The Key Agents Should Never Have to Ask For

Her name was Sarah.

She was a top producer. Consistent. Super professional. The kind of agent every brokerage wants more of.

She called my cell phone on a Tuesday afternoon. I remember looking at her name on the screen and smiling, expecting that she was probably calling to share some good news about yet another deal she was close to closing, or perhaps even recently closed.

"Erinn, I need to ask you something," she said quietly and even tired-sounding. "And, I need you to be honest."

"Does anyone here besides you actually know my name? Or am I just agent number 2,272?"

I was stunned, left silent.

She already knew the answer.

"I've closed $18 million this year. I've attracted seven agents to the company in the last 8 months. I always turn my files in on time and haven't caused a single issue. My managing broker has never called me. Not to check in. Not to celebrate a win. Not even to ask how I'm doing."

Her voice cracked…and my heart broke.

"My father died suddenly three months ago. I posted about it. I was gone for five weeks. When I came back, not a single person from the brokerage reached out. Not my managing broker. Not my upline. Nobody."

I was left silent, again.

"Professionally, I'm doing everything right around here. But when my world fell apart, personally, I realized I was completely alone, invisible, just a number."

I wanted to tell her she was mistaken, that of course others saw her, and that more than her production numbers mattered to the agency's leadership. But I couldn't, because she wasn't wrong. She was calling something out that I had seen happen far too many times across our industry.

Brokerages can measure your production down to the dollar…but still know little to nothing about you.

They can closely study your conversion rates…but completely ignore the person driving them.

They might celebrate your highs (at least the ones that also benefit them)... but completely fail to acknowledge your lows when doing so would mean a lot.

What Sarah was feeling wasn't a fluke. Plenty of agents reading this may personally know this scenario all too well.

I knew that I did.

The Part I Had to Admit to Myself

As Sarah continued to describe what she'd been going through, it struck me that this was a prevalent pattern I'd seen time and time again across different companies, models, and structures.

Brilliant agents pour themselves into their work while the people responsible for supporting them drift farther away, hidden behind dashboards, numbers, and automated recognition systems.

I'd known this was a growing issue; why hadn't I done anything to stop it?

The Opportunity I Could No Longer Ignore

And then, while listening to Sarah continue to speak up so bravely, refusing to stay silent any longer, it hit me that I had the knowledge, the solution, and maybe most importantly, the empathy to face this challenge head-on.

I knew exactly where the cracks had formed in our industry, where agent support had broken down, and why the current "cultures" that agents had been promised were doomed from the start.

I'd studied the foundations of brokerages from boutique to virtual scale for more than 25 years.

I'd created culture initiatives that took off like wildfire and drove immense business growth.

I had a partner in Peter, my husband, who had more than 20 years of experience building technical, foundational systems that enhanced humanity, while others were designed to replace it.

Between the two of us, we had more than 45 years of rigorous study in what works, what breaks, and what scales in our industry.

And we knew that what matters most is the ability to create, preserve, and scale human connections. And, not just the connections between an agent and their clients.

It starts with the connections between an agent and their brokerage.

Handed the Key

In that moment with Sarah, something clicked with absolute clarity. This wasn't about one agent or one brokerage. It was about the entire soul of our industry.

It was about the often sizable gap between the experience agents provide…and the experience they receive.

It was about the low ceiling of scale when caring becomes optional.

It was about the difference between simply being managed and being truly known.

Sarah's honesty and vulnerability on that one call held up a mirror to the entire system and just how broken it was. After we hung up, I realized that she'd also given me the key to crafting the experiences that agents deserve, but which they so rarely receive.

It suddenly became so obvious to Peter and me.

We had the knowledge, the experience, and the proven results to know exactly what to do next. Peter and I don't just have the "opportunity" to tackle this challenge; we view it as an obligation. We know we can make a significant difference in the lives of agents, brokers, and the communities they serve by leveraging our combined expertise, and that goal is what drives us every day.

We just needed the authority to execute our solution without compromise, and then to own, take responsibility for, and be held accountable for its outcomes.

And that would require launching our own brokerage. ENRG Realty.

It was one of the easiest decisions we've ever made.

Thanks to Sarah.