From Solo Agent to Team Leader: The Sacrifices Nobody Warns You About with Andrea Kugler

Q: How did Andrea close 52 sides in her first year as an agent?
A: Andrea attributes her success to a combination of relentless work ethic and daily, hands-on mentorship from her father-in-law, a veteran broker. She immersed herself in learning, never hesitated to ask questions, and always had support for tough situations, which gave her the confidence to take action and learn quickly.

Q: What role did mentorship play in Andrea’s growth?
A: Mentorship was essential. Andrea’s mentor provided daily guidance, filled knowledge gaps, and ensured she was never unprepared. She believes that while individual effort is critical, great leadership and support help you reach your full potential and avoid costly mistakes.

Q: Why did Andrea decide to start a team and become a brokerage partner?
A: After personal loss and reflection, Andrea wanted to build something that could operate without her constant presence and make a bigger impact. She saw team building as a way to help more people—both clients and agents—find success and fulfillment in real estate.

Q: What’s been the biggest personal change for Andrea as she became a leader?
A: She became highly intentional with her time, cutting out non-essential social activities and focusing on routines that support her energy and productivity. Prioritizing sleep, fitness, and healthy habits allows her to lead effectively and be present for her team and clients.

Q: How does Andrea foster culture and community involvement in her team?
A: Andrea started “Field Day Fridays,” where her team volunteers, supports local businesses, or connects with the community. She believes authentic, intentional involvement builds relationships, strengthens local reputation, and creates lasting business.

Q: What advice does Andrea have for agents looking for the right brokerage or team?
A: Don’t focus solely on commission splits. Look for strong leadership, mentorship, and culture. Your growth depends on both your own drive and the support system around you. If you’re not getting the help you need, find a place that will invest in your development.

Q: What’s her advice for new team leaders?
A: Don’t wait for perfection—just start, be transparent, and improve as you go. Andrea has made mistakes, but being honest and open with her team builds trust and helps everyone grow together. Systems and support are important, but taking action matters most.

Q: How does Andrea use systems and coaching to scale her business?
A: Andrea relies on coaching and platforms like Reside to implement systems, eliminate distractions, and get clear next steps. She values having a sounding board to help her focus on what matters and avoid getting stuck in indecision or unnecessary details.

Q: What’s next for the AK Collective?
A: Andrea plans to grow her team, deepen community involvement, and launch a “Run for Resilience” 5K event to honor her mom and support local organizations. She wants her team to be known for both real estate excellence and genuine community impact.

Andrea: [00:00:00] there’s a lot of agents that go to brokerages or teams and they hope, I really hope this person’s gonna make like a huge difference.

Andrea: They’re gonna tell me everything to do. I’m just gonna show up and they’re gonna give me everything. Yes and no. You have to have good mentorship. You have to have good leadership, but you also have to be that other 50% of willing to do the hard things, willing to be challenged, willing to be pushed. But you gotta have that good mentorship piece too. 

Suneet: What’s up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Reside Platform podcast. I’ll be your host today, Suneet Agarwal. And with me I have Andrea Kugler, which I’m super stoked to talk to. How’s it going, Andrea? 

Andrea: It’s going great. How are you? Sunita. 

Suneet: Oh, I’m super good. Uh, we were just chatting off air.

Suneet: This is the episode that we’re filming right before our big Oceanside event. Next week will probably come out in a couple weeks. It’ll be after the [00:01:00] fact. So anyone watching and listening will probably have seen it on social or maybe not, but what do about the Oceanside event? Let me hear your take.

Andrea: I just know it’s gonna be badass. I know that there’s a lot of amazing people going. I’m so excited my coach, Jamie speaking, I’m excited to meet a lot of people that I’ve talked to through Reside, but haven’t got to meet in person. to see a lot of familiar faces that I’ve seen it, some other events in the past.

Andrea: But I’m excited to meet Robert and just kind of see kind of the vibe and I feel like there’s a lot of excitement for 2026, and kind of. New ownership. So I’m excited to really just see and dive in with everybody. I, I know it’s gonna be a great event, so I’m just really excited to get there.

Suneet: Yes, exactly. I’m excited for all the same stuff. so you’re the team leader of the AK Collective, which I think that name is awesome. And you’re also the part owner of your family’s brokerage, bowling and Coler Realty in [00:02:00] Ohio. How long have you been a realtor for again? 

Andrea: six and a half years. 

Suneet: Six and a half years.

Suneet: And your first year you closed 52 sites? 

Andrea: Yes. Yeah, in my first 12 months. 

Suneet: How do you do that? 

Andrea: Well, so I’ll say I had to credit. there’s two things, and this is kind of what I tell my agents and agents that I bring on is if you wanna be successful in real estate, it’s 50 50. It’s 50% your effort. You need to be a hard worker, you need to be gritty.

Andrea: But it’s 50% that mentorship and somebody who’s like going to help you hands on. And so my father-in-law, who was not my father-in-law at the time, I was not dating my husband at the time either. he kind of brought me on and, he’d been broker real estate agent 30 years. He has a ton of experience and he saw in me that, hey, she’s willing to put in the time and effort.

