Thirty Minute Mentors Podcast Transcript: Century 21 CEO Mike Miedler

I recently interviewed Century 21 CEO Mike Miedler on my podcast, Thirty Minute Mentors. Here is a transcript of our interview:

Adam: Our guest today is the leader of one of the largest companies and best-known brands in the world of real estate. Mike Miedler is the CEO of Century 21, which consists of more than 140,000 affiliated agents across 86 countries and territories. Mike, thank you for joining us.

Mike: Adam, it's a pleasure to be here with you today. Thanks for the opportunity.

Adam: Pleasure's mine. You grew up in New Jersey. You're a big Mets fan, big sports fan. You went to Westchester University of Pennsylvania, not too far from New Jersey. You studied criminal justice and accounting. Your first job right out of college was working for Century 21 and today you're the CEO. Can you take listeners back to your early days? What early experiences and lessons shaped your worldview and shaped the trajectory of your success?

Mike: Yeah, Adam, well, thank you for asking that question. It brings me back a little bit. I didn't know you knew all that. I'm a Jersey guy, born and raised a big New York Mets fan and so many others here in this area. As you say that, I think about the path when you talk about criminal justice and accounting. I probably watched too many episodes of X-Files back in the day when I was growing up in college and I wanted to be in the FBI. That's kind of what I was thinking as I headed off to university. And as you said, I studied down the road in Philadelphia area. And as things progressed, as I got a little bit older, as I studied more leaders and more entrepreneurs and the people that I kind of connected with in college, I felt like, oh my gosh, I better start looking towards business. And that's why I made the minor in accounting. And so sure enough, here I am today. I joke about this all the time, Adam. I kind of fell into real estate. It was a organization right after I graduated school that was hiring a lot of professionals in my market area. And I put my resume in just on a whim with a friend of mine who was in the human resources department. And sure enough, before I knew it, I joke around. I tell people I literally got started in the mailroom, but the joke was I was at the ground level, entry level position. I worked a lot of manual jobs. Over the course of going through college, my father was definitely a blue collar worker. I worked a lot with him on roofs and doing a lot of construction and side projects. And so here I was sitting behind a desk with a salary, working on a computer and literally just having to learn everything from the ground up. And it's been an amazing run for me, really, Adam. A great experience. I always hearken back to all the amazing people, professionals, folks and experiences that I've been able to have around the globe, not just here in this country, through being part of Century 21. It's been really an amazing journey for me, personally and professionally. And I think back to probably the one thing that I always say to young professionals who are coming into Century 21, whether they be agents serving their local market or on the corporate side, I said, never be afraid to get out of your comfort zone. Never be afraid to do something new, to land in a spot where you didn't see yourself when you originally made the plan or entered the workforce or get into the role you're in. Always push yourself to be a little bit uncomfortable and learn as much as you can along the way, if that makes sense.

Adam: Makes perfect sense. Our growth, no matter what it is that we're trying to grow in, takes place outside of our comfort zone, whether we're trying to get stronger physically or whether we're trying to grow as a leader, trying to grow in our careers. But it's hard. What advice do you have for anyone listening to this conversation on how to push their comfort zone, how to get to that place?

Mike: It comes with trying new things that could be being really inquisitive in the role that you're in, expanding your mind and hanging out with people or professionals or individuals that you wouldn't ordinarily hang out with. Because oftentimes they say that the people who you surround yourself with is what you turn into and become. And so I look for diversity in experience, look for diversity in role. One of the things that I did as a young professional is I was always asking what was going on in the department next to me or adjacent to me, or when I saw other folks doing things, just asking them and their leadership, why, what's going on? What are you doing? Can you use help? Can I offer myself up to be part of that? Can I watch what you're doing? Leaders in general, enjoy people who are super inquisitive and energetic. If you bring that mindset to anything you do in life, whether it's in school as you're learning, on your team, in sports, If you're questioning your coach, if you're asking them to explain more to you, I think they take a general interest in you and your well-being and trying to coach and mentor you. When you look outside of that comfort zone and when you ask a lot of questions and when you're generally interested, people will take notice and get you involved. And that's where those new experiences will come from.

