Making Moves with Jessica Owings | Director of Coaching & Primary Broker-in-Charge at Hunter Rowe - Making Moves

Episode Transcript
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Mahala Landin (00:01):
Hey Triangle lovers. Welcome to Making Moves
hosted by The Rachel Kendallteam, where we will explore
together the top restaurants,community hotspots and events in
our area. Let's make some moves.
Hello, everybody. Welcome toMaking Moves. It's Mahala
Landin, Broker-in-Charge of TheRachel Kendall Team, and I'm
sitting in front of anotherHBIC, a brand called worth.

(00:27):
Broker-in-Charge extraordinaireof Hunter Rowe, Jessica Owings,
she's got many titles, she's hadmany opportunities to flourish
in her real estate career. Andwe're really excited to have you
to share a little bit about yourstory about real estate, about
your story about working in thetriangle being in the triangle.
And whatever else comes aboutwelcome.

Unknown (00:47):
Yeah, I'm excited to be here. First podcast ever, so
we're gonna give us a good go.
I love that.

I love that.
Well, we'll make it easy. It'sjust a conversation and you got
enough stories, I'm sure to beable to make it interesting. So
first and foremost, what broughtyou to the triangle.

Unknown (01:02):
So I was an IBM family.
My grandfather worked for NASA.
In Texas, Houston, we did nothave a problem that IBM had a
better offer. So we moved herewith all the IBM errs in the 90s
that go round and just neverleft, built a house and Wake
Forest loved it. And I went toschool here college here and
couldn't imagine anywhere else.
Yeah,

no, that's a that's a reoccurring theme on
Making Moves is that when afamily moves into the triangle,
it's pretty hard to get thatfamily to move out of the
triangle, which is why we alwayssay that we're an entrant state.
And second theme of Making Movesis a lot of the this IBM talk
and I love hearing that phase ofthe mid 90s. Because that's when

(01:44):
our booming Cary real estatemarket was Wake Forest was on
the map. And and obviously NorthRaleigh saw a lot of that
growth. And if you've ever beenlooking at homes and wondering
why you're seeing the samecolonial for, for the door,
right? That's the IBM boom thatbrought all of that development
here. So where exactly is a wakefor us? But where did you ended

(02:06):
up in college? And what was thatpath that got you there?

Unknown (02:09):
Yeah, so I actually went to community college at
Wake Tech, I had a big dream touse that to go to the PAC
program and NC State but gotswept up with a lot of other
things. Real Estate being one ofthem. But I was in restaurant
Hospitality Management foralmost a decade prior to that,
and they have a higher end,industry built out a lot of wine
lists a lot of cultural alcohollists as well. But the

(02:33):
restaurant industry is what kindof brought me and kept me in the
area, especially in the northRaleigh area. That's where the
some of the best restaurantsare. And I enjoyed more hands on
work than I did the book work.
Yeah. So I found my success outof the books and in the
workforce. And that's actuallywhere I met the owner of my
current company, who brought meinto real estate. And I've loved

(02:54):
it ever since when I was in highschool, I wanted to be in real
estate, but that was in 2008. Sothat was a quick dream. So when
it came to fruition, you know, alittle bit later, it was nice.

So we, when we think about what we want to do
when we grow up, it doesn'talways look the same as what
actually happens. So I thinkthat path and that journey and
what you learned in the retail,hospitality restaurant business,
I mean, that's true lifeexperience. When you think about
that experience, and you thinkabout how you how you translated

(03:30):
that into real estate, what weresome of those, you know, pivotal
moments where you when you're inreal estate now and you're like,
Oh yeah, I've been here before,and I know what this looks like
poker face.

Unknown (03:42):
Poker Face was the biggest one because I I've been
in the management part of therestaurants since the age of 16.
My first job was at a Quiznosand then it quickly moved into
more of a bar scene. Becauseback then you could, but I've
always somehow, I guess stoodout as a leader, or maybe I was
just bossy enough to look likeone. I'm not sure. But I took

(04:06):
that poker face when someonesays something outlandish.
You're like, yes. Okay. Iunderstand how you're failing.
So that I think that was thebiggest piece and then knowing
how to that kind of rolls intohow do you roll with the
punches? How do you, you know,recalibrate when you're thrown
off course, in a restaurantindustry, you have to do that
during dinner rush, you can'tcry in the corner when your

(04:26):
table yells at you. Right?
Right, you can come get me and Ican fix the situation, but I
can't go cry in the cornerafterwards, either. And so I
think the biggest piece is beingable to handle the unanticipated
and learn from it right so thatthat doesn't happen again. Or
maybe you know how to handle ita little bit better next time,

right. And those experiences with having to
quickly build trust in arelationship, especially in
conflict management. I mean, Ican't tell you how many times
working with real estate clientswhere you did feel that, you
know, that gap and the trustthat you have with your kids If
you're like, Okay, I really needto address this and I can't be
afraid of the response that I'mgonna get, which is really the

(05:06):
best kind of conflict managementthat you can have. And what I'm
hearing you say is that a lot ofit was also, you know, the
relationship piece of it thatgot you there. So, tell me more
about I met my boss at

Unknown (05:20):
so what happened almost a decade ago was we had just
opened up, we had one kitchen,and two completely different
restaurants, you know, set upfor success already. And so the
first night we opened up, themore laid back side, the
pizzeria, the burger place wherewe had the higher end on the
other side, Sicilian did thingsdidn't go quite as well. And he

(05:42):
was about 45 minutes before Igot when that this table was
unhappy, they still hadn'tordered their food. And so I
went over there, of course, theywere nice, but obviously hangry
and I, you know, fix thesituation, I got them their
food, I entertain them. That'spart of it. Right? You gotta do
a little song and dance to bringthe mood up. And as they were

(06:03):
exiting, the owner said, Youknow what, I would love to get
your name and your phone number.
Nothing weird. This is my wife.
This is my in laws. But I'm inan industry of hiring. And I
would love to talk to you more.
He says he'll tell you the storythat he told me what he did.
That's not the case.

