Robert Reffkin, the Founder, and the CEO Compass Real Estate is sharing his success story with us. As a DJ in high school Robert was successful, but jokingly saying, had to move on. Robert was in investment banking and lived in New York City and he wanted to merge his desire on the business side and the social side. His mom has also been a real estate agent and it was an easy decision to get into real estate. Robert started at Mom’s agency, which was Compass. The idea and the goal of Compass is how you can combine the best real estate professionals and the best technology, and we can all colla...
Questions asked in this interview
6
0:20How did you and you were successful there? Is the company still alive?
2:12So what is the Compass philosophy on agents marketing?
3:19And what about how can agents set themselves apart in this competitive market?
5:40What are you doing to further innovate the marketing space for your agents?
7:05And my last question, what would you wish a brand new agent who would like to join Compass?
7:14How would what what what would you suggest, recommend and wish for their success?
Today I am at Compass Lincoln Park office and my guest is Robert Reffkin and you are the founder and the CEO of Compass which is one of the leading brands not just in the United States but worldwide. So happy to be here with you.
So we'd like to talk about marketing and your company and the success story. But to start, let's talk how your first job being a DJ. How did you and you were successful there? Is the company still alive?
Yeah, I moved to New York for college and then I worked in consulting, I worked in investment banking, I worked in the White House, I started a charter school in a nonprofit and then ultimately wanted to do something that merged both my kind of the desire on the business side with also the social side. And for me it was it's real estate. And my mom is a real estate agent. She's been an agent my entire life. First in life insurance, then real estate. And I work for agents here at Compass.
Yeah. The idea was how can we bring the best real estate professionals with the best marketing professionals, the best technology professionals and the best business professionals and we all collaborate together to build the best experience for not just real estate professionals but their buyers and sellers.
And everyone I met with quite a few agents today and every single one of them were talking about the collaboration and also the chemistry of the company and the passion that everyone brings in and how everyone enjoy we're working together. So that is amazing.
Yeah. So at Compass we recognize that agents are professional marketers. They are marketing themselves and their properties every single day. And we are here to support them in building their brand and their marketing collateral in the best way they can possibly see it. We care more about the agents brand than Compass's brand. Our logo is black and white for a very specific reason. We want the color to be the listing and the agent, but not to be a compass. The black is almost like a frame around a painting with the listing and the agent inside.
And you are the one of the very first companies that are using and promoting teams and every team has their own name and their own brand. So it's like brand within the brand.
Yeah. Look, we are here to support success and there are agents that are successful as individuals, others that want to become teams and others that want to grow their teams and we want to support them all.
Yeah, my view is that the best way to set yourself apart as a real estate agent today is to lean into in-person activities with your clients. If you think you're close to your clients, get closer. And you know, less text message, more client events, you know, less email, more client gifts, you know, less video conference, more in-person in the living room conversations with your clients. And bringing your authentic self to those experiences so that they can really so they become emotionally connected to you and so they trust you and like you.
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Reffkin, R. (2025, September 23). Robert Reffkin's Compass Journey: Key Insights and Innovations [Interview transcript]. Get Real With Lucy. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1165887/
MLA
Robert Reffkin. "Robert Reffkin's Compass Journey: Key Insights and Innovations." Get Real With Lucy, 23 Sep. 2025. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1165887/.
BibTeX
@misc{reffkin2025_1165887,
author = {Robert Reffkin},
title = {Robert Reffkin's Compass Journey: Key Insights and Innovations},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Get Real With Lucy. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2025},
month = {sep},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1165887/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
