Dreamers: “They told me it was impossible and I did it anyway” With Melanie Hartmann

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Select no more than three goals to focus on at one time. Ideally, focusing only on one at a time. It’s important to write these goals down every single day. I do not currently do this but try to most days. Doing so allows you to check-in with your goal(s) and yourself to make sure that what you are working towards continues to align with your values and what you want out of life.

As a part of our series about “dreamers who ignored the naysayers and did what others said was impossible”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Melanie Hartmann, owner of Creo Home Buyers, a house-buying company in Maryland.

Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to ‘get to know you’ a bit better. Can you tell us your ‘backstory’?

Well, I was born and raised in Baltimore, MD. Having grown up in Baltimore, I knew there was so much good there and I felt that the best way for me to make a positive impact was to work in that school system. Through lots of trials and tribulations, I became a school psychologist and landed a job in that district. Unfortunately, after several years, I realized that while I loved much of what I did, the career was ultimately not a good fit for me. While I no longer actively work in the field of school psychology, it still holds a very dear place in my heart. I now own and operate a house-buying company in Baltimore, MD.

As our business grows, the more we will be able to work on our mission of supporting disadvantaged youth by supporting academic interventions in schools, job training, and scholarships for college.

Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that will help people?

I am working on establishing the credibility of our company and the visibility of our website so that we can reach more people that might need to or benefit from selling their property in a non-traditional way. The more the business grows, the more value we provide to others, makes achieving our mission and our vision of helping others more of a reality.

In your opinion, what do you think makes your company or organization stand out from the crowd?

Honesty. Genuine

and a genuine desire to help others. Yes, I am in this business with the goal to make a profit on every single deal we do. However, our underlying mission drives us forward and our plan is to begin actively focusing on this mission in 2020. As our company grows, so will the positive impact that we will be able to make in the lives of others who might have had the odds stacked against them as I did growing up. I want to be able to provide that support to those who want it and need it. I know that without outside help and support I likely would not have made it nearly as far as I did.

Ok, thank you for that. I’d like to jump to the main focus of this interview. Has there ever been a time that someone told you something was impossible, but you did it anyway? Can you share the story with us? What was your idea? What was the reaction of the naysayers? And how did you overcome that?

I honestly don’t remember exactly when the idea of investing in real estate first popped into my head, but I believe it may have been when I was about 19 or 20. I remember when my mother purchased her first house and her realtor showed us a chart that detailed exactly how much money she had “thrown away” on rent over the years. It was shocking to me. That chart showed me the value of owning rental properties and I just knew that investing in real estate was ultimately something that I wanted to do.

Money of course was needed, as was a secure and steady job so that I could afford to purchase these properties. Well, I checked off all of those boxes and had saved up for a down payment on a rental property. By the time I was ready to buy, the market had begun to pick up again and what I had saved was no longer enough. I looked for almost a year, but I had no properties to show for it. I researched how other investors acquired their properties and I decided to leave my relatively safe and steady full-time career as a school psychologist, a career that I had worked so incredibly hard to obtain, to jump all in into real estate investing full-time. Many people cautioned me not to but I came to realize that if you want things you’ve never had, you must do things you’ve never done. Yes, the possibility of failure was and is very real. Businesses go under every day! However, I just knew this was something I needed and truly wanted for myself. Ultimately, it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

It was in 2018 that I made the decision to leave my career as a school psychologist to start a company that buys houses in Baltimore, MD. The day I made that decision I posted the idea on BiggerPockets, a website for networking and learning about real estate investing. The outpour of naysayers was shocking to me. I expected it from my friends and family, but I naively assumed that of all places, BiggerPockets would be the most supportive forum to express my dream of pursuing real estate investing. Though, looking back at and reading my initial post, I can understand where those naysayers were coming from. My closest friends and family all expressed their concerns about my decision, and understandably so, but ultimately stated they’d support whichever direction I decided to take. However, I knew deep down that this was what I wanted to do, and I was going to go after it. It was a crazy idea and I was fully aware that it may not work out. I also knew that if I only dipped my toe in rather than jumping in full-time, I wouldn’t give it my all, so I went all-in.