Because I remember thinking, we're going
Cutco and selling knives. Yeah,

Unknown (06:23):
I was. Actually I was like, I'm gonna go to warehouse
and I'm never going to comeback. Right. And so I when he
asked me, he says it's threedays later, I'll tell you, it
was three weeks. And so when heasked me to come in and talk
with him about the hiringopportunities, I of course,
Googled his phone number to makesure that I was gonna, you know,
come back in one piece, right.
And I did, obviously, and I sawthat it was a real estate

(06:45):
company. So then of course, Istarted getting really nervous
cuz I was like, I wanted to dothis at some point. And so I
went in, took a three hour longtest, he originally wanted me
there for marketing, I don'tknow why. And I ended up in more
of a service role. But me thereal estate school, and Best
decision of my life. Yeah.

And the the lesson there. And when one thing
that resonates a lot with me, I,I had to do a paper on my dad in
college, this is I'll get there,I promise. And it's something
I'm the most proud about.
Because number one, it it gaveme an opportunity to interview
my father, and really dive intohis life in a way that as an
adult, and in college I neverwould have ever experienced if I

(07:26):
hadn't had that assignment. Andthe second piece of that was
throughout his entire story. Onething that he kept reiterating
to me was, whenever you see anopportunity, especially when
that scares you, you always haveto go for it. Right, you always
have to take that notnecessarily a leap of faith,

(07:47):
because most of us that areentrepreneurial, or most of us
that are, you know, highperformers, they we will take
calculated risks all day long,right? Because we we have a way
of quickly processinginformation. But it's that one
opportunity where like you didlet me Google this and figure
out really what this is right?

(08:08):
You didn't say no. You said yes.
And I'm moving forward. And eventhough it took you three weeks,
you still put all the energyinto actually moving you
forward. Right? And those arethings that like you said, I
mean, I can go to college. Andyou know, I hope my children get
this impression, too, as we getcloser and closer to you know,
making those types of lifedecisions is there is no path
that is a straight line, right?

(08:33):
And Community College four yeardegree, it wouldn't matter
because the opportunity waspresented and you took it

Unknown (08:41):
right? Well, then we were talking about, you know,
you mentioned relationships, andthat's what we were talking
about, you know, you have tolook at every interaction that
you have as a possibleopportunity to something
different, maybe not somethingbetter, because nothing is
always going to be positive, butyou're going to learn from it,
you're gonna get positive. Buthad I gotten over there after a
long day at work? You know, as aFriday night, I'd already worked

(09:01):
70 hours at that point, and justbeen like, okay, what can I do
to make you happy? Instead, Idid a horse and pony show,
entertain them until their foodgot there. And I created a
relationship that now you know,almost 10 years later, I have
the best life. I mean, it's notperfect, right? But looking
back, I'm like, I would neverwant to go back to that life
again. Yeah.

100% Okay, so I got hired into a real estate
firm, more in a service role.
Tell me a little bit about whatthat look like. Because another
huge component of what drives meas a real estate professional is
that we don't have enoughinformation to new agents coming
out of school on theopportunities that are available

(09:42):
in real estate like yeah, ofcourse sales is amazing. But
that's not all you can do withyour real estate license. Right.
So what what did you do when youcame into Hunter row?

Unknown (09:52):
So I was more in a support role. Think of it more
of like a buyer's agent almost.
But without the risk of where mymoney was coming from. I had to
get Indeed, I was on salary backwhen our company did that. And
so I had a guaranteed role, Iwasn't worried about whether I
was lead converting orgenerating at that time, which
was actually great because ittook the pressure off me to be
able to observe some of our topperformers, and see what they

(10:13):
were doing, instead of having torun around like with my chicken,
a chicken with my 100 off,right. And so I more did the
backend stuff like, once by theowner of my company actually
worked with him directly, whichwas a blessing. So I learned a
lot. He would bring the clientin, and I would make sure that
the in the business stuff gottaken care of while he worked on
the business, I got to shadowall of that, so that that was a

(10:35):
great opportunity. And then itmorphed into more roles as I was
able to pick up what he wasputting down, so to speak,

right, that crash course in real estate, working
with a high performer workingwith a top producer is something
that is not available to everynew agent that is coming out of
school. And I don't know if anynew agents would even know to
ask for an opportunity likethat, because we are only
programmed to know what welearned in the book, which what

(11:04):
we learned in the book is notnecessarily anything to do with
what we do on a day to daybasis. Like of course there is
the logistics of the contract.
And there is the understandingof performance, both for you as
the agent and the buyer or theseller. But then there's all of
these other things. And I goback to like your experience
with hospitality and retail andmanagement. There's all of that,
that contributes to what makes asuccessful real estate agent,

Unknown (11:29):
right? Well, you know, look, smartsolar gets you so
far. And that's with anyindustry, right, you have to be
a little bit more forwardthinking. But you can't always
have that right out of the gate,because you don't know what's
forward and what's backwards. Soa lot of companies don't provide
that opportunity and thatcollaboration. And I think
there's there are several teamsin the triangle that offer that.
But they're the 1%. And I thinkit's important for people new in

(11:52):
the industry to understand that.
And if they're so lucky to be inthe 1% of companies that provide
such good mentorship andtraining, that they need to be a
little bit more grateful, I findthat my new agents sometimes
will hit a little bump in theircareer where they are find
themselves a little ungrateful.
And I welcome them to go to the99% and then then come back to
mama. Right.

