How to Become a Successful Realtor in Miami: Personal Brand on Instagram, a Team and Delegating

KristinaHi, everyone, friends! Today we have an interesting interview with an extraordinary person, a wonderful young woman, and a successful Miami real estate specialist, Yana Sitnichenko. Yanochka, hi!

YanaHi! This is so nice!

KristinaLook at that sweet smile.

YanaBest introduction of me ever. They didn’t even introduce me like that on “Big Money.”

KristinaI’d like to show people you, your success, and what lies behind that success. You’re a successful realtor in Miami. We can say that. You have an amazing Instagram, amazing followers, and wherever you go, even outside Miami, people recognize you. Tell me, how did you get to this success? Where did the Yana Sitnichenko brand begin?

YanaThat’s a very interesting question. Being recognized was unfamiliar at first. It all started with the fact that I was simply interested in Instagram. I began putting things up there, but not much. I was even shy about filming or writing anything, and I’d turn my thoughts over for a long time before posting. But I never put the emphasis on Instagram or on myself as a personal brand.

All my life, with the mindset that you have to work, I was looking for a job. I worked at various companies, and at nineteen I even got a job at Mercedes. I worked there for a while and realized it wasn’t for me. And so I moved through different fields. But I always liked real estate. It had nothing to do with my personal brand. I kept Instagram for pleasure, in bursts: I went somewhere, felt inspired, shot something. Of course, I wanted to have followers, but I never understood what it could lead to. Then followers started coming, I shared my life and my work, and they began reaching out to me with questions. It was in those moments that I started to understand what a personal brand is and what it gives a person.

KristinaBefore you became successful, did everything go smoothly? Where did your success begin?

YanaGood question. Honestly, everything came very hard to me. There was never a time when something in my life went smoothly. But I can’t say it was all difficulty. Success or luck is still there: in the hardest moments, at the last minute, when there’s a day or two left, the situation would resolve. Even now there are circumstances where I don’t know what awaits me in two days. But we’ll see how it ends.

KristinaYana Sitnichenko is simply lucky. That’s all.

YanaWell, hard to say. I have friends I complain to, and they say, “What are difficulties?” And I think, “Wow, is that even possible?” Every step in my life came with difficulty. Even, say, to get my realtor license I took the exam nine times, passing on the ninth attempt. My mind kept wandering, I wasn’t focused. I started studying to be a realtor during a hard period of my life, the kind everyone has, I think, an emotionally hard one. It was very hard to concentrate, and on top of that my English wasn’t at its best, so passing was that tough.

At the beginning of my path, when I was young, around eighteen or nineteen… Actually, I’ve been working since I was seventeen. It’s even hard to say which fields I worked in: from seventeen as a cosmetics consultant, and as something else besides.

KristinaI saw your interview. You said you cleaned something.

YanaAh… So. I think this will haunt me, and the video will start with it. Yes, I cleaned toilets in America.

KristinaThere it is, the key to success! So, friends, if you think successful people just, bam, became successful right away, no. The main path is this: if you hadn’t cleaned toilets, you wouldn’t have become successful in America. Go now…

YanaMake a note of it!

KristinaYou can start, friends.

YanaActually, back home I never worked in service. I’m from Kyiv. In America I had to become a waitress and work for a year and a half. That was honestly the hardest part. I can’t say I regret it, either: it broke me in some ways and made me stronger. If you’re weak inside, you’ll go home disappointed in America. But it motivated me to keep moving: I decided I would never go back to that in my life. And I started trying myself in different fields. I was offered MLM, I was offered shows to perform in, and I once went out in a mascot costume. I have a photo of me standing at an event covered in feathers. I went, earned about two hundred dollars, and realized it wasn’t for me.

YanaI don’t know why I kept overlooking the direction that didn’t feel like work. I think it comes from our mentality and mindset: we look for difficulty in ourselves and think that through difficulty we’ll earn. But that’s not how it is at all.

KristinaThat’s how it is, friends. Today we’re peeling the wrapper off Yana Sitnichenko, like off a pretty candy, and showing what’s going on inside and what lies behind all this success.

KristinaYanochka, what inspired you, and what kept you from giving up in the hard moments of life? Who was your support, your pillar?

YanaVery good. I usually keep my whole personal life hidden. When people watch the video, they’ll understand who I’m talking about. I think that at this stage of my life, the people around me are my support. There were also not-so-great people in my life whom I stopped talking to, but they also pushed me to draw conclusions. But of course it’s my loved ones, my parents.

