From Food Stamps to $32M Listings: How Lourdes Maestres Built a Luxury Real Estate Empire

Welcome back to Take It and Run, where we help you stop overthinking. and start doing the things that you’ve been meaning to do in your business and possibly even your life. Today, we have an incredible guest, Lourdes Maestras from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She’s the team leader of the MPH team, and she’s absolutely crushing it in more ways than one, specifically luxury real estate, leading the team, and gosh, she’s gonna get into all of the incredible things she’s up to. But today, we’re gonna unpack. a couple things. One, I want to talk about her venture into luxury real estate. We’re going to talk about how she stays so organized and how she’s absolutely crushing it as a listing agent and helping those around her succeed in a market that we would say definitely isn’t easy. So, Lourdes, thank you for being here. And for anyone who’s not familiar with you, why don’t you give us a little peek into like your quick story. Like how did how did all of this start real estate and specifically getting into the luxury space.

LOURDES MAESTRES: Thank you, Kristi for having me. So yeah, so I’ve been a real estate agent for about 16 years now here in South Florida. When I first started, I worked the Miami market and I transitioned to Fort Lauderdale about 10 years ago. And I started. Basically, after I lost my job, I lost my job as a banker when the economy crashed back in 2008, 2009. And that’s when I made the transition to become a real estate agent. And after being a solo agent and struggling and hustling and cold calling and door knocking and doing all these hard things that we have to do when we get started, about 10 years in, I decided that it was time for me to do something else. So I was either going to go and work at Starbucks, which I’m drinking my drink here, or I was going to build a team. So I decided to build a team. So here I am 16 years later, I have a great team with surrounded by great people. My team is very small operations and we specialize just in the city of Fort Lauderdale. And over the last three to four years, me mainly, I have been focusing on luxury. I like to pursue anybody who owns a home over $3 million. And the reason why is because the ones that don’t will pursue me anyway. So I’m going after the big things.

Kristi Jencks: I it. I also love that she says, I got into real estate in 2008 because I lost my job in the financial industry. How was real estate in 2008 in Miami?

LOURDES MAESTRES: It was bad. It was bad. Everybody was losing their homes. I did tons of short sales. I became the short sale queen in town back in those days, including myself. I had to short sell all my properties and I went through bankruptcy. then I, because I experienced that myself, I was able to get out of that and even buy a home just right after bankruptcy. So I took that as an opportunity to help a lot of people that were in my position at that moment. So that was kind of like the beginnings of what got me passionate and inspired about helping people and, you know, building wealth all over again and having a home.

Kelcie: Yeah. So let’s stay like back to in the beginnings stages. What was life like when you were a solo agent? How did you juggle everything?

LOURDES MAESTRES: When I was a solo agent in the beginning, had basically my systems were three by five index card with a phone number and a name. That was my CRM back in those days and me in my car. Okay. And that was it. and door knocking, lots of door knocking, cold calling. One of the things I did different back in those days is I used to go to the courthouse and I used to sit in the courthouse when the judge, these were foreclosure, settlements, the final judgment summaries for people who had not paid their mortgage for years or months.

Kelcie: in.

LOURDES MAESTRES: And the judge would tell the sellers, the homeowners, you have 90 days to sell your house or we kicking you out. Right. So I will get up from my chair, run to the elevator, chase the homeowner down and say, Hey, before you lose your house, let me do a short sell for you. I just went through this myself. I know how this works. Give me an opportunity. So I got a lot of customers like that. One time they even kicked me out and they kicked me out. And I was so mad that they kicked me out of the court. I stood outside of the front door of the courthouse and I start giving my flyers to everybody. I said, you’re not going to let me in the courthouse. I’m going to stand here and I’m going to get everybody who walks through that door. So I started doing that with attorneys and homeowners. And that’s how I started to get a lot of my business. And then I said, okay, this is really good. So no one’s doing this. Right. And I started to cold call attorneys. So I said, the skills that I learned for expired listings for sell by owners, which by the way, I don’t like for sell by owners, but I did a lot of expires. I said, I’m going to do this for attorneys. And that’s how I started building. my career and it was all the stress assets at that time. But you know, it’s exhausted, it’s a lot of work. You become a financial advisor, a therapist. It’s a different world. Hopefully we won’t go into that direction.

