Stefan Contorno:
Hello and welcome back to another episode of The Key Ingredient Podcast. Today, I’m joined by Julia Spillman. Julia is the CEO of Eklund Gomes, perhaps the largest real estate team in the country. Julia is also one of the most powerful people in real estate. The Real Deal has called you a mastermind. Fredrik Eklund calls you a superhero and a genius. Your career thus far has been nothing short of amazing and impressive. And Julia, I just want to thank you for agreeing to spend some time with us today.
Julia Spillman:
What an intro. I mean, I’m just going to just end it right there. That’s all I need to say, right?
Stefan Contorno:
Well, thank you for joining us. You and that and then some. I’m really excited. I mean, I’ve had the pleasure of knowing you for a while, but I know your story to some degree, and I’m excited to have others hear your story. I know this is something you don’t do too often, so I’m really excited. If you don’t mind, Julia, maybe just begin by just telling our listeners just a little bit about yourself.
Julia Spillman:
I’m a Southern girl. You’ll hear a couple of my you alls and a couple of other words. Grew up in Kentucky. Spent some time in Florida actually in the financial services industry, and then made my way, switched over to doing the full-time real estate agent just over 10 years ago in New York City. Started with the parent company that we’re still at Douglas Elliman and most importantly and most proud of being partners with Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes and CEO of their amazing, amazing, wonderful national team, The Eklund Gomes Team.
Julia Spillman:
We are based in New York. It is really the mothership, but we’re in New York. We’re Florida. We’re California. And just recently as of April, we are in Texas as well. We really consider ourselves a national team and really super brokers. There’s about 80 of us spread across the US. And we’re very proud to be really year over year for almost the last 10 years really top of class in whatever market we’ve participated in.
Julia Spillman:
As my husband so famously says, it’s an amazing story for me, but it’s a little bit of an overnight success 10 years in the making. A lot of times I really like to talk about what went in before all the crazy accolades of where we are now, which obviously I’m so incredibly proud to be at especially as a female leader.
Stefan Contorno:
I mean, the numbers speak for themselves. Absolutely astounding, Julia. Let’s do this because I want to kind of build up to what you just really set up as far as where we are today, but let’s go back a little bit. Let’s go back to younger Julia maybe in high school or college or whatever it may be. What were you like growing up? What did you want to do? What were your aspirations from a career point of view?
Julia Spillman:
I think a lot of times… I mean, I speak pretty openly about this. My father, growing up in Kentucky, it was a little bit of, okay, you’re supposed to look and act as your mother. My father had this really interesting spin of what if you could do everything your father does as a businessman and everything that your mother does as a wonderful wife, mother, and housewife? I really loved that. And I think obviously I ran really hard with that.
Julia Spillman:
I was a big, big daddy’s girl, and I spent a lot of time traveling with him on spring breaks and summer breaks and really wanted to emulate a lot of what he did. He definitely wanted boys. He got two girls. My sister was a bit of the tomboy, and then I very much was kind of like the little businessman in the making. I’m very, very thankful that he kind of went outside of the box, especially growing up in a very, very small town in Kentucky. I mean, we didn’t even, and still to this day, don’t have a working…
Julia Spillman:
We have a caution light, so that’s about as fancy as we get. So kind of growing up in a really small town, but having these big city dreams, I think really formed early on that I wanted to try to do big things, but also have a really big mind to see things in a different light.
Stefan Contorno:
You mentioned you were in a wealth management for a little bit. I mean, was that the career path you taught yourself on going more kind of Wall Street route?
Julia Spillman:
Definitely because I think one of the things, I wanted something… It was always for like a bit, it was kind of my father was a complete engineer, so maybe it was a chemical engineer, then it was maybe an attorney like my great uncle. It was always something that was a little more, and I say this out of love, but a little more kind of like corporate and educated field.
Julia Spillman:
I think one of the things that real estate, especially real estate agents get a really bad rap on is that it’s not as professional, it’s not as educated, it’s not as sophisticated as Wall Street. And I think that’s an angle that I’ve been really able to take to this business, especially our team in the way that we see the business and we sell the business and really change a bit of that narrative in a positive light. We’re so incredibly proud. We have numerous Ivy League agents on our team.
