When news anchor Lily Jang left Seattle and took a job at a TV station in Houston in 2012, it was a dream come true. She accepted the job to be closer to her family, including her ailing father.
Everything went great for seven years, but then the rug was pulled out from under Lily. The station decided not to renew her contract, and she was out of a job.
In her mid-40s, Lily was understandably devastated, but she says after two weeks of lying on the floor and crying, she got up and reinvented herself in real estate.
Lily is now one of the top realtors in Texas, selling an average of $30 million a year. She also created a real estate TV show called “House 2 Home.”
“Lily and I anchored the morning news together at the Fox affiliate in Seattle,” says BEATS WORKING Host Mark Wright. “Working with her was an absolute joy. It never felt like work.”
“I invited Lily on the show to inspire anyone who’s ever been disappointed or hurt by an employer – whether they’ve been laid off, fired, or pushed out – because it often takes us where we’re supposed to be and leads to unimaginable success.
Here’s to all of us who’ve been let go – in one way or another – and are now living out our dreams!
Resources from the episode:
- Get to know more about Lily here.
- Follow Lily on Instagram.
- Keep up with Lily on Facebook.
- Connect with Lily Jang on LinkedIn.
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Transcript
The following transcript is not certified. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. The information contained within this document is for general information purposes only.
Speakers: Lily Jang and Mark Wright
LILY JANG 00:00
It’s the biggest blessing in disguise I’ve ever had. And I always said, you know, when I picked up myself from the floor, I was like, oh my God, two weeks of crying, grieving this. I don’t even know what I’m going to do next. I don’t know, but I always knew in the back of my head. And you either, you either choose to be a victim or you choose to pick up the pieces and freaking figure it out.
MARK WRIGHT 00:27
This is the BEATS WORKING show. We’re on a mission to redeem work – the word, the place, and the way. I’m your host, Mark Wright. Join us at winning the game of work. Welcome to BEATS WORKING, winning the game of work. On the show this week: reinventing yourself through work. When television news anchor Lily Jang took a job at a TV station in Houston in 2012, it was a dream come true. She accepted the job to be closer to family and her ailing father, and best of all, Houston was home. It was where she grew up. Everything was going great for seven years, but then the rug was pulled out from under Lily. The station decided not to renew her contract, and she was out of a job. Lily was understandably devastated, but she says after two weeks of lying on the floor crying, she got up, and oh boy, did she reinvent herself. Lily decided to get her real estate license, but more than that, she created a TV show about real estate in Houston and successfully pitched it to another station. Her first year, Lily made more than she ever made in television and in no time has become one of the very top producers in the state of Texas by any metric. More successful, making more money, doing more good than she ever imagined possible. When she’s not working, Lily loves to go to places in the world that make her happy. So, here’s the backstory to how I know Lily. She and I were morning co-anchors at the FOX affiliate here in Seattle. Working with her never felt like work. We had so much fun. But, the reason I wanted to have Lily on the show is simply to inspire anyone who’s lost a job. Anyone who has felt the gut punch of being shown the door and wondering, what will we do to support our families? And what Lily did to reinvent herself is a blueprint of what we all can do. And that, in my mind, is work redeemed. Lily is proof, and I’m proof, that sometimes losing a job is the best thing for us. Because it can take us where we’re supposed to be. And reward us in ways we never imagined possible. Lily Jang, welcome to the BEATS WORKING podcast, my friend. It is so good to see you.
LILY JANG 02:52
Virtual hug, Mark. It’s been so long.
MARK WRIGHT 02:54
Hugs. Oh my gosh. Lily, I have been such a fan of yours since we shared the morning anchor desk at the FOX affiliate here in Seattle. I think we worked together from something like 2004 to 2011, at least at the station. And one of the reasons that I wanted to have you on the show is that working with you on the anchor desk never felt like work. It really didn’t.
LILY JANG 03:18
Really? I was with this guy every morning. What was it like 3am, 4am? And like, I spent more time with you than I did with my significant other every single day.
MARK WRIGHT 03:30
Me, too.
LILY JANG 03:31
And it was, um, I couldn’t have done it because that, that schedule makes you crazy. It’s inhumane, but we had so much fun. It was like another lifetime ago, but so such fond memories.
MARK WRIGHT 03:41
And I remember just laughing so hard sometimes, you know, when you laugh so hard that your cheeks just get cramped up.
LILY JANG 03:48
That’s because of you. All the things that we did. I still have video during commercial breaks that anger parkours, uh, kicking the printer that wouldn’t work. I mean, just the shenanigans that went in, went on during commercial breaks was just, uh, oh my God. It kept me going. That was our caffeine.
MARK WRIGHT 04:09
It was, it was, in addition to the, you know, cups and cups of real caffeine. I was digging through some old papers the other day, and I found, remember we made a series of fake inspirational posters. Do you remember that? So, there’s one called Inspiration, and it’s you, because I have a cowlick on the back of my head, and just about every day Lily would have to spray paint or, you know, hair, hairspray down my cowlick on the back of my head. And so, we have a picture of you doing that. I’m leaning over and it says, Teamwork at the top of the poster and then in the bottom of the poster it says, because great hair doesn’t make itself.
LILY JANG 04:50
We were nuts. My God. I wonder if our audience was annoyed by us because we were always laughing. We were just ourselves.
MARK WRIGHT 04:47
I feel like, though, that we, I still have people, Lily, come up and say, I, I, I missed, I miss having you and Lily on the morning show together. And I really, I really feel like those morning shows, it’s, it really feels like a family, not just the people on the set together, but, but, uh, you know, the people at home. I want to know, uh, let’s go back in time. I, I don’t think I even know the story of how you decided to go into journalism in the first place.
LILY JANG 05:21
Gosh, it was like 9th grade. I remember it like it was yesterday, 9th grade. And I was sitting at home on a Saturday night watching the news with my mom and Sherman Chow, who is still in TV news here in Houston, became my colleague like 30 years later, right? She was on the news and she was reporting live during breaking news and I said to my mom, I want to be, I want to be her. I want to be in the middle of that, the, the storm and reporting from whatever it is. I want to do that. And she was the only Asian American that I ever saw on TV and I said, I want to do this. I want to be the voice. And so I got into TV news. I went to UT Austin, studied broadcast journalism and, uh, my, my, my professor told me I didn’t have what it takes. I got kicked out. I got kicked out of UT.
