Voices of Women

There are five principles I coach.  They are: personal accountability, commitment, responsibility, respect and integrity and we drive them all through vision.  We took the company to 5,500 agents using these principles.  We help people identify their vision and bring their vision into a reality.  Einstein said, “The highest form of human emotion is amazement”.  So, for my clients to have that as an experience, we wanted to involve them in something beyond real estate that was amazing.

After 9/11, I met a school principal, Ada Dolch.   I told her we would come to New York and do some of this leadership training at her high school.  She had lost her sister in 9/11.  So I took about 25 REALTORS® and we mentored a group of students through emails and telephone calls and then every other month we would go to New York and provide them with leadership training.  Most of these students didn’t have resources to go to college.  So, I formed a non-profit organization and raised funds. There were 106 kids graduating and we gave out 88 grants for colleges and trade schools.   That was the highest number of graduates they’d had.  They helped us come up with the name World Transformation Center.   I didn’t want them to be victimized by what happened.  We coached them to take the experience they had and transform it into leadership. 

In situations like this in the future they can take a leadership role and enable others.  We wanted them to know that wherever they go they’re going to have common ground with people because of Ground Zero.  When that project completed I got the opportunity to meet with President and Mrs. Bush and talk to them about our project.  They could not believe we were REALTORS®.

They said, "This is what REALTORS do?"  And then it dawned on me that the real estate industry is a great resource for leadership training.   We have flexible schedules so we can pick up and go places, we have resources and we have excellent communication and life skills.  People in the industry deal with houses, homes, families and heart.

We discovered the students had animosity towards Afghanistan.  They couldn’t separate the Taliban from Al Qaeda from the county itself.  I had a client who was from Afghanistan and I said: "what if we built a school in Afghanistan and took some of these students over to see what the students over there were like?"  And so that’s what we decided to do: to build a school in Afghanistan. A lot of people didn’t think it could be done.  A lot of my volunteers fell away; a lot of my corporate sponsors.  It was just so dark.  I remember writing in my journal, "I just don’t think we can do this, I think we’ve made a mistake."  And then my client Ibrahim Mojadiddi’s father donated the land.  Again, that’s why real estate is so important.  We now have land over there in this little village and our project became real.

We got in touch with the White House and they put us in touch with the State Department and we were able to deed the land from a personal owner to the government and that was huge; and then we raised the funds through the training seminars.  I took the money and we sent it to Afghanistan to build this great school.  In July of 2005 we went over to dedicate it.  It was just an incredible experience to see the school, these people and the appreciation of the children.

 We had land left over from the school so we asked them what they needed and they said a medical center. So now we’re building a medical center.  We found a doctor in St. Louis who was closing down his practice and donated all his equipment to the center. 

I’ve been teaching vision for years. I was trained in vision by Tom Drucker and he said "write a vision and wobble towards it."  So I always saw it as a picture that you move to, but what I have realized now is that you write a vision and then you let it move through you.  You don’t move towards it, you let it work through you and it brings people into your life in a very organic and natural way.

That we would work with world leaders and that we would be on the world stage making a difference.  I thought wouldn’t it be neat if we could build a school for every person that died in the World Trade Centre.  It just seemed too big of a project though, so I thought let’s just look at a small portion.  There is nothing we can do to bring people back, but Ada said that the school we built in memory of her sister “finally gave our family closure”.  We did the right thing.

I climbed Mount McKinley because I wanted to see if I held a vision and was committed to it, could I do it?  This was very similar to my experience of climbing the mountain.  It was just as daunting and intimidating and I knew I needed to do it.

When 9/11 hit we became global citizens and we had to look at our relationship to the Middle East and to the world. I think we all changed that day.  Things that generally help are either medical or educational in nature.  We have so much abundance here and once you get to a place where you have enough comfort then just a few dollars will do so much to help developing countries.  So my message is get what you want and get to the place where you have enough and then just send a few dollars.  What we spend on a latte will pay a teacher’s salary for a day, a paperback book will give a student school supplies for a year and Seventy eight cents will vaccinate one child and we can eradicate measles.

In our training we teach that truth and trust are the two foundations for a relationship.  When I got over there they said: "You’re the first person we’ve trusted because so many people said they’d help us and they never did." 

They said: "You’re the first to keep your promise."  I learned that whom ever you serve, you love.

I grew up in Utah with 5 siblings, two brothers and three sisters. I’m the fourth.  My parents stayed together the whole time.  I’m the only one that left Utah.  

I would say that being spiritually aware has a lot to do with it.  I feel the highest form of communication is personal revelation.  It’s not where you read it in a book or get it from someone else.  It’s something that is revealed to you from God or the universe and the information is consistently correct.  It’s the difference between thinking and knowing.  You know what you need to do next and you know it’s the right thing to do.  It’s getting connected and getting answers to the questions.

One of the things I know is that it’s critical that you progress spiritually. When you serve people it grows your soul.  When you leave this planet, the only thing you’re going to take is your experience and the growth that you experienced here.  So while you’re here, obedience to the commitments you make is the only true growth, the growth that lasts. 

I’ve been in the business of helping people get what they want.  All I do is help people look at what they want and hold them accountable to getting there.  But what I’m finding is getting what you want isn’t always what you need.  People need to make sure that they’re growing, making a difference, finding their purpose and expressing it with passion.  Part of the puzzle is figuring out your place where you fit.

My mom and dad were always there for me. They rooted for me and I knew they were there for me emotionally and financially.  Yes, they were and continue to be supportive today. I am grateful for my childhood.

I would tell her to look and see if there is a void in her life that she is filling with hollow activities.   And then stop and slow down, go inside and do the internal work.  If you do the internal work, and fill the void with significance, then the external reality comes together with ease.   The way you’ll know if you’re in your vision is it will come together effortlessly and easily.  It will feel magical. 

You’ll have your dark hour like I had with the school, but when the tipping point occurs the momentum will move you ahead in warp drive.  I look back and think how in the world did I do that?  Learning to have a vision is a skill, it can be taught.   It’s through the process of living the principles that you get the illumination and the personal genius to move forward.  It’s the experience of amazement. And, anyone can make a difference.

Being with people. I learn more from them than I ever give; and then surrounding myself with people who are of like mind, like Ed.  I can go to him and talk to him about anything anywhere and he can do the same with me.  We have an understanding that I am here to help him complete his vision and he will help me complete mine, and of course, complete our shared vision as well.   So we’ve put these principles into our family and now we’re working on what kind of legacy we’re going to leave.  I don’t care about leaving houses, jewelry, and property.  I care passionately that these values are passed on to our children.

They’d probably say loving, powerful, and maybe, a little chaotic, to be honest.

Email Kathy