Check out a Q&A with The Brokerage LLC, Real Estate and Business Brokerage, a winner in our Roaring Twenties event.
The company, founded in 2019 in Mount Pleasant, has 13 employees and is led by David Seay and John Teffeau.
Principals of The Brokerage have experience as tenant, landlord and business owners. The company has represented tenants, buyers and sellers in a variety of commercial and residential real estate transactions as well as business sales. It specializes in exceeding client expectations in marketing properties and businesses for sale and lease.
What changes do you see ahead in your industry and how are you reacting to them?
The internet puts information in people’s hands so quickly, especially in our industry, so we have technology tools that allow an agent to be nimble in the fields and then we train them on how to educate their clients as to how to interpret the information so it can be applied. Large websites are not providing the correct information to consumers and we train our people on how to protect the public as our call as Realtors.
How has your personal approach to leadership changed as your company has grown?
The more we focus on what is best for our agents on their individual levels (aka “meeting them where they are at present”), the better we all get as a company, employing the mastermind concept of putting many heads together increases learning and performance for all. Above all, we NEVER compare ourselves to other companies. We simply focus on doing and giving our best and we know the rest will take care of itself. We know that leadership can be a buzz word at times, but real leadership is mentoring and wanting the best for others and respectfully challenging growth at every turn.
What are the top attributes you seek when hiring employees? Are you planning to increase head count in the coming year?
We are absolutely expecting to expand head count! We are hiring daily because the word is getting out about how we can help agents grow personally and professionally. The top attribute we seek is hustle. We want people with work ethic that appreciate good old-fashioned hustle, which is why we use our proprietary #Hustle4Ever Training to help people get momentum and grow exponentially. All are welcome here.
If you were giving advice to business owners or managers, what would be the three most important tips you would include?
Think about what is in the best interest of the people you lead and provide those services to help support them. And if you don’t know what they need, be courageous and ask. Constructive feedback is the breakfast of champions, but you have to be willing to listen. Also, be intentional in your planning and have patience with a strategy once your owners know that they are committed to winning together. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it burned in one.
Fun fact
The founders met in passing one time in 2001 at a mutual friend’s party in New York City. Five years later, John moved to South Carolina and became a patient of David’s wife, who is a dentist. They all felt they had met before and in a few days they figured out how they had met and became fast friends for years until John and David decided to partner together.
