Coach Katie | NEVER STOP COACHING LEARNING LIVING!

I would like to introduce you to somebody that has a very meaningful life philosophy, and that mantra is, “Stop being disgusted with your life and start doing things that matter.” That alone will create a broad smile, like a billboard that will attract people and opportunities in a way you have never seen in your life. An example of this is Coach Katie. She moved across the country and expanded her business in a new town where she didn’t know anybody. She had the conviction to raise her standards like stop drinking alcohol forever and to start doing things. Someone with a great smile and a sunny disposition, all of these were created intentionally even down to the place where she wakes up every morning. She chose Florida because “even when it’s raining, it’s sunny,” and she realized that that has a positive effect both on her environment and her attitude, which matter and that, combined, create a recipe for success.

Coach Katie is a rockstar entrepreneur, mother of two, and award-winning business coach and will help you recover from burnout to live a life you love. Katie is also referred to as “Katie the Mortgage Lady” and has been a top producer helping over 1,000 families while originating over 200 Million in loans. Katie is a former realtor and has a background in corporate training and hospitality, which means she has a passion for service and takes a consultative approach. Due to her incredible success and growth, she created The Coach Katie brand, where she coaches other women to scale their businesses while balancing being a mom.

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Coach Katie | NEVER STOP COACHING LEARNING LIVING!

I would like to introduce you to somebody who has a very meaningful life philosophy that I believe can serve you well. That mantra is, stop being discussed with your life. Start doing things that matter and start creating meaning. That alone will create a broad smile that is a billboard that will attract people and opportunities like you have never seen in your life.

An example flying this is Coach Katie. She moved to cross the country and expanded her business in a new town where she didn’t know anybody. She had the conviction to raise her standards to do things like stop drinking alcohol forever and to start doing things that create joy in other people’s lives from the moment that she greets them on a phone call.

Someone with a great smile and a sunny disposition and all of these were created intentionally even down to the place where she wakes up every morning. She chose Florida because, “Even when it’s raining, it’s sunny,” she says. She realized that that has a positive effect both on her environment and her attitude. Both matter and combined to create a recipe for success. Katie loves to laugh and have fun and she mentors realtors and other business people on a path of positive productivity.

We talked about this in our conversation, how leverage and empowerment can create margin for you and leadership opportunities for your team. If you’re looking to learn or create opportunities for yourself or to grow professionally, you can always shoot over to the WorleyRealEstateNetwork.com/podcast.

Give us feedback on our show. Also, let us know what it is that you’re looking for and how we can help connect you to powerful coaches and how will you move the needle in your life. We truly want to see the good news in your life. If you’ve had some good news or something we’ve said on the show is affected you in a positive way. We would love to hear about it. It keeps us going all the time. We love good news. We love to hear from you and to share these insights from Coach Katie.

Katie, tell us where you’re in from.

I’m coming from Tampa, Florida, which I moved not a little long ago. I’m excited to be here and it’s about 70 degrees, which is amazing because hailing from Massachusetts originally. It’s quite the change.

I remember when you were moving to Florida. You said it was a little bit hectic.

There was a lot of moving Parts. I lived in Massachusetts for many years. It’s where all of my business was. I have two alter egos, is what I’m going to call him, Katie the Mortgage Lady and Coach Katie. I had my mortgage business in North Central Massachusetts. When I first told my realtor partners and my business partners that I was going to move, it was like, “What? Are you not going to do more mortgages anymore?” To be honest, since COVID, everything’s done remotely. I’m able to help my clients all over the United States. Mainly in New England and Florida, but I wasn’t meeting with anyone in person anyway, so it didn’t matter.

Moving To A New Market

Let’s talk about that for a second. First of all, let’s talk about success with moving to a new market and the new people because I know a lot of real estate agents have started a brand new business in a new market. We love to talk about how to get started at that because it applies to brand new people entering into a new industry. Especially new real estate agents jumping in and some of those tactics that they need.

That’s interesting that COVID opened us up. It allowed us to be more transient. You are one of those cool statistics of people from the Northeast that move to Florida. My parents moved to Florida and they’re like, “We don’t know anybody from Florida. They’re all from like New England and New York.” Tell me, what is it about Florida that you had to get down there? Why Florida and why now?

For me, it was more of this internal calling. I’m going to call it God. Call it whatever you want to call. It was like Florida. At the time, I didn’t know why. In retrospect, it makes a lot of sense. I’ll go over a little bit more of my journey over the past year. I was feeling called. I love the energy of it being bright outside. Here’s the thing about Florida, even on days that it’s raining, it’s bright. When you’re up North and it’s raining. I can literally hear the sound.

It’s like you want to take a nap and curl up with a blanket even if it’s in the summer. It’s raining. It reminds me of Eeyore, if I had to put a character to a weather pattern. Down here, even when it’s raining, it’s bright. It’s a different energy and I needed that brightness. I was also doing a lot more with coaching. I wanted the ability to speak on stages. A lot of the events I attended was in Florida.

I wanted to create an environment where I could host for treats. That’s on my goal list for the next couple of years. Florida naturally seemed to be that place to go. It was on a whim. When I told my friends and family, it was like, “Great. For how long?” I’m like, “Forever. I’m moving to Florida.” It was this exciting scary thing because I had built an incredible mortgage business up North and I didn’t know what that was going to translate to down here.

How is that going for you keeping that business up there? Did you keep it up there?

I did. My business is still primarily New England. I originally expected to get out there more down here. The last year is been more of a personal growth year for me then doing anything with business. I started getting back out in Florida and attending things like realtors association meetings and doing open houses. To give you an idea of how much growth I went through, I quit drinking. It was something that was on my radar for a little bit.

I wasn’t a huge drinker, but I wasn’t not a drinker. I would say I was a frequent drinker more than an excess. I moved down here and I quit drinking. I went through the loss of my mom. I personally was asking myself, “What’s important? Who am I? What do I want to do when I grow up? What does that involve? Does that involve mortgages? Does that involve coaching? Is it something I haven’t even thought of yet?” Over the past year, I honed in on paying attention to more of that and doing more of what I want to do for me.

