Latest / REL Freedom Podcast / Charisse Walker - From Food Stamps & 400k In Debt To Financial Freedom

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Charisse Walker - From Food Stamps & 400k In Debt To Financial Freedom · REL Freedom Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So, long story short, we lost our shirts.
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Like we took a HELOC out on our home, and if you don't know what a HELOC, it's called a home equity line of credit.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: So it was a huge amount of money and, long story short, things were not disclosed to us that we were told in the beginning, and so we lost it and we ended up having to make payments.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Well, at the time we were on food stamps because I had quit my job and we weren't making enough.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: I have five kids at that point and so it was tough.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Real Freedom Show, where we inspire you to pursue your passion to gain time and financial freedom through opportunities in real estate.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: I'm your host, mike Swenson.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Let's get some real freedom together.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Hello everybody, welcome to another episode of Real Freedom Real Estate, leveraged Freedom where we talk about building time and financial freedom through opportunities in real estate.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: I am your host, mike Swenson, and if you are interested in getting started on your real estate journey, check out our website, freedom through realestatecom.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: It's a great way to just read up, learn, study, educate yourself and get started, and so it's a great website.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: So freedom through realestatecom and check it out.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: So for today's guest, like we talk about often, people in real estate have their hands in a few different things.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: You have that flexibility to decide how to spend your time and you can dabble in a few different things, and so our guest today has that.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: We have Charisse Walker and she's based out of Utah and she has quite a few things happening.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: So she's an agent, an investor, a loan officer, has a podcast, unbreakable Mompreneurs, and also has a book coming out here shortly.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: So we have a lot of stuff to cover.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: But really her story is started $400,000 in debt and on food stamps and, through working in real estate, has worked her way out and built that time and financial freedom that we're talking about, and so excited for you, charisse, to share your journey with us.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: So welcome to the show, thanks for having me.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: I appreciate that.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: So give us that background and talk about that story and kind of where things started for you.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I actually I see that you're Timberwolves I actually worked for a company where the parent company was in Minnesota, or, as we said, minnesota, and so I was the college director and I'd opened several colleges in the Valley and ended up getting divorced and then got remarried a couple years later and decided, when I had my first kid, that I was going to stay home and be a stay-at-home mom because I finally had the opportunity.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: But before that happened, it was interesting because my brother came to me about during that time.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: My brother came and said hey, do you want to invest in real estate down in Honduras?
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh he goes.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I have this great family opportunity and you know you want to do everything for family right, and especially because he and I had kind of grown apart, so I wanted to build a better relationship with him.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Okay, so, number one, don't do business with family right.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Number two don't do business with friends Like hear that Unless you have very specific documents in place, which we didn't.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: So, long story short, we lost our shirts.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Like we took a HELOC out on our home, and if you don't know what a HELOC, it's called a home equity line of credit.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: So it was a huge amount of money and, long story short, things were not disclosed to us that we were told in the beginning, and so we lost it and we ended up having to make payments.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Well, at the time we were on food stamps because I had quit my job and we weren't making enough.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: I have five kids at that point, and so it was tough, but I had two special needs kids, so I really it wasn't that I just wanted to quit, I needed to because of my kids, and so we were like, what are we going to do?
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: And fortunately, real estate's always been a passion.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: So I spent about a year and a half studying and teaching myself.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: And I remember going to a REIA meeting it's a real estate investor association and they're like stop, just stop, just go do it, take action.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: So I remember leaving that meeting and going to cause I was, I just got my license as a real estate agent and I drove to a house and then I made an offer.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: They accepted it.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: So I'm like, oh, shoot, now what?
