Success Magazine, October 2004
Guiding You Home
By: Tina Dealwis
Sylvie Begin is a remarkable individual with a heart of gold. When
you speak with her, her passion to help her fellow human beings, and
to make the world a better place is obvious. She is that rare and special
person who wants to make a difference in everything she undertakes.
Sylvie conducts her business and life with respect and reverence for
all people. She treats every client like family, and brings the same
close-knit relationship to her real estate team. “We are all one.
We are all connected! The world is truly one big family,” Sylvie
says.
Sylvie began her career as an officer in the Canadian Armed Forces.
While she enjoyed her ten years in the military, she longed for more
independence in her life. Real estate provided the roots she sought,
the opportunity to be an entrepreneur, and fed her need to help others.
“In the military, I had no control over where I would live. Real
estate allowed me to decide where to live. Now I am in charge of my
life,” Sylvie explains. “My eagerness to help is well served
in real estate.”
Sylvie always strives to do her best, and as a result, she has achieved
incredible success in her 20-year career. She is a multiple award-winning
agent, who has helped over 1000 families to buy or sell a home! Sylvie
and her “Home Team” – Line Cote, office manager, Jennifer
de Wet, a licensed buyers and listings specialist, Martin Oswald, a
bilingual buyer specialist, and Marie Douville, a marketing and technology
specialist – work hard to make clients happy. Sylvie is proud
of each member of her team, and knows that even when she is not available,
her clients are well looked after. “It’s very difficult
to find the right people, and once you do, you keep them,” Sylvie
says. She adds that her clients benefit fro the concerted work of her
team. “For my clients, the service is outstanding. I work very
much like a dentist. If a dentist had to do everything alone, the efficiency
goes down. Having a team to rely on allows me to focus and meet my client’s
expectations. They love it. When they need service, they get it.”
Sylvie and her “Home Team” provide excellent service. “I
dig deep to help my clients in any way I can,” she says. In addition
to the internet and the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), Sylvie’s
own website, www.sylviebegin.com, contains listings, buying and selling
information, contact information (sylviebegin@cyberus.ca), and links.
“My website is linked to the local, provincial, and national real
estate boards,” Sylvie says.
Some years ago, Sylvie carefully selected Keller Williams Ottawa to
associate with. Why? Because this international company with over 34,000
agents has a wonderful mission statement “To build careers worth
having, business worth owning and lives worth living.”
Always striving to be creative and give clients value-added service,
Sylvie has a hotline phone number, which appears on every “For
Sale” sign. “Every time I list a house, the hotline number
is on the sign. When a person calls my hotline, I give a complete description
of the house through a recorded message. Just recently we sold two houses
that way.” Sylvie regularly sends postcards and newsletters as
a way to keep in touch with her clients, and to nurture the personal
relationships and friendships she has established. “I am so grateful
to my clients for all the great business they have given me over the
years. I am their realtor for life,” Sylvie says. The postcards
read: “From our Families to Yours,” and contain photos of
the team with their spouses and children, to give that personal touch
that clients love. To further update the clients, Sylvie publishes her
own newsletter four times per year. “I spend time to write my
own newsletter,” Sylvie says. “It goes to my ‘goldmine’
– to my preferred, selected past clients.” Sylvie is also
fully bilingual, and thus offers service in English and French. As 40%
of her clients are French-speaking, this is a huge advantage.
Sylvie’s clients are loyal, and rave about the service she provides.
“We really appreciated Sylvie’s level of professionalism,
degree of organization, and how she made the entire process look so
easy. From the time she walked into our home and made her presentation,
we knew immediately she was the person for us,” enthuses one client.
“She is truly one of the best. Sylvie has made the experience
of selling our home very enjoyable and exciting,” raves another
client. “The successful sale is thanks to her thorough research,
thorough knowledge or real estate trends, very professional manner,
and extremely competent staff,” says another satisfied customer.
Not only does Sylvie give her all for her clients, she has taken on
an active role as a coach and teacher for new and up-and-coming agents.
She teaches courses on many topics, from time management to prospecting,
and says that teaching is one of her loves. “I love teaching.
