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Note: This excerpt appears at the top of the episode recording as a preview.
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
Basically took the mindset of I'm going to be everywhere and I'm going to take every opportunity. You know, that first year I did over 60 open houses. You know, went to every appointment with you that I possibly could, took every lead that I possibly could, and essentially ended up working every week — an hour. Also was very involved in prospecting, you know, cold prospecting. And that was a time that in the market where that was a good time to prospect call. It really just was.
It ended up being the market was on kind of the rise up. There were a lot of homes that had not sold prior to that, that had been on the market. So calling expired listings and for sale by owners or Zillow Make Me Moves ended up being a pretty good way to get in front of people alongside of all the other things that I was doing. And, you know, I think I took 12 or 15 listings that year, and probably some of them didn't sell or whatever happened, but it was a cool opportunity to just get as many at-bats as possible.
JUSTIN LANDIS
Welcome to The Justin Landis Show, your real estate podcast for having conversations, building relationships, and creating freedom. I'm your host, Justin Landis, and today I'm here with Ashton Ernst Ballard. She's my business partner at JLG and Bolst. And Ashton, thanks for being here today.
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
Of course. Excited to be here. I was expecting to be asked, but I'm glad that I was.
JUSTIN LANDIS
You knew you were going to be one of the first guests. I'd be a little offended. All right, let's take people back in time a little bit. Right before we met and started working together, you had moved to Atlanta. You were doing a lot of things. Set the stage for people of what you were doing early on here in Atlanta.
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
Yeah. While I was working, didn't know anyone. So it was just my now husband and I that moved down, roughly like late 2009. And immediately jumped into working kind of a luxury retail — two jobs in that. Was also wrapping up at JCPenney. I worked there in the jewelry department. I don't think that was luxury retail.
But at the time I was working that job, then in transition doing that, and then also working at Coach, the handbag store, and also was transitioning into working at Swarovski Crystal. So I was doing all of those things. Then I was like, okay, I'm not making enough money doing any of these things. I have an interest in group fitness and the fitness industry in general. So I ended up getting my group fitness instructor license and personal training courses and was doing even all of those things at once — so working three jobs minimum at all of those times.
And this is with a time where it was really inexpensive to live in Georgia. And then it started to get really expensive really fast. And, you know, I think where I was was just trying to find my footing. Like I didn't know anyone. I was really making some friends at these jobs. And when I started, you know, transitioning into a desk job — so I worked at a front desk receptionist job, trying to get out of those retail spaces, working nine to five.
I was so excited about that, by the way. It was really exciting to me to be able to sit stationary. And the funny thing that happened as a result of that was I met a good — now good — friend of mine, Caitlin, and she had a real estate license, which I thought was kind of funny. And she knew that I did, too. And her mom did. And she was very encouraging of me to say, you know what, why don't you get your license transferred to Georgia?
I had it in Tennessee at the time. From West Virginia — had taken the class there, actually got my license in Tennessee expecting to maybe work there with my aunt who's in real estate. And ultimately, it was like, okay, let's get it transferred over here. So thankfully, I did not have to take the test or do anything but pay money to get the license. So that was great.
And essentially, I was like, well, what do I do next? I was in this crossroads where I was not making enough money to fund a decent life. I didn't have a lot of friends. I didn't have any family here, had no support system. So we were kind of flying by the seat of our pants saying, what is next? What is going to be my career? And the funny thing is, I kind of always knew that it would be real estate. I just never knew how it would be real estate.
JUSTIN LANDIS
And that's just kind of funny. We came to meet — I don't know if you remember. Do you remember how we first connected? I think I put out on the internet of our brokerage at the time, I've got this lead that wants to take a look at something. You popped up. I didn't know you. We hadn't actually met. But then you sent me a message the next week and you're like, hey, I put this lead under contract. Let me know if you have anything else. And I was like, oh, I need to meet this person. That was good.
Yeah. You know, when I found Keller Williams, which is where, you know, we were both at the same office at the same time, I was kind of in this position where I was still working these other jobs and trying to figure out, okay, what's my one-year plan? That was what I had created with the leadership there at that time — what's a one-year plan to transition into real estate full-time?
