KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Leverage Your X-Factor: Finding Alignment, Community, and Sustainable CEO Success

Episode Date: June 8, 2026

Summary:Wendy Forsythe, Chief Marketing Officer for eXp Realty, joins host Heather Manzi to discuss her new book, Leverage Your X-Factor. Forsythe addresses the "achievement trap," where high-performers sacrifice joy for success, leading to inevitable burnout. She provides a framework for scaling a business through six core principles: Focus, Action, Community, Technology, Operations, and Resilience. Real estate professionals will learn how to transition from a "busy" mindset to an "effective" one by working in 90-day cycles and prioritizing personal alignment over external expectations.

This week on Women Who Rise, I'm joined by Wendy Forsyth, chief marketing officer for EXP Realty and author of the new book, Leverage Your X Factor. After decades of helping agents and entrepreneurs scale their businesses, Wendy has a message that so many high achievers need to hear. Success without alignment leads to burnout. Her work was recently recognized in Times Square, where NASDAQ congratulated her publicly on the release of her book.

And in this conversation, we go deep into what it really takes to rise into leadership without losing yourself along the way. We talk about finding your X factor, building leverage through community, using technology without losing authenticity, and creating a business that actually gives you your life back. If you're building something big and you don't want to burn out doing it, This is an episode you don't want to miss. Hi everyone and welcome to Women Who Rise.

I'm your host, Heather Manzi. Today I'm honored to be joined by Wendy Forsyth, chief marketing officer for EXP Realty, a respected industry leader, speaker, and the author of the new book, Leverage Your X Factor, with decades of experience, helping agents and entrepreneurs scale their businesses

while staying aligned with who they truly are, Wendy has become a powerful voice in redefining what success really looks like. Her work was recently recognized in a big way when she was congratulated on a billboard in Times Square by NASDAQ following the release of her new book, a moment that perfectly reflects the level of impact she's making in the industry. Today we're talking about leadership, leverage, resilience, and how to build a business that supports your life, not the other way around. Welcome to the show, Wendy. Thank you so much, Heather. I'm so excited to be here with you. We are absolutely honored and so thrilled as well.

So I, first of all, just, I mean a huge congratulations on the Times Square Billboard. I saw the announcement on your socials today. Boy, what an amazing thing. What was your immediate reaction to seeing your name and lies in such a storied location. I mean, I was just in shock, really, Heather. It happened with an email last week when we launched the book and NASDAQ reached out and asked if it would be okay if they congratulated me on the marquee billboard in Times Square. And of course, I'm reading the email and I'm like, yes, it would be okay if you did that and a couple emails back and forth on that and they said okay it will be a few days and we'll let you know

and then of course I was like well will you take a picture will you send it to me how will I know I'm all the way across the country I wanted to like to see it and they said of course like we'll send a picture of it when it's up for you and that's the picture that you saw on social media so I did I get gives funds just telling you about it it's definitely a thrilling moment. It's a huge moment. And by the way, I'm so thrilled. I actually got to see you speak on stage to well over a thousand people in Cabo just a couple weeks ago. So we're still with our sunkiss skin here. But I actually ordered a copy of your new book. So leverage your X factor. I'm watching copies. I love. Yeah, I'm so excited. I actually got to give it a read this weekend. And there was something that I decided for

fun to check a couple things on Amazon today. I was just curious. And I made a note here that you are currently, as of today, number seven in all Amazon books of real estate sales books. And you are number 82. So top 100 in all sales and selling books. This puts you together with ninja selling authors like Brian Tracy, Alex Hormosey, Zig Zigler, Alex Serhant. Uh, So many, by the way, men. And so I thought it was really interesting. Do you think that we are entering perhaps a new era of female voices, starting as well with your own in business and in real estate?

Well, first of all, I had no idea of those stats. So thank you for looking those up. That is incredible. I knew that we were the number one new release in real estate, but I hadn't checked into those other lists. So that's very exciting. So are we entering a, you know, new time for women's voices? I certainly hope so. We are past due for women's voices to be amplified as leaders, not only in our industry of real estate, but in entrepreneurship and in business in general. So it is certainly something I advocate for, something I believe we need, and something that, you know, small steps is hopefully happening.