What’s funny is my daughter is eighteen years old and has all the stress of you know high school and what’s next. As she sits there and talks about it, I realize it’s the same for me, too. I’m like, “That never goes away because we’re always improving. We’re always moving on to the next thing.” I want to dig into some of those topics that you mentioned there.

Before we do, first of all, it seems like you’re in this cool renewal rebirth phase. A lot of people at this part in their career are maybe burned out. They’re wondering why they’re still doing what they’re doing or looking for some purpose. You’re not. It seems like you’re in an active state. You’re looking to go to those places where people are active, where personal growth is happening and surrounding yourself with that tribe. What is it that causing this short of re-energizing for you? Did something happen or did you just feel like you needed more out of life? You’re a high achiever. Get us a little behind of Coach Katie.

A couple of things. I have a daughter who’s three. Early in my pregnancy, I had some health issues and I almost lost her. It was a real awakening for me because I truly feel like I lost her. It was related to stress due to my job. Being in mortgages, there’s a lot of moving parts. I held a lot of that externally and internally as pressure.

I had this pressure to perform. If my clients didn’t get a house, it was all my fault. I put a lot of pressure on myself on how I handled my business. I handled everything myself. I had some people in the background but I didn’t leverage them like I do now. Almost losing her I realized, “What am I even doing?” I was an older mom. Let’s say a few years ago, I was like 38 and I was going to have this baby.

I had a six-year-old at home and I said, “This isn’t working for me.” I had just hired a coach but I hadn’t done much with him yet. he was doing things more related to mindset. In the past, all of the coaches I had hired were very tactical, “Go to X amount of open houses or here’s a script when you’re calling a new agent that you want to partner with or do this do that.” Whereas this guy and it was a guy by the name of Brian Damaso who has since passed away. He may rest in peace.

I know Brian.

He was an incredible human being. He changed my life.

Kelly was going through TIR thinking into results. For people that don’t know Brian Damaso. He was a prodigy to Bob Proctor. He was a member of a Mastermind the Katie and I are both in and was a very giving individual. He helped people with their mindset and passed due to mental health issues. That’s something that all of us are mourning. This is mental health is a major theme for a lot of us this. I know Brian and talk to me a little bit more about some of the things that he helped you do and the pathway that he helped.

He broke it down very simply, “Katie, you can have all the success and more. It doesn’t have to be like the way you expect.” All of my mentors had told me, “You’re going to have to give up your family. You’re going to have to grind yourself into the ground.” Good intentions. They wanted me to know what to expect if I want to see the success that I wanted.

My goal was to do $55 million in loans in one year. Everyone they knew who were doing that had to make these huge sacrifices. What Brian told me is like, “We’re going to put the kibosh on thinking like that.” I have another mentor Young Ree, who says, “It simple and easy.” Brian embodied that, too. He didn’t say those words, but he said, “This doesn’t have to be hard. It can be whatever you think it’s going to be.” It taught me to pay attention to my thoughts and how that was creating my life.

Achieve More Without Exhausting Yourself

This is interesting because a lot of us who want to make a massive change, we feel like, “I’ve got to get up at 5:00 AM. I’ve got to work 80 hours a week instead of 40 hours a week. I’ve got to do all these things.” Those things create so much stress. I don’t know about you but it seems like post-COVID people’s tolerance for the grind has gone way down.

I know mine has and I’m on a quest for margin and for working smarter, not harder now. It still seems difficult because I still have a lot of these Gen Xers. I was taught by Baby Boomer parents to show up early and stay late. I still do. I am usually one of the last ones here at the office trying to make sure I get everything done before I leave for the day so I can show up and not be a distracted dad or a distracted husband. How have you tried to incorporate the high achieving and wanting more out of your life without exhausting yourself?

That is something that I struggled with especially at first and I’ve gotten better with over time. Some of the things I personally like to get up early and feel like a lot has happened. That wasn’t how I always have been. I would say, if it doesn’t feel like something you want to do, don’t do it. We all are told to do, “Do this. Do that.”

I’m on a health journey as well. One of my coaches was like, “Eat turkey, rice and veggies. Every meal, don’t put any oil on the turkey.” No offense, I’m 300 pounds. I dealt that putting oil on my vegetables is my issue, just being honest. It’s laughable. For me, I love food so what I focused on is creating healthy meal alternatives like are sustainable that I enjoy. I don’t load fat to make them taste better. I’m taking a little bit of a different approach.

If I follow what he said, I could be successful. I’m not saying I can’t, but that doesn’t feel right to me. Focusing on the feeling behind what I’m doing too is like, “What do I want to do?” If I want to focus in and I want to eat turkey, rice and veggies. I’m not saying you didn’t have other options. If that’s what I want to do and that excites me because the outcome, then do it. If you’re like, “This sounds awful.” Stop doing the things that sound awful and do them in a different way. I’m not saying you’re going to love everything that you do. In general, I’m doing something because I’m enjoying it. I enjoy waking up early because I get so much done and I love starting my day that way.

No doubt about it. A lot of us get stressed and we feel like we have to do a bunch of the thing because that’s going to make up for it. I heard something one time that was like, “you’re not going to get fit by going into the gym, stressing yourself out and working out hard for two hours.” The twenty minutes a day of going to the gym or stepping on a treadmill or doing something that gives you that consistent feeling. That’s true for me.

It’s hard for me to get into the gym, especially the older I get and the “busier I get it.” I don’t like the word busy. I like the word productive. I feel like sometimes when I’m busy, I can’t seem to get to those more important tasks like my health. That should be one of the things that I prioritize first but it’s difficult to do that sometimes but it’s the consistency.

It’s the twenty minutes a day over time that gives us the most productive benefit rather than that two hours at once, even though it makes us feel better. It makes us feel like we’re doing something. It’s like the Tortoise and the Hare. Nobody wants to be the tortoise, but it’s the tortoise who wins every time. It sounds like you’re having this awakening and you’re starting to work on those consistent things that you can sustain. If we assign that positive meaning to it like you’re talking about. It helps us stay consistent. what do you think?