To minimize the naysayers in my life, I didn’t bring up my dream or what I was doing to most people outside of the real estate world. If you aren’t actively investing in real estate and don’t want to be, it is more than a little intimidating. Just about everyone knows at least one person who “failed” at it in some way or another and are more than happy to share those horror stories with you. I was fully aware that most people who pursue real estate investing end up giving up before they really ever get started. If I had quit after 1 month, 2 months, or even 5 months, I wouldn’t have closed on my first deal. If I had quit, I would have been just another statistic that didn’t make it. I was determined to prove to myself that I could do this and so I bore down and kept pushing.

To say that my first year in business was difficult would be an understatement. I had minimal experience in real estate, next to no connections in the real estate industry, and so many other things that were stacked against me. It was much more difficult than I anticipated but I knew it was possible even if others didn’t believe. I realized early on that in order to be successful I had to surround myself with people who were doing what I wanted to do.

In the end, how were all the naysayers proven wrong? 🙂

From the day I decided to leave my career to start a house-buying company, it took me almost six months before I closed on my first deal. Six months! And the little amount I made certainly did not come close to covering the expenses I had incurred over those six months. However, even though it was small, it was with that closed deal that I proved to myself that my dream was possible. Once that happened, I knew it would become easier to ignore or dismiss any naysayer that came my way. A few months and a few deals later I bought a property in cash that needed to be torn down. I ended up selling it to a builder and invested the vast majority of those profits back into my business. A few more deals later, and now we are rehabbing our first house of 2020 in Baltimore, MD. It’s still amazing to me to think that just two years ago how completely different my life was. Never in a million years would I have thought I would leave my career to pursue real estate investing full-time and that I’d be in the middle of rehabbing houses in Baltimore or writing an article about it such as this one.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Other than my husband, my best friends, and the family I have who have always supported me, the first person that came to mind is Jerryll Noorden. What’s even funnier is that I have yet to meet this individual in person but his influence on my real estate journey simply cannot be denied. He was there on BiggerPockets actively defending my decision against the naysayers. Why? Well, he had been there and done that himself and is now widely successful. He is a robotics scientist who used to work for NASA. He left his lucrative career to pursue real estate investing full-time without really knowing what he was doing before-hand, similar to me. He was there on BiggerPockets to put some wind in my sails. His support meant a lot to me, probably more than he will ever know. Leaving my career wasn’t the “wise” or “safe” decision but seeing someone else who had done this, struggled through it but was determined to be successful (and ultimately was) was and is truly an inspiration to me. I’m working with him now to further grow my business and I can’t wait to see what the year 2020 and beyond will bring!

It must not have been easy to ignore all the naysayers. Did you have any experiences growing up that have contributed to building your resiliency? Can you share the story with us?

My mother and I moved around a lot so I never really felt like I had a place to call home. We had many eviction scares during my childhood. I got into the habit of saving any money I received to cover any shortages in rent so we wouldn’t lose our place. As soon I was old enough to be employed, I got a job partially for this very reason. Many things were stacked against me growing up but the one thing I knew was that once I had the ability to control what happened in my life, I would not live that way as an adult. I wanted a better life for myself and any children that I might have. That was my drive early on. I just wanted to get as far away from that life as I possibly could. It took me a while to find my path but I never stopped working and searching for it. Looking back, every single thing that I have truly ever wanted in my life I have achieved or obtained through hard work and a determination not to quit. This is not to boast or brag, but it was a truth that helped me stick with this real estate journey, especially in the beginning when at times it all seemed nearly impossible. You have to believe in yourself and your mission or the slightest thing will knock you down and keep you down. Instead of saying, “I can’t” ask yourself, “How can I?” It’s truly amazing the possibilities that your brain will come up with when you remove “not” and insert “how.”

