Blaze Your Own Trail - From Teacher to Top Real Estate Agent: Jamie Parker's Journey

Episode Date: December 23, 2024

Takeaways The importance of mentors and personal development in shaping one's career The value of discipline and excellence in achieving success The impact of overcoming obstacles and challenges The role of formative years in shaping one's character and values Transitioning from a career in education to real estate can provide better financial opportunities and a better quality of life. Building relationships and being active on social media are key to success in the real estate industry. Being responsive and accessible to clients is crucial for building trust and credibility. Sharing meaningful content on social media helps potential clients get to know you and your values. Don't be afraid to ask for referrals from your sphere of influence. Authenticity and integrity are important qualities for real estate agents. Chapters00:00 Introduction and Background03:08 Formative Years and Personal Development09:20 Challenges and Overcoming Obstacles16:02 Lessons in Discipline and Excellence18:47 Teaching in a Low-Performing School20:49 Challenges in the Education System25:15 Transitioning to a Higher Expectations Environment30:26 From Teacher to Real Estate Agent32:22 Tips for Starting a Real Estate Career36:45 Building Relationships and Showing AuthenticityConnect with Jamie:WebsiteInstagramFacebookLinkedIn TikTokConnect with Jordan:LinkedInInstagramTikTokJoin Jordan's weekly Group Coaching Community Risk Free  Installing strategic sales systems & processes will stop the constant revenue rollercoaster you might be facing which is attainable through our 6 Week Blazing Business Revenue Coaching ProgramBook a discovery call with Jordan now to learn more! Are you an entrepreneur?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop to take action!Use code: FOUNDING100 for 12 months access FREE and Founding pricing for life! (While Supplies Last)Join now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. My name is Jordan Mendoza. I'm your host, and I've got a very special guest today. His name is Jamie Parker, and I'm going to have him tell you a little bit about who he is and what he does today. Thank you for having me on, Jordan. It's a pleasure to get to be a guest on something I listen to, so that's amazing. So my background is actually pretty extensive. I was a school teacher in the Metro Atlanta area.

So I have three degrees in education from Georgia State and the University of Georgia. And I taught orchestra for about 17 years in music. And I was actually a technology coordinator, kind of like a pseudo administrator for a little bit. Then I got into real estate part time while I was still teaching so that my kid's mom could stay home to be a stay-at-home on.

So that's what kind of launched me into real estate. I love teaching. I love working with the kids. I love the coaching and all that kind of stuff that we got to do as a teacher. But ultimately as a future parent at that point, I didn't have children at that point. But as for our future decided to make a shift and do real estate just part-time, I'd always done a little bit of a side hustle growing up. I sold baseball cards in order to get my Nintendo.

I taught private lessons even while I was in college. I would buy and sell instruments. I was always doing something, do a little bit of hustle. on the side, so to speak. That's great. Basically, what happened is my side hustle became my main hustle. So I did real estate for seven of my 17 and a half years of teaching. I got my first deal.

I was playing a concert with when Ben Vareen was here in town. Actually, it was Bobby Vinton. I'm sorry. Bobby Vinton was here in town. And I got blessed and honored to get a chance to play on his show. And while I was there, I just talked to one of the musicians. I was like, hey, man, guess what? I just got my real estate way.

She said, great, you're going to sell my house. And that's how it all started. That's great. Actually, my first transaction was not selling his house. I got somebody that called off the sign for that house. And that was my first transaction. Actually, I would sell his house after that. But that's how it all started.

Yeah, that's great. I appreciate you giving some context there. And we're going to dive into some of these stories. My favorite part of the show is really taking a rewind. So we want to get context into who you all. are as a human, right? Let's talk about little Jamie. And so if you can share it the audience, where were you born and raised? And then you alluded to a little bit of the kind of kid that you were in the side hustle stuff and selling baseball cards. But what other stuff did you get

into? Did you play any sports? I know that you got into instruments and things like that. But just give the audience a little context into the formative years. So, you know, elementary, middle, and then into high school. Yeah, absolutely. So I grew up in Marietta, Georgia. My parents, moved here when I was four years old. I was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in the East Cobb Marietta area, went to Pope High School. So all through elementary school,