MARK WRIGHT 06:09
How did that happen? I mean…
LILY JANG 06:11
I never told you that.
MARK WRIGHT 06:12
No, no. I’ve never heard that story. And wow. What a great encouragement.
LILY JANG 06:17
Oh my God. That’s like the first time in my life that I remember thinking back and going, oh my God, I had grit in college. I was a, I think it was a freshman or a sophomore. I think I was a sophomore. And she said, you don’t have the writing chops. You don’t have what it takes. You don’t have the look. You don’t have what at all. And she gave me straight Cs. And when you get straight Cs, you’re kicked out of the journalism school. And I went into aeronautical engineering. Yeah. I didn’t know what I was going to do with that. I just thought I’m going to do what it takes to get my GPA back up. To 4.0 and I’m going to show her, I’m going to show her and I did, I mean, I could have been a NASA astronaut or something and I went back into journalism and there she was and I was like, and I don’t think she, she never liked me, but I mean, I got Bs and I graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism, but I will never forget that first time in my life that someone said, you don’t have what it takes. That lights the fire under you. And, um, from then on, I feel like that’s been the path that I’ve taken throughout my whole life when someone told me I couldn’t do something.
MARK WRIGHT 07:22
I’ve never heard that story. That’s fantastic, Lily. The fact that you have the math chops to even consider aeronautical engineering, I’m in awe of because I’m not a math guy.
LILY JANG 07:31
I am not either. I can’t even, like, do tip when I’m at a restaurant. I have to use my calculator on my iPhone. And I don’t even know. It was all memorization. So, you regurgitate information. And I was like, I’m going to get that 4.0 so I can get back into journalism and show her. And, uh, I did.
MARK WRIGHT 07:47
Wow. That’s such a great story, such an inspiration because my recollection of you is you, well, and you know this, so back in the old days, news directors, these are the people who are in charge of the news operations at TV stations, they would have stacks of videotapes in their office, uh, just people sending in tapes, wanting jobs at the station, like literally dozens and dozens and dozens of tapes. And they could put in a tape and they could tell you in 10 seconds. Whether they, uh, would even consider hiring you and, and it’s because of a, and you’ve heard this, I’m sure you guys at home have heard this, you know, the It factor, like, like, watchability is like the number one thing that you have to have to go into television. If you’re not just inherently watchable, like, hey, I’d like to watch that person do the news. You, you won’t even get past. You know, you won’t get in the front door of the, of the TV station. And my recollection of you, Lily, is that you just sparkled from the very beginning. I was like, oh my God, this, she is, you are amazing. But that was a journey, wasn’t it? Because, and, and how did you get to Northwest Cable News? Because I think that’s where you probably grew the most as a journalist, right?
LILY JANG 08:55
Thank you for saying all that. I look back at who I was back then, and I’m not even sure who that little girl was. I felt like I was just floundering, finding my way. And um, I was 24 when I was in Birmingham, Alabama, and I got the job at Northwest Cable News and um, the guy who gave me my break was Bill Kaczaraba. And um, he brought me up there and he said, hmm, you’re gonna do a lot of growing up. As a human, um, and as a journalist. And I didn’t even know what that meant. I didn’t know what growth meant. I was 25. You know, what do you know? And I just kind of did what I thought. But I, I, now that I look back, I wasn’t, um, the journalist that I would be today. Don’t you feel that way? I wouldn’t be the journalist. I’m it, I would be a different news anchor I would be a different kind of person that I am on the news. So I was a kid I’m trying to find my way and I was at Northwest Cable News for I think four or five years and then I went over to Q13. Yeah with you.
MARK WRIGHT 09:55
That’s interesting. Bill Kaczaraba is the same, uh, guy who hired me. He was the news director at Q13. I had flown up and interviewed the previous news director, uh, was just leaving. And uh, I, I flew up and, and auditioned for the evening job and I don’t think I did very well because my agent said, yeah, they weren’t very impressed. Um, so I ended up not getting, getting the job, but then Bill took over as news director and, uh, my agent, just a brilliant guy. And you know, Peter Goldberg, I think.
LILY JANG 10:24
He was my agent too.
MARK WRIGHT 10:25
Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Peter, so Peter called Bill and said, you know, I think Mark, Mark really wants to get back home and he would love to come back up. If he flies himself back up, would you give him a shot? And, uh, Bill gave me a shot and, uh, and, and the rest, the rest is history.
LILY JANG 10:40
We owe, we owe a break in Seattle.
MARK WRIGHT 10:44
What a great guy, but the thing that I loved about Bill, not to get too, too down a rabbit hole, but he was the kind of manager who would say, hey, right, come in here, sit down. And he would ask and say, how’s, how’s everything going? Tell me, tell me what’s going on at home. And he would just talk with you for 20 minutes to see how life was. And I haven’t had, I don’t think I’ve had a manager. Uh, you know, in news, at least, uh, you know, take, take that much interest. But, uh, yeah, what a great guy. So, at Northwest Cable News, you did a lot of growing. You transferred over to Q13, and that’s where we ended up doing the morning show together. Um, and then, and then you had an opportunity to go back home, um, back to Houston. Did you grow up in Houston, Lily, as a little kid?
LILY JANG 11:26
Yeah, I grew up in Houston, and in 2012, that’s when you and I had our last show together. I moved back to Houston, and there was always a caveat on my contract that said, if I get a job in Houston, I can leave in the middle of my contract. And at that time, my dad was, um, my dad was sick, and he had Parkinson’s. And so I had to come home to take care of him. There were a couple of times when he was in the ICU, not ICU, he was in, um, urgent care, and I couldn’t be here physically. And I thought, I have to go. I have to go, I have to sell my house. I have to leave my friends. My whole entire adult life was in Seattle. I created such a, I mean, I love, I mean, Seattle’s my second home and I, one day we’ll buy a house up there and, and be there and I really miss it, but I was kind of at a fork in the road and I had to take it and come home for family. And that’s never a wrong decision. So came back home and worked for the CBS station here in Houston for seven years. Before life gave me the biggest change I’ve ever had.
MARK WRIGHT 12:28
Yeah. Before we get to that, Lily, though, I have to say, Lily won’t say this, but I will. She’s kind of a big deal. At her going away party in Seattle, guess who was there? Sir Mix-a-Lot. Did he DJ the party? Or what was his role in your going away party?
