Speaker 1: Hey ba fam, It's time for another Hollaback Monday woo woop.
Speaker 1: This week, we're looking back at some of our favorite
Speaker 1: episodes from days past for memorable guests who unforgettable moment.
Speaker 2: There's still so much to learn from the b A Vault.
Speaker 2: Take listen, Willia.
Speaker 3: Hey, hey ba fam. I am so excited to introduce
Speaker 3: you to my guests this week. You may have seen
Speaker 3: her on your favorite channel and mind, HGTV. Page Turner
Speaker 3: is the incredible host of HGTV series Fix My Flip.
Speaker 3: But beyond being an incredible host and real estate entrepreneur,
Speaker 3: she is in general a multi time entrepreneur, real estate broker,
Speaker 3: flipping expert, executive producer, TV host, vision strategist, and the
Speaker 3: founder of EGAP real Estate and Do the Work Inc.
Speaker 3: After working for many many years under the tutelage of
Speaker 3: humanitarians such as you know, Magic Johnson, No Big Deal.
Speaker 3: Paige is a self started and successful entrepreneur that has
Speaker 3: been a real estate broker, flipper and investor for two decades.
Speaker 3: She's also a published author. You can check out her
Speaker 3: book The Go Life on Amazon, and she owns her
Speaker 3: own company Do the Work, Inc. And BLW Productions. She's
Speaker 3: the co creator and executive producer and host of her
Speaker 3: not one, but second hit HGTV show, Fix My Flip,
Speaker 3: and Paige Turner is here with us today. I'm Brown
Speaker 3: ambition Welcome.
Speaker 2: To the show. Hey Mandy, Hey Brown Ambitioners. How are
Speaker 2: you guys?
Speaker 3: You know, thriving, surviving all that? All of that and
Speaker 3: more so much? Tell me about so real estate flipping
Speaker 3: had such had such a huge I feel like I
Speaker 3: don't know, it was like part of everyone's fantasy, like
Speaker 3: I want to buy real estate and flip real estate
Speaker 3: over the past decade and then the pandemic hit, and
Speaker 3: I would love to talk to you about, like what
Speaker 3: does the real estate market look like now for people
Speaker 3: who are looking at it and saying like flipping sounds
Speaker 3: like a great you know, mine could be fun, can
Speaker 3: be profitable, all that, but people are maybe freaked out
Speaker 3: by what the last couple of years have been like
Speaker 3: for the real estate market. How has it been for you?
Speaker 3: And let's just start that.
Speaker 4: I love that you said that flipping can be fun,
Speaker 4: because that's the first myth.
Speaker 2: It's not spending money might be fun, but the.
Speaker 4: Flipping process that sometimes and most times is what keeps
Speaker 4: people from getting into the real estate industry. This is
Speaker 4: a business mistake number one. Thinking it's the real estate game.
Speaker 4: It's gonna be fun, and I'm like, m mmmm, the
Speaker 4: fun is interesting. You know, it gets fun at the end,
Speaker 4: you know, especially when you can sell the house.
Speaker 2: But you know, to get in real estate right now.
Speaker 4: I think at any time that somebody is ambitious enough
Speaker 4: to enter into the real estate field is the right
Speaker 4: time for them. Because real estate, no matter if we're
Speaker 4: in a high like we are now or a low
Speaker 4: like back in two thousand and seven during the recession,
Speaker 4: real estate is always selling. So it's really about your perseverance,
Speaker 4: it's really about your business plan, and it's really about
Speaker 4: what your purpose is for being in real estate.
Speaker 2: That's the first question.
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, So you can tell which one of us
Speaker 3: is the real estate investor in which one of us,
Speaker 3: and which one of us sits on the couch and
Speaker 3: watches HDTV and thinks that looks like fine, it's unglamorous.
Speaker 3: Is that what you're telling me?
Speaker 4: Well, you know, this is the thing depending on who
Speaker 4: you are. When I'm old school, my mother raised me
Speaker 4: old school. My mother and my grandmother were back in
Speaker 4: the days where you dressed up to get on an
Speaker 4: airplane and you did not wear a scarf and some
Speaker 4: sweats and some flip flops. Okay, they wore heels, their pearls,
Speaker 4: and had their hats on. So wherever I go, I'm
Speaker 4: going to come with some glam. Okay, I don't care
Speaker 4: if I'm just running out to the store. That's because
Speaker 4: that's how I was taught. Because you never know who
Speaker 4: you're gonna run into. So there is a glam in
Speaker 4: this business, but it's it's roll up your sleeves because
Speaker 4: you're putting down more money than you'll probably ever put
Speaker 4: in any one investment at one time in your life.
Speaker 4: So you have to keep that mindset. That why we
Speaker 4: see that it's so pretty on TV. It's a straight
Speaker 4: up business that you can either excel in or fail.
Speaker 3: And it's either or well, let's bring me back. It's
Speaker 3: either or there is no in between. You're either going
Speaker 3: to sink or Asplam got it, cut throat. Well, tell
Speaker 3: me how you got your start in real estate? Was
Speaker 3: that your was that always your goal? You know when
Speaker 3: it came to your career.
Speaker 4: No, I actually wanted to be like a music manager.
Speaker 4: Mobile I can't sing, I can't dance, I can't write anything,
Speaker 4: but I can connect people and I know great talent.
Speaker 4: So I wanted to be in the music industry. But
Speaker 4: then I happened to have three little babies, all by
Speaker 4: the time I was twenty three, all under the age
Speaker 4: of I was twenty three. I actually when I have
Speaker 4: my twins, and I said, well, you know, although I
Speaker 4: was born into a family of entrepreneurs, this is really
Speaker 4: all I know. I still tried, and then it just
Speaker 4: wasn't working from my pocketbook like I needed to as
Speaker 4: a manager, and I just and I also working for
Speaker 4: Magic Johnson. So I worked long story short, I worked
Speaker 4: for him in all of the different departments he has
Speaker 4: in Magic Johnson Enterprises, and one of them was Magic
Speaker 4: Johnson Development, where we were going into urban areas and
Speaker 4: finding places to build black owned movie theaters owned by him.
