Micro Habits, Massive Income - Sonia Rolland: Real Estate Coach

Summary:

In this episode of the Health and Real Estate Podcast, host Lance Wilson interviews Sonia Rowland, a successful real estate coach and escrow officer. They discuss Sonia's journey into real estate, emphasizing the importance of mindset, morning routines, and the power of micro habits. Sonia shares her experience with the 75 Hard challenge, highlighting the mental clarity and discipline it brought her. The conversation also touches on the significance of community and coaching in the real estate industry, as well as practical tips for agents to enhance their productivity and success.

Takeaways:

• Most people get into real estate for freedom and flexibility.
• Habits are simply the choices we make with our time.
• Thinking time is essential for developing a big life.
• Morning routines can set the tone for the entire day.
• Micro habits can lead to significant changes over time.
• The 75 Hard challenge can enhance mental clarity and discipline.
• Community and coaching are vital for success in real estate.
• Enjoyable habits are more likely to be sustained.
• Effective communication is crucial in real estate transactions.
• Choosing the right escrow company can impact your success.

Sound Bites:

• "You have to know what that big life is."
• "You can do hard things."
• "You can't just sell a high-end vehicle."

Chapters:

00:00 - Introduction to Sonia Rowland

00:59 - Sonia's Journey into Real Estate

07:50 - The Importance of Mindset and Morning Routines

20:08 - Micro Habits and Their Impact on Success

24:48 - Exploring the 75 Hard Challenge

27:30 - Introduction to the 75 Hard Challenge

28:48 - Navigating Real Estate and Healthy Living

31:05 - Transformative Effects of 75 Hard

34:02 - The Importance of Community and Support

36:14 - Coaching and Mentorship in Real Estate

43:20 - Understanding Escrow and Transactions

46:28 - Closing Thoughts and Joke-Off

Connect with Sonia Rolland:

Website: https://spotlightrealtornetwork.kw.com/

Email: Soniarolland@kw.com

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Keywords: real estate, coaching, mindset, morning routines, micro habits, 75 hard, health, productivity, community, West Coast Escrow, KW Encino, Keller Williams

Hashtags: #realestateagent #realestatecoach #KWEncino #KellerWilliams #KellerWillimsRealty #KellerWilliamsAgent #ProductivityCoach #WestCoastEscrow #realtorpodcast #realestatepodcast #healthpodcast #healthiswealth

Transcript

Lance Wilson (00:02.553)
What's up everybody? This is Lance. I'm the host of the Health and Real Estate Podcast. And today's guest is Sonja Rowland. I've known her for, geez, five, six years now. She is a real estate rock star, real estate coach, escrow officer, and she's all about mindset, morning routines, and gaining clarity. So we have a lot to cover, but first Sonja.

How the heck did you end up in the real estate industry?

Sonia Rolland (00:36.994)
How I ended up here, isn't that the question? Every time I feel like everybody has a story like how they ended up here, it's not ever like planned. I don't know if that's a thing that you've seen. But yeah, yeah, I think most people get into real estate for the three Fs, right? Finance is freedom and flexibility.

Lance Wilson (00:51.408)
I have seen it.

Sonia Rolland (01:02.314)
I think for me it was definitely more freedom. I used to be...

you know, a finance manager for Mercedes-Benz and I was stuck in a box most of the days and just really long hours and also being female in a car business was tough because, know, a lot of people would work really long hours there, but they all had a wife to go home to who was like cooking and cleaning and all this stuff. And I would go home in the middle of the night and I would still have to vacuum my house. It was a little, it was a tough industry and I was really, really getting burned out.

because I was really good at what I was doing. So then they would give me a lot more work. And yeah, people kept coming to me who were buying cars and they would just say, you'd be so great in real estate. And I'm just like, okay, okay, whatever. One day I decided to look into it and I went online and I submitted the little thing, like I'm interested. I think it was to a KW and...

And then I started the course and I didn't really know if I was really gonna do it or not. And then like three months later, I was completely burned out. I was the shell of a human being. And I called my boss in the car business who was still to this day a very good friend of mine. And I said, hey, I can't come in today. It was like 7 a.m. And he said, okay, when can you come in? I'm like.

No, like never like ever again. I can't like I'm sorry. I'm like, I'm so dead. And so it was this was like three months into burnout. So I did not leave when I was already burned out. I just stayed and kept working. And so that's not a good plan. Right. And so seven o'clock, I tell them that I'm like, I'm really sorry. I just I can't I don't my brain isn't functioning. I'm just I don't I don't know. I don't care if you pay me a million dollars. I can't.

Lance Wilson (02:35.015)
Thank

Sonia Rolland (03:02.704)
And then at 11 o'clock, my phone rang. So this is three months after I sent in an inquiry to KW. And someone from KW calls me and is like, hey, yeah, I'm just following up on some old leads here and just wondering, are you still trying to get into real estate? And I was like, today too soon? Because...

Lance Wilson (03:17.681)
Wee-wee.

Lance Wilson (03:23.047)
Ha ha ha.

Sonia Rolland (03:24.904)
I just quit my job. I don't have a plan. I'm done with the course, you know, and this and that. And so I went in that day and signed my papers and boom, that's that was it for me. And it was pretty exciting. It was

You know, this is in 2015. And so I've been in the business since then. And I started up in Portland, Oregon, ended up coming down to the South Bay to one of the offices down here. I pretty quickly went into coaching side because I had some good success in my first year. So two years in, I started coaching other agents only because they kept coming to me like, what are you doing? What are you doing? Like, what's going on? What? How are you getting this? And I got my start with calling for subway owners.

