Rachael Smith: How to Build a Million Dollar Business Working Part Time
Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
Rachel Smith, one of Bolst's top producers, has built a business most agents would call impossible: high volume, built almost entirely from her own sphere, working what she calls 20 productive hours a week. On this episode of The Justin Landis Show, Rachel joins Justin to break down exactly how she got there.
From Stay-at-Home Mom to Rookie of the Year
Rachel's path into real estate started during the pandemic. After 15 years primarily at home raising three boys, her husband pointed out the obvious: she was obsessed with houses, lighting, countertops, and making spaces feel comfortable. She signed up for her real estate class, quickly realized it taught her almost nothing about actually helping people buy and sell homes, and called Justin repeatedly (and recruited friends to vouch for her) to get a spot on his team. It worked. Her first year at JLG, she was named Rookie of the Year.
Why She Eventually Left the Team
After building strong momentum on the team, Rachel made the decision to go out on her own. Being on a team, she says, was genuinely a luxury: marketing support, camaraderie, and a group of people as boisterous and talkative as she was. But she realized she was naturally able to convert her own sphere into real business, and increasingly didn't have room in her life for everything a team product offered. Her advice for new agents: join a team to learn the business first. She credits her broker, Ben, with teaching her fundamentals like earnest money and due diligence from scratch.
Setting a Goal, and Hitting It Fast
When Rachel left the team, her goal was five million in volume with 75% coming from her own sphere, something she thought would take a couple of years. It took her ten months. Getting there meant long hours, building her own systems (many adapted from what she'd learned on the team), learning marketing, and teaching herself to read and evaluate market statistics without a team meeting holding her accountable.
The Wake-Up Call: Christmas, Easter, and Her Kids
The turning point came through two holidays. On Christmas, Rachel found herself negotiating a deal with her lender instead of being present with her family. On Easter, she had to leave a family gathering to show houses. What stuck with her most wasn't the missed meals, it was realizing that her clients found her trustworthy, but her own kids didn't. That same year she also got seriously sick. The combination made it clear: something had to change.
The Audit That Changed Everything
Rachel's shift started with an honest audit of how she actually used her time, and a clear-eyed look at what her family truly needed. She mapped her available hours against her family's schedule (school pickup at three o'clock, chaotic summers that required throttling her business back, stronger quarters in Q1, Q2, and Q4), and let her business fit around that structure instead of the other way around. That meant cutting things that weren't highest value, including leaning on Bolst's marketing support rather than building her own, and training a trusted showing assistant so clients stayed cared for even during her unavailable hours.
Throttling Up and Down on Purpose
Rachel is candid that her volume isn't static year to year. A recent year included sending a child to college, welcoming an in-law who moved to be near family, and her sister's wedding, so she deliberately throttled her business back in the second half of the year and was intentional about making less money as a result. Her philosophy: she refuses to be a slave to her work or put her family on the back burner, and she's made peace with the income trade-off that comes with that.
What 'Part Time' Actually Means for Rachel
Rachel describes her part-time schedule as roughly 20 truly productive hours a week, generally nine to two each day. During that window, she's fully locked in: no scrolling listings for fun, no breaks for walks or lunch. She calls her workspace "the address," and when she's in that chair, she's fully reachable and fully working. When she steps away, she considers the day's work done and doesn't look back.
The Spark Hour
Rachel's system starts every day with what she calls her Spark Hour, the first hour of her workday dedicated entirely to proactive outreach: phone calls, thank-you notes, a quick "thinking of you" text, or stacking several coffee or drink meetings in a row. The guiding question behind every Spark Hour is where she wants her business to be in a month, in 60 days, or even years out. It's proactive by design: she isn't waiting for business to come to her, she's going out and creating it.
Doubling Up on Everything
Outside of her dedicated hours, Rachel rarely does just one thing at a time. Driving has long doubled as phone call time, advice she picked up from her very first broker: never be in the car without being on the phone. With her Tesla, she's taken that further, propping her computer on the console to knock out quick admin tasks like RSVPs and email triage (carefully, and with sunglasses on). She also treats everyday moments, like a kid's soccer game, as a chance to ask people good questions and genuinely listen, which she credits as one of the biggest sources of her business. Listening for pain points in casual conversation, she says, consistently turns into real opportunities.
The Free Spreadsheet She Uses to Stay on Track
To keep her part-time schedule accountable and productive, Rachel built a simple Excel spreadsheet (free to copy into your own Google Drive) that tracks how many people she's talked to, how many connections she's made, how many appointments she's had, and what's closed. It rolls up into monthly totals automatically and includes a version of her working hours so other agents can model a lighter, more intentional schedule. She also keeps her annual goals visible in a window all day, so she always knows exactly how close she is and what her conversion ratio tells her she needs to do that day.
Her Advice for Agents Torn Between Family and Career
Asked what she'd tell an agent who feels like they have to choose between their family and their business, Rachel is direct: choose your family, because it's life-giving, and that feeds your business too. Her other piece of advice is to set real limits on what's "enough" at work. In a commission-based business, there's always more you could do, so deciding in advance what's enough, covering your bills, funding your goals, and then actually taking time to recognize when a week was enough, is what makes the whole system sustainable.
Listen to the Justin Landis Show
Every week, Justin brings in experts from across the real estate industry, including agents, brokers, investors, and leaders, to share what actually works. Expect real stories, real strategies, and no fluff.
Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss an episode.
Ready to explore what's possible in Atlanta real estate?
🏡 Buy or sell with Justin Landis Group: justinlandisgroup.com
🌟 Join or learn about Bolst: bolst.homes
Justin Landis is the founder of Justin Landis Group and Bolst, two of Atlanta's leading real estate companies. He lives in Atlanta with his wife and three daughters and has been selling Atlanta real estate since 2008.
