KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Three Strategies to Close 48 Deals in Your First Year

Episode Date: October 20, 2026

Summary:Shelby Johnson shares her real estate origin story, detailing how she closed 48 transactions in her first year to become Rookie of the Year. She breaks down three key habits that drove her rapid growth: saying yes to every opportunity before feeling ready, aggressively seeking out top-producing mentors to shadow, and eliminating client friction by handling extra research upfront. Agents learn how to systematically document workflows, build reusable templates, and overcome early career rejections to establish long-term momentum and scale production quickly.

my first year in real estate where I closed 48 transactions. My very first year, I look back and I'm like, that is wild. We are going to break down the three things that I did that I think specifically led to my success, that first year out the gate. Have you ever wondered how some agents come out the gates, get in their license, and close a ton of transactions their first year in real estate, whereas other agents get their license and don't, close anything for the first month, two months, six months, 12 months, 48 months, and then maybe they end up leaving the industry. So today, we are going to talk about how to succeed your very first year in real estate by sharing an origin story. Hi, we're going to take a blast from the past here

and we're going to go back to my first year in real estate where I closed 48 transactions, my very first year, and was Keller Williams rookie of the year for all of North and South Carolina. And looking back now, at the time, I was like, what do you mean? This isn't anything crazy. I'm just buss in my ass and slinging deals. But now that I have, you know, eight plus years in the industry, I look back and I'm like, that is wild. Why, how, what? And so today we are going to break down the three things that I did that I think specifically led to my success that first year out the gate. And in case you didn't know, this is the Asia Goldmine podcast. The only podcast designed to take you from five transactions a year all the way up to 30. I am one of your hosts. My name is

Shelby Johnson and I am a real estate agent out of Lexington, Kentucky, if you didn't know. My co-host, who is not here today because she just got back from traveling the world once again, Ali, the agent. We are both icon agents at EXP. We both are still producing agents and have been in the industry for years now, but still close 40 plus transactions a year. So we're here to break down what we actually do every day on these streets instead of something that's hypothetical that we used to do years ago when we used to sell real estate. Wow, this is way too long in intro. So sorry, this is, Ali's not here to keep me on track. Anyway, back to it, we are talking about how to succeed your first year in real estate. And if you are listening to this and you're like,

this isn't my first year, I already got it going on. Then great. That's amazing. Just save this show and use it as leverage in the future. Because once you start crushing it at real estate, inevitably, people will come out of the woodwork, newer agents and be like, how'd you do it? Give me tips. Can I pick your brain? Let's get coffee. And after you've done that a bunch of times, then you will realize that it's a lot more efficient and effective to just be able to share an episode of a podcast with them and be like, hey, once you listen to this, then let me know and we can go from there and most of them will never listen. Most of them don't take action. So you will have a screening criteria for yourself in your back pocket. Without further ado, let's kick this off. Looking back to 2018,

my first year in real estate, there were three things that I did consistently that really impacted my results. And the first one that we were going to talk about is how I said yes to every opportunity. And let's break that down with a story. So back in January of 2018 in Fayetteville, North Carolina on my last day in the Army before getting out and breaking free of my W-2 job to pursue real estate full-time. What I did is I sent out a mass email to everyone I worked with, thanking them for allowing me to serve with them and asking them if I could continue to serve, but in the form of real estate, which this is actually a tip. Before you break free of whatever job you are, maximize every person that you've ever worked with. For this, I actually,

I mean, I got a call from the Army judge advocate, aka lawyer, after I sent this email. And he was like, Shelby, you should not have done that. Because I did not just send it to the people in my contacts list. I actually pulled a query of the entire 82nd Airborne Division and sent it to everyone. BCC. So, yeah, you technically are not supposed to do this. And so he called me. But I already had my DD214 in my hand.

