If you love the idea of breaking through six figures and you love the idea of earning that much at the same time through a side hustle, you won’t want to miss this conversation. Our guest this week on She Sells Radio is Kim Kesterke, a full-time mom, corporate employee, and real estate investor. She’s got over 15 years of experience managing her own portfolio and is passionate about helping you build a legacy of wealth. Today, she’s sharing how she does it and how you can too.Â
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Kim has a robust background in both corporate and real estate investing spaces. Sales was her first job out of college, and shortly after that she was looking to purchase a house. In 2006, the market was on fire, and in 2008, it crashed–she was under water at 28. So, she had to pivot and find renters for her properties. Every year she added a few more properties, eventually building up enough passive income that she can do that and hold a full time job.Â
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Her mindset was based around failure not being an option. Being open to opportunity is key in this journey. Flexibility, now more than ever, is becoming necessary. For many, it’s time to start looking at options and going down that path. Having certainty and understanding what is available to you when you remove failure is powerful.Â
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It’s important to know that sales is a rollercoaster. There will be good and bad days! The truth is, it’s about perseverance and having patience. Uncovering motivation will lead to a rewarding feeling. Â
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Katie’s approach to success when starting something new and building recognition quickly was grounded in networking and introducing herself to clients. She started expanding by building relationships and getting introduced to other projects. Quarterly reviews allowed for her to identify other opportunities. Additionally, video is key. It helps build credibility and allows people to see who you are as a person. If you have no client base at all, start talking to people face to face via video!
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Discomfort can sneak it’s way in when starting with video. Remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Get it out there! Keep at it, and eventually you get used to getting visible. When you’re in front of a customer in person or over the phone, you’re not perfect. Why is video any different? People relate to individuals who aren’t perfect. Clients and prospects are real people too. There is a need for what you have, they just need to feel like their making a good decision.Â
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Real estate can be a real cash flow. Katie went from being an accidental landlord to having an impressive landlord. For a women looking to break into this industry, it starts with research and learning how to analyze the field. You make money on the purchase. Look for different houses in your price range on platforms like Zillow, but also consider consulting with REIA, Real Estate Investment Associations. There, you can talk through wholesalers–people who find good off-market deals. Work with investment-friendly agents for best results!
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Once you’ve started, it’s time to grow. Katie really liked the neighborhood her first property was in. She discovered that her area’s market was a good place to invest. She invested in duplex and triplexs because with a conventional loan, one unit pays the mortgage, and the other is pure cashflow.
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By adding one or two properties each year, she steadily increases that income. You will hit a point that is comfortable to you where you can give your tenants your attention and balance your full time job.Â
Trusting yourself is a big part of real estate. Listening to your instincts happens frequently. Getting an application from a contractor is a good example. If you get a bad feeling, it’s probably best to avoid that situation. Things will happen, you’re going to learn. There will be moments where you’ll realize that you could’ve (or should’ve) listened to that intuition.Â
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LINKS
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Thew2landlord.com to download a 30-day back to basic real estate guide!
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Join the Facebook Group: The W2 Landlord
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iTunes
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If you love the idea of breaking through six figures and you love the idea of earning that much at the same time through a side hustle, you won’t want to miss this conversation. Our guest this week on She Sells Radio is Kim Kesterke, a full-time mom, corporate employee, and real estate investor. She’s got over 15 years of experience managing her own portfolio and is passionate about helping you build a legacy of wealth. Today, she’s sharing how she does it and how you can too.Â
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Welcome to she sells radio. I have such a great conversation for you today. And if you love the idea of earning breaking through six figures in both your sales career, whether it’s your, you know, running your own business. And you’re looking to break through that first six figures, or you’re in corporate sales and you’re like, Hey, I’m going for that six figure, Mark. And you also love the idea of earning six figures in your side hustle at the same time. This episode is for you, who doesn’t love that, right? Where money is always helpful. And so my guest today is a phenomenal woman. Her name is Kimberly [inaudible], Kim coz Turkey, and she’s a full-time mom, a W2 employee and a real estate investor. She has over 15 years experience managing her own six figure cash flowing portfolio while being a mom while you know, while doing her own thing in sales, which we get into in the interview today as well.