Speaker 4: And so at that time, Ken Lombard was his vice president,
Speaker 4: told me, you should get your real estate license because
Speaker 4: if we're buying this land, you might as well be
Speaker 4: the one selling it to us. Well, then I ended
Speaker 4: up moving to Nashville because I just couldn't.
Speaker 2: Afford LA any longer.
Speaker 4: I was going to be poor with my three children,
Speaker 4: and I was like, oh, no, I can't be poor.
Speaker 4: So I went to Nashville, lived there for twenty years
Speaker 4: and say, you know what, I'm going to get my
Speaker 4: license and so because I remember what Ken told me,
Speaker 4: and so I did, and I think flipping became natural,
Speaker 4: just a natural progression as an entrepreneur in the real
Speaker 4: estate industry. Not every realtor does that, and not every
Speaker 4: realtor wants to. But for me, I'm all about the
Speaker 4: streams because I don't put all my eggs in one basket,
Speaker 4: you know, I have several baskets just to make sure
Speaker 4: income exactly. So that's how I got into flipping. It
Speaker 4: was just a part of my journey naturally.
Speaker 3: So you had how many so you were you had
Speaker 3: a traditional sort of nine to five corporate career and
Speaker 3: then was flipping your which you have called it a
Speaker 3: side hustle at the time.
Speaker 4: Well, I've never had a corporate career. I've always worked
Speaker 4: for entrepreneurs. I worked for Spike Lee that I worked
Speaker 4: for Magic Johnson, and so when we say nine to
Speaker 4: five corporate, it wasn't it wasn't a nine to five corporate.
Speaker 2: You know, we were going to parties.
Speaker 4: We worked really, really hard, but you know, I was
Speaker 4: working for a legend, so it was a lot different.
Speaker 4: And then I jumped into real estate full time. That's
Speaker 4: something else we have to just kind of stop saying,
Speaker 4: Mandy the real estate hustle. I'm coming in and I'm
Speaker 4: changing mindsets, because in order for minorities to understand how
Speaker 4: much wealth there is in real estate and how we
Speaker 4: can close that gap, that wealth gap, we have to
Speaker 4: understand that it's a real business, and it takes a
Speaker 4: lot of time, a lot of tears for me, a
Speaker 4: lot of money, and a lot of wherewithal to run
Speaker 4: your business if you want to make it as your
Speaker 4: full time business.
Speaker 2: So I went from working with.
Speaker 4: Magic Johnson and right into real estate and it worked
Speaker 4: because I worked it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean talking about working for not necessarily traditional corporations.
Speaker 3: You're working for moguls and their own right, self made mocals.
Speaker 3: How did you end up working for the likes of
Speaker 3: Magic Johnson, Spike Lee? How did those relationships start?
Speaker 4: What's cool about growing up in Los Angeles You kind
Speaker 4: of know somebody who knows somebody who knew somebody who
Speaker 4: can connect you with somebody. So it's like just you know,
Speaker 4: in la is not as big as people think it is.
Speaker 4: So my father was the first black optometrist that owned
Speaker 4: the first black optical business in Los Angeles, and it
Speaker 4: was called Page Optical, and it was right in the
Speaker 4: heart of the Crenshaw district and community. And he designed
Speaker 4: all of those big glasses for the stars Black Hollywood,
Speaker 4: Stevie Wonder and Sammy Davis Junior with the rhinestones on them,
Speaker 4: the big square glasses that are back in style now.
Speaker 4: And you know, just by that virtue of my father
Speaker 4: knowing everybody in Black Hollywood. You know, I grew up
Speaker 4: with one of Quincy Jones' daughters. You know, you name it,
Speaker 4: I I know somebody. And that's how I started working
Speaker 4: for for Irvin. I was working at Spike Lee had
Speaker 4: a clothing store out here and I was the assistant
Speaker 4: marketing director. We back in the day, it was called
Speaker 4: Spike's Joint West. You remember when Spike Lee's cloth We
Speaker 4: might be too young to remember that, but he had
Speaker 4: a clothing line.
Speaker 2: And right clothing line. It was a huge clothing believer.
Speaker 4: You have to believe it. It was amazing. And so
Speaker 4: she wanted to leave there my boss did. Her name
Speaker 4: was Taylor Michaels. She became my mentor, and she ran
Speaker 4: into like Denzel Washington, who owned a restaurant on Melrose.
Speaker 4: He was like, hey, you know, Magic's looking for some
Speaker 4: people to start this, you know, his medic John's Enterprises.
Speaker 4: She was like, okay, I'll call him. That's la right,
Speaker 4: I'll call him. So she called him and then she
Speaker 4: brought me along as her assistant, and then I grew
Speaker 4: in the company.
Speaker 3: Now okay, so he really had gotten in when it
Speaker 3: was a startup.
Speaker 4: Yeah, what yeah, because I led the Jowson Foundation and
Speaker 4: then I just came when he started Magic Johnson Enterprises.
Speaker 3: What were some of the lessons or I mean, I
Speaker 3: imagine as you were working how many years with Magic
Speaker 3: Johnson was it was about seven? Seven years? I mean,
Speaker 3: did you always know I'm going to have my own
Speaker 3: I mean, obviously you wanted your different income streams, but
Speaker 3: did you always know you know, I'm working, I'm supporting him,
Speaker 3: but I'm going to own my own brand, my own
Speaker 3: company someday.
Speaker 2: I did you know?
Speaker 4: Looking back, I was twenty five twenty maybe twenty three
Speaker 4: to twenty seven when I was working for him, and no,
Speaker 4: No twenty one. I guess I used to so embarrassed
Speaker 4: sometimes I used to give him proposals on record labels.
Speaker 4: You know, I was just trying to figure out how
Speaker 4: to get out of this quote nine to five with
Speaker 4: him still you know, with me still in toe next
Speaker 4: to him, but saying, listen, let me go start my
Speaker 4: own thing.
Speaker 2: You fund it, I'll run it.
Speaker 4: You know. So I knew, I knew that, you know,
Speaker 4: I was there. It was a blessing. While I was there,
Speaker 4: I learned so much. He is a brilliant into businessman.