Based on your experience, can you share 5 strategies that people can use to harness the sense of tenacity and do what naysayers think is impossible? (Please share a story or an example for each)

  1. Select no more than three goals to focus on at one time. Ideally, focusing only on one at a time. It’s important to write these goals down every single day. I do not currently do this but try to most days. Doing so allows you to check-in with your goal(s) and yourself to make sure that what you are working towards continues to align with your values and what you want out of life.
  2. Surround yourself with people who are doing the things that you want to do. If you are always the most experienced person in the room, you need to find yourself a new room to hang out in. Yes, it’s intimidating but once you show that you are serious those who are more experienced are often more than happy to help you move on to the next level. You just have to find the right people.
  3. Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Growth and change is uncomfortable but it’s simply a part of the process. In fact, if you are not uncomfortable in your pursuits then you aren’t pushing yourself hard enough. If you want change, you have to get out of your comfort zone. There’s no other way around it. Eventually, your comfort zone will expand and what was once scary is scary no longer, pushing you to new areas of growth.
  4. Know that there will be challenges but they don’t mean you are on the wrong path. If you are going after and working towards something that you truly desire, you must believe that it will be worth it. Even if you have to change course and try a different path, as long as you are working towards your goal, it will all be worth it in the end.
  5. If you are going after something big or something that is drastically different than anything you have ever done, you must build your support network. Yes, you will find that even among the most well-meaning of your friends and family there will be a never-ending supply of naysayers. Your support network must include people who truly want to see you succeed and who will push you to keep going even when times are challenging. If you surround yourself with people who have “been there, done that” it’s a heck of a lot easier to ride out all of the storms that will inevitably arise.

What is your favorite quote or personal philosophy that relates to the concept of resilience?

ADD A JOKE OR REMOVE THIS FROM EARLIER. If you want something you’ve never had, you must do something you’ve never done. The pull towards a goal must be greater than the desire to remain the same, otherwise it will be too easy to give up once the challenges start piling on.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

NO MORE HUMBLE BEGININGS. Our mission is to give back to our local community through academic and career supports. I’m not yet sure what that will entail but it will be on a small scale in 2020. In 2021, we have plans to grow and expand the charitable side of our business. If we could eventually expand our efforts nationwide, well, that would truly be another dream come true!

Can our readers follow you on social media?

Yes, we haven’t been as active on social media as of yet but we plan to expand that side of our business in 2020 as well. You can follow us on Twitter

Thank you for these great stories. We wish you only continued success!

Dreamers: “They told me it was impossible and I did it anyway” With Melanie Hartmann was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Dreamers: “They told me It was impossible and I did it anyway” With Jill Stanton of Screw The Nine…

Dreamers: “They told me It was impossible and I did it anyway” With Jill Stanton of Screw The Nine To Five

So often people focus on what they think they have to DO in order to get what they want, but that’s backwards. Instead, you need to determine who you need to BE — the beliefs you need to live by, the habits you need to have, the characteristics you need to embody and the identity you need to maintain to achieve what you want to achieve. For example, if you want to be an entrepreneur and start a business you have to be driven by a desire to serve people, you need to be consistent, comfortable with the uncomfortable, a risk taker, self-motivated, unfazed by other people’s opinions and self aware…to name a few.

However, what most people do is think they need to operate from a place of pure push and grit in order to create what they want. Yet most of the time that simply ends in frustration and burnout because grit and hustle will only take you so far. It’s the ways of BE’ing that will carry you through moments of failure, stress and uncertainty and help you create everything you say you want.

As a part of our series about “dreamers who ignored the naysayers and did what others said was impossible”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jill Stanton.

Jill Stanton is the co-founder of Screw The Nine To Five where she helps unsatisfied employees quit their jobs and start online businesses. Coined by Forbes as “a destination for up-and-coming online entrepreneurs,” Screw The Nine To Five has inspired tens of thousands of new entrepreneurs to quit their jobs, build thriving businesses, and live lives of meaning and purpose.

Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to ‘get to know you’ a bit better. Can you tell us your ‘backstory’?