Adam: Mike, with you a hundred percent. You shared so many great points for listeners to reflect on. The importance of curiosity, essential among the most successful leaders. Seeking diverse experiences, surrounding yourself with the right people. It ultimately comes down to having a mindset of curiosity, having a mindset of wanting to get better, having a mindset of wanting to learn, wanting to grow. The most successful leaders are always trying to take that next step, always trying to learn from others, and there's no better way to do it than, to your point, by asking questions.

Mike: As you're saying that, I'm thinking about a quick personal story that pushed me outside of my comfort zone and caused me to learn more. So a bunch of years ago, we had a gentleman at one of our big events, our leadership event, called the Iron Cowboy. You know this gentleman? Have you heard of this guy? He did 50 Ironman in 50 days in 50 different states. And it was something like Nike and all these people told him, Under Armour, you're going to fail, man. You can't do that. It's impossible. Human body can't handle it. Well, he went out to do it. His point to our entire audience was, about seeking discomfort, pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone. So right after that, a bunch of our brokers were so excited about it that they said, we're going to do an Ironman next year. You're going to join and do it with us. And I was like, what are you talking about? I don't know how to swim. Like I could swim in a pool. Like I can swim in the beach. I don't know how to actually swim two miles. I had a bike. I have a mountain bike. I biked my entire childhood. I've never cycled. I've never cycled for hundreds of miles. And so I wound up getting involved in this thing and having to learn all these different disciplines. And by being curious, by again, being pushed a little bit outside of my comfort zone from my acquaintances, have found this whole new exercise regimen and thing that I fell in love with and are now passionate about, just through trying something different and being inquisitive. So I tell that story because I didn't ever see myself doing a triathlon. fell over it through just some acquaintances and experience I had in my professional life that pushed me into it. And so again, taking those leaps of faith and doing things that you ordinarily wouldn't have done and expand your mind. It was a story that as you were talking, just made sense for me to tell.

Adam: I love it. Being willing to try something new, being willing to try something different, you don't know if you're going to like it until you try it. And you might not like it, it might not suit you, it might not be the right fit for you. If it isn't, okay, no big deal, move on. But if you don't try it, if you don't give it a shot, you might be missing out on something that you would otherwise love, that you could otherwise thrive in.

Mike: Well said.

Adam: You mentioned that as you were starting off in your career, you were in the equivalence of the mailroom. You were really at the ground level. Today, you're the CEO. What were the keys to rising within your career and what can anyone do to rise within their career?

Mike: This is probably a little bit cliche. I think it's a little bit about taking some risks and taking some chances and the cliche is not being afraid to fail. afforded the opportunity, that's the way that I look at it, to have all these different experiences and roles that I wouldn't have otherwise thrown myself in. But when people inside of the organization saw, I think, the energy that I brought and they had a need, they slipped me into it because they figured, look, at a minimum, this person is inquisitive. They're going to bring energy to it. They're going to put their hard work into it. We just need to give them the skills to be able to understand the position. I can tell you whether it was helping run our events team, which I did maybe 15 plus years ago, where I've never ran an event or been part of negotiating a contract with a hotel ever in my career or ever saw myself doing that, got pushed into this role. And honestly, I'm like, I had to spend a lot of time learning it for myself. I was literally, again, cliche, but in the deep end of the pool where I was, as they would say, consciously incompetent. I knew like, oh my God, I'm in over my head. I don't know the difference between food and beverage and a room minimum. and here I am planning out a corporate event for thousands of people. Now, I had good people on my team, that's helpful, but I was the one leading this thing and I had to learn on the job. I think a lot of it is just not being afraid to fail, saying, okay, I'll give it a shot, knowing that the stakes are high. I could give you a couple more examples of that and roles that I took where I was like, oh boy, this is outside of my comfort zone, right? It's that mindset and again, that willingness to learn, that willingness to just take something on when you know you're not going to be good at it day one, when you know you're going to have to navigate and learn on the job, when you're going to have to fly the plane while you're building it, as they would say. So I think there's a lot in that. Other people next to you will recognize you're the type of person who's willing to just roll up their sleeves and try to figure it out.

