Managing A Fast Growing Real Estate Brokerage with Corcoran Global Living

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Melody Foster, The Chief Experience Officer of fastest growing brokerage in the US, Corcoran Global Living, joins this episode of Brokerage Insider to discuss managing their growth over the past year. The company went from 400 agents to over 1000 in just 11 months – during COVID no less!

Listen in as she also discusses tech and marketing for luxury brokerages.

TRANSCRIPTION

Thanks for listening to Brokerage Insider, this week’s episode was recorded live during the Explode Virtual Conference on Thursday, September 24th. We look forward to returning to our regular schedule program soon, but until then, enjoy this session. In this episode, our VP of product, Katie Ragusa, interviews Melody Foster, the chief experience officer in charge of marketing and technology for Corcoran Global Living in the California and Nevada area.

Melody Foster: I’ll give it a nice to see you, Brenda. It’s like I’m like, oh, I get to follow Brenda.

Katie Ragusa: That’s a tough act to follow. But nice to see you, Yes, we are. We’ve got some powerful women here talking this afternoon. So a little background on Melody if you’re not familiar with who she is. So far, she is the chief experience officer at Corcoran Global Living, which is actually the first ever Corcoran franchisee and chief experience officer. So as CXO you handle, let me see if I can get this mouthful. Branding, marketing, advertising, Lead, nurturing, PR communication, web development, all things tech. So pretty much every manifestation of the brand and marketing it in any medium. So that’s a lot and you’ve got a ton of experience. So what brought you here and how did you become the lead on all things experience at Corcoran Global Living?

Melody Foster: So you know, my background prior to Corcoran GL or CGL, as we call it, because it’s a mouthful to say. Right. Right. But prior to that, I mean, Katie and I go back several years at this point.

Now, I was with Zephyr Real Estate, which was the number one indie {brokerage} in San Francisco.

And even prior to that, I was at Paragon Real Estate, which was also a boutique firm in San Francisco and then at Pacific Union, also based at San Francisco, which became California wide prior to becoming part of another larger company we all know about. But most of my background was in marketing. And at this point, I don’t think there anyone can truly say that there is a real dividing line between marketing and technology.

We leapt over that hurdle a long time ago, and I think there was just the understanding that there’s a difference between technology as far as where the cable. Go into the wall, which is the technology that users use on the day to day basis. And so we do still, of course, have people that manage all those sort of systems, but really need to have someone that is looking at it from the marketing, the brand perspective, the usability, what our agents are actually using and the platforms that we’re developing. And when you start going down that road, it becomes clear that you can’t look at the marketing and the technology without also looking at the operational aspects and how it impacts the day to day. And that’s when Zephyr actually decided to let’s blend this all together. And rather than just making this so marketing specific, we decided to do the whole CSO role. And when critical, what happened when we launched that in February, Michael Mahon, who is our CEO, agreed. He definitely is vision forward with that and sees that as critically important to have that level of integration so that we are presenting the right tools in the consistency to our growing base that we have.

Katie Ragusa: And with that history and experience, you see the times we’re in and the growth you’ve had and the changes you’ve had, you offer such a unique perspective then a broker owner who’s selling day to day from that technology and marketing and brand story side. So we’re actually going to talk to Melody about that change in brand and the growth that’s come after that. So a lot of stories today about markets booming and business is growing and recruiting at all time highs even right now. So I love that spin that we get to give it. I don’t want to say the word on press anymore, but it’s a good positive on that. So let’s talk. Before you were caught in global, you were Zephyr real estate, multi decade history Company. I mean, strong roots in the Bay Area, good, strong following group of agents that just had a really good rapport, clients that were loyal. When you changed to Corcoran Global Living, how do you let those people know that they should stick around? You’re the same company, the same people that they trust. New name. How do you present that to them?

