From an 18-Year-Old Rookie in 2008 to a Movement Selling $1B+

Before I ever sold a house, I was immersed in real estate. My parents, Allen and Carol, built The Smith Group in Southwest Florida, and I was in the office from the time I was ten. I answered phones, helped with contracts, put up signs, and walked construction sites.

By my teens, I was tagging along to events and seminars. During the boom of the early 2000s, everyone was teaching what worked in a market where homes seemed to sell themselves. I thought I had it all figured out.

On my 18th birthday in 2008, I got licensed in Washington state. It was the worst financial year in modern history. Subprime mortgages decimated the industry and I was across the country from my family, pounding the pavement, hosting open houses, making calls, doing what worked in the years past and trying to figure it out alone. I failed.

That failure taught me the most important lesson of my career. Markets change. What worked yesterday will not always work tomorrow. The agents who keep learning, keep adapting, and surround themselves with the right people are the ones who rise.

I came back to Florida and learned directly from my parents. They were still thriving in the worst market because they had systems, teamwork, and a long-term perspective. I layered those lessons with modern strategies from the best coaches in the business and started building something bigger than myself.

In 2022, I was hit by a car while biking and shattered my foot. I could not walk for months. That same year, Hurricane Ian devastated our market in Southwest Florida. Through it all, I realized that even top producers are vulnerable if everything depends on them alone.

I launched NXTGENAgent.com in 2019 to give other agents the mentorship, systems, and community I wished I had when I was starting out. What began as a small idea has grown into a powerful movement. By 2024, our NXTGEN agents collectively sold over $250 million with about 100 core members, supported by a referral network that now spans thousands of agents nationwide.

We are united by a bold goal. $1.1 billion in collective sales by 2027.

NXTGEN is not just another coaching program, and it is not tied to one brokerage. I run my personal team at eXp Realty because I believe in the financial upside it offers, but NXTGEN is broker-agnostic. This is about collaboration over competition. It is about agents helping agents rise together.

If you are tired of doing everything alone, I know exactly how that feels. If you are ready to scale with systems, mentorship, and a supportive community, I would love to invite you to join us.