Fantastic. Yeah, I love it. And I agree. You know, sometimes you'll hear from a stage, the future is female. And look, I'm raising two sons. And, you know, my thought is, hey, the future is for everyone. But by the way, the fact that we're starting to see and continue to see so many female leaders in business and realist, We're seeing more CEOs. We're seeing more people in high level positions such as your own. And it's not lost on me. You know, let's say I've been a business. I don't know, 30 plus years. And the idea that I used to be a lone kind of woman in a room and now we can have so many, I think is so encouraging and just exciting.

So you've reached a level very few people in this industry ever reach. But your work often talks about alignment instead of achievement. Was there a moment in your journey? when you realized success alone wasn't enough and that you might need to build it differently. I think there's always that moment. And there's a phrase that I use in the book, there's a devil at every level. And I think that we as women in particular, regardless of whatever the achievement is, we're always looking at the but what next. We rarely take that moment to give ourselves that pat on the back.

and live in the moment of achievement because we're always thinking and pushing about where do I go next? How do I do more? Because there's frankly, usually just more on our plates, right? You just mentioned raising your boys, right? We are raising families. We're running businesses.

We're, you know, in our relationships with our spouses. Like we're trying to juggle all the things. And that what's next is there. So for me, as I progress, throughout my career, I have always tried to find alignment in the achievement, but sometimes the push for the achievement means that you're out of alignment. And that really is the core of what the message in the book is about. Because when people lose that alignment, that's also when they lose their joy. And when you lose your joy, you lose that X factor, that brilliance that

makes you unique and special and all of those talents that led to the success end up being stifled by it. And that leads to burnout. And that's what we see a lot in this business. And we see a lot in entrepreneurship. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. You know, burnout is, I mean, put any group of realtors together and you're going to end up having some people talk about, you know, workplace fatigue, just, you know, fatigue. It's been, a challenging last few years in real estate. Not, you know, not everyone was able to see the kind of incomes

that they had been used to having previously. And it's been a little bit of a challenge for some people. And even when we had those incredible banner years, that came with its own challenge to potentially cause that burnout. I love the fact that you've talked about joy as that's really what creates that X factor in you. because if you have genuine passion for something, then you're going to jump out of bed in the morning. You're going to be more willing to show up

and you're going to be able to add something, you know, creative, some element of yourself or, you know, work harder, whatever it is. I love that. Who are the people who most inspired you in your life and career, maybe who have deeply informed how you operate in business? My dad is one of my biggest inspirations and has been one of my biggest mentors.

throughout my career. He got me into the real estate industry. He was the one that encouraged me to get my real estate license and start my business as a realtor. He still to this day is a new home developer and builds new homes. And he has been a tremendous mentor for me throughout my career. So he's a huge inspiration. Any big business decision, any big, I would say career decision, I have had throughout my life. Dad has been the one that has been there to help me think it through. And he's very wise because he never tells you what he thinks you should do, but he's there to listen and he asks great questions and he helps you really think it through.

So he's been a wonderful mentor for me. I love that. I love it. Just the fact, you know, it's keeping it in the family and also that you have such wisdom that you can access on the regular to help you. And I really love what you said about, isn't that sort of a component of great teachers that a great teacher will let the student

figure out the answer on their own, but with guidance and support. And it sounds like your father is absolutely that space for you. I wanted to ask, you've reached a level, very few people in this industry ever reach. But your work often talks as well about clarity, you know,

being the thing most agents are missing for motivation, you know, getting clear on what actually matters as well. And as a female in a very high position, what are some of those things that matter to you? I think there's, you mentioned alignment. That is one of the things that always matters to me is, am I in alignment with my values with what brings me happiness and joy? If those things are missing, then I am out of alignment and I am probably not bringing my best self to work or to the opportunity or the project or whatever it is. Now, that I think is harder and easier as we progress throughout our career. So I think of being earlier in my career in my 20s and in my 30s, I probably couldn't vocalize. the way I do now, that feeling of feeling unfulfilled or feeling stuck or feeling like I wasn't

reaching my potential or just not knowing how to navigate that. I probably didn't have, I know I didn't have the words, I didn't have the resources. I didn't have the community to help me navigate that. So I think that as we have progressed through our careers, we learn those things better. So definitely the group of people around me and a leadership team and in the role that I have today in this season that I'm in today, the leadership team that I work with every day is hugely important to me. You spend so much time with these people. I want to spend time with people who give me energy, who inspire me, who allow me to show up as my best self. I love that. And honestly, it's, you know, we keep talking about the people that you surround yourself with, you know, and that can be

