KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Tips for a Mid-Year Check-In - Reassessing Goals and Transforming Your Personal Growth

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

Hello, everyone. It's Christine from the Abundant Investor podcast. I'm here with co-host, Ben, co-founder of the abundant investor, Beth Rooney. Today we have a mid-year review podcast for you. It's such a great time to really stop and take a look around your business and the environment around you and say, what's working? Am I on target for my goals? Are the goals that I've set for the second half of this year still feasible and feeling good to me? And we're going to talk about how we've done that here a little bit and how that applies to you as a business owner. If you're a real estate investor, we'll talk to that a bit too. And also for the real estate agents out there, because we know that we've got some of you in our audience, we're going to talk about what

is the current landscape look like, particularly with the NAR settlement and the changes going into effect this summer. So without further ado, we are going to have a lively conversation about what it means to take a pause and look around and say, how are we doing? I love this, Christine. This is the topic that you and I just naturally, I think it's in our bones, right? You as a coach, being as a, also as a coach and as a former manager of agents, you know, I think taking stock of where you are is so important, right?

Regardless of where you are in life, whether in what you're, profession is, really. And, you know, in December, you and I did a couple of episodes where we talked about reflecting on the year behind us and setting up some strategies for the year ahead. And I think this is a natural progression to say, okay, we're entering the last month of the first half of 24 and how are we doing against all those things that we said we would do. So it's one of my favorite topics. Yeah, yeah, it's really great. And, you know, what I love about this is that there's a qualitative and a quantitative part of it. I think we so often will sit down and look at the numbers or maybe we haven't kept the numbers really closely and so we're not sure

what they are and it's easy to say, oh, I'm not really sure what's happening and just keep chugging along. But I think when we stop and ask ourselves like, how do I really feel in the business right now and what do I feel is working? And then what are the numbers telling me? What are they showing me is working. We can learn a lot and we can learn a lot to inform where we want to go from here. I think a lot of entrepreneurs, we don't really, we get so caught up in the daily business. We're so just in the grind of it that we don't stop and create the space to reflect. And one of the things that I've learned and work on with my coaching clients is intentionally creating that space, creating space where a lot of times, I just talk to a client about this this morning,

it's literally getting out of the office and giving yourself a day or two or three outside the office because we've got to get out of our environment sometimes and really reflect on how things are going and where we want to be taking them. Yeah, I think that's a really good point, Christine. And you know, it's funny. It's like the push and pull, right? It's what is coming naturally? Like, What is there has to bring a change of something that's become very easy to do that's to propel you in one direction that's equally as satisfying and as maybe rewarding financially. But it takes you away from maybe something that you had a plan for. And then, you know, like allowing yourself to to follow that. I think for some of us, that's hard.

You know, you said, well, I said I was going to do these five things. And I haven't. And I haven't checked those off my list yet. Right? But I think the idea of getting away from it and taking a big, you know, taking a step back and really looking at the big picture to say, all right, what, not only where am I from a financial numbers kind of KPI kind of standpoint, but how does it feel and how is it going? And am I enjoying what am I doing? And is there something that is, you know, maybe feeling like it's such, you know, a heavy burden to lift every. single time you do it, do you still need to do it. Right. Absolutely. And I think giving like one thing you mentioned, Beth, is like feeling like you have to check

off the list. You can give yourself, and I encourage you to give yourself permission to let there be things that go unchecked and actually get crossed off the list because they're not in alignment anymore. Maybe the market's changed. Maybe you found another source of flow in your business. it's so important just to step back and say what's working, what's not, and then to let go, right? And really allow yourself the, because anytime we let go of something that doesn't feel aligned or is not working, we free up energy for new possibilities.

And I think we forget that. Like I talk about opportunity costs a lot. A lot of times we don't even realize the cost of something that we keep doing because we're not realizing that when we stop that, it actually opens up possibility for new things. So I just want to emphasize, like, give yourself permission to let go of things if they're not feeling aligned anymore. And then it makes a lot of sense.

And I think that it's, it's, again, there's a podcast about real estate and real estate investing, right? But it doesn't, you know, the thing that may be blocking you may have nothing to do with what you're doing as a career. Maybe it's, you know, I don't know, maybe you're sitting in traffic a lot. And it's because you have to, you know, take your child to a certain activity at a really busy time of day and it's like causing all this angst.

This is a good time to say, hey, you know, next year is a different school year. Should we change our schedule? Should we do something a little bit different? Should we looking to maybe hiring a sitter that could take them to that activity and release all of that for me? Like it's not just the year what you're doing in your career. I think it's sometimes there could be other things that are really creating some of this, this negative energy that that could be blocking you from receiving, you know, the highest and best opportunity for you.

Yeah, that's really, really good. It's so true. So I think look, yeah, looking at life holistically, right? So that getting out of the business and saying, like, how do I set up my life to support my business? And how do I want it all to work together? Someone recently asked me, what's your ideal week? And I thought, oh, my gosh, like, that's a really big question. I don't really have an answer on that micro of a level.