Our story begins back in 2009 in Toronto, Canada where we met on a blind date. The rest is history, and we’ve been traveling the world (having lived in 14 countries together so far), running our businesses and raising our little guy from anywhere with a Wi-Fi connection.

Speaking of businesses…

We started our first business together in 2012 on a whim when Josh pitched me the idea of starting a skincare affiliate site together as a way of replacing the income we were each making from our individual businesses at that time. We soon had over 30 websites in different niches from skin care to weight loss to supplements to personal hygiene to high heels.

In December 2012 we were in Costa Rica for our wedding. We were sitting on our balcony, having a quiet moment before welcoming our guests and we started talking about starting ANOTHER website. This time though our site would share our story and everything we had learned building these sites while traveling the world, and Screw the Nine to Five was born.

The only problem was, we had never built a personal brand before or put our names and faces “out there” in any kind of “expert” capacity. Our first online course launch sold precisely ZERO and while that nearly took us out of the game (because we felt SO defeated), it was one of the best lessons we learned because it taught us the importance of teaching what you know. We pivoted our business to start teaching affiliate marketing, had our first successful launch (a whopping $8,400!) and then our second ($38,000), started a podcast, a free FB group (which grew to over 45,000 members) and then kicked the doors open to a monthly membership community we affectionately called, Screw U.

And to think it all started on a blind date.

Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that will help people?

We sure are, and the inspiration for it came after taking a bold leap in our business and shutting down every piece of it that no longer lined up with our core values.

Because of that we were able to have the mental white space to dream up our next moves in our business and how it will serve our audience.

It’s called Shift To Six and it will be a 3 month program and live event experience designed to help online course creators, coaches and membership site owners cross the $100,000/year threshold in their business.

The reason we believe in it so hard is because after working with thousands of up-and-coming entrepreneurs over the last 7 years we’ve realized that when they cross the six-figure mark, something shifts in them.

It’s almost like their eyes are opened up to even more possibilities, they build an exciting amount of confidence and they start dreaming bigger dreams.

So, our big 10 year vision is to help 100,000 entrepreneurs cross the $100,000/year mark — which is a ripple effect of $10 billion generated!

And honestly, we find that goal insanely exciting (and kinda scary) to chase…so we’re going for it!

In your opinion, what do you think makes your company or organization stand out from the crowd?

I believe what makes Screw The Nine To Five stand out is our commitment to transparency and honesty, even when it feels scary.

There are SO many brands in our space that paint this unrealistic rosey picture of what entrepreneurship looks like (hot chicks + fast cars, anyone?) and it couldn’t be further from the truth.

We’re committed to pulling back the veil and showing the real side of entrepreneurship — the challenging parts, the fulfilling parts, the exciting parts, the stresses, the successes and how it helps you become the best version of yourself.

Ok, thank you for that. I’d like to jump to the main focus of this interview. Has there ever been a time that someone told you something was impossible, but you did it anyway? Can you share the story with us? What was your idea? What was the reaction of the naysayers? And how did you overcome that?

Hands down it has to be the moment we decided to shut down every single piece of our business that was no longer serving us.

We had a membership program called Screw U that helped put Screw The Nine To Five on the map, made us more money than we had ever made at that point ($332,000/year) and gave us the opportunity to serve thousands of die-hard members. For 3 years we served that community day in and day out. We would host coaching calls, create courses, host an annual members-only live event and even created a virtual co-working space where members could hang out online and co-work together.

And then our son was born in February 2018 and all of a sudden things started feeling “off”. We no longer felt aligned with the business we had built or the work we were doing; which caused us a ton of stress because we couldn’t figure out WHY we were feeling this way.

Fast-forward to July 2018 and we finally had a breakthrough moment of clarity and realized (or gave ourselves the permission to admit) we no longer wanted to run Screw The Nine To Five the way it was built. We didn’t want our membership site anymore….or our courses, our coaching services or even our free Facebook Group! I wish I could properly convey how stressful (yet, oddly liberating) this realization was for us at this time.