often thought about as the personal life. But it's really, you know, we talk about collaboration. In fact, I have a question for you on that. But this idea that you have this leadership team, each person is performing and leading at a high level. Suddenly, you know, meetings and everything, what you have, what you need when you're having to make a tough decision, what you can pull from is just entirely different and leveling up everyone in the room. I talk about that in the book when I talk about community, right, the importance of community. And that's one of the,

when I talk about the six factors of your X factor, having that right community around you. So we were just talking about sort of focus in your career and having that focus. And that is the first, you know, principle of the book, a factor, which is the six principles in X factor.

So we were talking a little bit about focus. And then, you know, we just pivoted to talking about the importance of community. So the six principles of focus, action, community, technology, operations, resilience. They all work together. And that's where that alignment comes from to create, I think, that balancing structure that we're all looking for to help us bring our best selves to work every day. Yeah, I love it. I love it. and I love it how cleanly, you know, you broke that down into digestible concepts in, you know, such a, it's almost like a thickly worded, worded book in the idea that, you know, it's really not a huge book. You can get through it in a weekend. It is so full of wisdom. And I just, I just encourage everyone to pick up a copy.

One of the things that you talk about is that you differentiate between being busy and being effective. And I know that's something a lot of agents struggle with. In fact, gosh, new agents. I love mentoring agents on my team. And when they come to me, sometimes they've been licensed for a couple years and haven't done a single transaction. They've attended lots of meetings and functions and mixers, you know, and maybe some opens, but they haven't, you know, received the core things that, in my opinion, that they

needed on their education and then core things that they needed in order to be effective. Can you frame this idea of busy and being effective around, you know, maybe that context as well that you spoke of with discipline and what that means for short or long-term gain or growth? For sure. When we think of our day-to-day activities and our goals, I think one of the places where it gets challenging for a lot of agents, especially new agents, is they come into the business with this annual goal of I want to make. make X amount of dollars. But they never break that down to what does it mean I need to do in daily activities. And then they get into the office and there's a meeting on Tuesday and there's a broker open on Wednesday and there's a training on Thursday and oh, I got a call maybe here or there. They start getting busy, right, with busy work. And they lose focus, which is the first principle on making the connection between is the work,

are the activities aligning to the desired outcome, in this case being clients and transactions and ultimately income. And because they're working on this annual goal of I want to make X amount of dollars per year, a lot of time can go by. And as you said, it can be a year or two years and like they're not making any money.

So in the book I talk about thinking in terms of 90-day cycles. How can you align your activities and your focus on 90-day increments? Because in 90 days, you can change behavior and you can monitor outcome. And it's a short enough time that you can make pivots as needed, but it's a long enough time that you can create momentum and you can see traction and outcome. And if you work in 90 day cycles and then reset and pivot along the way, you will see a lot of benefit and you will see a lot of positive outcomes from that from just changing that mindset. Yeah. I absolutely love this so much. And, you know, I was just thinking a lot about it yesterday

as I was reading that because honestly, this idea as a business owner, you know, we're trying to, I'm implementing new things all the time. And I realized that. and it's almost like a diet unless you give it enough time to create efficacy or find out, in fact, if it's not effective, you really can't possibly know. And if any new thing that we implement, you know, say I just got Sisu, I just receive a, you know, a membership to a technology that helps me track transactions and do other things better. And the thing that I'm, you know, that I've said to my team is, look, the first 30 is just learning what it is. And the next two months is we're really going to see what sort of an impact

it has on our company. And so it kind of doesn't matter until then, you know, we need to figure out if this is working or not. And just this idea, I think, as an individual agent of digestible progress, you know, being able to try something and, you know, anyone can do something for 90 days or even 30 days. And I think it's just so encouraging the way that you have stated this and the way that you've broken it down into these bite-sized pieces so that people can see, you know, when you were talking, I was thinking, boy, we can change a lot in 90 days. If we use discipline in any way of our life, you know, if we, gosh, if we start an exercise or whatever, and if we start something new, if we make 100 calls a day for 90 days,

wow, the end of that cycle is going to be very rewarding. And I think it's brilliant because then that hopefully is going to give that person the impetus to keep going and maybe keep doing that 90 days because, yes, a year, what does that really mean our brains can't work in in those increments. So you talk a lot about, you know, community as leverage, not just support. And, you know, I think there's this fear, perhaps innate to sales professions that is obviously one of scarcity that running your own race alone maybe is the only way to protect customer streams and income streams. But you mentioned how collaboration can multiply results, actually.

