What It Really Takes to Last in Brokerage

With more than two decades in brokerage, Cory Rosenthal, Executive Managing Director and National Director of Multifamily at Matthews, shares how he has built his career around a simple but demanding idea: success isn’t complicated, and can be earned daily by surrounding yourself with the right people, showing up with the right mindset, and embracing consistent execution.

In this Q&A, Cory reflects on the formative lessons that have helped shape his leadership philosophy, the role discipline and consistency play in long-term performance, and why culture, curiosity, and integrity matter more than any single transaction. From coaching through long stretches of low gratification to defining success beyond money, his perspective offers a candid look at what it really takes to build a sustainable and fulfilling career in brokerage.

Background

Q: You’ve often said there’s no textbook for this business. Looking back, what early experiences shaped how you think about brokerage and leadership today?

A: There’s enormous pressure on young people coming out of college to feel like they should already be in the know, be smarter than everyone else, have their trajectory planned out, and know where they’ll be in the next ten years and how to get there. However, these expectations are mostly placed upon themselves.

The reality is, unless you’re in technical trade, college mostly prepares you to organize your life. Much of what you take away is about how to plan, be resourceful, and how to get answers. Brokerage is this concept on steroids.

We’re not populating data cells or finding the round peg for the round hole and moving on. Our business is a combination of sales, relationships, and mindset, and no college course teaches you that. The only way to learn in this industry is to ask questions, surround yourself with people who are willing to take on those questions, synthesize the answers and then apply them in your next attempt.

Rinse, wash, repeat.

In this business, the same result can be achieved in any number of ways and there’s no way to prove which is best. It all comes down to ascertaining as much information as you possibly can and then relying on your preparation, experience, and coaching. Those are all soft skills, and at the end of the day, it’s a recipe for embracing who you are as an individual and I was fortunate to grow up, professionally, in an environment where the training was on the person first, product second.

Q: What lessons from your early years in sales still guide the way you hire, coach, and build teams today?

A: To be genuinely curious about people. You can’t collaborate with people, clients, or colleagues, if you don’t understand what they’re looking to achieve and what motivates them. Only when you build a relationship that allows for that honest communication can you maximize results.

Q: How much of your early success do you attribute to the people around you vs. your own effort and how did that shape your dedication to culture?

A: Any success I’ve ever had from the first day on the job to today, is the result of the people I’ve worked with. I was fortunate to start my career at a company with an incredible culture. For our business model to succeed, people needed to collaborate. So, we needed to hire engaged, like-minded, and motivated individuals who at their essence had good values.

The level of respect you were provided with the day you stepped in the door was no different than if you were a person who had been there for ten years. It made everything about work more enjoyable and there was an enthusiasm for the work because you care about the people you were working with. The people around me took what would have been my standard of effort and poured gasoline on it.

Mindset

Q: You talk about discipline being a superpower. Why do you think consistency is the true separator in brokerage?

A: It starts and ends with something I call, “compounding credibility.”

Often, the person a broker is speaking with can’t conceptualize transacting on real estate at that very moment. Alternatively, they might be ready, but they need to interview a select few firms.

Over time, a broker needs to speak to, mail, engage with, and meet people at a certain clip or cadence to gain that individual’s trust. This could be measured in days or years. Often, it’s the latter.

If you are not consistent in your cadence and that chain of touches gets broken, you risk being forgotten or being top of mind. Now you are starting all over, all your work begins again and you’re no different than any other broker when you next call that owner.

The average person doesn’t have the discipline to do it over and over again to ensure they stand out. It’s not sexy and there’s not an immediate return, so people let cracks seep in, and they eventually divert their actions elsewhere. The compounding can’t be touched or felt, so they feel dejected and they quit.

These individuals lack the fortitude to sustain the work.

I recently heard that the great Manchester United soccer coach sir Alex Ferguson once said: “The hardest thing in life is to work hard every day” – and I couldn’t agree more.

Q: You’ve said the work isn’t complicated, but it is hard. What are some tasks you see agents underestimate or avoid daily?

A: The first task of the day: Waking up early. It starts there.

Throw your legs over the side of the bed and just get going. Show up day in and day out to maximize your time. Time and preparation are the only means you can take advantage of to ensure you are being proactive and not reactive.

We all have the same amount of time in the day, but it’s what we do with it that matters the most.

Waking up is not complicated. You open your eyes and you stand up. So, when I ask people if they can wake up tomorrow at 5am, then answer is always a smile and a “yes”. But when I ask them if they can do it tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that, and the day after that, and so on, often the smile fades into a bit of deer in headlights look and I can see them trying to envision that simple act day in and day out, and how difficult it actually is.

Getting to the office before the rest of your teammates, getting ahead of the competition, and showing up for yourself is where difficulties lie.

Q: How do you coach people through a period where effort is high, results are low, and gratification is almost nonexistent?

A: The most important thing is not what I say to them during that period. It’s what I said to them when we first met. When I was clear and candid about what comes with the job, and that they would in fact, experience tough times, like what they’re going through now.

In that conversation, there is also discussion regarding the job being a journey and not a sprint. That each step is effort towards reward many miles away. So now, when the results are low, I remind them of that conversation. I get their confirmation that we had that conversation and that they agreed then and they still agree now. They realize, they’re not off path, they’re just on a really long stretch of dirt. Then we talk about how we’re going to keep moving forward at a good pace.

Sales Philosophy

Q: What mistakes do you see brokers make when they prioritize winning the assignment over giving the right advice?