Right. I was actually rereading a great one
of my favorite books, leaderseat last by Simon Sinek. And it
was actually one of those thingsthat, you know, leaders within a
company are they do take on aparental role, not parental like
in a scolding or disciplinaryform, a parental and a nurturing
right and interesting in aninteresting way. So I think it's

(12:33):
funny that you called yourself,Mama.

Unknown (12:35):
Oh, yeah. So so the owner of my company leave and
say that to she, she's like yourreal estate mom, you know, and
it does go quite that far. Butyou know, obviously, we're
talking about this prior I don'tI'm not gonna tell you to brush
your hair. That's not the kindof mom raised, I need to be yes,
yeah. But I can nurture you toget you, you know, your natural
talents, to where those wereshine, right? A parent is

(12:56):
someone who uses their kidsnatural abilities to make them
great. So I can't make you intosomething that you're not.
That's the one thing that Ithink some people will come into
thinking, Well, I have noambition, but you're gonna give
it to me. That's not how thatworks.

Can't want it more than you. Right? Can't want
more than you. I also love. Andso now you're in a role of
training as the broker incharge. But I love and I hope it
was pronounced enough when yousaid it. I love that you are
collaborative enough with otherteams in the triangle to
recognize, you know, what yourfirm does, as well as what other

(13:31):
you know, really strong andsupportive firms do for new
agents. And that's my my advicealways, when I meet somebody new
sitting in front of them is ifyou haven't had the opportunity
to go sit at different firms tolearn what is happening out
there in the real estate, youshould immunity you need to, you

Unknown (13:49):
know, we pre pandemic, we had many open trainings that
we would invite other agents toand you know, not going to name
any names, but I had some othertop teams, their owner come and
sit in our bring their broker incharge him sit in one of our
class grades, and things likethat. And so we're totally open
for that. Because if, if we'renot in it together, then we're

(14:10):
apart. And that makes it sotough when we get in times of
struggle, right? You know, andthe markets always going to be
in a forward fashion. Butsometimes it's going to be
slower than others. And if we'regoing to struggle, a struggle
together, right, and not try andbump heads, right? Every moment
of the way. Right. This isn'tbumper cars.

Right? That's right. So you mentioned the
pandemic. What were some of thebiggest struggles that you saw
as the broker in charge and justyour real estate experience of
surviving? You mentioned 2008.
And I think that's veryinteresting, because in 2008,
being a consumer thinking aboutgetting into real estate, you
saw that as well. Not today.

(14:50):
Yep. And now we're livinganother one of those moments
where either real estate, youknow, as aspiring real estate
agents were saying, maybe nottoday. or maybe they were
saying, well, maybe this is theright time, right? I know, we
saw a flood of new agents comingthrough pre licensing in 2020,
because of just the shift in theavailability. But what what were

(15:12):
some of the things that youobserved in the last two years?
That, you know, we hope that wecan take forward with us?

Unknown (15:18):
Yeah. So one thing I'll lead with is I have one agent
who she did her first 10 millionin a 12 month period, which in
our market makes her a topproducer. And she'll tell you
she grew up in the pandemic, shedoesn't know how to do real
estate. And I think those arethe pieces that were missing
because you couldn't shadow asmuch. Right? You can only have
so many people in a house andeven in some in Durham, we

(15:40):
weren't

right. We didn't we weren't essential for almost
a month,

Unknown (15:43):
I felt like a fugitive driving from the office home
just to grab my I didn't

realize we were fugitive. The memo didn't get to
me and I definitely got a callfrom Durham, you know,
association to let me know thatI was misinformed. And that was
a whole navigation process forme as a broker in charge is the
the inconsistencies and lack ofcontinuity between you know, the

(16:07):
different counties, realtorsassociations, and actually
that's the reason I got veryinvolved in the Realtors
Association the last two yearsis because I wanted to
understand that more be in theknow a little bit. Yeah. And
just be able to actually seewhat our advocacy has been doing
for smaller associations becausewe Raleigh, or the triangle was
the reason that Durham becameessential, right? I lobbied with

(16:29):
them. So anyway, I think that'sa side note.

Unknown (16:31):
Yeah, well, so during the pandemic, one thing that our
firm did was obviously everyonewas utilizing zoom. And so we
actually met every singlemorning so that we could all
sort out what what are the rulestoday, right? What are we
struggling with? How are wetalking to our clients, and that
turned into a long term thingthat we do. Even now today. Now,
it's not every day, it's morelike once or twice a week or as

(16:52):
speakers become available. Butthey really became our morning,
huddles, and we had a livingdocument and Google Drive and
keeping up with, you know, whatyou can do where, you know, so
that you're not staring in yourrearview, wondering if you're
gonna get pulled over and eat aletter for why I'm driving in
the city. Right. And so I thinkthat, as far as the struggle
part goes, our newer agentsdon't know how to operate right

(17:15):
now. Yeah. And to them a shiftin the market, or a normalizing
of the market is scary to them,because it's unknown. And they
don't have the practicalexperience to handle certain
situations, because they'venever had to do it. Yeah. In
person, or totally agree

with you. Yeah, I started as a buyer's agent in
2014. And even in a lot of areasof our triangle, it was still, I
mean, our recovery was sominimal at most, but there were
some areas I do rememberforeclosures, I do remember
working with short sales, fromthe 2008, recession, even in
2014. And, you know, it's, it'sactually so comforting to me

(17:55):
that we are getting back to someof those traditional, you know,
aspects of what makes realestate professionals really
great. The fact that we'rehunters, the fact that we you
know, know how to createstabilized business. I mean,
that's, that's something ourfirm is super focused in on is
how do you create careers inreal estate and not ride a
market shift or ride a marketwave? I mean,

Unknown (18:18):
good agents will always make it in any markets, right?
It's just, you know, maybe someof the hours or maybe, you know,
you sell more homes, it'svolume, not, you know, quality,
quantity over quality sometimes,you know, and if you're a good
person doing the right things,it's, you're going to survive.
Yeah, right. If you're an agentthat's fly by night and wants to

(18:39):
yell at everybody, when thingsdon't go your way. You're not
going to like it here soon, youknow. So yeah, you're gonna get
burnt out if it's not easy,because you are used to getting
your way or you're not ambitiousenough to make your own way.
You're not going to survive.

