One of the most celebrated and influential athletes joined Tyler Christiansen at Forum with lessons on leadership and team building that echoed across conversations about the future of multifamily.

SCOTTSDALE, AZ — Becoming the best in the world takes more than raw talent and a desire to win.

No one knows that better than Mia Hamm.

An Olympic legend responsible for putting women’s soccer on the map in the U.S., two-time FIFA Women’s World Cup champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and one of the most dominant players in the history of the sport, Hamm helped define what excellence looks like at the highest level.

At Forum, she joined Funnel CEO Tyler Christiansen to discuss what it takes to build world-class teams, sustain performance under pressure, and raise the standard over time. 

As a player, Hamm defined what it meant to compete at the highest level through discipline, teamwork, and an unrelenting commitment to excellence. And she has helped build some of the greatest teams the world has ever seen.

As a three-time Olympic team captain and the face of the U.S. Women’s National Team for nearly two decades, Hamm understands what leadership takes on the world stage, and how to motivate teams to perform at their best with standards that are simple, but relentless: fitness, accountability, respect, and always putting the team first. 

Now retired, Hamm continues to give back as a leader in the soccer community. She is a co-owner of Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles FC (LAFC) and NWSL’s Angel City FC, and is actively involved in youth development through TeamFirst Soccer Academy and the Mia Hamm Foundation. 

Her perspective offered a different lens on a challenge multifamily operators are actively working through, how to build teams that perform consistently at scale.

Mia Hamm multifamily leadership

Leading the world’s best

That same idea carried into Forum, where the conversation centered on one question: what does “world-class” really look like in multifamily?

“At Funnel this year, we elevated our mission,” Christiansen said during his opening keynote, explaining Funnel’s company ethos for the last five years was to create a better renter experience by enabling the new operating model. “We genuinely believe deep down in our hearts that we are in a position to create the world’s best renter experience.”

Hamm said a key part of building world-class teams is identifying individual strengths and setting standards based on the individual, instead of forcing pieces into place.

“Leadership is really vital in terms of what standards we can manipulate to help us get to the next level,” Hamm said. “What do we value as a team, and we build from there, and look at the different components that make up our team.”

That idea showed up everywhere at Forum.

“That’s what this conference is all about,” Christiansen said. “Coming together as a group and finding ways through leadership to really elevate the service that we deliver to our customers.”

Through three days of panels and thought leadership, operators at Forum concluded that no two organizations are following a single blueprint for centralization or AI. Instead, they’re designing operating models around their people, their portfolios, and their goals.

Building talented teams

At companies like BH, ranked No. 11 on the NMHC Top Managers list with more than 93k units across 42 states, that shift is showing up in how teams are structured.

High-performing onsite operators are moving into specialized roles where they can have the biggest impact, whether that’s lead management, renewals, or resident experience. Instead of asking one person to do everything, teams are being built around strengths.

At BH, that approach has already delivered measurable results. The company saw a 40% reduction in employee turnover in centralized roles as teams moved into more focused positions with clearer ownership and less administrative burden.

“When everything’s important, nothing’s really getting the traction that it needs,” said Christi Weinstein, BH Chief Operating Officer, during the panel focused on the evolution of BH’s Mint Experience. “I think that’s why we saw incredible gains by saying, okay, this is your specialty, and take the pride and ownership of that.”

It’s the same idea Hamm described, just applied to operations instead of athletics. When people are put in positions where they can contribute and grow, consistency follows.

“It’s important for leadership and all teammates to take the time to really know their players and understand how they’re motivated,” Hamm said. “Both emotionally and physically, our teams that were successful were the teams that were steady. No moments of instability and players coming in and out.”

Focus drives performance

In 1996, Hamm was 24 years old and preparing for a moment that would change women’s sports in the United States. No stranger to winning at the highest level, Hamm had already won with Team USA at the 1991 FIFA Women’s World Cup in China, and four consecutive NCAA championships at North Carolina. 

But women’s soccer was still fighting for visibility, and the Atlanta Games would mark the first time women’s soccer was included on the Olympic stage. 

Hamm recalled the pool of 40 of the top American players all vying for the final roster of 16 that would see the field on the Olympic pitch. And every day was a competition. 

“Whether that player plays one minute, or every minute of the entire tournament, they are just as committed to their role as they possibly can be,” Hamm said. “They understood what their value was to the team, and they fully embraced it.”