And so I was like, dude, what are you going to do? I'm already out. This is not legal advice. My whole point is capitalize on the contacts that you work with currently to kickstart your next venture. Anyway, because of this email, the mask blast that I sent out, I had someone hit me up the very next day and asked to see your property. And mind you, I had passed the damn licensing exam, but y'all know that does not mean that you know a thing about how to be a real estate agent, right? This was quite literally day one for me. But I was like, yeah, dude, let's do it. I said yes. I said yes way before that I was ready to. Like,

I had no business saying yes. But the answer is to say yes, because this forced me to figure out the bare minimum immediately. Things like how to get inside a property, how to find the most basic information about said property, how to talk to a human about real estate on an absolute crunch time. Like it forced me to just figure those things out and run out the door. Y'all know that if, The showing request would have been two weeks away. I would have taken the entire two weeks to figure out that same little small list of stuff, right? But saying yes, forced the action. And I learned way more through experience and the pressure of having to be accountable to someone immediately than that two weeks of preparation ever would have prepared me. Another benefit for me

was that it gave me clarity when it came to real life application. So what questions did the client have about the property? What questions did the client have about the process? Those were the things that I needed to dig into and those were the pieces of the puzzle that I needed to attack. So by, by hypothetical bookwork, this was real life and now I can really start tackling what's important. And none of this would have been possible if I had told them that I was new. I'm new. I'm not sure what to do or if I'd just delayed kicking the ball down the road. So force yourself into it now. Take the plunge and say yes. Some examples of things that you should say yes to and figure out the details as you go is any listing opportunity, any deal where the numbers work. This is, I mean, this is talking about investment properties

now. Any opportunity to work outside of your comfort zone. You need to take every opportunity to put yourself into situations that force you to learn and grow and commit to saying yes when you're new, because now is the time for it. And then once you have gone out, experienced and got a pulse for a lot of different types of real estate, types of opportunities, types of people, then you can use that knowledge to take a pause, reflect, and refine the direction in which you're traveling. That first initial out-the-gate experience is to experience as much as possible. You know, get as many reps, get as many contacts, and then take a knee, take a breath, and refine your direction moving forward. On to the second thing that I did consistently that very first year in real estate, which was aggressively

pursuing what I wanted. So now it's February 2018 and I'm one month into real estate life. And this is when I realized that although I've said yes to as many opportunities as I could within that one month, obviously I still had a lot to learn. I was still at this point in time relying on the classes that were taught at my firm. And I was at Keller Williams at the time. And when you go into a Keller Williams, this is not specific to Keller Williams. When you go to really any class for the most part, given at any brokerage. And you're trying to be like a badass agent. But the class you're sitting through is slow-paced and it's beginner intro class with a ton of people who were completely lost. And I realized sitting there looking around that this was not my best use of time.

What I needed to do was to find someone who was straight crushing it and learn directly from them on the job to cut this learning curve. Anyone who knows me knows that I am an efficient Junky. I want direct. I want to the point. I want to cut the fluff. And that is what I decided to do. But my firm did not have a mentorship program. Like ExP Realty, that's where Allie and I both are. There's a mentorship program. So you have a direct person who's responsible for your training and development out the gate, which is really, really nice. I never had that. And I wasn't on a team. I was a solo agent. So at my firm, it really was every man for himself. And honestly, at any firm you're going to be to, like, no matter what people tell you about the training and the guidance and the mentorship, at the end of the day, it's on your shoulders to sink or swim. No one's coming to save you. Anyway, so I was like, what's a girl to do? I need direct information. I need to learn quickly. And I can't sit through this class. So what I decided to do is I went to my firm's leadership and I asked them for a list of the top performing agents. This became my hit list, the ones that I needed to learn from. Those are my

