A Team Within A Team (Within a Team?) with Tiffany Gobster [Inside The Team]

A real estate agent and a real estate team leader like Tiffany Gobster could build her business anywhere anyone would be happy to have her. But for well over a decade and running, she continues to choose to do it inside the Lawton team. Here in the eighth and final episode of our Inside the Lawton Team series, you're going to hear so many of the themes that were introduced in the previous seven episodes and echoed throughout those seven episodes come up as Tiffany shares her story of moving into the real estate industry.

I was a bartender, just like George. I actually grew up with George and Jen. They knew me when I first moved.

Here, when the dramatic experience that told her that she had to launch her team. Now thinking about launching teams inside her team, inside the Lawton team. Culture, leadership, opportunity, growth path, it's all here. Here's my conversation with Tiffany Gobster. Our closing episode taking you inside the Lawton team on real estate team Os. Tiffany, thank you so much for making the time today. I'm sure you have a busy week. I appreciate you sharing your story with us, but I'm going to start. Before we get into your journey into the Lawton team, into the industry, into the Lawton team and into the Gobster group, I would love for you to share a must have characteristic of a high performing team.

Yes, culture is the most important thing. My team and the Lawton team. Right. So we're a team within a team. The biggest thing that we have, I feel like that's been beneficial to us is each other.

So.

So culturally, whoever we hire has to kind of fit that box, that we're a family and we help each other. And if you're out of town, I'm gonna help you show. If you're out of town, we're gonna help each other. And culture is the most important thing for a team.

And for you is that. Has it been organic or has it been intentional or a little bit of both. And by organic, I just mean, you know that you and your own personality, your style of work, what you envisioned for yourself when you started imagining your own team and just modeling some of that. Or is it like a we're gonna kind of talk about it and decide who we are already and who we want to be. Like.

Yeah.

Is it a little both?

It's both. So I think in the beginning, when I joined the Lawton team, that's when we kind of realized, oh, gosh, this is like, we're all just friends, right? We all kind of help each other. And then when I started my own team, I hired my best friend. I was like, oh, come work with me. Right. But then it's been intentional because then after that I'm like, well, wait a minute, who's going to fit this little tribe that we have? And then as we've grown, that's the biggest thing is when I'm interviewing somebody, you could be the biggest, top producer, but if you don't have the same mindset that we have, it's not going to work. Right. So I feel like it's goes back to that culture thing. So cool.

Well, let's go back to the beginning. I was, I was going to say, what's the state of the Gobster Group today in terms of agents, staff, etc? But we'll go. We'll go in chronological order. Like, how did you get into the real estate industry? What brought you in? How, how and when did you find George and the Lawton team and kind of take it from there?

Yep. So I started real estate almost 12 years ago. I was a bartender, just like George. I actually grew up with George. They knew me when I first moved here when I was 18 years old. I worked with Jennifer at the Moon Saloon and George actually worked at like a neighboring bar. And they started real estate a couple years prior to me. And I was pregnant with my third baby. And at that point I'm like, I gotta. I can't work in the restaurant industry anymore. Right. I was in my late 20s and I'm like, I gotta figure something out. And actually our old broker used to be one of my regulars at the restaurant that I worked at. His name was mark Paris with ReMax. And that was who George worked for. And he kept pushing me like, tiff, you gotta do estate. Like, you have the best personality. What are you doing? Like, why are you still doing this? And so I interviewed a couple teams, and even though I had known George and Jen, I was like, oh, you know, let's. I want to interview him and see. So it was just the perfect fit. Like right out of the gate, I'm like, yep, this is exactly who I'm going to work for. I told him I have to make $2,000 a month or my family doesn't survive. Like, I can't, you know, let go of this until you promise me that I'm going to make that. And as soon as I let go, I mean, of course, you know, that's all history, but that's pretty much how I started. Yeah.

Are you hiring new agents? Like people from outside the industry? As you were.

Yep.

Okay, cool. So. So in your own experience, and I'm sure you then convey this to other people as you're interviewing, as you're kind of trying to calm some fears or answer questions or satisfy expectations, what about the industry was as you expected, and what was completely unexpected?