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: I didn't have any money in place, I didn't have anything, but you know, it worked out.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: We called it the Blair Witch Project I name all my homes and so that one turned out really well.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: So before we closed, I ended up buying a different house Again, went and saw it, made an offer and they accepted it, and so it just kind of morphed.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: And so we figured out ways, cause there's ways that you can get money if you don't have any and people are willing to invest.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: And so we did that and it paid off.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: And then we ended up buying Betty, which is another house, and so it just kind of kept going and bitty Betty.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: So very quickly, like it was about $175,000 plus interest, is about 200,000.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: We had almost paid that off and then my best friend comes to me and it's like, hey, I have this great idea.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, next thing I know we're $200,000 in the hole again.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: And so it was tough.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: It was really tough, and the fact that my husband is still with me today is a testament, especially second marriage.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: And so instead of sitting there and wallowing in self-pity and thinking, oh my gosh, how are we going to afford our bills?
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: You just have to get to work.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: And because of real estate, it has set us on a trajectory where my husband actually was able to retire a year and a half ago and he worked with me full-time and so to go from being on food stamps and so far in the whole to him being able to quit a job that was making very good money because we were doing well enough, was pretty remarkable.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: And I like what you said about taking action.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: You know, I think earlier in my journey I didn't want to say the wrong thing like make sure it's a good deal right, because you can make money and you can lose money and you don't want to lose money, so make sure it's a good deal right, because you can make money and you can lose money and you don't want to lose money.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: So make sure it's a good deal.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: But the further along I get, the more I encourage people.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: You've got to start somewhere, because you're not going to learn, you're not going to know how to get better, you're not going to know how to adjust and learn from your mistakes until you do it.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: And so the perfect property the perfect, and things can still go wrong that you don't anticipate, and so you've got to figure out how to problem solve and how to manage through those challenges that come up too, and you're not going to be able to do that from reading a book or listening to a podcast.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Those are important to help set the information and hopefully help verify things as you go and help you learn and grow, but there's nothing like being in it and doing it to really figure out how to get better at it.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Well, and I a hundred percent agree in your realtor right, so we can probably talk about every single deal.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: There's not a single deal that we do.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: That is the same.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Every single deal is different.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: So no matter how much you try to study and learn, every deal is going to be different and so you cannot foresee.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: I wish we all had a crystal ball, but you don't.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: So you just have to take action, because analysis paralysis is horrible.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: I talked with one person If you're going to look at a deal, write an offer, right, and it might not mean that it's full price, it might mean that it's $100,000 less, but you never know the situation.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: That person so write the offer.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: So talk a little bit about your investing journey, how that has accumulated, or maybe how you strategically shifted and changed things or maybe pursued some new avenues that popped up as you got into things.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: So tons of new avenues, and you have to keep your networking.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Is everything right?
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Because you don't really know who is out there and who's ready, and so as a realtor, I kind of have a.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: I don't recommend, like you don't have to have a realtor license, it's not something you need to do and a lot of people I know don't.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: And so it started where I talked to somebody, who talked to somebody who talked to somebody.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: So we actually flipped several homes for my clients as well, to sell their house.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: But there's a few that we decided that we got emotionally attached or we decided not to sell their house.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: But there's a few that we decided that we got emotionally attached or we decided not to sell for whatever reason, and so we decided to do buy and hold, and so we did flip several, but we have also bought and hold, and so because of that we've been able to accumulate several like multimillion dollars worth of homes, and so in addition to that, we were open to moving.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: So you know, there's a thing out there where you can move into a house, live in it for a year or two and then move into another house and so forth.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: And so for us we've been able to because of the flipping and because of the other stuff, you have enough money for a down payment on a different house and, like this house we're living in right now probably shouldn't say this don't tell my husband because he's very private but you know, it's a 7,000 square foot home and I think we I gave up some of my commission but we didn't come in with any money out of pocket, like we borrowed from our HELOC or and it's expensive right now, so be careful of that but we didn't really have to do anything and it's a very large house with a very large mortgage, but our rentals are paying the mortgage and so we've been open to that.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: In addition to that hard money lending, I've had some people where they're in some financial destitute places.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: They were going to lose their house in a couple of weeks, so I got them current on their payments and they paid me for that, and then we turned around and found a buyer for their home and so they were able to sell that and buy a different home.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: So it's called hard money lending.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Wholesaling is something else where you kind of are the middle person and so then you can sell it to somebody else who does want to flip the home, because I don't necessarily want to do that.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: Flip the home because I don't necessarily want to do that.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: I think the best one was a lady who was her father.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Her stepfather passed away and she was left everything.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: But she lived in a different state, actually by you, and she didn't want anyone in her home because her dad was a hoarder and her daughter was schizophrenic and if you would have seen it, the pictures like it was velvet on the wall, like that thick of it was an inch thick of just velvet, like dust and stuff that the daughter lived in, and so the house was just horrific.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Plus, he had cats that he didn't clean up after.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: So she's like I don't want anyone else to come into my house, I just want you.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: You buy it.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: And because it was cash, I'm like, okay, well, how about you be the lender and we go into business with each other?
