KGCI: Real Estate on Air - The Power of Mentorship and Coaching

Episode Date: April 14, 2026

Summary:This episode is a high-level, motivational discussion on the importance of mentorship and coaching in a real estate career. The host, Kelly Ann, shares her personal experiences and philosophical insights on how learning from others can accelerate personal and professional growth. While the topic is highly relevant, the conversation lacks specific, actionable steps on how to find a mentor, what to look for in a coach, or how to structure a coaching relationship. The content is inspiring but is not a tactical guide for an agent to apply to their business.

Welcome, everybody. It's so nice to have you part of today's session. This is Elite Mastermind. Elite Mastermind is a session whereby I have guest speakers that come on board and each one of them goes through this journey to really share their experience with us. And each one of them have had that experience that really elevates their business to the next level. Now, today we're going to be talking about something. which is the power of mentorship and coaching. Now, for those of you that know me, I'm a mentor, I'm a coach, I work with entrepreneurs, I work with real estate agents, I work with individuals that want to succeed in their life. It is a deep, deep passion of mine, and I'm actually so excited because today I've actually got two guests that are joining us today. each one has had a very unique journey. Each one has got experience in helping others.

And that really is what underlines a mentor and a coach, is really helping others, making them aware of the path that lies ahead of them. So joining me today, I've got Badin and Collette. And I just want to get a quick little introduction. Badin, we always start alphabetically. So I'm going to start with you just to give us a quick little intro, where have you been all of these years?

What have you done? Because your coaching experience actually didn't start in real estate. It actually comes from a different industry. But one thing I must admit is you've helped so many people do things that is unbelievable. Share your story so we get to know you a bit better. Thank you so much, Steve. And yes, I've got a story to tell. And I feel the same as you.

to be a mentor is really a very passionate thing in my life because I gave training for 35 years. I know it's a very, very long time, but I come from the Office Automation industry, as well as I was a modeling coach and a coach that helped people to write public speaking for the RTIA Kofia. So that is quite important things. And modeling, it's not about just to be on stage. It's about how to perform in front of the camera and how to do a little bit of drama and a little bit of commercial advertisement and editorials in magazines and all that kind of thing. But the most coaching that I did was I coached young people, even married people as well, to represent South Africa in internationally in a pageantry and that is a very difficult thing to do because you have understand where you come from what are you standing for in life and then you have to represent your country and tell them about your country so you have to have enough knowledge about what you are where you come from and that kind of thing and you have to do it alone with between 80 and 120 different

countries. So yeah, and I think it's the same in South African in real estate is the same different thing. To coach and to mental somebody is not only about telling them what to do because it's about to lead them, to show them and to bring out the best out of that person and to stay positive. I think that is the main thing. I love that. Bring the best out of them and that's ultimately what we do as coaches we build the awareness to make them the better version of themselves so that they can represent themselves at the highest possible level also joining us today is colette now colette's had a very different journey colette give us a little introduction about yourself and your journey that you've had hi everybody um yes good so in terms of from a business

point of view, I've owned my own interior design and renovation business for the past 18 years. So something within that, I mean, I have to basically try and steer the business through the COVID process where by my business was

severely affected with the with the COVID and because my business was positioned basically around the office interior mostly office, big corporate office interiors project. So with COVID everybody started working from home and there was no more office projects people were leaving office buildings so I had to reposition myself in the market and then go back into

residential properties so I've been a business owner and a female business owner for the past 18 years and having to basically you know look off to my family and support my family as a sole as a single woman so from that aspect as well as I was I'm quite involved with within the motorcycle fraternity and in that i found a lot of leadership and in mentoring ladies specifically women in this in this day and age a lot of us are single moms single breadwinners in families and from that aspect you know there's a lot of um leadership and mentoring needed as well it's like hey you're okay today you know you can do this you know there's there's ways it means you know where you at personally mentally where are you at and trying to get people just to to be positive and to and to see that if you can do

this thing, what else is there that you can do? So I absolutely love being in that position where I'm able to help people, not just in the charity side, but also on a personal level, especially a lot of women, women, not leaving the men out, but in my business and in my life, I've encountered quite a lot of women that have been really good to mentor and to help get them to stay on the right path. And thank you for sharing that. You know, one of the common elements here is uplifting self-confidence. And uplifting self-confidence is so, so important.

