Building a Legacy Team

Welcome back to another episode, CRE – The Unspoken Truth. I’m Charlie Coppola, joined with my father, our CEO, Craig. Welcome. Today we’re talking about building a legacy team. I guess my first question would be, how many brokers think about this?

Let’s define legacy, because brokers don’t. Legacy would be a team that lasts beyond your career. So let’s build a team that’s multigenerational. And how many brokers do that? I would say very, very few. I mean, maybe one or two percent. And so we might not have a big audience for this, unless you listen to what the reason why you want to do it, and also how you do it, which makes for a different kind of perspective. So I would say very, very few people look at legacy.

Companies, right, successful companies have a, you know, successor and a transition, a new leadership team. If the founder or CEO retires, the company still survives. Brokers, a broker retires, their clients go to another broker, right? There’s nothing beyond that. Why, when, go ahead.

Jim Watkins, who I worked next to for 40 years, just retired, and he was 81 or 82. And when he left, there was nothing. I mean, he had a 40-year career, a broke, fantastic career. But when he left, he was done. His clients had moved on to other people, retired, had done whatever. And I looked at that early on in my career and I said, I think I could do it a little bit differently. I think.

Yeah. When was the first time, and what was the first example maybe, that made you think you wanted to build something differently?

Well, I think the first 20 years I was a solo broker, back in the early, in the ’80s and ’90s. That was what, very few teams. And so I was a solo broker, and then I started seeing teams form at the big companies, and so I thought, hey, I need a team. I had four kids. I wanted some time with the kids. And so, you know, Andrew Cheney became my partner 25 years ago. And at that point it was more, it wasn’t really a legacy, we didn’t think about in terms of legacy. But what we thought about was, hey, we want this to be something that’s lasting, right? So we didn’t use the word legacy at that point. We do now.

But certainly started this by saying, hey, this isn’t going to be a short-term five-year journey for Andrew or for me. This is going to be something that we’re going to be partners for the rest of my career, for him. And then he would become the kind of the head of the company, of the team, when I retire. And so then, once he saw that, then that’s when we started building the legacy portion of the team. Once he knew that, hey, I’m going to need a team behind me after you retire, which I haven’t done, but I certainly have given him more and more every year. But that’s what we started focused on.

So I would say it’s probably 10 or 12 years, 30 years into my career at least, 10 to 12 years into his. He’s now been in the business 15 years. 25, right? 25 years. So it takes a while, for sure.

Yeah. And that was a conversation you started, he started, you know, or just kind of ongoing? I think it was just an evolution of the conversations we were having. Yeah.

I started early on because, you know, I’ve done well. I’ve made a lot of money, and so I had the ability. So let’s just go back. When I was 53, I got the cancer. And when I came out of that a year later, I had the ability to retire, right? I had enough money, enough assets at 53 to just retire. I could have retired earlier than that. And so I met with Andrew and said, “Hey, let’s talk through this. Do you want me back?” And, you know, I haven’t been here for a year because of the cancer treatments. And he was like, “Yeah, we want you back. We need you back.”

And I said, “Okay, I’m going to come back, but it’s going to be under different terms.” Because I really, this is, you know, a life scare. And so we kind of started changing that. Now, that’s been 12 years ago. So we just started 12 years ago. I was really full force, 80-hour-a-week broker until then, and then I’ve just kind of slowly changed that. And so that was kind of the impetus to change it. How long would I have lasted if I didn’t get cancer? I don’t know. Yeah. Yeah. Could have been another five years, probably.

Yeah. What, if you don’t mind sharing, what, like, two or three things that you guys are actively talking about or thinking about for that legacy part of the team, the pass down, or the step up?

So, same thing that happens with you, right, and in any organization. As you elevate your skills and what you’re trying to do, you have to have people behind you to elevate their skills. So you’re trying to create this self-managing team, from Strategic Coach, which is, hey, I, Coppola Cheney used to be the Coppola Group, then it was Coppola, and now it’s Coppola Cheney, and it’s really turning to be more Cheney Coppola, but we’re just leaving the name there, where he does a little bit more every year of what I do, which is really business development, getting business, running the bigger deals.

