There’s a spot on Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest free-standing mountain, where a vehicle can reach you for the first time on the descent. Before that point, if something goes wrong, your options are a helicopter or a stretcher carried by porters. There is no other way out. So you move, and you deal with whatever you’re […]
Tag: Framework: Create Your TRIBE
The Economics of Loneliness: What Joe De Sena reminded me about building real culture in residential real estate
I follow Joe De Sena, the guy who built Spartan Race out of a stubborn refusal to let people quit. He sent something to me this morning that had nothing to do with obstacle courses. It was about loneliness. And I couldn’t stop thinking about how perfectly it described what I’m watching happen in our […]
Do Your Agents Deserve Ritz-Carlton Treatment?
I was thinking today, we can overcomplicate this business. We debate splits, technology stacks, lead generation, office footprint. And somewhere in all of that noise we forget the thing that actually holds a brokerage together. How people feel when they walk through your door. Horst Schulze said it best. “Guests do not primarily want luxury. […]
The “Unreasonable” Talent Play: What Real Estate Leaders Can Learn from Google’s DeepMind Deal
The “Unreasonable” Talent Play: What Real Estate Leaders Can Learn from Google’s DeepMind Deal Every brokerage owner knows the feeling of a competitor eyeing their market. They have a bigger budget, deeper pockets, and an aggressive recruiting team. How do you actually beat them? A recent Wall Street Journal article titled “The Inside Story of […]
The Broken Rung: How AI is Changing Who We Hire (And How We Train Them)
In my ongoing series of blogs on AI, (Blog 1 / Blog 2 / Blog 3) I have been dissecting how this tech is moving from a shiny new toy to the actual infrastructure of our businesses. Lately, the conversation has shifted. Whether I am at the front of a lecture hall at the University, […]
The Last Hiring Cycle You’ll Run the Old Way
The smartest people in the room are asking the wrong questions. Those aren’t bad questions. They’re just questions for a world that’s already ending. The Claude Code Moment Earlier this year, Anthropic’s Claude Code didn’t improve software development. It retired the entry-level software engineer as a job category. Not in 2030. Now. The industry moved […]
Beyond Burnout: How Leaders Must Protect Agents from the ‘Always On’ Cost
For Broker-Owners, CEOs, and Top Agents like us, the 40-hour workweek is irrelevant. Our schedules are dictated by one thing: serving the client. I was inspired by Wall Street Journal reporting by Andrew Blackman on the workweek’s history. The 40-hour standard is a 1930s relic, not a performance strategy. It’s time we acknowledge this and pivot to the real leadership challenge: What are […]
Beyond Motivation: Why Commitment is the Key to Recruiting Top Agents
Another tough week is in the books, filled with distractions and diversions. As leaders, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and get sidetracked from our most important goals. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about what truly separates the offices that consistently attract experienced agents from those that struggle. It all boils down to a single, […]
Beyond the Percentage: Justifying Your Value
For those of you who joined me this morning, great conversation. For those that missed? My notes: We talked about a critical shift in how we approach our buyers and sellers (or if you’re an owner or recruiter, your prospects). New research confirms what many of us are already feeling: traditional sales tactics are losing […]
The Unshakeable Brokerage: A Coach’s Guide for Leaders & Recruiters to Build & Win Through Empathetic Persistence
The brokerages that grow through every market have one thing in common: leaders and recruiters who practice empathetic persistence. It isn’t a sales tactic you teach agents. It’s how you lead, how you build your team and how you recruit. Persistence, Not Pressure The line between the two is everything. Pressure looks like micromanaging, demands […]