Scaling Up Success Podcast

From the Gridiron to Real Estate: Kyle Schlichter's Journey

• Ryan Van Ornum • Season 1 • Episode 7

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Kyle Schlichter’s journey from Iowa football fields to Navy SEAL training facilities and, ultimately, to Chicago’s real estate market is a testament to resilience and reinvention. After playing Division I football at the University of Iowa and briefly pursuing the NFL, he spent 14 years as the head strength coach for Naval Special Warfare, preparing recruits for the rigors of SEAL training. When the Navy facility relocated, Kyle faced a career crossroads that unexpectedly led him into real estate through a connection with his own realtor.

Just months into his new career, Kyle’s mentor and broker passed away from cancer, forcing him to navigate the industry on his own. His straightforward, no-nonsense approach resonated with clients, helping him close over 100 transactions in less than five years. Even the challenges of the 2023 real estate market couldn’t shake his resolve—his background in football and military training had already prepared him for adversity. Now with Coldwell Banker, Kyle balances professional excellence with family time while offering honest advice to aspiring realtors: financial stability, mentorship, and full commitment are key. Connect with Kyle on Facebook or just Google his name—his football background makes him easy to find!

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Speaker 1:

What's up everyone. This is Ryan Van Ornam and this is scaling up success podcast. Today I'm here with Kyle Schlichter. He is a man of many, many, many skills and runs a real estate team in Illinois right now and super excited to have him on our podcast today. Kyle, welcome.

Speaker 2:

Hey man, happy to be here. This is always a fun time to get to take some time out and talk about what we do on a daily basis. I think it's very important that the folks out there listening, and the folks that maybe might stumble upon this, might get a little bit more insight into our daily, our daily, uh, what my daily life is, uh, as a real estate agent full-time.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, man, and you're one of the best out there and, uh, just appreciate you being on on here and, um, I know I know you didn't just jump into real estate straight out of, uh, you know straight out of college or straight out. But tell us a little bit about your backstory, man. I know you have. You've had interesting, you know winding, winding curves and you know pretty cool to see some of that stuff. Give a give a little backstory where you've been.

Speaker 2:

Well, I'm born and raised in Iowa and found my way over here because I'm married to Chicago girl and went to the University of Iowa, played football there and I had a great time with that and it was about 2007,. Graduated in 2006 and 07, moved over here, tried out for the NFL, you know, didn't make it, did that whole thing Bouncing around to try out some combines and this and that Didn't have a job when I moved over here too, but my wife did. She was a first and second grade teacher. So, you know, we moved where the money was, even though it wasn't much, and, gosh, the rents jumped up crazy. From Iowa City to Schaumburg, illinois, right, right, yeah, I think we were at a two bedroom, two bedroom, one bath like 2000 square foot townhome for, like you know, 600 bucks a month and we moved to a one bedroom, one bath with a fireplace like a thousand square feet for 1400. It just blew my mind, right, you know. So I bounced around from job to job, you know, doing little things here and there and you know the last. And then all of a sudden I got my wife actually found the job for me. It was just this very generic listing on USAjobscom. It was for Naval Special Warfare in Blackwater at the time and they were looking for, you know, former Division I athletes that studied an exercise science background or something equivalent and competed at a high level.

Speaker 2:

And, long story short, fast forward 14 and a half years or so, I was the head strength conditioning coach for Naval Special Warfare Prep School. My job was, you know, guys who were heavily recruited to be Navy SEALs would sign contracts and they would come to me and I would get them in the best physical shape possible and teach them some underwater survival skills basically take away the physical component of what they were going to be experiencing at Bud's basic underwater demolition school out at, uh, uh, seal school out at um, coronado California. And it was a great gig, um, you know, met a lot of great guys, trained a lot of great guys. Um, very fortunate for that, I miss all the guys.

Speaker 2:

I miss the daily banter. Um, you know, working in a paramilitary environment really opens your eyes, uh, and makes you realize that there's many things, many other things out there very, very much bigger than yourself. And the gratitude that you have every day to be a part of something like that and to experience that I'm very, very grateful for. But yeah, and that's gosh, that's a bottle of tequila worth of a conversation, right?

Speaker 1:

there.

