Courtney Poulos, founder of SERHANT. CA and team lead of ACME | SERHANT. in Los Angeles, says the real estate industry has a "mirror problem" – agents are not taken as seriously as they should be, and the industry bears some responsibility for that perception. Poulos, who is completing Harvard University's Advanced Management Development Program (AMDP) at the Graduate School of Design, believes agents need to start seeing themselves as senior-level executives to change the narrative.
"The only thing that is really missing is real estate agents considering themselves as senior-level executives in a business," Poulos said. "We are not taken as seriously as we ought to be, like a lawyer. And we are still contending with a degradation of our perceived value, even at the senior level." She cited a recent incident where a client tried to negotiate her commission down to a figure that would not cover marketing costs already spent, calling it "the level of disrespect" agents face.
Poulos points to messaging as a key lever that agents are not pulling. A session led by communication expert Carmine Gallo in her Harvard program emphasized audience-centric messaging – starting with what matters to the client rather than what impresses peers. "Real estate agents fall into the trap of marketing to each other," Poulos said. "We post about our sales for other agents to see. We compete on metrics that our clients don’t actually care about. And we miss the opportunity to explain, in plain terms, what we actually do and why it matters."
The core of the work, she argues, is data analysis, risk management, negotiation under pressure, and sustained client relationships – similar to executives in complex industries. "We protect our clients. We navigate. We clarify. That is the message. And most agents are not saying it," she added.
To address this, Poulos is developing a series of workshops and seminars, with the first session launching in Orlando this week. The goal is to help agents build messaging that resonates with clients, the press, and regulators, and to rebuild public trust in a profession that has taken a reputational hit. "If what we can clarify for the public is that we are not overpaid, that we are experts, and that our public relations battles are not actually about whether we deserve to be paid, then we start to reverse the narrative," she said. "And the housing market is a place where there is a lot of good stuff going on, despite the headlines. It is the moment for something optimistic."
ACME was founded in 2011 as a boutique brokerage in Los Angeles specializing in residential real estate, luxury properties, and renovation-resale strategy, and as of April 2026 is now ACME | SERHANT., under the umbrella of the national firm led by celebrity real estate agent Ryan Serhant.
