KGCI: Real Estate on Air - From New In Town to 7 Level Agent with Shelley Johnson

Episode Date: July 16, 2024

Welcome back you guys to feeling lucky where you come to find out that it's not luck that gets you there. It's the hard work, the perseverance and falling down. Yes, getting hurt, getting back up, keeping going. So today we have one of my favorite people, Shelly Johnson on. And I'm so excited to have her on here. A little bit of background on Shelley. You've known Shelly for several years now. But her career had started way before mine.

In fact, she got into real estate back in 2004 in Maryland. was rookie of the year, an absolute rock star. And as many of us know, when you're in real estate, you get to pick your life. And she decided to pick up, move to North Carolina, specifically the lake and live the lake life. In a prime time, by the way, in 2009 when everything was crashing and things were on fire. And she showed up on the scene and completely rocked the game. Today she actually spends part of her time on the lake and is part of her time in Puerto Rico where she recently purchased a property, which is absolutely gorgeous. And I just want to welcome to our call today, Shelly Johnson. Welcome. Thank you for being here. Hello, thank you so much

for inviting me. This is awesome. I'm excited to share anything that can help anybody else with. Heck yeah. Well, let's dive in a little bit. So I know we've talked at length on many, many topics, but not so much your history and challenges, right? We're always talking about how we got over things, but where we were from the start. So I want to go all the way back to the beginning. You know, as we know, you're a successful agent. You're still in production.

Your team is absolutely phenomenal. And I know you run that alongside Craig LePage. So shout out to Craig as well. But I want to go back to your early years. So 2004, you were like, let's get into real estate. Tell me where were you in your life at that time? What was going on? and what made you make that decision to go into real estate?

At the time, I was a project manager for a construction company. I'd been doing that for seven or eight years, and I'd hit a ceiling of where I couldn't grow in that particular role and was looking for something more. And I've always had this desire for real estate. A lot of people do. They're like, it's very exciting and something I was always passionate about. And I started to get my license and transition into real estate.

And I had a great mentor. And that's where my business really flourished was starting with a great mentor. I love that. So anybody taking notes out there, mentorship is important. Even if you have an assigned mentor, find someone that you emulate, you want the business that they have. More than likely, they're willing to show you the way. So what way did they show you? What were they teaching you at that time in order to build the business you desired?

Well, for me, this person had a lot of mentees under them, people that she was helping. She's very respected in our market. Her name's Donna Moffitt. She's still real estate today. She's actually in our company now, which is awesome. That's awesome. I love her. But she really took me under her wing. I think she saw that I was willing to be a little gritty. And what I mean by that is I would stay till 2 in the morning and work on contracts. So I could get them out to the agent before the other agents. Like I would do the extra things. I would do them for her. Like I was, she needed a sign on the ground. I was willing to go run and do whatever. And so I was able to learn under someone who had a great business document and a great understanding of real estate and how to be a great realtor. So that was a amazing. major part of my success early on was despite of that. Yeah. So this has been a running theme. I'm going to point this out because I have interviewed several top agents. And I think the biggest thing that seems to be

I guess you could say standing out is the fact that each and every one of you has said, I stayed late. I got up early. I did the things no one else was doing. I didn't complain to go put a sign out for someone else if they were helping me. I was helping them. I did everything they said that I should do and that got them there. So that's freaking awesome. Now with that though, where what was your source? You know, you got into it from construction. Did you start cold calling immediately? How did that work? No, I never even knew. I never had a sales background. So it was all foreign to me. I came from a place where people respected the work I did and knew how hard I worked there. And I think when I got into real estate, they're like, oh, well, she worked that hard here. She'll do the same for me

in my business there, you know, from my house. So I started getting a lot of referrals in business from my sphere, from my past, my past work. And that really catapulted in my business. I was lucky I got an investor right out of the gate. And I actually stumbled through that because it was my first transaction. And they love me. Yeah, I got like 10, 15 deals just from them.

Just, and they just believed in me. And I was super nervous and did all the things wrong. So if you're hearing this and you're brand new at real estate, you can do all the things wrong, but if you do it with enthusiasm and you do it with conviction that you really care, people, that's what they want. That's all they want. They want to know that you're doing your best, you know, and so I was shocked after the deal closed and I got the phone call, hey, we're going to be ready to buy another house.

