How to Build Long Term Loyalty in Real Estate Teams | Featuring Alisha Minteer Rosse on the BuiltHOW Podcast

We’re very proud to announce that our very own Team Leader, Alisha Minteer Rosse, was recently featured on the BuiltHOW podcast!

In this special episode, Alisha joins Lucas Sherraden to share her insights on Building Long Term Loyalty in Real Estate Teams. From leading through change to creating a culture of trust and retention, she offers valuable lessons for anyone passionate about leadership and growth in real estate.

🎧 Listen to the Full Episode

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🎯 Key Takeaways & Insights

Here are 5 key takeaways from the episode that can help any real estate leader or professional strengthen their business:

• Loyalty isn’t built overnight. It’s something you earn through trust, consistency, and by showing up for your people every single day.
• Great leaders embrace change. The real estate industry is constantly shifting and great leaders know how to adapt and lead through it. By staying adaptable and proactive, we can guide our teams through shifts and position them for long-term growth and success.
• Hire for heart, train the skill. When you bring on people who share your values, you build a team that’s stronger, more connected, and built to last.
• Strong operations drive success: A strong operations team keeps everything running smoothly, allowing agents to focus on what they do best: serving clients.
• Credibility is earned, not given: True leadership isn’t about titles; it’s about consistency, integrity, and example. When you take the time to understand your team, support their strengths, and lead with authenticity, you build a foundation of trust that stands the test of time.

📝 Full Transcript

For readers who prefer to skim or need accessibility, here’s the full transcript of the episode.

Lucas: Hello and welcome to today's episode of the Built HOW podcast. Lucas Sherraden here. It is an honor as it is always to be your host. Leading a conversation where we ask the top real estate professionals in America: How did you build the business that you built? I have one of those with me today. Alisha Rosse, thank you so much for being on the Built HOW podcast. You're from the Dallas Fort Worth area and it is an honor to have you. 

Alisha: Yeah, I'm really excited to have this conversation and be able to share a little bit about my journey. 

Lucas: You currently lead the Minteer Real Estate Group. So, tell us a little bit about what that looks like today. 

Alisha: Yeah. So, Minteer Real Estate Team actually has been around since 1986. There are 7 agents on our team. I've got 5 people on our Operations Team. I would say that our Operations Team crushes it. Our Director of Ops has been with us for 20 years and my Contract To Close Coordinator/Client Care has been with us for 25 years. It's impressive and my agents are just rock stars. 

Lucas: I've done hundreds of these interviews. I always admire it when somebody has somebody on their team that's been with them for 5 or 10 years and you've just doubled what impresses me. So, I'm going to be excited to jump in that. So tell us, how did you get your start in real estate if this team's been around since '86? 

Alisha: Yeah. So, I am now business partners with my mom, Chris Minteer. She started our team. I came up and moved from Austin in 2016. So, I got into real estate when I was 19 years old. I started in apartment locating and some real estate sales in '07 and had a lot of fun journeys as I went through the apartment locating/leasing experience. Then in '09, I moved up to Austin. I did not want to be a part of my mom's team. I wanted to do it on my own. I wanted to build and grow and learn on my own. I think that's actually what has led to my mom and I having a really incredible business partnership because it became more of a mentorship for us versus me partnering with our business. So then in '09, I moved up to Austin and joined a really cool, innovative real estate brokerage that won the Inman Most Innovative Real Estate Brokerage in the nation in '09. So, I got some really cool opportunities at a very young age with that brokerage. 

Lucas: That is pretty cool. So, you started apartment locating in '07? 

Alisha: Yeah, '07.

Lucas: And then full time in real estate in 2016? 

Alisha: No. I started in '07, '08, '09. I was in real estate. 

Lucas: Okay, got it.

Alisha: And did apartment locating, which paid for me to save enough money to be able to go full time into real estate. 

Lucas: Right. I'm with you.

Alisha: And then '08-'09, I joined a real estate brokerage and then I started out as a buyer's agent, then moved into being a listing agent, then ran the listing team for that small brokerage. And then by 2012, I was burnt out. I was running at a pretty fast pace in real estate and was pretty successful and decided that I didn't want to sell real estate anymore. So, I got out of it for 1 year and then got back in. 

