December 4, 2024Ethan Beute, Chief Evangelist at Follow Up Boss, talks about how he went from leading marketing at BombBomb to joining the Zillow ecosystem. Ethan explains the evolution of real estate teams, the challenges of scaling, and how video messaging reshapes trust-building in client relationships. He also breaks down the strategies behind team success, navigating the “messy middle,” and balancing innovation with efficiency. This is a masterclass for anyone looking to level up in real estate or team building.
Chapters:
- 00:00:00 – Surviving the Messy Middle
- 00:00:32 – Welcome to the Podcast That Changes Real Estate
- 00:00:34 – Ethan Beute: The Chief Evangelist’s Playbook
- 00:02:19 – Reinventing Yourself: From TV to Real Estate Powerhouse
- 00:04:06 – The Team Revolution: What’s Really Happening
- 00:06:52 – Video’s Untapped Power in Real Estate
- 00:09:09 – Tough Truths About Team Challenges
- 00:12:45 – The Secrets Behind Lead Conversion Success
- 00:16:30 – Why Some Teams Soar While Others Sink
- 00:20:22 – Scaling Smarter: Secrets to Efficiency
- 00:25:41 – Podcast Gold: Ethan’s Most Eye-Opening Moments
- 00:30:08 – Team Building 2.0: Beyond the Basics
- 00:33:10 – Hiring Mavericks: Why Outsiders Are Game-Changers
- 00:40:25 – Business Acumen: The Hidden Key to Team Growth
- 00:47:04 – Chief Evangelist Chronicles: Why This Role Matters
- 00:50:17 – What’s Next? Staying Ahead in Real Estate
Links and Resources:
- Reside Platform
- Reside Platform Website
- Ethan on LinkedIn
- Ethan’s LinkTree
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Episode breakdown: getting a real estate team through the messy middle
Ethan Beute is the chief evangelist at Follow Up Boss and the host of the Real Estate Team OS podcast. Before that he ran marketing at local TV stations and spent years at BombBomb, the video messaging company. In this conversation with Nick McLean, he lays out the stages a team moves through, why the stretch between about a dozen people and 60 or 70 is where teams get hurt, and what the ones that make it do differently.
Decide which team you’re building before you grow
Ethan describes a simple progression. A small team starts with the leader, a buyer’s agent or two and an assistant, then adds specialized help like marketing or transaction coordination. It tops out at what people call the seal team: the leader is still selling, with six to nine strong agents and just enough staff behind them. For many leaders, that’s the most profitable place to be, and some should stay there.
The next stop that makes financial sense is much bigger. Leaders Ethan has interviewed told him they didn’t out-earn their seal-team income until they reached about 45 or 50 agents, and getting there usually means leaving production. The path from a 12- to 14-person organization to a 60- or 70-person one is the messy middle, full of chances to burn out or lose money. Suneet breaks down the full real estate team structure he recommends at each stage.
Know the weak spot of a lean team
Nick pushed back on the idea that the seal team is something to escape. He modeled his own team on lean leaders who tracked every lead and every appointment and stayed close to their agents. Ethan agreed it can work, but named its main risk. When one agent leaves a lean team, the leader can lose 14 or 24 percent of top-line revenue while still carrying the same overhead.
Replacing that person pulls the leader away from their own production, and a new agent needs even more time and attention. Since nobody stays forever, Ethan’s point is that this cost shows up eventually, either as lost income or as burnout.
Track conversion at two or three stages, at any size
Whatever the size of the team, Ethan wants leaders to break lead conversion into at least two or three stages, from first contact through contract and closing, and to work on each one. That applies whether leads come from Facebook ads, in-person events, referrals, or purchased leads paid up front or at close.
If you’re not tracking conversion at least two or three of those steps and working on that, you’re not building a foundation for scale.
Ethan Beute
He also separates growth from scale. Growth is output: volume, units and agent count. Scale is about inputs and whether the team gets more from the same effort.
Scale is so much more about inputs and efficiency. What’s going on behind the scenes? And am I getting growth numbers on the same inputs. That’s efficiency. That’s profitability. That’s a good business.
Ethan Beute
Build for three kinds of agents
At 40 or 50 agents, Ethan says a team finally has the economies of scale to serve three types of people. The first needs everything: training, coaching and leads. The second is converting well, starting to earn referrals and repeat business, and quietly wondering whether they still need the team. The third doesn’t need the team at all. They could work anywhere in town, they mentor others, and they make money for whoever houses them.
Keeping all three engaged takes infrastructure that a small team can’t afford. That’s the payoff of getting through the messy middle.
Hire business talent from outside the industry
Both men see larger teams starting to look like ordinary companies, with specialists in every seat, a shared vision and a regular operating cadence. Ethan points out that an ISA is simply what other industries call a business development or sales development rep, and those roles have existed for decades. Nick described a director of operations on a Reside team who came from running hotels across a region. She knew business and only had to learn real estate.
Nick’s advice when posting these roles is to raise the salary in the ad and look for résumés that make you a little nervous. Ethan’s advice is to keep learning from outside the industry, too.
Read biographies of people who’ve built companies you respect. Go to a conference or at least an event outside of your industry.
Ethan Beute
He also suggests asking a business-owner friend you know casually to lunch once a month for a few months, just to compare notes.
Key takeaways for team leaders
- Choose a destination. A seal team with the leader in production can be the most profitable model, and the next profitable stop is around 45 to 50 agents.
- Plan for turnover on a lean team, since one departure can take a large share of revenue with it.
- Measure conversion at two or three stages of the funnel and work on each one.
- Judge scale by inputs and efficiency, not only by units and agent count.
- Build support for agents who need you, agents who are unsure, and agents who don’t need you.
- Recruit operators with real business experience and pay enough to attract them.