Julia Spillman:
We have interns from some of the best colleges out there. I think with Million Dollar Listing and some of the other shows, it’s casted both a negative and a positive light on our industry, but I think it’s really made people think, “Wow! That’s a career path that I want to start in,” versus, “Well, maybe this doesn’t go right, or maybe I don’t love this and I can always get into real estate.” I think those days have really changed and that’s been a really positive shift in our business and probably honestly why it didn’t start there.
Stefan Contorno:
That makes a lot of sense. I think you’re right. I think Million Dollar Listing certainly helps that probably like you said on both sides, but it’s glamorized the business to some degree. Looking back years ago, real estate for a lot of people, as far as I remember, it was more of a part-time type of job, right?
Julia Spillman:
Absolutely.
Stefan Contorno:
Something you did just to kind of make some extra money. And now, like you said, now it is a career. You have really well-dressed, really smart people getting into the business. It has changed quite a bit. But as we mentioned, so for you, was the first stop being a private banker? Is that kind of wealth management? Is that where you started?
Julia Spillman:
Yes. My very first stop out of college was I worked for HSBC. I always was like connected to the mortgage business in some type of almost like a little bit more of like outside the box lending. So with HSBC. Then I worked for a more private shop, and then with Merrill Lynch. Always doing some type of asset backed lending, which obviously I think is, you and I have talked about this, I think is one of the most fascinating ways to obviously leverage in a thoughtful way indefinitely work collaboratively with both markets being in such a great place.
Julia Spillman:
Spent a lot of time kind of in that box. And then I think for me, I found myself wanting to be more of the process and the appraisals, the talk of the interior designers. It was just kind of like, wait a second, if I’m going to make a change, I really want to be on that side of the trade. I think obviously that gives me early on, it really gave me an edge because I understood not only the financing of the individuals, but really their portfolio, the high net worth client, but then taking it a step further.
Julia Spillman:
And I really understood more corporate financing. Working with these developers and working with builders of portfolios, I really understood kind of like soups to nuts, which a lot of agents, they really understood how to sell an individual unit. They didn’t really understand how to wrap the whole thing into the process.
Stefan Contorno:
Well, you’re right. I think that background, like you said, in wealth management was actually really good for you, because yeah, you were already touching on these types of things, especially from the lending point of view. So here you are, you’re working for a very large wealth management firm, and I’m imagining life is pretty good. And then all of a sudden, you decide something happens. For some reason, you want to make this type of change. What was the next step for you, Julia?
Julia Spillman:
Well, for me, actually the change was I actually met my husband who threw a Merrill Lynch dinner. We got engaged. And probably two weeks later, he gets a call to be promoted within his career. We sit down at the table and it was kind of like, okay, we’re going to move together to New York City. I’m going to plan the wedding. And then I think that I want to kind of give this other side, more of the sales route, a real shot.
Julia Spillman:
It really was an opportunity that kind of pushed me out of my comfort zone that I don’t know if I would have done if not. Because, of course, Merrill Lynch is an amazing, amazing company, but it was kind of like, okay, wait a second. Now this opportunity presents itself to make a change, not only obviously in moving cities and getting married, but if we’re going to do it, we might as well just do all of it.
Julia Spillman:
I spent three months really getting us settled, planning the wedding, and then really jumped into it and was very fortunate to have enough accolades from, of course, my days at HSBC and Merrill Lynch to be able to get a seat at the table at what I think is and what most people would agree is the best real estate firm Douglas Elliman.
Stefan Contorno:
Well, no doubt about that. I mean, what a great reputation. You went right to Douglas Elliman. Did you start out as a realtor there?
Julia Spillman:
Yep. I started out kind of like as a junior real estate agent on a smaller, but very well-known team there, and really staffed a lot of their open houses, did fill in showings. I mean, to say I started at the bottom is an understatement. I did rentals in the Financial District. I did rentals in Battery Park City. They’re as glamorous as sometimes the shows make it and sometimes even our Instagrams make it… It definitely started from the bottom.
Julia Spillman:
And even now that we have the number one contract in the city, which we had two weeks ago as well, it’s still not glamorous, but it is definitely something that I have such an amazing passion for, but it’s incredibly feeling. Every day is completely different. But most importantly, I feel like this is 100% my calling.
Stefan Contorno:
Clearly it is. It’s absolutely amazing. So here you are, a realtor at Douglas Elliman. How did you meet Fredrik and John? How did that happen?
