From Fear to Fearless (and becoming a Top-Producer at the same time)

Welcome to this episode of Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent with your host Jennifer Myers from aging grad school.com. Learn the secrets of real estate success that no one else will tell you. No fluff, no theory. Only exactly what’s going on in her own record-breaking business right now in today’s market. Yes, you can have the real estate business of your dreams. Here’s Jennifer hi, Jennifer Myers AgentGradSchool.com. And today we have a very special treat. Today is Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent Podcast as part of my, how they did it. Series and we have Amy Wease the very first agent of Dwell Residential Brokerage and really, she was the catalyst for me. Having created agent grad school in the first place. So I’m so excited to have her here and talk about her career in real estate. And we’ll get into all of that and all the juicy details in a minute. But for right now, I want Amy to be the one to tell us what the title of this podcast is. Because when I asked Amy, what is your headline B for the house? She did it. Series Amy said, I mean, it was like literally rolled after a time. Amy hi, Amy hi, what did you say it immediately? I said from Fear to Fearless you know, how to sustain, to go from being scared to sustain it a real estate career that I could be financially viable. Love it. Amy or if it’s okay. I would love to start by giving just a little bit of background as to how we know each other or at least my version of the story. And then we can go from there. Does that sound okay? Yeah. So I think it was 2011. I always forgot if I opened Dwell residential in 2011, 2012 cars, there was a six month period where I was kind of doing it and hadn’t announced it yet, but I really think it was 2011 and I had just opened while Residential Brokerage and you Amy, you called me out of nowhere. I had only known you because we had done one. This is my memory. So you’ll have to tell me if this is different for you, but I had only known your name because we had done one transaction together. When you were representing the developer for a new construction condo. And it was my Buyer who was buying one of those units in that, right? That’s right. Yes. I know your name from other places that I had seen your name and you had brought it in a few other clients as well. So I knew a couple of times, but yeah. So then just quickly. So just, so how did we end up, how did you end up calling me that day? Or why did you call me that day? Cause I just feel like for me, I always tell you this, but I’m always like, I’m so glad that you had the courage to call me that day and reach out because I feel like it changed my life and hopefully changed their lives for the better, but I just, it changed my life for the better, in a way that I never planned on it. I never planned on having like agents at the office. I never planned on creating a training program. And you, and you reaching out that day, it was a life-changer for me. So I guess tell me what I want to know. Like what made you call me? Well, a couple things. I was struggling to get my business substainable to get it really going, as opposed to just clients here and there. And I’m, you know, the market had turned a little bit in this area that we’re in and the DC area. And I was struggling to do that as well. But I had remembered when you did come into the building that I was telling we were downstairs, then you had a client and you gave them this huge folder of information. I see a lot of them, I had seen a lot of agent comes through, you know, I sold a lot of condos there and I see a lot of agents and I never seen anyone do that. Literally never. And I had probably seen like, I don’t know, 300 agents. I mean, that’s why I had a 150 units. No, I saw a lot of it. I was like, Oh, you know, it was like, Whoa, what is this girl doing? You know? So I remembered that and I remembered your demeanor and your care with your client. And I know that you’ve brought, some people are in a few times, it didn’t work out for them. There was like no pressure. And I, and I had seen her name around too. So it was like, Oh, this girl is doing something right with, with buyers. I don’t know what it is, but you know, clearly she’s prepared and she, she knows what she is doing. You know, I had seen other agents come in and basically be mute, you know yeah. For their clients. And I was like, wow. Or just say, Oh, do you want to buy this? Great. So that was, that was a big, that was a big memory for me, my memory bubble, when I was thinking of who could help me get my business going and, and see what, who could I learn from, well, I’m just so glad that you called me that day and we’ll get into more about that in a second. But that’s the short story of how Amy became the first agent at Dwell Residential, Brokerage back in 2001 and I’m so glad that you were, and what happened for me on the, on the, on the, on the next, I guess, piece of that is you joined you’re the very first agent. And when I first opened, I was like, okay, I have to show her how to do this. Right? Because I want you to get into your story in just a second about kind of how you came to me, how you were kind of, you know, and just not the best place. And I said to myself, I have to train her on every single step in the system that I had created over the previous 10 years that I’ve put my buyer clients through. And the reason I had two reasons for wanting to do that. Number one at the time, this was 2000 and I have so much, so many clients coming and so much business that I literally couldn’t handle it. And so I needed help, but I didn’t. I was like so slow to hand over my clients to somebody else because I wanted that client to go through the exact same process and the exact same experience as though I was working with them. Because at that point I was building a brand, I was building a name that was a bigger from myself. So I was just very like scared to have an agent, to have had a client to an agent, and then have that, that client who hasn’t experienced, that was not what I would have done and so forth. That was the first reason I was like, okay, I’m going to train her on every small little step. And then the second reason was like, I honestly wanted you to succeed. Like I felt committed when you had come to me and you kind of, and we’ll, we’ll talk about this in like