Start With A Win - Setting and Reaching High Goals with Joanna Koltan

Episode Date: March 31, 2021

On this episode of the Start With A Win podcast, our guest is Joanna Koltan, an elite broker-owner with RE/MAX Portugal. Originally from Poland, Joanna moved to Portugal for love in a very spontaneous decision despite not knowing the language or having a job. She didn’t let that stop her from getting immersed in the culture and jumping into the real estate industry.Joanna is consistently motivated to be around people who are smarter than her—in hopes of learning from them and becoming a better person every day. She sets high goals for herself and puts in the work to get where she wants to go. After receiving her real estate certification in Portugal, Joanna began working in the posh area of the city where other agents said there was no business. She became very successful by door knocking and being accessible to the homeowners in the community. She began making a name for herself and received recognition by agents near and far for her prolific accomplishments. In 2008, Joanna joined the RE/MAX Portugal team—spotlighted as a Top 30 European RE/MAX office.One of Joanna’s other passions is women’s empowerment and providing leadership opportunities to women, particularly women in Europe who are generally not encouraged in this way. Over the past couple of years, RE/MAX Empowering Ambitious Ladies (REAL) has come together, and Joanna, Michelle, and a few others set the course for the group during an event in Porto. Joanna hopes this community will provide a safe space for women to discuss their struggles and successes and spur each other onto greater things.Connect with Joanna:https://www.remax.pt/agente/joanna-koltan/120741259https://www.facebook.com/joannakoltanhttps://pt.linkedin.com/in/joannakoltan Connect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/ https://www.facebook.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContos https://www.instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/ Leave us a voicemail:888-581-4430

Every day is filled with choices. You're here because you're choosing to start with a win. Get ready to be inspired, learn something new, and connect with the win nation. Coming to you from Denver, Colorado, Adam Conto, CEO of Remax. Here we'll start with a win. Looking through the virtual studio here, I've got producer Mark. How you doing, buddy? So good. That was some serious dance moves you got this morning. Oh yeah. You know, I just felt like today's going to be a great day, so let's just go ahead and give it all.

All right. Well, it is going to be a great day because we have one of our amazing women leaders from Remax on with us today. We have Joanna Colton. How are you doing this morning? I'm awesome because it's the first time since a year that I had opportunities to dance with two guys at the same time. So thank you. Well, thanks for dancing with us. It's so much fun to just kind of get warmed up and things like that. So let me give the listeners a little bit of background about you, Joanna. So Joanna is the CEO of Remax Modas Jinhos and Pro, two offices located in Porto, Portugal. So she manages a team of 100 agents.

Joanna moved to Portugal from Poland when she was just 24 years old, and at the time she did not speak Portuguese. However, after a few months in Portugal, she managed to become one of the most successful real estate agents in the country under the REMAX brand. Joanna's career led her through the REMAX Portugal office, where she was the head of franchise sales. She received an award for her work at the REMAX R4 convention in 2011. You and I both got awards that year at the convention, by the way. Joanna has spoken at R4. Yes. Yeah. We both got awards that year. It was, I mean, pleasure to stand on the stage with you and the other award winners. So, I mean, Joanna is a huge award winner in our network. She's opened her own office, which has since gone to become one of Remax's top 30 European offices. Joanna has earned the status of elite broker owner as well. So I got to say, I'm honored to be on this program with you, Joanna, because you are an incredible leader, an incredible human being, and we love you so much. So welcome to the show.

