Ryan Wood and Steve Yeager- How to Build Great Company Culture

05/15/19 • 16 min

Justin Stoddart 0:00
Welcome to Think Bigger Real Estate show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart, very excited today to have with me two very close friends, guys, they look to as mentors, leaders, and bosses. These guys are fantastic.

Steve Yeager 0:13
I like the laugh.

Justin Stoddart 0:14
They are the leaders of Old Republic Title here in Oregon. And they have built an amazing company culture. And if you're a real estate agent and desire to scale your business, at some point, you're gonna add somebody, and you're gonna add somebody else, potentially add somebody else, and it's going to be requisite for you. If you want to keep good talent and attract good talent, then you're going to need to build the company culture, place where people want to work a place where people don't just get everything they want, but they get what they need. So we just had a great branch meeting, and I thought it'd be appropriate to have a lively conversation with you guys that make me laugh and inspire me about how to have a great company culture. So, Ryan, you mentioned something in the meeting, that gives people perspective, that it's not that their perspective isn't always right, would you share what that is?

Ryan Wood 0:58
Well, it's actually a line that you've used, so we'll steal it from him. But I basically, it's, when you're, and I can say this because I step up on my soapbox a lot, I get passionate about things. And I start, you know, putting my point of view out there and telling everybody, you know, what I feel is right. And, you know, Steve, made a really great point in the meeting, basically talking about the fact that all of us need to when we're in that position, also sit there and say, according to me, so basically do a little little bit of self reflection, which can go a long ways. And, you know, say, okay, am I right? Or am I doing the right thing? It's not all just about making you right, it's about making sure you're doing the right thing.

Justin Stoddart 1:41
Great stuff, Steve, any thoughts on that?

Steve Yeager 1:44
you know, Ryan, I have teased quite a bit, we have a mission statement on the wall, but taking the mission statement down and just putting the word communication, you know, seems like anything in life, whether we're going out or meeting with clients were handling internal issues when you're trying to grow anything, communications, the deal, right? People want to have to transparency and they want to have people that there's a level of respect that goes along with communicating with people. But I think it's, you know, if you take that a step further in it, it really is, you know, I might have this really strong opinion on something, but it's according to me, it's according to, you know, what my background is, what my thoughts are, what my reality is, what my perception is, it doesn't necessarily mean the people I'm talking with disagree with what I'm saying. But they've had an entire life where they have, they have been trained to think a different way doesn't mean the wrong way, just a different way. And being able to step back and actually think about that, when you're having a conversation with someone, it goes a long way with respecting them. And it goes back to another thing we're talking about today with ego. Right? I think, you know, sometimes as guys, we struggle a little bit because we like to lead with ego, you know that the puffed out chest. And I think it's super important, you know when we're having those conversations when we are trying to either coach train, teach, or just have a conversation with somebody that we are really listening, and we're really hearing it from their point of view.

Justin Stoddart 2:58
Great stuff. Iscrewed up a little bit, guys. And maybe the audio won't be as good.

Steve Yeager 3:01
A little concerned that I'm not standing on books next to Ryan, I'm concerned about that.

Justin Stoddart 3:05
And one thing that I actually had a thought this morning, that oftentimes building great company culture isn't always about just encouraging people. Sometimes it is, sometimes it's about telling them, Hey, I believe in you, you can do more. You've got untapped potential. You're amazing. I support you. Sometimes just having a fierce conversation with people, right? Sometimes it's telling them like, hey, what you did there was not the right thing to do for the group for the company for the whole? How have you guys come? Because you get to have both conversations, right? You get to see I believe in you, you're amazing doing a great job. And at times, it's like, Hey, don't do that, again, how have you kind of come to grips with being able to have those fierce conversations, without people taking it personally or without it being super heavy on you.

Ryan Wood 3:47
It's not easy. There's, there's no easy way about it, you're dealing with people, you're not interested in smash...

Steve Yeager 0:13
I like the laugh.

Justin Stoddart 1:41
Great stuff, Steve, any thoughts on that?

