If you needed surgery, would you want the best surgeon in your building — or the best surgeon in the country?
I already know the answer. And yet, when it comes to training, most real estate agents are defaulting to the local option without ever stopping to ask if it’s actually the best one.
Here’s what’s really happening inside most traditional brokerages and franchise models. The training calendar is filled with whoever is available. Whoever said yes. Whoever is willing to stand up in front of the room for an hour on a Tuesday morning. And sometimes that person is genuinely good. Sometimes they’re the top producer in your market, they’re generous with their time, and you walk away with something valuable. That’s the best case scenario.
But let’s be honest about the rest of the time.
The training is inconsistent. The quality depends entirely on who showed up that week. One month you’re getting a masterclass on negotiation from someone who’s actually in the trenches. The next month, you’re sitting through a 45-minute presentation on a topic that may or may not apply to your market, your price point, or the stage you’re at in your business. Hit or miss. Every single time.
And here’s the part that nobody in those offices wants to say out loud: the people doing the training often have a reason to keep you at a certain level. Not because they’re bad people — most of them aren’t. But in a competitive environment, the top agent in your office training you to become their competition is, at best, a complicated dynamic. At worst, it’s a conflict of interest that nobody names but everybody feels.
Where are you primarily getting your training right now? Do you feel like you have access to the best minds in the industry… or mostly what’s local?
If you’re being honest with yourself — really honest — the answer for most agents is: mostly local. Maybe a conference once a year if the timing works out. Maybe a YouTube rabbit hole at 11pm when you can’t sleep. But the day-to-day, week-to-week training? It’s whatever your brokerage puts in front of you. And that’s a ceiling most agents don’t even realize they’re bumping up against.
The best minds in this industry are not all in your zip code. They’re not all in your state. They’re scattered across the globe — agents and leaders who’ve built nine-figure production businesses, who’ve cracked the code on luxury, on relocation, on investor clients, on building teams that scale without burning out the person at the top. That knowledge exists. The question is whether your brokerage gives you access to it.
At eXp, I don’t have to choose between local convenience and world-class caliber. I get both. eXp University is running training sessions constantly — not one Tuesday-morning meeting a month, but ongoing education delivered by some of the most accomplished people in the business. People who are actively producing at the highest level, not just recounting what used to work five years ago. And because the platform is global, the depth and variety of what’s available is unlike anything I’ve seen inside a traditional model.
Would you say your environment is more collaborative or competitive?
This is the question that really cuts to the heart of it. And if you pause long enough to answer it honestly, it tells you everything about the ceiling you’re operating under.
In most offices, the answer is: both, depending on the day and depending on who’s around. There’s camaraderie, sure. But there’s also a quiet competition that runs underneath everything — for leads, for listings, for recognition, for market share. And that competition makes genuine collaboration almost impossible. Nobody is teaching you everything they know when you might use it to take their next client.
At eXp, the model flips that dynamic. When someone in my organization grows, I grow. When someone outside my organization grows and brings value to the platform, the whole community gets better. There’s no territorial war over zip codes, no tension over who gets the walk-in. The incentive structure actually rewards people for helping each other — which means the collaboration is real, not just a talking point on a brokerage brochure.
I’ve been in this business since 1999. I’ve sat in a lot of conference rooms. I’ve done the local training circuit. And I can tell you from experience: the quality of your environment shapes the ceiling of your growth. If the people around you are competing with you, they will never fully invest in your success. If the people around you benefit when you win, they will pour into you in ways you haven’t experienced before.
The bottom line is this. You can keep getting trained by whoever is available in your market. Or you can plug into a global network where the best agents on the planet are actively sharing what’s working right now — and where the entire model is built around your success making everyone around you better too.
One of those options has a ceiling. The other one doesn’t.
If you’re ready to find out what that actually looks like, email hello@richtomasini.com. Let’s talk.