I was listening to Pope Leo’s homily recently, and my mind eventually went to how I could apply this to you, to recruiting, and to retention.
Say what?
Stick with me for a second.
Reflecting on beauty, Pope Leo pointed out something we all quietly know but rarely act on: we equate value with a flawless, youthful exterior. Real life brings wrinkles, gray hair, and years of heavy lifting. He warned against getting trapped by “consumerist” aesthetic standards, noting that we often meet people who are “outwardly attractive but hard and cold at heart,” while those “marked by the years and by suffering” are the ones radiating real peace and strength.
That’s the whole lesson in building a real business, right there.
The Shiny Penny vs. The Consistent Producer
In our world, we get blinded by our own version of aesthetic standards. We chase the shiny penny the flashy $10M agent with the slick marketing, the perfect pitch deck, the big presence at every event. On paper, they look incredible. And plenty of them earn every bit of that reputation: they’re skilled, they’re driven, and they build real value.
But some of them are all surface. The production is real, the loyalty isn’t. The moment the market shifts, the split gets renegotiated, or a better offer shows up, they’re gone — and they take a chunk of your culture with them on the way out.
Meanwhile, we look right past the $1M to $2M producer — capable, with real room to grow — who shows up every day in their work clothes and tools, ready to grind.
That’s the mistake. Those consistent producers are the anchor of your business. They’re the ones radiating steady, quiet strength when everyone else is panicking over interest rates or low inventory. They’ve got the maturity, the resilience, and the loyalty that actually sustains a company through the hard years the kind of value that doesn’t show up on a recruiting poster but shows up every single time it matters.
Value the Wrinkles
Pope Leo talked about finding true value in “the maturity of an adult… in work clothes and tools.”
Don’t let the cover of the book drive your actions. Recruit for talent, sure — but hire for character, and retain for loyalty. Don’t sacrifice the steady soul of your office chasing a shiny penny you haven’t vetted. Value the wrinkles.
Win the day.