My coach, one of the other things he did was and I started with him and October 1st. He started with me just walking a mile. At the time, I was not active at all. I did probably 4,000 or 5,000 steps a day. I was working about ten hours a day sitting mostly at a desk. He said, “I just want you to walk a mile a day.” I said, “Okay.” I wanted to walk my own half. No problem.

He said, “I want you to rotate between a mile and a half and two.” I said, “I’ll do it.” Now, I’m up to two miles a day. I do two miles a day and I take one rest day. I’m loving it. I’m probably going to stick to two miles for a little while. It takes about 50 minutes to an hour, but I get so much done. I love stacking other things with that. Sometimes, I’ll do a walking meditation. Sometimes I’ll walk and listen to a book or I’ll walk and take a meeting I have to take anyways. I tell people, “I’m going to be heavy breathing over here just you know. I’m going for my walk.” They don’t care but it’s a great way for me to get what I need to and people support you.

Quitting Alcohol

The other thing I’ve done is I started posting about my journey on my Instagram stories. Now, I was not a big Instagrammer or Facebook person. I have a lot of Facebook friends, but I wasn’t active in posting or sharing my journey. I started doing that and he said, “Take a picture of one of your meals a day.” As I was taking a picture, I’m like, “I need to be making better decisions. Everybody’s seeing what I’m posting.”

I wasn’t like posting a thing of veggies then eating a piece of pizza. I was eating what I posted. You could tell. It was funny, I had people come up to me afterwards and they’re like, “I love seeing the progression of your meals and how much healthier they’re getting over time.” I started to realize like, “That meal I posted a month ago made me feel crappy or it wasn’t as healthy as I thought it was. Let me make a tweet.”

It seems like what’s good what gets measured gets done and in a way you’re measuring the status of what goes into your body because you can always go back and log that. You’re inviting others to stand and agreement with you for whatever goal that you want. A lot of people steer away from Instagram because they don’t like attention or they don’t know what to say or they don’t know how to ask for the help that they need. It seems like you’re approaching it in a cool way and you’re asking a community for to support you. In exchange, you would support somebody else.

I’m holding myself accountable. W hat’s crazy is, at first, I was like, “I’m not getting many viewers.” A couple of hundred viewers. Maybe 1 or 2 likes or comment here and there. I went up North and I saw so many people because I had so many different events to attend. Mostly people in the real estate industry. I probably had 30 people come up to me, “I’m loving your walks. I love everything you’re doing that you’re sharing your food. You’ve inspired me to take action. I started walking last week. I started eating healthier.”

I’m like, “Thank you. That’s awesome.” What’s crazy to me is something people need to remember is you don’t know who’s watching or who you’re inspiring or who is taking action because of you. My goal and what I want my legacy to be is, when it’s time for me to meet God in person. Hopefully, later and not sooner. I want people to be like, “I remember this one time Katie did this and she inspired me to do that, or Katie gave me a piece of advice that caused me to step out of my shell and I met my husband.” I wanted to be a crazy story of one little thing they did that changed their life.

I’ll tell you one. When I saw you post that you were going to quit drinking alcohol. I thought to myself, “That’s a big goal. That’s a line in the sand.” I’ve always joked that I never had enough money to drink as much alcohol as I wanted. I’m a snob. I had the chance to bartend when I was 21 or 22 years old. As I learned alcohol, I learned the high-end things and I learned to mix alcohol appropriately. This show was called Cocktails and Dreams because cocktails are small recipes for success. What I found was that when I bartender, I usually made like seven drinks all the time then there was these odd ones that you would have to make.

There’s these few recipes that everybody subscribes to and these off-brand recipes that people have heard of but don’t quite know what they are. I wanted to connect with people sometimes over a drink but what I found was that what was more important and more connective was the common experience that I had with the person that I was interviewing.

The alcohol can be a ceremonial thing which is what it was supposed to be. What I found is that I was connecting with people like this. I’m drinking water now but hydrating and talking about dreams. It didn’t have the same ring but I realized when you started that journey of not drinking, I thought to myself, a lot of times I don’t even know why I do it. It’s more of a habit.

I don’t mean to interrupt but that resonates so much with me.

Talk about it.

I’m sure some people thought I was a closet alcoholic when I did this post but I drank more frequently because I felt like that’s what you do. You’re out with a friend, you have a drink. You’re at a networking event, you have a drink. You had a brunch, you have a mimosa. The amount or I was doing anything wrong when I was drinking, I wasn’t out of control. I wasn’t not myself. It was pretty authentic to me. I thought like I was drinking for no reason and couldn’t put my finger on it. Keep going.

For a lot of people that I know, you get home from the office, you pour half a glass of wine and you start on dinner just as a way to decompress from the day. There’s got to be a substitute that you can put in there. What I do at the beginning of every year is something called 21 days of prayer, which is led by a church in Birmingham Alabama called Church of the Highlands.

In our church and churches all across America, they do this together as a collective way for us to tie the first 21 days of the year to God and to create better habits, get in the word and to become other focused. Try praying for an hour. You run out of things to pray for in the first fifteen minutes, so you’re forced to think about other people and to take in prayer requests and to become that other focused person. During that time I quit drinking and things like that. I realize how I didn’t miss it. Did you have you found the same thing? Are you doing a hard and fast rule where I’m like, “I’m not drinking at all?”

For me, I’m better with the yes or no. I’ve always struggled with moderation. I love going full steam with things. For me, as of now, it’s a no for the future. I am so clear on my thoughts and how I feel. I love not drinking anymore. I love being around drinkers. They’re fun. We have a good time. My husband still drinks. He drinks much less just because I’m not drinking. Naturally, he’s drinking less if I’m not drinking alongside of him.

I turned to my husband and said, “I missed drinking.” Do you know why I said that in that? I was having a tough day. We were at this Mexican restaurant. They had tequila flights to kill you. It used to be one of my drinks of choice. I was like, “I could go for a margarita and separate now.” The reason I said I missed drinking is because I wanted to just escape from things that day. I was looking for an escape and I realized that’s why I quit is because I don’t want to look for a way to escape. I want to figure out what’s going on so that I can work through it, then I can live a life that I don’t want to escape from.

What are some ways that you’ve found that work for you to work through that?

