In this interview snippet, Delroy Gill reflects on his early entrepreneurial instincts, describing how he started with a few pence, flipped it by buying and reselling candy at school, and later expanded to selling designer t‑shirts by listening to his peers' desires. Gill emphasizes that his motivation for school was the opportunity to make money. The conversation then shifts to his present stature as America’s top Black real estate agent, ranking in the top 20 at Live Sotheby’s International Realty in Colorado, with over $400 million in sales. He advises CEOs, athletes, and entrepreneurs, and has been featured in major publications such as Robb Report, the Denver Post, and Business Den. The excerpt showcases the link between his childhood hustle and his later high‑level real‑estate success.
I had terrible grades, but I loved going to school 'cause I would go there to make money. That's it.
I would start with 20 pence and I would flip it and go around and make it up to like £5. And as soon as I got £5, then I would spend it on the candy. Then I'll take the candy to school and I would sell it for 5 pence. So instead, I'm buying it for 1p and I'm selling it for 5p. I would just flip my money in that way until I got enough. And then I started buying like t-shirt, designer t-shirts. I would like actually pay attention to like conversations in the playground of like kids' needs. Whatever it was, I heard people say that they wanted, I used to find a way to buy it and bring to school and sell it for more. All the, that's all I did.
Delroy Gill is America's top Black real estate agent and top 20 at Live Sotheby's International Realty statewide in Colorado. With $400 million plus in sales, he advises CEOs, athletes, and entrepreneurs nationwide. Featured in Robb Report, the Denver Post, and Business Den, Delroy is a number one Trendsetter Entrepreneurs Organization member and nationally ranked by the National Association of Real Estate Brokers.
So I'm 19 years old, I've moved back to America, and like this guy is training me to work from home in '05 to sell websites where I get paid a commission. I ended up working with him for like 6, 7 years, and he would just train me and train me, and I just like started going to trade shows, selling in person, and I was like, this is like easier than being in the shop. Streets, no one's trying to kill you. But then as, you know, we were getting on a real trajectory, then the '08 recession kicked in and all of the real estate companies— Coldwell Banker, RE/MAX— I was selling to all the big names. They all started canceling their marketing budgets, turning their websites off. And I just thought to myself, wow, all of these people know that if they kept doing this or did it in the right way, like, they could suck up market share. I could take this software, become a real estate agent while all these agents are out of the business and they're leaving all the market share open. Like, why don't I get in the game now? And I just did free loan modifications. So anyone that was in a hardship scenario, they could sign up on this website and I would help them do a loan modification for free. And if they couldn't pay for their bills anymore, then I would sell their house for them. It's a pretty high demand market in 2008. It's the same thing that happened to me in the playground, right? Were you making a lot of money at this time? That year I'm making