Melody Foster: You know, that was probably the part that we spent more time on than anything prior to the changeover. I mean, there’s all the stuff that’s related to the practicality of a change like that. We have to update materials and signage and all that stuff. But we spent more time heavily looking at making sure that the change that was happening, the brand that we chose was going to be one that still aligned with our agents are and how they see themselves that it would feel like either. Similar enough style wise or an improvement. So it couldn’t be a brand that felt like it was going to be a step down or it was going to be diluted or it was going to be something that was a mismatch and that was really, really important. But even more than that, we need to make sure we needed to make sure that they are agents. Understood that fundamentally who we are and the support that we’re offering and the team that’s behind them was going to be consistent through the process. And so we have some really great leadership. We continue to have really great leadership. That was a part of the whole transition from day one is that we weren’t going to have that turnover of leadership, that it was really important for everyone to still have a vested interest, to still be a part of it, still be in those leadership positions and connecting with agents because they have spent a lot of time developing rapport and trust and are really relying upon.

And so I think more than anything else was just, well, it was two parts, right? It was letting them know that and talking about that. But he was also walking the walk. Right. We actually had to hold true to that and not just say, oh, everything’s great, it’s going to be fine. And then 30 days after, everyone’s like, I can’t find my people anymore, what’s going on? And instead it was like, oh, yeah, I love the new materials. I love some of the new platforms. I love what we’re doing. This is great. And I still have all the people that I’ve known and liked and trusted over the years.

Katie Ragusa: Everything I will still here and there that you’ve introduced. And it’s not exactly great. So you did move their cheese a little bit, but into a better. We did. We did, but we didn’t steal it. So there you go. So now that you’re affiliated with Corcoran, you’re a franchisee of Corcoran, what have you been able to benefit from or leverage that brand?

Melody Foster: I mean, first, it’s a beautiful brand, I mean, there’s just there’s no denying that know, that’s one that even well before we were Corcoran any time I’d be at any kind of conference, I was always checking out their ads, their materials, you know, staying up to date with them online, all of that stuff. So it is a beautiful and established brand, having access to the very talented team of people that we do have a behind all of that brand. The materials that are furnished, the advertising that’s out there, just it’s that amplification, right? It’s helping that recognition spread and grow by having so much that’s already furnished and available to you. Zephyr was hugely successful within that small market that we’re in within. Our founder started the company in nineteen seventy eight like him, and three buddies started it. And then by the time we did the transition in February, I think we were at thirty three to 50 people somewhere in that range. So we’d been like slow but steady growth over the years and really well known and respected in the community. And that’s important. But getting to a broader audience, which we’ve done with the growth, we wanted to have a brand that was recognized outside of San Francisco. And because of both and a clear disclaimer, Barbara Corcoran is no longer associated with the corporate brands. Everybody by name is recognized. And Barbara Starr.

Right, right. But the people, the real estate industry, even if consumers or clients are not as familiar with the brand, realtors are familiar with the brand. And that’s our client first and foremost. Right that’s who you have to be looking at every single day is something that your agents can get behind because they’re your customer. Their clients are consumers that are out there. But our clients are always going to be our agents of furnishing them with what their best tools are and getting that in front of them. So being able to leverage something that our agents already recognized had familiarity with, had followed for years, felt comfortable with and we’re excited to be behind that brand was a huge part of the success that we could actually make this happen.

Katie Ragusa: What is it like transitioning from an indie to the other side?

Melody Foster: We do have a mixed bag. It’s a mixed bag. I’ll be honest. To the other side it’s a mixed bag. There’s a mixed bag. I’ll be honest there it is a problem. Not supposed to say that, but it’s true. It’s great in so many ways because we are furnished with just, you know, we had a box of 16 grams and now we have the giant Crayola box. One hundred twenty eight. Right. We have the whole tatty. We’ve got all of that, which is awesome. But you do relinquish some level of control, right? Because before. When it was Zephyr, I think it was twenty thirteen, I actually did a rebrand for Zephyr, which was a terrific, although lots of sleepless nights process to go through when you’re initiating a whole rebrand of a company and rewriting the style guide and redoing materials, everything from the letterhead to website and everything in between, there is not that level of control at this point. So on the one hand, that’s like, oh, I want to be able to make the changes I want. And on the other hand, it frees up a lot of time because you already furnished with a lot of great stuff and you’re not having to start from scratch and starting from scratch, especially if you are a boutique firm or even just a regional one. These are really expensive and taxing process to go through. And it does make it hard to be competitive when there are significantly larger organizations that are able to churn through innovation at a faster pace because they have deeper pockets. So being able to sort of leverage that behind you and lean on that definitely has been a bit freeing in that way, because it’s one that we can trust in and it already has so much good assets for us.

