Day in the life: Beth Styne

When Beth Styne decided she wanted to be an actor, her mother, Mimi Styne — who founded her own eponymously named residential brokerage in 1975 — told her to get her real estate license as a fallback. “I learned the language of real estate and understood the trajectory of a real estate transaction at a very young age,” recalled Styne. “Having said that, I never, ever wanted to sell real estate.”

Despite her Hollywood ambitions, Styne took the advice and secured her license. After starting off at her mom’s firm, Mimi Styne & Associates, Styne rose through the ranks. She’s now the vice president and chief operating officer of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in the Greater Los Angeles area, which just opened an office in Redondo Beach and is gearing up to open an El Segundo location at the PCT building along the Pacific Coast Highway, Styne said.

From selling $125,000 condos to multimillion-dollar houses, Styne has “done it all,” she said. She’s handled well over $500 million in transactions throughout the years and has worked extensively with a celebrity clientele, though much of what she does now is “very under the radar,” she said. “I’ve been through four cycles with the real estate market. I’ve seen the ups, I’ve seen the downs.”

Styne believes the market is due for a correction — something she has “been able to predict … every single time.” The past few years have reminded her of the 2005-2006 market. “Agents needed to really hone their skills and learn how to sell again,” she said. To that end, she’s getting the firm’s 2,100 agents and managers at 36 Greater Los Angeles offices ready for what’s next. “Fortunately, we’ve got a fantastic training program in my company for that,” she said. While Styne says her job brings new experiences constantly, she walked TRD through a typical day in her life.

5:00 a.m. I get up between 5 and 5:15 a.m. every morning. I’m very regimented. I turn on my phone and go out and do a two-and-a-half-mile power walk. I live on a cul-de-sac, and there’s a park at the end of the street that has a track. It’s a good time for me to not only get my exercise, but clear my head for the day.

5:15 a.m. I start answering emails around 5:15 a.m., and I stop answering them at around 8:30 p.m., when I turn my phone off. I get around 400 to 500 emails a day and I pride myself on being very responsive, because I think that’s important.

6:30 a.m. I get home from my power walk and eat a giant bowl of fresh fruit. On the weekends, I bake four or five loaves of bread — I cheat all day Sunday with my food. There are people who eat to live, and I’m a person who lives to eat. That’s why I need to do the power walk. My sister owns some of the best restaurants in town [including Lucques, A.O.C., Tavern and all of the Larder restaurants], my mother was a trained chef before she became a realtor, and I love to cook. We’re all about food.

7:00 a.m. I’m a news junkie, so I like to watch the news in the morning. I’ll have already read articles from sites like Inman and the Wall Street Journal on my phone. Sunday mornings, I’m all about “Meet the Press.” I want to know what’s going on in the world, because the world is not just real estate. Everything that happens in the world affects everything we do.

8:30 a.m. I leave the house around 8:30 a.m. on the days I’m heading into the Beverly Hills office. If I’m going to one of my other offices — say, Montecito or Santa Barbara — I’m out of the house by 7 a.m.

9:00 a.m. I’m at the office by 9 or 9:30 a.m. when I work from Beverly Hills. After I walk in, I’ll make myself a latte, sit down, open the computer and start answering emails and making phone calls. Sometimes I’ll be calling managers to check in and see what’s going on, or communicating with the presidents of other companies, or doing manager reviews. Sometimes I’ll go on listing presentations with agents, which is one of my favorite things to do.

12:00 p.m. Every Friday at noon, we have a leadership meeting. We’ll talk about some of the challenges we’re dealing with, talk about new initiatives, talk about what our next managers’ meeting will focus on. They’re very strategy-oriented.

2:00 p.m. Sometimes, I’ll go out for recruiting lunches with agents. Recruiting is a process, so it’s usually somebody I’ve spoken with before once or twice. We’ve got a program here that allows me to understand what somebody’s business has been like, so I can look and see — based on how their business has been — where they are, and talk to them about what’s been successful, or vice versa. It’s an opportunity for me to show the value of being with our company, because I’m also a business coach. Parts of my days or weeks during the month are taken up with coaching meetings.

3:00 p.m. If I have a recruiting lunch, I’ll often go to one of our offices afterward and visit my agents and my managers. Or I’ll come back to the office and get back to whatever I’m working on, whether that’s a PowerPoint for a manager meeting, working on a listing initiative or coming up with a strategy to take our business to the next level. Sometimes I’ll go out in the field to see how construction projects are going. Every once in a while, my husband goes out of town on business and I need to bring our dog to work. If I do that, I’ll walk around the block with him a couple times to clear my head. He’s a senior dog — a long-legged Jack Russell named Reggie (but I call him Beanie). We are in love with this little dog. He’s so cute.

6:00 p.m. I’m usually in the office until 6 or 7 p.m. Twice a week, I go to a Pilates session at 6 p.m. Pilates clears my head.

7:00 p.m. On occasion, I’ll go out and have dinner with an agent or friends, but if I’m not doing that, I drive home. I live in Studio City, and that can be a drive, but it’s easier for me to get home than into work because of the morning traffic. When I walk in the door every night, my husband makes me a martini.

8:00 p.m. Like my workdays, my evenings vary. Sometimes I’ll answer emails or make phone calls, sometimes I’ll read, sometimes I’ll watch mindless TV. I want something to wind me down, because I’m very energetic. Every once in a while, I’ll watch the Real Housewives — that’s my guilty pleasure. During baseball season, I’ll watch a game with my husband.

11:30 p.m. I usually fall asleep around 11:30 at night, and then I’m up again at 5 the next day.