Walking has been huge. I find when I don’t get my walk to start the day, I feel more rushed and stressed. That’s been a great replacement. Sometimes if I’m getting frustrated, I’ll go for a walk and meditation. Even just sitting there for five minutes. I do this thing called box breathing where you breathe in for four, hold for four, and release before.

I’m paying attention to my breathing then all of a sudden, it’s like, “I feel so much better.” I always tell my team, “You can’t solve a problem in the same frequency that problem is created.” We do this thing where a problem comes up in our business, “Fire. All hands-on deck. You need to fix this.” I tell my team, “I want you to step aside from this for a minute. We’re going to figure it out, but we need to step aside. You just tell people we’re working on this. We’re going to regroup and we’ll reach back out in an hour.”

When you are frantic trying to figure something out, oftentimes you can miss something easily. This happens with my nine-year-old all the time, so I have two girls. It’s this image of her standing in front of the door like, “Mon, door won’t open.” I’m like, “Did you do the knob or anything? You’ve been pulling it. Did you try pushing it? It might be one of those doors you push.” They don’t even think about it. They’re so frustrated and clouded by frustration that they can’t see the solutions right in front of them. I find that when you step away from a problem, you either figure it out or you realize it’s okay that we’re not going to figure out and move on.

We want the results so bad. We want to go outside so bad that we stop and realize that, “This is way easier to get outside if I take a moment, figure out how to operate this, turn the knob, push the door and now I’m outside.”

When you’re in a clear zone, you’re like, “Let me turn the knob. Let me try pushing it. Did I try pulling it?” You’re thinking in such a different way where you’re open to all possibilities of how you can solve this. when you’re in frustration, as I said, your door or your foot could be on the lever that opens the door and you’re the one keeping it shut.

It’s so easy to think about it like that because when we’re “happy or living with ease” things slow so effortlessly. It’s easy to figure out things. I have clients to come to me, “I don’t know what we’re going to do here.” I’m like, “What do you want to do? Do you still want the house? Are you worried about buying it now because there’s a tissue with the septic? Is a seller willing to address it if she or he fixes it? Is that mean you want to move forward? What do you want to do?

Great questions.

Have those questions or ask those questions. That, to me, is what also makes a great person in business is someone who asked those questions, what do you want to do? What are you hoping for? I even asked my clients sometimes, “If you can wave a magic wand, what would this look like? What would happen here?” That shows me what they want inside. If there’s a home inspection that went bad, I would buy the house still but all these problems would be fixed. Let’s see if that’s an option.

Real Estate Success

Home Inspections do create a lot of anxiety for people. They do. That’s a great example. I always told people when I was educating my clients. As I became an independent real estate broker and started training real estate agents, I would always say regarding home inspections, specially if you don’t have the right home inspector.

The right home inspector can freak somebody out because it’s a perception-based business. I’ve had contractors say, “I’d rather go in behind a termite than a jack of all trades.” It’s because you can predict what a termite going to do. When we would get termites on an inspection report, people would freak out but it means it’s another layer of discovery. It’s we continue to protect your earnest money. We’ll let them know we need three more days, get a specialist in there, find out what’s up and move forward.

I would always say that I would like to drop things into three separate buckets when it comes to home inspections. That first bucket is let’s run screaming from this house. This was a great insurance policy for us. Let’s use the policy. Let’s exit the contract and let’s move on. That second one is the immediate maintenance like we got a dripping sink or a wire that’s flowing around or electrical problem.

Those type of immediate maintenance items need to be addressed by a seller, then we’ve got deferred maintenance. Depending on how motivated the seller, you might get them to kick you down some cash. If not then that’s one of the negotiation points. Explaining it a way in my educating somebody and giving them the opportunity to decide what it is they want to freak out about helped me manage my business.

I love that you do that for your clients, too but I keeping it real. We forget that we live in this world all the time. It’s easy for us to not have a motion surrounding these things, but for people that are buying houses or investing in real estate or their new agents in the business. We tend to want to let our anxiety get the best of us. When in fact, it’s best as you said to take a breath, look at the door handle then push.

Figure out how to get that door open. I do a lot of that. A lot of my realtor partners have worked with me for so long because I started coaching them as well to help them grow their business because when their business grew and my business grew. It made a lot of sense. That’s what I’m focusing on in Florida as well.

If you have any agents down looking for that partnership, I love coaching agents because I know the industry and I get to feed two businesses at once, which is amazing. There’s a lot of little things that realtors do to get in their own way and it’s not their fault. It’s just that they’re not trained properly in most cases.

That’s one of the reasons that I’m sure you went to eXp. There’s so much training available and that’s not the same for every brokerage. Education is power like knowledge is power. It’s like that. I think it was a kids show when I was growing up but it had this little thing that was like, “Knowledge is power,” and you were like, “Get it.”

It truly is, like the more you know. That’s true. The information is powerful and you’re right. I did move to eXp because it automated the brokering for me. It automated the accounting for me. I found myself stuck in my office doing those things non-stop. It freed me up. It released me to go out and be a coach and a trainer and to see the needle moving people’s lives, which is why I was put on the planet.

I wasn’t put on the planet to have broker to broker conversations or to deal with attorney calls or to be locked in my office doing administrative tasks. I was put on the earth to go out and find people that are underappreciated by the world and believe in them more than they believe in themselves and to give them the courage to move forward and make an effective change in their life so that they can become a better husband, wife, spouse or partner.

When we do that, we become better human beings. Now, we’re contributing to the world that our kids are growing up in. I felt like that’s where I had the biggest impact. You’re right, eXp gave me the ability to meet far more people than I have ever met in my entire life. Those masterminds are free. They’re all part of that. As an independent broker, I had nowhere to go. I had to go learn, educate, and connect. I’m messages away from people who have already had that problem.

I find with agents whether they’ve been in the business for a long time or not. They’re always having to adapt as I am in the mortgage industry as well. Especially now with everything coming down with commissions. The industry is going to change, so you have to be educated on how that change appears so that you can be proactive. That doesn’t mean that buyer’s agency has to go away. That means you have to figure out how to make it work based on whatever changes come down.