That was my only thing. I basically went to my team leader when I was when I just got in and I said I don't care what it is or what it takes but I need to make some money now because I had already quit my job. I was at the same time going through a breakup and a move and you know, I have no more income coming in. So I was just like I just I don't care what it takes. Tell me how people are getting the deals ASAP.

Lance Wilson (04:34.695)
Mm-hmm.

Sonia Rolland (04:35.838)
And she said, all right, start calling for sale by owner. gave me the script. And then the next day I was like, OK, signed up for Mojo dialer, started calling for sale by owners. The next day I go to her and I'm like, OK, so the goal is to get an appointment, right? And she's like, yeah. And I'm like, OK, OK, so how many appointments does a normal agent go on? Right. And she said three.

and I met per day and she met per week. So I was like, my God, I have to go on three appointments a day. Okay, okay, okay, cool, And so I'm calling from like 8 a.m. to noon every day and then I'm going on three appointments, technically previews, right? I'm just trying to convince these homeowners to go let me see the place and see what we can do. And so I'm driving around like a crazy person. That's 15 appointments a week.

Lance Wilson (05:07.516)
Ha ha!

Sonia Rolland (05:31.744)
So I really quickly became the star realtor. If you know what that is, that's when you drive around the city like this. Right. And so I'm doing that. And then I listed two houses on my 14 day in real estate. And so then I was like, OK, this can be something like this is good, you know. And so.

That's my start to the real estate world. And then I ended up becoming the productivity coach and then moving relocating back down to California because a friend of mine came down here and they did not have a productivity coach here. So she was having a tough time bringing people on board when there isn't somebody who can take care of them right away. Right. And so I made the move. I came back down to California, which is my home anyway. And I've been coaching ever since. And then in 2020,

Sonia Rolland (06:35.051)
I'm up and down the kind of central coast Santa Barbara to Newport Beach basically and

you know, they multiple people had asked me to like, hey, can't be a rep for this company, this and that because I was dealing with a lot of agents, multiple different offices. And I always said, no, no coaching is my thing, this and that. But then in 2020, 2024, they got smart and they were like, well,

what if you could do all the things that you're doing, but you can make a bigger impact because as an escrow rep, you actually have a budget to help some of these agents a little bit more. And so then I was like, okay, now you're speaking my language, right? So without compromising the coaching side of things, which for me is really important.

Lance Wilson (07:16.357)
you

Sonia Rolland (07:27.732)
I'm doing all of that and working as the sales director for West Coast Esko here in the LA area. And we have offices all over the place and all that stuff. And I'm doing coaching and those people that are, you know, using me for Esko, they get to also just coach for free. So that's kind of where I'm at today. If that sums me up.

Lance Wilson (07:52.667)
Definitely. That's perfect. I love how when you first got started, you quit your job at the Mercedes dealership and same day, the Keller Williams office calls you to see if you're interested. That's just divine timing, right?

Sonia Rolland (08:08.568)
Yeah, you know, some things, some things are meant to be and I, you know, I think that the lesson there also is that if you think like,

I did not think I was necessarily going to go full blown real estate. But what I knew was that I never say never. And so when enough people tell you something, maybe there's something to that and and go forward with it anyway, even if you don't know it pans out, right? Because you never know, you never ever know. So I just knew that, OK, I'm just going to do this course anyway. And we'll see what happens, you know.

Lance Wilson (08:48.519)
Awesome. Love it. Well, before we get into the coaching and more of the escrow, how you can help agents, let's talk about mindset and morning routines, which I know you're a big fan of.

Sonia Rolland (08:49.602)
Yeah.

Sonia Rolland (09:00.374)
Yeah, mean, habits is like the main thing, right? And when we say the word habits is, you know, people get like, habit or, right? I mean, I don't know, what does it invoke in you when somebody says habits?

Lance Wilson (09:16.486)
Yeah, there's some resistance.

Sonia Rolland (09:19.116)
Yeah, restraints and like, you know, commitment and all these things that sound like, okay, really? Like I have enough to deal with already, but really habits is just the choices we make with our time. That's it.

Lance Wilson (09:20.935)
Yeah.

Lance Wilson (09:34.311)
Mm-hmm.

Sonia Rolland (09:35.734)
And everybody has to make the choices every single day about what they're going to do with their time. And so I always try to kind of switch that mindset around that a little bit with people that I coach with, because, you know, it does sound intimidating. Like I don't need to do another habit. don't need it. And also if you're most real estate agents, especially are people who are like drivers, right? So when we're talking about new habits or changing your life or like even New Year's resolutions, we're in the middle.

Lance Wilson (09:59.655)
Mm-hmm.

Sonia Rolland (10:05.678)
I mean, yeah, middle of January now, right? It's like they want to change their whole life immediately. Everything lose 50 pounds right away, make everything better, make $5 million. Like that's me too. I do like we get in that mindset of like, let me change everything and just do better. Right. And that's not a bad thing.

Lance Wilson (10:25.605)
Mm-hmm.

Sonia Rolland (10:28.236)
But it is a difficult thing. that's when we're talking about habits, this is not the time to go all out. the time to look in and see micro habits and mindset. And so the only way that you can really do that is by having thinking time. And agents want a big life.

