Real Estate Team OS

Go inside a top-ten team in the nation ($1B in sales volume and nearly 2,500 transaction sides in 2023) in this Inside The Team episode with Michelle Bleach, Regional Team Lead for The Laughton Team in Phoenix, Arizona.

Learn about Michelle’s path from real estate agent to team leader to leader of team leaders - and the development of and transition into her role as Regional Team Lead (with stops as a trainer and mentor along the way!).

Get tips for more effective coaching. Find out what makes The Laughton Team unique for agents, staff, and team leaders alike. And hear her advice for agents thinking about starting or joining a real estate team. 
  

Watch or listen for insights into:

- Processes and procedures as roadmaps

- How she tripled her annual sales production when she joined The Laughton Team

- Ways to turn online opportunities into a sustainable book of business (and help others do the same!)

- How to successfully transition from peer to leader of peers

- How the leadership team stays on the same page and speaks the same language through a leadership development program and coach

- Key elements of an effective coaching conversation, how to be a more effective coach, and how to be more coachable

- When groups and teams get together in person (vs remotely)

- How they’re evolving support of teams within the regional branches

- Which agents should join teams (and few tips to find the right one)

- What’s ahead for her, her role, and the team leaders in the next year or two

At the end, learn how a relationship created at the start of her career still benefits Michelle today!

For more on Levels 1-4 of the agent journey inside The Laughton Team, watch or listen to the first two episodes in this Inside The Team series with founder George Laughton and COO Billy Hobbs!
 
 Connect with Michelle Bleach and The Laughton Team:

- https://myphoenixhomesearch.com/team/michelle-bleach

- https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-alcorn-bleach-84463924/ 

- https://www.instagram.com/laughtonteam/
- https://www.facebook.com/laughtonteam/

Follow Real Estate Team OS:
- https://www.instagram.com/realestateteamos/
- https://www.tiktok.com/@realestateteamos

Learn more about Real Estate Team OS:
- https://www.realestateteamos.com/subscribe/
- https://linktr.ee/realestateteamos

Go inside a top-ten team in the nation ($1B in sales volume and nearly 2,500 transaction sides in 2023) in this Inside The Team episode with Billy Hobbs, Chief Operating Officer for The Laughton Team in Phoenix, Arizona.

In this conversation, Billy shares his path to the COO role (which includes experience as an agent, broker, and team leader), the nuanced and mutually beneficial system of splits and services they’ve designed to engage and retain agents, and tips for connecting and communicating with hundreds of team members across regional offices, teams within the team, and subcultures.

Watch or listen in particular for the critical role that pilots and iterations have made throughout their team journey.

Watch or listen for insights into:

- Hiring for and celebrating the pursuit of excellence

- His path from agent to broker to team leader to ops leader - including an indicator of who’s a good fit for a COO role 

- Team growth from 30 agents, 3 staff, and 1 office to 200 agents, 75 staff, and 6 office to 235 agents, 27 staff, and 5 offices

- The critical role of pilots and experiments and the two filters to define success

- The four levels of splits and services within the team (and how it’s changed from the first iteration to the third)

- Tips for supporting teams within the team (and the value of subcultures within the team)

- The importance of building with humans then driving efficiency with systems and of being willing to lead with ops investments, not just to lead with revenue

- Why the team model is so relevant in today’s market and why they operate according to that business model

- What’s  ahead in this Inside The Team series with The Laughton Team

At the end, learn about a team that found success even though they weren’t the most talented team.

Connect with Billy Hobbs and The Laughton Team:
- https://myphoenixhomesearch.com/team/billy-hobbs
- https://www.instagram.com/laughtonteam/
‍- https://www.facebook.com/laughtonteam/
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/billy-hobbs/

Follow Real Estate Team OS:
- https://www.instagram.com/realestateteamos/
- https://www.tiktok.com/@realestateteamos

Learn more about Real Estate Team OS:
- https://www.realestateteamos.com/subscribe/
- https://linktr.ee/realestateteamos

Go inside a top-ten team in the nation ($1B in sales volume and nearly 2,500 transaction sides in 2023) in this Inside The Team episode with George Laughton, Founder of The Laughton Team in Phoenix, Arizona.

