Someone made a mistake and it changed my life

It was springtime in 2014.

I walked into a conference room surrounded by 300 of the top 1% of real estate agents. It was a weekend real estate mastermind event on Amelia Island in Florida for agents.

Picture: a conference where all the top agents spend time together and share what they know. The final day was mastermind day, where we were grouped with agents based on sales volume.

But someone made a mistake….

I was the top agent in my office, selling $20 million per year, which would have put me in the $15M - $25M in the volume group.

But somehow, I was assigned to the highest tier mastermind. It was a group of agents who sell at a minimum of $75 million per year.

I wasn’t about to alert the event staff of their error. I was genuinely curious as to what the top 1% of agents talk about.

I sat down in an open seat at a round table surrounded by the best of the best in my industry.

For two hours, we masterminded around different topics, we touched on wealth building, lifestyle design, working on the businesses versus in the business.

Each person shared at least one idea that permanently altered the course of my life.

One woman shared that she takes 4- to 8-week-long vacations with her family.

Can you imagine taking 4-8 weeks away from your 9-5 or business at a time?

To me, this was a game-changing concept, and the permission I needed.

Four years from that day, my husband and I booked a ten-week trip exploring southeast Asia with our then four-year-old daughter. Following the ten-week trip, we'd spend four weeks in Europe. The following year, we'd spend five weeks in Central America.

And last year? We spent 17 weeks traveling the U.S.

In that same room on Amelia Island, I heard from a real estate agent who shared how he was growing his rental portfolio by 100 units each year. I had no idea how someone could scale so quickly and realized I’d been thinking too small.

Another lesson learned.

I became purposeful about hanging around others who were farther ahead than me. Five years later, I grew my portfolio by 200 units in one year.

This group had me thinking bigger; they gave me new ideas about designing my life and the importance of spending my time with the right people.

I left that event with a new outlook on life.

This is the power of community.

When you spend time with like-minded people—whether it’s online or in-person—it immediately changes your life.

It changes you, because:

• - You're influenced by “peer pressure” in a good way—if everyone else is accomplishing big goals, then you want to get in on the action, too!
• - You identify areas where you’ve been thinking small.
• - You gain perspectives you hadn’t considered before.
• - You receive priceless recommendations, insider tips, and referrals.
• - You have a-ha moments and make changes straight away.
• - You can ask questions like: “Should I S-Elect or fund my own IRA?” and immediately receive helpful answers preventing you from wasting time and money.

Now is a good time to take a close look at your social circle and personal network.

• - Do you have the community you need to reach the next level?
• - Are you hanging out in the right kind of room?
• - If you want to become financially free, do you have a tight-knit community of Agents who are working toward the same goal?
• - Do you have a group of peers who don’t allow you to back out of commitments you’ve made?

If you don’t have those kinds of people in your life yet, now is the time to plant yourself in the right group.

Join the community you need… because being surrounded by the right people changes everything.