Kristi Jencks: For you, like I’m curious, having started real estate at what arguably is one of the most difficult times in the history of real estate, at least for myself as a 44 year old person, I lived through that myself in my twenties and my husband and I had a home that we had to try to short sell our very first property. Like I said, it was devastating. But for you as a real estate agent, kind of going through that, I literally can’t imagine like, Kelcie, do you picture yourself going into a courthouse and then chasing after? Like, I cannot see a world in where Kristi Jencks would do that. But then I thought, she had no other choice. Like it was, I mean, you know, what was it about your experience that just, were you afraid? I’ve known you for a while. You don’t seem like someone who’s afraid. But what was that like for you? How did you overcome any self-doubt or even fears to be able to be that bold to go into the courthouse and have those conversations?

LOURDES MAESTRES: So I figured I need to get in front of these homeowners. These homeowners are depressed, they’re sad, they’re embarrassed, right? They don’t want their neighbors to know. And I said, who do they trust? They trust their attorneys. I said, what if I can get in the middle? either become their attorney’s preferred real estate agent or I meet them at the courthouse in a very vulnerable moment where they need help. And because I experienced it and I was bankrupt and I didn’t have any money and I went through the same thing. I liquidated everything I had. I had to put food on the table for my kids. For me, it was so easy to relate to them because I was living it. And I said, let me tell you what I just did. I own a house and I own like a million dollars. Okay. And I just sold it for like 280,000 and I filed for bankruptcy chapter seven. And look, this is the paperwork. So it was very easy for me to share that experience with the potential customers, with the homeowners, and for them to relate to me because I was real. Now, the moment that business died down, I transitioned my business into a traditional real estate agent and started selling houses a little bit more expensive. And then it was a little bit of a different target.

Kelcie: At what point did you say, can’t do this on my own anymore. need something. I need to build something bigger than me.

LOURDES MAESTRES: So as I built the business as a listing agent, because I was mainly a listing agent, I built a fund with a group of people and I raised some money and I started using that money to invest. So we started flipping houses. So I did a lot of fix and flips. At some point, I remember one August, I think it was 2013, I had like 10 ongoing projects and I was going crazy. I didn’t sleep. I mean, it was insane. I didn’t have time to go to the gym. I didn’t have time to eat well. I mean, I would go. My kids had the football game and I would show up to the wrong school to watch the wrong kid. I mean, it was a nightmare. So I said, okay, this is this, I can’t do this anymore. I’m burned out. So around 2014, I transitioned my business to being a traditional agent. Also the margins for flipping properties at that time were not that great. So the market changed. It was more a normalized market. And then after that, I said, well, why am I doing all this if I can spend, spend the same amount of energy and sell? hire price homes and make more money and work less. Maybe not work less, but just make more money. So the fact, the last, I would say since 2019, my business model completely changed from being solo and burned out. It was just too much to handle for one person and bringing in people that would help me with my vision and help me grow and build.

Kristi Jencks: Ha ha ha!

LOURDES MAESTRES: So don’t have to do this alone and share the knowledge, share the success, share the struggle. Sharing is caring.

Kristi Jencks: mean, now everybody who knows you, like fast forward, 2025, everybody who knows you, knows you as this luxury listing agent, having some incredibly notable sales in the luxury market. So when did you decide to go into that space? Like, how did you actually make the transition? for our listeners, if you haven’t already caught on, she’s quick to adapt. So she’s like, this isn’t working. I’m going to go to the courthouse. that’s changing. That’s shifting. So I’m going to go into flips. then, the margins are not there. So I’m going to go into traditional. And so now, just in this five minute conversation, we’re in our fourth iteration of your real estate identity. But tell me about that transition. What did that look like?

LOURDES MAESTRES: So the transition happened when I got an appointment for a $3 million condo in Fort Lauderdale. And I was like, my God, $3 million. I’ve never sold a $3 million property. So I went into the appointment. I asked another agent to go with me because I was honestly, I was scared. And I went on the appointment and didn’t get the listing. And I didn’t get the listing because the person that I brought with me, I was trusting that that person was going to lead the meeting and they just didn’t have a system. They didn’t have a presentation. They just talk a lot of. nonsense. So at that moment I said, okay, I need to get organized. If like this person that I just sat with here for two hours talking nonsense is a person just like me, drinks coffee just like me, goes to the same restaurants just like me. Like there’s nothing special about this person other than he has more zero, more money in the bank. Okay. That was the only difference. And at that moment it clicked to me and I said, I can do this. Like what, why am I pursuing $300,000 houses? Let me just pursue the big things because I believe you need to market for what you want, not for what you ha a ton of $300,000 homeow to sell their homes. So l that audience and I’ve al of those people. So that to take advantage of some that I had an opportunit throughout the online le have and all the systems years and take really hon with the first $32 million I took advantage of that and I market that property. market that sell a lot. And then another one just happened. Another one just happened. And then honestly, it’s easier than selling to a $500,000 homeowner. There’s less questions. Decisions are made really fast. They either like you or they don’t like you. There’s really no BS. It’s just straight to the point. And after you come to realize that, you’re like, okay, let me focus my energy on what I want, not what I have. So.

