From Good to Great: How Deja Lett Built a Resilient, Scalable Real Estate Career Through Mindset and Systems
Success in real estate rarely comes from one breakthrough moment. More often, it’s the result of mindset, consistency, and the willingness to grow through life’s hardest seasons.
Mindset First: Growing Through Life’s Hardest Challenges
Before talking real estate, Deja shares a deeply personal part of her journey: surviving cancer. Both Deja and Michael connect over their shared experience as “cancer thrivers,” emphasizing how mindset played a critical role in recovery.
Deja explains that the most difficult period wasn’t the treatment itself—it was the uncertainty between diagnosis and knowing the plan. During that time, she allowed herself to feel fear and sadness, but made a conscious decision not to stay there.
“It’s okay to visit that space, but don’t pitch a tent there.”
That philosophy shaped everything that followed. She focused on what she could control—her health, her mindset, and her daily actions. Even while undergoing surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation, she stayed engaged in her business and rebranded herself professionally.
The lesson is clear: mindset isn’t motivational fluff—it’s a survival skill.
How Her Real Estate Career Began
Deja’s real estate journey started in the late 1990s in Key West, Florida, where she worked as an assistant to a top-producing agent. Long before automation and modern CRMs, she learned the power of systems, checklists, and processes.
From expired listings to buyer packets, everything had a defined workflow—and she fell in love with that structure.
That early experience still defines how she runs her business today.
When she returned to Maine in the early 2000s as a single mother of three, she made the leap into real estate full-time. The alternative—hourly work with limited income and flexibility—wasn’t the life she wanted for her family.
Surviving the Early Years and the 2008 Market Crash
Like many agents, Deja’s early years were challenging. For the first five years, she supplemented her income by waitressing and bartending—using those environments as networking opportunities.
Before social media existed, she built her business the old-fashioned way:
Talking to people everywhere
Letting everyone know she was in real estate
Refusing to be a “secret agent”
When the 2008 market crash hit, many agents left the industry. Deja didn’t. Instead, she doubled down on consistency, database management, and personal development.
“I have grit. It was either go back to working for someone else—or keep pushing through.”
That decision changed everything.
The Power of Databases, Coaching, and Doing the Work
One of Deja’s strongest convictions is simple:
Your business is your database.
She credits Keller Williams training—and particularly the BOLD program—with reshaping how she viewed her business and herself. Even when money was tight, she invested in coaching and committed fully to the process.
The result? Massive growth—not just in transactions, but in self-awareness, leadership, and confidence.
She emphasizes a universal truth:
If you do the work exactly as taught, it works. If you don’t, it won’t.
Team Building: What Worked—and What Didn’t
As online marketing and lead generation increased, Deja began receiving hundreds of leads per month. That growth forced her into team building—but not without lessons learned the hard way.
One of her biggest takeaways?
Don’t hire buyer agents too early.
Instead, she recommends:
Maxing out your own production
Hiring admin or showing support first
Protecting the client experience before scaling
Finding people who match her responsiveness, competence, and care for clients proved to be one of the hardest challenges of growth.
Where She Is Now—and What’s Next
Today, Deja operates in Southern Maine, runs a team of five agents, and has recently hired an ISA to better prioritize high-intent conversations. She’s intentionally planning her next phase, weighing the balance between:
Staying in production doing what she loves
Growing a team aligned with her values
Protecting both income and lifestyle
Looking toward 2026, her goal is thoughtful growth—adding the right people, not just more people.
“Alignment matters. Not everything is for you—and that’s okay.”
Final Takeaway
Deja Lett’s story is proof that long-term success in real estate isn’t about shortcuts. It’s about:
Mindset before mechanics
Systems before scale
People before production
From cancer survivor to industry leader, her journey embodies what it truly means to go from good to great.
