Season 4 | Episode 3 | Disruption, Delegation and Building a Business That Doesn't Depend on You

Today, Trudy Heins sits down with Dionne Malush, co-owner of Realty ONE Group Gold Standard in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to explore what it really takes to build a business that can grow beyond its founder.

After losing her first business following a difficult partnership, Dionne rebuilt from the ground up, combining her background in graphic design and marketing with real estate to create one of the fastest-growing brokerages in her region.

What began as a bold decision to challenge the traditional real estate model has grown into a business of around 200 agents, built on authentic leadership, innovation and a willingness to do things differently.

Together, Trudy and Dionne discuss disrupting an established industry, building a strong personal brand, learning to delegate, trusting others to lead, and making the mindset shift from doing everything yourself to building a business that doesn't depend on you.

If you've ever struggled to let go of control, worried about whether your business could survive without you, or wondered what it really takes to become the CEO your business needs, this conversation is for you.

Connect with Dionne Malush
LinkedIn

Episode Highlights

01:02 Meet Dionne Malush

02:06 Losing her first business and starting again

04:54 Why real estate became the next chapter

06:01 Challenging the traditional brokerage model

08:27 Why disruption creates opportunity

12:33 Building an authentic personal brand online

17:02 Hiring a COO and learning to delegate

23:15 Letting go to build a business beyond yourself

24:35 Communication, trust and leadership

26:13 Why women need to build their personal brand

29:06 Stop worrying about what other people think

31:44 Leading through personal adversity

33:27 Faith, mindset and resilience

35:44 Why taking action beats waiting for confidence

37:24 Season 4 Quickfire Questions

44:36 Legacy and final takeaways


Become a Fempire Certified Business Coach
If you're an experienced businesswoman ready to turn your knowledge into a profitable coaching business, we'd love to have a conversation.
Click here to learn more

Find a Fempire Certified Business Coach
Looking for practical business support from a coach who understands the realities of business ownership?
Find your coach here

Join the Fempire Academy
Access practical business resources, masterclasses, templates, playbooks and a supportive community of women building stronger, more profitable businesses.
Join the Academy

Connect with FEMPIRE
Website
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

DIONNE

Literally, when I say I came from the trailer park, I lived in this bedroom with my sisters for 18 years.

One bedroom, one dresser, one closet.

That's it, with three girls until I was 18.

There is so much in this life if you just take the first step and you keep doing it.

And I know there's that story about being three feet from gold.

You're so close.

And if you just keep trying, it's there.

TRUDY

Welcome to Fempire Rising, Her Future, Her Voice.

I'm Trudy Heins, and I'm the CEO of Fempire, a strategic business consultant and your host.

If you joined us for season three, you'll know we spent the season exploring the foundations of building a successful business.

But eventually, every business owner reaches a point where working harder is no longer the answer, nor the option.

The very skills that helped her start the business can become the things that hold her back.

And that's where season four begins.

Welcome to The CEO Shift.

This season, we're talking about what it really takes to move from operator to CEO of your business. To stop doing everything yourself, to build stronger systems, make better decisions, lead with confidence, and create a business that does not rely on you for every single thing.

I've been speaking with women from Australia, New Zealand and around the world who've made that shift and have the lessons to prove it.

Because the goal isn't to do more. The goal is to lead better.

This is Fempire Rising.

Today on Fempire Rising, we're joined by a woman who understands what it takes to evolve from being the expert doing the work to becoming the leader building the business.

Dionne is the co-owner of Realty ONE Group Gold Standard in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, one of the region's leading real estate businesses.

But before real estate, she spent nearly two decades in graphic design, building a successful creative business before making a bold pivot into an entirely new industry.

What makes her story so relevant to our season four is that she didn't just build a successful personal brand.

She built systems, teams and leadership capability that allowed her business to grow well beyond herself.

Along the way, she's become a passionate advocate for mindset, visibility, coaching and helping business owners step confidently into their own leadership.

Today we're exploring what it takes to make The CEO Shift.

Dionne, welcome to Fempire Rising.

It's so lovely to have you here.

DIONNE

It's so nice to be here, Trudy. Thank you.

TRUDY

So before we start, tell us a little about yourself and your journey from graphic design into real estate and, particularly, into business leadership.

DIONNE

Yeah.

So I started in graphic design in 1989.

I graduated from art school and then I immediately knew that I was meant for more than just working at a job.

And back in 1989, we barely had computers.

In fact, my last semester of school, we had a Mac that was about this big and the screen was this big, and we were creating on that Mac.

So I decided that I was going to start immediately and have my own business.

So I did.

And it was really cool.

I had a great, successful career.

And it went about 17 years, that design business.

In the 16th year, I got into a partnership, which then destroyed the company.

And yeah, it was crazy because I was on my own all that time.

And then I had these two partners, and within a year we were venturing out of business.

TRUDY

That's quite often the story, right?

Partnerships are not all they're cracked up to be.

Sorry.

DIONNE

So when I got into that partnership, at the end of it we had about, I think we had 11 employees at that time, and we were doing around 2,500 transactions a year, which is a lot for a graphic design business.

And at that point, the average ticket was about $400.

So we were at about a million dollars in 2004.

