You need to start living your life by design, not by default. Find something that you are passionate about and do it. You can always have a backup plan if it doesn’t work out. If you love real estate, go out and try it. Stop making excuses because that is how you start living by default.

Join Chris Swartz as he talks to the owner of The Juliana Gainsburg Group, Juliana Gainsburg, about how she dropped out of college to pursue her passion in real estate. Listen to her as she shares her journey into real estate. Discover why being in a mastermind group is important. Find out how she built her business through social media. Juliana lives her life by design, and you should, too.

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Listen to the podcast here

 

Juliana Gainsburg – Living A Life By Design

I am here with our guest, Juliana Gainsburg. How are you?

I’m doing great. I’m in warm weather, so I cannot be happier.

It’s perfect timing. We’re here in Philadelphia where it’s starting to get cold, but Philly sports are on fire, so I’m nice and warm here. We’re meeting with Juliana. Juliana is the Owner of the Juliana Gainsburg Group at Keller Williams Philadelphia. We’re going to talk a little bit about that, and we’re going to talk about some of the stuff that Juliana is doing to grow her business. The new strategies that you’re using, why you got into the real estate business, and how quickly you’ve been able to launch your career in a business that typically takes a longer time to build. We’re going to talk about all of that. Does that sound good?

Yeah, I’m excited. Whatever questions you have, I am ready to answer them all.

The goal here is if you’re a real estate agent or real estate professional, you’re going to get a lot of value out of this. If you’re reading and you’re an entrepreneur, a business owner, or somebody that’s looking to take a leap into being an entrepreneur or a business owner or a real estate agent, this is for you. We want you to walk away and get some great nuggets. Juliana, we’re going to dive right into what brought you into the real estate business, and not so much the business, but what brought you to where you are. What was the journey to get Juliana to say, “I want to be a top-producing real estate agent?”

It’s common that real estate is a career that people go into as a secondary career. It’s a career change. Maybe I come off mature, so some people commonly will say like, “What did you do before real estate?” I chuckle because I say, “I went to high school.” I graduated high school in 2017. I went to Bucks County Community College for small business and entrepreneurship. I was running a screen printing and embroidery company through high school and into college. I was also waitressing.

I quickly realized that I was never a stellar student, and I also didn’t like going to school. I also realized that pretty much everybody in most of my classes that were directly for my major were landscapers, hair stylists, and other small business owners. The screen printing and embroidery company was not what I was going to school to build out. I realized very quickly that I would not be able to get another job from the major that I was taking.

I worked in many restaurants. I was part of the opening staff in two restaurants at Parx Casino in Bensalem. During that time, I was working a lot because it was a casino. I don’t know the hours because there are no windows or clocks in there, and you never know what time of day or whatever is happening in there.

I went back to my dad and I said, “I hate school.” I was doing Bucks part-time, so I didn’t have any school loans, thankfully. I knew someone that I went to high school with whose mom was a realtor. I’ve always had a general knowledge of the job, and I felt like I’ve always been in like more of a salesy role in whatever I was doing in life. I’m very entrepreneurial. I reached out to this woman. I was like, “I’m thinking about exploring this. Can I come to talk to you?” I made the decision to leave school. I decided that instead of selling chicken parms, I was going to start selling houses.

You gave us a lot right there. To dive in a little bit to that, one of the things that somebody reading might take away is it’s important to understand that everybody has their own journey and calling. Many people feel like, “This is the road I have to go down because I just graduated high school. The next logical step is I’m supposed to go to college and do this stuff because all my friends around me are doing it.” I think that’s important as a father of a daughter that’s looking at colleges and looking at things to say, “Do what you like. Find your passion. If it is school, then go for it, but it doesn’t have to be that and that’s okay.” Was there a point where you felt great about it or did you feel like, “I’m not going to school, so I’m not doing what I’m supposed to be doing?”

Everyone is path is different. If you enjoy waitressing and that’s what you want to do and that’s your one thing, by all means, that’s your thing and I respect that. I knew I did not want to do that for the rest of my life. I didn’t want to run around like a chicken every Saturday night. I didn’t want to do that. I knew that if I left school, I had to have a plan. I’m thankful that I had both my parents, my dad especially, to support me on my decision and be not mad that I’m leaving college.