not honestly really a great experience. It was very short, like really short. I had some issues with my feet. I had to wear these really awful-looking orthopedic shoes that, of course, I got made fun of incessantly. I was short, and I had orthopedic shoes. A double whammy there. There was a bully that lived across the street,

and he would bully me at the bus stop every morning. There was another bully. We had a couple bullies in the neighborhood. So not really the best elementary school experience. I did have great parents, though. So I did have great parents, very supportive, loving parents. They were at every baseball game, which I was really terrible, baseball, like really bad. But they still came and I was their kid and they still supported the little bit of playing time.

I did get a chance to play because the coach had to play me because I was. was the rules. But yeah, they were there always for everything. And my mom is, my dad's past. My dad passed of COVID. But my mom is still here and she still tries to attend every if I'm playing at a concert or I have an event or, you know, my kids have something going on. You know, she's still there. So, you know, growing up elementary school wasn't really the best experience. Middle school, probably similar experience in middle school. But that is when I decided to pick up an instrument. And so we got to, I remember they were like showing us all the different instruments.

And I was sitting next to, I had a friend. And so I'm like really small and he was like really, really tall and a little overweight. So you had the shrimp and the overweight kid. And we're sitting next to each other. And I was like, hey, bud, I bet you if we'll play the saxophone, we'll be cool. I mean, come on. Saxophone is a cool instrument. It's in rock bands and it's in all this stuff.

We'll just be cool if we pick saxophone. We'll get into the cruel crowd if that's what we pick. So long so we're short, that's what we picked. I literally picked the saxophone because I thought it would make me cool. And I wanted to get into that crowd because I'd always been picked on. It'd always been harassed and everything. It turned out I was pretty good. I had a good, reasonably good experience in band there.

and then I met one of my mentors, met one of my mentors right there, which was the band director at the high school, Gary Gribble. And he just would come to the middle school. He would talk to us, got us all excited about what was going to happen over at Pope High School and what band was going to be like and what marching band was going to be like. So very, very exciting. And for those you don't know, Pope High School is one of the best marching bands in the entire United States. I didn't know that at the time, but it is.

and came over to Pope and my first year I won I think most improved most improved rookie or some kind of most improved award got recognized started competing for made district honor honor band tried out for Allstate never made Allstate but at least tried out and that was when I first got introduced

to personal development was through Gary Gribble he had this guy Dr. Tim Loudenheiser and he would come in and either speak to us directly or he would bring us to them. I remember we went down to Westminster at a field trip one day to go here, Dr. Tim, teach. And that was the first time I'd ever really heard about personal development and developing yourself and how you need to be. Also, Mr. Grible would do leadership camps. So we would have leadership. If you wanted to be an officer in the band, you had to go through a week-long camp to see if you were worthy to be an officer in the band.

And, of course, everybody wanted to be an officer in the band. those of us that were driven, wanted to be an officer in the band. And we would go through these camps, and I did not get picked my sophomore year, I did not get picked my junior year, I finally got picked my senior year to be an officer. And that really, that was one of my first leadership things. And in the meantime, I was practicing for my college scholarship. My sophomore year, my parents had sent me up to Yale for a saxophone war trap with Sigrid Rasher, who is known as basically he's a virtuoso.

So all the literature, classical saxophone literature, there is actually such thing as classical saxophone. There actually is, there are symphonies and concertives and things that use classical saxophone. It's not a lot, but it is a thing. And all the repertoire was written for him. I went to Yale, went to his workshop, and then I met the professor, ex-phone professor down at University of Southern Mississippi. And we became friends and through the years.

And then I ended up trying out for a scholarship at University of Mississippi. I got a music scholarship to go there. And that's how I ended up going to Mississippi. And then so fast forward to college, my freshman year in Mississippi, I won the Mississippi Music Teachers' concerto competition from my division level. I played the Glasinov Concerto. And then I met my kid's mom there. And then we moved to Georgia State.

and we stayed there for a year and then got scholarship to Georgia State, music scholarship, and finished up my bachelor's at Georgia State. So that's kind of my journey through college. That's great. I got a chance to do a lot of good things, even in college, played in the Wind Ensemble, was first chair there. I got a lot of great opportunities to play jazz band, played the Rialto Theater downtown because we went to Georgia State.

