This week on Mindset Matters I sat down with my friend and fellow Green Mountain grad, Mikelle Adkins Smith of Keller Williams Advantage.

Mikelle grew up an only child who loved books and writing, with a very straightforward plan: become an attorney, make the grades, do the work, check the boxes. She got into DU, worked 40 hours a week while carrying a full class load, and stayed locked in on that path… until real estate and the title world showed her two things at once:

1. She could make more money, faster, without going hundreds of thousands into debt.
2. She could actually build a life she wanted, not just a résumé that looked good.

From there, her story takes a lot of turns - leaving the law-school dream behind and jumping into title, burning out during the refi boom, meeting her now-husband Brian and, within six months, watching him buy a struggling franchise while she quit her stable job and they got married, and eventually her decision to enter real estate and build a life and business simultaneously.

We get into motherhood, too. Having kids during the 2007–08 mess, choosing to be home as much as she could while still selling, and how having three boys (now 18, 16, and 13) completely reframed how she talks to clients about homeownership.

And then there’s hockey.

A random flyer in a kindergarten Friday folder led to roller hockey at Skate City… then ice hockey… and now all three boys are all-in. They shoot pucks every day without being asked, they study film, they battle each other in the driveway, and they make choices most grown adults won’t make to protect their opportunities. Mikelle and Brian don’t try to be their coaches - they just ask good questions, keep them grounded, and let the work ethic be theirs.

What stuck with me most, though, was this:

Mikelle will tell you she’s guarded, that she keeps a small circle because of some of what she lived through growing up. But if you listen to how she talks about her boys, her clients, and even the kids they play with, you can hear the truth - she’s got a massive heart, and her sons have inherited it. They care, they stick up for people, and they don’t let past hurts decide how they show up.

If you’re in real estate, a parent, or just someone trying to figure out how to chase big goals without losing your mind or your family in the process, this episode is worth your time.

And Mikelle's story... starts now!

www.everettslending.com
720-979-8742
jimmy@everettslending.com
IG: @jimmythesaint5280

This week on Mindset Matters I got to sit down with my friend and straight shooter, Sasha Smothers of Keller Williams Advantage in Lakewood. If you’ve ever felt like you were “the quiet kid” who didn’t quite know where you fit, or if you’ve been staring at this housing market wondering what’s real and what’s just noise, this episode is going to land.

Sasha grew up outside of Boston as an introverted, sometimes overlooked gymnast - the kid who didn’t always feel worthy of speaking up. She was raised by entrepreneurial parents in mortgages and real estate, watched them build businesses and still show up for every important moment, and somewhere along the way picked up an early belief that her voice might not matter as much as everyone else’s.

Fast forward - she moves to Denver on a 24-hour decision, survives a pandemic in a brand new city, hires a coach, does the hard inner work, and slowly starts to rebuild her identity. While this massive change is taking place, she meets her now-husband and stepdaughter at the apartment pool, falls in love with both of them, and over time steps fully into what she was built for - helping people navigate one of the most complicated housing and financial environments we’ve ever lived through.

What I admire about Sasha is simple - she tells the truth, even when it isn’t trendy and she’s not afraid to talk about the uncomfortable parts of our financial system that most “professionals” ignore because it doesn’t fit on a postcard.

During our conversation we talked about her journey from introverted gymnast to confident, outspoken agent, the mindset work that helped her finally see her own worth, how she and her husband think about money, control systems, and what might really be coming next, and why she believes community, curiosity, and questioning the mainstream narrative might be the only way we get through this together.

Her story... starts now!

www.everettslending.com
720-979-8742
jimmy@everettslending.com
IG: @jimmythesaint5280

Stephen Berg’s journey reads like a crash course in perseverance. Growing up in Evergreen, CO, with a pilot father, his childhood was shaped by curiosity, travel, and an early fascination with aviation. After 9/11, that dream dissolved — both because of his opposition to the war and witnessing his father lose his pension when United Airlines filed bankruptcy. The experience planted two lifelong seeds: distrust in corporate systems and an obsession with independence.

He tried it all - flipping houses, running a wine department, even becoming a certified sommelier and assistant winemaker in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. But when the financial fallout from a mold-ridden home and a costly lawsuit left him nearly bankrupt, Berg rebuilt again. This time, back home in Denver, as a real estate agent.

With a newborn, another on the way, $80K in debt, and his family living in one bedroom at his in-laws’, Stephen started from zero and within two years was the Denver Metro Association of Realtors (DMAR) Rookie of the Year, discovering that the only real limits were the ones he’d been placing on himself.

Our conversation covered a lot of ground - from the danger of comparing your chapter one to someone else’s chapter twenty, to how punk rock, science, and critical thinking can shape a career and a worldview. We also dove into why structure and patience are underrated superpowers in an unpredictable industry and how fatherhood reframed his idea of success — not just as freedom of income, but freedom of time.

By the end, Stephen’s story becomes less about selling homes and more about how to build a life — one defined by adaptability, curiosity, and conviction.

www.everettslending.com
720-979-8742
jimmy@everettslending.com
IG: @jimmythesaint5280