The conversation was, “If you leave, you have to have a plan. You can’t just leave. When you have the plan, if real estate doesn’t work out, then you have to go back.” I will tell you that the minute I withdrew or I didn’t re-sign up, it was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. As soon as I got my real estate license, which was not easy, I’m a terrible test taker. I’m very more open about it now than originally. As soon as I passed my real estate license, I knew that once I passed the test, I was fine. The biggest block was passing the test.

If you leave college to pursue your dreams, you have to have a plan. You can't just leave. Click To Tweet

Once I passed the test, I knew I never had to go back to school again. It was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I never have a schedule to go to a class and not be able to leave or have to take tests again or study for end-of-the-year exams. I hated being a student in that way. For someone who is a senior in high school and doesn’t want to do it, I recommend going to at least a Community and finding out that you don’t want to do it for a much more affordable path.

I feel like there’s been a huge narrative in the past years where people are like, “You don’t need college. College is a waste of money.” I don’t necessarily agree with it, but I do think that if you have the desire to go away and experience that or pursue a career that requires a degree, you shouldn’t be ashamed of doing the traditional route that way as well.

As you said, everybody has their path. There’s no right or wrong, but I think a big takeaway is if you’re doing something, make sure that you’re doing it for you, and it’s truly what you want to do. It’s okay if that doesn’t feel right to make a shift for you as a person, “This isn’t my path. I’m not happy.” Now, we fast forward, and I’ve seen you at so many events being a mortgage broker. You’re a real estate agent. We run in a lot of the same circles. We’re partners in one of the same offices with KW Philadelphia. You got licensed in 2019. Is that what you said?

Yeah, in July of 2019 is when I signed up with the first KW market center that I was with.

You knew, “I have a calling to help people and talk to people. I am able to connect with people and help them through the process of buying a home or whatever it is.” Was that something you always had from a young age? “This is what I’m good at and what I like to do?”

Both my parents will say things like, “I don’t know where you got X, Y, Z from,” because they’re not like that in a certain way. I think a lot of it, I am really good parts of them. One of the things that my mom always says is that I have the gift of gab, and I don’t like that line. I don’t know what it is about it. I don’t love it, however, I’ve always been able to speak to people and talk about whatever and relate to people. I’m definitely an empath type of person.

I’ve always been like this. An agent in my old market center said, “Your superpower is that you have the ability to connect with people and relate to people that are in situations that you’ve maybe never been in. You’re very good at being the devil’s advocate, and sit down, hear someone, and understand them even if it’s not a situation that you’ve dealt with before.” I think emotional intelligence-wise and common sense-wise are what make me a good agent.

As far as sales, no matter what it was, I would have ended up in some type of sales role or business development role. I don’t think anybody was surprised that knows me previous to real estate that I’m in real estate. I will also say that if I was a better student, I probably would have gone to law school. That’s another thing.

That’s what I always tell my kids, “You could be a lawyer because you are relentlessly defending your position in whatever it is.”

I don’t know how on top of this is to this question, but I just thought about it. When I was three years old, my dad had this little book. It’s one of those things you leave on a coffee table or in the bathroom. It said, “The power of negotiating or something negotiating.” I don’t remember because I was too young, but apparently, I would walk around with this book and say, “Negotiate.”

You were already in training.

We joke and say that the first word my dad taught me was negotiate, so full circle, here we are. I don’t think anyone was surprised to see me in a role where I’m talking to people all day long and I’m helping people. People get on these shows or interviews, and they’re like, “I want to help all the people. I find so much joy in helping people get their dream home.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m passionate about being successful in a business that provides monetary life by design. It’s both.

You have to have both. You have to have that financial reward, and we want to help people. I got a text this morning from clients that I did a walkthrough. They’re going to settlement. That’s super rewarding, but if I send that picture to my mortgage company and say, “Will you take this for this month’s payment?” It’s not happening. We need both forms of currency.

One of the things where I wanted to have you on is a lot of people I have on the show, we’ve had professional athletes, all kinds of celebrities and social influencers, but I’m like, “I want to have a real estate agent on who is not the traditional, “I’ve been in the business for twenty years.” You’re breaking the mold. You are part of the Keller Williams Young Professionals Group in the region. We had sent over some stuff at one of the largest professional groups. You’re not like, “I want to get my real estate license. Let me have a realtor on.”

