Right

... very conf- fa- confident.

You know, I probably looked like I belonged from the outside, but on the inside I was doing something entirely different.

I felt like I was performing a role, um, because I didn't feel necessarily comfortable in, in that environment and the way that they were presenting themselves.

And I felt like, well, if that's what leadership looks like, I need to be more like that.

So instead of really listening, I'm adjusting, I'm calibrating.

I'm trying to figure out what part of myself or what type... you know, what version of myself will get accepted in that room.

Of course.

Please

... of how confidence can, um, create a false sense of, of, of, of competence.

Um, when I was a talent agent, w- I was a young talent agent, and there was a, a, a meeting that we had to have every Wednesday with the entire film, um, department.

So we were representing film actors, actresses, producers, directors, you know, writers, all sorts of, you know, independent, um, financing companies.

And this was the one meeting where everyone got together and shared information, and the guy who led the meeting was this...

I mean, I used to say he was sort of created from the, a magazine.

He, like, looked at all the magazines, and he just put himself together.

Mm.

Why don't you do a little background and then we'll jump into some questions and stuff.

Yeah.

Thank you so much for having me, Calvin.

I have enjoyed the conversation pre-tape and I'm looking forward to furthering it.

Yeah, you know, I started my career in the mailroom of the William Morris Agency, which was a large talent agency and largest at the time.

And I spent about seven years doing that and was very fortunate to just through dumb luck to be able to move up and become a talent agent at the age of 25. traveling the world going to can you know spending time at the hotel du cap you know where it was just i had no idea what any of that even meant um and it was just crazy to be in rooms with people who had this intense amount of charisma and um to show confidence and they were just really engaging.

And then I was fortunate enough also to join this country club out in Bel Air.

As AI transforms the workplace, what human qualities become even more important as we go along?

Tell us what's happening on the ground to people's mortgages.

Well, this is the second increase in interest rates announced by the European Central Bank this year.

It's a quarter of a percent increase, unfortunately not unexpected.

And the impacts will be immediately felt by those who are on tracker mortgages because their interest rates are directly linked to movements in the European Central Bank base rate.

So anyone who's on a tracker mortgage, and there's about 110,000 customers still on tracker mortgages, they're going to see their repayments increase by €13 per 100,000 owed.

That will take effect from October onwards, and that's the immediate impact.

What we will be interested to see is, will banks increase their fixed rates? The last increase that took place in June, to be fair to the banks, they absorbed that increase of 0.25% and didn't increase their fixed rates.

How do people go about that?

But are they actually practiced, embodied in the way the team or the company dynamics, you know, work? Because one thing which I believe, Michael, is It can be a very challenging situation for a leader, especially who is very, very dedicated with having these skills as their, let's call them as superpowers or strengths, you know, to exercise in a setting where these are not entertained or welcomed, just nice to have, but not actually followed or practiced.

Yeah, I think the challenge is that those skills or those traits in people to be listeners, to leverage their emotions, to see what others maybe miss, You're right.

Those are seen as nice to haves.

And in a lot of cases, they're seen as things we don't need in leaders, right? So they're undervalued.

And the shame in it is that the people that have those skills or those innate capabilities tend to downplay them and think of them as weaknesses, right? So they think, hey, you know, I am emotional.

You know, I'm sensitive.

You know, I can't suppress my emotions like the next person.

Like, how would you help a hiring team tell the difference between those two things in the moment they're actually evaluating someone?

So how much of an issue is this now that suddenly we could have, in many places, not just in Dublin, the price of a new home going above the threshold in which people can avail of the Help to Buy scheme?

Um, again, as to echo some of John's comments there, Matt, I mean, it is a reflection on the cost of building new homes and the, the lack of supply of those new homes.

But I suppose it's interesting to look at today, I mean, today, the Banking and Payments Federation, uh, issued their quarterly figures on mortgage drawdowns and mortgage completions, and they show that the market is growing in that there are more drawdowns in this quarter than on the previous period last year.

It's up by 11.2%.

Um, and the mortgage market this year will grow by at least 8 to 10% in terms of drawdowns.

So on one side, yes, clearly, I, I, I accept there are those who will find it difficult to buy.

But then on the other side, we're seeing that the market is growing and that there are borrowers out there who are getting mortgages and are putting themselves in a position to be able to acquire properties.

... on parents who are not in a position to help their children, and their adult children who might be earning r- good salaries, have good jobs, and they look and they feel they're beaten out of the market by people who can rely on a leg up from their parents.

Yeah, but if you take it, I

can get a four-year fixed rate today at 3%.

Now, if you're on a variable rate of 4.15 or 4.5 or even the 3.75 cheapest variable rate.

That's a significant saving, even with, you know, five or 10 years left remaining on your mortgage.

While there are costs to move, a lot of lenders have incentives there which will cover the cost of moving.

It's all down to people think it takes too long and there's too much paperwork.

Sometimes you'd even be able to move within your own lender with no penalty.

Is there anything they can do now?

Mm-hmm.

We've a dire shortage of stock, particularly on secondhand stock.

Uh, yes, we're building more new homes, but we're a long way off what we actually need.

Um, and when you've got those two factors where lack of supply and plenty of demand, it just leads to increasing house prices.

Although there's been an abatement in terms of the level of increase, but we're still seeing house prices increasing.

But no, demand is still as strong as ever.

Yeah

...

so what's this going to mean, you know, month by month for people who are paying variable or tracker mortgages?

Well, if you look at it, there's just under 700,000 mortgage holders in Ireland at the moment.

120,000 of those are on tracker rates.

So the tracker rates links or matches rises and falls in the ECB base rate.

So the tracker mortgage customers are the ones who will be impacted first.

They will see their repayments increase by €13 per every €100,000 that they own, that they owe.

So as I say, they'll be the ones that will feel it first.

OK, and if people are worried, I mean, if they're on a tracker or if they're coming off a fixed rate, what's the best thing for them to do at this stage?