Gettin’ Back to Center

I have been busy this year, pretty much on fi-yah if I do say so myself! I set professional goals and I am knocking them out, one by one, day by day. I believe in goal setting but it has to be a realistic goal. I have been in  many many goal setting meetings from both sides of the goal setting process. Before I started in real estate I managed professional speakers. Every speaker I worked with was YOUGE (think Donald Trump) on setting and achieving goals. More times than not these speakers paid big bucks for a coach to help them set and achieve their goals.  My part in their business was to help them achieve these goals by facilitating their marketing plans, negotiating their speaker contracts, making calls out to their database, writing web site copy, creating print ads and basically do all that I could for them, so they could write their books and go on as many speaking engagements that they needed. So, goal setting isn’t a new concept for me.

But, what was new to me is the real estate industry. I had no idea of how to gauge how much business I could possibly do in one year. I was baffled as to what to expect from myself. After working in the speaking industry for 12 years, I was VERY comfortable in goal setting with and for my clients.  So, new to real estate, I did what felt like a million different things to get myself comfortable in this new endeavor. For starters, I had a WONDERFUL mentor. She literally held my hand on my first couple of contracts. She knew that I was very frustrated with not knowing everything so she walked me through my first transactions which just happened to be for rental clients. Knowing that I am a perfectionist, she knew that I needed to have every “i” dotted and “t” crossed before I turned anything in to her. I learned those darn contracts, disclosures and all the documentation that my clients had to sign because part of being a perfectionist is also the desire to “know” everything. Well, when you are new to any industry, you can not possibly know everything right off the bat, right?!  I was nervous, excited, scared and always felt that I needed to learn MORE!!

My second year was so much better. Once I had a few transactions under my belt, I felt my confidence level go up. I was getting more comfortable with the contracts, found some great industry partners who functioned like I did as far as level of service, and most importantly doubled the amount of transactions from year one to year two.  By the end of the my second year, I thought, well, I certainly could double what I did for 2015! There are still 3 and half months left in 2015 and I am darn near my goal of 18 transactions this year, I believe that I need 3 more to check that goal off, but, the good news is that I will definitely hit the dollar amount that I set out for myself. Now I know for 2016, I will double my earnings and transactions once again.  Hopefully,  I will find an assistant to get me to the next level!

Hitting these business goals is hands down a great, no, such a FREAKIN’ FABULOUS feeling. But what is even a better feeling is doing what I love to do with those I choose to work with. I feel so blessed, lucky, fortunate whatever the word is to have worked with all the clients I have worked with over the years. Each person or couple, whether it was a rental, sale or purchase transaction has taught me something of great value. I work so closely with my clients that when the transaction closes I find that I really miss talking to them everyday! It can be an intimate experience working with couples or individuals at this capacity. Buying a home for the first, second or third time is a major event in most people’s lives and I am so honored to be a part of this experience with them.  I literally go through withdrawals once the transaction closes. So, I try to find the balance of staying in their lives but not driving them crazy!

Stella has found her groove!! (side note: I sometimes call myself Stella) I have accepted the fact that I won’t know everything because once I do know something it will change! I am slowly understanding that I can only have so much control over all the moving parts in the transaction and believe me this is hard to let go of. But, when you have your cross transaction agent, their client, my client a title company, a lender, the home appraiser and a couple of inspectors involved, it is nearly impossible to have 100% control over everything! You have to trust that your industry partners will strive for excellence in their role in the transaction.

In addition to my business goals for the remainder of 2015 and 2016, I have a personal goal of taking better care of my physical being. I will literally take the advice of all the speakers I have worked with and block out times and days for yoga, massage and classes at the gym. Ah, deep cleansing breath. Repeat and I am ready to roll. Getting back to center is really my main goal for 2016. That, and being more “present” with my family. That is always a goal of mine because these darn kids just keep growing and I don’t want to miss anything!!

So, gettin’ back to “center” is what it is all about from here on out on a personal level. Professionally, I will double my financial goal that I set for 2015 and mentally I will seek professional help to deal with the “loss” when my clients are done with me and they have moved into their new house!!

Until next time peeps….NAMASTE!

Camille

*Disclaimer: I do not claim to be a professional writer nor am I am proficient in where to place commas, when to italicize (or is it appropriate to italicize or use parenthesis?) and that my sentences are grammatically correct. I am merely releasing all the thoughts that are in my brain and sharing them with you. If you enjoy my posts GREAT but I know they are written with many errors. Taking a creative writing class or a grammar class is next on my “to do” list. I promise. I also like to use double and triple exclamation points!!!! (Sometimes 4!)