From Heartbreak to Building a Real Estate Legacy

Summary

Living Your Legacy Podcast: From Heartbreak to Building a Real Estate Legacy

Host: Rudy Mawer
Guest: Kayla Caricella (Co-owner of Local Real Estate, Entrepreneur, Confidence Coach)
Date: May 12, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Rudy Mawer interviews real estate entrepreneur and confidence coach Kayla Caricella, co-owner of Local Real Estate in Northeast Ohio. Kayla shares her unconventional path into real estate, the hardships that fueled her drive, and how she’s pioneering a new brokerage model focused on empowering agents to build wealth and passive income. The conversation covers leadership lessons, actionable investment strategies, the power of networking, and the mindset required to transform adversity into legacy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Kayla’s Unconventional Journey into Real Estate

• Background & Early Career:
  • Started in cosmetology, quickly realized it wasn’t her passion.
  • “I didn’t go to college, had no interest in going to college... But I knew that I wanted to make an impact on people.” (02:05)
  • Entry into real estate via a title role at age 18, disliked the 9-to-5 desk setting.
• Discovery of Real Estate Potential:
  • Moved from title to lending, observing real estate agents’ earnings and autonomy.
  • Made the “jump” into real estate sales in 2019 after recognizing there were no brokerages offering mentorship in building passive income.
• Origin Story of Her Brokerage:
  • After meeting her business partner at a networking event and finding shared frustration with traditional brokerages, they started their own, focused on teaching agents both sales and wealth-building.

What Sets Local Real Estate Apart

• Not Just Sales—Wealth-Building & Passive Income:
  • “What makes us different? …We’re going to teach you how to create passive income and build wealth while you’re selling real estate.” (04:16, 07:54)
• Selective and Entrepreneurial Culture:
  • Focus on quality over quantity (“I don’t want a huge number. It’s more quality over quantity.” 07:38)
  • Diverse agent backgrounds: many own other businesses (home inspection, lending, wineries).
  • “It’s not just selling, it’s… How can I help you in your real life make money and be successful?” (06:57)

Building and Managing the Team

• Growth and Culture:
  • From 21 to 43 agents in two years while maintaining culture and profitability. (06:03)
• Leadership Systems:
  • Leaned on “Ninja Selling” by Larry Kendall, turning the 42-chapter book into a 42-week agent mastermind. (09:58)
  • Weekly training and quarterly production/life strategy meetings.
  • “I just want to be able to look at it, see the system, and then figure out how I can tweak it to make it a little bit better.” (10:20)

Real Estate Investment Advice for Entrepreneurs

• Diverse Investment Experience:
  • Owns storage facilities and began with duplexes during COVID (bought low, renovated, refinanced, and scaled using the BRRRR method).
  • Realized challenges with multifamily units (e.g., higher utility expenses) and pivoted to single-family rentals.
  • “The strategy for me—I just liked it better because you have a family that’s living there now… they take care of the home, they see it as their home.” (13:43)
• Actionable Tips:
  • Don’t be afraid to switch strategies as your situation changes (e.g., mortgage limits, cash flow concerns).
  • Be aware of localized market differences and what fits your lifestyle and goals.

