Starting a real estate team and becoming a real estate team leader are two very different things.

When we first started building our team, we thought leadership would look like helping agents sell more homes, answering questions, solving problems, keeping everyone motivated, and creating a fun environment.

Over the last 10 years, we've learned that real leadership requires something very different.

In this episode of Josh and Kelly, we unpack how our definition of leadership has changed as we've grown F3 Home Team. We talk about the mistakes we made early on, the leadership blind spots we had to confront, and why being a great real estate agent doesn't automatically make you a great team leader.

We break down why casting vision became one of the most important parts of leadership for us, why constantly answering questions can actually keep you trapped in the business, and why challenging people is sometimes more valuable than motivating them.

We also get into something that gave us a tremendous amount of freedom as leaders: accepting that grown adults are going to make their own decisions. Our job isn't to force people to want bigger goals. Our job is to create the right environment, cast the vision, hire the right people, and give them the autonomy to build their businesses.

Leadership also means knowing when to slow down, having the emotional intelligence not to rebuild the business around the frustration of the week, and finding other leaders you can talk to because leadership can be incredibly lonely.

If you're a top-producing agent considering starting a team, or you already lead one and feel like everyone depends on you, this conversation will challenge what you think your role as a leader should actually be.

• Why selling a lot of homes doesn't make you a leader
  The skills that make you a top-producing agent aren't automatically the skills required to lead other agents.
• Why casting vision matters more than answering questions
  Leadership isn't about becoming the person everyone depends on to solve every problem.
• Why great leaders are willing to make people uncomfortable
  Sometimes caring about someone means having the conversation nobody else is willing to have.
• How letting go of control changed our leadership
  We stopped handholding grown adults and started giving the right people more autonomy.
• Why your team doesn't need to want what you want
  One of our biggest leadership breakthroughs was realizing our agents don't have to share every goal, priority, or ambition we have as team leaders.
• Why leadership can feel lonely
  Your team shouldn't become the place where you vent about the problems and pressures of leading them.
• Why slowing down can make you a better leader
  Not every frustration requires an immediate decision, new system, or change.

We're your hosts, Josh Rogers and Kelly Melody.

Through Josh and Kelly, we share the systems, leadership lessons, mistakes, and practical strategies we've learned while building and leading F3 Home Team over the past decade.

Our mission is to help real estate agents, team leaders, and business owners build businesses that create more profit, more freedom, and less complexity.