In this episode we have a conversation about the pitfalls to running your own business and your own schedule. We talk about strategies we have used to set boundaries on ourselves and our clients. We even get into the correlation between the status of your email, fridge and closet and how to combat these sources of stress. Come join us for self-care tips and learn who inspired this episode as we toast to them!

The following is a rough transcript provided by Otter.ai.
0:05
Hi, y’all, welcome to hustle humbly.

0:06
It’s Alyssa and Katie and we are two top producing realtors in the Baton Rouge market working for two different companies where we should be competitors. But we have chosen community over competition. The goal of our podcast is to show you how soul can be healthy when you have the humility to do it your way. So stop comparing yourself and start embracing your strengths.

0:32
Five, it’s five boundaries and self care. Okay, good. So what’s exciting about this is that we have started getting some question.

0:42
Oh, that’s true. We have been we’ve been getting some questions. Yes, technically, when we are recording today, the podcast is not yet released. It will be released on Monday. And we let a few people sneaky peek. So talk to us about that.

0:56
So one of the questions that was asked was based off of our stories, some people thought I charged for coaching, like I was a coach, and I let people pay me for coaching and coffee dates. And I did not charge for that. Because I’m not a coach. I did not charge for the coffee date. Right. And I am excited for the podcast to eliminate some of the coffee dates because all the resources are out there. Right. Nice to have it out there in a place where anyone could access it. Yeah, they can go reference it. They can learn by topic. Will

1:33
nobody takes notes at a coffee date. Oh, do they?

1:36
I don’t I feel like you might have what I would have been the only one Hold on, let me get my pen and paper and write that down. But I feel like that’s a good intro into boundaries. here because that is one of the reasons. You know, before my little girl was born. I was so I just had no set hours. I have a crazy job. My husband has a crazy job. Neither of us cared how much the other one was working, because we would just make time when we weren’t together, right? But then all of a sudden a little human comes along. And there’s schedule of routine routines, daycares, like your time just isn’t so expendable. Yep. And I think even if we didn’t have her, eventually, we would have gotten to a point where Enough is enough? Well,

2:29
I think routine is good. And then it keeps you with space to recharge. Yes. If you don’t have a routine and you’re willing to go all the time, you may go until you run yourself out. Right.

2:41
And so one of the things we talked about when we were planning this episode was so many people get into real estate to make their own schedule. Yeah, and to be their own boss, that delightful realtor myth, which is totally true. You can make your own schedule. It just depends how much money you want to make. And my favorite meme that was yes, realtors make their own schedule, they can work any 50 hours of the week, they want exactly 80 or whatever in the blank. But it’s not 40 Friends, no not not to make the not to make the career type money. You know, if it’s a side hustle, or, you know, it just depends what your goal is. I know that we’re kind of speaking to the people that have careers that it’s their primary.

3:26
Well, look, let’s be fair, I don’t think anyone gets into real estate thinking it’s not going to be their full time gig in the end or isn’t true. I mean, maybe there are some people are like, I only want this to be on the side. But I think the audience in general wants to always make more money, even if I want to spend more time on it.

3:42
Right. Okay, I agree with that. So

3:44
tell us about your schedule. What is it now?

3:48
Okay, so now, I think obviously, every week is different. And it depends on the client load. And one thing to keep in mind is that we are so seasonal, right? It’s not like we are the same year round, right? We have busier months, we have slower months. And so when the getting’s good, you guys get to it. Yeah, you just have to do it. You just have to make it work. And so I don’t give myself a hard time when I have a heavy client load because I know, in a few months that may not be there.

4:20
Okay. This brings up an interesting question that I had previously think about. As you are in the business longer and longer. Your client load should in theory get heavier and heavier at some point, it may not naturally add as much as it did in the first five to seven years. But you may find that there’s a point when you have to actively put in those downtime periods. Yes. Do you think that’s possible? Where like, does your client Luke keep getting more every year you kind

4:49
of I have gotten better about qualifying my clients. That’s good. So knowing where to put my energy Okay, so when I was new, I was just working at Every person that ever talked to me about real estate like they needed to buy a house this week, right? I was just staying on top of it. All right. And then as you get busier, yes, like, my pipeline is extremely long, but I’m appropriately communicating. I know who is a year out, okay, or who is three months out, right. So you’re dividing your database more by their needs? Yes, over time, so that I can give the fullest attention to the people that are ready now. Cut? Yes. hot leads. Exactly. Okay, that makes sense. So then you’re just not spinning your wheels on people who are a year out? Right? Okay. I mean, you’ve been in the business 14 years. Yeah. So it does, I feel like well, and it transitions in different ways.