You need people to understand what that means. Those conversations are things that agents need to know how to have with their clients too. People get so worried about having these conversations, especially related to money. People want to pay people what they’re worth. If I have someone who’s helping me in a situation, I’ve learned over time I want to pay them what they’re worth because I’m getting something from them.

Everything is in exchange. They’re getting something from me and we’re all happy in the process. It doesn’t have to be hard. Everyone makes things so hard. I had a friend of mine who was in real estate and she was saying how she hates taking calls after certain time. I said, “I get that but that’s the energy behind what you’re doing. You’re answering an anger?” What would happen if you answered super excited and grateful that that client is coming to you but schedule a time to talk with them outside of what time you’re protecting.

Most clients in real estate, they work. We love people who work and can pay their mortgage. That’s super helpful for us. We get them approved. That can lead to calls after hours and I get so excited. I take a three-minute call. I’m like, “It’s so great to connect with you. I’m tied up now, but let’s schedule a time so that we can go over what your needs are, see how we can fit into the scenario and we’ll work from there. What’s your schedule like tomorrow?”

I make sure I’m setting it up a time that works for my schedule. I could easily be mad, not answer that call answer it and say, “Great to hear from you, but I’m pissed about it.” That energy is going to be felt all around. It’s important to protect your time but also be grateful for leads that you’re bringing in. I find that a lot of people aren’t that way. They’re one or the other.

They’re like answering and spinning their wheels but not protecting their time or they’re protecting it so much that it’s in a rigid way where the frustrated when they get reached out outside of that. It’s like they don’t know your schedule. If I need something, I’m going to reach out when it’s convenient for me because I’m the one who needs something. That’s no offense. If someone tells me they’re working certain hours. That’s great. No problem, but don’t get mad at me because I didn’t know your schedule because I don’t know you. I just need your service.

Manage people’s expectations was one of the first massive business paradigm shifts that I had and it’s just communication. I love what you do. You make them feel valued by picking up the phone. You’re excited. You’re always excited to hear them. In my training, I call that studying under master dogs. Imagine like a Chinese zodiac and the dog being the year of the dog a thing. The dog is a master. If you’re a new real estate agent and a lot of times, we have to go back to the fundamentals.

If you’re a new real estate agent, I’ve always trained like study the dog and do what the dog does. When you show up to your home, the dog is always like, “Oh my gosh, you’re back. You remembered where I live. Thank you so much for being here. You have returned and my tail is wagging like I’m visually showing you I am so excited to be here.” By the way, I’m not going to say no.

If I were to say to the dog, “Did you want to go play the ball now? Did you want to go to the park?” The dog would be like, “Yes, I do.” I always tell agents, especially we live in a second home market with a gigantic lake and everybody complains about having to take people all the way around the lake for a tour. I’m like, “You should be thankful that you’re taking them on a tour. You’re learning the market. You’re out in the marketplace. You should say yes, and how else can I help you?”

Go out there with them. Bring more listings. Load them up with so much value that they feel great being around you. They will they will choose you. For those people that are like, “They came down two weekends in a row and they didn’t buy anything. It was wasted time.” I thought, “We’ve got to get those words out of our vocabulary.”

There is no such thing as wasted time because the bottom line, at the minimum, you learned fourteen properties that day that you knew nothing about. Now you can speak intelligently about those properties when somebody calls because you’ve got product knowledge. At least you got out in the field. I love the fact that you’re kicking people in the teeth when it comes to their mindset.

I’m not trying to give them a hard time, I want to be clear. I’m not saying that there’s times I don’t get a call. I’m trying to relax and I’m annoyed by it. When that happens, I say to myself, “Maybe I need a break now.” If I’m getting to that point where I’m not grateful for business coming in, then that means that I’m probably a little burnt out. Maybe I need to take a little time down.

I realize this. There was a story I was watching, the Wolf of Wall Street. A character in the movie was telling story about his dad who was like such a frustrated man. He’s like trying to watch the Equalizer and it’s the ‘80s. You can’t pause live TV. Somebody would call during the Equalizer and he didn’t want to pick up the phone. He’s like, “Who feels like they have the right to call my house at 6:00 in the evening?”

Yet, the minute he answered the phone, he was like, “Hello, Cheerio. Yes, very good,” then he hangs up. He’s like, “I missed it. I missed the scene.” I could see how somebody who is used to switching themselves over into a feeling of gratitude or a positive mindset. You get trained that when the phone rings to fall into those patterns it seems like.

If you’re shifting your energy and happy to answer the call, that’s different. Most of the time, I find that you’re not. It’s like you’re frustrated in the background and pretending. Pretending is like lying. That energy is going to be in the other side. You might not realize it. “I was super polite. Did you read this email? I could not have been any more nights.” Whatever you fell behind that email is what came through her behind that call. I’m a big believer in energy as well and energy we do things is what people feel whether we realize it or not.

It’s true. Pretending is a form of lying. I’ve never heard that said that way.

You’re lying to yourself.

If you’re pretending if you fake it to you make it. Let’s talk about that.

Be Until You Become

My coach has a saying and it’s, “Be until you become.” I love that a lot better because I didn’t realize. This is going to sound weird, but I used to be a pathological liar about stuff that didn’t matter wasn’t relevant. It would be stupid like, “I only had five M&M’s. What are you talking about?” I had fifteen or, “Sorry I’m late. I got stuck behind a bus,” but I didn’t get stuck by bus.

It sounds weird when I say it out loud. There was a time where I was like, “Why am I lying about this stuff that doesn’t matter?” I said, “I’m going to make a conscious effort to not lie.” That’s when I realized how much I did it. Silly things, too. Someone gives you a compliment and you give them a compliment back that you didn’t mean. If someone gives me a compliment and I want to give them a compliment back. I find something that I mean to complement the back. If I don’t, then I say, “Thank you so much.”

I know. Many people are so bad at receiving, especially high achievers as well. Givers are especially bad at receiving. That’s such great advice, Katie because that’s one of the best things that you can do when somebody gives you a compliment. It’s just to say thank you.

