Hey so welcome back to the podcast super excited to have mary lee blaylock, ceo of berkshire hathaway home services, california, properties um. If you don't know this powerhouse, she is a ceo. She is a rock star amongst rock stars and to show you like the swag that this woman carries. She was named number 69 of the top 200, most influential people in real estate and number 12 on the women's list, and i don't know how there was anybody more influential than this gal, but mary lee.

First of all, i'm just super stoked. I know you're crazy busy, so thank you for being on the podcast. It is truly my pleasure. I mean you know: we've had enough conversations over the years tom, where i think we will have enough energy for people to glean from for, like a lifetime, awesome thrilled.

Absolutely yeah, so there's no doubt - and i know like for the person listening right now, like i actually wrote down, my goal is really twofold. I want i want the. I want the young gal listening right now, who might be 15 or 35. Who is listening to my podcast and she's like wait a minute, this guy's, like a ceo of this, like 3 000 agent company, a mortgage company, title esker all like like that, sounds really busy like how did she get there? I want to talk about that and then i really want to break down the mechanics of what it means to be a ceo of a large company and then i'm going to go into some insights on on from your perspective on you know what about that person? Who's running a 30 person company or a 300 person company or a 1500 person company or a brand new agent and everything out of the sun, because you have that depth of experience.

But i thought we would start first with like tell them who you are, give them a little background. You know i mean i we know you've been in the business 1993, but what'd you do before 1993 right. So i went to college in 19 before 1993 and i decided i was going to be a music teacher tom i was going to. I was a voice major in college, and i wanted to teach music to anything from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade loved music theater, the whole dance thing, so it ended up.

That's very transferable by the way in getting in front of people very stuff. Didn't know it was going to be helpful, but indeed it was so i in an apologize that was foreclosed upon so in that process of the foreclosure the bank representative said to me, you should get into real estate because i was the assistant manager of the apartment, Complex, of course, to help subsidize my rent, so it was, it was self-propelled. I decided i was going to help myself financially get a little business under my belt. Couldn't find a teaching job, foreclosed decided to try real estate got my license, and so i i just decided to i could do this.

I can do this. Why can't i do this right so we're talking okay, 1993 you're living in an apartment. It gets foreclosed on you're, also kind of co-managing the apartment right to save a few shekels. I love that you wanted to be a music like i.

I never knew that about you and i've known you for a long time, but i have seen you dance with the stars and you know right. Like the you know, maxine gellins, and you know the the unbelievable experience that was so i'm not shocked and it's interesting. Yesterday i had uh joseph mclennan iii, who is partners with tony robbins for the last 30 plus years. He was like.

I wanted to be a musician, but he took being a musician to now being on stage. So it's interesting, you know, hearing you know back to back that same connection um, so you go into real estate. What was that first year, like um? Tough, of course, any new agent's first year is tough and in fact um. I will tell you this is a true story.

She ended up to be a good friend, the receptionist at the office that i went into uh big office, 200 agents in it. Okay, big huge office, so you feel like a little small fish in the big in the big ocean and that receptionist said to me after i had my first and second sale, which, by the way were in the first on the first day same day. Not the first day, the same day, six months later so for six months, i sold nothing. I had no idea.

If i was going to pay my rent, i was refusing to call my parents and ask them for any more money, because i was going to do this darn it and and as a result, i thought i have got to kick it in gear. Listen to as many agents as i could took them out to lunch did all the things you're supposed to do for successful agents. I did all of that, learn from them and they and i had two very influential people. One was a very successful agent named joan who said to me: you have got to get in houses to sell houses, start there.

Yeah yeah second thing was from this receptionist when she said to me one night, i don't think you're gon na make it and i thought huh, you don't know me that was just enough fuel to make me change my mojo and thought i have got to actually Sell a house so sold my first and second house in the same day and the rest became history. So so you think about first of all that story that so many people can relate to and and to me it's it's just a perfect one of the many chapters of your life that led you to where you are today like there. There is no quick way to get there unless you go out and you're just crazy, and you start your own business, which you know some people have certainly done but take us through the sort of the journey. So you you go into sales.

How long are you in sales? Did you go into management because i know how you ultimately got here, but just walk us through those those sort of moments in time of your career, so people get the depth of your experience absolutely so that was in 1993. That was a lot. There were a good amount of foreclosures occurring and i ended up becoming a part of a relationship with the bank, so i ended up having many many many listings and dealing with the foreclosure, and i did transferable loans. I mean all the things that we don't hear about anymore.

Those were the best lessons and education on how to work a way around a purchase agreement. So i knew my contracts, i knew them in and out and i think that's one thing that can't be overemphasized. You must know your stuff and if you don't know your stuff you're, just bsing somebody, i'm sorry and so, and they're gon na smell through that. So i didn't have a great client base.