Katie Ragusa: Right. And you chose the brand for a reason that resonated with you and you get to step out of the shadows, whether it’s the best decision or a really good decision, you get to move on and do the other things that you’re best not on.

Melody Foster: Exactly.

Katie Ragusa: So you I think you alluded to growth, but let’s talk a little bit more specifically about the size of the cake. There are a number you are three hundred something agents that feels like a lifetime ago. But it was actually not that long ago, seven months ago, you had extreme growth. Are there any numbers that you can share with us of that versus now?

Melody Foster: Yeah, you know, Zephyr on its own, we ranged around two billion in sales volume per year, sometimes slightly under, sometimes a bit over on that one. And like I said, somewhere between the three twenty five to three, 350 fifty agent range we are now, I think a four point five billion dollar company. So more than doubled as far as sales volume and our agent count, is it something like seven fifty I want to say. Yeah. So yeah. And that’s not even counting our referral agents. So it’s it has been fast growth for seven months for sure. And beyond that, and I think this is an area where it doesn’t get factored in a lot of times because you look at things like sales volume or GCI or agent count. But there is a whole extra nuance when you’re talking about going into different market areas as well. So we used to be San Francisco Bay Area only. We now have presence in Southern California and both San Diego and Riverside counties and then we also do in the Reno Lake Tahoe area. So we’re also growing geographically in addition to just office an agent count. So that’s been a lot. And as you know, some insights in some more in the weeks and months ahead. So we’re not done.

Katie Ragusa: I’ll let you mention whatever you want to do about that. But you just kind of glossed over new markets. And I think coming from the industry, we all kind of take what’s been a little bit more time about what it’s actually like entering a new market. So we all know probably there’s data involved you got to normalize to work with and approvals there in the data side of it. But there are also the people of this strong group from the Bay Area, and you’ve got agents in Reno, Tahoe and Southern California and all over the place. How do you make them feel welcome and introduce them and embed them in your group?

Melody Foster: I mean, part of it is really. I think Brenda touched on this, you have got to have the best people on your team. I mean, just nothing replaces that. Great. There’s no other South that you can do for it. There’s no technology that can solve that solution. You have to have great people and then you have to trust those great people. And a lot of what we’ve been doing, it’s not just about pitching the brand and getting people to agents or out to the public. It’s also about bringing staff in and the support people that are behind it so that they’re a part of it and not just part of it, like there’s a new sheriff in town. Here’s what you have to do now, but really bring them in so they understand the culture. They’re part of the team. They understand how important collaboration is, which is everything. I mean, I have a new guy in San Diego that became part of the team two and a half weeks ago with that launch. And every time we have a roll in and this is a funny thing and it seems so basic, but the people in that office, I actually set up my Gmail so that every email that comes from the principal people in that new region gets a red star on it, because I know that they absolutely, absolutely have to have responses quickly.

Katie Ragusa: And there are people waiting to hear what.

Melody Foster: Yeah, they’re getting questions. It’s new for them. They’re going to they’re trying to wing it as best they can. They’re trying to be supportive. And nothing makes them feel like they’re better supported. Then having those quick responses, nothing is leaving them out on a limb and then they’re able to continue being that front line and helping their agents so those agents are reassured. So that’s a huge part of it, quite honestly, and that goes for everything. I mean, it’s from that moment on our team who makes himself a resource for the sales managers that are out there in the different regions. It’s really collaborative in that way. It starts prior to launch. But it’s that first 30 days after we’ve gone into a new market area, it’s it can’t be a siloed effect. It is all about collaboration and ongoing communication for sure. And then we also and this started because of Covid, actually, we’ve started doing town halls twice a month. We call them once a month. It’s a agent panelist’s discussion where we have agents from our different market areas talking about some particular aspect of the market. And then once a month, it’s guest speaker, which can be on a variety of topics. Sometimes it’s, you know, technology oriented, sometimes it’s legal stuff, different things. But that’s a companywide event.