Andrea: So he really took me under his wing. I mean, I was in the car with him every day, listening to every phone call, staying late at the office with him, [00:03:00] soaking in everything I could. And he loved that too. so. Having that mentorship and guidance, there was never an appointment I had that I felt not confident on.

Andrea: There was never a conversation I had with somebody. I didn’t feel confident because I had such great leadership and mentorship behind me. and I felt so confident in all the experience he had. Like, he was like, if you wanna do this, I’m not gonna let you fail. But you have to bring that work to it.

Andrea: So that helped tremendously, especially my first year. It also gave me that confidence. I completely switched. And I dove in and I’m somebody, it’s like sink or swim. if you’re gonna do it, do it a hundred percent and try your best. but he made sure that every little thing if there’s a gap or I didn’t know something or you make mistakes.

Andrea: Of course I made some mistakes my first year. He is like, no worries. Like this is how we’re gonna handle it. This is how we’re gonna do it. So, I was definitely ready to go all in, be gritty with it, make the phone calls, do what I had to do. But without that leadership, I wouldn’t have been able, I think, to be as that, as successful as I was.

Suneet: I love that. So well said. So [00:04:00] it’s kind of interesting, right? Because you went to school for nutrition and that, and. Dietetic diets. I mean, you went to school for nutrition, dietetics is, is that how I say it? 

Andrea: Dietetics, yeah. 

Suneet: Diet. I’ve never heard that word. I’m a pretty educated diet myself. Dietetics, 

Andrea: yeah.

Andrea: Okay, 

Suneet: so you went to school for nutrition and dietetics, then you cheered for the Cincinnati Bengals for two seasons and then went over here to become A real estate agent estate, and then we know you’re definitely crazy ’cause then you decided to start a team and be the owner of the, brokerage.

Suneet: Is it with your father-in-law, like you became a partner? 

Andrea: Yes. and my brother-in-law. And so my father-in-law after this year, he will kind of phase out and it’ll be my brother-in-law and I, yeah. 

Suneet: Oh, good for him. 

Andrea: But yes, I’m crazy. Yes. Yeah. Good.

Suneet: Like. The schooling and your [00:05:00] background, like what kind of impact did that have on being a business owner? 

Andrea: Yeah, I feel like I’ve always had kind of an entrepreneurial spirit. I love to learn. I like a good challenge and so I, when I completed my degree in nutrition and dietetics, I have a passion.

Andrea: For like health, wellness, nutrition. But then when I realized the careers I could do in that, it was like, oh, it seems like everything here is gonna hit a ceiling unless I wanna start my own business, which I did kind of out of college when I was cheering. I did some nutrition consulting and I was a personal trainer.

Andrea: and I just, for me, I’m like, if there’s a ceiling that I feel like I can hit at some point, I’m not like interested in it. I have to have something that I feel like. Is really crazy. I can constantly go after, which is, here I am. I started a team. and then it was really kind of random how my, again, my father-in-law who wasn’t my father-in-law at the time, I’ve just known him growing up, I was working as personal trainer doing all this stuff.

Andrea: Wasn’t necessarily loving it, but I was, young, happy enough, and he’s like, [00:06:00] Hey, I had to fire my assistant. I really need an assistant. I think you’d be good at real estate. Can you come try this out? I’m like, no way. I don’t know anything about that. Don’t care. Don’t wanna do it. He’s like, come on. I know you’re a hard worker.

Andrea: I just need help. Do it for a month. If you hate it, you can quit. And so I’m like, all right, whatever. So I was doing all the jobs at the same time and I ended up being like, oh, okay, I kind of like this. And then that’s when I got my license. I saw how successful he was and he’s done a lot with his career and really built this awesome legacy at our brokerage.

Andrea: And for me, I was like, this is something I feel like I can take. I can do my own thing, I can scale, I can do whatever I want. And again, it was kind of that confidence he put in me too, of, Hey, if you like this, you, you really can kind of. Choose which way you want to go with your career. And I, that really excited me and I, think a lot of people have a passion for helping people.

Andrea: I liked that with health wellness. I wanted to help people, selling house. I feel I can help people starting a team. I feel like not only can I help, my buyers and sellers that I help, but I feel like I can have impact on people and [00:07:00] building a career that they also love. 

Suneet: I love that, all of it.

Suneet: When did you decide that you wanted to? Number one, be a partner in the brokerage. How did that happen? 

Andrea: So really I think it’s my father-in-law’s exit plan too. So he’s built this really, and he’s a very humble person. he’s built a very amazing reputation and legacy in our area. And, I think he’ll sell real estate till the day he dies, just because he loves it.

Andrea: He’s the most productive agent in our,office every year. Nobody can outsell this man. but he doesn’t like to manage people and he doesn’t want to grow. he’s done that his whole life. So it looked to my brother-in-law and I, and was like, look, I am willing to support and help you guys if you want to take this on.

Andrea: Take it wherever you want and I’ll be here to support you. So a couple years ago he brought my brother-in-law and I as partners. And so now we’re kind of, he’s letting us fly. 

Suneet: And then what was the step [00:08:00] to starting a team? 

Andrea: Yeah. So kind of crazy, a couple different things. I really like to be in the last couple of years bringing on agents.