We learned at Forum the same clarity in understanding who owns what and where strengths lie is how many multifamily operators are now designing into their leasing organizations.

The Morgan Properties team, No. 3 ranking on the NMHC Top Owners list with over 100,000 properties across 22 states, realized that restructuring around specialization and clearly defining roles across the leasing journey helped to align teams to focus on specific parts of the leasing funnel, resulting in a closing ratio 51% higher than industry benchmarks with the implementation of a centralized team. 

“If people are specialized, they can really maximize every interaction that you put in front of them,” said Brandon Gaeta, Vice President of Customer Acquisition at Morgan Properties, discussing Life after the default operating model on a Forum panel. “We really wanted to focus on tasks that serve those residents and assets.”

After specializing roles and leveraging AI, Morgan saw a 31% increase in conversions from inquiry to application, and application decisions made 55% faster. 

And spoiler, the U.S. Women’s Olympic team won gold in the 1996 Olympics after Hamm’s quick rehab for a high ankle sprain in the quarterfinals. 

Everyone carries the water

A year before Hamm’s appearance in the ‘96 Olympics, she appeared with Team USA in the FIFA World Cup tournament, where she had a different kind of challenge—a career first (and thankfully, she said, a definitive last), taking over as emergency goalkeeper on an international stage. 

Team USA goalkeeper Briana Scurry received a red card in the last 10 minutes of their group stage match against Denmark. With no more available subs, Hamm heard her name called from the sideline.

Hamm donned a hodge-podged keeper uniform, borrowing Scurry’s jersey, and Saskia Webber’s gloves, and stepped in goal. With a 2-0 cushion, the first shot Hamm faced was a direct free kick. She thought: “I don’t know what I’m doing, but for the next 10 minutes, I know I have to play in goal in a World Cup game.”

At Forum, Christiansen explained Funnel organization observes a similar core value, Prosocial, meaning everyone sweeps the floor and works together across boundaries to meet the needs of our clients, team members, and community. 

“What does it tell the rest of the team if my number nine striker is willing to strap on an oversized goalie jersey and oversized keeper gloves to help win the game?” Christiansen asked. 

“It was reluctant,” Hamm said. “But you just do what you do for your team, if you feel so defined by your title and don’t have the flexibility to know or to see what your team needs at the team to step in, you’re going to see a lapse in performance.”

She faced two shots, made two saves, and she reminded the room that she has the lowest goals against average in World Cup history. 

“It was the longest 10 minutes of my soccer career. It is (now) kinda funny—but it wasn’t funny until the game was over,” Hamm said. 

“You call it sweeping the floor, we said carry the water,” Hamm said. Recalling her longtime teammate Carla Overbeck literally carrying the water off the field after training sessions at UNC. Overbeck played alongside Hamm and captained Team USA for nearly two decades, and in 2022, U.S. Soccer established the Carla Overbeck Leadership Award, honoring individuals who show a similar commitment to serving others and collaborating within the soccer community.

“There was no job that she felt was ‘beneath her’, and she actually felt it was her responsibility to show all of us what it meant to be a leader,” Hamm said. “And that’s standing up in the most difficult of moments and shielding us from uncomfortable situations as well as physically carrying the water.”

Elmington, a third-party manager, ranked No. 42 on NMHC Top Managers list with 38,000 units, said during a panel on strategic career planning that they are leaning into a similar philosophy, building a culture where internal mobility is expected and encouraged. Growth isn’t reserved for a select few, it’s something employees are invited into.

“It was a great opportunity to be able to pour into the people that are out here on the front lines,” said DeAnna Moore, President at Emington, on her organization’s upward mobility engine that promotes centralized teams from a pool of motivated onsite individuals. “You raise your hand, you continue to excel. We’ve created an environment that really allows for that. It allows for an entrepreneurial spirit, which is something that’s special about our company.”

Setting teams up for future success

Hamm’s impact on the soccer community spanned far beyond the years she spent on the field.

When she retired in 2004, she held the international goal-scoring record for men’s or women’s soccer with 158 goals in 276 games. The record stood for nearly a decade until 2013, when her former teammate Abby Wambach surpassed it.

Today, Christine Sinclair holds the record with 190 international goals, a reflection of how far the women’s game has progressed since Hamm hung up her cleats.

“People ask me if I am upset when Abby broke my scoring record,” Hamm said. “Of course not. That’s what we want to happen.”

