Community Highlights: Meet Terri Marie Gleaton of The Wealthy Group

Today we’d like to introduce you to Terri Marie Gleaton.

Hi Terri Marie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’m bi-racial and a proud member of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma. I grew up in foster care, appearing on Wednesday’s Child before being adopted. These experiences taught me early that “home” isn’t just four walls. It’s belonging. It’s permanence. It’s wealth that transcends money.
After serving in the U.S. Navy, I spent over 20 years working behind the scenes, managing hundreds of properties for banks, investors, and landlords across the country. I saw how the wealthy actually build and protect their assets. I learned the blueprint institutions use to turn real estate into generational wealth.Then the market collapsed. Bankruptcy. Foreclosure. I lost everything.
But military service taught me that defeat is just data. You assess, regroup, and execute with precision.
In 2021, I founded my real estate sales organization, The Wealthy Group, with a mission: to create a national community where agents, especially those who look like me, could build generational wealth through mentorship, education, and opportunity. Today, we’re over 400 agents strong, producing over a billion dollars in real estate sales. NAREB named us the #1 organization in the country two years running.
My husband Calvin and I own one of the largest black-owned property management companies in Georgia. I also serve as The President of the Women’s Council of REALTORS® Metro South. I have extensive volunteer service in my community having served as Co-Chair of the Stockbridge Citywide Development Authority. Through Home Forever Inc., my 501(c)(3), every deal we close funds our mission: ensuring foster youth aging out of the system never have to wonder where “home” is.
I lost everything once. Now I’m building a movement that ensures others never have to.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Smooth? Not even close.
Losing everything in the market collapse wasn’t just financial, it was identity-crushing. I’d spent two decades mastering an industry, and suddenly I was starting over from zero. The shame of bankruptcy and foreclosure while trying to rebuild was heavy. Some days, getting out of bed felt like an act of rebellion.
Being a bi-racial woman building wealth in real estate comes with its own battles. I’ve walked into rooms where I had more experience than anyone at the table, but had to prove myself twice as hard to be heard. I’ve had people assume I was the assistant, not the leader. I’ve lost deals because investors didn’t expect someone who looked like me to be managing their assets.
Building The Wealthy Group from scratch in 2021 meant convincing agents to trust a vision when I was still rebuilding my own credibility. Growth isn’t linear, there were months of rejection, agents who didn’t believe, partnerships that fell through. Scaling to 400+ agents meant learning to lead at a level I’d never experienced, making hard decisions about who stays and who goes, and accepting that not everyone can grow with you.
The hardest part? Balancing the businesses, the advocacy work, the community service—while carrying the weight of foster youth who are counting on Home Forever Inc. to change their story. There’s no “off switch” when your mission is personal.
But every setback taught me something the Navy drilled into me: you don’t need a smooth road. You need an unshakable mission and the discipline to keep moving forward.

As you know, we’re big fans of The Wealthy Group. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
The Wealthy Group isn’t for everyone. And that’s exactly the point.
We’re a national community of over 400 real estate agents who are done asking permission to build wealth. We’re done waiting for traditional brokerages to “make space” for us. We’re done playing small to make others comfortable.
Here’s the truth most won’t say:
The real estate industry has spent decades selling the American Dream while gatekeeping the actual wealth-building strategies. They’ll train you to sell houses all day long, but teaching you how to build generational wealth? That’s reserved for a very specific circle. We took that playbook, broke it wide open, and built our own table.
We specialize in what the industry refuses to prioritize: developing agents of color, women, veterans, and people who’ve been systematically locked out of wealth creation. Not out of charity, out of strategy. The most hungry, resilient, and loyal agents I know didn’t come from privilege. They came from necessity.
What sets us apart:
We don’t apologize for our success. Over a billion dollars in real estate sales since 2021. NAREB named us the #1 organization in the country two years running. Not because we play it safe, because we don’t.
Revenue sharing means our agents build income that doesn’t require them to work themselves to death. Mentorship means they actually know what to do with the money they make. Community means they’re not building alone in a cutthroat industry designed to burn people out.
What I want readers to know:
If you’re waiting for someone to give you permission to win, The Wealthy Group isn’t for you. If you’re tired of being the “diversity initiative” and ready to be the standard, we should talk.
We’re not trying to fit into the industry. We’re rewriting it.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I served 13 years in The US Navy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.TheWealthyGroup.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terrimariegleaton/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/halorealtor
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terrimariebridgesgleaton/