KGCI: Real Estate on Air - How to Build a Purpose-Driven Business Without Sacrificing Your Life

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

Morning Primer is your weekday boost from Mindset & Motivation Monday—quick, focused, and made for agents by KGCI Real Estate On Air. Give yourself a daily mindset reset for the daily direction you need to show up sharp and ready to win.Start your morning ahead of the market and ahead of your competition every day with KGCI Real Estate On Air. Summary:Top producer Marguerite Crespillo shares her blueprint for building a highly successful real estate business on her own terms, without sacrificing family or personal well-being. She makes a powerful case for creating a purpose-driven career that avoids burnout through intentional systems, leverage, and time management. This episode is an essential listen for any agent who feels overwhelmed, offering practical strategies to build a sustainable business that funds the life you want, rather than a life consumed by your business. Ready for more? Subscribe now and tap into our Always Free Real Estate On Air Mobile App for iPhone and Android, where you’ll find our complete archive and 24/7 stream of proven real estate business-building strategies and tactics. 

Built by KGCI, Real Estate on Air, power by the mindset and motivation Monday. Here's your morning primer. If we can take a step back and realize how emotional that decision is, and we can really think that through and help people walk through one of the biggest decisions they'll make in their lifetime with understanding and compassion, you're golden. The greatest skill that I learned and developed was to be able to be able to, to put myself in their shoes. The greatest skill that I learned and developed was to be able to put myself in their shoes. You never know who you're talking to and what they're capable of or

how they can change or impact your life or what they could do differently. I just feel like I'm at this point in my life where I definitely need to be doing more. It's important to just lead your life with what is important to you and being kind to people because you just don't know where that's going to come back. Hello, amazing friends, and welcome back to another impactful episode of the Reveal podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Nieto, and today's episode is one that is truly going to inspire and resonate with so many of you. Have you ever felt like the grind of building your business has taken over your life? Today we are joined by none other than Marguerite Cristello, a real estate powerhouse. Thirty years in the industry, Marguerite has helped over 4,000 families buy and sell homes.

But Marguerite's story goes so far beyond her success in real estate. She is a wife, a mother of six, and a grandmother to eight. And she has navigated some of life's toughest challenges, including the tragic loss of her son. And through it all, she learned how to build a business that supports her life, not the other way around. So today, Marguerite is here to share her journey of resilience, the power of creating boundaries, and how she rebuilt her life and business after realizing that success at the expense of family isn't real success at all. So grab your notepads because Marguerite is about to drop some serious wisdom on how to thrive in business without sacrificing

the things that matter most. Let's jump into the conversation. Welcome to the reveal podcast. We've got a special guest, Marguerite. Welcome to the studio. I am so excited for this conversation. Oh, thank you. I'm so excited to be here. I'm really excited. I was looking forward to this. We met in person in Austin, Texas, and we've been connected through our real estate broker, GXP, Realty. And I learned that you have been doing the podcast thing for, you said, 11 or 12 years. Yeah, quite a while. I think it's 11, maybe 12 years now. And I'm so excited to dig into that and just get to know you. I know that as an entrepreneur, I'm sure you have many nuggets to share. And our audience, for everyone out there listening, our audience is made up of entrepreneurs, whether they're in the real estate industry or they're considering entrepreneurship. And so I'm excited to dig into some of the experience. Hopefully we can collapse some time for some of our listeners and help them break through some things that they're facing. right now. But first off, I just want to have you share a little bit about where are you right now in your business? What's your focus right now on the day to day? So a couple of things. I've been in

real estate for 30 years. So it'll be 31 years in December. And while I love it and I still love selling and being active and helping people, I probably could die happy and not show another house, right? I love the people aspect of it, but the day to day, I feel like I'm ready to step back a little bit. I think I would always still help family friends, close people that I care about. But I'm ready to not be in the heavy day to day of it. So I've been looking at more options. I do some coaching and I do some other stuff. Of course, I'm part of EXP. So I have that. But I wrote a book called The The Hundred Things I Love About You. And I have a couple of other book I do. 100 things I love about you. Yes. It's a book about relationships. I'll tell you in just a second.

