How to Build a Team That Does Not Depend on You

Q: Why doesn’t hiring people automatically make you a team leader?

A: Karlton says the mindset has to shift: as the team leader, these people are representing you, so you have to set expectations and hold them accountable. The trap is that team leaders are so good at selling that they want new agents to do everything exactly the way they do it, without the coaching, accountability, and level-setting that gets them there. You can’t expect agents to reach your level on their own — you have to help them get there. And per his favorite Spider-Man line, with great power comes great responsibility: you’re now responsible for getting these people to the level they want or you want.

Q: What’s the first sign you’re the bottleneck of your own team?

A: Brooke says the tell is realizing you’re still doing everything yourself — taking every call, writing every offer — while new agents and staff sit back and watch, and you’re the one capping the growth because you only have so much capacity. Karlton adds that most team leaders already know, and it weighs on them: they feel it when their people aren’t having success, like a listing that won’t sell where you feel too bad to call the seller. His fix is simple: either lean on outside support to jump in, or adjust the team approach and hire the person who eliminates the bottleneck and takes on what you’re not good at or don’t want to do.

Q: What’s the first step to shifting into the leader mindset?

A: Start with a goal and know your numbers: transactions, closed dollar volume, profitability, income. Then decide how much of that business comes from you — are you slowing down your production by building a team, ramping up, or staying level while adding agent count? From there you define your role: will you be the primary driver, will you provide leads and hold agents accountable to them, will you share your production or involve agents in your transactions. Once you know those numbers, you know how many agents you need to hire and where you’re going.

Q: How should a team leader structure their calendar?

A: The same way Karlton teaches agents: time block everything. Map what you’re trying to accomplish, then identify where you need staff to take over responsibilities, because trying to do it all will overwhelm you. Set clear expectations with your agents about when you’re available, when you’re in the office, and how you’ll work with them. His own test case: at 25 or 26 he took over an office of about 65 agents, dropped to 55, and grew it to 85 within a year — with one admin person — and the only way he survived was structure.

Q: How do you stop agents from lining up at your door all day?

A: Karlton’s mentor gave him two moves when 85 agents were lined up for got-a-minutes. First, enable them to decide: when someone brings you a question, ask how they would handle it — 90% of the time they already know, they just want a little time with you. Second, get them to commit to an activity before they leave your office, like sitting this weekend’s open house, and they’ll stop dropping in just to chat. Brooke adds batching: set office hours, route five-minute questions to them, and record every training into a digital library so you’re not repeating yourself.

Q: How do you free up one-on-one time as the team grows?

A: Karlton’s best move was shifting from one-on-ones to group events. His brand-new agents went into a Rising Stars group that met every Monday and Friday for an hour, where they learned from each other and got their questions answered — that became their one-on-one time. It freed up his availability to help the agents who were actually in production. Brooke’s version is the same principle: batch your time, set boundaries, and stay consistent with them.

Q: When is it time to step out of production?

A: Karlton says team leaders will know, and it’s more of an emotional decision than a numbers one. Some people have sales in their blood and will never want to let it go — running a team may actually show them they prefer selling while owning the team name. Others hit the point where everyone is humming, representing the name at the high standards they’ve set, and that’s when backing out makes sense. Brooke’s dad is proof it can go either way: he built teams and expanded locations, stepped fully out of production, then returned to the trenches because investing was his passion — and his team runs on its own.

Q: How should team leaders deploy agents instead of throwing them into everything?

A: Karlton says reevaluate every quarter: are we where we need to be, and are people in the right place? You’re not a brokerage hiring independent agents — you’re hiring people to fit specific needs, like buyer specialists, listing hunters, or agents focused on internet lead conversion. Where teams go haywire is “welcome to the team, good luck, go get me buyers and sellers,” because not every agent is good at everything. His example: an agent struggling with internet leads — 20 leads, zero conversions, no follow-up — might be great at showing properties, so have them take buyers on appointments while someone else closes.

Q: What do you do with an agent who isn’t producing?

A: Have the hard conversation and put them on a productivity enhancement program, because your team is only as strong as your weakest member. Karlton always wants to give people every opportunity to prove themselves: sit down, lay out what you need from them, offer to work with them, and watch for the steps. If the agent chooses not to take them, then you can make a decision. And leaders should extend the same grace to themselves — he’s made plenty of mistakes, still cringes at some, and treats every new role as a chance to change what didn’t work before.

Q: What’s the one line every new team leader needs to hear?