I had to know my stuff, so i would absolutely encourage that. So i sold real estate for four years. Ultimately, in around a year two and a half i went through a manager candidate program and in that process, when i asked my region or my office manager at the time who became a regional manager, i said tell me about that program and i remember him putting His head down on the desk - and he looked and i said, is that a bad request and all he said was you know i knew you moved fast, but i didn't know: you'd move that fast yeah and i said why do you say that is that i Saw your management skills, probably before you did, but you needed to come into your own. I mean tom.

I was 23 when i started, i didn't know anything. I i i knew nothing right knew nothing. I knew no one. I had been born and raised in northern minnesota and i was in the twin cities.

I had no client base and i was going to refuse to tell them ask my parents for help. It was just the way i was yeah, so i sold real estate for four years ended up getting into the manager candidate program went through that program, took it upon myself to tell my regional manager that i think there's some tweaks to that program. That would be helpful for other people. They asked me to help rewrite the program and then i ended up beginning to teach business planning within the program.

So my management kind of started with you know for zero pay by the way, and that's what lessons that i want to emphasize for, especially the young people coming out of college. I think these colleges honestly and i have a son in college. It set them up to expect to come out and making six figures and everything's gon na be hunky-dory right out of the shoot. It's not the case.

You have to do the hard work and you have to do it because you want to learn from it and you don't. You can't expect a reward for every piece of work. You do and can we be clear, it's more than a summer intern, it's more than a summer intern for six weeks. Yes, exactly right, it's more than that and it's actually hard work and you can do it and but all of that said so, four years in so then i ended up getting into um becoming an assistant manager in a different office and what they realized.

The company that i didn't realize was that they put me in places that needed a little bit of an infusion of energy yeah yeah. What i don't think they knew right out of the shoot that i was working on was knowing my stocks, and that was understanding. The p l understanding my way around a transaction and understanding the impact that transaction can have to the bottom line of an office so that i could manage that office effectively, and so what people don't always recognize about me is that they see me. I think often times as this, you know i'm fun, i'm fun.

I dance i sing whatever i'm i'm crazy with the best of them, but i'm a business person and i know my numbers and i think there is that's a different and unique blend that i didn't know i had, but i thank both of my parents for it. My mother was super super intelligent, valedictorian of her class, but she was a stay-at-home mom and i say that because, like this wasn't a full-time job, i'm the youngest of nine children, okay, wow whoa, so there's so many lessons that came built in being noticed because i Had to work, i had to prove myself in everything i did everything all of my life. You don't realize that those are lessons that will become beneficial for you. My father owned his own business, raised.

Nine kids sent us all to college paid for every cent of it. That is unique. I learned business more from him than i realized, and so that blend kind of enabled me to to kind of get where i was and understand my path as i became an entrepreneur in real estate myself, as well as taking it to that next level becoming manager And then hold on, though first i got ta. I got ta back up, though so here you are you're like 27 28, you know i mean you're, energetic, you're, lovely you're charismatic, but you're 27 and the average age in the office is 55, and here you are managing them.

How did that go over? Well. First of all, keep in mind that being the youngest of nine had more of an impact. My oldest sibling today is 71., i'm very comfortable with people older than me. It was, i didn't see age.

That way i saw human beings and i saw a need for improvement or praise for something they've done well, that's all i saw, and so i think whether that was just naivety or not, it worked, and so i i plowed through, but i don't think i don't Think it was your issue if they're older, it's usually it's it's their issue that you're younger who's, this young little whippersnapper coming in here, trying to tell me how to how did you overcome did that happen and if so, how'd you overcome it, i overcame it by Simply knowing my stuff, so i had some credibility, but i also overcame it by it. It's never been about me ever i mean ever. It never has been it's about us and that's just my personal philosophy and as a result of that us focus, i think they knew right out of the shoot that i wasn't in it just to fake my way through and bet self benefit myself. It was to truly try to improve our holistic company in our holistic office and what's our culture and let's have some fun while we do it, yeah so makes a big difference, makes it big and you can't and you're right.

You can't fake that. So how long? How long were you in a management role and then what was the next? What was the next move from there yeah, so that went pretty quick two years two and a half years in management roughly and then i was out on maternity leave or we had our got married 96 somewhere in there right and then i had our first child. I was pregnant with her when i was an office manager in my first official office management role by myself. Yeah, okay, so went on maternity leave and then um, you, i'm sure, know, and for those that don't know she was a very complicated birth and ended up to be a very, very severely handicapped child who has since then passed away and so uh just three years Ago so we're very very, we always miss our emma, but she taught me a lot of life, lessons as well: um humility being one of them for sure, but in that process, when i was on maternity leave, i got a call from the company and said: would You like to become the vp of relocation and i was like what my story was.