So lots of great experiences. And then I got my first job after I graduated. Very cool. Teaching for DeKalb County Schools, teaching orchestra. Well, I think a lot of people can relate to elementary and middle school, right? I mean, there's going to be bullies. There's going to be things going on. For me, I was short too, but I was also, we were really poor.

So like secondhand clothes and shoes falling apart. So I would get made up for stuff like that. But those things happen, unfortunately, but they kind of help shape and mold us and build up some character. And they also show us what our values are. And I'm sure as those things are happening, you just kind of, you know, had to set yourself on some firm foundations and just, uh, keep plugging away. And you mentioned mentors and you mentioned your teacher that really invested in you and, and kind of showed you what personal development was. So how impactful would you say that

that's been for your career to this day, having someone at a, in an early age, invest in you and show you that there's other possibilities out there. It's been invaluable. I mean, I was just doing a speech yesterday at our Toastmasters Group, and the topic of the speech was protege. Who are you a protege of? And, of course, I listed three people, Jesus, then him. And then there's another lady, April Consuelo. When you just think about, I think about the lessons that I've learned.

I think about the lessons that I've learned throughout my high school careers. So one of the things of Mr. Grimmel that always stood out to me is if you're on time, you're late. And during, during rehearsal, we'd be outside marching band to be hot as all get out. And for those who don't know marching band, you have like, his show is made up of sets. And then you put all the sets together to create the show. So you would rehearse a set, then go back to your original spot. You would rehearse a set, go back to your original spot. And so we would have to run between sets.

And it was unacceptable to walk or rest between sets. Keep in mind, this is Georgia, it's hot out. And I never, and we were all just, well, of course, we were all just mumbling and complaining and you know, no one was really happy about having to do that. One day he's, he's like, okay, you don't like it? No problem. I'm going to give you guys some time off, but here's the deal. You get off, but you have to go to one of the surrounding schools.

And I want you to watch their rehearsal. And then I want you to take a watch and time, how much time they waste by not running back and forth between sets. And so sure, I went to the neighboring high school, competing high school, and they had a two-hour rehearsal and 30 minutes was wasted because they walked and chatted and chit-chatted and dilly-dallyed going between sets. So they literally lost, they literally lost 30 minutes of rehearsal time just by doing that. And so it was a great lesson is I didn't understand why at the time we had to do this because it was a pain of the butt. You're tired, you're sweaty, you're thirsty, see, you really just want to talk to your friends.

But it was a discipline to be excellent. In order to be excellent, we had to maximize, we had two hours to rehearse. And we had to get as much done during those two hours as we possibly could. Because time is the only thing in life we can't get back. That's another thing. That showed me time, you can't get that time back. So whatever we're doing, this time I'm spending with you, Jordan, this time I spend with my children, this time you're going to spend with your children.

When Kai, if he ever gets off of a if he ever gets off a fortnight today, maybe he'll actually acknowledge you. No, you're like, no, he's not going to. But that's the things that we don't get back. So I learned I learned discipline. You're just stood still. Like when you, if you weren't on a set,

if they called you to attention, guess what? Attention was attention. That's like military. And I'm no joke. Like, you had to, you had to stay still, like perfectly still. If you had an itch on your face, it didn't matter. You just had to keep, you just had to keep going. You just had to keep rolling. And so that's, those are just some really, I don't want to say it was like military over there. There wasn't anything close to military. But there were some military type things that create a discipline in us that I still use today. I'll be at the

gym and they're like, okay, you've got, you're halfway through. And I was like, man, I can do anything for 15 seconds. I can do anything for 10 seconds. Yeah, it hurts. My abs hurt, my legs hurt. It's hurts. I can do anything for 10 seconds or 15. I can push through. And those are just, I really believe some of that discipline came back through there through what happened in high school. And the other thing, too, is to overcome, I was a sopping 67 pounds when I got the high school. Like 67 pounds and not, not anywhere close to five feet tall. Yeah. I look like I looked like I was in elementary school when I got the high school. So I had to overcome all of those, all of those things. I didn't grow until my junior year. So I was literally a shrimp, like I'd always been a shrimp, but I was a real