A: Starting a team is not about you anymore. Karlton says the moment you build one, you’re responsible for helping these people be successful, which means your calendar fills with training, coaching, and meetings — and that’s the job. Brooke’s challenge is to write the why behind the goals, not just the numbers: what the culture feels like, what a day in the office looks like, how you support people. Then share those goals with the team, because everyone moving in the same direction is where the fun and the success actually come from.

Brooke: [00:00:00] Hi, everyone. I talk to team leaders every week who are still doing the same exact job that they did as a solo agent. Same call volume, same number of open houses each weekend, and the same, “Hey, I’ll just handle this myself,” a reflex on every single thing that comes up in their business. But the title has changed, the job did not, and that’s really the trap that I see day to day.

Brooke: Because the skills that made you a great agent, the speed, control, doing it yourself, doing it right, are the same skills that cap you as a leader. So today we’re talking about the actual shift. What changes when you go from owning your production to owning other people’s production, and whether you can still sell while you’re doing this. 

Brooke: Welcome back. I’m Brooke Rieke, client success manager here at Reside Platform. I sit inside teams at every stage: solo agents building their very first team, established teams just trying to scale past a ceiling that they can’t explain just yet. [00:01:00] And we’ve got the amazing Carlton Utter today as well back with me, director of agent training and development here at Reside.

Brooke: Carlton, for anyone, who had missed the episode that we talked last, we had talked about that, that growth development. do a quick little reminder of kind of what you’re seeing with w- how you work with team leaders specifically each day and kind of what 

Karlton: Yeah, I mean, I have the privilege of, of having a lot of time with our team leaders, also with our agents.

Karlton: but you know, some of the things that I’m hearing and seeing is, growing pains, but they’re good growing pains, right? But it’s that constant adjustment that needs to be made as your teams are growing, as the production’s increasing, right? Where do you add staff members? How do you add staff members?

Karlton: What staff members do you add first? H- What does your role look like? And there’s a lot of times I find myself talking to team leaders and I’m like, “Well, what do you like to do?” Because as the team leader, like you almost get to choose, “This is the aspect of the [00:02:00] business that I really like.” And do the stuff that you’re passionate about and that you like, and as your team grows, if financially you’re able to, add those team members or those staff members that are gonna be able to take on the stuff that you don’t like to do.

Karlton: And then the other thing is figuring out, the work-life balance of all of this, right? You start a team typically because you’re very productive in real estate and you feel like it’s the next step, and it most likely is the next step for you. But there’s really maybe no structure or anything that’s ever been put in place for you to understand, “Well, what does it mean to be a team leader, and what does that do to my job?

Karlton: do I still need to be the most productive one? Or what happens if I start this team and I’m the only one selling and they’re all relying on me?” It’s just a whole structural nightmare if you don’t have a system in pro- in place to back it up 

Brooke: Absolutely. And I think,you’re so right. And that solo agent kind of mindset really, but even when you’ve decided, [00:03:00] “Hey, I want to create a team,” but you’re still very much doing everything yourself, I feel like that, that you still very much have that producer identity where you are self, resilient, you’re self-reliant, you are the business.

Brooke: It’s something I see constantly on my end. and then maybe a, a top producer might hire, couple agents, maybe a third. and then six months later, I talk with them, and they’re still doing everything themselves. They’re still taking every call or maybe writing every offer,handling everything.

Brooke: And the new a- agents are kind of sitting back just watching, or maybe even staff as well, where they hire that first assistant and they are still very much doing a lot of that administrative work. so can you talk to me a little bit about, what’s happening there? Like, why doesn’t hiring people automatically create a team leader just because you’re like, “Hey, I’ve, I got another agent now,” or, “I’ve got a- an admin now”?

Karlton: Yeah. It’s just your overall approach and your mindset has to shift a little bit, right? You’re the team leader. These folks are [00:04:00] representing you and your team that are a part of it, right? And it’s gonna come da- back to a word that I use all the time, which is you need to set expectations and hold them accountable to meeting those needs that you have for your team to grow the way that you want it to grow.

Karlton: And this is where I find that sometimes team leaders struggle a little bit, is they’re so good at selling real estate, and when they bring somebody on, they want them to do it just like they do it What’s the coaching? What’s the accountability? What are the expectations? How did you level set what you want them to do and how they’re gonna get there?

Karlton: And, you know, that’s the beauty of Reside, is we provide a lot of that level of support for those team leaders that need that help. But at the same time, the team leader still has to say, “Look, if I’m not great at training or I don’t wanna train, I have these folks, but I still need to have constant check-ins with my agent and say, ‘What are you working on?