Kristi Jencks: Did you ever have imposter syndrome? you ever feel like, know, I mean, did your identity have to change first or was it just, yeah, I’m just gonna market to this and pursue what I want or was there something internal that happened that led to the structures and systems?

LOURDES MAESTRES: So no, I always felt super confident even when I have never sold anything. So like nobody knew that I had not sold anything. So I don’t know, it’s a personality thing, but I did have to adjust a few things. One of the things I adjusted honestly was my appearance. I needed to dress more conservative. I needed to be, for example, in Fort Lauderdale. Like you can’t show up to a house here, a $5 million house who’s owned by an 80 year old couple who who’ve been there for 25 years and built the house showed up like you’re selling real estate in Miami. You can’t, you will not get the listing. They will not like you. That’s period. I know that sounds racist, but that’s the reality of the market. So I started observing these top agents in my market. How do they dress? Where do they go? What do they do? What does their social media look like? So I started to study the competition and I honestly, every year I print out a list of all the top agents and my goal is to beat them all, right? It’s probably a 10 year plan, but I know exactly what they’re doing. I see how their business has gone down because they haven’t been able to adapt to a lot of the things that I am doing, right? Including like having a presence on chat, GPT, online, YouTube videos, social media, all the stuff that we have to do today. So I started to, and I started to analyze and study them and I took from them what I thought was valuable and I implemented it, you know, with my model. For example, be part of charities. I never did that. I don’t really like socializing like that too much. know, time is very limited. So like that’s one thing that is a business strategy. It’s not, you know, just for the charity. Yes, the charity is great, but it’s honestly for all those people is business strategy. So if you want to play the game, you kind of have to know how to play the game and you got to play the game. So that’s, yeah.

Kristi Jencks: I love that. So what would you tell someone who is stuck in their head and wants to break into the luxury market? What’s their next step?

LOURDES MAESTRES: their next step. if they have had at least one cell that they’ve sold, whatever that means to them, whatever luxury is for them, right? Like for me, luxury is 3 million and up. However, a million dollar home is a very nice home here, right? Whatever that means in some States and people that I coach around the country, like luxury for them is $850,000. I will use that one property and I will market that property, you know, so many times, so many ways I would market the property, how I got it. how I sold it, the activity it had, how I met the owner, what did I do, the whole experience. So grab the story, break the story down and do 10 videos for that. 10 flyers, 10 designs, go and knock on doors, go and call, call, tell everybody in your network that you did this. And you will see how you will start attracting that price point. just starts, it’s a snowball effect. You will start growing and growing and growing little by little. And aside from that, that’s number one. Number two, you have to be extremely knowledgeable. you’ve got to know your numbers. If you don’t know your numbers and you have put all the work to get in front of this high net worth individual, you’re going to lose all your time because they are going to know their numbers more than you. So knowing your numbers, like the market and anybody out there who’s listening, who’s a brand new agent, they can do it. They only have to do is put in the time to learn their numbers. I teach my team how to learn their numbers, how to show up. They are so prepared that you will outperform a top producer. who hasn’t reviewed their numbers in the last month, for example. That’s the ultimate goal. And the more you do, the better you’re to get. Another question I ask my team or anybody who wants to learn the market and have more market knowledge. I ask them, how many CMAs have you done? And two, three, show me, show me your computer. How many CMAs have you done? I just looked at mine yesterday, 505 CMAs I’ve completed. Okay. You think I know my numbers? So, That’s basically like people don’t put in, not just people, real estate agents don’t put in the time that it’s required to be able to do that kind of business. And I promise you, if they do, they will start seeing results. And then be intentional about where you go, where you eat, how you dress. You can’t dress like you’re going to a party in South Beach in a club. You’re not gonna get hired. You’ll get hired by maybe one bachelor guy who wants to take you out, but you have to dress professionally. It’s funny. It’s a stupid conversation, but it’s so true. I see it all the time.

Kelcie: Yeah. I feel like you kind of answered my next question, which was, you’ve become known as a listing specialist. You’re not just a listing agent. You’re a specialist. And I was going to ask what you attribute that success to. Like, what’s your edge? But I feel like you kind of just listed a lot of it, unless there’s something else, some other secret sauce.