LILY JANG 12:44
He was just my friend who showed up when we were singing Baby Got Back, remember? I know you’re in on it. I have a picture on my phone here, too. Everybody was raffling with him at the karaoke bar, and its party, its fun party. Yeah.
MARK WRIGHT 13:01
So, let’s, let’s move forward. So, you’re, you’re at home, you’re in your home market. And, you know, that’s, when I first got a job back in Seattle, I felt so fortunate. Because working in your home market is, is like, it’s rare. Because these opportunities, you know, you don’t, you don’t know when the openings are going to happen. You don’t know if, you know, there’s a lot of luck involved in getting back to your hometown. Uh, everything was going well. And then, uh, then something happened that happens to a lot of us in TV, which is why I’m talking to you right now. Uh, getting un renewed as we say in the biz.
LILY JANG 13:35
Hmm. And we always know in the back of our head that our time on that anchor desk and out in the field as a journalist comes to an end. We have a shelf life. We just never know when that’s going to be. And so, in 2017, we had new management come in and I’m finally in my hometown. This is my dream job. My parents are able to watch me on TV. My whole entire childhood friends, elementary, junior high, high school friends, all still here. And, um, I was told they were not renewing my contract and then I’d have to figure it out. But I had a non-compete and my dad was here and sick. And that prevented me from even the thought of taking another anchor job in another city because I had to be here in Houston. So what a blow. First is a blow to your ego, right? And then you realize that’s just your ego talking. But really it was devastating because In my mid-forties, in my mid-forties at that time, I had to freaking figure it out and pivot, reinvent, reinvent myself, whatever that means. And, uh, the day that I got that news though, I will never forget, everybody looked at me in the newsroom like they knew what was happening. I didn’t know what was happening. I had no idea. And I pulled my supervisor aside and I said, hey, what am I walking into? I’m going upstairs right now to talk to the GM. What am I, what am I walking into? And no one would tell me anything. And what a sinking feeling. Go up there and they were like, we’re going to let you go today and I spent the next two weeks on the bedroom floor, just like grieving it, grieving it because I knew that was the end of my journalism career that was not on my timeframe. So that was devastating. It was really devastating. But, um, in the darkest moments. You think about, I mean, you, you have to be resilient. You have to think about not myself, but I support my parents. It’s that whole Asian culture thing. So, I picked up the pieces and I really plan for the future. So here I am. Where are we? Six years later. Six years later. Yeah.
MARK WRIGHT 15:43
Yeah. Similar thing. I got called into the general manager’s office. The last thing, the last conversation I had with, uh, the news director was in the fall. Um, and, uh, everything was great. And so, uh, and then it was radio silence over the winter and then 60 days to the day. As per the contract, the news director said, hey, uh, the general manager wants to see us in her office. So, I get called in, they slide a one sheet separation agreement across the table and say, you’re done. And then they proceed to read the one sheet. I’m like, you know, I can read. And then they said, yeah, this has been tough, I know. You know, if you want to go home for the rest of the day, you can. I said, that sounds great, I’ll see you tomorrow. And, uh, but it’s one of those things that’s, that’s one thing, Lily, that I think that a lot of people don’t understand about broadcasting is that the relationship and the bond that we create with viewers is so intimate and so close. Like my mother, um, I just texted her before we went on here and she said, oh, give Lily my love. She watched us every morning and you become a part of the family and then the business side of broadcasting is what causes stations to just sever ties and not even tell the audience where the anchor went or why. And it’s really a weird, it’s really a weird business that way because, you know, on the air we say, you know, we’re all about truth and transparency. Yet, when the business side of things comes in, and for whatever reason, that they get rid of people like you and me. It’s like the audience is like, well, wait, wait, wait, wait, where did they go? What’s happening? And, um, and so I, yeah, I know exactly, but you’re exactly right. At first the ego’s like, what do you mean I’m not good enough? You know, and then, and then there’s anger and then it’s like, but you know, this has happened enough times in my career. I’ve learned not to freak out and to just realize that, yeah, this is going to be painful for a little bit, but something much better is on the way.
LILY JANG 17:42
It’s the biggest blessing in disguise I’ve ever had. And I always said, you know, when I picked up myself from the floor, I was like, oh my God, two weeks of crying, grieving this. I don’t even know what I’m going to do next. I don’t know. But I always knew in the back of my head and you either, you either choose to be a victim or you choose to pick up the pieces. And freaking figure it out, right? And so, I said, I’m going to make that come back better than the setback. And, um, I said to myself, what am I going to do that makes a lot more money? And I’m going to create my own financial freedom and eventually create my own schedule where I have other people work for me and every single house that I ever bought or sold, I was like, oh my God. I did more than my agent ever did. I’m going to get my license because I know how much I paid them, and I know how much they didn’t do. And I was my own advocate for so many of those transactions. So, I got my license and I, now, I mean, I look back six years as a, I mean, It seems like yesterday I was let go, but now I’ve been doing this for six years and it’s the best career I’ve had.
MARK WRIGHT 18:51
But Lily, I want to know more about how you actually came. Was there a moment or did someone, was it a conversation that you had with somebody? How did you get to that moment where you said, wow, real estate, I’m going to go for this.
LILY JANG 19:04
Um, I didn’t have any mentors. That’s something that is so important. I mean, we always say, please have a mentor, find a mentor. I did not have anybody, and it was me. It was me saying, oh my God, I’m not going to feel for my parents. I could have failed for myself. I, and, and figured it out, but I had to figure it out. And so, I got my license and, and I thought to myself, um, I don’t know how other people do this. I’m going to do it my way. And it’s going to be like, nobody’s ever done it before here in Houston. And so, I don’t know, I think it’s that whole thing of tell me I can’t do something, and I’ll show you I can do it twice. You know, I don’t know. Am I stubborn? Probably. And that helped in this case.
MARK WRIGHT 19:47
But Lily, what’s, what’s amazing though, is that not only were you stubborn, you had an amazing set of skills. You had, you had, uh, on camera video skills, you have communication skills, you have a super robust, uh, social media presence. So you, you start to add those things together and it’s like, wow, that’s why in the first year you did 8 million in sales and you made more money than you made in TV, year one, first year.