Speaker 2:

You know, and then all of a sudden it was like 20. I'd been kind of looking for like hey, what's next? You know, like I'm I've already topped out here. You know this is a great gig. But I was driving 100 miles a day for like a gig that I was already topped out at. And you know, I was already, you know, pushing 40 years old. And here I was thinking to myself like I need something more. My wife was on this, still is on this amazing track, career track. She's got a doctorate now she's got her master's. You know, blah, blah, blah, just like skyrocketing to space in her career. And here I was trying to shift gears and think about what's next. And I what's next? And I'll tell you, getting back out in the job market is tough, like I remember. I remember a seal commander. Someone came to our uh, the navy base and made the announcement that they were picking, packing up everything and moving to san diego and uh, sorry, I'm having a showing question.

Speaker 1:

It's funny, because business for for what you do it never stops. Does it it doesn't you know?

Speaker 2:

and I'll get to that here about how I'm, you know, addicted to it but also annoyed by it at the same time. But you know, they came to us and said hey, we're packing everything up and moving it to San Diego.

Speaker 1:

You're welcome to come with, and you know my mind at the time was like Whoa, how can you just do this?

Speaker 2:

And you know, after giving you, you know, almost 15 years of my blood, sweat and tears and my family's blood, sweat and tears, you know like uh, uh. But I, you know, working in again, working with uh, with other active duty and former active duty military people like you learn about. That's how it goes, man, that's how it works in the military. They literally can just pack up entire facilities. It doesn't matter if there's you know a million dollars worth of equipment inside this building, they will get up and they will ship it all to the other side of the world. And that just blew my mind. So that was kind of like the, the push off the cliff, if you will, or the jumpstart. And a good friend of mine that was an agent here in town in Glen Ellyn that I purchased my home from, his name was Matt McCollum. He caught wind of what was happening and I was on the search for something else and he contacted me and said, hey, I think you'd be great in real estate, something else. And he contacted me and said, hey, I think you'd be great in real estate, you know. And of course I was, I was, I was one of those guys. It was like, hey, you know, I've never been a Mr Salesman-y person. I've never been. You know, I always the telemarketing calls. I'm like I'll listen to what they have to say, but I'll tell them like, no, thank you, but I, you want to buy this, you want to buy that, you know. So that kind of you know. I told him, I said, hey, I'll, and everyone else in my family was like, oh yeah, I think you'd be great at that. And you don't know what. You don't know until your family and your friends tell you like, hey, look, you know, if one person tells you that you'd be good. So you know that that was a sign to give it a shot.

Speaker 2:

So this guy, um, he, let me ride along with him. Um to listing appointments, to buyer appointments to you know, um, investor meetings to, to everything just basically be a fly on the wall. Um to you know client showings from you know a $200 investment property all the way up to a million million and a half dollar home. So I got to see and I told him that. I said this is what I want to do before I jump into anything and I'm pushing 40 years old Like, this is a big decision. This is my first big career move since college and if I'm going to do this, I want it to be right and I'm not the type of person I don't want my resume to be like know, he switched careers here and here and here and here, right, I, I don't, I didn't want to be that guy and there's nothing wrong with that. That's just my particular. If I'm staying some, if I'm gonna do something, I'm, I'm doing it full force, um, and uh, yeah, so, uh, you know, bottles of whiskey and uh, about 30 days later, I uh studied and passed my exam and that was about February of 2021.

Speaker 2:

And I hit the ground running. I was his buyer's agent and he was dying of ocular melanoma at the time and we kind of knew that. We didn't know exactly how much time he had left, but fast forward, I don't know, 14 deals later and four or five, four or five months, he passed away and, um, oh, my goodness, yeah, it was a surprise. Uh, even though, you know, we kind of knew um that it was happening, it was super sad and you know, uh, the business that he had. I, I helped um his wife and uh, the rest of it. Uh, it was really just me and his wife and wife and another agent on the team that were kind of helping finish everything out. So you know, I kind of got thrown into the gauntlet, thrown into the fire with my experience and in hindsight it actually was great because that's how I learned I'm not a sit in front of the computer kind of guy. I'm not a make a phone call kind of guy. I'm a get out and meet people kind of guy. Throw events kind of guy, um, you know, get people drunk kind of guy. You know, um, and so you know, fast forward. Then, um, my team kind of, just at the time they decided to hang things up and uh and let everybody kind of go, cause it was just too much to handle. You know, he, he was an amazing person, matt McCollum, and uh, he really had a huge impact on the community and when he passed away, man it was, it was a big deal. So.

Speaker 2:

But here I was stuck in the middle of a, you know, six months into a real estate career where I've done some deals, I had some experience and I was raring to go and in swoops, matt Grander, with Keller Williams, and you know, I'd heard from a few people that he was great. And you know, to be honest with you, I didn't really care where I went or who I was with, I just wanted to keep doing what I was doing. I had a pipeline kind of established a little bit. I was big on open houses, you know, crazy on those, and he was. He provided me with a team, with an admin, with a big marketing department, you know, with a lot of really great things for me to kind of continue what I wanted to keep doing.

