March 18, 2025 • 29 mins
What does it really take to go from selling homes to running a brokerage? In this episode, I sit down with Allie Carlson, Broker/Owner of West + Main Homes Minnesota, to talk about her journey from top-producing agent to leading a boutique brokerage in a competitive market.
We cover:
✅ The mindset shift from agent to broker-owner
✅ Why boutique brokerages aren’t dead (and might be making a comeback)
✅ The cultural differences in real estate markets—and how they impact business
✅ The financial realities of owning a brokerage (spoiler: more overhead than you think)
✅ The hilarious email mishap that accidentally recruited agents
✅ Why creating a strong culture is the ultimate recruitment strategy
If you’ve ever thought about starting your own brokerage or just love a good real estate success story, you don’t want to miss this one!
Find Allie on Instagram and www.westandmainmn.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We are here with Allie Carlson, broker owner of
West and Main Homes Minnesota.
Allie is amazing and we met areally long time ago in like I
think it was like seven yearsago at a Ninja selling
installation in Colorado at theMothership.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yeah, I can remember you were sitting right behind.
I remember it clear as day tothis day.
So I think it was 2017.
Maybe it was magical, and whoeven knew what it was going to
breed?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
I know I was actually .
Yeah, now that you mentioned it, I was pregnant with my son at
the time.
That's bringing back somememories.
So, in addition to being abroker owner, you're also a mama
of two boys.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I am.
Oh a five-year-old and athree-year-old.
I'm a mom 24-7, as it turns out, both in real estate and in
life.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
That's what happens when you own a brokerage.
You're like a mom at home and amom at work, and it has its ups
and its downs, just like realmomhood does.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
It weathers you, though, I'm telling you.
It gives you a skin that youneed to be in the job, in the
industry that we're in.
You know what I mean.
Like nothing really phases you.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, I always hated when people were like you don't
get it because you're not a mom,and I am going to take all of
my hatred back from people whosaid that because I totally get
it now, like, yep, you totallyget it, and I also feel that
sometimes too.
All right, well the mom tangentaside, today we're going to talk
about your journey from being atop producing agent to owning
(01:34):
your own brokerage, and just thelessons learned and any other
tea you want to spill about that, because I am sure there is
some.
There always is.
But let's kick it off with yourjourney to owning Weston Maine
Homes in Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
How did we get here?
Oh my gosh, how did we get here?
First of all, thanks for havingme here, like what a delight to
sit here and to just go deepwith you.
So we got here.
I started out in real estate.
I'm actually a trained teacher,so I taught in public schools
for years and then decided tomake a pivot into something a
(02:11):
little bit more entrepreneurialand real estate was the thing.
I didn't know how much I wasgoing to love it when I decided
to take the step in and then Ican't love it enough.
It of like my like origin story, of like real estate.
But I sold.
I was a little baby agent inDenver, colorado, for years and
I always say like I grew up inreal estate with Weston Mayhomes
(02:33):
.
From this company's conceptionin Denver, alongside leadership,
stacey Staub, the, and MaddieLinder, the co founders and
owners of Weston Mayhomes inColorado, really kind of by
proxy, mentored me about how tonot only real estate, but gave
me a lot of leadershipopportunities and a whole lot of
freedom to garner a coolmentorship program, become a
(02:53):
managing broker, handle the hardquestions.
And when my second son was born, my husband and I decided to
move back to Minnesota, wherewe're both from, and it was like
a crazy town thought to.
Even I still wanted to sellreal estate.
And it was like out of thisworld to think I would sell real
estate for any other companybesides Weston Maine.
And so it was like, well, Iguess we're going to have a
(03:13):
Weston Maine and I'm going toown it.
Too bad, no choice.
I mean I wish that it was likea little bit you know, it's not
any more like fancy than thatBesides saying like I believe in
love this company and thefoundation and the roots and
everything that stands for somuch.
But I also wanted other peoplein the Twin Cities metro to have
(03:34):
that opportunity of like what Iloved and what I knew, and I
also saw a big need for it.
Like boutique real estatebrokerages are not prevalent.
There's a lot in Minneapolisand St Paul areas, not nearly as
much in Denver, and so therefelt like a niche and an
opportunity there, but I didn'tquite know what it was yet.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I'm going to take a little bit of a side tangent,
because I do feel like theboutique brokerage is becoming a
dying breed a little bit.
I feel like there's a lot ofmergers, acquisitions, a lot of
consolidation right now.
So I really personally feellike boutique brokerages
actually are going to have akind of a second coming, a
(04:17):
little bit like because Are wein the renaissance?
I think we are.
I think there was like a littlebit of a renaissance in like
2010.
And I think there's another onecoming in 2025, 2026.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Listen, starting a brokerage in a town where nobody
knew.
I mean, I'm from hereoriginally, but as a
professional, and my whole adultlife was never spent in the
Twin Cities Metro, and so I hadto reestablish myself and then
also bring a whole new realestate brand to a Metro area
which is pretty predominantlyheld by some big box brokerages.
And, like I said, if you're aboutique or an indie brokerage,
(04:50):
you're very, very neighborhoodspecific and West of Maine is a
little bit neighborhood agnosticand more client facing forward
vibe.
But I did see a lot of peoplefeel super excited about the
idea.
They just didn't even know itwas a thing.
So that felt exciting, but thenalso scary because you're like
well then, how do I telleverybody about this?
(05:10):
Which was a really bigchallenge.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
So when did you open your doors?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
That's a fun question .
So we were officially licensedin December of 2022.
And it took a little while to.
I felt strongly about having ameeting place for people to come
and do their real estate thingswhether it's working with
clients, getting their stuffdone, like living the real
estate life and so we had abrick and mortar beginning in
(05:37):
May of 2023.
So we were in one spot for ayear and then we just moved to a
cuter location with easierparking.
So we've been where wecurrently are physically since
August of 2024.
And it's awesome we are justover two years in the Twin
Cities Metro at this point.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
What challenges do you feel like you've faced, not
only bringing a new brand toMinnesota and your market there,
but also just in owning abrokerage?
I feel like there's a bigmindset shift that has to occur.