a minute, but I felt committed to you. I wanted you to succeed because you had just gone through a really rough patch and patch in your business. And I wanted to almost like prove to you that you could do this and that you could have sustainable success in real estate. And that what you had just gone through was not how it needed to be. And so I knew that, and I just knew that you would, that you were going to follow the direction that you were going to do everything that I have promised. I think that we even had that path. And I said, if, if you do every single thing that I tell you to do, I will show you exactly what to do. And I knew agreed, and I knew you were smart. And I knew you were a hard worker. And I just knew that if you were willing to do, to learn the steps that you were, I just knew that you would have success. I knew it. So those are the two reasons that this happens, at least on my side. So that is what essentially created agent grad school Buyer decision, because I needed a way to train you on that system. And so let’s, now we’ll talk about your experience going through age and grad school. Buyer addition and kind of what life looks like after an hour and a few moments, but I want to start with, I always find it fascinating people’s stories on how they became a real estate agent and, and kind of like what what’s happening in your life, what like what you did before becoming a real estate agent. So let’s start by tell us a little bit about what made you become a real estate agent in the first place way before you joined wild Residential and a little bit about the beginning part of your career, because you did see a lot of success before you and I met, so give us a little background. Yeah. So I graduated with a degree in English and mass communications, and so I wanted to work in public relations and it, it was also interested in politics a little bit. So I came to DC from Richmond and eventually got a job@washingtonpost.com, which was a fabulous job. It was during the internet hey-day. And so I was given a lot of responsibility and opportunity at an early part of my career, but unfortunately the.com bust happened. And, you know, I had to look for jobs elsewhere, people where it just, you know, everything starts synthesizing down, you know, at the company got smaller and smaller and smaller. Everyone had to start kind of looking for different jobs, different opportunities. I freelanced for a while and PR during that time and made it a little bit of money, but it wasn’t really doing super well. And my mom suggested real estate. And I was like, no, I don’t do that. I’m not as opposed to it. That’s so funny. Then I think I was young and very stubborn. And I was like, this was when I got my degree in and this is what I’m doing. You know, it wasn’t the business. It was just like, and it was my mother telling me that I was like, I know him better than You, you know? And she was like, well, I don’t know. I see you. And I know me for a long time to be really good at this, I think would be good at this. And I really did fight it. That’s what’s funny about it. I thought it, I was like, Nope, I’m a writer. That’s what I do. And so what I’m going to do. And so she’s like, okay, well I’ll be supportive, but it didn’t, you know, it was really, really struggling. So finally my stubbornness was like, okay, let me, you know, let me try this. And I got my license and I, you know, I remember the day I got my license, I had called a friend and she was like, what do you do now? And like, I don’t know if that makes me laugh. That’s the truth though. Right? You’re like, Oh, it’s like, literally like, no, literally what do you do? And like, I literally don’t know. I was just like, I don’t know what to do. And what was ironic is I had sat in, on all of these classes. I have learned everything, all of the laws of rules, you know what I had no idea what to do. It was like, I don’t know. I mean, I guess if they go interview with companies, which is what I did, and it’s funny because when you go in and they give you like, the average salary is some big number in your Thinking, but they don’t give you the other piece of the pie, you know, like how to get to that number. Like how many years it took for an average agent to make that much money. But I did, you know, I was during kind of a bigger BoomTown in a real estate. And then I ended up working in a new construction because it, it was an easier way to get clients where I was working on one job. That’s where we met. And I was in a good property in a good location. And I did really well and had some good years. And then this second and the second, and I want people to know how good you did. I mean, you were selling, what was your volume at? Like 2007 was like $34 million. Yeah. So you were like hitting it out of the park. Tell me a little bit about that mentality. Like when you were doing the new construction and things were going well, like I said, there’s ebbs and flows of real estate that can be prevented. And so tell us a little bit about your mentality in that timeframe, because I do think it would be helpful to hear about the heyday. What were you thinking? What was happening? Yeah, I mean that, the environment in general, it was pretty vivacious sales where, you know, it was a different time as far as how financing was handled. So sales were pretty robust. So I was working very hard and, and doing a good job, but sometimes you didn’t even have to work so hard because they were a lot of them in the market. There is a lot of hubris and a lot of like people counting their chickens before they hatch. And then that kind of came back to burst some folks and you know, like, Oh, I’ve sold 50 condos and this week, or what have you, that didn’t end up happening once the bus did happen? I mean, I think that every, you know, I was really just like working super hard and, and trying to do a good job, but I wasn’t like taking out my taxes. I wasn’t, you know, I didn’t have a system. It wasn’t like making sure that these people were going in my database. I wasn’t, I was just in that moment making money and like happy to be making money. I wasn’t thinking about like, how is this going to sustain me for, you know, for the rest of my life? How am I going to build a business? I mean, I would think about it, but then I get really busy and then I would work. And then I think, Oh, I got an ad and I did take it down to the names and