From Entertainment To Entrepreneurship Or Bringing Innovation To Real Estate, A Founder’s Story with Amanda Zachman

Amanda Zachman, the chief sales officer of MV Realty, is an entrepreneur and business leader with more than 13 years of experience in the real estate industry. In 2014, Zachman founded MV Realty, a tech-focused real estate brokerage and proptech firm dedicated to meeting the needs of the modern broker, home buyer, and home seller. She is also part of the team that developed the company’s Homeowner Benefit Program®, which pays homeowners a cash payment in exchange for agreeing to use MV Realty as its real estate agency, should they ever choose to sell their home.

Tell us about your childhood and where you grew up

I had an unusual childhood because my family moved around a lot. I grew up in New York and moved to Florida for middle school. Then we moved to the great “country” of Texas for high school. This unusual upbringing had a strong impact on my attitudes and values. It gave me an appreciation of different people and cultures. And each place I lived in molded my personality. I thrive on the exhilarating entrepreneurial energy of New York City (if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere), the family and community orientation of Texas, and the glamorous, luxurious lifestyles of South Florida. To this day, I’m comfortable in each of these environments.

How did you get started as an entrepreneur?

You could say that I’m following in my father’s footsteps. He is a natural entrepreneur who founded several successful businesses. I get my drive from him. But the other influence on my decision to become an entrepreneur came from my first career in entertainment. I had studied at a conservatory and dreamt of becoming a musical theater performer. That led to an opportunity to be a contestant on Big Brother, where I learned some important lessons about the importance of networking and making allies. I put these lessons into practice when I gave up on my acting career and went into real estate. This time I was following in the footsteps of my mother and grandmother, both of whom are realtors. Real estate was clearly my destiny, but I wanted to shake up the profession a bit. Real estate is a field that can be too traditional and is in dire need of innovation. Specifically, we need to make better use of technology for lead generation. This is especially important for people who are new to the industry and might not have an existing support network to tap into. I founded MV Realty to start bringing these innovations to life.

What is one business lesson you would tell a startup founder?

Failing is inevitable at some point in the entrepreneur journey. The key is to learn from failure. That will make you a stronger businessperson. As an entrepreneur, you’ll experience some hard knocks – especially if you’re a woman – but you can’t give up. You have to pivot instead. Recognize what works and what doesn’t and keep adjusting your idea and business model until it succeeds. I’ve been told over and over again that I can’t do something or that something has to be done a different way. In many cases the people who said these things meant well: They didn’t want to see me fail. But I listened to my gut and followed my instincts and that was the right thing to do. Never give up. If a passion for an idea is burning inside of you, you must see it through. That’s what life is about – enjoying what you do. So many opportunities are missed in life because we are afraid to take risks or because someone talks us out of taking risks. Don’t let others distract you from your mission. Move on and stay focused; you’ll eventually get to where you want to be.