So what do you feel like hasbeen difficult maybe in the
mindset, but also in thelogistics of opening a brand new
brokerage.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I mean, how much time do we have we?
Speaker 1 (06:20):
have as much as you need.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Let me tell you, I think you hit it the nail on the
head.
It is as much as you need.
Let me tell you, I think youhit the nail on the head.
The first shift, which I didn'tsee until kind of later, was
the mindset shift and realizingthat I was and am really good at
selling real estate, reallygood at connecting with clients,
really good at mentoring agents, really good at tackling the
problems in Denver.
(06:44):
And then I moved to Minneapolisand St Paul, where I'm from,
and I understand the cadence oflife here.
But it is a little bit different.
There's just a little bit of adifferent.
The market operates a littlebit differently, the speed is a
little bit different, the typeof people in our industry is a
little bit different, and so Ihad to almost unravel and like
put in a little box but take outthe good parts of what I was
(07:07):
used to and what I knew as realestate and take out the best
parts of high level operation ofreal estate to the twin cities
Metro, while also understandingthat, like everyone, everyone in
Denver isn't from Denver.
I mean not everyone, but alarge portion.
Everyone in the twin cities isfrom here and has been here and
(07:29):
good, bad or otherwise it justbrings a different type of
mindset in decision-makingtimelines, in open-mindedness to
new ideas, and so when you comehere and you're bringing this,
like, hey, I know, this is agreat brokerage, I know what we
stand for is wonderful.
It was no problem to get peopleto understand that and see that
in Denver and here everyone'slike, are you sure?
(07:50):
And so the challenge wasunderstanding that like, oh,
this is going to take.
It's going to be a little bitharder to build and to grow and
then also to shift my mentality,because even though I was in
leadership in Denver, I wasn'tan owner.
I didn't make all the decisions.
Not everything lived and diedon how I operated the show.
(08:12):
And here it does.
And with that camedecision-making and ownership
over decisions and harddecisions and not just being
like one of the crew at thetable but the person that
everyone's looking to for theanswer.
And that was I've listened, Ilove my people and I like to be
in it, I like to talk about it,and so and I had to somewhat
(08:33):
separate myself from, like, allof the chatter to being in a
really solo leadership role and,as you know, it can be a little
bit lonely.
So that was a hard adjustmentto make, but also a necessary
one, and I was okay with it onceI understood that that was
necessary.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Totally yes.
I think what's reallyinteresting is that cultural
shift of going from Denver toMinnesota, and I think it's
something that we don't realizehow local real estate really is.
We say that it's location,location, location, but we don't
realize that each area hastheir own culture, their own way
of doing business or their waythat it's always been done.
(09:15):
And DC is very similar toDenver, where nobody's from
there, but it's very affluentclientele.
Typically it's verysophisticated and I remember
when I moved to New Hampshire in2017 and I started doing some
real estate up here, I'm likewhere did I?
land.
It's like another planet.
It's something we take forgranted, where, if you're
(09:35):
changing location, that'sdefinitely something to keep in
mind, which is just the cultureis so different from place to
place.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
And I don't know if you can fully prepare for it,
aside from just being like, oh,this is going to be different.
I made the mistake of assumingthat I was just going to be able
to carry on the way that Ialways had, and that caused some
delay in I don't want to saysuccess, but just maybe like
momentum a little bit out of thegate.
But I will also say that what Iwas able to realize kind of
(10:08):
after the fact and in reflectionover years, is that how
grateful I was to haveexperience in a different market
to bring here, which allowedfor some, which is slowly
allowing for new perspectivesand new thought tracks and like,
oh hey, have you thought aboutthis, or this is how this has
been done before, and, um,that's felt like a really cool
thing to be able to present andbring both to my agents, or just
(10:32):
like agents I'm talking to on adeal or just in the industry in
general.
You know what.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Like.
So it's not all bad, it'sreally cool.
It's just the melding of it alland figuring out every day what
little activated part of yourbrain you need to turn on.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah.
And also, how does Weston Mainefit into the broader market of
Minnesota?
What's your unique sellingproposition?
What makes you unique?
Why would agents join youversus all of the other
established players in themarket?
So I'm curious what is theanswer to that question?
Speaker 2 (11:09):
I mean, if anybody Weston Bean Homes like we have,
I am so grateful we have such abeautiful design and marketing
stack platform, all of thethings.
It was built so smartly withbasically a whole in-house
design agency which, inconversation with agents, most
(11:29):
people are like, oh, mybrokerage has marketing.
And they do to some extent andthey kind of see behind the fold
and they see behind the scenesof what we have here and they're
like, oh, we definitely don'thave marketing.
So that's been a really coolpiece is realizing just how much
like, especially for agents whoare used to becoming like Canva
maidens, which, whatever yougot to do, what you got to do to
(11:51):
make a graphic look pretty.
But I always say, like, yourexpertise is not in designing a
flyer, it should be working withbuyers and sellers.
And Weston Maine has thatmarket pegged with providing an
extreme amount of resources andsupport so that all the pretty
and the marketing and the designwork is done and taken care of
so agents can just do what theywant to do.
And we're also all aboutculture.
(12:12):
It is not just a warm bodyincubator.
I am here to make sure thatpeople, I'm not going to turn
you down because you want achance and you've never sold a
home, let's mentor you.
But if you're not kind, ifyou're not collaborative, if
you're shameful or anything likethat, we are just not the place
.
And I've found that agentsreally have appreciated that
mentality and I don't want tosay strictness, but just
(12:34):
boundary around who's part ofthis crew.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Right.
I honestly think that's whereboutique brokerages win so often
is culture, because it'sactually an easy lever to pull
in terms of differentiatingyourself against other bigger
brokerages.
So, like having leadership,that actually gives a shit
having collaboration.
I have a no assholes policy.
(13:01):
I think you're right.
It's those boundaries but thosestandards and allowing the
right fit into the clubhouse andthen when someone isn't the
right fit, they're out of theclubhouse, because that really
is so important and it factorsin so much more than at the
bigger boxes.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Yeah, and I think, like I can't tell you I don't
know if you've had the sameexperience how many agents have
joined in and they're like Ididn't, you know.
I know who my broker was, but Ididn't.