George speaks to the past, present, and future of their team, the values that drive them, why he’ll always invest in coaching, and ways they’re improving agent retention.

Watch or listen for insights into:

- The value of being surrounded by A players

- Balancing growth and scale with the local and grassroots aspects of your real estate team

- How his grandfather’s portfolio of rental properties influenced his approach to his business and his team

- The #1 focus of a team leader

- Which hats he kept on and took off as the team grew

- Tips for coaching and for finding a good coach

- A must-have characteristic of a member of The Laughton Team

- What it means for a buyer’s agent to “show value” and how he’s coaching his team regarding the NAR settlement and buyer-broker agreements

- Tips and cautions for real estate teams at different stages of growth (and the duplicatable quality of their regional pod model)

- How and why they developed Level 1 to Level 4 agent journeys within the team, plus teams within the team (including a caution on what NOT to do)

- Balancing investments in technology and innovation with the human-to-human moments that create sustainable success

At the end, discover the benefit of leaving something in your digital Costco shopping cart and of shutting down a credit card and seeing what happens.

Connect with George Laughton and The Laughton Team:
- https://myphoenixhomesearch.com/team/george-laughton
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-laughton-51506679/
- https://www.instagram.com/laughtonteam/
‍- https://www.facebook.com/laughtonteam/ 

Follow Real Estate Team OS:
- https://www.instagram.com/realestateteamos/
- https://www.tiktok.com/@realestateteamos

Learn more about Real Estate Team OS:
- https://www.realestateteamos.com/subscribe/
- https://linktr.ee/realestateteamos

Episode 025 of Real Estate Team OS features Nick McLean, Owner and CEO of Nick McLean Real Estate Group, author of Million Dollar Agent, cofounder of Reside Platform, and coach to top teams and team leaders.

After serving as a wildland firefighter and 747 pilot, Nick started a team in a new market and grew it from 6 agents and 1 staff to 40 agents and 7 staff, from 100 units to 500 units, and from $0.5M in revenue to $5M in revenue over a 10-year period.

Learn how operations in general and onboarding and training in particular differentiated his team - and why those things will matter more for your team in the years to come.

Watch or listen to this episode for Nick’s insights into:
- The need to be in sync as a team
- The role of belief statements (relative to mission statements and core values)
- Starting a team in a new market and at a time when there were very few teams
- Thinking of your business as a manufacturing business and resolving bottlenecks in the flow (with hiring as the last resort solution)
- Onboarding, training, and standards as the differentiating factors for your real estate team
- Four specific ways to improve training and its value to your team
- The critical importance of knowing the game you’re playing (and sticking to it)
- Why “teams are going to continue to dominate” but how the Pareto principle will wash out teams that aren’t lean, tight, agile, and competitive

At the end, learn how Nick’s experience as a wildland firefighter informed the squadron model for real estate teams, where he takes calculated, Storage-War-type business risks, what there’s an unlimited budget for, how he gets hours and hours of podcasts and audiobooks in, and when his daughter’s on her own with homework.

Connect with Nick McLean:
- https://www.instagram.com/nickmcleanre/
- https://www.facebook.com/nickmcleanrealestate

Check out Nick’s businesses:
- https://www.nickmcleanrealestate.com/
- https://resideplatform.com/

Books mentioned in this episode:
- Million Dollar Agent by Nick McLean: https://www.amazon.com/Million-Dollar-Agent-Proven-Playbook/dp/B0C9FXJ8K9
- Same As Ever by Morgan Housel: https://www.amazon.com/Same-Ever-Guide-Never-Changes/dp/0593332709
- The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt: https://www.amazon.com/Goal-Process-Ongoing-Improvement/dp/0884271951

Learn more about Real Estate Team OS: 
- https://www.realestateteamos.com
- https://linktr.ee/realestateteamos

Follow Real Estate Team OS: 
- https://www.instagram.com/realestateteamos/
- https://www.tiktok.com/@realestateteamos

Get subscriber-only episodes instantly, plus email-exclusive insights and guest previews every week! Sign up at https://www.realestateteamos.com/subscribe

Episode 024 of Real Estate Team OS features Jeff Brown, Director of People and Operations with The Heaps Estrin Team, the #1 team in Canada under Royal LePage.

