Reveal Podcast

Unstoppable Spirit: Victoria Melton on Overcoming Adversity and Thriving

• Jessica Nieto/Victoria Melton • Season 1 • Episode 40

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Welcome back to The Reveal Podcast! In today’s episode, we are excited to feature Victoria Melton, a seasoned real estate agent and team leader at eXp Realty with over two decades of professional experience. Victoria has transformed her career from leading Melton Home to building dynamic teams, and she’s here to share her inspiring journey and insights with you.

What You’ll Learn:

  • Navigating Challenges with Resilience: Victoria opens up about her recent experience losing a rental home and witnessing the devastating impacts of mudslides in her North Carolina community. Discover how she maintains perspective and gratitude, even in the face of adversity, and how this mindset can empower you in your own challenges.
  • The Power of Community Connection: Learn how Victoria and her network mobilized to provide essential supplies and support during the crisis, demonstrating the profound impact of community collaboration in real estate. Her story will inspire you to engage and uplift those around you, no matter the circumstances.
  • Leadership and Team Dynamics: As a leader at eXp Realty, Victoria discusses the importance of fostering a collaborative environment and bringing diverse perspectives to enrich her team. Learn how effective team building can drive innovation and success in your own ventures.
  • A Journey of Personal Growth: Victoria reflects on her transition from a stay-at-home mom to a successful entrepreneur and how her life experiences shape her approach to real estate and client relationships. Her journey emphasizes the importance of personal growth and finding purpose in your work.

This episode is packed with valuable insights that will empower you to rise above challenges, cultivate meaningful connections, and thrive in your real estate career.

Connect with Victoria Melton:


Connect with Jessica Nieto:

Tune in now to gain inspiration and actionable strategies that can transform your approach to real estate and community engagement!



  📍 I learned very quickly if I can thrive after my worst days this is good and I'm watching people living their worst days. 

 you are owed nothing just because you got a license.

 Get used to being uncomfortable.

 it was the craziest deal I've ever done. The hardest deal I had ever done, but it was the best deal I had ever done 

 there's so many ways you can have the honest conversation and not have to be a liar 

  You have to be resourceful. You have to be grateful and you have to understand this is not overnight. You got to give yourself three years, minimum

what I've learned is while listening to all these people who were big producers in their markets was how they talked. How they carried themselves, how they worked, how their time management was

  The way the world glorifies how busy they are, they become a slave to it. I'm not impressed that you don't have 20 minutes in a day

 if you need help, go help someone else. 

 Welcome back to another episode of the reveal podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Nieto. And today I am absolutely thrilled to introduce you to my incredible friend, Victoria Melton. Victoria has an impressive track record as a realtor, but this lady's success is not only measured by the huge Production and profitability of her business, but she stands out with her unwavering spirit of resilience and dedication to community connection.

And recently Victoria faced the loss of a rental home due to the devastating mudslides in her community. But instead of retreating, she rallied her network to provide support and hope to those in need. Victoria and I were both nominated by EXP Realty as Icon of the Year, so we wanted to share a conversation with you all about what it means to be acknowledged for giving back and showing up for your community.

And in this episode, we'll explore Victoria's inspiring journey, her insights on overcoming adversity and her passion for building meaningful relationships in the real estate industry. Trust me, you won't want to miss this wisdom and energy that she brings to the table. So let's dive in and uncover the incredible story with Victoria Melton.

 . Victoria, welcome to the studio.

Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. This is a big deal. You're a big deal. You're a big deal.  You're a big deal. I'll never forget. It was actually just a month, a couple of months ago, we were in Austin, Texas, and you came up and you're like,  Do you need anything like a coffee or I thought I reflected on the event and I thought, just being in your presence.

It just absolutely, I feel better. I feel calm. I feel like we just connected when we hit off. I think we met in Charlotte. First I saw you in Austin, but it's just been fun getting to know you, but I still have not sat and heard your story and just been able to poke and ask a bunch of questions like I love to do to get to know people and the reveal podcast.

That's exactly why I put this show together is because I love to get to know people and why not share your story and our conversation with others to see how it might impact their entrepreneurial journey. Help them, break through something something that you share today certainly will resonate with them and get them on their way.

So Victoria, thanks for being here today. Appreciate you. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited. I have no idea what we're going to talk about. We were talking for a while before we hit record. So we'll just keep talking. 

I want to talk about this first. So recently you've lost a rental home and you've been experiencing some awful scenarios close to you near home in North Carolina. Tell us a little bit about how you've been able to experience your community going through such a hardship. When I spoke to you on the phone, you're like, yeah, we lost a rental, but our tenant is safe.

You just always seem to be. Yeah, like quickly deciding like what the worst case is being grateful for the best case and then like still moving in your business. How are you able to move through things like that?  First of all, it's not my home, right? So for me, I was like, okay, that's whatever happens with that.

It's fixable. Yeah. Before I even knew what happened there, I had already heard things from other realtors in Western North Carolina. And I was actually in a transaction with one in Western North Carolina who had come to my market to represent a family member or a best friend. And so anytime I was able to get communication and one of my agents actually had a daughter at date.

Get like there and boon, which was part of the mess. And she was just stuck the college student sophomore in college, I believe. And I didn't know how bad all the things were yet. This was on Friday and I said, we have to do something or whatever. And I'm like, we're just, small people, right? 

