Welcome to our first-ever, six-episode Summit Series. In our first episode, we host four real estate team leaders in one conversation:

- Jenny Wemert of Wemert Group Realty
- Ken Pozek of Pozek Group

- Ben Laube of Ben Laube Homes
- Renee Funk of The Funk Collection

To help you make your next decision or take your next step, no matter where you are on your real estate journey, we constantly bring you the voices, experiences, and lessons of team leaders, operations leaders, and agents.

Now, Real Estate Team OS is bringing you the Summit Series a new format that has an element of our Inside The Team series, but features multiple guests in each episode.

Each of our four team leaders runs their business differently - from vision to lead generation to culture. So you’ll hear similarities and differences, as well as agreements and disagreements, as we move through their team-building experiences, challenges, and insights.

Why the team started. How you generate opportunities. Ways to preserve culture. How you find the right agents. Why they’re attracting $10-15M producers and even small teams. And more!

Watch or listen to this Summit Series episode for insights into:

- Who our four team leaders are

- What sparked the start of each of their real estate teams

- Who to hire and how to improve your delegation as you grow your team

- What’s been unexpected, including when team building was most fun and when it was dark and unprofitable

- How to guide agents through a more challenging market and through necessary changes

- Ways to preserve culture as your team grows

- How they develop agent avatars, what they look like in practice, and how they increase retention and success

- The role of strategy vs the role of luck

- How the right people, ChatGPT, and a content machine support each of their operating systems (Team OS)

- How to develop confidence on camera or even in a listing presentation

We recorded these episodes at The Creator House, a studio in Orlando created and run by our friends at Sweet Fish Media.

Still ahead in the series: two conversations with operations leaders, two conversations with agents, and another conversation with these team leaders!

Sign up for subscriber-only episodes and email-exclusive insights so you don’t miss any of them: https://realestateteamos.com/subscribe

Follow our Summit Series team leaders:
- Ken Pozek https://www.instagram.com/kenpozek/
- Renee Funk https://www.instagram.com/renee_funk/

- Ben Laube https://www.instagram.com/benlaube/

- Jenny Wemert https://www.instagram.com/jennywemert/

Follow Real Estate Team OS:

- https://www.realestateteamos.com

- https://linktr.ee/realestateteamos

- https://www.instagram.com/realestateteamos/

Hiring the wrong first person could cost you months or even years.

Minisodes, a new Real Estate Team OS series, were made to help you get it right in 10 minutes or less!

In under 9 minutes, you’ll learn:

• Why hiring a buyer’s agent first is often a MISTAKE
• What your actual first hire should be—and how to define their role
• Real stories and hard lessons from top team leaders & coaches

This is high-impact, highly visual, and built to save you time. Whether you're hiring now or planning ahead, this Minisode can change the course of your business.

New Minisodes drop exclusively on YouTube, once a month, so make sure you're subscribed to Real Estate Team OS so you never miss a turn in the road: https://realestateteamos.com/subscribe

Learn more from each of these guests:
Renee Funk: https://www.realestateteamos.com/episode/real-estate-changes-opportunities-renee-funk
Matt Smith: https://www.realestateteamos.com/episode/real-estate-team-leader-leadership-lessons-matt-smith
Katie Day: https://www.realestateteamos.com/episode/oversimplification-hype-reality-real-estate-teams-katie-day
Emily Smith: https://www.realestateteamos.com/episode/emily-smith-intrapreneur-entrepreneur-teamerage

Facebook Groups. They’re the foundation of the introvert-friendly strategy that jump-started Marisa Lindsay’s real estate business, serves as the foundation for her real estate team in Colorado Springs, and fuels a growing referral network across the country.

Learn from the founder of The Collective by Marisa Lindsay, as well as from their TC/CTO/problem solver, Dubs (including how she got that nickname). They’re a Visionary/Integrator duo whose relationship started as a real estate agent and a home buyer.

In addition to the production of their local, in-town agents, they had nearly 20 closings in March through the referral network - all driven by about 60 Facebook Groups (and counting).

In this conversation: what the strategy is, how they developed the strategy, how they sell without selling, and how they set it up in other markets.

They walk us into their four-agent team and its staff, how they developed the Facebook Groups strategy, how they extended it into other markets, when and why they moved the team into a proper CRM, key pieces of their tech stack, and more!

