Nicole Vermillion – “What do you mean crash?”

Lindsay Favazza: Welcome back to the Agents Who Crush It In Real Estate Podcast, where we talk to top-performing agents in the industry and learn about their journeys, tips, and tricks for success. I am your host, Lindsay Favazza. Today, I have the absolute pleasure of introducing Nicole Vermillion, a realtor with Lamacchia Realty. Although she started her career in real estate in 2013, she joined Lamacchia Realty in the spring of 2021. In just one year at the firm, she qualified for the prestigious President’s Club in 2022, with over 16 million in sales volume sold, and she has six so far this year sold already.

She got her license like so many others after purchasing her first home in her 20s. She was overwhelmed with the process, but loved it and knew she could make a difference in other people’s lives. So without further ado, welcome to the podcast, Nicole.

Nicole Vermillion: Thank you for having me.

Lindsay: I’m so excited to have you. We’ve been trying to get this on the books. I feel like you and I are like two ships passing in the night.

Nicole: Yes. The [unintelligible 00:01:18] can be tough.

Lindsay: It all came together and we’re here. Take me back, take the audience back, and let’s talk about when you first got into real estate, your experience buying your first home, and how that made you excited and motivated, and what got you through those first couple of years.

Nicole: When I graduated college, one of my big goals was buying a home. I think it was super important to me– The man I call my dad right now is my stepdad, but my mom, I was a product of a divorce. We lived with my grandmother. My mom didn’t have a home of her own, and I just knew that having a home would bring me stability. That was a huge goal of mine. When I graduated college, I got a couple of years working under my belt so I could get approved for that mortgage, and bought a tiny little foreclosure in Weymouth just to get my foot in the door. Had a great agent, the one who kind of pushed me to get into real estate.

Throughout that process, I remember it being so overwhelming, that I don’t remember what I signed, where I signed it, when did I give checks. Were things faxed back then? I don’t even remember. That was a big deal to me. I kept on telling my agent, Janice at the time, “Yes, I don’t know. I’m busy and I’m getting married.” I finally got married. I got pregnant, and then I was like, “Now’s the time to take the test.” I took the test in 2013 and passed and just kept it active, but didn’t do anything with it until after I had my second child because why not jump in then?

I joined the brokerage with the same agent who helped me buy my house and was there for five years. I did have another job throughout that whole time. I just built my business organically. I figured, “All right, if I can do three sales one year, and then the next year, do six, and then the next year do 10 and just do a little bit better every year, that’ll be enough for me.” That’s how I started. Until I got good numbers, I was like, “I think I need a change.”

Lindsay: What were the things that you were thinking about during that transition of needing a change? What were the reasons that you needed a change? Because you now were doing so much more business or you needed to take it to that next level? What were your thoughts there?

Nicole: I definitely needed help. In order to scale my business, I was doing everything by myself. I was at a brokerage where it was just typical for the agent to do everything. I realized that in order for me to scale, I needed to branch out and look for maybe another company that could offer me some sort of assistance. I looked around, and I was getting recruited at that point, but there was one company that I could not shake. It was Lamacchia. I could not get it out of my head. It started with COVID. I started listening to Anthony’s Crush It In Real Estate Podcast, and this is where I have to go.

I made the decision. It took me a lot longer than it should have to make the decision. I look back now, and I’m like, “You should be embarrassed that it took you that long to make that decision.” I waited. I joined in May of ’21, and I don’t see myself leaving.

Lindsay: Love it. Tell me in those first days after you transitioned, what were some of the things that you focused on, what were some of the things that you were like, “You know what, this is why I made this change, but now I need to do this to get to that next level to continue this progress.” What were some of the things that you focused on at that time?

Nicole: Well, I had to do a lot of introspection into me. I am a recovering control freak. I feel like I’m going to be like that the rest of my life. It’s a lot of work for me. It’d be like, “Check yourself, Nicole. You’re obnoxious.” I like to do things by myself. I don’t know if I was like if you want something done right, you do it yourself and took that way too far, but I needed help. Some of the things, like even the marketing tips that I learned in training, I thought I was doing a good job at marketing before I came here. I was doing all right, but I think a lot of my success came from success-based marketing.

