Speaker 1: 0:30

My name is Sue Smith. I'm also known as Sold by Sue. I'm a real estate broker affiliated with Compass. I've been in the industry almost 36 years this year in.

Speaker 2: 0:41

Loudoun.

Speaker 1: 0:41

County I know. So fun and I'm a real estate broker so I help people buy, sell and invest in real estate Perfect.

Speaker 2: 0:50

Now, how did you end up being in the real estate industry? Was that like the goal for you since you were a teen, or how did that come to be? It was not a goal for me.

Speaker 1: 1:01

The goal for me was to work with people. I enjoy people. I am a people person. I know people are like you're not a people, I'm a people person. I love to work with people. What I found about real estate is I love the entire process. I love the entire process. I love the beginning, I love the end. It's a happy transaction for the most part and I especially love that my clients become my friends. So I have this huge extended family both my colleagues, my clients. It's fun, I love that.

Speaker 2: 1:28

What advice would you like to give to anybody who's thinking about stepping their foot into the real estate industry right now? What would you like for them to know, or what advice would you give to them?

Speaker 1: 1:39

Jump in. If you enjoy real estate or if you just enjoy business, working with people, if you love to learn, if you love to improve and if you really want to enhance the quality of someone's life, which ultimately enhances your own life, jump in. But it is a learning ground. I would recommend that you join a team of professionals that you align with in your philosophies and the way you do business and learn from the best. And that's really kind of a great way to start this industry is don't go it alone. Join a great brokerage, a great team, and learn and don't expect too much, but give a lot.

Speaker 2: 2:17

I love that. Thank you for sharing that. And now I want to talk about marketing. How are you with that and what are you doing to get your name out there, everything that you're doing for the community? How do you use your online presence?

Speaker 1: 2:30

I love marketing. I mean my job as a real estate broker. Real estate is representing clients marketing their homes. That's a piece that Instagram, Facebook. So I continue to learn and grow and challenge myself and do some things that maybe are a little wacky, but I do it. I do that. I think you just have to get out there and be yourself. I am who I am. I like to be authentic. I don't like to follow the crowd. I never have and I think you just have to learn and be yourself. I am who I am. I like to be authentic. I don't like to follow the crowd. I never have and I think you just have to learn and be yourself, and people come to you for who you are, not for who they think you are or who you think you should be. Be yourself, absolutely Continue learning.

Speaker 2: 3:29

I definitely resonate with that, like just being your authentic self and not putting a facade, because I feel like you'll eventually get tired or you break that character and people are gonna be like whoa, you can't, you can't do that.

Speaker 1: 3:38

I mean, I think, if you're not who you are, comes out very clearly and and it comes out right right up front and I think people know that. So, and you want people to like you for who you are, not for what they think you are. So just be yourself, absolutely Amen.

Speaker 2: 3:54

When you started out. How have things changed so much as far as with now, we have AI that's being introduced to help make things a little bit more. I guess less time constraint-wise, tell me some things that have changed and what you think is going in a good direction or what you think maybe we should Slow down on.

Speaker 1: 4:13

Oh, my goodness, there's been so many changes. I don't know. You know I'm a. I'm an advocate of change. I mean, if you think about what we do for a living, we help people make decisions based on change. So I have never been a fear of change. And boy, in the real estate industry there's a ton of change all the time, whether it's contractual, whether it's rules and regulations. So you have to understand what change is in order to help others understand what the change is. And I tell realtors, if you're stuck, this is not your profession. You have got to be someone who is adaptable and who embraces change, because that is what we're asking our clients to do every single day. So we're an advocate of change and so don't fear it, learn it and grow from it. Absolutely, those are some wise words there.

Speaker 2: 5:06

Thank you, it's a reality of our life right Change.

Speaker 1: 5:09

It's the only thing that's constant is change.

Speaker 2: 5:11

Have you ever had like any bumps or hurdles with change? That was kind of growing pains or hard for you that you would like to share, just so people know? Like you know, I'm sure there's like a lot, but one that stood out where you're like you know what. I'm glad that happened because I came out of this absolutely learning something that I know how to manage now.

Speaker 1: 5:27

Yeah, I learn every day. So I've been in this industry a long time but I'm not there. I'm still climbing the mountain and I love that part. Do I know a lot? Absolutely Can I handle the tough stuff? Absolutely, can I find a solution to a problem Every time? So, because I have a can do, no fear attitude, that's just kind of who I am.