But I have a few other like book ideas like swirling around in my head. And so I still really know. I've been this, I'll be 61 in November. So I'm really maybe trying to figure out what I'm going to do when I grow up. I don't know 100% know. But I do know that I love talking to people, being around people. I also love to hear people's stories and I'm so fascinated by people's lives. what they have going on and how I can help them. So I'm not really sure where that's going to take

me, but I'm here. Yeah, I like to say we're always on this journey to figure out what it is we want to do, what is it we don't know, what are we going to discover that we knew nothing about that we'll be fascinated with, but always on the daily and in our present as just being the best version of ourselves, being curious, still having a little bit of trust for the world. And then we land ourselves in really exciting places. I asked the question the other day on Facebook. and that enormous response, which was, what did you want to be when you were a teenager, like a young teenager? So it's interesting because I saw that post and I was thinking about it.

I was like, Ray had actually wanted to be a teacher. And ironically, I feel like I am. I feel that's where life has taken me. But I wanted, I did like teaching. And what's funny is, of all things, I wanted to be a history teacher, which is crazy to me now. But were you fascinated with history? Okay. Well, here's the crazy story.

So when I was in seventh grade, I had a horrible history teacher. I mean, it was Mrs. Arnold. I'm sure she passed away many years ago. Is it American history or world history? Do you remember? It was she had this horrible class, is my point. And she would come in. She'd put movies on.

In fact, I've been old. I think we had a old projector and all that, probably. And she would just sit in the back of the class. Then in 10th grade, I had a teacher named Mr. Yermann. And he was a gold medalist in 1960. Oh, wow. And so he talked all about the old history of the Olympics, all the way back to Greece, all that's fun. And I became really fascinated by history and started reading historical books and things like that, got fascinated by it.

But then like happens. So I didn't end up going to college and I didn't end up teaching. But in fact, we talked a little bit before and you were asking about authors and stuff. And Malcolm Gladwell is one of my favorite. And he does a podcast called Revision. history, which is so fascinating his podcast. If he could take the commercials out, I'd be happier. But he talks about all these different, like, weird stories through history that you don't really know about. They're not like the most common type things. So anyway, long story short,

I wanted to be a history teacher that didn't work out for me, but I'm still a little bit fascinated by history and where it's brought us to today, especially women's history. because I don't think it enough. We have these whole generations of people who have no idea what women went through to give them what they have now and what abilities to have. It was what 1984 before a woman could buy a home without having a man, their husband on title. And so I'm fascinated a little bit by a lot of that type of history. But anyway, just the fact that you knew that your history teacher was in the Olympics in 1960. That just shows that you can remember dates. I'm horrible at things like that. My grandmother was a real estate broker. And she was selling real estate

when women could not attain credit without their husband. So, yeah, I love hearing those stories. I don't know that we have an appreciation. I've seen a lot in my lifetime in my 60 years. I've seen a lot change. But I don't know that we have really an appreciation that it hasn't been that long. This is my point. Yeah, no, it hasn't. And we haven't really captured it. So if we have the facts, that's fascinating in itself. He did you know when the kids are like, wow, are you kidding me? That's crazy. But really capturing the story of that lived experience, I think, is what there's obviously going to be a lot of that missing from what occurred. And so that's what's so interesting about you as a podcaster and an author. Tell us a little bit more about how storytelling has brought you joy and

fulfillment and helped you with your real estate business in terms of just your fascination with people and connecting them and learning more about their story. I think that I was raised by a single mom who was an avid reader. And she also loved history, ironically, but she loved to read. And so I grew up in a household where books were a big deal. And we didn't have books. We would have to go to the library, right? So we couldn't mark up the book. I was going to say, that's why they were good in our family, because they were free. Yeah. Yeah. We didn't have. have books. We had to go to the libraries. We'd go to library and read books. So I became fascinated by that and the stories that I would read about in these books that would take me to places that I never

imagined, right? Or never thought possible. So they created this imagination. And I feel like stories connect you to people in ways that there's not really another way to connect them. If I give you an example of something that I did, then you go, oh, and you can connect to that. You can connect to that. you go, oh, I get it. Or if I give you a scenario of how something might work, but if I put it, if I just say, oh, if you do this, you use this pen. Or if I give a whole story about where pens came from and why they came from, or maybe I don't go that far back.

But if you give us context matters, right? I love it. Yeah. People can, they can connect or relate to it a little bit better. Like, I guess the best example might be in real estate, right? In real estate, I will frequently tell people that look at. for a home is like looking for a significant other, right? The spouse. And it's like a blind date. You can describe all day long what you want. But when you walk in, it's either there or it isn't,

right? There's a feeling. And it's either there or it isn't. It's the same thing with homes is you can say, look, I have to have a three-bedroom too bad. It's got to have a two-car garage. It's got to have a lot size, whatever you say. But the irony is, I'm sure you've seen this in real estate, is people rarely buy what they describe out of the gate. And so when I tell them that story, I say, it's like a blind date. You feel it or not? They can relate to that. And they go, oh, yeah.

