Hey guys, welcome back to Top5 brought to you by DefinedTalent. We are a results driven service working with clients to connect them with quality talent as well as working to make an impact within the recruiting industry. We talk straight about today's professional world with real world professionals, experts in recruitment, job seekers and business owners alike. Have any questions for us? Send them in and you might spur our next conversation. I'm Tara Thurber, Director of Talent Innovation
here at DefinedTalent. And joining me today is Karen Cusanelli. She is a rockstar real estate agent with Diane Turton Realtors since 2017. They have 16 offices with about 375 agents. Karen was recognized for her 2022 business performance company wide for the Most Close Sales, Most Listings Taken, Most Closed Listings, Most In House Sales, number two in production and received the Community
Service Award. To top that off, as well, Karen works out of the brick office, and was also named the Top Producer, Top Selling Agent and Top Listing Agent for 2022. She also received the New Jersey Realtors Circle of Excellence Award at the platinum level. Hi, Karen, welcome. I am so excited to have you join us today.
Hi Tara, thank you so much for having me here. I'm excited to be here.
Absolutely. So let's just dive in. And why don't we give the audience a little bit to get to know you tell us a little bit about yourself, your educational background and where you got started?
Well, I moved to the Jersey Shore at the age of three, my family came down from Hoboken. So I'm a full fledged Jersey girl. Grew up right in the same town where I live now and went to Monmouth University and got a degree in Business Administration with a Marketing concentration. And I just always enjoyed sales and marketing, always wanted to be in entrepreneurial pursuits.
Yeah.
And basically, I spent most of my youth as a full time mom to my two daughters. I did some part time sales and marketing, some direct sales, a little bit of internet marketing, and did a lot of volunteer work.
That's awesome. And it's, you know, being a full time mom plus the jobs here and there and all this volunteer work. You know, I was I was doing some research to on just business transformation in individuals. And I was finding some really interesting statistics, where one was stated that the average person will change careers five to seven times during their working life. And the other one that really surprised us was approximately 30% of the total workforce now will change jobs every 12
months. Now, I mean, being a full time mom is a full time job as well. So not saying we're going to change those every 12 months by any means. But you know, everything else, we're noticing that the younger generations, they're changing their positions often. And that company loyalty is a trend of the past. What are your thoughts on all of this now?
You know, I see both sides of that eye Yeah, that you need to be respectful to the company that they are spending time and money to onboard you and train you for the position. And I think you do have to give it give it a chance, you know, day one or week one of a position is going to be very different than day 30 or even three months down the
line. I think that if you do decide to stay and have longevity with a company, hopefully, the company and your bosses would look at that as something unusual and would appreciate it and you and ultimately, you know, it would work to your advantage. Now that being said, sometimes, you know, you have to listen to your gut sometimes. Sometimes you know that something is not a
Right. (laughs). good fit. And it's not even a question of being there for a long time. And, you know, I can understand where you don't want to waste time staying in something that you know isn't going to work out. I just think you have to be respectful of people and not burn any bridges. Absolutely. And you know, now looking at 2023 and all these successes that
you've accomplished so far. You know, and I noticed too, where you're at within your real estate profession, but then all of this community involvement, we didn't even touch base. I mean, we've gotten all of these awards for what you've done plus a community award. So I want to kind of talk a little bit about your community involvement, share with the audience what you are involved in.
Well, when my children were younger, I was, you know, the Class Mom, President Association and PTA - I did all those all those mom things. And, you know, I did mention I attended Monmouth University. And I received an academic scholarship for part of my tuition when I was a student there. And that is something you know, Monmouth, my experience, there was life changing, I met my husband there. I have dozens of friends to this day that are
from Monmouth. And I really, you know, I'd have such gratitude that it's always been important to me to give back. So that's how I really started getting involved at Monmouth. I'm in my ninth year on the Alumni Association Board of Directors.
Wow. This is my eighth year as president of the Association Board of Directors. I've been on the Board of Trustees, still at Monmouth. I am a member of the Point Pleasant Beach Rotary, been a member of the Brick Chapter of Unico International, which is an Italian American service organization. Those you know, I tried to give back, I'm very blessed. I love where I live, I love my community, I served for four years as an elected official on the Board of
Education in my town. Education is something that about which I'm very passionate, and I always felt like students had one chance in the system. And that's not you know, you have to give them the best opportunity for success that you can. And so in some small ways, I just wanted to try to give back and I spent a lot of time on the my days on the Board of Education.
It's so amazing. And I kind of want to I want to go back a little bit what made you transition out of being a full time mom and kind of having a lot of the volunteering work? And some of these odd or part time marketing roles. What made you transition into real estate?
Well, it was it was, you know, I was ready to do something full time and really commit to a career and I wanted to do something that listen, I had a lot of time to make up for it wasn't like I was going to be able to, you know, just who was going to hire me, give me this big job? I needed to work up to it. And I really, and this is something I think everybody can do, I really had to make a realistic inward examination and say, you know, what do I bring to the table? What are my
assets? This is this is something anybody who's thinking about a career change should be looking at, if, you know, if you're an introvert, I don't think that you know, you necessarily want to be in sales. Right (laughs). I love people, I have a large network of friends and you know, community members. And I just thought, you know, I've always loved my home, I you know, do a lot of entertaining, loved, you know, looking at homes and interior design and all that.