Speaker 1: 5:51

Um, there's been a lot of changes. I have changed a lot. I've actually, in the early 90s, I started the real estate assistance and the teams and I did that for about 15 years and then I decided that that's not how I'm going to do things anymore and I changed the way I do things and we're at a really good place right now for endurance. So I look at what I do as a trained athlete, that's, I have to go the distance. So I model my life, my, my physique, my nutrition, my health is all based on endurance and going the distance for myself, for my clients and being the conductor of a transaction that's enduring. So that's really that's kind of how I look at things. But yeah, we've had lumps and bumps and changed along the way, but every change we've made has been based on the past and we've not replicated the problems, we've improved them.

Speaker 1: 6:49

So, we're in a good place.

Speaker 2: 6:51

Love that. Have you ever thought about being like a public speaker? Maybe like stop, I'm being serious A trainer, yeah.

Speaker 1: 6:57

You know what? Who knows what the future will bring? I actually love helping people live their best life. I truly do. I love helping people live their best life. I, in turn, live my best life because of that. So who knows what the future brings?

Speaker 2: 7:10

Yeah, I feel like you are so well-seasoned and you have such a great personality and the fact that you have like no fear to when it comes to a challenge. I think you would be like just so great for like new people coming in, or maybe people who are already in the industry and they are looking to learn more. I think you should maybe start like a little series on social media or even in person, like get people together.

Speaker 1: 7:31

I don't know, I just think you're, you'd be great at that. Well, well, you know it's something I love, but I actually am doing what I love. I mean, there's so many things that all of us can do in our lives. There's a lot of things I can be doing more, but I'm doing exactly what I love to do, and so that's what I'm going to excel in Perfect and for listeners who are tuned in, how do you hope to help any potential clients or the clients that you currently have right now?

Speaker 1: 7:59

Oh, I, help them all. So we help people buy and sell real estate. So the, the land, the home, that is the tangible product, but there's so many other entities to the process of real estate. So I think my biggest, one of my largest qualities is, yes, my knowledge, but also my communication. I'm a communicator, I love to communicate. I love to communicate with people who like to communicate. I'm okay if you don't communicate. I have very good sense, very good business sense. So a lot of times I sense something is happening that no one else does. So just, these are again just inherent things, natural things, experience things. So that's really how I help my clients. I can be a hand holder If you need me to be. I can also be distanced. I really take what the client needs and I ask them and I assimilate my entire being into what they need.

Speaker 1: 9:02

That is the service product of real estate. It's not one size fits all. Every client has a different situation. We do probate, which is the end of life Tough, tough, tough, especially if people don't have things in place. We do divorce Tough. We do the first buyers, which is a learning process. We do the last buyers and we do everything in between. So every single client person has a different need.

Speaker 2: 9:33

They're at a different place and we adapt to what that is Absolutely Like you can cater to them based on what their needs are. And, like you said, I think it can be tough out there sometimes, especially like maybe if it were somebody like me going into the stepping into, like the real estate world, I wouldn't even know where to look. So I would definitely want somebody to help me and handhold me through the way. So I'm glad that you are somebody who does that, cause I know some people are just like well, I explained it and like try to figure it out, or like that's all I can do for you. I'm sorry, but the fact that you say that you want to be there for your clients and it's an extended family, that just gives me very warm and welcoming feelings.

Speaker 2: 10:10

It makes me want to be like go towards you and have someone like you to help me. To be like go towards you and have someone like you to help me.

Speaker 1: 10:18

That's been the greatest joy, I have to say, are the relationships that I've made, and you know the people like yourself that are first time buyers. And then you buy your first home and then five years later you call me because you're getting married, you buy another one. You know, five years later you're having a baby, you need a bigger house. This is the cycle of life that real estate presents and we're a part of that.

Speaker 2: 10:37

so it's really fun, yeah, and can you tell me a little bit about yourself outside of the real estate world, like, what do you like to do? How do you unwind? Do you have time, cause you're busy I do.

Speaker 1: 10:48

Yeah, I have um I I make really good time for myself. It's, it's gotten, it's changed through the years because I started real estate with a newborn to two year old and launching a career which I expected to launch in five years. It didn't. It launched pretty quickly. Those were harder years, harder, harder years for my time, like me time when I was raising my kids but you know, I was the mother who sold the real estate, was the room. Mom went to every sporting event, sponsored the teams. I loved all of it. So I'm at a different place now where it's just my husband and I everybody's married, have their own place and we definitely have our own time. So I'm very much into fitness and staying healthy and fit. We're into nutrition.