So then when they walked in the house, now they understand, oh, yeah, I'm not feeling the vibe of this house. So I think the best way to explain it. Yeah. We ever bought. It was you walk in and, yeah, I think we'll live here. I think we can live here. Yeah, it's crazy. And I just feel like stories to me.

connect people in that goes far beyond just the facts, right? Just the facts, ma'am. You have to have the story around the facts to help people go, oh, okay, like that, I can do that or that makes sense, or I don't connect to that, or I relate to that or whatever that might look like. Yeah, I share with my real estate team a lot that it's important that we look outside of our industry to other entrepreneurs or business owners or even blue collar workers, like just different and different bot leaders in the world to learn some of the skills that we might not necessarily learn from that top producers that just stumbled through, getting stumbled through and became successful in real estate. We don't want to look to that person for everything.

We want to observe other people. And what would you say is like some of the communication skills, we're not born with perfect communication skills. We can't even talk when we're born. We can't talk at all. And I've learned a lot growing up and I've changed a lot. Even not so much just changed the way that I communicate, I've become better at listening, obviously, is the number one thing we learned to become better at, I think. But also, I used to feel that I was

obnoxious or I used to think I was too much. And I've learned to embrace the parts of that I want to really step into and then it's just part of who I am and then learn to listen better. And these are all things that we learn over time. We have kind people that tell us and we listen. And we have people that give us really direct feedback that dislike us. And we learn from that. if we're paying attention. But you've been doing this storytelling thing and been in real estate for 30 years. So what would you, what advice would you give to an entrepreneur that just is feeling like they're not really connecting with people? Where could they start? I would say that probably the greatest skill that I learned and developed was to be able to put myself in their shoes.

Is to put myself in their head. Like what is going on in their head when what are they thinking about or what is bothering them or what is inspiring them or what's making them feel this is the right decision or this is the right move or is there like no trust there? Is there something that is holding them back? How can you get into their head? And I feel like if you can get into their head, then you can now create kind of systems and processes around making sure that happens. Because here's the crazy thing. Real estate's really not that different from anywhere in the, at least in the United States. I've not sold real estate outside this country, but at least in the United States, it's pretty much the same. Like, I could come to your neck of the woods,

and there might be some small logistical things, or a little bit different, contract legal stuff that might be different. But overall, the emotion of somebody buying a home is really no different, whether you're in Northern California where I live or Timbuktu or Kentucky, wherever people are. The emotion of it is no different. And I think, that if we can take a step back and realize how emotional that decision is, and we can really think that through and help people walk through one of the biggest decisions they'll make in their lifetime with huge empathy, understanding, and compassion, you're golden. You're going to be fine. You just hit the word. I thought this is a masterclass in how to be empathetic.

And empathy. We'll just say it, like as female leader, earth, right? It's one of the traits that I think makes us really strong in real estate. And sometimes I recognize that buyers are fearful or sellers are fearful, just based on like trauma that they have. Like, they're just deeply scared of being a homeowner. And like on the surface, they're not really ready to communicate that or say that. It's super a vulnerable place to be. But being empathetic and just putting yourself in their shoes, that's really great advice. And what about like on the fulfillment side? What has that been like in terms of where you just felt a shift in the way that you were connecting with people? Yeah.

I think that it somewhat happened early on because I frequently tell the story of one of my favorite people on the planet who I sold, her name was Linda, and I sold a home to her in 1997. It was a $50,000 head home, right? So it was nothing fancy and it was not in a great area. But she was a grandmother. her daughter had addiction issues, and so she had custody of her grandchildren. And she had been homeless in her life. And she'd had her children and grandchildren had been homeless. And she's, look, I want a place where my grandchildren can grow up and not have to worry about living on the streets.

And it was to me, it was so impactful. And what's even better about that story is that same woman, Linda, has now bought and eight homes through me since 19-19. You did that. It gets better. It gets better than that. She has referred people who have referred people, who have referred people, 65 referrals, over $400,000 in commissions. Get out of here.

So to me, that's impact, right? He's like a platinum VIP. I had no idea. That's where it was going to go. I was just helping somebody accomplish their goal. And I think that's what we have to do more than anything is we can't attach our own personal stuff to helping someone else. We have to just help them and guide them and help them get through it. It's an overwhelming process.