Lucas: It's in your blood. It's actually literally in your genetics. So, '06, '07, '08, those probably weren't the greatest years in the real estate world. Especially 07' and  08. How were those first years for you? Because it sounds like you were succeeding despite what the market was doing. 

Alisha: Yeah. So I think what kind of...what a blessing it was for me. I was 19, 20, 21. So, like my network at that time was not people who were buying homes. I had the opportunity to do apartment locating and it was a good way to step in and bridge the gap as I then got into real estate sales full time. And I think even in Austin in particular, I don't know that we really saw a huge market shift til '10, '11, '12. Where we're having really hard conversations with people and having to figure out how to help serve people as homes are sitting on the market for 6, 7, 8 months. You know, it was different. So, because I had started in apartment locating, it allowed me to build enough of a nest egg in order to financially bridge that gap. So, then when I got into real estate sales, I could really focus on that and start selling. 

Lucas: I love that. As a child of a realtor, because I hear this go both ways, did you grow up wanting or not want. What was your perception of the real estate profession as a child of a realtor? 

Alisha: You know, I think for me, I love the idea of being able to build and do my own thing and create and have as much potential as possible so that's why I loved this industry. So, I wanted to. I never thought that I wouldn't do it. It was something that I loved watching my mom create an incredible business and get to sit into some cool rooms and so I wasn't afraid of it. 

Lucas: That's so cool. That's so cool. So you go to Austin, you get your start, and then at some point you make a decision to go join your mom in the DFW area. What went around that decision? 

Alisha: Yeah. So, this is one of the things that I kind of like looking back at my business. I tend to make really big decisions and then act on those. So, I got out of real estate in 2013 for one year. I went to a tech startup. I got some really cool opportunities and realized that I don't like working for other people and doing one job over and over. I love the real estate industry because it allows me to do so many different jobs.

Lucas: Yeah.

Alisha: When I got back into real estate in 2013, '14, '15, I started building my own team in Austin. I ended up marrying my high school sweetheart and we had two boys. Within 2 years, I had my own team going and we decided it was time to move back to raise our family near family. So I had hired, replaced myself, and decided to run my team remote while we moved back to DFW. In 2016, I decided to partner and join with my mom. At that time, I wasn't like partnering. I was walking into a very established business that I had to earn trust and earn the opportunity for leadership. So, I started at the bottom again. I had done all of this stuff on my own and I had to walk into a room of a business that I had to earn the opportunity to lead. That was a journey in itself and that was with two babies and all the things. 

Lucas: Yeah. Talk to me about that. Listening to your story is amazing because you built a big business and then you decide to really kind of step back and go to ground zero. And on top of being at ground zero, you've got a last name that's same with the top. So, there's probably some thought that she's just going to get preferential treat, which usually means the opposite direction. 

Alisha: 10,000 percent.

Lucas: It's like I'm going to make sure my child doesn't get preferential treatment. How was that starting all over again? 

Alisha: Yeah. It was a lot of like learning again. It was very, one I think hats off, I have an incredible mentor and leader. My mother, Chris, does an amazing job and we were very clear when I joined the team that we wanted to make sure it was fair and that I wasn't just getting handed anything and I had to work towards that. It was difficult. I'm not going to lie. I had to get some additional coaching and mentoring and it took several years to build the gap, especially because going back to my Operational Team. They have been with the team since the early 2000s and so, I was an intern for the team before I moved back to join the team. So, they have watched me grow and the agents on the team. It was a process and I think my experience of being at another brokerage before leading my own team and then moving up here and starting from the ground up, I'm such a doer but I had to slow down to speed up. Like I had to really lean into those relationships and self-reflect on how do I want to show up as a leader and earn these opportunities. 

Lucas: Yeah, well. I love what you said. I've been thinking about a question recently like, what is it like to show up on the other side of me? It's Dr. Ryan Leak. And basically what you just did was like okay, how do I need to show up and really evaluated that. What else do you think you learned in that transition period as you came back in obviously successful, you knew what you were doing in Austin, had a team. What do you think? Like in that transition time, what's some wisdom that like is overarching that you learned out of that time? 

Alisha: I think twofolds when it comes to being a leader or knowing that my future self was a leader of this team. I had to show up and be a producer first and foremost and take care of my business. And so I had to build when I moved up here. Yeah, I had grown up in DFW but I hadn't been here for 10 years. So, I spent a lot of time building relationships and building my business and doing the work that matters in order to have a successful sales business. And then knowing by showing up and doing that and proving that I know what I'm doing here, it allows others to see that nothing's handed. It's my world I'm building to add to the business if that makes sense. 