Well, we talked about that. And I don't know how
you feel about this. But weactually talked about it on our
Tuesday meeting yesterday, thisidea of this word, intrinsic,
right, and the opera, thereasons that we're doing the
things that we do as a realestate professional, is not
about our own tunnel vision ofour goals. It is literally about
the fact that we're going to dowhat's right for this family.

(19:18):
And the good news is, is theywin, and the cherry on top is
that we get something from thatas well.

Unknown (19:25):
It's a give, Ask, Receive mentality, give good
service, give good value, give agood heart. And then you can ask
for the same from them in returnand gratefulness of them helping
more of their family and thenyou'll receive it Yeah, you
can't just ask and ask and askif someone to just listen to you
and to give to you withoutgiving back to them. Right. A
good heart. Yeah, at the veryleast

goosebumps definitely not something on the
real estate exam.

Unknown (19:50):
I should definitely have a personality tests
associated with it. Maybe what'sthe new thing now in Enneagram?
Eight, nine.

So what When did you become the broker in charge?

Unknown (20:02):
So I, it was my, was it 2017? Yeah, it was like, the day
that I was allowed to come,like, be a broker in charge was
the day we filed paperwork.

Okay, so what was the biggest shift in terms of
what you had been doing as asalesperson to working as a
broker in charge? And whatexactly is a broker in charge? I
mean, what a fun title. But whatis an

Unknown (20:27):
AI, you know, being the broker in charge I get, like I
said, to get caught a lot ofthings good and bad. I
definitely have some funstories, maybe we can do a
podcast on you know, picking ithas begun about it. But it's,
you know, it's been rewarding,because I've been able to spend

(20:48):
so much great time with otherbrokerage charges, but also some
of our newer agents to the routeany team and get to get to know
them and help them and I learnwhen I teach others, you know,
if you are going into everysituation, and you don't learn
something out of it, youprobably did not have that
conversation in the rightmanner, you didn't have that
transaction in the right manner.
And so transitioning from moreof a traditional agent role in

(21:12):
support of agent role into thebroker and charge role, it, it
honestly didn't feel like a hugechange. Because I was always
salaried, so that the money wasnot always the motivator, my
motivators always been teachingand helping and uplifting
others, you know, make animpact. And so the transition
just kind of happened naturally.

(21:34):
And progressively I you know, Itook a lot of people under my
wing. And so all of a sudden, itwas just, I don't work with
clients, I just take people inmy wing. So I have a different
set of client. That's right.

I see that a lot, too. It's, I still sell, I just
sell to a different clientele.
But how important has it been tohave had that sales experience
to be able to be a successfulbroker in charge to a large,
firm,

Unknown (21:57):
first person stories so that my newbies can take them
with them, you know, becausethey don't have any stories of
their own to help eitheralleviate their concerns or
their clients concerns. So beingable to utilize my experiences,
and give it to them that I thinkhas been the best part of of
having that experience prior.
Yeah, right. Not just jumpinginto the role. Yeah, and feeling
their heartache if I can, if Iknow the pain that they've been

(22:19):
through or similar pain, theycan trust me more when I tell
them just do it, right. Ipromise you, if you cannot find
an hour out of your day to dooutbound work of just calls and
notes, then you don't have thisis not what you want to do.

I said the other day, there is nothing on this
team that I'm going to ask youto do that I either haven't
already done or that I wouldn'tdo myself tomorrow, right? I
mean, even I put out signs fromone of my agents yesterday,
because I was like, I mean,yeah, like I get it, we're all
we've already made a commitment,we needed to get that open house
going, right. And we're

Unknown (22:50):
playing Frogger for a few signs. And I'm literally to
the cancer near the dash all thetime.

Oh my gosh. So as the broker in charge there, I
think what I'm hearing you sayis there we can't we have to
walk before we run. There areamazing careers in real estate.
And even I love that one of mytransaction coordinators started
as a salesperson on our team, wetrain every single person as a
salesperson, our marketingspecialists was trained as a

(23:21):
real estate salesperson. And Ithink that's important because
like you said, we have to have,even if we're not going to
exercise it, we have to have theperspective of what our agents
are doing and what kind ofexperience our clients are
receiving. If we are truly goingto perform as a team or if we
are going to be consistent inhow that training is even

(23:42):
implemented and applied.

Unknown (23:43):
Yeah, you have to be relatable. Right? That's the
whole point. Yeah, there's abook called The Five
Dysfunctions of a Team. Oh, oneof my favorites. Yeah. And
Katherine in the book even talksabout you know, someone doesn't
have to have five yearsexperience to be able to be
great in a role. So I think whenpeople second guess themselves
and say, but I only have so manytransactions, I've never had a

(24:04):
transaction before. And that'swhere, you know, starting from
the bottom and, and coming up,you can, you know, say as
someone who's been through thetrenches, look, this is what I
utilized to start and no oneknew after my first month that I
was new. Right, right. Right.
And you use the success of yourteam.