5:44
So as I when I started out, I had lots and lots of first time buyers, I was more of a buyer heavy agent. And so over time, even the price point has changed. So you work less and make more money in some ways, depending on what price point you’re in. Sure. So but I mean, as my client load was always increasing, and the number of transactions every year was typically going up by some amount. And then I think mine I find to be yes, there are seasons in real estate for everyone. And some people will walk around to every class and say, Hey, are you slow right now? And everyone else will say, Yeah, I

6:20
am. And I almost feel like it’s week to week, like some weeks. I can’t keep my head above water. And then the next week, it’s crickets. So it’s not just seasonal. Spring, summer is super busy, even though that’s more likely to be busy. My two biggest months, transaction number wise, were a December and January. Wow. So So I don’t think that it’s just seasonal. But even then I probably had two weeks in November when nothing happened, you know? And I used to get nervous during the downtime. Oh, yeah. January’s Oh, my gosh, I used to get so anxious about it. And you know, swear, I’m never going to sell a house. Again, nobody’s ever going to call me again. And then the next week. So I have tried switching, obviously, from the poverty mindset, right to embracing the downtime, using it to clear out my email, okay, clear out my client list, follow up with the people that are lower on the pipeline, and just embrace the time to rejuvenate and get back on track and clean house. Okay,

7:22
what kind of self care do you do in the downtime? Um,

7:26
I mean, in the downtime of real estate, I do the clean house, clean database, handwrite letters, things like that. But in general, I have to do some self care daily and weekly or to just be able to function. So I’ve said before, I require a lot of sleep. Me too. I need my sleep if I’m going to be a happy person. And the only way that I can sleep good at night, is if I exercise during the week, if I drink a lot of water, okay, I personally have to stay off the caffeine. Okay, you know that. And, um, it just those are the things that let me sleep good at night, right? Because if I’m, you know, drinking soft drinks all day, and I don’t work out and I’m trying to go to sleep, I’m just a big anxious ball. I can’t do it. And I can’t do it. And then that those are the nights you don’t sleep at all. And those are the mornings that I wake up and just feel just defeated before the day has even started. Right. Totally. Okay, so I am asleep person to Yes, I have to get all my sleep. Ideally, in my perfect world, it would be eight to nine hours every day, but it’s not. So now that the kids are in school in school times,

8:44
we get up at six, between six and 630. On the weekend, though, in the last year, bless my children. They are now six and nine and they can get up and be quiet. Oh good. And I can sleep and my husband is not necessarily a late sleeper. So he will leave and I catch up on sleep on the weekends. I actually can I mean sleep until nine which is like the first time since I had kids. Yes, very serious. So I get a little extra one weekend. And I think that’s helpful that I try not to schedule in the morning on the weekends. Okay, so I don’t want to do appointments. And I think I’m just trying to protect that sleep. Or I like to leave an afternoon and the weekend off where I can get a nap. I love a nap. A good nap.

9:28
Oh, yeah. You just have to make time for it. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

9:34
Now what your weekends, we work weekends. Yes, I

9:37
try to take off one day per week. And I think you have the same system. It’s not every Saturday and then for every Sunday I pick based on what I’m going to do, right. So if someone has to see houses on Saturday, then I try to reserve Sunday off. If I want to do an open house on Sunday then I try to reserve

9:54
Saturday as all I have also implemented that and it works most of the time right? I mean, if someone says, Can we go look at a house Saturday? And I’d say I’m so sorry. I’m totally booked, we would have to go Sunday. That, to me is being flexible, right? Because it’s offering another time. Sure. And it’s rare that it doesn’t work out, right? In the events that it doesn’t work out. I may offer a lunch break that they have or after work one day, and sometimes you just have to work Saturday and Sunday.

