KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Life's Game Changers Three Strategies for Bold Decisions in Investing and Beyond

Episode Date: March 13, 2025

Welcome back to the Abundant Investor podcast. I'm your host, Beth Rooney, and I'm here with my business partner, Christine Fisk, and we have an awesome podcast in store for you today. Today we're going to talk about making giant leaps of progress in your life. Whether it's real estate investing or making big decisions, we are going to talk about how do you make some giant leaps of progress in your life. And what's motivated us to have this conversation today? is we've been at this for over a year now. We've met hundreds of people that are interested in investing in real estate. And the question that we've asked ourselves in preparing for today's podcast is what holds people back? And what's holding people back is not interest rates or market conditions or lack of inventory, all of things that are big topics in real estate. What's the number one thing holding people back is what's between. their two ears.

They're within their mind and within their heart and it's in taking action. So true, Beth. I'm so excited to dig into this with you. This is a really, really juicy one. I love it because it combines the coaching realm along with a lot of what I do in my coaching world along with the real estate piece. And you're right. We've seen so much in talking to people.

We've seen a lot of inaction. And I think people would really be served. to hear a bit more about what are the things that are really holding people back because despite what you see out there, it is not the things that are in the news and making the headlines. This stuff doesn't make the headlines. And I think that's why it's so important to keep talking about it. We are wired certain ways and we have belief systems and we have ways of thinking about things and ways of doing things that get rooted in us from our childhood.

And we don't really often stop to question those. Those are the real big things that are holding us back. from making the big leaps that we want, whether that's making our first real estate investment, whether it's making a, you know, selling our house, whether it's, you know, deciding to go all in on a renovation that will serve our family as they're growing. These are big ticket, they tend to be big ticket items.

They tend to feel like bold moves for people. And I think a lot of people get stuck. So what we wanna do today is really dig into this topic, uncover what those things are that hold people back from taking And also like what's riskier taking action or not taking action? You're right. So this is going to be a fun one as we dive in.

Yeah, I agree, Christine. And I think that that's a really great question. What is risk? And you know, I think people associate risk with taking big action. But sometimes the bigger risk is doing nothing. You know, I mean, you think about driving a car on a highway, right? I think about this with my mom when she was driving. You know, people assume that if you're driving recklessly and you're going super fast way over the speed limit, that's risky.

And you're putting yourself at risk. Well, I remember times driving with my mom and she's going so well below the speed limit that she was putting herself at risk. That's right. And it's the same thing in life, right? Absolutely. And sometimes, especially in real estate, after the, you know, the major, I'm, you know, the major. massive growth we've seen in appreciation, if you sit on the sidelines and don't take action, you miss all that growth.

That's right. And that's risky. Yeah, I think that's so true. I think, you know, this is rooted in psychology. We tend to see what's happening and we tend to see what the masses are doing. And we tend to think, oh, you're like, the market's going up. So that's great. And I'm not going to saw my house because it's just going to keep going up.

I don't want to miss out on an opportunity. right? And so then we do nothing. And then what happens? Well, maybe like 2008, the market crashes, right? And then we wish we did something. And then we say, oh, I would have been great if this didn't had this external event didn't happen. And we wait for these external events to kind of give us permission to do things or, and a lot of times it's other people that is the external event. We see other people doing things and it feels safe to go ahead and, oh, okay, now I'm going to sell my house and buy my next house or I'm going to downsize. right? And I think we spend a lot of time looking externally for those answers and for validation. I mean, let's think about it. The most basic human needs are to belong and fit in. So that's driving a lot of why we look around us. And then even more than that, it's to feel safe. So it feels safe to us to have certainty. It feels safe to us to know that if I don't change anything, things will stay the same and therefore I'm safe. Well, guess what? That thinking is rooted in our reptilian brain. It's not the more sophisticated part of our brain that has developed as we humans have evolved over the last

