Managing Broker: The Learning Lab

Author: Brian Copeland, CRS, ABR, GRI, CIPS, EPRO, Chief Engagement Officer, Village Real Estate, Nashville, Tennessee I found myself with a list of complaints from the brand new managing broker I had just hired for one of my offices. From poor office lighting to not enough social events, the list was exhaustive but mostly doable. The biggest obstacle was the lack of training space in the suburban branch office. We have a prime location in a historic downtown district; however, commercial space and the ability to expand is extremely limited due to overlays. With education serving as our number one value proposition at Village Real Estate in Nashville, Tennessee, this was a big problem. With 300 agents, we have over half show up weekly for our programs at the home office near downtown, yet few of the suburban branch REALTORS® came up for any of the offerings. I heard that one of the nonprofits we support generously wanted to build a mobile learning lab to teach children the importance of sustainable living. It was a perfect marriage: they needed a space that was mobile for the majority of the week during the school year, and I needed a space only a few times a month.

With a few signatures, we launched an innovative partnership.

The mobile lab is solar powered, with heating, air, lighting, monitors and WiFi. It seats 12-20 along colorful stations with interchangeable panels. It’s delivered by the nonprofit with a huge truck, and the employees take care of the set-up and teardown. While the idea was to support the suburban office, we found that our urban core REALTORS® loved the novelty and being able to get out of the normal education facility. That was the birth of “Pop Up Education” in our marketplace. As a company that has social responsibility in its core values, this was not only an opportunity to support one nonprofit; it was also a chance to introduce our professionals to other nonprofits. You see, we needed locations to host the labs, and our nonprofit recipients beyond the lab partner wanted exposure, too. We are able to use the parking lots of food pantries, family shelters, greenways and community centers to park the massive lab, and our agents are able to take some time to see where their donations are going.

So, how does it work?

My education team and I sit down quarterly to map out the plan for Pop Up Education. The suburban lab is always held at the office. The urban labs are at surprise locations and dates, which are announced two days prior to the class. In our meeting, we decide what nonprofits’ parking areas we can use and what the topics will be. Once we have the locations decided, we reach out to the director of development for the nonprofit to get permission. They are always excited to say yes. We instruct the nonprofit partner to expect the lab to pull in on the date at 9:15 am with class starting at 10 am. We request that someone from the organization join the class at 10:50 am to give an overview of their organization and then conduct an optional tour of their organization from 11:00 am to 11:30 am. Our agents know it’s optional, but usually all of them stay for the tour. Many report that they are able to use the information with homebuyers and sellers in their normal conversations as a connection point. Once we have the curriculum, speakers and locations in place, that list is sent to the lab coordinators and everyone involved in the process. From there, it’s virtually on autopilot from my team’s standpoint. Say a lab is on a Friday at 10 am. On the Wednesday prior, we use Eventbrite to set up a registration page and send out to our agents via our intranet and Facebook group. Usually within 20 minutes, all spaces are gone, and the waiting list is active. This comes at no cost to our agents. When the agents arrive at the mobile lab, everything moves pretty quickly. Classes start promptly and use a discussion format, with as little prepared curriculum as possible. We want the courses to be salient for the issues they are facing that week. It’s heavy on Q&A with the facilitator. Pop Ups have included social media strategies, video strategies, new apps and a host of other topics. They are taught by a top producing REALTOR® within our company or one of my education team members. For now, the lab is limited to our agents; however, we plan on taking the lab out to the streets for several other initiatives with home sellers, home buyers and REALTORS® who are looking for an office to call home. It’s a perfect set-up to take to community events like our local Hot Chicken Festival, Tomato Arts Festival or Oktoberfest to intersect with our community and educate them on the value of property ownership and using a REALTOR. Maybe we’ll randomly choose a street corner among some of the most popular food trucks in town and offer a cool retreat to eat and interact with one of Village’s REALTORS®. Perhaps we’ll be able to partner with real estate pre-licensing schools to offer lunch and a sample of the professionalism and education their students will receive if they join our brokerage. The possibilities are endless. It’s amazing when I think about the stress the new managing broker’s list of complaints brought me. Little did I know that list would birth one of the best things we’ve done at our brokerage in years.