shrimp, especially in high school, had to hang around. Fortunately, I was able to hang around some athletes and some other things that were in band and they kind of looked out for me if anybody was picking on me. I just had to go tap a shoulder, hey, you know, he's bothering me. Oh, we'll take care of it. You know, that kind of thing. He was like there was one guy that was like six, six, six, five on the baseball team. All I had to do was like, Andy, go take care of this. And he would just, he would, he would, he would make sure he's taken care of. He's one of the biggest, tallest kids in the school. So, yeah, you had to overcome just so many, so many things along the way. But what I learned from Mr. Grible is, you know, discipline and excellence, excellence.

Excellence. You had to do it excellently. So many of the groups. schools around us, they were good, but they weren't excellent. They were good, good programs, but they weren't excellent. They weren't exceptional. And there was a different thing that you had to do in order to become exceptional. You had to take it to that next level. You had to run between the sets. You had to spend the extra time playing musically, learning how to play musicily. It wasn't just about being loud. I mean, anybody can go out and blast and be loud. But musically, where you could actually hear, you could actually hear the other, the woodwinds, the flutes, the clarinets, the saxon, it wasn't just didn't sound like trumpets and trombones playing the whole time and drums.

So just lots of, lots of things that we can take away because we don't sometimes pay attention to the little nuances in our lives. There's so many little things that we need to pay attention to that somebody's paying attention to and that's why they are where they are. 100%. Yeah, now that's great. Great lessons and definitely things to for other people to put into perspective that might listen to this and they might think back to experiences that they had and see, okay, how do I extract this? Because like you said, when it's hot and you're a teenager, like, of course you don't want to do it, you know. But when you have somebody and that he probably is somebody that inspects what he expected, right? So he was tell you something,

but he was making sure it was actually done. And if it wasn't, you had to do it over again, right? And there's something about reps, right? When we put in reps, whether it's reps on the field for band or it's reps in the gym or it's reps at whatever it is that you want to excel at, those reps, each time you do one, you're getting better every single time and it's becoming ingrained as part of your process. And I can imagine that those reps are what really helped you, especially going out and getting your first job, right? you had this foundation that you were taught of what excellence and what greatness look like.

And so you want to try to live up to that. So I'd love for you to share, what was that first job that you got after graduating at Georgia State? Yeah, so my first job was teaching for DeKalb County schools. And I taught in multiple different schools. I was the roaming orchestra teacher, so to speak. And they had the between, I think, anywhere from five to six schools at any given time. Of course, I had a homeschool. And then I had other schools I would report to.

The interesting thing is, of course, this would never happen today. But the interesting thing is that orchestra was a pullout class. So they missed social studies or science in order to take orchestra with me. So you can imagine how thrilled the principals were to have me there. Because, of course, they get test scores on, they get standardized test scores. on social studies and science, not on orchestra. Yeah. I had to teach in the cafeteria during lunch.

I taught in janitor's closets. I'm not really joking. I'm really serious. This is where I taught. I would have to teach in classrooms and reset the classrooms up. I was told by one of the principals, just do what the band director does it because he had been there for like forever. So I did what the band director does.

And my first year, I was done at 1130 every day. Like, because nobody wanted me. Like, nobody really wanted me to be there that teach their kids. I was like, oh, my gosh, this is just so not. It's the opposite of teaching. You know. It was the opposite of teaching. And it's not excellent.

It's not doing things the way I was taught. So you were basically seeing mediocrity, you know, you were used to excellence, you know. And that's where that created a disconnect. It was. So he was below that. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think one of the schools I was at, literally their Iowa test scores were in the 19th percentile. 19th.

And it was just, I remember my first, was my first week at one of the schools, and this teacher pulls me in this little, she's like in her mid-50s, and she's like, hey, look at this letter. I was like, okay. And it was a girl that wrote a letter to a boy, and it was pretty much X-rated. and I was like, oh my goodness, like seventh grade kids are like writing stuff like this. And I was like, oh my goodness, it was just a total. Yeah. They didn't, I hate to say it, but Georgia State didn't prepare you for that. They didn't prepare you for a non-ideal situation.

