extraordinary small business
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About this Episode

In this episode,  how Robin Mancuso DeLuna, a second-generation co-owner at one of the top Coldwell Banker franchises in the nation, doubled down on technology to not only keep the family business afloat but to also propel it forward.  Robin sat with us and passionately shares how she and her bother Jamie teamed up to continue what their father started. Whether you are a small business owner or just love to support small and local businesses, this show is for you.

Episode Transcript

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 0:00
And they were just these little real estate offices. So here we come and say, nope! the markets bad, we need to clean it all up, and how are we going to clean it all up?

Angela Giovine 0:12
Pop culture has become obsessed with entrepreneurship stories from Silicon Valley, and big startup. But the backbone of our economy is made of small local businesses. Every day, millions of small business owners deliver quality products and services, support the local economy, employ their neighbors and follow their passion. We think their stories are worth telling. I’m Angela Giovine, welcome to the extra ordinary small business podcast. On today’s show, how Robin Mancuso DeLuna, a second generation owner at one of the top Coldwell Banker franchises in the nation, doubled down on technology to not only keep the family business afloat, but to propel it forward. Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a charming suburb located between Philadelphia and New York City, peaceful countrysides bustling antiquing towns, and a place that’s growing in popularity every year as a happening place to live. Robin DeLuna grew up here, daughter of a small business owner. Little did she know, those dinnertime business chats were preparing her for her future. As a co owner of a major real estate brokerage. We visited Robin at her headquarters and she shared with us her story of working through the ranks at a young age and running a business with family all in a time when the industry was shifting beneath our very feet.

Angela Giovine 1:50
Thank you for being with us here today Robin. Robin is one of the CO owners of Coldwell Banker Hearthside, which is located in The Philadelphia region. How many offices do you have?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 2:02
We have ten locations.

Angela Giovine 2:03
Ten locations throughout Bucks County, Montgomery County…

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 2:08
Lehigh Valley, yep! North Hampton…

Angela Giovine 2:09
and over 400 realtors.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 2:11
That’s correct.

Angela Giovine 2:12
Now, you are a second generation owner, right? Your father started the company?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 2:17
Yes, that’s correct.

Angela Giovine 2:18
How old were you when, your dad started the company. Do you have any memories of it?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 2:22
I do. So I was about seven years old, and we had just moved to Upper Makefield from Trenton, New Jersey area. And one of our neighbors owned a real estate company in Bristol. And his name was Bill Manyoni, and my dad became really good friends with Bill Manyoni. And he was in Bristol selling real estate. My dad was in Trenton selling real estate. They both lived in the same development in Upper Makefield and they decided to start an office called Manyoni-Mancuso. And they started it, again when I was probably in elementary school, and they started in Upper Makefield one office, and over the course of my elementary and middle school years, they grew the offices to probably about five. And it was in Yardley and Newtown and Richboro area. And again, the original one was in in Upper Makefield in Washington Crossing. And then when I was probably around a junior or senior, they ended up selling the company and decided just to take different ventures go into on different paths. And then, that lasted a couple years, they both got little bit crazy and said we got to get back in the real estate business.

Angela Giovine 3:25
They miss it.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 3:26
That’s in our blood. Right. So that’s exactly what they did. And Bill opened up his own real estate company in Yardley, and my dad decided to open up a Coldwell Banker franchise. And the reason why he decided to stay away from the Mancuso name and switch to Coldwell Banker is over the course of the years, he saw that the area was really becoming a huge hub for relocation. We were getting a lot of people from New Jersey, from Philadelphia, from New York. It was really a relocation area and he said nobody knows Mancuso, unless you were from here, you were raised here, you’re going to know that name because we’ve been in the real estate business for a lot of years, but it’s not gonna resonate with a client or a customer who’s coming in from New York or coming in from California, but they do know Coldwell Banker. Coldwell Banker is a popular name. It’s in every city. It’s in every state. It’s in, you know, it’s in. I don’t know how many countries, but it’s just a well-known brand. That was in 1990… oh my gosh, two?

Angela Giovine 4:24
Okay.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 4:24
I think it was in 1992 92 93. And he started that and my older sister just gotten done college and she went with him to California. And they sat and they met with everybody from Coldwell Banker. And they thought it was just going to be a really good fit, and they thought it was time to bring a national name to Bucks County. And that’s what they did. And it it took off, obviously. I started working for him. Gosh, probably maybe a year after he started, he opened up the business? And basically I was, an assistant to some of the agents. I started a conveyancing team within the company and conveyancers are just they they help the agents, they give a lot of support to the agents to get them through the transaction with the buyers and the sellers and the mortgage companies.

Angela Giovine 5:07
So from more like the operations side.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 5:09
Definitely more the operations side.

Angela Giovine 5:11
So you at this point were graduated from college or you key

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 5:15
Nope. So I do, I got done high school, and I had the choice of do I go to college or do I go into into the work field and I ended up going to the work field.

Angela Giovine 5:22
Awesome.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 5:22
So that’s what I did. Yeah, I decided I was going to maybe be a travel agent. So I went into the travel industry for about a year or two. And then my dad said, listen, we are just starting this company. Why don’t you come and help us? And I liked working with people. So I came over and I started in in real estate with them.

Angela Giovine 5:38
Now you are co owner of the company currently with your brothers that correct?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 5:43
That is correct. Yep.

Angela Giovine 5:44
So, and you mentioned a sister as well. So how many siblings are you?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 5:48
So there’s five of us. I have two brothers and two sisters.

Angela Giovine 5:50
Okay. And only two of you are in the company.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 5:53
So my older sister who started it with my dad, she got married and had kids and decided to concentrate on her home life and be a career mother and it’s amazing. She’s amazing mother. And my brother, Jamie, who’s my partner. He’s younger than I am, a few years younger. He also started in the business a couple years after me. So when I started in the business with my dad, I was not allowed to sell real estate. I was not allowed to compete against other realtors. Um he didn’t feel it was fair. He’s very agent-oriented, my dad. He didn’t want any of the agents to think that I was pulling deals from them, I was competing against them. He said it was hard enough as a salesperson, and then to add me into the mix.