LOURDES MAESTRES: So the way I built my model from the early days, I was always a listing agent because I was pursuing listings. Now I did buyers and I did listings, I did both. I did rentals, I did commercial leases, I mean, you name it. In the beginning, I would say yes to everything, I will drive three hours. Now I don’t. Now I’m only the city of Fort Lauderdale, my county, and I only do listings. because I’ve been able to build a team of great people who handle the buyers. We still service the buyers. We want to help everybody. We still serve as the $100,000 condo. I don’t want to say no to those people because I know what it is to, they need to be with a professional like us. So we want to help everybody. But me personally, my time where I am today, my career, I’m focused mainly on the three million and up.

Kelcie: So how do you prep sellers for success, like especially when you’re shifting or you’re in a competitive market? Like how do you prep sellers for success?

Kristi Jencks: Excellent.

LOURDES MAESTRES: Sellers in the luxury market know the numbers, they know what they want. And the motivation is never the same. The motivation is, especially in my market, we have a lot of second homes and a lot of investors. So the motivation is really about money. And if the money is not there, they just won’t sell. So the way I prepare my sellers is before I meet with anybody, I do an entire market analysis. And that’s not just a CMA, it’s research and… every single statistic about what’s going on, identifying any trends that are happening with the buyers. Where are the buyers coming from? Are the buyers cash or finance? Are they getting seller financing? Are they doing assumable loans? Like what is it, what can I identify that I can share with a seller before I even meet with them to prepare them to bring them from here to at least here? So with all this information, even if they may not have an analytical. personality and they may be super expressive and they may not read my entire email that I prepare for two hours, I will still show up there and just with that presentation alone, they already know that I’m knowledgeable about the market. So I’ve already won them over before I even got to the appointment. And at that moment, it’s just a matter of like, okay, let’s look at the home condition. What’s your goal timeline? How do we move from here? Does it make sense to sell or not?

Kelcie: Mm-hmm. Have you ever lost a listing that you really thought you had locked in? Yeah. What did that teach you? What did that teach you?

LOURDES MAESTRES: Yeah, of course. And we lose all the time. Yeah. For me, when I don’t get a listing, so obviously we’re very competitive, right? So we’re in sales. I don’t like losing at all, but sometimes I say no a lot. And it’s funny because every time I say no, then they want to hire me more. Look, like two nights ago, I was up until like 11 o’clock doing an analysis and the client is going to lose money. And I just basically told them, this is the truth. I can’t help you. can’t help you. And they want me to list the properties, even if I told them the truth. Yeah, I lose all the time. We lose all the time. We’re not going to win every single time. I’m OK losing if the reason we’re losing is because we didn’t have an agreement on price because that listing is going to expire. And all I do is watch the market. And when they expire, then they’ll come back to me at some point. have. people that I know for years who had cheated on me, they don’t get go and list the property very high and then they come back to me six months later. So it’s okay. Now, typically that will be the only reason I would lose a listing is because of the price situation, because my presentation is so good, so professional, so complete. Every single seller that I present to is very impressed with how we present a presentation at the table.

Kelcie: Thank

Kristi Jencks: Yeah, which, you know, here’s the thing, is what I know about you is it’s very systemized, it’s very structured. Were you always that way or how did you, like, at what point did you know, like, it just can’t be Lourdes doing all of this stuff?

LOURDES MAESTRES: So I was always very organized and disciplined, but as I evolved, learned and got really busy, I got better at delegating certain things and then trying to figure it out. Okay, how do I don’t want to do this all over again? How do we do this repeat without having to do all the crazy work again? So yeah, so as we evolved and we started doing so much business, we have created many standard operating procedures. So everything is a little bit easier and we track. think the secret of us. as real estate agents is to track what we’re doing. Like track the time that’s taking you to do a CMA, track the time that’s taken you to analyze deals, underwrite deals, track the time that is taking you to, you know, preview all the properties. And then you can really say, you can really set the right expectation when you’re talking to people. you know, that’s really like set an expectation as part of the game. We need to set the right expectations. don’t want. sellers and buyers abusing us, right? We kind of want to set the tone like I’m the professional here, here’s how we’re to work. Like I have, you know, people that will wait for me two, three days to meet with them and talk about the house. You can’t wait for me for two to three days to talk about one of the most important cells in your life. I mean, then I’m not the right agent for you. It’s like a doctor. If I’m going to go have surgery, I’m like, I’ll wait three months. I’ll wait a year.

Kristi Jencks: With you being as busy as you are, I’m curious, like what are some of the tools that you just cannot operate out of? Like let’s start as an agent. What are the tools that you use on a daily basis that help you be more efficient as a real estate agent?

