How are you gonna make me successful? And, no brokerage has an answer for that. So, I saw the need for something a little bit more, which, why get into real estate and not have an opportunity to create passive income? If nobody's teaching it, I need to be the place in Cleveland that's teaching it. Kayla Carousella is a resilient, visionary real estate entrepreneur, confidence coach, and legacy builder in the co-owner of local real estate. Drawing from her journey of turning personal hardship into purpose, she empowers agents and investors to build wealth, lead with authenticity, and create lasting impact through aligned intentional growth. So, if a realtor, you know, comes to you, how'd you explain, hey, we're different because? We're different because we're going to teach you how to create passive income and build wealth while you're selling real estate. It spans the globe like a super high as cold, internet Elvis, ready? Today, Apple is going to reinvent the clock. It's not over until I win. The Living Your Legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. That's extraordinary. It is possible. Oh, that is sensational. It's open. Chicago with the lead. You said Paul is the fastest man on the planet. You can live your dream. Hello, and welcome back to another episode. Start with me today is Kayla, she's an entrepreneur, CEO, and on a pretty awesome mission, I'm excited to dive into today's episode. So, Kayla, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. So, let's kick it off. If people don't know who you are and what you do, can you give a bit of an intro? Yeah, so Kayla Carousella, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, and I own a investor-friendly real estate brokerage in Northeast Ohio. And how, you know, what's the journey getting into this? What made you want to get into this? Man. And where are you now? Okay, so this is weird because I, when I started, I actually started in like the cosmetology field. And noticed really quickly that that wasn't something that I wanted to do. I didn't go to college, had no interest in going to college, to be honest with you. But I knew that I wanted to work and I knew that I wanted to make an impact on people. So, my real estate journey really started in actually titles. So, it started in like the title background, which was way too behind the desk for me. Like I cannot sit somewhere nine to five. But I was nine, I mean, I was right out of high school. I was 18 years old. So, it was kind of like my introduction into getting like a big girl job. Sure, sure. So, I did that for a few years. And then those contracts started to come in. And I saw like on the lending side that they were making a lot more money than my salary. So, I had met somebody, I was closing a lot of their loans. Don Galvin actually at Cross Country Mortgage, shout out to him because we still work together to this day. And this was probably five, six years ago. So, I made the switch over to lending. And I would say I did that about three years, which was better because it's kind of like your hybrid, right? So, you're not behind the desk. You can be in the office, but then you can also go out and sell and bring in the business. But then again, those contracts are coming in and these real estate agents were making a lot of money. And so, I'm like, I can do that. I've got the behind the scenes. So, you can say. Yeah, well, it's pretty crazy when you see it because it's like, you can earn 40, 50 grand a year salary and they sell one big house or deal and they make your salary, right? It just makes me, you know, some happen to my head there. And I was like, OK, I need to get out and do that. And I can do that. So, I did. I made the jump like very quickly. I went to real estate school, got it done in like three weeks. This is back in 2019. And then that's when the real realization came to me, which was, wow, there's not a broker in Northeast Ohio that I want to work with. And so, let's fast forward now then. Why are you different? What makes people out with you? Yeah, so it makes us different. At the time, I was, I sat down with every single brokerage, you know, your big, big name brokerage, same as out here, you know, Howard Hannah, Remax. And I would talk about investing because that was a part of it for me. Like, I, when I was on the lending side, I saw a lot of people, you know, building that passive income through residential real estate, commercial real estate. So that was something that I would come to a broker and talk about. And they were kind of just like, yeah, you know, we just want you to sell. We're not gonna help you with that part of the business. And so I would get up and I would leave. Because I, the question I asked at 23 years old was how are you gonna make me successful? And no brokerage has an answer for that. So I saw the need for something a little bit more, which why get into real estate and not have an opportunity to create passive income. If nobody's teaching it, I need to be the place in Cleveland that's teaching it. And so that's where the idea came from. I actually met my now business partner at a networking event, which is funny because that's what we're here doing. So I'm totally excited about that. But just fast forwarding it, like walking into that networking event, the conversation that I had with my now business partner was, yeah, I'm getting into real estate. I made this big switch transition out of lending, but I made a mistake and I think I need to go back because I don't see a broker that I wanna work with. And he had the same sentiment. So that's how that went. And then fast forward to today, how does life look now and the business look now? Life now, I mean, when I started, I