Andrea: Being in that leadership role in our brokerage, I have found that I do like kind of the leadership aspect of it. last year my mom kind of at the she’d gotten real sick and had passed away and I had taken time away. Fortunately, my husband and I, I could afford to completely step out of work.

Andrea: My brokerage was handling my work. I was able to take care of her. When I came back, it kind of gave me this new perspective of, one, I wanna have something where I can always, if like family or friends need me that’s running, that doesn’t need me in it a hundred percent, that I could step away and be there for family.

Andrea: But two, it kind of gave me like, I was like, what’s my purpose? I wanna leave people better than I found them. And I feel like I as a real estate agent when I buy and sell, but like, I feel like I could be doing more so, and I’m also somebody. [00:09:00] It’s probably one of my weak points.

Andrea: I am a dec. I like to be a decision maker on my own. I’m not good at making decisions with other people. 

Suneet: Control free are decision maker on your own 

Andrea: a little bit. So I have all these ideas and dreams. I also think that my risk and pain tolerance is different than other people’s. And so all these like ideas and things I wanna do.

Andrea: I’m like, well let me start a team. that’s under, and I think I’m in a unique situation of we have this brokerage where we can still bring on agents who maybe don’t want a team, but they want similar support. They just wanna be independent agents. ’cause there’s a smaller boutique. Like, we have really competitive splits.

Andrea: Our agents do well, but then I also, I’m passionate about having something where I feel like these people who wanna be on a team and they need really good culture and they want one-on-one, and they wanna be with somebody and really build something big, there’s a space for them too. So, yeah, so it’s, it’s cool.

Andrea: It’s, it’s working really well right [00:10:00] now. but that for me was, I just felt like there’s more I could contribute, more I could do, and. Show other people this career that I’ve loved, that my father-in-law helped me bring it, me into can I bring other people in and show them like, Hey, this can be a really amazing career, that you can make more impact than just, getting people to a closing table, which is a big deal.

Andrea: That that’s a big deal. I don’t mean judge, but what I mean. 

Suneet: Totally. It is a big deal. Yes. so you mentioned that going from a solo agent to a team leader. Requires a lot of personal growth, personal development. What’s one thing that you’ve had to change about yourself as you grow into being a better leader?

Andrea: it’s a lot of sacrifice of maybe personal things that I do before, like being very intentional with my time and the things I choose to do, for example. Like my husband, who also runs a business, a couple years ago, he just gave up drinking like [00:11:00] he might drink once a year, but not that he was ever a big drinker before, but you might casually drink or get drink with friends here and there.

Andrea: But for him, he was like, I stopped doing this because I have employees that come to work every single week that I have to pay no matter how good or bad the business is doing. And they have families to support. So I can’t afford to go into a Monday with a foggy brain because I wanted to have. Three beers or whatever it is.

Andrea: And so I’ve always kind of thought about that. I’m like, you’re right. When you have people relying on you, and even like I used to, Tuesday night dinner with my friends, or we’d go to like a fun little thing on a Wednesday night and now I’m, very structured and routine and what I do and where I spend my time because like a non-negotiable for me is up at 3:45 AM because I have to, 

Andrea: get my stuff done for me before I can get to my desk at 8:00 AM.

Andrea: Just being very regimented and giving up maybe 

Andrea: some of those personal things. they weren’t things that were super important to me. It was just kind of things you fill your time with. and I just felt like when I was doing those things, it was harder to grow and like I didn’t have time to do things that are important to me, like [00:12:00] reading and, getting good sleep.

Andrea: Like you have to have those things sometimes, you are working a 14, 16 hour day, like, I need a good night of sleep after that. So I think just giving up some of those personal things that. We do sometimes just to casually fill our time. 

Suneet: Like what? 

Andrea: there’s a lot of, I still spend, like, quality time with friends is very important to me, but there’s a lot of social things that I don’t do anymore. I still socialize. I have a great social life. I don’t stay out late, things like that, that it just, it affects my sleep, it affects my tomorrow. I can’t partake in things that will affect my tomorrow if that makes.

Andrea: Because I have to have a productive day. I can’t really afford to have a, and I rest, I still rest, but I can’t afford to be out till two in the morning or those things like that, that maybe were early in my career. 

Suneet: I love listening to what you’re saying because I am such a calendar freak. Have you ever seen me share my calendar somewhere?

Suneet: I do it all the time. It’s a total flex at this point, [00:13:00] but, Zero wide space. Zero from the minute I’m up to the minute I’m in bed, the every single fucking meal and the whole fucking day on the calendar, right? Like if I’m not, if I don’t have food in my mouth at like 1201,

Suneet: By like 3 0 4 2. If I’m not eating something, at least like some Quest chips, I am upset. Right. And I love also because full disclosure is I’ve been on such that mode for so long, kind of what you’re talking about, that I didn’t have a social life anymore. Like the one person I hang out with is Che. Right, like five times a year.[00:14:00] 

Suneet: And, the other day, just like two weeks ago, it really hit me. My, my wife said, it was my 10-year-old daughter’s slumber party. They’re all, why don’t you go, do something and like, let the girls have the house? I was like, sure. I’ll call some of my homies and I’ll get a hotel room or something. I haven’t hung out with anyone in like two and a half years.

