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Meet Steve Penate

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Steve Penate.

Steve, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve always had a passion for both people & business. After graduating from Arizona State University, I’ve held jobs both in the financial & non-profit industries. One of my friend’s dad introduced me to real estate through an investment opportunity, we flipped a house. I remember all the emotions, the contracts, the negotiations, the strategic thinking, the building of contractor teams to do the labor work, and everything that involved flipping a house. It was something I quickly fell in love with! Flipping a house and making money was fun, but it was the actual work that I fell in love with.

December of 2013, I decided to leave the non-profit I was working for and started 2014 going to real estate school. By mid-2014, I was a fully licensed real estate agent. As excited as I was to start showing houses to families, I realized that building an actual residential buy/sell real estate business was TOUGH! I thought that once I had my real estate license, I can go hang my license with a broker and clients would just come to me and I’d be showing houses every day… boy, was I WRONG! I quickly realized that as an independent contractor, it was my job to build my own business. Six months went by and I had not done a transaction. That’s when it hit me that to grow my real estate business I needed to become a lead generating machine. That’s when I stumbled upon something that shifted everything… SOCIAL MEDIA & VIDEO! I began to strategize and go ALL IN on social media and video. In the last quarter of 2014, I started an online video show called, “The Steve Talks Real Estate Show.” Social Media & Video marketing was something still VERY new to the real estate world. I began to leverage social media and learn the ins and outs to get my video content in front of as many people I could. The best part of this was that social media was FREE! When other’s were spending thousands of dollars on old traditional forms of marketing, I went all in on free social media. I learned to leverage my sphere and create shareable content through all social media platforms. The focus of the content was to provide value to the whole real estate process.

The internet was changing the real estate industry, people were going to the internet for answers, and I was on a mission to become the “google” of the real estate industry. My goal was to give away as much information I could… for FREE! My phone started to ring, my Facebook & Instagram inbox started to fill up, and my business started to explode with growth. I went from doing zero transactions to averaging selling a house a week! The Steve Talks Real Estate Show has been watched by thousands throughout all social media platforms, I was nominated as Real Estate Agent of the Year in 2017 by the Arizona Journal of Real Estate & Business, continue to be a sought out keynote speaker and regularly speak at conferences and seminars and featured on podcast throughout the country. I now have my Real Estate Brokers license and have partnered with My Home Group to expand throughout the country. I have grown a love for the real estate industry and have now training thousands of agents in leadership, marketing, social media and online strategies for explosive growth. I now get to do what I’m passionate about, serve people and grow a business! My motto is… LIFE IS ABOUT PEOPLE, REAL ESTATE IS ABOUT PEOPLE!

Has it been a smooth road?
I stutter! I’m actually a part of the National Stuttering Association. I’ve stuttered ever since I could remember talking. My childhood years in school revolved around speech therapy. My high school years were VERY challenging, I honestly couldn’t finish a full sentence in under 3-5 minutes, depending on how long the sentence was. Stuttering is not something that you “get over” or “grow out of.” It’s estimated that only 1% of the population are stutterers. I happen to be one of them. I feared being called on to read in class and cringed at the thought of presenting in front of a class. I feared never being able to get a job or date someone. My freshman year in college, one of my college professors, Paula, stops me after class and says, “Steve, can I ask you a question?” I’m like, “suuuurrrrre” She then proceeds to ask me if, “Do you stutter?” The moment she asked me this in my head I’m thinking, (Is this a trick question?! NO DUH I STUTTER!), but, I kindly respond, “Yes, I do”. She then tells me she was a speech pathologist for the past 20 years, and still actively holds her license to do so and wanted to help me. We started meeting once a week for 1-hour sessions. When I started sessions with Paula, I would do certain things like stomp my legs under tables or certain body movements to get words out. I’ve now met with her for over 13 years and my speech is completely different. Paula not only gave me speech strategies but also help me find a part of me I knew I always had, a fearless Steve who knows how to overcome obstacles.

Although I’ve achieved a certain level of fluency in the speech now, I still stutter! Now I love sharing my story and say if a stutterer like me can do… SO CAN YOU! One of the reasons I initially loved doing video was I could stutter and go back and edit my videos! When family members and old friends see me doing public speaking, they still are in shock…HA!

Remember, I said you never “get over it.” That’s TRUE! I haven’t gotten over my stutter. It’s still there. Every single morning, I have to look in the mirror and find the confident Steve within. When I have a listing or buyer appointment with people wanting real estate services, or I’m about to go on stage to speak, I encourage myself knowing I’ve come a long way from where I used to be. I’m now fearless, overcoming Steve.

Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I’m a Real Estate Agent & Broker. I help families & individuals buy/sell their houses. I specialized in first time home buyers, millennials, families with children, and people buying their investment rental property, you name it, we serve them! I’m most known for my social media & video marketing strategies. Most of my clients get to know me by watching my videos or following me on social media. When we meet, it’s almost like we’ve been friends forever! That’s the power of effective social media & video.

I’m speaking, coaching, & training for real estate agents and business owners. I’m able to leverage social media again to show them what’s working to generate leads and grow their businesses!

I’m most proud of all the hard work I’ve put in, in growing my social media presence and branding myself through video. I’m known to many as Steve Pe-Na-Tayyyyyy (you’ll know what I mean if you watch The Steve Talks Real Estate Show). My videos have been organically watched by thousands via Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, and Linkedin.

How would you describe the type of kid you were growing up?
Although I stutter, I’ve always been an extrovert. I easily made friends. My mom kept me in sports and that allowed me to always make friends easily. I LOVED baseball. I was never going to go pro, actually, I sucked, but I loved playing it… HA! My mom also took my brothers and I to the library every week, so I grew a love for reading. I actually still read a book a month. Here’s a funny library story. My mom would rent out movies from the library for us to watch and because of that, I can bet I’ve watched all the I LOVE LUCY episodes and SHIRLEY TEMPLE movie there is! “On the good ship, lollipop…” ok, I’ll stop there… LOL!

I also was a low key businessman. I was the guy who would trade and broker trades for both baseball/basketball cards and POGS… you remember those? Anyway, every kid knew… I was the guy!

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Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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