Bouncing Brokerages During Your First Year In Real Estate With Bobbie Jo Goulden
22:07 Share

Well, hey there, friends. If you're ready to turn your podcast into a pure profit machine, I've got a little something super exciting for you. We are opening registration starting today for the seven-figure podcast bootcamp. Oh my gosh, I am so excited.

For just $32, you're going to get two days of live actionable training by me, yours truly, to help you grow your downloads, build a loyal audience, and start making some real money from your podcast. Trust me, you do not want to miss this. I'm going to walk you through four live sessions over the course of two days where I'm going to give you the exact framework.

worksheets, funnels, templates, everything my team and I used to take the B-Word podcast from broke to no joke making seven figures. Head on over to podcasther.com forward slash bootcamp and grab your spot today. Let's make that podcast dream of yours a reality and I'll see you there.

Welcome to the B-Word, the podcast for women who want to unlock the clarity needed to put your big girl panties on and rock your real estate career like the true boss you are. I'm Joanne Bolt, your host, and together we'll dive into the things your broker doesn't teach you in order to own your own truth, disown the things getting in your way to finding your place, and stop apologizing for the obstacles you have to overcome along the way.

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to The B Word. I am your host, Joanne Bolt, and I am joined today by a super special guest, Bobbi Jo Golden. Her name is Bobbi Jo.

story is resilient and it's amazing. And she is just finished her first year in the business. So, Bobbi Jo, I'm going to kind of give it over to you for a second and let us peek behind the curtains of how you got into this business. Hey, hey. Yeah. So, it's super exciting to be here with you, first of all. Actually, I

an honor. But yeah, I've had quite the experience going into real estate. It's been a journey. I actually discovered my love of real estate when we bought our home in 2012. That's when my love of real estate really came to light. And so through that, I'm like, I really love it. But family, it was at the time family, it was more important for me to focus on that because I had little babies. And so honestly, I...

kind of put that thought to the back of my mind and just focused on being a mom. But when we were selling our home in 2019, I actually had already started studying for real estate again, but timing just was off. And so I kind of put that back and let it just focus on being a mom. And I was actually working at the elementary schools at that time. So I just really kind of just put it to the side for a little while. Just timing wasn't right.

And then in 2020, in that January of 2020, excuse me, the thought of becoming a real estate agent really came back. And I was like, this year, I'm really going to do this.

And so I got my license by October 2020. And so that really started my journey. Immediately, once I got licensed, I jumped into it full time. I quit my job and I started out on a team. I was there for a few months. And then once I did that, I was a solo agent. And then, I mean, I've jumped brokerages, as you know, quite a few times, but I

The journey of jumping the brokerages, I believe in my heart, like the brokerages jumping was honestly allowing me to meet different people in my life that I needed. So yeah, I have jumped brokerages four times, but now I've finally landed on a team again. And it's been amazing. Let's really unpack some of what you just said, because I think it's super important for our audience to understand that you in your first year,

You made a decision right off the bat to join a team. What prompted you to join a team versus just going solo from the get-go? And what lessons did you learn?

So for me, it was really, I mean, I was a new agent. I felt like going on a team, I could really, I would be able to learn a lot better from other agents, multiple people. You're on the same team working together. The lesson I learned was really, you have to find people that are aligned with who you are because I wasn't doing that. I was just, I was strictly looking for training and not seeing that I need, it's like,

For me, real estate is a business for myself. And it took me a little while to realize this is my business. And so in my mind, coming from an employee lifestyle to now being a so... What is it called? Independent contractor. Right. It was kind of difficult because I'm like, okay, they're my boss. But then I had to do the mind shift. I'm my boss. This is my business. And so from that, it was just...

I really had to truly learn to align myself with the right people. And so I've learned that part. Okay, so let's, let's unpack that just a little bit. You joined a team because you recognize that you probably needed help in this business. And, you know, someone to kind of hold your hand along the way. But now looking back, you say one of the things that

you may not have done the greatest job of is interviewing the team to make sure that particular team met your personal vision, mission and alignment. Absolutely. I only I interviewed, I think, two different brokerages and I ended up going with this one. But it was just I didn't really realize how much I should have interviewed more.

I should have been more aligned with who I wanted, where I wanted to see my business going. But as a new agent, you honestly, it's super hard from, you know, because as a new agent, you're steady, steady, steady. And then all of a sudden now you are at this point where, okay, now I'm actually doing business. So it's a different mind shift that each agent goes through at the beginning, I feel like. All right. And I think that that's really important for the listening audience to understand too, because...

