On today’s RealTrending, Compass CEO and Founder Robert Reffkin talks next steps for his brokerage. The firm was recently listed No. 1 in sales volume for the second year in a row on the 2023 RealTrends 500 brokerage rankings.
While it’s been a difficult year, Robert is busy reinforcing the culture of the firm through in-person visits and a back-to-the-office mentality. We talk to Robert about his business strategy moving forward, what’s in store for his firm’s technology platform and where he would consider opening franchise offices.
Here is a small preview of today’s interview with Robert. The transcript below has been lightly edited for length and clarity:
Tracey Velt: What about something that you felt like you failed forward on? Something that did not work out like you wanted, but you learned really a really important lesson from it.
Robert Reffkin: Look, that here’s what the experience is of founding a company: it’s an experience of failure. Never-ending failure. And if you don’t fail, it means you’re not pushing hard enough. It’s like you’re climbing a hill and you feel like you see the top of the hill. You’re almost at the top of a hill, and then yes, on top of the hill. But, then you see another hill. Keep on doing it again. And again. And again. Like, if we would have decided just to be in New York City company. It would have been nice and easy. But we keep on pushing ourselves again, and again and again.
We talked about the entrepreneurship principles of Compass, these aren’t just values that we hang on a wall. So, there’s actually a logic to that. You dream big, move fast, learn from reality, be solutions driven, obsessed about opportunity, collaborating without ego, maximizing strengths, and bouncing back with passion. And bounce back with passion is the last one. The only way you don’t fail is if you’re not dreaming big enough. If you are dreaming big enough, and you’re moving fast enough, you have to fail eventually. And then when you fail, how do you bounce back? You got to bounce back with passion. So, how do you do that? To me, you start a new dream. It’s this never-ending cycle of dream big.
The RealTrending podcast features the brightest minds in real estate. Every week, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts share their success secrets, trends, and lessons learned navigating this ever-changing industry. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by Elissa Branch.
