Today we’d like to introduce you to Ali and Sean Everett.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’ll start from the beginning to give the depth of how fate brought and has kept us together. Sean and I met each other when I was in the 7th grade and he was in 8th grade. I worked one day a week at the student store in school. Each week during lunchtime, Sean would order the candy, Mambas and a peanut butter cookie. Every time he would walk up to the window, my heart would melt and my voice would shake. It was something I couldn’t quite explain at 12 years old, I just knew there was something special about him. We never spoke more than a few words and it was all around the amount due for his student store purchases. Later that year he went off to high school and I continued into my 8th-grade year.
About 10 months later, the last summer before I would enter high school, I ran into Sean at a friend’s house. I saw him from the doorway and without processing my thoughts, I ran straight towards him and gave him a huge hug. Moments later while I’m still squeezing him tightly, it dawned on me that I did the most embarrassing thing. I left immediately and thought to myself what in the world came over me. It was like a force of nature threw me at him. I had no idea what caused me to act with such urgency. Later that summer I got accepted into a vocational high school for accelerated dance. Going into 2nd semester I realized dance was an incredible gift I had, but it wasn’t my passion. I enrolled in the local high school later that fall. Lo and behold, Mr. Sean Everett was in my math class. It was like 7th-grade me all over again, nervous, sweaty palms and the inability to speak a single word. One month later a high school dance was announced, Sadie Hawkins. The twist, girls ask guys to do this style of dance. How ironic I thought. The only boy who has had my heart is the one I can’t even talk to. Does he even know I exist? I mustered up the courage and found a creative way to ask him to dance. The next morning before school started I snuck into his first class and put a package on his desk. It included a stick of butter, popcorn and a T-shirt with a bunch of names scribbled on in washable black marker. My name was in permanent black marker. A riddle read “I thought I’d butter you up before I popped the question. Will you go to Sadies with me? Roses are red, violets are blue, wash this shirt to find out who.” Sean was a born entrepreneur. By the age of 15 he already owned a business. After school, he would landscape yards. He took the shirt and rather than washing it, he tossed it into a pool. My name became present. He took his sweet time responding to my question. Day after day, I saw him at school only wondering if he knew. Maybe he lost the shirt? Maybe he never received it? Or worse, what if his answer was no! On the 7th day, a package arrived at my house. With a huge bouquet of flowers a message read “roses are red, violets are blue, I would love to go to Sadies with you.” The Friday before the dance we went on our first date. We saw the movie “Elf”. There was a strong chemistry between us that I Einstein wouldn’t even understand. After that evening we were inseparable. We hung out at school, after school and spoke for hours every night on the phone. Months later and the summer before my 10th-grade year, the schools in the area were rezoned. I was to start my sophomore year at a school about 10 miles away. Sean later found out his family was moving across town. The separation didn’t affect us. We continued to date and continue our long drawn-out conversations each night, hang out nonstop over the weekend and continue that pattern until we graduated high school in 2006. We got married 3 years later in 2009.
The introduction to our relationship defies the odds. The following story is a testament to how our love for one another has brought pure miracles into our life. Months after Sean and I were married he became very ill. In and out of the hospital with little answers as to why he was unable to eat, hydrate and function. Despite these terrible symptoms and no known answers, we continued to build our life together. By 2011 Sean was a licensed Realtor and I had 3 years behind my belt as a licensed cosmetologist. In January 2013, I gained the title of Partner in my 1st salon. Life was exciting, blissful and almost perfect minus Sean’s dwindling health. He woke up each day ready to conquer the world and emphasize on his strengths rather than weaknesses. By November of 2013, Sean’s body started to shut down. We spent weeks in the hospital trying to find any hope of his recovery, but test after test came back normal. I said “enough”! This is no way for him to live. There has to be someone who can help. At the time we were living in Las Vegas, NV. His local Doctor sent us to UCLA in Santa Monica, CA. There they did an MRI and found the exact cause to this destructive cycle. Sean was diagnosed with Chiari Malformation. A rare disorder where your brain is larger than your skull can handle. His brain was descending down into his spine cutting off circulation to his spinal fluid. Immediate brain surgery was required to remove vertebrae allowing more room for his brain and draining the stagnant fluid in his spine. If surgery was denied, the results could be fatal and at the least Sean would wake up paralyzed. A long road to recovery was ahead for us. We had 2 months to get our affairs in order. Surgery was scheduled for January 2014 at UCLA.
