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“Don’t look. Just step,” Michele Williams Harrington instructed WomanUP! attendees, relaying a narrative of one in every of her most tough moments in Marine Corps coaching.
Placing her worry of heights apart, Harrington recalled climbing up a tall tower above a swimming pool with the only real goal of leaping off and into the water. The trainer instructed her to hug herself and take the step. So she checked out him, crossed her arms over her chest and took the plunge.
“Sometimes you have to take that next step. You have to do what you know you need to do, and just fuck your fear,” she mentioned. Williams Harrington was joined onstage by 2024 California Affiliation of Realtors (C.A.R.) President Melanie Barker (Navy), and Anita Legacy Blue (Air Drive), 2024 president of LGBTQ+ Actual Property Alliance, all of whom shared tales of overcoming adversity and the way it made them stronger, extra resilient leaders of their post-military careers.
This panel was amongst many inspiring classes through the two-day WomanUP! convention, which was held this 12 months on the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort and Spa in Dana Level, California, June 11-13.
WomanUP! is a California Affiliation of Realtors initiative based in 2017. As a mission-driven group, it has introduced collectively ladies from everywhere in the nation.
What’s its mission?
“We have a three-part mission to identify, develop, and connect women in this industry. We identify the tools and strategies you need to make bold moves in real estate. We provide you with resources and events to develop your skills as a leader. We create opportunities to connect with other amazing leaders in the national brokerage community.”
This 12 months’s convention’s theme was: “Connect. Collaborate. Create.” By all accounts, attendees walked away with enthusiasm, inspiration and loads of takeaways.
High a-ha moments
As per normal, the stage was chock-full of inspiring ladies in actual property sharing their private tales in hopes of serving to attendees change into higher leaders.
The navy panel was one in every of my prime moments. All three of these ladies served within the navy within the ’90s, when ladies weren’t allowed to do most of the “cool” jobs like helicopter door gunner.
“I wanted to be a grunt. I’ve always been like a rough-and-tumble girl, and I wanted to shoot big guns and crawl around in the dirt, but [women] couldn’t do that back then,” Williams Harrington mentioned.
Additionally, again then, “don’t ask, don’t tell” was in full swing, a rule that Legacy Blue, the president of the LGBTQ+ Actual Property Alliance, needed to reside with. The adversity, sexism and mistreatment these ladies overcame to change into robust leaders in their very own rights right now will stick to me lengthy after the occasion.
Listed here are a couple of others that stood out to me as properly:
Social media guru Katie Lance gave an outstanding presentation on utilizing ChatGPT to make your day simpler and maintain your consumer contact factors personable. You will get a duplicate of her presentation right here.
Katie Lance at WomanUP! 2024
Intero Actual Property Providers’ Cathy Sommerville Scharetg spoke about engaging in her dream of giving a TED speak. She went in for costume rehearsals the day earlier than — and fully blanked.
She might see in her viewers’s eyes that she was bombing. They wouldn’t make eye contact. The Ted Speak individuals gave her an out, telling her she might come again one other time. However she went again the following day and rocked it.
You possibly can watch her Ted Speak under. What did she be taught from the expertise?
“Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly at first,” Sommerville Scharetg mentioned. That’s an adage I’ll actually maintain shut and move alongside to others.
Mimi Nartey was the primary American-born particular person to signify Ghana as a heritage participant on the senior nationwide ladies’s group and the primary girl to complete her Ivy League schooling and play within the Ladies’s World Cup. Later, she gave a TED Discuss African Ladies’s Soccer and empowerment, which you’ll watch under. (Additionally, you would possibly know her husband, Kofi Nartey.)
She talked about sports activities psychology and powering up for the third quarter, which would require a distinct technique than what has labored earlier than. Altering methods in your third quarter, whether or not it’s the modifications coming from the fee lawsuits or inside your private life or marriage, is important for coming by means of it with a win within the fourth quarter. This session left me interested by the right way to acknowledge, analyze and strategize for the longer term.
Different attendee takeaways
Listed here are the takeaways that different attendees shared with me.
Editor’s be aware: These responses had been despatched through e-mail or textual content and had been edited for grammar, type and readability.
Bernice Ross
Bernice Ross, BrokerageUP, RealEstateCoach.com, RealEstateWealthForWomen.com
When WomanUP! first launched in 2017, the aim was to assist extra ladies begin their very own brokerages. In 2024, Sara Sutachan shared how the WomanUp! mission has expanded to assist extra ladies leaders discover their voice each inside and out of doors the actual property trade.
With Debra Ferrier serving as the primary feminine CEO in C.A.R.’s historical past and Melanie Barker as president, together with a predominantly feminine management group, 2024 is the 12 months that the unique imaginative and prescient for WomanUP! has lastly change into a actuality.