He joined the real estate team, led by Cailey Heaps, two years ago after spending about a decade with BMO Financial in human resources and workplace transformation.

Learn how the role shaped up, how the role serves the organization, how they support people through changes (including deeper adoption of Follow Up Boss and opening a second location), how to add performance management, which KPIs are worth reporting, and much more!

Watch or listen to this episode with Jeff for:
0:00 Intro and welcome
1:36 How to get the most from your team and team members by leading in an emotionally intelligent way
7:45 How he made the transition into real estate two years ago, what the initial role looked like with the team, and why the team needed him and his role 
13:58 Which KPIs are reported each month (and the various ways you can spend on flowers)
18:15 What the state of operations was within the team before bringing on a Director of People and Operations
21:14 Why *timing* is the key to opening up mindshare and creating scale for the agents and team leader alike
23:20 Insights into the what and why of two significant projects for the team - a new location and a new vertical
29:05 Culture and communication tips to facilitate change 
31:21 How a “five whys” approach helped move the team deeper into their CRM (Follow Up Boss) and why they looked to go deeper in the first place
37:55 How "the meeting after the meeting" supports training, education, and change
39:44 How the team runs their weekly sales meeting
40:49 How and why to implement true performance management for your admin and support staff - with two specific tips
46:25 Why and how to face the leadership and management aspects of your job even if you don’t love them

49:08 At the end, hear about an executive seeking permission from a junior team member, about just how expensive hand soap can be, and about leaving your phone in the other room.

Learn more about The Heaps Estrin Team:
- https://heapsestrin.com

Connect with Jeff Brown:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-brown-72077424/

Learn more about happiness with Gretchen Rubin:
- https://gretchenrubin.com/

Learn more about Real Estate Team OS:
- https://www.realestateteamos.com
- https://linktr.ee/realestateteamos

Follow Real Estate Team OS:
- https://www.instagram.com/realestateteamos/
- https://www.tiktok.com/@realestateteamos

Get subscriber-only episodes instantly, plus email-exclusive insights and guest previews every week! Sign up at https://www.realestateteamos.com/subscribe

Christy Belt Grossman is the go-to expert for real estate operations.
 
She started in mortgage ops before joining a 2-agent team as an assistant. Together, they grew to the #5 Keller Williams team and one of the first teams to produce $1B in sales.

Today, Christy is the Owner of Ops Boss Coaching and shares tips for owners and operators alike on building a business by building a partnership. 
 
You’ll also learn when and how to hire or promote an Ops Boss from Assistant to Director of Operations to Chief Operating Officer.

Watch or listen to this conversation with Christy to learn:
- The definition and value of life-giving leadership
- Her growth from assistant to COO in a pioneering real estate team 25+ years ago including a hard lesson along the way
- The nuance in operations roles and a team leader’s need to match their goals with these roles
- Empowering your ops person to be a multiplier rather than just a subtractor
- The Assistant as a job (not a career) that’s paid based on time spent (not results generated)
- The Director of Operations as a goal setter who’s paid on results
- The Chief Operating Officer as a business leader who’s producing results, driving growth, and co-creating and co-casting the vision
- The 3x Rule for optimizing your operations
- The process to determine proper compensation for operations team members
- A general rule of thumb to guide operations hiring
- How to identify the Assistant who’s prepared to become a Director of Operations
- How to set goals and drive progress between team leader and ops leader … together
- What solo agents and team leaders get by investing in operations

At the end, learn about a rock band as a melting pot, a +20-year-old, patriotic VW Beetle, and Picasso’s mastermind sessions.

Connect with Christy and Ops Boss on Instagram:
- https://www.instagram.com/christybeltgrossman/
- https://www.instagram.com/opsbosscoaching/

Learn more about Ops Boss Coaching:
- https://OpsBossCoaching.com

Learn more about Real Estate Team OS:
- https://www.realestateteamos.com
- https://linktr.ee/realestateteamos

Follow Real Estate Team OS:
- https://www.instagram.com/realestateteamos/

- https://www.tiktok.com/@realestateteamos

Episode 022 of Real Estate Team OS features Matt Smith, President and CEO of Matt Smith Real Estate Group, the #1 team in Mid-Missouri and the #2 team in the state. 

