Why servant leadership is fueling real estate’s fastest-growing brokerages by Emile L’Eplattenier, Gina Baker for HousingWire

HousingWireHousingWire

Servant leadership is more than a lazy LinkedIn buzzword cooked up by corporate PR teams. It’s a crucial reason why new school brokerages like The Agency and Real outsold Keller Williams last year. If you want to scale your team or brokerage in 2025, lead by example, or get left behind.

Not convinced? Mauricio Umanasky, founder and CEO of The Agency, the second fastest growing brokerage in the country in 2024 according to RealTrends, is still taking listings. Real President Sharran Srivatsaa offers so much in-the-trenches advice for agents on social media that he comes up as an “internet personality” instead of a multi-billion-dollar brokerage president when you search his name on Google. The numbers don’t lie: servant leaders sell more real estate.

To find out how brokerages leverage servant leadership to scale fast and keep agents happy, we sat down with Jen Cameron, managing partner for The Agency’s new Seattle office. She walked us through how servant leadership helped create the flywheel that propelled her brokerage to success, and how agents can apply it to their business to thrive in 2025.

Jen Cameron: By the numbers

Market: Seattle, Washington
Niche: The San Juan and Puget Sound island regions
2024 office sales volume: $220 million
Primary lead generation strategy: Sphere of influence, referrals
Highest ROI real estate software: Sprout Social, The Agency Creative Center
Real estate coach: Bill Pipes

Servant leaders scale faster

Cameron now runs a wildly successful brokerage for The Agency in Seattle, with over $220 million in office sales last year, their second year in business. How did she manage to scale so quickly? By staying in the trenches:

“I still sell. I still sit listing appointments. When my agents have questions, I don’t give them theoretical answers — I tell them what just worked for me last week. My agents don’t feel like I compete. They feel like I’m helping them win. Because I get it. I’m not up there at the top so far detached from what they’re doing.”

Leading by example doesn’t just build loyalty with her agents, it creates a flywheel that helps her improve her performance: “They make me a better agent,” she says. “They push me to stay sharp.”

The lesson is clear. If you want to grow your team or brokerage in 2025, lead by example, or get left behind.

How to become a real estate broker & launch a brokerage — Advice from a KW mega broker

Real estate is not a side hustle

Cameron was quick to point out that servant leadership isn’t easy. Juggling clients and running day-to-day brokerage operations takes dedication and sacrifice. She recalled waking up at 5 a.m. to catch a ferry to an island off Seattle for a listing appointment (and sometimes staying overnight) for listings she might not get. But it’s a non-negotiable in this market if you want to keep your agents motivated and scale your business quickly.

“I worked every single day in 2020, 2021, and 2022. I mean every moment I wasn’t asleep. Real estate isn’t just pretty listings and champagne closings. It’s schlepping A-boards, missing holidays, waking up at 5 am to catch a ferry, just for a listing appointment you might not get.”

If you’re not willing to put in the hours and effort to lead by example, you’re not going to make it.

Mediocre agents sell, great agents serve

Already grinding every day and not scaling as quickly as you’d like? Cameron’s advice for new agents might just help make 2025 your best year ever: focus on serving, not selling. It’s a subtle mindset shift, but incredibly powerful if you apply it to everything you do as an agent.

As a brand-new agent, Cameron made daily coffee meetings with people from her sphere a priority:

“Every day, I scheduled a coffee date with somebody I knew. Sometimes I had double coffees, eventually I had to stop drinking coffee because I was getting so many heart flutters. But coffee was cheaper than lunch or dinner.”

She never pitched her services, but approached each meeting with a simple question, one she still asks agents in her referral network at The Agency and those she mentors at her brokerage:

“I never reach out to people like, ‘Hey, send me clients.’ I ask, ‘How can I support you?’ That’s what creates real trust. That’s how I built my network—agent to agent, client to client, cause to cause.”

The ultimate guide to real estate networking

Even top 1% brokers benefit from coaching

Think real estate coaches are just for new agents? Think again. Most of the top brokers we’ve interviewed over the years work with coaches, and Jen Cameron is no exception. She’s worked with multiple coaches across her 26-year career in real estate.

Why would a former vice president at Coldwell Banker and Sotheby’s and current managing partner at The Agency need multiple real estate coaches? Here’s Cameron:

“If you only work with one coach, you will only know one way. I’ve had many coaches throughout my career. Last year, I hired Coach Bill Pipes as a gift to myself. He doesn’t do the ‘what’s your why?’ that so many real estate coaches lean on. His philosophy is that you’ll figure out your why. Instead, he focuses on the mechanics of your business — actually getting things done. I also work with a consultant, Stacy Jones, who acts more as a coach to help me build my business, brokerage and all aspects of my life.”

When it comes to running your business, Cameron suggested looking outside the real estate industry for a fresh perspective:

“A few years ago, I hired a business consultant outside the real estate industry. She was the one who convinced me that I needed to step down from my last job. I was working for Coldwell Banker as the vice president of luxury for Washington and Oregon. She said, ‘You must never work for anyone else again because you’re an entrepreneur and this is making you miserable.’”