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52 closings in your first year sounds like a highlight reel, but the real story is what happens after the adrenaline fades. 

We sit down with Andrea Kugler, a Cincinnati and Hamilton, Ohio real estate agent who’s now a brokerage co-owner and newly building a team, to talk about what it really takes to grow a sustainable real estate career from the ground up. 

Her journey starts nowhere near real estate: nutrition school, personal training, multiple jobs, and a moment of honesty where she admits there’s no longevity in what she’s doing.

Andrea shares how a mentor (who later becomes her father-in-law) kept pushing her to give real estate a shot, why she finally went all-in, and how she handled the steep learning curve that comes with high volume production.

 We dig into the difference between hustle and structure, including the turning point many agents hit: business dips, follow-up gets messy, and you realise “work harder” is not a system. 

We talk CRMs, lead nurture, relationship building, and why you can’t live on 16-hour days forever.

We also go deeper than transactions. 

Andrea opens up about loss, taking time away when her mom battled breast cancer, and returning to a pipeline that felt like starting over. 

The conversation lands on grit, rejection, social media criticism, and a wild metaphor for business growth: training for a triathlon even though she can’t swim yet. 

If you’re a new real estate agent, a solo agent trying to scale, or someone thinking about building a real estate team, there’s a lot here to steal.

Subscribe, share this with an agent who needs a push, and leave a five-star review so more people can find the show.

🎙 Thank You for Tuning in to the R.E.A.L. Real Estate Agent Life Podcast!

We appreciate you joining us for another powerful episode where we dive deep into the world of real estate, mindset, and business growth. If you found value in this conversation, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your network!

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