Hi Friend!
I feel like if you are taking the time to read what I have to say, you are definitely my friend. I have literally never written a blog post before- I feel like I am writing in the 21st century version of my diary, which is only a little frightening (panicked breathing). I enjoy sharing so much with y'all on my instagram and especially my instagram stories. Sometimes I feel like I have some more in depth, long stories and thoughts I want to share but fitting it into an instagram post is too much. Hello BLOG! And now that I have an actual website, there's a landing page for it all (and what better way to to drive you to my website, then my fun, silly, riveting, sarcastic blog posts?) This blog is going to be 100% Emily (lucky you). I just feel like we live in a world where so much of everything we read and write is “Chat GPT-ified”, so I want you to actually get to know ME when you read this blog (not the chat version of me). So if you find any grammatical errors, no you didn’t. I have no robots checking this work. I am also going to attempt to write this blog without emojis and the millennial in me is screaming. I’m hoping that makes it more bearable to read (insert tongue sticking out face here). Buckle up for my "Long Story Long".
Now you know why I’m here but do you know me? If you don’t, I am Emily Pickerel- 31 year old, Lincoln, Nebraska native, and your real estate Gal Pal. I haven’t been that Gal Pal for long though, which is the theme of this post! I am celebrating one year of working in real estate this September 1st, 2025! Ahh!!!!! I’d love to dive right into that but since this is my first blog post, I think I should rewind a bit and give you some more details on how this all came to be.
Prior to becoming a real estate phenom (manifesting), I was teaching the youth of America. At any point of the day you could find me in my classroom: reading aloud Harry Potter, teaching a song and dance so my fourth graders could remember how to do long division, playing investigator attempting to problem-solve recess girl drama, leading reading groups teaching 4th graders letter sounds (yes, that’s happening), playing Taylor Swift in the background of all independent work time, and SO much more. This all would happen while my nervous system was in fight or flight. I laughed, I cried, I yelled, I laughed, I laughed, I cried, I cried, I cried. The laughing always helped. When a fourth grader would tell me the most off-handed comments, how could I not laugh? But when a fourth grader tells me what’s going on at home and I know no one is safe, there’s only crying there (and a CPS call).
Long story long, I taught 4th grade for six years here in Lincoln, Nebraska. I had two extremely different experiences in those years– my first 4 years were spent at a Title 1 School (a school where a large population qualified for free and reduced lunch) and an extremely affluent school. My time at my title 1 school was the most eye-opening experience of my life. And one of the most challenging. Learning (and teaching) is extremely challenging when a majority of your students are living in poverty AND experiencing trauma. Many of my students were in fight or flight due to their home experiences. This environment helped stress the importance of creating a calm classroom environment– I honed in on calm practices and trustbuilding, as many of my kiddos did not trust adults (I don’t blame them). After four years of hard work and growth as a teacher, I watched one of my students be escorted out of school by the police. That’s right. A ten year old. (This is happening more than you know). I decided I needed a change. I moved to a different elementary school, but this one had students predominantly from affluent families with heavily involved parents. I spent my last two years learning the grass isn’t really greener on the other side. Most of my kiddos were not living in trauma (they were too busy being stressed out with too many club sport practices). Teaching and learning in the classroom came easier. However, this world opened my eyes to entitlement and mean parents. That is blunt but I am telling you like it is. My biggest problems were students feeling entitled to everything and parents who also felt entitled to everything. The parents were keyboard warriors and would beat me down with their words. Not all parents were like this but there were enough to make it unbearable- that’s all I’ll say about that.
