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George Laughton is a top real estate team leader who has built one of the largest teams in the industry, overseeing hundreds of millions in annual sales volume. He shares the systems, mindset shifts, and hard-won lessons from scaling through every growth stage.

He explains:

• Why hiring your friend first will sabotage your team growth

• The "no man's land" trap between 20-50 agents that kills most teams

• How George went bankrupt with Freddie Mac and almost quit real estate

• Why calling your team a "family" will prevent you from scaling past 10 agents

• The AI gratitude journal technique George uses for therapeutic breakthroughs

We cover:
(00:00 ) Intro
(01:00 ) Why 8 to 10 Agents Makes You Go Backwards in Income
(01:36 ) The Biggest Hiring Mistake New Team Leaders Make
(02:29 ) Should You Hire an Assistant or Agent First?
(03:22 ) Why the "Family Business" Mentality Kills Teams
(05:28 ) Why 3-5 Agent Teams Aren't Real Businesses
(06:42 ) What Is "No Man's Land" and Why 20-25 Agents Is the Danger Zone
(07:48 ) The Brutal Truth About Profit Margins at 30-50 Agents
(09:19 ) Why George Fired Half His Leadership Team During Growth
(13:32 ) The Exit Interview Strategy That Changed Retention
(14:32 ) Why Interview the People Who STAY, Not Just Who Leave
(16:21 ) The Growth Path Conversation Most Leaders Avoid
(20:44 ) The Biggest Lie Team Leaders Tell Themselves
(22:27 ) Get a Personal Coach Before Coaching Your Agents
(24:11 ) When to Transition From Producing to Full-Time Leading
(30:22 ) How Gratitude Journaling Transformed George's Leadership
(33:45 ) What to Do When Your Top Producer Wants to Leave
(35:54 ) Ads
(36:57 ) Structuring Leadership Teams to Handle 50+ Agents
(47:22 ) Leading Producers vs. Newer Agents Differently
(50:11 ) Creating Systems That Support, Not Micromanage
(54:39 ) Leadership Development Must Happen BEFORE You Need It
(57:55 ) Ads
(58:25 ) Using AI to Journal and Get Therapeutic Responses
(01:05:15 ) George's Weird AI Habit During Mobility Work
(01:07:17 ) The Moment George Ran Out of Cash With Freddie Mac
(01:09:08 ) Should I Quit Real Estate? George's Lowest Moment
(01:09:57 ) The Future of Teams and Brokerages
(01:11:25 ) Seeing Acquisitions as Recruiting Opportunities
(01:12:13 ) Final Message: Stay Curious and Ask Better Questions

Resources:
George's links:
Website: https://myphoenixhomesearch.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/georgelaughton/

YouTube:

My Links:
📧 Newsletter: www.breakingandbuildingleaders.com/
🎙 Podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakingandBuildingLeaders/featured
🐣 X: https://x.com/andrewbayon
📸 Instagram: www.instagram.com/andrew_bayon/
🕺 TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@andrewbayon

A little about us:
- 10 years ago I made thousands of sales calls
- I was unfulfilled on the rollercoast of referral based sales
- I was overweight
- 7 years ago I spoke on stage at Curaytor about marketing
- I was the marketer for 5 top teams in the US spending several million on paid ads
- We were posting content on social but a little aimlessly
- Now we've generated well over $10 million in GCI directly from YouTube for agents
- Run many of the top YouTube channels from 0 to 50k in real estate
- Scaled the only hyper local newsletters across 50+ markets
- We grew our team at Knwn Local to 45 people
- We believe building a media brand is the new way to grow your business and own your market now. Instead of renting your business with expensive leads, you can own it with an audience.

- Brand is one of the highest leverage things in business that scales your impact beyond you.
- Big visions often don't make sense to small-minded people.

If you want to have a greater impact, you'll have to make greater sacrifices.
My message: Don’t be well known, be Knwn well.
I'm pumped to help you grow & scale your business with this content.

DISCLAIMER:

Information shared here is for educational purposes only. Individuals and business owners should evaluate their own business strategies, and identify any potentials risks. The information shared here is not a guarantee of success.

Your results may vary. Copyright © Knwn Local 2025

We make these videos to help build the leaders of tomorrow, but also there are a lot of “coaches” and “claims” on social media and hard to cut through the clutter. I post these to build trust with real estate professionals through value and real experience. And if they’re awesome and see the value and need help - we work together.