Mindset, Motivation & Overcoming Barriers

• Embracing Opportunity and Networking:
  • “You cannot be afraid to go for it… you have to put yourself in those rooms… even when you get there, you’re just eligible.” (14:30)
  • Trick to combatting nerves: “Your stomach doesn’t know the difference between nerves and excitement. So just switch your mindset to: I’m excited.” (15:10)
• Mentorship for Extroverts and Introverts:
  • Leaders must help introverts find their footing in a networking-heavy business.
  • Entrepreneurs must focus on relentless, disciplined daily activities (the “real” behind the “highlight reel”).
• Learning by Doing:
  • “Jump in the car, let’s get out in the field… you’re going to learn as you go.” (17:03)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Industry Differentiation:
  • “How are you going to make me successful? And no brokerage has an answer for that… So I saw the need for something a little bit more.” – Kayla (00:00)
• On Culture and Profitability:
  • “We’ve doubled our business with maintaining culture and profitability… That is such a big, big, big part of the day to day.” – Kayla (06:15)
• On Real Estate Investment:
  • “I would grab, you know, a few duplexes… put about 20, 30,000 into them, refinance them 150 to 175, and then you’re pulling 70%… and you’re just going to rinse and repeat.” – Kayla (12:24)
• On Facing Fear and Taking Action:
  • “You cannot wait around for that opportunity to come to you. You have to put yourself in those rooms.” – Kayla (14:30)
• On Nerves vs. Excitement:
  • “Your stomach doesn’t know the difference between nerves and excitement. So just switch your mindset to: I’m excited.” – Kayla (15:10)
• On the Myth of Easy Money:
  • “The curse of real estate is you see someone sell a two-million dollar house… and you’re like, I could do that too... but you don’t realize that started a year ago, hundreds of viewings…” – Rudy (16:30)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00 – Kayla’s big question for brokerages and recognition of the industry gap.
• 02:02 – Kayla’s career shift from cosmetology to real estate.
• 04:11 – The founding story of Local Real Estate.
• 06:03 – Team growth and sustaining culture.
• 09:58 – Leadership approach and the Ninja Selling system.
• 11:10 – Investment advice for entrepreneurs (multifamily vs. single family).
• 13:43 – The benefits of single-family real estate as rentals.
• 14:30 – Kayla’s advice on fear, opportunity, and networking.
• 15:10 – Nervousness versus excitement—mindset trick.
• 17:03 – “Learning by doing” in agent coaching.

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Where to Find Kayla

• Local Real Estate: www.localrealestate.com
• Kayla’s personal website: www.kmcrealestate.com
• Instagram: @localwithakay (“L-O-K-A-L with a K-A-Y”)

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This episode delivers powerful insights for anyone dreaming of building a legacy through entrepreneurship and real estate, packed with actionable advice, leadership wisdom, and the no-excuses energy that has propelled Kayla from heartbreak to high-impact leader.

Transcript

[Kayla Caricella]

How are you going to make me successful? And no brokerage has an answer for that. So I saw the need for something a little bit more which why get into real estate and not have an opportunity to create passive income if nobody's teaching it? I need to be the place in Cleveland that's teaching it.

[Narrator/Host Introduction]

Kayla Caricella is a resilient visionary real estate entrepreneur, confidence coach and legacy builder and the co owner of local real estate. Drawing from her journey of turning personal hardship into pur, he empowers agents and investors to build wealth, lead with authenticity and create lasting impact through aligned intentional growth.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

So if a realtor, you know, comes to you, how do you explain, hey, we're different because.

[Kayla Caricella]

We're different because we're going to teach you how to create passive income and build wealth while you're selling real estate.

[Podcast Intro/Promotional Voice]

It spans the globe like a super high cold Internet. Elvis Preston 500. Today Apple is going to reinvent LeFon. It's not over until I win. The Living youg Legacy podcast. For those who live to leave a legacy that's extraordinary. The impossible has been. Oh, that is sensational. Jordan Open Chicago with the lead Usain Paul is the fastest man on the planet. You can live your life.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

Hello and welcome back to another episode. Sat with me today is Kayla. She's an entrepreneur, CEO and on a pretty awesome mission. I'm excited to dive into today's episode. So Kayla, welcome to the show.

[Kayla Caricella]

Thank you for having me.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

So let's kick it off. If people don't know who you are and what you do, can you give a bit of an intro?

[Kayla Caricella]

Yes. So Kayla Caricella, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio and I own a investor friendly real estate brokerage in Northeast Ohio.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

And how, you know, what's the journey getting into this? What made you want to get into this? Man, where are you now?

[Kayla Caricella]

Okay, so this is weird because when I started I actually started in like the cosmetology field and noticed really quickly that that wasn't something that I wanted to do. I didn't go to college, had no interest in going to college, to be honest with you. But I knew that I wanted to work and I knew that I wanted to make an impact on people. So my real estate journey really started in actually titles. So it started in like the title background which was way too behind the desk for me. Like I cannot sit somewhere nine to five. But I was nine. I mean, I was right out of high school. I was 18 years old. So it was kind of like my introduction into getting like A big girl job.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

Sure, sure.