Julia Spillman:
Again, one of the things that I think is probably some of the best advice to agents getting in the business, but also trying to kind of like make a break in the industry is do everything. If you can shadow someone, if you can work an open house, learn everything about the industry and learn from everyone. I was working a condo conversion project down in the Financial District and obviously knew who Fredrik and John were. They came over to the parent company Douglas Elliman around the same time that I started.
Julia Spillman:
And then, of course, had the show. My husband, oddly enough, was a huge Fredrik fan. I knew John Gomes very well just from the business, and Fredrik came in. I joked to John and I said, “Will you do me a favor? My husband is a huge fan of Fredrik’s. Would you ever take a picture?” We were laughing about it at dinner last week. The first picture I have with Fredrik was taken by John probably about eight and a half years ago.
Julia Spillman:
We laugh about that photo a lot because you just never know, but I kept really in their good graces and made sure to stay top of mind with them and, of course, any top broker in the business. I really did a lot of the unglamorous projects, a lot of the condo conversions, but I knew that I could really make my name that way. I always said, nobody’s really going to be remembered for selling another Tribeca penthouse. Like yes. Is it going to be amazing and is it going to pay well?
Julia Spillman:
But like that is something that’s always being done in the city. But I think in order to stand out, you’ve got to do something a little different. I really targeted on neighborhoods that the big, big brokers weren’t. The Financial District being one of them and did a ton of projects down there, again, a lot of not as glamorous stuff so I could show that I was a really, really hard worker and I was in it to really show my skill set.
Julia Spillman:
That fast forward several years got me in front of John and Fredrik on a pretty large new development project down there. Now, unfortunately, I didn’t have enough on my resume at that time to get the job, but they said to me… And I always say, I’ll never ever forget the feeling of John Gomes putting his hand on the back of my shoulder in an event and saying, “We really wanted you to get that. I know we’re going to work together at some point.” And of course, I’m thinking, wow, this guy really is so great at sales.
Julia Spillman:
I really believe that. But the thing is, one, he really is that good itself, but two, he really meant that. And then about a year and a half later, he called and he said, “It’s time now.” I went into their office and they had a project again at the Financial District and they said, “There’s nobody that can sell it at the level and the prices that we need to come out to market with. Will you do this project with us?” And that was about five and a half years ago. As we always say, really the rest is history from there.
Stefan Contorno:
That’s amazing. I’m picturing you doing a high kick in the picture. I love it.
Julia Spillman:
There’s been a lot of high kicks. That’s for sure.
Stefan Contorno:
Well, I’m sure, especially this year, you guys.. We’ll get to that in a little bit. So here you are, you’re a realtor. You’re working with John and Fredrik. Then there’s kind of this famous story, I guess, on the internet about you. From what I gather, it’s really the way that you stood out even more to both of them, and it’s the database story. I don’t know if a lot of people know about that. I don’t know if you’re comfortable discussing it, but maybe you could tell us just a little bit about that please.
Julia Spillman:
Well, I think one of the things, you’ve got Fredrik and John, who… If you’ve ever met them or you’ve ever seen them on TV or in an article, I mean, they’re like super humans. They are just personality plus. They’re the best at what they do, and they’ve been doing it for a really long time. At the top of their game. For me, there was a lot of this almost, okay, who am I within these two guys? What am I going to bring to the table?
Julia Spillman:
And I think that one of the things that I thought a lot about was instead of trying to be a female version of Fredrik or John, why don’t I find a way to make Fredrik and John a better version of themselves? And by virtue of that, I can become a big star in the industry. One of the things that I learned from working with them was, wait a second, our skill sets are like completely different. They’re incredibly brilliant at marketing and creative and dreaming up all the branding and the materials.
Julia Spillman:
I want nothing to do with that. I love the process. I love the databases. I love being extremely proactive versus reactive. We really found that we all oddly completed each other. One of the biggest, I think, skill sets that I brought to the table was really the process of it. They had this huge business, but they didn’t have the machine. They didn’t have the huge database. They didn’t have, again, all the as I kind of call it the back to basics.
Julia Spillman:
One of the things where I was able to really add value was, okay, wait a second. Instead of reinventing the wheel every single time we go into one of these projects, we’re actually already sitting on the database of these buyers, between them with, at that point, probably the 45 buildings plus that they had done and the fact that I had done most of the buildings in the Financial District at some point. So instead of, okay, let’s just start marketing to the masses, let’s actually go in and target market.