I never talked to them or theynever got back to me or I had to
like only contact them in acertain Avenue way, and you know
, we're just not that stuffyhere.
Like I'm your broker, send me aSlack message.
(13:39):
I can't promise you I'm not ata kid's birthday party, but I
will help you tackle thatcontract question and I think
that people appreciate that.
It's also real and authentic.
We are just people out heretrying to do our thing and we
are not better or worse thananybody else, and I just really
like that and I'm hoping thatit's starting to catch on brush
fire, because I think peopledeserve to have a brokerage like
(14:00):
that, where they don't feellike they have to conform to
some way or another, but theycan just like be themselves and
do really bad-ass real estate atthe same time.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Yes, I love it.
That's all we want.
We just want to have fun and dobad-ass real estate.
Hello.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Yeah, it's not.
I mean it's hard, but it's notthat hard.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
You know what I mean.
It's so true.
Oh so let's talk aboutattraction, let's talk about
recruiting.
So I didn't say this, butyou're a coaching client of mine
and one of the things we wereworking on together was
recruiting.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
And so and also I hate the word recruiting I do
too more than anything, let'scall it attraction and also,
like I'm also starting to getannoyed with agent attraction,
right, because?
Speaker 1 (14:41):
we're're like right with the next iteration of
recruiting and now we're there,so like, let's evolve that one
what are we gonna call it?
Let's like coin something new.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Right now I need, like I know the slingshot, I
don't know magnetic, but yeah,we'll figure it out we'll, we'll
figure it out, but we're gonnacall it agent attraction for now
.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
So we were kind of like building it from coming
into this new market, like howdid you stand out?
And I think that you nailed it.
It was like you guys have areally strong marketing in-house
agency, so you're very designforward, which I think was a
huge, huge, huge value add.
And then we were talking aboutlike systems and like hardcore
(15:24):
recruiting, and I love the storyabout how you messed up this
email.
Can we talk about it please?
Because it's like my favoritething on earth where you're
putting in the email, like theintro email to your like list of
agents, and you put hi firstname and the first name didn't
(15:45):
pop.
I'm like and you got and yourecruited agents from that I
know.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Oh my God, talk about both the most mortifying, like
fetal position in the closetmoment, matched with like the
most empowering thing, all atthe same time One full pendulum
swing, all within the same likehour or so.
I mean, I agent attraction wassomething, that was something
that I, that was a big challenge.
Right, I didn't know what to do.
I was so.
I didn't realize how lucky Iwas to work alongside Stacey
(16:15):
Staub for so many years, whojust also has a little magnet
inside of her of wonderfulness.
And agents just jumped atWeston Maine Homes, rightfully
so.
And so when I came here and Iwas like that's going to happen
here, it's going to be great,exactly that didn't happen, and
so I had to put some structurearound the process of attracting
agents to Weston Maine Homes,more so, like, make sure they
knew what it was.
And so I was like that's it,I'm going to do the email
(16:38):
campaign, I'm going to just putsome feelers out there.
It's just going to startsharing who we are.
I wrote a 26 email campaign andI had a placehold name on the
email and I didn't do the mergetag in there, it just said hi,
first name, and it's like this,the toothpaste that I couldn't
(16:58):
shove back in the tube fastenough.
Let me tell you I said I waslike that's it it was.
It was fun while we had it here.
It was.
You know, real estate's been agood time and I'll see you all
in the next career path.
Lo and behold, I had a handfulof like.
I had a couple of very unkindpeople respond to that with a
snarky way which immediatelywent into my phone with little
(17:20):
emojis that said they were notnice.
I had a couple of very sweetpeople be like hey, don't know
if you noticed this, and I waslike did I notice it?
And I had a agent come in foran interview and I love it.
Oh my gosh.
I think it taught me like,listen, maybe it was intentional
to weed out the unkind people,maybe it was me being a human
(17:42):
because I'm not a big corporateconglomerate and it brought a
big flurry of like pride and itweirdly kind of unlocked another
layer of leadership andownership that I was like.
I am who I am.
You know I make mistakes.
It is not a reflection of thequality of person that I am or
what we do here.
I am just doing the best I can,just like everybody else, and I
(18:06):
will be the first person to sithere and support you when you
send me a place.
Ironically, two weeks later Igot a similar thing I did.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
No way.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
On a text message and it was yeah, on a text message,
and it was like hey, first name, and then it was like Allie
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah andit was like some sort of like
recruiting thing and I just kindof gave it like a, I see you.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Oh, I'm going to give it a thumbs up.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah, totally.
I was like oh interested, butlike all the best, like that's
all you need.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
You know what I mean.
I'm sure they saw their mistake.
What's up with people beingjust rude?
I remember I sent a recruitingemail once out and it was all
about like all the stuff that wedid.
It was like we have the donefor you program and this guy
wrote back and he was likethere's no way you do all of
this for your agents and if youdo, you're going out of business
in a year.
And I'm like, oh, okay, Wow.
I'm like oh, okay, Wow.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
You're nice.
Yeah, it takes a lot of effortand energy to be unkind and
spiteful, and I mean, that's notthe people that we are
attracting here to WestonMaitland.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
That is accurate.
Like we're like, how about wehave some nice people?
We just don't need thosemeanies.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yeah, and that's my funny like always check your
watch fields, people and alsoguess what.
The hours kept ticking.
The sun set and rose again thenext day and here we are.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
And you still had to go home and make dinner for the
family and do bedtime Exactly,and it was such a blip on the
radar.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
So it was a devastatingly comical moment in
the kickoff to this year and,like you said, good things came
of it, so I appreciated that aswell.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Yeah, that was the best.
I loved it.
I remember you were just like,oh, shoot.
And I'm like, oh, this is good,this is great, don't worry
about it.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
I was like this is over.
Oh my God, which I was like.
If an agent said that to me,I'd be like we're good, let's
turn this water into wine, andsometimes I just need someone to
like broker me really quick andso I was very grateful to have
as a sounding board and you werelike it's all good, don't worry
(20:23):
about it, you're human.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
That's like the boutique broker, who's a human.
That's the best.
Totally, in fact, it made mybrand.
So here we are.
Anyways, let's dive into somelessons learned, because I just
love a good lessons learnedtakeaway.