Karlton: What are you doing? How are you gonna get there?'” And you have to be the, you [00:05:00] have to be their coach, right? You have to get them to that level that you can’t expect them to get to that level. You need to help them get there. And, you know, I, I just kind of look at when I got moved into leadership, I had the privilege of being recognized as an agent that they wanted to have move into brokerage leadership.

Karlton: And so I got to go through, a full training program. So almost before they made me a manager, I fully knew what I was in store for, and I wanted it. And that’s the other part is you kind of have to want it, but it comes back to I’m a big fan of Spider-Man, with great power comes great responsibility.

Brooke: Yes. I’ve been watching lots of Spider-Man right now with, the new one coming out, so 

Karlton: Yeah. So, if you’re the leader, you have a responsibility now to all of these folks. It can’t just be like, “I’m just worrying about my business and growing my business.” It’s, “I’m now responsible for all these people on the [00:06:00] team to get them to the level that either they wanna be at or I want them to be at, which is only gonna elevate the entire team 

Brooke: Yes.

Brooke: And what you’re saying is so important because if they’re not in that mindset or, and that’s not what they are considering, they can easily, the team leader can easily become the bottleneck of the team. You’re thinking, “Hey, I’m, I’m doing everything. I’m holding all the cards, all the leads. I’m doing all these things.

Brooke: I’m the business,” and still very much in that mindset. But then you realize, okay, you’re the one holding the growth back ’cause you only have so much capacity. You could be a rockstar team leader and have all the time in the day, but you still only have a certain, certain cap, a certain ceiling. So for those listening to this right now that are feeling like that, “Hey, I’m still very much running the business and I don’t wanna be the bottleneck,” what is that first sign a team leader should watch for that tells them, “Hey, you’re the ceiling right now.

Brooke: You’re the bottleneck”? 

Karlton: I, I think they know, right? And [00:07:00] I think it weighs on them because look, everybody in real estate likes working with people, right? Some show it differently. Some are introverts, some are extroverts, but we typically get in this business because we like working with people, and we start teams because we like working with people and we want people to be a part of what we’re growing and, But I think what happens is sometimes team leaders, they don’t really understand the systems or what needs to be put in place before starting a team, and then they try to figure it out as they’re going, and I think it weighs on them. I, I think it, it hurts with, they feel it when their, their folks on their team are not having success, and I think it, it makes them feel bad.

Karlton: And that’s the part where I don’t want them to feel that way. they, I get why they feel like that, but I think that there’s a couple of very simple steps that they can take to get past that. [00:08:00] And it just comes down to understanding that you’re a leader, right? That you’re called a team leader for a reason.

Karlton: You’re a leader, so people are gonna be looking to you, and if you’re, you wanna start a team and you don’t wanna be that official leader, then that’s okay, but find somebody that can be that manager for you or can be that administrative person for you that is going to take on that responsibility. If you wanna start a team but you still wanna be the rainmaker- And you don’t wanna have that burden.

Karlton: It’s kinda when you have that listing that just won’t sell, and you feel terrible for the seller ’cause you’re doing everything, and you, you don’t wanna call them because you just feel bad. Like, when you have agents on your team that aren’t getting into production, and they’re not going where and doing what you need them to do, and you feel bad about it, so you kinda, you don’t know where to go or what to do to support it.

Karlton: let’s figure out what’s the plan. So you either rely on us, and we jump in and we help, or you look at, “Okay, this [00:09:00] isn’t working. I need to adjust my team approach. I need to get somebody in here that’s gonna be that person that eliminates that bottleneck, that’s gonna streamline the team and take on those responsibilities or things that I’m just not good at or that I don’t wanna do as the team leader.”

Brooke: Absolutely. And what would you say… So would you, y- I’m assuming this would be the first step of, hey, if someone’s listening to this and saying, “I recognize myself in this. I am that person,” which we all can be that person and, and even in different aspects of our life, like you’re mentioning of, okay, I feel bad, that the success isn’t there quite yet for you.

Brooke: what is that next step for people that realize that in themselves? So y- let’s say that, they do hire, make that first hire, or they realize themselves, “I can do this. I want to, move this forward as a leader operationally and be that person.” how do they shift into that mindset? what’s that, what’s that first step?

Karlton: The first step is, I- i- in my opinion, it’s trying to figure out, okay, [00:10:00] what, what am I trying to build and what am I trying to do here? So it’s always gonna start with a goal, right? What’s my goal? How many transactions? How much in closed dollar volume? How much in profitability and income? you need to know your numbers, and then you need to look at, okay, what do I need to do to get there?