Julia Spillman:
We did so much of that building with our international partners, in addition to the people say at 75 Wall where I met Fredrik eight and a half years ago who were due at that point say four years later where they had purchased, they were looking to upgrade. We sold so much of that building, one, in record time, but to people that we already had within the database, instead of trying to recreate the wheel.
Julia Spillman:
I think that really was the light that kind of popped, that kind of said, “Well, wait a second, what if we took this across the platform,” but also really created a resell business with it, as crazy as that sounds.
Stefan Contorno:
That’s amazing. How many years ago was this?
Julia Spillman:
I did the project with them five and a half years ago. It was five years ago almost to the date that we sat down at dinner and said, “Okay, what is the next steps?” The famous story is, I said to my husband on the ride there that I wanted to do everything with John and Fred. And he said, “Okay, let’s figure out what exactly is the next step.” And I said, “No. Everything.”
Julia Spillman:
Now I joke that the jokes on me and literally I do everything with John and Fred, but that really is the blessing of my career to have not only them as business partners, but as two of my best friends. And as I always say, the brothers I always wanted.
Stefan Contorno:
Five years ago. Roughly if you remember I guess an estimate, what kind of sales volume were you guys doing five years ago?
Julia Spillman:
Five years ago, we kind of started, okay, how do we start working together? I became CEO exactly four years ago last week. We were tipping, or should I say they were seven to 900 million. It was the race to break a billion. The resell business, when we employed that and really started working that database, that’s what tipped us over a billion. That would have been four years ago.
Stefan Contorno:
Okay. So about four years ago, you broke the billion. Obviously a huge, huge number in the business. Not a lot of people do that. I want everybody really listen to this. Again, we’re saying this was four or five years ago. If you don’t mind, so here we are, coming I guess in the last quarter of 2021, what are you projected to do this year?
Julia Spillman:
We are projected to break over four billion in transactions this year.
Stefan Contorno:
I don’t follow religiously as you do, but I don’t know if anyone else is doing that.
Julia Spillman:
No. I mean, we were so fortunate to be the first team to break a billion. Like I said, that was the end of… That would’ve been 2018 or would’ve been ’19. All these years are just totally blurring in my world at this point. But about four years ago, we broke that billion. Then we did two billion. Then last year we were over two billion. Of course, with New York being the majority of our business and New York being shut down from essentially being able to do business for at least four months of that, we were so incredibly proud to post that number.
Julia Spillman:
And then to follow that, obviously with all four of our markets performing and being able to break over the $4 billion mark has, quite frankly, I don’t think any of us still believe it. But at the same time, I think all the teams have been performing across the board, but we really figured out what we’re doing. I think each of us personally and professionally, and I think I can speak for all of our 80 plus team members and staff, really are in the best place that they’ve ever been.
Stefan Contorno:
Absolutely unbelievable. You grew up in Kentucky with a caution light I think you referred to it as. You move to New York. You’re a wealth management banker. Now you’re the CEO of a team doing over 4 billion in sales. I mean, congratulations. Absolutely amazing. Julia, I mean, a lot of the people who listen to this podcast are entrepreneurs themselves. I mean, it’s not easy for someone to go from a wealth management banker to the CEO of the largest real estate team in the country.
Stefan Contorno:
I mean, psychologically, what’s that been like for you? How did you prepare yourself for that? Because it’s not just something you wake up and say that’s just what you want to do and it’s that easy.
Julia Spillman:
I think that’s the word you just said, how do you psychologically prepare yourself? Again, I’m so thankful to my parents and how they kind of raised us in the sense of like there were no limits for us and our mind and there was no limits for us as women growing up in Kentucky. We were the only ones to put that limit on us. I think that my sister and I almost took that too much to heart and we’ve always ran with that. I always thought it was silly. I think younger in my days even.
Julia Spillman:
Probably even like 10 years ago, the whole mindset. But now I would be bold-faced lying if I didn’t say that it’s so important to believe in yourself. I think one of the things that Fredrik John and the team has taught me is you say… I don’t like the way when they say fake it until you make it, but I think you have to put it out there. Because I always say to agents, don’t ever tell me that your goal is to sell as much as possible and to make as much as possible.
