There's a question nobody wants to ask out loud:
"What happens when you have to shrink your team to keep growing?"
Billy Hobbs had to answer it. As COO of a team that closed $700M+ last year, he went from 75 employees to 27.
During that same period, the team grew to over 200 agents…
It wasn't magic. It was operational clarity, brutal communication, and an obsession with culture that most people ignore.
Here are the 5 lessons I extracted from his playbook.
— Andrew
Lesson #1: The system isn't your problem, the culture is
Here's the mistake almost everyone makes:
They buy a new CRM. They implement an AI tool. They launch an onboarding system. And 6 months later... nobody's using it.
Billy puts it this way:
Real example: Billy shares that agents would tell him "I don't like this CRM" when they hadn't logged in for 8 months.
You can't have an opinion on something you've never tried.
Lesson #2: The First 90 Days Decide Everything
Billy and his team are completely redesigning their onboarding process.
Why? Because they discovered that the first 90 days determine whether an agent stays or leaves.
The goal is simple: Time to Value. The agent needs to feel a quick win.
Lesson #3: The Numbers Nobody Tells You About Scaling
Billy operates at a 5% margin. Not because he can't generate more, but because every dollar gets reinvested into systems, people, and technology to scale.
How to apply it:
Scale your systems so they work the same with 50 agents as with 250.
Don't judge your business only by margin. Ask yourself: Am I reinvesting strategically or just spending?
Use the "Pilots" framework: test with a small group before scaling to the entire organization.
Lesson #4: How to Communicate When Things Get Hard
Lesson #5: AI Is Not The Answer (Yet)
How the Laughton Team evaluates new tech:
They don't ask "Is this tool cool?" They ask:
Does it align with our vision?
Will our agents actually use it?
Does it help them get in front of more people?
What they actually use:
Follow Up Boss: Not because it's the "best" CRM, but because they built the accountability culture to make agents use it daily.
Virtual Assistants (VAs): To scale repetitive tasks without adding full-time overhead.
The "Pilots" framework: Testing new tools with a small group before rolling out company-wide.
"At the end of the day, we're a sales organization. Every system we build, every technology we have, is to help our agents do more business."
Your Action Step For Today
Identify ONE system or tool that your team isn't using the way they should.
Now ask yourself:
Is there accountability to use it?
Who reinforces the behavior?
Is adoption being measured?
If the answer is "no" to any of those, the problem isn't the tool. It's the culture.
WANT THE FULL STRATEGY?
Search How to Grow Real Estate Teams Even During BAD Markets ($700M While Cutting 64%) on YouTube or your favorite podcast app to watch the complete episode now!