Ooh, that's a very good question. What was expected? I think the. How am I going to put this? I think we can work any hours that we want, right? Which is really cool because I can leave my daughter's soccer game and I can go to an appointment. I can kind of work whatever hundred plus hours a week that I want to work. So I think that was one of the things that I didn't know about the industry is how much you actually work. Right. Like, I knew that it was going to be flexible. And that's why what I loved about it, because I had three kids and a husband, and my husband's a fireman, so it just kind of fit into my box. Um, but, yeah, I did not know that we were going to work as much as we do. Even though we get to fit it into our schedule, it's definitely. You're working all day every day.

So, yeah, there really is no off, uh, for you. When did it click? Like, this is something I really enjoy. This is something I'm good at, and this is something that I'm committed to. Like, was there a moment or was it just kind of. Okay.

There was like, an exact moment. So I was still working at the bar, and I remember I was like, okay, I was answering my phones and I was loving every second, but I'm working at the bar while I'm answering my phones. I had five in escrow at the time, and I had only been in real estate for three months, which is kind of crazy to have that many. And this is before we had. I mean, we only had sign calls back then. Like, that's how we got leads. It was just a different time. But, yeah, I remember praying that day. It's like, I'll never forget it being like, okay, I actually. I love this. Should I let go? And I could feel that moment. That was the moment I was like, I'm quitting. And I quit that day, and I let go and I went all in. So it was three months into the industry that I just got busy, and I was like, I fricking love this.

So awesome. What was the. What was the time window between. I'm off and running, I'm doing well, I've got my feet under me. I love this. When did team occur to you. Like, when did you think, maybe. Maybe I need to bring a couple people alongside me and then we'll get into, like, who were those people? And were those the right people? Not the right personalities, but the right roles?

Yep. Year three, and it was. I had just built this business up so much that I couldn't handle it anymore. It had gotten to the point, I think at that point, I had 18 to 20 in escrow by myself. I mean, yes, we have a transaction coordinator and all that, but it's too much for one person to be running and doing all those showings. And I actually. Car accident. Oh, no, Because. Oh, yeah. I'll never forget it. I was so busy that I just. My brain wasn't there. And I smashed a car. It was totally my fault. Both of our cars were totaled. Thank goodness we were both okay. But. But that day, I was like, okay, I gotta let go. I have to. I cannot be in control of everything. I'm a control freak. And that. The next morning, I hired my next agent. So my first agent.

What were your. What were, like, the. The first three to five hires?

Um, so my very first hire was my. One of my very best friends. Um, she was already working real estate with a different team. And I just called her and I said, hey, you know, I'm. I'm looking for help. Would you want to come over and work with me? I have an abundance of leads. I'm too busy. I can't handle it all. And she jumped in. She was like, yep, I'm in. So she was my very first hire. My second hire is actually my partner at this point now. He was the ISA for the Lawton team. So he was the guy that made all of our calls in the office. You know, he was the one that would set the appointments for the agents, and he had decided to be an agent, and so he chose me to work for. He had come to me and said, hey, Tiff, I know you're busy. You know, you and Kelly can't handle this all. Can I jump on, too? And I was like, yeah. So he's been with me now for almost 10 years. So. Cool. How did that.

How did that conversation come up? Like, were. Did you pioneer. I mean, I know you were very early with the Lawton team, so I. My imagination is that you. There's a chance you were pioneering the team within the team.

Yeah.

Is that something they had established or, like, how did that conversation go at that time, especially knowing that you were able to bring one of their ISAs who wanted to Be an agent into your team, inside the team. Like, how did that go from like a. Was that a normalized transition yet, or did you help pioneer that?

No, I think I pioneered it. We created it. So George and I. I mean, I was so busy, right, that I'm like, oh, should I just have a couple assistants? Like, how do we do this? And it was George's idea. He's like, what if we did a team under a team, right? Like, what if we can make this work? And, I mean, I think I was definitely the first one to take that leap because I was the busiest at that point. And then obviously a couple other people followed shortly after me. And it's. It's worked out perfect. I mean, I never want to leave George. So this was the best way in order to kind of grow within the Lawton team. So, yeah, I.