So what are two to three thingsthat you feel like you have
learned in the past two-ishyears on this journey of going
from producing agent to brokerowner?
Speaker 2 (20:40):
on this journey of going from producing agent to
broker owner.
I love this question and it'slike it's such an easy and
complex question at the sametime.
Then, like the first thing thatcomes to my mind when I hear
that question is, as boring asit sounds, the financials around
broker ownership issignificantly different than
being a solo real estate agent.
(21:01):
Regardless of whatever your LLCor tax status or what have you,
is the operation of running abrokerage and how much that
takes financially and thestructure of it all.
That was all taken care of youas a solo agent.
So having a betterunderstanding of that, looking
back on it, would have been asmarter thing for me to know,
but I didn't know.
(21:21):
What I didn't know and I thinka big lesson learned is I did it
.
I did an okay job with agentattraction, but I think being
okay with going slow, um, I wasused to.
I was used to the cadence ofselling real estate where you
know I'm selling two or threehomes a month and just like in
the, in the shuffle of that andin the flow.
(21:43):
But that was my own silo andwhen I stepped into broker
ownership it became the wholefarm and so I had to be okay
with like every little part ofthe farm, just like needing to
get into place and slowlybuilding up, rather than just
like doing what I do andeverything else gets taken care
of.
And I, I think I tried to golike speed up the process really
(22:05):
fast, like make sure that I waslike whatever success was, or
financially and getting there,or that we had agents, we had
signs in the yard that peopleknew who we were and it was
going to unfold that as it wasgoing to.
And you know, in hindsight Ican see that, but I think I
would have taken my time toestablish who we are like just
not feel like I had to rushthings.
(22:26):
I was always trying to get tothat next step, that I didn't
always know what it was either,and so maybe that's called a
lack of vision.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
I don't know, I think you have a vision.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I had the vision.
I knew what it was going tofeel like, what it was going to
look like, how it was going tobe.
I just I feel like sometimes Iwas a little aimless on how to
get there and maybe having alittle bit more of a plan would
have served me well.
Yeah, but I didn't really havea plan.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
I wonder if you even needed a plan though, because I
think, like I actually have afeeling that if you had a plan,
it would have gone out thewindow, because you didn't know
what market you were gettinginto, like you had no idea.
You had to land to kind of knowwhat land on the moon, to know
what you were dealing with.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yeah, and maybe that's what it was right it was
like, instead of just likestarting the brokerage, like
maybe I should have just likeacclimated a little bit.
But listen, I have literallynever been one that doesn't jump
out of the plane and find myparachute leader kind of person
I just always jump and I find myfeet and not that it makes
anybody less stressed by anymeans, but it's just like my
(23:32):
modus operandi, it's just how Igo, and otherwise everything's
boring to me.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
I know I'm the same way, but that's why I loved
working with you.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Well, totally oh gosh , it was like a match made in
heaven.
Yeah, it was wonderful, it wasexactly what I needed, All right
.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
So if you could go back and give yourself one piece
of advice, just one what wouldit be?
Speaker 2 (23:58):
I want two, so I'm going to give you the boring one
first, which is save more money.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Okay, you needed more money.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Okay.
You just don't understand theoperation costs of things or
just don't go so fast.
And I would also say like it'sgoing to be okay.
It's going to be okay.
It's going to look differentthan you ever pictured it to be,
but it's still going to be okay.
Because I didn't realize thatI'm like a closet, type A,
(24:27):
perfectionist type personbecause in my mind I'm like a
type B personality turns out I'mpretty type A and that got in
my way a lot of like I have tohit this benchmark, I have to
appeara certain way this, thisstandard of success and what
that looks like.
And it kind of put like a blockand a barrier of like the right
people walking through the door.
(24:47):
And the second I was like thisis how I want it to feel.
Come get it.
Things became a lot easier,which was kind of like it's
going to be okay.
You know it will be how it willbe and we will, and if the
right placeholders are in placethe culture, what we do, what we
offer, how we want to appearthe right people find you when
they need to.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Yeah, they really do, and I don't know if that's good
advice, but I truly have moremoney.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
That would be the big , my big suggestion, if you're
going to go in and start abrokerage like it has a lot more
overhead than you think.
Even if you run lean it has alot of overhead.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Yes, I agree with that.
I remember my first year.
I was like 40K in the hole.
I had to borrow it from myretirement account and I'm like,
ooh, I definitely didn't knowthat was going to happen.
So, yes, knowing that inadvance is crucial.
You have to definitely knowyour financials.
I just think financials, all ofthat flows it's very important.
(25:42):
That's like the.
I just think financials, likeall of that flows, it's very
important.
That's like the foundationyou're built on.
Like the splits, you'reoffering the overhead, you're
carrying your per agentbreak-even point, Like there's
just so many things you have tocalculate and know before you
dive in Whether you have anadmin fee or not.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Like there's just a lot, listen.
I started I was like I went onfeels and feels do not equal
profit, so I had to learn thatone really quick.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Oh, feels.
I mean sometimes feels arereally good though.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Yeah and listen.
They get you to jump and do thething.
What I don't do is sit and waitfor the thing to happen.
I do not wait for opportunity,um, connections, the next step,
decisions.
Like I'm, I've also learned tofail fast and like cut the tie
when you need to, which is agift I gave myself.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
I think it's a really good thing to do.
All right.
So closing question what areyou looking forward to in 2025?
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Oh, that's such a good question I'm looking
forward to.
I'm really cultivating.
I love supporting and coachingagents, and especially with my
agents here at Weston Mainehomes, Um, the I call it like
the tribe that we're buildinghere.
The people that are around thetable are incredible and I'm
really excited to help themuncover and cultivate their
(27:03):
gifts and what is going to bringthem to their level of success.
You've got to sell real estateto pay for something that's
really exciting, Whether that'scharity, time away, college
funds, whatever investmentproperties and so I'm really
excited to help coach agents toget them to that level that they
want to do and succeed and grow.
(27:24):
Our collaboration table Likethe amount of ideas shared and
back and forth that is happeninghere is amazing and I just want
to keep providing thatopportunity.
So I'm excited for how that'sgoing to unfold and I think that
we are really catching on tosomething here.
