We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ashleigh Schuellerman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ashleigh below.

Ashleigh, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the toughest things about progressing in your career is that there are almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

So when I started my real estate career last May (2024), I filled all of my time with real estate related things. I was hosting open houses across San Antonio every single weekend, and sometimes even during the week during after school hours. I was actively trying to make myself known and talk to as many people as I could. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and started going out of my way to talk to people outside of real estate related things.

I built strong relationships with people and basically inserted myself into their life as the friend that they never asked for, but ended up with. This even happens with strangers that I’ve met and exchanged contact information with on a whim, haha. For example, let’s say I’d literally just met you and we talked for a while, maybe you shared that one of your hobbies is playing video games. Well hey, that’s one of mine too! So if I see a game go on sale that I think you’ll like, I’ll shoot you a text and say “Hey! I just saw this go on sale! Just wanted you to know since it looks like something you’d like!” Then from then on, I’d just check in on you and make sure you’re doing okay.

In all honesty, I’ve expanded my social bubble so much that I currently have the most people I’d consider friends than I’ve ever had in my life. I honestly, genuinely didn’t think I could feel loneliness with all of them around. That kind of changed in September, though.

Last September (2024) , my dog died. Her name was Tali. She was named after my favorite character in one of my favorite video games. (Tali’Zorah in the Mass Effect series)

I’d rescued her from a shelter in Hawaii. She was this little JackChi (Jack Russel, Chihuahua) and was so tiny that the shelter kept her in the cages that housed kittens and cats who were brought in. Prior to being found, she was very obviously abused and neglected and her previous owners had abandoned on the side of a highway, where she was found and taken to the shelter.

When I first saw her at the shelter, she was severely underweight, missing most of her fur, and was so scared to be in the same room with me. After a long while (honestly, it was probably at least an hour) of sitting on the floor in a quiet room with her, she finally came up to me from the corner she’d been cowering in and sniffed my hand and let me pet her. She crawled into my lap, and I remember I could feel her shaking. She eventually fell asleep in my lap and I just remember trying not to cry while telling a volunteer that I would like to adopt her. The vet determined that she was around four years old and told me how to continue to reintroduce food to her slowly and work her way up to having two bowls of food a day. I also had to house train her, and work on continuing to build trust with her.

She ultimately became my best friend and we were inseparable. For ten years, she was someone I saw every single day and took nearly everywhere with me. I honestly think the only place I didn’t take her was probably the grocery store. She traveled with me, too. I ended up moving back to Idaho, where she got to experience snow for the first time. Then we moved to Alberta, Canada, for a few years, where she got to experience a whole new level of snow, haha.

She was everything to me. When I felt like I had no one, she was there. She was the glue that kept me from falling apart. So when she suddenly and unexpectedly passed away, for the first time in nearly a decade, I felt alone. Feeling that level of emptiness and loneliness, I fell into a deep depression that I tried to ignore at first.

From the day of her passing, through the month of October, and into November, I filled my schedule with only real estate. I turned nearly every lead and prospect into clients and filled every single hour of the day with nothing but work.

And then it died down. Thanksgiving was around the corner at this point and people were focused on the upcoming holidays, rather than finding a new place to live or selling their home. Since my schedule wasn’t filled anymore and I wasn’t staying busy, the emotional weight of Tali’s death hit me like a freight train.

I isolated myself from people I once talked to regularly. I stopped attending meetings at my brokerage. I stopped talking to new people in public settings. The motivation I once felt was gone. And the one thing that helped me through the previous life altering difficulties wasn’t there anymore.

Now I’m trying to pick up where I left off at the end of last year. Having gone through and processed the stages of grief, I feel like I’m finally ready to fill my schedule and meet new people (as well as reconnect with old acquaintances and friends) again.

