By Carole Hawkins, Staff Writer
Cole Slate is the kind of guy who can’t walk anywhere in the neighborhood without bumping into a friend.
“Cole never met a stranger,” said Lori Mieczkowski, broker at the Keller Williams Mandarin office where Slate began his career as a Realtor. “Real estate is not a difficult business, but it’s one that does require relentless self-promotion. And, Cole is able to do that in a way that makes people want to be around him — they are just attracted to him.”
That magnetism has earned him early success.
Within his first eight months as a Keller Williams agent, Slate exceeded company benchmarks that typically take 10 or 11 months to reach. In his second year, he met them in five months.
In March, the 26-year-old won the NEFBA Laurel Awards’ Rookie of the Year title, given to a new agent who demonstrates the highest leadership and marketing abilities.
“I entered because I thought it would be cool to win,” Slate said. “But when I actually did, I was shocked.”
In April he took another career leap, becoming owner-operating partner of a new St. Johns County office of Yellowfin Realty, a Tampa-based commercial and residential real estate firm that recently moved into the Jacksonville market.
Slate attributes his success to simply “treating people like you want to be treated.”
Born and raised in Northeast Florida, Slate was already living the golden rule at a young age.
From the time he was 14, Slate has served as a volunteer for Best Buddies, a nonprofit that partners children with intellectual and developmental disabilities with their non-disabled peers.
He earned a degree in family, youth and community sciences from the University of Florida and worked in St. Johns County as a paraprofessional for disabled kids, teaching them to read and coaching them in basketball.
It was during summer break in 2012 that Slate had a career epiphany.
“I was sitting around talking with a buddy of mine,” he said. “I told him, ‘Man, I wish I could just be paid to network.’ And, my wheels started turning.”
His friends were either getting engaged, married, graduating college, starting a career or having a baby. They all needed homes.
Slate took the real estate broker training that September and landed a job with Keller Williams’ Christina Welch team a few months later.
“It was a huge change,” Slate said. “The whole no paycheck, no benefits thing scared me.”
But Slate saw Welch was selling properties in Julington Creek, Aberdeen, Nocatee and Durbin Crossing, areas he grew up around and knew well. It all fit like a glove.
Working as a buyer’s specialist, Slate brought the company his network of friends and family.
It was clear he was out to make new friends, as well.
“There’s no better rush than having a marketing idea you come up with that takes off,” Slate said. “I want to be the first name you blurt out when you think of a Realtor.”
As a millennial, he likely has an edge when it comes to social media strategizing.
After branding his oversized truck with a black ad wrap, he noticed people were tweeting and posting when they saw him in parking lots.
So in January, he offered a Visa gift card to the person who got the most social media response from a post about his truck. The next month, the prize was a certificate to a friend’s restaurant. The next month, it was certificate to a girl friend’s clothing boutique. Thirty people per month were posting news of his truck to their network of friends.
“It got to the point where my customers would get mad if I didn’t pick them up to see houses, because they wanted to ride in my big truck,” Slate said.
Slate’s advice to others who may not share his instincts for social media? Keep the relationship in it.
“A lot of people pay other people to do their social media, or they have an RSS feed set up to automatically post real estate news articles on their Twitter accounts,” he said. “People follow you on social media because they like you.
“I think about the kind of posts I would stop on. That’s the type of stuff I post.”