LILY JANG 20:14
I know. I feel very, I feel very blessed. I’ve had that platform here, Houston. So, but all of us, like anybody watching out there right now, listening to this podcast, you have skills, you have innate skills from life experience, from job experience, you can parlay into any career. What are those skills? Identify what those skills are, right? And hone in on those. And if you don’t have on camera, if you don’t have, you can always get better. Mark can help. I can help. There’s always people out there. Now social media is such a big thing, um, that we can help you hone in on that and develop a presence. And so I took everything I knew and I was like, there has never been a realtor here in Houston who’s done a TV Segment on real estate. I’m going to make this so HGTV. No one’s ever seen it, anything like it before. And so, I walked across the street and I knocked on channel two’s door, which is NBC here in Houston. I was like, y’all are going to like this. Y’all are going to love this. And you’re going to put me on TV. And so usually when we had so much gumption, I don’t know where it came from, but again, tell me that I’m going to fail and I will show you that you’re wrong. So, uh, instead of like what we call a rundown in television news, it’s what story goes where and when the anchor talks and when you toss to a story, I did a whole rundown and not only did I deliver that, I had the whole show shot and edited. So I showed them on tape the actual TV show so they didn’t have to think about what it might look like. So I shot the whole thing on camera, did all the video, did the edit, everything. Timed it out perfectly because a 30 minute show is only really 20 minutes, I gave it to them and they were like, you did that? And I said, this is what I’m going to deliver to you. And this is what you guys are going to do. And, um, in my back of my mind, that was my marketing platform to be on TV, still being remembered as a news anchor and still being acknowledged as a realtor.
MARK WRIGHT 22:12
Yeah, that’s just brilliant. And, and I went to your, uh, Instagram page this morning and, uh, even just the listings that you have, uh, on your Instagram page, uh, it’s just beautiful. I mean, I would want to, it feels like I’m walking through these beautiful homes and you’re giving these amazing tours and, and you’ve really parlayed your ability to, to just be you on camera and, and just, uh, and just seamlessly took those skills and pointed them at this, this industry. Because you’re right, Lily. I mean, how many industries. You know, our, our people are trying to be good on, on camera. And I think the old stereotype is, you know, the car dealers, come see me today at Mark Wright Chevrolet, and they’re horrible. And you, yeah, you took that and, and you didn’t just say, hey, I can do this. You, you actually did the show and you delivered it to a TV station. So, in the beginning, um, how did that lead to a lot of, uh, referrals? Did it lead to business? What, tell me what that was like.
LILY JANG 23:16
It did. It led to business. Um, it led to other people that I’ve known my whole life and, um, from elementary, junior high/high school, my former teachers calling me, Oh my God, Lily, she’s now a realtor. And they would find me on social media. Um, because if you have a presence on social media, you’re easily found. It doesn’t take that much to reach out. And, um, I mean, it’s just, I think we all have in us, I think we all have it in us, this ability to be excellent. If you have to pivot, you have to figure it out, you have to reinvent yourself, we all have it in us but there, that pivot in the road, that fork in the road, is when you make a decision, are you going to be a victim, or are you going to profit, right? And, um, you just have to tell yourself you can do this.
MARK WRIGHT 24:07
In the beginning, you were working something like 80-hour weeks for, I don’t know, what, six months? How long, I mean, the beginning, there was really no work life balance because you just were like, I got to get this off the ground. Um, tell me what that was like in the early days in terms of just workload.
LILY JANG 24:22
I cried every day.
MARK WRIGHT 24:24
You were just exhausted, I bet.
LILY JANG 24:26
So exhausted. I mean, it was doing that show full time. It was a full-time job, producing, writing, hosting. I created the show. And then learning an entirely new career. And going through the motions of that, not having a mentor to say, okay, skip those steps, Lily, that’s a waste of your time. I just didn’t know. I just failed until I didn’t. And, um, so every day it was 10, 12, 15, 16-hour days. I barely slept at the end of the week. I would be so exhausted. I would just cry. But never, never did I say, am I doing the right thing? I never questioned myself. Um, I didn’t. And, and I think it’s because I had business right off the bat. I just didn’t know what that would amount to, look like, what it looked like with my paycheck. What am I going to, I have two mortgages. I’ve got parents’ house. I’ve got my house. I’ve got a car note. I’ve got people relying on me. You just do it.
MARK WRIGHT 25:18
And was there a moment in the beginning when you were like, uh, there had to be like that moment where it’s like, wow, this is, this is really starting to work.
LILY JANG 25:27
Yeah. I, it, six-month mark, six-month mark is when I just had an aha moment that I was like, okay, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, I’m getting into a rhythm and it’s getting smoother and a little bit smoother every day, but I was still like an infant in the industry, you know, six months into it. You really still don’t know what you’re doing. And I just was like floundering until I, I made a lot of mistakes. I chose the wrong brokerages and I, I always say to other people now when you’re getting into real estate, find yourself a mentor. Find somebody who is going to invest in you and show you the ropes. And that’s who I’ve become now for other people.
MARK WRIGHT 26:07
So, Lily, when did you decide to hire people on your team? Because when we spoke a little while back, you told me that you have a person who shows properties, which is super labor intensive, and you also have a person who does paperwork. How did you decide to grow? And strategically, that sounds like a really smart move.
LILY JANG 26:24
Yeah, it’s very hard. I, and I think that in a lot of industries too, I think the biggest challenge when you’re scaling your business is that good help is really hard to find. And I still struggle because I’ve gone through a few, uh, people. And if you don’t have the work ethic, it’s just one and done. If you’ve no-showed a client one and done, you’re out. If you show up late. That’s a fireable offense too. I just, so it’s hard to have somebody with that same work ethic, be somebody on your team, because if they’re going to be all the things that you want them to be, they’ll just be a producer like you. So that’s been my struggle trying to find people who are going to learn quickly, who have the same values, who have the same work ethic and, and they don’t want to produce. So, um, it was six months in that I said, I’m getting too busy, and I can’t be face, uh, face, uh, front, front facing with my clients if I have all this back-end work. And so, I said, I have to hire somebody to do all my paperwork. So, I did. From that point forward, I never touched paperwork again. So, I was able to spend time doing the things that will gain me and garner me business. But it is a struggle. It is a struggle when you have a small business like I do, and quality has to be exceptional. And if it’s not, you’re representing my name and I have to let you go. If you’re not on the same page and your values aren’t aligned, we have to go back to square one and figure it out. That’s the struggle that I’ve been having, and I still do have to this day.