Like, I know what my ideal year contains. But the idea that your ideal week really gets to the way that you're living, it becomes your lifestyle day in and day out. And it's such a great question because if you are working, working, working, and you're not prioritizing the things that you say are most important to you, you're going to catch that. If you're working on one particular area and you're really passionate about another, but you're just not giving it the attention, okay, so why is that? I think that's a really good question. One of the things that you and I did, too, is we got really clear on what are all the things we're

doing and putting some, like, revisiting. our metrics and getting clear on what do the metrics look like? And then from there, we could kind of back out and say, okay, like for me anyways, I said, okay, how am I spending my time? And what do I really need to do to clear space to get some of these things done that haven't gotten done for a while? Yeah. I think that it's, I think that's really, I think it's a really good point. And I'm just something that I just, a little exercise as we're speaking, I just did in my own head was when you were talking about what do you want your ideal week to look like kind of look back we've had a we did a podcast about making decisions one time as well and I look back and I think you know I had a career

fidelity that I really loved but I wanted to spend more I wanted to eat dinner with my kids every night and it was making it difficult for me to do that so I shifted to a career that I lived and worked in the same town and I loved what I did right it wasn't um it wasn't the same as fidelity i always kind of missed that a little bit but i ended up loving it but it gave me that opportunity to be 10 minutes from my house and have dinner with my family every night and now i look at what we're doing and i you know my family has grown i have more flexibility i want to take some risk i want to be an entrepreneur i want to be able to do things that you know so my ideal week what it looks like i guess has changed and so i didn't necessarily

go into it with that answering that question but I think that's a good way for people to answer that question is maybe to reflect and say what are some decisions you made over time and it was probably because your week was out of alignment of really what you wanted it to be right absolutely and I think you like honor the season that you're in is what you're saying Beth and and it's going to be changing and it gets to change and that's a good thing and what we don't get intentional about will stay the same. So I think that makes a lot of sense to get really intentional about what it is you want. And yeah, I mean, going going back to metrics, right, and like looking at

that for me, like that, that's also, I think, helpful to get on the same page about things. Okay, are we feeling like this is an area where we are going to be able to hit these metrics? Or like what is changed, right? Like we could talk a little bit about being an agent right now and what's changed for agents that might change some of their numbers up in terms of what their projected numbers of buyers are going to look like that they plan to work with versus sellers. Maybe your market has changed.

Yeah, maybe the average housing price is starting to go down or it's rising, right? Yeah, exactly. I think, you know, if you're an agent, you built a business plan for 2024 back in December or November, you had an inkling that there was something happening with Narbu. We didn't really know, right? And then we now we have a really clear understanding of, hopefully a really clear understanding of what's going to happen in August. And that could change your plans dramatically. Maybe you're saying, you know, something?

I really just want to focus on sellers. Or instead of, you know, if you had a plan to say be work 50% with sellers and 50% with buyers, you know, that plan may be more 7525. Or maybe you double down and you say, you know what? These buyers really need me. And I'm going to actually focus more on buyers because I know I can provide great value. I don't know what that answer is. But just to continue on a plan because you wrote it without reflecting a really major change

and shift in the environment around you is probably not the best approach. Yeah, so that's a really great point. And we talked earlier before we hopped on the call about interest rates, right? I mean, we've been hearing the interest rates are coming down for a long time, right? We thought, okay, in March, they're going to come down in April. Well, maybe not, you know. But now it does seem to be shifting that we should see some rates come down. And that has a massive effect on your ability to be,

when you're investing in real estate. You and I are doing a fix and flip right now and the rate that we're getting charged. If that comes down, that's going to help us a lot on future projects. Absolutely. Yep, so true. So like the market definitely has,

especially in real estate, like what's happening in the market is definitely going to affect your plans. And this is actually one of the reasons I like to, I love to plan six months in advance. And, you know, I know a lot of people plan for the, year. I love a six-month plan because I do know things change, including your own priorities, right?

Sometimes offense happen, too, that will spark an interest in something. So I know we've had quite a few people when we have content around investing in college towns. We have a lot of people that have liked those posts. We've had a lot of shares on a couple of them. So it's an interesting topic in our community of when your child decides to go away for college, a lot of college towns can be great investment opportunities. So maybe now you have a sense that your child is going away to school for the first time or they were thinking of transferring and you were thinking of buying real estate, but you didn't want to if they were going to transfer. And now they're committing again for the school year that starts in the fall. Maybe you want to start looking at properties.

You want to start doing things like that to supplement your income. Take the leap to become a real estate investor if before you were not really sure. Maybe you just got your tax return back and you got a nice check and you're wondering, how do I invest this? And you've been thinking about real estate investing. Hey, like, that's another thing that might have happened in the last six months that's going to impact how you spend your resources and time going forward. And I think it's, it can be really exciting. It doesn't always have to be, oh, things aren't quite working out, right?