The thinking time comes in and the mindset comes in when you look at other people who have a big life. Do you have the habits to even have that big life? You know, and when you put it into that perspective, many people realize that it's not a hard and fast thing. It's habits take time to develop. And there's like the dominoes that need to take effect instead of like everything all at once. There's always a first domino that needs to

Lance Wilson (11:17.639)
Thank

Sonia Rolland (11:21.84)
fall. Right. And so I always try to go like, okay, you number one, think big, because you have to know what that big life is. And by the way, health wise, because I know we're talking about health here. If you look at the wealthiest people on the planet, and you want to be one of those or the people with the biggest life, and you want to be one of those, most of them are old.

So you want to make that kind of money? You got to live long, right? I mean, there's just no way around it. You have to take care of yourself. You have to put health first and and you got to live a long time. And if you don't do that, like, I mean, your chances of becoming whatever a bazillionaire you want to become significantly reduce. So.

Lance Wilson (11:55.983)
maybe

Lance Wilson (12:14.021)
Mm-hmm.

Sonia Rolland (12:15.486)
How do we maximize that when we're thinking about this is where the thinking time and the mindset comes in when we're thinking about wealth and health. And so, you know, do you have any thoughts on all of that?

Lance Wilson (12:29.495)
Yeah, no, you're spot on. One of my previous guests was Kimberly Guyry. She's the founder of KW Wellness. And she told me there was some study that it was either Harvard or Stanford business did where they found a direct correlation to people's an increase in their health and wellness equated to an increase in their production. So like, it's not just about

being healthy, it also increases and boosts your business as well.

Sonia Rolland (13:01.646)
100%. I think that I don't know if this is the same study she's talking about, but there is a study about resolutions. And it was something like by week two, which is where we are now, we're past it. In January, 85 % of the people have let go of whatever goals they set. 85%, which actually doesn't surprise me. But I mean, when you say it like that, right?

Lance Wilson (13:19.304)
How many? 85%. Wow, within two weeks.

Lance Wilson (13:30.928)
The old 80-20 rule, you know.

Sonia Rolland (13:33.462)
Yeah, yeah, that's where we are. so, you know, and I think that it has to do with setting goals that are so I mean, I think

big business goals are great. But there are steps to this. So like I said, number one, think big, right? You're gonna think like, what is the big life look like? And what are the small habits that what's like the one habit that's gonna trigger all of it? And for many of us, it's the morning routine. I mean, I would bet that if if the people would commit the people that we're talking about the 85%, right? If they committed to some sort of a morning routine, like the miracle morning, if someone really

help them get that habit started. Everything else would become easier or unnecessary in their lives, right? Like they're still gonna have to figure out how to make the calls or how to find business, especially in real estate, right? But when you have a morning routine, you have something that no one can take away from you. I love Tony Robbins because he was saying that you might have nothing. Like I'm talking, you're a new agent or you're just,

You're not a new agent, but you want to build a bigger life and you don't feel like you have anything going for you right now The second you have commitment you have something someone can't take away from you And I just love that so much I think that that's such a pinnacle in terms of like the mindset that you know That's something that's yours and you can you can move with that. So You're gonna commit to some sort of not a

big habit, a foundational habit, that's like the first domino to get you rolling. And so it could be like, okay, I mean, I love health calls and wealth calls and health and real estate together, because I really truly think that fitness and health is like the best analogy for real estate business in general. Because when does somebody notice that you've built muscle or that you've lost weight? They

Sonia Rolland (15:38.51)
They notice it you've been already working at it for three months right 90 days later They're gonna say wow you lost weight or have you built muscle or whatever it is like your skin's glowing Have you been drinking a lot of water? I don't know whatever it is right and so like let's take the water example You know a micro habit around drinking enough water

Lance Wilson (15:41.863)
Yeah.

Sonia Rolland (16:01.644)
would be like filling up the water bottle at night and then putting it on on your desk or on your on your nightstand. And then that way, first thing in the morning, I'm to drink your water. Right. Or the same goes for like filling it up in the morning in your office before you get going so that you don't have to do that later. So that's the micro habit. And then everything else comes easier after that. Right. Yeah. I mean, same goes for going to the gym. Right. So it's a lot easier.

rather than saying, okay, I'm gonna work out for an hour every single day. And I know where I'm gonna work out, at it's at whatever, there's 24 hour fitness and it's by my office or whatever it is. And you're gonna try to get there at 430 every day or whatever, or five o'clock, right?

But instead of saying that, you can say, okay, at 430, I will be in my car, right, with my sneakers on, with my yoga pants on. And from there, it's so much easier to make the gym happen. Right? So like, so micro habits, so not go big and go home, right? Like,

Lance Wilson (17:08.366)
Thank

Sonia Rolland (17:14.9)
It's the micro habits because we have to be able to do that. So in the real estate world, think that, you know, this is an example that, you know, like, like, okay, if it's the five phone calls a day, that might be our micro habit. And I

In that context, the micro habits are so so important because it does pertain to your mindset in the sense that in the real estate world, it never stops, right? Your lead generation never stops. It's like this endless hamster wheel that every day I have to lead generate. my God, my God, like every day, every day, every day.

When you goal yourself to do only five calls a day, right? Something that you can win at. I don't care if it's one call to be honest, right? But something that you can win at.

You can go home after that and go, I did it, right? And you, and you leave that and, now you're in this piece of mind versus going, I'm just going to make as many calls today as I possibly can. And then you go home and you still didn't, you don't know what goal you reached or whatever. So it's like this very on like, like a restless place to be, you know, mindset wise, and everyone can suffer from that. Well, your, your, your family, everyone knows like you're in a bad mood because you don't know.