As an entrepreneur in the real estate space, what we tend to find is when we step into this environment, we feel overwhelmed. We feel like we actually want to hide in the corner. And through mentoring and coaching, ultimately, it starts to bring up those inner strengths, make you the better version of yourself, allow you to take that step forward with a high level of confidence, because it's that high level of confidence that your clients recognize. And they go,

hey, wait a minute, I want to deal with this person. I want to be in partnership with this individual. And that's really one of the fundamentals that we started to go through. Baden, I want to come through to you and ask you a particular question. And this is something that we've had this conversation right in the beginning, because you have. had a lot of excitement about helping people coming from your past but now coming into real estate helping real estate agents what was the trigger that made you want to start helping and mentoring real estate agents steward it's actually very funny because um when i got into real estate i knew nothing like nothing i didn't even know how to begin what you're

write down. I didn't even know what was a listing form. So I've got a few stories I can tell you. And that is so important to understand, to be a mentor is not always to tell you what to do, where and how. Because life doesn't come out with a book. It is experience. And somebody who have a lot of experience is the best person that can help you as a mentor. So when I began to be in the real estate, I had an attorney, a conveyor, and he helped me a lot. I sold, you guys were not going to believe what I'm going to tell you now, I sold a residential place into a funeral company in the beginning. And I was so excited about that offer.

I mean, that was the third offer I think I had. And I was so excited and I tell my attorneys, okay, I've got this offer. So on and they came and when they went for the second viewing and then they asked, okay, we just want to know where it's to drain. We want to know where the fluids are going to. And my eyes was like big like this. And I said, what? I thought you say you're going to make our office into this because you can change the zoning. There's people around there with the zoning and that. And I had to phone my attorney to tell them, please help me here. What am I doing? And I wish I had a like you, Stuart, Stewart, or like Rian, that helped me in different circumstances. In the beginning, I sold a house four times. After the fourth time, I realized, you know what, you can't do this. You have to pre-approve a client to do this. And all that mistakes that I made and all that energy that I gave out,

if I could have a bad deal in my life that helped me, through this difficult times to make it shorter to get at the end where I want to be, I would be really, really a better agent and quicker to the place that I want to be in life. Fantastic. And thank you for sharing that story because I've never experienced that. Where's the drains? Where all the fluid can go down? That's something that I'm never going to forget. And something that definitely is something that I'll have to do research. Because as a coach and as a mentor, we make sure that our knowledge is the highest, that we've experienced the skills to actually share with the people that we're working with. Colette, I want to jump to you.

Now, you've been in business 18 years and running your own business, now stepped into real estate. And yeah, there's similarities, but you've always got to be asking questions to help guide you, especially when you're making a transition from. one industry through to another industry. What best advice that a mentor has ever given you to help you take that step forward? Yes, Stuart, Bertu, it is quite a difference and also with all the legislation and all the rules and things. So I think, as Burdine said as well, for me, initially it was about seeking out mentors, seeking out those top agents that are successful because I came into this.

I'm not going to just do this, excuse my French, but I'm just going to go, come and half-a-ast-this, I'm going to do this full-out, and I want to be a good agent and a pop agent. So I also was looking at who can I ask for help, who can guide me, and then I got the most knowledge that I could. And I think what if the, one of the, yeah, so I've written out of one of the best pieces of advice that one of these people have told me was knowledge is not negotiable. So knowledge, so you need to educate yourself. constantly and as you go along you're always going to learn something i think even if you are a top agent you're still learning because things do change um so that that was one of the big things was

was knowledge is not negotiable so you've got to learn all the time and then also focus um to remain focus because we get so easily distracted um in this business and that you have to plan your diary you have to plan you and i'm not because of my creative nature being following as diary strictly is one of the most difficult things for me is routine. There's my personality, but it's also, I cannot just stick to those timelines. So that was one of the biggest things for me is focus. This is what you need to do to be able to get to that. These are the things you have to document your plan and you have to follow it step by step. And I love that growth mindsets because that is definitely clear signs of a really good mentor because there's that