And so as we were connecting with some of the Asheville agents as they were trying to get signals on our workplace group, I am in an Asheville group as a matter of fact of agents. When I came to eXp, they took me in their wing. And I was an agent here four years ago. So I made a lot of connections that were became colleagues, then work family.

And now a lot of them are just family and that 

really put things in perspective, seeing the mess, the mudslides, the water, the raging rivers, just rushing into these towns. And it wasn't when you look at the internet, it's not Those houses that were washed away. Most of those houses had families in them when they were being washed away. And so.

Anything I had dealt with was. It was miniscule, miniscule. You could wipe it clean. We have land. It's great. So that was not an, if someone has some place to go, they're okay.  So that is nothing compared to when you drive through these towns that have just been decimated. Like they're gone. There's four or five towns in Western North Carolina that were just gone. 

Gone. There are still people missing. There are I haven't really watched a lot of TV about it, but I've just been listening to what our agents and our network is over there and how their clients are doing. And it seems like you can't even capture it. You can't. Driving through it does nothing.

It doesn't even convey what's on picture. You can't put in one frame the amount of disaster. And just we delivered boots on last Sunday. Boots and blankets. We would take with the Asheville people that we knew. Would say we're in need here, get it there. And so a bunch of us that knew each other, we just rallied and kept rallying.

And all night, all morning, what can we get to airports? Who's flying where what's the need here. And it puts things in perspective. Okay. Food, non perishable food, clothes, all these, whatever. But then when the need comes in for body bags you're like, Oh my God, you're the old shit is  that changed?

You knew it was coming, but the fact that you can Amazon body bags, like it's on Amazon and then have that because now the mud is contaminated. All the water is contaminated. If people have water, it's contaminated. You can flush, you can bathe, but you cannot drink. Do not boiling. It is not going to help at all.

And so when I was dropped, so we would collect the different items that were requested in different periods of times and throw them on semi trucks, get our local Ashley Furniture donated a semi truck and a driver. Oh, wow. That's brilliant. We had, I have clients who were pilots. And other realtors knew, had finds that were pilots out of Lake Norman, Statesville, Greensboro, and they rallied to get, we would shove stuff on planes, get them over.

We just keep loading and we would line volunteers up. And it was surreal. And you still don't even know. None of us at that point, we were just like, get stuff here so they can get it there. No one knew. And then when you started roads were clearing, we had agents drive back roads and report back. Hey, where can we take this?

So they would direct us. It was a group effort. No single person.  ever get credit. It was a,  I've never met so many people in a fight or flight situation that were fighters and that energizes me that instead of saying,  I'll send 5, which any dollar helps because we raised I have one group in our EXP network and we raised 5, 500 in two days.

And we bought supplies and just sent them. But when we did the boot run and the blanket run, I think there were 1500 blankets over a hundred pair of boots. And this is just three days being on Facebook. This is what we need. And so we decided to drive those in ourselves. And I remember where we were directed to go.

We're dropping these boots off. And a man was just talking to us, helping us unload and had lost 20 relatives.  Cause they had all the if you look at some of these small towns in the Southwest, a lot of families stay together, and so the whole street was his family. There were still eight missing and 12 accounted for  is what we were told.

And another young lady had lost 12 members of her family. She was in her early twenties. It's just gone. And I'm hoping I'm not one to put things on social media and exploit people's stories or bought rock bottom. I get why people want to bring awareness to how bad it could be but I don't particularly, it's not my thing to do. I just feel like if you're at your worst and someone's trying to take a video, I'll tell people your story. I feel like if they wanted their story shared, they would ask or they would I just, yeah, without permission, that would be, yeah, I can't believe in the grand scheme of things at my worst point in my life, someone putting a phone in my face and like, how are you really like you, it's just, it's indescribable and something I thought we would never see.

And when you see all the different, there were semi trucks in trees, tangled up in trees. where the water imagine this. Yeah. Yeah. And there were cars under the foundation of businesses like under where the mud had come out and they just landed under there. And I'm just like how was that even possible? 

So there's a couple of things that just, that stand out to me that I think From a perspective of trying to, in the crazy business as an entrepreneur, the day to day, just things are crazy. It's Monday, right? So much to face. And, for someone that maybe the family like is on the rocks a little bit, like things aren't going great, not in the best place of your life.

I feel like it's hard for some people to understand how to get themselves out of it. And then to experience the sort of devastation. Patient like this losing your home, losing family members. It brings a whole new perspective to. Recently for so many people to lose family members to lose their homes lose their children.

I just like many of us can't fathom that. And I think sometimes it's very hard to even understand how to help. Or even to really understand like the devastation that people are experiencing.  So you all jumped in and I, like we had said before we jumped onto the recording. We're talking about how it's amazing.

Like it's, it almost re restores our belief in humanity and the power of community. And coming together, and it's difficult that it has to happen in a situation like this, but you truly experience people coming together, like you said, in a fight or, fight situation, they came together and fought to bring the best result possible in an impossible situation.

So what tips would you give? For people that are facing, like challenges and business challenges and things. How do you remain grateful each day and committed to your duties? While staying, positive with so much going on around you? I always think to myself when I struggle, because I do struggle sometimes With care and more caring people's emotions.

