WINNING AS A SINGLE MOM REALTOR - INTERVIEW WITH THE BEST - MONIQUE HOWARD WITH KEVIN WARD

[Music] hi there it's kevin award the founder of yes masters real estate success training coming to you with another interview with the best and we are so honored and excited today to have Monique Howard from Atlanta Georgia she is actually with Keller Williams Chattahoochee and Atlanta Georgia and Monique has also been with it with yes masters and our coaching programs for years and one of our top agents and Monique welcome we're very very excited to have you with us today thank you excited absolutely and you've had such a great journey and it's been while it's been fun watching your business grow and it didn't always go well tell us how long have you been actually in real estate 19 years separation realtor yes you see your mom was a realtor before you okay now she's still in she's still doing real estate all right and so so tell us how you made that transition into just into real estate how being second generation impacted you what did you learn from your mom what have you learned beyond your mom to you you should work together tell us about that okay so I'm originally from Boston Massachusetts and so real estate was not at all on my radar I was not the type of person that you would say oh she's gonna be a great realtor at all very shy very didn't talk a lot but when I found myself moving to Atlanta after a divorce and my mom was always telling me as I would get dressed and get ready to go to work because I moved in with her initially and she would say you know you'd make a great realtor and I'm like no way I'm not good with people at all no and I would see her and I would leave it like 5:30 6 o'clock to drop my daughter off at daycare and she was still sleeping and I'm like don't you have somewhere to go she was like nope not until 11 and then one day she kind of used to leave like Commission checks around I think purposefully and one day I saw what it was more than I made in like a year and I'm like what's this she said oh yeah I made this in a couple of hours you want to become a realtor and I said absolutely cuz I was I was always late picking up my daughter because I worked late you know so I had to do something different what were you doing before real estate at that time prior to will stay in Boston I was an executive assistant at fidelity investments work on the trading floor and so I did that for many years and I got married I say pretty young younger than I wanted to get married but but religion said you need to get married so we ended up getting married and I got pregnant my first year of marriage and we were both very young and yeah I wanted to be a doctor at that point but in the religion I was in they didn't encourage college or anything at that time so you know being so young and impressionable I followed along eventually that marriage didn't work out and then I came to Georgia and that before real estate I was still in a role as a executive assistant at KPMG okay so you're you're being an assistant when your mom finally when you saw the check and was like real estate it is oh yeah it was the best thing ever it was I became a realtor really because when my ex-husband and I had divorced I wanted someone to be there with my daughter I want one consistent parent and so after my mom after talking to me and of course in the Commission checks there knowing I could take care of us she encouraged me to do that so I I couldn't take classes because my becomes my work schedule and in in a classroom so I decided to do it online and I was so pumped up about getting it I studied and finished in one month in the next month I had my real estate license and this was some line this was 19 years ago you said you've been at all say 19 years well I didn't even know you could do on licensing 19 years ago all right so you got your license so then you went directly in full-time no I was a realtor for three years part-time okay yeah and so most of my clients came from work my mom you asked me like what kind of training or anything my mom was never the sit-down type to say this is what you need to do first when I got my license I was like yeah yeah I got my license what do I do next and her response I'll never forget she was like go out and get some buyers and then I'll tell you what to do so she was always the type to you know lead by example but not you know no instructions there at all and so I just started during my lunch breaks I would go to the food court and I was also in a network marketing company at that time so the main script was do you like what you work are you interested in other business opportunities that's the exact same script those network marketing network marketing so I would stand in the food court and I would ask people that but I didn't have business cards for real estate I only had business cards for this network marketing company so I'm sorry I didn't have network marketing card I had real estate card so it asked that question and then I would give him my real estate card and then they would say oh I'm looking for a house so that's how I just started once it happened once I was like oh I'm onto something so that's what I would do okay so you were doing a network marketing company and doing real estate and working at KPMG all the same time as an executive assistant yes and taking care of my daughter yes and being a single mom so how did that work out how was that for you in terms of what do you feel like you were having success that way or how did that how long did that last you know I was at the time I felt because I my intention was never to quit my full-time job until real estate consistently exceeded my income and so for me it was extra money it was it was more money for me to take care of my daughter and I started to grow a lot more so I had a lot of support family wise with my daughter which was great and you know picking her up and whenever I had to show houses I just put her in the car seat and you know we go so you literally took her along with you while you were doing business yeah so what would you tell somebody who is looking at getting a real estate and doing it part-time what would you what would you tell them you can do it it is possible I know a lot of people say don't do it it's not possible I don't like to hear that because I was one of those people that actually worked for what I would do differently now is I will become a listing agent versus a buyer's agent I was buyer heavy then and my mom was also buyer heavy so she pretty much taught me what she knew but if I were to do it all over again I would definitely go full force on the listing side and then refer out the buyers all right okay so you a three years you're a part-time yeah and then after that you went full-time is that when you gave up the other stuff or did you give it all up at one time and go all in the real estate or it was a transition how did that work there's another story there so I did I was like my mom was like you're ready to you know give it out you're ready to go Monique I mean when are you going to give up you know give up this full-time job and it just so happened that they were just doing some layoffs at the time and so my boss at the time had no idea that I was a realtor and they were trying to keep me on in another department