Kofi Nartey is the founder and chief executive of Globl Red, a Beverly Hills-based luxury brokerage firm. Known for his high-profile clientele base, consisting mainly of professional athletes including Michael Jordan and Kevin Durant, Nartey is no stranger to the sports and entertainment world.

He played football at University of California, Berkeley, where he signed with the Oakland Raiders as a free agent before getting injured, which cut his football career short.

And after moving to Los Angeles and building up an acting career for 10 years where he appeared in movies and TV shows such as “Psych,” “Fast & Furious” and “Kick-Ass,” Nartey decided to make a career shift in 2010 when his wife became pregnant with their first child and he wanted greater stability.

He committed to the world of residential real estate, where he worked his way up the ladder at several different brokerages, and found that his celebrity connections helped serve as an entry way for his niche practice.

In 2020, Nartey broke off to create his own firm and, in the three years since Globl Red was founded, it has experienced lots of growth – having grown from 4 agents to 22 and from $25 million in listing inventory to over $200 million.

The company has begun to venture into new markets, including Las Vegas, Arizona and the Bay Area, and recently partnered with Real Brokerage LLC, a cloud-based brokerage platform, where Nartey plans to open a luxury division.

Outside of making deals, Nartey prides himself on his coaching and mentorship abilities. He recently launched a co-listing program that allows agents around the globe to co-list luxury properties with him. He’s also the host of Full Mogul, a podcast that discusses strategies for unlocking success in both business and personal life.

Prior to founding Globl Red, you served as the founder and national director of Compass’ Sports and Entertainment Division and, before that, served as the director of the sports and entertainment division at The Agency. What influenced you to take a risk and branch out on your own?

With every change or shift or decision, there’s usually a push and a pull. You’re moving away from something that’s become less desirable or a pain point, or you’re also drawn to something that’s an opportunity. And I think that with the companies I’ve worked for, and I’ve helped developed, and I’ve helped them grow, and I’ve helped them expand, what’s happened at times is the companies grow beyond the original culture. They grow beyond the original feel. And sometimes you’ve exhausted the potential of something. I saw the writing on the wall where I was, but I also saw a greater opportunity to expand into a more robust real estate offering that actually captured core competency. It was time. It was time to grow and to build, and what better way to do it than to literally go global.

What are the challenges in not being affiliated with a major brokerage?

The challenges are that you’re on your own. You answer to yourself. Your accountability is to yourself. Fortunately for me, I have accountability, not just for myself, but to the agents who’ve joined Globl Red. I want to make sure that we can help them succeed, that we’re helping them realize their potential.

The other challenge is, just like any other business owner, wearing multiple hats. As a founder of a company and as a CEO of a company, you often have to put on a marketing hat. There are certain accounting things that I have to keep an eye on. There are certain HR things that come up that I have to have my hands in. Just like any other small business owner, we end up wearing a lot of different hats at different times, and hold that responsibility, to keep the company going, while holding the vision of the company and pushing for growth of the company but making sure that the infrastructure is in place to facilitate that growth.

A lot of your clients are professional sports and entertainment figures. What’s it like to represent such influential individuals?

I would say the most fun part of working with the type of clients that we work with is getting a glimpse into their process and their journey. When people are in sports and in entertainment, working from their gifts and realizing their potential, it’s a special thing to watch. It’s why people pay so much money to go watch sports and why people watch Academy Award-winning movies. They want to see that highest level of performance. Getting a little bit of a glimpse into what makes them tick and their personality traits (is fun). I feel like it’s cool getting to learn from each and every one of my clients. There’s genius built into these people that have succeeded or achieved high levels of success in their specific industries. Being able to take something off their plate, which is a real estate transaction that may not be their expertise but be in close proximity to them and their process of what they’re doing, I’d say that’s the most rewarding and most fun part.

How does your clientele base differentiate you from other boutique brokerage firms?

Because I’ve been focused on luxury sports and entertainment clients for so long, when you focus on something, you really develop a lot more expertise at it. You get to understand the nuances of working with that clientele: the nuances of their lifestyle, the nuances of getting them financed, the nuances of privacy and safety concerns. I’ve developed that (expertise) to one of the highest, if not the highest, levels in the country because I’ve been doing it for so long and I’ve also had the gift of teaching it to others.

How do you wish to be perceived as a broker?

I came up with this acronym for Kofi which is the King of Focused Impact. I want (my clients) to see me and see Globl Red, which is infused in my DNA, as a place to go to get results, but to get results that are filtered through inspirational excellence. How do we bring that inspirational excellence and inspirational impact to what we do on a daily basis (is my goal). I have the rhino in my office because the adult rhino has no natural predators. And I feel like I’m at a stage of my career that’s similar to the adult rhino right now. One of my favorite words that a client told us is that they felt protected with us. And that means that we know how to protect them legally, we know how to protect their interests and we know how to deliver on their goals. They felt protected. I thought that was a powerful word.

Globl Red recently expanded into new markets, including Las Vegas and Arizona. How do you assess which markets to venture into?

The initial push, our initial phase of expansion, is based on cities that have synergies and are feeder markets for each other. Las Vegas and Los Angeles (are) feeder markers; 50% of the people who buy in Las Vegas come from California. There’s just great synergy there and there has been for years. (Las Vegas is) one of the most quickly growing international cities in the world. High increase in sports. Already had a lot of entertainment, but now they have the NFL with the Raiders now there. They have WNBA, they have NHL, they’re on track to get NBA and MLB (teams). We’ll see that part of our business even have more roots (in Vegas) as (its sports scene) continues to expand. And we already have several high-profile entertainment clients who are in residency there. Our team is growing there, our reach is growing there, and we want to bring greater visibility to that market for exposing properties. And the same thing for Scottsdale and Phoenix. That’s been a luxury market for years. And for tax reasons and cost of living reasons, we see a lot of Los Angeles transplants move to Phoenix or move to Scottsdale because there’s a luxury market there that resonates with our brand. I’ve got ties to the sports teams there already, so we’ll be able to lock in with them as well.

What’s next for Globl Red?

We’re expanding into Northern California. We have, in the next three years, our sights on the balance of 10 cities. We’re looking at Dallas, New York, Miami and Atlanta as the next four that we’re targeting. We have global affiliates in a lot of other markets as well. We are also looking to continue to build our new development arm. And then, ultimately, we want to bring even commercial to Globl Red so that we can have a full-service real estate firm.