MARK WRIGHT 27:56
One thing that inspires me is that, uh, I can’t remember, I texted you maybe last year at some point and you said, greetings from Dubai. And I’m like, and what, what I love about the work life balance now is that you work really hard for three weeks out of the month, and then you go somewhere in the world that makes you happy. Those are your words. Somewhere in the world that makes me happy. And so, you’ve been all over the world, and I just think it’s so cool. How did you decide that? And, and is that still something that you’re doing?
LILY JANG 28:30
I often say, and I don’t know if you agree with me, I often say that I have PTSD from being in television news. And I, I never want to hear the word sweeps again. I never want to hear the word ratings again. Oh no, you can’t take a sick day, although you have COVID, uh, you know, that, that kind of stuff, right? You can’t take a sick day. You can’t have vacation. You have to work off holidays. And I think I just went so far to the opposite end of the spectrum that I am now my, well, my clients are my boss, but I’m my boss. I call the shots and because I have the freedom to do this job remotely. I do that all the time. So, I will tell you, Mark, that you and I talking today, I have not had a day off in four months. Not every day is an eight-hour day, but some days are 16 hour days, right? Real estate just, but I’ve not had a single day off. So, it’s so busy during the summertime. So, September, I’ll be in five countries. October, four other countries. November, two other states. December, I’ll be back in, in Europe. So, it’s the ability to create this life that you love and do all the things. And, and you know what? And I would say this. My why, and if you have to be very clear what your why is in this life, and my why is my family. My why is my niece and nephew. My why is my traveling. And money buys me freedom and that’s What I’ve been able to do for the past, uh, five years. I mean, but I really paid my dues and I still feel like four months without a day off. You’re cuckoo for Cocoa Pie. I mean, you’re crazy. It’s crazy. But I mentioned, uh long ago,
MARK WRIGHT 30:08
You mentioned sweeps. So that’s synonymous with, you know, the ratings periods back in the old days in TV February, July, uh, November and May were the three, four ratings months where Nielsen, the, the, the, uh, ratings company would measure viewership in TV. So, they would actually, you know, in the old days, they sent out journals where people would write down what channels they were watching and send the journals back and then they started metering TVs. Uh, and so, yeah, but it’s one of those things where like, I uh, this was the first year that I could take a week off in February to spend a week with my wife, Jamie, when she was, she’s in the school system, so they have mid-winter break. In decades, I’ve never been able to take a day off in February. Decades.
LILY JANG 30:55
And on top of that, February, May, November, on top of that we worked all the holidays, and we’d fight because if you, if you asked for a day off, I was silently angry with you because then I couldn’t take it off. And we, and I couldn’t fly home to Houston for the holidays. So, we had to beg, borrow, and plead for a day off. And it was, um, you know, that’s tough. That’s a tough life, especially when you already work at that 1 a.m. schedule, work overnight schedule, and do the morning show.
MARK WRIGHT 31:22
Yeah, I was just talking to a rotary club yesterday and in a in a speech and, and in part of the speech I acknowledged that um, my wife has picked up the pieces for decades. Like, I wasn’t there for years at dinner, uh, when I was doing the evening news. And I wasn’t there to get the kids off to school in the morning. And she had to do all the homework with the kids and, and all the getting them ready for school and, and it’s just broadcasting is a really hard job on families. And I don’t think that a lot of people realize, I mean, you just talked about the basic fact of getting a holiday off for Pete’s sake and what other industries, there aren’t too many other industries that, that don’t even let people off on a holiday, but it’s just kind of the way it is. Um, and there are good parts to it. I mean, it, when I, when I look back at the totality of, of, you know, what we did in TV and, and, you know, it really didn’t feel like work. It was really an interesting job. We learned something every day. We got to have fun every day. We got to laugh every day. Um, so as you’re looking, Lily, I’m looking behind you on, on the shelves and I see a whole bunch of, uh, awards. Tell me about some of those awards. This is, I don’t, I don’t know enough about which ones those are, but these are, these are some pretty big awards behind you.
LILY JANG 32:41
Um, I, I, and you know what, I’m going to go back to what you were saying about your kids and, um not being able to be there in the morning and dinners at night. I, I don’t have kids, so I know how much easier my career was able to take off because, um, I have that time frame. I can do whatever, whenever. So, I know that I had the advantage over a lot of people. Um, these awards are from just a few years, I mean, I don’t know, for, I can’t, I can’t remember what they were, but I just took them out there. Keller William awards for like top producer, uh, made the most sales, had the most listings, made the most money, all of that year after year, after year, after year, after year.
MARK WRIGHT 33:24
And you’ve only been in the business five going on six years. That’s crazy.
LILY JANG 33:29
I know, I know. I feel so blessed. I will say that. It’s not without hard work and determination and work ethic, unparalleled work ethic. But I do feel like, I mean, I’m very blessed. I’m, I, I, I don’t even know how many people could say their second career was equal or better than their first. And I had to start in my forties. Which is tough. It’s tough. It’s tough.
MARK WRIGHT 33:56
That’s when most people are sort of, like, at the peak of their career. Well, you were. I mean, you were at the peak of your career. Houston’s a huge media market.
LILY JANG 34:04
But do you know how many people thought I was crazy for getting into sales? Because real estate is sales and you’re your own boss and they were like, what is she doing? What is she doing? I know my parents were worried about me, but I did what I did. No one can stop me. The stubborn girl.
MARK WRIGHT 34:19
I want to talk more about, uh, your background. Refresh my memory. Did, did your family come here during the fall of Saigon? Is that right?
