Real estate agent...the perfect job for her dyslexia and ADHD with Gracen Gantt | HYGTJ?!

[Music] from the understood podcast network this is how did you get that job a podcast that explores the unique and often unexpected career paths of people with learning and thinking differences my name is eleni mathil and i'm a user researcher here at understood that means i spend a lot of time thinking about how we find jobs we love that reflect how we learn and who we are i'll be your host [Music] today we're talking to grayson gantt a real estate agent and inspiring actor who has dyslexia adhd and challenges with math so you're from the south uh and now you live in los angeles just give us a little bit of an overview of your career journey what you're hoping to achieve and where you've landed now i am originally from greenwood south carolina it is an extremely small town it is 40 minutes from an interstate so definitely way off of the grid and i currently live in los angeles i absolutely love it and so i moved out here for the acting portion but i definitely still do the real estate to keep myself financially afloat i went to the university of south carolina and i graduated with a real estate license and my first internship in real estate done so i had a little bit of experience already and then i had already sold my first property before i even graduated college so it was definitely like insane to see my career taking off so quickly and so yeah now i am out here real estate acting and just living my best life so grayson you mentioned that you sold your first house when you were in college i want to hear more about that so i actually sold my first house to my great aunt i love her to death and i thank her so much for giving me the opportunity to make my first sale it was really funny because the first day of my senior year of college i went in and the professor was oh what's everyone done this summer and yada yada and it was a professor that i already knew and i was like oh you know i have three houses under contract and i've done this and that and he's like what what and i said yeah i got my real estate license over the summer i did an internship i've done this and that and while i was also maintaining a full schedule of just regular college classes so he's just like what in the world and it was really cool to like have professors ask me about real estate it's a lot of getting people in your pipeline like it's not necessarily you know you're gonna make a sale or anything that day but having these people know what you're doing and to be interested and want your business cards it's a big part of the business so to have professors ask me for a business card was very weird and cool at the same time and also to be able to explain to one of my retailing professors why i thought that real estate belonged under retail and to have her agree with me was a very cool moment also that is really cool it's like who's teaching who i love that so it sounds like you were doing a lot you were studying a degree and getting your license simultaneously so do you want to talk a little bit about firstly what influenced you to decide to study retail management and what inspired you to also be getting your real estate certificate at the same time it was kind of a self-discovery process one door closes for more open type situation i initially wanted to be a sports agent i love football so the nfl was what i thought my calling was i initially picked my school because it had an insanely good sport and entertainment management program however the math requirements for the program were a lot more than what i had already and so that was a stretch and also the foreign language requirements were a lot more so the requirements for the degree i wanted were just not realistic for me and it was just going to be a very very very big challenge really initially i changed my major to retailing just to get in the same school as the program that i wanted to be in so initially i had no interest whatsoever and then it just kind of hit me okay everything in business is about sales basically this is a business degree this might make more sense so i was actually studying retail management which if you think about it real estate kind of still is retail because it's retail it's just the items are big purchases instead of t-shirts and things like that so i know you have learning differences including dyslexia and adhd do you want to talk a little bit about your learning differences so i was not formally diagnosed with dyslexia until i was in college so i went all through traditional schooling without any accommodations and i always struggled but i just never really thought that it was anything more than i just needed to try harder testing was always really hard for me and it's something about multiple choice i have no clue what it is but i am one of those people that can justify anything and i can tell you why all of the answers are correct so that was actually something one of my professors picked up on in college he said you know i notice you in class you're a very active listener you raise your hand all the time you know this material why in the world did you make a 50 on the exam and so he picked up on there was something just not connecting he took the time to pull me aside and talk to me through it and he suggested you know that i get tested or that i seek out accommodations because he said something just isn't right here your testing isn't showing what you're capable of i know this material but when it came to multiple choice and having to know it and make those decisions absolutely not obviously i was not good at testing and i also knew that anything that involved extremely high levels of math were probably not going to be the easiest for me so i learned my strengths and my weaknesses very early in college so i was able to cater what i was more focused on towards what i was good at so you found out you had dyslexia