Amp Your Attitude: Brittney Pino on Mindset & Positivity

Transcript:

Brittney Pino: I truly believe that what people allow in directly affects their actions. If I were to have a meeting with my company, and I sit with them on a Tuesday morning and say, “Hey guys, gosh, it’s a really bad year. Sales are down.” What is that going to do to the morale versus, “Hey guys, I’m watching the numbers. We’re seeing more purchase agreements come in. We’re watching the showings uptick. The market’s about to take off. It’s warming up. I want you there for it.” I think that what you allow greatly impacts everything, your psyche, your actions, all of it, your perspective on what it is. As a man thinks so, he is.

Lindsay Favazza: Welcome back to the Agents Who Crush It In Real Estate podcast. I’m your host, Lindsay Favazza, and today I’m excited to introduce Baton Rouge real estate powerhouse, Brittney Pino. Starting her career at 20, Brittney has spent 22 years transforming her passion into success. From her award-winning days as a top RE/MAX agent leading the number one RE/MAX team in Louisiana in 2018 to selling over a hundred homes a year as a solo agent with a seven-figure GCI, she’s truly done it all. In 2020, during the pandemic, Brittney launched her own boutique luxury brokerage, Pino & Associates in Baton Rouge.

Today, she excels both as an agent and as a partner to like-minded realtors delivering elite client experiences and exceptional marketing results. With her firm ranked as the number four independent real estate firm in Baton Rouge in 2024 and boasting a 74% year-over-year growth, it’s no surprise that she’s been named Baton Rouge Real Producers Broker of the Year in 2023 and in 2024. Brittany is a fierce, focused, and committed to excellence. I know you’re going to also love her accent as much as I do. Join us as we deep dive into her inspiring story, uncover her secrets to success, and explore how she has crushed it in real estate.

Without further ado, Brittney, welcome to the podcast today, my friend.

Brittney: Thank you, Lindsay. Thank you for having me.

Lindsay: I love having you guys in the background because you can just sit there and cringe while I talk about you. I honestly don’t have this many stats to go through usually, and that was a mouthful. You’ve done a lot of amazing things.

Brittney: Oh, thank you. Thank you.

Lindsay: Take us back. You’re 20 years old. What was your thought process? Why were you getting into this business at 20? What was pushing you into it and why?

Brittney: I really felt like there were a lot of things that I wanted to do with my future. I was in college. I’m like, “What? Which of these–” You had to pick a major. I’m like, “I want to be a teacher, but I could be a great attorney. I know I’m really good in sales, marketing.” Oh, business entrepreneur. I could do all of these things.” I really couldn’t even pick a major. I’m like, “I just want to do it all.” It just didn’t feel fair to just put myself in one category.

Lindsay: One box.

Brittney: I did some searching, and a friend of mine, I remember standing in the kitchen. He was like, “Have you ever thought about real estate?” I was like, “Well, what is that? What do you do?” One of my good friends, a brother-in-law, he’s much older. I was like, “What do you do?” I started to research the career, and I was like, “Oh my God, it’s just like a light bulb went off.” It like clicked. I was like, “I literally can do everything.”

Even the more I got into it, I realized it was just like, oh my God, this is everything I ever wanted to do. I could do all of it. You could be dealing with the legal stuff, and you’re dealing with public relations, and you can deal with marketing and all of the things. I really felt like I found it very early on. This is what I’m meant to do. That’s really where I got my start, what drew me to real estate.

Lindsay: It’s funny when you first started saying that, I was like, when you said you wanted to be a teacher, you wanted to be a lawyer. I was like, “All of these things, therapist, that is definitely part of it.” All of those things.

Brittney: It’s not like being like an actual doctor. The architectural side of things, the interior design side of things, what do you not get to do in real estate?

Lindsay: That is [crosstalk]

Brittney: [crosstalk] You want to be in tech? You’re in tech. I’m like, SEO, PPC. I got the follow-up boss, and I got the zaps and this. Who thought that we have to in all the different fields and industries. I’m never bored. I guess maybe it’s a little bit of the ADD in me, a little hyperactive, monotonous thing, do the same monotonous thing over and over. I love people. God, what a perfect career for me.

Lindsay: Yes, absolutely. You’re 20 years old, you got your license. Now, how did you start out? This guy that you knew, was he in real estate, so he took you under his wing? How did all of that work?