You then chose to leave that team. And it's really not about...

A mismatch between you and the team, more of a misalignment with, you know, you didn't know who you were as an agent. And so you might not have known what questions to ask when you joined the team. If you could give that piece of advice to a new agent out there, what's the number one thing you would say? Always find out about a team before you join. Ask them what their goals are. Where do they see their team going? What are their goals do they have set individually for their team?

agents on their team and how can they help those new agents or even if you're a seasoned agent wanting to decide to go to a team. Find people that will work for your goals too because that's what I've done and these people...

literally help me every single day to reach my goals. It's just finding those motivated people out there that will help you in the business. And that is one thing I've realized being an agent is you have to be in business with people that are like-minded. Because if you're not, it's a complete fight till the end. Well, it's a mismatch, right? So if you join a team that really focuses on cold calls and calling expireds

you know, the dialing for dollar concept. And that's not what you have any interest in doing in any way.

You know, this is not how you want to build your business. You're never going to have a good experience on that team because how they generate business isn't who you are as a person. Absolutely. Now, if you're someone who does not want to work your sphere, does not want to work referral, yes, you'll take the occasional one. But what you want to do is generate leads all day long, then joining a team that works by events and referral and calling your sphere and doing happy birthday stuff and doing all that kind of

the path to lead generation, you know, you're still a mismatch and you need to find the team that's going to generate business in a way that you're comfortable generating business. Absolutely. You're so correct. All right. So you, you, you popped around, you actually went to four different brokers in your first year, which is amazing. Most agents will get into one broker and they're

they don't even realize that it's the wrong fit because they didn't even ask the right questions at the brokerage when they joined, much less the team that they joined.

And they might go to one more broker. You were fearless and unafraid of saying, I don't care how many broker flags I fly. I'm going to keep searching until I find the right one for me. Can you walk us through sort of that journey and your fears about moving brokers? Because I know you had some. Oh, I did. And I'm sure my husband was sick and tired of hearing me say, I'm moving again. But yeah, so the first move, it just happened that

I felt like God just didn't need me there at this one brokerage. And so my actual real estate agent that I had personally bought my homes through, she worked at this other brokerage. And she's like, come join us. And I was like, okay. Because they're a pretty prominent office in Atlanta. So I'm like, okay, maybe it'll be great.

And I got there and I was probably there, I think maybe less than 90 days just because they have a great training program, but it's very, it was very forced into like employee lifestyle. And I'm like, this is not me. This is not who I am. Like it might, it might work for my best, like the agent that I had, but it does not work for me. And so that's actually whenever I found you, thankfully to Lizzie, because I met her through the first brokerage, the

She introduced me to you. And so I did join eXp. And I absolutely loved it at eXp. Actually, I wasn't even searching to leave whenever I was at eXp. It was honestly a God sent thing to me. A number one team in my area actually asked me to join their team. And so I did switch brokerages again. But I was very hesitant to switch because I was very happy with eXp, honestly. Yeah.

And so whenever God was like, no, you really need to do this. I'm like, okay, I'm really going to hold on to my faith and I'm going to take this leap of faith. And I jumped and I can tell you, Joanne, it's been absolutely amazing. There are agents out there. They're going to be like, I can't believe you're applauding her for leaving the brokerage you're at. But as women, I think especially we get so attached to the people that we're working with.

And sometimes because of that, we don't open our eyes to the opportunities that are around us. And those opportunities can be in our own brokerages or they could be somewhere else. And if we are not open to listening with our ears and our hearts to what God's telling us or opening our minds to the opportunities that are around us, you know, you could miss a big, big thing in your business. And so I applaud you for not being afraid to take that next step and saying, well, I'm happy here at EXP.

