Doorify Real Estate Podcast

Empowering Women in Real Estate with Danielle Wilkie

• Doorify MLS • Episode 81

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As real estate evolves, so does the need for stronger leadership, better coaching, and more inclusive opportunities. 

But why aren’t more women leading the charge in the coaching space?

Danielle Wilkie has spent 25 years scaling businesses, leading national teams, and driving innovation in both real estate and technology. After heading coaching initiatives at Compass, she saw a major gap—women were underrepresented at the highest levels of real estate coaching. 

Now, as the founder and CEO of The Helm, Danielle is changing that narrative. In this episode, we talk about the evolution of coaching, the challenges women face in the industry, and why having the right community can make all the difference.

Tune in to hear her insights and learn how to build a stronger, more sustainable business with the right support.

Specifically, this episode highlights the following themes: 

  • The importance of coaching in real estate and why women are underrepresented in leadership roles
  • How to manage fear and self-doubt as an entrepreneur
  • The future of real estate and the industry shifts happening now

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Danielle Wilkie [00:00:00]:
I would say find your group. Do not do this alone. Whether it's your real estate business or you want to become a coach or whatever you want to do in this industry, why would you ever try and do it all by yourself? Connect with others and let that wisdom of the whole move you forward.

Andrea Presnal [00:00:29]:
Get ready to meet a true force of nature. Danielle Wickie isn't just a real estate powerhouse. She is a tech veteran, a business scaling guru, and a champion for women in the industry. From property management to online learning to leading national teams at Compass, Danielle's 25 year journey is packed with wisdom and inspiration. Now she's the founder and CEO of the Helm, Building the next generation of real estate coaching one incredible woman at a time. Buckle up because this conversation is about to be very epic. Danielle Wiki, thank you so much for being here on the Doorify MLS podcast. We are so excited to have you, catch up with you, learn about what you've been up to and doing.

Andrea Presnal [00:01:17]:
I want to kind of start off with just your background and experience and just kind of go from there. So, again, very excited to have you.

Danielle Wilkie [00:01:27]:
Thanks for having me.

Andrea Presnal [00:01:29]:
So you have scaled both B2B and B2C businesses. So how does that experience inform your approach to building the Helm and serving its members well by trade?

Danielle Wilkie [00:01:43]:
I grew up professionally as a product developer and a marketer. That's sort of where I started my career, those two things. And by nature, I just love building new things. So every business I've been in, I did the job I was hired for and then I found a way to like drive value for the business and customer and then build something else for it. You know, that just always was sort of my nature. So I love understanding customer needs and then figuring out ways to solve them that's good for them and good for the business. I'm also a really huge proponent of coaching. So when I stumbled into it more meaningfully about 10 years ago, I couldn't believe everyone wasn't taking advantage of it.

Andrea Presnal [00:02:23]:
Right.

Danielle Wilkie [00:02:24]:
Yeah. I know the power it can bring when done well. And I want others to have that experience both as someone who needs it and someone who wants to aspire to deliver that. And then the third thing is I'm just a connector. I have had many people reflect this back to me over my career. And the key for the Helm is bringing together smart, driven women at a national scale. And so I really try and tap into that superpower to drive what we're looking to accomplish. So those are sort of the three things I bring to the work that.

Andrea Presnal [00:02:54]:
I do today, what would you say is a story you could share from your career journey that really highlights the challenges you've overcome or just a valuable lesson that you've learned?

Danielle Wilkie [00:03:06]:
I'm sure everyone says this to you, but this podcast isn't long enough to cover all the challenges I have faced.

Andrea Presnal [00:03:12]:
But especially in this industry.

Danielle Wilkie [00:03:14]:
I know, but I think that my favorite one is when I realized ultimately in my career that if I wanted to succeed at both my career and life, I had to start managing myself first. I think it's very easy early on to place responsibility for your experience on other people. My boss, my manager, the team leader, the market conditions, like, whatever. It's, you know, always on somebody else that's sort of either helping you or getting in your way. But when you finally start to realize and see that when you lead from within, it's a massive reframe, and it's incredibly empowering. And I would say I stumbled along in this until I hit about 40. I really struggled with this until I got to be about 40. And then I realized that I had to stop looking outward.