Okay, so this leads me somewhere I wanted to go later anyway, which is, you know, you obviously became a very successful agent. You developed the right habits, you developed a good network of people that are probably a nice part of your lead flow, and you could continue growing anywhere. I mean, obviously George had a vision for you growing within the Lawton team. But what was it for you that had you decide that this is the place I'm going to continue growing?

Yeah, that's a good question. So, like I said, I. Well, I'm loyal, super loyal to a fault. But George isn't just. George and Jennifer are not just team leads to me, right? Like, they're family. Like I said in the beginning, it's culture. Culture is the most important thing. And I feel like no matter what happens in this industry, George is always going to have my best interests at heart, which in turn means my team, right? So we're all going to always be taken care of, because I know that George is. Is there, right? He's going to take care of us. So I just feel like he's such a good leader and I don't want to leave him. I joke with him. I'm like, I could, but I don't want to. You know, I just culturally, I think that it's such a good fit for us. So.

So now you have. I mean, even if the cultures are very similar, you have a subculture within this larger culture. I assume that you have your own team meetings, but then there are also probably all team meetings. Like, how does. Like just functionally in terms of communication and kind of day to day and meetings and training, how much of it is exclusive to Now I'm thinking about your staff and Your agents, by the way. Let's start there.

Yeah.

How many agents? How many staff? Ballpark.

Yep. So we have 14 agents that are in production and then we have an operations manager that kind of helps us behind the scenes with everything. Cool.

And then you're also then still plugged into the Lawton team to provide some of that, correct?

Yep. So George provides the, the listing side coordinator as well as the transaction coordinator, which kind of helps with our files along the way. Bailey only works for me. She's my operations manager, so she's going to handle my past clients, helping me with team meetings, helping me with my coaching calls. Just. She's basically my right hand gal, I would say so.

And that was something for you as you were looking at all of your responsibilities, you're like, you know, I would benefit because of my strengths and weaknesses and preferences from implementing a role like that.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I am not organized at all. I'm super high D. Really, really high D. And I, I just need to go, go, go, go, go. I'm a control freak and she kind of keeps me in line, is like, nope, hey, this is what we got to do. Right? She keeps us organized. I'm not organized at all. Okay.

And so in terms of like onboarding, training, coaching, is that all you guiding that with, with the agents that you've brought into your team, or is there also some access to or involvement with, you know, broader company team meetings, broader company team trainings, et cetera?

So that's the biggest thing about being on my team within the Lawton team. Right. So I have my own training, but then you get to jump on to all the Lawton team training, so you kind of get double. You get to do that training first with the Lawton team when you onboard, and then after you've done and completed all that training, you're going to come to me and I'm going to sit with you one on one and kind of do the Gobster Group training.

Are you still in production yourself?

Yes.

Okay, cool. How do you think about that? Is it something you're. You've. I have to imagine that as you talk with other people, you're like, should I, shouldn't I? Like, how are you thinking about it? You know, like, do you have a plan for it or you. Or is it just something that you love? I mean, I've talked with people on both sides, but, like, I left as soon as I could and yeah, I'll never leave.

I love it. So I've tried to kind of slow down my production. And I have significantly. But there's certain clients of mine that I never want to let go of. Right. We've built those relationships over the years, and they've referred me their friends and family. And I love this job. Like, I truly feel like real estate's the best job in the world. And if I went out of production, I don't know that I would be as happy because I would just be doing more the operation standpoint, not that personal relationship. And I feel like that's what I'm the best at. So instead of just completely going out of production, a lot of times I'll just add an agent with me, one of my agents. That way we're kind of working it together so that I can kind of get both. And I think the future looks like me doing more of that because there is some that I tend to just, okay, this is my client. I'm going to keep them. I don't want to release control, but I probably eventually will add an agent onto everybody moving forward.

Good. So you're holding onto the things that you love and bring to life. I assume then too, that you also love this idea of coaching up and training agents based on your own experience and your own success. What about that transition into not just taking care of buyers and sellers at the highest level, but now it's buyers and sellers or maybe now it's just sellers.