So we did the only thing we could think of: We told everyone inside our membership, our courses and our free community that as of December 31, 2018 we would be shutting down every single piece of our business that no longer aligned with our values, who we wanted to be and what we wanted to create inside Screw The Nine To Five.

What’s even crazier about this story is we actually told our members in person at our members-only live event. The reason we did that is because it felt like the best way to stay in integrity with them, be honest with them and give them the respect they deserved. After all, a big portion of our members had been in the community since Day 1! So we didn’t want to hide anything or take the easy route and tell them online where we could hide behind our computers and not tell them to their face.

Their reaction though was unlike anything we expected — and a true example of how amazing these humans were! 98 percent of them were overwhelmingly encouraging and understanding; some even crying or coming up to give us hugs.

One member even told us that this felt like a moment where “the kids are moving out of the house”, a touching metaphor since our members called themselves “Scramily” (a.k.a. Screw Family).

In the end, how were all the naysayers proven wrong?

Sure, there were some people who didn’t like the decision (and 3 people who kicked up a little bit of a fuss), but out of over 650+ members, I think that is a pretty amazing ratio and we will forever be grateful for the time we got to spend with them.

In fact, a lot of them are still in our worlds and found ways to work with us in 2019 through different promotions we were running, live events we were hosting and quite a few have mentioned that they will be the first ones to join Shift To Six.

It’s now just slightly more than one year after making that decision and our business is more successful than it’s ever been (we even surpassed 2018’s revenue in the first 8 months of 2019), we’re happier than we’ve ever been and our vision for our mission is clearer than it’s ever been.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I know this is going to sound so cheesy and cliche, but it’s my husband, Josh. He’s been on this entrepreneurial journey with me for the last 8 years. He’s been in the ring with me, going the rounds with me, wading through the uncertainty with me, navigating the ups and downs with me, celebrating the wins with me, pouring me a tall glass of wine when things feel challenging, and building this movement with me. He’s taught me so much about managing and leading a team, creating the right business systems and structure, and the importance of always reinvesting in yourself as an entrepreneur.

He’s been my greatest teacher and mentor, and is one of the smartest and most talented entrepreneurs I know.

It must not have been easy to ignore all the naysayers. Did you have any experiences growing up that have contributed to building your resiliency? Can you share the story with us?

I’m going to take us back to my high school years to a time when I was talking to the school’s Guidance Counselor. She had brought me in to talk about my post-secondary plans and I mentioned that I had my eye on a few schools that had Radio and Television Broadcast programs.

I had told her that for years I dreamt of doing something that made an impact on people. Something that would light up their screens and bring joy into their lives AND wouldn’t have me clocking hours upon hours at a drab corporate job I hated.

She looked me dead in the face, with a faint look of disbelief and just said “Jill, sweetie, I think it’s time to start considering a more realistic path. What about a communications degree? Those kind of degrees are what lead to real careers.”.

Fortunately, I was a stubborn (and slightly sassy) teenager who always knew deep down that a “real career” wasn’t the path for me. So I nodded my way through that 20 minute “career counselling” session, thanked her for her guidance, took the stack of brochures she handed me, walked out, turned down another hallway and threw them all out.

That was a pivotal (and memorable) moment for me because it made me realize that I would never choose a conventional path for my life. And while my small screen ambitions took me down many paths (landing me various commercials, small TV gigs, a stint on Deal Or No Deal, 2 web TV shows and now into the very, VERY early planning phases of a docuseries), the real lesson I took away from that day (which took me years to realize) is we need to be aware of who we are taking advice from.

Based on your experience, can you share 5 strategies that people can use to harness the sense of tenacity and do what naysayers think is impossible? (Please share a story or an example for each)

  1. Get clear on what you want.

It sounds crazy, but most of us are REALLY good at knowing what we DON’T want, yet we rarely give ourselves the permission to dream big and admit what we DO want. From my experience that’s typically because we’re nervous about what people will think or say if we dream big and have the guts to go after them!