I believe that was the year that we had a great year.

One of my partners came to me and said that he had just lost his job at the local hospital where he had worked, and he wanted to come in and get rid of half the staff and also decrease everyone's salary.

So that day I stood there and I watched this all happen and I didn't talk a lot.

I was furious.

At the end of that day, I said to them, "You know what? I'm going to give you both my 90 days' notice and I'm going to work from home from this point forward, so you guys can take it from here because I've been running it all along."

And on day 89, I took myself and 10 guys in two trucks and we went and wiped the whole place out.

TRUDY

Wow.

DIONNE

And we took everything.

We took the machines, the computers, the files.

We took it all.

As we were driving down the main highway here in Pittsburgh, it was funny to see these two trucks filled with all these people and all this stuff.

But it was such a freeing moment for me because I didn't let them take me down.

Although it affected me personally and my health because I loved it so much.

TRUDY

It was your baby, wasn't it?

Seventeen years of your life.

DIONNE

Absolutely.

They called the police the next morning when they came in, and the police said, "There's really nothing we can do. It's civil, not criminal. And she's the owner of the company. Therefore, you guys are going to have to try to get it from her."

So that was pretty much the end of that company.

I still kept doing freelance work and I was building it a little bit at home, but I truly was just so heartbroken over it.

So I got into real estate thinking that it was a great industry and something I always liked.

But it never was like, "Oh, I want to be a real estate agent."

That wasn't my thing.

I wanted to be who I was, a graphic designer.

But the cool thing about merging the two industries is I kind of married two things that work so well together: real estate and graphic design.

When I started, Microsoft Word was the big thing.

Most agents created all their stuff in Microsoft Word.

TRUDY

We're a similar vintage, so that's what makes me laugh.

I think back to mine and you just think, "Oh my goodness me, how far things have come."

DIONNE

So far.

I remember just trying to put a line on a page was a difficult task.

If I couldn't create in there, then the other agents couldn't either.

So I decided to really step it up and I put all of my design skills into my business, and it did so well.

My second year, I made more than I had in my 17th year of my design business.

And I thought, "Oh."

The light bulb went off.

And I said, "I'm going to go for it."

So I started really pushing myself and being super creative in a very not-creative world because it wasn't.

People didn't take pictures.

They used their old cameras.

It looked horrible.

So I was able to step it up.

Eight years ago, actually nine years ago, I got into a small real estate agency and I became a partner, like a one-sixteenth partner.

And I loved the idea of owning the brokerage.

And I went to Keller Williams.

And when I did, I met a guy named Mike, and he was also interested in starting his own business.

And he came to me with this idea, "Hey, let's start a real estate brokerage."

And I'm like, "No, that's okay. I'm not interested at all."

I just wasn't sure.

I didn't have a dream of doing that.

But when we went and looked at the franchise, it was a disruptor.

And I knew that Pittsburgh had been the same for 100 years, and this opportunity would never come along again where I could disrupt something so quickly.

So we got the franchise.

We started.

Within the first year, we opened three franchises, and we disrupted.

We came in and said, "Hey agents, we're going to pay you more money and we're going to give you everything else. You're still going to get all the stuff, but you're going to get most of the money."

So we grew to 100 agents in our first year.

And that was really remarkable.

We always touted that we were the fastest-growing real estate company ever in Pittsburgh.

And we didn't have to pay anybody to join us.

We paid them all the time.

So we did that and it was just so cool to watch the whole thing evolve.

So we're at about 200 agents.

Every week you have someone leave, someone come.

It goes back and forth all the time.

And so that's kind of where I am now.

I've been the owner of the brokerage for eight and a half years.

And it's been amazing.

It's been hard.

It's been exhausting.

But it was definitely the right path for me so I could teach other people how to be successful.

That's my favourite part of it.

It's not about the houses.

It's not about buyers and sellers.

For me, it's about helping agents be successful and be their best version.

So that's what I absolutely love the most in the company.

And I'm still creating.

In fact, today I created nine different ebooks for our agents.

I'm so quick with so much, and AI has helped me tremendously.

So my creativity has been, for the last three and a half years through grieving, I think I say creativity is my superpower.

It's helped me get through a lot of things in the last three and a half years.

So that's a little bit about my story.

I'm married to Jason.

I have two amazing dogs, and my mum and my sisters, they're all my people.

And everybody's super supportive of me and my life.

TRUDY

That's fabulous.

And I just want to take a step back.

You mentioned disruption.

And I think that's something that often women probably really shy away from when it comes to business because they feel that we have been conditioned, and again, women more so probably of our generation, have been conditioned to think small and fit in a box.

But you were very comfortable moving into that role of disruptor.

So how do you think you navigated that and felt comfortable with it?

DIONNE

To be honest with you, it gave me butterflies in my belly.

The idea of busting through something that no one else had, it was the most exciting part for me.

I thought, "Oh, there are so many real estate brokerages. There are 9,000 agents just in Pittsburgh. There are one and a half million in the United States."

It wasn't the most exciting thing.

Real estate's cool.

It's not like they show you on reality TV.

That's not how it really is, I swear.

But there are a lot of good days, and some of the bad days are really rough.