Speaker 2:

But I did make it clear, you know, like, hey, three to five years is kind of my timeline where, like, I feel I'm going to learn a lot and I'm going to probably break away and either start my own team within your team and we'll figure that out or do my own thing. And here I am, where, you know, I'm not even at the five-year mark and I think I've. I don't even know what my numbers are. I think I'm just over a hundred transactions. That's phenomenal, yeah. And you know, in the beginning I was all about the numbers. You know, all about like, how many did I finish with in a year? And now I just, man, you know, 2023 really put a damper on things, I think, for a lot of folks, and it really made me kind of sit back and realize that I need to stop focusing on that stuff and just focus on one thing at a time, and so I've lost track of the number.

Speaker 2:

But anyway, yeah, so I'm now with Coldwell Banker and I'm with Coldwell Banker Realty Corporate. So I'm not with a group, I'm not with a franchise. I wanted to. When I decided to leave, you know, I made it very clear that I want to be able to do things my way, with no restrictions whatsoever. I don't want to be working for anybody you know like I don't want. I want to be me, I want to be Kyle. I don't want to have to put someone else's name on my stuff.

Speaker 2:

And yeah, so it's going good. Since I've joined Coldwell Banker, I think I've got five or six closings. That was almost about three quarters of through the year last year. I've got a listing. Right now that's got three offers and another buyer's going under contract and a freaking huge pipeline. So I'm loving it, man. I've got a big support structure with my family and my wife is super supportive and I get to hang at home with my pup Doe and go pick up my kids from school and sell people homes and help people with real estate in between all of that. So I'm loving it.

Speaker 1:

Man, that's phenomenal. I love that you have the flexibility in your, in your schedule to be able to accommodate for all of that stuff. And it sounds like that you've you've learned every step of the way about not just about how to, you know, run your business, but you as a person, and you've learned and and, uh, you know, uh, taking those steps to make yourself a better person along the way. So what, what do you? What do you think you're most proud of in this journey that you're on?

Speaker 2:

Uh, I think my ability to just uh, um, first of all, be, um, very adaptable and, um, really sit back and watch everybody else.

Speaker 2:

You know all the people that have done it before me there's, I think that there's. I'm at the point now where I can say there's a lot of agents out there that think that it should be done a specific way, and that's great. But, you know, I've taken some bits from pretty much everyone I've run into. You know they didn't know it at the time, but I was pressing record every time they were talking and you know, that's, that's something that I realized pretty much from the get go was that, like I'm, I know who I am and I know that certain systems for me aren't going to work because it's just not me, you know, like I've. So I've therefore have, you know, taken things and modified them and I've learned, and I'm very grateful to have come across and have been, you know, with a lot of great people that have shown me some great things and have sat down and talked to me and about my future in this, and you know I'm never going to do anything else.

Speaker 2:

This is, this is phenomenal, I mean if I could, if I could get through 2023, 2023 was, you know, was a tough year in real estate for me personally and, I think, for a lot of folks. You know, just, you wake up and do the same thing every day and my motor is very powerful and big, so you know when you're showing. And big so you know when you're showing. You know six, seven, eight buyers, 20 to 30 homes a month and nobody's buying anything. That's tough and when you do that, when you do that for an entire year, that's tough. Man, you know that is, that is. I've experienced failure before. You know I footballs. I've missed field goals in front of you know hundreds of thousands of people on live tv. I know what failure is like, but I also think that, uh, one of my strengths and what I'm very good at is bouncing back and adapting and realizing that that's part of the gig and part of the process, and you just need to wake up and do the same darn thing every single.

Speaker 2:

Your head's, your daily habits, you know, and obviously the market dictates a lot of that stuff. You know we could talk all day long about you got to do this, you got to do this, you got to make so many phone calls a day. It's like, well, yeah, you're right, but you know, ultimately the market's going to dictate, uh, what my buyers and sellers do.