It’s a passion for me,” Sylvie explains. “First, I
love to help. When I’m able to share and help, it’s such
a thrill. Second, when I teach, I learn. I do a lot of research and
homework, so it’s a very good opportunity for me to review and
to internalize.” Well-known life coach, Brian Tracy, who has worked
with Sylvie for more than 15 years, recognizes Sylvie’s natural
teaching abilities, and says she makes an excellent coach and teacher.
“Sylvie is a wonderful choice as a coach. If she lived here in
San Diego, she would be working with my company in an instant,”
he raves. Veterinarian Dr. Harold E. Ott, who has worked with and been
trained by Sylvie, says her love of teaching is evident. “Sylvie
loves to reach. She loves to coach. She is an articulate, organized,
poised, confident teacher. She inspires. She involves her students in
discussions. She thinks well on her feet. Her enthusiasm and sense of
humour make learning from her a fun experience,” he enthuses.
Sylvie says her success is based on discipline, hard work, focus and
her unique people skills. “My approach to people definitely has
a lot to do with it. Also, you’ve got to be very, very disciplined.
Hard work, focus and discipline, are probably 50% of the reason I’m
here today. And the other 50% is my genuine care for the people and
the values I received in my childhood.
In addition, Sylvie is dedicated to education and personal growth.
She is an avid reader. She educates herself on all aspects of real estate
and other topics. Her coaching sessions with Brian Tracy help her maximize
her potential. “I looked around and saw that many successful people
have a coach,” she explains. “From Brian, I’ve learned
how to balance my life.” She says her coaching sessions feed her
desire to learn and improve. “It fuels my eagerness to do better
all the time in every aspect of my life. I’m always reaching to
be better,” Sylvie says. She flies to San Diego, California four
times a year for Brian Tracy’s group coaching sessions, and says
the experience is invaluable. “We talk about every aspect of life.
It’s absolutely fantastic, that’s why I keep going back,”
Sylvie says. Sylvie now runs her own coaching program here in Ottawa
for real estate agents eager to succeed!
Despite her full schedule, Sylvie succeeds well at juggling her many
activities. “I maintain a sound balance,” Sylvie says. “I
enjoy very much the life that I have and feel that I am on the right
path!” The most important person in Sylvie’s life is her
12-year-old daughter, Michelle, who attends a wonderful bilingual school,
Joan of Arc Academy. “She’s number one in my life. She is
my gift from God!” Sylvie says. Family, health and fitness are
also a big priority. She works out and has participated in 18 triathlons,
where she recently placed third for her age group. Spirituality, meditation,
and yoga are also of the utmost importance and provide harmony and peace
for Sylvie.
Close to her heart is her charity work. When she speaks about the world’s
problems, and her desire to assist, one is immediately inspired by Sylvie’s
sincerity and her passion to help others. Sylvie has worked as a volunteer
at a distress center and was a Big Sister with Children’s Aid
Society. She has recently traveled to Haiti to visit and help and orphanage
and an AIDS and TB hospital. In addition, she has done fundraising for
the United Way and organized many blood donor clinics for the Red Cross.
She presently volunteers with a women and children’s shelter and,
with Michelle, her 12-year-old, has “adopted” four little
girls, two in Togo, one in Haiti, and one in Vietnam, through the Foster
Parent’s Plan.
When you ask Sylvie about her future plans, continuing her amazing
real estate career is certainly a top priority for her; however, her
philanthropic calling is at the forefront of her dreams. “I really
want to be engaged, maybe with the United Nations, to see if there is
anything I can do to help. We live in an insane world and I want to
do something about it,” she says. She also would like to devote
more time to promote Foster Parents’ Plan. She also plans to revisit
Haiti, and would like to build a school or orphanage there. “Definitely,
I will be involved in helping somehow,” Sylvie says.
Sylvie plans to continue to provide her first-rate service to her clients
and she would also like to be more involved with the coaching and teaching
aspects of real estate. With her dedication to helping others, faith,
discipline, and winning attitude, Sylvie Bégin will be a strong
force in the real estate world-and the world-at-large-for many years
to come. An inspiring woman!
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