Why flexibility is 'critical' for aspiring real estate leaders 

Wendy Forsythe began her career more than three decades ago as a real estate agent, gradually moving into leadership roles at several major brokerages before eventually landing in the C-suite. Her work has spanned different brokerage business models — "something that I've enjoyed as an operator" and as "a student of this industry" — and earlier this year she was promoted from CMO to COO eXp Realty.

In her experience as a brokerage executive, Forsythe has found it valuable to "overcommunicate, listen, learn, pivot," she explained during a recent episode of the Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered podcast. As the industry changes, "people want to know, how am I going to be impacted by this, and what's it mean to me?"

"I'll try to lead with answering those questions," she said.

Prioritize a 'mindset of flexibility': Adaptability is an asset, Forsythe said. "If you can have a mindset of flexibility and build a skill set to support that, so many doors will open. You want to be the person on the team who is easy to work with, who comes into every opportunity with a flexible mindset," she said.

"The ability to adapt and be flexible and accept change and work quickly through a pace of change is something that I think is critical — especially in today's environment."

But know when to set boundaries: Many agents market themselves as being there 24/7 for their clients, but Forsythe urges agents to identify tools that help them create distance between their work lives and their personal lives — and it can be as simple as using their phone's "do not disturb" mode or blocking out personal commitments on their calendars.

"We are accessible 24 hours a day," she said. "But it doesn't mean that I always need to take the call, answer the email, reply to the text."

Pick a content strategy: Any agent interested in boosting their business should "get some sort of content strategy that they can leverage to get themselves known out in their market," Forsythe said. This could involve social media or "old fashioned" methods like door-knocking or handing out flyers.

"I don't care what the content strategy is," she said. "I want you to decide what works for you and consistently do that in your local market so that people know, like, and trust you."

Avoiding burnout is key to a lengthy career: "We spend a lot of time talking about how to be more productive, how to grow your business, how to do all these things. But we don't spend any time talking about how to keep that excitement and that spark and that energy that we had for this business, for this career, for the opportunities that it affords us, throughout the various growth," Forsythe noted.

It "breaks my heart" to see once-ambitious agents burn out. "You have to be looking after yourself. You have to be filling your energy. You have to be creating boundaries. That is what creates resilience."

But don't expect it to be there from day one, she added. "Nobody teaches us how to be resilient when we start out." Forsythe is trying to fill that gap herself with her debut book, "Leverage Your X-Factor," in which resilience is key to her recommendations for aspiring real estate professionals.