My Story of Independence, Part 1: The Heartache

With July 4th coming up, I want to talk about independence, and what that means in a work sense. I started my journey as an independent contractor not in my current field of PR, but in real estate. A family friend was selling a multi-unit condominium development and invited me to step away from my current PR job to run the marketing. 

The catch was that I had to get my real estate license to help her sell units and operate as an independent contractor like most realtors. I wouldn’t get paid until I made a sale and I would be responsible for my own expenses, like license fees, headshots, all the way down to business cards. 

The condominium development never broke ground. While there were rumors of a replacement site, we were now years off track. The already established realtors went on like before and I stood alone in my heartache, my pocketbook empty, with only a real estate license. 

So, I got to work. I put my past press pitching hustle into selling individual homes and condos to my first-time home buying friends — eventually moving two best friends into the same neighborhood and following them to set up house as well. 

But my heart wasn’t strong enough for the constant ache that came with contacts choosing to go with other realtors, or a family member buying directly from “The Man” instead of me, standing there at the ready, seven-months pregnant. 

After a year or so, the developer found a new location and I funneled my focus into marketing and selling The Cambridge, a 50-unit condominium development in Northwest Portland, working with a team, back in the groove. 

The project was led by the top realtor in the county, MJ Steen. I was in awe. I paid attention to everything she did, from how she structured our team and strong armed the developer, to how she’d slowly take notes during an otherwise frivolous continuing education class. 

She had this way of speaking that made something sound more important than it really was. Compare these two statements: “I had an open house.” or “I ran an open house.”

Setting up my real estate “business,” as MJ would have rightfully called it, helped me understand the rote motions of setting up any type of business. More importantly, her discipline and structure are what I used to make it on my own as an independent PR contractor, a story for another day.