So when I saw an idea to be able to take all that I had learned in real estate and all the things I didn't like, I didn't like that the broker just took so much money.

I didn't like that I was out there doing the work.

I was paying for the leads.

I was creating the marketing materials.

I was consulting with the buyers and sellers.

And in my head, I was like a counsellor and a lawyer and all these things.

And then they were going to take 40 per cent of my money.

So when I saw an opportunity to give back most of it and just take a small transaction fee, I knew at that moment that I was going to change the landscape of Pittsburgh.

And I do believe it's little old me.

Even though I had a partner, I mean, he's a guy, so guys are guys.

I sat there every day and did everything I could to promote our company.

Everything.

My excitement level, my creative level, my social media.

I went on social media and I put our agents out there more than any other company.

They had marketing departments.

It was just me.

So on top of trying to run the company, I was doing all of the marketing too.

But what I did was, I helped the other companies realise how important it was to put that agent first.

They do more of it now.

Actually, unfortunately, I cost them a lot of money because they had to pay more.

Because then they thought, "If I don't pay more, then they're going to go to Realty ONE Group."

TRUDY

Oh, that's a good quality.

DIONNE

Yeah.

I love the idea of disruption.

If I could find something else to disrupt a market today, even at 58, I would do it in a New York minute.

And it's getting harder and harder because there's so much.

TRUDY

Well, and it's standing out from the crowd, isn't it?

To have those innovative thoughts and then follow them through, it is becoming more difficult.

And I want to applaud you and congratulate you for doing that, for having the courage to do that.

But you're also really highlighting how important it is to put the client or the customer at the centre of everything.

That client-centric approach, regardless of whether it's B2B or whatever it is.

Just really taking that initiative to say, "Well, it's not necessarily about the money."

Create it, do the right thing, have the right ethics, be authentic.

The money will come from that.

So don't chase the dollar.

Chase the experience.

And that will align then better with your values.

Which means that if you do have these wonderful ideas and you can see a place to disrupt, don't hesitate.

Jump in because you never know what amazing thing may happen.

DIONNE

No, you won't.

I did a podcast interview with this lady.

I'm trying to think of her name. Sylvia.

I have to tell you her name because it's so worth watching her.

I'll think of it in a minute.

So she was on my podcast and she said this one thing to me.

And I thought, "Oh my gosh."

As I watched her as a professional speaker completely disrupt the speaking industry.

Completely.

Her biggest thing was, "You have to turn right when everybody's turning left."

And that hit me.

And I'm like, "Oh, I love that."

Because everybody's doing the same thing, same thing, same thing, right?

TRUDY

And you're all of a sudden just like a flock of sheep following each other.

If you can become, as you said, if you can turn right.

So at what point did you realise, when you became this disruptor, how has it shaped the way that you lead now?

DIONNE

Let me think through that a minute.

So I think it allows me to again stand out in the crowded space because now I'm still the only real estate owner in Pittsburgh that's out there posting daily, sharing my journeys, my life, my authentic self.

I am still the only one.

So it's affected me in that way where I know that if I continue that, people are just going to be genuinely attracted to me.

And I'd rather them be attracted to me than me have to hand them a cheque and have them join because I'm trying to pay them to be a part of my company.

I want them to come to me because they think I am the greatest real estate brokerage owner in Pittsburgh.

So that's what it's allowed me to do.

It's allowed me to set myself out completely in this space.

And it is crowded.

There are a lot of people who are in the real estate brokerage business.

TRUDY

Well, I guess one of the things that's really important, and when I'm talking to women that I coach, is the fact that showing your vulnerability is actually not a bad thing.

And I think one of the things that I see in what you post and in your comments is that you are very comfortable being vulnerable and showing that vulnerability.

And it's something that often leaders forget that they need to do.

They feel that they need to be quite stoic.

And it doesn't have to be that way.

We are human.

And I think if your team that you lead can respect you, of course, and see that you're doing the right thing and you have the right intention, but if you do falter along the way or you do have moments of weakness, that actually makes them align to you a little bit easier.

DIONNE

Yeah, for sure.

I agree with that 100 per cent.

And I don't believe that I'm going through all the things that I've been through so that I have to keep my mouth shut.

It's because I want to share so I can help other people get through, because I'm not the only person that goes through things, right?

We all have it.

TRUDY

Absolutely.

DIONNE

But there's definitely power in numbers.

And when you listen to someone's story and it affects you, just that little post is enough to actually have people constantly sending me messages like, "You've literally changed my day."

"Because of you, I did this."

Or, "Thank you for allowing me..."

My husband had a transplant and I did this post and I said, "He doesn't do drugs. He doesn't smoke. He doesn't drink. But sugar was the drug."

And I did this entire post.

I think I have 800,000 views on this post.

It was so authentic.

And people would send me pictures of themselves in the store, taking a picture of the chips versus the fruit.

And they'd be like, "Because of you, I chose this today."

And so I didn't even know the impact something like that could have.

But then it made me realise the posts on promoting the company, they're not doing what those other posts are doing.

And they're just my real life.

It's what I'm doing.

And I don't know, I always look at social media like my own reality show.

You can get to know me.

Everyone has their own little one.