I anchored it. Consciously whenever I get a compliment no matter what it is or if someone does something like if I’m getting a taxi and the driver gets out to open my door. I like to anchor into in my heart and I say, “Thank you so much for doing that.” That was something that took a long time to figure out because I wasn’t a great receiver.

Coach Katie

Many people are not that we don’t want to give compliments sometimes. I know I don’t sometimes because I’m afraid how somebody’s going to take it. It’s awkward when you compliment somebody because they’re awkward about it. I know I’ve done that for so many people. I’m trying to be a whole lot better about saying, “Thank you.” It helps because people want to know that they’re doing something good by giving you a little bit of affirmation. I love your holistic approach. I do. Is the majority of your business still you said in the Northeast and you’re growing it. We’re talking about your mortgage business.

I haven’t released much with coaching. I just started doing weekly lives in my group the Katie Kollective. I’ll make sure you link that when we post this episode.

We will have that linked. Don’t worry about that. Where do people find you?

It’s through Facebook. It’s a Facebook group. I go live in the group once a week. Once a month, I do this mini course to where I teach something relevant. I taught seven steps towards creating your ideal day and it’s like a 30 to 45-minute mini course. I don’t like to call it a master class because, to me, master classes have so much more value and a little bit deeper.

I wanted to be able to bring this material to the masses and allow people to get to know me as I release more coaching programs. I haven’t released many coaching programs. I still have clients in the mortgage industry and realtor partners who predominantly have more of an exchange where they give us all their business and I help them grow theirs. I’m going to be doing more paid programs related to coaching. You’ll see more over the next month or two.

You’re building a community of like-minded people that you will make offers to but for now, it sounds like it’s this organic place for people to come, share and get that.

My goal is to always keep it be a free resource for people. It’s if people want to go deeper like, “I love what you’re saying. I want to know more on how this can pertain to me.” The group coaching and the one-on-one coaching is meant to help people specifically with whatever they’re struggling with or whatever their goals are.

That’s awesome. How do you envision yourself then as a coach? Are you looking for clients that are monthly clients like a certain number of clients?

This is something I’ve been thinking about because I was like, “I don’t want to just do real estate agents. That’s not what I’m looking for.” The more I realized, “That’s who I can help the most.” I enjoy it because it goes hand in hand with my experience as a loan officer. I’m looking for realtors who have seen success but maybe they’re struggling to figure out what’s next as they’re adapting to changing interest rates and the changing market and things that may come down with commissions. They just don’t know where to go next. More likely a more seasoned agent.

I love working with brokers because I love helping their newer agents too in creating a system to where they are set up for success. For example, that’s seven steps to creating your ideal day. I’m going to be doing it in a real estate office for their agents to help. I find one of the biggest issues with agents is people come into this industry because they want more flexibility but they don’t realize they still need some sort of structure.

You can be flexible, but you have to have a guideline. Helping them create their ideal day around what they’re already scheduling whether they’re a mom. I work a lot with moms. That’s my ideal clientele because I help them manage things like bringing the kids to gymnastics or who’s putting them on the bus or bringing them to school.

Those are things you have to incorporate in your day, but you can do so then plan your rest of your day around that. Finding that balance like, making sure I have at least two hours a week set aside for laundry. How am I managing that? Managing the daily activities that you’re supposed to do along with this new business or this business that you’re struggling with and how you can get better at managing that.

That’s phenomenal because people have this idea of business success and we have to do these things. Therefore, I have to neglect all of these things and that creates stress. The timeline of when this should have been done, they know laundry has passed and now my kids don’t have any clean underwear. I’m trying to go out.

You’re like, “Smell it. It’ll be fine.”

It’s great that you’re offering people permission be a mom or to be a dad and to be a professional because we’re both of the same time. A lot of times, we feel like we have to be one or the other or we have to feel like we have to balance. We have to have this work, life-balance and work, life-integration. One of the things that I’ve realized all of a sudden in my life is that there’s no such thing as balance.

It’s an illusion. It doesn’t exist. Think of the body posture that you have when you are balancing. It’s not comfortable. You’re using small muscles. You’re sweating and trying to keep things from falling. Who wants to live that way? I don’t want to live that way anymore. In fact, if I imagine if I had a stack of rocks in my hand. I would want an empty hand to be able to catch them when they all fall and that is margin.

Margin of time, resources, money and love. Love is so free. It costs you nothing to pick up the phone and answer in a way that would be encouraging for somebody else. As you said, I love that you use that example because that is such a small easy to use example like Kelly and I. We walked into a store. Our lives are crazy. We had two hours together. We went grocery shopping. That’s not a date. It’s errand running but I’ll take what I can get. We walked into the store and there was a lady. Kelly was like, “How are you doing?” She’s like, “Fine.” She was like the proprietor or the employee of the store.

I know you could feel it, too.

We could and we’re like, “I’m sorry for walking in the story here.” I’m thankful that somebody was working and she was there to help us when we were ready to check out. That energy transfer was apparent. We miss out on those opportunities regularly. I know I do.

For me, I do talk about a little bit work, life and balance. What I mean by that is truly having a life you live that you don’t feel like I need a break from all the time. I’m not saying that you can never go on a vacation or enjoy time with family in a different way. Truly, if in my everyday day, I live it. I live a life I love and I enjoy it. That’s, to me, what balance is. It’s having a life you don’t feel like you need a break from all the time.

I love that. That is beautifully said. I love the way that sounds and I’m going to write that down.

I’m going to be using it as my tagline with the coach because it’s so important.

I’m going to be putting that so I can see it right up there every single. I love that.

Think about what that means to you, so what does that mean to me? For me, that means I have to pay attention before I get to a point where I’m burned out. I have to balance “things that are required of me as a parent” and as a job. Also, do things that I love doing. My daughter and I have standing dates every Monday night.

She sleeps in my bed. We play a game or watch a movie. I do that so that we have that time that she can look forward to. Guess what? I’m not home every Monday. If I’m not going to be home on a Monday, we move it to a day that works. It’s flexible. I always tell my kids, “You guys have to be flexible. If things change sometimes that’s okay. That’s doesn’t mean you don’t have a plan.” You have to be able to adapt if things shift that you aren’t expecting because we can only control the things that are within our control. That’s how we react and how we create the life that we’re living.

