She Left a Steady Paycheck. Now She Runs a Team of 8.

Jaylene Clawson had a steady paycheck. Insurance. A job she was good at.

She walked away from it to become a real estate agent. Her goal that first year was “don’t go broke.” By July, she had 10 closings. Today, she runs the Clawson Team in the West Valley: eight agents, including her husband and her son.

I’ve known Jaylene for years, and she was the first guest on our new weekly format of The 13% Podcast. I wanted her on because her story is the story of the everyday agent. If you’re thinking about a real estate career change, or you made one and you’re wondering whether it was a mistake, this one’s for you.

Here’s what Jaylene taught me, and what I hope you take into your week.

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The Real Estate Career Change: Her Goal Was “Don’t Go Broke”

Before she was a team owner, Jaylene was an ISA, an inside sales agent, on a team that was just starting to take off. Steady check. Insurance. Lanes.

She’d spent years before that walking away from corporate America and figuring out where she’d land. As an ISA, she got to sit in the room with powerhouse agents and listen. She was the one feeding them business, and she was good at it.

Then she decided to go be a real estate agent herself.

Her written goal that first year? Don’t go broke.

I love that, because it’s honest. Most of the people listening to this show didn’t come from a 1099 job. You came from corporate, from teaching, from waiting tables or tending bar. You know what a steady paycheck feels like, and you know the fear that shows up when it’s gone.

Jaylene buckled down and kept doing what she already knew how to do: make calls. By July of that first year, she had 10 closings. That’s not normal for a first-year agent.

She’d be the first to say that was a different market. It was. But the habit underneath it wasn’t luck.

She Loves Hearing “No.” (And You Should Too.)

Jaylene used to make 100 dials a day. If she didn’t get told no, she was disappointed.

That sounds backwards until you hear her explain it: if you’re getting told no, it means you’re making enough calls. No isn’t the problem. Silence is the problem. No is proof of activity.

She once called a homeowner about a foreclosure. The woman told her she was the nicest person who’d called her in a while and that she’d love to work with her, but they were saving the house. That’s still a good call. That’s still a relationship.

This is Resilience and Execution working together. The 13% don’t take the no personally. They log it and dial the next number.

Then She Recruited Her Husband (Not Many People Would)

A few years in, Jaylene’s husband Scott was watching her success from his own corporate job. One day she looked at him and said, “You should just do this with me.”

Then came the Tuesday at 10:00 AM when Scott called and asked her to come pick him up. For the first time in about 20 years, he didn’t have a company truck.

In FIRE terms, that was Scott’s Initiative maxing out. His Focus had been watching her, learning. His Initiative was the day he said, “Today’s the day.” And then Resilience had to kick in, because the first year is still the first year.

One smart move they made: they hired a coach for six months to train him. Jaylene didn’t have to be the one telling her husband how to do real estate. Church and state. She could keep working while he learned.

Today they’re in their third year as a team. Eight agents, including Jaylene, Scott, and their son. It didn’t happen overnight.

Stop Chasing Shiny Objects. Do the Boring Stuff.

I asked Jaylene what she’s glad she stopped doing and what she’s glad she didn’t stop doing.

What she stopped: chasing shiny objects. This industry is full of tools and programs that promise to solve every problem. Some of them cross her desk and she thinks, maybe. Then she reminds herself: no, just keep doing the boring stuff.

When you’re new, the excitement is real. There’s no ceiling in this business. But there’s also no floor. It’s a lot easier to fall than it is to climb.

What she kept doing:

• Time blocking. She says teaching herself to time block was one of the hardest things she’s ever done.
• Sending cards. Birthdays and home anniversaries. People refer her team specifically because of those little touches.
• Talking to strangers. It’s been part of her core since day one.

To learn time blocking, she used Win by Noon by Todd Bookspan, a longtime friend of ours who’s been on the show. Monday has its own priorities. Finances get dedicated time. The day before we recorded, she looked at the clock at 11:53 AM, realized she still had seven minutes, and kept going. Four solid hours of work before noon.

That’s the point. You don’t have to invent your own system. Find someone who manages their plan well and model it.

Make the Work the One Consistent Thing in Your Life

Here’s something I’d never said out loud until Jaylene and I were talking.

When you get into this industry, the real estate part is the least consistent thing in your life. Your bills are consistent. Your family is consistent. Your drama is consistent. The mortgage company is not going to call and say, “Don’t worry about it this month, you had a hard one.”

So most agents let the business float around everything else. Good month, bad month, depending on what life threw at them.

What Jaylene has done is flip that. She made the work the one consistent part of her life, and everything else floats around it.

Let’s be clear. I’m not telling you to make your business the centerpiece of your life. Chapter 13 of the book is about exactly that: real estate is the vehicle, not the destination. But make it the center of your accountability. Life is kicking you in the mouth, and you still have an accountability piece to your family, your bank account, and your career. So you get up and you go do the work.

If you show up and work every day, all the other bullets coming at you still hurt. They slow you down. Maybe they stop you for a day, maybe a week. But they don’t take you out.

The Hardest Year: Getting Back on the Horse

This year rocked Jaylene to her core. Her mom passed in January, and she was derailed for months.

She’s quick to say she was carried through it. Her husband and her team grabbed her hand and said, “We’re okay. We got you.” And she’d closed one of her largest sales right in the middle of it, so she knew the bills were paid while she took care of what she had to take care of.

But money in the bank doesn’t last forever. Eventually she had to finish that chapter and go back to work.

The moment it clicked was at one of her team meetings, where I was talking about the book. She’d just finished reading the last chapter, the one about why we do this career in the first place. She told herself: Not much else is going to change. That happened in January. You’re good at this, and people are relying on you. Get back on the horse.

Within three weeks, she had four more under contract.

And here’s what got me. She said getting back to work felt liberating. She’s guiding people again, like the client she talked out of selling because they’d bought in 2022 and were a little upside down. Renting made more sense. She feels like herself again.

I’ve lost my mom, and my dad isn’t far behind, so I feel this one. When someone tells me they’ve lost a parent and haven’t worked in months, I ask them a question: What would your mom or dad say if they could see you right now? Most of the parents I know would grab you by the ear and tell you to go back to work and make them proud.

I’m not telling anybody that’s the answer for them. But it might be the motivator you need when your resilience is pushed to the limit.

Find Someone to Push You or Pull You

If you’re struggling right now, you need one of two people. Sometimes you need both, multiple times a day.

Someone to push you through it. This is when you don’t know how to get through it because you’ve never been through it. You’re stuck in a transaction. Your leads went quiet. You don’t know what to say. You need someone with experience and knowledge to put two hands on your back and say, “Here’s how we’re going to do this.” Pushing is hard. It’s their weight against yours.

Someone to pull you through it. This is when you already know what to do. You just need a hand on the rope. “You know this. Let’s keep going.” Pulling usually takes one hand.

Jaylene needed pulling. She’d been through loss and struggle before. She knew the way out. A 20-year-old agent who thinks nobody wants to talk to him because he’s too young? He needs pushing.

Know which one you need, and go find that person.

Your Next Move

The market is hard. The industry is hard. Life is hard. None of that is going away this quarter.

So here’s one thing to do today: look at last week and ask which FIRE burner ran lowest. Was it Focus, Initiative, Resilience, or Execution? Then pick one action to fix it before noon tomorrow.

If you want a system for that, grab the free 13% Cheat Sheet. It gives you one 10-minute move for each FIRE burner, so you can get a win today. And if you haven’t read the book Jaylene mentioned, grab The 13% here.

Catch the full conversation on The 13% Podcast YouTube channel.

You guys, it’s hard. Keep grinding.

Lance