We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Krystina Jones a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Krystina, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Covid has brought about so many changes – has your business model changed?

Covid not only changed my business model but changed my career. The pandemic caused a sudden blow to my career in film and production, it left me jobless overnight. I was on the other side of the country at the highlight of my career to then wondering how long I could keep up with my bills with no income coming in. As we all know now that what we thought would be two weeks of being unemployed turned into months. I know millions of others had this unfortunate experience as well, especially in the film industry. It forced me to return to my hometown in Florida, and start over. I then very unexpectedly, becoming a mom to my son, Maverick in 2021. Embracing the opportunity for a fresh start, I ventured into the world of real estate, discovering a newfound passion. I will be forever grateful for the leap of faith I took in getting in this industry and for the people I am now surrounded by.

Krystina, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Introducing myself, Krystina, a Realtor® based in South-West Florida. I had started my career in an uncommon way, I have always been a bit of a workaholic so as a new mom I struggled transferring into being as stay at home mom and decided to go back to work. I had always done production / film but with a newborn and no childcare, I knew getting back to freelancing would be nearly impossible. So, I took a job as a staff member for Veteran Non-Profit and a brokerage here in Sarasota who hired me with my infant. I even brought my son with me in the stroller for my interview and for the next year I would bring to work with me EVERYDAY… This was one of the most challenging times in my life as I was working inside an office with also caring for my son. My office was a glorified playroom with a desk in it, you can expect the wide look people had given me when walking past my office. Even though this was a hardship, I do feel like I owe most of my success from having my son with me. The key was to be confident and think nothing of it when bringing him into the office or work events and I ended up getting known in the industry better due to having him on my hip while I worked. After a year I was able to get him into childcare but I am thankful I can say I made it through working with him by my side for his first year. Beyond my real estate career, I am driven by adrenaline-fueled passions like motocross, wakeboarding, snowboarding, and flying. I am an ex-gymnast, so I have always been into adrenaline sports my whole life. I have done many sports over the years, that I feel have helped me in my everyday life as well as my career.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

It’s hard to come up with one story for a lifetime of resilience but I have two that really resonate with me… I had started my production career in Orlando,FL working for Universal Production team as a production assistant and by manifestation and hard work I landed my dream job in Los Angeles with my favorite show American Ninja Warrior . When I think back to it now it all seems like a dream but that dream also had nightmares to it. After only a couple months out there, I had experienced my first and horrible fire season. I was still very knew to out west and only knew a handful of people which made this experience even harder. The 2019 Tick fire had stuck my new neighborhood of Santa Clarita and I ended up having less than 10 seconds to grab everything I could after racing home from work after getting the call our house might burn down. My roommates and I were lucky in the sense that everyone was safe and our house was still standing in the aftermath but we did all go a couple weeks without being able to return home. I worked in downtown LA and Studio City which was a far drive from Santa Clarita, it would take me close to 2-3 hours one way to get to the office so when friends didn’t have a spare place for me to sleep, I ended up sleeping in my truck outside of my work for many nights. I would take my showers at a local gym and I would set a timer to move my truck every couple hours due to street parking limits. Like everyone says Los Angeles can either make you or break you.

My most recent story of resilience would be the process of having my son. When I found out I was pregnant, I can say that it was much of a surprise especially at the age of 22. I had two cyst burst which caused internal bleeding, the doctors put me on hormonal treatment to prevent a miscarriage but that came with sever sypmtoms. I was diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum which caused me to throw up every single day sometimes 8-10 times daily, from the start of me being pregnant to even a couple weeks after delivering my son. I tell people my son was grown from zofran, IV fluids and ice chips. Having this sickness throughout my pregnancy made it very difficult for me to get around and unfortunately caused me to be on bed rest during the full pregnancy. I remember hitting 99 pounds just after delivering my son. The horrible part of being a mom having hyperemesis even when you think your done after pregnancy it can last after delivery for weeks, which was my case. This caused me to over come a number of health issues dealing with the aftermath that it left for about a year and half. It took a while to overcome it physically and mentally.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

I think the most effective way so far in my industry now and even in my prior industry has always been reaching out to people wether it’s through social media or calling them directly. Keeping up with your friends or past co workers has always helped me in my career. You have to maintain being present so your also promoting yourself with your business.

Contact Info:

• Website: LWRHome.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explore/search/keyword/?q=krystina
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/krystina.jones.3
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krystina-jones-b70b1b19a/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@krystinaj.l