Meet Lashell Johnson

We recently connected with Lashell Johnson and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Lashell, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

Simply put…I inherited my work ethic from my mother. During my childhood, i grew up with my mother having multiple jobs at once to care for her household. God gave her the strength to do it every day – most of the time 7 days a week. In my adult life, I operate under the same premise. As an independent contractor in the real estate industry, this level of work ethic is crucial to have because the clients come at any time. I make my schedule available to accommodate the needs within their schedule.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

This is an easy story to tell. Hopefully, I am enough room here to tell it.

Professionally…my career began spiritually. I had a conversation with the Lord. I was about 25 or 26 years old at the time ( I am now 44). I was about to graduate college with an unimpressive degree; a degree I declared because I’d accumulated so many college credits and still didn’t know what I wanted to be now that I’d fully grown up! LOL!

I prayed a simple prayer – one which I, now, recognize and admit lacked specificity. “Lord, show me what my mandate is.” Now, why didn’t I say that? Smh. Well, what I ride it has been….and it started when I purchased my very first home at age 27. I bought it for my 27th birthday in May 2007. If you had told me I would have a heart-wrenching, painful experience with that purchase, I would switched my plans and went on a vacation to celebrate Chapter 27 of life. AND I sure would have spent a lot less money in the process. Business-wise? I met the unethical, shady underbelly of the real estate industry – where my realtor did whatever it took get me to buy a house I did not want (due to its uncover conditions). I saw the lengths someone will go to just to collect a commission check and leave town!

I was left with a house, where every potential issue I found concerning – turned into immediate issues the day I moved in. Aside from the house – my health began to suffer in the house! Some 7 months later, I lost my womb. Yup – I need an emergency hysterectomy at age 27. I worked for my local school district; money wasn’t great as I was paid once a month. I had a surgery to pay for, a mortgage, student loans… LIFE! So, I got 3 additional part-time jobs as I kept my full-time day job. 7 days a week – I worked. Once of these jobs was at a temp agency; I was placed at a property management company to fill in for the site manager on weekends. Turned out I had a talent for procuring lease agreements. I didn’t make the connection then; I was just trying to financially survive.

Four years later – I sold my house in a short sale; moved into a small apartment. A few months later in the Spring of 2012, I enrolled in my first real estate course because I wanted to help others avoid the pitfalls I had experienced in my homebuying process. Then, I immediately did the 2nd course. I did very well…until it was time to take the national and state real estate exams. This is where it gets embarrassing and humiliating for me.

7 years. 15 exams. This is how long it took me. Off my 1 point or 2 point. I’d pass the state portion, but the national portion would elude me. It was to the point to where I believed this was not what God’s plan was for me. When I give my all, I expect results! But there was something the Lord was doing – He was making some heavy changes in me. With my attitude. My character. Professionally, it looked like no one would take me seriously. I didn’t even want people to know when my retests were coming. I flunk an exam and go sit in my car, crying, while scheduling a retake with the last $150 in my bank account. The Lord would put in on someone’s heart to give me funds to test without me asking! That happened a number of times!! Even in that – I couldn’t see He was REALLY for me and real estate. All I could see was that I had failed…again. Until April 22,2019…

Pouring rain outside on a Monday. I was about to take my 15th exam. I sat in Panera, reviewing real estate math. I received an urgent call from one of my closest friends. “Lashell, I know you have the test today, but we all prayer warriors now…it is a life or death situation for a baby and his mother.” I closed my books, began praying and interceding, got in the car to drive to the testing site. Praying all the way there. Checked in for my test – still praying. I took the test – still praying earnestly. If I failed again – I wouldn’t have cared because I was focused on God turning that situation around in that maternity ward. I finished the test and walked out to the printer to await my results. I was so used to flunking that I EXPECTED to see “fail” next to my name. But not this time…

It said “Lashell Christina Johnson – PASS”. My eyes flooded as I was bawling uncontrollably. I began to worship the Lord – I didn’t care who saw me because HE OPENED THE DOOR NOBODY GOT SHUT! The lady at the testing site said to me “Look what the Lord has resurrected…” It just happened to be the day after Resurrection Sunday!

Then, two weeks later – a co-worker from my job told me I am “good ground” and wrote me a $1,000 check to pay for all my real estate fees. Later that year, I sold over $1,6M in real estate within two months with a full time job… This is just the tip of the iceberg.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Faith, humility, and perseverance. No one owns you anything…even if they do. At the end of every day, I am held accountable for everything Lashell’s responses and actions.

Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?

My greatest challenge is intertwined with a few things. It is resetting my boundaries to allow myself time to recuperate and rest AND combating/overcoming fear (there are levels to this thing). My industry is one where I go out when my clients need me to. That’s a lot of evenings and weekends – during the day, I am corresponding with lenders, escrow companies, and the sorts. But something I have observed over the years: oftentimes, I’m told “make sure you are taking care of yourself” until that person needs you to interrupt your time to accommodate theirs…personal or professional. I have realized I am guilty of being overly accommodating at the expense of my joy, health, spirit, and even money. That rest I have been guilty of not embracing…I, now, need…even if it means I lose clientele. Or will I? (grin)

Contact Info:

• Website: lashelljohnson@npdodge.com
• Facebook: Lashell C Johnson

Image Credits

Margaret Wolf is the photographer who took the pic of me in the orange blazer. The rest are mine.