And it can be fun.

It doesn't have to always be negative.

It can be positive and fun and share the highlights, but also share the lowlights.

Because those that always share the highlights, there's nobody that can always be high all the time.

It's just not.

TRUDY

Absolutely.

And I think one of the important points of that, and I know that we certainly find when we post reels of me talking or being more authentic rather than our marketing, we always get so much more engagement.

And I think there is so much discussion around things going viral and people actually trying to create stuff that's going to go viral.

The reality of it is that the more I hear, it's these anecdotal, natural moments that are going viral.

Stop trying to second-guess what the algorithms are going to do and just be you.

Be authentic, because that will usually resonate with more people.

DIONNE

And I always tell all of my agents that Facebook didn't call it "real" for everything to be fake.

TRUDY

Oh, I like that.

DIONNE

It's real.

So the longer you're in the box, the longer you're typing in Facebook, the longer you're getting people to come on your page, the more they're going to promote you.

So just be real.

And I post a lot every day.

I post, I think I have four groups that I post in daily.

I post on my page.

I do it quickly.

I create a lot of it.

I can create some of it in AI, some of it I don't.

I just try to take pictures everywhere I go.

It's not hard work.

It's actually fun and it's enjoyable when people are affected by it.

TRUDY

And I guess that leads me into my next question.

So obviously, you have a full company that you run.

You're posting.

You said you've got numerous groups.

So there is an amount of time.

We all have a finite amount of time in our workday.

So there are clearly things that you do outsource as a CEO.

So talk to me about when you realised that you could not be all things to all people in your business and you needed to make that shift and start relying on other people in your team to delegate to.

DIONNE

So it didn't take very long for us to realise that.

We hired a few people at the beginning, but we hired the wrong people.

They just didn't know any better.

They just came into a position and assumed they could figure out how to help us run this company.

And we were wrong.

And we made some mistakes.

But we had good people.

They were nice, funny.

They were great for the agents.

They were all full of love and fluffiness and kindness.

At the end of the day, our books were a mess.

Our whole thing was a disaster.

The one girl was actually using paper to write up every month, our monthly reports, handwritten with paper and highlighter.

This was like seven years ago.

It's not like that long ago.

So we didn't know better.

We were real estate agents and we didn't know.

So every month we'd do a report.

It would be that.

And one month it was shy of a number.

And I'm like, "I don't think these add up to the right number."

And I'm figuring she can't calculate because it's handwritten, right?

So it's just not working anymore.

So at that point, we realised we need somebody to be kind of like the buffer between us and the staff.

Because we loved them.

We were friends with them.

And it made it hard to say, "Hey, you're making a mistake."

So when COVID hit, I gave a specific job to one of them.

I said, "You need to learn QuickBooks while we're off. It's very important that you do that. So when we come back, we don't have to have these paper journal entries and all this stuff."

So she didn't.

And so there was a point then that I realised it's not working anymore.

We need someone to come in and do the things that we couldn't do.

Like I could be nice.

I could be not nice.

I could do all that.

I could be hollering.

I could be happy.

But it wasn't effective leadership.

So I knew that my creative ability, it's like a switch turns on.

One switch is super-duper nice and one switch is zero to 60.

It's not effective that way.

And I figured it out.

So we hired a COO about four and a half years ago, which became the buffer between us and the staff.

After that, all of the staff but one part-time person left.

And so we got rid of them because they didn't work.

They were causing too much trouble, too much drama.

So at that point, I realised I can't keep doing all of this.

And it took a while.

The first couple of years, it was hard for me to let go with the COO.

In fact, I'm not sure why she's still there because it was so hard for me to give up what I was doing.

And she's like, "Just let me handle it."

I'm like, "No, no, I can't, because I can only do this right. And I can only do it myself."

That's what I thought.

Until I realised that I don't have to do everything myself anymore.

I can let go and it's freeing.

And in real estate, I remember when I used to take off Sundays, and people were like, "You don't work on Sundays?"

I'm like, "No, I don't anymore."

Because you know why?

Because I need a break.

Because it was destroying my life.

It was destroying my relationship.

It was destroying everything.

But I was doing good.

I was selling 78 houses a year by myself.

And that's a lot because the average real estate agent sells between eight and 12.

So I was doing all of that, and I figured I was doing it all.

So when I got into the ownership, I thought I have to do it all.

And I had a partner.

He didn't do as much as I did.

He still doesn't.

It's just not the same.

I work for the agents, and he feels like we should be in a different space, like we should be passive now, and we're only eight years in.

We just don't agree.

We get along, right?

We don't have a bad relationship.

We just think differently about it.

So at that point, I knew that we needed to have somebody.

Well then, it got a little clouded for a while because then she became not only the buffer between the staff, the buffer between the agents.

And the agents didn't like that.

They wanted to come to me.

They wanted to come to Mike.

They wanted to come to both of us, not the buffer.

But now, after four and a half years of her doing that, a lot of agents know they'll go to her.

We also have a broker.

They go to her.

And then I'm now the last person.

To be honest with you, half the time I don't even know what's going on because everything doesn't need to get to me.

Because what it was doing was causing me so much stress that I wasn't effective.