What kept me from giving up? Probably the belief that so much work had already been done. There’s a picture of a man digging for treasure. One gives up, and the other stands there and says, “There’s just a little left.” And there’s this thin little wall between him and the treasure, while the pit is already this big, a whole one. It’s about the same for me. I came to America, went through so many hard periods, tried to earn money. There was a moment when you arrive with money, and in America such big sums go on everything that the money runs out very quickly. When you’re left at the bottom, you start working and keep waiting for that very moment to hit and for you to reach success. And I probably have that hope, like a Phoenix. There were moments when it came to tears, when I wanted to leave America. The whole first year I obsessed every day about leaving, because I had no plans at all to stay and live here. But since I had already left so many nerves here, I thought, “Just a little more, I’ll get my documents soon, everything will settle.” So the first year passed, then the second, and only in the third year did it become more or less the way I wanted. Back home everything was basically fine for me: a job I loved, a car, an apartment. So I didn’t have difficulties like that in life, and by my third year here I got to this.

KristinaDo you agree with the saying that when you come to America, you reset completely to zero? America is a kind of grinding machine.

YanaCompletely. It simply grinds up weak people and throws them out of here. That’s why you have to be strong in spirit, not give up, and really move toward your goal. I can’t say what my clear goal was back then. When I arrived, I was twenty-four years old. Some people already have a formed picture of the world and a clear goal. And what I had at that time was the understanding that I wanted to live well, drive a great car, go to restaurants, and deny myself nothing. Well, roughly like now.

KristinaWhat would you say now to that Yana who had just arrived in America?

YanaIf I were given an hour to talk with her, I would clearly lay out a plan of action. I would have become a realtor seven years ago, not three years ago as I did. And I would tell her where to start. I think, start building your personal brand, make your name known. Because when you work for someone, helping them grow their business, they rarely say thank you for it. So I decided in my life to make myself a personal brand, like Jordan or Nike.

KristinaDo your parents support you?

YanaThey’re here, I brought them over. Yes, they support me, they believe in me. But I realized that I’d started going all in in life and risking big sums to reach the level I’m heading toward. Making purchases that, in my parents’ opinion, are crazy huge. My mom supports me a lot in this, but she also worries a little.

KristinaI understand you perfectly. They have a slightly different mentality.

YanaYes, but Mom supports me. She says, “Keep going, you’re doing great.” Dad does too, but sometimes, of course, they have moments of fear. If everything were stable… My line of work isn’t stable, it requires, like a business… I’m basically like a business you have to invest money in so that you can get a return later. In life I want to take big steps, with big income and big expenses. And for my parents, of course, it would be calmer if everything were even and stable.

KristinaInvesting in yourself is the best investment there is.

YanaNot even with money, as many girls might think: nails, lashes, hair. No, it’s…

KristinaAnd working on sports.

YanaInvesting in yourself is education, it’s traveling to forums on topics that interest you. For example, what motivated and inspired me, which you asked about earlier: I love entrepreneur podcasts, successful entrepreneur case studies. The movie “Nike,” for example. I watched “Big Money” with Evgeny Chernyak back in the day. And after rewatching all the episodes, I thought: how I’d love to meet him. And it turned out that just a week ago I was on the same stage with him.

KristinaThat’s cool, by the way. Congratulations, that’s a huge step up.

YanaI probably haven’t stopped yet.

KristinaDid you come to this step feeling calm, or were you nervous? How did you prepare for it?

YanaThe word “calm” makes me laugh. Yana Sitnichenko always looks calm and collected. Very little can throw me off balance. Probably only things that touch my personal life, my parents, moments like that. Anything to do with work, problems with deals, with clients, doesn’t rattle me at all. But I do have a fear of speaking, and before I went to speak, I asked you how not to be afraid. You can’t imagine how scared I was. Every day I woke up feeling anxious and on edge. I kept thinking: how will I walk out there, how will I look, what will I say. That fear is always there, even though I also have an inner understanding that I know a lot and have something to share with people. But of course the fear always comes before a talk. The day before, I was very nervous. The last week before it, I couldn’t think about anything else. But in the end everything builds up, and you realize: either you fall apart and lose your head right now, or you switch on and perform.

KristinaIs your fear a fear of the audience? Or are you afraid of something else too?

YanaI spent a long time working through this in myself. I think, like for every person, it’s a fear of being judged. But when I walked out onto the stage, it turned out I didn’t have that fear. The life hack for achieving success is to walk toward your fears. Thoughtfully, of course. But if you understand that there’s a growth point there, that it will take you to a new level, that it means meeting people of a completely different caliber, then of course you need to go there.

