"I feel the most common mistake entrepreneurs make is worrying about the money first and not serving the people."
Patricia Love
Patricia Love is the author of the #1 best-selling book “Seen and (Un) Heard”. She is a Confidence and women’s motivational coach, who will motivate you to “live life, and not let life live you”. With almost 30 years of experience in Real Estate and the thriver of many life traumas, she knows and understands the ups and downs in sales and in life. She will find your inner Beyoncé, by interrupting and healing negative behaviors with the power of her 5 diamond words.
She has coached/mentored Top Realtors, CEO’s and Entrepreneurs over the last 28+ years doubling and tripling their incomes while helping them find more confidence, balance, and inner peace.
Let’s learn a little about you and really get to experience what makes us tick – starting at our beginnings. Where did your story begin?
Patricia Love: I’ll never forget the day I hit rock bottom. I remember being curled up on the floor in my home, completely broken, and wondering what to do with my life. It was 2009 and the Global Financial Crisis was really starting to bite. I had been a successful Realtor for many years but suddenly I found myself with no money in the bank, no income, and a terrifying $140,000 in debt. My Mom had recently passed away and my husband had left me for somebody else.
I was 57 years old, devastated, overweight, and lost. What was I supposed to do now? Everything I’d worked so hard for and sacrificed so much for had slipped away. In truth, ‘slipped away’ is an understatement. I felt as if my life had been swamped by a tsunami and everything I understood about myself, and about my life, had been carried away in a heartbeat. I’ll admit, I wallowed for a while. I felt like a victim.
And I knew what it was to be a victim because, in my twenties, I had twice been the victim of rape. Once by a stranger with a gun and once by a boyfriend who beat me up and put me in the hospital.
So, when everything fell apart for me in my 50’s, I felt again the wave of despair, helplessness, and powerlessness that I’d felt all those years before. It all came rushing back with a power that took my breath away. But I also remembered that feeling like a victim, and living like a victim, hadn’t worked for me in my twenties and it sure as hell wasn’t going to work for me in my fifties.
Let’s face it, at 57, I had less time in front of me, than was behind me. I couldn’t afford to wait until things ‘got better.’ I had to act right then and there before my future ran out on me.
So… I picked myself up off that floor and took a long hard look in the mirror. It was time to get real… I had worked hard to be successful, to be valued, loved, and appreciated. I’d given my all to improve the lives of the people around me. But I’d been like the proverbial beautiful swan, serene and unruffled on the surface…And paddling madly and desperately underneath.
The harder I tried to make everything perfect … the quicker it slipped through my fingers … until it became that tsunami that swept everything away and I was left with nothing.
- Being the top saleswoman in my company didn’t keep me from falling into debt
- Making a ton of money didn’t keep my husband by my side
- Wearing beautiful clothes didn’t make me feel beautiful
- Working hard to make others happy, didn’t bring me the happiness I wanted
- Being successful in business didn’t make me feel successful in life
- Smiling on the outside didn’t make me smile on the inside…
It was all a sham. A mask I had put on years before and had forgotten how to take off. A mask I couldn’t afford for anyone to see behind, But when everything was stripped away … there was only me, myself, and I. And that had to be enough. I had to be enough! 10 years on, I look back at that tsunami with gratitude, with appreciation, and with wonder.
The fever pitch of emotion and the extreme pressure of that time created the perfect conditions to break me open and reveal the real me within. I still have a successful real estate business, added coaching to my resume, and am now building an affordable coaching app for women to build confidence that will contribute back to motivate women and young girls.
- I still inspire people to be happy.
- I still wear beautiful clothes.
- I still smile.
But everything is different, I’m no longer that swan paddling desperately beneath the surface to stay upright. Now I glide through life with a feeling of ease.
I DISCOVERED ME!… I stepped off the hamster wheel that I was running on for so long, I acknowledged my mistakes and replaced them with more positive behaviors, which allowed me to release the worry that people would see through the mask. This resulted in me feeling, that I didn’t need to prove myself to anyone!
I worked hard to discover myself, but it was worth it, as now I can look in the mirror and see myself in all my brilliance, I learned to love myself, and all my imperfections. I now make my mess, my message.
Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Patricia Love: That special person is my sister, who is no longer with me in the physical, but remains by my side in the metaphysical.
Growing up with a father that was never there emotionally and a mother that was an alcoholic, My sister who was 10 years older than myself took care of me, She instilled in me that I was powerful, I just needed to believe it. She gave me the strength to never give up, and that is what I held on to when life’s obstacles in life and business were presented to me. I recognize this power every day and am grateful that I create daily intentions around it. This inner strength has allowed me the confidence to step up and ask high-level CEO’s throughout my life, how they did it, and to take those tips with me and implement them in my own business missions.
What are the most common mistakes you see entrepreneurs make and what would you suggest they do?
Patricia Love: I feel the most common mistake entrepreneurs make is worrying about the money first and not serving the people. Find a niche, that excites you, and how it will help others. To have a successful business, it needs to excite you to get up every day,
Resilience is critical in critical times like the ones we are going through now. How would you define resilience?
Patricia Love: In any business, you need to be flexible, like a rubber band, be able to pivot and shift at any given time. Change is one constant thing in life and business, it’s how you react to it, it’s embracing those changes while moving forward, That is resilience!
What is most important to your organization—mission, vision or values?
Patricia Love: My values, integrity and serving and supporting my clients.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success?
Patricia Love: Integrity, gratefulness and optimism.
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What have you learned about personal branding that you wish you had known earlier in your career?
Patricia Love: That it’s really important! Clients want to know who you are, they want to trust you, they want to feel like they could ask you into their home.
What’s your favorite leadership style and why?
Patricia Love: That action speaks louder than words…Leading by example. You need to show people what you want and how you want them to act, and that is only by being that person too.
What advice would you give to our younger readers that want to become entrepreneurs?
Patricia Love: That you can do anything if you set your mind to it, that you have that inner strength, that power to learn and be the best you want to be. To do something you love, be the best you can be… help others, and enjoy the ride!
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What’s your favorite “life lesson” quote and how has it affected your life?
Patricia Love: “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change”. Wayne Dyer
it has made me look at things with different eyes and from different perspectives…that there is more than one way to look at things, and that you can overcome any obstacle if you can get out of your own way.
This interview was originally published on ValiantCEO.
