JASON SPAGNUOLO
RAY WHITE NORWOOD
Jason Spagnuolo currently heads up one of the group ’ s most successful auction agencies , Ray White Norwood , along with business partner Sam Brincat . But before he was a high-achieving business owner , he was a professional soccer player .
He ’ s the first to admit retiring from the game and transitioning into an entirely new line of work in real estate was tough . But with hindsight , he ’ s glad he made the move in his mid-20s , before he was too resistant to change . He took the skills he had developed playing soccer and applied these to his new job .
“ In soccer , we had to make daily sacrifices , going to sleep early and eating well . It ’ s the same in real estate . If you want to succeed you ’ ve got to sacrifice some of your social life and put in the hours ,” he said .
“ Real estate is very black and white – there are houses , people own them , go and build a relationship .”
Jason retired from professional soccer in 2012 after a successful career playing for Adelaide United , North Queensland Fury and Adelaide City . He was Adelaide United Club Champion in the 2006 – 07 season after an impressive run of games seeing him contribute seven assists in 21 games .
We ’ ve all dreamt about running away to join the circus but Ray White Bacchus Marsh principal Erin Cubley has lived the dream .
“ We would go and visit all the circuses on the way and watch the performances because they were all friends or relatives of who I worked for .
ERIN CUBLEY
RAY WHITE BACCHUS MARSH
Already riding horses professionally at the time , Erin joined the circus initially to start some younger horses but got roped into performing . She said the horses were taught to lay down and rear on command as well as some higher skilled tricks with the Lipizzaner Stallions , the circus and had a big orchestra that they would dance to .
“ It was great to travel to all the major cities and perform in front of such large crowds ,” she said .
“ Most of them were not originally from Australia so it was great to learn about the different cultures .”
Crossing the Nullarbor with 11 stallions was one of her most memorable experiences which included having to set up portable stables each night - often in the middle of nowhere . And one particular horse prone to biting who got loose one night caused all sorts of chaos .
While undertaking a 30-hour commute between New Zealand and Los Angeles for his job as a captain with United Airlines , John Lantz completed his real estate licence , ready for a career change .
“ I love interacting with people , I like challenges , I like doing deals and I handled stress pretty well after being a pilot - if anything happened there was no time to panic .”
JOHN LANTZ
RAY WHITE REMUERA
He worked for United Airlines for 18 years , first as a flight attendant , and then as a captain .
When John and his wife were house hunting in New Zealand in 2002 , he said he noticed the real estate agents were all dressed nicely and owned nice cars , and he thought it was a job he would be successful in .
“ We moved to NZ in 2002 and in 2004 I got my real estate licence .
“ I went to every local real estate agent and just walked in the door and asked if they ’ d like to hire me .”
John has now worked in real estate for 18 years , and has worked at Ray White Remuera for 10 of those years .
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