There’s something special about The Wendy Slaughter Real Estate Team. There’s an atmosphere of respect, a belief that all the employees are truly on the same playing field, and the feeling of family abounds.
Sandy Young from Conscious Capitalism of Central Maryland, had the opportunity to sit down with this unique real estate team and talk to them about the culture they’ve developed for their business, how they interact as a team, and what it means to them to be a conscious business.
Owner and co-founder Wendy Slaughter talked about the cornerstones on which her business has been built: trust and compassion. She knew there are a lot of negative perceptions about realtors, that they’re just in it to get to the settlement and get their cut of the check. And Wendy knew that to break that negative image, she had to do something different.
“We wanted to [create a business] that was people before profits,” Slaughter said. “We didn’t want to be what people perceive realtors to be.”
One of the ways that Wendy and her team achieve this is by prioritizing customer care above all else. “Our goal is not to be the top echelon of [area realtors],” said one of the realtors on the team, Rocky Brown. “We just go out and take care of our clients.”
And the respect that they have for their clients and their happiness shows — a look at the testimonials on their website reveals nothing but glowing reviews and variations of the phrase “unlike my other experience with realty companies.”
But what truly sets The Wendy Slaughter Real Estate Team apart is the respect they have for one another. Dalia Bracy, one of the newest realtors on the team, credits her co-workers’ genuine desire to help her to grow and learn as a big part of her rapid success.
“I think one thing we do that has helped our clients is how we work together behind the scenes,” Wendy noted. “My top priority is my agents and my staff – the happiness level of the team is most important to me.”
Co-founder of the team, Debbie Gottwals pointed out that the attitude in their office is not the norm for realtors. In fact, it’s quite rare. “We put enough pressure on ourselves individually as independent agents,” she said, “so it’s nice to not have top management breathing down your neck about making goals you aren’t meeting. There’s not a hierarchy in here either.”
The team-player atmosphere allows everyone to feel like they are on the same playing field. Everyone participates equally in the team meetings on Tuesdays that usually turn into small group problem-solving discussions. Many of the realtors on the team, including Dalia and Rocky, feel that these collaborative sessions are how they’ve made their business better.
They discuss everything from how to take care of a particular client to how to solve issues in the business as a whole. No topic is too tough for the team to tackle, because they approach their problems as a family.
“I don’t feel like the company is me,” said Wendy, “it’s us. We created this company together. I think about the image of someone in a boat pulling people in a separate boat behind them – that’s just not us. Rather, we are on the same boat, all rowing together.”
“We are a family,” Dalia reiterated. “The way we give to our community and the heart we have in our community – we bring it here. We bring it to each other as well by helping each other live the lives we want to live.”
The Wendy Slaughter Real Estate Team is a true example of a conscious business and represents the pillars of Conscious Capitalism