We were lucky to catch up with Nick And Ashley Salzwedel recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Nick and Ashley thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Very early on in our business we knew we wanted generosity to be the star. Our pastor once challenged us with the question, “What is the one thing that breaks your heart and what can you do about it?” The answer to that question for us is childhood cancer so when we started The Salz Team we knew we had to have a philanthropic mission which is when our tagline “Do Well Do Good” was born.

Our clients Do Well working with us in real estate, but they also Do Good because every time someone uses us to buy or sell a house, a portion goes directly to Childhood Cancer Coalition here in Spokane to help local families fight childhood cancer. Since 2021, our clients have donated over $56,000 and enabled us to deliver over 2,500 Chick-fil-A meals to the 3rd floor Pediatric Oncology unit at Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital, something we do each month. This is the thing that gives us the most joy – and seeing the local impact our clients make outside of real estate.

Nick and Ashley, 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?

For 12 years prior to this, Nick worked for Salesforce selling software and I was a stay at home mom, spending my days and nights volunteering and raising money for our local childhood cancer charity. One of the many ways working for Salesforce changed our life was they moved us to Atlanta, Georgia in 2014. I am from Spokane and Nick is from Asotin, Washington so living in Atlanta allowed us to experience a new culture, perspective, architecture and sweet southern way of life. Then, 2020 hit and like most people, we had a lot of time to really think about what we wanted for the second half of our life. It was May of 2020 when we decided to move back to Spokane and totally and completely reinvent ourselves.

The plan wasn’t really ever to become Realtors! In the 18 years we’ve been married, it feels like we’ve bought and sold that many houses!! We have always loved real estate – browsing, design, flipping, and buying and holding so when we moved home, the plan was to be investors. It was our Atlanta real estate agent who told us we should become agents ourselves as our passion and complementary skill sets would make us successful and we could use that to fuel the investment business. Little did we know that The Salz Team would take off to the point we haven’t had time to pursue the investment side, instead we’ve helped our clients buy and sell almost $60 million dollars worth of real estate in 3.5 years.

While the quick success has been affirming, we define true success by 2 words: Live Generous. We all have been given unique resources and talents to be used in everything we do, for others. When life and work get overwhelming, we go back to this as a guiding principle for why we’re doing what we’re doing. We win when we give which is why Do Well Do Good will always be the North star.

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

The first book we read together once we started our business was The Go-Giver by Bob Burg. The message is simple, “you must first give in order to receive”. There are a handful of concepts from the book we are still using in our business specifically how we service our clients before, during and after the transaction. It was impactful when we read it and truly upside down in its thinking. Unreasonable Hospitality, Will Guidara, Profit First, Mike Michalowicz, The Full Fee Agent, Chris Voss are two others that will always be key to who we are and how we operate our business.

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

We spoke our success into existence quite literally. When we first started our business, before we had sold one house, we introduced ourselves as a dynamic husband and wife real estate team who specializes in mid to high end real estate. We truly believed that is what our background, life experience, point of view and taste level had prepared us for. Even though it wasn’t true on day one, we believed it to be true for our future career. And it was that initial vision that informed all of our decisions thereafter — our branding, our introduction to our market, our social media presence, our philanthropic partnership and overall vibe. It became true so couple that with the grinding necessary to start a new career at 40 we are now seeing the fulfillment of that statement and truly feel we belong in the space we are.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.salzteam.com
• Instagram: @thesalzteam
• Facebook: @thesalzteam
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNSaveNVcHTPUAxeFna8hPQ

Image Credits

Kyrah Maddy Photography and Ruben Lesh