How Karen Syroid and her team challenged the traditional real estate playbook by putting service, trust and relationships at the centre of their business.

When Karen Syroid first started in real estate, she said ‘yes,’ to everything.

Every client. Every price point. Every opportunity.

Her business was growing, but she was exhausted. Crying in her car between appointments, constantly running late and coming home to a life that had become little more than a landing pad.

“I was busy all the time and exhausted, and I remember thinking, ‘If this is what success feels like, I don’t want it.'”

Becoming pregnant with her daughter made it clear that something needed to change. Rather than continue building a business around constant hustle, she began questioning what success in real estate should actually look like.

Today, Karen leads The Syroid Group at Royal LePage® Atlantic in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Her team has been recognized among Royal LePage’s top 1% for seven consecutive years, alongside professionals whose careers she admired long before imagining she’d be among them.

But, the recognition isn’t what drives their business.

What changed everything was a decision to stop chasing the next transaction and focus instead on doing the kind of work that would make people want to come to them.

Building a business around what matters

That shift required more than a change in mindset. Karen formed a team, hired a coach and went through a challenging period of restructuring as they established their core values and non-negotiables.

There was turnover, uncertainty and a willingness to make uncomfortable decisions when their visions didn’t align.

“I stopped chasing transactions and focused on protecting outcomes.”

The team began taking on work that aligned with how they wanted to show up for clients. They invested in systems, surrounded themselves with people who brought different strengths to the table and focused on doing fewer things exceptionally well.

The results followed. Referrals increased, the work became more aligned with their values and their business continued to grow.

For Karen and her team, maintaining that standard isn’t about doing more for the sake of it. It’s about consistency, preparation and being willing to have difficult conversations when they matter.

“Answering the phone. Saying no to a deal when it isn’t right. Having hard conversations early so they don’t become bigger problems later. Being willing to admit when the plan needs a detour. That kind of consistency isn’t glamorous, but it’s what protects people.”

It’s an approach that extends to every aspect of their work.

“We don’t phone a single thing in. How we do one thing is how we do everything.”

Taking the ego out of real estate marketing

A few years ago, the team made a decision that would fundamentally change how they attracted clients.

They moved away from the steady stream of just-listed and just-sold announcements traditionally associated with real estate marketing and began creating daily content that addressed the questions, concerns and interests of their audience.

“We removed ourselves and our ego from our marketing, and focused solely on communicating the things our clients need to hear.”

Most of their audience isn’t actively buying or selling a home. They’re watching from the sidelines, learning about the market and deciding whom they might eventually trust.

As Karen points out, announcing another sale might demonstrate that an agent is busy, but it doesn’t necessarily answer the question prospective clients are asking: How do I know I can trust you?

It’s also why the team doesn’t advertise in the traditional sense. While Karen recognizes that traditional prospecting, paid advertising and lead generation can be highly effective and entirely appropriate for other agents, she and her team have made a conscious decision about what they will and won’t do.

“Even the word ‘lead’ feels icky to me. People aren’t leads. People are people. We serve people, and when they choose us in return, we enter into that relationship happily.”

For The Syroid Group, that means no cold calling, door knocking or asking people to exchange their contact information for something of value. Instead, they make their knowledge, advice and resources freely available. 

Today, their content combines practical advice, myth-busting, case studies, personal stories and observations about the situations buyers and sellers experience every day. The tone is deliberately human, something Karen describes as less Q&A and more FaceTime with a friend.

“We don’t worry too much about the likes on each post. It’s when the DMs start saying ‘whoa, I needed to hear that’ that we’ve gained a client. It’s really about chasing familiarity and trust, not dopamine.”

The approach has changed the way people engage with the team. By the time many prospective clients reach out, they already understand how the group works, what it values and how it can help. Formal listing presentations have become increasingly rare.

It’s a time-consuming commitment, but one that has become central to how they do business.

The right people make the difference

Behind that consistent client experience is a team with complementary strengths, clearly defined roles and systems designed to support their work.

Karen is the first to admit that time management isn’t her natural talent.

“I’d be lying if I said I was great at time management. Anyone who knows me who’s reading this right now is probably laughing.”

Instead of trying to be good at everything, she’s surrounded herself with people who think differently, challenge her ideas and bring skills she doesn’t naturally have.

“Our brainstorming sessions could be a podcast.”

The team relies on established processes and workflows, batches its social media content weekly and organizes client-facing appointments to leave dedicated time for the work happening behind the scenes.

“Our clients wouldn’t know we use them, but our goal is for them to feel like they’re our only client while meanwhile we’re putting out four to five listings a week. The systems are there, furiously supporting us in the background.”

That structure gives the team room to collaborate, maintain high standards and deliver a personal experience without relying on constant urgency. And, that structure is constantly restructuring too, with the needs of the business and the evolution of AI.

It also reflects a simple philosophy at the heart of their culture.

“We take our work seriously, but not ourselves.”

Listening to clients, not following the crowd

Rather than watching what other agents are doing or reacting to every market headline, Karen and her team focus on what they’re seeing firsthand in Fredericton.

“I stay ahead by paying attention to patterns rather than noise.”

For Karen, understanding how buyers and sellers actually behave is far more useful than relying on broad market predictions. One neighbourhood can behave entirely differently from another, even within the same city.

She sees the industry shifting away from transactional relationships and toward a more advisory role, where understanding client psychology and being willing to have difficult conversations are increasingly important.

The team also makes a habit of questioning its own approach.

“Every week my team and I ask ourselves ‘What do our clients need to hear from us today?’ and every year when we do business planning we ask ourselves ‘What fears, pains and desires do our clients have now, more than ever, and how can we better support that?'”

That willingness to adapt has become one of their greatest strengths. When something isn’t working, they aren’t afraid to abandon it, regardless of the time, energy or money already invested.

“The wrong path is never right.”

Sharing what they’ve learned

Collaboration extends beyond The Syroid Group. Karen credits much of her growth to the people she’s learned from throughout her career, including the professionals she’s met through Royal LePage.

She’s equally willing to share her own experiences, including the mistakes, difficult decisions and lessons that helped shape the business.

“I strongly believe in transparency, because what we do isn’t intellectual property. The business is you.”

Through brokerage training and conversations with other agents, she hopes to encourage professionals to question the conventional playbook and develop approaches that reflect their own strengths and values.

Her experience has taught her that growth often requires considerable discomfort and uncertainty, but having the right people moving in the same direction makes those decisions easier.

Success beyond the transaction

For Karen and her team, the most meaningful measure of success is what happens when clients put their trust in them.

There have been situations where Karen arrived at an appointment expecting to list a home and left having connected the homeowner with resources they needed instead, knowing a sale would have put them in an even worse position.

But, she believes it’s equally important not to reserve that level of care for clients facing extraordinary circumstances.

“The stakes might look different on the surface, but the impact of getting it wrong or right is always real.”

That belief underpins how the entire team works. Every client deserves the same care, honesty and attention, regardless of price point, urgency or circumstance.

It’s also what makes the referrals that follow so meaningful. Not simply another transaction, but someone recommending the team with the confidence that they’ll take care of the people they send their way.

For Karen, that brings the story back to the decision that changed her business in the first place: doing fewer things exceptionally well, surrounding herself with the right people and letting the results follow.

“When a client looks back and feels relieved, happy with the outcome, glad they trusted us and likely to tell the people they care about to call us too? That’s the best KPI we can ask for”.