For example, I watch “Razbory na million” (“Breakdowns for a Million”) with Mikhail Grebenyuk. You can watch it on YouTube, it’s very interesting. Entrepreneurs come in for a breakdown, tell him their problem, and he analyzes it. Sometimes the problem is technical, spreadsheets, a CRM. But for the most part it’s inner beliefs, psychological things. He says there’s a point A and a point B where we’ll end up in life. But in any case, you’re clearly earning more today than you were a year or two ago, and next year you’ll clearly earn more. And to jump and make 5x or 10x, you have to make a quantum leap out of that paradigm. And that means moving toward the fear. Doing something that’s not standard for you. Then you’ll see your psyche start to change. I’ve already looked at myself: for me it was a real leap. I still haven’t fully grasped what I did, even though a week has passed.

KristinaWhat do people love you for?

YanaI have an inner conviction and feeling that I evoke one of two feelings in people: either strong dislike or strong love, but never a neutral state. I think when it’s negative, it’s because people had some expectations of their own, and maybe I didn’t meet them. With my volume of people who want to get on a call or meet with me, it’s simply physically impossible. So my circle is limited, of course, and I go to entrepreneur meetups, because we all meet there together, we talk, and that’s it. If I started meeting everyone for coffee, there would be no time left for work, for family, for anything.

And on the positive side, why people feel that way… I’m actually only now starting to realize what people love. Before that I didn’t pay attention to it. I think it’s simply openness and sincere friendliness. I treat people sincerely, I sincerely want to help if they reach out to me, and I listen closely. Take the other people you cross paths with in life: everyone always wants to tell you their problem, to dump their monkeys on you, and that’s it. But when I’m in a conversation with someone, I feel the whole story and all the feelings they tell me about. It’s the same with clients, the same with friends.

KristinaYou say you have a very large flow of clients. How do you handle it? Do you have assistants, maybe your own team?

YanaIt just so happened that in my life there was no one to explain to me how to build a business. I was a complete zero at it. Basically a beginner who didn’t know how to do it, how to build teams, how to put it all together. And that was the biggest difficulty. But when I started monetizing Instagram and saying, “Here I am, a realtor, this is what I do,” clients started coming to me, one person, two. When there are five or six, up to ten, you still manage somehow. But then I realized I was losing clients: I wasn’t answering people’s calls, not because I didn’t want to, but because I physically couldn’t keep up. While I’m driving around and showing homes to some clients, I can’t also be on the phone at the same time. I had an emotional slump: “Oh my God, how many clients I’ve lost, how much money I’ve lost!” and you don’t know how to move forward. The only point of movement and growth was to build my own team, because there was no other way.

I hired a girl, a realtor who had a license but no clients. I gave her a client, she earned her 50%, and I, accordingly, got 50%. That’s how my career as a businesswoman who knows how to delegate began. I worked with her like that for a year. Then I met a project manager, Katya, who I work with now. I was already giving her my ideas, and together we started building a team. We tried different people. Right now I have someone outsourced who receives all the leads, either from targeted ads or from my Instagram. I just copy a screenshot and send it so he can contact the client and distribute them among the other realtors. Right now my team has four or five realtors, a person who distributes leads, a targeting specialist, a marketer, and a few more people.

KristinaSo, you’ve put together this kind of teamwork.

YanaYes. And, honestly, I took such a big step in building and growing the business at the moment I set myself the bar of buying a $250,000 car.

KristinaDid everyone hear that? Yana Sitnichenko makes millions. While you’re all out there waiting for something in this life. Let’s continue.

YanaAnd I’ll say it just as calmly and confidently: buying a $250,000 car is, of course, an insane move for me. But it’s exactly what I was talking about earlier, what Grebenyuk says: a quantum step. Logically, it would have been normal to take a $120,000 car, and I’d have felt at ease, it would have been calm growth. But no, Yana decided on twice as much.

KristinaDo you like taking risks?

YanaWell, it’s thrilling. I want to get faster to what I’ve pictured for myself: six-figure numbers regularly, every month. And not just to spend it, but so the money is in the account.

KristinaWhy do you need such big money?

YanaTo be at peace.

KristinaAnd what does your peace consist of?

YanaPeace and confidence in tomorrow. When you earn unsteadily and not much, you wake up and think, “Okay, who do I go out with, who do I meet?” and all that panic starts. And peace is when I bought tickets, flew to Europe, relaxed, and my team is working. I’m heading toward this: all my life until thirty, I took actions for the sake of actions, which wore me out and didn’t earn me much money. Now I’ve understood that you need to earn from joy. When you do what you love in a relaxed state and hit the mark with the right action, that’s when you earn.

KristinaWhat is happiness for you?