I, you know, I’ve never been one to shy away from running transactions, but Andrew gets those now. If I have a really big transaction, I just, Andrew gets to run it. And so he’s doing bigger deals. He’s also managing more and more of the team, and we have a pretty big team, 11 or 12 people. And so he has to manage those, which has been a big learning curve for him. Because, you know, you and I were talking on another Unspoken Truth about how hard it is to go from being in the room to being the person firing and hiring. That’s really hard, and I’ve done that for the team.

I was also the liaison with Lee & Associates, and if there was an issue with the company, I dealt, did that for 25 or 30 years, and now I don’t do that. Andrew does that. So there’s a whole myriad of things that he’s doing now that he didn’t do. And now he has to bring Nick and Greg, our two other partners, to elevate what they’re doing, to run more transactions, to do a little bit, and elevate our team. Because as Chelsea and I slow down, Chelsea’s one of our key assistants, but she’s really mine, and she’ll stay with me as I retire. She does less. So we had to bring in Ally to kind of take that role, some of the things that Chelsea was doing.

Yeah. Do you think about, through that transition period, and it’s obviously ongoing and multi-year, even decade-long process, do you think about unique ability and skill set, right? The Strategic Coach concept, Unique Ability, to where, hey, you were really good at A, B, and C, and Andrew may be really good at A, but not so much B and C. How much are you trying to jam B and C to Andrew versus, you know, I feel like there’s probably a give and take there with, like, you know, his skill set versus the responsibilities that the team needs.

Well, that’s a great question, because this is where I think brokers miss it. The first thing is, let’s talk about the first part of that. The first part of it is, how do legacy teams last, right? It’s basically a marriage between Andrew and me on our business. And so I didn’t get another Craig. I didn’t bring in another Craig in my skill set. I brought in somebody who had different skill sets. So Andrew and I, 25 years, have had very few arguments. Very few, maybe on one hand, or disagreements. So we get along, right, really well. And part of that is because he has different skills than I do, and I have different skills than he does, and we made this long-term commitment.

Those were the three things that I would say, as we started the organization: that we wanted long-term commitment, he had different skill set, and we wanted to make sure we got along. And we do, all those things hit. Now, as we start making it a legacy team, we can’t build, and that’s what I’ve said all along. The hardest thing about making this legacy is that he can’t become me, and it took him a long time to understand. He’s not going to be me. And so I have to build the team around what his skills are, as my skills fade away on this side.

And that’s been really hard, because I have to look at him and I go, “Here’s what you’re doing really well. Here’s what you need to improve on. Are you going to be able to do that? Are you going to be able to get?” And how he generates business is different than how I generated business. And so we spent a lot of time over the last decade, you know, from 15 years to 25 years of his career, trying to build the team around his skill set. So it’s more of his team, based on what he lacks and what he needs.

And so, like, Nick White House, our latest, you know, he’s been with us five years now. So Nick’s out there. He’s high energy. He’s out there. He’s way more, right? He’s somebody completely different. Greg Kfka is our deal guy. He does 50 deals a year. But we needed somebody who was young and out there, who’s going to, he’s on multiple nonprofit boards. He’s running transactions. And Andrew needed that. Didn’t need it when I was running hard, you know. Yeah. Yeah.

So I guess, give the sales pitch to other brokers listening. What’s the reason, like, the best case scenario for you as you do this? And then what’s the best case scenario for Andrew? Why is this a potential win-win, to set up the team this way?

Well, let’s, from my standpoint, I get to fade slowly, and I get to travel, and I don’t have, and, you know, for the first 20 years of traveling, every time I was in Europe I was on the phone every day before you guys got up or whatever. Today, now I can travel. I just got back from the Middle East. I think because of that, you say you’re going to work longer, because, like, you’re less burned out by it. My runway is longer. It is, because I’m not stressed when I travel anymore.