Lucas: Oh, totally. 

Alisha: So, I think that was a huge, huge thing that was a big bridge at that point. 

Lucas: Yeah. I've also been thinking about a statement a moment ago where you had...I think you and I are wired similarly in this way that we like to do. We don't like to sit around and talk. We like to move. We like to move fast. But you said you had to learn how to slow down in order to move fast. 

Alisha: Mm, yeah. So, I find with myself that I do, like, sprints and then marathons and then sprints and then marathons. So, I make massive changes and then we implement those and then I sit in it for a while and like figure out what works well and what doesn't and what I need to break again and then build again. I think that was a sprint at that point. I mean, I'm mom of littles, right? I'm running a real estate, like, a business in Austin that was a #7 team and a market center remotely. And then I'm building my own business here and then I am getting opportunities to, you know, as time went on and I think '18, '19, '20, I started hiring for the team. 

Lucas: Right. 

Alisha: And so just figuring out, how do you scale but still do things at a high level. 

Lucas: Were you coached to do that? Or was that, like, your innate wisdom? Or was that your mom that said, you know what? I want to earn validity before I get leadership roles because I think a lot of people, they want the fastest point between points A and Z and they'll skip everything in between. Something happened there where you knew that I need to be valid. I need a show that I could produce. Was that coached? Was that innate? Where did that come from? 

Alisha: All of the above. I think it's a mixture. I talked to this guy yesterday, and I only share this because I think it gets back to it, who has gotten his real estate license. And he's like, I need a mentor to tell me what to do. And I'm like, I love that and I love needing a mentor to tell you what to do. But you have to go and do. Here's a book, go read this and do it. I think a lot of times as I look back on it, people told me what to do and then I would go take action and then I'd make messes and I'm okay with failure and I'm okay with sitting in failure and learning from my mistakes because that's in my mind, the only way I can grow. And I think through all of that, I got coaching from outside of the industry too, because I had to learn how to earn trust when people thought things were just going to be given to me.  I had to learn how to build trust along the way. And I think that that's something that, especially when you're a doer, you make messes along the way. So, you have to learn how to communicate clearly and how to make sure by earning trust, it's showing up and saying I don't always know what I'm doing, but I'm here to learn from what I'm doing. 

Lucas: I'm just listening to you. I don't know if you're aware, it sounds very much like if you've got somebody who's been with you 20 years, another person 25 years. tThey were probably your mom's hires and now they're your team. You've mastered how to earn trust. So, how does one earn trust of a team? Looking back on it, how do you earn it? Because that's really key, I think. 

Alisha: Showing up and listening, asking questions. I think you build stronger relationships by being transparent, owning when you mess up and then being willing to listen and then also being able to set and cast vision of where you want to go so that you get people excited about the vision of where we're going. I think that's something that is just a part of who I am too. But I've had to learn that too. I've watched great leaders and I've watched bad leaders and I try to take lessons of what I like and don't like and what I won't stand for and what I will die on a hill for. 

Lucas: Yeah. Your relationship with making messes is very refreshing to me as a fellow messmaker. Where did you learn that you don't fear making messes? You don't fear breaking things. Actually, I wrote it down. The "I sprint then marathon. Sprint then marathon". Is that just through the school of hard knocks? Did you get that on CD or? 

Alisha: Probably. If you're a learner, you're always trying to figure out how to take what you learn from others and then make it your own. I sat in this class yesterday conferencing and the person on stage was asking us just to record ourselves looking at ourselves and say this little script. If we're not able to just open up a camera and talk into the camera in front of ourselves that it's not going anywhere and do it. If we can't trust ourselves, then what are we good for? We've got to be willing to mess up for ourselves first and then we can clean it up as long as we can give ourselves forgiveness and move on. And I think that's just a part of, I don't know, listening to all the things over the years and just doing it. 

Lucas: Well, I'm listening to it. It's like, you know, that really is leadership. It's like a visionary leadership, not management leadership, like where you're building something. I think I see it in real estate all the time. I'm so scared of messing up so I'm not going to make prospecting calls. I'm not going to try this new mechanism. I'm not going to do this because I'm so afraid of failure. There's other people who just make messes and just keep on going and don't clean it up. So, I love your perspective. 