LOURDES MAESTRES: So I’m a little old fashioned, even though I have a ton of technology. I use my MLS inside out and I know all the clicks. know what everything’s for. everything that I operate, a study is for the MLS. And then from that, I look at a lot of different reports, but the CRM, for example, one of the things I did, especially this year, I removed my personal cell phone number from everywhere and I put my follow-up boss phone number. Everywhere all my marketing all my pieces everything. I no longer have a writer that has my personal phone number in there So now every call is recorded Everything is there. It’s all visible to my team If I go away for a month, my team can read all the notes They can listen to the conversations if I transfer a client to one of my team members My team member will be able to get insights of my relationship with that client That right there is super important. wish I would have done this many, many years ago because before I was operating out of three by five index cards, right? I don’t have that information anymore, but using the CRM. And it’s funny because we all have it, but nobody uses it. I think optimizing your CRM and using your CRM, it’s going to make a big difference as a real estate agent. You’ll be able to have freedom. You’ll be able to have systems in place and nobody needs to call you to ask you a stupid question like, Go on the CRM and read the notes, you know?

Kristi Jencks: You’re in the right crowd here. Kelcie and I will send you a check later because this is something that we preach all the time. But okay, so that’s you as an agent. If you didn’t hear and you want to become the powerhouse that Lourdes is, she says, use your CRM. But now let’s talk as a team leader. So what technology, I know you guys are an EOS team and, you know, have your rocks every single quarter and every single staff member has their KPIs and their rocks and they’re compensated on that. What’s, you know, and it can be as simple as Google Sheets or as complicated as SISU. What’s something as a team leader, like what’s the tech that you can’t operate your team without?

LOURDES MAESTRES: So because we are an EOS team, we track absolutely everything. I we track as little as like how many stories we put on Instagram. I can tell you right now, if I go and look at my sheet, my Google sheet, I will be able to tell you specifically how many properties has one of my agents showed. For example, Patricia, who’s my top producer, has showed almost 500 properties a year to date because we track where do they go, what time they’re going. how many calls they made, how many text messages, how many emails, because I want to be able to determine and understand what does it take for a real estate agent to succeed in my market based on these market conditions, how many calls, how many appointments, how many visits. So I would say that is like the main sheet that I have to run my business and to really know where I am today. I can predict how much money we’re gonna make in the next three months. I can predict everything. Now to coach my team, to help my team, I recently, implemented Shiloh, which is an integration through follow up boss. And it basically coaches my agents, right? Because I’m very busy. I don’t have time to talk to everybody every day. And every time they receive a call, they get coach on that call. What could they have done better and what they did right. So they help them improve. That’s one of the greatest tools that I have that I recommend any team leader who has agents to do that. I tried it myself because I wanted to see, and even I got coached. Like it’s so cool. So I’m not on it anymore. But my team is on that. We have many other platforms. Recently, we just implemented a Ruuster R-U-U-S-T-R, which is, so now we have our own app and now we’re changing all the systems all the time. SISU is another one that we use to see as far as financials, where we are, deals and everything else and the source. But every category in the team has a Google sheet for what are the things they need to do, who did it, when did they do it? No matter what it is, anything, any activity, any project. We also use Hubstaff. We actually have the free account. I don’t pay for it. We have five users in there. Anybody can use that because sometimes I get ideas at 10, 11 o’clock at night. I’m not going to call my team. We’re like, Hey guys, do this. So I go in there, I put in the whole project and then they wake up the next day and they see like, okay, here’s a project. So I stay very organized on that because, you know, I get, I sometimes I’m on a plane and I’m like, my God, I’ve got all these great ideas. I just learned, I just came up the Tom Perry conference. I just spoke to this person, this person, and I put everything on paper and then translates to the team so they can, they can execute them on what makes sense.

Kristi Jencks: Love it.

Kelcie: That’s awesome. Okay, we’re going to shift a little bit. So let’s talk about something that’s working surprisingly well for you right now. What’s something that’s working for you, whether it’s marketing or some kind of messaging or lead gen? What’s just working for you right now?