would say we had around 21 agents and year to date, we're at about 43. Nice. So just in the last two years, we've doubled our business with maintaining culture and profitability. And in real estate, that is such a big, big part of the day to day is the culture. And so that's what I'm the most proud of. At local, we just are different. We have a group filled with out of 42 of those agents, half of them own very successful businesses, whether they're home inspection companies, we have lenders, we have title reps, we have, there's a couple of agents on my team that own a winery. So just very- It's a little more entrepreneurial. Yeah, totally. Yeah, it's not just selling. How can I help you in your real life, make money and be successful in real life? Yeah, because I mean a lot, I'm into real estate, but I don't understand necessarily the real estate side as a realtor. But from my view of it, when I meet a lot, it is the big companies, they just take in thousands of people and a small percent make a lot of money for them and themselves, right? Exactly. So the people in between there, they're kind of like these solo agents, it's just like left out in the world on their own teams. It's kind of like MLM marketing, right? Exactly. Where MLM, you know, you got a group from a group of money and then thousands of people that sell a few here and there. Sure, and that to me, that doesn't make sense to me. I don't want a huge number, it's not about that. For me, it's more quality over quantity. So if a realtor comes to you, how do you explain, hey, we're different because? We're different because we're going to teach you how to create passive income and build wealth while you're selling real estate. And the type of real estate that you sell, it's similar to everyone else. Yes, residential, in Ohio, if you're licensed, you can sell residential, commercial, you don't have to have a separate license for that. So since we're in that investor space, we deal a lot with mixed use, but I mean, year to date, just to give you an idea, production-wise, 42 agents, we're at 194 units for the year. Nice. The goal this year is 300. So I like to do everything in quarters, let's say, so quarters, but we're halfway through the year. So there's a statistic that 77% of those that are leading at halftime finish the year stronger or actually hit that goal. That's a real estate stat or an overall generalized stat? That's a real estate stat. I just, you know, it's seasonal, is it better in the second half or the same person? For us, since we get four seasons, it is, like, I would say fourth quarter is, third quarter and fourth quarter are less strong. So the fact that first and second, we're going in their way over those units can kind of make up for the slower season. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know if some of the real estate, me and friends, a lot of us buy for tax benefits. Exactly. So for quarter, we're like, okay, I gotta buy. I gotta find, I gotta find. I gotta buy two more units. And so when everybody else in regular residential real estate that's at those other brokerages that are doing that, they're not busy where we're getting pounded because. I guess normal people are like, oh, Thanksgiving, Christmas, I don't wanna move. I'm gonna take the time off and enjoy. Yeah, I don't wanna move house right now. Yeah, that makes sense. No, we're setting our, our clientele is setting themselves up for 2026 in the fourth quarter. Got it, and then, you know, let's talk about, you've built the team to, you know, 40 to 50 now. What are some leadership management, recruitment stuff you've learned along the way? So that is the piece that I kind of had to figure out on my own, right? So I lean on Ninja, there's a book called Ninja Selling and the author is Larry Kendall. That's a book that I read in 2019. And the next year after reading that book, I doubled my own personal production. So I am not somebody that thinks that I need to reinvent the wheel. I believe in the processes and the people that came before us and put these things in place. I just wanna be able to look at it, see the system, and then figure out how I can tweak it to make it a little bit better. So that's what I did with the book is I took my, I essentially took that 42 chapter book and I put it into a 42 week mastermind, so you say. And I taught it to the agents week by week. So we take a chapter out of that book and I would stop, go over the process and how it affects them in real life and teach them the business model around it. So we have weekly trainings and then on top of that, quarterly production meetings with all of the agents to kind of go over goals and that's business and life. So couple of questions. A lot of people listen entrepreneurs. A lot of entrepreneurs getting into real estate or even to invest their profits, right? Or whatever. I always like to ask anyone here that is into real estate, any general tips for an entrepreneur listening that maybe wants to invest their profits from their business into real estate? Where should they start? And do you have a specific type you like? You know, I've had all kinds of people. Sure. Morty family storage units, whatever, right, commercial. So I've had my, I can honestly say I've had my hands in all of it. So my fiance owns a Varnedale storage back home. And so the storage facility, we store boats, trailers, RVs. That's its own beast in itself. I've had storage, storage is fascinating. It's very fascinating. I mean, it can essentially run itself if you get it up, if you get it up there. But there's so many different strategies. For me personally, I started grabbing duplexes. And at the, so this is back in 2020 during COVID, I was crazy buying