Brittney: No. That was a friend’s brother. They lived in California. I was there for a visit. We were just chit-chatting and came home. I came home, I decided to get my real estate license and hung my license with a franchise brand. It was so young, it was really hard to get a start, to convince me like, “I’m baby.” “Have you ever bought a home before?” I’m like, “No, I have no clue what I’m doing, to be honest.” I had a couple of sales, just like a friend’s mom and things like that. Then I was offered a position to do onsite sales in a golf course community, and they were paying a salary. It was like a salary plus a draw. At that time, I think I was 21, 22 years old.

I decided, “Okay, I’m going to do this. I’m going to go to this golf course development.” I did that for a couple of years, and I’m so grateful for that experience while it wasn’t really that fun at times because it was like eight days a week. It was a lot. I was driving an hour there, an hour home. All the things that I just explained to you what was so exciting about getting to real estate. I was just like that W-2 employee basically. It was like real estate boot camp. I was riding along with the developer would like, “All right, I’m coming in, I’m driving up, come out to my car. Who’s your next five purchase agreements? Who? Tell me about them.”

All just really drilling me on being able to identify who’s the real buyer, who’s a real seller, and things like that. We had every kind of property there. We had garden homes and townhomes. Luxury gated community is a very big community. We had people from 48 different states, 7 different countries who did pre-solds and building deals. When I say it was like real estate boot camp, I could have been in the real estate field solo for 10 years and not gotten the experience that I did in that two years time working alongside that developer.

I think that really gave me the notch in my belt, the confidence, the experience, and everything that I needed. When I left there, now we’re talking about ’06 is when I chose to go with the big franchise brand and like, “All right, I’m ready to do my own thing.”

Lindsay: That’s some crazy timing because we know what happened two years later. What was those first two years like at the big box brand, and then how did you transition into the whole mortgage crisis?

Brittney: When I left the onsite sales position getting paid a salary, I quit that full-time job, and I was buying a house. I don’t know if it was two weeks before or two weeks after, but I remember back then it was stated doc loans. I didn’t tell them that I didn’t have a job anymore.

Lindsay: You can get away with that then.

Brittney: I did. Yes. You can get away with it. It’s 2008 anyway. I did fine through 2008. I didn’t have any foreclosures. I always paid my bills. Anyway, so I buy this house, and so my back’s against the wall. I showed the house to my dad. I’m like, “What do you think about my new house, Dad?” Here I am, what am I? 22, I have a mortgage now. No job. “What are you doing?” I’m like, “Well, I’m going to sell real estate.”

I was like, “What do you think about my house, Dad? Isn’t it cute?” He’s like, “What do I think about it?” He was driving away out the back and out of the driveway. His window was down. He’s like, “I don’t think you can afford it.” I was like, “Oh.” I’m like, “Well, I’m going to prove him wrong.” My first full year as a solo agent in the real independent world out there, I did six figures. You got to remember, this is before social media was a thing, really. Maybe my space was a thing. There were no text message.

Lindsay: [crosstalk]

Brittney: No text message. You had very little tech at the time and no smartphones. I had a Nokia analog phone.

Lindsay: The little one with the little–

Brittney: Yes. Taking yourself back to those times, how am I going to get this business off the ground? Do you know what I did? I drove around my town, and I called for sell by owners. I found a builder that was– He was on a billboard, and it was just his name and phone number. I was like, “I don’t see an agent.” “Why not?” I called him, like, “Hey, I saw your billboard, and this is me, and this is what I do. I sold onsite sales for a long time. Do you have a realtor? What are you selling?”

He listed houses with me. I had first sell by owners that listed houses with me. I just want to do such a great job that they will refer their friends and family. I was always a student trying to learn this business from the standpoint of what is going to keep me in this business? Not just how can I get the sale today, but how can I really grow in this business and stick around for years to come? It was repeat referral business. I’d hit the ground running, and I worked really, really hard. I worked eight days a week, doing my thing, but I was really passionate about it. I was having a lot of fun doing it.

Lindsay: You had that why? Because you had not only that little bit of motivation from your dad?

Brittney: [crosstalk]

Lindsay: That probably is exactly why he said that to you, too, because he knew that little fire underneath you. You had a mortgage that you had to pay. It probably helped that a little bit. Also, I feel like some people are just born with that, hardworking, take-no-prisoners attitude. It sounds like that’s exactly what you were doing, just looking for opportunities, not waiting for them to come to you.

