Hidden Gems: Meet Tristan Calabro

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tristan Calabro.

Hi Tristan, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
Hi there! To get to where I am today, I had to go through many trials and tribulations. To begin, I am a first-generation Sicilian American, and growing up my family had very little money. My father disappeared when I was young and left my mother, brother, and me on our own and this forced me to grow up very fast.

I went to school in Omaha Nebraska and I knew a lot of kids that had wealthy parents and always had designer clothes, the best shoes, money to go to movies, money to go out to eat, etc. and I remember being around these people always feeling ashamed or like I wasn’t good enough because I did not have these things. In addition to that, I never performed well in high school.

Once my father left I started working and became angry all the time. I had no desire to study for tests, no desire to try to get into a good college, I felt that those things weren’t meant for someone like me. In fact, at the end of my senior year, I had 6 Fs and almost didn’t graduate. Everyone that knew me from that time had told me I would never amount to anything except a troublemaker.

That I would never leave Nebraska and my future most likely would end up with me working dead-end jobs in small towns barely making any money and continuing the cycle. After years of constantly being told I wasn’t good enough, I made a silent promise to myself that no matter what it took, I would never stop working hard to eventually make a better life for myself and one day for my family.

I ultimately pursued the military and ended up joining the Army as an Airborne Infantrymen. In the beginning, I was happy; I felt as if I was finally becoming someone and that I was doing something important, however, that feeling was only fleeting and I realized very quickly that although the Army helped mold my mind and body into a more mature man, that it was not meant for me long term.

After exiting the Army I felt lost again. I knew there was more to life for me but I couldn’t figure it out, and then things started happening very quickly. I met the love of my life back in Nebraska who would later join the Marine Corps herself and after a few months, she was stationed in San Diego California so we moved together. When I got to California is when everything changed for me.

We were extremely poor when we first moved, the Marine Corps had messed up my wife’s paperwork so for a couple of months we were living in one of the most expensive cities in the country with no paycheck coming in. We managed to get an apartment but we couldn’t afford food, clothing, not even dishes. We slept on the ground and I would turn two sweatshirts inside out, stuff them full of pants and other clothing items that we moved with, and use them for pillows and we used a coat for a blanket.

We had enough money for one small Tupperware bowl that we shared with our dog. We would feed him, rinse it out, fill it with water for him to drink, then we would clean the Tupper ware, put a packet of DRY ramen noodles in the bowl, and that was our dinner. We couldn’t afford anything else so we usually only ate 1 of those packets of noodles per day. I lost about 25 pounds during this time period.

Although things were so hard for us, living in California I started to become exposed to people with an incredibly lavish lifestyle. I remember seeing Ferraris, BMWs, Porches, and every luxury vehicle you can imagine and I would see them daily! The same feelings that I had when I was a young man came rushing back. The feelings of not being good enough. However this time I knew I could change things because mentally, I had grown up a lot.

I never forgot the promise I made to myself. I began working towards being a personal trainer and eventually got my certifications and was able to go to work as a personal trainer for a private gym called Self-Made Training Facility. This wasn’t your average gym as a trainer. It was up to the individual trainer to bring in their own clients and to make their own money.

I immediately realized the huge sense of satisfaction that I got when I started marketing myself and running my own business. I fell in love with the process. I loved that no matter what happened whether you made money or did not make money, it was up to you. Your effort determined your paycheck. As much as I loved the feeling I had of running my own training business, I didn’t love the job itself.

I was back in a similar situation as before when I felt that there was something else out there for me. I didn’t get discouraged, however, because I knew that even though this training business wasn’t for me, I was able to try my hand at running my own business and knew how much I loved it. I told myself that regardless of where I went in the near future, that one day I would get back to running my own business.

Once my wife finished her enlistment we moved to Colorado Springs, where my wife was born, and I began working as a firefighter for the city of Pueblo. I was hooked from day 1 on the job. I felt important again, I felt like I had a purpose and that I loved telling people I was a firefighter. I was very proud and I was making a good amount of money. I remember thinking to myself initially that I could do this for the rest of my life and retire as a firefighter.

I worked on a unit called the Focused Response Unit, a special rescue unit that ran by far the most calls out of any other unit in the city. For example, a regular fire truck would run anywhere between 0-8 calls, with a couple of outlier stations that would sometimes run more than that in a 24-hour period. On my unit with just myself and a partner, we would run on average 18-22 calls per day in a 12-hour period.

Over the course of 3 years that would accumulate to thousands and thousands of calls in a very small time period. As time went on, although I loved the job, I would be lying if I said it didn’t take a toll on me and I began to observe the guys that had been on the job longer than me, and although I respected many of them, I couldn’t help but realize that a majority of the guys that had been there for many years and were close to retirement all had health issues.

