by Blanca on July 2, 2009
Photo Courtesy of Associated Press Sears Tower Glass Balcony
I saw this article today titled: Sears Tower Unveils 103rd Floor Glass Balconies. It is a good visual for what I have been going through this year. If I had a visual of last year during my financial meltdown and dismantling of my real estate career, I would post a picture of the bottom of the ocean.
Because of this blog, I simultaneously have maintained a higher vision where I wanted to be in my life while I maneuvered the crazy world related to my real estate work. Unfortunately, while I desperately hung on to dear life to create real estate deals, I almost sunk myself in the deep ocean of positioning myself as an REO realtor.
After all, in my mind, it was the real estate deals that would pay my bills while I continued pursuing my dreams that I imagined kind of like the girl sitting on this glass balcony. Here is a quote from the article:
“It’s very scary, but at the same time it’s very cool,” said Chanti Lawrence of Atlanta, adding that she’s made her first step toward overcoming her fear of heights. [continue reading…]
by Blanca on June 28, 2009
Blanca Birthday with Family
Life never ceases to amaze me. Since I have made a big emphasis on this blog to trust and let go in the midst of chaos, I am very conscious that I have to be walking this talk. A lot has happened since I announced the shedding of my realtor identity at the AWCS meeting 10 days ago. In a nutshell, I got offered two internet marketing consultant jobs, saved a turtle, got beautified with skin treatments, Farrah Faucett, EdMcMahon and Michael Jackson died, got a new puppy, celebrated my birthday for two days with my family and friends and got a referral commission I wasn’t expecting.
Because the sun is shining and beckoning me to absorb the rays of this beautiful day, I am going to go out and continue enjoying my weekend with my son. And hopefully this week , I can update you on details of some of my stories. The new addition to the family is Maya. She is a mix of Chihuahua and Alaskan Malanut. It is a very odd combination. I took one look at her eyes and fell in love with her. She is a gift from my friend, Larue, also my plumber for 15 years.
Also, another visible chryssalis is shaping it wings and will become a butterfly in about a week.
by Blanca on June 19, 2009
Last night after I came back from a networking meeting, I tweeted about following your passion. A friend on twitter, @mlanger (Maria Langer) replied that I have been listening to The Secret for too long and just go for it.
I personally thought “The Secret” was kind of shallow. Yes, it got people’s mind flowing with creating vision boards and so on. I have done all that. But it didn’t incorporate alot of the action - GO FOR IT! that my twitter friend, Maria said. I have always been a good doer left brain trained type of person. I would have preferred to have had my sister, Maria(not same as twitter friend) partner with me as we had envisioned. But she didn’t go for it. So my plans got revised. And they got put on hold because of my need to create immediate income to pay my bills.
My birthday is coming up this week. Birthdays are celebrated to remind you of that point in time when you took that leap into this world to embrace life. I celebrated a pre-birthday moment yesterday when I went to a meeting with the Association for Women in Communications(AWCS). It was the first time I met anyone from this group. The topic was about social media, so there were a lot of local twitterers there, including men. [continue reading…]
by Blanca on June 19, 2009
by Blanca on June 19, 2009
Since this personal blog is an organic process while I go through my career changes, instead of deleting the old, I will post my “About Blanca” chronologically instead of deleting.
April 2008 to June, 2009 Summary of What I have been doing:
2008 was a big meltdown for many people. Besides the real estate market crash and all my deals falling apart because my sellers were upside down, I also had to have another surgery on my ankle. So I was off my feet again for six months until October, 2008. Right now I am navigating this crazy foreclosure market in Miami and have been intensely focused since then to work the bank listings. But it is dreadfully slow and difficult to get my foot in the door.( What is this thing about my foot???:-))
As of June 18, 2009, I will no longer be navigating the Real Estate Broker ship. I am putting my resume out there to be an Operations Director for a creative company.
by Blanca on June 14, 2009
Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly In My Garden Today
The other night I went to a party with one of my best friends. We have been friends from high school. She too has encountered a huge change in her career as a mortgage broker for over 20 years. She transitioned this year into insurance sales which has required a tremendous amount of studying. It is a sales job in a whole new field. She shared with me the stress the prior job loss caused and huge effort it has been to support her family. Even though she made a lot of money in the past and had to start from scratch again, she is dedicated, focused and confident that she will succeed. And I know she will.