saying, you know, you could teach somebody to fish and they will eat for a life. But if you actually just show them and do it for them, they're going to have one meal on their plates. So knowledge and having that growth mindset is so, so important. And you did hear one thing, we'll say on one thing, which is focus. You know, something that I'm saying to so many people that I work with is it's consistent and being persistent. And in order to do that, you've got to focus. It can't be consistent on anything and persistent on anything. You've got to be consistent on what you're focusing on and persistent at it on an ongoing basis. But then I want to come back to you and I want you to draw back into your experience of working with mentees, working with people, whether it's

in real estate or whether it's actually taking them to stand in front of a stage, basically competing with 120 or more countries. They must be something. success story where you've helped somebody to that next level. And I know as a coach, it's a, it's a memory that you never forget. It's a warm, fuzzy feeling that you actually have. Is there one that really stands out for you over your career? I've got a lot of stories, Stuart. I must tell you, there is so many things that you can learn from life. And it's not only about what you know. It's what you know. It's what you can learn in a different circumstances that you've got. But I always train and I know people say,

you know what, Acomandino is so an old thing, but if you, if I can give anybody in my life advice, I would say, take, get the book, the greatest salesman of the world of Ackamandino. I'm going to tell you briefly what it's all about. It's about a, a, a guy, a mentor, his name was Patros, yes, Patros, and our feet. So our feet was a camelman, and he wanted to sell something. And Patros gave our feet a red scarf to sell, and he gave him 10 scrolls how to do that. And that is absolutely an amazing story, and it helps you to understand. for a mentor to help people.

It's like helping people over a bridge. So your mentor have to go first, get over the bridge, come back and then lead your whole group to get over the bridge and then you go last. Because to be a leader or a mentor doesn't mean that you know everything. You do not know everything. nobody knows everything but you are willing to get that experience first to go first and do what you have to do and then give it to the mentee or advise the mentee to do what they have to do and that is a very important thing

that i've learned i myself you guys are not going to believe that i was not even the the only foot that i got out of south africa as when we had a farm on the border of Botswana and I got out of the small boat to get into Botswana and back. That was the only time I was overseas. But I trained so many people internationally and I were there the whole time. And I give them advice through their whole journey. So you do not have to be in the circumstances to understand what it's all about. But you have to guide in the right way to understand that life is a journey. And that's the best way.

Absolutely. You know, going down those footsteps, you had to do the research. You had to learn about it. And you had to be the self-confident person to actually share. And that's one thing with an actual mentor is having almost that high level of knowledge. So when somebody asks you a question, especially your mentees, you're able to give them a very confident, strong answer. And having that personal experience, as you said, a person that's crossed the

actual bridge and come back with that little bit of knowledge, it actually comes from a much higher level, which is so, so important when mentees are going through because they want to learn through the steps of the people in front of them, which is so, so important. Colette, I want to come through to you. And now, I know that your journey in real estate was literally like most real estate agents, you get thrown into it because, well, it's not really an option for most of us. It's kind of like, well, we have to do. It's back against the wall. COVID.

All of these things starts coming into your particular path. Now, you mentioned that you've been asking and working with more senior agents to actually learn from them. And as much as it might have not been an official mentorship that you had with them, they were still a mentor. How is that conversation or men? mentoring with that mentorship with that particular experienced agent actually helped you in your early days right up till today to grow in real estate. I think one of the biggest things for me initially was it was do I chase listing units units sales or do you chase values sales?

That was one of the big things. And then also the fear of, you know, I think initially you come into the business and you think, let me just take the listing. And no matter what, you're just going to take it because you so need to do the sale. But I think it was also about learning to walk away from a deal when it doesn't serve you right. And being able to make that decision from the word go.

So, but definitely for me, the thing that changed my business was to chase unit numbers. Because with the more unit number sales that you, that you're chasing, you know, I just found in my business, it just started getting the ball rolling. And I overnight before I closed my house, one listing, one sale led it to another. And I ended up with so many unit numbers in that particular year last year. So for me, that was one of the big things that I took to heart initially.