Yeah.

Very common job to also including agents. I mean, you have other people to care for, to invest in, to grow. What about the transition into team leadership was maybe easier or better or more fulfilling than you expected, and maybe what are a couple things that were harder than. Than you expected? And I'm asking just on behalf of someone who's on the verge of going down this road and calling a friend of theirs who's also an agent, saying, come alongside me as you did years ago.

Yes. If you're gonna be in production, it's your spread thin. Right. There's only one of you. But that's why I have a partner. That's why I've kind of added him to be my partner. Cause it's. I need help. I need him to help me. Right. And eventually I'm probably gonna elevate some more agents to help with that with the coaching and, you know, mentorship and that sort of thing. Because you are spread very within. That would be probably the one negative. The positive is I get to change people's lives just like George changed my life. Like, that's. That's why I do this now. Right. Like, I don't get to just help my clients, but I get to change my agent's life. And that is the most fulfilling thing I think that anybody could hope for.

So, yeah, it's fantastic. Talk about the process of, I assume to develop training. Complete assumption on my part. To develop training, you're going to be reflective of your own experience and the way that you do things, and you're gonna write some of this stuff down and then all of a sudden you're gonna be able to have this kind of sequential. And then the process of, like, what do different people need to know at different stages or these kinds of things? What's the process of developing your own onboarding? Well, I guess let's even. We can start further back than that. As you're thinking about, I wanna bring more agents on. What types of agents and then what type of training are they gonna need? Like, how did all. There's a lot of moving pieces there. But for you, how did you start doing some of that work of documenting what was successful for you and attracting the right people into your organization and getting them trained up the right way?

Yeah. So in the beginning, years and years ago, I had a coach and I actually took a ton of notes whenever I had that coach. Right. Because this was before I would release any production. So it's when I had a couple agents and she really was working with me on release control. Tiff, like, you need to release. So I had all those notes. We also work close with Tom Ferry, and I've had lots of coaching with George and Billy and Scott on the Lawton team. And I've kind of just implemented and pulled things just from my knowledge. Right. So like you said, I'm jotting stuff down and being like, this works, this doesn't work. And I do put it into my coaching calls too. I sit down, I go, okay, what's been beneficial to me in the last six months with buyer consultations, Right. Or like today, this buyer broker agreement. We had our team meeting today. How am I going to sit down? So I sat down and pulled every amount of information that I've studied. So in, you know, from George, from Billy, from just pulling from Facebook, just people talking, and then I just kind of create it. I mean, I'm not organized, but. But writing down those notes, I live from my notebook. I have a little notebook that I just write stuff in all day and then I'll go back and I'll put it into motion. So.

Awesome. Well, science. Science does agree with you that writing things down by hand is the best way to. It's definitely much better than even typing it.

It's the best. I write everything down. Like, even if you're my buyer, I'm going to write you down. I'm going to put it what your children's names are. When I notice things that you like. If you're like, oh, I love a bathtub. All right, he loves a bathtub. You know, I mean, And I write it all down. So I'm old school for sure.

Really good.

Yeah. It's interesting that that's. That's actually scientific, too.

You're committing it to your brain in a different way. How? I assume because of the same reason one of your early mentors said you should come into real estate. I'm sure that probably some aspect of attracting the right agents to you and your group is natural to you, but I'm sure there's also some muscle to flex there and develop in terms of, like, recruiting and onboarding. Agents talk about that part of. Because that was a new layer, you know, when you had your own team. Talk a little bit about how you started approaching recruiting.

Yes. So when. So I do a lot of it on Facebook. Right. Word of mouth. We have a pretty small community here in Peoria that I'll throw it on Facebook. And then I've had other teams. Like, I have a team that I adore that's not a part of the Lawton team. That her niece works for me because she was like, you need to go talk to Tiff. Right. So I'll put it on Facebook and kind of, you know, explore that. There's been a little bit of recruiting within the Lawton team, but mostly it's just kind of been word of mouth for me that I'm like, hey, I'll throw it on Instagram, Facebook, I'm hiring. And then whenever I interview them, there is something I'm looking for. Right. And it's not a personality trait or anything like that. I want to know if you are coachable and you're teachable. I want to know that you're going to work hard and that you're going to stay positive and that you're going to buy into the culture that we've created. Because that's the biggest thing about my team is, is all of us together. We collaborate together and we work together. So I need to make sure whoever I hire fits that box very good.

