E11: Building a Business that Aligns with Your Life Priorities | Cole Whisenhunt
Are you building a business that supports your life, or are you trapped in one that controls it?
In this episode, we uncover the mindset and strategies behind intentionally designing a business that aligns with your lifestyle, values, and priorities. This conversation is a deep dive into balancing work, family, and faith while achieving high performance. If you’ve ever wondered how to grow a successful business without sacrificing what matters most, this episode is for you.
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Albert Gillispie
Albert is a serial entrepreneur, business efficiency expert and co-founder of Stag Business Coaching who has founded several multimillion-dollar companies. With expertise in optimizing operations and innovative systems, he mentors business leaders who want to unlock their business’s full potential.
Cole is a Real Estate Agent, team lead of the Whisenhunt Group, and most importantly follower of Christ. His understanding of the real estate market, eagerness to learn, and dedication and authenticity to clients make him a top Real Estate Agent! Whether you are wanting to invest, buy or sell, our team has valuable information for you.
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EPISODE 11 TRANSCRIPTION
Introduction
[00:00:00] Albert Gillispie: All right, welcome to the Business Growth Masterclass, where business growth is made simple. Listen as we talk through how to increase your profits, streamline your operations, and ultimately create healthier, more stable, and more valuable companies. In today’s episode, we interview my good friend, Cole Wisenhunt.
[00:00:21] Albert Gillispie: Cole is a realtor here in Lubbock, Texas, and the owner and leader of the Wisenhunt Group at Keller Williams. The conversation was so much fun and so deep. Cole is—one of the most authentic—we say that a million times in the podcast, but it’s so true—he’s one of the most authentic people that I know, who really just try to serve people everywhere he goes.
[00:00:49] Albert Gillispie: Some of my favorite takeaways in this episode that I think you’ll get a lot out of is how intentional Cole has been in creating a business that fits his lifestyle and priorities. So many business owners go into business to make sure that they’re at every football game, every T-ball game, every birthday party, and every family event. But we lose sight of that as business owners when things get tough. If you aren't intentional about it, you essentially build a prison sentence, where you feel tied to the business—you have to go, you have to perform, you have to do all these things—or so you think.
[00:01:45] Albert Gillispie: Cole is really intentional with that. And, you know, I’m not going to give it all away, but he has so many practices and tactics that he is constantly working on and implementing because he is a high performer. He’s not just leaving the office early to take a nap—he’s really intentional about it. I think you’ll get a lot out of it—a lot of self-reflection, a lot of examining yourself. Anyway, I think you’ll like it. Enjoy the episode. All right, we’re live. Welcome to the podcast, Cole Wisenhunt. How are you?
[00:02:24] Cole Whisenhunt: I’m great, man. Thanks for having me.
The Transition And Mindset Shift
[00:02:26] Albert Gillispie: You bet, you bet. Before I let you talk, I want to make you uncomfortable. Come on. Man, I really admire you. I’ve gotten to see you from afar through relationships—through Tanner, the McNutts, and just different people around town that speak highly of you. And I got to spend some time with you in coaching last year with Kathy Crockett.
[00:02:56] Cole Whisenhunt: Yeah.
[00:02:56] Albert Gillispie: And, man, I just admire how you carry yourself. Like, obviously, you pursue excellence in everything you do—from your family to fitness to your business. And with that, your faith is a part of that. Man, you’re good people—you’re giving me feelings talking about it—but really, I admire you so much and just want to get more of your story. You’re a humble guy, and I know getting you to brag about yourself is tough. Like, I didn’t even know you were on a reality TV show until, like, two months ago. Anyway, welcome to the podcast, Cole. I’m excited to have you, man.
[00:03:44] Cole Whisenhunt: Yeah, thanks for the kind words. You’re a great host—ready to get started. All the things you said right back at you, man. I enjoy seeing you live life.
[00:03:54] Albert Gillispie: Thanks, dude.
[00:03:54] Cole Whisenhunt: Yeah.
[00:03:55] Albert Gillispie: Well, let's get into it. What do you do for a living?
[00:03:59] Cole Whisenhunt: What is your career? Okay, career-wise, I've been in real estate. I have a residential real estate team. In life—wife, Abby. We’ve been married 15 years. We were just talking about this before coming on. Celebrated that this last week, which is great. We’ve got four kids—they’re 11, 8, 6, and 4. So, man, most days are spent working hard, running home to get a kid to practice, or a game, and then getting home to spend the rest of the time with family. It’s the best.
[00:04:25] Albert Gillispie: And you are the coach of everything, right?
[00:04:29] Cole Whisenhunt: I like to be. Yeah, I don’t know if everybody else likes it that way, but for sure, basketball, flag football—right up my alley, man. I don’t know if there’s anything else I’d rather be doing than being in a gym for like 13 games on a Saturday, coaching some kids.
[00:04:41] Albert Gillispie: Was that—did you grow into that, or is that something you’ve always wanted to do? How did that come about? I mean, obviously you played, but how do you just dive into every single sport your kids do?
[00:04:57] Cole Whisenhunt: Asking about career—so before real estate, I was a coach.
[00:05:01] Albert Gillispie: Okay.
[00:05:01] Cole Whisenhunt: So I coached basketball and taught football—sports, right? When you’re at the high school level. I went to Texas Tech for business, and then halfway through, I was like, "What am I doing? I don’t want to do business. This sounds so boring—I want to go coach."
[00:05:18] Cole Whisenhunt: So I finished my business degree because I was already halfway through that. But then I just added a little bit toward the end as a minor and took a test online post-bachelor and became certified to teach. Went into coaching—I’ve always loved coaching, I’ve always loved the game. I think it’s one of those things where, as an athlete, when you’re not quite as tall as everybody, as strong as everybody, or as... whatever you want to fill in the blank with that I wasn’t, you ask yourself: How do you stay ahead of people mentally in the game and strategically? And that’s what coaching is, right? You’re trying to put people in positions to succeed. And with the kids, it’s so much fun to be able to do that and watch their minds start to turn and figure out how this all works together, like pieces to the puzzle.