Could you run a market analysis for me? I was like, okay. Me too. How best can I do that for you? But so really, you know, just having a lot of passion behind what I do and doing the best, best I could and like just doing the things that I didn't know what I was doing. Even with a mentor, you still have to like fumble through. I mean, it's just part of the game of learning, of learning no matter what it is. I mean, everybody fumbles through a little bit. But the biggest thing

was, was getting transactions quickly and figuring out, and that really gave me confidence. So if I could get, you know, if you can work the sphere and give them the confidence that you have the passion and the grit to do it, that they're going to, they're going to be grateful that they chose you, then you have to kind of have that about you when you start and not be timid or too afraid to ask for the business. Because I literally asked for the business. I was like, hey, you know, I'm getting in the real estate. I'm super excited. I'm going out to this farm and we're learning about this. I'm sharing all the stuff I'm learning. Even though it wasn't my business, I was a part of it. And so she's not really built the confidence of the people like, oh, wow,

she's really doing this. Oh, wow. She's really involved. You know, she's this happening. Yeah. I think that really helped my business quickly. That's where the, that's where their business started coming from was being putting on my real estate cape and going, I'm a realtor. I love that. I think one of the cool things that you just said was, one, going back to scurring up, as long as you do it with enthusiasm and then it's, they don't have to know you screwed up. It just could be a, hey, yeah, this is just a part of the process.

Most of the time, people have no idea. They don't buy and sell homes every day. They have no clue. But just like you said, when you're working with your speech, here, they already know that you're going to go above and beyond for them anyway because they know you. So when it comes to those people, they already know no matter what. Even if you do script, they're like, it's totally fine. You know, you'll get us to the finish line. They're pretty forgiving. If it's someone you've never worked with, maybe a sign call, things like that, if you just come at it

with confidence and enthusiasm that everything's going to be fine and you're going to sort it all out, you can have the biggest mess in front of you. And it's not that they don't care, but as long as you're show and that you're moving it along. They'll be just fine. Well, in the same age, with the market, with the technology we have, we can go back and take our time and go through a contract. But at that point, I was writing contracts in front of them, you know. Sounder-wracking. And I was also double-sided. So I had the seller and then the buyer was the investor and I was dealing with the divorce situation. So it's a little cumbersome dealing with different situations. A lot of things were going on. So I wasn't sure how that was being reflected on me,

But the way I handled myself and I was respectful to all the parties and made sure everybody was informed. That was what mattered. They cared that I cared, you know, and that I was keeping people informed and I was doing, you know, what was needed to get it done. But it was, that's been amazing. I'm actually still friends with those people as well on social media. I love that. I've got some friends that are like they literally become friends since doing business with them that I never knew before that, which is great. Yeah, that's like almost 20 years ago.

Well, 18 years ago. That's crazy. That's so great. Now, you mentioned something else, too, which I think scares a lot of newer agents. And I even talk to my team about this all the time when they're newer. They want to know every possible thing that could go wrong and every way they could possibly handle it. And honestly, it would take months to go over every possible scenario that you may or may not

ever run into. Like, hey, one of the spouses is passed away. What do we do with this? Or, hey, we've got this weird property line situation where there's a shared driveway. and then you've got this other. There's absolutely no way to know all the things you don't know. Focus on how do you sign contracts. How do you get people under contract?

And as you hit those challenges, just like you did, it's a, okay, well, this is new. How do I deal with this? How do I deal with this? And then as you go, it just builds your box of tools where it's like, I've been there. I've done that. This is not a problem. We've got you guys covered. Even if you don't know, still just say that.

Well, and you can, you go your attorneys. You go to the people you trust and they help you. through it because here's the deal. It doesn't matter whether your experience or inexperience. You're going to run into the same problem. So it's just slowing down a little bit, taking the, having some conversations and navigating through it. Nine times out of 10, you know what to do, you know, and you're taking the right path because you're using what you've learned so far, you know, to figure that out. Exactly. Exactly. Okay. So you rocked it, which is awesome. And not everybody rocks it. Now, out of curiosity, because I know I get this question

a lot. When you got into real estate, how long did it take before you had your first deal and how long did it take until you had consistent business? I know those are two very different things. I mean, I feel really fortunate. I felt like when I got in the real estate, I was consistently getting business right away. And I know that that's not the norm. But what I will say is when I moved to Charlotte, that was a whole other experience. It was extremely humbling. I had to let's let's jump into that. I was going to say, let's jump right. I feel like that was your bigger, bigger challenge there. So you decided to move right in the middle of a recession to a completely different place and still stay in the real estate field. First off, were you tempted to get a full-time 40-hour-a-week job at that point?

