Fun, Fair, and Profitable: Todd Hetherington’s Formula for Lasting Success
Profitability, culture, and relationships: what it really takes to build a real estate brokerage that lasts.
What separates a brokerage that thrives for four decades from one that fades? According to Todd Hetherington, founder of Century 21 New Millennium, and Jason Carrier, its president, the answer isn’t volume or rankings – it’s the relentless commitment to doing the harder right thing over the easier wrong one.
In a recent episode of our podcast, Real Estate Unscripted, the two leaders shared the operating philosophy, business strategies, and hard-won lessons that have guided their 25-office, near-1,000-agent company across Maryland, Virginia, D.C., West Virginia, and now Pennsylvania.
The Foundation: Fun, Fair, and Profitable
Todd’s guiding mission statement has three pillars: fun, fair, and profitable. He’s quick to point out that in his experience, when you lead with the first two, the third usually takes care of itself. Borrowed from the West Point cadet prayer, his central operating principle — “choose the harder right rather than the easier wrong” – permeates every decision, from agent disputes to expansion strategy.
For their agents, this isn’t just a company motto – it’s a reminder that their own businesses need the same clarity. Every real estate professional should have a personal mission statement, a clear identity, and language that anchors who they are and how they work. It’s at the heart of integrity, after all.
Related reading: The Power of Integrity: Elevating the Real Estate Profession
Get Out of the Tower: Lead from the Field
When Jason stepped into the president’s role, his first priority wasn’t restructuring from the top. It was the total opposite – getting out of the building. He visited nine offices in a single week, believing that great leadership requires face-to-face presence. “Double the listening, less the talking” is how he describes the mindset he adopted going into his new role. By getting in front of agents early, he learned what mattered most to them before making decisions. For any leader, the lesson is simple: your best intelligence comes from the field, not the boardroom.
Related reading: 5 Leadership Pitfalls That Sabotage Real Estate Teams (and How to Avoid Them)
Profitability Over Bragging Rights
Both leaders were clear on one thing: the metric that matters is the practical bottom-line profitability, not the glamorous agent count, transaction volume, or award plaques. For brokerages, this increasingly means building ancillary revenue – mortgage, title, insurance – because agent splits alone won’t sustain a healthy business. Todd’s test before any expansion: “Can we do it? And can we do it better than our competition?” These questions apply equally to agents considering team expansion. Adding a member should increase your net, not just your busy-ness.
AI: Powerful Tool, Not a Replacement
AI came up in every meeting at Century 21 New Millennium, and for good reason. The company is actively using AI to streamline compliance review, flagging contract gaps that would take a transaction coordinator far longer to catch. Jason’s company uses RealScout to monitor buyer behavior around the clock, surfacing warm leads while agents sleep.
However, both leaders issued a clear caution: AI should complement your talent, not replace your voice. Clients can spot a copy-pasted ChatGPT email anywhere, and many are tired of seeing sloppy AI-written content. Your authentic expertise, relationships, and human judgment remain your greatest competitive edge. Use AI as the tool it’s meant to be, but show up as yourself.
Related reading: Why Tech Tools Are Key to Team Success: What Every New Real Estate Leader Should Know
The Relationship Is the Moat
Zillow has more capital than the entire U.S. brokerage community combined. Their goal, plainly stated by Jason: “to steal your customers.” The only thing that beats that? A relationship they can’t automate. The Thanksgiving pie. The personal text. The agent who knows a client’s neighborhood history. Technology can optimize communication – it cannot replicate genuine trust built over years. Your past clients are your most valuable asset, and right now, someone with a bigger budget is marketing to them while you sleep. This is why it’s so important to stay top-of-mind with your clients by checking in regularly.
Training Is Not Optional — It’s Ongoing
Century 21 New Millennium is launching two training programs in 2026: FIRE (Full Immersion in Real Estate) for newer agents, and a new advanced program – Inferno – for mid-level producers looking to break through to 21 transactions per year. That number, Jason argues, is the threshold between dabbling as a part-timer and running a real business. Their insight applies universally: the agents who keep training, keep earning. As Todd noted, 30-year veterans who went back through FIRE were stunned by what they didn’t know. Learners are earners – and training, like showering, only works if you do it consistently.
Know Your Value – and Prove It
The NAR settlement created a moment of disruption that the best agents turned into an opportunity. Jason’s team trained agents to quantify their results – negotiation wins, list-to-sale ratios, days on market – and present them with confidence. The agents who can say “here’s specifically what you get when you hire me” are winning the kitchen table. Net sheets showing all costs and commission scenarios should be standard at every listing and buyer consultation. The agents who own their value proposition aren’t just surviving the new landscape – they’re thriving because they’re prepared.
For Your Agents…
In this business, there will always be a “harder right” and an “easier wrong.” A shortcut you could take on a disclosure. A follow-up call you could skip. A training session you could sit out.
But every time you choose the harder right, you build something the competition can’t replicate – a reputation built on trust, a client who comes back, a business that compounds over time.
Zillow has bigger budgets. AI has longer hours. But neither one of them can show up the way you show up – present, caring, and genuinely invested in the people you serve.
So, here’s your challenge this week: reach out to one past client — not with an email blast, not with an automated text, but with a real, personal connection. Remind them that you exist. Remind them that you care. That’s the business no algorithm can replace. That’s you. Let’s go.
Darryl Davis is an award-winning international speaker, real estate and business coach, and best-selling author of three books, all published by McGraw Hill Publishers.
For more than 35 years, Darryl has spoken to and trained more than 100,000 sales professionals around the globe to more than double their production year after year. His book, How to Become a Power Agent in Real Estate, tops Amazon’s charts for one of the most sold books to real estate agents.
He was awarded the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation by the National Speaker’s Association, which is given to less than 2% of all speakers worldwide.
Whether from a stage or Zooming into a virtual room, Darryl’s extraordinary humor, relatability, and natural gift for teaching real-world, results-producing skills and mindsets to audiences have made him a client favorite throughout his career.
Audiences will laugh, learn, and ultimately walk away better prepared for a changing world, with the tools, skills, and training they need to build their businesses with more ease and less stress and to design lives and careers worth smiling about.
Bring One of Darryl’s W.O.R.K. Topics to Your Organization!
By providing your agents with the knowledge and insights they need to stay ahead of the game, you can ensure that they are equipped to handle any situation that comes their way!