I had a c-section, i must have been on painkillers because i said sure i'll try that yeah and i had no idea about it and i remember questioning saying wait a minute. I don't know all there is to know about that, and i am also wondering why do you want me to do it and the response i got was interesting in that they said. Well, you were the one that you asked all the questions about. Why should i give this deal to a relocation experience agent? When i know i can make more money on the agent that has a lower split, and i know i can do all these things, and so they said you just asked enough questions that we realized.

You might actually be good for it, and relocation is a world of personality. Yes, it is yes, so so when you, when you took over that role, was there an existing team? Was there a bunch of people that that - and this is an important thing for people that are listening right now when you want to move from, you know one level to the next and you you essentially adopt a team of people that are now your group. What did you do in the very beginning with that, because again, you're still very young, you got all this energy. They see you kind of moving up inside the organization.

Sometimes people start to say: oh she's, that gal that's here for a couple years. Then she moves on to the next one. So you know just don't don't don't ruffle her feathers and she'll be gone soon enough what happened so what happened was i i dug in. First of all, i had to come off of maternity leave and go back and and be in the office.

I was at so that we could transition that out. It was an interesting time because they finally just really latched on and i latched on to them, and then i was going to move again, so i i always have to take. I have to take care of where i've been before i can move to where i'm going. Yes, always it's just important, never burn a bridge always keep those relationships.

So when i went to the relocation department, this is a large company. So it's a diner realty in minneapolis and they have at that time there was probably 6 000 transactions that ran through that department. On an annual basis. I had a team of 18 people yeah.

I knew nothing yes, but i had a great teacher who - and i was a good yeah i studied - i mean i did my homework and so i my first thing was to just simply learn what everybody does and be willing to do it myself, and so those Are always the two things that i have to do learn what they do, how they do it ask if there's any improvement that they see, because it really doesn't matter. I don't know yes and then over time, morph it into hopefully greater success. So my first piece of advice that somebody gave me that sticks with me to this day was the first thing you do is nothing yeah. Yes, yes, but mary, but mary lee.

You know that, because you're battle tested the the 42 year old, that's thinking about starting her company right now or starting his company. They we oftentimes assume that we come into a new role that we're expected to come in with here's my 100 day plan, and this is what we're going to do and we're going to take over this and we're going to grow like. But but it's it's a recipe for disaster. In almost every case, it is people first business.

Second yeah people first business second, and what that means is that you have to um gently approach it and read the room. Yes, there's that's more important than anything else and you can't move faster than they're willing to follow and you have to so so for me that meant after i learned what they did. I also asked them. Is there anything that that you do that's dumb and they - and there was a lot of that - and i said why would we just start by let's just not do that anymore, don't do the dumb stuff yeah and then they were like yay.

I like this change. We're getting rid of the dumb stuff, so i've learned over the years that take care of the people talk to them about what changes they want and and truly it ends up to be. The changes you'd probably make anyway right right, because they know they see the redundancies, they see the mistakes. They see that why? Why do we? Why we always? Well? We just always done it like this, but it doesn't work yeah.

We should probably change that right right. So it was, i i mean it's, it feels very innate to me, but if i were telling somebody that they were going to start their business this way and and right now today i would say know who you have understand, who they are and are they the Right people on the right train, so you can move, don't move first, yeah very good advice. So how long in relocation before you made the next move, which seems to be the story of your career here? It does. You know - and i never intended it to be, but it just happened that way so yeah.

I was officially the head of that department for six years in the sixth year, so now we're in 2004., okay backing up just a little bit. The original ceo of edina realty, when i was under him, was ron peltier, yes, who many know who was number one, most influential person in real estate, multiple times right so a legend. So i have been gifted with his mentorship truly over the years, and i say that with such respect for him, but i also say it for the respect for gino bulfari who's taken that role and it's just it's. I love the different approaches.

I love the different mentorships and i love to be able to learn and grow within. So i was in the department for six years around that department and in that sixth year home services of america had already been born right, and so i ron being ron said mary lee you got to go, get you know. 3M was in minnesota general mills in minnesota, pillsbury at the time in minnesota. All these large corporations are in the state of minnesota and he said, go get all the relocation corporate relocation business.

So i tried, but i was edina realty and there's nothing wrong with being a local company, but perception wins and perception was only local, and so i went back to ron and i said all right - here's the deal i am willing, if you are willing to have A national and potentially international relocation company that i think, based upon the heels of home services of america, could be called home services relocation, and i would love to start that company with you know your money would be great and and willing to do the work. It's not going to be make money in the first year. You need to know that, but it will make money in the second year and i have a path. And then i went through my whole plan and laid it out for a two-year plan and he had was gracious enough to say.