Because I'm super stressed out over all these little things that I really don't need to know.

As long as they fix them, I'm good.

So I guess that's a long answer to your question.

TRUDY

No, it was a great answer.

Because I think it is one of the things that, time and time again, women get to a point in their business where they are carrying the load of everything.

And it is such a mental shift.

The actual recruiting of somebody, that's a whole other thing that potentially we need to talk about at some point in another podcast.

But it is the mental shift of being, it's your baby, nobody can do it the way that you can do it.

But there has to be a time where you need to find the right people and trust and delegate.

And it was good that you said, well, not good for you, but I think a lot of our listeners are going to resonate with that, that it took you four years to actually build that trust.

But it has been a worthwhile journey because now all of a sudden you're not stressed.

And as I said, I'm sure at a higher level you know exactly what's going on with your business.

But you don't need to know the minutiae of what happens on a daily basis.

And that allows you now time to do the creative and do the things that you love.

And it's a lesson I would love every woman who is scaling her business to understand, that if you can actually trust and persist, there will come a time when that freedom comes.

DIONNE

Yeah, it makes sense.

And a lot of headbutting with the COO.

Two women, two strong women.

It was difficult.

And I learned a really hard lesson throughout the first four years of this company: friendly, not friends.

TRUDY

Yes.

DIONNE

And I learned that.

I have family that works there too, and I love her dearly on the outside.

But at work, it's work.

And I'm not overly trying to be like, "Hey, that's my niece."

She gets treated like everyone else.

It's the way it works.

And if not, it wouldn't work.

But having the COO was really, I remember talking to my coaches.

I'm like, "This is too hard. I can do this myself. I don't need to teach somebody how to do it."

TRUDY

I still like to say, "It'd be quicker if I do it."

DIONNE

Yeah.

I felt like she would take the road all the way around and back around, and I'd be straight up the middle.

I'd be like, "It'll take me five minutes to do this. Why is it taking so long?"

Well, here's the thing.

We got someone that didn't know real estate.

So she had to learn every single part of real estate.

She was in banking, totally different industry.

We looked at her and thought, "Oh, she's great at the bank. We assumed she would be great here."

Which she is now.

But it took a while.

And it took a lot of learning and a lot of letting go and realising I don't have to answer the phones.

I don't have to do all the little things.

But what I have to do is, when it's important, I need to step up and do what I need to do to make sure we're growing.

Because now that's on me.

TRUDY

Before we get back to the conversation, I've got a quick question.

Are you still running your business?

Or honestly, are you leading it?

If you've realised that you're carrying too much, making every decision, or feeling stuck in the day-to-day weeds, it might be time for some support.

At Fempire, our Certified Business Coaches help women make the shift from operator to CEO through practical guidance, accountability and real-world business experience.

Whether you need support with leadership, strategy, systems, marketing, finance or growth, there's a coach who can help you.

To learn more about working with a Fempire Certified Business Coach, visit fempire.com.au.

Now let's get back to the conversation.

DIONNE

The growth is on me.

The retention is hugely important.

So instead of me dealing with all of the issues, we have a broker that deals with the real estate issues.

We have the COO.

I can now say to them, "Hey, let me help you with marketing. Let me help with your mindset. Let's talk about what you can do to get where you want to go."

Not everybody has the same thing.

And I studied this methodology called BANK Methodology and learned about personality.

So Cheri Tree, and Esther, they're great people.

I've been to their house.

But I learned how to know who the person across from me is so that I can better communicate.

So now that I know that about her and the other staff, I know how to better communicate.

So flying off the handle is not working with a person that's a Nurturer.

They get all crazy and upset and they're crying.

I'm like, "No crying at work. No crying at work."

TRUDY

And interestingly enough, at Fempire we use the same method, the BANK Method.

So it's one of the things that before I take on a coach to learn to become a Certified Coach, or before I take on a client, I do exactly the same thing.

I put them through the BANK profile because it does help you.

It helps you understand how to get the best out of somebody.

So I'm 100 per cent on board with that.

But I think it gave you the space to be the leader that you needed to be.

And that's the critical point.

And that is really the premise of all of our season four, about stepping, being able to put tasks aside that can be done by somebody else to have more time to work on your business.

That is the stuff that nobody else can do because you are the ideas person.

All right, let's now talk about your personal brand because it is quite visible.

So obviously, you've got two parts to your equation here.

Why do you think visibility matters so much for women in business?

DIONNE

Oh, because we are so incredibly amazing.

And I didn't even realise that because I was never a girls' girl.

I was always a tomboy.

All the boys were my friends.

I had some girls that I was friends with, but I don't have a lifelong friend that I've been friends with, go on vacation with.

Nobody.

I'm not the girls' girl.

But then one day I went on this trip with a bunch of girls.

The first time I ever did it.

That was about three years ago.

I had the most incredible time.

And I think part of what I learned is we are special and women have incredible power.

So why should you brand yourself?

Because there's no one else like you.

And that's the greatest opportunity we have, to let people see all of our sides.

My creative side, my business side, my every side.

It's just such a cool thing to be a woman in business especially.

People look at me differently.

They look at her, "Wow, you have a company that has 200 people in it. You're Dionne from the trailer park. How can that be?"

