Sometimes the unexpected will take you on a greater adventure and change your life for the better.
I’m always intrigued by what leads someone down one path instead of another, why they choose certain careers and what motivates them to choose this friend or that partner. I love hearing people’s stories of how they made it to where they are in life, what makes them tick. Even before I know your name, I’ll blurt out “So, how did you get here?” The human psyche is incredibly fascinating to me.
So it took me by surprise recently, when I was explaining to someone what I do for a living, and I was asked the same question: “So, how did you get here?”
I began to reflect on what led me to where I am today.
Years ago, real estate recruitment was the last place in the world I would have expected to find myself. I was a travel consultant, traveling and exploring places many people have never even heard of. Each month, I was in a different country, experiencing life in ways I never imagined. But all good things must come to an end and, for me, travel began to lose its lustre. I started looking at other career choices.
Psychology or social services-related fields may have been an obvious choice, given my background, but instead, I obtained my OREA license and transitioned into real estate sales, determined to become one of the most successful realtors.
Guess what? I hated it! Trudging out in the middle of the night to try to bring a deal together. Driving four hours in snow back to the GTA on Christmas Eve to show a home to a couple of lookie-loos. Working most nights and every weekend: real estate sales was just NOT my cup of tea.
It didn’t take long for me to discover that real estate sales was not right for me. But I never considered going back to travel. I’m tenacious; I chose real estate, so real estate it would be! I did find that I loved the administrative side of the real estate business: researching, organizing, supporting the team! I realized I could have my cake and eat it too. Admin allowed me to still be involved in all the real estate deals, just from a different angle: prepping homes to list for sale; ensuring all necessary documents were completed for a purchase. And I could still maintain a healthy work-life balance!
Fast forward a decade (including seven years with the same team) and a career change was once again on the horizon. This time, a realtor suggested I call this niche company, AGENTC, to see if they had positions available that suited my qualifications. Instead, AGENTC recruited me to work for them. The rest is, as they say, history.
Today, I’m privileged to be part of a cutting edge company where the owners lead by example, empowering and encouraging their team members to stretch the limits of their imaginations, be accountable for all that they do, and most of all, not to be afraid to take chances, but rather turn any ‘mistake’ into a successful learning experience.
So how did I get here? By not being afraid to take a risk and readily embracing change, but most of all, by being fortunate enough to meet trailblazers who are intuitive and dig below the surface to uncover treasures that others overlook.