Showing that this is what I’m doing and showing reviews, making sure I get a review on every sale, and posting it. Pictures being relatable. I think that’s important to people. I know a lot of people– It’s funny, I thought it was cheesy when I started using my youngest daughter as my “assistant.” She’s three now, but when she was a baby, she just started as my assistant and she has a funny personality. So she works out. She’s fired, usually, most of the time, but people love it. They’re like, “How’s your assistant?” I’m like, “Well, she’s fired today, but we’re all right.” It kind of helps. I think, although it’s corny, it reminds people that I’m a mom, I’m a realtor, I have a lot of things going on.

Lindsay: It humanizes you.

Nicole: Yes. It doesn’t make me any less than– I’m not a bad realtor because I’m a mom, nor am I a bad mom because I’m a realtor. Sometimes I have days where I actually had an event this past weekend that allowed me to miss– Well, I had to miss half of my son’s basketball playoff game. I had one of those moments where I’m like, “If he’s going to be in therapy in 10 years because I missed his playoff.”

Then I was like, “He’s in third grade. I think we’ll be okay.” It was one of those moments for the quote that you hear, “They want you to work like you’re not a mother, and mother like you don’t work,” really hit me hard. Then I have to remember and actually, another agent in the company, when she said, “We’ll bump the time. If people have a problem with it, those probably aren’t the people that you want to work with.” That takes a lot for me to remember and to really take in because I feel like sometimes I will do everything to bend for a client, rather than the other way around.

Lindsay: Yes. You have to train your clients. I know Jackie Lu has done a lot of discussion about that in trainings here, where she says that when she used to be selling, she would be up at ten, eleven o’clock at night responding to text messages, and then her clients would expect it. Then when she didn’t do it, she tried to break free a little bit, they would get mad. It’s like, “No.” There’s plenty of people out there that have set that expectation, and they can not respond at ten o’clock and that’s not anything out of the ordinary. Yes, I think that’s really smart, and I’m glad that you made those changes, for sure. Now, you talked about differentiating yourself. Talk a little bit about some of the effective marketing strategies that you will not stray from.

Nicole: I will not stray from doing video. It is not my favorite thing at all. I feel uncomfortable every single time I do it, but I know that people want to see me. They want to see my face, they want to hear my voice, and I don’t come on just to be like, “Hey, it’s Monday and the weather’s great.” I usually come up with a purpose. Try to keep it around one, two, three minutes, depending on what I’m talking about. I think that makes a difference. I made a goal about two years ago to go live once a week. I did that for a while. Reels were starting to get big when I first did that, but not as big. So now I try to do one Reel a week. Sometimes when I’m not feeling like going on the phone, I’ll find something else, but at least it’s a reel. I won’t let–

Lindsay: You got the content out there. That’s all that matters. Yes.

Nicole: Yes. I won’t let that go, and I don’t think I’ll ever stop doing my events. I know that a lot of people, they feel like events, they’re just going to cost a lot of money just because of the nature of the event. I think depending on the event you’re doing, they don’t necessarily have to cost that much money. I think that if you put yourself out there as the one who’s always doing workshops or the one who’s doing client appreciation parties, you develop a little bit of a reputation for that.

Lately, I’ve seen the reputation– I’d have to remember that imitation is flattery, even though it’s been a little hard over the past month or two to see so many people doing homebuyer workshops. That was something I started two-and-a-half years ago and have not stopped. I do a homebuyer workshop at least once a month. It’s one of my favorite things to do.

Lindsay: Your most recent one was called Buyers and Bagels, right?

Nicole: Yes.

Lindsay: Tell me about that theme. How do you come up with themes for each of these and make them different and keep them fresh? It’s probably, more than anything, keeping it fresh for you just because you do so many of them. Dive into more deeply, these first-time homebuyer seminars and what you’re doing with them.

