How to Manage Remote Title Teams & Maintain Culture | Ep70

In a world where change is the only constant, Mo Shamil stands at the forefront, guiding title professionals to not just grow their businesses, but to master the art of innovation. With every episode, you're handed the keys to unlock unparalleled growth and stay ahead of the curve. Get ready for a transformative journey. Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Title Aces podcast. Today I have the pleasure of having returning guest, Hope Arabiani from Altec National Title.

Today's topic will be culture without borders, how to keep remote teams, US-based and national or international, engaged and growing. Welcome, Hope. Hi, everybody. Glad to be back again. I know Altec National's culture is built around work together, win together, and personal and professional growth.

How do you make those values come alive for a remote team? I would say constant communication. You have to constantly communicate. I don't care how you do it, but you have to touch base with all your teams monthly at a minimum. So I may be the COO going here and there and traveling and all over the place, but I will always check in with everyone, not just my direct reports.

I schedule monthly reminders to follow up on someone's training or seminar, that leadership class that they did. Hey, how'd that go? Tell me how it went. I asked them how they did on that difficult closing that people like to talk about. Man, I had a five-hour closing today.

Tell me how you solved it. You may learn something. So just keeping that constant dialogue open with everybody. Don't forget about your team because they're the ones who are also helping your company move forward. What does culture mean to you beyond PROSOS Logans?

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Ready to take your career to the next level? Visit alltechnationaltitle.com or DM us today to start the conversation. No, for me it means like loyalty, balance and value. Especially for me, family is a huge priority. A lot of people I work with are single mothers, like family is a huge priority and having that balance and letting others have the flexibility to kind of be present with their kids and utilizing AI to kind of, you know, help improve the efficiency at work and at home.

That's what loyalty means to me without skipping a beat. You know, I'm able to do all of that and keep everything professional and personal culture wise without skipping a beat. How do you stick emotionally or how do you get emotionally connected to team members that you never met or may never meet? I like, yeah, I like, again, constant communication, but I like Zoom. Don't just call, calling is nice, but do face-to-face like this.

You learn about their non-verbals. You learn about, you know, the way they talk, their tone. You get to learn their personality. So do it over, if you can't be there in person, do it over Zoom. Don't just do it via email or Slack only.

You've got to do this over the Zoom or Microsoft Teams video because you're going to learn a lot more. So also if they do something awesome or if they take a few files, if somebody left, recognize them, do a shout out. I mean, don't just incentivize them, but incentivize them with, you know, personal touches. So again, constant communication is a huge thing for me. What are some habits or rituals that keep your remote culture strong?

We do company morning huddles. I think we've been doing that for five plus years, if not, you know, almost 10. So company morning huddles and as we grow, we get everybody involved. I know people, some people probably dread it, but company huddles are fun. I try to make people laugh.

I think I'm funny. So I try to make people laugh. We do our flyers, our updates, everybody is on the same page. So company morning huddles is huge. Leadership meetings, we do the EOs, the L10 meetings every other week with my direct reports so I can hear how their market, how their region's going, how their team is improving, how to implement stuff.

So leadership meetings, company morning huddles, holiday contests, do fun stuff too. We're doing a Halloween contest and a pumpkin painting. Now I know we are here in the DMV area, but we are encouraging all of our branches to do it so we can all have a contest, you know, cross state collateralization and stuff. And also we do newsletters and I do a rapid fire interview as well. So once a quarter, I have this wheel and I randomly choose somebody in the company and then I interview them for two minutes.

So people get to see who's behind the email, right? So the rapid fire interviews is fun. This podcast is made possible by our sponsor. You have worked so hard to build your business. So why do 70 to 80% of businesses never sell?

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She ended up being one of the last people left from her team. With that, we had to move her around so many times, but she bleeds ATG. She loves the company culture. No matter what happens, demotion, promotion, moving. So now we have her on the Pennsylvania project and she still works remotely in Maryland.

She is flourishing and she's happy. She's never been happier in the last 10 years. She tells me this all the time. It's because she's found a way to work remotely, but also learn a new state and be with a new team. She gets to travel there once a quarter and it just works.

Maybe Maryland wasn't the right fit for her. Now she works remotely from Maryland on Pittsburgh stuff, on Pennsylvania stuff, and she loves it. How about somebody from your global team? Global team, leadership-wise or remotely? All of them really impressed me, but the one leader- Myma is one of the- She's one of the leaders that I always think of.

I always go back to because I've never met her in person ever, but I see her as like, I don't want to say a mini-me. She might be better than me. I just love her mindset, her positivity, no matter what is going on. She had to get married. She was still working.

She's just the hardest worker and the best extension of the company globally that we could have found. I'm so glad we found her. I hope we never lose her. She's been with us, I think, for almost 10 years now. And I've never met her.

She's never been- All she knows is our company, Sheila. Yeah. All she knows, yeah. And she's helped implement every single automation, every single trigger, default template, qualia, everything. She's been my right arm in implementing all of those.