people because they're doing it. Clients lined up. They are slinging deals. They're negotiating. They're closing. They are who I want to be. So what I did is I called them. I texted them. I emailed them. I showed up at their house and I hid in their bushes. I watched them sleep. You get my point. And yes, they blew me off. And this, I hear this all the time. Oh, I asked if I could host someone, an open house that they're listening. They didn't reply. Or I asked if I could shout out someone for a listing appointment. They didn't reply. Or they blew me off or whatever. Of course they're going to blow you off. They're freaking busy and new agents are a freaking dime a dozen. Most agents won't be around by year two. 87% of real estate agents will not be around by year two. So it is in their best interest. Why would they pay attention to you until you prove that you will not be blown off? And that is what my point is. Yes, they blew me off in the beginning, but persistence with a smile, wins people over. And I, for the record, was not asking them to train me. I was asking for the bare minimum. I just wanted to watch them. I wanted to ride in the car with them. I wanted to go to their appointments

and sit quietly in the corner just to observe. No added effort for the person, the agent. And I made sure to emphasize that look. Like, I am not trying to be extra work for you. I would just like to exist within your realm. And because of my aggressive pursuit of the outcome I wanted, which was I wanted to be successful, I was able to cut through the learning curve. And I was able to cut my own learning curve by literally years. I took the best tips and systems from each one of those top agents at my firm. And I crafted the agent that I wanted to be from what I already knew was successful. I took a little bit from you, a little bit from you, that I didn't like, that I didn't like, and I just created the version that I wanted to be, that felt authentic to me.

And for the record, this was not easy. It was nerve-wrecking. It was awkward. It was uncomfortable. It was full of rejection. But at the end of the day, you have to decide whether those emotions, those feelings that I went through are more important and more powerful than the outcome that you want, which is to learn from the best as quickly as possible and kickstart your career. Some more examples of things that you should aggressively pursue without considering whether or not it's normal is your real estate and business education. And I can't emphasize this one enough. Guys, lean into your curiosity. Fuel the fire. Then let it just take off. Feel no shame asking when everyone else seems to understand. Dig deeper. Get to the bottom of the topic and understand it fully

because everything you learn is another tool that you can add to your toolkit and that allows you to come up with better and better solutions for your clients in the future. That's the first thing. Shamelessly pursue your education. Next is shamelessly pursue your network. Your network is your net worth. is this is a phrase that I never cared much about until years into the industry. You probably heard it. If you've been in this industry, they say it all the time. Your network is your net worth. But guys, it is so real. Relationships and connections are not a waste of time. They are worth slowing down for and will pay out tenfold. This is something that I instinctively, as the human that I am, the efficiency person is like, oh, no, no, no, slowing down and building like relationships with people,

who are not directly in the line of my goals, felt always like a waste of time, but it's not. So if you're like me, tell that little voice inside your head to shut up. Okay, the third thing that you need to aggressively pursue are your goals. So, for example, I had no idea that closing 48 transactions my first year in real estate was not normal. I didn't care what was normal. I didn't pay attention to what was normal. I cared about what I wanted. And what I wanted was to make twice as much my first year as I did as a captain in the Army previously. And I did. I was in an incredibly low price point market, Fayetteville, North Carolina. My average sales price, my first year was $150,000. Y'all, that is like, I was bust in my ass for pennies. But that first year in real estate, I did. I made twice as much

as I did as a captain in the Army the year previously. I made $175,000 total. And then, of course, there was Keller Williams had a $25,000 cap. So really I made like 150. And that is gross. Don't get me wrong. It's not net. But like still, I was freaking stoked. And then when everyone was like, oh my God, you're the brokerage rookie of the year and you're the region and the state. And then the all of North and South Carolina. I was like, oh my God. This is crazy. Like, y'all are not here doing this too. Anyway, this is what happens when you aggressively pursue what you want regardless of what society thinks is normal because you can far exceed any normal expectations if you just dig in deep. And okay, now we are on to number three, which is the third thing that I did

very consistently my first year in real estate, which is I made it easy for everyone else. Here's a story. At this point, it is March 2018. I'm three months in. I've closed a couple of deals. and I've got some folks who want to buy, but they've got all the reasons in the world about why they can't do it now. For instance, one family wanted to move, but needed to do some research on schools first. And I'm over here thinking, yo, I need money. I got to hit my goals. I need some closings. So I ask, what specifically would you like research about the schools? Like, what are you guys trying to learn? Because I'm happy to do the research for you. And this was a ding, ding, ding moment for me when I realized that if I could do the work for everyone else and make it easy for everyone else, in turn, the path of least