houses. They were good prices though. They were great because interest rates were low and people were freaking out because they didn't like. See in Miami and Florida, the prices went up because everyone's moving here. Exactly. But I'm sure Cleveland was good. So Cleveland was just like, I mean, 2021, 22, I made my bag. You know what I'm saying? I was able to really set myself up. So those years it was like, when I was investing and I was also selling for my clients, but I would grab, you know, a few duplexes and I'd buy them around 60, 70,000, put about 20, 30,000 into them, refinance them 150 to 175. And then you're pulling 70% of that equity out and then you're just gonna rinse and repeat. And then I found out that you can't have more than 11 mortgages from my accountant. So it was, hey, this is where you're at. You're gonna have to either switch your strategy or switch to something else. The downfall that I had with the multi-families and this is what I'll say for somebody just keep an eye out is, you know, you're not stuck, but you're paying those tenant bills. So in a duplex or a multifamily that water bills high. So for me, it was, okay, let's get out of multifamily and switch this over to a single family model. And so I sold all my duplexes and then bought 11 more single families. And I just, the strategy for me, I just liked it better because you have a family that's living there now. So they take care of the home. They see it as their home and you have a good tenant there. And then your exit strategy and a little bungalow. I mean, how much money can you spend when you're done? Yeah, I'm buying a multi-family here on the beach and it's the opposite because it's all like, you know, barbed workers, restaurant workers. There's a lot of in and out. And I don't get involved. I'm not gonna get involved in the day today, but I said to my assistant, you're gonna have a lot of crazy phone calls at four in the morning. Oh, absolutely. That's so cool. Congratulations on that. So never question. If someone's listening and they are inspired by your story, right? Like you started out working a regular job, you were just seeing what was around you like, oh, there's more opportunities and you kind of went for it, right? You have to. What would you say to people listening? You cannot be afraid to go for it. I mean, it's that opportunity. You can't wait around for that opportunity to come to you. You have to put yourself in those rooms. You have to put yourself in that position to be considered for the opportunity. And even when you get there, you're just eligible. You're just eligible. You're not like tonight. I can't wait to go meet some of the people that are here, but I don't know what the people in this room do. I have no idea what I'm in for, but I'm excited about that. And I think sometimes, especially when you're starting off and something is new and it's different, you get that feeling in your stomach. Like you get those butterflies, so to say. But your stomach, this is a little trick that I learned. Your stomach doesn't know the difference between nerves and excitement. So just switch your mindset to I'm excited to get into that room for the potential to meet somebody for another opportunity to make a ton of money and just make an impact. Well, and I think you have to be, in real estate and entrepreneur, you've got to, even if you're not outgoing, you've got to get out there. You've got to figure it out. Networking is everything. Exactly. So if you're not able to go out there and network and you're an extrovert or you're more of an introvert, you just have to have a leader behind you or a mentor that understands that about you because that's the challenge in my day to day. And when you go from 22 agents to 42, you're meeting them very fast. And the struggle is a lot of these people come to you and they want to make money right away. And I understand that and I did too, but if you want to make money right away, you have to really focus in on those things that you need to do every single day and lock in on that. And so some people give me five hours out of a day. And when I started, if I had 24 hours in a day, I'm gonna sleep. Well, I think that's the curse of real estate. You see someone sell a $2 million house, especially in Miami, right? Someone sells a $4 million house and I could do that too. I could do that too. But it's like, you don't realize there's hundreds of view-ins and the, you know, yeah, it's not as easy as it looks like in business. It's not. And you can't get out of it and go do something else because people want to know and see that you're still doing real estate. So there's something about that too, but it's, you know, getting back to that point, it's just the struggle as a leader is having to strategically teach somebody how to use their time the best when they don't know how to spend their time yet. So they have to be able to trust you in that. So a lot of the time I just say, jump in the car, let's get out in the field and you're gonna learn as you go. I can't prep you. It's the best thing in, I mean, every business. You can learn by doing. Yeah. It's great. It's good for me because I'm a doer. Yes. So last question, people want to check you out, find you, maybe get advice on investment real estate. Where can they do that? So you can, our local website, www.localrealestate.com. My personal website is kmcrillestate.com or you can follow me on Instagram. That handle is L-O-K-A-L-W-I-T-H-A-K-A-Y. So local with a K. Love it. Guys, that was a fun episode. Hopefully you learned a bit about real estate, building teams and the mindset behind success. As always, keep working hard, make an impact and I'll see you guys soon. Take care.