How do you balance empathy with accountability when managing from afar? So for me, and luckily, this is innate with me, I never point fingers. I never blame. I'm one of five kids I've never blamed. I never blame my siblings for anything.

I just want to hear the whole story before I make an educated decision. So if something happens, I try to always listen. I will pick up the phone. I'll be like, hey, I see there's a huge error. Can you walk me through what happened?

And then I'll determine, was it the system? Was it something else? Was it something that we can solve together? But never blame or point fingers, especially on remote teams. It's easy to just point fingers at the processors.

It's easier to point fingers at post closers. Well, it's their fault. That's going to cause friction. You have to listen and just understand what they're going through as well. And I think that helps because I've done every position.

So I've done post-closing. I've done processing. I haven't done sales yet, but I understand everybody's position. So I think you just need to listen. How does mentorship look like in a virtual environment at Alltech National and ATG?

Constant coaching. Constant coaching. So I'm always encouraging my branch managers to have a succession plan or somebody beneath them that they can coach. So that could be somebody in their office, but it could also be somebody remote. Right now, most of my branch managers don't have somebody in the office.

They use somebody across state lines. So they're coaching and they're learning from other people, other branch managers. A remote person in Morocco, that person, they're like, man, she could take over half of what I do easily. Okay, coach her. So if somebody has those innate talents, it doesn't matter where they're located, use them.

Encourage them. can coach. So that could be somebody in their office, but it could also be somebody remote. Right now, most of my branch managers don't have somebody in the office. They use somebody across state lines.

So they're coaching and they're learning from other people, other branch managers, a remote person in Morocco, that person, they're like, man, she could take over half of what I do easily. Okay, coach her. So if somebody has those innate talents, it doesn't matter where they're located, use them. So I always encourage them, you know, build on those talents. I always encourage my branch managers, you don't have to just be stuck in a box.

Go global. If you think somebody's got it, build on it. How do you coach leaders to lead with transparency and empathetic strength? Again, you've got to step back, breathe, and listen. You've got to see the big picture, break it into chunks.

Don't get overwhelmed. And you need to constantly communicate proactively. You need to train and you need to help others grow. I know it's so easy to get defensive and respond quickly to an email in a negative tone, use AI, but in a negative tone, a lot of people automatically do that. But you really have to step back and just understand the situation in its entirety before you respond.

So listen, communicate effectively, and look at the big picture. What career paths exist for remote teams at Alltech and how do you make those visible and attainable? I think that's something that we could also improve, but everybody knows the levels of growth at the transactional level. You've got open orders, then you go up to title commitment production, then you go up to title search and examination, then you go up to product. So everybody knows the growth.

We've got bubble workflow charts there. We use OneDrive. I know some people have mixed feelings with OneDrive. What is that? OneDrive, it's connected to your email and Outlook.

I'm looking at it. It's trying to be sarcastic. I can never find it. Nobody can ever find it, but I use it. I've got all of our flyers, videos, training, coaching.

I've got smart goal templates, 2026 planning templates. Everything is there that people can use. It's just sometimes they don't know where to look. So I have to reiterate it, but it's there. So in our leadership meetings, I always remind them, hey, make sure you go here so you can set out your goals for the next quarter.

But also, that's how we're visible. The org chart was just revisioned, I guess, and that was put into place. I've also added to the OneDrive. So everything's in the OneDrive, so they know their career paths. And we always have those quarterly reviews, one-on-ones, if you will, like a 90-day review with people.

And we say, hey, here's where you are. Here's where I think you could improve. Here's where you could go. So you have those. That's also with my branch managers.

There's a one-page little 90-day review that's in a coaching folder in OneDrive. So everything's there. My direct report should know it's there. How do you keep people motivated and inspired in the slower market cycles? This business is God bless us all.

The feast and famine, and how do you keep people not too discouraged? Everything is more expensive. I know. I know. The biggest thing for me is education.

Again, it's one of our pillars. So if it's slow, I would learn a new state. And if you're with our company, you want to grow, right? That's why you're here. Personal and professional growth.

Learning other opportunities. That's our pillars. Technology. So I would sit with them in a slow market. I'm like, hey, what do you want to do in a year?

Where do you want to be? I actually want to be a manager. What? You do? All right, let's go through the paths and the steps that you can get there.

Or let's learn this other state or whatever. So you've got to communicate with your team in slower markets. I also do educational title bingo. We used to do a bunch of educational, and you can do it virtual, happy hours, you name it. But keep it educational and let people learn other states and other municipalities and other team members like what they do.

If you're a processor and you don't know how to post close, you should probably learn. I mean, that knowledge is power. I try to keep telling myself over the 15 years, I'm just learning and absorbing everything I can, because it's going to make me better at what I do and help me coach others. This podcast is proudly sponsored by need extra hands without extra overhead. Meet Safi virtual, your on demand team of virtual assistants trained specifically for the title industry.

