How Class, Elegance & Hard Work Can Take You Into the Top 10

“I want to tell you a story,” Sharon Soltanian says. She sits behind her desk, dressed in an ivory silk blouse, black pants and red suede pumps. It’s hard to believe that she’s just spent the past few hours staging a client’s house that is about to be listed.

“It was a mess,” she says.

Behind her, lined up on a dark wood filing cabinet, are a half-dozen or so trophies signifying her achievements during her 10-year career with RE/MAX Realtron Realty in Toronto.

There are more trophies on her windowsill and still more tucked in a corner of her L-shaped desk. Her walls feature dozens of congratulatory letters for her monthly sales, and she routinely receives gifts and thank-you notes from satisfied clients.

But it wasn’t always so, which is what Soltanian wants others to know.

She leans forward in her chair, wraps her fingers around her teacup and begins to tell her story.

‘I’ve come a long way’
It was early in her real estate career, and Soltanian was praying for a sale. Money was tight. She was recently divorced with two children. Her English wasn’t great. A client, also of Iranian descent like she is, had listed his home – asking $2.5 million – and then returned to Iran, leaving Soltanian with power of attorney.

She was thrilled when she got a call from a potential buyer, but Soltanian was forced to turn down the buyer after she learned he had intentions that would force her to compromise her professional and personal integrity. She resolved then and there to run her business in a manner that would let her rest easy every night, confident that she had acted in the best interests of her clients and herself.

That mindset, along with her strong work ethic and drive, has guided Soltanian to the No. 1 spot among individual agents in her RE/MAX office in Toronto’s Willowdale area, the No. 3 spot among individuals in Canada and the No. 4 ranking of individual RE/MAX agents worldwide in 2012.

“I’ve come a long way,” she says.

‘I wanted to be successful’
Growing up in Iran, Soltanian was given two career options by her father: Become a doctor or an engineer. But the headstrong teenager had ideas of her own.

She was a born artist, she says. Her father refused to support an art career, so Soltanian chose interior design. At just 17, however, she fell in love and married. Soon after, she gave birth to a son and, six years later, a daughter.

During the Iranian Revolution, unable to work, she taught painting in her basement. She also exhibited and sold her work and became an artist delegate to UNESCO.

But Soltanian felt unfulfilled. She was educated, smart and independent-minded. She wanted freedom, she says, especially for her nearly teenage daughter. She emigrated from Iran to Canada with her kids in 1997.

Soltanian got a job her first week in Toronto, working as an art instructor for $7 an hour. It was difficult, particularly for someone who’d never held a job. Although the position required lots of physical labor, she showed up in heels and a nice outfit, proud to be working.

“I wanted to be successful,” she says.

She left to work at a furniture store, beginning with sales and then moving into interior design.

She soon began gaining clients of her own, including one whose husband hired her as an interior designer in his engineering office. In the meantime, her husband, an architect, had joined her in Canada and urged her to get her real estate license so she could sell his buildings. She earned her license and went to work.

‘I challenged myself’
Soon after joining RE/MAX, Soltanian met with Richard Pilarski, Broker/Owner of RE/MAX Realtron Realty. She scheduled a goal-setting meeting with him. That first year she set the mark at $150,000 in commissions. Pilarski advised her to keep her expectations realistic and not push herself too hard in her first year. She not only met that goal, but she hit $250,000 the next year, then $350,000 the next and $500,000 the year after. She joined the Diamond Award Club in 2009, and she’s been there ever since.

It’s obvious that Soltanian delights in defying expectations, especially her own.

“At first, I was a woman with no experience and facing a language barrier,” she says. “But I challenged myself to attend as many classes as I could.”

Her hunger for learning is insatiable. She never misses the RE/MAX R4 convention and has a reputation for always asking questions.

“Whatever Sharon sets her mind to, she does,” says Barbara Raber, Broker/Manager of the Willowdale RE/MAX office where Soltanian’s business is based.

Soltanian is also confident in her ability to sell. So confident that she refuses to bow to pressure to reduce her commission or offer incentives.

“I give them better than that,” she says. “I sell their home, and I give them peace of mind.” She mentions a recent listing from a couple who hired her based on a glowing referral.

“Referrals and leads will come if you put yourself in your sellers’ shoes and do your best to sell their home,” she says.

Part of doing her best includes marketing like mad. She spends roughly a quarter of her income on marketing her listings and herself in local papers and door-to-door fliers. She sighs when asked for the secret of her success.

“New agents are always asking me that question, and they don’t believe me when I tell them: Work from your heart.

“People are at the heart of this business,” she says. “Everything material in this life comes and goes. The only thing that remains is relationships. I work in relationships, not commissions.”

‘When you help people, the universe helps you’
Raber says Soltanian’s clients are very loyal, in large part because she puts forth her best effort in every transaction.

To Soltanian, it’s simply karma.

“When you help people, the universe helps you,” she says. “When you have an honest, helpful and positive outlook, then good things will follow. I really believe in that.”

The money that comes with success has offered a different sort of satisfaction. Soltanian helps support two families in Iran, and she keeps portraits of them nearby in her office.

“Nothing makes me happier than being in a position to help,” she says.

Also on Soltanian’s shelf is a photo from the most recent RE/MAX awards ceremony in Las Vegas. She’s wearing a flowing navy gown, with her long blond hair pulled up, a radiant smile on her face and a trophy in her hands.

“This is happiness,” she says.

Not content with being No. 3, Soltanian’s new goal is to be the No. 1 individual agent in Canada.

“I know it’s difficult,” she says. “But I believe it’s achievable.”

And as she’s demonstrated time and time again, a positive outlook and the power of belief create an unstoppable combination.

WORDS TO LIVE BY
An avid reader, Sharon Soltanian credits books for much of her success. Here are a few of her favorites:

THE POWER OF NOW
by Eckhart Tolle
All suffering lies in dwelling in the past or the future, rather than simply living in the “now.”

YOU’LL SEE IT WHEN YOU BELIEVE IT
by Wayne Dyer
Soltanian read this book in Farsi while living in Iran and envisioned a brighter future.

THINK AND GROW RICH
by Napoleon Hill
Desire, faith and persistence can take you wherever you want to go.

FIVE SECONDS AT A TIME
by Denis Shackel
Tackling big problems in small, manageable bits is the key to success.