[00:06:03] Cole Whisenhunt: And that also relates to business, right? It continues into business—how do you coach people and put the pieces of the puzzle together?
[00:06:11] Albert Gillispie: What subject did you teach in high school?
[00:06:14] Cole Whisenhunt: History.
[00:06:14] Albert Gillispie: History, dude. Yeah, that’s like the prototype of a high school coach—the history professor.
[00:06:22] Cole Whisenhunt: Oh, but it’s embarrassing how much history I’ve forgotten. So as my kids get older and they ask questions, I’m like, "I used to teach that, but I don’t remember it." I love history, but also teaching showed me how much I’ve forgotten. So yeah, that was it.
How Grit And Determination Help Overcoming Challenges
[00:06:38] Albert Gillispie: You mentioned basketball. Basketball’s your sport? When I see you walk through the door—I mean, we’re both average-sized, slightly below-average-sized bros—you know, I don’t think “basketball player” for sure.
[00:06:56] Albert Gillispie: And prior to watching the reality show—which was...
[00:07:06] Albert Gillispie: I had no idea how much of a competitor and basketball player you are. So tell me a little bit about the basketball career.
[00:07:18] Cole Whisenhunt: Man, it’s going to be a short career to tell you about, but I’ve loved playing from a young age. I just love basketball—grew up in a small town playing the game. As you get older, you start to go to different towns and play with different people. I’ve been known as an intense competitor. And so I think that’s one of those things—when I won’t say my height and weight (nobody needs to know that)—but as a smaller guy on the court, you’ve got to have some grittiness and toughness. And so that’s something that developed through sports.
[00:07:49] Cole Whisenhunt: And so, as you talk about sports with kids and why I love coaching—seeing kids get over those hurdles, when they’re scared to do something, or not very tough, or hurt all the time, or whatever it is, and then the next year they bounce back and you’re like, "Dude, that kid’s getting tough." I feel like I lived that story—playing football as a smaller guy, playing basketball, and at my height, guarding somebody who’s 6'5". You better at least be tough and skilled. That’s it, man. So I played in high school, had a good career there, had fun—lifelong best friends I still have from playing. And then I tried to play at Tech. After practicing for three or four weeks, I got cut. It was an amazing experience—Coach Knight, the team—great people to be around. Coach Beard was on staff at that time, so getting to know him was great. When he came back, that was fun, although it ended poorly for us, so we won’t go there. But that was it. That’s the basketball career, and now it’s coaching my kids, which is way better.
00:08:42] Albert Gillispie: I love it. And as a fellow small guy, you know, being gritty, being tenacious, having to learn that is... Man, there's a dad from my hometown that I really look up to. He's an incredible father, and he has four kids—all amazing students, amazing athletes, but also amazing Christian people. I had lunch with him, and I was asking him, "Man, how do you..." Terrible question, like, "How did you do it? How did you raise kids like that?" When we talked about sports, to him, sports are...
[00:09:29] Albert Gillispie: ...a place for his kids to learn how to work with others, how to develop a growth mindset, how to develop grit, and then to have fun in intramurals if they decide to go to college. Like, it’s not this dream of being a pro athlete as a dad—it’s, "How can we instill those character traits that we need to be fully functioning adults?"
[00:09:57] Cole Whisenhunt: Absolutely, man. Building them up through sports. It’s awesome.
[00:10:00] Albert Gillispie: Yeah. And I’ll get off the podcast—or not the podcast, the reality show—soon, but dude, the tenacity there... Like, it started out with a group of 20.
[00:10:13] Cole Whisenhunt: I mean, it started with like a couple of hundred.
[00:10:15] Albert Gillispie: Oh my goodness. And then it got cut down to 150, 64, 32, 24, 20. Then they named four alternates and took 16 to start filming the show.
[00:10:26] Albert Gillispie: Hmm. And you were in the last four, which, dude, that made me so proud watching that—just 20 years later, just a wiry little, fiery dude. I love it, and I’m sure you use so much of that mindset and the character that you built through that in coaching and business.
[00:10:54] Cole Whisenhunt: I mean, you can think back to whether it’s Coach Knight or any coach you had, riding through whatever sport—bull riding or whatever it was, right? I mean, it all translates. I remember Coach Knight telling us, "There’s nothing you can do about basketball when you’re in class—focus on class. When you’re in class, there’s nothing you can do about basketball—focus on that." Wherever you’re at, be all in there. So when we’re talking about being dads, husbands, business leaders, entrepreneurs, or all these different facets that we want to be associated with—serving on boards or foundations—it all connects.
Aligning A Career Change With Life
[00:11:26] Cole Whisenhunt: And it can be overwhelming when you let it all start to sink in. Instead, it’s like, "I am sitting at this podcast right now with you—everything else has to go away," right? So yeah, coaches, time after time, have that impact. That’s why it’s so motivating to coach kids. You think, "What one little thing could you say that’s going to stick with them for a lifetime?" There are so many quotes from coaches that still stick with me—even why I know Christ today the way that I do, and the love that was shared with me was from a coach. My life would look different without him in my life. It’s amazing. So here we are, coaching, and again, translating it to the business world—it’s business, but at the end of the day, dare I say, it’s a playground.
[00:12:11] Cole Whisenhunt: It’s our atmosphere to really glorify what we believe in through our faith and to build people up. That’s it.
[00:12:19] Albert Gillispie: Okay, next stage—when did you leave coaching, and what was the story there? How did you walk away from coaching?
[00:12:30] Cole Whisenhunt: Man, I loved coaching. I was at a high school here in Lubbock—I loved it. Tony Wagner, the coach there, I loved working with him and for him. We had Crosby, our oldest daughter who’s now 11, and I was leaving to go to work before she was awake, and I was coming home after she was asleep. I was like, "Man, I’m not seeing her." As much as I loved coaching, I also didn’t want to chase head coaching jobs all over the state. We loved our friends here, we loved our church here. So the question became, what could I do to keep us here that wouldn’t be coaching? The first time I brought that up to my wife, I think she was like, "What? You’re not going to coach?" And even friends, when they found out I made the transition, were surprised—but it was okay.