Lance Wilson (18:22.407)
Mm-hmm.

Sonia Rolland (18:30.294)
if you reach the goal or not. so goal yourself a five, do more if you want, but just know you have to do another five tomorrow. So don't overdo it. And so like it all plays into your mindset.

Lance Wilson (18:38.663)
you

Lance Wilson (18:44.967)
Definitely, yeah. When you're first starting a habit, you want to make it as simple as possible so it is sustainable as possible. So like you said, whether it's one call every single day, Monday through Friday, you're much more likely to stick with that habit. And after that one call, you're like, that wasn't so bad. Then you're most likely going to make more calls. It's usually the first call or the first rep that's the hardest. And then from there, you just get into a flow state.

Sonia Rolland (18:52.835)
Yeah.

Sonia Rolland (19:12.426)
so true. know, when I was calling for sale by owners, I didn't really care because I was just in that mindset of like, I just got to do it. I don't care, you know, but I will tell you that the first call never got easier for me. It just didn't. I wish I could say that after a while it was easier, but it was always after that one call that everything else was easier. The first call. And so, you know, I promise you just get through that first call, right? And, you know, and then when you have these

micro habits then you can build up on that. But it should be something that you give yourself time to get used to like we talk about the 66 days to make it something that you you don't have to think about anymore. You can form habits faster than that but for it to become something that you don't have to seriously think about all the time it's usually 66 days or more right I mean yeah.

Lance Wilson (20:10.619)
Yes. So what is your morning routine like?

Sonia Rolland (20:15.47)
It's a miracle morning. It's the six things, it's the savers. Yeah, I mean, so another thing I'm really a big fan of is habit stacking. And so when I think like, like if someone came to me and said, okay, do these six extra things in the morning, right? A lot of people go, whoa, how? Like I gotta take my kids to school and I gotta do this and that and that, right? Like.

Lance Wilson (20:17.105)
from here.

Sonia Rolland (20:39.124)
No way I'm going to squeeze another six things into my morning. So when we're talking about the savers, for example, let's just use that the miracle morning. So silence, affirmations, visualizing, exercise or energy, whatever you want to call that, and then reading and then scribing, which is the same thing as journaling or writing down your goals.

That's a lot of things. So habit stacking is a really cool way to kind of incorporate that. And also maybe make these things a little bit more enjoyable. So for example, for me, I realized with the silence and the visualizing that that happens to me. If you're at all like me and you grab your phone in the morning and you scroll, you're scrolling, let's say, let's say you're looking at Facebook or Instagram or whatever you're looking at. All of these things influence your mind, whatever you see. Right.

So have to be mindful about what we're visualizing. And that was my silent time.

When I was looking at these Facebook things and other things, I realized that like, okay, I'm already visualizing my day. And so it made sense for me to just start taking some of the things that I'm seeing and kind of putting them on this vision board. I would do this on my iPad and stick some things on there that I was visualizing. So for example, in real estate, where I like, I'm seeing these beautiful houses on my feed. And so I would take those and stick them on my visualize

Lance Wilson (22:01.104)
Thank

Sonia Rolland (22:10.192)
planner for the day or whatever. And so that was already thought there for me. And then the exercise and the reading. So I started with the podcast. I've had some health issues with my eyes anyways. I'm not big on like looking at a book. So I'm mostly doing the podcast and the audio books. you know, that I compare, I can walk on the beach at the same time, walk my dog, get my exercise in and listen to my podcast every single day.

Lance Wilson (22:36.903)
you

Sonia Rolland (22:40.192)
for at least 30 minutes or whatever it is, right? Or the audiobook. And so that's how you could stack this stuff. Like who said you have to do all these things separate? No one said that. You can do whatever the heck you want to do that fits your schedule, right? And so I noticed that when I do do that and when I do make sure that even if I don't feel like going anywhere in the morning that I do it anyway, I just know the clarity that I get after that is

Lance Wilson (22:51.931)
Yeah.

Sonia Rolland (23:10.032)
so good for the entire day that there's, I can't beat that with anything else. I can't beat that with a Red Bull or, you know, coffee.

Lance Wilson (23:19.207)
Definitely. Yeah, morning routines are so critical. I always notice whenever I start my morning right, most of my day goes right. Whenever I have a hectic morning, the rest of my day is usually hectic. So the mornings literally set the tone for the rest of your day. So that's why they're super critical and important.

Sonia Rolland (23:42.092)
Yeah.

Sonia Rolland (23:46.732)
Yeah, somebody told me once like, imagine a day Sonia that you're going I was trying to build habits. This probably it was my coach. She said imagine a day like in your past when you were going to go to like a wedding on a Saturday or something or like a big event was happening, whatever it was graduation something you already visualized the entire day in your head beforehand, you knew, okay, I'm to get ready at this time. here at this time, then we're gonna do the thing and we're gonna party then we're gonna go here.

it is and most of the time the day goes exactly like you thought right and so it is... yeah

Lance Wilson (24:22.119)
Exactly how you mentally rehearsed it. Yeah.

Sonia Rolland (24:26.03)
And so we're not necessarily doing that with every single work day, right? Because that's like, you know, maybe there isn't enough excitement about it. So definitely like the third thing I would say is you have to also make the habit an enjoyable habit and make it exciting, which, know, if you're just going to go each generation, you know, that's not necessarily the most exciting way to think about it.