Karlton: okay, if here’s my goal, here’s my number, here’s what I’m trying to accomplish, right? How much of that business is coming from me? Am I looking to slow down my production by having a team, or am I looking to ramp up my production by, in being involved in it, ha- starting a team? Or am I looking to stay where I’m at, but include more through agent count?

Karlton: So I think it all starts with having a goal and then recognizing what level of production you wanna be in. And then what do you want your role to be as the team leader? are you gonna be the primary driver? when you have a team, you’re taking on now coaching and accountability, one-on-ones [00:11:00] with the ag- with the, agents.

Karlton: you’re looking at what kind of team are we running? Am I gonna be providing leads? If so, what kind of leads am I providing? How am I holding the agents accountable to that lead flow? Are they sharing my production and my business? Am I involving them in my transactions, or do I keep that to myself?

Karlton: There’s a lot of decisions that need to be made, I think, and that then helps you understand how you’re gonna grow. And then once you have those numbers in mind and you know, okay, here’s how many I have, here’s how much production I’m gonna do, how much production do I need to make up? Now you know how many agents I need to hire and where I need to be So it’s,it’s really just knowing the numbers and having an idea of what kind of team am I building and where do I, where do I see this going and where do I want it to be?

Brooke: Yeah. And absolutely, that’s so important because I think,some team leaders might say, “Okay, we’ll just figure it out as we go,” or, “I do know I wanna be out of production eventually,” but they [00:12:00] never truly map out what does that actually look like and setting those goals and realistically, the activities behind, behind hitting those goals.

Brooke: so for anyone that’s like, “Okay, I, I have my goals for starting a team, but this sounds like a lot. This sounds like a lot of different things I have to consider and then now put into my calendar,” talk to me a little bit about what their calendar could possibly look like during this. ‘Cause I hear that a lot with team leaders is they’re like, “I wanna do all these things.

Brooke: I wanna start this team and get it going, but I just do not have the time in the day. I’m at my own listings. I’m over here. I have a family.” You’re just trying to do it all. So what would you recommend for that sort of calendar structure for those that are trying to move forward with producing a team?

Karlton: I think it’s the same thing as, as I would recommend actually for agents is, you know, time blocking, is what do you need to accomplish? What are you trying to accomplish? what are all the different avenues within your business that you’re involved? And th- this is [00:13:00] the eye-opening part too, where do I need to have additional staff members or administrative folks that can take on some of the responsibilities?

Karlton: ‘Cause if you try to do it all, it’s, it’s gonna overwhelm you. And if you’re trying to have work-life balance, and for some people they start a team because they need to slow down their production a little bit and they feel like, “Okay, if I add a team, I’m still gonna have the income coming in.

Karlton: We’re gonna hit those, the level of business we wanna be at, but I don’t have to do it all.” But now you don’t realize, now I have all these people that I need to lead and be available to that are gonna have questions, and I have to drive their business.” And so it- it’s just having that understanding going in.

Karlton: And if you time block, you’re able to plan out, “Okay, here’s the time I wanna be able to take off. Here’s the time I’m gonna be putting in for my business and what I still need to accomplish. Here’s the time that I’m gonna have set aside.” And then setting clear expectation with your agents. [00:14:00] “Guys, here, here’s when I’m available,” right?

Karlton: “Here’s when I can help you. Here’s when I’m gonna be in the office. If you need me, come in,” right? it’s just setting, that level setting the expectations of how you’re going to be working for them and with them. and I found this when I was, when I was leading an office and- I took over an office and I was 25 or 26 years old.

Karlton: The first office I took over and I started at about 65 agents. We dropped down to 55, right after I took over the office. We just had a few people that, that left. and then within a year, it was just about a year, I had the office up to about 85 agents. I grew it fast. And it… I was– I went home at night and I was like, “Where’s the bottle of vodka?

Karlton: ‘Cause this has been a day.” 

Brooke: Yeah. 

Karlton: Yeah. ‘Cause 85 agents, 85 independent contractors that are like… it was just a rotating got a minute, [00:15:00] and I loved it. I knew what I was getting into. I didn’t have production. It was 100% my job. I was not selling. It was I support these agents, but 85 of them, and I had one, one administrative person that, that helped me out.

Karlton: And it was a lot, and I had to start to level set expectations, and what I needed to do was actually… And this was the best thing I did, is I started to get away from one-on-ones, and I started to create more group events. And I was like, “Guys, if you need me this week, here’s the time slots I have set up.

Karlton: We’re gonna meet as a group. Here’s what we’re gonna review. Here’s when I’m gonna be in the office.” Now, I was always available by phone and text if they really needed me, but I tried to set up, dedicated times and programs and training sessions just to kinda streamline when I was gonna be with everybody so they could all learn from each other as well.