I'm an empath to my core. Yeah. Yeah. We got that in common, lady. Want to fix everything. And I am I am a praying person and I have to remind myself, I am not God. I cannot think that highly of myself that I could fix everybody and everything. And once I learned that I am not that powerful and strong, I'm going to It takes a little bit of that pressure off, but I just go back to, I learned a long time ago in my twenties, I buried a lot of my family in my twenties, my parents, grandparents, everyone in my early twenties.

And I learned very quickly if I can thrive after my worst days this is good. And I'm watching people living their worst days. Anything I have to deal with isn't shit, to be honest. That's so real.  That's such a great, like you need those words. You need to create some kind of like affirmation or statement or awareness.

around like what you have gotten through. I was listening to a minute or two of a podcast, one of Leo Pereija's new podcasts. And he had someone on that was sharing like her life story and everything. And it was, it's so crazy how you could hear Just one sentence from someone, something that you already know, but you just needed to hear again, right then.

It was fascinating. Leo shared a stat and he confirmed that he had researched it, but I don't have the exact thing, so I'm not going to quote him, but he was saying something to the effect of how if you look at most world leaders or really successful people, that they have a similar story of losing their parents  and their caretakers when they're young.

And there's something about, it was something about, to the effect that you've already  persevered through your worst fear as a child.  Yeah. I was right out of college with one of them. And it was a series of three years. I lost eight people in my family. Just quickly and you think okay, when is this going to end?

And I was a young mom, so I was carrying babies and going to doctor's appointments relentlessly. And I think there's truth to that because like you realize that ticket you get on the way to an appointment. That's the worst thing that can happen today. We're good.  Like I'm guilty. I did it. And a lot of people don't think I take things seriously.

A lot of people. I've gotten that before. So people that feel, and the reason is because your amount of emotion and reaction to something, it doesn't seem like enough to them, right? Like you're not upset enough about this. Yeah. Interesting. And things may irritate me, but I remind myself like It's not a call at 3 a. m. to say goodbye to someone you love. It's not the world is not going to crash. And I think over the last couple of weeks, hearing people's stories from, to, to bring it full circle, I was really burnt out on work. I was burnt out on I just had some rough deals dealing with a lot of personalities and a lot of emotion and just a lot of rudeness.

Just rudeness. And that's the best word for it. I  think you are fucking rude.  That was the kindest thing to say. And I, and when all of this happened and I'm hearing my friends can't get a hold of family and my friends can't get out of their houses or they can't. And I would watch on social media to try to see if they posted something to see if they're okay.

Cause you don't want to bombard people, but at the same time, you're like, I think Justin Purnell is one of the agents that kind of took me under his wing. And I was like, you better tell me, you're like, where are you? We're in my text go through. I'm like, how's your family? How's your family? And When you get to that point, you're like, whatever  rudeness I had to deal with it's nothing. 

We close it and move on. And it's just really not that big of a deal anymore. It's not through ex exhaustion of going back to Virginia to Western North Carolina to work, having to jump back into work. I thought this it is tiring, but it's nothing. It's nothing like, it's nothing but,  or and, you do address it, right?

So we were talking a little bit before the show about just taking that day off, taking Sunday off, and you hadn't taken a day off in a long time. I think at some point when we feel a certain way, like we're, I saw actually two posts today, and I love the message where, it says don't act based on your emotions or your feelings, just show up and do.

And that's what we do. every day, but there comes a certain time where there's that mental health check and you say, no I feel so strongly the way that I do that. I really do need a break or I need to have a me day. And it's amazing what a day can do, like a single day, right? So that's really great advice.

Victoria, we've been talking about some things that feel almost unreal to some, maybe listening, right? Like just can't even imagine. And we haven't even dug into your story. I know though, the one thing about you as much as you've been through when the way that you show up it's just, it's fun.  So resilient, so fun, such a great sense of humor.

So tell me, take me back and tell me a victorious story. Like I want to share with the audience a little bit of who you are and outside of real estate or in real estate, just something about you and how you got started as an entrepreneur. How? Oh, gosh. I was Victoria before real estate. Like just tell us a mom.

My children are grown. I have one still at home. He's 17. I have a 25, 24 year old. I'm a grandmother. I have my first granddaughter, she's five months old, five and a half months old. Oh my God. And I was, my daughters were division one college athletes. So we did the ball thing. We did the whole travel ball thing.

Oh, how fun.  It is. A lot for memories. And I had a direct sales business. I was married into the car business, husband worked for car and management in the car industry for years and I watched a lot, like I listened and I watched a lot, how that was run. The seasonal economy that sales has is very parallel.

The car business and real estate are very parallel and highs and lows. And so I would watch that and I stayed at home for quite a few years built a Rodan and fields business and direct sales. You can't really, it's hard to teach people that you could actually use this sales avenue to really make changes in your life.

You can really absolutely can. I, people can call it a pyramid scheme or whatever. Now it's sales. You got to sell product to make money, but you also can grow an organization for the residual part of it, but without sales, you get better.   Did that for a few years and when my daughters went to college, , I wish they were the heroic moment where I was like, I was born to be a fielder. 

It's so underwhelming. That when my daughters went to college, they went back to back and they played lacrosse at East Carolina and they went to get, they played together. So they were back to back and I was a mom at 19. So this is all I knew. And these people up me. And I was just like, what do I do now?

And my son is the easiest child in this life, right?  That's so great.  And  I'm like, what, I had a, I wouldn't say a midlife crisis moment, but I'm not old enough for this feeling. Like I'm not, no one tells you what it feels like when your kids leave. And I won't speak for a man or a father, but in my head, when I listened to them, they're waiting to get their kids off payroll.