Angela Giovine 6:29
Sure.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 6:29
It just wouldn’t be a fair a level playing field. So I had the choice of going to what was I going to do? Was I going to… get out of the business altogether or would I find another option within the company? So I had a couple of people that we dealt with that were in the title business, and I decided to move in that direction into the title field, and I didn’t know anything really about title. But I worked with a woman who worked for a competitor and she was about maybe 20 years older than I was at the time and knew everything about title. So, I met with her for lunch and I said, how about we start a title company, you teach me everything you know about title. And I know this is gonna sound really crazy to my- everybody I work with, because I’m not 100% techie but back then I was like, I’ll bring technology. So I was one of the first title companies that showed up at the settlement table with like a laptop,

Angela Giovine 7:19
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 7:19
and portable printer and I was all software, because in the beginning, when we I started title, it was a pencil and a calculator and a HUD sheet. And I didn’t want to do that. I said, I know I can bring other things to to the title business, if you can just teach me. And that’s kind of how our relationship started. And I started the title company and I had the trust from the realtors because I work with them. And believe it or not the first agent who gave me a piece of title business, still works for the company today.

Angela Giovine 7:46
Oh wow. So now fast forward, you run not only a title company, but now you’re back involved in the actual real estate firm.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 7:54
I am. Right so when the market started to tank a little bit, real estate wasn’t great, market wasn’t great, it was about 2008. My brother was running the real estate with my dad. So and I’m not gonna tell my brother’s whole side of the story, his whole story of how he got in real estate. I will say he started putting up signs. So for the real estate company, so I mean, we all start at the very bottom and just worked our way up.

Angela Giovine 8:17
Which is so awesome, because you really know how everyone who works for you feels like you’ve walked in their shoes.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 8:23
A hundred percent. Yup. And and we could probably go and if anybody needed help, now we don’t do certain employees day to day operations. But can we jump back in? Hundred percent. And we’ve done it. Both of us have done it. So yeah, it’s amazing. So Jamie started putting up signs and he worked with my dad and obviously was being groomed to continue the real estate business. And then when the market kind of tanked a little bit at that point, my dad had 20 locations. So it was a it was a pretty big, you know, real estate company. I like to say and I tell my brother all the time I sat in my ivory tower in the title company, and I ran the title company and it was its own thing. It had, you know, 10 employees, I did everything from opening to closing and ran it. I wasn’t aware of what was going on behind the scenes with the real estate company. So my dad, was feeling like the markets tanking, we’ve 20 locations, I think I want to get out. My brother’s like, I’m young, I’m going to stay in, but I’m going to need somebody to help me run operations. My brother’s an amazing salesperson. He’s an amazing coach. He adds so much value to the real estate company, but needed somebody to do day to day operations with which I kind of excelled at. So we talked about it and he said, why don’t we just join forces bring title into the real estate and let’s just do it together. And we did!

Angela Giovine 9:40
Yin and Yang.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 9:41
Yep.

Angela Giovine 9:42
That’s amazing.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 9:42
And it was like a work in progress. Because we didn’t really know where we both stood. We were both trying to jump in as my dad is getting out. And and my dad couldn’t turn over the keys quick enough. He’s like, bye! good luck. Market’s horrible.

Angela Giovine 9:55
He like retired to Florida.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 9:57
Right.

Angela Giovine 9:57
He’s on the golf course.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 9:58
Right. And we and were like, okay, what are we gonna do? And you know, it’s really… to take a market that was bad and to say, I’m really going to try to make this successful. I mean, it was like an uphill battle. And we just every day, just kept just kept at it. And we really developed our work relationship in the worst time of the market. But I think for us, it really worked. Because in the beginning, when I started, I was very serious. I was very um… you know, I woke up, there was no, I had to do a job, I had to do it, right. I had to dot my i’s and cross my T’s.

Angela Giovine 10:32
It’s very structured the title part of the process – the operation.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 10:33
It was structure and stressful, and I had to make sure everybody got to closing and.. it in it, it was just a whole different way of working. When we got together. It just things opened up for us. We ended up not taking each other so seriously, not taking ourselves so seriously. We thought we have a business to run and we’re both going to screw up. We’re both going to make mistakes, but if we have each other’s back, we’re gonna get through it. And there are things that he is so passionate about, that I’m like, oh my gosh, seriously? And I just support him because his passion is so great, I know it’s going to be successful. And if it’s not, we’re going to figure out how to make it successful, or we’re going to move on to something else.

Angela Giovine 11:11
That’s amazing. It’s it’s, I think, rare to walk into a position not only with a partner, but with a sibling, where your roles are so clearly defined in a way that you’re each unique and you bring something unique to the table and can respect each other for the differences that you bring to the table. I think that’s just so cool. And I think that’s probably what makes you greater than the sum of your parts, right? Because you guys, when you join forces, you just became this like superhero

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 11:37
We did. And we were so unsure about what where our roles really were and we really didn’t know because we didn’t really work together. So to define our roles we couldn’t do, to sit down and give each other a job description. You’re going to do this, I’m going to do this. We couldn’t do, we just had to get in every day and work and see where it kind of fell. And there were so many nights that Jamie and I would sit at a conference room table till midnight, going through books and and dotting i’s and crossing t’s and me explaining how certain things work on the back end and him explaining how certain things work with agents that I was unaware of. I mean, even though in the title business you get all of your business from the from a realtor, I didn’t I didn’t understand a realtors life.

Angela Giovine 12:19
Sure.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 12:19
And he did. And he’s so pro pro agent and pro realtor. And I think that’s the other thing that we both bring. We’re not company-oriented, we’re agent-oriented. So yes, of course, we run the company and we want the company to be successful, but we know we’re only gonna be successful with the agents we have, and how we can help them and have them grow and become more and more successful. So we really put a lot into the agents and we really everyday work harder and harder to have them achieve more and more success. Eventually it will pay off for us, because we’ll be successful. But if we try to put something and it and it’s a failure, and it’s going to lose money. We get it, but we tried it for the agents. We’re trying to do everything we can to just make the agents more successful.

Angela Giovine 13:05
And they see that.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 13:06
I hope, I don’t know. And again, it was nothing that we planned.

Angela Giovine 13:10
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 13:10
Not like we put it on a piece of paper. It’s just the way we roll. It’s kind of a way, you know.

Angela Giovine 13:14
Well, it’s interesting because brokerages are different than a lot of other small businesses because you know, you keep calling them the realtors, the agents, because they are. They are not your employees. They are with you. And so

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 13:26
Independent contractors.

Angela Giovine 13:27
I know they’re independent- how does that translate? Is there a different feel? How does that relationship work?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 13:31
It is, because we see the agents as owners themselves, they own their own business.