YanaPeace of mind. No swings back and forth.

KristinaDo you think that’s possible with your work?

YanaYou see, I’m being very clever: I delegate what I don’t like doing. I absolutely hate calling people on the phone. It’s my least favorite part. But I can easily draw anyone into a conversation. If I met someone at an entrepreneur meetup and we started talking, I really enjoy it, and people are delighted. But as soon as it comes to calling someone back, that’s it, I freeze. So now I have the best realtor on my team, and he does the calling. And for him, calling is no problem at all.

Yana…that’s it, I freeze. So now the best realtor on my team is the one who makes the calls. For him, calling is no problem at all. You need to choose a specialist for their strengths. Weak spots, of course, should be developed. But if you need to grow and expand the business, then of course, delegate.

KristinaBut maybe it isn’t a weakness? Maybe it’s just a stage you’ve already outgrown?

YanaMaybe it’s a stage I’ve outgrown. I answer maybe five or six people. If the number is saved in my contacts. If it isn’t, then text me, please.

KristinaA realtor’s job isn’t just sitting in one place. It’s constantly being on the move, at properties, at meetings, at events of all kinds. How do you balance this work with your personal life?

YanaI realized that I’ve moved out of operations and stopped being a realtor. That may be bad, but in some ways it’s good, because there’s growth in it. If you ask when I last went to a showing with clients, it was probably a month ago.

Honestly, I set myself a rule to work Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Those are the days for shoots and trips to new-construction projects: right now I’ve decided to focus mainly on new construction and sell only that. If a client wants to buy new construction, I meet with them personally. Anything that isn’t new construction and costs under a million dollars, I send to my realtors.

Tuesday and Thursday I work by phone: I answer messages and calls. But if someone writes me urgently, “Yana, we need to talk,” of course I’ll get on a call. So my work has become compatible with my personal life. Sunday is my sacred day, when I won’t go anywhere. The exception is if I’m in another state at a conference or forum.

KristinaIn your view, is Miami real estate something worth spending money on, if you have that kind of money? And what if you don’t?

YanaYou should invest in Miami real estate, and it’s worth it, because prices here always rise, regardless of interest rates or economic swings in the country. If you buy a property today, two years from now it will always be worth more than it is today.

If you don’t have the money, we start from the minimum amount. If you’ve worked steadily at a company for two years and have a stable salary, you can buy a home by putting down just 5% of the price. You’ll get a loan based on your salary, but even an apartment for $300,000 can be bought with just a 5% investment.

KristinaSounds good.

YanaYes, it can be done. And if you have a bit more money, you can buy pretty much any home by putting down just 20%.

KristinaThey say there are some great properties out there. Can you buy an apartment in Miami for $200,000?

YanaYou can buy one for $200,000. But, of course, it won’t be luxury Miami style; it will be a good, decent apartment. You can also buy new construction, a new build that hasn’t been built yet. Say there’s a plot of land, and in two years a building will go up on it. To buy, you put down 10%, then six months later another 10%, then another 10%, and for the remaining 50% you simply take out a loan. So you don’t have to spend the full amount to buy the property.

Friends, let’s all buy new construction. Get in touch.

KristinaHow do you replenish that energy?

YanaGood question. I lose energy constantly. Let me put it this way: after my talk at the forum, Evgeny Chernyak spoke, and, sadly, I missed his talk because I went straight to my room, stood in the shower for half an hour, and then just lay there. My first way to recover is sleep. I usually get tired from crowds of people. That’s also where I recharge, but when you spend a whole day in a big crowd, of course, you burn out. We went to Silicon Valley together, and you know that at lunchtime I had to just leave, sleep for half an hour to an hour, and come back. That’s the first thing. The second is that I love cars, and I love driving myself.

KristinaThat’s probably your meditation.

YanaMy meditation is a car with music or a podcast, sleep, or a hot shower. For some people it’s nature, but for me it’s a bit different.

KristinaYan, what are your personal achievements, or achievements at work, that you’re immensely proud of?

YanaThis year, by the way, I’m teaching myself to be proud of my achievements, because my whole life, and even now, I’ve felt there’s nothing special about what I’ve done: you can do it, somebody else can do it too. And then I start talking with people and realize that’s not the case. Not everyone can do it. Many people don’t get something, many are lazy. The main thing is laziness and a lack of discipline.

Of the things I do consistently: I go to the gym three times a week, and I’ve been doing it for a long time. I can’t compare with you, of course. Go to Kristina’s page and take a look, that’s the example for me. But compared with the average person, yes. I also have a truck driver’s license, and I tell everybody about it. I’ve been driving since I was seven: my dad put me behind the wheel of a manual car, explained how to drive, got out, and said, “Go ahead and shift gears.” That’s how I drove for the first time at seven. I have no problems with cars or machinery.