We keep them brief, we keep them timely, and it actually gets everybody participating at one thing, not regionally specific, but because the whole thing. So you’re seeing benefits. People are coming together. They’re participating. They’re asking good questions. They’re realizing that they’re part of this growing thing, which is exciting. And I think that’s also been helpful as well.

Katie Ragusa: So just going back, you mentioned the word Roland, so just to make sure everybody’s on the same page, I’m sorry, is adding a whole office that formerly was a different brand entirely and folding it into the Corcoran Global Living Brand. Right. You didn’t just have one giant one of these. You’ve had lots in the past. I don’t know. I can’t remember how many months since February. Yeah. You’ve got, like a well oiled machine going now and all say that I know nothing’s perfect. And internally, I don’t know how you feel. The process has improved, but watching it from the outside, I mean, to repeat that process, sometimes you do multiple in a day to it a week. I mean, you guys are killing it with those. So what has gotten you to this just process that you have in place to be able to just execute.

Melody Foster: Well and I’m going to give a shout out to you and Eric at this point.

So TRIBUS is our partner for website. But it’s true. But you do to have great money. But no money changed hands now. But you do have to have great vendor partners that you can rely on for this stuff, because sometimes we have months of planning and sometimes things happen far more quickly. So you do have to have those workflows figured out. You have to know who your go to people are. Everyone has to be well equipped with they have to know how much authority they have so they can act on decisions quickly so that you’re not getting things bottlenecked. I think that’s an important part of it, having good vendors you can rely on and bringing them into the fold as well. So you’re not treating them like an outside vendor. You’re treating them like a partner so that they actually can be a partner for you to make these things successful. I think that’s a really important part of it.

And then the other part, and this was this was a request that was initiated by our VP of Tech, Hud Bixler, and was. Brilliant, which was after our first one, because we kind of had a pause of some of these when it first happens or first one after we kind of decided, OK, let’s keep pressing forward, which was back in June. We did a post-mortem on it. Let’s get together. Where do we need to fine tune this? What was it that could have been better? What should we have started sooner? That was the biggest one. Which part of the process needs to be started earlier?

Because anything that we have control over. Right, like if it’s something where it’s a matter of making an update to someone’s bio on a website, I can jump in at ten o’clock on a Friday night and do that. That’s easy. Anything that’s reliant on third parties that are outside of my control, the manufacturing of a sign or the approval of an MLS. Ten o’clock on a Friday night and do that that’s easy.

Katie Ragusa: Anything that’s reliant on third parties that are outside of my control, the manufacturing of a sign or the approval of an MLS, two of my things would give me heartburn. Those ones you need to start as early as you can. Which is harder because of non-disclosure stuff, but. Find out what is impact is these are very hush, too, so not only are you dealing with some things in your control, some things outside of your control that you’re coordinating with, let’s say you also can’t publicly say anything, though. You’re a little bit handicapped there. So, yeah, what’s the strategy? You bring in a close group and everybody knows their marching orders and that’s pretty much it.

Melody Foster: And I’ll tell you, I mean, this is just anecdotal aside, which our first lunch, which was never one. Right. And the Reno Lake Tahoe one with all of our luxury real estate there. In February, it was particularly tricky because I didn’t even get to bring in my marketing team, so stuff that I would normally be giving to them. I was like, that’s right. I still know how to do design work on a listing presentation to do this. Like, I haven’t done that myself. Got it. Have I have great people for that. But there was a lot of that and even something as simple as our print vendor who is wonderful and knows our brand probably better than I do because they’re just on it. And I would normally just send them an email and it’s like, here’s what we’re trying to do and some analysis of addresses. And they would just make it happen. Their lead graphic designer is the father of one of the people on my team. So I was like, OK, I can even use my regular vendor people in this one because there’s no possible way I could ask him to sign an NDA and not talk to his daughter about it. Yeah, so. So that one was tricky, since then, we have vendors like all these are signed companies and you guys and all these different ones in place. So it does help that inner circle team so that we can execute on this stuff far more easily than that first one. That first one was heavy lifting, the one since then. Yeah, it’s definitely become more of a well oiled machine.