Yeah, definitely.
Um, where are you now withinHunter row and how you're
interacting with your team and,and the firm itself?

Unknown (24:31):
Yeah. So all right now I do a lot of our coaching and
our business coaching for ouragents at all different levels,
and facilitate trainings. Aswell as new agents come in, you
know, make sure that they knowwhere they need to be what the
expectations of our company are,and kind of help them uphold
that or help them not upholdthat and see themselves to a

(24:51):
team that might be a little bitmore fitted for them. Yeah. So
it's my day to day really justlooks like you know, I am tell
laying, keeping keeping peopleaccountable and telling them
hey, well, this is yourstruggle, this is how you get
over it. I may not always havethe answer for them. Sometimes
they have to find that forthemselves, but I'll definitely
try and lead them to water. It'stheir choice whether they drink

(25:13):
it or not. Yeah, yeah.

I love that.
Training and Education. How doyou feel like your experiences
and the career that you've hadhave prepared you to be a
trainer and an educator?

Unknown (25:27):
Well, my prior career, I wrote a ton of training
manuals for various companies.
So you know, the the book pieceof the training, like, here's
the information that you canwatch and review and read, you
know, that that comes easy. It'slike today, I have a live
training on how to write offersand pull comps, you would think
that sounds really easy, but youhave to give them other tips and
tricks. So, you know, I find asmuch as I would like to do more

(25:50):
training and have more time, youknow, I do outsource that a
little bit. But it's what reallygives me passion, to make sure
because it's making an impact.
And they can ask questions thatyou can't get out of a textbook.
And so my my prior career intraining and development and
management of restaurants andthe hospitality, it's, you know,

(26:12):
I'm teaching them how to thinkon their feet, I try and give
all of the agents when I trainthem, or when I'm just meeting
with them one on one, you'rehaving a bad day, and we're
talking about it, it's okay,well, this is what I foresee,
you're going to need in twosteps. Here's what you're
telling me you need. Now, thisis where I kind of foresee and
that's where my background,prior to becoming the bid comes
into hand comes in handy. I knowwhat they're probably about to
face net, right? Right.

It's a, it's a formula. And it's the hardest
part about working in realestate is not to rely 100% on
Well, I did it that way lasttime. So it should happen again,
those same way this time,because we're dealing with
people, right, and we don't havecontrol over people, which means
we don't have control over thereaction, and we don't have the

(26:54):
control over their understandingto your point is if you're if as
salespeople we are educatingevery day, and if they are, if
our clients or our agents arenot receiving that information,
well, that's a communicationerror on my part as the, you
know, the person facilitatingall of that. And so I think
there's a huge, you know, bridgebetween education and sales. And

(27:18):
being able to do that in areally great way, which, you
know, spoiler alert, that'sactually how you and I have come
into each other's world outsideof being, you know, very similar
in terms of our roles within ourteams. But um, you know, when,
when we decided to start ourreal estate, school and school

(27:39):
of real estate, what, you were amutual friend, and also the
minute you were suggested to beour Director of Education and
instruction. I was like, well,that's a no brainer, right?
Like, it just makes so muchsense. And it was so you know,
organic in the sense that youwere already on the path to

(28:00):
getting, you know, certifiedfrom the Commission to be an
instructor. So what was thatlight bulb moment for you where
you were like, not only am Igoing to work with licensed
agents, but I really want to bepart of the process from the
very beginning. Yeah,

Unknown (28:14):
well, so we sit through our update courses every year,
every year. And there's otherindustries that have to do the
same to so hopefully, anybodylistening that's not in the real
estate industry, but maybelending and things like that you
have to do every year, your

education requirements to be, you know, a
professional in an industry,

Unknown (28:29):
right, your your right to work each year. And, you
know, those are mandated by thestate. So the schools don't
write the curriculum, but thethe teacher makes the
curriculum, if that makes sense.
And so I wanted to be aninstructor because in my firm,
I'm the one that engages andI've gotten, you know, numerous
agents that have flourished. AndI wanted to say, Okay, I make an

(28:50):
impact where I am now, I want tomake an impact outside of just
my firm, and I want to be aninstructor that people gravitate
towards and truly learn from,because I can talk at you for
four hours or 475 hours, but Iwant to be able to talk with
you. And that way, you are abetter professional for not only
other agents, but my agents aswell, right? Because as the

(29:13):
broker in charge, I have tomitigate, you know, outside
issues, not just inside. And soI want to help impact and breed
for lack of better words, greatagents that we either work with,
or work with work for us. That'sright, that makes sense. It
does.

And it was so in line with you know, I was
frustrated, not in terms ofagent attraction or recruiting
or however you want to say that,but I was very frustrated in
this idea that there was a lackof education offered for new
agents to figure out where theywanted to be right because it

(29:51):
was either the school wasassociated with a franchise
model, or you know, were it wasjust it was independent, but it
was also like You're soindependent that it was like,
Well, best of luck, you eitherpass or you don't pass. And in
the state of North Carolina, ourpass rates coming out of pre
licensing are dismal at bat,right? And then you take it so

(30:12):
far as the ones that actually docomplete the class, their
survival rate, their survivalrate, right is terrible. And I
think it's because there's alack of community that is taking
those agents in and nurturingthem to the place where they can
succeed, right.

Unknown (30:28):
And they're not asking the right questions if I got, so
I did recruiting, which is notmy strength or my passion for a
little while for our firm. Andif I got asked from new agents
the same same five questions allthe time, and it was I was like
the the questions that you'reasking me, don't help you know,
whether you're aligning with agood company. So let me go ahead
and tell you what you should beasking. So that you can take

(30:50):
this to your next interview.
That's right.