numbers and things like that, but I didn’t have any systems in place. And do you know, at that time, if you look back, people kind of say, Oh, it’s so obvious that there is going to be a BAS, but it really wasn’t so obvious to me. And it really wasn’t so obvious to, I think a lot of people around me as well. And I also think, and you correct me if I’m wrong, but for me during the bus with some of them was, I had my business grew like my group, my business grew substantially during the bus. And then there was other agent’s that business fell apart. And I guess what I’m getting at as I feel like, and you are correct me if I’m wrong, but would you say that during that time you were focused on sex sales and not necessarily be building a longterm business and even knowing that that was what you were supposed to be thinking about? Maybe. Yeah. I didn’t even really know that’s what I was supposed to be thinking about. I don’t, I looking back on it. I think that there was just, I wasn’t focused on that. I was thinking about what was in front of me and, you know, because I have siloed everything into new construction. I didn’t have a lot of experience with resale. So once and that really for the area that I work well, we work in, like that took a really big hit. So then it was like, I had area of focus, right? I hadn’t, I hadn’t sold much outside of new construction. I haven’t done a few resales with buildings I’d worked with. And then I had done a few before I came to new construction, but very little and I have not worked with buyers that are very much at all. I had always worked for sellers and they kind of like, it had a hard stop for me. Like, you know, when it stopped, it stopped. How about what was happening at that point? So how are you, are you, you know, are selling $34 million worth of real estate. You are really focused on the sales of it. Not necessarily the building, a business and a career of it per se and all of a sudden it stopped. So then what, yeah, I mean, during that time too, by the way, like I’ve bought a condo and I’ve got to buy a new furniture from my place and I’ve got a car or a nicer car and all of these great things, you know? And so I had, you know, bills in place that had to be paid. And then that kind of like stopped. And, you know, you go from like 34 million to like a third of that is even less than a third, but you’re bills are still a a hundred percent the same, you know? And yeah, it wasn’t fun. It was calling people up asking them that they want to buy ourselves a random people out of the blue. There was no rhyme or reason to all of a sudden it was just like, I have to say, I’m going to sink, help me. Somebody’s await. There is no one who helped me to have to figure this out. And I had a little bit of business, but it was every month, like super tight, just super, you know, I went from like plenty of money in the bank to like, okay, I’m me and my mortgage payment right before the deadline. You know, I mean, my car was right before the deadline. That is not a fun way to live, literally as you’re talking and makes me feel like I’m on a roller coaster in my, you know, in life, the stomach drops and you’re on a roller coaster. Yeah. I feel like that’s how it would feel every single month. Yeah. And I watched other people to, and that was scary seeing them like go on to different careers or lose things that they had. And it was just not, you know, I, I knew that I had to like, and I liked real estate and I liked what I had been doing and I wanted to learn and do more. I just wasn’t sure where my opportunity could come from. And things were like around me, very like gray and dark, you know, I wasn’t, and I mean, you know, it, wasn’t an, in an area around people who are like, Oh, it’s going to get better. It was just like trudged through, you know? And I feel like there was like a plan in place at that point or no. Or like, what did you feel like was your lifeline? Well, I really wanted to build my business. I really wanted to have a business like I have today. I really did. So I believed in myself, I believe in real estate, I had been around it long enough in my mother was a real estate investor and owner. And I believe that the market would come back. I mean, I always knew what would come back. And I always knew I wanted to be a part of that and not just the market coming back, but I knew that maybe this was the opportunity for me to make the business I wanted to make as a part of, you know, at that time I had, I don’t work for different developers because the opportunity was there and the money was good. So sometimes it was hard to like say no because, and start my own thing because, you know, I would get another job on a building and it would be really great. And then I wouldn’t have time to build my business. So the way I wanted to build it, you don’t do it. Like, it’s amazing Amy, now that you’re saying This and looking back, but like, I know, I know it’s hard in the moment, but if you could talk to that, Amy, back then as a somebody today, when you say that, that looks like the best blessing, or even though it was like the most, the fortress time you ever have gone through in your life or make, I don’t know for sure, for sure. If it happened for good reason because you’d come out of 10 times better at the end. Yeah, it is. Yeah. It was like a great thing for me, because I don’t know that I was, like I said, I would have left the comfort of maybe working for a developer, you know, where there’s a little bit more like people are coming to you, you still have to sell and it’s very difficult, but that’s the positive. And then it gets to be yours right now. But then you are all responsible to sometimes that scary. And it’s scary, especially when you don’t know if you can do well, you don’t, you know, you see other people do well, how did they get there? You know, there’s a lot of self doubt in real estate. It’s not, you know, and, and, and I haven’t had a ton of mentorship at that point either, but I did, no, I did. I did, no. I wanted to stay in it. I know a lot of people at that time who just went and became something totally different, you know, that I knew I wanted to stay in it. So I think that was part of me leaving, leading me to You is that I did want to make this my career. OK. So we’ve talked a little bit about that fateful phone call, right. So I guess talk a little bit about that transition period when you decided to