Katie Ragusa: You guys make it look easy. So in the midst of all the process and procedures and legal and tiptoeing like there’s so much that you have to keep in your brain, but you’re a creative person. So how do you stay innovative with all of these To-Do list and things that sometimes just can be so mundane and checklist type things? How do you say innovative?

Melody Foster: I’m not a creative person. That’s my don’t tell my boss. You just I, I live in the creative environment and I rely on creative people and I am far more a systems person that I really want to make sure that we have. We’re solving for something of a problem solving person that’s probably the core of what I am, and that’s actually something I was just talking to our CEO about just the other day. We’re evaluating new platforms when we’re looking at like new designs and we’re doing anything.

It doesn’t matter what it is. The first question that has to be asked before you even take step two, three or four down the line is what problem is the solving? That has to be it, and if it doesn’t, then why are we wasting time on this? Because you can’t do something just for the sake of doing it? Well, let’s do something just to be different. Well, do we need to have this type of differentiation right now? Is this actually going to help our agents in some way? Is this actually going to benefit our clients in some way, buyers and sellers that are out there in the marketplace? Or is it just creating noise, extra work, confusion, being something shiny new for the sake of new, which I think people fall into that trap a lot of times. Right. And you get you end up getting like tech fatigue from your agents. I know. I’ve seen that happen right. When I don’t want to look at one more platform. I don’t want to install another hour, log in. No more logins, no more. Now, I have a tenth tab open in my browser to have to go to. So the creative as it’s always driven by that feeling, the need. And then, yeah, then you have space to get creative when you know that you’re doing that. So I would say that’s always what’s at the forefront of it in the second sort of piece of that, where you find the space to still be creative with all of this going on, which is it’s back to that collaboration thing, you can’t assume that because you’re bigger that you’ve figured everything out. And our San Diego one, again, I’m going to go back to that because just the most recent is such a great example of that, because I think the. Eighty five or 90 active agents, boutique size, single county, primarily where they sell, they go into the surrounding ones a little bit, but it’s primarily San Diego County and the coastal stuff in there. And they’ve already brought some great ideas to the table on stuff related to culture, some ideas on doing better networking across different market areas that we’re in so that we give our agents a better way of cross marketing and referral network within our own California Nevada space that we’re in. So you can’t for a minute think that it’s just going to be top down. It has to be something where everyone’s talking, communicating, collaborating. You’re willing to listen. You lose that.

You’re done.

Katie Ragusa: I’m so glad you mentioned solving a problem in solving a need, because I think a lot of brokers allow themselves to be under the whim of the agent. So I need this flier and I need this. And it may not be for any reason if we don’t step back and reserving all of these individuals, but not serving ourselves as a company. So I think at the beginning you mentioned something about making sure you’re producing assets that agents need. So how do you get to that need?

Does your marketing team come up with the assets that you need to agents request them? Is it a mixture of both? Like how do you validate that it solves the problem before it gets your time?

Melody Foster: It’s a mixture of both for sure. And there’s always the litmus test that you have to if you get a request from one agent and maybe they’re really innovative, maybe you just go, wow, this person is always thinking. I get asked all the time. I’m like, I wish I thought I was a good one. And there’s other times when you get it, when you go, oh, wow, this is so off the wall.

I probably need to dig in a little deeper to figure out what it is that’s going on with this person and solve the issue that’s at the root of this, because this seems leftfield. But actually, I’ve had that conversation. I’ve a friend of mine who’s a developer and I’ve worked with him on some projects, just kind of one side before. And I would every now and then make the mistake. And I’m sure you’re familiar with this one of telling him how I thought the fix should go, how part of what you should do it this way. I made it. You know, everybody said, yeah, I don’t I usually don’t start that way. Tell me the goal you’re trying to get to and that I can figure out the path.

Katie Ragusa: Let me be the expert and let me be the expert.