LILY JANG 34:27
Yeah. I was a baby when we came to America. And, um, I’m going to tell you about the PBS job that I had, too, don’t let me forget about that. But yeah, it’s the whole my parents sacrificed everything in Vietnam one day out of the blue April of 1975 they got up in the pre-dawn darkness grabbed what they could, got on a plane, a cargo plane bound for America, a foreign land, they don’t know the language, they don’t know anything, to escape communism. And my family’s story is, um, my mom and my mom’s parents, so my maternal grandparents, took my mom and her siblings and claimed, my brother and I, we were the only grandchildren, claimed us as their kids instead of grandkids. So, we were able to flee a war-torn country for America. And a lot of people were lost at sea. A lot of people have the same story as us. But we came to America, and I watched my parents their whole lives struggle as immigrants. But they have the mentality, they’re going to make it happen, they’re going to make it work so their kids can have a better life and live this American dream, whatever their American dream is. And I grew up watching them have that mentality and I have that in me too. Because part of me is I will never let them down and I will never take for granted the fact that I have the ability to do anything I want in this country. I wouldn’t have that back home. I don’t even know what I would call that home, but I would never have that back in Vietnam. And I never let that opportunity and all the opportunities I’m afforded because I’m here to ever go to waste and um anytime that I’m talking about it to my friends or whatever. I’m like, it’s the immigrant mentality immigrant mentality and they’re like, what is that? I’m like I never take anything for granted if I have the ability to work out because I’m able bodied, I do it; if I’m able to do my best at a career and be the most successful I can possibly be, I will get up at five in the morning every day. There’s no laziness, there’s no such thing, and there’s no such thing as failure. And if you have that mentality, I feel like that has contributed to my success.
MARK WRIGHT 36:31
What’s your earliest recollection of work, Lily, as a kid?
LILY JANG 36:35
As a kid? Oh God. Well, let’s get my parents in trouble with CPS. My parents had Chinese restaurants and I made rice when I was five in the restaurants. So, they were eating rice made from a five-year-old child. I was making the iced tea. And I was in the back, you know, just waiting, playing with my Barbie and, um, whenever they needed rice, I would just like put it into bowls because I’m a babysitter. I was just, like, there.
MARK WRIGHT 37:02
Oh yeah. And family business. Did they, did they have a restaurant at all growing up, or what?
LILY JANG 37:09
Yeah. So, when we landed in America in 1975, our sponsor family was in Colorado, it was in Denver. So we went to Denver, Colorado; lived there for a few years. My parents were separated because of the war. I don’t even know what that was like for them. Back then when it was all snail mail, there was no email. How do they even find each other after all those years? But my mom raised us as a single mom. In a foreign land, not knowing the language and she worked, and we never were on food stamps. I don’t even know how she did it, but it was years before my dad could be sponsored to America. And so, she did this on all on her own. And in Denver, my mom’s parents, my grandparents had the first Pho restaurant. Right there by the boulevard. And that’s where I made the rice, and uh, walked the streets, I, they didn’t know what kidnapping was. They didn’t know. They just let me go on my, I was five years old, like, walking the boulevard, trying to find something to do at five years old, because they were working so hard, trying to make ends meet. And so, um.
MARK WRIGHT 38:13
You, do you remember when, when I left, uh, Q13 to go to KING 5, remember where you, you took me to lunch? At a pho restaurant in Bothell, I want to say?
LILY JANG 38:24
Was it, oh no, I feel like it was in Mill Creek.
MARK WRIGHT 38:27
Mill Creek? Was it What The Pho? I think it was. What a beautiful name for a restaurant.
LILY JANG 38:34
It was like, called Pho King. Pho King. All the plays on words is funny. But, um, yeah. I miss those days, Mark. I miss Seattle. I miss, I miss those days. And, um, I thought about going back and one day I’ll, I’ll I’ll, I’ll go back. I wish I would have never sold my house. I’ll tell you that. Real estate up there is…
MARK WRIGHT 38:54
Oh my gosh. Can you imagine?
LILY JANG 38:56
It’s gangbusters. It’s triple. My house that I sold tripled in price through 10 years.
MARK WRIGHT 39:02
Yeah. The house that we’re in in Mukilteo, we’re probably, yeah, probably, oh, more than tripled now. We couldn’t afford to buy this house today. Um, yeah. Um, hey I want to ask you, so you’re, what I think is uh, your cultural background I think is a huge um, asset now. You’re fluent in Vietnamese, Cantonese, and obviously English. Um, is that, do you, do you see that as a, as an advantage in doing business?
LILY JANG 39:28
Yes, I do. I do. And, um, I’m illiterate though, because I cannot read Cantonese. I tried, I studied four years of it at UT Austin. I can’t read or write, but I can speak it. And it just, you know, anytime you can relate on another level to another human being, it’s, it helps, um, the rapport, right? So, I do have Cantonese speaking clients and Vietnamese speaking clients, and it’s really helped. Absolutely, especially explaining contracts to them in English. I mean, it’s hard, hard enough as it is with, um, clunky contracts.
MARK WRIGHT 39:59
Yeah. I’m thinking back to your early days as a journalist in Alabama, though, was, was your cultural background, I mean, did you, did you face racism or was it, was it challenging in the beginning?
LILY JANG 40:09
Yeah, Mark, it was hard. When I was in, okay, so my first job was Amarillo, Texas, and the stories, but it’s just like they would just do double takes. What are you? It’s just, I don’t know how to answer that. Cause I grew up in Houston, Texas, the most diverse city. And so, when they said that, I don’t, I didn’t know how to answer them because it was such a foreign question to me. I was like, what are, what am I human race? And, um, they just meant no, where are you from? I was like. Okay, I’m from Houston, but, uh, you’re probably asking me if I’m Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, but I’m half Vietnamese, I’m half Chinese. And when I went to, um, from Amarillo to Alabama, it was a shock to my system. And I don’t think anybody meant ill will. No one does. They just don’t know how to ask the question. And so, when I got my driver’s license in Alabama, there was no box for me to check Asian. I had to check other. And there were so many conversations when I lived there. They’re like, what are you? Um, you know, and there was konnichiwa and I’m like, I’m not Japanese, but it’s, it about that was a long time ago. That’s 1999. So that’s a long time. We’ve come a long ways since those days, but I was the first Asian they had ever seen on TV in both of those cities. And so when I went from Birmingham to Seattle, it was refreshing because it was so diverse and I loved, I loved Seattle for that.
MARK WRIGHT 41:37
Okay, you told me you didn’t want to forget telling a story about, what was it?