And although let me be clear, because ame School
of real estate is 100%, approvedby the Commission, we follow
approved curriculum, we get allof our electives, and our
general updates and everything.
Ethics, we everything goesthrough the requirements set
forth by the commission. So inthe sense of the curriculum that
we're providing, it is onboard,it's on par, right. But what I

(31:13):
love about hearing your visionand how it aligns with ame
school is that because I get tomeet you, because I get to have
the opportunity to build arelationship with you. Yes, I'm
providing this service, which iseducation. But I want to have
something beyond you, you in myclassroom. And that is the piece
that I believe we just need moreof, and the thing that has made

(31:36):
me so I'm so like, confirmedthat this was a good decision is
because as we've been exploringcurriculum, we've been able to
build that community to whetherit was Chris Barnett, or Travis
Everett or Matt Davies. Beingable to say, Yeah, you're right,
we need more. We need more ofthis in our industry, in order
for us to be more successful inthe long run.

Unknown (31:59):
Well, we live in the industry and not all instructors
do. They have at some point, Iremember, bringing in someone is
probably four or five years ago,maybe five years ago, pandemic
kind of merges thing. We lost.
We lost a little bit of timethere. I brought in someone to
do code of ethics. And you know,always super exhilarating,
although I think the one that weteach is

super phenomenal.
It is phenomenal. I've satthrough it, it was amazing. I
laughed, I cried. It was allthat yeah,

Unknown (32:26):
you know, there was you know, cards and stand up, sit
down and try to keep you awake,moving. Yeah, gotta keep it. But
the one we had come in, she wasreally just talking at us rather
than with us. And a lot of thethings that she would share and
say, were completely outdated.
She's talking about at the time,I think it was like, I can't
believe you know, $2,500 and duediligence, that is just

(32:48):
blasphemy. And that is Ishouldn't use the word
blackmail. What is she use?
extortion, extortion, that iswhat she used. And I was like,
Oh, I just couldn't look at therest of because I had brought
this woman in off of referral.
And so I just couldn't make eyecontact with the rest of my
team. Right? during that entirething. I just kept my head down.
And I was like, I paid for it.

(33:10):
Just so y'all know why we'rehere. You know, shoot me
don't, ya know,she came highly recommended. But
I didn't want to be that type ofinstructor right. And if you're
not working in the industry on adaily basis, even if it's just
for, you know, a coupletransactions or a few
transactions a year, or ifyou're not keeping a pulse on
what's going on right now. Itmakes it so much harder for you

(33:30):
to relate to students, which iswhy I I feel like being the
broker in charge at a firm. Andbeing an instructor gives me
just a different level ofperspective on how to interact
with students. And thatexperience is definitely one
that it was always ingrained inmy mind. So my first gen AP
class, I was like, Don't do it.
Don't do it.

Don't. You don't I mean, you're an absolute
natural. And aim school has beenproviding zoom courses now for a
full season. I call it a seasonthat me too. I think that makes
sense. Yeah, the season becauseit starts and it ends. And it's
not really a year. But we hadour first season we saw 180
students at Ames school in ourfirst year and and we did that

(34:13):
responsibly. And we did that ata scalable level, because we
wanted to make sure that thequality of our instruction, the
quality of the experience thateach and every student was able
to receive was exactly to ourour standards, our core values
and and like what you said youwant to you want you're so
conscientious about beingprepared. And yeah,

Unknown (34:36):
I'm about 4am Yeah, did the whole course before I got to
the course.

So I mean, everybody that walked through,
you know, either our Zoom Roomor our actual room because we do
office visits, which I wasreally excited about. Everybody
that walked away felt the energyand that in itself is what you
want because you're right likeit is it is something that we
have to do. It is a requirement.
Have our license. But thatdoesn't mean we don't have to

(35:01):
make it fun, right? It doesn'tmean that we don't have to
create an experience wherethey're going to be like, I want
to come back to that. Yeah. Andthat is something that I'm so
thrilled with.

Unknown (35:11):
So I took the initiative to shadow a couple
other instructors just to see,you know, the engagement and
interaction. And so I would flipthrough the screen. And I would
look, and I always wanted tomake sure that when I flipped
through my Brady Bunch squares,as I like to call them that
everyone was engaged and active,there's always gonna be that one
or two, that really just don'tcare, right. But I felt like we

(35:31):
had a really good level ofengagement this year, compared
to some of the courses that Ishadowed, you know, and do I
want to get to the 300. And aroom, that would be nice, but I
actually really like the moreyou know, under 50, people
intimate because we can sharestories. As long as I'm keeping
on time, you can raise your handand give a first person story
right for your fellow agents totake with them as well.

And those, those are always the best classes,
even when I would do you know,before aim school at other
schools was when it wasinteractive, when you did
actually have a chance to knowwho was in the room with you.
And I don't ever want to losethat, which is why I'm happy
that we did it the way we didit. And it gave us a chance to
grow the business in a way thatis, you know, it is responsible.

(36:12):
So we know, we now know how tomake sure that, you know
notifications for courses areprovided in a more timely
manner. I mean, we are from aculture of feedback, right. But
if we don't give ourselves thespace to receive that feedback
and take action on it, thenwe're not really listening to
the feedback. And so Marty andRebecca, my partners and your

(36:34):
feedback about how we can makethis be better for our clients,
or our students, and also us theway we work as a team. I think
it's been really, really cool.
So this year, we actually havepre licensing on our way coming
up on the books. And are youexcited or

Unknown (36:49):
what I am super excited, you know, I get to see
my Wila lads and lasses from thevery beginning, as I like to
call them. And so it's it'll befun. You know, obviously,
there's a little nerves that gowith it, because you know, we
have industry terms that we gotto bring back the dictionary
term. Budget, right? Yeah, yes,you know, but I use it a little

(37:09):
bit of accountability for myteam say, you know, don't end up
as a story, one of my prelicensing classes.