And it's just something that, you know, always was in the back of my mind, but in really taking a hard look at what was going to work for me, I just felt like the combination of being a people person, and everybody needs a place to live. And you know, I connect with people and I'm interested in people and what an exciting time in someone's life when they're
purchasing a house. And there's just nothing better than them being there on closing day and handing them the keys and giving them a big hug and saying, you know, congratulations! It's just, it is so exciting to be a part of that. It's such a huge milestone in, in individual people's lives for it being the first house that they're purchasing, right? And the excitement that you share, I like I can feel your excitement coming through the computer with this whole career change that
you chose. And I agree with you 100% that people need to kind of go internal and do some digging to really find where what lies in their gut to make them find their passion to make them get up in the morning and really want to show up as 150% for their profession and you know, the transition, I think what I'm hearing in a lot of people is, well I'm not really sure what I want to do or I don't know if my skills will convert into something that maybe I want to do or or how do I start, you
know, at a certain time in my life? do I have to start at ground at the bottom and work up so it's very interesting and to say the least, and you've become so successful, it's just really exciting to hear you talk about it, because you can tell that you're so passionate. One thing too that I very curious is, how do you fit all of this in? Between the community service, the hobbies, you're on the go work life. How do you do it all? I live by my calendar!
(laughs)
If it wasn't for my calendar, my Google Calendar has like every color of the rainbow. And I really, you know, what I had, that's the only way and it is about prioritizing, you know, my family and friends come first. And, you know, I just, it's just scheduling. That's, that's all it is, unfortunately, in my profession, you know, seven days a week are all the same. I don't have any weekends, I get half a day off. I'm thrilled. That's it, calendar control.
I love it. And, you know, calendar, control - you say different colors of the rainbow on your calendar. I feel like I'm the same way. But it's, it's when you get that half day, you jump on that half day, and you're like, shut the phone off, shut the computer off. I'm taking my half day that I get, right?
No, realtors don't ever turn off.
(laughs loudly) Because you're always there. You're always on?
Come on, Tara (laughs).
No, I know. All right. Well, goodness, it's just so exciting to be able to speak with you. And you know I would love for you pivoting and becoming very, very successful. Within your real estate career, can you share with our audience, your Top5 tips for your success?
Sure, you know, I think what I touched on before just about being honest with yourself, and really evaluating your strengths and weaknesses, and what your tolerance level is, and what you like, I mean, if you like something, and you're good at it, you're gonna be successful, because you will have that passion. So I think that's, you know, choose wisely, I guess, is the first thing.
(laughs)
I you know, my glass is always half full, I have a very positive attitude, I have a very grateful attitude. And I think that that's something that has benefited me, not just professionally, but in life in general. And I think that that's something that if people choose to be happy and choose to have a positive attitude that that's going to benefit them in all aspects of
their lives. And I have to tell you that something when I started because it wasn't, you know, pretty daunting to start in something you haven't done before.
Right.
Especially something with such a high level of competition or Monmouth/Ocean Regional Realtors, our MLS has over 15,000 agents just in that MLS.
Holy Cow!
So there are a lot of agents out there. Yeah, there's a lot of competition, but I always look and I think if
I love that and you see the books, I have like a someone has done something that means it can be done. And I would look at the success of other agents. And I thought, well, you know, what, if she can do it, if he can do it, why can't I do it? And that's something that I think everybody can kind of look and think if someone has done it, you can do it. And another thing I would say is learning from every experience, I learned something from every single transaction,
no two are the same. And you can always take something away from a transaction and use it to be proactive in another one. That's the same thing you could say that about about any negotiation, any deal, any, you know, any exchange you have in
any profession. And that kind of ties into something else that I just think it's very important to be a lifelong learner, I try to always learn something new, get a new certification or designation, you know, try to stay on top of technology, just always, you know, there's always a book that you can read that will teach you something new. And I think if you're if you remain a lifelong learner that just benefits you overall.
pile of books, and I'm like, I just need to get to one and then bang that out and get to another one.
We probably have some of the same books (laughs)!
(laughs) I'm like all right, I need that. But um, ah, I gotta say, Karen, it's just been such a pleasure. And it's really amazing to see. And it's, it's uplifting to see that somebody can transition into a full fledged successful career after you know, having a life previously. You know, I always get curious with myself when I start to look back on my life, and I can actually see the different lives that I've lived and you don't think about it
when you're in it. But when you can take a step back and look at the past and go, Oh, wow, I did that for a chunk of time and that was my life then. And then you do transition and you pivot out and now you're in this beautiful life that you're leading. And it's just, it's phenomenal. Congratulations to you and all of your successes.
Thank you so much.
You're welcome. Thank you for joining us, and I look forward to getting sharing your success out to our audience.
Thank you again for having me, Tara.
You got it. We are DefinedTalent, a DefinedLogic service coming to you at Top5 Make it a great day.