They didn't prepare you for what teaching in a true title one school was. They didn't teach you any of that. I taught, I did my student teaching at Roswell High School, which is a great, very, very, very, upper end very high performing school and i went to a high performing school growing up yeah and went to georgia state which was a good music program i didn't go to a spot that didn't have that same culture shock i mean literally culture shock yeah in your own in your own city which is crazy think about yeah yeah it was just basically survival is really what it was they weren't teaching they were surviving they were just trying to survive the kids because the kids didn't

have any home training they didn't have the background knowledge they we had kindergarten kids that didn't even know their ABCs coming into the kindergarten, but yet, you know, the expectation was that that's what they're supposed to know. They're supposed to know their ABCs are supposed to have certain things. I mean, you think about your own kids. You have young ones and you think about what they know. 100%. You know, by the time before they ever hit pre-K, they already knew quite a bit of stuff.

We have five. Our kids, they get smart by like one, you know, around here. Yeah, yeah, they see so many other examples. Yeah, exactly. They pay attention. And so, yeah, our four-year-olds are smartest kid in the house, right? Because he just learns from everybody, he watches everybody, parrots everybody.

So he just kind of knows it all and runs the place, right? So, yeah, I couldn't imagine if you're basically climbing an uphill battle essentially, right? Every day where we're going against the grain versus with the grain. And so when did the transition happen where you got out of that type of environment where you're basically a floater when nobody wants you? You're floating around and basically either getting put into tumultuous circumstances or less than ideal situations. When did you say enough's enough? Like I need to go into a different environment here. I decided to, I was only there for a few months.

And then I decided to go back to school and did my master's because, again, I was done at 1130 every day. What was I going to do? And I want you to think about this. This was like 1998. That part of DeKalb County had no computers, no offices. Now, I had friends that were teaching Gwenette that had Lotus Notes, IBM computers, their own personal offices, their own, they had money that was coming to them to fix instruments and stuff like that.

We had nothing. I mean, can you imagine, I hate to say, but no email in 1998, there was no email. We had no way to communicate, no way to do anything. So literally, I was on one. if they're not going to give me any of that, I'm just going to go if I can get my degree. And so there was a cohort that was starting at University of Georgia that they were going to come to Gwinnett. So I just signed up for the cohort and started doing my master's in educational leadership. I wanted to be a principal that was my, or an assistant principal, that was my goal.

And so one of those schools did have a principal that kind of invested in me and would let me do the, got to be on the paper for performance things that she did. She would give me some various administrative tasks because I was bored out of my mind, just to be perfectly honest. If I wasn't doing my master's work, I literally had no place to go. Finally, she was nice enough to give me a trailer. So at least I had a trailer. There's nothing in it, but at least I had a trailer. At least I had a trailer with some chairs and I could go sit there and do my work. I do my course work.

So while I was doing my master's degree, I was in my school law program, and I met an assistant principal at one of the Gwinnett schools. and I'd heard through the grapevine that there was a position open at that school, and I approached him about it in class. And he's like, we do have that position open? I was like, oops. So he didn't even know there was going to be a position. He didn't know that the teacher was going to leave. But I had heard that she was.

So back at that time, they were trying to get you to sign your contract really early because they were trying to keep teachers from leaving DeKal. And so they hurried up and interviewed me and hired me before. like literally I don't think it was barely 24 hours or 36 hours before the contract I had to have my contract turned in for the cab so I got I got hired on in Gwinnett way different experience I had my own room I had instruments I had a budget I like a $10,000 year repair budget I had it was like it was like oh my gosh I thought like it died and gone to heaven you know this is what I thought I was going to be like such a different experience and it wasn't and I wasn't at a high performing

school in Gwinnett either. Like it was a higher performing school. It was still a title one school. There was that really low level tie to one and this was kind of like a mid level. So it was definitely a step up and I had some amazing kids over there. So I remember my first year. I had this one girl and she, her and there was another boy that was in the class. They ended up getting married. They met in my class and ended up getting married. Now he is the he is the pharmacist at Sam's Club that I go see. And then she's an optometrist and yeah, I brought my kids to see her.