[Kayla Caricella]

So I did that for a few years, and then those contracts started to come in and I saw, like, on the lending side that they were making a lot more money than my salary. So I had met somebody, I was closing a lot of their loans. Don Galvin, actually at Cross Country Mortgage, shout out to him, because we still work together to this day. And this was probably five, six years ago. So I made the switch over to lending. And I would say I did that about three, three years, which was better because it's kind of like your hybrid, right? So you're not behind the desk. You can be in the office, but then you can also go out and, you know, sell and bring in the business. But then again, you know, those contracts are coming in and these real estate agents were making a lot of money. And so I'm like, I can do that. I've got the behind the scenes.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

So you can say, yeah, well, it's pretty crazy when you see it because it's like, you know, you can earn 40, 50 grand a year salary and they sell one big house or deal and they make your salary. Right.

[Kayla Caricella]

It just makes me, you know, something happened to my head there, and I was like, okay, I need to get out and do that, and I can do that. So I did. I made the jump, like, very quickly. I went to real estate school, got it done in like three weeks. This is back in 2019. And then that's when the real realization came to me, which was, wow, there's not a broker in Northeast Ohio that I want to work with.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

And so let's fast forward now then. Why are you different? What makes people work with you?

[Kayla Caricella]

Yeah. So what makes us different? At the time, I was. I sat down with every single brokerage, you know, your big, big name brokerage, same as out here, you know, Howard Hanna, Remax. And I would talk about investing because that was a part of it for me. Like, I. When I was on the lending sign, I saw a lot of people, you know, building that passive income through residential real estate, commercial real estate. So that was something that I would come to a broker and talk about, and they were kind of just like, yeah, you know, we just want you to sell. We're not gonna help you with that part of the business. And so I would get up and I would leave, because the question I asked at 23 years old was, how are you gonna make me successful? And no brokerage has an answer for that. So I saw the need for something a little bit more, which, why get into real estate and not have an opportunity to create passive income. If nobody's teaching it, I need to be the place in Cleveland that's teaching it. And so that's where the idea came from. I actually met my now business partner at a networking event, which is funny cause that's what we're here. So I'm totally excited about that. But just fast forwarding it, like walking into that networking event, the conversation that I had with my now business partner was, yeah, I'm getting into real estate. I made this big switch transition out of lending, but I made a mistake and I think I need to go back because I don't see a broker that I want to work with. And he had the same sentiment. So that's how that went.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

And then fast forward to today. How does that life look now and the business look now?

[Kayla Caricella]

Life now? I mean, when I started, I would say we had around 21 agents. And year to date, we're at about 43.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

Nice.

[Kayla Caricella]

So just in, you know, two year, the last two years, we've doubled our business with maintaining culture and profitability. And in real estate, that is such a big, big, big part of the day to day is the culture. And so that's what I'm the most proud of. At local, we just are different. We have a group filled with out of 42 of those agents, half of them own very successful businesses. Whether they're home inspection companies, we have lenders, we have title reps, we have. There's a couple of agents on my team that own a winery. So just very.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

It's a little more entrepreneurial.

[Kayla Caricella]

Yeah, totally. Yeah. It's not just selling, it's. How can I help you in your real life? Make money and be successful in real life?

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

Yeah, Because I mean, a lot, you know, I'm, I, I'm into real estate, but I don't understand necessarily the, the, the real estate side is a realtor. But for my, you know, view of it, when I meet a lot, there's the big companies, you know, they just take in thousands of people and a small percent make a lot of money for them and themselves.

[Kayla Caricella]

Right, exactly. So the people in between there, they're kind of like these solo agents just like left out in the world that are on teams.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

MLM Marketing. Right, exactly. Mlm. You know, you got a group that made all the money and then thousands of people that sell a few here and there.

[Kayla Caricella]

Sure. And that to me, that doesn't make sense to me. I don't want a huge number. It's not about that, for me, it's more quality over quantity.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

So if a realtor comes to you, how do you explain, hey, we're different because.

[Kayla Caricella]

We're different because we're going to teach you how to create passive income and build wealth while you're selling real estate.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

And the type of real estate that you sell is similar to everyone else.