I was offered a team lead position when I came to Charlotte and I didn't even listen to the salary because I love being a realtor so much. No, I wasn't tempted. Sometimes I thought maybe I was a little crazy for not like thinking of thinking that way. But I was determined to the this is going to work. I mean, I felt like if I just put enough hours enough into it and I gave enough and I did all the things I did, you know, I just going, going, and I felt like I could do it. And I did. And it worked out, you know. I love that. So tell us a little bit about what those first couple of months having come into that. Because I think a lot of people there are here in the news right now. And it's like, we're coming into a recession. Everything is going to fall off the face of the earth.

And those that have been through it are like, ah, this is nothing. those people that have pretty consistent business are like, all right, I'm going to watch it. And those that might be newer or don't have as consistent a business are like, did I pick the right industry? Should I just leave now before it gets bad? So tell us what actually happened. Like what ensued when you got here? Well, for me, it was not easy. I'm not going to pretend like it was. I started networking right away. I got involved in the community at a high level. That's just who I am. I love charitable giving and I love being a part of the community and being, I'm a sphere person. I'm not a cold call person. I'm a relationship person. I want to build

people and help other businesses. I started being a connector in the community as far as helping this business, that business. And it was slow. It was not a fast like ramp up. It was a slower ramp up. Thankfully, I still had my business in Maryland I was leaning on while I was transitioning. But I was, I'm also an all in person. So I quickly transitioned to all in in Charlotte it because I really believe you need to be all in in your business. And what really worked for me was building good relationships. And that's what's been so foundational for me and my business was having those great relationships and people that knew like and trust me that I'm going to do the right

job for them. I also, I made some transitions in my business. I started looking at more like that time, internet, believe it or not, I feel that's not like I'm 100. but internet really was like not, he had a website that was like, it was like a, that's right. Right. People had a website and but Craig, I met Craig Lapate during that time and he understood SEO. He understood how to get, to take that speck of a website and turning it into something that people land on because I understood that our market specifically was taking people from other markets

coming into the market to feed it. People were not moving house to house inside our market. So that was something I had been working on myself. We built a relationship. I build a partnership through that. But at the same time, it was equally, I would say both of our businesses were equal, pretty equal. Like his was more outside business. Mine was more sphere business. And then we partnered together.

I felt a great team, which was more fun for me, you know, to have a partner to build something great with. I would say, having the right people around you. And some of you guys out there might be going, I don't ever want to do it with someone. And that might be true. But at some point, if you plan on growing, you can't do it all yourself. This is something I have had the realization of is I don't know all of those things or those things. Like I've got my things I know.

And yet, unless I just rock that, if I start getting distracted by all the other outside noise of, oh, you should know SEO and you should know how to optimize your TikToks and you should know how to do this. Suddenly you just get lost in it. So having someone that, you know, if that's your choice, if you want to expand, if you want to grow, it's okay to lean on someone who knows it and partner. that be an actual official partnership like you guys have with LePage Johnson, or perhaps it's somebody that you want to hire as like an outside counsel to come in and help you. But that's definitely something that'll help you grow. So, and that was one of your biggest, you know, helps with growth, because now you guys could both lean on each other a little bit. And Craig got to learn how to work his fear. You got to learn how to do a little bit of SEO, but that worked out

phenomenally. So we're told not to not a partner. And for 90, 99% of the time I would say don't. I would say find great people that want to work with you with your skill set as you develop yourself. So start developing, you know, learning the areas and then learning like your weaknesses and then plugging people into those places. Yeah. Is what I would recommend.

And then, you know, but build partnerships with them. Don't, don't just like, it's not just your team. I mean, people who are partners with you own your team. I mean, that's, you're helping each other build your business together. So that's how I would build a team, you know, is to look for those people where you're not as strong and really develop those relationships externally with all those spheres and nurture and care for them and do events and do all the things that make people like Lee Tessier, who's a great friend of mine who I respect and admire.

He's like, make a club, make your business a club. People want to be a part of your business beyond just selling and buying houses. I think that was one of the most brilliant things I've ever heard is, I mean, it's so simple, right? And like you said, Kayla, I mean, you were in an incredible business. You like, this is such a simple business, but it's so complex at the same time. Yes, it is. It's simple. It's not easy.