[00:13:14] Cole Whisenhunt: I realized I can share, serve, and love people through a lot of different platforms. And right now, I’m thinking about my family, and I want to be around more. This isn’t a shot at coaches—I have best friends who are still coaches, right? They get four very special years with their kids, whether they’re in high school or smaller schools, because they’re around them all the time.
[00:13:36] Cole Whisenhunt: For me personally, I wanted to change that and interact in a different way day to day. So it was, "What can I do to change that—serve, love, and be with people all the time?" That was the first question. The next question was, "How can I be rewarded for the hard work that I put in and see the difference financially?"
[00:14:00] Cole Whisenhunt: In coaching, you know, the coach next door sitting at their desk not doing anything—teaching without caring about the grades—gets paid the same as the coach who’s giving it their all. So I thought, "What can I do where maybe there’s more risk, like working fully off commission, but there’s also a reward to be had?"
[00:14:18] Cole Whisenhunt: Those were a couple of things going through my mind. I called up Tara Newton, the CEO of Keller Williams Realty here in town. She and my wife, Abby, have been best friends since junior high. I always heard Tara talking to people about real estate, so I called and said, "Hey, you always talk to people about real estate, but you never ask me—do you think I wouldn’t be good at it?" She said, "No, I just never thought you would do anything besides coaching," which is a lesson in itself, right? Sometimes we have people right there, but we’ve already made up our minds that they wouldn’t be interested. But we don’t know where they are in their life and story.
[00:14:52] Cole Whisenhunt: Tara and I joke about it now, but she offered to come over and talk to me about it. On a whim, I asked her, "Can I control my own hours? Can I make double what I’m making now in salary?" I also asked about freedom of time, running my own business—things like that. She said, "Yes, yes, and yes." My last question was, "Do you think I’d be good at it?" She said, "Absolutely." So that was the transition. I decided right then and there, "Okay, I’m doing it." Abby looked at me like, "Wow, you’re really doing this?"
[00:15:25] Cole Whisenhunt: So I made the transition to real estate. Thirty days later, we had our graduating class go through, and that Monday, I was in the real estate office.
[00:15:34] Albert Gillispie: Man, okay. You jumped in with both feet.
[00:15:37] Cole Whisenhunt: Yeah.
[00:15:37] Albert Gillispie: I mean, you’re a high performer—I know that from the time we’ve spent together over the last year. You’re someone who puts in the work, but at the same time, you wanted to—hold on, I’ve got a sneeze coming—you wanted to design a life where you could spend more time with your family. So, talk me through that. I think the typical listener of our podcast is a business owner or business leader. How do you create a business and structure a workday or workweek so you can get the results that you're trying to get?
[00:16:15] Albert Gillispie: I mean, you’re a high performer, but at the same time, you’re prioritizing the right things. How do you do that?
[00:16:21] Cole Whisenhunt: Still trying to figure part of that out, right? It's just life part of the journey and even now so as we're talking here It's been a focus quite a bit lately for me and re-evaluating that and saying the things that I wanted previously have those changed and the time constraints that i'm setting can I accomplish what I want to for our family if we can't. Either we have to put more time in or become more efficient So which one do I want to do?
[00:16:48] Cole Whisenhunt: Well, there’s an obvious answer—I don’t want to spend more time at work, right? I’ve heard this said many times, especially in sales: when you’re on your deathbed, you’re not going to say, "I wish I had gotten one more sale." It’s going to be, "I’m glad I didn’t miss that birthday, that trip, or that vacation," or "I regret that I did." So I keep going back to that and saying, "I’m not going to do that." I don’t miss my kids’ games—I love coaching them, I love being involved. If it’s something important, I’m going to be there.
[00:17:28] Cole Whisenhunt: I think a couple of key things are, one, being flexible—especially in marriage. It took a couple of years for Abby and me to get in the rhythm of that. I’m going to make the kids’ Christmas party at 10 AM at school, but it does mean I’m going to work until 7 PM tonight. Us being on the same page in our marriage is crucial, and Abby is so good at that now—so kind and generous with time and flexible with everything. If I say I need to do something, she just trusts that’s what needs to be done. That trust in our marriage has been huge—she’s been such a great partner for that.
[00:17:50] Cole Whisenhunt: The other thing is the efficiency we’re talking about. If we’re really going to spend time with family, and I know I’m leaving Thursday for Red River with my family for vacation, I’m going to knock it out of the park Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
[00:18:12] Cole Whisenhunt: And it’s not that I can’t answer some phone calls, check email, and do some things within a prescribed time that I’m giving, then go spend time with family. But man, you’ve got to look at it a week ahead, a month ahead—plan ahead. And then even reevaluating right now in this stage of life with four kids at the ages they’re at: Can I pull back on some goals I have professionally and be okay with that? Man, I think we’ve got to constantly evaluate that. So weekly, I have some reflection questions I look at to see how I’m doing in that space.
[00:18:42] Albert Gillispie: Okay, that was my next question—what is the frequency? So this is something you’re looking at every week?
[00:18:50] Cole Whisenhunt: Yeah, I mean, I wish I could say I nail it every single week, but for sure. I have a coach, and we have a weekly phone call. We go over those things together, and he helps hold me accountable. Most of the time, we can have a game plan, but if there’s no built-in accountability—true accountability—then that game plan gets put to the wayside, or you only get 30% to 50% of it done. I consider 80% pretty successful. So if I’m hitting 80% or more, it’s a good week. It’s rare to be at 100%—especially when really pushing high-performance stuff.
Staying Focused On What Really Matters
[00:19:16] Cole Whisenhunt: So that’s it—once a week with the coach, holding me accountable, and going through reflection questions. "How did I do here in relationships with our team? How did I do in relationships with our family? How did I do with my time? Did I stick to my time block? What got in the way? Did I say yes to too many things?" All those types of questions.