Speaker 4: I still have communication with him, you know. Right before
Speaker 4: the pandemic started, we were working on something really amazing
Speaker 4: just about the sign of the paperwork. Than the pandemic hit,
Speaker 4: so that's kind of derailed it a little bit. But
Speaker 4: most importantly, he taught me about relationships, you know, relationships,
Speaker 4: being resourceful and winning, you know, winning. He knows who
Speaker 4: he is when he walks in a room, and he
Speaker 4: knows the value that that has.
Speaker 3: Part of me is so happy to hear about a
Speaker 3: black woman who managed to find the kind of environment
Speaker 3: where she could thrive and be poured into, you know,
Speaker 3: by people in business, because I feel like with through
Speaker 3: brown ambition I've met and even in my own work,
Speaker 3: you know, I coach a lot of women through their careers,
Speaker 3: and so many of us are out there just like
Speaker 3: starving for those connections and those those places where we
Speaker 3: can thrive. And I feel like, what's inspirational about your
Speaker 3: story is, you know, you do talk about those relationships.
Speaker 3: And for people who are maybe thinking, okay, well do
Speaker 3: I got to know Magic Johnson to be successful? What
Speaker 3: would you say to someone who's feeling okay, understand relationships,
Speaker 3: but what if the people that are within arm's reach
Speaker 3: of me don't necessarily have the means or the space
Speaker 3: for me to learn and to grow as a business person.
Speaker 4: Well, they're okay. So that's a great question, and it's
Speaker 4: super layered. That was absolutely a once in a lifetime
Speaker 4: opportunity that landed in my lap that I said absolutely yes, right,
Speaker 4: And I was young, so I really didn't even know
Speaker 4: the power of Magic Johnson then, because I was twenty one,
Speaker 4: I think, and I grew into like, wow, I was like,
Speaker 4: I should have never left, you know, I should have
Speaker 4: stayed with him, because entrepreneurialism is no joke. But this
Speaker 4: is what I would say, you have to swim upstream
Speaker 4: a lot of times to find that connection, to find
Speaker 4: those circles. And remember I said a few minutes ago,
Speaker 4: it's about relationship. Even if you live in Nebraska, there's
Speaker 4: somebody who knows somebody to get you to where you
Speaker 4: want to be. Now, you might have to pivot, you
Speaker 4: might have make you turns, you might have to go
Speaker 4: through some you know, stop, don't go this way, you know,
Speaker 4: go the other way. But there's somebody wherever you need
Speaker 4: to go. You have to are building relationships to get there.
Speaker 4: And that comes from me, from serving. You know, I
Speaker 4: built strong relationships authentically and I did not mind starting
Speaker 4: as a receptionist at Magic Johnson Enterprises. You know, now
Speaker 4: I think we have more. This generation has a very
Speaker 4: microwave mentality where it's going to happen overnight and it
Speaker 4: never does. You know, there is a ten year process.
Speaker 4: Ten years. You see these overnight sensations on TikTok and
Speaker 4: people think I want that, I want that. But if
Speaker 4: you really I'm sure if you really dig into their
Speaker 4: story and there are those successes, there are those you know,
Speaker 4: like how did that happen? You know, of course we
Speaker 4: have those, but the overnight. Success when you're building a
Speaker 4: business is never overnight, you know. So I would say
Speaker 4: to that person who might be in the middle of
Speaker 4: nowhere and wants to, you know, stretch their arms across
Speaker 4: the lakes and meet the likes of a Magic Johnson,
Speaker 4: Let's say you just have to start working towards it
Speaker 4: and swimming towards it, and start connecting with people in
Speaker 4: your business and your industry, and just start moving up.
Speaker 2: It will happen. You hear the stories all the time.
Speaker 2: It happened for me.
Speaker 4: I'm a single mom three kids, and I was working
Speaker 4: for one of the greatest wonders in the world.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And honestly, if you even take out the name
Speaker 3: Magic Johnson, what you really did was you followed your
Speaker 3: gut and you invested in personal relationships. So forgetting even
Speaker 3: that the person, you know, you happen to be working
Speaker 3: for was this extremely famous celebrity and you know, quite
Speaker 3: successful and all of that, you were just a woman
Speaker 3: who got a job and impressed the hell out of
Speaker 3: her boss it sound like, you know, and the people
Speaker 3: that she worked around cultivated those relationships so that when
Speaker 3: you were branching out into your you know, your real estate, business.
Speaker 3: I'm sure because of those relationships you could lean on
Speaker 3: people for support, advice, guidance and relationships. Relationships you are listening,
Speaker 3: That's what I'm talking about all the time. People matter.
Speaker 3: There's this connotation that it's like schmoozing or like this
Speaker 3: negative you know. Oh, I'm you know, making relationships. I
Speaker 3: can get something out of people, you know, and in
Speaker 3: a way that I don't know why we have that
Speaker 3: perception that building relationships can be somewhat nefarious, but it
Speaker 3: can also be beautiful. You mentioned service and how to
Speaker 3: add value the same as much value as you were
Speaker 3: asking people to give you in return. And I think
Speaker 3: that's the I mean, would you agree that's like the
Speaker 3: secret to having those relationships where it's not purely you know, transaction.
Speaker 2: I think the secret is not making it a secret.
Speaker 4: I think that your heart has to be pure, and
Speaker 4: you have to have a servant's heart first, you know.
Speaker 4: And so when I say serving, if that means that
Speaker 4: you're going to get somebody some water, you know, you
Speaker 4: have to and there's nothing behind it other than I
Speaker 4: honor you and I respect you because I'm following your curve.
Speaker 4: Success leaves clues. So there's no reason why you would
Speaker 4: not want to go serve people. But if you don't
Speaker 4: have a servant's heart, it's never going to work for you.
Speaker 4: Right Like I led with service, I led with yes,
Speaker 4: it was my job. But I also understood I didn't
Speaker 4: know this term back then. Of course we didn't have it.
Speaker 4: I understood the assignment of who I was working for
Speaker 4: and I honored that, so it was natural. So that's
Speaker 4: why I can call mister Johnson's office now, Hey, can
Speaker 4: I set up a meeting with Irvan?
Speaker 2: And the answer is yes.
