Compressing Time: Decade in Real Estate

When I was 12, my mom worked the front desk Century 21.

She worked two full time jobs to get by with my siblings and I, and the time it would take to get us home and back to the desk between 3:30pm and 5pm with traffic didn't make any sense.

So she took us to work, didn't really wait for permission, just hoped we wouldn't cause any trouble to get noticed.

And we didn't.

My siblings would spend most of their time at the back, playing on the computers.

Being curious, I hung out at the front behind her desk.

Sometimes, whenever the six phone line lights would start flickering, one of her coworkers showed me how to pick it up, squeakily say "Century 21, a moment please!" and put the line on hold.

I did this for a little under a year, or whenever my mom would take us there.

When I was 14, she got promoted to Deals Secretary (which is essentially the accountant for the brokerage, the last person that gates any commission cheques)

When I turned 16, after working a month and a half doing night shift on top of summer school at the city's Amazon warehouse (which was more than a few football fields long), I learned very quickly that my mind was too busy to work the assembly line putting stickers and tape on boxes.

With my voice deeper, hope in my eyes, I interviewed for the front desk. My mom didn't have the patience to teach me, so that same coworker that taught me how put the line on hold offered her cheat sheets and notes.

I was starting to get a hang of things, not without errors or trips, but I was 16, I didn't care too much about it.

Working there part time, it was just another job.

While I was working the front desk, I got my university acceptance letter. I still remember the feeling of being so light on my feet, I could do anything.

Then I got waitlisted 3 months before my start date.

That summer, I didn't know if September held studies for me or if I'd have to work full time, those office hallways became tunnels without end.

I saw what 40 hours under the white light could do to you if you didn't want to be there.

I had to gamify it to get by, so much so that my competitive muscles kicked in.

I saw the metrics for the calls, looked at these coworkers that were double my age and half my speed, and I made it personal to understand every avenue and scenario that these files show up with.

I got to the point of obsession that allowed me to create flawless offer documents for agents in minutes, faster than anything they've seen.

I had agents that worked with the brokerage for years, call the front desk, and ask for me.

I didn't know it then, but I was building reputation.

I was taken off the waitlist the week of my orientation, and I ended up moving on to work at some of the busiest brokerages over the years, and with incredible agents I'm endlessly grateful to learn from.

I still remember RE/MAX having 18 phone lines at the front, and they were days where every line was lit up. Cityscape Ltd. was known for its preconstruction and luxury deals that you wouldn't find at other brokerages, developing value in relationships that actually drive impact.

Even with speed and compressed time, I didn't feel the confidence or that I possessed skillsets that would flourish in the business.

After graduating, I took half a decade to fortify that. I went into technical recruitment, consultative sales that were knee deep in implementation and customer success. I kept my competitive edge, became a top performer in just about every position I took.

I got my own real estate license, and I got to understand the landscape for IT in this practice.

It needs a lot of work.

Designing pre-sales roadmaps that package complex AI solutions into simple two-week sprints is one of those things, much like a listing agreement or an offer to purchase, I could zero in on and create something of high quality under a short period of time.

I'll be setting this up through Plinko Solutions, where I work with AI vendors in bringing their tools to the market and creating avenues of accessibility for those that need it most. Plenty more to come on that soon.

It's become a muscle of listening with so much intent that it burns the tension, completely doing away with hidden hands and intentions.

I'm currently in place where I just want to help, and AI has created an infinite array of routes to do that.

No hidden checklists, no hidden resources, everything, available.

Now it's just a matter of packaging and delivery that saves you from having to think of how.

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