[Kayla Caricella]

Yes, residential. In Ohio, if you're licensed, you can sell residential commercial. You don't have to have a separate license for that. So since we're in that investor space, we deal a lot with mixed use. But I mean, year to date, just to give you an idea, production wise, 42 agents were at 194 units for the year. The goal this year is 300. So I like to do everything in quarters, let's say, so quarters. But we're halfway through the year. So there's a statistic that 77% of those that are leading at halftime finish the year stronger or actually hit that goal.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

So that's a real estate stat or an overall, a generalized stat.

[Kayla Caricella]

That's a real estate stat. That's a real estate stat.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

I just, you know, it's seasonal. Is it better in the second half

[Kayla Caricella]

or for us, since we get, since we get four seasons, it is like, I would say fourth quarter is third quarter and fourth quarter are less strong. So the fact that first and second, we're going in there way over, those units can kind of make up for the slower season.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

But I know of some of the real estate, me and friends, a lot of us buy for tax benefit. So fourth quarter, we're like, okay, I gotta buy.

[Kayla Caricella]

I gotta find out.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

I gotta buy two more units.

[Kayla Caricella]

And so when everybody else in regular residential real estate, that's at those other brokerages that are doing that. Yeah, they're not busy where we're getting

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

pounded because normal people are like, oh, thanks, Thanksgiving, Christmas, I don't want to move.

[Kayla Caricella]

I'm going to take the time off and enjoy.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

I don't want to move house right now. Yeah, that makes sense.

[Kayla Caricella]

No, we're. We're setting our. Our clientele is setting themselves up for 20, 26 in the fourth quarter.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

Got it. And then, you know, let's talk about. You've built the team to, you know, 40 to 50 now. How. What are some leadership management recruitment stuff you've learned along the way?

[Kayla Caricella]

So that is the piece that I kind of had to figure out on my own. Right. So I lean on Ninja. There's a book called Ninja Selling and the author is Larry Kendall. That's a book that I read in 2019. And the next year, after reading that book, I doubled my own personal production. So I am not somebody that thinks that I need to reinvent the wheel. I believe in the processes and the people that came before us and put these things in place. I just wanna be able to look at it, see the system, and then figure out how I can tweak it to make it a little bit better. So that's what I did with the book is I took my. I essentially took that 42 chapter book and I put it into a 42 week mastermind, so you say. And I taught it to the agents week by week. So we'd take a chapter out of that book and I would stop, go over the process and how it affects them in real life and teach them the business model around it. So we have weekly trainings and then on top of that, quarterly production meetings with all of the agents to kind of go over goals. And that's business and life.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

So, couple of questions. A lot of people listening. Entrepreneurs. A lot of entrepreneurs getting into real estate to invest their profits. Right. Or whatever. So I always like to ask anyone here that is into real estate, any general tips for an entrepreneur listening that maybe wants to invest their profits from their business into real estate. Where should they start? And do you have a specific type you like? You know, I've had all kinds of people.

[Kayla Caricella]

Sure.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

Multifamily, storage units, whatever. Right. Commercial.

[Kayla Caricella]

So I've had my. I can honestly say I've had my hands in all of it. So my fiance owns Varndell Storage back home. And so the storage facility we store boats, trailers, RVs, that's its own beast.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

I've had stores. Storage is fascinating.

[Kayla Caricella]

It's very fascinating. I mean, it can essentially run itself if you get it up. If you get it up there. But there's so many different strategies. For me personally, I started grabbing duplexes and at the. So this is back in 2020, during COVID I was crazy buying houses.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

They were good prices.

[Kayla Caricella]

They were great because interest rates were low and people were freaking out because they didn't like.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

See in Miami and Florida the prices went up. Cause everyone was moving here. Exactly. But I'm sure Cleveland.

[Kayla Caricella]

So Cleveland was just like. I mean, 20, 21, 22, I made my bag, you know what I'm saying? I was able to really set myself up. So those years, it was like when I was investing and I was also selling for my clients. But I would grab, you know, a few duplexes and I'D buy them around 60, 70,000, put about 20, 30,000 into them, refinance them 150 to 175, and then you're pulling 70% of that equity out. And then you're just going to rinse and repeat. And then I found out that you can't have more than 11 mortgages from my accountant. So it was, hey, this is where you're at. You're gonna have to either switch your strategy or switch to something else. The downfall that I had with the multi families, and this is what I'll say for somebody, just keep an eye out, is, you know, you're not stuck, but you're paying those tenant bills. So in a duplex or a multifamily, that water bill's high. So for me it was, okay, let's get out of multifamily and SW over to a single family model. And so I sold all my duplexes and then bought 11 more single families. And I just. The strategy, for me, I just liked it better because you have a family that's living there now.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

Yeah, it's a long time.