I use, I use, this has

Unknown (37:18):
not actually you this is not your what is a true
crime? I will use you as anexample. public shaming, I'm for
it.

On our team, we do social media jail. Oh, yeah.

Unknown (37:33):
He cracks me up every give me more ideas,

we put the agent up on the screen with like, the
bars in front of them and dosocial media jail, because you
know, even even we have to beresponsible in that capacity to
like, how are we advertising?
Not using blind ads?

Unknown (37:51):
Well, how are you? How are you heard each individual
agents advertising themselves?
Yeah, that's also reallyimportant. Yeah.

Because there is a right and wrong way to do

Unknown (37:59):
it. Right? Yeah. One thing I took away from Becca
years ago, was, don't take apicture with a drink with, you
know, drink in your hand earlyon in your career, especially,
you know, keep it asprofessional as possible while
still showing your personality.
So you don't need to, to have acocktail in your hand.
Absolutely. Like, you're justone big party rather than a
professional.

That's true.
That's true. And, you know, Iloved the interaction that I
would have with my clients, andsocial media in general. And so,
but it's funny, because I wasactually the agent that would
end up talking about breweriesand beer with my clients on a
regular basis. But for me, itwas just that commonality. And,
you know, like, kind, you know,generates like, kind. But, yeah,

Unknown (38:44):
they got to know you once you get to know them.
Because, I mean, I'll tell you,we had one agent that she
delivered a pot by thanking herclient for getting the house
ready, and brought themsomething that was more alcohol
related. And what she didn'tknow ahead of time was that they
had been sober for so minors.
Yep. So we, that was a learninglesson to keep it as generic as
possible until you truly knowthe person is

so true. And one of those things as a broker in
charge that we are constantly,again, that's one of those, I'm
going to teach you how to thinkI'm not going to tell you what
to do, right? Because there isno navigating the ins and outs
of relationships. With, youknow, a black and white
perspective, it has to have alittle bit of gray in there,
too. Yeah. Um, so now thatyou're on your path to

(39:29):
instruction and to, you know,growing this side of your
career, where where do you seeyourself in terms of how that's
going to be that impactful,passionate drive that you've had
since the beginning?

Unknown (39:44):
Well, I'm I mean, you're sorry, asking how do I
feel like I'm going to impactthe community? Yeah. How do you
think my life is gonna change?
Oh, yeah. Well, that will impactin the community. We've talked a
lot about it. I really hope thatwe can start doing bigger events
that are obviously fun and ingauging but also educational.
You know, I am a I love going toseminars and conferences, one of

(40:04):
my favorite ones to go to prepandemic was like the Brian
Buffini conferences. And if yougo there, you just see the
energy and the engagement. Andit's the same people that go
every year, even though he saysa lot of the same things might
have a slight deviation. Youknow, I could sit next to
someone this year, and nextyear, I'll sit next to them
likely again, even thoughthere's 1000s of people. Yeah,

(40:26):
at the Richmond arena. And so Iwant to be able to get that
level of engagement. Now will wehave a, you know, a national
brand, who knows, right? But thethe excitement and energy goes
far beyond that conference, youdon't just get hyped up for
those three days, or I guess nowit's more of a day, right? Maybe
there's a conference, but you'renot just hyped up for that day

(40:48):
you are leaving impacted andfull of zest and full of
ambition that goes throughoutthe rest of the year and into
your goal setting for the nextyear. Yeah, and that's what I
hope when the the agents arecoming through, not just our pre
licensing, but any of our updatecourses that they're going on
going, Okay, I remember why I'min this industry, or why I want

(41:09):
to be in this industry, I needto seek more education. And
maybe they take another one ofour classes or something like
that. And so I think that'llonly make me as I see that
progression. And hopefully, thatchange and others in the
industry will furnish a betterinstructor out of me as well,
because I can definitely goleaps and bounds. And I think
being in the instructionalbusiness will help me continue

(41:31):
to be that better. And thatbetter Bic right, you know, so I
can pass that down. It's aboutloss and

losses. So true.
It's like we are actually in thearena, when we're when we're
educating about what ishappening with the Commission.
And then we take that and we cantake that into our broker in
charge rule as well with thefirm.

Unknown (41:51):
Yeah. And it's all about practicality. You know, if
you have agents that don't have,you know, our job is to lead and
not command and the Commission'sjob is to command right, right,
right. And sometimes they do itin such a way that you have,
you're so scared, you're like, Idon't know how to practically
use what they just yelled at meabout, or what they yelled at
the general population about.
And so part of instruction andleading as a broker in charge is

(42:13):
I have to take what they'vecommanded. and lead by example,
and lead them down a path ofthis is what they mean. And this
is what they're intending foryou to do. Right, not scare you
that you're gonna have the backof the bulletin because there's
something that you know, had atypo in it or something like
that, you know? Yeah,

I know. I do. I do. I love those updates every
year. Just don't end

Unknown (42:33):
up on the back of the bulletin. That's all I ask.
That's all we Yeah.

