Ruthie Gallardo
AGENT FEATURE
WRITTEN BY ZACH COHEN | PHOTOS BY SHAWNA MCDUFFIE
In her late 20s, Ruthie Gallardo-Owens landed the job of her dreams: an executive role with a company that aligned with her desire to change the world. It was the culmination of years of hard work, which included an undergraduate degree in political science from Oklahoma State University and a master’s in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) from Oklahoma City University.
“I had spent most of my 20s at a company that nurtured my talents, working my way up the ladder and getting ready for what I believed would be my future,” Ruthie reflects.
When Ruthie reported to her new job, she was in for an unpleasant surprise. Although her values aligned with the company’s values on paper, she discovered that, in reality, there was a large divide.
“I disrupted the way they did things, and well, one thing led to another. I was fired after just a few months,” Ruthie reflects.
Ruthie had done everything in her life by the book up until that point, and yet, she found herself nearing her 30th birthday, unemployed and without a plan.
“My whole career had just crumbled,” Ruthie continues. “Here I was… a highly educated bilingual executive who could have any job, yet my child's livelihood was literally at the mercy of someone else liking or disliking me. As a mother, that is a harsh realization.”
Out of the ashes of defeat, Ruthie found inspiration. She opened her mind to new possibilities and began to expand her thinking beyond the straight-and-narrow path to success. So, when a friend suggested she get into real estate a few years later, Ruthie listened.
“I was open, which I would not have been open to before that experience because my life was mapped out and I had no room for it.”
Real Estate Beginnings
By 2015, Ruthie was back on track professionally. She was working as a technology coach, educating teachers on how to integrate tech into their classroom environments.
“During this time, I met a wonderful co-worker who then became a good friend. He had been in real estate for many years as a part-time job [and] he encouraged me in getting my license and getting into the business as a part-time venture,” Ruthie recalls.
By the spring of 2016, Ruthie was actively selling real estate. It didn’t take long for her to commit to real estate full-time, leaving her former career behind.
“Many colleagues thought I had finally snapped since I have a master's degree and left a super secure job to go into real estate, which required little education and had zero security,” Ruthie laughs.
Nonetheless, Ruthie followed her gut to tremendous success. Her business grew year after year. She started building a team in 2019, and by the spring of 2022, she opened Nexthome Experts Realty alongside her business partner, Maribel Orquiz.
Always and Educator
As a broker/owner, Ruthie is focused on providing her REALTORS® with a solid foundation to build their businesses. She hopes each one of them can experience the level of growth she has.
“The most fulfilling part of being a broker/owner of my own NextHome Franchise is that I get to focus on coaching agents a lot more intentionally. I love teaching agents how to utilize all of the technology we offer to develop systems that lead their businesses to stability and consistency in income. Most people don't realize that without that stability, success in this industry is fleeting,” Ruthie says.
Ruthie believes what makes her business different is that she’s an educator. She’s never seen herself as a salesperson but rather as an educator.
“I literally took my master's degree and all of my previous work experience and transferred them to working with clients and then with REALTORS®,” Ruthie says. “I have been an educator and coach from the beginning of my professional career. It's taken the shape of different titles, but at the end of the day, I have always been a coach.”
In 2021, Ruthie developed a national coaching program to help other real estate agents scale their businesses. She also recently published a training book.
No Fear
Ruthie feels her past has helped her become confident, patient and grateful. Once upon a time, she approached the journey of life with a sense of rigidity, but today, she is open to the possibilities that lie within the unknown.
“In the past, I may have worried about things not working out the way they should or even failing. Now, I am one of those people with little fear of things not working out the way they're supposed to because my past has shown me that things do work out the way they're supposed to, even if I may have different expectations,” Ruthie says.
“As I get ready to go into the last year of my 30s, I am reminded that as harsh as it was for me to experience [losing my job], it is literally what cracked my world open enough to create the career and life that I have now, which is a thousand times better than anything that girl in her 20s would have dared dream of.”
Family Spotlight
Ruthie was born in Delicias, Chihuahua, Mexico, her mother’s native city. She split time during her childhood traveling back and forth between Mexico and Oklahoma, where her father was raised, and moved to Oklahoma permanently when she was 11. Today, Ruthie and her husband, Danny, raise their three kids, Dulce, Danny and Izzy, in Midwest City. Ruthie enjoys spending time with her parents and in-laws or simply hanging out with the kids.
