Her Story
About Ellie
My career journey has been quite unique. I've been in marketing and sales for about 25 years, but I didn't start out planning this path - it was parties and college at first, and it's not even what I went to school for. I actually started bartending, which taught me everything about sales and customer service. I didn't want to party anymore because I didn't want to be around alcohol, so I focused on the sales part of it. That's when I was headhunted right out of the bar into the AFL-CIO's Working America division, a nonprofit where I became the top recruiter in the nation. I was selling an idea, not something tangible, which was a huge learning curve. I even helped get Senator Obama elected as president and went all over the country with them. Then I was headhunted by a large, family-owned, locally operated real estate brokerage in the Twin Cities. We have about 850 agents, and I do the recruitment, marketing, and development of agents. I brought 200 agents in last year alone. We're rapidly expanding and will probably be licensed in other states beyond Minnesota and Wisconsin very soon. My next career goal is to heavily get into investing, because 89% of all generational wealth is built from real estate, and I'm in a good place for that since I know the best and the brightest in the business in our area.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Ellie
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to perseverance, because this isn't where I was going at first. It was parties and college, and it's not even what I went to school for. There were so many things that changed the trajectory of where I went in my career. I think probably starting to bartend and not wanting to party anymore because I didn't want to be around alcohol, and then getting the sales part of it down really pushed me in. Then I was actually headhunted right out from the bar into the AFL-CIO, and it just kind of went from there. But most importantly, I attribute my success to my mother, Heidi, and my aunt. My mom has 5 sisters, and they're all such strong women. They're all very learned and successful, and that's the stock that I came from. I've had a lot of really strong women behind me always, in all walks of my career path.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Just keep working. Just work. Don't take no for an answer. If you think you can, you can. Sometimes you even have to, in a moment, fake it to make it, but you just do it, you make it happen. My kids called me Miss Make It Happen - I can always pull something together really quickly. You just gotta keep moving forward, and don't let the no's take you down, because there are a lot of no's out there. You have to lead with integrity. Nobody wants a leader that doesn't have integrity. It's okay to be wrong, and that'll just propel you so far. It's so easy to just drop it, say okay, I was wrong, or how do I fix it? Being able to just say I was wrong and taking accountability - that's important.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Honesty and integrity are most important to me in my personal life, and I think it all aligns because I go out to eat and I run into 16 people I know from work. So it all puts you where you're supposed to be. Integrity and honesty, and being forthcoming - those are key. I come from a large family, and we were always together, eating dinner at the table every day. So I think those older family values, too, I really kind of stick to those. Nobody leaves my house hungry. You have to lead with integrity. Nobody wants a leader that doesn't have integrity.
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