Brittney: Right. No, I didn’t wait for my phone to ring. I did everything that I could. I was in my car. Sometimes it would be the entire day. This, again, was before the first time I own our websites. There was no Red X. There was no like, “Here’s a list. Call these people.” I’m looking for the little red and white signs. I’m like, “Oh, there’s one way down the street.” I don’t drive now. I’m like calling them, get hung up on this. I don’t realize they did. A few people, you have to get through a few no’s to get some yeses. I did. Then this guy, I sell his house, dual agent.

Then the people behind him, he was telling him how great I was. I sold their house. It snowballs. I actually remember one of those first for sale by owners. I could tell you the address. It was that long ago. It was on Outback Road way out anyway. I could always see how one thing led to the next. Now, fast forward. That was the first half of your question. A very long answer to that question. You asked about 2008.

Lindsay: Yes.

Brittney: I remember getting phone calls from my dad. He was like, “How are you doing in this market?” Blah, blah, blah. I was like, “Dad, I don’t know what’s going on because I don’t watch the news. I don’t listen to it. I am all in in what I’m doing, serving my clients at the highest level.” People still need to buy and sell. In 20– What year was it? 2008. I was so busy that I opted to hire an assistant. In 2009, I hired an assistant. In 2010, my business was up 30% year over year. I have a chart because I’m such a nerd. I have this spreadsheet, and it’s goes back since 2005. That was our year.

I don’t know if you remember hearing about Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. It goes back Hurricane Katrina year. Every every year, every year, I can see every month how many sales there were every quarter, every year, total number of sales. In 2010, our market in East Baton Rouge had 3,500 home sales. That was the worst year on record. It was worse than ’08. It just took that much time, I guess, for it to fall out.

Then compared to our COVID years where we had 72,000 in a year and are just in our parish, and we don’t have counties. You guys would know that as a county. Anyway, just in our in our area, our hyper-local market. I look back at that. I’m like, wow, I was living under a rock. 2010 was the worst year ever. My business is up 30%.

Lindsay: You were living you were living under a rock, but you were also keeping out the noise. There’s something to be said for, if you were following all of that and really paying attention to it, it can drown you and make you feel like, “Okay, I have to pull back.” Mentally it can mess you up. I think that’s what’s happened with COVID in the last couple of years for people. People got very like, “Oh, I have to be careful.” Instead of just going and doing your business, you could have done even more than you did the prior years. I think your blinders were helping you in this situation, for sure.

Brittney: I think that I take that philosophy to my agents now. You fast forward many, many years now of a brokerage right now. Now, I have the responsibility of leading and mentoring other agents. Listen, I have powerhouses with me, not that they need me to lead mentor, but I’m on the wrong side. Sometimes they get in the spot or even as a group. I don’t let the negative noise, like people talk about the market’s going down, because I truly believe that what people allow in directly affects their actions.

If I were to have a meeting with my company, and I sit with them on a Tuesday morning and say, “Hey, guys, gosh, it’s a really bad year. Sales are down. Sales are down in the market.” What is that going to do to the morale?

Lindsay: [crosstalk] job.

Brittney: What is that going to do to their energy? What are they going to do when they leave that meeting for the day versus, “Hey, guys, I’m watching the numbers. We’re seeing more purchase agreements come in. We’re watching the showings uptick. The market’s about to take off. It’s warming up. I want you there for it. Double down. Make your call.” They’re like, “Ah, Lee fired up.”

I think that what you allow, be careful what you hear. Be careful what you say. I think that what you allow greatly impacts everything, your psyche, your actions, all of it, your perspective on what it is. As a man thinks so he is. I don’t want him to think anything other than, “You’re great. You’re going to crush it, crush it in real estate.” [laughs]

Lindsay: I like that. I think that that goes with almost anything in someone’s life. I went through some stuff over the past year or so where there was some health struggles that I was going through, and I convinced myself that I was sick, even though I was working through it and got through it. I’m fine now. I was doing the things of a sick person, even though I wasn’t technically sick anymore.

Then you almost get stuck in that mindset. It goes for not just career stuff. It can be personal things. You can be like, “Oh, I’m not at the top.” You start to convince yourself you’re not at your top. That mindset is so important, and it can really screw you up. It can really screw you up.

Brittney: [crosstalk] everything, Lindsay.

Lindsay: It affects everything. It affects everything. All right. You start the brokerage in pandemic years, right? When was that? 2020, 2021?