It's a lot of information. And a story that I'll tell frequently is let's say you're talking to somebody and, I mean, they could work at Taco Bell or they could be a doctor. It doesn't matter. The fact is I explained them, I go, look, if I had to walk into your job tomorrow, I'd be totally lost. It doesn't matter what they do. they use terms and phrases that don't make sense to the rest of the world. They speak a language that we don't understand. They have a certain word for tomatoes or cheese or whatever.

It doesn't matter. Yeah. No, this is cold. But the truth is that if I had to walk into their judgment on, I'd be lost. And these people, even if they bought a home in the last 10 years, have things changed a bit? Yeah, the process changes constantly. All the time. So they're walking into our world for the next 30, 40, 40.

100 days, whatever it is, and they're overwhelmed, they're scared, they're nervous, they're getting lots of opinions from everybody, right? Kind of that famous. Right. I have to walk uphill and beyond hill in the snow and eight months pregnant, whatever. Realtors are terrible people and they have this whole, you're right, they have this whole background and they have this whole list of people who all can't wait to give them advice. And so I try to explain that to them up front. I go, look, lots of people don't want to give you advice and just bring that stuff to me and I'm like the doctor and I'll tell you that that applies to you or it doesn't apply to you. Those stories help people, number one, relax a little bit.

They're like, okay, she's got me. And it helps them connect and say, oh, so I'm not stupid or it's not that I understand or it's not like people feel really intimidated. And when I give them that story, they relax a little bit. They're like, okay. I don't do, right? Like, I don't. You know. I don't. what I don't know. And I don't know if this person cares. Right. And so if you give them that space to feel like, okay, this is normal for everybody. I think all most people really just want to feel is normal what I'm thinking or feeling. Because a lot of times we get in our head that I'm the only one. I'm the only one who doesn't understand this. I don't know anything. I should have paid better attention in math class. They think it's their problem and they're the only one. And I think

it's up to us to help people feel like what they're feeling is normal and okay, and we're going to get you through it. And I think we want to be a leader that we wanted to see in our lives and when we were younger, right? A lot of realtors don't own real estate. I don't have the stat in front of me. We had Matt Plummer here locally today, and he was saying that. He's like, the majority of days was doing it. Oh, you're doing him on the podcast a couple weeks ago. He's good. Yeah, I know. He was awesome. So he was saying. saying that. He goes, and that's true. Most agents, real estate agents owe a ton of

money to IRS. They're flat broke. They're not selling as much as they think they are. And they don't own real. Seven out of ten, I think it was. Yeah. Let's talk about that. I love the advice that Matt gave and he said something to the effect. And I totally agree is,

it's okay to be where you are, but it's not okay to stay there. Start today. And you can start small. I posted this morning about, I like to do the reflection exercise. Is am I taking my own advice? The advice that I give to people, have I tried it on myself, just making sure that I'm staying authentic to the advice I'm giving. I love what you shared, because I believe it's been a master class so far in terms of how to connect with people to be

empathetic. And just the, there's always that story. I have a similar story where it's, you're starting small and you're not really focused on what it's going to mean to you. You just know that it's the right thing and you deeply, passionately want to help someone. And then the result is, it's like amazing. 65 referrals. That's actually insane. I don't even know if I've ever heard of anyone giving 65 referrals. So what else would you say that you've learned that's been like if you could just boil it down to two things that not necessarily you wish you knew sooner, but just that you want to share with the world one or two things that maybe you learned

from the darkest day or the best day in real estate or as an entrepreneur. Okay, I'll start with kind of the best part. I think that the best part, that and is the most important in all aspects of life is the value of relationships, right? Like, you never know who you're talking to ever and what they're capable of or how they can change or impact your life or what they could do differently. I'll take Brent Gove even, for example. I've known Brent for 25 years, probably 30 years now. I've known him for a long time. And I mean, we mostly were like social friends. I'd met him in passing.

And I knew who he was. He knew who I was. We'd talked about doing business together and some stuff prior to all of the EXP. And I've shared this story publicly and so is he. So this is not a big secret. So he calls me one day. I'm driving home. It's like 6 o'clock at night.

I'm like, hey, Brent. And he goes, hey, how are you? And I'm like, I'm good. And all of a sudden, he starts crying on the phone. And I'm like, what's going on, Brent? So I had to pull my car over and he was going through a very tough time with Kathy. Again, like he's been very vocal about this. Sure, yeah.