Suneet: Some dude was like eight years. Girl Sun, is it? I haven’t talked to you in a hell of long. Like 

Andrea: you’re like really? 

Suneet: Yeah. So that’s so good that you still make time and like, let’s face it, there’s a bunch of, I know plenty of people that. Drink whenever, do whatever, and are very successful. Right. and for many people, they just don’t bounce back well enough.

Suneet: I know many people who watch Netflix, actually, I don’t anymore, [00:15:00] but many people who will stay used to stay up late and watch Netflix. Maybe that’s a bad example. Right? But I think it’s about a couple things you said, at least for me and my experience. thousands and thousands of coaching calls is, is like no calendar, like don’t have any white space on your calendar.

Suneet: Like that’s non-negotiable. You can have buffer zones, like I had 10 to 10:00 AM to noon off today, so I could just like look, prepare for shit and just look around. Right, but like, so that’s a buffer zone, but no white space. No white space. 

Andrea: My husband, it’s, and I’m thankful he gets it and supports it as a business owner.

Andrea: And he does the managing of our rental properties. But during the week, I mean, we don’t see each other. I get up early, he’s more of like a later person. I mean, we pass each other when we’re getting ready for work in the morning. And like by the time I get home at night, I’m finishing my last day, few [00:16:00] work things.

Andrea: I’m getting in bed, he’s going to the gym. And it’s nice to have a partner that understands that and supports that because it’s. weekends we’re both working usually too. So it just, it happens. And even like, we don’t have a tv. People think it’s so crazy we don’t have a TV in our house. I’m like, do you think we have time?

Andrea: When have I ever have time to watch tv? I’m like, I don’t. There’s never a time where we sit down and we’re like, let’s watch, We just don’t have it. So it’s, it’s funny, but I’m, I’m very also thankful that I have somebody that gets it and supports it, So we work well.

Suneet: Well, that’s the thing. I mean, especially as you’re young, like

Suneet: you’re so far ahead of me when I was your age and I don’t even know how old you are, but you’re away ahead of me. when I was 30 light years ahead of me. 

Andrea: See then it’s crazy because I’m like, I feel like I’m behind. 

Suneet: Good. You should. 

Andrea: Yeah, I do. Yeah. 

Suneet: Right. I feel like I was behind when I was 30.

Suneet: I guess I was making good money, but I didn’t have my [00:17:00] shit together. I definitely went to the office, hung over. Eight days a week. 

Andrea: Yeah. Oh, that’s funny. 

Suneet: that’s good though. I really like to say that like, for people listening, like you want a way to, have more opportunities, like make more money, own your calendar, own your day.

Suneet: You hear what Andrea said? Be intentional. Yes, dude. Fitness and good food will help you operate. It goes a long way. Sleep. Yeah, I feel I’m, my sleep score was horseshit last night. 

Suneet: My sleep score was 64. that’s a d. I at least want a b on my sleep score, but, I, but I got a DI, I got a D and I feel it. Right. but with the right food and exercise and moving your body, like, that’s just the [00:18:00] ultimate productivity hack, don’t you think so?

Andrea: Absolutely. Yeah. It’s, that’s definitely a non-negotiable for me. Like I have to have good food and I have to. I have to have a workout like sleep. I try my best to get as like good amount of sleep as I can because that’s what fuels me like through the day. Those three things. 

Suneet: Yeah. Yeah, that, that workout man.

Suneet: I was basically still asleep in the gym this morning, but I got it in. You ever feel that way? 

Andrea: Oh, absolutely. Oh yeah. But I do know. If you start, I’m just somebody, no matter how tired I am, even if I have to shorten a workout or do it less intense, if I don’t start my day with that workout, my energy already feels lower, like I feel energized to the gym.

Suneet: It’s like you don’t even know like what it’s like. It just banished, right? It is like you never got that your blood flowing the whole day. It just kind of maybe more of a zombie. So back to business. ’cause I could talk about fitness for hours. 

Andrea: Me too. [00:19:00] 

Suneet: In fact, when I first met you, you were going for a run in Tahoe 

Andrea: like Yeah.

Andrea: Late night in the dark with Paul. Like a crazy person. He is like, let’s just go run out on the road where it’s dark. I’m like, okay, whatever you say Paul. 

Suneet: Did you guys see it embarrassed? I’ve heard you talk about fun things for culture on our team. 

Andrea: Yeah, so I, I’m a big, like, I want people to enjoy where they’re working, right?

Andrea: You have to do the hard things. I’m a big, you gotta do all the hard things. I try to, so Fridays just, it’s like end of the week, some wanna get outta the office. I kind of. I’ve implemented what’s called Field Day Friday, and really it can be anything. One of like my core pillars for my team and it’s important that at, people in my office and on my team also believe in this is like the importance of community and taking care of our community.

Andrea: Especially because our brokerage, we’re right on Main Street. People know us as just like. Kind of the heart of Hamilton, the area we’re in. 

Suneet: Oh really? You’re right on Main Street. Like literally. 

Andrea: Yeah. my, my father-in-law’s such a giving [00:20:00] person, again, very humble. So Fridays, it’s like, Hey, let’s get out.

