How an MLM Failure Taught Trevor Schade to Lead, Grow, and Succeed in Real Estate

My guest for Episode #324 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Trevor Schade.

Episode page with video, transcript, and more

Trevor began his career as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt with a strong background in coding and process improvement. He consulted on business efficiency and outsourcing before shifting into real estate in 2008. After earning his license, he quickly built a top-performing team of 26 agents with zero turnover over five years. By leveraging a virtual admin team in the Philippines and innovative automation, Trevor’s group generated over a million dollars in commissions.

In late 2023, Trevor stepped away from leading that large team to focus on investing, advising, and teaching. Today, he speaks on topics including negotiation, time freedom, and real estate strategy, and he has launched Life Wealth courses to help others pursue similar goals.

In this episode, Trevor shares his favorite mistake: jumping into a multi-level marketing business at age 19. The venture wasn’t financially successful, but it transformed his mindset. For the first time, Trevor developed a daily reading habit that exposed him to classics like Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People and Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Those books gave him a foundation in psychology, leadership, and long-term thinking that continues to influence his work.

We also explore:

• How lessons from Nebraska football and martial arts shaped Trevor’s resilience
• What Lean Six Sigma taught him about efficiency, quality, and leadership
• Why he focused on psychological safety and belonging to keep his team intact
• How he used outsourcing and automation to scale without burnout
• The importance of setting trajectories instead of rigid goals in business and life

Trevor’s story is a reminder that sometimes the most unprofitable ventures provide the richest education — if we’re willing to learn from them.

Questions and Topics:

• What’s your favorite mistake?
• How did joining a multi-level marketing company at 19 shape your growth, even if it wasn’t financially successful?
• Did you ever think about leaving earlier, and was staying too long its own mistake?
• What lessons did you take from Nebraska football and sports about resilience and bouncing back?
• How did you first get into Lean Six Sigma and continuous improvement work?
• In what ways did Lean and coding skills help you scale your real estate business?
• What did you learn about leadership from running a 26-agent team with zero turnover?
• How did you create a culture of psychological safety and belonging for your team?
• Why do you emphasize inspiring people instead of “beating them over the head with metrics”?
• What role have outsourcing and automation played in your business success?
• You’ve said you set trajectories instead of rigid goals — what does that mean in practice?
• Looking back, how do you connect these mistakes and lessons to your current focus on investing, advising, and teaching?