YESTalk-162 - Winning As A Single Mom - Interviews with the Best - Monique Howard

Welcome to Kevin Ward's YES Talk for Realtors. This is Kevin Ward. Hi there. It's Kevin Ward, 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 in Atlanta, Georgia. And. 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 are very, very excited to have you with us today.

Thank you for having me. I'm excited.

Absolutely. And you've had such a great journey, and 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. Second generation realtor? Yes.

So your mom was a realtor before you?

Yes, she's been in the business probably about 36 years now.

Okay. Now she's still in. She's still doing real estate.

She is.

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? 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 going to 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 at 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. And then one day she kind of used to leave like, commission checks around, I think purposefully. And one day I saw one and 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, because 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 real estate in Boston, I was an executive assistant at Fidelity Investments, worked 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 religion said you need to get married. So we ended up getting married and I got pregnant my first year 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 an 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 divorced, I wanted someone to be there with my daughter. I wanted one consistent parent. And so after my mom, after talking to me and of course seeing the commission checks there, knowing I could take care of us, she encouraged me to do that. So I couldn't take classes because of my work schedule 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. And the next month I had my real estate license.

And this was, this was 19 years ago. You said you've been in real estate 19 years. I didn't even know you could do an online 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 same sit down type to say, this is what you need to do first. When I got my license, I was like, yay, 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. Oh, I was also in a network marketing company at that time. So the main script was, do you like where you work? Are you interested in other Business opportunities. That's the exact same script.

That was 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 I'd ask that question and then I would give them 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 on to something. So that's what I would do.

Okay, so you are doing a network marketing company and doing real estate and working at KPMG all at 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 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 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?

Oh, yes, yes.

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 it actually worked for. What I would do differently now is I would 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 nay, three years you were part time.

Yes.

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 real estate or was it 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 going to be paying less. And so that, 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, if I could say that, Kevin, they were pissed. 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. Were you still doing the network marketing on the side?

No, I stopped doing the network marketing. Yes, I stopped 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 this 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 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. Okay, so what happened? So tell us about how that, what happened next?

Well, I wasn't. I had, she gave me a month and I said okay. But 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. Entrepreneur. So once my money started to run out, I realized, whoa, I gotta, you know, get back to work and I have to find another place. So I ended up doing, getting a temp Job. I didn't want to give up real estate full time, so I started to temp and I got an apartment.

Mm, okay. And you discovered that showing you didn't get paid for showing buyers houses you didn't get paid?

No, not at all.

All right, so, um, 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 now I'm full time. On your own?

Yes, out on my own right away.

Was it a struggle? How'd it go?

You know, it wasn't a struggle back then. 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. 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 marketing group. So that's how I started to get heavily into working with investors. And eventually I started to buy homes, flip them, and then 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 100% with investors, helping them buy and flip. And then I me doing the same thing.

And you were doing some of that yourself. So you were doing. So you, you got these relationships from a previous relationship from your network marketing. You kept the relationships and then you got into an investor group. So now you're working pretty much a hundred percent with investors and you're doing some flips yourself. And that was working great.

It was working.

And this now this was back in early 2000s.

Yeah, like 2005.

2005, when everybody was flipping properties, everybody was making money.

It was like non stop. We didn't think was ever going to end until it did.

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 2000ish.

Yes.

So you're, you've been in real estate nearly as long as I have. And so we all thought we were great and 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.

Oh, 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 went to re and I had, I had three that were rentals and then I had my personal home because at this time I purchased a home when I went to refi finance 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. Tenants stop paying rent, 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 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 10 years that the economy has been super strong, housing market's been good, housing market's 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 going to be. We don't know how bad it's going to be this time. So nobody knows. 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 the big thing. Pay attention to your markets. Pay attention to what's going on right now. And a lot of markets, people are seeing shifts, certain types of shifts. 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. Bank your money. And the biggest lesson I learned was if you're investing especially, or even if you're advising your investors, don't commingle 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 the right advisor.

And you lost all your money.