To date myself, I’ve been doing this for eighteen years. People say, “You look so young.” Thankfully, I look a little younger than I am. The reality is the numbers don’t lie. As I look at the new wave of professionals coming in whether it’s real estate or business or marketing, I’m excited to see how you are bringing this new fresh edge to a legacy dinosaur-ish industry. It slowly moved to where tech is involved, but I can go back years ago to when there was a ton of tech in the world, but our space in mortgage real estate was very little.

To see it evolving and see people such as yourself leading the way, that’s huge. You are a multi-million dollar real estate agent, closing a lot of volume for somebody that’s only gotten into the business, and you’re using new tools. You’re teaching this with the Young Professionals group. I want to talk a little bit about how you’re in that leadership position, you’re moving that forward, and some of the tools you’re using.

I didn’t expect to be as involved in the company or involved with Young Professionals as I am when I first got into it. It was an opportunity that came to me to be a part of the board for launching the first regional Young Professionals chapter within KW, the first regional chapter in the segment. We are the largest. It covers 46 market centers. We’re about 130 members. It’s a representation of the average agent that’s 55 years old, and that’s changing. It’s now this business that a lot more people are getting licensed at eighteen years old.

 

 

It is fulfilling and fun to be a part of generating or curating the next generation of leaders. That, in itself, is a whole avenue that we can talk about. That has opened up a lot of doors for me and is one of the reasons why my goals are to do $7 million in production this year 2022 because I’ve been surrounded with like-minded individuals that are like-minded and close in age with me. We have the same type of outlook, whether we are on different paths or different goals, but the same general idea of helping people build a life by design and smashing our goals. Aside from that, you want to talk about the social media stuff of where I got with that.

We can get into the tools without doing a deep dive into social media and stuff. I want to touch on something that you said, and we can touch on it, but a life by design. You’ve said that 2 or 3 times. I love that. Where did you get that? What does that mean to you? It shows me that you’ve got a plan here, Juliana. You’re working on a plan. Let’s hear about it.

I have this issue. I don’t think it’s an issue and I’m not biased. I love all real estate companies. I have a lot of friends in every different company. I drank the Kool-Aid because I say things like life by design and drunk monkey or reasons or results. I speak fluent Keller Williams. I’ve said a handful of things on this call that have come from just being a sponge in this company.

Life by design is a generalization of achieving a level in my life and my business that provides me to have my life by design. I don’t necessarily think it’s a dollar amount. It’s more so whatever your definition of that is. For me, I want to be able to book flights like I book Ubers. I don’t know what that dollar amount is, and probably it will change every year with my goals. I want to be flexible. I want to be able to build a business that allows me to invest in other things that provide me passive income so in the next few years, I don’t have to run around showing houses and be running like a chicken without a head.

Achieve a level in your life and business that allows you to have your life by design. Click To Tweet

You’re doing that already. As we talk here in Philadelphia, you’re in Clearwater, nice and warm in an Airbnb property that you purchased. At your age, you’re already invested in real estate in short-term rentals. Those are big moves, and those are moves that fast forward many years from are going to set you up to live that life by design. There is nothing wrong with running around selling houses, but it’s exhausting. It’s a lot of hours. As you evolve in your career, you want to leverage your time because dollars are great, but time is priceless. We never get time back.

For me, it’s not about money. It’s about how much time can I spend doing what I love. I only have so much time with my kids before they leave me and they think I’m not cool. They go off to college and do all of these things. There’s only so much time. Life by design is about where you want to be and what’s important to you. For some people, it’s all about, “I want to drive a Ferrari. I want to do whatever.” That’s your life by design, but you are setting it up in combination with the dollars to have that legacy of, “I’m going to work hard now because I’m 23.” You have a plan and a design to say, “When I get a little bit further down the road, I want more passive income. I want to control when I show a house or when I don’t show a house, or have other people show homes for me.”

I love that at such an early stage in your career, you’re already number one, absorbing the content and the stuff around you that’s saying, “Focus on long game, and not getting caught up in the short game of, “How much money can I make?” which is important. We all need to pay our bills. It’s so mature. I bought my first house at 21. I worked hard at a young age. I worked through college. I definitely did some things right, but I was extremely immature with the exposure to all of the stuff that I’d been through, the coaching and mentorships.