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
And honestly, didn't think that that was possible. I had no savings. You know, I was kind of just going with it. And it was pretty neat how many people — just a kind of crazy thing about now — didn't want leads. They had leads and didn't know what to do with them, did not want them. It's because the market was getting better at this point. And so people were like, oh, this is good. Yeah. So I remember I took those couple of leads from you and I was like, this is easy. I think I can do this.
I got a couple leads from the gym, which was kind of crazy. I had my first listing, which was in a condo building here in downtown. Took pictures with an iPhone at first.
JUSTIN LANDIS
Very professional.
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
Very professional. At least people liked me. At least that was nice. But nonetheless, yeah, I was kind of trying to find my footing. And then I got the bug. And that's when you and I connected. And then I remember you had posted that you were looking for a buyer's agent. Do you remember that?
JUSTIN LANDIS
I do. And then you're like, does anybody know anybody? Great.
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
And I was like, I do. Me. Do you remember that? So then I was like, why did I do that? I do not want to work with... And I immediately regretted it. I was like, I don't want to work with anyone. I'm going to be my own agent. I'm going to build this team. I'm going to do all these things. And this was stupid.
JUSTIN LANDIS
So you almost canceled this meeting, come to find out, which I didn't know at the time.
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
I had a leadership meeting with Nan, who was like the new agent coordinator at that office. And she was so good with me. She was awesome. And she said, Justin is running his business the right way. Just take the meeting. And I did. And obviously, it's changed both of our lives for the better.
And, you know, it's just so funny how — well, I think God put me in that moment, you know, and we had so much in common and there were so many interesting things that just aligned from there. But it kind of opened my eyes to what was possible in this business and how people were running their businesses at that point in time. And, you know, you didn't choose me immediately. So I was like looking for other opportunities because I had the bug. I was like, I'm doing this. And ultimately, of course, it worked out.
JUSTIN LANDIS
That has always been true. Well, I remember one thing you said in that initial meeting, and then we'll move on. But I just think for people listening, this is huge. You told me that you wanted to sell 100 houses in one year. And you wanted to be in Realtor Magazine's 30 Under 30 for the whole country.
And at the time, I would say probably only Mark Spain was selling 100 houses in a year. I mean, no one that we knew at KW had done it yet. And, you know, obviously getting the top 30 of anything in the whole country is challenging. And so there's like — there was this minute in my head where I'm like, she's unrealistic. Or she's going to be awesome. There was no in-between.
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
There was no in-between with it, for sure. Which one of these is it?
JUSTIN LANDIS
And you accomplished both of those things in very short order. I mean, just a couple of years for the 100 transactions and a couple of years for the 30 Under 30 Realtor mag. Which is crazy, right?
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
Well, I think it also is like, wow, it's hard to believe that I had those type of aspirations and those type of goals. And I remember you kind of walking through what selling that many houses was going to look like. And I was like, basically didn't care what you said. I was like, I'm doing this. I was like, hey, I think I sold 55 houses last year and worked every waking minute. So, you know, I'm not sure where the other 45 are going to come from. But they did.
JUSTIN LANDIS
But they did. You made it happen. All right. So Ashton, you had these huge goals. Why don't you talk about what it took to actually accomplish them? And if somebody else has big goals like that, what advice you'd give them from that?
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
Sure. Yeah. Practically speaking, I had these goals, right? And it was exciting to talk about them. Actually doing it was a different animal, especially when I had new business outside of the random things that had come my way that I was working for and hustling for — and no real experience, right? So what I did was I really dove into the opportunities that were available, whatever opportunities they were. Yeah, I had to actually do the work. And so I started coming to the office super early.
I lived, mind you, like 45 minutes away at that point and had a vehicle that was not conducive to a lot of miles in real estate. That car ended up with like 500,000 miles on it or something. This is the one before that. This was the least car that I had. That was like a two-door, souped-up car. Anyways, so I started coming into the office, and I was involved in everything.
Basically took the mindset of I'm going to be everywhere and I'm going to take every opportunity. You know, that first year I did over 60 open houses, you know, went to every appointment with you that I possibly could, took every lead that I possibly could, and essentially ended up working every week — an hour. Also was very involved in prospecting, you know, cold prospecting.