I lost all my money, yes. I lost everything trying to save it versus just, you know, I was too attached. So investing is a different world and it's, it really is about the numbers, you know, 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. But your home, your home, your banking, personal bank account. Don't make yourself destitute. Trying to save a sinking ship, a business ship.

Yes. Just let it go.

Yeah. And there's going to be, there's going to 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 the way it's set up is that, yes, the bank has a recourse and that is the property and so forth. So that's, that is really good. So pay attention, stream, stay lean, don't overextend yourself. Don't put yourself out there and then 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 seller's not cooperating. And you keep putting more money into open houses and marketing and things. That's your business money. And sometimes it may be your personal money, whatever. However you set up that, it's the same concept. You have to know when to let go.

Amazing. That's a great connection too. When it comes to listings. Listings don't make you money if you can't sell them.

Exactly.

Which we may come back to that in a minute. So let's talk a little bit more about how you now how after the crash, how did you recover? Tell us about getting back from where you went crashing and then how you got out of it and how did you rebuild?

Well, fortunately, 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. So we helped each other out. But one good thing about working with investors, when the market was great, 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 is I met new investors coming into the market who didn't know anything about investing. But because I knew about it, I knew what to do in 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 in the class getting your license?

No, crash.

Oh, in the crash. I thought you said in the class you met 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.

Yes.

Attracting investors, working with them. And in. Through that, you learned how to become an investor.

Yes.

Which is awesome. So if somebody's. What would you tell an agent? Because most agents, or at least a lot of agents don't. They're, you know, a lot of brokers, they don't. Don't mess with investors. They're going to waste your time. They want to 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. Or just getting in it to see what it's like, because they can be time wasters. They'll take a lot of your time, you'll put in a lot of offers and they'll go nowhere. So if you're going to get into 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 going to live in.

How would you recommend that they learn about investing? What would be the best and fastest way for them to get their feet wet on 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 how to take a class. I just happened to be in a group and I learned from them.

And now the. And the group was an investing group.

It was an investing group. Yeah.

Yeah. And there's meetup groups out there that are investor groups all over the place. So in any market, somebody can 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, because once they know that you know the language and your advice, helping advise them, you're a hot commodity, they want to work with you, they're seeking you out.

Totally. That is awesome. All right, 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. It's been a long time. Four or five years, was it. How many do you know when it.

Was an inner circle? Four years. So maybe five years.

Yeah, five years ago. So. Because when we first started working together, you were not doing great. If I was that. Is that my memory correct?

Not at all.

So you, you got into real estate. You did good. You were doing great. Crash and burned. And then you. But you made it through and you working with investors. So you built your business back, but you're still working primarily with buyers, investors not listing. So what happened when we met? Why Was your business back in the. In the toilet? If that may be an overstatement, There are several things.

On a. On a business level, the market started to get better. So once those markets started to get better, investors weren't 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 investors are still out there, but they weren't buying as much because they couldn't get those deals. So on a business level, that. 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 every. 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 your 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.

Totally. 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 going to affect your work.

Exactly.

Sounds like that was happening.

That's exactly what happened.

So what happened and how deep did it go and then how'd you get out?

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 wasn't.

And that was with your. That was in that previous relationship?

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's in our last year of high school, so she was.

So she was a teenager?

Yeah, she was, like, still at home. Seventeen. Yeah. And so I happened to have a client who became a Friend. And she allowed me to move into her home and her daughters. 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 would 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 my. 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.

Okay, wait, wait. You got to move in with her for a couple months and then you had to leave?

Yeah, I thought I was going to be in 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 leave. So, I mean, as I'm saying this, I'm like. I moved a lot.

I mean, like, you've had these ultimate moments where your mom gave it to you, and then with your relationship, you. I guess you chose it, but it had to go. And now you're being told again, okay, 30 days. Okay, pressure's on. What happened?

Yeah, pressure's 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 to me. 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 going to drive around and something was going to happen. I didn't know what was going to 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 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 any money. You know, 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.

All right, then how did you know you got to start paying rent someday. So what happened?

