Learn more about working 1:1 with Beth and Christine
Ready to break free from the monotony and reignite your passion for your business? Tune in as Christine and Beth reveal essential strategies for a mid-year business and life review that doesn't just focus on numbers but dives deep into your emotional connection to your work. Learn the significance of stepping out of your daily grind to get a fresh perspective and why giving yourself permission to abandon misaligned goals can actually open doors to new opportunities. We'll guide you through creating intentional space for reflection and prioritizing what's truly important as we move into June 2024.
This episode also offers an insightful discussion on adapting to the dynamic nature of the real estate market. Discover how interest rate changes and significant life events, like sending a child to college, can influence your investment strategies. Christine and Beth highlight the importance of six-month planning cycles to stay agile and aligned with your long-term goals. Plus, get practical advice on early planning for key events such as college orientations and graduations, ensuring you're ahead of the curve. Don't miss out on personal anecdotes and actionable tips designed to keep you on track for a successful and fulfilling year.
Learn more about working 1:1 with Beth and Christine
Ready to break free from the monotony and reignite your passion for your business? Tune in as Christine and Beth reveal essential strategies for a mid-year business and life review that doesn't just focus on numbers but dives deep into your emotional connection to your work. Learn the significance of stepping out of your daily grind to get a fresh perspective and why giving yourself permission to abandon misaligned goals can actually open doors to new opportunities. We'll guide you through creating intentional space for reflection and prioritizing what's truly important as we move into June 2024.
This episode also offers an insightful discussion on adapting to the dynamic nature of the real estate market. Discover how interest rate changes and significant life events, like sending a child to college, can influence your investment strategies. Christine and Beth highlight the importance of six-month planning cycles to stay agile and aligned with your long-term goals. Plus, get practical advice on early planning for key events such as college orientations and graduations, ensuring you're ahead of the curve. Don't miss out on personal anecdotes and actionable tips designed to keep you on track for a successful and fulfilling year.
Hello everyone. It's Christine from the Abundant Investor Podcast. I'm here with co-host and co-founder of the Abundant Investor, beth Rooney. Today we have a mid-year review podcast for you, meaning we're going to take a look at as we approach June, as we're now into June 2024. 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?
Speaker 1:
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 gonna 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?
Speaker 2:
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, me also as a coach and as a former manager of agents 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 your 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 2024, and how are we doing against all those things that we said we would do? So it's one of my favorite topics.
Speaker 1:
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 we have, 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, what's happening, and just keep chugging along. But I think when we stop and ask ourselves, 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.
Speaker 1:
I think a lot of entrepreneurs, 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 talked 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.
Speaker 2:
It's like the push and pull right.
Speaker 2:
It's what is coming.
Speaker 2:
Naturally it 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.
Speaker 2:
Um, 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, um, 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, um, 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 is it feel and how is it going and am I enjoying what I'm 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?
Speaker 1:
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 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.
Speaker 2:
And then it makes a lot of sense and I think that it's. It's again where 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're you have to, you know, take your child to a certain activity, 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.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's really really good, it's, 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.
Speaker 1:
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 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 are the metrics look like? Um, 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? 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.
Speaker 2:
I think that's really um, I think it's a really good point. And I I'm just something that, 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. I loved what I did.
Speaker 2:
Right, 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've made over time, and it was probably because your week was out of alignment of really what you wanted it to be.
Speaker 1:
Right, absolutely. And I think, honor, the season that you're in is what you're saying, beth, 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 back to metrics, right, and like looking at that for me, like 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 has 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. Maybe the average housing price is starting to go down or it's rising, right?
Speaker 2:
yeah, exactly, I think you know. If you 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. 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 in August and that that could change your plans dramatically.
Speaker 2:
You maybe you're 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, work 50% with sellers and 50% with buyers, you know that plan may be more 75-25. 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. Um, 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 that interest rates are coming down for a long time.
Speaker 2:
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 the, you know that we should see some rates come down and that has a massive effect on your ability to be when you're, you know, investing in real estate. You and I look and are doing a fix and flip right now and the and the rate that we're getting charged. You know, if that comes down, that's going to help us a lot on future, for future projects, absolutely yep, yep, so true.
Speaker 1:
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 events happen too. That will spark an interest in something. Right. Sometimes events 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.
Speaker 1:
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. Do you want to start doing things like that to supplement your income? Take the leap to become a real estate investor.
Speaker 1:
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've 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 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.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I love that. And back to your college channel example. Many people are going to. Maybe they've been through the revisit and now maybe over the summer their child is gonna be going to an orientation weekend and if you're far away, maybe you're going with them and you're staying. You're looking to see where you stay, 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 um a hotel? I remember when my son got into um 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, we're, 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 on the phone I decided to just book the room because I knew he was going to go.
Speaker 2:
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 know, if you're, 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 everything's already booked, well, maybe, maybe investing in an Airbnb. There is a great idea.
Speaker 1:
Mm? Hmm, absolutely, and if you're, 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, your plans, and you might have anticipated that they were going to come down already, so maybe things have shifted in that regard.
Speaker 1:
So I think, 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, your schedule and your ideal week is important as well. So you know what? 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 you know of the age where you're maybe sandwich generation or you still have kids. You have kids. Um, 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?
Speaker 2:
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 and 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. It is that allows you to, um, think straight, um, so, you know, step one reflects.
Speaker 2:
The two is, you know, decide if you need to make shifts or maybe not. Maybe things are going exactly as you you wanted and it feels great. So you know, just looking at, you know doing a little bit of decision making around, um, it should, should you make shifts or not? And then you know, our favorite I. 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, it's the fear of of not taking what's ahead that causes sometimes people not to take action. So don't forget step three to, you know, 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.
Speaker 1:
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 you to just think about just going for it. 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.
Speaker 1:
I think most people will have some shifts in the way that they're 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, like, like, wouldn't you just go for it? Yeah, so, yeah, I, I really like that as a as 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.
Speaker 2:
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 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 listening to podcasts all the time it's great. So thank you for those that that, that share that with us. But please feel free to share it with your friends or give us a rating. We'd love to, we'd love to to hear from you love it so good.
Speaker 1:
Um, all right, so I I hope this has been helpful for everyone. Um, please let us know what comes out of your mid-year review. Plan yourself some time in 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 were going to be interviewing and that we're interviewing. So stay tuned, keep coming back and thank you, as always, for listening. Thank you.