During that 2-month “prep” before surgery. We called it the road to the unknown. I gave my resignation to the salon in which I recently became a partner at. From there I studied day and night to obtain my real estate license in order to take over Sean’s current escrows. We were unsure what the timeline of recovery looked like. We were told by his surgeons that he could be out of work for up to 6 months and when he returned, he could only use 2 hours of brain power for working activities. They stressed that I would need to be Sean’s full-time caregiver during his healing process. We pushed through every obstacle. The surgery lasted 6 hours with a 12-hour recovery in ICU. 4 additional days at the hospital. Sean underwent rigorous physical therapy. He had to relearn how to walk, talk and even eat. Once he was released from the hospital, we had to live at an Airbnb in Santa Monica, CA which was a short distance from the hospital for frequent doctor check-ups. That process lasted 3 weeks. Each day we worked as a team to get Sean stronger while building a plan knowing it was inevitable that we had to now go into business together. After getting cleared to return home to Las Vegas, NV reality set in. The cost of surgery on top of months of recovery drained our savings. With pennies to our name and only 6 months left to redeem our finances. We never gave up. Together Sean and I increased our real estate sales by 20% more than the year prior to Sean’s surgery. Our dedication to one another, allowed us to overcome a chain of events that would have side-line most people.
Our daily routine consisted of reading self-improvement books, writing down ten things we are grateful for, listing out our goals and working on effective efficiency in our business, relationship and lifestyle. In 2016 we welcomed our first son into the world, Luscian Kash Everett. By 2017 we grew our real estate team to 25 agents. We were featured in multiple magazines as the power couple and year after year made it to the “Inner Circle”. A prestigious award ceremony that is made up of the top 2% of Realtors at our prior local brokerage. In 2018, we launched “Everett Academy”, an online, interactive training portal for Realtors. The Academy allowed us to teach Realtors a “Do It Yourself” method on how to increase leads and close transactions with ease. The idea was born when Sean gave me his crash course in real estate leading up to brain surgery. I knew little to nothing after getting my license. He had just weeks to educate me on things real estate before he was in a comatose state. This one-on-one training was priceless in their ability to take over our company while he recovered. I knew that if he could teach me he could do that for others in need of furthering their real estate education.
In 2019, I gave birth to our second son, Xander Thor Everett. Sean and I worked like a well-oiled machine, however, Sean was still dealing with intense migraines, stomach fatigue and a new symptom of constant dizziness. We later found out that this was the aftermath of surgery. Due to Sean’s health plus managing 25 agents and now being a father of two boys, the hustle became too much. In March 2020, we downsized the team to six of our super agents and made the decision to move our family from Las Vegas to a small town 150 miles away. Our company grew fast in those prior 5 years. In that growth process, we lost track of our time together. Something we were not willing to lose because it was almost taken from us once before. Time is something you never get back. We decided to stop compromising that for busy, non-stop to-do lists and obsolete activities. “Being overwhelmed is often as unproductive as doing nothing, and is far more unpleasant. Focus on the important few and disregard the rest” – Timothy Ferriss author of The 4-Hour Work Week. We prioritized the important few which included family, our business team and clients. We found the possible in the impossible. I’ve learned that less does not mean laziness. Our society tends to award personal sacrifice instead of personal productivity. Our family’s motto is to do less meaningless work so we can focus on the people, places, and things of greater personal importance.
In October 2020, shortly after we moved, we launched Everett Marketing Agency. Better known as EMA. Unlike our “DIY” course content in Everett Academy. EMA is the “Done For You” option. A service so many of our Realtor clients were in need of. As the market started to shift in quarter 2 of 2020, Sean knew he had more to offer. His creative outlook on marketing allowed him to set-up CRMs that ran like a purring engine but more importantly fueled them with cost-effective leads. Everett Marketing Agency has helped 100’s of veteran Realtors receive triple the amount of online leads for a 3rd of the cost of traditional online advertising.
“Sean is a true professional and master of his craft. I have worked with multiple marketing companies and he by far produces the fastest and best results for the best value. I recommend him with every opportunity that I get.” – Bryan Bowman.
“I’ve been using Everett marketing for years and love the way they help my business navigate through different markets and make great suggestions when needed. Their strong point are google ads and how they keep cost low while keeping lead generation high. – Joshua Lafond.