come over to Dwell, what were you hoping for? What did you tell me? Just tell us a little bit about that time period, because it was still a, before the training really happens, but you come over and kinda, what was your hope or expectations or goals that I thought you were really busy? And I was really not busy and yeah, you are really, really busy. And I was like, I want to do what she’s doing. You know, it was really that simple. I would like to give you some like, really big explanation, but, you know, whatever she’s doing, she’s really busy. She seems to be really happy. She was launching her own brokerage now, and this is exciting. And I liked your, you know, your approach. And I always like too, that, you know, in real estate, a lot of my training had been like how to make or how to become wealthy, how to be, you know, how many, how did you, how many transactions, money, money, money, money, you know? And you were like, well, you know, I had focused on like the client. Here’s how I do it. And I always have a mother who’s him business for herself. And she is very focused on putting people first, you know? And then the rest of it, if you do that, your business will grow in. So I had that core belief. So I think when I met you, I was kind of this, like a rate that we have the same core value, you know, we know. So if we have that same core belief and I learned what she’s doing, then I think I can be successful for me. Well, I’m so glad he thought that I didn’t even know that I’m learning so much today because we’ve never really had this, in-depth have a conversation. And, you know, sometimes when things are happening, it’s like, but then when you look back and you have to talk about it and it’s like, kinda fascinating, I don’t know. Yeah. Okay. So then, so then when we started training, you know, and at that time I wasn’t calling it AI in grad school because you were the first person to go through it. I just remember saying, I just remember distinctly saying, and I remember looking at you in your eye and saying, if you promise to do every single thing I tell you to do, I we’ll train you and you promised me, and I swear, you are like, you are like follow the plan to the T. I love it so much. So I guess talk a little bit about that time when we started the training and today this training is called Asian buyers agent Grad school Buyer Edition. And the reason that I put you through this training was because I needed to hand you some Buyer clients, and I wanted you to put them through the process, but I was going to put them through. So I guess talk a little bit, not necessarily about like, I mean, you can talk about the training themselves, but talk more about kind of your process of going through the training. Like did some of it sounded crazy, did it sound like obvious talk through what you were learning and your reaction to it? It didn’t know. It didn’t sound crazy. It, it didn’t sound crazy. It did sound like, wow, there’s a lot of steps, you know, like there’s a lot of steps in here, but I will tell you some of that corporate training really came back to help me in that sense, because I had had to, to do a lot of steps in, in different work that I’ve done, that was pretty detail oriented. So, so it was a little intimidating BI in that sense. And of course, always intimidating because that, like I said, I really hadn’t worked as a one-on-one buyers agent very much had always worked kind of, I’ve always worked with sellers or developers. So for me, it’s like, it was scary and a lot of, you know, face to face, you know, and in doing all of these sets and learning process, but I have 100% agree with that I would do. And I did due every single thing you told me I was willing to, and I was open. I think that’s just two of the key things too, really, you know, being successful agent at school, do you have to be willing and open? You know, even if you do you think like, Oh, if I do this one thing, it’s not going to matter. I mean, there were times I thought, Oh, I don’t know if this is going to matter, but I’m going to do it, you know? Or like, this feels awkward and weird, but I’m going to do it. Whether that was like emailing and say, I’m going to meet you with a red folder or at the coffee shop at that specific yeah. Green glass’ and you know, I’m a blonde here or whatever, you know, its just, or in the end walking into the coffee shop, having a plan, but I had a plan and that’s what helped me. If I have a plan I’m not just randomly going to a coffee shop, you know, promising the world to someone. And once I started putting things in place and it actually practicing the system and getting good results, then that helped me build my confidence too. I mean, I believe in you, but of course, until you do it yourself, you need to see the results. Yeah. And, and you know, everyone suffers from that like, well maybe she can do it, but maybe I can’t, you know, type thing, it really wasn’t the case. And in a sense of, you know, like I did what you said, and I remember the first couple of times I did it and then the person who will be like, great, and I’ll go to the next step and that would do what you said, they are going to do it. I’m like, Oh my gosh, this is working. It’s pretty easy. I mean, what do you, once you get to it, you know exactly. Right. So I think that sometimes people think like everything in life, this being a new year, like I think people are like, I can skip, skip a step two and three, you know, like on a diet or whatever, like an hour. And like honestly my biggest piece of advice for people is like, you have to go through each module as you call them now. Like, which is pretty much what we did. But like each module you have to do it. You have to do it over and over. You know, you have to keep practicing. You have to keep doing every little step, even if it seems obvious or repetitive ’cause, I’m also seeing those things pay off years later. You know, things that I didn’t think were like, maybe so, you know what, it seems obvious to us as realtors and you remind me of this a lot. It’s not always obvious to our clients and we really need to, to handhold them. And I know that word gets turned around a lot in real estate, but I mean, I do think we’re like the best scanned holders ever and in a, in a way that I think you said it best when we talked offline before is in a way that makes everybody feel guided in the process, it makes the clients feel