It’s also because most of us tend to measure what we could LOSE by “going for it” (because that’s easy to measure and is typically related to past experiences) instead of imagining everything we could gain by going after what we really want, because it’s hard to even fathom or predict how awesome things could be if we put ourselves out there. And that behavior is typically what keeps people stuck and rooted in the “what if’s”.

However, if we can release the “what if’s” and step into the uncertainty of going after what we want, no matter what, then we have the potential to create a life that is beyond our wildest dreams and expectations. But it all starts with giving yourself the permission to get clear on what YOU really want.

2 . Decide who you need to be to achieve the impossible

So often people focus on what they think they have to DO in order to get what they want, but that’s backwards. Instead, you need to determine who you need to BE — the beliefs you need to live by, the habits you need to have, the characteristics you need to embody and the identity you need to maintain to achieve what you want to achieve. For example, if you want to be an entrepreneur and start a business you have to be driven by a desire to serve people, you need to be consistent, comfortable with the uncomfortable, a risk taker, self-motivated, unfazed by other people’s opinions and self aware…to name a few.

However, what most people do is think they need to operate from a place of pure push and grit in order to create what they want. Yet most of the time that simply ends in frustration and burnout because grit and hustle will only take you so far. It’s the ways of BE’ing that will carry you through moments of failure, stress and uncertainty and help you create everything you say you want.

3 . Invest in yourself

I know this seems cliche, but if you want to do the impossible you are going to need to invest in yourself, your skills, and the mentor(s) who can guide you along the path. This is what separates those who achieve the impossible from those who say they WANT to, but never do.

If you want something you’ve never had, you typically have to do things you’ve never done and most of the time that comes with some form of investment — whether that is time, money or energy.

4 . Build your business from a place of alignment and ease (and create something that serves YOU as the founder)

If someone is not in the ring with you, taking the punches with you, fighting for a dream with you, creating the uncreated with you and wading through the uncertainty with you, they don’t get to tell you what you are (or are not) capable of; what you can or cannot achieve.

That is for YOU to determine and as long as you have a clear vision for what you want your life to look and feel like, and you are detached from how (or when) you get there, then you can create magic in your life and achieve the impossible.

5 . Surround yourself with people who match your future (not your past) and are where you want to be

Surround yourself with people who live and breathe the way that you want to be. The reason this is so key is because people who have achieved greatness or success in their life have typically done that by overcoming obstacles and viewing challenges as mere stumbling blocks that help them become better versions of themselves.

What is your favorite quote or personal philosophy that relates to the concept of resilience?

If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.

The reason I love this quote so much is because all of my biggest wins, successes and personal achievements have all come about because I waded through times of crushing uncertainty and fear.

And it’s that willingness to embrace uncertainty (when most people shy, hell, RUN away from it) that makes life so rich, shows you what you’re made of and transforms you into the best version of yourself.

It’s also what separates those who create their reality and achieve their dreams from those who simply let life happen to them.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

I love this question because I believe we ARE building a movement. Our mission with Screw The Nine To Five is to help unsatisfied employees quit their jobs, build online business and get them past the $100,000/year threshold so they never look back.

We do this because we know there are millions of people who feel trapped (and absolutely miserable) in their jobs and if we can give the ones who want to change their lives the tools to do so, they can create something that gives them the financial freedom, time freedom, location freedom and personal freedom they crave.

And while entrepreneurship definitely has its challenging moments, it also transforms you into the best version of yourself as you learn more about yourself, the way you think, the value you’re offering, the impact you’re creating, the lives you’re affecting and the wealth you’re building. All of these lessons, skills and traits stack upon each other to create a life that is dripping with meaning and purpose. THAT is the movement we are building!

Can our readers follow you on social media?

Here are our top 3 platforms we hang out on most:

  • On IG: Instagram.com/screwtheninetofive
  • On FB: facebook.com/saynotoninetofive
  • Podcast: thescrewshow.com

Dreamers: “They told me It was impossible and I did it anyway” With Jill Stanton of Screw The Nine… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.