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Welcome to the last episode of 2025.
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In thinking about what I wanted to talk about in this episode and what would be most helpful or relevant as we're wrapping up the end of the year, which the past several years in real estate have been challenging in different ways to say the least.
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If you're in a market like Austin has been, which has taken a complete um 180 from the market that it was in the pandemic, and that has been it's probably one of the sort of slower markets that I've seen in Austin in the time I've been a practicing agent out here.
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So here we are at the end of 2025.
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As I mentioned in my last newsletter, if you subscribe to it, um it was a very slow year for me personally here in the Austin market.
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My business was down probably about 60% from what it normally is averaged out.
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And I attribute that to a couple different factors.
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One is things, you know, that obviously a lot of us around the country are struggling with, uh, high interest rates.
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Also, things that are specific to me and my business were the gaps that I saw as I started focusing more on what was going on.
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You know, referrals sort of drying up.
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I was not in flow with my clients, which if you have done ninja, you understand what flow is, which is just keeping in touch with your clients in an authentic and meaningful way.
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And so at the end of the year, as is common with a lot of businesses, there's end-of-year recaps, right?
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End of year looking at your numbers, tracking the metrics, see where things ended up, whether you're reporting to a manager or you have a team or you do a solo check-in at the end of the year, end of the quarter, something like that, to sort of see where things went.
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It's really easy to feel demoralized if you haven't had the best year.
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And so as I was thinking about the numbers, the numbers I didn't hit, the numbers, the shoulds, and reviewing sort of what happened, it was helpful to think about the other ways that I have contributed back into my community, into the world this past year.
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And the name of this podcast is Arrested and Rich Real Estate Agent.
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Meaning, if you're listening to this podcast, mindfulness, compassion, empathy are hopefully parts of your persona that you feel are important and that you have an interest in cultivating and curating.
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And so it it has been hard this year to be a human who is empathetic and cares about what's happening in our world, in our country, in our neighborhoods, and I guess allowing myself to feel to hold all that and realize how much it is.
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And it would be a little ridiculous for me to think that my expectation that my business numbers would remain the same when there's a lot of heaviness in the world that many of us are carrying is maybe not a very realistic way to look at it.
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It's also hard, of course, in our industry to not compare yourself, right?
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There's so many agents who are doing phenomenally well, even if they aren't really, at least it seems like they are, on social media and award ceremonies and things like that.
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And so I think that for me, helping to refocus on other kinds of things was helpful to say, you know, how many meals was I able to cook for a sick friend or someone who wasn't doing well?
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How many times was I able to be present with somebody, not even to be a person, but even with a pet?
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How many times was I able to actually be present and pet my dog?
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Or be present when someone was sharing a vulnerability or difficulty with me?
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And even when things are joyous and fun, like what is my ability to be present and to be just there in that moment versus feeling really scattered, not really listening, picking up my phone, using other avoidance techniques to get past uncomfortable emotions.
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This is a little bit of a meandering podcast, but I think if you're looking at the end of the year, and perhaps you, like me, you know, didn't have the best year numbers-wise and financially, and of course that does impact not making money in our business, which it is a business, is impactful, but our business is not separate from us.
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Our business is not separate from who we are as humans and individuals.
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And so even if things in your personal life were on a relatively even keel this year, let's say, and let alone if you did have some personal crises happen this year, where I know a lot of my uh realtor friends have had struggles with aging parents, health issues, things like that.
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Giving yourself some understanding and grace that to expect yourself to churn out the same amount of production is not very, very realistic.
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And of course, that is a painful place to be when you need those funds to pay your bills.
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And you know, one of the things that I've tried to do this year is be more mindful of what I'm consuming and purchasing.
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One way to alleviate financial stress is earn more money, the other way to alleviate financial stress is spend less.
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Just sort of noticing where I had paid for subscriptions, renewals of things that apps, blog
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subscriptions, uh things that I just had sort of forgotten about, let alone TV and different streaming services and those kinds of things.
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Um, and it doesn't seem like a lot.
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Like at some point I realized I think I was paying for two or three different AI things because I signed up for a trial and then forgot about it.
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$8 a month or whatever it is doesn't seem like a lot.