Speaker 4: And I haven't worked for him for twenty two years,
Speaker 4: but I kept that relationship going because I honored him
Speaker 4: and Cookie and their children, you know. And I was
Speaker 4: there when they adopted Elisa in the chambers at the courthouse,
Speaker 4: you know, their daughter, So that means something not everybody's
Speaker 4: not going to have that.
Speaker 2: This is so true. Everybody's not going to have that.
Speaker 4: But there is a way where you can go into
Speaker 4: an industry and shake hands with people and just tell
Speaker 4: them I would like to work for you, and I'm
Speaker 4: here to serve.
Speaker 2: What can I do?
Speaker 4: Because success leaves clues and there's I don't need to create.
Speaker 4: There's nothing new under the sun. So anything we want
Speaker 4: to do has already been done, is just being done
Speaker 4: your way, but you have to learn first how to
Speaker 4: do it.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 3: Well, talk to me about so you're getting your realtor license,
Speaker 3: that's where you started, right when you did, you set
Speaker 3: out to start, I'm going to start a real estate business,
Speaker 3: And talk to me about what that looked like for
Speaker 3: people who are listening. I think I was speaking about
Speaker 3: flipping houses as like, oh, maybe buy a house, fix
Speaker 3: it up, and you know, take a year or two years.
Speaker 3: But you were like, no, no, this is going to
Speaker 3: be a business. It's not going to be one property.
Speaker 3: It's going to be dozens or I don't know how
Speaker 3: many hundreds of properties. What was your approach to that
Speaker 3: and how did you build it all these years?
Speaker 4: Well, starting in two thousand and three, I was a realtor.
Speaker 4: I got my license. I was just selling houses and
Speaker 4: I had to learn the business. And guess what I had.
Speaker 4: I had a mentor. I found a woman that looks
Speaker 4: like me, that speaks like me, that understands me.
Speaker 2: She had a small business.
Speaker 4: So I didn't go to a big box, you know,
Speaker 4: I did for about two weeks. I take that back
Speaker 4: I did in two thousand and three for two weeks,
Speaker 4: and I found that nobody at that big box franchised
Speaker 4: real estate brokerage even looked at me twice. So then
Speaker 4: I sought out Nazarene Frasier Southern Realtors, and I said,
Speaker 4: I want to come and work for you. I will
Speaker 4: run your errands will because you have a big house,
Speaker 4: you have a Cadillac truck when they first came out,
Speaker 4: and I want to be who you are and even better,
Speaker 4: you know, so please, whatever you need me to do,
Speaker 4: I'll put out yard signs. So I put my license
Speaker 4: with her. She became one of my first mentors. That's
Speaker 4: how it started. So in two thousand and three, you
Speaker 4: have to have your real estate license three years before
Speaker 4: you can become a broker if you don't have your
Speaker 4: college degree, which I don't have. So I had to
Speaker 4: wait three years then. And she always knew that, because
Speaker 4: of how I grew up with entrepreneurs, that my next
Speaker 4: you know, journey, was going going to be opening my
Speaker 4: own brokerage, which was EGAP real Estate. So that's what
Speaker 4: I did in two thousand and six, and by that time,
Speaker 4: now I'm a broker.
Speaker 2: Now I'm a broker owner.
Speaker 4: Now I'm a black woman who owns my own brokerage,
Speaker 4: one of the first in Nashville, because Nashville is real
Speaker 4: small back then, and I said, okay, what else is
Speaker 4: going on in real estate? You know I need to
Speaker 4: learn more? You know you have to if you you
Speaker 4: have to learn every day something new about your business.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm a real estate expert.
Speaker 4: But if you could see my desk right now, I
Speaker 4: have at least fifteen printouts. When I see articles, I
Speaker 4: just start printing them out so I can read them.
Speaker 4: You have to stay hungry for knowledge. Even when you
Speaker 4: are the expert, there's still somebody who knows more than you.
Speaker 3: Okay, I will be right back with more from my
Speaker 3: conversation with Page Turner, the entrepreneur executive producer of HGTV
Speaker 3: show Fix My Flip. All right, I'm back. Here's more
Speaker 3: from my conversation with the incredible Page Turner from HGTVS
Speaker 3: Fix My Flip. So you started out, I love that
Speaker 3: mentor getting mentorship and finding it in a small boutique.
Speaker 3: It sounds like real estate broker, I did. I love
Speaker 3: that because you even recognize that when you're in a
Speaker 3: when you're a bigger fish in a smaller bowl. You
Speaker 3: just get that. You get that attention and you get
Speaker 3: to you hear more.
Speaker 2: It's a lot smaller.
Speaker 3: You get to hear and observe and absorb so much more.
Speaker 3: That's brilliant. So when you when did you feel like
Speaker 3: you were ready? You said two thousand and six. So me,
Speaker 3: I started. I started covering finance as a journalist around
Speaker 3: two thousand and nine. And we all know what happened
Speaker 3: in that three year period of the real estate market
Speaker 3: was probably a scary time to be in it.
Speaker 2: So what was that?
Speaker 3: How did you weather the Great Recession in the housing
Speaker 3: crisis as a budding you know, real estate broker yourself?
Speaker 4: Well, it was horrible. I fouled bankruptcy. I had to
Speaker 4: turn in my brand new escalade that I did get.
Speaker 4: I sure did get that beautiful escalade.
Speaker 2: What her name, Quincy?
Speaker 4: Her name was, oh, I forgot her name, but she
Speaker 4: was beautiful. We named my daughter's here, we named all
Speaker 4: of our cars. She was a beautiful escalade. And I
Speaker 4: owned a home and I had these three little babies.
Speaker 4: So it was either give back my escalade or make
Speaker 4: the mortgage payments. So, you know, I called cadillact like, hey,
Speaker 4: meet me around the corner because I live on a
Speaker 4: cul de sac and my neighbors are nosy and I'm
Speaker 4: just gonna give this truck back to you.
Speaker 2: So it was horrible, and.
Speaker 4: I said to my mom, well, should I go work
Speaker 4: at the post office? I've never had a job before, like,
Speaker 4: I've never had this corporate job that you mentioned before,
Speaker 4: and I'm in Nashville. We at that time, we didn't
Speaker 4: have big celebrities to go work for. So what was
Speaker 4: I gonna do? And my mother said, Paige, there are
Speaker 4: many many ways to continue to make money in real estate.