several hundred years, especially. And we're making decisions that are very primitive based on a very limited amount of information to keep us safe and to keep us safe in a feeling of belonging as well. So we follow the status quo. However, if you, you want to grow by leaps and bounds, if you want to make a lot of money, if you want to really tap into your untapped potential, which all of us have, we all have so much potential that we're only scratching the surface of. It's got to be a different approach. And so we want to talk to you a little bit about that today. That's really at the root of so much of what we believe in personally and what this business is built on. And we want to help you tap into that even more by showing you another way that

that you can move beyond that reptilian brain, that you can actually feel into bigger dreams and you can take action toward them. Like you said, Beth, that bias towards action is huge. And that's stepping into uncertainty, although it feels a little scary, that's where the edge is. And that's where you're really going to grow. Yeah, I love it. So we're going to cover three topics on this and it can kind of drill down. And I guess you can look at them. That's kind of three steps. But first one, number one is, you know, your belief, believing or not believing. what's possible. Number two is your decision making, whether you're good at it or not so good at it.

And number three is really taking action. And I think that those three things are sort of what we're highlighting today. And so I love number one, is this believing? So Christine, how do you think people who really believe and see potential in like that path for them? How do you think they do that. I think that one of the biggest ways, first of all, our beliefs are based on what we've learned, so what we grew up with. So, you know, it's really fun having kids that are teenagers and developing and getting older, right? Like, they start to go over their friends' houses and they have these aha moments where they see families in other families doing things differently. Because I think what happens is we, I know what happens is we grow up and we believe the way things

were in our house are the way things were in everyone's house. And then you go out and you see, see, oh, they're doing things differently. And this is why I love travel with my kids and getting my kids into different experiences, I think, because you want to show them that the world is so much bigger than the way that you do things, not just like what you have and in what's in your house, but the way that people think about things. It's so much bigger and there's so many different ways to do it. You really have to see other examples of the way things are done in order to believe them. So I'm a huge fan of imagination. I love, like, and I think reading to kids when they're young is so important to show them like there's so many different ways and you can

imagine anything. I think we lose that a lot as we get old. We start to have this fixed mindset of this is the way things are. And it's very limiting. And I think part of my bias towards change in action is that that makes me feel a little claustrophobic is to have like when I start to feel bad, it's because I feel limited and I feel like there's a box around what I can do and I, it's really uncomfortable for me. I actually have a bias towards uncertainty. I crave that a little bit more. So I think getting out there and seeing more things and seeing what's possible. Now, I'll just give this example. My husband and I just got on a call for a mastermind for something that was like a pin of a dream like two years ago and something I never thought like we would do.

And we just got on it to see what was possible and some other people doing this dream. And I don't really want to get into details today. But I think it's the story there is we started to explore this because we know that people are doing something much bigger than we are doing. And we wanted to get a taste of it to see if it's something that we want. And that's really like so much of what you've got to do. Surround yourself with people that are doing the thing that you want to do. And you've got to allow yourself to dream really big.

And we've talked about this on other podcasts. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think we just put a cap on ourselves and we say, oh, well, this is fine. I'm happy. And there's so many reasons for this in our conditioning. We were told, especially as women, to stay quiet, stay smaller, don't make a big fuss. be nice to everyone. There's a lot of messages that we received that really hold us back from being

in our full potential. And the people who told us those, they thought they were doing the best. I really believe, and Brunet Brown says us, everyone is, if everyone's really trying to do their best. And I really believe that with what they have. And so we've got to kind of challenge those beliefs because they may not serve us and see beyond and see bigger and ask ourselves, well, if I really allowed myself to dream, like when I was a kid, what would I want today? And then, oh, my gosh, the world, like everything opens up. It's infinite possibilities. Yeah, exactly.

