Agile Businesses: Jeff Lichtenstein Of Echo Fine Properties On How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face of Disruptive Technologies

Talk to your people, Usually internally your people have the solutions or know the basics of what has to be accomplished.

Asa part of my series about the “How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face of Disruptive Technologies”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jeff Lichtenstein.

Jeff Lichtenstein is the President and Founder of ECHO Fine Properties in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. He’s sold more than 1,100 homes since becoming a realtor in 2001. Jeff was named Best Realtor of the Year in 2021 by The Palm Beach Post.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

Jeff Lichtenstein (He/Him) is the President and Founder of ECHO Fine Properties in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Because of his work ethic, Jeff earned the nickname “The Machine.” He’s sold more than 1,100 homes since becoming a realtor in 2001. Jeff was named Best Realtor of the Year in 2021 by The Palm Beach Post. Jeff manages a 70-person team at ECHO Fine Properties. He works closely with his agents as a very hands-on broker and trainer. He’s involved in all aspects of his business — marketing, advertising, creative content, social media, SEO, and more. Before launching his own brokerage, Jeff worked as an agent at Illustrated Properties Real Estate and Waterfront Properties. Prior to real estate, Jeff worked for his father’s company, Western Textile Fashion Drapery Products, as the Vice President of Marketing and Sales. There, he worked with buyers and designers to sell home furnishing fabrics to manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, traveling 35 weeks per year. Jeff earned his bachelor’s degree in business management with a major in marketing from Syracuse University. Jeff was raised in Chicago. He and his wife Veronica now reside in Palm Beach Gardens with their two children, Sam and Jade. He enjoys snorkeling, eating out, family vacations, and nature in his spare time. Jeff has been interviewed by WPTV, WPEC, WPBF, WFLX, The Palm Beach Post, The Sun Sentinel, The Spruce, Realtor.com, Inman, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Authority Magazine, CNN, and more.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?

I bought a refrigerator for my SUV and had apples, licorice and water for clients when I first started in 2001. My first showing was in a neighborhood called the Resort Villas in PGA National . I was excited to bring these Buyers out to see the 2 homes I had scheduled. There were 42 townhomes. The first was on the east side and then a short walk to the west side. After the first showing I was walking with them over to the other house. I then realized I left my lockbox keypad opener (pre i-phone apps) to open the lockbox back in the house. I told my clients I’d meet them at the 2nd house. As I got closer to the home, I didn’t see the lockbox. Sweat and panic started to overcome me. I left the lockbox in the house. I just wanted to shrivel up and quit. I’m too disorganized for this. I’m dumb. I wanted to lay down and cry. But as I got to the front door I realized I was not dumb but also dumber. I forgot to lock the door and the keypad opener was sitting in the lockbox in the foyer along with the key. Oh Boy! Afterwards, I developed a system. The keypad opener always went to my left pocket immediately after opening the door. The key to the house always stayed in the door and the lockbox itself always stayed outside by the front door.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

My High School shrink. Dr. Hein helped me see the world as an outline and break things down. I got a couple of D’s sophomore year of high school. He took something I liked, basketball and had me explain it to him. I didn’t know where to begin. The backshot? Dribbling? Dr. Hein said timeout and started with basketball is played by 2 teams of 5 people with the purpose of 1 team scoring more points than the other team. This type of analytical thinking helped me problem solve that I needed a system for example with the lockbox.

Extensive research suggests that “purpose driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. When your company started, what was its vision, what was its purpose?

The vision has actually been the same all along. Deliver the best experience and results for our clients in the residential real estate field.

Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion. Can you tell our readers a bit about what your business does? How do you help people?

Echo Fine Properties is a residential real estate brokerage. We help people purchase and sell homes.

Which technological innovation has encroached or disrupted your industry? Can you explain why this has been disruptive?

The internet and social media still has been the biggest disruption to our business. It let the end consumer find the end product instantly.

What did you do to pivot as a result of this disruption?

We leaned into it. If 90% of the clients were searching the web, we switched 90% of our budget to where the clients were.

Was there a specific “Aha moment” that gave you the idea to start this new path? If yes, we’d love to hear the story.