[00:19:44] Albert Gillispie: I love it. I love that. Being intentional, it makes me think of. We have a different practice in our household.
[00:19:53] Albert Gillispie: My wife and I have monthly, we call it monthly CFO meetings, where we sit down and we lay out our budget for the next month. And obviously there's ebbs and flows and we're talking about trips and both of our families live outside of the town where we live. And so there's a lot. There's typically travel, but we also look at the calendar. My wife is an introvert, and so if we have weekends back to back that we're traveling, like that's not great for her. Her energy's gonna be depleted, we're probably gonna be fussy with each other. And so really being intentional and communicating our needs. And there are seasons where you just have to be an entrepreneur, business owner, like it's not a government job that you clock in and clock out at nine to five, right?
[00:20:46] Albert Gillispie: Stuff happens and being able to walk in the door at five o'clock every day, sometimes things blow up on you and you've got to solve and serve and do all the things, but man, I love how intentional you are evaluating yourself of like, am I giving everything, making everything the proper priority and that, man, I love that.
[00:21:08] Albert Gillispie: Very cool. Okay. So you are a realtor, tell me about, what did the first year look like? Did you just hit the ground running and, and you're automatically top of the list in Lubbock or, what did that first year look like? How did you, how did you approach that season and navigate that season?
[00:21:28] Cole Whisenhunt: Well, I remember getting into real estate—there’s usually a lot of doubt when you’re starting out. From people who know you, people in the industry, they’re like, "Are you sure you want to do that? It’s harder than you think. You probably won’t succeed." You hear a lot of that. You can imagine someone getting into the business, maybe even your own doubts: "There are a lot of realtors out there—are you sure?" And as you get in, you hear that. I remember someone saying, "Are you sure you’re ready for these hours?" And I was rolling through my head—well, I remember driving a bus full of 40 high school kids until 2 AM, getting home, calling in scores to the paper at midnight sometimes, and being back at 6 AM doing laundry. I had to have lesson plans ready for teaching. You’re just rolling through your day, and then you’re fully present to teach and pour into kids with a real passion for coaching.
[00:22:20] Cole Whisenhunt: So any extra time I had, it was, "Okay, we’re coaching and we finish at 7:30." Some kids want to stay around and shoot—it’s like, "Okay, they want to get better, I’ll rebound for them. I’ll do it." I’m drawing up plays, working on extra footwork with someone—before you know it, it’s 8:30, and you’re giving a kid a ride home and getting back home at 9 o’clock. So when someone said, "Are you sure you’re ready for these hours?" I thought, "I think I’m going to be okay." When you show up at 8 AM and the parking lot’s empty at a lot of real estate offices, or it’s 5 or 6 o’clock and you’re leaving, and it’s empty again...
[00:22:53] Cole Whisenhunt: Yeah, I just kind of had that bell schedule ingrained in me, right? That came from teaching and coaching—what else was I going to do when I got home? Especially at that time when I originally got in, we had one child. So it was time to put in work and build during those first year or two. I wasn’t afraid to roll up my sleeves.
[00:23:09] Cole Whisenhunt: But, you know, so much of this is about relationships. When people ask me now, "How did you get started so fast?"—partly to answer your question, yes, I did have a pretty quick start. And my response to them is often a question: "Were you a good friend before you got into real estate?" Because if you’re suddenly trying to be a good friend just because you’re in sales, people are going to know that.
[00:23:35] Albert Gillispie: They’re going to smell that.
[00:23:36] Cole Whisenhunt: Yeah. Part of that is, I can’t do anything for you now. You can ask me what to do, but I hope you’ve been building that trust for years and years before this because it’s going to matter. Right? So, I think that was a key thing—always caring about people, being a good friend. So when you enter a different industry and say, "Hey, I’ll serve you all out," people trust you, no matter what you’re doing, and know that you’ll look out for them.
[00:24:00] Cole Whisenhunt: So, I was fortunate enough to have a quick start. In my first full calendar year in real estate, I helped 47 families buy or sell a home. At that point, someone had told me just before I got into real estate, "Soon enough, you’ll be helping three families a month." And I thought, "Three families a month? Where is that going to come from?" But before too long, as you start building a business, it’s like, "Well, that would be disappointing now if that’s all we did."
[00:24:26] Cole Whisenhunt: Right. So, yeah, we got off to a quick start. Relationships—that’s where I focused immediately. I just started pouring into people. One thing I heard that really stuck with me a year or two into real estate was when my wife told people, "I just get to see him being a good friend—he’s even a better friend being in this." My mindset every day was, "I get to check in with people and celebrate all the great stuff happening in their lives." They’re going to buy or sell a house sometime in the next 10 years—whenever that is, whether it’s year two or year eight, I’ll be here. But until then, how can I serve you? What can I do? What questions can I answer?
[00:25:06] Cole Whisenhunt: You’re having a baby? That’s amazing. You got a promotion? That’s amazing. You went through something hard and there’s a death in the family—I’m so sorry. How can I be there to serve and help? And just through that attitude of helping, it’s been incredibly rewarding to be in real estate.
[00:25:20] Albert Gillispie: That is one of the things I couldn’t put words to earlier, that I admire about how you do business—you are an authentic person everywhere you go. You’re genuine in everything you do, and you do it so well. It seems like a superpower of yours that you truly manage to stay authentic, caring, and loving in everything, and none of it comes off as salesy. It’s never like, "Hey, when it’s time to list your house, give me a shout." You’ve never said that to me, but just getting to know you and seeing how you intentionally approach your marriage, your life, your business, and everything else, I’m like, "He’s a rock star." And when that time comes, that’s a no-brainer.
[00:26:05] Albert Gillispie: That’s one of those things in sales—building a book of business, whether it’s as a realtor or selling roofs or whatever—it takes those two years of just grinding until you have a solid book of business.
[00:26:30] Cole Whisenhunt: Yeah, one thing I’d say to that, like with some of the things you mentioned, is that it’s hard to go live something when you haven’t had an example of it and someone to show it to you. so many people I’ve been so fortunate to be around. Right? I’m sure you’d say some of the same things—big examples we’ve had to look at. You’re just building on the traits or character they’ve shown you.
