Welcome to the 2026 Vision Zoom webinar. We're so glad you're here. It's going to be a great day. I love it, man. Happy New Year, everyone. Hope you had the best Christmas with your family. I hope you hugged somebody and loved them, and we're just wishing you the very best. I love the holidays, and man, we got a lot to be thankful for. Oh, I didn't realize I wore my Cowboys shirt here. But great to see everybody. We have Glenn Sanford, the founder of EXP. Welcome, Glenn. How are you?
Excellent. Brent, how about yourself?
I'm great. Now, where are you broadcasting from? What part of the world are you in today?
Well, I am in Washington State, but soon to be actually in Arizona in a little bit. So, making a bit of a move out of Washington State. So, a little trivia nugget that you weren't aware of.
No. Well, that's bad news for you. I never go to Washington, but I golf in Scottsdale all the time, so I'll be knocking on your door all the time. I need a place to stay. All right. Well, good to have you here, Glenn. And then we have the amazing Spring Benson. Spring, welcome. How are you today?
I'm so good. Thank you for having me. This is such a fun way to kick off 2026. I was like, way to go, Brent. It's the second we are on a Zoom. It's perfect.
Yeah. Hey, I waited. Yesterday was football, right? Weren't there some of the Sugar Bowl? Oh my gosh, that was amazing. And Georgia and... well, it depends upon who you're a fan of, but what a game. Oh my gosh. And then poor Georgia, should I say Ole Miss is happy. Sorry, Georgia fans. I know. And no offense. All right, I'm going to change the topic. That's a sore topic, but Spring, where are you joining us from today?
I'm at home. I'm in Salt Lake City. But fun fact, too, Glenn, I'm heading to Arizona as well. So there you go.
Oh, there you go. Potential neighbors.
Yeah, I have a house there as well. I have one in Scottsdale.
Another mistake. Spring, you should have told me that. Okay, research. Get her address. We're gonna...
Yeah, you can come stay whenever you want.
I mean, see, free places to stay. I love it. And then we have the amazing Casey Council. Casey, hello and happy holidays. Happy New Year. How are you doing?
Good morning. I am doing amazing. I'm sitting looking out at Monterey Bay. I'm two blocks from the water. I will not be moving to Phoenix.
I love the ocean. So, I'm staying put.
Yeah. You and Rick bought your dream home there, and it's just... I've been there, and the balcony holds a hundred people, and it's on the water in Northern California. Beautiful. Well, what is it? Happy belated. Merry Christmas. We're so good to all of you, not just Casey, but Spring and Glenn and everybody listening live around the world. We have people joining us from throughout the United States, Canada, and literally I can't even keep track. We were at like 28 countries. I think we're in like 35 countries now. We just... part of what we're going to talk about. We're going to celebrate wins in 2025. So, let's get this show started. So, Glenn, we all four of us met before this and kind of did a little rundown here. We researched it. There were so many new countries open, we had to do a little research. So, Glenn, what are some of the countries you opened this past year?
