"Be relentless in pursuit of your vision," says Harold Burge.

He learned that early. Born in Davenport, Harold and his sister were raised by his single mother who worked two, sometimes three jobs. "My work ethic comes from her. She was a great role model."

His mother cleaned banks at night, worked as a CNA for nursing homes, and even worked at Wendy's when she could manage the time. "She never once complained," Harold remembers, "just did the work. Because she had to."

"I also witnessed her progression while I was growing up," he continues. She elevated herself. The more she ground away —both in work and continuing Education— the better the jobs got, the better life got."

"After high school, I tried a lot of things: mostly sales, but fitness is what stuck." He became a personal trainer.

"Fitness and the manner in which I approach it is, in all actuality, how I live my life in all phases. 'Use it or lose it,'" says Harold. "If you stop being active what happens? Your progression stops. Professionally, if you don't work, you don't progress. The work isn't in the deals...the deals are a byproduct of the work. The work is in honing your craft, being better. You have to be returning the calls, answering the emails, having the coffees. You must do the work to promote your professional progression."

As part of his progression, he created Shared Visions Marketing, LLC. "I worked primarily with procuring and referring vending, micro market, and ATM contract leads."

Harold says that getting into vending machines was a no-brainer. It all came from a comment. One day, he heard one of his friends say, "I bet those vending machines make a killing." 

"From there," he notes, "I imagined what it would be like to have twelve of them in a location like Wellmark on Grand. Lots of quarters," he laughs.

 "At that point, I started to dig into how vending machines end up where we use them daily. I knew there had to be a middleman. Someone's gotta connect the decision maker with the vending company. Also, somewhere there's someone kicking a machine and complaining that the Funyuns are always stale; there's a need there for a vendor change and a possible opportunity for a new company to provide better service."

"Just as in Real Estate," he states, "in the vending world leads are the pulse, and people will pay you to find out who's unhappy with the Funyuns and to set up a meeting with them to prove their Funyuns are fresher." 

Understanding the universal nature of leads and customer pulse really helped Harold decide to move to Real Estate.

"Four years ago the idea of being a Realtor had never crossed my mind," he says. "I had a client that was a Broker and felt I’d do well in this business. I took his advice. It happened to be the best decision I ever made."

He is particularly focused on finding different ways to connect with possible clients. "It's important to use social media. But it's also important to support local events and become more integrated in the community."

"For me," says Harold, "the challenge was how to craft the perfect blend of who I am as an individual with what I know as a Realtor and make it relatability diverse."

We all know there isn't "one type" of client. In fact every client has their own quirks and backgrounds. The best Realtors are able to find ways to connect with everyone.

"The solution," he says, was time and persistence."

And that time and persistence have paid dividends. "There is so much fulfillment in helping people, some of them long-time friends, experience the joy of becoming a homeowner for the first time.

"If I were to offer one piece of advice," he says," find your 'you.' Establish your identity and market it relentlessly."

"People don’t choose you because of your brokerage, or because you have a great logo," he continues. "They are looking for someone they can connect with, relate to. That's who they want to hire."