Well, thank you so much, Adam, for this introduction. I think most of my boyfriends didn't know that many details about my life as you had just resumed in this introduction. So thank you so much for getting deep into this. And it's a very, very big moment for me to be here with you today. You know, it's like, I think it was my dream always, you know, to be with the CEO of Remax. So I was with Dave, now I'm with you. So I don't know what's coming next in my career. Well, wonderful. Well, the last time I saw you was right before the pandemic in Spain when we were at Mallorca and you were hosting an amazing women leadership group. So we're going to get into that here in a minute, but I want to start off with your move to Portugal,

you know, a country where you didn't know anyone and you did not speak the language 16 years ago. Why did you decide to take that huge leap of faith? And what led you to Remax in the real estate industry? Well, it's a very funny question, actually. I get asked this question a lot of times. And I have to say the truth, I can't lie. It was love. I was 24 I was very much in love with my first husband father of my daughter and even though I was running already a successful franchise in Poland at that time I was original director for a huge franchise international company as well and I was managing seven learning centers because it was a language speak it was a franchise for teaching foreign languages to children so it was already a huge business at that time I was also doing my master's

in psychology and philosophy so I never had this university kind of life you know parties and everything I was always working and and I loved my and I loved my life the way it was but the moment I met my husband and then when we and then when he came back to Portugal because he was Portuguese and came to study to Poland I started feeling my life empty I was 24 and I was like working a lot having supposedly a lot of success but but feeling lonely. So actually, in five days, I decided to sell everything that I had and to move to Portugal. And I think it shows that I'm a little bit impulsive. And I think it also shows that at that time I was very naive, because if you would ask me what kind of obstacles were you expecting, I would tell you none. I was perfectly sure that everything would go just fine. I didn't see any problem in taking that decision in going to the other side of the world. Polish people do immigrate a lot,

so it's almost like a family business. We go abroad and we have success. But we definitely don't go to Portugal. And at that time, Portugal was not a country with a lot of foreigners. And there was no big culture of having foreigners around. So it was a very, very tough lesson, definitely. Wow. And you're the kind of person that can walk in a room and be friends with everybody. So you've made a lot of connections in Remax as well. I see you talking to people from all over the world at Remax events.

How has Remax connected you or helped you with this? Has this kind of opened the door to the rest of the world to you? I mean, a lot of people were intimidated by what you've done. I don't think people should feel intimidated because I think I always set goals very high. So the moment I remember I saw you first time on scene, I thought, I want to meet this guy because I want to learn with him. I want to know people that know more than me I want to be surrounded by people that can teach me more things so since the moment I entered

Dreamax as an as an agent as a as a realtor I think I was like six months in Portugal so I didn't know I didn't have my circle of influence I didn't know where the street which districts were i didn't know which were the good condos or the bad condos i didn't speak the language um the only thing i knew is is that i was supposed to start selling real estate and i was working in this beautiful office near the ocean this office now belongs to me as well it's the remark matuszinich office is the um is the second office um I own with my uh with my partner my first boss we are partnered we are partners now so it's a it's a it's a nice side of us of the story but what was what was very funny at that time is that what I realized is that where people were leaving in the morning all the or the realtors in the morning were leaving from the office and

they were going you know to the suburbs and we were in this most posh area of the city. And I asked them like, guys, why are you, why are you leaving? Why are you taking your cars? And why are you going so far away? And they said, you know, Joanna, because nobody needs us here in this, in this posh area here, everybody can sell by their own. So they don't need realtorsors and Remax at that time had few offices in Portugal literally we were the most expensive brand and the only one working with exclusive moreover I was Polish and I was not speaking the language but I looked around and I thought like I want to work with these people that are here because they seem to me much more appealing than the people in the suburbs and this is what I started doing.

I started going out every day and I started door knocking and I started conquering that market. After three years, everybody wanted to work in that market, but it was already mine. But the same, and then it was the same a little bit with everything that I saw in Remax. So the first thing that I saw bigger than my office in Remax was Remax Portugal regional office and I saw Manuel and Beatriz and I saw the regional staff and I thought I want one day to be a part of that team because they seem amazing people and they know a lot I want I want to share their energy I I want to learn with them. And in 2008, I was accepted to work as franchise sales. I just had one bad luck. I started working in, I think it was 25th of September 2008.

And everybody remembers what happened in September 2008. So it was not a very good luck to start franchise selling. But I was lucky enough to be accepted because Manuel was Spanish. So for him, having a Polish franchise sales was not a big obstacle. So I was always driven by looking at the people that were inspiring me. And I remember very well when I first saw Dave Linegar and I said one day I want to meet him personally. And I did.