10:26
Yep. Oh, yeah. I mean, there’s still times now when I work both days, right. But I also almost never miss a school activity during the weekday. Sure. So if there’s a program or a presentation or a luncheon, whatever I I can at least usually structure my weekdays, easily around something at school. And that helps when the weekends end up getting full. And I

10:50
have found sometimes during the week, I am slower. Oh, yeah. Because that is when all of my clients are at work short. And then you can see when they get off of work, because at five o’clock 515 My phone starts ringing. They’re on their way home. Yep. And that’s when they’re like, you know, wanting to tell me about the houses, they looked at online at work all day. And then I have all these questions. So I do try to time it to where I’m available at the right times. And then my slow times if it’s a random Tuesday, yeah. And I have been working a lot lately. I may keep my daughter come for a random day.

11:26
I like that you do that. I never did that. But I do. Maybe take a nap on a Monday afternoon. Perfect. Also, Mondays are my absolute favorite day. I know most people hate Mondays. A lot of times I have worked over the weekend, at some point. Now, when I work on the weekend, I reserved that strictly for appointments out of my home, I try not to go sit at the computer and do administration, right, unless it is a time sensitive offer inspection, something like that. But I don’t just go and start follow up and extra things. I’ll save that for business hours. But Monday morning, when my kids leave for school, they’re out of the house. And we take turns on carpool. So sometimes I take them sometimes, you know my husband does when they’re out of the house and he’s taken them at 710. It’s quiet, I love to organize my house, put everything back where it belongs, do my workout, get shower, get dressed for the day and be sitting at my desk at 9am. Like ready to it’s pretty awesome. Have the day. And then sometimes I like to watch an episode of Million Dollar Listing at lunch. And I’ll let the whole thing play through because I worked all weekend. And it’s I have to give myself permission to not also work every all 40 hours of

12:35
the week. And I will say I struggle with saying I didn’t work. And when I say that that means I didn’t have an appointment or see anybody. Right? But I checked my email every day every day. I mean, you have to in our business.

12:49
I’m going to tell you this. I love checking my email into self care, though, because when my email is empty, I am at peace. Yes. If it’s building up, that is not that is me having a level of stress building on the inside.

13:00
So one story that has to do with this. I my family scuba dives, and we before kids did a annual scuba diving trip fun. And one night after we were done scuba dive every night, I would shower. And then I would grab a Corona and I would go sit on the beach with my laptop. We were out my email, right. And it was my favorite time. Yeah. And one day my sister who was a nurse came out and said it must stink to have a job that you have to work on vacation. And you didn’t feel that way at all. I said it must stink to have a job where you have to request off for vacation, right? Or where you only get two weeks a year. A year. Yeah, a whole year. Yeah, we’re for the whole way. Whereas when you are an entrepreneur, or to an extent as long as you have someone helping you while you’re gone, you can go as much as you want. You just need to take care of your business. You can’t just leave it Yeah, not take care of things. But you can go you can work for sure. From anywhere. As long as you have the help to do it back at home. Yep.

14:09
I always take my computer on vacation. I don’t mind doing it either. And look, you know, as soon as you leave town you get the offers. Anyway, that’s those listings that have just been sitting, I just did my vacation at the end of what the beginning of August, and two offers in while I was gone for three days. It

14:26
wasn’t even that long. And I think I can play a little bit off of mindset, for sure. Because if I’m sitting there annoyed that I just got an offer while I’m on vacation. Well that’s not that’s my problem. For sure. That’s a mindset problem where I should be grateful and thankful that’s a paid vacation technique low I’m so

14:45
excited when I get one on vacation. No, I mean, you know, I’ve just that’s the best thing that could happen. I so I think self care. It’s sort of it’s nice to build it in throughout.

14:57
Well I think physically mentally spiritually, like you have to take care of yourself, right? If you want to succeed in business.

15:06
Okay, so let’s talk about the boundaries then. Okay, because you have to put the boundaries on yourself. Right, right. I don’t know, my husband will put them below me sometimes, but he really can’t force me. So he’ll be like, Hey, we mentioned this in a previous episodes. You don’t have to do that right now. Right. I think that’s probably when we were talking about hustle in general. Yes. No, you don’t have to do that right now. What are the things that you do to try and put a boundary on yourself? Do you have any hard and fast rules? I mean, what what do you do for boundaries?