So they're like, no, we're there  for me. It was like,  is my life. I felt like my life was over  honestly, and I was sitting, I would go meet a friend for work. Would go to the bar every other week after on Fridays and every now and then I stopped in cause I still have my son at home. So  I stopped in and there was a food truck there that my son wanted.

And I was like let, we were waiting on our order and we were talking to the people in our office and her, she works for a property management company and the owner, he said, I need another realtor in my office. I was like, that gets an order.  Yeah, I said, it probably won't be very good. But if I get, and I've known him for a couple of years, I said, if I give her a license, will you hire me?

And he said, yeah, I said, can I just stay under the radar? I just, I don't want to get into the networking. He's yeah, you just list investment properties as my people want to sell them. I'm like, cool, easy, right? It's a hobby. It'll be something to get me moving and off my couch. So I don't fall into this depressed mom.

Yeah. But what I didn't know then is that your relationship with your children changes from mom to like parent to child to Oh, you're knowing each other as people now. And it gets, no one told me that part, that it would get  better. But at that time. You should write a book about that.

Yeah. There's not a lot of information out there, but I don't know if I was just being dramatic.  No, it seems like within the EXP community, like you, you get to know so many amazing people, but we'll just talk about women, but so many amazing women and just seeing like their posts and having conversations and hearing about that, that separation that feeling that is just yeah, it sucks. But I use real estate to get my mind off of that. And so that's so fascinating.

I had a couple drinks and the next morning, like you sign up for real estate classes I was like, Oh, I guess I did. You did. I love that. All good things happen that way. I inquired about getting my pilot's license and I was like that's really expensive. So we went with the ladder of real estate and a drone license.

When I got my license, I went back to this guy. I said, I'm ready to go teach me whatever I need to know. And he said, okay, so two weeks go by, I heard nothing from him. And then COVID hit.  I have no idea that everyone says the day I got my real estate license, I caused COVID. That it literally the world shut down and then he calls me and said, I can't no, he did it.

He broke up with me in an email,  a dear John letter in my email. And I remind him if I hit an accolade or goal, I send it to him. I'm like, remember me. And I said, I sent him an email, we'll supply toilet paper for a job  during the toilet paper I'm like, I could be learning a lot right now. And Victoria, this is so good. He is going to kill me for this. He responded. He had a lot on his plate, especially with COVID not knowing how to navigate his business.

He was like, I just can't teach you what you wanna know right now. He said, if you'll go somewhere else and then to get trained, then come back. And then I don't like rejection , so I turn it into a competition. Yeah.  Nope. I'm gonna be upset you on fire. You were ready. Move on up. I'm coming back to you. We don't take ex boyfriends back, right? 

So fast forward and then come back. Okay. So fast forward, let's talk about an accolade that, so you were just nominated as icon agent of the year at eXp Realty. So we've talked about how you are in your community, how you're giving back, how you're giving to others, how you're leading. And then you're also selling a ton of real estate to achieve the icon status.

I did not know that you knew nothing about being a real estate agent in 2020. That's actually when I we brought a small brokerage over to eXp was at the same exact time.  Fast forward, you've received the ICON production size, and then as an ICON agent, you've given back to the eXp community.

Through education and mentorship and doing so much to grow others.  Did you let him know yet?  Let him know. No, not yet. Let him know that you're a nominee. Okay. Not yet. I think, so one of my dearest friends is his office manager. So if he doesn't respond to me, I make sure. So I was on the cover of Real Producers.

This is so not cool. So I made the cover  and I saw it. It's beautiful. August in August. And I had her go put it on his desk. And I love it. That he saw it. And No, he's got to, he'll, we'll always be friends. If it weren't for that, I would not, I wouldn't be here if it were not for that conversation, I would not, and if anything, he did that.

So I love that. I would have  state license. That was not a dream of mine, but what's really cool is Through my entire process and career, I see glimpses of my mom was a hairstylist and she would have been the best realtor and but she had a dream of owning a home and the only home she ever owned was foreclosed on.

And we couldn't even get our stuff out of it. We had no idea. My dad had left not to be a sob story, but I was 15. My dad left. We had no, my mom had no idea our home was in foreclosure.  Had to be out. My dad knew  and we were being tossed out. My, my brother was older, my sister was already out of the house at the time and  like the only hope and she would, I grew up in Virginia beach, which is the east coast.

And I just remember we would scrape change just for her to get a coffee at seven 11 and we would go watch the sunrise. And maybe I could get a muffin or, and you don't know that as a kid that you're poor, right? You just think that's life and that's cool. Like you get excited about things, right? Better days than others.

Yeah, absolutely. And we were the food pantry kids. Like when the, when we got food, those stale Cheerios have a, they're in my head. And, but it was, we were grateful for it. I was like, man, this is amazing. People don't get this.  You were grateful because you seem to love each other. That to me always seems Like even being in community at your real estate company, like when you're around people that you feel loved by, you feel loved on, you feel supported. 

You just, because outside of that is just shit. Outside of that realm where you're not  loved, where you're not comfortable. There's a lot of the world that's just uncomfortable, right? It's extremely uncomfortable most all the time. I had a mentor reach out to me over the weekend and just randomly and she was just checking on me like, how you doing?