Then there’s communication. I think it’s a gift not everyone has, though maybe you can develop it. Responsibility. And the main thing I’ve understood: you need to see very clearly the moment when you don’t feel like doing something. I often beat myself up for promising people something and then not being able to make myself do it, I simply don’t want to. You need to understand at the very beginning whether you want to do it for that person or not. In short, the most important thing in life is learning to say “no.”

YanaThe more famous and popular you become, the more requests you get. Constantly. Especially, if I pick up the phone, about four a day: do you want to be in a shoot, do you want this, five thousand. Every single day.

KristinaI like your sincerity. Very few people truly have it. It shows in everything: in your gestures and in your facial expressions. You make people want to get to know you and talk with you. That’s probably your biggest plus when communicating with people. And, of course, your professionalism. Let’s be honest: becoming a successful realtor here in America, not just a realtor but a successful one, that’s about two percent. The word “realtor,” backed by big actions and a long road to success that you’re on and are still on. And I think you haven’t yet climbed to the highest peak.

YanaHonestly, I’m still on my way.

KristinaMay it be huge. Keep going up. Remember the saying: “There’s no limit to perfection.”

YanaYou’re right. That saying fits right here.

KristinaTell me, what does working out give you? Self-confidence, discipline, any other factors?

YanaSports and going to the gym with a personal trainer gave me a big push. It was always hard for me to go to the gym. I went at 29, with half a year left until my birthday, and caught myself thinking: if I haven’t gone in all of twenty-some years, then if I don’t go now, it will be the same at 30. You can live that way, but it’s not how I want to live or how I want to look. I want to be like those Brazilian grandmothers. Sports changes the quality of your life.

As soon as I started going to the gym, discipline began to develop. You watch the people who train, and that’s an example. Show up, don’t skip. There are a lot of things you have to keep in focus, and discipline is the most important. It carries over into work. If you skip, “today I go, tomorrow I don’t, I eat when I want, I don’t when I don’t,” you’ll act the same way at work, and even more so in business. When you work for someone, they kick you, push you, and only then do you act. But when you have inner self-discipline, you can plan your business and understand that you need to wait a little to get results. It’s directly proportional and helps a great deal. The gym means a great figure and no back pain.

KristinaIt’s really true. When people ask how old you are, they’re very surprised that you’re 31, until you start talking. I understand it’s all the gym: good posture, a good figure, plus nutrition and no bad habits.

YanaYes. And probably that’s the point when I started building my business.

KristinaThat sounds really cool, actually.

YanaHonestly, when I started working out, I was in a very depressive state, at a crossroads, not understanding where to go in life. I was doing something, it was okay, but my inner state was telling me this wasn’t it and wasn’t mine.

YanaSometimes all of this wears you out, but it also recharges you. You arrive somewhere where people welcome you and know who you are and what you do, and you walk out with such powerful energy that it pushes you forward.

KristinaYou say there are states of burnout close to depression. Who helps you cope with them?

YanaYou could say it’s the closest people in my circle. But there are emotional swings, assessing your life, doubts about whether you’re moving in the right direction. For that you probably need an inner core too. People can say lots of supportive words and hug you, but until you change or feel something in your own head, you won’t change your attitude.

In my case, I’m a kind of phoenix. I can be in a bad emotional state, many things can upset me, but I wake up in the morning, as my mom always said, the morning is wiser than the evening. So I don’t make sudden moves or take sudden actions, I wake up in the morning, and it’s all fresh again. That’s what helped me get through difficult periods of life in America, waiting, expecting that just a little more and everything will be great. That’s roughly what keeps pushing me through life.

KristinaRight now in your work, do you have more English-speaking or Russian-speaking clients? You said that when you were just studying to become a realtor, your English wasn’t great. For those who are afraid to come here because they don’t know the language: did you manage to succeed despite the language, and what kind of people do you work with?

YanaI was clever about it: I decided to move in the direction of “become the best-known realtor among all Russian speakers in America.” So 100% of my clients are Russian-speaking. Clients come from Instagram, and my Instagram is in Russian. Everyone who comes from the CIS countries is my client, or those who already live here. Americans can reach out too, but I don’t see the point of running ads aimed at Americans: they’ll land on my Instagram, and it’s in Russian, all the videos are in Russian. I’d just be spending money on pointless ads.

KristinaAre there enough wealthy Russian-speaking clients who are ready to buy expensive real estate?