So it's kind of funny how things come, how things come full circle. Absolutely. But I had a good experience over there. And that was definitely much better, much, much higher expectations. And going at a higher,

higher standard of what they expected from their, what they expected from their staff and what they also expected from their students. Yeah. Even if it was a title one school. Okay. That's great. So at what point in,

this career. So now you're in Gounet, you got better circumstances, a budget, better situations. At what point did you decide to start doing real estate? What was it that stuck out about it? Or was there someone in your influence that said, hey, maybe this is something you should try? Because I'd love to kind of know how it all started. Sure. So we bought our, would have been our third house in 2005. So I bought my first house when I was 22, then four years later sold it and then sold that house. And I bought my house in 2005. So when I got that house, a couple of things were going on at that time.

I had seen how much money he made when he sold us that house. I was like, man, I'm going to work for three months. And all you do was stick me in the back of your car and take me to go see houses. And that doesn't seem very hard. And you made like literally, you made like $10,000. and one shot. And I'd never seen a $10,000 check before, Jordan. Like, I'm a school teacher.

I get $3,000. I wasn't even barely getting $3,000 a month, let alone $10,000 check at one time. So that was the first thing. And then the other thing is that I was in a church class. It was a diet. It was called Dynamic Marriages. And at the time, I was so married to the kid's mom. And, you know, one of the things that they talk to us about is, like, husbands,

if you don't make enough money for your wives to stay home, then you may want to think about doing something else. And some of them you're like, that's so old school, that's so old fashioned. Why would they say that? Whatever. But it did get me, I didn't like quit, but I just added on.

I didn't add on. So I, since I had alluded earlier, that I'd always done some side hustles. So I just started real estate as my side hustle. My daughter was born in 2006. She's our miracle child. We were not supposed to be able to have kids.

And we ended up now. we have her in 2006 and 27 months later we had another one that popped along and so while she was still crawling on the floor and in diapers I was studying online to get my real estate license which can only imagine what like online learning was like in like 2006 it was so boring yeah however i did yeah you know talking about it is this it's like a PowerPoint slide is very basic got my real estate license in February 2007. And at that point, I was at a different school and one at. And, yeah, I just started.

Like I said, I already kind of alluded to it. My first sale a little bit earlier was playing a gig and sold him one of the musicians. And then my next sale, it was one of the teachers at the school. And then he referred me to somebody else who referred me to somebody else who referred me to somebody else. I just talked to one of those somebody else's two days ago. Yeah. So we're still, we're still in contact. So you're getting closer to that first $10,000 check, it sounds like all those referrals, right? Yeah, yeah, we're getting closer. However, what happens was like 2008. That's what happened. Yep. Yeah, 2008 happens. I got my license is 07 and 08. And we were just so, so blessed, just a couple of as an aside. So when we moved to our third house, we actually were renting out our other house. This is what caused a lot of this bubble. We were fine. fine. We did it right, but a lot of people didn't. So we rented out the previous house and

that they did not count it against your debt to income ratio, which was super risky for the banks. Oh, I have a lease. Here it is. Okay. We're going to go, okay, it doesn't count against you anymore. You got a lease. I mean, we have had no payments been made on that lease. They don't know if it's going to be a good tenant or not. But they were like, oh, yeah, you can just go. And we'll give you 100% financing on your next house. It has exactly what we did. We used 100. It was an 80-10-10 loan, which they don't even do those anymore, but it was an 80-10-10 loan. We went ahead and got 100% financing on our next house, rented out our first house. And, of course, first month, they were late on the rent. First month. So we just moved into a

bigger house with a more expensive mortgage, and now I'm paying a mortgage there and a mortgage there. Fast forward a couple years. We ended up selling that house one month before the market crashed. So that house closed in August of 2008 and September of 2008 in Lehman Brothers crash. And that's what caused everything. Literally, if we'd sold that house in September, it would have been worth half of what it was worth back when they sold it. Those people were still in the house. But it's taken them, they didn't really catch their value back up until about, it was probably five years ago. It finally caught back up to where they actually made for the house.

