The Power of Staying the Course

Q: It took you exactly one year from your first day to closing your first deal and ringing the bell. Looking back, what was the most important lesson you learned during that first year that you now teach to new agents?

A: Trust the process and keep going. Your mind will play tricks on you; it will convince you that giving up is the rational choice when things get hard.

 

Learning to recognize that voice and not listen to it is half the battle. The agents who make it aren’t always the ones who had the easiest start; they’re the ones who stayed the course when every instinct told them not to.

 

Q: You earned both the Pacesetter Award (2022) and Rookie of the Year (2023). What were the specific daily non-negotiables in your routine that you believe separated you from the pack that you now look for in other agents?

A: Being intentional about the commitments I set for myself and actually hitting them is what I believe separated me and what I see separating agents early on in their careers. Everyone sets goals, early mornings, call targets, and weekly numbers, but very few people consistently follow through.

 

It sounds great to say you are going to be in at 5:30 a.m. or make 500 calls every week. But when the rubber meets the road, most people fall short, and it is rarely because of outside circumstances. The truth is, it got hard, and they chose comfort over growth.

 

That’s the real separator. The agents who stand out early aren’t always doing something different; they’re just doing what they said they would.

 

Q: You’re known for a hands-on, people-first approach. What is the most common mental block you see in early-career agents, and how do you help them coach themselves through it?

A: Almost every agent battles the fear of the “what if” early on in their career. It’s the hesitation before the next call because you don’t know if you’ll get hung up on, or the anxiety before a meeting because the other person might not show. That uncertainty can become paralyzing.

 

The shift I try to encourage is flipping that same “what if” into optimism. What if they do pick up? What if this is the meeting that changes everything? Same question, completely different energy, and it changes your approach overnight.

 

Q: When you transitioned into leadership, how did you translate the success of your brokerage career into scaling a blueprint for agents stepping into their careers?

A: Honestly, I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. At Matthews™, we already offer a proven, pressure-tested path to success in brokerage through our training and mentorship programs.

 

Pair that with a relentless work ethic, and it is simple to follow. I bought into the blueprint, lived it, saw the benefits, and now I outline that same path for new brokers.

 

Q: What does a strong brokerage culture look like in the Phoenix office, day to day?

A: Culture thrives when everyone is here for the same reason. We all want to build successful, long-lasting careers, but what makes Phoenix so special is the genuine friendships our agents have for one another.

 

That combination is lethal in this industry and matters more than people think.

 

When you’re grinding through a hard stretch, the camaraderie makes it easier and more fun to push through because the people around you can pick you up, and you do the same for them. When you pair that shared commitment to success with a tight-knit group of people who actually care about each other, it creates a competitive energy that’s hard to manufacture. We didn’t have to force it; it just became who we are.

 

Q: As you look to expand the firm’s footprint in the Southwest, what is the biggest opportunity you see in the Phoenix market over the next 12-24 months?

A: A lot of brokers in Phoenix have taken their foot off the gas over the past couple of years, and that’s an opening we intend to take full advantage of. When the market slows, many competitors pull back, wait for conditions to improve, or stop creating momentum altogether.

 

We’re the agents who keep our foot down and move the market.

 

The result? In the next year or two, we’re positioned to take significant market share from the agents who have kindly created that opening for us.

 

Q: Brokerage is rarely a straight line. What advice do you give agents when they start to doubt themselves during a slow period?

A: It’s simple, yet effective. Control what you can control. Set hard but achievable weekly commitments and show up to them every week, without exception.

 

We don’t control when someone decides to sell a building, but we control how present and relevant we are when that moment comes.

Q: How do you define an agent’s success beyond just closing deals?

A: How seriously an agent takes their business is a big tell of success. Closings are an outcome, you can’t always control when they happen.

 

But you can control the attention to detail, the time committed, the early mornings, the late nights, the call goals hit, and the meeting goals hit. An agent who performs those activities at a high level consistently, the closings will come.

 

Q: How do you encourage agents in your office to leverage technology and data to sharpen their advisory approach?

A: Matthews™ is well ahead of the curve on technology. Both leadership and agents recognize the separation that will arise between companies and agents leveraging tech and those that aren’t.

 

The market has shown us that it is not really an option; it’s a requirement to adapt to the times. The agents who treat it that way will have a significant advantage over those who are still deciding whether to take it seriously.

Q: Looking ahead, what opportunities do you see for investors and brokers in the Phoenix market?

A: Phoenix is the fifth-largest city in the United States, and people are still flocking to the Valley of the Sun. Population growth is the single most important long-term stat we track; it’s the domino that stimulates growth across the entire economy, especially in commercial real estate.

 

All of these people need somewhere to eat, sleep, shop, get medical care, and build businesses. That demand doesn’t slow down.

 

We are very bullish on the Phoenix commercial real estate market for years to come, and frankly, it’s not surprising given the fundamentals.