YanaMore than enough. It’s often through referrals, too. I had clients who came from Ukraine and bought two townhouses for $750,000 each, in cash. That’s not a super impressive number, not a $5 million apartment, but the point is that there are a lot of Russian-speaking people with money. And plenty who have lived here for a long time. They may live in Los Angeles or New York and be looking for a specialist who lives in Miami. They see me and understand that they can trust me: for a commission of $20,000 or $50,000, I’m definitely not going to shut down my Instagram, because far more money has been invested in it.

KristinaDid you ever want to live in another state besides Florida?

YanaIt just so happened that when I came to America, I lived in Wyoming, where there are only Americans and nothing but Walmart. Pure America, basically. I’m from Kyiv myself, and Kyiv is a loud, buzzing city with great restaurants and great service; you live, basically, like in New York. The one-story-America format is definitely not for me. Then I lived near Washington, and there are Americans there too. No matter how you look at it, however long you live here, they have a slightly different mentality.

I could, of course, have moved away from all Russian-speaking people, lived only with Americans, spoken perfect English and had their mentality. But somehow it turned out that I chose only our community. So for those who want to come here: if you need help finding anyone, from personal trainers to videographers, over my seven years of living here I’ve built a circle of contacts, and all the Russian speakers in it are great professionals. And our people, as usual, deliver better quality.

KristinaWhat do you think about the service industry?

YanaI believe you should turn only to our people. Real estate, for example. If you go to an American, he’ll follow the instructions strictly and will never in his life step to the left or to the right. I’m not saying I do anything strange, but if a person arrives without documents, you can push a little, add extra paperwork, and talk to the association some more. That’s what I need English for: I negotiate with the other side, which speaks English. And you can always get anyone moved in, regardless of their status and documents.

KristinaSo Russian-speaking people think more broadly?

YanaYes, because we’re immigrants. We lived in a country where you had to find a lot of workarounds to achieve anything, because incomes there aren’t what they are in America. I think it’s easier to make money in America. Probably. I’m not claiming it: for some people it’s easier back home, for some in America. The amounts here are just a little different. And when you move to another country, you hit rock bottom, no matter what status or money you arrive with, and you learn to adapt to the environment and the situation. That skill stays with you in any field you work in.

KristinaHaving already reached some good heights, what is your goal for the future? Professionally and, maybe, personally.

YanaWonderful question. On the work side, all our groups are called “working $200 thousand.” I decided that this should be my net monthly income, after all taxes and expenses. That’s how I motivate the team: I split the commission 50/50 with almost all the realtors, and for me to earn 200 thousand, the team has to earn much more.

On the personal side, I want inner harmony and a happy family, one without worries and stress, with confidence in tomorrow, where you can go on vacation at any time, regardless of work. So that the business runs and you can travel the world, recharge with new energy and knowledge, come back, inspire your team and grow even more. Make my brand even better known. In the future I’m thinking of opening my own brokerage. I planned to do it this year, but right now I work at a great company, I like where I am. Either way, in the future it will be the opening of a new brokerage.

KristinaSo you want to build your own big team?

YanaYes. But I’ll only take professionals. On my way to where I am now, I realized that it’s very hard, and sometimes a thankless job, to hire newcomers who have no motivation. So I want to see in my life only driven, motivated people, like you.

KristinaBut professionals, I have to tell you, once they reach a certain height, often don’t want to do anything anymore. They’re at that level. Why go further?

YanaYes, there are such people too. In my experience, there are people who look at me as a guru and dream of working with me, but in their heads there’s a mindset: “it’s expensive, it’s impossible.” Breaking a mindset they’ve built up over forty years of their lives is practically impossible. You can motivate them, there will be a small uptick, but no. That’s why from the start I want people who are on fire and who have no ceiling.

YanaSo a professional can reach a result of 200 thousand, but while we’re working our way there, we’ll be developing and working great.

KristinaWhat’s the biggest amount of money you’ve earned in your career?

YanaSo far it’s been 56 thousand dollars. It just so happens that I attract people and earn 20, 30, 56. But right now I’m working on closing a deal and immediately earning 200. Basically, to get to closing one deal every month that brings me that amount, and in parallel to take on all the clients who bring me small amounts. But that’s no longer for the earnings, it’s so that I can help everyone. Because we often run into the problem where clients say a realtor turned them down, because I came with a rental, because I came with a 200-thousand purchase. Realtors in Miami are a bit already…

KristinaYou’ve led me to the next question yourself.

YanaYes.

KristinaHow does a realtor who has already reached a certain result and earns pretty good money not lose herself? Not put too big a crown on her head?