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: We'll pay you this amount and anything over that, I'll give you 20%.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: She's like deal, okay, great.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: So she thinks we walked on water because she took everything she wanted.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: She went back home and we spent months cleaning it up, flipping it, and then we resold it, and so that one was a great deal that we didn't really.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we came in with some money down, like I gave her a chunk of change so she could pay off her dad's bills, but it was like 40 grand.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: It wasn't much at all compared to what it could have been, so I could have easily wholesaled that one, but we did better flipping.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Well, and I think for people listening, maybe that it's somebody who has done a deal or two, wants to scale, or maybe is on the sideline and waiting to get in All these opportunities that you're talking about.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: You learn as you go and you get better and sharper as you go.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: And so you know, had that porterhouse or whatever come up early in your career, you maybe wouldn't have known what to do with it or you would have just wholesale it or whatever.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: But I think the important thing for people to understand is, yeah, you're going to understand the strategies more and I sometimes tell people like the strategy kind of speaks to you based on the situation the purchase price, the potential sale price, the potential rents and you kind of look at okay, what can I do here?
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: Is it a flip?
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: Is it a buy and hold?
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: Is it a whole tail where you kind of just fix it up a little bit or wholesale or other things?
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: And so you learn those things once you get into it.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: And so you've had the ability to have these opportunities come your way because of what you've done in the past and the knowledge you've gained through being in the game.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think that if I were to do it over again because a lot of people they want time, is money, right, and so, if you like, I went and got my master's degree right and I'd love to get my PhD, but it's a six-year program or it's a three-year program or it's you know.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: For me, I studied for a year and a half before I actually went and did anything, because at the time I wasn't planning to get into real estate, right, and I didn't need to at the time.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: But that was a year and a half of my time.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Like, if I could tell you how much I'd make in a year and a half, I amount of money that it would cost me for that coach and there's different ways you can do a coaching as well that they can totally fast track you and their experience so they can warn you of things.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, why do you hire a real estate agent?
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Because they're experienced in the field and so they're worth it.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: So why would you not hire a coach to get you through and be able to bounce ideas back on or at least join a community where you can ask people questions?
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: I've heard that analogy of you hire some sort of vendor.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: I don't remember what the analogy is, but they talk about how this guy came into a house, spent 10 minutes, fixed it and left and you know, let's just say the bill is a thousand bucks and they're like, well, you're only here for 10 minutes and it's like, well, you know, $950 of it is like knowing where to hit with a hammer and what tool to use, and then the $50 was the time itself.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: And so that's kind of the thing for real estate investing to think about is all of that knowledge you're gaining.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: It's an MBA, it's going back for another degree doing it through investing, and all that educational expense is going to lead to future profits based on the knowledge that you have in doing it.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: Incredibly accurate Because, I mean, you can draw from so much more experience.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: And I was listening to a lady because, again, the community is everything too and she was telling us about this whole situation that she bought a home, didn't know it had termites Okay, right, there, ouch.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: And then, like there was a whole bunch of other issues, like it was just thing after thing after thing after thing, and she wasn't very experienced and so she didn't ask anybody questions.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: So when you're flipping a home, if you don't know what you're doing, that's a problem, right.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: And so if you're like, okay, great, I bought this house, but now you don't have a team of people, you don't know who to ask or you don't know what to do, it's like, okay, now how do you do that?