Julia Spillman:
Put something out there and really hold yourself to it. I think that that number… I mean, I remember when the four billion left Fredrik’s mouth first of the year and I said, “I cannot believe you said that out loud because now we have to make this happen.” But I think that by him being on such a large platform and being able to say stuff that quite frankly honestly I don’t even know at that point if the rest of us believed that we can. I know he does.
Julia Spillman:
But then it’s kind of like we have the spirit of like we’re really just competing with ourselves. I think that also kind of keeps us in a little bit of our bubble. We’re very aware of what’s going on in the industry obviously, but we also want to be leaders and not followers of the industry. We’re constantly, okay, we could stay at two billion and be 100% top of the game, but we’re competing against ourselves, not everybody else.
Julia Spillman:
I think the headspace that that keeps us in personally and professionally has really been a game changer. You and I talked about this. I have amazing coaches. I’ve done a lot of work with profiling people, a ton of work with hypnotherapy, because I think about a lot of things and why I thought the hypnotherapy was so interesting is it really was a lot of work of kind of almost rewiring yourself. I used to have a lot of problems with really stepping into the CEO role.
Julia Spillman:
We couldn’t figure out why I was almost so hesitant. And then as silly as it sounds, we realized that subconsciously I was connecting owning the CEO seat with giving up my youth. I think as women as we get older and stuff, we kind of go through those challenges already. And then it was just something as silly as that. We did a lot of work with hypnotherapy to really break those wires and rewire that thought.
Julia Spillman:
And then as soon as I was able to really kind of step and own that, I feel like for me, there really were no limitations. I think it’s really that mindset of the only limitations are the ones that you and your mind puts on yourself. I think if you can really believe that and really spend the time not worrying about what everybody else thinks, you’ll be able to have a lot more time to really think about the things that matter.
Stefan Contorno:
It’s amazing how the mind works, right? How mindset is just so, so important. Yeah, that’s amazing. By acknowledging something, and for you it was giving up your youth as a CEO, by acknowledging that kind of allowed you to move forward it seems like.
Julia Spillman:
I think too I’d be crazy if I didn’t say that one of the reasons myself and also the team is at the place we’re at is amazing mentors, amazing coaches, and some amazing support obviously from the industry and, of course, from our parent company. And again, we try to really insulate us so that, again, we’re really competing just against ourselves. I always say the great thing about our team where I think it’s so different in the industry is we’re all wake up as competitive.
Julia Spillman:
Even if no one’s ever going to see our workout, we’re going to have to do it better. We’re going to have to run faster. I don’t need to make sure that my agents are competitive. I need to actually make sure that they’re more complimentary of each other. And how do I get this agent whose so skilled with branding and marketing of properties that had been on the market for too long to work with another agent whose skill set is maybe cold calling expired listings and how do I pair them together to actually squeeze more out of that lemon?
Julia Spillman:
I think by creating this collaborative environment and culture, we’ve actually been able to maximize people’s performance instead of saying, “Okay, how do we get all of this amazing talented agents to compete against each other to be the best,” it’s like, no, no, no, you’re here on the best team in the world. Now we need to figure out how to get each other better. One of our agents, Seth Nelson, whose, I mean, just amazing. They came on from big team, gosh, a little bit over a year ago in Orange County.
Julia Spillman:
They run our Orange County team. He said, “Now we’re trying to figure out how to run the four minute mile.” And that hit me so hard and I was like, that is the perfect analogy of where we are.
Stefan Contorno:
That’s interesting. Training is obviously so important when it’s with agents or staff in general. But I think a lot of this comes down to the hiring as well. Do you do all the hiring for the team, or how does that work?
Julia Spillman:
We all, when I say all, I mean every single person has a hand in it. We’re very, very big about culture. Also too we take a lot of great pride in being able to identify and grow the superstars within our organization. I think that one of the things that we spend a lot of time on, and this is actually something I learned from my husband, is resume. Yes, you can send over your professional resume, but what are some indicators from your childhood that you would add to your resume?
Julia Spillman:
Those actually are much more telling of the type of person than anything in their professional history. Because obviously if a resume hits my desk, it’s gone through a vetting process that they’re going to be qualified to be an agent obviously within our organization. But what sets that person apart for me is what are those key indicators of success in their childhood. I’m sure we talked about this, you and I. What are some things from our childhood that would set us apart?