He was like sleeping on his buddy's couch or something like that, right? And I just remember I said, let me pull over. And I pulled my car over and I sat there for two hours and just listened to him and talked to him and tried to help him through. Little did I know, obviously years later when he would introduce me to E. P in 2016 and how that would change and impact my lives, right? You just, you'd never know who you're talking to and you never know how that's going to help you, how it's going to change your life, what it's really going to do. So I think that is probably the most important thing is that those relationships matter.

And I think that you have to, you don't realize that people are looking up to you or following you or you don't really good advice. Add on to that a little bit before. Years later and said, I really had no idea. I didn't understand. And that has been coming up a lot for me lately because I don't know that you realize what your own mother went through until you're of your mother's age and have experienced what your mother may have experienced, right? When it comes to raising children, when it comes to whatever it is, like we were talking about history earlier and what our mothers may have experienced in their lifetime. I remember being 12 years old and my mom buying a house,

but she was in this bad relationship and she had to make that relationship work so that she could get entitled to the home because that wasn't an option then. And she had to get entitled to the home so that she could have a stable home for us and kids. So I don't think that people really understand all of that until you have experienced it. And I feel like that's what karma is in a way. and not in a negative way. Like people always say, oh, something bad. They go, that's karma.

That happened to them. And I've almost started to think, what was the karma that happened to the other person, that they deserved that, or that they didn't deserve that or whatever that is, right? If you believe in the word karma, whatever you believe in, what that tells you is that at some point, you are going to experience something that was either a negative or a positive experience. So you have a bad situation when you're 22 and you blame the word. and it's all the world's fault, right? And then all of a sudden, you're on the other side of that coin.

And now you're like, oh, oh, I get it. Sometimes you need to hear the thing when you're meant to hear it, right? Like it doesn't resonate, like you're talking about storytelling. It didn't make sense at the time. But as it applies to you, maybe later. And I think also just words matter, thoughts, create worlds, all these things. They actually do create our reality and our perception. As we move through life, things can come up for us where we can look back and go, oh, wow, it didn't make sense to me then at all. I think that reflection part is a valuable part, right? 100%.

When you can stop and you go, oh, sit with the problem. Sit with that and think, okay, now maybe it's starting to make a little bit of sense. And when you asked about what was the hardest lesson, I will tell you that I had a couple. And one of them had to do with our brokerage. My husband and I had our own brokerage for 22 years. I spent years working on and building it and gave up a big part of it to make it happen. And we ended up with 120 agents by most people's standards. That would be wildly successful until we had to sit down and really look at our numbers, right?

And the numbers obviously didn't make sense. And at that time, my husband had recently been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and the financial stress of running a breakage and all that was going on with it. we had to come to the very difficult decision to just shut it down. It wasn't really saleable. That's a misnomer for many people that, oh, I'm going to build this. I'm going to go sell it for a bazillion dollars. That's not reality. And it wasn't saleable because it was part of a franchise and because once you pulled my

personal production out, it didn't make sense, right? If you can't remove yourself. Oh, yeah. And the crazy part is that was one of the most difficult days of my life was when we had to walk in and shut this brokerage down. And I was embarrassed. right? I was angry. I was pissed off at the world. I was this all, every emotion you could possibly imagine. It was one of one of the most difficult days in my life. But little did I know where that was

going to lead me, right? And I had no idea. Obviously, God had a bigger plan. And the thing that's interesting, too, is I just went to an event last night with a friend of mine. And she goes, you know, I've never really had the chance to tell you. She goes, but you remember when you shut that brokerage down? She goes, and everybody I talked to felt so bad for you and they just wanted to support you and they just want to know what they could do to help you because this was a big deal for you. And I never saw it that way. Like the way that I didn't realize that people wanted to see you win. No. I'm thinking, oh, these people are all pissed. They're all happy. They're like, hey, funny. Now's like all this. Who knows what? I had more than I had. But I'm. But I'm. I'm thinking. But I. I'm. I. I'm thinking. But I. But I. I was like, like you, I didn't even realize. I was so caught up in myself, first of all, that I thought the whole world was like laughing at me. Like I was a laughing stock of the community and all that. And that wasn't the case at all. So I would say that was a difficult day.

The second difficult day was when it was during the REO crisis, right, the worst arc in history. And we were 30 days from losing our home. And I just remember I was driving down the road crying hysterically and saying, I don't know what your plan is, God, but I cannot do this anymore, right? I need some help. It was take the wheel, the famous song. And all of a sudden, the phone rings. And it's Kelvin Zelaya, who runs REO now for EXP.