Can you speak on that? Yes. So we mentioned that we were just in Cabo together at an event. And that is such a great example of community in action. And I think that our particular network being EXP Realty is just magnified the power of community. Because community can be leveraged for business goals and for personal, fulfillment. And when you bring those two things together, that is so powerful. And that was part of Glenn Sanford's vision of our EXP business model, is he brought the business component of financially

incentivizing agents to build on that community. And particularly in a sales business like ours, that is super powerful when you benefit financially, I benefit financially. When we help somebody else benefit financially, we all benefit financially. So that community element, not only from the business standpoint, but then think about what that brings into our lives from that sort of emotional mindset of that ability to go to an event like we went to in Cabo and people say, here's the playbook for my business. Here's a challenge I was having and here's how I solved it. This might work for you. What's going on in your business? Oh, that's working? This isn't working. How can I help? And when you have a community like that around you, it makes elevating in your

business so much easier. And it makes the challenges that we run into as entrepreneurs so much easier to navigate because we don't have to do it alone. And that is where a lot of, I'm going to say, traditional real estate agents really do find such tremendous hardship is where do they go to figure it out. And they lose so much time trying to figure it out and so much energy trying to figure it out that if you get the right community around you, you can save time, you can save energy, you can leverage that to grow and build faster and to do it in a much more enjoyable way. And again, that allows you to leverage your X factor and not get bogged down in all the other things, but instead lean into that brilliance, that superpower that allows you to shine as an entrepreneur, as a real estate professional.

Yeah, I can tell you, you know, there were a lot of mathematical reasons why just basic logic said, hey, wow, as soon as I saw the model, I wanted to move my team. And in fact, I went to Cabo two years ago and moved my team. Yeah, move my team the next week. And the reason why they agreed to, you know, I had 18 individuals at the time. The reason they agreed to move with me was simply because they could see the value as well. But the value, the true value that I've continued to see over and over and all the time that I've been with the company is that cultural value, that shared love and sense of ownership of a place that is big enough for all of. of us and in which when we thrive, we can really thrive together and mutually benefit one another. And I think along with it, that incredible sharing culture that you just described, which,

you know, I mean, you shared brilliant stuff from the main stage. You know, it was a AI and all this stuff. But we had, you know, individual team leaders and other people, you know, sharing really the crux of what made them successful, that independent brilliance. And it has been so clear to me that as a company, you guys are a space where each individual's contribution really matters and is really valued, you know, from the top down that you really, or from the bottom up, that you can really see a person can find their place, find their niche, and really make something extraordinary happen. So another question that I have for you, you know, you really frame agents as CEOs, not salespeople. And that shift changes everything.

thing. What in your own experience as well, you know, I'd love to have you define that a little bit more, but what also in your own experience and career up to this point has allowed you to view agents in this way? Yes. So we are as agents, CEOs. We are independent contractors. We are the CEOs of our own businesses. And thinking like a CEO is an important mindset. It elevates, I think, your thought and your decision making and how you approach the business. I'm not just a real estate agent. I'm not just a salesperson. I think we, even as I said those things, notice I put just. Why did I say just a sales person or just a real estate agent? It was just some sort of like, you know, reflex for that. That is why the CEO mindset is so important is to pivot that. We are entrepreneurs

running and scaling businesses. And that is how we need to think of ourselves. We are founders of Me Incorporated. And I'm the CEO of Me Incorporated. And I'm building a brand. And I talk a lot about this, so the importance of building our brands as those entrepreneurs. And what that allows when you have that mindset

is to open up the door of possibility to so many other avenues. Think of so many of the agents that we know at EXP who not only have their production business as real estate professionals, but they have coaching businesses, they have digital courses that they might be selling, they have investment businesses that they're building. They're building multiple streams of income because they have that CEO mindset and we can all have that CEO mindset and we should all have that CEO. mindset. For me as an employee working within sort of the corporate structure, I started as an agent. I owned my own brokerage business. I come from a family of entrepreneurs. I think one thing that has helped me tremendously throughout my career is I've always hung on to that entrepreneurial spirit. So even though I work as an employee of EXP in my current role, I know. I know.