Angela Giovine 13:35
They all brand themselves separately.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 13:38
Right? And they own their own business. So where is our value? Our value is is to help them and support them. You know, our biggest thing is, is we want to enable the agents

Angela Giovine 13:47
Sure.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 13:48
We want to give them as many tools, as many services, we want to continue to to grow their business. Eventually grows our business. So yeah, we’re we’re all about the agent.

Angela Giovine 13:59
Right. And I have to imagine there’s like a really fine line that you walk between supporting all of your agent’s individuality, and then the competitiveness that I’m sure comes across. You know, it’s a it’s a real estate market and realtors are competitive. So

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 14:13
Yo-You know what it’s like? it’s like a big family.

Angela Giovine 14:15
Right, your kids.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 14:16
So, I’m right. And it’s like, I have again, I have four other siblings. It’s exactly the same. We all want the best for each other. But we are competitive and but we’re competitive in a really good natured way. I have to say, out of the 400 agents, it’s not competitive in a negative way. Everbody-

Angela Giovine 14:33
No dirty mudslinging.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 14:34
Nope and everybody’s happy for each other. And hey, everybody’s gonna have good times everybody’s got bad times. The real estate market and the community is big enough that we can all be successful. And I think we all get that. So we respect each other.

Angela Giovine 14:40
Is that a culture that you have to actively maintain in order to keep that healthy rivalry, that healthy competitive nature, or is it something that it’s sort of instilled here?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 14:56
I think it’s instilled and I think it’s who we hire. We definitely hire employees for culture, I will tell you that we’re probably up to about 52 employees that fully service the agents. So it’s probably about I think we figured it out to be like a staff of like three or four employees per agent that helped them with every transaction. So it starts with the foundation. It starts with, I think, our employees, a and the culture our employees have, and I think it goes through with our real estate agents. And I will tell you, we do interview agents, even though they’re independent contractors, and they have their own business. If we interview an agent, and we don’t feel that they’re a right fit for our culture here. We we don’t ask them to join our team.

Angela Giovine 15:39
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 15:39
So you know, we do have that ability.

Angela Giovine 15:42
That that makes sense, because one miss fit so to speak, could infiltrate the culture and change things?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 15:49
Yup.

Angela Giovine 15:50
It’s it’s like adding a different ingredient into your baking mixes.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 15:53
Yup

Angela Giovine 15:53
It changes the

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 15:54
Definitely.

Angela Giovine 15:55
the output so to speak. It sounds like you were very, not involved but you heard about the business at the kitchen table. Is that theory?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 16:02
Yeah, we all did. Yup.

Angela Giovine 16:04
It was something that you’re interested in. Do you think, that the small business bug was instilled in you at a young age? Is it your DNA? Was it? Is it nature or nurture?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 16:15
I don’t know. I thought I I did. I have thought about this. I actually thought about this recently, about, you know, what, what would my life look like if I just went into a different path? What if I didn’t go into real estate? What if I decided to be a stay at home mom? What if I decided, you know, to go to a different career? I don’t know. I think that, I love what I do. I wake up every morning, happy and excited to come into work. I love working with my brother. I love working with the staff that we have. They’re they’re an amazing group of people. So I I wouldn’t change anything. And I think it’s just, it’s always been there.

Angela Giovine 16:54
Yeah.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 16:54
It’s just, I think it just kind of grew over a course of time. So, and it just kept growing

Angela Giovine 16:58
And it probably gave you the… not courage, but the… you could see the path. You saw the roadmap, from your father, how to be a small business owner. So you’re able to sort of… emulate that and and take what you want from that. And then take make it you own.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 17:14
I think so, I think subconsciously, I mean, because I think just hearing it.

Angela Giovine 17:17
Ah I’m also the daughter of a small business owner.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 17:18
Okay.

Angela Giovine 17:19
So to- I feel like, it’s the same story like

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 17:21
Right.

Angela Giovine 17:22
we get the kitchen table, from teenage years,

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 17:25
Right.

Angela Giovine 17:25
hearing about the way that

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 17:26
and it’s just in the backgrounds and hearing it because I mean, to sit down and be like, okay, dad, I want to be a business owner. Can you tell me how to do it? That never took place. That conversation never happened.

Angela Giovine 17:34
Okay, my dad would be like, you’re 13. Why don’t you start a company? And I like that sounds awful dad. And it wasn’t until like, I got to college and started inventing things. Inventing dance companies, inventing companies, and then I realized that was instilled in me. But I thought it, for like the longest time.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 17:50
Okay, so you might have a point there. Because if I go back and think, did I start a little camp fork and watch kids over the summer? I did.

Angela Giovine 18:00
You did.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 18:00
Did my brother start like a lawn cutting service thing? He did. So if I if I think about it that way, did we start little things to make money?

Angela Giovine 18:08
Right. And you didn’t think it was weird.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 18:10
Nope.

Angela Giovine 18:10
And your friends didn’t do it.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 18:12
No.

Angela Giovine 18:12
But you didn’t think it was weird

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 18:14
Right.

Angela Giovine 18:14
because it was like in your family? Yeah. It’s I’ve had the very similar experience.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 18:18
Yeah, that’s very funny. I didn’t think of it that way. I’m like, well, I babysat and like, well I actually start a little camp, they drop the kids off. I had, like ten kids.

Angela Giovine 18:24
I’m in a way more organized than it needed to be and my friends were like, why are you making this a thing?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 18:29
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 18:29
I used to do this. I totally get it.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 18:30
That’s very funny. I didn’t even think about it until now.

Angela Giovine 18:32
Yeah. So it was it was instilled in you. So, what year did you say that your dad handed over the keys?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 18:37
It’s about 2008 2009?

Angela Giovine 18:38
And that was the great recession?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 18:40
Yes.

Angela Giovine 18:42
Did you ever have a moment there where you thought why? Why am I doing this in one of the hardest hit industries of

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 18:49
Yes.

Angela Giovine 18:50
the mar- of the recession.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 18:51
Every day.

Angela Giovine 18:51
Why am I in real estate?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 18:53
We thought it every day. We had to take the agents that my dad had, and we had to take 20 locations and we had to figure out what we were going to do? And we close

Angela Giovine 19:01
And you also had to take a time when, real estate was transitioning into a very different

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 19:06
Market, yup.

Angela Giovine 19:06
technology, heavy world, maybe of agents that, don’t want to go into that new world of technology. You have some that do. That’s a lot of change for two new business owners. Now, I know you had owned a title company for a long time, but you’re in to a new business. And that’s a lot of change throughout

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 19:27
Right.