Alisha: Yeah. I think as a leader, it's my job to be willing to get into the trenches and do the work too. I can't be the one to say, "Hey, let's go do all of this. You go do it and tell me how it happens." I have to be able to test it, break it and say, "Oh, this worked or didn't." Or listen to my team who does go test it, break it, and tells me feedback, then I have to take that feedback and make adjustments to it. 

Lucas: Yeah, I love that. So, you're leading one of America's top teams today. You've got a long term team with you. Ops team. What are some things that you're thinking about? What things are you breaking right now? Where are we heading with your business? 

Alisha: So this year, honestly, we're on track to do our best year ever, which is incredible. We'll probably be close to 2 million in GCI or above 2.2 ish.

Lucas: Congratulations.

Alisha: In 2023, we had a realization that I'm going to be here for another 30 years. My aha was that our industry is changing so fast and if I don't go and look at all of our systems that have been around for a long time, that we have incredible operations, tools, technology. If we don't look at them and make adjustments, we may not be here in five years. We'll be the frog, right? Where if it's on the pot and it just boils and goes away because we're not moving at the pace that we should. So in '23, '24, we did a ton of research and ended up making some massive changes to our business. Again, sprints. We are in the process of a sprint. We changed brokerages and we made a partnership with PLACE and because of those changes, we are going back and looking at all of our systems, all of our tools, all of our technology. But we had layered in some different pieces along the way, meaning our technology. Not only technology like the CRM, but AI. Even looking at changing over emails and all of it, we blew it all up. It was very strategic. We have made massive changes and I'm so excited. I feel like for a long time, I kept saying that I was seeking clarity. I sat in big rooms with masterminds and kept trying to figure out where is our business going, what are we going to do? How do we weather the next 10 years of change in an industry that's changing? And I very much feel at peace and have a lot of clarity now because I know that our systems, tools, technology. Now, it's about how do I scale and help my agents produce at a higher level using what we're putting into PLACE. 

Lucas: Yeah, I just had lunch today. We were talking about the speed of change in the real estate industry is staggering and I'm not even sure we've seen the biggest changes yet. 

Alisha: No. 

Lucas: So, help me with this on the leadership perspective. You're making all these changes and yet you've got Ops people who've been with you 25 and 20 years. I mean, over 2 and a half decades. What they signed up for and what they have now are completely different. How do you lead that? I'm serious. How do you lead people through that change? Because my experience has been with Operations people especially, we hire them because they stabilize. They make sure that everything is exactly the same all the time and so there may be a little trepidation and change. So, how do you lead people to change?  

Alisha: Two things. I think the biggest is when you have amazing people who trust you and are bought into the vision of where you're going, that it makes change palatable. Not that it's easy, because I think you probably hit one of the hardest things that I've had to work through is how do I navigate a team who's been very solid. We were very stable. In fact, we were intentional from '21 to '23, '24 of not growing. Like being sustainable. I wanted to be a sustainable business and as a team, we wanted to. I think because I had such clarity and we, as a leadership team had clarity about where we're going and what we want to do, it made it easier to be able to embrace it. And it's been difficult. There's been very hard conversations. But I started off with all of my entire team because when you make a brokerage change and you join PLACE, for people who might not know what PLACE is, you're changing core things. I started off with a 5 year vision conversation with each of them about where they want to be, who they want to be, what brings them joy, what do they enjoy and what are we building together? Because I knew I had the right people on the bus now. Are they all in the right seats? Maybe not. And I'm still working through a lot of that. But I think that navigating those conversations with grace and appreciating and being okay with sitting in their uncomfort and listening to it. Those are hard conversations and not diminishing how that uncomfort feels for them, but appreciating when they take it and lean into it. 

Lucas: You're giving a leadership symposium right now. Because, Alisha, I hope everybody could take that last four or five minutes. Listen to it, rewind, listen to it, rewind. Because either, we stay static and potentially get left behind and not have a business to run, or we master the art of leadership in the midst of a lot of change. And fortunately, for a lot of people I have on this podcast have been in the business for 5 or 6 years and have had massive growth grew it real rapidly. So, they're hiring to the change. You're actually leading through the change, which is a whole other skill set and actually will serve you long term better than those who are hiring you to the change because five years from now, the people they hire today may not like what 5 years looks and they don't have the skill set to do that. So if I hear you, what you're saying is, number 1: Surround yourself with good people is the most important thing, which that is standard across the thing. Number two: Earn trust. Number 3: Have conversations and slow it down to be okay with their discomfort amidst that, even if those conversations are really, really, really hard. And then you did something I think brilliant is you had 5 year visioning conversations with each and finding out what brings you joy so that you can modify whatever you need to modify to the human beings that you have on your team. 

