Today we’d like to introduce you to Lynn Cohen.
Lynn, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I am a twenty-one-year real estate veteran, having reinvented myself in my mid-forties. I moved here to begin a second life with a great guy–we’re now married for twenty-eight years–after owning my own small cottage industry in the Chicago area. I bounced around a few jobs until Boston really felt like my home and then I began in real estate as an agent a competing company. A few years later I was recruited away to manage a new office for the regional powerhouse that was expanding into the Boston area and found a real passion in hiring, training, coaching and developing new talent.
For me, there is great joy in celebrating with a newly licensed agent who closes his first transaction. Eight years ago I made a change to Keller Williams. I was drawn to a company philosophy that aligned with my personal value system. The “agent first” approach to the business was new for me and made sense. It didn’t hurt that the compensation plan was generous and that KW has a unique profit sharing program for our agent partners, so the recruiting of talent was natural, even easy………. KW has a great story to tell and I am a good storyteller.
My job is multi-faceted and never dull. I have appreciated and benefited by the need to continue to learn and grow as a leader as my office has grown. We were a small group of about 25 agents when I came to the Chestnut Hill Market Center and today was supported by about 200 talented sales professionals. I am a part of a strong leadership team. My title of Team Leader (as opposed to the more traditional Sales Manager) is no accident. It reflects the KW approach to business development.
Under the direction of our majority shareholder and Operations Partner, David McCarthy, My responsibilities encompass pretty much every aspect of the day to day operations of a growing business: managing expenses, overseeing a terrific staff and coaching, training and mentoring our agents. David’s role is akin to that of the Chairman of the Board, while mine is most like the Chief Operating Officer. We are a strong team with enough trust to feel safe when we disagree—a very big component of our success.
Growth is our mantra at KW. All aspects of growth: improving leadership and sales skills through remarkable training., ever increasing numbers of agent partners on our roster, and, as a result, an increasingly profitable enterprise. Keller Williams was actually recently named as the number one training organization in the world by Training Magazine, and team leaders like me are the beneficiaries. We learn in our classrooms and they are also trained to deliver the knowledge to our agents at a high level. Being learning based is a core principle here.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Oh good lord—of course, there were struggles! Our business has changed since I first was licensed. In the late nineties, technology was in its infant stages. There was no real internet as we know it; no smartphones or digital cameras; no color copiers and no centralized database of properties to sell. As an older agent, the tech revolutions did not come naturally to me and was I forced, kicking and screaming, into the digital age.
Tech brought tremendous change to our industry. No one walks into a real estate office anymore to get some help, so there was–and still is–a powerful need to stay current with tech advancements and to learn how to generate business in the digital age. I have also weathered a couple of recessions and market slumps–managed agents through the “big recession” as many of our clients were on the verge of losing their homes to foreclosure.
The biggest lesson learned from riding the market waves is that there is always a real estate market because life cycles are the driving force. People will marry and divorce. Babies will be born and parents will need to downsize. Life happens regardless of the state of the economy. Thank god!
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I am a minority shareholder of our firm. We are a franchise holder with ties to the largest real estate firm in the country as measured by three key metrics: agent count, closed transaction count, and total dollar volume of sales. So we have essentially the best of two worlds: A locally owned business affiliated with a very large firm with remarkable resources, technology and leadership.
We subscribe to the Keller Williams model because it works–for me as a business owner and for our agent partners with whom we are proud to share our profits. We are the original disruptors in a business long dominated by traditional, top-down organizations, and our ever improving market share is a testament to the fact that we are resonating with agents and clients alike.
Our leadership at the top is also smart enough to survive the new technological revolution that is challenging the traditional real estate practice. The key will be to put technology to work to serve our agents and their clients, not be put to pasture by some of the new tech start ups that believe they can do it without us. I am betting on us.
Aside from the business aspects of our model, I am most proud of the “heart” of Keller Williams. We really do put our agents first. Our company’s charitable arm is called KWCares. It has as its mission to care for our own agents and their families in need. This is evidenced on a macro level when nearly 100 KW agents in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico lost their homes to devastating hurricanes last year. We raised both money and manpower to get them back on their feet.
Our office adopted a young family who had virtually lost every possession they had. We raised enough money to send them clothing, grocery store gift cards and tons of Christmas presents. On a local level, KWCares provides grants for agents and their families that cannot provide for themselves due to major illness or other hardship. We are a family first and foremost.
What were you like growing up?
I am the eldest of three and my sibs tell me that I was always “bossy.” I had a strong family with parents who had a solid marriage and learned the power of family. I was raised with Midwest family values and they still guide my choices. I was taught that it was cool to do well in school and have a work ethic.
I think my only regret, and it’s minor, is that I played it safe as a kid in an era when my generation did not. I was a high school student 50 years ago and only read about Woodstock. Given another shot, I might have been there. I was a college student during the Viet Nam protests and the Kent State shootings. Those events shaped my politic and my sense of social responsibility in a way that is still with me today.
My children and grandchildren–we are a blended family with four grown and married kids and eight grandkids–are my “Big Why.” The overarching goal that drives me to achieve has a lot to do with the power of the legacy I can leave behind for them long after I am gone.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1340 Centre Street, Suite 202
Newton Centre, MA 02459 - Website: www.kw.com
- Phone: 6179699000
- Email: lynn@kwchestnuthill.com
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