navigate like an entrepreneur. I think about every opportunity. I work every day like an entrepreneur. And the best corporate executives hold that quality true. And it's something when you think of Leo Perea, our CEO, he would tell you that same thing. Leo still operates like an entrepreneur out there. Glenn Sanford, our founder, even with the magnitude of the business that he is built today, he's still thinks like an entrepreneur every single day. He's a founder in this business. And that is something I've observed amongst our entire leadership team. And it's something that is encouraged on our leadership team is that entrepreneurial spirit. Because that's how you solve problems. That's how you move fast. That's how you create opportunities. That's how we support all of you as agents who need us

to do that on your behalf. 100%. I love it. And it's just, the fact not only viewing us as entrepreneurs and empowering agents to say, look, you can be and you are, in fact, already more. You know, it kind of goes to the badass thing where it's like, gee, I mean, you're an entrepreneur. Own it. You know, go for it. And by the way, there's so many more options for you. I absolutely love that. And I love that you said that I've had the pleasure to interview, you know, Kendall Bonner and Leo Perea and others. it's absolutely like you said you know they are understanding their role as something that is independent that is creative that is you know uh always having room for input for pivoting for growth and that it's critical and important and as such i did not think but yes it's absolutely those are

all the characteristics of a genuine entrepreneur and and i love also that you tied it back again to your dad and the fact that look you grew up in that mindset and so you've understood because an entrepreneur is looking holistically at everything and they're taking ownership for the levels below and above them and they're seeing how they can work collaboratively I think it just goes back to that again you know what can you be if you're an army of one and then by the way if you get to collaborate that's incredible so I absolutely love that it's amazing yeah what does Wendy care you know what do you have to do you have to do you do to care for yourself or how does Wendy care for yourself in a high powered career with traveling

demands and so much what are maybe some of these non-negotiables for self-care and the reason I ask and I love to ask people this on the show is because look I mean we're the women who rise podcast they could be in real estate they could be running ice cream shops of their own you know they can be in the corporate world but how to get up that ladder if their mind cannot go gee how am I going to to bring home the bacon and take care of the kids or do all the things, how do you get there and how do you take care of yourself? Yes, so important because if you're not physically and mentally strong, everything else is going to suffer that you want to do. For me, sleep is a non-negotiable. I need like seven hours of sleep, a minimum seven hours of sleep. So I will be the

person who sneaks away from the dinner early to make sure I'm like getting to bed and getting my sleep. I prioritize that very, very much so. And then exercise. Exercise is critical to me. I've always been an athlete. I run early in the morning. I either run, walk, lift weights, tennis, pickleball. I'm a total sports junkie. Like I, if I could just like, if I could just like, play sports all the time. Like that would be like a life well lived. So but exercise, there's exercise involved in every single day in some format. So that changes depending on if I'm traveling as you mentioned or if I'm home.

But I work out sort of there are definitely five to seven workouts a week in the agenda somewhere. And all of that is scheduled. I know when that is happening. I plan that out throughout the week. So sleep and exercise are the two, those are the two non-negotiables. You'll see I'm wearing an aura ring. I track everything. So I track all my health metrics.

Yeah, I look at all of that. So very much into all of those things. I absolutely love that. That's fantastic. I've been telling my team for a while now, sleep is my superpower. Because I had learned at a certain point, anything that I was doing, to disrupt that was massively detrimental to the following day. But if I can, even if I have terror, you know, big problems going on, you know,

it could be whatever it is, you know, frustration with an employee. It just doesn't matter. If I can just take it to bed, get a good seven plus hours rest, then my mind is just going to come up with solutions the next day. It's like magic. It is, it is phenomenal. One of the questions I wanted to ask you, because obviously you're, you know, your position is so important to

EXP and I know that your passion and love for the company always just bleeds out. I saw you on stage at EXP Con. I've seen you in Cabo. I just, I know that. And you've got, you know, kind of an open line into Glenn and the founder

and, you know, I wanted to ask you, what do you want the public and maybe EXP curious agents to understand the most about EXP? maybe the company, the culture, the opportunity. This is a company that allows people to build the size dreams that they have for their life.