15:33
I did stop responding to text messages after eight. Okay. And then I pick up my little girl from school around four. Okay. And she goes to bed pretty early, right at 630. Oh, man, I know. Well, she’s two and a half. So we’re still lucky in that. Yeah. But that’s such a short window for me to be here during the week because she’s at school. So I try not to have my phone with me at all during that block. Okay. And then at 645, I check my phone, it’s usually a good bit, and I get that little twinge of like anxiousness at first and then after 20 minutes. Everybody’s taken care of Yeah, I have responded, I have called back. Yeah. And I used to just binge into the night on my email. Yeah. And then realize that that wasn’t good, because me and my husband want to watch our shows. So it’s like, this has to stop. What am I doing all day, I need to keep up with my email. You know, regularly, I can’t just binge at night. Sure. By the time I get home, I will not walk put it this way. I will walk into daycare to pick up Haven until my email is handled. Okay. Sometimes I am in the parking lot of her school for 30 minutes, speeding through email meeting through emails, because it allows me to confidently go in and pick her up knowing I did my job, everything is handled. If anybody needs something, it’s totally fine to have a three hour wait

17:05
period, for sure. Especially if it’s after five.

17:09
I say this all the time. We are not emergency room doctors. Yeah, you don’t no one is going to die. No, no one has gone into labor and needs me. So three to four hours, even five hours is a perfectly acceptable time to wait.

17:25
You know, my favorite lender has that same system, she has two little ones, okay, like, you know, baby’s in daycare. And she does the same, she picks them up somewhere between three and four. But you know, before five sure, because they go to bed like by seven. And she spends that block where she’s not responding. But when they go to bed at seven she has, you know, an hour or so there where she’s taking care of all the stuff that happened in that timeframe. And I think that realtors have to be better about looking at their day to day in a non traditional manner. Right? You can’t expect yourself to work eight to five and work five to 10 No, but you need to say okay, well, then I’m going to work. I don’t work typically before nine like even though my kids are out of the house at 7am. I’m not doing early morning appointments, I have to do the things I need to do before nine so that I don’t feel like all I’m doing is working right. So you know, I’m working from nine to three, I like the kids to get home before four if they can. And then I would like to get better at that that timeframe. But mine are going to sleep you know 830. So it’s different. It’s a little tougher, but I still, you know, it’s nice to break it up. And then the schedule text because where it’s at, on my phone, I can get a text at 10pm. And if I don’t respond, right, I’m gonna forget about texting is the worst and the best because it’s easy. You don’t have to have a long conversation, you can get things done. But it’s not like having an email in my inbox. If a text comes in, and I don’t respond immediately. I’m gonna lose it. And I’ve gotten in the habit lately. We have to go back through Yeah, in the morning. But I like a scheduled text. I just, you know, it’s 10 o’clock at night, you’re asking me something non urgent, which it all is. And then I say whatever the answer is scheduled for 8am in the morning.

19:10
Perfect. It’s very nice. Well, that just goes to it has to be a boundary. Is it easy for you to respond at that time? Yes, yeah. Then that same person is going to be the person that texts you every night at 10 o’clock expecting a response. You know what, this is a good segue for what client management? Yes, my favorite term like the one of the most important things that maybe Realtors aren’t taught and don’t automatically even think about. You have to set that tone for your clients. We have to evolve to that because when you’re new, and you have nothing and you have no business, you will take anything, you will do anything you are begging for business. And then you get some money in your bank account and you get some experience under your belt and you realize, wait a minute. I can’t keep doing this. So The term that my broker Connie uses is the Pop Tart agent. I think this is hilarious. You cannot be a pop tart agent and I was a pop tart agent for about two years. Tell me what that means. A putter agent means someone calls and you pop up and you just go right. You just run and you just mean about the house and I have gotten into unsafe situations for sure. Do you mean that? And actually all September? Oh, yeah. Is realtor Safety Month. And we have some really interesting guests lined up. So we’re excited for y’all to hear those episodes. But boundaries. And self care also goes into that short. And if you’re on phones to obviously when a lot of phone duty at the office, which is definitely a pop tart activity, definitely a pop tart activity. But I was so new and so eager, I wasn’t asking the right questions. I wasn’t being saved. I wasn’t being diligent, I was just going, or even if it was just like, one of my parents friends who was my client, and they say, can we go see this house? Today? At two o’clock? Right? I felt pressured to have to be like, yes, yeah.