Angela Giovine 19:27
a really difficult time in the market.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 19:29
It is. And you know, our locations were these little borough… basically offices.

Angela Giovine 19:36
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 19:36
They were like little offices in in all different boroughs. So you would go into Yardley, and there was an office there, you would go into Newtown, there was an office there. And they were just these little real estate offices. So here we come in and say nope, the markets bad, we need to clean it all up. And how are we going to clean it all up? And my brother is an amazing out of the box thinker. Amazing. He loves change. So to him, this was like, this was not going to

Angela Giovine 19:36
Licking his chops. Ready to go.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 19:42
Yeah. He was so excited. I mean, did we both sit and be like, oh my god, I can’t believe we’re doing this! Yes. But he just had such passion. He’s like, we, can turn this around. And he did. What he decided was, let’s do corporate centers. So let’s close all the little mom and pop offices. Let’s roll them into corporate centers. And let’s be able to give the agents more technology. A tech lounge, in our offices. Uh you know, the big TVs, the new computer systems. Let’s do corporate locations. And we started here, and we took like five or six of the surrounding offices, and we put them all in Newtown into our corporate center. And I have to say, I think it was the best move we could have made. I mean, he was like dead on with this vision that he had, and it couldn’t have been more successful.

Angela Giovine 20:47
It helped you cut cost.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 20:49
Right. So for me, it was a win. I’m like, yeah, cutting costs.

Angela Giovine 20:52
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 20:52
Okay, so I sat behind the desk, and I was all for it. But for him,

Angela Giovine 20:56
All of these little rents, you were able to consolidate

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 20:57
Hundred percent.

Angela Giovine 20:58
and negotiate into one larger rent which, you know, there’s not

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 21:01
Way more cost effective.

Angela Giovine 21:02
probably more corporate space available these days you were able to negotiate a better terms. But also, would you say, because all of these agents are now in one place, it also affected your culture?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 21:14
Totally good. The camaraderie, the the culture, and Jamie really saw it on that end. Jamie saw hey,

Angela Giovine 21:21
He wasn’t thinking about the numbers. He was thinking about the people

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 21:24
I saw the cost savings, he saw

Angela Giovine 21:25
There’s a yin and yang.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 21:26
Right. He saw we can make this a really great thing. So and that’s what and that’s what he saw and and he was totally dead on and it did. It change the camaraderie. You know, it what’s difficult about having all of those locations and even now we’re we went from 20 to about 10. You know, you still get the offices that feel like, oh, we’re left out or oh, they don’t see us. We don’t see them. We try, as so hard to get into every office and to be involved with every agent and we have more programs that have been developed and started to bring all of us together. You know, we do everything from like cocktail parties, to training seminars that Jamie and I are completely involved. We do a what’s called a roadshow, we go out to the offices, and just give updates on what’s going on within the company. We really try to be at all the offices as much as we can. But it’s so hard.

Angela Giovine 21:26
Sure.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 21:31
So can you imagine if we had 20, it would have been impossible. And everybody, at some point feels left out.

Angela Giovine 22:23
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 22:23
So by making them corporate offices, and by pulling people together, I feel like it’s it’s been huge. Communication wise, camaraderie wise, team building wise, it’s been a it’s been a great thing.

Angela Giovine 22:34
And what I find so interesting about this decision is because now, you know, hindsight is 2020 it was a win for you. But I think, if I had to put myself in your shoes making that decision in 2008, that wasn’t the obvious decision. People were leaving corporate

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 22:49
Right.

Angela Giovine 22:50
offices. They were, making things smaller. They weren’t making things larger. And you’re compounding that not only with the recession, but you guys are you know, stepping in to your dad’s shoes and making a big change, right as you’re starting the company and you’re dealing with, okay, the pressure of what will people think? Are people going to accept these changes? And and that’s a lot of pressure. Did you feel like these were big risks that you were taking when you were taking them?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 23:17
We knew that we had to make changes. We definitely knew we had to make changes. We thought that every change we were making, when we made the change was really for the benefit of the agent. So we thought, how can we lose? if we’re trying to make their lives better and make them more successful, it can’t be a lose. So we just, we just put our faith into into the agents and that they would accept our our vision. And they did! And everything. I mean, everything changed from where our locations were to the way they turned in an agreement of sale, to the way our finance department handled their commission checks. It was everything that was changing. We just needed to get with the times. We needed to move forward. We needed to get them paid faster. We needed to process the work quicker. We needed to do all of this, but still know that we had their backs and provide the best customer service. And I think we accomplished that. But we still do it every day.

Angela Giovine 24:10
Sure.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 24:10
We can never stop.

Angela Giovine 24:12
Sure.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 24:12
We can’t. We don’t have a break to say, oh, okay, we’re good. It’s constantly okay, what can we do next? And what we could, what can we do next? You know, some of our best ideas are best things we’ve implemented, have really come from the agents. And, they know they have an open door with both Jamie and I, there’s no middle. So they come right to us. Hey, did you think about this? Or hey, did you thought about that? And we’re like, no, we haven’t. Right, let’s just try it. And we’re constantly okay, let’s just try it. And if it fails, it fails. But we’re going to fix it. So

Angela Giovine 24:40
And it sounds like Coldwell gives you a lot of flexibility. In terms of franchises I know. With many franchises, there are a lot of strict rules in terms of running a company a certain way. It sounds like they give you a lot of latitude in terms of being able to make these decisions as a small business owner to make

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 24:57
They really do. We we own the company. We make the day to day decisions. We run everything. So Jamie and I make all decisions within the company. Really, we use Coldwell Banker for their name, for their brands, for what they can bring us across the country. So that’s what they bring to us and they bring us you know, they’ve been in business for a lot of years. So you know, to know that you have a franchise behind you,

Angela Giovine 25:22
Sure.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 25:22
that’s been in the business, you know, 100 years is amazing. So

Angela Giovine 25:27
And the way that your agents have a direct line to you, do you feel like you’re often in conversations with Coldwell Banker overall? Or is it really more once in a while kind of thing.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 25:39
We can call anybody at Coldwell Banker, we can call the the CEO, we can call the COO and they would pick up the phone and answer our phone calls. So yes.

Angela Giovine 25:48
Pretty awesome.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 25:48
So we can. Uh we’re going on, we have some event there on Monday, just some learning sessions that we’re going to at corporate in Madison, New Jersey. So yes, we have a complete open door with am Coldwell Banker.