So okay, we've we've talked a lot about you
know, your career in real estateand how about you, you know,
like, let's get down into acouple of quick questions that
just allows us to get to knowyou a little bit more boy. So
what do you like to do in thetriangle? What what's your
what's your bread and butterwhen it comes to like, having a

(42:58):
little bit of fun? And oh, youknow,

Unknown (43:00):
I think it depends on the crowd I'm with for sure. I
can drink wine and be at avineyard with some of the best
of them. But honestly, I reallylove and where I get my energy
from is I have three stepkidsand a husband we've married for
a couple years now together fora few and we're water people

(43:21):
Yeah, so we live in Chapel Hillso we're 10 minutes from Jordan
Lake so we love going to thelake love kayaking love my say
this with like a littlehesitation love camping as long
as there's a facility for me.
You know, like I've definitelyjust some cute campers Raven

woman than me. So I can you're living that boy
life which I commend you forYeah,

Unknown (43:45):
but I love enjoying the triangle in the surrounding
areas with them with the thingsthat we all love to do. That's
more get him away from the Xbox,things like that. So that being
around the lakes and evenventuring out of the triangle
and going to the beaches, likethat is where we find and I find
a lot of my fun but I also liketo bring them to what is it two

(44:06):
roosters? Oh yeah, like we didlast summer

with Graystone shopping and now I know they
have one on P street or yeah Pstreet over there by standard
food and I feel like there'sanother one and carry Yeah, Lake
Boone thanks Hannah. She doesn'tnormally contribute but she

Unknown (44:26):
today you got to help get help wherever you can take
right yeah

I love to roosters what a great local ice
cream company right

Unknown (44:32):
especially when it's right next to a beer and wine
it's right that's right and it'sright nice to tables

and God says It's amazing all the things in one

Unknown (44:42):
yeah and so we were able to it was It wasn't even on
purpose it was organically thatwe just started having more and
more of us you know working realestate moms come together and
even non because all the kidsare there you know I was known
for bringing the chalk and thejuice and the bubbles and and if
I didn't food line had it writethat way. Yeah. So that's that's

(45:02):
always a really good piece ofenjoying the triangle is the the
activities with the family. Butthen you know, things with the
husband too.

There is a whole culture of working real estate
moms out there. It's a wholenother adventure. We can go on
another time. When you what'syour favorite restaurant?

Unknown (45:21):
Oh, it's kind of be gone says is it? Yeah, really?
Yeah, I've been going there forso long and all their different
locations. I mean, mygrandfather passed away in 2015.
But for years, we would havewe'd sit in the same booth every
year. And that's where we'd havemy birthday. And so it's always
been a special place for Yeah,

it's great. I mean, their margaritas are
amazing. I'll tell it Pepe. No,no, I'll tell you the best thing
there is the the loaded nachoswith the tinga chicken.

Unknown (45:48):
I see. I'm a creature of habit. So I've always just
kind of gotten the same thingsget the CV J and like,

I mean, I think it's probably in the top five
for nachos for me. Yeah. 10.
Good. Chicken is also good, allof it. So good, hungry. So one
of the things I like to end withon Making Moves, and you are
very like me in terms of booksand things like that. And you've
already mentioned twooutstanding books today. And
Patrick Lencioni is a huge pieceof our culture of our team. But

(46:17):
when you think about books thatyou've read, or quotes that
you've heard, what has beenthat, you know, Northstar, you
know that that you lean back toover and over and over again,
either in your personal or inyour business. Yeah.

Unknown (46:36):
For me, I think it's, there's many different places
that you can find what whatresonates with you. But
honestly, what resonates with memost and what I remind myself in
my head is no one else's quote,other than what I have to tell
myself every morning, liketoday, what am I going to do
differently than I didyesterday? Because I learned
what from yesterday, right? Andso that's what I continually

(47:00):
tell myself when I get up in themorning personal mantras, right,
exactly. You know, and you canread all the books you want,
like I said, and listen all thepodcasts, and I totally, I
encourage it. So that way, youcan have your own kind of inner
mantra,

for sure. And what I hear from that statement
that you say to yourself everyday is that there is gratitude.
Somewhere in there. There's alesson that we can learn. And I
was even making this comment theother day, or and it and it
really reminds me it's like, wego into this thing like, well,
you know, are we better? And I'mlike, why wasn't bad the day
before? Right? You know, so thisidea of like, creating, you

(47:37):
know, am I better than I wasyesterday? Well, probably, but
there was nothing wrong with whoI was yesterday there. Right?
Well, what

Unknown (47:43):
can I take him keep or I'm gonna take him throw away.
And you know, the other thingthat always reads in my mind,
and I learned this, this issomething that was said to me
very early on, because early onin my career, I definitely
wanted, I was young, I want itto be liked. Right. And
unfortunately, that doesn'tfoster respect from everybody,
or trust. And so I tried to leadthe day with being respected

(48:05):
before I'm liked. Because if yougain respect in the right way,
you will naturally be liked orat least liked enough to be
trusted. And it makes everythingjust a little bit easier.

Yeah. Well, good notes to go out on. I appreciate
that. You made some moves withus and shared your story. And
most of all, I am so thankfulfor the partnership that we have
on AIM school. Yes. And whatthat's helped us create in terms
of bridging that gap betweenfirms and and like you said,
beckon it together. Yeah,

Unknown (48:37):
yep. Yeah, I'm so happy you had me here.

Thank you for joining us on this episode of
Making Moves. We want to deliverthe highlights of the Triangle
that you want to hear. Let usknow your feedback, comment on
our social media, like and ofcourse subscribe to continue and
discover why we love where welive. Until next time with
Making Moves hosted by TheRachel Kendall Team.

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Making Moves with Jessica Owings | Director of Coaching & Primary Broker-in-Charge at Hunter Rowe

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Making Moves with Jessica Owings | Director of Coaching & Primary Broker-in-Charge at Hunter Rowe