If you pop over to Andrew Jevin’s Instagram profile, you’ll see some of Los Angeles’ most beautiful properties, often nestled up in the hills, well above the hustle, glam and spotlight of the sprawling city that started as a quaint Spanish farming community in 1781.
Andrew Jevin
However, between the picture-perfect photographs and film-trailer-worthy listing videos, the Compass agent often gives his 30,000 followers an intimate look into his life: A video explaining his revamped wellness routine as a 45-year-old who’s embracing aging, a carousel showing his go-to orders at his favorite LA haunts and a post explaining the imposter syndrome that lingers, despite the success.
“Most people know I’m a real estate agent; there’s no question about that,” he told Inman. “I throw that in, but people are more invested in my personal life. I think by being my authentic self, I’m able to connect with people better.”
Ahead of his appearance as a speaker at Inman Connect San Diego, Jevin, a certified life coach, said he’s dedicated to helping agents and others, including a social media-shy journalist (see below), embrace the “cringe” and build a wider community that expands their personal and professional horizons.
“We have to get over what I call ‘Cringe Mountain,'” he said. “Everybody, we have this stuff in our heads. We care too much about what people think about us.”
The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Inman: What are you most excited about for this year’s conference?
Jevin: What I love so much about going to Inman [Connect] is that I get to meet agents from all over the country. I love being a Compass agent, but we’re always just in our Compass bubble, which just keeps getting bigger, but what’s so special about Inman is that it opens up your exposure [and] visibility to all these agents from all over the country, especially in places that Compass is not. It’s great for referrals, and it’s great for growth and networking.
Yeah, definitely. I mean, that’s my favorite thing about going to our conferences, even though, as a writer, we’re kind of always scurrying in the back with our laptops. Let’s talk about your session. What can our readers expect?
It’s something about social media. I just don’t know what the session is called, yet. [Ed. note: It’s called “Hands-on: Top agents’ winning social media strategies for 2026.”]
Last year, my coworkers and I worked on a social media series featuring brokers who have excelled at building strong online brands through authenticity. What’s been your approach to being yourself online? How have you avoided the temptation to simply fall into what’s trending?
I’ve been doing it for 12 years now. I’ve always leaned into showing my lifestyle, just my life in Los Angeles. The restaurants I go to, and the neighborhoods that I’m in: That’s what people care about. They care about where I’m going to eat or where I’m getting my chicken Caesar wrap on a particular day, because I’m obsessed with chicken Caesar wraps.
Most people know I’m a real estate agent; there’s no question about that. I throw that in, but people are more invested in my personal life. One time, when my wallet was stolen and I lost my passport, people were so invested in how I was going to get back home. I think by being my authentic self, I’m able to connect with people better.
That makes sense. I tend to be more private, so there’s a lot I don’t share about myself online. I mean, I’ve realized over time how many people who follow me don’t know I’m a journalist. Do you ever feel the need to pull back on what you share? Or create boundaries between yourself and your followers?
As a real estate agent, visibility is very important. I don’t have the luxury of people not knowing what I do. As a salesperson — I don’t love that word, but it is what I do — part of that is being visible. It’s marketing. It’s marketing the house, and it’s marketing yourself. So, there’s not much that’s private.
And I’ve learned that for me personally, the more public I am, the more I share, the more connections I make, and the more I make people feel seen, the more business happens because I’m attracting the right people. Your vibe attracts your tribe, so the more I show what my vibe is, the more I’m attracting those people.
There’s not really much that I don’t share. I don’t really share negative stuff, though. I don’t really share my opinion negatively, but that’s also just not my aura or my energy. I’m a hype man — I like to hype things up, and I like to hype businesses up, small businesses, specifically, here in Los Angeles.
I understand that. I’m working on being more visible online, so I’ll have to put your advice to use.
Start with a series, like a journal, leading up to Inman Connect San Diego. Make it a visibility challenge.
I’ll take you up on that.
People are rooting for you. Everybody, we have this stuff in our heads. We care too much about what people think about us. There might be someone who says, ‘All of a sudden, she’s making Reels. Who does she think she is?’ But we have to get over what I call ‘Cringe Mountain.’ We have to remember that the negativity that people give is on them at the end of the day.
It gets easier once you start doing it more. It’s like a muscle. I don’t always love the day-to-day of being an agent, but I love this part of it.
How does your experience as a life coach inform how you approach real estate? I saw that you studied under Jay Shetty.
Yeah, that’s a good question. I started helping real estate agents with social media about six or seven years ago because I built my business on it, and then people started coming to me and asking me to speak at events or create an online course.
But when I’m working with agents, we’re not really talking about social media tactics. We’re going deeper. What are the internal hurdles keeping you from showing up as your true, authentic self?
I was going to become a therapist, but that was too much schooling. I started listening to Jay Shetty and he spoke at a Compass retreat one year, and that inspired me to get my life coach certification.
The biggest thing I learned that I was able to bring into real estate is that, for so long, I was not a good,listener. I would listen, but to be reactive, to immediately come up with a solution. So, even with clients now, I tell myself, ‘Andrew, stop. Just listen.’ You realize they tell you everything that they’re feeling, or even that they don’t even know that they feel, by just listening.
So, I think for me, being a coach really helped me listen more.