Speaker 2: 11:34

You look great, so I believe that.

Speaker 1: 11:36

Well, I work out with some really amazing ladies and gentlemen that keep me fit. We are religious with our diet. Again, we prep to go the distance every single day. I do have downtime, though. I love to garden, I love to swim, I love to bike, I like to ride horses, I like everything outside. So, yeah, I mean we're, we're active, we're very social, yeah, so we just have a full life, a full fun life.

Speaker 2: 12:06

I love that. I have a little bit of a random question. It's kind of more like an inquisitive mind. I'm curious you had mentioned your diet. How does that help you? Like I know, diet is such an important thing and it can affect so many things in the body. But personally for you, how has that helped you function with your job or in your life in general?

Speaker 1: 12:29

Yeah, I think the diet and exercise and sleep are the three important things that you have to really pay attention to. So my husband and I he's an Ironman. He's also a realtor on our team, charlie Rossi, so we're really into all of that. The diet, I think, is super important because the foods that you eat affect your abilities. So I don't eat big lunches. I eat a very small, maybe yogurt type of late breakfast, not even breakfast lunch, but I'm a faster, so I don't eat anything between dinner six o'clock at night and 12 o'clock the next day. That's impressive, I must say.

Speaker 1: 13:06

I've always been that way and I have come to find that that's actually good for you to fast like that. I'll have a cup of coffee, that's like it. But we just are very sensitive to the food that we eat. We try to know, you know, just healthy, healthy foods, small portions. We do treat ourselves occasionally that kind of thing, but I don't know, it's a choice. You have to just choose the way you want to live. And again, it's just Charlie and me. So it's easier to temper our diets when you're not going down the middle aisles of the grocery.

Speaker 2: 13:42

We're perimeter shoppers. That's my danger zone there.

Speaker 1: 13:45

I love it I stay out of the grocery. I don't like to grocery shop, so Charlie does the grocery shopping and yeah, so it works. And I do the cooking, so it works out well.

Speaker 2: 13:54

That's a good 50-50. I like that it's great.

Speaker 1: 13:56

It works really well for us and he eats what I cook, which is very minimal and I'm all that stuff. So yeah, love you, thank you.

Speaker 2: 14:07

Love, you Love that but love you too. Oh, my goodness, love you, thank you. Thanks for saying it back. No, thank you so much. And where do you see yourself in the next five years as a person and with your business? Or where do you see your business going? Yeah?

Speaker 1: 14:29

So our business has transcended into a family business and it's a boutique business. So everybody who has an enduring career, especially as an entrepreneur, real estate is an entrepreneurial business. You need to have an end plan. So not that I'm going anywhere that is not my plan but the reality is I've been doing this 36 years. I hope to be doing it 36 more, but there may come a time where I can't, and so my children. Brian Smith is a realtor on our team. He's awesome. This has been his breakout year. He's just amazing. He's going to do great if, god forbid, something happens to me. My daughter, chrissy, equally the same. She owns a transaction management company. She is the life of our transactions, and so both of them have dedicated their life to this. When I'm not here, so that's so cool.

Speaker 1: 15:17

And I think, for everybody who has been doing this and cares about their clients have a plan. You know, call Brian. Brian is actually helping people have their exit plan, so he'll be there if they need them. And so my plan is to really stay engaged and, because of that plan, for me to keep going. When I could have retired 20 years ago, I didn't want to, I'm not going to. I'm going to keep going because in this business you can parlay the business with the life. So, life, um, so we're going to go Wow.

Speaker 2: 15:49

I love that and I love that you've given it some thought and I love that it's in the family, because I'm sure some of your clients too would appreciate dealing with somebody who has the same knowledge who they grew up with, and it's just having that connection right Like, oh, your mom sold me this house, you know, like I don't know. I just think it's like you give what you receive and it's a beautiful thing.

Speaker 1: 16:09

Well, you'll be treated. They know they're going to get the treatment that they they expect. So my kids have the very same business philosophy we all do on our team and that's really important to me. But the thing is is, if they want more, they can. They can do whatever they want to do. I mean, this is a business where you can take it as far or as short as you want and there's nothing stopping me. I mean, I look at, I want to grow and I want to grow in some very strong ways and so, yeah, there's no stopping. No stopping here.