And she’s really passionate about helping her clients and the women’s. She coaches on the real estate investing side build a legacy of wealth. And Kim and I met, I think it was originally through a YouTube video that I did, I want to say. And she reached out to me, and this is part of, I want to just pause here because this is important. And it’s part of what we talk about today. This is the power of being visible in your space, whether you are an entrepreneur and you’re the face of your business, or you’re working in corporate sales and you’re representing a product, it is critically important today for you. If you’re in charge of generating new clients for you to be visible as the face of your business and video is a really, really powerful way to do that. It’s a lot of what has propelled me to making multiple six figures in various businesses and new industries over the past five or six years.
And it’s been a lot of what Kim attributes to her success as well. So we get into that today, but if I’m recalling correctly, she reached out to me after seeing a video that I did on YouTube and I ended up coaching her. And I’m really working with her on a specifically a LinkedIn video strategy for breaking into a new market. And part of why I’m excited to bring her to you today is that she does have kind of that I’d say that diverse background of both corporate sales success, as well as success as an entrepreneur. And so we get into both of those. And on the corporate sales side, she’s going to talk with you about how you can break through six figures when you’re entering into a new market, when maybe you’ve joined a new company or you’re launching your own thing.
And you’re kind of trying to figure out how to pick up steam and get traction quickly. She’s going to talk to you about that and side note, what she, what she teaches here applies, whether you’re trying to break through six figures or a different income target, but as you know, if you have listened to the show for a while, that’s really a lot of what my heart is about is helping you break through your first six figures in income and then beyond. And one of the things that we get into, which I love is this conversation about video and how to use video strategically to connect with new customers, to build your brand and reputation and how to get over discomfort. If you feel self-critical or uncomfortable on camera, Kim talks about her own journey there and how you can get past that discomfort.
It’s really good. And then on the real estate investing side, you know, this is something that I personally am and looking into more and more now as a new mom and realizing, okay, I need to be bringing in just revenue from other sources other than my work with my clients. And it’s just become more and more pressing as time goes on. And I think a lot of us may be feeling that now, too. I think if 2020 has taught us the importance of flexibility and having alternate income sources. So it’s something I’m excited about learning more about, and Kim shares how to get started. If you are a new, you know, you’re, you’re a new investor, you’re not even quite there yet. And you’re trying to figure out where to start. She gives some really specific, actionable advice of what to do so that you’re not overwhelmed, but you can just kind of take it one step at a time.
And then she shares as well. Her number one piece of advice, if you are looking to break that six-figure Mark in your business, and it’s such a good interview, it’s super tactical. You’re going to get so much from cam and learning from her. And so I’m just so thrilled to introduce you to her today. You’re going to love her and as always be sure to connect with Kim on social tag us on social as you’re listening. And Oh, one other quick plug I will give, if you have not yet joined the weekly sales accelerator, definitely go check it out. Ilise, archer.com/training. This is really my heart and my passion right now is bringing you weekly. Very, cost-effective like very, very, cost-effective $10 a class, a sales training that you can use to grow your business and get coached on what you need to get coached on, whether it’s harnessing your intuition for sales or closing or prospecting, LinkedIn video, all the things.
I am really, really excited to bring this to you. So check out at least archer.com/training, if you want to get in on our next training. And yeah, I’m really excited for you to meet Kim connect with her. Again, share on social. As you listen to this tag us, let us know what your biggest takeaway was. And with that, let’s go ahead and learn from the one and only Kim cause Turkey, Kim, welcome to she sells radio. I am really excited for this conversation with you today. My friend, thank you so much, Elise. I’m very excited to be here as well. Well, I’ll tell you what, as I was preparing for this interview, I got part of why I got excited is that I think there’s a couple of key things that we can cover that are going to be really helpful, not just for our listeners, but selfishly for me too, looking at your background and you, I have this really, I think dynamic background in both, you know, being a corporate sales superstar and doing that game.
So I want to talk about with you, but then you’ve also built the six-figure real estate portfolio on your own. And so, you know, one of the things I’m learning as a new mom is, you know, the need to be able to make money without having to be there with a client all the time. And so real estate investing is something that my husband and I have been looking at and talking about it. And it’s definitely something that I see on the horizon for me. So I know you’ve got, it sounds like lots of experience in that space too. And I think for a lot of our listeners, they’re also identifying maybe this year more than ever the need for diversified income portfolio. And so I want to hear it all from you about both your corporate sales experience, as well as the real estate side. So let’s just start with more of your backstory. I mean, if you can take us as far back, as you think is relevant, but tell us about, you know, first what, what got you into sales and then kind of from there, you know, how you got into the real estate investing space as well?
