Carly Kauppila
- Realtor
- Self Employed
School Information
School: The Ohio State University
College Major: Business
Years at College Works: 2017-2018
Career Information
Working For: Self Employed
Title: Realtor
Industry: Real estate
Brief Description of Duties / Responsibilities:
Self source people who want to buy and sell their homes with me. I attend networking events, sit open houses, door knock neighborhoods, call Zillow leads, manage a CRM, have to take continuing ed to stay up to date and further learn more about the ever changing industry and all that goes into it, manage my taxes and expenses with my CPA, track my mileage, attend coffees and happy hours with industry partners, the most important I actually think is run Buyer and Seller Appointments which is practically identical to running a painting estimate! No one taught me anything about how to get a real estate client or how to run a buyers appt or sellers appt – I just went on my own once I got the lead and went off of what I learned in College Works Painting.
What Has Been Your Proudest Accomplishment Post-CWP?The skills I learned gave me what I needed to make it in the real world. I make more than both of my parents combined, travel and take off days whenever I want. I donate to my church in Arizona – Christ Church of the Valley so that they can continue to provide to those less fortunate than I am . The fact that I can give 10% of my income to church or charity is a different level of peace and freedom many do not have. I make +200k as a 27 year old for perspective and am completely self employed.
College Works Career Impact
In one sentence, what has CW meant to you?
There are very few people cut out for College Works Painting and I am blessed beyond measures that I gave it a chance when I did. One sentence is hard – it gave me the love of my life and taught me everything I needed to know about working for myself. It doesn’t get better than that.
How did your CW experience impact your career? Immediately after graduation? Now?
College Works Painting is a love hate. With hard work comes great reward. College Works Painting is no different to real life. My manager was Austin Killian and he was tough on me but I truly believe everything he taught me about door knocking, cold calling, self sourcing leads, getting reviews, managing home renovations from the project perspective to the clients emotions and their money to how to work with the crews and hiring is exactly what I do today. This was all introduced to me from College Works Painting. I tried TWO other jobs right out of college that were sales based: one inside sales (phone) and outside (door knocking face to face) and neither of them taught me even a fraction of what College Works Painting did. After my short 6 months trying those two jobs, I went to become a realtor and haven’t looked back since – now 5 years later.
What do you want to tell your clients about what it meant to work with them and how it has helped you get to where you are today?
Can’t remember their names but they took a chance on me because they saw my hustle and determination and said they’d want someone to give their daughter the same chance they gave me. Absolutely loved them – they asked me to become their babysitter if I ever had time.
What was the greatest lesson you learned from your CW experience?
How to be successful at sales, objection handling, it gave me thick skin. Hardly anything phases me these days. My ability to handle high pressure situations is truly owed to College Works Painting and its not even as serious as real world stuff is. But when real world got hard, I just felt more equipped to handle things.
How have the friendships and networks you built during CW affected you?
I’ve been to so many College Works Painting weddings! Any almost everyone stayed connected in some way. When people have travelled into someone’s town, everyone always offers to host or grab dinner. It’s so nice to be able to have people with similar interests as you later in life to be able to relate with and grow with. I personally am marrying someone from College Works Painting.
If you had to come up with a one line slogan for CW, what would it be?
Work hard play hard still fits today.
Advice
What advice do you have for potential CW participants? Current CW participants?
This is the perfect opportunity to learn so many different aspects of not just the home industry but business as a whole. This takes hard work- if you feel lazy you probably are. If your lazy and want to change then this could be good for you. Life is short and you have to seize every opportunity in front of you. Give it your absolute best, you’ll lose friends along the way, and I PROMISE you- you’ll be 10x further ahead of them mentally, physically, financially in the future because of it. And you’ll look back and thank yourself for taking a chance on yourself. I guess worst case scenario is you learn what you like and what you don’t like. I have an assistant now because College Works Painting taught me how much I cant mentally handle admin work. And from there – you gauge what major and career path to either stay on or change.
Many college students struggle to choose between an internship specific to their target industry or doing CW. What advice would you give them on this subject if they wanted to enter your career field?
Even if your are going into the medical field – there is something you could learn here. I remember my now close friend was a teaching major, she learned stress management in regards to projects, clients, etc. and she always laughs about how everyone always cant handle what’s in front of them but she doesn’t even blink twice. If your going to be a doctor, sure maybe go do something specific to that but I believe that this is a great experience to at the very least learn more about your strengths and weaknesses to help guide your next opportunity.
What’s your best advice for someone interested in entering your career field?
If you’re interested in Real Estate, College Works Painting is the perfect place to learn real life experience on quite literally the exact skills you would need in Real Estate. I cannot imagine a better internship to learn sales, project management, client relations, self sourcing your own leads/business, and how to get entry level experience on running numbers to run a business. You could always intern for a real estate brokerage but you wont be taught the sales skill set you need or learn how to run payroll or track expenses etc. They will just teach you the back end which can always be out sourced. The back end doesn’t make you money – knowing sales does.
What’s your favorite memory from CW?
I have no clue there was so much fun. My favorite thing was the Awards Trips and doing the boats and downtown Cancun! Otherwise locally, we had so much fun complaining together and supporting one another throughout. Made some of my best memories with College Works Painting people.
Last words of wisdom?
Take a chance on yourself! You truly cant fail without trying. My parents pushed me so hard to not do this because it wasn’t ” Chase Bank” or “This Firm”. Sure enough, when it was time for my sister and brother to go to college – my parents begged them both to do the internship because they saw how I came out on the other side. Its an opportunity of a lifetime to learn, grow, and experience what many might not get the chance to do. If you are sensitive to feedback, lazy, or entitled – this isn’t for you :) And that is okay :)