Often underrated, perseverance is the hallmark of a successful entrepreneur. It enables one to steer past adversities, overcome obstacles, and translate ideas into reality.
Kathleen Black is no stranger to the word ‘perseverance’. Throughout her life, she has persevered past challenges and created a pathway of excellence.
From having a tumultuous childhood to being an independent mother, from being among the top 1% in real estate to becoming one of the leading coaches in the industry, Kathleen Black’s journey has been nothing but inspiring.
In this interview, she shares about her journey, about the real estate industry, and much more.
What according to you makes for a powerful woman?
Powerful women are willing to make big picture choices based on the future, while staying humble and vulnerable to the needs of the present.
How do you integrate the same thought into your leadership?
By empowering my team and giving them the room to fulfill their objectives independently while making myself available for guidance at every point on their path. I am proud to be leading a team who are very entrepreneurial and take ownership over what needs to happen. It’s very collaborative, and without a director style delegation, everyone owns their portion of the business. That is how we thrive.
Talk to us about your growing up years.
I have never done things the easy way. I had a tumultuous childhood that culminated with me leaving my home while still in high school. I then self-funded my university education and completed it as a new mother. Some people are born entrepreneurs, and I would say I fit into that.
There are always early signs: the proverbial lemonade-stand, an innate youthful rebelliousness, a way of seeing things differently, and an early discovery of the power to manifest. I knew as an 8th grader that I could manifest whatever I envisioned. Every milestone I reach comes from an inspired flow state – a practice of inner work I leverage now, as one of North America’s leading Real Estate Coaches, delivering my proven success techniques to Agents and Teams.
What prompted your interest and subsequently your foray into the real estate space?
An unexpected separation made real estate a fork in the road moment for me. I chose to take a risk for long term security and gain which could better provide for my children. It worked! The ultimate achievement is reaching the Top 1% in production. In my first year, I accomplished that within North America’s top Real Estate Board. I also saw that while this was a female-dominated industry, it wasn’t an industry dominated by female voices, and that was something I wanted to learn more about and see if I could break through for myself and lead other women do it as well.
What has been the approach followed by you and your team to ensure optimal buying and selling experience for your clients?
The Consultant’s Approach and here’s what I mean: a consultant seeks to establish a need and educate a client. This sets us apart from the public perception of a “pushy salesperson” who pushes a client in the direction that will lead to the salesperson’s benefit vs. the client’s benefit. We believe in helping the client achieve their desired outcomes, and as a result, the salesperson will also win but it is the client’s best interest that should be considered at all times. At Kathleen Black Coaching & Consulting (KBCC), every top team or agent we have ever worked with, who multiplied their business, have all worked with this specific approach in order to get the ultimate results.
How are you helping empower aspiring leaders in the industry reach the heights of success?
By bringing an inspiring and holistic mindset to a systematic and process-driven approach to our leadership training. This builds agile teams, and our ability to empower aspiring leaders is due to the fact that we build strong businesses by helping their teams reach their potential. Through our training tools, presentations, and summits, we have been instrumental in guiding iconic brands and high net worth professionals through our unique approach of empowered leadership and expert mindset-training to add billions of additional sales volume annually to their bottom lines.
What does a day in the life of Kathleen Black look like?
My day always starts the night and week before by scheduling my top priorities with calendar updates. I review this monthly, weekly, and always the night before. This allows me to be ahead of big projects, which we break down into micro-steps. More importantly, this also allows me to pause and get clear around my intentions and the energy I wish to bring to my day. I also like to start or end my day with yoga, a long walk, or running. I listen to guided meditation several times a week and commit to visualization around all important endeavors.
How do you ensure work-life balance?
I don’t believe in a balance but rather having on and off seasons for high performers. We all have a unique blend of wants and needs and we can harmonize them based on our unique needs. I have tried to build and maintain a life of more time and money while being surrounded by people I can rely on. This has helped me act in alignment with the many leaders I have admired who already did it, with the exact blueprint, recipe, and values unique to my own path.
Looking at your journey, what would you have done differently if you were to start again?
I’m not sure I would do anything differently, but I would have done a few things sooner, like writing my books and the development of my training tools and leadership platform. Getting into real estate was the right career path for me, and now, being able to share my selling success techniques with others is very rewarding.
What would be your advice for emerging women leaders in the real estate market?
Be optimistic. You must stand strong in a storm and rise out of lots of little fires, so they won’t engulf you. To be a top woman leader in this industry you need to be unapologetic in order to be capable of carving out an efficient business. On your way to the top, you will either hit ceilings or plant seeds, you cannot do both. If as a woman, you’re looking at your restrictions and the reasons why you might fail, those are not going to propel you further. If you look at those things and create for the future, you can plant seeds and nurture them to create things that aren’t even in existence yet – how exciting!
Finally, what does the future look like for you, both professionally and personally?
I am always actively planning my future and that means growth. We are expanding our services globally, by building systematically, we’re offering teams 16% higher profit margins than a typical team model would. Having agents on the top teams using our models sell 10 to 20 times the average transactions on most of their local Real Estate boards. Additionally, we’re aiding them in converting at up to 7 times higher when they get to our advanced conversion systems. We are committed to helping our agents build the most efficient, productive, and profitable teams in the world.
As for my personal life, I just climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and it reinforced values I have always held dear like being vulnerable, compassionate, and empathetic across all of our relationships. Reaching the summit was a metaphor for my professional success because every step took an open heart, passion, determination, focus and purpose – all the qualities that I have applied in my business for my success and in helping others!