until they would lay me off they wanted me to train someone that they were gonna be paying less and so at that point I said you know I'm done by the way I'm a realtor so I don't need this job anymore they were pissed I could say that but yeah I left and I became full-time in real estate well that's and that says a lot about you that you were an employee that they didn't want to leave in a world where they were downsizing and all that they wanted to keep you so you left that you went full-time in real estate mm-hmm were you still doing the network marketing on the side no I the network might be yeah stop doing that my mom encouraged me to leave and it wasn't I mean it was easy at the time but like I mentioned earlier we were in a religion that was you know you kind of did everything by the book my mom taught me to be a very independent thinker so I was raised in its religion but I had a lot of questions so I decided that since I was now full time and I had more time I could go and I could discover new religions and see what everyone else believes well that didn't really go well with my family at all especially when they found out so I at the time I still was living with my mother because she you know she had an in-law suite it was you know fine but when she found out I had to leave immediately and I had it was the week after I quit my full-time job okay so this was 15 years ago 16 years ago mm-hmm okay so what hasn't so tell us about how that what happened next well I wasn't I I had actually gave me a month and I said okay but I I immediately realized that this was a big lesson that you know I was used to getting working and getting a check so this was my first experience being a 100% entrepreneur so once my money started to run out I realized wow I got a you know who get back to work and I have to find another place so I ended up doing getting a temp job plus two I didn't want to give up real estate full-time so I started to Tim and I got an apartment okay and you discovered this showing you didn't get paid for showing buyers houses all right so tell us in terms of kind of tell us a little bit about your success how did that work out now you're full-time yes my own rush it right away was it a struggle how'd it go you know it wasn't a struggle back then I business was pretty consistent when I worked it was pretty consistent when I did what I had to do but what happened back then was I landed in an investment group and I don't remember how I got there I think it was from a group that I met in the network marketing company actually they started an investment group they knew I was a realtor so they asked me to be the realtor for that network marketing company Network working group so that's how I started to get heavily into working with investors and eventually I started to buy homes flip them and I held some as well so through the network marketing company that I left earlier I still had those relationships going not intentional it was it just kind of happened and so for a few years I stopped selling real estate the traditional way and I worked a hundred percent with investors helping them buy and flip and then I'm me doing the same thing and you an instrument yourself so you were doing so you you got these relationships from a previous relation from your network marketing you kept the relationships and then you got into an investor group so now you're working pretty much 100% with investors and you're doing some flips yourself and that was working great on this this was back in early 2000s yeah like 2005 2000 it was like non-stop we didn't think was ever gonna end until it did okay so because now you're talking my word I mean this is back when I was you know when I started real estate in 98 so you started about 2000s yes so you're you've been in real estate nearly as long as I have and so we all thought we were great they're smart awesome in 2005 I mean you couldn't lose and then 2006 2007 hits and the world changed so tell us about when the world when the economy changed what happened for you it was horrible it was the most I didn't get it I don't think anyone understood it at the time I probably had about three properties that I was renovating one was in Florida and when I when I would went to read and I had I had three that were rentals and then I had my personal home because at the time I purchased a home and when I went to refine that financed them overnight like all of a sudden no one would refinance them they said they weren't worth anything and the ones that I had with that were being rehabbed I had with hard money lenders so as you know they're very conservative on their appraisals high interest rates very conservative on what they value the homes at right so when they were saying it was valued lower than a hard money lender you know I didn't know what to do tenet stopped paying rent but you know and me personally I fell behind on my mortgage so I ended up losing my personal home and I ended up losing all of those other houses I gave back the three I was rehabbing to the hard money lender because I I based it on their value but the ones that I own personally I lost all of it overnight yeah and that story there were so many people that that happened to um so like and I wasn't really thinking of going here but I'm just think it's a good place to go because we've been in an economic expansion for now over ten years that the economy has been super strong housing markets been good housing marios gone been going up and we know at some point the market's going to turn and just that's history that's just economics how would you tell somebody to prepare for if you went back and you could know what was coming okay and again we don't know we didn't know how bad it was gonna be we don't know how bad it's gonna be this time so nobody nobody know it's like nobody really knows we can all be prophets and guests and predict and all this kind of stuff but nobody really knows how do you prepare if you could go back and do it again knowing the pain you went through what would you do different pay attention that's a big thing pay attention to your markets pay attention to what's going on right now and a lot of markets people are seeing ships certain types of ships you know there's still low inventory but homes are sitting on the market a lot longer there's more price reductions now that I've been through it I know that's a sign you know really scale back on your expenses which that's what you teach us that's what we've all been doing if you don't need it you don't use it don't don't do it you know scale back save your money for sure thank your money and the biggest lesson I learned was if you're investing especially or even if you're advising your investors don't call mingle your money so what I did at that time because I didn't know what was going on I was trying to save these houses with my personal money so I ended up losing my personal home and still losing the houses and I didn't have I don't show your money I saw my money yes I lost everything trying to save it versus just you know I was too attached you know investing is a different world and it's it really is about the numbers so you don't get attached and you don't commingle money but really pay attention to the signs you've got to separate business investments from your personal wealth