Around year 4 of teaching, I started to spend some of my days off following around my sister Rachel as her shadow. She was a real estate agent and REALTOR® AND a broker (the correct word is girl boss, I think). I enjoyed spending my days off seeing what life was like outside of the classroom doing something where you are your own boss. I never really thought much into it besides enjoying spending the time with my sister. Fast forward to October of year 6 teaching that I decided I’m fucking done. Oops, sorry for dropping the F bomb but if you know me I curse like a sailor (not around mom and dad-sorry if you’re reading this) and sometimes a little extra *spice* goes a long way. I will definitely limit my curse words but if you see one, just know it’s definitely warranted. Fortunately/unfortunately, the prior year teaching, I had a teammate up and quit randomly in September. It left me and my team high and dry (we wrote sub plans for the substitutes free of fucking charge until they hired a new teacher (public education baby). I experienced how difficult this was as a teammate and even more-so, I saw how traumatic it was for her students and the struggle they had after that. SOO, I decided I would quit teaching but I would not leave my kiddos mid-year. I would stick it out until May and dang that was hard. I had more degrading parent emails that year than I’ve had in my whole life.
All year I focused on “Teacher Career Coach”, which helped me hone down what my skills/talents are and how they transfer outside of the classroom. Teachers go into their career and it’s one of those where you’re expected to be there for life…. In so many other careers, it’s normal to go from one job to another, in order to move up or get a raise. Not in the teaching world. The only way to do “move up” is get out of the classroom and I loved being in the classroom. I’d be dead before becoming an administrator. (No offense to the amazing administrators I've worked for-- I could never do that job). So, I got my resume “de-teacher-fied” and started applying for jobs. I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t apply for too many. I wanted to apply for jobs I would actually enjoy (although sometimes I thought about just getting a job at Costco and living happily ever after). After 3 or 4 failed interviews, I continued to explore and brainstorm. My dang sister kept whispering in my ear (not literally because that would be weird) about getting my real estate license. It was always in the back of my brain… all my memories of shadowing her around watching her be her own girl boss. So, while I wasn’t falling head over heels in love with the idea of real estate, I decided, WTF, let’s go for it. I cannot forget the support of my husband, Mike. He was supportive along the way and just wanted me to be happy.
So after I said goodbye to teaching in May 2024, I became a woman on a mission. I took all my real estate licensure classes online and finished them up in August. I studied a few weeks after finishing and then took a whack at the national and state test. Most people do not pass the state test on their first try. This girl walked out of the testing center, got in her car and opened up her results to find I passed both tests on my first try and cried tears of joy. I was doubting myself the entire time and thought I would for SURE take them 2-3 times but I guess I am just smarter than everyone else. Starting September 1st, 2024, I dove headfirst into the real estate world as licensed agent and REALTOR®.
SOOO, now you have the background (that was my long story long) on how I came to be YOUR real estate Gal Pal. The next step is hearing about how this first year of work has gone for me. Well I have one word for you: un-fucking-believable. Were there times that I had no clients? Yes. Were there times when I made no money for 3.5 months straight? Yes. Were there times that I had 5+ clients at the same time? Yes. Were there months with 4 closings? Yes.
I took on business with my big sis, Rachel (aka Ray or Rach). We are our own individual agents but I took on all my business with her as my co-agent, meaning she worked alongside me in transactions. (We are not a team as Rach does some business of her own without me.) This was essential in the beginning as I needed someone to learn from, watch how she does business, and ask all the (stupid) questions. Rachel graciously agreed to do that. I was terrified that all our clients would be from Rachel’s sphere of influence and her referrals. Well, in December of 2024, I had my first 4 closings, all in the same month. I was proud to say 3 of those 4 were from my sphere of influence (shout out Taylor, Alex, and Becca for trusting and believing in newbie Emily). Since then, 2025 has been good to me (and Rach). We’ve had 14 closings so far, and 6 of those came from my sphere or referrals. On top of that, I have a handful of clients preparing to buy or sell in the lineup.