LILY JANG 41:40
Oh, PBS. Yeah. So, when I, when I was let go at, the TV station here in Houston, I had a good two months that they were just like, take a breather. We’re going to pay you for the rest of your contract, but you don’t have to come to work. And I was like, thanks. So, during that two-month window, the most amazing job opportunity landed in my lap. PBS, The Ken Burns, Lynn Novak special was, was on Vietnam that year. And the local PBS station plucked me up and said, we, when we want to hire you to go back to Vietnam and tell us your life story. How cathartic is that?
MARK WRIGHT 42:16
Gosh, just at the right time.
LILY JANG 42:18
At the right time. I would have never been able to have this storytelling. I was a producer. I was the host. I was the executive producer of this um, series called Saigon Stories on Houston’s PBS. I went with a camera crew back to Vietnam. How therapeutic was that to just go back and talk to Houstonians who are living their American dream but abroad. And I just happen to have friends here who are doing that very thing. But it was a, it was um, really for me to wrap up this beautiful career in journalism with this beautiful documentary that I did. And, um, yeah, I was, I grew up where I was born and everything, but it was so funny because I apparently look very, um, I look very Western to them. And when, um, when I was on the streets, I’m speaking Vietnamese, they were like, hola. I’m like, what is that? Do I? What? I look Texan, I guess. I don’t know. But I would, it’s the strangest comments, but I look very Westernized to them, so. Um, it was such a, a beautiful documentary. I would have never been able to take that had I not been let go right before I got my license for real estate. So, nothing is by accident, right? Nothing is by coincidence.
MARK WRIGHT 43:40
Yeah. Lily, what’s the biggest thing that you learned in making that transition to real estate, uh, because obviously mentorship, there’s so many ways that mentorship helps, like, you know, talking about percentages and talking about, you know, contractual norms and things like that. Um, what, what is there, is there one big lesson that you can think of that you learned that it was like, wow, uh, that, that, that was a big one in, in real estate.
LILY JANG 44:07
In real estate. Um, it’s hard for me to look back and say there’s one big lesson, but I will tell you that adversity is your best teacher. And in 2017, when I was let go of the only career I had known for more than two decades, and I had to reinvent myself and find my true grid, that was a year I call my rebirth because I became a different person. You just, when you have to figure it out, you truly find out who you really are. And that was the biggest year of my personal growth as a human. And then at the same time, you realize that there’s nothing you can’t do. There’s nothing you can’t do. I mean, I, I know that if real estate didn’t work out for me for whatever reason, and I had to figure it out again, I will be successful because I put my mind to it to be successful in whatever I do. That one, one single get myself a mentor, I guess, would be, but it was hard. I tried. I would fail in that sense. I couldn’t find the right fit for me, um, as far as brokerages, but I never had a mentor. And I think that if I could, if there was one big lesson or one thing I could go back and do, I would have found somebody who wanted to take me under their wing.
MARK WRIGHT 45:23
Yeah, I’m just so impressed with your tenacity and the fact that you’re doing this in such a positive way. Um, you know, you’re right. I think there are two kinds of people in the world. People who see themselves as victims and people who just see themselves as people with experience, right? I mean, uh, um, uh, some of the things that you’ve said, Lily, a couple of, uh, a couple of phrases that you’ve used. I’ve heard Joel Osteen, the pastor from Houston, use it. Did you know him or have you, have you connected with him at all? Cause it’s like.
LILY JANG 45:54
He and his wife used to come to the TV station to be on the show that not, but I’ve never met them in person. I don’t talk to them. No.
MARK WRIGHT 46:03
So, have you thought about writing a book or offering a seminar? Because I’ll tell you what, I would sign up for it if Lily was a seminar.
LILY JANG 46:11
I don’t know at the end of the day, I feel like I’m just me and the experiences I’m willing to share. It’s so interesting because Mark, in the past, uh, five years. Yeah. It was like the year after I started real estate in the past five years, I’ve had so many different news anchors around the country reach out to me who want to get into real estate and they’re like, how did you do that? What did you do? And I said, here is all of it. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Take everything that I did and do this. I’m happy to pay it forward because no one did with me. So, um, so yeah.
MARK WRIGHT 46:45
That’s, uh, well, there were, speaking of other, uh, other news anchors, Julie Lee was someone that we worked with at Q13. She’s now a really successful realtor here in Seattle. Um, Jenny Hogan, a lot of people may remember as a traffic, uh, anchor on Cairo is selling mansions in Park City now, and she’s doing extremely well. Um, wow. So that’s cool. So people have reached out to you, uh, who’ve said, hey, how did you do it? And what do you say? Like, what’s the first thing that you say to, to former news people who want to go into real estate, Lily?
LILY JANG 47:20
Um, I tell them, here’s my rundown, which is like, what you should do for a little TV segment on real estate, on your local TV station. Go to the other station and, and, um, pitch it. But if they’re currently on TV, I’m like, start changing everything you post while you still have an audience. Start posting about real estate only and start being the real estate authority. Start only pitching stories about real estate because it is a big topic in every city right now. So, whatever you do. Become that one person in your TV station that they’re always going to go to when there’s a story about home ownership, real estate, investing, all of that.
MARK WRIGHT 47:58
Yeah. Um, social media, you’ve always been kind of a social media star, uh, I would say. Um, you’ve, you’ve had big followings over the years. What do you think the secret to that success is? Because everybody’s trying to figure I mean, everybody now, every business is having to use social because that’s, that’s where people are. What, what’s your best advice when it comes to developing that following and keeping that following on social?
LILY JANG 48:25
Gosh, you know, it’s a love hate relationship for me because I get so busy and I forget to post or some days I don’t want to post, but I will tell you, and I know you agree with me on this Mark, is the secret to anything you post is authenticity. And being sincere and being honest, and transparency. And if you’re selling, no one wants to be sold. If you are selling and you’re salesy, it’s not going to work, like, start over. But if you are just yourself and you authentically come across as yourself, that’s it. That’s the secret sauce.
MARK WRIGHT 48:55
So, I’m guessing you’ve, you’ve never said, so what’s good to take to get you into this house?
LILY JANG 48:59
I mean, who wants to hear that? Come see me. I mean, I, I’m sure it works for a lot of people, but I’m not going to be on the bus stop doing this with my picture. I just, I don’t have a picture on my signs, my for-sale signs. I just, I just keep it real. I don’t know. And not to.