Danielle Wilkie [00:04:09]:
I had to start managing myself in order to be successful.

Andrea Presnal [00:04:13]:
That is such an important lesson, I think, that we get hung up with that to do list. Right. Of from a manager, your boss. And looking within is so important to really driving your career forward the needle, forward everything that you do. And so I absolutely love that. What. What do you think? Why do you think it took so long for you to do that? Like to. Because it's such a simple concept.

Danielle Wilkie [00:04:41]:
Right.

Andrea Presnal [00:04:41]:
But it really is true.

Danielle Wilkie [00:04:44]:
I think some of it's unique to who I am as a human. And again, that would be an entire podcast to unpack. Each of us is so unique in our own way. But I also think that high achievers tend to look outside. They're always looking for the next sale, the, you know, the next promotion, the next whatever. Like, I have to climb that ladder. I have to do the thing. So they're really focused externally.

Danielle Wilkie [00:05:09]:
And I think that external focus just naturally moves your locus of control from you to the outside world. And when you realize that, actually you have to pull that back inside and own it yourself. That's when things can flip, but I think it just naturally comes when you orient yourself in the world that way. So that's why it was hard for me to re. Re examine that and understand what was going on.

Andrea Presnal [00:05:33]:
I love that. I love that advice. And just that lesson, what was kind of that moment that sparked the idea for the helm like what did you need to see or what was the need in the market that really wasn't being addressed? Because there are a lot of real estate coaches, either businesses or just individuals in the space. So I'm curious, like, really, what sparked this, this idea?

Danielle Wilkie [00:05:58]:
Well, let me tell you, you think there's a lot now, there's going to be even more in the next two years. I mean, I really think that just about everyone is going to be, quote, unquote, a real estate coach in the coming years. And so I think we're just getting started here. So I think there's going to be more of that. But why? Why in a market that feels so flooded with options? When I was at Compass, one of the things that we worked on together was launching coaching at Compass. When we launched Coaching at Compass, I went to Robert in 2021 and said, hey, you know, this would be a huge value for our agents. Back to my note about being a builder, I was like, ooh, I see an opportunity here. I think we could do something great.

Danielle Wilkie [00:06:39]:
He said, great, let's go do it. And we immediately went out and partnered with the biggest names in the industry, all ones that you would know. We interviewed them, we talked to them. And through that process, I realized there were no women. And when, I mean no women, I mean, no women at the national level, certainly there are amazing coaches who are women who work at the local levels or who work for somebody else. But very few women were recognized nationally. And so when I started to dig into the data, I realized, you know, we all know two thirds of real estate agents are women, but only about a third were nationally recognized coaches. So I thought, gosh, that is a huge gap.

Danielle Wilkie [00:07:20]:
Not because the choices that are out there aren't great. There are some amazing guys coaching, and there are some great choices. But I think it's an opportunity to create more options, more options for people that maybe are a better fit for who they are and how they approach their business. And so we started the Helm because we wanted to help more women get into coaching and help more connect more women to other women who could support them on their real estate journeys.

Andrea Presnal [00:07:47]:
I love that. And you kind of already, I know that it focuses on empowering women in real estate, but why is this focus so important to you? And, like, what specific challenges do you see women face in the industry that the helm aims to address?

Danielle Wilkie [00:08:03]:
Well, one of the reasons that I came to real estate, you know, I didn't get into real estate until 2019 when Compass called me. And at the time, I was like, I don't think you're calling the wrong person. You know, like, are you sure that I'm the right person? I'd spent my entire career in technology and startups, and I said, no, you're the right person, because we're building a brokerage and a tech business, and so we're actually interested in people who can kind of figure out how to do those things together. So it ended up being a perfect match. But when I was examining the opportunity, I was looking very closely at real estate, and what I saw was an industry that was going to go through tremendous change over the next five to 10 years, which was very exciting for me. I'd been in. I've been through transitions like this in several industries, so I knew that path, I knew what was coming, and I was excited to be part of it. But the thing that was most exciting to me was how many women entrepreneurs were in this space.

