Feb. 2, 2026

This piece is sponsored by Amy Stockberger Real Estate.

By Amy Stockberger

We have a handful of traditions at Amy Stockberger Real Estate that I absolutely love, but our beginning-of-the-year ones are hands-down my favorite.

We designed our building to have the walls talk and cheer on our team, but we realize that isn’t enough.

So at our first team meeting of the year, we don’t start with goals. We don’t start with numbers.

We start by building up our people.

It has become a ritual that we protect, and it sets the tone for everything that follows.

In a fast-paced, high-stakes industry like real estate, confidence is one of your team’s most valuable assets — and also one of the easiest to lose. So we don’t leave it to chance. We celebrate it at every level.

Here’s how we do it.

The Badass List: Start with the wins that actually matter

We kick off things with what we call The Badass List — a tradition we’ve done for years, inspired by Jen Gottlieb’s idea.

It lives in each team member’s phone notes and gets updated every January.

They take intentional time to reflect and write down what they accomplished the previous year that made them proud. The big things. The quiet moments. The tough conversations. The growth no one else may have seen. It’s personal, it’s private, and it matters.

Because when confidence gets shaky — as it does — we want them to have a place they can go back to that reminds them exactly who they are. 

We don’t build up our team once — we give them tools they can reach for all year, tools they can access quickly and that actually stick.

The Evidence File: Truth from the people who see you most

Next, we move into what we call The Evidence File.

Each person gets a small stack of cards — one for every teammate, with their name at the top.

Then we take time, in silence, to write down one thing we admire, respect or are proud of about each person.

Real words from people who work alongside you every day. The people who see them in the mud, the blood and the flood at times.

Our team pins them to their office walls or keeps them close to their computers. Some keep them in a drawer. Some save them on their phone, but every year, those stacks grow — and stay close.

Because when you’re having one of those days where you question everything, the version of you that your team sees? That version is the evidence.

The Legacy Stack: You can’t build a legacy you can’t see

This year, we added something new for our agents, inside sales team and business development department: The Legacy Stack.

Each person received a clear vase to represent their business. We assigned a specific color for each year — 2026 is blue, my favorite of our brand colors. Every time they serve a client, they earn a rock in that year’s color.

But we didn’t just start from scratch — we went back and rebuilt their journeys.

For every agent, we pulled their historical production and recreated their Legacy Stack — adding a layer for each year they’ve been with us and placing a rock for every client they’ve helped. Watching their stacks fill up with the wins they’ve earned over time was such a powerful moment.

Longtime agents like Teresa Geiken, who has been with us over 11 years and served close to 400 clients, and Shawn Martins and Tyler Stunes, who have a decade with us, have stacks that are simply STUNNING! It’s a clear, tangible reflection of consistency and care, and a reminder of just how much one person can impact our community through service.

Now every year, we also set our teamwide goal for the year — represented by its own vase filled with the total number of rocks that match our 2026 goal for clients served.

Each month, as agents help Forever Clients buy or sell homes, they take the corresponding number of rocks out of the 2026 goal vase and place them into their own personal stack.

One vase shrinks, another grows. It’s a living, visible marker of collective and individual progress.

Every rock represents trust earned, lives impacted and legacy in motion.

And each vase tells the story of someone who showed up, served well and made that legacy real.

These traditions aren’t just about recognition. They’re about alignment.

They connect each person’s daily work to something bigger than transactions. They make the invisible visible. And they remind our team, on paper, on screen and in stone, that who they are and how they serve will always matter here.

Book a consultation with our team to explore how we can support each other locally. We can’t wait to connect with you!

Check out my guide to selling a home this winter.

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