Real Estate Agent Leigh Thomas Brown: unscripted and uncompromising

Leigh Thomas Brown doesn’t just want to upset the apple cart. She wants to take an ax to it.

It’s one of the reasons that real estate insiders are both fond and fearful of her. She is outspoken. She is high energy. She is diligently well informed and unapologetically honest.

But she is also unbelievably loyal to her community.

Right now, the status quo of real estate is not her cup of sweet tea. And she has shared this sentiment on many a stage, including Inman Connect 2016 in New York.

“We talk shit about each other all the time,” Leigh bemoaned, describing everyday agents’ lack of support for one another. “And no sooner did I get off the stage at Inman than a friend of mine was on Facebook talking trash about another agent.”

Here’s what Leigh believes: it’s easier to tear each other down than build each other up. But building up is Leigh’s strategy nonetheless.

“My business grows when I reach out to help people,” she said. “There is unlimited room for leaders in real estate. But often the people who are doing the producing don’t have time for the politics. And that means many of the actual leaders aren’t the producers.”

It’s that ego-driven element of the real estate industry Leigh would like to see done away with. “It’s possible to rise up without stepping on people,” she said.

Her straight-talk, no BS stance is what seems polarizing to many people. And that kind of public opinion mirrors one of her lifelong heroes: Winston Churchill.

“He was hated by so many people, because he didn’t say what he was supposed to say or do what he was supposed to do,” Leigh shared. “But without him, World War II would have been very, very different.”

In fact, it’s Winston’s words that decorate Leigh’s office: “I am an optimist. It doesn’t seem to be much use being anything else.”

Update: Leigh Brown recently launched the appropriately named book, Outrageous Authenticity. You can learn more here.