Karlton: Especially with a lot of brand-new agents, that, [00:16:00] that could’ve been a lot of one-on-one time, and what I did was I moved them into a group called Rising Stars. We met every Monday and we met every Friday for an hour, and this way they all learned from each other, asked questions. That was their one-on-one time, and it freed up a lot of my, my availability to help some of the other agents that were into more production.

Brooke: Absolutely. I love, I love that, piece. That’s a, a piece of advice I always give our operations and our leaders as well is, really batching your time and setting your own personal boundaries, and then staying consistent with them as well. So you might say, “Hey, I’m gonna do office hours two times a week this week.

Brooke: That’s when I’m available.” and then as people are reaching out to you, just are like, “Oh, I can handle this five-minute question. I can handle this five-minute question,” and then it just adds up. Imagine those 85 agents coming to you with a five-minute question, you know? It’s your whole day. So, I think also being consistent with that is so important of, of…

Brooke: And you don’t have to turn them down. You c- you don’t have to say, “I’m not [00:17:00] answering that.” but you can say, “Hey, I would love to… I think other people would benefit from hearing that. please hop on the office hours tomorrow at noon, and, I think everyone would benefit from hearing it.” And you’re not repeating yourself, over and over.

Brooke: I also have people record everything that they, teach on and train, so they can use that as their library moving forward. So, you know, here at Reside we have Circle, and so I always, encourage team leaders to, “Hey, if you’re doing a, a team training or a sales training or, some sort of onboarding session over your systems or your scripts, whatever it might be, record yourself and then place that in your, your digital library so then they can go back to that and reference, so you don’t have to keep repeating yourself over and over again.”

Brooke: ‘Cause it does add up, even those five-minute questions. assuming they’re actually five minutes. 

Karlton: if you have, set one-on-ones with them too, right? Or you have time scheduled, it’s easy then when they say something like, “You know what? Let’s just talk about that at our meeting,” or, “We’ll talk about it then,” right?

Karlton: So it, it frees up your time. But if you also enable them [00:18:00] to feel like they can make decisions, one of the things that I found, and I had a lot of mentors, especially as a, a young new manager running an office, and I would go to people and tell them, “Hey, here are the struggles. Here’s why.” It’s always good to have somebody to talk to about this stuff.

Karlton: That’s another reason I love Reside, is I get to talk to team leaders and hear what their struggles are and try to help them overcome that, because you need help sometimes. And I remember going to, to my mentor, who was my vice president at the time, and saying “I’m getting overwhelmed. they’re lined up in the office for me.

Karlton: They wait for me at night. the second I open my door, there’s four of them coming,” and I’m like… He’s like, “Here’s what you need to do He’s like, “Number one is you need to enable them to make their own decisions.” So when they come in and they ask you a question, the first thing you ask them is, “How would you handle that?”

Karlton: And pretty much 90% of the time, they know how to handle it, they just want a little bit of time with you. The other thing, too, is get them to commit to an [00:19:00] activity or taking action on something before they leave. And what I found is that by doing that, it stopped a lot of, the one-on-ones because they’d come in and I’d be like, “Hey, you’re not going anywhere.

Karlton: I need you for an open house this weekend.” And they’d be like, “Well, I really can’t.” I was like, “No, no, no, that’s not an answer. I’m signing you up. I need you at this open house this weekend.” And so they stopped coming in because they didn’t wanna they didn’t wanna 

Brooke: be told- I’ve got anything else to 

Karlton: do.

Karlton: No, I don’t wanna do anything else. I’ll just figure this out on my own. But that’s the other key component, too, is i- if you need to free up your time with your business, use your team. That’s what they’re there for. “Guys, I need you to do this. I need us all to be chipping in. We are a team.

Karlton: You are not an independent, we are contractor d- running your own separate business. We are all working together, and we’re only as strong as our weakest team member.” So, there’s a new listing, right? Everybody on that team should be [00:20:00] raising their hand and wanna be the first one sitting that open house.

Karlton: And if your team’s not there, then you need to look at the culture of the team and figure out, “Okay, how do I get these guys to all buy in and wanna work together here?” Because that’s how we’re all more successful, is the more open houses, the more listings, the more transactions we do, the more marketing the team gets, the more overall business is gonna come in.

Karlton: So we benefit from working as a team and working together and all holding our own, but going out there and, and doing as much as we possibly can. So that, that may just come back to the team leader making sure that when you’re onboarding folks is like, “Here are my expectations, is you’re gonna sit two to three open houses a, a month.