But it is.

I think having a personal brand is as critical as anything else.

In fact, I think real estate itself, because most real estate agents will build a brand around the company, and that's not the right thing to do.

I actually believe every real estate agent should have a landing page of their life.

Who they are, what they do.

Then click this button to look for homes.

And same with every business owner.

You should have the page about you.

Click here for my business.

Click here for my book.

Click here for my speaking.

All those click here can be there, but you have to be the face.

It's incredible.

It's so freeing to be that.

And everywhere you go, people get to know who you are.

TRUDY

And I think one of the things that I've always said is that people do business with people they like and trust.

If they can't see you and your brand, how are they ever going to like and trust?

It's your differentiator that nobody else has.

DIONNE

I love that.

And I love the idea now.

I've really stepped into my femininity.

I feel different than I ever had knowing that.

But it took me 55 years to get there.

TRUDY

And it does.

It takes a while.

And I think stepping into your 50s really gives you that confidence of, actually, really, we're not doing any sort of heart surgery or anything that's alive.

So why not just give it a go?

What is the worst that can happen here?

DIONNE

So you fail, but you learn in the failure, right?

Every time you fall, get back up.

That's the greatest thing about being an entrepreneur, is getting back up when other people wouldn't.

TRUDY

I think we are very resilient.

What do you see women struggling with most when it comes to owning their expertise and stepping into their authority or their personal brand?

You would obviously come across a lot of women and potentially encourage them to step into that personal brand.

And what are the things that they're saying to you that they're pushing back on, I guess?

DIONNE

They care too much what other people think.

TRUDY

Yes. I 100 per cent agree with that.

DIONNE

So you think about it.

And I thought about that.

It's so funny because I'm in Vegas last week and I worry sometimes about, "Oh, this outfit doesn't look right," or whatever.

And I looked around at all those people and I said, "There's not a single person looking at me."

They don't care.

TRUDY

I wish people would recognise that.

Everybody is so absorbed in their own life and their own selves.

They really don't give you a fleeting thought.

DIONNE

Unless you're extraordinarily beautiful, like a supermodel, or a big muscle person that everyone might turn around.

Ninety per cent of the people don't even know what you, they couldn't pick you out of a lineup.

So why do we worry so much about all those things?

I admire people that maybe are a little bit more overweight and they wear bikinis.

I'm like, "I couldn't dare wear a bikini."

But I think that's what gets me to this point, is people worry so much about what everyone else thinks, they never can be true to themselves.

TRUDY

That is absolutely right.

And I think that positivity of yourself and being comfortable with who you are, regardless.

DIONNE

There's only one you.

Celebrate that.

This lady I used to go to, she did my hair, and she was curvy and stuff.

And she said one time she went home to her husband, she got undressed and she went, "All of this. Like, all of you."

And I just cracked up because I was like, it's just so cute to see her do that.

And she was so confident.

And I was like, "Damn, I can't be that confident."

But I learned to be better.

And it took a while.

It just takes time until you realise.

And when you get older, we are getting older.

We're lucky if we get old, right?

TRUDY

Absolutely.

DIONNE

Right?

We're lucky to be getting old.

TRUDY

Yeah.

And I think confidence is a muscle like anything else.

You need to keep working at it.

It is literally a daily workout to build it.

And you'll be surprised if you just make those little shifts every day.

At some point in time, you'll look back and go, "Oh my goodness."

All of a sudden I'm a whole different person, but I'm a person that is actually a lot happier now because I'm not trying to hide from anything.

DIONNE

I've done this in this last six months.

It has really helped me a lot.

And I feel like I'm just doing things differently, and I feel confident.

I've been through a lot.

My husband had a transplant.

My dad died.

My mother-in-law is fighting brain cancer.

My mum moved in with us.

The last three and a half years have been extremely hard on me.

And I keep looking in the mirror and I keep thinking, "You keep getting back up."

I didn't leave my husband for four and a half months.

I never went to my office.

So that tells you a little bit about the leadership right there.

Had this been at the beginning of our eight years, we would never have lasted.

But because we have a good COO, good staff, good finance person, good administration team and good broker, we had all that in place.

I was able to not go in the office for four and a half months.

TRUDY

That is a critical point.

Critical.

And I think that's one of the questions I will often ask.

If you had to check out for six weeks and not leave any guidance before, so it was an emergency, you checked out, what would happen with your business?

And if it could not continue to run, it may not run as effectively, but if you don't have operating procedures and all of those sorts of things in place, then you're not truly ready to step into when there is an emergency.

DIONNE

You don't have time to plan for it to be ready.

So when we found out that he needed a transplant, we didn't have a lot of time.

We were spending a lot of time at the doctors.

But when they said to me in the hospital, "He needs 24/7 care," and I'm like, "Oh, what am I going to do?"

And they're like, "You need to stay by his side 24/7."

I'm like, "Oh my gosh."

So I've got a business to run.

I mean, if we had the worst thing, it would have failed and I'd have to start another business.

TRUDY

And again, that's a great perspective.

That leads me into my next question.

What role do you think your mindset has played in your own growth as a business owner and leader?

DIONNE

Okay, two things: faith and mindset.

