Speaking Your Truth!

We’ve just hit a big milestone with Empowering Women In Real Estate! Yesterday was our 5 year anniversary as a group!

It’s been 5 years since I founded the group, really out of loneliness and the desire to fill a need. At the time I had left the field after 10 years of successful sales to be a Managing Broker. What I found was that I missed the camaraderie of working with and associating with a group of women who understood. Women who understood what we go through on a daily basis to support our clients, build our businesses, and still manage to take care of ourselves and our families.

I realized it one day while I was in the shower, dragging my feet to get ready and get on with my day, that if I was feeling this way then certainly other women in the industry were feeling this way too, and Empowering Women In Real Estate was born!

Through this group I’ve learned again and again the importance of speaking my truth … because someone else out there needs to hear it.

Yesterday should have been a great day to celebrate this milestone, but instead I wanted to cry. It was a rough day. My first day back after a wonderful 2 week vacation and mid morning my internet went out. If you haven’t noticed, we rely heavily on the internet in our work, and with a massive to do list and a spotty connection on the hotspot on my phone the day was one frustration after another. My kids were yelling and fussing, and the dogs barked all.day.long. Nonstop. Then I see a notification of an FDA recall of many different types of implants (you can read about my mastectomy last October and reconstruction this past May in the group) and had to dig on the specifics of what I have and what was recalled (some types from my manufacturer were part of the recall, but gratefully not the style that I have). In the midst of phone calls my 80 year old Dad stops by, peering in my windows (doorbell isn’t working, see no internet above) to drop off his mail from the past 2 weeks for me to take care of and is weepy as he stopped by after visiting my Mom’s grave at the cemetery. More fussy kids, more barking dogs. Sellers who are frustrated with slow traffic and market conditions. More things to add to my list. Can’t print documents I need (no wifi, no printing) and on and on and on. Frustration was running high. I know you can relate.

I could have stayed quiet. I could have pretended all was well. I could have posted the shiny, happy posts that we all do from time to time, even when we aren’t feeling it. Instead, I’ve decided to share the struggles of my day with you, because it’s the truth, and I know that someone else needs to hear it.

These days happen to all of us. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in business, how many clients you have, how well established you are and how much you have figured out, we all have those days, those moments when it feels like nothing is working or going your way.

So yesterday I took a walk. I had wine with dinner. I may have had a handful of chocolate (I definitely had the handful of chocolate!). I had a tough conversation with one client, and scheduled a face to face with another one. I counted my blessings.

I am grateful to have a bountiful business, even when it is stressful and clients are difficult.

I am grateful to be able to work from home when my kids are home for the summer, even when they drive me crazy.

I am grateful that more surgery is not in my immediate future, and I can continue healing from a challenging health season.

I am grateful for this group. It has grown and developed beyond my wildest dreams. We went from a strictly online forum to an active and helpful group full of likeminded real estate professionals. I’m proud that we have little to no drama, and I can count on less than 1 hand the number of folks I’ve had to remove from the group for being disrespectful and the number of posts that I have had to remove because comments became ugly. We have Monthly Meet Ups in a variety of cities around the Country so we can further the conversations on the topics we cover here, and now we have Empower Coaching by Karen Cooper. I’m able to connect and teach in an even deeper way with those of you who choose to participate in the program and share the marketing systems that have helped me to grow my business and that of my team. I am excited and grateful to be able to re-open new enrollments on Thursday, August 1st at 10 am EST so we can welcome even more of you into this community. Feel free to pm me or email [email protected] with your questions.

Today is a new day. My internet is still down, but the service provider will be out to the house this afternoon so hopefully a resolution is in sight. I’ll be out this morning with my boys as two of them require a quick in office medical procedure which will hopefully give us some answers towards easing their discomfort. It is sure to be dramatic and unpleasant, but afterwards we will do a little back to school shopping (which they are strangely excited about) and my Dad will be at home to meet the internet folks (and “being useful” always helps him to feel better). Then I will get to wrap up the day with my team’s Summer Client Event, which is always a fun time.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for contributing to this community. Thank you for giving me a platform to speak my truth, because as I’ve learned over the years, it is often yours too.

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