[00:26:50] Cole Whisenhunt: So, it’s not like you’re starting from ground zero. I didn’t start from ground zero. I felt like I had so many great people who showed me what hard work, work ethic, and initiative are—staying true to your word. Those things help set people apart early on when you’ve already seen great examples.
[00:27:08] Cole Whisenhunt: All right.
[00:27:10] Albert Gillispie: So you’ve been doing this several years now, going from those initial grinding-it-out years to where the business is today. I’m sure you had some days that were tough.
[00:27:23] Cole Whisenhunt: For sure.
[00:27:24] Albert Gillispie: Maybe tell us a story about one of those tougher seasons or bigger losses you had and how you navigated that.
[00:27:33] Cole Whisenhunt: Yeah, you know, maybe a little backwards here, but to tell part of that story—I had quick initial success, and then you realize either my customer service is going to fall off, or you just can’t serve that many families. You’ve got to say, "Sorry, I don’t want to let you down." And I’m like, "Well, I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to tell people, ‘Sorry, I can’t serve you.’" So, you just have to grow yourself. Then, you have to start growing a team or adding leverage, whatever that looks like. You’ve got to start trusting others. Some of those hard times come when you’re making those first hires, and it’s the fear, right?
[00:28:12] Cole Whisenhunt: Like John Maxwell always says, "The best things are on the other side of fear," or "Some of the best stuff is uphill, and you don’t get uphill on accident—you’ve got to head in that direction and be intentional about it." Some of the harder things were in those initial hires and learning the gaps in my leadership—what I wasn’t good at and still struggle with in some areas.
[00:28:34] Cole Whisenhunt: Being okay with brutal honesty and asking for it took some growth—or sometimes it took someone leaving for me to realize, "Man, I didn’t give them enough direction." We loved each other as people, but I failed them in the day-to-day operation by not giving clear direction. I’ve been guilty of giving too much autonomy or trust, thinking, "Oh, you’ve got it—I don’t want to step on your toes." And they’re going, "I need you to help me; I need more guidance." And I’m thinking, "Oh, you don’t want a boss that tells you everything to do—I trust you, that’s why you’re here." But you learn as you go through all those things.
[00:29:05] Cole Whisenhunt: So when you’ve trained up amazing people—still friends—but then they take off to do great things, you feel like you take a step back. And now you’ve got to fill that gap or void again with leaders. So you’re constantly trying to find people not only to train up but then to retain. That’s probably the hardest thing in growing a business—how much you want to see people succeed, and then when they do, how do you keep the world big enough for them to want to stay? How do you continue helping them level up?
[00:29:26] Cole Whisenhunt: Those would be the biggest challenges. And then the secondary piece of that, outside of the team...right?
[00:29:45] Cole Whisenhunt: You have clients, and you have hard times when you sell a house for a record price per square foot in the neighborhood, get a free leaseback for a month, and then at closing, they’re saying not-so-nice things like, "You didn’t work very hard to do this." And I’m thinking, "Dang it, I set a record on the highest price ever on your house, got the appraisal waived, and all these things." Like, it couldn’t be any better, yet you find out later they were going through some stuff, right? In their marriage, personal life, or other things, and their frustration needed an outlet somewhere.
[00:30:11] Cole Whisenhunt: That’s how life is sometimes—you figure these things out later, but in the moment, you don’t know any of that. A book that stands out to me is Unoffendable.
[00:30:33] Albert Gillispie: Okay, I haven’t heard of that one.
[00:30:35] Cole Whisenhunt: Unoffendable is about getting good at saying, "I don’t know everything that’s going on in their life." It may be nothing, or it may really be me—I may be the problem, and I don’t need to be offended by that. I need to ask how I can get better, or I just need to know there’s nothing I can do in this situation to make them feel better. I have to go to sleep at night and let it go, which is so hard to do.
[00:30:53] Cole Whisenhunt: You have so many of those stories where you feel like you let people down or they’re upset, but then there are ten times more of the celebrations on the other side—like, "We couldn’t have done this without you," or "This was way easier than we thought," or "We never would have started this process if we didn’t know you." So then, I don’t even remember the original question—it was about the hard stuff, right? But at the end of the day, it’s one of those things where you just say, "It’s all worth it for these minor problems," and keeping perspective along the way to help people celebrate in this way.
[00:31:32] Albert Gillispie: Tell, tell me, I mean, for what, for one, it's hard to hear, you know, as, as a business owner, as a, as a business leader, if your identity is in what you're doing, what you're doing for a vocation, what you're doing for a career, you know, this baby that you've built this business if your identity isn't in that.
[00:31:54] Albert Gillispie: Hearing that hurts—it hurts even more to navigate that well. It’s hard, but it’s such an important lesson for business owners—not having your identity wrapped up in the results. Macroeconomic stuff happens, there are going to be hard seasons, and there are going to be better or easier seasons. But if your identity is tied to the results and making everyone happy in every scenario, you’re just going to be miserable. You’ll wake up in the middle of the night, and there’s so much stress that comes from that. Keeping that in its proper place is such an important lesson.
[00:32:40] Cole Whisenhunt: Yeah, I’ve thought about this a lot, especially when talking about salespeople. Usually, there are two types of people who do really well in sales: the people-pleasers, because they don’t want to let people down, and the really competitive people, because they just want to win. But either one of them can end up in a bad spot, right? The people-pleaser thinks, "I’ve let them down—what do they think of me?" And the competitive person thinks, "We’re supposed to win, and now we’re losing—that was a loss somehow, or they think I’m not good enough." You can get caught up in both of those spots.
[00:33:12] Cole Whisenhunt: For a long time, my identity was tied to basketball. Not that I was an amazing player, but because I was always in the gym and coaching—that was the crowd I was known in. And now, for people who don’t know that past, it’s real estate. And with either one of those, I’m constantly thinking, "I don’t want to be known for just either of those." When you’re a salesperson, it’s probably not a popular thing to say—you want everyone to think of you as someone who serves people, and yes, we want to do that. But at the end of the day, if the first thought someone has about me is real estate, I think, "Dang it, I’d rather be known as a dad who loves to coach his kids, a Christ follower who takes it seriously."
