The Work Behind Success: 31 Years of Professional Sales Experience

What does it truly take to succeed in real estate? During a powerful sales meeting with my team, we tackled the question of why we're selling real estate and what's blocking us from reaching our professional goals – the kind of goals that transform families and futures.

I shared my personal 28-day wine-free challenge as more than just a health experiment. It's a demonstration of commitment and leadership. After all, if I can't follow through on a personal promise to myself, how can I effectively guide others? The principle extends beyond habits into every aspect of professional life: we all possess the ability to be the solution and transform our circumstances through daily choices.

When someone commented that I "make it look easy," I had to laugh. What appears effortless now comes after three decades in professional sales – thousands of conversations, countless listing appointments, and years of consistent learning. Success in real estate isn't achieved through shortcuts or magic formulas. It demands genuine grit, strong work ethic, integrity, and persistence regardless of circumstances. I can't make calls for my team, memorize dialogues, or conduct their conversations. The only path to improvement is through consistent action.

Today's market requires extraordinary commitment. I've recently declined appealing networking events to remain in the office making calls and fulfilling commitments. These weren't easy decisions – the Entrepreneurs Club is always enjoyable – but priorities demanded focus on pressing work. True accountability means making difficult choices that align with your goals.

🎧 Key Takeaways:

• Why discipline in one area (like giving up wine) fuels confidence in others
• Why showing up matters more than natural talent
• The myth of “easy success” and why real success takes decades
• How personal accountability impacts professional performance
• Why “work works”—and how to apply that mantra to your own goals

🗣️ Quotes from Maria Quattrone:

• “If I can’t not drink wine, how am I going to lead you?”
• “I can't make the calls for you, I can't memorize the dialogue for you—you have to do the work.”
• “Work works. It always has. It always will.”
• “You are the solution. You have the power to change your life.”

📚 Resources/Topics Mentioned:

• Entrepreneur’s Club at the Union League
• MQA Sales Culture
• Real estate market demands in 2024
• Daily accountability practices

I've established minimum standards for my performance that I refuse to compromise, planning to increase them by 50% next year. This commitment has built not just a successful business but a supportive culture that functions like family. Remember the principle that's guided me for 18 years: work works. Do the work. Be the solution. You are the solution. What commitment will you make today to transform your real estate career?

Connect with Maria Quattrone:
Facebook: Maria Quattrone
Facebook Page: REMAX at Home Facebook
Facebook Page: Rise in Real Estate Facebook
LinkedIn: Maria Quattrone
YouTube: Maria Quattrone
Instagram: @maria_quattrone
TikTok: mariaquattronerealestate
Website: MQrealesate.com
Office number: 215- 607-3535

Chapters

• 0:00 Be the Solution: Sales Meeting Reflections
• 1:19 True Success Takes Decades of Work
• 2:39 Sacrifices Required: Choosing Work Over Events
• 4:22 Taking Responsibility for Your Success
• 5:52 Personal Challenge: Four Weeks Wine-Free

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Be the solution. This is the journey, day 28, and we can do it for you. Yesterday we had our sales meeting and we talked about why you are selling real estate and what is getting in your way of meeting the goals that you want for yourself professionally. That will change you and your family's life, and we discussed what could get in the way, what has gotten away, why we haven't reached the commitments that we wanted to, that we did commit to. And I brought up me not drinking wine. I said if I can't not drink wine, then how the heck am I going to lead you Meaning? The whole experiment that I'm doing is greater than just not having wine. There's a bigger reason behind it. We all have the power to be the solution and to change our life. We talked about the real estate industry. We talked about the market. We talked after. We talked all about our personal things. We talked about what's going on and this time is not for the faint of heart.

Speaker 1: 1:18

We got to do the work and somebody had said, yeah, she makes it look so easy. You know why I make it look easy? Because it's not been three years, it's been 31 years of being in professional sales, three decades. How many conversations have I had? How many times have I met with people, whether I worked with them or not. You meet with a lot of people that you don't even work with, but I said I can't do the work for you, I can't make the calls for you, I can't memorize the words for you to say the only way to get better is to do the work. There's no way around it. There's no magic pill, there's no magic formula. It's doing the work, having grit, a strong work, ethic, integrity, humility, being humble, being kind and just getting up and doing it no matter what. So a lot of times, what I see is okay, well, I, I committed to do x, but it's like five or six o'clock and I gotta get going, or you gotta pick, get up earlier to start your day, work later at the end of the day to get the work done that is needed. I see it in the office. It worked Wednesday night. Oh, I know Entrepreneurs club table at the union league, which I love going to. You know we sit around, people have drinks or not, and you have food and you talk about it's for anybody that's on payroll. So we talk about solutions as an entrepreneur. But what I needed to do was more pressing and it trumped that because that's fun. It's easy to say let me go at 5 30. I couldn't. I stayed till 7 30. Thursday same thing. I had something to go to again, I did not go to it. I then stayed at the office. That's right. We have dinner thursday night and I know I'm to make a good reservation for us to celebrate. I sold you that parcel a few years ago. It came available and now it's for free.

Speaker 1: 3:31

We go back to doing the work because there's nothing that replaces. Can't make the calls for you, can't learn a dialogue, can't actually sit there and have the conversation for you. You have to learn how to talk to people and, more importantly, that you have to learn how to listen. And since I've done thousands of videos, thousands of listing, thousands when I say thousands of listing appointments, thousands and thousands, and you get really good because you've done the work, there's nothing that replaces it. So can't do it for you. You know, I wish I could do it for you, but that was not going to do anything for you. Actually, it's only going to hurt you.

Speaker 1: 4:14

So what I talk about is being the solution. You are the solution. You have the power to change your life. It's all about you and your choices that you make. I could have chose to go to those three events this week. I chose to stay in the office and continue making the calls.

Speaker 1: 4:32

The last 20 years Too many. The point of this is that we have to take responsibility and accountability for what we want to achieve in our life and there's no excuse not to do it. I get up early and if you can't get up early and start your day, then you finish later. The market is requiring it right now. This isn't Maria saying, oh, you have to do this, you have to do that. No, the market's requiring it.

Speaker 1: 5:02

I made a nice living in the month of May and I will continue to continue that on, because I've set a minimum standard for myself and I will not go below what that minimum standard is and in fact, next year I'm going to times that one and a half, because I have things that I want to do. I have people that I want to help and the more that I can do, the more than I can lead my people to the highest level as people come. For you know, you can go anywhere and work and you can go anywhere and make more money than where you are now, but the culture that we have within our organization and being a family. It took years and years, and years for me to get to this, because before I was like not ambition, crazy ambition. But I'm excited. So let's do the work, everybody, because you know what Work works. I've been saying that for 18 years. Work works. Do the work. Be the solution. You are the solution.

Speaker 1: 5:58

Today is day 28. That will be four weeks no wine. I'm getting ready, we're leaving to go to a concert and it will be wine free, alcohol free. So I'm continuing the dry spell for a bit longer. I'm not sure I haven't decided yet. Feeling good, having a good time.