I’m going out on December 2nd 2022 to West Palm to spend eight days with Tony Robbins, A Date With Destiny. I love that stuff. I’m going with my friend who has talked about life by design. He lives in Sarasota on a 55-foot yacht. He sold his house and lives on a yacht. That is ridiculous because he’s able to, and he loves it and he lives life by design. That works for his lifestyle. He’s a good mentor of mine.

We’re going to spend eight days there. I wish that at 23, somebody said, “Chris, check this out,” whether it’s Tony Robbins, that’s the big splash name, but there are many seminars and courses and self-development programs that I have been through and spent tons of money on to get to where I am. If I would have had that at 23, it’s unbelievable.

The full saying is, “Life by design, not by default.” This is all Tony Robbins stuff anyway, but that’s a bold law in the Keller Williams training. The other one that aligns that I also say a ton is you can have reasons or results, but you can’t have both. It’s the same thing. Life by design, not by default, if you make excuses, your reasons, you will have a default life because you’ll get what you get. I don’t think I’ve ever been lazy. At the same time, I jokingly say that I’m the hardest-working lazy person you’ll ever meet in your life because everything I’m working for right now is to be able to do nothing. I’m working all the time so that I can do nothing for the rest of my life.

You want to do what you want to do when you want to do it.

My dad and I partnered on this house in Florida in ’21, and created a form of passive income through it. I don’t like to say we got lucky, but at the same time, it was very good timing and putting myself in a room with the right people. The reason why I have this house is that I met one of my very good friends now through Keller Williams Young Professionals. She had experience and connections down here in Clearwater.

She said, “Come with me. We’ll go visit this and that.” We go there and she says, “I got this house for $167,000 or $165,000.” It was a two-bedroom, one-bath single-family detached garage. I think she either bought it in ‘19 or ‘20. I said, “My dad and I have been discussing this. We want to buy a property. Why do we have to buy it in PA or New Jersey? Why not think bigger?” I had gotten into Keller Williams Young Professionals at the time, so I’m learning how to think bigger and have bigger goals and be in that mindset.

She introduced me to an agent that she was working with down here who was also in Young Professionals. She also introduced me to the woman who is my property manager, who is a godsend and a gem. I couldn’t do it without her. The reason why I go down this line of things is that all of these opportunities and people were through Young Professionals, and through putting myself in a room with people that are smarter than me or people that are open and eager to make connections and help others. I thank YP for this opportunity of having this home and everything that has come from it because I wouldn’t have it without them.

 

 

One of the things from a very old book, Think and Grow Rich, from Napoleon Hill. It’s a great book. If you haven’t read it, read it or it’s in Audible, whatever works for you. One of the things that Napoleon Hill talks about is the power of a mastermind. Get involved in a mastermind, and get a group of like-minded people together who all want to achieve something. The power in that is unreal. It will change your life. It will expose you to things. It will push you to new levels that you wouldn’t do. The power in that mastermind, and KWP for you is probably one of your masterminds, is huge. If you’re reading, get involved and plug in with a group.

That’s the biggest thing I do. I’m part of another mastermind which is called the Freedom Club. I got into in 2015. It’s a group of the top 1% of mortgage professionals around the country. We invest a good amount of money to be part of the group, so it keeps the level of caliber of people there. All we do is mastermind. We share strategies, ideas, and training. How do we hire? How do we grow our business? What tools are we using? Ninety-nine percent of them are smarter than me. They’re doing more production than me. They are way ahead. I’m like, “I only need to copy you and you’re in my mastermind, so you’re going to share the blueprint,” and I do it. I copy it. I share, and I contribute now.

In the beginning, I was just a sponge of people that were way smarter and already had it built out, and that changed my life. It changed my business. The reason it’s called Freedom Club is because whether you’re in mortgage real estate or if you’re an entrepreneur, it’s 24/7. It doesn’t stop unless you figure out a plan and you control it. Otherwise, you have no freedom. You could have a ton of money, but no freedom in life. For me, that wasn’t my goal. Our goal in the group is to have a great lifestyle financially, but have the freedom to jump on a plane and go, wherever and be at all your kids’ sporting events, if that’s for you, or be on the beach or wherever it is. That’s what we do in our group.

