From Nothing to Billionaire Mindset | Lisa Copeland on Reinventing Success in Real Estate

Lisa Copeland (00:00)
My book. It’s called *Lioness Unleashed: A Manifesto for Women Who Refuse to Remain Silent.* And it is a book where I interview many of my friends, many of my people that I’ve met along the way, people like Megyn Kelly and Lara Trump, Elena Cardone wrote and Sharon Lechter, who wrote *Rich Dad, Poor Dad.* They wrote the foreword to the book. Riley Gaines is in there. a lot a lot of people that I know, a lot of people that I

I admire that I’ve done business with, that I follow. And it really is a book to empower women to stand up in this culture and use their voice and their power for good and their influence.

Scott Bursey (02:13)
Welcome back to the *Real Estate Pros Podcast* powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey And today we are turning the dial way up. We have a powerhouse joining us who isn’t just breaking glass ceilings. She’s built a billion dollar empire right on top of them. We’re talking about a four-time ICON agent, author, and force behind the lioness movement, empowering women to lead with purpose and profit.

Lisa Copeland has the kind of fuel that turns what if into what’s next. Lisa, welcome to the show.

Lisa Copeland (02:49)
Thanks, Scott. Thanks for having me.

Scott Bursey (02:51)
It’s just awesome having you here. And to our listeners who may not be familiar with your journey, please tell us how your career ignited and where you’re pouring your fuel now.

Lisa Copeland (03:02)
Well, my real estate career probably started 30 years ago when I founded Austin Mortgage. So I own a mortgage company. And I ran it for about 15 years. I took a break to relaunch the Fiat automobile, Fiat Alfa Romeo brand back to America. So that was in 2011. so that was until 2016. I sold the dealership and went into consulting and

Wrote a couple of books, did a TV show in Canada called *Car Sharks*. And then I got into real estate. I was invited by my friends Grant and Elena Cardone and Tarek El Moussa from HGTV. So a bunch of us came together and we formed this real estate team in two thousand twenty.

Scott Bursey (03:52)
That is awesome, Lisa. And you know what really caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to reinvent yourself at age fifty-four, scaling to a billion dollar organization. When most people are looking toward the exit ramp, that kind of pivot takes serious grit. And I know our listeners are dying to hear the blueprint.

Lisa Copeland (04:14)
You know, I think the blueprint just came from what’s next. You know, that’s that’s a core component of what I ask all the time. I tell that to my team, I look at that in my investment portfolios, I look at it everything. I’m like, what’s next? And so I’m always looking at what’s next. What it’s it’s what’s next, who could join our team, what’s next in the trends, what’s next in the economy, what’s next in the culture, what’s next in real estate, what’s next in you know, mortgages and financing, ’cause I said I own a mortgage company also.

you know, so what’s next? And so for me, that’s that was a natural pivot. You know, I sold the dealership. I was speaking to corporate, I was a corporate speaker, wrote some books, and then COVID hit. My agent said everything’s canceled, and so I would I didn’t freak out about it. I just said, What’s next? And I was introduced to Tarek El Moussa from HGTV, and I knew Grant Cardone from the automotive industry because I was a car dealer.

And I used all of 10X’s, all of Grant’s training back in the day to my team broke the world sales record. So I was very good friends with him. And so it was just what’s next? And what’s next at that point was real estate and I’ve stuck with it ever since.

Scott Bursey (06:13)
I love that story, Lisa. It’s a massive reminder to everyone listening that your second act can be your biggest one. You know, building to a billion dollar level is no small feat. And doing it with the mission of empowering other women to lead boldly is extremely noble.

Lisa Copeland (06:34)
Yeah, thank you.

Scott Bursey (06:36)
And interested to know, Lisa, as a four-time ICON agent, you’ve mastered the art of high volume production. What is your strength that one superpower, you know, that you lean into when the market shifts?

Lisa Copeland (06:50)
Yeah, I I never stop working. Right. You know, I I I I do the same actions when the market’s busy as when it’s slow. So even when it’s slow, I repeat the successful actions every single day that I would do in a busy market. So that way my mind, my my rhythm, my what I do doesn’t slow down in a slow market. And that’s what I I train my team to do also.

You know, just because something if a market gets slow or a month is slow, a week is slow, a day is slow, it isn’t time for us to slow down. We have to continue to repeat the successful actions that that we know will make us succeed.

Scott Bursey (07:26)
That makes total sense. Focusing on that core strength is how you maintain consistency when everything else feels chaotic.

And Lisa, interested to know as well, every business has a weakness or a bottleneck. What was the biggest limitation you had to overcome while scaling your organization?

Lisa Copeland (07:51)
just resetting people’s mindsets about what’s possible. You know, everything we do is under the 10X Rule. and and most people don’t have that mindset. So it was getting our organization into the mindset that anything’s possible. But you gotta do the work.

Scott Bursey (08:11)
Absolutely. I appreciate you being transparent there. Recognizing that bottleneck is usually the first step to crushing it.

And Lisa with the Lioness movement taking off, what opportunity do you see right now for female entrepreneurs that most people are completely missing?

Lisa Copeland (08:31)
to buy dirt. We, you know, whether it’s, you know, going into one of our funds or it’s going into just buying residential, buying small commercial, buying in, you know, multi-doors, you know, to buy dirt.

Scott Bursey (08:46)
And what is the vision of your organization for let’s say the next twelve to twenty four months?

Lisa Copeland (08:54)
well, I’m finishing a book that I’ve written, Lioness Unleashed, that should be out in Aug in August. and it’s just to continue to build, right? I I I feel like we’ve finally gotten a break. You know, the last couple of years have been rough, last five years have been rough. And I feel like we’ve finally gotten a break and the market’s picking up again. It’s stabilizing, interest rates are stabilizing. Everything’s like everything’s finally stabilizing. So again, making hay while the sun shines. That’s what we’re gonna do the next 12 to 24 months.