Julia Spillman:
That most importantly would say no matter who’s watching or who’s judging, I for myself have to be the best, and I’m going to push myself to that level no matter what the stakes are. I think that that is the one piece that you can see really ricocheted through our organization, is each of those were over performers long before we were really measuring what true performance was.
Stefan Contorno:
I think that’s a huge point you just made. I appreciate you saying that because, because you’re right. And that’s a really good exercise for anyone listening just to kind of go back and think about that. Because as you were saying that I was doing the same thing. You’re right. We have athletes who obviously they excel at sports and they’re aggressive. They train and they do things a certain way.
Stefan Contorno:
But you could technically, and maybe I’m wrong, but you could be a high school student or whatever it may be and maybe not be excelling at what you do, at least right now, but there’s still something that goes on in your mind or the way that you work, your work ethic, whatever it may be, that prepares you really to be the type of person who maybe will just work harder than everyone else. I like this part.
Stefan Contorno:
Because when you’re interviewing people or when you’re looking through these resumes, you’re asking these questions, you are trying to find not only culture, like you said, is incredibly important, you don’t want to hire somebody that’s going to disrupt that, but you’re also trying to hire somebody that has this instinct or this competitiveness, as you mentioned, when they wake up. Not everybody has that. That’s a really key thing. Here you are now.
Stefan Contorno:
You have 80 agents, as you mentioned, across the country. How do you handle all that? That’s a lot of people to manage.
Julia Spillman:
It’s funny because I actually think like that’s like that’s the most exciting part of my day. As you know, I spend a lot of time on the road. John Gomes always says when they go around the room and ask where all of us are based out of, he says New York. Fredrik now says LA. I had this weird look on my face trying to figure out. And he so gracefully says, “She lives on a plane.” I mean, I think one of the biggest bonuses and perks of this job is the ability to travel.
Julia Spillman:
But most importantly, to be able to travel with, like I said, with two people I consider two of my closest friends who are my business partners, who are like brothers to me, but also all of our agents. I’m speaking at Inman this year in Vegas and one of our rockstar leads in Orange County was Seth. She’s traveling with me. Going to be in Texas next week. I have a big work dinner on one night, and then I have a friend dinner, which a couple of the agents are attending on Wednesday night.
Julia Spillman:
I think the ability for us and really all of the bigger industries, this whole work-life balance. We all want to talk about it and act like we know the answer. But I think we live in this really odd way that works for us, have figured out that they’re always going to bleed, but we need to be very selective of who those people are within our organization that really would organically and authentically bleed between those lines by choice.
Julia Spillman:
We’re very proud to have very large personal and professional relationships within our organization, and we really do call ourselves a family. Fredrik was in last week, New York, and we had just tons of activations and big events. We had, I think, six of our agents from other markets who flew in on their own dime because they wanted to be part of it. They wanted to do some cross-marketing. They want to see friends from the team.
Julia Spillman:
I think that for us is one of the things that we see as a success of obviously what we’ve built.
Stefan Contorno:
Wow! As the team continues to grow, Julia, what are some of the challenges you think you’re kind of facing as you expand? Because certainly as teams get bigger and bigger, there are certain challenges that come with it just as far as being able to just keep everything in check. Anything you identify in that regard?
Julia Spillman:
I think we came up to that really the last 14 months. How fast do we want to grow? I mean, John and Fred wanted to grow a bit faster than I wanted to. How do we, again, make sure that we’re doing what the three of us want, but ultimately, what the team wants, what’s best for all of us collectively? I think one of the things that I loved the most that was very different from my days in the financial service industry is there’s a lot of very, very blunt conversations.
Julia Spillman:
The communication levels between all of us are amazing, because you really can say obviously within the means of staying respectful obviously, you really can say anything. If people feel this way or they’re nervous about this, it’s very transparent in our organization because I think that’s the only way with the growth level of, again, I was the ninth agent a little over four years ago, and now we’re over 80 agents. How do we do that while everybody still feels included?
Julia Spillman:
They still feel the love. They still feel the tension. They still feel obviously the business being pushed their way. We learned a lot of things. We learned a lot of things the hard way. And I think the biggest thing that we learned is we have to be transparent about what we’re thinking and we have to have our agents be transparent about what they’re feeling and what they’re needing. I think that this last year was a big growth point in communication for all of us.