Learn how Matt turned hardships into an environment of productivity, positivity, and accountability - and how anyone can learn the language of leadership. Get insights into hiring staff at the right time - and into empowering both staff and agents to make more and better decisions.

Why should an agent join a team? When should a team leader leave sales production? What’s the 1-3-1 Method? Get those answers and more!

Watch or listen to this episode with Matt to learn:
 - How an emphasis on culture and the language of leadership drive team performance

- What it takes to be a leader who creates more leaders, which is a skill you can acquire and develop

- Two questions to answer and one thing to ignore when considering when, whether, and how to leave sales production

- How Matt got started in real estate including personal and business challenges along the way (like a broker taking 97 listings and 42 pendings from his team)

- The nature and structure of his 3-location team that’s hit 25% market share

- Tips for hiring staff in the right order and at the right time to allow growth and minimize friction

- “I’m a TERRIBLE COO” and why he runs operations anyway

- The cause of most problems between people

- How The 1-3-1 Method and two empowering decision-making filters help your staff and agents build confidence, momentum, and success

- Why there are “very few people who wouldn’t be better off on a team” - with a focus on taking more money home each year, not just from each transaction

At the end, learn about the best job Matt has (among many), why his wife walked out of a car dealership on him, and the perfect pairing of podcasts and workouts.

Connect with Matt Smith:
 - https://www.instagram.com/mattsmithexp/

- https://www.facebook.com/matt.smith.733450

Check out All or Nothing in Real Estate:
 - https://allornothinginrealestate.com/

Check out Matt Smith Real Estate Group:
 - https://www.mattsmithrealestategroup.com/

Learn more about Real Estate Team OS:
 - https://www.realestateteamos.com

- https://linktr.ee/realestateteamos

Follow Real Estate Team OS:
 - https://www.instagram.com/realestateteamos/

- https://www.tiktok.com/@realestateteamos

Episode 021 of Real Estate Team OS features Drew Little, Realtor and Team Leader of The Home Run Team in Virginia Beach. He’s just a few years into his real estate career and brings to it 25 years of corporate and entrepreneurial experience.
 
Learn how and why he got licensed, started a real estate team, and approached the business influenced by his baseball, military, corporate, and personal experiences.

Hear him out on the misalignment between agent and broker in some models - and how to correct them. Get his story on interviewing nearly two dozen brokers and team leaders when he started his career - and what he looked for to make the decision who to go with.

Watch this episode of Real Estate Team OS for Drew’s insights into:

- Getting buy-in and commitment from team members, who want to be part of something bigger than themselves despite the individualistic nature of the industry

- Working for fulfillment, not just for money (and avoiding “commission breath” in the process)

- Why real estate was the solution when he realized corporate jobs were a problem

- His initial vision for a real estate team that scales, including what needs to be localized and what can be centralized

- “A fanatical focus on clients and on fiduciary responsibility” as a long-term strategy for sustainable success

- The misaligned incentives in some brokerage models

- What it means to be a true fiduciary (and how “helping people pays you back”)

- How an agent should hire a broker (not the other way around) and the one question every broker should be able to answer for you

- Why an agent should never chase splits (but how you can negotiate them)

- The litmus test and value prop for joining The Home Run Team

- Being committed to making sure agents can’t sell any more property anywhere else than with their team

- Their first 3 staff hires (and why)

- Why he’ll always be in sales production

- His commission-based partnership approach to the ISA position (and how it’s paying off for everyone)

- What an agent needs to know and be able to deliver before starting a team

At the end, hear about some benefits (and a drawback!?) of coaching teenage baseball players, how his business partner’s frivolousness balances him out, and what it means to be an “omnivore of improvement.”

Connect with Drew Little:
- https://www.instagram.com/coach_drew757/
- https://linktr.ee/coachdrewlittle
- https://home-run-team.com/

Learn more about Real Estate Team OS:
- https://www.realestateteamos.com
- https://linktr.ee/realestateteamos

Follow Real Estate Team OS:
- https://www.instagram.com/realestateteamos/
- https://www.tiktok.com/@realestateteamos

Episode 020 of Real Estate Team OS features Katie Day, Realtor and Team Leader of The MOVEMETOTX Team in Houston.