LOURDES MAESTRES: What’s working for us right now is the combination of all the marketing efforts throughout the last five, six years. So doing one thing is not enough to be able to win at a high level, right? Before I didn’t have any money, so I would do one thing, right? And try that until something happened. Now today, since we build a business and we build a team that’s always generating opportunities every single day, doesn’t matter what happens, we have been able to reinvest a lot of that money back into marketing. So we have benches, we have letters going out, we have an ISA team call calling, right, these leads. We have, one of the latest things I have is I order an inflatable doll with my face on it. And we just started doing that not too long ago, but be careful, it’s illegal here, so I may get fined for it. So do not do it unless you know your rules and your city. But, so it’s a combination of all those things. So like I go to schedule an appointment at the dentist and they know who I am. And the reason they know who I am is because they see me everywhere. So I would say it’s not one thing. It’s doing everything together, but you have to start somewhere. So you start with one thing. You don’t have any money. You start cold calling until you get business. Once you have a little bit of money, then you start sending out letters. And then once you have a little bit more money, then you do the benches or billboards. I don’t do billboards. That’s crazy expensive, but I know it works. There’s many top agents who do it. Right. And then you want to get to the point where you go to the supermarket and everybody, you’re the lady from the flyer. You’re the lady from the letter. And finally, after all these years, that’s how I feel that where I am with my business today. And so I would say it’s a combination of all those efforts together, not just one thing.

Kelcie: So when something flops, you tend to just, do you try to fix it or do you walk away from it kind of easily if something just doesn’t pan out?

LOURDES MAESTRES: If something doesn’t pan out, I mean, we’ve got to find out why. No, we get rid of it right away. mean, there’s no point of it. There’s no point right away. It’s just like if someone is not working out, there’s no point either, right? There’s certain things you just can’t fix. If it has a solution, we’re going to find the solution. But I typically, when I’m investing in marketing, as another advice I always tell people around me is, if you don’t have them funds to do it for at least one year, don’t do it.

Kelcie: That’s some good advice.

LOURDES MAESTRES: Because it takes a year to figure out if it’s gonna work. I start sending letters, I never send letters. I I build everything with sweat equity and nine months later, I’m like, nothing, nothing, nothing. But I’m like, I know it’s gonna take some time. All of a sudden, nine months later, two listings. So you have to be patient. And the problem that we have as salespeople is we want things now, especially with this generation, we want things now, right? We want it to happen right away. No, we have to be patient with the process. because those that are pa will see great results at And there’s certain thing you’re

Kristi Jencks: Yeah. OK, I like it. If you haven’t caught on, she is very coachable. Her ego doesn’t get in the way. If something’s not working, she figures out why. And like she said, she lets go, she moves on. So we’ve, we’ve covered strategy. We’ve talked about some systems. We’ve talked about the luxury marketplace. Something I haven’t heard you talk a lot about, but as a friend, as a coach, something that I know that you’ve been really focused on is your health and your freedom and this journey to protect both. So I’m curious, like, What were some of the signs, Lord, is for you that something needed to change, right? That you needed to, you know, maybe take back some, some of your health, take back some of your freedom. What does that look like for you?

LOURDES MAESTRES: So last year I went through a lot of changes in my team. I had about 22 people, sales agents in my team, and I kind of clean house. And we’re down to like seven or eight people at the moment. So I kind of felt like, okay, my time is the most valuable asset I have. The only thing I have is time. I have to use it wisely. I have two grandkids. And I said, okay, I need to be able, even my grandkids are on my calendar for Friday and Sundays. So like, I need to be able to manage my time. And I was giving too much time to people that didn’t deserve my time. And so I made a decision in 2025 and I told my staff, said, I do not want to get stupid calls. I don’t want to call asking me, where can I find the contract and the Google drive? No, no, no. Figure that thing out. So I said, I do not, I only want to spend my time and give my time to those that deserve it. We’re going to do what I say. Like if you don’t do your phone calls and you expect to come to me and me to help you, I’m not going to help you make your calls. You’ll get on my calendar, right? Because I’m only going to help you if you really deserve to be helped as a, as a real estate agent, if you work in my team. Okay. That’s, that’s how it goes. So I said, just like that, it was affecting my, my mental health. I mean, I was like super stressed out. I felt betrayed by a ton of people. had agents who I’ve had to sue because they didn’t pay me. mean, it went through all kinds of different things. So 2025 I said, that’s it enough. Lord has comes first, everything else is after. I had 32 % body fat. I said, okay, I didn’t realize I was even overweight until I started looking at my videos. I’m like, okay, now I change a lot. So I said, okay, I need to do something. So I went on this journey. I hired a trainer. I joined like three different gyms. I started to eat super, super clean and started to track everything I was doing. Again, tracking. I started to track first what I was eating. and realize, oh my God, I’m so much rice. I’m eating plantains with cheese every day. Like, this is ridiculous. I gotta stop all this stuff. So then when I finally understood what I was eating, then I changed the diet and I really went all in. And like yesterday, just yesterday, I went to the doctor and did the test and I’m at 23%. So I went from 32 % body fat to 23%. So I’ve lost a lot of weight, a lot of body fat. I feel great. And I just, you know, I can’t feel any better. And for me, my routine in the morning, I, nobody can change my routine in the morning. It’s super, super important. First me and then everything else. I can give a hundred percent to the clients, a hundred percent to my team, a hundred percent to my family, a hundred percent to everybody else. So I also travel a lot. I do cycling. I do hiking. I do, I do crazy stuff and stuff I’ve never done before. Now that I’m 47 years old, when I was 20, I didn’t have time to do those things. I didn’t have money to do those things. And I honestly, I didn’t like doing those things. Now I like doing all kinds of fun adventures.