I love what you're saying. You're saying, expand your world, expand your mind, and then your dreams can expand. And I love that. I think that, you know, I know we're both big fans of Tim Ferriss. And I recently, somebody asked him, like, what would you put on a billboard or what's your biggest piece of advice to people. And I've heard him say this over and over again is he said, really be conscious of who you're surrounding yourself with. And I think that's really true. And I think it's also important to think about what information are you consuming. I recently

was listening to a book that was talking about this. And like, what information do you consume? Do you watch the news and hear terrible news all day and that's what you're consuming? or are you reading books about how other people are doing things or listening to podcasts or really opening your mind like I love your examples of you know going to masterminds Christine and making big investments in yourself because it puts you at a table with people that are just doing things differently and you get to just see so much more and I think that's great I love it I love the idea of you know like you're saying traveling and seeing different parts of the world or, you know, like even like my son Colin going to Chicago and

moving there. It's just a whole different, you get to see a different perspective. And I think it's healthy and it's great. And I love that advice. So I think, you know, to believe it's possible seeing it done by somebody else is so important. I love that. 100%. Yeah. And I think, you know, let's go back to the mastermind just for a second because I think a lot of people don't even, you know, know what a mastermind is. And it's it's a concept that if you read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, he talks about it. And this was written decades ago. It's years and years and years old. Masterminding is bringing together a bunch of people with really open minds and using each other to bounce your new ideas and your imagination and like all the ideas that you have around

together. And it's a really open, supportive environment for basically, people to evolve faster and to grow. And I think that a lot of times we get, we're in our routine, we're in our town, we're in our social circles, and we forget to get where we're, we're not sure where to go to get outside perspective. And yeah, joining masterminds with other entrepreneurs has really accelerated my growth because I've been able to witness people who are doing things different ways and it just opened my mind. And actually, Beth, it was the impetus to me getting using high cash value, whole life insurance as a financial strategy. That came from a mastermind. I would not have had that information. I would not have gotten that information from

anyone in my existing world, most likely. I probably would not even have been ready to receive that information if someone shared it with me. If I saw it on the internet, I wouldn't have been ready. And that has not only changed my life from a financial strategy point of view, but it's also brought you and I together that was part of the foundation for building this company. And the way that the events unfolded around that were really serendipitous and magical. And so I think that was, it was really, really powerful. And also, I'll just add, it was scary for me in the beginning to join that mastermind because it was a really big investment in myself. And I wasn't used to investing in myself. Would I pour thousands of dollars into a renovation,

tens of thousands of dollars? Absolutely. Boring it into myself, that felt risky. And it's been one of the biggest returns that I could ever, you know, imagine. And I think that that is a concept. I want people to just wrap their heads around is to invest in yourself and think about, think about where do you want to invest in yourself? And, you know, it's one of the things that I know, like, I know that's true of what you just said is that you made the investment and the outcome was, like, it wasn't like you made the investment and you had a set plan for an outcome and you knew exactly what it was going to be and you made the investment to get to the exact, you know, outcome.

You made the investment and then the outcome unfolded in a way that you never probably could have imagined, but your mind was open enough to receive a new way of thinking and you did that. And now here we are. And I think that that's advice you've given me along the way is being a little bit of a type A person and maybe, I don't know, like wanting to control things. You've given me this advice of not being, you know, of dreaming big, thinking big, but being open to receive maybe something that's a different path than you you anticipated and that's exactly

what happened and I think you have to have that that mindset is so important it's like it's just it's expanding your world to be able to either dream bigger think bigger or receive something that's bigger than you even imagined I love that I love it Christine the next thing we're going to talk about is I think that is a is that gets in wait I know that that halts people in their tracks of taking action is making decisions. I feel as though, you know, the inertia of, you know, analysis, paralysis or, you know, decision fatigue. We have to make so many decisions every single day.

People get tired of making decisions, and so they don't make any decisions. And that, again, is a risk. So I think, I think, let's talk a little bit about how people know. make decisions, how people make, if they make good decisions, and what's some framework they can use for making decisions? This is really good. So I'm going to go, I'm going to take a page from Tony Robbins here. He has a process for expanding on your dreams and for going after what you want. And it really starts with getting yourself in a beautiful state. That's exactly what he calls it. And it's about being in a place where you feel really, really good. And it's literally

changing your state. And so if you've ever been to one of his events, you know that people are jumping and dancing and like in their body. Right. And that's why I say, I always tell my clients when they get stuck on something, go for a walk, go move your body, like create some energy because you're like there's a lot of stagnancy. So getting into a beautiful state means like feeling really good. right? So you don't want to make any big decisions when you're not feeling great. You want to be in a good place. And we all know, we've all done it. We've made decisions from a place where we're grumpy or, you know, feeling really like upset about something. You're in the middle of a fight and or, you know, and you make a decision. And that is honestly when I feel like I can think back to a couple of really