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I can't wait, but I hope that we get to see fully signed loan packages. I feel like I've been begging and praying for the last 20 years and getting closer and closer. We are getting so close and I'm so excited. I've already done a few completely signed packages and it was so seamless. You just have to remember to communicate to the client because some of these lenders are still also new with it.

They're relying on the title company to communicate what to expect. So make sure you have those templates already ready. I already do. We're well-versed in Ron. We're well-versed in the e-sign complete packages.

But for me, we've done numerous surveys and post-closing is a huge constant concern. Post-closing takes too long. Checks aren't being cut fast enough. Realtors want their money fast, but there's a lot of stuff that goes into post-closing people don't know that involves document efficiency, documents, signatures. There's 150 pages in any loan package unless it's hybrid.

So if we could take that human out of the mix and make it e-sign so the person can't move to the next page digitally unless they sign on. It perfects the quality control, which is what I've been pushing for the longest time. Yes. I think that's where I'd like to be. Zero errors, zero.

Yes. And that would be my goal. No missing initials or signatures or- Yes. Or the notary stamp. If it's not visible enough, the people will reject it.

It's crazy what they reject on. So, yes. I've been advocating for this for a long time. It's just clearly that efficiency for lenders. Lenders drive behavior because at the end of the day, they control transaction.

Exactly. I just said that quality control is priceless. And also the speed, instead of having to print a signed package, print it, ship it, they have to receive it. There's so much time wasted. Besides the money piece, the FedEx and ship, also the time.

How many hours of labor it takes from our end, the lender's end. It shrinks that. It'd be almost instant. It's perfect. Yes.

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Get those wired and then get the loan packages that reduces how much money? A lot per month. So I'm hoping that's what the future will unfold soon. What's one practice any agency could adopt today to strengthen connection and morale? Similar to what we talked about before about Slack, just find an app or a platform where you and your virtual teams can communicate effectively because email gets too overwhelming.

Emails are for transactions. Keep that with the clients, the realtors, the lenders. If you're talking Slack or Teams, whatever your flavor, personally, Slack is my favorite. The beauty of this kind of chat communication platform is that you have channels. So let's say marketing, recruiting, sales, you have different channels, payroll or whatever.

So when you go specifically to that channel, then you communicate to that channel. So when you want to find something, it's a lot easier to go to a channel and find that communication versus email. I can never find anything in email. Even if you have email distributions, like I know a lot of people do. Oh, we have a Wisconsin team distribution.

It's still an email that clogs their inbox. It would just be easier if you had a processor channel, leadership channel, post-closing channel, something that applies directly to them. And then for the big bulletins, hey, this is a fraud. Okay, then you can use the email distribution or if it's an underwriter bulletin. But if it's any other communication that's not title or not closing transactional relation related, get an app.

I think that's the first place to start. What's any last words for companies that currently have remote teams or consider to have a remote team and how to keep that culture? It's very important to kind of not to lose that DNA of that company. Especially for remote teams. I mean, even when we got our first remote teams, it was nice that I traveled there.

So it's so funny because the first time we brought on some mergers and acquisitions, I didn't travel to one of the teams and they were scared of me. I found out that they were like, oh, we were scared of you. What? I'm like the nicest person. So that initial touch of either a Zoom call or them getting to know your personality or nonverbals, you try to be fun.

to keep that culture is very important to kind of not to lose that DNA of that company. Especially for remote teams. I mean, even when we got our first remote teams, it was nice that I traveled there. So it's so funny because the first time we brought on some mergers and acquisitions, I didn't travel to one of the teams and they were scared of me. I found out that they were like, oh, we were scared of you.

What? I'm like the nicest person. So that initial touch of either a Zoom call or them getting to know your personality or non-verbals, you try to be funny, they get to know you. So if you can't travel there, do the Zoom call, but then keep those pulse checks. I call it pulse checks.

You've got to keep constant communication, whether that's through Slack, whether that's through Microsoft Teams, whether it's their Zoom leadership calls every other week. Break it into whatever department you want to have those constant communications with and then do the shout outs and stuff. But you've got to have that communication or it's not going to work. And you have to reiterate your core values. Because if you ask anybody in your company, hey, what's our core value?

A lot of them may not even know. And we put it everywhere. Now they know because I randomly go up to them in leadership meeting. I'm like, hey, what's the core value? And I just randomly ask them.

And they're like, humility. I'm like, exactly. Good job. Here's a Starbucks card. Well, I hope, Keith, of the amazing work you do.

And thank you so much for your insights. And this is the end of our episode. And I can't wait to see you next time. And please, please, please subscribe and give us that five-star review. We appreciate you.

All right, thank you. Bye, guys. And that's a wrap on today's journey with Mo Shamil from the Tidal Agents podcast. Reminding you that mastering the art of innovation is key in the tidal industry's fast-paced world. If you're finding it tough to keep up with the changes and challenges, remember, you're not alone.

Our calendar is open for you. Find the link in the show notes and let's connect. Make sure to hit subscribe to not miss out on strategies that elevate and insights that empower. Together, we'll navigate the future of the industry. I look forward to our next meeting in the upcoming episode.