and don't give up your personal wealth and when I say wealth I'm not talking about necessarily been just like at your home your home your banking personal bank account don't make yourself destitute trying to save a sinking ship a business show just let it go yeah there's gonna be there's gonna be a lot of people there's a lot of strong emotion attached to this like okay what is the right thing to do and and all of that but that's the whole reason the real estate business is set up to a set up is that the bank has a recourse and that is the property and so forth so that's that is really goodness so I pay attention stream a staylene don't overextend yourself don't put yourself out there and then I don't lose all your money trying to save something that you can't save when it does go bad I'd say that with listings as well Kevin you know some people have listings and they're trying to sell them and the sellers not cooperating and you keep putting more money into open houses and mark that's your business money and sometimes it may be your personal money whatever however you set up and that it's the same concept you have to know when to let go amazing that's that that's a great connection to when it comes to listings listings don't make you money if you can't sell them exactly which we make them we may come back to that in a minute so let's talk a little bit more about how are you now how after their crash how did you recover tell us about getting back from where you went crashing and then how you got out of it and and how did you rebuild well I for tchen Utley I had great friends that were in the same situation but we kind of came together at that time it was like everyone became one figure so we helped each other out but one good thing about working with investors when the market was great they it was even better for them when the market was quote-unquote bad because they started buying properties left and right and because I had built relationships with them the ones that did the right things with their money I was able to still have continuous business and the great thing about it is I met new investors coming into the market who didn't know anything about investing but because I had I knew about it I knew what to do and what not to do they relied on me to kind of guide them through it so actually one of my oldest clients that I have I met during the crash getting your license no crash Oh in the crash I think you said in the class in the crash yeah yeah I met in the crash and she ended up buying 22 units at once during the crash and just called me and said hey I just need you to come sign like yeah and she's still my client to this day all right so I think some really powerful lessons I'm hearing one is the power of relationships and we call this and yes masters we call this the real estate vortex the power of having relations with people that just that automatically draws business to you over and over again and you've been you did that primarily through initially through investors attracting investors working with them and in through that you learned how to become an investor yeah which is awesome so if somebody's what what would you tell an agent because most agents or at least a lot of agents don't they do they're you know a lot of brokers they don't don't mess with investors are gonna waste your time they want a lowball everything what would you tell us an agent who's interested in working with investors now I don't work with all investors today I do not I normally don't take on new investors who are just getting in it to see what it's like because they can't be time wasters don't take a lot of your time you'll put in a lot of offers and they'll go nowhere so if you're gonna get in to invest working with investors you want to find some it's great if they're experienced because they know exactly what they want every investors what am I looking for Kevin every investor has a different profile so to speak every investor wants to net a certain amount some people want to buy and flip some people want to buy and hold some people don't their cap rates are different so they invest for different reasons so you need to know that so I guess the very first thing you need to do is learn about investing because in order for you to help the investor you need to know something about investing because it's totally different from taking a buyer out to find them a home that they're actually gonna live in how would you recommend that they learn about investing will be the fast best and fastest way for them to get their feet wet on how how to invest if I were someone new I would find an investor that was willing to let you kind of tag along and teach you what they know because that's how I learned I did a class I just happened to be in a group and I learned from them and now they and the group was an investing group it was yeah and there's meetup groups out there that are investor groups all over the place so in any market he's saying go to meetup.com and find investment groups and they go in there and they can learn from the group and they can find individual mentors that they can learn from yes cuz we know that you know the language and your advice helping it buys them you're a hot commodity they want to work with you they're seeking you out totally that is awesome alright so now let's talk about and I'm you've been you and I have been working together you started you came to an event five or six years ago I spent a long time for four or five was it huh you know when it was five years ago so joke was when we first started working together you were not doing great if is that my memory correct no so you you got into real estate you did good you were doing great car crashed and burned and then you you bet you made it through and you work in with investors so you built your business back but you're still working primarily with buyers and investors not listing so to what happened when we met why was your business back in the in the toilet if that may be an overstatement though there are several things on a business level the market started to get better so once those market started to get better investors were not buying as much so you know it's almost like there are people making a lot of money with foreclosures and then when the market shifted there were no more foreclosures so ambassadors are still out there but they weren't buying as much because they couldn't get those deals mom's on a business level that's what happened to me and on a personal level I had I was in a relationship you know you're engrossed in your relationship it wasn't the best relationship for me to be in so between that and then trying to make that work I just didn't know what to do really so I really it's like every season in real estate I've adapted I've adjusted but this time I had not only to adapt to the new environment in real estate but I also had a personal relationship going on over here so the two coming together just everything just kind of just crashed and when Garret emotions are not where they need to be on a personal level it is more challenging to be successful in anything else that you do only when you're met when you got when you're when you got people talk about you know work-life balance well if things aren't going right in your life and your personal life it