But this opportunity has presented itself. And for my business, I have to trust my gut, take that leap of faith and go for it because it could be the biggest thing I've ever done. Oh, yeah. And it was a huge leap of faith. And even my husband was like, are you going to leave it again? I'm like, absolutely not. Right now, God, I'm literally, I've let, since being in the business, I've really allowed God to be in front of the forefront of my business because I have to hold on to faith because this business is,

Sometimes it's not consistent, especially as a new agent. It can be very different. So I just hold on to the faith that my business will grow because I have the motivation to do it and I have the desire to do it. And so, yeah, I just see my business growing so much just with this last move that I've done. And I don't see myself leaving.

be quite honest, anytime soon. But of course, God may have another plan for me later on down the road. And once that, you know, comes, I will definitely pray about it. But right now, I'm absolutely so happy to be where I'm at. Well, and what I've learned about you, Bobbi Jo, you are not afraid to take risks. You are not afraid to go against the grain. And

occasionally do things maybe a little out of order and not in the way that general society says to do things. So if I may have your permission, can we dive into your family life just a little bit? Because I think that there's someone listening out there that needs to understand what a big thing it was for you to even go into real estate.

In a world that there is no guaranteed commission, there is no guaranteed paycheck. But you did that anyway, even with your little babies at home. And talk us through how you and your husband came to be. Okay. So that's a long story, but I will try to shorten it. So right now, I'm 28 years old. And so we have three kids. But...

Yeah, we, me and my husband met in 2008. And it was, we actually met in a grocery store during a tornado. Were you like huddled down by the milk aisle? No, we were literally chilling on the soda cans in the back. Yeah.

But we just had grown that relationship from there. And we were probably dating, I want to say about eight months. And me and my now husband, Brandon, discussed that, you know, like, let's have a baby. And at that time, I was 16. Yeah.

But in the back of our minds, it was we both were growing up in this lifestyle that we knew we needed to create a better life. And so for me personally, I don't mind sharing my back story because it's created me into this woman I am now. So I grew up with like in a hoarded home. So I literally lived like with trash around me. I'm not even joking. And there was rats, roaches. I mean, it was sometimes embarrassing to go to school.

And so I just knew personally, I didn't want a life like that for my kids. And so me and my husband seeing thought we literally talked about it. We're like, well, if we get pregnant, we can then give that's an excuse. I can move in with your family.

And so we ended up getting pregnant and I did move in with his family and we were there, I want to say for a little over a year and we had our little boy, but yeah, we lived there for a little while, but we were really still strong on, we wanted to get out and be on our own. And so we moved out. My husband, whenever he was 17, I believe, and he had a job, full-time job saving money. And we had enough money that we could go put a

rent a little apartment in downtown commerce. And so we got that apartment, lived there for a while. And we actually moved there and we didn't even have a car. Kid you not. We were determined to get out of our parents' houses. So we lived in that little apartment for a little while. And then I think it was a little after a year and a half, we lived there saving money. I mean, we were pennies. Anything we did, I believe we were on food stamps back then. I mean, we were

We were trying to get as much help as we possibly could then. But we were still determined that we're going to do this by ourselves. And so we ended up, we were like, okay, well, I think it's time for us to buy a home. And so from there, we were like, okay. So we started the process of buying a home.

And then actually the day that we were moving is when we found out we were pregnant with our second baby. And we had been trying to have it. And we're 19 at that time. Well, he was he was I was 18. He was 19. And we were having another little baby. And so which was super exciting.

And but here we are moving into our new home that we just had bought, which was super exciting because here we are, 18, 19 years old, buying our first home. And so which is a huge accomplishment because I can tell you, neither one of our parents have ever owned a home. Well, and you're buying a home and you don't even have the money to buy a couch to go in it. No, we literally had a futon. Yeah.

Like that was our furniture. So we literally had nothing, but we knew we had these big goals in mind and we would knew we would become something someday.

And so we just kept and kept pushing towards that. And so I'm so thankful for God giving my husband because he is such an amazing man. I can't even tell you. He works so hard for us. There's sometimes where I'm like, dude, you need to get off your phone. Like, hello, we're here because he is such a hard worker because he will do anything to help provide for us.

And so I've just been blessed. But yeah, now we're in our second home. We ended up did set. We sold our first home that we bought back in 2019. And then we ended up buying our next home. And we actually got to, it was a new construction. So that was a really fun process. But yeah, it's been an amazing journey that we've been through. But it's been, there's been some very major challenges. All right. So let me ask you, if you were to give advice to the other moms in real estate,

you know, moms of small children, because yours are all elementary or less,

What's the biggest challenge you've had to overcome with having small kids at home? And what would you tell the other moms they need to pay attention to? Well, first of all, like it's a challenge, you know, because it's a hard balance. You know, sometimes it's a because you're like you. Well, you want to be very front in front of your kids and not let them see that you're working all the time. Because I definitely don't want to be that mom. But then it's also, well, I need to do these calls sometimes.

or send these emails or messages just because I want to create a life for my children. So any women, if you have the determination to do it, you can do it.