Angela Giovine 26:00
Now you mentioned that from the be-get go when you started your title company all the way till now, technology really seems to have been an ongoing role for you in terms of, con your continued success. What are some of the biggest changes in technology that you’ve seen in your industries over the years?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 26:19
Oh my gosh. What what what hasn’t there been? Tech wise with within the company? I mean, we’ve changed everything from when we started. It’s very funny because we still use this story all the time. My dad was like, do we really need a fax machine? Do we have to do a fax machine? So I remember that being like a really big that was very funny back then, listening to him at the dinner table and he would say that. Um but tech wise everything. Everything we do is is technology based. From um searching your home, you know, with the app on your phone, our website, you know the way we handle agreements of sale, the way a customer can, we can sit down with a customer and do a listing presentation.

Angela Giovine 26:56
The way they sign their contracts on the phone with

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 26:59
Yeah. everything, It’s everything. I mean, there really is isn’t a need for a piece of paper at all. So, you know, operations wide technology is huge. On a customer standpoint, I mean, we need to get their house out there to everybody as fast as possible. So sure, it’s gonna be all tech base.

Angela Giovine 27:18
Yeah, marketing.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 27:19
Mm hmm.

Angela Giovine 27:19
And I

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 27:20
Marketing plays a huge part

Angela Giovine 27:22
Sure.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 27:22
within a company.

Angela Giovine 27:22
Sure. I mean, and real estate, I guess, was on the forefront. I, in terms of technology, because listings went online pretty early in terms of when the internet became popular.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 27:33
Sure.

Angela Giovine 27:34
Is that would you say accurate?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 27:35
So yeah! So I mean, definitely. I mean, that’s how people search for homes now.

Angela Giovine 27:38
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 27:38
It’s it’s on the internet.

Angela Giovine 27:40
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 27:40
I mean, that’s the number one search. There’s the days of going into the newspaper and looking for home are gone.

Angela Giovine 27:44
Do you even do it anymore? Is it even it’s done same?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 27:46
We don’t. So I mean, we we scaled back, I mean, I remember one of our first budget meetings was we spent X amount of dollars in the newspaper, and I looked at my brother at the table. And like, are you crazy?

Angela Giovine 27:58
Right?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 27:59
Like I could even fathom spending that.

Angela Giovine 28:00
Could you remember the last time opened the newspaper?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 28:02
Right. So I mean, it was amazing

Angela Giovine 28:04
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 28:05
to me that was years ago. But now I mean, so we’ve evolved so much.

Angela Giovine 28:08
Sure.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 28:08
So now, not only are we in real estate, and not only are we in title but we have our own marketing company. And that’s solely markets the real estate agent.

Angela Giovine 28:17
Sure.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 28:18
That solely markets the properties that these that the sellers are are are selling. One of the first things the marketing person who’s running our marketing department said to us was, you know what, let’s just do Facebook for all our open house heads. We’re like, okay, done. So and she’s been extremely successful with that. Of course technology is, but without that marketing piece, it’s not going to do anything once you put it up online. So you need the marketing piece. And the marketing goes from marketing the agent, branding the agent, coming up with an agent’s logo, to marketing the home, taking pictures of the home, brochures of the home. I mean, the

Angela Giovine 28:52
Videos ,3d. All of that stuff.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 28:54
Exactly.

Angela Giovine 28:55
And the thing about about technology is it never stops changing, right?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 28:58
Okay.

Angela Giovine 28:59
How do you, make the decision on I’m sure you, you know, going to these educational conferences, going in through Coldwell Banker, going to real estate industry stuff. There’s probably a million different technologies you can use. How do you decide when to hold what you have and when to make a change? And do you see a lot of things changing on the horizon?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 29:20
So I would say, that this is where we really depend on our amazing group of employees and our staff that we have and our leadership team. Because they’re the ones that keep bringing things to us. Um and then they are constantly testing everything. They they they bring things to us, they hash it out, will it work? Won’t it work?They put research into it, we try things, we test more things. We always say, we’ll beta test, we’ll beta test, be beta test everything that comes down the pipe to see if it will work for us. And I really have to say that it’s our leadership team. So the group that that Jamie and I work with, are an amazing group of people that never stop and they treat the company like it’s their own company, and they want the for the agents also.

Angela Giovine 30:01
That’s what I love about small businesses that they are willing to try things. I’ve done both I’ve owned a small business and I’ve worked in big corporations and having been someone like we were just talking about who was willing to start something. You know, on the side for fun or whatever, when you’re a kid. Having that taken away from you, when you’re in a big corporation and being told, okay, now we have to go through X, Y, and Z red tape, and in five months, six months, maybe someone will approve, and then it’s over. You know,

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 30:26
Yeah, that doesn’t happen here.

Angela Giovine 30:27
I think that’s one thing that makes small business so amazing, is that you can just try something and you know, move on if it doesn’t work or double down if it does.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 30:36
Right.

Angela Giovine 30:36
That’s what makes so many small businesses not only successful, but also interesting.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 30:42
We just always have so much in the pipeline. There’s always so much that we’re doing. It’s amazing to me. And I have to say, Jamie is so creative. He’s got that creative brain. So he just keeps things they’ll bring something and he’ll be like, why can’t we do this? and why can’t we do that? So it’s great, I think between the art like I said, our leadership team and Jamie always outside the box thinking, just works.

Angela Giovine 31:04
So what’s awesome is that you have a co owner who you can bounce things off of who shares your struggles and your successes. But I imagine that you also need people beyond your brother to look for advice or vent to or look for in terms of mentorship. Who are the people in your life that you lean on when you’re seeking that kind of advice? Or

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 31:31
In my life? For my all my life crazy? It would be my mom.

Angela Giovine 31:36
Yeah?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 31:36
I mean, you know, so and my mom, she know, she was a stay at home mom, but she has more business sense

Angela Giovine 31:42
Considering yeah.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 31:43
I mean, it’s I’ve never experienced a woman like her. She’s, she’s just she’s an amazing woman. I mean, she raised five of us. She know, she had a household, my grandparents live with us, but she’s just an amazing listener, and gives amazing advice whether it hurts your feelings or doesn’t hurt your feelings. And she’s always like, you know what, you are an independent. This is gonna be if my brother hears this, he’s gonna laugh at me. But my mom said, you are a strong, independent woman just do it. Well, I say I have three boys. But I say it to my niece, my brother’s daughter all the time, to the point where one summer that’s all she said. Aunt Robin, I’m a strong, independent woman. I’m like, yes! you are. And she was like, seven.