guided in confidence that you are the leader and it makes you feel guided and confident that you’re the leader, you know? Yeah. I think that both. And that’s what I liked about it. Two, that’s a really great point. Like it’s not just that, you know, building confidence so that my client knows I’m the leader. And so that I know I’m the leader and we’re all like going in this one direction. And if for whatever reason, the client diverts you in another direction and I can get them back to go that direction, then that’s okay. Like that client isn’t right for Dwell or for me, or for what, what I’m trying to accomplish are, you know, they want, they want a different thing than what I can give to them and that’s okay too. But then generally it doesn’t happen or not anymore. And, and I think the thing is when it does happen, you know, that you did a everything correctly, cause it worked with 99% of your other clients and B you don’t beat yourself up with like, Oh, I should do it differently or better. You just are like, okay, it wasn’t the right fit. And like that I’m not carrying around all that anxious of like, what do I say? What do I do? What happens if this happens? I don’t know. I just got my hope is that that made you, as you did it more and more, and you started to see the results or you started to see that the steps were so clear and the buyers were almost putting themselves through it because you were guiding them that did it become easier. Cause it’s always stressful in the beginning was learning something and trying to like go through the motions. But talk about when you started to kind of transition from seeing the results and then a little bit about how you changed or what you saw the differently happening with their clients or your business. Yeah. Well, I remember you would give me a referral and I went and I had a client and I went through the full process, all of the modules How and the person who bought and they were very happy and did all the post, you know, work. And then I got a referral and there, I remember being like, yeah, that’s how it’s supposed to happen. And you don’t even have to ask for it. It did. Yes. Oh no, no. Like I did not ask for it. I mean, you know, like it was just like, here it is. And this was pretty early on in the process. Yeah. And you’re like, if it works, Oh my God, if it works right. It’s like magic. Its like, you know, it was great because it was one of those things, your like it is set. A lot of referrals really do say a lot about how you handled that transaction with that person. I am the same way if I’m not going to give a friend or a referral for anything, unless I really believe in a person and had a good experience. So I remember that feeling of like, Oh my gosh at work. And then like I remember, okay, let’s do it again. And I do love the, you know, the, you know, sometimes people, I like the uniformality of like doing it in the same way every time. So it really does take all this nonsense out of your head because we all do it. Like did I wear or something wrong? Did I say the wrong thing? Like, I don’t know if you, you just, all of these things go through your head. Whereas you know, when you have a process, every time it was like, Practicing, you know, swinging a bat and baseball, like you’re not going to hit every ball, but if you get up and do you do your stance to the correct way and you’ve done all the things that your coach has told you to do, and sometimes you strike out like that. Okay, done it. But you can just keep doing it or, you know, and its kind of that same thing. Like I don’t have to question it every time. Like maybe that I just didn’t know, you know, I just didn’t hit the ball correctly that time or what have you. But if I do it the same way every time and I’ve put the fundamentals in place, most of the times I’m going to hit the ball, you know? And, but I have to keep doing it and have to keep practicing it. And I think that’s really where, where I started to see my business grow. And even when I sometimes doubt, is it a little bit if I wouldn’t get feedback, but I didn’t hear from people, you know? I mean, I remember you said to kind of this three-strike role, like, okay, you know, you try three times after the initial consultation. If you don’t get response know more and you move forward, you know, next for, you know, move on to your next. Yeah. And I was stalking people and that was never going to get you anywhere. Where do you want to be? You know, if people don’t wanna work with people who seem desperate. Right, right, right. Right. So yeah. So it, it started to change. It started to look like a real business. It started to look, I started to feel like a real professional. My content became easier. I would imagine like second nature. Yeah. Its like second nature, you know? I mean I have a whole system in place today. How I work with clients is second nature to me, but it wasn’t in the beginning. But you know, for me that was exciting. I like learning something new and I had pretty much exhausted myself on my own, on my own, my own way, you know, I could configure it out and I did it, you know, I didn’t want to, like I said, I, I want it to work with someone who I felt like had kind of a core belief that I have about business. You know, I didn’t want him to just be all about here and make all these numbers or you know, well, because it’s a process too. And I knew that I knew that you would get to the numbers that you wanted to get. It. It just, wasn’t gonna be your one. ’cause learning the steps in agent grad school. It’s, it’s like learning a new skill. You’re like a little, a little, if you feel like you have sea legs at first and it’s really hard at first. And then as you get more confident, it like, it, it becomes second nature at the minute. It become second nature. That’s when you actually, you know, you’ve built the business and then you just keep doing it and then it’s not as hard every single time, you know? And then like my ex becomes a way more fun and way less stressful and way more confident about everything that’s happening, even outside of the business. I don’t know. I mean you tell me how kind of, what, what has changed or what does life look like now? Yeah, I mean, I was thinking about it the other day, you know, from 2011 to would just bring in the new year really kind of, I think we might have started the end of 2011. So maybe like five and a half years I’ve been