I was at a real estate conference. The presenter said 90% of the Buyers are searching online. What percentage of your budgets are online. Most were still spending offline. That broke through to me. We did the same thing with social media. The buyers are in their smart phones today. We instantly brought in people from the News industry into a newly created social media department to have the tools to tackle it properly.

So, how are things going with this new direction? We are really 4 years deep since we pivoted to social media. A lot of our emphasis right now is on storytelling. Tik Tok and Reels. What is the emotional side of the home?

To the end user, if we tell a story it is more compelling than us advertising it. They will put it into their storyline and it will be shared more.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this pivot?

More brand awareness and different ways of communicating information and seeing our product.

What would you say is the most critical role of a leader during a disruptive period?

To risk failure and teach why and how to go about the change.

When the future seems so uncertain, what is the best way to boost morale? What can a leader do to inspire, motivate and engage their team?

Giving Back is one way to boost morale. Recently we just did a drive to help victims on the west coast of Florida (we are on the east coast) that were impacted from Hurricane Ian. We decided to make Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches as an organization. PB&J’s have 450 essential calories. Easy to make, travel, and we ended up getting our clients and the community involved. Not only did we make and distribute 25,000 PB&J’s for the homeless, newly homeless, people in need, kids and essential workers, but it snapped us out of a more negative real estate market. We had to come up with a logo, saying (Coming Together — Sticking Together, website, create social media content, assemble people, get materials from food products to gloves to tables, make sandwiches, and deliver sandwiches. If we could do that, that quickly, what else could we accomplish? Helping others through collaboration is a great remedy to boost morale.

Is there a “number one principle” that can help guide a company through the ups and downs of turbulent times?

There is opportunity through turbulent times. It’s seeing the opportunity. For example, when the real estate market crashed in 2009, I was able to find top talent in search engine optimization and real estate website development that was usually not available. Look for and seize the opportunities.

Can you share 3 or 4 of the most common mistakes you have seen other businesses make when faced with a disruptive technology? What should one keep in mind to avoid that?

Doing the same old same old, freezing up in depression and not game planning are common mistakes. The biggest one to keep in mind is doing the same thing. People double down on the same thing. Send more postcards, put more ads in the newspaper. Lots of that can be knee jerk reactions from themselves and even clients who are expecting the same old thing to work again.

Ok. Thank you. Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a business leader should do to pivot and stay relevant in the face of disruptive technologies? Please share a story or an example for each.

1. Game plan, Putting together a business plan on paper forces one to think and lay out goals. Right now we have a game plan to get into the commercial real estate in Palm Beach County and expand in the South portion of Palm Beach County. We put those on paper and magically we are doing the things necessary and eliminate obstacles to break through on each.
2. Talk to your people, Usually internally your people have the solutions or know the basics of what has to be accomplished.
3. Seek outside opinions , On PB&J, we couldn’t internally figure out something that would help out the west coast of Florida. I talked to someone outside our industry who gave me the inspiration.
4. Implement Change, There is nothing more important than sitting down with your organization and laying out a vision and how to implement it by setting an example first. A lot of change doesn’t happen because of fear. Fear of not knowing if it will work, fear of how it looks, and fear of now knowing how to do it. In PB&J, I laid out a vision and started with goals. Once our people saw that others were bringing in Wonder Bread or Jiffy on social media, it prompted them to do the same. Further, once they saw that we accomplished making 1,926 sandwiches in a day and what it was doing, it prompted them to get others involved.
5. Compassion, People get stressed and worried in tough times. Have compassion and listen to them. One person in our firm has 2 little ones and lots of pressure juggling personal and work. Hearing it was ok to take a personal day and solutions to getting their own time off, helped them unfreeze.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“It’s been my policy to view the Internet not as an ‘information highway’, but as an electronic asylum filled with babbling loonies” — Mike Royko…..I have lots of favorite quotes but being from Chicago this one comes to mind from the great and late journalist Mike Royko. Royko wrote it at the start of the internet. I think it’s appropriate to this interview as there are lots of negative distractions when times are tough. Tune them out and get to work!

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!