Nicole: I like to educate. That’s the main goal, but I realized that not everybody is a real estate dweeb like me, and doesn’t necessarily find it fun to talk about home buying and selling. My initial idea was, well, if we put a theme to it, feed people, give them a drink, make it a little bit of fun, that they might find an otherwise boring subject, maybe we can jazz it up a little bit. So I started doing these called Hops & Homes, which a lot of people did that. We’d go to a brewery, I paired up with a lender that I do a lot of work with, we would make it very educational, but people would go, they’d get two, three beers, we’d provide pizza, we’d have dessert, and in two hours, I’ve had people leave those workshops that they didn’t know each other before when they got there and they leave as friends.

It’s just a fun way of educating people. I usually have one or two successful buyer couples from each one of those workshops and I just thought, “Hops & Homes worked, let’s see if we can do some other ones.” So I like a good rhyme, I like alliteration. Buyers & Bagels was my most recent one. We did it in the morning on a weekend, provided bagels and coffee, and did a home buyer workshop. I’ve done Wine, Cheese & Keys. That was a popular one. I have done Donuts and Doorbells. I have some other ones. I’m going to keep them–

Lindsay: Keep them close to the hip until you’ve done them, and then we know where they’re stealing them from because you did them. You know what I mean? [chuckles]

Nicole: Yes. I’ve one in there already. I do always like when I have a home buyer workshop. I like the next one to be planned, that way when those people are like, “Wow, this was great information. Next time I want to bring so-and-so,” then they’ll text their friends and be like, “Oh, the next one’s May 2nd. Put it in your calendar.”

Lindsay: So smart because they’re really the people that can help you market that next one. Even if they’re not necessarily coming again, they can say like, “Oh, we have this great thing, we’re looking at buying now.” And then their friends say, “Oh well, tell me about it.” And then they say, “Well, she’s doing another one on this date.” It just rolls into the next one. What would you say is average attendance at some of these that you’ve done? Obviously, it’s probably been hindered in the last couple of years by COVID, but I’m assuming more and more people are probably attending now. What is the average over the last year of how many people come to these?

Nicole: The other lender and I usually get about 15 people. Some of those are couples, some of them are single, but we usually average about 15 amount of attendance. This last weekend was a little lower. We had 10 RSVPs and only 7 showed up, but it was good because those 7 people that came, I do think are [unintelligible 00:12:09].

Lindsay: For sure.

Nicole: It’s hard. These workshops are happening. I see them on my Facebook at least two or three times a week, so it’s hard to differentiate yourself when everyone’s doing them, but I have to hope that I’ll keep on doing them as I have been doing and that will help.

Lindsay: It’s been working for you, it’ll continue to work for you, for sure, and you have the best names, so that’s got to give you something there. Speaking of buyers, talk to me about, we’re still seeing multiple offer situations here in Massachusetts and we’re in March, and we’re still seeing it. I expect that we’re going to probably see it for at least another month or so. Tell me what you do to help your buyers to win the home in these crazy markets.

Nicole: Well, it’s definitely if I can set them up with a solid pre-approval right before we even begin looking, that makes all the difference. I mean with a local lender that won’t have a problem calling the other realtor when we submit an offer and saying, “Listen, Jill and Joe Smith are great, they’ve been looking for a while, they’re quality pre-approvals, great job,” and then that always helps.

I want to work with a lender that’ll take that extra step to make that call. I’ll also tell them we need to get in there and we need to move fast. I think what makes this area of multiple offers, this section of time that we’re seeing right now harder is that people who looked in the fall when things were sitting a little bit and didn’t have to move as fast now are like, “Well, what do you mean? Why is it like this again?”

You have to go through those supply and demand talk all the time. I think me educating my buyers like, “Oh, you need to get ready, this is only one of three single-family homes on the market in Quincy, this is going to be a multiple offer situation, I feel it’s priced low intentionally, blah blah.” I set the preparation for them. I also don’t encourage them to look at a property that’s at their max value because I just feel like that’s unfair.

