by Tara Gilligan Reimer
In real time, Briddick Webb is hiking. And snowboarding. And mountain-biking.
Online, Briddick is educating, telling us about the real estate market, using a discarded pizza box in the RE/MAX parking lot or pulling out a scroll in the library.
Daily, Briddick is meditating, doing breathwork, and hitting the dry sauna.
Briddick earns global RE/MAX Lifetime Achievement award.
Most of all, Briddick is not selling real estate in the traditional way–as much as creating a warm and engaging (and even vulnerable) space, to invite you into relationship. If that relationship leads to a pending, mutual acceptance between seller and buyer with acceptance fittingly being Briddick’s self-described work high, he has done his job. If that relationship also leads to a favorite hike, a shared meal, or sobriety in the largest sense of the word—living out the wonder and boredom in all our given days—even better.
This fourth-generation Whatcom County native just landed his biggest pending (and acceptance) yet. He was given the global RE/MAX Lifetime Achievement award for making three million dollars in commissions. That’s a lotta property and personalities to put together.
But Briddick doesn’t want to talk about this impressive high or its red-and-blue corporate sheen of greatness. Instead, he wants to explore the discomfort that led to his achievement.
Three million? Meh. Discomfort? Yeah.
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Rookie days of cold calling and drywalling with Josh Shiflett
Here’s an interesting fact learned from interviewing Briddick about his rookie days, ten years ago. Josh Shiflett—our cool Mad Men-esque broker, pictured on his altogether website, perched on a midcentury davenport, in rolled-up shirtsleeves, gazing into the middle distance of a booming sellers’ real estate market—knows how to drywall. Especially when an appraiser is on the list-property welcome mat.
“Josh is brilliant,” Briddick offers up about his mentor (a clue of security: Briddick’s ability to include many others in his success). During the first three years at RE/MAX on The Shiflett Group, Briddick describes how a contract was in jeopardy because the appraiser flagged the home for an exposed wall. “Josh ran to the hardware store, and the two of us put up insulation and drywall, finishing as the appraiser made his return.” Briddick summed up, “Josh taught me how to be a problem-solver.”
And a cold caller. Which, for Briddick, is not just about cold calling, of course. It’s also about losing your ego. “I worked at another brokerage for 10 months, and I never sold a thing,” Briddick recounted. “They told me to blog.”
In contrast to writing scripts to the Universe? “Josh had me cold call expired MLS listings, six hours every day. I hated it,” said Briddick. “But in cold calling, I forgot about my fear of rejection. I forgot about my people-pleasing. I just did it. I got into the flow of putting myself out there in front of others and unapologetically asking for their business.”
Cold calling—showing up, feeling discomfort, not being overly focused on results—became Briddick’s wellspring, his first unexpected source in real estate.
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Backstory: footballer with an underdog mentality
Even before the six-hour days of cold calling (thanks again, Josh), there was an already firmly established work ethic. “I have an underdog mentality,” explains Briddick. “As a young soccer player, I was often the shortest guy. I learned how to deal with that: I became the hardest-working guy, too.”
In his early days of real estate, Briddick drew from that well of tough, baller endurance. He built a rigorous and precise business, cultivating a referral base, refining his seller and buyer processes, and writing sound contracts.
And along the way, he also squared up with social anxiety, addiction, and a one-dimensional life of work. Being Briddick, he went all-in and surfaced from self-discovery and self-care with even more formidable talent.
You can sense depth from the way he talks with you, not at you, whether he’s explaining the market or his love for his family. He describes broker work not as repping clients but serving others. He doesn’t sell the beauty of his native Whatcom as much as he showcases it.
(For the best marketing of Bellingham, look at his website’s video homage to the ‘Hamster ethic of inhabiting mountain and sea, hemlock and firs, Fairhaven and Mt Baker—all spooled for only $800 from a Western student and content that received 28,000 hits in its debut plus a call from a L.A. Sun reporter on relocation.)
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Three-million-dollar elixir
Decidedly, Briddick does not have, what is called in the trade, a “sphere of influence.” What he does have is a lot of friends. His wife is his best friend. His assistant, Jillian, is a trusted friend. Bill W, and his caffeinated mates found in church basements across our county–they’re Briddick’s friends, too.
So, with national recognition in his field for a cool three million in commissions, Briddick talks most warmly about people, not money or accomplishments.
The person he gives a lot of credit to is someone we all know.
“She’s the left hand to my right,” says Briddick of Jillian Hawley.
The most visible assistant at RE/MAX is Jillian Hawley, which says as much about her radiance as it does about her broker. On the website, Jillian is featured, shoulder-to-shoulder, with Briddick. In video content, Jillian, a licensed broker, is breaking down the current seller market. Out of a gallery of 200 thumbnail RE/MAX photos, Jillian stands out. She’s extraordinarily competent and happy but not competitive—another secure soul, the Athena to his Apollo.
“This is deliberate. It’s not the Briddick show. She’s the left hand to my right,” says the broker who didn’t so much as hire her but chose her. You can listen to Briddick tick through every step of a transaction timeline, or you can peek into Paperless Pipeline to find that Jillian knows all. Theirs is a true work partnership.
Of the larger office, Briddick notably talks about the RE/MAX way of being (not the brand). “RE/MAX is NOT like other brokerages. At RE/MAX, there is an ethos of warmth and friendliness. Everyone is friendly.” Then, Briddick names everyone—”Lori, Lisa, Jennifer, Michael, and Ashlee”—because this is Briddick. If we’re all not going along together, then no one is going at all.
Sounding a familiar theme, Briddick speaks most animatedly of RE/MAX Whatcom County founder and CEO Lori Reece. “She is always there for you. She has helped me out of some tough transaction spots and some incredibly challenging times. She is simply the best broker’s broker and person.”
Briddick sums up, “RE/MAX is my tribe. It’s a place where I can experience the lows and the highs, and there are both in this field. I’m stealing a quote [which he correctly attributes to Michael Beckwith], but I subscribe to the belief that ‘a bad day for the ego is a good day for the soul.’”
So, maybe Briddick hasn’t had more bad days than the rest of us. But his disciplined acknowledgment of not-so-great creates the next space: for what-could-be-better. Or even the unimaginably good.
Yeah, there’s the thrill of being recognized. But there’s also the strength of getting used to being uncomfortable.
And that is Briddick’s $3M elixir.
Equal parts grit and discomfort, shot through with honesty, and always rimmed with warmth.
About RE/MAX Whatcom County
Located in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, we strive to exceed expectations. Founded and owned by CEO/Managing Broker Lori Reece, this full-service real estate brokerage is known for inspiring excellence and providing the field’s top training for its 90+ Realtors®. To find the best in commercial and residential real estate, visit nwhomes.net.
At the center of our lives are the stories we live out. Tara Gilligan Reimer loves to find the story in place and people. This is my sixth feature on the best brokerage in Whatcom County and the RE/MAX agents who lead, with expertise, brilliance, and passion.
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