So once we moved in, we moved in, my client, that one investor that I told you about, my longest client that I've had to date, she called and said, monique, I need you to listen. 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 my. 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 really, at the same time, I was transitioning, moving from a small brokerage into Keller Williams, where I am now. And when I went to Keller Williams, the team leader at that time kept talking about this program they had that would teach you how to get listings. Although I've been in the business for a while, my listings always came from my investors. I never had to go out 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 swing.

Yes.

And so. But now you turn to listings. By now you're working with sellers.

Yes.

So how is that? Go ahead, 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 score. They felt kind of. They felt scripted and they didn't feel like me. I felt like the bait and 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. You 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, Kevin. I was 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 I was like, okay, fine. Kevin Ward is someone that I'm going to follow because I love his scripts. I love his listing presentation. I love your expired script. I love everything. And then all of a sudden, I got an email somehow from Kevin saying that he was going to be having a seminar. And I think it was in D.C. because that's when I met Jerry and Peggy 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 got to see this guy in person. And so I went. And I think you put me on stage, too. That same night I told you my story, and I was like, on stage.

Oh, we did a panel.

Yeah.

Yeah. So that was. So you, Jerry Weaver. And these are all mostly inner circle members. These are all inner circle members you're talking about that you met at the event in D.C. yes. And in fact, a lot of them we've done interviews with the best. All right, so Russ and Aaron Downs in Jersey City. Jerry Weaver. And who was the other one you said?

Peggy. Oh.

And Peggy Yee. Yeah. Who's one of our. Who's one of our coaches and also one of our great inner circle members. And you met them 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 when you were doing the Keller Williams program, they said you have to prospect two hours a day. You did five.

Yes.

I mean, it was not just that. It was not just the techniques or the tactics or the strategies. It was that you took action on it.

Yes, definitely 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 went up to you. I came up to you. I know a lot of people come to. You don't realize. I was like, I want to be in your inner circle. You were like, okay, wait a minute. Just, you know, we went to the. I think the vip. I did sign up for VIP because I wanted to be in front. Like, it was no doubt. Yeah. So. And then you talked about how you had to join the challenge first, the hundred day 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 all you guys did.

Yeah.

Okay, so what happened to your business? Tell us about how that. Because you're already doing 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 78,000 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, 110. And then after that, it was like 200 and 238. And it just kept going after that. So it just, like from that point, it was When I hit 100, I was like, whoa. Like, now investing, I made that flipping houses. But to actually present to someone and to 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've just learned to just through the techniques 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 that because I've studied, you know, and watched people. And so you teach us to put our sellers and our buyers first and no bs. And when you say that, I mean, you know, BS with us. You don't teach us to BS with anybody else. And 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 vortex, the click funnels and things, and I, I didn't take the listing because it wasn't the best in their best interest and they appreciated that. They wanted me to 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 I love and I want to kind of dive into this in a second, is that we teach the no BS approach to real estate. That people, people don't want it and you don't need it. People you can get. Yes. Without the bs. And 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.

Because you can't help them.

Yes. So I love it last year and they ended up actually calling me back this year and I just sold their house in like a week.

We have a happen. It happens all the time. We have it with. We have yes masters all the time that are saying no. 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 going to sell.

Yes.

So, you know, if anything changes, let me know. And just like you had, you had happened, they call back and they go like, okay, we want you to hire it. And it'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 who I want to work with. I don't like what they're telling 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 at all.

Then they come back, and now you get to help them win.

Exactly.

So I love that. So what would you tell the person, the agent, who says, yeah, but sometimes you just got to 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 sneak 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. You will feel a lot better about yourself later when you do what's 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.

And you have to think about this as well. You're taking over price listings. How much money is that going to cost you?

Yeah, well, you mentioned a while ago the idea of owning real estate is when you have a house, you can't. That's 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 going to.

Exactly.

Not going to sell. Why would you keep pumping your energy, your time, your resources into it? Because you're not helping them.

No, not at all. I know, but you're spending time you're not able to help anyone else because you're spending so much time on this one listing that, you know, we know when it's overpriced, we know what needs to be done.

Yep, totally. Okay. So all of a sudden you were making. You got to where you're making 70, $80,000 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 then you're in a Keller Williams office. Tell us what happened. Because you went to, 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, 288. You've been in the top five now for a long time. And you've been, I think you were at one point you got it to number. You've been up to number two.