Hear her journey into real estate sales and team leadership - in part through the lens of the simple promise you hear in webinars, podcasts, and stage presentations versus the messier reality of hiring, firing, and losing people. Hype oversimplifies. Experience teaches.

Watch or listen to Episode 020 with Katie Day for insights into:

- The need for adaptability within your team and where it comes from

- Balancing team goals with individual goals

- The progression from multi-family and single-family property management to real estate sales (with lessons learned from running an apartment community at age 21)

- The first hire a new team leader should make (and that she didn’t make)

- The role of culture and the development of core values of their 10-agent, 2-TC, 2-VA team (and defining some of it based on what you *don't* want, not just what you do want)

- Why building a mega team isn’t their goal, despite its being glamorized and oversimplified

- A "losing battle" many teams fight as they scale - and the high price they pay for it

- Their two agent avatars and how they built a three-week training program specifically in support of them

- Organizing your training into Sales, Marketing, and Operations and sequencing lessons for early sales wins

- The multiple benefits of staying in sales production (and why many mega team leaders are returning to sales production)

- How a solo agent benefits from joining a team and the two things that are required for success within a team (coachability and humility)

- How an aspiring team leader should plan their first hire (or three)

- The aha moment of being present on social media and creating video content

At the end, hear why a varsity basketball lineup went rec league, a $2 refill savings, and the benefits of conferences and events.

Connect with Katie Day:

- https://www.instagram.com/movemetotx/

Learn more about Real Estate Team OS:
 - https://www.realestateteamos.com

- https://linktr.ee/realestateteamos

Follow Real Estate Team OS:
 - https://www.instagram.com/realestateteamos/

- https://www.tiktok.com/@realestateteamos

Episode 019 of Real Estate Team OS features Mike Heddle, Broker and Team Leader of Heddle Real Estate in Hamilton, Ontario.

Learn how he built their real estate practice on four specific verticals, including relocation, new construction, property investing, and referrals through a tight network.

Hear about the $300,000 they pay out in referral fees each year as a marketing cost he’s glad to pay - in large part because it’s a variable cost in their highly productive and profitable business.

And listen for specific language around a consultant’s approach, a sales partner, and a real estate practice.

Watch or listen to this conversation with Mike Heddle for:
- A quick dive into the necessary presence and balance of leadership, drive, systems, accountability, and culture for team success
- Flipping the org chart upside down as a leader (like a bee apiary)
- The need for a North Star to align individual goals and success with team goals and success (and an overview of their core values)
- The Heddle Group real estate team as a product of necessity (too much opportunity to deliver the level of service he was building his reputation on)
- Their first vertical - a relocation partnership with a world-renowned medical research center
- Their second vertical - a new home construction partnership with a builder
- The vertical strategy “makes the phones ring off the hook” and generates 120-140 organic, inbound leads each month
- Their third vertical - a real estate investment network (1/3 of their business, about 100 of the 300 transactions each year)
- Their fourth vertical - connecting with the top 1% in Royal LePage and the fortunate market dynamics an hour outside of Toronto
- A deeper dive into how you can leverage their third vertical - "the best ROI" in their business and “one of the strongest value propositions” they’ve put out to prospects, clients, and the market
- The four financial fundamentals of investment properties
- Specializing by vertical and lead routing by vertical
- Why he’ll likely always stay in sales production and won’t likely pursue a mega team structure

At the end, learn about the NHL teams he’s loved, the “wooden skis” upgrade, and a renewed focus on health (specifically: sleep).

Learn more about Heddle Real Estate:
- https://liveinhamilton.ca

Learn more about The Deal of the Week:
- https://dotw.ca

Connect with Mike Heddle:
- https://www.instagram.com/mike.heddle

Learn more about Real Estate Team OS:
- https://www.realestateteamos.com
- https://linktr.ee/realestateteamos

Follow Real Estate Team OS:
- https://www.instagram.com/realestateteamos/

- https://www.tiktok.com/@realestateteamos/