regardless of whether you're going for it to win or not, just to be able to sit down and reflect on what you've done over the past 12 months, 18 months, is a really good piece of work for you to do and for yourself. So sitting down to do that was was sort of my main aim, to be able to sit down and think, yeah, i've I've really done well this year in these different categories. And and then winning was sort of the the cherry on top.
00:04:44
Speaker
Nice. Yeah, that's it's a good idea, actually, because it's easy to, um time sadly moves very quickly now. um And it's it's yeah it's hard to sometimes remember what you've done because you get caught up in the day to day. So that's a nice thing to do, actually. like exactly How about you, Zoe? Is it um similar reasons, very different reasons?
Inspiring Women in Surveying
00:05:01
Speaker
I can completely, completely relate to Joe when he says that you forget what you've done because when I was I remember writing my submission and then I was going through and then I was thinking oh yeah and that oh yeah and that you know because life just goes so quickly and I had quite a turbulent couple of years before I applied for the ward. and You know what I'd set up the business that was early years of the business and then before that I had a bit of
00:05:28
Speaker
you know turbulence going on in my career generally. So to sit down and reflect was, yeah, it was quite um enlightening actually. And I thought, oh God, I've actually you know done quite a lot in such a short space of time. But like you say, you don't know until you actually sit down. And I think that sort of taught me to do that now and again. And I i do do that even though you know yeah I'm not going with awards or whatever. I would still sit down and go,
00:05:56
Speaker
but because self-recognition is is great. It's a great driver when it comes to motivation. and But for me, actually, um I did apply for it. Obviously, it was me putting myself forward. It was a self-nomination. However, and I'd experienced some, you know, ah think everybody knows I'm quite vocal about my experiences in this industry. And I've experienced women not being represented.
00:06:25
Speaker
within the surveying profession. And part of my submission was to be a woman in, you know, in this situation, okay, you know, I might not have got a short list, I might not have won, but at least I'm doing something for women and sort of being a role model to other women surveyors to be like, oh, well, she's done it, so I can do it, you know, and hopefully it brings more women into the profession because we still need to,
00:06:54
Speaker
even out that and that you know gender balance within the profession still. Yeah, it was interesting. We did we did a um podcast a while back with Sybil from the RSCS around um diversity equity inclusion and um potentially what the the sort of timeframe on that based on current rates looks like and it's quite quite scary actually. um But it turns out how long
Creating Supportive Environments for Women
00:07:16
Speaker
it might take to do that. But yeah, it's a very good point actually. ah Sometimes you can forget what people think when they see someone they relate to. um Yeah, yeah. And also I have been an employee as a woman in this profession and I wasn't achieving what I wanted to achieve.
00:07:35
Speaker
because it wasn't the environment that would have allowed me to do that. and So by opening my own business and putting myself forward for an award, I would just like to appeal to other women so that they can think, actually, you know, like I don't have to work within this environment. If it isn't benefiting my career and I'm not progressing the way that I want to, there's always another option, you know? So it was it was sort of to, it was a message as well as a bit of self recognition as well.
00:08:05
Speaker
Yeah, so that's really good to do, actually actually. I think one of the things I've spoken to a couple of people about, because they were thinking about doing this application process, was how do I know if I've really done anything that is worthy of applying? you know Is it just my day-to-day role? or what Well, that's at least it's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and but thinking what you do is the routine, the normal, nothing stands out, not worthy of applying type of thing. what What for you both?
00:08:31
Speaker
um made you think, yeah, it's worth what I've done is worth putting
Consistency and Impact in Roles
00:08:35
Speaker
myself forward for. It's not it's not just the ah yeah turning up for the day job type thing. I think for me, and the day-to-day role can be enough as long as you are making an impact in your day-to-day role, then then that I think is is more than enough. So so part of of my my submission when I did it was just about meeting client service levels and and and and the like. And that is just my day-to-day role. You don't have to be going above and beyond 100% of the time to be able to write a submission. It is just a case of,
00:09:15
Speaker
of turning up for work, doing your best, whether like Zoe, you've got your own company or or like me, you you work for others. and As long as you're taking in every chance that you've got and yes, potentially every now and again going out and and pushing yourself a little bit harder and maybe and volunteering for something or at I don't know, and doing a bit outside of your day to day role.
00:09:42
Speaker
the majority of of the submission relates to how you how you succeed in that that daily surveying. Yeah and I think as well it's all about you know delivering how consistent you are in that role you know because it can be up and down and turbulent but if you can remain consistent you you know we all have a job to do but if you do it well and you apply yourself You know, like Joe said, that's pretty much the foundation of what you need for this type of award, really. um That's your bread and butter and then anything else is just, you know, extra.