I told her to take a break for a week to gather her energies up again because she was feeling a bit stressed. She hasn’t exercised in a while or gone out too much in nature to zen out lately. Her main focus has been studying to learn the new business. One of the ingredients in my de-stressing that I mentioned in my last post is being in nature. We are lucky to have beautiful sunshine and beaches here in Miami. I push myself to go there a lot when I get frazzled. Besides that, one of my greatest joys has been my butterfly garden. [continue reading…]
by Blanca on June 13, 2009
Oracle At Delphi by Abigail McCarthy on Flickr
A neighbor came by this week to give me a card of the owner of Creative Staffing, an agency that finds work for unemployed. She knew I was looking for temporary work to tide me over or a permanent job in something new. After spending enormous effort to maneuver myself in this total revamping and restructuring of my real estate business in the last year, I find myself at another crossroads.
Should I give up my persistence in this sinking ship although my logic tells me banks will be needing many more realtors to handle their inventory? I don’t need many listings to survive. My skills and knowledge of the industry are very high. But the low I am experiencing in getting deals done really makes me wonder how much longer I should chart in this course. [continue reading…]
by Blanca on June 7, 2009
Monarch Butterflies Mating
I took this picture of two monarch butterflies mating five days ago. Since I am working from home, my desk sits about five feet from a french door that leads out to my garden. I happened to look out that day and there they were, in their dazzling embrace. It was exactly one month ago today that I embraced Sparky as he took his last breath. The memory of that bittersweet moment has kept my spirits high although I have cried many times. But because I gave myself the time to really experience the letting go, the pain has subsided. I have a picture of Sparky on my desktop background as a visual of those beautiful brown expressive eyes.
I picked up a box of his remains from Pet-Heaven, the company that did the cremation two weeks ago. Soon, I will have a special moment to release the remains or dig them in the ground. I think I will put them under the mango trees. [continue reading…]
by Blanca on May 31, 2009
Ferrari In The Repair Department
Yesterday I took my son, Cristian to the Ferrari dealer here in Coral Gables. He is an exotic car buff and loves taking pictures of these cars. He networks with other kids his age from all over the world on some websites and they share pictures. In fact, he is going to start his own website for this and I am in the process of helping him set it up.
A good friend’s neighbor is the general manager at The Collection. My friend had told him about his passion for exotic cars. He had told her to tell Cristian to pass by for an inside tour of Ferrari’s, Aston Martin’s, Maserati’s and the like. I finally made an appointment with his secretary to go there. Cristian rides his bike there all the time checking out the scene which is mainly all the spotless, shiny cars on display. But he never saw all the other departments. That is, until yesterday. The manager took us up through a secure elevator to reveal other goodies. There was the repair department, the parking station for used cars waiting for new owners and the cleaning station. Cristian’s eye’s popped out. He had no idea that these areas existed. All he had seen was the sales department. [continue reading…]
by Blanca on May 29, 2009
Ferrari Coming Out of The Collection in Coral Gables
A very nice woman and friend on Twitter, Maryan Pelland asked me to do a guest post on her blog last week. This is the first time I was asked to do this. I was so busy in the last week in my focus of creating income either with a job(base pay) or my real estate work(commissions).
When she reminded me on Tuesday, I went ahead at night to muster the energy to get inspired to write. That was the day before yesterday. It was my first day of giving it a try at a real estate brokerage company. When I got home my mind was dizzy with getting adjusted to someone else’s way of working and office environment.
So, I relaxed for an hour and here is the post on her Woman Day By Day Blog that came out of me after my light nap/meditation. I was kind of proud of it, because my son Cristian is an exotic car buff and I thought he might get a kick out of the Ferrari metaphor. And since Ferrari’s run pretty fast, I realized very quickly that this was not the best place or opportunity for me to work. At first the painted picture sounded good, but alas…..flaws were revealed pretty quickly. I am not expecting perfection. It was something of integrity. I could be wrong, but my gut says I am probably right. So I am busy again like a bee, getting the engine ready to move in the direction that will support my household. I continue to trust and I know I will prevail. Probably, this pit stop will lead me to the next one closer to the finish line. [continue reading…]
