#KeepPlaying

Ashlee is a Co Branch Manager out of Silverdale, WA & has been part of our family since January 2015.

I started doing this thing when I was 20. I read the last line of a book first. When I tell people that, especially people who read, I feel like I crush their soul, but if they have a few, I tell them why. You, my dear Fairway Fam, get the unsolicited version of why my idiosyncrasy exists.

I knew a man once by the name of Del. Del was in the last chapter of his story and I had the pleasure of serving him coffee daily. Often times he was my lunch date. An 80 year old man, and a 20 something year old college student, an unlikely match, but I looked forward to our conversations. He was kind and his eyes were hazy as if to say he’d seen his fair share of this world .He told me about his life, his wife and kids and how he started. Purchasing a laundromat in a college town, then a restaurant, a bar and so on.

One day I sat with him and his wife and asked them what their secret to life was. He said, “You have to figure out where you want to be in 60 years and work backward from there.”

Think about the end, and work toward it. Write the last chapter first. Read the last line before you start. And I’ve kept that mentality ever since.

He missed a week and I worried. Our next coffee date, I sat across from a widower. He had been married for 60 years and her story was shorter than his. He’s gone now too, but somewhere among his pages, there’s a 32 year old ex barista that reads the last line of a book because of him. And that matters. I may have only been a sentence or two in his, he is the theme of my story.

It wasn’t until years later that I found out that Del was a millionaire and owned half the town. I think of him often. Where he wanted to be a 80 and the steps he took to get there. I imagine the goal post shifted throughout his life and there were ups and downs along the way. More recently I’ve been contemplating the middle pages. How may plot twists were in his story? 

I’m in the middle pages, in life, in this industry. One of my favorite parts of being in the industry for the last decade is recalling the plot twists.

2013 - Short sales & Foreclosures. Took FOREVER to close a deal

2016 - Appraiser shortage

Opening a branch in the middle of a global pandemic

2020-2021 - too insane for words

June 2022 - enough said

Some of those chapters were magic while others were absolutely brutal, but the story continues.

In every great novel the main character overcomes adversity.

Rates are high? okay.

That underwriter is the antagonist? Who cares?

There's no inventory? Help the agents get a listing.

In the grand scheme of things, is that one file really going to dictate your story?

In this chapter, I’m choosing to look ahead. Where do I want to be tomorrow? Next week? Next year? Work backwards from there.

My advice? Make the calls, show up to the events, set the coffee appointments. DO THE WORK. But most importantly remember who you are and where you want to be.

We are the main characters of our lives and we can choose to keep playing; in this industry, in this season, in this life, until the last sentence. Make it a brilliant one.

-For Del.