Danielle Wilkie [00:08:53]:
Because I have always had a very soft spot for women in business. I've oftentimes been the only woman in the room. And it has always been very important to me to blaze trails and to bring others along with us and to create opportunity. And so I thought, gosh, what a great industry to be able to be surrounded by incredible, driven, amazing women entrepreneurs. And so the aha. Me with the helm was, gosh, if we're an industry at the agent level full of women, then why aren't we seeing the same in our coaching options? And so it was just a natural fit for me. It felt very aligned from a values perspective and who I am to go ahead and support this particular group in this particular way.

Andrea Presnal [00:09:38]:
I absolutely love that. And it's so true. I. When I was even at Compass or just being in this industry, I come across a lot of coaches, and I never see women in it at all. Usually it's more of like a package of they do a bunch of different things. It's not specifically real estate coaching. So I think what you're doing and the opportunities you're giving women are absolutely incredible. And what advice would you give to young women who are starting their careers in real estate?

Danielle Wilkie [00:10:12]:
Mm. Well, listen, I have never sold real estate myself, right. I came into the industry as a brokerage executive, so my perspective may be different than somebody who's lived it and walked it. But from my point of view, based on my context, I would say find your group. Do not do this alone. Whether it's your real estate business or you want to become a coach or whatever you want to do in this industry. Why would you ever try and do it all by yourself? You know, connect with others and let that wisdom of the whole move you forward. You'll get.

Danielle Wilkie [00:10:54]:
You'll get the information you'll need, you'll get the support you'll need, you'll get the camaraderie you need. So my best advice is find a group. Find your group. Not just a group, but find your group.

Andrea Presnal [00:11:05]:
What are some of the unique strengths and perspectives that women bring to the real estate coaching business, specifically that you've seen when creating?

Danielle Wilkie [00:11:18]:
I think that a lot of women got into, you know, the production side of real estate because they wanted a different path. Either they wanted more flexibility in their work, or they wanted to own their own outcomes, or they wanted earning potential. That didn't feel to them like those are reasons. I hear a lot from people who get into the space. Here's some generalizations, but I think there's some bits of truth to these things around the skills that women bring to this. They are oftentimes great listeners. I think women just have a natural. They don't have to work as hard on learning how to listen.

Danielle Wilkie [00:11:59]:
I think they can just be great at listening. I think women bring a natural sense of empathy to employees, to team members, to clients. Like, it's just easier for women to put themselves in someone else's shoes. These are, by the way, wild generalizations, but I'm just giving you sort of. There's women who are not. There are women who are like this, but, you know, just generalizations. I think there's a lot of care about the experience people are having. So I'll give you an example.

Danielle Wilkie [00:12:26]:
I was listening to one of our home coaches the other day be interviewed on a podcast, and she was talking about the word leads. And it was Kelly Parker. And she said, I hate the word leads. And the reason that she hated the word leads is because it was so dehumanizing. She knows these are real people who are asking for help, who want the right advisor and the right support. That's an example of how a woman might see that versus a guy might say, guy might see it as a deal, a lead, or a woman sees it as a human. So I think there's like, care and empathy that goes into it.

Andrea Presnal [00:13:03]:
And the last.

Danielle Wilkie [00:13:04]:
I think they just really understand the emotional dynamics of big purchases. Like they. Because they're empathetic, because they care, because they can listen. I think they can be really, really savvy in the way they support clients through what is oftentimes a very bumpy stress driven, fear driven experience. So those are my, those are my thoughts. Again, not all women fit this. There are plenty of men who fit this too. But I think generally that's what I would say.

Andrea Presnal [00:13:32]:
I absolutely agree. I could not agree more. And I feel like it's probably been having such a woman focused real estate business like the helm. Like talk to me about the early days of it. Like, what were some of those initial hurdles that you faced and what kept you motivated to, you know, really get this off the ground and launched?

Danielle Wilkie [00:13:55]:
Yeah, I think that, you know, like any real estate agent or early broker owner could probably relate to. Starting your own thing is absolutely no joke. I mean, I think it's no joke. I think it gets glorified in a thousand ways. Entrepreneurship in all of its forms these days. But you know, it is hard work. And I came to this business with the goal of not taking any funding. So my background is in a lot of venture capital investment businesses that were supported by that.