And that was a time in the market where that was a good time to prospect call. It really just was. It ended up being — the market was on kind of the rise up. There were a lot of homes that had not sold prior to that that had been on the market. So calling expired listings and for sale by owners or Zillow Make Me Moves ended up being a pretty good way to get in front of people alongside of all the other things that I was doing.
And, you know, I think I took 12 or 15 listings that year, and probably some of them didn't sell or whatever happened, but it was a cool opportunity to just get as many at-bats as possible. And that was my big thing. And I think that's the advice that I would give anyone at this point. Be extremely humble. Do not feel entitled to anything. I worked rentals. We worked listings. We did for sale by owners. We did everything at that time. And there wasn't a waking hour that I wasn't thinking about selling houses. And that was just what it took at that time. And it really just snowballed. I mean, it started — the activity brought more activity, which brought more activity. Action creates action.
JUSTIN LANDIS
Yeah. All right. So we're back — you know, back at this meeting — and eventually like, hey, Ashton, we want you to join the Justin Landis Group, which was not much of a group at that point. But what was it that — do you remember what made you say yes and decide to do it?
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
Yeah. Well, it was a lot of meetings after that. And I actually remember exactly where I was when you called me and finally said that, okay, we're going to move forward. And then you told me about this Jared guy. And I'm like, he's coming too? What's going to happen?
But I think the biggest thing for me was — okay, this is an opportunity to learn how to run a business. One, this is an opportunity to go further, faster, you know, and to get out of what I was doing. You know, essentially it was like, okay, this is it. I have to do this. I have to take this big leap of faith in order to be successful in this business.
And, you know, and I would have never in my wildest dreams have come up with how things have actually transpired — and super grateful for it. But it was the opportunity that you gave me to work alongside you. No one has gotten to do that since. And I'm super grateful for that and everything that we've learned since then. So I just knew that if nothing else came out of this, I was going to learn how to run a business and going to learn the ropes of what it meant to be in this business.
JUSTIN LANDIS
I mean, as I think back to that first year or so after we decided to work together — this could be helpful for people on both sides. If someone's in this position where they're thinking about bringing someone on, someone in a position where they want to learn — it worked out so great because what we did is we committed. We're like, hey, we're going to work together on every listing.
And I think that's what gave you the confidence of like the income is going to be there. I don't remember how many listings I had sold the year before, but like the pipeline is good. It's going to sell dozens and dozens. So you're like, this is as guaranteed as it can get in this business. I was going to be able to survive. And I knew I had someone that I can trust on every — that was going to get help on every listing.
So we went to all these listing appointments together. And at the beginning, I'm talking like 99% of the time, you know, you're like watching, we're recapping them, we're learning, you're taking on more and more. By the end of that year, we're basically splitting it 50-50. And then over the second year, I mean, I was there to tell a joke or two and smile, and you're running the whole shebang.
And that opportunity to work together over those years — I bet we went on 150 listing appointments together. I mean, tons of listing appointments together. I mean, it was so great because it allowed you to learn, and then thrive. And then it allowed me to have more time to grow the business and bring in more agents and bring in more business. And it just worked out awesome on both sides.
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
Yeah. And I learned so much. I remember, I can recall back conversations that we were having about price drops, about offer negotiations, about inspections. And I was doing a lot of the communication with the agents, getting feedback. I put the signs out. I put the lockbox out. I picked them up. I did all of those things.
At the time, we didn't have any showing services. I was doing all the showing coordination. And it was instrumental in learning every facet of the process. And gosh, what a great opportunity for someone who's thinking about bringing someone in — to give someone an opportunity to really grow into a listing-related role or any role in the organization and have so much real time data, information, insight as to how the business really runs.
JUSTIN LANDIS
And it doesn't really take any — I had no training plan. It's not like there was some video series and all this. The training plan was like, be here with me. Be here with me. Let's be on these calls together. Learn. And anyone can do that.
I mean, anyone who's listening who wants to bring somebody on and have help, you don't have to have this fancy plan. Just be there. Let the person you're training be involved with them. And then it was so great. You know, it didn't take you that long. And then, you know, I'm on those appointments and I would never forget this. And I was like, she's better at this than me. You know, and I'm like — she's better than me. She should do it. I should stop doing this. And eventually I did. And you just took it over.