A: Reputation and time. If you advise improperly, you probably aren’t going to transact anyway. Giving poor advice means you’re mismanaging expectations. So, you’re either going to get fired or have a poor outcome that doesn’t meet the client’s goals. At least give yourself the shot to get the assignment back when timing makes more sense for the client.

Q: If you stripped this business down to daily non-negotiables, what are the habits that you see move the needle year-after-year?

Show-Up
Stick To the Fundamentals
Try To Get Better Every Day
Maintain Your Integrity

Q: How should young brokers measure progress when results lag effort early on?

A: Measure your improvement in everything. The deal cycle from lead to closing is long. Every aspect of transaction is a chance to win. Measure, compare, assess, and compete on each task. Did you win by getting a hold of the client? Did you win by not having the client hang up on you? Did you win by determining if the client needs your services? Did you win by having the client agree to have you walk their property? Did you win by properly underwriting the property? Did you win by having the client agree to meet you again for the pitch? Did you win the pitch and get hired? This is all before you are even in the market, let alone close the deal. All that winning means you’re getting better and getting closer to your next closing.

Culture

Q: You’ve said culture is everything. How would you define the Matthews culture and what sets it apart from other firms? How do you know culture is real vs just words on a wall?

A: Culture makes up everything about an organization; it’s mostly the people. But also, the business model. The sales policies. The HR policies. The dress code. The camaraderie. The leadership involvement. And on, and on, and on. Collectively, you can’t touch it, but you can feel it.

When you walk into any Matthews™ office and you can feel the hard work (especially if you’re there at 6:30am), you can feel the intent that people go about their business, and you can feel the camaraderie. The company is a team, and it shows when you stand within our walls.

Q: You’ve spoken about servant leadership. What happens to teams when leaders don’t genuinely believe they work for their people?

A: Trust is lost. Teams begin to question the leader’s motivation on everything. Is it self-serving or in the team’s best interest? That leads to disengagement and dissension. Once that creeps into an office or company, things are lost.

Q: How do you evaluate intangibles like accountability, resilience, and competitive stamina when hiring new agents?

A: My interviews can become a bit of a therapy session. I want to know the person’s story. I want to know what they went through; what experience did they have or what lesson they learned that causes a fire to burn inside of them. I like to hear from the person, not their script.

I learn why being average is not enough for them, and what makes that individual so desperate to succeed?

If they have that vulnerability to acknowledge what they feared was a weakness, they can use it to become a superpower. Once you name something you own it. And once you own it, rather than run away from it you can press on it to motivate you. The people who are willing to do that work have something in them that will make them show up every day and be successful in this business.

Business Development

Q: You’ve emphasized working on the business, not just in it. What does that look like in practice for high-performing brokers?

A: If you think about in the notion of having an audience, you want to “touch” them as much as possible (without harassing them). Calls, meetings, mailers, LinkedIn posts, emails, networking events, etc. All of these are ways the audience receives information you are putting out.

A high-performing broker has a marketing calendar for this content. They have existing information and information that they are constantly developing and pushing out in various vehicles at various cadences.

The goal is to create the perception that the audience sees and feels you everywhere in the market through the valuable information you are delivering. Without this, you are only dealing with people who are interested in the transactions you are working on and not the people who will be transacting or be a source of transactions down the road.

Q: What separates people who last five years from those who build twenty-year careers in brokerage?

A: Consistency and enjoyment. I have never seen a person leave this business who has positive body language. I’ve never had to terminate someone for performance. It’s all about body language and consistency. If someone is enjoying the job, they’re ultimately going to be good at it and they’re going to show up. They’re going to wake up day in and day out with enthusiasm and passion to do their job. That passion will fuel an appetite for getting better. The more you do the job, the better you get, and there is no ceiling on that curve.

Q: How do personal routines outside the office affect performance inside the office?

A: It’s a 24/7/365 job. If you’re maximizing your time outside of the office doing the wrong thing, it’s going to impact your time inside the office. Routines outside of the office enable you to be proactive in managing your business.

It’s hard enough to get everything done in one day, but if it’s predictable, it’s easier to embrace because you’re prepared. Being reactive in this business is a death sentence. You can never get your arms around your existing business, let alone future business or what you need to do to identify business.

Growth, Fulfillment, and Longevity

Q: What is the most common misconception people have about what it takes to succeed in sales?

A: Defining sales as convincing people to do something they don’t want to do, as opposed to defining sales as building relationships. That starts with listening. People need to listen more. If you listen and actually understand the customer’s needs, versus what you want out of the situation, then you’re actually closer to finding success with that individual.

Q: After more than two decades in the business, how do you personally define success now, and how has it evolved over time?

A: I think based on how I grew up, success was mostly about money and having a vibrant social life at a young age. Constantly being on edge about those two things and assuming they were intertwined. I wanted to work so that I can have the resources for the two, but I was also trying to balance, taking advantage of how my professional life provided for my social life and simultaneously maximizing both.

Now, almost twenty-three years later, I’ve been through enough and around enough that my priorities have shifted. My wife and daughter are the most important things in the world. Everything in my universe revolves around them and if I could, I’d spend every waking minute with them. But I go about each day with a pride in knowing that if I must be away from them, it’s at a place that allows me to contribute to my family’s overall happiness and well-being. It’s a place I enjoy, a place where I find purpose and a place where I am respected for who I am as a person and what I can contribute.

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