The Broker's Blind Spot

What role should a brokerage play in the development of its agents? Is it limited to ensuring their contracts are sound and their clients are protected, or do their responsibilities extend to business development as well?

At my former brokerage, our answer to that question was a resounding yes. The thing I am proudest of, over the course of my 23 years with the firm I founded in 2002, is our track record of launching rockstar agent careers. Some stayed with us their entire careers, others moved on, but regardless of where they ended up, I’m proud we played a role in their development.

The secret to our success, IMO?

Business Planning.

The thing with business plans is… they only work if the agent takes the prescribed actions.

My team was acutely aware of this, which led us to design a number of solutions over the years. Through accountability groups, group coaching, and one-on-one sessions, we made a lot of progress, but despite our Herculean efforts, not everyone wants to be coached by their broker, and some who do prefer to get that coaching elsewhere.

My experience tells me that agents don’t take the actions defined in their plans because they either don’t…

Managing brokers can see production numbers, track closed transactions, and commission splits, but, thanks in part to the independent contractor nature of real estate, they don't have a full picture of what their agents do day-to-day. Instead, they have to rely on what the agents tell them. Here's the thing, though... agents don't like to tell them. For many, it feels Big Brother-ish.

That said, without visibility, it’s really hard to coach.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth about the broker-agent coaching relationship: there’s an inherent conflict that limits effectiveness.

When a coach works independently with an agent, they can push buttons without worrying about secondary agendas. They’re being paid to help the agent grow, period. They can challenge, provoke, and push past comfort zones because the relationship is purely about the agent’s development.

But managing brokers? They have to balance pushing agents toward growth without pushing so hard that they damage the relationship and risk losing them to another brokerage. This tension often means brokers can't coach as effectively as they want to, pulling back when they want to push forward, or softening feedback when direct honesty would have served them better.

The biggest blind spot of all? Not being able to help agents see, before they drown, whether their business goals and personal priorities were actually compatible.

An agent may create a business plan stating they want to earn $500,000 a year while coaching their son’s baseball team, having dinner with family five nights a week, maintaining a date night every other week, and winning their tennis club championship.

Sounds great on paper. Feels good when you’re thinking about it in your head.

But time is a finite resource. At a certain point, marketing tasks and growth actions become mutually exclusive with personal commitments. The question isn’t whether someone wants both, it’s whether both are actually possible given the hours in a day.

Without a system to map this out in advance, agents would commit to everything, fail to deliver on some of it, and then feel like failures. The burnout wasn’t from working too hard; it was from the constant guilt of not meeting their own expectations in either their business or personal life.

As I began mapping out what would become Balanced Busy, it didn’t take long to realize I was building the answer to the execution problem.

When an agent signs up for our application, they can provide access to their admin, marketing concierge, broker, and/or coach.

This limited access will provide brokers and coaches with the ability to view their completed business plan, key metrics, and most importantly, their This Week’s Flow board, where they can view, firsthand, which Growth Actions and Balance Rudders they’ve completed, and, if applicable, the ones they weren’t able to finish.

I am excited to see what your team can do with the visibility Balanced Busy gives you into what your agents plan to do, what they are actually doing, and where they get stuck.

I don’t like to live in the past, but looking back, I wish I’d had a coaching dashboard that showed me not just production numbers, but the full picture: “You planned for 18 growth actions last week and completed 10. You planned for 8 balance priorities and completed 5. Let’s talk about what got in the way.”

Because that conversation? That’s where real coaching happens.

If they didn’t complete actions because they lacked knowledge or expertise, that’s a training opportunity.

If they didn’t complete actions because they didn’t have time, that’s a scaling conversation about hiring an admin or using a marketing concierge.

If they didn’t complete actions because they didn’t want to do them? Then we change the plan. There are so many ways to grow a real estate business - everyone should be able to find a path that lets them spend time doing things they actually like and are uniquely qualified to do.

Here’s what I learned: agents who are happy with their income AND their personal lives don’t leave.

They also don’t stay quiet. Happy agents talk! They grab coffee with friends from other brokerages. They celebrate transactions together. When an agent is thriving, making good money while still coaching their kid’s team and making it to family dinners, their friends notice.

“What’s gotten into you? You look so happy.”

That’s how you recruit without recruiting. That’s how you build a brokerage where agents want to stay.

I’m building Balanced Busy because I finally understand the problem I couldn’t fully see when I was running a brokerage.

Agents need a system that helps them plan realistically, track honestly, and adjust proactively, before they’re burned out or underperforming.

Brokers need visibility into the full picture: not just production numbers, but what agents are actually doing and where they need support.

And both need a framework that removes the coaching conflict, creating objective data points that make tough conversations easier and more productive.

This isn’t about replacing what good brokerages already do well. It’s about giving them a tool that makes their coaching more effective, strengthens retention, and makes their agents happier.

The blind spot I had for 23 years? I’m building the solution.

Balanced Busy launches in beta at the end of January. If you’re a broker who wants to coach your agents more effectively - or an agent who wants to build a business that doesn’t consume your personal life - join the waitlist: https://app.balancedbusy.com/waitlist