I still miss Tali every single day, but I know she would be really annoyed with me and would absolutely glare at me if I kept moping around for any longer. So I’ve made it my goal to do a 180 and go back to how it was before her passing. Currently, I’m taking the first of three courses I need to get my GRI (Graduate Realtor Institute) designation. It’s been a tough road, but I’m doing my best to get back to where I was.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Honestly, I only got into real estate as a career because of one of my best friends, Allyssa, and my husband. Allyssa and I both love architecture and homes. It sounds weird when I say that out loud, haha, but it’s true.

Allyssa and I would go to model homes around Lethbridge (Alberta) and get our daily 10,000 steps in. We would walk through these homes and would be taking notes and photos of the things we loved about the house and the things we didn’t really love. By the end of the day, we would have all these notes and photos to look at and would basically Frankenstein together our ideal home based around the homes that we toured that day. They’re the only other person I’ve met who has such a strong interest in homes and architecture like I do. They became a licensed realtor in Lethbridge and encouraged me to do the same when I moved to San Antonio. Then they got my husband in on it, and soon enough I had both of them telling me how great it would be for me to pursue a career in something that I’m interested in, rather than attend a job that feels like it has no meaning.

After about a year of going back and forth with them (and becoming more miserable at my previous job more and more as the days went on) I finally gave in to their peer pressure and started studying for the licensing exam.

And now I assist people in the process of buying, selling, and renting! (both for tenants and property owners)

One thing that I’ve noticed is that I don’t do things the “conventional” way, so to speak. I’m not out here making videos of myself going around to houses and pitching you something that is scripted and sounds like it’s coming from a used car salesman. I’m not cold calling and sending multiple text messages to someone after not getting a response. My social media isn’t filled with just real estate things. I’m more than my career and I don’t want real estate to be my entire personality and spam people with sales pitch-y social media posts.

I want to help people and build genuine bonds with them. I want to make them part of my Christmas card list and check in with them, just to make sure they’re okay. I want to hear about milestones in their lives and celebrate the great times, and be there however I can through the bad.

Because of this, my social bubble hasn’t grown to the size of other people in this career. I don’t have thousands of social media followers; however, I have a strong bond with the people who *are* in my social bubble.

Also, another thing that I do for every client is gift them a baby plant that I propagated from a plant that I have at home. They can watch the plant grow in their new home, and have something to remember me by.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Definitely posting silly social media posts featuring my basset hound, Fred, and my cat, Oliver. I call them my assistants and will post them doing various things, but they mostly sleep on the job.

I’ll make jokes about how they’re actually more popular than I am, but I lowkey think it’s actually true. Anytime I post a new Ollie and Fred post, it gets so much more attention than if I post something strictly real estate related. People will reach out and will ask about them, then stick around and ask me about real estate. Honestly, they’re probably (definitely) the reason I was able to fill up my schedule all through October and November, last year.

And yes, they are compensated with cuddles and ear rubs for their hard work around my office.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think just being myself and not putting on a fake, super professional mask has helped me significantly. I talk to people the way I would want to be talked to and don’t pretend to be anything I’m not.

When it comes to interacting with someone who has a career that is strictly commission based, it’s so easy to see when someone is faking being interested in what you’re saying and is just waiting to be able to throw a sales pitch at you. It’s a really crummy feeling. It makes you feel like a paycheck rather than a person and can be disheartening. I don’t want anyone who becomes my client to feel like that. I want them to make the decision that is right for them, not a decision that I think may get a bigger paycheck.

Buying or selling real estate is one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) transactions a person will make in their lives. Pushing something on a client that will make more money, but won’t be in the client’s best interest is not something that I could ever do. At the end of the day, if something doesn’t sit right with me or my client, I do everything I can to make it right.

I actually remember seeing this quote a long time ago that said “Be the person your dog thinks you are” and I guess that’s how I live life, haha. If Fred thinks I’m the best thing since HEB peanut butter and banana dog cookies, then I should do everything I can to make sure I leave a positive mark on other people’s lives.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://aschuellerman.agent.jbgoodwin.biz/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashleigh.schuellerman.realtor/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashleighschuellerman/
• Other: https://linktr.ee/ashleighschuellerman