resistance became my path. And that is how I led to more and more closing. So guys, I did. I researched, I gathered information. I googled. I set up phone calls with principals. I did so much extra. Looking back now, I'm exhausted. But what I was able to do is I put myself in control of my own progress. And that became the trend. If things were not moving in the direction I wanted at the speed that I wanted, I identified the never think through the same thing twice. Friction point and I made it easy for everyone else. I did the work. I cleared the path and I made my path the one of least resistance. Was it an insane amount of work? Absolutely. Did it create the result that I was looking for? Absolutely. So in life, you pick your pain. I could have picked the painful option of

not closing deals. But instead, I picked the absolutely painful option of doing a ton of work to achieve my goals. And I stand by my choice. Because along with that, I also learned an absolute shit ton, and I made a lot of connections. And in the future, when clients had these same questions, these same problems, now I had the tools, the checklists to send them to take that initial work that I did up front and optimize it for the rest of all time that I was doing sales on that market. which leads into another topic that is not on my list for today, but it is never think through the same thing twice. If you're going to do all the work, document as you go, build a template email, build a checklist, write it down because inevitably in real estate, people will have the same

questions. And the next time they have those questions, you'll be able to be like, oh, I already I know the answer. And your brain probably won't recall it at the time. You'll be like, man, I knew the answer. Like, I looked this up once. Shit, if I didn't write this down, I would be doing all of the work all over again. Good thing. I wrote it all down. Anyway, some more examples of how you can do this to make it easy on everyone else is if you're working with an investor and you want them to buy, you could run the numbers for the deal yourself. You could do all the research. You could show that the data meets their criteria. So all they have to do is say, let's do it. Or if you have a seller who wants to say, sell, but it's a tenant-occupied property with a 12-month lease. You could use your network to get an

investor to buy it while occupied. Or you could ask the tenant if they would like to buy the property. So you can make it easy for the seller by solving all the problems and just bringing him the offer that you already know that he's looking for. And granted, some of these examples, actually a lot of these examples are investor-focused, but that's because my first year in real estate, I was really focused on working with investors. I was an investor. I wanted to be. That was back when I was like, oh my God, I'm going to be a real estate investor. And anyway, that was my focus. So that is how my focus for that first year was now that I have rebuilt in a new market as a new human many years later.

I do not work or focus with investors. And my point, this kind of goes back to number one, is you, in the beginning, you are learning. You are saying yes to every opportunity and taking advantage of all of the different ways that you could absorb everything with us in this industry. But then after a while, you need to stop and think, is this what I really want to do? Is this who I want to attract? Is this who I want to work with? And if it's not, then pivot. Anyway, the point to number three is that there is always a way.

It's hard work for you. But if you make it easy for everyone else, your goals will become a reality. Yay! Okay, wow. Guys, that is it for today. I hope you found something useful in this video. And remember that we do these videos for free, but not really for free. It is time for you to give us a five-star review.

And make sure you share the show. That's right. Be a bro and share this show. Bye. If you're on a 50-50 split, it's time to rethink your brokerage. At EXP, the split is 80-20. And once you cap, you keep 100%. We show you how to get there faster. I'm Ali Garcette or Ali the agent. My sponsor, Shelby Johnson and I each close over 40 deals a year. We are full-time agents actively producing. And everyone in our upline is an icon agent. When you name us as a sponsor at EXP, you get full access to all of our systems and checklists and templates, our 200K GCI Playbook to help you make 200K your first year, direct mentorship and direct access to us, no huge group calls. We also help agents add another stream of income, which is RevShare. We will help you with all the tools and trainings you need to build revenue share that will help you retire early.

If you're interested in building an actual business, book a call at theagentgoldmine.com.