Go. I started with two employees, so i was, i was in a you, know, a department doing thousand transactions. Everything was coming along here. I completely left a very solid environment, very safe, making good money very something crazy, very comfortable.

I did something completely crazy and i was told that it was kind of crazy by a few people um, but uh. The other people that were telling me it was gon na be okay were, in my opinion at that time, heavier more influential to me. Yes, so i listened intently and made a informed decision jumped ship and i in 2004 for that one year i was a crazy person where i ran the relocation department at edina and i started home services - relocation, crazy, crazy, then, through different acquisitions and different growth. I was the chief bottle: washer coffee maker sales person um, you know powerpoint presenter uh, all of it the rfps came in.

I filled them out myself. It was, it was all kind of one person, along with another right hand, guy who is fabulous still there to the to this day, and we just made it work and we were hungry and i was hungry and we went from initially about 200. Moves to 300 moves and my clientele were corporations so keep in mind. I've learned real estate transactions.

I went through foreclosure learned how banks work. I had the training and i got to teach business planning, so i it forces you to know it yourself. Creating a business plan knowing how to execute on it, then i get into selling corporations. Now i have all of this real estate, knowledge and all of the title lending knowledge that comes along with all of those deals, and i get to talk to corporations and then get grilled on the taxation of relocates by the cfo of these companies.

Right - and that was interesting, but i love you probably learned a lot in that experience. Unbelievably so - and i learned a lot about how corporate america affects real estate and how real estate affects corporate america, how they blend, how they mirror, how they don't when the real estate market is fast, corporations, don't have to offer as many buyouts to cl transferees. It's very intertwined much more than i realized and i loved that education. So then i was there from 2004 to 2014.

Until i came here and i became the president of home services. Relocation ended up with uh about, i would say, 50 55 clients corporate clients. We did about 1300 moves annually and inc, including setting up the national lending arm, along with at that time, home services lending now prosperity home mortgage for that organization got all those licensed loan officers in 36 of the 50 states. I just did more than i ever imagined i would even consider doing because it just needed to get done, so i just did it so someone's gon na be listening to this and i know um.

I know because it's going through my head because i'm thinking to myself first of all, thank goodness you didn't become a schoolteacher right and then also, thank goodness, you were the number nine child of nine right. So so you know you have to be scrappy right. It's not it's not like you're, there's, two kids and you're the baby right when you're number nine they're like who's that one again right like you got to be scrappy and right, yes, um, but i want to go back. I mean because you talked about emma and i was really grateful.

You did because i you know i i wanted to bring it up, but i i didn't say it to you before we got started, and so so i'm grateful you did because anyone in their right mind is going to say wait. A minute like this woman was doing all of that and she had a a disabled child at home right and you have, and you have another child right so like how did how did you manage your life while you were out building all of this? How did you balance the two like? Did it work? Did it not work like give us some insight there? Oh, my gosh, it was nuts my husband, brilliant engineer, worked full-time, i'm doing this working full-time. Now, in 2000 1999 we had emma in 2001, we had our first son in 2005. We had our second son yeah, okay, so i mean like why not why not but yeah and in the middle that you started a new company right.

All of that i mean i i was like. Maybe i was just sleep deprived enough to believe i could do it. You know i mean there's, there's some truth to that. True story in all of that i went to the um optometrist because all of a sudden i was you know not, i was feeling like i needed cheater glasses.

Can you believe that yeah yeah right so i go there and and i have had emma and then i had this newborn connor and she says well, have you been getting enough sleep? No, have you have you been under any extra stress, um yeah? I i finally just looked at this poor woman and, i said, listen. I am such a weird, unique case. I don't want to tell you my life history. I just need glasses.

Okay, because i have to go. I got a meeting, i'm busy. I got things to do so: um backing up to emma emma was severely severely handicapped and talk about the power of a fabulous family. My sister, who is two years older than me in age, quit her job to take care of emma in our home.

She came to our house every day and got her up got her going so that i could get my other children out the door, and my husband was the pickup on the way in and we you know we everything was about a shift change in our house, But the only reason it worked is because we basically had three parents, and my sister gave her life for our life and it was one yeah. That's beautiful, that's beautiful, and i know you know for a lot of people listening like it's always the balance of of ambition and desire and family and then the way we're raised and the rules that we have for our life and our values. And you know, i know you so i know where your heart is um. I just i appreciate you sharing that because i know i know i guarantee someone would have been like fairy.

Why didn't you ask right? Yeah? Oh absolutely - and you know i'll, just carry it through that she lived until she was 17. and she was there. She had 13 surgeries, she was in body cast twice, she could never speak, but she lit up a room like nobody's business and if any of us think that we have troubles just go to a specialty healthcare, children's waiting room and you right up, yeah yeah, you Know i'm a part of a uh, a group i'm on the board of a company called miracles for kids and - and you know it's it's children that are that have stage four lung cancer and they're two years old and there's it's literally there's there's almost little to No hope right and yet people are like well. Why would you do i'm like? Because i think about the mom who's? Usually a single mom who's got two kids, who can't work so to to raise money and to help them right is.

