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My fiance and our 3 kids know I eat, sleep, and breathe real estate. They roll their eyes and laugh when we sit down for family movie night and my laptop is in hand. Or when I hop up from the dinner table with excitement because that agent is finally calling me back. I’ve more than once gotten the horn honked at me doing the walk of shame back to the car after screaming “Oops! I forgot my work bag” as we’re halfway out of the neighborhood.
It may seem like a lot. Maybe even too much. I’ve heard other Realtors describe rules their kids or spouse have made – no phones at the dinner table, no laptops on vacation, no work after 6pm. We don’t have rules like this at my house. At my house, this is an absolute dream. Because I’m there.
There was a time, not so long ago, where I wasn’t there. Before I created a career for myself in real estate, I worked as the manager of a national retail store. A national retail store that was open 7 days a week and for every major holiday, and was staffed almost entirely by teenage girls. I loved my staff and had so much fun with them. They were kind to each other and showed love and respect to me. They were, however, teenage girls. Which meant soccer games, student council meetings, homecoming, prom, no shows, and even calling in grounded. I was killing myself working my own schedule and my staff’s schedule because that’s just what you do when you’re running a business – whatever you have to. Whatever it takes to keep things running, to have better numbers, to move up in the company.
My last few months managing this store, I worked my step-daughters birthday, Halloween, my birthday, Thanksgiving, 24 hours on Black Friday, Christmas Eve, the day after Christmas, New Years Eve, New Years Day, and then…I got noticed. Our Regional Director told me he saw a lot of promise in how I ran my store and that one day, I might just have his office. It stopped me dead in my tracks. It was exactly the recognition I’d been waiting for, the recognition I’d been abandoning my family and running myself into the ground trying to get. And it was so not worth it. Exactly 5 weeks later, I was enrolled in my real estate classes and, after 3 rounds of interviews, I started my new job as an administrative assistant to a highly successful husband-wife real estate team, who became my first mentors.
So yes, I break ALL of the work-life balance rules. I let them bleed together and overlap, and I’m actually grateful when they do. Because it means I’m there. I’m present.
Sure, I’m writing an offer at a friends birthday BBQ, but there’s a beer in my hand and I’m there. Yeah, I may be designing post cards while my kids swim at the pool, but they bring me the torpedo to throw in front of them as they dive into the deep end and I’m there. I might have jumped up from the table to answer a phone call, but I spent half the evening making chicken pot pie from scratch and I’m there.
I have an incredible amount of passion for real estate and tremendous gratitude that I’ve been able to grow my business and thrive in this industry, while still being present for the people who rely on and love me. Their support is what allows me to provide the level of care and attention to detail that can only come from dedicating time and energy directly to my clients – who also rely on me. Something I feel the gravity of in every single transaction.
There’s beauty in the way the different pieces of my life fit so well together and, with the gift of hind site, there’s not a single day I don’t see it. That I don’t appreciate the gift that is being there.