Julia Spillman:
I think that’s going to really set a tone for, again, how expand or maybe don’t expand more in the future.
Stefan Contorno:
Yeah, that’s interesting. Again, it goes back to culture. Culture is always important. And like you said, you don’t want to lose that when you get too big. I would attest to that as well. I think that’s one of the biggest obstacles as your team is growing. As far as the real estate market goes, obviously COVID… I mean, we know what New York was like during COVID. As we’re starting to get out of the pandemic, what are some of the trends that you’re seeing right now in real estate?
Julia Spillman:
If somebody can figure this out, please, please just tell me. It has been such an amazing ride. But I think in so many parts of it, I think people in every price point in every city and in every industry has kind of said, “What the heck is going on?” I think some days we think that very much as well, and I think we’re just trying to kind of like, again, let’s just keep on this ride.
Julia Spillman:
I mean, I think the thing that we are the most focused about, where in every market we’re in, I think every market really across the United States is how do we find, sort, and source more inventory. I think that is going to be the only way you find a little bit of ease to what, quite frankly, in a lot of these markets is just the tension. You’ve got people. Okay, maybe they would sell, but then where do they go?
Julia Spillman:
We’re working very closely right now in all of our markets with developers, with builders, and then, of course, with sellers to develop both in single-family homes. But most importantly, what we’re best known for is new development vertical projects. I think that’s what the markets need the most. Miami, Dallas, Austin, LA not as much. They need a little bit more single-family homes. But again, they’re shifting more into the vertical living.
Julia Spillman:
We’ve had great success with our 8899 Project out there. And then of course, New York. I mean, who would ever thought that New York needed more inventory? I mean, inventory levels are at an all time low across the US. I think our biggest focus is how do we kind of break that whole supply and demand tension right now.
Stefan Contorno:
Yeah, I was going to ask you about that. Because obviously here in Florida, where I am, the inventory is extremely low. But you’re basically telling me it’s like that everywhere then.
Julia Spillman:
It’s crazy. It’s really because, again, so much of it you would think, okay, well, this applies to this price point or area. This is really common. I mean, let’s take a prime example. My sister, who’s in Kentucky, she’s actually found a town that has a couple of stoplights in it. She has graduated up, but still there, which, again, you would think, how could that area be having supply and demand inventory problems? They were in multiple bidding wars, which they lost over ask.
Julia Spillman:
They actually just bought a house that just came on the market and put theirs on, and she has been inundated with showings to the point she can’t even return my phone call. She’s just got like one after another after another. And that’s going on in a small town in Kentucky. The same thing, it’s the same story as my seller in New York City, my seller in Miami, and my seller in Texas, and my seller in LA or Orange County. I think that’s something that’s not unique to any price point or any area right now.
Stefan Contorno:
Julia, what do you enjoy most about being a CEO?
Julia Spillman:
I really think for me, just because I’m so proud of, again, the door that’s been opened by so many that I was able to really capitalize on, and I’m really proud of being able to open that door for so many others and I think mainly so many women in our industry. If you look at our team photo, it doesn’t really look like a normal organization. You have a lot of women. You’ve got a lot of women in leadership roles. You have John Gomes, who’s half black.
Julia Spillman:
You have a lot of diversity across the board. You have a lot of gay men in our organization. We’re very proud that we look different. And I think for us it’s kind of like… And I always wonder how to articulate this correctly. But I think sometimes a lot of us have a little bit of a chip on our shoulder for certain reasons. I think we’ve been able to really push ourselves to arenas that no one would have probably bet on us for. I think all of us are really proud that we’ve been able to do it together.
Stefan Contorno:
Julia, as we wind down here, for someone listening right now who wants to get into real estate, whether they’re… I don’t know. Maybe they’re just getting out of college and they want to start a career as a real estate professional, or someone like you, someone whose already in a career and they have certain dreams and aspirations of doing so, what kind of advice do you have for someone like that?
Julia Spillman:
Brace herself for the first couple of years. It’s not pretty, and it is rough. It is very difficult to really earn income just because so much of this is pipeline business. If you’re really going in it and you really want to do it, you’ve got to really go through. It’s kind of a bit of like the training course. It’s a little bit of like probably Navy Seals training. It’s miserable. And if you can make it through, you can do epic things in our industry.