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
Yeah. And it was kind of scary to make that transition too. So — we do it, we do it, they do it.
JUSTIN LANDIS
It's never been more important to find your edge as an agent. The real estate agent market is the most crowded that I've ever seen it in my career. And so you've got to figure out the things that are most important to help you find your clients, serve your clients well. And that's what this podcast is all about. We're going to be here every week with absolute experts in the real estate industry. So make sure that you tune in and subscribe so you don't miss a single episode.
JUSTIN LANDIS
All right, so we've been together for a long time. As you think about somebody who's looking for a team, based on your experience, what advice would you give somebody who's looking for a team right now?
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
You know, I think the two biggest things that come to mind are: know what you want for your future. Try to have a really good plan of, okay, where do I see myself in five years? And does this organization support that? You know, is this an opportunity that I can grow into within this organization? Because I do think, you know, we're better together, right? So I think having that upfront thought process is super key and critical.
And then I think the other thing is be willing to do whatever — whatever it takes. I find that I was in a privileged position to not have a plan B. So create a situation where you don't have one. Give yourself no plan B. You know, I didn't have a husband or anyone that was going to pay my way. And that was so helpful. You know, it felt bad in the beginning. But you're like, I want to do whatever. But I had to do it. You know, there wasn't another option not to be at least moderately successful.
JUSTIN LANDIS
So that's great advice. All right, Ashton, I think a lot of people would say you're the definition of hustle. You have hustled a lot. And if you were going back to the beginning and you were starting now — or giving advice to somebody starting now who is going to hustle — what would you do right now to build your business as opposed to what you or the same that you did before?
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
Yeah. Well, I probably would join — I would definitely join a team. You know, I would definitely put myself in a position where I could be around successful people as much as humanly possible and have opportunities to meet people that I would not have met lead-wise.
Otherwise, you know, outside of that, because that wouldn't be enough for me, I would do whatever it took to get in front of as many prospects as possible. So I could see myself doing a gazillion open houses and doing them in a fashion of which I made sure I met neighbors, evening neighbor-only open houses, special opportunities, door knocking around them, whatever it took to get in front of those people and have those conversations.
And then I would probably offer to take listings at a bit of a discount — something I wouldn't necessarily do today — but to try to get as many at-bats as I could in good areas, in good markets.
JUSTIN LANDIS
Because you've built your business around listings. And I think this is something interesting for people. I mean, you've been really listing heavy over the years. So you obviously believe in a listing-based business. What is it about the listings that you like so much?
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
Well, I can do more, which I like to do a lot. So I think that's helpful. It's also been so neat to be able to see larger volume and a larger locational span of sales because we see trends that other people do not see coming. And that's been really neat. And I feel like that's maybe an industry expert versus like a neighborhood expert.
JUSTIN LANDIS
Yeah. Well, I mean, tell everybody — how many houses did you sell last year?
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
About like 160.
JUSTIN LANDIS
Yeah. And that's like, what, 12 years in a row of over 100 sales?
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
It has been. Yeah. So like a high of 178, but really almost 10 years now of over 150 plus right around that. So that volume — the listings allow you to do that volume. And then being able to do that much makes you just like such the expert. I mean, the absolute expert, because you get to see so many situations and talk to so many clients.
Absolutely. And it's made me better with my buyers, too. It really has. It's made me be able to see both sides of the deal. And I only work with buyers by referral now, but it's made it more enjoyable in that way too. And something that can take back to my seller clients.
But personally, I love the flow of the listing. I love the appointment. I love the conversation. I love the process that I can put people through and the system of which we've created. That, to me, is exciting to walk someone through our system. And I can kind of nerd out on that, essentially.
JUSTIN LANDIS
Yeah, you don't sell that many houses without having a good process and a good system and actually following it.
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
Absolutely. Not always the most fun to be on the seller side, right? And flows in our market where it's been, you know, awesome and then not so much. But, you know, even in these last couple of years, I've been grateful to have the listing inventory because we've been able to figure out, okay, what does it actually take to move a property in this market?
