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On this week’s episode of the RealTrending podcast, host Tracey Velt sits down with David Brooke — founder of the Brooke Team at eXp Realty — for a candid conversation about the challenges and rewards of team leadership in today’s real estate landscape.
From navigating team turnover and agent burnout to building a strong, values-driven culture, Brooke opens up about what it really takes to lead effectively.
He also reflects on a pivotal career moment and how lessons from parenting have profoundly influenced his approach to real estate leadership.
This conversation excerpt has been edited for length and clarity.
Velt: You’re with eXp and have a team, a downline and a coaching platform. How do all of those pieces come together?
Brooke: Well, the missions intersect with very one simple phrase that I’ve adopted over the years, which is “demand excellence.” And when I got started in this business, there were a lot of, I don’t want to call them lies, because it feels like that’s purposeful. But I believed a lot of things that were incorrect about the business — that others were saying about the business, or about themselves or about their own experiences.
He said these myths shaped his early career in ways that caused setbacks — particularly financially. These experiences now drive his approach as a leader.
Brooke: I just remember how that affected my life and the direction that it took me financially when I listened to that advice. And so my job as a real estate coach — someone in someone’s upline or even as a team leader — is to speak to what I know has really worked for not only myself but for so many salespeople.
And I want to be clear about this, that it’s not just residential real estate sales agents. I’m talking about just salespeople in general — the ability to be able to relate to someone out of knowing nothing about them, the ability to build rapport in a very quick basis with them.