And it was amazing. And the same happened with Michelle, with Shauna, with you, with Pamela, with Walter, with Frank. I think I've been blessed because I've always had these huge people appearing on stage in front of me, knowing much more. And then I was thinking like I want to meet them and um it was it came natural like Tom Ferrier I saw him on stage first time and I want to meet him and today uh I would consider that we are not maybe close friends but he is one of the people that that truly works closely with me him him and his team on making my business stronger. So I think it's the point of looking, pointing.

I was always pointing where I wanted to. I was aiming where I wanted to point. I think you can say this way, very goal-oriented, you know? That's right. Yeah, it's amazing some of the things that you've accomplished. We're going to get into that here in just a minute. But you mentioned a few names that are really incredible people. First of all, a big shout out to my very, very dear friends, Manuel and Beatrice out there, the regional owners of Portugal. Amazing, amazing human beings. Love them so

much and can't wait to see them in person again. But you also mentioned a few of our very, very incredible women in the RE-MAX network. You know, your work with Michelle Goodridge with RE-MAX Integra, Shauna Gilbert with RE-MAX Headquarters in the REAL project. So can you tell us a little bit about that and how you and this group are working on focusing on female empowerment within REMAX? So, you know, I remember hearing you in one of the podcasts talking about Dave giving you the advice of being like a sponge. And it's not only taking in, but also giving back. I knew at some certain point of my career in Remax that it would have to come to a moment when I would have to start giving back something.

I just didn't really know what. So I was training agents, I was delivering a lot of keynotes, but I was not really sure if this was the right thing that I was giving back. And at the same time, I had this big goal and objective to put Porto on the map of Remax worldwide because everybody hears about Lisbon and Portugal, but Porto is a kind of unknown gem.

And as I found a lot of happiness in this city, I decided that I could showcase this city to the Remax all over the world. So I think it was in 2017 when the Remax European Convention was in Lisbon. I decided to host an event with more than 140 people from all over the world here in Porto prior to the convention. And Michel was here, for example, and a lot of other amazing people, broker owners from all over the world. And actually, all that initiative started on an informal conversation

in one of the dinners that we had overlooking the Douro River, having wine tasting. And we were talking. It was me, Elizabeth McQueen, an amazing agent from Vancouver, Canada, Michelle, and another friend of ours, Angela, from Remax in USA. Now I think she's living in Portugal also. And we were talking about the struggles and the difficulties that women feel and the women that we all share in the business.

And something magical happened that night. Maybe it was the river, maybe it was the wine, but we created a very strong bond. And since then on, you know, this buzz was not michelle was constantly working on putting something together it was we have to do something with this because we have a huge potential and we started with two panels in air four in in in vegas and then um we passed holidays together so we became friends and from from this friendship was born Real. And you were there in Mallorca when we, and it was originally supposed to be a group empowering European women

because in US and Canada, there is so many female support groups. It's so normal to talk about female empowerment in europe it's not normal at all um i think we we are the worst enemies of each other we are women so uh female empowerment here in in europe is is really needing a big boost and original idea from michelle and mine was to keep it european way and to give this special energy to europe then shauna appeared and i met her in mallorca and uh and we had dottie from argentina in our panel and we had your wife also kelly at the time with us and that amazing energy was created and suddenly shauna says why don't we take it international like why not so real is all about Remax empowering ambitious ladies and I know by fact that that was

the beginning of Remax that it was the women that started a lot a lot of people do not know this part of the story of the brand but I love this part of the story of the brand, but I love this part of the story of the brand, helping women and making them thrive through this amazing possibility of business. So it's my biggest pleasure to be helping another woman to become successful, to showcase them and to show them that they can actually find themselves in this amazing brand and became a superstar. Well, thank you so much for sharing that. And yes, my wife Kelly was at the real meeting in Mallorca. My daughter Maggie was there as well. The panel of women leaders were so inspiring. I mean, Maggie took so much away from that as well