Lance Wilson (24:51.409)
Definitely. Yeah, we gotta make the lead gen fun. Awesome. So yeah, another thing I want to talk about was you've done 75 hard once or twice. So I want to know what that was like and what your experience was.

Sonia Rolland (25:09.71)
Oh, yeah. So 75 hard, I kept hearing about it. I actually don't even really remember. I think it was during COVID. Yeah, it was during COVID. And I was listening to a lot of podcasts, including Andy Frisella.

And he published a book about it a few years prior, I think, but I think during COVID, he kind of blew up because people were looking for ways to like, you know, up their energy, everybody was emotionally drained. Personal energy was a really big thing during that time. so, yeah, so I had listened to the episode.

Lance Wilson (25:31.973)
you

Sonia Rolland (25:45.066)
And actually there's a few episodes with a couple of people who are doing like really, really big things. So this would be the equivalent of like looking at who has a really big life. Right. And I'm listening to these people. And the one thing that kept popping up for me was they all said like, imagine if you could meet the best version of yourself with the most clarity. Like.

I just was so addicted to that idea that that's when that program became a reality for me. Before that, I was like, wow, that's really freaking hard. don't like I already have we already have all these other things going on and and we're all just trying to survive and the real estate market was insane, you know. And so it wasn't until I really heard those perspectives that I that I started thinking like, wow, what is like the best version of Sonia?

like how can I, I would just love to like anyone who's ever thought about being better in some way, you want to be more fit, you want to be more whatever. In these podcasts, they were talking about the clarity of mind and I just thought, okay, so if I can supersize my mind and

It wasn't until I had a really great partner to do it with me that I really was like, all right, let's do it. Like you, you, you want, need thinking time before it and you need a great partner and accountability during it, because I promise you, there will be a day that you don't feel like doing what you said you were going to do. Right. And, something life gets in the way. and so to work out today, 45 minutes each, you have to do one of them outside California. No problem. I feel bad for the people on the East coast. you

So that's like here it's like easy peasy, no big deal. And then, you know, a gallon of water, reading at least 10 pages a day.

Lance Wilson (27:32.902)
Yeah.

Sonia Rolland (27:42.51)
missing.

Lance Wilson (27:44.326)
I've no alcohol. you have to take a picture of me?

Sonia Rolland (27:50.326)
Yes, no alcohol. That's a big one for me, especially. mean, anyone who's in the real estate world, I think can attest to that. I know there's plenty of people who don't drink, but the thing is, it's not even the alcohol, honestly. It's all the things that we have to go to. So somebody who is not drinking, the alcohol piece might not be so hard for them, but the thing is, they're still having to go to the networking events. That's their job. And so now you're spending time at these

events, right? And you should be doing a workout, right? And so it's a really, it's a hard thing to balance when you're in real estate because of our the nature of our job. It's not a nine to five. You can't be like, okay, I'll do my 7am and I'll do my 7pm. Like it just doesn't in real estate, no day is the same. So it is a it's a really interesting thing to try to navigate. And I've completed it twice since 2020.

Lance Wilson (28:41.05)
easy.

Sonia Rolland (28:50.16)
Like full on full blown done every little thing exactly they were the way they wanted it to go and But I've tried it like seven times and there have been other times when I've just decided in the middle of it that this is just not the right time for me to do this I'm not I have something else going on I mean, I've had you know a torn meniscus or like an eye surgery or something that like got in the way That's fine. And it's okay to say that it has to be the right time for you. But anyway

who wants to try that I would say take time like take like two months before to think about what it looks like for you and think about how it what it could do for you and and prep your mindset to get ready to to to do it you know and so and following a diet so I don't that that was the hardest part for me ended up being the water

Lance Wilson (29:44.538)
Yeah, a gallon a day.

Sonia Rolland (29:47.658)
It's a that's a really tough thing. Like if you're not done with a half a gallon by two, 2 p.m. Like forget it. There's no way. And then you're running to the bathroom all the time. You're already a busy real estate agent. Like it's it's just I mean, it gets better, of course. So that was the toughest thing for me about that. But also something interesting. I remember the first time I did it and I got to day 66.

And I'm thinking about the 66 day challenge, right? And literally I.

On day 66 is when I was like, I have nine days left. Like, who cares? I've already done it. I made it all the way here. I can totally do it. But why do I care so much right now about the next nine days or whatever? And it's that exact moment when your commitment has to come in and be like, I said I was going to do it. And so here I am doing it. But it was really interesting to me. Like I was laughing to myself, like really? Like on day 66, I'm like, this is so easy.

Lance Wilson (30:41.456)
Thank you.

Sonia Rolland (30:48.608)
I can keep going, but why am I why like why why do I have to worry about this right now? I already know I can do it and Yeah, you got to push through you know

Lance Wilson (30:54.374)
Thank you.

What was it like when you finished on day 75? Like, did you build like new character or new habits or kind of a new identity?

Sonia Rolland (31:06.862)
My business was booming and I was just like, it was insanely amazing. I felt in such great shape. I lost a bunch of weight, even though this is not a weight loss challenge, but when you quit with the sugar and the alcohol and whatever diet you're deciding to follow. So for me, I didn't make the diet super complicated. I just said, I'm not eating pasta or bread.

Lance Wilson (31:33.198)
evening.

Sonia Rolland (31:34.06)
No pasta or no bread because those I feel are the filler carbs that you know, you go to restaurant, they give you bread, whatever. And just to cut those things out and then cutting out the alcohol, like that was obviously a big, big thing.