affects everything it affects your business there's not really separate I'm like okay work over here life over here now when your life's not going right it's gonna affect your work sounds like that was happening so that's exactly what happened so what happened and had you had you how deep did it go and then how'd you get up well I ended up deciding to leave that relationship and when I left I didn't have anything I had my clothes and we had furniture together but it was to the point where I didn't care about any of that stuff I lived in a beautiful home and you know it looked like everything was okay but it was it that was with you that was in that previous relation yes yes that was in my previous relationship and I had my daughter so I needed to get us out of there how how old was she my daughter last year of high school so she was she was teenager yeah she was like 17 yeah and so I happen to have a client who became a friend and she allowed me to move into her home and her daughter's her home was in the same school district so she said that I could stay with them until my daughter graduated and that I could kind of she knew what was going on and she was like take your time you know just you know do what you have to do and you know it wouldn't help her out too because she was a single mom as well so I ended up moving with her and I was excited because I was getting out of that situation and in might and I could regroup and then see what I needed to do that just lasted a couple of months until she told me I had to leave anyway you got to move in with her for a couple months and then you had to leave yeah I thought I was gonna be in there there for the rest of the school year yeah she came home one day and said I needed to leave and that she had set me up for failure and she thought I could make $10,000 and she gave me a month to leave so I mean I'm saying it's not like I moved a lot like you've had these models together mamas or your mom gave it to you then your relationship I guess you chose it but it had to go and now you're being totally getting 30 days okay pressures on what happened yeah pressures on so the only thing I could hear her say was that she set me up for failure because that had never been said to me at all my mom would never say that's me is even with our differences she never said that whatever I wanted she would always say you just go do it then do it that was her thing go do it so I with no money still because I was still trying to figure things out I decided I prayed to God and I said look something has to happen I gotta leave here I'm tired of moving and I really my only focus really was I didn't want to leave and move again with my daughter in her last year of high school so I decided that I was just gonna drive around and something was gonna happen I didn't know what was gonna happen this is where faith kicked in because I couldn't see where I was going at this time and so I drove around and eventually I saw this new apartment complex that was just opening and I said okay God look I've been following your direction so far something needs to happen and I walked in and I remember talking to this lady who was just I just remember her looking at me she didn't say anything and I just poured everything out and she just said at the end wait let's see what happens just let me go and run things she came back and said you are approved and I'm like I don't have paint money how am i approved I knew my credit was shot and she said well we're having a special and you can move in one month free so you don't have to worry about anything so that's how we ended up moving into our apartment mm-hmm all right then how did you I know you got up start paying rent some day so what happened so once we moved in we we moved in my client that one investor that I talked about my longest client that I've had to date she called and said Monique I need you to list a condo one of those 22 condos that she purchased and now if this is the condos in a prime location and as soon as they go on the market you're getting multiple offers so that's I knew that there was mine this was around Christmas by the way so I knew there was my January rent right there she had no idea what was going on but I was like yes you know so I put it on the market and sure enough it went under contract and yeah so I was good for two months so then I I really at the same time I was transitioning moving from a a small brokerage into Keller Williams where I am now and when I went to Keller Williams the the team leader at that time kept talking about this program they had that would teach you how to get listings now although I've been in the business for a while I didn't I didn't my listings always came from my investors right there I never had to go while and present nor did I know how to present so all I knew was that I needed to pay my rent you know in February and I needed some deals to go through and they said if you do this and you do what they say we guarantee you'll get business and so I went and I signed up for the course I don't even remember how I got the money because I really didn't have much money and I signed up and for me it had to work it was not an option so anything they said do I did they said at the time I had to call two hours a day I probably called five or six hours a day and I ended up taking seven listings during the seven week program and that's when everything started to change awesome so now you got in seven weeks you got seven listings so now you started making money again so that was that the last time you were completely destitute I mean lost everything since then you've been on the upswing and so but now you turn to listings by now you're working with sellers yes so how is that go ahead well I was working with sellers and I'm so thankful to have learned how to work with sellers that way at that time because it worked but there was always something in me that felt kind of like not comfortable with the scripts they felt kinda they felt scripted and they didn't feel like me I felt like the baton switch type thing I didn't feel like I was being me you know it's not something I would normally say but you know when you have to survive you're gonna told me to say it I'm saying it right so that's what I did so I started doing research online and I'm like there has to be a better way so I went to YouTube and then I saw you cuz it's like oh wow so you're doing a listing presentation and I saw the listing presentation I'm like I love this listing presentation and so I studied that video I kept studying and studying it and then I started using it and I started getting listings like it was like really easy super easy and so um I that's that was I was like okay fine Kevin ward is someone that I'm going to follow because I love his scripts I loved his listing presentation I loved your expired script I loved everything and then all of the sudden I got an email somehow from Kevin saying that he was gonna be having a seminar and I think it was in DC cuz that's when I met Jerry and Peggy yeah and Aaron and Russ we all went to that seminar I was like okay I'm already using his stuff I know it works I gotta see this guy in person and so I went and I think you put me on stage too that's when I told you my story I was did a panel yeah that was so you Jerry we burn