After years leading teams, building brands and driving growth in another industry, I joined my current company to lead as Vice President of Marketing and Communications. What I did not expect was how quickly the leadership questions would feel familiar.

The market dynamics were different. The terminology was different. The pace was different. But the questions were familiar. How do you attract great people? How do you retain them? How do you scale while protecting what made the organization successful in the first place? How do you build a culture that can support growth, change and market evolution?

Today, strong tech stacks, AI tools, marketing platforms, CRMs and operational systems are essential. Every growth-minded brokerage is investing in them. They are no longer optional. They are the price of admission.

The real differentiator is what happens after the technology is in place. In my experience, the answer often comes back to leadership, culture and connection.

Technology creates capability. Culture determines execution.

Before entering real estate, I assumed recruiting conversations would revolve primarily around technology, marketing support, commission structures and business resources. While those topics matter, I have found they are rarely where meaningful conversations end.

Eventually, most conversations come back to trust. People want to know who they are aligning themselves with. They want to understand the vision. They want to know whether leadership is accessible. They want confidence that the culture they are being promised is the culture they will actually experience.

That realization reinforced something I have seen throughout my career: people may be attracted by opportunity, but they stay because of leadership.

Although I do not have a wealth of experience inside multiple brokerages, I do have the privilege of speaking with agents every day about why they joined Glasshouse and what keeps them here.

What is interesting is that the conversations rarely center on a single tool, platform or piece of technology. Instead, the same themes continue to surface: support, accessibility, collaboration, connection and leadership.

Agents talk about feeling seen.

They talk about having access to leadership. They talk about being part of a culture where people genuinely want one another to succeed. They talk about being surrounded by professionals who are willing to share ideas, answer questions and help each other grow.

For me, those conversations are a reminder that while technology may help attract attention, culture is often what earns loyalty.

There is another piece of culture that has stood out to me since joining real estate: connection. Agents want to grow their business, but they also want to feel connected. Real estate can be isolating, and many agents know what it feels like to operate on an island.

They want to be part of a community where they can learn from one another, share ideas, celebrate wins and navigate challenges together. As a hybrid brokerage, that is not something we can take for granted.

Connection does not happen automatically when people are not working side by side every day. It requires intentional effort, leaders who create opportunities for collaboration and a culture that encourages people to share knowledge instead of hoarding it.

One of the things I have appreciated most about my brokerage is the belief that success does not have to be a zero-sum game. A saying our broker, Mo Zahedi, often repeats has become something of a company cornerstone: “A rising tide lifts all ships.”

It is more than a saying. It is a mindset.

It captures the belief that when one agent succeeds, everyone benefits. Knowledge spreads. Confidence grows. Momentum builds. People are encouraged to support one another, celebrate wins and share what they have learned.

Technology allows us to work from anywhere, but culture gives people a reason to stay connected.

In a hybrid environment, that connection does not happen by accident. It has to be built, reinforced and protected. That is leadership work.

One experience that reinforced this perspective was Asa Cox Homes, Glasshouse’s newly acquired Cleveland team of 80 agents, being selected for the Google and HouseCanary home search pilot.

The pilot explored new ways brokerage listings could surface through Google’s search ecosystem, supported by HouseCanary’s real estate data platform. Cleveland was one of only eight national pilot locations, making the opportunity meaningful not just for Glasshouse, but for an independent brokerage team entering a larger growth story.

While the pilot was rooted in technology and visibility, it ultimately reinforced something much bigger: the role leadership plays in creating momentum.

When a newly acquired team is able to step into an opportunity like that, it says something about more than market presence. It says something about alignment, communication and the ability to create momentum during transition.

It also says something about support. Asa Cox Homes was able to hit the ground running because they joined a brokerage that was nimble enough to move quickly, supportive enough to create confidence and innovative enough to recognize the opportunity in front of them.

Marketing can amplify a strong culture, but it cannot create one.

The strongest brands I have worked with were never built solely through campaigns, messaging or visibility. They were built through consistent leadership decisions that employees, customers and partners experienced every day.

Culture is not what a company says about itself. Culture is how people experience the company. Our continued growth is rooted in something simple: culture and leadership.

Technology and systems are essential to growth. But their impact depends on the people and culture behind them. Technology is most powerful when it is paired with trust, communication, accountability and leadership that people believe in.

Here is what I have learned, and what continues to be reinforced regardless of industry: technology is essential, but it is not enough on its own.

The brokerages that grow in a meaningful, sustainable way will be the ones that understand what technology can support, but leadership must create.

Leadership creates trust. Culture creates connection. And together, they create the kind of environment where people do not just join, but stay, grow, collaborate and succeed.

That is the real competitive advantage.

Not the tools alone.

The people, the leadership and the culture that bring them to life.

Korrin Ziswiler is Vice President of Marketing and Communications with Glasshouse Realty in Dayton, Ohio.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial department and its owners.

To contact the editor responsible for this piece: [email protected]

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