When labor pains hit Fathom Realty agent Sakina Ismaelbay two years ago, she did what every first-time mother would do -- grab the suitcase, call her doctor, and write a real estate contract. A model of commitment, she suspects other agents would view her diligence as a cautionary tale. “Don’t be crazy like Sakina,” she jokes.

Sakina exudes a decisiveness, self-confidence, and intelligence which have been molded through a lifetime of multi-cultural experiences. She grew up in Madagascar, an island nation well-known for lemurs, which lies just east of Africa’s Mozambique. Having also lived in France for ten years, she earned a master’s degree in human resources and speaks five Languages: French, Gujrati, Hindi, English, and German. She learned German while living ten minutes from the border in Strasbourg, France. German taxes were lower, so she would buy her groceries there. “And, at that time, I was a broke student. So each euro mattered,” she says.

Sakina cites her work ethic as the key to her success. “I have always worked. I worked starting at 16 [at an auto shop], but I always worked as if the business was my own,” she says. Her parents still operate their own business importing and selling kitchen and tableware, “and I started working for my dad when I was ten… or even before that,” Sakina says, laughing. “I had to earn my pocket money. But that gave me my values, which I feel like not everybody has. That’s the problem. Everybody asks me, ‘What’s the secret?’ The secret is I work hard and treat real estate as a priority, not a hobby.” Additionally, Sakina knows real

estate contracts very well, having also worked as a paralegal.

After meeting her future husband, a Costco marketer, online, in 2012, Sakina moved a year later to the United States. Her fiancé was already flipping properties with another agent when she arrived. When he suggested Sakina get her real estate license, “rather than be bored at home,” Sakina, always up for a challenge, responded, “I can do that.”

The statement has proven prophetic. The fourth-year agent has accomplished an individual production level which is truly deserving of Rising Star accolades. In 2015, her first year, Sakina closed 25 transactions and earned Rookie of the Year honors. The next year, her 42 closings propelled her to Fathom’s Number One Producer ranking in Texas and second in the U.S. The top national producer exceeded her sales volume by only $75,000.

Making this accomplishment even more impressive, Sakina was pregnant. “Before contractions, I [was] driving with a throw-up container,” Sakina recalls. “Because I would be like, ‘Oh, gosh! It’s coming.’ It was a very tough pregnancy.” Fortunately, she hired an agent to show homes that year. “I sold that to my clients, too. I’m a very good negotiator. I told them, ‘She [the other agent] will show you pretty homes, and I’ll get you that pretty home -- from my home,’” Sakina recalls. She closed 45 sides in 2017, without an assistant.

“At first, I hustled,” Sakina states, flatly. “I did a lot of open houses, because I didn’t have any network. It’s easier when you know people. But what do you do when you don’t know people, and you don’t speak very,” she pauses, smiling, “well... English? I was harassing all the top agents, trying to get open houses. I would meet with them and try to understand how they did their business. And most of the time, it was referrals. I started doing open houses that led to referrals.”

Her first prospect discovered, to his surprise, that she was only three months into her real estate career. “I would never have guessed,” the new client told her, “because you were very professional.” Sakina asked him why he worked with her, and he said, “Because you picked up your phone.”

Embracing what worked, she initially differentiated herself in the marketplace as “The Realtor Who Picks Up The Phone”-- until someone tested her slogan by calling at 3:00 a.m. Sakina subsequently downplays that aspect of her service commitment. Her current tagline is “More Service Than You’re Used To.”

Sakina remembers that her English skills were more written than conversational when she arrived in the U.S., but what she knew was mostly British English. “It’s just like you taking a French class at school. That was the level of English I had.” She faced an additional challenge, however. “Then I discovered American English. And then there’s something called Texan English, which is completely different. Like, ‘Ya’ll’… I used to have a lot of headaches.”

Her husband coached her with helpful responses, like “Scuse me? Pardon me? Can you repeat?”

She doesn’t use coaching, scripts, or marketing resources like inexpensive giveaways, because “It’s too cheesy, even for a French like me,” she jokes. And Sakina no longer uses a client relationship management system, preferring an Excel spreadsheet to focus on only 150 relationships. Then she learns everything she can about those relationships, including “birthdays, kids’ birthdays, dogs, dogs’ birthdays, everything,” she says, only half-joking.

This year Sakina is striving for more of a work-life balance after missing portions of her son’s first year, while still making sure she is on target to achieve her annual goal. When reasonable, calls received late at night are returned in the morning. If necessary, though, Sakina would negotiate a contract during labor again. After all, she’s a “crazy,” committed Rising Star.