Yeah, now it's gone up a lot. but it's taken them a long time. So that's what got me into real estate is really those two things and just really just being able to see that I could have a better life for my family and a better life for my kids and give us opportunities. Yeah. To do things that we wouldn't normally get a chance to do. Yeah, of course.

And I love the journey and the determination and starting it as a side hustle and turning it into the main hustle, which is awesome. it's kind of with what I did, right, with what I'm doing now. And I think it had to resonate with a lot of our listeners that might be in this spot. There might be someone that's a school teacher that's trying to start that side hustle or trying to maybe do real estate on the side. So I'd love for you to share just what would some, maybe three initial tips, like someone has this seed. Maybe it's, they're listening to this episode right now. They're hearing the sound of my voice and they just heard the sound of viewers and they're saying, I've just thought about getting this real estate license.

And just imagine that they put in the energy and effort to get the license. What would you say the first three things they should do to really start to build up some momentum for that new business? Thing number one is they need to talk to the people in their sphere of influence. People are so afraid that they're not going to be used because they don't have any experience. when you get your license, you're part of a company. You pick a brokerage that you want to go with. I'm with EXP.

And that's a, you know, I'll give your listeners a script. Here's a, if you're a brand new agent, here it is. Or if you're not a brand new agent, you're thinking about wanting me be an agent. Here it is. Ring, ring, ring, ring. Go ahead and answer, Jordan. Hello. Hey, Jordan, this is Jamie.

How you doing, brother? I'm good, man. How you been? I've been amazing. Listen, I've got some big news for you. I just joined one of the most successful real estate teams in the entire Metro Atlanta area, and I'm so excited that we are accepting new clients. Do you know anybody who's thinking about buying a house in the next 90 days that you could refer to us? Yeah, actually, we're looking in about a year, so I might not be the best fit now, but you can start helping us research, I think. And I actually might know a couple people. Yeah.

You mind if I, like, text you some numbers in the next few days? Absolutely. I'm looking forward to it. I really appreciate all your help, Jordan. You have a blessed day. You too. Okay. It's really.

So there's starting point number one. Starting point number two is don't be a secret agent. You've got to go on your social media and put it out on your, so even if you don't like, even if you don't like Facebook, Instagram, whatever, you've got to put it out there, what you do. And you've got to post meaningful contact. That's what's been, I'll give you a plug. That's what's been really great about your coaching is you've helped me really create some more meaningful content. That really shows giving me some tools and things that I,

that I've been able to implement to create more meaningful content. Because I just closed the deal not too long ago. And literally, I mean, I've known this person for like 10 or 11 years, but they reached out to me just random, I won't say randomly, but this, oh, yeah, we've been following you on social media. We see what you're doing. Yeah. And that's how I closed an $820,000 house.

Yep. That's a really good commission, by the way. No, I bet. And here's the thing. I was just on a podcast as a guest right before this interview with you. And that was one of the things that we talked about is there are people that are lurkers. Okay. And lurkers are not bad.

They're just people that maybe they're more introverts. Maybe they still want to put themselves out there with a comment or a like. But they are paying attention to your. every move. And Jamie just showed you that if you're consistent and you're showing up, even though it may have taken him 10 or 11 years, that is a major payoff. And we're looking at almost a million dollar home. And you do the math folks. If you don't know what commission is, look up commission for real estate agents in your city, in your state, and attach it to that price point. And you'll see that that was a worthy investment of him showing up day in and day out, opening his mouth and talking about what he does.

Yes, absolutely. And you should be posting the third thing, or I call it 2B or 2A, is make sure you're posting something every day. And it doesn't have to be real estate. I mean, real estate should be a good part of what you post, but it could be a motivational quote. people also want to get to know who you are as a person. So when people talk to me, they see the kind of dad I am. And I'm a single dad. They see the kind of dad I am.

They see the kind of parent I am. I post pictures with me and my kids. I post things of things that we're doing and how I'm supporting them. And I guess people want to know that there's more to me than just being a successful real estate agent. I mean, there's a lot of people that can sell stuff, right? But it's that who you are as a person and integrity of who you are. And that's what the social media allows. allows people to see.