21:11
Because you don’t want him to call somebody else. But that’s not the

21:13
truth. Right? And what other career can you get a same day appointment within an hour with a professional with a professional, right? It makes you look unprofessional, and makes you look too available. And that’s how they are going to set the tone as Sure. They’re never going to give you enough notice. Yep. And so just asking the right questions in order to do that. And even with showings, I mean, if it’s seller occupied, I don’t want to be that realtor that requests an appointment and gives sellers 30 minutes to get out of their house, grab the dog, make the beds bake the cookies, like the can I you people put a lot of effort into selling their house, and you need to be professional and giving some notice.

21:52
Sure. Remove the dogs get the babies, you know, it that is definitely where you need to teach your clients what boundaries they should have with the rest of the process, right. And you cannot ask that of a seller, because you turn around and you’re the seller, and you’re gonna realize how miserable that is for someone to contact you 15 minutes before? Yes. And you’re not prepared? Yeah, I agree. I

22:16
think that that’s part of client management. And it’s part of setting boundaries in the process. And I think that would come to when you start a relationship, you have to set the right tone. And it goes back to education. Yet our clients don’t know if they call and want to see a house in an hour and you meet them there. That is how it’s gonna go every time they want to see a house. So yeah, but if you educate them and explain that we have to schedule on an appointment, is the house vacant? Is it occupied? You may have an appointment. Yeah. What if you have a personal appointment? Like what if they want to go see a house during the time that you have your hair appointment, right? So I use my calendar for my personal appointments and for my professional appointments. And if somebody wants to go see your house the next day, and I’ve got a haircut, I will just say to them, I can’t go at 10 o’clock, I

23:07
have an appointment that you don’t need to know it was the school play No, or my hair cut or a lunch with a friend, I get to set that in in I have to be okay with that. And I started that very early on. And that’s one of the good behaviors I have on boundaries, because you can’t just just drop what you were supposed to be doing. Sure for someone else to you know, ask you last minute to do something. Agree. I think that’s okay. Yeah.

23:33
Do you do that too? Um, yeah, I like the term. I have an appointment. Yeah, I don’t think I’m pretty strict about keeping my personal and professional life a little bit like they know I have a daughter. Yeah. And things like that. But I just feel like I do want to be a professional. And there doesn’t have to be I’m not you don’t have I don’t have to be a totally open book. Right. So I feel so like, weird and uncomfortable when my kids have to accompany me to especially during the summer, there’s some times when they’re with me, and we have to go run and open the door for an AC person or whatever. I feel so unprofessional. And it makes me crazy. And my clients are always so like, wonderful and they don’t care. And they no one cares, right? I mean, they don’t care. No, but I

24:23
am so focused on being professional that I don’t want to do it.

24:28
I have one situation where someone cared. What did they say? They were a young couple, but they were I mean, not like really, I mean they had been married and but they just weren’t at a phase of life where they were ready for family. And I’ve showed up with Haven as a baby, who all she did was sleep. It was totally fine. I knew she wasn’t going to be disruptive. But they literally like made a face and then said oh you brought the baby AB not your typical Oh, baby. It’s just they were disgusted. And I was like, okay, daycare. It’s time. That’s when you started daycare. I was on hold. How old was she at this? So I had daycare reserve for 12 weeks. Okay. And then I was like, Wait, we need to? I’m not ready. Yeah. So I paused it. Okay. And then two weeks later, I was like, Okay, I’m ready. So she was like, 14 weeks? Yes.

25:26
That’s a pretty long maternity leave. Yeah. I mean, that’s tough.