Danielle Wilkie [00:14:31]:
And I saw the pros and cons of that funding model and so I said, I'm going to bootstrap this. So that doesn't mean that it won't be an option in the future, but I truly want to own this business and I don't want to be, you know, be beholden investors out of the gate. So there are a lot of struggles in choosing to start a business and starting a business without any funding. Like you're funding it yourself, basically. But I will tell you, the biggest one by far has been managing my own fear. It has not been the tactics of this. I've been doing business for 25 years. I know how to do, to do a lot of the work that I'm doing.

Danielle Wilkie [00:15:12]:
What is difficult and new to me is managing the fear. The inner critic, you know, who likes to show up and keep us safe when we put ourselves in new and difficult and unknown situations, which is exactly where I'm at. I've never started my own business and so this inner critic, like they don't want to stand up or stand out, you know, because they are worried what could happen. And I have managed that through a great coach that I have that has supported me through this. I have some incredible peers like my co founder who's involved in this. I have an amazing mastermind group. I mean, you can see how I put these support pieces in place to help manage this. But I, I think it is really a matter of learning how to basically live with that inner critic who desperately wants you to stay where you're at and comfortable and allow yourself to push forward despite that.

Danielle Wilkie [00:16:03]:
That's been my hardest challenge.

Andrea Presnal [00:16:05]:
And it's so. It's. It's crazy because if you just let that fear go, sometimes what you can achieve is just something that you never thought was possible.

Danielle Wilkie [00:16:14]:
Correct.

Andrea Presnal [00:16:15]:
And it. Once you get over that, that fear of hurdle the hurdles. Hurdle of fear, it just blows my mind. Even for me, constantly. I never pictured doing the things I've done, but I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna go do it. It might not be done correctly or the right way, but that's the whole process. Right. You're learning as you're going, and if you don't start somewhere, you'll never start.

Andrea Presnal [00:16:40]:
Totally. So that's what I live by.

Danielle Wilkie [00:16:42]:
That's right. I think this can feel especially real for people whose businesses are tied to their identities, meaning, like, brands. So I think a lot about real estate agents. Like, it is scary to put yourself out in the world and do things in a very public way because you could get judged, you could get ridiculed. These are the stories, right, we tell ourselves. And so I think for entrepreneurs, this is even harder. It's the fear because you're doing something you've never done before. And it's the fear of you, your identity, who you are and showing up in the world and how that will be received.

Danielle Wilkie [00:17:16]:
And so it runs deep. It's a simple but very complicated thing.

Andrea Presnal [00:17:21]:
It really is. What are you most excited for? For the future of the helm and the real estate industry as a whole.

Danielle Wilkie [00:17:29]:
Let's start with the industry. I am so excited about the chaos and the unknown that is in our industry right now. And I think you're. I know. I think you're either somebody who really hates that, or you're probably somebody who really loves it, or maybe you're someone who ignores it, but frankly, to your own peril. You know, I think that what I have seen multiple times in my career through different industries who have been at a point similar to where real estate, residential real estate in the US Is right now, is that it is fair game. Like, it's an open market. If you can get past your fear and get curious about what's happening, the sky's the limit.

Danielle Wilkie [00:18:13]:
Like, things are going to change, and I promise you, things are going to change for the better. It doesn't feel like it right now because it feels like change. And change sucks and it hurts and it's uncomfortable, but I know it will be better. And the things that I'm most excited about quote unquote being better. You know, I'm really excited about the professionalism of the agent. You know, when I got to real Estate in 2019, I was shocked at the variability in this, in our industry. You know, some people I met were just, you know, hard charging ballers and they were so good at running their businesses. And then I met some people who were kind of a mess and I thought to myself, how, how can we have this much variability in an industry in terms of quality? Like we need higher quality, better run businesses, more professional agents in the space.

Danielle Wilkie [00:19:07]:
And so I'm super excited about this change because that will force that to happen. There's you, you, I think the, the days of the part time agents or I just think that's going to start to fall by the wayside. Either you take this seriously and you run it like a business or you join a team which then you can maybe run this as a part time business for yourself. But if you're running it, you have to run it like a business. And so that's exciting. I'm also super excited about the dialogue that is being forced right now around clear cooperation. Yep. I think we should be having these conversations.