Karlton: You’re gonna attend every team meeting that we have. You are going to proactively be making this, this many calls every week. You’re gonna attend every call session.” That way, there’s no confusion [00:21:00] and you’re not chasing them saying, “How come you’re not doing this? Why aren’t you doing that? Why aren’t you in production?”

Karlton: they’re in the office doing the activities and they’re aggressively and actively pursuing doing those activities, knowing it’s gonna benefit the team 

Brooke: Yes, of course. And, yeah, I, I… That’s such an important piece of the culture is to, we used to call it no agent left behind, where it’s like everyone is getting a deal this month, and we will do anything that we can to help each other.

Brooke: “Hey, I’ve got a great listing opportunity. you haven’t had a transaction just yet this month. How about you host that open house?” a- and so I wanna talk a little bit about that sh- a little bit more about that shift for team leaders. when is it, if the goal is eventually to step out of production and, and, you know, just be full- fully running the team, what are some of those signs or when do they know, “Okay, it’s, I’m okay to step out”?

Brooke: Because I think a lot of people get nervous even when it might be time. they might get a little bit nervous of, “Oh, this whole thing’s gonna shut [00:22:00] down tomorrow if I step out.” So when is, when do you feel like it, it’s time that for them to say, “Okay, I can, I can take a step back now”? 

Karlton: I, I think they’ll know.

Karlton: I think you’ll, they’ll kind of know. And, and you have some folks that I just think sales is in their blood, right? Just like for me, I love sales. I loved selling homes, but my passion was really coaching, training, consulting. Like I love that asp- aspect of it. Like I wanted to move into leadership as soon as possible and I was okay kind of letting the sales side go in, in order to do that.

Karlton: I think some people won’t ever wanna let it go. I think running a team will actually open up their eyes to how much they actually prefer to be in sales and they like having the team, but, but they would still prefer to be running, owning the name, being the leader of the team, but having other people do the…

Karlton: And some may hit a point where they’re like, “Look, I got everybody humming. [00:23:00] I feel like they’re representing my name and the team name and they’re able to hit those high professional standards that, that I’ve set and I feel like maybe now is the time that I can start to back out of that.” But I think it’s gonna be more of a call for the team leader on, on when and if they’re actually ready to step out of production because some people, it’s really hard for them.

Karlton: They just love doing that job so much and you get addicted to it and it’s hard for them to step down from it. So it, it’s gonna be more of an emotional decision than I think, “Okay, we’re at, we have this many agents at this level of production, I’m good.” I think it, it’s, they’ll, they’ll know when they’re ready if they ever are 

Brooke: Yeah, absolutely.

Brooke: I mean, that, that was, my dad. He’s been in real estate my whole life and his, passion was to build, build teams and even expand it into different locations. And, one day he was like, “You know what?” He was completely out of production and maybe just one or two, you know, listings [00:24:00] here and there, but, he was like, “I, I have a big passion for investing and actually being in the trenches.”

Brooke: And so he still has a small m- my team, but he’s very much… They’re all operating very much on their own ’cause he- they’ve been with him for years. and he’s gotten to pour into them with the training and now, you know, he’s able to hand them some opportunities, but he’s back into the day-to-day. So I think that’s, that’s okay, ’cause I think a lot of team leaders think, “Oh my gosh,do I have to be out of production?”

Brooke: You know? And,and I think that’s very right. it does come to that emotional decision and, really just making sure, doing that gut check of where are we at, and then also as long as we follow step one, like you mentioned, Carlton, and setting those goals really of what does it look like, where are you trying to go to?

Brooke: I- if you’re aligned with those goals and you’re, you are ready to just take a step back, you have that confidence of knowing, hey, we’re, we’ve got a good track of production and agents coming through, and o- hopefully some leverage for the operations as well at that point. 

Karlton: I, I think what a lot of [00:25:00] team leaders are kind of doing right now too is they’re kind of reevaluating how they’re building the teams.

Karlton: and I think that’s a good thing. I think, you know, ev- every quarter you should be looking at your numbers, “Are we where we need to be? Is the team growing how I want it to grow? do I have people in the right place on the team?” And that’s the beauty of being a team leader, right? You’re, you don’t own a brokerage hiring independent agents.

Karlton: You are hiring people to fit specific needs on your team. So if you feel like, “Okay, I’m doing really well in production, I need to hire a few agents that are going to help work with buyers or self-generate more buyers. If I have a few agents that I need to go out and hunt and get us listings and be involved in helping listing transactions,” a lot of teams now are starting to add more i- internet lead generation.