Absolutely. So sales was my very first job right out of college. So I went to Michigan state university and transferred down to Atlanta with my first sales job. And that was with Whirlpool. I was out selling appliances to HH, Gregg Sears, best buy home Depot, all of the big box stores. And so really got my first opportunity in sales all the way back. Gosh, I think 16, 15 years ago. And simultaneously, you know, about two years after that, I started looking at purchasing a home and I lived in Augusta, Georgia at the time. And at that time in 2006, I mean it just, the market was really on fire everybody in terms of, you know, the media and even your family members were like, you really need to buy a house. So for it, it’s a really great sound investment. And to this day, I believe that it is.
But if we all remember 2006 was on fire 2008 crashed. And so I was, I owned a home and I was moving back to Atlanta from Augusta, Georgia, and I was $30,000 underwater on that because the economy tanked. And so it really, at that point in my life, I believe I was 28 years old. I mean, I did not have $30,000 to take to a closing table. So I became an accidental landlord. I just, I had to pivot and I was able to find a few renters. And then over time I just started having success and, and added a couple of properties each and every year. And really, you know, through that progression is how I’ve been able to invest in real estate and also work a full time corporate sales job. What was that,
The mindset for you when that was going on and you found yourself, you know, 30,000 under and imagine, I would imagine understandably, you probably felt like panicking
At a certain point. What was,
What was the mindset that you had to have to be
Able to pivot in that moment? Well, it was just one of those mindsets failure was not an option. I mean, I did not have the cash to take to the closing table and I was unwilling to have that be my first experience with real estate. So I had just started asking around and I think just one of my friends just said, well, I’ve got, I, I’ve got some friends that are looking to rent. Why don’t you just call them? And it really truly ended up happening that way. And, and I, I really believe though that when you’re on the right path, the universe helps make things happen. And so I got, I got some help there for sure. But at the same time, you know, just asking the right questions, being open to different possibilities, I think really helped a lot, not only in my real estate journey, but also in my corporate sales journey as well.
Yeah. I think one of the things that I’m taking away from you is just the open-mindedness and the flexibility, which more than ever, I think we’re all being invited to have.
Right. And saying, okay, this is, so if this is happening, it’s happening for me, not to me. And then saying, and then just starting to look right. And I know you mentioned back then you started asking friends and talking to them. And certainly, you know, when I think about 2006, 2008, it’s like, yeah, we were using Google, but not the way we are now. I feel like now everything is a Google away. Right. So, yeah. So just starting to ask questions and going down that path, and I love your mindset too, if failure is not an option. Right, right.
I want to take that away because I think it’s that certainty when we can say, okay, here’s, what’s happening, I’m failing on, this is not an option. So what else is right. And just having that, that confidence. So you’ve opened this up beautifully and I appreciate that. Cause I do want to go down both the paths of the corporate sales and the real estate. I want to start with just your, kind of your experience with sales in general. And I know you said you started right off in sales and I, I mean, can I just have to tell you if you guys are, if you’re listening on audio, we’re on video too on YouTube and I mean, Kim, you’re a beautiful woman. Like I can only imagine you selling these Whirlpool and you’re far too. I don’t know, but I sold yellow pages for my first sales job. Right. So it’s just funny, like the things that we start off selling for you, what was your, what’s your relationship been like with sales over the years? Has it been like a love affair the whole time? Has it been it, has it been a little more Rocky? Like tell us,
I mean, sales, anybody who’s in it understand that it is a roller coaster. I mean, you’re going to have mazing days where you close that deal or get that prospect on the phone, or even get an email response this day and age sometimes is know all we need to get going. And then other days it’s just that thought, Oh my gosh, what am I doing? Is this the right thing for me? And, you know, the fact of the matter is anybody in sales. Yes. It’s the right thing to do. It’s just, again, like with the real estate investing, it just takes that perseverance, honestly. I mean, not every day is going to be a parade, you know, but if the consistent efforts and showing up every day and having conversations and just getting really good at kind of trying to uncover what, the way I look at it, motivations really makes sales a sales career extremely rewarding.