Adam: There is a lot in there. And among the things that you shared, We're not born with a set of skills. We don't graduate from college with a set of skills. With that said, anyone can learn skills to be successful in the job that they're in if they're willing to learn, if they have a growth mindset, if they're open to taking chances, if they're not afraid to fail. What it ultimately comes down to is being willing, being eager, having that attitude, having that can-do mindset, bringing what you called energy, what I'm observing as passion. The most successful leaders, the most successful people are deeply passionate about what they do, deeply passionate, period.

Mike: You won't understand that you're passionate about something until you're involved in it in a very deep level. I use the Ironman example. I always loved running, never knew I could even cycle, but it turned out I was more passionate about cycling than I was about running. I joke around another sport that I got myself involved with in college is rugby. I never knew what rugby was. I got into rugby because I couldn't play at a high level in college football. And so I found out that I was actually better at rugby than I was at football through learning it, through understanding it, through becoming a student of the game and spending time in it. And I think when you do that, you can find that true passion, which is going to line up with who you are as a person and what really gets you out of bed.

Adam: What do you believe are the key characteristics of the most successful leaders and what can anyone do to become a better leader?

Mike: You've got to be an excellent communicator. I think the word that they use today is emotional intelligence or emotional IQ. You really have to understand people, what's driving people and be able to communicate to those people in a way that's going to pull out, as you said, their passion. I say this for leaders in general, and this is something I wish I learned way back day one. Unfortunately, it's been over a lot of trial and error hard knocks. I think there's a couple of things that I think really good leaders do that I've watched over my career, whether, again, they're brokers who are in our system, whether I look at the global CEO of our parent company, or just a lot of great folks that I've had the opportunity to be in front of. But I think they do four things really well. Number one is that they are just honest people. And honesty and ethics and integrity and all that great stuff, I think goes without saying, but they're also honest. to the people on their team about what's working, what's not working, what people are good at, what they're not good at. It's that honesty, ethical loop that has to occur with all great leaders. I think the second thing is that they are driving their team to be very focused. In this day and age, and Adam, there's just so much that's fighting for everybody's attention every single day, whether it's social media, your job, your family, the list goes on and on and on. And certainly in business, There's many different ways to achieve the end game. What a good leader does is they set priorities and they set a focus for their team so that they're really clear on where they're headed and that they can just make sure that that's the main driver, the main point that they're working on. The third thing, and this is probably really important, it goes back to what we said earlier, is from an emotional intelligence standpoint, they understand what inspires their people. So they're inspirational in ways sometimes by accident that Most people aren't. Good leaders know how to drive the folks on their team because they know what they care about. Maybe it's putting a kid through college. Maybe it's learning more. Maybe it's an investment property, giving back in their communities. If you know what's driving your people, you can inspire them towards being better at that through the role that they have inside of the greater team. And then maybe the most important thing is to make sure you're bringing confidence to your team every single day. And that could be celebrating little wins. It could be keeping them focused on the little things that ladder up to the bigger role that we talked about, but bringing that confidence that they're able to do the job and that positive mindset and all those other things that just really help lift the team and push them in the right direction.

Adam: great leaders are able to instill confidence into the people who they're leading. At the end of the day, before others are going to believe in you, you need to believe in yourself. How can you develop confidence and how can you instill confidence in others?

Mike: Confidence is instilled when you spend a lot of time where you need to in practicing or studying or researching or being prepared really to succeed. No matter what that is, whether it be a daily activity that you're doing in real estate sale, there's a lot of what I would call making sure that you understand your talk track and what you're trying to supply to the end consumer and being really accurate and really confident in what that talk track is or even what that scripting is. And so it's a series of just putting in quite candidly, Adam, the activities that it takes to become really confident in the role that you have. And just going back to the triathlon, I remember having to get a coach to learn how to swim. I did three laps in a pool and I was out of breath. And I was like, holy cow, I got to figure this out. Like I can't swim. How am I going to do this for two miles? And I think when I was in the pool every single day for the entire summer for at least 20 minutes at a time, day after day after day, doing almost that repetitious boredom, I became confident that I would be able to get through that two miles because I was just true to what needed to be done every single day to get to that confident point. And I think a good coach, a good leader, they make sure that their team is doing those activities and they're doing the little things that ladder up to the bigger goal, if that makes sense.