Julia Spillman:
But that first year and a half, no matter what your Rolodex is, no matter what your last name is, no matter who you’re working with, it’s brutal. But I do think it really separates, we’re going to use the cliche, the men from the boys. And if you can break out really that third and fourth year is where I’m going to do my… My plug for agents, I love agents that are coming out of that like third year, so three and a half, four years in the business.
Julia Spillman:
I think that’s when you take an agent that’s good and we can really put them on our machine and on our model and put them on a rocket and create superstars out of them. And that for me, to kind of answer one of your earlier questions, that’s definitely one of my favorite things as a CEO is really watching them take off to the next level.
Stefan Contorno:
Right. Because three years into it, they’ve survived to some degree. Maybe they haven’t thrived, but they’ve survived, right? They’ve shown that they could at least try to last in the industry, and then it’s your job to kind of take them to another level. You know, it’s interesting, I will just add, you mentioned pipeline, how important it is in your business and any business. I think that’s another thing. And again, I’m not an expert in your profession.
Stefan Contorno:
But for those listening, I mean, if you get a listing and you put your house for sale and you spend all your time on that and you eventually sell it, then what, right? That pipeline is I would imagine a really big deal to have a lot going on, so that eventually you get kind of that snowball effect to some degree.
Julia Spillman:
And even at this level, you’re constantly juggling balls and a lot of them are going to fall. The name of the game is just to have a lot of balls up in the air. I think that people always think going into the industry. Well, I know all these people. I know this. I know that.
Julia Spillman:
And as much as I was very fortunate to have a lot of like Rolodex and connections through my network and through my husband and things like that, the biggest business still to this day that kind of keeps feeding my individual book would be those first time buyers that I really worked and really impressed early on in my career. I always say, as a new agent or any agent, especially as a new agent, your job is to not only sell that home, but to sell four homes.
Julia Spillman:
You should sell that listing, plus you should find three potential buyers or referrals out of that listing. For me, I think I became a bit obsessed with the whole open house concept. I would go and say… Usually, as you know, they’re on Sundays or sometimes Saturdays and you’d have three to four hours. I would literally play a game of like, how many people can I make my clients that walk in the door that aren’t? I mean, we closed two weeks ago a $5.6 million deal.
Julia Spillman:
That was one of my first clients that was probably a $3,600 rental maybe eight years ago. I think those are the most important. And like you and I’ve talked about, it is very similar to building a business as a financial advisor. Yes, sometimes you start out as their 401(k) rollover. And the goal is to obviously do that business and then everything until hopefully they sell their startup and all their friends, all their family.
Julia Spillman:
But I always say you have to go into this business and put all ego aside. Because like I said, those first two years will really beat you down and you’ve got to really just kind of keep moving and get to the other side. But you never know where a deal comes from. I would say some of our most successful agents year after year are the ones that take a deal because it’s the deal, not because they’ve assigned a potential commission or price point to it. You never know where those things are going to go.
Stefan Contorno:
So true. Julie, where can our listeners find you on social media?
Julia Spillman:
Usually my Instagram is the best. It’s Julia Spillman-Gover. I don’t post too much in my grid, but I think I have pretty good stories. Because as Fredrik says, I cheat and I just repost everything that the agents are posting, which is much more fascinating than the things that I’m doing. But most importantly, the things that at the end of the day really are the sum of the total of that $4 billion plus.
Stefan Contorno:
Amazing. Well, congratulations on another great year. I appreciate your time today, Julia. I mean, I always enjoy our discussions. There’s so much to learn from you and you’re just an absolute terrific…
Julia Spillman:
And vice versa.
Stefan Contorno:
Thank you. And you’re such a terrific and humble person. I wish you continued success and thank you again for doing this. This was really terrific.
Julia Spillman:
Perfect. Well, thank you. And of course, look forward to our next kind of chats on everything. If you don’t mind, I’ll give Aaron Keith, I think our mutual business coach, a little plug as obviously the best for always putting people in touch and, most importantly, pushing us to the next level.
Stefan Contorno:
Absolutely. Aaron is terrific And I appreciate you mentioning that, Julie, thanks again.
Julia Spillman:
Of course. Thank you. Have a great night.
Stefan Contorno:
You as well. Bye, bye.