So I'm just excited for alittle bit of growth.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
I love that.
All right, we are going to endon.
You are going to grow in 2025.
We're manifesting it, puttingit out there.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Yeah, bring it on.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Thank you so much for coming on.
It was so great chatting withyou.
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Lindsay, I will come on any day.
I appreciate your questions.
You know you have a big fan forme over here in the Twin Cities
.
We are here with Allie Carlson, broker owner of
West and Main Homes Minnesota.
Allie is amazing and we met areally long time ago in like I
think it was like seven yearsago at a Ninja selling
installation in Colorado at theMothership.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yeah, I can remember you were sitting right behind.
I remember it clear as day tothis day.
So I think it was 2017.
Maybe it was magical, and whoeven knew what it was going to
breed?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
I know I was actually .
Yeah, now that you mentioned it, I was pregnant with my son at
the time.
That's bringing back somememories.
So, in addition to being abroker owner, you're also a mama
of two boys.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I am.
Oh a five-year-old and athree-year-old.
I'm a mom 24-7, as it turns out, both in real estate and in
life.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
That's what happens when you own a brokerage.
You're like a mom at home and amom at work, and it has its ups
and its downs, just like realmomhood does.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
It weathers you, though, I'm telling you.
It gives you a skin that youneed to be in the job, in the
industry that we're in.
You know what I mean.
Like nothing really phases you.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, I always hated when people were like you don't
get it because you're not a mom,and I am going to take all of
my hatred back from people whosaid that because I totally get
it now, like, yep, you totallyget it, and I also feel that
sometimes too.
All right, well the mom tangentaside, today we're going to talk
about your journey from being atop producing agent to owning
(01:34):
your own brokerage, and just thelessons learned and any other
tea you want to spill about that, because I am sure there is
some.
There always is.
But let's kick it off with yourjourney to owning Weston Maine
Homes in Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
How did we get here?
Oh my gosh, how did we get here?
First of all, thanks for havingme here, like what a delight to
sit here and to just go deepwith you.
So we got here.
I started out in real estate.
I'm actually a trained teacher,so I taught in public schools
for years and then decided tomake a pivot into something a
(02:11):
little bit more entrepreneurialand real estate was the thing.
I didn't know how much I wasgoing to love it when I decided
to take the step in and then Ican't love it enough.
It of like my like origin story, of like real estate.
But I sold.
I was a little baby agent inDenver, colorado, for years and
I always say like I grew up inreal estate with Weston Mayhomes
(02:33):
.
From this company's conceptionin Denver, alongside leadership,
stacey Staub, the, and MaddieLinder, the co founders and
owners of Weston Mayhomes inColorado, really kind of by
proxy, mentored me about how tonot only real estate, but gave
me a lot of leadershipopportunities and a whole lot of
freedom to garner a coolmentorship program, become a
(02:53):
managing broker, handle the hardquestions.
And when my second son was born, my husband and I decided to
move back to Minnesota, wherewe're both from, and it was like
a crazy town thought to.
Even I still wanted to sellreal estate.
And it was like out of thisworld to think I would sell real
estate for any other companybesides Weston Maine.
And so it was like, well, Iguess we're going to have a
(03:13):
Weston Maine and I'm going toown it.
Too bad, no choice.
I mean I wish that it was likea little bit you know, it's not
any more like fancy than thatBesides saying like I believe in
love this company and thefoundation and the roots and
everything that stands for somuch.
But I also wanted other peoplein the Twin Cities metro to have
(03:34):
that opportunity of like what Iloved and what I knew, and I
also saw a big need for it.
Like boutique real estatebrokerages are not prevalent.
There's a lot in Minneapolisand St Paul areas, not nearly as
much in Denver, and so therefelt like a niche and an
opportunity there, but I didn'tquite know what it was yet.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I'm going to take a little bit of a side tangent,
because I do feel like theboutique brokerage is becoming a
dying breed a little bit.
I feel like there's a lot ofmergers, acquisitions, a lot of
consolidation right now.
So I really personally feellike boutique brokerages
actually are going to have akind of a second coming, a
(04:17):
little bit like because Are wein the renaissance?
I think we are.
I think there was like a littlebit of a renaissance in like
2010.
And I think there's another onecoming in 2025, 2026.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Listen, starting a brokerage in a town where nobody
knew.
I mean, I'm from hereoriginally, but as a
professional, and my whole adultlife was never spent in the
Twin Cities Metro, and so I hadto reestablish myself and then
also bring a whole new realestate brand to a Metro area
which is pretty predominantlyheld by some big box brokerages.
And, like I said, if you're aboutique or an indie brokerage,
(04:50):
you're very, very neighborhoodspecific and West of Maine is a
little bit neighborhood agnosticand more client facing forward
vibe.
But I did see a lot of peoplefeel super excited about the
idea.
They just didn't even know itwas a thing.
So that felt exciting, but thenalso scary because you're like
well then, how do I telleverybody about this?
(05:10):
Which was a really bigchallenge.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
So when did you open your doors?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
That's a fun question .
So we were officially licensedin December of 2022.
And it took a little while to.
I felt strongly about having ameeting place for people to come
and do their real estate thingswhether it's working with
clients, getting their stuffdone, like living the real
estate life and so we had abrick and mortar beginning in
(05:37):
May of 2023.
So we were in one spot for ayear and then we just moved to a
cuter location with easierparking.
So we've been where wecurrently are physically since
August of 2024.
And it's awesome we are justover two years in the Twin
Cities Metro at this point.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
What challenges do you feel like you've faced, not
only bringing a new brand toMinnesota and your market there,
but also just in owning abrokerage?
I feel like there's a bigmindset shift that has to occur.
So what do you feel like hasbeen difficult maybe in the
mindset, but also in thelogistics of opening a brand new
brokerage.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I mean, how much time do we have we?
Speaker 1 (06:20):
have as much as you need.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Let me tell you, I think you hit it the nail on the
head.
It is as much as you need.
Let me tell you, I think youhit the nail on the head.
The first shift, which I didn'tsee until kind of later, was
the mindset shift and realizingthat I was and am really good at
selling real estate, reallygood at connecting with clients,
really good at mentoring agents, really good at tackling the
problems in Denver.