Danielle Wilkie [00:19:42]:
We should be challenging what's right and what's wrong, you know, and I, I love being really curious about, well, why would someone think that that's really important or why would this person think this is really important? And these discussions, we're going to land on what really is best for the consumer. Right now we kind of, we're running at like black and white. You know, it's either this way or it's this way. And that's not true. That's not life. That's not how things work. It is actually a grayscale and there is ways that we can solve this problem that are not this or that. And so I'm excited about the dialogue that's going on around that which is good for everybody.

Danielle Wilkie [00:20:17]:
And then the last thing I'm really excited about is just the attention we're paying to the data. For the first time, every other wildly successful industry that has gone through a transformation like this understands the value of data and how we use it. And so I think again, the dialogue that's going on around MLS is, and what they, you know, their value and how they work together and then how they engage in the entire ecosystem. This is good for the industry. And I would encourage everyone to pay attention and share their points of view because the more people who engage on all of these topics, the better the outcome is going to be. So that's what I'm really excited about. So you kind of got me going on the industry, but I just love, I love this, this conversation. But the helm, my vision here is that it's really becomes the place where like the most seasoned, the most successful, the smartest, the most driven women come.

Danielle Wilkie [00:21:14]:
That's what I want. And so that could be for brokers, broker owners, broker leadership. That could be for agents and leaders. That's for coaches and who those. And mentors who support those women. Ultimately, it's a place where, you know, you can dip in, you can get whatever it is support you need and you can find a community that's going to help you grow and be a better, better human and a better business owner.

Andrea Presnal [00:21:38]:
What is the process for, if I want to be a coach for the helm? What does that process look like? Do you vet everyone? Is it a long interview process? I'm so curious.

Danielle Wilkie [00:21:51]:
Yeah.

Andrea Presnal [00:21:52]:
How you operate that.

Danielle Wilkie [00:21:53]:
Yeah, a couple things. So we talked earlier about how in the next two years everyone's going to be a coach. I genuinely believe this. I really do. You see it already a lot with businesses like Real and Exp, where a lot of people are, quote, unquote, selling coaching as a part of building their downline. You know, like that's just becoming a natural part of how they built their business, businesses. So I think the challenge is going to be in the future is going to be, well, who can I trust when there were only a handful of choices, which frankly, there have only been really at the very top, there have only been a handful of choices for like 20, 30 years. And they're the same ones.

Danielle Wilkie [00:22:34]:
They've been there forever. When you have a lot of choice. What I've seen happen in other industries, other markets, is then you get the paradox of choice. So it's like everybody wants more choice. Okay, great, now I've got more choice. But now how am I going to make a decision around who and how? So I think the issue is going to be how do I decide who to work with? And so one of the value, one of the value elements of the helm is that we are going to have some bars in place and we are going to be very clear about communicating value and what an experience and what people have done. So when people are making choices, they're making informed choices. So, for example, for women, this is the bar that we've set today that I think is just the standard.

Danielle Wilkie [00:23:14]:
We are only working with women who want to become coaches, who've been in the industry for at least 10 years. For the agent CEO group that my co founder and I run for top female producers, you have to have been in the business and been very successful and run your own business for 15 plus years. So, like, we're looking for people who have deep roots and experience in the industry and then we will build and grow from there. Because I. This is just my point of view. I think great coaches bring experience and coaching experience. If you go and you get certified at like icf, International Coaching Federation, which is sort of the gold standard for coaching, what you'll hear them say, because I've taken some of their stuff. Well, you'll hear them say is if you're a great coach, you can coach in any industry.

Danielle Wilkie [00:24:02]:
Like great coaches, it's just about, like connecting with people, helping them tap into their own inner wisdom, having them, you know, answer their own questions. That is absolutely true. But if you were deciding to work with a coach, wouldn't you rather have that and somebody who had, like, walked in your shoes?

Andrea Presnal [00:24:19]:
Yeah, that has the experience.

Danielle Wilkie [00:24:21]:
Yeah, exactly. Because, you know, the way we talk to our coaches is that your job is not to be a mentor or a trainer or a coach or a consultant. Your job is to show up with the ability to know when to use all of those tools. And so when we think coach, we think somebody who can show up and actually deliver a result that you are looking to achieve using those methods as their starting point. So we believe in experience is important and that's a gating factor for us. And that's really the bar to get involved.