Angela Giovine 32:21
That’s awesome.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 32:22
So, yeah. So I I really, I would think that it’s my mom and I can even talk to my mom about business stuff even though she might not have any idea. She totally gets it.

Angela Giovine 32:29
Well she’s context because she was sitting at that kitchen table with you when you were 12. And your dad was talking about it. So she’s got history I think that’s one of the hardest parts for a small business owner when you’re looking for someone to unload on.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 32:42
Right.

Angela Giovine 32:42
They are coming from a different point of view. You have to get them up to speed. You have to sort of give them the backstory they don’t quite get

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 32:49
Right.

Angela Giovine 32:49
But it sounds like your mom has all the concept in the world.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 32:51
And she support and she was such a major support for my dad, and she knew everybody in Coldwell Banker and she went to all the events, and she and she was, she was a major support for my dad and I her role hasn’t changed. So it’s just not my dad, that’s bending her ear, it’s now me or my brother that’s bending her ear.

Angela Giovine 33:07
Right. So do you, keep any formal business mentoring relationships? I know you mentioned the woman that you originally went into business with

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 33:16
Right title business. She was, she was in the business with me for probably about… maybe five or seven years and then she moved to a different state with her husband, and I just continued to handle the title company myself. And as far as mentors within the title industry, I don’t have one particular mentor in the title industry. I feel like I’ve been in the business for a really long time. So one of my very big competitors, I still talk to him on a daily basis and we help each other out, with different problems he’ll call me and be like, hey, I have a situation with a with a closing can you help me? And and I do the same. So, when you’ve been in the business for a long time and you have mutual respect for the people in your in your industry, you can pick up the phone and call. I will say that when I got involved in the real estate and my brother did introduce me to a bunch of business owners, that own real estate companies, that are amazing. You know, I I walk out of meetings with them. I’m like, they’re the smartest people I ever met.

Angela Giovine 34:07
They own other agencies or real estate investment?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 34:09
They own other real estate companies throughout the country.

Angela Giovine 34:11
Okay.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 34:12
So they’re part of

Angela Giovine 34:13
Sort of like a mastermind group?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 34:14
That’s exactly what it is, yeah.

Angela Giovine 34:15
Okay.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 34:15
And they’re amazing. And, you know, there’s a few of them there that I will pick up a phone and call or email and ask questions and

Angela Giovine 34:16
Yeah.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 34:16
and, and I see some of their stuff that comes through and I’m always emailing like, oh my gosh, that was amazing. How did you do that? But in the industry, I’ve never met a group of people that are more open and willing to help you.

Angela Giovine 34:34
How did your brother find that group? And would you recommend for most small business owners to find a group like this?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 34:40
So my brother found the group actually through Coldwell Banker. So Coldwell Banker um has a a group of franchisees? And it’s like the top 10 franchisees who decided to get together on their own.

Angela Giovine 34:51
Okay.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 34:52
Outside of the Coldwell Banker brand and just talk as business owners. And they’re from all different parts of the country. So, their markets are different. So when someone’s markets up, someone else’s market might be down, and they might be working with a whole different price point. However, they still have that same common goal, they have a company to run, and they have agents and employees that they need to take care of. And how can they do that best? And my brother meets with them probably on a like every other month, And they take turns flying out to different parts of the country to visit their offices, to talk to their employees, to talk to their managers. And I was lucky enough to be invited into it. And they’re amazing group of people. So

Angela Giovine 35:29
That’s awesome that you’re able to find people who like we were just saying have contacts that are able to really intimately share your struggle because they’ve probably had the similar struggles and also be in a place where you’re not competing with them, and and people feel like they can share openly and and all and you can gain that kind of insight. That’s that’s phenomenal.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 35:52
I mean, so open, I’ve never experienced anything like it. Through like, just… come in, look at at what anything you want. Like let’s just go through stuff. I mean very open, very honest people, ya

Angela Giovine 36:02
Now as a woman, I know you’re a co owner and you’re a co owner with your brother, but as a woman, do you find this world to be heavily male dominated or pretty equal, in terms of leadership?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 36:14
If anything, I sometimes feel like it’s more woman

Angela Giovine 36:16
Really?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 36:17
uh dominated

Angela Giovine 36:18
Okay.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 36:18
maybe in this area.

Angela Giovine 36:19
Okay.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 36:19
I I guess when I start going to the a conferences, it is male, it’s probably pretty equal.

Angela Giovine 36:24
Okay.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 36:24
I don’t ever feel like oh, I’m a woman and I can’t

Angela Giovine 36:27
That’s awesome.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 36:27
do it in this industry. That’s just, doesn’t ever even cross my mind.

Angela Giovine 36:31
Wow.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 36:31
No matter what conference I go to, what engagement I’m at, never crosses my mind that I’m a woman.

Angela Giovine 36:36
That’s awesome. So I mean, this being 2018 some of the biggest names in real estate, like on a commercial level are big are women.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 36:44
Are women, yeah.

Angela Giovine 36:45
You know, from Barbara Corcoran to Dottie Herman

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 36:47
Sure.

Angela Giovine 36:47
We’re hearing these names that are if they’re not household names, they’re big in in the industry world and there there are a lot of women

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 36:55
Sure.

Angela Giovine 36:55
So that’s great. That’s great to hear that it’s not even like a thought anymore.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 36:59
No.

Angela Giovine 36:59
So we’ve talked a lot about some of the the risks you’ve taken, um that have helped you grow to where you are today. Can you think of any risks that you’ve taken that have been either a flop or they didn’t turn out the way you thought, it ended up being a lesson?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 37:17
Yeah, we’ve had we’ve taken tons of risks. We’ve had tons of failures. I have to say though, I look at it differently though, now, when we have failures. You know, before I used to be really hard on myself,

Angela Giovine 37:29
Sure.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 37:29
and like, oh, my God, I can’t believe we chose this or we did this or why did we invest in this

Angela Giovine 37:33
Yeah.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 37:33
and it costs us all this money. And I think Jamie is the same way we look at it as really it’s a lesson. Like, oh! oh, that we really screwed that up. That was really bad. But okay, what what are we going to do about it? I mean, and that happens a lot.