And we've taken over a lot of listings too that haven't sold the first or second or third time. So being able to say, okay, this is what it takes to get this done now and earning the trust of that seller is huge.
JUSTIN LANDIS
Definitely. Yeah. All right, Ashton, every athlete or performer has like their pre-game thing, the thing that they always do. What is your pre-listing appointment thing that allows you to perform at this level? Do you have something like that?
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
Yeah. And when being a prior performer, I love this. This is my favorite part of the process. This is when you're going in to earn the opportunity to help someone with their biggest assets. You've got to come in with the right mindset. I pretty much do the same thing every time. I prepare the same way.
I spend time usually the night before or even a couple of days before researching the property, making sure that my I's are dotted, my T's are crossed, that I've had a good conversation with them, that I know what my attack points are. My attack points essentially are going to be — what did I gain out of that initial conversation with them that I'm going to utilize in our conversation later in person? Did they tell me that marketing was a big hot button for them? You better believe I'm going to talk about that first and foremost.
And one of the biggest things that I've done for, gosh, probably like 12 plus years at this point is I have a new listing appointment agenda. It's not something I share with them in advance. It's just in my own agenda. And we used to have it typed out and we'd share it with all the agents on our team.
And essentially it starts with goals. It starts with their goals. So their goals, their timing. Then we go through our process. And I always walk people through this. And I always have this in front of me. So from there, we go through how we're going to walk them through that process, price, value proposition. And then we go with the close, right? What are the next steps? And it's great because it always keeps me on track and it keeps them on track, essentially. I always know what I'm going back to.
That way, in a consultative process, we knock out everything. There are very few to little objections when someone feels comfortable because they've been well-educated on the entire process. So that's probably my routine, if you will. But outside of that, showing up early. Early is on time. On time is late, and late is unacceptable. We want to be on time for that appointment. That's the one small thing that we can do to earn their business and their trust.
JUSTIN LANDIS
So I remember you and I used to — when we went on appointments together, we parked down the street, we'd sit in the car, and we were walking up at 6 o'clock. Exactly on the dot. You're getting out of the car at 5:59, and you will be at that door front at 6. And sometimes you hear them still vacuuming the floor.
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
You don't want to be early. You really don't want to be early. You want to be on time. We had so many appointments at one point. I remember we had to worry about other real estate agents seeing our cars in the neighborhood trying to figure out which houses we're going to sell.
JUSTIN LANDIS
Yeah, because they come out from behind you and try to snake it. Yeah, that was a problem I never envisioned that we'd have, but it was a good problem to have at the time.
I do think, just to wrap up on the agenda — this is the difference between someone who is winging it and a pro. I know you've got it on your tablet now, but we used to have it printed out and it was on top of the listing packet. Last thing we'd see. So we'd see that agenda to make sure that we're going to follow it. We're there one minute before, you flip it over when you come in, and we're like, hey, this is game time.
I mean, I always remember talking about like this is game time. It doesn't get any bigger than this when you're a real estate agent. Going on that listing appointment. Yeah, we're going to follow the process. We're going to be exactly on time and we're going to do the same thing every time to serve the clients. And man, that's just like been such a win for you. And I think that is one of the things that separates a pro from somebody who's just like doing an OK job.
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
Yeah, I think you have to continue to evaluate that, too, because there are things that are on there now for me that weren't on there five years ago or even six months ago, because, you know, we've started to get back into a market where sellers are really taking their time. They're interviewing multiple people. You have to have that competitive edge. And we all like to think that we have that naturally, but that doesn't always win listings. So I'm really speaking a lot about value and why we're different. And that's something we didn't need to or have to do at that time. So kind of interesting.
JUSTIN LANDIS
Ashton, you are such a pro. And I mean, I have just been continually impressed from that very beginning to how you've always strived to make things better and better, improve the process. You're always improving the process. And so if you're sitting here and listening to this and you're thinking, hey, I want to have a process like this, follow Ashton's advice, get a process, make it better, take all the opportunities that you can. That's been super valuable advice you've shared today. And I really appreciate you being here.
ASHTON ERNST BALLARD
Thank you.
JUSTIN LANDIS
Thanks so much for listening. Make sure that you subscribe so you don't miss a single episode. We will be back with you next week.