Without the two of them, I would not have been able to get through all of this.

I'm going to tell you that 100 per cent right now.

Having faith, if people live their life without faith, I'm not sure how you do it.

And I'm not here to preach to you.

But if you don't have something to hold on to when you're going through the hardest days of your life, I don't know how you get through them.

Number one.

Number two, positive mindset.

I wake up every day trying.

I wake up being positive.

I know about how to do affirmations.

I study.

I have a Think and Grow Rich mastermind.

I've been doing it for years.

I'm constantly finding ways to improve myself.

And if it wasn't for mindset and being positive and learning everything I learned, I would not have been able to mentally get through this.

It's changed me.

I remember when I first started understanding, I used to go to Zig Ziglar seminars and different things I would read, Tom Ferry, all the people, and then Tony Robbins.

And then I saw the book The Secret, the movie The Secret came out, and because I'm a visual person, the visual adaptation of that changed me because instead of just reading it, I saw it.

That was 2006.

And I remember going away with my parents.

My husband at the time, who was my boyfriend at the time, and my parents went on a trip.

And I didn't have enough money for my next, I only had half a month's bills to pay.

After I saw that movie, I've never had that happen again.

I've never ever had that happen.

And I won't.

I will always survive.

But I also know that I have to believe in myself and believe in me because whatever I believe in, I can create, right?

TRUDY

And can manifest that.

DIONNE

One of my coaches said to me a couple of months ago, he said, "If the whole thing burned down and you had nothing left, you're the one person I know that would come back."

And I know that because of the mindset and the faith.

So that's extremely important to me, my life, every day.

I've read a lot of books.

I have probably a thousand books in my house, and about three of them are not about mindset and business.

TRUDY

So what advice would you give to a woman who is highly capable but still questioning whether she is ready to lead at the next level?

DIONNE

You can't be afraid to try.

In trying, there may be failure.

I failed.

My first business failed.

I could have just put my tail between my legs and run off and got a job and been done.

But I didn't.

I got back up and I kept doing it.

I had no idea what it was going to bring.

Literally, when I say I came from the trailer park, I lived in a bedroom with my sisters for 18 years.

One bedroom, one dresser, one closet.

That's it.

Three girls until I was 18.

There is so much in this life if you just take the first step and you keep doing it.

And I know there's that story about being three feet from gold.

You're so close.

And if you just keep trying, it's there.

And I never in a million years would believe where I came from could be who I am today.

But you know what?

I wasn't afraid to try.

And I'm not afraid to fail.

My husband always talks, we talk about it.

He's like, "You know, if the real estate market changes, what are you going to do?"

And I've been trying.

I am a graphic designer too, right?

I can create all kinds of cool stuff.

So I create all this stuff all the time.

And he's like, "You're not making any money from it."

I'm like, "Because I don't have to. It doesn't matter."

When I have to, I will.

Right now, I'm doing it to grieve, help my mindset because I can focus on things I love.

So my advice is Nike had it right when they said, "Just do it."

That wasn't just a slogan.

It was a lifestyle.

If you have something unique to offer, look right when everybody's looking left and go.

TRUDY

I love that.

All right, so let's move into our season four core questions.

So we do a quick-fire round here.

It is literally the first thing that comes to your mind.

What changed in your business when you stopped trying to do everything yourself?

DIONNE

I was able to breathe and take off the weekends and not have to do work every day, seven days a week.

So time.

TRUDY

Great.

Time changed.

What does working on the business actually look like for you right now?

DIONNE

It's having meetings, learning about where our numbers are, being a part of the leadership team.

We do weekly meetings.

It's mostly a lot of meetings, is what it looks like.

But not to the point where I have to do them.

I do a lot of things because I want to do them.

And so I think working on it looks like I'm creating ways for us to grow.

I'm looking at ideas, trying to figure out how to save money, how to make money.

The things that an owner should be doing, not all the little things.

Like you said, the minutiae.

So working on my business also, again, is freeing to me because I'm not sitting there being in the middle of every single issue or lawsuit or problem an agent has or a problem a buyer or seller has.

I miss all of that.

I mean, I don't miss it like I miss it.

I'm glad.

TRUDY

Yeah, it's a hard pass on those.

Bye-bye.

DIONNE

Don't even call me unless you can't figure it out, and maybe call me.

TRUDY

How have you intentionally designed your business to support your life goals?

DIONNE

I've always had a hard time with looking forward.

And it's something, until a couple of years ago when I started to build something like this.

I have always built a vision board and things like that, but I built this thing called Vivid Vision.

It's actually a blueprint of my life and the things that I want in my life.

That was really the first time that I sat down and I thought, "What do I want my future to look like?"

I was always just living in the right now.

And I didn't realise that I was doing that until I actually had to sit down for that reason.

I think intentionally, I've made it to a point where when I sell it, we will have a nice rest of our life.

TRUDY

That's wonderful.

So what is the one thing business owners need to stop doing if they want to grow sustainably?

DIONNE

Hire help.

One thing my partner taught me, which was really important, is if you hire someone and you're going to pay them, let's just say $5,000 a month, right?

It's only monthly.

You don't have to worry about the whole year.