Watch or listen to this conversation to learn:

- Key elements to building the highest-performing team in your market, including creativity with execution and a Visionary with an Integrator

- Selling nearly 50 homes in year one with every deal generated through a Facebook Group

- The three characteristics (or “the trifecta”) that Marisa saw in a client that led to her extending an offer to join the team

- Specific roles on their small team in Colorado Springs that also supports a network of agents across the US

- Foundations of the Facebook Groups strategy that’s the foundation of the team and the referral network

- How sales conversations can happen on social media … without initiating sales conversations

- Overcoming two myths about Facebook Groups

- Why Facebook Groups functioned like a CRM for them

- “The amount of leverage is undeniable” - the vision that motivated a move to a proper CRM

- How Marisa went from Chief Skeptic to top user of their CRM

- Logistics behind and lessons learned from the referral network

- How they’re building community and courses for introverts

At the end, learn about McNeese State as must-see TV, splurging on “magical” experiences, and the “why” behind things.

Marisa Lindsay and Dubs:
- https://www.instagram.com/the_marisa_lindsay/
- https://www.facebook.com/marisa.lindsay2
- https://www.facebook.com/dealswithdubs

Real Estate 4 Introverts:
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/re4introverts

Real Estate Team OS:
- https://www.realestateteamos.com
- https://linktr.ee/realestateteamos
- https://www.instagram.com/realestateteamos/

Less than three years ago, Team Peterson-Jackson was a two-agent domestic real estate team. Today, they’re at 74 agents and counting. All along, they’ve been on a mission to:

1. increase African American homeownership rates
2. build generational wealth
3. create knowledgeable and productive real estate agents

In this conversation, LaShawn and Towanna Peterson-Jackson welcome you into the education-based approach to expanding their business, including how systems and support anchor their value prop, their 12-week onboarding process and the mobile app that powers it, their agent- and client-attraction methods, and leadership challenges they’ve faced and overcome along the way.

Early success was found connecting with people in Facebook Groups and delivering home-buying seminars in churches, schools, community centers, and non-profits in Detroit. Now, they’re preparing to expand into Houston, Atlanta, Indiana, and beyond!

Watch or listen to this conversation with Towanna and LaShawn for insights into:

- Carrying culture from your personal real estate business into your real estate team

- What LaShawn saw in Towanna’s commission checks that had her get re-licensed as an agent

- How the three aspects of their mission was sparked by a visit to Portland and Seattle, including insights into homelessness, gentrification, homeownership rates, and agent income

- How home-buying seminars and an education-first approach helped launch the team

- The roles and structure of their 10-staff, 74-agent organization

- Why they prefer new, “baby” real estate agents, why they don’t recruit, and what they look for in agents who want to join their team

- Why their value prop is more about onboarding, training, and systems than it is about leads and exactly what they provide agents in these areas

- When and why they shifted from working with investors to educating homeowners

- Which key challenges they faced in growing the team and where they sought guidance

- How each of them defined and refined their roles as leaders

- When and how they’re expanding to Houston, Atlanta, Indiana, and beyond

At the end, learn about Lions gear, a shoe habit, a shoe room, a lake house, and the next flight.

LaShawn Peterson-Jackson:

- https://www.instagram.com/lashawn_peterson_realtor/

- https://www.instagram.com/teampetersonjackson/

- https://www.facebook.com/lashawnf

- https://www.tiktok.com/@tuts138

Towanna Peterson-Jackson:

- https://www.instagram.com/towannapetersonjackson/

- https://www.facebook.com/towannaj

- https://www.tiktok.com/@teampetersonjackson

Real Estate Team OS:

- https://www.realestateteamos.com

- https://linktr.ee/realestateteamos

- https://www.instagram.com/realestateteamos/

We talk regularly about the role of tech, automation, and AI here on Real Estate Team OS.

The predominant vision: these tools make real estate agents more consistent and efficient.

Among countless other visions: AI will relegate the agent to a glorified door opener.

Here in this preview episode of our upcoming, six-episode Summit Series, you’ll hear from 10 different real estate professionals on the role of AI and the role of real estate agents today and moving forward.