Andrea: Let’s either do it. It could be various different things. Sometimes , We’re gonna go volunteer at the local food pantry for an hour or two. We’re gonna go and like, support a local business. Sometimes it’s like if we have an open house, I’m like, let’s just go door, knock a neighborhood together.

Andrea: It can be anything. Just getting out, getting in front of people, talking to people, and it’s crazy like doing those kind of things. You run into people you didn’t think you’d see before. like recently, a couple Fridays ago, I ran into a woman. I didn’t know her, like family was struggling and stuff, so we put together like a basket of things and like sent it.

Andrea: Things like that where it’s authentic, it’s intentional, and like,I don’t wanna just be in our office all day long. It’s like, what the impact? How can we help? How can we get out there? What do people need in our community? And so, dude, 

Suneet: don’t ever stop that. 

Andrea: Yeah. it’s really important to me and I, and it’s fun.

Andrea: Like, I love it. 

Suneet: That’s that homegrown business stuff, dude. And that’s what, let me tell you. here’s some coaching. [00:21:00] Is is like so many people chase this rented business source shit all fucking, I use the F word for emphasis all fucking day long. and they just have commoditized themselves.

Suneet: Your business is literally from somebody landing on you when they go to somebody else’s website. Some corporations websites, right? Andrea out there in the community, being the office on Main Street, like, people are worried about AI and the people who are commoditized by these other big websites and lead sources, they should be worried.

Suneet: But Andrea, out on the street taking a care basket to somebody in the community. Like, that’s how you have a business that laughs. I love it. Thank you for sharing that story with me. I love it. 

Andrea: [00:22:00] Yeah. it’s authentic to me and it’s also something that I want, the people that I work with, I want that to be important to them too.

Andrea: I wanna show them like, Hey, you do, you can have more impact than what you think and I want you to see that and feel it, and I want you to want to do that. For the right reasons. Right? So it, 

Suneet: dude, you’re gonna go so far, lady. you already are killing it. But your future is limitless.

Suneet: Stuff like that. Like that’s how it’s done. That’s real, real homegrown shit. I love it. I love it. I, I just became a bigger Andrea fan. 

Andrea: Awesome. I love that. We like Andrea fan 

Suneet: now in real time and, and it’s recorded too. 

Andrea: I’m gonna take that clip. I just became a big Andrea fan and I’m just gonna like, have that on replay and be like, look what Sun said.

Suneet: Hey, if that works All good? Yes. [00:23:00] Yes. for someone listening. Because that all sounds great doing the local stuff, yet I know that 90% minimum of people listening to this who came here to learn something will never do something as impactful as that. If you were listening to this podcast looking for advice on how to do it, 

Suneet: What kind of advice do you give for somebody who wants to do the same thing? 

Andrea: Yeah. One, I think like I. Really think about what is authentic to you. Again, I think a lot of us we have and even wanna help people, but so many people I think don’t do anything ’cause they feel like, well, I’m just one person.

Andrea: I can’t do that much. I can’t, whatever it is. And you can, you just sometimes have to get out and have conversations with people. We have become such a technology. type world, which is great. And it’s even as simple. I did a, a speaking event a couple months ago where I was like, when’s the last week you were at the grocery store and you made eye [00:24:00] contact with somebody?

Andrea: And they’re like, Hey, how are you? Or Ha, I hope you’re having a good day. Like, we don’t, we’re all kind of in our own world, you’re looking down whatever. I’m like, half the people I’ve met in my community had literally been, ’cause I told myself, slow down for a second. Make eye contact with somebody, talk to them, ask how they’re doing.

Andrea: You know what I mean? It’s just like really simple stuff and sometimes people will tell you I’m struggling. Like that’s how I kind of had a, that conversation with that woman. Get out and kind of connecting with people. and I encourage my agents to do that too. Everything is connection and relationship based.

Andrea: if you’re really good on the phone, that’s great. I can, I can coach you and teach you how to be good on the phone. You can sit in the office all day long, forever and ever and just talk to people on the phone and talk to people on the phone and not really build a connection. Like half of that you have to get out and you have to talk to people.

Andrea: And even just like social media that I encourage my agents, you need to be on social media. I don’t care if you like social media or not. How are people gonna get to know you? If you’re not showing them yet, you can’t go out and talk to every single person in person. but try to find ways to connect with people.

Andrea: And that’s [00:25:00] my field day. Friday is kind of a way of let’s actually get out and connect, right? Like, let’s not behind a screen or a phone. but I’ve really found that. You’ll be surprised at the people you meet, the people that so many people have asked for my business cards before just because I get to a conversation with them and they’re like, oh, you’re a real estate agent.

Andrea: Oh, my mom actually was talking about selling her house. You have a business card? Because I said hi to them in a grocery store or whatever it is. it’s like simple over complicated because it’s like, who am I to to help somebody? But you don’t know how even like the smallest thing you could do goes a long way and then turns into potentially a relationship.

Andrea: I don’t look at things as, oh, I hope this turns into business and I, they have a house to sell, right? You just go in with the intention of, can I make some day’s day better, or whatever. It’s 

Suneet: so good. 

Andrea: Yeah. 