these are all mostly inner circle members you're these are all inner circle members you're talking about that you met at the event in DC and in fact a lot of them we've done interviews with the best all right some Rusin turndowns in Jersey City Jerry Weaver and who is the other one you said thank you oh and thank you yeah his was one of our coaches and also one of our great inner circle members and you met him all there and you were one of the panel people on the panel because you were you know you did the work you know you said that they when you were doing the Keller Williams program they said yes prospect two hours a day you did five yes that I mean it was not just that that it was not just the techniques or the tactics or the strategies it was that you took action on it implemented it awesome so how did that shift your business as you started you came to our event started I don't know what you did next did do you remember what you did at the event did you sign up for something then or yeah so I could went up to you I came up to you and all that people don't worry I was like I want to bring your inner circle you are like okay wait a minute just you know we went to the I think the VIP but I did sign up for VIP because I wanted to be in front like it was no doubt yes so and then you talked about how you had to join the challenge first ended a challenge and I was like fine I'm gonna join the hundred day challenge and so that's what I did we all did and you did the challenge and I think Emma's all you guys did okay so what happened to your business tell us about how that cuz you're already doing the listings now you're already making money you're doing well what happened to your business once that happened so I think at that time I was making like about seventy eight thousand a year on average and that's with me just learning how to list and then the first year after meeting with you I think I did like a hundred and ten and then after that it was like two hundred and two thirty-eight and it just kept going after that so it just like from that point it was when I hit a hundred I was like whoa like now investing I made that flipping houses but to actually present to someone and to I'll have them hear what I'm saying trust what I'm saying feel confident that I can help them do something so big and trust me with one of their biggest assets for me that was just a lot more rewarding and so since then I'm I've just learned to just through the techniques and and just being real like one of the things you teach Kevin is just to be your authentic self and not a lot of coaches do because I I've studied you know and watch people and so you teach us to put the our sellers and our buyers first and no BS then when you say that I mean you don't BS with us you don't see just the BS with anybody else okay so by doing that that has helped me to connect with a lot more people not just in real estate just in life in general like know that we care we're talking to them we care and so you know like I went on a listing appointment today as we were talking earlier through the vortexes and things and I I didn't take the listing because it wasn't the bet in their best interest and they appreciated that they wanted to meet a list with them so that's how my business has transformed because now I can sincerely say look this is I'm here for you and mean it and there's no script this is no BS this is what you need to do love it and that's you know one of the things that that I love and I want to kind of dive into this in a second is that we we teach the no BS approach to real estate that you know people don't want it and you don't need it the people you can get yes without the BS and you're you're saying that the best way and when your business really exploded was now you're talking to people straightforward conversations no BS no crap and your most important value is what's best for them exactly if they want to move then what's best for them is to hire me and I will help them get the best result so you're committed to getting the best results for your clients and if if they won't price it right or they're not willing to it takes to sell it then what's in their best interest is you don't take a listing that you can't sell exactly you can't help them yes last year and they ended up actually calling me back and I just sold their house in like a week we had to happen it happens all the time first we have it with we have yes masters all the time that are saying no I am I wish I could help you I'd love to help you but I can't help you with that price I can't help you and you're you know if you're not willing to do this it's not gonna sell so you know if anything changes let me know and just like you had you had happen if they call it back and they go like okay we want you to hire it and here's what they're seeing is this agent cares enough and is strong enough to tell me the truth I trust that agent that's what I want to work with I don't like what they're taught me on the price I don't want to do that but I know that they're not saying something just to get a listing I don't they're not doing it for their own benefit because there's no benefit for them not then they come back and now you could help them win exactly so I love that so what would you tell the person the agent who says yeah but sometimes you just gotta use the little BS you got to do the bait and switch you got to you know say what you got to say to kind of stick your foot in the door what would you say about that don't do it because that will be one client if you do get the listing and that's it there's no longevity in that and you will feel a lot better about yourself later when you do its best for your client I left that listing today feeling great yeah and you make enough money you can afford to leave a listing now about this as well you're taking over priced listings how much money is that gonna cost you yeah well you mentioned while ago the idea of owning real estate is when you have a house you can't that this going under you can't don't just keep pumping money into something you can't save same with a listing that you can't sell it's overpriced not it's exactly not gonna sell why would you keep pumping your energy or time your resources into it with because you're not helping them you're spending so much time on this one listing that you know we know when it's overpriced yeah we know what needs to be done yep totally okay so all of a sudden you were gonna making you've got to where you're making seventy eighty thousand dollars a year and then we started working together you went to six figures and then it doubled and then it doubled again now you went because you were like at one point you're basically homeless yes right you basically went from homeless and and you're in a Keller Williams office tell us what happened cuz you went into like from nowhere to the very top of that company right yes I was in the top five pretty much every year after that how many out of how many agents 280 agents okay done over 200 88 you've been in the top five now for a long time and you've been a lot I think you're at one point you got it to number you've been up to number two yes I went to number two and then I started getting other excited people started noticing so I started getting invited to be on different boards