How's your summer? How's, wow. Like you just, it's so amazing to be thought of. It is love. Yeah. The smallest things and gestures.  Push me because one people don't have to do it. People are so busy. And this is another thing I live by. I don't really, I don't use the word busy. I refuse to be a slave to busy and the way the world glorifies how busy they are, they become a slave to it.

And it's not impressive to me. I'm not impressed that you don't have 20 minutes in a day. Okay. to text a friend or take a minute and how it, how it controls, it's a control like busy controls you and  you should be controlling it.  Especially, yes, go more into that. I love this. It's such a master class for others to hear.

It's so important. It's, you, it's a brush off, right? When someone says, call me back, I'm busy. I would just rather them not say anything. Yeah, I get it. I don't do that to people that I care about either. Like I, I would never, I would say, Hey, available after one, look forward to connecting. Yeah. Or hey, if it's someone I want to connect with. 

Yep. Let me bug you back. In a meeting, but busy. And it just, to me, because let's go back. Clearly, I don't like rejection.  This may just be dramatic on my end, but I always felt small when someone would say, I'm just busy. I'm busy. It just,  all I hear is, I don't want to make time for you because for me, I make time for people that matter.

I also don't, I also loathe receiving that message. I know you're busy. No, you don't. You have no idea what I'm doing. Yeah. I could be making pasta for my wife. I could be sitting and doing absolutely nothing. You have no idea whether or not I'm busy. I'm productive, but I may not be busy. Yeah.

It's annoying. No, you're not being dramatic. It that one.  Hey  Victoria, you're so lucky. You're like,  fuck off.  Have you ever seen the girl on Instagram? I'll send you a video and she goes, she'll say something that irritates her that someone else will say. And she's have you ever seen her? 

I'll send it to you. Cause we, my team and I, we do that. We're just like and yet we're so joyful, but it does. I know you're busy. I, And I don't do that to people because one, if you know me, you know that I love you, period. You should know how highly I hold you in regard for the fact that even at that wind conference, when you were talking about, I would run and get you a cup of coffee.

I knew how much that conference meant to you just by reading through the threads. And I knew how much. Doing something that big in a large company. We are not small and to rally and gather and do all the things and line things up and be a part of that. I knew one, I knew if it was important to you, it's important to me because I respect you tremendously.

Because we did meet at the rally and I love the things that you said. And and you just looked stunning. I love a woman in a power suit. I love a woman in a power suit. But a lot of the  said there, resignated. But the one thing I made to tell you at that WING conference, and I don't think, I don't know if you remember, I met these two young women and one, one I had already known.

I do remember and They wanted a picture on stage before anyone came in the room. And we were the table leaders. And so I said, I'll take your picture. They said, do you want to appear? I said, no, I'm good. Let me take your picture because it meant so much to them. And they said, we're manifesting.

We want to be on stage. And they were, and they each had their own thing that was important to them. And I just thought these women got, just got off a plane, came over here. We're doing our table leader instructions and they look and they're dreaming, just like instantly dreaming. And I just, and I had to tell you that because I'm like, You're, you don't know how much your dream or your vision is going to impact someone else to do the same thing.

So that's correct. And in life, we lose sight of  sometimes our vision that we're passionate about.  If you really dig into it, it's not about us. It's about someone else that's reaching to get to that point and you want to make sure that your vision isn't selfish, self centered about you, but it's something that someone else will see that same vision and carry it on.

So you don't have to carry it all the time or all by yourself. Yeah, it's not about I read a thing about leadership and I saw this in this industry, in the real estate world, because listen, the last four and a half years, I've sat back and I've sat to myself and just watched. And watch how we're in an industry that glorifies leadership so much.

And all the culture and this and that, and I'm like, that just doesn't pay my bills and feed my family. That doesn't get me from a to B. Not everyone is in that mindset, but I read a thing about leadership and it makes so much sense in real estate. And I think it was John Maxwell. There are leaders who just want followers. 

But the best leaders build other leaders and partners because you don't have to carry that by yourself. You're not supposed to. And I think that conference  specifically was about that and that these two young women were manifesting something that you started or helped start. I don't know how, when came about.

I know you have a lot.  I know it was, it's a big deal to you and it is, and I loved it. I'm not saying it's not to me, but if I respect you and see what you're doing for others, I will run like hell with your idea. I am not a lady. You're so amazing to have in a room i'll tell you and what's crazy is that so we were just nominated as icon of the year and you had me teared up there and it's crazy because when I reflect and think about, you see so many posts and about, producer of the year and this and that this is not that this is like embodying exactly what you just shared. 

It truly is.  At my wife, like actually a friend had said do you think you'll win? I'm like, I never thought  I never really thought of I wouldn't, I don't have any, I don't care.  The whole point is that you and I are just even recognized for embodying. To what as eXp agents, we know to be the icon agent.

And I don't think many brands really, when they see icon, they don't understand like what that really means to us. It has the product, the production is like a little tiny piece, but the way that our company has incentivized us and created a platform for us to give back where we actually also win.

And it takes me to the story of before I joined DXP and my wife would after hours on the phone, my wife would say, honey, I really, I know you want to get back, but I don't really understand why you spend so much time burning yourself out doing it because you don't receive anything back.

And, fast forward joining AXP that, that comment, she doesn't make that comment anymore. Because it's this like the way that EXP has set me up to win and to receive in really just like you can't quantify it because it's been through growth, putting me in very uncomfortable places, offering me, opportunities to, to lead or to, be a leader.