Like the idea of it, right? You get a client, you find them a house, you put them under contract. You get a client, you put their house on the market. You get them under contract. But the more you build, the more you expand, the more complicated. I was speaking with somebody the other day. And I said, if I ever got, you know, everything that I ever had disappeared when it came to real estate. And I got thrown right on the boots on the ground.

it would be a little daunting and overwhelming to reset up everything that I've created over the last seven years, you know, from templates to how we connect our systems to all of that, it's just you're going to do it over time. So anybody that's starting to make the comparisons like, oh, what's your own do they have and how do they work bad and what's their budget? Everybody is completely different. And I know some teams that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their marketing budget and they do well. And I know some that do it mostly with sphere and events and things of that nature and spend a fraction of the price and do about the same amount. So it just depends upon how you want to go about it. And there's no way that's wrong at all. I get I do a lot of cold calling. I love cold calling personally. I'm

not weirdo. I know. I'm crazy. So tell me, this is something that I'm very curious about. I think some other people are as well. It sounds like things you were able to get them going. but what would you say was one of your biggest setbacks that you had in this journey? For me, probably, I just, well, I'm like stumbling here, but really, I think to let it go of trying to control everything. Because, not because I didn't think someone could do it as good as me, I just didn't understand that the consumer didn't care how it got done. They care about getting done. And I was hung up on the fact that I had the hands. handle everything or otherwise.

And I think that that's one of the where our industry has improved is where it's become normalized to have a transaction coordinator, it's become normalized to have a buyer's agent or showing assistant or these different people to help because really what they're want is my knowledge and my time, not my knowledge on how to get it done. They don't need me to be the facilitator of every piece of it, the marketer, the everything. Because honestly, if you're trying to do it all, then you're doing your client at the service. So you've got to live in what you're great at. You're a great negotiator and you're great at building relationships.

That's the biggest value. So that by far was my biggest challenge. And you've blessed more people by allowing them to live in their gift. But if you try to do it all yourself, you're not helping anybody, not the client, not yourself, not the people that could be doing what they're great at. And it's like getting over yourself to some degree. And it's not that like I thought I had to do it. it. It was just I didn't understand that the client would be okay with it, which may sound really

strange. That makes sense, though. It makes, and now for you, because I know you are somebody who's very detailed oriented, when you were having this realization, what was going on at the time? Are you just being like overwork kind of burnt out? Because I've heard this before as well. Like I just, you get to the point where you're burnt out and you're like, okay, there's an aha. Something's got to get. I either do less business or I find another way. What was that for you? Well, I think you only have so much time. So that ceiling I talked about early on about them being a project manager, I was going to hit a seal.

Right? Unless I started to understand that I could help other people live in their gift or what they're great at. And together, I was better than by myself, you know, as an individual or just Craig or myself. And I had a team when I met Craig. I had a small team because I love collaboration. I love people. I like working together.

I'm very team. I'm very team-oriented person. I love that. And I like seeing people successful. like nothing makes me happier now than to see someone else's life become better as a result of us working together that is my that's my damn you know and it's the same with a client nothing makes me happier than seeing a client get that dream home or build their business where they're trying to build it because we do some commercial stuff you know that is my jam of like and if our group's

able to do that for people that is so amazing to me so I've grown so much in the past five years like so much. It's not even funny, you know, how much I've grown. And it's surrounding myself with people who think way different than I do. You know, because if you get stuck in your own, like think about it, like if you're in your own box and we all think we're not, we all think that we're so innovative and so talented and we can do this and we can do that and we all do. Right? Because we're all entrepreneurs and any realtor really is an entrepreneur. And that actually can get in the way of your success. that entrepreneurialism, because if you can get around people who think way bigger than you,

you can be so much more successful. And it makes your mind go in other places and more opportunity, more doors open. It's just fun. Yeah, it is. It's very interesting when you hit that place because even with my team, like we were, it was very funny. We had a new member of our team. This was a couple months ago.

And I was out of town at the time. And we're all out of town. And all of a sudden we get this text message. and it says, I got the contract. And it was her very first contract. And I'm sitting there with my friends and I'm like, go Corne. We're all cheersing. And I was like, she has no idea I'm doing this.