Melody Foster: And so we try to do that with agents as much as we can. I mean, you start off by furnishing them as much stuff that, you know, is proven and good and works well. And it fits the needs of, what, 80 to 90 percent of their stuff is right. And 80 to 90 percent of their stuff has to do with their clients and their properties. That’s what they’re doing. They’re out there forging relationships, nurturing relationships and actively marketing and selling the properties and hopefully starting some stuff in their pipeline for what’s next. But that’s the majority of what they’re doing. The rest of the stuff they’re doing, if you can solve first, freeing up some of their time by providing, like transaction coordinator services or something like that. So they’re not getting mired down in things.

That’s great. But if you give the most of what they need in the toolbox, they’re not reinventing the wheel each day. They’re hopefully not going to go broke. Then with your brand, you’re asking that question with Brand before. But that that goes that’s mine. Yeah. I mean, if you give them enough goods that make you want to create stuff so easy that they’re like, oh, well, you know what? I’m just going to use this because it’ll take me a lot of time to create something that won’t look as good as this. Anyway, I’m going to stick with it. And then when they do actually ask for something, you know, it’s an ask that you need to listen to. It’s an ask that’s important, because if all of this other stuff hasn’t hit the nail on the head, then it’s time to have the conversation. Like I said, you get some people that, you know, every time they send you a request or a question or a suggestion, it’s gold because they have a history of doing that. Right.

Like, I got to pay attention. This person, they are they’re always thinking ahead like that. And other people that, you know, is probably there’s something at the root of this one.

And I need to uncover what they’re actually trying to solve for here. So it’s a combination of those things for sure.

Katie Ragusa: Let them bring their expertise and what they need as a broker, agent, realtor, and let your team solve the how of whatever it may be. So how have those efforts shifted or have they? Because you already had a very large digital web. Spin it out, zoom meetings, you said the town hall. I think that was a lot of injuries. But how you deliver marketing to realtors has that changed?

Melody Foster: I mean, I think there’s a huge part that. Where before we could look at things and we could decide to just one off some sign, some things sometimes right when it was just like, oh well, it’s OK if we’re reinventing the wheel or we’re doing a slight iteration, we do have to look at things. And this is true for any company that gets to a larger size, right on how can I make this scalable? What I don’t want to do is take away service or the ability to have. More customized things, which has always been a huge thing that we’ve offered and continue to offer, which is we do have a marketing team behind our agents that are able to actually help them with custom designs and giving them support and all that. Don’t want to take that away. But what I need to do is that everything isn’t reinventing the wheel. So we need to have better processes in place so that as you get bigger scale, it’s not just we used to be able to have everything systematize. It was 90 percent. Now it’s only 80 percent. Now it’s only seven. And we’re up now. Only 20 percent of our stuff is using these systems and everything is custom creation each time.

So a lot of that has to do with. The platforms that we offer and then the communication that we offer, right, and I’ll give simplest example of this. So our Facebook presence which have all these different indie brokers who all have very strong feelings about their somewhat small Facebook followers and I say small, I mean, in the twenty five hundred to five thousand range, we’re not talking about Facebook pages that have fifty thousand one hundred thousand million views.

We’re talking about reasonably small because we are all boutique brokerages and everyone feels very strongly because you worked hard to develop that and having to get people to not just agents, but marketing teams and broker owners who felt very close connection to that, to merge that together into this one branded Facebook page. And they’re like, we’re losing our people. You’re not losing them, you’re gaining. And now part of this greater pool where every time we have any posts now reaching this broader audience, so, so much of it has to do with education.

Right Because we had that with one of our with one of our companies that came into the fold when they were just like what we used to post Happy Birthday things on our public Facebook page. That was really, really small. That’s charming, but that’s probably better for a Facebook group, not your public Facebook page. And when you get to a certain size, you have to understand that the value that’s here is now that when you post your San Francisco East Bay listing, it’s being seen across a broader market area. You’re reaching a network of agents that you weren’t reaching before. You’re reaching clients that you weren’t reaching before. You’re encouraging referral business that you hadn’t been able to reach before. So there’s some trade off and so a lot of it’s just about educating, educating people on where those benefits and differences are and that it’s not loss. It is a change really is.

Katie Ragusa: So moving them over to your. Frame there of how you’re saying it’s not a loss, it is a game. Is it just does it take time to prove it or do you have some stats and metrics to say, look, here’s what we do as a marketing team, we produce this and here’s what happens and show them that?