You’ll hear great use cases for ChatGPT.
You’ll hear the challenge of agent adoption.
You'll hear about the limitations of augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR).
You’ll hear the potential for AI to replace aspects of the agent’s role.

Join Jenny Wemert, Emily Smith, and Tony Galarza of Wemert Group Realty; Ken Pozek, Gio Sanginesi, and Bree Tucker of Pozek Group; Renee Funk of The Funk Collection; Ben Laube of Ben Laube Homes; and Matt Anderson and Nick Nelson, solo agents in the eXp Realty community in Orlando.

Watch this episode for insights into:

Team Leaders

- Using AI in a way that’s people-based and machine-enhanced

- Why sales agents will be replaced by AI in 5 years and how that improves customer experience

- The trouble with AI-generated videos

- The proper role of an expert real estate agent

- An important caution for real estate agents using AI - and how to overcome it

Real Estate Agents

- How consumers choose agents

- Specific tasks that AI helps agents with

- How to get ChatGPT to know you better

Operations Leaders

- A high-level view of AI within a real estate team

- The challenge of comfort levels and adoption levels across agents and consumers alike

- The importance of agent motivation, regardless of what tech is available

- How a great agent provides perspective and context to bring all five senses together for consumers in a way that augmented reality and virtual reality (AR and VR) still can’t

- The role of content and the role of agents in helping consumers find community, not just property

Follow our Summit Series participants:

Jenny Wemert https://www.instagram.com/jennywemert/

Renee Funk https://www.instagram.com/renee_funk/

Ben Laube https://www.instagram.com/benlaube/

Ken Pozek https://www.instagram.com/kenpozek/

Tony Galarza https://www.instagram.com/tonygalarza_realtor/

Matt Anderson https://www.instagram.com/matthewandersonproperties/

Nick Nelson https://www.instagram.com/nicknelsonhome/

Bree Tucker https://www.instagram.com/breeinorlando/

Emily Smith https://www.instagram.com/emily_t_smith/

Gio Sanginesi https://www.instagram.com/gio407realtor/

Follow Real Estate Team OS:

- https://www.realestateteamos.com

- https://linktr.ee/realestateteamos

- https://www.instagram.com/realestateteamos/

Over the past 20 years, Dustin Oldfather has connected with and been coached by the best in the real estate business, including several of our guests on Real Estate Team OS.

As a result, he’s experimented with different methods and models - with VAs, ISAs, training cadence, lead distribution, and more.

The top-ranked real estate team in Delaware, The Oldfather Group is an 80-agent team driven by responsibility-centered leadership, opportunity meritocracy, and interactive, one-on-one training.

Dustin walks us through how they’re pairing local staff paid 15% above market with international VAs to improve performance and reduce vulnerability, how they’ve added meritocracy and agent voice to their model, why they’ve both insourced and outsourced the ISA function, and exactly how they deliver training day by day.

Watch or listen to this conversation with Dustin for insight into:

- Responsibility-centered leadership vs reward-centered leadership

- Being humbled in the Nuclear Navy

- Providing opportunities for a growing team at the dawn of online leads

- How to mitigate risk and vulnerability by partnering stateside and international team members together

- Testing an agent assistant model for agents doing 6 or 9 transactions per month

- What agents need and want in this market in terms of skills, efforts, and opportunities and how it affects their recruiting and retention

- Shifting to a meritocracy with three agent levels - Pilot, Captain, and Commander

- The pros and cons of insourcing and outsourcing your ISA function (and what works best for them) and the importance of live transfers

- Exactly how they do interactive training Monday through Friday, including specific topics covered, one-on-one time, live role plays, and accountability check-ins

- The cultural benefit of helping people move on, especially in the face of “demonstrated unreliability”

At the end, learn about Good Will Hunting and A Beautiful Mind IRL, John Wentworth, redundant JBL speakers, pushing back on Gary Vaynerchuk, and a specific structure for a healthy day, week, and year.

Guests mentioned in this episode:
- Howard Tager https://www.realestateteamos.com/episode/howard-tager-ylopo-ai-artificial-intelligence
- Jon Cheplak https://www.realestateteamos.com/episode/jon-cheplak-real-estate-teams-traditional-brokerages
- Tom Ferry https://www.realestateteamos.com/episode/tom-ferry-differentiation-accountability
- Mike Schumm (coming soon!)