Speaker 4: Keep digging, keep praying, and go find them. And I
Speaker 4: came across foreclosures. So guess what happened. I became the
Speaker 4: foreclosure listing agent queen for HUD and I had that
Speaker 4: contract for ten years and I made a ton of
Speaker 4: money during the recession.
Speaker 2: So that first year two thousand and seven to two thousand.
Speaker 4: And eight was horrible, horrible, and I was freaking out
Speaker 4: and I was just, you know, just take making sure
Speaker 4: my babies had food, that's in paying my mortgage. That's
Speaker 4: all I cared about, and that's all I could really do.
Speaker 4: And then this opportunity came up, which is what my
Speaker 4: book is about. Go life, seizing your greatest opportunity now,
Speaker 4: and you have to go find these opportunities. Sometimes they're
Speaker 4: not just gonna come. You can't be the best kept secret.
Speaker 2: It's not a thing.
Speaker 4: You have to get out there and find what you
Speaker 4: need to take care of yourself and your family.
Speaker 2: So I weathered that storm.
Speaker 4: For just over a year, got the HUD contract, and
Speaker 4: I was a HUD listing queen in Nashville for ten years.
Speaker 4: And it put my babies through private school during the recession.
Speaker 4: It put them through college during the recession, and I
Speaker 4: didn't have a diamond child support. So real estate and
Speaker 4: then flipping too, also buying properties during that time, it
Speaker 4: wasn't a big bubble. So these people making two and
Speaker 4: three hundred thousand dollars off these flips, making ten and
Speaker 4: twenty thousand was normal then, and that's still a lot
Speaker 4: of money.
Speaker 3: So HUD Okay, not the not where I thought that
Speaker 3: story was going to end up. But how did that contract?
Speaker 3: How did you? And I'm loving the twists and terms
Speaker 3: of this. Also single mom with three baby girls, I
Speaker 3: mean I was raised by a single mom, so I'll
Speaker 3: bow down to huh and I will say, oh, nothing
Speaker 3: like being the daughter of a strong single mom. I
Speaker 3: bet your kids are phenomenal. So tell me about that
Speaker 3: HUD contract. How did that come to be and what
Speaker 3: did that look like?
Speaker 4: Well, so a lot of times people think HUD is
Speaker 4: just Section eight. You know, HUD is you know, housing
Speaker 4: urban development, so it covers all things related to housing
Speaker 4: that the government is part of, but not just low
Speaker 4: income housing. That means as you would know, that means
Speaker 4: FAHA loan, So everything is governed under HUD as it
Speaker 4: pertains to FAHA loans. And a foreclosed property with HUD
Speaker 4: is an FHA loan that's been defaulted. You know, the
Speaker 4: person could and pay, so the house goes into foreclosure.
Speaker 4: But how that came about is I was scouring the
Speaker 4: internet like what am I going to do with my
Speaker 4: life in real estate? Because even here's the here's the
Speaker 4: other side of having a mentor who's part of a
Speaker 4: small boutique company and learning from them, it doesn't always
Speaker 4: mean you capture everything.
Speaker 2: So in hindsight, I.
Speaker 4: Should have learned from her and then also learned from
Speaker 4: those branchises as well, because they really like the remaxes
Speaker 4: of the world.
Speaker 2: You know, the Keller Williams of the world.
Speaker 4: They're really running the industry, right, we hear it, we
Speaker 4: you know, get the information fizzled down to us.
Speaker 2: But so looking back, I didn't even know what a
Speaker 2: recession was.
Speaker 4: But had I been paying a little bit more attention,
Speaker 4: I would have been prepared more for that curve that really,
Speaker 4: that curve ball that came and knocked us all out
Speaker 4: during the recession.
Speaker 2: Looking at the Internet, I.
Speaker 4: Saw a small blurb, it was just as big as
Speaker 4: eight font that said hudd is looking for listing agents.
Speaker 2: And I said, what does that mean? I didn't even
Speaker 2: know what that meant. But I knew I was an agent.
Speaker 4: I knew I was a broker, and I knew I
Speaker 4: was black, which means what there are minority contracts that
Speaker 4: they have to give out. They have to give a
Speaker 4: certain percentage to black and brown people. And I thought, hmm,
Speaker 4: and I'm a woman, this is this all night work.
Speaker 4: So I clicked on it, and I kept looking and
Speaker 4: digging and looking, and they were looking for proposals. I
Speaker 4: still didn't know what it meant, but I sent one
Speaker 4: in and I got it. Being a woman, being a
Speaker 4: black woman and being a broker owner, I was a
Speaker 4: triple threat. They were exactly what the quota that they
Speaker 4: needed I could fill. So in Nashville, in my area,
Speaker 4: they selected me and I stayed part of that HUD family,
Speaker 4: which it wasn't family, but that group because it's the government.
Speaker 3: So you know, for ten years, what were you what
Speaker 3: was your experience? Like I mean, you were basically listing
Speaker 3: foreclosed properties and then selling them to who, to real
Speaker 3: estate investor.
Speaker 4: To buyers or investors as well. So what HUD does.
Speaker 4: HUT is not a real estate brokerage. So when a
Speaker 4: house goes do you want to hear all this? Okay?
Speaker 4: So when a house goes into foreclosure from an FAH loan,
Speaker 4: So let's say I'm Bank of America and you Mandy
Speaker 4: own a house that you purchase with an FAH loan
Speaker 4: and unfortunately you went into default and now I have
Speaker 4: to come and take as Bank of America take the
Speaker 4: house back due to foreclosure. Well, because you purchase that
Speaker 4: home with an FAHA loan, that means HUD, the government
Speaker 4: is going to ensure that loan for Bank of America. Otherwise,
Speaker 4: if it wasn't insured by HUD, that house is now
Speaker 4: going to go into my red book, and now I'm
Speaker 4: losing money, and now my bank's going to go upside
Speaker 4: down instead, HUD says, because I'm insuring this house with
Speaker 4: Mandy's loan, I'm going to take that off your books
Speaker 4: and put it in a little HUD holding holding zone
Speaker 4: in the sky. But because HUD's not a real estate broker,
Speaker 4: they hire and select con They give contracts to asset managers.