YanaGood question. I don’t count myself among realtors; I count myself more among entrepreneurs. It happens that a realtor earns 100 thousand dollars and doesn’t even reply to a person who came for a $3,000 rental. I realized I would face this problem, because closing a $3,000 rental is sometimes harder than a $5 million deal. Five million you can sort out in a day or two: the person comes with cash. But a rental is a whole catastrophe.

So as an entrepreneur I decided to hire a team, and on my team there are people who specialize only in rentals. Whoever comes for a rental is handled by a professional in that field: he already knows all the buildings, we’ve built up all the information together on how to place tenants properly so there are no problems and everyone is happy. And I myself am the kind of person who never gets cocky, regardless of the amount of money. For me it’s simply peace of mind and comfort.

KristinaYanochka, is there an unfinished gestalt in your life? A dream that hasn’t come true yet?

YanaI’ll close it in two days.

KristinaWhat great timing for this interview, friends.

YanaI’m sure that by the time this video comes out, one gestalt will be closed. It’s my car; it’s sitting at the port right now, and I’m supposed to pick it up any day.

KristinaWhat kind of car?

YanaA Range Rover, the newest, the most expensive, a white one.

KristinaThat’s what working as a realtor in Miami looks like, did you all hear that? Taking notes. So, how did you earn enough for a car like that?

YanaCommunication.

KristinaI want more detail about this method. Sex, rock and roll, what else?

YanaEscort. Not in my case.

KristinaNo, but, by the way, we could hire an escort to have beautiful girls clean our apartment.

YanaThat’s what happens with girls who earn money on their own. Strong, independent. We can afford it.

KristinaYes, yes, yes.

YanaWell, basically, it all depends on whether you bring people value and tell them important, necessary information. People come to you, they already trust you. You provide them with realtor services and earn your commission. Resale market, 3%; new construction, 6%. And that’s how you get the result: buying a Range Rover.

KristinaWell, those are the usual criteria, so to speak, of a realtor’s work. But for some reason not all realtors manage it the way you do.

YanaThat, honestly, deserves a separate video. Realtors ask me: how to sell, what to do. In five minutes, of course, you can’t explain it. But I say: you have to film, you have to show your life, you have to show that you’re a person, not just pictures of an apartment. And they don’t understand what stands behind that. In general, whatever field you take, it should be inspired by a personality; someone has to stand behind it. If a person becomes a realtor and posts pictures of apartments, people are unlikely to come to them and rent anything through them.

It’s word of mouth, it’s going to events where potential clients might be. Because realtors often go toward other realtors. And how can you find a client among realtors? I chose what I like. I love entrepreneurs; that’s what interests me, what inspires me. So I go there, and there are few realtors there. Entrepreneurs have money, but they don’t know who to buy an apartment with. Of course they buy it with me: they’ve seen me in person, talked with me, they trust me. That’s the first thing.

Second: always film what you’re doing. I’m not saying I’m a blogger who does “good morning, guys” every day, but I still sometimes show where I travel, what I drive, how I film this video, who I film with. So you can always tell that I live in Miami, eat there, talk with you, am friends with these people.

And third is consistency. You have to do it constantly. Obviously not every day, but at least two or three times a week, and not like this: “I have my muse today,” and then a month later I have my muse again, and I post a picture of some apartment from Instagram. Clients definitely won’t come that way.

KristinaWhat else?

YanaGive people value. Give information on how they can make their lives easier in this field. For example, if you’re a professional in sports, you can show how to do the exercises correctly, how to eat right. Not revealing everything, but at least some share of the information. Because before I started going to the gym, I didn’t understand anything about nutrition, or proteins, fats, carbohydrates. And only after a year and a half did this information sink in. And it’s great when a person can pass it on themselves.

KristinaSo, expertise.

YanaExpertise, openness, sincerity. You don’t need to invent a version of yourself that you’re not. Honestly, you have to work on your head. I just sit and see that people, because of their complexes and fears, are afraid to show that they’ve underearned somewhere, that they don’t have this or that bag. So they start buying themselves fake bags. Sometimes that may work, but people can feel the fakeness. However much you cover it up, it’s in your eyes, in your facial expressions, in the way you speak—it all shows. So the first thing to work on is the psychological side.

KristinaBut that’s a lot of work. Maybe you’ll agree, maybe not, I don’t know: it took me… The hardest work is the work on yourself.

YanaYes. That’s why I follow three main psychologists, I’ve read hundreds of psychology books, and I enjoy it too. If you ask me what I love, it’s psychology. But I would never in my life position myself that way: read three books and suddenly I’m a coach-psychologist. I do this purely for myself, to understand human psychology. That’s why it’s rare for me to take offense at someone. Of course, there are cases when someone behaves unfairly, but I always try to treat the person with compassion and understanding, to see why they behaved that way. This is where psychology joins the chat.