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: And so if you're hiring an expert, they need to know what they're doing.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: And the same thing with real estate.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: Like you could buy a house and end up losing your shirt, which would not be a good thing.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: I remember I had a client that this was the second investment property that they were buying.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: The first one was in a different state.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: And a lot of times, when getting ready to put in the offer, we talk about the inspection process and for out-of-state investors termites as an example we don't have to worry about termites in Minnesota because they don't like the cold, and so we don't do that.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: So usually I kind of give a rundown of the types of inspections and all that.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: And we got to talking about the sewer line inspection and for some people it's like oh, it's 200 bucks, it's 250 bucks, what if I don't have to spend that?
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: And I remember this one client had told me well, the first house we bought we didn't do it and it ended up costing us $13,000 because we had to put in a new sewer line.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: So now you better believe, every time I'm happily spending that $200, $250 to do the sewer inspection because I want to know now instead of having that stuff happen later.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: And so, yeah, at the beginning that was a very negative experience for them, but now they're going to be able to be more conscious, moving forward and make sure that they do get those sewer line inspections.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: And then we had a string last spring where it was like three or four houses had sewer line issues, and so now I could then tell my clients hey, for $250, would you rather have the peace of mind of knowing you may not have to spend $5, $10, or $15,000 later?
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: That's that value of experience.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: And I think, like for us right on, is something which it's this yeah, it's secondly because of lung cancer and people don't know about that and so it's becoming pretty popular here in Utah and so, like, that system is about $1,600, $1,700, but it's free to test why.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Why wouldn't you do that?
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: You know and so, but a lot of people don't know.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: They don't know those things, and so that's why working with an experienced person real estate agent or coach that can help you get through those things and, yeah, we've learned that when you try to cut costs because somebody is a little better, they might be $500 less, but they're not very reputable.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Like I would say.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: We call the Doppel Department of Occupational and Professional Licensing, whatever your state is.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: I don't know what it's called, but you need to.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: If you're going to hire some contractors, it is worth taking the time to look up on the website and see if they're licensed, bonded, insured, and then, when they're all going to say, oh, yeah, yeah, we are Okay.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Well, where's your proof?
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Like, show me it.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: I want to actually see it, because there's been a this one guy.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: We hired a plumber and it was a nightmare, and so you end up it gets more expensive because you have to pay twice for somebody to come fix it.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: So just making sure that you don't try to cut corners all the time, because a lot of times we've learned it might be better to go a little more expensive.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: For me we can look up in certain areas.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: You know, rental licensing Do they have their rental license as a current?
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: What permits have been pulled in the past?
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: And to be able to have that information to help verify things.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: That's the importance of agents and why we hopefully add value for our clients.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: Real estate agents, are you tired of letting the busyness of life get in your way from achieving your real estate investing goals?
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: I'm super excited to announce we've created the Real Freedom Investor Agent Tribe.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: It's a place for you to come, get educated and network with others so that you can make sure that you're hitting your real estate investment goals.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: So find out more on our website, realfreedomcom.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: Click on the store link.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: We've got a membership.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: We've got a mastermind group and some private coaching as well.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: Check it out.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: I've priced it super low.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: The goal is to get you and not have price be a determining factor to keep you from your goals.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: So come check it out, schedule a call with me and we're happy to see where your real estate journey is going to take you.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: So talk a little bit about some of the other stuff between the lending.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: You know, being an author as well as a podcast host.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: I'd love to kind of hear how those things fit into the stuff that we've already talked about being an agent and an investor.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: Well, I think you know we are programmed or pre-programmed.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: If you didn't have entrepreneurial parents, we're pre-programmed to have the nine to five job go to college, get the job and be happy with what you make, Right, and so at least that's my experience.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: So I never, until this whole shebuckle happened with me, I never realized that, oh my gosh, like there's a different world out there and that I don't have to live paycheck to paycheck and I, I've been blessed I never had to do that until we were on food stamps.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: But I and I want to say the food stamps was a short lived, it's not like we'd relied on it, but it was a time we did use it and so, anyway, I realized that people can achieve their dreams, and I used to teach college and then run colleges where a lot of those people they just more working class, lower class, and so the mentality a lot of them were more.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to amount to anything.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: That's what they were told You're a loser.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: They drop out of high school, they dropped out of college, whatever it may be, and it just broke my heart to see these stories.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: But for me, the changing period was when I saw that they walked across the graduation stage and had accomplished their dreams.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: So because of that, and when I was going through the divorce that I never thought I'd go through, I realized that people, you know, life doesn't go as planned, and because of that, I wanted to help moms in particular, particular because it's hard to be a single mom and it's hard to be a mom period, and so when I realized that I want moms who have been through divorce or that are starting a new business, that, um, they can accomplish anything they want, and so unbreakable mompreneurs is a podcast that talks about, and I interview lots of other people and I give my own opinions and insights as well.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: So so it's not always interviewing people, but on different techniques and tips to get through the day, or to deal with your kids, or to deal with a business, or what you need to think about.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: So that's what that's about, and then, obviously, I'm on a mission to teach people the importance of healing yourself, because we're all screwed up, right?
