One of the first lessons we learn when entering the working world is what it really means to start at the bottom. Whether it’s writing parking tickets as a police officer, sweeping floors at a hair salon, or processing endless data at a corporate job, working your way up the ladder is an often unpleasant reality of most careers.
Treat your website not as your business card…[but] as your retail store or your mall.
— IRINA KIM SANG
But according to Irina Kim Sang of Coldwell Banker Miami Beach, real estate is the exception. “In real estate…you don’t have to prove yourself on lower-level transactions in order to become a master on high-end transactions,” Irina explained.
For Irina, the real estate industry is like a high rise apartment building. In most careers, getting to the penthouse means taking the stairs from floor to floor. But in real estate, “You can go right straight to the penthouse level and start working on penthouse level. You just got to change the entire perspective,” adjusting your business to fit that floor’s vantage point.
Irina has experienced this phenomenon firsthand. A Miami resident and longtime marketing professional in fields ranging from oil insurance to fast food, Irina decided to try her hand at real estate in 2011. Instead of starting at the bottom, however, Irina dove into the luxury market, using her Russian language skills to carve out a niche—something Irina believes every real estate professional should do.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re going to stick to it for your life, for your entire career,” Irina pointed out. “But if you’re here to actually try to break through very fast, I think the solution is to actually focus and just learn as much as possible about that particular niche.”
Once you’ve chosen a specialty, Irina says, your website is the ideal tool for promoting it. The more website content you have, and the more often you share that content, the better your chances are of connecting with your target audience. “Treat your website not as your business card,” Irina suggested, “but treat your website as your retail store or your mall, with not just 20 doors…[but] 200 possibilities, 200 opportunities to open your door.”
In this interview, Irina Kim Sang details how agents can accelerate success by focusing in on one perspective, and explains why the best marketers are open to ideas from every industry.
- Seth
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