Well, and I think, you know, having gotten to know you a little bit more over the past year or so, so we, we started off, like I mentioned in the intro, like we work together, you’re a client for a period of time and getting to know you, one of the things that I sense about you is that you’re very deliberate and methodical in your approach, which I appreciate because I am not, I think I am to an extent, but I tend to, I, I’m just not wired as much that way. And so I always have a lot of respect and want to learn from women like you, who do, you know, it seems like a lot of that kind of the pre-planning and the deliberateness comes naturally to you. And so, you know, when we, when, when we kind of look at how you have been successful in sales, I want to get into that a little bit more.
And when we first connected and you, you worked as a client of mine for a period of time, you are breaking into a new market and you, I think one of the things that I really appreciated about you was that you seem to have an inherent knowing that you needed to quickly build a brand and build kind of recognition for yourself, with your customers there. So tell us a little bit about that because you’ve clearly you’ve done multiple sales roles. You’ve broken into new markets before. Like what’s your, what’s your approach been for success there when you’re starting off with something new? Absolutely. So how I did, how I did it with this job was a little bit unique in the fact that I took a look at who I was going to be servicing, and I did get a handful of accounts to kind of oversee and manage, but I took a different approach because they were, they were customers that were happy.
They had their system in place. They really weren’t thinking about expanding or adding on new services or new departments or new areas. And in software sales, you’re able to find other departments to service with in a company. So what I ended up doing to get a fast start and to quickly get in there is I started getting to know, I, I had, I think, two or three accounts and they said, yeah, you’ve been, you can have these under your portfolio basically. And I just started really getting them, getting to know the clients and introducing myself and, you know, figuring out what they really liked about the product, what they would like to see addition. And I just started expanding. I started getting networking and as I built relationships, they would introduce me to other departments. And then we were able to get projects going. I started hosting quarterly reviews with every, with everybody, well, okay.
My three clients or that I had. And just in those conversations, we’re able to identify other opportunities. So that’s one way now I know that when people start out, not everybody gets that opportunity to even have one account under their name. Do I highly recommend you get to know those people, see where you can expand that if you don’t. Then I honestly, I honestly see that right now, the opportunity is in video marketing and honestly, Elise, that’s how you and I met is I saw your videos on LinkedIn and I just really loved them. And I said, okay, I really need to work with her because video, it doesn’t have to be perfect as I’m sure you guys have heard Lee say, but it helps people see who you are as a person. And it gets people to trust you and it helps build credibility.
And I think now LinkedIn, I could be wrong, but I think they have a video little icon that you can connect. I have BombBomb. So I’m able to just use that. But I, I think LinkedIn might have a video option to if you’re trying it out and it’s something new that I don’t even necessarily know you have to pay for it. I mean, double check that, but I would say use video as much as you can. Another thing that I started doing is I started doing video recordings of my product and talking about it and using that as prospecting opportunities when I was going in and building out my sequences for email and that helped gain a lot of traction pretty quickly too. So those are two different paths that people can use to kind of do the land and expand with your current clients. And if you’re brand new and you don’t have any sort of a client-based thing, get on video and start talking to people face to face via video.
Yeah. I love that. I think there’s so much good in what you share there. And so what I think I’m hearing you say is understanding the importance of whatever you’re selling. You are the face of it, whether you are an entrepreneur and you’re your own, you know, it’s your own business or you’re working in corporate sales. And I think that’s a big opportunity for a lot of, let’s say W2 listeners out there is kind of stepping into more of that role of being the face and specifically on video now. And I think you shared a couple of good ideas. So one is the video on LinkedIn, which I think you were you may have been referencing like LinkedIn live and doing the video platform there, which is, you’re absolutely right. It’s free. It is still an
Application process. So you have to put in your application if you want to do it. And you can just Google how to apply for LinkedIn live if you’re listening. And you’re like, how do I do that? I don’t know what the link is. But you can Google it and it’ll take you there or doing more of those. One-To-One like BombBomb videos sending them directly to customers. Did you, cause I know this is common for a lot of us. Did you experience any discomfort about putting yourself out there on video and if so, how did you get over it? Yes. I mean a lot of discomfort and I remember once I was sitting in my office and I rerecorded a video, I think for 30 minutes, for 45 minutes and I still wasn’t happy with it. And I remember you had mentioned to me, just get it out there.
