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Meet Trailblazer Michelle Cottingham

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Cottingham.

Michelle, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I got my start in the industry sitting at the front desk of my Aunts Real Estate & Mortgage Brokerage in Southern California, where I was born & raised. I moved to the Valley Of The Sun in 2002 in pursuit of a career in Real Estate and cut my teeth in sales for a venture-capital-backed startup called ZipRealty. This was a time where some of the earliest explorations of Real Estate Brokerage models, technology and “search now for instant info” consumer marketing triggers were underway by silicon valley and forces outside of the market area of the sales agents working in the field. I did bounce back into mortgage lending after selling real estate in Phoenix Metro when I moved back home to be closer to my large extended family and as I started my own family. After the passing of my father in 2006, I came back to the valley and then Real Estate where I have remained since.

Has it been a smooth road?
Smooth is all relative, isn’t it? There are times where it’s been calmer than others, the pathways of working women and especially working mothers would be interesting to describe as smooth if we zoomed outside of me. I spend a lot of time in that space, zoomed out and reflecting on my experiences and the observations and stories shared by my working women colleagues, clients, and community. We are living, working and growing as individuals in a unique time. Some might say that our rights and freedoms are more expansive than ever. And there are reliable metrics that demonstrate as such. And I would assert that energetically, socially, and culturally women are taking up more space in the world, at work, and at home. But there is nowhere that I am aware of any woman who is working whether employed, self-employed or working domestically that we aren’t carrying a substantial amount of extra workload beyond the basics in a way that is unfamiliar to the skills handed down to us from the generations prior or the messages and resources provided by our communities and culture surrounding us. The work of supporting community, of family and the domestic is highly undervalued and undersupported in our Western way of life. If I could offer any woman, especially a young woman at the beginning of launching her life force into the grid, guidance it would be the following: be so so kind to yourself, understand the difference between intention and impact as you grow into more powerful roles(parent, manager, organizer, CEO), never stop learning, breathe deep often, let things go, be willing to explore and be mindful of the relationships you have in your life. Winning is cool, but joy and pleasure are even cooler. Accolades, titles, money, and achievement are meaningless without your ability to be present with yourself and to find joy and gratitude during the WHOLE ride of your life here on Earth.

We’d love to hear more about TheHouseOfEmme | NORTH&CO. Real Estate By Trade.
The shortest, easiest answer: I am a Realtor®. How I view it: I provide professional, consultative services to good people who think critically, act creatively and behave towards their legacy and personal assets smarter than headlines and hype would have them going about things. I lead my team, TheHouseOfEmme (think letter “M”), as a salesperson and formed that team brand to ensure the best possible attention paid to and fiduciary duty performed on behalf of our clientele and the communities we serve. I have a duality in the realm of Real Estate for a number of years in leadership and am also presently Managing Broker for NORTH&CO. a Brokerage with some of the greatest performing professional talent and quality human beings in Real Estate in our local market. This duality in leadership is also where I am able to express my passion for professional standards and consumer advocacy by teaching live, engaging Continuing Education courses to Realtors across the Valley.

So much of the media coverage is focused on the challenges facing women today, but what about the opportunities? Do you feel there are any opportunities that women are particularly well positioned for?
Right now, regardless of male or female, we all have the greatest opportunity in our freedom to educate ourselves and with our ease of access to seeking out information and experiences to expand our self-empowerment in the age of the internet. Whether you see a speaker in person discovered via events posted online, attend talks by authors or brilliant people sponsored and promoted digitally by local bookstores, the access we have to coaches, mentors and subject matter experts and the ability we have to easily explore a massive spectrum of knowledge on podcast and video platforms, waking up and learning about the world around you is easy and often completely free. Those on the more feminine spectrum have a demonstrated history of and present focus on creating community and fostering support networks in order to elevate constructs of business and commerce. In 2019 we see the community and business realms being woven together by powerful females around the world, whether they be community organizers or CEO’s of large companies in industry. It is in those networks and how they intersect with the education and information available that I believe the real opportunities are for females seeking to make an impact with their lives and their work.  The personal connections we make with people in our learning arcs and the networks of relationships we create for ourselves become our on-the-ground resources, our expanded mental libraries of understanding and at times the seedlings for new ventures or pathways to do good work in the world in formed partnerships, collaborations, organizations or companies. The more educated we are, the more we trust and lean on good coaches, healthy friendships and the more we are educated about the issues that affect us and the people around us, the better we live and the better we make this world and I see the feminine being perfectly positioned to lead in love for this new era of our world order.

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Image Credit:
Nichole Kathryn Photography | Styling | Art Direction https://www.nicholekathrynphotography.com/

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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