I'll tell her later. But like, I legitimately was excited for her. You know, it's interesting when you hit that point. And some of you watching have probably had this where you share that knowledge or you share that tipet and that person shares their success with you. And when I say shares, I'm not talking they pay you out. I'm talking. They tell you that they've had the success.

based upon what you share with them. And that is absolute gold. It is absolute gold. I love that. Because I don't know. It's like an expanding. You get to kind of vicariously live through them and their excitement too, which is really fun.

But it's a bigger piece. And for you, you know, helping run 18 or still in production, you're working on your retirement plan of sorts. We'll get to that. But when it comes to all of that, it's still in every facet. is connecting and giving. Connect and give. Connect and give.

Celebrate those wins and watching other people's lives change, which is so much fun. And if you're, if you stay and like, I've seen a lot of realtors have been in the industry 20, 30 years, and they are wildly successful,

but they never got to grow to the next part of being able to help others grow. And maybe they're in their own way. Like they, I'm sure they teach or train where they are, but I've never seen people really be able to really truly give the gift of like helping someone grow you know that's fun you know that's it is and that that was a big aha for me that was it really took me a minute to figure all that out and I and I can see

it so clearly and others now that are in that spot and I'm like I just like let's shake I'm going to go you need to do that you know I can this away I was like I promise you're going to be so grateful and happy once you like once you see you know once you're able to to get out of your own way You know, because of the way. Oh, yeah, 100% of the time. 100% of the time. I've had multiple setbacks at every single time. It was either I squirled because I'm a serial entrepreneur or I got so deep on something that I got really blind on the other sides of it because I was like, no, it has to be me to figure all this out.

It has to be me that does all of these things versus going, oh, yes, I have this very highly skilled person that works with me. And they would love to do that and they'd be excellent at it. You know, there's no need for me to do some of these things. So, you know, as you guys that are watching this, you might be thinking, well, it is just me. Who do I get? And you might actually realize you're at that point. If it's midnight and you're putting listing documents online or uploading the MLS or filling out documents, you heard it.

Shelly did it when she first got started. And you do that first year and a half. If you got, you got to put in the work. But if you're doing that because you are just so busy that you have so much business, that suddenly family time is slipping or you don't even have time to take a bubble bath every now and then or go for a drive. These are the times where you've got to start considering it is time for leverage, whether that's a virtual assistant or an in-house assistant, someone who can take the burden off and they can do the things like answer email and phones and send your contracts for you

and that sort of thing. It's okay. You are not any lesser because someone's helping you with those tasks and that was something I battled with for a little bit like well if I'm not capable of doing that am I even you know should I even be in this industry I'm good at this one thing and it's just selling like ah like even today I hate filling out contracts I'm not going to lie it is not my favorite thing I like it when they're filled out but I don't necessarily like the process I know I can do it in five minutes but it's like that's just because I don't like paperwork but it's okay to get help and leverage so for you when did you notice that it was time for you? What was like that trigger point where you said,

I think it's time to grow a team. I think it's time to bring on. There's lost opportunities that are occurring right now. It's time. What did that look like for you? Well, in Maryland, when I started real estate there, I actually needed, I started a team up there. One of the first teams probably in real estate because I had heard about someone else who started a team in our market, who's a great realtor. But I did it all wrong because I had no idea how to start. start a team. Like I did it all wrong. And then, so I've always been team oriented. I've always loved the idea of a team and having agents. But then when I got into the Charlotte market, I had a team pretty quickly as well. I started a team within the first year or two. And yeah, and I, and I still

actually, those agents are still with me to this day. So really good people, great realtors, great people. Like, I love them. And then Craig and I partner. And it was like, but it wasn't that I didn't think they could do it. They were showing houses. We were working side by side. Like we were right. But it was more of the other things. It was more of the marketing, more of the other items.

You know, we got a transaction coordinator, but I was hung up in all the details of the process, the systems of everything. How was it perfect? How is it all going to work for the consumer? How is it going to work for the team? And some of the challenges came from the fact that technology had not gotten there yet. So now technology's gotten a lot better in serving teams. So a lot of stuff had to be done in ways that were kind of redundant. So that was a challenge back then was not the type.

Like our brains knew what we needed, but the technology couldn't get us there. I can understand that. Yeah. Like even like a simple trello board, like that's a powerful tool and it's free. But back then that didn't exist. We had Excel and Word. I mean, those were our tools. So, you know, so like, when I look back at it, and I'm like, well, why didn't we do this then?