Justin Stoddart 2:58
Great stuff. Iscrewed up a little bit, guys. And maybe the audio won't be as good.

Steve Yeager 3:01
A little concerned that I'm not standing on books next to Ryan, I'm concerned about that.

Ryan Wood 3:47
It's not easy. There's, there's no easy way about it, you're dealing with people, you're not interested in smash...

Previous Episode

Nick Krautter- The Numbers Real Estate Advisors Should Know

Justin Stoddart 0:00
Welcome back to The think bigger real estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart, today's episode is going to be a really unique and valuable one, I hope you stay tuned for the entire thing. It's really helping real estate agents move from being salespeople to being advisors, which is where I think the industry needs to go in order to maintain the value to the customer that the customers happy to pay for your services. So excited to have with me a guy who does that naturally. He's always done that. And his name's Nick Krautter. And Nick, thanks for being on the show to them.

Nick Krautter 0:26
Yeah thanks for having me. This is great.

Justin Stoddart 0:27
Yeah, super fun. Nick, and I go back almost five years. And his kind of claim to fame nationally, is he wrote the book, The Golden handoff, which is how to help real estate agents buy and sell their business. And so in addition to that, maybe what he's less well known for, at least nationally, is he really has an economist type brain. And he really goes deep on helping people understand the numbers where they've been and where he believes they're heading, which gives consumers the ability to kind of have a little bit of a crystal ball to some degree, right? To be able to understand what will actually help them build their wealth, which I think is uncommon. And I'm excited to kind of delve into this topic. But before I do, Megan, I am going to be actually speaking at an event together with our friend James Adair called exponential referrals, if you're in the Portland market,

it is I should have had the date, I'm going to put the date in the comments below, you can be able to hear this guy go in depth on the golden handoff and really house the strategy, not just exit the business, but also to grow the business. And probably one of the things we hadn't mentioned, Nick is you're now under the umbrella of your own brokerage city and state.

Nick Krautter 1:35
Yeah, that's a big, that's the big change for us here. The Celtics team decided to start our own real estate brokerage. So we've had the team together for 13 years, we decided to go out and start our own brokerage. It's called the city and state real estate. And we are working in Oregon and Washington right now and looking to expand into new markets. And we can talk about some of why I decided to do that. And a big part of that was exactly what we're talking about today. Which is there's a difference between being a good real estate broker who executes a plan, helping someone better sell something, but are you asking your clients great questions? Are you understanding what they want? And why they're Why are they selling? Why are they buying? Yeah, I often find that people will be buying or selling real estate because they have a goal or a plan. And maybe that process that they're going through is really not the best way to do it. Or maybe they have a different asset, or there's a different way to go about doing it that in the big picture for them would be much better for their family or their future. And it is sometimes that costs us to sail right then as a broker. But I I believe that building those relationships and building trust is is significantly more valuable in the long run, and it's just doing the right thing. And so our brokerage is really set up for our clients to be working with agents who are there to advise them. And then for the brokers that are there to really understand who are their clients and have a plan of action to staying in touch with them. That's very tangible. And then is your business structured correctly as an agent, you know, are you are you saving taxes are you investing do having retirement plan, and then at the at the kind of the top level for our brokers, it's really about looking at investment property and understanding that because there's a lot of great real estate brokers who don't understand real estate investing. They're very good things. And that's fine. But we have great brokers on our company that understand the investment, and I do to inside out, and so we can basically help build folio to build wealth for those agents because we don't get retirement plans. You know, there's no pension in real estate. So it's all about what can you do for yourself and your family. And we're city and state is built specifically to help people know their clients build their business and build their future. But

Justin Stoddart 3:55
you know, what's interesting, that you said, Nick, is, you know, the tech companies, they're looking to really create algorithms that help people buy and sell, and or empower the customer to buy and sell themselves. What is not really accounted for is how will you know a client, right? It even better than the client knows themselves, right? And even start asking questions where the client is learning something about their future plans, because no one's ever asked him that quest...