To speak or to do things that I really wanted to be like, no, I'm good. Like I'm cool over here in the back. But to put people forward and put them in front of other put them really in front of the company and say this is one of our leaders and to give us opportunities to give back and to be rewarded for that is it's really not even anything you can describe or articulate very simply.

And you just did a great job of articulating that. I love it. I think, and I was just like you, honestly, Jessica, if you didn't call me and tell me about it, I wouldn't, I still wouldn't know. I would have never seen that post.  Unless someone else saw it, but in my, the EXP family, a lot of them have retired, Yeah.

I'm a workplace beast. Like I'm on it.  I am too. But I missed that. I'm on all the referral pages. I have learned. My second year in EXP and in real estate, I did 21 deals. 17 of them were from workplace referrals.  Okay. So let's drop this magic. Yeah. Let's drop this magic. Cause I know we went a little over time, but I've just been waiting for this conversation.

So let's drop this for the audience.  I post a simple sentence on workplace referral group and say, Hey, need an agent in North Carolina. Don't DME call me. What do you do from there? What's your process? So I have notifications. Only on a few pages on workplace.

Everything else is silenced. I have to go dig for the rest. So the referral pages, notifications come in. So I see it. I see who did it. I go to their full page. I, you will, I am a sniper. Like I  will shit the bed on a daily basis, but this I will go to their workplace page nine times out of 10, their phone numbers on there.

And I just call them. I'm like, Hey, this is who I am. And usually, especially when you say about who you are, break that down. What do you say? I just say, Hey, this is Victoria mountain. I'm in Winston Salem. I would love to help your clients. If you haven't had any,  if you really want my annoying song and dance

of my resume, I'll give it to you, but I'm pretty quick. And sometimes they want it. Sometimes they don't, because I wasn't always an icon agent. And then I was a newer agent. Who's going to get the newer agent. But I will tell you when I was a newer agent, I was up front. I said, but I have this person helping me, my brokers. And I said, I have time to spend on your client. Yeah, there's so many ways you can have the honest conversation and not have to be a liar because I find where you are,  this industry, they're liars. And. And I knew I, I did not want to be the liar. I did not want to but it turned and evolved and doubled every year.

And a lot of that came from there and then they became my SOI and my database and they're my cheerleaders. My second year to icon, I was giving up. I was just like, I needed 17 deals and I only had two and a half months to do it. Because I burn out from September to December. I have no shame in this conversation.

I burn out, had a terrible experience with a realtor and a client. I was like, these people are off their rocker. It made no sense to me. And then I thought maybe I am the problem, right? Two out of three. Yeah, I gotta be the problem. And I just took a, I had to take a break and I wasn't quitting. I just needed a minute. And I came back at the end of December with a little family, first time home buyers that just really tugged at me.  And it was the craziest deal I've ever done. The hardest deal I had ever done, but it was the best deal I had ever done because what it meant to this family, I walked away with crumbs, but a full heart knowing that the agent and I, that was her hardest deal.

And she was a mega producer, right? There were just a lot of wild  and we, yeah, we came out, we were like, we know we need a vacation after this one, but man, look how that happened. The seller was about to lose the property because there was a foreclosed lane that was not caught when he bought the property.

Then my buyers, we closed it within 24 hours of everyone losing that house. The buyers would have been out, sellers would have lost it and all the hard work they put into it. And fast forward, I thought, okay, I'm meant to do this job. I got to get back to work. I had two and a half months, 17 deals. I called all of those referral people that were now my database, my friends, my SOI. 

And I said, who do you know? I said, I checked on them the month before, but today is business. I'm building my spring pipeline. I had 17 closings in,  you are a bad ass Victoria. I just I said, do you know what to leave this on the table where I'm at the XP.  I owe the company a lot. I owe them to help because a lot of people helped.

No one left me hanging when I started here. And when people say they're on an island, you're putting yourself on the island. Yes, ma'am. Yes. And I treaded water and I was determined I got so much pride for joining EXP when I first started. I started with five brand new agents. Those four are now somewhere else and they left quickly.

I knew that this company would turn me into a shark. I do. I didn't want to. You had to plug in like you just said, right? Yes. And I, you can't just be like, wait for people to blow you up. Like you got to pick up the phone. You have to introduce yourself to people. You have to show up places. We had a woman that just joined my team this week, Stacy Bridges.

And she's coming from the, being, she's a nurse. Her kids have just grown. She just moved from Florida. She's brand new at eXp. She found an event that I put on a couple of weeks ago with one of my favorite developers at one of her new projects, who's also a realtor who brought her business to eXp. 

And she found it on Eventbrite. Actually I posted it on Workplace. So she found it on Workplace. She goes, she said to me, I was meant to be there. And I manifested this event and exactly like how it was going to turn out. And she showed up, she met, she said, I want to learn about development.

She met several developers. She met lenders other investors, other realtors. And she's from the moment I showed up, I just felt like I belonged. Like you made, you create an environment where. I felt like I belonged,  but what's so fascinating to me is that for me, I always felt like I didn't belong or, didn't, maybe people would think my ideas are crazy.

Like on a daily basis, I'm almost positive that everything I do that no one will care. Or that it won't matter. It doesn't like, I always feel that way, but I just keep doing it. And I never felt like every exp con the first exp cons, like I never got invited to dinners or it doesn't, it didn't, but it didn't matter to me.

