This is was actually an idea that has been in the works for a while. A couple years ago I thought, if I wasn’t doing influencing, what would I be doing? Getting my real estate license was something that immediately popped into my mind and had been on my mind ever since. At the time though we were thinking that we would be moving to Denver within the next 8 months, so my plan was to first figure out where we were going to be living and then go head and get my license in said state. Fast forward about a year later and we finally made it out to Denver in September. I went ahead and got settled over the first few months and then in January I signed up for an online program to get my CO broker’s license.

Okay, so back to the title of this blog post. Why did I decide to get my license? There were various factors that led me to getting my license so let’s jump into them below!

1. Thought it was a career I would enjoy. Simple as that! I really thought that I would enjoy getting my license – it seemed like a perfect blend of the things I’m interested in and where I think my strengths lie. I have a lot of experience with social media (obviously haha) from building a brand and using it for marketing, which is a huge part of being successful in real estate. I also think being a great agent (in addition to being great at a lot of jobs) is strong communication. After moving four times in the past six years, and working with various agents, I feel like I have a lot of insight to what buyers/sellers need. From communication, to the important things to look for when buying, to what is required for staging to sell, etc.

2. I wanted to explore careers with no income cap. After working for myself for the last several years, I know that I am someone who wants a job where my income is based on performance. This isn’t to say that you have to work for yourself to have this type of income structure, obviously other jobs like working in sales, working for a real estate agency, etc. also fall under this category. Either way, the end result is no income cap – while you’re not guaranteed anything since it’s commission based, there is also no limit on what you can make and this is really motivating for me.

3. Minimal cost and time commitment upfront. I’ve said this before when people have asked me where they should start if they are thinking of a career change. There are so many positions that don’t require going back to school, but more so a certification or license of some kind that you can complete in a pretty short time frame and not invest a lot upfront. Getting my license took less than 6 months and it was less than $1000 (I did a program through Kaplan’s OnDemand course). So I figured that there was no downside in getting my license/trying it out!

4. Long term goals. My goal was never to be an influencer. I mean, the job just kind of fell into my lap 8 years ago. And don’t get me wrong, I have loved (and do love) this job. However, I’m at the point where I want to use my platform and knowledge of social media as leverage into another business that doesn’t just rely on social media and more importantly me. With this job, *I* am the brand and that can get exhausting after almost a decade. There is the requirement to continue to share so many pieces of your life and be “on” all the time. There is very little separation between your personal life and your job (which has it’s pros and cons). That said though, I am looking forward to moving into a career where I can still use social media, but my entire income/livelihood doesn’t rely on it. I am also feeling re-inspired from a personal brand standpoint because I can share more of my life around real estate and how I balance everything which I feel like is more helpful/relatable from a content creation perspective.

Okay, I think that sums everything up! If you have any questions on getting your license feel free to comment or DM me! I’ll have a blog post coming soon on tips for passing your broker’s exam as well if any of you are currently studying for it xxClaire