Don’t look at it. Just, just get it out there. And I think there’s a lot of value in that because it is scary at first now to answer your question on how you get over it, you just keep doing it. And I know that sounds trite, but honestly you do start getting used to it. And I was talking to a friend of mine that does video a lot and the way that she said it and I loved it. I wish I thought of this, but she basically said, listen, when you’re in front of a customer, you’re not perfect. You know, like there’s times we stumble over our words on the phone or stumble over our words in person. And so if you do that in video, it’s okay, because maybe you would’ve done that anyway in front of the person and they’re not thinking any differently.
So that’s something that’s really helpful is okay. You know, I’m not always perfect every single time. And I think that people relate to people that they like and people who aren’t always a hundred percent perfect all the time. So just keep that in mind, as you’re getting your videos out and how many emails are people getting a day. And if you think about it, replace that email, what you were going to write the video and it’s probably going to be a 32nd video and it might, you know, it’s pretty refreshing to the person on the other side to actually watch a video instead of read another email. So just a couple of things to think about as you’re building in your sales career. That’s so great. I love that. And I think it is, so your friend had such a great point, right? Like why we have this weird thing about video, like, Oh my gosh, it has to be perfect, probably because we can see it.
And so there’s more of that instant feedback loop. Whereas if you’re just in a conversation with somebody, you can’t replay it back. So I, I bet that’s probably part of why it is, but you know, when I think about my videos that have been the most, like when I think about just like more mass marketing videos and I talked about this on another interview recently, but the one that has gotten the most traction for me this year was when I had just had forehead surgery and I had a black guy. It’s funny, it’s funny what people gravitate to, you know, people want real and was very real. You’re absolutely right. I mean, how refreshing is it when we’re, anytime I’m on Facebook? And I see somebody making a joke about whatever, because I can relate to that because there’s, I’m not perfect living life. And I actually liked to be around other people who can laugh it off and have a good time. And, and remember our clients and prospects are real people too, you know, they’re just tired of getting the same email and the same canned response and they just, they they’ve got a need for what you have. They just want to be able to connect with somebody and really feel like they’re making a good decision.
Yeah. Which is so refreshing. So I love that. So a couple of key takeaways there one is just the power of video. Specifically LinkedIn video marketing, I think is really powerful. And then using a tool like BombBomb for email marketing. I love that. And for one-to-one videos and then just the power of persistence and kind of putting in the reps both to get confident with video and then also to grow your client base if you’re breaking into a new market. So I want to transition a little bit into real estate because I know you are, you’re doing the thing that we want to figure out how to do, which is you’re cashflowing six figures in real estate. And I know that that didn’t happen overnight. And I know it wasn’t necessarily easy, but tell us about that. So you went from being an accidental landlord to, you know, building this really impressive real estate portfolio. Just let’s, let’s start with, I would say for a woman who is looking to break into real estate investing, where is she?
Yeah, I mean, that’s a great question. And really it starts with doing research and figuring out how to analyze the deal because a lot of real estate investors say you make your money on the purchase, not necessarily on everything else. And let me break that down. So, you know, there’s a lot of different ways that you can acquire rental properties. You can go on to Zillow or realtor dot which is pretty much the MLS, the multiple listing service. And you can look for different houses in your price range on Zillow. Well, that’s an okay spot, but really where you’re going to get the best deals are going to be through networking at local real estate investment. And so she operations they’re called the RIAs, R E I a is everybody all across the country has a Rhea and talking to what are called wholesalers.
And these wholesalers are people that all they do all day long is go around and they find really good off market deals. So that’s one way to get started is really start networking with your local real estate investment associations, Octa wholesalers, even find some investor friendly real estate agents. And there’s a difference. Again, you don’t necessarily want to go to a general doctor, every single thing, every single ailment, you’re not necessarily going to want to go to just a general general real estate agent. Who’s focusing on say 600,000 homes and higher, and you want to actually get into an investment property under a hundred thousand. So what you want to find is that specialized investor friendly real estate agent, they can also help you find deals. So those are ways that you can work with people, especially if you’re not a hundred percent sure how to do the analysis yourself. And we want to get some good advice. Those are some resources to start.
I love that. Thank you. And I’m, I’m I’m meeting as you talk because our yard guys have showed up. They never show up at the same time. So, so if there is background noise my apologies. I’m going to save you two while you talk. And my my little old dog is down here with me. She’s mostly deaf, so hopefully we’re going to bank on her, but I think that’s great advice because I think a lot of times the most confusing part does feel like where do you start? And it can feel super overwhelming as well. So for you, how did you grow from there? And I’m kind of curious too, about just like your day to day as well with the time you spend managing and acquiring properties. So kind of walk us through. So from that first accidental landlord experience and to where you are now, what were some of the things you did to, to continue growing your portfolio there? And what does that look like in your day-to-day life now?