bad decisions I've made from that place in the past. So you want to get into a really good state. And the whole reason for this is because you want to see the, feel strong in your self confidence that like you know what you need and you're not relying on a lot of external information because that Beth, I mean, you can talk about this more, but I know you saw this in your past career like the way that people make decisions. A lot of times people will make decisions out of fear and based on what other people around them are doing because it's certain, again, going back to certainty, and it's comfortable. and just we we tend to make all these decisions every day and our brain goes on autopilot.

We're not really conscious and we're not really being mindful about the way that we're making decisions. So I think, yeah, I think, you know, share a little bit more about what you know about this too. I think it's really valuable for people to hear. Yeah, one of the things that we did at Fidelity, we had these great trainers, Marion and Claudia, if you're out there listening, they were actually, Neurilingual experts and they talked a lot about how people make decisions and it's you know we were talking to advisors about how they make investment decisions for their clients but this is it's it applies to everybody so people tend to make decisions one of two ways either they seek others opinion think consumer reports you know they always want to know what other people thought about this product they're always gathering information about what other people's experiences were that kind of thing so that's

the one end of the spectrum. And on the other end of the spectrum, there are people that make decisions solely based on their own internal decision making, their gut feel, what they want. And those people tend to make decisions faster. The people that are gathering, like, information from all others tend to make decisions slower. And one is not right or wrong, but being aware of where you fall on that spectrum is really important. So, because, Because people are tend to be one way or the other, we would always say to them at the end, many people have, many people have found, but only you can decide, right, to appeal to everybody if we weren't sure where they fell on that spectrum. But I think it's important to consider that. Like, if you find yourself going and asking people's advice about, like, real estate and they aren't experts in real estate and haven't done it, then why are you doing that? And, you know, asking yourself where are you gathering your information from is really important.

And have you sought advice from like 30 people when really you don't need that? And then are you on the other end of the spectrum, are you making fast decisions? You're not really getting all of the full picture. You're just going with your gut. That's not great either. So I think what I would say is the takeaway from this is look back at some of the decisions you've made. think about a little bit about how you make decisions and then give yourself you know a little bit of a rating are you good at this or you bad at this are you too quick to make decisions or do you fall into analysis paralysis and so I think that you know being a good decision maker is an important trait for being a good real estate investor and I think it's a good trade in anything you do in life making good decisions is really a

important. And I think a little self-reflection on that is time well spent. Absolutely. I love the idea of journaling on that and reflecting on some great decisions and also thinking about the, like, if you want to make large leaps in your life, whether it's real estate investing or you're ready to upgrade your house and it feels a little scary, I think we've got to think about what would feel amazing and allow ourselves to like think beyond what we're doing today. The reality is if we, if you wake up every morning and you keep doing the things that you're doing day in, day out, you are not going to make a big change. I want to state this too. It's going to feel uncomfortable. So, you know, just just having, you know, seeing people like being in real estate and seeing people

thinking about making an upgrade to their house and maybe spending more money than they did on their previous house. They're upgrading, right? And so people are stretching themselves. There's a lot of people saying, okay, like, I can afford a million dollar house. And then the house comes on the market that's that's a million dollars and they know that in order to get it, they're going to have to go in at 1.1. And like running the numbers and thinking about can I do this and can I take this risk that I'm going to have these bigger payments and can I find a way to make it work? Now, I'm not advising anyone to go way beyond what they're able to do, but I also think every time that we've bought a primary residence, it's felt stretchy in the beginning. It's felt like a stretch. And then in the end,

we look back and we say, oh my gosh, like remember when it was a really big deal to buy that house and how stretched we felt and then how we made it work. And I think that, you know, you can sit with the formulas all day long and say, like, well, I can't, I really can't spend more than X percentage of my income on my house and on my mortgage. Okay, fine. And, and, and, and, are there other ways that you can make income? Are, and do you anticipate that you're going to be getting raises over the next couple of years? Like, I think you have to look at the big picture and what do you want? Do you eventually want to live in a certain house? Well, you're going to want to stretch yourself. going to be uncomfortable. You might be buying a property out of state and it feels like wild to you

