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

Laura, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

I have grit because I earned it the hard way; and not by choice. I have had a lot of trials and tribulation in my lifetime that made me who I am today. Raised by a single mom on minimum wage, I skipped college after highschool because I knew everything already. ;-) I went straight to a full time job, got an apartment with a roommate, and dove straight into adulthood. Ended up marrying my high school sweetheart at age 21. Six weeks before my wedding, tragedy struck. When she didn’t show up for work, my mom was discovered unresponsive in her home. In 1991, she had had a major heart attack and a major stroke. Though just a shadow of her former self, she surprised the doctors and survived. Not only did I get married without her, but I was thrust further into adulthood without my permission. I was suddently dealing with making decisions about healthcare, legal documents, and my mom’s future. She lived in a nursing home for 18 years until her death in 2009.

Four months into our marriage I became pregnant with my first child. Three months after she was born, I became pregnant with my second. He was born with Down Syndrome. Two months after he was born I had a stroke. Our son has mood disorder/bipolarish symptoms, along with high functioning PDD (he is on the Autism spectrum). His behavior was extremely difficult and sometimes violent. With assistance from the state, he was admitted to an Independent Supported Living program when he was 14.

While all this was happening, at age twenty-six, I went back to school and earned an undergrad degree in special education graduating in 2002, got a divorce, remarried, and in 2009 earned a Masters in TESLOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). I ended up teaching for 17 years. This is the story of how I got to where I am today. It was an extremely abreviated yet necessary story to tell because it placed me firmly where I am today. Adversity = GRIT.

When I moved from Special Education to teaching ELL (English as a Second Language) my supervisor had ZERO experience with ELL. Her background was as a middle school math teacher. When promoted from that to Director of Curriculum, she had been given he task of managing the ELL department. Initially not a big deal. It happens all the time. My position was so specialized, it requried a Master’s Degree to be considered for the position. I assumed she would be respectful of that and allow us to serve our students to the best of our abilities. I concentrated on diagnosing exactly what each individual child needed, delivered that needed instruction, and measured their progress throughout the school year. As the years went on, I was no longer allowed to teach based sound, researched based practices. The teachers in our department were no longer being given the freedom to individualize our instruction. A rule follower, I was faced with a decision: Do what I KNEW was WRONG for the kiddos I served, or close my classroom door and SECRETLY do what I KNEW was RIGHT. It was a horrible choice. That was the year I decided to leave teaching.

I had become extremely burn out on working for someone else; being told to do things I knew were not right. The choice was clear, I had to start my own business. As crazy as it sounded, my husband was 100% supportive. After doing my research, I landed on Real Estate. In my research I learned that most Realtors do not make any money for the first six months, it cost A LOT of money out of pocket to get started, the income was very unpredictable, and the most soberiing fact: THERE WAS AN 87% FAILURE RATE. Still, I was attracted to Real Estate because I could continue to help people while making my own decision on how to run my business. My failure and successes would be mine and only mine.

Living paycheck to paycheck, my husband and I sat down and made a roadmap of how to get from where we were to where we wanted to me before my last paycheck came in August. We cut corners, saved money and made it happen. I started in May after school, and had earned my first commission in September. Against the odds, I had earned five commissions before the year was up. Since then I haven’t looked back.

Today, I continue to insert structure into my daily life. I have a self imposed checklist of things that I know are good for my business. My checklist includes things that I learned as a teacher, including the value of daily Professional Development and researching the market that I serve. The best predictor of the future is to study past data. Just like in the field of education. Just like with teaching, I continue to pay myself the same salary once a month on the same day.

I am living my best life. I continue to serve people to the best of my ability. I have learned that this mindset organically pays the bills. I try not to worry about the money. I focus instead on keeping my head down and serving people. I will always be a teacher. It is part of me. I continue to value self reflection and learning from my mistakes. I seek out information from books, collaberating with colleages, videos, seminars, anything that will make me better at what I do. I am living with intention and purpose. Making the leap from teacher to running my own business was the scariest things I have ever done. The grit and determination that I earned from my past experiences, made this a reality. The only way to get to the other side of adversity is right through the middle. Most of the time, with the right perspective, you will be a much better person on the other side.

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

HAPPY CLIENTS I have always measured my value by how helpful I am to others. I realize that some psychologists or therapist may read this and think, “Wow. She is really messed up.” But it is an honest statement. Self reflection has lead me to this conclusion, and It works in my life. Whether it be good grades or smiling faces at the closing table, giving value to someone elses life gives me self worth.

WALKING THE JOURNEY
There are many things I LOVE about real estate. One of my favorite things is walking first time home buyers through the home buying journey for the first time. I quietly pay close attention to who they are and what they value. Then I weave those things into the process so it feels familiar and less scary to them.

TINACITY IS KEY
As a whole, each transaction is unique. I have learned so much from my experience that I am able to be offensive and ward off potential trouble before it happens. Yet, unexpected and crazy things happen all the time. I am at home with sudden change and can quickly reassess, adapt, and get my clients back on track to get to the end goal. The thrill of the challenge is exillerating. Achieving the clients goal is the only outcome.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

If you own your own business, then you already know marketing is two things: Necessary and EXENSIVE. I used to train new real estate agents. One of the first things I taught them, especially as new agents with no name recognition and no money, was to frequent social media. Find two or three platforms they were familiar with and consistanty post on that platform. IT IS FREE!!!!! As a real estate agent you want everyone to know who you are and what you do. When someone is having a conversation about needing a real estate agent, someone might respond, “Hey I see this person’s name all the time on Facebook. She has pretty good client reviews. Want me to give you her info?” If you get one client from posting on social media, it is a 100% return on your investment. It is a no brainer!

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

One of the first lessons that I learned in Real Estate is that people are generally skeptical of you. There are some that tend to thinks the worst. Some think that you are not honest, don’t care about them or are insincere, or just see dollar signs when dealing with them. This was a disheartening thing to learn. Going from being a trusted public school teacher to a salesperson that can’t be trusted was like being pushed into cold water. A problem I had to solve was how do I combat this stigma?

The one and only solution I have found is to give the absolute best client service. From here I collect reviews. In turn, I advertise those reviews on Social Media. I make QR codes that take people to my reviews. I post them on newsletters and my digital business card. I put them on my personal web page. And of course serving clients well with honestly and with authenticity has earned me business through client referrals. Amazing service is like a snowball rolling down hill. Put your head down and be your authentic self. Over time this problem resolves itself!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.LPWorksForMe.com
• Instagram: lpworksforme
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/LPworksforme
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/lpworksforme
• Youtube: youtube.com/@LPWorksForMe

Image Credits
This is not applicable. All photos are my own.