Alisha: Yeah. I think one other thing that I'm going to just bring back because partnering with Chris, my mother, I think one thing, why we have the Operational Team and the agents on our team. My agents have been with us for 7 years. I've got great talent, is that you give everybody the same opportunity for growth. You bring them along on the ride. As a leader, they should be sitting next to you in the masterminds. They should be sitting next to you as you're growing and learning. And that's something that I think that Chris has done an incredible job with our Operations Team, but also with me, which is probably why I am who I am. Because if they're not growing and learning the same things that I'm learning and as excited as I am to be on this journey and seize the future of it. Especially Operational people, they like to stay in their zone. They're very comfortable and that's their God gift. Like, we need that. 

Lucas: That's right.

Alisha: And it still gets them excited to be a part of it. So, how do you make sure that they see that and they want to be a part of it? And that's, I think, another piece of the puzzle that kind of wraps it all up. 

Lucas: Yeah, I'm really glad you added that in there because I think one of the challenges, I think, in our industry is we have great events, but it's usually just a rainmaker that goes. And so they go and hear all these amazing ideas and they go back and they secondhand information that onto their Ops team who wasn't there to learn it with them and that sometimes causes some tension and friction. 

Alisha: Yeah. And I think because we've done that at a high level, it's really, really helped us. 

Lucas: So, if I'm in the DFW area and I'm thinking about joining your team, what would you tell me? 

Alisha: I might ask you, what do you want? What are you looking to do? What do you want to build?

Lucas: Such a great leader. When you ask that question, from a recruiting standpoint, why do you ask that question? 

Alisha: One thing I've learned as I've been coached. I've been a part of teams that say, "Hey, you're going to sell 2 homes a month. This is your goal. I want you to hit this goal. You want to make 6 figures. You say you want to make six figures. I know how to get you there." What I've found is that that's great, but what's the meaning behind that number? Because I can't coach somebody who doesn't truly understand what they want and why it matters and how it impacts them. 

Lucas: Okay. 

Alisha:  So, I have to dig in to understand. If you're joining my team, what do you want? Because if I know what you want, then when you say you want to hit a number because you want to pay for your daughter's college in the future and how it's going to impact her life. Well, then if you're not hitting your numbers, my question is more like, well, here's the truth of what it is and where are we going to be in the bridge between. I can't want something more than somebody else. So I want to know, what do you want? You want to join my team. What are we trying to accomplish? What's happening? 

Lucas: Once again, this is masterclass type of stuff. I can't coach someone who doesn't know what they want. That's such a profound and it's such a true statement. So, Alisha, outside of what we've already spoken about on this podcast, as we kind of bring this to a close, what wisdom that you wish that you could give to your compadres that may be listening to this. Some things that you're thinking about that just overarching wisdom that, you know what, if you're out there listening and they want to grow up and be you, what's some things that they should be thinking about right now? Outside of what we've already talked about? 

Alisha: One thing that really resonated with me. Again, I went to this real estate brokerage conference thing yesterday. It was 3 of 4 hours and I sat there and I've been to so many and I listen to podcasts and I'm a constant learner. Reading the books, right? 

Lucas: Obviously. 

Alisha: I think one of the gaps that I've missed over the years is building the relationships behind the books or in the conferences or digging in with people. I think it's very easy, especially as I watch people build massive social media things. It's so awesome. I think I have missed out on building the relationship sometimes and I think that's important. I think that is a huge opportunity in any aspect of our lives is to dig in and just get to know people at a high level and have deeper conversations. 

Lucas: I'm thankful for this conversation. I know that's for sure. Alisha, thank you so much for being on our Built HOW podcast. I'm serious. I'm a student of leadership. This is a masterclass on leadership and I think you just do it because it's who you are and so it's not like you've prepped this. Such a good conversation. Thank you so much. 

Alisha: Thank you. I've enjoyed it.