Lindsay: They’re not going to have enough upside to make the deal work.

Nicole: Right, and I say to them, “Listen, if we find out that it’s sitting, say, they don’t get an offer in seven days, then yes we do.” We go right in at asking price–

Lindsay: Then you have an opportunity, yes.

Nicole: Yes. Some of the other things, I try to make my package look as good as possible so that the listing agent knows they’re working with a professional. I put a nice cover letter with every single offer and it breaks down the basics of the deals, like buyer’s name, property address, what we’re offering, what are our deposits, do they have a home inspection, who is their lender, and I put the lender contact information on there in case they want to reach out to the lender, and then I do a nice little note at the bottom, and just that way they know exactly what they’re working with, and I put it all in order if they have a lead form attachment there or a seller’s disclosure form that’s going with the offer because I want them to know they’re not going to be chasing me for things.

Up to a certain point, I always tell my buyers, “It’s not my money, so I cannot tell you what you should offer, but I can tell you what I think will win it.” If they choose that advice, they do, and if they don’t, they have to feel good knowing that they put their all or what they felt the house was worth and are okay with losing it if somebody went 10K over that.

Lindsay: With these beautiful packages that you put together, because they sound fantastic to me, have you had realtors comment on it? Have you had people say like, “Oh my gosh, this is such a great package that you’ve put together”? What have some of the feedback been?

Nicole: The lenders that I don’t work with all the time are like, “How did you come up with this?” I’m like, “Well, it’s something that my company offers. I just choose to use it. It’s the cover page.” My buyers, unfortunately, don’t really get to see the package because I cannot send the offer to them.

Lindsay: I know, but they don’t get to see that you’re working so hard to get it done. Even if they saw it, they’d probably just expect that that’s normal.

Nicole: It’s not. When I’m on the other side, I get sometimes seven emails with seven different documents, and I have to say, “Can you sign the offer?”

Lindsay: Oh my.

Nicole: “Please.” [laughter] I think sometimes buyers, they don’t know what they have unless they experience the opposite, which I hope they don’t ever have to.

Lindsay: They wouldn’t have to, so that’s good.

Nicole: Then I’ve had other agents like, “You didn’t win based on your terms, but if it was a winning based on prettiest offer, you’d get it,” and I was like, “Oh, thank you.”

Lindsay: That’s a compliment, so you’ll take it.

Nicole: I’ll take it.

Lindsay: Hey, that’s a win-win situation. You know what I mean? The agent is able to communicate back with you. You’re building that relationship with them for the future offer, so that’s a good thing. It’s not a win for the buyer obviously, but–

Nicole: I think it could help too if, say, for instance, that house comes back on market, I feel like I would have left an impression on them, and then they’d be like, “Oh, Nicole, your buyer is still interested?” I’d say, “As a matter of fact, they are,” and it helps.

Lindsay: I love that. That’s amazing. Tell me what you say to someone that tells you, “No, I don’t want to buy right now. I’m going to wait until the market crashes.” What is your response to that because so many realtors hear that right now, and even in light of what’s going on just the last few days, because right now it’s the 13th of March and we’ve had Silicon Valley Bank is crashing and there’s all these crazy things happening with rates and all of that, but we can’t say for certain, it’s– I don’t know. What is your thoughts on this and what do you tell people to make sure that they stay focused on their goal?

Nicole: Well, the first question I ask is, what do you mean by crash? Everyone has a different definition and sometimes based on the answer they give me, I’ll understand where they’re getting this from. Usually, it ends up being parents or an older relative who are afraid of what happened in 2008 happening again. I understand that. I would be petrified too. I bought my first house in 2011, so we weren’t quite recovered from that whole thing. I use my personal situation with people that I talk to like, “What do you mean by crash?” Then I give them a little bit of a market update.