Lance Wilson (31:44.774)
I'm not adding.

Sonia Rolland (31:47.584)
Yeah, but I felt so, clear. Like my head was so clear. I was doing way more planning and business and like just could get stuff done. Right. I did run into a sleeping problem. So a lot of times if you're used to, know, like having a glass of wine at night, that might be something that helps you sleep or, you know, knocks you out. So your mind isn't going so fast. And that was that.

actually didn't become an issue for me until way later, like past the six, well, maybe maybe 50 days in all of a sudden I couldn't sleep like I had way too much energy. My energy levels got so big and here I am like barely drinking any coffee barely, you know, nothing like that. And my I had so much energy that I was sleeping three hours a night. And then of course that yeah, that can also mess with you a little bit. So, you know, maybe you take some melatonin or something that, you know,

Lance Wilson (32:23.93)
Mm-hmm.

Lance Wilson (32:39.706)
Wow.

Sonia Rolland (32:47.458)
you sleep because if you're not getting any sleep like that's gonna mess with clarity too right but but actually at the end of it i was terrified i was absolutely terrified of falling back into terrible habits and so i the first time i did it i ended up going like 78 days because i was just like i want to keep these habits up and i definitely don't want to you know i i just didn't know what was gonna happen right

Lance Wilson (32:51.878)
Thank

and

Sonia Rolland (33:12.182)
And so I did like 78 days full on and then I was like, okay, I'm going to take a break and then do the different phases and stuff like that. But it's a it's a good challenge. If that's something you want to challenge yourself with, I just want to say that I would not do it for the weight loss piece of it. I would do it to find the best mental clarity. And to get that, that clarity of like, I mean, business planning and

Lance Wilson (33:37.671)
and

Sonia Rolland (33:38.304)
Knowing that you can do it is like really, really important. You know, I mean, I'm a rep, I go out, I party, I drink, I do all those things. And for me to be able to say every year, okay, I can go 75 days without drinking, or whatever, like, that's something to yourself. And that's your own credibility. And that's like a win for you that you can take with you everywhere you go, and that you can do hard things.

That so there's that. That's my 75. What about you?

Lance Wilson (34:09.862)
I've never done it. I think I tried once but I don't know I didn't fully resonate with it or maybe I wasn't ready for it but I'm pretty healthy and I focus on basically like 80-20 most of the days do 80 % right and then you know I could have a cookie 20 % of the time or something. No I tried it I think I got like 20 days into it and then I

broke. But I think the thing it builds the most is like the mental toughness and the confidence. That's what I hear a lot of people say. So maybe I'll try it one of these days.

Sonia Rolland (34:49.837)
What?

And it's exactly the kind of thing that we were talking about earlier. Like you want to change your whole freaking life. Okay, go ahead and do 75 hard. Like if that's really what you want to do. And it can also be intimidating only because you you're seeing other people do the 75 hard, there's communities and Facebook groups and this and that. And they're all like bodybuilders and they got eight packs and whatnot, you know, like you're just like, whoa. And so it's important that you don't compare yourself to anyone else, right?

Lance Wilson (34:57.242)
meaning

Sonia Rolland (35:20.16)
So it has to be something that works for you. I pretty much walked every exercise that I could I probably walked more than 45 minutes each but or and sometimes I would do like actual workouts and this and that or or write the Peloton or whatever it was but you know if you just want to make it like something that's easy for you and you can go outside and just walk like that's Already like just a walk is gonna give you a mental clarity, right? Like yeah

Lance Wilson (35:30.662)
Mm-hmm.

Lance Wilson (35:47.014)
Honestly, walks are so underrated. There's such a great workout just for general health, longevity and all that. So walking is amazing. I love it. Well, cool. Let's talk about some of your coaching now. I know you're a Rockstar coach and you have a bunch of mentees. And I also saw you just had a really cool event with that one year you helped one of your mentees put on last week. So tell us about that a little bit.

Sonia Rolland (35:57.1)
Yeah. Yep.

Sonia Rolland (36:17.548)
Yeah, I mean, I have, you know, people from all kinds of brokerages and all walks of life that I've come in contact with who just like want some sort of, you know, I'm not, I'm not the coach that goes chasing them. I offer something on Monday mornings at 10 a.m., you know, just to get your head on straight. And sometimes, you know, Mondays are hard for people like just getting on and having someone else like kind of be like, what are we doing this week? Like, what's going on? Do this. Give yourself some grace.

If you can't do anything else, do this. Mindset, AI stuff. A lot of people need a lot of help with social media, AI stuff. So I kind of geek out on the tech stuff. That's my job. So yeah, my goal is to help a lot of agents have a lot of fun and make a lot of money, right? Those are my goals.

Lance Wilson (37:08.422)
help agents make a lot of money and have a lot of

Sonia Rolland (37:12.27)
Yeah. And so that's a win-win-win right there. If I can do those three things every single day and, and, you know, an agent would say, help a lot of people have a lot of fun and make a lot of money from an agent perspective. Right. So it's the same. And, um,

Lance Wilson (37:13.926)
you

Sonia Rolland (37:29.998)
When you have those three things working for you, it's just great, right? Like it just feels like a well-oiled machine and you're building community and all those things. So I do offer that to people who are using escrow, using West Coast Esco and me for escrow so that they can get on those calls that normally would probably cost them a lot of money. And yeah, so the events are such a fun thing.

Lance Wilson (37:51.558)
What time do you do that every Monday at what time? 10am. Okay. Awesome.

