We were lucky to catch up with Emily & Jake Sparrow recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Emily & Jake thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Our biggest risk we have taken was both quitting our jobs to go all in and start a real estate business together. For most people it’s a scary thought to give up a steady monthly income and change careers/industries. We not only changed careers but also went from hourly pay to 100% commission and to building a business at the same time.

Covid & the shut down really started to change things for our family. Before we worked opposite shifts to avoid paying for daycare. This meant we didn’t see each other very often and our family time was limited. Both of our jobs were shut down for a couple of months during the pandemic. That was a huge adjustment for us but once we had a routine in place it made us realize how much we were missing out on and how important family time was. The thought of going to back to the way things were before was not something we looked forward to and we knew something needed to change.

Emily did the real estate classes over a few months after the kids had gone to bed at nights, it was both an exciting and scary time. It required a huge mindset shift from her because she had never worked a commission job and one that didn’t have set working hours. She worked the business on her own for a few months while Jake got his real estate license. We have now been working together in this business for over 2 years.

People make owning a business sound amazing because you have flexibility and a great earning potential. It is great but it isn’t without challenges which sometimes get glossed over. It’s scary knowing if we don’t have current clients that no matter how much backend work we do that there is no money coming in. It also takes money to start up a business. It’s easy to let the business take all of your time and you actively have to work on being balanced.

We love our career and have a huge sense of fulfilment when we help people buy or sell their homes. Even though the initial risk was scary and is still sometimes scary as we continue to build our business. For us and our family is has been worth all of the stress, time and effort required. If we had to go back and make the decision again we’d choose the same thing!

Emily & Jake, 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?

We are a husband and wife team of real estate agents (Realtors). As we mentioned in the last question we worked opposite shifts for most of our marriage and after the pandemic shut down knew we didn’t want to go back to that. We wanted more flexibility and time to spend with our kids. We took a leap of faith and switched careers to start a business together. We have been working together in real estate for over 2 years now.

Emily’s background is in the cosmetology & spa industry, she worked in that field for over 10 years as a stylist and manager. Jake has a degree in psychology from Utah State and he worked in behavioral therapy. He also coached youth soccer for over 14 years and ran an independent club for the last 5 years of that. We come from very different backgrounds than real estate but bring a lot of skills and experience that fits right in this industry.

Working together as a team gives our clients the benefit of both of our experiences. We have different strengths that we bring to our business that makes it run well. We like to take a more personal approach to all of our client interactions. Educating our clients is also extremely important to us. We want them to feel confident in making the best decision for them during the process of buying or selling their home.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Ever since we started our business we have made it a goal to read business and personal growth books together. So far the book that has made the biggest impact on both of us has been Atomic Habits by James Clear. It helped us to shift our mindset of what goes into growth and success, and continue to push through the hard times.

In the book he talks about when you begin something new the small actions often get over looked and feel less significant when your looking at your overall goal. As you continue to do these small actions over and over they add up to something much more noticeable. When we started our business it was easy to feel overwhelmed and like you weren’t making any progress.

Early on we started to implement the things that we read in this book. Even if we couldn’t see the results yet we kept on doing the small things. Now after consistently doing the small things for a few years we can start to see some of the growth and results in our business. Just like he says in the book “The holy grail of change is not a single 1% improvement, but a thousand of them.”

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

From the beginning it’s been important for us to have a solid team of professionals around us to help give our clients a great experience. Occasionally things don’t go as planned and we have had problems come up on the day of closing.

Being a team player and part of the solution is vital. We work hard to do everything we can to help problem solve and come up with a solution. Even if the problem didn’t originate from us we still are part of the team and part of the solution.

We have had multiple people in our industry tell us after closings like this that most people would have just let it just play out even if it didn’t end up working out. Our team and clients are very important to us and well worth the extra effort! People that do business with us know that we will do everything humanly possible to close the deal for them, this not only goes for all of our clients but also for all of our professional partners within the real estate industry. This reputation means the world to us and we will do everything in our power to maintain and grow it in the future!

Contact Info:

• Website: http://sparrowsrealestate.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sparrows.realestate/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sparrowsrealestate
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@livinginutahwiththesparrows
• Other: Google: Sparrows Real Estate with Equity Advantage

Image Credits
Gage & Company- Gage Ramos