Kristi Jencks: So it sounds like you first had to put in some boundaries, but maybe even before the boundaries, was it like a vision? When you said, know, Lourdes needs to come first and, know, did you know that I wanted to travel more, I wanted to be at a lower body fat percentage? Like, what did you envision for yourself in 2025?

LOURDES MAESTRES: I started to feel a little bit burned out emotionally and physically. And that’s when I said, I’m not going to let what happened to me last time happen again. So I made a conscious decision to like, kind of like do what I want to do a little bit sooner. You know, I always thought about in my mid fifties, I’m, know, I’ll travel a lot. like, why am going to wait until my mid fifties to go to, I don’t know, Japan to Mount Fuji, you know, at 55, I probably won’t, you know, not going to have the same energy. Let me do this right now. I can balance it. have such a great team. And honestly, the only reason I’m able to do all the things I want to do today is because of the team and systems I built. If I didn’t have my precious ladies, Angela and Angelica, and the systems and the SOPs for everything, my team would not be able to run. I’m able to do things now, finally, but I’m also able to produce at a very high level and the business will not be disrupted. you know, I honestly, I feel like I found the perfect balance. Hopefully this will last forever, but you know, that’s where I am today. It’s, feel like, like super accomplished that I got great lifestyle, healthy, feel great. And my business is running at a super high level. So it’s, like a dream come true.

Kristi Jencks: So if someone who’s listening is running on fumes, right? Like they’re just, running on fumes. What do you want them to hear from your experience on that and from your story?

LOURDES MAESTRES: So I’ve been there. I know what it is. We need to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I always knew that I was going to be successful, even though I had no money and I was on food stamps. I always knew that I was going to make a lot of money, even though at that time I didn’t have money to pay the mortgage. So it’s it’s it’s I knew that it was going to happen because when you do the right activities, you know, everything else is it’s just is by default. It’s going to happen. You’re going to win. But the problem is we just need to work on our mindset so we don’t give up. A lot of people give up too soon, so they never get to see the success. And then they work crazy hard for three months, for a year, maybe two, and they don’t see the results because they want it now. But if there is definitely, if you put in the hard work, just like every person that I met who’s very successful, they’ve gone through all the struggles. there’s no, everybody has struggled. I mean, there’s some people are lucky that maybe wake up with a lot of money, but I would say the majority of the people that I know are self-made. Everybody has struggled. Everybody has been poor. You just need to not let that you know, kick you out of game. You need to keep going so you can actually see the results of your hard work. I’ve always had a vision and I’ve always had hope. I’ve always believed in myself. And I, you know, I don’t think I’m lucky. think I created that opportunity and I always kind of knew, I don’t know, it’s a gut feeling. I was like, I know like if I do 30 calls, someone’s going to say yes to me. It’s the same thing. Like if I work this and I hire these people and I sell these amount of houses and I sell this and I market this way, this is going to happen. So having a vision and how to do it, you will learn the how to as you evolve because I didn’t know anything. I’ve learned from everybody in the industry that’s very successful, including you, Kristi. So the how to, you’re going to figure it out. Not losing hope.

Kristi Jencks: Yeah, it sounds like you’ve, it sounds like you invested in yourself, right? So like, I got chills, because I’m like, yeah, like, I love that. She’s like, I just knew she had this undeniable belief in herself. And she didn’t sit on her couch and wait for it to happen. She went out and worked. But I also know you’ve invested in yourself. You’ve invested in mentors. You travel to conferences, you invest in your friendships and in your peers in coaching. You are a coach as well giving back. so believe in yourself is what I hear. Invest in yourself, bet on yourself, and then get to work.

LOURDES MAESTRES: and take it and run.

Kelcie: Yeah, so I’ve got some just five questions with whatever comes to mind first What’s one underrated strategy agents should try right now?

Kristi Jencks: I like it. Well, let’s do some rapid fire, Kelcie.

LOURDES MAESTRES: Underrated strategy. They need to make some phone calls. That’s what they need to be doing. Nobody wants to work. Everybody wants to post a video and make a million dollars. No, you need to get on the phone.

