Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Pleasant.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Michelle. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I started in real estate over 15 years after working a corporate job in retail management. I come from a great family but veered off the path my parents wanted me to take, going to college but not finishing. I’ve lived in Atlanta off and on for about 23 years and I can truly say that God has blessed me through all that I have seen and experienced.
I moved to Arizona in 2010 with my ex-fiance but it was not the best decision. He was actually arrested by the feds a year later. I was working for a real estate firm out there and also had to take on a full-time job. I stayed in Arizona for a few years after his arrest but became isolated from family and some friends. So after visiting friends in Atlanta in 2012 I decided to come back to Atlanta because this is where my roots were. So in the Fall of 2013, I packed up my place in AZ and moved back to Atlanta. Did I mention this relationship could have cost me my life?
I was able to transfer back to Atlanta with my employer but I had lost everything so I had to come back, reinvent myself and re-establish my real estate business. I didn’t even know if I wanted to do real estate anymore because at that point I had been in it for about 11 years. But its what I knew, so I started doing real estate part-time while back in Atlanta while working full time, which I hated! At that time I had a real estate coach who fired me because I was not coachable and mentally I was not in a good space to even but the effort into my business. I had to take a step back and look at myself and for me I have always been a fighter. It was either sink or swim and I was going to swim because I had already seen the bottom.
I decided to start looking at other companies because the company I was with I had been with them for 11 years; I just needed something fresh and new. I met with a new Broker and decided it was a better fit for me. By fall of 2016, I moved to the new brokerage and because I was also helping other agents with their real estate and knowledgeable, one of our Brokers said you should start training agents. So in October 2016 I started the Real Estate Career Development Program because as a company if you are a new agent you could not join without a mentor to oversee you. When I started I had no blueprint I just started training newly licensed real estate agents because it was something that I did not have when I first got into the business.
The program started off with about eight agents and I trained them for six weeks, this allowed them to learn the ins and outs of the business but also have a mentor who was also extremely active in the Atlanta real estate market. That year I was a top producer while also training newly licensed agents.
The program started to grow fast and several months later, I reached out to my old coach who fired me and asked if he could come train with me and again, I had no blueprint, not even a Training Manual. I also met another young lady at my brokerage who came aboard to help train the agents as well. Agents participating in this program pay an upfront fee for the training and they are also mentored/executive coached for their first ten transactions to make sure they are able to run their real estate business efficiently and effectively.
Fast forward to 2019, one of my past mentees of over 12 years ago gave me the nickname “COACH PLEASANT”. I hired a business manager to help expand and enhance the program and to date we have over 75 agents who have been in our program. The program has a full training manual, we take our agents thru 6 weeks of training from Mindset, Budget, Business Planning, Contract Writing, Negotiations and beyond. Most agents are not willing to help because they feel that they are competing with the agents but I’ve felt that there is enough money for all of us to make. I am full-time Realtor/Associate Broker and managing currently over 50 real estates agents.
I want agents who leave our program to walk away with integrity, knowledge of the business, professionalism and when seasoned agents work with them, they will have no clue that the agent is less than 6-9 months in the business. Because we have given them the tools they need to be a Top Producing Agent and run their business like a business.
My motto is “Nothing Comes to a Sleeper But A Dream” and “What you put into it is what you get out of it.”.
I am Coach Pleasant!
Has it been a smooth road?
No, it was not a smooth ride, I don’t think I would have been given this opportunity with my previous brokerage because it was something that only Top Producing Agents were allowed to do. My new broker gave me an opportunity because he saw something in me and trusted me. I was also funding the program in the first year because the on-boarding fees were minimal. After restructuring the program we increased the price for training which helped to cover the cost of materials, trainers, and operating cost.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the CDP & Associates story. Tell us more about the business.
My business is the Real Estate Coaching and Development. I’m known for turning newly licensed and seasoned agents into Top Producing Real Estate Agents within one year of being in the Real Estate Industry. I am proud that the program has grown in less than three and half years and we have taught 28 classes to date. Seasoned real estate agents within my current firm and other firms also seek to coach with me to revive and increase their real estate business. What sets me apart is that most mentors are not active in the business so they cannot always coach on real-life real estate situations. I balance my real estate business as well as training and coaching my agents through their transactions.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The Real Estate industry is consistently changing and you must be able to change with the SHIFT and be consistent in the business and that means staying up to date in the laws and housing industry. We had companies that have tried to come in as discount brokers but in any business the consumer wants face to face interaction with you, even with technically because this is a major purchase for most consumers. Will there be a SHIFT again absolutely and with the SHIFT there will be price adjustments to the market but with the new requirements in the real estate industry, they now have better systems in place, such as lending requirements to prevent the crash of 2007. The market will adjust just fine! As Realtors/Real Estate Agents you must be consistent in educating yourself so you can educate the consumer.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2911 Piedmont Road, NE Atlanta GA 30309
- Website: https://www.realestatecareerdevelopmentprogram.com
- Phone: 404-667-3200
- Email: info@realestatecareerdevelopmentprogram.com
- Instagram: @realestatecareerdevelopment
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/555711648277853/
Image Credit:
IG Mecca Gamble @meccagamble
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