within Keller Williams and outside of Keller Williams it was exciting I'm like wow I never even thought about this stuff so I just started saying yes yes yes yes yes remember I did that year of guess so it's like saying yes to everything and it was exciting at the time so that'll that also led you a little over commitment so yeah so you're one of those people that you like make everybody happy and and you enjoyed the I don't know if there's the attention but you enjoy being a part of it so you jumped into everything they asked you to be you were like president-elect of WCR I don't want to say too much because I'm not sure what you don't me to say but anyway you just you're involved in everything and then you're like I'm not making money I'm distracted I'm I feel like I'm spending so much time on all this and it's not taking my life the direction how do you what would you tell us I mean how did you deal with it when you got so over extended spread too thin how did you deal with it I didn't deal with it well at first it was hard I I committed because I really loved those people that I was boards with and for me because of my family situation for me that was more like another unit another tribe so to speak so like family it was like family so I was like this felt really good and but what I wasn't paying attention to was that it didn't align was what I ultimately want to do and so those command some of the commitments I said yes to I didn't realize what I was really getting into until I was in it and so that was a big lesson for me because then it started to affect my health it has started to affect my business even because I was being stretched and so and pulled in so many different places and I was tired a lot so I yeah I overcommitted and I didn't stick to my plan and nor I think at that time I had a plan but I didn't have as much clarity so I think that's why it was easier for me to be pulled in so many different directions when you don't when you don't have clarity it's easy to get distracted it's easy to get it pulled off that's a lot profound okay so how did you get out how'd you get out of this I remember calling you and I'm like I don't know what to do because one of the organizations is a big deal like a big deal johner huge honour and it was going to put people in situations that I didn't want to have to put them in but it was literally affecting my health like my doctor said do you have too much on your plate and whatever you don't have to do you need to get rid of it and so even with that it was affecting my health it was so hard for me to say no so I had to just you know then you said something to me I can't I don't know the exact words but basically sometimes you have to recommit or uncommit your commitments I remember you saying something like that sometimes you just have to do it and there will be you know fallback and consequences to that but sometimes I like that happens and last year from me was that year I had two uncommit to a lot of things and it was almost like I had to start not completely over because now I have a foundation but I had to pull back I had to start focusing more on my health and really get clear on what it was that I needed to do right so you did that you eliminated a lot of stuff from your life yes streamlined simplified it wasn't easy it's never easy but this is you know so you have to look at all that and there's the thing there's always great opportunities that you can't do right you can't nobody can do everything and and when you start achieving at a high level like you've done and you started making a lot of money you started becoming it you were became a top producer and you're and people know you and they noticed and they like you and you're great and you're you're personable and even though you're super shy everybody's attracted either drawn to your energy and and so they you start getting opportunities and the the more clarity you having the bigger your dreams and goals are the more opportunities you will have and the more opportunities you will have to say no to that's just part of it and we didn't discuss this but sometimes you can get rid of the wrong things and I did that last year so I was in such a and I just felt like very overwhelmed and so I started to just pull things out I just said maybe I just need to get rid of this I need to give her that and one of the things I did do was I left the inner circle and that was at the time I thought it was the right thing to do you know I was like my business is slowing down you know maybe I need to do this I need to do that and so as you're eliminating things you really need to make sure you're eliminating the right things and I say that because during the time it hadn't even been a full year I came back to the inner circle yes came back it wasn't a full year that I left but one of the things that I had within that this circle in the inner circle and guest masters as a whole is that I built great relationships kevin is awesome like he cares like he he will you know there's no cussing on this I know but he will go there with a book because he cares you know you may not like it he's gonna tell you what you need to do but he won't just tell you but the people that you surround yourself they will definitely tell you and so by leaving that I noticed that the people that I were left with I although I love them they it wasn't the same they didn't have the same Drive that I had they didn't I think bigger you know I think big I have big dreams and so with them it's like oh yeah well you know don't work too hard or you know it's always good to wish you know they'd be like those are the type of people I surrounded myself with and what happened was my business started to slow up even more and so one of the things I caution people to do is when you are to making decisions in your life one make sure whatever your decision you're making is an alignment with what you are what your goals what you're moving toward and while you're doing that the people that you surround yourself with are very important wow that's very that's that's really personal and I it hurt when you left you know because we consider the inner circle our family and that's our that's for those either done today our inner circle is our our elite coaching program that's just the it we only allow the best of the best end and so it's very personal for me and my wife and we do that so when you left it was like we're devastated right and when you came back we were related so you know what's great the people that are in your corner they they're always there even when I was gone they're like how are you doing like you know I still role play with them yep like so it was you know it was awesome so surrounding yourself with the right people and who are gonna root for you and call you out on your stuff when you need to be is very important yeah and and we have and you know and this is part of the Association part of where you are now is dreams is just having big dreams and the Mount whenever you get caught up and this is you know the funk that you were in where you had all the stuff going on so you were having you were over committed now you're stressed out emotionally physically you started having health problems too started showing up because the physical stress started creating health problems so