We only have a month and a half of inventory. For us to be in a balanced market, we need six months. I talk about the supply and demand, I talk about what’s on the market right now, and then I come down to, is your payment going to be comfortable for you? Because you have to pay for a place to live. If you’re paying rent right now and your mortgage is not going to be that much more expensive, why not build the equity? Because real estate always comes back. You just have to be patient. If I had to choose myself whether or not I was going to be paying towards a mortgage or rent, I would 100% choose a mortgage whether we were in a crash or not.

Lindsay: Absolutely.

Nicole: I just try to bring that perspective to them.

Lindsay: That’s so smart. It’s so smart. Tell me a little bit about what your favorite clients are to work with because you’ve talked a lot about first-time home buyers, so I’m wondering if that’s your bread and butter or-

Nicole: It is.

Lindsay: –who is it?

Nicole: It’s first-time home buyers, for sure. I never taught formally, but I have a master’s in education. That was a big goal of mine, was to be a teacher. I thought that’s what I was going to do. I think I like first-time home buyers so much because of the educational piece of it, and it’s like a lesson plan. I have these people, what’s the objective? Buying a home and this is how we’re going to get there. I think that’s why my home buyer workshops are so successful, is because they have a lesson plan format behind them, if you will. I think I have the heart of a teacher. I never want someone to sign something that they don’t know what it is, ever.

The first time we do an offer, or even the second, third time if they need it, I go through each part of that offer on the phone, so they know exactly what they’re signing. Now, unfortunately, I’ve had buyers where we’ve written 12, 13, 14, 15 offers. I don’t do that pass. We don’t need to pass the third offer, but the first-time home buyers would definitely be my favorite. A lot of people used to give me crap for that, saying, “Oh, well, they’re not the highest money.”

I’m like, “I don’t understand why you look at it that way because they’re the most rewarding to me. Not financially, that may be true, but the most rewarding type of client.” I develop relationships with everybody I work with. I had an attorney one-time comment like, “You literally make a new friend every real estate transaction you have.” I feel like I do. I’m very lucky. I have great clients. I do have friends that I’ve met along the way that I’ve helped buy or sell a home, and we stay in touch all the time.

Lindsay: That’s the thing. It’s a long game, too. You’ve only been in the business for a few years, relatively speaking. Really, when it comes down to it, these first-time home buyers, this might morph. You might be saying it’s not first-time home buyers in a while because literally, all your business is coming from repeat business or referrals from those people. That’s a very closed-minded thing to say just because of the fact that they’re going to be with you long-term if you give them the value. It sounds like it still is one of the most rewarding for you, which drives you and is kind of your why, so I love that. It goes back to the reason you got in the business because you liked that process, so I love it.

How do you differentiate yourself? We were talking a little bit about the first-time home buyer seminars, and you were saying that a lot of people are doing those now. What are some of the things, though, that you do that you’re like, “I hope no one copies us. I want to continue to do it.” Or what are some of the ways that you market yourself that does set you apart? Because I think a lot of people are looking for those little ideas, and maybe they’re not in your exact market. We have a lot of national and international listeners on here too. Hopefully, they won’t steal all your tricks but [unintelligible 00:22:01].

Nicole: Oh, no. I hope I’m not too bitter.

Lindsay: No, no, no, no. It’s true, though. It’s funny in the training the other day, someone said, “I keep seeing first-time home buyer seminars and stuff like that.” It sounds like there is a big wave of that happening. What are some of the other ways that you differentiate yourself?

Nicole: Well, I’m big on making sure that that entire event has a theme. I want it to be completely branded. It has the theme. I want invitations to look good. I’m like that in general. I’m a member of the PTO with my children’s school. We did this big fundraiser with a calendar, and they wanted to print it on plain paper. I’m like, “I cannot be a part of this if it doesn’t look good. I know this sounds horrible, but it needs to be in color.”

Lindsay: I love it.

