Nobody gave him a platform. So he built four.
Coach. Trainer. Brand and PR strategist. Social media operator. AI product builder. Publisher across four countries. Nic Fren has spent twenty years being told how the real estate industry works, and most of that time proving it wrong.
- 11 countries
- 4,000+ members on platform
- 4 international mastheads
- 79,000+ Australasian audience
- Number one agent on social media, Australia, 2015
September 2015
On the sixteenth of September 2015, in Oakhurst, in Sydney's outer west, Nic Fren sold a house on Facebook.
Not marketed on Facebook. Not advertised on Facebook. Sold. The buyer came from a post. At the time this was not a strategy, it was a heresy. The industry ran on portals, print and the office window. Social media was where you put a photo of the sold sticker afterwards, if you bothered at all.
By the end of that year he was ranked the number one agent selling on social media in Australia.
He was not the most experienced agent in his market. He did not have the biggest database, the best patch or the deepest pockets. What he had was an understanding, roughly a decade ahead of the industry that employed him, that attention had moved and nobody had told the profession.
Before any of it
He did not come from real estate. He came from a kitchen.
Nic trained and worked as a pastry chef, in an industry that teaches you two things very quickly: the standard is the standard, and nobody cares how tired you are. Then he was a musician, which taught him the other half of it. How to walk into a room that has not asked for you and earn the right to be heard.
Neither is a conventional route into media. Both explain more about how he operates than any qualification would.
What he does
Brand strategy and positioning
Nic builds brands from the position out, not the logo in. The work starts with the argument a business can own and nobody else can copy, then everything else follows from it. He has done this for individual agents, for offices, for national networks and for his own mastheads, which is the part most brand consultants cannot say.
PR and industry publicity
Nic runs publicity from inside the newsroom. He publishes four trade titles, he knows what an editor will actually run and what goes in the bin, and he writes announcements the way a journalist needs to receive them. Most PR in this industry is written by people who have never had to fill a publication. His is not.
Social media and lead generation
This is where he started, and he has been doing it at a professional level since 2015, longer than almost anyone selling it in this market. Paid social, organic systems, content engines and the follow-up architecture that turns a form fill into a listing. He built the discipline as an agent first, so the campaigns are designed around the conversation the agent has to have, not around the impression count.
Coaching and training
Nic coaches agents, principals, trainers and executive teams. He has worked with some of the industry's leading agents and trainers on personal brand and social strategy. He runs network training days, group programs, one to one advisory and keynotes, and his flagship program, Build a Brand in 90 Days, has been used by thousands of agents globally.
AI product development
Nic conceived, specified and built AXION, the first live AI roleplay simulator for real estate professionals. Not a wrapper, a product: live voice conversations against configurable vendor personalities, objection scoring, manager dashboards and network deployment. It passed ten thousand completed conversations within three weeks of launch, the fastest adoption of any product the group has released, and it now sits at the centre of a platform carrying more than four thousand members.
Publishing and media
Nic owns and publishes Real Estate Today in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and India. He is a publisher who sells marketing and a marketer who runs newsrooms, and the two halves compound. Nobody else in this market does both.
What he has built
Bespoke Media Group
An international media, marketing, PR and technology group operating across eleven countries.
Real Estate Today New Zealand
Launched on a Wix site with a Canva logo. The leading independent real estate trade publication in New Zealand within three months.
Real Estate Today Australia
Entered a market defended by publications established for roughly a decade, with no corporate backing and no institutional support. At the front of that market within five months. Eighteen months in, it leads its entire competitive set on proportional audience acquisition and ranks second on engagement efficiency, against titles ten times its age.
Real Estate Today India
Now among the top real estate trade publications in the country.
Real Estate Today United States
The newest masthead and the fastest growing.
AXION
The first live AI roleplay simulator built for real estate. Ten thousand conversations in three weeks.
Build a Brand in 90 Days
The signature program, used by thousands of agents globally and deployed across entire networks.
The Real Estate Today Awards
An industry awards program built to celebrate other people's businesses.
The Bespoke platform
More than four thousand members across eleven countries.
Speed is the argument
- 3 months
Real Estate Today New Zealand from launch to leading independent trade publication
- 5 months
Real Estate Today Australia from market entry to the front of the market, with no corporate backing
- 90 days
An independent media agency built to the number one position in New Zealand, and repeated to number three in Australia
- 25 offices
Onboarded by one national partner network in 2025 following a change of marketing strategy, an average of one new office every week
“Anyone can grow a brand with a decade and a budget. The blueprint exists because we did not have either.”
Who he works with
Nic works with real estate networks, principals, offices, coaches, trainers, proptech suppliers and industry bodies across Australia, New Zealand and internationally.
Agency HQ
Marketing, media and brand partner. Named Boutique Network of the Year at the Real Estate Business awards, 2026, and named in Real Estate Today Trailblazers, 2026.
LJ Hooker New Zealand
Among the fastest growing networks across Australia and New Zealand in 2025, with Bespoke Media Group as marketing and media partner across the period.
A national partner network
25 offices onboarded in 2025 following a change of marketing strategy.
“Nic Fren has the most amazing platform for agents. If you want to position and elevate yourself, reach out to Bespoke Media Group.”
“Nic Fren has done an amazing job building out our Agency HQ portal.”
Why he gives it away
There is a version of this story where a man who built a media network uses it to talk about himself.
That is not what happened. Real Estate Today publishes other people's wins. The awards celebrate other people's businesses. The platform puts other people's brands in front of the market. Nic has spent a decade building the thing he was never handed, and then handing it to everybody else.
“I came into media from outside it, with no corporate backing and no institutional support. So I built the platform I was never given, and then I gave it to everybody else.”
Work with Nic
Networks and principals
Brand position, media strategy, campaign architecture and network-scale rollout.
Book a callAgents and teams
Build a Brand in 90 Days, coaching, and the Bespoke platform.
See the blueprintConferences and events
Keynotes, panels and network kick-offs on brand, social, AI and the future of real estate media.
Book Nic to speak
Press kit, headshots and boilerplate: media kit.