This is part of a series called "One Entrepreneur's Journey," where I'm talking with solo entrepreneurs about their successes (and failures) along the path of entrepreneurship.

In this interview, I caught up with Valerie Fitzgerald, a twenty-year real estate veteran and president of The Valerie Fitzgerald Group, a Beverly Hills Coldwell Banker real estate firm.

Valerie is also the author of the recently published book Heart and Sold: How to Survive and Build a Recession-Proof Business.

Tell me about your business and how you got you got started.

I represent buyers and sellers of residential real estate in about thirteen different markets in southern California.  This is my twentieth year.  I started this business by myself, when I first came to Los Angeles.  I grew up here, but I lived in New York for many years.  I came to Los Angeles actually for a cosmetic company, and about three months, four months after I was here, they said, "I'm really sorry, but your position has fallen through."

I had moved here with my daughter, who was a little baby, and I had nothing underneath me.  I had an apartment in New York that I had leased out for two years, so "Oh my gosh, what am I going to do here in California?"  I had been gone for quite a while and didn't really know anyone.  I had no business education, no business background, no formal training of any kind, and a friend of mine said, "Just go into residential real estate."  I thought it was crazy at first, "I don't know people, and I don't know contracts."  I certainly didn't have any money.

I had to work it out.  I started to meet some other mothers, who were stay-at-home moms who could help me and trade some hours and take care of my daughter, so then I started to go to school to get my license at night.

In real estate, especially, you need to have a network of people to call upon to be able to build a client base.  How did you get started being new in the area?

I did not have a network at all.  I didn't know very many people.  If I knew three or four people, that would be a lot.  To get going and build that network, you have to get out and meet people.  You have to get out and do things.  I met someone who said, "While you're waiting to get your license, come and work in my office."  It was a small, boutique office, and I went to work there.  I'd have to bring my baby to sleep under my desk after three o'clock in the afternoons, because that was my trade-off deal with one of the moms.

I'd cold call, and I'd get on the computer and try to learn the market and the numbers and the addresses and things like that.  I used to drive around and leave notes on people's doors.  I'd write down developers phone numbers.  I would call the developer, until one guy finally relented and said, "Okay, fine.  Come.  Meet with me."  I went to meet with him, and he didn't know I was going to bring my baby with me, so I arrived there with her and the diaper bag and briefcase, and I was walking up the stairs in my high heels, and one of my high heels broke off.  Just as I lean down to pick it up, this woman comes down and says, "Oh, he's ready to see you."  I throw my shoe in the diaper bag and pull off the other one and go in in my bare feet, and I'm carrying her and mumble that my babysitter was sick, put her on the floor, and started talking to him about business.  He actually ended up giving me the chance to sit in one of his houses and hold it open, and it was a big listing, brand new house, and I guess he gave me the first chance to prove myself.  I did.  I met lots of people and started building my database that way.  He eventually let me list the property, so it kind of gave me my start.

Where did the book come in?

Michael Gerber wrote The E-Myth Revisited, and he wanted to do an experiment on something called "The Dreaming Room."  He had a small group of us come up to northern California, and we went to this convention room, and he said, "Okay, we're going to do this little experiment called 'The Dreaming Room.'"  He gave us a piece of paper and all these coloring things, and he said, "Okay, here we are.  We're in the dreaming room."  He put some music on and said, "I'll see you later," and he walks out the door.

There were like twenty of us, who kind of look at each other and think, "What kind of experiment is this?  What are we doing here?  We've got crayons and pens and a big pad of paper, like coloring paper.  Okay?  I guess we're supposed to dream."

I drew certain things, tall buildings, the ocean with a boat, a book.  The process, over the weekend, was "How do you dream?"  Dream like a kid.  Kids dream from scratch.  They're like little sponges.  They have nothing that stops them from dreaming, "I want to be a fireman."

Out of that came this whole idea, "Wow, a book!"  I didn't really think much more about it.  I've done a lot of media, speaking to women, over the years, and I got a phone call one day from an editor at Simon and Schuster.  She said, "I saw you on this show about empowering women.  Have you ever thought about writing a book?"  I said, "No."  She said, "Why don't you write me down a quick outline of what you think could be in the book and send it to me, and we'll see what happens."  I did, and I thought it was kind of a lark, because I did it quickly.  I thought it was an outrageous idea that landed in my lap, but then she was like, "Okay, we're going to buy it," and all of a sudden, I'm committed to write a book!

I wrote at night, and I did it long hand, until two or three in the morning, and then I'd get up and go to work, so those days were a little blurry-eyed, but it came together, and the book was finally released this past May.

Talk a bit about strengths and weaknesses over your career path.

As an entrepreneur, you can't do everything yourself.  You have to learn how to delegate.  You have to build a team.  I would always tend to pick people that I could be friends with.  I didn't learn, for a while, that you pick people that have different strengths than you and not necessarily someone that you'd want to go hang out with.  I was hiring from more of an emotional place than for the quality of person applying and for their abilities and how they fit.

My strengths?  I'm very organized.  I'm very straightforward.  Another strength is that I don't take things personally.  At the very beginning, that was a weakness.  When I was first starting out, I took things very personally.  I've learned to step back, and I'm usually very calm.  It takes a lot to get me charged up in a business situation.

What do you wish you would have known earlier on?

I wish I would have learned more about what the costs of things so that, many times, those costs didn't get away from me.  The cost of doing business was expensive, and I didn't budget.  It was a roller coaster.  Real estate is so unpredictable.  One minute you've got a commission, and the next minute, you don't.  I did not pay attention to the expense side of building a business for quite some time.

What would be your best advice for new solo entrepreneurs?

I think everybody has to have a dream and follow that dream.  You have to have something that you want so badly and that you can believe in.  My daughter was my source that drove me.  I was going to make a life for us.  I was going to be successful, and everything engaged in my senses to make that happen.  You've gotta feel connected to something inside yourself that will hold you through the times that you don't give up, so you won't give up, and you'll find the different paths, if this one isn't working.  I believe in blind faith.

There's room for everybody.  That's the beauty of it.  When you're an entrepreneur, there's no discrimination.  It doesn't matter how old you are, how big you are, what accent you have, what race you are.  It doesn't matter.  There's room for everybody.  It just takes the heart and soul to go get it.