He was at the time of Fannie Mae, ethic manager. This is Kelvin Zelaya. I'm calling to interview you for the job, for a job with Fannie Mae. I'm like, I'm trying to like breathe. I'm like, I said, can I call you back in about 45 minutes? And he goes, I go, I'm on the road. And he goes, yeah, sure. So we're back and called it back and got it. But all as I remember is thinking, okay, like this is one of the most difficult days in my life. And sometimes you just have to let go, right? You have to just like, hey, I don't know what the plan is. I just have to keep doing the work. And I think that there's a lot of agents that are struggling right now. It's tough market, a lot of changes. It's tough. Yeah. It's hard. It's hard out there right now. And some people make it look easy, right? But if you just, keep doing the work. That goes back to the perception, right? I reached out to, I have on my agenda each week that I reach out to agents that I don't know well, but that I just, I see them, I see

their potential or I just see their heart, I see their service. I reach out to them and my experience twice this week, one was today, was a guy who was deeply missing his father because it's his father's birthday and his birthday this week. And just a strong guy, like just, just just an absolute rock star in real estate, newer to the business, rookie of the year, just crushing it. I'm not going to mention his name, but he said, my dad was a tough guy and he was a man's man. He would have said, no crying, don't cry, and he's bad. You're not here, so I'm going to cry, and I'm crying today. He wouldn't answer my call, but I've really connected with him over the last two years, and I text him, and I just said, go for a walk. I don't even know if he's really

is dark or having a bad time, but I knew he's always answering my call when I call. didn't answer. He called me back. And he's, hey, I'm getting the dogs and I'm going to go for a walk. Thank you so much. And it just brings me tears myself. Like, it's wild impact that we can have on keep both lives. We're intentional. It's interesting because we're in, at least in my lifetime, we're in a world where we're more connected than ever, right? We can see people, ever. We don't have to hide under the table at night on the phone. Yes. The phone like,

my dad's on. But the flip side of that is we're craving a connection more than ever. Isn't that wild? We're craving that person that feels us or understands us or maybe just sent us a text, hey, go for a walk. I don't think that we realize that the little things are such big things. The little things that we don't think about many times are so impactful. And I've seen that more and more the longer I live and I'm here on this planet of how those minuscule little tiny things that you think are no big deal are a big deal.

And if we can keep doing those little things add up to the big things. But they do. We've focused on the big things that we can't see the little things, right? Yeah, and it has a compounding effect. Those little things matter. Yeah, it has a compounding effect. You can be doing things behind closed doors for a really long time. Yeah.

That you are rewarded for later. And so it's, and I think we can even, some, unfortunately, I think it's unfortunate, but in business, we can differentiate ourselves just by simply keeping our word, communicating, not necessarily showing up. Maybe you don't show up one time. Maybe something happens. Like, just be human. and connect with people.

I'd like to share just the most simplest thing is when you go to the copy place or you call a realtor or you interact with humans throughout the day or you're showing by example how you treat people on your first date or whatever it is to actually pause after you ask someone how they're doing. Yeah. And that right there is just the exchange of energy where people feel human. And then, of course, they're going to be curious and feel grateful. one, know how you are or connect with you in a deeper level, and then you receive back,

that's how you receive back, right, that energy exchange. It's so simple, so powerful. I love to see what you're doing, Marbury. I'm excited to talk a little bit about your podcast and just looking forward into the next year, being brave, being uncomfortable, putting yourself into that next spot where you're in the hot seat where you're like, I'm going to do something wild. I don't know even what it is yet. Talk to us a little bit for those out listening that are maybe a little fearful about their 20, 25 goals, or they're setting them just where they think they can aim. Talk to us about going bigger with those goals or maybe just not even knowing what they are yet. What is that? You know, I think that I, and I don't know if we were talking about this before we

came on air or not, but I heard somebody talking about how to go and find five big nose. What is something that you've dreamt about for so long, but you're so afraid that somebody's going to say no, right? Or you just assume somebody would say no, right? You assume that, like, who would be your dream guest or what would be a dream destination you want to go to? Or what would be a dream? What are those dreams that when you ask somebody else, we like, oh, no, nope, not doing it. But you keep pushing until you get to the person who says, sure. And so that's, that. That made me think I saw somebody post that and I'm like, okay, I'm going to work on my list. Who are people that I would love to have conversations with or be able to sit down with or be able to spend some time with, right? Not just like in passing, hi, or nice to meet, you shake your hand or, oh, they're a big deal at a VIP party or something. But who could you actually sit down and have an in-depth conversation with, right? And I think that's what was impactful about the women's events that we went to is that we got to. I got to talk to some people that I never talked to, including you.

