Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Stephanie Xelowski. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Stephanie, thanks for joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

One word – Resilience. In my business of Real Estate, or any entrepreneurial endeavor, you must be resilient. Failure is almost certain, and by the way, you should want to fail! In real estate, we get knocked down a lot – whether that’s losing a listing because a property didn’t sell, not winning a deal for a client, current market conditions…Whatever it might be, we have to get back up when we get knocked down and try again. Success looks different to everyone. To me, success means many different things. Of course I want to be finically free and hit my goals and continue to grow my business, but more than that I want a career and life I can be proud of. To know that I did things that scared me, terrified me, but I tried them anyway – even if those things don’t succeed. Fear is often what holds us back, and as cliche as this sounds, the best things are waiting for us on the other side of that fear. And that’s what drives me forward. I want to continue to try new things in business, put myself out there and do my best work for my clients. Because when all of that is being done, I know I am succeeding.

Stephanie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve been living in San Diego for almost 11 years now. I worked in the home loan industry in my 20’s and in corporate marketing in my early 30’s. However, I quickly realized that working a 9-5 job in a cubical would never suit me. There was always a part of me that knew I wanted to work for myself, so when the opportunity presented itself to get back into the real estate industry, I ran with it.

Working as a Realtor, we are problem solvers for our clients – we are finding housing for them, which is one of the biggest decisions/purchases you can make in this life. I pride myself on really being a hands on agent. I walk them through the entire process step by step and advise them to the best of my ability. And at times, that might be advising them to walk away from a certain property if need be. My clients know they can trust me and that I have their best interest at heart. I am also a very hands on agent – whether that’s helping them prepare a property to go on the market, connecting them with the right people along the way and communicating effectively with them during the entire process. And once that deal closes, they will continue to hear from me.
As a Realtor, I am a teacher, coach, advisor, and advocate for my clients. Negotiating sales on their behalf is no different – I need to bring all that sensitivity and tact to the table.
My clients know I am a resource they can always come to for anything. And if I don’t have the answers, I will help them find someone who does.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Growing clientele can happen in many ways in the real estate industry – you can do open houses, cold call, door knock, run ads/send postcards, etc. But I love to grow my clientele in an organic way and that’s not to say I don’t do any of the above, because both my team and I do. But the two things that I think have helped grow my clientele in an authentic and organic way, and have set me apart, are starting the WIRE Network and my podcast, Behind The Lock Box.

Two of the things I love most are helping women invest in real estate and making people laugh. Which is how WIRE and Behind The Lock Box were born.

WIRE (which stands for Women Investing In Real Estate) is a networking group I started. Once a quarter I gather females from all walks of life, and industries, together. These women are business owners/founders, C level executives, past or present clients, friends, neighbors, etc. And we get together to network and learn from each other. I hold the events on a patio where we mingle and network while having some small bites and a cocktail and then I have a special guest speaker who will do a talk on a certain topic for about 30 mins. There is a Q&A session at the end as well. It’s been amazing to see the women network with each other and make new friendships. After COVID we were all dying to get back together and I really felt like this was something that could benefit us all.

My new podcast is called Behind The Lock Box and we just launched 10 weeks ago. I’ve wanted to have a podcast for years, but never felt like I had the time to start it, and to be honest, I was a little scared. I wanted to put out good content that people would enjoy and we have finally done it! My cohost, Cameron Barbier, and I have our agent/industry friends on to tell all the hilarious and outlandish stories that have happened to us in real estate. It’s wild, endearing and absolutely hilarious! The response and love I have received since starting the podcast has been amazing – and once again, I was terrified. Putting content out is scary, but there really are amazing things waiting for you on the other side of that fear if you just start.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

In January of 2020, a past client called and said she wanted to put her $7M waterfront home on the market. We had rented it out for her for the past 3 years but she said she was done being a landlord and wanted it sold! It took us two and a half months to get the property ready for market, and then…COVID hit. We had sunk thousands of dollars into refreshing the property and pre-marketing it. When we went under lockdown on March 16th, 2020, she called to say the stock market is tanking and she wanted to pull it off the market. I convinced her not to and a few weeks later once real estate was deemed essential and we were allowed to show property again, we sold it in a week, all cash, just over ask. She was thrilled as were we! We stayed the course, despite all the scary things happening in the world and I was so proud we did.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.stephaniexelowski.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephaniexelowski/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stephanie.xelowski/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-xelowski-bb0b2726/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BehindTheLockBox
• Other: https://wirenetworksd.com/ https://www.instagram.com/behindthelockbox/