Karlton: “Do I take a, a, a percentage of my agents, and are they just focused? Am I just [00:26:00] managing them to focus on the internet lead conversion?” Right? So when you, you… Where it can go haywire is you bring in agents and it’s like, “Okay, welcome to the team. Good luck. Go get me buyers, sellers.” not every agent’s gonna be good at that, and if you look at the mindset of why somebody is gonna join a team, it’s because they want that camaraderie.

Karlton: They want that guidance. They need help. if they didn’t need help, they could just go sell on their own and put their name on the signs. But instead, they’re choosing to be a part of something bigger. They’re choosing to work with somebody that they’re gonna learn from, that they have trust and belief in.

Karlton: And, you know, that’s gonna come down to you sometimes being able to have the hard conversations and just say, “Look, y- you’re really struggling with the internet leads. I’ve given you 20, you haven’t converted any. I don’t see the follow-up. I don’t see you at the meetings. Let’s sit and talk about what you could be good [00:27:00] at and how you could help this team.

Karlton: Maybe you need to be moved into, you’re great at when I give you a buyer, you’re really good at showing properties. And what I find is that when you get a buyer in a house, they convert within a week. So maybe what we need to do is focus on moving you into that type of role where you’re able to assist me more with the buyer leads that we have, and somebody else closes them, and you are taking them on the appointments.”

Karlton: So it’s stopping and reevaluating and recognizing the talent that you have and how they’re best suited to help your team. It’s, where I think we go wrong is it’s just, “Oh, you’re an agent. Great. Join the team,” and we throw them into everything, and maybe that’s not the best approach. 

Brooke: Absolutely.

Brooke: I mean, I started as an agent, and now here I am. at some point it was kind of the decision of, you know what, my strengths are better here in the operations side of things. And, that [00:28:00] really helped take our team, you know, into those different expansion locations because we had somebody that could leverage a lot of those behind the scenes.

Brooke: and yeah, fi- I think finding your niche too, not just, hey, you’re better in, you’re either operations or you’re an agent. But,you know, like you’re mentioning, are you, you convert really well with open house leads, like that’s your bread and butter, and really, honing in on that and doing as many open houses you possibly can throughout the week, or, you know, you’re great at events or you’re great at,for sale by owners or expired listings.

Brooke: And, really being able to dive in and also be able to, not afraid to give other people opportunities too, Yeah, you want… They have a niche, but also allowing them that growth if they are wanting to. but it all comes down to, you know, actually taking the time with your people to really understand, and see where they’re at and what they’re doing, and that’s all that agents really want.

Brooke: They wanna be seen, they wanna be taught, they want to, they wanna be successful. No one’s going on a team thinking, “I’m, I hope I get [00:29:00] nothing,” 

Karlton: Well, lead- leadership is hard. it is. It’s, it’s not for everybody, and it’s just one of those things where when you’re the leader, everyone’s gonna come to you.

Karlton: They’re gonna look at… They’re gonna look to you for guidance and advice, and, you know, that’s gonna come back to you having the tough conversations, and it comes back again to that word accountability. somebody is on your team, your team is only as strong as your weakest team member, and put them on a productivity enhancement program, right?

Karlton: I’m not saying I don’t like to let people go that don’t fit on the team. I always wanna give them every opportunity to prove themselves, and sometimes that’s you sitting down, having the hard conversation and being like, “Here’s what I need you to do. I’m gonna work with you. Let’s get you here. I wanna see you take the steps.”

Karlton: And if the agent chooses not to take those steps and shows to you that they’re not seriously interested in, in helping contribute to the team, then you can make a decision [00:30:00] from there. But, you know, it’s, it’s one of those things, it’s, it’s g- a constant balancing act. You’re constantly learning from your, your failures and your successes.

Karlton: I made so many mistakes as a leader, and I still make them, and it’s okay. And I think that’s the other thing is you have to understand it’s, it’s okay if you make a mistake. It’s… We’re always learning from that, especially in this business. And there’s ways that I handled situations as a leader looking back, and I cringe today on why did I do, why would I have done it like that?

Karlton: But you, you’re thrown into this, these situations where you’re trying to learn on the fly, and you’re gonna make bad decisions sometimes, and it’s just learning, you know, and fi- and saying, “Okay, I won’t do it again that way.” And that’s where, you know, as I moved into different leadership positions, I, every time I, I moved to a different role or a different company, I said, “All right, this is what I’m changing from [00:31:00] the way I did things in that previous role because it didn’t work, and I’m not gonna go back to doing it that way.

Karlton: I’m gonna change my approach.” 

Brooke: Yeah. And y- that’s reevaluating such a great piece of it too, because you’re, it’s never too late. You know, even if you’re not a solo agent, you have maybe, let’s say you have 20 agents on your team and you still are very much in your production and you’re like, “I’m nowhere close to being out of it and that’s my goal.”