To dive into that mastermind piece, it hits home for me. As we wrap up, it would be crazy not to talk to Juliana about her strategies, what you are doing that’s different from the old school tactics in real estate, and this can be applied to any business. How much money you’re spending to do this, because I know there’s an interesting financial component to this with a zero in front of it, I believe so. Talk about it.

I do like the summarized version of it. When I got into the business, I was twenty, and there was no marketing budget. I had what I had. I had a very supportive dad who I lived with at the time. I didn’t have a mortgage to pay or kids to feed. My plan was to do things that were free to generate new business. I did open houses. I called people, whether it was cold calling or social media. Social media won. I don’t have a problem picking up the phone, but this is much more fun.

I focused my time on what I knew. Being that I was born in ‘99, I had cell phones and computers for most of my life. It was just second nature for me to utilize this tool to reach people and to put this perception out. I thankfully had a lot of agents in my market center at the time that were like, “What can we give you? How can we help you?” I said, “I need your listings. I need your open houses. I need your coming-soons. I need all of that.”

I leaned on others for comps, but I started creating, posting, and not caring what people think. If they didn’t want to see the real estate stuff, they could unfollow me. They’re not going to send me business anyway. I built out my social media as far as creating TikTok and Instagram, and going that route. It became successful and then I started teaching.

I coach other agents and other people who were in the service industry. I did it for a lender and a home inspector and a restoration guy. If you sell a product or a service, you can do everything that I did with social media to build out your business. I’m not selling real estate. I’m selling me. I’m selling to work with me. For me to sell your house, for me to find you a house, for me to find you around and for me to find you an investment.

When marketing your business on social media, you don't need to try to sell your product. You just need to try to sell yourself. Click To Tweet

I think that’s huge because Gary Vee says it best. He’s like, “You are a marketing consultant/realtor/mortgage lender.” You’re a marketer first and then whatever you do because if people don’t know about what you do, it doesn’t matter.

My productivity coach in my first market center, Heather Ayala, once said to me, “Jul, if you do not keep real estate top in mind, you’re doing yourself a disservice. I don’t care if you’ve never sold a house before. Tell people that you’re in real estate.” I went to Disney World a month later, and I was meeting my best friend there. It was me in a three-person row and then the other two people were also flying solo.

They start talking about, “What do you do?” I butted myself into this conversation and said, “I sell real estate.” They started asking me questions, and somehow I knew the answers to them. They were asking me about real estate in King of Prussia and Pottstown. My aunt and uncle lived there. I randomly had information that I gave them. I BS-ed my way through that conversation. I tell people all the time that if you don’t post about it or you don’t speak up about it, people will not know, and it’s no one’s fault except you.

 

 

That’s how you’re building your business. You’re consistently creating content and taking other people’s content. That’s the beauty of social media, “I don’t have any content.” Other people have lots of content. Share it and get that engagement. The two platforms that you mentioned, I know older realtors are like, “TikTok. My kids are on that.” That is how I feel as an old dog too, but you can get into just taking the time because these platforms are free. We are approached in business if you’re a real estate agent, let’s say Zillow or Realtor.com or BoomTown, all these lead aggregators that want to sell us leads, or if you’re an autobody shop or whatever it is. There are always people that are trying to say, “We’ll give you a billboard. We’ll market.”

It’s tens of thousands of dollars that you’re going to spend and invest when there are tools that are free. If you don’t know what TikTok is and you think it’s this crazy thing that all the kids are on or you’re not on Instagram, it is probably worth you taking some time, if you’re an entrepreneur or a business owner, to figure this out. If you’re running a successful business, you’re probably spending tens of thousands of dollars on marketing that you may not need to spend.

I know very few realtors that say, “Top-producing realtor, how did you do it?” They say, “I bought a ton of Zillow leads and it’s the best thing ever.” No. They say, “I nurture my Sphere. I follow up. We do client appreciation.” You engage with the people that already know you, like you, and support you. This is a free tool to do it. We’re going to get Juliana’s contact information. You’re helping people with this, right?

