Last week, I wrote about my takeaways from Inman Connect and how being an Inman Ambassador has affected my career and my life. My real estate career has been a series of ups and downs. Though there have indeed been more ups than downs, I went through a dark period early on. With bills mounting, I was having a hard time getting my real estate career off the ground. It got to the point that I thought that maybe this wasn't the industry for me. I was prepared to walk away and leave real estate behind.
But then one agent showed an act of kindness that not only helped me at the moment but put me on a trajectory to success. I went on Facebook Live yesterday to discuss the impact this agent has had on my life and my subsequent prosperity.
Who in the Industry Changed Your Life?
Being the Agent You Long to Be
Last week was an exceptional week in San Francisco. Over 2,000 real estate professionals from all across the industry and the world made the journey out west to learn, grow, and think of better ways to develop themselves and their services. In a roundabout way, Inman Connect has become a bit of a pilgrimage - Realtors and other real estate practitioners from all across the industry journey to this gathering. Our temple is a conference hall. Our faith is in the belief that we are meant to be the conduits of better lives for our clients, our communities, and the world. The journey we take has its perils - we lose our luggage, our flights are delayed, and sometimes our reservations are nowhere to be found - but the result is still the same. We come together as an industry to challenge ourselves, ensuring that we are always looking to break our self-imposed limits.
Topics:
inman connect
dawn tollus
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Are You Afraid of Your Success?
Does success scare you? It scares me.
Most of us operate in two distinct realities: on one end, we view success as the result of hard work, extreme discipline and a mélange of talents and training that propels us to reach our full potential. The stories of people who have gone through an inconceivable amount of hardships to finally rise and achieve either wealth or fame inspire us to do the same. If they can do it under the life’s worse possible conditions, the thought goes, there is hope for the rest of us.
Other agents' successes have always inspired me. Especially those who, much like me, came from out of town and found themselves in the real estate business through a series of circumstances or challenges. They hustled and worked tirelessly to achieve their goals. When I see them now and watch them enjoy the fruits of many years of labor, I feel inspired. I don't view their constant success as something to be feared or to feel threatened by. Instead, it serves as a reminder that with the proper discipline and a will to succeed, I could achieve the same results.
However, then something else entered my mind and created a second reality.
Topics:
dawn tollus
success
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Rethinking the Team Model
Teams are formed for variety of reasons: to grow a business while leveraging the tools, brand presence and infrastructure of a well-established agent. They are formed because of the opportunity for residual income to the team owner. They are formed so that other agents do not have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to building their own brands. They are formed because some agents simply enjoy working and growing together as a unit instead of growing separately. In most cases in real estate, teams are formed under a single person whose name, brand and presence drives the business of the team as a whole. this is the vertical/rainmaker model and it is designed to make money. While these team models can all be extremely lucrative, it also pays to stop and think about what you're hoping to get out of your team. Are you forming a
team simply for your own benefit, or are you building something bigger?