Each Friday, the executives of Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty write about luxury, trends, business and more in the advertising pages of the Mansion section of The Wall Street Journal. Below is president Russ Anderson's letter of July 21, 2023.
FROM THE PRESIDENT'S POINT OF VIEW
Do you have great partners in your life?
At Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty, we do — about 400 of them, in fact. They are our hardworking, all-knowing agents across North Texas.
They are, frankly, amazing.
Recently, I wanted to chat with them, face to face, about all kinds of things — our future, our growing product offerings, this perplexing market, you name it. It was time to be together and really talk.
I went to all of our offices in just three days. We talked candidly about that market and what the brokerage is doing to adjust to it. (The market is tough: There aren’t enough homes. People are moving to our wonderful North Texas and no one is moving out!) We talked about how solid our brokerage is, as part of the Peerage Realty Partners portfolio. (Peerage works with us on trend forecasting, best practices and making our brokerage even more efficient and sustainable.) We talked about strategies for agent recruitment and retention. We talked about how we’re evolving our tech and tools for the future. We talked about our recent expansions into both the mortgage and title services, so that we offer even more value to our clients. We talked about our full-time team who is here for every agent — leaders, sales support, tech support, marketing pros, everybody.
But, mostly, we just talked, with no guardrails. In my mind, successful partners accept the challenges each other face, acknowledge each other’s expertise and communicate honestly. Successful partnerships also encourage trust and teamwork. Extraordinary partnerships encourage humility, where neither ego, jealousy nor personalities take over. Instead, intelligence takes over. (I’m paraphrasing Charlie Munger there, the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, who has one of the most successful partnerships ever in his work with Warren Buffett.)
It comes down to this: The people who will thrive and succeed are those who evolve in partnership, together. We are partners with our agents just like they are partners with you.
Russ Anderson
President
Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty
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