Yep. I've heard a little bit of this language from you already, so I have a sense of what I might hear, but I Want to. I want to lay it out really clearly because you're a very successful agent and team leader. What is this about for you? Like. Like, what is your drive? What keeps you positive every day?

Or.

Or what kept you positive in the days when. When it was maybe a little more sketchy than it is today? Yeah. I assume that some of what you're looking for is some of what you realized was helpful to you on your own journey. What is this about for you?

Building my team is about changing lives. Right. So I wanted to create a team that I could help those agents do what George did for me. Like I had said earlier, my drive is obviously my family. I want to create a different life for my family than I had. You know, I want to be able to go on vacations out of the country, provide for my kids. My kids get to go to private school, which is great. We do it for, you know, for our clients. Like, let's not forget that. I mean, the reason I actually wanted to get into real estate was I bought my first house, and I didn't have the best experience. And no, it was not through George and Jen. I'm not going to say who, but when I bought a house, I was like, gosh, like, this Will wasn't the best experience. It kind of felt like he didn't care that much. And I think when I go into this, I remember why I'm doing it is for you. If you're my client, I want to make sure that you leave feeling like I cared about you. And I'm not just here to make money. Right. Like, I care about your family. We're in this for the long haul. This is the biggest purchase you're ever going to make in your life, and I get to walk it with you. So that's. I'm going to go back to. That's why I started doing it. And then I have to remind myself when it gets hard that, why are you doing this? Tiff, what are your whys? I have a huge board that's in my office, my personal office at home with all my whys. Like, and there's about 50 things on there. Why am I doing this? That I have to sometimes go in there and look at it and be like, okay, I'm re. You know, I'm refocused.

So, yeah, really good. How often are you coaching with your agents? Standing weekly, one on ones or as needed. Or, like, how does that go for you? Like, and how did you settle into that pattern?

So we try to do it once a month. When we get really, really busy, I'll be honest, we kind of, like, fluctuate. Sometimes it doesn't work out. And if everybody's busy, I want you out there helping people, not coaching. Right. Or I'll do one on ones with them if I feel like they're. They're in a bad place because we do, you know, this. There's peaks and valleys with this industry, and sometimes they need that extra attention with me. So it just depends. But we do have a set once a month that we try to keep to on Thursdays, and It's about. For 35 minutes per agent individual, so.

Very good. What advice would you give to an agent who is curious about starting a team? Like, I'm sure you've been asked this question before by that person. How do you maybe, what questions do you want answered? Or what questions they need to answer for themselves? Like, how do you advise or guide this conversation for someone?

So you have to make sure that you can release control. Because I think there's a lot of people that try to be team leads, and they still are kind of selfish. You have to let go of that. You have to care about the other people a little bit more than you care about yourself. Not all the time, but, you know, you got to sit with them and be like, all right, I could be doing 50 things right now, but you need me for 30 minutes. So I think you have to have a selfless mindset and you have to really, really care about wanting to help.

Others grow on the other side. I have come to the mind by hosting many dozens of episodes of this show that there are tens of thousands, if not maybe a couple hundred thousand agents in North America who would be better off joining a team as opposed to being solo agents.

I laugh because I'm like, anybody that's not on a team. I just talked about this on a panel I was on last week. So go ahead. I'll answer your question.

Run it down. Like, run through the common objections so people can say, yep, I've. I've said or thought or felt or heard that. And then kind of knock them down as from your own experience as you see them, like. Like, what is real about the resistance? And maybe how. What should someone get past? And how might they get past that?

