I jumped into the real estate industry back in 2005 when I was hired by a boutique real estate firm in the San Francisco Bay Area – Empire Realty. I was over the moon! I was hired as the marketing manager and found myself in a sea of independent contractors and that is where I fell in love with the real estate industry. I love the entrepreneurial spirit of real estate agents! During my time at Empire I balanced corporate marketing along with working side-by-side agents. It was a great experience to see first-hand how hard agents work – they wake up each day unemployed! From Empire I went to work for Inman News (after attending Inman Connect and thinking, ‘these are my people!’). Learning what it meant to work at a media company at the intersection of real estate and tech was incredibly rewarding and set the stage for where I am today!

Lessons learned:

• Surround yourself with great people; people who are smarter than you!
• Dream big dreams. We only have one life to lead – make the most of it
• Say yes and figure it out later. Sometimes we don’t have all the answers. Tenacity and work ethic is the name of the game!
• Every step along the way is an important step. Live your life with no regrets.

Additional resources:

• Visit me at KatieLance.com for more info about my speaking, consulting and our #GetSocialSmart Academy
• Crush It book *affiliate link
• Follow me on Instagram for more behind-the-scenes into my life and business @katielance