For years I resisted a particular brand of agent talk. Maybe you avoid it too. It made me uncomfortable. It made me cringe. It was one of the three topics we're raised to believe aren't appropriate to discuss in polite company. Sales. Number of transactions closed. Which amounted in my mind to the same thing--money.

When I got my license, I can honestly say it felt like a calling. I didn’t have any real estate experience other than a bad home-buyer one. For me, real estate was about finding a way to serve. A way to make sure that, at least the clients who worked with me, would never have a bad experience. It was a way to minister in the marketplace, if you will.

I have trusted that the Lord would bring me amazing clients and he always did. But when people would ask me how many homes I had sold those first couple of years,  I would meekly say, "a lot."

One day at an agent conference, I ran into Brett Tanner. I went up to him to thank him for the classes he had taught and to tell him how much they impacted my business. He asked me how business was and I answered, "Great!" But honestly, I didn’t know whether it was great or not.

Because I truly did not know how many homes I had sold that year. Seems crazy to me now, but it's the truth. He could tell I was a bit embarrassed and he was so gracious about it. He told me that numbers were the language of our business.  And he asked me, "Are you willing to let it grow as big as it wants to grow?"

In that moment everything changed. What you measure improves, so I made a commitment to always know my numbers. I went back to my office and looked up my reports and I had sold 35 homes that year. That is actually a pretty great year, right?

That experience was followed-up with an epiphany in a business planning clinic (You should attend this class!) I had heard other agents talk about doubling their business from year to year, and I asked myself why I couldn't do the same. What was stopping me from seeing that kind of growth in my own business?

The answer was my actions and my mindset. So, I changed both.

In 2016 I set an ambitious goal of serving 77 families, and this was before I hired my own team. (I had a part time transaction coordinator) The actual number I closed that year was 60.. but I wasn’t disappointed, because that was so much higher than I'd ever aimed before.

Knowing my numbers meant that I could make decisions with confidence. Because I knew my numbers, I could dream big. So I did. One of my biggest dreams was to live on the water… not just have a peekaboo view--but actually own a waterfront home. Then through a series of crazy events, I bought my little cottage on the sound. A bank owned repo that was in need of some love. It had been on the market for months with no offers and in no time, it was mine.

Knowing my numbers and focusing on them in a healthy way gave me freedom to think and dream bigger. What are the big dreams for you?