Building a successful team means supporting that team, real estate and marketing professionals said during a conference in downtown Wilmington on Thursday.

"We have been willing to take on new agents because I believe in personal development," said Sherri Ingle of Wilmington-based real estate firm Intracoastal Realty Corp. "And I started as a brand new agent on a team and grew into an agent that just loves what she does. And it's worked out well for me and my family."

Ingle was the moderator during a discussion titled, "How to Build a Brand & a Team," held during a real estate and marketing intensive that started Thursday morning at the Embassy Suites convention center hotel. The intensive was part of Rise & Shine hosted by Wilmington company The Inspiration Lab, founded by Stephanie Lanier, who is also the owner of real estate firm Lanier Property Group.

The event began with The Inspiration Lab's signature conference at the Wilmington Convention Center on Wednesday, with 325 women attending. About 140 attended Thursday's real estate and marketing intensive.

Lanier kicked Thursday's discussions off with a talk titled "The Juggle is Real: Successfully Integrating Your Personal and Professional Lives," using brightly colored balls to illustrate her point, including that when you drop one, you can pick it back up and keep going. She and other speakers also shared advice such as, "Self-care is not selfish; it's strategic."

During the branding and team-building session, the president of Wilmington-based Tribute Properties and others talked about their view of what it takes to build a team that can thrive. Maria Pietroforte, who as president oversees the operations of more than 6,000 apartments across North Carolina and South Carolina for Tribute Properties, said she uses the upside down pyramid approach.

"I really believe that the best leaders put themselves at the bottom of that pyramid," she said. "My job is to support the team, and you attract better team members, I believe, with that philosophy. And what that really means is that I need to listen to the team through any obstacle that's in their way from being successful, figure out what makes them tick [and ask] how can you help them be successful?

"Because the more your team is successful, you're successful."

Ingle explained why her team at Intracoastal Realty Corp. is called The Rising Tide Team.

"We chose the name because a rising tide lifts all boats," Ingle said. "Our goal is to lift each other up so we have built our team around that philosophy."

She said a team has to be able to adapt.

"This business is constantly changing," Ingle said of real estate. "So we have to be constantly changing and growing."

That change can bring challenges and benefits.

"I think that there is a shift happening," said another panelist, Molly McKinley, founder of Intentionaliteas, "and that is when we see each other as collaborators and not as competition."