Number two. Yes. Yes. I went to number two and then I started getting other. I said 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 yes. So like saying yes to everything and it was exciting at the time.

So that also led to a little over commitment, if I remember correctly, a.

Lot of over commitment. So, yeah.

So you're one of those people that you like to make everybody happy and you enjoyed the. I don't know if it was the attention, but you enjoyed 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 want me to say, but anyway, you just, you were 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 to somebody? How did you deal with it when you got so overextended, spread too thin? How did you deal with it?

I didn't deal with it well. At first. It was hard. I committed because I really loved those people that I was in 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 with what I ultimately want to do in life. And so those commitments, 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 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 over committed and I didn't stick to my plan and nor I think at that time 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 profound. Okay, so how'd you get out? How'd you get out of this?

I made a call to you. 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, it's a big deal. No kidding. It was a huge honor.

Huge honor. And it was gonna 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, 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, that you said something to me. 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 in life, that happens. And last year for me was that year I had to 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, you have to look at all the. And here's the thing. There's always great opportunities that you can't do.

Yes.

Right. You can't. Nobody can do everything. And when you start achieving at a high level, like you've done, and you started making a lot of money, you started becoming. You became a top producer, and you. You're. And people know you, and they notice, and they like you, and you're great, and you're. You're personable. And even though you're super shy people, everybody's attracted you. They're drawn to your energy, and so that you start getting opportunities. And the more clarity you have and 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 I have to say this, Kevin, I know 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 get rid of that. And one of the things I did do is 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, Came back. It wasn't a full year that I left, but one of the things that 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 you 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 what I mean? 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 making decisions in your life, one make sure whatever your decision you're making is in 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 really personal. And it hurt when you left, you know, because we consider the inner circle our family, and that's our. For those of you that don't, our Inner circle is our elite coaching program that is just. We only allow the best of the best in.

And.

And so it's very personal for me and My wife and we being. We do that. So when you left, it was like, we're devastated. Right. And when you came back, we were elated.

You know what's great, the people that are in your corner, they're always there. So 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 going to root for you and call you out on your stuff when you need to be is very important.

Yeah. 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 moment 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.

You.

Now you're stressed out emotionally, physically. You started having health problems that 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 to. 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 junk and the crisis and the overwhelm. We get that's. We get tunnel vision and we lose sight of the dreams.

Yes.

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 overwhelmed, but this is what I want. This is where I'm going. And as you know, in the inner circle, we would never let you. You were never going to 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 have gone through the roof. So tell us about the mindset of clarity and big dreams and how that changes you.

It changes so much. So for me, 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 as big, and you come back, you're like, whoa, you see the big difference. And so 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 ever had. And that is exciting. When you have clarity, it 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. More opportunities that mesh and match with that. And I'm 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. When someone says, no, I have that dream. If I was like, you say, I'm not gonna let you prevent me from reaching my dream. So it makes. 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 in life, most of my life up until the past few years, have been because I needed to survive. Right now 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.

And so how do you. Because one of the things that you struggled with from your past was limiting beliefs, scarcity, mindset. Money was evil. Success was like, no, no, no, no, no. 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 started hitting, you had over 200,000. You still were broke because you couldn't handle having money because of your mindset.

I didn't feel comfortable seeing money in my bank account.

Yeah, so you managed to get rid of it.

I figured out a way to spend it all the time.

So how 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 the 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 in the past were more surface things, things that most people wanted, and even the things that 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 that, you know, if you don't do it things this way, then 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. 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, were 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 just being tired of not having. At some point you get tired. And last year, I think for me was a big year. A lot of things started happening at. 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 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 going to start living mine the way I choose to? Yeah, because there's nothing I can do to change people, but there's everything that I can do to change myself. And so just being tired of, I guess that's really it, just being tired. I was exhausted and realizing it was.

Time to Start living for yourself. And you're doing.

For myself. How long am I going to do that? Like, if you really. How long will you live your life like that? You have this life? How long are you gonna live from other people?