Sure, absolutely. So it really wasn’t until about 2013 that I really started taking real estate investing. Seriously. My daughter had just been born she’s now seven and it was that weight wake up moment that, Hey, I wanted to build some passive income because ultimately I wanted to make sure I had a sound retirement. I wanted to make sure that I had cashflow cashflow coming in, in retirement. I felt like it was a much stronger strategy for me in terms of my risk tolerance than dumping a lot of money into the 401k. And just depending on that, that was just for me and my realization point in 2013. And so exactly that’s what I did is I went to RIAs. I started doing a lot of research and in terms of the acquisition strategy, I really liked the neighborhood that my original home was in. I had never had a vacancy.
I mean, in all of those years, I’ve never, I never had had an eviction. So I had a light bulb moment thinking, well, there’s got to be something about this Augusta Georgia market. You know, maybe this is a good secondary market that is, has more transient people coming in and out. You know, I had rented to people from North Carolina and wrench, it’s people from Florida and a lot of people just kind of coming in and out because, you know, there’s just a lot of industry in Augusta, believe it or not. And so I decided to start expanding my search and I’ll be honest. I went on the MLS and I found a duplex and I ended up buying the duplex there and what I liked about the duplex and the TriFlex and what they call small multifamily. It’s basically one to four units, or if we really want to be specific two to four units.
And what I like about it is that if you get a conventional loan on it, then really, if you think about it, one unit is given y’all cashflow, the other unit paying down your mortgage. And so that’s really the strategy I started looking at. I got a duplex in 2013 and then I got another two the following year, and then I’ve just been adding one or two each year. And I think that it’s a perfect pace for me. It doesn’t have to be zero to a thousand units in 18 months that we hear on all these amazing podcasts, if you want to go that route by all means, but you know, one to two units or one to two properties a year is perfect for me because, you know, for the longest time I was self managing and, you know, I would get a text message here or a text message there.
And I’ve built processes in place that helped me be able to manage those very easily. You know, within five to 10 minutes, I would already have it managed and have it coordinated and having, you know, the, the technician on his way. But at a certain point, you do have to realize you are going to get to a point that you need to hire a property manager and have somebody do that. It’s just adding another person on your team so that you can still focus on your corporate job or your entrepreneurial business, and still be able to give the customer service to your tenants that they deserve.
I think that’s such great advice and feedback, and it’s, I like how it feels manageable, the way you position it, where I think sometimes we can get overwhelmed to the point of not taking action, hearing about people, making those massive jumps, whether it’s in real estate investing or in something else. But for you, what I’m hearing you say is you took it step-by-step and you said, Hey, here’s a pace that feels really good for me, where I can still, you know, be present for my other stuff going on for my family, for my day job. And and build this up on the side as well. So one of the things that I’m really passionate about it, this is kind of my, my driving. I would say motivation for this show and it has nothing to do with sales, but it also has everything to do with sales is help how’s that for a setup, right?
That that was good. I do remember that helping women learn to trust themselves. And I think so often as women, we have an instinct or a hunch to take some sort of action to me. And I’ll just say it specifically in the context of our business to make a call, to reach out, to take an action that may not seem logical at the time, but it’s really our intuition guiding us. And I want to hear from you, Kim, I would imagine in the process of building your real estate portfolio, you have learned a lot about trusting yourself, whether it’s maybe got a gut feeling that attendant just isn’t the right fit. So you don’t apply them, even though on paper, they look, you don’t, you know, whatever the terminology is, you don’t accept their application, even though on paper, maybe they look good or maybe there’s a deal that you’re like, Oh, I just have a sense. It’s not right. What have you learned about trusting your own instincts as a woman through your experience in real estate?
Yes. Well, I mean, I love that you bring that up because you do have to trust your instincts in a lot of variety of different scenarios. And, and it happens very, very frequently where it’s getting an application from a from a contractor. And even if they seem like they’ve got it all together, it, you just have a bad feeling. Well, you know, follow that because number one, they may say that they’re licensed and they’re not licensed. And it just an example, just to give you a story. I mean, this happens to me recently. I had a, I had to switch out in HPAC system with one of my properties. I mean, it had gotten, I mean, I think it was a 30 year old HPAC. I knew when I bought that property, I was going to have to replace it. And again, you know, I’m planning on holding that property for a long time.
