Some people discover their calling in a classroom. Others find it through years of experience, unexpected detours and a willingness to start over.

For Amber Stancato, the entrepreneurial spirit was there from the beginning.

Born and raised in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Amber watched her mother and stepfather grow a business they started in their basement and garage into a company with more than 40 employees, 10 machines and two factories. She saw firsthand what hard work, determination and a good idea could become.

By 14, she already knew what she wanted.

“I knew I wanted to be my own boss, help others and spend my life doing work I truly loved,” she says.

Her first stop was business school, with plans to one day take over her parents’ company. It didn’t take long to realize traditional education wasn’t her calling. She switched to nursing and spent her early 20s working at St. Catherine’s Hospital while helping with the family business.

Then came a moment she’ll never forget: a patient ripped out an IV and sent blood across her face.

“That was enough for me to quit RN school,” she says with her trademark humor. “I love people, but not enough to have their blood splattered in my eyes. Nope!”

Entrepreneurship called her back. In 2009, Amber and her partner, Nick, launched a retail business, and within the first year they had six locations stretching from Appleton to Gurnee. For 13 years they built and ran it, a chapter Amber remembers as both successful and fun.

When FDA regulations eventually forced them to close, she faced another crossroads.

“Do I go punch a clock for someone else, or do I start another business?” she recalls. “I chose to build another business.”

That choice led her through a range of network marketing ventures, including jewelry, insurance, prepaid legal services, scanning devices and public speaking. She went on to build a large Nu Skin team and earned an all-expenses-paid trip to South Africa with her best friend.

But as her second child grew older, Amber wanted more stability and a higher income. Then, in the same week, her partner, her best friend and a childhood friend each told her she should become a REALTOR®.

“I took that as God speaking to me and started looking into it,” she says.

Amber completed her real estate classes with Jean Abegglen Real Estate LLC and passed the Wisconsin state exam on her first try in March 2020, just as the world was shutting down.

She started her career with a small brokerage that had just two agents. Within that same first year, she moved to a local builder and took them from nonexistent on the MLS to No. 22, largely on her own and without a transaction coordinator or office support.

Eventually, she realized she was stretched too thin.

“So I did what entrepreneurs do,” she says. “I built a team.”

Today, Amber co-owns RealSpek Realty, a growing brokerage with six agents. To her, RealSpek is about more than buying and selling houses. It’s about developing people.

“We are not just building another real estate brokerage. We are building people,” she says.

She teaches her agents everything from organization and goal-setting to cold calling, negotiating, relationship-building and personal development, along with how to build a business that truly serves people.

“I want every agent on my team to become so knowledgeable, so confident, so successful that they could leave tomorrow and build a brokerage of their own if they wanted to!” she says.

That philosophy comes from what Amber finds most meaningful about the work.

“The most fulfilling part of this career is, without question, the lives you touch and the lifelong relationships you build along the way,” she says.

Those relationships have opened the door to a new chapter. Amber recently partnered with Douglas Kent Development, a family-owned Kenosha builder with roots dating back to 1974. The two businesses share many of the same values: integrity, quality, service and a forward-thinking approach.

“I am honored to have partnered with such a recognized and respected local builder,” she says. “And we have some VERY exciting things in the works!”

Away from the office, Amber’s children are her world. She and Nick love to travel, spend summers at their camper up north and see as much of the world as they can. She also reads, writes, works out and meditates, and she has been a Burn Boot Camp devotee for eight years. She supports two orphanages in Uganda and gives whenever and wherever she can.

Looking back, Amber sees every twist in her journey as part of the same story.

“There were pivotal moments, life choices that could have taken me one direction or another, and each time I humbled myself and spent time with God,” she says. “That is why I am where I am today, and I would not change a thing.”