Is it it breaks? My heart, because you you almost always don't win right, but but what you feel, because you know to your point like it's, she was with you for 17 years and a blessing every single day. So so how? If you think about that experience? So so many people, if had you, not brought that up mary lee, someone would have been saying. Well, of course i mean you know: parent center to college she's, all bright and bubbly she's super energetic, she's good, looking like, of course, but people, people don't seem to get like it's the hardship and the battles that make great leaders and great human beings absolutely, and I will tell you my husband and i are gratefully married. Our marriage survived all of that and continues to thrive, we'll be married 25 years next year, which is great, but that was hard.

I mean it's hard, it's tall, it was like. Yes, there were a lot of moments, a lot of tears, a lot of hardship, a lot of hard decisions, um just one after another and candidly, when we had emma and then we decided to have connor not quite two years later. My literally what i said to my husband was well we're not sleeping anyway. We might as well have another one.

We knew we wanted other children. So let's just do this. You know why not yeah we'll just go for a couple of years, no sleeping, and you know we'll figure it out later i mean every every parent knows exactly what you're talking about i'd say same thing, i'm like my wife's, like honey. We haven't slept in 18 months, good news, we're not gon na sleep for another, like probably four years, i'm like are we pregnant she's like we're pregnant, i'm like here we go, that's how we go yeah, so so, let's transition back you you're living in minnesota and All of a sudden, this opportunity to move to california comes up speaking of family dynamics and changes in you know i mean your husband's working.

You got kids in school, you got emma and all of a sudden like. Why did you take that on? First of all, yeah craziness right well, first and foremost when i was asked, if i would even consider it. The first thing i did was: i asked like two questions and then i just got up and left the table, and everyone looked at me like. Where are you going, and i said, i'm sorry i have to leave before i say something dumb, because i need to think about this and i need to talk to my husband and i left.

I said i can't talk to you about this right now. I wasn't ready to have an in-depth conversation, so one thing i've learned about myself over the years is that i know when i have to back off of a conversation back off of a situation get out of my own head and out of my own way and Go find reason, and i innocent - i absolutely did that and it was critical that i did and i called my husband and said we're gon na need to have a bottle of wine tonight on this one and again keep in mind he's an engineer: yeah very high High eye on the disc profile, not 100 and all he said was okay. He never worries. He didn't ask me what it's about.

He just said: okay, i'll be home at whatever time and let's go so. We got the kids to bed had a glass of wine, and i said: here's what's going on it's an opportunity to originally become the general manager and the senior vp and general manager of the company i'm at now, and and here's what it could potentially mean for. My career, but i'm not really sure - and i don't really know all i know - is that i know this company on paper because part of my experience having been part of home services was that i got to be part of due diligence for acquisitions that they made And i loved that and in that process i knew this company on paper. Yes, but i didn't know the people, so it was forcing me to look at things backwards.

If you recall from how i generally looked at things for sure first business later, i knew business first. I had no idea about the people, but at that point in my career i also knew that here's what i said to my husband, here's the deal. You are a senior engineer, you are in a great place and you're brilliant and you're good at what you do, and i am the president of relocation and i am hope i will continue to grow it organically and and make it all work and we're in a Good place and we don't have to move, and he asked me a few clarifying questions and then he literally looked at me and he said: can you look me square in the eye and tell me from your heart that this will be good for you and your Career then i say, let's go, and that was that, and i said i think it can be, and then i jumped in his arms and said you are the most amazing man and he was done with it because, again engineer literally about a week later, i was Like we got, ta sit down talk about this and he goes why we're done. I mean he was like he's like.

I built an excel spreadsheet and just said we're going to move on this day, and this is done. That's it. It was funny so anyway and and then and then we decided to do it and again that took okay. So now you - and i both know, because i've got history with your company.

That dates i mean i, the the original founder of the company, was my first call. It enterprise client, like though a week into starting my company 17 years ago, and i watched him, sell the company and then retire and then nida and then literally for the people that are listening or watching. I want to say five or six ceos over the course of a pretty short period of time. So so, when i heard that you took the role right, i was like stability, midwest, minnesota, southern california, la jolla del mar santa barbara l.a.

You know manhattan beach, i'm like this is going to be interesting so and interesting. It was so so i mean and again you and i both know that the market is uber competitive. We've had new competitors come in the marketplace, as we always do and we always will right, but through it all, you have persevered, but i want to go back to that. First year you had the unfair advantage because you were kind of gm and you know you were you were in the business, but you didn't have the big seat right.