[00:33:49] Cole Whisenhunt: Those things are way more important. Those are the types of reflection questions I feel like we’ve got to ask ourselves—and that I ask frequently. What am I being viewed as first? And if that’s not happening, is it a pride thing? Am I pushing something or an agenda, or is it whatever’s getting in the way at the time? But we’ve got to balance that out—or not even just balance it—we’ve got to make sure that’s the priority.
[00:34:16] Albert Gillispie: You’ve obviously wrestled through some of the harder times, and you’ve built something. I mean, there’s—I don’t know how many realtors are in town, but there aren’t a lot of teams that have built a business where people are doing what they’re uniquely gifted to do.
Structuring A Business Where Everyone Thrives
[00:34:40] Albert Gillispie: So, tell me a little bit—what does your business look like today? What does the team look like? What are the pieces on that chessboard?
[00:34:50] Cole Whisenhunt: Yeah, and by the way, this is one of the most rewarding things—when I think about it and just going to work—is having a person that fits their role, their personality, the joys of things they like to do, and they get to run in that lane. In the entrepreneur world, many people are on their own. In the real estate world, that means you’re trying to create a flyer, get a key box, show a house, list a house, and make a video to post on social media. You end up being maybe okay at all of them or really good at one or two things, but you’re held back because you’re spending so much time and effort on things you’re not good at.
[00:35:18] Cole Whisenhunt: So, on our team, we have an operations lane. We have a listing coordinator, a marketing coordinator, and a transaction coordinator. These roles help lead people from the background through the transaction—with the title company, the lender, setting up the inspection, the home warranty, all those items. I’m not the best one suited for that. I’m still the front-facing person, speaking to the client and handling things, but behind the scenes, we have those people working on the operations side, and they’re better at it than I am.
[00:36:02] Cole Whisenhunt: They’re going to cross the T’s and dot the I’s, get the schedule organized—all those things better than I will. On the flip side, you have the salespeople, right? Our operations team does not want to talk to people in sales. So, the salespeople have a job to build relationships and connect with people.
[00:36:20] Cole Whisenhunt: We say all the time, real estate is a contact sport—you need to be out there with people, being a friend. You’ve got to be the friend, and you’ve got to be the expert. If you’re both of those things, you’re going to get a lot of business. But first, go be a friend, build trust, and then they’ll see the expert piece later when it’s time to say, "Hey, we want to talk to you about our house."
[00:36:40] Cole Whisenhunt: So, our team looks like this: I’m leading the team, handling financials, coaching the team, and bringing on other agents who want to join. Then we have the operations team working behind the scenes on marketing, listings, and transaction coordination. Finally, we have the sales agents on the other side.
[00:36:56] Albert Gillispie: Okay, so how many people are in your office right now?
[00:36:59] Cole Whisenhunt: We have seven.
[00:36:59] Albert Gillispie: Seven, yep. That’s a lot of people, a lot of families.
[00:37:03] Cole Whisenhunt: Man, it’s the best part. When you talk about wins, a few distinct stories come to mind. I remember when someone said, "I have this debt that seems overwhelming," and they joined our team—they were going to get out of real estate but decided to try joining us first. We don’t just add people to add them. We want people we know could be successful on their own but are choosing a team because they believe in a different way of doing it. It’s not that they couldn’t be successful on their own or with a team—it’s that they could be successful either way, but we’re choosing to work together because we believe it’s the best model.
[00:37:39] Cole Whisenhunt: And this person was like, "I want to try this with y’all before I get out of real estate,"—a great person. And I remember him sharing the debt the first time, and he felt like, "Yeah, that’s going to take a long time," and we put together a five-year plan. Then, one year later, all that debt was paid off. And I was like, "Dude, you did it, man!" Getting to share that moment with someone—whether it’s a trip they wanted to take, paying off a car, or clearing college debt—is incredible. Another story is about someone who worked at a church for seven years before joining our team. In their first six months with us, they said, "I’ve grown closer to God on this team in six months than in the previous seven years I was working in a church." So, it’s way more than just sales—we’re impacting lives in meaningful ways.
[00:38:27] Albert Gillispie: Man, that’s impactful. You’re talking about changing someone’s life.
[00:38:32] Cole Whisenhunt: Yeah.
[00:38:33] Albert Gillispie: Which is a heavy, heavy responsibility. It’s hard to keep all of that in perspective, but that’s really what’s at stake. As a business owner and leader, you get to coach this group of people and make a huge impact.
[00:38:50] Cole Whisenhunt: Yeah, and on the front side of those stories—those are the fun ones—but on the front side, a lot of times it’s...
[00:39:01] Cole Whisenhunt: I don’t know if you’ve seen that graphic where someone’s digging for gold—oh yeah, and it’s underground, but they can’t see it. They’re just a couple more shovels, a couple more hits against the rock away from breaking through, and then it’s like, "Ah, I’m done. I quit." In sales, you know you’re right there, but it takes time to build.
[00:39:20] Cole Whisenhunt: It takes time to build trust, build a name, get the knowledge base, and develop a database of contacts you reach out to regularly to help build a pipeline. But when it starts to hit, it’s rewarding—seeing those first wins, those first fruits. Those are the hard things to get through so you can see the debt paid off, buy that car, take that vacation, or pay for something for your parents that they couldn’t afford. Whatever that looks like, it’s worth it.
[00:39:46] Albert Gillispie: Okay, so what are you most excited about now? Obviously, you get to make this huge impact on your team. Part of coaching is sharing this vision for what the future is going to look like if we work the plan. So, what does that vision look like for the Wisenhunt Group? What’s the vision you’re helping lead your team towards?
