FREE CHAPTER: Leading Out of Loss

Leading Out of Loss is no ordinary real estate book. Part-memoir, part-business wisdom, the book appeals to all industries, companies, CEOs, and aspiring leaders. The insights, concepts and takeaways are universal in nature, and can be applied to any business. 

Find your own style of authentic leadership, sales strategies, bold decision making, and approach to team building. What you go through in business is a catalyst for self-awarenessand personal development. The same is true for your personal life. It’s all fertile ground for growth. 

My hope is that you integrate the insights in the book to inform a new perspectives, in your business and life. 

Leading Out of Loss excerpt 

The greatest teacher 
 
Pain is a profound teacher, and grief represents a unique journey to growth. It remains unseen by the world, an intimate invitation to awaken from the depths of sorrow, just as the phoenix rises from ashes to emerge stronger and more spiritually attuned.
 
Sometimes we must repay debts that aren’t our own, repair the past by absolving it and forgive others to free ourselves. In return, we come out the other side a changed person with life’s wisdom afforded to the brave. We all reach and realise universal truths in our own unique ways. 

Pain and loss teach us who we are and, more importantly, who we can be. Pain demands to be felt. What we resist persists. Ever so slowly, pain starts to dissolve through acceptance. We are not our pain or our past. We are not what happened to us. Pain invites a rebirth to those willing to accept the call. 
 
Life is full of millions of mini births and deaths. There is grief in moving houses, switching careers, parting ways with a lover, and the friendships that change with time. These are all growth opportunities if we look at them from a new perspective. 
 
Maybe loss is intangible and hard to define because it is meant to be learned alone, in the quiet confines of our hearts. Perhaps loss belongs where love does. One cannot exist without the other. Maybe something so excruciating becomes exquisite. One of life’s mysteries that brings the question of why we are here into sharp focus. Maybe without these tragedies, we cannot also have triumphs. 
 
Death turns you into a pessimist and then a philosopher. It strips away all of society’s narratives and noise, making way for space and clarity. Death gives us life. It brings us into our humanness. None of us are immune to loss or can escape the inevitabilities of life, no matter who we are. We all lose people we love. We find ourselves in inconceivable situations akin to soldiers who can’t explain their battles to civilians. The aftermath of loss knows no words. Pain has no name. It is formless, like water. 
 
Water takes the shape of its container: a bathtub, a drinking glass, a pot, a pool, a lake. Grief finds its place in any moment, even when unwelcomed. Especially when unwelcomed. It can be isolating or, I have come to learn, elevating. It is up to you to decide. 

Even when your world is ripped apart, you have a choice. You always have a choice. Everything I’d been through served as schooling in the human experience. It was unconventional training that taught me leadership is just as much a mindset as it is a skillset. 
 
Real estate is like no other industry. It is more than buying and selling homes. It is not just a standard transaction. It is not the highest sale price, the biggest commission or the most awards. Real estate is about people, not property. Our role as agents is to support an individual, couple or family through the most intimate, personal transaction of their life. 

Real estate deals with the spectrum of human life—falling in love and buying a first house together, moving to a new suburb for the kids’ schools, selling the home after a marriage break-up, downsizing into retirement, and dealing with loss. 

It supports people through significant milestones and life stages—across lifetimes. It is not about expensive suits, fancy watches and fast cars. It is selling as an act of service, not selling for commission’s sake. To be humans first and real estate agents second. 
 
I didn’t have to hide my loss or feel ashamed. I had to lean into it. Real estate is an emotional purchase, and I am more relatable by being real with clients and the community. I could establish and nurture genuine relationships, not just provide a property-related service. This was a paradigm shift. 

I didn’t have to be anything but myself. There was not Michael Nitschke, the ‘Managing Director’, and the Michael Nitschke my friends and family knew. I did not have to silence my grief; I could be vulnerable with my team and the community. No smoke and mirrors. No facades. 
 
This made way for a realness the industry was craving. It formed the basis of my authentic leadership style. When I opened up to clients, they felt safe to do the same. By taking the time to listen to their desires and fears, I could better support their real estate journey. Instinctively, I had a vision for our real estate agency, but we needed sales to keep the lights on. 
 
I needed to address the millions of dollars of debt… 

To continue reading, order a copy of Leading Out of Loss.