Yeah. I have like a couple of online courses. I do quarterly, and then I do one-on-one coaching. I also have options to speak in market centers. I’m speaking with the eXp team in Cleveland. I always express that, and I’ll leave you with a couple of things too for everyone that’s reading. One, it is free. If you don’t want to have your face in the camera or whatever it is, find something that you like doing with it and try it. Be consistent with it and give it a chance. If you have the objection that you don’t have content to post, I suggest that you get a piece of paper or go on your Google Drive or whatever it is, and you write down 30 topics around your business.

Find something that you like doing and try it. Be consistent with it and give it a chance. Click To Tweet

For example, client events, just sold, just listed, or market updates. Put down 30 items that you can think of that are surrounded in your business. Every time you need a post, go back to that list, and I guarantee you, you’ll be able to think of something that you can talk about even if it’s personal or maybe you’re doing a pie event next month or whatever it is. It’s something that I’ve started helping people with and obviously, you have my programs.

I always stress that I am not the end-all-be-all expert. It’s working for me the way that I’m doing it, and I would love to teach others and help others create whatever that path looks like as well. I think that’s why I love coaching so much because it’s always different. There are many different ways of being successful with it. I’m here to bring you along with me in how I’m doing it if it works for you as well.

I appreciate you taking the time and sharing this because whether you’re in real estate or you have a business, we’re heading into some interesting times. The economy has some challenges, to say the least. If you’re trying to grow a business, you’re trying to do something, and preserving your capital is probably one of the most important things in a market like this. This tool is free. Juliana, how can somebody connect with you, find you, learn more or just follow and see what you’re doing? Where do we find you?

The easiest way to find me is on Instagram, @Jul_TheRealtor. If you want to check out my TikTok, it’s @JulTheRealtor. If you have any inquiries about bringing me into your office or you want to find out more about one-on-one coaching, you can email me and my director of operations at CoachingWithJul@Gmail.com.

Thank you so much. It’s so great to have you on the show. Thanks for sharing all of this wisdom at such a young age. I have to highlight it because it’s so exciting to see somebody coming in and creating that next generation of leaders in this industry. It’s inspiring. It’s been awesome to have you on. I’m not going to let you go without hitting you with our rapid-fire.

Rapid fire is really simple. We’re going to set the stage. You are stranded on an island, you’re never getting off the island, and we’re going to ask you three questions. The first one, we know you take your family and friends. We’ve already talked about some of the people in your life that are important, so we know that they would be the first choice. We’re going to go outside of that and say who would you take, one person, living, dead, a celebrity on that island? Who would you have to take?

My dad.

 

We’re going to give you dad anyway because I’m a dad.

If it’s somebody that’s not family, I totally miss that part, it’s Steve Jobs.

We’re taking Steve. We’re going to get innovator, entrepreneur, and problem solver. Steve’s coming with you. The second one is a book that you’ve read.

Tribe of Millionaires by David Osborn. It’s the best business fiction book.

I have to check that out. I haven’t picked that one up. The last one is a fun one. You’re stuck on the island, your favorite food or guilty pleasure, what do you have to have?

Chicken parm.

On that note, we are out. Juliana, thank you so much for jumping on the show. We want to remind you that FUEL stands for Foundations Under Extraordinary Lives. We want you to live your life extraordinary. Check us out. If you’ve got something from this, share it on social, give us a five-star rating on iTunes. We’ll see you on the next episode of the show.

 

Important Links

• https://www.Instagram.com/jul_therealtor/
• https://www.Facebook.com/juliana.gainsburg.3
• https://JulianaGainsburg.KW.com/
• @JulTheRealtor – TikTok
• iTunes – Fuel with Chris Swartz
• Think and Grow Rich
• Freedom Club
• CoachingWithJul@Gmail.com
• Tribe of Millionaires

 

About Juliana Gainsburg

Juliana started her real estate career in July of 2019 and in just a short period of time she’s managed to brand herself by her realtor “Tik Toks” and social media presence. She is honored to assume the role as Education Chair on the board for KWYP Greater Pa Region, which is the first regional chapter and largest in the segment. At the young age of 23 she is already a multimillion dollar real estate producer, real estate investor and change leader in her industry.

 

 

 

Tags: Client Engagement, Going Into Real Estate, KW Young Professionals, Life By Design, Mastermind Group, Social Media Marketing