Lindsey Fowkes is the CEO and owner of RE/MAX Collective in Tampa Bay, Florida. Fifteen years ago, her business looked nothing like it does today.
Chaos and Burnout
“Before Buffini, my business and life were pure adrenaline and chaos,” Lindsey said. “I was hoping for something to change. I was chasing leads that weren’t going anywhere. I felt like I was in this grinding cycle rather than actually building a career. Paycheck to paycheck or commission to commission wasn’t just a phrase; it was a reality at the time.”
That grind came with a real cost. She was burnt out, staying at her office until 6:00 or 7:00 p.m. each night and often working weekends as well. Worse, she found herself not even enjoying her work. It was when she became pregnant with her second daughter that she knew something had to change.
The Turning Point
After talking to her broker, he suggested that she join a class he was mentoring, Buffini & Company’s 100 Days To Greatness.
Although she was down to her “last couple hundred dollars in the bank,” Lindsey decided to take a leap of faith and go for it.
“So I put it on a credit card, and I hoped and prayed that this was going to work, but I really committed to it,” she said. “It was funny because when I found out I was pregnant, and then I took this program about 100 days later, she was here and I actually had 12 transactions in the pipeline.”
“I realized that I probably needed some help, so I started to create a team at that time. I applied these concepts [from the 100 Days to Greatness program] to how I treated my team members and how I served my customers,” she added. “And so my entire routine and my entire attitude towards real estate completely shifted.”
That moment taught her something that still guides her.
“If you work this system, don’t change it and be consistent, it will change your life. It will change your way of doing things, the way you look at your business, and the way you communicate with your clients.”
Lindsey was in Referral Maker PRO for a few years before joining One2One Coaching. After launching her own brokerage, she moved into Leadership Coaching. At each level, she found support and resources to help her grow her business.
“We started out with ten people, and because of the culture that we were building, we ended up attracting a lot of other single agents and a lot of other single teams,” she said. “Scale came before I was definitely ready, but it’s an exciting journey.”
The decision to move into Leadership Coaching helped her to focus on the bigger picture, she said, and on the team’s overall production, not just her own.
It also helped her, she added, share the lessons that she has learned throughout her 20-year career so other agents will also achieve their own success.
Mom as a Role Model
Lindsey’s daughters recently told her that all their friends want to be like her.
“It’s kind of exciting,” she says. “It makes me feel like I did my best. I was present for what was important and that they’ve learned from that example.”
“I hope my daughters take from my story of building this business that you can live a life of purpose and you can live a life of success,” she says. “I love that I can show them that you can be a mom and you can be a successful business owner all at the same time.”
Lindsey’s Good Life
“The good life means to me today that I can manage my business, that I can be present, that I can travel with my family, that I can see my daughter in college and I can still run a successful business all at the same time,” Lindsey says. “So the good life to me is that I came out on the other side feeling refreshed, excited, doing great things. And it’s really what we all try to strive for.”