in college but did you also struggle with learning as a kid i for the longest time could not read and could not read at a level that i was supposed to i remember being in the first grade second grade my mom would basically have to sit me down and sit on me to get me to try to read a book and i would cry i like would do anything to get out of it because it was so difficult and i never understood why it was so easy for everyone else there was just a disconnect there so i did the hooked on phonics literally everything that was like a supplement back then i was trying but it was still just brutal like tears all the time i just did not get it and so finally as i kept reading more and kept on it and would do things that helped me like games and things i still to this day on my phone have games that will help me keep brushing up on my spelling and i just think there's little tricks like that and just keeping with stuff and if the progress isn't exactly with your classmates that's okay because i really think that we need to normalize everyone has a different level and as long as you're moving forward and not backward that's great and i don't think that anyone should get discouraged and that was something that it took a really long time for me to understand that i didn't have to compare myself to my classmates that they were on their own journey and i was on mine and you mentioned you were on a little bit of a journey of discovering what your strengths were and then trying to figure out what to do based on those strengths can you talk a little bit about how you know real estate and pursuing acting really works for your brain and your differences and why you think that might be a good fit for you so i grew up my family in the business world i've always loved business and so i definitely wanted to pursue something in that realm so for me real estate would allow me to do the business aspect but it also allowed me to be extremely social it allowed me to talk to people all day long and also as far as adhd i thought it was a great fit because you were never in the same office all day your surroundings were always changing and no day was the same i really don't like routines where every day is the same and so i was interested every day because every day was different that was really important to me to realize that maybe a traditional office job wasn't the best for me for those reasons it was very easy for me to get sidetracked to get bored it just it didn't stimulate me like real estate does and you mentioned you like variety not really interesting for you to like sit at a desk all day and that's partly because of your adhd how did you figure out that you needed a job with a little bit more movement or that perhaps sitting at a desk would be a challenge i have always wanted to have a job actually i would make up businesses when i was younger and try to hand them off on all my family members i always wanted to be working i wanted to have my own money i wanted to just do my own thing so i actually was a consultant for an off-campus student housing when i was 17. that was like my first adult job while i was off at college that job was a lot of sitting at a desk because there wasn't much to really do and so every day was very repetitive and there wasn't much variety in that that didn't interest me that much so i kind of figured out through process of elimination i had that job i also worked at a clothing store which was a big mistake because that was one of my favorite clothing stores and i promise you i spent way more money than i ever made just because i loved it there would be different customers every shift and getting to talk to people and walking around the floor it was a little bit repetitive but at the same time it showed me variety and i was like okay i like this let's go more towards this and so it really was process of elimination for me yeah definitely and you know that's partly because you have two jobs but also just thinking about real estate itself and how that brings variety for you so i'd love to hear more about what a typical day looks like you know are you primarily doing like rentals or selling or like a bit of both so when i first started out it was a lot of leasing and then that turned into an internship that quickly evolved into purchasing working with customers and sellers so i did that for a while when i wasn't pursuing acting at all but now that i am pursuing acting and need my days freed up a little bit more i do more of what they call referral work so someone will come to me and i will be able to send them to someone in their area or they'll be able to go through me to be able to purchase sell lease whatever they may need and it's just been a great thing for me to be able to do with a lot of flexibility because i'm not actively out there showing and things like that but that change has also been kind of recent so up until not too long ago i was every day driving around and having signs in the back of my car all the time and it was always on the go and i loved that but i definitely feel like as far as me moving forward and having time and being able to pursue my dreams that the referral route is definitely better for me you also talked a little bit about being more of a verbal communicator than a written communicator so i would love to hear like how you discovered that the verbal communication is more so your strength and then what you do day to day when written communication challenges come up and you know what you do to like cope with that and manage that day-to-day spelling has always been my downfall and i guess part of it is like me being self-conscious and not wanting to mess up too much when it comes to writing and that type of thing so i've always loved to talk i love communicating with people i love being social and so whenever it comes to writing and things like that it just was a challenge but i know that i have to do it to a degree so one of