ENTREPRENEURS

Leading from Outside His Comfort Zone

Russ Phillips believes we all walk the winding path in life. But to speak to his consistency, one need only recognize his work ethic and commitment to family.

He has won all the awards there are to win, so most would not believe real estate was not the first career choice of the man known as ‘the guy who can get stuff sold.’ Nor was it his second. But when it came time to hold on to his family’s legacy, Russ Phillips went full cowboy on this vocation—and not in the watered-down Hollywood way he believes has trivialized the nature of the men who still embrace it.

Raised on a ranch in a real estate family, Phillips aspired to be in radio until his boss, Bob Cole, asked him what he wanted his life to look like. “I told him I wanted to live in a small town,” Phillips says, “and I wanted job security.” Cole said radio was the wrong place to be because stations get sold, on-air talent gets fired, and the big money is in big cities. “Faced with the fact that doing what I had studied would not result in the life I wanted, and being young and unattached, I decided to go back to my ranching roots,” he says.

COWS FEAR HIM

The Phillips family had weathered the turmoil of the Austin real estate market in the 1980s, so, for Phillips, the hardships of working the 1880s life—sleeping on the ground and eating from chuckwagons on enormous ranches in Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Montana—felt pretty comfortable. “I did most of my work on horseback,” he says. “It was the real deal—showing, roping, and doctoring cows. But I got homesick for beautiful Texas ladies, married a Dallas girl, and got responsible.” He still ropes today and loves that his cowboy skills just add to his unique character.

In 2002, Phillips’ responsibilities went next-level. His father passed away suddenly and it was left to this 31-year-old to hold on to the land his family had owned for more than a century. He recalls, “I was thrust into save the ranch mode. The economy was in bad shape, I had just lost a job, and I was about to learn some painful lessons about how brutal our tax laws can be. But I had my own family to take care of and always wanted their mom to stay home so it became the refining fire from which I came.”

He says his father’s death thrust him into a maelstrom, “But I prayed Romans 8:281 and decided to get my real estate license to get that mess cleaned up myself.”

Once the ranch was in his hands, he found he had to sell one-third of it and hand over proceeds to the government in order to save the rest. Once the ranch was safe, he took stock of his new situation. “Since I wasn’t a programmer or engineer, I decided to give real estate a try for real.” Twelve months later, he was Williamson County’s rookie realtor of the year. “Working for myself was intimidating at first, but I applied my cowboy work ethic and, even in the 2008-2011 Great Recession, I was second or third in the area. When the economy finally turned around I had built a good business and needed to take the next step—I had to hire people.” ing, and gave my teammates more freedom in the field.” His efforts proved prescient as COVID hit four months later while he and his team were already churning away on their new paradigm. The end result was the best years of his career.

THE NEW AUSTIN MARKET

Phillips is confident that the Austin market, as it has been for the better part of two decades, is the best place to weather a looming recession, and the future here looks rosy. “Our jobs and market climate are very positive right now. Much of my client discussion in 2021 was, ‘My house is worth what? Then put a sign in the yard’ and our overall sales volume was $23 million above our best year.”

This is due, in part, because Texas homeowners are limited to borrowing 80 percent of their home value and mortgage financing is still being underwritten conservatively. “In 2008, the world figured out that too many of our mortgages were stupid. Today, underwriters are more conservative, and homeowners have greater equity and they are not willing to walk away. Add all the multi-billion investments in our area; Internet, technology, and culture, and Austin starts to reflect the prosperity of 1990s San Jose, California—people will be willing to commute from every direction.”

Scan the code to see what makes RPT a superlative choice for residential real estate in Williamson County.

A LEADER EMERGES

Having never been a broker, Phillips’ desire to grow as a leader led him further out of his comfort zone, but he says Keller-Williams was helpful and collaborative. As a first-time boss, he struggled through hiring errors and recognized he needed a process. In 2013, he tapped into Keller-Williams’ network of contacts with training expertise and curricula, and the team began to take shape. “I realized the path had already been charted and I just needed to follow the map. I learned what to look for in people, how to understand their personalities and natural drive. Understanding and sticking to a hiring process was life changing.”

He continued to build up his team and while he admits he doesn’t assign value to his awards, he admits they do provide value for people who are not familiar with his work. “People just want to know you’re competent and fair,” he says. “When I first started I was just looking for way to feed family. When I arrived at that point and hired others, I saw that the Russ Phillips Team had become a vehicle through which they changed their lives. It was a blessing I never saw coming and I feel like I’ve lived up to my granddad’s legacy—God gave me more purpose than just deposits in my bank account.”

DIVINE DOWNSIZING

In 2019, RPT’s operations manager moved on from the organization so Phillips took a hard look at his production costs. “My expense structure showed overhead was killing me so I promoted from within, and together we cut things that were not dollar-productive, got lean and mean on staff-

1 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.