Angie Ramirez has been a licensed real estate agent in Southern California for nine years. But looking back, she feels like the first six years hardly count. That's because it wasn't until three years ago that she discovered a whole new approach to her business that revolutionized not only her career, but her life as well.

The twist to her story is that what Angie discovered wasn't some radical new approach to business. Rather it was her discovery of proven tools and strategies – a road map to success, if you will – that allowed her to tap into the potential she always knew was inside her. She always knew that she could be more successful. She just didn't know how to crack that code, which led to uncertainty in her career.

It was at a Hobbs/Herder Gateway seminar that she finally saw the path to real estate success and committed herself to pursuing it wholeheartedly. Less than three years later, she's regularly meeting her latest goal of closing 12 transactions monthly resulting in gross commissions in excess of $400,000 annually.

A Life-Changing Experience
When Angie arrived at that Gateway seminar, she looked around her and saw agents from all walks of life achieving extraordinary results. These agents looked like her. They sounded like her. They were ordinary people who had found their own path to success. Angie paused and asked herself a question.

"Where do you want to be, Angie?" she said.

Her answer wasn't much different than what any agent wants. "I want to be known as somebody who took her business to the next level," she said. "I want to live an incredible life." She was nervous about making change, but beginning to realize that to achieve her goals, changes had to be made. So Angie sought the advice of one of her mentors, her broker and owner of NewKey Financial Corp., Richard Lee.

"He asked me, ‘Are you serious about your business? Do you want to be like these people who are closing 100 million a year? If you want a business like that, you have to treat your business like it now.'"

It was at that moment that Angie adopted the newfound commitment to her career that dramatically altered her income ever since.

Pursuing the Dream
Using her own dreams as motivation – Angie has what she calls a "dream board" with all of her goals and aspirations written down on it – she dedicated herself to making those necessary changes in her career. She took the systems she was exposed to at the Gateway and began putting them in place.

Angie deserves major credit for not trying to bite off more than she could chew. She knew she needed to change her business, but she also needed to keep doing the things she had been doing to keep her business afloat in this time of transition. Her solution was to come in 90 minutes earlier than normal and stay an hour later every night. By devoting two and a half hours every day to working "on" her business and getting her systems established, she steadily achieved massive change.

By living by the mantra, "Small steps taken over and over again lead to big results," Angie completely transformed her business in the span of 12 months. Notice how she didn't expect immediate results but rather took the time to build her business. This is how success is achieved in real estate. She found a proven approach and then took the time and effort necessary to put those systems in place, and all it took was the discipline to work "on" her business instead of focusing on the immediate result.

The Hamburger Approach
Angie likened the process of building her business to running a McDonald's. She knew every aspect of her business – from marketing that generates clients to the servicing that keeps them coming back – needed to be systematized. Working with her Hobbs/Herder coach, Angie tackled one system at a time. With each task she completed, she created momentum fueled by the incredible feeling of accomplishment.

"All of a sudden I looked back and I was so far ahead of where I had been. Doing all that set up in the beginning allowed me to reap the rewards I am now," she says, adding that she typically leaves her office by 4:00 pm these days.

A Marketing Dynamo
Once Angie had her systems in place, she was able to begin implementing her marketing campaign to its full potential. She developed a direct mail farm of over 1,000 homes that she reaches twice per month through a campaign that includes her personal brochure and Powerkard. She also takes advantage of email farming through her Hobbs/Herder-powered MegaAgent web site. Following strategies she learned at the Gateway, she sends holiday cards for both traditional and non-traditional holidays (Groundhog Day, Merry "After" Christmas, etc.) to her clients via a mix of snail mail and email. It's all part of Angie's comprehensive direct mail strategy. In the future, it would be a good idea to add some variety to her direct mail with an AdKard series and to begin branching out into mass media advertising in addition to her direct mail.

Angie also conducts seminars for first-time buyers that regularly attract upwards of 35 prospective clients at each event. She promotes them through local businesses, flier mailings and public relations techniques she learned from Hobbs/Herder. She holds the seminars in her company's conference room and provides refreshments for her attendees. "They're always a big success because it allows me to build rapport and get people to feel comfortable with me," she says. "Whether they buy in two weeks or nine months, I want to be the person they think of."

Everyone who attends the seminars ends up on Angie's mailing list, and whenever they decide to make their move, they end up calling her all because she has a system.

Better Focus
Angie says that before she attended the Gateway, her natural intuition was to work anywhere where a client would have her. But taking the advice she learned at the seminar, she began farming only in the city of Corona. She recalls how Don & Greg taught agents to start with a laser focus and then gradually expand that focus along with their success. That's exactly what has happened for Angie. Facing a market in Corona where foreclosures are extremely high, she developed a second direct mail farm further south in Temecula. The more clients she worked with, the more referrals came in as well.

Her combination of effective marketing and powerful word of mouth from her clients allows her to focus her efforts in specific areas but to choose to take additional business from referrals as well.

Service First
Another key to Angie's success is her philosophy of operating with a servant heart. She was once told "When you make meaning in people's lives, the millions will come." For Angie, this means never focusing on her commission but rather on helping her clients achieve their objectives. She and her two partners – a buyer's agent and loan advisor – pride themselves on providing an extraordinary service experience for their clients. To ensure the consistency of their service, Angie regularly sends surveys to her clients to gauge her clients' perceptions.

"You're able to connect with the clients when they know you're hearing them," Angie says. "Then the clients view you in an entirely different light."

Life-Changing Results
In Angie's first full year after attending the Gateway, she earned more than $300,000 in gross commissions. She increased that total to $410,000 in the next year and has her sights set even higher, despite market conditions. The fears she once felt are gone and she sees nothing but vast potential ahead.

Personally, success has meant living a more balanced life and being in the best shape she's ever been in. She now has time to go to the gym and weighs 20 pounds less than when she began this journey three years ago. She takes pride in the fact her success has allowed her to "spread the wealth" with others – her mentors, the people she works with and to serve as an example for others in her office. She routinely tells other agents in her office, "Every one of you can do this volume – even in this market – if you have a system and the branding behind you that distinguishes you from everybody else."

It's true. Angie didn't do anything extraordinary. She simply combined one bold decision with a healthy dose of discipline and an investment in her career to create remarkable results. When you have the tools and systems laid out in front of you, suddenly the path to success becomes much more believable. Angie is living proof that all it takes is the decision to make a change to create the life of your dreams.

"I had the guts to say 'I'm gonna do it,'" she says. "It feels like a dream. I'm very grateful and very blessed to have not let the negative voices and negative people ruin my dreams."

What's your success story? Let us hear from you. Send your feedback to Greg.Herder@HobbsHerder.com.