From lawyers to news anchors, real estate agents typically enter the business after finding success in another field. St. Augustine, Fla. agent Peggy Gachet worked with Delta Airlines for 16 years, starting in customer service and ending up in sales and marketing.
You know how sometimes you?ll see a product prominently displayed in a TV show or movie? It was Gachet?s job to get those placements for Delta Airlines. From the Super Bowl to the Olympics, she was on the product packaging and placement team.
She took an early-out retirement, and the family moved to St. Augustine where they owned a second home. It was there that she ?recreated? herself in the real estate industry.
?I had probably one of the most God-awful experiences with a Realtor? ? the top producer in the area ? when I moved to St. Augustine,? she recalls. This was back in the mid-1990s. The top-producing agent she worked with didn?t work weekends, so she would give Gatchet the addresses of listings and send her off on her own to view them. ?I thought, ?If this is the best they have to offer, then this is a no-brainer,?? and her real estate career was born.
As anyone who has had to build a business in a new town knows, it?s challenging to hit the ground running when you don?t know a soul. ?It took me three years of getting to know people and the area to really become productive,? Gatchet explains. ?St. Augustine is very much not what you know but who you know. They?re also very much, ?I don?t care how much you know until I know how much you care,?? she said.
Gatchet eventually obtained her broker?s license and became the broker of the office when the St. Augustine branch first opened. After five years of working 18 hour days, she stepped down to go back into sales full time. ?I really wanted to work 10 to 12 hours a day, not 18,? she joked.
Gatchet figures that about 70 percent of her business comes to her via referral and past clients, so she and her business partner pay close attention to nurturing those relationships.
?We spend a lot of money on direct mail to our former clients,? she explains. ?We also spend a lot of money on customer appreciation events. Last year, for New Year?s Day, I invited our previous customers to my house for an open house,? she said. She served a brunch composed of black-eyed peas, greens, ham and all the other ?good luck? foods that are traditionally served on the first day of the new year. Included was a menu that described what type of luck each dish would bring the consumer. It was a hit with her clients. ?I have never had so many people say, ?This is awesome,?? she said.
In her spare time Gatchet enjoys snow skiing, water skiing and kibitzing with the neighbors while she takes her walks. She also sits on the board of an organization called Communities in Schools and on the board for the St. John?s County Education Foundation. ?Both of those organizations work with kids that are at risk of dropping out of school,? she explains. ?They offer scholarship programs, tutoring programs ? things that generally serve lower-income families.?
Gatchet is once again in love with her job. ?The thing I enjoy the most is that no day is the same. It?s probably a blessing and a curse all at once. What you think you?ll be doing every morning when you wake up ? is not necessarily what you end up doing,? she said.
?I always used to tell new associates, ?The thing that people like most about our profession is the flexibility. But the thing that can kill you quickest in this profession is the flexibility. If you don?t treat it like a real career and you don?t dedicate yourself to it, it will be your biggest nemesis and downfall.??
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