Brittney: 2020. We opened in June of 2020.

Lindsay: Were you already planning to do that before the world started to collapse? [laughs]

Brittney: Yes. It was never really my initial plan like, “I’m going to get my broker’s license.” It happened because it was January of 2020, and our broker came knocking on the door and was like, “Hey, we’re moving physically, moving our office location.” I loved my office. I loved it. I had been in that same room since 2009. I had actually spent my personal money. The building itself was a little dated. It was darker colors, very golds and blacks and things like that. I was like, “I just need bright.” I painted the walls as for forgiveness, not permission.

I painted the walls just in my room and had these built-ins built. Everything was just desk, stuff would end up on the floors. There’s no storage. We had a bunch of agents in there. I spent several thousand dollars to build out this office. Here he comes knocking, was like, “Hey, we’re moving.” I’m like, “Damn, where are we moving and why?” He was like, “Well, it’s leaking downstairs. We’ll have to be out by the end of March. I don’t know where we’re going.” I’m like, “Wow, that spring market and already 2020 is promising to be a great year.”

2019 was amazing year for me. I was like, “Wow, you don’t know where we’re going.” I sat back a little bit, not a long time, just maybe through the month of January, watching what their moves are going to be. I was like, “Okay, I have to make a decision. What am I going to do?” Spoke to my coach. It basically was like, okay, you’re your brand. I already had this basically organization built under that umbrella. Anyway, I had two admins, I had runners, I had videographers. I had this whole entire staff that I was running under that brokerage. I’m like, “Okay, I’ve got to make an assessment.”

Actually, I’m like, “I’m in this room. How much more can I really physically grow– More people, can only get so many people in this room.” I just decided at that point, I was like, “I’m just going to get my broker’s license and broker my own transactions.” I wasn’t even going to be a broker. It’ll be like open a firm and hire agents. It wasn’t really my business model at the time.

I just was like, “I’m just going to do my own thing.” That’s why the firm was my namesake. It was like, “All right,  associates, associates are all the licensed staff.”

Lindsay: Exactly.

Brittney: Then pandemic overshadowed that whole move. They were moving out, and I’m like, “I’m not going with them.” Put a cover over it, and I was like, “I’m done.” I opened my firm. I went to a May 31st, and I was like, “I’m out.” Then June one, the doors opened.

Lindsay: Amazing. It was a beautiful space. I remember seeing pictures. It was gorgeous. You can finally put your stamp on it.

Brittney: Yes. I have so much space now. Fast forward to when I moved from RE/MAX, I leased out the space, and it was 1,300 feet. Leased it for three years. That was another scary move. I make these moves, and it’s like, “Oh, what am I?” When your back is against the wall, I’m telling you, it just does something to the fire in your belly. It’s getting out of your comfort zone. That’s where the growth is. I started with 1,300 feet. I was like, “This landlord is such a great tenant.” I was like, “This landlord’s never going to sell the space to me, but I’m going to try like, ‘Hey Barry, would you consider selling me this space? I need more space.

I know that you own the suite also next door. Can I buy that, too, so I can connect them?'” He did it. He sold it to me. In August of ’23, I bought my space. I was leasing, and I bought another 19,000 square feet adjacent. Then last year in ’24, we did this huge reconfiguration. Now, I have 3,200 square feet of beautiful modern space. I own it. Plenty of room for–

Lindsay: Not paying rent. [laughs]

Brittney: Yes, right? Smart.

Lindsay: That’s very smart. I love that. Now, you’ve got the brokerage. What is your change in focus at that point? How did you start to bring in some of these other agents? When did that plan change, I guess? Were they just gravitating to you because they were like, “Hey, we want to do what you’re doing. We want to be a part of it.”

Brittney: I have been through– We skipped a few years in there. I went through a divorce and things like that. I had to really learn how to– I don’t like the word balance, but find a rhythm where I could be this– I’m a single mom with two little girls and also running my business. I had to create all this leverage for myself so I’d have time to do all the things and not be burned out. After I’d done it for so long, we fast forward, by the time I opened the brokerage, I had then been in the business 17 years, and then it’s gone 18, 19 years. We’re coming up on 5 years this June.

