Josh Muncey is a community guy, through and through. In fact, this Compass agent wants his team to be known as the local community brokers: “We know the streets in our neighborhood inside and out,” Josh says about Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury, and Roslindale, the core Boston neighborhoods his team serves.

Though Josh has been an agent since 2006, it wasn’t until 2011 that he moved to Jamaica Plain, and eventually joined a neighborhood office. “Once I got grounded in the local community I realized I wanted to double down, and that’s when the business really started growing,” Josh says of his team’s brand. Before focusing on those specific neighborhoods Josh was all over the place, “trying to be something to everybody, because I always had to do another deal—you know, just to grind it out.”

Becoming an expert in the neighborhood allowed Josh to provide value to his clients—“people knew that I had expertise,” he said. “I joined the zoning committee, which taught me a lot about development—like, how things happen in the neighborhood. I joined a board for a local nonprofits that builds affordable housing, and chaired their real estate committee. I volunteered and really just tried to integrate myself in the community.”

Josh’s team, The Muncey Group, is widely known for the community events they plan and sponsor—they bring the likes of Thor and Spider‑Man to the neighborhood main street for Halloween; they offer face painting at the weekly food truck festival, sponsor the Latin Quarter World’s Fair, little league teams, and the farmer’s market. “The cool thing is that we’d be there even if we weren’t sponsoring it. It’s like where all of our friends and our network are hanging out anyway. So it’s kind of fun to integrate our lives with our work in a fun way.”

With the loss of in-person events during the pandemic, Josh was concerned how his business would fair. “Like everybody else, we initially thought to budget 50% revenue on the year.” It’s then when Josh made two major moves that led to a very different outcome than he anticipated.

Though he’d long been curious about Compass, it wasn’t until the spring of 2020 that Josh decided to make the move. “Compass has the right tools for a virtual agent, and we haven’t really looked back,” he says. Not long after joining, Josh began contemplating his role as team leader, and the skills he needed to develop to grow his team during a changing time. This is when Josh and the Muncey Team made their second big move of 2020: they joined Chirag Shah Coaching.

“There are so many team leaders that don’t have management experience or knowledge, “ Josh says, counting himself among that group. “They’re really good at sales. But they have no idea that management is this entirely different body of work. And so that’s been something that I’ve had to learn a lot about.” Josh has spent a lot of time learning “to have effective conversations with team members, and coming to conversations with empathy and understanding.”

With all the work Josh put into working on his team, it’s no wonder that 2020 looked much differently than he anticipated. “We feel very lucky and fortunate that we’ve had a very good outcome this year. It’s been very busy, but I recognize that it’s not that way for all businesses.” To help, Josh joined the board of the local main streets organization to see how he and his team can support the local businesses that make Jamaica Plain the place he loves to live and work so much.

As for the future, Josh wants to continue honing his leadership skills, “it’s been an area I’ve really enjoyed growing in, and didn’t anticipate it.” The work he has done with leadership coaching offered Josh a new perspective: “My mindset has shifted. I realized that my success can be the end result of a team around me, all being very successful.” Forever the community guy, Josh Muncey knows that his success is connected to making sure those around him are thriving as well.

Want to be part of Josh’s community? Follow The Muncey Group at @munceygroup