Have you ever heard of the red car theory?

It’s simple.

We think we never see red cars.

However, not that I mentioned it, and you’re away from “red cars” (insert anything), so you pay more attention to them now.

Business and life are a lot like that.

The whole goal of the podcast and newsletter is often just to get you aware of opportunities for growth.

This week, I have 2 great opportunities for you.

The podcast is all about building a media company that sells real estate. It also includes 3+ marketing and sales strategies you can use to generate listing opportunities today.

But this week’s playbook is how to think as a leader.

Any leader going from 0 to 3, 3 to 30, or even 30 to 300.

I don’t know about you, but personally, I’d rather learn from someone who’s done it and made the mistakes than have to make those same mistakes myself.

That’s why this week, I wanted to share how to have organizational vs. tactical-level leadership like the Special Forces.

So if you want to build a team of any size or just want to become a better leader, you’ll enjoy this one.

— Andrew

Playbook

Leadership isn’t just for massive organizations; it’s for leading a Navy Seal team of 3 or 10.

It’s for your family.

Even in your community.

Levi Rodgers was a commander of Special Forces 18 in Afghanistan.

After being the lone survivor of a devastating IED explosion that lost him nearly everything, he spent 6 weeks in a coma.

The PTSD and thoughts alone could have sent him spiraling forever.

This is not a story of his journey.

This playbook is how someone who nearly lost everything got inspired to become a Realtor selling his $150,000 home

Inspired to become a realtor in 2011 after an agent's generosity and advice helped him make $150K on his own home sale learned from:

• Struggling as a solo agent

• Growing from 0 to 3 to 27 agents selling $95M in his 3rd year

• Expanding & acquiring a franchise, and putting systems & leadership in place

• To 300+ agents selling 2,700 homes & $940M a year across 3 markets

So let’s dive into how you can build an elite team like Levi regardless of size, market, or struggles.

Use these 2 types of leadership ex. from Special Forces:

Tactical Leadership:

• More hands-on, direct involvement with day-to-day operations

• Example: "When my whole organization would fit in one room, you know, I would walk the whole team step by step"

• Involves direct interaction with agents, such as joining phone calls or providing immediate guidance

• Suited for smaller teams or when addressing specific, immediate issues

Organizational Leadership:

• Focused on higher-level management and strategy

• Example: "Now organizational leadership, the message may be, hey, your mentors, your coaches, your leaders are going to walk you through this process. If you have any questions, get with them"

• Involves delegating tasks to mentors and other leaders

• Concentrates on overseeing the entire organization, setting direction, and solving systemic issues

• More appropriate for larger teams or organizations

So we’ll start with tactical level leadership and then talk more about organizational level leadership.

Levi believes that when you build a strong culture, you win more listings and grow as a team.

He carries over his military leadership philosophy of putting people first, focusing on providing more opportunities for his team.

So these are 3 foundational systems he put in place to help build that culture:

1. 5-day onboarding process so new agents learn how you work

2. Mentorship groups are pods (mini-teams) so you scale agent accountability

3. Accountability meetings to review each agent’s individual goals, and if they’re on or off track.

It’s the small details consistently that create the big outcomes.

When you go from 1 to 10 or 3 to 30 you need to start scaling communication.

If you don’t use something like Slack, you need to check it out.

Levi has numerous channels:

• Leaders

• Departments

• Coaching groups

• Pilot programs for new projects

• Lead delivery for lead source management

• Barriers channel for problem-solving

• Broker questions 

These create more collaboration throughout the team:

Levi believes in making decisions based on data rather than emotion:

• Regular review of metrics and KPIs

• Weekly leadership meetings to go over performance data

What the accountability meetings look like:

• Held with mentors

• They go over every single appointment delivered by the organization

• They go "connection by connection, metric by metric"

• They track conversion rates, especially Zillow

• Their main KPI is offer rates

When you’re building you have to be willing to change before you’re forced to change.

Levi’s belief in organizational adaptability is something I learned is massive.

Now when you’re scaling from 10 to 100 or 30 to 300, you have to have levels of leadership:

Leadership meetings:

• Held every Thursday at 11:30 AM

• Lasts 2-2.5 hours, sometimes up to 3 hours

• Attended by all mentors, the managing broker, and Levi

• They review connections and metrics on a weekly basis

• Look at data from the last 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days

• Make decisions based on activity over the last 180 days to account for seasonal fluctuations

Deep Dive with Levi:

• Weekly session held every Tuesday at 10 AM for 2 hours

• Attended by 120-170 people

• Often focuses on issues identified through data analysis

Despite Levi’s level of scale now, he still has a tactical presence.

This is similar to the “Founder Mode” trend Brian Chesky & Paul Graham started in the tech & startup world.

• Levi regularly walks the floor, engaging with agents directly

• He meets every new agent that joins the company

Annual Planning Process:

• Brings in an external facilitator (graphic recorder) for annual planning sessions

• Conducts SWOT analysis and prioritizes actions

• Creates visual representations of plans for ongoing reference

Here’s a quick look from a high level how Levi thinks of leadership.

Recruiting Philosophy:

• Levi believes "most problems of real estate are solved through more people"

• They focus on recruiting and training people to meet the demands of their lead-generation efforts

• They have an open approach: "If you haven't committed a crime and you're legal and you're willing to be coachable, we probably want you"

• They're open to both new and experienced agents, especially as market conditions have made teams more attractive to experienced agents

• Levi meets with every new hire personally during onboarding

Organizational Structure:

• President and Managing Broker, handling organizational details and staff management

• Director of Buyer Agent Operations, leading the mentors

• They have 8 mentors split between buyer and listing sides

• Specialized roles include listing coordinators, listing facilitators, and a logistics coordinator

• Full-time ISA team working 7 days a week

• Agent Advisory Board to provide diverse agent perspectives

• Levi remains heavily involved, focusing on future operations and business development while still engaging in some tactical leadership

This for me was a mini masterclass in leadership with Levi so I hope it helps you too!

If you want to dive deeper into Levi’s playbooks then check out his podcast on Breaking and Building Leaders!