I’m excited about that of opening the brokerage. As it evolved, once I opened the brokerage, I did have people come forward. I had agents come forward, and it’s like, “I really want to be a part of what you’re doing.” The first guy that did, I had literally no plans to hire agents. I was like, “I’m not ready for agents.” He followed up consistently for three months. I was like, “Okay, well, if he can follow up with me for three months like that, he’s probably going to be pretty good with clients.” I was like, “What’s the harm? Let me just bring in one person.” It was the icebreaker for me. He crushed it. He crushed it.

I was like, “Oh, okay, I guess we could do this.” Still very selectively have brought people in. I’m never going to be the one who’s like, recruiter, just bring everybody in, open the door to everybody. I’m just really particular on who’s in my space, who is–

Lindsay: Representing your meeting.

Brittney: Representing our brand. They have to just be on brand. They have to be a certain caliber of individual. It’s professionalism, it’s attitude. Are you likable? Are you honest? Do you have integrity? Those are all the things like, are you coachable? Are you a team player? Do you get along with others? All of those things, I’m ruthless in that process. I don’t want just anybody here.

Lindsay: What does that process look like then? Let’s say an agent does come to you. Do they have to go through hoops to win your trust, or is there some kind of interview process that you do with them? Because there might be people that are listening today that are like, “Yes, I want to get in with someone like her.” Maybe it’s not you because it’s in their market, but maybe it’s someone like that. How do they impress them? What do they do to get to that level?

Brittney: We really look at everything. We do look at production, but we also look at social media. Please, social media is a huge thing. What does your profile picture look like? What are you doing for fun? Are you complaining constantly on there? Are you positive? How’s your marketing? Is your marketing professional? We just scrub through their social accounts, for one, because that is going to be how they’re presenting themselves to the market and how they have– What is their reputation? That’s even just the starting point. That’s even just get started for me to have a conversation. When I do meet with somebody, I don’t like to make a quick decision.

Lindsay: You like to date first.

Brittney: I do, I do. I’m like, “I loved meeting you. Can you come to one of our company meetings on a Tuesday or something?” Sometimes I’ll have them come to meetings and things like that. It’s not a fast process. It’s just at our pace, depending, that person and myself, just when it really feels right. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it doesn’t feel right. Sometimes it’s not a fit, and I’ll let them know that, or maybe they’ll let me know that or whatever.

It’s great. We’re not for everybody, and everybody’s not for us. I can tell you the community that’s been built here, the people, I am so proud of it. I look around, I’m like, “This is amazing.” These people love each other. They’re supportive, they’re abundant, positive. There’s no toxicity. It’s a light and airy feeling, people are laughing, and it’s just no drama. We don’t do drama.

Lindsay: I like it.

Brittney: I love it. I love what we built here, Lindsay. It’s great. Still, we’re in the beginning. We’re growing.

Lindsay: Yes. 74% year for year growth, that’s pretty impressive. What is that attributed to? Other than the fact that you guys are all working together so well, what other things would you attribute to that growth? Is it mainly your marketing? Is it that you’ve doubled down on leads? Is it that you’ve put new training into place? What are the things that you would say is the root cause of that?

Brittney: I think that it’s the people that we have here. Over the previous years before that, we did some culling, trimming off people that just weren’t a fit or weren’t really showing up and then making sure that we were continuing to partner with like-minded agents. Also, I feel like I changed a little bit in the messaging. What I want to do is highlight. Highlight the behaviors or the positive actions and things that we wanted to see more of. I think when people get that acknowledgement and that affirmation, it fuels them to go more versus on the contrary, to say, “Well, you’re not calling enough people. Why are you not selling enough houses?” Browbeating anyone.

Lindsay: Focus on the positive, yes.

Brittney: Yes, we just really focus on what you are doing right or who is doing the right things and celebrating and highlighting them. We’ve done things like million-dollar lunches. We have quarterly levels. We do some monthly challenges and things like that. Then our company meetings are very, very collaborative. There’s been so many properties where they’re selling off market with each other. “I have a listing coming up.” “Oh my God, I have a buyer for that.” Then they run off and literally go write a purchase agreement. I’m like, “This is crazy.”

It just happened again. I think we’ve got one that’s being accepted today. We have an agent that just joined. She’s like, “It’s pretty cool. My first Pino deal, I’m about to list a house, and they already showed it, and we’re about to get an offer. It’s going live today, but it’s already going to be under contract.” I think just the synergy of the people, the organization, the positive environment that we have.

I think it is a lot of an environment. We have our new office. Everything is just moving in the right direction. I think that just with the blinders and all of that coming to a head, I think allowed us to have that great year. We’re already ahead of last year right now. It’s our first quarter. We’re blowing it out of the water.