Yeah. No, it was a crazy year. Keep in mind that about a year and a half ago, I had the opportunity to jump in and work with the international team and kind of go back to first principles around entrepreneurship. And we had not opened a single country in 18 months. And then there were some changes, some people left. I jumped in and we opened up seven new countries last year, which is incredible. The growth is off the chain. We've got such a great leadership team over there. I'd list a whole bunch of people, but obviously you've got Felix Bravo and Sarah Hutchinson leading the charge. You got Adam Day. You've got all the other folks. You got EXP Con South Africa going to be taking place in February. I mean, there's just a lot of stuff going on. And Peru, Ecuador, Turkey, Korea, Japan, Romania, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg getting ready to open. And there's a laundry list of additional countries that will be opening up. So, one of the things we talked about was the idea of 50 countries by 2030, and at this rate, it'll be more like 50 countries by 2028. So, it's growing like crazy, and it's been a lot of fun. I've of course made a shift back in July this year. So, my entrepreneurial juices generally can be focused for about six to nine months, and then I... because I go all in, and that's part of what I think took place over on the international side. It helped unblock Felix. He was already a rock star, but we got him unblocked on a bunch of stuff, and now he's going to town. We're kind of doing the same thing over at Success. There were some changes that took place there. We trimmed back the team substantially. And this, of course, for you building your businesses, think about these as metaphors or analogies for things you should be thinking about for you in 2026. But we trimmed back the fat, and there was a lot of fat. We probably reduced expenses by something close to $2 million a year in expenses without missing a beat. It was just overloaded with a lot of extra stuff going on. And we're just in the process of relaunching Success Certified Coaching. And I know, Casey, you know Courtland Warren well, and maybe some others on here, but Courtland is our master faculty coach. And for those of you interested in Success and potentially becoming a Success Certified Coach, it's an incredible program. I'm investing... and this is just general business stuff. I've got 24 classes I'll be teaching in 2026 to those who get Success Certified Coaches, from everything from basic business planning to P&L to marketing to forcing functions and a bunch of other stuff. So super excited about that, because all this stuff translates. Whether you're in real estate, we are really fundamentally a personal development company that just happens to sell a lot of real estate, if you really think about it. Because if you're not put together well as a person, you're not going to sell a lot of real estate. And so that's why I really love the fact that we own, really outside of the Bible, the longest running personal brand in history.
Qualified that, Glenn. That's funny. Well, I want to back the train up for a second. This is all super exciting stuff. But I want to talk about why it's such a big deal to everybody listening that we're going to be in 50 countries by 2028 or 29, whenever we get there. And why it's a big deal that we just opened Peru and Turkey and Japan and Korea and Romania and Ecuador and the Netherlands, and why we're going into Luxembourg. Why this is a big deal. And it's because of this. I just talked to Joe Ferraro. Many of you know her. She's been selling 200, 300 homes a year in Wisconsin for 10, 20 years. She did 200 last year. This year, 2025, she's on track to do 300, or she just did. They're on fire. But here's the deal. In probably one of the tougher markets in 40 years we've seen, because of stock awards and revenue share, Joe has earned an additional $1 million that helped her pay off her home, pay off investment properties, changed her life. And she does not have a big group. She told a few agents who told a few agents. We're talking a small group, dozens and dozens. It's not hundreds and hundreds or thousands. Over a million. I think that's pretty awesome. And so here's why. You will go about selling real estate, and people will ask you, as they did me when I was at ReMax for 12 years and Keller Williams for 10 and now EXP for eight or nine years. They will say, 'How do you like it over there at ReMax or Keller or Compass or Coldwell, or in this case EXP?' 'I love it.' And like, 'Oh, tell me more.' And then they would join ReMax or Keller when I was there, and now they're joining EXP, and they will join you. The difference is Glenn has it, so you're going to get a stock award, and then every time they sell a home, you can earn revenue share up until they cap. So, you're just constantly getting paid. And so, I know my first month I referred five people pretty easily. The next month, five more. The next month, five more. I kind of doing five every month was my cadence. All of a sudden, I get these revenue share checks just flying in. So, here's why it's a big deal. You may be in Minnesota or New Mexico or Tampa, Florida, but people are there from Korea, Japan, Turkey, South America, all over Europe, and they're going to call their family and friends in the UK, in Istanbul, in different parts of this world. And your business, my business, is in dozens of countries today. And it's absolutely incredible what's happening. I think we're closing 45,000 units a month, not a year. So, this is a powerful thing.