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But then when you start multiplying that by six, seven, eight, ten different kinds of subscriptions, it does add up.
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And it helps to look at that and be mindful about okay, are these places that I want to be spending my money, am I still using this tool?
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Or is it time to let it go?
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And I can always resubscribe to it, right?
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There's no world in which, for most things, that once you unsubscribe, you couldn't change your mind and go back to it if you needed to.
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And so that also provides me some relief.
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Like, okay, I can just cancel these things for now.
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And if I find that I'm missing these particular things in my life, I can re-sign up for it.
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And that's obviously not just a real estate practice, but a practice overall in life that we can use to review where we're at and kind of where we think we're going.
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And things that I'm asking you to quote, measure are not really easily measurable, right?
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How many hugs did you give to somebody?
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How many, you know, cups of coffee or tea were you really present and available for this past year?
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Those are not answerable questions.
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And that's kind of the point is that sometimes measuring ourselves by really hard metrics is not awesome for our nervous system.
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Um, and giving ourselves more ease actually helps us be in connection with people in a more authentic way, give ourselves some time and grace, and then return back to our work in a way that feels whole and regenerative.
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So if we believe that our work as real estate consultants, real estate agents is part of our communities, then money we earn and where we spend it and how we spend it matters.
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And that earning money is important, and that isn't something that is shameful or greedy.
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Who am I to want this because it takes away from other people, which it doesn't, those are just you know lies we've been told.
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And so settling into sort of thinking about this idea that your business is part of the healing that's needed in our world, um, and that the money you earn gives you the opportunity to choose how to spend it, to choose who it goes to, and that there's a purpose for it.
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There's a purpose for it, especially because it moves through you.
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You are then given the ability to decide how and when and where it goes.
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Thinking about other ways that you've been present and there, especially if you've had a difficult personal year, if you've had been the caretaker for someone who is going through a hard time, if you've been the caretaker for yourself because you're going through a hard time.
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Simply sitting down and measuring how many transactions you did and the volume you did and how many buyers and sellers you had can kind of leave you feeling empty.
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And maybe refocusing on how many times you stop to see the leaves and branches in the tree move around, how many times did you laugh till your belly ached?
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How many one-song dance parties did you have in your living room?
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How many deep hugs did you get to give and also to get?
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How many times were you able to call a loved one and they actually picked up the phone and you got to hear their voice?
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At some point in time, one day that may not be true, but it is and it was at some point for you this year.
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And so is there a way that you can honor that with either journaling or um creating some type of ritual or practice for yourself, or just simply going on a walk and really thinking through and replaying back those moments and memories for yourself so that it becomes a little more ingrained in you as you move forward through the year.
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And there's also this idea that when you succeed, you are helping the success of other people as well in your communities, in your world, in your family unit, and for yourself.
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When you are able to care for yourself and care for those around you and donate to causes that you care about and that are important, that that matters and having the funds and resources to do that is of benefit to the world.
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And so your success is part of that.
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And wanting more of resources, even if it's time, right?
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Sometimes I don't necessarily care about the money, but what I want from money is the opportunity to be able to offload some tasks to earn my time back.
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And that to me is as valuable, if not more, to pursue hobbies, to rest, to take a breath, um, to help out a friend.
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And so I might choose with my money to hire a house cleaner and have my house cleaned, you know, once a month or twice a month, and take that couple hours of time to do
something else entirely that I wouldn't have had time to do, create art, you know, not just more work.
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And if you are someone like me who struggled with this idea that wanting money makes you greedy or makes you materialistic, or, you know, other stories like that that I that I had in my head and have had to work through, um, giving yourself the space to hold both of those ideas at the same time.
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That having money and being a good person can both exist in one being, and there are plenty of examples of that, and you too can be an example of that.
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And that wealth can of various kinds, financial and otherwise, you know, time wealth is one of the things that a lot of us want, especially if you work with clients who are in a higher income bracket.
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One of the things that those clients want is someone who can solve their problems.
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You know, yes, they want someone who can negotiate and do these things for them as well, but it's really someone who can understand their needs, understand their pain points, and help them move through that.