Lindsay: Amazing. The only thing that you didn’t mention then was yourself. At the end of the day, you’re leading the charge here. You got to go give yourself some credit, too. You’re leading from example, and they’re seeing what you bring to the table, and they’re emulating that. A lot of it comes down to your leadership. You should be really proud because this is a really great place to be.

It’s easy to grow a company. It’s easy to do all these things. It’s not easy. People have started these businesses, but to have a successful culture and to have it follow with actual sales success too, that’s very difficult to do. Congratulations on all of that. I think that that’s amazing. What’s the change in your marketing that you’ve seen since now you went from being an individual agent to now being a brokerage model? How do you guys do your marketing? Do you have people in house? Are you all involved in it? What’s the marketing focus?

Brittney: We do have a videographer that works on staff exclusively for our firm. I really think that the video is a really strong piece that we do. We also are really particular on the cohesiveness of our marketing. We make sure that every time we post a photo, those are branded, but it’s branded a certain way where it’s the transparent logo. We want something that looks very professional and high-level. Anything that we do put out, we want it cohesive with our branding, but something that looks, like I said, very professional. We really try to make sure that we’re everywhere.

Our signs are a certain look, they’re everywhere. I feel like we’re just getting louder and louder and louder. We’ve got agents who are being celebrated on the cover of Real Producers. They’re interviewed by media or anything like that. We just make it loud. I think it’s hard for people to get away from what we’re doing. Agent acknowledgements are huge. My agents are having a killer month, like, oh my God, so-and-so just put 3.8 million pending. In our market, our average sale price is 320. When an agent in our local market has $3 million pending, we’re constantly pumping it out.

One of my favorite features about our company, sometimes it could be overlooked. It doesn’t even sound like that’s a big deal, but we have a company Dropbox. All the agents have access to it. Our ops team keeps it up to date, basically in real time. One of the folders in that company Dropbox is active listings. Every single one of these listings has the whole catalog with the video and the reels and the vertical shots and professional photos, some night shots, the description of the property. They can grab and drop onto their socials at any time.

It doesn’t matter if it’s their listing or not. It’s like you have permission from the broker, it’s the broker just listing for you to drop and share. That’s going everywhere. It’s that much exposure for the seller, that much exposure for that agent because they’re constantly putting out content. It’s that much exposure for the brand because everything that they’re putting out is branded. In that folder, there’s so many other things in there, but they have access to that.

It just makes it easy for them to not have to reinvent the wheel. You don’t have 27 agents all going on their 27 different Canva accounts and creating their own, what they think is good marketing and trying to– Do you see the difference? We are doing that [crosstalk]

Lindsay: You said that, and you can see the cringe in my face.

Brittney: Yes.

[laughter]

Brittney: I don’t want you doing that. I want you focused on the revenue-generating activity. I want you focused on working with buyers and sellers, just showing property, listing houses, negotiating contracts, going to closings and all that other stuff, like we’ve got it. Like I said, it’s not just one thing. It’s all the little things, I think that we’re doing that makes the big impact over time.

Lindsay: I love it. What are your goals? What are your goals for the coming years? You’re about to hit five years. That’s a big milestone. Are we having a party this summer? [laughs]

Brittney: I haven’t planned a party, but I’m excited about five years coming up. My goals are to remain consistent. We’ve just been on this very steady trajectory. There’s not an overnight success. I’m not trying to do something really fast. I don’t want to break anything. It’s just continuing to do consistently what has worked and just to keep doing that, mastering the mundane, not giving up, not letting up, continue to be loud, just keep going, and continue to look for those agents in the market who are like-minded, who are very on brand for us and bringing them over, bringing them over just one at a time.

If I can get five to eight more heavy hitters this year, I’d be so happy. Cool. Even if we didn’t have any, I love the group that we have. Of course, the entrepreneur spirit, and you can’t just sit still. Next, next, more, more. We did and actually launch– In the next week, I’m actually going this week to leading real estate companies of the world. We just got it.

Lindsay: Good.

Brittney: We just got approved. I was like, ahh!

Lindsay: Oh, that’s awesome.

Brittney: I’ll be there. That’s another little piece. We’re so excited to be in that network. We’re going to be launching that. We’re local. We’re global. The training and that, that’s so high level. Oh my gosh. We did the luxury division. I’m so pumped. I’m so pumped.