And when Glenn started the company, he started it with the motivation that he as an agent, and that's Glenn's background as an agent. He was a team leader. He had this observation of the real estate industry in general, of being such a hardworking people as real. estate professionals. But when it came time to retire, when it came time to step out of production, there was no pension plan. There was no matching 401K contributions for real estate professionals. Like there was no what is next. And he felt that he could solve that. And that was how our business

model got created was from that drive for him to want to give back to the industry, additional options for agents to plan for retirement. So what I would like people to know about this company is that that spirit of wanting to help each other, wanting to give back, wanting to see the best in each other, wanting to support the dreams of each other at all different levels, whether you're a new agent starting out, a solo agent trying to get to that next level in your career, a team leader building a team, somebody trying to build a rev share organization, an executive like myself, building their career, an employee joining us looking to build their career.

All of those opportunities are built on the same spirit of we can accomplish dreams together. And this company has done that for so much. many people. One of the things I love Heather is, and one of the reasons you see me out at events so inspired and so fired up is that somebody, and this happens every event, it had happened in the event we were just sat together in Cabo. Somebody walks up to me, unsolicited, grabs me by the shoulders and says, Wendy, I just want you to know, this company changed my life. It changed my family, it changed. It changed everything. And they tell me this, Heather, with tears in their eyes. And you see it. And when you have the opportunity to be a part of something like that,

that's what I want people to know. And I've worked at other brokerage companies. I've never had that experience until I came to EXP and had people tell me those things. That is incredible. That is incredible. And, you know, I feel it, you know, just hearing you recount it, this is where passion and fire in a position comes from or as an entrepreneur because, you know, as agents, we get to see the lives of the people that we change as team leaders, you know, or team owners, we get to see the agents' lives that we change and the people we mentor and who thrive under us. As a company, as a corporation, you get to see, you know, entire groups of individuals, you know, small and large in their organization to say, wow, you've changed my life. Yeah, there, I just think there are

a few things greater in life. And also the fact that like you recounted, you know, Glenn built the company to fix the things that weren't handled at, you know, at the industry level. And having worked in the corporate world in advertising and marketing, it was informative to me that when I saw what EXP was offering, I said, gee, send me the contract. I want to read that thing. Wow, I was really blown away because I immediately called it my husband. I said, you know what? It's the first time, literally the first time that I'm seeing a tried and true contract that absolutely values and treats agents the way that a corporate, you know, entity would provide perks and things like that to its workforce. And I was absolutely stunned at, you know, in black and white, it is obvious.

You get part of revenue. And just that whole concept, I think, was just completely brilliant. And, you know, just the fact that we can see this is genuinely being paid out to agents, New newer agents on my team have benefited from thousands of dollars a year just because they helped a few people into the organization and they did their first few transactions. This is a game changer. It's absolutely brilliant. So I love that and I absolutely love and can feel the true joy. And, you know, gee, when I'm sitting around tables at events like Coppo, you can hear people are really,

really thrilled that they have joined this brokerage and they wish they'd done it sooner because it's not just this idea of creating, you know, a retirement or a downline is the idea that the entire culture is literally built from the ground up by like Leo would say, realtors, you know, these are people who are really have been in practice and they understand what we do day to day. And I just absolutely love it. And I know that our time is getting short, but I wanted to ask you something else. If you could wave a magic wand, what would you most want our audience of ambitious women who want to rise at any phase of their lives and careers to know, to, you know, to help them. Find courage to take that first step.

I want them to know to take the first step. Whatever it is that they're aspiring to accomplish, don't put it off. Don't wait. Don't think you're not prepared. Don't try to get more ready. Just take the first step. So that's what I'd want them to know because you'll figure the rest of it out. And that's where the action, I talk in the book about getting into action. When you get into action, you'll find, you'll figure it out.

And especially women, that's what we do. We figure things out. Well, we have to get into action. If we don't get into action on whatever that is, we don't need to figure it out. So I would just say, just start. And it's okay if it doesn't work out. It's okay if it doesn't work out the way you intended, you will pivot. And that's okay.