And you actually hit something which actually gave me a bit of a reminder. Quality over quantity to actually start moving forward. And this is actually great advice that was shared through to you. You've actually shared this on because there was a study done many, years ago in university in the US where they took 50 students they split them in half and ultimately it was a pottery they had to just make a pot and what they said with the splitting the students a half there's 25 students they said we want you to make quality pots you need to spend time to make an absolute quality pot and then they said to the other students we actually don't care we want you to

make as many pots as possible and ultimately they ran that for about a four to six hours in the actual day. I can't remember the exact hours, but they ran that particular program and they ran it out and they got people to come and actually inspect the pots, the finished product. And ultimately what actually happened is the students that were doing the quality, they were doing unbelievable quality. However, the students that did quantity, you couldn't even see the difference. But the amounts of pots that they actually produced was almost double. You see, the quantity got them practicing, doing it on an ongoing basis. So the more actual listings, the more appointments you go on, your quality naturally starts to increase.

So that was actually great advice, just giving you a bit of a background story on all of that. If I can add to that, it also comes back to, and this is also something that I was taught, that you've got to work out what is your hourly rates. so so if you're going to be spending hours on on listings or clients that are really just wasting your time you know you could you are actually using out on money so work out your ratios what is your what is your hourly rate worth and then walk away from those those clients that are actually just draining and actually just taking up your time absolutely absolutely and thanks you for adding on that but dean i want to come back to you and ask his question because one thing that i've learned in this industry is this industry changes. Every single year, every single month, something new comes out and the industry changes. And a lot of the mentees rely on a mentor, a coach to almost give them this more advanced, fresh new information. What do you do in your business to stay fresh, to have all of this new information at your fingertips so that you're actually working in this fast-changing

industry, what is it that you typically do? Stuart, I would say it's not about freshness at all. It's about circumstances. Because in the life that we live, the circumstances change. And if your circumstances change, you have to be up on the role and be in that changing. And it's very important to remember that a leadership is about to transfer. but let your vision into reality. So if you understand that as well, and you know that you want to be seen, I mean, in the old days,

if you want to be seen, you have to knock on the door. But the circumstances change now. So what are you doing now to see your, let people see yourself? So you use the different platforms to do that. And I want to reach out to each and every, person that is new in the real estate business. Please reach out to somebody. Don't drown in the fact that

you don't know what you're doing. Don't keep quiet. Reach out, talk to somebody, ask somebody if somebody else know better. And then from there you can get a mentor in your area and understand that you can be on the side of that person, see what that person is doing. how they're doing that and learn from somebody that know better than you because that is the best thing you can do and remember the most important thing in life is to say is positive because a positive attitude is a powerful force and that is another thing that we must remember absolutely you know positivity is so so important the day that you start infesting your mind with negativity it actually starts to invoking a level of of lower self-confidence. It actually starts to crush you down to levels of depression, anxiety, stress, etc. So one thing that you said, which actually really hit a key, be in the change.

You know, we're in a market that changes. Be in that circumstance. Live it. Don't be on the outside and try and resist it. Be in that change, which is making you more relevant inside. And thank you for sharing because I actually picked that up. And thank you for sharing that. Colette, I want to come through to you.

And I know that you are mentoring. You are working with people to help them in the real estate. What is it that you are trying to pass onto them? What would that outcome be for you? I think it's a lot. So I'm working with a young agent that's in Jonasburg at the moment. And she phones quite often for more practical sort of tips in advance. And I think it's those little things that sometimes a new agent wouldn't notice and it might in the longer run either it's going to get bad habits or you're going to end up losing out on money because it's something that you're overlooked or, you know, you haven't considered.

So those are, so it's a lot of practical tips that could either also damage your relationship on the long run or, as I say, it could cost you money in the end. So those are those are things that I'm working with her on. She's a brilliant agent that's got a lot of potential. But I think it's just instilling the right habits and the right way of doing things, not trying to take shortcuts, but really just trying to do business professionally and doing the business the right way from day one. Because I saw Ronald put a comment in the chat box about people wanting to do business with people that they trust.