25:29
I knew I was ready for daycare when that started happening. And I was relying on family so much. But before I went on maternity leave, I mean, I shared a house two weeks after I had I went on a listing appointment two weeks after, and it was fine. It’s fine. And then I came home, you know, like, I worked 30 minutes that day, right now or whatever. But leading up to having her I gathered the top three new agents that I had been that I had formed friendships with, right that I was helping them when they needed help. And I say, Guys, I have helped y’all. Yeah, I need help. That’s good. That was a great resource. And as things came up, I delegated it out. Yeah. To one of the three. So I didn’t give one person my entire caseload. Yeah. And I told my client, you, you emailed me, right when I got home from the hospital. You know, three days after I had the baby, I sent an email out to all my clients and said, Hey, guys, baby’s home, we’re happy, we’re healthy. I just want to let you know, if you need anything, please email me I have people ready to go. Yes. And I got two emails back that people be like, Oh, my gosh, there was a house that popped up and we didn’t know what to do. One, I lost one client one. That’s not bad. It wasn’t that bad. And I think it was meant to be if that’s how it’s going to be, you know, let’s win them all. They didn’t feel that’s all right. They weren’t gonna bother me that felt comfortable.

26:56
This still happens to me now. And I think that what happens is you make friends with these, you know, your clients, they become close to you. They’re friends, they, they’re on your Facebook, so they see what you’re doing personally. And, oh, we thought you were too busy with the baby, or we didn’t want to bother you. But I have

27:15
to say leading up to having Haven because I was not natural mom. Excited. Like I was thinking this might be the end of my career. And I had a lot of anxiety about it, because I was so career driven, right. And after she came after, when she came she was born in February 2017. And 2017 is still my record year. So it’s fine. It was fine. And I think it happened, because it was also my first year implementing boundaries. Oh, that’s great. And it’s like, all of a sudden, I was working better. I was better for my clients. Because when I was available, I was fully available. Right? And because I had a baby, it’s like they were more respectful. Yeah. Before they were like, Let’s go now. Yes, I was setting the tone. Yep. And they respected it. I like that. Yeah, it just worked. So you were forced into setting boundaries doing it, but it worked. And they stuck

28:16
with it. Yeah. I love that. I think that’s awesome. Yes. Okay, I’m gonna talk a little bit about how you reset so when we were doing the mindset episode, there were a couple of things that I forgot to mention that I that really do fall into boundaries and self care, but also into like, when you’re having a moment in our workday gets tough and you’re having a meltdown. I win especially early on and things are tough more often and you don’t really know how to navigate through those emotions. I would go out and walk the dog just take one block and come back fresh perspective. Then drive across the bridge

28:53
right just walk down the block you should try it

28:56
and then I sometimes I would take a nap like if it got to the point of tears like where something is falling apart and I’m crying and I am like this is so bad. I would just shut it all down and I would go take a nap perfect and 20 minutes later you know you wake up and you’re just like this is not that bad, right? You just have to like move on

29:14
one thing I was never able to do so when I served on that panel they asked us you know about our routine and almost everybody on the panel was like filling their day with like self motivation podcast this and that and I was like yeah me too well then at night they also read read read really read like all these self help books and business books and things like that. And I Look your face are really tried to do that. Okay, but then I thought for me this does not work. I cannot crawl into bed with a be better tomorrow but like I need to crawl into bed and have something totally not work related like maybe an episode of The Bachelor like maybe the bachelor are something totally stupid to just be like, this requires no brain, relax the brain, relax, relax the brain and I do read. Yeah, but I read the books that are real. You read like fiction like fun books at night. Yeah, I read the fiction books. It brings me to another world outside of my own. Yeah with other characters and scenarios. And then at night, I’m excited to get into bed to see what happens next. Yep. But I save the motivational books for audiobooks in the car. I have never confession. I have never finished a business book. Oh, I have started so many.

30:44
You have good intentions.

30:45
I have good intentions. Now I have finished them via audiobooks. Oh, that’s that’s finishing a book. But I mean, buying the book on my nightstand to read at night. It doesn’t happen because by then my brain is like, I don’t want to be in improvement mode. No, you’ve got one. That’s okay. Resting is so important. And it is the first thing to be cut from the schedule when you get busy. Well, sure. It’s the easiest thing. That’s why December.

31:14
Right? It’s okay. We don’t need to stop. Yeah. Oh, that’s tough. I like an audio book for that reason. It’s passive. You can put it on the car. I’ve got to drive to the appointment anyway. Yeah,

31:23
that’s why I love podcasts. Yeah, and just that. But you’re right.

31:27
Sometimes you got to contain this stuff. During the hours of your business mindset. You can’t be in business mindset.