Whether it was aches and pains, surgeries, PTSD, etc. it was clear as day that a lifetime of being a firefighter had taken its toll. I knew that running as many calls as I was, was not sustainable long-term. I realized I was becoming an angry individual, I have two young boys aged 6 and 2 and my oldest started saying that we never played together anymore, that I was always upset, and that I was never home.

That really hurt me to hear him say things like that and although I was making a decent living, I wasn’t upholding the promise I made to myself as a young man and I realized that I was failing myself, and my family. I began studying the wealthiest people in the world that I admired and began realizing that many of them had similar thought processes to mine, and I started noticing that many of them were involved in some degree of real estate.

I had met some friends who were also realtors and after talking it over with them, a lot of prayers, and a lot of self-reflection, I decided to get my real estate license. After a few months of studying, I took the test and failed, again, and again. I felt defeated but I didn’t give up and on my 4th try I passed. From there I joined eXp Realty LLC and joined my team Prosperity Group LLC in Colorado Springs owned by my friend and a man I really looked up to.

After I made my first sale I was hooked. I quit my job as a firefighter and jumped into it full-time, committing all of my time and energy to the business. I now run my own business as a real estate agent, and I have also partnered up with an investor and helped to run a fix and flip business.

Before I left the fire department, everyone told me I was crazy to pursue real estate, especially in 2022, and I was bombarded with other people’s opinions telling me once again that I would fail, there’s no way I could do it, etc. only this time, I felt God pulling me and speaking to me, telling me it was the right choice. Fast forward to today, I’ve been a real estate agent for about 6 months and I’ve made over $200,000 in real estate commissions with the goal of making over $300,000 in my first year.

Without the incredible hardships I had early on in life, the feelings of despair, being at the absolute lowest parts of my life, without those experiences that I went through that forced me to get to this point, and without the incredible support from my amazing mother, my incredible wife, and my beautiful baby boys, I would never have pushed myself so hard to get to where I am today.

Of course, this is just a quick snippet and I left out many details, but that is the broad overview of how I started and how I got to where I am today.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work?
As a real estate agent, I specialize in real estate in the front range from Denver, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and Canon City. As far as my fix and flip business, I specialize in the Pueblo area. What sets me apart from everyone else is my drive. Many people will say that they work hard, or they will never stop to achieve whatever their goal is, but they say this from relative comfort.

Most people have never gone through what I had to go through to get here and my hardships set me apart from everyone else. I will stop at nothing to take care of my clients, even if that means taking a hit myself. I truly care about people and have realized that life is fragile and can end at any minute whether you have millions, or have pennies, everyone matters and I try to make that abundantly clear to my clients by my actions in how I treat them and handle their transactions.

What I am most proud of brand-wise, is who I have built myself into. I went from a young man with the mindset that I wasn’t good enough to have nice things, that I wasn’t smart enough, and that I would never be successful, to making a multiple 6 figure income purely out of what I created in my mind. What I would like your readers to know about my services is that I will stop at nothing to make my clients happy.

It is extremely important to me that every interaction I have with a client is professional, and makes their home buying or selling process easier. I know how hard life can be, I went through so many hardships myself that if I am able to make something that is normally extremely stressful like going through a major transaction, an easy process for someone; or allows them to be comfortable and confident that they will be taken care of, then I am succeeding.

Who else deserves credit for your story?
There are so many people that deserve credit when it comes to what I have achieved today. Most importantly God. Without my faith in God, I wouldn’t have been able to push through those dark days and emerge on the other side where I am today. Secondly, my mother worked 3 jobs to support me when my father left. I will always remember how hard she worked to put food on the table and how she sacrificed her own happiness to make sure I was taken care of, she will always be my hero.

My incredible wife that I met as a teenager has been through all the trials and tribulations with me, we went through all these hardships together and without her by my side I would never have been able to become the man I am today. She was with me at the lowest of lows and I couldn’t imagine my life without it her. My wife saved me mentally from a very dark time and always supported me, motivated me, and made me feel like I was worthy of more in life. My kids look to me as their hero and who makes me want to be the man that they deserve, the father I never had.

Without my kids, I wouldn’t have such a strong desire to be successful. The mentors that I have had through the real estate process, Jackie Parr, and Andrew Vose have helped me learn the process and become better. My fix and flip partner believed in me and is growing this business with me.

And the most important supporters of all, were the people that made me feel like I was worthless, the ones that looked down on me when I had nothing, the ones that laughed at my financial situation, and told me I would never amount to anything, and counted me out. Without these people, I never would have found the desire deep down to prove everyone wrong and outwork the world.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @tristan_calabro
• Facebook: @tristan.calabro.
• Email: Tristan@prosperitygroupco.com