Boutique Brokerage, Design Services, and Finding Your Niche with Brandi Salvador

We have been wanting to have this guest on for a long time. Every time Katy mentions her boutique brokerage or the staging and design work they do together, listeners ask: who is this broker? Can we meet her? Well, y'all — here she is.

Brandi Salvador is a real estate broker, interior designer, and the founder of Sotherly — a boutique brokerage in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where real estate and design live under one roof. She also happens to be Katy's broker. Her path to where she is today is one of the most entertaining and inspiring origin stories we've shared on this show, and it starts with managing a Planet Beach tanning salon at 18 years old.

Whether you're a Realtor thinking about adding design services to your business, considering opening your own brokerage, or just in need of a reminder that you don't have to follow a traditional path — this episode is going to light something up in you.

Here's what we cover in this episode:

- How Brandi went from managing a Planet Beach at 18 to buying it at 21 — with a loan, zero fear, and pure instinct
- Her time at a title company, getting recruited to lead a buyer's team at Keller Williams, and how a builder referral sparked her design career
- Why she was one of the first people in Baton Rouge to virtually stage a property
- The personality assessment that told her she should be someone's personal assistant — and why that was the moment she knew it was time to leave
- How a move to Lake Charles for her husband's job led her to get her broker's license (just to work in a different MLS market)
- Why Sotherly was born in 2017 and what she always knew it would become
- The structure of Sotherly today: agents, designers, and everyone in between
- How she started her staging career by renting furniture for her brother's bachelor pad — and it sold at list price in five days
- How design services and real estate feed each other: past clients become design clients, design clients become sellers
- Adding design services to your business: start hourly, build a portfolio, and fill the gap that $250/hour interior designers won't touch
- The paint guide she gives away for free and why she created it
- How she grew her Instagram to 15,000+ followers by posting every single day for five years — and the dog video that went viral with 180,000 views
- Why authenticity on social media attracts your ideal clients — and why copying someone else's content will attract the wrong people
- How Katy ended up at Sotherly (Brandi Instagram-messaged her)
- Being selective about who joins your brokerage — and why that is a feature, not a flaw
- Where Brandi sees herself going: two side-by-side buildings, one for real estate and one for design

Toast of the week goes to Jennifer Henson, toasted by Brandi herself. Jennifer retired from Blue Cross after 20+ years and has joined Sotherly to help with design projects. Cheers to Jennifer!

Products, People & Previous Episodes Mentioned:

- Sotherly (Instagram: @sotherly_la)
- Brandi's Free Paint Guide (link in show notes — ask Brandi via Instagram)
- Episodes 51 & 52: Investing in Real Estate

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Music:
Straight A's by Connor Price → https://connorprice.shop/
The Good Life by Summer Kennedy → https://soundcloud.com/summerkennedy/the-good-life
Be The One by Matrika → https://uppbeat.io/t/matrika/be-the-one