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: A kid as a child.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: I had a great childhood, I think, but still there were issues in my life that affected who I am today, good and bad, right.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: So I think that that carried into my first marriage.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: I don't take 100% responsibility for it, but it is two people involved, and so I think that had I been a little healthier, truth be told, I probably never would have married the person I did, and I don't regret that because I have four kids.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: But the second thing is I didn't realize the person I was marrying.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: A mask was unveiled that I was totally unaware of.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: So those two things we heal from our trauma and then we unveil the mask, and so I liken it to an iceberg.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: An iceberg sits 10% above the water, 90% below the water.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: So if we can flip the iceberg, and so it'll be out May 6th.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: If we can flip it now, we can deal with our traumas and we can make good decisions.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: And then, before we say I do, we know the person.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: So there's a workbook that accompanies it and it's a whole bunch of activities and conversations that I hope people will have prior to saying I do, because that way you know who you're marrying, that way you have expectations with each other, that way you know who each other is, because there are pretty in-depth conversations that you can go through.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: So with that again, it's making sure that we, like the overall goal is happy, healthy, living in peace and living your best life.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: So all of these things tied together with real estate, it's flyfreeretireecom, because you know, let's create passive income so you can retire, and so that's, that's how it all ties together.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: No, I love it and the beauty of being in real estate is you can design what your future looks like.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: You can design how much time you spend on certain things and as your business gets busy, you still have to manage a life.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: You know I've got three boys and we're right in the thick of you know sports season is going to be kicking off here and we've got activities to go to and to do that and it's like my kids know that.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: You know if we're leaving the house at five o'clock, dad's going to probably be working up until four, 58, four, 59.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: And then I stop, I walk upstairs and at five o'clock I'm out the door to do the thing with them.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: I work up until that last point, but then I have the freedom to go do what I need to do to be able to be a coach or be able to go attend all of their games, which is fascinating, and then two.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: A lot of the stuff really can fit well together.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: I mean, I hear all the time we talk about as realtors.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: We feel like therapists sometimes because you're handling so many situations right.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: If it's more than one person involved with buying or selling a house, they don't all think the same, or agree on the same house, or want to sell for the same price, and so, whatever that situation is, you still have to navigate that.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: So you're trying to achieve your objective of buy or sell the house or get that property.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: And yet there's people and there's relationships and there's feelings involved, and so my wife is actually a therapist, and so it works out well to have those conversations and talk about that, Like, how do we navigate these situations to be the best agent that we can be for our clients?