That was a powerful event. Yeah. What an amazing experience that we had. So that was our inaugural event for the Women's Impact Network at EXP Rulte. And I learned that we have the NPS score in EXP in that event. And don't quote me because that might be 1% off. But I know it was at least an 86% NPS score for an event. Wildly amazing.

and why is that? The number one reason is that people felt connected. They felt safe to really experience something. And what a powerful opportunity to just be able to be vulnerable with people. I feel like you can let your guard down. I learned so much that day, even about myself. I think that those are probably some of the areas that I personally need to work on more, is that vulnerability aspect of it. Because like you're talking about your friend, you're just suck it up, toughen up, don't cry, put on your big girl pants, whatever it is. And I feel like where you can make the biggest impact and you can have the greatest result and effect is when you are more vulnerable. When you do give people that space, you give yourself the space, right?

And give yourself that place that you can open up and be more vulnerable and share more about where you are. And I think for some that I know for me, that's been a challenge. It's been very difficult. And so I've sometimes avoided those situations or conversations or I'll be very surface in them. But I feel like that's where you can make the biggest impact. And I think that if I can be vulnerable with people that gives them the space and the freedom and the permission to do the same. Because no matter who you are, they look up to you, right? I don't care whether, again, you're a barista or you're a VIP.

The fact is it there's somebody who's watching you. There's somebody. A hundred percent. And saying, oh, wow. Well, she can do it. Maybe I can do it. Or maybe there's something more possible for me than I'm even seeing by watching someone else. I love that, Marguerite.

And I think, too, when we share, if you were to think back when you were, you know, one you're in the business and you thought about who were your five knows 30 years ago. Who were your five knows five years ago? Who is he? So the funny things. And now those people are maybe your friends or people that need advice from you or they're going through hell, who knows, right? Yeah, you just don't know.

And I guess that's why it's important to just lead your life with what is important to you and the values. And like you said earlier, being kind to people. and helping them where you can because you just don't know where that's going to come back. And there's somebody, I just talked to somebody the other day. They're a brand new agent. They're like, I feel really stupid. I said, we'll take a deep breath.

You're not stupid. You're far from stupid. You got a college education. I don't even have a college degree. I didn't even go to college. I grew up to high school. Yeah. If you're comparing education.

They're like, what? Exactly. That proves the point that you have this perception of what success looks like. And you don't even know. Because of a new, who runs the core coaching group. What's the same? Rick Ruby. And he used to always, he used to always say he has a PhD, a public high school diploma.

Same. I just think that you just have to do the best you can. And what's crazy is that life has its way of showing you that what you did is okay. And you're going to be okay if you just keep moving, right? I have a sticky. I have a sticky, a couple of sticky notes that I snagged and took back and I've been sharing some of the messages from that Women's Impact Network Conference. And I love this one. And we've been doing this one of my team meets, which is what is one belief that you have about yourself that isn't true? I think that helps us grow and expand, right?

It does because I didn't originally attend to actually ask you the question, but I just thought it's such an insightful question. It's a question you have to sit with. I think that I doubt myself a lot, like probably, many people do. I doubt my abilities and my... Or something in your head, does. Something in my head says, you aren't enough or you don't know enough about this. And I did, I wonder if I can find it real quick. I wouldn't want to read the whole thing, but it was a chat GPT prompt. And what did it say? Let me see if I can find it real quick. Yeah, why you look for that. It was so good. It was so good. To move past that is to replace it, right? Because somewhere we are reinforcing and justifying those beliefs that we have deep down.

And that's why we- So here's the prompt. It says, what do you know about me that I might not know about myself based on our recent interactions? I actually asked how to be key this question. That is so fascinating. Like it says resilience and adaptability, right? It says deep connection to community, mentor at heart, innovative and strategic thinking.

It obviously goes into much more detail about that. I was like, wait. Who are they talking about? Hold on. Chill out. Yeah, stand down. And I think that there was another exercise that I did years ago, Dan Sullivan, who rent this strategic coach. My favorite. Yeah. He did, he got us do an exercise that talked, that said, send out an email to 12 people that are close to you, like family, friends or whatever, and ask them what they think your greatest strengths are. Yeah. I've done this. It was so good. So good. It's deeply interesting, too, in the way you can connect with people.

And it helps with that exercise of what is our perception of what other people think, because that's what the reality that we live in, which is very different than the reality. Yeah. Oh, wow. That's interesting. Oh, you got me deeply thinking there. I paused. Sincerely, pause.