I just showed up and I've. You can just show up like and then you follow up with people that you have a connection with. That's why I started the podcast. Like you and I we kidded off. We were, walking in our heels down the street and finding our cars and you just start a friendship, but it takes intentional follow up.

You have to reach out to people. You have to check on them. You have to say hi. You have to get to know them. You have to invite them, be the inviter. Yeah. And all of a sudden you have this crazy, huge community of connections. It's wild. Yeah. I would call people I knew in my upline.  I don't know if Rich Tomasini.

He's amazing. Yeah. So I'm level. And I was in a room where I was told in our market, it's hard to cap and it, you will never icon  in our market. My market. Bullshit. Yeah. My average, our average price point is 289.  So to be nominated for this icon award, for one, it can't be about production because there would be thousands of icon agents pissed that I'm not there because  if that 289 is our average price point, there's a lot of higher rollers than me.

And, but the I just, I was the life, my, it was getting sucked out, right? You're not going to icon. You have to be an icon team. If you're in our market  and I just got tired of that and I was like I called rich or I, maybe I texted him. I don't know. I said, Hey,  I know you don't really know me, but I knew his agents were icon agents.

He had really big producers and he's only an hour from me. So it's if he had this one group and it was really not even about sales, but I knew if he would, I was like, if you had to be invited to it. And I asked him, I said, I know you're, you might say no,  but  if you would just let me in this meeting, will never say a word.

I will never bother you. I will be as quiet as a mouse. Just let me listen and let me be how these, and even though it might not have been a sales call about how to lead Jen or how to get more business, it was,  and it was about growing your organization. Yep. Yep. Yep. But what I've known,  yes, what I've, it was a different call before the hype.

It has evolved. Yeah. But what I've learned is while listening to all these people who were big producers in their markets  was how they talked.  How they carried themselves, how they worked, how their time management was, because I'm ADHD. And if you saw my desk right now,  ID personality  would absolutely hate me and, but I needed to know one, I needed to find people in there who were maybe like me, maybe a little messy.

But can fix it. I can organize chaos like no one's business. This is messy Jessie right here. Messy Jessie. I find clarity only in chaos.  That is funny because I would think opposite.  Because, and it's,  I would think opposite. I would think you have all your ducks in a row. I don't even know. Yeah. I'm organized, I have systems and everything else, but, we can't do it all.

It's like you get a page of you have a notebook for example, and I'll have like just, notes and books and notes and whatever. But what I do  is I keep one list of what I'm gonna implement. Okay, I'm doing this week. And that's how I find clarity and chaos is like extract something, implement it, test it,  assess it, measure it, love it, hate it, stop doing it, do it more, whatever.

That's how we pave a way forward. And I know I kept you over. I've never stayed over on time in a podcast ever because I just want to talk to you forever, Victoria. So let's leave the audience with You've been in the business for less than five years. What would you say to someone who is either reinventing themselves Or just getting started in the business on how to connect with people when you feel uncomfortable. What advice would you give to intentionally build connections? Get used to being uncomfortable.

There we go. And it will be  not sound cliche, but the stage of life I was in when I got licensed and my family growing up real estate really  me and gave me a  perspec my mother's journey think of homes. And I'm like, m should have been doing th  didn't know I needed that here. But if you're just  About your expectations  and two, you are owed nothing just because you got a license.

You are owed that doesn't mean whatever brokerage you go to and you pay fees, you are owed nothing. No one. God, that's such good advice.  No one.  No one owes you their time to teach you how to do your new job.  Nobody. So when you find the people that will help you  gratitude, I thanked and loved on, and I appreciated it.

And to this day, I appreciate you taking your time for this. We don't have a lot of it and you can't make more of it, but I have that mindset. No one owes you anything because you got a license. There was such a privileged mentality.  Oh, I got my license. You brought me here. You owe me time. No one owes you anything. 

And two, you have to be resourceful. You have to be grateful  and you have to understand this is not overnight. You got to give yourself three years, minimum  three years. And there was something else I was going to say that I felt was very important for me.  Started, I did have realistic expectations because I'd been in sales before.

Sold 6 my 1st year and I thought I was a baller. I already thought I was like, I got this and then you meet other people. Don't go set the bar on yourself and don't look at what everyone else is doing.  Because I think I, I said something on a meeting and I got so tickled because the man was like I did 18 my first year I cracked.

I was like that humbled me. And  and it didn't take away from what, how I felt, but I was like, yeah, there are a lot of people who did a lot more than I did, but that's okay. Because. Someone's first year, 18 deals might be five deals their second year. They may write this out or they may, I hope they get better, but you are not owed anything and anything anyone gives you be grateful.

And the one thing I will say that has helped when I started a team a few months ago, I tell two of the women that kind of cornered me to form this team. They, I always say they actually started it because they love it. They cornered you  against my will out of Panera bread. And, but what I loved about them is I knew they did honest to goodness in a boot too, I couldn't escape. 

And I knew they wanted this. Really bad and I knew that we would get along, but there were, when we started, I was getting frustrated because there were so many questions and then more people joined the team. We're about to be a 10 man team now and. The, and we're still in the baby phases, but all the questions and then the personalities and I've been solo and in my home office, this is my name. 