[00:40:07] Cole Whisenhunt: Yeah, so here’s the raw and realness I’ll give you today: We’ve developed some amazing people in the past, and we weren’t able to keep them. At some point, it’s like, "Man, thank you so much. I learned all this, and now maybe I can go apply it and start my own thing." And that’s been a challenge, right? I’m so happy for a bunch of those people, but I’m also saying, "Okay, how do I need to get better as a leader, elevate people, and make sure we retain them?" Because a lot of times it’s not finances that drive someone to leave. It’s not always about, "I want more money, I want more money." At some point, it’s about wanting to share knowledge, help people, coach, train, hire, and develop the culture. There are all these different facets where people can make an impact and do better than I can.
[00:40:42] Cole Whisenhunt: So, the next piece of the vision is that as we grow these leaders, we’re able to retain them and continue growing the team in numbers. That way, we get more of those stories where someone says, "I bought my first investment property, and I never thought I’d even own a house."
[00:41:07] Cole Whisenhunt: Now, I own my primary house, and I own an investment property—like, I never thought that would be my life. And then, before you know it, they own five properties or whatever it is. That’s what I want to see for our team—leaders helping build up other leaders. And how we judge success, so to speak, for the future is: Who’s who? For us, it’s faith-based—a lot of it is, "Who’s getting closer to God?" That’s what I want to see.
[00:41:36] Cole Whisenhunt: Then, how do we see that show up on a business level? It’s about showing someone else how to do that. And as I try to do that for everybody—like we talked about at the very beginning—there are only so many hours in the day. We need multiple people doing that, who then have multiple people, and so on. That’s the vision, man. I’m excited about it.
Envisioning Future Growth While Staying True To Core Values
[00:41:54] Albert Gillispie: Leaders training, building, growing other leaders. You’re going to make a big impact chasing that.
[00:42:00] Albert Gillispie: Okay, if you had to give one piece of advice to other business owners—maybe someone just getting started or someone going through a tough time, because right now, not a lot of people are thriving—what’s one piece of business advice you’d want to share with our listeners?
[00:42:23] Cole Whisenhunt: Yeah, I might have to hit a couple, but I’ll be quick.
[00:42:25] Albert Gillispie: Okay.
[00:42:26] Cole Whisenhunt: What’s key is relationships. I mean, there are a lot of moments you can go back to where it’s like that relationship sparked something. You’re always one model away or one person away.
[00:42:37] Cole Whisenhunt: So, as you’re evaluating your business, ask yourself, “What is the gap? Is it a model or system that we need to implement that’ll get us over the hump? Or are we just missing a person, and do we need to go find that person?” And to me, it can be that simple sometimes—it’s one of those two things. So, figure out which one it is and run after that solution.
[00:42:57] Cole Whisenhunt: Then, you know, there’s a stair-step to business where you peak out, and a lot of times you plateau. And then it’s that question again: “What system or model do we need to implement, or what person do we need to bring in?” You keep going back and forth between those questions. And you hear this a lot, but it’s important to stay true to your values. We could have someone selling the most houses in Lubbock, but if their values aren’t aligned with ours, it’s just not going to work. It doesn’t matter how many sales we have—we’re not going to align ourselves with that person. So, stay true to your values when you bring people along—that’s probably the biggest thing.
[00:43:32] Albert Gillispie: I love that. So, you know, we’re talking about people and processes—just be really intentional in asking, “What are we missing?” And then, when we are picking those people, make sure their values fit, because building that reputation, building that culture, is so difficult, and there’s so much at stake that you really have to be intentional with that.
[00:43:54] Cole Whisenhunt: Yeah. The last piece I would add is clarity. I mean, I am so guilty of saying, “We’ll just do more.” “We’ll just work harder. We’ll just serve people as best as we can”—these are very vague things. Instead, it’s about getting absolute clarity: “This is where we’re heading.” Every decision that comes up, does it align with that?
[00:44:15] Cole Whisenhunt: Does that get us a step closer to our ultimate goal—where we're heading? And every once in a while, I stop and pause and ask, "Do I really have clarity? Is that still the same place, or are we going to get there differently?" You know, and just having to work through that with teammates. But I think if you don’t have clarity, it’s going to slow the race down big time, and it’s going to become a "work harder" game.
[00:44:40] Albert Gillispie: Yeah, and that’s one of the things—you have a coach, right? And that’s such a... it’s kind of one of those soft, fuzzy things—like, "Clarity, yeah, yeah, whatever." But there’s so much, especially as a leader, whenever you’re trying to lead a team. You know, if you’re trying to tell them and share this vision that’s so ambiguous and fluffy and just not clear, people can’t follow that.
[00:45:08] Albert Gillispie: And if people are confused or unsure, they’re not going to follow you. They’re going to have ambiguity—they’re going to have uncertainty. And, you know, you just have to fight for that as a leader and as a business owner. And I love how intentional you are in doing that, whether it’s asking yourself questions every week or the fact that you do have a coach. That’s incredible. All right, we’re getting close to the end of time. I got a couple of quick... I don’t know what we’re going to call this yet—I need to come up with a name for it—but kind of a fire round of questions. What are your top three favorite books that people don’t know about?
[00:45:50] Cole Whisenhunt: Man, number one easily is Shoe Dog.
[00:45:54] Albert Gillispie: No, oh yeah.
[00:45:55] Cole Whisenhunt: You say people don’t know about it. I don’t know if that one’s real well known or not, but man, Nike just shouldn’t be here, and now it’s the world superpower of sports clothing and shoes. It’s an amazing story.
[00:46:11] Albert Gillispie: He’s like the Forrest Gump of shoes.
[00:46:13] Cole Whisenhunt: That’s a good way to put it.
[00:46:14] Albert Gillispie: His story.
[00:46:15] Cole Whisenhunt: Yes, love that. Okay, so that’s number one. I’ve probably read it a couple of times, listened to it three or four times. I just love it because it incorporates sports as well as business. Number two, Dream Big by Bob Goff—there’s one that I really enjoy. Bob Goff’s an easy read, right? He tells great stories.
[00:46:33] Albert Gillispie: Oh yeah.