the things that i force upon myself is keeping a calendar that's written so that way i'm making sure like i'm still getting that written stuff in and i also keep a checklist and a to-do list at all times because that way i'm able to make sure you know i have a moment i'm like oh yeah i need to do this today you know you talked a little bit about some of your strengths and some of the challenges you have that might relate to adhd or dyslexia before you started working and in this job in particular did you have any idea how it might impact your work or when it would come up one thing this is actually a very embarrassing story i was out showing houses and you know dyslexia you get numbers confused sometimes and so i'm always extremely careful of looking at something four times or more to make sure that i'm putting it in my gps correctly and there was a very big difference in the numbers i put in and where we were supposed to be and ended up on the absolute wrong side of town and at someone's house that did not have a for sale sign in the yard so i was like this is weird maybe it's just unlisted yeah that house definitely wasn't for sale and then i realized it way after the fact and i was like oh that's so funny so that's definitely one of the ways that i knew would be a challenge that randomly would come up that would be a challenge but i had to be extreme and i'm still careful to this day when putting stuff in my gps i would much rather copy and paste on my phone than i would someone tell me over the phone like okay we're going to 3 300. i would much rather you text it to me and let me copy and paste it that way i know we're on the same page because if you trust me to put it in there's no telling that's hilarious okay so we chatted about some of your challenges with math in school i imagine those challenges impacted you in real estate too right the size of a room or something like that so as far as measuring rooms and square footage and that kind of thing there is a tool you can purchase it looks like a cat toy if i'm being honest and it will measure the room for you it will say like from this point you're eight feet from the wall and whatnot so you could use that tool very easily and that was something that was a game changer for me and also looking at floor plans that to me was on the harder side did you worry about getting those kind of measurement and math questions wrong in your real estate exam so one way that obviously you can get some things wrong on the test you don't have to get a hundred and that was kind of a mentality that i had to realize growing up also is you're not gonna get a hundred on everything and it's okay to get some stuff wrong but you have to also know your strengths and weaknesses and like where is worth putting the effort kind of thing so for me i knew i was really good at papers and presentations so for those i knew i had to do good because i knew i could do good so when the measuring questions came up on the test i really wasn't too phased by it because i knew there were only a few of them and as long as i did good on the definitions and the fair housing and that type of thing that i could miss those and it would be okay and that in real life i could just use the little laser pointer thingy and all would be well and no one would know totally so i'm kind of majorly telling on myself right now but it's fine yeah i mean i think it's really useful like the tools out there exist for a reason right so exactly yeah you might as well utilize them when you can and i know that for both of your jobs you're not necessarily like on a salary do you think that working for commission does it work well for you and the way that your brain works yes so that's how real estate works you work for commission and then acting jobs you know whenever you work you get paid and i have to be very careful because it's not a traditional job i don't know that i'm going to get a paycheck every week i know so many horror stories of people getting paid and they're like oh this is great you know i'm making big money then they go out and blow all of it and then they're in a pickle so you have to be very careful working for commission for me is a really great system because it is rewarding and i know if i do a good job i'm going to be rewarded at the end which is great and that is a very good motivator for me of knowing okay this is what i have to do and it's very clear to see what you have to do in order to earn said paycheck whereas another job you aren't exactly told oh you're doing a good job here's your paycheck you don't get those same feelings and i guess what you were saying it goes back to that i think i see the end in sight and i know what i have to do to get there can you relate that to your adhd in any way probably i haven't really ever thought about that but i can definitely see where that can be a thing that can go together because i think that seeing an end in sight and knowing that's coming and knowing that it varies also is really good because obviously you sell a more expensive house you're gonna make more money so knowing those kinds of things and like with every day being a different variable it's very good for someone's brain who is highly stimulated so one thing people with adhd that i've interviewed say is that often there needs to be more of an immediate or obvious reward for them to do something um so for some people maybe money is a motivator for other people it might be forming relationships or being accountable to people so that's why i was interested to hear if you moved in the direction of a commission-based job because that is what motivated you to perform you know rather than an ongoing salary where it isn't as clear what you're getting compensated for exactly so another thing that we talk about with people with adhd they often like thrive in chaos or uncertainty and you know like really that's me yeah like really being able to like think on