Scott Bursey (09:24)
Love it. And please tell us a little bit about your publication.

Lisa Copeland (09:28)
My book. It’s called *Lioness Unleashed: A Manifesto for Women Who Refuse to Remain Silent.* And it is a book where I interview many of my friends, many of my people that I’ve met along the way, people like Megyn Kelly and Lara Trump, Elena Cardone wrote and Sharon Lechter, who wrote *Rich Dad, Poor Dad.* They wrote the foreword to the book. Riley Gaines is in there. a lot a lot of people that I know, a lot of people that I

I admire that I’ve done business with, that I follow. And it really is a book to empower women to stand up in this culture and use their voice and their power for good and their influence.

Scott Bursey (10:44)
That is the voice right there that is an awesome voice. What a great, a great trajectory. What a great cause, Lisa. Thank you. Love

Lisa Copeland (10:56)
Thank you.

Scott Bursey (10:57)
In this industry, what is the biggest threat you see agents facing today? And how do you protect your team from that?

Lisa Copeland (11:08)
Well, I don’t know the threat’s any different today than it’s ever been. You know, I think the big threat for real estate agents is that they don’t do the work. They get it in their head that AI is gonna replace them or whatever’s gonna happen. you know, the economy, you know, we don’t you know we don’t we don’t know what it’s gonna do from month to month, from year to year, all of that. So again, you we just have to stay the course. People are always gonna need a place to live.

Right, because of diapers, diamonds, you know, the all the D’s, divorce, diapers, diamonds, death, displacement, you know, job change, whatever. You know, there’s always a reason people are gonna move. So in depending on where the market is, that that sector’s larger or smaller, you know, just depending. So just keep your eye on the ball, keep your eye on the prize.

Scott Bursey (11:54)
Staying the course.

That is some really good words right there. And I love your take on this. When you’re managing a billion-dollar organization, what is the most critical habit or truth you keep in your back pocket to stay sharp?

Lisa Copeland (12:12)
I think it’s always improving yourself. I think it’s always learning, always be learning, be teachable. you know, we, we, we do huddles every single day. I bring in the experts that I have the honor of working with every day, to share, to learn, to teach. I think that we are in a sales business. And I think that we have to be really good at selling. I don’t care what anybody says, real estate is sales. And

So you’ve you have to know how to sell. You’ve got to know how to sell yourself, your product, what whatever it is we’re we we have on the plate that day that we’re teaching our team how to do.

Scott Bursey (12:52)
Appreciate your transparency there. For our pros that are listening and they’re saying, hey, this is somebody that I really like. What would you like them to know first about your your operation?

Lisa Copeland (13:04)
you know, just that we’re really serious about real estate. We’re always looking for new partners. and but we’re looking for people who produce and who have a 10X mindset and people that are ethical and honest and purpose and mission driven, right? It’s you know, it’s about how we serve others. And yeah, that would be it.

Scott Bursey (13:27)
You spoke about serving others. When it comes to relationships and networking, what has made the biggest difference for you, Lisa?

Lisa Copeland (13:35)
Showing up. Just showing up. You have you have to show up. You have to be there. You have to be in the room. You’ve got to be at the table. So your goal should always be to get into the room, as my partner Grant says, even if it’s just serving ice water. because sometimes that’s how people have to start. And once you get into the room, you gotta figure out how to sit at the table. So

But that’s that’s that’s the only way to have real influence.

Scott Bursey (14:01)
Being present.

Lisa Copeland (14:03)
Yeah, well, you have to start with being present. You have to start with committing to show up. And then from there, you’ve got to work a strategy how to get influence. You know, how do you, how, how do you become the player in the room? How do you become the one that people are listening to? How do you become the authority? Right. That’s stage three or four. But stage one is showing up. Figuring out what rooms you need to get into and then showing up.

Scott Bursey (14:27)
I love that. And if you were sitting down with an agent who is currently stuck in the good enough phase, what is the one specific deep dive piece of advice you’d give them to flip the switch and ignite the billion dollar ambition?

Lisa Copeland (14:42)
Well, I would challenge them to tell me what their purpose is. Why do they do what they do and do they believe that what they do matters? And if excuse me, if they can answer those questions, that usually ignites them. That usually gives them the spark that they need to do the rest of the work.

Scott Bursey (15:38)
That is some massive fuel right there. And Lisa, you have provided a lot of fuel for our pros today, but is there any additional golden nuggets or words of wisdom that you’d like to leave?

Lisa Copeland (15:50)
Yeah, no, I would just tell you that, you know, you you need to show up. You need to show up. You need to show up well. You need to show up prepared. You need to have knowledge. You need to know your industry. You need to know if you’re if you’re representing a product, a property, an area, you need to be the authority in the room, right? It’s not just about selling people. You need to be the go-to. You need to know more than the guy or gal sitting in front of you. That’s what puts you in the authority seat.

Scott Bursey (16:17)
Be the professional is what I’m hearing from you, Lisa. Yep.

Couldn’t agree anymore. And Lisa, this has been incredible. If our listeners want to follow your journey or collaborate with you, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Lisa Copeland (16:31)
Yeah, I would say my email is [email protected] or on Instagram @real_lisacopeland.

Scott Bursey (16:40)
Thank you so much for joining us today, Lisa. This has been an absolute pleasure.

Lisa Copeland (16:44)
Thank you.

Scott Bursey (16:46)
And to our listeners, we appreciate you. If you receive value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be fueling your tanks with a lineup of elite guests, just like Lisa, who are accelerating and setting the pace for the rest of the industry. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.