Company Culture

Welcome to the Leading Lane podcast for real estate Pros by Real Estate Pros with your hosts, Ashley Frederick and Steven Burch. If you're looking for an honest, authentic and raw perspective, you found it. How was your guys's spirit week? Good. Did you see the pictures from yesterday? The photos are freaking amazing. I love that everybody like jumped in and did that. You know, I brought, I bought black hair dye for Charles, but I just couldn't convince him to do it. I feel like I would have like totally pulled it off. That's awesome. It was pretty funny. And your hair was like straight down the middle, wasn't it? No, no, I had it off to the side. Okay. I was like, man, maybe it was just the angle. Then. Yeah, I tried and then, yeah, Caitlyn and I are twins today and stitch fix. We have the same exact stitch fits. But anyway, she wanted to know if we wanted to do our hair curly. And I was like, this straight hair, that's just. So we take. I'm gonna have to re wash it. So let's just keep with the straight hair. People did good today too, so. No, it's, it's good. And I think my Noah didn't know who Ace Ventura was until the day before either. Oh my God. I mean, he's 19, so. Yeah, well, chocolate milk guy. So then he tried to. I, we. I don't know if he videotaped it, but Dana brought in one of her daughters, like, you know, her two year old daughter, one year old daughter's tutus, and that's what we tried to get on him. And then he got stuck on it. Stuck in it. I just. Yeah, it was. Oh my God. And then there's like four people trying to get it over his chest. And then we just decided to cut it. He's a really good sport because, you know, when we did last week or the martial arts or whatever, the martial arts instructor like basically used Noah as his punching bag the whole entire time. Was really funny because then Noah was, I think was like, I'm going to use like all my strength in and take them out or whatever. And then the guy would just like literally put him down in two seconds. And the guy's like, what do you think is like five foot, if that. The martial arts guy. And he's 60 something. Yeah, it was hilarious. That's awesome. So like, how do you. I mean, people always ask like culture, like how do you, how do you relate that over to culture? Like how do you create that? How do you explain that to other people? That Those are the types of things that you do. I don't know how you explain it to other people, but it is right, because like being like outside of the office and having those like a moments together and like laughing and like, it's not business then, I mean, like, we had to straddle each other. Like, we had to like, sit on each other and like, straddle and like getting like up close and personal. It does create culture. I think that's just like, people don't put enough emphasis on like actually just spending time together. I think people try to put emphasis on, you know, appreciation, which there's definitely an avenue for that, but it's actually like doing things together. So, like, I think there's like a fomo, obviously, you know, of then people talk about all these funny things that happen and you can't relate. So I don't know how you. I mean, I don't know how you create that. I guess, I guess I just always tell people that, you know, my expectation is that they're there. It's during business hours that should be treated like a appointment, really. But then do you think that, like, because you made those social media posts and sharing those different things that you guys are doing, like, I mean, I would have to imagine your engagement on your social is. Oh, yeah, way higher. Yeah, for sure. I mean, and also, like, I can't. There is not one other real estate company in town that's doing anything remotely close to this. Like, I don't think they do anything outside of the office, nor do they dress up or do they have fun or any of that. So, sure. Is it a recruiting part of it? For sure. But it's also goes back to not even culture, but like just the community. That's why they always think about us, right? Because we're top of mind. I actually think I screenshotted this today. I was gonna send it to you. Says, build a brand so strong people trust you before they've even met you. And I think that that is true because that's what we're doing. Like, we're doing like we're building our brand of we're fine, we're human, we like to have a good time, but we can also get the job done. I think the, the thing here too is that, like, when I first tried to figure out culture, like, it was like, how do I do it? How do I do it really? It's not like you can't just magically create culture yet. It's. It's an experience. You have to create the experience. And then from the experience, the memories come. Those moments come. And then, you know, I always say, create a vibration so loud that nobody can ignore you. And with the vibration, there's going to be the. The backlash that's going to come with it. There's a better term than backlash, but aftershock, you know, that's going to come back over eventually. And I think it's great to do those types of things, but everybody tries to focus on this big, elaborate plan, but it doesn't need to be elaborate whatsoever. It needs to be about engagement and about an experience and make it memorable. And like I said, make have laughs. Like, this is a time that. Where people are already we. I think it is like, I feel like in a. Not like a corporate world, but kind of there was always, like events that you would have together as a company because it was company driven. And so I think that that really falls on us as, you know, owners to have that same type of mindset of like having company events, that it's not just like a Christmas party. It's things throughout the whole entire year. So spirit week is always big for us. And then call it Hallow week, just Halloween week. It's always another big thing. So I think I'll miss the pumpkin carving because I'll be down by you. But that Tuesday, like, everyone will carve pumpkins together. Last year was the first year that Jenny had ever carved a pumpkin. Yeah. So. But then, like, we'll put them outside and they'll be part of the pumpkin promenade. What else is there? There's like downtown trick or treating, which brings like 3,000 people downtown. I don't. I don't think I told anybody this. So it's the four of us. I think we might dress up as mean girls. I don't know if the kids will get it, but I think that the parents will understand. And then there's like a beer and cider walk. And then I think the week of Halloween, like, we're having a potluck at the office, you know, so it's just those types of things. We haven't had a potluck for a really long time. Probably because we've been like moving buildings all year long. But I don't know, it's just something about being together and thinking. You can also just like, not like commiserate together, but kind of like right now things are strange and we keep on coming into strange situations. I guess it's nice to talk about that with people that understand that we're doing it the right way and it's okay to be frustrated about it. And also, you know, this felt really wrong when I got this phone call. I think just having an avenue to have that in an open dialogue versus only on posts or in groups or in emails. And it's the conversation. It's making sure that, you know, people know that they're not alone. And I think kind of like what we were just talking about, though, to the vulnerability aspect of things, of saying, hey, like, this is all new territory to for all of us and so let's work together to figure out a solution versus making them feel isolated. And if you don't already have that culture, that camaraderie, like, it's going to be pretty freaking hard to have those discussions like that. I think it also brings a sense of confidence, right? So when you're in this room with 15 other people and you can keep on talking about, you know, what's comfortable to say, what's not comfortable to say, what you're hearing, how you would have said something differently. It just, I feel like my agents are the most confident in town and that goes a long way when you're put into unique situations. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please, like, subscribe and share with others. Stay connected. For more genuine insights and strategies to boost your real estate career on Facebook or check out our website. We'll see you next time.