Kelcie: Yep, preach. Okay, so what’s one system or app that you can’t live without?

LOURDES MAESTRES: Instagram.

Kelcie: Okay. What’s a leadership or mindset book that’s changed how you operate?

LOURDES MAESTRES: One of the first book I read was Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki that my dad gave me many, many years ago. I’ve read that book a couple of times. That’s one of my favorite books. Today, I I read all kinds of books, but I actually don’t read. I listen. I buy the book. I buy the book. So I listen. And when I have something that I really, I go back to the page and I highlight it. And Traction as a business owner, I recommend everybody should read that.

Kelcie: yeah, we’re listeners over here.

LOURDES MAESTRES: It doesn’t matter the business you’re in, even if you sell ice cream and you want to sell a lot of ice cream, you need to read them.

Kelcie: 100%. What is one mistake you’ve made that ended up being a great lesson?

LOURDES MAESTRES: mistake. Talk about my divorce. I’m kidding.

Kelcie: girl.

LOURDES MAESTRES: I’m joking, I’m joking. So many years ago, I don’t even remember. One mistake I’ve learned that ended up being a great lesson. Honestly, I’ve hired a lot of wrong people and that has been a lesson because now I know exactly what I want. So I would say that.

Kelcie: Yes. Okay, so last one. What’s one habit or mindset shift that an agent should adopt this week?

LOURDES MAESTRES: One habit. If you find yourself that you don’t have enough time to do things, just wake up early. That’s one habit right there. If you wake up at six, wake up at 530. If you wake up at five and you still don’t have time, wake up at 430.

Kristi Jencks: OOF

Kelcie: love that.

Kristi Jencks: She’s like no BS. That’s what I love like it’s just like it’s wake up earlier like you all you don’t have time wake up earlier

LOURDES MAESTRES: I tell that to my team. like, oh, I don’t have time. I’m running. What time did you wake up today? Okay. Six? All right. So tomorrow you wake up at five.

Kelcie: Yeah. You are literally Kristi’s Yeah. You’re literally Kristi’s ideal coaching client. I love to see it. I don’t get, I don’t get in on these like moments a whole lot, but it makes me happy to see.

Kristi Jencks: Yeah, no, Lourdes, we appreciate you so much for being here. So a couple things, like one, if obviously if you have anybody in the Fort Lauderdale area that you guys want to send to Lourdes, she’ll give us that information. are you hiring agents? Are you looking to bring hardworking, wake up early, get your stuff done agents?

LOURDES MAESTRES: So on average, we get about 500 applicants that apply for the team for different positions, all kinds of positions. We don’t hire that many. We’re very, very strict. But we are hiring. We’re looking to grow. But we’re looking for people who are special, people who have that discipline. I don’t need to teach them how to swim. I’m to throw you in the ocean of opportunities, and you’ve got to swim. So we’re looking for people that can swim.

Kristi Jencks: I like that. So what’s the best way for people to connect with you, to learn more about you, possibly by an inflatable, you know, open house type person, send you the referrals, what’s the best way for them to connect?

LOURDES MAESTRES: So the best way for me is Instagram. You can connect with me through Instagram, me a DM, and we will respond.

Kristi Jencks: And is that just Lourdes Maestres What’s your Instagram handle?

LOURDES MAESTRES: Yeah. So Instagram is Lourdes Maestres Yes. Just follow me on Instagram. And if you have anything that you want to ask me, feel free to send me a DM and we’ll help you out. Listen, we take care of all kinds of clients from a hundred thousand dollar condo to a $70 million house. Like we don’t say no to people. Everybody deserves to have a good real estate agent. So we are here to serve them. And my team is fully trained to serve our every single seller and buyer out there or tenant landlord. Yeah.

Kelcie: Awesome.

Kristi Jencks: can attest to that. Yes, I can absolutely attest to that. That is so true. And I know how hard the agents and the staff work and how much you pour into them and you know, how much you guys care about your clients and doing what’s right for your clients. So, Lourdes, we thank you so much for being here. This episode was absolutely packed with strategy. And, you know, if you didn’t pick up on what she was putting down, right, don’t just listen and be inspired, right?

LOURDES MAESTRES: Take it and run. Take it and run. Okay? Stop the nonsense. overthinking. Let’s go. Okay. All right. Thank you, Kristi Bye, Kelcie.

Kristi Jencks: Sign us out, Lourdes, do it. Don’t just get inspired. I love it. I love it. Thank you so much.

Kelcie: Thank Amazing. Thank you, Lourdes. Bye.