Adam: makes perfect sense. And if anyone listening to the conversation is trying to figure out how do I become more confident in my life? How do I become more confident in something that I'm trying to take on? That's a great piece of advice. You need to be as prepared as possible. And as a leader, if you want to instill confidence among the people who you're leading, you need to make sure that they're as prepared as possible. By telling someone, you can do it, you're great, you're going to be able to make it happen, but when they don't have any kind of training, and in reality they probably aren't going to be able to do it, You're instilling false confidence and that's not good for anyone. But if you equip them with the ability to make things happen, they will make it happen. And so much of confidence is about having a track record of success, doing something once, seeing that you can do it, doing something successfully the next time, seeing that you can do it again, and knowing that it wasn't just a flash in the pan. This is something real. And it ultimately comes down to the work that you put in.

Mike: Adam, I'm sitting here smiling because I kid you not, yesterday, my second daughter will turn 17 next week. She's going to go for her license. I kept telling her, you got this. Don't worry about it. We're going to make this happen. You're going to pass this test. You're a great driver. But guess what? She parallel parked 45 to 50 times in a row. Some were good, some were not that good. Some she nailed first shot, some she couldn't get into the spot. But again, exactly what you just said, that's an example of everything you just articulated there. And so I'm sitting here laughing and smiling as you're saying that, thinking, oh my God, here's a real life example right now.

Adam: And Mike, it really comes back to the first point that you shared about the most successful leaders who you've observed, they're honest. And if you're not being honest with the people who you're leading, you're going to lead them astray.

Adam: To be successful in your business, to be successful in your industry, you have to be able to sell. In your experience, what are the keys to successful selling?

Mike: Successful selling is like any other practice. You have to be really regimented in what you do. You have to be really prepared and understand what the entire life cycle of sales looks like. You have to be really understanding of the business that you're selling into and be prepared to give people solutions to those problems. One of the things that I learned early on when I was pushed into a sales role inside my organization, again, deep end of the pool. But one of my leaders said to me, you can't be completely worried about the quota. You can't be worried about the sale, about collecting the check, about the end result. What you have to be worried about is the activities that you and your team need to put in on the daily level in order to ladder up to the success that you're looking for. And I think like anything in life, you boil things down to really those micro things that need to be accomplished in order to get to the end result that you're looking for. And I say this, no matter what you're trying to do, Adam, and I believe this is true, certainly in sales, because a lot of people know sales is more rejection than it is selling. And so what I say all the time, three things. One, you've got to have a positive mental mindset and attitude in everything that you do every single day. People are just more drawn, as you said earlier, to people who have energy, who have enthusiasm, who are out there really reflecting a positive light. Number two, you got to be a constant learner because all businesses change, all avenues change, all industries change over time. There's always a better, more efficient and effective way to do things. Always be a learner, always try to understand what's happening. in your customer's business so that you can have true business dialogue. And then the last thing, as I said, it's the activities. It's making sure that you're focusing on those revenue-producing activities that are going to ladder up to the goal you're trying to achieve. Whether that's prospecting, pre-qualifying, presenting or closing, make sure that you're doing those activities and becoming really good and really confident at them through the repetition that we talked about earlier.

Adam: Mike, as you're sharing the advice that you just provided, which I love, I'm thinking to a conversation I just had with a friend of mine who used to work for me who is now in a sales role. We were catching up and he was telling me that he had been struggling in his job for about a year. He was doing the daily activities, putting in the work, but just not seeing any results. And about a year in, seemingly out of nowhere, things just took off. And he didn't understand why, but he started having conversations with other people in his industry, and he said that for everyone else who has been in that role, that's just what happens. And I don't think it's that industry. I don't think it's specific to sales. It's a general lesson, which is you have to put in the work every single day. Overnight success is something that looks really good from the outside, but on the inside, I don't know that it really exists. And the most successful people understand that success is a byproduct of daily effort, daily commitment, putting in the work each and every day.