I don't go out. I don't chum it up with local realtors. I stay in my lane, but this forced me out of my comfort zone. But the one thing we decided if you need help and honest to God, if you need help, go help someone else.  First,  because help will always find you and it's not that  you can't ask questions, but  when I was in my rut last year, this time last year, I would go, I knew a high producer, her signs would be down the road.

And I'm like, Hey, notice your house close. You want me to bring you your sign? Isn't  that wild, the impact? And you mentioned making time to call people. I have a list of the people that I plan to text while I'm at eXpCon that are not going to eXpCon to let them know that we're thinking of them. Why?

Because it makes it makes all the difference  in someone's life. Sends me a text thinking about you. It makes me teary because you do get this industry is an island. You and I are the biggest babies too. I love it.  If I kept talking, we could cry. I could really, you have me crying earlier.  You don't,  I think we go so quickly and we move so fast.

That  one, we're not present a lot. We have to, you can't, I have to force myself to be present. Like I have to internally Victoria, your son's right here. I need to listen to what he's saying because it's always on to the next thing and making sure everyone's happy. And  you're to be thought of and knowing that other people in the same industry, there were a lot of common ground, even though different personalities of not being able to shut it down, of everyone trying to navigate boundaries. 

That when someone sends a text, Hey, think just thinking about you, or I hope you're doing good. Or when someone posted about the icon thing that was so sweet, proud of you or, and I'm just like, I'm 40 some years old and people are still proud of me. Yeah, Hell yeah, we are.  And to just on that post alone to be there with you, because I know that you're making significant moves and I'm on I'm on Facebook talking about being sprayed in the face with a bidet.

Because I thought it was a toilet seat warmer. Yeah, but people need that shit, Victoria. Absolutely need you to just be you. Because it's an outlet for people to, to just that, that you resonate with and your message, like we don't always have to be same. If someone were to take my Facebook and do a study, you would see this like transitions from okay, I'm going to talk business and I'm going to attract this.

And then okay, no, I'm going to focus on this. And no, I'm just going to be more this it's like this whole, like it changes, but underneath all that and behind that, like for me, the thing that's been rewarding is the people that never comment, never engage, never say anything on my Facebook that I never talked to.

And I will see them and they will say, thank you so much. For posting because it, it really is like something that uplifts me every day. And I'm like, why don't you ever, you, what?  I don't even know you. Are we Facebook friends? Like I had no idea.  So you never know who you're impacting and in order to impact, you truly just have to be authentically you that day.

And I think sometimes you just need to laugh because everything,  we need laughter. Like this shit is not always funny. So we need it to be funny.  And I think what I get excited about, especially when you call me, when I saw your name come up, I'm like, She's calling me. Was  in conversation with them one and an investor.

And I was looked at it. I'm like, I'm getting this. I'm getting this. She is calling me. And, but I've watched you, I think we were Facebook friends before you came to Charlotte. Okay. Watch some things, but I introduced myself in Charlotte and just  would  you're on the West coast?

I'm on the East coast. If we, we could do a rap about this West Coast East Coast, but where  else would I get to meet you in a company like the company's like EXP has given me so much, but they've given me so many people that I have. I get to look up to that. I get to emulate that. I get to choose who to learn from and where they're at and where they're going and that, I'm 46 years old and I started a new career four years ago. 

And it's just beginning and I get to be surrounded by the best of the best and I get to decide if they're the best because it's,  yeah, that's a killer point right there. I love watching what you do. I love that you love on people. I love that you're doing the, an astronomical amount of business that I can't even.

Comprehend and you take time to genuinely love on people and it's not smoke and mirrors. It's not fake and so To be able to be on the same  Post as you is  Well for everyone that's listening victoria was nominated as icon agent of the year alongside like along with me and that's why I wanted to call you and say we just need to chat it up and show people that Being number one, number two, number three, like none of that matters.

It's just to even be acknowledged and recognized for giving back. And I can't think of another person that I would love to share this with. So congratulations, my friend. I'm excited to see you in Miami so soon. Introduce you to my wife. She'll be at the awards dinner. So I'm excited. And helicopter. 

What's that? Are you flying in on a helicopter?  You're the one that knows all the pilots. So 

I've had this vision. I was like, she's showing up in a helicopter. Many people think I'm a pilot. I like the difference between the people that say, You're drinking and flying a plane and the ones that are like,  we're just on the helicopter. That was my wife's birthday in Belize over  the blue hole in Belize was phenomenal.

Yeah.  When I see you. Yeah. We'll tell you about the story. Thank you so much for being on the podcast today. I could talk to you for hours. I will  see you soon. All right. We'll see you. Thanks again.

  This has definitely been one of my most favorite, most empowering episodes of the Reveal podcast with the remarkable  📍 Victoria Melton. Victoria's journey is a powerful reminder of the strength that lies within us all. And even in the face of adversity, her commitment to community and her belief in the power of connection inspire us to lift each other up and remind us that we are never alone in our struggles.

As we wrap up today, let's reflect on this powerful quote from Maya Angelou. If you don't like something, change it. And if you can't change it, change it. Change your attitude. Let Victoria's story encourage you to embrace resilience, foster connections and strive for greatness in your own journey. If you found value in this episode, please share it with your friends.

Leave us a review. Your support means everything to us. And until next time, stay inspired, keep pushing forward and remember that your story can change someone else's life. See you soon

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Jessica Nieto

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