with you. And you know, I was thinking every single year, since the first year my sales numbers have grown, you know, this year is my very best year since I’ve been with you my very best year in and significantly. That’s a good year, both in clients’ and sales volume. And I did the C things that I did five years ago. I’m just stronger in them and better at them. And my business has grown on itself so that I can then do these repeat clients. You know, I now have like repeat clients from 2011, from 2012, you know, people are coming back to me saying, Hey, I got married now I want to sell my condo and buy another one with you. So I might have had someone four or five years ago, they bought a one bedroom. I now have to transactions off of that happened this year or several, a couple of times, you know, because I do stay in touch with them because that’s part of the system. And we do have a system for staying in touch with people, very diligently in a nice loving way, but you know, to keep our business growing. So yeah, I mean, today it’s totally different. You know, I am, when I hit my bottom as far as for money, I was behind in my real estate taxes, which I was always kind of embarrassed to talk about that. But then I found out later, quite a few people who had that experience in real estate, I did it in the beginning. Yeah. And then what it tells you, you know, take out, I mean they kind of tell you when you go, yeah, well when I get money, I’ll take it out that day and never come. And so, you know, and so, but this year I actually prepaid tax is like very weird on them. You know, I literally was like, you know, I’m going to be accounted. And in 2011 I’m like, okay, are they gonna put me in jail? It’s like, no, I’m like, Oh, what do you have to do? You have to help me. And very kind and said, you’re one of many people who end up in this place if it’s okay and were going to figure it out. And I’m we did, we figured it out, but it still wasn’t a lot of fun. It was stressful. And then I thought about it literally last month, I just prepaid taxes for this year and then like, wow. That’s so that I could say if I’m going to feel so good. Yeah. Like a, like a weight off the shoulder. Yeah. Yeah. That’s a huge weight off of my shoulder. Are you kidding me? Like to pre K and prepaid a lot of other things. And then I also have this year, we’ve talked about investing, you know, and making sure that you always have a 401k. And I was like, Oh it, get to that. I’ll get to that. And I did that this year. Congratulations on being a real 401k, not just like here’s $50. So I sat down with an investment manager for a couple of hours. We discussed the totality of what I’m looking to do and, and all of that. So again, that’s huge looking towards the future, you know, a 20 year trajectory of where I plan to be. I was not doing that five years ago. I was doing it. I don’t know that you could have, because you didn’t have, like, my assumption is that you kind of know you have more of a forecast of how next year is going to go. And so you feel confident in like being able to prepay things because you’re like, I know I’m going to have sales next year and the predictability, like every year it grows. So why would it be any different this year? Right. Yeah. I have the ability to, to predict, you know, that this year is going to be a, a pretty, a good strong year as well. And going through my client database and, and feeling confident about it because I have a system in place, like, like I kind of goes back to what I said, that sustainable business, you know, I’m not just because real estate will have these ups and downs, you know, we’ve, we’ve all been through them. And, and I think when it’s good, it’s hard. It’s hard to remember like, OK, well, it might slow it down a little bit. And do you have these things in place now? You already said that some of your best years were during this slower years, which makes me really happy as well, because I think, I think the reason that is, and I hope that you have the same experience when we do have a downturn is I always say, you know, it really, it weeds out Downturns in the economy, weed out the strong and the strong survive. Yeah. And what I mean by strong is not mentality, not who is the richest or not. It’s the person who is, who’s built a strong, solid foundation. It’s like a hurricane, right. When a hurricane comes in, some houses get demolished and some how’s the state stand. That’s the difference. It’s because of the way they were built. Right. Definitely. Right. Yeah. And I think that, you know, that’s why, like I had a little foundation enough to keep me standing with me through it, but I certainly, you know, I certainly didn’t, I wasn’t growing it. I was in building my foundation, you know, it wasn’t really, really strong. You know, now I’m in a place where it’s really strong, you know, I have prepaid things. I’m making investments in my future. You know, I, I can go out to eat and have fun with some clients that have actually become good friends with. And you know, you know, I’m excited for this next year. I’m not like hoarding my money in December thinking, Oh my God, like what’s going to happen. So, you know, and, and I think it’s hard when you’re, when the times are good, which is another reason that I love working with Dwell and I love working with the Buyer system is that it almost automatically is like being predictive of the future. Right? It’s like that insurance I’m like, all of the steps are insuring you that when the times do you go down, like those people are going to remember you and they just, they will, when they go to sell or they need help, or, you know, if they need advice, if the market has changed in how they can sell their home, because you’ve stayed in touch with them because you have done a phenomenal job. Now, if you just sell them a house in the height of the market for a really low interest rate, and you don’t do any of those things and the agent grad school, they’re probably not going to call you back. You know, it is, is my experience in my case, my guests. And I think that’s what happens too. A lot of people in these really big markets, they make a lot of money and they don’t really put those. They’re not building that houses. And so it can withstand it when, you know, everything ebbs and flows and these markets, and I was determined that I think to not to have that happen again, you know, I, yeah. And