Suneet: I hope people listen to this part of the conversation. 

Andrea: I hope so too. 

Suneet: I’m gonna have to make a lot of clips on this part.

Suneet: Good. So tell me about the impact of the [00:26:00] community coaching reside, your journey there. I’m super curious. 

Andrea: Yeah, so it’s really crazy because last year when we were in Tahoe, I was kind of looking at everything through the lens of, okay, I am now, I have this like leadership position in my brokerage.

Andrea: And I think maybe it was, Paul was like, have you ever considered starting a team? I’m like, no, not really. And kind of talking about. That more I’m like, I wouldn’t even know where to begin. Like I’m just now in these last couple of years getting used to being in leadership brokerage wise. And I’m like, okay, I guess it’d be kind of similar if I start a team, but I just felt like there’s no way, I come from a brokerage of, we don’t have CRM, we have my father-in-law is very like, old school you, you call people out the phone book.

Andrea: Now it’s like, hey, call this person, track ’em down, show up to their house. Well, whatever it is. And so I’m like, oh, there’s systems for things. Oh, I could save time here. But I like, it was new to me and I had a coach, last year that really opened my eyes to a lot and helped me, I think, really refine some leadership skills.

Andrea: But it wasn’t enough to [00:27:00] where I could be like, I can start a team. And so, after talking with some reside people at Tahoe and afterwards I’m like, if I really wanna do this, I have to have people that can kind of help me Cut out the, the dumb stuff, like the stuff I don’t need. I’m somebody, I’m a dreamer, I’m a go-getter, but I also can be quite indecisive and spend a lot of time on stupid stuff.

Andrea: So the biggest thing for me has been being able to implement systems, get support, and then also have somebody to be like my sounding board of, no, you don’t need to worry about that, or you need to do this, or just dive in, or, you know what I mean? So I think. Without that, I would not have been able to start a team because I feel like I come from just kind of figuring it out, which I could figure it out all day long, but it would’ve taken me a lot longer to start a team if I didn’t resolve like it.

Andrea: This even just systems, I mean, it took me forever to figure out how to use follow-up boss, like probably way longer than it should [00:28:00] have. But I’ve never used A CRM before. So I mean, in implementing that and then also being able to. Do it myself, teach my agents and make sure that they know the importance of different systems.

Andrea: Having standards, even in our office, like I really didn’t have any standards for anybody. Like we’re, 

Suneet: oh, you have a brokerage, so, right. So 

Andrea: it is 

Suneet: what it’s, yeah. 

Andrea: Right. It just really helped me cut out a lot of stuff I didn’t need to worry about or think about and just say, Hey, here’s your next step.

Andrea: This is what you need to be working on. Nope, stop spending time on that. You need to be doing this. and without that, there’s no way I would be able to it, 

Suneet: Yes. Thank you for the shout out. Definitely putting that part into a bunch of clips. 

Andrea: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because I feel like a lot of people that I spoke to, especially Tahoe.

Andrea: Came to reside. And to my understanding, it’s like, Hey, let’s help you scale your team. Like, I’m just like, I don’t even have a team. I have experience, bringing agents on. And in our brokerage we’ve never recruited. It’s always [00:29:00] people have come to us to wanna be agents with us because they know our name, they know we’re good.

Andrea: And it’s so, it’s kind of been easy of like, I could turn people away that I don’t think fit and I can bring on the people and I train how, I was trained, but, so it’s a whole different ball game of like recruiting and. totally different. So without the resources and the guidance, there’s no way I would’ve been able to do it by myself.

Suneet: I mean, it would’ve been much more painful and expensive. Right. because ask me how I know. Yeah. Right. hey, I was surfing. I opened up Facebook early this morning and you show up in my feed and there’s a picture of Team Leader Secrets on the feed. My book. Is that a real picture or is that ai? 

Andrea: Yes. No, it’s a real picture.

Andrea: It’s a real picture. I don’t use AI for photos. Yeah, I was, I took it on vacation with me a couple weeks ago when I was gone. I always, that’s why I, when I can catch up on my reading, is that I feel like I’m out of town. so I started it. It’s great. So [00:30:00] far. I have not finished it. I was when you were sending all your emails.

Andrea: I’m like, all right, when is it coming? Gimme the date, Cindy, come on, gimme the date. I wanna get this book. But even like in Nick McLean’s book, it’s so cool to read firsthand experience. And again, it’s that same thing. in the past when I hired my first coach, I had a couple real estate friends that told me.

Andrea: They’re like, oh, that’s so ridiculous. You’re paying for coaching. that’s possible. I’m like, okay, my money. I don’t know why you’re worried about it. Andwhat I tell people all the time is the people who have really made impact and done the things that I wanna do, don’t have time to have a ton of free phone conversations with people.

Andrea: The people that I’m paying, it’s be you. It’s because they, you. You have to pay to get on their calendar. That’s just part of it. Like they, the proof is in the pudding and most of them want to give so much of their info away for free. Right. Like, you write a book and it’s like, you don’t charge that, it’s not free, but it’s, you’re putting it out there.