because, oh my gosh, I'm going to be like 10 hours away from this property that I have to, that I own. And can you trust other people to manage it for you? Can you let go of the control, which so many of us, like when you were talking about yourself being type A, Beth, believe me, like I resonate with that too. And so many people that we know. And I think as women, that's also like a, it's a, the technique that we've picked up to try to make, you know, to feel like we're in control when sometimes we're not. Like, we really crave that feeling of control. And the opposite of that is the surrender and it's trusting that things are working out, um, around us anyways. And because really, like we haven't really talked about this, but there is something else in the universe that's

making this all work. I just think you can't deny that. And when we let go, we allow in more possibility for what can happen. Yeah, I love it. I love that. I think that's so great. And I think back to our first, you know, point around believing and who you're surrounding yourself with, I think this, you know, making good decisions, you can make decisions so much faster if you really take the time to learn and be curious.

So read a lot. Listen to podcasts. Walk through homes. Like get out there and talk. to people like you know your decision-making process can can speed up if you're really well educated and take you know take the time to get educated on whatever it is that you're you're seeking but you know we're talking about real estate so you want to buy an investment property in a certain area well get

on Zillow every single day and see what exactly is happening there if it's not and you know like find a way to get information you want to know if you want to buy an Airbnb in a certain market, get on Airbnb and start looking at what the typical daily rate is on a home in that area. There's information at your fingertips so available to you. So start becoming really consumed by getting information and then you'll get much better about decision making. Your confidence will increase and then that will help you make this good decision. Absolutely. I think that's such great advice. Get out there. Be in the position of doing the thing that you want to do, even if it feels a little out there. I've talked about this on another podcast. My husband took me to an open house one time and I said we were looking at houses. And I said, this is way out of our budget. And he said, let's just go look. Let's just go take a look at this house, like for fun. We walked into that house and I was like, oh my gosh, there are things about this house that if I built a house one day, which I think I might, or rent. renovate one that I would do.

And it opened, oh, I really love that feature. I really love how they did this. Great. Whether or not I bought that house. And we did almost rent it, by the way. Like things almost worked out in that way. We found that there were things that we would take with us. And it's just seeing things so that you know that they're possible, right?

Like seeing a kitchen with a really high ceiling and all glass, like looking out onto the pool. Oh, okay. great, now I can put that on my list of like things I'd like to have. Yeah, that's awesome. So even better than pictures, right. Yeah, exactly, exactly, because you feel it in your body and then that becomes part of your vortex, part of what you decide that you've wanted. And then you're going to attract it all that much more easily.

So. I love it. Yeah. So that's key. And I think that ties into the like another big thing that we want to talk about, Beth, which is taking action, right? Because part of taking action. action is just getting yourself out there and get you know you can do research online all day

but what is it like to go to live in this house what does it feel like like when I moved to Milton I did not know I wanted to live here it was not really on our radar and it was a little bit like well let's just go check it out we you've got to take some action yeah to find out what feels good. Yeah, I remember you stayed in an Airbnb up in Syracuse, right, before you bought a prop, before you bought your own midterm rental. And then you got to say, okay, this is what it's like to be a guest at a short-term rental in a market that I'm going to invest in. Like, it's put yourself in that position. And yes, taking action is, it is the key to this whole thing. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I know you've done the same. Like, you've taken a lot of aligned action.