From Andrew’s standpoint, look, we have built a team that has been the top producing team. So he consistently is one of the top producers in our office, and he’s consistently doing it. So when you’re an independent broker and you don’t have a legacy team, you’re kind of up and down. You switch partners, there’s always mess going on. It distracts you from the business. I mean, the business is hard. Being a broker is hard. People are stealing your clients. You know, clients are mad at you. You’re not getting deals done. That’s hard. And then you go back to the office and you’re not getting along with your partner, or you don’t have a partner and you want to go on vacation. Yeah. Yeah.

And so we make it super easy. And you could argue that they pay for that, right? They might not be making as much money, but they also have, you know, Andrew, you know, Andrew lives in a nice neighborhood right down the street from me. He got, he does. Travels a lot. He travels, like, you know, he does. Spends time with his kids. Yep. He does a lot of things. He’s coaching. He’s with his kids all the time. So we’ve made it. So there’s always tradeoffs, but I think there’s a real reason to have one of these. And I think it’s very rare to find them. But we’re doing a good job of it so far.

So my question, one of my last questions here, is the word legacy. Is that something you’ve thought about a lot? And if you were just to say Craig Coppola, legacy, like, how much do you think about that? And what do you think about it? What do you want that to be, I guess, in this niche of your team and your brokerage, you know, career?

You know, it’s interesting, because I’ve just gotten through interviewing 250 people for this book that I’m writing, that’s kind of the Act Three book, Fantastic Life, Act 3, that’s coming out in 2026. And I asked him this question: you know, how do you maintain your identity and legacy? I haven’t really thought about legacy that much. I’m not that worried about it. I always look at, you know, my five resumes, and I go, my Lee, my brokerage resume, it’s, I will stack it with anybody in the country. 4,000 transactions, number one at Lee 25 years, the top producing guy ever. I feel really good about my legacy.

Now, what I really want to do now is make this team so it’s really good without me. Yeah. Because I feel really good about my career. You know, I might have another five years or whatever. It’s 42, 42nd year now. I might have another five years in me as I wind down, but I want this team to last. I want it, you know. And I see these, I’ve spending a ton of time with Nick White House, and he’s getting really good, and it’s really good. It’s like what we’ve seen with Sam and Brock at OneSource. They’re getting really good, and you feel super comfortable. Like, I feel comfortable handing Andrew a deal. I’m starting to feel comfortable handing Nick deals. And he’s young. And so we feel comfortable sending Sam and Brock into the marketplace all the time. And I think that feels really good, that we’re giving back and we’re helping the next generation do that. If that’s part of my legacy, great. It’s not great. Yeah. Yeah.

We did just go back, which was really interesting. Over the last 25 years, we’ve trained 20 different brokers, and all of them, I think 18 of the 20, are still in the business doing great. We have 11% of all the brokers at Lee & Associates Arizona I trained. So I feel really good about that, that we are constantly, if we just look at the revenue brought in by the brokers that I trained, you know, we’re a big part of that. So I feel like, from my standpoint, I didn’t just walk away. I did a good job with Lee, too.

Yeah. Yeah. With Lee, these other brokers, and I know you had runners work for you that ended up having successful careers outside of brokerage, or are currently having successful careers. So when I think of legacy, I think about what you pass down, and it is, you know, probably through mentoring, coaching, and leading, you know, the people who are coming after you. Whether it’s the people at OneSource, you know, me, and then also our team, Andrew and all the runners and, you know, partners that you’ve had, and then other people that you’ve mentored in the business who are also doing things outside of brokerage.

Yeah, I think one of the things that, I don’t think we’ve talked about this on here, is that, you know, I’m amazed at people who can work in a community and retire, and they’ll move to Sun City, Arizona, or they’ll move to Panama. And it’s like, I’ve spent 42 years building really good relationships with lots of people, and I live in, this is my home, right? I’m not moving here. This is where we’ve raised our family. This is where I’ve built my business. And I think I have a really good reputation, and I enjoy that. I enjoy being in Metro Phoenix and people going, “Yeah, I know Craig, and he’s a good guy,” or, “Yeah, you know, he did a great job here,” or, “He was the hardest working broker for 25 or 30 years in all of Arizona,” which I think I was. So I feel really good about that.