I mean, it takes some time and a lot of effort and a lot of energy and a lot of probably sleepless nights because I know for me, just to get to this goal, there was a lot of late nights. I was literally working my butt off just to achieve this dream. But I was determined because for me, this job is for financial freedom for my family. So I'm not here to be the main provider, but it's to allow us to create this amazing life

that we weren't handed. So if there's any women out there that are wanting to create a life, like of their dreams, you can absolutely do that through real estate. You just have to make sure you find your group, your group of people, your women that are really going to cheer you on along the way. Because this business, I kid you not, is so brutal. There are some people out there that are like, I'm not telling you any of my secrets.

And then there are some out there that are just willing to give it all. And I'm one of those people. And so just make sure, like if you're wanting to get into real estate, go for it. And I will be your biggest cheerleader along the way. I actually have one of my best friends who's, she actually called me the other day and she's wanting to get into real estate. And I'm like, you can do this. You have the personality, you have the determination, you can do it. Well, and understanding, I love this about you, understanding that there's enough clients out there for everyone.

And we have to help each other out. Otherwise, it's a lonely business too when you're not surrounded by your tribe and your people. Oh, yeah. It's so lonely. There were times at the beginning I felt so alone because I'm like, I don't know what the heck I'm doing. But thankfully, I found some people that did. And those people have helped me to become the real estate agent that I am now. Well, congratulations. And thank you for being vulnerable and telling some of your story today.

to our listening audience, I know that that has got to be impactful for, you know, for some people out there that are thinking, gosh, I've got small kids at home. Can I do this? Is it worth it? Or, you know, I'm in a situation in life. I don't like where I am. Is there an out? Is there a way for me to break free and manage my own finances and become who I want to be? And I mean, you're showing the world that, yeah, it's possible. You just have to

You have to look around and figure it out. But the path is there if you open your eyes. And I know that God has more in store for me. And I just like, I literally can't wait to see what he has. Because there's some, I have some great ideas that I'm like, okay, well, I've got to find some more people to help come along me because I can't do this little idea by myself.

Well, I can't wait to help cheerlead you on and hold your hand as you bring those ideas to fruition. Thank you. I'm so excited. Awesome. Hey, Bobbi Jo, because obviously you are a real estate agent. And so we want to connect you with other like-minded people or potential clients.

or referral agents out there that might need to send an agent your... I'm sorry, a client your way. How can they get in touch with you? And what is your main local area that you service? Okay, so...

Instagram is where you can connect with me. And honestly, my hashtag, what is it called? What do they call it? My name is, my handle is Bobby Joe Golden. And of course, let me spell it out for you. It's B-O-B-B-I-E-J-O Golden, G-O-U-L-D-E-N.

underscore realtor. You can find me on Instagram and on Instagram, you can find all of my personal phone numbers and stuff like that. I keep that very open to anybody that wants to reach out to me. My DMs are always open, but yeah, I'm absolutely excited about this journey, but yes. And what, what area do you service? Oh yes. Service. So sorry. It's okay.

Northeast Georgia area. I try not to go past Atlanta just because it's super, it's major drive for me personally, because Atlanta traffic is horrible, especially on my roads. So I try to stay more up toward the Northeast Georgia area, which is, I like to service like the Jackson County area.

Barrow, Clark County, Banks County, but also I do the rest of the surrounding counties as well. That's just those few counties have been my main source of business. Awesome. Well, I'm sure that we'll have some people reaching out to you. And as always, if you loved this episode, you feel like you connected with Bobby Jo or with our message here today,

Go ahead and hit the share button. Share this episode with someone else who maybe you think should hear Bobbi Jo's story and give us a review on Apple iTunes because that is how you help us service other real estate women in the area. Thanks for coming on today, Bobbi Jo. And I'm sure we'll be hearing more from you in the future. Yeah, thank you.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Before you go really fast, would you please take a second and go and leave me a review here on the B-Word podcast? It really does make a world of difference to how we show up for new people. And to give you a little thank you, because my mama always taught me that you send a thank you note or something in return for a gift.

We have got a free gift that we are changing every single month here on The B Word. So head on over once you've given your review, grab a screenshot of it, and then go to thebwordpodcast.com forward slash review. Upload it for me and I will send you a free gift immediately. Thanks in advance.