Michelle opened up her own business, Ray White Werribee, in 2017 and capped off that milestone year by achieving Chairman's Elite status.
Interviewed by Victorian Leading Ladies Chair, Valentina Parra, Michelle gives us an insight into her success, career and her journey in real estate.
We’ve taken some of the best pieces of advice from our leading lady Michelle to deliver you some stand out pieces of advice and insights from our latest podcast.
On getting into real estate after being a childcare worker:
I reached out to Tonya Davidson, a real estate coach. She helped me immensely; helped me get structured, helped me set my goals and many other things; she was the first person that I reached out to from a mentor's perspective.
I also went to as many teaching and training conferences as I possibly could. I did some great reading and just kept focused that way.
I got a lot of support in the office. They were a great office to start with, but for my growth to go further, I needed to really look into doing extra. And a part of that extra was certainly reaching out to mentors and getting to different conferences, but more so is actually working out what it is that I wanted to achieve every day.
On figuring out your “why” and letting it fall into place:
My family is my “why”. As mentioned before, I never wanted to be in the position that if something went wrong, how could I afford to deal with it. So I wanted to be in a position where I had a bit of extra choice.
My focus everyday was my daily affirmations; I’d have them everywhere - in my car, my bathroom.
I came across a lot of my goals the other day, going back 20 years, and they're very clear and I've achieved pretty much all of those. So I do my affirmations every day. It set my goals. I need to know the "why".
On figuring out time management and productivity:
I always use my daytime for productive time. So in the evening, I go home and do my admin, or I wouldn’t waste my daytime hours doing admin. So I was always on the phone, constantly on the phone. If I'm out travelling around in the car now I'm on the phone. If I'm in the office with my time to work, I'm on the phone.
My admin would after the kids go to bed - I won’t waste time during the day in getting my day organised.
So in the day, it was phone calls, it was driving buyers around, it was doing appraisals, and my admin would be later that night.
I did whatever it took just to have a structured day. I'd try and work out as clear a day as possible, where I'd have as much structure as possible. I was never sitting around wondering what to do yet because it was already organised the night before.
On opening her own business:
I had 15 years of working for other people, 12 years with one brand and three with another brand. Although I was very appreciative of being able to work with them. There was just so much I wanted to be able to put into place that I could see could be done better.
I think the key really overall is to make sure you put yourself around the people that you trust, that are there to support you, that you feel confident with. And that's the thing I've done right in my career: to find myself the right people, get myself around them, read books, listen to good podcasts, read my affirmations, know my goals, and have trust.
On proving that women can do anything:
Going back to when I first got started, I wanted to prove to myself that I can achieve what I put my mind to. And then having children and having girls, I really want to be able to teach them that yes, you're a girl, you're a woman, you can still achieve whatever it is you choose to.
Women and young people, if they're around the right people, they can achieve anything that they want to. And I get again so very excited when people achieve whatever it is that they put their mind to.
For more from this inspiring woman, make sure you listen to the full podcast on Spotify, or watch below on YouTube.