I, and I really, I tell, you know, agents this in the office. And I said, I do think that there is a downturn coming in the, in the real estate market it’s times. And I’m not worried about any of us, because I know that we’ve built, like the we’ve built our structure, each one of us. Cause it, my PR with the way that I teach you guys at the office, if you each need to have your own business, that’s built from concrete, like a concrete strong foundation. And so when the market does to, you know, go down, I think we’re all going to be fine. And my hope is that it’s a similar experience. So in what I had in 28, 2008 and 2010, when those markets crashed, my, my business went up and then that’s how good things came. Like, are you coming here? And I was having this relationship, you know, the fact that you, you being the person to say, I’m going to change my business and I’m going to call Jennifer and not how that changed my life. I just can’t. Thank you enough. And I appreciate that you took what I didn’t even realize necessarily at the time that, and, and pretty much made it what it is today for both your business and my business. So I just want to thank you for everything you’ve done, not just for yourself, but for Dwell and for me. So it works. I mean, it definitely works. And I, and I adore it. Like I had adore a lot of things that work well, it works really well. And, you know, and also it just kind of speaks to who I am and how I want to do my business. I don’t want my clients to be numbers. I don’t want them to be houses and want them to be people, you know, but I also still want to make a good income and I get to the boat, you know, as well. And then not every place is like that. And we’ve talked about that before, you know, and I do you think it’s amazing. I hadn’t really thought about it a lot that you launched dwell during the major downturn, you know, that, that says a lot about you and your business. And I think that maybe it was one of the reasons too, because I was like, wow, what’s going on with this with Jennifer, you know, is drowning. And their sorrows, this girl was like, I didn’t have enough time. I really was. I think, you know, and, and not just where you, like, you were like thriving, you know, and a lot of in a lot of people really were not, it was a tough time. So I taught you everything that got me there. So you will have the same experience. And so a lot of when it comes back around, I highly recommend it to anyone. It’s a great, if you, if you want to have a real business, that’s sustainable. If you want to connect with your people, if you want to be a leader, if you want to, if you want to, all of those things, I mean, the Agent Grad School is worth every bit of it. I love the modules. They are all pretty easy to follow. Its just a matter of practicing them in doing them. Thank you. Amy I did not want this to progress and into selling age, the grad school Buyer Edition I mainly wanted it to be about how amazing you took that information and the business that you turned it into. So I would love to end with two things. One is I want to know what your life looks like now. And I want like details. Like if you want to tell people your income, you can, or you could say it like 10 times what it was when you were joined or, and I want you to do anything outside of just your business. Like how has your life been easier? I’d love to know that. And then for anybody who is like, don’t get it. I don’t get how it’s different. And I would love to also have you explain, because I remember back, I try to remember back when I was like, okay, I’m gonna explain it all to you. Or you have a, and when we have another agent Join in the office and I’m like, okay, I’m gonna explain this all to you. And you know how they look at, you know, how they looked at me? Like it can’t be that difficult or something, you know, it can’t be that involved or it can’t be that or something. Right. So let’s end on those two notes. First start by. I want to, I just want to snapshot of what life looks like today for you, because I want you to stand in what you’ve created for yourself. And I have a big believer. If you say it out loud, it becomes more real and you did this. Amy like, I know that you always are like, well, you know, thank you for teaching me. And I’m like, no, you did this. So what did you do for yourself? Wow, what did I did it for myself? You know, what I did for myself is I created a real business. So the numbers, I don’t want it. I’m not going to say I’m on the podcast. But when I looked at my numbers for the end of the year, I was like, what, what did that, I mean, I kind of knew. I mean, if I fall on my numbers, but when, you know, end of the year, the final, that’s it no more, you know, you can look at it and you were like really proud of that. You’re like, that’s a significant, I had never, I hadn’t thought, like I remember thinking, well, if I could just make over a 120,000 are, but I just make over a 150,000 are if I had to make it for 170, you know, it kept getting more and more like this, this now there is a two in front of my number, you know, in front of my name, like, Whoa, where did that come from? You know? And congrats. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. It’s really exciting. And, and there’s freedom in that there’s freedom to not, not to worry about paying my bills, not to worry, you know, getting my, getting my nieces and nieces and nephews, like a nicer presents at Christmas or taking them on a little trip or like being able to like, you know, pay a little extra to rent like a summer house. So we can go to her home for a couple of days, you know, things that like, I was not doing it at the time. You know, I’m thinking about my future in like how I’m going to contribute it to whatever relationship I might be in what I’m bringing to the table financially, emotionally, you know, all of those things. And I could stand on my own two feet and that I have a business where people respect what I do and they, they give me lots of great testimonials and then I really can change people’s lives, you know? And I’m happy in their happy. It’s like a, it’s a completely different shifts. You know, it’s a totally different shift it’s instead of running around crazy and worrying and stress all the time, like I said, it’s really kind of feeling very Fearless knowing that I have these fundamentals in place and that they worked for me