We're really good at pivoting as well. So get into action would be the first thing I would say, just start whatever it is. and then let go of other people's expectations and opinions. Because we get so held back by what we think other people expect us to do or what we expect we should be doing, that I think we put ourselves in these tight boxes of I can only do this. I'm only seen as that. And if we can just let go of that and allow,

our X factors to push us through that and break that barrier, that's what I would encourage women to do. So good. I just love that so much. Yes. And, you know, I made a note. What we, it's like you said, you stress the word think is what we think others want or expect us to do. And, you know, I wrote down imagine, because isn't that true? While this thing up here is so busy, we could just be doing. We could be acting. We could be pivoting. We could be making things happen. And we have no idea if it's really true of someone expects, you know, certain things of us.

It's really, it's, you know, and it's an imaginary reality. We could be making our own and being in action. Wow, such inspiring words. Well, one thing I wanted to say before we part is just, I mean, thank you. It's, it's, I really want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for spending the time here today. but also for, you know, being such a gracious leader, being someone who has the enthusiasm and the passion for this company, being someone who is always approachable, always kind. And I think you just exemplify so much about what I love, about the collaborative nature of EXP and about, you know,

being part of a company that is so, you know, agent-centric and, you know, so encompassing of the people that we have in our world right now who honestly just want to make it a better place. So thank you so much. I can tell that your wisdom is going to inspire our listeners wherever they are at in their lives and careers no matter what they are up to. And I encourage everyone, please, you know, go pick up a copy of this. We'll provide links and I'll also provide it in our show recap. But Wendy, I really appreciate you. And thank you so much for sharing with us today. Thank you so much. It has been such a delight being here. And thank you for all the thoughtful questions and women who rise. Like, let's just keep rising and supporting each other. Absolutely. Agreed. Thank you. Well, folks, that's it for today's podcast. Thank you so much for joining us on Women Who Rise, the success podcast for ambitious women. Today, Wendy taught us about embracing and cultivating.

a CEO mindset. You know, understanding that you are an entrepreneur as a realtor and Wendy still thinks like one and operates as one as chief marketing officer for EXP Realty, just understanding that this is about owning who you are and your own unique place at every level of the organization that you are a part of. and understanding that you can collaborate with others and you also have something unique to offer your unique skill set, your unique problem solving,

and just understanding that you can take ownership of all that you are doing. And in fact, that means your future can be bigger, bolder, and brighter than you may imagine because you have this CEO mindset. She also talked about finding a place that allows you to build your dreams or create one. Obviously, there's plenty of people that Wendy is speaking of as part of EXP. It was important for our founder, Glenn Sanford, to create a place where people could, in fact, find their dreams where their dreams could be any size and it would fit inside this company, and this company would be supportive of that, and that it would be a vehicle that you can build

whatever you want to build. This is incredible and true with so many people I've met inside the organization. But look, outside of real estate, there are so many ways in which you can interpret this and make this come alive

in your own careers as well, no matter what it is you do. And then third, she talked about finding your X factor. Obviously, in her book, which is titled, Leverage Your X Factor, she talks about what she means by that. She talks about your joy and your brilliance in your work that allows you to shine. Figure out what that is and get yourself into a position, into a vehicle that will allow you to use that X factor that you have so that you can enjoy what it is that you do.

You can be infused with energy as you go through your life and your work. rather than being someone who has burned out. She also talked about, you know, just act, take that first step and get into action. There are so many women, you know, on the podcast looking for the inspiration and the tips that are going to help them rise. And that's why this is here. But she also said, just act, you know, just take that first step. make sure that you understand you're probably going to pivot along the way. But getting into action is how you're going to find those things out.

And like she said, women are figure-outers. We know how to figure things out. We know how to pivot. We know how to solve problems. We do it all the time for our families and everywhere in our lives. You know, stop imagining what others may think or may expect or may need or want. want you to do and just go for it. Again, this is living outside your mind and into the world around you and recognizing that while those thoughts may still be there, it's really that action

that is going to provide you some freedom and give you somewhere to go and maybe even quiet those voices of expectation in your mind. Finally, go ahead and pick up a copy of leverage your X Factor by Wendy on Amazon. Wendy Forsyth will provide links for you below. It is a fabulous read. Absolutely recommend. And I think everyone should grab a copy. Visit our website to find our episode guide and worksheet that will help you use these

tips to take action in your own life. Please like and subscribe and join us everywhere podcasts are streamed. We can't wait to bring you more. incredible content every week so that you can rise in your own lives and careers. Again, thank you so much. Heather Mancy signing off.