Lindsay: You are going to love the conference. You’re going to love the people there. You’ll feel like it’s very similar to the way that you were describing your own. It just feels like a family because everyone within leading RE is so driven because you’re invite only. I don’t know if people are listening, and you don’t know how this works, leading RE is for brokerages that are independent so that they have that big network, but it’s invitation only.

Unlike some of those big box, brokerages where you could just end up with any old agent in any market, when you have a referral to a different market, with leading RE, you’re going to the best of the best within each market. To be invited to be a part of that is such a huge honor. We felt the same way when we got in, we were like, “Oh my gosh, this is so amazing.” It’s a wonderful thing to be a part of. Congratulations to you guys. That’s awesome. I feel like that’s great for us, too, because now we can all partner there, too, even more than we already do. [laughs]

Brittney: I love it. It’s all the little things, I just feel like so many exciting things are happening. I’m here for it. I’m just going to keep doing it and keep showing up for my people. A big thing for me, I think too, over the last several years is just trying to learn how to be a great leader. It took me a long time. I started hiring my first assistant, I want to say 2009.

I probably wasn’t a great leader back then. I ran through a few assistants. We tend to run them off, burn them out really easily. Over the years, I’ve gotten a lot better. I think that’s a big passion of mine is just trying to be that great leader. It’s really rewarding whenever you get someone in. I had a brand new agent join, and see that agent go from– I don’t know if real estate is going to be for me or not even hitting a wall to then outselling a lot of veteran agents in our market. His very first full year with us, he did 9.2 million. That’s huge in our market. He’s my rookie of the year.

Lindsay: Yes, I love that.

Brittney: It’s amazing. Just watching the agent succeed, I feel like it’s my success. I tie my success directly to theirs. I’m like, “If you’re not winning, then I feel like I’m not winning.” That reflects on me. It’s just really fun, being in this role and riding alongside these powerhouses that allow me to do that.

Lindsay: You’re also the powerhouse. I think I said that in your intro. They’re riding alongside you as well. [laughs] Brittney, this was amazing. We are at time, which was shocking. I looked up, and I was like, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe we’re already over 30 minutes.” I just want to say thank you so much for doing this today. I have wanted to talk to you for a long time. It’s funny. I had reached out to John, I don’t know, probably a year or a year and a half ago. I was like, “Hey, who should we get to the podcast?” He’s like, “What about Brittney?” I was like, “Oh my God, why didn’t I think of this?”

Then I think we had talked at that point, but we just didn’t make anything happen. I’m just so glad that we finally got to do this today. It has been an absolute joy. I’ve learned even more about your business than I knew. I’ve known you for quite a few years now. I think that our audience really walked away with a lot of great feedback. In closing, is there any advice that you want to give to the audience? What’s your biggest piece of advice that you give to agents out there?

Brittney: I think that this business can be really lonely. I think that a lot of agents struggle with that and mindset. I think that if you’re finding yourself in a spot, a lot of times it’s your environment that can really make the difference. The people that you’re around, not giving up, being consistent, showing up for yourself, but not shrinking back. Don’t shrink back and let that stuff get to you. That mindset, if you feel like you’re in a spot, seek a mentor, whether you need a coach, whether you need to be a change in environment as a company.

I’m not saying hop companies, but maybe you just need to grab hold of somebody who has been there and done that and see if they can help you lead you out of the woods if you’re ever in a spot. It doesn’t matter what level you’re at either. I don’t care if you’re a $5 million, 1, 20, 30, we all need a mentor and a coach to help us through to get to that next level, somebody who’s been there and done that. That would be my advice [crosstalk]

Lindsay: That pushes you out of that comfort zone because we easily fall into that comfort zone. Awesome. Thank you so much, Brittney. This was so amazing. All the continued success to you and to your brokerage, to your agents. I just can’t wait to see what you guys do. Maybe we’ll have to do a year from now, and we’ll recap and see what this year has brought for you guys. I’m excited to see.

Brittney: Sounds good. Thanks, Lindsay.

Lindsay: Thanks so much. Thank you all for listening or watching. If you’re on YouTube, please give us any kind of testimonial referral, share this with someone else. We love to get as many realtors listening to this as possible because there’s so much to learn from each other. Please share, please like, please do all the things. Thank you guys all for coming back week after week. We appreciate you. We’ll be back in just a few weeks with our next episode. Thanks, everybody. We’ll see y’all later.