Mike: Everybody wants the Dodgers World Series title. Are they willing to put in all the batting practice, all the exercising that Otani and all these players, Mookie Betts are doing every single day to get up there. Like we always see the output, we always see the outcome, but not everybody always celebrates the journey they're on. You said it really, really well.

Adam: If you want to talk about the Dodgers, that's going to lead us astray because then we're going to start talking about salaries and buying players and I'm going to get bitter about my angels. So I don't know if we should really go there. But point taken, Mike, you lead a business that operates in 86 different countries and territories. You mentioned in the beginning of our conversation that one of the things that has been most impactful to you in your journey has been the fact that you've been able to lead not only in the United States, but internationally. In your experience, what are the keys to leading an international business?

Mike: The key factors are relatively the same. It's the same across language, it's the same across industry. Some of the nuances will change based on tradition and based on just hierarchy and the way that business is done in certain territories and countries. Great leaders are great leaders anywhere and they always are the folks who can get the best out of their people by doing all the things that we talked about earlier. I say it all the time, I've had the unique experience to really learn from folks around the globe. And I think going back to making sure that you're constantly being a student, not just of your industry, but of others and business and human beings in general, just because you have the title of CEO or president, or you're at the head of the food chain, that doesn't mean that you can't constantly be learning or be inspired, especially by others who are in your inner circle. So never lose that opportunity to keep pushing yourself and taking the best out of the people, the experiences you get, and really applying them to your own self, both, like I said, personally and professionally.

Adam: Leadership is leadership. doesn't matter where you're leading. You could be leading in the boardroom. You could be leading on the battlefield. You could be leading on the basketball court. You could be leading in the United States. You could be leading in Ukraine. I've done a lot of speaking in a lot of different countries. And when I talk about leadership, when I share what I've learned about the core principles of effective leadership, how the most successful leaders are able to lead so effectively, Doesn't matter where you're leading, doesn't matter the city, state, country, continent. At the end of the day, leadership is leadership.

Mike: Well said, Adam. Well said.

Adam: In your time as a leader at Century 21, you were involved in a significant rebrand of the business. What did you learn from that process and what are your best tips on the topic of branding?

Mike: Change is difficult no matter what you do. We took a 50 plus year old brand and changed the view of it. You're looking at it right here outside the office, but change is difficult, especially when you're leading a lot of people. And I think change management and change leadership is certainly not easy. You have to realize as a leader, not everybody's going to like every single decision you make. But I think if you make it with the right intention and you're strategic and planned out and how you will actually execute on it, that people will follow it when they understand what the greater good is going to be. Branding in general is very simple. You need to be, whether you are a small mom and pop brand in a local marketplace, or you're a big global brand that's been around for 50 plus years, like Century 21, at the end of the day, you have to stand for what's right by your consumer. When you take care of the consumer, when you deliver an extraordinary experience, when you put your customer first and let the money follow, your brand will elevate itself inside of whatever industry you're in. And so if you have that mindset every single day that I'm there to take care of who my customer is, trust me, I've seen it in this business and in many, many other businesses. If you take care of the customer first, You will see repeat and referral and word of mouth business go on and on and on about your brand, whatever that brand is and whatever it stands for. Take care of your customer. Make sure you're giving extraordinary service. The rest will follow as you build your brand.

Adam: I love it. Take care of your customer, make sure you're delivering extraordinary service. You spoke about the importance of leading through change, starting off with ensuring that you're communicating proactively, communicating clearly, communicating openly, honestly. How can anyone listening to this conversation become a more effective communicator?

Mike: Oh boy, that's a good one. That's a really good one. It is a discipline that you've got to be studied in. And one of the things that early on in my career I didn't love doing is, and you do this, Adam, standing up on stage in front of hundreds or thousands of people. And again, going back to what we talked about, pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone to do things and communicate in ways that you ordinarily wouldn't have. I think there's many different disciplines to making sure that your communication is effective, but I think The most effective communication is making sure that you're not just doing the talking, but you're also listening through the conversation, right? People don't want to be talked to. People want to be heard from. People want to have a dialogue. They don't want to be just communicated to. And so I think it's really important to have that emotional intelligence, to be part of a conversation, to ask a lot of questions before you just come out and communicate what your end result is. It's like anything, I think it's just done by having a lot of reps at it and getting into good old fashioned dialogue and or if it's going to be two thousands of people in front of an audience and painting a picture of what a vision is, it's about getting up there and taking the cracks. And so any discipline, it's the best thing is to just get the reps in.

