OPPORTUNITY BUILDER

“Imagine a boxer receiving a clean blow right to the chin and then counterpunches where the opponent least expects it instead of going to the mat,” shares Greg Virgin, MBA alum, real estate broker, property manager, investor, board director, husband, and father, describing his ability to find solutions in difficult situations throughout his life.

One of Greg’s defining characteristics is his ability to find opportunities in adversity. “As far back as I can remember, I’ve been able to quickly bounce back from problems with creative solutions derived from the fallout of any problem.” An eternal optimist and keen strategist, he discovers answers where others give up, describing “opportunity or adversity as a matter of perspective.”

His experience in the Entrepreneurship MBA program in 2007-09 has taken this ability to another level. The number of tools, thought processes, and critical thinking skills he gained allowed him to be even more creative with solutions. He credits his ability to recognize and evaluate opportunities as instrumental in his success as a business owner.

Literally, the way I see business opportunities was shaped during my time in the UofL… I attribute much of my professional success to people I know through the University of Louisville. My experience was immersive and transformative, and my time there was some of the best years of my life.”

Greg Virgin, MBA

Now, as a successful owner and business partner with his wife, Stephanie Virgin, at First Saturday Real Estate, he feels fortunate to have work that he loves and a philanthropic focus that impacts many innocent children in our community.

But the road to now has not been without challenges. Although graduating with his MBA, the 2008 economic meltdown made securing a position, much less one deserving of his skills and credentials, very difficult. As an entrepreneur at heart, he built his own series of opportunities after graduating, working first for a tech startup, building business-saving operations strategies for a firm in Texas, and then engineering process operations improvements for a recruiting company in Louisville. During this time, he met and married the love of his life, Stephanie. Their future lay ahead of them.

In 2014, with some trepidation, Stephanie left her full-time job as a salesperson and entered the commission-only world of real estate. It was a risky move, but she worked hard and saw almost immediate success. She was a natural connector. The risk had paid off.

But then, in late 2014, she was diagnosed with stage three ovarian cancer and began more than a year of surgeries and chemotherapy. In this scary and challenging time, they found support from friends, family, and other agents. Now a seven-year cancer survivor, they both advocate for ovarian-cancer awareness to educate women about the subtle signs often missed.

While this experience may have taken away their ability to have children of their own, Greg and Stephanie knew they still wanted to raise a family. Realizing they wanted to adopt children, they joined the Home of the Innocents (HOTI) foster parent program, where they met and adopted Noah and Benjamin, now five and seven years old. They are wonderful parents. During a complicated foster and adoption process, they noticed the HOTI filled a vital need in Kentucky’s child welfare system. Wanting to help make a difference in the lives of other children, the couple got involved through dedicated advocacy, guidance, and participation on the organization’s board. Greg’s clarity of vision has given him a chance to make a sustained impact as the newly elected 2023 Chairman of the Board for the Home of the Innocents.

Looking to build a strong future for not only himself and his wife, but also their newest family members, Greg decided to join Stephanie in the field of real estate. In his early years in the business, Greg jumped in with both feet, seeking out and interviewing successful agents, acquiring mentors, and studying typical real estate brokerage business models. He knew to be successful, he needed to know the landscape. When they decided to open their own brokerage, First Saturday Real Estate, in 2016, he wanted to differentiate it from the rest.

He found that most brokerages have significant gaps in their business models. So, they emphasized a focus on agent quality and business development support. He wanted to see First Saturday’s role as a business-to-business (B2B) agent-first brokerage to help highly driven agents build their brands and their business relationships. When partnering with agents, First Saturday focuses on quality over quantity. This approach helps the agents, consumers, and the entire industry’s credibility.

Greg’s advice for students is to get and stay involved, lean into the experience of the program, and build relationships. These relationships will transform the educational experience and the results. Experience gained outside the classroom is transformative and will stay longer than what can be read in a book. He shared, “you will only find your calling by immersing yourself in an opportunity and learning from the journey.”

##

 

If you’d like to learn more about ovarian cancer and how to be proactive in screening or support research through volunteering or donation, visit: https://ovarian.org/