Real estate is interesting because it is just as challenging as teaching and sometimes problems arise that require my brain to think at a level it never has before. What I love about it is that my nervous system is not in a permanent state of stress. I don’t have to be “on” in front of 30 kiddos for 7 hours straight with no pee breaks (have you ever taught a science lesson on day 2 of your period?)Then end my day at 4PM, get yelled at by parents and then take all my work home because there’s a new curriculum or if I don’t get something graded in time, I won’t have test results ready for an upcoming PLC meeting. As an agent, I have moments of “high stress” but it feels more like a roller coaster. There are times where I am literally working from 8am- 11pm at night with meetings, showings, reading/completing contracts, and networking. And then there are days when it’s day 2 of my period and I don’t have to be anywhere, so I work from my bed with my heating pad on my tummy and take a nap when I want.
In this year, I’ve helped friends buy their starter home or helped friends upgrade from starter home to their second home to prepare for children. I’ve helped out of state clients relocate back to Lincoln, Nebraska– facetime showings FTW. I’ve helped a woman in her 70s purchase her own home to retire in. I’ve dipped my toes in the world of new construction. I helped a client find a home under $190k in a small town in Nebraska (this means my car traveled what seemed like the entire Eastern half of the state). I’ve helped sellers list their home as they prepare to move out of state or end their investing journey. And. So. Much. More. Nowadays, my phone is full of photos of water heaters, furnaces, and AC units. My instagram is no longer just for me but for my business (something I never expected- sorry not sorry). I know more about SIDs than I’d like to and I can tell you how many square feet in an acre there is (43,560). What I love most is the “rollercoaster”. I love that my Monday could be spent in the office working on backend work at my desk all day and then Tuesday is driving all around town for showings, home inspections and more. Or the fact that I can work from home now or bring my baby dogs to work (Phoebe and Franklin, my golden retriever floofsters). Also I have to mention ALL the networking. Meeting new lenders or contractors for coffee, discussing how we can do business together is huge. I have met so many talented individuals in this industry. It goes to show that you should ALWAYS ask for a referral because word of mouth is the best advertising. I could give you a laundry list of amazing local lenders I would trust to get a deal to the closing table as my teammate on the transaction. This is definitely a people business. Have I had interactions where people have been *unpleasant* with me? Absolutely. There’s always going to be bad days or things that fall apart, but it’s not an angry parent email that’s happening on the weekly, so I’ll take it. I don’t want this to sound like all rainbows and sunshine. Have I had clients send a mutual release because their inspection was scary? Yeah. Have I prayed every night to get to closing because of terms? Yes (thank you JC for getting that to the closing table). Have I had clients who tell me they can’t do a two story house but then continue to ask for showings of 2 stories? Yeah. I could go on and on. It’s not all rainbows, but no job is.
Long story long– now you know why I became YOUR real estate gal pal and how my first year in the business has gone. I am more happier than ever and in this first year, I made more money doing this than teaching (I know that’s taboo but I don’t care- I was terrified of not making any money). I learned that all those skills I had from teaching in the classroom became invaluable in my new profession- teaching my clients how the process works, staying calm in the midst of chaos, building trust with them.... all things I did with my 4th graders.
Lastly... the fact that I get to work alongside my big sister...talk about the MF dream. It means refocusing when we are laughing too hard at our own jokes, setting boundaries, and trying our hardest not to talk about work at family functions. I *literally* couldn’t be at this point without Rachel, so hats off to you. You helped raise me as a BB and now you’re out here helping me succeed.
If you read all the way to the bottom of this blog post, I owe you a margarita. Tell me- and I’ll literally Venmo you. My final shout out is to all of YOU– now that I am my own girl boss running my own business… I couldn’t do it without YOU telling your friends and family about your *super fun* real estate Gal Pal who would love to work with them. I can’t thank you enough for choosing to work with me or referring me to your friends and family. I promise I will be their biggest advocate, teammate, and cheerleader to get them to the closing table.
I got a lot off my chest with this first blog post so, God knows what the next one will be about… you’ll just have to wait and find out!
XoXo,
Gossip Girl
Your Lincoln real estate Gal Pal, Emily