That's very important. If you don't have a lot of real estate stuff to post, post stuff about your life, about your family. Because guess what? If you really want to sell houses, people work with who they know like love and trust. And if they don't know you,

they're not going to use you. Yep. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, great advice. And the biggest thing, biggest takeaway that I heard was, don't be afraid to ask.

Don't be afraid to ask people that you know, because people get excited. Everyone that listens to this episode has had a new something in their life. And whenever you have that new something, a new job, a new degree, a new certification, a new something, people are going to support you. Why? Because when they have that new thing that come up in their life, they're going to hope that you would support them too, right?

And so don't be afraid to ask people. The second thing was put yourself out there. Don't be afraid to post content. And I love that you said that it shouldn't have to be about real estate, right? This could be personal stories. This could be motivational stuff because, again, people are going to see you and how you show up in every interaction that you do. And if it's consistent and it aligns with their values and the way that they want to operate in their world, then guess what? He's going to be the one that they call.

you're going to be the one that they call. Okay, so really, really great advice. And there's going to be people that listen to this. And maybe they're in a season in life where they've built up some equity. If they're in Gwinnett County and they'll listen to this, we know Gwinnett County is there's been some major equity increases over the last seven years. I mean, most properties have doubled or more. And so if there are folks out there, whether they have a home that maybe they're thinking about selling or maybe they're wanting to buy that first home for them, we're the best ways for people to reach out to you. Yeah, well, lots of different mediums to reach out to me.

But, you know, first and foremost is my cell phone number. So I'll give my cell phone number. That would be secret number three is pick up your phone. Like actually answer your phone or answer texts. If you can't, if you call me, you're probably going to get a text act. If I can't talk right now, you're going to get a text almost immediately. This is I'll call you back. That way, I'm acknowledging that I'm acknowledging your call.

I'm acknowledging, hey, I've heard you, I see you, you're on my radar. I'm talking to somebody else right now, and I can't get to you, but you're on my radar. So pick up your phone. So my cell phone is 404, 483-7816. So that is the easiest way to get in touch with me to either call or text. I will actually pick up the phone or respond. Even if you leave a voicemail, yes, a voicemail. I will actually call.

I actually do check my phone. voicemails and I actually do call people back if they leave a voicemail I know a lot of people don't but I do check through my voicemails I cannot tell you how much business has been left in my voicemails and most agents those people in general will check their voicemails and especially real estate agents real estate agents are notorious for not answering their phones or answering text and guys we all have enough time to do that we all have enough time to answer the phone answer the text. Think of how much time you spend doing certain things throughout the day where you actually have a dead time where you're stuck in one spot. You hit a red light. Guess what?

You can send a text. You can respond to a text. You can voice text. Hey, hey, Jordan. You know, I just wanted to check to see how your wife's doing. I know she's, you know, you know what I mean? I just, you're thinking about them. You're sending it, you're sending it message. So that would be the easiest way to get in touch with me 4-4-4-8-37-8-1-6. If you want to see me on my socials, You can look at Facebook slash rock an agent or Instagram Jamie Parker, Realtor. And that's literally spelled out of Jamie, J-M-I-E, Parker, P-A-R-K-E-R-K-E-R-E-A-L-R-T-R-R-E-A-L-L-R-T-R.

You can find me there, of course, on TikTok, on Clapper. You know, I'm pretty much out there. If you pretty much just look my name, Jamie Parker, Realtor, you should be able to, you should be able to stalk me, so to speak. Perfect. Well, hey, Jamie, I know that the content in this episode, episodes are going to add value to a ton of people. There's going to be people that, you know, either see yourselves in your story or maybe resonate with some of the things that you said. So I just appreciate you taking the time out of your schedule to come on the show.

Folks, I don't know, you know, if you knew this, but we are literally speaking with an HDTV star and who's been on a couple different episodes. And he is one of the top producers at EXP, Realty, Real Estate. Jamie Parker, thanks so much for coming on the Blasie. your own trail podcast my friend and i hope you have an amazing rest of your day all right thank you jordan i appreciate you