Speaker 2:

So right anyway, uh, here I, here I am and I'm. You know things are on the uptick for 2025. I'm already seeing a lot of, a lot of, you know, positives. I was just thinking about this this morning and kind of preparation for this while I was showering. You know, like I got in, everyone said when I got into real estate that, wow, you got in at such a great time post COVID. You know it was. It was a. You know, 2021 was a great year. For a lot of people, 2022 was also a great year. But then, you know, the future is hard to predict. You know, no one could have predicted what was going to happen in 2023 with inflation rates and, you know, low inventory and all that stuff. And you know, while I was still doing a few deals here and there that kept me afloat, it was a big eye-opener. 2024 was tough too, but better than 2023.

Speaker 1:

What do you attribute that to? Do you feel like you're playing college sports or training with special forces in the military taught you a greater resilience.

Speaker 2:

Where did that come from? I think a combination of both. Uh, my career at iowa. Um, you know coach doyle the strength coach, former strength coach there. Um, you may have seen him in the news, uh, you know. And coach ference and Coach Ferentz both have been super heavily influenced in me in my life, not only as a football player but as a person, and it took me a while to realize this and I don't think current college football players that have coaches like them realize this at the time. But they're not preparing you just for the game on Saturday, they're preparing you for life. You know, and again, it takes a while, I think, for that to really hit home, because you know they're not. They want to make sure that you not only have a successful college career, education wise, as well as playing wise, but they want to make sure that you're a good person, good husband, good employee, good boss, whatever it is. You're just a good person across the board. And that resiliency you know whenever.

Speaker 2:

I've whenever I've come across something that's been very physically or emotionally or mentally very difficult, I think about the things that I went through as a University of Iowa kicker, you know, winning the awards and the Big Ten championships and the school records and stuff like that. Like that did not come easy. None of that came easy. That came through literally waking up every single morning and having the same, having the same attitude, the same habits, and with training the guys up at the Navy base. You know that too. You know those guys, the guys that I helped train, were amazing, had a level of motivation that was just 1,000% and my job was easy and what I mean by that. Like I could literally say anything and they would do it, like they believed everything I would say. But you know I didn't do that. Everything was very well calculated because you know what these guys are going to be, you know what they're going to be doing, you know what they're going into. So you can't just like like throw everything out there. Everything was very well calculated out and um. But also the guys that I was working with up there too, like they were all former military. So you know, some of them were former special forces and even some of the active duty guys were former, uh, active duty guys that stayed with us and became instructors. You know you just learn a lot from from them and all the things that they've experienced, uh hardships. You know emotional, uh mental stress, whatever it might be. The physical part of it I mean we were all you know studs. As far as the physical part of it goes, I mean, when you're in charge of a 6,000 square foot gym, there's no excuse, you know but. But, but see, but hearing the stories about you know the mental. I mean I had a coworker that had Hodgkin's lymphoma while we were working and and you know you'd see him the next day with. I remember the next day he got diagnosed he was in the weight room with a you know 50 pound weight vest on doing a thousand step-ups. I mean the guy was just incredible. So you see things like that, you know, and we we experienced guys taking their own lives. We experienced pretty much everything across the board and again, I think that that experience you see a lot of life. I saw a lot of life in those 14 and communicate and how I'm always there.

Speaker 2:

I'm not saying any other agent doesn't do this, but I'm. You know, I tell people all the time I'm, I'm very, I'm very good at what I do. I communicate very well and you're not going to find anybody else that does it the way I do it. And you know, with the new NAR rules, I'm probably going to get in trouble for saying this, but I don't make anybody sign anything until we submit an offer. I think it's dumb. I'm not going to make you. First of all. Hello, mr Ryan. Hey, thanks for coming to my open house. Hey, kyle, this is awesome, but I don't like this house. Would you be able to show me another house? Yeah, let's go do it right now, right after this open house. Hey, with the new ANR settlement, are you going to make me sign anything? No, I'm not. If you don't like that house, if like that house, if you like that house but you don't like me, that's probably something I did roger right, you know, let's yeah, and I have not.

Speaker 2:

I have, I've had a very high success rate with that. Of course, if there's somebody out there that has a different agenda, I don't even want to waste my time with them anyway.

Speaker 1:

Um, so you know, that's, and it's kind of like scarcity versus abundance mindset when you think about it, with business, with opportunities like that, because like there's going to be so many people that want, oh, they only have one or two deals that they may be working on or something like that. But if you have a full pipeline because you've been doing your job day in, day out, you have that resiliency. I think it really showcases that hey, if I don't get this one person to come work with me, I'm going to still be okay.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, and that's. I make that very clear right off the bat. Now I'm just like look, this is me. You know, I cuss in front of people. I don't I don't have a filter and I don't even dress up. You know, like I'm very non-Mr Salesman and I've found for me that works best when I'm very, very honest up front and I don't, you know, I don't sugarcoat a dang thing, and I think that that really resonates with a lot of people.