Andrea: Right. those are kind of my always, good signs [00:31:00] of, oh yeah, I’m gonna listen to that person. Like the proof is in the pudding. Right. but I was really excited when. You said you were when I found out you were writing your book, so I haven’t finished it yet. I’ll let you know how I like it.

Andrea: So far so good. 

Suneet: So I, I’m just curious about, what’s the name of the town you live in? 

Andrea: Hamilton. 

Suneet: Hamilton. I have a coaching client in the city of Hamilton, outside of Toronto. 

Andrea: Okay. 

Suneet: That is not the same. 

Andrea: Not the same. 

Suneet: And your city of Hamilton is outside of Cincinnati? 

Andrea: Yep. 

Suneet: how many people in Hamilton?

Andrea: 50,000. 

Suneet: 50,000. How many homes did the brokerage sell last year? 

Andrea: Brokerage? We were at 190. 

Suneet: Solid. Okay. So you guys were probably on the more units for town, right? 

Andrea: Yeah, we had actually, we had the most units last year. 

Suneet: And then you’re on the main street? 

Andrea: Mm-hmm. Yep. 

Suneet: God, talk about like. My dream [00:32:00] real estate office like situation.

Andrea: Oh, there’s like, I have so many things for the, like what’s in my head of what I want for the future and where I hope and think we can go is like so out here and crazy and fun. 

Suneet: I have a question. Do you have a now hiring awesome agents in front of your office, signed up. 

Andrea: No, but that’s a great idea. I need to put that in front of my office because I posted on social media.

Andrea: I’ve done that, but I have not put it in front of my office. 

Suneet: Have you never heard me say that? 

Andrea: Oh, no. I have heard you say it. I, well, I’ve heard, I posted, I, I maybe you’ve said put it in front of your office. Maybe I wasn’t listening, but 

Suneet: yes. No, because I think that would work really well.

Suneet: Do you guys get a lot of walk-in, like consumer traffic? 

Andrea: kind of. We used to a ton before. COVID, not so much anymore. We do. It’s funny because my, the gym that I work out at is directly across the street. So it’s funny because since I’ve started a team, I’ve had people at my gym that are like, are you hiring?

Andrea: I wanna work with [00:33:00] you. Can I get my real estate license? And there’s actually, there’s one woman that, or she’s in college, I think she’d be phenomenal. So I’ve been like trying to, I’ve been putting a bug in her ear. 

Suneet: The gym is right across the street. 

Andrea: Yeah. I’m like, I want people that work out at the gym to come be on my team.

Suneet: Yeah. There’s a orange theory right across the street from my office. You gonna go do that hard workout? Yeah. 

Andrea: Orange Theory is hard. 

Suneet: Yeah. Yes. No, I’m, ah, no. I’ll just, yes. Okay. but I love that it’s right across the street, and that community vibe and that small city like so unique. Okay. So are the agents listening to this episode not a team leader?

Suneet: That’s the next question. The agent listening, what advice do you have for them? 

Andrea: I, my main piece of advice to really any agent is, again, I really believe in that 50 50 you, there’s a lot of agents that go to brokerages or teams and they hope, I [00:34:00] really hope this person’s gonna make like a huge difference.

Andrea: They’re gonna tell me everything to do. I’m just gonna show up and they’re gonna give me everything. Yes and no. You have to have good mentorship. You have to have good leadership, but you also have to be that other 50% of willing to do the hard things, willing to be challenged, willing to be pushed. But you gotta have that good mentorship piece too.

Andrea: I see a lot of agents where I see they have that drive, but they’re just not in like the good culture. They don’t have good leadership. I’ve talked to so many agents when I’ve been recruiting that are like, Hey, my manager will meet with me 30 minutes out of every week. I’m like, what if I have a question to this day?

Andrea: I call my broker at 9:00 PM and he answers and he is like telling me this, like, you need better leadership. You know what I mean? like, let’s get you somewhere else. So I think if you love what you’re doing. But you just feel like something’s missing or you’re not getting the help you need to go somewhere else because there’s teams out there, there’s places you can go where I think you will thrive.

Andrea: And people get so hell Ben on like, what’s the commission and what’s this? And my brokers always told me, your split doesn’t matter. Like if you’re gonna be a producer and you [00:35:00] wanna work , your split doesn’t matter. You’re gonna make money. And so that’s what, when we’ve hired people, and he told me that when I first came.

Andrea: And I mean, , I came in on the shittiest split my first year and I still tapped out, made a crap ton of money and he is like, if you’re gonna hustle, split, doesn’t matter. So go somewhere where there’s good leadership, good culture, you feel like things align and people are gonna help you. And that’s something that I’ve taken as a leader, kind of in as I build a team too.

Andrea: So don’t get so hung up and that sometimes you need good leadership. 

Suneet: Love that. Now, advice for. Team leaders, what advice do you have? 

Andrea: See, this is hard because I feel like I’m a new team leader and I shouldn’t be giving advice. 

Suneet: Well, you can be new and still have some advice. 

Andrea: Yeah. I think my advice is, and if sometimes I have to take my own stop.

Andrea: Yes. Stop wanting things to be perfect and just go all in and just be as authentic and honest [00:36:00] and transparent. Like sometimes I miss the mark or I thought . this training thing I had set up, this was all gonna be like really great. And I’m like, what guys? I’m sorry that was stupid.