Speaker 2: 16:41

Is there any other way that you want to grow your company, any thoughts on to expand? Because I know you just said that you want to always keep growing. Maybe you could mean that in other ways, as opposed to just not even just geographically.

Speaker 1: 16:54

Yeah, I mean I, I, I personally. If I expand, it will be business in a certain area, more business in a certain area. Um, I am not interested in being a team leader to a large team. So no, I've done that already. I and that, and I actually have a whole different concept on that. The numbers aren't important to me. The quality of work and quality of clients are what's important to me. So I'm not this, we're not this team that have to do 200 transactions a year.

Speaker 1: 17:26

That's not how we do business. We do business based on satisfaction of clients, so that is what's important to us, and so, as long as our clients are satisfied and we're living a fulfilled life, we have met our goals. That's pretty much it, so I can certainly see myself moving maybe more into the training, a small boutique training where I can help people reach their full potential. I would love to do that at some point. Very small, small select group, but continue with real estate, because I do get to work with the greatest people and that's what keeps me going.

Speaker 2: 18:02

I love that. And that kind of goes back to when I said I think you should help others and teach them. I know it will be like a select group, yeah, but like helping and sharing your knowledge, I think you would gain so much joy from that and just seeing everybody take your knowledge that you gain on your own experience and passing it on to them and then watching them Thrive in their own ways. Yeah, I just really do think in my mind that you would be so great for that.

Speaker 1: 18:30

Well, I shine a light very bright. So, if you are willing to listen to what I have to say, I'm also, I'm a thinker. I'm a thinker, I'm a reader, I'm an observer. So I put all these things together to forge my path. Yes, but it's always based on doing the right thing. So I would never get into a situation that isn't the right thing for for anyone. So I, my light, is really bright and I always say to my team I say follow the light, I'm shining it. You know you, you get to take the steps, but there's the light and um, and they, they take it, but they take it at their own pace.

Speaker 1: 19:10

I've not found anyone really that can keep up with me yet, Even my husband, who's younger than me. I told him when we on our first date, I said strap on the laces, you won't be able to keep up with me. I had to become an Ironman. Now I don't keep up with him in that way and I don't want to, but he, uh, yeah, he's done a pretty good job. I have to say, um, you know he loves you.

Speaker 2: 19:34

So he's like I'm going to try my best because I want he does.

Speaker 1: 19:37

He does, so it's, it's funny. Yeah, so, no, it's. But I never expected anybody to keep up with me and I just got to keep up.

Speaker 2: 19:43

You just got lucky, keep up with yourself, before you can keep up with me, babe, keep up with yourself.

Speaker 1: 19:49

No, I love funny.

Speaker 2: 19:50

I love that. Um, is there anything that maybe I have not touched on that you would like to share on this podcast, since I have you here and I know time is important, so I would like to hand this platform over to you and maybe share something that I have not touched on, sure.

Speaker 1: 20:08

Well, what I want to say is I want to thank just the entire real estate industry. So, yes, here I am today and thank you for you, leah, for your support of me, but it's really a family, the real estate family, from the lenders, the title companies, the realtors, home inspectors, all the inspectors, the appraisers, and if I'm missing anyone, forgive me, but there's so many people that encompass this amazing business, and I want to thank everyone who's been in my life for a long time, because they all mean a lot to me and I enjoy working with every single one of them and I feel that each transaction that I have someone is better for it, someone has learned something from it, and I love that. So if I can make, help someone have a better day or maybe teach someone something that will benefit their life or their client's life, then I've done my job.

Speaker 2: 21:07

That was great. My last question is going to be if you could leave our audience with a mantra that you live by, maybe to inspire them. What is that mantra?

Speaker 1: 21:16

that you like to live your life by. Oh, my goodness, my family would tell you. I say one thing stay the course, stay the course. And the reason I say that is because, oh my gosh, you know all of us. Every day there's twists and turns and things come up and you've got a plan and you're looking down the road and you know what that is. Don't get off the plan, stay the course. So that's I. I tell people that all the time I tell myself that we've got a settlement on this day, okay, we're having some issues, we're staying the course, we're going to get there, we're going to figure it out. So it's kind of my thing, stay the course.