For the past two years, I had been seeing posts and videos by Dana Gimenez. We had crossed paths at several charity events. Recently, I had the opportunity to interview her at El Huerto Farm-to-Table restaurant and learn about her experiences and passions. Dana grew up in a real estate family in Tijuana. At 17, her mother had her working in the office doing errands and administrative jobs. One day, there was a walk-in client who was interested in a property, and no one else was in the office and so, knowing all of the paperwork, she prepared an offer. It was accepted and she was stunned by her commission! This started her passion for sales and real estate.
She was married at 20 and her husband’s family were also active in real estate. In 1994 with the devaluation in Mexico, everyone had to cut back and so Dana offered to help out at their brokerage. Her father-in-law did not really believe her, but on Monday morning she arrived for work. It wasn’t very long before the family believed that she could actually be one of the top sales people.
In 2009, after getting divorced, she received an offer to work in Cabo San Lucas with two weeks to decide. While she had been to Los Cabos many times on vacation (since 1981, in fact), she was nervous, being single, not knowing anyone and moving to a new city. With encouragement from her mother and an art entrepreneur, the next Thursday she was in Cabo San Lucas. When she arrived, following the mentoring she had received from her father-in-law, she printed business cards and started going from business-to-business to introduce herself to everyone around the marina. One of her tasks was to collect rent on some of the buildings managed by the company for which she worked. One day, walking in to collect the rent, she met a man sitting there who offered her a cup of coffee – it was Bob Bisbee, the founder of the Bisbee fishing tournaments. This meeting changed her life – he was interested in her and what she was doing and from then on they met regularly for coffee. Applying her self discipline, she started her day and sunrise and got home before dark.
Over the last 12 years, Dana has found and used good mechanics, carpenters, plumbers and other trades people who she could trust. As her property management business grew, she would recommend these trusted people to her clients – building her reputation with clients and the business of her contacts at the same time. Clients who had already purchased in Los Cabos were no longer interested in receiving emails about real estate, but they and their spouses wanted to know about things to do and places to go in Cabo. This resulted in Dana’s quick videos of events and activities (e.g., shooting a video of the boats coming in during the Bisbee and showing the fish they just caught). Many of the men were fishermen or golfers and gone during the day. So, when their wives would have questions about things to do and local services, they would say “Ask Dana”. This is how #AskDana was born.
As clients asked her questions, she would do short videos and dedicate the episode to the person who had asked for the information. Over time, this resulted in a portfolio of videos about things to do and places to go. It also resulted in the opportunity to do interviews on a radio show with Radio Differente in Cabo San Lucas. As Dana’s reputation grew through her media activities, it helped to get referrals for her real estate business. However, realizing that she was spending too much time on media activities, she refocused her energy on real estate. While Mexico Home & Life and #AskDana was born in 2018, she just recently became a broker at her brand Mexico Home and Life. So if you are looking for information about Los Cabos or for real estate help, #AskDana.
For more information on Dana Gimenez and Mexico Home and Life visit https://www.facebook.com/mexicohomeandlife or for her entrepreneurial activities and videos visit https://www.facebook.com/askdanatv
