In his MBA classes, Elijah Shanks was always easy to spot: When other students wore shorts and T-shirts, Shanks wore a 3-piece suit.

Not just during presentations; during every class.

“I appreciate dressing up,” Shanks recently said. “It shows you’re serious. I’m doing a master’s of business, and we’re going for a CEO-type of mentality, right? We’re supposed to be the next business leaders of our age. And so, I’m going to wear a suit every day.”

As a Realtor in notably laid-back San Luis Obispo, where the “SLO Life” is an ethos, Shanks (Real Estate Finance, ’23. MBA, ’24) still wears those suits every day. But that’s just one of the many ways he’s unique: He’s also a classical musician, a member of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Search and Rescue, and a real estate professional who strives to connect with luxury homeowners with unique personal touches and creative networking.

“There has been a lot of brainstorming because it’s so competitive,” he said. “I’m trying to stand out and do something totally different.”

Shanks is one of nine children raised in San Luis Obispo to a pastor and a nurse. Growing up in a 3-bedroom church parsonage, he shared one of those rooms with six brothers.

“That made us all really close,” he said. “You  have to work through conflict.”

His parents, both pianists, stressed that all the children learn to be classical musicians. So Shanks learned to play piano, violin and his primary instrument, cello.

“Growing up, we were never allowed to listen to pop music,” he said. “We just listened to classical music, sacred music and film scores. It really helped us appreciate excellent music, and I’m so thankful for that.”

Currently, he and seven of his siblings regularly perform with the San Luis Obispo Symphony. And several of Shanks’ brothers studied music in college. But, while Shanks continues to teach music, he wasn’t interested in music as a career.

“It’s hard to make a living as a musician,” he said. 

He considered engineering, but settled on business. While he made decent money teaching music in high school, his father insisted the children take a year off to work minimum wage jobs after graduation – “to get the value of the dollar,” Shanks said, “and build the concept of what it takes to work an 8-hour shift and make minimum wage.”

Three part-time jobs amounted to one full-time one: Shanks worked as a server at Panda Express, a ranch hand, and a sales rep at Men’s Warehouse, where he wore suits.

“It was very humbling because all of my peers were at Cal Poly, and I was at Panda Express,” he said.

The following year, he attended Cal Poly on a full scholarship.

“What impressed me about Elijah as a student was his high level of natural curiosity,” said Chris Carr, an accounting and law professor. “He is also comfortable in his own skin and is an excellent critical thinker, able to understand and appreciate both sides of a business issue or argument.”

Finance Professor Pratish Patel agreed, saying Shanks was polite and easy to work with but never passive.

“He knew who he was, and he was comfortable being different without needing to announce it.”

The suits he wore as a grad student, Patel said, typified that.  “It was not performative; it was consistent with how he approached school – show up prepared, take the work seriously, treat people respectfully and keep your standards high.”

While studying at Cal Poly, Shanks became involved with the sheriff’s search and rescue team. In that volunteer role, he helps find missing persons. Many of the missing are elderly residents with Alzheimer’s disease, but others are children and younger adults. 

“The worst thing is you never find the person,” he said. “So there’s no closure for the family. The second worst is that you find somebody, and they’re no longer with us.”

Search and rescue volunteers also assist with rescues at the Oceano Dunes, where he once helped a woman who was injured in an all-terrain vehicle rollover crash.

“Her back was injured, she kept losing consciousness, and she was pregnant,” he said. “So we called in a helicopter. CALSTAR from Santa Maria landed right there on the beach, and they came in with their paramedics and got an IV started on her, and we helped carry her to the helicopter.”

Search and rescue volunteers undergo extensive background checks and training, Shanks said. That training also helped one day when he was traveling for work and came upon a 2-car, rollover crash near Solvang.

“I carry a whole medical pack in my car,” he said. “I’m a trained EMR, which is similar to an EMT, so I can do the basic trauma first aide – things to stabilize a patient.”

Wearing his typical suit attire, he and an off-duty firefighter who also happened on the scene provided basic first aid to three people, including a driver who was trapped.

“When I first arrived, my immediate priorities were scene safety and hemorrhage control — making sure the vehicle wasn’t at risk of catching fire and that none of the patients were bleeding excessively,” he said.

Eventually, he and the firefighter briefed arriving CHP and medics, and a helicopter was called.

“I want to do my best, I like to work, and I am ambitious, so I want to go as far as I can and grow as much as possible.”

                                       -- Elijah Shanks

While he volunteers as a community service, his search and rescue work also provides connections, which is crucial for his career.

Real estate in coastal California is competitive. So Shanks spends considerable time brainstorming ways to stand out. One tactic entails sending eloquently penned, handwritten letters to select local homeowners, then following up with phone calls. 

Patel received one of those letters.

“It was a small thing, but it captured his personality,” Patel said. “Personal, thoughtful and willing to put in effort where most people would send a generic email blast.”

Not everyone appreciates the gesture.

“I’ve been cussed out on the phone just for saying, ‘Hey, did you get the letter I sent you?’” Shanks said. “It’s never a fun call when that happens. And then when you talk to someone and they’re nice, it’s just so refreshing.”

Shanks also came up with an idea to partner with the local Porsche dealership, connecting luxury homeowners with the car dealer for elegant photos, featuring both the homes and the cars. 

 “I love cars, and Porsche’s always looking for really good backdrops for photo shoots in town,” he said. “Growing up here and now working in real estate has given me an extensive network.”

Porsche uses the photos for its social media, and the homeowners can use the photos for real estate ads if they choose.

While in-person connection is important to him, Shanks is also conscious of how he projects himself. He doesn’t curse. And during a photo shoot with Porsches in front of the Orfalea College of Business, he didn’t want to wear sunglasses because, he said, it would look “sharky.”

But he’s also easygoing and personable.

“Elijah comes from a family with excellent values that also instilled in him a hard work ethic,” Carr said. “He will do well in life and in business because he is also naturally entrepreneurial and possesses authenticity, kindness, and the ability to listen to others -- the customer -- and hear what they are really saying.”

Shanks doesn’t want to reveal too many of his marketing ideas, lest he tip his hat to the competition. He has to make a living, after all. But while the commission from one big home sale can make a year, Shanks says it’s not all about money.

“It’s not a get-rich-quick thing,” he said. “I want to do my best, I like to work, and I am ambitious, so I want to go as far as I can and grow as much as possible.”

Above photo: Elijah Shanks poses with two Porsches in front of the business building. He partners with Porsche, connecting the local dealer with homeowners for photo shoots. (Photo: Jahan Ramezani)

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