the spot and like work in the moment i would love to hear how does that show up in real estate do you have any horror stories or any like interesting things that have happened where you've had to think on your feet a little bit more how do you think that potentially relates to your adhd or dyslexia in any way definitely with the whole instant gratification and all that with your brain i definitely think that kind of goes with the chaos and that goes with you wanting to be a problem solver and wanting to fix everything in the split of a second and so i would say with real estate stuff that when you're out showing houses and things of that nature that you have to be on the fly because your office isn't at your disposal sometimes so you might be on the opposite side of town and you have to do this and that and you have to be very resourceful so i have used my phone as a hot spot sitting in my car hooked up to my laptop trying to get a contract sent in or a ups store sending an email to the printer and just being very resourceful in that way as far as client situations i have gotten a call this unfortunately was a family member of mine she had fallen and she ended up breaking her hip while looking at a house obviously i was like oh my gosh like i'm on the way let me help but you just have to know anything's gonna happen and so that is one thing i will say that keeps me interested every day is because you do know anything can happen walking into every day and just expecting the unexpected definitely makes you want to do it every day because you just want to know what's going to happen next totally yeah it's really interesting because we spoke to a teacher that has a similar description for what their day is like and why that works for their brains so it's just interesting to hear how two jobs that you wouldn't necessarily associate are similar can have these parallels if that parallel here is not knowing what you're walking into and that being like really interesting and stimulating for the adhd brain to not know what's going to come up and how you're going to respond to it and it's actually funny that you brought up teaching because in college that's something that i did also i was a tutor so i really loved working with kids with learning differences because i kind of wanted to give them hope and help them realize that they weren't alone that there were people who had the same struggles that they did that were successful and that the sky was the limit for them and it was just figuring out where their strengths and weaknesses were that's great i love that i know that we've talked a little bit about some of the challenges that come up with adhd and dyslexia but it also sounds like you are coming from like a place of confidence and you definitely are really like aware of what your strengths are you know one thing we talk about is like thriving not in spite of your difference but because of your difference so i would love to hear like how did you build that confidence being on a self-discovery journey in many ways like i have been it's taken time but i'm just at a point where i'm comfortable looking in the mirror every day and just saying this is me and this is what i've been given and i'm going to make the best of it so whether it be body image whether it be dyslexia adhd or anything that i might not like about myself i'm just at a point where i feel comfortable letting everyone know that this is who i am and i'm gonna embrace it instead of run from it do you think that you have landed the right fit for you and if acting doesn't necessarily work out do you think real estate is something that you'll like continue to pursue forever as far as the future i definitely want to continue to evolve i feel like i learn things about myself daily as far as strengths weaknesses ways to do things ways to get around things and i definitely feel like every day i'm getting closer to my purpose i do think that real estate is great because there's so many ways you can do real estate you can be a landlord you can do the leasing portion you can just work with buyers you can just work with sellers i feel like it's always going to be of interest to me and as i do grow in my career you know maybe there will be some specialties that i take on that i realize oh i'm really good at this or maybe there'll be some added things to my career because obviously i love to keep busy so whether that be going back and maybe doing some teaching at some point or maybe it's not acting maybe i teach acting maybe something like that i just definitely feel like the world is an oyster and i'm just ready to see what this journey's like and i think that every day just keep working on the things that challenge me and anything's possible well thanks so much for being here grayson thank you so much for having me and for allowing me to tell this story because i haven't really talked about this much before but i'm so glad to be able to share my journey with everyone [Music] this has been how'd you get that job a part of the understood podcast network you can listen and subscribe to how'd you get that job on apple spotify or wherever you get your podcast and if you like what you heard today tell someone about it how'd you get that job is for you so we want to make sure you're getting what you need go to you.

org that job to share your thoughts and to find resources from every episode that's the letter u as in understood. org that job do you have a learning difference in a job you're passionate about email us at that job understood. org if you'd like to tell us how you got that job we'd love to hear from you as a non-profit and social impact organization i'm just literalizing the help of listeners like you to create podcasts like this one to reach and support more people in more places we have an ambitious mission to shape the world for difference and we welcome you to join us in achieving our goals learn more at understood.