Speaker 2:

One thing I want to mention going back to what do I think really has affected, you know, that pipeline. I'm a huge, I'm a big open house guy. I've identified that open houses for me and this might not be the same thing for a lot of folks, but I'm very good at anybody that walks through that door If they don't have somebody they're working with, or even gosh, I've, I've had them switch. I'm very good at retaining those people. And again, I just I it's not Mr Salesman-y stuff, it's just very, very honest. I gain these people's trust immediately and it becomes a relationship. I mean, I'm still in contact, very close contact, with a lot of folks. I helped buy homes, you know, four years ago. So it's it's, it's fun.

Speaker 1:

Well, I know that firsthand. We've known each other for about six months or so. We'll text each other. Hey, talking smack on football games. I'm a Nebraska fan. You obviously went to Iowa. We have a good time with that and it's more than just you know, like talking business. It's always you know, like how's the family doing kind of stuff too, like always always trying to create that. You know like that better connection. I've respected you from the start when we started just having discussions and talking and seeing how you are. So I really appreciate that about you, man. It's more than just business. It's always that personal level of rapport is always there with you. So I appreciate that. Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2:

As we, as we kind of wind this up a little bit if you have, if you have, any advice for somebody wanting to get into the your career field of real estate, what would it be? Well, it's not easy. It's definitely not easy. You have to work your butt off and I get it like you might have a of. You might have a big network of friends and family that say that they're going to purchase stuff, but that that all goes away. You know, I would just say you know, for anybody that's trying, that's thinking about getting their license out there, just just make sure that you do your research and know that. You know the statistics are real. This is a this is a very tough profession. It is not easy money at all.

Speaker 2:

I would, I would, you know, I would have some savings in your account or have someone in your support system that can support you while you're doing this financially, because it does take a while. I mean I'm, I mean I'm. I know that I. I told you about my numbers and everything, but I was on a team where there's give and take. I left my team because my business started to outgrow their business just a little bit. I started to see the light. Oh my gosh, my pipeline. I've met all these people. All these people are going to tell me they're going to do something this year If I were to leave my team. What would be different this year if I were to leave my team? What would be different?

Speaker 2:

And so you know, that's what I would say is, just like you know, be humble, let it humble you. Team up with somebody that's got the experience that can literally guide you, hold you accountable on a daily basis, because if you don't have those habits, if you just think that this is something that you could wake up and sell someone a home, it is not 100%, not the truth. There might be some people out there that are, you know, absolutely killing it right off the bat. Good for them. Whatever they're doing, that's great. But I'm telling you right now, like my, I'm not the hardest working person in the world, but you know, I've got a wife that I have to answer to every single night and if I'm not producing something I get in trouble. But not really, I'm just kidding. But that's what I would say man, just be ready to fully commit yourself. I I don't know how part-time agents do it yeah, but yeah, that's. That's really all I got. I'm sure again that's a whole nother bottle of tequila to conversation as well.

Speaker 1:

Man, I love this dude. It's been phenomenal being able to chat with you a little bit. Get your, get your, get your story out there a little bit more to the masses. I know you have connections across the country, but you know this, this podcast, we we produce it, we have, we have connections all across as well. How, how do people get ahold of you? You know, throw out, throw out your socials, your, your, we have connections all across as well. How do people get a hold of you? Throw out your socials. Whatever you want for contacts, anything like that, Put it out there.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, my personal Facebook page. It has everything on there. It's got my website with Coldwell Banker, it's got my personal style on there. I mean anybody can reach out and see me. Luckily for me, I played football for the University of Iowa, so you can Google my name.

Speaker 2:

And that's what I tell people. I'm like look, I'm a real person. You can Google my name and tons of stuff will pop up. So I'm not just some you know random person that you're meeting. Pretty easy to get a hold of me. I communicate via text and email and, just like we're talking right now, literally as fast as it kind of blows people's minds sometimes. So you know, it's one of those things. I do the entire. I do some stuff in the in the city, but I do mostly all the Chicago suburbs, and I've just got my first referral from the state of Iowa, so that's great too. I'm working on that right now and it's a lot of fun man. So you can pretty much find me anywhere. Just type in my name Awesome.

Speaker 1:

Well, we really appreciate you being on the podcast and best, best, best of luck with 2025 and all your future endeavors. We appreciate you, my friend Cool man. Thank you very much. Cheers Awesome. Take care. Bye-bye.

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