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Justin Landis: Welcome to The Justin Landis Show, your real estate podcast about having conversations, building relationships, and creating freedom. Today we're kicking off a broker series for the month, and I've got Romie White with us. Romie, thanks for being here.
Romie White: Thank you for having me, Justin. I'm super excited.
Justin Landis: I'm excited too, especially because you're the newest broker at Bolst, and something big is happening. Want to tell everyone what that is?
Romie White: Bolst is growing again. We're opening the Woodstock location and expanding through Northwest Atlanta.
Justin Landis: Bolst Woodstock, here we come. And you're going to launch and lead that office.
Romie White: I'm so excited about that.
Justin Landis: You've seen a lot of sides of this industry to get to this point. Give our listeners a little of your background.
Romie White: I started at Atlanta's oldest luxury brokerage, a great foundation in relationships, luxury, client satisfaction, customer support, the very traditional model. Then I went to the total other side of that, all things innovation and technology, partnered with a team, helped build that team, and later helped build a brokerage with one of the biggest disruptors in real estate, Zillow. Very tech forward, moving fast. So I got to see a lot of different sides, as an agent, leading a sales team, and then, similar to Bolst, launching a brand new independent brokerage with no existing model, doing it for the first time, building from the ground up, and learning how important systems are in that process.
Justin Landis: What led you to Bolst specifically?
Romie White: Alignment. I know I talk about that word a lot, but it's my word. I was very specific about what I wanted next. One of the great things about my experience is that I sat through hundreds and hundreds of interviews with agents from all different types of brokerages, much like myself, and I kept noticing the same similarities in what they were looking for, which mirrored what mattered to me. That all came back to four pillars I call agent first philosophy, community impact, technology, and transparency.
Justin Landis: I love those four. Let's dive into the first one, community impact. It was a big deal to you that Bolst became a certified B Corp, the first brokerage in Georgia to do that. Why did that matter so much?
Romie White: That was actually one of the key factors for me. It goes back to why I got into real estate in the first place. My background before real estate was in sales, and I wanted to be in the most impactful kind of sales possible. What's a bigger purchase than someone finding their forever home, or their first home? I really wanted to make a difference. The B Corp side of it is accountability, it says Bolst isn't just giving back to the community, it's committed to continuing to do that.
Justin Landis: I appreciate you saying that. That was a big reason we pursued it, we'd said from the beginning that we're a purpose based brokerage making an impact, and that's a genuinely challenging assessment. It set us up to live by it and be graded on it going forward, which helps us put our money where our mouth is.
Romie White: Agreed. To those that much is given, much is expected. There have been times all of us needed a hand, and it's our responsibility to do the same. I think that's one of the key principles of a good business.
Justin Landis: Let's talk about agent first philosophy. That's counter to a brokerage first philosophy. What do you think are the most important parts of putting the agent first?
Romie White: It goes back to what's the purpose, the why of a brokerage. In my opinion, the purpose of a brokerage is to serve the agent. The agents are our clients. How can we best serve them, what can the brokerage do to make their lives easier? It's already a challenging industry for agents right now. Whatever a brokerage can do, that's the why, the purpose. All of our systems should be in support of the agent.
Justin Landis: Agents need a lot of different things, from brand new agents to experienced ones and everywhere in between. What do you think are the most important things a brokerage needs to be agent first about?
Romie White: Technology is a big one, and we'll get into that next, but the real question is how it supports the agent. A lot of times people think of technology as shiny new tools, and it ends up becoming another task list. That's not great technology for agents, it doesn't actually serve them. Rev share is another one, that's the brokerage putting its money where its mouth is and putting it back into the agent.
Justin Landis: Let's talk technology. You've spent a lot of time around real estate tech, probably more than almost anyone listening. What have you learned that actually makes an impact for agents?
Romie White: Time saving. If technology has done anything well, and you hear this constantly, it's not meant to replace agents, it's meant to help them use their time more wisely. What tasks can it take off your plate so you can focus on the most important part, relationships. If technology doesn't do that, or worse, adds more tasks, it's not good technology.
Justin Landis: Completely agree. We don't want to have to download something new just to take five extra steps to fill out a form. That's technology, but it's not helpful technology. This reminds me, just yesterday an agent sent me something from a small mastermind I led on using Claude Design. He'd put all his branding into it, and he's always had great marketing materials, but now he could create things custom to the actual property and client in a matter of seconds, and it looked gorgeous. That's a substantial step up from what people have historically needed a full time marketing department to do, and even then it wouldn't turn around in thirty minutes. Now it does.