Nicole: I’m a big believer in that. For instance, one of the things I had for Buyers and Bagels is I went to Trader Joe’s and I got the Everything Bagel Seasoning. I put a tag on there that said, “If you’re looking for a realtor that has everything for a smooth transaction, give me a call.” I know, cheesy, but every single person took one of those when they went home. The tag was on there, and they’re like, “Oh, all right.”

Lindsay: They’re going to think of you every time they use their Everything Bagel Seasoning. [laughs]

Nicole: Then when I did Hops & Homes, I would give them a bottle opener that was branded of Wine, Cheese & Keys. They got corkscrew and travel wine cups. I try to make it because everything has a theme. I won’t ever give up the theme. I won’t charge for them. They’re free. They’re always going to be free.

Lindsay: You want people to come and not feel like they’re paying into something. You may get to a point where you have 50 people coming and you have to charge. [laughter] That’s the hope, I guess. It’s a benefit to your client. That’s really what it’s about.

Nicole: I think always having one on the books, knowing when I’m going to do one. Next, it makes a big difference. Other than that, I think I want to follow up. Oh, this is something. This is a good one.

Lindsay: Talk to me about the follow-up, for sure.

Nicole: Well, so a lot of agents will come to me after they see me post about my home buyer workshops. They’re like, “How did you get that many people there.” I’m like, “Well, I do a lot of things. I post on Facebook. I make the event. I share it every once in a while.” You can’t just post on Facebook and expect people to remember, so what I do is I will do 20 or 30 handwritten notes. Of course, they have to match the theme.

The last one I sent out had bagels all over it. I would send notes to my last 20 or 30 first-time home buyers that either attended the seminar or had just purchased a home with me and said, “Listen, I’m doing this event. I’d love for you to tell your friends and family about it. It’s totally free, totally no pressure.” I get a lot of people signing up for that, that way. The other thing is when I mean no pressure. I truly mean it’s no pressure. I always tell people, whether you’re here for this event because you want to buy a home in the next year or the next 10 years, that is totally okay. Totally okay. I’m not going to be riding you and be like, “When are you ready to buy a home? When are you ready to buy a home?” I want to make sure I stay true to myself that way.

Lindsay: What is your follow-up then for people after that? Is there just light follow-up, or do you follow up with the ones that you know are warmer only? What’s your attack?

Nicole: Well, so they always go on my, what we call our hub, which is the CRM. They always go on that. I send out a mailer once a month all the time. I do send my whole sphere, and they get added to the sphere. They are getting hit email once. They’re getting hit paper mail once. Then I always invite them to my event.

I’m doing another event this week for St. Patrick’s Day, and every single person who’s attended a workshop with me is getting invited. They may not come, but it’s another touch, so that helps. Then I’ll follow up every couple of months. Not every couple of months, maybe about once a month or so, and say, “Oh, how are you doing? Have you thought about this? Or interest rates went down.” Hopefully, we can say that. Then I’ll use the next event like, “Oh, if you found it helpful, if you want to come again, here it is,” or, “Feel free to tell your friends and family about it.”

Lindsay: Love it. What apps do you have on your phone? What do you use on the daily that you’re like, “If someone deleted this, I would die.”

Nicole: Facebook and Instagram, probably, which I don’t know what that says about me as a human being. One time I went to a comedy show, Wilbur. They locked my phone in this bag that we could not get it open. It was like bag to bag panicking. I was panicking, and it wasn’t even because I was worried about my children. They were with the babysitter I trusted with my life. My mother was like, “You’re obnoxious. This is going to suck.” Because I was getting twitchy like, “Where’s my phone?” On Facebook, Instagram, the MLS, I’m on all the time.

I have a gratitude journal I use every day because that’s a big– I’ve tried to change, but I used to be– I think this has made a difference, even though it’s a little woo woo. I would always be like, “What if I don’t get any business?” Now, I try to change it when my business comes just to try to reframe from a negative to a positive, so I use that gratitude journal every single day.

Lindsay: That’s awesome. You just write down notes about what you’re grateful for that day.

