Member Stories: Heather Davis
Heather Davis grew up in Oklahoma City. While getting a degree in public relations and the University of Oklahoma, she was hired to do marketing for a local real estate firm while she finished school. Just to make sure she knew the ins and outs of the business (and because she's an overachiever) she went ahead and got her real estate license at 19. Twenty-five years later, she's still in love with the business and is part of a successful team at RE/MAX where she helps locals buy and sell residential properties.
What have been the biggest changes in your industry since you started working?
Technology for sure. We used to run keys around town to open up houses for showings. You were really limited in how many homes you could show. Now our phones give us instant access to homes, which is really handy. But in some ways technology is a bit of a detriment. It's separated us all. We used to network about other listings constantly and within every sale you were really talking to people. Face-to-face is oftentimes really helpful when you're talking about buying and selling something as big and important as a home. I preferred it that way.
Who do you need to surround yourself with to do your best work?
First, I need to be around really positive, high-energy doers. Once I've been around them, though, I need to be by myself or with quiet, focused workers so I can really implement everything.
What are your favorite resources or tools for productivity?
My phone and my MacBook are huge. Electronic signatures make my job so much simpler. Different blogs and articles that are industry-related help me tremendously to look at trends and know what to communicate to clients. I love the Texture app where I can pay monthly and read any kind of magazine I want. Magazines like Architectural Digest help inspire me to stage homes. Magazines about psychology and technology are helpful, too, because so much of the job is learning about behavior, communication and problem-solving.
What do you do when you don't feel inspired to work?
I have curated playlists I put on and those snap me out of it pretty quickly if I think I'm not in the mood to be productive. Getting outside is another huge one. Sometimes taking a break in the middle of the day to do a quick, mundane task, helps quiet my mind and get me back on track. In the long-term, I do need to travel every now and then to really reset.
How do you measure progress?
Being in sales, I do look at our production to see where we are quarter-by-quarter. We of course set goals. But the smaller, creative work is an important element to hitting those bigger goals. I keep a bullet journal and I'm big on to-do lists. I have daily tasks all the way up to longer-range to-dos. Some days, I might push off some of the daily stuff for creative work. That's the biggest way I gauge productivity is if I'm making time to sit down and do the type of work I really enjoy doing.
What are your favorite books or podcasts right now?
I love listening to 99% Invisible, Twenty Thousand Hertz and Oprah's Super Soul Conversations. I typically love reading all the bestsellers but my favorite right now is Big Magic. An old one I go back to again and again is The Simple Abundance Journal of Gratitude by Sarah Ban Breathnach.
What does The Treasury mean to you?
I grew up with my dad working downtown at City Place. He brought me to work a lot with him, especially in the summers. I've seen the ups and downs of the downtown area and there's something so nostalgic about downtown that it really fires me up to work. I have an office up north because so often that's where I need to be to serve clients, but The Treasury is the place to go to really dig in and get the work done. When I walk into this place and see the combination of the old and new, it just feels like a place I can be creative.
Outside all the physical stuff of the actual building, I've felt a gap lately as far as connecting with other women. The Treasury is the answer to that for me. I'd like to make the time in my world and life, instead of working all the time, to have some well-roundedness. Going to the events here and connecting with other women is so important for me. My RE/MAX office obviously is very high-energy and I constantly have input from my colleagues all around me. But here I can sit down for a couple hours and really feel accomplished. When I walk through this door I have that gift ahead of me—the time with my music in my ears where I can get things done and get on with my day or my week.