So splits, right? I think the biggest thing, and I'm just gonna say it, they're worried about splits. I'm not going to make enough money. Whatever. When I hire agents, my first question is, because they want to know about splits. And I'm like, I Need to know how much money you want to make. I'm not caring about the splits. I want to know, do you want to make $100,000? Do you want to make 200? Okay, cool. So we're going to work backwards, and that's how we're going to get that income. You're not going to worry about splits because that doesn't matter. You need to worry about families. How many people are you going to help, not how much money you're going to make. But in regards to the individual agent, I think that it's too hard. I don't. I don't think that they're going to end up surviving eventually. It's too hard with the way everything is moving and changing constantly for you to not have anybody to collaborate with. Right. I mean, there's not a day that goes by that I don't collaborate with somebody in my office about an inspection, about, oh, my gosh, have you ever seen this before? Have you ever seen a sewer scope like this? Have you ever seen a loan like this? There's so many things that go into each file that I feel like that's the benefit of the team, right? Is we're there for each other. How are you ever gonna take a vacation if you don't have support as an individual agent? I mean, I could go on and on about this for hours, about the difference between being on a team and not being on a team, but that mindset has to shift. Do you wanna grow and. And really surround yourself with people that are smarter than you? Then join a team. That's. That's why I don't leave George. Right. Like, I do feel like we're always bringing on people that I'm learning from, and that's the benefit of it.

So, yeah, I feel like I've heard from you in our time together so far. Something that I've heard as a primary thrust for more agents joining teams is like, if you love connecting with people and selling properties, join a team. Because a lot of the other stuff, I think a lot of people get farther down the road than is probably comfortable when they realize, oh, I need to think about this, I need to figure that out. I need to pay for this. I need to put that together. And in general, I feel like it's difficult to find a lot of those answers. Support guidance outside of a team model.

Is that 100 and you're not going to be the best agent for your client, in my opinion. Yes, you can go, you know, listen to podcasts, or you can listen to things all the time. But nothing beats being one on one with other people masterminding and asking questions and pulling everybody's ideas because I don't know it all. If I was by myself, oh, my goodness. I can't tell you how many times I probably not know the answer to something because I'm getting advice from so many people. So. Yeah.

And then the, like the, the local or regional or state laws, you know, that. The history of the immediate areas. I'm just thinking about how local the business is in general. You can't get answers to that on a podcast.

No, you can't. You can't. Definitely not even listening to. I mean, even with coaching. I guess you could in that, but it's. You're just not going to be setting your clients up for the best. You.

I don't think kind of backtracking a little bit is. So you're built on top of the Lawton team's tech stack. I mean, you're in. In a lot of ways, you're still plugged into the organization.

Yep, absolutely. Yeah. We utilize every single benefit of the Lawton team. Why wouldn't we? That's the benefit of it. Right. So we're able to be on Zillow Flex. My agents are. We are able to test all the new pilots that come in, which is really cool. And then I obviously get to just do my own repeat referral stuff. And Georg does help kind of with that kind of stuff too. So there's so much that I do as the Gopster group. But then there's that other pillar. Right. Of support and help that we get with the Lawton team.

Very good. Kind of a practical question. Just curious how you think about it. I, you know, some of the. Some of the resistance I've heard about teams within teams is like the branding thing. So, you know, we have the Gobster group, we have the Lawton team, we have my home group as broker. How do you balance those things? And then of course, you now also have individual agent brands, like or not. How do you think about that layering of things and maybe how do you guide people to leverage in one circumstance and maybe another in another circumstance?

Something that I've learned. It's funny because we came from ReMax, right. Which is the biggest name in real estate. And I'm not saying anything bad about ReMax. They're absolutely wonderful. But we were so scared to leave RE MAX because we're like, oh, that's us. We're ReMax. Right. So I think leaving them and then when we went to my home group, we kind of realized, oh, the brand didn't really give us that much. Yes, it's great to have. And they have great reputation. However, we are the brand. My agents, we tried to switch our emails because people, you know, they were like, are people getting confused with. We have a lot in team email, but then we're on the Gobster Group. Like, is this confusing for them? It's really.

That's actually a really nice. It's a really practical. It is.