[Kayla Caricella]

Yeah, they take care of the home, they see it as their home and you have a good tenant there. And then your exit strategy and a little bungalow. I mean, how much money can you spend?

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

Yeah, I'm buying a Mori family here on the beach. And it's the opposite. Cause it's, it's all like, you know, bar workers, restaurant workers. There's a lot of in and out.

[Kayla Caricella]

Oh, yeah.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

And you know, I don't get involved. I'm not going to get involved in the day today. But I said to my assistants, you're going to have a lot of crazy phone calls at 4 in the morning.

[Kayla Caricella]

Oh, absolutely. That's so cool. Congratulations on that.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

So another question. If someone's listening and they are inspired by your story, right, like, you started out working a regular job, you were just seeing what was around. You like, oh, there's more opportunities and you kind of went for it. Right. What would you say to people listening?

[Kayla Caricella]

You cannot be afraid to go for it. I mean, it's that opportunity you have. You can't wait around for that opportunity to come to you. You have to put yourself in those rooms. You have to put yourself in that position to be considered for the opportunity. And even when you get there, you're just eligible. You're just eligible. You're not like tonight, I can't wait to go meet some of the people that are here. But I don't know. I don't know what the people in this room do. I have no idea what I'm in for, but I'm excited about that. And I think sometimes, especially when you're starting off and something is new and it's different, you get that feeling in your stomach like you get those, you get those butterflies, so to say. But your stomach, this is a little trick that I learned. Your stomach doesn't know the difference between nerves and excitement. So just switch your mind mindset too. I'm excited to get into that room for the potential to meet somebody for another opportunity to make a ton of money and just make an impact and.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

Well, and I think you have to be, you know, in real estate and entrepreneur, you've got to, even if you're not outgoing, you've got to get out there. Networking is everything, you know.

[Kayla Caricella]

Exactly. So if, if, if you're not able to go out there and network and you're an extrovert and, and, or you're more of an introvert, you just have to have a leader behind you or a mentor that understands that about you. Because that's the challenge in, in my day to day. And you know, when you go from 22 agents to 42, you're meeting them very fast. And the struggle is a lot of these people come to you and they want to make money right away. And I understand that and I did too. But if you want to make money right away, you have to really focus in on those things that you need to do every single day and lock in on that. And so some people give me five hours out of a day and when I started, If I had 24 hours in a day, I'm gonna sleep.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

I think that's the curse of real estate. The curse of real estate is you see someone sell a two million dollar house, especially in Miami, right. Someone sells a four million dollar house. And I could do that too.

[Kayla Caricella]

I could do that too.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

But it's like you don't realize there's. That started a year ago, hundreds of view ins and the, you know. Yeah, it's not easy as it looks like in business.

[Kayla Caricella]

It's not. And you can't get out of it and go do something else because people want to know and see that you're still doing real estate. So there's something about that too. But it's, you know, getting back to that point, it's just the struggle as a leader is having to strategically teach somebody how to use their time the best when they don't know how to spend their time yet. So they have to be able to trust you in that. So a lot of the time I just say jump in the car, let's get out in the field and you're going to learn as you go. I can't prep you.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

It's the best thing and I think every business learn by doing. Yeah, it's great.

[Kayla Caricella]

Good for me because I'm a doer.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

Yes. So last question. People want to check you out, find you maybe get advice on investment real estate.

[Kayla Caricella]

Where can they do that so you can our local website ww.localrealestate.com my personal website is KMC real estate.com or you can follow me on Instagram that handle is L o K a L W I T H a K a Y so local with a K. Love it guys.

[Interviewer/Podcast Host]

That was a fun episode. Hopefully you learned a bit about real estate, building teams and the mindset behind success. As always, keep working hard, make an impact and I'll see you guys soon. Take care.