Breaking and Building Leaders

Get The Complete Hyper-Local Content Blueprint Free Today: https://a-impact-media.kit.com/e0947da6a5 Turn database into listing appointments with ella: https://www.ellaemail.com/ Billy Hobbs, COO of Laughton Team, reveals how he scaled a real estate company to over $700 million while making the brutal decision to cut staff from 75 to just 27. He shares the systems, leadership strategies, and hard truths about profit margins that every real estate leader needs to hear. He explains: ▪️ How to communicate staff reductions without destroying morale ▪️ Why 5% profit margins might be killing your growth potential ▪️ The framework for testing new strategies without betting the farm ▪️ How to build scalable systems that actually get used by your team ▪️ Why servant leadership is the only path to $700M+ in revenue We cover: (01:37) What systems scale from 75 staff and 250 agents to massive volume? (02:09) How do you keep morale when you're cutting staff but preaching growth? (03:15) Why sugar coating layoffs destroys your integrity instantly (04:49) Department-by-department layoffs or one big meeting—which is better? (06:14) What does living in the P&L every day do to a COO emotionally? (07:49) What's the question you're afraid to ask that you absolutely should? (08:45) Growth eats capital—so why would you ever take 5% over 30% profit? (11:20) What departments are actually essential at 200+ agents? (14:35) How do you avoid shiny object syndrome when AI tools flood the market? (17:22) Why is onboarding adoption the #1 thing killing agent retention? (30:25) Ads (33:35) Through quantity comes quality—but how do you predict top performers? (37:57) What's the real difference between a COO and an operations manager? (49:09) How do you survive working with a visionary CEO with endless ideas? (55:23) Ads (57:40) Why does EOS fail without complete leadership buy-in? (1:00:17) What's the weekly rhythm that keeps 200 agents on the same page? (1:14:00) Are we in the LaserDisc era of AI right now? (1:15:38) What should you look for when hiring your first operations person? (1:19:28) Fire bullets before cannonballs—how do you operationalize testing? (1:20:58) What does world-class servant leadership actually look like at scale? Resources: Billy’s links: Website:https://www.laughtonteam.com/ Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/billyhobbsjr/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@laughtonteam 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.