It's like, is it? But no one's ever. I mean, I've been doing this with the Gobster Group for, you know, almost 10 years under the Lawton team. No one's really noticed because it's not the brand that they're going for. Right. They are wanting me or they're wanting my agents to work with them. So, I don't know. I mean, I guess we probably could be. Now that you asked me that question, I'm like, we probably could be better about that, like, moving everything to the Gopser Group. And then if my agents wanted to start their own team within our team, I do have that already kind of laid out how that would look. And they could have their own team within our team, too, so. But yeah, I don't know if they'd want to keep the Gobster Group under the Lawton team, under my home group, but, you know, that's up to them. So.

That's funny. I was going to ask about that, but I felt like I was getting pretty meta. Like a team within a team within a team. Yeah.

People are like, how does that work? I'm like, honestly, though, people don't care about the brand and I explain it to them. I'm like, here's the deal. We are a mega team, right? Like, we get. So you as my client, you're going to get everything that the Lawton team provides as well as the Gobstra group. Like, look at it like that. And they're like, oh, that's really cool. So we have multiple, you know, people helping us. Exactly. So that's kind of how I explain it to clients. And they love it.

So awesome. What's ahead for you? Like, like, as you look at the rest of 2024, as you look to 2025, like, what is your thought or ambition around what this becomes for you?

Yeah, just keep growing, Keep growing, keep adding agents, keep supporting my agents. I want to help them hit all their goals. And they've got some big goals for this year. So we need to focus on that. I want to focus more on past clients, kind of having those relationships with people that maybe I sold a house to 12 years that I haven't talked to. That's something that within this industry, some people are really, really good at. But when you've sold thousands of houses, it's kind of hard to get back to basics. So I think our motto for this year was going back to basics. We're going to go back to kind of what works. Right. Like, technology is wonderful, but sometimes picking up the phone and having a conversation or knocking on their door is going to be better. All this AI stuff. So.

Yeah. Well, it is interesting because it reminds us. It reminds us like, like having all this stuff available to us reminds us of power. Are you all door knocking?

No, not like we used to, but I did that in the beginning.

Right.

Like, but my, my agents are, they're starting, we're going to start doing door hangers and we're going old school, kind of back to how it used to be. And I think that this industry, with this all, all this buyer broker stuff and the buyer's agents going away, which is not going to happen, by the way. But all that talk in the media, it's relationship based. Right. So if we can create those relationships and that trust, you're, you're going to survive in this industry. You're not going to have an issue with any of the stuff that's thrown at us because, I mean, you care about people, you care about people. That's all that matters. So.

Yeah. Before I let you go first, thank you. It's an absolute joy.

Yes.

I love, I love everything that I'm hearing as I'm going inside the organization, you know, one person at a time, your commitment to continue growing and building within the Lawton team. And it just all makes sense to me and I wish you continued success in that. Yes, I have some fun pairs of questions that I tend to end these conversations with. And for you, I'd love to know, Tiffany, what is one of your most frivolous purchases?

Okay.

Or what's a cheapskate habit you hold on to even though you probably don't need to anymore?

I love it. I buy Stanley's. Like, they're going out of style. Hold on, hold it up. I have every color, okay? Every color. And they're $40 a pop. I probably have 30 of them. I'm not over exaggerating. So that would be something I spend way too much money on. And my husband thinks it's the silliest thing ever, but it brings me joy. So.

Okay. Do you have these on in a display case?

No.

Or like shelved Pro?

No, they're thrown in our cup closet. And every kid that comes over, all my kids friends, they know that they get to pick a Stanley with a weird lid. They're just like our regular cups. Yeah, we don't have cups anymore except for Stanley's, so that's awesome. Yeah.

For folks who are listening in Apple podcasts or Spotify, we do host these on YouTube as well. So if you want to see this Stanley with a. Was that a sticker of yours on as well?

Oh, yes, It's a sticker too. Here's my. Here's our logo. It's so beautiful. So beautiful.

So. So we do put these up on YouTube as well. Tiffany, you're awesome. I love your energy. I love what you've built for yourself and more importantly, even for the clients and agents that you've brought around you and your success. And I again wish you continued success.

Thank you so much. It was great having you guys too. Thanks for checking out this episode of teamos. For email exclusive insights every week, sign up@realestateteamos.com.