In this episode of Dealmaker$, Shane sits down with Nikki Foard, Senior Vice President at Compass and one of the most respected recruiting leaders in the region. Nikki brings a rare combination of grit, emotional intelligence, and strategic discipline — all forged through a career path that started in the warehouse of her father’s industrial company and led her through tech, startups, and finally into real estate recruiting.

Nikki opens up about:

• Growing up in Catonsville and Howard County

• Why she turned down James Madison for Virginia Tech

• How Enter Sandman changed her college decision

• Working in her dad’s company — steel-toe boots, hard hats, toilets and all

• Learning grit, resilience, accounting, sales, management… from the ground up

She shares how a chance move to San Diego and a random business card in a barbershop led her into the world of tech and startups — and ultimately to Compass. She explains how she applied to Compass twice, got rejected, moved back to Maryland, and then got the callback on the drive home across Texas — leading her to the role she has today.

You and Nikki talk through the messy, electric early days of Compass during COVID — starting in December 2020 with no office, no staff, no in-person meetings, and agents telling her to her face that she would fail. Instead of breaking her, those comments became fuel.

She breaks down the real Compass recruiting pitch:

• It starts with goals, not numbers

• It’s about value creation, not persuasion

• Most agents don’t need vitamins — they need Advil

• And the key question: “Do you have enough pain or opportunity to even consider change?”

You two get into loyalty, comfort, timing, and how the best recruiting is really long-term relationship nurturing. Nikki shares how she eventually turned her pipeline into almost 100% referral-based business, why she looks for kind, collaborative, ethical agents, and why she refuses to recruit someone she genuinely can’t help.

She also opens up about the mistakes she made early — like getting to numbers too fast or lacking confidence — and the lessons that shaped her into the recruiter she is today.

This is one of the most honest, insightful conversations you’ve had on the show — a masterclass in sales psychology, persistence, professional identity, and building trust in an industry where trust is everything.

This is Dealmaker$, where real deals meet real strategy. See you on the next one.