Melody Foster: I mean, we haven’t yet. But what we’ve been we’ve been doing really anecdotally at this point. Right. We’ve already seen a lot of market to market and house referrals happening as a result of this and high end ones at that.

I mean, I think two days after the San Diego launch, we had a four million dollar referral that came from Northern California to Southern California, which is great. That’s substantial. That was something that may not have happened without that connection being made. We have had San Francisco agents and this is a very common feeder market looking for second homes or investment property in Palm Springs. That’s a very common one. Now we have people that can actually represent them in that area and that’s important. And so they’re hearing about that and seeing that when we have our regional meetings and our town hall stuff, they’re able to share that. But we’re actually looking at some internal channels. And Katie, you don’t even realize that you softball now on this one. But you did the try this chat feature that we have through you guys is actually another mechanism where we’re opening additional chat channels for our agents to be able to do that, cross market promotion so that we can have a luxury listing channel so that there is more of that and we are encouraging that. So it is training its education, but it’s also furnishing them with something where they can do it themselves. It’s not just top down. We’re encouraging where that agent and then you don’t have to convince anyone of anything.

Katie Ragusa: Then they see the value of it when that’s happening that way, the internal but happy birthday is the communication between the team internal, get it off of Facebook, hopefully of the agents or, you know, the public presence. And so have you seen agent engagement with your tech at a higher number since we’ve been kind of social distance and relying on everything online?

Melody Foster: For sure. I mean, within the first couple of months of shelter in place really spiked, right, as people got used to exactly what we’re doing right now, this Zoom thing.

I mean, how many times if we heard oh, sorry, I was muted. Oh, did you like in the past six months. Oh, my gosh Oh, my battery died or I couldn’t get dialed in, whatever it is. So, yeah, there’s definitely been a tremendous increase just from that alone. And I think, you know, we still have full support staff working behind our agents. But I think them not having an office experience right now where there’s someone physically sitting in front of them to go to just ask their quick questions has made a higher influx of tech questions and that sort of stuff as they’re using those platforms. And everyone’s a little bit more separated and isolated right now. We’re stuck with the more stuff.

Katie Ragusa: How do you sustain that now that they’re used to it or even grow it further? What are the plans now that agents are engaging with it? How do you keep it going?

Melody Foster: So with our Northern California operations in particular, I would say, and I know regulations are so different, not just state by state and county by county and city by city. It’s even household by household and person by person sometimes.

But Northern California as a whole is really in in the space of what I would call exercising an abundance of caution when it comes to covid stuff and maintaining more work from home kind of thing for a longer period of time and opting that direction more often than not. Our offices are open, agents are dropping in, and now and then. But there really seems to become it’s beyond covid at this point, I would say, in that people have found an affinity for the time that has freed up by working from home and not sitting in traffic and being able to like, take the call in PJs and stuff like that to the degree that even when someone says, oh, we can do our in-person sales meetings again, San Francisco’s like, we’re done with that. We’re not doing those anymore. We might do quarterly ones or semiannual or something like that as part of a networking or team building or morale or feeling good or bringing together different market areas. But for a weekly or biweekly type meeting, we get better attendance and better engagement. People have clearly expressed their preference for it because it actually fits around the lives they’re leading. So we just we’re it makes sense, I think certain things where people miss hugging. So you still want to bring people together and opportunities when you can, again, for team building, for morale, for referrals and all that stuff. But having a meeting just for the sake of meeting, we’re telling people they have to come into the office just for the sake of coming into an office that that ship has sailed. And so you just have to yeah, you have to provide the support. You have to. Provide the tools and just get used to that’s the reality.

Katie Ragusa: So looking back now, seven months later, after all of this growth and all of the lessons that you’ve learned, what are you most proud of that you guys have created?