MARK WRIGHT 49:18
It’s so classy too. And I read though that Lily, you 70, that you’ve never cold called. You’ve never knocked on doors, 70% of your business’s referral and 30%, which is a surprising figure come from social media.
LILY JANG 49:32
Yeah. And that changes every year. But I will say, I will say that if you’re just authentically yourself and you do things with heart. Referrals will come, money will come. It just will. If you were just, and if you don’t know how to be authentic, learn to be a good human. I mean, learn to be a good human being.
MARK WRIGHT 49:49
I just remember what your mom said when you were five.
LILY JANG 49:52
Yeah. God. But I just think that if people just authentically don’t try to be somebody else, just be you, authentically give a message, but don’t sell anybody anything because no one wants to be sold. And if they want to work with you, if they like you, they’ll work with you.
MARK WRIGHT 50:08
Yeah. I told you my mom, when she heard that I was going to interview you for the BEATS WORKING podcast, oh, give Lily my love. She used to watch. Oh, I will. I’ll tell her hello. She used to watch, watch every morning. Um, Lily, as we start to wind, wind things up, I just, uh, I am so inspired by you. And I, I, I, I may call the episode something like, you know, reinventing yourself, you know, reinventing your career. Um, because that’s exactly what you’ve done. You, you got dealt, uh, uh, what could be perceived as a bad hand, but I think you and I are both in agreement that. When this stuff happens, it always leads to something better. Like you’re making multiples of what you made in TV and TV is not bad pay. And that’s what I think is just so inspiring that you are killing it. And it’s, it’s not that you’ve, you’ve, you know, found the secret or found the shortcut. There’s no shortcut. You just said, this is who I am. This is what my abilities are, and I’m going to work really hard to get there.
LILY JANG 51:11
Without, I mean, unparalleled work ethic, I think that the secret, I think if somebody asked me, if there’s, what’s, what’s one secret to your success? That nothing is beneath me. I am mopping my open houses before open houses. I’m squeegee, is what the, is that what you the windows. I’m sweat, it’s 110 degrees satanic heat outside. I’m like dripping in sweat at my open house, but I’ll do it because, hey, that first impression is everything and what you’re not willing to do, another realtor will, so nothing should be beneath you. Can you see me sweeping? I don’t even sweep my own house. Mark.
MARK WRIGHT 51:50
I was, I was in mortgages for a little while last year and that was, you know, that was interesting cuz I, I, I, I was preparing for the idea that I might not get renewed and, uh, I found a, an amazing woman to, to mentor me in that space and I got my license. And you and I talked about it and I was, I was ready to go and then interest rates just soared. And so I spent about four months in, in mortgages and then this opportunity to join this group that I’m with now, uh, my boss, Dan Rogers and, and WORKP2P and, uh, I, I just, I couldn’t pass, pass this opportunity up, but I had an interesting time in, in, in mortgages and have a new appreciation for not only people in the mortgage industry, but people in, in the real estate industry. Um, I asked a realtor, what’s, what’s the best tip if you’re going to sell your house? He said, pay window washers to clean all the windows on the house. He said that will make a difference in selling a house. Lily, do you have any advice? Okay, people buying a home or people selling a home, what’s, what’s, what’s your best professional advice?
LILY JANG 52:47
Okay. Hold on just a second. When you’re buying a home. Here’s what people don’t understand. If you’re buying a new construction home, you still have to have a realtor. And there’s so many reasons why not, not all realtors are the same, but I will come in and there’s so many things that I’m looking for that’s going to protect you down the road. Um, just, just hire, hire a full-time realtor when you’re buying a new construction house. Now, if you’re selling a house, oh gosh, there’s so many equally important tidbits. I don’t even know if you’re selling a house, you’ve got to declutter. I’ve got to make your house look like a model home because you’re competing against new builds out there and you just have to listen to your realtor.
MARK WRIGHT 53:27
I love it.
LILY JANG 53:28
You’re always right.
MARK WRIGHT 53:30
Well, Lily, this has been so much fun. You know, as we wrap things up, um, anything you want to, anything you want to add that we haven’t, that we haven’t touched on? That’s, that’s a total broadcast trick right there at the end of the interview. Have I not asked anything, something that you would like to address?
LILY JANG 53:44
No, but this is so fun, and this is exactly what you should be doing, Mark. You are, you are and always have been one of my favorite people. You are as real, authentic, sincere, thoughtful as they come, and you connect with people so easily. You should be a realtor. I just have always appreciated you and our time together.
MARK WRIGHT 54:09
The feeling is absolutely mutual, Lily. And, you know, you’re one of those people that I’ve never seen in a bad light. Uh, you’ve always treated people with respect and you’ve always been an amazing, uh, you have an amazing work ethic and just, just that, that humility and respect and fun that you bring to everyday life. Uh is just contagious and the fact that you are killing it in real estate in Texas Is not a surprise. It is not a surprise you, you deserve every good thing that comes your way because you created it and, and you’re just you’re a beam of light in the world Lily and I just uh, I love you and uh, just what you’re doing with your life, so keep it up my friend and I just I just love connecting every once in a while. By the way, where, what, what’s your favorite destination? Like you love to unplug and go traveling. What’s that one spot in the world where you like, this is my favorite spot in the whole world.
LILY JANG 55:08
I would say Bali. I’ve been there a few times and Bali is just where I’m forced to put the phone down because I don’t have connections sometimes. Other than that, I sleep with my phone and I’m like, you know, but Bali, it’s serene. It’s peaceful. You’re one with nature. You’re one with whoever your higher being is. And it takes you back to being one with the earth. And that’s a special place.
MARK WRIGHT 55:33
Well, Lily, this has been so fun, so rewarding. Thank you for taking the time out of your very busy schedule to talk with us on the BEATS WORKING podcast. And uh, this BEATS WORKING, doesn’t it?
LILY JANG 55:45
It does! BEATS WORKING any day, talking to you. I hope to see you and talk to you again soon.
MARK WRIGHT 55:49
Okay. Take care, my friend. I’m Mark Wright. Thanks for listening to BEATS WORKING, part of the WORKP2P family. New episodes drop every Monday, and if you’ve enjoyed the conversation, subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. Special thanks to show producer and web editor Tamar Medford. In the coming weeks, you’ll hear from our Contributors Corner and Sidekick Sessions. Join us next week for another episode of BEATS WORKING, where we are winning the game of work.