So maybe take us about go back to the the gm roll and then the big seat, roll and and go forward yeah. I learned i learned so much. I call it drinking from a fire hose. It was an incredible amount of information to take in and personalities to understand and and learn every facet of the company from the inside out, not the outside in it's completely different.

It's like looking under the covers, and you realize whoa. I don't know if i want to look under there, sometimes so it was so intense and so exhausting mentally. I wasn't sure what i've done honestly now. I will tell you there's another aspect of that that i don't talk about very often, but i will openly talk about it now because i think it's past and that is - and i was definitely originally perceived as the plant from the parent company yeah.

Oh i remember. I remember who is this woman yeah? He doesn't know us, we don't know her. She definitely doesn't know our market. Nobody.

She doesn't understand how we do business. Why we do business the way we just do business and, on top of it, i'm going to scrutinize what she wears. How her hair is what she smells like, what she says and i'm pretty sure i'm going to get find something in all that to shoot her down. I mean that is definitely it was every day tom.

I did my deep breath and my own little mantra that i say to myself is just i do my deep breath. I get my head in the right place after i've dealt with whatever children i have to drop off or whatever yeah, because it's always mom. First wife, first mom. First then then work and my what i always say is let's go and when i get out of my car i'm on go yeah, so i think every listener.

I really hope you pay attention and got that because you know this is the executive dilemma that most people don't talk about right, you're sent in from corporate to come and turn this thing around and immediately everybody's, like okay, who's, the new? What how's this gon na work right, like you, know, who's the new guy, i'm looking at two two of my teammates who have a new vp who just stepped in right like okay, who's, this person - and you know we had turnover in that roles this just the Next one you went through all that, but there was thousands of agents and hundreds of people in management and everybody's. Looking at you smiling with a gun under the table. Yes, they were. Did you overcome that uh mentally? Really, tough uh? I would say about seven months in this truly happened.

I came home from work one day. I i i don't know what god-awful look i had on my face, but my husband i'll never forget. He was in the sink doing something he turned and looked at me and he dropped the dishes into the sink and he just opened his arms and i sobbed i just dogged and he said, do you want to talk about it? And i said i don't know what it is yeah. I don't know what the it would be to talk about right.

So i guess i say that because mentally i knew all of that was going on and i am a compartmentalizer and i have that forced me to refine that so well, because i knew that i was making good decisions where i could and then i was listening Intently and learning as best i could and if i can say that, honestly to myself i'm doing the very very best i can, and i am incorporating everyone else who who all wanted. When i, when i short term discovered everyone wanted this company to succeed as much as i did, it was easy. It became easy. I thought this isn't just me trying to do this.

This is us, but i had to learn that first, and that was a mental exhaustion to overcome those. You know they never said it, of course, but i knew it. I knew it, and so i just had to be okay with me: i'm okay, i'm okay, who's! Gon na be with me on my deathbed, hopefully my family, none of these other people, it's okay right, but you go back to you know being the assistant manager. It was the same thing taking over your first office.

It was the same thing going into relocation. It was the same thing: people people, people. What people need to understand is that when you're taking over an organization, that's 3 000 people in four different counties and you got to get to know every one of them and they got to get to know you. That's exhausting but the same rule still applies, but you were also responsible for day-to-day operations of the business and the company, like all companies, is always under attack and looking to grow in other areas.

And you know i'm sure an agent walked down day one and said hi hi, i'm you know frank from la and we haven't met yet, but i'd like an increase in my commission split or i'm leaving hi. What was your name again yeah exactly exactly that. That is exactly it and i just i just rolled with it and said i don't blame you for wanting that. I want a whole bunch of more money too.

I'm with you. I mean that that's when my personality comes out because i'm like hey, i don't blame you for asking. If you don't ask you certainly don't get, but you always so my my philosophy on saying no in in certain scenarios is that it's a it's a eloquent gift that eventually over time. I think we all need to continue to refine to have someone here know and thank you yeah hear no, and thank you.

That's big! That's hard, that's hard, because no for a lot of people is like. Oh, it's just it's rejecting and it's you don't love me and you don't care enough for me or i don't feel valued. How do you do that? What's your secret sauce, i think what i do is i just simply, listen and say and and ask them what what other things are important. That might be what they're, initially asking, but there's ten other reasons behind the.

Why, and so, if you understand the, why and you can tackle two of those issues that they might be having in their business or two issues in their personal life or whatever, and you sincerely care, because that's probably my a strength, but it's also a weakness that I sincerely truly care, and sometimes i don't sleep at night when i know one of our agents is grappling with something or struggling and it's hard. I need more sleep right, but we have a lot of agents. So there's a lot of troubles out there, but if you sincerely care and help them with one or two or ten aspects that are behind the ask, you still come out: okay, yeah, how do you know when you're winning so much of leadership is about everybody else? Winning, how do you know when you're winning when they win? It's not about me if, if everyone is so when i reflect by the way, six years, two days from now, i will be here six years, happy wait hold on six years. Are you leaving? No, i no, but i get asked that still to this day, often for sure i still i still bought a house, we still don't move everything, i'm still not going anywhere.

