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

Hi Tracey, thanks for joining us today. Taking care of customers isn’t just good business – it is often one of the main reasons folks went into business in the first place. So, we’d love to get a conversation going around how to best help clients feel appreciated – maybe you can share something you’ve done or seen someone do that’s been really effective at helping a customer feel valued?

Most of our photos and content comes from UGC (User Generated Content) because our customers love their order so much, it becomes a part of their marketing strategy. Which is exactly what we were/are going for when developing products. With that being said, we use those images to repost on our social platforms, paid ads, and our website. Almost as if ALL of our customers are our influencers! They get so excited that we’ve reposted or used their content, it makes them feel special and a part of our company that they were so excited to purchase from.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I became a Realtor in 2005, am the co-owner of Dwell Realty, and Owner/CEO of All Things Real Estate Store. I created the first Homebuyer Journal in 2011 in an effort to help my buyer clients stay organized. The response was so overwhelming that soon I was able to finally help change the look of real estate by giving fellow Agents access to creative marketing products and great design!

All Things Real Estate started in 2014, dedicated to the idea that real estate marketing materials didn’t have to be ugly, boring, and one-size-fits-all. Our Mission was/is simple: “ To elevate the look and feel of real estate by providing Realtors® with creative, well-designed products and conversation starters.”

Since then, we’ve grown from a tiny online store to a national leader in contemporary real estate products and expanded to include our warehouse/fulfillment center/storefront in SE Portland. Today we proudly offer the very best in high-quality, ready-made, and customizable real estate marketing supplies and promotional materials with style and a modern flair.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In 2021, we hired a marketing company when our AWESOME in-house Marketing person was offered a huge opportunity elsewhere and sadly had to leave us. This company had all the bells and whistles we wanted and the price seemed too good to be true. It was. They did SO MUCH damage in 3 months, that the truth finally came out about their pricing and I had to early terminate the contract immediately, which also cost us money. But the amount of money we lost in such a short time, was nothing compared to the few thousand we paid to terminate the contract. It has taken us over 2 years to dig out of the hole they created, and we’re still actually digging, although we see the light, there’s still some trauma.

What I learned, was that smart people make mistakes too, I was incredibly hard on myself for making this decision for my company that I loved so much and almost put us out of business. I ultimately came to terms with the fact that I was scammed and the shame around that was deep.

I became smarter about making decisions, actually big and small. I now do more due diligence and go by the 3’s rule. 3 References, talk to 3 people about it, and 3 days to make big decisions. It’s helped tremendously.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

We started slow, i was putting in what we needed when we needed it with no real structure. I was still selling houses to fund ATRE and then I sold my house and gave it a cash injection. We were lucky to find a local printer who would bill us with a 30-day net (who in less than a year was making 6 figures from us!) Then when we wanted to move into a larger space, we were offered a capital loan from Shopify. We have used that resource several times over the years. It’s helped a ton but is a pain in the a$$ to pay off because it takes a percentage of your sales and is usually paid off within the year. It’s a bummer to now be able to run your business off what it makes when you have to pay these loans off. But, that’s the cost of business. We’ve also established great credit with our bank and have taken capital loans from Paypal and Quickbooks! Both we do business with.

Of course, the goal is to profit and not have to take out loans, but if you want to grow, quicker than on your sales, you gotta do whatcha gotta do!

Contact Info:

• Website: allthingsrealestatestore.com ; dwellrealtypdx.com
• Instagram: allthingsrealestate ; dwellrealty
• Facebook: allthingsrealestate
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/traceyhicks09/
• Twitter: atrestore
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@allthingsrealestatestore