00:10:24
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. I think I think I suppose we live in a world where potentially with social media, it's easy to focus on but all these amazing things that are going on all of the time. and And therefore, if you're going to apply for something like this, it has to be everything super extraordinary every day. And otherwise, actually, yeah not not for me. And you're right, actually.
00:10:42
Speaker
being consistent um every single day is possibly much harder than the once or twice doing something particularly spectacular. um and and And that's quite a thing to sort of yeah push people for, or sort of motivate others as well. Sorry, that's what I'm trying to say. Yeah, you've got to get the foundations right, and then you can start building on that. So once you've got your day to day role consistent and and really well run,
00:11:08
Speaker
then you start adding in your additional elements because what you don't want to do is overwork yourself. You start saying yes to everything and then your day-to-day role suffers and your performance suffers because you've stretched yourself too far. Yeah, very easy to do. Get get excited and want to please and and before you know it, actually nothing's been done very well at all. Yes.
00:11:30
Speaker
i suppose I suppose in order to be in a position where you can apply for the award um and you feel like you're at that point of being consistent with everything, what what what were what were the um i suppose steps you took to get yourself into a position where you you were doing your job well, you were consistent with things, you were um supporting the right yeah customers in the right way or other team members, whatever it might be.
00:11:51
Speaker
but that was there something in particular about your I don't know lead up in the two three four years before that with your training or whatever it might be that that you felt put you in that position to be consistent?
Business Growth and Success
00:12:03
Speaker
Yeah I think well my award was 2022 so it was two years after I'd started your surveyors and finished my qualification and And, you know, I'd gone through various market activity and grown the business slightly, you know, to to a good level. And I just got to that stage where it was sort of like every day was turning over nicely. And it was a nice pace. And I thought, well, this is great. You know, so I think, yeah, and and it's sort of gone long enough for me to realize that
00:12:39
Speaker
it had been successful, the setup had been successful, you know, because you can sort of tell that in the first year, to be honest, whether you put the right things in place to make it work. and And you've also learned a lot over those first two years as well. And that's like any role, even if you're an employee, the the most you learn is is in the early years of that. So I think it got to that point for me. And and I was like, you know, I know where I am, I know where I want to go with this, because you've at the beginning, you know, your mind's going crazy and you're thinking, where do I actually want to go with this? I could go here, I could go there, you know? yeah It got to the stage where I was like, I know where I want to go. So, you know, once you've sort of settled and and you can understand and and see your past, I think that's that that's the time really. Definitely. What do you say, similar for yourself, Joe, or different experiences terms that lead up?
Impact of an MBA on Career Decisions
00:13:36
Speaker
Yeah, I think and for me, so thinking about winning last year, I'd had a couple of years post qualification where I'd, like we say, just just done the day to day and really built up my my skill set. And then I'd been doing and an MBA degree for the the previous couple of years as well. And that really sort of boosted my confidence in myself, if anything else.
00:14:05
Speaker
and and allowed me to to make and decisions in within the business. And then very much like Zoe said, I got to the point where you can see your successes and you can see where you are making the difference to yourself and and the business as a whole. And that's the point where you start thinking, yeah, I'm ready to, I've got the confidence and I'm ready to to go and try this.
00:14:33
Speaker
Awesome. I suppose but before we move on to the topic to sort of life after the award, um is are there any things you'd say to anyone thinking about um applying?
Encouragement to Apply for Awards
00:14:42
Speaker
Some people look down on on awards and and award winners, but I think particularly for the Matrix Awards, because it is specifically for people in their first 10 years of of being a surveyor, just go out there and do it basically. Just go out there and give it a go and you never know what will happen.
00:15:01
Speaker
as well. What we touched on earlier about comparison, don't compare yourself to anybody. You know, comparison is the thief of joy. It's one of my favorite sayings. I tell myself every time. It is, you know, you are your own person. And I think self development is key.
00:15:20
Speaker
building your self-confidence so that you get to the stage where you know your own mind, you know your own abilities, you know how to put that out to a wider audience and you know how to project yourself, and you know, go for it, you know, self-doubt, we all have it, we all have imposter syndrome, we all think we're not good enough now and again, you know, even very confident people think it, you know, so it's ignore, ignore all the negative self-talk and just go for it. Definitely I think if you haven't got those thoughts you're not potentially not pushing yourself so yeah if you definitely it's worth worth going for and and and seeing where it takes you but um yeah interesting first part but join us for topic two where we're going to look at life after the award.