And I think part of the reason, Beth, you've been able to be so successful in real estate is that you've gone, you don't hesitate, right? Like, you make a decision and you go. And I'm sure sometimes that has to feel uncomfortable and you go anyways. You keep moving forward towards it because you trust. You trust that this is aligned for you and that you're ready and you don't look back. Yeah, you can't hesitate. It's a really good point. my one of my um it's kind of we talk about sports a lot I guess this kind of comes back to a little bit

we talk about being an athlete and I think you know as an athlete like if you have an opportunity to shoot and score if you hesitate that out that you're like one second it's gone you know and it's like you that the if you feel good about a decision hesitating is in is going to it could really work against you. And I think that's really, I think that's, it's an important note. And something I've talked about over the years a lot. It was something I learned again, back at Fidelity, Ned Johnson, who started Fidelity, had this belief system of Kizan, which was continual improvement. Just always, you know, moving forward, as my boss from Fidelity, Sam would always say, pushing the peanut up the hill, like making forward progress. And that's so important. So we're talking

about making giant leaps in progress in this in this podcast but not to dismiss making consistent growth is so important and I think taking action sometimes it's just starting and then you snowball from there and so I love it like Nike's just do it like just get started you know it will all work out just but if you just sit with inertia oh, 20 years can pass. We just had a client that reached out and said we might want to do something to our, we might want to do a renovation. We've been thinking about it for 20 years.

Like 20 years goes by like a blink of an eye, right? Exactly. Exactly. And I think this is a really good lead in to people who don't know exactly what they want. Again, take some action. Take some action in the step of what you think you might want. and just start going to open houses because you never know that you might find the right house for you, even if you're not sure if you want to move or not, you might find the right house.

And then all of a sudden it's very clear, oh, I do want to move because I want this house with these features. And this just feels really good. And now that I've seen this, I can't unsee it. And my house feels really small or, you know, I really can't live with just one bathroom anymore. now that I've seen what it could be like to live with three. So I think you've got to just get out there and just start gathering information. And we're talking about gathering information in the analytical sense, but also in your body. And I want you to pay attention to how things feel like somatically to you eating those gut feelings, right?

So just start doing something. And that's how you find out. When someone comes to me and they say, I think I want to leave my job, but I'm not. not sure what I want to do. And a lot of times they don't want to hire me as a coach quite yet because they're like, well, I'm not sure what I want yet. No, hire me now because you have, like, you need to be prompted to go out there and start taking action and to start to do things. And this is what holds people back so much of the time. And then they find themselves in the same position five years later. Yeah. When it could have been, right. It doesn't be perfect. Yeah. Perfection. It has to be

active action. You know? Yes, exactly. Messing you can just get started. I think of like a Monday when we release this is Marathon Monday. One of my favorite days of the whole year. And my son Chris is going to be running. Well, this is his first marathon.

He's not built to be really a runner. It's been painful for him. But you start by getting out and running a couple miles. And then that two or three turns into five or six, which turns into 10 or 12, and then the vision is in sight. And now you can run 15, 16 miles. You can do a marathon, you know. And we're going to see a lot of people when this is live that just started decided they wanted to take action.

And those are my favorite stories these days of people that, you know, maybe in their 50s are running their first marathon or, you know, whatever it may be. I'm like a baby. I cry my eyes out the whole day. I love these stories because it's so inspiring to see these people just take action, set a goal. I guess back to what we talked about, right? They had a vision and a dream in place. They made the decision to do it. And then they took aligned action toward that decision.

And now today, on Monday, when this is live, we're going to see thousands of people accomplish a huge goal of running a marathon because they followed that framework and it will work for them in everything. If they apply that same framework, if we can apply it, if anybody listening, you can apply that framework to anything and making a huge decision like investing in real estate or buying a new property. Use this framework and you can do it. I love that so much. I think the biggest risk is not taking action. So ask yourself what it is that you really want. Stop obsessing about the how for now and just start taking action.

There's so much power in that. Christine, we'll put a link in our show notes on our introduction, a real estate 101. If you want to take some action and get some education, that package includes a video. of you and I talking about all the different ways you can invest in real estate so you can start a vision which type of investment you may want we provide you with some spreadsheets in a workbook so you can start to some you know see what numbers look like

so you can start to get educated so you can make a decision and you can start to take some action so if you want to this that's a great way to start at $47 it's give you everything you need to know to get started. That's right. And if you want more hands on support, you can sign up for one-on-one coaching instead or after that. And we're here for you. We want to hear from you. If you love this podcast, we'd love to see your review. We'd love a five-star rating. It really helps us get the word out to more people. Thank you all so much. We love being on this journey with you. And best of luck in all that you're doing and go conquer the day.