Angela Giovine 37:47
Yeah.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 37:48
And it happens across the board. It happens to, we from something really small to we thought we hired this amazing, let’s say team and it was a complete mess and-but we learned. We learned from that whole experience. Or it could be from something we invested a ton of money in that we thought every agent was going to love. And we embraced it and loved it and invest at this time and this money into it and was a big failure. And was like, I can’t believe we did this. The difference though, I think, with all the ups and downs and the failures and successes we’ve had, is I think the relationship that Jamie and I have, we really tried to constantly build each other back up. I do remember there are times where I picked up the phone and I’m like, I can’t believe this. And and he’s got to pull me right back up. And there are times where he’ll call me and the same thing and I pull him right back up. We just can’t let any one thing, just pull, you know, pull us down and we’re always working to help each other build each other back up. You know, I think I said in earlier on. I used to take myself very seriously.

Angela Giovine 38:53
Yeah.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 37:53
I used to take the business very seriously. I still take it seriously. But I mean we laugh every day. We are happy to come to work every day. We want to make people happy.

Angela Giovine 39:03
Mm hmm.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 39:03
I don’t necessarily know if that was the goal before. I think the goal was to make the business successful. We want a successful business. Don’t get me wrong, but we want to make the agents happy. We want to make our employees happy. We want we want people to get up and want to come into our offices.

Angela Giovine 39:19
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 39:19
We just do.

Angela Giovine 39:19
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 39:20
It makes us happy.

Angela Giovine 39:21
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 39:21
And, you know, we meet with our core group of people – our leadership team on a monthly basis. I can’t tell you, you thinking your mind, you’re going to sit around at conference room table with 15 people. And it is going to be you know, very, like, you know, like a morgue, like quiet and serious and, you know, everybody’s really, we laugh, we joke, we throw out ideas, we bounce things off of each other. And it could be from me coming up with our crazy idea. And and everybody at the table laughing at me, to another employee coming up with an idea and everybody’s like, that’s an amazing idea.

Angela Giovine 39:54
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 39:54
Let’s do it tomorrow. So it’s just, it’s different. It’s a different environment. We’re just not so hung up on ourselves.

Angela Giovine 40:00
It makes you all want to be here, by choice.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 40:02
And I think we do. And I think we really all enjoy working with each other. And I think that makes a huge difference. And I think that really steams from Jamie and I, I mean I think people see that we love working together.

Angela Giovine 40:12
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 40:13
So and I think that’s what it steams

Angela Giovine 40:15
It’s not something you have to say because people can see it.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 40:17
Ah ah right, And we enjoy being with each other.

Angela Giovine 40:20
So on that note, Is it hard to turn it off? because you’re bother and sister obviously you’re seeing each other on the holidays,

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 40:27
Right.

Angela Giovine 40:27
and and family vacations, and birthdays and what have you. Do you ever feel like uh! I just want to not to talk about business today.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 40:34
No. And you know what, I was just talking to somebody about this too, the other day. I know this is going to sound really weird but when we do go on vacation together, or we go to each other’s houses for dinner or holidays believe it or not we don’t talk about work.

Angela Giovine 40:46
Really?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 40:46
And we don’t make it a concious thing like, we’re not talking about work today. It just, doesn’t happen to come up.

Angela Giovine 40:50
Just, there’s enough other stuff to talk about.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 40:53
There’s enough other stuff to talk about we’re from a big family. Our kids are roughly they’re about the same age. We have so many things going on with our children and high school, and who’s going to college,and you know, we’re really close with the rest of our family and all of our nieces and nephews, there’s foureen of them. It’s It’s just a lot going on.

Angela Giovine 41:13
Yeah.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 41:13
So if in passing, one of us says oh! did you remember to call that person back? Or how did that work out? Might be a five minute conversation, but other than that

Angela Giovine 41:23
Wow.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 41:23
I mean we will have vacations at the beach together for a week and are we working? Yes. Will he be working in the morning? Will I be working in the afternoon? Or we see each other working in the computer or on the phone, we happen to touch base on work? Yes. But the other 90 percent of the day?

Angela Giovine 41:39
Not talking about it.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 41:40
Nope, we’re not.

Angela Giovine 41:41
That’s pretty amazing. I feel like that would be a challenge. In terms of yourself even without your bother just being a business owner, do you feel like it’s hard for you to find quite time even in the evening when you get home from from work, are you always working? Are you able to ha have any

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 41:59
No. As a matter of fact, I was just talking to our VP of operations the other night on the phone. It was probably about 6 o’clock and we’re texting back and forth about an issue and I said to her, okay, we we resolved our issue, I said okay, I’m going to go to my second job. I gotta run and go to my second job. She’s like second job, question mark. I’m like um okay. I have to make dinner, I have to help my son with his essay, I have a science project that’s due tomorrow, I have to feed the dogs, I have to check in with my parents and I put this thing long list of things that I had to do for my second job. So work kind does get turned off.

Angela Giovine 42:30
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 42:30
Because it doesn’t have much choice but to get turned off. That being said, that I also get a phone call that night from a buyer at 10:30 at night that one of the realtors said is it okay if they reach out and call you? I’m like absolutely, it happened to be, he worked in New York, It was the only time he can call me, it was 10:30 at night, and I have to ans and I answered all his questions and helped him out and I let him go to bed feeling comfortable with the transaction that was going to take place, yes. So can I turn it off? Yes because I have three boys that need me and they need me to cook dinner, and they need me to help them with their essays and to do science projects and to feed the dog but I can turn it right back on and get right back into working end.

Angela Giovine 43:08
Before children, was it harder to turn it off? Is it more, because the kids are there and they have needs more automatic to turn off?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 43:15
Ummmmmmm…. I need to think that really long

Angela Giovine 43:16
Did you find that that was harder?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 43:19
So…Uhh… let me think, my oldest is seventeen

Angela Giovine 43:22
Okay.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 43:23
So, seventeen plus years ago, was I able to turn it off? Maybe not, because seventeen years ago, I was probably

Angela Giovine 43:31
As many mobile devices. There weren’t like any mobile devices?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 43:23
Well, and I was really serious. I was really focused.

Angela Giovine 43:37
Right. right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 43:38
You know I want to I wanted to rule the real estate, title world so…

Angela Giovine 43:40
Sure, sure sure.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 43:40
So yeah, no. and and there were plenty of times and my mom could atest to this, where she would being knocking on my office toward 12 o’clock at night with the plate of food saying I know you did not eat tonight. So, and she would bring me food to the office. So yeah, I work like, pretty much like an animal I think, early on.