Andrea Presnal [00:24:54]:
I love it. So I always ask everyone this question when they come on the Doorify podcast. If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about the real estate industry, what would it be?

Danielle Wilkie [00:25:09]:
And why I would change our dependence on headlines?

Andrea Presnal [00:25:14]:
Oh, what do you mean?

Danielle Wilkie [00:25:15]:
And, and figure out a way that we're driving more dialogue. Here's what I mean. We all know, and I'm a marketer, so I know how this works better than anyone. You know, I'm telling you, like, headlines and sizzles sell. I get it. That's just a fact of life. That's like human nature. We know how that works.

Danielle Wilkie [00:25:34]:
But I think that as an industry, we don't spend enough time looking under the hood at the headline because we're busy. We're in our cars, we're out with clients, we got, you know, like, this is not an intellectual pursuit. I don't have time to like, you know, explore all of this. But by not doing so. We are letting headlines run our dialogue and there's not enough nuance and there's not enough thought being put into what we talked about earlier. Really big issues. So that would be my magic wand. I wish that we somehow magically could have the time and energy to look beyond the headlines around hot topics in the industry.

Andrea Presnal [00:26:21]:
Our industry has been, it's like this, it's been through the ringer, I would say in the last year specifically, there has been so many headlines, just so much going on and we being on the MLS side have so many people looking at us. What does this mean? What is the NAR settlement? What is clear cooperation? What are all these things mean? Right. And our involvement. And so no one's really figured it out quite yet. It's all very hush hush in small kind of closed door rooms. And so I could not agree more with you with that. That's a good one.

Danielle Wilkie [00:27:02]:
You know something that would really benefit everyone is if people who have real passionate interest in this stuff wrote more about it, talk more about it. I think that we need more sources of information. And so we're not just getting our news from one spot or two spots. Like you have a collection that you look at and you're like, oh, that's this person thinks this, but this person thinks this. Like, I just think a variety of information would be helpful to people as they're formulating their own opinions about things. And so we need more people to do it.

Andrea Presnal [00:27:36]:
Maybe that will be my next business. Maybe I'll go into real estate news and work with Congress and NAR and all of these other outlets to provide the actual real information. What's going on and what this means for you? Because I would say the last year is I've been heads down very being articulate with what we're saying and understanding because it's so crucial to so many people, especially on the MLS side, people looking to us constantly with that. So we need that.

Danielle Wilkie [00:28:09]:
Andrea. Like we need translators, you know, like we shouldn't expect people. Again, people are busy and exhausted and it's hard to keep up. Like we need people who can translate complex things into very simple concepts that people can understand and then use in a more productive way.

Andrea Presnal [00:28:27]:
Have you noticed in our industry it's always, it's never simple. It's like, you know, something said and it's like, well, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What does that mean? There's like all these other like bullet points under that. And I feel like that's where so much chaos and confusion has been, at least that I've experienced. And it's. You're kind of like trying to put a puzzle together that you're missing some of the pieces to the puzzle.

Danielle Wilkie [00:28:58]:
So you make a really interesting point, actually. And I. I think that there's a method to that madness. Like, there's a reason. There's like. But did you think about this and this layer and this layer and this layer. This industry has been creating layer upon layer upon layer for years. It's one of the reasons that there's a little.

Danielle Wilkie [00:29:16]:
That's Teflon in terms of change. You know, it just was so hard to change anything because everything was so distributed and very local. And then there's all the layers, and then there's the state, and then there's the national, and then there's a. And so it's almost like it was. I don't think it was intentionally architected this way, but by nature of being architected that way, you get what you just described. And I think that the next five to 10 years is going to be somewhat of an unwinding of that. It's too complex. There are too many layers.

Danielle Wilkie [00:29:51]:
And so I think that your point is, is that in order for us to realize the potential that this industry has, we're going to have to peel back some of that and not let it get in our way.

Andrea Presnal [00:30:03]:
It's so true. Who has inspired you in real estate and why?