Anita Legacy Blue
Anita Legacy Blue, 2024 president, LGBTQ+ Actual Property Alliance, eXp agent
The WomanUP! convention is a particular convention the place I used to be in a position to join, collaborate and begin to create long-lasting relationships! To be surrounded by such encouraging and supportive ladies was so superb.
I felt so welcomed into the sisterhood, and I used to be congratulated for being such a brave advocate for my LGBTQ+ neighborhood. I’m proud and humbled to have been invited as a two-panel speaker.
Get entangled in your native degree, present up, take a stand and make a distinction.
Beena Khakhria
Beena Khakhria, dealer affiliate/Realtor at Lifetime Realty and Investments
It was my first time attending WomanUP! 2024 — a transformative expertise the place I encountered inspiring ladies dedicated to mutual success. I delved into various features of enterprise, social media and AI, forging significant connections with like-minded friends.
I walked away not simply with new information but in addition with a renewed sense of vitality and inspiration. Anybody starting a profession in actual property ought to plan to attend this yearly.
Cara Ameer
Cara Ameer, Coldwell Banker world luxurious agent
WomanUp! was time properly spent, devoted to empowering us by elevating our professionalism, dedication to excellence and authenticity in all that we do, not simply in actual property however in all sides of life.
Discovering your voice; overcoming fears; taking up challenges; the right way to push by means of the “third quarter” of your actual property enterprise, profession and life had been all tangible takeaways. Don’t apologize for who you might be. Take motion, and get entangled.
Actual property is a strong platform to make a distinction in individuals’s lives, not simply in respect to purchasing and promoting properties, but in addition in making a distinction in your communities on a neighborhood, state and nationwide degree.
Listed here are a few of my bullet factors:
- Lean into crises — they’re alternatives.
- By no means say I want I had …
- Write down what’s holding you again.
- Competence results in confidence.
- Once you observe the lots, the m’s are silent.
- Embrace being awkward.
Lori Namazi
Lori Namazi, founder and CEO of Namazi Actual Property Sources
- The expertise of filling my soul with the WomanUp! Group. You can not describe what WomanUp! does for you — you must really feel it and expertise it.
- Weigh out the chance of taking motion versus the chance of NOT taking motion. — Candace Doby. Slightly than a “pro and con” checklist, create a listing that compares danger to danger.
- Liberate your self from the “busyness.” — Leslie Appleton Younger. We discover ourselves overscheduled and all the time saying sure. It’s OK to not be so busy.
- Price your self in your relationships from 1-10. Make enhancements and bridge the hole. — Tammi Bonnell. Go deeper together with your relationships.
- What’s new, what’s now, what’s subsequent? — Cathy Scharetg. All the time take into consideration the longer term; we can’t change the previous.
Caroline Nguyen
Caroline Nguyen, Surterre Properties Luxurious Actual Property Brokerage
- Choosing up the cellphone and calling somebody is so highly effective. A textual content message or e-mail can get misplaced within the combine.
- Construct relationships to assist others transfer ahead.
- What makes a terrific chief? Profitable ones who care and lead with grace.
- Keynote speaker Candace Doby was my final favourite. Her entire speak was tremendous inspirational. She talked about that “Courage is a choice to face risk for a worthy purpose.”
- The panel with Leslie Appleton Younger, Valerie Torelli, Sabrina Brown and Eileen Oldroyd. Girls who took it to the following degree. One of many key takeaways I’ve from these girls is to “PAUSE!” We reside in a bubble of function and interior peace. You get admiration when you find yourself a pacesetter that releases endorphins. However we have to add worth to the transaction. That makes it value it. Discovering my voice is absolutely essential. To be my genuine self.
- Sara Sutachan and Ginger Wilcox’s session about management was very inspiring. I realized that listening is essential in my methods when you find yourself a pacesetter. When you are able to do this, meditation is the place it retains you grounded and retains you going.
- From Instagram actual property movie star Chelsea Peitz — all I can say is unimaginable! She had me from begin to end. She talked concerning the science of the screen-to-screen relationship and social media. “Viable, not viral.” The extra that you’re relatable, the extra that you may be likable to the social media platform.
Phoenicia Friese
Phoenicia Friese, Windermere Desert Properties
What an superior occasion! This 12 months’s WomanUp! convention in Dana Level felt like all of us bonded. It helped me keep motivated, reminding me that being in an uncomfortable zone is short-term.
It boosted my productiveness by encouraging me to be extra calendar-driven, supplied actionable methods for achievement, and led to many potential referrals with different ladies who wrestle with the identical issues I do in the actual property trade. It was completely unimaginable!
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