Angela Giovine 43:58
Right. In the beginning, makes sense.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 44:00
So… And, I still work. I mean, I still work on weekends and I still work at night, I still get phone calls

Angela Giovine 44:05
Right. so you’re flexibility.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 44:06
Right. And with the you know emailing, I mean I could do it and you know we had a meeting the other day, and I said just because I email you at 2 o’clock in the morning, it’s because at that point, my brain thought of it at 2 o’clock in the morning

Angela Giovine 44:18
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 44:18
Do not email me back.

Angela Giovine 44:20
Right, right, right, right, right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 44:20
You do not feel like you wake up and have to check and jump on your emails. It’s just that, if I don’t get it out, I’m not gonna… I’d moved on to something else.

Angela Giovine 44:28
That’s awesome.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 44:28
So, yeah.

Angela Giovine 44:29
Now, you’ve spoken so highly of your partnership with you brother, but. You’re siblings and you must fight. Tell me about how a brother-sister fight is different than a partner to a having a disagreement. Is it different? Are you able to separate the two?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 44:45
Yeah but we’re in our forties what are we fighting about?

Angela Giovine 44:48
I don’t know.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 44:48
He doesn’t pull my hair anymore. We’ve moved on from that.

Angela Giovine 44:52
So when you- do you have like is it more of a debate, do you guys have disagreement and how do you resolve them?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 44:48
Okay. So do we debate? Of course we debate. I mean it’s the only way, if he’s super passionate about of an ide- about an idea, and I’m thinking oh my god, this is the worst ever. I’m going to debate him until I’m blue in the face, because I I need him to see my my point of view and vice versa. If we didn’t, I think that would be terrible for the company

Angela Giovine 45:16
Sure.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 45:16
because we’d be making decisions, without vetting it between each other.

Angela Giovine 45:20
And would that to be look like?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 45:22
Okay, well were canyon.

Angela Giovine 45:23
I know that’s why I’m asking.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 45:22
So, um…and

Angela Giovine 45:26
It’s loud…

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 45:26
Right, we use out hands.

Angela Giovine 45:27
Which it might sound like an argument but you may not be arguing?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 45:30
A hundred percent, I mean there are there have been plenty of times where I think some employees will walk in and be like Oh my god are they okay?

Angela Giovine 45:37
Yep.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 45:37
but again, it’s never with anger.

Angela Giovine 45:41
Sure.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 45:37
So we debate, and in the debate we might be laughing or joking or okay this is my side and we’re supe super passionate about it and then he’ll be like, oh by the way, are you picking my kids up after school today? or or you know who who’s,

Angela Giovine 45:53
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 45:53
are you picking up our our boys from highschool today? Who’s doing what? Like so we go from this this um… debate, so you have to see it my way, you have to see it my way but we’ve always from the very beginning, we’ve always said, If you’re so passionate about it, you’re going to win because passion is what drives

Angela Giovine 46:14
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 46:15
everything.

Angela Giovine 46:15
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 46:16
So if you feel that passionate about it and I can’t give you really a good reason not to be passionate about it, we’re going to do it.

Angela Giovine 46:23
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 46:24
So, and if it fails, you will always regret it not trying it. And it’s the same, so, yeah. Do we, do we debate it? Hundred percent. When was the last time Jamie and I had an argument? Like a like a fight even just family wise? I I can’t even, I can’t even tell you. I don’t even know. It just doesn’t…

Angela Giovine 46:42
Doesn’t happen.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 46:42
And and even growing up, even though he’s the youngest and I’m at right in the middle, we’ve always had like a really good relationship. And maybe part of that is just, the pure respect we have for one a- for one another and we don’t compete against each other. There’s never a reason that him and I needs to compete against each other. We are both have amazing strengths in different areas and he know my weaknesses, I know his weaknesses and we try to help each other put with our weaknesses. And if I feel like I can’t do something, it’s just not in my will house, I have no issues saying, just can’t,

Angela Giovine 47:15
Sure.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 47:15
you’re going to have to pull it out for me and he’s like done.

Angela Giovine 47:17
Sure.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 47:17
So and the same, he does the same for me and we’ve always had each other’s back. Always. And I would like to think that we’re like that accross out family with all of our siblings eventhough some you know aren’t in the business

Angela Giovine 47:27
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 47:27
we have each other’s back.

Angela Giovine 47:28
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 47:28
Who else is there?

Angela Giovine 47:29
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 47:29
Other than each other.

Angela Giovine 47:31
I imagine with five of you, your interpersonal skills get developed

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 47:35
Right.

Angela Giovine 47:35
at an early age because of necessity.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 47:37
Right. And we disagree. I’m not saying

Angela Giovine 47:40
Right.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 47:40
that out of all five of us we totally disagree with with certain things.

Angela Giovine 47:43
Sure.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 47:43
I mean that’s just, everybody disagrees with everything. But, I don’t think anything is that major that it would be it would turn into an argument.

Angela Giovine 47:52
Sure. What is your vision for the future of the company?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 47:56
Ah I mean, we want to continue to grow and we want to continue to embrace technology, embrace the marketing. Real estate
isn’t what it used to be so, and we got that.

Angela Giovine 48:06
Yeah.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 48:06
We just want to be the go to for the realtors. So what does my future look like, what does our future look like for the real estate company, for the Coldwell Banker Hearthside, we’re still going to be here, we’re still going to have out feet planted, were still going to be a local business owner in our footprint and hope that you know, the agents trust us and know that we have their back and we want their continued success and growth. So.

Angela Giovine 48:29
I always ask these two questions at the end.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 48:31
Ah uh

Angela Giovine 48:32
Finish this sentence. I would not be standing here today, if not for…

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 48:38
Work wise, I won’t be standing here if it wasn’t for my brother. It’s we have an amazing work relationship and I love coming to work everyday so I would not be standing here, in this position if it wasn’t for him – if it wasn’t for Jamie.

Angela Giovine 48:50
Okay. And what is one piece of advice that you would tell your eighteen year old self?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 48:56
Probably not to be so serious.

Angela Giovine 48:58
Not to be so serious?

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 49:00
Yeah. It’s it’s all… you know things happen every day and you just can’t get stuck on one thing. You just have to keep moving and those, you just not to be so serious.

Angela Giovine 49:10
Thank you… Robin for being with us today and it was a pleasure to talk to you.

Robin Mancuso DeLuna 49:15
Oh you’re welcome this was awesome. Thank you.