The Billion Dollar Banker Podcast

🎙 From Small Town to Billion-Dollar CEO | Julia Spillman’s Real Estate Success Story

• Nicole Perrone

Discover how Julia Spillman, CEO of the Eklund Gomes Team, went from a thousand-person town in Kentucky to leading one of the most successful real estate teams in the U.S. In this in-depth interview, Julia shares her career leap from finance to luxury real estate, her early challenges in New York City, and the leadership principles that have fueled her team’s billion-dollar success.

From risk-taking and resilience to building a collaborative, high-performance culture, Julia reveals the mindset and habits behind scaling in a competitive industry. Whether you’re in real estate, entrepreneurship, or leadership, her story will inspire you to dream bigger and execute smarter.






⏱ CHAPTERS
00:00 – Intro & Guest Welcome
00:42 – Julia Spillman joins from Istanbul
01:02 – Growing up in a small Kentucky town
01:54 – First steps into finance & banking
03:15 – The leap from Merrill Lynch to real estate sales
04:25 – Learning NYC real estate from the ground up
06:15 – Early lessons & building market knowledge
07:55 – Joining the Eklund Gomes Team
10:13 – The project that never happened but built lasting bonds
13:04 – Combining business, marketing, and operations for success
15:31 – What makes Eklund Gomes unique
17:17 – Collaboration over competition
20:03 – Work-life “blurred lines” & team culture
21:46 – What it really takes to run a billion-dollar team
23:16 – The power of planning & proactivity
25:49 – Leading a national team across markets
27:32 – Burnout, health challenges, and leadership lessons
29:01 – Why over-communication drives client success

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