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Meet Allison Parks of Conscious Real Estate

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Allison Parks.

Allison, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I always worked in helping professions – mostly in counseling, teaching, and the nonprofit sector… (minus a detour when I tried to make it as a freelance writer.) I went into real estate just hoping that it would stick. I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up, even though I was about 35 and woke up one day to everyone around me having their lives together. Thankfully, I liked real estate! It allowed me to be part of people’s lives and help them to create (or move from) their sanctuary. I probably sound woo-woo when I say this, but I believe that our homes are our sacred spaces.

It still felt like a little something was missing in real estate. Even though I was helping people with such a key factor in their lives, my heart was still pulled toward nonprofit and giving work. This was around the time that companies began to become more socially-focused and all of the “give back” models were created. I decided that I could stay in real estate and just give back. After that revelation, Conscious Real Estate was born.

I worked at another brokerage at the time and asked if everyone wanted to start donating a portion of their real estate commissions. They declined that opportunity but gave me permission to donate a portion of mine. I decided to donate 10% of the total commission. I began working on that give back model, so it made sense in the next couple of years to just start my own brokerage. (That was in 2015.)

Now, it’s 2019, and we are still small, but I really enjoy the people who work for me! Not to mention, we have $25,000 in donations so far in 2019! I would prefer it were $2.5 million, but we can work up to that… it definitely feels like it’s ever important to be conscious of what is happening in the world and our country at this time and that we should all be finding ways to do our part!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The business itself grows each year, so I haven’t really struggled to stay afloat since the beginning. I would say that for a business owner who has (or at least cares about having) emotional intelligence, running a business is a constant process of looking at oneself.

You constantly have to wonder if your ego has run amok. You have to connect with people who work for you while seeking to maintain healthy boundaries. You have to face any issues surrounding money that you may have. You have to learn not to take rejection personally, while still looking for areas in which you could improve. You have to look at how your business affects people and the planet and make decisions about how to address these issues consciously. You have to learn to be yourself, but you also have to wear pants. Somehow, you have to do all of this, do your job, be a social creature, and also sleep and stay hydrated.

It’s a work in progress.

We’d love to hear more about your organization.
Conscious Real Estate is now four years old. It is a residential real estate brokerage serving the Denver Metro and Front Range area. We specialize in being real estate agents who give a shit. Real estate is an industry that seems to bring in a lot of unconscious people who only care about their personal bottom line. I care about my bottom line too, but I believe that taking care of my clients is the best way to maintain my bottom and my bottom line.

Beyond that, our business also has a give-back model. We donate 10% of our every commission to the nonprofit of our clients’ choice. I’m proud that every time that we do our job, someone benefits. Usually, our donations start to stack up until we have time to address that part of our job… I’ve found that it’s great to go make the donations when we are starting to get stressed or are having a bad week or something. It’s always a great way to reconnect with our mission and purpose and is a great medicine for whatever ails you.

What were you like growing up?
I was always kind of weird growing up. When I was really young, I was an avid reader and was in a lot of gifted classes. I was pretty well-behaved and always tried to fit in… (of course, gifted kids always fit in just great!) When I was nine, my mom passed away. Then I became more of a class clown and kind of bounced off the walls for a while.

I always loved animals and my parents would never let me have enough pets. There were never enough books either because I read constantly. I did a fair amount of music, dance, and sports as well… I could hold my own, but I wouldn’t describe myself as “impressive” in any of those areas.

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