Speaker 4: The asset managers then find via a proposal and select
Speaker 4: the HUD listing agents. So I was boots on the ground.
Speaker 4: I go in the house, I secure the house after foreclosure,
Speaker 4: when the when the previous owner has moved out, after default,
Speaker 4: secure the house, list the house, market the house, sell
Speaker 4: the house. So that's two investors, and that's to the
Speaker 4: general public as well. And actually that's what HUD wants
Speaker 4: to resell to owner occupants because that is what keeps
Speaker 4: the market going.
Speaker 2: Not investors, which is why our market's so high right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I mean, having been in real estate for
Speaker 3: so long's it's similar to investing. I mean there's going
Speaker 3: to be these dips. I mean, obviously the two thousand
Speaker 3: and seven eight crisis was more than a dip. It
Speaker 3: was like a seismic event. But do you feel like
Speaker 3: your tolerance for those how are you sort of that tolerance?
Speaker 3: How important is that for the risk involved and for
Speaker 3: understanding that there's going to be these like ups and downs,
Speaker 3: and how has that informed the way that you approach
Speaker 3: your business at your business ventures.
Speaker 4: Now, I'll tell you what an old gentleman told me.
Speaker 4: I was showing a house in like two thousand and
Speaker 4: see the markets started coming back, so might have been
Speaker 4: twenty sixteen, and I couldn't believe that a house that
Speaker 4: was literally in Nashville one hundred and fifty thousand one day.
Speaker 4: The next day was three hundred thousand, literally, And I
Speaker 4: was standing outside of the house while the buyers were
Speaker 4: walking through by themselves. I like to give my clients
Speaker 4: a little space sometimes, And I was saying to the
Speaker 4: listing agent who had to be there to show. I said,
Speaker 4: I just can't believe this house is three hundred thousand.
Speaker 4: I feel kind of bad because I know a couple
Speaker 4: months ago it was only one fifty. And he said
Speaker 4: to me, young lady, I've been in real estate for
Speaker 4: almost fifty years. He said, there are peaks and valleys
Speaker 4: in real estate. That will always happen highs and lows.
Speaker 4: When it's high, you ride it. When it's low, he said,
Speaker 4: when it's high, you sell and you save, and when
Speaker 4: it's low, you bye bye bye. He said, So this
Speaker 4: is what happens. It's the nature of real estate. And
Speaker 4: I never forgot that. So when we're high, you do
Speaker 4: all you can in real estate and save all you
Speaker 4: can so that when we're low you can buy everything up.
Speaker 4: And it sounds horrible, and I said that because as
Speaker 4: a foreclosure listing agent for so long, if you think
Speaker 4: about it, I was selling the homes of people who
Speaker 4: lost their homes, which is horrible, but some Number one,
Speaker 4: somebody had to do it.
Speaker 2: Number two, it's business.
Speaker 4: And number three, I do have a different mindset behind
Speaker 4: people who go into foreclosure. Not everybody, but there is
Speaker 4: a mindset there, and a lot of people are just
Speaker 4: uneducated of what they can do when they're in trouble
Speaker 4: with the house. That's another podcast, so I could come
Speaker 4: back and talk to you about that another day. So
Speaker 4: you know, I tell people that there's highs and lows
Speaker 4: in real estate and that's just the nature of it.
Speaker 4: So my when I'm walking into when I'm thinking about
Speaker 4: my business. That's what you have to prepare for in business,
Speaker 4: the highs and lows in any industry, you know, especially
Speaker 4: in the pandemic. Now we know how to survive a
Speaker 4: pandemic because we're both here. You know, we survived it,
Speaker 4: so we could probably each write a book on that.
Speaker 4: So it's preparation and planning.
Speaker 3: Preparation, planning, and then that resiliency when not if, but
Speaker 3: when those valleys come, you know, and it's sometimes you
Speaker 3: have to go through it to know how to survive it.
Speaker 3: There's just it's hard to tell your you know, to
Speaker 3: know until you've gone through something that traumatic and that
Speaker 3: you know, terrifying, how to really come out on the
Speaker 3: other side. So today, I mean, obviously you've got your
Speaker 3: you still have the real estate business, right or is
Speaker 3: it mostly you're focusing on your show? What what does
Speaker 3: Page Turner, Inc. Look Like? Because that's what we like
Speaker 3: to get into. You know, you mentioned all those different
Speaker 3: streams of income. Talk to me about the way that
Speaker 3: you would kind of approach your your business strategy and
Speaker 3: that one.
Speaker 4: Question, Well, I have I've been selling and you know,
Speaker 4: listening and selling real estate for twenty years, and I'm
Speaker 4: I was in a burnout phase. So when the television
Speaker 4: opportunity came, I was like, this is cool. You know
Speaker 4: I've been doing I can still do what I love.
Speaker 4: And then you know, add this as well, and now
Speaker 4: being on the second show on HGTV, which is amazing
Speaker 4: and such a blessing I am. Now I don't know
Speaker 4: if you know this, Mandy, but I'm also co creator
Speaker 4: and executive producer of the show and host, so I
Speaker 4: get to see behind the scenes.
Speaker 2: And now I have fallen in love with executive producing.
Speaker 4: So my writing partner who's also my business partner and
Speaker 4: my manager, we have created like six more shows that
Speaker 4: we're shopping and now I'm on a whole new journey.
Speaker 4: So I still flip even outside of the TV show,
Speaker 4: because that's just good to do. It's just a good income.
Speaker 4: It's hard, but it's you know, it's what I love
Speaker 4: to do. And now being in front of the camera
Speaker 4: and then also doing you know, EP work behind the camera,
Speaker 4: I have found this amazing passion for that I am
Speaker 4: looking to focus on and continue to develop.
Speaker 3: That's incredible. And can we go back to when you
Speaker 3: were talking about Baby Page dreaming of being a talent manager,
Speaker 3: and all these years later, it seems like you're finding
Speaker 3: your way there ultimately. Now, maybe not in the way
Speaker 3: that you envisioned it, maybe not music, but if you
Speaker 3: can create six new pages with incredible shows, you know,
Speaker 3: is that sort of the vision there.