You know, i'm kind of stubborn you're gon na have to deal with me right. Yes, i love it, and so i overcome all of that through just consistent, perseverance and and and almost i don't know, just rewinding and re-listening, and really truly caring and and conveying that care and and doing the best i can and saying i don't have all the Answers admitting you don't know, that's another, you know, i don't know you're actually dovetailing and you you dropped so many nuggets and bombs along the way. But i, but one of the notes i wrote down, is just kind of reflecting back on. You know your 27 years.

If you had to just sort of whittle down two or three or four sort of leadership, lessons, because you've you've been dropping them all along, but you know for you like, if you think about what are the? What are the two three things that like? If someone just says how do i become a better leader like what are those two or three things for you, yeah um, i would say number one: don't don't discount your worth know your own worth and that you can add value but never force it on the Person that you're expecting a promotion from you can't force that you can demonstrate you can explain you can if there's a little crack of a door. You got ta know when to run through, but you can't force it. I would say: that's probably number one just know your worth know: you're probably can do a lot more, but just drop hints that are appropriate hints when you can so that they believe it's their idea. Yeah.

Oh, that is to see that right there. That's the secret sauce, so so that we're you're talking about being in a leadership role and still having someone you're reporting to right, because you want to continue to move up and that could be that could be in an organization that could be an agent on a Team that wants to ascend it's the same exact thing making it their idea is the secret sauce it is, it is, that's, probably the one of the biggest nuggets. The other thing is that geez, don't don't as a leader um and i would tell i would say you can ask anybody in our corporate office from accounting to whatever division i.t. I think every one of them would say that i am willing to roll up.

My sleeves and do the dishes in the kitchen if they need to be done just like anybody else, i don't expect anyone to do anything, i'm not willing to do myself yeah and then just realizing that as the leader, the biggest component for me, and i do Think it's actually healthy. Is that it's just not about me? It's not about me. It never is. I don't want it to be.

Actually, it would make me very uncomfortable right because my success is the total combination and the collective effort of a group moving in the right direction and in the same direction. It's awesome, and that leads me back to my my time here, two years. So i've kind of gone two years, two years, two years, two years of learning, two years of beginning to make a few changes that i think needed to be made. And two years of here we go yeah.

And now now we just the sky's the limit and i'm just so excited for it. It's awesome we're in a good place. One of the things i want to talk to you about is like team leaders and, and even you know, smaller smaller brokers. That might be listening to us that, like the the great line that we have a tendency to overestimate what we can accomplish in a year and dramatically underestimate what could be accomplished in 10 years right and you just said - hey two years of just learning the people.

Two years of making just a little like some little adjustments and then two years of like now, i've got everybody's trust. Let's start hitting the gas pedal, and you know now now you're exactly right. It's the next four years, where you really get the accelerated growth. Why do you think everyone is so addicted to thin thighs in 30 days or less i want to? I want to go from seven to 700 transactions on a tuesday.

Our world is most fast because our technology and the input of information is so fast that we think we can also give that same speed. We can't we're human beings. Technology is not us, we're not it. We have to use it to our advantage, but we're completely different animals, and we have to respect those different roles and understand how to use those things that help propel the speed really effectively, so that we can actually move the dial.

But you can't neglect. You know you, you don't have one big giant dial, you have these little dials and every one of them is as important as the other. You have to give them their just just due diligence. So so it's interesting one of these.

I want to talk to you about. I actually wrote down um management methodology. You know eos okrs, 4dx, there's there's all these different ways to to essentially have a management approach to your business, and i know you know gino, who has been a dear friend for i you know i cold called gino when i was 19 years old trying to Sell him a ticket to a mike ferry event like that's how far back we go. Of course, i sold them come on.

How do you think i got him as a client right? I think i got him and like five more agents and yes, the rest is history, he's a he's, a huge 4dx fan. I know you know he's adopted that throughout the organization um the reason i bring that up. I'd love for you to say so now. Here you are as a ceo, we're going into 2021..

How do you begin to think about goals and budget, and you know mission and vision, and then how do you operationalize that, throughout all the different divisions and companies and locations and people so like? How do you do it yeah? It's hard. I mean it's hard, it's it's an animal to deal with, but here's how i do it, and and and that 40x concept that gino has permeated throughout the entire organization falls right in line with my personal belief. So, for me it was very easy to adopt that because it's really about accountability so backing up. You know when we, when i talked about the two years two years two years and then we're in this wonderful phase of the of my you know two years of my six-year tenure here that we're in a place now where we can go if we weren't and Covet hit, oh, that would have been ugly okay, so i'm grateful to have finally been in a place and be in a culture that was able to pivot fast react quickly, appropriately beneficially for our agents and move forward.