KristinaPsychology joined the chat. Reach out, Yana will help you. She’s a psychologist, a tarot reader, a realtor, and a numerologist.

YanaRead the stories of successful people, probably. Take history: Walt Disney went around asking for a loan something like two hundred times. And often people, I notice from experience, do something once, get burned, get scared, and that’s it. They say, “Oh, it didn’t work out for me.” That’s not how it works. I’ve had so many rejections, so many times when I worked a lot and earned nothing, that I always felt like giving up. It was really hard. But I still didn’t give up, I believed that someday I’d break through that ceiling. I can’t say it’s broken through now, because it’s still not enough for me, I have to keep going toward a high goal. I’m such a maximalist.

KristinaLike me. This is so familiar to me.

YanaAnd by the way, we were born a month apart. I’m May 14, Kristina is June 14. It’s funny, actually. Here numerology joins the chat.

KristinaYou say you love attending big events with major businesspeople. Do you feel comfortable in that environment, talking to such people one-on-one?

YanaWhen I was in New York a week ago, I needed to go up to Chernyak and ask him a question.

KristinaLet’s explain who Chernyak is, because I think people don’t understand right now who we’re talking about.

YanaChernyak is an entrepreneur who owns the Khortytsa vodka brand. It’s in all the CIS countries and sold in America too. His turnover, or capital, is $500 million. Basically a very successful man who launched his YouTube channel “Big Money,” where he interviews entrepreneurs with no cuts, no editing: in the course of the conversation they tell how their company is doing. That helped me a lot, by the way, because I watched about 50 full episodes. These are owners of million-dollar companies, and it’s very interesting to hear how people got there, what they’re doing now, how they integrate everything. And it’s not “oh, he’s rich, everything is so easy for him.” No, these people have very big problems, and they deal with them so easily. It motivates, inspires, and gives direction.

KristinaHave you met these people?

YanaYes.

KristinaDid you feel comfortable around them, or was there some discomfort after all?

YanaBasically, since I attend such events often, I feel comfortable with them. With Chernyak I got a little tense: I was thinking about how to ask the question so it wouldn’t seem silly to him, whether I should ask it at all. Those thoughts went through my head. And when I started talking with him, it went just like with you, easy and relaxed. And he answered my question very competently and clearly. And how do I feel with other people? Totally comfortable. A person may have no money, yet be very interesting, have lived a life, have such experience that money isn’t the main thing for him.

KristinaDo you judge people by their clothes or, as they say, by their mind?

YanaGood question. I’m just trying to understand for myself… I’m basically always very nice, open, and sincere with everyone. If someone starts talking to me and I realize they’re interesting, I don’t look at any of those things at all. But, of course, we live in a place, Miami, where everyone pays attention to how you’re dressed, how you look, what you drove up in. Those things exist, but I don’t react at all to whether a person has a car. If he doesn’t have a car, I’ll just give him a ride. If he doesn’t have money to go to a restaurant and I invited him, I’ll pay for him. He’s interesting as a person, he has a deep inner world. Because there are people with money who are quite unpleasant.

KristinaSo, friends, that was a warm live conversation. I’d even say it turned out kind of homey. All we’re missing is tea. Two girlfriends just got together and talked a little about life, work, success, some important personal moments. Thank you, my dear. This was very warm.

YanaThank you. It was very sincere. I really got genuine enjoyment out of it. Thank you so much for inviting me.

KristinaWish something to our listeners, the way you do, sincerely, from the heart.

YanaI think there are a lot of people watching this video, and everyone has some inner struggles, fears, worries, self-doubt. They think: she could do it, and another woman could too, but I don’t know how to start. Don’t be afraid, try to figure out what you like, where you’d like to move. Not from where you can earn something, but from what you love. I think you can fall in love with socks and grow a billion-dollar company on socks, for example.

Don’t be lazy, take care of yourselves, exercise, because it’s very important for your health and for how you’ll look in the future. Don’t spend your energy judging and discussing negative situations and people. Of course, sometimes we want to gossip about someone, to discuss, but don’t focus your attention on that. Focus on yourself, on where you’d like to get to, thank the Universe, write down your wishes. That’s basically it. And if you have questions or you’re missing a bit of inspiration, write to me or to Kristina.

KristinaIndeed. And as for real estate, folks, you already know who to reach out to. They’ll truly help you here. Thank you once again, my dear. This was super cool.