Worry about the month because at the end of it all, if they don't work out, you have three months in, you didn't pay them $60,000.

You paid them $15,000.

And I always liked that idea because I never really looked at it and thought, "We can't afford to pay someone $100,000 a year."

Well, we're really not if they don't last.

If they don't make it.

If they're not good, we're not paying them.

So I think you need to stop worrying about what you can't control.

Because there's a saying that I know, I think it's 10 per cent of what you worry about comes true, the rest never does.

So worrying yourself through it all is definitely hard on you mentally, physically and emotionally.

It's exhausting.

You have to trust in you and trust in the process.

If a year from now it's not working and you have to call it quits, it's okay because you're not the only one that ever failed.

TRUDY

No.

DIONNE

In fact, how we get there is by failing.

So never be afraid to try and just keep believing in yourself because that's what changes.

I think sometimes people get so down.

I see it with our agents.

They'll call and be like, "I'm so down on myself."

And I'll be like, "Why? What are you doing? Tell me what you're doing every day."

And we'd sit there for 20 minutes.

And by the end of the 20 minutes, they're jumping and running out of my room, like, "Thank you so much. That was so great. I needed that."

And so sometimes all you need is a person.

And one of my favourite parts of studying personal development is seeking expert counsel.

So when you're going to start a business, find someone else that's in your business.

It doesn't have to be in your town.

It could be in another town.

There's plenty of social media.

You could find someone, ask them a few questions, take them to lunch, take them to dinner, do a Zoom.

Learn everything you can about how they are successful.

Most people love sharing about themselves.

So just seek expert counsel.

That's definitely one of my favourite parts of Think and Grow Rich.

TRUDY

Great.

Now, what advice would you give to the woman listening who knows she has come to that bottleneck in her business?

DIONNE

I've been a bottleneck quite a few times.

I had to trust other people.

And I can't sit here in front of you, Trudy, and say that I 100 per cent trust everyone because I don't know.

TRUDY

And nor should you.

DIONNE

Yeah.

There's all kinds of stuff that could happen in a New York second.

But when you have a staff and you have people working for you, you have to give them enough of the rope that they can just pull it a little bit and then watch them grow, because they will if you let them.

But if you keep holding them back, they're never going to grow.

So you definitely have to let go and just do it.

Those are my things today.

Because there's so much opportunity if you can not be the only person doing it.

What is that saying?

This was John Rockefeller.

He said, "I'd rather have 1 per cent of 100 people's efforts than 100 per cent of my own."

TRUDY

Okay.

Absolutely.

DIONNE

So say you have five employees.

You get 20 per cent from each of them, and you can run the business and you're good.

But if you have to be 100 per cent all the time, you're going to burn out.

You're going to get exhausted.

You're going to age quicker.

You're going to lose sleep.

You're going to lose your relationship, maybe.

There are all kinds of things that could go wrong.

You just have to let someone else help.

And if they don't do a good job, get rid of them.

They say, "Hire slow, fire fast."

TRUDY

Yes.

DIONNE

Again, remember what I said though.

It doesn't cost the whole amount.

If you hire someone at X amount of dollars and they only stay for a couple of months, it didn't cost that much.

TRUDY

Well, it's how to eat an elephant, piece by piece, isn't it?

And I think ultimately the lessons that I take away from today are very much, just do it.

And it is the mistakes that you have that really create the better version of you, I believe.

So without mistakes, and if everything was a win all of the time, I don't think you'd be a very good business person.

DIONNE

If we all had the same personality and we just walked around like a bunch of straight-laced, no excitement, everyone was in the plot line, it would be so boring.

So just have fun.

Enjoy your life.

If you have something you're really good at, share it with people.

Become a coach because that's what Trudy does.

She has a coaching company.

How cool is that?

You have all of this information inside of you.

Share it.

Don't just die with it all inside of you.

I always have people that, with all the things I have created, I have this weird thing.

I have hundreds of things and they're sitting on my computer.

And if I die with them on my computer, it'll be a damn shame.

But you know what?

When the time comes that I need it, I'm going to have one heck of a business to put out there.

TRUDY

Absolutely.

Not one of our core questions, but probably one that leads me to close off this episode.

What's the legacy you'd like to be remembered for?

DIONNE

That my energy was contagious.

And because of that positivity, that I've affected more people than I can even imagine.

I don't want to be known for being the best real estate company.

I don't want to be known for being the greatest graphic designer.

I want to be known as someone that impacted people.

And every day, I find a way to make someone happy or smile.

TRUDY

And on that, thank you so much for your time.

It's been an absolute pleasure to have you join me today.

And I wish you all the best of luck with everything that is going on, and we hope to see you again soon.

DIONNE

Me too.

Thank you, Trudy, so much.

TRUDY

Thank you for joining me on this episode of Fempire Rising.

If today's conversation resonated with you, share it with another woman in business who needs to hear it.

And remember, the goal is not to do more. The goal is to lead better.

If you'd like to learn more about working with a Fempire Certified Business Coach, visit us at fempire.com.au and follow Fempire on social media.

And if you'd like to connect with today's guest, you'll find all their details in the show notes.

Just search for Fempire. We're easy to find.

Until next time, keep rising.