Brooke: It’s never too late to reevaluate, okay, what, what needs to happen next? What’s the next action item? And being able to shift that mindset. so this isn’t, this episode isn’t just for those that are brand new starting a team. Like at, at any point in your career you can kind of reevaluate w- where you are as a leader.

Brooke: Carlton, as we wrap up today, is there any additional, advice for those that are listening? Any, any, action steps of something that somebody can do this week if they’re hearing it and saying, I, I do wanna become a better leader. I do wanna continue shifting my mindset into more leadership.” what, what kind of advice would you give [00:32:00] them?

Karlton: Yeah. It’s just that servant mindset, right? Is always, it’s so important. It’s empathy, but accountability, right? It’s, it’s it’s always like back and forth on figuring things out. It’s being able to be tough, but also understanding at the same time. For me, if I was a solo agent looking at starting a team, the first thing I’m gonna do is evaluate what are my goals, what am I trying to accomplish, and I’m putting all my systems in place ahead of time.

Karlton: Here’s how I wanna build the team. Here’s what my role is going to be. I’m evaluating when I get to this many agents, what will that allow me to do financially, and how am I going to strategically grow and expand, and how am I bringing people in into what roles? And, and I think it, having that from the get-go, and if you’re already a team and you don’t have that, it’s okay.

Karlton: Every once in a while you gotta stop, reevaluate, take a step back to take two steps forward, right? And so I, to me, that’s the most important thing, is [00:33:00] just figuring out what you want to achieve, what you want that team to look like. And a lot of times, in a year or two, the team doesn’t even look like what you expected it to be because the market takes a turn, the team takes a turn.

Karlton: You have more growth than you expected. You had less growth than you expected, right? You can’t predict. you could strategically approach it, but you can’t necessarily predict what’s gonna happen. 

Brooke: Absolutely. And it, it is good to have those, those goals and, and I would even challenge to write the why behind it as well of, of, you know, not just numbers, but, what’s the culture feel like on your team?

Brooke: what does a day in the life at the office look like? Where, what do you imagine your team like? Like, where, how do you support them? and it is about coming from that servant mindset. I mean, we’re all people, right? we all wanna succeed. and really being able to ask, “How can I best support here?”

Brooke: It doesn’t mean you do everything for them, but, and you still empower them like you, like you mentioned, of how would you [00:34:00] handle this? but it takes one moment and means a lot to reach out to somebody on your team and say, “How can I best support you?” You know, or, “What’s one thing I can do to, to help move the needle for you?”

Brooke: Or just being able to offer that hand means a lot, especially to those agents that you might not have a lot of direct interaction with if you are a bigger team. well, thank you so much for being here, Carlton. Any, any other thoughts before we wrap up today? 

Karlton: Just it’s just, it, when you start the team, it’s, it’s not just about you anymore, right?

Karlton: And that’s, that’s the part, it’s like you- you’re now responsible for helping these people be successful i- in the business. And, you know, you’re looking at your calendar and you’re like, “I have to put training, and I have to put coaching, and I have to have meetings, and, you know, I’m gonna be adding all of that stuff on there.”

Karlton: And, look, it’s, it’s a lot of fun having a team and everybody working together, but that’s the key, is that everyone has to be focused on the same goals and getting them all aligned, and that’s [00:35:00] where you’ll, you’ll really have some fun and some success with starting a team. 

Brooke: Yes. Yeah, if I could highlight just one line for this entire podcast, it would b- it would be, you know, starting a team is not about you anymore.

Brooke: It’s not just you anymore. It, it’s the, in the word team, you know, we’re all, which a team is, you know, you’re multiple people all moving in the same direction towards the same goal. So that could be, a piece too, where your agents and your team might just y- the, it might not be visible or shared exactly what the goals are.

Brooke: So I would definitely challenge once you do have those goals, share that with the team. And it’s, like you mentioned, it’s fun. It’s fun when you can get there together, “Hey, guys, we’re so close to hitting, you know, this production metric this month, or these units. let’s get there as a team.” And, and you can, yeah, again, you can make it really fun.

Brooke: Awesome. Thank you, Carlton, for being here. I hope that those listening make you feel, and think a little bit differently, about how you’re leading on your team versus how you’re producing. So feel free to [00:36:00] share this, share this with your team, share it with a team leader who might need to hear this, or bookmark it for yourself in case you need that refresher here down the line.

Brooke: But, thank you all for listening to the Reside Platform Podcast, and we will see you next time