This summer we’re looking at the state of the luxury agent & broker in today’s increasingly complex real estate market. In October, we’ll gather in Beverly Hills at Luxury Connect to share best practices, network, and create blueprint for the luxury agent/broker of tomorrow. Don’t miss it.
Sometimes, simple happiness seems like a luxury that nobody can actually afford. This may be even more true for high-end real estate agents, who are operating in an ultra-competitive field to capture the attention of clients and then must provide white-glove service to those clients once the contract is signed (or well before anyone signs anything). Where do you find time to make yourself happy, and how do you build a successful, happy — luxurious — life for yourself?
Valerie Alexander is the CEO of a tech company called Goalkeeper, which has built a Happy Couples Bot, a communication tool to help couples connect, communicate and remember what they love most about each other. The screenwriter and former IPO lawyer and venture capitalist consultant has taken a long journey to discovering how to be happy, and she’ll share what she’s learned in a talk at Luxury Connect, October 16 through 18 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
Alexander started thinking about happiness in the midst of what most people would consider a massive life upheaval: After working as an IPO and securities lawyer in Silicon Valley in the 1990s, she took a break from that lifestyle when her mother developed a brain tumor and Alexander moved back to Indiana to take care of her. (Mom is healthy today!) By the time the family health scare was under control, in the early 2000s, the internet bubble had popped and Alexander embarked on a new career as a screenwriter.
Of course, nothing lasts forever; in 2007 and 2008, the Writer’s Guild went on strike, and Alexander’s screenwriting career never fully recovered — but she’d been brought to her calling nonetheless. “During the writers’ strike, there were other things that were very difficult going on in my life, and I was just still happy,” she remembered. “My husband asked me, ‘How can you be so happy — how are you staying happy?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know!’”
This was when Alexander had her epiphany: We aren’t taught how to be happy in the face of adversity, but maybe we should be. And since it’s not something we learn how to do at a young age, maybe teaching happiness the same way that foreign languages are taught could be effective. She started writing books, founded her startup and embarked on a career as a speaker who could address one of the most widespread and vital issues that any of us will face: How to be happy.
Alexander will be taking the stage at Luxury Connect and offering an array of strategies and techniques that real estate professionals can use to increase their own happiness in life. “I don’t approach this from a place of ‘why are you not happy’ — it doesn’t matter,” she explained. “You have within your power to make yourself happy, and in the techniques I teach, not everything is for everybody, but at least one thing is for somebody. Everybody is going to come out with at least one technique they can apply.”
Thinking of bringing your team? There are special onsite perks and discounts when you buy those tickets together too. Just contact us to find out more.