It was 2015, I walked across the stage, as the first in my family to graduate from college. My dad, a journey man high voltage lineman, and a mom and employee of Wal-Mart.
I remember looking at the proud faces of my parents, the inner accomplishment of holding that BA in Business, and not a damn clue of what a young mom was actually going to accomplish.
When you have a child everything changes. Your “I hopes” turn into your “must haves” you have to make it work financially, and all while stressing about every other thing under the sun. During college my now, husband I ran a t-shirt shop where I designed the clothing, and we relied on tourism to fund our business. Which was good, until we closed down after Covid.
But, I needed something more, and that is why I went into real estate. I loved the idea of creating stellar marketing for listings, and also knew that based on my competition, there truly wasn’t much of it. Very few agents actually go out there and market themselves and opportunity was everywhere. Many homes at that time sub $1 million hardly ever sold, and most had been listed with more than 5 agents and still hadn’t sold.
It was quite a bummer when no one was very impressed when I said I wanted to be a Real Estate agent, most thought I was turning into a slimy car salesmen and my introverted behavior and lack of wanting to socialize made everyone skeptical. Except my now father in law, who said “you would make a great real estate agent”.
I designed a business that worked for me, creating advertising, marketing, dynamic creations of real estate design and video and sold enough real estate to earn myself some great national awards and exposure, not to shabby in a town of less than 20,000 people.
It’s insane how much just one ounce of encouragement can send a cascading waterfall of growth. That day, I never knew what would happen looking back. Creating a lucrative real estate business, leaving one franchise and opening another, and ultimately leaving the franchise world and opening my own brokerage on my own.
Just because one single encouraging word, gave me the confidence to get out of the fear of failure and into the headspace of making it work,and being resilient enough to get there.
This leads to the summary of this article, if you are stressed or depressed and confused but have a burning desire to make something happen for you… surround yourself with the people that will encourage you to reach that dream.
Some of us get pigeon held into being in a small town, or not having friends, etc. but there is a wonderful world of social media, YouTube, blogs and posts, where you can collaborate and surround yourself with those who support you.
Get up and get it — Ashley Blackmore CEO and Founder of Blackmore Group
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