Sonia Rolland (37:55.982)
10 a.m. Yeah, so anybody wants to get on contact me, you know, you can find me on Instagram at Spotlight Sonia, but

That's just one of the things, right? We know that it's hard to do this business alone as an independent contractor. And having been a productivity coach for so many years now, I think that the thing that I see the most is like people want community and they want help. When I was a new agent and I wanted to do an open house, I remember doing the open house, not knowing like that I could ask someone to help me. You know, I didn't, I didn't, it wasn't my bread and butter cause I was doing for sale by owners. And then

People kept telling me like you're so good with the listings. I like why are you even bothering with the open houses? And I just thought well shouldn't I know how to do open houses? So I'm going around doing open houses with no help whatsoever and whether it was a condo or I wanted to have refreshments or whatever and it's hard. That's a hard thing to do by yourself and it's lonely and they can be so sometimes and you just don't know. Right? So my goal is to be there for agents. I do this thing.

Well, I was trying to find someone to do that. Have you seen the mini pancakes? I was trying to find someone to like at the carnivals, they serve them and I thought it was so cool and I wanted one. I wanted a pancake girl to come to one of my, one of my team's own listings a couple of years ago. And they quoted me $350 an hour to come do pancakes. And I was like, that's crazy for flour and water. Like you're what? And so I decided I was going to do it.

Lance Wilson (39:33.371)
You

Sonia Rolland (39:35.876)
myself, so I bought this pancake thing. And so now I'm like, okay, any agent that is giving their escrow to me, I'll go to their open houses and like do the pancakes if that's what they want, or do champagne or whatever they want. Because I think it's important not just for the items to be there, but for you to have someone there with you. And, and make the time and build the relationship and also just, you know, whatever it is, hold the door open if it's a condo, right?

So yeah, it's just help a lot of agents, right? And everybody benefits. And that's my main thing. The events are such a fun way to find business. And we do have an amazing event playbook.

which is basically a play by play, how to post events, whether you're doing them online or in person, because somebody already did these things before you at a very high level. And so if you're going to spend money doing an event, you want to know like, okay, how many weeks beforehand should I start promoting it? And what are the steps and how many things should I do before we even get there? And what are the most effective prizes and, this and that. so yeah, events are really successful. I mean, the

event we did with with Caroline this week was a everything to know about buying or selling or investing or 80 years. This year, was a LA real estate game plan for 2026. And I'm telling you, we have like 50 people come on, started promoting early. And they and they all like when we took a survey of the room of who's looking to buy, I would say it was like 2728 people, something like that. And then what when we said who's looking

to sell. mean, we're asking this year and it was like 15 people. And then we had investors and people who are builders and stuff like that. like quality people, right? So you're getting quality leads if you do the right steps. And there are so many ways to do stuff. I also did an event on Monday hosted by my good friend at I am home inspections. It was a health and wellness real estate event. There's a beautiful oasis of a house.

Sonia Rolland (41:52.976)
you know, and we had like B12 shots and, know, cold plunges, was sauna, know, massages, facials, mock tail bar, like.

Lance Wilson (41:56.944)
Thank

Lance Wilson (42:01.382)
Thanks for watching.

Sonia Rolland (42:09.742)
the life water people were there or the ones that are the alkaline and like just just cool things like you can definitely if you're a health nut There's different ways to incorporate that and I think that that's also a good point because you know in like in the car business We say that if you want to have a successful dealership, you have to have a seat for every but right? You can't just sell a high-end vehicle because then you're not gonna be able to cater to everyone and so when you're

Lance Wilson (42:33.456)
Thank

Sonia Rolland (42:39.816)
when you're incorporating and you're diving yourself into these different areas like health, you're going to get a different audience than you are with, you know, if you're just doing happy hours, right? So I think that that's a great game plan for realtors, like figuring out which types of audiences they need to like fill the seat for still in their business to maximize their potential.

Lance Wilson (42:49.062)
Thank

Lance Wilson (43:04.88)
Mm-hmm.

Lance Wilson (43:09.03)
Couldn't agree more. And so I know you're a rep with escrow. So what's the importance of having a successful transaction all the way to escrow? What are some pickups that you could help agents avoid?

Sonia Rolland (43:23.534)
Yeah, well, ask me how I know. I mean, I was an agent for a long time. I think that number one is like, okay, agents are they're like, okay, let's open, let's go great. And now it's sort of out of their hands. And it's it's the communication needs to be really great for everything to go smoothly. But one of the things that I think that people don't often think about is what

type of an escrow company are you working with? Because there's different models, right? So like if you have an in-house escrow person, that's cool, but their job is to be in-house. That's their literally, their description is in-house escrow, meaning they are going to be there and they do not have the capacity to go help you at your open house, right? That's okay. That's just a business model. Maybe they're helping you in some other way in-house, don't know.

Lance Wilson (44:01.808)
Mm-hmm.