Yeah. Yeah. I think, and I’m benefiting from it, right? Like, I’m born here in Phoenix, and I go to school here, and then I have the network that I have from living here, but also from you living and working here for the last 50 years. So that’s part of the legacy, too.

Yeah, I do think, if I was going to give brokers one thing to think about, if they were thinking about legacy, I would tell you: start one person at a time. Legacy doesn’t have to be, “I got this big team and they’re doing great.” It can, it’s just one. It starts with one. It started with Andrew. Yeah. And then it came, then Chelsea came along, and then Greg came along, and then, you know, Nick White House came along, and then Peter. And it’s like, one at a time. So legacy doesn’t have to be massive. It can be you just took care of one person, or you teamed up with one person, and that was all it took. And so I think it doesn’t have to be big. Just has to be meaningful.

Yeah. I totally agree, and I think it’s, yeah. Each interaction you have, you have that opportunity to, at a minimum, put a smile on someone’s face, but, you know, you can do so much more, too, right? So taking an interest in other people goes a long way.

I’ve been less about a smile on someone’s face, and I want them to walk away, you know, even when I interview, right? I’m a tough interview, and I’ve gotten for it over the years, and it’s like, the reason is people don’t want to hear the truth. Yeah. And I’m like, “Hey, I’d rather tell you the truth than me walk away lying to you that you’re going to get a job in this business.” And so I’m more like, yeah. I’ve had people, multiple people, come up to me and go, “We had a really tough conversation 10 years ago, and thank you. It really helped me.” Yeah. And so I’m sure there’s others that walked away, and, “We had a really tough conversation. That guy’s an.” Yeah. But, yeah, that’s okay.

We have a customer, actually, at OneSource who called you after he signed up and said, “I don’t know if you remember this, but I used to work at Lee, at a different office, in Denver or California or something.” And he’s like, “Now I’m at,” I think, Savills or one of the other shops. And he’s like, “At the Lee conference in June of 20 blah blah blah,” you know, like 10 years ago, “you and I had a really interesting, tough conversation while we were waiting for a valet.” And, you know, “I’ve never forgotten that conversation, and it’s made me a better person, better broker,” blah blah blah. And so it was a really interesting, and now he’s a customer of OneSource’s, and you had one short conversation with him and then he remembered it, you know. So I’d say, when we’re talking legacy, that’s one way to do it, right? Start with one.

I think, yeah, I think the world’s gotten away from that. The world’s gotten away from hard, fierce conversations and letting people know where they, you know, where they can go. But anyway. Yeah, it’s good.

Legacy teams. I think it’s a unique concept for this industry. I think, like you said, it’s becoming more common as teams are becoming bigger. But this is a unique way of thinking about it, I think, with the team side, the legacy side. And so hopefully this was useful and beneficial for brokers.

I’ll say one other thing, too, this, before we end, is it used to be a very successful broker would leave brokerage and go become a developer. So there weren’t legacy teams, because these good brokers would then go become developers. And I’m really part of this first generation that this was our career. We stayed in it, and so now this is the first opportunity to have these legacy teams. There have been legacy teams before, but they mostly have been small, mom and pop, father to son or father to daughter, when we have a number of those at OneSource customers, where the father had the business. It was his own little business, and then he passed along to his son or his daughter. That happens, and that’s happened forever in lots of businesses, but it didn’t happen on a bigger scale. And so that’s happening now, as brokers like me stay in the business 40 plus years and we have the ability to kind of extend it.

Now, I will look at, and I’m looking at my seven original partners at Lee & Associates Arizona. Only one will have a legacy team, and that’s Bill Blake. He’s building a legacy team over there. But just Bill and I, and Bill and I worked together, you know, we were side by side for, we have been for 42 years. So he kind of watched as I worked on it, and he started doing it, and now he’s got, you know, Colton, who’s been with him 15 years or 20 years, and he’s got Carter now, who we trained, and he brought over to his team. And so he’s doing a good job.

Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Cool. Well, thanks for sharing. Another episode in the books.