“My best confidence role model is my best friend who has battled breast cancer twice now. She just turned 50 last year and she never once felt sorry for herself. It was never about her cancer. Even when I went out to visit her shortly after she had surgery, she was still so positive and had the right mindset. She persevered and moved forward and didn’t dwell. I love that she’s strong—and she’s also the first person that tells me when I’m wrong—which I love that.”

“My confidence boosting pep talks sound like, ‘You can do this.’ I think about times that were tough in my life that I’ve overcome and ended up better on the other end. Everybody makes mistakes. I’ve learned that if something happened that doesn’t make me feel good, I’m allowed a couple of minutes to dwell on it. And then I’m like, ‘I’m going to move on because I’ve felt it.’ I find myself doing that a lot. Even with parenting, I’m like, ‘Should I have done that?’ You feel bad about something that you might’ve said to your child. You’re thinking about the therapy bills 20 years from now. But then it’s like, ‘I can’t dwell on that. I just have to feel it, feel bad about it and move forward.”

“I always think of Maya Angelou’s quote, ‘When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.’ It reminds me to trust my instincts. I think women especially will second guess themselves—I know I do. It’s nice to be reminded that certain things are out of your control. That you need to trust your instincts and believe in yourself and what you’re seeing. And that you can’t change anyone. That something are just not in your control.”

“I listen to a lot of Prince, and a lot of George Michael, and a lot of disco. There’s not an unhappy disco song. It’s all about making love, and dancing the night away, hanging out with your friends, and the party that’s happening, and the good times. That’s what I listen to if I’m going to work or meeting a new client. I put on my disco playlist. I mean it sounds kind of corny when I say it, but I’m 51 years old. I had older cousins that loved disco in 1978. And so, it also reminds me of being happy as a kid.”

“I’ve always had the ability to reinvent myself when something’s not working. If a career is not going in the right direction, I’ve had to move on. I think women my age, have had to reinvent themselves a couple of times. Whether they took their time out in the workforce to have children, or to care for an elderly parent. Then they try to go back in, and maybe it’s just not the right fit anymore. I think that my willingness to try something new, even though I’m scared about it is a good quality. It makes me unique. Not everybody’s willing to go out and take a boxing class even though they’ve never hit anything before. And it was terrifying, and it was awful. But it’s been like three months now and I love it and I cannot wait until Friday when I get there. I feel challenged by doing something that I haven’t done before. I was doing kickboxing, but then I realized that my knees hurt too bad. I couldn’t do it anymore, so I tried regular boxing. I had to push myself to get there. I’m wasn’t 100% comfortable with it. But I’ve bought and sold many properties because my husband’s a contractor and we flipped houses for a couple of years. The first flip is really hard. And then the second flip is easier, and the third flip is even easier than that. And it’s just continuing to do something even though it’s challenging.”

“I’m very much a creature of habit and I really like to be comfortable. But this year, part of my resolution, was to push myself out of my comfort zone. In real estate, you have to touch base with people, you have to make phone calls. I don’t like making phone calls, but I do it. I write handwritten letters and notes to people. Thank you letters after they meet with me. I make lists and notes to myself to make sure I do this today or remind myself to be grateful for my family. You don’t have to be perfect. Just because you do something, it doesn’t have to be 100% perfect. You’re going to make mistakes. And a mistake doesn’t matter. It’s how you handle it, how you get up from it. I really have to remember that.”