I'm like, because there wasn't a resource. I mean, I didn't exist. But it was like it was too, it was too messy, too cumbersome. It worked okay. But everything was clunky back then. Now we've got great tools and great resources to tech wise to build, to build business, a real business. And that was really. So there was a combination of things that's just trying to.

And then figure out how that person was going to fit into the team and how to make it all kind of jive. So that's that was important. Yeah. Yeah, which is important process. So I was going to say, I'm sure you had plenty of people that wanted to jump on board with your team, right? When people see success, success leaves clues and they would like to learn that. Right. For you, and I have learned this as well over the years, is not everybody's a good fit.

And it's, it's okay to say that you're not a good fit. But what were some of the qualities and traits you were looking for from members of your team? Like what were your value propositions that said, yes, this is somebody I'd want to be in business with? Somebody who was going to do the business right, like cared about the client. That was most important and really wanted to be part of a team who valued the collaboration of a team. You know, the value that we could do more together than separately. That was really important. And still is really important.

I mean, none of the fundamentals that we built our team one, Craig and I are different today than they were 10 years ago. They're the same foundational pieces. It's just that we're able to leverage better now and we're able to provide more value and more help for our agents. We're able to do more for their success. So it's been fun to evolve and grow together. I love our agents. It's fun.

I mean, we have fun together and it's just a great group. It's like you said with your great agents, it's like you feel really proud to be associated with them. And there are better at things than I am by far. they really are it's amazing when you see that there there's a particular age on our team susanna and she freaking rocks canva like every time i go into social media her reels are awesome she's great got great informative she's got her own brand like a lot of my agents it's like yeah you've got your your brand is you like you know you're not going to be putting yellow and red out

there your colors are more of like a a beige gray and white very crisp kind of coloring you know So when she puts these things out there, it's just gorgeous. And I was like, you're really good at this. Like, that's not my skill set. You know, I can see it and know I like it, but it's not necessarily my skill set. But I'd rather go door knocking or do these things. Like the pretty stuff doesn't matter as much to me. So it's really cool to see everybody have their own strengths and, you know, just kind of,

I guess you could say fold in on each other in a good way. Like it just, it meshes. It's really cool. They have evolved. Isn't it from the relationships and friendships, and the families. I love that. I mean, that's probably so touchy-feely for this conversation. But I really love, I love, like, seeing people families happier. Like, I love seeing people succeeding and doing really well and finding what they're great at. And you know, you're right. You watch them, like,

was you, Susanna, your girl on your team. Like, you seem like, oh, my God, that's so awesome. Like, I love that. It's awesome. Like, yeah. It's fun. And it is a, when you, when you have that, leadership role. It's really, it's not just about the person. It's about the families. When we do Christmas, we have like a Christmas celebration. And it's really cool looking around like seeing the spouses and my agents and everybody. I'm like, wow, this is really neat. Like this goes beyond selling houses. You know, this is impacting families, which is really cool. So we're getting closely into time. But I've got two more questions for you. So you made another shift in your business not too long ago. You joined the EXP,

really and obviously, you know, at the time it wasn't very popular. I think there was either eight or 12,000 people at the time. And you have absolutely flourished. And I know from the start, there was a lot of hearsay of, oh, it's not going to work out. But you have proven that through tenacity and through striving for what you know you desire, you've made it happen. Tell me just a little bit about what that journey has been like. So it was Craig and I, Craig brought it to me and we looked at it and it was 2,600 agents at the time. So, but I will tell you what made me look at it or really consider it was the people. When I got to meet the people who are going to be leading the company and who were also like in the trenches with real estate like I was, I was like

this or these are, this is my tribe. So that was really exciting to me to like really feel like I was going to. And I felt like I could feel the leveling up that was going to happen. I could feel it. Just conversations we were having. And they actually. actual genuine concern for my team, that was super important at the time. Because we were considering a boutique. That's where our goal was, was to open a boutique. Craig and I already looked at space. We were considered that was where we were going to do. And it was just, that was the plan. And when I looked at this, I was like, wow, this is amazing because it's like we can be a boutique inside of a firm. And so I have the support and things we need with that a firm provides,

but with a huge opportunity for residual income for our team and for ourselves, long term, to be able to have stock and revenue share and things that an owner would have, I thought super important to a team and to any agent in our industry, especially I had been in the industry at that time 13 years. I'm 18 years now. So 13 years in the industry. And I didn't know I was 45 at the time. Oh, sorry, 43 at the time.