Romie White: It's incredible. And going back to what a brokerage should support, every agent is different on that. Marketing has never been my strong suit, it's not my love language, but it's a requirement of this industry. Using technology, being a brokerage that supports that, being able to create beautiful marketing by throwing your colors and brand into a tool like that, that's technology making my life easier.
Justin Landis: You mentioned rev share. Talk about what you're excited about there.
Romie White: That's one of the best ways a brokerage can put money back into an agent's pocket. We talk about transparency, about where the money actually goes in a brokerage. You've got the lower cost models where you don't give much and don't get much, and the higher end ones where it's hard to see where the value actually is. Then you have Bolst, where you know exactly where the money is going, rev share, technology, and community impact. The rev share piece specifically goes back to agents to build collaboration within an office and reward agents for already doing what we hope they'll do, building a great office.
Justin Landis: When we first launched Bolst, there were a lot of models we could have chosen. What we kept coming back to was wanting to reward agents for the two things that help us most, selling houses and referring other agents to join. That's how we landed on the cap model and the rev share pieces, thanking people for doing those two things.
Justin Landis: Let's transition to Woodstock, our new location. Tell us what you love about it and why you think this is such a great move.
Romie White: Woodstock is exploding in growth right now, that's the word I always use for it. You get that small town feel, that helping out your neighbor vibe, very quaint, but at the same time you get all the conveniences of the city. Tons of development, new construction, new houses. It's the best of both worlds, I call it the little Goldilocks community.
Justin Landis: I've spent a good amount of time in downtown Woodstock, more recently, and it's impressive. The amount of growth, and the things you used to have to drive into the city for twenty years ago, you don't have to anymore. It's easy to get stuck in that little bubble, but it's a great bubble.
Romie White: It really is, and what's cool is how interconnected it is with all the surrounding communities. If you live and love Woodstock, you're typically also within reach of East Cobb, where my kids play sports, Marietta Square, we love Chalktoberfest there, Roswell, where one of my kids goes to school, and all the way up to Canton, a community similar to Woodstock that's booming too, with some larger properties, country clubs, golf. It's really cool how interconnected it all is. It's an incredible area.
Justin Landis: You prepared something fun for us today, your Woodstock top five.
Romie White: I actually had a hard time narrowing it down. Number one, rooftop restaurants, I love getting together with friends and family, and when the weather's beautiful that's extra special. Thankfully a lot of them are heated and cooled, which matters in August in Atlanta. Woodstock really takes the lead on that.
Romie White: Number two, outdoor spaces. We're completely interconnected with trails and parks, whether you like mountain biking, or you've got kids and want playgrounds, there's endless options, all connected along the Little River.
Romie White: Number three, Wine Down Wednesday. A midweek break to break up the monotony, since you're usually looking forward to the weekend. Well, you've made it halfway, let's celebrate. There's live music, half price wine, the whole community comes together. I really enjoy that one.
Romie White: My actual top pick though is the Saturday Farmers Market. It's the best of all worlds, the whole community comes together, all kinds of things to buy, treats and snacks, it's at the park, everyone's out there with their dogs. It really embraces that small town feel Woodstock has.
Romie White: Number five is community events. There's always something happening in Woodstock. Right now it's the free summer concert series at the amphitheater, and we're getting ready for fall, pumpkin patches, and there's a fun scarecrow competition between the local businesses that everyone comes out for.
Justin Landis: I love the inside scoop, thanks for sharing that. If there's someone listening who's an agent living in Woodstock or one of those surrounding communities, what would you say to them about considering joining Bolst Woodstock and kicking it off with you?
Romie White: Come join. It's everything we've talked about that we love about Woodstock, and all of it pairs so well with Bolst's values and alignment. If you care about your community and want to be involved in real estate and making a difference, that's exactly what this is about, building and growing that culture, and giving back.
Justin Landis: I love it. If you want to do good business in Woodstock, and do good in Woodstock, come do both of those with us. All right, everybody, thanks for listening. If you want to talk directly with Romie about potentially joining Bolst Woodstock, there's a link below where you can schedule a confidential conversation directly on her calendar. For everyone else, thanks for watching, make sure you like and subscribe so you never miss an episode, and I'll see you again next week.
