Mississauga, ON- After attending a number of real estate “masterminds”, which were often hosted by online companies, Carol-Anne Schneider, Broker Manager of Realty Executives Plus Ltd., was inspired to take the concept of the mastermind and have Scott Gilmour, the Broker Owner build out the agent success center in his Mississauga office branch.
“When I was going to these masterminds, what I thought was really cool, was all of the realtors, brokers and owners that were attending were from all different companies,” she said. “It didn’t matter what the banner was, they were willing to share their playbook for all to use. I love that idea of collective sharing.”
The new success center Gilmour and Schneider were creating, was a fresh, innovative tool for brokers and agents to learn from.
Each session, whether it is with a large group or one-on-one, is focused on a different topic. However, some of the session topics veer far from the norm. One day Schneider could bring in a real estate professional to talk about mortgage financing and cold calling, the next she could invite a paranormal expert to talk about haunted houses.
“The agent success center is always open to all agents of all brands,” Schneider said. “It’s really nice that people can come collaborate and share openly while seeing how our company culture is.”
Carol-Anne didn’t want the success center to have a stereotypical conference feel. In lieu, with each meeting, she adds her own personal touch to make sure attendees don’t become lackadaisical.
Some meetings don’t focus on the financial aspect of the real estate industry, rather, they focus on personal growth and development.
“Real estate skills are things that can be learned,” she said. “Anyone can help anyone make an offer, but not everyone can help everyone with their self-esteem or confidence. Once you start feeling good about yourself, the business part is fairly easy. You just need someone to keep pushing you along.”
Schneider believes that balancing health and wellness in the industry is just as important as making a sale. She has taught success center attendees about vision boarding with the help of red ribbon Feng Shui masters and has invited guest speakers to stress the importance of empowerment of self.
She said often people struggle with being their authentic self, but when she transformed to her authentic self, the results were astounding.
“When I started to be my authentic self, the weirdest thing started happening,” Schneider said. “People started personal messaging me from all different companies. People were telling me, ‘we loved your message today,’ and ‘keep it up.’ That’s what we’re trying to teach everyone who comes through the agent success center is just be your authentic self. When you are, people can see the difference and feel that difference.”
While some people may not view personal wellness as a game changer to their business, Carol-Anne saw first hand what was happening to agents who attended the sessions, both personal and group.
“We created a mindset, lifestyle thing,” she said. “What we discovered is that the agents that were willing to be gutsy enough to sit with you and do that one on one meeting to talk about what you really want to do in life, they skyrocketed. We saw agents who were making $50,000 are now making $250,000 because someone believed in them.”
Schneider’s success center sessions can range anywhere from one participant to 40. However, she wants to see this number grow.
Carol-Anne believes if she keeps serving what she calls “the Carol-Anne Kool-Aid”, she will be able to continuously impact lives and help agents throughout the industry achieve the personal and business goals.