31:33
All day long. No. And you will find a promise you will find if you force yourself to take up something and dedicate time that has nothing to do with business. Nothing to do with self improvement. Nothing to do with money. Mm hmm. You will self improve and make more money. Yeah, I promise.

31:53
I agree. You know what I’ve been doing lately? What?

31:55
On my bookshelves I did yours? Oh, yeah. Sort of my little creative

32:00
outlet? Yes. It’s a creative outlet. It’s like about it’s a weird hobby. Well, I so I like you know, staging is one of my favorite things in the business. And it’s kind of grown in my love over the over this time. I love interior design. And I love to set up a good style bookshelf. So I kind of put it out there. I tell them in my office before I’ve done my mom’s by fours. I do mind whenever it’s time to switch season. But I put it out there on social media not that long ago. And I had a few people reach out and were like, yes, we don’t know what to do with these bookshelves. Will you come help me? What do you charge and like? Well, right now, nothing, because I just think it’s fun. Like, I genuinely think it’s fun. So it’s like a fun hobby. I’m just

32:43
I feel like as an observer of your Facebook and Instagram that it’s time to start charging. Okay, well, bad news, people. Yeah, I think that they are too late for you enough people have inquired. That’s true, then it’s time. But that’s an awesome creative outlet. Just for fun. It’s just for fun.

32:59
Or it was then yeah, we’ll see. Either way. Okay, what else do we really we talked about how to reset. We’ve kind of been down this before. Oh, I know what else I want to talk about. So I also am sort of protective of my lunch appointments. Okay, whether they’re with other realtors, vendors, friends, you know, mom’s from school, my sister, like, if I’m going to lunch with you. I try to I mean, the phone is on silent. And I try to like put it down and not check it unless, like I know something kind of is going on. That’s urgent. Right? And I mean, yes, at the end of the hour, hour and a half. I probably have 10 text messages and three missed calls. None of them. No one died during that time period. Good news. But it’s I think it’s good to focus on what you’re doing at that moment. Yes. In in those cases where you’re doing something maybe more fun.

33:57
Present Over Perfect. Yeah, right. Try that audio book is a good one. Oh, did you get all the way through that one? I did. Oh, I love it. Not hardcopy just audio book. Yeah, okay. Well, let’s, but it’s true. I mean, just being present, being mindful of who you’re talking to what you’re doing. I mean, it’s important. Yeah. Okay. I like it.

34:16
I don’t have anything else today.

34:18
The last thing that I had was that. So I teach a Gmail class. I taught it a couple of times. I taught it in my office. I’ve taught it at some of our other offices around the Louisiana I’ve even gone to mechanische All right, yes. So anyways, people come because their email is so out of control. They don’t know what to do. And if my email is out of control, you can’t even talk to me, right? Because my brain is like, too crazy. It doesn’t even know what to do this. Too many tabs are open right in your brain. Exactly. Yep. So people come to my Gmail class. And then they are surprised because the first thing I asked him is, what does your refrigerator at home look like? What does your closet look like? And you can see the faces just like, wait a minute, I’m not here to to have us be organized. I’m here to get my email under control. But it’s all the same problem, right? If your mindset is so crazy, yep, that you can’t even know where your favorite shirt is. And your refrigerator is full of expired things, and you open it and it’s just cluttered to the mat. All your your refrigerator, your closet, in your email are all really good indication of what’s going on inside your brain. Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. And I know when my closet gets messy, I have to hurry and schedule a time to get it back under control. Because when I come home, and I enter that it stresses me out. Yeah, when I open my email, and it’s out of control, it stresses me out. Yep. Well, my refrigerator is filthy, it stresses me now. And you have to do daily maintenance on all these things. Right. And that’s where people, they are not doing daily maintenance on their email, right? They are not doing daily maintenance on their home. I pick on my dad sometimes because growing up, you know, my mom was corporate woman. So she was very strict schedule, and my dad was more. He was more flexible. So he was the one we could call. Well, if you called him sometimes it would be flustered. Oh, and then I would feel bad. I know, I’m interrupting. I’m interrupting whatever I shouldn’t have called. But then. And most of the time, I would call and he was so hey, what you do and more members, to this day now that we’re all grown and gone. That’s how he answered, okay, but I just love calling him and he’s like, Hey, right. And it doesn’t sound like, you know, you call those people? Yes. And they’re like, oh, my gosh. And you’re, you know, after five seconds, have their stress. Right. Yeah. And I just think it’s so important that we can figure out the source. Yeah. Okay. The reduction of stress is probably the number one self care thing you should be doing? Yes, for sure. And the problem that people have is that it when when they come to my Gmail class, it is so out of control, that to get back to a good place could take a full month, right of daily discipline, and they can’t do it. It’s a big commitment is a big commitment. I mean, I’m talking 30 minutes a day, just throwing away a couple things in your fridge, donating a couple things in your closet, organizing a couple of things. unsubscribing, an email, deleting email. It’s just daily things that you have to do contacting. You got to put the work in, but people get so far gone, then you just feel like oh, throw your hands in the air. Yeah. And then Yep. And then those same people, I first set them in the Gmail class, right? Because they’re also like, I can’t grow my business. I’m like, until you can clear out your email. You have no right. Right even asked for more fair, people are constantly asking for more business. But what are you doing with the business that you already have? Are you up to date?