That’s true. You’ve moved your business from one city to another city. Has it been difficult for you to plug in to the new city?

Yes and no. I haven’t dove in but there are things. If I were talking to an agent starting in a new city, there are things I would recommend. For example, I’m a big proponent of BNI. If you can get in it as an agent or a loan officer in an area that you’re moving to get to know other people there. I recommend starting to join chamber events. You want to be ingrained in the area you’re going to be living.

A realtor is someone who helps build that community and that means that you want to know who else is in that community doing business and who does a good job of it. If someone has going to attend a weekly meeting whether it BNI or a chamber meeting or Association of Realtors. That means they’re not going to probably disappear with your money because why would they? They’re going to see you next week. To me, you’re going to be able to make partnerships with the people that you can know and trust quickly in an area that you’re not familiar with.

Leverage To Do More

That’s a great advice. You also talked a little bit about leverage. How have you use leverage or other people? What systems have you put in place in your business in order to give you the freedom to do expand or scale or do more of the things you want to do?

I have a team and a lot of them work in the background. I do have one team member Shane who’s awesome. He works hand in hands with clients, but I get eyes on the loan. The difference is I don’t have to be bound to certain meetings because I’m usually in other meanings. I don’t want to be the one necessarily talking to the client but I am the one in the background who’s taking a look at it and making sure everything looks good because my name is on the pre-approval.

My reputation is very strong up North and I want to make sure we get to closing. I’ve trained my team to be very self-sufficient but still support them in the background when I feel like it’s needed. That being said, I don’t feel like I have to do that. I feel like I could take a deeper step back if I wanted to. That’s something that I’ve done as I train them because it helps me see these spots that I might otherwise miss.

We do weekly calls to regroup and to train. They’re working on some standard operating procedures which will help as we grow our business and grow our teams so that people coming in will know exactly what to do. It was willy-nilly for a long time. I had to trust, too. For many years, I held on to everything with such a tight grip so nothing fell through. I was internalizing that stress and I was making my body sick and stressed. Right before I got pregnant with my daughter, I was 345 pounds. I’m down to about 300 now, but I felt it.

I felt it in every area of my body. It was a heaviest I ever been. I was wanting to sleep all the time. My energy was lacking. I was drinking energy drinks and coffees. I even had a single piece of energy. Now, that doesn’t mean that sometimes I don’t love my caffeine but I don’t need it to be like this because I’m excited about the day. I was excited to be on your show. I’m excited to see what the rest of the day has in store. I love Mondays because Mondays are like a rebirth day where everyone’s getting organized. I work weekends, too but Monday to me is like always a fresh start. It’s starting a new and I enjoyed them.

Training your team to be leaders of their own position and to trust them to be able to do those things was the biggest things for you if I understand you correctly. Is that right? Did I miss anything there?

What I also told them is, “Worst case scenario, I’m going to tell you how I would handle it a little differently next time.” I empowered them to handle a situation the way they wanted to without worrying, “What if Katie says that was awful?” I’m like, “I’ll never say that’s awful because there’s a reason you handle that way.” That’s going to allow me to see sometimes where weaknesses are, too. If I just tell them what to do every time they’re never going to learn to do things in their own voice.

There’s something else about you that I find fascinating. It’s your stand-up comedy experiences. I want to know why because this is one of the most terrifying things that a person can do. I know because I have done it. I did some stand-up comedy in my twenties. I dream about it sometimes and I think about it. Talk to me about why you decided to do it and how it’s been going for you.

Lessons From Stand-Up

It was totally on a whim. I got offered to enter this entrepreneur program for comedy. It was going to be at the Tampa Improv. I want to say it costs like $6,000 to be a part of this. It was a gentleman who was a comedy coach for Kevin Harrington. I met him through a couple of people who are members of the board of advisors, which is a mastermind that you’re part of.

I was like, “This is something I’ve always wanted to do. What are the chances they’re doing in Tampa?” Which I just moved to. It ended up being in May and it fit perfectly what I wanted to do. He helped me come up with this set. It’s about 12 to 14 minutes depending on how fast I talk. It was so much fun. I nailed it. I didn’t do it since then.

I’ve got a couple of offers and haven’t taken them up on it because the lead time on prepping for it wouldn’t work. I’ve seen this being a part of my business in the future. I picture using comedy as a way to help people break out of their shell a little bit. When you’re laughing and having a good time, you’re raising your frequency. If you go to something fun, do you ever realize like you’re checking out somewhere and you’re laughing. Someone’s like, “I see your shirt. Are you a realtor? Do you do mortgages?” You’re like, “How do you know that? That’s crazy. I need one.”

It’s as simple as that. Have you ever had people approach you if you’re wearing something or they hear your talking about something and they’re like, “Can I ask a question?” When you’re in a high frequency, you start to attract all these clients in a different way to where you’re not grinding or having a call people because they got their credit check. I don’t want that type of business. I want people to have fun. I want them to laugh on the phone with me. That comedy skit that I did which does involve alligators, so it’s amazing just saying.

Moving down to Florida, I had an alligator that lived in my backyard. I was terrifying but you start to feel like it’s no big deal which shows that your environment shows you what’s normal. That’s the same with people. Do you want to be with people who are all struggling and unhappy or do you want to be with people who love their lives, in great relationships and have a great relationship with their kids?, you know, I surround myself with people who I feel like have a life that is reflective of what I want in mine.

That’s beautiful. What kinds of things did you learn in the program? Was it like how to open or like icebreakers?

He did a lot of callbacks. For example, this little part of my set was shopping at Ross. Have you ever heard of this department store Ross? It’s like a cheaper Marshall’s and they don’t have them as much up North. I did this whole thing about, “I told the realtor as long as it’s near Ross, we’ll be in good shape.” Later in the in the set, I talked about this $55,000 brand emersion I did. It was in Nashville and Ireland and how someone complimented my outfit. That was like, “It’s Ross.” The callbacks to the previous jokes were fun. Must have picked that one up at Ross thing.

