Send us Fan Mail

52 closings in your first year sounds like a highlight reel, but the real story is what happens after the adrenaline fades.

We sit down with Andrea Kugler, a Cincinnati and Hamilton, Ohio real estate agent who’s now a brokerage co-owner and newly building a team, to talk about what it really takes to grow a sustainable real estate career from the ground up.

Her journey starts nowhere near real estate: nutrition school, personal training, multiple jobs, and a moment of honesty where she admits there’s no longevity in what she’s doing.

Andrea shares how a mentor (who later becomes her father-in-law) kept pushing her to give real estate a shot, why she finally went all-in, and how she handled the steep learning curve that comes with high volume production.

We dig into the difference between hustle and structure, including the turning point many agents hit: business dips, follow-up gets messy, and you realise “work harder” is not a system.

We talk CRMs, lead nurture, relationship building, and why you can’t live on 16-hour days forever.

We also go deeper than transactions.

Andrea opens up about loss, taking time away when her mom battled breast cancer, and returning to a pipeline that felt like starting over.

The conversation lands on grit, rejection, social media criticism, and a wild metaphor for business growth: training for a triathlon even though she can’t swim yet.

If you’re a new real estate agent, a solo agent trying to scale, or someone thinking about building a real estate team, there’s a lot here to steal.

Subscribe, share this with an agent who needs a push, and leave a five-star review so more people can find the show.

🎙 Thank You for Tuning in to the R.E.A.L. Real Estate Agent Life Podcast!

We appreciate you joining us for another powerful episode where we dive deep into the world of real estate, mindset, and business growth. If you found value in this conversation, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your network!

👉 Never Miss an Episode!

🎧 Listen on your favorite platform:

📍 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/r-e-a-l-real-estate-agent-life-podcast/id1790088933

📍 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2LAAYbtPUqYJdTVl83hZXS?si=bf6691d7eccf4688

📍 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@R.E.A.L.RealEstateAgentLif-l6z

📲 Stay Connected & Join the Conversation!

🔹 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shane.kilby

🔹 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shanekilby/

🔹 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanekilby/

💡 Want to be a guest on the show?

If y...

Send us Fan Mail

A single home search can change the way you see the world. When Martha Melendez tried to buy a house as a young woman, she wasn’t met with guidance or respect, she was pushed toward where someone else thought she “fit.” That moment didn’t just sting, it became the reason she got her real estate license and built a service-first career in Orlando, Florida focused on protecting clients, explaining the process, and treating people like family.

We dig into Martha’s backstory as an immigrant from Colombia who had to learn English fast and grow up even faster to help her mother navigate life in the US. That foundation shows up in her business today: she listens harder, teaches more clearly, and stays calm when buyers and sellers feel overwhelmed. If you care about client experience, referral-based real estate, and building trust that lasts beyond the closing table, you’ll hear exactly how she does it and why it works.

We also get real about leadership and systems. Martha shares a recent mistake she owned as a team leader, what it taught her about leading from the front, and why modern distractions demand more repetition and clarity than ever. Her most practical advice is simple and painful if you’ve learned it late: use a CRM now, because the best CRM is the one you actually use.

If you got value from this, subscribe, share it with an agent who needs a reset, and leave a five-star review so more people can find the show. What part of Martha’s story hit you most?

🎙 Thank You for Tuning in to the R.E.A.L. Real Estate Agent Life Podcast!

We appreciate you joining us for another powerful episode where we dive deep into the world of real estate, mindset, and business growth. If you found value in this conversation, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your network!

👉 Never Miss an Episode!

🎧 Listen on your favorite platform:

📍 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/r-e-a-l-real-estate-agent-life-podcast/id1790088933

📍 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2LAAYbtPUqYJdTVl83hZXS?si=bf6691d7eccf4688

📍 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@R.E.A.L.RealEstateAgentLif-l6z

📲 Stay Connected & Join the Conversation!

🔹 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shane.kilby

🔹 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shanekilby/

🔹 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanekilby/

💡 Want to be a guest on the show?

If y...

Send us Fan Mail

Some people enter real estate with a five-year plan.

Kathleen Borella entered because her brother was fed up with agents who would not answer the phone, and that one standard kicked off a career built on trust, speed, and doing what you say you’ll do.

We talk with Kathleen in Savannah Georgia about the early years of production, how she reverse engineers goals into daily behaviors, and why she built a lean real estate team only when her capacity started to fail clients.

She breaks down what leverage really looks like, why admin support can matter more than adding another agent, and how staying profitable can beat chasing flashy growth.

We also get real about leadership: the cost of keeping the wrong people too long, setting standards, confronting issues with love, and protecting your business from chaos.

Then the conversation goes deeper.

Kathleen shares how faith, spirituality, and nervous system awareness shape her approach to authenticity and personal branding, including the decision to speak more openly about the hard parts of her story.

We unpack the power of getting in the right rooms, learning from mentors, and returning to simple routines when business feels off track.

If you’re an agent trying to build a sustainable real estate business, lead a team with clarity, and define success on your terms, this one will stick with you.

If you got value here, subscribe so you don’t miss the next conversation, share this with a friend who needs Kathleen’s message, and leave us a five-star review to help more agents find the show.

🎙 Thank You for Tuning in to the R.E.A.L. Real Estate Agent Life Podcast!

We appreciate you joining us for another powerful episode where we dive deep into the world of real estate, mindset, and business growth. If you found value in this conversation, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your network!

👉 Never Miss an Episode!

🎧 Listen on your favorite platform:

📍 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/r-e-a-l-real-estate-agent-life-podcast/id1790088933

📍 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2LAAYbtPUqYJdTVl83hZXS?si=bf6691d7eccf4688

📍 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@R.E.A.L.RealEstateAgentLif-l6z

📲 Stay Connected & Join the Conversation!

🔹 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shane.kilby

🔹 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shanekilby/

🔹 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanekilby/

💡 Want to be a guest on the show?

If y...