as a 17-year-old woman coming out of there going, wow, this is such an amazing organization and empowering ladies all around the planet. So thank you for doing that. And you know that you have my full support in this project, and we absolutely love what Remax is based on and want to continue to spread that growth. So we talk a lot about success stories in Remax because we have really the most successful agents on the planet in this organization, in this brand. And it's because everybody works together to achieve amazing things. But you really don't like the term success stories because you believe

success is very relative. And I completely agree with you. But I would love to hear more of your perspective on success story and how do you go after achieving success and your goals? I would say that my success story is success stories of my realtors, you know, because for me, if I would tell you that at the age of 38, I think I did the list of 100 things I wanted to do in my life. Then once you achieve this, you feel kind of empty and you don't know what's next and next. So I'm this kind of person that needs to set up goals all the time. And I work a lot on my spiritual development

also to make it calmer and to take it easy because it can't be always like this. We have sometimes to stop and to and to and to celebrate for a second um so for me success is something very relative because definitely it's not the financial consequence of what i'm doing that's that's nothing of a part of a success for me um it's more how we are doing it. So every day when I enter our offices now, not physically, but virtually, I see thousands of possibilities of us improving both our customer

relationship, both the way we are doing business, both the way we are interacting together, both the way we are cooperating with our offices or with other offices or with other brands in the market. So I see success for me as a pleasure of doing something and mainly doing it based on my values. You know, I have very strong core values and I decided that at certain moment of, of my office, when it wasn't just very high growth line, um,

there is this thin line that, you know, that if you, if you, that there, that there is a risk and I was, I never had business partners. So I never had anyone to ask, do you think like it's, it's okay to do this or not? So my business coach told me, Joanna, ask your values. Just just if you don't have business partner just ask your values if if if it's fine with your values go through with it if it's not fine then it's no so this is how I started managing my office and I realized it made me much more happier so my success for me is the way how we are doing things. It needs to be fun.

It needs to be professional. It needs to be better every day than yesterday. And we need to commit mistakes because, unfortunately, that was the only way that I learned that we can give the quantum leap forward. I love that. Joanna, incredible. I love how you've fallen in love with the journey instead of the destination. And that's really the true measure of a leader

is you follow your values on this journey because the journey happens every single day. And this actually takes me to my next and final question that I ask everybody that comes on this show with us. And again, we're so blessed to have you here today. We love you so much and thank you for all you do. Joanna, our listeners look for a key aspect from our guests and they really want to know, how do you start your day with a win? Let me confess that I have a very tricky brain and my brain when I wake up in the morning is a very nasty animal. It works in a no, no, no, no, no philosophy. So,

it took me years of working with spiritual gurus to have a good morning routine. And currently I'm meditating. So I don't contradict my brain. My brain wakes up in the morning and he says, another horrible day. And I agree with it. Okay, let's have another horrible day. I kind of try to laugh through it, okay, because it's what we have every day. So let's just go from there.

And I start with my meditation routine, positive affirmations and physical exercise because I believe that this is what every system has to be in place. So there is a brain, there is body, and there is our spiritual development. So put these three together and then you can have a successful and powerful day. Amazing. What an incredible answer. I mean, you talk about your leadership in your business, in your life, things like that, but you're leading yourself first. You're leading yourself first.

And that's, I mean, that's really a powerful statement there. So, and it takes a lot for that self-realization. So I want to, I want to thank you so much, Joanna, for being on Start with a Win today. Ladies and gentlemen, please make sure you check out Joanna on social media. Joanna is one of our incredible woman leaders at REMAX, is changing the real estate industry in Portugal. CEO of multiple Remax offices, award-winning leader. Joanna Colton, thank you so much for being on Start With A Win. Thank you so much. I feel very, very honored. And let's talk in five years on what's next.

Hey, and thank you for listening to Start With A Win. If you'd like to ask Adam a question or tell us your Start With A Win story, give us a call and leave us a message at 888-581-4430. Don't forget to go on iTunes and subscribe, write a review and rate the show. And for more great content, head over to StartWithAWin.com. You can follow Adam on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. And remember, Start with a win.