Dustin Oldfather:
- https://www.instagram.com/dustinoldfather/

- https://www.instagram.com/oldfathergroup/

- https://www.facebook.com/DustinOldfatherPublic/

Real Estate Team OS:

- https://www.realestateteamos.com

- https://linktr.ee/realestateteamos

- https://www.instagram.com/realestateteamos/

The JDRE Team was growing quickly in the relatively small and highly competitive market of Hood River, Oregon.

But when their Director of Operations and Marketing Manager separated from the organization, team leader Jen Dillard found herself back in a challenging, undesirable, and familiar spot - wearing all the hats and doing all the things, but none of them especially well.

Jen shares the process of getting operations and marketing back on track, as well as how she started her business from scratch after moving to a town where she knew no one, how to work with an outsourced operations team, and how she landed an exclusive builder relationship she’s servicing with her team.

Watch or listen to this conversation with Jen for:

- What is and isn’t coachable about drive, hunger, and passion, plus questions to ask to close that gap

- The path from property management and condo conversions in Seattle to starting over in a small market where she knew no one

- Why co-owning a brokerage didn’t work for her

- Three specific things she did to build a business in a brand new market (including one that was “like a Seinfeld episode”)

- How she started a team with an engaging coffee barista and when she finally added admin

- The wrong way to hire staff and the pain it can create

- Her options to rebuild operations after the departure of two key staff members

- How she turned her operations solution into a business of its own

- How communication, visibility, and strategy work when you outsource operations

- Which systems and process were especially helpful to outsource

- Two themes she’s hearing from team leaders via coaching and networking

- Why Hood River isn’t as much a second-home market as it was when she arrived

- How being “pleasantly persistent” landed her an exclusive relationship with a builder and how that opportunity plays out within her team

- Advice for agents thinking about starting a team or joining a team

At the end, hear about a “beautiful mess” and frivolous rewards. Also: “Go Hawks!”

EOS conversation mentioned in this episode:

- https://realestateteamos.com/episode/eos-principles-scale-faster-real-estate-harvey-yergin

Jen Dillard
- http://instagram.com/jendillard

Real Estate Team OS:

- https://www.realestateteamos.com

- https://linktr.ee/realestateteamos

- https://www.instagram.com/realestateteamos/

Seasoned agents and new agents alike often wonder what they’ll give up when they join a team - including their identity.

Over the past decade, Lisa Stafford has refined an identity-based team model that blends the best of both the team and solo experiences - your individual identity and the team’s collective support.

To reflect this approach, she changed the team name from The Lisa Stafford Team to NJ Property Experts - with feedback from the team’s agents, of course.

Go inside the model and value prop behind this 11-agent, 2-staff team (TC and social media) - and find out why she got grief for this model when she launched. Learn all the elements of the accountability log agents fill out every week. Get her hands-on process for onboarding agents and jumpstarting their books of business. And hear about the limitations to team growth that she’s strategically working through right now.

Watch or listen to this conversation with Lisa for insights into:

- The top three things that have driven her team’s success: customer service level, teamwork, and constant learning

- Her path from real estate agent to boutique brokerage owner to team leader

- How she jumped in and got started with her team even though she “had no idea what (she) was doing”

- Why maintaining your own identity while getting systems, structure, accountability, and coaching was her value prop from day one and what types of agents it attracts

- What her Accountability Log demands of agents every week

- When and why she brought on a TC

- Why and how she changed the team name to NJ Property Experts from The Lisa Stafford Team

- Two potential reasons people gave her grief when she launched with this model in 2015

- How she jumpstarts new agents’ books of business

- What onboarding looks like at this stage of the team

- Why her own time and attention are the bottleneck to growth and the key strategic questions she’s working to answer right now

At the end, hear about 10 days in the sun, the Eagles, and working to give your kids opportunities you didn’t have.

Lisa Stafford:

- https://www.instagram.com/lisa_njpropertyexperts/

- https://linktr.ee/lisastafford

- https://www.zillow.com/profile/NJPropertyExperts

NJ Property Experts:

- https://www.instagram.com/njpropertyexperts/

- https://linktr.ee/njpropertyexperts

Real Estate Team OS:

- https://www.realestateteamos.com

- https://linktr.ee/realestateteamos

- https://www.instagram.com/realestateteamos/