Today’s RealTrending interview features Robert Reffkin, CEO of Compass and Founder of the brokerage. The firm was recently ranked No. The firm was recently ranked No. 1 in sales volume for the second consecutive year on the 2023 RealTrends 500 brokerage rankings.
Although it has been a challenging year, Robert is still working hard to improve the culture of his firm through in-person visits as well as a back-to the office mentality. Robert talks to us about his business strategy, the future of his technology platform, and where he would like to open franchise offices.

Here’s a preview of Robert’s interview today. This transcript has been lightly edited to improve clarity and length.
Tracey Velt – What about something you feel like you failed to succeed with? It didn’t go as you planned, but you learned a very important lesson.
Robert Reffkin: Here’s the thing about founding a company. It’s an experience of failure. Never-ending failure. Failure is a sign that you aren’t trying hard enough. It’s almost like you’re climbing up a hill and feel like you can see the top. You are almost at the top, and then you will be on top of the hill. Then you see another hill. Keep going. Keep going. And again. We could have decided to just be in New York City with the company. It would have been easy and pleasant. We keep pushing ourselves to the limit, and we do so again and again.
We discussed the Compass entrepreneurship principles. These aren’t just values we hang on a wall. There is a logic to this. You dream big, you move fast, you learn from reality, are solutions driven, obsessed with opportunity, collaborative without ego, maximize strengths, and bounce back with passion. The last thing you need to do is bounce back with passion. If you don’t dream big enough, you can’t fail. If you dream big enough and are moving fast enough, then you will eventually fail. How do you bounce back when you fail? You have to bounce back with passion. How do you do that? You start a new dream. It’s a never-ending cycle of dreaming big.
RealTrending is a podcast that features the best minds in real-estate. Every week, industry experts, top agents, team leaders and brokerage leaders share their success stories, trends and lessons learned in this ever-changing field. Tracey Velt hosted and Elissa branch produced.