(06:44):
And then I moved to Minneapolisand St Paul, where I'm from,
and I understand the cadence oflife here.
But it is a little bit different.
There's just a little bit of adifferent.
The market operates a littlebit differently, the speed is a
little bit different, the typeof people in our industry is a
little bit different, and so Ihad to almost unravel and like
put in a little box but take outthe good parts of what I was
(07:07):
used to and what I knew as realestate and take out the best
parts of high level operation ofreal estate to the twin cities
Metro, while also understandingthat, like everyone, everyone in
Denver isn't from Denver.
I mean not everyone, but alarge portion.
Everyone in the twin cities isfrom here and has been here and
(07:29):
good, bad or otherwise it justbrings a different type of
mindset in decision-makingtimelines, in open-mindedness to
new ideas, and so when you comehere and you're bringing this,
like, hey, I know, this is agreat brokerage, I know what we
stand for is wonderful.
It was no problem to get peopleto understand that and see that
in Denver and here everyone'slike, are you sure?
(07:50):
And so the challenge wasunderstanding that like, oh,
this is going to take.
It's going to be a little bitharder to build and to grow and
then also to shift my mentality,because even though I was in
leadership in Denver, I wasn'tan owner.
I didn't make all the decisions.
Not everything lived and diedon how I operated the show.
(08:12):
And here it does.
And with that camedecision-making and ownership
over decisions and harddecisions and not just being
like one of the crew at thetable but the person that
everyone's looking to for theanswer.
And that was I've listened, Ilove my people and I like to be
in it, I like to talk about it,and so and I had to somewhat
(08:33):
separate myself from, like, allof the chatter to being in a
really solo leadership role and,as you know, it can be a little
bit lonely.
So that was a hard adjustmentto make, but also a necessary
one, and I was okay with it onceI understood that that was
necessary.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Totally yes.
I think what's reallyinteresting is that cultural
shift of going from Denver toMinnesota, and I think it's
something that we don't realizehow local real estate really is.
We say that it's location,location, location, but we don't
realize that each area hastheir own culture, their own way
of doing business or their waythat it's always been done.
(09:15):
And DC is very similar toDenver, where nobody's from
there, but it's very affluentclientele.
Typically it's verysophisticated and I remember
when I moved to New Hampshire in2017 and I started doing some
real estate up here, I'm likewhere did I?
land.
It's like another planet.
It's something we take forgranted, where, if you're
(09:35):
changing location, that'sdefinitely something to keep in
mind, which is just the cultureis so different from place to
place.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
And I don't know if you can fully prepare for it,
aside from just being like, oh,this is going to be different.
I made the mistake of assumingthat I was just going to be able
to carry on the way that Ialways had, and that caused some
delay in I don't want to saysuccess, but just maybe like
momentum a little bit out of thegate.
But I will also say that what Iwas able to realize kind of
(10:08):
after the fact and in reflectionover years, is that how
grateful I was to haveexperience in a different market
to bring here, which allowedfor some, which is slowly
allowing for new perspectivesand new thought tracks and like,
oh hey, have you thought aboutthis, or this is how this has
been done before, and, um,that's felt like a really cool
thing to be able to present andbring both to my agents, or just
(10:32):
like agents I'm talking to on adeal or just in the industry in
general.
You know what.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Like.
So it's not all bad, it'sreally cool.
It's just the melding of it alland figuring out every day what
little activated part of yourbrain you need to turn on.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah.
And also, how does Weston Mainefit into the broader market of
Minnesota?
What's your unique sellingproposition?
What makes you unique?
Why would agents join youversus all of the other
established players in themarket?
So I'm curious what is theanswer to that question?
Speaker 2 (11:09):
I mean, if anybody Weston Bean Homes like we have,
I am so grateful we have such abeautiful design and marketing
stack platform, all of thethings.
It was built so smartly withbasically a whole in-house
design agency which, inconversation with agents, most
(11:29):
people are like, oh, mybrokerage has marketing.
And they do to some extent andthey kind of see behind the fold
and they see behind the scenesof what we have here and they're
like, oh, we definitely don'thave marketing.
So that's been a really coolpiece is realizing just how much
like, especially for agents whoare used to becoming like Canva
maidens, which, whatever yougot to do, what you got to do to
(11:51):
make a graphic look pretty.
But I always say, like, yourexpertise is not in designing a
flyer, it should be working withbuyers and sellers.
And Weston Maine has thatmarket pegged with providing an
extreme amount of resources andsupport so that all the pretty
and the marketing and the designwork is done and taken care of
so agents can just do what theywant to do.
And we're also all aboutculture.
(12:12):
It is not just a warm bodyincubator.
I am here to make sure thatpeople, I'm not going to turn
you down because you want achance and you've never sold a
home, let's mentor you.
But if you're not kind, ifyou're not collaborative, if
you're shameful or anything likethat, we are just not the place
.
And I've found that agentsreally have appreciated that
mentality and I don't want tosay strictness, but just
(12:34):
boundary around who's part ofthis crew.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Right.
I honestly think that's whereboutique brokerages win so often
is culture, because it'sactually an easy lever to pull
in terms of differentiatingyourself against other bigger
brokerages.
So, like having leadership,that actually gives a shit
having collaboration.
I have a no assholes policy.
(13:01):
I think you're right.
It's those boundaries but thosestandards and allowing the
right fit into the clubhouse andthen when someone isn't the
right fit, they're out of theclubhouse, because that really
is so important and it factorsin so much more than at the
bigger boxes.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Yeah, and I think, like I can't tell you I don't
know if you've had the sameexperience how many agents have
joined in and they're like Ididn't, you know.
I know who my broker was, but Ididn't.
I never talked to them or theynever got back to me or I had to
like only contact them in acertain Avenue way, and you know
, we're just not that stuffyhere.
Like I'm your broker, send me aSlack message.
(13:39):
I can't promise you I'm not ata kid's birthday party, but I
will help you tackle thatcontract question and I think
that people appreciate that.
It's also real and authentic.
