Learning to stay curious, reflective, and resilient with Shannon Baird

In this episode of The RENEW Podcast, host Lauren Martin, Sales Director at RentSpree, welcomes Shannon Baird, a former-teacher who found success (and personal and professional freedom) in a new career in real estate. 

Currently the Director of Operations at Lundy, Shannon discusses what motivated her to move away from the education industry along with what she’s learned along the way that keeps her thriving in her new role. She also shares what her experience in the fast-paced tech world has been like thus far, and how it’s been nothing short of rewarding as she applies her expertise to help make real estate more accessible for the blind and visually impaired. 

Transitioning from education to real estate tech

For much of her career, Shannon was a teacher before moving into education leadership and administration. While she was always passionate about education and still is to this day, she was curious to learn if she could take her experience with her into another space. 

It all began when Justin Lundy, Founder and CEO of Lundy, asked her to do some editing. Shannon discusses with Lauren how she made her eventual leap from one industry to another including the challenges she faced and how she finally landed her role as the company’s Director of Operations. 

Lundy’s mission is to make home buying more accessible to the blind and the visually-impaired community. While many of us take it for granted that we can just walk into a home and look around, the team at Lundy is trying to make that possible for those that can’t. For people living with compromised vision, engaging with property listings and house-hunting can be cumbersome. To address this issue, Lundy is making it easier for them to find their dream home by producing the most comprehensive property search engine available by voice. Working with Multiple Listing Services (MLSs) and Alexa, Lundy is revolutionizing the home buying experience to make it more accessible to everyone. Shannon expresses how motivated that makes her to go to work. She feels a true sense of purpose “[When people are] so thrilled to find out that something has been built specifically for them, that excitement is honestly what keeps me coming back all the time.” 

Episode highlights

During her conversation with Lauren, Shannon talks about some of her strengths that she believes contributed to her career success. In particular, she elaborates on the power of being reflective and resilient. She specifically mentions how “those two things can serve anybody well no matter what career path that you're in, but it has really been truly invaluable to me.”

While working at Lundy Shannon discovered how reflection has helped her move forward. “When I take time to reflect on the obstacle and bring the problem back to myself and what I can control, I have learned to be a better leader and manager because it's allowed me to lead with empathy. And that's something that's really important to me and has allowed me to face more challenging conversations and situations with people head on because I know I've grounded it in what I can and cannot do. And that's truly been two of the most invaluable skills that I've had to learn. I think it's something I had naturally, but it's something I've had to learn to use at work over and over and over again through some really difficult situations, honestly.”

She also says “I think [being resilient] really helps with dealing with uncertainty and being able to just trust that it is going to be okay, that you will figure it out and that everything's temporary. Nothing's going to be the same forever. And so this includes outside forces as well as when you make a mistake or experience a setback or failure, you just need to use that as a learning opportunity and move forward.” 

In addition, Shannon gives listeners one more piece of advice. She emphasizes that it’s never too late for a career change. In her words, it’s important to have “faith in yourself when you're just like, I don't know, just kind of trusting your gut a little bit and just seeing where something might lead, you just never know.”

Final thoughts

Towards the end of the episode, Shannon leaves us with what she’s found to be the most invaluable to her career: mentorship. She speaks about how the mentors she’s had throughout her career journey—both in education and now in real estate—have made a huge impact on her, both personally and professionally. 

She explains how “You cannot put a price tag on [mentorship]. It's not just networking, but it's also about just truly having someone bring you along their journey and you just never know when you might stumble upon someone that you find really inspiring.” 

If there’s one takeaway she hopes that listeners gain from the episode, it’s that anyone can reinvent themselves if they choose too. It only takes some curiosity and determination. Like Shannon says: “ You don't have to stick with something just because you already invested time and energy into it. And sometimes it can feel really scary to pivot, but you can.”

To listen to the full episode, click one of the links below:

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3SIBFPA

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3I1HsLg

‍RENEW by RentSpree aims to help change the lack of women in leadership roles within real estate and foster a community that elevates female voices.