The Unexpected Road to Top Agent: My Interview with Long Beach Real Estate Agent Shannon Jones

If you are local to Long Beach, chances are you have seen the pretty teal and light blue “Shannon Jones Team” real estate signs sprinkled around pretty much every neighborhood in and around the city.

You might even get her monthly newsletters mailed to your house, see her in your inbox with email newsletters and special event announcements, like her on Facebook, or follow along with her fun Instagram feed and stories. This is not a coincidence. This is a strategy, but more on that later.

I had the opportunity to sit down with Shannon to talk about her path to becoming such a well known local real estate agent–and I can tell you right now it is not at all linear!

Her story is definitely unique, and a true testament to the fact that whatever you want to do in life, there’s a way. Even if you don’t think you’re on the “right” path, keep on keepin’ on and you’ll end up just where you were meant to be all along.

Without further ado, here is my conversation with Shannon Jones of the Shannon Jones Team.  

Shannon had a rather unique early childhood and upbringing. Her parents were hippies who met at a peace march. Yes, I’m serious. When she was just starting grade school she lived in a Christian commune and her parents helped run a soup kitchen at Haight-Ashbury. She remembers her father having a rather heated conversation with a minister about smoking pot, and that about sums up their vibe.

During her childhood, they moved around a lot in the Bay Area and eventually moved to Atlanta, Georgia when she was in middle school, and then ended up back in Southern California.

Shannon wanted to be a variety of things when she “grew up.”

For a time she wanted to be a writer, then a psychologist, and later an attorney. She ended up earning a degree in Social Ecology at UC Irvine where she took a criminal justice course that subsequently ended her aspiration of being an attorney. Doing briefs on cases and arguments was not her jam, and she did not want to spend a career being cooped up in a courtroom all day. For a time she was the activities manager at an adult daycare for people with Alzheimer’s, and while it was a good service, it was emotionally not a sustainable career path.

Still not knowing what she wanted to do “when she grew up,” it was time for some soul-searching. Then it came to her. She likes writing and likes meeting people, so she should be a journalist. Unfortunately, it’s a little tricky getting a job in a field you have no experience in, so she went back to get her master’s degree in journalism from UC Berkley, and then landed her first gig in the journalism industry.

She started as a copy editor and then advanced to a reporter.

She loved what she did. Meeting people, getting to ask nosey questions, and learning about all kinds of different things was right up her alley, but the hard-hitting truth was that newspapers were (and are) a dying industry (although, on a personal note, I hope they never die).

Working on papers was also not a very positive and uplifting environment–and that’s probably putting it very lightly. As she put it, the people working around her were “chronically unhappy.” The hours were very long and the pay was not great, either. It was time for her to leave the industry as a whole.

Her next chapter opened up in Public Relations for the LA Chamber of Commerce where she dazzled them with her speed and quality of work she learned in journalism.

From there she was recruited to work in banking corporate communications, which ended up being another changing industry at the time. The bank she was at was bought by another bank, which was bought by another bank, and she was given the option to either stay with them or take a 6-month severance package. (At this point of her story I started getting really excited because I just knew this was the opening in her life that would lead to real estate!)

She took the package. The corporate world just wasn’t her thang. She didn’t love the suits, having to wear pumps, and attend meetings after meetings. This was just the opportunity she needed to have the time and motivation to make another career change.

At the same time, Shannon and her husband were looking for a home to buy in Long Beach and ended up having a horrible experience doing so.

No one was calling them back or being helpful at all. They ended up working with a friend (and if you do too, Shannon advises just using a little caution), and while they got the house, they lost the friendship.

This experience got her to thinking. What if you were a real estate agent in Long Beach who did a really good job, followed through with your word, called people back, and built long-lasting relationships? Would you be successful? I mean, yes, of course you would.

So while she was wrapping up her old job, and even though her husband Brad wasn’t 100% sure she was serious, she used her time wisely and when that job was done she had already earned her real estate license. Let’s just say that Brad understood just how serious she was about this business pretty quickly. It took Shannon 5 months to sell her first house. Then she sold 3 in one month. By the end of the year she was the number 2 agent in her company, and the next year she was the top agent.

The office broker asked ‘what do you do’,” she told me. “I show up every day and work really hard. I call people back. Do what you say you’re going to do, and care about what you’re going to do. All of that, and you also have to be strategic about everything.”

Shannon is part of a larger company who gives her and her team support, but she’s still an independent contractor so she has the freedom to really cultivate her vision of a successful business. Agents can work on their own, work with a partner, or build a whole team which is what she has done–including her husband Brad.

Shannon has built a highly reputable and profitable team that includes other agents, administrative support, and really strong brand recognition.

They build relationships with people that span generations. Some of her clients came to her without having any kids, and now their children are in high school.

Long Beach is a great city for networking, and Shannon uses this to her full advantage. Being an active community member, sponsoring events, and holding her own client VIP events, along with word-of-mouth and the power of connecting on social media, has been an asset to her success.

With my content marketing and social media background, I was immediately impressed with Shannon’s content marketing strategy. She’s literally doing everything right. She posts blogs that set her up to be an industry authority, they get shared on her social media and in her newsletters, she keeps her Instagram stories feed active to connect with people more personally, she mails out monthly newsletters that actually have valuable content in them that people look forward to receiving, and she puts on killer events for her clients. And you want to know the best part? It frickin’ works!

People tell her, “I see you all over the place.” And that’s no accident. Remember how I said she is strategic? It’s true.

Here’s the thing–Shannon understands that she’s not selling a house. She’s building a relationship. People don’t just go out and buy houses every day, so they probably feel a little nervous or uncomfortable. This is a big deal that many people have been working towards for years, so the less scary and confusing she can make them, the better. Both for their personal experience and her business.

“It’s about knowing the marketing, knowing how to price the home, knowing how to market, and knowing how to negotiate. We don’t get to that point if you don’t build relationships with people.” Buying or selling a home is a very personal experience. “We have to be trusted, and not insulting.”  

Another area that Shannon does great at is leading her team. I’m always seeing cute “welcome” videos to new team members on Instagram or seeing pics of team lunches. You can just tell that the people who work for her are happy. One of the keys here is making sure that people are in the position they want to be in. This might mean moving around within the company, or that it’s just not the best fit overall. The attitude of even just one unhappy employee can become contagious very quickly.

If you’re in the housing market in Long Beach, I don’t think I have to say much more as to why I would definitely trust working with the Shannon Jones Team. You will be in trust-worthy and experienced hands, and you will get to join the community of amazing people who have already been touched by the hard work ethic, industry expertise, and good old fashion friendliness that Shannon and her team bring to the real estate experience. You can contact her here, or give her a call. 562-896-2456 Also make sure to follow her Instagram because it’s awesome, and give her a Like on Facebook too, while you’re at it!

Do you want to kill it at content marketing like Shannon, too? Well, you are in the right place. That’s my jam. (Literally – Shannon is one of my clients and I produce some of her blog content.) Let’s talk about how we can take full advantage of the awesome opportunities waiting out there to grow your business with awesome content. Contact me today.