38:19
Well, when you take good care of the business you currently have, that’s when the referral stream really happened? Yes, because you’re getting things done effectively, your current clients are seeing that and they feel confident and referring you to people they know. Yes. So instead of going to find the Secret lead source, just do right by the people who are already using you.

38:42
I got a new client one time, that was another Realtors client. And they called me and they said, Alyssa, we’re looking for a new realtor. We were working with someone we want to let you know that. And I said No problem. I said do you mind me asking why you no longer are working with that realtor? Because I think that’s very telling right. Now I want you to expect of me what are my expectations? And they said Alyssa when when they were showing us houses. We saw her phone when she was opening up the lockbox and it said like 72 voicemails, and it was a six digit read number on her email. And me and my wife looked at each other and said, if we want to reach her, she’s she’s not available. He is just so behind. And that hurt her. And people love to tell me Oh, no, no, I that’s just this account. That’s my personal account. We’ll get your personal right life together. Also get your mind right. People think you can be successful in business. And then your house is the hot mess Express. It’s you can’t compartmentalize it and not have stress. Right. Right. And so people leave my Gmail class. Oh, gosh, cleaning out their refrigerators. I have some ladies in our other office that have sent me packing grats on their closet, I love it. But it’s just it just goes to show that you cannot just excel in one area and just totally leave it all behind. Leave it all behind everything else sort of. You can’t neglect it. No, it’s a whole package. Yep, you are your whole package. You have to be healthy, happy. Your Home has to be peaceful. It’s the whole thing. And it all requires daily maintenance. I think that’s awesome. That’s good. That was good. Yeah. Well, that concludes this topic and can talk about it all day and talk about it all day. I’m excited to toasts. Yes. Okay. Do you want to tell us about the toast? Yes. So two weeks ago, I had an open afternoon. And I was invited to a realtor tour. And I was paying back the favor because this realtor came to my Yes, Agent tour. So I went to hers to think yes. And her name is Ren Jones Librem. I love when

41:04
I’ve done to deal with rent. She’s one of the most delightful, pleasant, kind, effective realtors.

41:11
She’s great with follow up. She was so lovely to work with very positive and happy. Yep, I actually had a deal with her that went south, not because of her right. And even though we didn’t make it to the closing table, me and her if we couldn’t get it done, it was not getting right. And I felt fully confident the whole time that if this is meant to be rent is gonna get it done, right. But anyways, at her open house that I went to, she asked me if we could go to coffee, right coffee dates to talk about boundaries. Self care, love it. And so we did not follow up on that. Okay, because if I didn’t follow up on it on purpose, because I knew we were working on a podcast, right? So read this episode is for you. Yep. We’re toasting you. We’re toasting to rent and we want to say cheers to rent. Yes, for being positive, happy and agile ways to work with yours all the time. All right, yes, thank you ram and we want to toast to your successes. So if you have a success this week, or a friend that you want to toast to email us and we want to choose to them on our next episode. Yes, please. So we’re very excited about that and we will see you next week. Thank you so much for tuning in to the hustle humbly podcast Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at hustle humbly podcast. If you have an episode topic or question please email us at hustle complete podcast@gmail.com Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review don’t forget to send in your wins See you next week

42:52
this is

43:01
this is the

43:11
this is the goodbye