and we’d been like lost weight. You lost the weight. You know, I felt more confident about like, yeah, your confidence builds all the way around. You know, I lost weight a day to day anymore. I still have more time with my family. You know, spend a lot of time building my business though. Cause I really, and I was like, what I do sometimes I feel really dorky, Oh my God. I know like, all I want to do on Friday night is like this, this is a great house. Or I love it. The neighborhood, or I know it’s opened me up to, to so many. That’s the other thing that I had so many great neighborhoods in DC that I never knew that I got to discover, you know, great restaurants and great coffee shop. It sounds stupid, but like just like small things like that. But I get to know that, you know, me, I always get to know my clients really well. I’ve created a lot of new friendships. It’s just been wonderful. I’ve been able to like send gifts to a certain clients that just had babies and they just love it. And some of the pictures of their kids’ and you know, I get to enjoy my life. I don’t have to sit around thinking like, what’s gonna happen today. Am I gonna get a client? How is it going to work? How am I going to pay my bills? It’s totally different. And like I said, this year has been a particularly great year. I did all the same things I did. And it’s just continuing to build, like you said, it would, it mean it’s doing what it’s supposed to be. It’s doing what it’s supposed to do because I’m doing what you told me to do. I love how you are still are surprised by the things that I say is going to happen happening. I’m like what? I’m like, you know, I’m looking forward to that feeling because I did too. I remember I like called my mom and it was like, do you know how much did I did this year? You know? And I was looking at Salesforce and she was like, how much? And she was so proud of me when you deserve it. You’ve worked really, really hard to get here at Amy. So I just really just wanted to shine the light on your hard work today, what you may not happen and how in just a few short years, because yeah, maybe it’s been five and a half years, but you’ve started. You started seeing even last year, we, we would have had a similar conversation. Oh yeah, for sure. So I just wanted to highlight your, your success and have you stand in the fact that you created this life for yourself in this business for yourself. And I just appreciate you watching you do it and being able to be next to you as you continue to grow at all. And so thank you for your time. Thanks. So any last parting words of advice for anybody who maybe was, is kind of in you’re where you were a couple of years ago and it doesn’t necessarily have to be about age and grad school at all, but you know, but any words of advice, if you could say something to somebody who was in your shoes like five years ago. Yeah. I would say if you, you know, if you really love real estate and you really want to do it, like it will change. I mean, if you’re, if you’re determined to, to be in this field and you love this field, so many people leave a year in six months in two years’ and you know, if you really love it, like stay in it because it will change. I mean, you know, you said five years, but I feel like it’s gone by so quickly. You know? And I remember that there were days when I was just thinking, how am I going to get this the next day? And like, no, I have another problem for me. One time I car got towed and they only had like a, a $150 to my name before I knew you. I hope right. Well, I was going to get a little more money like in, on Monday, but this was Saturday. And I remember like almost crying at the tow truck place because I had like $40 after I gave them everything. You know, you know, I remember these times and just thinking, this is bleak, this is not good, but I, but I also knew, and I just believe that it was going to change. I knew that it was going on. I just said it. My only thing is if you, if you loved this in anything that you want to do, you have to know that it’s not going to last forever. And I hate when people would say that to me, it’s not going to last forever. I’m like, it feels like forever. Now I look back and think, wow, it feels like so long ago because they were really were, there were moments where it was really tough over that maybe like a year and a half or maybe two years, but like, I’ve come out. The other side of that pretty, pretty quickly. It feels like, you know, even though it’s been five years and just really quickly two, like my step dad had gotten diagnosed with leukemia that year as well. So we have a lot of, I have like personal stuff going on, like financial. So it was really tough, but I just believe that it would turn around and I knew that things would get better. So I knew he reached out and you got, you learned how to do that. And I was just, and I learn to ask for help if you have to learn to ask for help. And even, and even when people are kind of rejecting you, you have to keep pushing forward because that will happen to people who reject you or, you know, they don’t have time for you or, or what have you. And you have to just not internalize it, even though it’s really hard and just keep pushing because sometimes things turn out so quickly, you know, there were days that things would be so bleak and then things would just turn quickly and then a client would call me back or, you know, I would get good news about something. That’s my only advice. Well, thank you. Amy thank you so much for your perseverance and your to learn and your willingness to share about your experience. My hope is that this story on how you went from Fear to Fearless in building a sustainable business ops, other people that maybe are in this, in your same shoes, that you were only a few short years ago. So thank you for your time. You are welcome. Thanks. Alright. Talk to you soon. Thank you. Thanks for listening to this episode of Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent with Jennifer. Myers be sure to head over to aging grad school.com to leave a comment about what you’ve learned today and what you’d like to implement into your own business. Once you’re there be sure to sign up for Jennifer’s Free Weekly Training opportunities, exclusive content insider’s tips and personal Notes. You won’t get anywhere else. Let Jennifer help you make your real estate business dreams a reality.