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And so looking at your business and looking at yourself as a person who is attuned to um your clients, attuned to the people around you, and finding ways to be a kind of like a magic catcher, right?
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A catcher of those maybe unsaid things that a client is sharing with you that can allow you to deliver that level of service, which doesn't necessarily cost you more, it might, but it really gives you the opportunity to be of service in a different way.
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For an example, perhaps you know you're helping some buyers buy a home, they're moving cross-country, and um they've expressed that they have, you know, maybe a couple different pets, and and managing all of that is is you know proving to be really, really challenging.
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And so perhaps one thing you can do is hire them a pet sitter when they on moving day and either have the pets dropped off or whatever makes sense for their situation, which may cost you a little bit of money, but it we're not talking, you know, thousands of dollars by any stretch here.
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Um, but to say, hey, there's a place here or a person I trust or a space that we created that can care for your pups and your pets uh for a couple hours while you get settled in, and that's on me, and I'm happy to do that.
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And that simply came from listening and paying attention.
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And so I think that we often get tied into thinking that our our money, uh how much we earn is tied to how hard we work or how much, how expensive of a gift we're going to give.
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And I really think it's about being present and being intentional.
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And this also goes back to one of the earlier things uh that I talked about on this podcast, which was Unreasonable Hospitality, or at least I think I talked about it in my newsletter.
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And it was a book that I got to hear the author of the book, Will Ghidara, speak at the Compass Conference in Denver over the summer, and immediately became obsessed with this idea.
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Uh, loved the concept of the book, which is called Unreasonable Hospitality, and downloaded it on Audible on my way back home and listened to it and really did a deep dive with my team on not only elevating the buyer and seller experience and just the client experience overall, but also what are we actually trying to do?
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Which is we're trying to pay attention to the nuances of things that are said and not said.
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And that takes intention and that takes time and it takes effort.
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It's easy to just go buy a bottle of wine and a closing gift for somebody, but it's harder to really think through in the prior example, like, okay, if these people need a pet sitter, that's going to take a little more time and planning to figure out to be able to execute on something of that caliber.
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This is a little bit of a meandering conversation.
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But to recap, if you are ending this year, feeling low about your numbers, your closed transactions, your volume, the amount of buyers and sellers that you helped this year, shift your focus, shift your perspective to these other areas of how you showed up and acknowledge that it's been a hard year, independent of personal issues that may have been happening.
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But collectively, what's happening in our world has been hard to hold.
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If you find yourself feeling exhausted and feeling worn down, that's totally normal given what we're exposed to with the news and things in our current environment.
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And also look at where where your wins and successes were this year.
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What did you enjoy doing?
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Who is with you?
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Where were you?
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And see if there's more of that that you can cultivate in this coming year.
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What you really want to focus on, what type of people you want to work with, who are these people, what uh traits do they have, and what will make you a good fit to work with them?
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And holding that in your mind will help you find those people or or notice those people when you come across them in your day-to-day life, right?
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When you're out networking or whatnot.
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If you've been in this business for a while, but also if you've kind of just been a human in this world for a certain amount of time, we all sort of get a pretty good feel for people who are going to be easy to work with and people who are gonna maybe be very high maintenance and difficult to work with, and you know, where all that lands.
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And so there are people out there that will be a good fit for you to work with personality-wise, area-wise, budget-wise, and there's people that won't be.
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And that's not a negative on them or you.
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It's just recognizing that, you know what, this person has particular needs that are outside my skill set, and they are best going to be served by an agent who is, you know, able to help them, and that is not me, and having that clarity can be really freeing.
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And so I encourage you as you wrap up this year to give yourself some grace to make a list or mentally kind of on a walk think through what went well for you this year and what you want to cultivate in the coming year.
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And if you have some thoughts and ideas on that, please share them with me.
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I always love hearing from people that listen to this podcast.
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Thank you for continuing to listen and giving me a platform from which to share my thoughts and do a deeper dive into some things.
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I wish all of you the very, very best as we move into 2026.
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And if I had one wish for us all, it would be to just have more meaningful and richer connections with ourselves and our neighbors, be they near or far.
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I hope this episode finds you well, and I look forward to continuing on into 2026.
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Take care.