So it’s, it’s a good investment. Well, I had a couple of people that came in and quoted and the guy that ended up being the lowest I didn’t have a great feeling, but again, I was like, you know, kind of thinking with my logical brain, not my intuition brain. And so I just ended up going with the guys. I just remember thinking, well, you know, he came in the lowest again, lesson learned, cause you know where this story is going. And I didn’t follow my intuition, went with the logical brain and it just ended up not being a very good situation, just didn’t install it to code, had wiring that wasn’t installed correctly. And that ended up being a fire hazard and, you know, things are gonna happen. You’re gonna, you’re going to learn the great thing about it. The blessing was I ended up going back to the guy that I normally use, but who was on the higher side.
And I kind of, you know, I had to apologize and be up front with him and, you know, kind of just give him my reasoning. And he even said, he said, well, I understand. And he goes, this happens a lot. He went in, he fixed everything, got it. So that everything was up to code, but what’s the moral of the story. I went with the cheapest guy, I didn’t follow my intuition. And I ended up paying more and the end getting the guy that I should have hired the first time going and fixing it. So intuition just when, when your gut is telling you something or wherever you get that intuitive nudge, just take a pause and really see why, because a lot of times our subconscious is going to know more than our logical brains, even if we can’t necessarily define it. Hmm.
Thank you so much for sharing that because I think that’s an important and overlooked conversation for for women entrepreneurs and women in sales. And that is really important. And I can, I’ve had more scenarios like that then I can’t even think of happen in my own business. And so I think it’s important for us to talk about now. I, I love all of this and thank you so much just for kind of the, the dual conversation of the corporate sales and the real estate investing, because I think we can all learn something from one or both of those. I want to, I want to wrap here and I want to ask you before we do, I want to ask for a woman who is looking to break through her first six figures in sales, what would your number one piece of advice be for her?
So number one, you’ll get there. So don’t panic, you will get there. It requires perseverance and it still does require prospecting hate to break it too. Yeah, but it does require going out, having new conversations with people. I think that it’s a lot easier to do nowadays with video than it is with some of the other strategies that used to work years ago. I mean, Hey, when you pick up the phone and you reach the person and talk to them, absolutely, that’s still extremely effective following up with a video so that they see you face to face. It makes that phone call exponentially more effective. So I would just say, keep going, persevere, you’re going to have amazing days. You’re going to have days where it’s just, you start, I don’t know, looking at job boards, looking at marketing positions or other positions and just, don’t just, don’t let that discourage you stay with sales because really, if you look at all of the professions out there, sales is the highest paying profession, if you get it right. And so I would say just keep going because it is well worth it.
I love that, Kim, thank you so much. So if for, for everyone listening, who wants to either just connect with you to learn more about your sales background or learn from you about real estate investing? I know you’ve got some great resources on the real estate side. So tell us about where we can connect with you and what what you might have to offer if someone’s looking to learn more about the investing piece.
Absolutely. So listeners can go to my website, it’s www dot Lee W2, landlord.com, and there they can download a free it’s a 30 day back to basics real estate investing challenge. And it is pretty much if I was to start over again with no portfolio, what would I do in the next 30 days? So it’s a great resource. It’s free on the website, but I also want to invite members to join the Facebook group. We’re called W2 landlords. It is growing every day and honestly the community has taken a personality on of its own. I mean, there are people that post about deals and post about questions. And if you’re to network with other
People who have full-time jobs or full-time businesses that want to invest in real estate, it’s an awesome community because everybody who’s in there is in the exact same position that, that you are, or I am, or we all we’re all in the same position there. So it’s a really great community. That’s so awesome. Thank you so much. And thank you for just how accessible you made some of these things feel for those of us who haven’t quite got there yet on the investing side or even on the sales side. So thank you so much, Kim. And just for, for you listening, I really, really encourage you to go connect with Kim, get involved in her community. If you are looking to start to break into real estate investing and just believing in yourself enough to kind of hold that vision and see like, yes I can, you know, I can break through six figures and crush it and sales, I can have a really substantial side income as well and, and start to kind of dream about what’s possible for you and your lifestyle. And so really enjoyed this conversation today, Kim, thank you so much for your time. Lots of love to you, my friend. Thank you so much. At least this has been a lot of fun.