Speaker 4: Including one of my daughters moved back to Los Angeles
Speaker 4: with me, and she's an aspiring model and so she
Speaker 4: just got a contract.
Speaker 2: I manage her.
Speaker 4: You know, she just got a contract with an agent.
Speaker 4: So that's really fun to see that. And I, oh, gosh,
Speaker 4: I just I love it. Oh, I love what you said.
Speaker 4: Five or six little pages. Yes, that's what I want
Speaker 4: to see because I'm a I'm still a servant and
Speaker 4: I want to see everybody I can win when, you know.
Speaker 4: So if I'm in this position and I know somebody
Speaker 4: and you're good people, I'm connecting you. You know, don't
Speaker 4: embarrass me, right, you gotta good people, I'm connecting you.
Speaker 4: If I see we just grow my partner. I just
Speaker 4: scroll through Instagram. I'm like, oh, look at her, she's amazing.
Speaker 4: Let's just tap in and see how she's doing today,
Speaker 4: you know. And that's how we found are the we
Speaker 4: just got we haven't got greenlit yet, but we just
Speaker 4: signed with the production company to develop a show for
Speaker 4: another young woman to be on television in the home space.
Speaker 3: Ah, that's incredible.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 3: I feel like that. The more we need, like a
Speaker 3: million more av Duvernets, more Shonda Rhimes, you know, and
Speaker 3: all the different niches and.
Speaker 2: Get me. I love it, yes, because there's room. There's
Speaker 2: room for all of us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, there's so much room. Talk to me a
Speaker 3: little bit about for those curious, and just kind of
Speaker 3: to round out our conversation with the show. Talk about
Speaker 3: the show, what happens on the show, why should we
Speaker 3: be watching? And what was it like for you to
Speaker 3: be under the microscope like that, Like it's one thing
Speaker 3: to do your job, but then to have cameras following
Speaker 3: you around, it must be a whole different level of
Speaker 3: I don't know, excitement, stressed. I don't know if you tell.
Speaker 4: Me, because I'm hyper aware of me. And this is
Speaker 4: why I love HDTV for this. I answer your second question, Alsten,
Speaker 4: your second question. First, I love HDTV for this number
Speaker 4: one because they are working their tails off to diversify
Speaker 4: this network and bring black and brown people and every
Speaker 4: other color under the rainbow on the network, and I
Speaker 4: applaud them for that. Number two, they have allowed me,
Speaker 4: in any person of color, to really open the conversation
Speaker 4: with production with them too, Like the way my hair
Speaker 4: flows on TV is different than the way another woman's
Speaker 4: hair might flow. That's of a different hue than me,
Speaker 4: you know. So if you guys want to do demo
Speaker 4: day and then have a follow up, you know, do
Speaker 4: three scenes in one day. I can't do demo first
Speaker 4: because my hair is gonna explode in this heat out
Speaker 4: here in California and I don't have a present calm
Speaker 4: on site, and nor do I have a hairstyles. So
Speaker 4: you know, they've allowed really, but it's true because I'm like, listen,
Speaker 4: if my track is showing, you have to tap me
Speaker 4: on the shoulder, you know, And there's just we move different,
Speaker 4: you know. And also you know I have melasma under
Speaker 4: all this makeup, and it's like you got it, and
Speaker 4: they work with me on it.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: My skin is not in a great space right now,
Speaker 4: and so I love that because of hyperpimentation, which comes
Speaker 4: from the sun, which we around the sun working a lot,
Speaker 4: and that doesn't really have anything to do with color.
Speaker 4: Other than listen understand what I'm going through and let's
Speaker 4: have the conversation, which they allow us to have now
Speaker 4: and not you know, look, not to say they ever
Speaker 4: look down upon us, but nobody understood it. Now people
Speaker 4: are willing to listen to understand, and I appreciate that.
Speaker 3: What was it like for you to all of a
Speaker 3: sudden go from being a business mogul to then being
Speaker 3: one on TV? And what was that transition like?
Speaker 2: Well, oh, and you say it was a stressful or exciting.
Speaker 4: It is exciting seeing the end result because it all
Speaker 4: works out, but it is stressful during the process, just
Speaker 4: because not only min in front of the camera, but
Speaker 4: I'm also paying attention to what's going on behind the
Speaker 4: camera as well, because this is a show that I
Speaker 4: created and pitched and got green lit during the pandemic.
Speaker 2: So that's amazing too, pat On back.
Speaker 3: But oh, so you pitched the show, Okay, because you
Speaker 3: said HGTV came Colin, But no, I mean you came
Speaker 3: up with the idea and pitched it got it sold.
Speaker 4: Oh Well, when I said came calling, what I meant
Speaker 4: was they literally called and said, hey, we want to
Speaker 4: put a show together for you and get you back
Speaker 4: on the network and I said, well, hey, I already
Speaker 4: wrote a show and they were like, well, hey.
Speaker 2: Pitch it.
Speaker 4: It was on a zoom and I said right now.
Speaker 4: And it was about August of twenty twenty and I said,
Speaker 4: they said yeah, and I said, oh, let me just
Speaker 4: stretch real quick. And I went off camera and I
Speaker 4: stretched for like, you know, twenty seconds. I came back
Speaker 4: and I pitched it and they loved it. They were like,
Speaker 4: let's do it, and I was greenlit right after that
Speaker 4: casual That goes back in preparation, though, but you were
Speaker 4: prepared for the moment, prepared for them. I was prepared
Speaker 4: for the moment. And I had good relationship Mandy. When
Speaker 4: I was on the first show. You know, I always
Speaker 4: said thank you. I always emailed everybody please and thank you.
Speaker 4: Even when the show got canceled, which the whole franchise did,
Speaker 4: they just moved on from it. I was like, hey,
Speaker 4: thanks for the run, because guess what life happens pivot time,
Speaker 4: and I just went on to the next you know,
Speaker 4: pursuit of passion and purpose. So it came right back
Speaker 4: to me and that relationship kicked right back in right.
Speaker 4: What is it like it's amazing. It's thrilling during a pandemic,
Speaker 4: you know, hair makeup. That that's very serious to me.