Sonia Rolland (44:19.296)
That's one thing the second thing is not all escows do all kinds of things like for example if you have a mobile home deal You do not want to put that there's someone who's never done a mobile home deal a lot of escrow officers won't bother to do them You know because they might be lower price point or whatever But in the process you're changing lives and you're helping people I mean the last mobile home escrow deal that I was a part of was a gentleman who You know was getting he was basically like I'm gonna he had terminal cancer

He wanted to set up everything and that was a really big deal and it was only four hundred and twenty thousand dollars But still right like it's not like you're gonna say no and so you don't want to have to say no and you want the support that you need for that transaction Even if it's refis Not all S. do refis right and that's a big deal every refinance deal that I ever done that where I benefited nothing from it When I helped the client through it next thing I know they wanted to

Lance Wilson (44:49.894)
you

Sonia Rolland (45:18.986)
another property. So there is, you know, you don't want to just say no to stuff that can lead to other things because somebody can't really, or you're not familiar with how to do it, or you don't think that there's anything there. So let people help you, right? And so West Coast Esco is a really big company. You're not going to get paid wrong, you know, everything is done very like there's review process. It's great. And I personally, like I said, I was asked to do

you know, stuff for a lot of companies in the past and I just didn't, I wouldn't have done that for someone that wasn't this caliber, you know? And so yeah, and you get me.

Lance Wilson (45:50.022)
you.

Lance Wilson (46:01.414)
Yes, you get Sonia, she's gonna go to open houses with you with her little pancakes or champagne. Gonna help you give you the event playbook, which I kind of want because that's awesome. We definitely got to do an event together. Yeah, Sonia, I've known Sonia for a long time. She really helps and cares about her people. She's very communicative and just, yeah, she's awesome. I can't say enough good things about Sonia.

Sonia Rolland (46:15.948)
Yeah, happy to share that.

Sonia Rolland (46:30.766)
You're awesome too!

Lance Wilson (46:33.322)
both awesome. Awesome. Is there anything else you want to talk about with coaching or escrow?

Sonia Rolland (46:45.718)
No, mean, coaching is one of those things that, you know, in like I said, in sports and in real estate is pretty highly regarded, but everywhere else in the world kind of not. So I think that the important thing is that, you know, people should be going to you might have a mentor somewhere else. It doesn't have to be a coach or whatever. But I think that.

Unless you have someone to bounce ideas off of, you know, you can't it's it's hard to get to the next level. That's the one thing because you have to do something that you haven't done before. And coaching is not a magic pill. Like I always tell people I'm like, look, if you show up to my Monday call every time, not every time are you going to walk away like that was my I'm mind blown.

That's not where the magic happens. Where it happens is consistency over time, right? And, and the fact that you're showing up and you're still, you're still getting on there, even if you're at the gym and at least you're listening in or whatever it is. because in the end it's that, time on task over time, right? And so that's the one thing I would say, seek out the help, name the mentors, you know, go through the seven areas of your life, the seven circles. If you don't know what those are, it's in the

one thing book and you can go online and find them. But there's seven circles like who are the people this year that I need to be in contact with right for in for my spiritual health for my physical health for my job for my career like who are the mentors in those areas and it goes through all of those key relationships this and that and when you do that all of a sudden things start aligning because you're basically choosing your

board of what do you call that? Board of advisors, advisor board, whatever.

Sonia Rolland (48:44.026)
and board of directors. And so now you're pushing to be like, if you want a health coach, like, make sure you're talking to Lance, right? You want someone to like help you stay in the health mindset. I have plenty of people that I listened to their podcast, and I don't know them personally. And I consider those people my mentors. mean, like Mel Robbins is a big one. I've got, you know, you know, the no inner real estate agent podcast with like Gary Keller, Jay Pabas.

and Jason Abrams. And then I have people like, know, Empire Builders, also a group of women. Like there's just, those can be considered mentors. But I think that unless you set the direction of who do you want to like infiltrate your brain on a weekly basis, then you're just kind of running blind and like sticking to a circle of people that you don't know. Are they advancing you or are they, you know, hindering you?

Lance Wilson (49:41.382)
Mm-hmm.

Sonia Rolland (49:42.272)
So it's important to choose the people.

Lance Wilson (49:45.572)
Yeah, 100%. I love it. Great advice. Great way to end the serious note of the podcast. And the final segment of the podcast is a joke off. So we each tell each other a joke. Do you want me to go first or do you want to go?

Sonia Rolland (50:04.952)
I want to hear your joke. I'm so bad at remembering jokes. Go ahead.

Lance Wilson (50:08.806)
Alright, Why did the banker switch careers?

Sonia Rolland (50:23.662)
I don't know.

Lance Wilson (50:25.21)
because he lost interest.

Sonia Rolland (50:30.648)
So yours is like kind of similar to what some of the only things that I ever remember because I always think about like real estate jokes and whatnot but the best ones I think are the pickup lines. Like, hey girl, are you a mortgage? Cause you've got my interest. All right, so that's like, you just reminded me of that one but the one I was gonna tell you is, hey girl.

Lance Wilson (50:42.905)
Yeah.

Lance Wilson (50:47.29)
Hahaha!

Sonia Rolland (50:57.236)
Are you a NAR violation? Because you got a fine written all over you.

Lance Wilson (51:02.118)
That's a good one. That's perfect for the podcast.

Sonia Rolland (51:04.654)
They're just they're just so silly. But I think that you know, what we're getting into real estate. there's one more. Okay. I'm gonna marry the top producing realtor tomorrow and look at the engagement ring that he sold me.

Lance Wilson (51:20.742)
You know, those are classic real estate drugs.

Sonia Rolland (51:23.502)
Yeah, yeah, so that's the best I can do right now. It's Friday.

Lance Wilson (51:31.11)
That's perfect. You gave three. Three jokes. Friday funnies. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Sonia. This was a blast. I will put all your information in the show notes so anyone listening could easily access it all. And that is a wrap. Thank you so much.

Sonia Rolland (51:51.522)
Thank you for having me, I appreciate it.