Changing careers can be an intimidating endeavor. 

Making such a move has the potential of becoming an overwhelming obstacle, especially when juggling all the potential downsides and the rational fears associated with them. The possibility of regression, whether because of failure or taking a significant pay cut, has the power to keep people from progressing to a new occupation all together.

Those were real concerns Chinowth & Cohen REALTOR®, Andy Esposito, experienced when looking into making the leap from a sales consultant job in the home building industry to real estate. For the Illinois native, though, there was a lot more to it than just external factors. In fact, it was the revelation of an unexpected internal issue that disrupted the process for Esposito, making him hesitant to move forward with the transition.

In June 2021, Esposito fell ill right around the time he planned to take his real estate license test, causing him to have low energy while also suffering from dizziness, fatigue, insomnia, loss of appetite, nausea and diarrhea. Not to mention the mental and emotional toll he endured while undergoing blood and stool tests, and even an endoscopy.

“It drained a lot out of me,” Esposito said. “It was like, ‘Man, should I be doing this right now? Do I even have the energy to go out and just start from scratch and build up?’”

The culprit for his problems was diagnosed as Helicobacter pylori, also known as H. pylori, is a type of bacteria that infects the stomach and, according to the University of California San Francisco Health, it affects about 2/3 of the world’s population and 30-40% of people in the United States. It is said to spread through contaminated food and water or contact with fecal material, and Esposito also has his theories as to how he contracted the bug.

“Most people, their stomach acid is pretty acidic. So if you were to ingest something, your stomach acid is strong enough to kill it,” Esposito said. “With me, I drank alkaline water, which I thought was good for you, but it turns out that you're not supposed to drink alkaline water because it raises the pH of your stomach acid. You don't want to be alkaline when it comes to your stomach acid. It could have been that; I was drinking a lot of alkaline water. I don't eat a lot of acidic foods and I don't drink pop, so what they think happened was that my stomach acid was more on the alkaline side than the acidic side, and I caught it somewhere. I've been in third-world countries, so I've done mission trips to like the Philippines and Swaziland, and I could have got it there. It just laid dormant and then all of a sudden it flared up.”

Esposito was given an antibiotic to kill the bacteria, and though he felt the effects of the strong dosage, it didn’t work. He eventually found a naturopathic doctor who gave him the help he needed, but it took a long six months to fully recover from the ordeal.

However, even amid the chaos caused by his sickness, Esposito — who has a degree in pastoral and biblical studies from Rhema Bible College — found peace of mind about his decision to move forward into real estate.

He was still feeling dizzy the day of his licensing exam, but something inside him told him to forgo rescheduling the test because everything would be fine, despite him feeling a bit rough. Esposito listened to the spirit within, and it was a decision he wouldn’t regret. He ended up passing the exam, and after taking some time off to fully recover from the stomach infection, he began building his network within Chinowth & Cohen REALTORS® in the early fall of 2021.

Esposito got a few referrals from mailers he sent to the more than 400 families he helped build homes during his time at Capital Homes, and by December he closed over $1 million in sales.

That success continued into his first full year as a REALTOR® in 2022, and he has high ambitions to exceed even his own expectations in 2023.

“I didn't hit my goal (for 2022),” said Esposito, who also has a degree in business and commerce from the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Ill. “I had a crazy goal. I had a goal of 50 units, and I did like 20 something, so it ended up being a good year. My broker said that doing $5 million your first year is really good and like 90% of agents don't do that, so it made me feel a little bit better about not hitting my goal, but I'm just excited about building upon that.”

Selling 50 units might have been a lofty goal to begin with, but because it is achievable — as proven by a select few REALTORS® in Oklahoma — he realized with the assistance of a mindset coach that his goal was, in fact, too small. To change the way he thinks about generating business and to actually hit a higher mark, he set a target of 100 units in 2023. Of course, his number one priority is customer satisfaction.

 “My goal is to help as many people as I can,” Esposito said. “I could do 100 deals this year, and if 50 of them were unsatisfied with the service, that doesn't make me successful, right? I just went through numbers. So when I'm done and we close, one of the first things I do is send out a review and a testimonial for me. I tell them at closing, ‘You're going to receive this, and this really helps me. I want you to be 100% honest on the service you got because I need to know how to become better at taking care of my clients. I don't even care if you give me a bad review because, at the end of the day, it's gonna help me.’ And I haven't gotten (a bad one) yet, so I'm at 100% satisfaction, which is good. I'm finding ways to get better."

Whether he reaches that milestone this year remains to be seen, but even if he fails, there will be a silver lining. Esposito overcame not only the stressors of making a career change but also the physical and mental hardships of a bacterial infection in his stomach. Unfortunately for him, they both happened to come during the same season of his life.

Regardless of whether he sells six, 50 or 100 units, he has his health intact. For Esposito, that is key to feeling fulfilled in his life and his purpose.

“I don't wish anybody to go through it,” Esposito said of his bout with H. pylori. “It wasn't a fun process. Trying to mentally focus on something when you're dealing with something physically just takes a toll on you. I'm just glad I'm OK; I am just thankful.

“When you don’t have your health and then you have it again, it was like, I don't care if my business struggles, I'm just thankful to be healthy and functioning normally again.”