“Sean is truly amazing at Google Ads and Chime CRM set up – he’s helped me personally and a ton of my friends!!! I would recommend Sean to anyone that is needing help!!!” Cole Giandinoto
“The Everett Marketing Agency has helped change our business completely around and has put us in front of more clients than we know what to do with. We will be doing a massive amount of business with them in 2023.” – Johnny Richardson.
EMA generated 6 figures in its first year all from the comfort of our home. As Everett Marketing Agency grew and the Academy started to expand, Sean and I began to travel weekly to speak at real estate conferences teaching Realtors all about our marketing magic. We found ourselves in Utah multiple times. What a beautiful and gracious state. In 2022, we fell in love with St. George, Utah and decided to call it home. Before the school year started, we explored the idea of homeschooling. Since we travel about 30+ times a year, we thought now is the best time to familiarize ourselves with the concept. Our youngest is three in a half entering preschool and our oldest is 6 in a half going into the first grade. The start to homeschool was rough. The 1st two weeks we fought like banshees. In this process of working from home, traveling together and being in close proximity with one another 24/7, we began to learn how to coexist in harmony. Just like any human being, we each have our moments, but they’ve gotten slimmer and the tension gets resolved faster. It’s been an incredible opportunity to teach and watch my children learn, discover and create. My favorite family tradition happens each night at the dinner table where we review our day. One by one we share our daily magic moments. The moments consist of a favorite person, place, or thing that changed our perspective and made a difference in our world. My goal as their mother is to help them be the light in each day and share that with others.
We’ve been blessed in so many ways. Grateful for our friends and family’s support, the Vegas Valley community, the multiple states our business has grown into, our mentors and of course the entire Utah area. Sean and I have this burning desire to be the best version of ourselves. We push for that daily while putting family first. It’s the risks you take to expand your sphere of comfort. “Once you say you are going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life.” – John F. Kenedy. We’ve learned to follow our own inner compass. Continuously calibrating the direction to explore and experience the world in the most beautiful way. Our company’s mission is to serve one to serve many.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
– my husband’s brain surgery
– moving 3 times
– leaving my cosmetology career and starting a new career as a Realtor with only 3 weeks to get licensed to take over my husband’s company.
– working from home, running 3 companies, homeschooling 2 children
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Everett Marketing Agency is the leading authority on Chime CRM. We have years of experience setting up and educating businesses on how to use this powerful engine to drive their business growth. In addition to our expertise in Chime CRM, we are also Google and YouTube Ads lead generation experts. We know how to fuel Realtors with high-quality leads through these channels and can help achieve success.
Everett Academy is an online, interactive training portal for Realtors. The Academy teaches Realtors a “Do It Yourself” method on how to increase leads and close transactions with ease.
The Everett Group at Real Brokerage LLC – is a Las Vegas-based real estate group with over 13 years of experience in the industry. We are a family owned and operated business. Our goal is to make you feel comfortable in your decision for buying or selling while also understanding the whole process. Our brokerage is in over 44 states, D.C., Alberta and Ontario allowing us to partner with the most collaborative agents in the industry. Real creates financial opportunities for agents through better commission splits, best-in-class tech, revenue sharing and equity incentives. We utilize The Everett Group as a real estate network to send referrals to other Realtors around the nation.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Our business culture is built on:
-Extreme Ownership
-Urgency
-Raving Fans
-Communication
-Sharing the Love – Learn and share the wisdom
Our values are:
-Taking responsibility of everything in our world
-Enthusiastic urgency to deliver
-Show up with a fun, positive mindset
-Have an attitude of gratitude
-Communicate and follow-up
-Give more in service value than received in cash
-Build raving fans
Our mission statement: Serve one to serve many
Pricing:
- Solo Agent Chime CRM Build-out $1497
- Real Estate Team Chime CRM Build-out $2497
- Critical Package Google Ads for Realtors $1860
- Ultimate Package Google Ads for Realtors $2497
- Google Ads Monthly Maintenance $500
Contact Info:
- Website: www.EverettMarketingAgency.com
- Instagram: @MarketingForRealtorsEMA
- TikTok: @SeanAndAliEMA
Image Credits
The family photo was by Jamie Cole of Jamie Ann Photography.