Andrea: Thank you for the feedback. We’re gonna run it this way better. And people appreciate the transparency and honesty of like, I’m not always gonna be perfect. but I always want to improve. I always want us all to elevate together. And so. You just gotta do it sometimes and stop waiting for everything to be so perfect and have the perfect onboarding mapped out, or e exactly how you’re doing things.

Andrea: that you’re not gonna be perfect and you’re kind of all in it together. 

Suneet: Yeah, perfection is a myth. done is better than perfect flying the plane as we’re building it. All the cliche shit I always say on stage, right? Like it’s all that, it’s all that, 

Andrea: it slows you down.

Andrea: And that’s one thing too. Without reside, I would, because a team would be so new to me, I would try to perfect it a million times before I ever did anything. And that’s one thing, like the Reside community has given me the confidence to [00:37:00] just be like, just do it. Hey, everything that you’ve mapped out, that makes sense.

Andrea: That sounds good. Do it and don’t tweak it until like, let it see how it goes. And then from there, take your feedback and tweak what needs tweaked. So don’t be perfectionist. 

Suneet: Yes. I mean, people want to like chase perfection. And then you look around in like the overall like business corporates.

Suneet: Whatever landscape and like the biggest companies are over than the news over some bullshit, right? Amazon, Tesla, whoever. Right? chat open ai, right? Like these companies have billions of dollars, bro. And like maybe thousands of engineers. And like, MBAs, right? And we’re over here like this team leader in some small town trying to get it perfect.

Andrea: Trying to make it perfect. Yes, exactly. Exactly. 

Suneet: So, yeah. Yes, [00:38:00] it’s super fascinating. I think it’s just human nature too, like getting ready to get ready, but, like my shit’s never been perfect. you just quit trying, just charge forward. Right. what’s next for the AK Collective? And I noticed you have a custom shirt on too.

Andrea: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I got, I gotta get this. It’s funny, our, my bowling and Kler logo is so well known everywhere in our community, and I’m like, I gotta make sure people know AK Collective too. Under my Under Bowl Googler. What’s next? I think my hope and what I want is I really want to continue on the community involvement and growth front.

Andrea: I do a lot of events, like as a solo agent, I get a lot of events like sphere events and stuff. I’d invite people to, I get connecting, but now I’m like, how can I be more involved community wise? And I actually, next week will come up on. A year since my mom has passed, and so I wanted [00:39:00] to organize it for this year, but it was a little last minute, but one thing we’re working on for next year, it will be in April, like when my mom passed, but I want to organize a 5K.

Andrea: And we’ll be called Run for Resilience because my mom was a very strong person, but it’s also gonna be a community wellness event where I can invite a ton of local businesses, people to set up. There’s this real big nice park by the river next to us down the street from our office, and every year I want to donate all of the proceeds from, the race to a local organization in our community.

Suneet: I love that fitness and community and for your mom, like dude, and that’s, 

Andrea: it’s all my passions put together. I love health and wellness. I love my community, but I want my team members, I want everybody to have an active part of like, Hey, what do you wanna handle? Do you wanna reach out for sponsorships? Do you want to reach out to the local businesses and see if they wanna set up booths?

Andrea: Do you like, how can everybody get involved? And then as a team decide like, Hey, which, which. If organization do we wanna help, which I’m hoping through like our field day Fridays we see [00:40:00] hey, who might be in more need? Like we wanna learn more about it, we wanna bring awareness to that organization or whatever it might be.

Andrea: So I wanna do more events. My hope is obviously grow and scale my team. next year I wanna have like 20 agents grow, but I wanna expand more and. Do more in our community as well. Not just be real estate agents, but active members in our community and have an impact. 

Suneet: You’ve heard of Zig Ziglar so famous saying, help enough people get what they want and you’ll get what you want.

Suneet: So we’ll leave with that good quote by the OG Zig Ziglar. If somebody wants to learn more about you or your business or whatever. How should they reach out to you? Arts send you a referral, which is very important. We want the referrals, right? 

Andrea: Yes, absolutely. on Instagram, you can find me, Andrea Kugler, [00:41:00] realtor on Facebook, Andrea Kugler.

Andrea: pretty much on all my platforms. I’m just Andrea Kugler, realtor, but I’m pretty active on all of ’em, so feel free message me anytime my cell phone number’s out there too. Feel free to call or text me. I always have my cell phone on me, so. Yeah, but I’m always happy to chat with anybody, so reach out.

Suneet: You’re killing it on social lady. 

Andrea: Thanks. Trying to, 

Suneet: I can tell you’re trying, but it is working, so. Good job. Good job. Okay guys, well, this was a really great episode. yes, I’m so glad, and I’ll see you in like four days. See you soon and everybody watching. hey, I really hope you got something out of this episode with Andrea.

Suneet: I did. I learned all this cool stuff about her and heard about that community culture stuff, which I don’t think enough people talk about on this episode. So very unique part of it. if you like what you heard, [00:42:00] please. Share with a friend, subscribe, ring the bell, whatever the heck it is on the platform you’re on.

Suneet: And we’ll see you on the next episode of the Reside Platform Podcast.