Nicole: Yes, so what I’m grateful for that day, affirmations, what I will do to make the day great. Then at the end of the day, it’s three highlights of the day and what I could have done to make the day better.

Lindsay: That’s amazing. What’s the name of the app?

Nicole: It’s the Five Minute Journal. There’s a paper version you can get too. I think you pay once for the app. I think it’s about $5.

Lindsay: That’s amazing. I love it. Are you a reader, or are you more podcasts? Are you both?

Nicole: Well, I do both. With reading, I have a goal of doing more personal development, but reading is one of my joys in life. I’m a big historical fiction person, so I can’t give that up. I do listen to a lot of work-related podcasts.

Lindsay: Like what?

Nicole: Well, this one I listen to all the time.

Lindsay: That’s why when I told you, “Will you be a guest?” You’re like, “Me?” [laughter] That looks like, “Are you sure?” I was like, “Oh, I’m sure.”

Nicole: I listen to Brian Buffini, It’s a Good Life podcast. I love that one. He has different topics all the time. He’s a big real estate coach, which I did recently just sign up for a coach to scale my business a little bit more and also make sure that I’m checking myself with work-life balance. His podcast, one of the last episodes was just about respect like bringing respect back. You think you’re a respectful person kind of have to be due to the business. You think you’re just like that anyway, but you realize how many of the things you do that are respectful that others aren’t doing that set you apart.

Lindsay: For sure.

Nicole: I love that one. He’ll interview authors. He’ll pick a topic. That one, I think, comes out once a week. He used to do it with more like two episodes a week. I listen to that one. I listened to the Hustle Humbly. There’s another Real Estate by Relationship, Barb Betts, out in California that I listen to. I try to when I’m driving, which is a lot. A lot of podcasts.

Lindsay: I’m a big podcast fan myself. All right, so what advice do you have for realtors out there who have been in the business for a few years, and they want to make that leap, make that jump and get to that next level? What kind of advice would you give to them?

Nicole: Seek help. I think that’s helped in a lot of different facets. I think it’s helped with training. I thought I came from a company that had good training. I did. Then I came here and I’m like, “It’s apple star, just baby, completely different.” Go to a company that can give you the training so that when someone asks you about the market, you sound intelligent. Not intelligent enough to scare the crap out of someone because you just rattled off numbers that they don’t understand, but just enough so that you could say, “Well, no, I don’t think the markets crashing, and here’s why.”

I would say go to a company that helps with training, help with showings covering home inspections, even doing the paperwork that you necessarily don’t have to do. Focus more on the money-making activities for you, and then just delegate the ones that are more behind the scenes. That kind of stuff, I think, believing in yourself is going to be important. I always thought these people, I’d be lucky to work with them. Now I’m like, they’ll be lucky to work with me because they will get the best from me. They’re meant to be paired up with me for some reason and I’m going to give them the best of me so that we get the best transaction. I think not in a cocky way but they will be lucky to work with me.

Lindsay: I love it. We are so lucky to have had you on this podcast today. When you go back to that day, when I asked you, you said, “Me?” Yes, because this was a fantastic episode. I’m sure whoever is listening, they’re probably listening in their car. Hopefully, they’re not taking diligent notes, they probably should be but they’re listening in their car just like you would. When you get home, make sure to listen again. Then take a bunch of notes, because there’s some really good information here that you shared today, Nicole. Is there anything else you want to say before we end this episode today?

Nicole: I don’t know. I just love real estate. I hope I have many, many, many more successful years of helping buyers and sellers.

Lindsay: Well, this is amazing. I will hopefully be able to interview you again when you make it to that next step, that elite step, or whatever that next chapter is for you. I’m super excited. Thanks for choosing us. Thanks so much for being on the podcast today. I really appreciate it, Nicole.

Nicole: Thank you for having me.

Lindsay: All right, everybody. We will see you on the next episode of The Agents Who Crush It In Real Estate. Have a great rest of your day.