And that is so true because you, from day one, you want to be that agent that's going to have the referral business because people are going to want to refer you because they can trust you and they can deal with you on a professional level. Absolutely. Repeat and referral business. It's the heart of any business as an entrepreneur. It actually becomes the easy, simple business. So, good recapping. And I've got so many notes, by the way, that I've actually taken down. And it starts to create this picture of exactly the mentors that are out there and what they're wanting to deliver.

Something being part of the change, be part of that circumstance. Let it change with you. Having that right habits so that you're not actually getting into the wrong habit that leads you in the wrong direction. Knowledge is not negotiable. And this is something that growth mindset is going to be working within you. It's the quantity over the quality. that quality, quality over the quantity. There's two words.

They're just one or two letters that are out. But there it's the quantity over the quality. And you need to start looking at how you're working with your business and understanding your true value. Because when you're understanding your value, you can be very selective in the business that you're actually going forward. And going through all of this, you know, I've got two mentors that have joined us today that have really shared a lot of their wisdom there.

experience and really helping through their words. Badi, just to close with yourself, do you have any final words, any comments that you'd love to share with the people on this call? Thank you, Stuart. Yes, I think if you are a mentor and you want to train anybody, and I think that is a big thing that we have to do in all real estate, we have to begin at your offer to purchase. Because you must remember, we do not understand the fact that we do not sell a product that you love always. You have to sell what you have.

You do not sell a product that you believe in, as I said previously. And that is why you have to understand what you're saying by when you're selling. if you do not know that you can't go further if we begin there for instance these some things that happen in life in your offer to purchase that your open marketing clause and a new thing that's going on now you have to put in your offer to purchase that if you do not get approval of your your property from your certain bank because people wants to do it from their bank. And then after that, they can't go further. You can't go further.

You can't step forward. Then there must be a clause that say, if you are not approved from your bank, your choice of your bank, we are allowed to introduce you to different other banks to do that. And that is important things to understand as well. We as mentors must understand our offer to purchase. and train the people from there how to go on prior to the things how to get to that stage of offer to purchase absolutely and thank you so much for those those wide words Colette from yourself any final thoughts or comments that you'd like to share

yes for me it's just a bit of a saying I always say to people professionals don't wing it So if you want to be professional in this business, you need to have the knowledge behind you to be able to back your negotiation or whatever it is with your client, whether you're negotiating a sale or a wrinkle transaction, you need to be professional at all times. You need to make sure that you know everything in terms of questions that may come to you from either party. So I think just being professional, just don't wing it because at the end of the day, you know, there is a lot of earning capacity in this industry. But then you need to be that professional person. It's not just the, don't be that flower, that flower not agent that just comes in for the quick buck and then move on again.

Just try and be professional. And we've got so many tools available to us to better our knowledge and our power at all times. So yeah, that's, I think my final word to everybody. Fantastic. Don't wing it. Be the professional. Get that knowledge. Understand the tools that you're working with.

And making sure that when you're going through an offer to purchase process, you're actually taking it to the highest possible level. But it's not just presenting it. It's making sure that they get a bond. Not with the own bank, but with all the banks. Make sure that you're including all of that. So again, thank you so much, Badin. Thank you so much, Collette, for your wise words and sharing that with our particular attendees in the session today.

So from ourselves, I wanted to share something that really will help you in your journey that's going forward. You see, in real estate, real estate is not just a journey of selling properties. It's a journey of being an entrepreneur to build relationships. If you take the mindset that you just happen to be in the real estate, industry, but you're an entrepreneur and your job is just to build relationships. You're going to find that the path that lies ahead of you is actually going to be an enjoyable path because as humans, we love to have contact with everybody else. So from ourselves, Stuart, this has been an amazing session of elite mastermind, a session where I bring on guests and we go through a specific

topic and really start to churn out to help you understand how to take that journey forward. So do look out for future sessions that we do have of elite masterminds. So from myself, Stuart, I want to thank you so much for attending today.