[00:46:33] Cole Whisenhunt: You’re just like, "That’s amazing he did that. Why didn’t I think of that?" It’s simpler. He inspires me in a different kind of way—where Shoe Dog is about being driven, competitive, not giving up, grinding it out. On the other hand, you have Dream Big.
[00:46:49] Cole Whisenhunt: It’s like, am I being intentional and loving people well? Am I giving enough margin in my life for those people? Asking those questions and reflecting—am I creating my own stories with my kids and wife? So, that’s another great one. And then I’ll go with the one that I mentioned earlier. It’s a challenge—I don’t know if it’s one of my favorites—but Unoffendable.
[00:47:09] Albert Gillispie: Unoffendable, okay. That’s a new one. I haven’t heard that one.
[00:47:11] Cole Whisenhunt: Hanson.
[00:47:12] Albert Gillispie: Okay.
[00:47:12] Cole Whisenhunt: It’s just talking about how we can stay in a state where we remain unoffended because right now, being offended is like America’s pastime. Everyone wants to jump to a side so quickly, be mad about something. You go to dinner with somebody, and it’s like, what are all the bad things we can talk about? The last restaurant we went to, how wrong it was, or I flew this weekend and everything was wrong with flying. And I’m offended because this person said something at work. It’s like, man, if we could just take a step back and stop being offended by so many things. The way Jesus lived his life, his response to a lot of things that came at him—he just asked questions back, right? Gaining clarity—we’re back to clarity again—understanding a situation, staying curious, not assuming a lot of things. So, that book is a challenge for me. Every once in a while, if I feel myself thinking, "God, those people are so…what’s wrong with them?" I know I need to listen to that book. I’ll listen to a couple of chapters. So I go to that one probably once every couple of months, just to listen to a chapter or two.
[00:48:18] Albert Gillispie: All right. I’m adding that one to the list. Yeah. Okay, next question. What is one piece of technology you use that has been impactful? It might be something a lot of people don’t know about. You know, technology can be such a nuisance, but it’s a tool and can be impactful if it’s put in the right place. So what’s a piece of technology you use that people need to know about?
[00:48:46] Cole Whisenhunt: Nothing I say is going to be mind-blowing here.
[00:48:48] Albert Gillispie: That’s okay. It’s a safe space.
[00:48:51] Cole Whisenhunt: Man, pinning texts is huge for me.
[00:48:53] Albert Gillispie: What is that?
[00:48:54] Cole Whisenhunt: When you pin a text—okay, you’ve never done that?
[00:48:55] Albert Gillispie: No, never.
[00:48:56] Cole Whisenhunt: You can drag the text to the top and it creates bubbles. So if I want to make sure I get back to someone by the end of the day, I just look at my pinned texts or bubbles at the top. That way I don’t miss a return call or text. If it’s unread, it can get pushed down the list, so I pin it. That’s been a game-changer for me.
[00:49:07] Albert Gillispie: I’ve never done that. Okay, I need to try it.
[00:49:09] Cole Whisenhunt: I’ll show you when we’re done. Another thing I use is digital reminders. Whether I’m on my laptop or phone, I’m kind of a stickler for communication—I don’t want to drop the ball on something, so reminders help. A fun one with the kids is DribbleUp.
[00:49:27] Albert Gillispie: Yeah?
[00:49:28] Cole Whisenhunt: It’s got a chip in the ball. You put the iPad on the ground, and they try to hit certain boxes. It makes it fun for them, especially in the winter when they can’t go outside as much. We let the kids dribble the ball in the house. Early on, Abby was like, “No dribbling in the house,” but once they got old enough, I had to say, “We need to revisit that rule.”
[00:50:03] Cole Whisenhunt: So anyway, we let our kids dribble all over the place, but that app is cool because they’re trying to hit certain boxes, crossing over, going between the legs, behind the back, whatever it is. Integrating technology into sports.
[00:50:15] Albert Gillispie: Okay. I need to check that one out.
[00:50:16] Cole Whisenhunt: Yeah.
[00:50:17] Albert Gillispie: I love it. Okay, well, how can people get in touch with you? How can people do business with you?
[00:50:24] Cole Whisenhunt: Yeah, so on Facebook, we’re Lubbock Homes - The Wisenhunt Group. Same thing on Instagram. I was told the other day that we have TikTok, and I said, "We do have TikTok?" So we’re out there somewhere on TikTok.
[00:50:37] Albert Gillispie: Are you dancing out there?
[00:50:39] Cole Whisenhunt: Probably making some videos.
[00:50:42] Albert Gillispie: Noted.
[00:50:42] Cole Whisenhunt: My email is colew@kw.com. I’m always open to private messages online, or I’m happy to share my cell phone with people. So, if you’re a business leader in Lubbock, outside of Lubbock, a friend—anything we could talk about—I know that if I sit here and ask you these questions, I’ll learn so much. I just love catching up with people over lunch and helping each other.
[00:51:05] Albert Gillispie: I love it.
[00:51:05] Cole Whisenhunt: Thanks for asking.
[00:51:06] Albert Gillispie: Man, thank you. That was a fun conversation. My head is spinning—I need to collect my thoughts—but really, thank you for being you. Thank you for being authentic. I appreciate it.
[00:51:18] Cole Whisenhunt: Yeah, I love that word, "authentic." It describes you and what you stand for. Even this interview felt like an easy, genuine conversation. We’ve got a lot of great people and business leaders in the city we live in. It’s super cool to come together, talk about things like this, and learn from each other. Thanks for having me on.
[00:51:39] Albert Gillispie: You bet, man.
[00:51:39] Cole Whisenhunt: Yeah.
[00:51:40] Albert Gillispie: That was a great conversation. I hope you got as much out of it as I did. Cole really challenged me in a lot of ways, especially as a dad, about keeping things in their proper place and priority. I hope it was valuable for you too. If you enjoyed the podcast and want more content like this to help you grow as a business owner and leader, go ahead and hit subscribe. We’d love to have you back for the next episode. Thank you.