So I'm excited, Marguerite. We have some really great common connections. We're surrounded by amazing people, and it's just such a blessing and an honor to sit with you and chat. I look forward to getting to know you more. And I want you to share in this put out into the universe because I know you're doing your reflections. You're thinking about 2025. You're expanding on what's possible for 2025 for Marguerite. So what would you want to put out to the world in terms of what you're wanting to connect with,

what you're putting out there that you're wanting to accomplish. maybe one of these nose are that you want to interview, what would you put out there to the world that you'd want to connect on? I would say for me, I want to take conversations deeper. And I want to have a few more meaningful relationships in my life. And I think for 2025, what I intend to do in the next few days,

because this is all just literally shut up for me, is to really make that list. of who are people that I want to spend more time with. Who do I want to surround myself with? And who do I want to have conversations with? There's a lot of great people out there that I love and admire what the work that they're doing and how they've given back and how they've contributed. And A, I want them to know that. They probably already know it.

But maybe they don't. They need to hear it for me. And I love that. You know, the other aspect of it and is that I, I want to. want to be able to have that impact in a way. I don't really know what that looks like right now, and I don't know that I'm super connected to what that looks like. I just feel like I'm at this point in my life where I definitely need to be doing more, right? I feel like I can give back in more ways that I've ever been able to do. And that allows me to do more, to connect more,

to help support other people in whatever their goals and dreams are. But I'm going to make a little list. I'm making a list of the people that I want to talk to. I'm going to take it twice. Yeah. I didn't want to cut you off. I made a list actually of people that have said, hey, Jessica, if you ever need anything or you ever want to chat or connect or if there's anything I can help you with or whatever. When I made that list, and one of my mentors, actually, I was speaking to her earlier today. She's a developer, an investor. She's now in her 60s. And she's saying, like, this next five, 10 years in my life is for me. Like, my kids are grown. They need me, but they don't really need me and all those things. And she says,

also need to, it's great to mentor. It's great to give, but you also need to put yourself in those rooms, be mindful to make sure you're committed for building those relationships with people that you want to grow into, that better version of yourself and where you can learn and be in that environment. So that can be challenging because, you know, as servant leaders, you can get into that motion of, it's just in order for you to continue to serve, you also have to grow. Definitely, there's a famous saying, right, you are the culmination. of the people you hang out with the most, right? Sure, of course. So who are you really hang out with? And I'm at the same stage in my life. My kids are all grown and grandsons now that my kids,

they call me every couple days when they need something. Not totally, but they're great kids, but I don't need the day to, they're obviously I'm not in the day to day of their lives. And they're dressing themselves now. Yeah. Yeah. Now it's really a matter of, okay, what the heck do I do with myself? What is what is your purpose? My purpose. And so that takes some work, right? But I feel that the work to make that happen means I have to push myself out of that. Be intentional. And I have to really reach out and connect and spend that time with people and get to know them because I'm not going to get to know myself any better if I'm not pushing myself into different groups and different types of people. I think that's essential. And so what 2025 looks

like, I don't know yet, but I'm hoping it's going to be a good year and I'm going to get some stuff done that I wanted to do and spend some time with great quality people like you. Oh, I love that, Margaret. So let's summarize this with the action steps for everyone to follow along on this journey with us. So we're going to make our list and we're going to be intentional about reaching out to these people rather than awaiting to be embounded. Yes.

And we are going to dig deeper. We're going to have richer, more meaningful, more vulnerable, more authentic and more empathetic conversations with other humans that we want to get to know better. We're going to make time for it. It's going to be a non-negotiable. I'm excited to see how this year unfold and to be connected and get to know you, Margaret. Thank you for sharing and pouring into everyone like you always do, whether it's from a stage, a phone, or an in-person conversation.

I'm so grateful for you and look forward to staying connected. Thank you so much. Right back at you, my friend. we've got to get you on my show too. I'll see you on your show soon. Bye. Take care. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. What an incredible conversation with Marguerite. Her story is such a powerful reminder that it is possible to build a wildly successful career without sacrificing your family, your health, or the things that you truly love. Her vulnerability about her struggles and her journey to create

a business that works for her and not the other way around is exactly the perspective that we need in this high-pressure world of entrepreneurship. It's about creating a life you love and being present for the people who matter most. As Denzel Washington said, do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do. And if you found value in today's episode, don't forget to share with a friend who might need this message today. And until next time, keep growing, keep giving, and keep building a life and a business that serves you. See you next time.