Speaker 4: But at the end of the day, I'm living a
Speaker 4: dream that I went and caught. I stopped chasing dreams
Speaker 4: a long time ago. I'm too old to do that.
Speaker 4: I'm in the phase of my life now where I'm
Speaker 4: catching dreams and being able to do that is amazing.
Speaker 4: And then to grow from it too as an executive
Speaker 4: producer and creator for other shows.
Speaker 2: Oh, I mean, it's like every day I'm so grateful.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the power of not just being the talent in
Speaker 3: front of the camera, but also having not only I
Speaker 3: mean it probably opens you up, correct me if I'm wrong,
Speaker 3: to even more monetary gain being the owner of the
Speaker 3: EP on the back end.
Speaker 2: Three streams of one show you just named every one
Speaker 2: of them.
Speaker 3: Okay, lovely, I get it. But for creators out there,
Speaker 3: I mean, obviously not all of us have TV shows
Speaker 3: of our own, but to I think that message is
Speaker 3: coming through for those of us who are who are
Speaker 3: watching people like you succeed. It's oh, but they own,
Speaker 3: but they are executive producing. It's more than its Yes,
Speaker 3: be the talent, but it's more important. It's also important
Speaker 3: for us to have a seat at table.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's more money behind the camera too, So you know,
Speaker 4: it's just like in the music industry. People see all
Speaker 4: of these you know, artists out here singing, but they
Speaker 4: travel so much because they only make real money when
Speaker 4: they're on the stage. That's when they get paid directly,
Speaker 4: you know. But if they're not writing or producing themselves,
Speaker 4: then they're just a paid talent for that moment.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: Royalties is what it makes people wealthy. And so even
Speaker 4: though there's no royalties in reality TV, there is just
Speaker 4: additional they called line items right on the budget in television,
Speaker 4: and you get additional line items in addition to just
Speaker 4: being hosts, not just because being host is amazing, but
Speaker 4: to being host there's more so learning the business on
Speaker 4: the other side behind the camera.
Speaker 2: That's that is top notch. That's like wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah. For someone who's listening right now, and maybe they're
Speaker 3: not necessarily in real estate, but they may be thinking,
Speaker 3: I want to share my talent, I want to be
Speaker 3: I want to executive produce my own reality show. What
Speaker 3: would be your message to them if there's one thing
Speaker 3: that you can sort of take away from this conversation
Speaker 3: or do today to kind of put yourself on that path,
Speaker 3: because you're proving it's possible. So what would be one
Speaker 3: piece of advice or guidance you could offer.
Speaker 4: Find somewhere, find a show, find a production company, call
Speaker 4: them and say, hey, I want to be PA. That's
Speaker 4: production assistant. So they're the ones that really they really
Speaker 4: hold the show together, even though they're running around, even
Speaker 4: if it's giving out water, going to get lunch. You know,
Speaker 4: it's it's seems like the smallest role, but it will
Speaker 4: have the biggest effect because they're the ones that are
Speaker 4: really interacting with the host and the producers the most.
Speaker 4: So go and start somewhere. Even if you're a writer,
Speaker 4: like I don't want to be a PA production assistant,
Speaker 4: you know, because they seem like they're the you know,
Speaker 4: they just run the errands. You have to start somewhere,
Speaker 4: So why not start there. Call all the production companies
Speaker 4: in your area and say, hey, how can I get
Speaker 4: on set? Get your resume together, and then start that
Speaker 4: way and work.
Speaker 2: Your way up.
Speaker 4: I see I have seen pas grow or even second
Speaker 4: camera assistants, you know, they're they're the assistant to the
Speaker 4: camera man or woman, and it seems like they're just like,
Speaker 4: you know, doing grunt work. But they're not, because I've
Speaker 4: seen them grow to be first camera men or women,
Speaker 4: you know, even on my show, like oh my god, Matthew,
Speaker 4: you know your camera one. Now, that's amazing because they
Speaker 4: moved up. But you have to start somewhere. And people
Speaker 4: are like, I don't know what's going on with this
Speaker 4: new generation. They don't want to work. They just want
Speaker 4: to have TikTok.
Speaker 3: Hey hey now, But some other.
Speaker 4: Ones that I see, I'm like, you have to do
Speaker 4: the work, you know. That's one of my companies is
Speaker 4: called do the work. And it's not I'm not talking
Speaker 4: about do the work from not being lazy. I'm talking
Speaker 4: about do the work through perseverance, through the tears, through
Speaker 4: the nose, through the pivots. You have to keep going.
Speaker 4: But I've said this for years, Matty, shake hands and
Speaker 4: kiss babies. That's like a politician. That's how you start
Speaker 4: building relationships.
Speaker 3: Putting yourself also, I'm hearing from what you're saying, put
Speaker 3: yourself in the environment where people are doing the dream
Speaker 3: job that you want to do, or doing the work
Speaker 3: that you be doing. It's sitting, Yeah, sitting and feeling
Speaker 3: isolated in Nebraska. Like you said it out, you probably
Speaker 3: won't get you there.
Speaker 2: You can't be the best kept secret. You have to
Speaker 2: get out there.
Speaker 4: And now that the world is opening back up again,
Speaker 4: go find the people who leave the clues to success
Speaker 4: and go follow them and do like they do.
Speaker 2: I bet you what they do every day.
Speaker 3: You're not doing follow the clues that leads you to success,
Speaker 3: and you cannot be the best kept secret. Brag on yourself,
Speaker 3: share your story just like you be a page turner
Speaker 3: who's got the most incredible name ever. Shout out to
Speaker 3: Page's mom for that little.
Speaker 2: Bit of wordplay.
Speaker 3: I'm delighted.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: As a fellow writer, I see that. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Paige for embodying brown ambition and
Speaker 3: for joining our show. It's been such a pleasure to
Speaker 3: get to know you, and I wish you continued success
Speaker 3: in all of your endeavors.
Speaker 4: Mannie, thank you for allowing me to be here. I
Speaker 4: love what you're doing. Your platform is amazing, your questions
Speaker 4: were amazing, and I just super feel connected.
Speaker 2: So thank you so much.