I have landed on my word for 2026. Patience. This is an area I genuinely struggle in most areas of my life, and I think most entrepreneurs do too. We have ambitious goals, and we know that if we put in 200%, we could reach them fast.

Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week, so I took the time to reflect on the teachers who stuck with me since. One in particular was one of my high school English teachers, Mr. Lynn.

Renters move fast. When someone is actively looking, they're ready to sign within days, not weeks. The property managers who fill vacancies fastest aren't putting in more hours. They've built systems that do the work for them.

I have a close childhood friend who went straight into sales after she graduated from college. She was the one landing the calls, building the pipeline, getting people in the door. But the way her company was structured, her pay was tied to closing, and she wasn't the one on those calls. Someone else was. The system was broken, and she knew it, so she brought it up. They acknowledged the problem and kept promising her a raise.

When the day finally came, the offer was half of what they had discussed. She was their best salesperson, the only one meeting quota, and yet they undercut a promise.

LinkedIn is where that visibility gets built. But here’s the problem we see with most real estate companies: they either aren’t posting at all, or they’re posting the wrong things that nobody outside the office cares about. LinkedIn isn’t a digital bulletin board. Used right, it’s a trust-building platform.

For a long time, I was comfortable. The business was running. Clients were happy. Things were good.

And "good" is a dangerous place to stay.

Moving to New York a few years ago changed something in me I didn't see coming. Everyone around you is building something, chasing something, refusing to settle. You absorb it whether you mean to or not. I stopped being the person who was comfortable with good and started becoming someone else.

But the real shift happened when I flew back to see my team. I walked into a room of people who believed in what we were building, showing up every day for something we created together. I wasn't just running a business. I was the CEO of a community.

My business quickly doubled after that trip.