And one of the things I want to just double click on is, if you think about why does EXP exist? EXP exists because prior to EXP existing, there was not an exit ramp to the grind of real estate. And that grind of real estate was the fundamental itch that I had as somebody who had been an entrepreneur. But I think every real estate professional has it. They just don't know they have that itch. But once they understand that they have that itch, and sometimes it takes two, three, four, five years in the business before you recognize that this is the greatest industry in the world that you can't retire from. And so this same challenge exists on steroids outside of North America. North America actually had pretty good options, but not really retirement-based options. But internationally, real estate agents are on 50/50 splits with their broker. There's no cap. And there's certainly no retirement. And in some cases, they are basically being treated like used car salespeople on a used car lot for their broker. And my whole thing, the reason why I keep on doing this, is not for more money. I've got plenty of that. I do it because of the next agent who we are going to give a path to retirement to get out from being just a pawn in the system, where somebody else is really benefiting from their efforts. And that's why I still get up every single day trying to figure out what vector I can work on to help that next new agent. And internationally, we are the safe haven for real estate agents. No matter what country, no matter what's going on in the world, real estate agents, in my opinion, are some of the most noble people in a noble profession. And we want to ultimately serve them.
I love it. I love it. Thank you, Glenn. Spring, I want you to speak to some of your thoughts for this past year, highlights of 2025, and some of what Glenn just spoke of. Please chime in from Salt Lake City, Utah.
Yeah. Well, I'm the newer kid on the block, so 2025 was my first year at EXP, and I loved it. I would say just in general, like just so much collaboration. But what I loved about 2025 was the launch of co-sponsorship, because for me coming in as the newer kid on the block, the opportunity to get to partner with so many EXP agents was just a game changer. So, it's been a really fun... it's been really cool to see also the growth that is outside of the US, to what Glenn was talking about. Like there's just so much opportunity. And even being on here, I'm making all these notes. I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, the opportunity is so massive.' Like, it's just great. But 2025, I think, was really cool, too, with the launch of so much AI. Glenn talked about this a little bit earlier. It's been such a game changer, and EXP is leading the force of that.
Come on. I love it. Yes, you are correct. Love it. We're cutting edge in everything we do. By the way, commercials exploding. Land and ranch booming. Luxury EXP on fire. And I'm just like, I'm pumped. But Casey Council from Monterey, California on the ocean. Is there any fog out there today, Casey?
No, I can see all the way to Santa Cruz.
I love it. I love it. Well, that's a bit of a hoof from there. Chime in on what Spring and Glenn have just said. We'd love to hear from you. You're super accomplished and have a huge organization of thousands of agents and brokers, but share with us a little bit about this.
Yeah. So, I think one thing... I actually had a real estate mentor 18 years ago before EXP existed that told me my issue was that I was in the wrong vehicle. And I was like, 'What are you talking about? Real estate's...' And he was a commercial real estate agent. And he's like, 'Yeah, but think about it. You can only do your business in the area that you personally can service, which a fire or a flood or any natural disaster could wipe out in a minute. And if you're going to be limited to one area that you generate business, it's not the same as having a global business that can run 24 hours a day where people are thriving. And you ultimately, if that business is doing well, have the opportunity to have a business that pays you more in the hours that you sleep than the ones that you're awake because of the difference and the impact that you're making.' And so that idea was burned into my mind. And then obviously at the end of 2016 when you brought EXP to us and we saw the vision of what it was at that time, and then Glenn's vision for what it was going to be ultimately, I'm like, 'Okay, well we can no longer say that about the real estate industry and the ability to make that kind of a reach and kind of an impact.' And so as I look back at 2025, for me personally, I'm always looking at like what's the next version of myself, like who's the person for me to become? Because I know very clearly that businesses never outgrow the people in them. And so that's true for everyone that's part of our organization, that's part of our company. And so the focus and one of the really cool things from 2025 that we saw was like an investing... like where do I take my skills and invest those to grow the people in our organization. And that happened at a really high level based on the results. And I think the cool thing is because of the contraction in the market, when markets contract as they have the past couple of years, people that never otherwise would have been open start to pay attention in a different way because they're feeling a pain somewhere at a different level financially. And so for us, we saw within our organization mega multiple mega teams, independent brokerages that have been independent for 15 plus years coming and flocking to EXP and completely re-energized about real estate in a way... all independently have stated we are more energized and excited about real estate, the future, and our careers than we have been in as long as we can remember. And to be part of that kind of energy when everything in an external environment is like, 'Oh, this is the hardest two years that we... blah blah blah.' And to be having a completely 180 degree opposite experience is really incredible.
