If Ashley Gillihan could live one year of her life over, it wouldn’t be her first year as an active agent at Coldwell Banker Collins-Maury when she made 36 transactions. It would be the year prior to that, the hardest one of her life. “Trauma is where all the growth happens,” she says.

Gillihan originally got her real estate license in 2015 to be a property manager, but after a short time came to work at her current office as a relocation coordinator. For two years, Gillihan learned about building client relationships, getting to know referral clients and assigning them to area agents who best matched their needs.

After a brief move to Austin, she returned home to Memphis the first week of 2018, this time as a full-time agent. She started building her business.

“On April 7, everything changed when I had a brain aneurysm and stroke.” Gillihan was at a friend’s house when she became incoherent and then unconscious. An ambulance took her to St. Francis Hospital where a CT scan revealed the clot. “I was in a coma, and they life-flighted me downtown to the university hospital.” After hours-long neurosurgery, she woke up and didn’t know what happened.

For the next two weeks, every hour or so, someone would have to tell her the story again, explain why she was in the ICU. “It was like 50 First Dates, except not romantic at all.” But each time Gillihan heard what happened, she had the same thought. “I could have died, and not even know.”

After 21 days of intensive care and three days in observation, she was released from the hospital on a Monday. Tuesday she came back to work for the weekly meeting. “I had one eye closed,” Gillihan says the optical nerve had restricted blood flow at first but fully recovered later, “and my head was shaved. You could still see the marks from the procedures.” Her body healed over time, but her outlook on life was forever changed.

Determined to use each moment of this second chance at life, she made the decision to keep going. “I couldn’t just lay on the couch. My whole company was behind me, my family, everyone was rooting for me. I wanted to take all that love to propel myself forward.” Gillihan transitioned into the role of Marketing Specialist launching the Global Luxury Team of 20 agents. 

She gained experience in social media marketing and building digital platforms. “It was constantly a moving target, but all this time, I talked to all these agents about how they built their business. It was like going to college,” she says.

By February, 10 months after the first aneurysm, Gillihan had a second much milder one with a less invasive treatment. “After a few days, I was back up and running.” She used the next several months to build her marketing infrastructure and kicked it into high gear by June. “I did everything I could do for free. I started going all-in on open houses, social media, taking office calls.” If she was on her computer, she was at Starbucks meeting people. She earned an eagle award in August.

From June 2019 to June 2020, she did 36 deals. So focused and motivated by the outpouring of support from the real estate community, she did not notice her high numbers. 

“I have such a gift. Why stress any of the little things? Everything happens for a reason, and everything works out the way it is supposed to be.” Grateful for her trials in life, Gillihan says her toughest year forged a mind shift from fear of the unknown to appreciation for today. 

“Before I was so worried about the steps,” Gillihan says. After the aneurysm, she stopped worrying about the how’s of the business and shifted focus to the why’s. “That’s what’s really important. There are no steps. You just go.”