So how i look at doing the business plan for the next 18 months to two years. I consider that we have now we we have this. It was our ability to be that set to deal with yeah now our ability and what we've learned from kobe. Some of this efficiencies zoom, like we're doing you know all this stuff is great.

So what can we carry forward in anticipation that the market is not going to remain this fast forever? So my goal is to be ready for when it's not and and so it's trying to anticipate the changes that will yet to come by by articulating that to our managers, we need to communicate that. First of all, we have a vision. We are not just reactionary to today. We have got to plan for tomorrow.

What does tomorrow look like? We ultimately don't know, but my suspect is that you know, while interest rates might remain low and everything for 21. What about 22 we've got to be ready for 22. yeah understanding what my obligation is to the organization and to the agent so that i openly and honestly communicate that this is a great ride that we're having. But it's going to change it always does real estate.

Is very cyclical and very you know it changes. What are we doing to prepare for that? Are you packing away extra money as an agent that you want to prepare for? Are you not? Are you doing the things that you need to do to continue to drip campaign? Your sphere, in whatever way, using video, because everybody's so hungry for personal touch, is huge all of those different things with our managers. Just explaining that here we are right. Now, here's the expectations of each of you and i drill things down to the ridiculous.

So if we say we're going to hire 500 new agents - okay, well, how many are we going to net and then how many does each office have to get? And so i'm i'm a big picture. Communicator yep detail driver, yes, it's beautiful and for the people that don't know 4dx, i probably should have said that it's a wonderful book and the concept is four disciplines of execution. Have a wildly important goal: break it down to the kpis the? How much of what and by when the actual work you need to scoreboard everything we call it dashboard right. So, looking at those levers like we were talking about earlier, it's the same thing.

I we just did this in my business with okrs very similar, but what are all the levers we need to pull and then the last one is the cadence of accountability, which means it's: how much of what and by when, and how did you do right and And you know the it's a tiny little box, there's no room for a story. Just tell me yes or no did you do it right precisely right, yeah, no rhetoric, no backstory! No rhetoric just get to yeah. You know what you do to get that done. I don't need to know you do right right, just get it done just get it done so so tell us about a typical week.

You're ceo of this huge company. What's a tip like like, do you go into the week saying here's my 10 intentions? I've got you probably have 15 preset meetings right things that you're always a part of, but then you know the i referred to as the burrito just gets thrown at you 16 times a day. So like what's a typical week, look like so. I have refined this and refined this and refined this, and one other business tip i have is don't assume that what you're doing today is going to be sticking forever.

That's just dumb my opinion, it changes, and it should so. I have uh every two weeks i meet with every department head and the reason i do is just a quick, quick call with each one of them. We talk about specifics if we have to, but it's more about. Am i aware of what they're working on? Are they aware what input do they need from me if any and how is it overall going to help our agents? I mean that's my that's the basic premise of the overarching yeah yep, so i only and i dedicate that on a monday - and the reason i do is because, if there's anything that needs to change course, we have that week to get it done, and i've learned That that is just helpful for me just to have an awareness if i don't have awareness.

How am i supposed to know what's going on in the very organization that i'm supposed to be in charge of so i'm a hands-on, but i'm not a micromanager. I i'm like you, go get it done. You know what to do. Just tell me if you need my help.

That's just so. That's number one is my day and my weeks consist of those set things that i know i will participate in achieve, etc. In addition to that, that you know the burrito, but if i can ask how many are there so people get contacts? Is that like three meetings or is it like 30 meetings? Oh, no, that is, i would say, there's probably ten, every two weeks: okay, okay, those are set every two weeks. In addition to that, the people that i talk to the most on a daily basis are our cfo, because everything runs through accounting.

Whenever i have a question about what's what's going on with this, would i always start and end in accounting, because the dollars always know the truth, yep, and so i always start and end in accounting. So our our cfo and i are lock step on every initiative. Dollar spent etc - and i and i'm very aware of all of that, but i don't have to manage it because that's his job yeah, that's a fabulous job, so that's a very common every throughout the day i would say five six seven times he and i are Talking about this, that the other thing um, then it's the other stuff that i have to deal with right is there anything that i owe to gino at home services. Is there anything that i need to? You know do from a functional like needs to come from mary lee's standpoint, and i try to kick those off.

I have an incredible assistant who, the more and more that she and i have gotten our groove, the more and more that she is just my alter ego, that that is a key, because she'll bring something or just make me aware, send me a text.