Today we’d like to introduce you to Meskerem Negash-Elias.
Hi Meskerem, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
In 2014, I worked for a temp agency called Alternative Professional. I was sent out on assignment to David Weekly Homes as a temp Receptionist. I started working at David Weekly Homes in February 2014, I was hired on permanently in 2014, Left DWH in 2015 to pursue nursing school in 2015 and ended up working at Memorial Herrman as a CNA tech. By 2017, I was ready to move forward to explore other fields.
I had completed 9 hours of Master of Science of Human Resources at Houston Baptist University, I tell you, if you start something now that is what you want to do, go into it all the way in and complete it. I certainly didn’t go into this program with the mindset of completing it. However, it worked out later in 2017.
By 2017, I was ready to move away from home, Houston, TX, and go explore the world with God. I wanted to live in the countryside where I didn’t know anyone so that I can know God for myself because, for so long I was riding on the faiths of those I met in my college years and just throughout my life. I needed to know God, Jesus for myself and actually test my own faith. I wanted to know that I have my own faith in God and that it’s not the faith of other people.
Thankfully, I was invited to work as Human Resource Assistant at Comanche County Medical Hospital. This was the most transformative time for me because, I was able to sit down with God and allow him to show me. I allowed him to tell me what he didn’t condone, believes that I had that were not true and just my own attitude toward myself and others.
This was always a time of many losses for my family and me. My grandmother who I had seen in Oct.2017, who was sick transitioned into the next life in June 2018. By 2019, I was ready to move closer to the city where my sister lives, so I moved to Dallas, Tx. At the time of my move, I only had a job offer to work with a marketing company selling wax. For the first time in my life, I finally got my hands dirty. It was the first time, I had ever thought wow, am really getting my hands dirty for a job. It was great working a salesperson, it gave me the ability to come out of my comfort zone, learn how to take rejection with grace and communicate with people I probably would never see again.
Then with the suggestion of a friend, I applied to work at a temp agency which worked out well. They were able to connect me with the City of Dallas Civic Center. I worked as a Human Resource Analyst. I loved the people that I worked with. They were like the hospital that I needed because, by this time it was May 2019 and my family and I were having many challenges. My aunt and uncle transitioned into the next life in the same week. All I could do is continue to believe that God knows what’s best. I cried and wept and asked God questions, it was a time that made me get closer to God. So, I realized even pain will be a tool for greater and higher realms of God if we choose to see him even in the midst of challenges.
The challenges of working as a temp with making $15 an hour became heavy as I was renting a house from a friend of my sister. I started looking to get hired on full-time, and my friend knowing this suggested I get my real estate license.
I kept giving my friend excuses, then a guy that I thought was so cute and wanted to impress him, quickly got to getting my real estate license.
I got my real estate license in Sept. 2019 and started working with my friend at eXp Realty. I enjoyed working there because, I worked from home, and I got to chit-chat with my friend during our breaks.
By January 2020, I wanted to practice real estate however, I had to leave my position at eXp Realty in order to start practicing real estate. So I went ahead and started my journey in practicing real estate with Keller Williams Plano when the pandemic was announced in March 2020.
At the beginning of Jan 2020, I started receiving this urge to move to California what, I forgot to mention earlier is that, in December 2019, I started to spend time with God by myself. I started asking him what my purpose is and I had received a message previously that I would heal people through music. I wrote that message and just left it alone that was in 2018 while living working at Comanche County Medical Hospital. Fast forward to December 2019, my roommate and I are having dinner and I open up a chinse fortune cookie and the cookie says something along the lines of you will do something in the entertainment industry.
So when I got an urge to move to California in Jan of 2020, I thought maybe I am supposed to be pursuing music in California. But, I was also not willing to move because, I had just made a whole year in Dallas and I just started my real estate business. So I first told God, no I don’t want to move so I didn’t. Then I started getting signs, like billboards saying California, where dreams are made real or something along those lines.
I still wasn’t convinced until July 4th of 2020, you see I went to a barbeque a friend invited me to CFNI. I met two couples who prayed for me and one of the men, prophesied over me and said “God, you will meet your husband in California”.
Didn’t take long for me to back-up and give away my belonging and started my journey to California on July 13, 2020. I had asked God I should do with my furniture and he told me to give it away, so I contacted the church I was visiting and told them I was giving away furniture. I will never forget this woman who came to get my bar stool chairs. I had put the chairs in her car, and she took a look at me and said, there are two wedding dresses that no one at church can fit but, I think you may fit them.
She brought them by on a Thursday and sure enough, I fit the dresses. So, with the wedding dresses and some of my belongings, I drove to California and lived in California for about 1 year and 4 months. I learned a lot about myself and grew as a person while living in California. One of them was how to start a business and run a business. I created a cleaning business to keep me afloat while pursuing music opportunities. California taught me how to make it happen regardless of what was going on with me emotionally, mentally, physically or financially. I learned how to accept people as they are, to love people despite our differences. I learned I had weakness that I needed the grace of God to carry me through. I learned what it is to hustle and ask God how to do what it is that we talked about.
By July 2021, I got covid and had to fly back home to Houston. The mental battles that God’s grace carried me through is one I will never forget. By God’s grace, I was able to restore myself mentally and physically.
Here I am, Oct. 2022, practicing real estate with Keller Williams Metropolitan in Houston, Tx. I have been with them since July 2022. I’ve had to step out of my comfort zone to do cold calls, door knocking (which I’ve only dropped off cards) and just being out socializing.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The smooth thing to my whole process has been joining the team at Metropolitan. It’s been a little slow to retain clients and create a pipeline. So, it has been a challenge prospecting and engaging a continues cliental. It all comes down to my mental strength to overcome my negative self-image.
I am realizing because of past mistakes and bad decision, I now have a negative self-image and so I have to overcome this negative self-image. Life, in general, is about the survival of the fittest, meaning of your mental capacity is strong, you will be successful. I have been reading books, like Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz and also my Bible to overcome my negative self-image
In high school, I read this theory by Charles Darwin that states those who adjust to their environment survive. And so, for coming to understand the way that I am able to adjust to the market is by doing what I can and leaving the rest in God’s mighty hand.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I am a real estate salesperson who helps people meet their real estate needs. I work in the greater Houston area. I am known for making connections, stewardship and living people and places better than I found them.
Brand wise, I am proud to be able to still be in business even while the housing market is slowing down. What I want the audience to take from my story/journey as an entrepreneur is to take it one step at a time. Have an overall goal; however, know that it will be one-step at a time process. To give into the process what you’ve got. This last two weeks, I’ve had to take a break because, I had become so overwhelmed so I have had moments to reset.
So stick with the process but, when necessary, take time out for yourself.
My goal is to create generational wealth not just for myself but, for those that have been placed in my path.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
One of the ways to support my business is to share my real estate services with those whom you may know. Referrals are always welcomed!
I love teaming up with other real estate advents who also have the desire to create generational wealth.
Contact Info:
- Website: meskerem.kw.com
- Instagram: Mksignaturez
- Facebook: Meskerem Negash
- Twitter: Meskerem Negash
- SoundCloud: Meskerem Negash
Image Credits
Meskerem Negash