Yeah, 44 at the time. Sorry, I'm getting old. Because it's five years ago. I was 44 at the time and I was like, okay, when I'm 55, do I want to be working at the same pace that I'm working out right now? And the answer was no. And I didn't know how we were ever going to stop. I didn't know. I didn't see a plan for that other than like to try to pull money aside. And I went through a market shift. And I know that this is this is not an uphill ride the whole way where you're planning all the time. I know that you got a plan. for the future and I felt like coming out of that 2017 that that felt like amazing that we're like economy I mean 2020 and 21 oh my gosh like that's an unheard of right 2017 felt like we were already there we were peaking and that in my I felt like we were going to peak soon so the fact that we're five years past that and now really peaked um I didn't want to put our team and

ourselves in the position where we had to go back to 2000 and like what we did before. And I was aligned with the right company is super important. And I knew as a boutique owner that I would be too small to be able to do what a company like EXP could do for the agents.

The power behind that. The stock. I mean, at the time it was a penny stock. We're now publicly traded. I'm super excited about the stock the agents are getting in the company right now. I love that they're getting a lot of stock. I love the fact that, you know,

agents, no agents, and build relationships like, kill you and I didn't know each other, but our relationship. We're in the same firm. Oh, yeah, like 20 minutes from each other. We didn't know each other. Yeah.

At 20 minutes, but I have, now we have agents all over the country and we are so tight, you know, and we're pouring into each other's business. And that's the kind of, that's the kind of business I love is a business where people are pouring into each other and sharing and championing other people's success. And I mean, like right now,

you and I are in different, we're in the same line with different groups. So financially we're not tied together, but our friendship is very deep. Like, you know, we care about it. We have nothing to do with each other financially. But it's just I love your energy. I love asking questions because you've been in it way longer than I have, made way more mistakes than I will hopefully not make because I'm learning. But that just wasn't available.

Everybody was kind of in their own silos and, you know, whatever office you were in, that was your designation. And that's who you interacted with. And that did blow the doors off of the blockage. Like, for example, you, Karen had Heidi Heinz, like Heidi called me out of the blue a few months after me getting into EXB and said, we're chatting. I'm sitting here going, is Heidi Heinz really calling me? Like, it's Heidi Heinz. Like the godmother of, you know, all these different neighborhoods.

I was like, she's calling me to give me advice. I was so taken aback. But it's so true. That's just the culture. That's just what to expect. So for you having made that move and all of the moves and all of the changes that you've had throughout your career as agents are having challenges, especially right now because things are shifting and you've been through this, what would be your biggest piece of advice

for them? Align yourself with people who think really big and make yourself, whether you're with the company that they're with or not, don't worry about it. Get the relationships with people. Like you're not going to make a move. That's okay. No one expects you to make a move to a company unless you're ready to do that. But align yourself with people who think big because it affects you.

I mean, Brent Gove, thankfully, has been one of a huge mentor to me, especially in my growth in the past five years, you know, that I needed someone in my life like him. And Dick and Sheila Pajran, a lot of the great people, I needed that because they understood where I was. and they knew that they knew how the direction to go. So just having great people in your life that can have been there and care enough about you to take you with them. It doesn't have to be the same firm even. It can just be that you're in relationship with people

and you're building each other up. Absolutely. And that gets lost in our industry a lot. So it doesn't matter about what the firm is. Just find the people that you align with because their firm doesn't define them. They define themselves. So thank you for that. And thank you for being on today.

This is fantastic. I took a ton of notes on this. I know I'm going to be rewatching this, taking notes myself. That's fun. Thanks for having me. I love that she did do this for agents. And Kayla is a rock star, someone I highly, highly admire. She's a woman in this industry who leads with her heart, cares about people,

and is always looking to be better. And that's what you want in someone who leads you in this industry. is someone who actually wants to do more than just what they saw yesterday. That's really important. Well, thank you for the very unexpected shoutout. I appreciate it. Well, hopefully I will see you soon in person. Have a fabulous day.

Give me some of those sunshine rays from the south. And thanks again. See you later. Bye, guys. See you all next Thursday. For more information and to follow along, be sure to follow at Kayla Lindsay Realtor on all social media platforms. Thank you.