Next Episode

Stephanie Peck- Moms and Real Estate

Justin Stoddart 0:00
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. So excited to be here today about a topic that is, I think so important to the industry, which is how do successful, loving, caring, thoughtful moms stay that way while still succeeding big in real estate? And I have with me today, Stephanie Peck.

Stephanie Peck 0:17
Yeah. Hi.

Justin Stoddart 0:18
Thank you so much for being here, Stephanie. Yeah, this is such a treat. Because, you know, guys consider around and pontificate and talk all day long about what we think the solution is for moms. But it really doesn't do it justice. What really needs to happen is for us to bring someone to the plate, who's for the past 10 years, is that right?

Stephanie Peck 0:36
Yeah. 12 years, actually,

Justin Stoddart 0:38
12 years in real estate, has managed and grown a very successful real estate practice and yet been a fantastic mom. So now I know that conversation kind of weighs heavy on a lot of moms, I was in a top agent mastermind I can reference this yesterday. And some producers, some of which sell 100 homes a year. And the kind of constant feeling of like, Am I doing enough? At home? Am I doing enough for my clients? Like, is that a real feeling? Do you feel that?

Stephanie Peck 1:05
Yeah, all the time, I'm always thinking, how am I going to be the best at everything, and also trying to remember that it's okay to not be the best at everything. Yeah, that's always my balance.

Justin Stoddart 1:17
You know,

it's been really interesting. I was raised in an entrepreneurial family, my mom was a very successful business owner. And I cannot think of something that she could have done better, in fact, because of what she did outside of the home and inspired me to similarly want to, you know, build a business. And so I'm grateful for the fact that not all moms are built a like some, like our dedicate like my wife, for example. She works one day a week as a nurse, and she thrives in that environment. Like my mom would have driven me and my siblings crazy. Had she been home? Right? Yeah, she's just wired to be like, very different. And so I don't know if you feel that way as well, like some moms like are better moms by both, like having some participation in the large participation, the workforce.

Stephanie Peck 2:04
Yeah, I definitely feel that way. Personally, I,

I went back and forth a lot about whether I wanted to be a stay at home mom or a working mom or part-time, I'm always trying to figure out where my place was in that. And I know for me when my kids were younger, and I was able to spend a lot of time at home with them. I'm so grateful for that time. And I love that I was able to do that. But now I personally am so much happier, doing what I'm doing and still being able to be the mom that I want it to be.

Justin Stoddart 2:41
Now that's some moms probably have that. That guilt, right, that feeling of like,

I'm giving up kids, let's talk a little bit about motherhood. For those that know me, some of you don't know me as well, others do know that at the core of who I am, I'm a family guy. And family is the most important thing to me. So and I honestly believe that there's no greater work than one will do than within the walls of their own home. Right? That's a quote that stuck with me ever since I was young. And I believe that, that a lot of realtor moms feel that same way to have even though they build a great business build a great empire, they realize that all shrinks in comparison to the work that they're doing. And raising up the next generation talk a little bit about kind of your feelings about motherhood and home just so that those things like, well, she doesn't like she doesn't get me because of she obviously family's kind of the second tier to her. And I know that's not true, right? Talk a little bit about like, your feelings towards motherhood and being a mom and all that.

Stephanie Peck 3:33
Yeah. So for me, I, I got into real estate because I wanted to do it for my family. And because I wanted to be the mom that I wanted to be knowing that I still wanted to be a working mom. But I didn't want to be a drop off at daycare, 10 hour a day kind of a mom. That was just my personal choice. And that's how I wanted to have my family structured. So that's when I got started in real estate was with that goal in mind. So for me, I'm always trying to think about why did I do this? Why did I decide to get into this business? And who am I serving because of it? So I focus on what I want to do for my family because of real estate and not the other

way around is

Justin Stoddart 4:21
interesting that we've talked about before. You've mentioned before about how important it is to to have a clear why right? Because I know that in real estate you get in any training, and it's like more and more and more bigger, big...