now your business starts going down you're looking at like okay I got a I got to get rid of stuff so you know you just start getting rid of stuff which is you had to make sure you jettison the right things but when we get into that we start focusing on the the junk and the crisis and the overwhelm we get that's we get tunnel vision and we lose sight of the dreams we lose sight of what we really want and we get focused on what we can handle rather than going like okay I'm a little rumor but this is what I want this where I'm going and as you know and the inner circle you and we would never let you a you you were never gonna get to lose sight of your dreams and since you've come back one of the things I'm most excited about is your dreams I've gone through the rough so tell us about the mindset of clarity and big dreams and how that changes you it changes so much so for me I and I say I was fortunate to leave inner circle and come back right and the reason I say that is because when you're around people who are dreaming big and then you're not around people who are dreaming is big and you come back you're like whoa you see the big difference and so I felt like I was back so to speak and for me it gave me more clarity as to where I was what I set out to do from the beginning but not I didn't I sometimes you can say you want certain things but the belief system within you has to be there and so for even though I was having a lot of success my belief system that I could achieve and have the things that I dream about wasn't completely there and so I realized that today it's totally different I have more clarity today than I've ever had and that is exciting when you have clarity makes you look for I'm constantly seeking ways of achieving that you know what I mean I'm noticing things there's more things that are more opportunities that mesh and match with that and a meeting people who have some of the same dreams which is awesome as well but when I want to get up when I don't feel like getting up and making a call or whatever I have that dream in front of me and when someone says no I have that dream it's like you say I'm not gonna let you prevent me from reaching my dream so actually it makes a I mean and I guess that's that why that people always talk about people set goals I've set so many goals and most of my wins and life most of them my life up until the past few years have been because I needed to survive right now I'm it's different because now I'm reaching goals because I want to win because I want to reach I want to I want to I want to experience something so it's a totally different feeling so how do you because one of the things that you struggled with that from your past was limiting beliefs scarcity mindset money was evil success was like Donna Nana no and and the idea of making a lot of money was everything in you revolted even because when you were making a lot of money the first first time you start hitting you have over two hundred thousand you still were broke because you couldn't handle having money because of your mindset money in my bank account yeah so I have you how because there's so many people there's so many real estate agents that they have they come into real estate and they're like wow you can make a lot of money in real estate and there and you can as you know so you can make a lot of money in real estate and yet the reality is is that if your mindset is there with the limiting beliefs and their scarcity mindset it stops you how have you overcome the limiting beliefs how have you changed your mindset when I got clear on the things that I really want in life and will achieve in life it was bigger than me that's how I did it because I can make enough money to take care of myself but the things the bigger things that I am going to accomplish are so much bigger than me that I have no choice but to make more and in order to do that I have to keep I have to see money in my bank and money in investments and things like that so getting clear on where the direction of my life has helped me and not just getting clear but being excited about it so I think a lot of my goals and the passion more surface things things that most people wanted and even the things that I I'm clear about now I wanted them but again my belief system was not there my belief system wasn't there because I felt like if I didn't do what others thought I should be doing that I shouldn't have I won't have as much I was taught that really um that you know if you don't do it things this way that you'll have some success but not the success that you want you won't be blessed so to speak in that way and so once I overcame that which was a process you know you said went through some things it's like a summary of things but once you get past that then things just open up your mind opens up and you won't go back so did could you can you put your finger on specific things you did to change your mindset so dreaming bigger having bigger dreams of things that were not only bigger but beyond you with there specific things you could say this helped me realize this is possible to help me have more belief in myself or this helped me have a stronger belief that it was okay to have money and have an abundance I think it's just being tired of not having your you get tired and ice last year I think for me was a big year a lot of things started happening at once I mean I've had moments of things happening at once but then at different levels in my life and then I looked around and um I'd like you said I always wanted to my family was big I always wanted to please my family and one day I realized you know everybody's living their life the way lives the way they want to live their lives when am I gonna start living mine the way I choose to yeah because the there's nothing I can do to change people but that's everything that I can do to change myself and so just being tired of like again that's really it just being tired I was exhausted and realizing it was time to start living for yourself and your long am I going to do that like really how long will you live your life like that you have this life how long are you gonna live for other people totally that's awesome okay I get it I'll ask one other thing about business and that is today how are you making most your money where's your business coming from today today it's a combination the investors are still big in my business investors expired listings and my PC okay so now investors are your your PC's your personal circle people that you know so you're ending the investors are mostly oh they're also PC yeah the people you already know they're not you're not going out and chasing new investors for the most part is that right I don't I don't I do not go look for investors no I've been referred to investors because people you know know one of the biggest things I've been doing recently as a beginning of this year and I started doing even more so recently his social media has really helped me a lot like as you know there's a few of us and it circles groups we're doing these live videos and they're in the challenge of 31 days I'm they're very great at this I'm getting there but I've been getting referrals in the past two weeks literally from people they're not saying I saw your video but that's the only thing I've been doing