Melody Foster: Quite honestly, I’m just proud that we’re growing rather than contracting, because what a year this has been. And I was just reading an article, I think it was on Inc magazine the other day, that it was the most dismal thing. All it was, was a list of businesses that have closed or filed for bankruptcy this year. And even beyond that, even just once, you’ve had to dramatically downsize our contract in some way. It’s heartbreaking. It really is. And so I count my blessings. And I do feel really proud of smart business decisions that have been made this year on when things to you have to be cut or contracted. It’s never been with people. And it’s never been on our service level, and so when you have to tighten the belt or do things to get through some of those tougher times, we’ve always prioritized people in that situation to retain that and keep that intact. I’m super proud of that because we haven’t lost. During this time, really important, we haven’t just kept doors open, so to speak, I guess virtual doors at this point, but we’ve grown during this time and that’s not easy. And I definitely took everyone. I mean, that’s not a marketing and technology solution. That’s everybody. That’s everyone from the sales managers to CEO and the vision of the company and all of it. There was a fierce commitment to that, and there’s no replacement for that for sure.

Katie Ragusa: So I think you guys represent what a lot of brokers in the room may aspire to be, is turning it around and growing during this time. So if there is that broker sitting there feeling low and my business has been declining, I really want to grow. Any advice you have for that person?

Melody Foster: Oh, man. You know. I always think of it and I talk to our management team about this sometimes. We’re talking about recruiting and stuff and I feel like we’re so good at talking to agents about how to grow their business. But we’re not really always good about talking to ourselves as brokers on how to grow our business, but first of all, the fundamentals are about the same, though, right? It’s not that different if you’re talking to an agent. And I’ll have to have a sit down counsel with somebody. OK, so what are you doing to stay in touch with your clients? You know, have them in my CRM and then subscribe to a newsletter. OK, well, that’s a newsletter. Staying in touch with your clients. What are you doing to stay in touch with your clients? Like when’s the last time you called them or texted them or stopped by or wrote them a handwritten note? How are you providing value to them? Are you checking to see if they’re OK? All these different things that you talk about on that level, just expanding that to a brokerage level, right. That you’re actually reaching out. You’re touching and connecting with people. You’re doing that not just with your own, but with your other connections between communities so that you’re a resource for them, too. And that was when we were doing really early on in covid. And it sounds like a sales gimmick, but it was really genuine, to be honest, which was people were just calling and checking on each other. And what that does both for retention and for growth, is really important because there was no pitch at the end of it. Oh, well, if you’re thinking change of brokers, it was just like, how are things going? What do you need?

What’s what have you been what obstacles have you been facing and being more involved in our local association and staying connected in that way and not holding back information, but actually being a provider of information. So you’re a resource during those times? I think there’s a natural inclination when things are hard to hold things tighter to your chest instead of being more open heart. It’s exactly the opposite of how we’re all feeling in that moment a lot of the times when there’s so much fear there. But if you can continue to be, I don’t know, I guess a thought leader and sharing that information and putting that out there and just making those real connections, the same type of connections that we encourage agents to do that can make a difference for sure.

Katie Ragusa: Yeah, well, I know I’ve learned a lot today and we’ve had tons of great content. So before we go, Melody, why don’t you tell people where they can find Corcoran Global Living and you start.

Melody Foster: So Corcoran CEO, our CEO, and Barbara Corcoran, G.L. dot com is our website, so you can find us there. All of our social links are there, too, for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, all that good stuff. So you can find us on all those places, find me on LinkedIn or you can email me at Melody.Foster@CorcoranGL.com.

Katie Ragusa: Yeah, I know you guys have more roll ins in mind. So if you a quick look at the brand and want to reach out, you’ve got all these information now.

Melody Foster: Yeah, absolutely. And I will say, you know, not to make the pitch to everybody on here, but we are in California, Nevada, but we’re not limited to those areas. So anyone wants to chat. I have all kinds of good things to say. Great.

Katie Ragusa: Well, thank you so much, Melody. That’s been really helpful. It was great just having a conversation with you and learning from you, sir.

Melody Foster: Thanks for having me again. Really appreciate it!

CEO | Director of Strategy
With more than 17 years experience in the real estate industry, including being a Realtor and Broker / Owner, Stegemann brings a wealth of knowledge to this job as CEO of TRIBUS. He focuses his time on helping brokers enhance and expand their business and working with the TRIBUS labs team to consider what's next in real estate.
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