Adam: I'm with you. You want to become a better baseball player, you need to get at bats. You want to become a better basketball player, you need to take more shots. Better free throw shooter, more free throws. Better jump shooter, more jump shots. And a key theme throughout this conversation has been the connection between success in your career, success as a leader, and having high emotional intelligence, which really comes down to so much of what we've been talking about. Asking questions, listening, communicating effectively, wanting to genuinely get to know other people, wanting to ensure that the people who you're working with are successful, whether they're the people who you're leading or whether they're the people who you're serving, your customers. That's how you become successful. Without a doubt. in your role as a leader and in your industry in general, negotiations play such a vital role. What advice do you have for anyone listening on the topic of negotiations? How can anyone become a better negotiator?

Mike: It's what we just said is always listening throughout the conversation. This is true for sales in general, is asking a lot of questions and really understanding what their needs are. When you understand a person's needs, you're truly going to recognize what the points are that you are going to want to come away with and what you are going to use as your basis for negotiating. Again, we talk about this a win-win contract. Nobody wants to feel like a losing party. And I think one of the things that the great negotiators do is they always make it feel like a win-win. There's many different books, classes, training courses, you could go through on this. It goes back to making sure that you're spending the time and educating yourself on how to be a better negotiator, certainly in your world. But more importantly, it's about listening to the person that you're negotiating. In Calis negotiating training, which is a pretty famous one, they always say, what is on the other person's card? And so really, by understanding and asking a lot of questions and understanding who they are as people back to that emotional intelligence, where they're coming from, you'll better understand what's on their card and know where the points are that you can make or that you can use in order to get what you want out of the negotiation. So again, it's a lot of listening, Adam. It's a lot of conversation. And more importantly, it's asking the right questions throughout the process.

Adam: Mike, what can anyone listening to this conversation do to become more successful personally and professionally?

Mike: I think it goes back to, I call it because of our brand, the 121% rule. I think no matter what you're involved in, I use this with my kids all the time. I think it's three things and whether you're trying to be a better high school basketball player or you're trying to be a better pianist, better chess player, a better professional, it's three things. I'm going to drive these home again. Number one is your mindset, making sure that every single day you understand that things are good, things are positive. Think positively about the mission that you're on. It's not always going to be puppy dogs and rainbows. As professionals, as salespeople, as career athletes, you're going to get knocked down more than you're going to win the trophy. And just remember that ultimately every single day that you get up and put your mind on that vision and that goal that you have, you got to be super positive about what it is and where you're headed. Number two, is you got to always try to improve yourself. There's so many different ways and it comes in so many different forms, whether it's formal training, whether it's a mentor, whether it's reading, I don't care what it is, whatever it is, always try to be improving yourself towards the discipline that you're in. And there's just so many different ways. Spend a couple of moments each week, spend a couple of hours every month, whatever it is, just try to improve yourself in the discipline that you're trying to improve in. And then last but not least, I think it's those activities going back to the focus that we talked about, making sure you're really clear on those little activities you have to do every single day in order to ladder up to the bigger goal that you have as a professional. And no matter what that is, get advice from your coach. Get advice from your leader, get advice from your manager, your friends, your family, whoever it is. Make sure that they're putting their eyes on the activities that you're focused on every single day so that you guys can agree and you can see that clear path towards the big goal that you have.

Adam: Positive mindset, growth mindset, clarity of focus. That's a pretty good formula for success. Mike, thank you for all the great advice and thank you for being a part of 30-Minute Mentors.

Mike: It was a great experience. I appreciate it.


Adam Mendler is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, educator, and nationally recognized authority on leadership. Adam is the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal-winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities, and non-profit organizations. Adam has written extensively on leadership and related topics, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. Adam teaches graduate-level courses on leadership at UCLA and is an advisor to numerous companies and leaders. A Los Angeles native, Adam is a lifelong Angels fan and an avid backgammon player.

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