Danielle Wilkie [00:30:11]:
So this is absolutely my favorite topic right now. I am obsessed with researching and understanding the women who have come before us and their contributions to this industry. Because it's, you know, we. Life moves fast. We forget. We forget all the things that come before us. But there's so much good wisdom and insight in the experiences of others. And so I think we all need to be more intentional about honoring this and highlighting it.

Danielle Wilkie [00:30:41]:
It's like how we built out our advisory board, and at the helm we intend to make sure we're capturing all of this great, amazing pearls versus just letting it, like, leave the industry. And there's a lot of women right now who are getting ready to transition out of their business or move on. And I'm like, we need to capture all that. So some of the women that I have been especially just really excited about and either connected with or learning from them. Pam O'Connor, who was the first woman to lead a national network in the 80s with the leading RE companies in the world, she was doing this before anyone was doing this. Leslie Appleton Young, who is the. Was the chief economist for California association of Realtors for years. She did amazing work for them.

Danielle Wilkie [00:31:26]:
Sue, who leads anywhere brands. She is an amazing leader and an incredible inspiration. Anita Head, who we both knew from Compass, who was the head of Paragon and then worked for Compass. Sherry Chris, who's crushing it with NAR right now, is the special advisor to the CEO and like, really help guide that, you know, reputation to her and listening to her.

Andrea Presnal [00:31:50]:
Yes.

Danielle Wilkie [00:31:50]:
And then I have to say, Bernice Ross. I mentioned this woman's name and sometimes people are like, who's Bernice? I'm like, are you kidding? She's like the female coach. She is like, this woman was doing this work years ago. She still runs her newsletter. She's. She ran one of the first women only conferences that didn't start until, like 2007. I mean, she is a rock star. So I just want to give a shout out because we sit here and talk and we're like, you know, grateful for the things that have come, but, like, we really need to show, I think, some respect and appreciation for it.

Danielle Wilkie [00:32:23]:
And that's just a handful, by the way. There's so many more. And at the helm, we intend to make sure that people know those names and are learning from there.

Andrea Presnal [00:32:30]:
I absolutely love that. Do you have like a landing page or somewhere where it has all of this information? Because I would love to drop that link in our description in this podcast podcast to kind of give it more of a highlight, too.

Danielle Wilkie [00:32:46]:
I can send you to our advisor page, which has a sampling of some of these people. But another way for people to follow along is we just started a new weekly leadership series where we're profiling these women on our Instagram account. So if you just want to get like a nice little dip into this and like an easy way, just follow along at Wisdom at the Helm. And every week you'll get a great story from one of these women.

Andrea Presnal [00:33:09]:
That's so inspiring, too. I absolutely love what you're doing. It really is just incredible to give these women in this industry such a platform, but also to just recognizing, you know, people that have come before us. Well, last but not least, where can people go to learn more about the helm and connect with you and your community?

Danielle Wilkie [00:33:32]:
If you would love to learn more about the helm, we would absolutely love to see you at the helm. You can start at our website, which is the-helm.com. we have a bi weekly newsletter so we don't jam up your inbox. Just twice a month. You hear from us with amazing insights and perspectives and sort of advice that you can use in, in a real world way in your real estate business. And you should follow us at Wisdom from the Helm on Instagram. That's where we're most active and we'd love to see you.

Andrea Presnal [00:34:08]:
I love your newsletter, by the way. I signed up and I've been reading it, I think. Does it come out bi weekly? I love it. Great job. It's. It's. I can read it in five minutes.

Danielle Wilkie [00:34:20]:
Sure. Quick.

Andrea Presnal [00:34:21]:
To the point. I love to the point newsletters. If it's. If it takes me over 10 minutes, I. I can't. I can't. There's too. There's too much content out in the world.

Andrea Presnal [00:34:32]:
But I really love your newsletter.

Danielle Wilkie [00:34:34]:
Thank you.

Andrea Presnal [00:34:36]:
I absolutely love what you're doing. I cannot wait to see what's in store for you. And again, thank you so much for being on our podcast. We really appreciate it and I hope that we get to do this again soon.

Danielle Wilkie [00:34:49]:
Thanks, Andrea. It was great spending time with you today. Thanks.

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Matt Fagioli

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