Workman Success Systems senior coach David Wiesemann received an unexpected shoutout one Friday morning on a routine coaching call with the rest of Workman’s coaches. A fellow coach shared the news that David had won an award, and immediately the chat exploded with praise.
“Congratulations to David!”
“Broker/Owner of the Year!”
Slightly taken aback, David thanked everyone and admitted to, in fact, winning an award. As a coaching company, it’s not uncommon to point out and celebrate the success of others — it’s part of what creates the wisdom of our particular crowd of real estate coaches. Sharing is caring.
So naturally, my intention was to speak with David and hopefully understand what it takes to win the RE/MAX Broker/Owner of the Year Award — in a pandemic no less!
While it did become clear after talking with him why David deserved his award, we hardly talked about the accolade itself.
“Have more humility. Remember you don’t know the limits of your own abilities. Successful or not, if you keep pushing beyond yourself, you will enrich your own life—and maybe even please a few strangers.”
A.L. Kennedy
What Can You Tell Me About Your Real Estate Business?
Q: Where did you start and where are you now?
David: I got my feet as a realtor in 2013, kind of at the tail end of the crash. Our office was going under, and I had never thought I’d be a broker/owner, but I ended up buying our office and adopting all the agents.
In the last seven or eight years, that office alone has grown from eight agents to 83. In the meantime, I purchased an office in a couple other locations, and so today, I have three offices and 191 agents.
[…]
Q: How did you become a coach and team leader?
David: Teams became really important three or four years ago, and I could see the future of teams being a solution for overworked agents. A lot of agents were and still are working seven days non-stop, and that’s just not healthy. It’s important for agents to have balance. So I could see the future of teams, and when I started looking around in the market, Workman probably had the best system and process for building teams.
So I became a [coaching] client and then a coach and then wondered, Do I build a team? I have multiple offices. I’m super busy. Do I build a team? What do I do?
Then I thought, if I’m really going to teach teams, I have to learn how to do it myself. One of the really cool things about when I bought my office was that every step that an agent takes, I’ve taken. I’ve called FSBOs. I’ve called expireds. I’ve done direct mail. I’ve farmed, and I do social media. All my agents can come to me and we can have intelligent conversations about these things because I have and still have my fingers in them.
But we had a rough start.
Q: How did your coach help you develop a successful team?
David: I don’t know…I just felt like he was somebody who had a different voice.
I grew up as an athlete, and I played college basketball for four years — full ride scholarship and it’s ultra competitive. My coaches always got more out of me than I thought I could get out of myself. I’ve had multiple real estate coaches, too, and gained a lot from them.
Yeah, so my team is functioning really well right now…I even hate to say it. Workman’s been really good for my business. My team and offices are doing great.
I’m a continual learner, too, and I think that’s another key piece. The more you learn, the more you earn, and I truly truly believe that.
[…]
Q: Tell me about what values you and your team have.
David: You’ve got to find those people who think vision is important, because we have to have the same vision — Where are we going? What’s it look like?
It’s also vitally important that people are here to do what they say they’re going to do; they’re full of integrity. They’re honest.
From the broker side, or as a team lead, I love to help people, but man if they don’t tell you the truth, you can’t really help them, so the truth is just essential.
Q: What makes you a successful team leader?
David: I put others first. I care about others. I’ll cheat myself before I’ll cheat anybody else, ya know?
And I think that if you look at our group of Workman coaches, that’s one of the keys to us too. The reason why we all love that group is because everybody’s willing to help and share.
[…]
I think the other thing that’s probably really, really key would be mindset. And I think the challenge that agents and team leaders have is keeping a healthy mindset.
The ones who implement proven strategies, the ones who do it now are the ones who end up succeeding. It’s not based on talent. It’s based on work ethic, consistency, and discipline.
[…]
I just love it when you can change people’s lives — the thing that I like the most. That’s more important than the money.
Q: What’s next for you?
David: I know everybody wants to push. That’s not where I am in my career. I don’t want to push, I want to focus on developing my team. Running three offices is a lot.
Do I still want to grow, yes, but I am really trying to leverage my time so I can do the things that I want to do.
Not that I don’t love to work. I love what I do. It doesn’t feel like a job, and that’s what gets me in trouble — I can work for hours and it doesn’t feel like work. But I want to stop that and spend more time with family and vacation and things like that. I want more space, more white space to think, plan, and continue to grow.
Q: And what about the award?
David: You know, this is the third time in seven years I’ve been eligible for the Broker/Owner of the Year, so that’s pretty cool. And one of my offices has been recruiter of the year for the state of Missouri five out of the seven years.
I was also the number one growing remax entity in the United States for a five year period and I didn’t even know.
Q: You didn’t even know?
David: I had no clue.
If you’re interested in getting a real estate coach to help you develop a successful team and a thriving business, schedule a free consultation with a Workman Success Systems business analyst to discuss your specific goals!