Since Hamm’s Olympic and World Cup runs, women’s soccer has reached a new level of visibility and investment, with today’s U.S. teams benefiting from resources that didn’t exist just a generation ago.

“We were just trying to get real cheddar cheese slices at lunch,” Hamm said, recalling a recent visit to the team’s new training facility, complete with a smoothie bar and barista.

That’s what it means to build something world-class. You don’t just optimize for today. You build a foundation that allows the next generation to perform at an even higher level.

“We’re so happy for them,” she said. “There’s a direct link to us for pushing for better standards and they’re getting it. That only helps their performance because all the things they don’t have to think about are provided.”

The goal wasn’t just to win in the moment. It was to raise the standard so the next generation could perform at an even higher level.

Operators are now facing a similar moment in multifamily.

As operations shift to centralized models supported by specialized roles and AI embedded into daily workflows, the foundation teams build today determines how effectively they scale tomorrow.

At ZRS, a third-party property management firm ranked No. 13 on the NMHC Top Managers list, overseeing approximately 92,000 units nationwide, that meant making the decision to move quickly off underperforming technology and execute a large-scale implementation in weeks, not months, unlocking better workflows and performance across their portfolio.

“We hung on to an underperforming CRM for far too long,” said Jackie Impellitier, ZRS Chief Operating Officer, during the closing Forum panel on the transition from reactive AI to agentic systems. “Moving to Funnel wasn’t just a better version; it was like a completely different way to operate.”

Swapping out a system of record isn’t just a technology decision. It’s an operational reset, one that requires fully leaning into centralization and agentic AI. Workflows, ownership, training, and expectations all have to be redefined at once.

In partnership with the Funnel team, ZRS onboarded 280 properties in just five weeks, all during the month of December. The team started 2026 with a clean slate and rapidly saw a 115% increase in scheduled tours and a 227% increase in completed and walk-in tours per property versus their previous CRM.

Bet on the future of multifamily

Forum brought together more than 150 of the industry’s top operators and forward thinkers, all aligned on one thing: the next era of multifamily will be defined by centralization, AI, and the human experience working together.

Like soccer, multifamily is evolving.

Teams go through cycles. There are moments of pressure, setbacks, and uncertainty. But the ones that sustain performance over time are the ones that invest early—building the right foundation, putting the right people in the right roles, and setting standards that hold as the game changes around them.

That’s what Hamm and her teams understood.

“Losing and failure are always part of the equation,” Hamm said. “You can do everything in training to minimize that, but nothing is guaranteed. I relish the expectations of others. I do so knowing we set those standards, comfort, and sense of control in what we do. But as a fan of the game, I want the game to keep evolving… I love the game so much, I want there to be a better player than me.”

That mindset, building not just for today, but for what comes next, is exactly what operators are now applying to their businesses.

At Greystar, the largest apartment manager in the US, managing roughly 950,000 units and owning more than 122,000 communities worldwide, scaling AI across the largest portfolio in the nation has reinforced a critical lesson: the decisions made today need to support flexibility tomorrow.

After testing multiple bolt-on solutions, the team found that AI only delivers meaningful impact when it’s embedded directly into the system of record, not layered on around it.

“The importance of AI native to CRM is a key lesson learned for us,” said Melody Reid, Managing Director, Property Systems Engagement at Greystar. “It’s really how they apply the LLMs to the technology to become truly agentic that again I think is going to be the needle mover.”

And the results go beyond scale and show up in consistency. In 2025, AI supported 3.5 million messages across the Greystar portfolio, many after hours, and earned a 62% containment rate where AI fully resolves the interaction.

“That is three and a half million times someone didn’t drop the ball,” Reid said.

That’s three and a half million touches and three and a half million plays executed exactly as a world class renter experience is designed.

What Mia Hamm’s career reveals about multifamily today

The lesson from Hamm’s career outlines what it takes to sustain excellence as the game evolves.

The teams that stay on top aren’t the ones that stand still. They raise the standard, build systems that support it, and create the conditions for the next generation to go even further.

That’s the same shift happening across multifamily right now, and shaping the conversations at Forum.

Operators aren’t just reacting to change. They’re redesigning how their teams operate, how their technology supports them, and how the renter experience is delivered at scale.

Because building the world’s best renter experience isn’t about one moment, one tool, or one team.

It’s about setting a standard that holds, no matter how the game changes.

And then raising it again.