That was fun to learn. Also, how you have to break it down and use a motion to tell the story, too. I would share these funny things. We started this log so that we would share funny things that happen to us or we were dealing with then we would just take it to the next level. It’s fun to see what I came up with the ideas and how he turned that into actual content.

That’s awesome. It’s phenomenal that you did that. You’re creating new neuro-pathways. Your challenging yourself into a way, which is great as if you’re going to be coaching people. You need to be leading from the front which you were doing and I love that. It sounds like you’re still kicking butt in mortgages.

Keeping busy.

You’re growing this. Is there anything else that you want to talk to people about that we haven’t had a chance to talk about yet?

The People Around You

People believing in themselves and making sure that they’re surrounding themselves with people who do the same is important. I was fortunate enough that early on in my mortgage career, I was about four years in. I aligned with two top producers in their branch. I didn’t realize how much that changed my life. Everyone around me always believed in me, but with limitations because of what they believed.

It was like, “You can be successful but you’re not going to make a million dollars or anything.” That’s okay. What do you know? I aligned with those people. I ended up making a million dollars, but it’s because the people around me all had great intentions but they weren’t where I saw myself. If you find yourself in those positions where you’re around all these people that you no longer feel aligned to or you no longer feel like they have a place in your life. Send them off with love a little bit and find a new circle. I’m not saying you have to be like, “I don’t want to be with you anymore. Not be friends with you.” Find other people to be around more. Naturally, that progression will happen to where you’re elevating yourself because of the people around you.

Who do you look for in mentors?

When I’m looking for a mentor, it depends on what my goal is. Now, I have two different coaches. One is a spiritual coach and one is still more tactical like, “Do X, Y, and Z. After you meet with them, send this letter. Here’s the template for it.” I always like to have a combination of both. Someone who can help me see outside of what I’m struggling with and someone who gives me these finite tools like, “Do X and do Z and you’ll see success.” I like to have a combination of both because that two-pronged approach is important. Some of the things are tactical, but if you’re not doing them for the right energy, then you’re not going to see the results.

That’s true. I noticed that there’s a stark contrast between a coach and a mentor. It’s taking me a long time to realize this. It’s like the coach has the tactics that I need to succeed. The mentor has the life that I want to live.

I love that separation.

Both have patterns. Any thoughts on thinking about mentors rather than coaches? If there’s somebody out there that has the life that you want to live. How do you engage with that person?

I asked them questions like, “I love everything you’re doing.” I love complimenting people because I feel like people don’t say what they’re truly thinking a lot. They’re like, “I don’t know what to tell them. I don’t know them. I don’t care.” I just say, “I love everything you’re doing. Would you be open at chatting more about what it is that made you so successful?”

If it’s someone like elevated that I don’t know. It’s like, “Do you recommend any books that have helped you or have you been in a show that I could listen to?” Whatever I can take from them. A show is a great example of something that is out there for the masses that can teach you about who people are and also, most of them you’re able to listen to at no cost.

There’s low overhead there and joining a group they’re part of. I can be a little bit of a stalker. It’s fine. If there’s someone I want to be introduced to, I might even ask, “Katie, does anyone know this person? I want an introduction.” I might find a mutual friend on Facebook. I’m a little bit of an investigator too so I can take it to the next level.

We put these people on a pedestal and what I try to realize is they were like me at least at one time. Wherever they are now might be a little bit different and if they don’t want to like help me or support me. That’s fine, too. It’s great. I know whatever happens, happens with purpose. I say that all the time. I do feel like everything happens what purpose, even the little things. Sometimes the stuff that you’re like, “That was weird. Not sure what that meant.” We don’t have to know exactly what it means but know that it happened the way it was supposed to.

Speaking of purpose, one of the things that I like to do when I find somebody who has that life that I want to lead. I ask them what does their morning routine look like and their evening ritual look like. Those are purposeful activities that person implements daily at the most important times in their day to set them up for success or to set the next day up for success.

I’ve discovered a lot of great things because we don’t accidentally succeed. We purposefully succeed. Some of us do I suppose. Maybe we’re at the right place at the right time. Even when I got in the short term rental business, I had so many agents. When this business pop, I got in the short term rental business before Airbnb existed and started to learn and recognize patterns. I started consuming everything that I could consume on this so that I could become my local expert. When the market finally took off like ten years later, people would pull me aside and say to me like, “Jeramie, you timed that just right didn’t you?”

You’re like, “Yes, I’m a genius and I can see the future.”

Sure did. It took me ten years to time it. Katie, it’s been such a joy talking to you. I’m so thankful that we got a chance to do this in a real purposeful way. The first time that we talked, we did a discovery call with each other. I’ll never forget, I was in the woods. I’m working on this real estate development in Branson Missouri, this Lakefront real estate development. We were in a lawsuit over it because when I bought the property, some people down at the area put up a gate. We had to go through this long process of restraining orders and a legal process. A two-year legal process to be able to access my own land.

The judge had given us the right to pour a little parking pad down there. I had a skid steer showing up and I had gravel showing up that day. I was back in the woods talking to you because I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to get to know you because we started BA about the same time and just looking forward to. You know how BA is. It’s like a wedding reception. You don’t get a chance to talk to everybody.

That’s such a great description.

I’m thankful that we got a chance to circle back.

Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

You bet. Thanks for all the great advice. I know we’re going to help some people with this show. If you guys want to get to know Coach Katie, we’ll have access to that. Connect with Katie on her Facebook group. Katie, I’d love to have you in and chat with the Worley Real Estate Network team sometime as well. We’re constantly sowing into new agents and liking a new people to come in because we’re basically an academy. As I said, we believe in people more than they believe in themselves. That’s the group that we try to stand in agreement with the things that people want to see manifest in their lives. We’ll be doing that for you as well. Stay in touch and talk to you soon.

Important Links

• Coach Katie Weldon
• Facebook – The Katie Kollective
• www.Instagram.com/thecoachkatie
• https://www.LinkedIn.com/company/worleyrealestatenetwork
• https://WorleyConsulting.TextRetailer.com/qc/tlkA3RcG9W
• https://YouTube.com/@worleyrealestatenetwork
• https://Vrolio.TypeForm.com/worleynetwork