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: And then you know, talking about building wealth, there's a lot that's involved in that.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: You know what your goals are, making sure it aligns with a spouse or family members, because you are taking time to pour into building that future life, and so it's time away from other things, and so making sure you've got the right priorities and it's a match, it's a big deal.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: You know, that's so true, and I think that one of the best advice that I've got a couple of years ago okay, I get a lot of good advice because I take everything in like a sponge but it's if you're going to say yes to this, you're saying no to something else, and so I love that you've set boundaries for yourself when it comes to your family, because as a realtor, it is so easy to just eat, breathe, sleep.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: If someone calls, you drop it and everything you're doing and you run to go to the client, and I've learned over the years that absolutely I will do that for a client.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: However, I now have boundaries for myself, and so if somebody you know, you have to figure out what those are and you have to make sure that you set clear expectations with each other.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: You know on both sides, but I think it's fantastic that you're doing that with your kids.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: They're only growing up one time and you don't get a do over.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: I remember when I first got into real estate full time and they were interviewing some agent and he had told this story about how the previous year, I think, he'd only worked one Saturday outside of kind of normal business hours.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: And this person that was interviewing him said how are you able to do that?
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: I think he had sold like 100 homes that year and they're like how are you able to have such a big business and do that?
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: And his response was you know, it's amazing what will happen if you just ask and so you can just share hey, I've got a meeting.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: I prefer to share the personal stuff, like, hey, I'm doing this.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: I know some people.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: A school of thought is like don't tell them about what you're doing.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: Be like I have a kid's baseball game.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: You know, I tend to share.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: I have a kid's baseball game.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: Not, I have a meeting or a prior engagement or whatever that is.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: But at the same time, I think people are okay with that because they want the same work-life balance to themselves.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: And so if you're upfront and honest about your availability and when you're able to help them, make no mistake, I'm going to help you get this house and I think we have to have the intuition to know, depending on our schedule and depending on you know, if it's a hot house that's going to go right away.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: Maybe we do have to flex a little bit, but for the most part we can set those boundaries and still hopefully make family life happy as well as work life happy.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: I agree, and you know you think of a specialist.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: I've had multiple surgeries.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Right, I'm going to go to the best specialist I possibly can.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: So if that means I have to wait for a couple of weeks because I've had three hip surgeries, three shoulder, it didn't always work out.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: So you better believe that I'm not going to just go to somebody that I that my primary care taught me, because he gets paid.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: You know, you know whatever it is, and so the same thing if somebody, if you created your value, they're going to wait, and so yeah, they're flexible, I think, and if they're not, do you really want to work with that person?
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: And that's your boundaries again, right?
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: Right, yeah, I just got off of a meeting and they were talking about a certain situation where it was a difficult client and the team owner had said remember, we get to choose the clients we work with.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: Sometimes I think we feel like we have to take the business and so it's that balance between building enough business that you can have more of a choice, but we also don't have to work with people that are negative towards us or put us down, like we can choose to go spend time finding the people that do respect our time and our value in what we do.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: I totally agree.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: There's a lady that she only wanted to sign a buyer's agency agreement with me, if for this one house, and she goes because I want to see if I really even want to work with you.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: And I said that's great, because I have to decide if I want to work with you too.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: And she goes, you know, and it's like no, it's a two way street here.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't need to be beat up on you, and I think you know it's a key thing is that you have to, and you have to be doing a few extra things.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: You can't just expect and wait for the phone to ring, because then you are going to be desperate and then you can't do that.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: But I think it's also important that we have multiple income streams.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: You know and I think that that's why I do all the things that I do is the markets kind of took a hit.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: And for people who invest in themselves because I've spent hundreds of thousands now on myself and my journey with education and various different aspects that you're going to be okay because you know what you need to do, but it's still good to have your eggs in more than one basket.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: Absolutely Well.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story and your journey and what you're doing.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: If people want to reach out to you and chat with you, how can they do so?
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Good question.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: So I would give you the website, but it's down right now.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: So I'll just say it's flyfreeretireecom, and then you'll find out more information.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and then too.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: Your book Flipping the Iceberg comes out May 6th.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it does.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: We'll be on Amazon Live next month, but it will officially release May 6th.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: So you could go to flippingtheicebergcom and just enter your email and then I'll keep you posted when we get more information and it gets closer.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you so much, Sheree, for coming on and sharing your story, and best of luck to you with your book and your podcast and all your business.