John Millen
Vice President of Agent Growth and Development
Lamacchia Realty
Waltham, Massachusetts
https://www.lamacchiarealty.com/leadership/john-millen
Regions served: Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island and Florida
Years in real estate: 10
Number of offices: 28
Number of agents: 800-plus
Work philosophy that you live by: Get up and work…no excuses!
You hit the ground running as a top-producing agent before transitioning into leadership. How does your experience influence the way you develop training and support systems for Lamacchia today?
I was 43 years old at the time, I had a brand-new baby, and I had a full-time job working 60 hours a week. I requested to have every Wednesday off because that was training day. I worked nights and weekends to make it work so I could learn everything there is about real estate. I tell people they have to get in there and take advantage of training and support while following people around to learn the business. The agents who thrive and become our top agents in the business wake up every day and go to work.
How do you balance attracting new talent with ensuring existing agents get the support they need to scale their business?
We do a ton of social media. Culture is a big deal, and awareness is huge, so we blast the heck out of our events. You have to know your surroundings, and you have to be in touch with your agents. I tell my regional managers to forget about recruiting and instead call every single person in their offices, because calling the agents we have is just as important as calling prospective agents. Investing in our current agents in every way means they are happier and selling more homes.
As you scale and lead your regional sales managers across different branches, how do you ensure the company culture doesn’t get diluted?
We make sure that not one regional manager is so overloaded that they can’t focus on their offices. And if it gets to that point, we hire more people. We stay ahead of everything as far as technology, AI and ever-changing laws so that there are no surprises along the way. We also budget for culture. Whether it’s bowling, movie tickets or a happy hour, we make it part of our business plan every quarter.
What is the No. 1 skill or mindset your team is focusing on within your training programs to keep agents ahead?Â
Consistency. We train religiously every single Wednesday—except two Wednesdays a year—and we focus on things that are current, pivoting quickly if something hits the news so that we can train on it right away. The entire executive team, including Broker/Owner and CEO Anthony Lamacchia, is on top of what’s going on, and we communicate daily and game plan what we’re training on—from leads to scripts as far as what to say and what not to say. You have to have training in place that makes sense, and you must be aware of current events or else you’ll get left behind.
When you look at the agents who thrive and scale under your development programs, what common traits do they share?
In 95% of the cases, they grasp the training and they take advantage of our services. You have to support your agents and make sure they know to reach out. We want to build super agents that are doing 75, 80, 90 transactions a year. We have a killer CRM built for these agents, and we’re constantly making it better.
For more information, visit https://www.lamacchiarealty.com.