Like, it can be a, like, wow, like these, look at what opportunities and what information has come forth over the last six months that you can use to your advantage. Yeah, I love that. And back to your college town example, you know, many people are going to, maybe they've been through the revisit and now maybe over the summer, their child is going to be going to an orientation weekend. And if you're far away, maybe you're going with them and, you know, you're staying, you're looking to see where you stay. You know, going to that and while the college student is up doing everything that they used to be doing, getting to know that town is a great thing to do. And recognizing, Was it hard for you to find a hotel? I remember when my son got into prep school, he was doing a PG year. I called the hotel when I was calling to on the revisit weekend. And they said, okay, this is on the Berkshires.

They said, okay, if he decides to go, why don't you call us back? Because you should be making his graduation plans for next year now. And so on the phone, I decided. to just book the room because I knew he was going to go. So this was, you know, not 18 months, maybe 16 months in advance. So knowing that, you know, and the owner of the small boutique hotels,

there's no place to stay out here and everything gets booked on graduation weekend. So like I tell you that story because it's an important thing to note. If you're having a hard time finding a place to stay or maybe you're starting to make plans for parents weekend or whatever that is and you're finding that every, everything's already booked, well, maybe investing in an Airbnb there is a great idea. Absolutely. And if you're going down that path and you want more information, we talk about this. We have a course that you can take on how to get started with Airbnb, and we also have coaching. So those are two things that our community is taking advantage of regularly.

I think also as an investor, there's speculation that interest rates could come down a bit. So that's also something that might impact your plans. And you might have, have anticipated that they were going to come down already. So maybe things, you know, things have shifted in that regard. So I think, you know, revisiting any investment plans that you have and thinking about timing. And also, when do you have the bandwidth? Because making a real estate investment is a considerable amount of time and making sure that you fit that into your schedule and your ideal week is important as well. So, you know, what do you want the next six months to look like personally and professionally, it's such a good question to ask. And especially if you're of the age where you're

maybe sandwich generation or you still have kids, making sure you're clear on what you want before other people start to take up your valuable time is something I always recommend, especially for women, because we'll tend to put our own needs on the back burner. So what is it you'd like to do that's supportive to your own well-being and your business? Yeah, I think that's a really good point. Christine, I think, you know, what I think, you know, just if I had to summarize sort of a three-step, like three takeaways from what we're talking about on what to do, I'd say number one is take some time to reflect, right? Get away from, you know, pull back. It's beautiful out in a lot of parts of the country now. Get outside for a walk, whatever it is that allows you to think straight. So, you know, step one reflects. The two is, you know, decide if you need to make shifts or maybe not. Maybe things are going. exactly as you wanted and it feels great. So, you know, just looking at, you know, doing a little bit of decision making around should you make shifts or not. And then, you know, our favorite, I think, step three is taking action. You know, that's where I, you know, we, as you mentioned, we coach a lot of

people. We talk to a lot of people. And it's the fear of not taking what's ahead. That causes sometimes people not to take action. So don't forget step three. especially if you're making a shift in your plan or adding something new that you haven't done before, keeping that courage up to continue to take action. Yeah, that's a really great recap. And I do love the emphasis on the action there. I think, you know, if you're on the fence about something, I want to just think about just going for it. I've been, I've had the fortune to spend some time with some older folks lately.

And one of the things that's been on my mind as a result of that and actually came up in my meditation this morning too is what if you had limited amount of time to live? How would you live your life? I love that frame because it really gets everything into perspective. It will change. If you really allow yourself to deepen into that thought, I think most people will have some shifts in the way that there. prioritizing things and that they're spending their time. So if you're like I know we have a lot of people that are thinking about real estate investing, some people that are, you know, thinking about becoming an agent or starting a business. What does it look like not to do that, right? What will you

regret? And if you just had one year, would you go for like, wouldn't you just go for it? Yeah. So yeah, I really like that as a as a, as a, a way to maybe create some sense of urgency for yourself because all too often it's easy just to not have any and just allow things to be the same because our body feels safe and comfortable when everything stays the same. So I want you to go for it. Yeah, I love it. I think that's great. It's like a manufactured sense of urgency, you know? And you know, again, like I think that's so important. It's what's going to propel you forward. and that's, you know, I think, you know, continual improvement, right?

Kaizen, always trying to improve your life. And sometimes that means you have to get uncomfortable. And we're here to support you. And as Christine said, we do coaching. We do, you know, hopefully this podcast is supportive. And if you think if you found that it is and you want to give us a rating or share it, we'd love that. We love bumping into people that tell us who listen to your podcast all the time. It's great.

So thank you for those that share that with us. But please feel free to share it with your friends or give us a reading. We'd love to hear from you. Love it. So good. All right. So I hope this has been helpful for everyone. Please let us know what comes out of your mid-year review.

plan yourself sometime and some space to really dig into like what's happened so far and what your goals look like for the next six months. And we'll be back soon. We have some great episodes coming up. I know because we've got several guests that we're going to be interviewing and that we're interviewing. So stay tuned. Keep coming back. And thank you as always for listening. Thank you. We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Abundant Investor podcast and learn something new. hear from you. And if you did get something from this episode, please subscribe and make this podcast so more people can find it and live their rich lives too. And remember, an abundant mindset means there's always plenty to go around and through giving we receive.