We are just people out heretrying to do our thing and we
are not better or worse thananybody else, and I just really
like that and I'm hoping thatit's starting to catch on brush
fire, because I think peopledeserve to have a brokerage like
(14:00):
that, where they don't feellike they have to conform to
some way or another, but theycan just like be themselves and
do really bad-ass real estate atthe same time.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Yes, I love it.
That's all we want.
We just want to have fun and dobad-ass real estate.
Hello.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Yeah, it's not.
I mean it's hard, but it's notthat hard.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
You know what I mean.
It's so true.
Oh so let's talk aboutattraction, let's talk about
recruiting.
So I didn't say this, butyou're a coaching client of mine
and one of the things we wereworking on together was
recruiting.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
And so and also I hate the word recruiting I do
too more than anything, let'scall it attraction and also,
like I'm also starting to getannoyed with agent attraction,
right, because?
Speaker 1 (14:41):
we're're like right with the next iteration of
recruiting and now we're there,so like, let's evolve that one
what are we gonna call it?
Let's like coin something new.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Right now I need, like I know the slingshot, I
don't know magnetic, but yeah,we'll figure it out we'll, we'll
figure it out, but we're gonnacall it agent attraction for now
.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
So we were kind of like building it from coming
into this new market, like howdid you stand out?
And I think that you nailed it.
It was like you guys have areally strong marketing in-house
agency, so you're very designforward, which I think was a
huge, huge, huge value add.
And then we were talking aboutlike systems and like hardcore
(15:24):
recruiting, and I love the storyabout how you messed up this
email.
Can we talk about it please?
Because it's like my favoritething on earth where you're
putting in the email, like theintro email to your like list of
agents, and you put hi firstname and the first name didn't
(15:45):
pop.
I'm like and you got and yourecruited agents from that I
know.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Oh my God, talk about both the most mortifying, like
fetal position in the closetmoment, matched with like the
most empowering thing, all atthe same time One full pendulum
swing, all within the same likehour or so.
I mean, I agent attraction wassomething, that was something
that I, that was a big challenge.
Right, I didn't know what to do.
I was so.
I didn't realize how lucky Iwas to work alongside Stacey
(16:15):
Staub for so many years, whojust also has a little magnet
inside of her of wonderfulness.
And agents just jumped atWeston Maine Homes, rightfully
so.
And so when I came here and Iwas like that's going to happen
here, it's going to be great,exactly that didn't happen, and
so I had to put some structurearound the process of attracting
agents to Weston Maine Homes,more so, like, make sure they
knew what it was.
And so I was like that's it,I'm going to do the email
(16:38):
campaign, I'm going to just putsome feelers out there.
It's just going to startsharing who we are.
I wrote a 26 email campaign andI had a placehold name on the
email and I didn't do the mergetag in there, it just said hi,
first name, and it's like this,the toothpaste that I couldn't
(16:58):
shove back in the tube fastenough.
Let me tell you I said I waslike that's it it was.
It was fun while we had it here.
It was.
You know, real estate's been agood time and I'll see you all
in the next career path.
Lo and behold, I had a handfulof like.
I had a couple of very unkindpeople respond to that with a
snarky way which immediatelywent into my phone with little
(17:20):
emojis that said they were notnice.
I had a couple of very sweetpeople be like hey, don't know
if you noticed this, and I waslike did I notice it?
And I had a agent come in foran interview and I love it.
Oh my gosh.
I think it taught me like,listen, maybe it was intentional
to weed out the unkind people,maybe it was me being a human
(17:42):
because I'm not a big corporateconglomerate and it brought a
big flurry of like pride and itweirdly kind of unlocked another
layer of leadership andownership that I was like.
I am who I am.
You know I make mistakes.
It is not a reflection of thequality of person that I am or
what we do here.
I am just doing the best I can,just like everybody else, and I
(18:06):
will be the first person to sithere and support you when you
send me a place.
Ironically, two weeks later Igot a similar thing I did.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
No way.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
On a text message and it was yeah, on a text message,
and it was like hey, first name, and then it was like Allie
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah andit was like some sort of like
recruiting thing and I just kindof gave it like a, I see you.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Oh, I'm going to give it a thumbs up.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah, totally.
I was like oh interested, butlike all the best, like that's
all you need.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
You know what I mean.
I'm sure they saw their mistake.
What's up with people beingjust rude?
I remember I sent a recruitingemail once out and it was all
about like all the stuff that wedid.
It was like we have the donefor you program and this guy
wrote back and he was likethere's no way you do all of
this for your agents and if youdo, you're going out of business
in a year.
And I'm like, oh, okay, Wow.
I'm like oh, okay, Wow.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
You're nice.
Yeah, it takes a lot of effortand energy to be unkind and
spiteful, and I mean, that's notthe people that we are
attracting here to WestonMaitland.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
That is accurate.
Like we're like, how about wehave some nice people?
We just don't need thosemeanies.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yeah, and that's my funny like always check your
watch fields, people and alsoguess what.
The hours kept ticking.
The sun set and rose again thenext day and here we are.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
And you still had to go home and make dinner for the
family and do bedtime Exactly,and it was such a blip on the
radar.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
So it was a devastatingly comical moment in
the kickoff to this year and,like you said, good things came
of it, so I appreciated that aswell.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Yeah, that was the best.
I loved it.
I remember you were just like,oh, shoot.
And I'm like, oh, this is good,this is great, don't worry
about it.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
I was like this is over.
Oh my God, which I was like.
If an agent said that to me,I'd be like we're good, let's
turn this water into wine, andsometimes I just need someone to
like broker me really quick andso I was very grateful to have
as a sounding board and you werelike it's all good, don't worry
(20:23):
about it, you're human.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
That's like the boutique broker, who's a human.
That's the best.
Totally, in fact, it made mybrand.
So here we are.
Anyways, let's dive into somelessons learned, because I just
love a good lessons learnedtakeaway.
So what are two to three thingsthat you feel like you have
learned in the past two-ishyears on this journey of going
from producing agent to brokerowner?
Speaker 2 (20:40):
on this journey of going from producing agent to
broker owner.
I love this question and it'slike it's such an easy and
complex question at the sametime.
Then, like the first thing thatcomes to my mind when I hear
that question is, as boring asit sounds, the financials around
broker ownership issignificantly different than
being a solo real estate agent.
