058 Profitability vs Durability with George Laughton and Billy Hobbs

Feb 25, 2025

George Laughton, a visionary founder driving revenue growth, partners with Billy Hobbs, a COO focused on efficiency. They dive into the crucial balance between profitability and durability in real estate. The duo emphasizes the power of trust within teams and effective communication through personalized video messaging. They discuss the evolution of team dynamics and technology, highlighting how CRM and AI streamline operations. Their insights reflect the importance of adapting to market changes while nurturing long-term relationships and customer experiences.

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INSIGHT

Trust Powers Leadership Synergy

Trust is fundamental to leadership synergy and problem resolution.
Trust allows leaders to delegate with confidence and face challenges resiliently.

ADVICE

Prioritize Problems by Impact

Evaluate problems by their impact on goals and your current capacity.
Prioritize issues that threaten progress and have the resources to address immediately.

ADVICE

Boost Client Experience with Video

Use video messages like thank you notes and weekly market updates to humanize client communication.
Apply simple frameworks to improve consumer experience and agent connection consistently.

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Founder and team leader George Laughton is focused on top-line revenue growth. COO Billy Hobbs is focused on expense management and operational efficiency.

Both have an eye on net operating income, but neither is cuffed to the numbers or focused on making a specific margin at all costs.

Ultimately, they’re working to build a durable business - one that’s healthy enough to adapt to and endure changes in market conditions, technologies, regulations, and anything else they face as a real estate team.

George and Billy were our first two guests in our Inside The Laughton Team series, in which we met and learned from eight different leaders in their 200-agent, 25-staff, and 5-office organization in Phoenix, Arizona.

They’re back on the show and together in this episode to share ideas on profitability, trust, consumer experience, video messages, transaction coordination, the infinite game, and “the EKG of the business.”

Watch or listen for insights into:

- Recognizing the need for and value of trust, intuition, and patience within the team

- Getting a snapshot of the team today (agent count, staff size, year-over-year growth)

- Running the organization on a modified version of EOS (and why they modified it) and how they prioritize problems and opportunities

- Elevating consumer experience through video communication

- Creating the most consistent and efficient agents possible

- Improving CRM, transaction management, and business intelligence over the past 7 years and through 10x agent count - and having one place to access everything from the macro level down to micro details

- Creating a durable, profitable business that shields your people through different seasons and different markets

- Watching out for the “it’s only”s that eat into profit

- Evaluating the ROI of lead sources and keeping an eye on originating source on every conversion

- Judging the effects of the NAR settlement as a net positive so far

At the end, learn about Apple update insights, too-effective Instagram ads, and empty health hacks.

The Laughton Team
- https://www.instagram.com/laughtonteam/

- https://www.instagram.com/georgelaughton/

- https://www.instagram.com/billyhobbsjr/

Inside The Laughton Team Series

- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCJiXNo93cVr9Oc0ptse5z6Vaq5l0T1kA

Real Estate Team OS:

- https://www.realestateteamos.com

- https://linktr.ee/realestateteamos

- https://www.instagram.com/realestateteamos/