Justine González has parlayed her years leading in school districts with consulting and communication expertise to help real estate investors better communicate with buyers and sellers.
González has worked in practically every role in education that exists, including teacher and superintendent. Her experience lies in bridging communication gaps between people across various sociological lines.
She has a knack for quickly building positive and solid professional and personal relationships in a way that is beneficial to everyone involved. González knows how to unify different groups of people, no matter what age, industry, race, or sex, and to engage them in ways that build understanding, empathy, and camaraderie.
González’s work with K12 schools isn’t the only place where she’s working to improve and guide better interpersonal relationships. As a real estate relationship coach, she acts as a liaison to keep real estate investment transactions running smoothly. Her background in cultural training and inclusion works surprisingly well when working with investors because she specializes in “developing skills to connect with anyone.”
As a real estate investor herself, González saw a gap that needed to be filled in the real estate transaction process and realized that she could transfer the success she achieved in helping schools, families, and educators to the real estate investing field to fill that gap.
“I took some time to brainstorm, and the skill is that ability to grow, nurture and sustain relationships. I feel like that’s actually the foundation that any type of successful real estate relationship must have,” González explains.
“If you don’t have that foundation, then you’re going to have cracks along the way that could potentially be prevented if you have solid relationships with who you engage throughout the process.”
González originated an acronym, VIP, that represents the philosophy she has toward interacting with other professionals and clients. It centers around looking for the individual’s Value, showing authentic Inquiry into who they are—not just what they do or the dollar amount they bring—and being Persistent in your follow-up to build the relationship.
“If you treat everybody like a VIP, you look for their value, you have an authentic inquiry into who they are, not just what they do or what dollar amount they bring. And then you have persistence in your follow-up in building that relationship; then you’re going to find those relationships happening organically versus them being forced for the sake of a bottom line.”
González learned that building sustainable and profitable relationships in the real estate investment sector leads to greater confidence in buyers and sellers and greater overall success of a real estate transaction.
“With my educational consulting company, EducatorAide, I teach leaders, specifically in the education sector, to expand their influence with diverse groups of people. We have a highly experiential training process that teaches people how to consistently connect, create and collaborate with people of diverse cultures.”
As a former teacher, principal and regional administrator in the Midwest, González is experienced in educating and consulting and understands the economic challenges educators face and the contributions they make to the community. She knew from an early age that she wanted to take control of her financial success.
“Actually, my first year teaching, I sat down with whoever the generic investor was that my district brought in, and he asked me when I wanted to retire, and I said 45. And he laughed at me, and I said, ‘I’m serious.’ I didn’t know how it would be possible at the time, but I just knew that I was not the type who was just going to stay in one position my whole life.”
This confidence led González to grow both an educational consulting firm called EducatorAide, where she helps train educational institutions in developing cultural skills (including bias, diversity and inclusion training), and her real estate consulting and investing firm.
González, who is based in the Greater-Chicago area, and her partner, Nina Grayson, who is a licensed realtor based in Los Angeles, together run an established real estate investment company—Grayson & González.
At the core of who González is, her goal is to positively impact communities, which she does through education and real estate. It’s a rare mix that’s achieving inspiring results.
Her newest project, where she shares the benefits of investors working with her to keep and close more real estate deals, is an upcoming book Wealth For Women: Conversations with the Team That Creates the Dream, which is scheduled for release in the Fall of 2018. To learn more about Justine, visit www.graysongonzalez.com or www.educatoraide.com.
