We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Poole Jon. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Poole below.
Hi Poole, thanks for joining us today. Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?
I was a teacher and coach for 25 years. This is a role in which you serve. Selling and buying homes done right, certainly is also an act of service, but it is also a fairly lucrative one, and so oddly enough, even 6 years into the career, I actually feel guilty getting commission checks for guiding people in the home buying and selling process. It is not that I don’t intellectually know my value; I save my clients thousands of dollars and help safeguard sometimes millions of dollars as they invest. I am exceptionally skilled and educated in this career and as hard working as anyone else I know, but it still feels odd to get large commission checks for what I do. As a teacher, shaping young people is the most important vocation ever and was not well compensated at all, so in context this is by far the hardest piece, I am not a salesperson at heart.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I was a teacher, and I became disillusioned by our system. Given the desire to give my own children a more stable future I made the transition into real estate. Interestingly enough, my being an educator, former professional fighter and a bevy of former pursuits including construction, have led to my success in being a guide for home buying and selling. I have a strong footing in math, and that has time and again been such an asset in protecting the friends I work with and their purchase. My ability to articulate clearly also helps, through I also have my moments. I have a pseudo pod called RealAF which I started to create marketing for my business. In my mind I was providing “Real Advice for Friends”, imagine my surprise when I went live and a dozen or more of my friends reached out in a panic (including my pastor) thinking I had fallen off the deep end. Apparently Real AF stands for other things as well. It’s a pretty good inside joke at this point.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
I partner with a lender named Becky Wishart, and she is one of my best friends, and someone I have been building business with for years. I had a former lender who was not working out and had decided to conduct interviews with some new lenders to find a better business partner. I got some names from realtors that were more seasoned than myself and called or emailed them to have some sit downs over coffee. I was on my latter half of these meet and greets, when I met up with Becky. To be candid she is very attractive and looks a bit like a Barbie. I remember thinking, 10 minutes out of courtesy and I am out of here. 2 hours later I had my business partner who happened to be the most genuine, honest, hard working and above all humble and caring person I have ever met in the industry. She even passed my wife, Gabi’s, scrutiny who has a laser precision ability to read people. I am ashamed to admit how badly and superficially I had prejudged. Something about books and covers, I don’t remember the rest…
Any fun sales or marketing stories?
I do not enjoy social media and especially have a loathing for videos with myself in them. However, my team leader very bluntly told me, it is free and effective marketing, only people who want to fail don’t take advantage of it. I reluctantly started shooting videos with my business partner Becky. I posted these wholeheartedly for a couple months sure it was a colossal waste of time and resources. Fast forward to the third month, and I get a call from a very wealthy lady who ended up purchasing the highest priced home to date. One of my old friends and a fighter I had coached sent the video to another fighter I had coached to have a good laugh at their old coach being all “domesticated” in these silly videos, and his aunt saw the video and hired me, So, I guess it was worth it. I still hate being on social media, but you know what I love? When it pays off and I get paid…
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/real.af.reno/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086646673879