(21:01):
Regardless of whatever your LLCor tax status or what have you,
is the operation of running abrokerage and how much that
takes financially and thestructure of it all.
That was all taken care of youas a solo agent.
So having a betterunderstanding of that, looking
back on it, would have been asmarter thing for me to know,
but I didn't know.
(21:21):
What I didn't know and I thinka big lesson learned is I did it
.
I did an okay job with agentattraction, but I think being
okay with going slow, um, I wasused to.
I was used to the cadence ofselling real estate where you
know I'm selling two or threehomes a month and just like in
the, in the shuffle of that andin the flow.
(21:43):
But that was my own silo andwhen I stepped into broker
ownership it became the wholefarm and so I had to be okay
with like every little part ofthe farm, just like needing to
get into place and slowlybuilding up, rather than just
like doing what I do andeverything else gets taken care
of.
And I, I think I tried to golike speed up the process really
(22:05):
fast, like make sure that I waslike whatever success was, or
financially and getting there,or that we had agents, we had
signs in the yard that peopleknew who we were and it was
going to unfold that as it wasgoing to.
And you know, in hindsight Ican see that, but I think I
would have taken my time toestablish who we are like just
not feel like I had to rushthings.
(22:26):
I was always trying to get tothat next step, that I didn't
always know what it was either,and so maybe that's called a
lack of vision.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
I don't know, I think you have a vision.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I had the vision.
I knew what it was going tofeel like, what it was going to
look like, how it was going tobe.
I just I feel like sometimes Iwas a little aimless on how to
get there and maybe having alittle bit more of a plan would
have served me well.
Yeah, but I didn't really havea plan.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
I wonder if you even needed a plan though, because I
think, like I actually have afeeling that if you had a plan,
it would have gone out thewindow, because you didn't know
what market you were gettinginto, like you had no idea.
You had to land to kind of knowwhat land on the moon, to know
what you were dealing with.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yeah, and maybe that's what it was right it was
like, instead of just likestarting the brokerage, like
maybe I should have just likeacclimated a little bit.
But listen, I have literallynever been one that doesn't jump
out of the plane and find myparachute leader kind of person
I just always jump and I find myfeet and not that it makes
anybody less stressed by anymeans, but it's just like my
(23:32):
modus operandi, it's just how Igo, and otherwise everything's
boring to me.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
I know I'm the same way, but that's why I loved
working with you.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Well, totally oh gosh , it was like a match made in
heaven.
Yeah, it was wonderful, it wasexactly what I needed, All right
.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
So if you could go back and give yourself one piece
of advice, just one what wouldit be?
Speaker 2 (23:58):
I want two, so I'm going to give you the boring one
first, which is save more money.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Okay, you needed more money.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Okay.
You just don't understand theoperation costs of things or
just don't go so fast.
And I would also say like it'sgoing to be okay.
It's going to be okay.
It's going to look differentthan you ever pictured it to be,
but it's still going to be okay.
Because I didn't realize thatI'm like a closet, type A,
(24:27):
perfectionist type personbecause in my mind I'm like a
type B personality turns out I'mpretty type A and that got in
my way a lot of like I have tohit this benchmark, I have to
appeara certain way this, thisstandard of success and what
that looks like.
And it kind of put like a blockand a barrier of like the right
people walking through the door.
(24:47):
And the second I was like thisis how I want it to feel.
Come get it.
Things became a lot easier,which was kind of like it's
going to be okay.
You know it will be how it willbe and we will, and if the
right placeholders are in placethe culture, what we do, what we
offer, how we want to appearthe right people find you when
they need to.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Yeah, they really do, and I don't know if that's good
advice, but I truly have moremoney.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
That would be the big , my big suggestion, if you're
going to go in and start abrokerage like it has a lot more
overhead than you think.
Even if you run lean it has alot of overhead.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Yes, I agree with that.
I remember my first year.
I was like 40K in the hole.
I had to borrow it from myretirement account and I'm like,
ooh, I definitely didn't knowthat was going to happen.
So, yes, knowing that inadvance is crucial.
You have to definitely knowyour financials.
I just think financials, all ofthat flows it's very important.
(25:42):
That's like the.
I just think financials, likeall of that flows, it's very
important.
That's like the foundationyou're built on.
Like the splits, you'reoffering the overhead, you're
carrying your per agentbreak-even point, Like there's
just so many things you have tocalculate and know before you
dive in Whether you have anadmin fee or not.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Like there's just a lot, listen.
I started I was like I went onfeels and feels do not equal
profit, so I had to learn thatone really quick.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Oh, feels.
I mean sometimes feels arereally good though.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Yeah and listen.
They get you to jump and do thething.
What I don't do is sit and waitfor the thing to happen.
I do not wait for opportunity,um, connections, the next step,
decisions.
Like I'm, I've also learned tofail fast and like cut the tie
when you need to, which is agift I gave myself.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
I think it's a really good thing to do.
All right.
So closing question what areyou looking forward to in 2025?
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Oh, that's such a good question I'm looking
forward to.
I'm really cultivating.
I love supporting and coachingagents, and especially with my
agents here at Weston Mainehomes, Um, the I call it like
the tribe that we're buildinghere.
The people that are around thetable are incredible and I'm
really excited to help themuncover and cultivate their
(27:03):
gifts and what is going to bringthem to their level of success.
You've got to sell real estateto pay for something that's
really exciting, Whether that'scharity, time away, college
funds, whatever investmentproperties and so I'm really
excited to help coach agents toget them to that level that they
want to do and succeed and grow.
(27:24):
Our collaboration table Likethe amount of ideas shared and
back and forth that is happeninghere is amazing and I just want
to keep providing thatopportunity.
So I'm excited for how that'sgoing to unfold and I think that
we are really catching on tosomething here.
So I'm just excited for alittle bit of growth.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
I love that.
All right, we are going to endon.
You are going to grow in 2025.
We're manifesting it, puttingit out there.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Yeah, bring it on.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Thank you so much for coming on.
It was so great chatting withyou.
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Lindsay, I will come on any day.
I appreciate your questions.
You know you have a big fan forme over here in the Twin Cities
.
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