differently so letting people see me sometimes I'm made up and sometimes I'm not you know just letting them just see Monique and just talking to them sharing information being more of a resource that's my intentions to be a resource to share are my thoughts but a lot of times I'm just tough giving tips or if there's like I went to the Duluth festival yesterday if it's Sunday you need to do something being a resource and giving something on social media has definitely been getting me referrals top of mind awareness yes people are thinking about you they know you do real estate because you're they see you doing it on social media and you're out there talking to them so they can't they can't forget about you and I'm not always talking about real estate yeah sometimes it's it's a lot of times I'm not talking about real estate it's more what I'm doing or I may say hey I just finished showing a house and by the way you know if you want to go to this cool coffee shop so it's there but it's not like in their face right but and it makes you real they like you said people are attracted your authenticity so they see you being a real person they see you in life they're like I like Monique and she's real estate and she's obviously great at it because she does a lot of business and they see it all on social media social media you don't use it as a selling platform as much as you just use it as a connecting platform exactly create that top of mind awareness and one because I was the agent that always if there's something new I'm gonna try it I'm going here I'm going there I'm going here I'm going there that was me and I learned over this past year that if you just keep it simple it works so what I've mainly been doing is just going back to the basics and I'm adding you know social media is it's not new let me tell me you are ahead of your time with pretty much everyone I know about you on YouTube doing YouTube telling you guys video you've got to do videos you've got a video you got to do video four years four years yeah so now we're like oh we have to do video so but yeah I think that's the newest thing that I've been doing but really just sticking to the basics you really people want to know like you said who you are and that you care and if you stick to that you're fine and even beyond social media you now your website and you have multiple websites between websites now are getting you listings and you're using video on your website correct so they yes they all might all my websites have video yes a video of you talking of me talking yes and this worked for people you don't know to get listings and my testimonials are also videos mm-hmm for my clients so you have on your websites you have your viewed on video talking to them about why they should talk to you if they want to move and you have also video testimonials of your past clients happy clients and all that during your websites and you're getting listings directly from that exactly yes yeah it's it's so powerful that anything that makes you real as a person people don't want their people are more resistant than they used to be in terms of like you knocking on the door Co calling them or whatever which still works but you're finding it like what expired you still call expires right I still call its way you still call it right and and you're finding people that won't talk to you on the phone if you can get them to go to your website they take you out on the website they're you could talk to them on video and they can't cut you off they can't object no they say they're not interested I still send in my yeah because what they're interested in they're interested in selling they're just not interested in pressure they're not interested in another sales page but on the video on the website it can check you out they can get to know you just like people watching us on YouTube right now the people that watch me on YouTube they'll say I feel when they come to an event I feel like I already know you yeah and yeah and they're gonna why you're gonna we're gonna have thousands of people watching you on this YouTube video they're gonna be like oh when they see you at an event they're gonna be like oh it's Monique I know you because they see you're now a real person unlike any other way there's no thing nothing out there better than video to get people to feel like they know you and that meaning meaning that they feel like you're trustworthy you're real I now I I want you to be my agent it's just amazing how that works so that's awesome I love video and I didn't like it at first I didn't like how I looked on video no no just like yeah you said you said well if you don't like it get used to it because that's why you looking person that's right okay well that's right what are you most proud of as a real estate agent as a real estate agent I am a proud of the growth that I've seen not just financially real estate I hope she grow as a person and so I think that's what I'm most important most proud of in the relationships and the friendships that I have they're like priceless awesome so what's next for you next yes million dollars yes all right that's it and you know we've talked about a lot of my goals my intentions next year financial freedom is really number one and then really going after those dreams that I have yeah love it well that is so awesome thank you so much for sharing with us today Monique if somebody wants to find you you're in Atlanta Georgia you do all of the great greater metro area yes I do Atlanta and all of the surrounding metropolitan areas so somebody has referral for you so may wants to reach out to you how's the best way for them to find you Facebook Messenger is really good so if you go to its Monique Howard showers you'll see me send me a message I always check it I'm there you can also email me at Monique sells homes at gmail.com okay Monique sells homes at gmail.com and they can find you Monique Howard showers showers okay is the best way awesome Welman Adi thank you so much for all the time you spent I love hearing I heard a lot of stuff about your journey that I didn't know you've given us some great stuff just about success and relationships and the growth that you've gone through in the breakthroughs that you've had so I know that our watchers are gonna really enjoy learning from you watching this you guys if you have as you watch this if you have questions comments post your comments down below give a thumbs up to Monique if the her video of our interview today has helped you know better how to be successful in real estate and again money thank you so much for being with us thank you for having me absolutely [Music]

Channel: Kevin Ward | YesMasters - Real Estate Agent Coaching and Success Training

Views: 14,005

Rating: 4.9103141 out of 5

Keywords: Kevin Ward, yesmasters.com, real estate agent training, hero, coaching, real estate scripts, prospecting, real estate mentor, real estate leads, lead generation, real estate presentations, objection handling, overcoming objections, how to get listings, youtube real estate, real estate marketing plan, stop the bs, dinwitwin, real estate agent career, make money in real estate, real estate interview, real estate agent interview

Id: znhLBB-nwgg

Length: 64min 43sec (3883 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 17 2019