Totally. That's awesome. Okay, I gotta ask one other thing about business, and that is today, how are you making most of your money? Where's your business coming from today?

Today, it's a combination. Investors are still big in my business. Investors, Expired listings and my PC.

Okay, so now investors are your. Your PC is your personal circle, people that you know. So you're in any. The investors are mostly all. They're also PC.

Yes.

The people you already know, they're not. You're not going out and chasing new investors for the most part, is that correct?

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 of maybe beginning of this year, and I've started doing even more so recently, is social media has really helped me a lot. Like, as you know, there's a few of us inner circle 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 intention, is to be a resource, to share my thoughts. But a lot of times I'm just 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. Well. And it makes you real. They, like you said, people are attracted to your authenticity. So. So they see you being a real person, they see you in life. They're like, oh, 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.

To create that top of mind awareness.

And one of the things that. Because I was the agent that always, if there's something new, I'm going to 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. I mean, Kevin, you are ahead of your time with pretty much everyone I know found you on YouTube before everybody else was doing YouTube.

I've been telling you guys, video, you got to do video, you got to do video, you got to do video. For years. For eight years.

Yes. And 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. Websites now are getting you listings and you're using video on your website, Correct?

Yes. So they. Yes, they. All my. All my websites have video. Yes.

Of video of you talking.

Of me talking. Yes.

And this works with people you don't know to get listings.

And my testimonials are also videos.

Mm.

From my clients.

So you have on your website, you have your view 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. They're on your websites and you're getting listings directly from that.

Exactly. Yes. Yeah.

It's so powerful. 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, cold Calling them or whatever, which still works, but you're finding it, like, with expireds, you still call expireds, right?

I still call expired.

You still call expired. 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 check you out on the website. There you can talk to them on video, and they can't cut you off. They can't object.

No. And you know what? I do. And even if they say they're not interested, I still send them my video. Yeah. Yeah.

Because what they're interested in, they're interested in selling. They're just not interested in pressure. They're not interested in the sales page, but on the video on the website, they 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.

Yes.

And they're gonna watch. You'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 go like, oh, it's Monique. I know you. Because they. And so 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 by meaning. Meaning that they feel like you're trustworthy, you're real. Now I want you to be my agent. It's just amazing how that works. So that's awesome.

Yes. I love video. I didn't like it at first. I didn't like how I looked on video.

None of us like.

Yeah, you said. You said, well, if you don't like it, get used to it, because that's how you look in person.

That's right.

Okay. Well, that's right.

So what are you most proud of as a real estate agent?

As a real estate agent, I am proud of the growth that I've seen, not just financially. Real estate helps you grow as a person. And so I think that's what I'm most important, most proud of. And the relationships and the friendships that I have, they're, like, priceless.

Awesome. So what's next for you?

Next is the two comma club. 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, if you're in Atlanta, Georgia, you do all of the greater, greater metro area.

Yes, I do. Atlanta and all of the surrounding metropolitan areas.

So if somebody has referral for you, somebody 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 it's 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 homesmail.com okay.

Monique sellshomesmail.com and they can find you Monique Howard Showers. Showers.

Yes.

Okay.

On Facebook Messenger. Facebook messenger is the best way to contact me. Yes.

Awesome. Well, Monique, 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 and the breakthroughs that you've had. So I know that our watchers are going to really enjoy learning from you. Watching this, 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 her video, if our interview today has helped you know better how to be successful in real estate. And again, Monique, thank you so much for being with us today.

Thank you for having me.

Absolutely. Hey there, it's Kevin. I hope you enjoyed today's podcast. Are you tired of getting no after no. When you're out there trying to get listings and trying to inspire sellers to say yes to you, then I'd like to invite you to download a free copy of my no BS listing presentation. This presentation will guide you through exactly what to say that will have motivated sellers saying yes to you over and over again. Stop getting stumped with skeptical seller objections or the famous we need to sleep on it, eliminate the resistance and have sellers ready to hire you and give you the listing before you even finish your presentation. To get a complimentary copy of my proven listing presentation, go to yes masters.com forward/download Again, that's yesmasters.com forward/download to download your your free copy today.